China: GOP Is Using Trump Sanctions Bill to 'Deflect Responsibility'

JUST TELLING IT LIKE IT IS 

SHREWD

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian criticized a Senate bill that would allow President Donald Trump to sanction China over the coronavirus outbreak and claimed Republicans were using it to deflect blame. AND HE WOULD BE CORRECT

Asked about the bill during Wednesday's briefing, Zhao told reporters the proposed legislation, which pushes for investigations based on the "presumption of guilt," was "highly immoral" and a way to "shirk responsibility for the U.S. fumbling response to China." He advised politicians to focus on the outbreak instead of "racking their brains to distract attention and deflect responsibility."

Senator Lindsey Graham introduced the legislation, formally titled the COVID-19 Accountability Act, on Tuesday. It would authorize Trump to impose sanctions on China if the country fails to "provide a full accounting of the events leading up to the outbreak" of the new coronavirus.

Under the legislation, Trump would be required to confirm within 60 days that China had provided a complete accounting in any investigations led by the U.S., its allies or United Nations Affiliates. He would also have to confirm that China closed all "operating wet markets" that could potentially expose humans to health risks and released all Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates arrested in "post-COVID-19 crackdowns."

Failing to certify these items would enable Trump to impose a range of sanctions, including freezing assets, travel bans, visa revocations and barring Chinese companies from being listed on American stock exchanges.

Newsweek reached out to Graham for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

The pandemic has infected nearly 4.3 million people worldwide, and America is bearing the brunt of the outbreak, with 1.37 million cases and 82,461 deaths. Reporters have long questioned China's transparency on its outbreak, and with cases surging in the U.S., U.S. officials have accused the authoritarian state of failing to be entirely honest.

China, with the backing of the World Health Organization, has rejected charges that it has not been informative, and Zhao said the country has been acting in an "open, transparent and responsible way" since the outbreak began. He cited China's communication with the WHO and the recognition China received from the "international community."

Australian officials also expressed concerns about China's transparency, and Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, told the Funke media group that China's response to how the virus originated will show "how transparent it wants to be." However, a March report from the WHO-China Joint Mission, a group of 25 international experts, praised China's response for being unprecedented and helpful in reducing the virus's spread.

In announcing his bill, Graham rejected the idea that China was successful in its response, saying he was convinced that without the "Chinese Communist Party deception the virus would not be here in the United States."

"It's time we push back against China and hold them accountable," Graham said. "More than 80,000 Americans are dead and millions more are jobless today because of China's failure to contain and prevent the spread of the virus."

© Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian speaks at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8. On Wednesday, Zhao criticized a bill put forth by Senator Lindsay Graham, saying that it was intended to deflected blame about the American response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Eight other Republican senators co-sponsored Graham's legislation, a move that Zhao claimed was coming out of the National Republican Senatorial Committee playbook. He cited a Politico article from April 24 that referenced a memo from that committee. The April memo pushed three main messages: that China caused the pandemic by lying, covering it up and hoarding supplies; a politician's opponent is "soft on China" and "can't be trusted to take them on; and a Republican will stand up to China, push for sanctions and bring back jobs.

Zhao claimed that the Americans' "screenplay" of blaming China was "laid bare so badly" that "there is no point in going ahead with it."

Researchers Have Found a New Defense to Help Coral Survive Bleaching

Dharna Noor


Coral reefs are home to as many species as tropical rainforests. Yet rapidly heating waters threaten to wipe coral out.

Reducing carbon emissions is one way to keep waters from getting too hot. But scientists in Australia are also on a mission to save coral by training the microalgae that keep them alive, and they’ve documented their efforts in a new study in Science Advances published on Wednesday.

Hotter water puts stress on coral and can lead to coral spitting out algae, a process known as coral bleaching. When that happens, though, it can be a death sentence for coral and the species that rely on healthy reefs. In an effort to help coral, scientists created an exposure therapy experiment for the tiny algae that provide them with life.

'It's Horrific': Climate Change Is Killing the Great Barrier Reef

For four years, the researchers exposed 10 strains of algae to water heated to about 89 degrees Fahrenheit, which is roughly the peak temperature the Great Barrier Reef reached in February 2020. That threshold can trigger mass bleaching. They then compared those strains to other algae, which they’d exposed to roughly 81 degrees Fahrenheit over the same period. It turns out algae can develop higher heat tolerance: All 10 of the strains exposed to higher temperatures evolved to withstand them.

To see if those strains could also help prevent coral from bleaching, the researchers then introduced those strains to coral larvae and exposed them to water warmed to 89 degree Fahrenheit. In three out of the ten cases, the coral didn’t spit out the algae. This research suggests that algae that have adapted to heat could help restore the world’s coral and buffer it against future change.

“While evidence suggests that corals are slowly adapting to a warmer world, it appears they are struggling to keep pace with climate change,” the scientists said in a press release. If more research confirms these results and labs are able to develop more heat-resistant algae, scientists could introduce them to coral reefs in the wild. The researchers think this could prevent coral from bleaching, giving them a big boost in the face of the climate crisis.

Coral reefs are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. They’re also crucial to the health of people and the planet since they protect coastlines from flooding, are an important source of food, and serve other important functions.

The findings come at important time. Last month, Australian researchers found that parts of the Great Barrier Reef suffered a mass bleaching event—the third one to hit the area in the past five years. Previous research has shown that if the world heats more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, coral will largely go extinct. It’s clear that right now, coral need all the help they can get.

India's carbon emissions drop for the first time in four decades

By Amy Woodyatt, CNN 

India has seen its first year on year reduction in carbon emissions for the first time in four decades, new analysis released Tuesday shows.

© Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto/Getty Images 

India has seen a year-on-year reduction in carbon emissions -- the first in four decades.

An economic slowdown, the growth of the country's use of renewable energy and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic have all contributed to the fall, analysis from environmental website Carbon Brief has found.

Over the past year, India had already been seeing weakened demand for thermal power generation because of lower demand and competition from renewable energy, researchers said.

However, lockdown measures introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus caused a further, steeper "drop off" in March, pushing thermal power generation growth below zero for the first time in three decades. Carbon emissions fell by an estimated 15% in March, and a likely 30% in April, analysts said.

Studying oil, gas and coal consumption, researchers estimate that CO2 emissions fell by 30m tons in the fiscal year ending March, in what they say could be the first such annual decline in four decades.

© Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images Clear blue skies seen over the Presidential Palace during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown in New Delhi, on April 2.

Analysts from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) noted that demand for coal was already down in the country, with coal deliveries falling by 2% in the fiscal year ending March -- a first in two decades. However, this trend steepened in March, with coal sales falling 10% and imports falling 27.5%.

© Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times/Getty Images A view of clear blue skies and clean air during a nationwide lockdown to curb spread of coronavirus in Gurugram, India, on April 20.

India imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to stop the spread of coronavirus, closing factories, markets, shops, and places of worship and suspending most public transport and construction work.

Already, data has shown that cities are recording much lower levels of harmful microscopic particulate matter known as PM 2.5, and of nitrogen dioxide, which is released by vehicles and power plants.

Studying data from India's national grid and main coal producer, analysts said that disruption caused by coronavirus has cut India's demand for electricity, which has reduced appetite for coal.

Studying daily data from India's national grid, analysts found that coal-fired power generation fell 15% in March and 31% in the first three weeks of April, while renewable energy generation increased by 6.4% in March and decreased by 1.4% in April.

Oil consumption has also been slowing since early 2019, researchers found, but noted that Covid-19 lockdown measures have had a "dramatic impact" on transport oil consumption, which fell 18% in March 2020 compared to the previous year.

Though oil consumption grew 0.2% during the fiscal year, this was the slowest growth in at least 22 years because of coronavirus, researchers said, adding there had already been slower demand in the sector earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, natural gas consumption, which increased 5.5% in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, is expected to fall by up to 20% during the lockdown, analysts said.

Though they note that the coronavirus pandemic is only affecting India's emissions in the short term, analysts said the disruption caused by coronavirus could "catalyse, reinforce or accelerate the factors that have already been driving Indian policymaking in this area."

Cicadas will soon emerge in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia starting this month


Jessica Flores, USA TODAY

It's that time of year again: cicadas are expected to emerge in the East coast after living underground for 17 years.

© Sci/Tech The return of the cicadas

This year's periodical cicadas, which will appear this month in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, are called " Brood IX (9)."


Cicadas emerge when the ground reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the website CicadaMania.

John Cooley, an entomologist at the University of Connecticut, told USA TODAY that cicadas pop up in the evening "to be able to do the things that they have to do but it's also going to be dark enough that they're not going to get wiped out by birds."

Cicadas, which are grouped into "broods," come out of the ground every 17 years to mate, with some appearing every 13 years. Cooley says researchers don't know why the insects have a reoccurring appearance.

“The general consensus is that the long, prime-numbered life-cycle makes it difficult for an above-ground animal predator to evolve to specifically predate them,” according to Cicada Mania.

© USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and Northeastern Area State & Private Forestry Active Periodical Cicada Broods of the United States.

More than one type of brood may emerge in some areas at the same time due to staggered development, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

There are periodical and annual cicadas. The periodical cicadas shed their outer covering once they pop out of the ground, and have black bodies with red eyes and yellowish-orange wings. Annual cicadas are larger in size and have brown or green bodies with black or brown eyes, and black or green wings.

Cicadas are also not dangerous. The male cicadas flexes its muscles to make a loud sound to attract females. And many usually live two to four weeks after living underground for 17 years.

Antimicrobial surface coating kills coronavirus for 90 days: study

AFP

A specially formulated antimicrobial coating can keep surfaces clear of a human coronavirus for up to 90 days with just one application, a preliminary study said Friday, suggesting a new line of defense against COVID-19.

© - A technician is pictured in 2018 applying Allied BioScience's first generation antimicrobial coating product

The paper by researchers at the University of Arizona (UA), which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that the amount of virus on coated surfaces reduced by 90 percent in 10 minutes and by 99.9 percent in two hours.

Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at UA who was the study's senior author, told AFP the technology was "the next advancement in infection control."

"I think it's mostly important for high-use surfaces like subways and buses, because you could disinfect them but then the next people that come in there will recontaminate the surfaces," he said.

"It's not a substitute for regular cleaning and disinfecting, but it covers you in between regular disinfecting and cleaning.

The UA team tested a coating specifically designed to act against viruses that was developed by the company Allied BioScience, which also funded their study.

The researchers carried out their testing on human coronavirus 229E, which is similar in structure and genetics to SARS-CoV-2 but causes only mild cold symptoms and was therefore safer to use.

The coating works by "denaturing" the virus' proteins -- effectively twisting them out of shape -- and attacking its protective layer of fat.

The colorless substance is sprayed on surfaces, and has to be reapplied every three to four months.

The technology behind so-called self-disinfecting coatings has been around for almost a decade, and has previously been used in hospitals to fight against the spread of infection, including against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A 2019 paper by UA researchers found that coatings reduced hospital-acquired infections by 36 percent.

Gerba said that as a university professor, he and colleagues had been discussing ways to make their environment safer for students when they return from lockdowns, and antimicrobial coatings on door handles and table tops would be useful.

"There's a lot of them being developed right now, but hopefully when we start opening everything, they'll be ready."

The north magnetic pole is leaving Canada for Siberia. These 'blobs' may be the reason why.

The north magnetic pole is lurching away from its traditional home in the Canadian Arctic and toward Siberia because of a fierce tug-of-war battle being waged by two giant blobs hiding deep underground, at the core–mantle boundary, a new study finds. 

© Provided by Live Science null

These blobs, areas of negative magnetic flow under Canada and Siberia, are in a winners-take-all struggle. Already, as these blobs change shape and magnetic intensity, a victor has emerged; from 1999 to 2019, while the blob beneath Canada weakened, the blob under Siberia slightly intensified, the researchers found. "Together, these changes caused the north magnetic pole to travel towards Siberia," the researchers wrote in the study.


"We've never seen anything like this before," study lead researcher Phil Livermore, an associate professor of geophysics at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, told Live Science in an email.

Related: Earth from above: 101 stunning images from orbit

When scientists first located the north magnetic pole (the point where your compass needle points) in 1831, it sat in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. Soon, researchers realized that the north magnetic pole tended to wander, but it usually didn't stray far. Then, from 1990 to 2005, the magnetic pole's yearly jaunt jumped from a historic speed of no more than 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year to as much as 37 miles (60 km) a year, the researchers wrote in the study.

In October 2017, the north magnetic pole crossed the international date line and entered the Eastern Hemisphere, passing within 242 miles (390 km) of the geographic north pole. Then, the north magnetic pole began moving southward. The change was so rapid, that in 2019, geologists were forced to publish a new World Magnetic Model, a map that informs everything from airplane navigation to the GPS on smartphones, a year ahead of time.

It was anyone's guess why the pole was leaving Canada for Siberia. That was until Livermore and his colleagues realized that the blobs were, in large part, responsible.

© Provided by Live Science The magnetic north pole has wandered away from the Canadian Arctic (solid blue line) and toward Siberia for about the past century, but it has considerably sped up over the past 20 years. The international date line is shown as a black dotted line. The data after 2019 are extrapolated lines based on different models. (Image credit: Livermore PW, et al. Nature Geoscience (2020)


Changing blobs

The magnetic field is generated by swirling liquid iron deep inside the Earth in the outer core. As such, changes in that sloshing iron can change the location of magnetic north.

The magnetic field isn't confined to the core, however; magnetic field lines "poke out" of Earth, Livermore said. As it turns out, these blobs are the spots where these lines pop out. "If you imagine the lines of [the] magnetic field like soft spaghetti, then these patches would be like a cluster of spaghetti sticking out of the Earth," he said.

The researchers discovered that from 1999 to 2019, the blob under Canada elongated east to west and divided into two smaller joined blobs, possibly because of a change in the pattern of core flow between 1970 and 1999. One of these blobs had a higher intensity than the other, but overall this elongation "caused the weakening of the Canadian patch at Earth’s surface," the researchers wrote in the study.

Furthermore, because of the split, the Canadian blob with higher intensity became closer to the Siberian blob. This, in turn, enhanced the Siberian blob, the researchers wrote.

However, these two blobs are in a delicate balance, so "it would take only a minor readjustment of the present configuration to reverse the current trend" of the north magnetic pole's current trek toward Siberia, the researchers wrote in the study. In other words, a tweak to one blob or the other could send the North Magnetic pole back toward Canada.

Reconstructions of past north magnetic pole movements suggests that two blobs — and sometimes three — have influenced the pole's position over time. These blobs have prompted the pole to wander around northern Canada for the past 400 years, the researchers said.

"But over the last 7,000 years, [the north magnetic pole] seems to have chaotically moved around the geographic pole, showing no preferred location," the researchers wrote in the study. The pole also moved toward Siberia in 1300 B.C., according to modeling.

It's difficult to say what will happen next. "Our predictions are that the pole will continue to move towards Siberia, but forecasting the future is challenging and we cannot be sure," Livermore said.

That forecasting will rely on "detailed monitoring of the geomagnetic field from Earth's surface and space in the coming years," the researchers wrote in the study, which was published online May 5 in the journal Nature Geoscience. 

Earth pictures: Iconic images of Earth from space
In photos: A conveyor belt for Arctic Sea ice
In photos: The vanishing ice of Baffin Island

Originally published on Live Science.

SATURN
There's an extensive system of haze layers in the bizarre hexagon on Saturn, a new study has found.

© Provided by Space A high-res, colorful view of Saturn's Hexagon. 

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University)

"Saturn's Hexagon" is a swirling maelstrom at the planet's north pole that, as its name implies, has an odd, hexagonal shape. The hexagon is an ever-present cloud pattern that "stands" tall as an enormous, whirling tower on the planet. The phenomenon was first discovered in 1980 by NASA's Voyager spacecraft and was later on imaged in exquisite detail by the Cassini spacecraft, which orbited the planet from 2004 to 2017.

Now ina new study, scientists with the Planetary Science Group at the University of Basque Country used images from Cassini and the Hubble Space Telescope to show that Saturn's hexagon is more than just a geometric oddity. The feature has its own system of hazes layered on top of one another.

Related: Saturn's weird hexagon storms in stunning photos

© Provided by Space A view of the layers in Saturn's Hexagon. (Image credit: UPV/EHU)

In 2015, Cassini's main camera snapped high-resolution images of Saturn that revealed the hazes above the clouds in the hexagon. Fifteen days later, the Hubble telescope also took a look at the planet and its strange hexagon. Using these images, the team was able to understand more about the layers of hexagon hazes spotted by Cassini.


"The Cassini images have enabled us to discover that, just as if a sandwich had been formed, the hexagon has a multi-layered system of at least seven mists that extend from the summit of its clouds to an altitude of more than 300 km [186 miles] above them," Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, a professor at the University of Basque Country who led the study, said in a statement. "Other cold worlds, such as Saturn's satellite Titan or the dwarf planet Pluto, also have layers of hazes, but not in such numbers nor as regularly spaced out."

The researchers found that each of these haze layers is approximately between 4.3 and 11 miles (7 and 18 kilometers). The team thinks that because of the drastic freezing temperatures in Saturns atmosphere (which range from minus 184 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 292 degrees F (minus 120 degrees Celsius to minus 180 degrees C)) there are likely frozen crystalline particles made up butane, acetylene or even propane in the cloud structure.

Now, this wasn't the first time these hazes have been spotted and studied but, with this work, these researchers have not only studied these layers closer, but they also suggest that the hazes are vertically distributed based on oscillations in density and temperature in Saturn's atmosphere caused by a gravitational pull. "Gravity waves" like this happen on other planets too, even on Earth with jet streams traveling in the atmosphere.

While Saturn's hexagon is still not completely understood, by understanding phenomena like Saturn's hexagon better, researchers hope to better understand not only this strange cloud pattern on Saturn but also atmospheric phenomena that happen here on our home planet, according to the same statement.

This work is detailed here in the May 8 edition of the journal Nature Communications. 

Bizarre Giant Hexagon on Saturn May Finally Be Explained

Bizarre Saturn Hexagon, Vortex Star in Cassini Photo

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Gets a Close-Up in New Cassini Photo

© Provided by Live Science

A Lens to Candomblé Afro-Brazilian culture through the work of Pierre Verger

https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/33946/A%20Lens%20to%20Candombl%C3%A9.pdf?sequence=1

Introduction

 This Research Master Arts and Culture thesis deals with Afro-Brazilian culture, focusing on the work of Pierre Verger, a French photographer and ethnologist who executed extensive work on this topic. My field of research is photography and cultural exchange, or interculturality, specifically between Africa and Brazil in regards to Candomblé ritual. Candomblé is a cultural-religious practice that is the result of cross-cultural exchange. In Flash of The Spirit (1984), Robert Farris Thompson, who has devoted serious study to the art history of the Afro-Atlantic world, emphasized that African civilizations in transition to the West represent an important migration style to the world’s history.1 This author belongs to the state of the art in this field, representing much of what has been written about the art history of Afro-Brazilian topics in the English language. Another recent work worth mentioning written in English is Ecstatic Encounters (2011) by Mattijs van de Port from the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Amsterdam.2 This author has concentrated on Bahian3 Candomblé, which is my specific object of study. Even though a lot of research has been done on Bahian Candomblé, very little is available in English. In this thesis I wish to contribute opening up material for an English speaking audience; also, I aim to show how Pierre Verger, through the lens of his camera and his theoretical framing, is fundamental for the academic research of Candomblé. I am going to introduce Pierre Verger, and explain what Candomblé is composed of in an attempt to contribute a relevant study to the field, considering the context of Leiden University and the Netherlands at large, where little is known in regards to Afro-Brazilian culture despite the significant sources available. My approach will be based on how Candomblé has been framed by scholars such as Pierre Verger, who went after the African historical and cultural roots that compose Brazilian Candomblé. The corpus of this research is Pierre Verger’s 1957 work, Notes sur Le Culte des Orisha et Vodum, la Baie de Tous les Saints, au Brésil et à l’ancienne Côte des Esclaves en Afrique, which is a rare title available at Leiden University Library. This book concerns, as the title suggest, an extensive compilation of notes and photographs regarding the cults of orishas and vodun, which in Brazil are venerated (not exclusively) in Candomblé. Therefore, my research question is concerned in analyzing how Candomblé was conveyed by Pierre Verger’s lenses, both in visual and discursive ways

   

The Golden Chain

   This creation story comes from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo and Benin. In the religion of the Yoruba, the supreme being is Olorun, and assisting Olorun are a number of heavenly entities called orishas. This story was written down by David A. Anderson/ Sankofa, who learned it from his father, who learned it from his mother, and so on back through the Yoruba people and through time.

---------------------------

      Long ago, well before there were any people, all life existed in the sky. Olorun lived in the sky, and with Olorun were many orishas. There were both male and female orishas, but Olorun transcended male and female and was the all-powerful supreme being. Olorun and the orishas lived around a young baobab tree. Around the baobab tree the orishas found everything they needed for their lives, and in fact they wore beautiful clothes and gold jewelry. Olorun told them that all the vast sky was theirs to explore. All the orishas save one, however, were content to stay near the baobab tree.
      Obatala was the curious orisha who wasn't content to live blissfully by the baobab tree. Like all orishas, he had certain powers, and he wanted to put them to use. As he pondered what to do, he looked far down through the mists below the sky. As he looked and looked, he began to realize that there was a vast empty ocean below the mist. Obatala went to Olorun and asked Olorun to let him make something solid in the waters below. That way there could be beings that Obatala and the orishas could help with their powers.
      Touched by Obatala's desire to do something constructive, Olorun agreed to send Obatala to the watery world below. Obatala then asked Orunmila, the orisha who knows the future, what he should do to prepare for his mission. Orunmila brought out a sacred tray and sprinkled the powder of baobab roots on it. He tossed sixteen palm kernels onto the tray and studied the marks and tracks they made on the powder. He did this eight times, each time carefully observing the patterns. Finally he told Obatala to prepare a chain of gold, and to gather sand, palm nuts, and maize. He also told Obatala to get the sacred egg carrying the personalities of all the orishas.
      Obatala went to his fellow orishas to ask for their gold, and they all gave him all the gold they had. He took this to the goldsmith, who melted all the jewelry to make the links of the golden chain. When Obatala realized that the goldsmith had made all the gold into links, he had the goldsmith melt a few of them back down to make a hook for the end of the chain.
      Meanwhile, as Orunmila had told him, Obatala gathered all the sand in the sky and put it in an empty snail shell, and in with it he added a little baobab powder. He put that in his pack, along with palm nuts, maize, and other seeds that he found around the baobab tree. He wrapped the egg in his shirt, close to his chest so that it would be warm during his journey.
      Obatala hooked the chain into the sky, and he began to climb down the chain. For seven days he went down and down, until finally he reached the end of the chain. He hung at its end, not sure what to do, and he looked and listened for any clue. Finally he heard Orunmila, the seer, calling to him to use the sand. He took the shell from his pack and poured out the sand into the water below. The sand hit the water, and to his surprise it spread and solidified to make a vast land. Still unsure what to do, Obatala hung from the end of the chain until his heart pounded so much that the egg cracked. From it flew Sankofa, the bird bearing the sprits of all the orishas. Like a storm, they blew the sand to make dunes and hills and lowlands, giving it character just as the orishas themselves have character.
      Finally Obatala let go of the chain and dropped to this new land, which he called "Ife", the place that divides the waters. Soon he began to explore this land, and as he did so he scattered the seeds from his pack, and as he walked the seeds began to grow behind him, so that the land turned green in his wake.
      After walking a long time, Obatala grew thirsty and stopped at a small pond. As he bent over the water, he saw his reflection and was pleased. He took some clay from the edge of the pond and began to mold it into the shape he had seen in the reflection. He finished that one and began another, and before long he had made many of these bodies from the dark earth at the pond's side. By then he was even thirstier than before, and he took juice from the newly-grown palm trees and it fermented into palm wine. He drank this, and drank some more, and soon he was intoxicated. He returned to his work of making more forms from the edge of the pond, but now he wasn't careful and made some without eyes or some with misshapen limbs. He thought they all were beautiful, although later he realized that he had erred in drinking the wine and vowed to not do so again.
      Before long, Olorun dispatched Chameleon down the golden chain to check on Obatala's progress. Chameleon reported Obatala's disappointment at making figures that had form but no life. Gathering gasses from the space beyond the sky, Olorun sparked the gasses into an explosion that he shaped into a fireball. He sent that fireball to Ife, where it dried the lands that were still wet and began to bake the clay figures that Obatala had made. The fireball even set the earth to spinning, as it still does today. Olorun then blew his breath across Ife, and Obatala's figures slowly came to life as the first people of Ife.




David A. Anderson/Sankofa, 1991, The Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth: Mt. Airy, Maryland, Sights Productions, 31 p. (Folio PZ8.1.A543 Or 1991)  

Back to the Table of Contents of Creation Stories from around the World.  

Perceptions on Santería: Then and Now 

Glaude, Ludmille, "Perceptions on Santería: Then and Now" (2018). 

Undergraduate Research. 15. http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/undergraduateresearch/15

This paper will examine how the Batista and Castro regimes were able to impact the perception of Santería amongst the Cuban public. Santeria is a polytheistic religion practiced in Cuba that combines elements of Yoruba beliefs and Catholicism. Recently, Santeria appears to be experiencing a growth in visibility in Cuba. The syncretic religion and its visibility, has become of interest to examine and report on, amongst many media outlets. According to a Vice News article published as recently as 2014, the author dubs Santería as “Cuba’s New Religion”. The article describes Santería as a dynamic form of worship, with participation and a creation of a shared identity amongst all levels of Cuban society and other societies of practicing Latin American countries. In this paper, I plan to examine the perceptions of Santeria during the twentieth and twenty first centuries, and demonstrate these perceptions of Santeria have affected their visibility--or lack thereof.