Curio Cabinet

COVID-19 has been hard on adults, but it’s been no walk in the playground for kids, either. After a year spent at home, adjusting to new forms of schooling and unable to safely visit friends or participate in many normal extracurricular activities, studies show that children across the U.S. are exhibiting signs of stress, anxiety, and depression. Luckily, Colorado is looking to pass a new bill addressing these issues this year. House Bill 1258 would guarantee free mental health screenings and up to three visits with a mental health professional for every minor in Colorado. It would also allocate $9 million dollars toward the creation of an online portal where children could complete an assessment and connect with providers who serve their individual needs. Funding would come from the state’s $800 million state coronavirus stimulus package, which also provides tax relief for small businesses and restaurants affected by the pandemic.
 

The bill is the result of two separate pieces of legislation—one proposed by State Representative Dafna Michaelson Jenet last February, and another proposed by Colorado Governor Jared Polis. So far, House Bill 1258 has garnered bipartisan support, and appears to be on track to pass. Although it has been called one of the most aggressive behavioral health initiatives in the state’s history, and has been criticized by some lawmakers for being too expensive, Michaelson Jenet’s only concern is that the bill may not go far enough to help young Coloradans.
 

“I’m worried that it won’t be enough. In order for it to not be enough we need to do our job really well on the back end of this passing and make sure we get word-of-mouth (marketing) and communities involved and engaged. Quite frankly, I hope we run out of money and need to find more,” she told the Colorado Sun, referring to the bill’s stipulation that, if more money becomes available, kids in the state may be able to access more than three free mental health appointments. Here’s hoping that Colorado sets an example of what it looks like to keep kids’ minds as healthy as their bodies during a pandemic!

 
[Image description: An outdoor view of Peakview Elementary School, including a sidewalk to the front entrance and a small playground area. ] Credit & copyright: Mike Sweeney/The Colorado Sun

 
Written by: Maria C.

Ever just have one of those days when you want to get away? Retired factory worker Su Min did just that three months ago and her adventures have since gone viral, earning her a feature in The New York Times and praise as a feminist icon. The 56 year old grandmother from Henan Province in central China lived a hard life in poverty before embarking on her dream trip. Min recalled her first fantasies about road trips when she was a teenager living in Tibet, and would wish she were driving the cars that rode past her while she walked 12 miles home after missing the school bus. After completing her high school education, she moved to Henan and got a job in a fertilizer factory where she eventually met her husband. Min believed marriage would help her get away from the gendered chore responsibilities she bore at home, but she found herself even more servile to an abusive husband (she did not leave the relationship for fear of social stigmas against divorced women in China). For decades, Min fulfilled her family responsibilities and even took care of her twin grandchildren all while reading fantasy novels, watching Korean soap operas, and dreaming of a different life.
 

A chance viewing of an internet video on solo road tripping piqued her interest in 2019. She spent the next year absorbing as much information as she could about the logistics of taking long-term road trips, and vowed to herself that when her grandchildren entered preschool, she would embark on the adventure she'd waited her whole lifetime to take. On September 29, 2020, she packed up a tent, a cooler, and a rice cooker and hit the road in her Volkswagen hatchback. Since then she has been posting about her adventures on her YouTube channel "Fifty-year-old aunt traveling by car." Her video updates went viral on Douyin, a Chinese social media video site. In March of 2021, she was featured in a Net-a-Porter ad for International Women's Day. What does Su Min think of all the attention? She's just happy to be living out her dream of travelling.

 
[Image description: Su Min behind the wheel of her car. Credit & copyright: Su Min

 
Written by: Esther P.

How many boats does it take to free the Ever Given from the Suez Canal? The newsworthy roadblock in the Egyptian waterway caused quite the kerfuffle in late March. For companies and seafarers who rely on the canal for shipping between Europe and Asia, the event was no laughing matter. While the Ever Given’s story might not be as tragic as that of famous ships like the Titanic, its mistakes are teaching us quite a bit about how ships and maritime travel works. So how did the Ever Given get stuck in the Suez Canal, and how did it get unstuck?
 

Early on March 23, a Taiwanese shipping company's container ship, the Ever Given, arrived at the Suez Port. At around 7:00 a.m., the Ever Given and other queued ships began moving through the Suez Canal. However, the Ever Givenhad no guiding tugboat attached to help it through the Khamaseen winds, which are intense and cause low visibility. Attempting to avoid the winds, the Ever Given started speeding—moving at 13.7 knots (about 15.7 mph) in a 8.6 knots (9.8 mph) zone. While speeding and angling a megaship is a known tactic to get ahead of strong winds, it can also cause major accidents, according to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA). Try as it may, the Ever Given could not beat the winds, and the ship was pushed east. This caused a bank effect, in which a large ship, pushed close to a bank, displaces water and cannot correct course. The suction and current drove the boat's bow into the east bank and its stern into the west bank.  

For over six days, the megaship remained stuck in the canal, preventing 367 other ships from completing their trips across the Suez and forcing countless others to reroute across the southern tip of Africa. The SCA immediately got to work freeing the 328-foot long ship, digging the bow out with an excavator and underwater dredging. One secret weapon may have been key to the clearing efforts: the king tides, a substantial high tide that occurs during the full and new moon (when the sun, moon, and Earth orbits align). The king tide peaked at 11:42 a.m. on March 29, and just a few hours later, the Ever Given was dislodged. Since its completion in 1869 by the Ottoman Empire, the Suez Canal has seen its fair share of colonialist warfare for control of the man-made waterway, and today some 10 percent of global maritime commercial traffic passes through the Suez. Thanks to the Ever Given's unfortunate accident, people won't soon forget the high drama of shipping through the Suez!

 
[Image description: an aerial view of the Ever Given container ship stuck in the Suez Canal.] Credit & copyright: Maxar Technologies

 
Written by: Esther P.

It’s a beautiful place with a complicated history. The Island nation of Guam has been making headlines lately, after controversial U.S. lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene made remarks indicating that she didn’t realize that Guam is a U.S. territory. Green’s office was later visited by Guam’s Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, Michael San Nicolas, and members of the Guam National Guard, who gifted her a box of the island’s famed Chamorro Chip Cookies. Outside of these rare circumstances, Guam typically doesn’t show up in mainstream American discourse. Many Americans don’t know the history of how Guam came to be a U.S. territory, or that its native people, the Chamorro, have a rich culture dating back at least 4,000 years.
 

Guam is the southernmost island of the Mariana Island chain, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a country comprised of more than 600 islands, spread far apart from one another, across the western Pacific. Humans first settled in Guam around 4,000 years ago, likely sailing from nearby islands off of Southeast Asia, such as Taiwan. By 800 CE, a new culture had developed on Guam. Ancient Chamorro people were expert seafarers whose diets consisted largely of seafood. Evidence suggests that they may have also cultivated rice. Chamorro villages featured buildings supported by latte stones, two-piece stone columns which served as foundations to protect structures from the damp ground. These buildings often had tall, triangular roofs, to divert rain. Early Chamorro society was matrilineal, meaning that women played a leading role in its everyday functioning.
 

In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (under the employ of Spain) became the first European to visit Guam in 1521. Magellan and his crew freely stole food, water, and other supplies from the Chamorros. When the Chamorros retaliated by taking whatever they could from Magellan’s ships, he dubbed Guam Isla de Ladrones, or the “Island of Thieves.” Unfortunately, Magellan’s expedition was far from the last to Guam. In 1668, Father San Vitores, a Jesuit missionary, came to Guam with a group of followers to convert the Chamorros to Catholicism. When Vitores baptized the daughter of Matå‘pang, a Chamorro chief, without permission, the Chamorro’s killed him. Outraged, the Spanish military launched an aggressive campaign to subjugate the Chamorro. The resulting Spanish-Chamorro War lasted for nearly 30 years, and by 1700, only around 5,000 Chamorro people remained.
 

It was through Spain that the U.S. eventually took possession of Guam. The Spanish-American War, which lasted from April to December of 1898, saw the U.S. supporting Cubans and Filipinos in their resistance to Spanish rule. When the U.S. eventually claimed victory, the Treaty of Paris was signed, granting Guam and several other Spanish colonies to the U.S. The Chamorro people’s population began to increase, although some of their original customs and even parts of their language were lost under Spanish rule.
 

Although Guam suffered greatly, during World War II, the island’s role in the war is rarely talked about outside of historical circles. For example, few Americans realize that Guam was bombed by Japanese forces just four hours after Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Japanese troops even seized control of Guam for almost three years during the war. Guamanians, including native Chamorros, were subjected to forced labor, internment, and other human rights violations. The U.S. recaptured Guam on July 21, 1944, yet Congress didn’t authorize a monument to commemorate those who suffered or lost their lives during the Japanese occupation until 1993. As Chamorro scholar Keith Camacho explained in his book, Cultures of Commemoration: The Politics of War, Memory and History in the Mariana Islands, U.S. military historians traditionally stick to “a body of discourse in which only Japanese and Americans constitute the agents of change and continuity in the region, erasing the agency and voice of indigenous peoples.”
 

Today, Guam occupies the same state of “limbo” as other U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico. People born in Guam are American citizens, but cannot vote or run for President. Their representatives in Congress are non-voting. Around 65,000 people of Chamorro ancestry now live in Guam, and many cultural societies promoting Chamorro traditions, including language, dress, and cuisine, exist to maintain Chamorro customs and educate outsiders. As Americans increasingly seem poised to discuss possible statehood and other increased rights for those living in U.S. territories, it’s likely that Guam will be making more frequent appearances on the average American’s radar, in the near future.

 
[Image description: a group of adults and children from Chamorro organizations, including the Hurao Cultural Camp, perform a burial ritual in traditional dress, holding up long branches to create a “tunnel.”] Credit & copyright: Associated Press
 
Written by: Maria C.