title: Environmental racism

text: The export of hazardous waste to third world countries is another growing concern. Between 1989 and 1994, an estimated 2,611 metric tons of hazardous waste was exported from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries to non-OECD countries. Two international agreements were passed in response to the growing exportation of hazardous waste into their borders. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was concerned that the Basel Convention adopted in March 1989 did not include a total ban on the trans-boundary movement on hazardous waste. In response to their concerns, on 30 January 1991, the Pan-African Conference on Environmental and Sustainable Development adopted the Bamako Convention banning the import of all hazardous waste into Africa and limiting their movement within the continent. In September 1995, the G-77 nations helped amend the Basel Convention to ban the export of all hazardous waste from industrial countries (mainly OECD countries and Lichtenstein) to other countries. A resolution was signed in 1988 by the OAU which declared toxic waste dumping to be a "crime against Africa and the African people". Soon after, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) passed a resolution that allowed for penalties, such as life imprisonment, to those who were caught dumping toxic wastes.


title: Environmental racism

text: Globalization and the increase in transnational agreements introduce possibilities for cases of environmental racism. For example, the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) attracted US-owned factories to Mexico, where toxic waste was abandoned in the Colonia Chilpancingo community and was not cleaned up until activists called for the Mexican government to clean up the waste.


title: Environmental racism

text: Environmental justice movements have grown to become an important part of world summits. This issue is gathering attention and features a wide array of people, workers, and levels of society that are working together. Concerns about globalization can bring together a wide range of stakeholders including workers, academics, and community leaders for whom increased industrial development is a common denominator".


title: Environmental racism

text: Many policies can be expounded based on the state of human welfare. This occurs because environmental justice is aimed at creating safe, fair, and equal opportunity for communities and to ensure things like redlining do not occur. With all of these unique elements in mind, there are serious ramifications for policy makers to consider when they make decisions.


title: Environmental racism

text: From 1956 to 2006, up to 1.5 million tons of oil were spilled in the Niger Delta, (50 times the volume spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster). Indigenous people in the region have suffered the loss of their livelihoods as a result of these environmental issues, and they have received no benefits in return for enormous oil revenues extracted from their lands. Environmental conflicts have exacerbated ongoing conflict in the Niger Delta.


title: Environmental racism

text: Ogoni people, who are indigenous to Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region have protested the disastrous environmental and economic effects of Shell Oil's drilling and denounced human rights abuses by the Nigerian government and by Shell. Their international appeal intensified dramatically after the execution in 1995 of nine Ogoni activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was a founder of the nonviolent Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).


title: Environmental racism

text: The linkages between the mining industry and the negative impacts it has on community and individual health has been studied and well-documented by a number of organizations worldwide. Health implications of living in proximity to mining operations include effects such as pregnancy complications, mental health issues, various forms of cancer, and many more. During the Apartheid period in South Africa, the mining industry grew quite rapidly as a result of the lack of environmental regulation. Communities in which mining corporations operate are usually those with high rates of poverty and unemployment. Further, within these communities, there is typically a divide among the citizens on the issue of whether the pros of mining in terms of economic opportunity outweigh the cons in terms of the health of the people in the community. Mining companies often try to use these disagreements to their advantage by magnifying this conflict. Additionally, mining companies in South Africa have close ties with the national government, skewing the balance of power in their favor while simultaneously excluding local people from many decision-making processes. This legacy of exclusion has had lasting effects in the form of impoverished South Africans bearing the brunt of ecological impacts resulting from the actions of, for example, mining companies. Some argue that to effectively fight environmental racism and achieve some semblance of justice, there must also be a reckoning with the factors that form situations of environmental racism such as rooted and institutionalized mechanisms of power, social relations, and cultural elements.


title: Environmental racism

text: The term "energy poverty" is used to refer to "a lack of access to adequate, reliable, affordable and clean energy carriers and technologies for meeting energy service needs for cooking and those activities enabled by electricity to support economic and human development". Numerous communities in South Africa face some sort of energy poverty. South African women are typically in charge of taking care of both the home and the community as a whole. Those in economically impoverished areas not only have to take on this responsibility, but there are numerous other challenges they face. Discrimination on the basis of gender, race, and class are all still present in South African culture. Because of this, women, who are the primary users of public resources in their work at home and for the community, are often excluded from any decision-making about control and access to public resources. The resulting energy poverty forces women to use sources of energy that are expensive and may be harmful both to their own health and that of the environment. Consequently, several renewable energy initiatives have emerged in South Africa specifically targeting these communities and women to correct this situation.


title: Environmental racism

text: From the mid-1990s until about 2001, it is estimated that some 50 to 80 percent of the electronics collected for recycling in the western half of the United States was being exported for dismantling overseas, predominantly to China and Southeast Asia. This scrap processing is quite profitable and preferred due to an abundant workforce, cheap labour, and lax environmental laws.


title: Environmental racism

text: Guiyu, China, is one of the largest recycling sites for e-waste, where heaps of discarded computer parts rise near the riverbanks and compounds, such as cadmium, copper, lead, PBDEs, contaminate the local water supply. Water samples taken by the Basel Action Network in 2001 from the Lianjiang River contained lead levels 190 times higher than WHO safety standards. Despite contaminated drinking water, residents continue to use contaminated water over expensive trucked-in supplies of drinking water. Nearly 80 percent of children in the e-waste hub of Guiyu, China, suffer from lead poisoning, according to recent reports. Before being used as the destination of electronic waste, most of Guiyu was composed of small farmers who made their living in the agriculture business. However, farming has been abandoned for more lucrative work in scrap electronics. "According to the Western press and both Chinese university and NGO researchers, conditions in these workers' rural villages are so poor that even the primitive electronic scrap industry in Guiyu offers an improvement in income".


title: Environmental racism

text: Researchers have found that as rates of hazardous air pollution increase in China, the public has mobilized to implement measures to curb detrimental impacts. Areas with ethnic minorities and western regions of the country tend to carry disproportionate environmental burdens.


title: Environmental racism

text: Union Carbide Corporation is the parent company of Union Carbide India Limited which outsources its production to an outside country. Located in Bhopal, India, Union Carbide India Limited primarily produced the chemical methyl isocyanate used for pesticide manufacture. On 3 December 1984, a cloud of methyl isocyanate leaked as a result of the toxic chemical mixing with water in the plant in Bhopal. Approximately 520,000 people were exposed to the toxic chemical immediately after the leak. Within the first 3 days after the leak an estimated 8,000 people living within the vicinity of the plant died from exposure to the methyl isocyanate. Some people survived the initial leak from the factory, but due to improper care and improper diagnoses many have died. As a consequence of improper diagnoses, treatment may have been ineffective and this was precipitated by Union Carbide refusing to release all the details regarding the leaked gases and lying about certain important information. The delay in supplying medical aid to the victims of the chemical leak made the situation for the survivors even worse. Many today are still experiencing the negative health impacts of the methyl isocyanate leak, such as lung fibrosis, impaired vision, tuberculosis, neurological disorders, and severe body pains.


title: Environmental racism

text: The operations and maintenance of the factory in Bhopal contributed to the hazardous chemical leak. The storage of huge volumes of methyl isocyanate in a densely inhabited area, was in contravention with company policies strictly practiced in other plants. The company ignored protests that they were holding too much of the dangerous chemical for one plant and built large tanks to hold it in a crowded community. Methyl isocyanate must be stored at extremely low temperatures, but the company cut expenses to the air conditioning system leading to less than optimal conditions for the chemical. Additionally, Union Carbide India Limited never created disaster management plans for the surrounding community around the factory in the event of a leak or spill. State authorities were in the pocket of the company and therefore did not pay attention to company practices or implementation of the law. The company also cut down on preventive maintenance staff to save money.


title: Environmental racism

text: Predominantly living in Central and Eastern Europe, with pockets of communities in the Americas and Middle East, the ethnic Romani people have been subjected to environmental exclusion. Often referred to as gypsies or the gypsy threat, the Romani people of Eastern Europe mostly live under the poverty line in shanty towns or slums. Facing issues such as long term exposure to harmful toxins given their locations to waste dumps and industrial plants, along with being refused environmental assistance like clean water and sanitation, the Romani people have been facing racism via environmental means. Many countries such has Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary have tried to implement environmental protection initiatives across their respected countries, however most have failed due to "addressing the conditions of Roma communities have been framed through an ethnic lens as "Roma issues". Only recently has some form of environmental justice for the Romani people come to light. Seeking environmental justice in Europe, the Environmental Justice Program is now working with human rights organizations to help fight environmental racism.


title: Environmental racism

text: It is important to note that in the "Discrimination in the EU in 2009" report, conducted by the European Commission, "64% of citizens with Roma friends believe discrimination is widespread, compared to 61% of citizens without Roma friends."


title: Environmental racism

text: Exporting toxic wastes to countries in the Global South is one form of environmental racism that occurs on an international basis. In one alleged instance, the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau was prohibited from entering Alang, an Indian ship-breaking yard, due to a lack of clear documentation about its toxic contents. French President Jacques Chirac ultimately ordered the carrier, which contained tons of hazardous materials including asbestos and PCBs, to return to France.


title: Environmental racism

text: In the UK environmental racism (or also climate racism) has been called out by multiple action groups such as the Wretched of the Earth call out letter in 2015 and Black Lives Matter in 2016.


title: Environmental racism

text: In Canada, progress is being made to address environmental racism (especially in Nova Scotia's Africville community) with the passing of Bill 111, An Act to Address Environmental Racism in the Nova Scotia Legislature. Still, however, indigenous communities such as the Aamjiwnaang First Nation continue to be harmed by pollution from the Canadian chemical industry centered in Southeast Ontario.


title: Environmental racism

text: Forty percent of Canada's petrochemical industry is packed into a 15-square mile radius of Sarnia, Ontario. The population is predominantly indigenous, where the Aamjiwnaang reservation houses around 850 First Nation individuals. Since 2002, coalitions of indigenous individuals have fought the disproportionate concentration of pollution in their neighborhood.


title: Environmental racism

text: Environmental racism affects particularly women and especially Indigenous women and women of color. Many of these communities reside in rural areas rich in natural resources that are very attractive to extractive industries. These effects not only pollute the environment but also have detrimental effects on both physical and mental health. Many of these extractive industries such as oil and gas and mining have caused pollution to water sources, food sources as well as effects in air quality. This has started to affect people's bodies, especially those of women. This is because the toxins and poisons from extractive industries affect women's reproductive organs, can cause cancer as well as the health of their children. The harms of this activity last through generations in these communities, for example in the Indigenous community of Grassy Narrows in Northern Ontario, they are still dealing with health effects from high mercury levels that have affected drinking water and fish in the region that occurred from a spill in the 1960s.


title: Environmental racism

text: It is not just the pollution that affects women but also social changes that extractive industries bring. For example, in small communities that have extractive industries the rate of domestic violence is significantly higher due to the fact that there is an influx of single men that arrive in the community. This overall can create toxic home lives that can lead to substance abuse as a coping mechanism, which also creates more fatalities and abuse. These worker camps have also contributed to the disproportionate amount of missing and murdered Indigenous women across North America. The consequences of extractive industries also disproportionately effect transgender, Two-Spirit and other members of the LGBTQ+ community. However, most of the adverse health issues befall the workers of the extractive industries themselves, triggering various societal vicious cycles.


title: Environmental racism

text: On 19 November 1984, the San Juanico disaster caused thousands of deaths and roughly a million injuries in poor surrounding neighborhoods. The disaster occurred at the PEMEX liquid propane gas plant in a densely populated area of Mexico City. The close proximity of illegally built houses that did not meet regulations worsened the effects of the explosion.


title: Environmental racism

text: The Cucapá are a group of indigenous people that live near the U.S.-Mexico border, mainly in Mexico but some in Arizona as well. For many generations, fishing on the Colorado River was the Cucapá's main means of subsistence. In 1944, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty that effectively awarded the United States rights to about 90% of the water in the Colorado River, leaving Mexico with the remaining 10%. Over the last few decades, the Colorado River has mostly dried up south of the border, presenting many challenges for people such as the Cucapá. Shaylih Meuhlmann, author of the ethnography "Where the River Ends: Contested Indigeneity in the Mexican Colorado Delta," gives a first-hand account of the situation from Meuhlmann's point of view as well as many accounts from the Cucapá themselves. In addition to the Mexican portion of the Colorado River being left with a small fraction of the overall available water, the Cucapá are stripped of the right to fish on the river, the act being made illegal by the Mexican government in the interest of preserving the river's ecological health. The Cucapá are, thus, living without access to sufficient natural sources of freshwater as well as without their usual means of subsistence. The conclusion drawn in many such cases is that the negotiated water rights under the US-Mexican treaty that lead to the massive disparity in water allotments between the two countries boils down to environmental racism.


title: Environmental racism

text: 1,900 maquiladoras are found near the US-Mexico border. Maquiladoras are companies that are usually owned by foreign entities and import raw materials, pay workers in Mexico to assemble them, and ship the finish products overseas to be sold. While Maquiladoras provide jobs, they often pay very little. These plants also bring pollution to rural Mexican towns, creating health impacts for the poor families that live nearby.


title: Environmental racism

text: In Mexico, industrial extraction of oil, mining, and gas, as well as the mass removal of slowly renewable resources such as aquatic life, forests, and crops. Legally, the state owns natural resources, but is able to grant concessions to industry through the form of taxes paid. In recent decades, a shift towards refocusing these tax dollars accumulated on the communities most impacted by the health, social, and economic impacts of extractivism has taken place. However, many indigenous and rural community leaders argue that they ought to consent to companies extracting and polluting their resources, rather than be paid reparations after the fact.


title: Environmental racism

text: The US Government Accountability Office study in response to the 1982 protests against the PCB landfill in Warren County was among the first groundbreaking studies that drew correlations between the racial and economic background of communities and the location of hazardous waste facilities. However, the study was limited in scope by only focusing on off-site hazardous waste landfills in the Southeastern United States. In response to this limitation the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice (CRJ) directed a comprehensive national study on demographic patterns associated with the location of hazardous waste sites.


title: Environmental racism

text: The CRJ national study conducted two examinations of areas surrounding commercial hazardous waste facilities and the location of uncontrolled toxic waste sites. The first study examined the association between race and socio-economic status and the location of commercial hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. After statistical analysis, the first study concluded that "the percentage of community residents that belonged to a racial or ethnic group was a stronger predictor of the level of commercial hazardous waste activity than was household income, the value of the homes, the number of uncontrolled waste sites, or the estimated amount of hazardous wastes generated by industry". The second study examined the presence of uncontrolled toxic waste sites in ethnic and racial minority communities, and found that 3 out of every 5 African and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled waste sites. Other studies found race to be the most influential variable in predicting where waste facilities were located.


title: Environmental racism

text: The accumulation of studies and reports on cases of environmental racism garnered increased public attention. Eventually this led to President Bill Clinton's 1994 Executive Order 12898 which directed agencies to develop a strategy to manage environmental justice, but not every federal agency has fulfilled this order to date.


title: Environmental racism

text: As a result of the placement of hazardous waste facilities, minority populations experience greater exposure to harmful chemicals and suffer from health outcomes that affect their ability at work and in schools. A comprehensive study of particulate emissions across the United States, published in 2018, found that Black people were exposed to 54% more particulate matter emissions (soot) than the average American. Faber and Krieg found a correlation between higher air pollution exposure and low performance in schools and found that 92% of children at five Los Angeles public schools with the poorest air quality were of a minority background. School systems for communities heavily populated with minority families tend to provide "unequal educational opportunities" in comparison to school systems in predominantly white neighborhoods. Pollution consequently presents itself in these communities due to societal factors such as "underfunded schools, income inequality, and myriad egregious denials of institutional support" within the African American community. In a study supporting the term of environmental racism, it was shown in the American Mid-Atlantic and American North-East that African Americans were exposed to 61% of particulate matter, while Latinos were exposed to 75%, and Asians were exposed to 73%. Overall, these populations experience 66% more pollution exposure from particulate matter than the white population.


title: Environmental racism

text: There are specific examples of environmental racism across the US, and environmental racism is often engrained in day-to-day work and living conditions. Notable examples of environmental racism from the US are the Dakota Access Pipeline (ND), the Flint water crisis (MI), cancer alley (LA), and government response to natural disasters like hurricane Katrina (LA).


title: Environmental racism

text: Overall, the US has worked to reduce environmental racism with municipality changes. These policies help develop further change. Some cities and counties have taken advantage of environmental justice policies and applied it to the public health sector.


title: Environmental racism

text: Native scholars have discussed whether the concept of Environmental Justice make sense in the context of Native Americans and settler colonialism. This is because Native Americans' legal status differs from other marginalized peoples in the United States. As such, Colville scholar Dina Gilio-Whitaker explains that "because Indigenous peoples' relationships to the state (i.e. the United States) are different than those of ethnic minorities, environmental justice must exceed equality and be able to live up to the concepts of tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, and government-to-government relationships."


title: Environmental racism

text: Gilio-Whitaker further argues that the Distributive justice model that EJ is based on is not helpful to Native communities, as "Frameworks for EJ in non-Native communities that rely on distributive justice are built on capitalistic American values of land as commodity — i.e. private property — on lands that were expropriated from Native peoples." In contrast, Native peoples have very different relationships to land beyond the modes of land as commodity.


title: Environmental racism

text: Indigenous studies scholars have argued that Environmental Racism, however, began in the United States with the arrival of settler colonialism. Potawatomi philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte and Lower Brule Sioux historian Nick Estes explain that Native peoples have already lived through one environmental apocalypse: the coming of colonialism. Métis geographer Zoe Todd and academic Heather Davis have also argued that settler colonialism is "responsible for contemporary environmental crisis." In this way, it has been shown that climate change has been weaponized against Indigenous American peoples, as founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin deforested the Americas and welcomed warmer weather that they thought would displace Native peoples and enrich the United States. Thus, "the United States, from its birth, played a key role in causing catastrophic environmental change." Whyte explains further that "Anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change is an intensification of environmental change imposed on Indigenous peoples by colonialism." Anishinaabe scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson has also argued that "We should be thinking of climate change as part of a much longer series of ecological catastrophes caused by colonialism and accumulation-based society."


title: Environmental racism

text: The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Trail of Tears may also be considered early examples of environmental racism in the United States. As a result of the former, by 1850, all tribes east of the Mississippi had been removed to western lands, essentially confining them to "lands that were too dry, remote, or barren to attract the attention of settlers and corporations." During World War II, military facilities were often located conterminous to reservations, leading to a situation in which "a disproportionate number of the most dangerous military facilities are located near Native American lands." A study analyzing the approximately 3,100 counties in the continental United States found that Native American lands are positively associated with the count of sites with unexploded ordnance deemed extremely dangerous. The study also found that the risk assessment code (RAC) used to measure dangerousness of sites with unexploded ordnance can sometimes conceal how much of a threat these sites are to Native Americans. The hazard probability, or probability that a hazard will harm people or ecosystems, is sensitive to the proximity of public buildings such as schools and hospitals. These parameters neglect elements of tribal life such as subsistence consumption, ceremonial use of plants and animals, and low population densities. Because these tribal-unique factors are not considered, Native American lands can often receive low-risk scores, despite threat to their way of life. The hazard probability does not take Native Americans into account when considering the people or ecosystems that could be harmed. Locating military facilities coterminous to reservations lead to a situation in which "a disproportionate number of the most dangerous military facilities are located near Native American lands."


title: Environmental racism

text: More recently, Native American lands have been used for waste disposal and illegal dumping by the US and multinational corporations. The International Tribunal of Indigenous People and Oppressed Nations, convened in 1992 to examine the history of criminal activity against indigenous groups in the United States, and published a Significant Bill of Particulars outlining grievances indigenous peoples had with the US. This included allegations that the US "deliberately and systematically permitted, aided, and abetted, solicited and conspired to commit the dumping, transportation, and location of nuclear, toxic, medical, and otherwise hazardous waste materials on Native American territories in North America and has thus created a clear and present danger to the health, safety, and physical and mental well-being of Native American People."


title: Environmental racism

text: The Australian Environmental Justice (AEJ) is a multidisciplinary organization which is closely partnered with Friends of the Earth Australia (FoEA). The AEJ focuses on recording and remedying the effects of environmental injustice throughout Australia. The AEJ has addressed issues which include "production and spread of toxic wastes, pollution of water, soil and air, erosion and ecological damage of landscapes, water systems, plants and animals". The project looks for environmental injustices that disproportionately affect a group of people or impact them in a way they did not agree to.


title: Environmental racism

text: The Western Oil Refinery started operating in Bellevue, Western Australia, in 1954. It was permitted rights to operate in Bellevue by the Australian government in order to refine cheap and localized oil. In the decades following, many residents of Bellevue claimed they felt respiratory burning due to the inhalation of toxic chemicals and nauseating fumes. Lee Bell from Curtin University and Mariann Lloyd-Smith from the National Toxic Network in Australia stated in their article, "Toxic Disputes and the Rise of Environmental Justice in Australia" that "residents living close to the site discovered chemical contamination in the ground- water surfacing in their back yards". Under immense civilian pressure, the Western Oil Refinery (now named Omex) stopped refining oil in 1979. Years later, citizens of Bellevue formed the Bellevue Action Group (BAG) and called for the government to give aid towards the remediation of the site. The government agreed and $6.9 million was allocated to clean up the site. Remediation of site began in April 2000.


title: Environmental racism

text: Starting production in 1972, the Panguna mine in Papua New Guinea has been a source of environmental racism. Although closed since 1989 due to conflict on the island, the indigenous peoples (Bougainvillean) have suffered both economically and environmentally from the creation of the mine. Terrance Wesley-Smith and Eugene Ogan, University of Hawaii and University of Minnesota respectively, stated that the Bougainvillean's "were grossly disadvantaged from the beginning and no subsequent renegotiation has been able to remedy the situation". These indigenous people faced issues such as losing land which could have been used for agricultural practices for the Dapera and Moroni villages, undervalued payment for the land, poor relocation housing for displaced villagers and significant environmental degradation in the surrounding areas.


title: Environmental racism

text: Extracitivism, or the process of humans removing natural, raw resources from land to be used in product manufacturing, can have detrimental environmental and social repercussions. Research analyzing environmental conflicts in four Andean countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) found that conflicts tend to disproportionately affect indigenous populations and those with Afro-descent, and peasant communities. These conflicts can arise as a result of shifting economic patterns, land use policies, and social practices due to extractivist industries.


title: Environmental racism

text: Beginning in the late 15th century when European explorers began sailing to the New World, the violence towards and oppression of indigenous populations have had lasting effects to this day. The Mapuche-Chilean land conflict has roots dating back several centuries. When the Spanish went to conquer parts of South America, the Mapuche were one of the only indigenous groups to successfully resist Spanish domination and maintain their sovereignty. Moving forward, relations between the Mapuche and the Chilean state declined into a condition of malice and resentment. Chile won its independence from Spain in 1818 and, wanting the Mapuche to assimilate into the Chilean state, began crafting harmful legislation that targeted the Mapuche. The Mapuche have based their economy, both historically and presently, on agriculture. By the mid-19th century, the state resorted to outright seizure of Mapuche lands, forcefully appropriating all but 5% of Mapuche lineal lands. An agrarian economy without land essentially meant that the Mapuche no longer had their means of production and subsistence. While some land has since been ceded back to the Mapuche, it is still a fraction of what the Mapuche once owned. Further, as the Chilean state has attempted to rebuild its relationship with the Mapuche community, the connection between the two is still strained by the legacy of the aforementioned history.


title: Environmental racism

text: Today, the Mapuche people are the largest population of indigenous people in Chile, with 1.5 million people accounting for over 90% of the country's indigenous population.


title: Environmental racism

text: Due to their lack of environmental laws, emerging countries like Ecuador have been subjected to environmental pollution, sometimes causing health problems, loss of agriculture, and poverty. In 1993, 30,000 Ecuadorians, which included Cofan, Siona, Huaorani, and Quichua indigenous people, filed a lawsuit against Texaco oil company for the environmental damages caused by oil extraction activities in the Lago Agrio oil field. After handing control of the oil fields to an Ecuadorian oil company, Texaco did not properly dispose of its hazardous waste, causing great damages to the ecosystem and crippling communities. Additionally, UN experts have said that Afro-Ecuadorians and other people of African descent in Ecuador have faced greater challenges than other groups in accessing clean water, with minimal response from the State.


title: Environmental racism

text: Legacies of racism exist in Haiti, and affect the way that food grown by peasants domestically is viewed compared to foreign food. Racially coded hierarchies are associated with food that differs in origin – survey respondents reported that food such as millet and root crops are associated with negative connotations, while foreign-made food such as corn flakes and spaghetti are associated with positive connotations. This reliance on imports over domestic products reveals how racism ties to commercial tendencies – a reliance on imports can increase costs, fossil fuel emissions, and further social inequality as local farmers loose business.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: Area codes 201 and 551 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan in the U.S. State of New Jersey. Area code 201 was the area code assigned to the entire state of New Jersey in 1947, when the North American area code system was formulated. After splits in 1958, 1991 and 1997, it covers the northeasternmost portion of the state, including most of Hudson and Bergen counties on the Hudson River, bordering New York City. Major cities in the numbering plan area include Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Hackensack, Secaucus and Englewood. Area code 551 is an overlay code to the same numbering plan area that was installed in 2001.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: Area code 201 was the first-assigned numbering plan area (NPA) code of the original NPAs when AT&T devised the North American Numbering Plan in 1947. It was also the first area code with Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) service, when in 1951 the first direct-dialed long-distance call was made from Englewood, New Jersey to Alameda, California.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: Area code 201 originally covered the entire state of New Jersey, despite the state's dense population. The bulk of New Jersey's population is concentrated in the large metropolitan area west of New York City in the northeast and the suburbs of Philadelphia in the southwest. The creation of numbering plan areas was based on the anticipated number of central offices needed in each area and one plan area could only accommodate slightly over 500 central offices.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: In 1958, 201 was restricted to northern New Jersey, while the area from the state capital, Trenton, southward, including the southern Jersey Shore and the New Jersey side of the lower Delaware Valley, received area code 609.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: For the next 33 years, area code 201 served Bergen, Hudson, Ocean, Essex, Union, Morris, Passaic, Hunterdon, Somerset, Middlesex, Monmouth, Sussex and Warren counties, a region largely coextensive with the New Jersey side of the New York City area.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: As the central region of New Jersey grew during the 1980s, the northeastern section of the state lost sizable portions of its population due to the decline of its major cities, including Newark, Paterson, Clifton, and Elizabeth. On June 8, 1991, area code 908 was split from 201; it primarily serves the north-central regions of the state.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: Within four years, 201 was close to exhaustion once again due to the proliferation of cell phones, pagers and fax machines. The supply of numbers was further limited because the entire northern half of the state is a single LATA, meaning numbers in 908 were not available for use. On June 1, 1997, Essex and Passaic counties—respectively home to Newark and Paterson, the state's largest and third-largest cities—as well as Morris and Sussex counties were split off as area code 973. This left Hudson and Bergen counties, the two most densely populated counties in the state and the closest to New York City, as the only counties in the 201 plan area.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: The 1997 split was intended as a long-term solution. However, demand for new numbers continued in Hudson and Bergen counties, and it was apparent the area would need another area code. Verizon, the dominant telephone company in New Jersey, lobbied for an overlay rather than a split. Overlays were a new concept at the time, and were controversial because they required implementation of ten-digit dialing. However, Verizon wanted to spare its customers the burden of changing telephone numbers.


title: Area codes 201 and 551

text: Area code 551 was created in 2001 to overlay 201, along with area codes 862 and 848, which overlay area codes 973 and 732, respectively. With the implementation of the overlay area codes on December 1, 2001, ten-digit dialing became mandatory in Northern New Jersey.


title: Northlane

text: Northlane are an Australian heavy metal band from Sydney, formed in 2009. The band comprises guitarists Jon Deiley and Josh Smith, drummer Nic Pettersen and vocalist Marcus Bridge. Northlane have released six studio albums: "Discoveries" (11 November 2011); "Singularity" (22 March 2013), which reached No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart; "Node" (24 July 2015), a number-one album; "Mesmer" (24 March 2017), "Alien" (2 August 2019) and "Obsidian" (22 April 2022). At the ARIA Music Awards of 2015 the group won the Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album category for their album "Node". At the ARIA Music Awards of 2017, the band won again with "Mesmer". The band won the Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album category for the third time at the ARIA Music Awards of 2019 for their 2019 album "Alien".


title: Northlane

text: Northlane were formed in 2009 as a metalcore band in Western Sydney by Jon Deiley on lead guitar, Brendan Derby on drums and percussion, Adrian Fitipaldes on lead vocals, Alex Milovic on bass guitar and Josh Smith on rhythm guitar. They are named after the 2007 track "North Lane" by British metalcore band, Architects. In 2013, Fitipaldes described their formation, "pretty much, through the internet and common interest" where Deiley and Milovic had contacted each other to start song writing. He continued that "once they had the songs down, they started recruiting members."


title: Northlane

text: Their six-track debut extended play, "Hollow Existence", was released in January 2010: it was generally well received. Kill Your Stereo's All Shall Perish praised the group's "admirable and mature standard, a vital quality that is rapidly becoming extinct in most up-and-coming Australian bands" and summarised that it is a "Fantastic six track EP that has substantial replay value and will leave you craving more." Mark A of Sputnikmusic felt "One can certainly tell that it is a first try, given the deriative presentation of the music. Breakdowns are incredibly over-utilized on the 6-song EP, punctuated by clean guitars only when they are gearing up for another breakdown." Northlane toured Australia in support and "established a reputation as a tireless live act."


title: Northlane

text: In late 2011, the band signed to the UNFD record label, which released their first studio album, "Discoveries", in November that year. It reached the ARIA Albums Chart Top 100, No. 49 on the ARIA Digital Albums chart and No. 1 on the ARIA Hitseekers Albums chart. The album was followed by the "Discoveries" tour around Australia, and tours supporting August Burns Red and House Vs Hurricane shortly afterwards. Parkway Drive took them on the Sick Summer tour in February 2012.


title: Northlane

text: In September 2012, the band went to Canada on tour with Counterparts and Stray from the Path. At the end of the tour, they settled in New York City to record their new album with Will Putney. In December 2012 the band toured with in arenas with Parkway Drive on their "Atlas" tour in Australia.


title: Northlane

text: In January 2013, the band completed a tour across regional Australia with In Hearts Wake and Endless Heights as supporting acts, in support of their new single "Worldeater". They also played in Adelaide at The Cavern to make up for their missed flight the previous month. In most shows the band leaked a new song titled "Masquerade". Northlane played at the 2013 Soundwave festival and Pushover 2013 alongside other Australian hardcore acts such as Thy Art Is Murder, The Amity Affliction and In Hearts Wake.


title: Northlane

text: A music video for the song "Quantum Flux" from "Singularity" was released on 22 February 2013. It achieved mainstream success, debuting at #14 on the ARIA Australian Artists Top 20 Singles Chart in the week of 4 March 2013. On 22 March 2013, Northlane released their second studio album, "Singularity", which debuted at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart. It went to #1 in the Australian iTunes albums chart. "Singularity" received critical acclaim around the world. It was nominated for Triple J's "J Award Album of the Year" as one of the 10 best albums of 2013, and was voted as the Best album of 2013 on both The Racket and Short Fast Loud. In the Blunt Magazine readers poll, Northlane took home a multitude of awards in 2013 including "Band of the Year", "Album of the Year" and "Best Vocalist". iTunes Australia nominated "Singularity" as one of the most notable albums of 2013.


title: Northlane

text: The "Singularity" tour in Australia included Structures, Stray from the Path and Statues. In August they supported Karnivool around Australia.


title: Northlane

text: Northlane made their United States touring debut in November 2013, touring nationally with Veil of Maya and Structures. In January 2014, they played on the Big Day Out touring festival, before touring the US with Bring Me the Horizon, Of Mice & Men and Issues on the American Dream tour. In March and April they supported Architects on a 39 date tour of Europe and the UK.


title: Northlane

text: On 9 May 2014, the band released the deluxe edition of "Singularity", which included an instrumental edition of the album.


title: Northlane

text: Northlane announced that they would curate their own festival called FREE YOUR MIND, with the first tour taking place in May 2014 in Australia. Northlane headlined the festival with support from Thy Art Is Murder, Veil of Maya, Volumes and Make Them Suffer. All dates on the tour sold out in advance. Northlane appeared on the cover of Blunt Magazine in the April edition prior to Free Your Mind. It was after this tour that Northlane became activists and heavily supported many charities including The Smith Family by donating used drums sticks and guitars.


title: Northlane

text: It was announced in September 2014 that founding vocalist Adrian Fitipaldes would be leaving the band. Northlane issued a statement via their Facebook page, citing an impact on Fitipaldes' health as the catalyst. Northlane also announced that they will be accepting audition videos for a new vocalist.


title: Northlane

text: On 14 October, Northlane announced that they had found their new vocalist. Describing the new single as "one of the heaviest Northlane tracks ever", the band released the song "Rot" on 20 November and digitally on 28 November, with the new vocalist being revealed as Marcus Bridge. The song would later appear on the band's upcoming album.


title: Northlane

text: Their third studio album, "Node", and first with new vocalist Marcus Bridge, was released on 24 July 2015, with Will Putney producing, which reached No. 1.


title: Northlane

text: On 19 April 2016, the band announced that they had been working on a collaborative release with In Hearts Wake entitled "Equinox". It was recorded in secret that January in Melbourne with producer Will Putney. The EP features three songs: "Refuge", "Equinox" and "Hologram" and was released on 20 April, through UNFD. To promote the EP, Northlane and in Hearts Wake co-headlined a tour in June. Supporting them were Hands Like Houses and Ocean Grove. From 23 April–7 May, Northlane played performed at Impericon Festival 2016 in Oberhausen, Germany.


title: Northlane

text: Since early 2016, the band's live show and costumes have evolved. Jon has worn an array of masks, including an anti-pollution mask, a black medical mask and a rhinestone covered mask which conceals his entire head, plus a pair of large black contact lenses. Alex wears a long wrap-around jacket he acquired while in Japan. Nic wears a black singlet and medical mask. Josh wears a white long sleeve and Marcus wears a moth eaten black t-shirt with bandages on his hands.


title: Northlane

text: On 9 September 2016, the band released the deluxe edition of "Node", which included an instrumental edition of the album, two tracks from the Ghost City Sessions live performance, a version of "Aspire" with Marcus Bridge, a cover, and the original single version of "Rot".


title: Northlane

text: The band premiered a new track "Intuition" at Unify Gathering in January 2017, which was eventually released on 17 January 2017. Northlane announced an Australian tour in support of the single in March 2017.


title: Northlane

text: On 10 March, Northlane released a single "Mesmer", an ambient electronic track with an accompanying music video which was shot by Jason Eshraghian in Sydney and contains artistic shots of the band and scenic views. Along with this, a chatbot appeared on Northlane's Facebook page: called "Citizen", people could interact with the chatbot on Facebook Messenger where the bot would give cryptic messages and clues to upcoming releases.


title: Northlane

text: On 16 March, all of Northlane's social media profile pictures turned white, and led fans to an easter egg website, nl6633.com via small text in the white images. This website contained a landing page which showed timelapsed videos of members of Northlane in a recording studio, however no additional information was given.


title: Northlane

text: Two months after "Intuition" was released, another single, titled "Citizen", was released, on 20 March. On 24 March, Northlane released their fourth studio album "Mesmer" without any prior warning, and the album was made available for immediate purchase and streaming. The aforementioned single "Mesmer" was discovered to be an album sampler/trailer, containing stems to all of the tracks on the album. Additional details about the album's release were given by Northlane's record label UNFD, revealing that clues about the album had been released as early as 2016, and the release date was hidden in the band's Facebook cover image.


title: Northlane

text: "Mesmer" debuted at #3 on the ARIA Charts, the third Northlane release in a row to debut in the top 5 in Australia.


title: Northlane

text: On 1 June, Northlane took part in a Twitter Blueroom session, where their new music video for "Solar" was premiered. The music video was released shortly before the band began their Mesmer World Tour, with the first leg featuring performances on the main stage at Download Festival, several other European festivals, as well as tours in Canada and South America. Northlane have also announced additional tours in Australia and Europe for 2017.


title: Northlane

text: After their "Mesmer" World Tour, the band announced that their first live album titled "Analog Future" is set for release on 16 March 2018, and they also announced that the album had a limited edition vinyl release of only 500 copies. The first and only single from the live album, "Citizen (Live in Melbourne)" was recorded on 20 October 2017 and released on 6 February. On 13 February, the band announced the track listing of the album.


title: Northlane

text: On 12 July 2018, the band released a new single, titled "Vultures". The song would eventually later appear on the band's next album. On 6 September, the band announced that bassist Alex Milovic would be leaving the band due to personal reasons.


title: Northlane

text: On 2 November, former Structures guitarist and vocalist Brendon Padjasek has been confirmed on taking over bass duties as well as additional vocals for the band. A month later, Padjasek would later join the band playing at the inaugural Good Things festival, where the band unveiled a new song titled "Talking Heads" that was later confirmed to appear on their fifth studio album in 2019.


title: Northlane

text: On 30 December, the band confirmed via their Twitter that they were finishing writing their fifth studio album. On 7 January 2019, they commenced recording the new album.


title: Northlane

text: On 8 February, the band released the deluxe edition of "Mesmer", which included an instrumental edition of the album.


title: Northlane

text: On 9 February, Northlane tweeted a video with small text reading "Rift" in it, which is the name of one of the tracks on the album. A day later, they confirmed they had finished recording the album. On 5 April, Northlane featured on PhaseOne's single "Crash & Burn", later included in his debut album "Transcendency".


title: Northlane

text: On 12 April, the band released a leak of the album, showing its title, release date, artwork and tracklist. Their upcoming fifth album titled "Alien" is set for release on 2 August 2019. A few days later, the band released another leak, suggesting that they are planning to release three more singles: "Bloodline" on 30 April, "Talking Heads" on 13 June and "Eclipse" on 25 July.


title: Northlane

text: On 30 April, the band released their first single and music video for "Bloodline" which was based upon frontman Marcus Bridge's violent upbringing. The band also stated their new album will be their most personal to date. A world tour was also announced on the back of their new album "Alien".


title: Northlane

text: On 3 June, the band announced that their second single "Talking Heads" will be released much earlier than the assumed release date. A few days later, the label released a teaser of the single with an official release date on 5 June. Along with the release of the single, the band announced a new show for their National Tour for Melbourne after the first one completely sold out. VIP tickets were also announced, where fans could upgrade their standard tickets for VIP ones.


title: Northlane

text: On 29 July, the band released their third single "Eclipse", which was originally scheduled for release much more earlier than the current release date. The single was released along with an accompanying music video. The album was then released on the set date, and a week later peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Charts. On 31 October, Northlane covered The Vines' single "Get Free" for Triple J's Like a Version.


title: Northlane

text: In March 2020, the band released "Negative Energy", a raw and revealing documentary around the album's writing and recording process. On 20 May, the band released a new single titled "Enemy of the Night" and also announced that the deluxe edition of "Alien" is set for release on 31 July 2020, which contains the bonus track "Enemy of the Night" and an instrumental edition of the album. A double LP neon pink vinyl will be released, limited to unknown amount of physical copies worldwide, and it will be later made available digitally for streaming and download.


title: Northlane

text: On 28 August 2020, the band released their second live album titled "Live at the Roundhouse", a 14-track release that is out on streaming platforms and sees the band performing the first and biggest leg of the national tour, drawing generously from the "Alien" tracklist. It captures their hometown show at the Roundhouse last October while touring their most recent album, "Alien". Earlier that month, the band broadcast the concert footage in full as part of a pay-per-view livestream event, giving fans a chance to witness the intense, sold-out show from the comfort of their own homes.


title: Northlane

text: On 15 February 2021, "Live at the Roundhouse" was made available to stream on YouTube, due to the show being pirated on the internet. On 21 February, the band announced a five-track remix EP, entitled "5G". The EP, set for release on 26 February 2021, features remixes of tracks primarily lifted from their 2019 album "Alien". The sole exception to this is a remix of "Ohm", which comes from the band's 2015 album "Node".


title: Northlane

text: On 18 March 2021, the band released the single "Clockwork" along with an accompanying music video. The single has been chosen as the official theme song for the video game "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege" at this year's Oceanic Nationals eSports League. On the same day, they also announced that bassist Brendon Padjasek departed from the band in order to focus on his home life, with the group intending to continue on as a quartet for the time being, with Jon Deiley handling bass duties since. On 19 April, the band confirmed that they had begun recording their sixth album.


title: Northlane

text: On 10 May, the band announced another five-track EP, entitled "2D". The EP, set for release on 21 May 2021, features acoustic versions of tracks primarily lifted from their 2019 album "Alien". Vocalist Marcus Bridge explains how "2D" adds another dimension to these tracks: "Recording an acoustic EP is something that we've wanted to do for quite some time and felt right with the personal nature of the songs from "Alien". I wanted to strip these songs back to the bare minimum to juxtapose the soundscapes of the album, a 2D version of sorts. A song like 'Rift' has a completely different energy in this context and took on new meaning with the recording in the depths of lockdown, now almost feeling like a cry of frustration and despair." On 10 June, the band announced that they have finished recording the sixth album.


title: Northlane

text: On 10 November, the band officially released "Echo Chamber", the lead single from their sixth studio album, "Obsidian", which was released on 22 April 2022, along with its music video. At the same time, the band revealed the album cover and the track list. To promote the album, the band also announced their upcoming Australia tour which will start in June 2022 with Plini, Sleep Token and ALT as supports. On 27 January 2022, the band unveiled the third single "Plenty". On 20 February, due to the ongoing supply chain issues, the band announced that they pushed the release of the album from the original release date of 1 April back to 22 April. On 23 March, one month before the album release, the band released the fourth single "Carbonized" and its corresponding music video. A deluxe version of "Obsidian", featuring instrumental versions of the tracks, followed on 11 November.


title: Northlane

text: Northlane's musical style has been described as metalcore, progressive metalcore, djent, alternative metal, industrial metal, progressive metal, alternative rock, and nu metal. The band's debut album and their second album, "Singularity", have been considered as the typical metalcore albums comparable with the work of After the Burial and Born of Osiris, and to contain elements of progressive metalcore. With the change of a new vocalist, their third album, "Node", incorporated a lot more alternative and experimental elements into their sound, with a "Wall of Sound" review describing the album's style as a mixture of progressive metal and alternative metal. Their fourth album, "Mesmer", saw them embracing the alternative and experimental sounds heard from "Node" with the album taking influence from early-2010s progressive metal and alternative metal bands. The fifth album, "Alien", marked the first album where the band takes the shift into different genres, as they blended into the album elements of nu metal, industrial metal and EDM while still keeping elements from their fourth album.


title: Northlane

text: The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector.


title: Northlane

text: The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.


title: Northlane

text: The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J. They commenced in 2005.


title: Northlane

text: The National Live Music Awards (NLMAs) are a broad recognition of Australia's diverse live industry, celebrating the success of the Australian live scene. The awards commenced in 2016.


title: Olivia Scott Welch

text: Olivia Scott Welch, also known as Olivia Welch, is an American actress. She portrayed Samantha "Sam" Fraser in Netflix horror film trilogy "Fear Street".


title: Olivia Scott Welch

text: Welch was born in the small suburb of Hurst, Texas, United States, between Dallas and Fort Worth, with movie-loving parents and grandparents, so she soon became interested in art and particularly acting. She has a younger sister.


title: Olivia Scott Welch

text: At the age of 11 she was already taking her first acting classes and during high school, she traveled to Los Angeles on some occasions, participating in series such as "Agent Carter" and "Modern Family".


title: Olivia Scott Welch

text: In 2019, she got the lead role of Sam Fraser in the film trilogy "Fear Street", which premiered in July 2021 on Netflix; the story and focuses on a group of teenagers tormented by a curse and a mystery of more than 300 years that haunts their town, in which current time Sam is persecuted by murderers from different times and Deena seeks to save her from that curse. Welch also starred in the television series "Panic" as Heather Nill, based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Oliver, which premiered on May 28, 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.


title: Olivia Scott Welch

text: In August 2021, it was reported that she has been cast as the lead role in an upcoming film "The Blue Rose" as Detective Lilly, which is set in the 1950's and mixes various genres such as fiction and horror; the plot is around a pair of young detectives who during an investigation of a homicide case find themselves in a dark alternate reality.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Robert Maynard Pirsig (; September 6, 1928 – April 24, 2017) was an American writer and philosopher. He was the author of the philosophical novels "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" (1974) and "" (1991), and he co-authored "On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Selected and Unpublished Writings" (2022) along with his wife (now widow) and editor, Wendy Pirsig.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig was born on September 6, 1928, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Harriet Marie Sjobeck and Maynard Pirsig. He was of German and Swedish descent. His father was a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, taught in that school from 1934, served as its dean from 1948 to 1955, and retired from teaching there in 1970. He subsequently taught at the William Mitchell College of Law until his retirement in 1993.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: A precocious child with an alleged IQ of 170 at the age of nine, Pirsig skipped several grades at the Blake School in Minneapolis. In May 1943, Pirsig was awarded a high school diploma at the age of 14 by the University High School (later renamed Marshall-University High School), where he had edited the school yearbook, the Bisbilla. Pirsig then studied biochemistry at the University of Minnesota. In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", he describes the central character, thought to represent himself, as being an atypical student, interested in science in itself rather than a professional career path.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: In the course of his studies, Pirsig became intrigued by the multiplicity of putative causes for a given phenomenon, and increasingly focused on the role played by hypotheses in the scientific method and sources from which they originate. His preoccupation with these matters led to a decline in his grades and expulsion from the university.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: In 1946, Pirsig enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed in South Korea until 1948. Upon his discharge from the Army, he lived for several months in Seattle, Washington, and then returned to the University of Minnesota, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1950. He subsequently studied philosophy at Banaras Hindu University in India and the Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods at the University of Chicago. In 1958 he earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: In 1958, he became a professor at Montana State University in Bozeman, and taught creative writing courses for two years. Shortly thereafter he taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig's published writing consists most notably of two books. The better known, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", delves into Pirsig's exploration into the nature of "quality". Ostensibly a first-person narrative based on a motorcycle trip he and his young son Chris had taken from Minneapolis to San Francisco, it is an exploration of the underlying metaphysics of Western culture. He also gives the reader a short summary of the history of philosophy, including his interpretation of the philosophy of Aristotle as part of an ongoing dispute between "universalists", admitting the existence of "universals", and the Sophists, opposed by Socrates and his student Plato. Pirsig finds in "Quality" a special significance and common ground between Western and Eastern world views.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig had great difficulty finding a publisher for "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Pirsig pitched the idea for his book to 121 different publishers, sending them a cover letter along with two sample pages, with 22 responding favorably. Ultimately, an editor at William Morrow accepted the finished manuscript; when he did, his publisher's internal recommendation stated, "This book is brilliant beyond belief, it is probably a work of genius, and will, I'll wager, attain classic stature." In his book review, George Steiner compared Pirsig's writing to Dostoevsky, Broch, Proust, and Bergson, stating that "the assertion itself is valid ... the analogies with "Moby-Dick" are patent".


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: In 1974, Pirsig was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to allow him to write a follow-up, "" (1991), in which he developed a value-based metaphysics, Metaphysics of Quality, that challenges our subject–object view of reality. The second book, this time "the captain" of a sailboat, follows on from where "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" left off.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig was vice-president of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center from 1973 to 1975 and also served on the board of directors.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Robert Pirsig married Nancy Ann James on May 10, 1954. They had two sons: Chris, born in 1956, and Theodore (Ted), born in 1958.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig had a mental breakdown and spent time in and out of psychiatric hospitals between 1961 and 1963. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated with electroconvulsive therapy on numerous occasions, a treatment he discusses in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Nancy sought a divorce during this time; they formally separated in 1976 and divorced in 1978. On December 28, 1978, Pirsig married Wendy Kimball in Tremont, Maine.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: In 1979, his son Chris, who figured prominently in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", was fatally stabbed in a mugging outside the San Francisco Zen Center at the age of 22. Pirsig discusses this tragedy in an afterword to subsequent editions of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", writing that he and his second wife Wendy Kimball decided not to abort the child they conceived in 1980 because he believed that this unborn childlater their daughter Nellwas a continuation of the "life pattern" that Chris had occupied.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig died aged 88, at his home in South Berwick, Maine, on April 24, 2017, after a period of failing health.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974 for General Nonfiction, which later allowed him to complete his second book. The University of Minnesota conferred an Outstanding Achievement Award in 1975. He won an award for literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1979.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: On December 15, 2012, Montana State University bestowed upon Pirsig an honorary doctorate in philosophy during the university's fall commencement. Pirsig was also honored in a commencement speech by MSU Regent Professor Michael Sexson. Pirsig had been an instructor in writing at what was then Montana State College from 1958 to 1960.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: Pirsig did not travel to Bozeman in December 2012 to accept the accolade, allegedly due to frailty of health. However, in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", Pirsig writes about his time at Montana State College as a less than pleasurable experience, and that this limited his ability to teach writing effectively and to develop his own philosophy and writing.


title: Robert M. Pirsig

text: In December 2019, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History acquired Pirsig's 1966 Honda CB77F Super Hawk on which the 1968 ride with his son Chris was taken. The donation included a manuscript of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", a signed first edition of the book, and tools and clothing from the ride. In 2020, the Smithsonian acquired additional material from the Pirsig family relating to Pirsig's maritime interests and background. In 2020, the Robert M. Pirsig archive was collected by the Houghton Library at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; a 2021 article in the "International Journal of Motorcycle Studies" details the writer's close historic relationship with motorcycles from the age of four to shortly before his death.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: Homo luzonensis, also locally called "Ubag" after a mythical caveman, is an extinct, possibly pygmy, species of archaic human from the Late Pleistocene of Luzon, the Philippines. Their remains, teeth and phalanges, are known only from Callao Cave in the northern part of the island dating to before 50,000 years ago. They were initially identified as belonging to modern humans in 2010, but in 2019, after the discovery of more specimens, they were placed into a new species based on the presence of a wide range of traits similar to modern humans as well as to "Australopithecus" and early "Homo".


title: Homo luzonensis

text: Their ancestors, who may have been Asian "H. erectus" or some other even earlier "Homo", would have needed to have made a sea crossing of several miles at minimum to reach the island. Human presence on Luzon dates to at latest 771,000 to 631,000 years ago. The inhabitants of the cave dragged in mainly Philippine deer carcasses, and used tools for butchering.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: The first remains were discovered in 2007 in Callao Cave in Northern Luzon, the Philippines. In 2010, French anthropologist Florent Détroit and Filipino archaeologist Armand Mijares and colleagues identified them as belonging to modern humans. In 2019, after the discovery of 12 new specimens and based on the apparent presence of both modern-humanlike and primitive "Australopithecus"-like features, they reassigned the remains (and other hominin findings from the cave) to a new species, "Homo luzonensis", the specific name deriving from the name of the island.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: The holotype, CCH6, comprises the upper right premolars and molars. The paratypes are: CCH1, a right third metatarsal bone of the foot; CCH2 and CCH5, two phalanges of the fingers; CCH3 and CCH4, two phalanges of the foot; CCH4, a left premolar; and CCH9, a right third molar. CCH7 represents a juvenile femoral shaft. These represent at least three individuals. The specimens are kept at the National Museum of the Philippines, Manila.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: The exact taxonomic placement of "H. luzonensis" is unknown, and, like for other tropical hominins, DNA extraction failed. It is possible that—like what is hypothesized for "H. floresiensis" from Flores, Indonesia—"H. luzonensis" descended from an early "H. erectus" dispersal across Southeast Asia. It is also possible that these two insular archaic humans descend from an entirely different "Homo" species possibly earlier than "H. erectus". The bones were dated to before 50,000 years ago, and there is evidence of hominin activity on the island as early as 771,000 – 631,000 years ago.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: Like other endemic fauna on Luzon, as well as "H. floresiensis", "H. luzonensis" may have shrunk in size due to insular dwarfism. However, more complete remains are needed to verify size. Much like "H. floresiensis", "H. luzonensis" presents a number of characteristics more similar to "Australopithecus" and early "Homo" than to modern humans and more recent "Homo".


title: Homo luzonensis

text: The teeth of "H. luzonensis" are small and mesiodistally (the length between the two ends of the tooth) shortened. The molars are smaller than those of "H. floresiensis". Like other recent "Homo" and modern humans, the molars decrease in size towards the back of the mouth, and the enamel-dentin juncture lacks well defined wavy crenulations. The enamel-dentine juncture is most similar to that of Asian "H. erectus". The premolars are oddly large compared to the molars, with more similar proportions to "Paranthropus" than any other "Homo", though "H. luzonensis" postcanine teeth differ greatly from those of "Paranthropus" in size and shape. "H. luzonensis" premolars share many characteristics with those of "Australopithecus", "Paranthropus", and early "Homo".


title: Homo luzonensis

text: The finger bones are long, narrow, and curved, which is seen in "Australopithecus", "H. floresiensis", and sometimes modern humans. They are dorso-palmarly (from the palm to the back of the hand) compressed, and have well developed flexor sheath attachment, which are seen in "Australopithecus" and the early "H. habilis". Unique to "H. luzonensis", the dorsal beak near the knuckle was strongly developed and angled towards the wrist rather than the finger. The foot bones are morphologically unique among "Homo", and are more or less indistinguishable from those of "A. africanus" and "A. afarensis". "Australopithecus" limbs are generally interpreted as being adaptations for bipedalism and potentially suspensory behavior in the trees, but the fragmentary record of "H. luzonensis" limits extrapolation of locomotory behavior.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: Since the remains are so fragmentary, it is difficult to make accurate estimates of actual size for this species, but they may have been within the range of modern day Philippine Negritos, who average in height for males and for females.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: Because Luzon has always been an island in the Quaternary, the ancestors of "H. luzonensis" would have had to have made a substantial sea crossing over the Huxley Line.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: About 90% of the bone fragments from Callao Cave belong to the Philippine deer, which suggests that deer carcasses were periodically brought into the cave. With the exception of Palawan (where there were tigers), there is no evidence of large carnivores ever inhabiting the Philippines during the Pleistocene, which attributes these remains to human activity. The Philippine warty pig and an extinct bovid were also present. There are cut marks on a deer tibia, and a lack of tools in the cave could either have resulted from the use of organic material for tools rather than stone, or the processing of meat away from the cave.


title: Homo luzonensis

text: The Minori Cave, in the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon (excavated much earlier) yielded an almost complete skeleton of a rhino (the extinct "Rhinoceros philippinensis"), which had been butchered dating to 771–631,000 years ago. In 1981, six lithic cores, forty-nine lithic flakes, and two hammerstones, were found at Minori Cave, which are similar to the chert industry from the Lower Paleolithic Arubo 1 site in central Luzon. Also present were the remains of the elephant "Stegodon", the Philippine deer, freshwater turtles, and monitor lizards.


title: Italian ice

text: Italian ice is a frozen or semi-frozen sweetened treat made with fruit (often from concentrates, juices, or purées) or other natural or artificial food flavorings.


title: Italian ice

text: Italian ice is similar to sorbet and snow cones, but differs from American-style sherbet in that it does not contain dairy or egg ingredients. It was introduced to the United States by Italian immigrants and is derived from the Sicilian granita, a similar and related Italian dessert. Common flavors include lemon, cherry, mango, cotton candy and other fruits and sweet victuals.


title: Italian ice

text: Finely granulated flavored ice is commonly referred to and sold as water ice by residents and natives of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia metropolitan area (Delaware Valley), including South Jersey and areas of Delaware. Water ice is almost identical to Italian ice, as it is similarly derived from granita brought to the Philadelphia area by Italian immigrants in early 20th century. Though largely synonymous with Italian ice, Philadelphia area “water ice” has also been described as a specific type of Italian ice originating in Philadelphia, or a "variation on the more broadly-accepted Italian ice." Water ice is generally sold in Philadelphia and the Philly area in the late spring and summer months, being one of the most popular iconic frozen desserts sold in the city by virtue of commercial chains such as Rita's Italian Ice.


title: Italian ice

text: Italian water ice has a long history which can first founded 4000 years ago. The Greeks and Romans used snow from Mount Etna to cool their wines. The Italian word sorbetto and English sherbet come from these sweet fruit syrups that the Arabs used to drink, diluted with ice tiles. For thousands of years, people have kept ice cubes to satisfy their cravings for cold drinks. Today's Sherbet and wine coolers may have originated from wine-flavored ice cubes eaten by early humans, while today's snow cones may have originated from ice cubes that formed long ago, forming real snow mixed with honey and fruit. In Europe, water ice seems to have appeared at the same time as ice cream in the second half of the 17th century. Both products use the same technology. Water ice can be used as a stand-alone refreshment, dessert, or as a means of restoring the palate midway through a meal of many courses.


title: Italian ice

text: Except when made from fruit or fruit juice, Italian ice is defined in US law as a food of minimal nutritional value.


title: Education in the Philippines during Spanish rule

text: During the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines (1521–1898), the different cultures of the archipelago experienced a gradual unification from a variety of native Asian and Islamic customs and traditions, including animist religious practices, to what is known today as Filipino culture, a unique hybrid of Southeast Asian and Western culture, namely Spanish, including the Spanish language and the Catholic faith.


text: Spanish education played a major role in that transformation. The oldest universities, colleges, and vocational schools, dating as far back as the late 16th century were created during the colonial period, as well as the first modern public education system in Asia, established in 1863. By the time Spain was replaced by the United States as the colonial power, Filipinos were among the most educated peoples in all of Asia, boasting one of the highest literacy rates in that continent. Simultaneously, the knowledge of Filipinos about neighboring cultures receded.


text: During the early years of Spanish colonization, education was mostly run by the Church. Spanish friars and missionaries educated the natives and converted indigenous populations to the Catholic faith.


text: King Philip II's Leyes de Indias (Laws of the Indies) mandated Spanish authorities in the Philippines to educate the natives, to teach them how to read and write in the Spanish language. However, the latter objective was difficult given the realities of the time. The early friars learned the local languages to better communicate with the locals. In order to teach the Spanish language to the native population, the friars learned the local languages first, which also made possible the teaching of the Christian faith.


text: The Spanish missionaries established schools soon after reaching the islands and a few decades into the Spanish period, there was no Christian village without its school, with most children attending.


text: The Augustinians opened a school immediately upon arriving in Cebú in 1565. The Franciscans arrived in 1577, and they, too, immediately taught the people how to read and write, besides imparting to them important industrial and agricultural techniques. The Jesuits who arrived in 1581 also concentrated on teaching the young. When the Dominicans arrived in 1587, they did the same thing in their first mission in Bataan.


text: Within months of their arrival in Tigbauan which is in Iloilo province located in the island of Panay, Pedro Chirino and Francisco Martín had established a school for Visayan boys in 1593 in which they taught not only the catechism but reading, writing, Spanish, and liturgical music. The Spaniards of Arévalo heard of the school and wanted Chirino to teach their boys too. Chirino at once put up a dormitory and school house (1593–1594) for the Spanish boys near his rectory. It was the first Jesuit boarding school to be established in the Philippines.


text: The Chinese language version of the Doctrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine) was the first book printed in the Philippines in about 1590 to 1592. A version in Spanish, and in Tagalog, in both Latin script and the commonly used Baybayin script of the Manila Tagalogs of the time was printed in 1593. The goal to teach the Christian faith to the literate population. Eventually, the Baybayin script was replaced by the Latin script, as this became increasingly more useful and widespread.


text: In 1610,Tomas Pinpin a Filipino printer, writer and publisher, who is sometimes referred as the "Patriarch of Filipino Printing", wrote his famous "Librong Pagaaralan nang manga Tagalog nang Uicang Castilla", that was meant to help Filipinos learn the Spanish language. The prologue read:


text: There were also Latin schools where that language was taught together with some Spanish, since it was a mandatory requirement for the study of philosophy, theology and jurisprudence in schools like the University of Santo Tomás, run by the Dominicans. The Philippine priests and lawyers of that time, with the exception of the sons and daughters of Spaniards, Principalías and Ladinos, knew Latin perfectly well because the educational system was wholly religious.


text: The friars also opened many medical and pharmaceutical schools. The study of pharmacy consisted of a preparatory course with subjects in natural history and general chemistry and five years of studies in subjects such as pharmaceutical operations at the school of pharmacy. At the end of this period, the degree of Bachiller en Farmacia was granted.


text: By the end of the 16th century, several religious orders had established charity hospitals all over the archipelago and provided the bulk of this public service. These hospitals also became the setting for rudimentary scientific research work on pharmacy and medicine, focusing mostly on the problems of infectious diseases. Several Spanish missionaries catalogued hundreds of Philippine plants with medicinal properties. The "Manual de Medicinas Caseras...", written by Father Fernando de Santa María, first published in 1763, became so sought after that it was reprinted on several editions by 1885.


text: "Colegio de Santa Potenciana" was the first school and college for girls that opened in the Philippines, in 1589. It was followed by another school for women, "Colegio de Santa Isabel", that opened in 1632. Other Schools and Colleges for girls were "Santa Catalina", "Santa Rosa", "La Concordia", etc. Several religious congregations also established schools for orphaned girls who could not educate themselves.


text: In 1590, the Universidad de San Ignacio was founded in Manila by the Jesuits, initially as the "Colegio-Seminario de San Ignacio". By the second half of the 17th century, the university was incorporated as a mere College of Medicine and Pharmacy into the University of Santo Tomás.


text: The Colegio de San Ildefonso was established in 1595 in Cebú by the Society of Jesus. The school closed down in 1768, but the present-day University of San Carlos makes the claim of tracing its roots to the arguably defunct 16th Century school. This claim has been the subject of numerous debates.


text: On April 28, 1611, the Universidad de Santo Tomás was founded in Manila, initially named as the "Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario" and later renamed as "Colegio de Santo Tomas". On November 20, 1645, Pope Innocent X elevated it to University. King Charles III of Spain bestowed the title "Royal" in 1785, and Pope Leo XIII "Pontifical" in 1902. Pope Pius XII designated it as "La Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomás de Aquino Universidad Católica de Filipinas" (The Catholic University of the Philippines), in 1947.


text: In 1640, the Universidad de San Felipe de Austria was established in Manila. It was the first public university created by the Spanish government in the Philippines. It closed down in 1643.


text: The Jesuits also founded the Colegio de San José (1601) and took over the management of a school that became the Escuela Municipal (1859, later renamed Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1865, now the Ateneo de Manila University). The Dominicans on their part had the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán (1620) in Manila. All of them provided courses leading to different prestigious degrees, like the Bachiller en Artes, that by the 19th century included science subjects such as physics, chemistry, natural history and mathematics. The University of Santo Tomás, for example, started by teaching theology, philosophy and humanities. During the 18th century, the Faculty of Jurisprudence and Canonical Law was established.


text: In 1871, several schools of medicine and pharmacy were opened. From 1871 to 1883 Santo Tomás alone had 829 registrations of medical students, and from 1883 until 1898, 7965 medical students. By the end of the Spanish colonial rule in 1898. the university had granted the degree of "Licenciado en Medicina" to 359 graduates and 108 medical doctors. For the doctorate degree in medicine its provision was inspired in the same set of oppositions than those of universities in the metropolis, and at least an additional year of study was required at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Spain.


text: The title of the oldest in the Philippines has been topic for debate between two educational institutions: the University of Santo Tomas and the University of San Carlos.


text: The University of Santo Tomas, established in 1611 as the Colegio de Nuestra Señora de Santisimo Rosario, is generally recognized as the oldest university in the Philippines. In 1935 the Commonwealth government of the Philippines through the Historical Research and Markers Committee declared that UST was "oldest university under the American flag." In the 1990s, the Intramuros Administration installed a marker on the original site of the University of Santo Tomas with the recognition that the university is the "oldest university in Asia." In 2011 Pope Benedict XVI recognized UST as "the oldest institution of Catholic higher education in the Far East," while in 2012 the National Historical Commission of the Philippines published an online article recognizing UST as "Asia's Oldest University.


text: However, the University of San Carlos has opposed this recognition and claims that it is older than the University of Santo Tomas by 16 years by tracing its roots to the Colegio de San Ildefonso (established 1595). In 1995, the University of San Carlos celebrated its Quadricentennial (400th Anniversary).


text: Numerous scholars and official government bodies have reviewed the case. In 2010, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines installed a bronze marker declaring USC's foundation late in the 18th Century, effectively disproving any direct connection with the Colegio de San Ildefonso. According to Dr. Victor Torres of the De La Salle University, the University of San Carlos' claim dates back to 1948 only when USC was declared a university. Fidel Villarroel from the University of Santo Tomas argued that USC only took over the facility of the former Colegio de San Ildefonso and that there is no 'visible' and 'clear' link between San Carlos and San Ildefonso. Aloysius Cartagenas (a Cebuano), in a paper published by Philippiniana Sacra, stated that the correct foundation year of USC is 1867, and not 1595, while in 2012 the National Historical Commission of the Philippines cemented its previous position when it published an online article recognizing UST as "Asia's Oldest University.


text: A Nautical School was created on January 1, 1820, which offered a four-year course of study (for the profession of pilot of merchant marine) that included subjects such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics, hydrography, meteorology, navigation and pilotage. A School of Commercial Accounting and a School of French and English Languages were established in 1839.


text: The Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trades (DHVCAT) in Bacolor, Pampanga is said to be the oldest official vocational school in Asia. The vocational school started when an Augustinian friar, Fr. Juan P. Zita, dreamed of helping the young lads of Bacolor. Aided by equally benevolent civic leader Don Felino Gil, the school was officially founded on November 4, 1861, upon the approval of its statutes by Governor-General Lemery as Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Bacolor (School of Arts and Trades of Bacolor) and built it on a lot donated by Suarez sisters of Bacolor. Other important vocational schools established were the Escuela de Contaduría, Academia de Pintura y Dibujo and the seminaries of Manila, Nueva Segovia, Cebú, Jaro and Nueva Cáceres.


text: The Manila School of Agriculture was created in 1887, although it was unable to open its doors until July 1889. Its mission was to provide theoretical and practical education by agricultural engineers to skilled farmers and overseers, and to promote agricultural development by means of observation, experiment and investigation. It included subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural history, agriculture, topography, linear and topography drawing. Agricultural schools and monitoring stations, run by professors who were agricultural engineers, were also established in Isabela, Ilocos, Albay, Cebú, Iloílo, Leyte and parts of Mindanao.


text: The Real Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País de Filipinas (Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Philippines) was first introduced in the islands in 1780, and offered local and foreign scholarships to Filipinos, professorships and financed trips of scientists from Spain to the Philippines. Throughout the nineteenth century the society established an academy of design, financed the publication of scientific and technical literature, and granted awards to successful experiments and inventions that improved agriculture and industry.


text: The Observatorio Meteorológico del Ateneo Municipal de Manila (Manila Observatory) was founded in 1865 by the Jesuits after an article they published in the newspaper Diario de Manila, describing typhoon observations made in September 1865, attracted the attention of many readers who publicly requested for the observations to be continued. The Spanish government made the observatory the official institution for weather forecasting in the Philippines in 1884, and in 1885 it started its time service. Its seismology section was set up in 1887, while astronomical studies began in 1899. The Observatory published typhoon and climatological observations and studies, including the first typhoon warnings, a service that was highly appreciated by the business community, specially those involved in merchant shipping.


text: Modern public school education was introduced in Spain in 1857. This did not exist in any other colony of any European power in Asia. The concept of mass education was relatively new, an offshoot of the 18th century Age of Enlightenment. France was the first country in the world to create a system of mass, public education in 1833.


text: In the Philippines, free access to modern public education was made possible through the enactment of the Spanish Education Decree of December 20, 1863 by Queen Isabella II. Primary instruction was made free and the teaching of Spanish was compulsory. This was ten years before Japan had a compulsory form of free modern public education and forty years before the American government started an English-based public school system in the Philippines. The royal decree provided for a complete educational system consisting of primary, secondary and tertiary levels, resulting in valuable training for all Filipino children and youth.


text: The Education Decree of 1863 provided for the establishment of at least two free primary schools, one for boys and another for girls, in each town under the responsibility of the municipal government. It also commended the creation of a free public normal school to train men as teachers, supervised by the Jesuits. One of these schools was the "Escuela Normal Elemental", which, in 1896 became the "Escuela Normal Superior de Maestros de Manila" (The Normal School) for male teachers. The Spanish government also established a school for midwives in 1879, and a Normal School for female teachers in 1892, the "Escuela Normal Superior de Maestras". By the 1890s, free public secondary schools were opening outside of Manila, including 10 normal schools for women.


text: The range of subjects being taught were very advanced, as can be seen from the Syllabus of Education in the Municipal Atheneum of Manila, that included Algebra, Agriculture, Arithmetic, Chemistry, Commerce, English, French, Geography, Geometry, Greek, History, Latin, Mechanics, Natural History, Painting, philosophy, Physics, Rhetoric and poetry, Spanish Classics, Spanish Composition, Topography, and Trigonometry. Among the subjects being taught to girls, as reflected in the curriculum of the "Colegio de Santa Isabel", were Arithmetic, Drawing, Dress-cutting, French, Geology, Geography, Geometry, History of Spain, Music, Needlework, Philippine History, Physics, Reading, Sacred History and Spanish Grammar.


text: Contrary to what the Propaganda of the Spanish–American War tried to depict, the Spanish public system of education was open to all the natives, regardless of race, gender or financial resources. The Black Legend propagation, black propaganda and yellow journalism were rampant in the last two decades of Spanish Colonial Period and throughout the American Colonial Period. Manuel L. Quezon, on his speech for the Philippine Assembly at the US Congress in October 1914 stated that


text: Gunnar Myrdal, a renowned Swedish economist, observed that in 19th-century Asia, Japan and Spanish Philippines stood out because of their stress on modern public education.


text: As a result of increasing the number of educated Filipinos a new social class raised, which came to be known as the Ilustrados. Furthermore, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 travel to Spain become quicker, easier and more affordable, and many Filipinos took advantage of it to continue higher education in Spain and Europe, mostly in Madrid and Barcelona. This new enlightened class of Filipinos would later lead the Philippine independence movement, using the Spanish language as their main communication method. The most prominent of the Ilustrados was José Rizal, who inspired the desire for independence with his novels written in Spanish. Other Filipino intellectuals, such as Graciano López Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce or Antonio Luna, who had also studied in Spain, began contributing to the cause for Filipino self-government and independence.


text: Describing this new generation of highly educated Filipinos, Fr. John N. Schumacher pointed out that,


text: The Philippines was also ahead of some European countries in offering education for women. Ironically, it was during the time of American occupation of the Philippines that the results of Spanish education were more visible, especially in the literature, printed press and cinema.


text: On November 30, 1900, the Philippine Commission reported to the US War Department about the state of education throughout the archipelago as follows:


text: Those numbers led some people to conclude that less than 6% of the population were attending schools. However that assumption was misleading because it is calculated based on the entire population, including babies and senior citizens, when in reality public school systems are meant primarily for children and teenagers. In order to calculate the percentage of children attending schools, the number of children of school age must be used, including those of elementary school age (ages 5 through 13) and teenagers in High School age (ages 14 through 17). That would yield a total percentage of around 20% of the total population. Since the 1887 census yielded a count of 6,984,727, 20% would be approximately 1,4 million. Also, by 1892 the number of schools had more than doubled to 2,137, 1,087 of which were for boys and 1,050 for girls, which means that the number of children attending school also did increase, to at least 500,000, by conservative estimates. That's about 35% of the population in School age.


text: Another claim commonly heard was that based on the official figures there couldn't be a school in every village in the Islands, as Manuel L. Quezon declared years later before the Philippine Assembly. However, since those official figures branded by the Philippine Commission itself put the total number of municipalities in the archipelago at 900, and the number of public schools at 2,167, those numbers reveal that there was not only one school in every municipality in the Islands, but in most cases two or more.


text: Neither was taken into account that the schools maintained by Spain were closed and in many cases looted and badly damaged during the Spanish–American War and the Philippine Revolution. Although the free and compulsory elementary education system was temporarily reestablished by the Malolos Constitution, it was finally dismantled after the Philippine–American War, that also took a heavy toll upon the remaining educational infrastructures.


text: Finally, the Philippine Commission made no reference to the fact that the pioneering public school education introduced by Spain in the Philippines was the first of its kind in all of Asia, and the first to be established in any European colony in the world. Such system was even ahead of most of United States at the time, where by 1900 only 34 states had any kind of compulsory schooling laws requiring attendance until age 14. As a result, the average American at the time was less educated than the average Filipino, something that was specially true among the troops that fought in the Philippine–American War, since most of the soldiers generally were of humble social origins.


title: Boll weevil

text: The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) is a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central Mexico, it migrated into the United States from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all U.S. cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American South. During the late 20th century, it became a serious pest in South America as well. Since 1978, the Boll Weevil Eradication Program in the U.S. allowed full-scale cultivation to resume in many regions.


title: Boll weevil

text: Adult weevils overwinter in well-drained areas in or near cotton fields, and farms after diapause. They emerge and enter cotton fields from early spring through midsummer, with peak emergence in late spring, and feed on immature cotton bolls.


title: Boll weevil

text: The boll weevil lays its eggs inside buds and ripening bolls (fruits) of the cotton plants. The female can lay up to 200 eggs over a 10- to 12-day period. The oviposition leaves wounds on the exterior of the flower bud. The eggs hatch in 3 to 5 days within the cotton squares (larger buds before flowering), feed for 8 to 10 days, and then pupate. The pupal stage lasts another 5 to 7 days. The lifecycle from egg to adult spans about three weeks during the summer. Under optimal conditions, 8 to 10 generations per season may occur.