A sad day for cultural heritage in Belize

Well,  it was certainly a crazy semester, and for not having written a single entry all term, I apologize profusely. 

I had been looking for something to write about to get this blog going again, and today, the answer just fell into my lap, or well, my inbox. 

The headline "Contractor Bulldozes Mayan Temple" immediately sunk my heart. My first thought was "please tell me this didn't happen in Mexico!" and for that, I am deeply ashamed, because the truth is that it doesn't matter where it happened. The mere fact that it happened, is an atrocity. 

Here is what the temple resembled a few days ago

Maya Temple at Lamanai in Belize, similar to Nohmul

and this is what the once- tallest structure in all northern Belize looks like now

While most news outlets are blaming the owner of the company, I feel that we have no one to truly blame but ourselves for our inactivity. More awareness of the situation could have prevented this temple from being destroyed. Petitions could have been signed and lobbying could have occurred, but instead, we waited until it was over, and now frantically attempt to find someone to blame. Yes, this man is responsible and should be charged with the destruction of cultural heritage, but every single person writing about how barbaric this man is should also consider what they might have done to prevent it from occurring.

Why is it that we only hear about these things once they have occurred? More awareness to the issues of cultural heritage protection will hopefully prevent atrocities like this from happening in the future.

On the Titanic Exhibition, continued.

Last post I began to divulge my thoughts on my recent Titanic exhibition experience. I concluded the post after the discussion of the portrayal of life onboard the Titanic for the three classes, and the way in which this section of the exhibit utilizes artifacts, pictures, and historical accounts to draw in the visitor.

The exhibition morphs from the dining halls and passenger-centered halls to the furnaces that kept the ship going, changing its focus from the passengers onboard the ship, to the most unfortunate group on the vessel: the crew. Out of almost 900 crew members aboard the vessel, only 214 survived the disaster; in other words, 24 percent of the crew survived, yet the vessel could not have functioned and sailed without this group of workers.

The room is barely lit, and provides the illusion of being in the boiler rooms quite accurately. The music has changed once again from the cheery music to something which might be imagined to be what the crew shoveling coal heard every day, the sound of labourers hard at work, and the roaring of the engine of the massive ship. This section of the exhibit contains no artifacts of the crew, but instead contains parts of the ship, and some of the coal which has survived.

The last room of the exhibition is large, and in truth contains various motives. First, it transports the passenger to the dawn of the sinking. The music plays the sound of wind whooshing around, and there is the famous "iceberg" which people are encouraged to touch. There are accounts of passengers watching the ship go down plastered along the walls, and the lighting is a dim blue, channeling the cloudless frozen dawn. There are exquisite artifacts in display, such as a small golden purse and its contents, and many people's personal belongings: clothing, shoes, diaries, money, papers, etc. Further down, in the last corner of the exhibit is a section dedicated to the expeditions which were carried out in 2010. Here, the exhibition boasts RMST's mission to "inform the development of standards in underwater archaeology for maritime heritage management" through the analysis of data gathered with their expeditions. They also claim that a "key element" in RMST's mission is to "faithfully and respectfully preserve the legacy and memory of Titanic..."
It is difficult to believe anything else than what they tell you after experiencing the exhibit, that is, unless the visitor has any prior knowledge of the debate surrounding the 'salvage' of artifacts from the wreck site.

The exhibit concludes with pictures from their expedition (as seen in several publications) and with a section on conservation. To be honest, this section was the most disappointing for me, as it did not really enlighten me in any way. It did not divulge any of the processes by which artifacts are conserved, or the hardships or conserving such items. I thought that especially with the "jewels of Titanic" in residence, the conservation section would be more enlightening.
It was especially disappointing since my companions had been asking me "and how did they conserve this? How come [x item] still survives?!" to which I always answered "wait till the end, then you may have answers!"

But answers did not come.
I do, however, admit that I found the statement of their goals to be quite eloquently stated: "[To] stop deterioration while allowing recovered objects to be exhibited wearing the trauma they have experienced during their decades on the ocean floor." The trauma they have experienced— I wish I would've thought of writing such a description!

The exhibit concludes with a statement that the "recovered artifacts will remain long after... as a reminder of the legendary liner, life's frailty, and the human spirit's enduring strength."
With that, the exhibition concludes, and there are two computers for visitors to leave their thoughts.

My major annoyance was that neither of these computers worked for the better part of 20 minutes, during which my companions were kind enough to be patient and wait until someone (aka myself) could fix them in order for me to leave my comments.

Overall, I did enjoy the experience, although I am now as conflicted as ever as to the artifacts. No, they shouldn't have been removed and no, they should not be exploited commercially, but how can such an exhibition,which encourages the learning of the layperson about an event in history, be so terrible? In the end, I feel that if only RMST would discuss the opposition in their exhibition (i.e.- briefly bring up the issues with the collection of the artifacts) the exhibition could be much more educational (for those who wish to learn, which won't be everyone who visits the exhibition) and a little bit better in terms of the ethical display of the artifacts.

Again, this, and the fact that there were glaring typos in their display, were the two things which most annoyed me, closely followed by their lack of an educational conservation section at the end of the exhibit.

And now, I shall lay all this Titanic business to rest... for now.....

It's always a good time to discuss the Titanic, isn't it?

Happy New Year!!
Well, over the holidays I visited the Titanic exhibition in Atlanta, and boy would I like to tell you what I think!

I had previously been to one of the Titanic Exhibitions (also in Atlanta, but at the Aquarium), and so this time around (after having taken the ethics class and writing my paper on the Titanic) I endeavored to carefully analyze the exhibit and its presentation of the artifacts.
While I will not be discussing the ethics regarding the salvage of the artifacts themselves, I will focus on the display information and the presentation of the story.

First of all, I was quite hesitant to attend due to the high admission price. At 24 USD a head, I didn't want to bankrupt my family if the trip became a family expedition! In the end, my mother and my aunt accompanied me, which provided me not only with great company, but also with differing viewpoints.

As we enter the exhibit we receive our boarding passes. My aunt and I are second class women, my mom is a first class woman. We automatically speculate that she survived, whereas we are unsure of our own fates. True to what I have read, the exhibit begins at the "conception" of the ship— all the way from the blueprints to its being furnished and ready to receive passengers at Southampton.
In this section, there are some artifacts which I consider are not quite as relevant to the exhibition story, as they do not have much to do with the conception of the ship. There are some rivets and the like which display how the ship was fastened, but overall, the artifacts here are just for entertainment value, and in my personal opinion, do not add much to the "story."
I also immediately notice that there is no mention of where these artifacts come from, although beneath each description, there is a catalogue number for the item (the last two digits of the year in which it was found followed by numbers), although  this is not brought to the attention of the visitor until the very last section of the exhibit.

Much like I remember from the Aquarium exhibit, the visitor proceeds from this area into the Titanic, where there are explanations of the grandeur of the ship, the luxuries of first, second, and even third class, including the dining menus for each of these classes and some examples of the equipment needed to prepare meals for so many people. The room includes pictures as well as artifacts, and the artifacts displayed here are much more relevant.

In this section of the exhibit, the "Jewels of Titanic" are temporarily being housed. You enter a small room through a sparkly curtain, and immediately feel transported to a different world. The room is a velvety type of blue, and the lighting is dimmed. The 15 jewels are arranged in such a way to tell some sort of story: some are grouped by where they were found (both inside one bag, for example) while others are arranged for their attributes. There are charm necklaces and one "this be your lucky star" necklace among the collection of radiant sapphires, pearls, diamonds, and gold and silver earrings and necklaces, brooches and hairpins. There is also a pocket watch from a second class passenger, which, in all honesty, is terribly displayed as the silver plaque behind it reflects the light in such a way to make the watch only visible by squinting.

Overall, the joyous lively music of the first section of the exhibit followed by the elegant, clean music of the "interior" of the Titanic marks a stark contrast to the feel of the exhibit, providing the visitor with an experience of actually being back in the early 1900s. The more quiet and secluded Jewels room transports the visitor to a completely different atmosphere, one of awe, wonder, and melancholy.

Up to this point, the exhibit has dealt mainly with the first class passengers and accommodations, showing artifacts, pictures, and quoted accounts, while briefly detailing the second class and third class accommodations with some quotations and stories of families who were in each of these classes.

I will continue my thoughts on the rest of the exhibition in my next post, which I promise to post as soon as I am able.