TIME-TRAVEL TO St. JACOBS

St Jacobs is a popular tourist destination eighty miles from the Toronto city in Canada. I had the opportunity to visit this uniquely beautiful village last year. The moment I arrived at St. Jacobs, I was struck by its old world charm and serenity. 

The main landmarks of the village include a large flea market that displays handicrafts and antiques, and a Farmers’ Market that sells varieties of fresh fruit, vegetables and other food items including cheese, bread and Maple syrup etc.

But, what is so special about this sleepy village that makes it an attractive place for tourists coming from all over the world? It is the Mennonite people, who live there, making it a unique and interesting place.

The Mennonite people arrived from Pennsylvania in USA, by trekking and using their horse-drawn wagons in the early 1800 and settled in the village of St. Jacobs. It was one of the first Mennonite settlements in Canada.  Many “Old-order” Mennonite farmers, who still follow the religious beliefs, customs and lifestyle of their 18th century ancestors, live in and around this village.

Anabaptist tradition

Mennonites are protestant Christians with roots in the “Anabaptist” movement.  Anabaptists primarily differ from other Christian denominations in the case of “infant baptism”.  Anabaptists rejected "infant baptism" since they believed that those who receive baptism must be able to make their own confessions of Christian faith.   

 

Anabaptist theology gained acceptance during the 16^th century and sprouted in Switzerland, Germany and other European countries.  They baptised adults exactly in the same way described in the New Testament, by immersing fully in water. The Christian Church could not tolerate this movement that defied the existing Christian belief. During that period, the rejection of infant baptism and rebaptism of adults were considered to be crime, punishable by death in the Christian states of Europe. Religious historians estimate more than 50,000 Anabaptists were killed in the sixteenth century Europe. This exceeded the number of early Christians killed by the Romans during 300 years of persecutions.

Mennonites group was one of the several denominations of Anabaptist protestant Christians. They were followers of their religious leader called Menno Simons and were named after him. Menno Simons (1496-1561) was originally a Roman Catholic priest later reformed as an Anabaptist Protestant. A large number of Mennonites, who also had undergone persecution, were driven out of Europe and had migrated to North America.  

Old-order Mennonites

Mennonites settled in St. Jacobs are a branch of the original Mennonite church, called “old-order Mennonites”. They are unique in many ways. Unlike other Mennonite people, the old-order Mennonites form an exclusive tight-knit community. They had always been living in isolation without participating in the societal activities happening around them and restricting interaction only among themselves.

They avoid all technologies and practice a lifestyle without any element of modern technology. The old-order Mennonites are also called “Horse and Buggy Mennonites”. The horse-drawn buggies are the main form of transportation for them. They do not have any automobiles. They lead a very restrictive lifestyle.

From very early age, the children help their parents in their everyday chores, which include the regular household duties, feeding the chickens, milking the goats, and working in the family organic farm etc. Mennonites basically are a farming community.

The children have no television, radio, computers or any other electronic gadgets. They play simple old-style outdoor games including ball games and board games such as chess.  (Many Old-order Mennonite homes do not even have electricity)

Girls wear hair in braids, assisted by mother or sister. Boys never go to a barber. They get their haircuts from parents.  Both grown-ups and children wear old-fashioned plain home-made dress. They do not wear jeans or T-shirts. They never go to see any movies or public sporting events. But they are fun loving and indulge in entertainments including singing and playing with other children of the community. They enjoy listening to stories told by their grandparents. All children, even teenagers, go to bed by 8 at night. They live in a very peaceful environment protected from violence depicted in modern news media and movies.

The children go to the private school inside their own community that has only up to eighth grade. They study English in the school, whereas, at home they speak only a distinct dialect of German, which they call “Pennsylvania Dutch”. The schools follow own curriculum with emphasis on language, arts and mathematics. They leave their schools at the age of 14 and then start getting involved in the work of their fathers and mothers. Their real-life education starts in parallel with working.  

There is no western-style system of dating and courtship among young men and women. They get to know each other during the social gatherings such as Sundays in common place of worship. Later they resort to exchange of letters to understand each other. They also meet at the home of the young woman. Marriage is also a simple ceremony. Divorce is unheard of in the community.  

They follow a simple life. They do not use any jewellery or make-up. They live strictly according to the scriptures. They act their beliefs rather than verbalize and debate them.  As a community, they help each other during emergency situations. They are a law abiding community and pay their taxes to the government. But they don’t accept any welfare measures such as “social security” from the government. The old-order Mennonite community still remains as a well-functioning stable social system. 

Visit to St. Jacobs

I visited that village with my friend and his wife who were living in Toronto. We drove from Toronto to St. Jacobs on a Saturday afternoon. By the time we reached there the Farmers Market was in full swing.  We bought some organically grown fruits and a few bottles of Maple Syrup. We bought some bread also. Mennonites are talented bakers.

Later we visited an information centre called “The Mennonite Story”. In fact I could gather a lot of information and a fascinating insight into one of the most secluded communities of modern world, only after visiting that centre. After that we had a drive through the residential and farming area of the Mennonite settlement. Before starting our drive, we were advised that the Mennonite people do not use cameras. They believe that taking pictures will lead to “pride”, which is considered a sin. They are not comfortable with anybody taking their pictures. Visitors are advised to ask their permission before taking any pictures. 

 

We could see huge residential buildings and tall barns where they store their grains and use them to house the livestock of the farm. We could see people wearing full-length plain home-made dresses and working on their farms. Once in a while we had encountered people travelling in their slow moving horse-buggies. The atmosphere was quite serene and peaceful. Nothing was happening there in a hurry.

It seemed as though the time stands still in Mennonite country.

While driving back from St. Jacobs, I almost felt envy of those gentle and peace loving group of people. When we reached Waterloo, the nearest city from St. Jacobs, I thought I am “Back to the present” after a “Time Travel”. 

Gangnam Style frightens

Recently in an International Conference held in Seoul, organized by Innocean, the largest advertising agency in Korea, there was an exclusive session for discussing the phenomenon of Gangnam Style.  

After winning the T20 World Cup of Cricket, the entire West Indies team danced with horse-riding steps to the tune of Gangnam Style.

An ordinary music video called “GangnamStyle” in Korean language, uploaded by the Korean Hip Hop singer called Psy, in YouTube just 80 days ago has already exceeded 420 million views, creating a new record in the Guinness Book of records.  Many celebrities including Tom Cruise, Britney Spears and many others have shared Gangnam Style in their Facebook pages. 

Psy, with an unassuming personality not befitting a pop performer (with the original name: Park Jae-sang), is suddenly visible all over the world, through Internet, Visual and print-media, performing and giving interviews. People all over the world are singing “Oppa Gangnam Style” and organizing “Flash mobs” dancing with ridiculously funny steps.

For the first time in history a Korean song has reached the second place in the BillBoard Hot 100 list. Within a few weeks of its release, millions of copies of Gangnam Style were sold all over the world. 

Within this short period through song sales, commercial endorsements, concerts, and royalties, singer Psy has already earned more than 15 million dollars. 

What is this Gangnam Style music video? 

Gangnam is the name of a place in Seoul, where fashionable and rich young people used to  get-together. It is considered “cool” for a young guy to be known as a Gangnam person. In the song, written, composed and choreographed by Psy himself, he describes a person who tries hard to become stylish and cool like a Gangnam person; but eventually fails.

That explains why he looks terribly “uncool” in the video with his looks, costumes and the funny horse-riding dance steps and sideways shuffle. 

How this video could immediately go viral and achieve such an unprecedented success with global reach? It has firmly established as a global phenomenon and continues to attract more than 5 million surfers a day. 

This definitely is a classic case of an Internet Meme.

The song is in Korean language. The singer Psy is hardly known outside Korea. The theme of the lyrics is to satirize certain elements of Korean culture and social aspects of the neo rich in Seoul. If it gets popular in Korea, where people can easily identify themselves with the lyrics, music and the body language, it is quite understandable.

But, how could a seemingly unimpressive song in a foreign language get spontaneously accepted globally as a greatest pop song of recent times? Suddenly how people get addicted to this song and the rhythm of the outrageous dance steps of the singer?

There is no dispute about the power of the Web and the social media. Still there is no clear answer what makes this particular video a huge winner among the thousands of videos uploaded every day?

Is it a fluke? Quite possible.

The important question is: 

“Whether it is possible to make it happen intentionally by planning and manipulating with hidden rules and with appropriate machinations to create an artificial phenomenon of such a massive scale?”

Already the tools of Web 3.0 and social media are used for behavioral advertising and marketing. For doing this, some basic rules and logical principles are used. Like any other advertising strategy it has a limited scope. 

But for achieving a success to the scale of “Gangnam Style”, apart from reaching a wider audience, it requires elements to manipulate and control of the collective human mind. 

Does it sound like Science Fiction? 

No. We have already seen some samples of what could happen. The panic and exodus of North East people back to their homelands in India, and the mob violence against the Anti-Muslim video etc. are some examples for negative impact. Arab Spring is an example aimed at positive goals.

But these happenings could be attributed to some normal and straightforward reasons such as spreading rumors and hate messages through Social Media to instigate passion among vulnerable sections of people. 

But we cannot rule out the possibility of “planned manipulation of collective human mind”, because the tools and frame work are already in place. There are unlimited possibilities for using them for positive or negative results. 

In wrong hands, it could prove to be dangerous and could be used to create chaos and havoc in the world.

The possibilities are frightening. 

Stonehenge Rocks!

England was always one of my dream destinations. The royal castles, meadows of the countryside, the English pubs, Gothic cathedrals, historic monuments, medieval towns and the Stonehenge were some of the attractions I always wanted to see.

During my third visit to London in the year 2006, I had visited my old friend Joseph who was living in London. Joseph was a connoisseur of wines. He had offered me a collection of choicest French wines and single malt scotch whiskeys. We sat in the neatly laid out lawn in the backyard of his house with glasses of vintage wine and nostalgic memories of our college days. He set the fire up the grill of the barbecue and started grilling pieces of marinated tender beef.

When I had listed out my priorities to visit, he promised that he would take me to the Stonehenge. We had decided to drive to the Stonehenge and to the medieval city of Salisbury. He told me “You can also enjoy the rural landscape of Britain on our way to the Stonehenge”.

Stonehenge is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world. UNESCO classified it as one of the “World Heritage Sites”. It is located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles north of Salisbury city.

The trip to Stonehenge

When we started our journey by car from the county of Middlesex, the sky was cloudy with the possibility of rain in the afternoon. Within five minutes of leaving the city we could see vast green meadows sprinkled with bushes and trees. It was lush greenery all around.  In fact I strongly feel that the breathtaking beauty of the English countryside must be included as one of the major attractions of Britain. After a few more miles, the landscape slowly changed to golden yellow barley fields and brownish fields of ripe wheat. Our drive through the meadows and grain fields was refreshingly invigorating.

When we reached the Stonehenge, slight drizzle has started. We bought cheap plastic rain jackets from the souvenir shop before going near the Stonehenge. Stonehenge is nothing but an arrangement of huge standing stones in a circular form. 

It was an awe-inspiring sight when I stood in front of the ancient stone circle. The Stonehenge was believed to have been built before 5000 years. Each stone would have weighed at least four tons (the largest one weighing nearly 50 tons). Bringing the stones and assembling here would have been a superhuman task, considering the fact that the stones have come from nearly 250 miles away from the Wales Mountains.

Moreover, the purpose of assembling this stone circle still remains a mystery. There are so many theories circulating about the origin and objective of such a massive monument. Many such theories attribute supernatural powers to the Stonehenge.

Every year on the summer solstice day in June and the winter solstice day in December, thousands of people led by Stonehenge druids assemble there for the Stonehenge festival by performing pagan rituals.

The theories behind the Stonehenge

Some of the interesting theories are as follows:

• A sacred burial site of the ancient Britons
• Religious monument of the ancient Celts, who worshiped sun.
• Communication link with the heaven and the underworld
• Bronze age astronomical observatory aligned with the lunar cycles
• Extraterrestrial landing site for UFOs also serve as a communication radar with the inter-galactic alien civilizations

The radio carbon dating done on the construction site itself revealed that the building the site was started around the year 3100 BC and ended around the year 1600 BC. The theories about the Stonehenge are broadly divided into three - it was a religious monument or an ancient scientific observatory or a site with extraterrestrial connection.

One of the reasons why the Stonehenge has so much of appeal is the mystery surrounding it. Whatever be the purpose behind it, the mystique of Stonehenge transcends religious, supernatural or scientific views of the monument.

Before leaving the place I bought a souvenir T-Shirt for my son. The slogan printed on the T-shirt was “Stonehenge Rocks!”

Yes it really rocks.

 

It's all in the Meme

During mid November 2011, the “Kolaveri” song by actor Dhanush was released and it instantly became viral on social networking sites. Within no time the song became the most searched Youtube video. As on today it has 60 million hits in Youtube.

I am surprised to see, even the word “Kolaveri” is being used by some of the TV panelists during serious discussions. The word seems to be gradually sneaking its way into English dictionaries.

“Is Kolaveri a classic case of Internet Meme?”

Meme and the Cultural Evolution

In his hugely successful book “Selfish Gene” Richard Dawkins, had introduced a new theory similar to Darwin’s theory of evolution. While Darwin’s theory dealt with the evolution of the living species, Dawkins’ new theory was about the creation, propagation and evolution of “cultural properties”. 

“Meme” is a unit of cultural information that propagates from one mind to another forming the basis of a cultural evolution. This is similar to how a “gene” propagates from one organism to another, as a unit of genetic information forming the basis of a biological evolution. 

Richard Dawkins describes the concept of Memetics as follows: 

“Examples of Memes are tunes, videos, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, icons, beliefs, thoughts, ideas, ways of making pots or of building arches etc. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leading from body to body via sperm or eggs, so Memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process, which in broad sense can be called imitation. 

“Memes should be regarded as living structures, not just metaphorically but technically. When you plant a fertile meme in my mind, you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme’s propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell”

Like genes, memes also vary in their fitness level to survive in the human intellectual and cultural environments. Some fashion memes are short lived, whereas some memes such as religious concepts survive for generations. Memes can also be defined as “contagious information pattern that replicates by parasitically infecting human minds and altering their behavior, causing them to propagate the pattern.

According to Dawkins’ memetic theory successful memes will survive and procreate while failed memes will become extinct like genes. “Faith in God” is one of the most successful Memes that survived thousands of years of cultural evolution that resulted in several religious concepts that became part of human cultural ethos.

Another example for a very successful meme is “wearing clothes”. Our prehistoric ancestors discovered the benefits of “wearing clothes” compared to “living naked”. So meme of “living naked” had failed and almost become extinct. 

This implies that our present culture itself is a product of successful memes. We can never be sure whether all the contemporary memes will remain successful and survive in the future. Man is the sum of genetic and memetic properties. Darwin’s evolution theory and Dawkins’ meme theory combined together can explain all aspects of human behaviour.

The above thesis proposed by Dawkins, a respectable Evolution Biologist, was quite refreshing but extremely bold, and academically challenging for accommodating it within the conventional Darwinian framework and hence was rejected by many geneticists as ‘pseudo-science. But many others argue that Memetics is rather a complementary concept to the theory of evolution than a conflicting one. Interestingly most of the proponents of Lamarckian theory seem to have no hesitation in adapting Meme theory.

Dawkins’ theory proposes two metaphors for the Meme – Meme as Gene and Meme as Virus. I think the Internet Meme works as a virus.

Internet Meme as a mind virus

Internet Meme is an extension of the concept to the cyber world. The phrase Internet Meme is defined in Wikipedia as “A term used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads in a faddish way from person to person via the Internet”.

Like a “meme” procreates and propagate through the cultural ethos of humanity an Internet meme spreads through the Web, using the methods available such as e-mail, blogs, forums, social networking sites, file sharing sites, instant messaging etc. Internet memes may evolve by mutation through adaptations, imitations, parodies etc.

Many a time it is inexplicable why some of the memes become extremely popular and survive; and why some others die out soon. Sometimes even the rumours and hoaxes spread through the Internet get embedded in the pop culture and attain the memetic status.

The Internet Meme, in its true sense, has the dangerous potential to infect the human minds with Meme virus. The replication strategy by oft-repeated slogans and catch-phrases could be so effective in causing chaos in the memetic ecosystem.

The recent panic due to a sense of insecurity felt by the people of North East, living in other regions of India is an example of memetic virus epidemic.

On a positive note, the concept of Internet-meme could also be used in a different way, and already is being applied in diverse fields such as marketing.

As on today, Internet Meme is a grossly misunderstood concept. The concept itself has spread across the Internet as a Meme, undergoing several levels of mutations and as a result, the Meme as conceived by Richard Dawkins and the so-called Internet-Meme (in most cases) seem to be two different things.

Coming back to the original question - 

“Is Kolaveri an Internet Meme?”  I am not too sure.

The Little Boy and the Fat Man

 At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945, time stopped forever for 70,000 people belonged to the Hiroshima city of Japan. Another 100,000 people died by the end of that year.

Hiroshima city was the main target for the atomic bombing mission of the American air force and Nagasaki was the alternative target. Colonel Tibbets was the commanding pilot of the B-29 bomber aircraft named “Enola Gay” which was designated for the fateful mission to deliver the atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

Early warning radars in Japan had detected the fast approaching aircrafts and had given a warning to the people to go to the air-raid shelters a soon as the planes were sighted.  This was a routine alert and nobody in their wildest dreams would have imagined that within sixty minutes they were going to face the worst ever man-made destruction and that the event would change the history of the world for ever.

At 7:31 the first B-29 bomber was sighted and it flew over the city at 32,000 feet and after sending a message to “Enola Gay” that the weather was clear over the target, it turned out to sea and vanished. “All clear” siren was sounded in the city and the people heaved a sigh of relief. Colonel started his bombing mission and exactly at 8.15AM the bomb known as the “Little Boy” was released. (The code name of that bomb was “Little Boy” and the code name of the bomb released over Nagasaki after three days was “Fat Man”).

The little boy had a fission material of 64 kilograms of Uranium-235. By the time it reached the detonation height of nearly 2000 feet and got exploded, Colonel Tibbs had travelled 18.5 kilometres away from Hiroshima and still he could feel the shockwaves.

The little boy was responsible for the gruesome death of thousands of innocent people including many “little boys and girls”

By the blast, more than 70,000 people were instantaneously killed and another 70,000 were injured. More than 90% of the medical personnel were killed. Entire downtown of the city was wiped out. Hiroshima city was totally cut off from the rest of the country, and all communication systems were completely dead. An officer from the headquarters flew to Hiroshima to investigate what had happened. He was shocked to witness the unimaginable destruction. He reported the terrible news to the headquarters and relief measures were started getting organized.

Japanese media announced to the outside world that “Practically all living things, human and animals were literally seared to death”

Apart from the immediate casualties, the delayed effects on those who were exposed to the radiation, especially children, included the development of Cancer and other medical problems. The foetus of many pregnant mothers had suffered brain damage. Several children born to the survivors had genetic defects and other problems.

 

No More Hiroshimas

Hiroshima is a city that stands as a symbol of human destruction and also as a beacon of hope and peace. I visited Hiroshima on 30^th September 1993 along with a multi-national group of trainees undergoing some technological training in Japan.

We visited Hiroshima Memorial Park, which consisted of various structures in memory of the atomic holocaust. In the middle of the park there was a monument that holds a cenotaph of all the people died in the bombing of Hiroshima. The “cenotaph” is defined as a “memorial built to honour people whose remains are interred elsewhere or whose remains could not be recovered”.

 

One of the important structures was the “Hiroshima Peace Museum”. Inside the museum the relics of the atomic holocaust were preserved – shredded school uniforms of innocent children, their lunch boxes with carbonized contents, charred remains of people and their belongings etc.  At the time of blast a man was sitting on the steps of the entrance of Sumitomo Bank 250 metres from the “Ground Zero”. His shadow was permanently imprinted on the stone by the intense heat. This stone kept in the museum had become known as the “stone of a human shadow”

There was a model of the destroyed city made with remarkable details, from the available photographs. There is also the well-known and intimidating picture of the giant mushroom cloud raising smoke and debris over the city. The ghastly spectacle of the ultimate human misery unfolded beneath the mushroom cloud was too much for any sensitive person could bear. It was so shocking and depressing that I hurriedly finished seeing the exhibits and came out. My hand was trembling when I tried to write my impressions in the visitors’ book kept there.

There was a domed building near the epicentre of the bomb explosion, the remains of which were preserved in the same way as it was on the day of the holocaust after the bombing. This building had become the most famous symbol of the attack on humanity by nuclear weapons. On the wall of that building there was a plaque and the engraving on it said that the ruin is “preserved to symbolize our wish that there may be No More Hiroshimas”

Arthur Koestler in his book “Janus: a summing up” writes as follows: “If I were asked to name the most important date in the history and prehistory of the human race, I would answer without hesitation, 6^th August 1945. From the dawn of consciousness until 6^th August 1945, man had to live with the prospect of his death as an individual; since the day when the first atomic bomb outshone the sun over Hiroshima, mankind as a whole has had to live with the prospect of its extinction as a species”