Nuclear Weapons testing and The Future of the Marshall Islands

In a post colonial and post nuclear age, how can the Marshall Islanders survive? This is a question that I will answer in this essay. I would like to, first, give you some background information about the Marshall Islanders and the United States’ nuclear weapons testing program. After I talk about that, I will talk about how the Marshall Islanders have adapted to colonization and radiation, and how this is all linguistically relative. Lastly, I will talk about what we [the US] need to do in order to help ensure the rest of the world doesn’t make the same mistakes that we have.From 1945 to 1992, United States conducted over 1,000 nuclear weapons tests. The period from 16 July 1945 to 4 November 1962 is known as the atmospheric age, the age before the United States “went underground”; I believe that this happened because of pressure from the rest of the world. Beginning in 1963, the number of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States continually declined until 1992, when all testing ceased. The entire world was under pressure because of the discourse of the cold, and the displacement of power that nuclear weapons gave to the United States. The first Atomic bomb test was called ‘Trinity’ and it was tested on July 16, 1945, it took place in New Mexico, at the Alamogordo Test Range. The next Atomic explosion on earth was the bomb used in the attack on Hiroshima. I found it surprising that the next explosion what the test called ‘Able’ which was on June 30, 1946. I find this surprising because one of the main discourses for testing nuclear weapons in the first place was the cold war and the threat of communism. But, the Soviets didn’t even test any nuclear weapons until operation ‘First lightening’, which took place on August 29, 1949. Another discourse was the threat of the Soviets creating the hydrogen bomb before the United States did. In 1952 the United States went along with ‘Operation Ivy’ the first ‘Hydrogen Bomb’ ever detonated was tested it was codenamed ‘Mike’. In 1954 ‘Operation Castle’ was the response to the Soviet thermal nuclear weapons testing program, this contained the test codenamed ‘Castle Bravo’, that to this day contains the largest yield (15 megatons) ever tested by any nation worldwide. On the 22nd of November 1955 the hydrogen bomb was tested by the Soviet Union, it was designated as ‘RDS-37’. One interesting test was known as ‘Starfish Prime’ on July 9, 1962, this was a high-altitude nuclear test; it was actually detonated 248 miles above Johnston Island. The flash could be seen over 900 miles away in Honolulu, also the electromagnetic pulse disabled the traffic lights, and made television sets and radios malfunction, here in Hawaii. The United States signed the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty on August 5, 1963; they no longer conducted any atmospheric tests. Although the United States no longer conducted atmospheric tests, it continued underground tests until 1992, with ‘Operation Julin’. I think that all of this is very important to know, because if you see any of the media from the cold war era, the United States makes the Soviet Union seem like the aggressor, but looking at the data, the United States is the aggressor, they were much more extreme with all of their tests. I will talk about the discourse of the Marshall Islanders, and how the United States took advantage of it position as a trustee and a world super power. The test codenamed ‘Castle Bravo’ was tested on Bikini Island, and the wind carried fallout across most of the Marshall Islands. This fallout irradiated many people and they had adverse side affects. The United States government claims that it was due to a sudden shift in the winds, but according to various weathermen in the military, they knew that the winds were blowing to the east to begin with. The United States created the discourse that the Marshallese were “savages” which in a sense de-humanized them. Then in a propaganda video by the government, they showed the Marshallese in the ‘iron room’ getting tested for radiation. They even included the ‘Mayor’ of the Marshallese getting tested in the video, this made it seem as if the whole thing was approved by the Marshallese, by calling them savages earlier in the video, it made Americans think that we were doing these people a favor, by making them ‘civilized’. The United States was talking to the Marshallese like they were children, when they say “Now James…”, that proves that they thought that the Marshallese were inferior. The United States took advantage of the Marshallese not having an understanding of what a nuclear weapon was when they asked them if they could test the bombs. They said that they want to “turn this great destructive power into something for the benefit of mankind”. Even if you could understand English, you wouldn’t have a clue to what extent that is, at that time people didn’t understand the destructive power of these weapons, not even the ones testing the weapons. Another example of this is when President Truman said that the United States had a new “weapon of unusual destructive force”; he was talking about the atomic bomb. Another discourse was ‘the opportunity to study the radiation effects on humans’, this was an argument made to distract the American people, because there were already thousands of people to test in Japan after the bombings in World War Two. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation (formerly the ABCC) has been doing research on the effects of radiation on people since 1945. Although the Marshallese were up against the United States, they had courage and didn’t back down. Besides going to the United Nations and taking the United States government to court, they also rebel in their use of language. The Marshallese made their own words, instead of adopting English, to describe their situation and made it unique. They are creating their own radiation language, for instance radiation is called poison, also they made the distinction between which doctors actually cared about them and which ones were just monitoring radiation. This is important because they are making their own understanding of the situation, and also it shows that the Marshallese are starting to understand the effects of radiation on their own. This is important because if you don’t have a unique word for something like radiation you can’t fully understand it.I would like to conclude this by saying that we all need to be aware of the adverse effects of Nuclear weapons. It really irks me when there is a conflict between the United States and someone else and I hear someone say “let’s just nuke them”, that is one of the most ignorant things that I have ever heard, and I think that anyone who thinks that Nuclear weapons should be used should do some research on the horrible effects that radiation has on a person. The United States has already irradiated 2/3 of the mainland, and killed thousands of people, with these weapons. When I hear rumors of America talking about using so-called “tactical nukes”; that really scares me, because I’m afraid that Americans are forgetting about the effects of these weapons. In the cold war the world Americans became desensitized to these weapons, because they were always in the mass media, and propaganda was used to manipulate everyone, to make them accept these horrible weapons. We need to be aware of these things, college students of today are tomorrow’s leaders, and we can’t afford to become desensitized again.

!Kung

After reading Chapter 10 of James Spradely’s book, I have decided that I could not only be a hunter-gatherer in the Kalahari, but I think that I would like it. The thought of getting my own food right out of the wild sounds very rewarding. I think that I could be a hunter-gatherer in the Kalahari because I lived in a small town that is on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, the climates sound very similar, so I would get used to it fairly quickly. I have always been interested in the notion that I could go out and hunt an animal for my meal that night, just like the native Americans did. As long as I was part of a camp, life wouldn’t be as hard as it sounds.The thing that I found most interesting about the culture of hunter-gatherers was the lack of selfishness; everyone works for the greater good of the camp. I actually think that our society could learn a lot from the !Kung. We would learn that all of the material things in life aren’t so important. The book argues that hunter-gatherers lack what we call culture, but I don’t agree, I think that they have a different kind of culture, one that westerners have forgotten about. Their culture is more like the spirit of Aloha, where everyone works together and the members of the camp are like family members. In our society we are working an average of forty hours a week for a thing called money; to the !Kung that would seem ridiculous. Sometimes I think that it would make more sense to hunt for my meals, I think that it would feel more rewarding to me. I think that in our society today people overworked, most people work about 8 hours of the day for 5 days, then get only 2 days off, all of that in order to pay the bills. The !Kung work about 2-6 hours of the day for 1 day, then get 2 days off, they don’t have to pay for rent, utilities, or food. The !Kung have an abundance of resources, including many plants and animals. In an average day they consume about 2,000 calories, with 96 grams of protein, this is within the accordance with the RDA for the average male. A staple in the diet of the !Kung is the mongongo nut, which provides 26 grams of protein per 100 grams, an amount similar to peanuts. Also according to the text, about 10 percent of the population was over 60 years of age, as of 2005 at total of 12 percent of the population in the United States is over 65(CIA World Factbook, 2005). All of the above facts considered I think that the !Kung may have a fairly exceptional standard of living.I think that the greatest challenge to me would be getting over the language barrier. I found out that the orthography of the language is very different than any language I have ever heard. For example there are a series of clicks that have significant meaning. I have actually included an outline of how to pronounce the clicks. I think that I would need to learn the language in order to be an effective hunter, or to make any contribution to the !Kung society.Symbol Pronunciation” /” The “first” click (dental), sounds like “tsk, tsk! ” and is made by putting thetongue just behind the front teeth.”¹” The” second” click (alveolar) , is a soft “pop” made by putting the tonguejust behind the ridge back of the front teeth.”!” The “third” click (alveolo-palatal), is a sharp “pop” made by drawing thetongue down quickly from the roof of the mouth.”//” The “fourth” click (lateral), is a clucking sound like that made in Englishto urge on a horse.In conclusion I think that I could live as a hunter-gatherer successfully and indefinitely, so long as I learned the language of the !Kung. I like to think that I can do anything that another person can, given that I have time to learn how to do it. I think that the whole experience would be both exciting and rewarding, and it would be a superb learning experience. I think that everyone could learn from a society like the !Kung, and that maybe our society needs to look at a society like this and take some of the core values of sharing, family, and community, from the !Kung. With these values I think that it is possible to make a better world for everyone.

Chappli Kabab

If you ask any American if they know what a kabab is, they would most likely say “Yeah, it is a stick with meat on it.” They would be correct, those are typically known as shish kebabs, but what they most likely wouldn’t know is that there are at least twenty-five different types of kababs. Kebab simply means “grilled meat” in Persian, they are typically made of lamb, beef, fish, chicken, or a combination of lamb and beef. Kebabs are not usually made of pork because the major religion in the Middle-East is Islam which prohibits it’s consumption. To fully understand the kebab you must know a little history of this wonderful dish.It is generally thought that kebabs originated in the Middle-East as a way to cook meat with very little fuel. Because the meat was typically in small pieces (especially in shish kebab), it cooked more quickly and therefore the fire did not need as much to burn.Kebabs were the food of Persian kings and in ancient times ordinary Iranians consumed it only once a year on Norouz, the traditional Iranian new year holiday. Today, however, kebabs are not only consumed in almost every Iranian house on a weekly basis, but they have also become Iran’s number one selling fast food, and there is a similar trend throughout the whole Middle-East.I chose to make the chappli kabab for this project. The chappli kabab originates from Pakistan, it is more like a hamburger patty than a shish kabab. In Pakistan kebabs are in the category of food called Mogul food, or barbeque. The kabab is sold in Pakistan much like the hamburger is sold here. A popular way to eat chappli kababs is to wrap the meat with naan bread, and dip it into a mixture of yogurt and pepper. Naan bread is a flat bread that is cooked in a brick oven called a tandoor. Naan bread is like a cross between a tortilla and a pancake. Traditionally in Pakistan people didn’t use silverware they ate with their hands, but now more people are using forks, spoons, and knives.I chose this dish because I never tried kababs until about a year ago, after eating just one I fell in love with them. I want to share that experience with as many people as I can. You can get recipe online at www.shanfood.com, you can also order the masalas (spice mixes) online. In Pakistan a box of chappli kabab masala is only twenty rupees, which roughly equates to forty-three cents. I think that kababs in the Middle-East are like Hamburgers are to Americans. I really like the Pakistani culture and food, I want to experience as much of this culture as I can, and I think that I may try to live there in the future. I think that kababs will be around for a long time to come, because they are easy to make and delicious. Thank you for trying my dish and taking the time to read this, I hope that it was everything you expected.

Fieldwork Project

One of the greatest challenges of anthropology is fieldwork, and breaking through the language barrier. It is hard to get the whole picture, unless you understand the native language. Sometimes it is hard to get the whole picture even you can understand the native language, because certain ideas that exist in English don’t exist in other languages. In linguistics you can translate certain words between languages, but in most cases translation doesn’t capture the whole idea of the word, or it leaves out part of it. I think that you can’t simply translate words, you have to know and understand the meaning of that word in its native language.For instance, when making a kinship chart, in Hawaiian your “makuahine” are equivalent to all of your aunts and your mother in English. So in Hawaiian you can’t differentiate between aunts on either side of the family or your mother easily. I interviewed a friend of mine to prove the point. The first question that I asked was, who are your makuahine (mother and aunts)? Then I asked, who are your makuakane (father and uncles)? I listed all of the names on a sheet of paper, so that I had a list of the whole generation. From there I had to figure out who my friend’s parents were. I did this by asking who gave birth to him, because I couldn’t just say who is your mom, in this case my friend said that her name is Tess. Once I had the name, I plugged it in to the next question, who is the husband of Tess? Then I drew the anthropological symbol for marriage with their names under it. The next thing to do was to find out who was married to who, so all I had to do was plug-in all of the names of the makuahine, then I drew the same symbols as before with the names under them. Once I had all of the makuahine and makuakane paired as husband and wife, respectfully. I had to find out which ones where siblings of the parents and place them on the correct side of the kinship chart. I did that by asking, who are the Kaikunane (brothers and male cousins) of your mom? Then I asked, who are the Kaikuahine (sisters and female cousins) of your dad? From there I made a table, one column was my friend’s father, the other side was his mother, and I moved the correct husband and wife pair to the correct side of the table. By that point, there were only there was three people left and two of them were married, so I who were the mother’s kaikuahine (sisters and female cousins), my friend said that she had none. After asking that last question I could logically deduce that the only men left were brothers of his father, since the last woman wasn’t directly related to anyone in the family. You can understand the native view by speaking the language, but if you don’t think in that language you may miss the whole point, I would argue that there are some things (thoughts) that you can’t translate into English, therefore an anthropologist may not be able to make his own culture understand the native view, the view may be lost in translation, and in that sense [I think] anthropology has failed. But, is it fair (or even possible) to ask everyone to think (or even understand) in the native language? Perhaps most would say no, but I don’t agree.The main goal of anthropology is to understand the native view, and you simply can’t understand it if you don’t speak the language. Language is more than the spoken word, it is also your thoughts, which will affect the way you perceive things, and will create your paradigm (way of thinking). I enjoyed this project because I got to experience some of the real challenges an anthropologist may feel. I think that the most important part of understanding another culture, is understanding their language, and the next time I wonder why someone is acting a certain way, perhaps, I will try to understand their own paradigm.

Disclaimer

I am going to publish information about all of the classes that I am taking. I may publish some of the class work that I turn in. You cannot reuse the information contained in the article without proper citation, otherwise you will violate plagiarism laws. These articles are not for the purposes of cheating or any other illegitimate use. The purpose of this is too share ideas and views with other people. I hope that you enjoy this blog.