Solution Manual for Diversity Consciousness Opening Our Minds to People Cultures and

Opportunities 4th Edition by Bucher ISBN 0321919068 9780321919069

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1
Diversity: An Overview
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to:
• Analyze significant changes in the cultural landscape of the United States.
• Differentiate among people’s reactions to the changing cultural
landscape.
• Contrast assimilation and pluralism.
• Elaborate on various dimensions of diversity.
• Give examples of diversity within and among groups.
• Critique the diversity myths.
• Explain diversity consciousness.
• Elaborate on diversity education.
“There never were in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains;
the most universal quality is diversity.”
—Michel de Montaigne1

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2 Chapter 1

I n recent years, the term diversity has grown in use. The term regularly appears in the
popular media, professional magazines, trade books, and scholarly literature.
Nevertheless, there is no single, agreed upon definition of diversity. To some it means
tolerance, acceptance, or perhaps an attitude. To others, diversity may mean racial and
gender differences. Still others see diversity as a code word for affirmative
action or laws designed to ensure representation of minority groups.
Unlike affirmative action, diversity is not a legal concept. Nor does it include only
some people. Diversity is defined in the dictionary as “a state of unlikeness” or “the
condition of being different.” Because we are all different, diversity includes everyone. In
this book, diversity refers to all of the ways in which people are different. This includes
individual, group, and cultural differences. Our ability to recognize, under-stand, and adapt
to these differences is a major focus of diversity consciousness.

OUR CHANGING CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Traditionally, the concept of diversity is most often used in relation to culture. Culture refers
to our way of life, including everything that is learned, shared, and transmitted from one
generation to the next. Although culture endures over time, it is not static. Language, values,
rules, beliefs, and even the material things we create are all part of one’s culture.
Culture’s influence on us is profound. As we internalize culture throughout our lives,
it influences who we are, what we think, how we behave, and how we evaluate our
surroundings. For example, culture shapes the way we communicate, view work, inter-
pret conflict, define and solve problems, and resolve dilemmas. Culture, which Hof-stede
describes as a collective programming of the mind that reveals itself in symbols, values,
and rituals, is often so embedded in us that we may be unaware of its influence. 2
Landscape means a scene or a setting. When we talk about cultural landscape,
we are referring to the different lifestyles, traditions, and perspectives that can be found
in the United States and throughout the world. The cultural landscape that surrounds us
is both fluid and complex. Increasing our awareness and understanding of a variety
of cultural landscapes enables us to appreciate why interacting with people with
different “collective programming” can be such a challenge.
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “You cannot step into the same
river twice.” If we were to rephrase Heraclitus using modern-day terminology, we
might simply say that “change is constant.” Certainly, this applies to the cultural
land-scape that surrounds us. For instance, each time we interact with coworkers,
custom-ers, or clients, no matter how familiar the situation, it is never exactly the same.
People and their cultures change incessantly, from moment to moment.
As individuals, each day we are more experienced and knowledgeable than
we were the day before. Similarly, culture is ever changing. Languages, values,
religious beliefs, and customs rub up against each other, dominate and
accommodate, blend together, and evolve into new hybrids. Consider just a few
of the ways in which the cultural landscape is changing.
• Languages. Languages transmit and preserve culture. Of the estimated 7,000 lan-
guages spoken throughout the world, one becomes extinct every two weeks. The
state of Oklahoma is one of the areas of the world in which languages are disap-
pearing fastest. Many of these languages are spoken by Native American tribes
(National Geographic, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages). To
Dr. Mary Linn, a linguist from the University of Oklahoma, “Every language is a
huge library. And once that disappears, we really cannot get it back.”3
 Diversity: An Overview 3

• Work/Life Issues. Work schedules are becoming more flexible as mothers

and fathers look to balance their careers with child-raising responsibilities.
As employ-ees attach greater importance to flexibility, the traditional career
path is being rewritten. Work/life policies, including paid and unpaid time
off, dependents’ care, flextime, and telecommuting, are becoming
increasingly important consid-erations for working men and women.
• Surnames. Data from a new analysis by the Census Bureau show that the most
common surnames in the United States have changed in recent times. Six
Hispanic surnames are found among the top twenty-five, and four—Garcia,
Rodriguez, Martinez, and Hernandez—are among the top fifteen (see Table 1.1).
According to several demographers, this is in all likelihood the first time that
non-Anglo names are among the most common in the United States.4

Top Fifteen Surnames in the United States

Number of
Surname
Occurrences
SMITH 2,376,206
JOHNSON 1,857,160
WILLIAMS 1,534,042
BROWN 1,380,145
JONES 1,362,755
MILLER 1,127,803
DAVIS 1,072,335
GARCIA 858,289
RODRIGUEZ 804,240
WILSON 783,051
MARTINEZ 775,072
ANDERSON 762,394
TAYLOR 720,370
THOMAS 710,696
HERNANDEZ 706,372

Table 1.1 Top Fifteen Surnames in the United States.

Source: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

• Generational Issues. Different generations, which have been shaped by

differ-ent life experiences, are characterized as having divergent values,
priorities, communication styles, and leadership styles. While differences do
exist, such as the reliance of Millennials (born from about 1980 to 2000) on
technol-ogy, they are not absolute and uniform. Generational differences tend
to vary depending on one’s cultural background and upbringing. For
instance, there are subcultural and demographic differences within each
generation. As we communicate and interact, we need to take into account
possible differences and similarities. One business leader, for example,
advocates using different channels of communication to reach multiple
generations. In doing this, we recognize that “the same message delivered
through four or five or six types of media will reach different parts of your
organization and different generations in different ways.”5

4 Chapter 1
 U.S. Population Distribution in 1790
Unassigned 5.2%

Native American 1.8%

Africa 18.9%

Dutch 2.7%

Scots-Irish 4.8%

2.9%
Irish

Scots 6.6%

German 6.9%

Swedish, French 1.8%

English 48.5%

Figure 1.1 U.S. Population Distribution in 1790.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Part II,
Series Z, 20–132, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976.

Demographic Changes in the United States

Diversity is not a new phenomenon. If we look back at the first U.S. Census in 1790, we
see some interesting differences and similarities with today’s society. The first U.S.
census revealed our rural character. Only 3 percent of the population lived in settle-ments
of 8,000 or more. 6 In 1790, almost one of five residents (about 19 percent) was African-
American (see Fig. 1.1). It is interesting to note the cultural diversity among Whites at
that time. About 75 percent of the White population was White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
(English, Scots, Scots-Irish); 25 percent were mainly Dutch, French, German, Irish, and
Swedish.7 These statistics show that early inhabitants of this country were not
monocultural. Rather, their cultural differences were significant.
Since 1790, the cultural landscape of the United States has continued to change. We
are no longer a rural society. Slightly more than 80 percent of our population lives in urban
areas.8 Our racial and ethnic mix has a different look as well (see Fig. 1.2).

U.S. Population by
Race and Hispanic Origin, 2010

Hispanic (of any race) 16.0%

All other races 3.5%

4.7%
Asian alone

12.2%
Black alone

White alone (not Hispanic) 64.7%

Figure 1.2 Population of the United States, by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2010.
Source: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

Diversity: An Overview 5
The percentage of African-Americans, or Blacks, has declined from approximately
19 percent in 1790 to approximately 13 percent today. Asians have steadily increased
in numbers since they were first counted in the 1860 Census. Data from the most recent
census show that Asians and Pacific Islanders as well as Hispanics are the two fastest
growing minority populations in the United States. Since 2000, Hispanics have
accounted for more than half of the total population growth in the United States. Note
that the term Hispanic or Latino refers to a cultural attribute, rather than race or a
specific country of origin.
The rapid growth in U.S. minority populations is being fueled by immigration. And
for the first time, a majority of babies born in the United States are racial and ethnic
minorities. William Frey, a well-known demographer with the Brookings
Institution, comments on the changing cultural landscape: “We are pivoting from a
white–black dominated American population to one that is multiracial and mul-
ticultural.”9 The impact of immigration, according to essayist Richard Rodriguez,
can be seen in the number of people who come to this country speaking a language
other than English. For example, he observes, “Because of the massive migration of
Latin Americans northward, the United States has become the fifth-largest Spanish-
speaking country in the world, after Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia.”10
In comparison to Asians and Hispanics, the growth rate among non-Hispanic
Whites was significantly less in recent years. This continues a trend. Whites made up
approximately 90 percent of the U.S. population in 1940. Based on census estimates
for the year 2050, the percentage of Whites who are not Hispanic (Hispanics can be
of any race) will shrink noticeably to just under 50 percent.
Census data must be interpreted cautiously. Different groupings have been used
since the first census. In 1870, for instance, the terms quadroon (a fourth Black, or
having one Black grandparent) and octoroon (an eighth Black, or having one
Black great-grandparent) were used to indicate the exact amount of a person’s
Black heritage.
In recent years, racial categories have been added and an increasing number
of people have chosen to identify themselves as “other.” Many people do not feel
that they belong in a single category, and others do not want to be categorized at
all. An employee who refuses to select any category explains, “I’m not White,
I’m not Black, and I sure don’t want to be an ‘other.’”
A number of authors have written autobiographical accounts describing experi-
ences in which they cope and adjust to fitting no single racial category. Examples
include The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James
McBride, and Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by
Rebecca Walker. In What Are You? Voices of Mixed-Race Young People, Pearl
Fuyo Gaskins shares poetry, essays, and portions of interviews of some 45 mixed-
race youth. She organizes her chapters around a variety of themes such as
“The Color of My Skin Is Not the Color of My Heart,” “Roots: Random Thoughts
on Random Hair,” and “Are You Dat-ing Me or My Hair?”
For three years, Kip Fulbeck, an artist, filmmaker, and professor, conducted an
artistic survey of Hapas. The term hapa, as defined in his book part asian –100% hapa,
is slang for “mixed racial heritage with partial roots in Asian and/or Pacific Islander
ancestry.” Traveling the United States, Fulbeck interviewed hundreds of Hapas of var-
ying ages and genders. He asked each of them the same question; a question Fulbeck
says he has been asked every day of his life. What are you?11 This question, and others
like it, reveal varying levels of discomfort with people who do not seem to conform
to our oversimplified and antiquated perceptions of race. Likewise, intrusive questions
of this nature can make members of the mixed-race community feel devalued and
stigmatized (see Photo 1.2).
 Photo 1.2 Have you been asked...?

The racial options of the 2000 Census were modified to accommodate those who
want to express their multiracial heritage. For the first time, respondents could iden-
tify themselves as members of more than one racial category. Also, a separate
question about ethnicity appeared before race. Figure 1.3 shows other major changes.
In the 2010 U.S. Census, 9 million Americans, or roughly 3 percent, identified
themselves as members of more than one race. Many demographers expect this fig- ure
to increase dramatically by 2050. Evidence for this can be found in the growing number
of young people who identify themselves as multiracial. U.S. Census offi- cials
maintain that the major reason for this response is the significant increase in the number
of interracial couples. According to Paul Taylor of Pew Research Center,

Don’t Box Me In
An increasing number of people are resisting the pressure to
be boxed in by color. Tiger Woods, for example, has made it
known that he objects to being called African-American. Rather
he prefers “Cablinasian,” a term he made up that combines
his Caucasian, Black, Indian, and Asian ancestry. Other well-
known people who have affirmed their mixed an- cestry are
Keanu Reeves (Hawaiian, Chinese, Caucasian),
Mariah Carey (Black, Venezuelan, Caucasian), and Johnny
Depp (Cherokee, Caucasian). Groups such as the Multira-
cial and Biracial Student Association at the University of
Maryland are becoming more common on college campus- es.
This trend will likely continue as interracial marriages become
more common and society becomes more comfort- able with
different and new ways of defi ning one’s herit
 Diversity: An Overview 7
Prior to 2000 Census
2000 Census through Today
Category choice was Can choose Hispanic,
“Hispanic”
Latino, or Spanish Origin

Category read Category now reads

“Black” “Black, African-American,
or Negro*”

American Indian,
American Indian and
Eskimo, and Aleut
as separate categories Alaska Native categories
are combined

“Asian or
Pacific-Islander” was Now split into multiple
a combined category categories of Asian and
Pacific-Islander
 Figure 1.3 U.S. Census Changes: Race and Hispanic Origin. *The Census Bureau
recently announced it will no longer include the term “Negro” to describe Black/
African-Americans in its population surveys.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau. More detailed information concerning the new racial
categories is available on the U.S. Census Bureau Web site (http://www.census.gov).

“Interracial marriage has gone from taboo to a rarity, and with each passing year,
it’s less of a rarity.”12
Latinos, who can be of any race, often find it difficult to relate to the rigid
racial categories found in the census. Clara Rodríguez, author of Changing Race:
Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States, points out
analysts often misinterpret what this means. Analysts mistakenly assume Latinos
are confused, says the author, when in fact they see themselves as stretching
across racial lines.13

I was born in 1959 and I was “Black.” I did not challenge forms when I was younger,
because I did not realize then how important the information those forms requested would
become to me. If the form asked me to check “Negro,” I did. I don’t remember there being
racial categories other than Black/Negro or White.

As I grew older and learned through family conversation that there was another
culture that was part of me, I began a hesitant journey of uncover-ing who I am as a
complete person. This began with acknowledgment that my Native American heritage is as
important to me as being Black. My first acknowledgment of my racial completeness was
to check “other.” Checking “other” was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.
With that act came extreme guilt at the thought of abandoning my given culture and race.

I soon discovered that the guilt came from a sense of having banished myself to
neutrality. “Other” meant recognizing no race at all. I went back to checking “Black,”
which once again made me comfortable but incomplete. I have now settled on checking
both “Native American” and “Black.”
—Another perspective

8 Chapter 1

Profile in Diversity Consciousness

“There is often a divide, as we know, between Black and White.
For those of us in the middle, we often feel we must choose one
side of this divide or the other, especially in our younger years. For
me, growing up identifying predominantly as Afri-can- American in
a White family gave me a sense that I was interminably an
outsider. My family loved me unconditionally, but it was hard to
love myself with the same unbiased eyes.
I felt this most acutely during sixth grade when my mother
and I moved to a more diverse, and more racially divided, part of
town. African-American eighth graders teased me for being so
light-skinned, while my best friend and I were forbidden to continue
our friendship because her white parents disap-proved of my dark
skin and of my cousins’ Japanese ancestry.
A few years ago I was standing at a street corner, wait-
ing for the walk signal, when a White woman and a Black
man came up beside me with their young daughter on her
bicycle. In those moments before we continued on our
separate paths, I felt a sense of completeness like I had
never experienced before. Standing there at the corner, we
looked like a family. It was one of the first moments in my
life when I did not stand out from the crowd.
My struggle for identity has pretty well ceased within the
past few years. I am an individual of complex origin and am
proud to be so. I find it fitting that my birthday falls on United
Nations Day. By default of identity, those of us who incorporate
two opposing races do much to bring those two races together.
As an American with African, German, English, Irish, Scottish,
and Mexican heritage, I am proud to participate in the melting
pot that is America.”
—Shannon Luders-Manuel, as quoted in Teaching Tolerance magazine
(permission to reprint from Teaching Tolerance, http://www.tolerance.org).
 Thinking Through Diversity
Would you describe yourself as multiracial, or do you see yourself as belonging
to a single race? Why?
It is clear that our nation’s schools and workforce will feel the effects of
growing diversity for some time. Demographic data indicate that:
• Women, minorities, and older people will continue to account for the vast major-ity
of new entries in the workforce (see Fig. 1.4). Sociologically speaking, the term
minorities refers to categories of people whose members are singled out and denied
equal power and opportunity in the larger society. This definition places the
emphasis on power rather than numbers. For instance, even though women con- stitute
a numeric majority in the United States, they lack political, economic, and social
power relative to men and therefore constitute a minority. With regard to minorities,
immigration and population changes will alter workforce demograph-ics for years to
come. As more women are added to the labor force, their share will approach that of
men. Employment projections for 2050 show that women will comprise nearly half of
the U.S. labor force. The new elders, as they become even healthier and better
educated, are more likely to continue working rather than fully retiring. Finally, the
percentage of workers with disabilities is expected to increase because of a number of
factors. The workplace is becoming more accessible due to the protection afforded by
the Americans with Disabilities Act and the removal of both attitudinal and physical
barriers. Recent census data point to future growth in the number of employed people
with physical and mental disabilities.
• Students at all levels of education will continue to grow increasingly diverse. One indi-
cation of this trend is the dramatic upsurge in the number of K–12 public school stu-dents
who are members of racial and ethnic minorities. Likewise, the number of ELL (English
Language Learner) students has increased dramatically, accounting for more than 10
percent of students enrolled in U.S. public schools. 14 Data from the U.S. Department of
Education reveal a similar pattern among college students, who have become increasingly
diversified in terms of their race, ethnicity, gender, and age. 15
• The international student population in the United States is growing. The Insti-
tute of International Education estimates that there are now more than 700,000
international students in the United States.16 Most of these students come from

Diversity: An Overview 9

U.S. Workforce Demographics:

2000 and Projected for 2050

White, 73.1%
non-Hispanic 53.4% Key:
2000
10.9% 2050
Hispanic
23.7%

Asians, PI, 4.7%

NA, AI* 10.9%

11.8%
Black
14.1%

12.9%
55 and older
18.8%

46.6%
Women
47.7%

53.4%
Men
52.3%
 *Asians, Pacific-Islanders, Native Alaskans, and American Indians

Figure 1.4 U.S. Workforce Demographics: 2000 and Projected for 2050.
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey Annual Averages.
Projections: M. Toossi, “A New Look at Long-Term Labor Force Projections to 2050,”
Monthly Labor Review, November 2006, 19–39.

Asian and Latin American countries. In addition, more U.S. students than
ever are now studying abroad.

Technological and Social Changes

A number of social and technological changes have also altered the cultural
landscape in recent years.
Globalization and Technology
In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman emphasizes how globalization, the grow-ing
interdependence of people and cultures, has accelerated in the twenty-first century.
Globalization is impacting individuals of every conceivable color and culture. To use
Friedman’s terminology, the world is being flattened in all kinds of ways. For example,
there is no such thing as an “American job” in a flat world. Factors such as immigration,
the speed and ease of modern transportation, outsourcing, environmental changes, and the
globalization of markets and technology contribute to this trend.
Technological advances have transformed our social world into what
Marshall McLuhan termed a global village.17 In other words, increasingly we
need to think of the entire world when we talk about our social environment.
Computers, satellites, and communication technology have brought the world
closer together and made cross-cultural encounters an everyday occurrence.
The emergence of the global economy, immigration, and the growing diversity of
the U.S. population are transforming the business arena. For example, U.S. compa-nies
are creating more multilingual Web sites to expand their market, improve sales, and
remain competitive. Dress codes are being revised to include headwear and other articles
of clothing required by various religions. Companies are providing consumers

10 Chapter 1

with a greater array of products that reflect their diverse lifestyles and tastes. With an
increase in white-collar service jobs, companies are paying more attention to cross-
cultural interaction among workers and between workers and customers.
The impact of globalization has been particularly noticeable in the hotel and res-
taurant business. A case in point is a Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C., where workers
speak 36 languages and some speak no English at all. To communicate with his staff, the
hotel’s general manager has memos translated into five different languages and read
aloud to workers. During meetings, supervisors rely heavily on gesturing, tone of voice,
and the written word to clarify complex thoughts to non-English-speaking workers. And
language is only one of the many challenges. According to the hotel’s assistant director
of housekeeping, a growing segment of the hotel’s workforce is Muslim women. During
the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, these women fast from sunup to sundown. However,
they are reluctant to take their normal lunch break during Ramadan because they would
be surrounded by the smell of food in the employee cafeteria. When the Muslim women
asked if they could work through the lunch hour and leave earlier, the assistant director
agreed. However, she later heard from fellow managers who were concerned that other
employees might take advantage of the situation.
Terrorist attacks and global conflict, as well as the economic and political efforts
to respond effectively to them, underscore the growing importance of developing a
global perspective, meaning a view of the world and our place in it. For example,
the government is stepping up its efforts to address current and projected shortages of
employees with foreign language skills. Agencies such as the U.S. Army, the FBI,
the State Department, and the Commerce Department are in dire need of language
 specialists with expertise in Arabic, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, Indonesian,
Japanese, Korean, Farsi, Russian, Turkish, and other languages.
For each of us, developing a clearer, more encompassing view of the world
around us is absolutely necessary. By doing so, we:
1. Develop greater insight into our interconnectedness. Technology, commerce across
national borders, as well as immigration and emigration have linked the United States
with the rest of the world like never before. The loss of human life on 9/11 was not just
an American tragedy; it was felt worldwide (see Fig. 1.5). People from more than 60
countries were victims of the World Trade Center disaster. Figures provided by individ-
ual governments, or the U.S. Department of State, show the number of victims from
countries such as Pakistan (200), India (250), Australia (55), El Salvador (71), Austria (15),
and Nigeria (94 reported missing by Nigerian press; no official number). 18
2. Expand our awareness of different perspectives. Without a global perspective, we are
more likely to assume that our way of doing things is universal. This is particularly
true of those aspects of our culture that are not readily visible to us. Consider how we
view time. Do we view time as a precious resource that should not be wasted? What
do we assume about someone who is late to an appointment to finish a conversa-tion
with a friend? Perhaps we have always lived in a culture where being on time and
meeting deadlines are extremely important. Consequently, we make all sorts of
judgments about people on the basis of their promptness. However, what if we find
ourselves in a culture that does not share our time orientation? For example, different
time perspectives can be viewed along a continuum, extending from a monochronic
to a polychronic time orientation.19 Polychronic time means people engage in multiple
activities within a certain time frame and plans are subject to change, especially if they
interfere with personal commitments. This cultural preference is at odds with
monochronic time, in which people follow a strict schedule and focus on one activity
or project at a time. Whereas the United States, Canada, and many

Diversity: An Overview 11

World Trade Center Tragedy: Victims from Over 60 Countries

Austria: 15 Pakistan: 200

India: 250

El Salvador: 71 Nigeria: 94

Australia: 5
Figure 1.5 World Trade Center Tragedy: Victims Worldwide.

Western cultures tend to be predominantly monochronic, countries in the Mid-dle East and Latin America are more polychronic.
3. Enhance our self-awareness. When we visit another country, we may complain about a wide variety of things such as the food, odors,
standards of cleanliness, dress, and the way people converse. Uncomfortable experiences in strange lands can teach us about ourselves. By
examining how we react and adjust to these experiences, we learn more about the ways in which cultural experiences shape our thinking and
behavior. Furthermore, we become more aware of just how difficult it is to change culturally ingrained habits, no matter how insignificant they
may seem.
Expanding our global perspective is not easy. Keeping up with world news each day does not begin to fill the void. A college
president recently told the story of a visit-ing professor from Australia who spent a semester in the United States. During that time, he
did not see a single news story or commentary about his country, except for a shootout with a madman.20
Heightened Awareness of Diversity
Stories about diversity appear in the news each day. These stories deal with such issues as discrimination in the workplace, cultural
conflict, global education, and religious as well as language differences. On 9/11, many of these issues captured the public’s atten-tion
in an instant. People in the United States suddenly became much more aware of their own vulnerability and cultural isolation, as well
as the growing importance of world economies, world geography, communications networks, migration, cultural values and
traditions, and religious diversity.
The effects of 9/11 remain with us. Workplace complaints filed by Muslims have increased significantly since the 2001 attacks. According to a
recent survey by the Pew Research Center, more than one-third of respondents report having an unfavorable view of Islam. At the same time, a
majority of respondents report knowing “not very much” or “nothing at all” about the Muslim religion. This same survey shows that as people
become more knowledgeable about Islam and develop relationships with individuals who happen to be Muslim, the more positive their views of
Muslims in general.21 Since 9/11, in an effort to promote awareness of their cultural practices and religion, Muslim groups
12 Chapter 1

have become much more active in presenting educational programs to police, hospital
workers, teachers and students, therapists, corporations, and community groups.
As the world continues to shrink, global competition and cooperation are pushing
diversity issues into the forefront of the workplace. As Friedman acknowledges in The World
Is Flat, economic change and culture are interdependent. Economic performance hinges to a
great degree on glocalization, a culture’s openness to diverse influences and ability to blend
foreign ideas and best practices with one’s own traditions. Although Fried-man discusses
glocalization as a cultural trait, this type of openness can be developed by individuals as well.
In a flatter world, cultural isolation, intolerance, and an inability to communicate with others
and value their contributions will put us at an economic dis-advantage. From Friedman’s
perspective, a constantly changing global environment will be hardest on those who are not
prepared, both culturally and technologically. Similarly, a heightened awareness of diversity
coupled with a new skill set will empower us to take advantage of the staggering opportunities
afforded by this new landscape.
Scholarship on the subject of diversity has mushroomed in recent years. Diversity
itself has become a thriving industry. Books, Web sites, diversity consultants, courses,
workshops, and conferences have proliferated as more and more money is spent in this
area. Pride in our cultural roots is championed by popular music, movies, ethnic festivals,
and cultural exhibits. As diversity has become more visible in everyday life, it is more apt
to become an issue that we address, discuss, and debate publicly and privately. For
instance, the election of President Obama in 2008, and his re-election in 2012, gener-ated
considerable discussions on many issues, such as race, ethnicity, religion, sexual
orientation, and the ability of candidates to reach out to diverse constituencies.

Continued Cultural Separation in the Midst of Diversity

Although some parts of our cultural landscape are becoming more diverse, other
parts show little of this change. Sociologists refer to this as cultural lag, a
condition in which one part of a culture is not keeping pace with another part.
This lag or gap becomes increasingly evident when we look at where we live,
worship, go to school, and work. Consider the following examples.
1. While residential segregation has declined in many areas, U.S. residents continue
to live in neighborhoods that are divided along racial, ethnic, and economic
lines. Rich and poor are increasingly unlikely to live in the same neighborhoods
and attend the same schools. Neighborhood diversity is uneven. In some
neighbor-hoods, white flight continues. But in other areas, there has been a
significant upturn in global neighborhoods, communities where large varieties of
people from diverse cultures and ethnicities live together.
2. To a large degree, gender segregation exists in the job market. In some cases, jobs
are overwhelmingly held by either men or women, such as the male-dominated fields
of engineering and coal mining and the preponderance of women found in nurs-ing
and textile manufacturing. Within occupations in general, gender segregation can
also be found at different levels of the organizational hierarchy. For example, the
U.S. Labor Department’s Federal Glass Ceiling Commission reported that the upper
levels of big business remain mostly White and mostly male.22
According to the Commission, the glass ceiling—attitudes and actions
that block the promotion of women and minorities into top management posi-
tions—was firmly in place. More recent studies show some incremental
progress, although barriers remain.23
Thinking Through Diversity
Another random document with
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sixteenths which he owned gave him the whip hand, and that he has
held ever since.
Now, no large block of common stock appears to be held by any
individual, corporation, or other government. Indeed, at a meeting
some years ago the largest shareholder outside of Great Britain was
a Frenchman, who had a little more than fifteen hundred shares.
That twenty million dollars was one of the best investments John
Bull has ever made, his holdings to-day being worth many times
what he paid for them. He has already received from it many millions
of dollars in dividends, and by his control of the canal has
enormously increased his power and prestige among the nations of
the world. His money gain, however, is not quite as great as that of
the original stockholders. They paid only about one hundred dollars
per share while he paid a little more than one hundred and thirteen
dollars.
I know the Panama Canal well. I visited it when it was in the hands
of the French, and I have spent several weeks there during
American control. I went over it from end to end with our engineers;
watched the steam shovels gouging the earth out of the Culebra Cut,
and travelled in a canoe down that part of it which was once the
Chagres River. I have also gone through the Suez Canal at three
different times and have made many notes of its construction.
The two undertakings are vitally different. The Suez Canal is little
more than a great ditch through the desert, and although it is just
about twice as big as Panama it does not compare with the latter in
the engineering difficulties of its construction. The ground here is
comparatively level. That of the Panama Canal route is up hill and
down, going right across the backbone of the Andes. The amount
excavated here was one hundred million cubic yards, or just about
one hundred million tons of dead weight. On one of my visits to
Panama I figured that the excavation of Culebra would just equal a
ditch three feet wide and three feet deep and long enough to go two
times around this twenty-five-thousand-mile globe with ten thousand
miles of ditch to spare.
 Twenty thousand and more of the Egyptian fellahs were employed
upon the Suez Canal at a time, and they scooped up much of the dirt
in their hands and carried it away in baskets. At the start men were
paid from ten to fifteen cents a day and boys under twelve only five
cents. After a time they were not paid at all. The Khedive agreed to
furnish all the labourers, and they worked for the French under the
lash just as the Hebrews did for the Egyptians in the days of
Pharaoh ages ago. With up-to-date canal-dredging machinery and
steam shovels the work of digging the canal at Suez could perhaps
be reproduced at one half its original cost. The actual cost was
probably quadrupled through the money spent in graft,
extravagance, and high interest rates by the French and Egyptians in
connection with it. When Ismail Pasha was forced from the throne he
left Egypt in debt to the amount of five hundred million dollars, most
of which was directly or indirectly caused by canal expenditures.
One would think that Egypt ought to receive a big revenue for the
right of way through her country and for the canal which her money
and her people practically built. By the original concession with Said
Pasha she was to receive fifteen percent of the net profits for the
entire term of the concession, which was ninety-nine years. But after
Ismail Pasha was deposed, the Egyptian government, finding itself
without money or credit, sold this claim on the canal profits to the
Crédit Foncier of France for a little more than four million dollars, and
the only interest it now has in the canal is in the trade which the
ships passing through bring to the country. Had Egypt retained that
fifteen per cent. it would have been receiving millions of dollars a
year from the tolls, and within a short time it could have recouped
itself for all Ismail Pasha’s extravagances. During the term of the
concession it could easily have repaid its debt to Turkey, and could
have made itself one of the richest countries of the world. As it is, the
canal, with all its property, becomes the possession of Egypt in 1968,
when the receipts at the present ratio of increase will be so
enormous as to make it, in proportion to its population, a Crœsus
among the nations of the world.
I spent all of last night on the Suez Canal. It was afternoon when
our ship left Port Said, and as the darkness came on we were in the
heart of the Arabian Desert. The air was clear, and the scenes were
weird but beautiful. The stars of the tropics, brighter by far than our
stars at home, made the heavens resplendent, while a great round
moon of burning copper turned the famous waterway into a stream
of molten silver. As we ploughed our way through, we could look out
over the silent desert of Arabia, and now and then see a caravan of
long-legged camels with their ghost-like riders bobbing up and down
under the moon. Our own pathway was made brighter by electric
lights. We had one blazing globe at our masthead, fed by a dynamo
on deck, and another at our prow. The latter threw its rays this way
and that across the channel in front of the steamer, making the
waters an opalescent blue like that of the Blue Grotto of Capri. We
passed many ships. In the distance they appeared only as two
blazing eyes—the reflectors which all vessels are required to keep
lighted as they pass through. As the ships came nearer they rose up
like spectres from the water, the masses of hulls and rigging back of
the fiery eyes making one think of demons about to attack.
The trip through the canal is slow, for the ships are allowed to go
only five or six miles an hour. Now and then they have to tie up to
posts, which have been set along both sides of the canal all the way
from Port Said to Suez. The canal rules require that when two ships
meet one must stop and hug the bank until the other has passed by.
Parts of the banks are walled with stones to prevent the sand from
falling in and filling up the canal, but notwithstanding this the dredges
have to be kept at work all the year round. Not far from Port Said I
saw great steam pumps sucking the sand from the bottom of the
channel and carrying it through pipes far out over the desert, and I
am told that the process of cleaning and deepening the waterway is
always going on.
There are stations, or guard houses, at intervals along the course
of the waterway and a few small towns have grown up here and
there. While the boat was stopping at one of these, a dirty Arab
brought alongside a leg of raw mutton. He offered to sell it to the
passengers but found no buyer. Outside of these towns and the
guard houses we see few signs of life. Here a camel caravan trots
along over the desert. There a flock of long-necked cranes springs
from the water into the air. When the sun is right, away across the
hot desert at the side of the ship there looms up out of the sands a
strange ship on other waters, apparently as real as those through
which we are moving. That is the wonderful mirage of the desert,
which so often deceives the thirsty traveller passing through it on
camels. As we approach it, it soon fades and disappears like a
veritable castle of the air.
The Suez Canal of to-day is far different from that which was
opened in 1869. As originally planned, the channel was less than
twenty-five feet deep and so narrow that it could not have
accommodated the shipping which goes through it nowadays. It has
since been widened so that its average width at the surface is about
three hundred feet, and the curves in it have been straightened so as
to shorten the time of transit and enable ships to pass the more
easily. The shipping facilities have been greatly improved both at
Port Tewfik and at Port Said. At Port Said the coaling arrangements
have been so improved that the largest steamers can load
thousands of tons in a very few hours.
The chief towns on the canal are Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez.
Port Said is at the northern end of the canal where we took the
steamer. This city, long said to be the wickedest and most dissipated
station on the way from London to the Far East, was made and lives
by the canal, the harbour being full of shipping from one year’s end
to another.
Ismailia, midway of the canal, is still scarcely more than a small
town. It is now said to be a healthful place, although at one time it
was malarial. The Arabs call it the “cleansed tomb.” This town is at
the end of the fresh-water canal which was made during the building
of the Suez Canal to supply the workmen with water, and is not far
from Zagazig and the old Land of Goshen.
Suez, which is a small-sized city with several thousand
Europeans, is connected by train with Port Said, and also with Cairo
and other parts of Egypt. The city is about thirteen hundred miles
from Aden, Arabia, and just twenty-nine hundred and nineteen miles
from Mombasa, where we are to enter the Colony of Kenya and
make our way by rail across country to the Great Lakes.
 CHAPTER XXVI
DOWN THE RED SEA

The Red Sea is red hot! I have steamed many miles along the
Equator, but this salt-water corridor leading to the Indian Ocean is
much hotter. As deserts shut in the Red Sea on both sides, there are
no fresh streams to cool it, and the tropical sun beats down upon the
waters and sands from January to December. As a result, the
temperature of the water at the surface is often one hundred degrees
above zero, and it steams the air like a vast hot-water plant. The
sun’s rays are bottled up by the deserts, which then act as enormous
radiators. Consequently, the atmosphere is suffocating, and there
seems to be only a trembling sheet of blue steel between us and the
lower regions. Indeed, were it not for the electric fan in my cabin I
should be unable to write. Outside upon deck we have double roofs
of canvas to protect us from the sun, and many of the passengers
sleep up there to escape the heat of the rooms below. Last night, in
addition to the heat, we had to contend with a sandstorm, which
covered our ship with red dust so fine that it got through the
portholes and even into our beds. That storm came from Arabia, and
may have swallowed some of the thousands of Mohammedan
pilgrims on their way to Mecca.
As our ship went through this mighty cauldron we passed Jidda, in
Arabia, where, according to the Mohammedans, Eve lies buried.
With the ship’s glass we could almost see the place where lies the
greatest grandmother of all mankind. She rests outside the city wall
in a tomb four hundred feet long and a mosque rises over her dust.
The Mohammedan story has it that when Adam and Eve were
banished from the Garden of Eden a strong west wind wafted the
fairy form of Eve to Arabia, while Adam, with his heavier weight, fell
down in Ceylon. There is a string of coral keys running from Ceylon
to Hindustan, still known as Adam’s Bridge, over which he started
out on his long hunt for Eve. It took him two hundred years to find
her, and the meeting was somewhere near Mecca. What became of
Adam’s bones the story does not say.
On the map, the Red Sea looks like a slit between Asia and Africa,
but this slit is actually two hundred miles wide in some places and
twelve hundred miles long, or nearly half the distance from Suez to
Mombasa, my destination on the east coast of Africa. Much of it is so
deep that if the Blue Ridge Mountains were set in it only their higher
peaks would show. It is so long that if it began at Ireland and
extended westward across the Atlantic, it would reach halfway to
Canada. If it could be lifted up and laid down upon the United States
with Suez at Philadelphia, Bab-el-Mandeb would be a hundred miles
or so beyond Omaha, Nebraska, and all the way between would be
a canal as wide as from New York to Washington, or wide enough to
accommodate all the navies of the world abreast, and leave a
hundred miles or more to spare.
This great waterway narrows almost to a point at each end. At
Bab-el-Mandeb, where it leaves the Indian Ocean, it is no wider than
the English Channel at Dover; at the north it is lost at the Suez
Canal. Starting at Bab-el-Mandeb, the coasts broaden out and then
run almost straight to the upper end, where they fork into two gulfs
inclosing the lower part of the Sinai Peninsula. These two gulfs are
those of Suez and Akabah. The Gulf of Suez is one hundred and
seventy miles long, and has been joined to the Mediterranean by the
Suez Canal. The Gulf of Akabah is one hundred and ten miles long,
and for a time there was talk of making a canal from it to the
Mediterranean.
The air on the Red Sea is so salty that one can almost eat eggs
without seasoning. If one hundred pounds of its waters are boiled
down, four pounds of salt will be found in the bottom of the kettle.
The evaporation is so great that were it not for the inflow of the
Indian Ocean the sea would, within less than a century, vanish in the
air and leave in its place one immense block of salt.
I had expected to find the Red Sea coasts more thickly populated.
There are no cities of any size and very few villages. Suez has large
docks, but its trade is small, and it has nothing like the growth which
men thought would come with the use of the canal.
Have you ever heard of the town of Kosseir? It is a Red Sea port
on the west coast some distance south of Suez which at one time
had a great trade. It was formerly the end of a caravan route from
the Nile, and the Children of Israel crossed over that way and took
boats for the Sinai Peninsula to reach the mountains where Moses
received the Commandments.
To-day Kosseir is a stopping place for Egyptian pilgrims on their
way to Jidda. It used to be much more important in that respect than
now. It had many inns and hotel tents outside, and was well supplied
with dancing girls and the other side-show features of a true
pilgrimage centre. Then the Suez Canal came and killed it. Its big
houses fallen to ruins, the port has become a village of one-story
huts. There are emerald mines near it, however, and the desert
about shows evidences of having been once worked for gold.
I regret that I was not able to stop at Jidda, the port of Mecca, to
which I have already referred. It is one of the most interesting places
on the Red Sea, for one hundred thousand or more pilgrims pass
through it every year. While at Omdurman, in the Sudan, I saw
something like fourteen hundred Mohammedans on their way by
railroad across the Nubian Desert to Port Sudan where they
expected to get a ship for Jidda. Some of them had been ten years
on the way, yet their religious enthusiasm had not waned. They had
started out upon camels from the borders of Timbuktu and had been
forced to sell their mounts to buy food. After that they had walked
from oasis to oasis earning enough money to carry them onward.
There were so many in the party that the British government officials
had to divide them up into batches and send on a trainload or so at a
time.
In the centuries since the worship of Mohammed began millions of
pilgrims have walked over the sixty-five miles of hot sand from Jidda
to Mecca. Worshippers go thither from all parts of North Africa and
from the eastern coast of the Mediterranean as well as from India
and southern Arabia. Jidda takes her toll from each of them. The
people live by fleecing the devotees. The town, though full of hotels,
is noted for its discomforts. It has a poor water supply and after each
big rain there is an epidemic of fever.
The projected railroad from Jidda to Mecca will probably pay well,
for the travel is enormous. Twenty-five years ago more than sixty
thousand Mohammedans came annually by sea to make their way
over the sands to Mecca and Medina. There are perhaps half again
as many more to-day, and the railroad will so reduce the cost of the
trip that the number of worshippers will be greatly increased. Indeed,
the day may come when some Mohammedan tourist agent will be
selling to pilgrims from all parts of the Moslem world round-trip
tickets to the birthplace of the Prophet, including admission to the
Kaaba.
With Mecca accessible by railroad there may be a chance for
Christians to visit the holy city of Islam. All who have been there in
the past have had to go in disguise, and the man who would attempt
it to-day takes his life in his hand. The railroad will be officered by
Mohammedans, and it is doubtful whether they will take Christians
as passengers. They will have to cater to the pilgrims, as it is from
them that their traffic must come.
Meantime, without wishing to act as did the fox who called the
grapes sour, I do not believe there is much to see in Mecca, after all.
The town lies in a hot, arid valley watered for most of the year by a
few brackish wells and some cisterns. The best water, which comes
in from Arafat through a little aqueduct, is sold at high prices by a
water trust at the head of which is the governor of the city.
Mecca, I am told, has only about fifty thousand inhabitants. It fills
the valley and runs up the sides of the hills. The houses are of dark
stone, built in one, two, and three stories overhanging close to the
streets. There are no pavements; it is often dusty, and one would
have to feel all the holiness of the surroundings to make life
agreeable for him in such an unattractive spot.
The most important place in Mecca is the sacred mosque and the
most important thing in the mosque is the Kaaba, a cube-shaped
stone building which stands in its centre. In the southeast corner of
this building, at about five feet from the ground, is the black
meteorite that the Mohammedans say was once a part of the Gates
of Paradise. When Adam was cast out, this stone fell with him,
dropping down near Mecca. At that time, they say, it was a beautiful
white colour, but it is now turned to jet, having been blackened by the
kisses of sinners. Every pilgrim who comes to Mecca presses his lips
to it again and again, imagining that as he does so his sins go out of
him into the stone, and his soul becomes as pure as it was when he
was a baby. There are several hundred thousand pilgrims who
perform this act every season, so that the holy stone of the Kaaba
gets its millions of kisses each year. What a load of sin it must carry!
 CHAPTER XXVII
ALONG THE AFRICAN COAST

The two chief ports on the African coast of the Red Sea are Port
Sudan and Suakim. They were nothing until the completion of the
Red Sea road. The original plan was to use Suakim as the terminus
of the Sudan railway. The English surveyors, however, finding a
much better harbour at Port Sudan, extended the railroad to that
point. The town which was a mere village a few years ago has now
several thousand people, and grows like one of the mushroom
settlements of the Canadian west.
Going on southward we passed the Italian possessions on the
west coast of the Red Sea, where they have a colony known as
Eritrea. This colony begins about one hundred and fifty miles south
of Suakim and runs down almost to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. It is
not wide, extending back from the coast only to where the
Abyssinian hills begin. The Italians tried to add to Eritrea a large part
of Abyssinia but failed, owing to the resistance of King Menelik. The
land they have now is of small value. There are only a few tracts that
can be irrigated, and the exports are unimportant. The strip is
inhabited by nomads, who raise camels, oxen, sheep, and goats. As
the pasturage is scanty, the shepherds have to move about from
place to place with their stock. Some of the tribes live in tents. Their
wants are simple to an extreme.
The chief Italian port is Massawa, a little town situated on a coral
island joined to the mainland by a causeway. Its two short railways,
which connect it with the Abyssinian hills, comprise about forty-eight
miles of track. One road is to be continued to the town of Asmara,
near which some gold mines have been opened.
The Italians have built a telegraph line from their port to Addis
Abbaba, the capital of Abyssinia, and they are trying to increase their
trade with that country. They are shipping considerable salt, which,
strange to say, is so relished by the Abyssinians that it brings more
than sugar and takes much the same place among them as candy
and tobacco with us. The average Abyssinian carries a stick of rock
salt with him and takes a suck of it between whiles. If he meets a
friend, he asks him to have a taste of his salt stick and his friend
brings out his individual stick and they take lick about. It is just as it
was with snuff in the days of our forefathers, when everyone offered
his friends a pinch of his choice macaboy.
Besides Eritrea Italy owns another and larger strip of East Africa.
This is Italian Somaliland, which begins at the mouth of the Gulf of
Aden and runs down to the border of the British coast possessions.
We shall pass it on our way to Mombasa. Italian Somaliland, though
about three times as large as Ohio, has a population only two thirds
that of the city of Cleveland, and is of little value. The people, who
are largely nomadic, are engaged in cattle raising and agriculture.
If you will look on the map, you will see that the Gulf of Aden
seems to rest on a shelf-like projection jutting out from the African
continent. This projection reaches into the Indian Ocean for a
distance of seven hundred and eighty miles, and is sometimes called
the “Great Horn of Africa.” It ends in Cape Guardafui, of which we
shall have a good view from our steamer as it leaves the gulf and
starts south.
The cape is a mighty bluff rising almost straight up from the blue
waters of the Indian Ocean. Its sides are of black rock, ragged and
rugged, and its top is covered with sand. There is sand at its foot and
lodged in the crevices, making yellow streaks against the black
background. Beyond the cape extend sandy hills which swell over
one another until they are lost in the distance. The country all about
is desert. Neither trees, bushes, habitations, nor animals are to be
seen. The clouds hang low over the cape, and out at sea the air is as
moist as that of Virginia in April. Seen from the ocean, the bluff
assumes the outlines of a sleeping lion with its tail in the sand. Still
farther out it looks like a fortification towering over the sea. One
hundred and thirty miles to the eastward, on the direct route to India,
is Sokotra Island, owned by the British.
 We went on southward, passing British Somaliland, a country a
little larger than the State of Missouri, with a population of several
thousand Mohammedan nomads who roam about from pasture to
pasture with their cattle and camels. The colony came into the hands
of the British after the war with the Mahdi, having belonged before
that to Egypt. It was first administered by the government of India,
but it is now managed directly from London.
 Fifty years ago Suez, where canal and Red Sea meet and “East of Suez”
begins, was a miserable Arab village. Now it is a city where several thousand
Europeans share the general dreariness of this hot and desolate spot.
 When two ships meet, one usually stops close to the bank and lets the other
pass. In places the sides are lined with stones to prevent slides, and dredges are
at work all the time keeping the channel clear.

Back of the European colonies that fringe the coast lies Abyssinia,
one of the most interesting countries of the Black Continent. With the
exception of Liberia, it is the only one that is independent of Europe.
Recognized by the Powers as a self-governing state, it has been
able to preserve its native monarchy. Everyone in America has heard
of the famous King Menelik II, founder of the present government,
and the name is still one to conjure with in that country. It is said that
an Abyssinian can stop another from whatever he happens to be
doing by calling out to him: “Ba Menelik,” or “In the name of Menelik.”
There are penalties for using this formula frivolously, and the one so
doing may be called upon to justify his action before a judge.
The empire of Abyssinia consists of a mighty plateau ten times as
large as the State of Ohio, from which rise many high mountains.
The country might be called the roof of the continent, and has so
much beautiful scenery that it has been dubbed the African
Switzerland. The plateau consists of great tablelands rising one
above the other and cut up by great gorges and mighty canyons
somewhat like those of the Rockies. In the centre of the plateau is
Lake Tsana, and down its sides flow great rivers, some of which are
lost in the sands while others, such as the Atbara and the Blue Nile,
give food and water to Egypt. The Blue Nile has its source in Lake
Tsana.
Abyssinia has some of the best soil of Africa. It is, in fact, a fertile
island in the midst of a sea of deserts and swamps. It will grow
almost anything, including sugar and cotton in the lowlands, coffee
higher up, and still higher the hardy grains of the temperate zone.
This country is said to be the first home of the coffee plant. It has a
province called Kaffa, whence the first coffee beans were carried to
Arabia. The word “coffee” comes from the name of that province. In
Kaffa, coffee trees grow so large that they are used for timber. In
some places they grow wild. In others the coffee is cultivated.
At present Abyssinia is almost unexplored, but its opening and
development are assured, and it may become one of the tourist and
hunting resorts of the future. The land is especially interesting to us
in that most of the Abyssinians are Christians, their religion being
about the same as that of the Copts of Egypt.
 CHAPTER XXVIII
ADEN

Leaving the Red Sea at the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, we came to

Aden, Arabia, and thence went on down along the coast of the
Indian Ocean to Mombasa. The very best of our Mocha coffee is
shipped from Aden to the United States. It comes here on camels
from the province of Yemen, where it is raised by the natives, each
family having a few bushes about its hut and producing only enough
for home use and a little for trading.
There are no big plantations and no coffee factories. When ripe
the berries are gathered and dried in the sun. After this they are put
up in bales, and carried on camelback over the hills to this place.
They are then hulled between millstones turned by hand, and
winnowed and sorted for shipment. The latter work is done by the
women, who look over each grain carefully, taking out the bad ones.
Labour is cheap, but the coffee has to go through many hands. It has
to pay toll to the chiefs of the tribes who own the country through
which it is carried, so it must be sold at high prices. For this reason
we have imitations of Mocha coffee from all parts of the world.
For many years this port of Aden has belonged to John Bull, who
took possession of it in 1839, and later got hold of the island of
Perim in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb also. That island is about a
hundred miles from Aden and the two places practically control the
entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. As for Aden, it is the
Gibraltar of this part of the world, as well as one of the greatest of
the British coaling stations. The harbour is excellent, and the outer
entrance is more than three miles wide. The inner waters have been
dredged so that steamers of twenty-six feet draft can go everywhere,
and there is room enough for all the vessels that pass through the
canal to anchor here at one time.
 Aden is strongly fortified. The town, which stands on a volcanic
isthmus, is guarded by a broad ditch cut out of the solid rock. It has a
garrison of several thousand soldiers, guns of the latest pattern, and
no one knows how many submarine mines and other defences
against attack.
But no matter what its military importance, Aden is the sorriest city
I have ever seen. There is nothing like it except Iquique on the
nitrate coast of South America, and Iquique is a paradise compared
with Aden. Imagine a great harbour of sea-green water, the shores of
which rise almost abruptly into ragged mountains of brown rock and
white sand. There is not a blade of grass to be seen, there are no
trees, and even the cactus and sage brush of our American desert
are absent. The town is without vegetation. It is as bare as the bones
of the dead camels in the sandy waste behind it, and its tropical sun
beats down out of a cloudless African sky. Everything is gray or a
dazzling white. The houses on the sides of the hills are white, the
rocks throw back the rays of the sun, and the huts upon their sides
are of the same gray colour as themselves.
 Each year thousands of Moslems from North and East Africa make the
pilgrimage to this city of Mecca. They worship at the shrines sacred to Islam, chief
among which is the Kaaba, containing the Holy Rock.
 Aden is in the land of the camel, and processions of them come into the city
every day, bringing coffee and gums. Eighteen miles is a day’s journey for the
average freight animal, but those used for riding go much farther.

The city looks thirsty and dry. It is dry. There is only a well or so in
the place, and these, I am told, the English bought of their owners for
something like one million dollars. Almost all of the water used is