Loud Thoughts

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Jared Diamond ISBN: 978-0670033379 Pub. Date: December 29, 2004 Publisher: Viking Adult

After Guns, Germs, and Steel, I became a Jared Diamond fan. Several people told me about this book and I bought a copy almost immediately.
Collapse popped to the top of my reading queue around Christmas of 2006. I have taken it onto several cross-Pacific trips. It is not a fast-paced book and I cannot digest many pages at a time. This book impressed me deeply. It joined my conversations all the time.

I highly recommend it. Even that I don't agree with it.

Mr. Diamond presented undisputed evidences that led to compelling conclusions. But what point is this tome that, realistically, offers no fair or humane solutions? It is clear that Mr. Diamond wanted the world, particularly the political leaders, particularly those in the US, to change. But he positioned himself as a scientist. In that, he lacked imagination and inspirations. Maybe, just perhaps, that alternative endings are possible, human beings are more ingenious, or we just don't want to be depressed?

He also tore a rift, maybe unintentionally, between the first and third worlds.

The world is not enough. Fixed resources are depleted. Renewable ones are over-farmed, over-logged, or over-fished to exhaustion. When the world becomes not enough, wars happen. Americans are not going to let gasoline price go up to $50 per gallon. There will be military actions before that. War is a effective tool for population control and may just be the only solution.

But maybe it is big enough? Although fossil fuels are not, energy is really renewable. (We won't go into the 2nd law of thermodynamics here.) Can human come up with clean, safe, and virtually inexhaustible energy sources? Nuclear! With that, cars can be 100% electrical.

Well, the world will either collapse by nuclear wars or by other wars. We just have to deal with this. The fissure between first and third worlds takes the form of trade conflicts, immigration control, or simply violence. Not using our resources efficiently, for fear of violence, makes the violence more likely.

How about food supplies? Jared Diamond argued on two main points: it is not economical to produce certain foods in certain areas; and the world is not big enough to feed its population. Islanders should not raise cattle, Australians not sheep, (and Californian not rice.) People should eat what is most economical for them to produce. Otherwise, their environment will be irreversibly damaged. I actually agree with him here. Removal of trade barriers will take care of this.

Jared's 2nd point is, again, about population control. But I simply cannot accept the scarcity of food. News channels cover more on obesity than hunger. The world is turning organic that shuns genetically modified species, pesticides, and fertilizers —- essentially making the land less productive. All hunger problems seem to be either man-made or from natural disasters. The warning that we are all going hungry does not find resonance in me.

The world is mostly oceans. If we have solved the energy problem, we have solved the fresh water problem. Desalinization is economical if we have cheap and clean energy. Geo-engineers, armed with the same energy sources, may actually solve the global warming problem too.

China pledged it renewed effort to curb energy consumption, strongly hinting the pursuit of GDP growth is not an excuse to waste energy. Cheer up, Jared. There is hope. Scaring people is not the only option.

Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs! Most kids in US associate this day with a ritual of Easter Eggs Hunt and eating chocolate rabbits. Supposedly, Easter Bunny would place colored eggs around the house, in the yard, or in the park. Kids are to find as many as they could. Few use real eggs anymore. They are now plastic ones filled with candies, or simply egg-shaped chocolates. Color eggs are a common decoration. A pot of boiled eggs, few containers of dyes, newspapers covering the surfaces, adults and kids gather around and make a mess of themselves — healthy, family fun.

I think Easter Bunny is the first kids grow out of, much earlier than Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy.

Originally, it is a fertility holiday. Easter is near the Vernal Equinox when lives and growth are conspicuous. Rabbits and eggs are symbols for proliferation. “Hunting” for eggs are good exercises and eggs are supposed to be treats in the old days when cholesterol was associated with tasty foods.

The exact day for Easter is just about the most complicated calendrical computation. Commonly understood, it is the 1st Sunday after the full moon that is on or after the Vernal Equinox. For 2007, it is April 8th.

Folk festival quickly became religious. First came Passover —
the tenth plague inflicted on Egyptians who enslaved Jews. On that day, Angel of Death took the lives of the 1st born sons of every household, unless the house was marked with lamb’s blood. He then passed over that door and proceeded to the next. After this plague, Egyptian Pharaoh admitted defeat and freed Jews. Officially, Passover starts on the 15th day of the 7th month (called Nisan) in Jewish calendar and lasts for 7 or 8 days. Usually, Passover is a week before Easter and coincides with Palm Sunday where the Easter celebration begins. The movies, Ten Commandments, has the most authentic description of this event.

Few thousands years after the 1st Passover, we have the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It evolved into a complex holiday season no less important than Christmas. The holiday begins with Good Friday — the day Jesus died. By Biblical scriptures, Jesus came back to life few days later: on Easter.

46 days before Easter is Ash Wednesday when 40 days of Lent begins. During these 40 days, Christians prepare for the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection and refrain from eating meats. Lent excludes Sundays and therefore ends on Easter.

Around this week started both the Jewish Nation and Christianity. For thousands of years, people celebrate this week for spring, lives, and births. Whatever faith, or none, you have, these are certainly things you appreciate.

Happy Passover/Easter.

Back when I was in Menlo Park, I jogged on this trail few times a week. Out the gate, round the marsh land, you are on this 10-foot wide paved path. One side, cars linger on the speed from the last downhill stretch of Dumbarton bridge. They zoom by hurrying to somewhere.

The other side is a different world. The salt pond is eerie. It is white like a different planet and life-lessly still. Surrounding it are marsh full of water fouls: ducks, pelicans, egrets, sandpipers, seagulls, etc. Some squarrels, or so I think, are busy going in and out of their burrows. Others stand motionlessly, except of heads following you slowly, for their sun bath.

I always make a dramatic slap on the sign before I take up the return trip. At that point, if you are driving, you will turn left onto Marsh Road and get onto Highway 101, heading San Francisco.

Sun campus is the homing beacon. The view is spetacular at times. But I usually get into the “zone” near Chrysler Drive. Muscles are tired, breaths are heavy, sweat gets into eyes, and mind turns blank. I changed into a single-minded machine with the goal of reaching back the gym. The world is the metronomic beats of shoes pounding the road. Nothing else exists.

I always liked San Francisco Bay Area. Before I moved to Beijing, I did not appreciate it as I should.