Who Knew?

Africa goes cell.

 

The latest issue of The Rotarian Magazine (March 2012) has a nifty feature by Frank Bures about the amazing increase in cell phone use in sub-Saharan countries.  Despite a litany of near perpetual problems in the various countries, the upsurge in access and use of cell phones and associated applications heralds, in my mind, a significant movement towards freedom and prosperity.  There’s no downside, really, to communication.  And the more instant (and low cost) the better.  Here’s a table Bures cites:

Percentage of adults who own cell phones:

South Africa               84%

Nigeria                       71%

Botswana                    62%

Ghana                          59%

Kenya                          56%

Uganda                        52%

Senegal                       46%

Zimbabwe                   44%

Cameroun                   43%

Sierra Leone               37%

Tanzania                      35%

Chad                          32%

Liberia                        22%

Mali                            21%

Burkina Faso              19%

Niger                          18%

Central African

Republic                     16%

Communication is more than “reading” “speaking” and language.  I think of a remark made the other day by an amazed great-grandmother at her great-grandtodler’s  preference for “playing” with his parent’s cell phone rather than the assortment of toys provided.  “I know he can’t read,” she noted, “but he can sure tell what  the buttons and things mean on the phone, he can go back and forth on the internet, find games…”  In a word:  Hardwired.  The new arrivals are fully prepared for a new era of communication.  And, as is shown here, even the older folks are catching up.

C’est bon.

A Bridge, A Tavern, A Legacy.

You know time’s zipping around when you walk into the first ever Walmart Super Store (Rogers, Arkansas) and note how “old” it seems.  We spent a couple of days recently in Northwest Arkansas (thanks to I-540, beginning in Ft. Smith, it’s a doable 6 ½ hours from Bossier City) to pay homage to Walmart and the simple but effective philosophy of Sam Walton.

The original Walton's 5 & 10 store in Bentonville is now the official Walmart Visitor’s Center and museum.  Artifact rich and telling an interesting story, the museum is U.S. of American to the core.  I mean, presidential museums often display the presidential vehicle.  In Bentonville you’ll find Sam’s Ford Truck on display (who needs a limousine to carry the dogs hunting?)

Not far from downtown is the reason for the journey – the just opened Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  The Walmart gift to America.   This is a world class display of art about American and art by Americans.  I was expecting to be impressed.  It was more like my one and only (and brief at that) visit to the Louvre – breathtaking.  The galleries bridge a central lake and move from Eighteenth century art to contemporary.  Being a history guy, the earliest works are my favorite.  Favorite in the sense that  the images that have illustrated so many history books, documentaries, and articles are now on the wall eighteen inches in front of me.  (There are no barriers, just a caution not to get closer than eighteen inches.  No gum chewing, either.)

Upon entering Charles W. Peale’s portrait of Washington greets me. 

Guiseppe Ceracchi - Alexander Hamilton

Awesome.  But that’s a tease.  The works never cease - 400 plus over three centuries.

John Chapman - David Crockett

The atmosphere is relaxed, at ease, and curious.

Norman Rockwell - Rosie the Riveter

Gilbert Stuart - George Washington

Hiram Powers - Proserpine

This is only a sample.  There's three hundred years of art to explore.  A return trip is in order.  (Photos by the author do not do justice to the works!  But, sans flash, photographs are welcome.)

Since we were so close, half-a-day was set aside to learn more about the important Civil War battle at Pea Ridge near the Missouri border.  The March, 1862 fight was a near-run thing (as Wellington said, earlier) and the Union victory kept Missouri in the Union and much of Arkansas occupied.  The National Military Park is impressive – virtually the entire battle field is public land.  A seven mile road tours the pivotal points – the overlook of the field (bad news for exhausted confederates sheltering among the big rocks) and the Elkhorn Tavern (astride the telegraph road both sides wanted).

Grand view of the battlefield.  Union artillery tore up hunkered Confederates among these rocks.

Neither a ghost, nor a Reinactor.   Is yours truly.

Elkhorn Tavern from the road the Confederates charged.

 Well worth the trip.

Adventures in Thinking!

The Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling's Dan J. Talley Memorial Institute will present Adventures in Thinking Friday, March 9, 2012 at the Broadmoor branch of the Shreve Memorial Library.  The presentation, by yours truly, begins at 10:00 am and runs about ninety minutes.  Everyone is welcome and there is no charge.  Anyone who needs CEU's can register in advance for a small fee (email address on the flyer.)

No matter who you are, what you do, where you come from, or where you’re going, you think.  From the moment of birth you’re processing the energy fields around you.  Soon you’re able to distinguish your specific niche in the thought process.  You learn how to direct your thinking.  That never stops.  The knack is managing thinking to create a better life – right now.

Before anything is the thought.  Although self-evident, many people can become so wrapped up in their immediate environment that they’re unaware of this fundamental order.  The thought comes first.  The condition, thing, action, or situation follows the thought in time.

This workshop takes a look at some historical concepts regarding thinking and suggests a contemporary application – reducing complaining.  Now that can be exciting!

Problems? "We ain't got no stinkin' problems..."

Indeed, a picture is worth a thousand works.  Real time video of unprecedented natural disaster is beyond words - it is a shift in perspective.  Thanks to our digital age, we are able to benefit - in a perspective and appreciative manner - from the terror these folks experienced.  It'll take a few moments and gets scary.  Hollywood could not do this.