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Dr Keith Tankard www.the-time-traveller.com No. 1 of 2013email: keith@the-time-traveller.com

In this issue:

• Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

• Letter to the editor - Bubonic Plague / Spanish Flu .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

• Humpty Dumpty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

• Philosophy of greed or a new religion? .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

• Time Travellers .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

• The digital revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

• Antarctica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Follow us on Facebook @ Time Travelling or on Twitter @KeithTankard

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Editorial

Believe it or not, my world history site is now almost 20 years old although it has beensavagely neglected in recent years. It was started in about 1995 (I can no longer rememberthe exact date) and its purpose was to serve as a vehicle for putting up notes for mystudents.

It didn’t have a name but tended to be referred to as “my world history site” and it was part ofthe early Rhodes University internet, housed on a server called “kudu”. RhodesU, however,kept changing things. It was once moved to “dolphin” but the transfer wasn’t announcedwhich meant that everyone lost access to it, including me.

Back in those days, I didn’t understand that anything put on the internet would actually beseen by anybody anywhere in the world. Very soon, however, I received an email fromsomeone in France querying something, and then one from Pakistan asking if I could sell theLahore harbour a suction dredger. Thus I discovered I was reaching the world.

But then I progressed to other things. First, my Labyrinth of East London Lore (Rosannthought of that title). Then, of course, my big project: Knowledge4Africa.

We launched Knowledge4Africa on 12 March 2004. Next year will be our 10th anniversary. Initially we had massive plans but eventually realised there was the danger it could get out ofcontrol, and collapse.

Now Knowledge4Africa ticks along nicely, averaging 35,000 visitors per month. So it’s timeto revisit the history site. Time to revamp. Time to convert it from notes for my students intoa proper educational site, with interactive questions to test the reader.

And, of course, it’s time to give it a name.

I’ve set the date for its relaunch as 15 January 2014. But we can’t wait that long beforeupgrading the old Time Traveller ezine. So here we are with something new. And a newname, a different look, with a different way of doing things.

I hope you will enjoy it.Dr T. — the Time Traveller

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Letter to the Editor

Black Death vs Spanish Flu

Hello

The other day I heard a person say that between WW1 and WW2 there was a virus thatwent around Europe that killed more people than the Black Death but that Germany was nothit, making them strong for WW2. Is there truth in this? And if so what can you tell meabout it?

ThanksSarah

Hello Sarah

The sickness you are referring to is presumably the Spanish Flu epidemic which happenedbetween November 1918 and January 1920. It is estimated that between 50 million and100 million people died worldwide but, as this represents only 5% of the total world’spopulation, it was nowhere near as severe as the Black Death of the 14th century whichkilled between 20% to 40% of the people.

It seems that the Spanish Flu was the first known outbreak of the H1N1 virus whichhappened again in 2009, although this time it became known as Swine Flu but which luckilydidn't have anywhere near such massive casualties.

About Germany. At first stats for Germany were suppressed for some reason but it isbelieved now that about 500,000 Germans died. This was twice as many as in England and20 times greater than Canada. So, no, it’s hardly likely that Germany gained any advantagebut, on the contrary, the country suffered more heavily than most.

The Spanish Flu is quite well documented on the internet. But some obvious questionssuggest themselves:

• Why would the death rate for the Spanish Flu have been so vast in comparison withthe later Swine Flu which appears to have been the same strain?

• Was the massive death rate for Spanish Flu connected with the distressedconditions prevailing at the end of the Great War?

Hope this answer helps.Dr T.

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Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty is known to every child, and by anyone who was ever a child. But wasHumpty always an egg? Although his being an egg doesn’t make too much sense becauseobviously all the king’s horses and all the king’s mencouldn’t then put Humpty together again.

The reality appears to be that it was LewisCarroll who first made him an egg in the illustratedversion of Alice through the Looking Glass publishedin 1871 as a sequel to Alice in Wonderland. WaltDisney studios then cemented this concept in theanimated movie produced in 1951.

But where did the nursery rhyme originate? Andwhat was Humpty Dumpty? Although it seems clearthat the rhyme was probably an early riddle, invitingchildren to guess as to its meaning. But was there areal meaning?

One suggestion is that Humpty Dumpty was a17th century drink of brandy boiled with ale. Yuck! Orperhaps an 18th century slang expression for a short person. Some argue that he was KingRichard III because the king was a cripple? Was Richard really a cripple?

The most convincing argument is that Humpty Dumpty was a little cannon on the wallsof Gloucester, defending the town from Oliver Cromwell and his Roundheads. Theattacking forces fired a shot which destroyed part of the wall and the cannon itself camecrashing down, putting the city’s defences in jeopardy.

The royalist forces (all the king’s horses and all the king’s men) would immediatelyhave tried to haul Humpty Dumpty to safety, perhaps to a new spot atop a high wall. But thecannon was either too heavy to raise, or it was now broken and couldn’t be mended.

Why would Lewis Carroll have changed the character into an egg? Well, that’s thesort of thing the author did. He was essentially writing the book for Alice’s father who was aProfessor of Linguistics at Oxford University and who believed that English words andexpressions had precise meanings which couldn’t be changed.

Carroll enjoyed playing with him. In the Wonderland books, Alice found that words andexpressions were continually manipulated . . . even given wholly new meanings. Read“Jabberwocky”, for instance. “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in thewabe.” What on earth does that mean? And what is a “borogove”?

It seems that there is no definitive answer to the meaning of Humpty Dumpty but it’sfun to speculate. And that was probably what the original rhyme was all about.

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Philosophy of greed or a new religion?

Capitalism. The economic architect of the modern world. A philosophy of greed. Wasn’t that what Karl Marx called it? Exploitation of the proletariat! Or was it just a simplebelief in being proudly selfish because that’s the way things get done?

Nevertheless, it didn’t have its roots everywhere. It certainly wasn’t in India, Africa orChina until the European voyages of discovery went there. And so it wasn’t an absolutelynatural part of humankind’s growing up.

Marx said it originated in the Reformation. Surely he’s right? After all, isn’t capitalismpart and parcel of the “Protestant work ethic”? Yet one doesn’t find capitalism in theGermany of Martin Luther. Or perhaps his reformation wasn’t really Protestant?

In actual fact, we find capitalism rearing its head in the towns of Switzerland at aroundthe time of John Calvin, and it then spread like the plague along the trade routes to thecommercial towns of France, Holland, and even England.

Calvin preached some savage stuff. Women wholaughed in church could be flogged. So could womenwho wore make-up, jewellery and fine clothes. Andflogging was also on the list for those caught drinkingalcohol and for frivolous behaviour.

But what is strange is that Calvin’s flock liked whathe preached. They actually appreciated his sort ofnegativity. What’s going on here?

The thing is that Calvin was preaching to a veryspecific group of people: the bourgeoisie of 16th centuryEurope, the wealthy townspeople who were theentrepreneurs and the master craftsmen.

At the time, there were only two accepted classes of people: the Upper Clergy (theCardinals, Bishops, etc) and the Aristocracy living on their lavish country estates. Bothgroups were idle, lived lives of luxury and wore ornate clothing.

The bourgeoisie didn’t like this at all. For them, life meant hard work. Wealth was agift from God. Money was not to be wasted on frivolous activities, on fine dress andjewellery. It was a precious commodity to be used only for one’s advancement.

The problem was that the Church disagreed. Money was filthy lucre, to be spent butnot hoarded. It could not be used to further one’s profit.

The bourgeoisie wanted to change that. And so, when John Calvin offered them aneconomic philosophy based on a new outlook on religion, they jumped at it. They didn’tlaugh him to scorn. But they seldom laughed anyway. And thus capitalism was born.

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Time Travellers

“But there’s another very salient point,” said the Time Traveller. “Pumzi, you’llunderstand this, I’m sure. Suppose you were a master craftsman with labourers in youremploy.”

Pumzi nodded, eager to show his financial acumen.

“Let’s say you pay your labourers ten shillings each. And this money is just enough foreach of them to buy the basics of life. They’re still very poor but nevertheless able to makeends meet.”

“OK,” said Pumzi, waiting for the thrust of the argument.

“Now, you want your labourers to work harder to increase your profit,” Uncle Bertiesaid. “How would you do it?”

Bronnie’s hand shot up. “We’d offer to pay them more,” she said. “They’d work muchharder for more pay.”

“Pumzi?” Uncle Bertie invited him.

“I’d pay them less,” the boy said. “Then they’d have towork even harder just to remain as they were.”

“Oh my word,” Jelly exclaimed. “Our brother is an outand out capitalist. You’d want to exploit your labourers.”

“But hang on a moment,” Bronnie butted in. “Pumzi’sgot a point. If wealth is a sign of God’s blessing, then thelabourers are showing every sign that they are not blessed. Their poverty proves that God doesn’t love them.”

From: Keith Tankard’s Time Travellers, Book 5. A series ofsix short novels, each debating history. To be launched earlyin 2014.

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Have you read Broken Promises yet? It’s the onlydigital book which fully explores Sir George Grey’ssettler schemes to the Eastern Cape . . . and also tellsyou why the German settlers also began arriving in theWestern Cape.

If not, do contact the author so he can explain how youmay purchase a copy.

Keith Tankard <ktankard@telkomsa.net>

The digital revolution:

It’s already over 500 years since Johannes Gutenberg was accredited with starting thepublishing revolution in Germany. OK, OK, it wasn’t he but the world remembers him ashaving done so. And what a revolution it was.

It certainly changed the face of Europe when Martin Luther was able to publish hisarguments in a way which could then be read throughout Europe. Before long, anybodywho could read was devouring his ideas. And then along came Ulrich Zwingli, followed byJohn Calvin . . . and before long the Catholic Church was no longer the Universal Church.

The next publishing revolution is today well and truly upon us and we no longer need topay anybody to publish for us. We can do it ourselves. No longer do we need worry aboutrejection slips. Indeed, the people who are now worried are the publishers themselves . . .as well as bookshops which are closing all over the world.

Last year America reported that 50% of all books sold were digital and soon there willbe just a very small market for the paper variety.

One of the dramatic results is a drop in price. Theoretically it should be much cheaper. The problem for would be authors, however, is that self-publication also needs other things,like a substantial website and access to social media like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr andLinkedIn. Hmmmm. And so it still involves hard work and dedication.

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Antarctica

Here’s something we don’t often think about. Antarctica. Desolate white wilderness. Forever frozen. Or is that really true?

Scientist are rethinking the origin of the frozen world. It’s been known that thesouthern continent has been glaciated forabout 34 million years.

The common theory about the cause ofthe white wilderness has been that theAntarctic Circumpolar Current swirls aroundin a clockwise direction, insulating thecontinent from the warmer waters of theoceans to the north.

Recently, however, this theory is beingrethought, new evidence having been put forward that a series of volcanic arc islands madetheir appearance about 28 million years ago and remained for the next 16 million years. This would have disrupted the circumpolar current.

What then caused the continent to freeze over? Probably that the earth simplyentered a very cold period about 35 million years ago and the continent froze.

Of course, Antarctica hasn’t always been where it is now. Continental Drift moves theland masses around all the time. In fact, about 500 million years ago, Antarctica was part ofthe massive super-continent known as Pangaea and it would then have had a rathersub-tropical climate. Hence the presence of coal there.

Your comments would be very welcome. As would any suggested topics for discussion.Please respond to keith@the-time-traveller.com. And if you liked this ezine,

please send a copy to your friends.