The announcement card for the Map exhibit at USD have been published.

Now the difficult part begins:  Promotion and marketing.  Hopefully we’ll do some Facebook and some press releases and some other viral stuff.  If you have any ideas let me know.  Mean while if you know anybody in San Diego forward this link to them.  http://swcamborne.com/archives/simon-says/changing-boundaries

The opening reception could be quite interesting because it is hard to avoid the question: “Did the USA steal California from Mexico?” You and your friends can come and hear my brilliant answer.  To register click here.  Here are more details:

“Most Americans, it turns out, are not running for office, not running from the police, and not alienated from their society.  Their lives are well filled, their nature is generous, and they are at peace with their neighbors.”

Charles Kuralt

1985

From: On the Road with Charles Kuralt, Set I

“Every valley ends in mystery.”

Isabella Bird
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains
1879

These purple flowers were growing in the flood control, debris basin in Eaton Canyon.  I went home and got my camera to take this photo.

An Unexpected Visual Delight

My friend Paul D owned and ran E F Hilton a manufacturer of jewelry displays for many years.  One of the many admirable things that Paul did was to take saying like my maxims and using his design sense and the skill set of his production area create beautifully engraved signs.  This is one of my favorites that he gave to me:

Paul recently sold the business to a competitor in Texas.  A new page has been turned.

The US Government, which is the majority shareholder of General Motors, is also the arbiter of automobile safety in the USA.  Currently GM’s biggest competitor, Toyota, is having serious quality issues and the NHTSA (part of the US Government’s Transportation Department) is turning up the heat.

I don’t have enough data to comment on whether Toyota’s quality issues are as serious as they sound. But if I were a Japanese citizen reading about the timing of the recalls and that GM is owned by the safety enforcer I would be extremely suspicious.

I’m reminded of what I used to call “Caesars wife’s rule.”  Caesars wife should never act improperly but she also should never be in a position where there can even be any suspicion that she acted improperly.  The US Government has violated this principle and the Japanese have a right to be suspicious.

If the Japanese get as mad as I would about this it could develop into a very serious conflict.  Remember that the people of Central America are still suspicious of US intentions in their region, because of the actions of the filibuster William Walker a hundred and fifty years ago.

This is a story that they don’t teach to school children in the USA.  But they do teach it in Costa Rica.  I think it explains a lot about the suspicion that people in Latin America have about the intentions of the United States.

This map will be in a exhibit at USD on April 21, 2010

In the 1850′s Manifest Destiny and ending slavery were the big issues like Islamic Terrorism and National Health Care are today.  Territory was in flux.  Texas had successfully broken away from Mexico in the 1830′s and the Mexican War which ended in 1848 had increased the size of the United States by a third.  Into this mix a charismatic young man from Louisiana named William Walker set out to become a hero.  He ended up dead and in the process showed the USA to be an imperialist country.

In 1853 he put together an army and invaded Mexico.  He took La Paz and Ensenada and declared The Republic of Sonora.  Mexico fought back and he returned, defeated to the USA.  He was tried for violating the neutrality act and acquitted by a jury in San Francisco.  Next he colonized Nicaragua took over the army and declared himself the President.  He openly declared that he would control all of Central America.  He was defeated by the Costa Ricans in 1856 and rescued by the US Navy.  In 1860 he was back in Honduras trying again to take over a country.  He was captured tried and hung by the Hondurans.  You can read the whole story of  William Walker on Wikipedia but you get the drift.  There is also a book “With Walker in Nicaragua” available on Amazon of course.

Permanence is an illusion.

Neil Gaiman

Author

The title is probably bad Spanish but it will serve as a place holder.  I’ve written a large group of blogs about Costa Rica this is a summary page.

All of the photos on Flicker

The Beautiful Tabacon Resort

Puntarenas and Macaws

Monkeys and Manuel Antonio Park

Los Suenos Sunset

Cano Negro Birds

The Great Wall

Lands in Love

More to come.

“The once golden state has atrophied into a land of government run by the government for the government.”

Mark Steyn