Lamp & Shadow

Eminence

Blame

Nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

A much-anticipated report out of George Washington University Tuesday shows that Hurricane Maria resulted in 2,975 excess Puerto Rican deaths in the six months following the storm’s landfall.

This latest death toll, gathered by a team of independent researchers, is more than twice the rate of what the Puerto Rican government admitted to earlier this month. It’s also an incredible increase from the earliest official estimate of 64 deaths, showing how the island’s devastation may have been underestimated for months after the storm hit shores last September, while Americans there languished

The study is based on mortality data that compares deaths from September 2017 to February 2018 to years prior, according to the Washington Post. Puerto Rico’s governor commissioned the George Washington University report in February after advocates decried the initial death toll estimate as egregiously low.

Ahead of the hurricane, the researchers wrote that communication plans between federal and first-responder agencies and were not coordinated and led to “inoperable and disconnected emergency plans.”

“Overall, we estimate that 40 percent of municipalities experienced significantly higher mortality in the study period than in the comparable period of the previous two years,” the researchers wrote.

A much-anticipated report out of George Washington University Tuesday shows that Hurricane Maria resulted in 2,975 excess Puerto Rican deaths in the six months following the storm’s landfall.

This latest death toll, gathered by a team of independent researchers, is more than twice the rate of what the Puerto Rican government admitted to earlier this month. It’s also an incredible increase from the earliest official estimate of 64 deaths, showing how the island’s devastation may have been underestimated for months after the storm hit shores last September, while Americans there languished.

The study is based on mortality data that compares deaths from September 2017 to February 2018 to years prior, according to the Washington Post. Puerto Rico’s governor commissioned the George Washington University report in February after advocates decried the initial death toll estimate as egregiously low.

Ahead of the hurricane, the researchers wrote that communication plans between federal and first-responder agencies and were not coordinated and led to “inoperable and disconnected emergency plans.”

“Overall, we estimate that 40 percent of municipalities experienced significantly higher mortality in the study period than in the comparable period of the previous two years,” the researchers wrote.

The latest death toll is still lower than what Harvard University researchers estimated in May, at 4,645 deaths, although that study included things like shuttered hospitals and interrupted health care.

At the time Puerto Rico’s more recent estimate of 1427 deaths was made public, officials there were requesting $139 billion in aid from legislators to fix the various ills that have plagued the island for nearly a year.

Cover image: A demonstrator places a candle next to empty pairs of shoes displayed outside the Capital building during a protest against the government's reporting of the death toll from Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Friday, June 1, 2018. (Photo: Xavier Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Goodbye Windows

Roberto raced across the station house to the glass windows facing the platform. He climbed onto the wooden bench set against the windows and pressed his wind burned face to the glass. The warmth of his breath formed a small circle of fog on the cold window.

“Roberto!”

“Si Mama?” Robert

o turned from the windows to see his Mama and Grandmother, Abuela he called her, stroll slowly in from the cold outside to the frigid stale air of the station house.

“Don’t leave me like that,” said Mama. “Get down from there. You’re not supposed to be up there.”

“Aye. Se quiere ver el tren,” said his Grandmother. “Dejarlo, Sylvia.”

“I want to see the fast train go by,” Roberto said to his Mama. “I want to see all the people get on so I can wave good-bye to them. Just like I’ll wave to you, Mama, when you go to work in the city.”

Roberto reached for his Mama. She caught him in her arms as he leaned forward off the bench to fill her embrace and lay his head on her shoulders. Her body was warm despite the cold room they stood in. Roberto looked around at the old wood house. The thin walls, washed lightly in white paint that cracked and flaked to the floor where it stained the concrete like white chalk across a chalkboard, did nothing to protect them against the cold. The used furniture provided little comfort. He could smell the coffee and sugar pastries that were sold on a cart across the room from the windows, that was the only source of warmth in the room beyond ones own body heat.

All around he could see people that were friends. Just as Mama did every Monday morning, their friends traveled to the city for the week to be near their jobs. Like Mama two years ago, they had journeyed here, north into the mountains outside of the city for a false promise of work the government had made. After settling down to live and work in the mountains, and unable to get back into the low income housing projects they had left behind, they stayed in the mountains and traveled back to the city for work.

A distant bell rang out in urgency. Just as urgently, Roberto stepped back from his Mama onto the bench and knelt down to look out the windows. Roberto looked to his left in the direction of the bell. There was the curious little sound of track metal clanking lightly like chimes, the frost on the train tracks shimmering. Suddenly the heavy winter coats of passengers waiting on the platform began to unfurl in a growing wind. Hats blew off. Scarves quivered furiously. People on the platform dashed for the safety of the station house, and then stood back to face the windows. The sound of thunder, like the sound of a thousand horses stampeding, shook the wretched little station house. The aging paper-thin walls rattled, as if in fear. White paint flaked down to the ground. Everyone stood in anticipation of what was about to occur.

Roberto pressed his little face against the window. Passengers still out on the platform turned away from the tracks looking toward the station house and stood vigilant against the growing thrust of wind.

All at once, the giant engine of iron exploded into view. Nothing but its dark mass filled all you could see from the station house or platform. The wall of air that had developed before it blew all the doors open. The heat of it’s passing breath filled the station house. You could smell the cold air burning, quickly warming everyone at once.

The pounding of the metal wheels against the tracks seemed to go on forever as car after car of the express train roared passed them. Roberto stared at the people on the platform. Their faces contorted and frozen in reaction to the wind and noise from the train as it passed.

The final car snapped by in a blur. Roberto turned his head right, his left cheek pressed against the warm window glass, staring in amazement at the train as it sped away and disappeared from sight. He turned to his Mama with a smile.

Mama smiled back and said, “Every time Roberto. Every time the same thing.”

“Va ser un ‘conductor’,” said Grandmother and chuckled.

Roberto turned back to the windows as everyone who had rushed into the station house returned to the platform. Then just as before, though less sudden, the tracks clanked even lighter, the wind barely rushed upon them but no one hurried into the station house, as another iron diesel engine lumbered along the tracks. There wasn’t any hot breath from its fire filling the station house as it slowly filled the view from the windows and stopped at the station. Just the bellowing sound of its engine rattled the wooden bench and tickled Roberto’s kneecaps.

“Give me ‘un beso’, Roberto,” said Mama. She leaned over to him as he turned and stood up on the bench. His little arms wrapped around her neck. He kissed her on the cheek. Mama patted his back and kissed him behind his ear.

“Te veo Mommy,” said Mama to Grandmother, kissing her wrinkled forehead.

Roberto watched Mama pick up her small worn yellow suitcase and rush along with the rest of the people to board the train. The train hissed and moaned as it settled down on the tracks and blew steam from its underside. Roberto looked through the windows of the station house, running from one end of the bench to the other, watching the darkened windows for a sign of Mama. Other faces appeared in the windows. Some he knew, others he didn’t. To all he waved hearty good-bye’s, and they all waved back at him.

Mama’s face suddenly appeared in a window at the far end of the car she had boarded. She didn’t seem to acknowledge him when he waved.

“Mama,” called Roberto. He flailed his arms hoping she would see him. Still she didn’t wave back. “Mama!”

Then she waved.

“Abuela! She sees me,” Roberto called to his grandmother. “She sees me, Abuela!”

Mama waved her arm, her head turned in the direction of the station house, though their eyes never met.

The train whistle blew. The engine hissed and blew steam that covered the platform. The train lurched forward in sudden fits of seizure, then slipped into a regular rhythm and cruised on. The steam from the engine dissipated as the train pulled away.

Roberto waved until the train was out of sight. He stood with his arms at his sides. One day, Roberto knew, he would take a trip as everyone else did, into the city. To see where he had been born. To see the cousins Mama tells him so much about, to travel like everyone else. So that one day he could look from the train and see another little boy waving good-bye to him through the windows of the station house. Then he would wave back and smile.

His grandmother took him by the arm and helped him down off the bench. They walked out of the empty station house together and into the cold mountain air.

The Odyssey Continues

I saw it again...  2001: A Space Odyssey....

So far a couple of hundred times and of late finally in IMAX for the first time and in a theatrical venue where where my wife and I could see and analyse it as well...and so I did...

Dave Bowman brings the new AE-35 unit to replace a failed unit and in a reverse shot after Bowman places the new unit on a mag-hold pad while swapping the bad with the good in the reverse shot it becomes obvious neither unit is in the shot and the new unit should be there on the mag-hold pad...

Head of the Table

He's supposed to sit at the head of the table, 
not cook dinner, 
not even serve it 
but make sure the rules are followed, 
that everybody does their part, 
everyone gets their due, 
everyone gets fed... 
He's not the King and don't treat him like one.... 
You want a King, go to Russia..

Archaeologists find evidence of an ancient lost city in Kansas — Los Angeles Times

Archaeologists explore a rural field in Kansas, and a lost city emerges

By David Kelly

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Of all the places to discover a lost city, this pleasing little community seems an unlikely candidate.

There are no vine-covered temples or impenetrable jungles here — just an old-fashioned downtown, a drug store that serves up root beer floats and rambling houses along shady brick lanes.

Yet there's always been something — something just below the surface.

Locals have long scoured fields and river banks for arrowheads and bits of pottery, amassing huge collections. Then there were those murky tales of a sprawling city on the Great Plains and a chief who drank from a goblet of gold.

A few years ago, Donald Blakeslee, an anthropologist and archaeology professor at Wichita State University, began piecing things together. And what he's found has spurred a rethinking of traditional views on the early settlement of the Midwest, while potentially filling a major gap in American history.

Using freshly translated documents written by the Spanish conquistadors more than 400 years ago and an array of high-tech equipment, Blakeslee located what he believes to be the lost city of Etzanoa, home to perhaps 20,000 people between 1450 and 1700.

They lived in thatched, beehive-shaped houses that ran for at least five miles along the bluffs and banks of the Walnut and Arkansas rivers. Blakeslee says the site is the second-largest ancient settlement in the country after Cahokia in Illinois.

On a recent morning, Blakeslee supervised a group of Wichita State students excavating a series of rectangular pits in a local field.

Jeremiah Perkins, 21, brushed dirt from a half-buried black pot.

Others sifted soil over screened boxes, revealing arrowheads, pottery and stone scrapers used to thin buffalo hides.

Blakeslee, 75, became intrigued by Etzanoa after scholars at UC Berkeley retranslated in 2013 the often muddled Spanish accounts of their forays into what is now Kansas. The new versions were more cogent, precise and vivid.

"I thought, 'Wow, their eyewitness descriptions are so clear it's like you were there.' I wanted to see if the archaeology fit their descriptions," he said. "Every single detail matched this place."

Kacie Larsen of Wichita State University shakes dirt through a screened box to see what artifacts may emerge. (David Kelly / For The Times)

Conquistadors are often associated with Mexico, but a thirst for gold drove them into the Midwest as well.

Francisco Vazquez de Coronado came to central Kansas in 1541 chasing stories of a fabulously wealthy nobleman who napped beneath trees festooned with tinkling gold bells. He found no gold, but he did find Native Americans in a collection of settlements he dubbed Quivira.

In 1601, Juan de Oñate led about 70 conquistadors from the Spanish colony of New Mexico into south-central Kansas in search of Quivira in the hopes of finding gold, winning converts for the Catholic Church and extracting tribute for the crown.

According to Spanish records, they ran into a tribe called the Escanxaques, who told of a large city nearby where a Spaniard was allegedly imprisoned. The locals called it Etzanoa.

As the Spaniards drew near, they spied numerous grass houses along the bluffs. A delegation of Etzanoans bearing round corn cakes met them on the river bank. They were described as a sturdy people with gentle dispositions and stripes tattooed from their eyes to their ears. It was a friendly encounter until the conquistadors decided to take hostages. That prompted the entire city to flee.

Oñate's men wandered the empty settlement for two or three days, counting 2,000 houses that held eight to 10 people each. Gardens of pumpkins, corn and sunflowers lay between the homes.

The Spaniards could see more houses in the distance, but they feared an Etzanoan attack and turned back.

That's when they were ambushed by 1,500 Escanxaques. The conquistadors battled them with guns and cannons before finally withdrawing back to New Mexico, never to return.

This bluff overlooks the spot where many believe Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate met a delegation of Etzanoans. (David Kelly / For The Times)

French explorers arrived a century later but found nothing. Disease likely wiped out Etzanoa, leaving it to recede into legend.

Blakeslee enlisted the help of the National Park Service, which used a magnetometer to detect variations in the earth's magnetic field and find features around town that looked like homes, storage pits and places where fires were started.

Then, relying on descriptions from the conquistadors, he discovered what he believes was the battle site in an upscale neighborhood of Arkansas City.

Volunteers using metal detectors found three half-inch iron balls under the field. Blakeslee said they were 17th century Spanish cartridge shot fired from a cannon. A Spanish horseshoe nail was also found.

It all lent credibility to the detailed accounts left by the conquistadors.

The battlefield sits in Warren "Hap" McLeod's backyard.

"It's a great story," he said. "There was a lost city right under our noses."

McLeod, 71, offered a quick tour of the area.

He started at Camp Quaker Haven overlooking the spot where Oñate would have encountered the Etzanoans. McLeod then drove up to the country club, the highest point in the city of roughly 12,500 people.

"Lots of artifacts have been taken from here," McLeod said.

(Los Angeles Times)

In 1994, thousands of relics were unearthed during road construction. In 1959, the renowned archaeologist Waldo Wedel wrote in his classic book, "An Introduction to Kansas Archeology," that the valley floor and bluffs here "were littered with sherds, flints, and other detritus" that went on for miles.

"Now we know why," McLeod said. "There were 20,000 people living here for over 200 years."

Local rancher Jason Smith, 47, said he had seen collections "that would blow your mind."

"Truckloads of stuff," he said. "Worked stone tools, flints. One guy had 100 boxes at his house."

Russell Bishop, 66, worked at the country club as a kid.

"My boss had an entire basement full of pottery and all kinds of artifacts," he recalled. "We'd be out there working and he would recognize a black spot on the ground as an ancient campfire site."

Bishop, who now lives outside Denver, has coffee cans full of arrowheads. He spread some on his counter.

"I don't think anyone knew how big this all was," he said. "I'm glad they're finally getting to the bottom of it."

Kansas State Archaeologist Robert Hoard said that based on the Spanish accounts and the evidence of a large settlement, it's "plausible" that Blakeslee has found Etzanoa.

Still, he would like more evidence.

The early Great Plains had long been imagined as a vast empty space populated by nomadic tribes following buffalo herds. But if Blakeslee is right, at least some of the tribes were urban. They built large towns, raised crops, made fine pottery, processed bison on a massive scale and led a settled existence. There were trade connections all the way to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in Mexico.

"So this was not some remote place. The people traded and lived in huge communities," Blakeslee said. "Everything we thought we knew turns out to be wrong. I think this needs a place in every schoolbook."

And that may just be the beginning. Blakeslee has found archaeological evidence in Rice and McPherson counties for other large settlements extending for miles, which he believes existed around the same time as Etzanoa.

He has published his findings in the peer-reviewed journal Plains Anthropologist, and next spring he will present his evidence for Etzanoa at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A bigger excavation is planned for next summer.

The Wichita Nation, based three hours south in Anadarko, Okla., is watching all of this carefully. Experts believe the Etzanoans were their ancestors.

"The accounts of Oñate and Coronado have been interpreted for years," said Gary McAdams, cultural program planner and historic preservation officer for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, which number about 3,300. "We had a suspicion it was settled like this, but now it's starting to be documented, which makes it feel more real."

In the meantime, Arkansas City is trying to determine how to promote its new claim to fame. Etzanoa remains mostly underground or on private land. Yet that hasn't deterred interest.

"We get about 10 calls a day to see the lost city," said Pamela Crain, director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau. "The vision is to have a visitors center. The other key is to persuade landowners to allow people onto their property."

LEFT: Professor Donald Blakeslee of Wichita State University shows a black pot unearthed by student Jeremiah Perkins, behind him. RIGHT: Russell Bishop still has the arrowheads he collected as a kid in Arkansas City. (David Kelly / For The Times)

Limited tours began last spring, focusing on key historical and archaeological sites. Town leaders are hoping for a UNESCO World Heritage site designation.

Back at the dig site, all eyes were on Jeremiah Perkins as he lifted the hefty black potsherd from the dirt.

Blakeslee dropped into the pit for a closer look. It was the largest artifact of the summer, perhaps 12 inches high.

"That's a nice big cooking pot," he exclaimed.

Yet many mysteries remain about the people of Etzanoa.

"How were they organized? How did they farm the bluffs? How did they maximize bison herds?" Blakeslee asked. "The questions go on and on and on."

And the thought of that made him smile.

Kelly is a special correspondent.

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Donald Trump praises Hispanic border agent for speaking "perfect English"

President Donald Trump paid tribute to the agents and officials charged with protecting the borders and enforcing immigration laws Monday by expressing his gratitude for "CBC," which is not a real agency, and complimenting an immigration official on his "perfect English."

During the "Salute to the Heroes" event at the White House honoring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies, Trump invited a Border Patrol agent to speak about an operation in which he found 78 undocumented immigrants locked inside a tractor-trailer near Laredo, Texas.

"A human smuggler was arrested in Laredo for locking, and really locking, a horrible 78 illegal aliens inside of a trailer. The border patrol agent who caught the accused, and likely really saved many lives, he's here with us, and Adrian — where's Adrian? — Adrian's here with us," Trump said, scanning the crowd.

"Adrian come here, I want to ask you a question," said Trump, who repeatedly stumbled over the proper acronym for Customs and Border Protection throughout his speech. "You're not nervous, are you? Speaks perfect English."

("It's not the speechwriter's fault," Jennifer Jacobs, a reporter for Bloomberg, said on Twitter. "I'm standing next to the teleprompter Trump is reading from in the East Room and it says 'CBP.' But Trump has said 'CBC' over and over.")

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But Trump's question for the agent was simple enough even for a novice English speaker. "How did you feel that there were people in that trailer?" the president asked. The agent thanked Trump and briefly described the operation.

More than 15 percent of the U.S. adult population — about 35 million citizens over the age of 18 — speak a language other than English at home, according to the Washington Post. And the Los Angeles Times noted in an April report that people of Mexican descent are increasingly applying for Border Patrol jobs as the agency ramps up its hiring.

During the speech, Trump also praised the agencies for throwing suspected gang members "the hell out of our country so fast your head would spin."

The event stoked ire from some of Trump's critics, who saw the praise as inappropriate given the thousands of migrant children recently separated from their parents at the border, many of whom are still awaiting reunification.

"Only this White House would give medals for taking thousands of immigrant children from their parents," Tom Jawetz, vice president for immigration policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, told Politico.

President Donald Trump paid tribute to the agents and officials charged with protecting the borders and enforcing immigration laws Monday by expressing his gratitude for "CBC," which is not a real agency, and complimenting an immigration official on his "perfect English." During the "Salute to the Heroes" event at the White House honoring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies, Trump invited a Border Patrol agent to speak about an operation in which he found 78 undocumented immigrants locked inside a tractor-trailer near Laredo, Texas. "A human smuggler was arrested in Laredo for locking, and really locking, a horrible 78 illegal aliens inside of a trailer. The border patrol agent who caught the accused, and likely really saved many lives, he's here with us, and Adrian — where's Adrian? — Adrian's here with us," Trump said, scanning the crowd.

"Adrian come here, I want to ask you a question," said Trump, who repeatedly stumbled over the proper acronym for Customs and Border Protection throughout his speech. "You're not nervous, are you? Speaks perfect English."

("It's not the speechwriter's fault," Jennifer Jacobs, a reporter for Bloomberg, said on Twitter. "I'm standing next to the teleprompter Trump is reading from in the East Room and it says 'CBP.' But Trump has said 'CBC' over and over.")

But Trump's question for the agent was simple enough even for a novice English speaker. "How did you feel that there were people in that trailer?" the president asked. The agent thanked Trump and briefly described the operation.

More than 15 percent of the U.S. adult population — about 35 million citizens over the age of 18 — speak a language other than English at home, according to the Washington Post. And the Los Angeles Times noted in an April report that people of Mexican descent are increasingly applying for Border Patrol jobs as the agency ramps up its hiring. During the speech, Trump also praised the agencies for throwing suspected gang members "the hell out of our country so fast your head would spin." The event stoked ire from some of Trump's critics, who saw the praise as inappropriate given the thousands of migrant children recently separated from their parents at the border, many of whom are still awaiting reunification. "Only this White House would give medals for taking thousands of immigrant children from their parents," Tom Jawetz, vice president for immigration policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, told Politico.

Cover image: Adrian Anzaldua, border patrol agent, speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump listens during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Aug. 20, 2018. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

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Unholy row over Wicker Man screening

Cathedral defends screening The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man depicts human sacrifice inside a giant structure which is set alight

A cathedral has defended its decision to screen two films which include a graphic sex scene, full female nudity and a Pagan sacrifice.

Some Christians believe that showing horror film The Wicker Man and the thriller Don't Look Now at Derby Cathedral is inappropriate.

Wardens from other churches have called for the screenings to be cancelled.

However, the Dean said the films won't be "showing God anything that he hasn't seen before".

"They are actually really powerful stories about faith and doubt and some of the things people wrestle with," the Very Reverend Dr Stephen Hance said.

He added the cathedral was "for everybody" and it needed to serve a wide range of people in Derby.

"The first thing we're trying to do is open the cathedral to new people," he said.

"It doesn't just belong to the people who go to church; it certainly doesn't belong to me; it doesn't just belong to religious people.

"This is Derby's cathedral and it needs to serve the needs of the people of Derby, as wide a range of the people of Derby as we possibly can."

---

Why are people objecting?

It famously includes scenes in which Britt Ekland's character is shown dancing naked, and Edward Woodward's character is burned to death inside a giant wicker man.

Don't Look Now, also from 1973, includes a graphic sex scene which was cut from the film by the BBC when it premiered on television.

Over the decades many observers have suggested that the leading actors, Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, were having unsimulated sex, although Sutherland has always rejected this.

Steve Dunning, a church warden from within the diocese of Derby, said: "I just think it isn't appropriate to show these films in a place of worship that is consecrated and hallowed, and therefore it compromises the spiritual integrity of the cathedral.

"There is also a broader issue in terms of, why does the cathedral need to show films when there are multiplex cinemas in Derby?"

Kristin Simmons, a deputy warden from another church, said: "Derby Cathedral is a reflection of every parish church in Derbyshire.

"Of course the cathedral can and should be open and used for outside events, but they should not be adverse to the Christian perspective; the cathedral is primarily a place of worship.

"One film depicts a human sacrifice of a Christian man who recites Psalm 23 and 'curses' people upon his death, and in the other, the protagonist is employed to restore a church building; it involves séances and communication with the dead and a very explicit sex scene.

"As someone else pointed out to me, Holy Communion will be celebrated nine hours later in the same seats."

---

The films were chosen by Dr Alex Rock from the nearby Quad cinema, who is a member of the congregation himself.

"I have a really good relationship with Derby Cathedral and care about it a lot, and I thought this was a really good opportunity to stimulate discussion around the space itself and to kind of experience the space in a completely different light," he said.

He described the films as "some of the greatest examples of British cinema that have ever been made".

Image copyright Shutterstock

Image caption The Wicker Man is set on a remote island where the inhabitants are practising a form of paganism

"This programme is designed to celebrate the heritage of British cinema in a fantastic heritage space," Dr Rock added.

The films are part of a season of film screenings called Quad in Residence at Derby Cathedral, which begins on 7 September.

Other films include Monty Python's Life of Brian, a religious satire telling the story of a man who is mistaken for Jesus, and which has itself sparked controversy in the past.

Sister Act, in which Whoopi Goldberg's character is forced to join a convent, is also being screened.

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