Message From The Past

Elbert Hubbard

On 22nd February of 1899 ( George Washington’s 167th birthday) American artist, writer and publisher Elbert HUBBARD wrote a short essay  which later came to be known as ‘’ A MESSAGE TO GARCIA’’.  Hubbard and his young son Bert were discussing  the war,  local insurgents of Cuba were fighting against Spanish army  on that island.  The United States faced a war with Spain. Then US President McKinley  was anxious for information. He realized that success meant that the soldiers of the republic must cooperate with the insurgent forces of Cuba. He understood that it was essential to know how many Spanish troops there were on the island, their quality and condition, their morale, the character of their officers, especially those of the high command; the state of the roads in all seasons; the sanitary situation in both the Spanish and insurgent armies and the country in general; how well both sides were armed and what the Cuban forces would need in order to harass the enemy while American battalions were being mobilized; the topography of the country and many other important facts.  "Where," asked President McKinley of Colonel Arthur Wagner, head of the Bureau of Military Intelligence, "where can I find a man who will carry a message to Garcia?" The reply was prompt. "There is a young officer here in Washington; a lieutenant named Rowan, who will carry it for you!" "Send him!" was the President's order.  To make a very long story short, Colonel Andrew Summers Rowan, graduate of the elite West Point military academy did not ask a single question! He delivered the message to Garcia in Cuba during fierce fighting! He had no idea where Calixco y Inigues Garcia was, what dangers lay hidden, but he delivered the message! These are the words Elbert Hubbard wrote:   "A Message to Garcia." I thought so little of it that we ran it in the Magazine without a heading. The edition went out, and soon orders began to come for extra copies of the March "Philistine," a dozen, fifty, a hundred; and when the American News Company ordered a thousand, I asked one of my helpers which article it was that had stirred up the cosmic dust."It's the stuff about Garcia," he said. The next day a telegram came from George H. Daniels, of the New York Central Railroad, thus: "GIVE PRICE ON ONE HUNDERED THOUSAND ROWAN ARTICLE IN PAMPHLET FORM – EMPIRE STATE EXPRESS ADVERTISEMENT ON BACK—ALSO HOW SOON CAN SHIP’’ . I replied giving price, and stated we could supply the pamphlets in two years. Our facilities were small and a hundred thousand booklets looked like an awful undertaking. The result was that I gave Mr. Daniels permission to reprint the article in his own way. He issued it in booklet form in editions of half a million. Two or three of these half-million lots were sent out by Mr. Daniels, and in addition the article was reprinted in over two hundred magazines and newspapers. It has been translated into all written languages. At the time Mr. Daniels was distributing the "Message to Garcia," Prince Hilak off, Director of Russian Railways, was in this country. He was the guest of the New York Central, and made a tour of the country under the personal direction of Mr. Daniels. The Prince saw the little book and was interested in it, more because Mr. Daniels was putting it out in such big numbers, probably, than otherwise. In any event, when he got home he had the matter translated into Russian, and a copy of the booklet given to every railroad employee in Russia. Other countries then took it up, and from Russia it passed into Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Hindustan and China. During the war between Russia and Japan, every Russian soldier who went to the front was given a copy of the "Message to Garcia."The Japanese, finding the booklets in possession of the Russian prisoners, concluded that it must be a good thing, and accordingly translated it into Japanese. And on an order of the Mikado, a copy was given to every man in the employ of the Japanese Government, soldier or civilian. Over forty million copies of "A Message to Garcia" have been printed. This is said to be a larger circulation than any other literary venture has ever attained during the lifetime of the author, in all history-- Thank You!

65% Will Hurt You If They Can Escape With It.

How Cruel Can You Be?

Just as we Maldivians were about to start the second week of this February, we were appalled by senseless brutality against a number of Maldivians by those who were supposed  to ' serve & protect' us . Among those severely beaten were our former president Mohamed Nasheed  and his closest friends and colleagues. The severe and senseless police brutality against this political rally is well documented.

After seeing the photos and videos of this unnecessary violence I remembered reading about an experiment conducted by a certain Professor  Stanley Milgram of Yale University. As I had read this almost 30 years ago, I had to refresh my memory with the help of Google’s wizardry.

Professor Stanley Milgram had conducted a series of his very famous experiment aptly named Obedience Experiment in 1961-1962. Milgram recruited subjects for his experiment from various walks in life.  Volunteers were told the experiment would study the effects of punishment on learning ability. They were offered a token cash award for participating (will pay $4 for one hour of your time). All volunteers were ‘Teachers’ while the learner was an actor who plays along with the experimenter.

“Teachers’ were requested to administer increasingly severe shocks to the ‘learner’ (here the actor) when questions were answered incorrectly. In reality the only electric shocks delivered in the experiment were single 45-volt shock samples given to each teacher. This was done to give teachers a feeling for the jolts they thought they would be discharging.

What do you think was the average voltage given by teachers before they refused to administer further shock? What percentage of teachers, if any, do you think went up to the maximum voltage of 450?

Results from the experiment; some “teachers” refused to continue with the shocks early on, despite urging from the experimenter. This is the type of response Milgram expected as the norm. But Milgram was shocked to find those who questioned authority were in the minority. 65% of the teachers were willing to progress to the maximum voltage!

1st- Obeyed but justified themselves, this group gave up responsibility for their actions, blaming the experimenter. If anything had happened to the learner, they reasoned, it would have been the experimenter’s fault. Others had transferred the blame to the learner; “He was so stupid and stubborn he deserved to be shocked”

2nd- Obeyed but blamed themselves; this group felt badly about what they had done and were quite harsh on themselves. Members of this group would, perhaps be more likely to challenge authority if confronted with a similar situation in the future.

3rd- Rebelled; Finally, rebellious subjects questioned the authority of the experimenter and argued there was a greater ethical imperative calling for the protection of the ‘learner’ over the needs of the experimenter!

So embedded is obedience in our psyche that it may void personal codes of conduct!

It is not comforting when 65% of people will follow ‘orders’ and hurt you as long as there is someone else to take the responsibility, eh? More discomforting news: the same experiment was conducted 50 years later, and the figures remain almost the same! Scary uh?

Sorry!

 

Tribute To Origami

Folded &and  Photgraphed by JM Uvais

Today is the 101^st birth anniversary of Origami Grandmaster Akira Yoshizawa who passed away on his 94^th Birthday in 2005. This quiet gentleman who revived the ancient Japanese art of paper folding or origami (which is a household name now) was also a Cultural Ambassador of Japan. In 1983 Yoshizawa was honoured with Japan’s Order of The Rising Sun. Google, in the company's grand style  has  also paid homage to this grand master by creating  an origami doodle on its home page.

My friend Uvais first mentioned this national treasure of Japan to me while commenting on a (sparrow I think) origami folded by  this lifelong friend. As it has been my habit, I looked up more about this Japanese grandmaster and I was awestruck by the realistic and diverse folding Yoshizawa has created in his lifelong journey in paper folding!.

Paper folding or origami which is more precise and sweet, is known to reduce tension and is an excellent way to relax at the end of the day. We cannot deny that happiness lies in noticing and giving importance to small details of our daily life. Bread may feed our body while art, poetry and our hobbies like paper folding, photography, writing and various other forms of light activities feed our souls with much needed energy.

The German paper and paper products company PWA, to commemorate the company’s 100^th anniversary, has donated a fountain to the town of Mannheim. Bronze sculptures modeled like origami works, Papyrus Brunnen or papyrus wells or perhaps paper wells is an excellent way for a paper manufacturing company to honour itself with this creative nod to the gentle art of origami.

The above photo and origami hummingbird was folded and photographed and very kindly dedicated to me by my brother Mohamed Uvais who shares my fascination with hummingbirds. My supplication to our Creator is that Uvais sees a real live ‘ flying jewel ‘ . Brother, thank you for honoring me with this folding and also thank you for permission to use this photograph here.  May you live long, may you go on folding, writing and photo shooting for many many years to come.  I am your proud fan. Here is a link to Uvais's works;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmustudio/6853363159/in/set-72157613982548899/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmustudio/6838236512/in/photostream

Thank You!

Tribute To Religions, Customs & Law

Just over 222 years ago (Oh! how Dhiraagu would love to sell me this ‘reethi number’! ) 15 men and 13 women landed on one of the remotest of all islands scattered in the vast Pacific Ocean.. Pitcairn Island is still unheard of by many, though the island got much attention during the birth of this new century as one of the very first islands to witness the sunrise of January 1^st 2000.

When these 15 men and 13 women landed on this uninhabited island they were thousands of miles from the ‘long hands of the law’ to restrict or guide them, some were Christians and many belonged to no major religion known to the West. You see, out of the 15 men, 9 were mutineers from Cap’n Bligh’s ill fated ship the HMS Bounty. They had set Captain Bligh and as many men as a tiny life boat could carry,adrift into the vast Pacific Ocean! The other 19 were Polynesians- 6 men and 13 women.

What happens when  such a diverse group of people are  taken from their natural elements and let loose  to fend for themselves on a remote location is what writers have long imagined. From Robinson Crusoe to The Swiss Family Robinson to The Lord of the Flies.

Let us see what happened to these 28 ‘fully independent’ individuals!  Let me quote from Simon Andrea’s book,  The Secrets of Love & and Lust: “ Each mutineer would have a house, a woman and a plot of land. Other than that there would be no laws and no artificial constraints  on pleasures. Everyone was to do what came naturally, and they did. The men argued, fought and killed each other and the women were divided among the ever dwindling number of victors”

“First the Bounty’s blacksmith, Jack Williams stole a woman from her Polynesian lover Tararo in an effort to replace his own wife, who had fallen from a cliff while collecting birds’ eggs. In response, the  Polynesian men made two retaliatory raids resulting the deaths of two of their own. The second time they killed four English mutineers & and captured their four wives. Then they started to argue as to who would take charge of one of the women, Teraura. Teimua, who believed it should be him, began wooing her with songs. But Minarii, who disagreed, picked up a musket and blew out Teimua’s brains”

“Of the two remaining Polynesian men, one had his head split with an axe when he tried to climb into bed with the widow of the murdered Brown, and the other was hunted down and shot by a rage-fuelled Edward Young. The four remaining mutineers divided the women more or less equally between them, until the irksome Quital lost his drinking companion McKoy (who had thrown himself from a cliff) and decided to stir up trouble by stealing Young’s second consort, Mauatua. Young decided to act first and invited Quintal over for a drink, piled him with liquor, then felled him with an axe”

“ Of the 15 men who had landed on the island, only two would live to see the new century (20^th) In the 10 years they had been there, 12 men had been murdered, one had committed suicide, and one was being buried by the last remaining survivor, John Adams. The last sailor, still aged only 36, looked around with supreme disconsolation at the chaos which had been wrought by both his party and the Polynesians; his only comfort the 10 women who had made it unscathed through the bloodshed and the twenty children who had come into his care.”

What a story! That is why they say fact is stranger than fiction!

Thank You!

Tribute To Breadfruit

According to  the most prolific of all  Maldivian  writers Hussain Salahuddin (14-4-1881 to 20-9 1948)  it was our Sultan  Muhammad Ghiyasuddin, from the Dhiyamigilee Dynasty, popularly known as Haji Bandaarain  who ascended the throne in 1766 AD, ( ten years before Washington became the first US president! ) who  introduced “Ban’bukeyo”- breadfruit  to the country! (so we were introduced to this meal of a fruit couple of decades earlier to Cap'n Bligh's historic trip! )

Ever since I read of the fateful voyage of HMS Bounty and her strong willed Captain William Bligh, the sight of Breadfruit trees and the fruit itself evokes memories of this historic journey.  William Bligh was Captain of the English ship 'Bounty' sent to Tahiti in December, 1787. The mission was to collect and transport breadfruit trees to the West Indies as a new source of cheap, nutritious food for slaves in the West Indian English colonies.  

The HMS Bounty arrived at Tahiti in October 1788, and it took another 5 months to collect and prepare 1,000 breadfruit trees for the trip.  There was a special cabin re designed at the stern of the Bounty ,as a  nursery to accommodate the breadfruit saplings ( reducing living room for the sailors which is also one reason they were jittery )

The Bounty left Tahiti on April 5, 1789 and on April 28 ( Just a few weeks prior to The French Revolution) the most famous mutiny in history took place. The main reason was that while at Tahiti the young sailors had got used to the idyllic island life and many had native girlfriends! The constant rationing of food, cramped living space and the simple living of the Tahitian life and the harsh living conditions of the average sailor were behind the mutiny.

 After being set adrift in a small boat, Captain Bligh made it back to England in 1791 and a year later, after the court marshal acquitted him, he was back in Tahiti and this time was successful in transporting the trees to the West Indies where the trees thrived mightily ever since.  However, the ultimate goal of the mission was unsuccessful - the slaves refused to eat the unfamiliar food.  It took some time, but the breadfruit eventually became a staple food in the West Indies.

Thank You! ( this article is v lovingly  dedicated to my son Maaz who loves deep fried breadfruit chips ;-)

Political Surfers

If you take a few minutes to closely  observe these graceful athletes as they surf,  you will surely be mesmerized by their agility, strength, stamina and also by their uncanny ability to foresee  and assess the oncoming waves. Instantly you realise that surfing is not for the fainthearted! Their grace can only be matched by the rubbery and the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman who lives next to nobody in particular! To repeatedly do what they do, they must also have the guts of MMA fighters! (Mixed- Martial Arts which is an excuse to bloody the graceful fighting methods of the Orient)

A keen observer will notice that the only way a seasoned surfer keeps standing on the crest of a rolling mighty wave is to always keep his or her balance and be in the ‘sweet spot’ of the wave. Normal waves do not keep on rolling forever, so the surfer must predict when to jump on to the ‘next big thing’!

As an avid listener and observer of our society I have enough reasons to believe that there is a completely new breed of surfers in our society. Slippery yes, but their knees are not supple anymore like those of our friendly superhero. Jumpy yes, but not like the powerful hurdlers of the track and field.  Both are very good at riding a wave when its crest is foaming with power and easily leaving this 'no good wave' to another feisty one which has just started to gather momentum! Let me call these pro surfers of the dry land, the Political Surfer!

Some political surfers also ride on the wave of popularity! His or her own popularity or of the party this politician may happen to belong! Though our multi party system is just a toddler, we have ‘seasoned politicians’! This may seem absurd, but we are quick learners and among us there are super smart individuals. They seem to have ultra sensitive antennae that inform them when it is the ideal time to jump from this party to another.  Perhaps huge figures are calculated as they 'surf' and the politically naive are baffled when they are treated as celebrity of the new party! Without missing a beat they start attacking the party they belonged to, just hours ago! Their former political party is what launched them onto this new wave and that is history! All focus is on the next thundering new wave! What can I call these shameless people who  flaunt their Rolexes and BMWs other than, Political Surfers?

Thank You!