How to resolve terror
OR
War on terror, brain washing and UNESCO
In 1993, Samuel P. Huntington published in magazine “Foreign Affairs” an article that set the direction of the political view of world after the simple world model of cold war bipolarity. This article modified in a book by name of “clash of civilizations” that was published in 1996. The world of post cold war was not simple like bipolarity of cold war world that were divided based on two major ideologies or economic systems. The post cold war world was an era of revival of religious and cultural identities. Not only people of newly independent central Asian countries but also Russian federation saw a surge for religious identities. The Balkanization and Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian and Albanian war in heart of secular Europe was giving weight to the arguments of Samuel Huntington. There were many ethnic groups, cultural groups and religious groups divided into two camps of socialist and capitalist but now they were all on their own. Soon the fault lines between cultures and religions became evident and the competitions and conflicts began. The first global conflict began by name of “war on terror” that was started after 9/11 attacks on USA.
The world of cold war was not simple as was told. The world was not as bipolar as it was pictured. It was not simply two camps of socialist and capitalist that deterred each other’s powers. Each camp was a cluster of miscellaneous groups that were dependant on each other. The capitalist camp that was claiming liberty, democracy and secularity as their core values were involved in massive brain washing of Muslims to assemble a large enough forces of so called, “Mujahidin” that fight a “holy war” against so called, “infidel communists”. How massive brain washing worked? The brain washing they used was based on mechanism of “isolation”. We can call this type of massive brain washing as “Isolationism”. Why was isolationism that much effective that it shook the whole fabric of Muslim world and destroyed the core values of Islamic societies and replaced them by a new value and that is “Extremism”. The sole product of isolationism is extremism which was suited the interest of capitalist camp as extremism means absence of logic and rationalism. Illogical and irrational warriors were easy to engineer and use them as were wished. Few well known tactics of isolationism are as follows,
1- Isolation from mainstream education and society: Constructing a network of Madrasas (religious schools) that were dependant on foreign aid. Prior to the “Holy war” the Madrasas was dependant on society for their funding. I remember the rows of Taliban led by a Mullah who were collecting money and ration going from shop to shop at Qandahari Bazar. Similarly, it was a common scene to see Taliban standing beside doors of homes asking for food while we were on our way back to home from school. But as foreign aids flow in the Madrasas turned into complex of buildings and the Mullahs in pickups. The foreign aid isolated Taliban and Mullahs from society. Now they were not dependant on society but despite recruiting the children of families who were unable to attend schools, have food and proper clothing. The Madrasas became the home of extra and poor children. Now we couldn’t see the Taliban in Bazars and beside doors. They were cut out of society and were isolated.
Now it is recognized that how much it was dangerous to isolate small children that are unable to judge and decide from their families and society and raise them in particular environments of extremism. As these children were isolated from their families and were raised in Madrasas so they had no emotional attachments to their families, society, its culture and traditions. They were emotionally attached to the teaching of Madrasas. They were looking the whole world and their events from world view of Madrasas.
It is common tradition that students get twelve years of common education and then they go to professional colleges and universities to specialize in particular branch of knowledge due to following reasons:
a- The particular field of knowledge is specialized and requires a mature mind capable of understanding it to specialize in it. The world has a consensus that twelve or fourteen years of general education is required to specialize in a particular field of knowledge. Ignoring the general knowledge for admissions and entry into religious school is underestimation of religion. It means that religion requires no preparation for understanding and it is an insult of religion as religion is given a lower rank than other natural and social sciences.
b- It is the natural rights of the student to choose the field of knowledge he is interested in. Admitting a child that is unable to think about choosing fields of knowledge of his interest to Madrasa means deciding his fate without knowing his interest and hence ignoring his natural rights.
Disconnecting the Madrasas from general schooling was and is acts of educational, cultural and economical isolation. It was an act of massive brain washing that shook the foundations of Islamic societies by spreading extremism and intolerance.
2- Ideological Isolationism:
a- Disconnecting the Madrasas from general education by calling general education as alien to religion and a source of preaching of infidel beliefs led to an ideological isolation. The Mujahidin that were brought from nearly all Islamic countries in Afghanistan were targeting those families whose sons and daughters came to Kabul for education and hence forced people to attach to alien them from general education and there were no alternative except Madrasas. It was an effort to isolate people ideologically. This was a successful struggle as it is not only declined the number of indigenous professionals that were necessary to run government and provide basic services to people so the Kabul government were dependant on Soviet professionals and it caused the collapse of Kabul government. Secondly it spread extremism which was necessary to have popular support for Holy War.
b- Though extremism was a way to fight back soviet camp in Afghanistan and all Islamic countries but the open support of extremism caused deepening the fault line between different sects of Islam and other religions also. Sectarian and ethnic violence become common in Pakistan and Afghanistan but it was acceptable Capitalist camp because it was fueling Holy War against soviet camp. The Civil War in Afghanistan during cold war and after Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan has been neglected by international community. These civil wars changed the demography as Mujahidin that had come from all over world declared Afghanistan their base camp and a sanctuary for extremism. These extremist were already became global as their arms has been stretched in four of five continents under support of capitalist camp. They had the capability to export their goods globally and they did it successfully.
We can understand this tactic of isolation very clearly in Swat Valley of NWFP of Pakistan, where Tehrik Taliban Pakistan are bombing and setting on fires schools (until now they have destroyed 200 schools in Swat Valley). They have banned the girls from attending schools. They are targeting political workers, police men, government servants, tribal leaders, CD shops and saloons. They had threatened the lawyers and had established their own courts where they punish people. Why they are targeting schools? Simply because they want to finish all means of education except of Madrasas so they could isolate people ideologically to convert masses into extremists. These all were happening in Afghanistan during the Afghan Jihad but were neglected by international media to not harm war against Soviets.
c- Ideological isolation of Muslim world was not started during cold war but it was started during Colonization of Muslim world. The British Empire has to take the largest part of blame as they struggled hard to secularize the Muslim world which provoked reactions and people blamed modern sciences as evil and western culture. If it were allowed that people of area adopt modern science into their current cultures, it would revolutionized the Islamic world. The reactions to Colonization Muslim institutions, scholars and intellectuals divided into two camps of modern and traditional and both took the extremism and isolation as their tools to shape the Islamic world. The secularization of Turkey and Iran were symbolic which led to Islamic revolution in Iran. The conflict between Modernists and traditionalists in Islamic world do no led to a renaissance but to deep social divisions and developments of social classes. The cultural identity lost and due to chaos there were no destined educational, economical and social reforms so the Muslim world could not develop an ideological identity and integrity. The failure of ideological identities provide great opportunities for extremism to hijack people, brain wash them by isolation and fuel conflicts.
d- Due to ideological disintegration of Islamic world into modernist and traditionalist the clear vision of Islamic states remain obscured and they failed to institutionalize their societies so today we see no global ranking educational, scientific, industrial, economical and political institutions in Islamic world. A judgment of loss, failure and backwardness led people to mistrust on their state governments and hence it makes people easily available and acceptable for extremists and extremism.
3- Cultural Isolation: As culture is multifaceted so we describe a few aspects of it that were really affected hardly,
a- Language isolationism: Language is a means of communication and a way of thinking. Isolating a language means snatching a particular way of thinking and communicating. Indian subcontinent is the best example language isolationism. Ghamidi in a Geo TV program by name of Ghamidi described it this way, “By isolation from Urdu language, we have been isolated 300 years of our civilization. By isolation from Persian, we have been isolated from 900 years of civilization and by isolation from Arabic language; we have been isolated 1400 years of civilization.” When England conquered India by defeating Moguls Empire and replaced the Persian language by English. Hindus followed English men to isolate Muslims of India from their history, culture and religion by replacing the Urdu language and Arabic letters by Nagri letters. After partition of India, the Nagri letters replaced the Persian intentionally that their Muslim populace couldn’t read and write Urdu, Persian and Arabic. The rich culture and tradition of Mugal Empire was replaced by intolerance and extremism. Another example of language isolationism is a lingual and cultural conflict between Persian speaking and Pashto speaking. It was an intentional effort of Pashtoon Kings to disconnect people of Afghanistan from their history as Pashtoons had no history in Afghanistan. It was Persian, Mongols and Turks that ruled this area. Pashtoon in an effort to disconnect people from their culture and history imposed Pashto but it was a failure and it is still the source of conflict. The isolation of people from rich culture and tradition of Persian introduced extremism based on racism, religious intolerance and several massacres and continued conflict till today.
b- Historical isolation: Historical buildings and art pieces are evidence of evolution and maturity of culture and cultural traditions. It reveals the aesthetic tastes of a nation and society. Destroying Buddhas of Bamiyan was an act of historical disconnection and isolationism. It was intentional effort of the Taliban to erase the cultural identity of the Hazaras and force them towards the extremism by a historical isolationism. Similarly the Hindus destroyed the historical Babari Mosque to disconnect Muslim from their past and to down their morality as a nation connected to whole Muslim nationhood. Similarly, the control of Golden Mosque by Israel makes the suspicion stronger that Israel tries to destroy Golden Mosque of Palestine to disconnect Palestinians and Muslim from the Palestine and their first Qibla.
c- Communication isolation: Banning on photography, cinematography, performing arts, sport events and cultural events like spring season celebration (Jashani Nauroz),etc by name of religion not only slow down the creativity but also tolerance. Every society has core values based on it develops cultural events. There were always efforts that will never stop to rebel against these values. The assessments of rebellions and evaluation of cultural events is the works of intellectuals which can create alternative and positive means that could foster both creativity and tolerance. Self expressions through art, media and cultural events are means of social communication in which both individuals and society are assessed and evaluated to set the direction of society and individuals living in it. Isolating people from these activities make both individuals and society blind enough to become easily susceptible for mass brain washing.
4- Economic isolationism: Economic isolation is an old and widely used technique applied mainly for subjugation. Both Iraq and Afghanistan which are currently the focal point for war on terror were economically isolated before attacks on them but the history of Afghanistan is more interesting than Iraq. In last quarter of 18th century the Afghanistan became a buffer zone state between two empires of Britain and Russia. To support her army mobility the British Empire constructed a networks of railway lines, paved roads, bridges, electricity, postal services, telephoning and cantonments throughout then Indian subcontinent. It is clearly visible than all these infrastructures is consistent to Border of Afghanistan in today’s Pakistan Chaman (A border city between Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iran’s border with Afghanistan (Heart: Border city between Afghanistan and Iran). Why there were no roads, rail way lines, bridges, postal services, telephoning, etc in Afghanistan. Is it due to its geography or people of the area doing not want such services? The fact is that Afghanistan south is a semi desert to desert area and the central Afghanistan’s highlands have divided it clearly into three distinct areas of north, central and southern areas. These geographical divisions suited ideally for being a buffer zone state between two Empires. To keep the buffer zone state of Afghanistan intact it was necessary for both empires to keep it isolated poor and illiterate so both extremists’ people and extreme conditions keep each power to not enter in such a red and harsh zone. It also suited the rulers of Afghanistan as they weren’t able to deliver social services to their people and defend them so they pressed more the people of area by ethnic and religious cleansing and conflicts. It is a common belief in people of Afghanistan especially oppressed areas that rulers of Afghanistan intentionally do not and did not developed Afghanistan because they believe that it is hard to rule on literate, aware, wealthy and politically empowered people. The economic isolation of Afghanistan by both Empires followed by later power bordering Afghanistan to make a sanctuary for extremism. Economic isolation of Iran, Palestine, North Korea, Cuba are very well known sources of conflicts in global levels beside many more countries in Asia, Africa and South American continents.
5- Administrative isolationism:
a- Areas in which administrations physically do not exists and are run by traditional means of tribal chiefs or some representatives of governments to rule the area are examples of administrative isolationism. No constitutional laws, judiciary systems and hence no means of justice for poor and weak. These areas are susceptible for extremism as people are forced to ally with mighty people to ensure their security.
b- The same happens on international levels where strong countries make regional alliance and weak countries are forced to cooperate with them. Those countries who can find a place in alliances are forced to adopt extremism as a mean of survival or some deterrence.
The above mentioned tactics for isolationism are those of very clearly visible efforts that are not limited to capitalist camp. The same tactics are adopted by socialist and communist camp also. The most famous example of the socialist isolationism was isolation of East Germany, North Korea and South Korea and North Vietnam and South Vietnam that the isolation of north and South Korea still continues. The isolation of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and other areas of China is another example of isolationism of communist camp.
How to resolve terror and role of UNESCO
Certainly, terror results from climax of extremism. We have discussed the reason of extremism and its spreading. The mechanism of extremism is isolationism. By isolating people educationally, economically, ideologically, culturally and historically the massive unlearning process began. Once people are unlearned by disconnecting them from their past and present, they become readily susceptible for learning new things. The unlearning old ones and learning new ones are called brain washing and when the same process are applied to whole society then it is called massive brain washing.
Resolving terror is possible by reducing extremism and by reversing the mechanism of extremism. Following strategies will be key in resolving the terror:
1- Resolving the isolationism of religious schools: Just like theology, philosophy, literature, economics and other social and natural sciences the study of religion is a specialized study and require a general education that those interested in specializing in religious studies and become religious leaders of society they could understand the society by having practical knowledge of society as well as a rational level of understanding to study the religion. Hence minimum twelve or fourteen years of general education should be necessary for admission in religious schools. The responsibility of UNESCO as a global representative of all nations of world to monitor the religious schools of all religions and ensure to make their studies specialize like universities and students could enroll after completion of general education. The admission of children in religious schools are violence of their natural rights so it should be given the human rights of children to get general education and states should be helped and make accountable for the human rights of their people.
2- Resolving the ideological isolationism: Though there is not the same resistance to natural and social sciences as it were during colonization periods but still the failure of Islamic countries to create globally renowned universities, research centers and industrializations so it is the responsibility of UNESCO to help the Muslim world in setting up such centers so the Muslim world slowly come out of sense of loss. I should admit here that Muslims are sensing inferiority as they are certain in their beliefs but it is the sense of loss that make them incline towards extremism. The Muslim world is serious in gaining their lost honor and dignity. The struggle of Iran and Pakistan in scientific and technological excellence is an evidence of such desires. Banning the Muslim countries from technologies and sciences will increase extremism and helping them in their achievements and peaceful uses of sciences and technologies will make them harmonious with world ideologically and culturally.
3- Resolving cultural isolationism: It is really appreciable that UNESCO are declaring several historical sites, world heritage and helping in preserving and maintaining them. But it is also important that UNESCO help nations of world to connect them with their cultures and hence resolving the cultural isolationism. Language is the most active and effective part of culture that require special consideration. We have provided an example of language conflict in South Asia and efforts to disconnect and isolate people culturally from their history, identity and religion. UNESCO can play a vital role in preserving the language that have large reserves of cultural achievements and creations to connect people in with their cultures and hence help them to appreciate and accept cultural differences and hence discourage extremism. Promoting the rich languages and cultural and literary reserves of them through academic and popular cultures make people understand the cultural evolutions and reasons for cultural differences.
4- Resolving economic isolation: Certainly there is global organization like World Trade Organization to promote the global free trade but the regional alliances like EU, ASIAN, Arab League and AU along with protectionist policies of each country are stronger than WTO. If organizations like World Economic Forum are struggling to promote global trades based of free market principles than there is also World Social Forum to challenge it. It is sign of positive change as global leaders along people are struggling to voice their views for promoting global trade. It is the sign of global democracy in globalized world where still tyranny exist even in UN. The VETO power of five victorious countries of World War Two is a global dictatorship and tyranny which is the greatest obstacle to real globalization. The VETO power and regional organizations like EU, AU, Arab League, ASIAN, SAARC, NATO, etc are isolating people of world from each other and making classes in world. It makes people feel victims of unjust and consider themselves oppressed. It provides them reasons for extremism. I know the fact that regionalism has strong roots in economic interests, cultural and geographic ties. Neither countries in regional alliances nor the VETO power countries like to sacrifice their hegemony but the struggle of people of world in forums like WEF and to face it WSF is appreciable but if these two forums come to face and challenge each other democratically under UN and more openly by letting representatives from all sects of all parts of societies around the world to debate and present their program to global communities would resolve the economic, political and cultural isolation.
5- Resolving administrative isolationism: The networks of roads, bridges, postal services, telecommunications, electricity, air ports, etc are become mature and diverse enough that they could connect whole world physically by such networks. There are several areas in world that lack the resources to connect themselves to world network. I think these networks are key in developments as well as in harmony and reducing extremism. The developed nations can help the countries lacking capacity in developing networks as well as good governance by shifting decision making into community levels. Empowering communities and connecting them to global communities make them responsible part of globe both contributing and accountable communities of the global communities.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Clash of Empires
Yes! Faith and family, blood and belief are what people identify with and fight and die for as Samuel Huntington noted but besides ideology and income can also be added to list of fight and die for. Certainly! Samuel Huntington rightly noted that a world of post Soviet era would be a world of clash of civilizations as world never ceases clashes. We can find the description of rise and fall of Empires and clash between them in the works of earlier historians that world knows and this descriptions still continues. It is not also continues as explosion of Medias are describing every tiny developments and provide new perspectives to people.
Though Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations is a reality and is working but is a sub-paradigm of real paradigm that is Clash of Empires. In Post Soviet world it is more real sub-paradigms just like Sino-Soviet clashes was a sub-paradigm of Cold war world. In Cold war world there were two empires, USA and USSR. The fall of Soviet Union was the fall of an Empire. Any country that has expansionist tendency is called an empire. Empires have changed their facets and identity throughout the history. Empires like Byzantine Empire had a religious identity, empires like Chinese Empires had a cultural and racial identity, Empires like USSR had an ideological identity and Empires like USA is a democratic and capitalist empire. In post soviet world, USA, European Union, China, India, Russian Federation, Japan, Pakistan, Iran and Israel have raised as empires of 21st century some representing traditional ancient empires (Iran, China, India, Japan and Russia) and some like USA and EU have risen as new empires.
Clash of civilizations is a good effort for post soviet world but it fails to explain world war I and World War II from near history while Clash of empires can explain why Germany started a nonstop war in Europe, Africa and why Japan allied with Germany. There was a simple reason, the Germany, Japan and Italy wanted their shares of colonies occupied by Britain and France. Clash of Empires does not appeal to people as it is an old and traditional paradigm as well as does not represent the individualistic and grouped identities of people as clash of civilizations but this paradigm rule the history as evolution rule biology and geology. Clash of Empires is based on clash of elite groups and ruling class of world with each other over conflicts of their expansionist interests. People are used for these conflicts under frame of race, language, religion, region and ideologies. Certainly! I didn’t underestimate and ignore freedom movements and revolutions which stand for the people but these freedom movements and revolutions are hijacked by elite and ruling classes of societies to promote expansionist agendas.
In modern Empires and Imperialism is thought of a characteristics of ancient is used against opponents. Nation states loved to be called republics but people forget that Rome was also a republic and at the same time was an empire. So being a democratic country does not qualify for not being an empire. Empires are systems of governments but attitude of governments. Any government or an organization with expansionists’ attitudes and capabilities are empires. Let’s compare the modern nation states and their imperialistic natures.
The concept of nations based on cultures, ideologies, religions and ideologies, etc are suitable theatrically but in practice it is the security of lives, property, basic liberties and future that attract people to become part of a nation. Modern nations are based on this fundamental concept and it is generally known as welfare state. The extensive migration of people from poor country that were their homelands for centuries or perhaps for thousands of years into an unknown country in search of better life is enough to prove this concept.
Based on this concept we see that world map is a nonstop victim of change. Why? The answer is in the movements of people, cultures, religions, and ideologies, economic and social developments. Mobilities were never smooth and peaceful. The violent movements of people change the map of the world by two main processes:
1- Accretion
2- Disintegration
Even a superficial knowledge of lingual, racial, religious, cultural and ideological distribution of people can help one redraw the map of all five continents. Map of the present day world defines the borders of the nation states as they are representations in the United Nations. But the represented nations are real nations instead they are modern day empires.
Nations in true sense can never be represented in the world because nations couldn’t develop systems that bring an accepted leadership or representation of them to the world. Let’s see what could be the basis of the real nations,
i- Nations based on religion
ii- Nations based on race
iii- Nations based on language
iv- Nations based on culture
v- Nations based on ideology
vi- Nations based on geography
vii- Nations based on the some or all aspects mentioned above
Modern nation states either divide a race, language, geography, religion and culture’s boundaries or accrete some of them to make a culturally, religiously, racially, lingual, geographically plural country. Look to some of the following examples:
Arab world is divided into nation states like, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates,………….Etc.
Turkish world is divided into Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan………….etc.
Persian world is divided into Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, etc.
Chinese world is divided into China, Taiwan..etc.
English World is divided into England, USA, Canada, Australia,…..etc.
Islamic world is divided into 51 Nation States.
Christian world is divided into
Nation states have accreted several races for Afghanistan accreted Pashtoons, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Tjiks and these ethnic groups are fighting each other either for dominance or survival. We can extend the example of Afghanistan to nearly all nation states of the world.
As Nation States both divide and accreted races, religions, cultures, Languages etc so it is easy to redraw the maps of them and we see such efforts. One of such efforts were made by, Ralph Peter’s essay published in US Armed Forces Journal in 2006 Under the title, “Blood Borders How a better Middle East would look”. In this essay Peter had redrawn the maps of several important nation states like Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. This essay caused anger in these countries and they responded by redrawing US maps by accrediting States of Texas, New Mexico and California to Mexico. Similarly, the State of the Oklahoma is suggested a free state of the Red Indian or Amerindians.
These redrawing of maps and counter redrawing maps show the unnatural divisions of borders among present nation states as well as imperialist nature of modern nation states.
Globalization is defined as interconnectedness of people through trade, communication, travels and cultural interaction. It is a general concept of globalization. There is a more specific concept of globalization and that is perspectives of experts about the globe. Same globe but different expertise and perspectives make different looks of it. To an eye of a geologist globe is consists of several plates and micro-plates that do not match to political boundaries which we are generally familiar. When an economist look to globe it divides and map out based on mercantile systems and economic groups based on earnings or expenditures. A historian looks to globe as changing political boundaries of rising and falling Empires. A religious man looks to globe to find boundaries of religions distributions. He divided the globe almost more or less than eight categories as Samuel Huntington did. Even a zoologist divide the globe based on migration lines of birds or distribution of some animals.
Hence globe means different things to different people. It depends on their expertise and imaginations. The lines that an expert draws on globe may be real or imaginative. Certainly! Imaginative lines drawn on globe is mostly controversial and the subject of disagreements. But people respond to imaginations of different people differently. These imaginations are foundations of Empires that always thinking of redrawing the maps.
Imaginations of elite group can influence the thoughts and actions of ruling classes and imaginations of ruling classes are the matter of concern to people around the world because their thoughts and actions shape the lives of people.
Imaginations have no boundaries. This is the foundation of clash of civilizations. Cultures, civilizations, religions and ideologies provide the frames for imaginations to be expressed. It is true that these frames can shape most imaginations but not all. So when Samuel Huntington tries to figure out what will be next in world politics after nearly half a century ideological clash between capitalist and communist camps, he finds no other frames except cultures and their assemblages in form of civilizations. Cultures, civilizations and globalizations are not new and they have existed for thousands of years so we can trace back the clash of civilizations in history and could see the nature of these clashes and their evolution.
In very near history just a little more than half a century earlier there was World War II as it is popularized. Certainly this was not an ideological war, as USSR was alliance of capitalist USA and British Empire. OK! If it was not an ideological war then certainly it must be clash of civilizations? No! It was also not clash of civilizations as Japan was allied with Germany and USA (having strong roots in Protestantism) was fighting against Germany, the birth place of Protestantism. Oh! Then it must be war between Fascism and liberals? No! It was not a war between fascist and liberals as British Empire and France and USSR had forcefully colonized nations in Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, South China Sea and East Europe so we can’t call them liberals. Despite we can call them fascists as they weren’t different from Germany, Italy and Japan. What Germany, Japan and Italy wanted? The right to colonize the other nations rule and exploit them. If it is fascism then Britain, France and USSR were older and experienced Fascists.
I accept that cultural similarities and differences are playing and will play key role in world politics in post Soviet world but the real player is imaginations. If cultures would fail to provide a frame for the imaginations of elite and ruling classes of a nation then certainly they would search for another frame to fit their imaginations and project them in world politics.
War on terror is a best example of a frame that fitted imaginations of elite and ruling classes that were crossing the cultural boundaries in post Soviet world politics.
US used against Saddam, Al Qaida and Taliban
Sri Lanka used against Tamils
India used against Pakistan
Pakistan Used against Taliban
Saudi Arabia used against Al Qaida
Russia used against Chechnya
Turkey and Iran used against Kurds
All these wars looking cultural clashes at first hand but in reality they all are clash within cultures and civilizations.
Another important aspect of clash of civilization is cultural alliances but again in post Soviet world we see it is not working.
Alliance of Iran and Venezuela
Based on political and economic cooperation
Alliance of China and Pakistan
Based on political, strategic and economic cooperation
Alliance of Pakistan and USA
Based on military and technological cooperation
Alliance of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with Israel
Based on political cooperation
Alliance of Iran and North Korea
Based on technological support
Alliance of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan with Russia
Based on economic and political cooperation
Ideological Alliances
World economic forum Vs World Social Forum
Other frames for imaginations
Islam is used as a frame
Soviet were afraid during Afghan War that USA is creating Ottoman Empire
In post Soviet Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan confederation to Emirate of Taliban
Democracy is used as a frame for imaginations.
It is thought that the violent conflicts in Islamic world is due to interference of West especially under war on terror policy but besides this it is also a fact that Islamic countries had long traditions of feudalism till now and modern world is providing room for people to actively participate in governance. As there are very less room in Islamic countries for participation of people in governance so it is causing violent conflicts. These conflicts are even intensified by not accepting the rights of minorities participate in governance and self rule and it makes the problems even more complex.
It is true that people are defining themselves increasingly in terms of religious identities, cultural identities, racial, ethnic and lingual identities but as we saw alliances of states can’t follow these lines as states are organized bodies of societies which require economy, knowledge and technologies for running, defending and expanding these societies so their alliances are based on economic, military, technological and cultural cooperation.
When we use the terms, Islamization, westernization, Asianization, Hinduization, Christianization, secularization, radicalization to express certain trends in societies we should keep in mind that societies are dynamic and these processes are the results of organized efforts. People generally follow the popular culture and in age of diversification of mass media, popular cultures are also have diversified. This diversification of popular cultures have diversified the trends in societies so we can see the several trends in the same country are going on the same time which led to the conflicts within societies. New channels have popularized politics and people are continually addicted to news around globe and hence reacting and making opinions accordingly. Objective reporting has aided to so called processes of Islamization, westernization, Asianization and so on.
Realignments of demography based on sectarian, racial, lingual and ethnic lines has happened in Balkan areas, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. But this process is related to areas in crises and it is compensated in other areas and regions by mixing of migrated people.
If we take a page from history when Spain was going through a process of forced Christianization of Muslims and Jews, the migrated Muslims and Jews repopulated in Ottoman Empire. In modern times, violent conflicts in Iraq forced people to realign on the bases of sectarian (Shia and Sunni in Baghdad) and ethnic lines (Kurds and Arabs in Kirkuk) then many Iraqis migrated to neighboring countries of Syria, Jordan and as far as western countries. Hence realignments of people is not a new process but is related to violent conflicts.
Anglo-Latin divide is historical. Historical rivalries of Carthage to Rome, Spanish Empire to British Empire have laid the foundations of Anglo-Latin divide in settled continent of America.
Persian-Turk and Persian –West divides are also a historic divide. All these historical divisions are due to clash of Empire from old age till our time and it will continue.
Though Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations is a reality and is working but is a sub-paradigm of real paradigm that is Clash of Empires. In Post Soviet world it is more real sub-paradigms just like Sino-Soviet clashes was a sub-paradigm of Cold war world. In Cold war world there were two empires, USA and USSR. The fall of Soviet Union was the fall of an Empire. Any country that has expansionist tendency is called an empire. Empires have changed their facets and identity throughout the history. Empires like Byzantine Empire had a religious identity, empires like Chinese Empires had a cultural and racial identity, Empires like USSR had an ideological identity and Empires like USA is a democratic and capitalist empire. In post soviet world, USA, European Union, China, India, Russian Federation, Japan, Pakistan, Iran and Israel have raised as empires of 21st century some representing traditional ancient empires (Iran, China, India, Japan and Russia) and some like USA and EU have risen as new empires.
Clash of civilizations is a good effort for post soviet world but it fails to explain world war I and World War II from near history while Clash of empires can explain why Germany started a nonstop war in Europe, Africa and why Japan allied with Germany. There was a simple reason, the Germany, Japan and Italy wanted their shares of colonies occupied by Britain and France. Clash of Empires does not appeal to people as it is an old and traditional paradigm as well as does not represent the individualistic and grouped identities of people as clash of civilizations but this paradigm rule the history as evolution rule biology and geology. Clash of Empires is based on clash of elite groups and ruling class of world with each other over conflicts of their expansionist interests. People are used for these conflicts under frame of race, language, religion, region and ideologies. Certainly! I didn’t underestimate and ignore freedom movements and revolutions which stand for the people but these freedom movements and revolutions are hijacked by elite and ruling classes of societies to promote expansionist agendas.
In modern Empires and Imperialism is thought of a characteristics of ancient is used against opponents. Nation states loved to be called republics but people forget that Rome was also a republic and at the same time was an empire. So being a democratic country does not qualify for not being an empire. Empires are systems of governments but attitude of governments. Any government or an organization with expansionists’ attitudes and capabilities are empires. Let’s compare the modern nation states and their imperialistic natures.
The concept of nations based on cultures, ideologies, religions and ideologies, etc are suitable theatrically but in practice it is the security of lives, property, basic liberties and future that attract people to become part of a nation. Modern nations are based on this fundamental concept and it is generally known as welfare state. The extensive migration of people from poor country that were their homelands for centuries or perhaps for thousands of years into an unknown country in search of better life is enough to prove this concept.
Based on this concept we see that world map is a nonstop victim of change. Why? The answer is in the movements of people, cultures, religions, and ideologies, economic and social developments. Mobilities were never smooth and peaceful. The violent movements of people change the map of the world by two main processes:
1- Accretion
2- Disintegration
Even a superficial knowledge of lingual, racial, religious, cultural and ideological distribution of people can help one redraw the map of all five continents. Map of the present day world defines the borders of the nation states as they are representations in the United Nations. But the represented nations are real nations instead they are modern day empires.
Nations in true sense can never be represented in the world because nations couldn’t develop systems that bring an accepted leadership or representation of them to the world. Let’s see what could be the basis of the real nations,
i- Nations based on religion
ii- Nations based on race
iii- Nations based on language
iv- Nations based on culture
v- Nations based on ideology
vi- Nations based on geography
vii- Nations based on the some or all aspects mentioned above
Modern nation states either divide a race, language, geography, religion and culture’s boundaries or accrete some of them to make a culturally, religiously, racially, lingual, geographically plural country. Look to some of the following examples:
Arab world is divided into nation states like, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates,………….Etc.
Turkish world is divided into Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan………….etc.
Persian world is divided into Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, etc.
Chinese world is divided into China, Taiwan..etc.
English World is divided into England, USA, Canada, Australia,…..etc.
Islamic world is divided into 51 Nation States.
Christian world is divided into
Nation states have accreted several races for Afghanistan accreted Pashtoons, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Tjiks and these ethnic groups are fighting each other either for dominance or survival. We can extend the example of Afghanistan to nearly all nation states of the world.
As Nation States both divide and accreted races, religions, cultures, Languages etc so it is easy to redraw the maps of them and we see such efforts. One of such efforts were made by, Ralph Peter’s essay published in US Armed Forces Journal in 2006 Under the title, “Blood Borders How a better Middle East would look”. In this essay Peter had redrawn the maps of several important nation states like Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. This essay caused anger in these countries and they responded by redrawing US maps by accrediting States of Texas, New Mexico and California to Mexico. Similarly, the State of the Oklahoma is suggested a free state of the Red Indian or Amerindians.
These redrawing of maps and counter redrawing maps show the unnatural divisions of borders among present nation states as well as imperialist nature of modern nation states.
Globalization is defined as interconnectedness of people through trade, communication, travels and cultural interaction. It is a general concept of globalization. There is a more specific concept of globalization and that is perspectives of experts about the globe. Same globe but different expertise and perspectives make different looks of it. To an eye of a geologist globe is consists of several plates and micro-plates that do not match to political boundaries which we are generally familiar. When an economist look to globe it divides and map out based on mercantile systems and economic groups based on earnings or expenditures. A historian looks to globe as changing political boundaries of rising and falling Empires. A religious man looks to globe to find boundaries of religions distributions. He divided the globe almost more or less than eight categories as Samuel Huntington did. Even a zoologist divide the globe based on migration lines of birds or distribution of some animals.
Hence globe means different things to different people. It depends on their expertise and imaginations. The lines that an expert draws on globe may be real or imaginative. Certainly! Imaginative lines drawn on globe is mostly controversial and the subject of disagreements. But people respond to imaginations of different people differently. These imaginations are foundations of Empires that always thinking of redrawing the maps.
Imaginations of elite group can influence the thoughts and actions of ruling classes and imaginations of ruling classes are the matter of concern to people around the world because their thoughts and actions shape the lives of people.
Imaginations have no boundaries. This is the foundation of clash of civilizations. Cultures, civilizations, religions and ideologies provide the frames for imaginations to be expressed. It is true that these frames can shape most imaginations but not all. So when Samuel Huntington tries to figure out what will be next in world politics after nearly half a century ideological clash between capitalist and communist camps, he finds no other frames except cultures and their assemblages in form of civilizations. Cultures, civilizations and globalizations are not new and they have existed for thousands of years so we can trace back the clash of civilizations in history and could see the nature of these clashes and their evolution.
In very near history just a little more than half a century earlier there was World War II as it is popularized. Certainly this was not an ideological war, as USSR was alliance of capitalist USA and British Empire. OK! If it was not an ideological war then certainly it must be clash of civilizations? No! It was also not clash of civilizations as Japan was allied with Germany and USA (having strong roots in Protestantism) was fighting against Germany, the birth place of Protestantism. Oh! Then it must be war between Fascism and liberals? No! It was not a war between fascist and liberals as British Empire and France and USSR had forcefully colonized nations in Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, South China Sea and East Europe so we can’t call them liberals. Despite we can call them fascists as they weren’t different from Germany, Italy and Japan. What Germany, Japan and Italy wanted? The right to colonize the other nations rule and exploit them. If it is fascism then Britain, France and USSR were older and experienced Fascists.
I accept that cultural similarities and differences are playing and will play key role in world politics in post Soviet world but the real player is imaginations. If cultures would fail to provide a frame for the imaginations of elite and ruling classes of a nation then certainly they would search for another frame to fit their imaginations and project them in world politics.
War on terror is a best example of a frame that fitted imaginations of elite and ruling classes that were crossing the cultural boundaries in post Soviet world politics.
US used against Saddam, Al Qaida and Taliban
Sri Lanka used against Tamils
India used against Pakistan
Pakistan Used against Taliban
Saudi Arabia used against Al Qaida
Russia used against Chechnya
Turkey and Iran used against Kurds
All these wars looking cultural clashes at first hand but in reality they all are clash within cultures and civilizations.
Another important aspect of clash of civilization is cultural alliances but again in post Soviet world we see it is not working.
Alliance of Iran and Venezuela
Based on political and economic cooperation
Alliance of China and Pakistan
Based on political, strategic and economic cooperation
Alliance of Pakistan and USA
Based on military and technological cooperation
Alliance of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with Israel
Based on political cooperation
Alliance of Iran and North Korea
Based on technological support
Alliance of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan with Russia
Based on economic and political cooperation
Ideological Alliances
World economic forum Vs World Social Forum
Other frames for imaginations
Islam is used as a frame
Soviet were afraid during Afghan War that USA is creating Ottoman Empire
In post Soviet Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan confederation to Emirate of Taliban
Democracy is used as a frame for imaginations.
It is thought that the violent conflicts in Islamic world is due to interference of West especially under war on terror policy but besides this it is also a fact that Islamic countries had long traditions of feudalism till now and modern world is providing room for people to actively participate in governance. As there are very less room in Islamic countries for participation of people in governance so it is causing violent conflicts. These conflicts are even intensified by not accepting the rights of minorities participate in governance and self rule and it makes the problems even more complex.
It is true that people are defining themselves increasingly in terms of religious identities, cultural identities, racial, ethnic and lingual identities but as we saw alliances of states can’t follow these lines as states are organized bodies of societies which require economy, knowledge and technologies for running, defending and expanding these societies so their alliances are based on economic, military, technological and cultural cooperation.
When we use the terms, Islamization, westernization, Asianization, Hinduization, Christianization, secularization, radicalization to express certain trends in societies we should keep in mind that societies are dynamic and these processes are the results of organized efforts. People generally follow the popular culture and in age of diversification of mass media, popular cultures are also have diversified. This diversification of popular cultures have diversified the trends in societies so we can see the several trends in the same country are going on the same time which led to the conflicts within societies. New channels have popularized politics and people are continually addicted to news around globe and hence reacting and making opinions accordingly. Objective reporting has aided to so called processes of Islamization, westernization, Asianization and so on.
Realignments of demography based on sectarian, racial, lingual and ethnic lines has happened in Balkan areas, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. But this process is related to areas in crises and it is compensated in other areas and regions by mixing of migrated people.
If we take a page from history when Spain was going through a process of forced Christianization of Muslims and Jews, the migrated Muslims and Jews repopulated in Ottoman Empire. In modern times, violent conflicts in Iraq forced people to realign on the bases of sectarian (Shia and Sunni in Baghdad) and ethnic lines (Kurds and Arabs in Kirkuk) then many Iraqis migrated to neighboring countries of Syria, Jordan and as far as western countries. Hence realignments of people is not a new process but is related to violent conflicts.
Anglo-Latin divide is historical. Historical rivalries of Carthage to Rome, Spanish Empire to British Empire have laid the foundations of Anglo-Latin divide in settled continent of America.
Persian-Turk and Persian –West divides are also a historic divide. All these historical divisions are due to clash of Empire from old age till our time and it will continue.
Middle point technique for Major and minor struggles
Introduction:
Progression is inevitable and evolution is ultimate. The progression may be positive or negative. It is the evolution that decides which progressions are positive and should evolve to survival and which progression had to be steadily erased. These are commonly expressed as “Natural selection” or “survival of fittest”. What all organisms or bodies of organisms do is struggle for survival.
How an organism struggle: OR in other words what are the tools of struggle OR mechanism of struggle?
The tools or mechanism of struggle is known as adaptations.
If we apply the above mentioned definitions to human society we come to following conclusions:
1- In struggle for survival the major importance for an individual human being is his/her survival OR in other words the greater part in struggle is served in the struggle for the survival of the individual human being. We can call it as Major Struggle. Major struggle is also endorsed by human society. Human societies have a series of institutions to help an individual in his major struggle for survival:
(i) The most important and natural institution is, family. When a baby can’t help himself survive, it is family which helps him learn the basic tool or adaptations for survival.
(ii) Culture
(iii) Religion
(iv) Civil laws
(v) Schools, colleges, universities, religious institutions like mosques, churches, temples, etc
These all institutions are to help individuals become able successful in their struggle for survival. It takes long, expensive and painstaking processes that an individual human being become able to sustain their survival. Hence the major part of struggle of an individual human being is involved in major struggle.
2- The second part of survival is involved in survival of social institutions which help individuals in their survival. An individual hardly survive without society so it is natural that all individuals contribute their parts for survival of social institutions which are key to individuals’ survival. As these contributions are minor so we can call them as Minor Struggle.
Major Struggle:
As now it is resolved that the largest part of the struggle is involved in individuals struggle for survival and there are social institutions which help individuals become able to sustain in their major struggle it is time to work for improvement of the techniques for major struggle. Following is the general approach of societies.
1- As system an individual is composed of different systems (digestive system, nervous system, respiratory system, and excretory system), every system composed of organs, organs composed of tissues and tissues composed of specialized cell, so an individual in himself is an organization.
2- As an individual is an organization so maintaining this organization should be like a large organization. It should have monetary system based on values and objectives.
3- Every society has laws, cultures and religions which define which acts are beneficial for this organization and are appreciated and which acts are dangerous for this organization and are depreciated.
4- Cultures and religions have rituals and practices that evolve men in their major struggles.
5- The appreciated values by laws, religions and cultures should be examined by scientific methods to evaluate the ways they are presented and are prescribed to improve them to best of the human knowledge.
The values are there and similarly the rituals and practices are there to help men evolve in their major struggles but these values and rituals have lost their effectiveness due to unfamiliarity of individuals with their objectives and underlying facts. I have my own approach in my major struggle writing here by keeping in mind that it may help someone else in his major struggle as well getting a suggestion for better techniques. I call my technique as a middle point technique and is as follows:
1- The monitoring system is an essential part of an organization to maintain its achievements well as functionality. The best practice that I am practicing since my school times is self accountability. My teachers taught me that every night that we prepare ourselves to sleep it is the best time for a self accountability because you have finished a whole day struggle and you are preparing for another day of struggle. One has to recall the memories of whole day’s activities and thoughts and evaluates them against the values. Which of his actions were in accordance to values and become part of his achievements and improvements and which of his actions and thoughts were against the values and degraded him. Now it is time to plan for the tomorrow. One has to divide the whole time to best use his time and plan what acts he has to do to improve him. It is very essential for self accountability that one becomes of habitual of present himself to himself before sleep for accountability. Self accountability is a strong tool for choosing best adaptations in major struggle for survival.
2- In worships one speaks to one he believes is his creator. The basic purpose is accountability and help. He knows that the creator have set rules and values and speaking to him is one kind of accepting of the misacts and promises of future well acts, so the worships is another kind of self accountability which makes one able to best adaptations in his major struggle for survival.
3- As every night is a point between two days (A day passed for accountability and a day coming for planning) similarly ones position in society is a point between people with lesser position than him and people with higher position than him. Here is the test of values and achievements. Here one has to help the people with lesser positions and compete with those who are with higher position. The method is simple. Teach the people with lower positions and learn from those with higher position. Both teaching and learning is a noble act and approach both in helping himself and helping others. When we talk of teaching and learning we never mean of formal teaching and learning methods. Creating opportunities and behaving with good manners with lower positions are ways of teaching. Studying methods and devising methods for competing for higher positions are methods of learning.
Minor Struggle:
Minor struggle is to establish and help the institutions in society, in its struggle for survival. Survival is not only means existence in societal terms but standard livings and a collective struggle for certain objectives. As we have already discussed there are institutions in society that bind society towards standards and collective objectives. The most fundamental of these institutions is family. Everyone is part one or several institutions and these institutions decide the fates of individuals. As everyone is part of an institution or several institutions so everyone has a middle position. He can teach and learn to make the institutions strong, functional and more reliable and hence help them in their struggle for survival.
Minor struggle can lead to great achievements if the individuals are trained and evolved through major struggles and major struggles are followed objectively. The greatest asset of minor struggle is individuals who evolve themselves through major struggles. Everyone can and should contribute to minor struggle but how to lead these contributions must be set by professionals because the radical contributions may lead to chaos.
Progression is inevitable and evolution is ultimate. The progression may be positive or negative. It is the evolution that decides which progressions are positive and should evolve to survival and which progression had to be steadily erased. These are commonly expressed as “Natural selection” or “survival of fittest”. What all organisms or bodies of organisms do is struggle for survival.
How an organism struggle: OR in other words what are the tools of struggle OR mechanism of struggle?
The tools or mechanism of struggle is known as adaptations.
If we apply the above mentioned definitions to human society we come to following conclusions:
1- In struggle for survival the major importance for an individual human being is his/her survival OR in other words the greater part in struggle is served in the struggle for the survival of the individual human being. We can call it as Major Struggle. Major struggle is also endorsed by human society. Human societies have a series of institutions to help an individual in his major struggle for survival:
(i) The most important and natural institution is, family. When a baby can’t help himself survive, it is family which helps him learn the basic tool or adaptations for survival.
(ii) Culture
(iii) Religion
(iv) Civil laws
(v) Schools, colleges, universities, religious institutions like mosques, churches, temples, etc
These all institutions are to help individuals become able successful in their struggle for survival. It takes long, expensive and painstaking processes that an individual human being become able to sustain their survival. Hence the major part of struggle of an individual human being is involved in major struggle.
2- The second part of survival is involved in survival of social institutions which help individuals in their survival. An individual hardly survive without society so it is natural that all individuals contribute their parts for survival of social institutions which are key to individuals’ survival. As these contributions are minor so we can call them as Minor Struggle.
Major Struggle:
As now it is resolved that the largest part of the struggle is involved in individuals struggle for survival and there are social institutions which help individuals become able to sustain in their major struggle it is time to work for improvement of the techniques for major struggle. Following is the general approach of societies.
1- As system an individual is composed of different systems (digestive system, nervous system, respiratory system, and excretory system), every system composed of organs, organs composed of tissues and tissues composed of specialized cell, so an individual in himself is an organization.
2- As an individual is an organization so maintaining this organization should be like a large organization. It should have monetary system based on values and objectives.
3- Every society has laws, cultures and religions which define which acts are beneficial for this organization and are appreciated and which acts are dangerous for this organization and are depreciated.
4- Cultures and religions have rituals and practices that evolve men in their major struggles.
5- The appreciated values by laws, religions and cultures should be examined by scientific methods to evaluate the ways they are presented and are prescribed to improve them to best of the human knowledge.
The values are there and similarly the rituals and practices are there to help men evolve in their major struggles but these values and rituals have lost their effectiveness due to unfamiliarity of individuals with their objectives and underlying facts. I have my own approach in my major struggle writing here by keeping in mind that it may help someone else in his major struggle as well getting a suggestion for better techniques. I call my technique as a middle point technique and is as follows:
1- The monitoring system is an essential part of an organization to maintain its achievements well as functionality. The best practice that I am practicing since my school times is self accountability. My teachers taught me that every night that we prepare ourselves to sleep it is the best time for a self accountability because you have finished a whole day struggle and you are preparing for another day of struggle. One has to recall the memories of whole day’s activities and thoughts and evaluates them against the values. Which of his actions were in accordance to values and become part of his achievements and improvements and which of his actions and thoughts were against the values and degraded him. Now it is time to plan for the tomorrow. One has to divide the whole time to best use his time and plan what acts he has to do to improve him. It is very essential for self accountability that one becomes of habitual of present himself to himself before sleep for accountability. Self accountability is a strong tool for choosing best adaptations in major struggle for survival.
2- In worships one speaks to one he believes is his creator. The basic purpose is accountability and help. He knows that the creator have set rules and values and speaking to him is one kind of accepting of the misacts and promises of future well acts, so the worships is another kind of self accountability which makes one able to best adaptations in his major struggle for survival.
3- As every night is a point between two days (A day passed for accountability and a day coming for planning) similarly ones position in society is a point between people with lesser position than him and people with higher position than him. Here is the test of values and achievements. Here one has to help the people with lesser positions and compete with those who are with higher position. The method is simple. Teach the people with lower positions and learn from those with higher position. Both teaching and learning is a noble act and approach both in helping himself and helping others. When we talk of teaching and learning we never mean of formal teaching and learning methods. Creating opportunities and behaving with good manners with lower positions are ways of teaching. Studying methods and devising methods for competing for higher positions are methods of learning.
Minor Struggle:
Minor struggle is to establish and help the institutions in society, in its struggle for survival. Survival is not only means existence in societal terms but standard livings and a collective struggle for certain objectives. As we have already discussed there are institutions in society that bind society towards standards and collective objectives. The most fundamental of these institutions is family. Everyone is part one or several institutions and these institutions decide the fates of individuals. As everyone is part of an institution or several institutions so everyone has a middle position. He can teach and learn to make the institutions strong, functional and more reliable and hence help them in their struggle for survival.
Minor struggle can lead to great achievements if the individuals are trained and evolved through major struggles and major struggles are followed objectively. The greatest asset of minor struggle is individuals who evolve themselves through major struggles. Everyone can and should contribute to minor struggle but how to lead these contributions must be set by professionals because the radical contributions may lead to chaos.
Impact of Forestation on Climate, Ecology and Sedimentation in Devonian Period
Why we should be interested in studying or modeling Devonian climate? What is the relevance of Devonian Climate to our times?
Two major problems that humankind have in our time is the global warming and role of men in changing the chemistry of atmosphere. In Devonian times it were trees (not human) that changed the chemistry of atmosphere, water bodies and land.
The relevance between these two phenomenons come from feedback mechanisms due to changing chemistry. In Devonian Period when evolution of trees changed the chemistry of atmosphere it caused cooling and glaciation. Cooling and glaciation is not much important to us but what is important is warming after glaciation because glaciation as a result of tree evolution buried a large amount of organic material under ice sheets. Following warming released these organic carbon.
Now we are living in interglacial period and for sure ice sheets in Arctic and Antartic areas have covered a large amount of organic carbon. So the rapid change of atmosphere by human is melting these ice sheets and as a result exposing these organic carbon (esp, methane gas trapped frozen lakes is quick to emit out). These emissions is speeding the rate of warming.
Certainly changed chemistry of atmosphere and oceans hadn't only caused cooling in Devonian Period but also extinction. The warming is not a single process but it initiate a series of feedback mechanisms that is affecting climate, biosphere, land and ocean and these are what we depend on.............
Following is the cartoonic presentation of the impact of forestation on Devonian marine-terrestrial feedback systems,
Forests increased O2 level in atmosphere and meanwhile removed CO2 from atmosphere which is a greenhouse gas. The removal of greenhouse gas resulted in glaciation at the end of Devonian Period.
Ecology:
Middle Devonian (Givetian) forests of Appalachian Basin were dominately on flood plains. Trees have adapted diverse environments from deltaic-coastal plain swamps and proximal fluvial environments to distal well-drained upland fllood plains (Mintz et al, 2010).
It is suggested that forests have evolved as response to increased level of O2 in atmosphere as well as a response to overgrazing. The lignification (woody part of tree) make trees able to grow taller as well as to penetrate their roots deeper. This made trees able to grow in higher and drier places especially after adapting seed bearing which made trees free from dependance on water for their reproduction. Certainly, the higher level of oxygen and evolution of grazers and their adaptation to land were facilitated with vegatations prior to tree forest during Silurian Period and earlier Devonian Period. The forests may have facilated fires which made able to non-woody plants to regrow and hence started what is known as succession (cycle of non-woody plants and then woody plants or gradual replacements of fast growing plants by slow growing trees ).
Though there is debate on what caused the late Devonian extinction, however one most likely possibility of extinction is global ocean anoxia. Evolution of Forests of resulted in sinking of a lot of large amount of CO2 as well as the symbiont relationships of trees with nitrogen fixing bacteria resulted in fixation of N2 into organic material. When the decomposed organic material reached dumped in large amounts in ocean, it caused algal bloom which drawn out dissolved oxygen from oceans. However, this couldn't be able to cause mass extinction unless the global cycle of oceans, stopped which also stop mixing of water which the main way of dissolving oxygen into water.
Two main factors that control sea level rise is plate tectonics and Climate change. As previously mentioned that evolutioin of forest declined the CO2 which is a greenhouse gas which resulted in glaciation. Glaciation cause drop in sea level which is known as regression. Regression facilate erosion and influx of terrigenous material. On the other hand volcanoes continue to add CO2 into atmosphere which result into global warming and sea level rise which results in flooding surfaces and mud size sediment deposition. The sediments that is bounded between two unconformities as a result of sea regression called sequence and the study of sequences are called sequence stratigraphy. Sequences are the main evidence of sea levels in earth history.
It is a common observation that the lands with less vegetative cover have higher rate of erosion. The dusts in deserts and heavy floody during rainy seasons are common observation in these areas. The evolution of plants and forests have not only changed the geomorphology but also flow of water and deposition of sediment. One of the main shifts that is noted as shifts of rivers from braided rivers to meandering rivers. Prior to vegetations mean befor middle Silurian Period, braided rivers were dominant but after the evolution of forest the meadering rivers have dominated.
The glaciation resulted because of forestation during Devonian might have buried organic matter which after glaciation, combined with volcanoes have pored large amounts of CO2 in atmosphere to which trees have responded and it is why have our largest cool deposits in next period of Carboniferous.
Cooling due to decline of atmpospheric CO2 must have increased pedogenesis but increase of temperature in post glaciation hothouse reduce pedogenetic processes.
Complications:
1. Warming-Cooling due to plate tectonics:
Volcanisms are one of the main sources of CO2 in atmosphere. Subduction of oceanic plate under continental plate create Magmatic arcs (Oceanic arcs) as a result of partial melting of oceanic crust (due to friction, water and increasing heat). This partially molten magma intrude the continents and explode as volcanoes. During Devonian Period the micro-continent (Avalonia) drifted towards Northern American continents and caused series of volcanisms. In Late Devonian Period the Avalonia micro-continent colloided with North American continents and resulted in Arcadian Orogeny. Uplift of lands due to volcanism expose fresh rocks for weathering and weathering consume atmospheric CO2 which result in cooling. As Arcadian orogeny is occuring during Late Devonian (360 Ma) so there is two possibilities,
i) Increased rock weathering intensified the on going cooling because of draw down of CO2 by evolution of trees.
ii) The Late Devonian cooling (glaciation) is due to rock weathering like the previous glaciations. Orogeny not only expose new rocks for weathering but also intensifies raining in the area (One good example is intensification of Himalyan orogeny in Late Miocene (10 Million Years ago as evidenced from thick deposits of Siwaliks stretched from Pakistan to India and Nepal ) and intensification of Monsoon system. Both uplift and increase in raining increase erosion.
Weathering of rocks (silicate rocks) which draw down the atmospheric CO2 can be generalized in following equations,
CaSiO3 + 2 CO2 + 3H2O → Ca+2 + H4SiO4 + 2 HCO-3 OR (3H2O + 2CO2 → 2 HCO-3 +4H+)
Ca+2 + H4SiO4 + 2 HCO-3 → CaCO3 +SiO2 + 3H2O + CO2
If you notice, it is the Ca ion (and also Mg ion) from weathering of silicate rocks that bind with atmospheric CO2 that draw down atmospheric CO2 but it is not only Silicate rocks that weathers but Carbonate rocks also weathers which increase the CO2 levels. It is reported that Silicate weathering is 3-10% higher in Himalayan-Tibetan region that of continental areas. It is a significant amount. Furthermore riverine analysis for silicate weathering flux from Tibet and Himalayan region is equal to 16 to 33% of global silicate weathering from only 4.5% land area. This amount of weathering continental crust may cool down temperature from 1 to 6 degrees ( Bickle et al, 2002)
Unlike Himalayan-Tibetan orogeny which is the result of collision of Indian subcontinent and Eurasian Continent, the Arcadian collision was a result of collision of micro-continent with North American continent. This micro-continent was a very small (approximately the size of Japan) as compared to subcontinent India so Arcadian orogeny was much smaller as to Himalayan and we can't expect the same rate of weathering and CO2 draw down by this orogeny but we can't ignore its role.
The complication is in determining the share of orogeny and trees in atmospheric CO2 draw down..........
2. Orbital forcing of climate:
Due to gravitional forces in Solar system, the earth axis and orbit changes in cyclic manner and it directly affects the amount of insulation that different geographical regions of earth get. It is very important whether the northern hemisphere get more insulation or Southern Hemisphere. As northern hemisphere has more land mass than southern hemisphere so less insulation in Northern Hemisphere may initiate glaciation and more insulation may cause global warming. The orbital forcing of climate is basically of three forms,
i. Axial Precession (Or wobbling of earth)
ii. Precession of equinoxes (Or the shifting of earth's orbital revolution around the sun)
iii. Accentricity (The shape of orbit around sun)
The orbital forcing of climate is usually known as Milankovitch theory of climate in honor of Serbian Scientist, Milutun Milancovitch.
Though Milancovitch cycles have evidential support from ice cores of Greenland, however it is difficult to infer them from Devonian deposits................?
References:
- Bickle, M. J., 2002, "Impact of the Himalayan Orogeny on Global Climate", American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #GC61A-04
Time Table of Devonian Period
- Berner, R. A., Lasaga, A. C. & Garrels R. M. (1983) Am. J. Sci. 283, 641-683.
Devonian Period
Devonian Period (416 -359 Ma = 57 Ma)
Early Devonian Epoch (416 – 398 Ma )
Lochkovian Age (416-411 Ma = 5 Ma)
Pragian Age (411 -407 Ma = 4 Ma)
Emsian Age (407 – 398 Ma = 9 Ma)
Middle Devonian Epoch
( 398 – 385 Ma )
Eifelian Age (398 -392 Ma = 6 Ma)
Givetian Age (407 – 398 Ma = 7 Ma )
Late Devonian Epoch (385 – 359 Ma )
Frasnian Age (385 – 375 Ma = 10 Ma)
Famennian Age (375 – 359 Ma = 16 Ma)
External Links to Devonian:
- Black Shale,
http://www.shale-mudstone-research-schieber.indiana.edu/devonian-black-shales.htm
Two major problems that humankind have in our time is the global warming and role of men in changing the chemistry of atmosphere. In Devonian times it were trees (not human) that changed the chemistry of atmosphere, water bodies and land.
The relevance between these two phenomenons come from feedback mechanisms due to changing chemistry. In Devonian Period when evolution of trees changed the chemistry of atmosphere it caused cooling and glaciation. Cooling and glaciation is not much important to us but what is important is warming after glaciation because glaciation as a result of tree evolution buried a large amount of organic material under ice sheets. Following warming released these organic carbon.
Now we are living in interglacial period and for sure ice sheets in Arctic and Antartic areas have covered a large amount of organic carbon. So the rapid change of atmosphere by human is melting these ice sheets and as a result exposing these organic carbon (esp, methane gas trapped frozen lakes is quick to emit out). These emissions is speeding the rate of warming.
Certainly changed chemistry of atmosphere and oceans hadn't only caused cooling in Devonian Period but also extinction. The warming is not a single process but it initiate a series of feedback mechanisms that is affecting climate, biosphere, land and ocean and these are what we depend on.............
Following is the cartoonic presentation of the impact of forestation on Devonian marine-terrestrial feedback systems,
Forests increased O2 level in atmosphere and meanwhile removed CO2 from atmosphere which is a greenhouse gas. The removal of greenhouse gas resulted in glaciation at the end of Devonian Period.
Ecology:
Middle Devonian (Givetian) forests of Appalachian Basin were dominately on flood plains. Trees have adapted diverse environments from deltaic-coastal plain swamps and proximal fluvial environments to distal well-drained upland fllood plains (Mintz et al, 2010).
It is suggested that forests have evolved as response to increased level of O2 in atmosphere as well as a response to overgrazing. The lignification (woody part of tree) make trees able to grow taller as well as to penetrate their roots deeper. This made trees able to grow in higher and drier places especially after adapting seed bearing which made trees free from dependance on water for their reproduction. Certainly, the higher level of oxygen and evolution of grazers and their adaptation to land were facilitated with vegatations prior to tree forest during Silurian Period and earlier Devonian Period. The forests may have facilated fires which made able to non-woody plants to regrow and hence started what is known as succession (cycle of non-woody plants and then woody plants or gradual replacements of fast growing plants by slow growing trees ).
Though there is debate on what caused the late Devonian extinction, however one most likely possibility of extinction is global ocean anoxia. Evolution of Forests of resulted in sinking of a lot of large amount of CO2 as well as the symbiont relationships of trees with nitrogen fixing bacteria resulted in fixation of N2 into organic material. When the decomposed organic material reached dumped in large amounts in ocean, it caused algal bloom which drawn out dissolved oxygen from oceans. However, this couldn't be able to cause mass extinction unless the global cycle of oceans, stopped which also stop mixing of water which the main way of dissolving oxygen into water.
Two main factors that control sea level rise is plate tectonics and Climate change. As previously mentioned that evolutioin of forest declined the CO2 which is a greenhouse gas which resulted in glaciation. Glaciation cause drop in sea level which is known as regression. Regression facilate erosion and influx of terrigenous material. On the other hand volcanoes continue to add CO2 into atmosphere which result into global warming and sea level rise which results in flooding surfaces and mud size sediment deposition. The sediments that is bounded between two unconformities as a result of sea regression called sequence and the study of sequences are called sequence stratigraphy. Sequences are the main evidence of sea levels in earth history.
It is a common observation that the lands with less vegetative cover have higher rate of erosion. The dusts in deserts and heavy floody during rainy seasons are common observation in these areas. The evolution of plants and forests have not only changed the geomorphology but also flow of water and deposition of sediment. One of the main shifts that is noted as shifts of rivers from braided rivers to meandering rivers. Prior to vegetations mean befor middle Silurian Period, braided rivers were dominant but after the evolution of forest the meadering rivers have dominated.
The glaciation resulted because of forestation during Devonian might have buried organic matter which after glaciation, combined with volcanoes have pored large amounts of CO2 in atmosphere to which trees have responded and it is why have our largest cool deposits in next period of Carboniferous.
Complications:
1. Warming-Cooling due to plate tectonics:
Volcanisms are one of the main sources of CO2 in atmosphere. Subduction of oceanic plate under continental plate create Magmatic arcs (Oceanic arcs) as a result of partial melting of oceanic crust (due to friction, water and increasing heat). This partially molten magma intrude the continents and explode as volcanoes. During Devonian Period the micro-continent (Avalonia) drifted towards Northern American continents and caused series of volcanisms. In Late Devonian Period the Avalonia micro-continent colloided with North American continents and resulted in Arcadian Orogeny. Uplift of lands due to volcanism expose fresh rocks for weathering and weathering consume atmospheric CO2 which result in cooling. As Arcadian orogeny is occuring during Late Devonian (360 Ma) so there is two possibilities,
i) Increased rock weathering intensified the on going cooling because of draw down of CO2 by evolution of trees.
ii) The Late Devonian cooling (glaciation) is due to rock weathering like the previous glaciations. Orogeny not only expose new rocks for weathering but also intensifies raining in the area (One good example is intensification of Himalyan orogeny in Late Miocene (10 Million Years ago as evidenced from thick deposits of Siwaliks stretched from Pakistan to India and Nepal ) and intensification of Monsoon system. Both uplift and increase in raining increase erosion.
CaSiO3 + 2 CO2 + 3H2O → Ca+2 + H4SiO4 + 2 HCO-3 OR (3H2O + 2CO2 → 2 HCO-3 +4H+)
Ca+2 + H4SiO4 + 2 HCO-3 → CaCO3 +SiO2 + 3H2O + CO2
If you notice, it is the Ca ion (and also Mg ion) from weathering of silicate rocks that bind with atmospheric CO2 that draw down atmospheric CO2 but it is not only Silicate rocks that weathers but Carbonate rocks also weathers which increase the CO2 levels. It is reported that Silicate weathering is 3-10% higher in Himalayan-Tibetan region that of continental areas. It is a significant amount. Furthermore riverine analysis for silicate weathering flux from Tibet and Himalayan region is equal to 16 to 33% of global silicate weathering from only 4.5% land area. This amount of weathering continental crust may cool down temperature from 1 to 6 degrees ( Bickle et al, 2002)
Unlike Himalayan-Tibetan orogeny which is the result of collision of Indian subcontinent and Eurasian Continent, the Arcadian collision was a result of collision of micro-continent with North American continent. This micro-continent was a very small (approximately the size of Japan) as compared to subcontinent India so Arcadian orogeny was much smaller as to Himalayan and we can't expect the same rate of weathering and CO2 draw down by this orogeny but we can't ignore its role.
The complication is in determining the share of orogeny and trees in atmospheric CO2 draw down..........
2. Orbital forcing of climate:
Due to gravitional forces in Solar system, the earth axis and orbit changes in cyclic manner and it directly affects the amount of insulation that different geographical regions of earth get. It is very important whether the northern hemisphere get more insulation or Southern Hemisphere. As northern hemisphere has more land mass than southern hemisphere so less insulation in Northern Hemisphere may initiate glaciation and more insulation may cause global warming. The orbital forcing of climate is basically of three forms,
i. Axial Precession (Or wobbling of earth)
ii. Precession of equinoxes (Or the shifting of earth's orbital revolution around the sun)
iii. Accentricity (The shape of orbit around sun)
The orbital forcing of climate is usually known as Milankovitch theory of climate in honor of Serbian Scientist, Milutun Milancovitch.
Though Milancovitch cycles have evidential support from ice cores of Greenland, however it is difficult to infer them from Devonian deposits................?
References:
- Bickle, M. J., 2002, "Impact of the Himalayan Orogeny on Global Climate", American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #GC61A-04
Time Table of Devonian Period
- Berner, R. A., Lasaga, A. C. & Garrels R. M. (1983) Am. J. Sci. 283, 641-683.
Devonian Period
Devonian Period (416 -359 Ma = 57 Ma)
Early Devonian Epoch (416 – 398 Ma )
Lochkovian Age (416-411 Ma = 5 Ma)
Pragian Age (411 -407 Ma = 4 Ma)
Emsian Age (407 – 398 Ma = 9 Ma)
Middle Devonian Epoch
( 398 – 385 Ma )
Eifelian Age (398 -392 Ma = 6 Ma)
Givetian Age (407 – 398 Ma = 7 Ma )
Late Devonian Epoch (385 – 359 Ma )
Frasnian Age (385 – 375 Ma = 10 Ma)
Famennian Age (375 – 359 Ma = 16 Ma)
External Links to Devonian:
- Black Shale,
http://www.shale-mudstone-research-schieber.indiana.edu/devonian-black-shales.htm
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