At first it was gold and silver.
Poor Indians were hunted down, dragged to work to death (LITERALLY!) at gold mines. And soon the gold became sugarcane. Sugar became cacao, and cacao became coffee. Coffee became bananas. Bananas became the buaxide. The bauxide(aluminium) became the copper and the copper became the tin. Tin became petroleum. And that is the story of Latin America as a raw-material provider. Old world's mealticket. Monotonous dependant.
It was approximately 510 years ago when Colombus first set his foot in Americas. And South America, the gold/silver rich kingdom has always remained the same. It has been ravaged, deprived and manipulated, not for 1 year, not for 10 years, but for 500years. IS it really all just monstrous "Gringos", Europeans' fault? Look at the cycle that has lasted for 500 years and still ON. What is the real problem here?
Also,
Why is it that many Latin Americans like to point the finger at the old world and "gringos", and yet they secretly admire them and wish to send their children off to marry them. - If you are Latino and deny this, I say you close your eyes for a second and imagine your daughter marrying an "indio"-or "negro(for the sugarland cabrones). Horrifying, isn't it? I spit on you, hypocrite! -btw, interesting fact: spitting is the worst form of insult in the Jewish culture. (So I will turn into a Jew whenever I feel the desire to spit on you.)Why is it that this cycle of being a provider/depedant has lasted for such a long period of time. (5 centuries.. FIFTY ONE DECADES!)
I do not necessarily think that in today's Latin America, it's the "white men" that are hindering Latin America's economic/social progress.(although that's the way it was BEFORE). Now it's within the culture, the society itself. After centuries of being ravaged and mistreated, it's evident that the region has formed a somewhat intimate masoquistic relationship with its sadistic, old-world masters. What Latin America truly needs is not financial support, a bunch of tawdry/superfluous free trade agreements or compensation but freedom and lots of councelling before it learns to stand on its own feet for the first time in history.
*Excuse my generalization in the 3rd paragraph, I had to go radical because I wanted to mention the Jewish "spitting" culture. That's my next post actually. Conflicts within the Jewish ethnos.
lunes, 30 de noviembre de 2009
Gun powder
Did you KNOW
that gun powder was discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists who were searching for an elixir of immortality?
Hillarious. Gotta love the irony.
that gun powder was discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists who were searching for an elixir of immortality?
Hillarious. Gotta love the irony.
domingo, 29 de noviembre de 2009
Dilated cardiomyopathy
- wiki
Although in many cases no cause (etiology) is apparent, dilated cardiomyopathy is probably the result of damage to the myocardium produced by a variety of toxic, metabolic, or infectious agents. It may be due to fibrous change of the myocardium from a previous myocardial infarction. Or, it may be the late sequel of acute viral myocarditis, possibly mediated through an immunologic mechanism. Autoimmune mechanisms are also suggested as a cause for dilated cardiomyopathy. A reversible form of dilated cardiomyopathy may be found with alcohol abuse, pregnancy (peripartum cardiomyopathy), thyroid disease, stimulant use, and chronic uncontrolled tachycardia. Many cases of dilated cardiomyopathy are described as idiopathic - meaning that the cause is unknown.
Oh this is very curious. How wonder how obesity can develope cardimyopathy. According to some source, it's related to the increased volumn of blood.. hmm.. interesante.
Cardiac Cycle (systole, diastole)
1. Late diastole
2. Atrial systole
3. Isovolumic ventricular contraction
4. Ventricular ejection
5. Isovolumic ventricular relaxation
Xenotransplantation: So imagine having a pig's heart.
Xenotransplantation (xeno- from the Greek meaning "foreign") is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another, such as from pigs to humans. Such cells, tissues or organs are called xenografts or xenotransplants. The term allotransplantation refers to a same-species transplant. Human xenotransplantation offers a potential treatment for end-stage organ failure, a significant health problem in parts of the industrialized world. It also raises many novel medical, legal and ethical issues. A continuing concern is that pigs have shorter lifespans than humans: their tissues age at a different rate. Disease transmission (xenozoonosis) and permanent alteration to the genetic code of animals are also causes for concern. There are few published cases of successful xenotransplantation.
Fuck that, I'm all for it.
Dilated cardiomyopathy
If you have a dilated heart, you will die in 2 years.
Other cool (am I evil?) intrinsic cardiomyopathies.
Intrinsic cardiomyopathy has a number of causes including drug and alcohol toxicity, certain infections (including Hepatitis C), and various genetic and idiopathic (i.e., unknown) causes.
-Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM or HOCM), a genetic disorder caused by various mutations in genes encoding sarcomeric proteins. In HCM the heart muscle is thickened, which can obstruct blood flow and prevent the heart from functioning properly.
-Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) arises from an electrical disturbance of the heart in which heart muscle is replaced by fibrous scar tissue. The right ventricle is generally most affected.
-Restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM) is an uncommon cardiomyopathy. The walls of the ventricles are stiff, but may not be thickened, and resist the normal filling of the heart with blood. A rare form of restrictive cardiomyopathy is the obliterative cardiomyopathy, seen in the hypereosinophilic syndrome. In this type of cardiomyopathy, the myocardium in the apices of the left and right ventricles becomes thickened and fibrotic, causing a decrease in the volumes of the ventricles and a type of restrictive cardiomyopathy.
-Noncompaction cardiomyopathy has been recognized as a separate type since the 1980s. The term refers to a cardiomyopathy where the left ventricle wall has failed to grow properly from birth and has a spongy appearance when viewed during an echocardiogram.
wiki
sábado, 28 de noviembre de 2009
Glomangioma (Glomus tumor)
Call me unprofessional but I'm not going to post a picture of this tumor on my blog. It is by far the most disturbing tumor I've ever seen in my entire life.
Glomangioma
:...The most common adverse effect is pain, which is usually associated with solitary lesions. Multiple tumors are less likely to be painful. In one report, a patient with more than 400 glomus tumors had thrombocytopenia as a result of platelet sequestration (ie, Kasabach-Merritt syndrome). Malignant glomus tumors, or glomangiosarcomas, are extremely rare and usually represent a locally infiltrative malignancy. However, metastases do occur and are usually fatal. - wikipedia
Glomangioma
:...The most common adverse effect is pain, which is usually associated with solitary lesions. Multiple tumors are less likely to be painful. In one report, a patient with more than 400 glomus tumors had thrombocytopenia as a result of platelet sequestration (ie, Kasabach-Merritt syndrome). Malignant glomus tumors, or glomangiosarcomas, are extremely rare and usually represent a locally infiltrative malignancy. However, metastases do occur and are usually fatal. - wikipedia
Why is the North rich and the South poor?
This is an excerpt I took from "Open veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galeano. EXCELLENT.
Why is the north rich and the south poor?
The Rio Grande is much more than a geographical frontier. Is today's profound
disequilibrium, which seems to confirm Hegel's prophecy of inevitable war
between the two Americas, to be traced to U.S. imperialist expansion, or does
it have more ancient roots? In fact, back in the colonial beginnings, north and
south had already generated very different societies with different aims.
The Mayflower pilgrims did not cross the sea to obtain legendary treasures;
they came mainly to establish themselves with their families and to reproduce
in the New World the system of life and work they had practiced in Europe.
They were not soldiers of fortune but pioneers; they came not to conquer but to
colonize, and their colonies were settlements. It is true that a slave-plantation economy like Latin America's developed later south of the Delaware, but there was a difference: the center of gravity in the United States was from the outset the farms and workshops of New England, from which came the victorious
armies of the Civil War. New England colonists, the original nucleus of U.S.
civilization, never acted as colonial agents for European capitalist
accumulation; their own development, and the development of their new land,
were always their motivation. The thirteen colonies served as an outlet for the
army of European peasants and artisans who were being thrown off the labor
market by metropolitan development. Free workers formed the base of that
new society across the ocean.
Spain and Portugal, on the other hand, had an abundance of subjugated
labor in Latin America. Enslavement of the Indians was followed by the
wholesale transplantation of Africans. Through the centuries, a legion of
unemployed peasants was always available to be moved to production centers:
as precious metal or sugar exports rose and fell, flourishing centers coexisted
with centers of decay, and the latter provided labor for the former. This
structure persists to our time; today, as yesterday, it means low wage scales
because of the pressure of the unemployed on the labor market, and frustrates
the growth of an internal consumer market. But also in contrast to the Northern Puritans, internal economic development was never the goal of the ruling
classes of Latin American colonial society. Their profits came from outside;
they were tied more to the foreign market than to their own domain.
Landlords, miners, and merchants had been born to fulfill the mission of
supplying Europe with gold, silver, and food. Goods moved along the roads in
only one direction: to the port and overseas markets. This also provides the key
to the United States' expansion as a national unit and to the fragmentation of
Latin America. Our production centers are not interconnected but take the form
of a fan with a far-away vertex.
One might say that the thirteen colonies had the fortune of bad fortune.
Their history shows the great importance of not being born important. For the
north of America had no gold or silver, no Indian civilizations with dense
concentrations of people already organized for work, no fabulously fertile
tropical soil on the coastal fringe. It was an area where both nature and history
had been miserly: both metals and the slave labor to wrest it from the ground
were missing. Those colonists were lucky. Furthermore, the northern colonies,
from Maryland to New England to Nova Scotia, had a climate and soil similar
to British agriculture and produced exactly the same things. That is, as Sergio
Bagú notes, they did not offer products complementary to the metropolis. The
situation in the Antilles and the mainland Spanish-Portuguese colonies was
quite different. Tropical lands produced sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo,
turpentine; a small Caribbean island had more economic importance for
England than the thirteen colonies that would become the United States.
These circumstances explain the rise and consolidation of the United States
as an economically autonomous system, one which did not drain abroad the
wealth it produced. The ties between colony and metropolis were slender. In
Barbados and Jamaica, on the other hand, only the capital necessary to replace
worn-out slaves was reinvested. Thus it was not racial factors that decided the
development of the one and the underdevelopment of the other: there was
nothing Spanish or Portuguese about Britain's Antillean islands. The truth is
that the economic insignificance of the thirteen colonies permitted the early
diversification of their exports and set off the early and rapid development of
manufacturing. Even before independence, North American industrialization
had official encouragement and protection. And England took a tolerant
attitude while it strictly forbade its Antillean islands to manufacture so much as
a pin.
viernes, 27 de noviembre de 2009
Cholesterol Clefts
Good grief, this one is aight. But google image has some sick pictures of cholesterol cleft. Repugnant, Filthy..
(Update)I just realized why I felt so disgusted by the sight of cholesterol streaks. It's because they remind me of stretch marks.
Sometimes I feel frightened by the way my brains work.
Aldosterone
Aldosterone
1.Increases the reabsorption of sodium and water and the release (secretion) of potassium in the kidneys-> increases blood volume and, therefore, increases blood pressure.
Drugs: antihypertensives ex) spironolactone lowers blood pressure by blocking the aldosterone receptor.
2.Is part of the renin-angiotensin system.
3.A measurement of aldosterone in blood is termed PAC (Plasma Aldosterone Concentration). May be compared to PRA(Plasma Renin Activity). PAC/PRA ratio.
4.Is a steroid hormone (mineralocorticoid family) produced by the outer section of the adrenal cortex in the adrenal gland (Zona Glomerulosa), acts on the distal tubules and collecting ducts of the kidney to cause the conservation of sodium, secretion of potassium, increased water retention, and increased blood pressure.
5.Its activity is reduced in Addison's disease and increased in Conn syndrome.
Fucking awesome page: http://www.sacs.ucsf.edu/home/cooper/Anat118/urinary/urinary98.htm
1.Increases the reabsorption of sodium and water and the release (secretion) of potassium in the kidneys-> increases blood volume and, therefore, increases blood pressure.
Drugs: antihypertensives ex) spironolactone lowers blood pressure by blocking the aldosterone receptor.
2.Is part of the renin-angiotensin system.
3.A measurement of aldosterone in blood is termed PAC (Plasma Aldosterone Concentration). May be compared to PRA(Plasma Renin Activity). PAC/PRA ratio.
4.Is a steroid hormone (mineralocorticoid family) produced by the outer section of the adrenal cortex in the adrenal gland (Zona Glomerulosa), acts on the distal tubules and collecting ducts of the kidney to cause the conservation of sodium, secretion of potassium, increased water retention, and increased blood pressure.
5.Its activity is reduced in Addison's disease and increased in Conn syndrome.
Fucking awesome page: http://www.sacs.ucsf.edu/home/cooper/Anat118/urinary/urinary98.htm
jueves, 26 de noviembre de 2009
chiquita
When a vulnerable, ignorant, guillible nation meets a sadistic, callous, hoggish nation wrapped in false altruism= monotonous dependence, passive/petty money chase, blood for the former country and money, power and respect for the latter.
So about the emotions.
My birthday is coming in 14 days but hey, who's counting.
Lately I've been buried under piles of shit(studies) I've signed up for with the intention of living my life to "the fullest"(and to avoid SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder which always seems to come to me during the winter like fruitflies to a half-eaten apple). I'm fucking.. frazzled, excuse my French or wait a second, why should I excuse MYSELF, maybe YOU should excuse YOURSELF for your redundant political-correctness. Anywho, I feel emotionally sore(if you haven't noticed it already, you very intuitive individual). And this relationship thing is not working for me. Every time the guy goes out with his friend, I wait for him at home with a scorching Devil's pitch fork and a passive-aggressive, sardonic attitude he can never fully grasp or discern. He says he doesn't mind it and I know he doesn't. But it is taking an emotional toll on me. I feel tormented. It's like having my nail beds stabbed by 4000 needles all at the same time. O.K. I admit. Never been in such situation before, but I imagine it will hurt in some pervertedly miserable way. Which, in that case, I kinda might enjoy?
Lately I've been buried under piles of shit(studies) I've signed up for with the intention of living my life to "the fullest"(and to avoid SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder which always seems to come to me during the winter like fruitflies to a half-eaten apple). I'm fucking.. frazzled, excuse my French or wait a second, why should I excuse MYSELF, maybe YOU should excuse YOURSELF for your redundant political-correctness. Anywho, I feel emotionally sore(if you haven't noticed it already, you very intuitive individual). And this relationship thing is not working for me. Every time the guy goes out with his friend, I wait for him at home with a scorching Devil's pitch fork and a passive-aggressive, sardonic attitude he can never fully grasp or discern. He says he doesn't mind it and I know he doesn't. But it is taking an emotional toll on me. I feel tormented. It's like having my nail beds stabbed by 4000 needles all at the same time. O.K. I admit. Never been in such situation before, but I imagine it will hurt in some pervertedly miserable way. Which, in that case, I kinda might enjoy?
adrenal
*pay attention to the arteries
Adrenal gland -> renal refers to kidney
cut in half
capsule, cortex, medulla
neuroendocine system
adrenal medullary hormones
&The adrenal medulla makes the catecholamine hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine.
cortex produces 3 seperate zones
mineralocorticoids aldosterone
Mineralocorticoids are a class of steroid hormones characterised by their similarity to aldosterone and their influence on salt and water balance.
The name mineralocorticoid derives from early observations that these hormones were involved in the retention of sodium, a mineral. The primary endogenous mineralocorticoid is aldosterone, although a number of other endogenous hormones (including progesterone and deoxycorticosterone) have mineralocorticoid function.
Aldosterone acts on the kidneys to provide active reabsorption of sodium and an associated passive reabsorption of water, as well as the active secretion of potassium in the principal cells of the cortical collecting tubule and active secretion of protons via proton ATPases in the lumenal membrane of the intercalated cells of the collecting tubule. This in turn results in an increase of blood pressure and blood volume.
Aldosterone is produced in the cortex of the adrenal gland and its secretion is mediated principally by angiotensin II, but also by adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and local potassium levels.
adrenal adnomas (tend not to be malignant)
benign growth of tissue in the adrenal cortex and you can get Hyperaldosteronism
-> hypertention
glucocordicoids(cortisol) hydrocortisone
This drug depresses immune system
ex) allergy
gluconeogenesis
->production of new glucoes
Addison's disease
Cushing's syndrome
Pheocromocytoma(tumor)
->Paroxysmal hypertension -> paroxysmal comes in bursts
androgen
**Epinepherine(Adrenaline)
as a hormone, it will circulate in the blood and directly stimulate an organ.
as a neurotransmitter, it has to go across the synaps and just stimulate the other side.
Epinephrine, of course, is well known as an actual neurotransmitter in the CNS. But more importantly, it appears to be a material for which nearly every cell in the body has receptors. Sometimes called the "fight or flight" hormone, it's released from the adrenal medulla under conditions of stress as a "wake up call" to the rest of the body that something important is about to happen (like perhaps getting killed). Its systemic and metabolic effects include decreased peristalsis in the gut, dilation of the pupils, increased heart rate and cardiac output, release of glucose from the liver, and so forth: all measures taken to put the animal in a condition to fight or flee. As one text casually notes, "Animals that have had their adrenal [medulla] removed can survive, but they are unable to respond adequately to emergencies."
Nonepinephrine
The second hormone produced in the adrenal medulla, norepinephrine, has as its main function the increase of blood pressure due to vasoconstriction in the peripheral blood vessels. It too is produced in response to direct nervous stimulation. Both of these catecholamines are released via a mechanism of exocytosis, and both leave the adrenal gland in the venous outflow.
cool website: http://education.vetmed.vt.edu/Curriculum/VM8054/VM8054HP.htm
miércoles, 25 de noviembre de 2009
Exocrine glands (exo -> out) (crine -> secrete)
These are the glands that secrete their products into ducts.
*sweat glands, salivary glands, mammary glands, stomach, liver, pancreas.
Endocrine glands
They secrete within the body, their products (hormones) directly into the spaces that surround the cells and eventually are picked up by bloodstream (ductless glands) or release hormones (paracrines) that affect only target cells nearby the release site. pituitary gland, pancreas, ovaries, testes, thyroid gland, and adrenal glands
Organs that are wholly endocrine in function
*pituitary gland, thyroid gland, parathyroids, the adrenal, pineal gland -> these have no other function at all.
The organs that have other functions as well as the endocrine function. (compound glands or organs)
*pancreas (+digestive function), liver, ovary, stomach, hypothalamus, small intestine, kidney, the testes, the placenta
Functions are controlled by the nerve system or the endocrine system.
Both systems coordinate fuctions of other body systems in general. And they are interlocked.
The endocrine system releases the chemical messengers which are called hormones (hormone = urgy on). Hormones act upon other organs/parts of the body.
Hormones regulate growth, reproduction, metabolism. (contrast with the nervous system)
*Down regulation
When the target cell has up to 100 thousand receptors. (millions of receptors of different kinds on every cell, if you get excessive hormone secreted over a period of time, the cell will decrease its number of receptors) to prevent overstimulation
*Up regulation
upregulates the number and its sensitivity of the receptors if you have a very low number of hormone circulating
*paracrine(nearby) cell -> the hormone goes into the tissue fluid (interstitial fluid)
*autocrine -> sending the signal to itself. (frequently associated with cancer, cancers don't take orders from far away/neighbouring organs) Cancers are autonomous. If the cancer cell wants to grow, it will signal itself to grow and ignore everybody else.
I like really this signalling.
Pituitary gland(hypophysis)
Anterior pituitary - Adenohypothysis(comprises about 75% of the gland), it connects with the hypothalamus through a portal capillary blood system. It evolved from the mouth
Posterior pituitary(neurohypothysis) came down from brain.
Hormones that come down from hypothalamus to get to the pituitary are called releasing hormones. -> tells the pituitary to release something that's going to either inhibit or stimulate something somewhere in the body.
Anterior pituitary hormones are controlled by negative feedback method. (from the brain, target organ)
It will go back and turn off the anterior pituitary (negative feedback loop)
EX)
Thyroid stimulating hormone (from brain)
-> Thyroid in the neck -> Release the thyroid hormone -> organ (up)regulation -> some of the hormone will go back to the brain -> turns off the stimulation
TSH -> upregulate metabolism
FSH
LS -> estrogen, progesteron
PL
ACTH - adrenocorticotrophic hormone
MSH - melanocyte stimulating hormone
HGH - Somatotropin
antidiuretic hormone(vasopressin) -> it makes the kidney keep water
Alcohol inhibits ADH secretion (hillarious!) by directly affecting neurohypothysis
Headache from hungover is due to the dehydration
** Pathology
Hypersecrete<->Hyposecrete
Pituitary Dwarfism (low level of HGH during the growing year -> growth plate closes)
Pituitary Giantism
Acromegaly
Good grief, I'm so fucking tired.
Pain/reward
*VTA releases dopamine
*Amyg regulates
pituitary gland - releases beta-endorphins, which decrease pain; oxytocin, which increases feelings of trust; and vasopressin, which increases bonding
martes, 24 de noviembre de 2009
PVN (paraventricular nucleus)
Human paraventricular nucleus (PVN) in this coronal section is indicated by the shaded area. Dots represent vasopressin (AVP) neurons (also seen in the supraoptic nucleus, SON). The medial surface is the 3rd ventricle (3V).
source:wikipedia
William H. DAFT
In the middle of the nineteenth century the filibusterer William Walker,
operating on behalf of bankers Morgan and Garrison, invaded Central America
at the head of a band of assassins.
With the obliging support of the U.S.government, Walker robbed, killed, burned, and in successive expeditions proclaimed himself president of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras.
In 1912 President William H. Taft (Mr.Daft) declared:
"The day is not far distant when three Stars and Stripes at three
equidistant points will mark our territory: one at the North Pole, another at the
Panama Canal, and the third at the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be
ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.”
Taft said that the correct path of justice in U.S. foreign policy "may well be
made to include active intervention to secure for our merchandise and our
capitalists opportunity for profitable investment."
-Eduardo Galeano
lunes, 23 de noviembre de 2009
Serotonin (5-hydoxytryptamine, 5-HT)
Serotonin dysfunction plays an etiologic (causative) role in a very high percentage of diseases, disorders and minor upsets of the human nervous system.
However, people vary tremendously: a generally serotonin-related condition can be highly serotonin-related for one person but entirely unrelated for another. Tiral and error with at least one or two serotonergic approaches (one can work where others fail) is usually the only way to find out which of these groups a person belongs to.
1. Serotonin is produced in the Pineal gland.
2. The average adult human possesses only 5 to 10 mg of serotonin, 90 % of which is in the intestine and the rest in blood platelets and the brain.
3. Neurotransmitter - the control of appetite, sleep, memory, and learning, temperature regulation, mood, behavior, cardiovascular function, muscle contraction, endocrine regulation and depression.
4. "no physiological substance known possesses such diverse actions in the body as does serotonin".
5. It's also found in wasp stings and scorpion venom where its function is of an irritant, since intravenous injection of serotonin in humans leads to pain, gasping, coughing, a tingling and prickling sensation, nausea, cramps and other unpleasant symptoms.
6. Manufactured in the human brain using the essential amino acid tryptophan found in foods like bananas, pineapples, plums, turkey and milk
7. The enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase adds a hydroxyl group to tryptophan's benzene ring at position 5, creating 5-hydroxytryptophan. Another enzyme, amino acid decarboxylase, then removes a carboxyl group from 5-hydroxytryptophan, forming 5-hydroxytryptamine which is more commonly known as serotonin.
8. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in the transmission of nerve impulses.
9. Packets of serotonin (vesicles) are released from the end of the presynaptic cell into the synaptic cleft. The serotonin molecules can then bind to receptor proteins within the postsynaptic cell, which causes a change in the electrical state of the cell. This change in electrical state can either excite the cell, passing along the chemical message, or inhibit it. Excess serotonin molecules are taken back up by the presynaptic cell and reprocessed.
10. The neurons in the brain that release serotonin are found in Raphe Nuclei(medulla, pons and midbrain)
11. Serotonergic neurons have axons which project to many different parts of the brain, therefore serotonin affects many different behaviors.
12. Depression CAN be a result of serotonin deficiency. - Anti-depressant medications increase serotonin levels at the synapse by blocking the reuptake of serotonin into the presynaptic cell.
13. Serotonin levels can increase with vigorous exercise
14. A diet deficient in omega-3 fatty acids may lower brain levels of serotonin and cause depression.
Complex carbohydrates raise the level of tryptophan in the brain resulting in a calming effect.
Vitamin C is also required for the conversion of tryptophan into serotonin.
Source: Claire Rosling from University of Bristol
However, people vary tremendously: a generally serotonin-related condition can be highly serotonin-related for one person but entirely unrelated for another. Tiral and error with at least one or two serotonergic approaches (one can work where others fail) is usually the only way to find out which of these groups a person belongs to.
1. Serotonin is produced in the Pineal gland.
2. The average adult human possesses only 5 to 10 mg of serotonin, 90 % of which is in the intestine and the rest in blood platelets and the brain.
3. Neurotransmitter - the control of appetite, sleep, memory, and learning, temperature regulation, mood, behavior, cardiovascular function, muscle contraction, endocrine regulation and depression.
4. "no physiological substance known possesses such diverse actions in the body as does serotonin".
5. It's also found in wasp stings and scorpion venom where its function is of an irritant, since intravenous injection of serotonin in humans leads to pain, gasping, coughing, a tingling and prickling sensation, nausea, cramps and other unpleasant symptoms.
6. Manufactured in the human brain using the essential amino acid tryptophan found in foods like bananas, pineapples, plums, turkey and milk
7. The enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase adds a hydroxyl group to tryptophan's benzene ring at position 5, creating 5-hydroxytryptophan. Another enzyme, amino acid decarboxylase, then removes a carboxyl group from 5-hydroxytryptophan, forming 5-hydroxytryptamine which is more commonly known as serotonin.
8. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in the transmission of nerve impulses.
9. Packets of serotonin (vesicles) are released from the end of the presynaptic cell into the synaptic cleft. The serotonin molecules can then bind to receptor proteins within the postsynaptic cell, which causes a change in the electrical state of the cell. This change in electrical state can either excite the cell, passing along the chemical message, or inhibit it. Excess serotonin molecules are taken back up by the presynaptic cell and reprocessed.
10. The neurons in the brain that release serotonin are found in Raphe Nuclei(medulla, pons and midbrain)
11. Serotonergic neurons have axons which project to many different parts of the brain, therefore serotonin affects many different behaviors.
12. Depression CAN be a result of serotonin deficiency. - Anti-depressant medications increase serotonin levels at the synapse by blocking the reuptake of serotonin into the presynaptic cell.
13. Serotonin levels can increase with vigorous exercise
14. A diet deficient in omega-3 fatty acids may lower brain levels of serotonin and cause depression.
Complex carbohydrates raise the level of tryptophan in the brain resulting in a calming effect.
Vitamin C is also required for the conversion of tryptophan into serotonin.
Source: Claire Rosling from University of Bristol
Central America
Central America
1. Produced cochineal and indigo (modest capital, a meager labor force)
2. Cochineal bugs and indigo plants were in steady demand in European textile industries.
3. In 1850 German chemists invent aniline and other cheaper dyes.
4. Laboratory wins over nature
5. Central America starts producing coffee
6. By 1880 Central America produces almost 1/6 of the world's coffee production.
7. English -> German -> US
8. Justo Rufino Barrios.
9. The expanding cultivation of coffee discourages food-raising for the home market.
10.The Indians who work on the plantations at harvest time spend part of the year on tiny mountain plots raising the corn and beans.
11. The Latinfundio and minifundio still make up a system based on ruthless exploitation of Indian labor.
12. The structure of labor force appropriate is visibly identified with racism especially in Guatemala. (Especially in Guatemala? my ass. ALL OVER CENTRAL AMERICA + SOUTH AMERICA minus the SUGAR LANDS(here racism is reserved for the black people).. bonafide stupidity.
13. Indians suffer the internal colonialism of whites and mestizos blessed
ideologically by the dominant culture, just as Central American countries
suffer foreign colonialism.
14. Banana makes appearance in Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica.
15. A few railway lines are built to take coffee to the ports.
U.S. concerns took over these railroads and built others, to carry the products of their own plantations exclusively, while monopolizing electriclight, the mails, telegraph and telephone, and--a no less important public Service--politics: in Honduras a mule costs more than a deputy, and throughout
Central America U.S. ambassadors do more presiding than presidents. The
United Fruit Company swallowed up its competitors in the production and sale
of bananas and became Central America's top latifundista, while its affiliates
cornered rail and sea transport. It took over the ports and set up its own
customs and police. The dollar in effect became the national currency of
Central America.
ALWAYS DISCRIMINATING AGAINST INDIANS, ALWAYS CHASING AFTER PETTY GRINGO MONEY. LAUGHING AT THE NEIGHBOURING NATION FOR NOT HAVING U.S. ALL UP IN ITS BUTT. WHAT A WHORE OF A..
Source: Eduardo Galeano
1. Produced cochineal and indigo (modest capital, a meager labor force)
2. Cochineal bugs and indigo plants were in steady demand in European textile industries.
3. In 1850 German chemists invent aniline and other cheaper dyes.
4. Laboratory wins over nature
5. Central America starts producing coffee
6. By 1880 Central America produces almost 1/6 of the world's coffee production.
7. English -> German -> US
8. Justo Rufino Barrios.
9. The expanding cultivation of coffee discourages food-raising for the home market.
10.The Indians who work on the plantations at harvest time spend part of the year on tiny mountain plots raising the corn and beans.
11. The Latinfundio and minifundio still make up a system based on ruthless exploitation of Indian labor.
12. The structure of labor force appropriate is visibly identified with racism especially in Guatemala. (Especially in Guatemala? my ass. ALL OVER CENTRAL AMERICA + SOUTH AMERICA minus the SUGAR LANDS(here racism is reserved for the black people).. bonafide stupidity.
13. Indians suffer the internal colonialism of whites and mestizos blessed
ideologically by the dominant culture, just as Central American countries
suffer foreign colonialism.
14. Banana makes appearance in Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica.
15. A few railway lines are built to take coffee to the ports.
U.S. concerns took over these railroads and built others, to carry the products of their own plantations exclusively, while monopolizing electriclight, the mails, telegraph and telephone, and--a no less important public Service--politics: in Honduras a mule costs more than a deputy, and throughout
Central America U.S. ambassadors do more presiding than presidents. The
United Fruit Company swallowed up its competitors in the production and sale
of bananas and became Central America's top latifundista, while its affiliates
cornered rail and sea transport. It took over the ports and set up its own
customs and police. The dollar in effect became the national currency of
Central America.
ALWAYS DISCRIMINATING AGAINST INDIANS, ALWAYS CHASING AFTER PETTY GRINGO MONEY. LAUGHING AT THE NEIGHBOURING NATION FOR NOT HAVING U.S. ALL UP IN ITS BUTT. WHAT A WHORE OF A..
Source: Eduardo Galeano
Coffee and US economy
It is much more profitable to consume coffee than to produce it. In the
United States and Europe coffee creates income and jobs and mobilizes
substantial capital; in Latin America it pays hunger wages and sharpens
economic deformation. It provides work for more than 600,000 people in the
United States: those who distribute and sell Latin American coffee there earn
infinitely more than the Brazilians, Colombians, Guatemalans, Salvadorans,
and Haitians who plant and harvest it on the plantations. And incredible as it
seems, coffee--so ECLA tells us--puts more wealth into European state coffers
than it leaves in the hands of the producing countries. In effect, in 1960 and
1961 the total taxes levied on Latin American coffee by European Economic
Community countries amounted to about $700 million, while supplier
countries (in terms of the f.o.b. value of exports) only got $600 millions.
In this kingdom of organized absurdity, natural disasters become blessings
from heaven for the producing countries. They raise prices and permit the
mobilization of accumulated reserves. Fierce frosts wrecked the 1969 harvest
in Brazil and sealed the fate of many producers, especially the weakest, but at
the same time pushed up coffee prices on the world marker and appreciably
lightened the "stock" of 60 million sacks--the equivalent of two-thirds of
Brazil's external debt-which the state had accumulated to defend prices. The
warehoused coffee, progressively deteriorating and losing value, could have
ended up in a bonfire. It would not have been the first time. The collapse of
prices and the shrinkage in consumption after the 1929 crisis caused Brazil to
burn 78 million sacks; thus the efforts of 200,000 people during Five harvests
went up in flames.
Colombia is so dependent on coffee and its external price that "in Antioquia the marriage curve responds sensitively to the coffee-price curve. Par for the course in a dependent structure: even the propitious moment for a declaration of love on
an Antioquian hillside is decided on the New York Stock Exchange."
- Eduardo Galeano.
Take this excerpt with a grain of salt. It's becoming obvious that Eduardo Galeano is a prejudiced, angry liberal. Which makes his book very interesting to read. Un uruguayo picante - you don't see those often
domingo, 22 de noviembre de 2009
Dopamine (DA)
1. Dopamine's role in reward
Three competing explanatory categories
A) Liking -> the hedonic impact of reward
B) Learning -> learned predictions of future reward
C) Wanting -> motivate the pursuit of rewards by attributing incentive salience.
(wanting hypothesis is more consistent with evidence)- anticipatory desire
2. Inhibition of prolactin(PRL) or luteotropic hormone (LTH)- peptide hormone
- associated with lactation
- Lactogenesis<-> Oxytocin
- synthesised and secreted by sex binding lactotrope cells in the adenohypophysis (anterior pituitary gland).
- also produced in the breast, the decidua(uterine lining during the pregnancy), parts of the central nervous system, the brain, and the immune system.
- Effects:
A)regulating lactation(stimulation of the mammary glands)
*interesting fact -> Sometimes, newborn babies (both males/females) secrete a milky substance from their nipples. They are commonly known as witch's milk. This is caused by the fetus being affected by prolactin circulating in the mother just before birth, stops right after.
B)orgasms
Prolactin counteracts the effect of dopamine which is responsible for sexual arousal. High amounts of prolactin are suspected to be responsible for impotence and loss of libido.
C)proliferation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells.
These cells are responsible for the formation of myelin coatings on axons in the central nervous system.
D)contributes to surfactant synthesis of the fetal lungs at the end of the pregnancy
immune tolerance of the fetus by the maternal organism during pregnancy.
Decreases normal levels of sex hormones. Inhibition of sex steroids responsible for loss of the menstrual cycle. Delays hair regrowth in mice.
3. Reinforcement
A) provides feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement
B) Dopamine is released (particularly in areas such as the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex) by naturally rewarding experiences such as food, sex, drugs, and neutral stimuli that become associated with them.
C) aggression may also stimulate the release of dopamine in this way.
D) cocaine, nicotine, amphetamines increase dopamine in the mesolimbic reward pathway of the brain.
*Interesting fact
neurobiological theories of chemical addiction (not to be confused with psychological dependence), arguing that this dopamine pathway is pathologically altered in addicted persons.
4. Cocaine/amphetamines and dopamine
Cocaine and amphetamines inhibit the re-uptake of dopamine.
Cocaine is a dopamine transporter blocker that competitively inhibits dopamine uptake to increase the lifetime of dopamine and augments an overabundance of dopamine (an increase of up to 150 percent) within the parameters of the dopamine neurotransmitters.
*Reuptake is necessary for normal synaptic physiology because it allows for the recycling of neurotransmitters and regulates the level of neurotransmitter present in the synapse and controls how long a signal resulting from neurotransmitter release lasts.
Like cocaine, amphetamines increase the concentration of dopamine in the synaptic gap, but by a different mechanism. Amphetamines are similar in structure to dopamine, and so can enter the terminal button of the presynaptic neuron via its dopamine transporters as well as by diffusing through the neural membrane directly. By entering the presynaptic neuron, amphetamines force dopamine molecules out of their storage vesicles and expel them into the synaptic gap by making the dopamine transporters work in reverse.
5. Dopamine, learning, and reward-seeking behavior
A) Dopaminergic neurons of the midbrain are the main source of dopamine in the brain.
B) Involved in the control of movements, the signaling of error, motivation and cognition.
*Depletion of cerebral dopamine = Parkison's disease
*Dopamine dysfunction associated with Schizophrenia, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, drug abuse.
C)firing of dopaminergic neurons -> motivational substance as a consequence of reward-anticipation.
D)reward neurons predominate in the ventromedial region in the substantia nigra pars compacta as well as the ventral tegmental area. Neurons in these areas project mainly to the ventral striatum and thus might transmit value-related information in regard reward values.
E)the nonreward neurons are predominate in the dorsolateral area of the substantia nigra pars compacta which projects to the dorsal striatum and may relate orienting behaviour.
It has been suggested that the difference between these two types of dopaminergic neurons arises from their input: reward linked ones have input from the basal forebrain while the nonreward related ones from the lateral habenula
source: mostly wikipedia, the rest? I don't remember. Sue me, if you got any problem. Non me ne frega niente.
Cotton tree
During the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of how it was derived, other than that it was a plant; noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville, writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie [sic]." This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in many European languages, such as German Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool" (Baum means "tree"; Wolle means "wool"). By the end of the 16th century, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions in Asia and the Americas.
Stephen Yafa (2004). Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber. Penguin (Non-Classics). pp. 16. ISBN 0-14-303722-6.
Drawn by John Mandeville.
Jehan de Mandeville", translated as "Sir John Mandeville", is the name claimed by the compiler of a singular book of supposed travels, written in Anglo-Norman French, and published between 1357 and 1371. (his book was considered a work of reference by Christopher Columbus)
Well, what a punk.
Stephen Yafa (2004). Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber. Penguin (Non-Classics). pp. 16. ISBN 0-14-303722-6.
Drawn by John Mandeville.
Jehan de Mandeville", translated as "Sir John Mandeville", is the name claimed by the compiler of a singular book of supposed travels, written in Anglo-Norman French, and published between 1357 and 1371. (his book was considered a work of reference by Christopher Columbus)
Well, what a punk.
sábado, 21 de noviembre de 2009
Venezuela/Cacao/Brazil/Africa
And now, finally! I will post "la entrada" about VENEZUELA. Ah....my beautiful Venezuela!
1.For a long time Venezuela was identified with cacao, a native South American
plant.
2.In 1873, a coffee era begins in Venezuela. this competition, cacao continues to expand, invading the humid lands of Carupano. Venezuela remained an agricultural country condemned to the cyclical rise and fall of coffee and cacao prices
-the two products created the capital that enabled landlords, merchants, and
moneylenders to live as wasteful parasites.
3.In 1922, the country suddenly becomes a fountain of oil, and oil has
reigned without interruption ever since.
4.The last decades of the nineteenth century marked the rise of European and
U.S. gluttony for chocolate.
5.The industry's progress lent great impetus to Brazilian cacao and to production in the old Venezuelan and Ecuadorean plantations.
5. Sugar cities turn into Cacao/rubber capital.
6. Cacao is monoculture like sugarcane. - the burning of forests, the dictatorship of international prices, and perpetual penury for the workers.
7. Brazil becomes the biggest international cacao market. But Africa offers serious competition.
8. By the 1920s, the Gold Coast becomes the biggest world cacao supplier.
(The British develops cacao plantations in their colony on a large scale)
9. Brazil falls back to second place.
10. Brazil falls back to third place.
11. The fertile lands of Southern Bahia become mediocre.
12.Chocolate consumption grew, and with it prices and profits.
13. The port of Ilheus becomes the queen of the South. (because of the cacao of course) -> I will look into this later.
Jorge Amado said
14. from 1959 to 1961 international price of the Brazilian cacao bean falls by one third.
1.For a long time Venezuela was identified with cacao, a native South American
plant.
2.In 1873, a coffee era begins in Venezuela. this competition, cacao continues to expand, invading the humid lands of Carupano. Venezuela remained an agricultural country condemned to the cyclical rise and fall of coffee and cacao prices
-the two products created the capital that enabled landlords, merchants, and
moneylenders to live as wasteful parasites.
3.In 1922, the country suddenly becomes a fountain of oil, and oil has
reigned without interruption ever since.
4.The last decades of the nineteenth century marked the rise of European and
U.S. gluttony for chocolate.
5.The industry's progress lent great impetus to Brazilian cacao and to production in the old Venezuelan and Ecuadorean plantations.
5. Sugar cities turn into Cacao/rubber capital.
6. Cacao is monoculture like sugarcane. - the burning of forests, the dictatorship of international prices, and perpetual penury for the workers.
7. Brazil becomes the biggest international cacao market. But Africa offers serious competition.
8. By the 1920s, the Gold Coast becomes the biggest world cacao supplier.
(The British develops cacao plantations in their colony on a large scale)
9. Brazil falls back to second place.
10. Brazil falls back to third place.
11. The fertile lands of Southern Bahia become mediocre.
12.Chocolate consumption grew, and with it prices and profits.
13. The port of Ilheus becomes the queen of the South. (because of the cacao of course) -> I will look into this later.
Jorge Amado said
"Ilheus and the cacao zone swam in gold, bathed in champagne, slept with French ladies from Rio de Janeiro. At the Trianon, the city's, most chic cabaret, Colonel Maneca Dantas lit cigarettes with 500,000-reis bills, repeating the gesture of all the country's rich fazendeiros during the previous
rises in coffee, rubber, cotton, and sugar prices."
14. from 1959 to 1961 international price of the Brazilian cacao bean falls by one third.
Cacao
Now you may hate that I floored my blog with pictures of cacao but what can I say, this is MY fucking blog and I'm fascinated by this fruit.
1. Cacao (Mayan: Kakaw Nahuatl: Cacahuatl)-> Now we understand where the word Cacao comes from.
2. Belongs to the Sterculiaceae(or Malvaceae) family.
3. Native to the tropical region of the Americas.
However, isn't it fascinating that the country that produces the most cacao is Côte d'Ivoire(Ghana comes in the second but the production of cacao in ghana is barely half the amount of cacao Côte d'Ivoire produces). I will get back to this later.
4. Its seeds are used to make cocoa and chocolate.
5. There are two competing hypotheses about the origins of the wild Theobroma cacao tree.
- Southeastern Mexico-> Domestication of cacao -> the Amazon basin
- Amazon -> distributed by humans -> Central America and Mesoamerica.
6. Where can it be found? -> in the low foothills of the Andes at elevations of around 200-400m in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins.
7. It requires a humid climate with regular rainfall and good soil.
8. The leaves are poisonouns and inedible. They are filled with a creamy, milky liquid and taste spicy and unpleasant. (What the hell, is this supposed to be a warning? now I want to go and taste the cacao leaves!)
9. Cacao flowers(small and pink) are pollinated by tiny flies.
10.The fruit is called a cacao pod.
-It is ovoid
-15–30 cm (6–12 in) long and 8–10 cm (3–4 in) wide.
-ripening yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g (1 lb) when ripe.
-The pod contains 20 to 60 seeds, usually called "beans", embedded in a white pulp.
-Each seed contains a significant amount of fat (40–50% as cocoa butter).
-Their most noted active constituent is theobromine,a compound similar to caffeine.
11. Cacao is grown both by large agro-industrial plantations(LATIFUNDIO!) and also by small producers.
12. A tree begins to bear when it is four or five years old.
13. A mature tree may have 6,000 flowers in a year, yet only about 20 pods. About 300-600 seeds (10 pods) are required to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of cocoa paste.
->so that means a mature cacao tree can produce about 2 kg of cocoa paste.
14. There are 3 main cultivar groups of cacao beans.
A)Criollo Group - the most prized, rare and expensive, Makes up for 10% of the international chocolate production.
Mayan cocoa beans. It's less bitter and more aromatic than any other bean.
B)Forastero group - 80%. Trees are hardier than Criollo trees. Resulting in cheaper cacao beans.
C)Trinitario - a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, is used in about 10% of chocolate.
Major cocoa bean processors: Hershey's, Nestlé and Mars.
(source)
Coe, Sophie D.; and Michael D. Coe (1996). The True History of Chocolate. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01693-3.
A. Frison, M. Diekman and D. Nowell (2000). Cacao. FAO / IPGRI Technical Guidelines for the Safe Movement of Germplasm No. 20. ACRI - FAO - IPGRI. http://www.bioversityinternational.org/Publications/pubfile.asp?ID_PUB=360.
A.B. Eskes and Y. Efron, editors (2006). Global Approaches to Cocoa Germplasm Utilization and Conservation. CFC - ICCO - IPGRI. http://www.bioversityinternational.org/Publications/pubfile.asp?ID_PUB=1172.
1. Cacao (Mayan: Kakaw Nahuatl: Cacahuatl)-> Now we understand where the word Cacao comes from.
2. Belongs to the Sterculiaceae(or Malvaceae) family.
3. Native to the tropical region of the Americas.
However, isn't it fascinating that the country that produces the most cacao is Côte d'Ivoire(Ghana comes in the second but the production of cacao in ghana is barely half the amount of cacao Côte d'Ivoire produces). I will get back to this later.
4. Its seeds are used to make cocoa and chocolate.
5. There are two competing hypotheses about the origins of the wild Theobroma cacao tree.
- Southeastern Mexico-> Domestication of cacao -> the Amazon basin
- Amazon -> distributed by humans -> Central America and Mesoamerica.
6. Where can it be found? -> in the low foothills of the Andes at elevations of around 200-400m in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins.
7. It requires a humid climate with regular rainfall and good soil.
8. The leaves are poisonouns and inedible. They are filled with a creamy, milky liquid and taste spicy and unpleasant. (What the hell, is this supposed to be a warning? now I want to go and taste the cacao leaves!)
9. Cacao flowers(small and pink) are pollinated by tiny flies.
10.The fruit is called a cacao pod.
-It is ovoid
-15–30 cm (6–12 in) long and 8–10 cm (3–4 in) wide.
-ripening yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g (1 lb) when ripe.
-The pod contains 20 to 60 seeds, usually called "beans", embedded in a white pulp.
-Each seed contains a significant amount of fat (40–50% as cocoa butter).
-Their most noted active constituent is theobromine,a compound similar to caffeine.
11. Cacao is grown both by large agro-industrial plantations(LATIFUNDIO!) and also by small producers.
12. A tree begins to bear when it is four or five years old.
13. A mature tree may have 6,000 flowers in a year, yet only about 20 pods. About 300-600 seeds (10 pods) are required to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of cocoa paste.
->so that means a mature cacao tree can produce about 2 kg of cocoa paste.
14. There are 3 main cultivar groups of cacao beans.
A)Criollo Group - the most prized, rare and expensive, Makes up for 10% of the international chocolate production.
Mayan cocoa beans. It's less bitter and more aromatic than any other bean.
B)Forastero group - 80%. Trees are hardier than Criollo trees. Resulting in cheaper cacao beans.
C)Trinitario - a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, is used in about 10% of chocolate.
Major cocoa bean processors: Hershey's, Nestlé and Mars.
(source)
Coe, Sophie D.; and Michael D. Coe (1996). The True History of Chocolate. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01693-3.
A. Frison, M. Diekman and D. Nowell (2000). Cacao. FAO / IPGRI Technical Guidelines for the Safe Movement of Germplasm No. 20. ACRI - FAO - IPGRI. http://www.bioversityinternational.org/Publications/pubfile.asp?ID_PUB=360.
A.B. Eskes and Y. Efron, editors (2006). Global Approaches to Cocoa Germplasm Utilization and Conservation. CFC - ICCO - IPGRI. http://www.bioversityinternational.org/Publications/pubfile.asp?ID_PUB=1172.
Natural Rubber and Brazil
O.K. MAYBE I'M HAVING TOO MUCH FUN WITH YOUTUBE VIDEOS BUT DAMN, LOOK AT THIS. EVER WONDERED HOW NATURAL RUBBER IS PRODUCED?
1. Rubber workers make incisions in the trunks and in thick branches of Hevea trees.
2. White, sticky latex dripps from the incisions. -> It fills the cups in a couple of hours.
3. Rubber workers cook the flat slabs of rubber.
(The reason why the price of Amazonian rubber fell fourfold in 1913)
Back in 1873 Henry Wickham, an Englishman who
owned rubber forests on the Rio Tapajoz and was known for his botanical
manias, had sent sketches and leaves of the rubber tree to the director of Kew
Gardens in London. He got an order for a quantity of seeds from the yellow
fruit of Hevea brasiliensis. Since Brazil severely punished any leakage of seeds,he had to smuggle them out, which was not easy: ships were meticulously
searched by the authorities. Then, as if under a magic spell, an Inman Line ship
penetrated 1,200 miles further than usual into the interior of Brazil. On its
return, Henry Wickham was aboard as a member of the crew. He had selected
the best seeds after putting the fruit out to dry in a native village, and had put
them in a locked cabin, wrapped in banana leaves and suspended on strings so
that the ship's rats could not get at them. The rest of the ship was empty. In the
port of Belem, at the river's mouth, Wickham invited the authorities to a grand
banquet. The Englishman's eccentricities were notorious--all Amazonia knew
that he collected orchids--and he explained that on order from the English king
he was carrying a collection of rare orchid bulbs to Kew Gardens. As the plants
were very delicate he had them in a hermetically sealed cabin at a special temperature: if it was opened the flowers would be ruined. Thus the seeds reached the Liverpool docks unscathed. Forty years later the British invaded the world market with Malayan rubber. The Asian plantations, skillfully developed from shoots
grown at Kew Gardens, easily supplanted Brazilian production.
- Eduardo Galeano, Open veins of Latin America
1. Rubber workers make incisions in the trunks and in thick branches of Hevea trees.
2. White, sticky latex dripps from the incisions. -> It fills the cups in a couple of hours.
3. Rubber workers cook the flat slabs of rubber.
(The reason why the price of Amazonian rubber fell fourfold in 1913)
Back in 1873 Henry Wickham, an Englishman who
owned rubber forests on the Rio Tapajoz and was known for his botanical
manias, had sent sketches and leaves of the rubber tree to the director of Kew
Gardens in London. He got an order for a quantity of seeds from the yellow
fruit of Hevea brasiliensis. Since Brazil severely punished any leakage of seeds,he had to smuggle them out, which was not easy: ships were meticulously
searched by the authorities. Then, as if under a magic spell, an Inman Line ship
penetrated 1,200 miles further than usual into the interior of Brazil. On its
return, Henry Wickham was aboard as a member of the crew. He had selected
the best seeds after putting the fruit out to dry in a native village, and had put
them in a locked cabin, wrapped in banana leaves and suspended on strings so
that the ship's rats could not get at them. The rest of the ship was empty. In the
port of Belem, at the river's mouth, Wickham invited the authorities to a grand
banquet. The Englishman's eccentricities were notorious--all Amazonia knew
that he collected orchids--and he explained that on order from the English king
he was carrying a collection of rare orchid bulbs to Kew Gardens. As the plants
were very delicate he had them in a hermetically sealed cabin at a special temperature: if it was opened the flowers would be ruined. Thus the seeds reached the Liverpool docks unscathed. Forty years later the British invaded the world market with Malayan rubber. The Asian plantations, skillfully developed from shoots
grown at Kew Gardens, easily supplanted Brazilian production.
- Eduardo Galeano, Open veins of Latin America
Malaria
- The erythrocytic stage of the life cycle
Within the red blood cells, the merozites multiply further, again asexually, periodically breaking out of their hosts to invade fresh red blood cells. Several such amplification cycles occur. Thus, classical descriptions of waves of fever arise from simultaneous waves of merozoites escaping and infecting red blood cells.
Bledsoe, G. H. (December 2005) "Malaria primer for clinicians in the United States" Southern Medical Journal 98(12): pp. 1197–204
Djukas/Palmeras
WOW THINGS YOU CAN FIND ON THE INTERNET.
In Dutch Guiana (Surinam) communities of Djukas, descendants of slaves who fled into
the forest, have survived for three centuries across the Courantyne River. In
these villages "obeah shrines like those in Guinea can be seen, ceremonial
dances are performed that could take place in Ghana, and the people talk with
drums, which are made like Ashanti drums." The first big revolt in Guiana
occurred one hundred years after the flight of the Djukas: the Dutch recovered
the plantations and burned the slave leaders in slow fires, but in Brazil a little
before the Djuka exodus, fugitive slaves had organized the black kingdom of
Palmares in the Northeast, and throughout the eighteenth century had
successfully resisted dozens of military expeditions sent to suppress them, first by the Dutch and then by the Portuguese. Assaults by thousands of soldiers were fruitless against the guerrilla tactics which, until 1693, made the refuge invulnerable. The independent kingdom of Palmares--a call to rebellion, a banner of liberty--was organized as a state, similar to the many that existed in Africa in the seventeenth century. It extended from near Cape Santo Agostinho in Pernambuco to the northern Rio Sao Francisco zone in Alagoas, an area one-third the size of Portugal and surrounded by dense,wild forests.
The ruling chief was elected from among the wisest and most
skillful: the man, of greatest prestige and success in war or command. When
the sugar plantation was at its height of omnipotence, Palmares was the one
corner of Brazil where agriculture was being diversified. Guided by their own
experience or that of their ancestors in African savannas and forests, the blacks
raised corn, sweet potatoes, beans, manioc, bananas, and other foods. The
colonial troops, assigned to bring back the men who had crossed the sea in
chains and deserted the plantations, believed--and not without reason--that the
destruction of these crops was their main purpose.
In Dutch Guiana (Surinam) communities of Djukas, descendants of slaves who fled into
the forest, have survived for three centuries across the Courantyne River. In
these villages "obeah shrines like those in Guinea can be seen, ceremonial
dances are performed that could take place in Ghana, and the people talk with
drums, which are made like Ashanti drums." The first big revolt in Guiana
occurred one hundred years after the flight of the Djukas: the Dutch recovered
the plantations and burned the slave leaders in slow fires, but in Brazil a little
before the Djuka exodus, fugitive slaves had organized the black kingdom of
Palmares in the Northeast, and throughout the eighteenth century had
successfully resisted dozens of military expeditions sent to suppress them, first by the Dutch and then by the Portuguese. Assaults by thousands of soldiers were fruitless against the guerrilla tactics which, until 1693, made the refuge invulnerable. The independent kingdom of Palmares--a call to rebellion, a banner of liberty--was organized as a state, similar to the many that existed in Africa in the seventeenth century. It extended from near Cape Santo Agostinho in Pernambuco to the northern Rio Sao Francisco zone in Alagoas, an area one-third the size of Portugal and surrounded by dense,wild forests.
The ruling chief was elected from among the wisest and most
skillful: the man, of greatest prestige and success in war or command. When
the sugar plantation was at its height of omnipotence, Palmares was the one
corner of Brazil where agriculture was being diversified. Guided by their own
experience or that of their ancestors in African savannas and forests, the blacks
raised corn, sweet potatoes, beans, manioc, bananas, and other foods. The
colonial troops, assigned to bring back the men who had crossed the sea in
chains and deserted the plantations, believed--and not without reason--that the
destruction of these crops was their main purpose.
viernes, 20 de noviembre de 2009
John Hawkins
Back in 1562 Captain John Hawkins had smuggled 300 blacks out of
Portuguese Guinea. Queen Elizabeth was furious: "It was detestable and would
call down vengeance from heaven upon the undertakers," she cried.12 But
Hawkins told her that in exchange for the slaves he had a cargo of sugar, hides,
pearls, and ginger in the Caribbean, and she forgave the pirate and became his
business partner.
Good grief, the weather is getting so cold.
(Death)- WIKIPEDIA
In 1595 he accompanied his second cousin Sir Francis Drake, on a treasure-hunting voyage to the West Indies, involving two unsuccesful attacks on San Juan. During the voyage they both fell sick. Hawkins died at sea off Puerto Rico. Drake would die a few months later in England.
He was succeeded by his son Sir Richard Hawkins.
Hawkins came to the public's attention again in June 2006, almost four and a half centuries after his death, when his descendant Andrew Hawkins publicly apologized for his ancestor's actions in the slave trade.
Fucking hillarious.
jueves, 19 de noviembre de 2009
Cuba, sugar, Puerto rico and USA.
Today I'm going to write about one of my favorite countries in the world - CUBA.(and a little bit about Puerto Rico)
1. The British had taken Havana briefly in 1762.
-The Cuban economy was based on small tobacco plantations and on cattle ranching at the time.
2. Havana was a military bastion. Had craftsmen with advanced skills, a foundry of manufacturing cannon, warships. (I wonder what Eduardo Galeano means by all this, was cuban arms market sort of like illegal arms market in Durra, Pakistan? or was it more legitimate- quite frankly, I can't see it being more legitimate.)
3. In 11 months, The british bring in slaves and from that time on, the Cuban economy becomes shaped by the foreign need for sugar.
4. Everyone in Cuba starts turning into sugar production which eventually destroys the soil's fertility.
5. Dried meat, a Cuban export a few years earlier, was by 1792 arriving in
large quantities from abroad and was an import from then on. - Hmm. Why?
6. Sugarcane plantations destroyed the best Cuban forests.
7. "The present-day per hectare yield from sugar plantations in Cuba is more than
three times lower than in Peru and four and one-half times lower than in
Hawaii. Irrigation and fertilization of the land are priority tasks for the Cuban
Revolution. Large and small hydraulic dams are multiplying, fields are being irrigated, and fertilizer is being scattered over lands weak from
centuries of punishment."
8. In the mid-nineteenth century it had forty sugarmills producing 700,000 arrobas
of sugar.
9. The Sierra Maestra guerrilleros take power, Cuba's destiny is still
tied to sugar prices.
10. Sugar stands at $.22 a pound in 1920, Cuba beats the world record in per capita export. Latin America's highest per capita income.
11. In December of 1920. The price falls to $.04 and a crisis of hurricane force descends in 1921 -> many sugarmills go bankrupt.
(due to the fall in sugar prices on the US market)
12. General Enoch Crowder becomes Cuba's de facto governor.
13. Machado dictatorship comes to power in 1924.
14. 1930 - The Great Depression
15. The U.S. crisis has a fierce impact on Cuba's dependent and vulnerable economy.
16. The price of sugar sinks below $.01 by 1932
17. The value of exports fall by 75%/ unemployment rate high
18. in 1948, Cuba recovers its quota to the point of supplying 1/3 of the US sugar market. (thus limited by Washington's needs)
19. Fulgencio Batista takes power in 1952.
20. Batista falls in 1959. Cuba sells almost all its sugar to US.
"The nation that buys commands, the nation that sells serves; it is necessary to balance trade in order to ensure freedom; the country that wants to die sells only to one country, and the country that wants to survive sells to more than one.” says Che Guevara at the OS Punta del Este conference in 1961.
21. At the defeat of Spain, General Leonard Wood governs the island
22. The Philippines and Puerto Rico drop into the United States' lap.
(Puerto Rico had more soldiers fighting in Southeast Asian than the rest of the United States during the Vietnam war. Puerto ricans resisting compulsory military service were sent to U.S. penitentiaries.)
(Cuban revolution)
The country's economy moved in step with its sugar harvests. The
purchasing power of Cuban exports between 1952 and 1956 was no greater
than it had been thirty years earlier, although foreign currency was much more
needed. In the 1930s, when the crisis deepened the economy’s dependence
instead of helping to break it, newly installed factories were actually
dismantled to sell to other countries. When the Revolution triumphed on the
first day of 1959, Cuba's industrial development was poor and sluggish, over half the production was concentrated in Havana, and the few technologically modern factories were managed by remote control from the United States. A Cuban economist, Regino Boti, coauthor of the Sierra guerrilleros' economic theses, cites the example of a Nestle's affiliate producing condensed milk in Bayamo: “When there was a
breakdown, the technician simply phoned Connecticut and told them what he
thought had gone wrong. He was told at once what to do about it and he simply
followed instructions, without having to bother his head about theory. If this
did not do the trick, a plane would arrive four hours later with a team of
specialists. After nationalization, we could no longer phone for help, and the
few technicians who might have been able to deal with minor faults had
gone.”9 This illustrates precisely what problems the Revolution faced when it
embarked on the adventure of converting the colony into a fatherland.
Eduardo Galeano - Open veins of Latin America.
1. The British had taken Havana briefly in 1762.
-The Cuban economy was based on small tobacco plantations and on cattle ranching at the time.
2. Havana was a military bastion. Had craftsmen with advanced skills, a foundry of manufacturing cannon, warships. (I wonder what Eduardo Galeano means by all this, was cuban arms market sort of like illegal arms market in Durra, Pakistan? or was it more legitimate- quite frankly, I can't see it being more legitimate.)
3. In 11 months, The british bring in slaves and from that time on, the Cuban economy becomes shaped by the foreign need for sugar.
4. Everyone in Cuba starts turning into sugar production which eventually destroys the soil's fertility.
5. Dried meat, a Cuban export a few years earlier, was by 1792 arriving in
large quantities from abroad and was an import from then on. - Hmm. Why?
The Rio de la Plata meatpacking plants were already in operation. Argentina and Uruguay (then without separate existence and not so named) had adopted their economies to the massive export of dried and salted meat, hides, fats, and tallows. Brazil and Cuba, the nineteenth century's two great slave centers, were fine markets for dried meat, a very cheap food easily transported and warehoused since it did not go bad in the tropical heat. Cuba was the first market for Uruguayan meat--then
shipped in thin, dry slices--at the end of the eighteenth century. Cubans still call dried meat "Montevideo," but Uruguay stopped selling it to Cuba in 1985 when they joined the OAS anti- Cuban bloc, thus idiotically losing their last market for the product.
6. Sugarcane plantations destroyed the best Cuban forests.
7. "The present-day per hectare yield from sugar plantations in Cuba is more than
three times lower than in Peru and four and one-half times lower than in
Hawaii. Irrigation and fertilization of the land are priority tasks for the Cuban
Revolution. Large and small hydraulic dams are multiplying, fields are being irrigated, and fertilizer is being scattered over lands weak from
centuries of punishment."
8. In the mid-nineteenth century it had forty sugarmills producing 700,000 arrobas
of sugar.
9. The Sierra Maestra guerrilleros take power, Cuba's destiny is still
tied to sugar prices.
10. Sugar stands at $.22 a pound in 1920, Cuba beats the world record in per capita export. Latin America's highest per capita income.
11. In December of 1920. The price falls to $.04 and a crisis of hurricane force descends in 1921 -> many sugarmills go bankrupt.
(due to the fall in sugar prices on the US market)
12. General Enoch Crowder becomes Cuba's de facto governor.
13. Machado dictatorship comes to power in 1924.
14. 1930 - The Great Depression
15. The U.S. crisis has a fierce impact on Cuba's dependent and vulnerable economy.
16. The price of sugar sinks below $.01 by 1932
17. The value of exports fall by 75%/ unemployment rate high
18. in 1948, Cuba recovers its quota to the point of supplying 1/3 of the US sugar market. (thus limited by Washington's needs)
19. Fulgencio Batista takes power in 1952.
20. Batista falls in 1959. Cuba sells almost all its sugar to US.
"The nation that buys commands, the nation that sells serves; it is necessary to balance trade in order to ensure freedom; the country that wants to die sells only to one country, and the country that wants to survive sells to more than one.” says Che Guevara at the OS Punta del Este conference in 1961.
21. At the defeat of Spain, General Leonard Wood governs the island
22. The Philippines and Puerto Rico drop into the United States' lap.
(Puerto Rico had more soldiers fighting in Southeast Asian than the rest of the United States during the Vietnam war. Puerto ricans resisting compulsory military service were sent to U.S. penitentiaries.)
Other humiliations inherited from the invasion of 1898 and blessed by law (the law of the U.S. Congress) are added to service in the U.S. armed forces. Puerto Rico is symbolically represented in the Congress, being without vote and virtually without voice. In exchange for this right:
colonial status for an island that before the U.S. occupation had its own currency and carried on prosperous trade with the principal markets. Today the currency is the dollar and customs duties are fixed in Washington, where everything connected with the island's external and internal trade is decided. The same for foreign relations, transport, communications, wages, and work conditions. U.S, federal courts sit in judgment on Puerto Ricans; the local army is part of the U.S.
army. Industry and commerce are in the hands of U.S. private interests. The emigration of Puerto Ricans has threatened to make denationalization complete: poverty has driven more than a million to New York hoping to improve their lot at the cost of losing their national identity.
There they form a subprolerariat which piles up in the most sordid slums.) "They have been conferred upon us by the war," said President McKinley, including Cuba in his remarks, “and with God's help and in the name of the progress of humanity and civilization, it is our duty to respond to this great trust." In 1902 Toma Estrada Palma had to renounce the U.S. citizenship he had acquired while living there in exile; the US. occupation forces made him the first president of Cuba. In 1960 the former U.S. ambassador to Cuba, Earl Smith, told a Senate subcommittee: "Until
Castro came to power, the United States had such an irresistible influence in
Cuba that the U.S. ambassador was the country's second personage, sometimes
even more important than the Cuban president."
(Cuban revolution)
The country's economy moved in step with its sugar harvests. The
purchasing power of Cuban exports between 1952 and 1956 was no greater
than it had been thirty years earlier, although foreign currency was much more
needed. In the 1930s, when the crisis deepened the economy’s dependence
instead of helping to break it, newly installed factories were actually
dismantled to sell to other countries. When the Revolution triumphed on the
first day of 1959, Cuba's industrial development was poor and sluggish, over half the production was concentrated in Havana, and the few technologically modern factories were managed by remote control from the United States. A Cuban economist, Regino Boti, coauthor of the Sierra guerrilleros' economic theses, cites the example of a Nestle's affiliate producing condensed milk in Bayamo: “When there was a
breakdown, the technician simply phoned Connecticut and told them what he
thought had gone wrong. He was told at once what to do about it and he simply
followed instructions, without having to bother his head about theory. If this
did not do the trick, a plane would arrive four hours later with a team of
specialists. After nationalization, we could no longer phone for help, and the
few technicians who might have been able to deal with minor faults had
gone.”9 This illustrates precisely what problems the Revolution faced when it
embarked on the adventure of converting the colony into a fatherland.
Eduardo Galeano - Open veins of Latin America.
i Biondi
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capelli
Hahahahahahahaha. I just HAD to post this. You see, I was looking for grammatical information on Italian adjectives. (I wanted to know if it's possible to say "i capelli castano scuro" instead of "i capelli castani scuri", not that you would know what the hell I'm talking about) And look what I came across.
Percentuale dei capelli biondi nelle regioni italiane. (Distribution of blondies in Italy)!
Why the CARALHO would anybody do research on this? No. Actually, I understand now. It says this was taken between 1859-1863.(Dati raccolti da Ridolfo Livi sulle classi di leva 1859-1863). What a waste of time to research something like this.
Yep, it's human nature to prostitute time. And it's also human nature to bemoan about the prostitution of time. And then jump down my throat because I call you contradictory and perverse.
By the way, this is entirely random but the Flemish artist Brueghel was also alive in 1859 and here's a video of one of his paintings. (I believe he's worth some of your completely disconcerted attention)
Hahahahahahahaha. I just HAD to post this. You see, I was looking for grammatical information on Italian adjectives. (I wanted to know if it's possible to say "i capelli castano scuro" instead of "i capelli castani scuri", not that you would know what the hell I'm talking about) And look what I came across.
Percentuale dei capelli biondi nelle regioni italiane. (Distribution of blondies in Italy)!
Why the CARALHO would anybody do research on this? No. Actually, I understand now. It says this was taken between 1859-1863.(Dati raccolti da Ridolfo Livi sulle classi di leva 1859-1863). What a waste of time to research something like this.
Yep, it's human nature to prostitute time. And it's also human nature to bemoan about the prostitution of time. And then jump down my throat because I call you contradictory and perverse.
By the way, this is entirely random but the Flemish artist Brueghel was also alive in 1859 and here's a video of one of his paintings. (I believe he's worth some of your completely disconcerted attention)
Barbados
1. Barbados becomes the first Caribbean island where sugar is grown for bulk export.
2. By 1666 It had 800 plantations and more than 80,000 slaves.
3. It had previously produced a variety of crops on small holdings: cotton and tobacco,oranges, cows and pigs. Canefields devoured all this and devastated the dense
forests in the name of a glorious illusion. - Awwwwwwwwww.. cows and pigs.
2. By 1666 It had 800 plantations and more than 80,000 slaves.
3. It had previously produced a variety of crops on small holdings: cotton and tobacco,oranges, cows and pigs. Canefields devoured all this and devastated the dense
forests in the name of a glorious illusion. - Awwwwwwwwww.. cows and pigs.
miércoles, 18 de noviembre de 2009
Sugar, sugar
1. On the secnd voyage, Columbus brings the first sugarcane roots from Canary Islands and plant them in Republica Dominicana. (sugar was grown on a small scale in Sicily, Madeira, The Cape Islands and the Canary Islands. Sugar was very important to Europeans)
2. Canefields were planted in Northeast Brazil(because it was warm and damp)and Caribbean islands -Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Guadeloupe, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Veracruz and the Peruvian coast.
Pinche "Latin American" maps on the internet didn't have Gaudeloupe there so I had to take a screen shot of my Google Earth, and STILL couldn't get Brazil, Mexico and Peru because whenever I zoomed out of Central America, Guadeloupe disappeared.
I like the way he says "pitifully" at 1:51.
3. The colonial plantation evolved directly into the present-day latifundio, resulting in the impoverishment of soil amongst many other social, environmental problems in Latin America.
4. in the 16th century, Brazil had 120 sugarmills worth some £2 million. but its masters imported all the food -> resulting in chronic malnutrition and misery for most of the population -> North Eastern children had to eat dirt to gain the mineral salts which were absent from their diet of manioic starch, beans, and tough, scarce meat.(The Brazilian Northeast is the most underdeveloped area in the Western hemisphere)
Eduardo Galeano - Open veins of Latin America.
2. Canefields were planted in Northeast Brazil(because it was warm and damp)and Caribbean islands -Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Guadeloupe, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Veracruz and the Peruvian coast.
Pinche "Latin American" maps on the internet didn't have Gaudeloupe there so I had to take a screen shot of my Google Earth, and STILL couldn't get Brazil, Mexico and Peru because whenever I zoomed out of Central America, Guadeloupe disappeared.
I like the way he says "pitifully" at 1:51.
3. The colonial plantation evolved directly into the present-day latifundio, resulting in the impoverishment of soil amongst many other social, environmental problems in Latin America.
4. in the 16th century, Brazil had 120 sugarmills worth some £2 million. but its masters imported all the food -> resulting in chronic malnutrition and misery for most of the population -> North Eastern children had to eat dirt to gain the mineral salts which were absent from their diet of manioic starch, beans, and tough, scarce meat.(The Brazilian Northeast is the most underdeveloped area in the Western hemisphere)
Eduardo Galeano - Open veins of Latin America.
Già visto CABRON!
I'm addicted to this song. - Heh, I assume this addiction will last maximum 3 days. I know myself, the moment I declare something out in public, I become indifferent to it. Typical defence mechanism of a schizoid.
Brazil-Portugal, Gold and Silver.
I'm just sick and tired of writing so much about Latin America(and this aversion really does not have anything to do with the fact that I'm having one of those "episodes" with my "lover" who just happened to be half Latino..or does it? Scherzando) anywho, I'm still reading the book by Eduardo Galeano. And you better believe that I'm scrutinizing the hell out of this book like there's no tomorrow. And you know that death is certain, uncertain is the hour. I just can't wait to get back to my anatomy stuff.
1. In the first period of coastal colonization, timber, Brazilwood exploited.
2. In the Northeast, began the sugar plantations.
3. The Portuguese couldn't find gold or silver in contrast to Spanish Latin America (Since there were no developed/organized civilizations to inquire about the gold/silver, the Portuguese had to find the gold on their own)
4. The bandeirantes - A band of Portuguese slaves/gold hunters.(paramilitary)
5. The Minas gerais (the gold forest) enters history with a rush with all its gold.
6. In the 18th century, Brazilian production of the coveted metal exceeds the total volumn of gold extracted by the Spanish from its colonies.
7. Adventurers and fortune hunters poured in.
Brazil had 300,000 inhabitants in 1700; a century later the population had multiplied eleven times. No less than 300,000 Portuguese emigrated to Brazil in the eighteenth century, a larger contingent than Spain contributed to all its Latin American colonies. Some 10 million blacks were brought from Africa.
8. The capital moves from Salvador de Bahia to Rio de Janeiro (after the golden age in Minas Gerais)
9. The sinful life in Ouro preto - Miners wasting money on black musicians or mulatto/mulatta prostitutes.
10. "handsome" churches are built and decorated in the baroque style characteristic of the region.
11. "The’ capitaes do mato of Minas Gerais collected rewards in gold for the severed heads of slaves who tried to escape. Disease was a blessing from heaven because it meant the approach of death." This is a string of hilarity. HOLD ON A PINCHE SECOND!
Here comes more hilarity.
Good GRIEF! What about THIS ONE! Can this get more outrageous?
Sick, sick, sick.
12. "England and Holland, the leading gold and slave contrabandists, amassed
fortunes in the illegal “black meat” traffic and are said to have illicitly garnered
more than half the metal the Portuguese Crown was supposed to get from
Brazil in quinto real tax." HILLARIOUS!
Yep, I just had to add that one right below the tourism(promotion)video. Because I'm cruel like that. Aleijadinho at 0:50.
Reference (Conio, do I really have to do this)
:Eduardo Galeano - Open Veins of Latin America.
1. In the first period of coastal colonization, timber, Brazilwood exploited.
2. In the Northeast, began the sugar plantations.
3. The Portuguese couldn't find gold or silver in contrast to Spanish Latin America (Since there were no developed/organized civilizations to inquire about the gold/silver, the Portuguese had to find the gold on their own)
4. The bandeirantes - A band of Portuguese slaves/gold hunters.(paramilitary)
5. The Minas gerais (the gold forest) enters history with a rush with all its gold.
6. In the 18th century, Brazilian production of the coveted metal exceeds the total volumn of gold extracted by the Spanish from its colonies.
7. Adventurers and fortune hunters poured in.
Brazil had 300,000 inhabitants in 1700; a century later the population had multiplied eleven times. No less than 300,000 Portuguese emigrated to Brazil in the eighteenth century, a larger contingent than Spain contributed to all its Latin American colonies. Some 10 million blacks were brought from Africa.
8. The capital moves from Salvador de Bahia to Rio de Janeiro (after the golden age in Minas Gerais)
9. The sinful life in Ouro preto - Miners wasting money on black musicians or mulatto/mulatta prostitutes.
10. "handsome" churches are built and decorated in the baroque style characteristic of the region.
11. "The’ capitaes do mato of Minas Gerais collected rewards in gold for the severed heads of slaves who tried to escape. Disease was a blessing from heaven because it meant the approach of death." This is a string of hilarity. HOLD ON A PINCHE SECOND!
Here comes more hilarity.
Angola(the Portuguese colony of Angola) exported Bantu slaves and elephant tusks in exchange for clothing, liquor, and firearms, but Ouro Prêto miners preferred blacks shipped from the little beach of Ouidah on the Gulf of Guinea because they were more vigorous, lasted somewhat longer, and had the magic power to find gold. Every miner also needed a black mistress from Ouidah to bring him luck on his expeditions.
"(In Cuba, medicinal powers were attributed to female slaves. According to onetime slave Esteban Montejo, “There was one type of sickness the whites picked up, a sickness of the veins and male organs. It could only be got rid of with black women; if the man who had it slept with a Negress he was cured immediately.”"
Good GRIEF! What about THIS ONE! Can this get more outrageous?
Chica da Silva, also incorrectly written as Xica da Silva (Francisca da Silva de Oliveira, c. 1732-1796) was a famous Brazilian slave. Her life has been a source of inspiration for many works in television, films, theater and literature. She is popularly known as the slave who became a queen.
In the past, Chica was used as a symbol of the "racial democracy" in Brazil. Currently, however, scholars report that she used miscegenation as a way to achieve a higher social status, as did many other African Brazilian slaves of that time. Historian Júnia Ferreira Furtado reports that concubinage and marriage between white male and black female in colonial Brazilian society was a way found by the slaves to change their social position and to escape race stigma:
Manumission, rather than the beginning for the formation of a positive black identity, was the beginning of a process of acceptance of values of the elite, in order to insert them (former slaves) as well as their descendants in this society.
Sex was decisive to the relative facilitated access to freedom and concubinage with white men offered advantages to black women because, once free, they reduced the stigma of color and of slavery for them and for their descendants.
João Fernandes and Chica da Silva's relationship was a scandal in colonial Brazilian society. Chica da Silva, a mulatto former slave, had become one of the richest and most powerful women in colonial Brazil. The local community banned Chica from entry into their church (in Brazil, people of African descent were not allowed to attend churches reserved only for whites). To show the locals Chica's power, João Fernandes built a church attended just by herself. By the other side, Furtado reports that Chica attended brotherhoods exclusive to white people, as a way to fit in the white society.
Contrary to what was propagated, she also had slaves and only one reference was found that she had granted freedom to a slave. Historians view this as the main difference between the blacks in Brazil and those in the United States. While in America the blacks had a unified movement, in Brazil they tried to integrate themselves into mainstream society. Mixed-race people saw that "whitening" themselves was a way to escape from their slave past. The exclusion of blacks from Brazilian society for this extended period of time had damaging effects on the group's self-esteem.- wikipedia
Chica, as the other freed female slaves, achieved her freedom, loved, had children and raised them up socially sought to reduce the mark that the condition of Parda (brown) and former slave had to herself and to her descendants
Sick, sick, sick.
12. "England and Holland, the leading gold and slave contrabandists, amassed
fortunes in the illegal “black meat” traffic and are said to have illicitly garnered
more than half the metal the Portuguese Crown was supposed to get from
Brazil in quinto real tax." HILLARIOUS!
Only the explosion of artistic talent remains as a memento of the gold
delirium, apart from the holes in the ground and the abandoned cities; nor
could Portugal salvage anything creative except for the aesthetic revolution.
The convent of Mafra, pride of Dom João V, lifted Portugal from artistic
decadence: in its carillons of thirty-seven bells and in its solid gold vessels and
candelabra, there still glints the gold of Minas Gerais. The Minas churches
have been extensively plundered and few sacred objects of portable size remain
in them, but monumental baroque works still rise above the colonial ruins—
façades and pulpits, galleries, reredoses, human figures designed, carved, or
sculpted by Antonio, Francisco Lisboa— ”Aleijadinho”----”Little Cripple,” genius son of a female slave and a famous artisan. The eighteenth century was coming to a close when “Aleijadinho” began carving in stone a group of large sacred figures in the
garden of the Born Jesus do Matosinhos church in Congonhas do Campo. The
work was called “The Prophets,” but there was no longer any glory in
prophesying. The gold euphoria was a thing of the past; all the pomp and
gaiety had vanished and there was no room for hope. This dramatic final
testimony, like a grand monument to the fleeting gold civilization that was
born to die, was left to succeeding generations by the most talented artist in all
Brazil’s history. “Aleijadinho,” disfigured and crippled by leprosy, created his
masterpiece with chisel and hammer tied to fingerless hands, dragging himself
on his knees to his workshop every morning.
Yep, I just had to add that one right below the tourism(promotion)video. Because I'm cruel like that. Aleijadinho at 0:50.
Reference (Conio, do I really have to do this)
:Eduardo Galeano - Open Veins of Latin America.
martes, 17 de noviembre de 2009
Idealogical Justifications.
Juan Ginés de Sepülveda(Spanish theologian): Indians deserved the treatment they got
because their sins and idolatries were an offense to God.
The Count de Buffon(French naturalist): Indians were cold and weak creatures in whom
“no activity of the soul” could be observed.
The Abbé De Paw: Latin America is the placewhere degenerate Indians lived side by side with dogs that couldn’t bark, cows that couldn’t be eaten, and impotent camels."
Voltaire: Latin America was inhabited by Indians who were lazy and stupid, pigs with navels on their backs, and bald and cowardly lions.
Bacon, De Maistre, Montesquieu,Hume, and Bodin: We do not recognize the “degraded men” of the New World as fellow humans.
Hegel: Latin America’s physical and spiritual impotence and said the Indians died when Europe merely breathed on them.
Father Gregorio Garcia : I detect Semitic blood in the Indians because, like the Jews, “they are lazy, they do not believe in the miracles of Jesus Christ, and they are ungrateful to the Spaniards for all the good they have done them.”
This just painful, PAINFUL. I promise myself that I will always stand by the vulnerable till the day I die. Of course by the vulnerable, I mean the ones who are fucked around for being naive and susceptible, not the ignorant, money hungry, sly hicks who choose to stay mentally-lethargic. And this is regardless of the race or nationality.
Tupac Amaru.
because their sins and idolatries were an offense to God.
The Count de Buffon(French naturalist): Indians were cold and weak creatures in whom
“no activity of the soul” could be observed.
The Abbé De Paw: Latin America is the placewhere degenerate Indians lived side by side with dogs that couldn’t bark, cows that couldn’t be eaten, and impotent camels."
Voltaire: Latin America was inhabited by Indians who were lazy and stupid, pigs with navels on their backs, and bald and cowardly lions.
Bacon, De Maistre, Montesquieu,Hume, and Bodin: We do not recognize the “degraded men” of the New World as fellow humans.
Hegel: Latin America’s physical and spiritual impotence and said the Indians died when Europe merely breathed on them.
Father Gregorio Garcia : I detect Semitic blood in the Indians because, like the Jews, “they are lazy, they do not believe in the miracles of Jesus Christ, and they are ungrateful to the Spaniards for all the good they have done them.”
This just painful, PAINFUL. I promise myself that I will always stand by the vulnerable till the day I die. Of course by the vulnerable, I mean the ones who are fucked around for being naive and susceptible, not the ignorant, money hungry, sly hicks who choose to stay mentally-lethargic. And this is regardless of the race or nationality.
Tupac Amaru.
lunes, 16 de noviembre de 2009
Potosi
"Andre Gunder Frank, in analyzing “metropolis-satellite” relations through Latin American history as a chain of successive subjections, has highlighted
the fact that the regions now most underdeveloped and poverty-stricken are those which in the past had had the closest links with the metropolis and had enjoyed periods of boom. Having once been the biggest producers of goods exported to Europe, or later to the United States, and the richest sources of capital, they were abandoned by the metropolis when for this or that reason business sagged. Potosi is the outstanding example of this descent into the vacuum."
"Potosian society, sick with ostentation and extravagance, left Bolivia with
only a vague memory of its splendors, of the ruins of its churches and palaces,
and of 8 million Indian corpses. Any one of the diamonds encrusted in a rich
caballero’s shield was worth more than what an Indian could earn in his whole
life under the mitayo,( A mitayo is an Indian who pays a mita. or tribute,
usually in the form of forced labor in public works, especially the mines,
(Trans.)) but the caballero took off with the diamonds. If it were not a futile
exercise, Bolivia— now one of the world’s most poverty-stricken countries—
could boast of having nourished the wealth of the wealthiest. In our time Potosi
is a poor city in a poor Bolivia: “The city which has given most to the world
and has the least,” as an old Potosian lady, enveloped in a mile of alpaca shawl,
told me when we talked on the Andalusian patio of her two-century-old house.
Condemned to nostalgia, tortured by poverty and cold, Potosi remains an open
wound of the colonial system in America: a still audible “J’accuse.”"
"The price of the tide of avarice, terror, and ferocity bearing down on these
regions was Indian genocide: the best recent investigations credit pre-
Columbian Mexico with a population between 30 and 37.5 million, and the
Andean region is estimated to have possessed a similar number; Central
America had between 10 and 13 million. The Indians of the Americas totaled
no less than 70 million when the foreign conquerors appeared on the horizon; a
century and a half later they had been reduced to 3.5 million. In 1685 only
4,000 Indian families remained of the more than 2 million that had once lived
between Lima and Paita, according to the Marquis of Barinas."
- Galeano
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