De Blauwe Nijl|Virginia Morell 9058311260

||boek: De Blauwe Nijl|Het heilige water van Ethiopië|National Geographic|Sirene

||door: Virginia Morell

||taal: nl
||jaar: 2001
||druk: uitgave in Sirene
||pag.: 318p
||opm.: paperback|zo goed als nieuw|bladrand vertoont vlekjes

||isbn: 90-5831-126-0
||code: 1:000141

--- Over het boek (foto 1): De Blauwe Nijl ---

De Blauwe Nijl wordt aanbeden en gehaat, bewonderd en gevreesd, vereerd als een heilige en veracht als de grootste zondaar. De rivier spoelt de kostbare bovenlaag van de aarde weg; is vergeven van de krokodillen, nijlpaarden en malariamuggen; de diepe bedding is als een vestinggracht die het land in tweeën splijt.

Zowel orthodoxe christenen als animisten geloven dat het water van de rivier machtige geesten herbergt - de ene verwant met duivelse demonen, de andere met God. "Zorg ervoor dat je de Abbai wat brood geeft", waarschuwt een vrouw met op haar voorhoofd een blauwe, kruisvormige tatoeage. "Als je niet oppast, komen kwade jinn uit het water en vliegen je naar de strot".

Virginia Morell sluit zich aan bij de expeditie van avonturierster Nevada Weir: de twee vrouwen trekken te voet en met vlotten meer dan 1300 kilometer over en langs de Blauwe Nijl, vanaf het Tanameer in Ethiopië tot de grens met Soedan.

[bron: https--www.bol.com]

Virginia Morell is 'National Geographic'-medewerkster en in die hoedanigheid vervoegt ze zich bij een expeditie van een andere avontuurlijke vrouw, de fotografe Nevada Weir. Met een behoorlijk gezelschap reizen ze van de buurt van de bronnen van de Blauwe Nijl in Ethiopië via de rivier tot Soedan. Dat is een expeditie in de ware zin van het woord; elk is professional in zijn/haar vakgebied: rafter, fotograaf of journalist. Het resultaat is een erg wijdlopig en uitgebreid relaas over de woelige geschiedenis van de regio rond deze 'kleine' Nijl, die om tal van redenen bijzonder weinig is bezocht door westerlingen. De reizigers moeten dan ook langs stroomversnellingen, moeilijke milities, krokodillen, maar weten de ontelbare riviergeesten en bandietenbendes in deze pure oorspronkelijke omgeving te vermijden. Morell had al in Ethiopië gewoond en haar kennis van taal en geschiedenis draagt bij tot een goede band met de lokale gidsen van verschillende etnieën, die op hun beurt verhalen, poëzie en cultuur van de regio met haar delen. Ook is deze ervaren reizigster niet te beroerd om persoonlijke beslommeringen en (klein-) menselijke emoties - die reizen meebrengt en de authentieke charme van reisverhalen garanderen - aan de lezer op te biechten. Een gedetailleerd en imponerend fresco. Net als de vorige en volgende uitgave is er een reeks mooie kleurenfoto's opgenomen.

Wilfried Poelmans [bron: https--bilzen.bibliotheek.be]

Sacred, mysterious, powerful, the Blue Nile has carved a deep channel through human history. From its source in the wild Ethiopian highlands, this river passes through some of the most untamed country on Earth as it rushes toward its desert rendezvous with the White Nile in Sudan. More than one adventurer has perished in the Blue Nile Corge, whose hazards range from raging rapids to menacing crocodiles to armed bandits.

When National Geographic invited Virginia Morell to join its 1999 expedition - which hoped to be the first to descend the river in a single, uninterrupted trip from its source to the Sudan border - she jumped at the chance to revisit Ethiopia, a land she'd come to love during a sojourn many years before. The only African country never colonized by Europeans, its history spans more than two millennia from King Menelik, said in legend to be the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, to Ras Tafari, better known to the West as Haile Selassie, who ruled until his overthrow in 1974. This is an insular culture, isolated by geography and tradition, where ferenjjoch visitors are greeted with curiosity and courtesy - and sometimes suspicion, after three decades of military rule and a long war with Eritrea.

Highlighted by Nevada Wier's evocative photographs, Morell's engrossing account introduces a world where tribesmen still hunt leopards with spears, and where villagers sometimes journey for days to catch a glimpse of foreigners and their marvelous boats. We linger at an impromptu concert and feast with people who have never seen a white face before, meet patriarchs whose Christianity stretches back to the Roman Empire, and face off with Kalashnikov-toting militiamen who may not be able to read the documents they demand. By the time we reach the border town of Bumbadi, we've been taken on an unforgettable journey through time -- and among a strong people who've resisted the advances of the modern world.

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

--- Over (foto 2): Virginia Morell ---

Virginia Morell is an acclaimed science journalist and author. A contributing correspondent for Science, she has covered evolutionary and conservation biology since 1990. A passionate lover of the natural world and a creative thinker, her reporting keeps her in close communications with leading scientists in her fields of interest. Morell is also a regular contributor to National Geographic and Conde Nast Traveler. In 2004, her National Geographic article on climate change was a finalist for Best Environmental Article from the Society of Environmental Journalists.

In addition to her journalistic work, Morell is the author of three celebrated books. The New York Times awarded a Notable Book of the Year to Ancestral Passions, her dramatic biography of the famed Leakey family and their notable findings. Blue Nile, about her journey down the Blue Nile to Sudan, was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Travel Book. And The Washington Post listed Wildlife Wars, which she co-authored with Richard Leakey, as one of their Best Books of the Year.

An accomplished public speaker, Morell spent March 2009 as a principal lecturer for National Geographic Society's Expeditions Program on one of its exclusive, round-the-world trips. She lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, writer Michael McRae, a Calico cat, Nini, and a smart, six-year-old American Working Farm Collie, Buckaroo.

Read "Animal Minds", Virginia Morell's National Geographic cover story that explores animal intelligence, the subject of her upcoming book from Crown, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, which will be published in February 2013. Elizabeth Kolbert selected this article for the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 (Houghton Mifflin).

Published work

• Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures (Crown, February 2013)
• Wildlife Wars, My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures (St. Martin's Press, September 2001)
• Blue Nile: Ethiopia's River of Magic and Mystery (National Geographic Books, June 2001)
• Ancestral Passions, The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings (Simon and Schuster, August 1996)

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

I am an author of science and natural history books, and a prolific contributor to Science, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and other publications. I love writing about the natural world, and how scientists are exploring it. In my newest book, ANIMAL WISE, I explore the once-forbidden land of animal minds with scientists courageous enough to tackle the questions: What and how do animals think? In my book, you'll read about my trips to meet researchers who've discovered that ants teach, parrots converse, rats laugh, and cheetahs can die from heartbreak. I live in Ashland, Oregon, with my husband and fellow-writer, Michael McRae, our American Working Farm Collie, Buckaroo, and sweet, but camera-shy Calico kitty, Nini.

Virginia Morell [source: https--www.amazon.com]

Virginia Morell discusses how an interview with Jane Goodall morphed into the book, Animal Wise, if there is an ethical component to animals' feelings, and which authors have influenced her science writing the most.

Why did you become a science writer?

As a child, I loved reading and spending time in nature. My parents were great outdoor enthusiasts, and as a family we spent weekends and every summer vacation camping, hiking and exploring the mountains and deserts of the western states. I was soon a devoted reader of field guides, learning all I could about wildlife, plants, and geology. I loved reading because I could imagine myself as the characters in my books and being carried away by the words into their lives. I loved watching birds and animals for much the same reason. Who were they? How did they live their lives? I wrote short, imaginary tales about their lives. While these were fictional tales, they were my first efforts to explain the things in the world that I thought and cared about. I actually did not set out to become a science writer; as a child I didn't realize there was such a career. I only discovered it in college, a sudden illumination: here was a way to combine all that I loved-reading, exploring the wild, meeting unusual, eccentric characters (human and animal), and sharing all of this through my writing.

What authors have influenced you both as a reader and a science writer?

I've been deeply influenced by John McPhee. His books are models for explaining a field of science, and drawing readers to arcane subjects via the scientists. Evan Connell's masterful Son of the Morning Star has also affected my writing. I've read and re-read his work and would love to think I'm able to give readers somewhat similar vivid descriptions of the scientists I met for Animal Wise. I'm also drawn as a reader and writer to Diane Ackerman, Jonathan Weiner, Annie Dillard, Grete Ehrlich, Francis Parkman, Ian Frazier, and Charles Darwin (especially his Voyage of the Beagle).

You've written about Africa's natural treasures, about the Nile, and about the Leakey family. What brought you to the idea of animal minds?

For my biography about the fossil-hunting Leakey family, I traveled to Tanzania to interview Jane Goodall in 1987 at Gombe Stream National Park, where she studies wild chimpanzees. I joined Jane and her research assistants on their chimp-watching forays, and found myself surprised and captivated by how similar the chimpanzees' behaviors, facial expressions, and gestures were to our own. The chimpanzees were clearly thinking, as well as experiencing and expressing emotions - yet Jane could not say this about them. She had to use indirect expressions: "The young chimpanzee behaved 'as if' she were deceiving him." There was a bias at the time against animals having minds, and being capable of thinking or feeling emotions, especially positive ones, such as love. That trip, my discussions with Jane about animal minds, and my own experiences with my dogs and cats led me to investigate the science of animal cognition.

What is your favorite story or part of Animal Wise and why?

I have many favorite stories in Animal Wise. I loved meeting Alex the African Gray Parrot, a parrot that the scientist Irene Pepperberg had taught to mimic the sounds of over 100 English words. Alex understood that these sounds were labels - for example, he knew that the sound "yellow" referred to the color yellow. Irene could then ask him questions about his understanding of the world. It was remarkable to watch her ask these questions, and to listen to his answers. Alex would open his beak and the words would appear: "Yel-low." or "Co-lor." or "Shape." When one of his companion parrots was struggling to pronounce a word, Alex interrupted him and said, "Talk clearly! Talk clearly!" I realized then Alex truly had a mind of his own.

Is there an ethical component to animal minds? Apology? Regret? Shame?

Many animal species have rules that govern how to behave and how to treat others in their social groups. They may not have apologies in the same way that we do; but they have ways to ask others for forgiveness if they transgress. Sometimes, this is expressed as submission (think of a dog rolling on his back and exposing his throat to a rival). A chimpanzee seeking forgiveness from another will grimace and extend her hand, palm-up - just as we do when begging. Regarding regret, it might seem difficult to ask if another animal feels regret, but Japanese scientists showed through a 2011 experiment that Rhesus monkeys regret making poor choices. To confirm their discovery, the researchers also recorded the neuronal activity of the monkeys during the test. The regions of the brain that are known to be associated with memory and regret in humans were also activated in the "regretful" monkeys. As for shame, Darwin considered "shame" to be an emotion found only in humans, and I don't know of any studies that have convincingly shown this in another species. Guilt, however, is a different matter. Darwin observed that primates, dogs, and wolves all exhibit the types of behaviors that are associated with guilt: averting one's gaze and keeping one's head down. Guilty behaviors help reinforce social bonds by reducing conflict and encouraging tolerance. Most dog owners think that their dogs feel guilty if they do something wrong. Scientists have devised clever tests for "dog guilt," but the results so far are mixed. Maybe the best answer comes from one of the great observers of animal behavior, Konrad Lorenz, who wrote that we can "assume with certainty that the [dog's guilty look] hides a guilty conscience."

Is your dog intelligent? How? Can you give us examples?

Yes, my dog Buck is intelligent. He is an American Working Farm Collie. Buck protects the jays we feed every morning. I think he knows all the birds; collies have been shown to know all the sheep in their herds, and the birds are Buck's herd. One day a few summers ago, my husband and I noticed Buck in our lower garden, standing and protecting something. We went to investigate and found him standing over one of the jays. It was on the ground with its wings outstretched. My husband picked up the bird, and after he looked for injuries without result let the bird go and it fly away. The next morning, Buck brought the bird - now dead - inside and laid it at my husband's feet. It was such a touching moment, and we've often wondered at Buck's decision to guard the bird and then to bring its dead body to us. He did all of this independently, without us telling him - which absolutely fascinates dog cognition researchers. We called the County's Disease Vector people about the jay, and they stopped by - and using rubber gloves put the bird in a container with dry ice. They examined it in their lab, and discovered that it had died from West Nile virus. So, thanks to Buck, we helped track the spread of this disease in our county!

You've brought us an incredible book. What's next?

I have several book projects in mind, but haven't settled on the next one yet.

[source: bookbrowse.com]