Discussing with a retired EFEO* Librarian...
(about scientific truth…)
I couldn’t hold to post this little funny (or sad) story I experienced in interaction with an relatively old (so I should say adult librarian) in a provincial town of northern Thailand. It is in my eyes a perfect example for the old german saw, that proudness and stupidness are growing from the same wood. Science – as I learned from people like Umberto Eco – means that everything you know has to be seen every day new, in a different light and screened with actual methods. Empires went lost cause of the incompetence, of their leaders and citizens, to deal with this simple fact – and so it happened to most colonial empires…
I tried to find a way to explain what happened on the playground of southeast asian archeology between me and the Librarian (who owns as far some people told me the French academic title of a docteur). So let me tell first a short introduction and then a list of mails running between him and me in the last weeks.
In late December 2011 a friend invited me too a lecturer of a well named kind of (not only amateur) scientists society in Thailands northern provincial capital Chiang Mai. The presentation had an interesting sounding title but at the end the pictures and stories shown and told have been old - it was a look back of a famous and fine scientist. So my friend told me to ask to hold an own, more actual speech about a theme, some of my colleagues (Geographers, Ethnologists, Mining Engineers) worked a little. The theme should be about a side result of my own studies – the so called mystery of the “Plain of Jars”, an area, that was last time in focus of research in French colonial times by a female scientist named Madeleine Colani nearly 100 years back. Mme Colani came into the lucky situation that her research area moved into a battle field, (nearly directly) after she left for around 40 years. 40 years more authorities and NGO’s needed to make the area safe again by cleaning from UXO and now the people there in the Uplands of Laos are faced by the next challenge: Mining companies are on the way to explore the natural treasures of the region and to destroy what French scientists might have seen or overseen and the war still had left. I don’t know the reason why a nation that is not able only to hold her language in presence with the population of her former colonial “children” can not accept that an hundred year old research might (need) some refreshing ideas – especially if we have to see that the research didn’t guide to any result – but it seems it is exactly like this…
By the way: we, the people who generated this thesis are working (worked) all in tourism so didn't become tired to explain that we only wanted to have an open minded look on an area the archaeologists seem not to care really. We try to find solutions for poor regions (or better poor population groups) and we would welcome, if sciences like history and archeology would generate a little more practical effect than the production of written (not read) text...
Read and bore yourself (you need to scroll – sorry for this) our little Mail conversation and imagine that the counterpart is a retired high grade academic of maybe nearly 70 years…
Sent on 19.01.2012
Dear Hans,
The Alliance Française tells me that we cannot use the room on February 14 because they are forced to organize a week for French films.
So, could you make it on Tuesday, Feb. 7 ? Feb. 21 could be an option but since we have already a second talk that month on the 28, Feb. 7 would be better for the audience, if not for you....
Please answer as quickly as possible.
Thank you in advance.
XXXX
Answer from 20.01.21012
Dear XXXX,
so lets move to the 7th...
That should not be an problem.
Yours
Hans
Sent for answer
Great!
Thank you for your understanding!
So, let's move to the 7th of February.
XXXX
Dear XXXX,
within this mail my CV and the text with the
content I'll talk about... I will change the text same like the presentation before going into the evening a little. By the way - we find out some more small details nearly every day.
Best regards
XXXX
Answer one week after presentation (he had all text including the presentation in his hands)
…
Dear Hans,
Please send me, before Feb. 24, the text you want me to spead as Minutes of your talk.
After the talk, I wanted, privately, to make the following basic suggestions before you give another talk, on any topic actually. I did not have the chance, so I'll do it now. Please do not take this as an offense but as a help from a senior.
1) One should suppose that the public ignore the topic and so one should introduce the topic progressively. Since your talk was on a geographical site, it would have been better to begin by showing a map of Laos, and then a map of the Plain of jars, right from the beginning. Do not forget that you are a geographer, that the basis for geography is landscape, and that the map is the best way to the landscape. Maps would have allowed you to show where are the towns or the sites you would mention later in your talk. People would have understood easily and would not have been left in the mist.
2) One should have read the literature on the topic. You did not give the impression that you had read the main literature about your topic, the jars of the Plain of Jars (by Madeleine Colani for example).
3) You have an hypothesis, and an hypothesis is not yet proved but just a plan to look for proofs. That's OK. But you should have expressed it clearly. You tried to convince the audience that the idea of getting high temperatures within closed jars was possible by referring to experiences or "proofs" by others that one could reach such high temperatures within jars. But you just alluded to these "proofs" in a way which was not really convincing. The public would have expected something more precise.
I hope you understand that my observations are meant to help you and not discourage you.
I am waiting for your definite text!
Best,
XXXX
Next mail:
Hans, You have not answered my mail yet. So I am going to use your first text...
XXXX
Answer from my side:
Dear XXXX,
as far I remember I sended you some Fullpaper 3 a few weeks back. This text is OK. If you need a shorter text you also may use this text as far as it is not needed to print the ADB map of Laos again.
Best regards
Hans
Response again:
Hans, I can find only a "full paper 2"!
If you have a full paper "3", please send it quickly!
XXXX
My answer:
...best regards. The difference is not too big.
Hans
…and again…
Hans, You use the acronym "GMS" without explaining it.
There are lots of "GMS":
GMSGates Millennium Scholars (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
GMSGlobal Management System (Sonicwall)
GMSGeneral Medical Services
GMSGrants Management System
GMSGreater Mekong Subregion
GMSGeneva Motor Show
GMSGroundwater Modeling System
GMSGlobal Mobile (Communications) System
GMSGeostationary Meteorological Satellite
GMSGlycerol Monostearate
GMSGlobal Mobility Specialist
GMSGordano Messaging Suite
GMSGuild Management System
GMSGlobal Manufacturing System
GMSGeneral Merchandise Stores
GMSGrafton Middle School (various locations)
GMSGive Me Strength (record label)
GMSGroupWise Mobile Server
GMSGas Management System
GMSGeneration Management System
GMSGem and Mineral Society
GMSGlobal Messaging Service
GMSGood Morning Sunshine
GMSGomori's Methenamine Silver (special stain in pathology)
GMSGlobal Maplestory (MMORPG)
GMSGlobal Microwave Systems, Inc.
GMSGordon-Michael Scallion (futurist)
GMSGreenbrier Middle School (various locations)
GMSGardner Middle School (USA)
GMSGive Me Shelter
GMSGrandmaster Sexay (WWE)
GMSGrant Maintained School
GMSGold Mind Squad (band)
GMSGilsanz Murray Steficek LLP (New York, NY)
GMSGrandview Middle School (Mount, MN)
GMSGrowling Mad Scientist (band)
GMSGuided Missile System
GMSGoethals Memorial School (India)
GMSGeneral Military Science
GMSGenebank Management System
GMSGoodlettsville Middle School (Tennessee)
GMSGalvanized Mild Steel
GMSGlades Middle School (Miramar, FL)
GMSGunship Multispectral Sensor
GMSGreenbrier Military School (Lewisburg, WV)
GMSGrissom Middle School
GMSGlobal Mobility Squadron (USAF)
GMSGlobal Maritime Services (Trinidad)
GMSGeneral Mail System
GMSGoodLink Management Server
GMSGlenvar Middle School
GMSGeofacilities Management System
GMSGolf Management Services
GMSGimme My Stars
GMSGaiser Middle School (Washington)
GMSGeneric Monitoring System
GMSGround Measurement Systems
GMSGCCS Management Center
GMSGround-Based Midcourse, Site (Activation)
GMSGround Mobile Segment
GMSGuided Missile Simulator
GMSGround Maintenance Support
GMSGhumusar Mahila Sangathan (Kui: Women Joining Together; India)
GMSGNet Management System (Sprint)
GMSGross Merchandise Sale
GMSGraves Middle School (Whittier, CA)
GMSGrand Mean Scaling
GMSGitchner Mobile System
GMSGrand Masterswipe (parkour)
GMSGrandes et Moyenne Surface
GMSGreenfield Marketing Solutions
GMSGas Monitoring System (various organizations)
GMSGeneral Medical ServicesMedical » Hospitals
GMSGreater Mekong SubregionRegional
GMSGeostationary Meteorological SatelliteAcademic & Science » Meteorology
GMSGeostationary Meteorological SatelliteAcademic & Science » Ocean Science
GMSGroundwater Modeling SystemMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGross Merchandise SalesBusiness » Accounting
GMSThe Gordano Messaging SuiteMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGraphical Modeling SystemMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGreat Mekong SubMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGeneral Mail SystemMiscellaneous » USPS
GMSGeostationary Meteorology SatelliteAcademic & Science » Meteorology
GMSGeo-stationary Meteorological SatelliteGovernmental » Military
GMSGuimaraes, MA, BrazilRegional » Airport Codes
GMSGuided Microwave SpectrometerMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGreat Mutant SkywheelMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGames Master SystemCommunity » Sports
GMSGambetta Middle SchoolCommunity » Schools
GMSGully Man ScreamingMiscellaneous » Funnies
GMSGreater Maekong SubMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGate Millennium ScholarAcademic & Science » Universities
GMSGuild Message SystemMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGenral Motors SupplierMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGroovy Male StudMiscellaneous » Unfiled
GMSGalvez Middle School, Galvez, LouisianaCommunity » Schools
GMSGemtec Machinery Services
Note: We have 250 other definitions for GMS in our Acronym Attic
I suppose you mean "Greater Mekong Subregion" but would like to be sure.
XXXX
And the result you may see here…:
By the way: Colanis book I hold in my hands first in 2004 - and I wondered why some people talked that much about her text - so maybe I thought I don't understand enough french to find out some interesting information. So I asked a swiss colleague and native speaker who told me that he cannot see more than me too. Her book seemed to be almost a base review from a viewpoint of the 20th and 30th of the last century (but OK she's not a specialist for archeology - she was (only?) a geologist working for the department of natural resources and mining of the french colonial administration an international company). Naturally we have better (and geological) maps but for normal users they might be “useless” and naturally we don’t plan to do tourism in a minefield. But if any UNESCO staff from Bangkok ever made the trip to Uplands of Laos, maybe their program was such pressed, they didn't see that there is still "community based tourism up there (maybe without UNESCO sponsoring and with out "Blue Angel" seal). Plain of Jars is a small area and a kind of center of a whole region so what…? What the Librarian wants us to tell…? Some of us might know the answer…!
(*Don’t let me forget to explain the acronym EFEO – it means: Ecole Francaise pour l’Extreme Orient)