Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Comparitve study of inter-personal relationship as potrayed in madame Essay

Comparitve study of inter-personal relationship as potrayed in madame bovary and siddhartha - Essay Example Due to her blind faith in the materialistic and fabricated relationships she overlooks the real love of Charles Bovary and gets deceived. For instance, she does not recognize the wrong intentions of Rodolphe, who used her to satisfy his sexual desires, and assumed that he loves her. Dr. Charles Bovary’s observation of reality is also impractical. He thinks that living means just to survive. As a result, he is deficient in interest, enthusiasm, strength and joy. He is so insensitive to his surroundings that he remains unaware of the obvious mistakes and relationships of Emma, Homais, Lheureux, and other characters. However, regardless of his unresponsive nature he possesses qualities like sincerity, faithfulness and honesty. On the other hand the character of Siddhartha is not in love with the materialistic world like Emma. He is instead in the search of spiritual love and considers finding this love his destiny. The character as portrayed by the author reaches limits to find t hat love in the story as he leaves behind many things in finding it. This essay would revolve around the two major characters in these novels (i.e. Siddhartha and Emma) and would analyze the relationships both have in the story in accordance to their nature. The relationships that they have with other characters would also be analyzed. It would also tell how both of them are different and similar to each other in their actions. Siddhartha is the novel whose major idea is that pleasure comes from spiritual peace. In the novel, the central character tries to find peace, which is at last attained after going through a number of different phases of life. The first phase is that of his childhood which he spent as an orthodox Brahmins child. In this period, he studies the scriptures and performs ritual sacrifice. In the second stage he follows Samanas and learns about thriftiness and self-discipline. The third stage lets him learn the

Monday, October 28, 2019

Salvador Dali Essay Example for Free

Salvador Dali Essay Salvadore Felipe Jacinto Dali Y Domenech was born on May 11, 1904 . in Figueras, Spain. He was a Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker by trade. Dali is commonly regarded as having been â€Å"artistically influential for his explorations of subconscious imagery†. As an art student in Madrid and in Barcelona, Dali assimilated a vast number of artistic styles and displayed unusual technical facility as a painter. It was not until the late 1920s however, that two events brought about the development of his mature artistic style. The first of these was Dalis discovery of Sigmund Freuds writings on the erotic significance of subconscious imagery and the second was Dalis affiliation with the Paris Surrealists, a group of artists and writers who sought to establish the greater reality of mans subconscious over his reason. To bring up images from the depths of his subconscious mind, Dali began to introduce hallucinatory states in himself by a process he described as paranoiac critical. In essence, the paranoiac critical meant looking at one thing and seeing another. In my opinion, this is an extended version of the face seen in the fire. Heads turn into a distant city, a landscape resolves itself as a still life, inexplicable combinations are seen to lurk magically beneath the skin of the world and thus the foundation for much Dalis artistic philosophy is established. Once Dali hit on this method, his painting style matured with extraordinary rapidity, and from 1927 to 1937 he produced those paintings which made him the worlds best known Surrealist artist. Dali depicted a dream world in which commonplace objects are â€Å"juxtaposed, deformed, or otherwise metamorphosed in a bizarre and irrational fashion†. Dali portrayed these objects in meticulous, almost painfully realistic detail and usually placed them within bleak, sunlit landscapes that were reminiscent of his Catalonian homeland. Much of my research indicates that the most famous of these enigmatic images is probably The Persistence of Memory (commonly known as Soft Watches) which was painted in 1931. In this painting, limp, melting watches rest in an eerily calm landscape. Moving to Paris around 1928, Dali frequented the Cafe Cyrano, the headquarters of the Parisian surrealists, and in 1929, he first exhibited his own surrealist paintings. Dali continued to study the writings of Sigmund Freud and subsequently declared an ambition to systemize confusion. In addition to such paintings as The Persistence of Memory, other famous works such as The Sacrament of the Last Supper which was painted in 1955 and is currently on display at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., have become widely known as part of the definitive record of twentieth century art. In Dalis books, of which he wrote many himself, canvases, like The Persistence of Memory seem like looking down the wrong end of the telescope at a brilliant, clear, shrunken and poisoned world whose deep mannerist perspective and sharp patches of shadow invite the eye but not the body. I doubt whether one could imagine walking on that stretched, satiny beach among the oozing watches. This atmosphere of voyeurism lent force to Dalis obsessive imagery of impotence, of violence and of guilt. Even in his most extreme moments of anticlerical shock, however, research indicates that Dali remained a Spanish Catholic. He inherited from Spanish devotional art a paralyzing morbidity about flesh. He seemed to like anything that was not erect: running Camembert, soft watches, sagging loaves of flesh held up by crutches. Naturally all this was much more shocking fifty years ago than it is today: Dali was regularly denounced by Fascists and Stalinists alike as a decadent threat to youth. When he could no longer annoy either the bourgeoisie or the self- appointed guardians of the proletariat, he mortally offended the avant-garde by embracing Franco and the Pope, and was duly drummed out of the surrealist group for it Dalis reaction, natural in such an enfant terrible (approx. translation: terrible child), was to become more royalist than the King and more ostentatiously greedy than his Palm Beach and Hollywood patrons. If the net result was a tacky, phosphorescent caricature of Genius at Work, an embarrassment to most aficionados, it is still inconceivable to such eccentric art buffs that Dali the bad boy will ever be expelled from the pantheon of modern imagination. With the Spanish director, Luis Bunuel, Dali also made two surrealistic films. The first was, Un Chien Andalou ( French for An Andalusian dog) produced in 1928 and the latter was LAge Dor (The Golden Age) produced in 1930. Both of these films are commonly described as being grotesque but filled with highl y suggestive images. The production of Dalis art and films was both complimented and further popularized by his maintenance of in image similar to the one reflected in his works;: His eccentric appearance consisting ordinarily of a flowing cape, handlebar mustache, and popping eyes helped to make Salvadore Dali recognized worldwide. In the late 1930s, Dali switched to painting in a more academic style under the influence of the Renaissance painter Raphael, and as a consequence, that was another example of why he was expelled from the Surrealist movement. In the later years of his life, Dali spent the majority of his time designing theater sets, interiors of fashionable shops, and jewelry as well as exhibiting his genius for flamboyant self-promotional stunts in the United States, where he lived from 1940 to 1955. In the period from 1950 to 1970, Dali painted many works with religious themes, though he continued to explore erotic subjects, to represent childhood memories, and to use themes centering on his wife, Gala. Notwithstanding their technical accomplishments, these later paintings are apparently not as highly regarded as the artists earlier works. Salvadore Dali died on January 3, 1989 in Figueras and is now often regarded as one the greatest twentieth century artists yet. With some artists, death is only a ratification of decay: it releases them from the humiliations of their late careers. So it was with Salvador Dali, who when he died at the age of 84 was perhaps the archetype of that 20th century phenomenon, the embarrassing Genius. He was the first modern artist to exploit fully the mechanism of publicity. He appropriated the idea of the artist as demonic obsessive. He dealt with the question Why should your fantasies matter?. Clearly, Salvadore Dali utilized communication and all forms of contemporary imagery to make not only his works, but himself into a legend. Bibliography: Ades, Dawn, Dali and Surrealism (1982); Dali, S.,Salvador Dali: Diary of a Genius (1990); De Liano, I. G., Dali (1984); Descharnes, Robert, Dali (1984); Etherington-Smith, M., The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Salvador Dali (1993). Various internet sites

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Latvian Education: Past and Present :: Essays Papers

Latvian Education: Past and Present I. Introduction Imagine a seven year old boy sitting in class. He is anxious for the day to begin and anticipates its end. Finally, his teacher starts to speak about what will be happening in class that day. The boy looks up in wonderment and confusion. His teacher is speaking in a completely different language than the boy is accustomed to. This little boy is growing up in Latvia, but the language he has grown up learning, in his home, is Russian. The boy, having always heard both languages while growing up, eventually pieced together what the teacher was saying; and later realizes he is going to have to adapt to a new language. This seems to be a common occurrence in Latvian schools. Because of Latvia’s history, back and forth, between Soviet and independent rule, a large population of Russians have migrated, or been moved to, Latvia. This has had a large impact on the way education works in Latvia. The Eastern Union (EU) has also, recently, started to make a difference in the way education works in Latvia. II. History a. Communist After reading through a brief history of Latvia, in the World Book, I found that Latvia was first recognized as an independent state in 1920, even though it had claimed independence just after World War I ended in November of 1918. Two years after their claim, Latvia developed a democratic government which broke up wealthy estates and separated the land among the people. After the Great Depression, in 1936, the president took more power and gave less to the political parties. Shortly after World War II started the Soviets had an agreement with Latvia to build Russian military bases in their country. The Russians eventually seized power and made Latvia part of the Soviet Union and then created a Communist government. Soon after that, in 1941, the German soldiers invaded Latvia and stayed there until 1944 when the Soviets recaptured it. While the Russians resided and ruled in Latvia they created a powerful Communist government which controlled all land and industry, was the only legal politician party, and banned the Latvian flag and national anthem. Latvian Education: Past and Present :: Essays Papers Latvian Education: Past and Present I. Introduction Imagine a seven year old boy sitting in class. He is anxious for the day to begin and anticipates its end. Finally, his teacher starts to speak about what will be happening in class that day. The boy looks up in wonderment and confusion. His teacher is speaking in a completely different language than the boy is accustomed to. This little boy is growing up in Latvia, but the language he has grown up learning, in his home, is Russian. The boy, having always heard both languages while growing up, eventually pieced together what the teacher was saying; and later realizes he is going to have to adapt to a new language. This seems to be a common occurrence in Latvian schools. Because of Latvia’s history, back and forth, between Soviet and independent rule, a large population of Russians have migrated, or been moved to, Latvia. This has had a large impact on the way education works in Latvia. The Eastern Union (EU) has also, recently, started to make a difference in the way education works in Latvia. II. History a. Communist After reading through a brief history of Latvia, in the World Book, I found that Latvia was first recognized as an independent state in 1920, even though it had claimed independence just after World War I ended in November of 1918. Two years after their claim, Latvia developed a democratic government which broke up wealthy estates and separated the land among the people. After the Great Depression, in 1936, the president took more power and gave less to the political parties. Shortly after World War II started the Soviets had an agreement with Latvia to build Russian military bases in their country. The Russians eventually seized power and made Latvia part of the Soviet Union and then created a Communist government. Soon after that, in 1941, the German soldiers invaded Latvia and stayed there until 1944 when the Soviets recaptured it. While the Russians resided and ruled in Latvia they created a powerful Communist government which controlled all land and industry, was the only legal politician party, and banned the Latvian flag and national anthem.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Da Vinci Code Chapter 93-97

CHAPTER 93 London's Opus Dei Centre is a modest brick building at 5 Orme Court, overlooking the North Walk at Kensington Gardens. Silas had never been here, but he felt a rising sense of refuge and asylum as he approached the building on foot. Despite the rain, Remy had dropped him off a short distance away in order to keep the limousine off the main streets. Silas didn't mind the walk. The rain was cleansing. At Remy's suggestion, Silas had wiped down his gun and disposed of it through a sewer grate. He was glad to get rid of it. He felt lighter. His legs still ached from being bound all that time, but Silas had endured far greater pain. He wondered, though, about Teabing, whom Remy had left bound in the back of the limousine. The Briton certainly had to be feeling the pain by now. â€Å"What will you do with him?† Silas had asked Remy as they drove over here. Remy had shrugged. â€Å"That is a decision for the Teacher.† There was an odd finality in his tone. Now, as Silas approached the Opus Dei building, the rain began to fall harder, soaking his heavy robe, stinging the wounds of the day before. He was ready to leave behind the sins of the last twenty-four hours and purge his soul. His work was done. Moving across a small courtyard to the front door, Silas was not surprised to find the door unlocked. He opened it and stepped into the minimalist foyer. A muted electronic chime sounded upstairs as Silas stepped onto the carpet. The bell was a common feature in these halls where the residents spent most of the day in their rooms in prayer. Silas could hear movement above on the creaky wood floors. A man in a cloak came downstairs. â€Å"May I help you?† He had kind eyes that seemed not even to register Silas's startling physical appearance. â€Å"Thank you. My name is Silas. I am an Opus Dei numerary.† â€Å"American?† Silas nodded. â€Å"I am in town only for the day. Might I rest here?† â€Å"You need not even ask. There are two empty rooms on the third floor. Shall I bring you some tea and bread?† â€Å"Thank you.† Silas was famished. Silas went upstairs to a modest room with a window, where he took off his wet robe and knelt down to pray in his undergarments. He heard his host come up and lay a tray outside his door. Silas finished his prayers, ate his food, and lay down to sleep. Three stories below, a phone was ringing. The Opus Dei numerary who had welcomed Silas answered the line. â€Å"This is the London police,† the caller said. â€Å"We are trying to find an albino monk. We've had a tip-off that he might be there. Have you seen him?† The numerary was startled. â€Å"Yes, he is here. Is something wrong?† â€Å"He is there now?† â€Å"Yes, upstairs praying. What is going on?† â€Å"Leave him precisely where he is,† the officer commanded. â€Å"Don't say a word to anyone. I'm sending officers over right away.† CHAPTER 94 St. James's Park is a sea of green in the middle of London, a public park bordering the palaces of Westminster, Buckingham, and St. James's. Once enclosed by King Henry VIII and stocked with deer for the hunt, St. James's Park is now open to the public. On sunny afternoons, Londoners picnic beneath the willows and feed the pond's resident pelicans, whose ancestors were a gift to Charles II from the Russian ambassador. The Teacher saw no pelicans today. The stormy weather had brought instead seagulls from the ocean. The lawns were covered with them – hundreds of white bodies all facing the same direction, patiently riding out the damp wind. Despite the morning fog, the park afforded splendid views of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Gazing across the sloping lawns, past the duck pond and the delicate silhouettes of the weeping willows, the Teacher could see the spires of the building that housed the knight's tomb – the real reason he had told Remy to come to this spot. As the Teacher approached the front passenger door of the parked limousine, Remy leaned across and opened the door. The Teacher paused outside, taking a pull from the flask of cognac he was carrying. Then, dabbing his mouth, he slid in beside Remy and closed the door. Remy held up the keystone like a trophy. â€Å"It was almost lost.† â€Å"You have done well,† the Teacher said. â€Å"We have done well,† Remy replied, laying the keystone in the Teacher's eager hands. The Teacher admired it a long moment, smiling. â€Å"And the gun? You wiped it down?† â€Å"Back in the glove box where I found it.† â€Å"Excellent.† The Teacher took another drink of cognac and handed the flask to Remy. â€Å"Let's toast our success. The end is near.† Remy accepted the bottle gratefully. The cognac tasted salty, but Remy didn't care. He and the Teacher were truly partners now. He could feel himself ascending to a higher station in life. I will never be a servant again.As Remy gazed down the embankment at the duck pond below, Chateau Villette seemed miles away. Taking another swig from the flask, Remy could feel the cognac warming his blood. The warmth in Remy's throat, however, mutated quickly to an uncomfortable heat. Loosening his bow tie, Remy tasted an unpleasant grittiness and handed the flask back to the Teacher. â€Å"I've probably had enough,† he managed, weakly. Taking the flask, the Teacher said,† Remy, as you are aware, you are the only one who knows my face. I placed enormous trust in you.† â€Å"Yes,† he said, feeling feverish as he loosened his tie further. â€Å"And your identity shall go with me to the grave.† The Teacher was silent a long moment. â€Å"I believe you.† Pocketing the flask and the keystone, the Teacher reached for the glove box and pulled out the tiny Medusa revolver. For an instant, Remy felt a surge of fear, but the Teacher simply slipped it in his trousers pocket. What is he doing? Remy felt himself sweating suddenly. â€Å"I know I promised you freedom,† the Teacher said, his voice now sounding regretful. â€Å"But considering your circumstances, this is the best I can do.† The swelling in Remy's throat came on like an earthquake, and he lurched against the steering column, grabbing his throat and tasting vomit in his narrowing esophagus. He let out a muted croak of a scream, not even loud enough to be heard outside the car. The saltiness in the cognac now registered. I'm being murdered! Incredulous, Remy turned to see the Teacher sitting calmly beside him, staring straight ahead out the windshield. Remy's eyesight blurred, and he gasped for breath. I made everything possible for him! How could he do this! Whether the Teacher had intended to kill Remy all along or whether it had been Remy's actions in the Temple Church that had made the Teacher lose faith, Remy would never know. Terror and rage coursed through him now. Remy tried to lunge for the Teacher, but his stiffening body could barely move. I trusted you with everything! Remy tried to lift his clenched fists to blow the horn, but instead he slipped sideways, rolling onto the seat, lying on his side beside the Teacher, clutching at his throat. The rain fell harder now. Remy could no longer see, but he could sense his oxygen-deprived brain straining to cling to his last faint shreds of lucidity. As his world slowly went black, Remy Legaludec could have sworn he heard the sounds of the soft Riviera surf. The Teacher stepped from the limousine, pleased to see that nobody was looking in his direction. Ihad no choice, he told himself, surprised how little remorse he felt for what he had just done. Remy sealed his own fate.The Teacher had feared all along that Remy might need to be eliminated when the mission was complete, but by brazenly showing himself in the Temple Church, Remy had accelerated the necessity dramatically. Robert Langdon's unexpected visit to Chateau Villette had brought the Teacher both a fortuitous windfall and an intricate dilemma. Langdon had delivered the keystone directly to the heart of the operation, which was a pleasant surprise, and yet he had brought the police on his tail. Remy's prints were all over Chateau Villette, as well as in the barn's listening post, where Remy had carried out the surveillance. The Teacher was grateful he had taken so much care in preventing any ties between Remy's activities and his own. Nobody could implicate the Teacher unless Rem y talked, and that was no longer a concern. One more loose end to tie up here, the Teacher thought, moving now toward the rear door of the limousine. The police will have no idea what happened†¦and no living witness left to tell them.Glancing around to ensure nobody was watching, he pulled open the door and climbed into the spacious rear compartment. Minutes later, the Teacher was crossing St. James's Park. Only two people now remain.Langdonand Neveu.They were more complicated. But manageable. At the moment, however, the Teacher had the cryptex to attend to. Gazing triumphantly across the park, he could see his destination. In London lies a knight a Pope interred.As soon as the Teacher had heard the poem, he had known the answer. Even so, that the others had not figured it out was not surprising. I have an unfair advantage.Having listened to Sauniere's conversations for months now, the Teacher had heard the Grand Master mention this famous knight on occasion, expressing esteem almost matching that he held for Da Vinci. The poem's reference to the knight was brutally simple once one saw it – a credit to Sauniere's wit – and yet how this tomb would reveal the final password was still a mystery. You seek the orb that ought be on his tomb. The Teacher vaguely recalled photos of the famous tomb and, in particular, its most distinguishing feature. A magnificent orb.The huge sphere mounted atop the tomb was almost as large as the tomb itself. The presence of the orb seemed both encouraging and troubling to the Teacher. On one hand, it felt like a signpost, and yet, according to the poem, the missing piece of the puzzle was an orb that ought to be on his tomb†¦ not one that was already there. He was counting on his closer inspection of the tomb to unveil the answer. The rain was getting heavier now, and he tucked the cryptex deep in his right-hand pocket to protect it from the dampness. He kept the tiny Medusa revolver in his left, out of sight. Within minutes, he was stepping into the quiet sanctuary of London's grandest nine-hundred-year-old building. Just as the Teacher was stepping out of the rain, Bishop Aringarosa was stepping into it. On the rainy tarmac at Biggin Hill Executive Airport, Aringarosa emerged from his cramped plane, bundling his cassock against the cold damp. He had hoped to be greeted by Captain Fache. Instead a young British police officer approached with an umbrella. â€Å"Bishop Aringarosa? Captain Fache had to leave. He asked me to look after you. He suggested I take you to Scotland Yard. He thought it would be safest.† Safest? Aringarosa looked down at the heavy briefcase of Vatican bonds clutched in his hand. He had almost forgotten. â€Å"Yes, thank you.† Aringarosa climbed into the police car, wondering where Silas could be. Minutes later, the police scanner crackled with the answer. 5 Orme Court. Aringarosa recognized the address instantly. The Opus Dei Centre in London. He spun to the driver. â€Å"Take me there at once!† CHAPTER 95 Langdon's eyes had not left the computer screen since the search began. Five minutes. Only two hits. Both irrelevant. He was starting to get worried. Pamela Gettum was in the adjoining room, preparing hot drinks. Langdon and Sophie had inquired unwisely if there might be some coffee brewing alongside the tea Gettum had offered, and from the sound of the microwave beeps in the next room, Langdon suspected their request was about to be rewarded with instant Nescafe. Finally, the computer pinged happily. â€Å"Sounds like you got another,† Gettum called from the next room. â€Å"What's the title?† Langdon eyed the screen. Grail Allegory in Medieval Literature: A Treatise on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. â€Å"Allegory of the Green Knight,† he called back. â€Å"No good,† Gettum said. â€Å"Not many mythological green giants buried in London.† Langdon and Sophie sat patiently in front of the screen and waited through two more dubious returns. When the computer pinged again, though, the offering was unexpected. DIE OPERN VON RICHARD WAGNER â€Å"The operas of Wagner?† Sophie asked. Gettum peeked back in the doorway, holding a packet of instant coffee. â€Å"That seems like a strange match. Was Wagner a knight?† â€Å"No,† Langdon said, feeling a sudden intrigue. â€Å"But he was a well-known Freemason.† Along withMozart, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Gershwin, Houdini, and Disney.Volumes had been written about the ties between the Masons and the Knights Templar, the Priory of Sion, and the Holy Grail. â€Å"I want to look at this one. How do I see the full text?† â€Å"You don't want the full text,† Gettum called. â€Å"Click on the hypertext title. The computer will display your keyword hits along with mono prelogs and triple postlogs for context.† Langdon had no idea what she had just said, but he clicked anyway. A new window popped up. †¦ mythological knight named Parsifal who†¦ †¦ metaphorical Grail quest that arguably†¦ †¦ the LondonPhilharmonic in 1855†¦ Rebecca Pope's opera anthology† Diva's†¦ †¦ Wagner's tomb in Bayreuth, Germany†¦ â€Å"Wrong Pope,† Langdon said, disappointed. Even so, he was amazed by the system's ease of use. The keywords with context were enough to remind him that Wagner's opera Parsifal was a tribute to Mary Magdalene and the bloodline of Jesus Christ, told through the story of a young knight on a quest for truth. â€Å"Just be patient,† Gettum urged. â€Å"It's a numbers game. Let the machine run.† Over the next few minutes, the computer returned several more Grail references, including a text about troubadours – France's famous wandering minstrels. Langdon knew it was no coincidence that the word minstrel and minister shared an etymological root. The troubadours were the traveling servants or† ministers† of the Church of Mary Magdalene, using music to disseminate the story of the sacred feminine among the common folk. To this day, the troubadours sang songs extolling the virtues of† our Lady† – a mysterious and beautiful woman to whom they pledged themselves forever. Eagerly, he checked the hypertext but found nothing. The computer pinged again. KNIGHTS, KNAVES, POPES, AND PENTACLES: THE HISTORY OF THE HOLY GRAIL THROUGH TAROT â€Å"Not surprising,† Langdon said to Sophie. â€Å"Some of our keywords have the same names as individual cards.† He reached for the mouse to click on a hyperlink. â€Å"I'm not sure if your grandfather ever mentioned it when you played Tarot with him, Sophie, but this game is a ‘flash- card catechism' into the story of the Lost Bride and her subjugation by the evil Church.† Sophie eyed him, looking incredulous. â€Å"I had no idea.† â€Å"That's the point. By teaching through a metaphorical game, the followers of the Grail disguised their message from the watchful eye of the Church.† Langdon often wondered how many modern card players had any clue that their four suits – spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds – were Grail-related symbols that came directly from Tarot's four suits of swords, cups, scepters, and pentacles. Spades were Swords – The blade. Male. Hearts were Cups – The chalice. Feminine. Clubs were Scepters – The Royal Line. The flowering staff. Diamonds were Pentacles – The goddess. The sacred feminine. Four minutes later, as Langdon began feeling fearful they would not find what they had come for, the computer produced another hit. The Gravity of Genius: Biography of a Modern Knight. â€Å"Gravity of Genius?† Langdon called out to Gettum. â€Å"Bio of a modern knight?† Gettum stuck her head around the corner. â€Å"How modern? Please don't tell me it's your Sir Rudy Giuliani. Personally, I found that one a bit off the mark.† Langdon had his own qualms about the newly knighted Sir Mick Jagger, but this hardly seemed the moment to debate the politics of modern British knighthood. â€Å"Let's have a look.† Langdon summoned up the hypertext keywords. †¦ honorable knight, Sir Isaac Newton†¦ †¦ in Londonin 1727 and†¦ †¦ his tomb in Westminster Abbey†¦ †¦ Alexander Pope, friend and colleague†¦ â€Å"I guess ‘modern' is a relative term,† Sophie called to Gettum. â€Å"It's an old book. About Sir Isaac Newton.† Gettum shook her head in the doorway. â€Å"No good. Newton was buried in Westminster Abbey, the seat of English Protestantism. There's no way a Catholic Pope was present. Cream and sugar?† Sophie nodded. Gettum waited. â€Å"Robert?† Langdon's heart was hammering. He pulled his eyes from the screen and stood up. â€Å"Sir Isaac Newton is our knight.† Sophie remained seated. â€Å"What are you talking about?† â€Å"Newton is buried in London,† Langdon said. â€Å"His labors produced new sciences that incurred the wrath of the Church. And he was a Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. What more could we want?† â€Å"What more?† Sophie pointed to the poem. â€Å"How about a knight a Pope interred? You heard Ms. Gettum. Newton was not buried by a Catholic Pope.† Langdon reached for the mouse. â€Å"Who said anything about a Catholic Pope?† He clicked on the† Pope† hyperlink, and the complete sentence appeared. Sir Isaac Newton's burial, attended by kings and nobles, was presided over by Alexander Pope, friend and colleague, who gave a stirring eulogy before sprinkling dirt on the tomb. Langdon looked at Sophie. â€Å"We had the correct Pope on our second hit. Alexander.† He paused. â€Å"A. Pope.† In London lies a knight A. Pope interred. Sophie stood up, looking stunned. Jacques Sauniere, the master of double-entendres, had proven once again that he was a frighteningly clever man. CHAPTER 96 Silas awoke with a start. He had no idea what had awoken him or how long he had been asleep. Was I dreaming? Sitting up now on his straw mat, he listened to the quiet breathing of the Opus Dei residence hall, the stillness textured only by the soft murmurs of someone praying aloud in a room below him. These were familiar sounds and should have comforted him. And yet he felt a sudden and unexpected wariness. Standing, wearing only his undergarments, Silas walked to the window. Was I followed? The courtyard below was deserted, exactly as he had seen it when he entered. He listened. Silence. Sowhy am I uneasy? Long ago Silas had learned to trust his intuition. Intuition had kept him alive as a child on the streets of Marseilles long before prison†¦ long before he was born again by the hand of Bishop Aringarosa. Peering out the window, he now saw the faint outline of a car through the hedge. On the car's roof was a police siren. A floorboard creaked in the hallway. A door latch moved. Silas reacted on instinct, surging across the room and sliding to a stop just behind the door as it crashed open. The first police officer stormed through, swinging his gun left then right at what appeared an empty room. Before he realized where Silas was, Silas had thrown his shoulder into the door, crushing a second officer as he came through. As the first officer wheeled to shoot, Silas dove for his legs. The gun went off, the bullet sailing above Silas's head, just as he connected with the officer's shins, driving his legs out from under him, and sending the man down, his head hitting the floor. The second officer staggered to his feet in the doorway, and Silas drove a knee into his groin, then went clambering over the writhing body into the hall. Almost naked, Silas hurled his pale body down the staircase. He knew he had been betrayed, but by whom? When he reached the foyer, more officers were surging through the front door. Silas turned the other way and dashed deeper into the residence hall. The women's entrance.Every Opus Dei building has one.Winding down narrow hallways, Silas snaked through a kitchen, past terrified workers, who left to avoid the naked albino as he knocked over bowls and silverware, bursting into a dark hallway near the boiler room. He now saw the door he sought, an exit light gleaming at the end. Running full speed through the door out into the rain, Silas leapt off the low landing, not seeing the officer coming the other way until it was too late. The two men collided, Silas's broad, naked shoulder grinding into the man's sternum with crushing force. He drove the officer backward onto the pavement, landing hard on top of him. The officer's gun clattered away. Silas could hear men running down the hall shouting. Rolling, he grabbed the loose gun just as the officers emerged. A shot rang out on the stairs, and Silas felt a searing pain below his ribs. Filled with rage, he opened fire at all three officers, their blood spraying. A dark shadow loomed behind, coming out of nowhere. The angry hands that grabbed at his bare shoulders felt as if they were infused with the power of the devil himself. The man roared in his ear. SILAS, NO! Silas spun and fired. Their eyes met. Silas was already screaming in horror as Bishop Aringarosa fell. CHAPTER 97 More than three thousand people are entombed or enshrined within Westminster Abbey. The colossal stone interior burgeons with the remains of kings, statesmen, scientists, poets, and musicians. Their tombs, packed into every last niche and alcove, range in grandeur from the most regal of mausoleums – that of Queen Elizabeth I, whose canopied sarcophagus inhabits its own private, apsidal chapel – down to the most modest etched floor tiles whose inscriptions have worn away with centuries of foot traffic, leaving it to one's imagination whose relics might lie below the tile in the undercroft. Designed in the style of the great cathedrals of Amiens, Chartres, and Canterbury, Westminster Abbey is considered neither cathedral nor parish church. It bears the classification of royal peculiar, subject only to the Sovereign. Since hosting the coronation of William the Conqueror on Christmas Day in 1066, the dazzling sanctuary has witnessed an endless procession of royal ceremonies and affairs of state – from the canonization of Edward the Confessor, to the marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, to the funerals of Henry V, Queen Elizabeth I, and Lady Diana. Even so, Robert Langdon currently felt no interest in any of the abbey's ancient history, save one event – the funeral of the British knight Sir Isaac Newton. In London lies a knight a Pope interred. Hurrying through the grand portico on the north transept, Langdon and Sophie were met by guards who politely ushered them through the abbey's newest addition – a large walk-through metal detector – now present in most historic buildings in London. They both passed through without setting off the alarm and continued to the abbey entrance. Stepping across the threshold into Westminster Abbey, Langdon felt the outside world evaporate with a sudden hush. No rumble of traffic. No hiss of rain. Just a deafening silence, which seemed to reverberate back and forth as if the building were whispering to itself. Langdon's and Sophie's eyes, like those of almost every visitor, shifted immediately skyward, where the abbey's great abyss seemed to explode overhead. Gray stone columns ascended like redwoods into the shadows, arching gracefully over dizzying expanses, and then shooting back down to the stone floor. Before them, the wide alley of the north transept stretched out like a deep canyon, flanked by sheer cliffs of stained glass. On sunny days, the abbey floor was a prismatic patchwork of light. Today, the rain and darkness gave this massive hollow a wraithlike aura†¦ more like that of the crypt it truly was. â€Å"It's practically empty,† Sophie whispered. Langdon felt disappointed. He had hoped for a lot more people. A more public place.Their earlier experience in the deserted Temple Church was not one Langdon wanted to repeat. He had been anticipating a certain feeling of security in the popular tourist destination, but Langdon's recollections of bustling throngs in a well-lit abbey had been formed during the peak summer tourist season. Today was a rainy April morning. Rather than crowds and shimmering stained glass, all Langdon saw was acres of desolate floor and shadowy, empty alcoves. â€Å"We passed through metal detectors,† Sophie reminded, apparently sensing Langdon's apprehension. â€Å"If anyone is in here, they can't be armed.† Langdon nodded but still felt circumspect. He had wanted to bring the London police with them, but Sophie's fears of who might be involved put a damper on any contact with the authorities. We need to recover the cryptex, Sophie had insisted. It is the key to everything. She was right, of course. The key to getting Leigh back alive. The key to finding the Holy Grail. The key to learning who is behind this. Unfortunately, their only chance to recover the keystone seemed to be here and now†¦ at the tomb of Isaac Newton. Whoever held the cryptex would have to pay a visit to the tomb to decipher the final clue, and if they had not already come and gone, Sophie and Langdon intended to intercept them. Striding toward the left wall to get out of the open, they moved into an obscure side aisle behind a row of pilasters. Langdon couldn't shake the image of Leigh Teabing being held captive, probably tied up in the back of his own limousine. Whoever had ordered the top Priory members killed would not hesitate to eliminate others who stood in the way. It seemed a cruel irony that Teabing – a modern British knight – was a hostage in the search for his own countryman, Sir Isaac Newton. â€Å"Which way is it?† Sophie asked, looking around. The tomb.Langdon had no idea. â€Å"We should find a docent and ask.† Langdon knew better than to wander aimlessly in here. Westminster Abbey was a tangled warren of mausoleums, perimeter chambers, and walk-in burial niches. Like the Louvre's Grand Gallery, it had a lone point of entry – the door through which they had just passed – easy to find your way in, but impossible to find your way out. A literal tourist trap, one of Langdon's befuddled colleagues had called it. Keeping architectural tradition, the abbey was laid out in the shape of a giant crucifix. Unlike most churches, however, it had its entrance on the side, rather than the standard rear of the church via the narthex at the bottom of the nave. Moreover, the abbey had a series of sprawling cloisters attached. One false step through the wrong archway, and a visitor was lost in a labyrinth of outdoor passageways surrounded by high walls. â€Å"Docents wear crimson robes,† Langdon said, approaching the center of the church. Peering obliquely across the towering gilded altar to the far end of the south transept, Langdon saw several people crawling on their hands and knees. This prostrate pilgrimage was a common occurrence in Poets' Corner, although it was far less holy than it appeared. Tourists doing grave rubbings. â€Å"I don't see any docents,† Sophie said. â€Å"Maybe we can find the tomb on our own?† Without a word, Langdon led her another few steps to the center of the abbey and pointed to the right. Sophie drew a startled breath as she looked down the length of the abbey's nave, the full magnitude of the building now visible. â€Å"Aah,† she said. â€Å"Let's find a docent.† At that moment, a hundred yards down the nave, out of sight behind the choir screen, the stately tomb of Sir Isaac Newton had a lone visitor. The Teacher had been scrutinizing the monument for ten minutes now. Newton's tomb consisted of a massive black-marble sarcophagus on which reclined the sculpted form of Sir Isaac Newton, wearing classical costume, and leaning proudly against a stack of his own books – Divinity, Chronology, Opticks, and Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. At Newton's feet stood two winged boys holding a scroll. Behind Newton's recumbent body rosean austere pyramid. Although the pyramid itself seemed an oddity, it was the giant shape mounted halfway up the pyramid that most intrigued the Teacher. An orb. The Teacher pondered Sauniere's beguiling riddle. You seek the orb that ought be on his tomb.The massive orb protruding from the face of the pyramid was carved in basso-relievo and depicted allkinds of heavenly bodies – constellations, signs of the zodiac, comets, stars, and planets. Above it, the image of the Goddess of Astronomy beneath a field of stars. Countless orbs. The Teacher had been convinced that once he found the tomb, discerning the missing orb would be easy. Now he was not so sure. He was gazing at a complicated map of the heavens. Was there a missing planet? Had some astronomical orb been omitted from a constellation? He had no idea. Even so, the Teacher could not help but suspect that the solution would be ingeniously clean and simple – â€Å"a knight a pope interred.† What orb am I looking for? Certainly, an advanced knowledge of astrophysics was not a prerequisite for finding the Holy Grail, was it? It speaks of Rosy flesh and seeded womb. The Teacher's concentration was broken by several approaching tourists. He slipped the cryptex back in his pocket and watched warily as the visitors went to a nearby table, left a donation in the cup, and restocked on the complimentary grave-rubbing supplies set out by the abbey. Armed with fresh charcoal pencils and large sheets of heavy paper, they headed off toward the front of the abbey, probably to the popular Poets' Corner to pay their respects to Chaucer, Tennyson, and Dickens by rubbing furiously on their graves. Alone again, he stepped closer to the tomb, scanning it from bottom to top. He began with the clawed feet beneath the sarcophagus, moved upward past Newton, past his books on science, past the two boys with their mathematical scroll, up the face of the pyramid to the giant orb with its constellations, and finally up to the niche's star-filled canopy. What orb ought to be here†¦and yet is missing? He touched the cryptex in his pocket as if he could somehow divine the answer from Sauniere's crafted marble. Only five letters separate me from the Grail. Pacing now near the corner of the choir screen, he took a deep breath and glanced up the long nave toward the main altar in the distance. His gaze dropped from the gilded altar down to the bright crimson robe of an abbey docent who was being waved over by two very familiar individuals. Langdon and Neveu. Calmly, the Teacher moved two steps back behind the choir screen. That was fast.He had anticipated Langdon and Sophie would eventually decipher the poem's meaning and come to Newton's tomb, but this was sooner than he had imagined. Taking a deep breath, the Teacher considered his options. He had grown accustomed to dealing with surprises. I am holding the cryptex. Reaching down to his pocket, he touched the second object that gave him his confidence: the Medusa revolver. As expected, the abbey's metal detectors had blared as the Teacher passed through with the concealed gun. Also as expected, the guards had backed off at once when the Teacher glared indignantly and flashed his identification card. Official rank always commanded the proper respect. Although initially the Teacher had hoped to solve the cryptex alone and avoid any further complications, he now sensed that the arrival of Langdon and Neveu was actually a welcome development. Considering the lack of success he was having with the ‘orb' reference, he might be able to use their expertise. After all, if Langdon had deciphered the poem to find the tomb, there was a reasonable chance he also knew something about the orb. And if Langdon knew the password, then it was just a matter of applying the right pressure. Not here, of course.Somewhere private. The Teacher recalled a small announcement sign he had seen on his way into the abbey. Immediately he knew the perfect place to lure them. The only question now†¦ what to use as bait.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Francisco “Franz” Arcellana Essay

Francisco â€Å"Franz† Arcellana (September 6, 1916 – August 1, 2002) was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher. He was born on September 16, 1916. Arcellana already had ambitions of becoming a writer during his years in the elementary. His actual writing, however, started when he became a member of The Torres Torch Organization during his high school years. Arcellana continued writing in various school papers at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He later on received a Rockfeller Grant and became a fellow in creative writing the University of Iowa and Breadloaf’s writers conference from 1956- 1957. He is considered an important progenitor of the modern Filipino short story in English. Arcellana pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form within Filipino literature. His works are now often taught in tertiary-level-syllabi in the Philippines. Many of his works were translated into Tagalog, Malaysian, Russian, Italian, and German. Arcellana won 2nd place in 1951 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, with his short story, â€Å"The Flowers of May.† 14 of his short stories were also included in Jose Garcia Villa’s Honor Roll from 1928 to 1939. His major achievements included the first award in art criticism from the Art Association of the Philippines in 1954, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila in 1981, and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for English fiction from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipino (UMPIL) in 1988. Francisco Arcellana was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in Literature in 1990. Arcellana is buried at theLibingan ng mga Bayani. Arcellana died in 2002. As a National Artist, he received a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. His grandson Liam Hertzsprung performed a piano concert in 2006 dedicated to him. Arcellana’s published books include: * Selected Stories (1962) * Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1977) * The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990). * Lualhati Torres Bautista Lualhati Torres Bautista (born Manila, Philippines December 2, 1945) is one of the foremost Filipino female novelists in the history of contemporaryPhilippine Literature. Her novels include Dekada ’70, Bata, Bata, Pa’no Ka Ginawa?, and ‘GAPÔ. Bautista was born in Tondo, Manila, Philippines on December 2, 1945 to Esteban Bautista and Gloria Torres. She graduated from Emilio Jacinto Elementary School in 1958, and from Torres High School in 1962. She was a journalism student at the Lyceum of the Philippines, but dropped out even before she finished her freshman year. Despite a lack of formal training, Bautista as the writer became known for her honest realism, courageous exploration of Philippine women’s issues, and her compelling female protagonists, who confront difficult situations at home and in the workplace with uncommon grit and strength. Lualhati garnered several Palanca Awards (1980, 1983 and 1984) for her novels ‘GAPÔ, Dekada ’70 and Bata, Bata†¦ Pa’no Ka Ginawa? exposing injustices and chronicling women activism during the Marcos era. ‘GAPÔ, published in 1980, is the story of a man coming to grips with life as an Amerasian. It is a multi-layered scrutiny of the politics behind US bases in the Philippines, seen from ordinary citizens living in Olongapo City point of view. Dekada ’70 is the story of a family caught in the middle of the tumultuous decade of the 1970s. It details how a middle class family struggled and faced the changes that empowered Filipinos to rise against the Marcos government. These series of events happened after the bombing of Plaza Miranda, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the proclamation of martial law and the random arrests of political prisoners. The oppressive nature of the Marcos regime, which made the people become more radical, and the shaping of the decade were all witnessed by the female protagonist, Amanda Bartolome, a mother of five boys. Bata, Bata†¦ Pa’no Ka Ginawa?, literally, â€Å"Child, Child†¦ How Were You Made?†, narrates the life of Lea, a working mother and a social activist, who has two children. The novel begun with an introductory chapter about the graduation day from kindergarten of Maya, Lea’s daughter. A program and a celebration were held. In the beginning, everything in Lea’s life were going smoothly – her life in connection with her children, with friends of the opposite gender, and with her volunteer work for a human rights organization. But Lea’s children were both growing-up – and Lea could see their gradual transformation. There were the changes in their ways and personalities: Maya’s curiosity was becoming more obvious every day, while Ojie was crossing the boundaries from boyhood to teenage to adulthood. In the end, all three, and especially Lea, have to confront Philippine society’s view of single motherhood; and the novel itself brazens out to the questions of how it is to be a mother, and how a mother executes this role through modern-day concepts of parenthood. Nick Joaquà ­n Nick Joaquà ­n was born in Paco, Manila, one of the ten children of Leocadio, a colonel under General Emilio Aguinaldo in the 1896 Revolution, and Salome Marquez, a teacher of English and Spanish. Being read poems and stories by his mother, Joaquin taught himself by reading widely at the National Library of the Philippines and the library of his father, who by that time was a successful lawyer after the revolution. This developed further his interest in writing. At age 17, Joaquà ­n was first published in the literary section of the Pre-World War II Tribune under writer and editor Serafà ­n Lanot. Before publishing in the Tribune, Joaquin worked as a proofreader of the paper. After winning a Dominican Order-sponsored nationwide essay competition for La Naval de Manila, the University of Santo Tomas awarded Joaquà ­n an honorary Associate in Arts (A.A.) and a scholarship to St. Albert’s Convent, the Dominican monastery in Hong Kong. Upon his return to the Philippines, he joined the Philippines Free Press, starting as a proofreader. Soon, he was noticed for his poems, stories and plays, as well as his journalism under the pen name Quijano de Manila. His journalism was markedly both intellectual and provocative, an unknown genre in the Philippines at that time, raising the level of reportage in the country. Joaquà ­n deeply admired Josà © Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Joaquà ­n paid tribute to Rizal by way of books such as The Storyteller’s New Medium – Rizal in Saga, The Complete Poems and Plays of Jose Rizal, and A Question of Heroes: Essays in Criticism on Ten Key Figures of Philippine History. He also translated the hero’s valedictory poem, in the original Spanish â€Å"Mi Ultimo Adios,† as â€Å"Land That I Love, Farewell!† Joaquà ­n served as a member of Motion Pictures under President Diosdado Macapagal and President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Joaquin’s first move as National Artist was to secure the release of imprisoned writer Josà © F. Lacaba. Later, at a ceremony on Mount Makiling attended by First Lady Imelda Marcos, Joaquà ­n delivered an invocation to Mariang Makiling, the mountain’s mythical maiden. Joaquà ­n touched on the importance of freedom and the artist. As a result, for the remainder of the Marcos regime, Joaquà ­n no longer received invitations to address important cultural events. LUALHATI BAUTISTA Lualhati Bautista is one of the foremost Filipino female novelists in the history of contemporary Philippine Literature. Her novels include, â€Å"Dekada ’70 (Decade ’70)†, â€Å"Bata, Bata, Pa’no Ka Ginawa? (Child, Child†¦ How were you made?†, and â€Å"‘GAPÔ (short name for Olongapo, Philippines)†. In addition to being a novelist, Lualhati Bautista is also a movie and television screenwriter and a short story writer. Her first screenplay was Sakada (Seasonal Sugarcane Workers), a story written in 1975 that exposed the plight of Filipino peasants. Bautista has received recognition from the Philippines’ Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa in 1987. Her award-winning screenplays include Bulaklak sa City Jail (A Flower in City Jail) (1984), Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap (If The Clouds are Parted) (1984), Sex Object (1985). For screenplay writing, she has received recognition from the Metro Manila Film Festival (best story-best screenplay), Film Academy Awards (best story-best screenplay), Star Awards (best screenplay), FAMAS (finalist for best screenplay), and URIAN awards. Two of her short stories have also won the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Tatlong Kuwento ng Buhay ni Julian Candelabra (Three Stories in the Life of Julian Candelabra), first prize, 1982; and Buwan, Buwan, Hulugan mo Ako ng Sundang (Moon, Moon, Drop Me a Sword), third prize, 1983. Bautista also authored the television dramas Daga sa Timba ng Tubig (The Mouse in the Bucket of Water) (1975) and Isang Kabanata sa Libro ng Buhay ni Leilani Cruzaldo (A Chapter in the Book of Life of Leilani Cruzaldo) (1987). The latter won best drama story for television from the Catholic Mass Media Awards. Bautista was honored by the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings on March 10, 2004 during the 8th Annual Lecture on Vernacular Literature by Women. In 2005, the Feminist Centennial Film Festival presented her with a recognition award for her outstanding achievement in screenplay writing. In 2006, she was recipient of the Diwata Award for best writer by the 16th International Women’s Film Festival of the UP Film Center. She is also the only Filipino included in a book on foremost International Women Writers published in Japan, 1991. Francisco Baltazar, known much more widely through his nom-de-plume Francisco Balagtas, was a prominent Filipino poet, and is widely considered as the Tagalog equivalent of William Shakespeare for his impact on Filipino literature. The famous epic, Florante at Laura, is regarded as his defining work. Balagtas learned to write poetry from Josà © de la Cruz (Huseng Sisiw), one of the most famous poets of Tondo. It was de la Cruz himself who personally challenged Balagtas to improve his writing. (source: Talambuhay ng mga Bayani, for Grade 5 textbook) In 1835, Balagtas moved to Pandacan, where he met Marà ­a Asuncià ³n Rivera, who would effectively serve as the muse for his future works. She is referenced in Florante at Laura as ‘Celia’ and ‘MAR’. Balagtas’ affections for Celia were challenged by the influential Mariano Capule. Capule won the battle for Celia when he used his wealth to get Balagtas imprisoned under the accusation that he ordered a servant girl’s head be shaved. It was here that he wrote Florante at Laura—In fact, the events of this poem were meant to parallel his own situation. He wrote his poems in Tagalog, during an age when Filipino writing was predominantly written in Spanish. Balagtas published Florante at Laura upon his release in 1838. He moved to Balanga, Bataan in 1840 where he served as the assistant to the Justice of peace and later, in 1856, as the Major Lieutenant. He was also appointed as the translator of the court. Balagtas is so greatly revered in the Philippines that the term for Filipino debate in extemporaneous verse is named for him: balagtasan. Jose Garcia Villa Jose Garcia Villa (5 August 1908 – 12 June 1973) is a Filipino poet and a National Artist for Literature. He is known for introducing the â€Å"reversed consonance rime scheme,† as well as for â€Å"comma poems† that made full use of the punctuation mark in an innovative way. Villa is also a short story writer, critic, and painter. Villa was born in Singalong, Manila on 5 August 1908. He is the son of Simeon Villa, who was Emilio Aguinaldo’s physician, and Guia Garcia. Villa went to the University of the Philippines High School. He studied pre-medicine at the University of the Philippines but did not finish the course. He decided to take pre-law, but did not finish it either. Instead, he devoted a good part of his college time writing short stories and poems.In 1930, he won the Philippines Free Press literary contest for his short story entitled â€Å"Mir-i-nisa† and used the prize money to go to the United States. He studied at the University of New Mexico, and later at Columbia University. He taught poetry at the City College of New York from 1964 until 1973. He also worked in the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 1954 to 1963 and became the vice consul in 1965. After retiring in 1973, he continued to conduct poetry workshops in his apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City. Francisco Sionil Jose He has been called a Philippine national treasure. Born on December 4, 1924 in Rosales, Philippines, he was introduced to literature in public school and later at the University of Santo Tomas. While working as a journalist in Manila, he moonlighted writing short stories and eventually novels. In the late fifties Jose founded the Philippine branch of PEN, an international organization of poets, playwrights, and novelists. In 1965 he started his own publishing house SOLIDARIDAD, and a year later he began publishing the remarkable Solidarity, a journal of current affairs, ideas, and arts, still going strong today. Jose wrote in English rather than in his national language Tagalog, or his native language Illocano. In 1962 he published his first novel The Pretenders. Today his publications include ten novels, five books of short stories, and a book of verse. His works are available in 24 languages and some have recently been published in North America by Random House. He has been awarded numerous fellowships and awards, most notable being the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the most prestigious award of its kind in Asia. Gilda Cordero-Fernando Gilda Cordero-Fernando is a multiawarded writer, publisher and cultural icon from the Philippines. She was born in Manila, has a B.A. from St. Theresa’s College-Manila, and an M.A. from theAteneo de Manila University.Gilda Cordero-Fernando was born on June 4, 1932. Cordero-Fernando has two landmark collection of short stories: The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker (1962) and A Wilderness of Sweets (1973). These books have been compiled and reissued later as Story Collection (1994). Another book, Philippine Food and Life, was published in 1992. Together with Alfredo Roces, Cordero-Fernando worked on Filipino Heritage, a 10-volume study on Philippine history and culture published by Lahing Pilipino in 1978. Afterwards, she founded GCF Books which published a dozen titles that deal with various aspects of Philippine culture and society. She received several Carlos Palanca and Philippines Free Press awards for her stories. In 1994, she received a Cultural Center of the Philippines (Gawad CCP) for her lifetime achievements in literature and publishing. Cordero-Fernando has also worn numerous other hats as a visual artist, fashion designer, playwright, art curator and producer. In February 2000, she produced a hugely successful extravaganza entitled Luna: An Aswang Romance†¦.. Linda Ty Casper Linda Ty Casper is a Filipino writer who has published over fifteen books, including the historical novel DreamEden and the political novels Awaiting Trespass, Wings of Stone, A Small Party in a Garden, and Fortress in the Plaza. She has also published three collections of short stories which present a cross-section of Filipino society. In 1992, Tides and Near Occasions of Love won the Philippine PEN short story prize; another at the UNESCO International Writers’ Day, London; and the SEAWrite Award in Bangkok â€Å"Triptych for a Ruined Altar† was in the Roll of Honor of The Best American Short Stories, 1977.[2] Her novel Awaiting Trespass which is about the politically sensitive theme of torture by the Marcos regime was published by Readers International ofLondon. This work gained her major critical attention in the United States for the first time, and in Britain the novel was chosen as one of the five best works of fiction by a woman writer published in 1985-86 Born as Belinda Ty in Malabon, Philippines in 1931. She spent the World War II years with her grandmother while her father worked in the Philippine National Railways, and her mother in the Bureau of Public Schools. Her grandmother told her innumerable of stories about the Filipino’s struggle for independence, that later became the topics of her novels. Linda Ty Casper graduatedvaledictorian in the University of the Philippines, and later earned her Master’s degree in Harvard University for International Law. In 1956, she married Leonard Casper, a professor emeritus of Boston College who is also a critic of Philippine Literature. They have two daughters and reside in Massachusetts. * The Transparent Sun (short stories), Peso Books, 1963 * The Peninsulares (historical novel), Bookmark 1964 * The Secret Runner (short stories), Florentino/National Book, 1974 * The Three-Cornered Sun (historical novel), New Day, 1974 * Dread Empire (novella), Hong Kong, Heinemann, 1980 * Hazards of Distance (novella), New Day, 1981 * Fortress in the Plaza (novella), New Day, 1985 * Awaiting Trespass (novella), London, Readers International, 1985 * Wings of Stone (novella), London, Readers International, 1986 * Ten Thousand Seeds (historical novel), Ateneo, 1987 * A Small Party in a Garden (novella), New Day, 1988 * Common Continent (short stories), Ateneo, 1991 * Kulasyon: Uninterrupted Vigils (collected first chapters), Giraffe, 1995 Cecilia Manguerra Brainard Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is an award-winning author and editor of nineteen books. She co-founded PAWWA or Philippine American Women Writers and Artists; she also founded Philippine American Literary House. Brainard’s works include the World War II novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, and Woman With Horns and other Stories. She edited several anthologies including Fiction by Filipinos in America,Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and two volumes of Growing Up Filipino I and II, books used by educators. Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (born 1947) grew up Cebu City, Philippines, the youngest of four children to Concepcion Cuenco Manguerra and Mariano F. Manguerra. The death of her father when she was nine prompted her to start writing, first in journals, then essays, and fiction. She attended St. Theresa’s College and Maryknoll College in the Philippines; and she did graduate work at UCLA. Brainard has worked with Asian American youths for which she received a Special Recognition Award from the Los Angeles Board of Education. She has also received awards from the California State Senate, 21st District, several USIS Grants, a California Arts Council Fellowship, an Outstanding Individual Award from the City of Cebu, Philippines, Brody Arts Fund Award, a City of Los Angeles Cultural grant, and many more. The books she has written and edited have also won awards, the Gintong Aklat Award and the International Gourmand Award among them. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish. Brainard’s second novel, Magdalena inspired the playwright Jocelyn Deona de Leon to write a stage play, Gabriela’s Monologue, which was produced in 2011 by the Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco as part of Stories XII! annual production showcasing original works for the stage by Pilipino/Filipino American Artists. Brainard’s writings can be found in periodicals such as Town and Country, Zee Lifestyle Magazine, Focus Philippines, Philippine Graphic, Amerasia Journal, Bamboo Ridge among others. Her stories have been anthologized in books such as Making Waves (1989), Songs of Ourselves (1994), On a Bed of Rice (1995), â€Å"Pinay: Autobiographical Narratives by Women Writers, 1926-1998† (Ateneo 2000), â€Å"Asian American Literature† Alejandro Reyes Roces Alejandro Reyes Roces (13 July 1924 – 23 May 2011) was a Filipino author, essayist, dramatist and a National Artist of the Philippines for literature. He served as Secretary of Education from 1961 to 1965, during the term of Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal. Noted for his short stories, the Manila-born Roces was married to Irene Yorston Viola (granddaughter of Maximo Viola), with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth Roces-Pedrosa. Anding attended elementary and high school at the Ateneo de Manila University, before moving to the Arizona State University for his tertiary education. He graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts and, not long after, attained his M.A. from Far Eastern Universityback in the Philippines. He has since received honorary doctorates from Tokyo University, Baguio’s St. Louis University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and the Ateneo de Manila University. Roces was a captain in the Marking’s Guerilla during World War II and a columnist in Philippine dailies such as the Manila Chronicle and the Manila Times. He was previously President of the Manila Bulletin and of the CAP College Foundation. In 2001, Roces was appointed as Chairman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). Roces also became a member of the Board of Trustees of GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) and maintained a column in the Philippine Star called Roses and Thorns. During his freshman year in the University of Arizona, Roces won Best Short Story for We Filipinos are Mild Drinkers. Another of his stories, My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken, was listed as Martha Foley’s Best American Stories among the most distinctive for years 1948 and 1951. Roces did not only focus on short stories alone, as he also published books such as Of Cocks and Kites (1959), Fiesta (1980), and Something to Crow About (2005). Of Cocks and Kites earned him the reputation as the country’s best writer of humorous stories. It also contained the widely anthologized piece â€Å"My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken†. Fiesta, is a book of essays, featuring folk festivals such as Ermita’s Bota Flores, Aklan’s Ati-atihan, and Naga’s Peà ±afrancia. Something to Crow About, on the other hand, is a collection of Roces’ short stories. The book has been recently brought to life by a critically acclaimed play of the same title; the staged version of Something to Crow About is the first Filipino zarzuela in English. This modern zarzuela tells the story of a poor cockfighter named Kiko who, to his wife’s chagrin, pays more attention to the roosters than to her. Later in the story, a conflict ensues between Kiko’s brother Leandro and Golem, the son of a wealthy and powerful man, over the affections of a beautiful woman named Luningning. The resolution? A cockfight, of course. Something to Crow About won the Aliw Award for Best Musical and Best Director for a Musical Production. It also had a run off-Broadway at the La Mama Theater in New York. Through the years, Roces has won numerous awards, including the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award, the Diwa ng Lahi Award, the Tanging Parangal of the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining, and the Rizal Pro Patria Award. He was finally bestowed the honor as National Artist of Literature on the 25th of June 2003. When once asked for a piece of advice on becoming a famous literary figure Roces said, â€Å"You cannot be a great writer; first, you have to be a good person†.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

British tourists Essay Example

British tourists Essay Example British tourists Essay British tourists Essay Considering the reports detailed above there seems little indication that matters will improve in either the immediate or relatively long term future. Because of its geographical position between Europe, the Near East and Africa Cyprus has always been and will always be in the midst of some very diverse influences, from those of the ancient Phoenicians and Assyrians onwards. Nowadays these influences are in the main those of Greece and Turkey and so of orthodox Christianity and Islam, but also of different political systems, in particular in the new 21st century this includes both the United Nations and the European community.The occupants of the island have adapted and co-operated with various external forces in the past and, if they wish to live at peace, and at the same time retain their own cultural identity as Cypriots, whether of Greek or Turkish origin and at the same time achieve economic success then some compromises must be made. It seems obvious perhaps to those not closely involved that there ought to be an end to the present divide if the island is to achieve its greatest potential.The Turkish Cypriot parliament is now long established. Surely it is time that this fact were officially recognized, both by islanders on both sides and by concerned outsiders such as the European Parliament. This would then at least enable both sides to communicate and cooperate as the equals they ought to be. The difficulty seems to be in convincing the islanders, and perhaps particularly the Greek Cypriot members of the community of this truth.As well as arable products such as citrus fruits of various kinds, vegetables, barley, grapes, olives, and olive oil and poultry, pork, lamb and dairy products such as cheese covering. Farming such products takes only about 11% of the island however as much of it is mountainous and of course there are large urban settlements, especially near the coasts. There is also tourism, and the sale of homes to retired people from other countries, as the island has a year round pleasant climate.This is one aspect that is negatively affected by the current situation and the occasional flare ups of violence. Few will want to invest in a place which is likely to become the center of conflict. On April 12th 2009 however the only aggressive behavior reported by the Cyprus News was the action of time-share touts who resort to hassling guests and tourists, even inside high class hotels along the Paphos waterfront , so desperate are they to ensure new business.They are venturing into the hotels and harassing guests, it’s become out of hand, according to Nassos Hadjigeorgiou, tourist manager for the island’s Paphos regional board of tourism. So bad is the harassment that some visitors have left and vowed not to return according to the report in the Cyprus News. Tourism is important to the island economy and ought to be encouraged. The problem is not with either tourism or the time share industry, but with the ways in which they are being promoted.So serious is the situation, even this early in the year that an emergency meeting for discussion of the situation was held at Paphos Town hall. As well as Mr Hadjigeorgiou, also in attendance were Themis Philipides, President of the Paphos branch of the Cyprus Hotels Association, also the assistant Divisional Police Commander, the town’s mayor and members of other concerned official bodies. It was reported that all the companies involved, who had already been asked to cease this aggressive means of trying to gain business, were British owned and aimed their methods at British tourists.Because of the general financial downturn this target audience was less likely than in earlier times to have the financial means to take up offers or were reluctant to do so and the salesmen were getting increasingly desperate for sales. Visitors are being advised to report any incidents to the local police. As well as visitors with their money to spend there are also a variety of natural resources as listed in the CIA World Factbook Cypriot page.Copper, pyrites, asbestos, gypsum, timber, salt, marble, clay earth pigment’, some of these having been exploited since the earliest times – Cyprus taking its name from Copper, but nowadays known locally as Kypriaki Dimokratia or Kibris Cumhuriyeti. Industrial products include food and beverage processing, the production of cement and gypsum, the refurbishment and repair of ships in coastal towns, but also the creation of textiles, as well as light chemicals and metal products together with clay products, wood, paper and stone although 71% of the employed population work in service industries.A portion of these industries and resources are of course in the north and so are unable to be traded at their full potential as the area’s government is not offici ally recognized by the European Union, even though a group of members of the European Parliament are in negotiation with the leadership there, but meanwhile the two sides do not even share national holidays Independence Day, 1 October ( 1960) is celebrated by Greek Cypriots but Turkish Cypriots in the north hold to 15 November (1983) as their Independence Day

Monday, October 21, 2019

Timeline of the Ancient Maya

Timeline of the Ancient Maya The Maya were an advanced Mesoamerican civilization living in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and northern Honduras. Unlike the Inca or the Aztecs, the Maya were not one unified empire, but rather a series of powerful city-states that often allied with or warred upon one another. Maya civilization peaked around 800 A.D. or so before falling into decline. By the time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century, the Maya were rebuilding, with powerful city-states rising once again, but the Spanish defeated them. The descendants of the Maya still live in the region and many of them continue to practice cultural traditions such as language, dress, cuisine, and religion. The Maya Preclassic Period (1800–300 BCE) People first arrived in Mexico and Central America millennia ago, living as hunter-gatherers in the rain forests and volcanic hills of the region. They first began developing cultural characteristics associated with the Maya civilization around 1800 BCE on Guatemalas western coast. By 1000 BCE the Maya had spread throughout the lowland forests of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. The Maya of the Preclassic period lived in small villages in basic homes and dedicated themselves to subsistence agriculture. The major cities of the Maya, such as Palenque, Tikal, and Copn, were established during this time and began to prosper. Basic trade was developed, linking the city-states and facilitating cultural exchange. The Late Preclassic Period (300 BCE–300 CE) The late Maya Preclassic Period lasted roughly from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. and is marked by developments in Maya culture. Great temples were constructed: their facades were decorated with stucco sculptures and paint. Long-distance trade flourished, particularly for luxury items such as jade and obsidian. Royal tombs dating from this time are more elaborate than those from the early and middle Preclassic periods and often contained offerings and treasures. The Early Classic Period (300 CE–600 CE) The Classic Period is considered to have begun when the Maya began carving ornate, beautiful stelae (stylized statues of leaders and rulers) with dates given in the Maya long count calendar. The earliest date on a Maya stela is 292 CE (at Tikal) and the latest is 909 CE (at Tonina). During the early Classic Period (300–600 CE), the Maya continued developing many of their most important intellectual pursuits, such as astronomy, mathematics, and architecture. During this time, the city of Teotihuacn, located near Mexico City, exerted a great influence on the Maya city-states, as is shown by the presence of pottery and architecture done in the Teotihuacn style. The Late Classic Period (600–900) The Maya late Classic Period marks the high point of Maya culture. Powerful city-states like Tikal and Calakmul dominated the regions around them and art, culture and religion reached their peaks. The city-states warred, allied with, and traded with one another. There may have been as many as 80 Maya city-states during this time. The cities were ruled by an elite ruling class and priests who claimed to be directly descended from the Sin, Moon, stars, and planets. The cities held more people than they could support, so trade for food, as well as luxury items, was brisk. The ceremonial ball game was a feature of all Maya cities. The Postclassic Period (800–1546) Between 800 and 900 A.D., the major cities in the southern Maya region all fell into decline and were mostly or completely abandoned. There are several theories as to why this occurred: historians tend to believe that it was excessive warfare, overpopulation, an ecological disaster or a combination of these factors that brought down the Maya civilization. In the north, however, cities like Uxmal and Chichen Itza prospered and developed. War was still a persistent problem: many of the Maya cities from this time were fortified. Sacbes, or Maya highways, were constructed and maintained, indicating that trade continued to be important. Maya culture continued: all four of the surviving Maya codices were produced during the Postclassic period. The Spanish Conquest (ca. 1546) By the time the Aztec Empire rose in Central Mexico, the Maya were rebuilding their civilization. The city of Mayapan in Yucatn became an important city, and cities and settlements on the eastern coast of the Yucatn prospered. In Guatemala, ethnic groups such as the Quichà © and Cachiquels once again built cities and engaged in trade and warfare. These groups came under the control of the Aztecs as a sort of vassal states. When Hernn Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521, he learned of the existence of these powerful cultures to the far south and he sent his most ruthless lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, to investigate and conquer them. Alvarado did so, subduing one city-state after another, playing on regional rivalries just as Cortes had done. At the same time, European diseases such as measles and smallpox decimated the Maya population. Colonial and Republican Eras The Spanish essentially enslaved the Maya, dividing their lands up among the conquistadors and bureaucrats who came to rule in the Americas. The Maya suffered greatly in spite of the efforts of some enlightened men like Bartolomà © de Las Casas who argued for their rights in Spanish courts. The native people of southern Mexico and northern Central America were reluctant subjects of the Spanish Empire and bloody rebellions were common. With Independence coming in the early nineteenth century, the situation of the average indigenous native of the region changed little. They were still repressed and still chafed at it: when the Mexican-American War broke out (1846–1848) ethnic Maya in Yucatn took up arms, kicking off the bloody Caste War of Yucatan in which hundreds of thousands were killed. The Maya Today Today, the descendants of the Maya still live in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and northern Honduras. Many continue to hold to their traditions, such as speaking their native languages, wearing traditional clothes and practicing indigenous forms of the religion. In recent years, they have won more freedoms, such as the right to practice their religion openly. They are also learning to cash in on their culture, selling handicrafts at native markets and promoting tourism to their regions: with this newfound wealth from tourism is coming political power. The most famous Maya today is probably the Quichà © Indian Rigoberta Menchà º, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. She is a well-known activist for native rights and occasional presidential candidate in her native Guatemala. Interest in Maya culture was at an all-time high in 2010, as the Maya calendar was set to reset in 2012, prompting many to speculate about the end of the world. Sources Aldana y Villalobos, Gerardo and Edwin L. Barnhart (eds.) Archaeoastronomy and the Maya. Eds. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2014. Martin, Simon, and Nicolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. London: Thames and Hudson, 2008. McKillop, Heather. The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. Reprint edition, W. W. Norton Company, July 17, 2006. Sharer, Robert J. The Ancient Maya. 6th ed. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2006.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

What Should You Do If You Have a B Average GPA

What Should You Do If You Have a B Average GPA SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips It's important to be aware of the constraints your grades in high school might place on you in the college application process. If you have a B average, you're doing fairly well, but you might consider making some changes to your academic strategies to have a better shot at reaching your goals. In this article, I'll go over what a B average is and what you should do if you have one depending on where you are in your high school career. What Is a B Average, and Can It Get You into College? A B average corresponds to a 3.0 GPA, which is about average for a high school student.Keep in mind that this is the average for ALL high school students, not just students who plan on attending college.Measured against other students who are applying to college, a 3.0 GPA is lower than average.According to our database, only 21.3 percent of colleges have average GPAs for admitted students that are lower than a 3.0. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have trouble finding a school that will accept you, but it does mean you’ll have to target less selective options.If you’re hoping to get into a competitive college program, you may want to work on improving your GPA.I’ll go over some strategies for this in the next section. How Can You Improve Your Chances of College Admission If You Have a B Average? If you’re still a freshman or sophomore, you have time to raise your GPA, so you should think about adopting better study habits if you want to attend a more selective college.If you’re a junior or senior, you don’t have much time to improve your grades.In this case, focus on other aspects of your college application like standardized test scores.Here’s some advice for each of these scenarios: If You Have Time to Raise Your Grades: Study Smarter Using effective study strategies is critical for improving your grades.Tests are stressful, and if you aren’t totally comfortable with the material you might get anxious and end up with a grade that doesn't reflect your true abilities.The best way to avoid this is to spread out your studying over a longer period of time so that you can fully absorb the information. The goal is for the material to be embedded deeply in your mind rather than floating perilously on the edge of your memory (which is what happens when you cram!).Try studying for an hour every night during the week before a test rather than studying for five hours the night before.You should also make sure you’re getting the most out of your study sessions, which means enlisting someone else to quiz you after you've reviewed everything on your own. As someone with a B average, you're already doing something right with your study strategies. You probably know most of the material fairly well before each test, but you're not pushing yourself to the point of complete understanding. In order to take your grades from good to great, you will have to be vigilant about filling small gaps in your knowledge. The difference between a B and an A is your performance on the most complex aspects of a test or assignment. You may need to add an extra hour or two to your studying to give yourself enough time to reach that higher level. And if you need to eat some ice cream to get through the extra studying, so be it. Avoid Procrastination If you’re working on raising your grades, procrastination is the enemy.Waiting until the last minute to complete assignments means that you don't have time to edit or polish your work, and you’ll probably turn in a final product that doesn't accuratelyreflect your abilities. I’d recommend making a timeline with checkpoints for completing portions of long term projects to keep yourself on schedule.Try to finish all the most labor-intensive parts of a project a week before it’s due so that you have a significant amount of time to reassess your work and see if you need to make any adjustments. Don't forget to read directions carefully, and be sure to include everything you need to earn the most credit (and extra credit if available!). This final effort is often the difference between B-quality work and A-quality work. Step Up in Class This is the one of the most fundamental tips I can give you. Makea point of paying attention in class and asking and answering questions whenever possible.This will help to reinforce your knowledge of the subject and make studying much less of a pain. If you pay close attention in class, you will already have a better understanding of the material that’s on your next test.When you study, you’ll be starting from a more informed position, and the whole process will be less stressful.Some things that you thought you had to study might already be ingrained in your memory because you were listening when your teacher went over them in class. If you're already someone who pays attention and participates in class, which many B students are, you might think about taking this a step further. It can be really helpful to start taking detailed notes in your classes, especially in subjects where there's a lot of information to remember. If you take notes, you'll get dual reinforcement of the information from both auditory and visual sources. This might be the extra push you need to get the most out of your time in class, especially if you're more of a visual learner. If you can raise your GPA to a 3.2 (which is a very manageable goal!), you will be a competitive applicant at more than double the number of schools you were competitive for at a 3.0.On the flip side, if you let your grades slip and end up with a 2.8 GPA, you will be competitive for less than half the number of schools than with a 3.0. Don’t let that happen! Don't freeze on me now... If You Don’t Have Time to Raise Your Grades: Study for the SAT and ACT Standardized test scores contribute strongly to your chances of admission at most colleges.In many cases, they are nearly as important as your GPA.If it’s too late in the game for you to improve your grades, raising your standardized test scores is the best way to impress colleges.Check out some of our other articles for advice on how to formulate a study plan and improve your scores significantly before the next test date. Plan Out Your Application Essays Another way to improve your chances of admission is to make sure that your collegeessays are well-thought-out and meaningful.I would recommend that you start planning your essays well in advance if possible, ideally at the beginning of the summer before senior year. This will give you more time to brainstorm what makes you unique and how you’ll contribute positively to a college community. Colleges are looking for students who are passionate about academic subjects and extracurricular activities. If you have a special perspective that you can offer on something that’s important to you, make sure you showcase it in your essay. It would be cool if you could just set up an adorably quaint workspace like this and your essay would write itself. What Other Options Do You Have for College With a B Average? If you know that it’s too late to do much to improve your grades before you apply to college, you have a few options.A 3.0 GPA means that you'll be a competitive applicant at many colleges, though you may have to lower your expectations to accommodate less selective institutions.See our information page onwhat colleges you can get into with a 3.0 GPAfor a better idea of where you stand. College is definitely within reach, so you shouldn't worry about being universally rejected if you choose your schools responsibly. Another option that many students don’t think about is going to a community college for a year and then transferring out to a more selective institution.Your grades are high enough to get into a regular four-year college, but you could potentially earn a degree from an even better school and graduate with less debt if you go the community college route initially.If you get good grades during your time in community college, youcouldleverage them into a transfer spot at a more competitive school.This strategy will benefit both your wallet and your ultimate job prospects if you’re willing to put in the hard work during your first year of college and take initiative in the transfer application process. You'll save a whole suitcase of money if you go to community college for a year. Probably. It depends on the denominations. Conclusion If you have a B average in high school, you'll be able to get into a number of less selective institutions. However,if you want to improve your chances of admission at competitive schools, you should work on raising your GPA. If it’s too late for you to make changes to your GPA, work on raising your standardized test scores and crafting a great application essay instead.You might consider going to community college for a year and then transferring to a more selective school to finish up your degree, but you can also apply to less selective four-year colleges. If you’re still a freshman or sophomore, keep working hard to improve your grades!Even a small improvement can make a big difference in the college admissions process. The wider your range of college options, the more likely it is that you’ll find a school that’s perfect for you. What's Next? Check out our list ofawesome colleges for B students. Still working on choosing your classes for the upcoming year or semester? Read our expert guide on which classes you should take in high school. Have there been significant changes in your grades from year to year? Find out which year of high school is most important when it comes to college applications. What do colleges actually look at when it comes to your GPA? Read this article to learn more about weighted and unweighted GPAs in the college application process. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Globilzation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Globilzation - Essay Example Thus economic forces enabled international marketing to get energized and, which in turn, set in the challenging assignment of making commercial sense out of cultures to which wares were marketed. Devetak and Higgott explain how globalization has brought about a weakening of an intra national social bond. They further posit that ongoing process of globalization causes constant disruption in existing social bond. It is their view that "under conditions of globalization, assumptions made about the social bond are changing; .... the article concludes that the prospects for a satisfactory synthesis of a liberal economic theory of globalization, a normative political theory of the global public domain, and a new social bond are remote"(Devetak & Higgott 1999). Again, in a slightly different context, Phillip W.Jones makes a statement which is extremely relevant to the definition of globalization in present context. Jones states that," The logic of globalization contrasts markedly with that of internationalism. The latter, with its intrinsically democratic foundation, looks to a world ordered by structures supportive of that functionalism which is embedded in accountability. Globalization, by contrast, implies few logical imperatives in favor of accountability, but rather looks to the pursuit of interest on the global level through the operation of unfettered capitalism"(Jones,1998).According to Jones view international marketing efforts in new cultural milieu would fall in the category of 'globalization' as defined by him. However multinational corporations take a broader view of their international marketing efforts and venture in new international markets only after completing a thorough study of local cultures. New technological develop ments, improvements in communication, growth in transnational infrastructure and liberalizing of trade and capital flows have enabled entrepreneurs the globe over to deploy and run their capitals chasing markets the globe over. The globalization aligned attitudes of IMF and World Bank are exemplified with clarity by Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, when he says that," The key aim of today's policy makers has not changed compared to those at the Bretton Woods times - it has been, and still is, global prosperity and stability - but the environment in which we are acting has changed profoundly......Today we are striving for stability of the international financial system in a world of free capital flows with a growing importance of private flows and increasing trade and financial integration"(Trichet, 2004).As Roby says," world-wide output and trade have grown apace with market openings and the rise of efficient global business networks these past 15 years. An entrepreneurial class is energizing once-stagnant command economies" (Roby, 2005). It is at once apparent that this 'entrepreneurial class' is essentially limited in number the globe over and its population effectively determines the contours of globalization. Washington Consensus John Williamson, the person responsible for the phrase Washington Consens

Friday, October 18, 2019

Disscussion Question 1 Week 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Disscussion Question 1 Week 3 - Assignment Example From the funding, small businesses are able to increase their performance and operations width. In the current economy, it would be risky to expand operations in a business without proper funding (Bruchey, 2003). The funding gives small businesses the confidence they need to venture into high rewarding business ventures. Apart from the financial offering help, the SBA has much greater significant. The body offers business resources which are at the disposal of the small businesses. Additionally, the body plays the advocate for businesses in the government. The body also develops programs which are of great help to small businesses and offer direct loans (Bruchey, 2003). As a small business owner I would request for the help of the SBA. Firstly, I have to generate a business plan with future prospects of profit making. It would be advisable to ask for a suitable financial program and plan before asking for financial assistance. With an advised operating and financial program I would then request for a loan to foresee the drafted financial program by the

Fast Food Rulers in China Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fast Food Rulers in China - Research Paper Example KFC offered food items common in most Chinese restaurants ( Lroche, Kalamas &Huang, 2005). This strategic approach depicts KFC as part of the Chinese community rather than a fast food joint selling low priced westernized food. The company capitalized on small Chinese cities and the establishment of a national business with food joints spread across the country. As a result, the company cut down some of it cost due to economies of scale and distribution of risk. KFC engaged the services of Chinese hotel managers to provide advice on the food tastes. It also established partnership with local food chains and employed more Chinese to operate its emerging branches. So far, the company commands 40% stake in Chinese fast food market with 3300 food outlets in the 650 cities in China. In 1999, KFC developed a distribution chain by building warehouses and managing a fleet of distribution trucks. The trucks were fitted with refrigerators that ensured the foodstuff remain fresh while transporting them from the farm to the restaurants. Though it was an expensive affair, it was vital for the company’s rapid expansion to other cities (Schroder & McEacher, 2005) On the other hand, McDonalds a key rival of KFC holds a 16% stake in the Chinese fast food market. Its approach was far different from it competitor. It chose to stick to its core strategy adopted in the US market. MacDonald menu had no additional dishes that matched the local taste. The layouts of MacDonald’s food outlet depicted a westernized culture. Its target market was the stylish wealthy status-conscious Chinese that sought to imitate the American lifestyle. The McDonald now boasts of 2000 outlets spread across the Chinese cities. It emerged as a global leader in the fast food industry, based on sales, market capitalization, number of employees and revenues (Shen & Xiao, 2014). Its success is attributable to the quality standards the company has maintained globally