From: theleasthappyfella@gmail.com   
      
   On Sunday, September 10, 2023 at 2:32:06 PM UTC-7, Jeffrey Rubard wrote:   
   > From Chapter 15: "Kill All the Americans"    
   >    
   > It took Dearborn's purchasing agents some effort to find a factory whistle   
   that wouldn't rust from the jungle humidity. Once they did, they shipped it to   
   Fordlandia, where it was perched on top of the water tower, above the tall   
   trees, giving it a    
   seven-mile range. The whistle was piercing enough not only to reach dispersed   
   road gangs and fieldhands but to be heard across the river, where even those   
   not affiliated with Fordlandia began to pace their day to its regularly   
   scheduled blows. The    
   whistle was supplemented by another icon of industrial factory work: pendulum   
   punch time clocks, placed at different locations around the plantation, that   
   recorded exactly when each employee began and ended his workday.    
   >    
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   >    
   > In Detroit, immigrant workers by the time they got to Ford's factories, even   
   if they were peasants and shepherds, had had ample opportunity to adjust to   
   the meter of industrial life. The long lines at Ellis Island, the clocks that   
   hung on the walls of    
   depots and waiting rooms, the fairly precise schedules of ships and trains,   
   and standardized time that chopped the sun's daily arc into zones combined to   
   guide their motions and change their inner sense of how the days passed.    
   >    
   > But in the Amazon, the transition between agricultural time and industrial   
   time was much more precipitous. Prior to showing up at Fordlandia, many of the   
   plantation's workers who had lived in the region had set their pace by two   
   distinct yet    
   complementary timepieces. The first was the sun, its rise and fall marking the   
   beginning and end of the day, its apex signaling the time to take to the shade   
   and sleep. The second was the turn of the seasons: most of the labor needed to   
   survive was    
   performed during the relatively dry months of June to November. Rainless days   
   made rubber tapping possible, while the recession of the floods exposed newly   
   enriched soils, ready to plant, and concentrated fish, making them easier to   
   catch. But nothing    
   was set in stone. Excessive rain or prolonged periods of drought or heat led   
   to adjustments of schedules. Before the coming of Ford, Tapajos workers lived   
   time, they didn't measure it — most rarely ever heard church bells, much   
   less a factory whistle.    
   It was difficult, therefore, as David Riker, who performed many jobs for Ford,   
   including labor recruiter, said, "to make 365-day machines out of these   
   people."    
   >    
   > In 1927, Henry Ford bought a tract of land stretching twice the size of   
   Deleware in the Amazonian jungle of Brazil. Fordlandia, as it was called, was   
   meant to be a large rubber plantation.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Ford executives stand on the deck of the Lake Ormoc. Left to right: William   
   Cowling, Edsel Ford, Einar Oxholm, Henry Ford, Pete Martin, Charles Sorensen,   
   and AlbertWibel.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Workers chop down a tree in Fordlandia. Greg Grandin, author of   
   "Fordlandia," claims that the complex ecological conditions and a clash of   
   cultures between the Americans and native workers ultimately led to the   
   failure of the project.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Along with the construction of the rubber plantation, Ford also created   
   small American towns that included central squares, indoor plumbing, golf   
   courses and hospitals.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Many of the plantation workers were to the jungle and were moved into   
   American style housing.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > This family bungalow was part of a housing development styled after American   
   homes.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Attempting to import American culture into the Amazon, Fordlandia offered   
   residents a dance hall, with a movie screen on the back wall.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Malaria, yellow fever and viper bites claimed the lives of many workers.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Mundurucu mission children stand with German nuns.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > The American cars were no match for the local environment.    
   > Courtesy of The Collections of the Henry Ford    
   > Fordlandia's sawmill at Iron Mountain still stands 80 years later.    
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   > Fordlandia's managers and foremen, in contrast, were mostly engineers,   
   precise in their measurement of time and motion. One of the first things the   
   Americans did was set their watches and clocks to Detroit time, where   
   Fordlandia remains to this day (   
   nearby Santarem runs an hour earlier). They scratched their heads when   
   confronted with workers they routinely described as "lazy." Archie Weeks's   
   daughter remembers her father throwing his straw hat on the ground more than   
   once in frustration. With a    
   decided sense of purpose that grated against the established rhythms of   
   Tapajos life (David Riker liked to say that hurry was an "obscene" word in the   
   valley), proudly affiliated with a company renowned for its vanguard   
   interlocking efficiency, Ford's    
   men tended to treat Brazilians as instruments. And called them such. Matt   
   Mulrooney gave his workers nicknames. "This fellow I had named Telephone. When   
   I wanted to send a message or an order down front, I'd just holler,   
   'Telephone!' and he'd show up."    
   >    
   > And they used themselves as standards to measure the value of Brazilian   
   labor. "Two of our people easily carried some timbers which twelve Brazilians   
   did not seem to be able to handle," observed a Dearborn official at the end of   
   1930. What a man could    
   do in a Dearborn day "would take one of them guys three days to do it down   
   there."    
   >    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)