3/6 Why Pheasant Island Is Sometimes in France, Sometimes in Spain

Why Pheasant Island Is Sometimes in France, Sometimes in Spain

In this week's Maphead, Ken Jennings explores the world's oldest condominium—and it's an island, not a building.

On maps, international borders are two-dimensional: they can be traced out on a flat sheet of paper with latitude and longitude. In real life, terrain is three-dimensional, and borders can be as well—like Friedrichstrasse Station during the Cold War, where one could cross from West to East Berlin just by going up a flight of stairs. But there's only one four-dimensional border in the world, one that moves back and forth not in space, but in time.

There used to be a condominium the size of Oregon.
Condominiums aren't just for yuppies and Florida retirees. Long before "condos" were a thing, condominiums were arrangements by which two nations would share a territory by assuming joint sovereignty.(e,g不發音) Oregon Country was a condominium of Britain and the United States between 1818 and 1846; Europe's Lake Constance is still a three-nation condominium in the Alps.

It's "Isla de los Faisanes" and "Île des Faisans."
The world's oldest condominium is Pheasant Island. It sits in the Bidasoa River between France and Spain just a mile or two from the Bay of Biscay, east of San Sebastian. Pheasant Island has been administered jointly by France and Spain since the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed there. It's also the world's smallest condominium, just 1.5 acres in area. I've been in bigger grocery stores.

France and Spain get joint custody.
What's really unusual about Pheasant Island is that Spain and France don't share the territory at the same time. By the terms of the 1659 treaty, they alternate sovereignty. Every February, French representatives meet their counterparts on Pheasant Island to hand it over to the Spaniards; every August, they get it back. This has happened over seven hundred times. Geography buff Frank Jacobs has likened this to a 350-year timeshare, or "an extremely slow game of ping-pong." To me, it sounds more like a divorce custody arrangement. "Is this your weekend to be French? France will pick you up after school."

Someday, my prince will come (to Pheasant Island).
In theory, this means that a camper on Pheasant Island could go to sleep in Spain and wake up in France, without ever moving an inch. In practice, this is impossible, because neither country allows visitors to the island. So there's no way to take selfies with the stone monument commemorating the Treaty of the Pyrenees. But the island used to get lots more visitors because of its swinging singles scene. For centuries, the island was the traditional meeting place to hand off brides and grooms when important royal marriages were arranged between France and Spain. Today, locals just have to use Tinder like everybody else.

Explore the world's oddities every week with Ken Jennings, and check out his book Maphead for more geography trivia.

http://www.cntraveler.com/story/why-pheasant-island-is-sometimes-in-france-sometimes-in-spain?mbid=synd_digg

3/5 Egypt's Agricultural Exports Ripe for World Markets

Egypt's Agricultural Exports Ripe for World Markets

Egyptian fruit and vegetables now look cheap and attractive to foreign buyers, exporters said.

“Demand has doubled, with every product gaining one or two markets,” said Mostafa al-Naggari, Chairman of Fresh Fruit Co, which recently signed deals to ship to China and is finalizing others with Australia, New Zealand and Korea.

Egypt has secured a $12 billion IMF loan to support a wide-ranging reform program aimed at restoring foreign inflows and correcting the budget deficit.

A series of tax increases and subsidy cuts, along with the currency depreciation, have driven inflation to record levels in a country where millions live a paycheck away from hunger. But amid the pain of government austerity, local manufacturers and exporters are reporting an increase in activity.

Egyptian politicians have blamed the import-dependent country's trade deficit, which stood at $42.64 billion in 2016, for putting pressure on the local currency. Along with a sharp reduction in imports, a rise in agricultural exports could help narrow that gap.

Exports of Egyptian vegetables, fruits and legumes amounted to $2.2 billion last year and would likely rise by about 15 percent in 2017, Abdel Hamid al-Demerdash, the head of Egypt's Agriculture Export Council, said.

The main vegetable exports include onions and artichokes, and fruits include oranges and strawberries.

Farmland in the Egyptian countryside.

The growing interest follows a turbulent year for Egyptian produce, with a Hepatitis A scare in North America linked to Egyptian strawberries and a temporary ban of Egyptian fruits and vegetables in Russia, one of Cairo's top buyers.

But traders say growth now comes down to how quickly they can expand to meet demand.

Japan Food Solutions (JFS), a fruit and vegetable exporter, is working to double its planted area this year to meet an expected 20-30 percent increase in demand from markets in Europe and North America, senior managing director Emad Said said.

“I see this as a golden opportunity for Egyptian produce to compete more aggressively ... The clever ones will seize this opportunity to enter new markets,” he said.

http://www.voanews.com/a/egypt-agricultural-exports-ripe-for-world-markets-after-currency-float/3727916.html

3/4 Why happiness is healthy

(CNN)Happiness -- you know it when you see it, but it's hard to define.

You might call it a sense of well-being, of optimism or of meaningfulness in life, although those could also be treated as separate entities. But whatever happiness is, we know that we want it, and that is just somehow good.

We also know that we don't always have control over our happiness. Research suggests that genetics may play a big role in our normal level of subjective well-being, so some of us may start out at a disadvantage. On top of that, between unexpected tragedies and daily habitual stress, environmental factors can bring down mood and dry up our thirst for living.

Being able to manage the emotional ups and downs is important for both body and mind, said Laura Kubzansky, professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard School of Public Health.

"For physical health, it's not so much happiness per se, but this ability to regulate and have a sense of purpose and meaning," Kubzansky said.

Why be happy?

Many scientific studies, including some by Kubzansky, have found a connection between psychological and physical well-being.

A 2012 review of more than 200 studies found a connection between positive psychological attributes, such as happiness, optimism and life satisfaction, and a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease. Kubzansky and other Harvard School of Public Health researchers published these findings in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

It's not as simple as "you must be happy to prevent heart attacks," of course. If you have a good sense of well-being, it's easier to maintain good habits: Exercising, eating a balanced diet and getting enough sleep, researchers said. People who have an optimistic mindset may be more likely to engage in healthy behaviors because they perceive them as helpful in achieving their goals, Kubzansky said.

Lower blood pressure, normal body weight and healthier blood fat profiles were also associated with a better sense of well-being in this study.

Why trying to make your kids happy can backfire

For now these studies can only show associations; they do not provide hard evidence of cause and effect. But some researchers speculate that positive mental states do have a direct effect on the body, perhaps by reducing damaging physical processes. For instance, another of Kubzansky's studies found that optimism is associated with lower levels of inflammation.

If what you mean by happiness is specifically "enjoyment of life," there's newer evidence to support that, too. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that people ages 60 and older who said they enjoyed life less were more likely to develop disability over an eight-year period. Mobility was also related to enjoyment of life. This study does not prove that physical problems are caused by less enjoyment of life, but suggests a relationship.

Where happiness comes from: genes + environment

There is substantial evidence that genetics play a big role in happiness, according to Nancy Segal, psychologist at California State University, Fullerton, and author of "Born Together -- Reared Apart."

Research has shown that identical twins tend to have a similar level of happiness, more so than fraternal twins. And in identical twins, one twin's happiness is a better predictor of the other twin's current or future happiness than educational achievement or income, Segal said.

10 ways to get happy

"If you have happy parents and happy children, I think that people usually assume it's because the children are modeling the parents," she said. "But that's not really so. You need to make the point that parents pass on both genes and environments."

What's more, there seems to be a certain level of happiness that individuals have generally, to which they usually gravitate, Segal said. That level depends on the person, and the situations he or she is in.

Even if genetics has a big influence, though, that doesn't mean anyone is biologically stuck being unhappy, she said. It might take more work if your baseline mood is low, but certain therapies have proven useful for elevating psychological well-being.

The environment is still quite important for psychological well-being, too, Kubzansky said.

"To say to someone, 'Don't worry, be happy,' is kind of not looking at the whole picture of, what are the environmental constraints on things they can do?" Kubzansky said.

Loneliness: 5 things you may not know

Money and time

You might be thinking: "Maybe I would be happier if I had more money." There's that old cliché "money doesn't buy happiness" -- but is it true? A 2010 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that emotional well-being rises with income up to a point, which seems to be a household income of $75,000. Day-to-day happiness did not increase with higher incomes.

But when participants were asked about overall satisfaction with their lives, that did continue to rise in conjunction with income, even after $75,000, Princeton University researchers Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton found. Their results show a sharp distinction between how people see themselves in terms of happiness "today" vs. life satisfaction.

"More money does not necessarily buy more happiness, but less money is associated with emotional pain," Kahneman and Deaton wrote. "Perhaps $75,000 is a threshold beyond which further increases in income no longer improve individuals' ability to do what matters most to their emotional well-being, such as spending time with people they like, avoiding pain and disease, and enjoying leisure."

More on money (not) buying happiness

Would you be happier if you bought the car you always wanted? Several studies suggest experiences make us happier than possessions. That's partly because once you have purchased something, such as a new car, you get used to seeing it every day and the initial joy fades, experts say. But you can continue to derive happiness from memories of experiences over time.

Experiences form "powerful and important memories that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world," Thomas Gilovich, professor of psychology at Cornell University, told CNN in 2009.

But if you're in the market for a birthday present for your sweetheart, a material object can still be meaningful, becoming a keepsake with sentimental value that increases over time, Gilovich said.

Study: Experiences make us happier than possessions

Or maybe you'll be happier once you've lived longer. Research has also found that some sense of happiness may come with age.

Older adults may be able to better regulate their emotions than younger people, expose themselves to less stress and experience less negative emotion, Susan Turk Charles, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, told CNN in 2009. More science needs to be done on whether the diminished negative response is also associated with a feeling of happiness.

More happiness may come with age, studies say

Happiness: Living in the moment

But what about right now -- what can we do to make ourselves feel more positive?

If you're seeking to increase your own sense of happiness, try mindfulness techniques. Mindfulness means being present and in the moment, and observing in a nonjudgmental way, Susan Albers, psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic, told CNN in 2010.

Can mindfulness help manage pain and mental illness?

Mindfulness comes from Buddhism and is key to meditation in that tradition. Therapies for a wide variety of conditions, including eating disorders, depression and PTSD, incorporate mindfulness. Focusing on the here and now is a counterbalance to findings that mind-wandering is associated with unhappiness.

Activities such as keeping a gratitude diary and helping other people are also associated with feelings of well-being, Kubzansky said.

A variety of smartphone apps are also available that claim to help you monitor and enhance your moods. But don't feel you have to face emotional challenges alone; a professional therapist can help you get to where you want to be.

If a sense of well-being makes a healthier person, then policy-makers should also promote large-scale initiatives to encourage that, Kubzansky said. Creating parks to encourage exercise and instituting flexible work-family initiatives are just some of the ways that communities can become healthier as a whole.

So remember: A glass half full might be healthier than a glass half empty.

Want to find out more ways to get happy? Visit our Project Happy page at cnn.com/happy.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/20/health/happiness-wellbeing-health/index.html

3/1 'Moonlight' Upsets 'La La Land to Take Top Oscar Prize - Best Picture

'Moonlight' Upsets 'La La Land to Take Top Oscar Prize - Best Picture

Barry Jenkins' "Moonlight'' - not, as it turned out, "La La Land'' - won best picture at the Academy Awards in a historic Oscar upset and an unprecedented fiasco that saw one winner swapped for another while the "La La Land'' producers were in mid-speech.

Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway apparently took the wrong envelope - the one for best actress winner Emma Stone - onto the stage. When they realized the mistake, representatives for ballot tabulators Price Waterhouse Coopers raced onstage to stop the acceptance speech.

It was, nevertheless, a shocking upset considering that "La La Land'' came in with 14 nominations, a record that tied it with "Titanic'' and "All About Eve.'' ''Moonlight'', made for just $1.5 million, is an unusually small Oscar winner.

"Even in my dreams this cannot be true,'' said an astonished Jenkins, once he reached the stage.

Up until the end, the broadcast had seesawed between jabs at Donald Trump and passionate arguments for inclusivity, with awards going to "La La Land,'' "Moonlight'' and "Manchester by the Sea.'' Damien Chazelle, the director of “La La Land”, became the youngest to win best director.

Casey Affleck won best actor - his first Oscar - for his soulful, grief-filled performance in "Manchester by the Sea.''

Mahershala Ali won best supporting actor for "Moonlight.'' He glowed on the stage as he informed the crowd that he and his wife, Amatus Sami-Karim, welcomed a daughter four days earlier. Best foreign film for the second time went to Asghar Farhadi, director of Iran's "A Salesman.'' Farhadi, who also won for his "A Separation,'' had said he wouldn't attend because of Trump's travel ban to seven predominantly Muslim nations. Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian astronaut, read a statement from Farhadi.

"I'm sorry I'm not with you tonight,'' it read. "My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.''

2/27 Future of Shopping: Retailers Explore 3D Printers, Flashy Tech

Future of Shopping: Retailers Explore 3D Printers, Flashy Tech

The centerpiece of Intel’s booth at the recent National Retail Federation Show in New York City was undoubtedly the massive Mach 2XS commercial printer by Japanese manufacturer Shima Seiki.

At nearly 3 meters wide and 1.37 meters tall, the printer was hard to miss. The small crowd that had gathered around it though, was more interested in what was being printed — row by row, the knitted lines of a sweater were coming together and gradually being “printed” out.

“What we’re able to do is print a garment in 45 minutes that’s exactly tailored just to you, the fabrics, the styles and everything you like,” said Ryan Parker, general manager of responsive retail at Intel. The printer and technology behind it were one of several offerings made by Intel to retailers.

Brick and mortar

As more and more consumers shop online and opt for virtual carts over physical ones, retailers are considering flashy technologies like 3D printing and virtual reality to entice them back into brick-and-mortar stores.

A recent study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value and the National Retail Federation found that 67 percent of those ages 13 to 21 shop in a physical store most of the time despite being the first digitally native generation, having grown up after the advent of cellphones and mobile devices.

Even customer service robots are part of the future of shopping.

Duy Huynh, CEO of New York-based startup Autonomous, displayed two fully autonomous telepresence robots in a mockup store.

“Customer experience is still a very, very important problem to solve in retail today,” Huynh said, citing subpar experiences at major retail hardware chains as examples. “I don’t have the support that I want or they don’t have enough staff to support me. Or they have staff, but who don’t have knowledge about the product I want.”

Autonomous robots working in a hardware store could be manned by representatives anywhere who have expertise in specific areas like plumbing or electrical wiring.

2/28 Matt Damon Takes to Davos Stage to Put Water on Map

Matt Damon Takes to Davos Stage to Put Water on Map

American actor Matt Damon used Davos to drum up support for his water charity, Water.org, on Tuesday, after getting a new multimillion-dollar commitment from Belgian brewer Stella Artois.

Water.org is trying to raise a $55 million fund that would provide microloans to finance projects that build access to clean water in developing countries.

It has already deployed an $11 million fund, Damon said.

"People want to participate in their own solution, they want a hand up not a handout," he said. Stella Artois, one of AB InBev’s brands, said it was committing $4.8 million over four years to Water.org, at a time that AB InBev is moving into Africa, where access to clean water can be limited.

"Water is our number one ingredient, so we are very water-conscious," said Ricardo Tadeu, AB InBev's head of Africa.

The brewer's support for the charity precedes AB InBev's $100 billion-plus acquisition last year of SABMiller, which extended its reach in Africa as well as Latin America.

"We've been able to see tangible results and a tangible impact," said Christina Choi, global brand vice president, Stella Artois.

Stella will also continue its "Buy a Lady a Drink" campaign, in which proceeds from each sale of a limited-edition beer glass get donated to charity, providing the equivalent funding for five years of clean drinking water for one person.

Lack of access to water disproportionately affects women and children, as they often spend hours each day collecting it instead of going to school or working.

In the two years since the project was launched, Stella said it has sold over 225,000 glasses and donated more than $3 million to Water.org. It said its new commitment aims to help 3.5 million people get access to clean water.

Article today 2/26

Study: Talk Therapy Changes Brain Wiring in Mental Illness

For the first time, researchers have shown that talk therapy improves symptoms in people with mental disorders. They say it strengthens connections in the brain, with long-lasting improvements.

Talk therapy has tended to get short shrift in the treatment of people who have been diagnosed with mental illness. Usually, medications are the first treatment doctors reach for to lessen symptoms of psychiatric disorders.

This is especially true in the case of people who suffer from psychosis marked by abnormal thoughts. Psychosis is common in schizophrenia and some severe forms of depression.

But researchers at King's College London have shown that a combination of medications along with a kind of talk therapy, known as cognitive behavior therapy or CBT, not only improves symptoms in people who suffer from false beliefs, but the changes can last a long time.

The improvements occurred between the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls fear and emotion, and the frontal lobes, which are involved in thinking and reasoning.

Liam Mason is a clinical psychologist at King’s College who led the study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

“And what we are really excited about here is that these stronger connections appear to be linked to long term improvement in people’s symptoms and recovery, even as much as eight years later,” said Mason.

In the original study, a group of participants suffering from psychotic symptoms took medication. Some also received cognitive therapy, while the others did not.

Researchers saw an improvement in brain connectivity in those who had talk therapy that was not seen in the non-CBT group.

Investigators then followed 15 of the 22 CBT patients for eight years. They found the participants’ level of recovery and well-being was still improved, without additional therapy.

Mason says the finding shows an association between talk therapy and long-term recovery in patients who had suffered from paranoid beliefs.

“Traditionally, the only interventions or treatments that have been offered are medication and even surgery in the past as well,” said Mason. "So I think, and the whole research team are really excited about, these findings that show that it's actually possible to have these brain changes from psychological therapies as well.”

Investigators will now try to confirm their findings in a larger study of patients with mental illness.

Article today 2/25

One-man Chocolate Factory Flourishes

The main ingredient in Ben Rasmussen's one-man chocolate factory in Woodbridge, Virginia, is cocoa beans.

"Once the beans are cracked in the winnower, the nibs, which is the meat of the bean, goes into the grinder. ... And it just spins round and round and grinds the nibs into liquid called cocoa liquor. To that I add sugar. That is all my chocolate is. Just cocoa beans and sugar," he said.

Rasmussen’s love of chocolate started about eight years ago when he tasted a sample of gourmet dark chocolate. He said he fell in love with it instantly and started learning to make it himself.

"I learned how to make it just through the Internet and trial and error and kind of teaching myself on reading old books and just doing it, got some used equipment and started messing around with it, fell in love with the process, and that's basically how it started," he said.

In very short order, his company, Potomac Chocolate, was born. The bar from the first batch of chocolate he made in his kitchen was a finalist in that year's Good Food Awards, which is based out of San Francisco.

"That bar also won an Academy of Chocolate Awards in 2011," Rasmussen added. "I won a couple of Academy of Chocolate Awards and a few International Chocolate Awards for four different bars."

Winning those awards led to a high demand for his chocolate, and soon he moved his production out of his kitchen and to his basement, where he now makes the chocolates.Rasmussen also has built most of his equipment by himself. But chocolate-making is not his full-time job.

"I'm a Linux system administrator, a computer nerd," Rasmussen said. "So finding out how to balance the work at my day job and chocolate is a real struggle, especially considering the fact that I've got family, four kids; I am a busy guy."

The busy guy makes about 140 kilos (300 pounds) of chocolate every couple of weeks, and sells it online and in high-end gourmet specialty stores and coffee shops.

Rasmussen's cocoa beans are from four places: Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru and the Dominican Republic. Each of his 10 flavored bars indicates the origin on the wrapping.

"I make all of the chocolate myself, so it's a very small company, but it continues to grow," he said. "Every year has been better than the year before. Last year was the best by far."

https://www.voanews.com/a/3722913.html

Article today 2/21

Argentina Amends its Immigration Law, Speeds Up Deportations

Argentina made a major change to its immigration law to make it easier to banish foreigners who do crimes or who are under investigation.

President Mauricio Macri ordered the change to the 2003 immigration law.

The presidential order notes a rise in organized crime by foreigners and prevents immigrants who have criminal records from entering the country. It also speeds up expulsion for those who do crimes, including selling drugs and weapons or hiding illegal money.

The new law is designed to lower the increase in crime. The issue is a top concern among Argentinians who will vote in congressional elections later this year.

However, one human rights group said it is a mistake to think of the migration crisis as just an issue of national security, and to link immigrants with criminals.

Argentine Vice President Gabriela Michetti defended the new measure.

She told a local radio station that “Argentina is an open country that will always be in favor of diversity.” She also rejected suggestions that the new law is like an immigration order signed last month by Donald Trump, the new president of the United States.

Article today 2/19

Bird numbersOut of the woods

Good news on the bird population—but not for everyone

British birdwatchers are used to bad news. House sparrow numbers have fallen from an estimated 30 million to 10 million since 1966. Curlews have become a rare sight, their numbers plummeting by 50% in 15 years. Cuckoos, once-frequent visitors from Africa, have declined by 63% in the south-east in the past two decades. Earlier springs that confuse migratory birds, more efficient farming and the conversion of dilapidated buildings (good for nesting) into modern homes have all contributed to these woes.

But data released by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), a research charity, suggest some are soaring. Tracking bird populations by means of regular surveys, the figures give the clearest picture yet of 49 species across Britain.

Blackcaps, small woodland birds native to Germany and eastern Europe, are lingering after their summer sojourns: since 1967 numbers have increased by 177%. The little egret, a white heron-like bird, arrived from continental European 1989 and now numbers over 5,000. Wood pigeons, once found shyly cooing in forests, have boldly moved into cities and suburbs.

Environmental and agricultural changes have helped as well as disoriented birds. Modern farming techniques allow grain to be sown in the autumn rather than the spring; that helps wood pigeons feed in winter. Warmer winters mean rivers and ponds are less likely to freeze, providing the little egrets with food. James Pearce-Higgins of the BTO says that blackcaps benefit particularly from the increasing popularity of berry bushes (such as rowan and yew) in people’s gardens.

These species and others benefit from the British love of bird feeders. “I would be amazed if anyone feeds garden birds in Europeas much as we do,” says Stephen Moss, a nature writer. First sold in 1964 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), a charity with over 1 million members, bird feeders took off in the 1990s when food such as sunflower hearts and nyjer seeds became widely available and the RSPB began to encourage people to feed birds throughout the year. (The bird tables found in other northern European countries, such as Finland and Germany, tend to be stocked only during the winter.) In 1987 only 17 species availed themselves of British feeders; these days 86 do.

Birders grouse nonetheless. Some of the species prospering, such as carrion crows and buzzards, are disliked. And migratory birds that extend their visits may provide competition for some avian natives. They are “muscling in and getting the first claim on breeding sites”, says Richard Cowser of the Sussex Ornithological Society. Like their human counterparts, residents of a small island buffeted by global winds, British birds will have to learn to compete.

http://www.kekenet.com/Article/201610/473241.shtml

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21573142-good-news-bird-populationbut-not-everyone-out-woods

Article today 2/17

National Park Sites Preserve Artifacts of America’s Early Wars

National parks traveler Mikah Meyer spent the month of January immersed in American history as he visited a number of historic forts along the southeastern U.S. coastline.

One of his first stops was Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, just off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.

The fort is famous for being the spot where the first shot of the Civil War was fired, and also where the first casualty of that war occurred.
After a decade of cultural and economic tension between the North and South, it was here, on April 12, 1861, that the southern army opened fire, marking it as the day the Civil War began. It is considered by many to be the bloodiest battle in U.S. history.

Standing inside the large, fortified walls of Fort Sumter National Monument, looking across the water to the port city of Charleston, Mikah imagined what it must have been like all those years ago.

“It was under siege at one point for 17 months,” he noted. “There were cannons that could fire from where I’m standing on the fort all the way to the old town. So imagine living there for 17 months and wondering if at any point that a cannon [shot] might come.”

Driving south into the state of Georgia, Mikah stopped at Fort Pulaski National Monument. Built in 1847, the fort is considered one of the most technologically advanced fortifications of its time.

“This one was interesting solely just upon appearance,” Mikah said. “It had a moat, with water that circled the whole fort, which after seeing a number of forts that don’t have moats, just that one little feature it’s amazing how much more exciting that can make it!”

Just an hour south of Fort Pulaski, the scene couldn’t have been more different. At Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island, Mikah walked among the ruins of this once flourishing 18th century settlement.

“They’re an interesting combination because Fort Pulaski, when it was built, it was one of the most technologically advanced forts of the time, and so perhaps because of that it’s still standing today… So it was an interesting one-two punch going from one extreme to the other,” he said.

The young traveler said visiting these historic sites – both large and small – made him appreciate the efforts of the National Park Service in preserving these national treasures for all to enjoy – and learn from.

http://www.voanews.com/a/national-park-roadtrip-19/3716158.html

Article today 2/18

Survey: Global Freedom Drops for 11th Year as Populism, Autocracy Rise

U.S. human rights group Freedom House says global freedoms weakened in 2016 for an 11th consecutive year, a decline it blamed on growing populism and nationalism in democratic nations and greater authoritarianism in others.

The bleak assessment came in the group’s annual global freedom survey published Monday with the title, “Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy.”

Of the 195 countries assessed in the Freedom House report, 45 percent were rated “free,” 30 percent were rated “partly free” and 25 percent were rated “not free.” It said 67 countries suffered declines in political rights and civil liberties in 2016, predominantly in established democracies such as Brazil, France, Germany and the United States. The report said 36 nations saw improvements in freedom, leaving the gainers outnumbered by nations with declining freedom for the 11th straight year.

 There are 36 nations improving in freedom, however, there are more nations are declining freedom for the 11th straight year.

Freedom House said major democracies were “mired in anxiety and indecision” in 2016, after a series of destabilizing events. It said one such event was the U.S. presidential victory of Donald Trump, whom it called a “mercurial figure with unconventional views on foreign policy and other matters” — views it said “raised questions” about his country’s future role in the world.

“What the U.S. chooses to do in its foreign policy under the new administration is an open question,” Freedom House spokeswoman Sarah Repucci said. “But we’ve seen a lot of warning signs that it may not be engaging to the extent that all previous U.S. administrations in recent years have done.”

She just said in a soft way that the new administration may not attend the extent like previous administrations have done.

Repucci said Russia, which Freedom House rates as “not free,” has shown a willingness to fill any gap left by U.S. disengagement from the world, particularly in the Middle East.

Russia is showing willingness to fill any gap particularly in the Middle East which is left by the US.

The report said Trump’s election win shows that the United States is “not immune to the kind of populist appeals that have resonated across the Atlantic in recent years.” It said his campaign “featured a series of disturbing events, stemming mainly from Trump’s own remarks and the actions of his supporters, and punctuated by Trump’s insistence, without evidence and even after he won, that the election results were marred by massive fraud.”

The US is becoming more appealed by populist which has resonated across Western Europe in recent years.
The US can not resist the populist way of thinking coming from Western Europe, where it is already wildly spread

But Freedom House also noted positive aspects of Trump’s rise to power. It said his success as an “outsider candidate who challenged the mainstream forces of both major parties demonstrated the continued openness and dynamism of the American system.”

Freedom House said civil-war-plagued Syria had the “worst” score for political rights and civil liberties in 2016. Following Syria on the list of worst-scoring nations were Eritrea, North Korea, Uzbekistan, South Sudan, Turkmenistan, Somalia, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic and Saudi Arabia.

The only country in the report with a positive trend toward being freer was Colombia, whose government secured a peace deal with FARC rebels last year, ending a decades-long conflict in the South American nation.

http://www.voanews.com/a/report-2016-marks-11th-consecutive-year-of-declining-global-freedom/3700442.html

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2016