Genetic Encoding, Part Two of Two

  In fact, in Egyptian history it is rare to find changes that were instigated by the masses.  External factors were almost always coming to bear on the people of this great country and those factors were typically “top down” changes.  

Cario in the morning
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

Adjusting to these changes was for them to deal with as leaders are rarely concerned with (and quite often unaware) of the daily difficulties that are enacted when they flippantly decide to do something.  Self-righteous Pharaohs, impetuous rulers, colonial oversight and exploitation by empires are but some of the ancient examples of difficulties that the average Egyptian had to contend with but the recent past isn’t any better.

Fast Food in Cairo's Market
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

    Recent political turmoil has built upon decades of questionable national level decisions which have created a poor educational system and created mass poverty (average annual income is 6,700USD).  A by-product of this situation is growing sectarian violence and increasing economic instability- the uneducated can’t be expected to make informed decisions or develop insightful philosophical points of view.  

Streets of Imbabah
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

In response, the Egyptian Government recently de-valued their currency (Egyptian Pound) and made severe cuts to public subsidisation/aide programs.  This was all in an effort to qualify for a large loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which the Egyptian Government hopes will stimulate the economy before the more impoverished segment of society is crushed.  Does Egypt (or the world) really need another lane in the Suez Canal?

  

  

Egyptian Museum Entrance
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

Through all of this, as they have for millennia, Egyptians continue to adjust and compensate for the external factors pressing on their efforts for a better tomorrow.  Without considering all these historical factors, Egyptians live their lives and try to adapt to the radically changing socio-political and economic landscape; doing the best they can before the next change is forced upon them without their consent.  As though adaptation and adjustment have been imprinted in their genetic code.

    

Genetic Encoding. Part one of two

    250,000 BC is the earliest date of human activity in the area we now call Egypt and by 3,100 BC, legend tells us a Pharaoh by the name of Narmer had united the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the first cataract (present day Aswan).  For the inhabitants of this region, they have changed and adapted so many times that they are unaware of their innate ability to compensate for the inconsistencies of others.  

    

Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Egyptian Museum (Author's collection copyright 2019)

    During our 247,000 year interval between the above dates Africa became victim of climate change and the rich savannahs became arid, forcing the nomads living there to migrate closer to the Nile River.  Rains further south ensured that the Nile flooded annually - like clockwork - and when those floodwaters tapered off the soil of the surrounding countryside was enriched by silt and soils from all over eastern Africa.  This presented the opportunity to farm and Egyptians don’t hesitate to capitalise on something good.  Sadly, one must take the good with the bad in life and social order came along with farming and Pharaoh placed himself at the top- as all leaders do - and the farmers at the bottom.  Pharaoh himself is credited with establishing social order but the claim is buttressed by archaeological evidence from 3000 BC (circa).

    

Pyramids of Giza(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

This simple restructuring forced many changes on the population of ancient Egypt but nature did too and the flood period provided a natural respite for farmers which Pharaoh most likely capitalised on by using them as unskilled labour supporting his engineers and architects in building his elaborate infrastructure.  What a summer job, building those magnificent pyramids and monuments, even if you are just hauling baskets full of rubble.  The chaos caused through the ensuing years by multiple changes to the physical location of the Egyptian capital, not to mention adjustments and refinements to the state religions must have had a disorienting effect on the populace but they kept working, trying to make a better tomorrow for them and their families.

A Code to Live By

    Our western traditions in the last 50 years have left something to be desired with regard to how we comport ourselves.  In the last twenty years it seems that people are more concerned with how they look than how they really are.  As proof, steal a glance at someone’s credit card bill next time you have a chance: 85% chance says it is disproportionately high indicating they are living outside their means.   I’ve even heard words like tradition and honour used as punchlines to jokes recently, though no one was ever laughing once I was done with the comedian.

 (Author's Collection. Copyright 2018)

    As a child, cowboy and samurai movies were our favourites because everyone knew what to expect, which means they had a code requiring they act in a certain manner.  While that was just Hollywood, these actions were based on a real code of honour that existed for a long time and allowed the world to function in a manner that imparted balance.  Historically, the warrior class has transcended cultures: the Knights of Europe could identify with the Persian cataphracts and both would have understood the code of Bushido embodied by the Japanese Samurai (attendant), and later, Bushi (warrior) class.

    From 1639 to 1854 AD, Japan employed the policy of sakoku (national isolation).  This was their response to dampen the myriad external pressures exerted on Japan while the Shogun consolidated his hold over the island.  This produced many peculiarities which make their culture so unique, of which, Bushido (the way of the warrior) is but one part.  An administrative restructuring under the Tokugawa Regime saw the Samurai removed from their rural landholdings and placed closer to their lord’s precincts.  Now being paid in rice instead of having to farm for their income, the Bushi found themselves very idle in their daily requirements.  This created the opportunity for a professional class of warrior never seen before: culminating in a daily regimen dedicated to the cultivation of all things martial.  The underlying influence exerted by Zen Buddhism created a thirst for perfection in all aspects of life for the warrior class of Japan and this can be seen today in the minute details associated with many of their martial arts.  Whether drawing a sword or flipping an opponent, the determination to emulate the Buddha in his quest for perfection permeated their daily lives and bled over into their efforts to pour tea or serenely sit while contemplating the world.

     This entire system was only attained through a concerted effort to codify and institutionalise the traditional practice of selected philosophies which, over the centuries, became cultural norm.  Ultimately, it was this cultural norm that empowered the feudal way of life and acquired a level of national discipline that would enable japan to adapt to the modern world so quickly.  

    It is the presence of a code of honour that is so lacking in modern society and which will ultimately be the basis for the ruination of humanity.  One must stand for something or agree to fall for everything.

 (Author's Collection. Copyright 2017)

   

If it Ain’t Broke…

    I am neither an architect nor an Engineer by trade.  I am a natural tinkerer and have spent most of my life breaking my toys, so I have an appreciation for how things are made and what it takes to make them.  As such, I spend a lot of time noticing differences in construction: things like the pathetic stitching on the snaps of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe camouflage fatigues the last year they were made.  Incidentally, I still have a set of those cammies from their first year of production.  Bombproof!

    This is all a way of saying that newer isn’t necessarily better.  Last week I was watching a re-run of a World War Two documentary in which Germany invaded France by running around the Maginot line.  While discussing river crossings and their importance to military operations, historic film reels were played showing a German tank crossing a makeshift bridge; one hastily constructed from little more than timbers laid across numerous small boats.  This bridge struck me as familiar and I began to sift through my library for references to this construction as it seemed out of place in this German war footage.

Screenshot of bridge by author

   I worked backwards in time and was consulting J. Caesar’s The Gallic War without finding my bridge, so I looked further back in time.  Finally, I found it.  The description went something like this:  

    

Many boats (654) were placed side-by-side and facing into the current while cables were used to secure them to the shore and the individual bows were anchored up and down stream to keep the boats in line relative to each other and adding more stability.  Boards were then placed between the boats and over the cables to connect them while brushwood and soil were placed over the boards to create a walkway and a more even surface after which a handrail was placed on either side to keep soldiers and beasts of burden from falling in. 

Author's image of a bridge in Afghanistan taken from The Histories

    This resource that listed my bridge was actually Herodotus when his Histories were describing how the Persian Empire invaded Greece.  Xerxes used this bridge type to cross the Hellespont in 482BC (circa).  This narrows is approximately 1240 metres (1350 yards) of the most difficult waters in the world.  This successful iteration was actually the second effort.  The first had ended badly for all: the engineering supervisors were beheaded and the waters of the Hellespont were flogged with 300 lashes while being subjected to verbal abuse for being disobedient.  

Author's image of a sketch from The Histories  

So, in 2019 I saw a film from 1939 which spoke about how technologically advanced the German Army was and how incorporating this technology gave the Germans a battlefield advantage.  Yet in this film, our twentieth century technological genius’ used a bridging technique from 2,421 years earlier.  Perhaps part of their genius was their ability to recognise when something works well.

Greek Fire

    Since the dawn of time man has been competitive.  Perhaps that is what has set him apart from the rest of the animal kingdom: Faster, farther, better - regardless of the endeavour.  This is especially true in warfare.  More efficient means of vanquishing the opponent has always found an audience: and so it was with Greek Fire.

    In the early days of the Greek city states and of the Roman Empire, the use of incendiaries in combat was rampant and the unpredictable nature of Greek Fire made it as hazardous to the employer as it was to the intended victim.  Yet, the ability to throw fire from one point to another in a focused and directed manner was very desirable, so pyro-masters kept refining the process through trial and error.  Finally, in about 668AD, a Greek refugee from Syria arrived at Constantinople with a proven recipe.  By 672, Kallinikos, as our Greek was called, had perfected his delivery technique and was using it to defend the Eastern Roman Empire against invaders.  Legend has it that this version could set water on fire and actually burn underwater.  

Image of a 12th century manuscript (Author's collection)

    All mythology and nonsense, right?  Except that napalm and white phosphorous fit these descriptions and were used to great effect during the wars of the twentieth century.  Throughout time there were other munitions that created races to develop and acquire regardless of the cost in dollars or humanity.  The atomic bomb is an excellent example of today’s Greek Fire as the centre of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, Japan reached five thousand degrees centigrade.  Add to that the fact that the second bomb (made of plutonium, not uranium) was so unstable that it had to be tested in the New Mexico desert prior to being dropped on Nagasaki and due to the arms race (both before and after) created by its introduction we see many parallels with Greek Fire. 

    Even today, the search for the proper recipe continues.  In early August 2019, there was an explosion west of Archangel, Russia and, subsequently, the town of Nenoksa was evacuated and all this was conducted under a veil of mis-information and retracted statements by the Russian Government.  What ever their cover-story may be, the most likely happenstance is this: The Russian military was testing a Skyfall missile (a nuclear missile powered by a nuclear reactor) that went awry.  The best bet is that its portable nuclear power station melted down in a smaller version of the Chernobyl, Ukraine tragedy.  Most certainly, the power station was one of a new offering by the Russian firm Rosatom.  Rosatom stated last year that they envisioned their new portable reactors being used in a fleet of nuclear-powered ice-breaking ships in support of Russia’s efforts to open (then dominate) the Northern Sea Route: thus connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Artic.

    Keep in mind that through all of this, Russia has no overt enemies and the only international enmity directed towards them is because of their meddling in external, sovereign affairs.

Close-up of the above manuscript (Author's collection)

Is this the fallout from today’s Greek Fire?

From the Ashes of Empire

"To the Strongest"

    With these last words, in response to the question, who will rule your kingdom, the empire of Alexander the Great began to crumble.  Despite all his hard work, he failed to plan for the earthly immortality of his actions and ensured that the fractious and internecine nature of Macedonian politics would continue.  His kingdom was quickly divided into four sections: the two most famous being the Seleucid Empire (Mesopotamia and Persia) and the Ptolemaic Dynasty (Egypt and Palestine).  

    

Modern day view of Hydaspes Battlefield, Pakistan (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

    Of these two, the Ptolemaic lasted until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC whereupon it was absorbed into the Roman Empire.  Cleopatra committed suicide with a viper (as the story goes) and her palace was eventually overtaken by a rising sea and lost to time.

    In 1996 Archaeologist Franck Goddio discovered the palace five metres underwater in Alexandria's East Harbour and this set off a frenzy of activity in the region, the repercussions of which we are still feeling today.

Greek Coins (circa 330BC) on display Lahore Museam (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

    Perhaps the greatest lesson in all of this is the employment of proper preparation.  Egypt's Alexandria became an immortal city through Ptolemy's hard work after Alexander's death, yet he was only in charge of Alexandria because Alexander failed to plan.  The details of ancient Alexandria have been lost to time because of the destruction of its library.  This library where all the knowledge of the ancient world was centralised for the ease of access and distribution.  Yet a single, unplanned event wiped it out and the tumultuous subsequent historical events (including a sea that rose about eight metres) ensured that we today aren't sure about much of anything with regard to ancient Alexandria.

    Some might say, "That could never happen to us, we have the internet and all information is distributed and accessible worldwide." That sounds great as long as there is electrical power and the servers aren't compromised.   A recent nuclear explosion near Russia's White Sea was an unplanned event that is depriving inhabitants of electricity for the foreseeable future and I'm sure a nuclear explosion is harmful to servers.  

    To take a lesson from a long series of mistakes.  Let's not put all our eggs in one basket.

The respite being too short

    Please excuse my inability to time manage.  The past week has flown by in a blur of unpacking and image processing.  I was unable to research anything worthwhile this week as I was bitten by the travel bug again and began looking towards a destination that is new only to me...

Egyptian Diety, Marathon, Greece (Author's collection, copyright 2009)