May 26, 2010
Gamamusa was temporarily a professor at Minju University and was dismissed this year as vacancies were filled. The truth is, Minju university could have hired him as a formal professor if they wanted to, but their were bad rumors among the professors. He was a temporary professor while traveling to universities for some reason, teaching various subjects. The professors thought that he was moving around universities because he needed the attention of students, and there were rumors that he was continuously layed off due to some personal problems. Eventually, he was cut off from Minju University and the next month he was appointed to Chungsan University near the north korean border.
However, Chungsan University, lacking professors due to it's rural location, immediately appointed him as an official professor. Additionally, the university intended to assign him to a variety of subjects annually, as he was educated in different subjects. On the first day, he stormed into the classroom, excited to meet his students as a formal professor for the first time. However, the confidence soon disappeared as he entered. Many students that came to the classroom to attend the lecture weared a military uniform. Noncommissioned officers attended college in that area because there was a military unit nearby, and of course, 90% of the students were men. The professor sighed.
"…It seems like there are only men in the room…Haha." The students did not respond to the professor's lame joke. Being embarrassed, the professor started the class as soon as possible. "Let me introduce myself first. My name is Gamamusa." This time, Gamamusa served as a professor in the Department of Food and Nutrition. The non-commissioned officers who came to listen to his lecture intended to become cooks after they are discharged from the military. Gamamusa began to give lectures on food and nutrition as scheduled, and all the non-commissioned officers listened with interest. When it was time to rest, most of the students left. Most of them were male non-commissioned officers, who were contacted by the military and took a moment to work in the unit. The number of men were noticeably reduced, and only female non-commissioned officers remained. But apparently, the men did not return after the break.
Finally, being impatient, the professor began to write something on the blackboard, and the students took notice, thinking that the professor was starting the class again. The professor wrote something that was unrealted to the current course:"The relationship between agriculture and herding." The students surprised to see something that is not related to the class. "Now..I prepared a TMI for you today because it's getting late. I am more interested in geo-political science than food science or humanities studies, by the way." The students began to take interest in the sudden change of subject and paid attention. The professor took out a map and pasted it on the classroom board. The students paid attention to the unusual map. It was a colored map of the Earth's climate.
"Now, in order to understand today's topic, we first need to know the climate where pastoral and agricultural activities are possible. Herding takes place mostly in the wilderness." Gamamusa chipped away at the wastelands like the taiga forest im siberia, deserts, and rainforest climates. The students looked at the map with interest. "These are all the climates of wilderness that I marked. These are climates where the grass and trees grow but for some reason, no grains grow." The professor drew corn and corn stem on a blackboard. "Many people don't know this, but food crops like sweet potatoes and potatoes, as well as grains, come from grass. Grains are the fruits that hold the seeds of grass, and root crops are the roots of grass.
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The professor went back to the map. "The problem with food is that every staple food comes from a plant called grass. If the grass is too cold, the grain will wither as soon as it comes out. There are many species of small bush berries, but none could be mass produced. Also, deserts have a lack of water, so the grass itself does not grow well, let alone producing grains from the grass. Of course, it would be a different story if there's an irrigation system. Even today, nomads from Siberia, Mongolia, and Central Asia take their animals around in search of grassy areas." This time, the professor pointed to the Amazon region, where the rainforest is located. "Historically famous herding and nomadic tribes have all been concentrated in dry and cold regions, but recently, in the Amazon region, their were attempts to raise cattle by burning trees and creating grasslands. As a result, quantitatively, the rainforest has become the most successful herding ground in human history."
Gamamusa turned again towards the students in with glowing eyes. "Humans can physically eat grass. But they cannot survive on grass alone. This is because humans are not herbivores that can digest grass. Unlike cows which can digest dietary fiber in grass, humans can digest only carbohydrates in grains or roots, or sugar in fruits. This is why herding and nomadic practices can only flourish on the wilderness."
Gamamusa pointed to the U.S. this time. "Now, countries like the U.S. have leftovers like corn. Thanks to this, they feed corn to cows to produce a lot of meat. Historically, however, farmers did not eat much meat. In short, farmers who did not have enough food leftovers did not eat much meat in history. Herdsmen, on the other hand, were able to eat a lot of meat and milk, but there was not much carbohydrate in animals. The human body require more consumption of carbohydrates, than protein for carbohydrates are energy source. This is why herdsmen and nomads cannot beat farmers in population, who can produce and eat grain."
Gamamusa circled the United States, Europe, and Manchuria this time. The students wondered, "…there were regions where meat was mainly produced and there were regions where grain was mainly produced, but there were also regions where both were produced. They had a semi-agricultural semi-nomadic lifestyle. The semi-agricultural semi-nomadic lifestyle produced less population that agricultural lifestyle and more population that nomadic lifestyle. These areas had borders in the middle of the fertile land where the grains grew, making constant wars in the populated regions. In areas where there was constant war, the crop fields could be pillaged, so people also raised livestocks, which is a property that could be moved, unlike the crop fields."
Gamamusa mapped the Roman, Mexican, and Manchurian regions in the past. "… The Roman empire and the Germanic tribes had established a border in the middle of the fertile soil of the European continent a long time ago. As a result, the Germanic and Celtic tribes that spanned over France and Germany fought each other and engaged in semi-agricultural semi-nomadic life style. The border between them disappeared when the Germans invaded Rome, and when the Germans began to farm in the war-torn region, the less populated semi-agricultural semi-nomadic Celtic people were quickly pushed out. A few centuries later, when the Slavs appeared in Eastern Europe and began farming in Russia, the border of the agricultural nations crossed the border with Siberia, a wilderness. As the border in the middle of the fertile soils were gone, peasants exploded in population and began to conquer the nomads in the east, overwhelming the population."
This time, Gamamusa pointed to the Mexican Empire. "The Empire of Mexico had once bordered the Midwestern region of the United States. But when the U.S. pushed Mexico out of the way during the war in 1848 and established a border in the southern Sonora desert, the American farmers in the Midwest, who used to raise both grains and cattles at the border, began farming and building the Corn Belt during the 1850s. As a result, the nomadic Native Americans living in the west were pushed out in an instant, just like the Siberian natives." Finally, he pointed to Manchuria. "The Manchurian region was also a fertile land, but its borderline span along the Great Wall of China and the Siberian wasteland to the north. Manchurians lived semi-agricultural semi-nomadic lifestyle just like the Celts, Germanic tribes, and the American farmers before 1850. This did not change after the Manchurians conquered China, but when the fertile lands of Manchuria started to have a border with Russia over the wastelands, Manchuria started agriculture, countless people in China flooded into Manchuria. As a result, Manchurians lose power and collapse, just like the Celts did."
