Chris Pearce's Blog, page 12

Ancient history of the Arabs

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

The Arabs are a Semitic people from south-western Asia. A number of Semitic peoples and civilizations have flourished in this region over a period of several thousand years. Various groups such as the Canaanites, the Arameans and the Akkadians built their cities in Mesopotamia, the Levant and the northern Arabian Peninsula. They have migrated here and there and have interbred. At various times, many of their people either came from what is now northern Saudi Arabia and nearby areas or later settled there. For example, the Akkadians, who set up an empire in central Mesopotamia which peaked in the 22nd to 24th centuries BCE, had originally migrated from the Arabian Peninsula.

The first known reference to the word “Arab” came in 853 BCE when an Assyrian scribe told of how the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III defeated king Gindibu at the Battle of Karkar in that year. The beaten king was said to have come from “matu arbai”, which means Arab land. Gindibu was one of a coalition of 12 kings and their forces, and the Assyrian king was eventually defeated by them. Some of the names of those who fought in this battle are tied to proto-Arabic dialects. Words such as Arabi, Arubu and Aribi soon appeared in Assyrian writings, while the Hebrew Bible refers to the Arvi people. All these words mean Arab or Arabian and probably referred to the desert tribes of Semitic peoples in northern Arabia and Syria.

Evidence of the emergence of the Arabs in northern Arabia is found in a number of texts and inscriptions from the 8th century BCE onwards. Several language or cultural groups of Arabs evolved and lived in northern Arabia and nearby areas, a region known for its busy trading routes and high migration. The Lihyan people lived in north-western Arabia until about 400 BCE. The Thamudic people (not to be confused with the Thamuds of southern Arabia) lived in northern parts of Arabia and the Sinai from around this time until the 3rd or 4th century CE. Meanwhile, the Hasaitic people lived in eastern Arabia in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE. The Safaitic people lived in north-western and north central Arabia as well as nearby areas in Syria and Jordan from about the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE.

Another Arab group, the Nabataeans, lived in southern Jordan and northern Arabia from about 300 BCE, establishing a trade network in a region where the Edomites had previously lived for centuries. They had agriculture, permanent dwellings and made wine. Trajan annexed the Nabataean Kingdom to Rome around 107 CE, and in the 4th century they converted to Christianity. The Qahtanite Arabs from southern Arabia and Yemen, where there was far less migration and intermixing than in the north, took over the remnants of the kingdom and the land was divided among the Arab kingdoms of the Byzantines, Ghassanids, Himyarites and Kindahs.

Many historians put the Arabs into three broad groups around this time: the ‘perishing Arabs’, which include various tribes who disappeared through invasion, assimilation or decadence; ‘pure Arabs,’ who were the Qahtanites; and their rivals, the ‘Arabized Arabs,’ who were the Adnani Arabs of the northern, central and western parts of the peninsula and descended from Adnan. Whether the Adnani were Arabized or the original Arabs is contentious. Many scholars consider them as the original Arabs, who included the nomadic Bedouin who had lived in the area from time immemorial. According to Muhammad, his ancestor Ishmael, who is the son of Abraham and an ancestor of Adnan, was the first to speak Arabic.

The Qahtanites were supposedly descended from Qahtan, who is thought to be the biblical Joktan, a descendant of Shem, who is an ancestor of Abraham. This would mean the two Arab groups are related. The Qahanites consist of two subgroups: the Himyar and the Kahlan. The various nomadic Kahlan tribes were forced out by the settled and stronger Himyar tribes and migrated to Mesopotamia and Syria in the 3rd century CE. The Himyarite Kingdom dates from 110 BCE and was the dominant group in Arabia until 525 CE. It was an agricultural society with strong trade links with eastern Africa and the Mediterranean, mainly the Roman Empire. However, the strength of Nabataean trade, Roman superiority and intertribal fighting led to disunity and decline. In the 5th century, a number of its kings converted to Judaism and by the 6th and 7th centuries, the religion flourished in Himyar.

In 613 CE, merchant, shepherd and prophet Muhammad from the Arabian city of Mecca started teaching his revelations from God, but was met with hostility. He moved to Medina in 622 and united the tribes. His followers grew to 10,000 and conquered Mecca in 630. By the time of his death in 632, he had united the warring Arab tribes, and most of the peninsula had converted to Islam. In the following century, the Arabs took their message well beyond Arabia, expanding by a series of Islamic conquests to create a vast Muslim Empire that extended from western India to the Iberian Peninsula, and included central Asia, the Middle East and northern Africa.

Today, the Arabs and their influence have extended around the world. Arabian is the official language of Saudi Arabia and several other Middle Eastern countries and much of northern Africa. It is one of the official languages of Iraq and several countries in northern and eastern Africa. Millions of Arabs live in countries such as Brazil, France, Argentina, Iran and the US.

International human rights watch groups

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

A great deal of work has been done in the area of human rights in recent decades by a large number of international groups who promote and protect basic rights and freedoms of all people. Two of these groups, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, operate on a global scale and have human rights as their sole aim.

Human Rights Watch

This organization commenced in 1978 and was originally called the Helsinki Watch. It was set up to monitor the former USSR’s record under the Helsinki Accords, which stated that there had to be “respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief”. The Helsinki Watch expanded in the 1980s, setting up a number of committees to monitor human rights in other places. The committees combined in 1988 to form the Human Rights Watch.

The group employs about 275 lawyers, journalists, country experts, and academics to research and report on human rights violations around the world. Human Rights Watch investigates abuses such as capital punishment, children in armed forces, child labor, gender discrimination, trafficking in women, abortion rights, religious freedom, prisoners and refugees, corruption, sexual orientation discrimination, freedom of the press, torture, and war crimes. Its Human Rights Watch World Report 2013 includes details of human rights breaches in 2012 in over 90 countries. In its introduction, the latest report specifically addresses current problems in Syria, Libya and Burma.

HRW brings the violations to the attention of governments, the media, community groups and the public. It urges the governments of countries where the abuses occur to change their policies to try and combat the transgressions. Human Rights Watch played a fundamental role is bringing the likes of Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and Augusto Pinochet to justice. It helped set up the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, and co-chairs the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

The Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch monitors and fights abuse of and discrimination against women throughout the world. It exposes any legal, religious and cultural practices that discriminate against or result in abuse of women. It also aims to stamp out rape in war, forced marriage, domestic violence, killings for having sex, and trafficking in women as prostitutes.

The organization has its critics. It has been accused by different people of being pro-American and anti-American, as well as pro- and anti-Israel. A media group has claimed that Human Rights Watch tried to crush democracy in Latin America. The Egyptian press has said the organization has a pro-homosexual and Western bias. Human Rights Watch defends itself by saying that various countries are annoyed at the group unearthing basic human rights violations.

Amnesty International

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 in the United Kingdom. It relies on mass membership and mobilization of its more than three million members in over 150 countries to bring pressure to bear on perpetrators of human rights abuses. Some of the issues it has brought to light include the plight of political prisoners, torture, punishment outside the court system, political killings, disappearances, refugee crises, human rights in war-torn areas, religious minorities, and issues relating to women.

The rise of globalization has resulted in Amnesty International going beyond human rights, to include economic, cultural and social rights. The organization has also recently concentrated on issues such as violence against women, controlling the arms trade, and prisoners of conscience. It relies mainly on volunteers but also employs a small number of professionals.

Many of its aims are similar to Human Rights Watch and the two organizations aim to complement each other in their work. Amnesty International produces reports that have less background analysis compared with those of Human Rights Watch but more information on specific violations of rights. It aims to engage and influence public opinion through writing letters to its huge membership base, fund-raising efforts, targeting the media, gaining publicity and organizing public demonstrations.

Just as the Human Rights Watch has been subject to criticism, so too has Amnesty International. It has been accused of reporting on countries that are relatively open such as Israel and avoiding closed societies such as Cambodia and North Korea where human rights breaches are arguably worse. The governments of China, Russia, Vietnam and the United States, among others, have accused Amnesty International of biased reporting. The Catholic Church has criticized it for being pro-abortion.

Other organizations 

Human rights is an important role of the United Nations, but unlike Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, it has other major roles too. Human rights are explicitly mentioned in its charter. Its Human Rights Council was established in 2005 to replace its former Commission on Human Rights and has a mandate to investigate human rights violations. It has a number of working groups that look at human rights issues relating to minority groups, indigenous populations, people of African descent, terrorism, modern forms of slavery, and arbitrary detention.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has a humanitarian mission to protect and assist victims of war and internal strife, including the wounded, prisoners, refugees and other civilians. It works to strengthen humanitarian laws and uses humanitarian principles, ensuring basic human rights for these victims.

Other organizations that are active in promoting human rights on an international scale include Global Human Rights Defence, Breakthrough which uses pop culture to promote human rights, the Carter Centre, CCJO Rene Cassin, Freedom House, Forum 18 which promotes religious freedom, Habitat International Coalition, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange for media workers, Peace Brigades International, Physicians for Human Rights, Survival International for indigenous people, World Organisation Against Torture, and Witness which uses videos and online technology.

There are also a large number of international human rights watch groups that operate within each continent. For example, Africa has the African Union which promotes human rights and democracy across its 54 member states. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights promotes and protects human rights and investigates violations. The African Court on Human and People’s Rights was set up in 2004, which rules on whether states comply with the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

In the Americas, the priorities of the Organization of American States include to protect human rights (including those of indigenous people), strengthen democracy and combat corruption. It also has the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, which is based in Costa Rica.

Asia has no continent-wide human rights groups, although it has several organizations at a regional level that have human rights among their aims. These include the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

The Council of Europe administers the European Convention on Human Rights and also the European Court of Human Rights.

Facts about North Korea

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone; written about seven years ago but not much has changed)

North Korea is a country in eastern Asia which is frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons. The communist economy performs poorly and famine has been a problem since 1994. Despite this, the country has one of the largest armies and has a controversial nuclear program. There are reports of a brutal government allowing few human rights.

History 

Korea was split after World War II and the northern section came under Soviet influence after gaining independence from Japan on 15 August 1945. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea, was founded on 9 September 1948. North Korea failed to defeat South Korea in the Korean War of 1950-53 and adopted a policy of self-reliance. It was also the country’s aim to “unify” Korea, but under the leadership of the communist north.

Since its famine of the mid 1990s, North Korea has relied on international aid to feed its people, but maintains an army of over one million. In 2002, the country was found to be carrying out a nuclear weapons program, and withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003. It tested ballistic missiles in 2006. Pressure from the international community led to North Korea agreeing to wind back its nuclear program.

Geography

North Korea is located in eastern Asia on the northern part of the Korean Peninsula between Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan. Its total coastline is 1,550 miles in length. It has a 150 mile border with South Korea, an 880 mile border with China to the north-west, and a 12 mile border with Russia in the north. To its east is Japan. It has a total area of 46,500 square miles, about the size of Mississippi.

The country has a temperate climate with most rainfall in the summer months. It often suffers drought in late spring, followed by flooding. Most of the country is mountainous, with narrow valleys. The highest mountain is Paektu-san with an altitude of 9,000 feet. It has a wide coastal plain in the west and in parts of the east. About 22 per cent of the land is arable and 1.7 per cent is under crop.

North Korea is fairly rich in natural resources, including substantial reserves of coal, lead, zinc, iron ore, copper, and gold. Environmental problems include water pollution and a lack of drinking water. Deforestation has led to erosion and degradation of soil.

Population

The country had a population of 23.3 million in July 2007, slightly larger than Australia. It has a reasonably young population with median age of 32.4 years, including about 31 years for males and 34 years for females. Its population is growing at about 0.8 per cent a year. All its growth comes from births and deaths as North Korea officially has no migration. Life expectancy at birth is 72 years, with males expected to live to 69 years and females to 75 years.

Apart from a small number of mainly Chinese and Japanese, the population is Korean. Main religions are Buddhism and Confucianism, although religion is fairly suppressed despite the government sponsoring religious groups. More than 7 in 10 people are recorded as atheists. The only language of any significance is Korean. Literacy is high with 99 per cent of the population able to read and write.

The capital city is Pyongyang, founded more than 4,000 years ago as Wanggomsong, in the country’s south. It has a population of probably more than three million, although the official figure isn’t given. Next largest cities are Hamhung with 870,000 people and Nampho with 455,000. Eleven other cities have populations of 100,000 or more.

Government

North Korea has a communist system of government headed by a dictator. The leader since 1994 has been Kim Jong-Il (now Kim Jong-un, since 2011) of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland party, a coalition of three parties, the main one being the Korean Workers’ Party.

The country is divided into nine provinces and four municipalities. Its legal system is based on the old Prussian civil law system, with strong communist influence. There is no judicial review of legislation. North Korea holds “elections”, with the last one in September 2003. The unicameral parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, approves the only candidates who are then elected unopposed. Certain minor parties are tolerated and they hold a few seats.

Its flag has three bands of blue, red and blue. The red band has a white edge and white disk with red five-pointed star.

Economy

North Korea has a centrally run closed economy. Infrastructure is old and in disrepair. The country doesn’t have reliable national accounting data, although gross domestic product has been estimated at $23 billion, which is believed to be less than 1980s levels. This equates to about $1,000 per person, about four per cent of the level in South Korea and little more than two per cent of the United States figure.

An estimated 23 per cent of output comes from agriculture, 43 per cent from industry, and 34 per cent from services. Agriculture mainly consists of rice, corn, soybeans, potatoes, and cattle. Industries include military manufactures, machinery, electricity, chemicals, mining, textiles, and food processing. Exports are $1.5 billion a year, mainly to South Korea (32 per cent) and China (29 per cent). Its external debt is $12.5 billion. The official exchange rate in 2006 was 141 won per US dollar, although the market figure was 2,500-3,000 won per US dollar, making it worth only a fraction of its official value.

There have been food shortages every year since 1994. Malnutrition is widespread and living conditions are poor. Private farmers’ markets have been permitted to sell a range of goods since 2002, but the government partly wound back this policy in 2005.

It refused international humanitarian aid from 2005 and relies mainly on China and South Korea. However, the government capitulated in 2007 and asked for aid after the worst floods in 40 years hit the country.

Transport and communication

The country has about one million telephones, or one for every 23 people. The number of mobile phones rose from 3,000 in 2002 to 20,000 in 2004, but they were then banned. It has a number of AM radio stations, including 11 belonging to the Korean Central Broadcasting Station. It also has cable radio connected to most houses and businesses, feeding people news and commentary. It has had FM only since 2006. There are four television stations.

North Korea has 77 airports, with 36 having paved runways. Its railway system has 3,250 miles of track, with about 2,200 miles electrified. Its 15,800 miles of roadways include only 450 miles of paved roads. The country’s 1,400 miles of waterways are mainly only navigable to small vessels.

Military 

The country’s army is called the North Korean People’s Army and consists of ground forces as well as a navy, an air force, and civil security forces. All residents have to serve in the military for a period from age 17 years. North Korea has the world’s fourth largest military system with 1.2 million armed personnel. In 2005, the country had 9.6 million males and females aged 17-49 years available for military service.

A “military first” policy was adopted in 1995 after a major famine and the collapse of its major trading partner, the USSR. The country does not release details of military spending but it is estimated to be around $5 billion a year, or 20-25 per cent of gross domestic product.

Culture 

North Korea’s literature, music, film, and theatre tend to revolve around glorifying late president Kim Il-sung and his son and current leader Kim Jong-Il (now his son Kim Jong-un, since 2011). The major cultural event in the country is the Mass Games. They run for two months, six nights a week, and involve more than 100,000 performers participating in dancing, gymnastics, and other routines.

How Human Rights Watch protects human rights around the world

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Human Rights Watch started in 1978 as the Helsinki Watch to check that the former USSR was abiding by the Helsinki Accords. Section vii of this accord states that there must be “respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief”. During the 1980s, the Helsinki Watch set up committees to keep watch on human rights in other trouble spots around the globe. In 1988, the various committees combined and formed the Human Rights Watch.

It is one of two global organizations that monitor basic human rights in places where these rights are likely to be oppressed or abused. The other body that does this is Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch is a US based non-government organization that employs about 240 professionals worldwide, including journalists, lawyers, academics, and country experts. Its Human Rights Watch World Report 2007 highlights human rights transgressions in over 60 countries.

The main way Human Rights Watch acts against violations of human rights is to conduct research into suspected abuse of rights in different regions and to produce detailed reports on their findings. This brings the abuses to the attention of governments, community groups, the media, and the general public around the world. The organization meets with governments of countries where human rights abuses have been found to occur and urges them to establish policies and programs to reverse the violations.

The types of breaches the Human Rights Watch investigates are those contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was set in place by the United Nations in 1948. The group reports on human rights issues such as capital punishment, torture, war crimes, children in armed forces, child labor, abortion rights, trafficking in women, prisoners, refugees, corruption, gender discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, religious choice, and freedom of the press.

There are many examples of the work of this organization. A recent instance was its criticism of the Jordanian government when it arrested officials for praising Iraq’s Al-Qaeda chief, the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Human Rights Watch also brought world attention to the mass killings and famines initiated by the regime of the late Saddam Hussein. In 2007, it exposed the squalid conditions of migrant emergency centers in the Canary Islands where hundreds of children were living. It has uncovered abuses by Serbs and Croats, Hutu and Tutsi, Israelis and Palestinians, and Christians and Muslims.

Human Rights Watch helped found the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998. Standards set in place under this protocol include banning military recruitment of persons under the age of 18 years. It co-chairs the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was set up in 1992 and now involves more than 1,400 organizations in over 90 countries working to abolish the use of landmines. It also helped found the International Freedom of Expression Exchange which monitors censorship and promotes freedom of speech, in particular for media workers of all descriptions.

The organization successfully called for a war crimes tribunal where former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was indicted on six counts of human rights abuses that Human Rights Watch had earlier highlighted. Its evidence at the Rwanda war crimes tribunal helped prosecute several perpetrators. It was involved in legal action against Chilean ex-leader Augusto Pinochet, which established a precedent that heads of state who block or escape prosecution in their own country can be tried anywhere.

It also provides grants to authors being persecuted for their writing. The scheme was established by playwright Lillian Hellman and novelist Dashiell Hammett. The grants also help raise awareness of writers who speak out against abuses of human rights. Each year, the Human Rights Defenders Award is given out by the organization to champions of human rights.

Human Rights Watch has a Women’s Rights Division which fights abuse and discrimination against women. The division exposes and denounces any policies and practices that make women second class citizens. This includes cultural, legal, and religious practices that discriminate against or exclude women. It also includes issues such as rape in war, domestic abuse, forced marriages, unequal rights in divorce and inheritance, killings and beatings for having sex, and being used in forced labor.

The division does not tolerate any excuses for this abusive and discriminatory behavior against women, whether for alleged religious, cultural, punishment or financial reasons, or to save women from alleged Western degradation and excesses. Human Rights Watch takes the view that women’s lives and rights matter just as much as those of men. The Women’s Rights Division has highlighted and fought to overcome a range of abuse and discrimination against millions of women in countries throughout the world. This includes:

– rape of women in war in countries such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, where attackers tend to receive little or no punishment.

– the high rates of domestic beatings in countries like Pakistan, Peru, Russia, South Africa, and Uzbekistan, while governments turn a blind eye or are soft on offenders.

– trafficking of women in Burma, the Dominican Republic, Moldova, Nigeria, Thailand, and Ukraine to work as prostitutes, often in other countries, with governments not doing enough to prevent it and punish the culprits.

– discrimination in the workforce against pregnant women, for example in Guatemala, Mexico, and South Africa.

– abuse and discrimination in educational institutions against women whose sexual orientation isn’t mainstream or who don’t conform to male ideals of how females should behave. This doesn’t only occur in third world nations but in western countries too, such as the United States and Australia.

– discriminatory laws against women, taking away their legal rights and putting them in the hands of their husband or other male family member.

Human Rights Watch protects basic human rights around the world. It promotes political freedom and protects people from war crimes. It supports victims as well as human rights activists. The organization conducts detailed research into possible human rights abuses and publishes its findings. It pressures governments and other organizations to end the abuses. Human Rights Watch is keen to prevent the human rights tragedies of the scale seen in the 20th century.

The organization does not receive or accept funds or other assistance from any government. Instead, it relies on private contributions. For more information on Human Rights Watch and its work, see http://www.hrw.org/.

NASCAR legend Junior Johnson

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Junior Johnson was a highly skilled driver long before his NASCAR days. Born on 28 June 1931 in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. could drive by 8 or 9 years of age. By 14, he was running his father’s moonshine, or illicitly distilled corn whiskey, to customers. He always eluded local police with his speed and skills on the network of dirt roads in the region, never venturing onto the bitumen. Johnson invented what became known as the ‘bootleg turn’. He put his car into second gear and spun the steering wheel to the left, skidding his car through 180 degrees, rapidly setting off the other way before authorities could catch him. At roadblocks set up to try and stop him, he used sirens and lights to trick police into letting him through.

By the early 1950s, he decided to use his driving ability to compete in auto races. His years of experience racing and dodging the police on mountain roads greatly assisted him fly round the sloping speedway tracks with precision. Johnson became a full-time NASCAR driver in 1955. He quickly enjoyed considerable success, winning five races and finishing in the top ten 18 times in that year, coming sixth in the NASCAR championship. In between racing, he still occasionally worked at the bootleg distillery of his father. Tax authorities arrested him there in 1956 and he was jailed for moonshining for two years, but he was a model prisoner and got out after 11 months. Thirty years later, he would receive a presidential pardon from Ronald Reagan for his conviction.

Johnson was back racing in 1958, winning six races, and another five in 1959, enhancing his reputation as an excellent short-track racer. He won the Daytona 500 in 1960. In practice sessions before the race, he realized his car was slower than many of the others, and thought of a way round this. He again put his inventive skills to good use. In one of the trial runs, he got behind one of the quicker cars and was able to glide along in its slipstream at a greater speed than otherwise, with the action reducing drag and fuel consumption. Near the end, he quickly came out from behind the other car in a slingshot move and got past it. He repeated this in the main race and won. This method became known as ‘drafting’ and was soon commonplace not only at NASCAR events but races around the world.

He went on to win 50 of his 313 races, also scoring 46 pole positions, 121 top five finishes and 148 in the top 10, before retiring in 1966 at the relatively young age of 34. He won 13 times in his last full year in 1965. In terms of championship points, he was in the top 10 on four occasions, and in the final 20 a total of nine times, including eight years in a row from 1958 to 1965. Johnson won more races than anyone else who didn’t win a NASCAR championship. He did, however, lead the way in 1961 in terms of laps led with 2,373 and races led with 23, and again in 1965, leading in 3,998 laps and 30 races. Ned Jarrett, who was champion twice, rated Johnson as one of the best two drivers on dirt, along with Dick Hutcherson.

Junior Johnson became a successful owner after retiring from driving. He worked with drivers such as Geoffrey Bodine, Neil Bonnett, Richard Childress, Darel Dieringer, Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, and LeeRoy Yarbrough. He won 139 races as an owner, all-time third behind Petty Enterprises with 282 wins and Hendrick Motorsports with 242 wins. Two of his drivers, Yarborough and Waltrip, each won the Winston Cup Championship (now the Sprint Cup) three times. His team won over $22 million. His driving days came before the big prize money on offer in more recent times, winning less than $300,000.

His other achievements in racing are many. In 1998, he was included in a list of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. He joined the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1991, and will become a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee on 23 May 2010. In 1955, when Johnson came sixth in the championship, the top five had all been racing for years, but there was no ‘Rookie of the Year’ in those days, so Johnson missed out on that award. He was a pioneer in the use of two-way radios between pit crew and driver in about 1960. He also developed the shoulder harness around this time. Junior was one of the first to secure sponsorships for his cars, and played a leading role in getting R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to sponsor NASCAR; the Sprint Cup was called the Winston Cup from 1971 to 2003.

A 1965 article about Johnson called ‘Great Balls of Fire’ by writer Tom Wolfe was published in Esquire and elsewhere. It was turned into a movie, ‘The Last American Hero’, in 1973, covering Johnson’s life as moonshiner and driver. In 2004, about eight miles of Highway 421 running through Wilkes County was called Junior Johnson Highway by the state Department of Transportation. Ironically, this is in the same area Johnson left authorities in his wake several decades earlier.

In recent years, he has turned his entrepreneurial skills to several areas outside the race track. In 2007, Johnson helped market a moonshine product, Midnight Moon, for Piedmont Distillers in North Carolina, the state’s only legal distiller. He has since become part owner of the business. Midnight Moon is 80-proof and described by Johnson in an interview in 2007 as “the best shine ever … Smoother than vodka. Better than whiskey”. He has also put his name to a selection of hams produced by Suncrest Farms Country Hams. Today, he enjoys life on his 150 acre farm where he runs cattle, and can still be seen occasionally at races doing interviews and providing advice. Update: he sold his farm in 2012 and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.

The circumstances surrounding Dale Earnhardt’s death

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Dale Earnhardt Sr. was a famous US racing car driver who died in a crash on the last lap of the annual Daytona 500, the biggest race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, on 18 February 2001, aged 49. Over the years, he won 76 races in the series, and his seven championships were equalled only by ‘The King’, Richard Petty.

In 2001, Earnhardt did not win a race in Speedweeks, the lead-up to the Daytona 500. This was unusual for him, but he seemed confident and relaxed on the morning of the big race. He was leading in the early stages and was among the front-runners for most of the race. Towards the end, a multi-car crash took out a number of cars. After a red flag period, the race resumed and Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Earnhardt were running first, second, and third.

Sterling Marlin, in fourth, was pushing Earnhardt all the way, but Dale blocked him. With just three laps to go, Marlin and Earnhardt made contact. On the second last lap, commentator Darrell Waltrip said on Fox that: “Sterling has beat the front end off of that old Dodge [his car], trying to get around Dale.”

With less than half a lap to go, the leaders entered Turn 3 after the 3,000 foot (900 meter) Back Stretch. Earnhardt was in the middle lane and still third, behind Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. Marlin was in the bottom lane and behind Earnhardt. Rusty Wallace was directly behind Dale and Ken Schrader was in the top lane and behind him. Somehow, Earnhardt veered down the track, his left rear corner hitting Marlin’s front bumper. This caused Earnhardt to turn sharply to the left, heading off the banking and onto the apron. His car then turned quickly to the right and up the track at Turn 4 and hit the concrete retaining wall at close to 160 miles an hour (260 kilometers an hour), colliding with Schrader on the way.

As soon as Earnhardt hit the wall, his right rear wheel broke off, the window of the passenger door blew out, and the hood pins broke, resulting in the hood flying up and hitting the windscreen. Schrader pushed Earnhardt along as both cars slid down the track and onto the infield. Schrader jumped out and went to Earnhardt, who did not respond, and he desperately signaled for assistance. By then, the race had finished.

Earnhardt had to be cut from his car and was taken straight to nearby Halifax Medical Center, rather than the infield care center, but could not be revived. Two hours later, NASCAR president Mike Helton told a press conference, “Undoubtedly this is one of the toughest announcements I’ve personally had to make. After the accident in Turn 4 at the end of the Daytona 500, we’ve lost Dale Earnhardt.”

The findings of the autopsy were that Earnhardt had died from “blunt force injuries to the head”. The report stated that his injuries included a fatal basilar skull fracture, as well as eight broke ribs, broken ankle, fractured breast bone, and abrasions to the collarbone and hip. This last finding is an indication that his seatbelts might have failed.

Initially, Sterling Marlin, received death threats from those who felt he had caused the fatality. Marlin commented: “I definitely didn’t do anything intentional. We were just racing our guts out for the last lap of the Daytona 500. Everybody was going for it. Dale’s car got caught in the middle. I was as low as I could go. Whether Rusty got him loose and down into me, I don’t know.” Earnhardt Jr. came out in defense of Marlin, asking people to stop looking for someone to blame for the accident.

There was a police investigation and NASCAR ran its own investigation. NASCAR investigations are not usually made public, but just about every detail of the one into Earnhardt’s death was released. NASCAR found that Earnhardt’s left lap belt on his seatbelt harness had broken, with Dr. Steve Bohannon believing that the belt was faulty and this had let Earnhardt’s chin hit the steering wheel, causing his fatal basilar skull fracture.

This finding immediately led to speculation that the racer would have lived if the seatbelt hadn’t broken. Paramedics at the crash scene said his seatbelts were loose but not broken. NASCAR maintained that Earnhardt’s harness buckle was 4-8 inches (10-20 centimeters) off-center and that this meant his lap belt had to have broken. Notwithstanding, a later medical investigation found that seatbelt failure was not a significant factor in his death. Bill Simpson of Simpson Race Products, the supplier of seatbelts in nearly all cars in the NASCAR series, said the seatbelt failed due to incorrect installation as that was how Earnhardt liked it as it improved his comfort level.

A Duke University expert on crash injuries, Dr. Barry Myers, studied Earnhardt’s death. Rejecting NASCAR’s findings, he concluded that Earnhardt died because his head and neck were not properly restrained, snapping them forward, rather than a broken seatbelt. Several experts backed up Myers’ claim, including Philip Villanueva, a neurosurgeon from the University of Miami, Dr. Steve Olvey, Champion Auto Racing Teams’ medical director, and John Melvin, a crash expert from Wayne State University.

A further NASCAR investigation found that Earnhardt’s death was due to several factors, including the collision with Schrader an instant before hitting the wall, the speed and the angle of impact with the wall, and the seatbelt breaking. The investigation was unable to determine if a device to restrain Earnhardt’s head and neck would have saved his life.

Simpson Race Products wanted NASCAR to state the following about Earnhardt’s broken lap belt: that the belts were high quality and had no defects, they met NASCAR standards, the belts were not installed properly, the lap belt broke due to improper installation, and that in any case, the broken belt did not cause his death. NASCAR did not respond.

Various safety improvements were made after Earnhardt’s death and subsequent investigations. Most drivers went from a five-point to a six-point safety harness. Nearly all drivers used head and neck restraints. Soft walls were installed at race tracks. NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow uses safety features found important in research after Earnhardt’s death.

Origins of the leprechaun legend

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

A leprechaun is a little male sprite in Irish folklore, traditionally dressed in green or red. Tales of leprechauns go back thousands of years. According to writings in the early Christian period describing the various legendary groups who settled in Ireland in earlier times, leprechauns are descended from the fifth wave of migrants, the Tuatha De Danann people, who ruled Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries BCE.

This group is sometimes portrayed as godly beings and at other times as human. They supposedly came to Ireland by ship before defeating the resident Fir Bolg people in the First Battle of Mag Tuired. Nuanda, king of the Tuatha De Danann, lost an arm in the conflict. A physician gave him a silver prosthesis. After some magic was cast, flesh and skin grew over the new arm. In a second battle, they defeated the Fomorian people. Nuanda died in the fighting and Lugh established himself as the new king.

Later the Tuatha De Danann were threatened by the Milesians, a Celtic group, the ancestors of the people who live in Ireland today. Fearing defeat, Tuatha De Danann leaders were able to stall the invaders. The local group whipped up some magic and tried to blow the unwanted visitors away with a fierce storm. But the Milesians created some of their own magic, calming the seas with a poem. They came ashore and beat the Tuatha De Danann.

The Milesians decided that they would live above ground and the surviving Tuatha De Danann would have to live below it. The Tuatha De Danann dug magical holes and disappeared underground where they have lived ever since. Fearful of humans, the little creatures would emerge at night, and came to be called leprechauns.

The first mention of leprechauns in surviving literature is in the medieval work, ‘Echtra Fergus mac Leti’, or the ‘Adventure of Fergus, son of Leti’, set in the second century BCE. In this work, mac Leti was king of the Uliad people in the Ulster region. He had been providing refuge for Eochu Belbuide, one of three legendary figures battling one another to be king of the Feni people.

At last Eochu returned to his people with an offer of peace but was killed by them. To avenge the death, Fergus and his army made various demands of these people, including gold, silver and land, which they gave him. Peace was agreed and he returned to his own land with his maid Ogma and chariot driver Muena. They reached the coast, where they fell asleep. At this point, a number of sprites took Fergus’s sword, before lifting him out of the chariot and carrying him to the water’s edge.

He awoke when he felt the sea around his feet, grabbed three of the leprechauns, and asked for three wishes. One wish was to swim long distances underwater. They granted his wish, except in Loch Rudraige within Fergus’s land. Later he jumped into this loch and saw a sea monster, or muirdris, under the water. His face became forever distorted with fright.

Fergus could no longer be king, but his people decided to look after him anyway. For seven years, they washed his hair lying down so he couldn’t see himself in the water’s reflection. He struck out at his maid one day as she was taking too long to clean his hair. She then goaded him and he cut her fatally with his sword. He returned to the loch and fought the muirdris all day and night, killing it. He held its severed head aloft as he came out of the bay, but he had exhausted himself and collapsed and died. Fergus should have taken notice of the leprechauns!

Over the centuries, the leprechaun legend grew and various stories emerged about these little fairies. Leprechauns have always been associated with wealth. In ancient times, they looked after treasure left behind by Danish invaders and are believed to have pots of gold at the end of rainbows. They learned to make shoes and developed a liking for practical jokes. Solitary by nature, leprechauns will grant anyone who catches them three wishes, but they are very elusive and will usually vanish before any human has time to find the treasure.

Australian politics: budget saga

Here’s what I posted as a comment to Business Spectator and the Conservation sites yesterday. The Coalition is struggling with the budget but don’t seem to have many ideas up their sleeves. Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have replaced Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey, but this doesn’t seem to have made much difference …

The Coalition has now spent 2.5 years treading water on revenue issues. I’m not sure Morrison and Turnbull have much more of an idea than Hockey and Abbott. If another 2% of voters (i.e. swinging voters) feel this way in the next few months, the government could be in trouble, and remembering that the Coalition only had about 46-48% of the vote under Abbott.

Abbott and Hockey talked of a ‘budget emergency’, which was always nonsense. Then they proceeded to chop taxes and spend a heap on pet projects. That was never going to fix the budget. The measures that would have hit the sick, the poor, the old and the young, but didn’t get through the Senate, would have given the budget some slight short term relief but no good for the economy, or the budget in the longer term.

Morrison still doesn’t seem to think we have a revenue problem. We’ve had a revenue problem since 2008 when the GFC sent revenue through the floor (as it did in countries all around the world), falling from 25-26% of GDP to 21.5% in 2010-11. It still hasn’t recovered (at 23% of GDP), unlike the situation in many countries.

Morrison and Turnbull seemed to be testing the waters on increasing the GST. That didn’t work and they more or less dumped it but not quite, which caused various contradictory statements. Now it’s totally dropped but they don’t seem to have anything else specific. This showed in Morrison’s nothing talk to the Press Club.

There are all sorts of things the government could do but they don’t seem to want to. The government needs to look at things like tax concessions on superannuation, property investment, etc at the high end, corporate tax avoidance and evasion, carbon pricing (its abolition is costing the budget $18 billion over four years according to the Parliamentary Budget Office), etc as well as some expenditure cuts (expenditure is at 26% of GDP; it was 24.9% in 2008-09 to 2012-13 and that was with the stimulus packages to keep us out of recession; mining and China wouldn’t have been nearly enough) before it can reasonably think about income tax cuts. Or they will never come close to a surplus, let alone reducing the debt.

Then there’s bracket creep. Treasury modelling showed the average tax rate would go from 24.4% to 26.6% by 2020-21. Morrison described it as a job killer and growth killer. Theoretically, that would be the case if the money isn’t spent. But it’s a trade-off between growth and reducing the deficits and debt. I’d probably let bracket creep go another couple of years and implement the measures I outline in my previous paragraph. Federal government debt has increased from around $265 billion to $410 billion under the Coalition, or about $5 billion a month, and the deficit is twice what it was in 2012-13.

Cirrhosis of the liver: symptoms and treatment

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Cirrhosis is a long-term disease of the liver, the body’s largest organ. A healthy liver removes poisons, bacteria and germs from the blood, controls infection, regulates blood clotting and produces bile to help fat absorption. With cirrhosis, scar tissue replaces the normal tissue. This reduces the flow of blood through the liver and prevents it functioning as it should. A number of factors can cause cirrhosis, including alcohol, hepatitis, blocked bile ducts, infections, certain inherited diseases, and medications.

Symptoms don’t always appear in the early stages. But as scar tissue takes over from healthy tissue in the liver, a person may experience symptoms such as weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, exhaustion, nausea and abdominal pain. However, these can also relate to a range of other conditions.

As the disease progresses, other symptoms may occur. Many are present in other illnesses and do not necessarily mean a person has cirrhosis. A common symptom is spider-shaped groups of blood vessels on the skin. Palms may become red and blotchy, or have more speckled mottling than usual. Fingers may thicken and curl towards the palm. Nail changes may include white horizontal lines, large white areas extending towards the tips, and a flattening of the slight dip between the near end of the nail and the skin of the finger.

Painful inflammation of the arm, leg and thigh bones may occur. A wrist tremor may cause the hand to flap, akin to a bird’s wing. Males may suffer enlarged breasts with a thickening around the nipples. Impotence or loss of sex drive may be a symptom, as can the wasting away of the testicles. Infertility may occur in women. The spleen may increase in size. Breath might have a musty odor. Another symptom is jaundice, where the skin and eyes are yellowish and urine may be darker.

Some patients will only be diagnosed in the more advanced stages of cirrhosis when various complications might set in. Symptoms at this stage may include bruising and bleeding. The skin may become itchy due to a build up of bile. Ammonia and other toxins normally eliminated from the blood by the liver may go to the brain, affecting its functioning. A person may be unresponsive, be forgetful, have poor concentration and sleep badly.

Blood flow through the portal vein to the intestines and spleen is slowed with cirrhosis, increasing the pressure in the vein. This is called portal hypertension. Slow blood flow associated with cirrhosis may result in fluid leaking into the abdominal cavity, a condition known as ascites. This may result in penile swelling in males. It may also cause larger blood vessels in the esophagus and stomach, and these vessels may burst. A lack of blood flowing to the kidneys can be due to cirrhosis and may result in renal failure.

There may be many other symptoms. A person can be more prone to infection as cirrhosis may cause immune system problems. Liver cancer is a symptom or complication of cirrhosis. A person can become more sensitive to medication as the liver is slower at removing the drugs from the blood. Fluid may accumulate in the legs. A lack of bile in the gallbladder may result in gallstones. Resistance to insulin in a diabetic may be due to cirrhosis as damaged liver cells don’t use insulin properly.

Cirrhosis can’t be reversed but it’s possible to delay or prevent progression of the disease. Treatment will vary depending on the cause of the cirrhosis. For example, if it was caused by alcohol, abstinence is the best treatment. Medications such as interferon and corticosteroids are used in treating cirrhosis from hepatitis. If cirrhosis was due to copper build-up, chelating drugs will remove the metal. Portal hypertension can be treated with the drug propranolol, which should lower the pressure.

For best results, these treatments should be combined with a healthy lifestyle. Good eating will give the body the extra nutrients it needs to help reduce the effects of cirrhosis. Cutting back on salt is necessary as cirrhosis causes salt retention. Exercise will be of benefit, although in the advanced stages of cirrhosis, it can result in bleeding.

In cases where cirrhosis is stable, factors such as infection, bleeding, constipation, alcohol or medication may result in a relapse known as decompensated cirrhosis. Treatment often requires hospital admission to monitor fluid balance and to administer various medications.

A liver transplant may be an option, except where cirrhosis is very advanced. Eighty per cent of transplant patients survive at least five years. Risks include rejection and the side effects of drugs used to lessen the chances of rejection of the new organ.

History of Terminal Tower, Cleveland, Ohio

(originally published to Helium writing site, now gone)

Terminal Tower is a skyscraper at Public Square, the central plaza area of downtown Cleveland in the state of Ohio in the United States. The building stands 708 feet tall and has 52 stories. For several decades, it was the world’s tallest building outside New York City.

The building was constructed by two railroad baron brothers, Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen. They were active in real estate speculation in Ohio from about 1909 when they bought land near Public Square to build a station for their rapid transit rail line to nearby residential area Shaker Heights. The original plan was to include shops and restaurants but not an office tower. When a tower became part of the plans, it was going to be only 14 stories. This was to change to a 52 story, 708 foot skyscraper.

The brothers announced plans to build the Terminal Tower on top of the station in 1923. They wanted something comparable with the Woolworth Building in New York City built in 1913 which, at 57 stories and 792 feet, was the world’s tallest building until 1930. The Terminal Tower became the centerpiece of the complex. In terms of design, the tower is based on the New York Municipal Building, using the Beaux-Arts and art deco architectural styles which were popular in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Architects for the tower were Chicago firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White.

Work on the complex started in 1918. Some 2,200 buildings were demolished and several streets eliminated to make way for it. Excavation began in 1922. It soon became the world’s second largest excavation project after the Panama Canal. About 2.5 million cubic yards of rock and earth were removed from the site. Construction of the Terminal Tower and the rest of the complex began in 1926. The design had to withstand vibrations from the trains underneath. Sixteen caissons were sunk 200-250 feet into the ground to provide the foundations for the building. Structural work was finished in 1927.

Construction was complete in 1928, the year before the start of the Depression. The rest of the Cleveland Union Terminal, as it was originally called, opened in 1930. It included the Terminal Tower, the Cleveland Union Station, shops, restaurants, and three other office buildings, also built in the art deco style: the Medical Arts Building, the Midland Building, and the Builders Exchange Building.

At time of completion, it was world’s second tallest building, surpassed only by the Woolworth Building in New York. It was North America’s highest building, except for a number of skyscrapers in New York City, until 1964 when the Prudential Center in Boston, Massachusetts was built. A 63 foot flagpole on top of the building took its overall height to 771 feet. The tower is 90 feet square and has a floor area of 577,000 square feet or over 13 acres. It cost $179 million to build. The first tenants moved into the building in 1928. Cleveland radio station WHK was a tenant from 1931 and built antennas on the roof to improve the range of its then 1390 kHz signal.

The Terminal Tower was a spectacular site at night with hundreds of floodlights. It had a strobe light on top which rotated 360 degrees, flashing on and off. This was used as a navigation aid by ships in Cleveland’s port, as well as by airplanes coming into Hopkins International Airport. The light was replaced in the 1960s by more conventional warning lights for aircraft. The only time all the lights went out on the building was in the Northeast Blackout of 2003, a power outage affecting 55 million people in the US and Canada. The outside lights at night are gold in color but these can be altered to reflect the season, such as red and green at Christmas. For a while after 11 September 2001, the colors used were red, white, and blue.

The building opened with an “Observation Porch” on the 42nd floor and a “Soda Grill” on the 43rd. The observation deck was to be used by Goodyear as a terminal for airship travel to New York City. When this was found to be unfeasible, it became an overlook for tourists. You can see 30 miles on a clear day. Direct access to the 42nd floor was removed in 1976 when a Vietnam veteran stormed the conference room. He had been fired by tenant Chessie Systems, a holding company that owned a number of railroad companies. After that, visitors had to travel to the 33rd floor before taking another elevator to the 42nd. But the deck was only open at weekends, so it wouldn’t disrupt a law firm with offices on the 33rd floor.

Direct access to the observation deck was restored when Chessie left the building after it became part of the CSX Corporation in 1980. However, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the deck has been closed again. A proposal to reopen the deck, including renovating it and putting in an express elevator to the 42nd floor, was put before the building’s owner in 2007.

The entire Cleveland Union Terminal complex was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The station was demolished in the 1980s and a new one built. The old station site became a shopping center and food court, plus a parking garage. Plans in the 1980s to build a taller tower, BP Tower, in Cleveland were rejected by the local government, who wanted the Terminal Tower to remain the tallest. However, the nearby 57 story, 947 foot Key Tower became the city’s tallest in 1991.

The complex was renamed as Tower City Center in 1991 after the current owner, real estate company Forest City Enterprises, bought it. There were high vacancy rates at the time. The new owner brought in upmarket retailers, although more recently, these have been replaced by some less expensive stores. Two new office buildings were added in 1991.

From 2003 to 2006, an annual staircase climbing race from the plaza level to the observation deck level was held for charity. The tower has appeared in a number of movies, including The Fortune Cookie in 1966, The Deer Hunter in 1978, A Christmas Story in 1983, Major League in 1989, Proximity in 2001, and Spiderman 3 in 2007. Cleveland band Pere Ubu called their 1985 album Terminal Tower.

The building remains the centerpiece of Tower City Center, which also includes several other interconnected office buildings, a shopping mall, and two hotels. The station is used by all three of the city’s rapid transit lines. Terminal Tower is currently undergoing renovations and is still the second tallest building in Cleveland. It is the city’s most recognizable building.