Working on these photos has brought back memories of all the places I’ve been to over the past few years. It’s a blessing to live in the modern world and be freely able to travel extensively and see new places, and experience new cultures. I hope I can do so for many more years to come.

Here are some samples of the album below, the full collection can be found on my Facebook album.

Enjoy~!

• The ongoing trials and tribulations of the Tiger Woods infidelity scandal have continued as sponsor Accenture terminates partnership with the golf champ after six years but other sponsors such as Tag Heuer and Gillette decide to stand by their man, Tag Heuer releasing the statement that Woods is ‘the best in his domain’. Meanwhile, it looks like his wife, Elin Nordegren, has possibly bought a $2 million secluded house in Sweden, perhaps where the couple will sit out for the next few months and escape the media spotlight. No doubt of some comfort to Tiger is that Playgirl magazine has decided not to publish nude photographs allegedly of the golf star, as they can not verify 100% whether the photos are indeed of him.
• Silvio Berlusconi was attacked by a projectile whilst signing autographs during a rally in Milan. The attack left the Italian Prime Minister with a bloody face and in considerable pain with a broken nose and two broken teeth. He will remain in hospital for the next thirty-six hours. His attacker allegedly has a history of mental illness.
• Last month it was revealed that North Korea had been building bunkers under the DMZ from 2004 until 2008 during the leadership of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, whilst the two nations had a relatively closer relationship than now under the failed ‘Sunshine Policy’, which aimed to bring closer ties and trade with the view towards eventual reunification between the two Koreas. North Korea was found to have built 800 bunkers between 2004 and 2008, and had planned 1,000 bunkers all in all. Despite the Sunshine Policy, North Korea had plans and made war preparations with a look towards possible invasion by ground troops.
• Meanwhile, just one week after US envoy Stephen Bosworth’s trip to Pyongyang, Thai authorities in Bangkok, following on a US intelligence tip, have seized a plane from North Korea piloted by a Belarussian and with four Kazahk crew members which contained a large amount of powerful weapons, in clear violation of UN-imposed sanctions on North Korea. The planned final destination of the plane is thus far undetermined.
• And last, but definitely not least, straight off the press and Twitter. The Copenhagen Climate Summit has been suspended and is in chaos as member nations of the G77,which represents 130 developing nations, have decided to walk out of the Conference due to what they believe is Western reluctance to discuss a legally binding emissions treaty. This is coming after last week’s leak of a document supposedly delivered to developed nations in which they would sign a secret deal amongst themselves between the scenes of the Copenhagen Climate summit. No doubt more news on this to come…

Tuvaluan village - a tropical paradise soon to be lost forever

Whilst, both island nations are veritable tropical paradises, their key vulnerability is their tiny elevations above sea level, an average of just two metres for Kiribati and a highest point of just 4.5 metres above sea level for Tuvalu, the second lowest in the world. (The Maldives actually has the lowest maximum elevation of just 2.3 metres above sea level and an average of just 1.5 metres above sea level. It, too is in danger of sinking fast having already experienced sea level increases of 20 centimetres in the last century).

Activists in Copenhagen protesting on behalf of island nations for a better deal in dealing with climate change and resultant sea level rises affecting their nations

The situation has become so tense that the Kiribati President, Anote Tong, called on Australia and New Zealand to accept his citizens as permanent refugees, having stated that the country has already reached “the point of no return”. He also has stated that he will consider buying land to relocate his citizens if no other situation options can be found. Adding that “to plan for the day when you no longer have a country is indeed painful but I think we have to do that.”

Australia and New Zealand, the largest nations in Oceania, to their credit have started to make preparations to help and support the beleaguered I-Kiribatis and Tuvaluans by assisting in training and education programmes.  But, Kiribati officials in Copenhagen are saying that the regional powers of the south Pacific are not doing enough to address the potentially catastrophic consequences of having over 100,000 individuals having to emigrate and be permanently relocated due to environmental factors in the near future.

The oncoming, endless waves of the Pacific inundating a Kiribati village. A depressing but increasingly common sight in Kiribati

Unfortunately for the citizens of Kiribati and Tuvalu, it appears Anote Tong may be right, we have already reached the point of no return. Whether you agree that climate change has been accelerated by human activities or not, this is regardless a tragedy of epic proportions for the Pacific island residents of Kiribati and Tuvalu, whose nations have done next to nothing to contribute to climate change but will be the first to bear the consequences of it. For this reason, I hope and trust the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, along with other developed nations – the prime contributors to accelerated climate change, do their utmost to repatriate, house and educate these innocent victims of global climate change.

The tragedy of a real paradise lost in the near future

The main motivation for the book, Diamond recalls is a conversation with friend, Yali, a Papua New Guinean politician who in 1972 asked Diamond as to why it was Europeans with the ‘cargo’ and Papua New Guineans without. At the time, Diamond was largely unable to give a concise answer and so – two and a half decades on – this book set out in the aims of doing so.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an incredibly ambitious book looking at the evolution and migratory patterns of modern humans, particularly from 13,000 years ago onwards – from around the time humans in the Fertile Cresent first began to move from hunter-gathering towards subsistence farming, and determining facts as to why some humans ‘developed’ more than others and as such managed to conquer foreign lands by means for their acquired guns, germs, and steel.

It’s a colossal task to take into account all the possible factors as to why some groups managed to progress to further stages of development, whereas others were largely unable to do. Though, through Diamond’s thorough research and sheer intellect, he successfully does so, and in doing so opens the floodgate to a whole new approach of the science of human evolution. And, whilst doing so closes the gate on the racist theories of the past as to why some groups prospered and spread whereas other did not.

In his book, Diamond explains how the guiding factors behind why peoples of the Eurasian continent were largely able to develop and progress at a more advanced rate than indigenous peoples of other continents were largely due to environmental and physical factors rather than any intrinsic racial difference between peoples of different continents in terms of intelligence and ingenuity. Environmental examples given as to why Eurasia was able to proceed at an accelerated rate compared with other continents include: being blessed with the most productive crops for food consumption; containing a large mass of land within the temperate climatic region, where the bulk of the world’s grains and livestock are located; having the good fortune of having the most malleable and reliable animals in which to domesticate; and having a predominately east-west continental axis allowing for comparatively easy transferring of domesticated crops throughout the continent due to similar daylight hours and seasonal patterns compared with the continents of the Americas and Africa which follow a predominately north-south axis.

So, as such, Eurasians were blessed with being born in the right location in order for them to develop subsistence farming which enabled them to give up hunter-gathering, enabling more time for child-rearing and food production, which produced greater populations and population density, which in time gave birth to a hierarchical system whereby chiefs, kings, armies, slaves and cities were created which would then move on in order to appropriate more land and resources, and the domino effect continued until reaching the New World, Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia and Oceania where the peoples of Eurasia’s superior weaponry, wealth, legal systems – and in particular, imported diseases, largely decimated indigenous peoples of the previously mentioned continents.

Diamond’s book was not without its critics however – which was inevitable given the sheer scope, worth of material, and potentially controversial topics and fields of study in the book. However, in his follow-up editions of the initial publication, Diamond has largely answered his critics – in my opinion, successfully – in terms of discussing reasons as to why it was Europe and not China, a long-running hotbed of civilization and inventions, that managed to colonise so much of the world and not vice versa. More recent editions also include a section on Japan, its current position in the global hegemony and just how it got to that position.

I haven’t nearly done justice to explaining the theories and principles behind Diamond’s book, and strongly recommend you to read this important book to further your knowledge of human migration and evolution, and in doing so realise that it was largely chance – being born in the right place at the right time – as to why Eurasian people got to their point of relative affluence today. The book is quite lengthy and in some sections a tad technical but should be readable for any adult or teenager, and as such would make a great resource book for high school or university students studying a variety of fields ranging from physiology to geology and evolutionary biology.

I strongly recommend Guns, Germs, and Steel and his follow-up book, Collapse, which focuses more closely on examples from the past provided in Guns, Germs, and Steel; and also looks at modern implications of the environment, climate and how strongly it determines our very existence. I give this book a top five out of five stars, and am looking forward to acquiring Diamond’s two previous books, The Third Chimpanzee and Why Sex is Fun?

It’s a frequent event which reaches its peak around this time of year in spring due to prevailing winds and relative dryness, though in recent decades has intensified due to China’s rapid modernisation and consequent deforestation and increased industrial output, along with continuing desertification now encroaching Beijing itself.

The air quality during this time can slightly bad to downright dangerous for your health, and health practitioners recommend limiting outdoor activities to varying degrees depending upon the daily dust levels.Today is proving to be a particularly unhealthy day throughout the Korean peninsula (from here, click onto the Korean map featuring Real Time Air Quality Data – best viewed through Internet Explorer). Even Suncheon, which is usually spared the worst of the dust flows is experiencing Hazardous levels today in which all outdoor activity is advised against. Indeed walking to work this morning, I can feel my throat gets slightly sore and raspy, not a great day for being outdoors despite the sunny – albeit hazy – conditions. Video chronicling this phenomena below:

* It’s actually worse now that the video displayed above taken 30 minutes ago. But, seeing as my throat already slightly hurts I can’t  be bothered taking any more footage and exposing myself to any more dust than I need to!