A Rant and Rave

It has been such a long time since I've had a rant and rave, but here is one.

Here is a book I saw at a tourist store in the Monument Valley area (so in the Navajo reservation).

"Native Wisdom for White Minds" ..... and no it is not a joke.

I am actually nearly going to stay off the issue of the "Native" term.
I am just going to say we are all native of somewhere and even in the way they mean it (where you are only a native if you live on the same continent than you ancestors did a long time ago, though how long ago is unclear) "whites" are Natives of Europe so white European wisdom should be included.... but we all know that in the way the term Native is used here "whites" are not native of anywhere.
However I do realize that right now terminology is difficult. And in fact on this trip I was really surprised to see that in the States the term "indian" appears to be OK. I tell you in Canada it is not.

What I really want to address is the "White Minds" thing. I promise you there is no such thing as "White Minds" and this is what I really want to pick on...and I can because I am what they call "white".
Here is the scoop: whites, blacks, browns, yellows etc (In case I forget anybody) are diverse groups which all contain numerous cultures and even more types of minds.
I know black people with minds, culture and way of thinking much more similar to mine than most white people I met during this trip in the States....and that is just an example.

Imagine if somebody published a book called "White Wisdom for Black Minds" they would get lynched!

Can we try to at lease ease off on the racism? At all ? Any chance? Can we try? Not just us "white people" but everybody? Can we even be allowed to say out loud (or in this case write) that there is racism against "whites"?
In South Africa, in the funniest of way, racism against "whites" is called "reverse racism" and the term would work if "racism" was what "whites" do to other races, but racism is what people do when they discriminate based on race, any race.
In fact saying "Asians are excellent at math", even though it comes across as a positive comment, is racism. It is not about which race does it, not about to what race it is done, and not about the nature of the comment, it is about discrimination based on race.

I'm just going to add: We all bleed red.

Shiprock

On my way to Monument Valley I had passed Shiprock. The air was not very clear at all that day, so I could not take a representative picture. The next day as I passed it again on my way to the airport I noticed that the view was much better, but my mind was on other things...things like "hurry up"

There are really no ways to get close to it and take good pictures but it is a wonderful sight. It is particularly wonderful to watch it "grow" as you approach it. First a tiny oddity in the landscape and then a full-blown volcanic monument.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

To sort of get back into the flow of things.
Before Malaysia, and before my first attempt at going to Monument Valley I was in Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
It is a very neat place, very interesting for its ruins, petroglyphs but also for its great landscape. The worse and the best side of Chaco is that the road to it is SO dreadful (at least the few 11 miles or so - I can't remember now) that its is not as busy as such a site would be anywhere else.

Here are some of the highlights for me...and as usual no explanations.

Chaco is at the centre of a radiating ancient road network. When the roads encounter cliffs they built stairs....
In the photo below you can barely see them.

Here is a close up of the same photo

Same stairs seen from the top, so where you would have to catch them if you were going down

 You couldn't pay me to go either up or down on those stairs.

For me though the real highlight was the famous Supernova rock painting. If you have read any first year astronomy textbook you must have seen a picture of it. It was great to see it "in real life" to see where it was and see it in its surroundings.

Whether or not it does really represent a supernova or not is something else. I can't help but be a skeptic. But it was great to see it and to puzzle about it while looking at it.

Humming Birds

Ok, now I am really blogging out of sequence. Just the same here are some photos from today.

There are so many humming birds around that i can hear them flying around (I can't hear the flying, but I can here the little sound they make as their "call").
From where I am right now, and as you can deduce from the pictures I can hear the humming birds and smell the pines. It is wonderful.
I am heading North..... quite a few miles to go. Right now the road ahead of me is closed during working hours (so 8:30am to 12:30pm and them 1:30pm to 6:30pm) so tomorrow the plan is to get up early and pass the closed area (about an hour from here I am told).

The Dog Who Fooled Me Into Giving Her a Ride is Now Famous

I may not have blogged about it but last summer driving the MacKenzie Highway I ended up picking up a dog who looked lost and I took her to Hay River and from there a bit of an adventure followed. With the helps of my friends from Hay River we eventually found out who she belonged to and returned her.
When I picked her up she had a name tag with a phone number which was answered by a young girl who knew nothing about a dog, any dog. So when I returned her I mentioned that really she needed a new tag. A while later I saw Charlie again, this time she actually was at home and I was visiting for other reasons, and her name tag said something to the effect of "I live at mile xxx of the MacKenzie Highway, please don't pick me up" and the relevant phone number and I thought that it was both funny and very appropriate.
But now Charlie is gone missing and has made it to the BBC News.

Charlie is a good dog and I hope she finds her way home soon. Her tag did say "Do not pick me up"

And regardless of what the comments say on the news site her owner is a good owner, just Charlie is a free spirit who does like to ride in the front seat (as the article says) and she cannot be kept at home all the time. This dog lives up north in the bush. It would be a crime to keep her all the time on leash.
And if you are wondering, yes, I am the person who took her to Hay River.....she played me. I was convinced that she was lost. And because she is a little bit on the "fat" side (clearly not a starving dog) I thought that she did not belong in the bush........goes to show! she belongs in the bush with her good owner.

Avoid LAX Airport at all Costs

I am back in North America. I will try to catch up with posts and post some photos.

But in the mean time my one piece of advice is AVOID Los Angeles airport (known as LAX) if at all possible. It has to be the worse airport of its size on the planet.
Truly, honestly avoid LAX if you can help it.