The “Carcajou (Wolverine in English)” graphic novel is one of the best buys I’ve made this year. The authors have created an almost perfect work, in terms of scenario, graphics and colors.
The vast forests of Alberta, a large province in western Canada, provide the backdrop for this tale. The reader meets a number of colorful characters trying to make their way in this wild environment. Not everyone has what it takes to adapt, but that’s the reality of life in the developing outback.
By 1895, Alberta was attracting gold prospectors and businessmen interested in oil development. Some territories were acquired more or less ethically, and the natives lost out. However, their ancestral beliefs persisted despite injustice and unequal power relations.
The authors tackle a number of significant themes in the development of Canada’s history: the lack of respect shown to First Nations, the harmful effects of alcohol in remote areas, the courage and tenacity required of women to impose respect, the violence caused by firearms, and a police force that sometimes gets involved in crime.
All these aspects developed by less talented authors would produce a negative storyline. The genius of the authors is to have developed the story in a very dynamic way, while still conveying essential messages. There’s no real break in the action. The plot keeps the reader on his toes right to the end.
I loved the characters and clever plot of “Carcajou” and recommend this superb work to graphic novel fans.
The 2016 televised political debates on CNN between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump put forward the topic of racism in the United States. Chicago was specifically mentioned as it detains the national record for violent deaths. The book “Histoire de Chicago” allows, among other subjects, to better understand what feeds social inequalities between Blacks and Whites since the creation of Chicago.
The reader understands that it is not the cultural deficiencies that are at the base of the problems but an institutionalized racism and the economic choices of the different municipal administrations.
The city grew set against a background in which the color of a person’s skin determined the type of work that he or she was allowed to occupy. Eventually, even urban planning was designed so that Blacks and Whites would be separated: the artificial walls created by the construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway or the Dearborn Park are in themselves good examples.
In 2016, the polls show a strong support for the Unites States republican candidate Donald Trump. Trump knows Chicago very well and he had his “Trump Tower” built there.
The republican candidate takes over in his political platform some of the elements that have made the popularity and success of the Daley family who ruled over Chicago for decades: the exploitation of fear between ethnical groups to build and maintain a political power, the idea of building a wall and the use of torture as a simplistic solution to complex problems.
This populism attracts a certain class of American electors who are easily scared by the differences between people and cultures.
The book “Histoire de Chicago” is very much a reflection of what is happening today and the authors do no fear to raise delicate political subjects.
Cover of the book “Histoire de Chicago” by Andrew Diamond and Pap Ndiaye
Chicago
Chicago became a territory of the United States with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Subsequently, natives progressively lost their lands through different manoeuvers, among them the signature of contracts while they were drunk. Around 1830, when the Indians were definitely gone, the speculative fever started.
Railways
Starting around 1860, Chicago organized itself to become the main hub for the most important railway companies of the United States. The city grew very quickly. Passengers, livestock, cereals and other merchandise had to transit through Chicago. The city depended on the train to grow, and the railway companies depended on Chicago to be profitable.
The rapid growth of Chicago’s population was essentially the driver of migration from Europe (Irish, Germans, Polish and Italians). The evolving and often violent relationships between Chicago’s ethnic groups is well explained in the book.
Retail stores
Just before 1900, the Chicago population witnessed the creation of the first retail stores in which a customer could order through a catalogue and use credit. New categories of employees and managers were added to the working population and helped shape the middle class.
Black immigration in Chicago
Around 1910, there was an important increase in the Black immigration coming from southern United States. Chicago was an abolitionist city. This does not mean that it was favoring racial equality but that it was against slavery. In fact, Chicago progressively became the most segregated city in the United States.
Blacks were massively arriving from southern United States, not only for economic reasons but also to get away from the slavery, racial violence and segregation that was the norm in multiple states. Although far from ideal, the situation in Chicago was better than in the south of the country.
The First World War considerably reduced the number of immigrants coming from Europe. This created a serious problem for a city that was benefiting from numerous military contracts and needed a very high number of employees in its manufacturing companies. This also favored the “great migration”, which is to say “the spectacular intensification of the Afro-American migration towards the North-East and Middle West major urban centers […]” (p.143)
Chicago’s slaughterhouses
Chicago was renowned for the very high number of its slaughterhouses, in particular its pork slaughterhouses. The smell and pollution created by this activity was terrible. Chemical laboratories allowed for the commercial use of all parts of an animal. The writer Georges Duhamel wrote in his book that in Chicago “nothing leaves the slaughterhouse but the squeal” (p.63).
Black workers did not have the right to work in the Chicago steel industry and had to limit themselves to slaughterhouses where they were hired as manual workers. They had no access to qualified jobs.
The Second World War
During the Second World War, Chicago was competing with other major American cities to obtain huge military contracts. The city did not manage its efforts to show it supported the American government. Chicago eventually received billions of dollars for the construction of tanks, tractors, torpedoes, bombs and aircrafts (among them the B-29 bomber aircraft).
To compensate for the lack of manpower, since a lot of men enrolled as volunteers and had gone to war, women massively entered the workforce. Employers saw an opportunity to maximize their profits by reducing the salaries of working women, which corresponded only to 65% of the men’s salary for the same work. This represents the way women were thanked for their effort and collaboration.
Transformation of the Chicago economy
A United Airlines Boeing B747 is taxiing over the expressway at the Chicago O’Hare international airport (on aviation postcard)
Chicago experienced a profound transformation during the ‘70 s. The closure of the slaughterhouses in 1971, and the diminishing demand for steel mills products signalled the end of the industrial era. It was followed by an opening on the international and the development of a new economy based on specialized services like finance, real estate, insurance, marketing, publicity and legal services.
The Chicago mayor, Richard M. Daley, fostered the establishment of a new socio-professional class of creators in the city (design, arts, music, etc.) by considering it like another “ethnic group” who needed privileged space to express itself.
The development of housing estates and complexes during the ‘60s and ‘70 s
During the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Chicago landscape was profoundly modified. Huge housing estates and complexes were built (Magnificent Mile, Sandburgh Village, Marina City, Lake Point Tower, Dearborn Park) where the White population lived, in the north part of the city. The Chicago Tribune said of Dearborn Park that it was “a fortress reserved for Whites and aimed at protecting the financial district against the Blacks”.
The Daley administration had to fight against urban sprawling and consequently favored the construction of skyscrapers to maintain the presence of Whites in the central area while receiving more property taxes. Two stock exchange institutions were created, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The creation of those two institutions as well as of the complexes did not do anything to change the dynamic between the Whites and the Blacks.
The racial segregation
Although Martin Luther King was a dominant figure in the fight for the civil rights of the Blacks in the United States, the authors underline that the black population of Chicago had not waited for a leader to promote their rights as they had already started to mobilize themselves years before.
Martin Luther King’s ideas on the integration of Blacks did not receive the support of everyone in the black community, especially the Chicago black politicians who benefited from a special treatment from the Daley machine, which favored the status quo.
Chicago’s mayor Richard M. Daley experienced much success. To stay in power, the Daley Machine “rested squarely on the continued separation and competition between communities”. (p.322-323) The separation between Blacks and Whites was planned and maintained. There was and there are still two Chicagos.
A highway, the Dan Ryan Expressway, was even positioned in such a way that it would create an artificial wall between the Daley’ s district, Bridgeport and the Black Belt: “This was the most massive obstacle that the city could build, other than a wall, to separate the white South Side from the Black Belt” (p.259).
The Daley Machine
We cannot talk about Chicago without underlining the importance of the Daley family and its political machine: “Through an authoritarian control of the “machine”, Richard J. Daley and his son Richard M. Daley, each one in his own style, dominated the Chicago political scene for forty-three years, between 1955 and 2011.
During that period which saw the development and the subsequent decline of modern civil rights, the ghettoization of huge parts of the West Side and South Side, a massive immigration wave from Latin America and the transformation of the city from an industrial giant to a world-class global services economy center, Chicago barely knew one legitimate municipal election or one real debate at the municipal council” (p.16)
There was rampant corruption and secret budgets in the Daley administration. In total opaqueness, the City Hall diverted the funds reserved to disadvantaged neighbourhood and distributed it to the privileged ones.
“[…] While important businessmen, Mafiosi and others who had links with the Daley machine were getting richer, Blacks and Latinos in need were shot in the street or tortured in the precinct’s’ back rooms” (p.394)
Law firms and entrepreneurs gave huge sums of money in exchange for important contracts. The Daley Machine was never short of money.
Beechcraft N35 Bonanza N545T in flight during the years when the Daley family was reigning over Chicago (on aviation postcard)
Racial tensions and repression policies under Mayor Daley
“By the 1930s, Chicago had become, according to the historian Frank Donner “the national capital for police repression” (p.321)
The black migration that took place during the 1940s and 1950s scared the Chicago population that felt besieged. This increased racial tensions that were already present and maintained. It was easier to accept more policemen than social housing.
The muscled tactics of Mayor Daley were the most obvious during the 1968 Democrat Convention, when policemen and 7000 National Guard soldiers “went down hard on the [crowd of 10,000 young protesters] in an explosion of mindless violence” (p.315)
The exploitation of racial fears was quite successful. Daley was defending his policies by saying that “ most people are more worried about a black uproar than of a mayor that orders the use of lethal force to put an end to it and they recognized themselves far less in pacific protesters than in policemen that hit them with truncheons” (p.319).
Media propaganda and the Daley Machine’s police were efficient in convincing the Blacks to respect the established order. Torture was common in the zone 2’s precinct, in the South Side, between 1972 and 1991.
The expected arrival of a new black mayor, Harold Washington, during the 1980’s, increased the fear that everything would change in Chicago. Everything was done to undermine Washington’s candidacy, but he eventually won helped by the black vote.
There were several left-wing political movements which all had their own objectives and were unable to unite under the same progressist banner. This provided the necessary margin of manoeuver to the Daley Machine, who worked in cooperation with the federal authorities to organize the state repression.
Back cover of the book “Histoire de Chicago”
Social problems in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
During the 1995 heat wave, 739 persons died in Chicago. The social precarity helped increase the number of deaths, but it was easier to determine that the victims were responsible of their fate.
The Blacks and Latinos believed, and still do, that the problems related to their school system and neighbourhoods come from some cultural deficiencies, but in trying to understand the real nature of their problems, they overlook the ongoing racism and economic choices of the different city administrations since the creation of the city.
“The 1980 census showed that ten out of sixteen of the poorest neighbourhoods in United States were in Chicago, in the Black Belt, of course”(p.334)
In 2002, Chicago was the American murder capital, with 647 victims. In 2008-2009, the city held the record of students killed in public schools which were gang related.
Today, there are two Chicagos
Today, Chicago benefits from well-defined ethnic neighbourhoods that attract tourists in search of diversity. However, the sustained racial segregation policies have isolated the black neighbourhoods and in 2016 Chicago still has the sad reputation of being the murder capital of the United States.
“The Chicago situation looks more and more like a science-fiction scenario. While part of the city has an economic capacity that sets it among the five first in the world, the other part is frozen in an austerity situation that could very well become irreversible” (p.443)
« Passer par le Nord » (Northern Sea Route), by Isabelle Autissier and Érik Orsenna, is an essential book for the reader who wishes to learn more about the profound transformations brought on by global warming, with regards to geopolitical, economic and ecological issues in the Arctic.
The book is at the same time a lesson in geography, history, politics, ecology and economy. It will certainly captivate those who are interested in maritime traffic and the development of new maritime routes, as well as the race towards the appropriation and exploitation of the immense oil and gas resources of the North.
Book cover of “Passer par le Nord” by Isabelle Autissier and Érik Orsenna
In order to sustain the reader’s interest, several maps are included in the book. They are very useful when comes the time to better understand the history and different uses, past and present, of the seas, islands and territories like: Kara Sea, Barents Sea, Laptev Sea, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Aleutian Islands, New Siberian Islands, North Land, Wrangel, Bering Strait, Svalbard, Spitzberg, Oslo, Tromsö, Kirkenes, Murmansk, etc.
Some of the seaways of Russia, which are among the longest in the world, are equally presented: Ob, Yenisei, Lena and Kolyma.
The numbers talk for themselves: to go from Rotterdam to Yokohama, a ship must travel 20,600 kilometers when passing through the Suez Canal. Only 12,800 kilometers are needed when using the northeast passage along the Siberian coast and 11,800 kilometers when traveling across the pole in the absence of ice during summer (this new transpolar route could be usable as soon as 2025). The need of resources by China and India, associated with melting ice in the poles, are rapidly taking Siberia out of its isolation.
Important people
The reader will certainly be interested by the information on the people who played a significant role in the discovery and exploitation of seas, islands and lands bordering the Northeast maritime route. Here are few of those names: the Viking Otar, Willem Barents, Simon Dejnev, Vitus Bering, Peter the Great, Alexander Baranov, Ivan Veniaminov, Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld, Ada Blackjack, etc.
The first northern crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific belongs to a Swedish named Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld in 1879. Thirty-six years (1915) were needed to witness the second complete crossing, this time by Russian icebreakers under the command of Boris Vilkitski.
The importance of icebreakers
Icebreakers are extremely important for Russia, so much for protecting its recognized sovereignty and defending its new territorial claims than for economic reasons (insure the usability of the Northeast Passage and the continuous exploitation of the oil and gas resources along the Siberian coast).
The United States must also build icebreakers, so much for geopolitical and economic reasons than to insure the protection of a growing number of cruise ships that are about to use the narrow and risky channels of the Arctic.
An obvious collaboration exists between Russia and Norway with regards to fishing in the Barents Sea and in the south of Svalbard, a sector rapidly becoming more strategic with the northern migration of several fish species caused by the climatic changes. Ecosystems are nonetheless in danger due to the rapidly warming waters and insufficient time to adapt.
What are the obstacles presented by the Barents Sea towards tankers, ships and platforms? First the fog, which can last for weeks, than the “lows” which destroy vessels and twist superstructures. Finally,freezing spray adds excessive weight and freezes every crank on ships and platforms. In the event of an accident caused by oil or gas exploitation, the extreme meteorological conditions will present very important challenges.
One note on Siberia
The exploitation of mineral resources in Siberia was initially made possible, under Lenin, through work camps (gulags), since there were no volunteers ready to exile themselves in that hostile region.
The authors suggest, for whoever is interested in Siberia, the soon to be published book by Éric Hoesli. He has already published, in 2006, a very well documented book on the Caucasus: À la conquête du Caucase.
Oslo: Tschudi and Aker Solutions
The authors present two Norwegian companies based in Oslo which deal with logistics at sea: TSCHUDI and Aker Solutions.
Back cover of the book ” Passer par le Nord ” by Isabelle Autissier and Érik Orsenna
Shtokman and Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye natural gas reserves
The reader will certainly appreciate the chapter on the “eldorados glacés” (iced eldorados) which develops on the Shtockman and Yuzhno-Tambeyskoyenatural gas reserves fields (the latter holds 25% of the world reserve of natural gas). There are numerous challenges with regards to the exploitation of those fields: investments of twenty billion dollars, a necessary alliance between Russia, France (TOTAL) and China (CNPC), gigantic infrastructures to be built, the stabilization of all installations using thousands of posts, a constant fight against ice, the construction of thirty tankers (among them sixteen icebreakers), and the obligation to use the Northern maritime route.
Global warming
The book covers at length the accumulated effects of military, industrial and commercial activities on animal life and the environment. The fragility of the Arctic is well demonstrated. The reader will be surprised by the extent of nuclear wastes spread around the Novaya Zemlya.
The global warming favors the migration of species northward, an increase in the number of fishing vessels in the Arctic and political tensions between nations related to the ownership of the zone located between 12 and 200 miles along the different coasts. The native species are losing ground to the profit of the invasive species.
“[My translation] The diminishing polar ice will favor an increase in the number of ships in the Arctic with the added risk of collisions and the emission of all kind of noises that disrupt animals and prevent them from feeding correctly and communicate properly between them or with their offspring. Seismic tests or low-frequency sonars used by fishermen and militaries are particularly devastating.” (p.203)
“With few exceptions (Norway, Japan, Iceland), the moratorium on whale hunting is respected. The official predation by Inuit and the Russian poaching are limited.” (p.203)
Map showing the links behind the accelerated warming of the Arctic (Source: http://arctic-news.blogspot.ca/2012/09/storm-enters-arctic-region.html)
Increase in extreme weather events
“[My translation] The diminishing pack ice will act on the oceanic currents, but also on the atmosphere by slowing down the higher jet streams. This phenomenon will favor an increase in extreme [weather] events (cold spells or heat waves, droughts or floods) at our mid-latitudes.”(p.219)
Response time when faced with an ecological disaster in the Arctic
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (USA) “[my translation] estimates that 61 000 barrels [of oil] would spill in the sea every day if a well exploded. The Shell Company indicates that it would need thirty-eight days to drill a relief well while it needed eighty-five in the Gulf of Mexico, infinitely more accessible and less dangerous. Admitting that it would show the same celerity as for Deepwater Horizon , which in itself would be a feat, more than 800 000 tons of oil would spill in the Arctic.
More likely, operating conditions in ice, fog and storms would prevent the realization of the work within only one summer. Once the polar night would set, a decision to let the well spill all winter would have to be taken, if not for many years in a row.” (p.229)
Methane
“[My translation] Methane has a greenhouse effect that is twenty-three time superior to that of the CO2, that is already presented as our worst enemy” (p.216)
“In the Laptev Sea, what looks like real fountains of several hundred of meters in diameter spew out methane. One can see the sea boil like if it was in a gigantic cauldron. 80% of surface waters and 50% of deep waters present methane concentrations varying from 8 to … 1 400 times the oceanic average!”(p.216)
Mammoth’s tusks poaching
There is a short passage in the book on the poaching of mammoth’s tusks buried in the ground on Liakhov Island. The operation is financed by Mafiosi. The tusks are carved then resold to Chinese collectors for a very good profit.
Global warming, and the thaw it provokes in Siberia, would indirectly protect the African elephant by allowing access to mammoth’s tusks. The new and important stock of ivory in Siberia drives the price down by increasing the offer, thus making the African elephant’s tusks less interesting financially.
Some names to remember
The Port of Kirkenes, in Norway, is one of the main ports of the new northern sea route. It has an ideal geographical position and its harbour is protected against storms. The city favors the development of the port. The efficiency of Norwegian employees is recognized. The Norwegians are used to deal with Russians, their immediate neighbours.
Murmansk, in Russia, is also expected to benefit from global warming. There are already dozens of mines in exploitation, with several of those mines producing rare earths which are vital for modern technology applications.
In the Arctic, the disappearance of the summer ice pack is expected between 2020 and 2030. The Northeast Passage could be accessible beyond the EEZ 200 miles, “which will favor Iceland “which could become a transport hub between America and Europe.”(p.218). “And it is said that some Beijing investors would be ready to offer 5 billion dollars to take control of the future Port of Reykjavik, the one that aims to be the hub of the North.” (p.245)
The Arctic Council
For a long time now, the Arctic has been a strategic area where numerous countries, among them few superpowers, claim an important part of the territory and resources. With the acceleration of the melting process, things get even more complicated.
In 1996, the Arctic Council was created to ease communications and reduce political tensions between the countries pretending to part of the Arctic territory and resources. These countries include Canada, Denmark, United States, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Russia. Associations of indigenous population are also part of the group, but as “permanent members”.
Militarization of the North
The Cold War between Russia and United States forced the construction of the DEW line by Americans and Canadians, a line that was eventually replaced by the North Warning System.
Today, the militarization of the area still goes on: “[my translation] Russia multiplies the signs and acts of militarization in the zone. Military exercises (parachuting, air patrols), reconstruction of installations in all of the islands (Wrangel, New Siberian, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land), orders of numerous ships among them new generation submarines (attack submarines and missile launchers), a complete program for the upgrading of the Boulava missiles … The [Northern Fleet] underwater base, near Murmansk (Severomorsk), seems to be in a state of complete reactivation.”(p.238)
Russia fortifying bases in Arctic region (Source: Heritage.org)
The transpolar maritime route
Geographic map showing the potential northern maritime routes (Source: www.businessinsider.com)
The Northeast Passage maritime route along the Siberian coast will be favored until the ice pack has melted at the pole (expected for 2025 instead of 2060 initially forecasted). So, in 2025, a new transpolar maritime route will be available to ship-owners. They will then be able to decide if they avoid the Siberian coast and the associated administrative hassle while they save an additional one thousand kilometers for a route from Rotterdam to Yokohama.
For more articles on geopolitics on my web site, click on the following link : Geopolitics
