After taking it easy yesterday, I was much more energetic today, and I began with Richard Lovelock’s talk on “Secrets of Smartphone Photography.” Although I thought that Simon and Lisa Thomas had covered everything to know about the subject during their series of workshops earlier in the cruise, I figured a refresher would be useful. It was, and I even picked up a new shortcut.
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| Secrets of Smartphone Photography |
Executive Chef Alastair was at it again today, and the Mexican Lunch seemed to be the most popular special event so far. The line extended all the way past the dessert buffet, but the wait was worth it. The Chef had done a cooking demonstration earlier this morning on preparing chimichangas, and they were on the menu. Delicious!
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| The Officers Were Recruited Once Again to Serve the Mexican Lunch |
In the afternoon, I stayed in the room with Tim to do a bit of research about yesterday’s safari. Trying to identify the birds I had photographed was quite a challenge, and I’m sure I made a few mistakes.
Later on, we watched Dr. Babcock’s lecture on “Africa Rising: The Historical Development of a Continent.” He went back as far as the ancient kingdoms, then covered the impacts of colonialism, the struggle for independence, and where we are today.
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| Africa Rising: The Historical Development of a Continent |
I was especially interested in his explanation of colonialism and how the European powers divided up the African continent into countries with artificial borders. He presented the following image and said that “this is the slide that changed the world.”
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| "The Slide That Changed the World" |
Hundreds or thousands of different people groups were jammed into each arbitrarily defined country, and “that’s what really messed the whole thing up,” in his words. Boundaries were based on geography or something arbitrary. The result was a Western concept of a country or territory, not an African one. What this produced is countries comprised of peoples that hated one another, not a good recipe for a stable country.
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