Random Articles

Teacher By Day, Teacher By Night

2011-01-10T03:13:00.000-08:00

I remember well the times when I was a child and I would take part in the nativity play. I will always remember watching myself as one of the wise men trying to remember the speaking lines and singing a number of Christmas carols in the church across the road. Even now I can not begin to think how stressful it would be for the teacher. Miss Kerry Hardman looks surprisingly relaxed for a teacher who normally looks like she just needs a rest. “Christmas may be a really busy time of the year, but it’s also really exciting. I think some of the excitement from the children at Christmas has rubbed off onto me”.

This picture shows Kerry relaxed after a hard days work.

Kerry is smiling as she finally makes her self comfortable and sits down. I knew that with it being near to Christmas she would have lots of work to do so I felt that it was best to organise the quietest time for her. As I prepare the questions, I can sense that she is feeling nervous about what questions I may be about to ask her.

I start the interview by asking her how her day has gone. “ It’s brilliant being in school before Christmas”. She also adds “You start to really get into the Christmas spirit around October where you have Christmas rehearsals, party days, and other Christmas activities” although she does say that while doing this it is very hard to “try and keep on timetable as much as possible”. I now want to ask the most important question. What made her go into the teaching profession. It could be many different reasons but she tells me “I always wanted to be a teacher since I was 12”. She also explained that it is the chance to help the children to learn the relevant skills needed to push them forward when they move onto further education. This seems like a fair point. So what are these key skills you may be asking? Maybe you have already guessed. They are of course “reading, writing, numeracy, socialising and gaining their independence”. So surely every child deserves a chance to be pushed to their full potential. Lets be honest It is only at this age that you can help change the childs future. If they are not given the support or guidance then they will turn their backs on the education system.

“I think some of the excitement from the children at Christmas has rubbed off onto me”

Kerry then went on to say that she was prepared when it came to choosing a University that suited he ambition. St Alfred College (Also known as Winchester University), where she studied hard for four years and was finally awarded with a BA (Bachelor of Art) honours in education with a QTS (Qualified teacher status) in English which was her specialised subject. Whilst at Winchester She says “I had to do teaching placements every year”. This is surely a good thing as it helps the student gain as much experience of what it is like to be a teacher. This does make me think that this would be great idea for other subjects to have work placements involved as well.

I then go onto asking whether she went straight into teaching. She tells me “I joined Supply and demand in order to get to know the schools in the area better”. She adds that “working in different schools was really tough”. Although this is a great opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t so that you can learn how to improve as a teacher.

“We strive for inclusive learning environment for all”.

I feel it may be best to move onto current work and so I ask Kerry about her first proper teaching post. She tells me that she was put forward by ‘Supply and Demand’ who felt that she was a ‘suitable’ candidate for the vacancy. That was just a placement filling in for teacher off with sickness. She then was hired as a teacher in school in Poole. This was her first ever permanent teaching post. She has been teaching Year 2 class for the last four years. She tells me that she ‘loves’ this year group because you can see ‘real growth with the children Academically and Independently.’. I then decide to ask her whether she would like to change year groups. Kerry replies “Year Three would be interesting and so would Year one but nothing lower”. It must be the idea of working with children to young to talk and hold conversation that must put her off.

This is a picture of Kerry working at school.

I decide to move away from asking about her opinion and look to what does a day in the life of a teacher involve. If like me, you can’t really remember much of what you learnt when you were in Year 2 then this may jog your memories. The day starts at 8am. This then moves onto the job of the teacher which includes using resources, writing assessments and being organised throughout the day. The morning involve learning core subjects like English and Maths and visits to the library. While in the afternoon the focus is on other topics like R.E and PE. Then after school is time for the teacher to have ‘non contact time’ to get on with the work load.

Kerry also believes that the children enjoy learning and states that they follow the code “We strive for inclusive learning environment for all”. This may be something to keep with her when she decides to push on in the next ten years where she says she would love to be year leader or mentoring skit students (teaching course).

I decide to wrap it all up by asking one last question. What advice would you give to young people wishing to become teachers. She tells me that they should “ be prepared” and that “the children only have one opportunity to learn so only do it if your hearts in it”. I wish her good luck with the rest of the Christmas activities and hopefully the children will enjoy their time before Christmas at school as well.

1,025 Word Count

http://www.learndirect.co.uk/
http://www.supplyanddemand.org.uk/
http://www.winchester.ac.uk/research/attheuniversity/Education_Health_Social%20Care/Pages/FacultyofEducation,HealthandSocialCare.aspx

A Day In The Life Of Scenic Bournemouth

2010-10-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

Introduction

The subject I chose for my photo collection was different views of Bournemouth. I decided to mix together scenery from both Hengistbury Head, Christchurch Mudeford, Hurn, Boscombe and Isle Of Wight. These are some of the main places in Bournemouth with connections to the beach and tourism. The pictures are edited to show exactly the main representation of the photo.

First Picture of Boscombe Pier.

Second Photo of Isle Of Wight- The Needles

Third Picture of Christchurch Cathedral

Fourth Photo is of Mudeford Seafood Stall

Fifth Photo is of Hengistbury Head Train (Main feature of Beach area)

Sixth Photo is of Hurn airport at night. (Travelling to or home from Bournemouth)

These photo's make up the tranquil side of Bournemouth away from nightclubs and busy shops and busineses. Bournemouth is well known for being a tourist town and the beaches are the main reason why.

John Keynes has been hailed as both the saviour and destroyer of the capitalist system. Why?

2010-08-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

John Maynard Keynes is well known as a British Economist whose ideas and thoughts helped to shape the economic policies of the British Government from 1939 to 1979. Keynes’ ideas influenced the economy and helped to change the economic recessions and depressions. His thoughts are named as the Keynesian economics and follows the idea that when some micro-economic-level actions are taken collectively by a large proportion of individuals it will lead to insufficient performances in the economy. In other words, the economy operates below its potential output and growth rate. This is often referred to as general glut. Keynes was inspired by the work of Adam Smith (1723-1790) and elaborated on Smith’s theories and ideas on Economics.

Adam Smith was the founder of economics, as we know it today. His thoughts have ultimately helped to shape contemporary ideas relating to the market economy and the role of the state in relation to it. Smith also founded an intellectual framework that explained the free market and laissez-faire. Both of these are connected with the underlying theme of economic growth. Smith's analysis is not confined to showing the interrelation between the different elements of a continually maintained system. It also explains how the system can generate the continual accumulation of wealth. And since, according to Smith, this process is most successful when left to the play of natural forces, his analysis leads him to urge governments to let well alone. There is also the idea of using ‘supply and demand’, which always has to be equal as both are the two sides of the same set of transactions, while discussions of "imbalances" are a muddled and indirect way of referring to price. However, in an unmeasurable qualitative sense, demand for an item such as goods refers to the market pressure from people trying to buy it. They will "bid" money for the item, while in return sellers offer the item for money. When the bid matches the offer, a transaction can easily occur. In reality, most shops and markets do not resemble the stock market, and there are significant costs and barriers to "shopping around”.

Smith is also well known for his expression of ‘The Invisible Hand’, which he used to demonstrate how self-interest guides are the most efficient use of showing the resources in a nation's economy, with public welfare coming as a by-product. He states that it simply encourages businesses to provide what consumers want and at the same time it discourages government involvement. He believed that the only responsibilities of the government should be to define property rights, set up honest courts, impose minor taxes and subsides to compensate for well defined and narrowly specified “market failures”.

Smith also believes that you can not achieve a stable economy all the time, this is due to inflation in the market. The market will constantly go up and down, depending on the amount of money people continue to put into the system. In every society an average rate both of wages and profit in employment of labour and stock is naturally regulated.

Keynes argued that it was the demand that created the supply. If total demand rose, firms would respond to the extra demand by producing more and employing more people. However a fall in demand would lead to less output and rising unemployment. His central point was that an unregulated market economy could not ensure sufficient demand. Keynes states that this makes it harder for the economy to work because when people are low on money then they start to budget, which means that less money is being circulated into the economy. This will consequently have a gradual effect on businesses losing money and ultimately take a negative financial toll on the economy as a whole.

The way to combat this problem is in what Keynes calls “the multiplier effect.” This is the idea that an initial amount of spending (usually by the government) leads to increased consumption spending and so results in an increase in national income greater than the initial amount of spending. In other words, an initial change in total demand causes a change in total output for the economy that is a multiple of the initial change. This than means that people will spend money and then by doing so will give others money to help the economy keep afloat.

However, Marx argues that in order to maintain profit, you do need to pay people less than what they produce. This is why Marx rejects the idea of the multiplier effect. Marx states that if the worker makes widgets for £1 and then sells them for £2 straight away there is a problem. The worker can not buy the widget, which means that sales cut widget production, which then leaves the worker unemployed.

Keynes cited a solution to the problem when he suggested that more money be printed and circulated. This may seem like a good idea, as it will stop any chance of people struggling with money problems and having to budget. Keynes argued that increases in the money supply would not inevitably lead to increases in inflation. Increasing the amount of money in circulation may instead lead to a decrease in the velocity of circulation of that money. In other words the average speed of circulation of money would fall because there was more of it about.

Alternatively, the increase in the amount of money in circulation may lead to an increase in the number of transactions taking place, because as we have seen Keynes disputes the assumption that the economy will find its own equilibrium. It may be in that position there is insufficient demand for full-employment equilibrium. In that case increasing the money supply will fund extra demand and move the economy closer to full employment.

Gonzo Journalism: Video Blog

2010-04-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

Last day of work experience and was told that I would be heading to Wimborne in East Dorset. So left Daily Echo office and continued walking to the car with fellow employee with camera and notepad in hand. We got into the car and drove from Bournemouth all the way to Wimborne using the satnav to guide the way. After about 30 minutes in the car we finally arrived at the house of East Dorset MP Nick King. We parked in his driveway and knocked on his door where we were greeted by his mother. She said we could park there until her husband came back from work. We walked into Wimborne and interviewed people on the street about what their opinion on the general debate between Clegg, Brown and Cameron. Most people were not willing to give much away instead telling us that that ‘Car park ticket expiring’ or ‘need to catch a bus’. We got some people to open up about their opinion which came mainly in the form of older generation with few younger people having an opinion at all. We finished up talking to people on the street. Many people had decided that they would be voting for Liberal Democrat to stay in power. East Dorset was the only area in the south to have Lib Dem council leader. This meant that straight away it was going to be tough job for Nick King to overcome this type of pressure.

After lunch walked back to Nick King house. It was easy to find this house as the fences were covered in posters saying ‘Vote for Nick King as your conservative MP, You deserve a change’. The posters were covering the fences of his house and being that it was a corner house on busy road there’s no doubt that people driving past or walking would take notice. Finally arrived at the house again and was let in by his mother who was awaiting us with coffee. We entered the house which felt much more like a mini factory. Two dogs were running around with their tongues out hoping that we were there to feed them. We sadly were not there for that. We met around ten members of family or employees, it was hard to take in everyone name. We drank coffee and ate some freshly made cookies which made the dogs get very excited when a single crumb fell to the floor. Nick King brother was there to be friendly trying to promote his own business which is a cabaret club in Bournemouth town, an area I tend to avoid if I can. When looking around the house it had hardly any room to sit around. Every inch apart from kitchen surfaces were covered in boxes of leaflets with vote for Nick King on the front. The only noise that was constant was the sound of the printers on overload as more and more constantly pumped out. Luckily were enough people to sort them out otherwise that would be very chaotic.

After waiting for around thirty minutes talking to his mother, sister and brother, Nick King came slyly through the back door nearly hitting me with the door. He was pleasant man balding hair and short as he greeted the two of us. He joked about being on time something he states was not his best quality. He decided that it would be best to enjoy the sun so we went outside and set up camera equipment. We talked bit bout what he was up to and he said he had come back from meeting which involved all the local MP’s in the area. He told us that he believes that Conservative deserve to get in power in May but that Nick Clegg did seem the most convincing on the night of the debate. He handed us one of his leaflets which I took although had no intentions to vote for both reasons that I am strongly against Conservative government and also because he was not an MP in my area. We discussed that we were doing a one minute manifesto on local MP from each of the Dorset areas that adventure would be East, West, North and South Dorset. We also discussed how people were still thinking about voting Liberal and how he felt about changing peoples minds. He responded that he has what it takes to be more public man and allow people to feel at ease to talk to him if they have any problems.

The manifesto began after plugging in the mini microphone on his shirt collar and after four takes he finally decided that he was happy with it. It was noisy background but luckily the noise of cars and lorries did not get recorded in the background. His manifesto followed the lines of ‘we believe in the strength and importance of family, of deregulated business, of healthcare that is delivered on a local level, of policing that is comprehensive, of a society that places social justice and respect at the top of its agenda. We firmly believe in free speech, the encouragement of creativity and enterprise, and the promotion of charitable causes, whether in terms of social housing or other local initiatives to give to those who need it most. Furthermore, we believe in a foreign policy that favours international development over unnecessary conflict’. He also said jokingly that everyone Is fed up with Gordon Brown so why wouldn’t they vote for him.

Finally we had what we wanted and he said thankyou to the both of us shaking our hands. He asked us who we were voting for in the election we both said we were still deciding, as best not to say it was Tories.

Tom Wolfe And New Journalism

2010-04-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

How and when the term New Journalism began to refer to a genre has not been clear. Tom Wolfe, a practitioner and principal advocate of the form,wrote in at least two articles in 1972 that he had no idea of where it began. Trying to shed light on the matter, literary critic Seymour Krim, offered his explanation in 1973.

I'm certain that [Pete] Hamill first used the expression. In about April of 1965 he called me at Nugget Magazine, where I was editorial director, and told me he wanted to write an article about new New Journalism. It was to be about about the exciting things being done in the old reporting genre by Talese, Wolfe and Breslin. He never wrote the piece, so far as I know, but I began using the expression in conversation and writing. It was picked up and stuck.

But wherever and whenever the term arose, there is evidence of some literary experimentation in the early 1960s, as when Norman Mailer broke away from fiction to write Superman Comes to the Supermarket A report of John F. Kennedy's nomination that year, the piece established a precedent which Mailer would later build on in his 1968 convention coverage (Miami and the Siege of Chicago) and in other nonfiction as well.

Wolfe wrote that his first acquaintance with a new style of reporting came in a 1962 Esquire article about Joe Louis by Gay Talese. “ ‘Joe Louis at Fifty’ a wasn't like a magazine article at all. It was like a short story. It began with a scene, an intimate confrontation between Loius and his third wife...” Wolfe said Talese was the first to apply fiction techniques to reporting.

> from number of sources

Wilhelm Reich

2010-04-22T03:47:00.000-07:00

Wilhelm Reich's discovery of orgone began with his research of a physical bio-energy basis for Sigmund Freud's theories of neurosis in humans. Wilhelm Reich believed that traumatic experiences blocked the natural flow of life-energy in the body, leading to physical and mental disease. Wilhelm Reich concluded that the libidinal-energy that Freud discussed was the primordial-energy of life itself, connected to more than just sexuality. Orgone was everywhere and Reich measured this energy-in-motion over the surface of the earth. He even determined that its motion affected weather formation.

Not everyone liked the theories Wilhelm Reich suggested. Wilhelm Reich's work with cancer patients and the Orgone Accumulators received two very negative press articles. Journalist Mildred Brandy wrote both "The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy" and "The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich". Soon after their publication, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) sent agent Charles Wood to investigate Wilhelm Reich and Reich's research center, Orgonon.

Information from internet sources

Albert Camus

2010-04-22T03:39:00.000-07:00

Albert Camus

He is often cited as a proponent of existentialism, the philosophy that he was associated with during his own lifetime, but Camus himself rejected this particular label. In an interview in 1945, Camus rejected any ideological associations: "No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked..."

Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the more current philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay The Rebel that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom.

Existentialism is a term applied to the work of a number of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, generally held that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and their emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts. The early 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, posthumously regarded as the father of existentialism, maintained that the individual is solely responsible for giving their own life meaning and living that life passionately and sincerely, in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom.

Counterculture (also written counter-culture) is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. It is a neologism attributed to Theodore Roszak.

>Information Taken From Various Sources

THE AESTHETIC OF BRUTALITY – REVOLT AGAINST ROMANTICISM AND THE AGE OF HIGH MODERNISM

2010-04-22T03:35:00.000-07:00

Tom Wolf

Throughout his career Wolfe's subject matter, eccentric literary technique, and bold opinions have aroused much controversy concerning the significance of both New Journalism and his own work. After the publication of The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, some critics objected to Wolfe's unorthodox prose style, although many argued that the work contained innovative studies of popular trends. The critical reaction to The Pump House Gang was predominantly positive; several reviewers singled out Wolfe's portrayal of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner as among his most trenchant studies of class structure and America's obsession with status. Critics widely acclaimed The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test for its surreal and vivid descriptions of the 1960s drug culture. C. D. D. Bryan called the book “an astonishing, enlightening, at times baffling, and explosively funny book.” Several reviewers faulted Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, for degrading the integrity of the black power movement and accused Wolfe of biased reporting, while others saw the book as a vigorous critique of liberal naivete. Both The Painted Word and From Bauhaus to Our House met with sharply mixed reviews, but The Right Stuff received almost unanimous praise from critics and audiences alike. “That Wolfe can weave together [the] ragged strands of the astronaut story without minimizing the extraordinary courage, the sometimes incredible technical virtuosity, of these hand-picked space explorers,” one reviewer remarked, “… is a tribute to his skill as a journalist and his sensibility as a student of humanistic values.” Although some reviewers considered Wolfe's characterizations in The Bonfire of the Vanities superficial, many praised his incisive examination of New York's criminal justice system and the city's turbulent social and ethnic divisions. A Man in Full was met with generally favorable reviews. Some complained of the book's length and Wolfe's tendency to indulge in cultural stereotypes, with several major critics voicing disappointment, such as John Updike who called the novel “entertainment, not literature.” Despite the critical contention that Wolfe's exuberant prose style and his use of fictional devices distort or overwhelm the events he reports, many agree with Joe David Bellamy's assessment that Wolfe is “the most astute and popular social observer and cultural chronicler of his generation. … No other writer of our time has aspired to capture the fabled Spirit of the Age so fully and has succeeded so well.

Frederick Neitzsche

Throughout his notes and published works, Nietzsche establishes relations between his own reflection and the dominant intellectual currents of his own day. A partial list of what was then fashionable would necessarily include: Darwinism, idealism, irrationalism, vitalism, Marxism, socialism and positivism. Although his mind seethed like a Romantic he remained opposed to Romantic idealism and spiritualism. In an oft-quoted phrase, what Nietzsche sought was "the revaluation of all values."

Nietzsche does not belong to any well-defined movement. His mind and method of reflection defines his position as solitary, profound, unique and at times, pessimistic. But, he does use his knowledge of intellectual movements and currents as dialectical elements for the forging of his own thought. Enigmatic as he was, Nietzsche belongs both to his own time at the same time that he rises beyond it. If anything, what he offered was a fresh, reflective, psychological, and poetic perspective. The only way his thought can really be studied is by going to the source, by going to his principal published works. It is for this reason that while I was reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra several years ago, I abandoned reading any published commentaries or critiques of Nietzsche. Perhaps it is better to see the film on my own then be guided by some misguided critic who has his own agenda to press upon me, a critic who perhaps possesses but no longer seeks.

>Information Taken From Various Sources

Bournemouth Event

2010-04-17T02:44:00.001-07:00

The Heart of Bournemouth

AFC Bournemouth welcomes you to special evening of entertainment at Dean Court for all of you who love sport.

The club chaplain, Andy Rimmer, together with ‘Christians in sport’ have come together to put on a very special sports quiz on Thursday 29th April from 7.30pm in the Balfour Suite.

The quiz called ‘The Final Score’ is a multi-media ‘Question of sports’-type quiz which is ideal for all those sports lovers in Bournemouth. The event is open to all ages so perfect for all the family. Make a team of 5-8 or join in a team of individuals. There will even be appearances from AFCB player and team of coaches to liven up the atmosphere.

The bar will be open to all those who turn up and entry is only a small donation of £3 pounds per person with profits raised going to the AFCB centre of Excellence.

Feel free to contact Andy Rimmer on (01202) 883630 or
andy@rimmerteam.com for any more information about the event.

Animal Cruelty Case

2010-04-17T02:41:00.004-07:00

Kittens mistreated by animal carer

An elderly woman has been accused of cruelly neglecting animals in her care home in Wimborne.

Gillian Mary Hughes, ages 60, has taken into her care many abandoned and stray kittens since 1982. Although after recent inspections from RSPCA it has become clear that six kittens have been very poorly mistreated. The kitten’s conditions were described as confined and smelly, while the litter trays were full, the shed where the kittens were kept had bad ventilation and only a small entrance.

The six kittens, four of which only weeks old and two slightly older were suffering from problems like chronic disease, flees, conjunctivitis and lice. Many of the other kittens also were very thin but were in much better health.

Mrs Hughes stated that ‘I noticed they had eye issues, but I thought they were just mucky and that I could wipe them clean’. Mr Hughes states that she always looks after the animals which also includes horses, rabbits and dogs and that she does the best she can looking after the animals with the amount she gets from her pension. Mrs Hughes also states "I have never mistreated the animals in my care, I have cared for them all my life and I would do anything for them"

A close contact Phillipa Roddell claims that after recent inspections of Mrs Hughes house there have been much improvement in the conditions that the animals are being kept in and that they are being treated up to the required standard set by the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The law enforces that those who are looking after animals must makes sure they have all the adequate resources to maintain the animal conditions.

On Monday afternoon Mrs Hughes was given a conditional discharge of two years and fine of £500 pounds after being told she had the right intentions but will be forced to continue the improvement of her care.

Ryde Trust

2010-04-17T02:41:00.003-07:00

Ryde trust will be hosting a members only meeting on Saturday 17th April 2010 to discuss the future of Paddle Wheels vessel situated in Bath.

The Ryde trust has started a petition to help save the vessel from being demolished and within 14 days, 2,100 signatures were collected. The Ryde trust had been awaiting a reply from the brokers handling the sale on behalf of Island Harbour Holding LTD after an offer has been placed.

The Ryde trust have been asked to re-submit their offer for the ship, but it does mean that this time a business plan is needed to show possible options for the vessel. The vessel biggest problem is that she is ‘hemmed in’ by the mud and the silt at the harbour and the channel would have to be either blasted or dug out to get her out of the area.

Ryde trust hopes to get as much support, not just for PS Ryde vessel but also other vessels. Even more support would be welcome by signing the petition at
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/PSRyde/.

The meeting will take place at The Best Western Walton Park Hotel, Clevedon in Somerset at 1.30pm. Tickets are £20.00 and available through Mr Patrick Murrell.

Silly Army

2010-04-17T02:41:00.001-07:00

The Silly Army wants You!

A New sports club invites young and old to join The Silly Army, the most exciting and fun way to keep fit in Bournemouth this Easter.

The club meets every Sunday afternoon at King’s Park, in Boscombe at 1pm. The event consists of a wide range of silly and not so silly sports and games, usually around 10 to 12 per session until everyone involved is tired out.

So if gym prices are too expensive, jogging is to boring or you are intimidated by most of sports clubs around than this is a perfect way to find the right sport for you. The sports and games consists of inventions like spacehopper polo and spacehopper sumo, gymball-dodgeball, combination ball (mix of volleyball and football) as well as more known sports like hockey, catchball and rounders. The children games include crows and crumbs, splat and bulldog.

The clubs chairman and co-founder Pete Reed says about the event "The things we play vary each week, we are always inventing and trying new games, and in the summertime, to keep cool everyone brings along water guns".

While Club secretary and co founder Dave Hamm says "Whilst we are fairly competitive when playing, we don’t take things too seriously- we want members to laugh a lot, let their hair down and be kid’s again for a few hours.

Membership for the Silly Army is free and the club has recently been awarded a grant to purchase more quality equipment.

More information email The Silly Army at
thesillyarmy@yahoo.co.uk or visit the website at www.thesillyarmy.org.uk .

National Trust

2010-04-17T02:40:00.001-07:00

Volunteers needed

The National Trust is looking for volunteers to give their time to support Stourhead this Saturday in Wiltshire.

The open day at Stourhead’s house and gardens is in need of some volunteers to help with vital work to keep the estate running smoothly and to help provide a great experience to all the visitors. The volunteers and staff will be around to discuss or answer any questions from 11am to 2pm at Stourton Memorial Hall.

Visitor services manager Leanne Clements from the Stourhead estate says I would love people to come along, even if they just want to find out more. Further to this she says ‘You can sign up on the day for any of the roles or just to see what’s on offer’

Some of the jobs on offer for volunteers include driving the shuttle bus, guiding people through the gardens and wider estate; fundraising and catering. So whatever your ability there will be something that is well suited to everyone.

One volunteer state’s ‘I love volunteering just to get my ‘fix’ of the lake: the colours and calmness; the beautiful gardens, and the lovely house all year round. Volunteering manager Richard Watson adds ‘ Stourhead needs you! Whatever your interests, there really is something for everyone. Volunteering is a great way to enhance your CV, keep your skills up to date and to develop new ones’.

This event is perfect if you a spare few hours a week to give to help National Trust preserve Stourhead in all its glory. Drop in anytime between 11am to 2pm at Stourton Memorial Hall, Stourhead BA12 6QD. Please park in main Visitor Car Park. If you require any further information feel free to contact the Estate Office on 01747 841152 or Tara Burke at Tara.burke@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Work Experience: Published page 4 story.

2010-04-17T02:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/8105076.___Just_lunacy____as_a_newly_laid_pavement_is_dug_up/

After working for daily echo for a week work experience i was fortunate enough to turn what seemed a none story into what came about as something a little better.

First published piece couldn't be happier.

Orwell's Politics and the English Language

2010-01-25T06:08:00.000-08:00

George Orwell seems to state that due to change we are slowly losing grip of what the English language stands for. We now no longer use what we know is the correct language but instead create language of our own as we have become to lazy to learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjvN6FTtB60

This may be rather bad video about slang clearly aimed at young children or less intelligent minority. It still shows how our language has changed in the way described by Orwell. Language change is described by Orwell to be like a man who drinks in order to gloss over his failures but in doing so is fails even more in the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM4eIBs8WBw

Orwell believes that our country emblem of British lion roar is at present just as gentle as that of any sucking dove. We no longer are proud to hold our countries language in place and so forth have aloud our language to deteriorate into whatever we decide upon. This has aloud the beginning of ‘text’ and ‘chav’ lingo to enter our natural vocabulary. There has also been plans to add a GCSE course in Social networking speech. This does mean that words like ‘innit’ and ‘LOL’ will become part of the English language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIejs55TL1A&feature=related

Orwell also tells us that we have many problems with decline of our language which includes the following ideas like ‘Dying metaphors’(e.g. Iron resolution) which is the claim that we will use these phrases but they have become ordinary in comparison to how they would have been used in earlier times. While many metaphors have been taken out of their original meaning and have been changed to suit whoever is writing these phrases. Some examples of these are ‘Toe the line’ which has been changed to ‘Tow the line’. While another is ‘hammer and the anvil’ which implies that the anvil gets the worse of it. It is always the hammer that gets broken by the anvil and if the writer has stopped to think about what he was saying he would not have to change the original phrase and by doing so changing the meaning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGMQ-ySqOY (Judas Priest- Between hammer and the anvil)

Orwell also states that we have aloud verbs to become phrases that we use. This means that what had been set before us by English language continues to change maybe for the worse. He also states that those who use Latin or Greek words are much superior writers than those who tend to chose Anglo Saxon’ language. It is like the jargon used by Marxist writers who chose Russian and French words like Cannibal and bourgeois in the English language means that there are those who are using there own ideas to help the English Language prosper rather than changing the language for lazy reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8mufJngOHQ (Word Of Mouth sample)

It is felt that we need to make sure that our native tongue is kept in check and that we can continue to move forward but never to take our language for granted. 24% of the world population speaks in English tongue which is more than even Chinese, Russian, French, German or even Japanese. This means that while countries like United States and Australia have changed certain terms and phrases that are used in the English language it does not mean that we have to change most of the language to make it easier for the newer generations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d960EWAHU6w (English language cartoon)

Anarchism, Socialism, Avant Garde and Emile Zola

2009-11-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

Émile Zola was an influential French writer. He was born in Paris in 1840. He is the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism, an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He is also a major figure in the political liberalisation of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

J’Accuse was one of the most controversial articles written by Zola. "In making these accusations, I am fully aware that my action comes under Articles 30 and 31 of the law of 29 July 1881 on the press, which makes libel a punishable offence," Zola wrote challenging. Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was a French Jewish army officer, who was falsely charged with giving military secrets to the Germans. The trials quickly developed into a ideological struggle, or as Anatole France wrote, "rendered an inestimable service to the country by bringing out and little by little revealing the forces of past and the forces of future: on the one side bourgeois authoritarianism and Catholic theocracy; on the other side socialism and free thought." Dreyfus was transported to Devil's Island in French Guiana. The case was tried again in 1899 and he was found first guilty and pardoned, but later the verdict was reversed. "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it," Zola announced, but during the process he was sentenced in 1898 to imprisonment and removed from the roll of the Legion of Honour. He escaped to England, and returned after Dreyfus had been cleared.

Zola died on September 28, in 1902, under mysterious circumstances, overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in his sleep. According to some speculations, Zola's enemies blocked the chimney of his apartment, causing poisonous fumes to build up and kill him. At Zola's funeral Anatole France declared, "He was a moment of the human conscience." In 1908 Zola's remains were transported to the Panthéon. Naturalism as a literary movement fell out of favour after Zola's death, but his integrity had a profound influence on such writers as Theodore Dreiser, August Strindberg and Emilia Pardo-Bazan.

European Marxism, 1848-1989

'A specter is haunting Europe -the specter of Communism,'' wrote Karl Marx in January 1848. It took a century for that red specter to become iron-grey reality in Eastern Europe. Yet just weeks after the 29-year-old German philosophy student wrote those words, Europe was swamped by a continental wave of liberal, nationalist revolutions. The upheavals of 1848 gave birth to European Marxism. Now, a strikingly similar wave of revolutions appears to signal its death.

The events of 1848 began with January revolts in Austria's Italian provinces. The movement gained force in February, when mass demonstrations in Paris forced France's last Bourbon King to abdicate. Vienna's turn came in March. Crowds in the Hapsburg capital brought down the mighty Prince Metternich, architect and symbol of Central Europe's post-Napoleonic order. The protest drew strength from enthusiastic university students. The Prince was gone in a matter of mere days.

Marxists reassured themselves that history was on their side that continued industrial revolution would bring political and social revolution as well. They envisioned an ever-larger army of workers, turned into socialists by the circumstances of proletarian life, who would finally cast off capitalist chains and harness industry's power for social ends. Such was the Communism that so recently haunted much of Europe. But, in an irony that Marx the revolutionary might have appreciated, the system bred its own gravediggers. Instead of the hoped-for socialist man, Communist rule produced a new generation of democratic revolutionaries, whom four decades of frustration made all the more committed to liberal freedoms. Today, the Communist states are the faltering ''old regimes.'

The Gold Rush started at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma On January 24, 1848 James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found pieces of shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter, along the American River. Marshall quietly brought what he found to Sutter, and the two of them privately tested the findings. The tests showed Marshall's particles to be gold. Sutter was dismayed by this, and wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there were a mass search for gold. However, rumours soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan. The most famous quote of the California Gold Rush was by Brannan; after he had hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, Brannan strode through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" With the news of gold, many families trying their luck at Californian farming decided to go for the gold, becoming some of California’s first miners.

On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report that there was a gold rush in California; on December 5, President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to Congress. Soon, waves of immigrants from around the world, later called the "forty-niners," invaded the Gold Country of California or "Mother Lode." As Sutter had feared, he was ruined; his workers left in search of gold, and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

The Prussians surrounded and besieged Paris during the terrible winter of 1870-1871, beating off French armies raised in the rest of the country. Parisians suffered starvation, bombardments and disease, and balloons and pigeon post provided the only contact with the outside. British public opinion switched from support of Prussia to sympathy for the French. Paris was surrendered and the Prussians entered the city on March 1 1871. The new government of President Thiers passed legislation demanding rents from Parisians and withdrawing the pay of the National Guards. The government was established at Versailles. It tried to seize the cannon belonging to the city. The insurrection in Paris began in March when the Parisians kept their cannon by force. The Commune was proclaimed on 28 March, with its seat in the Hôtel de Ville, and its symbol the red flag. A civil war was fought between the Commune and the troops of the Versailles government. The Commune was suppressed by government troops during the last week of May 1871, known as the 'Semaine sanglante'.

It is difficult to categorise Hume’s political affiliations. His thought contains elements that are, in modern terms, both conservative and liberal, as well as ones that are both contractarian and utilitarian, though these terms are all anachronistic. His central concern is to show the importance of the rule of law, and stresses throughout his political Essays the importance of moderation in politics. This outlook needs to be seen within the historical context of eighteenth century Scotland, where the legacy of religious civil war, combined with the relatively recent memory of the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite risings, fostered in a historian. Hume formed a distaste for enthusiasm and factionalism that appeared to threaten the fragile and nascent political and social stability of a country that was deeply politically and religiously divided. He thinks that society is best governed by a general and impartial system of laws, based principally on the "artifice" of contract; he is less concerned about the form of government that administers these laws.

Hegelian dialectic

It is Hegel’s well-known achievement to have introduced the fully developed notion of a dialectical movement through a necessary progression. Rather than being the result of a confrontation between two independently existing entities, thesis and antithesis, the dialectical movement in Hegel’s thought appears more as an internal potential or as a necessary movement due to latent contradictions inherent to all entities, mental and material. In his sweeping overview, ranging from logic to history and world affairs, Hegel tries to show that each finite entity has within itself the germ of its own negation. This negation, however, does not lead to actual destruction but to sublation (Aufhebung) into a higher entity, the synthesis.

Hegel describes a dialectic of existence: first, existence must be posited as pure Being; but pure Being, upon examination, is found to be indistinguishable from Nothing; yet both Being and Nothing are united as Becoming, when it is realised that what is coming into being is, at the same time, also returning to nothing (consider life: Old organisms die as new organisms are created or born). Existence is the synthesis of two opposites – at the teleological historic and cosmic level.

Though Hegel rarely uses the terms of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, he uses a variety of triadic expressions, such as affirmation, negation, negation of negation; in-itself, for itself, in-and-for-itself. Hegel insists that the true meaning of the dialectic had been lost for most of philosophy’s history. For him, Kant rediscovered the triad, but in his thought it remained “lifeless.” Since, for Kant, ultimate reality was still perceived as transcendent and unreachable, it could not possibly yield a conclusive synthesis. Hegel attempted to move the dialectic back into the mainstream with the idea that it was the Absolute itself that gradually achieved full self-awareness through a dialectical movement culminating with the human mind.

Hegel uses the term speculation to describe the process by which the hidden progress of the dialectic is made explicit in philosophy. In his thought, therefore, speculation has an entirely positive connotation.

Marx on Hegel’s dialectic - “Dialectical Materialism” K. Marx calls his system “dialectical material” (e.g., in his book The German Ideology) or sometimes “the materialist conception of history”.

Karl Marx (The Young Hegelians) – embraced the idea of change in Hegel, because they were liberals, and revolutionaries in the wake of the French revolution. They loved the idea ‘everything changes’ – only change is permanent (this much has stuck from Hegel) – it anticipates quantum mechanics for example where we now think that the very act of making an observation changes the nature of matter.

Marx agrees, but goes forward. All philosophy to date (inc. Hegel and Feuebach) is a waste of time when it is a matter of contemplation and reflection. Humans act upon the world, and this action is the source of knowledge – it neither arises like a Zeit (Hegel) from matter; nor does it exist in a platonic realm of eternal ideas (such as the idea of god). Knowledge arises when humans act upon the world.

The state both Hegel and Marx see as the vehicle of historical change. The state is an instrument for the domination of one class by another; thus democracy is a sham – he sees it in term of Machievlli (it is the dictatorship of capital – “the iron fist inside the velvet glove” – revealed during 1848 (and especially 1870 – the Paris Commune which brings us to the milieu of Zola. In history there are two different types of people there is the Thesis which is the Ruling Class. The Antithesis which was the Slave Class/Working Class. This is what leads to the Synthesis, which is the revolution

Idealism is a philosophical movement in Western thought, and names a number of philosophical positions with sometimes quite different tendencies and implications in politics and ethics, for instance; although in general, at least in popular culture, philosophical idealism is associated with Plato and the school of Platonism.

Materialism holds that only things that exist is what matters; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance. As a theory, materialism is a form of physicalism and belongs to the class of monist ontology. As such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism would be in contrast to idealism and to spiritualism.

Instrumentalism is more of a pragmatic approach to science, information and theories than an ontological statement. Often instrumentalists (like pragmatists) have been accused of being relativists, even though many instrumentalists are also believers in sturdy objective realism.

Germinal was Zola's masterpiece.14 whereas L'Assommoir had shown a working class just emerging from an older world of small workshops, Germinal shifted to the coal mining industry, a central source of energy for France's developing capitalism. Mining, with a large, disciplined labour force herded into pit villages and facing the dangers of underground work, produced a class for which solidarity was the key value.

The novel took its title from a month in the revolutionary calendar introduced in 1792. Germinal fell in springtime (March-April), the month of germination and hope; but on 12 Germinal Year III (1 April 1795) hungry crowds had rioted, demanding 'bread and the 1793 constitution'. The events of Germinal inspired Babeuf, the first revolutionary socialist, to establish his secret organisation of Equals. In the novel Zola argued that the bourgeoisie, having made its own revolution, now wished to suppress any further revolution from below.

While academics often miss the point about Germinal, it has been properly appreciated in the working class movement. During the 1984-1985 British miners' strike a militant miner saw direct parallels between the novel and the current struggle. There are many similarities between the events in the book and what is happening in the current miners' strike. In both cases management provoked the strike deliberately, confident that the miners would lose, in order that they could reinforce their power. Both sets of miners put too much faith in one man, Etienne and Scargill. The French miners paid the price, defeat. Although the miners were beaten by lack of organisation, hunger and bullets, they were changed by the struggle. No longer content to accept their lot in life, the seeds of revolt were sown.

Various Sources Used

Politics and English Language: George Orwell

2009-11-26T07:46:00.000-08:00

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent, and our language — so the arguments runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influences of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers. I will come back to this presently, and I hope that by that time the meaning of what I have said here will have become clearer. Meanwhile, here are five specimens of the English language as it is now habitually written.

Source from Politics And The English Language
by George Orwell.

Citizen Kane

2009-11-25T20:56:00.000-08:00

Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the enormously wealthy media magnate, has lost his power and been abandoned by his loved ones, and has been living alone in his vast palatial estate Xanadu for the last years of his life, with a "No trespassing" sign on the gate. He dies in a bed holding a snow globe, and utters "Rosebud..." before his death.

Kane's death then becomes sensational news around the world. Reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) tries to find out about Kane's private life and, in particular, to discover the meaning behind his last word. The reporter interviews the great man's friends and associates, and Kane's story unfolds as a series of flashbacks. Thompson approaches Kane's second wife, Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), now an alcoholic who runs her own club, but she refuses to tell him anything. Thompson then goes to the private archive of Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris), a deceased banker who served as Kane's guardian during his childhood. It is through Thatcher's written memoirs that Thompson learns about Kane's childhood. Thompson then interviews Kane's personal business manager Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloane), best friend Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten), Susan for a second time, and Kane's butler Raymond (Paul Stewart).

In several flashbacks, it is told that Kane's childhood was spent in poverty (his parents ran a boarding house), then changed when the "world's third largest gold mine" was discovered on an apparently worthless property his mother had acquired (the title deeds left to her by a lodger unable to pay his bill). He is forced to leave his beloved mother (Agnes Moorehead) when she sends him away to live with Thatcher, to be both educated and protected from his abusive father. After gaining full control over his possessions at the age of 25, Kane enters the newspaper business with sensationalized yellow journalism. He takes control of the newspaper, the New York Inquirer, and hires all the best journalists (he hires them away from the Chronicle, the main rival of the Inquirer). His attempted rise to power is documented, including his manipulation of public opinion for the Spanish American War of 1898; his first marriage to Emily Monroe Norton (Ruth Warrick), a President's niece; and his campaign for the office of governor of New York State in which Kane creates alternative newspaper headlines depending on whether he wins.

Kane's life gradually goes downhill. The relationship between him and his wife disintegrates over the years. A "love nest" scandal with Susan Alexander ends both his first marriage and his political aspirations. Kane marries his mistress, but as a result of his domineering personality, he forces Susan into an operatic career for which she has no talent or ambition, destroys his relationships and pushes away his loved ones. Kane spends his last years building his vast estate and lives alone after Susan leaves him, interacting only with his staff.

Thompson is unable to solve the mystery and concludes that "Rosebud" will forever remain an enigma. He theorizes that "Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted, and then lost it: Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost". In the ending of the film, it is revealed to the audience that Rosebud was the name of the sled from Kane's childhood, from the time before he was taken from his parents and gained his wealth. The sled, thought to be junk, is destroyed by Xanadu's departing staff in a basement furnace. The film ends as it began, with a view of the "No Trespassing" sign posted on the fence of Xanadu

Freud, Modernism and Literature

2009-11-24T18:56:00.000-08:00

It would be hard to give a precise and succinct definition of the term Modernism, as there was, unlike movements such as the Surrealists or the Futurists, no organised group and no manifesto.

What distinguishes the Modernist novel is its experimental nature. Modernist literature has a tendency to lack traditional chronological narrative, break narrative frames or move from one level of narrative to another without any warning through the words of a number of different narrators. It may also be self-reflexive about the act of writing and the nature of literature. Much use is made of the stream of consciousness technique and focusing on a character's consciousness and subconscious - the writings of Sigmund Freud were highly influential on the movement - is a recurring technique. Unlike the literature of the 19th century, there is a breaking down of the traditional beginning-middle-end linear narrative in the Modernist novel, leaving an impression of enigma and an open-endedness to the work.

In poetry, rhyme and traditional form were frequently overthrown, and fragmentation, deliberate obscurity and the juxtaposition of images from seemingly unrelated ages and cultures were often featured.

Emerging in France during the last quarter of the 19th century with movements such as Naturalism, Symbolism, Decadence and Aestheticism, early Modernist work began to appear in Britain and America from the 1890s and it remained an influential force right up until the Second World War.

Although the Decadent poets of the 1890s, such as Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons and W.B. Yeats, who were all influenced by the writings of the likes of Baudelaiure, Mallarm and Valry, had made use of elements of what would later be called Modernism, it was the work of the American Henry James that really signalled the new direction in literature at the end of the 19th century. Other authors whose work moved in this direction around the same time were Stephen Crane, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford. The works of all these writers were experimental in their structure. They were also engaged with themes of fin de sicle anxiety, such as imperialism, urban chaos and paranoia.

James Joyce is perhaps the ultimate Modernist. His masterly work Ulysses (1922) focuses on just one day in the life of two people, using multiple narrators, interior monologue, stream of consciousness, literary parody and stylistic changes. Few have managed successfully to follow his lead, but his influence can be felt in the works of writers such Flann O'Brien and Malcolm Lowry, whose Under the Volcano takes place over the course of a single day.

D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf were both heavily influenced by Freud. Woolf, in novels such as Mrs Dalloway and The Years, employed much structural experimentation, while Lawrence, though using more traditional narrative forms, was poetic and emotional in style and daring in his subject matter.

The most important Modernist poets were the Americans T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound and the Irishman W.B. Yeats. Eliot's The wasteland is a perfect example of Modernist techniques, with its juxtaposition of fragments and different forms and techniques, its use of intertextuality and its bleak urban settings.

In the 1930s Modernist writers became more overtly political, especially in their involvement with left-wing causes and there opposition the rise of Fascism in Europe. Key writers of this period were the poets W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender and the writers Christopher Isherwood and C. Day-Lewis.

Steinbeck

2009-11-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

The American novelist, storywriter, playwright named John Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He is best remembered for THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1939), a novel widely considered to be a 20th-century classic. The impact of the book has been compared to that of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Steinbeck's epic about the migration of the Joad family, driven from its bit of land in Oklahoma to California, provoked a wide debate about the hard lot of migrant labourers, and helped to put an agricultural reform into effect.

"Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up in the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments." (from The Grapes of Wrath)

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. His native region of Monterey Bay was later the setting for most of his fiction. "We were poor people with a hell of a lot of land which made us think we were rich people," the author once recalled. Steinbeck's father was a county treasurer. From his mother, a teacher, Steinbeck learned to love books. Among his early favourites were Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Le Morte d'Arthur.

Steinbeck attended the local high school and worked on farms and ranches during his vacations. To finance his education, he held many jobs and sometimes dropped out of college for whole quarters. Between 1920 and 1926, he studied marine biology at Stanford University, but did not take a degree-he always planned to be a writer. Several of his early poems and short stories appeared in university publications. After spending a short time as a labourer on the construction of Madison Square Garden in New York City and reporter for the American, Steinbeck returned to California. While writing, Steinbeck took odd jobs. He was apprenticehood-carrier, apprentice painter, caretaker of an estate, surveyor, and fruit-picker. During a period, when he was as a watchman of a house in the High Sierra, Steinbeck wrote his first book, CUP OF GOLD (1929). It failed to earn back the $250 the publisher had given him in an advance.

In Pacific Grove in the early 1930s, Steinbeck met Edward Ricketts. He was a marine biologist, whose views on the interdependence of all life deeply influenced Steinbeck's thinking. THE SEA OF CORTEZ (1941) resulted from an expedition in the Gulf of California he made with Ricketts.

Steinbeck's first three novels went unnoticed, but his humorous tale of pleasure-loving Mexican-Americans, TORTILLA FLAT (1935), brought him wider recognition. The theme of the book-the story of King Arthur and the forming of the Round Table, which was well hidden from the readers and critics as well. However, Steinbeck's financial situation improved significantly-he had earned $35 a week for a long time, but now he was paid thousands of dollars for the film rights to Tortilla Flat.

For The Grapes of Wrath- the title originated from Julia Ward Howe's The Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861)-Steinbeck travelled around California migrant camps in 1936. When the book appeared, it was attacked by US Congressman Lyle Boren, who characterised it as "a lie, a black, infernal creation of twisted, distorted mind". Later, when Steinbeck received his Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy called it simply "an epic chronicle." The Exodus story of Okies on their way to an uncertain future in California ends with a scene in which Rose of Sharon, who has just delivered a stillborn child, suckles a starving man with her breast. "Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. 'You got to,' she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. 'There!' she said. 'There.' Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously."

John Ford's film version from 1940, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, dismissed this ending-the final images optimistically celebrate President Roosevelt's New Deal. "We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out. They can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people," says Ma Joad. Steinbeck himself was sceptical of Hollywood's faithfulness to his material. However, after seeing the film he said: "Zanuck has more than kept his word. He has a hard, straight picture in which the actors are submerged so completely that it looks and feels like a documentary film and certainly has a hard, truthful ring." Orson Welles did not like Ford's interpretation because he "made that into a story about mother love."

Fleeing publicity followed by the success of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck went to Mexico in 1940 to film the documentary Forgotten Village. During WW II, Steinbeck served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune in Great Britain and the Mediterranean area. He wrote such government propaganda as the novel THE MOON IS DOWN (1942), about resistance movement in a small town occupied by the Nazis. Its film version, starring Henry Travers, Cedric Hardwicke, and Lee J. Cobb, was shot on the set of How Green Was My Valley (1941), which depicted a Welsh mining village. "Free men cannot start a war," Steinbeck wrote, "but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars." Steinbeck had visited Europe in 1937 after gaining success with Of Mice and Men, and met on a Swedish ship two Norwegians, with whom he had celebrated Norway's Independence Day. In 1943 Steinbeck moved to New York City, his home for the rest of his life. His summers the author spent at Sag Harbor. He also travelled much in Europe.

Steinbeck's twelve-year marriage to Carol Henning had ended in 1942. Next year he married the singer Gwyndolyn Conger; they had two sons, Thom and John. However, the marriage was unhappy and they were divorced in 1949. Steinbeck's post-war works include THE PEARL (1947), a symbolic tale of a Mexican Indian pearl diver Kino. He finds a valuable pearl which changes his life, but not in the way he did expect. Kino sees the pearl as his opportunity to better life. When the townsfolk of La Paz learn of Kino's treasury, he is soon surrounded by a greedy priest, doctor, and businessmen. Kino's family suffers series of disasters and finally he throws the pearl back into ocean. Thereafter his tragedy is legendary in the town. Thematically Hemingway's novella The Old Man and the Sea from 1952 has much similarities with this work.

In 1950 Steinbeck married Elaine Scott, the ex-wife Randolph Scott, a Western star. Steinbeck's son John had problems in later years with drugs and alcohol; he died in 1991.

John Steinbeck died of heart attack in New York on December 20, 1968. In the posthumously published THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS (1976), Steinbeck turned his back on contemporary subjects and brought to life the Arthurian world with its ancient codes of honour. Steinbeck had started the work with enthusiasm but never finished it.

Various Sources Used

Germinal

2009-11-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

The novel's central character is Étienne Lantier, previously seen in L'Assommoir (1877), a young migrant worker who arrives at the forbidding coalmining town of Montsou in the bleak far north of France to earn a living as a miner. Sacked from his previous job on the railways for assaulting a superior - Étienne was originally to have been the central character in Zola's "murder on the trains" thriller La Bête humaine (1890), before the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Germinal persuaded him otherwise - he befriends the veteran miner Maheu, who finds him somewhere to stay and gets him a job pushing the carts down the pit.
A picture of the title page from an 1885 German edition

Étienne is portrayed as a hard-working idealist but also a naïve youth; Zola's genetic theories come into play as Étienne is presumed to have inherited his Macquart ancestors' traits of hotheaded impulsiveness and an addictive personality capable of exploding into rage under the influence of drink or strong passions. Zola keeps his theorizing in the background and Étienne's motivations are much more natural as a result. He embraces socialist principles, reading large amounts of working class movement literature and fraternizing with Souvarine, a Russian anarchist and political émigré who has also come to Montsou to seek a living in the pits. Étienne's simplistic understanding of socialist politics and their rousing effect on him are very reminiscent of the rebel Silvère in the first novel in the cycle, La Fortune des Rougon (1871).

While this is going on, Étienne also falls for Maheu's daughter Catherine, also employed pushing carts in the mines, and he is drawn into the relationship between her and her brutish lover Chaval, a prototype for the character of Buteau in Zola's later novel La Terre (1887). The complex tangle of the miners' lives is played out against a backdrop of severe poverty and oppression, as their working and living conditions continue to worsen throughout the novel; eventually, pushed to breaking point, the miners decide to strike and Étienne, now a respected member of the community and recognized as a political idealist, becomes the leader of the movement. While the anarchist Souvarine preaches violent action, the miners and their families hold back, their poverty becoming ever more disastrous, until they are sparked into a ferocious riot, the violence of which is described in explicit terms by Zola, as well as providing some of the novelist's best and most evocative crowd scenes. The rioters are eventually confronted by police and the army, who repress the revolt in a violent and unforgettable episode. Disillusioned, the miners go back to work, blaming Étienne for the failure of the strike; then, in a fit of anarchist fervour, Souvarine sabotages the entrance shaft of one of the Montsou pits, trapping Étienne, Catherine and Chaval at the bottom. The ensuing drama and the long wait for rescue are among some of Zola's best scenes, and the novel draws to a dramatic close. Étienne is eventually rescued and fired but he goes on to live in Paris with Pluchart.

The title, Germinal, is drawn from the springtime seventh month of the French Revolutionary Calendar, and is meant to evoke imagery of germination, new growth and fertility. Accordingly, Zola ends the novel on a note of hope, and one which has provided inspiration to socialist and reformist causes of all kinds throughout the years since its first publication:

"Beneath the blazing of the sun, in that morning of new growth, the countryside rang with song, as its belly swelled with a black and avenging army of men, germinating slowly in its furrows, growing upwards in readiness for harvests to come, until one day soon their ripening would burst open the earth itself."

By the time of his death, the novel had come to be recognized as his undisputed masterpiece. At his funeral crowds of workers gathered, cheering the cortège with shouts of "Germinal! Germinal!". Since then the book has come to symbolize working class causes and to this day retains a special place in French mining-town folklore.

Zola was always very proud of Germinal, and was always keen to defend its accuracy against accusations of hyperbole and exaggeration (from the conservatives) or of slander against the working classes (from the socialists). His research had been typically thorough, especially the parts involving lengthy observational visits to northern French mining towns in 1884, such as witnessing the after-effects of a crippling miners' strike first-hand at Anzin or actually going down a working coal pit at Denain. The mine scenes are especially vivid and haunting as a result.

A sensation upon original publication, it is now by far the best-selling of Zola's novels, both in France and internationally. A number of exceptional modern translations are currently in print and widely available.

Ulysses

2009-11-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Opinions of the novel range across the spectrum. Some readers insist that Ulysses is a superior novel, a tour de force marking a turning point in modern literature. Others insist that it is an inferior novel, an extremely boring work featuring long passages with a chaos of strange words that are a penance to read and a hell to fathom. There can be no gainsaying, though, that Joyce has been highly influential. Through stream of consciousness–and through sometimes manipulation of language–he allows readers to view the complicated, perplexing, and sometimes irrational workings of the human mind. His display of this technique inspired later writers to use it in their own literary works. Unfortunately, because of its mission and its experimental nature, Ulysses tasks the reader like no other novel before it, making him plod through jungles of obscure symbols, perplexing allusions, and boring portraits of ordinary Dublin life. Admirers of Joyce acknowledge that the novel is difficult. Passages like the following (part of a chapter in which Joyce writes in various ideas evolved during the development of the English language) make it so:

A liquid of womb of woman eyeball gazed under a fence of lashes, calmly, hearing. See real beauty of the eye when she not speaks. On yonder river. At each slow satiny heaving bosom's wave (her heaving embon) red rose rose slowly sank red rose. Heartbeats: her breath: breath that is life. And all the tiny tiny fernfoils trembled of maidenhair.

Since its publication, many scholars, distinguished writers, and average readers have exalted Ulysses as a work of enormous significance and brilliance. Probably just as many scholars, distinguished writers, and average readers have dismissed it as an unremittingly dull, tedious, and tiresome work–a waste of time. The verdict: The novel needs another century or two to ferment, marinate, or whatever literary works do when they go through the "test of time" (as literary tastes change and standards evolve) to reveal itself in all of its fullness to an unbiased judge. This much can be said for certain about the novel: Except in academia, not many people read Ulysses. Those who do decide to have a go at the thick, allusion-laden, language-bending tome frequently put it down after reading a few chapters, never again to pick it up.

Northcliffe and the Press

2009-11-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

At the dawn of the 20th century, Britain entered a new era of mass politics. It begun in the 1880s by the extension of the vote to a majority of men- although women could not vote until 1918, and then only if they were aged 30 and above - and continued by educational reforms including the requirement for all children to attend school. The first British daily newspaper to achieve mass circulation was the Daily Mail, which appeared in 1896; deliberately priced at half penny, or half the price of most newspapers, this was owned by the Irish-born Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe). In 1908 Harmsworth also bought The Times, which was seen as the mouthpiece of the British governing class.

By 1914, Northcliffe's newspapers accounted for about half the total daily sales in London alone. Northcliffe's success ushered in the era of the 'press baron' in British politics, including his brother Lord Rothermere, and fellow Canadian Sir Max Aitkin (later Lord Beaverbrook), owner of the Daily Express. Most adults in Britain had access to either a national or local daily newspaper, and even in small country villages pages from the local newspaper would be pinned up on public notice boards to be read.

Only as the war continued did the government start to extend its grip on propaganda and public opinion.

With no opinion polls or other ways of judging public opinion, politicians paid exaggerated respect to newspapers and their owners, learning to give interviews and to exert influence behind the scenes. David Lloyd George, in particular, as one of the new breed of populist politicians, associated himself closely with these newspaper owners and editors and they played a part in his becoming Prime Minister in December 1916.

Despite many myths after the war, there was in 1914 no fully developed British government organisation or plan for propaganda or the manipulation of public opinion. Just as with the army recruiting drives, so the posters, newspaper proclamations and claims of German 'atrocities' were the product of a complex mix of spontaneous action, national and local politics, and business initiatives. Only as the war continued did the government start to extend its grip on propaganda and public opinion, as on many other aspects of society.

The perceived importance of the press barons in maintaining or manipulating support for the war reached its logical conclusion in 1918 with Northcliffe's appointment to the new post of Director of Propaganda in Enemy Countries, and Beaverbrook's as head of the equally new Ministry of Information.

Grapes Of Wrath

2009-11-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

Released from an Oklahoma state prisonafter serving four years for a manslaughter conviction, Tom Joad makes his way back to his family’s farm in Oklahoma. He meets Jim Casy, a former preacher who has given up his calling out of a belief that all life is holy—even the parts that are typically thought to be sinful—and that sacredness consists simply in endeavoring to be an equal among the people. Jim accompanies Tom to his home, only to find it—and all the surrounding farms—deserted. Muley Graves, an old neighbor, wanders by and tells the men that everyone has been “tractored” off the land. Most families, he says, including his own, have headed to California to look for work. The next morning, Tom and Jim set out for Tom’s Uncle John’s, where Muley assures them they will find the Joad clan. Upon arrival, Tom finds Ma and Pa Joad packing up the family’s few possessions. Having seen handbills advertising fruit-picking jobs in California, they envision the trip to California as their only hope of getting their lives back on track.

The journey to California in a rickety used truck is long and arduous. Grampa Joad, a feisty old man who complains bitterly that he does not want to leave his land, dies on the road shortly after the family’s departure. Dilapidated cars and trucks, loaded down with scrappy possessions, clog Highway it seems the entire country is in flight to the Promised Land of California. The Joads meet Ivy and Sairy Wilson, a couple plagued with car trouble, and invite them to travel with the family. Sairy Wilson is sick and, near the California border, becomes unable to continue the journey.As the Joads near California, they hear ominous rumors of a depleted job market. One migrant tells Pa that people show up for every jobs and that his own children have starved to death. Although the Joads press on, their first days in California prove tragic, as Granma Joad dies. The remaining family members move from one squalid camp to the next, looking in vain for work, struggling to find food, and trying desperately to hold their family together. Noah, the oldest of the Joad children, soon abandons the family, as does Connie, a young dreamer who is married to Tom’s pregnant sister, Rose of Sharon.The Joads meet with much hostility in California. The camps are overcrowded and full of starving migrants, who are often nasty to each other. The locals are fearful and angry at the flood of newcomers, whom they derisively label “Okies.” Work is almost impossible to find or pays such a meager wage that a family’s full day’s work cannot buy a decent meal. Fearing an uprising, the large landowners do everything in their power to keep the migrants poor and dependent. While staying in a ramshackle camp known as a “Hooverville,” Tom and several men get into a heated argument with a deputy sheriff over whether workers should organize into a union. When the argument turns violent, Jim Casy knocks the sheriff unconscious and is arrested. Police officers arrive and announce their intention to burn the Hooverville to the ground.A government-run camp proves much more hospitable to the Joads, and the family soon finds many friends and a bit of work. However, one day, while working at a pipe-laying job, Tom learns that the police are planning to stage a riot in the camp, which will allow them to shut down the facilities. By alerting and organizing the men in the camp, Tom helps to defuse the danger. Still, as pleasant as life in the government camp is, the Joads cannot survive without steady work, and they have to move on. They find employment picking fruit, but soon learn that they are earning a decent wage only because they have been hired to break a workers’ strike. Tom runs into Jim Casy who, after being released from jail, has begun organizing workers; in the process, Casy has made many enemies among the landowners. When the police hunt him down and kill him in Tom’s presence, Tom retaliates and kills a police officer.Tom goes into hiding, while the family moves into a boxcar on a cotton farm. One day, Ruthie, the youngest Joad daughter, reveals to a girl in the camp that her brother has killed two men and is hiding nearby. Fearing for his safety, Ma Joad finds Tom and sends him away. Tom heads off to fulfill Jim’s task of organizing the migrant workers. The end of the cotton season means the end of work, and word sweeps across the land that there are no jobs to be had for three months. Rains set in and flood the land. Rose of Sharon gives birth to a stillborn child, and Ma, desperate to get her family to safety from the floods, leads them to a dry barn not far away. Here, they find a young boy kneeling over his father, who is slowly starving to death. He has not eaten for days, giving whatever food he had to his son. Realizing that Rose of Sharon is now producing milk, Ma sends the others outside, so that her daughter can nurse the dying man.

Green Custard

2009-03-09T07:11:00.001-07:00

Protestor arrest over slim on Mandelson

The woman who threw green custard on Lord Peter Mandelson last week has been arrested it has been said by the Scottish Yard. Leila Dean who is 29 and is a protestor for climate change was angry when Lord Mandelson announced plans to lower carbon strategy resolution. It is believed that she was angry as she felt that it was only to benefit him and that he was a liar. She threw green custard over him, which it is believed caused skin irritation. She shouted, "the only thing green about you is the blood running in your veins".

While it may seem to some that he got exactly what he deserved, as he not what you would call the most popular of men, it would show that the security is not really stronger enough that she was able to get through in the first place.

The attack is quite similar to what happened to John Prescott when he was attacked by a general election campaigner named Craig Evans who threw an egg at him. He resulted in turning around and starting a fight with him. I would say that it is too right for someone to want to defend himself. In truth it could have been absolutely anything that was thrown at him. It is only human instinct to react to these things.

The reports have stated that the police thought it was funny that Mandelson was attacked which makes me feel slightly bad that the security and police around him where so unprofessional. It must be days like these that makes Peter Mandelson wish he had stayed away from politics after resigning twice already.

Boris Johnson: immigration amnesty

2009-03-09T06:46:00.001-07:00

Boris Johnson: immigration amnesty

Well it seems that London Mayor Boris Johnson is considering allowing Illegal Immigrants to be able to live inside the UK. Boris Johnson states "that if they can make a contribution to society then they should be allowed the chance to live inside the UK". This would be rather unimportant when looking at the number of unemployment of UK citizens, who are trying to compete for jobs as it is. Then the question must be asked why bring in more people to the country to make even more problems for current citizens.

Just like the United States who are also suffering heavily with over 4.4 million people who have been made unemployed this year alone and think should it not be first priority to make sure you can settle this problem first before worrying about people coming from abroad to find work. Boris Johnson has already allowed full British citizenship to immigrants and also considering given it to illegal immigrants as well. It seems that by doing this it will be showing just how lapse we are at allowing anyone to come and live in the UK illegally. This idea by the Mayor of London has not been backed by both current government and the Conservative Party. Yet 93 party members have backed this idea as being worthwhile.

Johnson claims that he is making sure that those who are coming into this country are legitimate. He declared that he would make sure they have no criminal record or for wrong reasons and that if this becomes and increasing problems then they would have to look at the public policy and tighten the boarder of allowing people to make it into the country illegally. It is reported that there are over 725,000 immigrants in the UK at the moment who are living illegally.

It would be fair to say it is more of the fact that he is under pressure to perform many major benefits for London. This would include helping to allow more senior woman become part of top businesses, to crack down on people losing jobs and also trying to help more developments within the city.

EMPIRICISM

2009-03-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

EMPIRICISM

Haven’t already studied economics in Politics for A-Level I believed that I would have had some idea beforehand of what the term implies. The idea is that people do not believe things unless they see it. It is this that makes people believe in newspapers and everything that is printed. It is the sense that if in a pub a man tells you there was a shoot out across the street you tend to think ‘Yeah sure there is’ it is this sort of scepticism, that makes you think to yourself well they are probably making it up. Although despite this you will still go to check anyway.

It is believed that the theory of Empiricism is not involved for religious reasons or moral rights but on the natural order. You do not reject something because you are being ignorant you reject something because you want to be able to know yourself personally. It is Empiricism that leads the human instinct to go and explore. It is no wonder why we have men going off to space to find new planets or archaeologists who go off digging to find buried ancient treasures or fossils. People feel the need to make sure that they can see these things first hands. It is all right to simply say someone has found dinosaur remains in a digging expedition in France for example. Most people would want to be able to see how it was found in the first place.

There are many comedians who reject the ideas that have been told to us throughout early life like the use of religion and the meaning of life. Ricky Gervais used the bible to describe how he thought much of the opening chapter was rather unbelievable. It is simply the fact that in this day and time we are starting to doubt what we have been told or have learnt and are starting to find different theories to prove against it. Which shows we simply want to be the ones who can prove theories rather than accept those that has been given to us.

The father of Empiricism John Locke (Not to get confused with the ‘Lost’ character) believed that if we had innate ideas, we would be conscious of having them. But it is an undeniable fact that children, savages, the unlearned, are not conscious of having innate ideas; they acquire knowledge during the course of a lifetime. It is impossible that anyone should have knowledge of something of which he is not conscious. (John Locke book of understanding Human Nature). He states that we need to have something to consider when looking at everything before us and so there is proof that there is a higher powerful being.

In conclusion, Locke's theory of knowledge, isolated from "being" and limited to whatever happens inside the mind itself, cannot break through the ring of phenomenalism in which it is enclosed and reach metaphysical data.

Political Concepts

2009-03-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Political Concepts

When it comes to Politics, many people tend to think it only covers the ground of the government. This is not entirely true as politics can cover the whole area of land of state that we all live within. Politics is in the Laws we obeyed by. So the question can be asked why do we obey the laws they set out?

This can be answered very simply in that we need laws and rules otherwise we would all be free to do whatever we want. This may seem like a good thing to some, but it also allows us to be controlled which stops us from being wild. When you look at nature that is not controlled by rules it would be by looking at animals. They are allowed to be free and so they will hunt for food, nurture their children and the only interference is from us who feel the need to once again control what these animals are allowed to do i.e. Zoo’s. Yes, it may be protecting them from hunters or diseases. But is it not yet another way of being able to show that we can control all forms of nature to show we are most dominant.

The UK has been defending its state for a long time. Although it can be seen that current decisions by the Government has ignored the main functions that the state intended upon by allowing the early release of those who have committed crimes, due to the over crowding of prisons. This has meant that it no longer seems quite as important to the way the country is ruled.

The first function of the state is to defend its independence and seek to allow independence of its citizens. The second function is to make sure that justice is served not just in a sense that you will be punished for your crimes in the judiciary sense. It also implies fairness in economical, educational and cultural equality that the state is trying to keep in place.

The states has been able to control the citizens by simply using methods such as Police, judges and soldiers who have a job of defending and protecting our interests. The use of religion is another factor that is put in place in order for us to have an understanding of why we go through certain things in life. The use of religion was there in order to help reduce the level of crime. It is place to go to in order to seek solitude and be at peace with ones self when you may be struggling at the certain point in your life.

It may be hard to be able to state who should run the state or even how the state should be ran, as leaving it in the hand of the everyday citizen would ruin and contradict the way the state could work and very soon the state would slowly crumble. This means there is a right reason why there are institutions like the Government and Monarchy to put these laws into practice and ensure that we can all still prosper.

It is clear that Thomas Hobbes cynical view on the National State is that religious authority is not the only way to gain order. He believed that order could be obtained through other mediums. He believed that order is everything. That it is better to be a slave or subject than a ‘slave of nature’.

Rousseau would argue the case also that while "we may be born free, but everywhere else is in chains" This is true in the sense that you are only held by law once you are born. You would not of been ruled by the laws beforehand as you had not existed in the State. He also believes that a reason for the inequality of the state is due to Property. It is here that people can show just how different their lives are than others. Someone with a huge mansion is clearly going to have much more money and likely to be rich businessman or celebrity. This shows the inequality compared to someone who may be earning not as much but putting in more hours maybe than the richer people. It is believed that due to this there is an increase in people feeling alienated.

It is clear that the political and economic success of Western liberalism is helping to increase the already alarming gap between rich and poor throughout the world. The World Bank and other national financial institutions are helping in order to help this problem in the way that was addressed by Marx on his theory of capitalism.

In conclusion it is very hard to say that people should have the rights to decide on equal democratic rights, as there will always be an argument between the classes. Most people will feel that we are right to keep the governed state the way it is at the moment.

Boy A (Second Chances)

2009-02-16T09:21:00.001-08:00

Now i will start my first official blog by discussing a difficult issue.

After watching the tv film Boy A, it got me thinking should people be given a second chance. Well it would be very ignorant to answer such a question with a simple 'Yes' or 'No'. Personally i feel that in some cases they should be able too. But where do you draw the line of who deserves this chance and who doesn't.

A man who has been out celebrating a job promotion, drives home and hits a small child and kills them instantly. Does he deserve a second chance?

A childhood prank that has gone wrong?

Someone who has drunk more than they can handle and start a fight with a stranger and leaves them in a coma?

It's hard to know if an individual deserves to be given a second chance to prove they still have something to give in their lives. Yeah it's fair to say i have been influenced by the story, but there must be cases like this where the individual has made a mistake has admitted they have done wrong in their past and simply wants to be able to move forward. You would never get over such an event, the past never goes away and so is it not enough that they must suffer the rest of their lives knowing what they did. I'm sure there are those who have been affected by these issues and that's why it's very hard for me to answer the question above.
I can not say that in all cases people should be given a second chance. I do not believe in all this human rights rubbish!!! It's just that with all the hatred that builds up is not gonna make anything change. There is no way to change the past, so why be forced to live with so much venom. In some cases involving harm or abuse towards children do not really need to be discussed in detail as these individuals do not get healed or change. They did not make a mistake, if they were in the right mind, then there will always be a chance of a reoccurence of it happening again.
Those who have committed crimes that are sadistic, do not deserve a second chance. There is no room or pity to be given to those who have committed such acts. It leads to issues like do these people deserve to be given protection in jails or is this the reason why there was the death penalty in first place for certain people.

Underneath is the view from another person who feels strongly about people getting a second chance.

http://asianfanatics.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t228414.html

Despite many attempts it seems there is still many people who drink and drive. This has been where many people deserve a second chance. Yes it is wrong to do it, but sometimes people don't think it will happen to them. I mean if someone said to you that when you get to work today that a mad man will walk in with a sniper and shoot everyone, you not gonna be avoiding that place for the rest of your life, as it's very unlikely to happen but it doesn't mean it can't happen. One in five 17 to 18-year-old drivers admit that they drink and drive. Does it mean that they haven't been warned of what can happen if you do, Of course they have, but also is there just the same likelyhood that someone who is sober could also commit the same crime simply by being distracted for a brief second. I admit there have been times when i have looked away to change music or grab something out of glove box.

http://news.scotsman.com/guncrime/Gunman-kills-five-after-row.4225032.jp
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=avBqDOf_C4c

Does it matter who commits the crime. It seems that it seems all right for certain people to commit a crime but worse for everyday citizen.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sZRbTxmGGzk

The issue of drugs is a very hard one to argue. Should a drug dealer be able to get a second chance. Well it depends if they can stay on the straight. It would be so easy to slip into bad ways. If someone takes a class a drug and are caught do they deserve a second chance. Well if they haven't hurt anyone do they not deserve to be given a second chance. Can you really see someone as being underserving of a second chance cos they downloaded music or movies online. It doesn't hurt anyone, apart from the greedy fat shits in the industry.

You have to think that a crime can be committed by absolutely anyone. No one is safe from falling into bad ways. It can be the simplest of mistakes and you are instantly isolated from your society. An example could be that you may have lost your son who was killed by a hit and run driver and then you go and drive under the influence and do the same damage to someone else. The film Crash sums it up by saying that 'we all crash into each other' and it couldn't be any more correct.

In conclusion, Should someone get a second chance, well in certain cases 'yes' if they can prove that they can contribute something, then why shouldn't they.