Day 213 - Adventures at Will Rogers State Park

Sarah and myself being the keen explorers we are, decided last Saturday to embark on one of LA’s enticing hikes. Following up from suggestion made by a mutual friend of ours, we decided to visit the Will Rogers state Historic Park and spend our Saturday afternoon doing the relatively short Inspiration Loop hike to inspiration point which was to give us a good view of LA and its coastline stretching from Santa Monica down to Long Beach. Ready and prepared with water and sun protection we embarked on this trail using a map we collected from the quaint gift store located just above the main ranch. From the very start of our hike there was a lot of intrigue and risks as we found out that a large tick native to the area, can be present and gives bites that require immediate medical attention. Heeding the warning and advice, we completed the Inspiration Loop hike which was simple and of little challenge giving us a decent if underwhelming view of LA at Inspiration Point (figure 1). Disappointed by what this 30-minute hike offered us, we revisited the map and found that we could hike further, along the ‘backbone trail’ then return via an unmaintained track down Rustic Canyon. This extra hike, totalling 3 miles should have taken us about an hour and a half, finishing around 6pm for us to catch a bus back to campus. This route entailed even more risk than the last with warning signs of poison oak and prevalence of mountain lions in the area (figure 2). This only added to our excitement and motivation to explore further.

Figure 1. View from Inspiration Point 

Figure 2. DANGER: careful for Mountain Lions

It wasn't long into this trail that we realised it was much harder than the last, entailing much steeper climbs and uneven camber on the ground. Despite this, we saw much more as we gained altitude, more vibrant wildlife, small lizards, tweeting birds, butterflies to name a few. Naturally, as we got higher the view got better, the trail got more interesting and we encountered bridges to cross. The video I took in Figure 3 shows some of this. At this point all was going nicely, the day was in its last few hours and the hike was becoming much more fulfilling. In order to get onto the Rustic Canyon trail we needed to depart the backbone trail and walk the Josepho Spur trail, which was approximately half a mile in distance. This trail was a steep descent down to the creek floor, and it was a much less arid environment, as grasses and other green plants were present; the shadows of the topography enabled a more humid microenvironment. At the end of this trail we reached the bottom of the creek where we would hike the Rustic Canyon trail back to Will Rogers Ranch. Shortly into this trail however we noticed a building covered in graffiti that was receiving a lot of attention from other hikers. We realised that this was much more than just one single building but in fact it was a whole series of structures that were worn down, derelict but full of vibrancy with the street art that was covering them. This was a massive distraction for us; figures 4, 5 and 6 show some of the most interesting things we saw here. We realised later that in fact by taking this alternative route we had stumbled unintentionally upon Murphy’s ranch, which was a Nazi camp for those awaiting the arrival of Hitler to the US in 1940.

Figure 3. Video of 'Backbone Trail'

Figure 4. Murphy's Ranch Building 1

Figure 5. Murphy's Ranch Building 1 (inside)

Figure 6. Murphy's Ranch Building 2

At this point in our hike we we’re completely satisfied with what we had experienced, and were ready to finish the hike and make our way back to UCLA. This however proved to be much more of a challenge than we anticipated. The unmaintained trail that we were taking back ran parallel to the creek, at times crossing through it, which normally isn't an issue in this arid area of California. However, a few days preceding our visit there had been heavy rain, and the river in the creek was discharging more than it normally would due to the lag time between storm and time this rainwater discharges. About half a mile after seeing the sights of Murphy’s ranch we encountered problems, the trail we thought we were following did not match up to the one we were supposed to follow on the maps although there didn't appear to be any alternative. Inconveniently, both of our phones, due to the many photo opportunities along the way were depleted of battery, and nightfall was descending upon us due to the time setbacks caused by discovery of Murphy’s ranch. The route we were following at this point did not appear to be much of a trail anymore, paths were not clearly defined and we just seemed to be following the river, crossing it on countless occasions. Our estimated completion of the trail (6pm) was well surpassed and at 8pm, after sun had set we were still negotiating this trail among the loud noises from frogs echoing around us. After a few falls into the river and visibility being significantly reduced, what was adventure became fear as we were scaling rocks along an undefined path. At 8:30 however, we thankfully finished the trail, coming to an abrupt end. By the time we were ready to catch a bus (at 9pm), buses were infrequent and we had to wait in the cold for 40 minutes for the next bus to take us back.

Needless to say this was an adventure like nothing I’ve experienced before. It is definitely one I will take back with me to the UK to share with friends and family. Despite the obstacle we encountered it was an amazing, hike and day overall.

Day 211 - Defining Terrorism

The communications studies class I’m enrolled in this quarter on terrorism in the media so far has proved interesting. Terrorism has never been something that has been covered in great depth in geopolitics/political geography classes I have taken so far. The insight of the rather eccentric and scattered Nushin Arbabzadah has shed light on misconceptions, gaps of knowledge and mistreatment of the term ‘terrorism.’ Her experience as a correspondent for the BBC and Al Jazeera has exposed her to media ‘etiquette’ when it comes to the term. Something I found interesting was that in the quest for objectivity, media outlets always shy away from the use of the term ‘terrorism’ or branding someone a ‘terrorist,’ rather the utilise buzzwords like ‘gunman’, ‘insurgent’. This emphasises the anxieties people have in using such a term when its meaning is dynamic over time and rarely understood (Crenshaw, 1992). Although this class is a communications studies class I believe that a lot of the content could be applicable to geography. I would say that is very narrowly focuses on an aspect of popular geopolitics, how media and popular culture shape or are shaped by political views, or conflicts. The special case of terrorism in the mass media however, is an interesting case, and I believe it is a class containing unique content and insight that wouldn't be possible back at British universities. From a country that has suffered greatly, yet engrosses itself frequently with terrorism and the media, here in the United States I believe terrorism is a more common than niche area of study that possibly came to the forefront of importance in the aftermath of the disastrous 9/11.

What I’m currently finding interesting is the nonexistence of limits to what is being shared by Arbabzadah and discovering to what extent American students are aware of the ‘Just War' rhetoric frequently employed by its nation (Flint and Falah, 2004), and the American exceptionalism employed in their media (Dittmer, 2011).

Crenshaw, M. (1992) ‘Current Research on Terrorism: The Academic Perspective,’ Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 15, 1-11.

Dittmer, J. (2011). ‘American Exceptionalism, Visual Effects, and the Post-9/11 Cinematic Superhero Boom,’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 29(1), 114-130.

Flint, C. and G. Falah (2004) ‘How the United States justified its war on terrorism: prime morality and the construction of a ‘just war’,’ Third World Quarterly, 25, 1379-1399.

Day 210 - No more Spanish

The following three entries were drafted on the 8^th, 9^th and 11^th April respectively, however remained in draft form since then until now due to a heavy workload.

Last quarter when enrolling in my classes for Spring, I made sure I was enrolled in four so that I had the option to drop one of the classes after realising it didn’t live up to my expectations. This week, the second week of the quarter, I have dropped one of these classes. Unfortunately, the class that I decided to drop was one that could have potentially improved my Spanish to a new level of fluency. Spanish 150 ‘Topics in Contemporary Studies’ is a class that focuses on short story literature from Cuba in the early-mid 20th century. The professor, who lectured about technical terms in literature for an hour and 50 the very first day of class, had a dialect from Colombia which was interesting as his pronunciation of words were different to what I have been exposed to thus far. I decided to drop this class because the reading requirements were rather strenuous and I felt that a background understanding of the history of short stories was necessary, something I didn't have. The gap in difficulty between Spanish 25 and Spanish 150 was one I felt would have been too difficult to bridge. This isn't all bad however as it has allowed me to take an extra geography class this quarter on Spanish South America, a region of the world that, if I haven't made clear already, fascinates me. After exposure to first lectures of this class it is clear that it is very broad and that it won’t go into much detail or specificities, keeping the study on a broad regional level in term of politics and economics for the region. Dropping my Spanish class was a big decision for me as I felt that it was very important for me to take some sort of Spanish class through the year so I can maintain and build upon my current level of fluency. However, the content of the class just didn't fit what I wanted to get out of the language, and wouldn't carry a useful amount of real world applicability. When I studied Spanish in the UK at UCL, the second term would have come to a close by now and I wouldn't practice much Spanish until the final exam came around in May. This huge gap between March/April when classes end, and September when I would take a new class proved to be detrimental to my fluency in the language as it is extremely easy to forget a lot of the language if nothing is done to maintain it whilst not having classes. Thus it is very important for me to avoid this issue, and I intend to by reading the short stories assigned in the class I dropped, watching TV shows, and mainly by reading the book I have on the socioeconomic and political development of Colombia (Jimenez, 1985). I have been reading this book for a while now and I have found it very useful in learning important terms related to geography. In addition to this, the book will help me in my Spanish South America class, which is essentially identical to the content of this publication. However, most importantly I need to maintain my oral proficiency, by conversing with Daisy and the other Spanish-speaking people I know on my dorm floor. If I stick to this, I will be able to maintain my fluency I’ve build up over a long period of time.

Jimenez, M (1985) Historia Del Desarollo Regional en Colombia, CIDER: Universidad de los Andes.

Day 207 - Spring Break: Yosemite

I write this post the week following my first and only experience of Spring Break in the United States. The main activity for my spring break, besides spending time with my friends, was to visit the captivating and significant National Park ‘Yosemite’ located in Northern California. The history of this site and context behind its designation as a National Park has always been very interesting to me. During my first two years at UCL, I acquired a lot of knowledge around conservation ethics, and John Muir in particular. For those reading this blog post, Muir was a preservationalist, claiming that the psychospiritual use of nature is far superior to its material societal uses. (Callicott, 1991). In his lifetime, Muir strived to make sure that many national parks around the US were left untouched, one of significance was Yosemite. Most importantly, he wrote many articles popularizing the area and theorized that the most significant landscape features of the part were created through the energy of large alpine glaciers (Schaffer, 1999). Through Yosemite, Muir was able to pave the way for the United States National Park service that thrives today. The park which covers an area of 747,956 acres attracts almost 3 million visitors per year and holds significance in terms of its biological diversity, its geological stature and history of human inhabitance (Harris, 1998). 

Upon visiting this wonderful place, it appeared to me just why people like Muir saw this landscape in such a spiritual and romanticized way. It was a hot Thursday afternoon when we arrived at the outer barriers of the national park. Despite arriving, it was another hour or 35 miles until we reached the valley where the main views, hikes and tourist complex was located. In Yosemite Valley there was a wealth of infrastructure, parking, shops, information points, cabins for overnight stays and a shuttle bus route around the park. The extent of this infrastructure was surprising to me, the natural area wasn’t as undisturbed as I expected. After collecting maps, we embarked on a few hikes around the valley, visiting the lower and upper Yosemite falls, seeing Half Dome, and hiking up by Vermal and Nevada falls (Figure 1.). These breath-taking hikes consumed our whole afternoon, leaving us exhausted yet fulfilled. The place lived up to my expectations, and upon arrival I could not help but smile at how beautiful and serene the place was. My only regret was that I could not stay there the night and do an all day hike the next day, getting close to the infamous Half Dome peak.

Figure 1. Map of Yosemite Valley

Without the hospitality of Daisy’s parents, this trip would not have been possible. Allowing a large group to stay with them for a few nights, providing food and pleasant company was an amazing experience in itself. My few days with Daisy’s Mexican family, exposed me to authentic Mexican food, which is one of my favourite cuisines. In addition to this, I was able to improve my Spanish with her parents mainly communicating with me in their native tongue. Overall, it was an experience definitely worth remembering, one that I would love to replicate in a few years time.

My upcoming blog post shall briefly talk about the beginning of my final quarter at UCLA, and initial impressions on my last set of classes.

Below are a few photos from my visit to Yosemite.

Figure 2. Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls

Figure 3. Hike Gang and Half Dome

Figure 4. Yosemite 

Harris, A. G. (1998). Geology of National Parks Kendall, Iowa: Hunt Publishing. 

Callicott, J. B. (1991). ‘Conservation ethics and fishery management,’ Fisheries, 16(2), 22-28.

Schaffer, J. P. (1999). Yosemite National Park: A Natural History Guide to Yosemite and Its Trails. Berkeley: Wilderness Press.

Day 203 - End of Winter Quarter

Winter quarter came to a close with my final examinations in Political Geography and Hydrology. The busy period began with a Spanish oral presentation on the economic situation of Columbia in the 1970s and 80s, and how that affected their ability to exercise sovereignty over their territory. My 10-minute presentation analysed the effects of drug cartels such as Cartel Medellin, the largest and most notorious, on the Colombian government’s inability to have influence over its people. This is a topic that has interested me for a long time, I have been reading a book published in the 80s on the economic trials of Columbia in the decades leading up to publication, it talks about economic development and the struggles to thrive in an increasingly globalised world (Jimenez, 1985). My abilities in Spanish now enable me to read books like this and look at the world through the lens of Spanish speaking geographers, economists and policy makers. My presentation and linguistic abilities were acknowledged by being graded an A. On top of this, on the Monday of finals week the other form of assessment, a 2000 word essay on a topic relating to the oral presentation had to be submitted. In this essay on the assimilation of indigenous cultures of the Amazon rainforest due to gold miners in the 1980s, I also managed to attain a high A grade.

My Political Geography final examination which was the first of my rapid succession of finals was rather straight forward, much more simple than the midterm that Professor Agnew set. The study guide fitted the format of the exam, so good preparation of the guide would be enough to get a good grade. As it turned out, the preparation I made managed to get my 96/100, a result I was very pleased with.

As I emphasised through much of this quarter, the most challenging class by far had been hydrology, this was the last exam I sat before spring break. The structure of the exam was similar to the previous two Professor Lettenmaier set, but included all information that we learnt over the duration of the course. Despite the earlier worries I had about being able to succeed in the class, I managed to rank high in the class and finish with a solid B, a result I’m very much pleased with.

Overall I would regard this quarter as another successful period of time for me personally and academically. I feel I have explored more, enjoyed more and thrived more in Los Angeles, something I felt was important for me to do at the end of the first quarter. Looking ahead, I aim to set more personal goals for me to achieve and reflect on once I’m back in the UK. Firstly I’m setting out to complete a half marathon on Huntington Beach in Orange County in May, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and finally feel physically able to do. In addition to this, I want to balance my studies here in the US with those in the UK, focussing more on work that I will be completing for my last year at UCL. In the upcoming quarter I am going to commit a significant portion of time to working on my dissertation and making significant progress to relieve the workload for when I’m back. Hopefully in 10 weeks time, when I write my post on final reflections before returning to the UK, I will have achieved all these goals enabling me to leave the US with good memories, and feeling like I have made the most of my experience developing significantly as an individual.

Up next… Spring Break!

Jimenez, M (1985) Historia Del Desarollo Regional en Colombia, CIDER: Universidad de los Andes.

Day 179 - The case of the Jimenez family

One of my favourite pastimes since arriving in LA is sharing life-stories with my new friends, a wonderful group of people that come from different backgrounds, of varied ethnicities and whom each carry a unique history. One of my main reasons for embarking on this year abroad was to integrate in a different environment and listen to unique stories, anecdotes and learn about the world-views and ideals important to different individuals. Indeed, my friends are also interested in my opinions, stories and world-views. The inspiration behind this entry was a conversation me and my other British friend had with Daisy, our entertaining Mexican friend. What was uncovered in this conversation surprised me, something I never considered or believed would be the case: that at one point, Daisy her sister, brother and mother were illegal immigrants. The story is truly inspiring, revealing the lengths to which a mother would go to secure a strong future for her children. In this blog post I’m going to tell this story and reflect on how I felt when I heard it, how it has changed my views slightly on immigration.

When Daisy was the tender age of 4, her mum planned a trip to Daisy's grandmother, a trip that didn’t involve her father. Calculated and planned meticulously, her mother took Daisy and her sister to embark on the most dangerous journey of their lives, to cross the US-Mexico border, one that has been hotly contested for many decades and nowadays has very extreme border crossing prevention systems (Ackleson, 2005). Her mother knew that she was being dishonest with Daisy’s father, and risking all of their lives in the process, however she was driven by the dream of her children living a much more prosperous on the other side of the border. In doing this, her mother paid an intermediary (human trafficker) to get her and her small children across, a risky investment that fortunately paid off. Daisy now has papers, gets reviewed every few years but is not allowed to leave the US until she gains full citizenship, a process that could take another five or more years. Needless to say, she is eternally grateful for the risk her mother took and it has driven her to prosper, gaining a place at UCLA under difficult circumstances adjusting to American culture and way of life. Her father later joined the three women, reconciling and living in Nevada before eventually settling in Central Valley, a region of California with a high proportion of Spanish speaking inhabitants. Upon hearing this story, it was truly inspiring learning of such a courageous narrative and it certainly altered my view on immigration. Everybody deserves a chance to succeed in life, and Daisy’s mother among many others that have made the perilous journey only ever want just that. A lot of people in the UK, are blind to these kinds of stories, immigrants are so often perceived in a negative light, but rarely are people open to these narrative, nor care for the courage that is involved and the sheer, sole desire to make a better living for themselves and their family. Being exposed to such stories are exactly what this year abroad experience is meant for, crucial for development of ones exposure to people of different histories, cultures and lifestyle. Experiences like this can completely change ones view on the world, alter perspectives and inspire, as has this story of the Jimenez family with me.

Ackleson, J. (2005) ‘Constructing security on the US-Mexico border, Political Geography, 24(2), 165-184.

Day 173 - Virunga

This post is a significant first break from my biweekly routine of blog posts, and I believe it is for good reason that I do so. My free time in the evenings usually leads to me watching something on Netflix that seems interesting, be it a documentary or a generic American TV show. Last night however I decided to follow up on a suggestion to watch an interesting documentary about the case of the Mountain Gorilla in the biggest national park of eastern Congo, Virunga. The documentary, that lasted around two hours, captivated me and remained intriguing throughout. The documentary is an emotion evoking investigation into the reasons behind the poaching of some of the last mountain gorillas in the world. In this wild yet enchanted environment a small group of rangers, put their lives at risk daily to take care of orphan gorillas in collaboration with a Belgian conservationist against the prevailing issues regarding armed militias and foreign forces attempting to seize control of the area for the extraction of Congo’s natural resources. Beyond the heroic story of the park rangers attempting to protect these important mountain gorillas, the underling narrative of the movie was what provoked me to dedicate a post to the documentary. It was clear the idea of the movie was to highlight the different actors that are involved in the potential destruction of this national park. The M23 rebel group who today have seized control of much of this area, and SOCO international, an oil and gas extraction company that have vested interests in the area. Transnational interests, the potential for significant revenue caused an informal relationship between SOCO and the M23 rebel group, whom both wanted the Gorillas removed from the national park to enable oil and gas exploitation. The really interesting observation that I took from this documentary was: where is the Congolese government in all this? What role do they have in this conflict? And why is coverage of their position so obviously omitted from this documentary? 

Many interesting theories and concepts that I have learnt this quarter in my Political Geography class informed my analysis of this documentary, and allowed me to disentangle the different narratives and polities involved in this conflict. I would classify my analysis of this movie a modernist political economic analysis, trying to get at the different interests of these actors and what is fundamentally the foundation to this conflict (Agnew, 2012). A political theory that really interested me and that I believe applicable to this case is the idea of ‘Matrix Governance’ and ‘Cruciform Sovereignty’ proposed by Carmody (2009). This is the idea that in the ‘global north’ sovereignty is shared evenly between countries horizontally like in the example of the EU, whereas in the global south sovereignty is shared vertically where sovereignty is not exchanged for claims elsewhere, but is traded for aid. In their article they look at the case of the Chad-Cameroon and Sudanese oil pipelines and how Chad is a multi-scalar proxy conflict between western powers and China over access to oil. As with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the lure of oil contributed to rebel attempts to dislodge presidents Deby and Bashir of Chad and Sudan respectively. Although the case is not a mirror reflection of what has been happening in Congo, for me the theoretical insights provided by Carmody applies to that shown in ‘Virunga.’ Congolese sovereignty is consistently threatened by factions and rebels and interests from foreign sources. The control of the government is made out to be weak and ineffective by the documentary and the role of these other actors deemed to be significant. This is exactly what Agnew (1994) means when he criticizes international relations theory, how its umbrella ‘one size fits all’ nature overlooks the complexity within a country, and how states are not equal, that not all can exercise power over their territory and very few can actually be considered securely sovereign.

In addition to all this, there can also be links drawn between this case and Emily Yeh’s (2012) article on Transnational Environmentalism and the case of the Bengalese Tiger in the Himalayas. Briefly put, the article uses a post-modern take on the different actors contributing to fight against the poaching of the Bengal Tiger for its attractive pelts, an important cultural commodity to Tibetans. The article discusses the issue from the perspective of the Indian, Chinese government and the influence of foreign environmentalists and the Dalai Lama on changing inside cultural meanings (Carney, 2011) of Tibetans. Instead of having different actors putting at risk the endangered mammal in question, the actors in this article are attempting to save the Tiger and enforce conservationist wishes over those cultural. The interesting message with this article is, although China considers itself to be sovereign over Tibet, it was the least effectual actor to convince Tibetans to change their ways. Like the Congolese government, sovereignty is not effectively exercised over the region, and other actors, in this case the Dalai Lama, were more influential upon changing Tibetan cultural ways.

I would highly suggest the documentary to anybody whom is interested, it is highly critically acclaimed and for good reason. Whilst watching it, I’d be interested to know if people read the narratives and perceive the political situation in the Congo like I did.

Agnew, J. (1994). ‘The Territorial Trap: The Geographical Assumptions of International Relations Theory,’ Review of International Political Economy, 1, 1: 53-80.

Agnew, J. (2012) Making Political Geography, Maryland: Rowman and Littlfield.

P. Carmody, “Cruciform sovereignty, matrix governance and the scramble for Africa’s oil: insights from Chad and Sudan,” Political Geography, 28 (2009), 353-61

Carney, J. A. (2002) Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas, Harvard: University Press.

E. T. Yeh, “Transnational environmentalism and entanglements of sovereignty: the tiger campaign across the Himalayas,” Political Geography, 31 (2012), 408-18.