rising tides

I saw this photo report on the Maldives this morning. Maldives is the lowest country on the Earth, sitting just 3 ft above sea level. The photo essay documents the very man made problems effecting the Maldives and their potential to be the first nation on Earth to loose their country to the sea. Looking through the essay, I could see we have the exact same problems.

"Rising Ocean Levels Threaten Maldives"- from MSNBC's series Picturing Climate Change

if its in my neighborhood

its for sale.

I went through the hood last evening and took some pictures of just a few of the houses available for sale or rent in my neighborhood. We had pretty severe flooding in Febuary 09 and as the rainy season ended houses started undergoing construction. Many of them are being lifted. Many were already on the market and the realization has set in that they won't sell if they aren't lifted. That leaves some homeowners in a really hard spot. Can't afford to raise and it won't sell. Some of the houses are real success stories. Owner has taken the plunge and raised crumbling house 3ft above the road. Now they have a really nice, should be safe from flooding house.

Take for instance the 2 above. They'd sat empty for over a year. Sometimes extended family would come and stay in them for a day or two but they were only used as extra sleeping space for a few nights. Then one day bamboo goes up in front of the house on the corner- this one we suspect is being lifted 6 feet off street level. The one just inside from the corner, sheet metal goes up and they are making better time than the neighbor next to them. But what could they do- both of their neighbors would be higher than them, sure thing the flood water would be well inside their house.

Now look at some of the guys who have lifted. The above house looks like a palace. Their house still isn't selling. Everyone in the city knows what happens to the neighborhood. Even if you house were the ark and would float, no one wants to or can drive to the house. Meaning that until the water goes down in the street you can't leave your house- unless you want to walk through waste water.

the guy hasn't even started work yet

Poor Mr. Obama won the election and we all expected him to get to work at midnight. My good buddies at Oxfam certainly did. I get alerts from Oxfam from time to time on humanitarian concerns and climate change. For humanitarian responses, I fly with Compassion or World Vision. When it comes to climate change, Oxfam seems to have a nice response without chaining themselves to trees. Today I got my letter to send to Obama to encourage him to attend the Climate Change Conference in December. This I think is important and so I sent along the letter that Oxfam had written. I always make some editorial revision to my Oxfam letter. They do a good job but I don't think their reasoning goes far enough. Climate change is of concern to the US but not just because we want clean air for our kids. We want clean air for all of the kids all over the world because if they don't get it they will come for the people who have denied them. Poor kids go into gangs because of the promise of something better. Kids become warlords and terrorists because they want something better and they will take it by force if someone doesn't offer them a hand.

I take a bit of circular view on many issues. Our sick economy, the world's sick economy, world hunger, HIV/AIDS crisis, climate change, government stability, global security/ terrorism... add whatever else you can think of. All of that is connected. We feed kids in the third world and we provide them a stable home, those kids have a chance to grow up, think, make good choices and they'll live free in more ways than one. But they can't do that if they are worried about food, health care, or a job. I think being from the US is a terrific privilege but its a tremendous responsibility also.

new language unit

So I started my new unit of language on Monday and after the first week I think I may be beginning to scratch the surface on the complicated system of beliefs going on here. Lots of different faiths going on and there is a clear majority. Lot of different areas to this country that have really different backgrounds and they are held together by a desire for unity. This is really something because when everyone is so spread out it seems to me that it would be hard for a national government to be meaningful and service so many people. But they seem to be managing ok, I mean what do I know really. But by and large the thing that they can all agree on is the power that the physical ground beneath them holds. No kidding.

Let me elaborate in a fashion. So what we can all agree on whether we are Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or whatever else is that the universe cannot be related to directly. This whole universe thing is a big concept to me and I'm not entirely sure that I have the proper translation on the concept, so we'll stick with calling in a universe and agree that I'm learning language here. But we all agree that beyond whatever interpretation of God, YAHWEH, ALLAH or whatever else you believe in as superior, that you first have to get past the physical incarnation of the spirit world that exists in the earth. So you may have observed all of the laws of the Jewish faith, you may have followed the teachings of Mohammed to the letter, you may think you are experiencing the grace and freedom of Christ but you are still subject to a goddess in the ocean that can send tidal waves. You are still subject to the force of magma in the ground. You still need to honor the trees. And the gods and goddesses that control those forces need to be appeased and that is your duty, before you get to your religion.

I'm not trying to simplify this whole universe relationship thing or offend anyone's faith. Truly this is the half of the lesson I understood today. I don't think I would still understand it if they told it to be in English. I'm not so sure I'm smart enough to wrap my head around this in any language. I'm trying, I need to anyway because I have an hour presentation tomorrow in language and this is one of the concepts I'm supposed to be explaining. Certainly what makes this whole culture learning thing more difficult is the fact that it runs through my own American cultural filters.

So this is what I'm wrapping my head around in another language. I'm waiting for the unit on particle physics in the local language. I'm pretty sure I have just as good a chance of understanding that.

mother nature and natural disasters

Many have emailed and been checking in at our blog following recent developments from mother nature. We're fine. We're pretty far away from the action. What's funny, odd more than funny, is that in this part of the world it doesn't take a huge development to effect 4 or 5 countries. The 2004 Tsunami effected this region, I don't know how many countries were effected/ devestated but certainly it was more than 3. I think its hard in the US to understand what the word "country" means. It has nothing to do with size. The US happens to be a big country, both in physical size and actual number. India is a large country but the size of it is disproportionate to the number of people. Russia is physically huge, but doesn't have a comparable population. I beginning to believe that Australia may be huge in terms of land area but because of their crazy geography (the middle of Australia has nothing in it) they don't really have that many people. I don't mean to be a geography smarty pants but I was just mulling this over as I was reading some of our thoughtful emails.

I have more to say about this. Mother Nature is really something and we learn that more all of the time. I'll save it for another post though. Suffice it to say, we are fine.

If you need me, I'll be standing under the door frame.

I grew up in the midwestern US and what that teaches you is that mother nature can be a fickle girl. You grow up with freak snow in March and hot january days followed by ice. Tornado watches and warnings are all the talk depending on the time of year. Indiana enjoys the only state in the union that can boast a tornado in every month of the year (that was true a few years ago, I don't know if it still is). Anyway talk of earthquakes and tsunamis are very other worldly. We don't tend to understand tidal changes and after shocks. All of that to say, I'm pretty ignorant and have some pretty illogical assumptions.

We've recently moved and now we are supposed to pay attention to things like earthquakes and the potential that has to set off volcanoes and tsunamis. I can't really get my head around it. At some point I've made the decision that volcanoes can only go off in the summer. Earthquakes don't really happen, people just think they feel them. And that whole wave thing is unpredictable. The nice people of the Solomon Island probably would beg to differ. They aren't talking about volcanoes but 10 feet of water from an earthquake driven wave? That sounds crazy but apparently happens.

We're all fine and unphased. I was just thinking that I don't know what to do for sure in an earthquake. I'm pretty sure the answer isn't to go in the basement or the bathtub. I hope that isn't the answer because I have neither. That whole stand in the doorframes thing sounds silly but that is all I know to do. Question is, which one?