INTERNATIONAL TELETIMES The Environment & Human Rights ¥ Vol. 2 No. 9 November 1993 ¥ ------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------ -- Features -- Air in Mexico City Just Do It! Cognitive Science and Animal Rights -- Departments -- The Keepers of Light Deja Vu The Wine Enthusiast ------------------------------------------------------------ EDITORÕS NOTE ------------------------------------------------------------ Dear readers, For over a year now, Teletimes has been a zero-profit magazine. Many people have donated their time and creativity into making this publication work. Several of our writers (and Art Directors) are of professional caliber and deserve to be rewarded for their work and to be perfectly honest, I have put in countless hours into Teletimes myself at the expense of my school work.We hope to start changing this soon. 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Italicized responses to the letters have gotta go - virtually (pun intended) unreadable. Please try something else to differentiate. 2. I was not particularly interested in the contents of this issue (October '93), but it seems to be well written and I will certainly download future issues. 3. Graphics appear a little dense in black & white w/ no greyscale. But that's a minority view (grin) these days. 4. Perhaps you could add the ability in the Mac version to print specific sections of IT right from the screen. Doing a text output followed by a cut & print is kludgy, but the only alternative is (or seems to be) a print of the whole 'zine. 5. Suggestion for a Department: "Found on the Net." Look for things that are international in flavor and of some degree of off-beat interest. For example, if you email Ian Feldman (ianf@random.se) he might send you a copy of his listing of "Bike Tales." This consists of a title, author, publisher & pricing for books about bike trips, many of which occur outside North America. You could ask your readers to submit such items to your attention - I'll bet some interesting stuff will come up. 6. For the heck of it, you might publish a bilingual edition or two. But keep one of the languages English, for us monolingual types. 7. Make some money - sell some of your space to Feder's and other similar publishers to advertise their travel wares. Look over the New Yorker ads and pick a couple of the yuppie advertisers whose wares are related to travel & sell them some space, too. Insist on quality in the form of entertaining and informative ads. - Harmon Dow, Chicago, USA Thanks for your free electronic magazine. Hope you'll send me more information on electronic publications available via e mail. - Awaji Yoshimasa, Kisarazu, Japan A friend recently gave me a copy of the August issue of Teletimes. I must commend you on all your efforts. 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IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO ALREADY, PLEASE READ THE EDITOR'S NOTE FOR SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT. -- A Wired Correction -- While the Wired article (reprinted from v1n2) in the latest Teletimes was interesting, it's my duty as a citizen of the West Coast to point out one problem with Stuart Hertzog's article: Wired isn't published out of New York; though it's physically printed in Boston, its editorial offices are in San Francisco. This is, on all accounts, a West Coast mag if there ever was one. On a side note, Wired has gone from a bi-monthly to monthly with the publication of its November issue. - Jason Snell, Berkeley, USA ------------------------------------------------------------ STAFF & INFO ------------------------------------------------------------ Editor-in-Chief: Ian Wojtowicz Art Director: Anand Mani Correspondents: Biko Agozino, Edinburgh, Scotland Prasad & Surekha Akella, Japan Prasad Dharmasena, Silver Spring, USA Paul Gribble, Montreal, Canada Dirk Grutzmacher, Edinburgh, UK Mike Matsunaga, Skokie, USA Satya Prabhakar, Minneapolis, USA Motamarri Saradhi, Singapore Dr. Michael Schreiber, Vienna, Austria Dr. Euan Taylor, Winnipeg, Canada Seth Theriault, Lexington, USA Columnists: Kent Barrett, Keepers of the Light Tom Davis, The Wine Enthusiast David Lewis, Cuisine Andreas Seppelt, Latin American Correspondant Shareware policy: If you enjoy reading Teletimes on a constant basis, and believe that it is worth paying for, we ask that you send us between $5 and $10 in US or Canadian funds. This money will be used to further develop Teletimes. Checks should be made out to "Global Village Communications Society". Submission policy: Teletimes examines broad topics of interest and concern on a global scale. The magazine strives to showcase the unique differences and similarities in opinions and ideas which are apparent in separate regions of the world. Readers are encouraged to submit informative and interesting articles, using the monthly topic as a guideline if they wish. All articles should be submitted along with a 50 word biography. Everyone submitting must include their real name and address (also real, please). A Teletimes Writer's Guide and a Teletimes Photographer & Illustrator's Guide are available upon request. Upcoming themes: December - What's News With You? Deadline for articles: November 20th, 1993 E-mail: ianw@.wimsey.com Snail mail: International Teletimes 3938 West 30th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. 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Submitting material is a sign that the author agrees to all the above terms. ------------------------------------------------------------ FEATURES ------------------------------------------------------------ -- Air in Mexico City: A Strange Brew -- A few years ago, I stumbled across a wonderful bit of satire in MexicoÕs leading English language daily, The News. Under the column heading of "The Irreverent Gringo", the author hilariously explained how Mexico CityÕs air was a gold mine of raw materials and resources, just waiting to be processed; the high concentrations of lead could be harvested for use in glass factories; fecal matter, commonly found floating in the air, would be perfect for high-grade fertilizers. Concerns about the ozone layer?Ñheck, Mexico CityÕs air had tons of ozone; we just needed to bottle it up and fire it back into the stratosphere. This called for a celebration, or at least a few tequilas raised to the new- found fortune. Continuing in this tone, it was equally humourous to see the Mexican federal government trying to take credit this September for low pollution readings which resulted from the strong winds and rains from Hurricane Gerty. The President of the National Ecological Institute, Sergio Reyes Lujan, came under heavy criticism when he implied that federal emission control efforts and other anti-pollution programs has led to the recent drop (in August and September) in air particle readings. Reyes further stated that long-term studies had proven that both lead and sulphur counts were significantly lower for more than a year now, but that the level of other contaminants, such as ozone, had shown very little change. Just when the laugh-track appeared to end, the Metropolitan Commission for the Prevention and Control of Contamination in the Valley of Mexico (CMPCAVM) released its findings in early October, concluding that less than 2% of all suspended particle matter in Mexico CityÕs air was caused by industry, and more than 43% was caused by ground erosion. These reports quickly caused outrage and incredulity. Greenpeace representatives immediately countered with World Bank and World Health Organization analysis which showed that Mexico CityÕs TSP (total suspended particles) index commonly exceeded the U.S. average by six times. Greenpeace leaders also stressed that this new report by the cityÕs pollution- control agency hides the seriousness of the particle-matter problem in Mexico City, where more than 6,000 people may die each year because of exposure to particles in the air. GreenpeaceÕs argument was supported by a recent report prepared by the Federal Attorney GeneralÕs Office for the Protection of the Environment (Profepa), in which Profepa found that 90% of industries operating in the Mexico City valley were emitting particles into the airÉand of the more than 7,000 businesses inspected by Profepa in the first half of 1993, more than 6,000 displayed irregularities in their production processes. All these items point to the fact that industrial and combustion sources must be responsible for more TSP pollution than what local commissions and reports have been acknowledging. Greenpeace has demanded that the government begin broadcasting weekly detailed reports about air quality and the levels of suspended particle matter. All of these recent developments would normally make one laugh at their ludicrous nature; if, that is, one wasnÕt working in what the World Health Organization called the "dirtiest air of any major metropolitan area in the world"; and if this air didnÕt cause coughing, lung and throat irritation, burning eyes, and a myriad of other ailmentsÑand if winter wasnÕt approaching, when cold air inversions tend to hold Mexico CityÕs air masses in place for days. - Andreas Seppelt, Latin American Correspondant -- Just Do It! -- Have you ever thought about what it takes to make those snazzy running shoes you see advertised on TV, reeking of freedom, individualism, health and cleanliness? Well mostly it takes cheap labour, really cheap labour, the cheaper the better. In August last year a small article appeared in Harpers magazine, all it consists of is a photograph of an Indonesian workers payslip and a few annotations to tell you what it means. This particular (fairly typical) worker earns 14 cents US per hour, at that rate the labour costs for assembling one pair of running shoes (retail price $80) would be a massive 12 cents. This particular lady worked for the Sung Hwa company, a Korean based firm and a major major supplier for Nike (99% of Nike shoes are made in Asia). I will warn you now that I talk about Nike quite a few times in this article, because they feature heavily in so many of the sources I consulted about the footwear industry in Indonesia. Nike serves as something of a paradigm for the subject. But they are by no means the only foreign firm making a packet out of Indonesia's workers. Reebok has also invested heavily in Indonesia, and between 1988 and 1991 foreign investors channeled more than $350 000 000 US into Indonesia. For some time Nike have contracted the manufacturing of their shoes to a number of Korean companies. In the late 80's rising wage demands from Korean workers and increasing industrial unrest led many companies to shift their manufacturing operations from Korea to Indonesia and China. It costs $10 000 a year to employ an average Korean worker to assemble running shoes, a Chinese worker $1000, and an Indonesian $500. Not surprisingly Indonesia has become a favourite manufacturing site. The official Indonesian trades union (SPSI) is government run, all other unions were forced to join it in 1985, and it's appointed officials were members of the army. It has been refused recognition by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Indonesian activists have expressed doubt that it has the will or for that matter the resources to stand up against major business interests. Despite the theoretical government monopoly, an independent trade union - Solidarity - appeared in 1991. One of its leaders was subsequently abducted by "six armed men", and kept blindfolded and bound for the three days of his detention, except for a six hour interrogation. His interrogators wanted to know where solidarity got its money, and what were his connections with local political activists. The union leaders suspected army involvement in the kidnapping, but this was denied by army spokesmen. Although some members of the Indonesian parliament, and ministers concerned with the country's image abroad, do tend to support stronger protection for workers rights, this is not the official position. The government line was summed up by the Manpower Minister, who has been quoted as saying that: "The right to hold a strike is protected by the constitution, but exercise of that right is still not tolerated in Indonesia because it is harmful to both sides." The theoretical Indonesian "minimum wage" is considered sufficient to provide only 15% to 30% of minimum physical needs (depending upon location and family situation). Nevertheless a study in 1989, looking at 1017 companies in the Jakarta area found 56% of companies paying less than this "minimum" level ($0.43 - $1.33). 88% of workers in the pay range of our example above, are malnourished. The situation of workers in Indonesia has not gone completely unnoticed outside the country. Citing restrictions on freedom of association the American Federation of Labour - Congress of Industrial Organisations, petitioned the US Trade Representative (USTR) four times between 1985 and 1991 to revoke Indonesia's right to preferential import duties (permitted under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP). In 1992 both Asia Watch and the International Labour Research Fund separately petitioned the USTR to end the application of the GSP to Indonesia. They presented "voluminous evidence" (in the words of one correspondent) of the absence of internationally recognised workers rights. The issues they raise include freedom of association, the right to organise and bargain collectively, the right to acceptable working conditions, child labour, and forced labour. Not surprisingly with a total manufacturing cost of $12 for a pair of running shoes that retail for $63, Nike's profits rose from $1 billion in 1988 to $3.5 billion in 1991. At least in part a result of the "ruthlessness with which Nike pares its costs" (to quote the Far Eastern Economic Review). Now to be fair to Nike they (as their representatives are at pains to emphasise) don't actually run the factories themselves. They take bids from a number of companies in Korea, which compete to give the lowest costs per shoe. They in their turn squeeze the most they can out of their Indonesian labour force. Naturally since they don't actually own the factories themselves, Nike deny any responsibility for the working conditions there. It is a straight business decision, costs down profits up. The Far Eastern Economic Review quotes the Nike General Manager in Jakarta as saying that: "It's not within our scope to investigate [allegations of labour violations]". To consolidate its gains and diversify into the "best sports and fitness company in the world" (as the CEO told Financial World this February) the company is planning a move into sport management. They want to build a "family relationship" so that they can "exert more control", they would like to have the athletes who promote their products "embraced by Nike as a whole". This cozy family embrace does not extend to the people who make the running shoes. They are the victims of hostile government, a complacent union, and deliberate corporate neglect. They are also our victims - we are the next link in the chain. - Dr. Euan Taylor, Winnipeg, Canada Sources: Far Eastern Economic Review: March 1989, June 20th 1991, 5th November 1992, June 3rd 1993. Financial World: February 16th 1993. Harper's Magazine: August 1992.International Labour Review: vol-129 issue 1. -- Cognitive Science and Animal Rights-- Cognitive Scientists and Philosophers hold no monopoly on theories of mind, consciousness and free will. Every person who comes into contact with species other than their own at one time or another employs their own theories to guide their interactions. Standard philosophical arguments about the ethical treatment of non-human animals ultimately appeal to some kind of capitulation of the existence and intrinsic value of non-human minds. What I purport to reveal is an unsettling consequence of accepting this stance: there are no reasonable grounds for not extending these principles to artificial systems. It is widely accepted in Western culture that to inflict pain upon another human being is not ethical. We often justify this kind of conclusion with arguments like, "we have to consider the interests of other people", and " we wouldn't like to be treated that way, so neither would this other person". What this amounts to is objectively attributing thoughts and feelings to other people based upon our knowledge of our own subjective thoughts and feelings. I know what it would be like for my friend to feel pain from a scraped knee because I know what it is like for me to feel pain from a scraped knee, and because I believe that my friend's central nervous system supports his mind in the same way that mine does. Can we use the same kind of reasoning to formulate an ethical stance of our treatment of non-human animals? In his essay, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat", Thomas Nagel points out that any such attempts are fundamentally flawed. He concludes that a human can never in principle know what it is like to be a bat, simply because a human is not a bat. Any attempt at mimicking the perceptual effects of "bat- like" perceptions begs the question because that would only amount to a human perception of "bat- like" experiences. Is there a more valid way to formulate an ethical stance? Marian Stamp Dawkins points out that two main strands are discernible from the "bowl of spaghetti-like reasoning" that we use as ethical bases for our treatment of animals: we tend to value other animals which are clever or which show evidence of the ability to reason (this view has its origins in Descartes), and we value other organisms that show evidence of the ability to suffer and to feel pain (this view has its origins in Bentham). Dawkins defines suffering as states in which an organism would rather not be and from which they would probably try to escape if possible. She recognizes that animals lack the ability to alert humans to their states of suffering using language, and proposes three other sources of evidence: the general state of health of an animal (for example, squealing, struggling, convulsions), physiological signs (for example, increased heart rate, brain activity, hormone levels), and overt behavior. As an example of behavioral evidence of an animal being in such a state of suffering, Dawkins describes a situation in which rats were encased in air-tight containers, subjected to tobacco smoke. Over time, the rats learned to plug up the smoke-vents with their own feces, thus expressing, according to Dawkins, "what they thought of what was being done to them". Dawkins then outlines experimental procedures that could in principle be used to determine more exactly just how unpleasant a particular state is to an animal. She puts forth the definition that an animal can be said to be "suffering if it is being kept in conditions that it would work hard to get out of, if given the chance, or if it is being kept in a condition without something that it would work hard to obtain if given the chance", where "working hard" is defined as something like expending energy, or going without food. What Dawkins' definitions amount to is an ethical stance that values an organism that has the capacity to show that something matters to it. According to her account, this can be best revealed by the extent to which it is able to evaluate the world and work out how to bring about a change in the world. In his book, "Practical Ethics", Peter Singer offers his own philosophical contemplations on a sound ethical basis for human treatment of non-human animals. His foundation is that the fundamental principle of equality, on which the equality of all human beings rests, is the principle of equal consideration of interests. He then argues that having accepted this principle as a sound moral basis for relations with other humans, we are also committed to accepting it as a sound moral basis for relations with non-human animals. In the same way that our concerns for the interests of other humans should not depend on their race or intelligence, our concerns for the interests of non-human animals should not depend on their not being human, or their level of intelligence. Singer also appeals to the view put forth by Bentham that all that is required to entitle a being to equal consideration is the capacity for suffering. This taken with the above course of reasoning suggests that Singer is advocating the moral stance that we must consider the interests of animals, (human and non-human), as long as those animals have the capacity to suffer, and as long as those animals have interests to be considered. In synthesizing the above views put forth by Singer and Dawkins, the resulting ethical stance is that based upon the principle of equal consideration of interests, we are morally bound to consider the interests of non-human animals that have the capacity to suffer, where suffering is defined and can be experimentally revealed in the ways described above by Dawkins. To what extent can these same principles be extended to artificial systems? Should humans be morally bound to consider the interests of artificial systems in the same way, by the above arguments, that they are morally bound to consider the interests of non-human animals? I propose that an artificial being could, in principle, satisfy the above criterion. Imagine a mobile floor- sweeping-robot built out of some kind of heat-sensitive material, such that if exposed to heat above a certain temperature for a prolonged period of time, the robot would melt. Suppose that the robot has been programmed to avoid termination of its functions. The robot is equipped with heat detectors and has been programmed to avoid areas of its environment in which it detects excessive heat. In addition, the robot has been equipped with crumple-detectors, such that when the robots outer layer starts to crumple from any kind of impact, it will reverse its direction of movement. Imagine that an evil undergraduate lures the floor-sweeping robot into a room using animal-cracker crumbs, and that once trapped inside the room, the undergraduate turns up the heat. The robot begins to sweep up the animal-cracker crumbs, but its heat detectors start to detect heat levels far above its pre-programmed threshold. The robot moves about the room, but its heat detectors register excessive heat everywhere inside the room. It tries to open the door, but the baneful undergraduate has locked it. The robot enters a state in which it emits a loud alarm and flashes the pre-programmed message "heat levels too high" on its display screen. The robot has been pre-programmed to regard heat regulation as its highest priority, so after some pre- determined time the robot begins to repeatedly roll to the back of the room, and hurl itself forward, disregarding the warning-inputs from its crumple-detectors as it repeatedly smashes into the door. The robot clearly is in a state in which it would rather not be if given the chance; after all, it has evaluated the state of the world and how to bring about a change in the world. In addition, it is working hard to do so: it is conceding structural damage and possible resultant termination in order to forego certain termination due to the heat. Surely the warning alarm and message can be interpreted as some kind of physiological response, equivalent to an organic system releasing hormones in response to some external stimulus. Thus, Dawkins' criterion for 'severe enough' suffering have been met, and its interests have been revealed, so according to Singer, we are now morally bound to consider those interests. I will be the first to admit that this is an extremely unsettling conclusion. The alternatives, however, are either to abandon this line of reasoning as a defense of non-human animal interests, or to somehow remove artificial systems from the scope of this line of reasoning. What possible reasons could there be for their exclusion? One might argue that because they were created by humans, their internal states were created by humans, and thus are not owned by them. In the same way, however, one could argue that our internal states (our knowledge, thoughts, and especially our autonomic physiological responses) are not owned by us, but are 'pre-programmed' by our genetic background and our environment. Any conjecture that the internal states of artificial systems are not really equivalent to our (or non-human animal) states of suffering because they are inorganic or artificial can be countered with Nagel's point: a human cannot know what it is like to be an [artificial system] simply because a human isn't an [artificial system]. This fact doesn't change, even if a human was the creator of the states that constitute what it is like to 'be' that artificial system. Perhaps what is needed is a more stringent way of determining what systems deserve our consideration of their interests, and in that way artificial systems could be indirectly excluded from consideration. It appears that we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. If we try to proceed by re-tuning these criterion, we encounter the immovable rock. In order to make these criterion more stringent, we would have to use more internal or subjective measures than the external, objective behavioral dimensions offered by Dawkins. Unfortunately any such subjective line of attack ultimately falls victim to Nagel's argument. If we try to proceed in the other direction, we find ourselves in a hard place to be: either we must forsake that the interests of non-human animals that meet these criterion deserve our consideration, or we must concede that the interests of artificial systems that meet these criterion also deserve our consideration. - Paul Gribble, Montreal, Canada Sources: Dawkins, Marian S. "Minding and Mattering". In Blakemore, C. & Greenfield, S., Mindwaves. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1987. Nagel, Thomas. "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?". In Hofstadter, D. & Dennett, D., The Mind's I. New York: Basic Books, 1981.Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. ------------------------------------------------------------ DEPARTMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------ -- The Keepers Of Light: Images of Mexico -- All artwork presented in this column is (c) the respective artists, and may not be copied, altered or re-used without express written permission. (Artwork Only appears in Macintosh version.) Greetings, Cyberfolk, and welcome to the November Keepers of Light. This month we return to the Exposure Gallery (see the October '93 issue for details about Exposure) to visit a fascinating exhibition of photographs by Vancouver artist Gerry Schallie. We'll also be speaking with Schallie to discover more about what he is trying to achieve with this on-going documentary of the Mayan ruins in southern Mexico. The first impression on entering the gallery and glancing around is that some one has gone to a lot of trouble to produce an elegant presentation. All of the works in the show are identically, simply and impeccably matted and framed. The mattes have been cut optically centered , and a subtle score line has been expertly made around the openings. The overall effect is one balance, harmony and order. Even the title tags on the walls beside each piece have been tastefully laser printed on fine paper and placed with precision beside each frame. Right. Of course consummate display is often camouflage for inferior photographs, but happily this is not the case with Pan Paxil. This show, shot at various locations in the Yucatan in 1992, represents some of the most carefully executed photography I have seen in a long time. Shot entirely on Kodak High Speed Infrared film the images have all of the glittering grain and highlight glow that this film, properly handled , can produce. Further, the prints have been made on especially high silver content papers, and gold toned, giving them a depth and body they could otherwise not posses. The images themselves are curious, almost disturbing. The ruins are the subject, or perhaps it is the effect that the sight of these destroyed places has on the viewer that is the subject. These are not glamour shots, although some of them are quite dramatic. Most of them seem quite impersonal, almost empty of meaning at first sight. Very little, if anything, has been done by the artist to try and impose any interpretation upon these sad and maddeningly enigmatic ruins. They simply are. The first I viewed, "El Mercado" almost made me laugh. Ruined columns stand in a overgrown vineyard-like setting. It might have been somewhere in Greece. The sun beams down from behind the foliage and the trees and columns both glow in the diffuse light. It had a fantasy quality, like a matte painting in a movie. There is a small clearing, and I half expected to see Captain Kirk and an away team beam into the picture. The longer I looked at it the emptier it appeared to grow. I moved on. One I particularly enjoyed was "Annex of the Knives, Edzn‡". Here the glitter of light on the grass and worn and shattered rock dances, as if the knives in the title were growing in sharp myriad profusion on the ground, in the trees, the air. It sparkles. I spent a lot of time looking at "Chac (Raingod), Maya Pan". This fierce figure has seen better days. He is all pocked, teeth broken, chipped. One eye has been put out. I got the impression from the damage that Chac had suffered the indignities of perhaps generations of post-modern Mayan punks pelting him with rocks, where once they might have stood with awe. In his artist's statement Schallie refers to the work of writer John L. Stephens and artist Frederick Catherwood, who first chronicled the then virtually unknown Mayan civilization in 1841. Schallie says found himself influenced by the feelings invoked by the explorers work, and he found himself photographing many of the same places visited by them, in some cases perhaps standing in the exact same spots. Indeed there is a tremendous similarity between some of Catherwood's drawings and woodcuts and some of Schallie's photographs. "Fallen Ornaments, Kabah" along with "Chacmool & Serpent Heads, Chichen Itz‡" (the latter perhaps more so) and a few others appear at first to break from the impersonal feeling of the majority of the work in this show. The closer view of these details and fragments seems more intimate than the larger scenes, a function of size and viewpoint. But again this feeling of intimacy fades, and the mystery and, yes, desolation returns. "Governor's Palace, Uxmal" is a favorite of mine with its deep shadow between the two strangely curving walls. Again and again the questions recur: who were these people, how did they live, what happened... I found myself becoming depressed. Not depressed, exactly, but subdued rather by the emptiness and wonder of it all. The utterly alien mystery of it. It accumulates. Each image reinforces each other. The whole show seemed to echo. Another fine image was "Roofcomb, Edzn‡". Here is a photo that could be used to teach design. Striations in the rock and streams of light and shadow in the clouds appear to radiate from the common centre of a black and threatening empty doorway. The fingers of the rooftop and columns rake the sky above the rounded hilltop and the dark and featureless plain below. Altogether "Pan Paxil" is an excellent show. It is also a work in progress. Schallie intends to return to southern Mexico this December to do further work. I'm looking forward to seeing the final project. Pan paxil [pan pash”l] broken place, the cradle of civilization in Mayan mythology; a citadel or mountain struck by lightning, mixingcorn and water to produce the first true humans. Tech Notes: Film: Kodak High Speed Infrared Cameras: Pentax LX Lenses: various Filters: various reds, oranges, yellows Paper: Forte (high silver, variable grade fiber base, produced in Hungary) Development: a dilute glycin formulation Post development: selective bleaching, gold toned Enlarger: Durst 707 (diffusion head), 63 mm Nikkor Ä2.8 enlarging lens Special Techniques: Use of split contrast filters in printing Profile: Gerry Schallie Gerry Schallie is a very interesting man. His passion for and dedication to photography is evident in both his conversation and his work. By day he gigs as Fuji film rep (and his choice of a Kodak film for this exhibition was a source of some jocularity around the office.) He enjoys the work, but finds it somewhat, well, corporate. It does give him the freedom to travel to Mexico on photo expeditions, though, and it allows him to take a stricter approach to pricing his artwork than an artist who has to live on print sales alone might be able to swallow. He maintains his own darkroom, separate from his house because, he says, it lets him get away from photography for a few hours by going home. He keeps a "huge" darkroom, and keeps it scrupulously clean. The printing process he employed for Pan Paxil is arduous, to say the least. The dilute glycin developer he uses with the Forte paper calls for print development times running over seven minutes (compared to the forty-five to ninety seconds common with developer-incorporated emulsions and high energy developers). Worse, the combination of weak developer and high silver paper means that the developer in the tray is rapidly oxidized, and replenishment is necessary after every print is processed. The prints must then be further painstakingly washed to archival standards, and then the process has only begun. Schallie often uses a selective bleaching process to bring out certain details in an image, using a variety of applicators and brushes, sometimes as fine as a single hair. The prints must then be washed again, in preparation for the gold toning process. The gold toner adds extra archival permanence to the prints, and has the further virtues of adding shadow contrast to the images, and cooling down the somewhat olive warmth of the Forte paper. Then, of course, the prints have to be washed. Schallie goes to these (and other) lengths to achieve the print effect that he feels most completely empowers the image to speak. That was my overriding impression from talking with him while we scanned the photos for this review. Everything is subordinate to the image. He searches first for the feeling of a place or event, then begins a process of discovery to find what will aid the images in conveying that feeling, and what will hinder. Obviously quite taken with the delicious mystery of pre- Colombian Mayan civilization, he is headed back to the Yucatan for another look, and may venture further south to Belize. His first trip, he relates, was something of an exploratory expedition. He asked around and pretty much went where people told him to, often with disappointing results ("Chichen Itz‡ was like Disneyland"), but this time he's going back loaded for bear. When I asked about where he might go he started pulling elevation maps, aerial photographs, and honking great tomes from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology from his reinforced cordura satchel. He's serious. Schallie is quite well spoken, and will talk for hours about his work and his impressions, and does so often at the artists' round table discussions Thursdays at the Railway Club. He may be reached there or at (604) 737-7035, or by Snailmail at 307-1345 West 15th Ave, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6H 3R3. - Kent Barrett, Vancouver, Canada -- Deja Vu: Network Computer Technology -- From the perspective of students and scholars, network computer technology offers the most challenging transformation of life in the last decade. From the point of view of the general public, it could be argued that network technology might soon rival the telephone and the answer phone, the fax machine, newspapers and television and especially, ordinary postal services, if it is made available to all. Everyone can now send or receive electronic mail (e-mail) provided that they are registered and have an address. The address includes the person's log in name, the country, the institution or nature of work and name of the local host network. A typical address would look like this for someone doing academic work at Edinburgh University: username@uk.ac.ed.castle This address enables the user to receive e-mail from around the world and to send e-mail to anyone who uses the network. The network serves as a telephone when you give the 'talk' command which divides the screen into two - one for receiving written 'talk' from the other terminal and one for sending written 'talk'. If the other person is not logged on at that particular moment, the computer will let you know immediately. Then you can leave a message as on an answer phone by sending an ordinary e-mail to the person. The advantage of the e-mail over the answer phone is that the chances of a user failing to read the message is reduced because every time the user logs on, the computer will prompt with the enthusiastic message, 'You have new mail.' The shortcoming of the talk command is that, unlike answer phone which could be left on while you pretend that you are away or too busy, an invitation to talk can come through while you are in the middle of an urgent essay. Of course, you can refuse the invitation but your friend or colleague would always know that you were there. Such shortcomings are compensated for by the fact that the written 'talk' and the e-mail cost students absolutely nothing whereas telephone bills and the cost of postage could drive foreign students and visiting scholars into isolation from friends and family. This means that students and scholars could make fantastic savings by e-mailing their letters, essays, occasional poems, quotes from books, urgent information, questionnaires or copies of voluminous manuscripts that could cost a fortune through the usual post. Network technology has increased the amount of communication between students, friends, colleagues and family. As Stephen Hawkins would say, this is a welcome development because we must keep talking to avoid the danger of not talking. Equally interesting are the network news (nn, standing for 'no news' is good news) services that are available on Internet (the international network). This is likely to seriously rival the dominance of the mass media over news. The advantage of 'nn' over both the print and the electronic media is that it is a combination of both. Already, there is an electronic publication called @ux(TeleTimes International) which is edited by a sixteen year old school boy in Canada. Writers, including Ph.D. holders and business executives, contribute well-informed articles from all over the world and readers can subscribe to @ux(TeleTimes) free of charge for the time being. It is always exciting to read the news groups that are concerned with social and cultural, recreational, and miscellaneous issues. For example, misc.jobs.offered contains advertisements for jobs that might interest graduates, soc.culture.african provides a forum for the discussion of issues like football, female circumcision, political movements and the politics of race in Africa. Similarly, soc.feminism holds articles on sexual harassment, gender bias in advertising and feminist jurisprudence. Recreational news groups include rec.arts.poems, rec.music.reggae and rec.arts.cinema where readers catch up on gossip and chance upon some good quality posting. And misc.activism.progressive contains very serious articles from different leftist perspectives. What is exciting about these articles is that the reader can respond immediately, line by line, and expect responses to his or her rejoinder. In this way, people who have never met get to know each other and even become friends or foes. Fortunately, the inclusion of articles in the news groups is moderated in such a way that offensive materials are edited out. But the moderators are not censors as such since they allow street language to surface in some of the exchanges that might appear rude while remaining light-hearted. A key potential of the network computer technology is that it drags the carpet from the feet of dictators who would like to censor information and control the press. But this is an ambiguous potential in the sense that while the technology offers uncensored access to information, such information is accessible to dictators and the oppressed alike such that the later could be identified by the former through their posting. Similarly, the volume of information available on the network could be a form of control in disguise: it is so much that some people could get lost in the wilderness of facts, it is so much that distinguishing between the essential and the diversionary is not always easy. Another disadvantage of the network is that computers are less accessible than newspapers, television sets, telephones and post offices. The advantage of the usual news media is that they have more experienced and better trained staff with widespread following while network computers are not easily accessible to the general public. Furthermore, the cost of subscribing to network news agencies that are not publicly accessible is so high that most students and scholars would continue to rely on street-corner news agents for information. Even in universities where computer facilities are available, some students prefer to write their essays by hand and keep their distance from computer labs while some universities make network facilities accessible only to research students. If (network) computers are made accessible to everyone or almost everyone as is the case with the usual postal services, the energy costs might be too much for the environment to absorb. There are already worries that personal computers contribute too much to global warming and it is likely that universal network computing would deepen the energy crisis. A related problem is that exposure to the computer screen for too long at a time could damage health. Thus many readers prefer to print out copies of the articles that they would like to read. This increases the concern of environmentalists who argue that this is a double drain on the environment; first energy is used up in computing and posting articles, then paper is excessively utilised for reading them. The answer that network readers can offer to the problem of excessive paper consumption is to make articles short and precise to reduce the time required for reading and to make sure that they recycle all the papers that they do not need to keep. - Biko Agozino, Edinburgh, Scotland -- The Wine Enthusiast: Winemaking and the Environment -- Like most industries, the wine industry has been affected by environmental issues. Recently wineries have been forced to replace lead bottle capsules (the cap which covers the cork) with plastic or tin alternatives, for health and landfill waste reasons. The most important impact that the production of wine has had on the environment however, is in the millions of acres of vineyard worldwide. Many of the lessons learned from the winegrape industry in the last decade are encouraging for the agriculture industry as a whole. In the 1950's and Ô60's, agricultural advances promised to make grape growing more profitable by eliminating the effects of disease and pests, and increasing yield, quality, and lowering costs. Today it is evident that these objectives can best be achieved not through the dependence on pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers and the like, but by employing more traditional, environmentally- friendly techniques. The old ideal vineyard was bare as a billiard table, kept free of weeds by the use of herbicides which after successive applications, essentially sterilized the soil and kept it weed-free, except for minor touch-ups. This is not ideal though, in terms of creating a healthy environment for the vines. Weeds or grass aerate the soil and allow water to be easily stored by the soil and allow rain to reach the roots. They prevent soil compaction by tractors and soil erosion on hillside vineyards. They also provide alternative food sources for vertebrate pests and form a natural home for indigenous insect predators. As well, a cover crop helps limit vigor of vines, which in New World vineyards is probably the biggest single cause of quality loss. If, rather than allowing weeds to flourish, the grower grows a cover crop of barley, mustard, or clover the growth can be plowed under for use as a natural, mild, fertilizer. Maintaining soil health, as opposed to neglecting it and then applying harsh vigor-inducing fertilizers, is a simple, inexpensive and sensible solution. The old European adage, "where plows can go no vines should grow" also illustrates some of the problems New World growers have created for themselves. In the past, New World growers typically chose overly fertile sites for vines; this led to lower-quality grapes, and demanded far more intervention to be kept weed-free. Rocky, or poor soils are often ideal for deep rooted vines, but inhospitable to weeds. Similarly, mildew, bunch rot and other fungal diseases are best treated with preventive measures, such as pulling excess foliage, limiting the number of clusters and hedging shoots, so that the grapes are well exposed to sun and air circulation. With a good preventive regimen, elemental sulphur need only be sprayed to keep the vines disease free. Sulphur is cheap and considered totally acceptable in organic growing. Unlike sulphur, expensive chemicals like sterile inhibitors, which are anti-fungal agents, become less effective after successive applications, because the diseases become resistant to the particular chemical. Like antibiotics, they must be used with restraint, or disease problems can be compounded. Just as in our health care system, growers have become hooked on chemicals which provide expensive, quick fixes, rather than long-term solutions. Insect pests are far less troublesome in a balanced, well maintained vineyard, and can be usually controlled inexpensively during outbreaks with the release of ladybugs, spiders and other predators, rather than the wholesale killing of vineyard insects with pesticides - that kill predators as well as pests. In California there has been a real swing back to traditional organic grape-growing. What is encouraging about this development is that it has been initiated not so much out of the marketing possibilities of cashing in on the Ô90's fears and fixations with diet, or out of Political Correctness, but because it makes good, long-term financial sense. Preston Vineyards in Sonoma County and Fetzer in Mendocino County are leading the way. Their philosophy is that long-term care of their vines and soil will produce better wines and cost less to maintain. The promise of 50's and 60's agro-technologyÑcheap, bountiful, disease-free winegrape growing, was a false promise, partly due to unforeseen economic shifts like the rising cost of petrochemicals. The promise was also false at the core, because it is only through limiting vine vigor and yield that quality winegrapes and great wines are produced. The best way to achieve these ends is to keep the vines balanced and healthy, through good site-selection and sound, traditional vineyard practices - that just happen to be environmentally sound as well. - Tom Davis, Vancouver, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------ NEXT MONTH ------------------------------------------------------------ Next month, What's News With You?. This topic is something I've always been interested in. News, from the point of view of the people who are experianing it. For instance, you can expect one of our Canadian writers to write about the recent elections. If you are interested in commenting on some major news or what you think should be news, please send us your articles! You can write to us for the Teletimes Writer's Guide. Also, if you like to think of yourself as a good photographer, why not send us some of your work? Write to us and we'll send you the Teletimes Illustrator and Photographer's Guide. ------------------------------------------------------------ BIOGRAPHIES ------------------------------------------------------------ Biko Agozino Biko has completed a Ph.D dissertation on "Black Women and the Criminal Justice System" in the Faculty of Law at the University of Edinburgh. He obtained a B.Sc. honours in Sociology from the University of Calabar and an M.Phil in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. Surekha and Prasad Akella Surekha and Prasad are in Japan on a two year sojourn from their home in the US. Surekha is a Pharmacologist between a Master's and a PhD; she is masquerading as an English teacher in Japan. Prasad is a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and is working on the control of robots at MITI's National Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. Their common interests include people, photography and international travel. For the next few months, they will report on life in Japan, as viewed through the eyes of Indian-Americans. Kent Barrett Kent is a Vancouver artist with over twenty years experience in photography. His work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada from Vancouver to St. John's, Newfoundland. He is currently working on his first nonfiction book "Bitumen to Bitmap", a history of photographic processes. Paul Chapman Originally born in England, Paul moved to Vancouver at age 9 and quickly realized his parents had made the right choice. Although he loves Vancouver, his work as a reporter and editor has given him the desire to work in other countries around the world which he will hopefully accomplish once the economy picks up. Tom Davis Tom is a wine maker who lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. A former brewmaster, a painter and amateur (in the truest sense) film maker. Currently a Philosophy undergraduate at Simon Fraser University, Tom seeks to start his own vineyard. Prasad Dharmasena Prasad is a Solid State Electrical Engineer turned into a C++ programmer who works at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. He has been known to take decent photographs when the phase of the moon is right. Though he was born in Sri Lanka, he cannot play Cricket. He enjoys playing Frisbee beside his favorite temple, the Lincoln Memorial. Paul L. Gribble Born in Cape Town, South Africa but raised in Vancouver, B.C., Paul completed his B.Sc. in Cognitive Science at QueenÕs University in Kingston, Ontario. After spending the summer in Japan working for a high technology research company, he started his graduate studies in Cognitive Science at McGill University in Montreal, this September. David A. Lewis David is a desktop publisher, and enjoys exploring the things that a "Mac" can do. David has worked as a chef, musician, salesman, and holds degrees in Business Administration & Psychology. Raised in northern B.C., David has enjoyed living in Vancouver since Expo '86. Anand Mani Anand is a Vancouver, Canada-based corporate communications consultant serving an international clientele. Originally an airbrush artist, his painting equipment has been languishing in a closet, replaced by the Mac. It waits for the day when Òthat ideaÓ grips him by the throat, breathily says, ÒPaint MeÓ and drags him into the studioÑ not to be seen for months. Michael Matsunaga Michael is a devoted student to coffee houses and late night studying for a major in Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He hopes to attend Law School next year. MichaelÕs interests include: Spanish guitar, traveling, the Gypsy Kings, Marillion, biking, exploring and writing. Motamarri Saradhi Motamarri has lived in Singapore for two and half years. He spent the earlier portion of his life in his motherland, India. He received his degree in Civil Engg from REC, Warangal, and Masters degree in Transportation Systems Engg from IIT, Kanpur, India. He likes music, lyrics, literature, sociolizing, travel. Dr. Michael Schreiber 32 years ago, born near Salzburg, Gemini Michael reconstructs social and business realities as self-similar competitive environments at the Department of Marketing at the Vienna University for economics and business administration. Andreas Seppelt Andreas is a former Economist with Transport Canada, now consulting in Business Communications and Marketing. He has spent a number of years undergoing formal graduate study and research in Economic Development and International Trade. He currently lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Euan R. Taylor Euan is doing postdoctoral research in a plant biology department. His hobbies are the Chinese and Spanish languages, jogging, hiking, writing and playing Ultimate. He has traveled to Iceland (scientific expedition), China, Taiwan and Indonesia. Seth Theriault A native of Lexington, Massachusetts, Seth Theriault is currently a student at Washington University in St. Louis. He tries to get good grades, but he tends to procrastinate. When he isn't studying, he enjoys sports, computers, and doing something other than studying. Ian Wojtowicz Ian is currently enrolled in the International Baccalaurate program at a Vancouver high school. His interests include fencing, running large projects (like Teletimes) and sleeping in. He was born in 1977 in Halifax. He has since lived in Nigeria, Hong Kong and Ottawa and travelled with his parents to numerous other locations. ------------------------------------------------------------ Reader Response Card ------------------------------------------------------------ If you enjoy reading Teletimes and would like to see it continue to bring you great electronic articles, please fill out this card, print it and mail it to: Teletimes Response Card 3938 West 30th Ave. Vancouver, BC, V6S 1X3 Canada You may also e-mail it to: ianw@wimsey.com or post it in the Onenet conference "International Teletimes". 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