Professor Xu

We received word last week that our friend Professor Xu Hua died from a stroke. He was the chief organizer of several of the AIDS/HIV prevention workshops we attended in China. His title when we first met him was Secretary General of the China Foundation for Sexually Transmitted Infections and AIDS Prevention.

Our first workshop was in Jilin City, in the Northeastern part of the country. At one point we were taken to a citizen’s home who had AIDS. He got the disease because he gave blood to get a little money. After the plasma was extracted, the remaining blood was mixed with others and re-injected back into the donors so they could give blood again sooner. Professor Xu (pronounced Shoe) is to the right of Judith.

Professor Xu always posed for a photo with a sober face, but he smiled a lot. Here is a photo of him taken when he was not posing. We were in Dunhuang and after our camel ride we came to a restaurant that had a “band” and at various times we joined in either playing instruments or singing.

At the dais
When we were in Lanzhou Professor Xu particularly wanted his photo taken in front of the statue called “Mother Yellow River”.

He spoke excellent English although his accent took a while to incorporate into understanding, at least for me.

In Beijing we had lunch with him and his daughter and son-in-law. They have since moved to Canada as the son-in-law saw that his opportunities were better there. He was the one who told us of Xu’s death.

I don’t know how old Professor Xu was, but I believe he was older than me. Xu could eat. I saw Xu in a wide variety of locations eating all kind of different ethnic dishes. Never, ever saw him pass on anything. And he ate with so much enjoyment!

While it is not possible to discuss politics with the Chinese, we do know that Professor Xu lived through WWII, the communist takeover, the cultural revolution, and the Beijing Olympics. He was a fun, decent man. Good-by my friend.

Busy Weekend

The Almighty had a busy weekend.  She had to induce the last Houston Astro batter to chase a 3-2 pitch a foot outside the strike zone to preserve Cub pitcher Carlos Zambrano's no hit, not run gem and move the Cubs close to cinching a play off spot. 

And then she had to reward Barack Obama's White Sox with a double header win to keep them in first  place in their division.

Then she had to punish the Bears for stupidty for failing to get a first down on 2nd and 1 yard to go with 2.01 left in the game.

But first she had to punish Houston for hosting the worse hate filled right wing radio talk shows in the nation.  Now I didn't use to think that the Almighty was so petty and capricious as to punish many innocents to get at the guilty few, but then I listened to what members of the religious right had to say about the cause of New Orleans' distruction by Katrina.  And I thought perhaps I should try to keep an open mind about our so-called natural disasters.  

Being liberal minded, naturally I have a different slant on things, but I feel obligated to assign blame here.  Thanks to Bay Area Houston for the rest of this post.

The Center for American Progress and Free Press today released the first-of-its-kind statistical analysis of the political make-up of talk radio in the United States. It confirms that talk radio, one of the most widely used media formats in America, is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives. “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio” 

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out in Houston. Houston's airwaves is completely dominated by right wing radio. Case in point, KTRH (Keep The Rightwingers Here). KTRH used to be one of the best stations in Houston with the Garden Line with Randy Lemon, Tom Tynan on home improvement, Astros Baseball, news and weather together, and Tom Martino with consumer issues. 

Now KTRH is composed of some of the worst right wing talk radio in the state.

Tom Martino. 9-11. Tom has been a consumer advocate for many years, but has recently branched off into a "Sean Hannity" wannabe with his ranting and raving on social issues. His show has become less about helping people and more about complaining about them.

Rush Limbaugh. 11-2. An overweight loudmouth conservative once addicted to oxycontin. Enough said.

Chris Baker. 2-6. Four hours of sheer (edited thanks to Matt the spelling bee winner) ignorance. Baker, a self proclaimed "independent conservative" is a Republican party hack, too ashamed of his own party to associate himself with it. Baker's style is to bring a very complicated issue down to the level of an idiot. Keep it simple. Keep it wrong. Baker is known for walking off the set of MSNBC after being schooled by another talk show host, calling immigrants "Gimme grants", and Katrina survivors "Katrina Trash" among a list of other things. A real class ass.

Joe Pags. 6-8. Pags comes from God knows where and should return there. He's a fast talking, simple minded conservative hack, who out talks his callers, continually changes the subject when being overrun by facts, or simply cuts off call. Try to get a fact in edgewise.

Dennis Miller. 8-10. Dennis Miller? There is so much wrong with Dennis Miller on KTRH, that saying Dennis Miller is an idiot, is insulting to idiots.

Erhu in a perekhod

I took this photo in Beijing from the steps of a street underpass (called a perekhod in Russia).

The Chinese man is blind and is playing this traditional Chinese fiddle called an erhu, (pronounced are-who).They were brought by barbarians into China in the Han Dynasty (140 BC); the erhu itself was first described in the Song Dynasty (AD 420-79).

It is a two-stringed instrument, played sitting down and held vertically, with the body resting on the knee. The strings were originally of silk but are now usually steel. The small 6-sided body has a wooden resonator and a belly of python skin; the hardwood neck is long and narrow, and the hairs of the bow pass horizontally between the two strings, which are usually tuned to D and A. The horsehair bow rests on the body of the instrument and points inwards, at right angles to the normal angle of a violin bow.  Because both sides of the bow are used, both sides must be rosined.

Unlike on a western fiddle, the strings are not pressed down onto a fingerboard; exceptional bow control is needed and the finger pressure on the strings is critical. 

Both strings are fingered simultaneously, but the direction of pressure on the bow allows one or the other string to be sounded. The resulting tone is close to that of the violin, though more nasal in quality. Vibrato and trills are widely used, and the instrument is capable of great sensitivity and can be hauntingly evocative and soulful.

I was moved by this scene and the sound coming from the erhu.  But unfortuately, an elbow from a passerby got in the picture.

I have no experience using Photo Shop but through trial and error, I has able to remove the elbow.  My efforts aren't perfect, but I decided to stop because I didn't think further efforts would make it better.  

But I am now adding the result into my "BEST PHOTOS" file.

Sichuan Earthquake Schools

As I have posted before, I was in China when the devastating earthquakes hit Sichuan Provence and watched much of the continuous TV coverage. The coverage from the Chinese media showed many heroic efforts from the government to save people and then help them in any way possible. During this time, the Chinese government also allowed the BBC and CNN to cover the happenings. They reported that children were in schools when the earthquakes hit and thousands of them died when the schools collapsed. In one town, only the school collapsed, while government buildings remained intact. As they showed on TV, the construction of the schools was shoddy. In some cases heavy wire had been used to reinforce the concrete instead of iron bars. I wondered at the time whether the Chinese government would have to acknowledge this. Western TV showed parents grieving and angry as they pointed to the remains of the schools.

Today we get an admission from the Chinese government that its true. From the New York Times --The school collapses have become the most politically sensitive issue to emerge in the aftermath of the earthquake. This summer, grieving parents held street protests to challenge local governments and demand that officials conduct proper investigations into construction quality. Local officials felt so threatened by the parents that they ordered the riot police to break up protests — officers even dragged away crying mothers — and offered the parents compensation money in exchange for their dropping their demands.

Many schools in the earthquake zone crumbled while buildings around them remained standing. According to some estimates, as many as 7,000 classrooms collapsed and up to 10,000 students may have died. In all, nearly 70,000 people died in the quake and 18,000 are considered missing; officials now say those still missing are almost certainly dead. The quake was the deadliest natural disaster in China in more than three decades.

At a news conference in Beijing on Thursday, Mr. Ma said more than 1,000 schools suffered from at least one of two major problems: they were built on the fault line and collapsed like many other buildings around them, or they were poorly built.

This second problem “is the construction quality of the building itself — its structure is not completely sound or its materials are not very strong, which is possible,” Mr. Ma said. “Recently, we’ve built school buildings relatively fast, so some construction problems might exist.”
Mr. Ma also acknowledged how important the issue had become to the public, and said the government had sent 2,000 experts to the quake zone to examine the schools.

“This is an issue people are paying attention to,” he said. “First, the parents of schoolchildren are paying a lot of attention, as well as education departments. And even people across the entire country are very much paying attention to this issue.”

When the teams from the central government showed up in the quake zone, some local officials wanted to exaggerate to them the intensity of the earthquake so that poor construction or corruption would not be blamed for building collapses, Mr. Ma said. Some officials also wanted to report greater financial losses in their areas than what had actually occurred to get more aid money, he added.

Shi Peijun, vice chairman of the earthquake committee, said at the news conference that the total direct financial loss from the earthquake was $123 billion.

Mr. Ma did not give any further details on the findings of the experts or say when the government would release a final report. The purpose of the news conference was to update reporters on recovery efforts. Mr. Ma did not mention the school collapses until he was asked about them.

So when I of hear tales from the liberal media about lack of transparency and secrecy in our won government, I can't help acknowledge what the last 7 1/2 years have been like. And even today, the first order from the Republican Convention is "the biased liberal media is out to get us".

"America is a better country than this."

Traditional Male Circumcision Ceremony

As I have posted previously, our trip to Malawi was to observe male circumcision ceremonies held at Yao villages, so see if there are opportunities to impart AIDS/HIV prevention information to the participants. We found the circumcision rites have evolved considerably in that they are no longer linked with imparting sexual knowledge to the participants mostly because the boys are much younger now and would not be able to grasp the information.

The reasons why the boys are younger has to do with status and economics. There is cost involved because the circumciser has to be paid and extra food is expected to be provided to various people. So as soon as money is available the tendency is to spend it now rather than wait because the money may not be available in the future.

The other main change involved religion. The Yao are Muslims due to their association with the Arabs in the slave trade. Unless a male is circumcised, he is not able to enter the masque to pray. There is an effort afoot to do away from the traditional ceremony associated with the rites because some Muslims don't approve of them. In the non-traditional circumcision rites, the boys are just herded to the lodge where they are circumcised and remain until their wounds are healed.

I have no idea why the cause of disapproval, but because I was able to witness both kinds, my analysis is that the traditional kind imparts more of a sense of passage within the social framework of the village and therefore, is better.

I restricted myself from posting much of my experiences due to concerns of confidentially. But my wife Judith, says that any part of the ceremony open to anyone is not confidential and I am free to share photos and descriptions about what took place before the boys were lead off to be circumcised. So here goes.

The group of us arrived early Sunday evening to witness the ceremonial dancing by the village women. However, we were early and sat around for a while until a fire was built and people gathered around. Eventually, the women gathered and started singing and clapping as two drummers provided the rhythm after the Ngaliba’s (the circumciser) assistants showed up and danced for those gathered. They play out some male and female thing as one of them is dressed as a woman. The initiates are brought out and sit in front of the mothers and the other village women.


I was told that, the boys’ mothers have a set of beads, designed by her that she wears around her abdomen next to her skin. These beads are known only to her husband and are used in some matter during sexual foreplay. When her son is to be circumcised she places these beads around her son’s neck indicating that he is her son. The beads can be seen on the boys during the previous evening’s dancing but I don’t know exactly when they are placed on the boy. One thing the boys are told is to never enter their mother’s bedroom again.

I can't help but interject something here. I took a psychology course at Ball State University long ago and the text book talked briefly about Freud and his "theories" saying that his findings appeared to be only related to western culture. I argued vigorously in class saying that this could not be so. The professor, a rolly-polly little man who always wore a bow tie and called his wife mommy (this is before Reagan was elected), seemed totally ignorant of anything Freud ever said. And I was kind enough to let it slide by. So I offered this evidence in support of my long held insights.

I was told that the mothers sing about the forthcoming event of circumcision using the words (translated of course) “that you are coming to experience some pain nothing like I felt when I gave birth to you”. The also sing that “they can accept a man’s penis the size of an arm”!!!! And I am told that in the past, during the female equivalent of coming of age ceremony, she is taught to periodically pull on her labia to extend it.

In the morning, the ngaliba’s assistants first showed up and then the Ngaliba. Here is picture of them with the Ngaliba being 2nd from the left.
To the right of the boys is a basket of flour, applied to the initiates head, with the charm used by the Ngaliba sitting in the flour.
Just before the boys leave for the camp they were lined up and the Ngaliba’s helper places the charm on each boy’s head and says some words.
At the proper time, the boys were led away and the Ngaliba and his helpers raced ahead of the camp. I was told that the boys have no idea what is going to happen and probably think the initiation is over and now are going to receive some kind of reward. Oh, the humanity!

The Uno Lodge

Our departure from the train at San Rafael was a process of rapid getting off, passing luggage down, and looking for our local travel agent representative. After we found him and loaded our luggage into his van, off we went. Two women travel companions also got off the train and joined us.

I find it difficult to really adequately describe the road we took but went up and down one mountain side and up another on terrain that might be described as dangerous enough to demand the utmost attention and care. Indeed, is many places brake failure would have meant death. We found out later that the van has new tires every 3 months, and new shocks and brakes every month as preventive maintenance. Being in the rainy season, every rain made deeper ruts which added to the excitement.
After 1 ½ hours we arrive just as it started to rain at the Uno Lodge. It sits on the rim of a large promontory and offers breathtaking ever changing vistas. The visible rock is limestone whose erosion by the river has made deep canyons. The first photo below came from the Internet.

Our room is in back of the tree on the right, giving us views from 3 sides.

The lodge is owned by the Tatahumara Indians. The Tarahumara or Raramuri, as they call themselves, inhabit the Copper Canyon. The Spanish originally encountered the Tarahumara throughout Chihuahua upon arrival in the 1500's, but as the Spanish encroached on their civilization the shy and private Tarahumara retreated for the nearly inaccessible canyons of the Sierra Tarahumara. Only the Jesuit missionaries followed at first and with only scattered success.

After mineral wealth was discovered in the mountains, many areas where Tarahumara Indians lived became desirable lands to the miners & mining companies forcing the Tarahumara once again to head farther into the remote canyons. Today, the Tarahumara are Mexico's second largest native Indian group with between 50,000 & 70,000 people.

Today the Tarahumara live in caves, under cliffs and in small wood and stone cabins in remote areas. They live a simple life undisturbed by modern technologies.

They are known as a quiet and considerate people who are expert farmers and runners.

Once we arrive we receive a few rules. Solar energy provides electricity and we are allotted 4 hours per day, which we really didn’t need as there were no outlets only two florescent lights. No paper in the flush toilets but 24 hour hot water if needed,

We have a very good dinner that night, with one of the workers providing some entertainment with his guitar and song. One of the persons at dinner was a young man working for saveourplanet.org essentially doing Peace Corps type work with the Tarahumara. We ask a lot of questions and gain a better understanding of the way of life for the Tarahumara. We have become adjusted to eat late, as the Mexicans do, so after dinner there is little to do except read until sleep time.

When I rise in the morning, it’s a perfect time to take some photos while above the clouds.

Later that day, we take a hike near the top of a waterfall which is in the center of the photo below.

This is a look at the terrain and flora found in the hiking trails. I am not much of a hiker and I spent a lot of time just looking at the rain clouds come and go.

After two nights, we left the next morning early and were slightly more relaxed on the way back. After we got back to San Rafael we were driven on to Divisadero, another mountain village where the Tarahumara Indians have a market along the train station.

Here is another great vista here. We bought a few pieces of jewelry for gifts.

We were driven back to San Rafael and we ate our box lunch as we waited for the train. The train was over an hour late. It was Sunday, as many Mexicans were on the train with children who made a lot of noise and ran up and down the aisle. Most were headed to Chihuahua like us.

This was not a pleasant part of the journey, especially after they closed the diner and the bar.
We got in very late and no one was there to meet us. We were able to contact the people responsible to meet us and they came ASAP. They had not been advised we were coming. So it seems obvious the coppercanyon.com is having trouble taking care of details since their key agent quit. Any Spanish speakers want a job?

Our original itinerary included a visit to the Pancho Villa’s museum and a city tour of Chihuahua, but we had an early flight and missed really seeing some interesting things, except as our driver pointed out on the way to the airport. We drove past a new baseball stadium and our driver said baseball is the most popular sport in Chihuahua is baseball. And it was Monday and all museums are closed on Monday.

As a result of this trip I have grown a great respect for the country and its people. It is a big country with a big variety of climates and people. It’s nearby and no time zone problems to deal with. It is not just a place to visit during the winter.

El Ferrocarril al Chihuahua

(All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them)

My expectation was that the train trip to and through the Copper Canyon would be one of the highlights of our trip to Mexico and I was not disappointed, The rails took 90 years to complete. The idea if a railroad from Chihuahua was conceived in 1872 to promote trade from Asia and South America to the interior of Mexico and from there, to the interior of the United States. A lot of things delayed construction, including the Mexican revolution, but in 1961 construction was finally completed across the Sierra.

There are 37 principal bridges and 87 tunnels needed to travel the 406 miles between Chihuahua and Los Mochis. From sea level to a height of 8000 feet, the train snakes its way up and down steep grades. As there is not much to see from Los Mochis to El Fuerte, the travel company starts our train boarding at El Fuerte. This is not a small locomotive or on narrow gauge tracks. The train has a diner car, a bar car, and a car set aside for federal type lawmen with Uzis, who get off at each stop looking for anything suspicious. Chihuahua drug lords continue to fight for turf and keep making statements of their power, chiefly by trying to kill each other. These types of armed personnel are also visible outside banks so the Mexican bandidos apparently have not faded into history just yet.

As I have mentioned before, it is the rainy season. Therefore, the mountains are green and numerous waterfalls can be seen along the way. Our destination, is San Rafael, a small village stop where we will spend two nights high up in the mountains.

I took many good photos and the challenge of this post is to select the best.

A waterfall bridge over the tracks.

I took these photos while standing between the cars and hanging out the open areas.

As great as this scenery was, the next post will show some really great vistas.

El Fuerte (The Fort)

(All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them)

We booked our adventure through Copper Canyon through Canyontravel.com. There were a few hiccups along the way. According to scuttlebutt, the owner of Canyontravel apparently is in need of a new travel agent to handle the details, as the former agent is no longer with the company.

When we got on our AeroMexico plane, the pilots could not start the engines and we were transferred to another plane which caused a delay of one hour. Our flight from Mexico City was a little over 2 hours traveling northwest to the coast. The Los Mochis airport is very near the Gulf of California and is very visible on the approach to landing. At sea level, it is hot and humid. We get our luggage and put on our Canyontravel luggage tags on so we can be identified. But there was no one there to meet us. Another travel agent noticed us standing in the middle of the small airport with our luggage tags and made a phone call and 20 minutes later a driver showed up.
After 2½ hours, the 90 miles distance between Los Mochis and El Fuerte was covered and we arrived at our very rustic Rio Vista Hotel, hot and hungry from lack of breakfast. After quickly putting our luggage in our room, we were served lunch and the El Fuerte representative and owner of the hotel met with us.

We requested to be moved to a better hotel and he immediately moved our luggage and carried it down the hill to put us up at the Pasada del Hidelgo. Interesting, another couple came later in the day and requested to be moved from the Pasada del Hidelgo to the Rio Vista. But they were bird watchers from Oklahoma City. The Rio Vista provides a room balcony overlooking the El Fuerte River where all kinds of different birds can be seen. So we were all happy with our lodging.

August is not tourist season in Mexico. It rains almost every day, usually in the late afternoon or evening. The hotel has an open court and I took this photo during a 45 minute hard rain storm. The hotel had few clients so the kitchen was closed. We walked a short distance to a good Mexican restaurant for all our meals.

The hotel lounge area is filled with interesting art objects and antiques.

Upon closer look at the stove, I saw this

For those in the know, Marion Indiana has had an everlasting effect on me and my children. There are many good memories for sure, but I am sure we all are happy to be living elsewhere now.

El Fuerte is a sleepy town of about 45,000 people, lots of chickens and a few burros. The people are friendly and you can shop without being harassed. The town was founded in 1564 by Conquistador don Francisco de Ibarra and was eventually named after the fort built by the Spaniards to protect against attacks by the local Indians. A replica of the fort was built and houses the Museo de El Fuerte. The fort’s ramparts overlook the river and the valley. The town was an outpost on the Camino Real from which the Spanish explored the area now part of California, New Mexico, and Arizona. For centuries it was a major trading post for gold and silver miners. Colonial mansions and cobblestone streets can be seen around the center of town.

Outside the fort, the catholic church is visible which stands opposite the Zocalo and the main city government building.

This is the courtyard and fountain inside the exterior of the city building. We were informed that there are 365 doorways in the complex, one for each day of the year.

We take a river cruise in a big row boat with the bird watchers and they get really excited to see the variety of birds. The guide stops the boat on the river bank and we walk about ¼ mile to see the Cerro de la Mascara, an archaeological site where rock paintings and petroglyphs are visible. I have decided that photos of petroglyphs are not very interesting after seeing a few, so I won’t show them.

After second night, we are taken about 3 miles outside of town early in the morning to the railroad station to get on the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico. The train from Los Mochis is late by an hour but we get on with our luggage and start off towards the Sierra Madre Mountains and Copper Canyon.