The Preservation of Petra

The ancient Jordanian desert city of Petra regained fame as the location of the 1989 filming of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The restoration of the city, however, is still incomplete, and many of Petra's archaeological treasures have yet to be uncovered. The challenge in the meantime is for Petra to withstand the tests of time, tourism, and temperature and the effects of a growing Bedouin population.

Petra is often referred to as the "rose-red city" because of the color of the sandstone from which it was built. The city came into being more than 2,000 years ago. At that time Arabian nomads called the Nabateans settled down with the wealth they had gained from trading spice and incense. From this prosperity they created Petra. The city flourished as the capital of the Nabatean kingdom from 300 B.C. until 106 A.D. It was then occupied by Rome. The city remained an important center until it was half destroyed by an earthquake in 363.

Petra faded from memory until the 12th-century Crusades. At that time King Baldwin I of Jerusalem realized the strategic location of the site and established an outpost there. Later the Crusaders built a mountain fortress on the same spot. It was abandoned at the end of their campaign. During the ensuing centuries, sandstorms and wind eroded Petra's buildings. Sand and debris buried much of the city. Only Bedouin shepherds knew of Petra's existence until the Swiss explorer Johan Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it in 1812.

Archaeologists have shown an interest in the area since 1812. However, it was not until the 1960s that conservation of the site became a priority. Jordan's Queen Noor and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) took on Petra as a formal conservation project. Global attention became focused on the site's artifacts and concerns for their preservation. During excavations archaeologists found tombs and tomes and art and artifacts. A world-class water system that in its heyday sustained 20,000 people was also uncovered. However, the sandstone that made for a perfect aquifer and allowed memorials to be carved with relative ease had, over time, made Petra vulnerable. Wind and water have taken a toll on the fragile stone. The abandonment of the city's once flourishing water system had caused soil erosion and flooding.

From 1960 to 1970 the World Bank and UNESCO launched a study of the site. In 1985 UNESCO added Petra to its World Heritage List. The Petra National Trust (PNT), a private, nonprofit organization, was founded in 1989 with the aid of Jordan's Queen Noor. She secured a team of UNESCO specialists who, along with Jordanian experts, produced a plan for Petra National Park. By 1993 Jordan had allocated some 100 square miles (259 sq km) of canyon country for the park.

Designation of Petra as a World Heritage site, however, was not enough to ensure the area's preservation. The site itself needed long-term protection. Queen Noor set up a committee to ensure that architectural development in the surrounding area would remain in keeping with that of Petra. She also allotted land to the Bedoul, a Bedouin tribe some researchers believe are related to the Nabateans. They had lived in the city's rock tombs until 1985. Still of concern, however, is population growth, conservation, and managing the tourism that has brought both prosperity and problems to Petra.

Jordan's tourism trade generates more than 17,000 jobs and brings in about $1 billion a year. In the late 1980s an estimated 100,000 people visited Petra. By the early 1990s that number had risen to 400,000. The number of hotels in the area has risen from 5 in 1994 to some 60 in 2004. To manage this influx, the World Bank set up a $27 million plan in 1996 for the construction of a drainage system to prevent untreated waste from being discharged into the environment. In addition, terraces from the Nabatean period have been restored. There are plans to renovate the roads to accommodate increased traffic. Furthermore, trees are being planted to help absorb water during the rainy season and to limit building development.

Efforts to accommodate visitors have made the lives of the Bedouls easier. They have also detracted from the beauty of the region. Concurrently, the area's Bedoul population, most of whom make a living from tourism, is growing. In 1985 there were 40 Bedoul families; now there are 350. As a result housing construction is on the rise. Owing to the increasing cost of land, the Bedoul have added on to their homes. They have also been given permission to expand into an area adjacent to Petra.

Some experts say that the issue of conservation may be even more immediate than increases in tourism and population. In 1993 Jordan's antiquities department and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) launched a joint conservation plan. It included the development of a natural mortar ideal for Petra's sandstone structures. Not content with restoring monuments, the GTZ called on Jordan to maintain restoration efforts. To that end the GTZ set up the Conservation and Restoration Center in Petra independent of Jordan's antiquities department and staffed it with experts. The GTZ has spent at least $3.5 million on the project.

Meanwhile, there are the usual bureaucratic problems. The tourism ministry is at odds with the department of antiquities over the unattractive appearance of the scaffolding used during renovations. Archaeologists have criticized the PNT for commissioning a Swiss firm to build dams in the valleys leading to the Siq, a narrow cleft that is the main entrance to Petra. The purpose of the dams is to avoid the recurrence of the 1963 tragedy in which 21 French tourists drowned in flash floods. Archaeologists argue, however, that the $1.5 million project financed by the Swiss government damages Petra's integrity. They also argue that the excavation process creates a powder that has coated the walls of the Siq, dulling the rocks' colors.

In the meantime archaeological excavations continue. In 1998 researchers found a pool complex near the Great Temple. In 2000 they unearthed a Nabatean villa near the Siq. In 2003 they found more tombs cut in the rock beneath the Khazneh, or Treasury, the most famous of Petra's monuments. Despite this, experts estimate that only about 5% of Petra has been unearthed. Archaeologists plan more digs at the Treasury, projects in which the PNT intends to remain involved. The trust is also keen to implement a system of watershed management. They also want to create alternate trails to the site (visitors now enter Petra on horseback through the Siq, kicking up dust that is harmful to the monuments). The trust hopes to establish procedures for community planning, conserve the Neolithic village of Beidha, and revive indigenous vegetation to prevent erosion. Throughout all this activity, the Petra National Trust remains committed to preserving this great rose-colored city of stone.

Read More

The Placebo Effect: Mind over Matter

An individual receives an injection from his or her doctor to reduce the discomfort caused by a recurrence of rheumatoid arthritis. The physician, in line with an ethical obligation, has already explained to the patient that he or she will be the beneficiary of either an effective new drug that is in the final stages of research or a placebo. After taking the medicine, the individual reports that the pain and stiffness have eased and that the swelling and inflammation have objectively improved. What the patient does not know is that the only ingredient in the shot was an inactive saline solution. The individual was given a placebo, and what he or she experienced was the placebo effect.

A placebo is an intervention (pill, injection, or treatment) that has no inherent healing or transforming properties. The placebo effect, the body's biochemical response to this inert intervention, is initiated by a suggestion made to the mind. In other words, the imagination has curative powers.

Although placebos have always had a place in medicine, ethical controversy has long surrounded their use. References to the healing power of symbols and belief systems predate Hippocrates, but it was not until 1811 that a definition of the word placebo appeared in medical literature. In 1834 placebos were first used as a control in a scientific study; this has since become their predominant role in medicine.

In research it is essential to separate any contaminating effects of the procedure from those of the active experimental (treatment) agent. In one commonly used method for controlling contaminants, the double-blind approach, suitable volunteers are assigned to either an experimental group or a placebo group. Neither the investigators nor the subjects are aware of individual group affiliations. The placebo subjects are exposed to the exact same protocol, receive the same attention, and have the same expectations as the experimental subjects. Any differences in outcome between the two groups can therefore be directly attributed to the treatment agent, since all other aspects of the experiment are identical.

Although it has been established that placebos have been effective in reducing pain, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, relieving insomnia and depression, and even shrinking tumors, the phenomenon can work in an undesirable manner as well (sometimes called the "nocebo" effect). Take, for example, the individual who develops symptoms of the rumored negative side effects of a drug that he or she has not actually received or the person who starts to hallucinate after falsely believing that a mind-altering substance has been ingested.

Clearly, expectations, setting, and past experiences are essential components in determining the strength and direction of the placebo effect.

What about individual differences? Are some people more susceptible to placebos than others? Is there a placebo-responder personality? Are there situations or states of mind that make people more vulnerable to the power of the placebo? The answer to all of these questions is yes. Studies indicate that the person who exhibits a profile that reflects the qualities of open-mindedness, trust, extroversion, compliance, and suggestibility will be more responsive. Moreover, individuals in an anxious or uninhibited state also are more sensitive to a placebo's effects.

In order to explain how placebos work on a cellular level, scientists turn to the branch of medicine known as psychoneuroimmunology, which, as its name implies, combines the disciplines of psychology, neurology, and immunology. The two basic axioms of this field are that every change in thought almost simultaneously creates variations in physiology, and that the body has an innate ability to spontaneously heal itself. An individual's expectations, social context, and past learning experiences induce a pattern of involuntary bodily responses based on classical conditioning that influence the autonomic, central nervous, and endocrine systems. If the mind believes that an intervention will produce a certain effect, the internal organs, including the immune system, or "internal pharmacy," will act in concert, in much the same way that Pavlov's dog salivated at the sound of a bell.

Read More

The Paradox of Women's Status in South Asia

South Asia has produced more female leaders than anywhere else in the world, yet it has one of the world's worst records on women's rights. This striking contradiction was noted in the 2000 "Human Development in South Asia" report, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and devoted to the state of women in the South Asia.

Indeed, it was Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who in 1960 became the world's first female prime minister. Her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, held the office from 1994--2005. In 1988 Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to head the government of an Islamic state. Indira Gandhi led India, the second most populous country in the world, for decades. In Bangladesh two women, Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Khaleda Zia, recently served as prime ministers.

The striking number of women in leadership roles, however, has had little, if any, influence on the status of South Asian women generally. According to the UNDP report, the region has the highest illiteracy rates in the world and the largest gap between male and female literacy rates. Women face numerous limitations and violations of basic human rights---from restrictions on inheriting and owning property to purdah (seclusion of women from public observation) to the outlawed, but still widely practiced, taboo on marriage of widows. Women hardly have a voice in the decision-making forums in the region; they comprise only 7% of South Asian parliamentarians.

Is there really a contradiction between the incidence of women in power in South Asia and the disenfranchisement of women in the region? As paradoxical as it may seem, both stem from the same roots---the patriarchal structures and customs prevailing in South Asian societies. In these traditional, male-dominated societies, with their cultural preference for sons as inheritors of property and bearers of the family lineage, the contributions of women are often viewed and treated as marginal. At the same time the clan-based structure of these societies makes family succession in power a vital factor in preserving social stability. However able, strong, and charismatic each of the above-mentioned female leaders might be, none of them likely would have been elected had she not been a spouse or daughter of a deceased national leader. ( Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mujibur Rahman were all succeeded in national politics by their daughters, and Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike was succeeded by both his wife and his daughter.)

Given the hereditary, hierarchical political culture, it is not surprising that the illustrious female presidents and prime ministers are not easily perceived, or followed, as role models by the majority of women in their own countries. Even when free public education is available to girls (as in India), most female pupils drop out of school at an early age; the prevailing custom demands that they work to earn their dowry instead.

With half of the South Asian nations' populations---namely, women---relegated to low social status, including working as unpaid laborers in family businesses, these nations continue to be economically handicapped. The UNDP report concludes with an agenda for action to help South Asian women achieve gender parity in legal, political, and social arenas and urges the establishment of agencies empowered to be strong advocates for women's equality at both the national and the global level.

Read More

The Fight against Polio Is Now a Fight against Time

One of the primary goal of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to rid the world of polio. Some fear that the time to eradicate the disease may be now--or never. When WHO first declared war on polio, forming the Polio Eradication Initiative with partners Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) in 1988, there were approximately 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries on five continents. After an international investment of U.S.$3 billion and the combined efforts of 20 million volunteers in more than 200 countries, just under 700 new cases were reported in 2003, and polio remains endemic in only 6 countries. Yet ultimate victory is at risk.

Polio begins as an intestinal virus. Its usual victims are young children living in unhygienic surroundings, drinking contaminated water. Not everyone who ingests the virus becomes seriously ill; in fact, most have relatively minor flu-like symptoms or none at all. Only the unlucky ones become paralyzed and, in some cases, die.

The original goal of the Polio Eradication Initiative was to wipe out polio worldwide by the year 2000--a goal that proved overly ambitious for several reasons. Polio is not easy to diagnose; many who have it display few signs of illness yet remain contagious for several weeks after all symptoms are gone, and the virus itself can live outside the human body for up to 60 days. By the time one case of polio is confirmed, a multitude of others may be incubating, so that a large number of children over a wide geographic area must be vaccinated in response to a single confirmed case. In addition one vaccination may not be sufficiently prophylactic; a child with an intestinal upset may pass the vaccine through his or her system too quickly for it to be effective. Therefore, repeat vaccinations of all children are necessary.

The cornerstones of the eradication initiative have been national immunization days, during which all young children in a target country are vaccinated whether or not they have been vaccinated before, and immediate response to actual outbreaks, targeting all children under the age of five in the surrounding area for immunization. WHO provides the expertise, UNICEF provides the vaccine, Rotary International provides local advertising and support, and government health officials arrange for the necessary thousands of trained vaccinators. In a representative response to a reported case in Karnataka, India, 4 million children in 13 districts were vaccinated in three days.

At the start of 2007, polio remained endemic only in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, with Nigeria representing over 70% of the total number of cases reported worldwide in 2006. The spread of the disease to areas that have reported no cases of infection in recent years is a major concern, because many countries that had eliminated the disease ended their routine immunization programs in order to redirect their limited financial resources to more critical health concerns. Hence the urgency in WHO's push to wipe out the disease once and for all.

The high incidence of polio outbreaks in Nigeria has been traced to the northern state of Kano. Muslim leaders in the area opposed the immunization, in the belief that the vaccine contained hormones that would sterilize the area's female population. As this erroneous information circulated, some parents refused to have their children immunized, and the incidence of new polio cases multiplied. The Nigerian government, however, has confirmed its trust in the purity of the UNICEF-provided vaccine and has publicly reasserted its commitment to the eradication of polio through immunization campaigns. Now it must convince Kano's state and local governments to support that commitment.

The final phase of polio eradication consists of three steps: containment of the remaining chains of polio transmission, certification by independent experts of transmission interruption region by region (and ultimately, worldwide), and development of postcertification policies (determining if there is the need for continuing immunization). Realization of WHO's goal will require the dedicated efforts of government officials in the nations where polio remains endemic and continuing financial help from wealthy nations, several of which have already pledged their assistance. The complete eradication of polio will save millions of children from a devastating disease and will also demonstrate the miracles attainable through global cooperation. The legacy of the world's largest health initiative will include valuable lessons in the fight against other vaccine-preventable diseases, and its success will provide confidence that other, even larger, battles can be won in the 21st century.

Read More

Sylvester Graham and His Crackers

By the 1830s the American diet was largely based on meat and white bread; fruits, vegetables, and coarse breads were not thought to contain much nutrition. So it is quite understandable that most of his contemporaries regarded Sylvester Graham as a pure eccentric. A Presbyterian minister, Graham was hated and sometimes attacked by butchers, bakers, and liquor and tobacco companies for railing against meat, potatoes, tobacco and alcohol, coffee and tea, and chocolate and pastries and for preaching for the consumption of pure water and coarse bread made of unsifted flour. At the same time Graham had a fair number of devoted followers, known as Grahamites, who founded "Graham boardinghouses," where his dietary regimen was observed, in Boston and New York City.

Beyond diet, Graham recommended hard beds, cold baths, open windows, loose clothing, vigorous exercise, and daily toothbrushing (then a revolutionary idea). Influenced by the perfectionist impulse of the Second Great Awakening, Graham cast sin in a physical framework and advocated fighting it through bodily self-restraint and suppression of libidinal impulses. At the height of the 1830s health craze he inspired, Graham lectured to huge audiences and wrote several books on temperance and nutrition, including the extremely popular Lectures on the Science of Human Life (1839). Graham's ideas influenced Amos Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands community, Brook Farm, and the Oneida Community. Graham himself suffered poor health throughout his life; although he followed strictly his own lifestyle recommendations, he died at the age of 57 after a round of failed Grahamite cures. Many of his ideas, however, have since been proven correct and have become widely accepted.

Graham's original whole-grain wheat bread recipe eventually found a more appealing successor in the Graham cracker (according to most sources Graham invented the snack in 1829). Many commercial bakers tried to market the treat after Graham's death, but it was not until 1898 that the National Biscuit Company (now, Nabisco) came up with its Nabisco Graham Crackers. Today Nabisco turns out some 50 million packages a year to meet the unwavering demand. The irony is that these Graham crackers are made with bleached white flour, a deviation that would have infuriated Sylvester Graham, for he regarded refined flour as one of the greatest dietary evils.

Read More