VBIQVE

Student Associateship

2009-09-13T16:18:00.001-07:00

Upon the recommendation of Professor Murdock I am going to apply for a Student Associateship on this subject for Winter of 2010. Specifically the implications of China's decision to pursue this project:

Stairway to Heaven View

2009-09-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

Nuclear Scientist

2009-09-11T21:43:00.002-07:00

I came back to my lab that had be annexed by a hostile enemy. I was in a rushed time frame; the enemy was coming back. I began to assemble my nuclear bomb, it was a simple two parts that locked together. Despite simplicity, I could not assemble my bomb. I grew more anxious as my enemy who took over my lab came closer. The layout of the room was a simple desk facing the wall opposite of the door. The door was open slightly so I could hear footsteps, if there was any. On the top half of both walls of the door (behind me) was privacy glass.

Met

2009-09-09T00:12:00.005-07:00

someone, her, at about 2:30AM last night. In the movie theater on the left side of the main bloc. She was in the seat closest to the aisle, I was one farther in. Had black hair. Last name starts with V, and has a t in it. Until we meet, farewell.

BYU Hawaii Cross-Country @ HPU Invitational

2009-09-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Internet WTF?

2009-09-04T00:14:00.000-07:00

Women's Volleyball BYU Hawaii v. Montana State University-Billings

2009-09-03T21:15:00.001-07:00

BYU Hawaii v Montana State University-Billings
Originally uploaded by RyanBagley

So starts the Fall sports madness..

© Ke Alaka'i Newspaper 2009

Heli Pad Hike 17.52 miles (1 Hour South of Laie Summit)

2009-08-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Miles Hiked: 17.52
Moving Time: 5:28
Stopped Time: 1:34
Moving Average (mph): 3.0
Overall Moving Average (mph): 2.3
Max Elevation: 2371 ft.
Total Ascent: 4259 ft.

Stopped time doesn't include when I turned it off when I went to sleep.

Before reaching Laie Summit.

While the Heli Pad isn't 17.52 miles, it is still freakin long. I went on the Laie Summit trail starting at the trail head at about 4:15PM and getting to the Summit around 2:20(+/-) set up my tent.

Dont Mind these false trails (Brown on the Bottom and the far right Blue streak). My GPS was wacking out.

Woke up at 5:40AM to see the Sunrise but I couldn't see more than 30ft in any direction due to a cloud setting up residence. Went back to sleep and woke up around 8:20AM, packed up everything and headed for the Heli Pad. Surprisingly met an Asian couple about 1/2 way to the Heli Pad at 9AM which means they were camping near me or had woken up insanely early to get up to the Koolau Summit Trail.

On the Heli Pad.

After reaching the Heli Pad I went back along the Koolau Summit Trail, pass the Laie Summit to see if I could reach the Malaekahana Summit but turned around after 45 minutes because it was around 11:00AM and I had no food left. Went back down the Laie Summit Trail and headed home.

Edison Glass

2009-08-16T23:24:00.001-07:00

Let Go

New PCC Night Show

2009-08-05T16:55:00.001-07:00

IMG_0125
Originally uploaded by RyanBagley

Imperial Myst || Hiking Stairway to Heaven (Haiku Stairs)

2009-08-04T19:59:00.001-07:00

Imperial Myst
Originally uploaded by RyanBagley

I Know Where I Am

2009-07-29T20:36:00.001-07:00

Garmin 60CSx returns to my possession after a year hiatus. Geocaching. Hiking. Adventuring. Biking.

Be Prepared

2009-07-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

future significant other, I will be like this forever. As you can see this man is well into his late 30's...exactly.

News Sources a Political Science Major Reads

2009-07-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

Usually online, but always better as an actualy physical newspaper.

News for nerds, of which, I am.

Still trying out the HuffPost for the past few weeks but they seem a helpful supplement.
Helps to give an outside perspective on American politics and foreign affiars.

Beard

2009-07-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

So I grew an amateur beard when I was in Utah for the 4th of July. Two weeks of unhindered growth!

I had to shave it off for work but once I'm free of BYU Hawaii I will reclaim my manliness! [read: bearded graduate student]

First Roll of Film

2009-06-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

Flickr Slideshow

Women with Glass

2009-06-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

Nothing better.

Fast Paced Capitalism

2009-06-14T23:39:00.000-07:00

I must applaud Steep and Cheap for their exceptional business model. I went to check the site and stumbled upon the Marmot Essence Rain jacket for 58% off with less than 5 minutes left. Had to run upstairs for my wallet and got the last jacket in the size/color with about 1:50 left on the clock. YA!

Test Run

2009-06-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

So I went camping in the hills behind Laie (about 45min up the Laie Falls Trail) and camped on one of the ridge/hills for the night. It was a great experience to test run all of my gear and see what I really needed to have an enjoyable time backpacking.

First off, the most obvious upgrade would be a smaller sleeping bag. This is obvious because the bag I had it in took up nearly half of my 3850cu/in backpack. I found a synthetic bag (better for humidity) that packs in under 10x5 inches! I found the Lufuma X650 Synthetic 40 Degree bag on Amazon for only $59.

The second must have is a jacket. This has to be highly wind resistant/proof and preferably water resistant/proof. Found three jackets: The North Face Venture, the Marmot Precip, and the super light weight Marmot Ion Windshirt.

I'll have to utilize my $100 Amazon gift card for the sleeping bag but I should wait out to see if any of the jackets show up on Steep and Cheap.

Wish List

2009-06-06T22:22:00.001-07:00

The North Face Men's Hedgehog Mid GTX® XCR™

Suunto Core Wrist-Top Computer Watch with Altimeter, Barometer, Compass, and Depth Measurement

MacBook Pro

I will surely add more later. Some are obviously more realistic than others.

POSC 475 Field Trip

2009-06-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

Both Dr. Jonassen's Future Studies and Pacific Regionalism class went on a field trip yesterday to the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. We visited the Pacific and Island Studies department mostly for the Pacific Regionalism Class and afterwards the Political Science Future Studies department for the other class.

We Met Jim Dator the futurist:

Besides an interesting hair cut Dr. Dator was non-stop knowledgeable about any questions we asked him. It would be very interesting to study with him.

Basically the trip to all the grad school departments made me look at graduate school much differently. I always thought grad school was entirely for geniuses and not many could actually get in. To sum up the changed perspective I had I will quote the department chair of the Pacific Islands Studies:

My Professor: "Well we only have one in this group that wants to come to this department for grad school"

Department chair: "Hopefully we can convince more students by the end of the day"

Also, one of the full professors offered help to any of us with our application and choosing a thesis. I might be reading into this too far but it obviously seems a lot easier to get into grad school (at least UH) than I previously thought.

On top of this all I talked with m professor on the way back to Laie and he said that any student he has sponsored applying for grad school to UH has gotten in. Even a student under the required GPA. This is due mainly to him doing his graduate work at UH and knowing almost everyone.

So I see grad school in my future unless someone entices me otherwise...or some thing

The New Hobby

2009-06-01T13:31:00.001-07:00

Nikon FM-10 35mm Film Full Manual
35-70mm f/3.5
5 rolls of Fuji Velvia 100

Something New [Film]

2009-05-20T20:55:00.001-07:00

But, which one?

I think its no contest..

Should I foray into Multi-Day Backpacking?

2009-04-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have all the equipment minus an internal framed pack to do multi-day hiking trips. This is the Terra 60 by The North Face for $149. At 3850 in3 (63 liters) it'd allow for 2-4+ days of packing space. So buying this, or even using my old Boy Scout external framed pack gives me a straight ticket to the Koolau Summit Trail:

Unfortunately, living on a island only allows this trail as probably the only viable multi-day hiking route available. There is also the Waianae ridge but I am not sure it has a trail along the whole summit. Maybe the Nepali Coast on Kauai?

New Gear

2009-04-14T19:56:00.001-07:00

The guy I work for let me borrow his kayak indefinitely

Purchased a used HTC Touch for $5 after I dropped my old phone in the ocean.

Easter present

HAWAII, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS ET AL.

2009-03-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

But then again, reading this makes me want to be a Lawyer.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 07–1372

HAWAII, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. OFFICE OF

HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS ET AL.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF HAWAII

[March 31, 2009]

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether Congress
stripped the State of Hawaii of its authority to alienate its
sovereign territory by passing a joint resolution to apolo-
gize for the role that the United States played in over-
throwing the Hawaiian monarchy in the late 19th century.
Relying on Congress’ joint resolution, the Supreme Court
of Hawaii permanently enjoined the State from alienating
certain of its lands, pending resolution of native Hawai-
ians’ land claims that the court described as “unrelin-
quished.” We reverse.

Scary, No?

2009-03-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

On Being a Happy, Healthy, and

Ethical Member of an Unhappy,
Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession

Patrick J. Schiltz*

VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW [Vol. 52:871]

"Lawyers topped the list, suffer-
ing from MDD at a rate 3.6 times higher than non-lawyers who
shared their key sociodemographic traits.14

"And the Washington study found indicia of anxiety,
social alienation and isolation, obsessive-compulsiveness, paranoid
ideation, interpersonal sensitivity, phobic anxiety, and hostility in
“alarming” rates among lawyers—rates many times the national
norms.26

"Moreover, the Washington study “reveal[ed] an astounding number of lawyers with a high likelihood of developing alco-
hol related problems.”32

"A review of the death certificates of over 26,000 white male suicide victims by the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health suggested that
the suicide rate for white male lawyers may be over twice that of
other white males, although problems with the data made a firm con-
clusion impossible.56

"As I describe below,63 working forty-five hour weeks is not only common in
the legal profession, but in some sectors—particularly big firms—it is
almost considered part-time.64

"...over 40% said that they would not encourage their children
or other qualified persons to enter the legal profession.71

“[T]he misguided view of money as
the sole goal of practice, sole measure of success and sole measure of
self-worth is directly and indirectly responsible for many of the prob-
lems in practice today.”217

The Dead Weather

2009-03-29T17:11:00.001-07:00

Jack White's (The White Stripes) new band 'The Dead Weather' in one of their new singles. The album will be released June 9th.

The Law of Group Polarization

2009-03-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

This is a profound paper I have kept as a pdf over the years since I value the strong validity this 'law' proposes.

This paper can be downloaded without charge at:
The Chicago Working Paper Series Index:
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Publications/Working/index.html THE LAW SCHOOL
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

The Law of Group Polarization

Cass R. Sunstein*
Abstract

In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who
compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own
predeliberation judgments. For example, people who are opposed to the minimum wage are
likely, after talking to each other, to be still more opposed; people who tend to support gun
control are likely, after discussion, to support gun control with considerable enthusiasm; people
who believe that global warming is a serious problem are likely, after discussion, to insist on
severe measures to prevent global warming. This general phenomenon -- group polarization --
has many implications for economic, political, and legal institutions. It helps to explain
extremism, “radicalization,” cultural shifts, and the behavior of political parties and religious
organizations; it is closely connected to current concerns about the consequences of the Internet;
it also helps account for feuds, ethnic antagonism, and tribalism. Group polarization bears on the
conduct of government institutions, including juries, legislatures, courts, and regulatory
commissions. There are interesting relationships between group polarization and social cascades,
both informational and reputational. Normative implications are discussed, with special attention
to political and legal institutions.
“The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties in [the legislative] department of
the government . . . often promote deliberation and circumspection; and serve to check the
excesses of the majority.”
Alexander Hamilton1
“In everyday life the exchange of opinion with others checks our partiality and widens
our perspective; we are made to see things form the standpoint of others and the limits of our
vision are brought home to us. . . . The benefits from discussion lie in the fact that even
representative legislators are limited in knowledge and the ability to reason. No one of them
knows everything the others know, or can make all the same inferences that they can draw in
concert. Discussion is a way of combining information and enlarging the range of arguments.”
John Rawls2

*
Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago, Law School and
Department of Political Science. The author is grateful to Timur Kuran, Andrei Marmor, Eric Posner, and Richard
Posner for valuable comments, and to David Schkade and Daniel Kahneman for many helpful discussions.
Participants in a work-in-progress lunch at the University of Chicago also provided a great deal of help.
1
The Federalist No. 70, at 426-37 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clnton Rossiter ed. 1961).
2
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice 358-59 (1971).
Chicago Working Paper in Law and Economics 2

“Each person can share what he or she knows with the others, making the whole at least
equal to the sum of the parts. Unfortunately, this is often not what happens . . . . As polarization
gets underway, the group members become more reluctant to bring up items of information they
have about the subject that might contradict the emerging group consensus. The result is a biased
discussion in which the group has no opportunity to consider all the facts, because the members
are not bringing them up. . . . Each item they contributed would thus reinforce the march toward
group consensus rather than add complications and fuel debate.“
Patricia Wallace3
Consider the following events:

• Affirmative action is under attack in the state of Texas. A number of
professors at a particular branch of the University of Texas, inclined to be
supportive of affirmative action, meet to exchange views and to plan further
action, if necessary. What are these professors likely to think, and to do, after
they talk?

• After a nationally publicized shooting at a high school, a group of people in
the community, most of them tentatively in favor of greater gun control, come
together to discuss the possibility of imposing new gun control measures.
What, if anything, will happen to individual views as a result of this
discussion?

• A local group of citizens, all of them Republicans, meet in 1998 to discuss
whether President Clinton should be impeached. Before discussion begins, a
strong majority is leaning in favor of impeachment, but they are not firmly
committed to this view. A minority is entirely undecided. If a group resolution
is required, what is it likely to look like?

• A jury is deciding on an appropriate punitive damage award in a case of
recklessly negligent behavior by a large company; the behavior resulted in a
serious injury to a small child. Before deliberating as a group, the jurors have
chosen appropriate awards, leading to an average of $1.5 million and a median
of $1 million. As a statistical generalization, how will the jury’s ultimate
award tend to compare to these figures?

• A group of women are concerned about what they consider to be a mounting
“tyranny of feminism.” They believe that women should be able to make their
own choices, but they also think that men and women are fundamentally
different, and that their differences legitimately lead to different social roles.
The group decides to meet every two weeks to focus on common concerns.
After a year, is it possible to say what its members are likely to think?

• There is an Internet discussion group, consisting of people concerned about
the behavior of certain activities by Americans apparently associated with

3
Patricia Wallace, The Psychology of the Internet 81-82 (1999).
3 The Law of Group Polarization

China. Over half of the participants are fearful that China might be engaged in
spying and that under President Clinton, the Department of Justice has turned
a blind eye, in part because of campaign contributions from Americans whose
loyalties are suspect. In what directions are these Internet discussions likely to
lead?

Every society contains innumerable deliberating groups. Faculties, juries, legislative
bodies, political organizations, regulatory commissions, multimember courts, faculties, student
organizations, religious sects, Internet discussion groups, and others engage in deliberation. A
pervasive question has to do with the likely consequences of the deliberative process. It is a
simple social fact that sometimes people enter discussions with one view and leave with another,
even on political and moral questions.4 Emphasizing this fact, many recent observers have
embraced the traditional American aspiration to “deliberative democracy,” an ideal that is
designed to combine popular responsiveness with a high degree of reflection and exchange
among people with competing views.5 But for the most part, the resulting literature has not been
empirically informed.6 It has not much dealt with the real-world consequences of deliberation,
and with whether any generalizations hold in actual deliberative settings.

The standard view of deliberation is that of Hamilton and Rawls, as stated above. Group
discussion is likely to lead to better outcomes, if only because competing views are stated and
exchanged. Aristotle spoke in similar terms, suggesting that when diverse groups “all come
together . . . they may surpass – collectively and as a body, although not individually – the
quality of the few best. . . . When there are many who contribute to the process of deliberation,
each can bring his share of goodness and moral prudence; . . . some appreciate one part, some
another, and all together appreciate all.”7 An important question is whether this view is naïve or
excessively optimistic. Perhaps economic, psychological, and social mechanisms lead
deliberating groups in unexpected and undesirable directions. If so, it would be necessary to
rethink current enthusiasm for deliberation as a social phenomenon, and also to reassess and
perhaps to restructure institutions that are designed as deliberating bodies.

My principal purpose in this Article is to investigate a striking but thus far almost entirely
neglected8 empirical regularity – that of group polarization -- and to relate this phenomenon to
a number of issues in law and political theory. In brief, group polarization arises when members
of a deliberating group move toward a more extreme point in whatever direction is

4
Sometimes it may seem that moral and political arguments are unlikely to have an effect; the evidence discussed
here shows that on this proposition is quite wrong as an empirical matter.
5
See Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement (1997); Deliberative Democracy (Jon
Elster ed. 1998); Jurgen Habermas, Between Law and Norms (1997).
6
Exceptions include James Fearon, Deliberation As Discussion, in Deliberative Democracy, supra, at 44; Susan
Stokes, Pathologies of Deliberation, in id. at 123; Lynn Sanders, Against Deliberation, Political Theory. Of special
interest is James Fishkin’s continuing experiments with the “deliberative opinion poll,” in which groups of diverse
people are asked to deliberate on public issues. See James Fishkin, The Voice of the People (1998); The Poll With
A Human Face (Maxwell McCombs and Amy Reynolds eds. 1999). Fishkin’s groups do not polarize, at least not
systematically; this result is undoubtedly a product of the distinctive setting, in which materials are presented on
each issue, with corresponding claims of fact and value. In the experiments discussed here, the relevant arguments
are introduced by the participants, not by any third party. See below for discussion of Fishkin.
7
Aristotle, Politics 123 (E. Barker trans. 1972).
8
I have been unable to find any sustained discussions in the relevant literature in law or political theory.

indicated by the members’ predeliberation tendency. “[L]ike polarized molecules, group
members become even more aligned in the direction they were already tending.”9 Group
polarization is the conventional consequence of group deliberation. Thus, for example, the first
deliberating group is likely to become more firmly committed to affirmative action; the second
group will probably end up favoring gun control quite enthusiastically; any group resolution
from the third group will tend to favor impeachment; the punitive damages jury will likely come
up with an award higher than the median and perhaps higher than the mean as well; the group of women concerned about feminism is likely to become very conservative indeed on gender
issues; the Internet group is likely to fear something like a conspiracy to cover up the relevant
activities.10

Two principal mechanisms underlie group polarization. The first points to social
influences on behavior; the second emphasizes limited “argument pools,” and the directions in
which those limited pools lead group members. An understanding of these mechanisms provides
many insights into legal and political issues; it illuminates a great deal, for example, about likely
processes within multimember courts, juries, political parties, and legislatures – not to mention
insulated ethnic groups, extremist organizations, student associations, faculties, workplaces, and
families. At the same time, these mechanisms give little reason for confidence that deliberation is making things better than worse; in fact they raise some serious questions about deliberation
from the normative point of view.11 If deliberation simply pushes a group toward a more extreme point in the direction of its original tendency, do we have any systematic reason to think that discussion is producing improvements?

As we will see, one of the principal lessons of the group polarization phenomenon is to
cast new light on an old point, to the effect that social homogeneity can be quite damaging to
good deliberation.12 When people are hearing echoes of their own voices, the consequence may
be far more than support and reinforcement. Another lesson is that particular forms of
homogeneity can be breeding grounds for unjustified extremism, even fanaticism. To work well,
deliberating groups should be appropriately heterogeneous and should contain a plurality of
articulate people with reasonable views – an observation with implications for the design of
regulatory commissions, legislative committees, White House working groups, and even
multimember courts.13 But there is a conceptual problem here: It is difficult to specify
appropriate heterogeneity, and the appropriate plurality of views, without making some
antecedent judgments about the substantive question at issue. I offer some comments about how
to resolve that problem.

This Article is organized as follows. Part II offers some brief notations on the general
question of social influences on individual judgments, with particular reference to the

9
See John Turner et al., Rediscovering the Social Group 142 (1987).
10
Compare R. Hightower and L. Sayeed, The Impact of Computer-Mediated Communication Systems on Biased
Group Discussion, 11 Computers in Human Behavior 33 (1995).
11
I am speaking here of real-world deliberation, not of deliberation accompanied by preconditions of the sort that
have been influenced by those thinking of it in ideal terms. See Jurgen Habermas, supra. A particular point to
emphasize here is the need for full information. See id.
12
A classic discussion is John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859).
13
Compare Irving Janis, Groupthink (1972) (coming to the same general conclusion, but without discussing
polarization).
5 The Law of Group Polarization
phenomenon of social cascades. A central point here is that any particular’s persons deeds and
statements create an informational externality.14 When a number of people have acted or spoken,
observers who lack much private information are highly likely to follow their lead. Part III offers
a basic account of group polarization, with particular reference to some new data in the legal
context. Part IV discusses the mechanisms that account for group polarization. Part V traces the
implications for a number of issues, involving feuds, ethnic strife, juries, commissions,
multimember courts, legislatures, and deliberation via the Internet. Part VI shows in what sense
group polarization raises doubts about the idea that deliberation is a social good; it traces the
implications of the phenomenon for proper structuring of deliberative institutions. Part VII is a
brief conclusion.

Brigham Young University Hawaii Fall 2008 Graduation

2008-12-14T01:17:00.000-08:00

Haleiwa Sunset Surf

2008-12-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

The Jacobite Risings and its Political Influence on the Novel Tom Jones

2008-12-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

During the late 18^th century when Henry Fielding wrote and published his novel Tom Jones, a Foundling, there was much political turmoil throughout the British Isles. The most prominent of these unrests were the Jacobite Risings, which lasted from 1688 until 1746.The main objective of the Jacobites was to return James VII of Scotland and II of England to the throne. James VII of Scotland and II of England had lost the throne after Parliament ruled against him during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Jacobites were given their names since Jacobus is the Latin version of James, their deposed king. The most significant attempts by the Jacobites occurred in 1715 and 1745 which formed the names “The Fifteen” and “The Forty-Five”. Although the Jacobites never achieved their goal of restoring their king, after their defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, it politically affected all of Great Britain and specifically Henry Fielding’s writing. The Jacobite Risings had such an impact at the time Tom Jones was written, that it influenced many events within the storyline of the book. Thus in having knowledge of the political conditions that affected Henry Fielding’s novel the reader will have a better understanding of the content therein. To examine all the Jacobite Rebellions would take many books worth of material so rather the focus of this research paper will examine the risings in 1715 and 1745. The dangerous political conditions at the time Tom Jones was written were profound enough to influence the novel in multiple ways. After examining the historical settings at the time Tom Jones was published and the events of the Jacobite Risings the reader will be able to more fully understand the impact it has on the novel.

The foundation of the Jacobite movement formed when the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James II of England of his Kingship over England, Ireland, and Scotland. When William of Orange landed in Torbay in late 1688 the Glorious Revolution began. According to Frank McLynn, William of Orange had been encouraged by “large numbers” (6) of the English aristocracy to come to England and take the thrown from James II. This popular support William of Orange enjoyed was a direct result, according to Frank McLynn, after “a miserable month of vacillation and dithering” (6) of James’ reign. William of Orange seized this opportunity and James II fled to France after William’s arrival. Surprisingly this transfer of power did not immediately result in any bloodshed. The fighting was to come later manifested in the Jacobite rebellions. The flight of James II is where Jacobitism started to coalesce. Jacobites are named after the Latin form of their deposed King and their main goal was to return James II back onto the throne of England, Scotland, and Ireland. To Jacobites, the seizure of the throne by William of Orange was constitutionally illegitimate and James II was still the rightful King of England.

As William of Orange sought to consolidate his power base within England, Scotland, and Ireland, James II recovered in France from his revolutionary escape. With Louis XIV’s advice James started to concentrate on growing the Jacobite movement in Ireland and Scotland where William of Orange’s legitimacy was still being debated. Unfortunately for James the situation in Scotland was extremely complex and as Frank McLynn clarifies, “particularly in matters of religion, where the esoteric nuances of seventeenth-century Presbyterianism and Episcopalianism seem as baffling to the modern sensibility as the system of gentes among the Iroquois.” (10) The complex situation McLynn describes is wholly manifested through the Clan system throughout both nations of Scotland and Ireland. Due to the fact that all the military support James was to get from Scotland and Ireland was firstly loyal to their own clan and secondly to the Jacobite cause, posed serious problems for his cause. Despite this fragmentation the Jacobite leader Viscount Dundee, which McLynn typifies “in a very high class,” (10) was able to lead a sizable force in Scotland against forces loyal to William of Orange. Viscount Dundee led the Jacobites on an increasingly successful campaign and even defeated the Williamite general Hugh McKay that had an army twice their own size. This victory at the Battle of Killiekrankie was however short lived after Viscount Dundee was killed by a musket ball. With no worse word to describe this turn of events Frank McLynn states it was a “catastrophe” (12) for the Jacobites. Without Dundee’s ability to smooth over constant factional clan wrinkles, the Jacobite cause ended in Scotland after heavy losses following a battle with the Cameronians in Dunkeld.

In addition to the Jacobite failure in Scotland, the campaign personally led by James in Ireland did not develop as planned either. Bolstered by the French King Louis XIV, James moved to occupy Derry to hinder any Williamite advancement into Ireland and to support Viscount Dundee in Scotland. For underlying religious reasons the Derrians began to resist, as Frank McLynn said, “fearing massacre by the Catholics.” (13) Jacobite plans in Ireland further melted away as the English fleet liberated Derry while the Jacobites were occupied dealing with the Derrians. With a victory in hand, William of Orange pushed to the river Boyne, near Dublin,and defeated the Jacobite force led by James II. Even with his significant power base in Ireland, James II withdrew to France to supposedly pursue the idea of a potential cross-channel invasion. Most Jacobites saw this as a cowardly retreat and the cause in Ireland began to dwindle as it had in Scotland. Jacobite forces were pushed farther back into Ireland but as Frank McLynn forecasted, “[were] for the moment beaten but by no means cowed.” (20) As the reader will see with the resurrection of Jacobitism in 1715 and 1745 this is, by all means, completely true.

Following the death of James II in 1701 the claim to the throne of England, Scotland, and Ireland were taken anew by his only legitimate son James Francis Edward Stuart. He was proclaimed James III of England and Scotland, and James VIII of Scotland and had the same goal as his father to reclaim the Stuart throne. By 1715 Jacobite sentiment within Scotland had grown with the Massacre of Glencoe, the Darien disaster, and most specifically the terribly unpopular 1707 Act of Union. Again in 1708 with the support of Louis XIV, another Jacobite hopeful for the throne of Britain set out for England six thousand strong. Finally evading an English blockade in Dunkirk James III sailed to England but was blocked by another fleet and could not land. Without any popular support readily apparent on the shores of Scotland to welcome James III, Admiral Forbin as related by Frank McLynn decided not to risk any “quixotic” (93) attempt to put troops ashore. Without even setting foot on Scottish soil James III had to return to France in defeat. A short time after James III’s debacle Queen Anne died, which put both Tories and Jacobites into what Frank McLynn called “confusion and disarray.” (95) Theoretically if James III had appeared on English soil the moment Queen Anne had died he might have legitimately claimed the throne. Unfortunately George I of Hanover took the quicker initiative and landed in Greenwich and was thus proclaimed monarch. To solidify his power and discourage any further attempts by James III, George I put a 100,000 pound bounty on James III’s head. George I also signed the Treaty of Utrecht with France where in Louis XIV was required to ask James III to leave France immediately. Abandoning the Jacobite cause the French, as Frank McLynn said, “put the maintenance of the peace ahead of Stuart ambitions, and refused to get involved.” (95) The transfer of power from Queen Anne to George I only reawakened Jacobite ambitions to the reality where they actually could have a chance at achieving their ultimate goal by taking the throne. With these thoughts James III, the Jacobites, and French supporters began to prepare for a rising in England, Scotland, and Ireland. After witnessing these volatile events wherein George I easily ascended the throne, the Jacobite cause gained a new fervor in the rising potential of their own leader, James III, and were the main contributing factors to the 1715 rebellion.

Fueled by events and imposing government laws a renewal of Jacobite swept throughout Britain, Scotland, and Ireland in 1715, which subsequently led to the 1715 rising. As with the 1745 rising, the name that labeled this rising reflects the year in which it took place. Therefore the ‘Fifteen’ under the direction of James Stuart, communicating through the Earl of Mar, was planned, according to Frank McLynn as a “three pronged affair.” (96) Frank McLynn further relates that the central focus of the Jacobite rising of 1715 was in the south-west of England. In addition to the central focus of James Stuart, “risings in the Highlands and the border counties” (96) were incorporated into an all encompassing campaign to reclaim the Stuart throne. Despite all of this planning by James Stuart there was never an objective set forth for the border counties to achieve and was to, as Frank McLynn phrases, “have catastrophic consequences.” (96) As the Jacobite rising gained momentum throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland the leaders of the various campaigns enjoyed an initial success but not nearly as much as they had hoped for. Combated by government spies and police making rampant arrests much of the support for the Jacobite cause was forestalled by fear of retribution by George I’s government. Additionally when John Erskine, the Earl of Mar, fumbled his commandership with the largest Jacobite army to date, it only hindered the cause further. Once most of James Stuart’s campaigns had floundered out he retreated to Montrose in eastern Scotland to, as he told his troops, regain a strong foothold but actually boarded a boat and fled to France in February, 1716.

Following the failed attempt of James III to invoke a Jacobite rising in the British Isles the government of George I took a lenient path in correcting insurrectionary problems. The Parliament of Great Britain passed both the Disarming Act and the Clan Act which were aimed at subduing areas most supportive of the Jacobite rising; specifically the Scottish Highlands.While Military garrisons were extended into the Scottish Highlands the government took a gentle turn and reinvested the money seized from estates back into Scottish speaking schools. This was a brilliant investment by the Parliament of Great Britain into converting the people to remain loyal with an English controlled education. Rather than using the money for a rigid military occupation of the area, a friendly and rewarding option was chosen instead. Following this plan of action had a direct extending effect on the period of time before another rebellion occurred.

More than thirty years after the first significant Jacobite rising, Charles Edward Stuart moved to make another bid for the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Charles Stuart was the son of James Stuart and as Rosalind Mitchison characterizes him “[was] a young and adventurous, though stupid, heir” (335). As William Speck relates through a quote from The History of the Rebellion in the Years 1745 and 1746 in his book The Butcher the “whole Nation was ripe for revolt.” (7) Speck further quotes that “the nation had been in a ferment…divided into factions and parties…[with] heavy taxes…[and] scandalous corruption in the Parliament.” (7) Speck goes on to say it was with “a disaffection to his Majesty [George II], and an inclination towards the Pretender [Charles Stuart]” (7) that Charles hoped his rebellion would be a success with the people of England. Costigan also agrees and says in his book that, “The eighteenth-century House of Commons in Britain was notorious for its corruption.” (98) Susan Kybett states that after a short skirmish with a British man-o-war, Charles Stuart first set foot on Scottish soil in Eriskay on the 2^nd of August, 1745 (117). Shortly thereafter on August the 19^th at Glenfinnan, according to Kybett, the royal standard was raised and the royal proclamation was read (123). With this proclamation Charles Edward Stuart formally declared war on George II and stated his intended goal of rightfully reclaiming the English, Scottish, and Irish crowns. As Charles Stuart began his march towards Edinburgh the only government army in Scotland, lead by Sir John Cope, completely avoided Charles’ army and instead marched to Inverness. Cope, believing Charles’ forces superior in number to his own sought to gain additional recruits in Inverness and marched there instead of immediately confronting Charles’ army. Thereafter Charles Stuart made lightning fast progress and on, as Kybett states, September 17 “was [the] master of Scotland’s capital [Edinburgh]” (134). After Sir John Cope gained recruits he marched back to fight Charles at Edinburgh but his army was routed in a night attack by Lord George Murray. This early morning attack comically gained a song of its own as Magnus Magnusson relates the first line: “Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye [wakened] yet?” (592). According to Jenny Wormald, Lord George Murray is “generally credited” (187) with masterminding the early victories of the Jacobite army. It was Lord George Murray that became one of the best military leaders for the Jacobite and even strongly advised Charles Stuart not to engage in the fateful Battle of Culloden.

Upon realizing they were the masters of Scotland, the Jacobites began to factionalize with different goals. Scottish Jacobites felt that their victory in attaining Scotland a complete success. For Charles Stuart, he felt as though, as Magnus Magnusson states, “the mission had only begun” (600). Charles Edward Stuart sought to solve the problem with a vote by a council of leaders. The result pointed the Jacobites south to England, as Magnus Magnusson relates, “by only one vote” (600). With this binding vote the Jacobites marched south under the newly nominated sole commander of the army, Lord George Murray, following his exceptional leadership. Dodging the massive armies of Marshal Wade, the Duke of Cumberland, and another gathering at Finchley, Murray made for Derby. Despite the English having, as Magnusson numbers “thirty thousand men,” (601) Lord Murray was able to use his smaller army to evade the aptly described “lumbering” (601) massive English forces. As the Jacobites reached Derby, it caught Europe by surprise due to the fact that Derby is only two hundred kilometers (125 miles) from London, the capital. Unfortunately, as Magnus Magnusson says, “Derby was to be the end of their road.” (603) Despite the Jacobites success in marching to Derby so rapidly the promise of additional French and local English support was not materializing. Thus military leaders urged Charles to retread to Scotland to wait for the French reinforcements. During the Jacobites wintery retreat, Magnusson stated, “Hamilton to Glasgow” (606) were either ransacked or looted for military supplies and finances. These actions marked the decline of Jacobite dreams where the need for survival surpassed the need for popular support as most of the Jacobites severely doubted their chances of achieving Charles Stuart’s goals. The Jacobites finally met the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746. Jacobite forces were exhausted and had not been fed where as the Duke’s army were well rested and had even taken a leisurely pace traveling to the battlefield. The Duke of Cumberland soundly defeated the Jacobites and thereafter executed a policy, as Magnusson relates, “Everyone in Highland clothing was assumed to be a rebel; and every rebel deserved to die” (622). Thus in Scotland Magnusson says the Duke earned the title of “Butcher Cumberland” (623). Prince Charles Edward Stuart after evading the searching by the Duke of Cumberland made it to France in late September and with him went any hope for ever reclaiming the throne.

Within Tom Jones, a Foundling, there are multiple references and plot alterations because of the Jacobite Risings. Most of the references in Tom Jones call to attention the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, which is when Henry Fielding’s novel occurs and more uncommonly has references to the previous 1715 Jacobite rising. The first unambiguous reference to the Jacobite rebellion happens during the initial meeting between Tom Jones and the company of soldiers in book VII, chapter XI. Upon informing Tom Jones, the Sergeant of the soldiers related the perceived activity of the Jacobite rebels:

“this was the very Time when the late rebellion was at the highest; and indeed the Banditti were now marches into England, intending, as it was thought, to fight the King’s Forces, and to attempt pushing forward to the Metropolis [London].” (327)

As Henry Fielding relates on that “memorable day” (919) the news that Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, had slipped past the Duke of Cumberland’s army and was heading for London had “thrown all Men into the most dreadful Consternation” (919). In reality Charles Stuart only made it as far as Derby during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. The terror related through Henry Fielding’s passage is a combination of the mobility the Jacobite army had getting near London so quickly while avoiding English troops in addition to fears of a following French invasion. French King Louis, as with previous Stuart uprisings, had an understanding that if the Jacobites were successful enough in rebellion he would commit the forces necessary for a French invasion. Thus the “consternation,” as Fielding calls it, is rightly expressed by English citizens after the success of the Young Pretender, Charles Stuart, and the potential French invasion. Fortunately for the English, Prince Charles stopped at Derby and began a retreat back to Scotland, as Hugh Douglas says, “to await reinforcements from France” (19) after being “forced…to agree” (19) by his military leaders. Through the novel Tom Jones we can see the terror permeating within the minds of people and the extent at which soldiers have taken up arms because of that fear. Knowing this sociological status of thought and what events led to it expands the depth at which we can understand the context of Tom Jones’ meeting with the company of soldiers.

Another encounter in the story of Tom Jones the reader has with the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 is when Sophia Western and Harriet stop to rest at an inn. Upon further explanation by Thomas Keymer and Alice Wakely in the notes section of the Penguin edition of Tom Jones the “very fair promising Inn” (505) is “usually identified as Meriden” (940). Keymer and Wakely further explain this significance as Meriden is a “village…where Cumberland’s army massed in December 1745 to block any Jacobite Penetration south of Derby” (940). This fact most likely leads the innkeeper in Tom Jones to conclude that “they [Sophia and Harriet] are certainly some of the Rebel Ladies” (507). Keymer and Wakely specify ‘rebel ladies’ as either being Jenny Cameron, Lady Ogilvie, or the Duchess of Perth (940). These women were, as related by Keymer and Wakely, supposedly guilty “to have disclaimed all the Softness peculiar to their Sex by marching with the Jacobite army” (940). The Innkeeper and his wife continued to discuss the significance of their ‘discovery’ after the woman have gone to bed and even entertain thoughts of betraying “her up to the courts” (508) because they think Sophia and Harriet are Jacobite rebels. The Innkeeper maintains this thoughtful conflict until a Jacobite squire brings news that ten-thousand French soldiers have landed in Suffolk (508) where after the innkeeper decides to support the rebels. He does so believing that the Jacobites have tipped the odds in their favor with ten thousand additional troops and more specifically that, as Fielding writes, the rebel women will “make [his] Fortune” (508) for not betraying her. Analyzing the situation in which Henry Fielding places the innkeeper and the subsequent decision made thereafter puts the weight of the news of Jacobite progress into sharp perspective. At the change of the innkeeper’s political attitude the reader can see how volatile the political situation exactly was during the 1745 rebellion. Not only does the innkeeper defect from supporting the King but examines ways in which he can aid the Jacobite cause regardless if his motivations are primarily self-interested.

Since we have examined the political situation surrounding the publication of Tom Jones the events of the Jacobite Risings are put into context in relation to the multiple influences they have within the novel. Additionally, because of this improved knowledge of the political conditions during the time of Henry Fielding, the reader should reread Tom Jones. With this newly gained knowledge the reader can be more politically aware to the various commentary characters say in reference the Jacobite rebellions. This awareness will add depth, context, and richness to an otherwise already timeless novel.

Works Cited

Costigan, Giovanni. A History of Modern Ireland. New York: Pegasus, 1969.

Douglas, Hugh, and Michael J. Stead. The Flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Gloucestershire, G B: Sutton, 2000.

Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones, a Foundling. Oxford, Eng: Penguin Classics, 1749 (1985).

Kybett, Susan Maclean. Bonnie Prince Charlie. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1988.

Magnusson, Magnus. Scotland The Story of a Nation. London: HarperCollins, 2000.

McLynn, Frank. The Jacobites. London: Routledge, 1985.

Mitchison, Rosalind. A History of Scotland. 2^nd ed. Norwich, G B: Fletcher & Son, 1971.

Speck, W.A..The Butcher: The Duke of Cumberland and the Suppression of the 45. Oxford, Eng: Basil Blackwell, 1981.

Wormald, Jenny. Scotland A History. Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2005.

My Office II

2008-10-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

Socialism as the Designated Driver

2008-10-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

Published in the Ke Alaka'i as an Op-Ed. I am actually undecided about the Bailout bill but wrote this to antagonize a girl I work with.

Over the past few months, America has been facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, according to politicians and mainstream media. In this economically troubled time, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke presented a $700 billion economic stimulus bill for Congressional approval officially known at H.R. 1424 or the “Bailout bill.” With the condition of the economy in mind, Congress was right in passing the Bailout bill and should look further into repairing the economy.

After the mostly unregulated economy in America failed with the stock market crash of 1929, the government chose to step in and rethink economic policy. In the decades following, organizations such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were instituted, and have helped guide our economy safely for most of the century.

We are at that time again in our nation’s history where we need to examine and reform our economic policy to maintain a healthy, free market for the future. The balance between economic regulation and freedom has been upset by greed in volatile investments and sub-prime mortgages. Capitalism has drunkenly spun out of control with a lack of regulation and corporate greed. Aspects of socialism can be America’s designated driver, providing a safe route home where there is time to rethink priorities in a much better suited atmosphere.

Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, American International Group, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, and Wachovia have all been severely affected because of the exponentially growing financial crisis. Almost a year ago, many of these companies were titans in the American economy and as large in international markets. Thanks to the genius of our forefathers in forming government with a capacity for emergency federal loans, we have eight badly damaged companies instead of eight bankrupt ones. Without the safety net of emergency federal loans, Wall Street would be in much worse condition than it is today.

Now that much of the economy is resting in temporary financial safety nets, it is time to help the economy back to its feet with an increased regulatory presence of the federal government. By passing the Bailout bill we will give an immediate, if only momentarily secure, window of time to our national leaders to solve the problem and prevent the ailing economy from sinking deeper in problems while doing so. With this time, politicians can develop more appropriate measures to heal our economy since the Bailout bill is not intended to fulfill this role entirely.

There is no other way for us to cushion the economy until congressional leaders can decide what to do than with the security of this Bailout bill. Despite the vast amount of unnecessary earmarks present within the Bailout bill, sadly they are required to garner support from senators and representatives. This is the sacrifice the federal government must endure for letting capitalism grow unchecked.

If we had waited to pass this bill, markets would have stagnated as business owners wouldn’t have been able to get loans for expansion and people would have been unable to buy a house due to crippled mortgage markets. Instead of prolonging the agony of America’s economic troubles, we should swallow this bitter pill and start the process of getting healthy.

The Price of Identity

2008-10-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

A film analysis/response to The Battle of Algiers.

The film The Battle of Algiers could easily be a setting in any modern war with elements of guerilla warfare and terror tactics even though it was made nearly 40 years ago. Resulting in a conflict of identities, the war between the French and the Algerians is the standard recipe for almost all wars.

In a lavish lifestyle the French self righteously take it upon themselves to rule the Algerians until they are able to function independently. Unfortunately for the Algerians the ethnic lines and cultural divisions are too defined for any real socioeconomic movement by the Algerians in the immediate future. This stagnant pool in which two cultures fester together results in the organization of the soon to be terrorists in opposition to the French for Algerian liberty. Interestingly enough this method of violence only brings about more identity suppression in the form of curfews and barriers around ethnic neighborhoods. Rather than peaceably resolving the matter with the French, which would take a significant amount of time, Algerian terrorists decide to follow the rapid path of guerilla warfare with a more ‘visible’ progression.

At what price does a culture place its identity? Obviously in this case, both the French and the Algerians put it in higher value on it than a terrorized and war torn city. This sense of identity conflict transcends personal safety and comfort. Algerians hide escaping terrorists from French paratroopers at a risk to their own household. Throughout the strike guided by the FLN and watched by the UN, business owners and workers no doubt experienced financial setbacks after the entire economy was put on hold. All of these acts were for the support of their own identity. This form of thought not readily apparent in the ethnically blurred United States of America gives Americans insight into many of the wars its nation is fighting. This film, if only for a few fleeting hours, gives perhaps the most valuable experience with terrorism while not actually going to war.

The Battle of Algiers raises innumerable questions about ethnically and identity driven warfare and what that means for its participants. Questions such as how much are people willing to do for the cause of an identity is shockingly answered with the harsh explosion of a café bombing where as how to deal with an insurgency are intentionally left unsolved. The French never solved this problem and Americans haven’t either. The value of identity to human beings has yet to be realized.

My Office

2008-09-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Working at my campus newspaper as a photographer takes me to many different settings, which I all thoroughly enjoy.

The Forever War

2008-08-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

Dexter Filkins reporting during a rocket attack in Fallujah

The New York Times' preview for Dexter Filkins' The Forever War that will be published next month.

Laie Summit

2008-07-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

7/25/2008

Miles: 9.78
Time to Summit: 1:45
Moving Time: 3:20
Stopped Time: 00:35
Total Time: 3:55
Accuracy Ranged: 14 ft - 36 ft
Total Ascent: 2350 ft

Leif Ericson vs. Lance Armstrong

2008-07-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Watching Into the Wild while having way too much time on my hands hasn't helped my newly emerging restless phase at all. To channel this rising amount of extra time I turned to old methods with reading, photography, and computer games. These really didn't work though. Either through the stagnant heat of a Hawaiian summer or a different turn in my life for what I find enjoyable, I began to look for something to do.

I initially was thinking of either road cycling or a sort of exploration hiking with GPS. Both are significantly individual sports, and are equally capable of involving other additional people. My Mother mentioned that I could also geocache when hiking with a GPS device. I didn't really know what exactly 'exploration hiking' was when I thought about it, and geocaching gave the hobby a much more defined direction. Originally I thought I could be an amateur cartographer, or just map the coordinates of the tallest peaks behind my town of Laie.

So, after thinking about the two I made a choice and bought a Garmin 60CSx to use for geocaching and exploratory hiking. Some might say blowing $300 on a hobby you haven't even started is ridiculously impulsive. I would have to agree but at the same time you must realize even though it might loose value being used the second after I buy it, I could still relatively easily liquidate it just like any other asset I own. The choice was tricky, but the specific influence of Into the Wild won out over watching coverage of the Tour De France. It'd be awesome if a ran across a cheap road bicycle..

Despite choosing one of the two hobbies I never really left my goal that both of them had. This goal contains many elements, and mainly is the notion of pushing to your limits. For biking, it existed with the 'runner's high' or I guess the 'biker's high' wherein a physical momentum is achieved allowing your mind to experience a sort of detached silence, witnessing your body work. Of course, there is also physical fitness and doing crazy distance runs like the HBA's round island (Oahu) bike ride in one day.

Hiking, as seen in the picture above or below, can evoke types of spiritual and mental awe merely by looking around after conquering whatever you've climbed. This is especially true for solo hiking, which isn't particularly safe but hopefully having a GPS and being on a island won't get me into too much trouble. The notion of hiking in such aesthetic places is what mainly drew me to it and continues to excite me like a little boy.

Can you see the person? This is behind a town 5 minutes drive south from mine (Hauula).

Tahitian Festival

2008-07-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Graffiti Photography

2008-07-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Fireworks

2008-07-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

The Triumph of Youthful Ambition

2008-06-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

Following the assassination of Julius Caesar by members of the Roman Senate, the republic was sent into a civil war lasting thirteen years. Primarily, this great civil war was fought between Mark Antony and Gaius Octavius who formed an alliance with the Second Triumvirate ruling as dual dictators but which, over the course of time, deteriorated into open civil war in 32 BC. Despite Mark Antony’s superior power at the start of the war, Octavius was able to defeat him with his politically astute abilities in growing his own loyalty and popularity among plebs, senators, and soldiers of the armies. Mark Antony’s initial overconfidence in his political position within the Republic gave Octavian a crucial chance to consolidate his power base without much opposition. In addition, towards the end of Rome’s civil war, Mark Antony detached himself from Rome by pursuing relations with Queen Cleopatra in Egypt and his supposed “new oriental Roman empire” (Constable, 85), which only helped Octavius convince Rome of Antony’s betrayal.

It is amazing to know that Gaius Octavius who was a plebeian and “susceptible to illness, timid, and frail in appearance,” (Conti, 66) caught the attention of Julius Caesar. When attempting to join Caesar in Hispania Octavius was shipwrecked but still came ashore and traveled with his men across hostile territory to reach Caesar. This, of course, “formed a high opinion of his character,” (Suetonius, 133) to his great-uncle and started Octavius on the road to eventually being endorsed as heir to the Republic as stated in Julius Caesar’s will. This came as a large surprise to Rome, which had foreseen either Mark Antony or Aemilius Lepidus gaining control over Caesar’s army as both “were peculiarly well placed,” (Earl, 20). The senators of the Roman republic saw Mark Antony’s “naked ambition,” (Constable, 82) and sought to check it with another Caesarian, Octavius. This appointment of Octavius’ use had full, unrealized potential as both Antony and the senate “fatally miscalculated the ruthless ambition of Octavian” (Earl, 22). This miss-judgment wasn’t completely either sides fault, “as Cicero [the senator] perpetually described Octavian, was only eighteen years old” (Earl, 22).

During the initial instability following Julius Caesar’s assassination, Mark Antony didn’t particularly fear Octavius because he was more secure in age, experience, position, and authority within the republic. Mark Antony’s overconfidence in his political position and disregard for Gaius Octavius’ potential is one of the main factors in Octavius’ eventual victory over him. Mark Antony still wanted to put his “security beyond doubt” and issued a law “prolonging the provincial commands of the consuls Antony and Dolabella for five years and giving Antony control of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul instead of Macedonia,” (Earl, 22) while still maintaining control of his Macedonian legions. This move by Antony would give control over the Gallic provinces, which were wealthy and the chief recruiting regions for the army. By holding such strong recruitment areas Antony could build up his armies and fortify his economic wealth to finance any needed campaigns.

Following Mark Antony’s exodus to Gaul, “Cicero…persuaded the senate with a series of impassioned speeches [the Philippics] to send an army,” (Constable, 82) after Mark Antony with two consuls and Octavius. During this time Gaius Octavius had been recruiting Caesarian veterans with money and in effect had bribed two of Mark Antony’s legions” (Rowell, 23). The two Roman armies met at Mutina (Modena) and Antony was defeated but most importantly the two consuls leading the senate’s appointed army were killed in the action leaving Octavius an open civic spot for the taking. Refusing to cooperate with Decimus Brutus and pursue Antony because he was an assassin of Julius Caesar, Octavius instead marched on Rome to secure his consulship left vacant by the deaths of Hirtius and Pansa (Earl, 28). Upon entering Rome, Octavius the “population of Rome flocked to welcome him…and the soldiors in the city, in defiance of their officers, went over to him” (Earl, 29). Unable to cope with Octavius’ popularity and pressured by Octavian’s eight legions, the senate immediately gave “permission to stand for the consulship in absence and decreed payment of the long withheld donative to his troops” (Earl, 29). Gaius Octavius was thus able to secure consulship in addition to his relative Pedius. Also, by gaining control over the public treasury, Octavius was able to finance his army, which is particularly crucial in maintaining loyalty among the troops. With Octavius elected as consul the senate also formally confirmed Julius Caesar’s adoption of Octavius that transformed him to the new name of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Earl, 29). Now formally and legally recognized Octavian “basked in his unparalleled popularity among the armies in Italy and the plebs as Caesar’s heir” (Constable, 82).

Octavian’s steps in legalizing his own power as Caesar’s heir and the election to consul was the most significant step for the young, emerging political master. This gave what Octavian needed in order to compete with the larger and more capable armies of Antony and Lepidus: equality. Rather than compete directly with the more powerful leaders of the republic and possibly lose Rome, Octavian sought to ally with them. Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian all met at “Bononia [Bologna] in 43 BC” (Constable, 83) and formed a triple alliance. What emerged was Triumviri reipublicaeconstituendae or the Triumvirs for the Regulation of the Republic and was effectively a “united front against the senate and the assassins [of Julius Caesar]” (Constable, 89).

Before the Triumvirs sought to consolidate their power throughout the empire by eliminating Brutus and Cassius, they had to assure that when they were on the campaign that no senators “might cause trouble” (Earl, 31). What followed was the proscribed execution of an estimated 2,000 senators and businessmen (Constable, 83; Earl, 30-31). Only after purging the dissidents did the Triumvirs sail across the Adriatic to oppose Brutus and Cassius. In 42 BC the Triumvirs were victorious in various battles against Brutus and Cassius that had 17 legions. Instead of facing capture both of the assassins [of Julius Caesar] committed suicide (Constable, 83). After defeating Brutus and Cassius, the Triumvirs united the Roman republic and divided up the state into separate regions for each to rule. Octavian was given the western portion in addition to Italy, Antony was given the east, and Lepidus was “edged out by being given Africa” (Constable, 83). Hispania was given to Octavian rather than Lepidus in Mark Antony’s attempt to stymie Lepidus (Eck, 18). This move can be seen as the continued underestimation of Octavian by Mark Antony which only compounds on his earlier choices and leads to Octavian’s ever growing advantage.

Before attempting to confront Sextus Pompey for control of Sicily, Octavian had to deal with the Perusine War. Following the war with Brutus and Cassius, many of the Triumvirs soldiers retired and were given land on the Italian peninsula. The only problem with giving this land to these veterans was that it had been “confiscated” (Constable, 83). One of Mark Antony’s brother, Lucius, and whom Antony’s wife Fulvia supported, raised an army in opposition to Octavian and to help “dispossessed Italians” (Constable, 83). With months of fighting, Lucius finally surrendered at Perusia (Perugia) but in reality this somewhat minor conflict could have prematurely caused the “full-scale civil war” (Constable, 83) Rome was destined to have between Antony and Octavian. Antony had landed in Brundisium but instead of escalating the conflict the legions compelled peace and reaffirmed the divisions between Antony and Octavian’s spheres of influence.

Once the crisis in Italy was solved, Octavian set out to gain control of Sicily once again from Sextus Pompey who had “dried up Rome’s grain supply and famine threatened” (Constable, 84). In a very brilliant and provocative move, Octavian divorced his wife Scribonia, the aunt of Sextus’ wife and remarried Livia Drusilla. According to Donald Earl this marriage was perhaps the most important single event in all the long rise of Octavian to supreme power. Livia was already married, had borne a son, and was pregnant with another but there was still “no impediment…in high politics” (Earl, 39).Livia’s aristocratic connections throughout the high nobility of Rome “were vitally important for Octavian” (Earl, 39). It marked the point when his cause first began to attract ambitious aristocrats and they joined him not from sentiment but because at last they judged that he might become the equal, even the superior of Antony and carry them to power (Earl, 39-40).
The operation to invade Sicily and regain control from Sextus Pompey by invading the island from three directions at once which also included Lepidus. Once Siciliy had been taken Lepidus knew Octavian would turn against him to further consolidate his power within the republic (Earl, 49). Looking for a way out, “Lepidus therefore attempted to seize Siciliy” (Earl, 49) but after conquering much of Sicily on his own, Octavian entered his camp, claimed his troops with Caesar’s name, and stripped Lepidus of his Triumvirs powers completely. With Lepidus out of the political power make up of the Roman world, Octavian turned his ambitious eye to Mark Antony who had returned to Alexandria to what Nick Constable termed as his “mistress,” Queen Cleopatra.

Mark Antony had “goaded the Roman establishment” (Constable, 85) by marrying Cleopatra sometime after 37 BC which was considered illegal by Romans since Cleopatra was a foreign monarch and additionally by holding a sacred Roman triumph in Alexandria. Antony had desecrated his Roman marriage and had already fathered twins with Cleopatra even before Octavia’s second pregnancy (Constable, 85), which outraged Romans. Mark Antony’s entire perspective on his rule had changed significantly when he realized his idea of a “new oriental Roman empire” (Constable, 85) could potentially be combined with the Roman world. Firmly set in his outlook on what Antony saw as valuable to himself, namely his position in Egypt, Octavian was presented with an easy target who was far away in the east, and unable to defend himself. After seizing Antony’s will, Octavian had physical evidence to present to the Senate about Antony’s plans to give away Roman conquered regions for his sons to rule in addition to building a tomb in Alexandria himself and Queen Cleopatra (Eck, 34-35). Armed with evidence Octavian knew would make Antony vulnerable and sway the Republic to his side, he wasted no time in seizing his opportunity to finally consolidate his complete power. Octavian therein turned the Senate and Rome against Antony with stories of his actions and so the Senate revoked Mark Antony’s power as consul and declared war on Egypt (Eck, 35).

Both Antony and Octavian attempted to enlist supporters to the eventual war both knew was coming but since Antony was so far away in Egypt, Octavian easily socially out-maneuvered Antony with his close proximity to his subjects. War was declared in 32 BC and the long rival’s fleet clashed in Actium where Antony and Cleopatra were defeated. Octavian pursued both to Alexandria and on August 1, 30 BC the city surrendered (Earl, 54). Antony at once killed himself but Cleopatra survived for a few days to be interviewed by Octavian before she succumbed to the bite of the asp (Earl, 54). Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian then became ruler of the Roman Empire.

Mark Antony’s underestimation of Octavian was his first mistake but was not the last in the conflict following the assassination of Julius Caesar that threw Rome into thirteen years of civil war. Gaius Octavian was nearly as politically astute and brilliant as his adoptive father Julius Caesar. These political and social talents projected Octavian beyond his limitations as a soldier and commander to compete with Mark Antony and Lepidus on equal ground. It can easily be seen from a Roman perspective that Antony sabotaged himself with his political investment in Egypt and with Cleopatra but Antony’s pursuit of a unified east west oriental Roman Empire might have been to far ahead for his time. Gaius Octavian catered to the image and honor of Rome which pleased the republic and soon to be empire whereas Mark Antony sought something beyond himself and foreign to his native people.

Bibliography

Earl, Donald. The Age of Augustus. London: Elek Books Limited, 1968.

Constable, Nick. Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome. Ludlow, England: Thalamus Publishing, 2003.

Conti, Flavio. A Profile of Ancient Rome. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003.

Hadas, Moses, and Editors of TIME-LIFE Books. Imperial Rome. Canada: Time Inc., 1965.

Drinkwater, J.F., and Andrew, Drummond. The World of the Romans. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1993.

Suetonius, James Rivers (Editor, Introduction), Robert Graves (Translator). The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Penguin Classics; Rev. Ed, 2007.

Rowell, Henry Thompson. Rome in the Augustan Age. University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.

Eck, Werner. The Age of Augustus. 2nd. Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.

Ryan Bagley ©

Technology on Campus

2008-06-16T22:58:00.001-07:00

There are over 600 computers on BYU - Hawii campus excluding student's own personal computers. According to Academic Computer Lab Services nearly 90% of students use these computers daily.

View More
(Press i in center screen for full text of each picture)

© Ryan Bagley

Raise Gas Prices Higher

2008-05-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Featured in Ke Alaka'i newspaper vol. 81 no. 3

Gasoline prices have risen 30 cents in the past two months and the only solution to break America’s costly addiction is to raise them even higher with federal taxes. Desperate drivers across the nation are attempting to get around the high prices by increasing efficiency in current gasoline-fed models, innovating renewable fuels, or by not driving at all. These high gas prices have forcefully encouraged innovation which is what American needs to rise above its addiction to oil.

If gasoline prices steadily went up with increasing federal taxes over the years, Americans would phase gasoline out of their lives. This would strongly encourage innovation for alternative fuel sources, increasing vehicle efficiency, make citizens more energy conscious, break our addiction to oil, and would put pressure on public transportation enough to be a viable alternative outside urban areas. Making America more efficient would conserve natural resources while lowering our total amount of imported oil. Federal taxes would give American an opportunity to control gasoline prices that are already seemingly spiraling out of control. According to the American Automobile Association the average price of gas in Honolulu has risen from $3.14 in August last year to the current average price of $4.11. By taking hold of gas prices for a few years, America will be able to restructure our addicted public to better resist oil’s monopoly on the market.

Revenue gained from these federal taxes could be reinvested into renewable fuel research and improving public transportation infrastructure nationwide.

Humans are adaptable enough to take the price rise in stride as they will seek alternatives. A recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that 36% of Americans who had travel plans this summer say they are changing because of gas prices. The study was conducted May 2-4 before more fuel price increases and so is possible the statistic is higher. A fond childhood memory of the Grand Canyon might have been taken away, but by helping heal America’s dependence on foreign oil, it is priceless. While it might sound collectivist for such individual sacrifices, in a few years it will actually strengthen capitalism within America when people have many more options for transportation and fuel sources. I know of six friends living in mainland American cities that have recently taken their bikes from storage or have bought one purely because gas prices are so high. There is no doubt my friends had inconveniences not driving to work but these were offset by saving money, losing weight through exercise, and reducing pollution. These actions don’t appear to affect anything locally but on a national level they could add up.

Students here at BYU - Hawaii are already discouraged from buying vehicles due to high prices and would be further if prices doubled or tripled. For those that require cars to get to internships, it will of course be difficult, but carpooling or buying fuel-efficient cars could help remedy the problem.

In the past two months, gas prices have risen locally from a staggering $3.73 a gallon to breaking $4.00 at some gas stations. The problem of high gas prices is common everywhere in America as anybody is obviously aware of but it seems no one is taking into consideration the amount of innovation these prices are encouraging.

Ha ha

2008-05-23T20:26:00.001-07:00

Values of Crito & Apology

2008-05-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

When conversing with both the Athenian Senate and his dear friend Crito, Socrates highlights certain civic and individual values that he practices despite knowledge of his impending execution. By fully submitting his will to the state he shows his faith in righteous justice and just how indebted its citizens are to the government for what it did in his upbringing. Socrates also champions following the right path in one’s life by disregarding the opinion of the many, by not returning evil with evil, and adhering to what you truly think is just and right. He additionally believed that humble wisdom and truth were the greatest improvements of the soul an individual could make.

Early on within the dialogue of the Apology, Socrates makes it known that he fully submits his will to the Athenian Senate in their righteous justice. Socrates said that, “you will be able to judge of the truth of the rest” in a direct address to the members of the Senate. Socrates makes this characteristic of his personality very well known early on in his speech to the Senate and so must in turn be of importance. This complete faith in righteous justice isn’t invested in humans, it relies with the perception of humans only if the, “judge decide justly and the speaker speak truly.” Socrates believed that all individuals knew deep within themselves what was truly righteous and what wasn’t and so called to Athenians to adhere to that inner knowledge.

Towards the end of talking to his friend Crito, Socrates attempts to convince Crito of the debt each Athenian owes its state. When regulating such institution as marriage and education Socrates says citizens are indebted to the state even before birth for forming such a world in which an individual could prosper by taking advantage of public institutions such as education. Paralleling this relationship as a child is to his father, Socrates says it is “not on equal terms” and cautions citizens not to “think that you have a right to do to us what we are doing to you.” This places the state above the individual and gives much more power to act as it will. Even when disobeying the state and retribution follows, “the punishment is to be endured in silence”. By conveying his belief in a citizen’s obedience to the state, Socrates seeks to exemplify himself as a virtuous person because he previously championed people who submit their will to the state. Either as a false characteristic of his views, or a truthful aspect of what he perceives as a citizen’s duty, he says Athenians must follow the state “as is right.” As Socrates certainly knew not all people would think some actions of the state were carried out in righteous justice and so urges disagreed citizens to turn to persuasion in order to convince the state to act differently instead of through force or rebellion. If this persuasion proves ineffective one must fulfill his or her duty to the state with whatever “his country order him.”

Another characteristic Socrates highlights is the justification for his role as a philosopher and questioner to exist in Athenian society. He compares the great state of Athens to “a great and noble steed” that becomes slow and lethargic because of its size. Socrates then proclaims himself the ‘gadfly’ which stirs to life this great and noble steed of the Athenian Republic. By questioning and proposing new and radical things it moves the Republic into motion and keeps lethargy from overtaking the steed. Without an enlivening citizen, Socrates cautions the consequences to the Athenian Senate and advised to spare him.

Much of what Socrates brings up as virtuous characteristics augments itself in his favor and so begs the question of validity with how truly did Socrates really believe in the things he professed. His attempts to convince the Senate with his notions of submitting to the state didn’t convince to the effect of saving his own life but championed righteous justice for other lives.

How the United States Formed Modern Asia

2008-04-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Following World War II no other nation has had such a deep and profound influence in shaping the political ingredients present in today’s Pacific Asia than the United States of America. Few other areas in the world have been such directly effected by a singular country in how they operate and are perceived internationally in the modern world. The most notable example is the reconstruction of Japan after its defeat in World War II. Significant political, economic, and ideological indoctrinations were injected into Japan to pacify its imperialist ambitions and form a greater democratic American ally in the Asian Pacific region. George Kennan’s containment theory also profoundly shaped the Pacific region by changing American foreign policy following North Korea’s invasion of South Korea and the conflict that followed after. By supporting Taiwan early on rather than mainland China, the United States greatly heightened Taiwan’s security from China and in turn encouraged the economic development that thereafter ensued. There are other countless factors the United States has used to influence Asia including the Westernization of China’s economy for admittance to theWorld Trade Organization and the permeation of the American military throughout South East Asia, among others.

Beginning with World War II itself, the participation of the United States in the Pacific Asian region severely altered the balance of power of what could have been. Japan, fearing Roosevelt’s aggressive demand for certain concessions came to the conclusion that it would be better off attacking the United States first, instead of the other way around. It was a grave mistake for Japan to act on that notion and by dragging America into the war it severely undercut the chance that Japan had the chance to become the regional hegemon. If that decision had never been realized, the political make-up of Pacific Asia would be drastically different from what it is today. Many of the independent nations that exist today in Pacific Asia would be territories under Japan’s rule and could have easily formed a modern hegemonic empire with enormous implications to the present day international balance of power. Much similar to halting the emerging powers of France or Germany decades earlier, the United States changed the course of history by stopping the Japanese empire from complete regional expansion under military dictatorship.

Once Japan surrendered thus ending World War II, Douglas MacArthur was made the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers and was given three directives to achieve by President Truman. MacArthur was directed to dismantle the immense Japanese military machine, encourage democracy throughout the nation, and an additional Marshall Plan like economic investment from the United States. These directives were specifically designed to start from the ground up and completely revamp the people of Japan and the state itself. Starting at the most basic level the American occupation force changed the fundamental ideology of the Japanese people through military defeat and additionally just by occupying the state. Japanese imperialist ambitions were vaporized as a result and so became more passive actors internationally. To avoid the immense depth that the Germans sank into following their defeat in World War I and the following troubles it brought, the SCAP occupying forces directed public ambition into economic venues. Taking the Japanese to the bottom of defeat, the Americans were able to bring them back up with notions of democracy and elections by helping them to write a constitution that coincided with these ideals. When the United States did this it essentially sociologically transformed the entire form of the Japanese nation into a mirror of America’s, albeit with severe limitations on the military. By restricting the size of Japan’s military and allowing only defensive forces the United States assured non-aggression hopes that were well placed following World War II but have been seriously regretted since then. Since Japan’s military is purely defensive it wasn’t able to support the United States in any of its armed conflicts throughout the late 20^th century such as Vietnam and the War on Terror. This has changed in recent years with Japan altering its Constitution to allow for up to 1% of GDP expenditure on the military budget and taking away the requirement for military forces to be purely defensive. This military check coupled with the erasure of both side’s archives to maintain good relations, encouraging democracy fundamentally, and maintaining the Emperor as the figurehead were not enough together to check Japanese ambition entirely. Thus the United States moved to funnel the majority of Japanese ambition through economic capitalism.

As the third directive given to the SCAP it was no doubt the most influential one, as Japan had the second largest economy until recently overtaken by China, which has significantly more resources. Much like the Marshall Plan used to reinvest into and rebuild East Germany, the United States saw it in their best interest to rebuild their own former enemy’s economy to provide a valuable trading ally that was tied with an ideological transformation, making it an easier process. Besides providing an additional trading partner it was crucial to find a conduit in which frustrated, defeated, and soon to be ambitious Japanese citizens could channel their energy into. There is no doubt a better pursuit in which to place someone you want to keep indefinitely busy as we have unlimited wants but limited resources. In the modern day Japan has embraced this conduit and has actually achieved more economic power than they would have with the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere with what Hatch and Yamamura call their “keiretsu” production alliance. The United States’ emphasis on economic prosperity for the Japanese state has actually put Japan ahead in some aspects. Following decades of explosive growth as Japan ran to fulfill its vast potential the Foreign Direct Investment into the Pacific Asian region from Japan doubled that of America’s to $74.7 billion in 1994 (Hatch, Yamamura 6). This might appear as though the United States is merely not investing in Pacific Asia but in reality it highlights how Japan has reemerged as the regional power once again but rather than militarily it is almost purely economic. This evolved state of affairs in Pacific Asia has been a direct result to the United States’ post-World War II reconstruction policies. Without checking military might as the allies failed to do with Germany following World War I, Japan could have followed the same path Hitler took Germany. Instead of the Third Reich being reincarnated Japanese style, the United States’ strict demilitarization of Japan ensured Americans would be facing an economic competitor with far less dangerous results if we lost. By changing the goals of the Japanese nation to concentrating on economics rather than its military, it significantly shaped what the Pacific Asian region transformed into today.

Besides Japan, there are many other significant characteristics the United States has been prime in shaping Pacific Asia, such as its Cold War foreign policy of containment. Under containment’s father, George Kennan, American foreign policy diverged and advocated a “less expansive” policy than that of President Truman’s, which “proclaimed the goal of defending free people everywhere” (Nye 128). By using Kennan’s doctrine with primarily balance of power interests, the United States Presidents would later greatly change the world with their altered foreign policy perspectives. Take for example South Korea, which was outside the containment line of United States foreign policy and was in turn invaded by communist North Korea seeing an opportunity. America’s military response to North Korea invading South Korea might seem ideological being trumpeted with the Truman doctrine but it was actually Kennan’s interpretation of balance of power through a less expansive containment doctrine. The free people of South Korea even voted after the end of the Korean War and elected a communist government much to the chagrin of the United States and so the war cannot be associated with setting the South Koreans free from the communist monster because they actually embraced it. Instead the Korean War should be seen as a critical move from the United States to halt Chinese power from growing in the region disguised in the ideologically beautiful Truman doctrine box, which was shown to be false when South Korea elected for communism. If the United States’ foreign policy had been different when North Korea has invaded the South, our entrance into the war probably would not have occurred and so a united communist Korea would no doubt exist today. The united Korea would probably exist more ideologically moderate today like China rather than how North Korea is because of a large state’s intensely difficult inability to remain isolationistic. A powerful Korea would profoundly change the current balance of power within Pacific Asia as it could compete with Japan and China more readily than the current lone South Korea.

The United States’ early support of Taiwan and the Nationalists also deeply affected modern Pacific Asia. America was helping the Nationalists years before the break out of World War II when they were competing for control over China with Mao Zedong’s communists. President Truman had been sending weapons, supplies and ammunition through Tibet to help Cheng Kai-shek battle the communists and Japanese invaders but instead Kai-shek stockpiled the supplies to use more effectively on the communists once the Japanese had withdraw. While this tactic was militarily sound, it wasn’t the best political one for Kai-shek to follow in a competition where his opponent was gaining wide support at the small expense of a military advantage. Truman also saw this act of stockpiling as inconsistent with the timetable of American interests and so withdrew his support. If Cheng Kai-shek had acted on American support, using the given supplies before the withdrawal of Japanese forces, the Nationalists could have no doubt seriously competed with the communists and might have even gained control over the country. This scenario was again repeated in 1961-62, but only in this situation it was President Kennedy who didn’t want to go to action and “made it clear that it [the U.S.] would not support any Nationalist military operations against the mainland.” (Harding 32) It is easily shown then, how critically important the United States was in determining the fate of China and the implications that it brought by currently having the second largest economy in world. In later years when China had emerged stronger than Taiwan, the United States carefully maintained peaceful relations between the two countries to inhibit any large-scale conflict from arising, or the seizure of Taiwan itself. American foreign policy also adopted the stance that the “legal status of Taiwan was undetermined.” (Harding 28) This was primarily used to keep the United States’ on both entities’ good list, to prevent institutionalizing the China-Taiwan debate, and to forestall any provocative statements to anger either country into any sort of military action. Taking a moderate position with Taiwan and China gave the United States the leverage it needed to maintain peace within the region as well as significantly drawing on either state economically as both have proved beyond capable in that area. This position also once again had tremendous implications to the balance of power arrangement found in modern day Pacific Asia with America’s placement of support and physical supplies.

China’s admittance to the World Trade Organization after the turn of the century had significant westernizing affects on the economy of China and in turn the surrounding region. China joining the WTO was a day of immense success and realization of international economic progress. On that day there was also a realization of the political implications that came with China joining the WTO. By joining the WTO there is “a reallocation of factors of production to sectors of the economy in which China has a stronger comparative advantage.” (Lardy 119) Thus China’s economy becomes more liberalized, efficiency oriented, and heavily interdependent. China must have made sure the industries it wished to pursue had a comparative advantage within their nation or they wouldn’t be allowed to use protectionism to shelter the industry until it was able to stand on its own. China must have also reviewed the implications of being so interdependent on other nations, what that meant to foreign policy, and how much power officials wanted to let other states have over their own economy’s well being, was affected. Joining the WTO is fully welcomed as it pacifies China because of interdependence and ensures an increased degree of inhibiting conflict throughout the region. The influence of the World Trade Organization on China can directly be felt through the United States as it is the most powerful western nation in the world and thus carries a significant weight in affecting the policies of the WTO. America is slowly indoctrinating China to the benefits of capitalism and so is shaping the path in which China is pursuing, much similar to guiding the Japanese to economic venues in Post-World War II reconstruction.

After the turn of the century and the beginning rise of China, the United States has seen the climax of its own power within the region and over the next few decades will no doubt decrease extremely, both in relative terms to other emerging powers and actual military withdrawals, with a decreasing number of traditional bases in Pacific Asia. China has been emerging as a powerful nation and has been estimated to overtake the American economy within the next few decades. Chinese investment in South East Asia has eclipsed the United States’ and as already stated, Japanese Foreign Direct Investment was double that of America’s in 1994. Even if relations among states within Pacific Asia remain fragile they will continue to strengthen regionally much faster than they would with the United States. America’s closely raised child of Japan has grown to adulthood, influenced heavily by what the United States has injected into its society but nonetheless is now moving more independently. The Cold War foreign policies of the United States greatly shaped the states existing contemporarily in Pacific Asia. Support and moderation of relations with Taiwan early on helped maintain peace in the region in addition to the liberalization of the Chinese economy on admittance to the World Trade Organization. Truly, the United States has had a tremendous hand in changing the Asian Pacific rim with what could have been.

Bibliography

Hatch, Walter, and Kozo Yamamura.Asia in Japan's Embrace. 1st ed. Hong Kong: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Harding, Harry. A Fragile Relationship. 1st ed. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1992.

Nye, Jr., Joseph S.. Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History. 4th ed. Longman, 2003.

Lardy, Nicholas R.. Integrating China into the Global Economy. 1st ed. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2002.

Pacific Relations Roller Coaster

2008-04-15T00:54:00.000-07:00

Response to A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China since 1972, Harry Harding

Ever since President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, relations with China have steadily improved despite numerous multi faceted political issues that have arisen. A volatile and fragile relationship does exist between China and the United States as Harding says but should only be seen as pertaining to immediate relations and near to nothing associated with the long term. The inevitability of improved Chinese-American relations is undeniable and unstoppable in our modern socio-politically globalized world. Cultural and ideological differences are the paramount factor in relations not realizing their full potential as America does with other Western states.

It is amazing to hear how China has emerged as a global leader exponentially over the past few decades to emerge as America’s second largest trading partner after Canada in 2006 (www.hoover.org). Harding relates from Michel Oksenberg in perfect contrast that, “before April 1969 more Americans had been to the moon than had received the permission of the U. S. government to travel to China.” (33) This astounding improvement, even if over 40 years, greatly highlights the potential for the development of better relations between China and America. This isn’t to say Chinese relations will improve as much as they have in the past, which would be foolish and would probably result in our two nations becoming full military allies if entirely based off the amount relations improved since 1969. A far better prediction places the two states still improving but at much smaller increments, planing off, as the maximum potential is neared. Similar to the past, there will be political and military blunders such as the bombing of the Belgrade embassy, as human error is unavoidable, but relations as a whole have the stamina and the economically interested constituents to endure. If you take Tiananmen Square as an example, when the Chinese government cracked down on protestors of course Americans were aghast and shocked but that didn’t lead to a war to free the suppressed Chinese citizens or an end to diplomatic relations. Even if economic sanctions were used on an event scaled similarly to Tiananmen, “the cycle of sanction and retaliation would not produce a confrontational Sino-American relationship, but it would prevent it from becoming close or harmonious.” (321) So thus, if kept within a certain degree, even important issues that are violated such as human rights will heal over time. If the current protests in Tibet stay at their current level and the Olympics in China go as perfect as they did in Japan no one will remember the Tibetan protestors to the effect that it alters Foreign Direct Investment into China.

As Harding covered the multiple issues China and America faced, many of them were purely ideological and culturally based. The cold war certainly polarized and killed many relationships that could have been between states merely because of the extreme pressures put on leaders by citizens. The handshake John Foster Dulle’s could have taken might have given Chinese American relations a 20 year head start and possibly had an effect on fundamentalist ideology within China. Today these issues are primarily raised with human rights by Darfur and Tibet, which many Americans see as grossly out of line for a government to be instigating. The Chinese on the other hand place a much different emphasis of what is valued socially and politically. This difference in history and culture profoundly limits the true potential at which Chinese American relations can expand too. Where as America is closely integrated with many Western nations, it might take a significantly longer time to bridge the gap with an Asian nation.

Book Review: Understanding International Conflicts 4th ed.

2008-04-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History, Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

Written and published recently in 2003, Understanding International Conflicts’ takes a contemporary focus on international relations, which is particularly critical to a field dealing with security. Joseph Nye’s book easily and readily forms a fundamental source for students of international relations as it ties both critical events in history and the evolution of international relations together. Much of the book alternates between explaining complex concepts such as sovereignty or interdependence on a theory level and then historic sections where Nye guides the reader through history while analyzing critical events with the dominant ideology of the time. By putting a theory in context, it is much easier for the reader to comprehend the justifications behind the ideology and also witness potential flaws, which Nye strongly points out, with that theory. Despite Joseph Nye oddly blending theory and history accuracy, his book provides an invaluable introduction to international conflict in historical context.

The most striking difference with this book and other international relations textbooks is how Nye stays chronologically true in the order he analyzes the various major theories of international relations. By leading the reader through the evolution of political thought along with the evolution of mankind you are able to see, if just to a degree, how and why people of that time period did things the way they did. This also includes crossing civilizations and putting perceived cultural norms to rest as when Syria supported Iran rather than Iraq, which doesn’t make much sense unless viewed through the balance of power lens. Many of the classical international relations theories are historically tied to certain eras such as realism in the Peloponnesian War, the balance of power in World War I, and essentially need such historic placements to help understand why decisions were made during certain times. Additionally, many of the classical authors such as Kenneth Waltz are called to attention as dominant theorists of the time and so provide potential fortifying readings on top of the already listed additional readings at the end of each chapter. This provides an excellent start for a student who might have to focus on a specific time period or theory without aimlessly searching a library. As with any other evolving entity, Nye is able to significantly draw on earlier examples in the book later on in the book to fortify concepts as leaders and theorists did in the real world. By thus looking at the whole picture, the reader gains a far deeper understanding of international relations as a whole, its various goals, and the empathetic ability to have a meaningful intellectual conversation by knowing exactly where each ideology is originating.

Alternating between an analysis of history and a discussion of theory keeps the pace of the book compellingly quick. It might be that any other theory books are usually incredibly boring or that Joseph Nye engineered his book to sell but when reading this book I rarely got disinterested or witnessed fatigue commonly associated with academia. It is almost that with this book the reader is simultaneously switching between two different classes, history of international relations and theory of international relations. I think this combination greatly increases the length at which the reader can endure sessions of the book without becoming over loaded with historical facts or inundated with deep philosophy. Another benefit of reading this book is a general understanding of the major historical events in world history. While probably over simplifying and not getting particularly deep on a subject, Nye is able to adequately explain events in such a way that you are able to draw from your understanding of them in the future. While maybe a characteristic unique to myself, knowing the general story of world events is paramount to enriching your individual knowledge and aggressive persuasive skills. Explaining the complex alliances, among others, of WWI and the opposing opinions of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs provides an informative source for students not familiar with such issues.

Having such a lively blend of theory and history brings as many problems as benefits to the reader. When reading a history book, an individual will general accept being lead by the author who has obviously done much more research than the reader could ever hope of doing and the pure non partisan analysis most people practice with reflecting on history. If reading a philosophy book however, a reader expects a much greater degree of opinion and wanted participation on the part of the readers to explore the theory for themselves. This brings about a blurring of the lines separating these two categories and so initially, at least for me, challenge preconceived ideas of how books get across their information. Either as being an introductory book and having to fully explain the development of ideas or the merge of theory and history but the majority of Nye’s interpretation of historical events seemed noticeably forceful in guiding the reader in a certain direction. While not being blatantly biased, as I occasionally only felt a modest neo-liberal bias, Joseph Nye certainly adds his own element to how he interprets history. In no instance does he ever out rightly dismiss ideologies and actually takes significant space to explain why he disagrees with certain theories. Nye spends a few pages critiquing Hitler’s Third Reich into a much more potent regime and spends nearly half of the third chapter dissecting the balance of power and why WWI had such a high risk of happening anyway.

Overall, Understanding International Conflicts is a very important read to any international relations or security studies student. By chronologically matching the evolution of mankind and the study of international relations together, a reader is more able to comprehend the entire idea of international relations much more, which significantly helps on a fundamental level only.

The World Trade Organization as an Economic Political Alliance

2008-03-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

Response to Integrating China into the Global Economy by Nicholas R. Lardy (2002)

By becoming a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001, China took an enormous step forward into the international economic trading bloc. Emerging from Mao’s isolationistic era of economic policy to that of today’s, has made China a forefront example of economic system reform and will continue to grow as a powerful economic entity in the world. With all that China has moved to reform and changed to satisfy the GATT organization to become a member of the WTO, it wouldn’t seem unreasonable to somehow interpret it as Western non-governmental organizations attempting to westernize China. Additionally, with China joining the WTO and becoming more dependent internationally, Western powers have secured China one step further into an interdependent alliance and have thus guaranteed an increased degree of security.

As Lardy says in his book, China was given requirements above and beyond the norm set up by GATT. Either by having bad timing with the fall of the USSR and many eastern European states looking to join WTO or just being selected as an example for other nations looking to join, China was clearly disadvantaged when completing the membership process. Lardy calls one of the chief reasons for the increase in requirements for China to join WTO was because of the sudden emergence of eastern European nations that needed a sample state to gauge entrance requirements but Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey (www.wto.org) joined the WTO at least one year, if not four, ahead of China. By looking at this disregard for using China as an as example for potential eastern European nations, one might see the change of requirements being used instead to transform China’s economy as the GATT saw fit.

Per capita, China should have been considered a developing nation at the time of WTO membership application but was instead considered as a developed nation. That choice was probably the correct one, as today China has the second biggest economy but is 130th if based off per capita. If China had been treated as a developing nation with all the benefits therein, China might have surpassed America’s economy as it is only separated by two trillion at present. The reasoning behind a per capita categorization of China was probably unwise as the benefits to a developing nation are directed largely at the poor but in China’s case would have never reached the poor as anyone can see of China’s present per capita GDP rank.

China joining the WTO was a day of immense success and realization of international economic progress. On that day there was also a realization of the political implications that came with China joining the WTO. By joining the WTO there is “a reallocation of factors of production to sectors of the economy in which China has a stronger comparative advantage.” (119) Thus China’s economy becomes more liberalized, efficiency oriented, and heavily interdependent. In capitalism, interdependence is easily expected and welcomed because it brings increased efficiency to production and thus lower prices. China has been transforming into this system since Xiaoping but it has never been so fully implemented which might bring problems. China must have made sure the industries it wished to pursue had a comparative advantage within their nation or they wouldn’t be allowed to use protectionism to shelter the industry until it was able to stand on its own. China must have also reviewed the implications of being so interdependent on other nations, what that meant to foreign policy, and how much power officials wanted to let other states have over their own economy’s well being, was affected. From a regional perspective, China joining the WTO is fully welcomed as it pacifies China because of interdependence and ensures an increased degree of security. Globally, China joining the free market means enormous economic prosperity and hopefully a convert to the joys of federal democracy.

Balance of Interests

2008-03-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Pacific Asia has been emerging as an increasingly complex region in the modern world and has thus shifted a great deal of policy making focus onto itself from other regions of the world. More specifically security issues within the Asian Pacific area have raised themselves to new heights internationally because of their obvious implications to the surrounding regions, themselves and each nation’s growing potential to emerge as post-industrial countries. Relations among nations still remain in the realist realm of analysis due to volatile actions by states but also carry a great deal of emerging trade centered liberalism policy as trade continues to increase and become ever more prevalent throughout Pacific Asia.

If an individual were to read any local or national newspaper consistently within the past few months or year they could instantly call to attention the most common story originating from Pacific Asia; that of China emerging as a regional superpower and the area tensions that result. According to the fundamental international relations theory of balance of power, any nation rising either economically or militarily above another in its immediate vicinity will be checked by that neighboring country to the best of its ability to maintain its own economic power and security either unilaterally or multilaterally. Due to China’s recent explosive growth, surrounding states such as Japan realize some of their own military and economic shortfalls in comparison and so move to expand them in any way possible to meet the potential threat China might bring. What results from this competition and goal of eventual balance within the region actually evolves into another problem, the security dilemma. In the case of North Korea and China threatening Japan and Taiwan, respectively, is the threat of missiles. Japan and Taiwan have adopted the Strategic Defense Initiative missile defense system from the United States and therein have eradicated China’s missile capabilities and North Korea’s potential capabilities. Much similar to the Soviet’s response to the American Star Wars system in the Cold War, China and North Korea will probably manufacture enough missiles to overwhelm the SDI (Patriot missile) system. Another venue China is happily and currently pursuing is cyber warfare and utilizing the Russian developed Sunbeam missile, both of which effectively make the billions the United States has spent militarily, useless. This isn’t to say China and North Korea are allies against all the other Asian Pacific states, but only that they both similarly move to solve the problem presented by SDI in hegemonic backed nations. In reality, all Asian Pacific nations have some sort of issue with one another and vice versa. In an effort to be perceived as a truly emerging international authority China froze North Korean assets after it partially detonated an atomic bomb. In a balance of power perspective China might have acted in the way it did due to its realization of how serious the problem of North Korea becoming a nuclear power was. A Chinese analyst was interviewed after the nuclear detonation and said, “We used to treat this as a problem between North Korea and the U.S. We should have treated it as our problem.” (Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Small 45) China was probably using North Korea as a tool to disrupt American relations in Pacific Asia and so supported many of their actions but once North Korea became a threat to China itself, through nuclear capabilities, the Chinese have grown more and more firm on its condemnation of their nuclear program. I think this firmly illustrates the flexibility nations retain in order to accomplish their own goals and why certain states have allegiances and ties with other states in the region versus having them with others.

Following a foreign nation’s perceived growth in overall power and moving your country to follow to maintain balance of power is when the prospect of nationalism becomes so lucrative. Initiating sweeping reforms and laws enabling Japan to strengthen its defense after a North Korean missile was shot over them certainly was the result of security fears but also had strong nationalism ties in the idea of Japan’s necessity to have the ability to defend itself from threats without relying on external powers. All states of the Asian Pacific region and other regions worldwide have used far lesser scenarios to rally the people with romanticized patriotism to gain the leverage to meet their political goals. Unintentionally “…nationalism twice led to war, in 1914, and then again in 1939.” (Muller 19) Nationalism will always be used but to the degree in which nations within the Asian Pacific region are using its powerf to influence is slightly reflective of early 20^th century Europe where provocative statements are constantly being returned across borders only to the benefit of straining multilateral relations. Asian Pacific government officials should be aware just how volatile nationalism is in its ability to transcend socialism and capitalism. (Nye 69) Even though Walter Hatch has said that Japan’s modern trading alliances are more profitable than the earlier GEACPS model and economies are booming throughout Pacific Asia, states should be extremely careful in how often they prod their populace into political fervor. The transformation that Europe had following WWII in entering a “postnational era” (Muller 19) full of transnational institutions such as the European Union isn’t fully reflected in Pacific Asia and so thus do not have that degree of animosity for nationalism that Western Europeans do.

Bibliography

Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Stephanie, Small, Andrew. "China's New Dictatorship Diplomacy." Foreign Affairs 87: 1 (2008): 44-45.

Muller, Jerry Z.. "Us and Them." Foreign Affairs 87: 2 (2008): 18-35.

Nye, Jr., Joseph S.. Understanding International Conflicts. 4th. Longman, 2003.

A Shallow Threat

2008-03-07T00:45:00.000-08:00

Supplemental reading: Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies
Victor D. Cha and David C. Kang

There are numerous theories, as stated in Cha and Kang’s book, that address the security issue of North Korea’s nuclear program but most are intensely focused on proactively solving the problem, either diplomatically or militarily. Given the gift of retrospective, many formulated theories predicted climactic consequences of North Korea attaining a nuclear warhead and the resulting destabilization of the region never really occurred on the scale the predictions called for. The time has come and gone when North Korea detonated its own atomic bomb and nothing has really occurred to destroy the security of the region. North Korea has joined the pantheon of nuclear powers in the world but as any other nuclear powers has also adopted the same practice in using those nuclear capabilities; deterrence only.

With any science there are theories formulated based off the current circumstances which seek to predict future events and additional implications. Looking at the multiple theories I have encountered concerning Asia and taking in what certain people have predicted to happen within that region, many have proved completely incorrect. Japan never became the world’s next superpower and never overtook the American economy. China most likely won’t surpass the American economy by 2050 if present circumstances remain constant. Highlighting the fact that these theorists were incorrect is not my goal; they were actually very close in some of their predictions. I would rather to bring to attention the over prediction that these theories called for. The intensity and enormity of growth Japan experienced and China is experiencing is superior to any previous trend, but to announce the coming birth of a new economic hegemony is purely pushing the realms of predictable reality. Even my own theory might be skewed in a relatively short amount of time, but I wish to encourage the moderation of predictive theories in their outlook based off current events. Extremist theories stating China will prevail are entirely viable and possible but are hardly realistic if other predictive theories proved false are taken into context. The reason I analyze these theoretical estimation mishaps is that it can be taken over to examine American foreign policy with North Korea.

The majority of US foreign policy is based off recent historical behavior of nations and to some small degree, especially contemporarily, a liberal hope. Taking this into account, by looking at North Korea’s behavior in the past few decades is generally consistent; increasingly defiant, independent, and isolationistic. A moderate approach would place North Korea as a semi-serious threat to the region and none at all to US soil. By joining the nuclear pantheon, North Korea has inducted itself to a certain style of military behavior. If logic permeates any fragment of North Korea’s government they will know not to use an atomic bomb in any formal warfare lest the entire western world retaliate. According to M.A.D. contemporary atomic bombs are strictly used primarily for strong arm politics. Even if conventional warfare was used, the fragile state of Kim Jung-Il’s military dictatorship would easily be compromised by giving any major power the excuse to support South Korea just to oust his regime. In forming US foreign policy, past events should be taken as true indicators of what will occur in the future. North Korea will maintain its defiance and disregard for Western and even Eastern nations in the pursuit of national interest as determined by Kim Jung-Il. Recent developments with improved diplomatic relations are obviously helpful on the road to taming North Korea but when theorists proclaim a new age in diplomatic relations one must only look to the recent past to witness that same proclamation had already been given short of the atomic bomb detonation. Good relations with North Korea will have to remain constant and erode the multiple layers of distrust that wrap around US-North Korean diplomatic relations so strongly.

Images: BBC " Kim Jong-il (left) , with his father Kim Il-sung around 1986"

The Emerging Democracy in Pakistan and American Relations Thus

2008-02-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

Update: Election Victors Press Musharraf

With the recent defeat of Mr. Musharraf’s political strength in Pakistan things will change greatly under the new majority party. After backing Musharraf with billions of dollars, America must pursue a new foreign policy in regards to Pakistan and what is seen as the new will of the Pakistani moderate. The USA must reconcile with the new Pakistan for supporting an oppressive military regime merely because it thought it would be better equipped to deter ‘informal violence’ (Keohane). The Editorial is already in essence, the definition of a liberal reaction to the situation and so doesn’t need any existing modifications but I hope to add additional substance and reasoning.

A comment on the Editorial by Naveed Sadiq Khan expressed that if President Bush helped Pakistan reestablish their independent judiciary it would ‘win the hearts of the Muslims’. While certainly not the chief reason behind Musharraf’s decline in popularity, it was a significant signal that it was happening. As it was Musharraf’s first mistake it could be Bush’s first good foreign policy decision on a long road to Pakistan’s transformation into a democratic US ally. It will be difficult, as the Editorial states, to approach the new parliament after being in such firm support of Musharraf’s regime but the resulting stronghold of soft power with Pakistan will undoubtedly be far worth it. Instead of relying on bribery in the form of billions to a comparatively foreign military regime to adopt our policies and worldwide goals, America could invest time and effort into Pakistan in the form of soft power. The initial cost of such an investment venture could rival the billions installed into Musharraf’s regime but after time Pakistani’s would be able to see America’s freedom oriented goals as their own and then would not require great bags of cash to convince them of it. Once these currently foreign American goals gain some semblance to Pakistan’s perception of the world, the threat of Islamic fundamentalism so close to their front door would seemingly push them into mirroring America’s policy of zero tolerance concerning terrorism, if not any fiercer. If Pakistan did indeed emerge as such a strong ally on the War on Terror, it would be critically important to America, as the list of allies is growing shorter as time goes on. The most important aspect of good American Pakistan relations is that it is predominantly Muslim and would join a very short list of amiable Muslim nations next to Turkey. Additionally, as America surges soft power into Pakistan and wonderful relations ensue, this influence could easily seep into the surrounding Middle East region. America is already striking at the vital organs of the terrorist bloc with Afghanistan and Iraq, but these situations are failed attempts of realists trying to combat and quell the threat of terrorism. Neither of these countries has specifically engaged in transforming their own regimes save for rare extremists who gained control of either countries in the past. Even though these countries neither had mediums in which citizens could channel that transforming power, if presented with a viable one, and given time to adopt the idea that they actually could transform their own country, it would embody the full change of perspective the Pakistani’s are just starting to experience. This change of perspective is exactly what America’s foreign policy should be aimed at because it will push violent Islamic fundamentalism farther and farther out of the realm of possibility.

Written as a response to a New York Times editorial: Twilight of the Dictators: A Chance for Pakistan — and the U.S. for International Theory 470.

Images from New York Times.

The Contemporary Change of Focus in Asia

2008-02-21T02:12:00.000-08:00

Here is a book response paper I wrote after reading Asia in Japan's Embrace: Building a Regional Production Alliance by Walter Hatch & Kozo Yamamura, Cambridge University Press (June 28, 1996). This book is terribly boring, filled with economic analysis, but does offer fascinating perspectives and facts.

In the early 1990’s when Hatch and Yamamura were conducting their research for this book Japan’s economy was growing outrageously quickly and so demanded an explanation. Based on the perspective and time in which they were formulating this book it seems perfectly logical at what they concluded: Japan is becoming the ruling economic power in Asia and Western nations are unable to penetrate because of how Asian Multi-National Corporations are setup. This isn’t to say that Japan hasn’t been true to that estimation of becoming a major economic player in Asian affairs, it truly has. This has been overshadowed by China in recent years with China overtaking Japanese GDP and taking a firm second place in the world. How could China have been overlooked and so easily dismissed throughout Hatch and Yamamura’s research? China as an isolationistic communist state at the time and could simply disregard its potential thus. As an isolated nation, many Western economists could never see the economic revitalization that occurred whenever Mao Zedong gave the economy over to Deng Xiaoping and capitalism for repair.
Taking Japan, China, and ASEAN-4 as examples, it seems a new economic policies and perspectives are emerging which gives these nations such vast potential to grow at much faster rates than their western counterparts. Protectionist and government led investment practices were common in rapidly growing economies to secure certain industries and their health on the international market. This does not seem like anything from ‘The Wealth of Nations’ or Western capitalist theories which place comparative advantage as the main factor in determining which country should pursue what industry. Are Asian nations upsetting the capitalistic balance of what nations should normally be efficient and comparatively advantaged in an industry? Any methods to get ahead economically is the essence of capitalism and it appears Asian countries aren’t playing fair by Western capitalist standards by giving protectionist crutches to their own emerging industries which might take a period of time to develop but when they do its usually with a higher comparative advantage than many Western industries. Will this begin an international trade war wherein nations raise tariffs to protect key national industries and stagnate the international market or are the Asian economic models already perceived by Western nations and MNCs as already heavily governmentally regulated? The government-business cooperation is “unlike the US government…the Japanese government actively promotes and guides Foreign Direct Investment.” [15]. Additionally whenever Japan moves into a nation with MNCs, the government will help the nation by “…financing the construction of airports, roads, dams, and other infrastructure projects…” [15]. Obviously these well placed foreign investments are aimed at improving the capabilities of Japan’s own MNCs and makes a win-win situation for both countries. This domestic capital investment model puts Japan as the primarily wanted nation in coming to your developing country compared to other Western nations who would not necessarily place such investment so directly into the developing country’s infrastructure. Despite the fact that Japan is no longer leading the economic power trip of the Asian rim, certainly the model it provides will prove to strengthen the region trading bloc at the disadvantage to Western nations. While there is some investment from Western nations, it isn’t anywhere near a significant amount as compared to Chinese and Japanese investment and so south east countries are “upset by what they consider to be a cold shoulder from the United States and Europe…leaders are welcoming Japan’s embrace.” [40]. As some say the economic focus is shifting from the Atlantic to the Pacific in a new economic age, what will happen to Western nations that have not gotten their stake in the market?

First Portfolio

2008-02-20T02:10:00.000-08:00

Here is my first photojournalism portfolio with a sports emphasis I used for my application to KeAlakai, the campus newspaper for BYU - Hawaii for the position of Assistant Photography Editor. While, if I do get the job, I won't be able to induct my independent libertarian propaganda as a staff writer would, too bad so sad.

Libertarian Theory vs. Honor Code @ BYUh Clarified

2008-02-14T02:15:00.000-08:00

*Update*

I just talked with 'Sarah', the girl I used for my primary example for the Libertarian Theory series. There were some minor facts I didn't know from memory so I messaged 'Sarah' and had her clarify the whole situation and what exactly happened:

Sarah:
"k so here's the story:
me and about 20 or so people if that, went to a friends beach house, who came into town with his FAMILY (key fact)in hau'ula. His family had one side of the house and they had the other. There wasn't any sex, drugs, and or alcohol but instead cookies, pop, and dancing. There was a hot tub and of course the ocean so people had their swimming suites on. Pictures were taken from the party and put up on facebook, just like any other bonfire or party in the past and someone got onto our facebook downloaded the pictures, printed them off and turned them into honor code. A couple days after the party we were all called in one at a time to tell "our story" of what happened, which was obviously nothing. For a while we were threatened that we could easily be kicked out for this, so we waited a couple more days to see what the verdict was. In between this time we had to meet with the honor code board and have regular counseling sessions to recognize what we did was wrong and how we could make it so this wouldn't happen in the future. They decided as punishment we would each do a portfolio which included: three, one-page summaries after reading three different conference talks on modesty. Then, we had to write a two-page summary on how this experience has helped us grow and how we can make ourselves better. We also had to keep doing the counseling sessions and meet with our bishops on a regular basis. They gave us an actual letter with all these requirements on it that we had to sign and date saying we would do these and if we had anymore run ins with honor code then we would be asked to leave the school immediately. When the end of the semester came around everyone got an e-mail from the honor code office and if u came to the counseling sessions every week then you were dismissed and didn't have to finish the portfolio and were no longer on probation, if you did not then in order to continue going to school you had to finish the portfolio. I had gone to most of the counseling sessions so i didnt have to finish the portfolio. This whole thing took about two to three months."

Ryan:
I just have two more clarifying questions. What was exactly in the pictures? Just a dress code violation of the honor code or was it a sexual innuendo from someone's body position etc?

and did they ever at any time inform you that you could appeal for a review of your punishments to a higher committee or was the general impression you got that if you didn't comply with what punishment they gave you, you'd be expelled from school?

Sarah:
"the picture was dress code violation and they were pictures of everyone dancing and then some group pictures ... i think they looked alot worse then they really were because u know when someones taking a picture and u do goofy and crazy stuff ... i dunno it was pretty lame though! They never said anything about appealing to someone higher ... i didnt know we could?? they just told us that our case had made it to the highest counsel which is over byuh, byui, and byu and they said we should be expelled ... so whether they really did speak to them i dont know, thats just what was told."

Post-Punk Revival

2008-02-11T02:16:00.000-08:00

I decided to take a break from the cynical review of the BYU - Hawaii Honor Code machine and cover something more pleasing. I recently found a formal label for the type of music I listen to and enjoy.

Post-punk revival is a category of Post-punk bands following 1998 with a contemporary sound. Normally many of the bands within this category have a significantly smaller following than the mainstream bands and often release albums independently (indie/indy). The sounds of post-punk revival bands range from comparatively mainstream (The Myriad / Editors) to the spacey experimental trips (Radiohead / Pinback / The Flaming Lips) an encompass a wide variety of music in the genre itself.

Primarily, as anyone would listen to any genre, I listen to this genre because I find affinity and immensely enjoy the style and song composition within this categorization. Its a very fresh sound and moves, as a genre, in a direction all of its own. Experimental songs, which might stretch out to the ranges of uncomfortable or annoying seek to find the threshold of what sounds create music without over stepping those ranges. Instead of focusing on creating that next recognizable, catchy tune that will be this year's high school senior's prom anthem, post-punk revival bands explore every aspect within their style and find the limits similar to what artists would do in their prospective fields.

Some bands I listen to part of the post-punk revival label:
Arctic Monkeys
Bloc Party
The Bravery
British Sea Power
Boy Kill Boy
The Cloud Room
Editors
The Faint
The Futureheads
Hot Hot Heat
Interpol
The Stills

Libertarian Theory vs. Honor Code @ BYUh #2 #3 #4

2008-02-03T23:30:00.000-08:00

#2 Sinning by Association / #3 The Manner in Which Punishment is Dealt / #4 The overarching mindset of the Honor Code

As a disclaimer to this section of the libertarian theory at BYUh none of the information presented in this portion is factually backed up by sources from BYU - Hawaii, well maybe they are but I'll have to look at that after I write my take on things. Ok, I actually found the section where the process is outlined. Again, as another disclaimer I want to say this section is based off one incident of a friend/co-worker as there is not a readily available supply of these sort of cases because they are both rare and not openly publicized.

First, let me describe the situation in which my friend found herself and the response the University had. While attending a party, who we shall call Sarah for privacy concerns, the other friends at the party decided the regular interpretation of 'appropriate' BYUh student apparel was too much for their taste and took articles of clothing off. At no time during the entire party was anyone nude or half nude nor displaying any portions found unsuitable to be in public (private areas). From hearing this story from my friend what I can confirm is that one girl had stripped down to bikini attire and one male had taken off his shirt. This un-adornment of clothes might have and most likely was spread amongst the rest of the party but the severity isn't known.

While the party was in this state of jovial delight, a zealous adherer of BYUh Honor Code policies took pictures of certain acts by party-goers which are easily interpreted as implicitly sexual in nature. There is a chance, as a conversation later revealed that this zealous individual might actually just have been another sincere friend who turned the incriminating photographs into a tool of revenge as she had 'gotten in trouble' earlier that semester. As for the legal state of the picture, there were three individuals in the picture: bikini girl, shirtless guy, and fully clothed co-worker. A week or so later these pictures found there way to the Honor Code office and my co-worker got a call.

Based off a six month old memory these were her punishments for being in the picture:

1. Suspension/release from any LDS Church related callings
2. Put on academic probation (might have been confused with another type of probation)
3. A weekly interview with ecclesiastic leader (Ward Bishop)
4. Some form of a self-introspective styled essay due each week or month
5. A call to her parents
6. Condition that if she violated Honor Code again while on probation she might be dismissed from the University.

Immediately upon the Honor Code office contacting her bishop Sarah was released from her calling (I don't specifically recall what is was, but it wasn't a serious one). She told me she had been put on academic probation but I'm not entirely sure it was specifically academic as it says in the notification procedures that a students transcript will read "suspended (or dismissed) for nonacademic reasons. Not eligible for readmission." So it might've been a different type of probation but probation nonetheless. Every week Sarah had to visit with the Bishop and also turn in an essay about "what I did wrong and what I can do to improve myself", which was 1-3 pages in length (forgot exact length) every week or month (forgot also).

It is a very startling and almost scary notion when students are required to write self-introspection essays as that is exactly what the Chinese Communist Party did in their rise to party following WWII. I'm not historically sure if the CCP was the only social organization to practice this, I doubt it, but I will just only reference them.

The main goal of the CCP in using self-introspection essays written by non-compliant, opinion dissenting Chinese was to mold people to the CCP's views. This was further reinforced by peer pressure by the local cadre organization which placed dissent into the perceived minority (which maybe in reality wasn't). While writing these essays, the person was usually isolated and imprisoned at a re-educational facility and after the course of psychologically breaking down the individual was released back to the cadre wherein they were usually the most vehement supporter of the cadre; whilst in turn attacking dissenters: ad hoc.

Of course the CCP version is significantly more extreme but the idea is still the same where ever used. From a logical college student point of view, it wouldn't seem these essays would do much of anything to someone's moral view (more like the opposite) but still, the idea that an organization affiliated with the church would use such methods. It almost begs the question if University leaders believe the gospel isn't enough to help bring someone back to the fold. But what if this person is so far gone to evil ways that such methods should be used you ask? My response would be to have faith in your own religion and let things run their course (not including interventionist needing problems:i.e. drug addictions etc.).

#4 The overarching mindset of the Honor Code
Sarah's parents also received a call from the Honor Code office to inform them about the situation. The whole notion of this completely disgusts me the most out of anything coming out of this disciplining session. Nowhere in the policies and procedures of the Honor Code does it include notifying parents (see bottom of linked page). This might have been a special case because Sarah's parents paid her tuition and there could have been some conditions set forth by the university with the parents or Sarah or anything similar wherein different policies were set forth. This reminds me of a time when a bishop I had when living with a friend my senior year of high school asked me to attend an activity or give a talk, I forgot, but in declining the service he jokingly/threateningly asked if he had to call my mom.

How disgusting is that? I'm living on my own, have a car, two jobs, and 18 years old and he regresses to letting my parents enforce his request because he has neither the ambition to convince me of the request and additionally treats me like an adolescent. This is the same feeling I have for a University. If you want your students to grow up, don't treat them like young teenagers and bring parents into the mix. Not to mention treating your college students like they are in college; the whole idea of growing up while living on your own and making your own decisions.

Maybe this doesn't factor into BYU students who are helpfully guided to forcefully make the right decisions about life but have to make those choices anyways after graduating once an overarching power isn't there. Why not retain some semblance of order in the college atmosphere to keep it semi-controlled so students develop these decision making abilities on their own while not going off the deep end as they would after college (most likely if they opt out of getting married and moving to Utah).

Returning to #2 Sinning by Association it seems perfectly illogical that punishments of this severity were given due to the simple fact that Sarah was in the picture. Students are encouraged to avoid sticky situations and avoid associating with any situations breaking the honor code but in the context of the picture, there is no solid evidence behind their decision. By looking at a picture you can't tell if the person just got there, is just about to leave because they feel uncomfortable, got jokingly physically restrained while trying to leave and is being held by someone off camera or got shoved into the picture, doesn't even know bikini girl / shirtless guy, came to the party by accident and didn't know such activities were taking place....ETC ETC the list is infinite with not guilty situations. But that wouldn't hold to the Honor Code Office's cynical view of human nature and its faith in its students and doesn't really want to remember writing "fundamentally fair" in how they will treat all cases.

Libertarian Theory vs. Honor Code @ BYUh #1

2008-01-31T23:18:00.000-08:00

Attending Brigham Young University - Hawaii and having to deal with the 'Honor Code' has put excessive strain on my 'help, help! I'm being repressed!' scale. Obviously, I always scoffed at the notion of having to adhere to the Honor Code but fate (and money) took control and I ended up at BYUh. So here I am, a hardcore libertarian at a private conservative Christian university. One might cordially ask: what the hell?
To a devout student at BYUh this view might be interpreted as brash and rude to treat an institutional policy such as the Honor code with such disdain wherein the whole purpose to specifically designed to help you live a more righteous life. To this hurt intake of my outburst I want to assure anyone reading this I am not directly trying to confront BYUh or the LDS Church or the goal they are trying to help its students/members achieve but rather the method in which getting to that goal is used. Furthermore I seek to discuss the issues I find disagreeable in a very civil manner and present logical deductions instead of mindlessly opposing the 'system'.

The main things I have problems within the Honor Code are:
1. Facial Hair
2. Sinning by Association
3. The manner in which punishment is dealt
4. The overarching mindset of the Honor Code
There are probably things I'll bring up not mentioned in the four, so sorry can't think of them right now.

Facial Hair. This is single most area in which the Honor Code makes perhaps no sense to me disregarding maybe one small, stereotypical rule. This rule, and I've heard it as the only justification by many faculty members, is that beards display a poor practice of hygiene and a beard isn't a "neat" appearance for a man to present himself with. Actually here is the term the Honor Code uses to describe as inappropriate for men "Beards or noticeable (grubby) facial hair". While it doesn't describe beards explicitly, the five o' clock shadow gains the description of being grubby. To probably 99% of the world population the transition between a beard from 'grubby' facial hard could easily be called what it is: grubby. After the beard is fully grown, to some it might appear at grubby but the division of who thinks that and doesn't becomes a lot more defined. What I'm saying is that the transition period from five o' clock shadow to beard fulfills the definition of grubby but the beard in full maturation doesn't necessarily fulfill it.
There are many pictures of Jesus Christ sanctioned by LDS church leaders we use commonly in church related situations that have Jesus with a full beard. Of course Jesus Christ is in another time decade and maybe things have changed but for the people who have experienced uplifting moments of joy by looking at this picture are exactly just doing that. The mere presence of a beard on Jesus' face doesn't in th least interfere with that person's experience in any way, shape, or form that the Honor Code has defined a beard to be inherently associated with (irreverence, neatness).
On top of the outlawing of untrimmed facial hair and full beards, the Honor Code has chosen to allow the mustache. Supposedly, after asking multiple people, it seems this allowance comes from the bygone era of Magnum PI when mustaches were for some impossibly unknown reason fashionable. This begs the question of if the Honor Code adopts cultural trends if they are presented in an overwhelming degree? One time at work on a oldschool home tape I saw some event at PCC back in the early 80's and every male I saw had a mustache. Did this overwhelming majority of men sporting mustaches surrounding the writing(?) of the Honor Code have an influence in what was deemed as 'neat' and 'clean' versus what was 'gruby'? Since when was the Honor Code subject to the contemporary liberal vile tastes of the world (and especially in the mustache era:( ?) This is just a theory based off what people have told me but if it has any truth to it, it is deeply unsettling.

#2 Tomorrow..

My Liberalization at BYUh

2008-01-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, the first 1/2 week of school is over, and m finalized schedule is very favorable.

Contemporary Art History
World Religions
Beginning Sculpture
International Relations Theory
International Relations of Asia

Being assigned to closing every night, this leaves copious amounts of time in between classes not to mention not having to wake up until 10am until Thursday (8:30am; Fri:8am).

So anyway, as a new semester starts, my former roommate, Joe Cook, has returned to USU after deciding it over a mission or maybe just putting it off..not sure there. When returning, he was received with open arms and made friends easily. I couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy at his easy adjusting to what he thought would be a awkward scene for him to return too.

For me, attending BYUh has certain objects for a person of my taste. I'm a libertarian, very lenient on rules, and despise regulations. Of course this draws regret for transferring from a state school like USU and leaving that open atmosphere and the additional fact of living on my own. It is very hard for me to justify to myself for why I am actually at BYUh and not back at USU. The monetary value of $822 a semester and saving $350 a month by being at BYUh is a very hard balancing act with the aforementioned restrictions of BYUh.

Some people might find this hard to grasp, either through their thirst of monetary savings, or perhaps with the trouble I have of being restricted. Obviously I myself love the fact of saving so much money, or why the hell else would I be here? And as for the personal freedom deal, I find it the pinnacle of my young life to live on my own and begin to grow up making my own decisions. I already am a member of the church, and know the policies and commandments, so I find it extremely irritating to have that forcibly shoved in my face with a rule that affects my academic standing with a institution of higher education. I would certainly thus come to the conclusion that I am a person who will listen to everything anyone has to say (The Church) and then in turn decide for myself how to adhere to and obey the stated regulations. When the institution skips that step and decides for me how to adhere and obey, I start to freak.

Which brings me to the point of this article; BYU - Hawaii is making me more liberal/libertarian than Utah State University ever would or did. In a nutshell, I think the in your face policies (extroverted: if you disobey, you'll get tagged) of BYUh has had a direct confrontation with my nature and so has turned me in the liberalization/anti-establishment direction due to my fundamental beliefs. Utah State on the other hand, had more sub policies and obviously the church isn't the university. Its policies (introverted, no one cares what you do as long as you get ok grades) led me to instead find a foundation within myself and what ethics I had been raised with because there was such a huge lack of them among the majority of students. Relying on my raised reasoning, which is obviously a mormon upbringing gave me a much more gentle urgings to follow the right with maybe a few minor issues (i.e. arriving late for church, missing FHE etc). I'm not really sure if that made sense to the reader, but right now it makes perfect sense to myself, so I apologize.

In summarization, over the past semester at BYUh I have grown far more libertarian/liberal than I did all year at USU and living on my own the summer/quarter before. It'll be interesting to see what the next two years will bring, especially with this semesters (Winter '08) courses intensely focused on liberal ideology.

The Eve of Continuation

2008-01-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

Being the last day of my 07'-08' winter academic break it begs the social department of my mind to throw some extravagant party that will be talked about for months if not years similar to my party the weekend before the beginning of my senior year in high school. But alas, tis not so; college forces an enlightened perspective on the social scene. Friendships and relationships, while traditionally relying entirely on free weekends and vacations exclusively to sustain their diet, now are augmented and heavily reinforced by 'spot-times' when people have the chance in between work, school, and extracurriculars to spend time with others.

Gone are the regimented schedules of high school classes beginning at 8am and ending no later at 2:30pm with barely five minutes granted to run to another class. Now, at least in my experience living on campus, multiple visits back to the apartment and/or scattered wanderings through the cafeteria, library, and common social areas are a perfect norm to consume the time between classes.

I think this is beautifully illustrated when after returning home from USU, I spent a Friday or Saturday reading or something similarly perceived as 'non-Friday-ish' to the normal high school academic (my sister) who is regimented to the schedule of the public high school. Stating I was boring and needed to get out more while walking out the door to hang out with friends, my sister pasted judgment while not recalling the earlier Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't return home until after 4-5am. Its just funny how perceptions on life change and it'll be interesting to read this in the future when again, my perspective changes. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually think watching reality TV shows like my parents is boss haha.

So anyway, last night of the break and I'm actually picking up a friend of a friend for $40 at the airport. The amount has converted me to the righteous ways of taxi driver, if just only for her. I'll highlight some major issues/topics I perceive as highly important happening this semester.

--Begin the process of learning a foreign language (Russian) and forming a regimented one hour per night or something like that.
--Further grow my stunted plethora of friends at BYUh
--Get into ILP for either Russia (Petersburg) or Ukraine (Kiev)
--State Dep. summer clerical job
--Morph into the graphic tee skinny jeans blues brother sunglasses indie kid I idolize in my head currently
--Cover the walls of my house with photographs if just only my room
--Continue writing in TMN

A Cultured Semester

2008-01-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

I was reading my older brother's post-high school diary earlier this afternoon and decided to maybe start my own, even if electronically. When the world starts to collapse I doubt whatever server this information is stored on will survive for future reading but at that point I don't think it will matter.

So anyway, I will formally begin this blog/personal manifesto at 11:07PM HST 1.06.08.

New news: The local clique of friends I hang out with during semester breaks are back at their respective Universities and I am currently awaiting the BYUH clique to arrive as school does not start until 1.09.08. Yes, as you can figure that is basically why I am resorting to this blog, being bored out of my freaking mind.

Winter 2008 classes:

ASTRO104 Oh stars will be fun
ART265 Beginning Sculpture. Maybe I'll have a 'Ghost' experience...just with a girl.
ART306 Contemporary Art History. Culture anyone?
POSC130 Public Administration. Required lameness
POSC325 International Relations of Asia. Re-do of Asian Governments with a contemporary focus
REL351 Morminism and World Religions. Tried this at the USU Institute for 2 class periods..

Three of the six classes I'm taking were added last week. This probably displays my lack of academic motivation to have International Theory (POSC470) and some other 300 history class I forgot the title of. Hopefully this departure from an insane course-load will lead me to have more time reading Foreign Affairs, the NYT and other news to keep up with world events which has become a passion over the past few semesters. I also definitely fiddle around with my new camera mmm.

Continuation?

2007-12-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

I wonder if I'll keep posting on this or it'll get forgotten.