From Kenya, Back to Rome

Three years ago I had the privilege of visiting Kenya, fulfilling a childhood dream.  I got to visit National Parks and meet people of the Maasai tribe.  In particular I made friends with a few Maasai warriors, who, oddly enough, added me on Facebook (yes, they have Internet out in the savanna schools and lodges).  As I have kept in touch with my Maasai friends over the years, I am astounded by the number of times they have contracted malaria, and how the parasite's symptoms have stayed with them long after our own medical system would have eliminated them.

"Roman fever" was the name ancient Romans gave to malaria, which often plagued the large populations of their larger areas, and trickled into the less populous outskirts.  Malaria was and still is a big killer.  Some even attribute malaria to contributing to the Fall of Rome.  But Romans tried their best to counter the effects and eliminate the environments where malaria could so easily spread.  Festivals were moved away from hotter, more humid summer dates, and swamps were drained to prevent mosquito breeding grounds.  Where the Romans saw a problem, they began to act and develop solutions.

I, too, see a great problem in the continued rampage of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, and I desperately want to play my part in developing combative and preventative strategies for reducing the prevalence of malaria in this region.  I currently am studying Immunology, the study of the immune system, and wish to enter the vaccine development force as a researching professor in due time.  I no longer want to see the people of Kenya and other regions suffer, and I most definitely don't want to watch their fall, as Rome's.  My hope is we can learn from history and improve upon the ideas they had then, to prevent the past from repeating itself.

Its all about the Money

I am in the Economics Major here at BYU and am currently taking an International Trade and Finance class. One of the things that Economist do best is using empirical data to find out why people do the things they do. But in wondering why the Romans sought to expand their empire across the world, it doesn't take a Phd. level Economist and a vast array of empirical data to solve this problem. 

Early on in the Roman Republic, Romans used the equivalent of the modern Tariff in order to protect local producers of different goods. In the study of trade by Economists it pretty well agreed upon that Free Trade is the most effective form of trade as there are no barriers that create inefficiencies in trade, with tariffs being one of those barriers. What we see from the Romans in the final part of the 1st century B.C. and the following three centuries is their attempt to make one of the first “World Trade Organizations.” While today trade agreements are made by different countries to reduce the barriers to trade, Rome just decided to conquer all of their trading partners to reduce the barriers to trade. 

As the Roman Empire expanded, so did the resources they acquired. From Spain they acquired gold. From Britain, Iron and other precious metals. From Greece and Northern Italy, marble. Agriculture was a very large means of trade in addition to metal and stone used for buildings. As a result we see the gains from trade that Rome obtained produce an extremely wealthy empire. It is not hard to see where the Romans intentions were in their expansion. It was not merely to say there empire was really big, it was to obtain the gains from the resources WITHIN the empire they conquered. It was about Economics and they were good at it. If only they had figured out that whole communication thing, we would probably be speaking Latin right now.

The Waitangi Treaty

There are a lot of similarities between our civilization now and the Ancient Roman culture. We've got great art, architecture, the Olympics and much more, but something that I found really interesting was how Alexander the Great was successful in maintaining the cultures of the places he took over, while incorporating new ideas from his own culture. 

In my home country of New Zealand, we celebrate Waitangi day; A national holiday that reminds us of a peace treaty the Maori Chieftains signed with the British Government in 1840. In short, they promised to provide the Maori people with greater education, imported goods and higher status, if they could establish themselves and share their goods. Eventually the British crossed the seas and began to establish themselves among the people. There were a few big cultural roadblocks, like not understanding each other properly about what was who's and who was in charge, but eventually the Maori people began to take to the English language and British culture. They could now be represented as a strong individual nation across the world. Luckily the Wairua, or the deeply sacred culture still remains intact, just like Alexander the Great tried to maintain. 

Even though at the time it was a bit of a struggle for the New Zealand people to share their land with these new white strangers, this integration of cultures provided us with greater opportunities to succeed not just in New Zealand, but all over the world. This development of cultures enabled my father to eventually meet my mother in Hawaii. If it weren't for the way history had played out, who knows if I would be where I am today!