Erika Schelby is the author of Liberating the Future from the Past? Liberating the Past from the Future? (2013) and Looking for Humboldt and Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond (2017). Schelby lives in New Mexico.
Erika Schelby is the author of Looking for Humboldt and Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond (Lava Gate Press, 2017) and Liberating the Future from the Past? Liberating the Past from the Future? (Lava Gate Press, 2013), which was shortlisted for the International Essay Prize Contest by the Berlin-based cultural magazine Lettre International. Schelby lives in New Mexico.
The island of Borneo has been attacked, destroyed, and sacrificed for the global demand for palm oil, timber, and coal.
Sometimes realty outperforms fiction. This is the case with an invented tale and subsequent events playing out in real time on the island of Borneo. In the early 90s, T.C. Boyle published a provocative short story titled Top of the Food Chain. It can be understood as a sharp warning to humans who tamper with ecosystems. It had a far-sighted quality, but what actually happened on Borneo during the three decades that followed was much more disturbing. Deforestation initiated campaigns against environmental damages.
One of the major culprits was Procter & Gamble. This giant American company purchased large quantities of palm oil produced on Borneo and was seen as a contributor to the island’s massive ecological decay and related human rights abuses. But then, after long struggles, came what the Financial Times called the investor rebellion of 2020, when P&G shareholders voted against the company and for serious planet-friendly changes.
To put things into perspective, it will be worthwhile to summarize the ironic logic of T.C. Boyle’s story.
Adapted from Looking for Humboldt & Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond
Few Americans are aware of the long-standing fascination Germans have for the American West. Even fewer know that it was two Germans, Heinrich Balduin Möllhausen and Friedrich Wilhelm von Egloffstein who were the first to depict the Grand Canyon in the mid-nineteenth century. Both hungered for the rugged adventures that the unexplored territory could offer. Both traveled on government-funded explorations which included a railroad survey and also difficult investigations of the navigability of the Colorado River. Möllhausen, in particular, would come to embody the daring explorer who was willing to risk his life for the thrill of traversing lands that were new to Europeans as well as to many Americans at the time.
Direct-to-consumer medication advertising is allowed in only two countries: the U.S. and New Zealand. The rest of the world knows better.
In 2015 The American Medical Association endorsed a ban, and in 2021 it voted again for banning these commercially driven promotions. But only the FDA and Congress can legislate the required prohibition.
“To laugh is proper for man.”—Rabelais
Today, all humans who work for a living are in business in one way or another. They are the participants, cheerleaders, anti-heroes, first responders, or economically injured people in a national and global game. The media tend to divide the public into consumers and investors. This is no longer clever or useful. Humans are far more than that. Most of them do the essential work that keep things going during turbulent times.
They show up despite extreme weather events and deal with dysfunctional incidents, daily challenges, and multiplying uncertainties. They are also involved in the Great Resignation and seek relief from stressful living. Of course once in a while it is necessary—even for the most enduring creatures—to stand back and take a deep breath. That’s where the collection of Business Fables come in. They tell concise stories that can make one’s day and bring on a smile. They are satirical, sarcastic, wise and funny.
After closures due to the pandemic, the landmark “Humboldt & The Unites States” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum reopened on May 14, 2021. Humboldt visited the United States for only six weeks, but in that time, he changed America and American art permanently. His impact was profound and his name is everywhere.
Erika Schelby’s Looking For Humboldt is a fitting book to complement the exhibit. It covers Humboldt’s ideas and his down-to-earth influence on those who worked in the field while exploring the Southwest. Humboldt was a cosmopolitan scientist and a Prussian-German. Today, at least 46 million Americans continue to claim German descent. Their contributions are vast. Before World War I, this heritage was evident throughout American society. It was erased during World War I. A century later, it is reasonable to ask: why is this large demographic group of solid citizens wrapped in so much silence? Did these Americans forget how to think, read, or write? With Humboldt’s spirit inspiring her work, Schelby discards the silence.
When the Berlin-based cultural magazine Lettre International organized its philosophical essay competition, it received 2,481 submissions in seven languages from 123 countries. Juries chose 33 authors as finalists: This essay is one of these short-listed papers. It sends a farewell to the 20th century and a welcome to the 21st. The essay deals with physical travels from the voyages of discovery to our more mental journeys through cyberspace.
It looks at communications, world history, developments from Gutenberg's printing press to the Internet, and much more. In doing this, it finds ironies. One of these ironies is the recreation of white spots on the map: we can now find the old terra incognita all over again. That's the unintended result of our advanced technological and widely misinformed age. We will have to roll up our sleeves and keep working to deal with the situation.
Looking For Humboldt (Book Trailer)
Humboldt visited the United States for only six weeks, but in that time he changed America and American art permanently. His impact was profound and his name is everywhere: on mountains, rivers, towns, counties, parks, schools, plants, animals, and products. It’s in the sea, and on a crater of the moon. He remains acutely relevant as an environmental scientist and a naturalist.
Today, all humans who work for a living are in business in one way or another. They are the participants, cheerleaders, anti-heroes, first responders, or economically injured people in a national and global game. The media tend to divide the public into consumers and investors. This is no longer clever or useful. Humans are far more than that. Most of them do the essential work that keep things going during turbulent times. They show up despite extreme weather events and deal with dysfunctional incidents, daily challenges, and multiplying uncertainties. Yet once in a while it is necessary—even for the most enduring creatures —to stand back and take a deep breath.That’s where the Business Fables come in. They tell little stories that can make one’s day. They are satirical, sarcastic, wise and funny.
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In our STEM-fixated age where science is all-encompassing and the humanities are relegated to the status of Cinderellas, advice from a leading scientist that kids should read fairy tales is refreshing. Attributed to Albert Einstein, this was amplified from the humanities periphery by the author of fabulous fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien.
We really don’t know if the renowned physicist said this, but according to Folklife Today, a newsletter from the Library of Congress, the earliest version of this story can be found in the New Mexico Library Bulletin of January 1958. That’s where Elizabeth Margulis wrote about a Denver woman who knew Einstein, wanted her son to become a top scientist too, and asked her eminent acquaintance what kind of reading the child should do during his school years to prepare him for such a career.
Let the boy read “fairy tales” recommended Einstein. “And more fairy tales.”