To post or not to post . . . that is the question

There is no political content today. At least, that is the intention as I start to write this epistle.

During the past few years our neighbor’s sons have been members of St. Thomas Episcopal School's famous pipe band. J and I attended several past performances of the school’s Scottish Festival. My Pentax K10D arrived back from repair just in time for the spectacle last Friday. Over the years I have struggled with mixed success to capture good images of the performance. I have also struggled with the whole concept of proper use of photographs of somebody else’s children. This is especially true in today’s world where it is common to post pictures on the Web. Few Web systems offer any promise that postings can ever be completely deleted. Most web pages can be indexed, cached and stored forever by Google, Yahoo or one of the other search engines. With a little effort any user can download and store images and text displayed on their computer. It is both humbling and frightening. It is humbling because these words may already have been indexed by the time that you read them. It is frightening because people who are embarrassed or hurt by the content of a web page cannot easily have that problem erased or corrected. Posting on the web might almost be the modern equivalent of carving in stone.

And so my images of the Scottish Festival are destined to remain in the dark. The images from the Pentax were much higher quality than those from the old Olympus. That was expected. They taught be a little more about what works in that mixture of dark backgrounds and intense spotlights. They also suggest a compromise – an “artistic” shot that tries to capture the color, rhythm, beauty and excitement of the evening while cloaking the individual performers in mystery. I think that will be the objective for next year.

Gestures can make a difference

The Olympic Games are supposed to be a symbol of international goodwill, sportsmanship and physical rivalry. Our televisions regularly show stories of athletes who have honed their talents and won a place on the national team. These reports suggest that the “spirit of the games” is alive and well. But politics also overshadows the Olympics. The games provide a perfect venue for governments and individuals to make grand demonstrations. In 1936, Nazi Germany used the games to highlight its national and racial ideologies. During the Munich games, terrorists massacred Israeli athletes. The US government led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics to protest actions by the host nation. In 1968, two American athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. When the national anthem was played they gave a black-power salute. The 2008 Olympic Games may well provide an opportunity for demonstrations that are as far reaching as any of these.

Not since 1936 has a country invested so much national prestige in hosting the games. Not since 1980 have the policies of a host nation caused so much controversy. The latest events in Tibet appear to be a straw that has broken the camel’s back. Already some are calling for a boycott of the games – especially the symbolic “Opening Ceremony”. These calls require a response at a personal and a national level. A spokesman for one of the presidential candidates suggested that the USA is so dependent on China to fund our deficit that we cannot afford to upset them. In that camp economic concerns trump moral considerations. For them, we are already an economic vassal of China. Another presidential candidate has declared for a boycott of the opening ceremony. The third has offered no guidance.

As a friend remarked in Sunday school last week, “We are not called to change the world but we are responsible for our own actions”. So, I shall not be participating in the 2008 Olympics. I shall not watch the television coverage and I shall not buy products from companies that support the games. I know my decisions will have absolutely no affect on China’s human rights policies or how the games evolve. But I remain a true optimist. I remember how Horiatio and his two companions held the bridge and saved Rome, how the 300 Spartans helped defeat the Persian invaders and how the defenders of the Alamo bought time for Texas. Maybe, just maybe, my little gesture will encourage others and like these photographs of two different sides of the Texas story, a gesture doomed to defeat can lead to change. Maybe also, that spokesman’s comment will awaken all the presidential candidates to our nation’s real weakness - a weakness caused because we are so indebted to foreigners that we have no freedom to act as we choose.

Caracas - and 4megapixels

I spent last week in Caracas. A couple of things surprised me. The exchange rate between the US dollar and the Venezuelan Bolívar is fixed by the Venezuelan government. It is about 2.15 Bolivars Fuerte (BF) to the $US. There is also an unofficial rate fixed by the laws of supply and demand. Recently the free market valued the US Dollar around 4.2 BF. Last week, the US Dollar had devalued to 3.8 BF. I was told that the reason for the drop was a demand for bolivars. The Venezuelan tax year ended on March 31 and so people needed bolivars to pay their taxes. Businesses sold US dollars for bolivars. Lots of people selling US Dollars decreased the value of the dollar. I could not help wondering if our government observed this example of free market action. Maybe the fact that the US dollar even lost value against the Bolívar made an impression on some in the White House. One day, our suppliers are going to price and sell crude oil for Euros instead of US Dollars. When that time comes foreigners will not need so many dollars. I do not like to think about how supply and demand will price our currency when there is no artificial demand for it.

My other surprise related to my expectations of crime and safety. My hotel was close to Parc Del Este. This public park is home to Venezuelan birds, trees, flowers and small animals. On Thursday morning I was awake before 6 am so I decided to wander through the park with the old Olympus camera (the Pentax is off for repair!) I left the hotel under a grey sky after dawn and walked to the park. I admit I took some safety precautions. I left my money, credit cards and valuables in the room safe. All I carried were some business cards for identification and about $40 to hand over to any mugger who stopped me. Five minutes later I was in the park. The park was alive. Hordes of early morning joggers almost ran me over. Little old ladies chatting together ignored the nervous gringo with the camera. A guy practicing kendo was in another world. Parc Del Este was probably safer than Memorial Park in Houston. [It may be different at other times of the day!]

But not everything was peaceful. The park is the overnight roosting place for flocks of parrots. The morning peace was continually broken by loud raucous shouts from different groups of green parrots. They reminded me of old couples bickering about whose turn it was to make breakfast. They also made me think of the senseless bickering that goes on between the leaders of some nations I care about. But that is unkind. The parrots appeared to be communicating. I can’t say the same for the politicians.

Politics and the 3-legged stool

The retirement of Ian Paisley from Northern Ireland’s politics reminded me of a conversation I had in South Africa some years ago. Travelling from the industrial complex at Secunda to Johannesburg I chatted with the driver about the changes in his country. He provided a simple picture to explain how South Africa was able to move from the violence of apartheid towards an integrated society. His model was a three-legged stool. In his story, one leg of the stool represented the extreme whites who wanted to continue with apartheid. One leg represented the extreme blacks who wanted to violently overthrow this system. The third leg represented the majority of the people – black and white. They just wanted to get on with living and provide a better future for their children. My driver reminded me that a three-legged stool falls if one leg is missing. In the same way South Africa’s conflict could only be resolved if these three parties all agreed to change. His first key to getting change was the condition of the legs. The population must be tired of the status quo and must really want something different. The opposing leaders must both have spotless political credentials. They must also have courage to lead their group of extremists along the new path. His second key to change is that all three legs must be present at the same time. That second key is why real political change is so rare.

As we drove through the darkness he told me that in old South Africa there was general unrest among all people. The lack of progress under apartheid was having an impact on everybody’s life. People wanted to change. He then noted the courage and vision of President F.W. de Klerk. This white leader’s history and politics allowed him to stifle any serious arguments from his followers. Finally, Nelson Mandela was loved and revered by the black community. His struggle against oppression was legendary. He had the moral authority to ask his followers to accept the changes. All three legs were together at that moment in South Africa’s history. Change happened. South Africa surprised the world with its peaceful revolution.

More recently, we saw the same thing happen in Northern Ireland. The majority of the people in Northern Ireland have been ready for an end to “the troubles” for many years. That was demonstrated when Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. Also, for many years, Ian Paisley has been a strong and charismatic leader for the ultra Loyalists. Only the Republican leg of the stool lacked a single leader with similar stature. That leader finally came into the picture when Gerry Adams emerged and grew as spokesman and leader for Sinn Fein. The stool now had three legs. Change became possible and Power Sharing and peace got off to a creaky start.

As I apply this analysis to other crises, the picture for 2008 is not encouraging. The Israeli-Palestine stool almost had all three legs at the same time a few years ago. Change was nearly within the grasp of both sides of Abraham’s family. Now, I fear that both the leadership legs are missing and all the rhetoric and cajoling from Washington is just adding more hot air to the desert winds. In Iraq the leadership leg for the Sunni faction is missing and that for the Shiite majority looks wobbly. In Afghanistan, all three legs are waiting to be discovered. I took the picture above during a visit to Belfast. The few remaining murals have now become tourist attractions. I pray for the day when each three-legged stool in the Middle East find all of their legs and the Jerusalem Wall can follow the way of the Berlin Wall and these murals.

Unused immigrant visa available !

Edith Agnes Andrews was my Great Aunt. I found her passport during a visit to Belfast and was fascinated to discover this visa allowing her to immigrate to the USA. Aunt Edie did not exercise that visa. According to family folklore, she went with her friends to catch the boat to the USA. The boat was anchored in Belfast Lough and a small tender carried the immigrants between the shore and the ship. Aunt Edie boarded that tender, went out to the ship and returned to Irish soil with the tender. She never did leave Britain and is buried in Belfast.

Why do I mention Aunt Edie? In recent months the subject of immigrants, border fences and national security has filled the airways. Aunt Edie is an example of past times. Coming from Ireland she was a textile worker. That was probably a useful profession in 1929. When she applied for that visa she was sure that immigrating to USA would give her a better life than staying in Belfast. I know that thought pattern continues today. People only leave home when the benefits on the other side of the fence are clearly better. For Aunt Edie, the ties to home were more powerful than the greener grass across the Atlantic. Every day, immigrants to USA – legal and illegal – make that same calculation. Fences, even double fences will not stop immigration. They will only change the arithmetic of the decision to come.

Is there an answer? As long as people view life in the USA as “better” they will try to come here. If our standards regress then immigration will naturally decline. Right now that might be happening but regression is not an acceptable policy. If we want to slow immigrants then the only real way is to help those other countries increase their standard of living. We give lots of aid but much of it is military aid. Sadly, in terms of our size, the amount of our practical help is small compared to countries like Norway. Maybe the solution to our immigration problem – and our declining image abroad – is not to become a walled and gated community but to spend that money raising standards in countries outside.

The camera doesn't lie . . . . Right!

Image manipulation is not new. Anyone who has watched a TV series about Henry VIII knows the problems caused by a flattering portrait. Holbein painted one of Anne of Cleves and showed it to Henry. Henry agreed to the marriage but when he finally met his betrothed he called her a “fat Flanders mare”. History suggests that Holbein exercised too much artistic license. Today, we take photo manipulation almost for granted. Of course, photographs have always been manipulated. There are the classic examples from the early Soviet era. Former party faithful who fell from favor were not only physically removed. Their images were skillfully airbrushed from any group photographs and history was rewritten. Less dramatically, photographs of movie stars and politicians and all those beautiful people in magazine ads are also retouched. In every photographic studio creative lighting enhanced features, clever poses hid signs of too many calories and double chins were banished with a raised head and flattering camera angle.

Lighting choices, lens type and camera viewpoint are still powerful tools. They still require skill to use. At another level, digital cameras and simple software have given everyone with a computer the power to change photographs. Most of us use these tools with little thought. “Red-eye” correction and removing skin blemishes are every-day examples. Blurring the skin to reduce wrinkles, brightening teeth and removing stray hair could be considered simple courtesy for a lady. But where does courtesy end? When do we become a twenty-first century edition of Holbein? Today, I can buy a program that will restore skin texture, remodel the nose, contour chin and cheeks, adjust the brow and hairline and enhance the eyes – all with a few clicks of a mouse. The final image is an artistic masterpiece – but is it still a photograph? Equally important, does it matter if the subject is happy with the result?

It is a fool-hardy blogger who would post portraits and confirm that the camera was lying. Those concerns do not apply to flowers. The image above was taken early in the morning with a macro lens and a small aperture for good depth of focus. Those choices started the manipulation before the shutter was pressed. The geranium below was taken in the afternoon using a very fast telephoto lens to achieve a shallow depth of focus and a fuzzy background. The photograph was also de-saturated to give a pastel appearance. Those choices yield very different images. As for the saxophonist at the beginning, he was left in peace to play cool jazz – only the backgrounds were slightly modified to return the buildings to vertical.

Old Photographs - new media

Last night I scanned some 20-year old 35 mm slides for a friend. The scans were straightforward so at the end I included this slide. The photograph is about 45 years old, the colors are fading and the surface needs to be cleaned. But, with a few computer adjustments the scene can be quickly restored to a presentable image. Here is the Singapore River in 1964. I took the photograph when I was a teenager. I was returning home after a morning shopping in the city. In those days the river was a busy gateway for Singapore’s imports and exports. If you visit this spot today you will find that those buildings in the background have been renovated. They are now restaurants and bars. A few boats also remain but their only cargoes are sight-seeing tourists. That empty skyline is now filled with giant office buildings.

Moving this image from film to my computer and the Internet was easy. In 45 years, will it will be as easy to move my digital photographs? I store my digital photographs on a computer hard drive. I also make back-ups on CDs. I read that CDs last a long time – perhaps more than 45 years. But will the equipment to read those CDs still be available when it is needed?

The first computer in our home had two floppy disk drives. During the past 20 years floppy disks improved, they changed format several times and they have disappeared from most computers. Any personal information stored on floppy disks is effectively lost. The same applies to business information. All those old files, reports and spreadsheets so carefully preserved on floppy disks might as well be forgotten. In most offices the only way to recover anything older than 10 years is to hope that it was printed and filed. Like my old slides, those printed copies can be scanned and resurrected to a new electronic life. In 2008 we can process a paper copy of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine published in 1587 but not an electronic copy stored on a floppy disk in 1987.

Cities are not the only things that change with time. People and lifestyles also change as we enjoy the “benefits” of progress. I photographed these Qashqai ladies one spring day as they moved with their family and flocks from the area around Shiraz in southern Iran. I wonder if the scene still exists today.

This slide is only 30 years old so the colors are still bright. The image is more than a travel record to me. It still conjures the emotions I felt then; a thrilling journey in an exotic landscape, my excited children (before they became “cool” teens and adults), the companionship of my wife and her parents, my worries about the reliability of the car on remote roads, all mixed with the fun of a family outing amid beautiful scenery. Photographs capture memories and emotions. I wonder if the moments captured by my digital camera last week will still be readable when technology had advanced another few years.