The John Batchelor Show

Sunday 23 June 2013

Air Date: 
June 23, 2013

Photo, above  In 1910, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and a small crew of men embarked upon the infamous Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, only to arrive there on January 17, 1912, and discover that a Norwegian expedition had beaten them to the feat. To add tragedy to letdown, the crew never made it home — they perished on the way back in the grip of starvation, exhaustion, and extreme cold. Though it was known that Captain Scott documented the ill-fated expedition in a wealth of photos, the location of most of them remained a mystery for nearly a century. See: Hour 1, Block C, The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott: Unseen Images from the Legendary Antarctic Expedition by David M. Wilson

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between by Jeff Sharlet

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 1, Block B: Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between by Jeff Sharlet

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 1, Block C: The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott: Unseen Images from the Legendary Antarctic Expedition by David M. Wilson

In 1910, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and a small crew of men embarked upon the infamous Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, only to arrive there on January 17, 1912, and discover that a Norwegian expedition had beaten them to the feat. To add tragedy to letdown, the crew never made it home — they perished on the way back in the grip of starvation, exhaustion, and extreme cold. Though it was known that Captain Scott documented the ill-fated expedition in a wealth of photos, the location of most of them remained a mystery for nearly a century. . . .

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 1, Block D: The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott: Unseen Images from the Legendary Antarctic Expedition by David M. Wilson

The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott: Unseen Images from the Legendary Antarctic Expedition brings these brave men’s story to light, and does so with an incredible story of its own. Several years ago, as polar historian David M. Wilson was having a drink at a London salon, he was approached by an art collector by the name of Richard Kossow, who claimed that in 2001 he had purchased a portfolio of Antarctic photographs from the early 1900s. Wilson was already intrigued, but when Kossow informed him that the photos were from Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910-13 expedition, whose ill-fated crew featured Wilson’s great-uncle, Edward Wilson, and they were taken by Scott himself, Wilson nearly choked on his gin and tonic. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

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Photo, below: Turkana young ladies.  See: Hour 2, Block A, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence by Christian Parenti    The Turkana inhabit the arid territories of northern Kenya, on the boundary with Sudan. Nilotic-speaking people, they have for a long time stayed outside of the influence of the main foreign trends. Nomad shepherds adapted to a almost totally desert area, some also fish in Lake Turkana. They are divided in 28 clans. Each one of them is associated with a particular brand for its livestock, so that any Turkana can identify a relative in this way. The Turkana believe in a God named Kuj or Akuj, associated with the sky and creator of all things. He is thought to be omnipotent but rarely intervenes in the lives of people. Contact between God and the people is made though a diviner (emeron). Turkana doubt those who say they have powers but fail to prove it in everyday life. The Turkana people have no physical initiations; they have only the asapan ceremony, the transition from youth to adulthood, that all men must perform before marriage. The Turkana are polygamous. Homestead consists of a man, his wives and children, and often his mother. Each man belongs to a specific generation set. The Turkana have a deep knowledge of plants and products they use as medicine. The fat-tailed sheep is often called "the hospital for the Turkana".

Hour Two

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence by Christian Parenti

Who killed Ekaru Loruman?

     Until his recent violent death, Ekaru was a pastoralist from northwestern Kenya, a member of the Turkana tribe. He died when a bullet ripped out the side of his head as he tried to defend his few head of cattle, his only form of wealth and livelihood.

     One could respond that a member of the Pokot tribe, a traditional enemy of the Turkana, who live and farm in the surrounding hills and raid across the border from Uganda killed Ekaru. That would, after all, be a factually correct response, and any murder investigation by local police would, with the identification and arrest of the individual responsible, end there.

     Christian Parenti, in his excellent, if flawed, new book Tropic of Chaos, finds this a deeply unsatisfying answer. And so should anyone seeking to better understand the world and the twin ecological and economic crises in order to take action to ameliorate the consequences of those crises. Parenti’s book makes an important contribution to that effort–he has written a sweeping discourse on the collision set in motion between the natural and the social world–what he calls the “catastrophic convergence”: the confluence of poverty, violence and climate change. . . . [more]

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence by Christian Parenti

     . . . Parenti poses the question: Why did a farming tribe such as the Pokot have modern armaments, when small arms manufacturing in Kenya and surrounding countries is unknown?

     One can only answer by expanding the discussion from an individual murder over local tribal resources to an examination of the regional legacy of the Cold War. Though East Africa does not manufacture guns, it is awash in them; specifically ex-Soviet and U.S. weaponry from a time when the superpowers fought proxy wars for world supremacy and their inter-imperial conflict made battlefields of a succession of African states.  Going further still, why are inter-tribal cattle raids becoming more ferocious and widespread? Who is financing the acquisition of the weapons? This requires looking at the social conditions and where the money is coming from to supply the Pokot with AK-47s and the bullets that make them effective killing machines. Here, we find the answer expanding to take in powerful businessmen and politicians in Uganda and the underlying social relations that cause them to see profit in supplying funds for such activities.

     But we could further enlarge our circle of understanding . . . [more]

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 2, Block C: The Roof at the Bottom of the World: Discovering the Transantarctic Mountains by Edmund Stump

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 2, Block D: The Roof at the Bottom of the World: Discovering the Transantarctic Mountains by Edmund Stump

Hour Three

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet by John Bradshaw

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet by John Bradshaw

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Crude Awakening: Money, Mavericks, and Mayhem in Alaska by Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Crude Awakening: Money, Mavericks, and Mayhem in Alaska by Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger

Hour Four

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology by John Long

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology by John Long

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 4, Block C: The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today by Rob Dunn

Sunday 23  June   2013 / Hour 4, Block D: The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today by Rob Dunn

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Music

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