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Sunday September 19, 2010 · 1:54 PM PDT

2010/09/19 · 13:54

Alice fell down a rabbit hole and found herself in a strange country full of curious things. As she wandered through it, she found a small cake which, if she nibbled one side, made her grow tall while a bite on the other side made her shrink. There was a mushroom that had the same effect. An articulate, grinning Cheshire Cat gave her directions and explained some of the odd happenings by telling her that everyone there was mad. Admittedly it's ludicrous and far-fetched to compare this country in the opening decade of the twenty-first century to Lewis Carroll's Wonderland but these days there are certainly inescapable parallels to make the simile valid. Let's consider a few of them.

Charlotte Lucas

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Sunday August 29, 2010 · 3:52 PM PDT

2010/08/29 · 15:52

It seems like the McCarthy era all over again. About fifty[ five years ago Communism was spreading rapidly, threatening to engulf the entire United States. Cells were everywhere and they were full of Reds determined to destroy our nation. That's what Senator Joe McCarthy of the House Un-American Activities Committee would have had us believe. A colorful personality, he led a spirited campaign against these suspects and in so doing, ruined the reputations and, in some cases, the lives of a great many innocent people. It was the second Red Scare--the first had followed WWI when Lenin and the Bolshviks overwhelmed Russia and the Soviet Union was born. In the fifties, a menacing Red lurked behind every bush. Today not Reds but Islamic terrorists are everywhere and Muslims in general, are dangerous. Some whisper that President Obama is a Muslim and therefore not to be trusted. It's an unhealthy situation. McCarthy's foundation-less house of cards fell apart after the words "Mr. McCarthy, have you no shame?" were spoken. What will happen in the present case is anyone's guess.

Charlotte Lucas

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Tuesday August 17, 2010 · 2:12 PM PDT

2010/08/17 · 14:12

I am resigned to the fact that since I am an Obama loyalist, the tea baggers will turn up their collective noses at me. If I managed to sneak into one of their parties, I'd get no sugar in my tea and probably no tea at all. From what I have read of these groups of patriots, I have concluded that they want their country to return to the past, almost to the Norman Rockwell America their parents (and I) grew up in. They wouldn't want to lose their Social Security or their Medicare but apparently they haven't seriously considered that grim prospect. What they want is an old-time America where certain people know their places and stayed there. President Obama's book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER comes in here. A true tea bagger would never even consider reading it but it is an eye-opener that makes one look at American life from his and his peoples' point of view--to see it across a fence that should not be in a land in whose Constitution are the words "All men are created equal" and whose pledge of allegiance promises "liberty and justice for all".

Charlotte Lucas

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Monday August 09, 2010 · 1:32 PM PDT

2010/08/09 · 13:32

It was W. Somerset Maugham's short story, "The Fall of Edward Barnard" that made me think of Tahiti as the most romantic place in the world. I was twenty years old and tremendously impressible. Maugham's Barnard, an ambitious young American goes to Tahiti to prove himself a capable business man. At first he is eagerly active and envisions sleepy, easy-going Papeete, the only town of any size on the island, as a bustling city, a busy seaport. Then he begins to wonder if it should be changed and finally succumbing to the tranquil charm of this faraway place, he goes native. Maugham's description of the lagoon, the reef, and "the unimaginable beauty of the island that is called Moorea" made me long to go there and see it all for myself.

Charlotte Lucas

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Sunday July 11, 2010 · 1:42 PM PDT

2010/07/11 · 13:42

The mighty elephant with its amazing strength plays an important role in southeast Asia. Domesticated in Thailand and Nepal it is used as a pack animal, hauling and carrying. It has become a tourist attraction in both countries and visitors get thrills out of riding atop the patient animals. The howdahs on which they sit are plain but in times past when kings paraded grandly through their cities, the howdahs on which they were enthroned were gorgeously and elaborately decorated as were the elephants themselves. Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed God of Success is also the God of Removing Obstacles, an appropriate title, and is, with the goddess Kali in the highest ranks of the Hindu pantheon.

My exposure to elephants in these two southeast Asia counties was extremely limited but I was impressed by the genuine affection the mahouts seemed to have for their charges, the care they took of them, and by their obvious pride in them.

Charlotte Lucas

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Friday July 02, 2010 · 1:38 PM PDT

2010/07/02 · 13:38

Royal Chitwan National Park in the Terai of Nepal is a fine example of a nature preserve. The Terai where it is located, has much swampland and is a haven for migrating birds. Tigers, leopards, and other predatory animals roam through its jungles. Elephants can bred safely and crocodiles live in its rivers. A hundred years ago this region was a hunting preserve for the royal family of Nepal and for its guests who slaughtered beautiful creatures and brought home their skins as trophies to be made into rugs or hung on walls. For example, King George V of England, on hunting trips along the Rapti river, disposed of thirty nine tigers, some rhinos, and a bear. It wasn't until the middle of the twentieth century that light dawned on the Nepalese government and the then king. The Royal Chitwan National Park was created as a place where wildlife can live at its own pace, undisturbed by humans with an urge to kill.

Charlotte Lucas

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Friday June 18, 2010 · 2:02 PM PDT

2010/06/18 · 14:02

Like Thailand, Nepal is an intensely religious country but Hinduism rather than Buddhism, predominates. It came from India where its tenets had taken root. Asoka the Great introduced Buddhism not long before he is said to have brought it to Thailand. Rivers are important to both religions. In Nepal the Bagmati river which flows through the Kathmandu valley is as sacred to the Nepalese as is the Ganges to their Indian neighbors. With its firm belief in peaceful coexistence, Buddhism has spread widely in the Western world. The popularity of yoga has made Hinduism more open and has awakened interest in its practices but its belief in various gods and goddesses keep much of it alien and shrouded in mystery.

Charlotte Lucas

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Friday June 11, 2010 · 2:04 PM PDT

2010/06/11 · 14:04

Thailand is as much a Buddhist country as Tibet but, I thought, less obviously so. There were a great many temples and shrines but we tourists saw no large monastery colleges like those in Tibet. There are questions about when this religion-philosophy put down root in the country known until 1932 as Siam. It may well have been in the third century B.C. when Asoka the Great, unifier of India, became a convert and the tenets of the Middle Way began to spread through southeast Asia. In the Thai constitution it is stated that the king must be a Budhist but all religions are tolerated. I know little about the subject but I find it impressive that here is a religion that does not distrust, abhor, or persecute non-believers but asks for peaceful co-existence.

Charlotte Lucas

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Friday June 04, 2010 · 2:33 PM PDT

2010/06/04 · 14:33

During the years after WW II Thailand, which had been a relatively tranquil country and the only southeast Asia region not colonized by European powers, began to seethe with unrest as if a latent volcano under it was about to erupt.
In the nineteenth century when Anna Leonowens made her celebrated sojourn there, the country was ruled by King Mongkut as an absolute monarchy. In 1932 after civil upheaval and coups d'etat led by military officers, it ceased to be a monarchy under an all-powerful king, changed its name from Siam to Thailand and became a monarchical republic. A few years ago major unrest began and has persisted. Communist protests have shut down Bangkok's airport from time to time and now a curfew has been established. What will happen next is anyone's guess.

Charlotte Lucas

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Friday May 21, 2010 · 1:41 PM PDT

2010/05/21 · 13:41

The account of Marco Polo's journeys had re-awakened European interest in far Cathay. The beautiful, exotic products--rich brocades, delicate porcelains, and jades brought over the Silk Road had already stirred it up. It took time but in the nineteenth century China's tightly closed doors were pried open and much of its mystery brought to light. By devious means, Western nations established "concessions" in Beijing, Shanghai, Canton, and Chongqing. The Chinese called the arrogant intruders "foreign devil" and naturally resented being treated as lower class citizens in their own country. The Manchu rulers were helpless. As a feudal empire, China was coming apart. The unsuccessful Boxer Rebellion was the early prelude to civil war and the total revolution which resulted in the People's Republic of China.

Charlotte Lucas

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Friday May 07, 2010 · 1:42 PM PDT

2010/05/07 · 13:42

This "great, wide, wonderful, beautiful world" is full of superbly scenic places but it is only in the last couple of hundred years that people have become aware of their basic fragility and have begun to take care of them by creating national parks and nature reserves. You may laugh at "tree huggers" but they have the right idea. Our industrial, energy-demanding society has destroyed many priceless treasures. High on the list of these are the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. Gigantic dams have shut them off forever. Along with them have gone much of an hereditary culture. More than a million Chinese have been uprooted from homes where their families had lived for generations and have been re-planted in what must be for them, a bewildering and confusing new world. .

Charlotte Lucas

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Friday April 30, 2010 · 1:52 PM PDT

2010/04/30 · 13:52

To medieval Europe and Marco Polo, the country the Chinese thought of as the Middle Kingdom, was called Cathay. Marco Polo's journey on the Silk Road took him there but there is much controversy over exactly what he saw. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, founder of the Qin dynasty and the first ruler to unify China, had ordered the Great Wall to be built a thousand years before the Venetian trader's arrival. He is said to have seen that spectacular creation and since the ancient city of Xian was the western end of the Silk Road, he must have been there.

Even if he saw the Yangtze, "the river of golden sands", or "the river to Heaven", as it was named near its source in the mountains that ring Tibet, he would not have sailed through its three magnificent gorges. The account of his travels however, roused interest in the western world about the mysterious East and about far Cathay.

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Welcome To Wonderland, U.S.A.

McCarthy Deja Vu

I Won't Be Invited To a Tea Party

Tahiti, Anyone?

Elephants Are Big In Thailand And Nepal; 5

Elephants Are Big In Thailand And Nepal; 4

Elephants are Big In Thailand And Nepal; 3

Elephants Are Big In Thailand And Nepal; 2

Elephants Are Big In Thailand And Nepal; 1

To Far Cathay; 3

To Far Cathay; 2: The Yangtze

To Far Cathay; 1