California Family Law Attorney Issues Statement on Supreme Court Proposition 8 Ruling
California Family Law Attorney Issues Statement on Supreme Court Proposition 8 Ruling
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 2, 2009
California Family Law attorney Mary Ellen Waller says the recent ruling by the California Supreme Court on the validity of Proposition 8 is a dangerous ruling for all minorities. The following is a statement by Waller analyzing the decision:
The Court has handed the mob a loaded weapon that can too easily be used to pursue inappropriate discriminatory goals and agendas. The ruling undermines the judiciary’s authority to protect minority rights and it substantially alters the California Constitution as a document of independent force and effect.
In its ruling, the Court has altered the procedural process regarding Constitutional initiatives having to do with civil rights. They have done so by removing the procedural requirement that initiatives affecting only individual liberties go through the more rigorous, deliberative process known as Constitutional revision (as opposed to Constitutional amendment). The implications of this ruling have a far-reaching and chilling effect on state constitutional rights as this ruling has eased constraints on the ability of the majority interests in our State to discriminate. Indeed, it has been a hallmark of our State Constitution, our Federal Constitution, and the very fabric upon which our political and social systems in this nation were formed that we operate on a system of majority rule with protection for minority rights. Great and honorable steps against “tyranny of the majority” have been undertaken throughout our history, and sweeping policy attitudinal changes and reforms have been imposed to protect the rights of the minority in society.
This is why, for example, it is against the law to refuse to hire an individual because of their race or ethnic origin; why it is illegal to deny equal access to government based on a suspect classification (such as race, gender, religion, etc). These issues are very often hotly contested and debated, yet to our credit as a people very often we have been able to rise above our own individual prejudices and dislikes. We have enacted laws that are designed to protect the members of a minority group, members of, in Constitutional parlance, a “suspect class.” Race is generally considered to be the most easily recognizable example of a suspect classification, and there are indeed many others as well.
This assessment of the high Court’s “invitation to discriminate” falls far short of mere speculation or conjecture; a discriminatory pattern of behavior by the majority towards minorities is a well-documented reality throughout history. Let us recall that Nazi Germany started with German citizens being stripped of their rights for no reason other than their religion, Japanese-Americans of this country went from curfew to internment, women were not allowed to vote, and blacks were “separate”, “but equal,” a concept that is all too blatantly adopted by the Proposition 8 ruling. The Proposition 8 ruling opens the door for a majority of California voters to adopt future measures designed to gradually reduce or eliminate fundamental rights of vulnerable minorities. Click here to read more http://www.TheCaliforniaFamilyLawBlog.com
Mary Ellen Waller is a family law attorney licensed in California and New York. She is a shareholder of Feinberg & Waller, APC, a firm practicing exclusively in the area of family law with offices in Calabasas and Beverly Hills, California. The Daily Journal, the State of California’s legal newspaper, recently published an article by Waller entitled, “Whatever the Prop.8 Outcome, Some Families Will Be Stuck in Legal Limbo”. An in-depth analysis and report on the Supreme Court ruling on Proposition 8 can be found at http://www.TheCaliforniaFamilylawBlog.com
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ConspiracyPlanet.com Excerpts Iran-Contra Expose, Tags Bush Family Crimes
ConspiracyPlanet.com Excerpts Iran-Contra Expose, Tags Bush Family Crimes
(PRWEB) November 10, 2000
Washington insiders are in a tizzy over a blockbuster new electronic book by former black ops specialist Al Martin, which rips the covers off the sleaziest secrets of the Bush Crime Family.
Lt. Cmdr. Al Martin (US Navy, Ret.), who testified before the congressional Kerry Committee as well as the Alexander Committee, takes a razor-sharp cut at everyone from Crime Family Boss George Bush Sr. to Narcotics-Trafficking Patriot Ollie North in his tell-all tome “The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider.”
“The Conspirators” includes first-hand accounts of government sanctioned drug trafficking, illegal weaponms deals and an epidemic of fraud — securities fraud, real estate fraud and insurance fraud by high-level government perps.
And how did it start? When George Bush, Bill Casey, and Oliver North initiated their plan of wholesale fraud and drug smuggling, they envisioned using 500 men to raise $ 35 billion.
When Iran-Contra finally fell apart, they ended up using 5,000 operatives and making $ 350 billion in covert revenue to fund their secret illegal operations.
Author Al Martin tells the facts that have been ignored or covered up for fifteen years. He names names, dates and events no one has dared write or publish before.
“The Conspirators,” an uncensored secret history of Iran Contra, is available at Al Martin Raw.com (http://www.almartinraw.com) or by calling toll free 1-877-776-9004.
Excerpts from Chapter 19 of the book (“Corporate Fraud, Government Fraud and More Fraud”) can be found exclusively on alternative news and history website Conspiracy Planet (http://www.conspiracyplanet.com)
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Corruption six feet under
A woman in Moscow has complained that strangers have been buried in her family grave and claims her family plot was sold for a bribe.
Duration : 0:1:57
50 Things you Didn’t Know About Disney World
Think you know everything about Walt Disney World Resort and its four world-class theme parks – Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom? Think again! Even the biggest Disney fanatic will be amused, intrigued or surprised by some of the 50 fascinating Disney World facts listed below . . .
1. Walt Disney World encompasses 30,500 acres, making it approximately the same size as San Francisco.
2. When Disney’s Magic Kingdom first opened its doors on October 1, 1971, adult admission cost $3.50.
3. The opening day crowd at Disney’s Magic Kingdom was approximately 10,000 guests.
4. The eight “E ticket” attractions at Disney’s Magic Kingdom were Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Hall of Presidents, Jungle Cruise, It’s a Small World and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
5. The estimated annual attendance at Disney’s Magic Kingdom is 16.2 million, followed by Epcot with 9.9 million, Disney-MGM Studios with 8.6 million and Disney’s Animal Kingdom with 8.2 million.
6. Cinderella Castle is Disney’s tallest structure at 189 feet, followed by Space Mountain at 183 feet.
7. Both the Carousel of Progress and It’s A Small World made their debut at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
8. The 180-foot-tall Spaceship Earth at the entrance to Epcot weighs approximately 16 million pounds.
9. The Haunted Mansion uses state-of-the-art Omnimover vehicles called “Doom Buggies.”
10. The jolly headhunter who shows up near the end of the Jungle Cruise is known as “Trader Sam.”
11. In conjunction with the 2006 release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men’s Chest, the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney’s Magic Kingdom was renovated to add several characters from the movie such as Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa.
12. The icon of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, The Tree of Life, stands 14 stories, features more than 300 animal carvings and is 50 feet wide.
13. Built in 1917, Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel in Fantasyland was once located at Olympic Park in Maplewood, New Jersey.
14. The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios is housed in a replica of Mann’s Chinese Theater.
15. Astro Orbiter first opened in Tomorrowland in 1974 as Star Jets.
16. The Hall of Presidents had its origins as an audio-animatronic exhibition called “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” which premiered at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
17. Originally known as the “Tropical Serenade,” the Tiki Room in Adventureland was once sponsored by Florida Citrus Growers.
18. The 60-foot-tall Swiss Family Treehouse in Adventureland weighs approximately 200 tons and is made of concrete and thousands of polyethylene leaves.
19. Cinderella Castle, the centerpiece of Disney’s Magic Kingdom, features 18 towers and 13 gargoyles.
20. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at Fantasyland is located on the site of the former Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
21. The “Spirits of America” statues in The American Adventure at Epcot represent Adventure, Compassion, Discovery, Freedom, Heritage, Independence, Individualism, Innovation, Knowledge, Pioneering, Self-Reliance and Tomorrow.
22. Towering four stories over DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Dino-Sue is an exact replica of the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered.
23. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland features six trains: I.B. Hearty, I.M. Brave, I.M. Fearless, U.B. Bold, U.R. Daring and U.R. Courageous.
24. The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster – Starring Aerosmith at Disney-MGM Studios launches you at a speed of 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds.
25. A swinging suspension bridge leads from Tom Sawyer Island to Fort Langhorne, which was named after Samuel Langhorne Clemens (better known as Mark Twain).
26. The replica of the Liberty Bell that can be found in the center of Liberty Square was built from the same authentic cast as the original in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
27. The exit to Haunted Mansion features crypts with humorous names inscribed such as I.M. Ready, Rustin Peese, Pearl E. Gates, Manny Festation, Dustin T. Dust and Asher T. Ashes.
28. The Walt Disney World Railroad, which serves approximately 1.5-million passengers annually, is an authentic 1928 steam-powered train.
29. The Mission: SPACE thrill ride at Epcot is so authentic that motion sickness bags are available just in case of emergency.
30. Mickey’s Toontown Fair was once known as both Mickey’s Birthdayland and Mickey’s Starland.
31. Sonny Eclipse, an “intergalactic lounge singer,” performs daily at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in Tomorrowland.
32. In order to rank as a “Galactic Hero” at Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, you must score 900,000 to 999,999 points.
33. The audio-animatronic dog in the Carousel of Progress is named “Rover.”
34. Astronauts Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and Jim Irwin were present at the grand opening of Space Mountain in 1975.
35. Stitch’s Great Escape in Tomorrowland lies at the former site of ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, which closed in 2003.
36. One of the original attractions at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway was once known as Grand Prix Raceway.
37. Recently renamed The Seas with Nemo & Friends, The Living Seas pavilion opened at Epcot in 1986 and was originally sponsored by United Technologies.
38. “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience,” a 3-D film at Epcot, is located in Future World at the former site of “Captain EO,” another 3-D adventure that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starred Michael Jackson and Anjelica Huston.
39. Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus was the first champion at the Walt Disney World Open Invitational, which made its debut in 1971.
40. The Tomorrowland Transit Authority was originally called the WEDway People Mover (WED standing for Walter Elias Disney).
41. Disney’s Magic Kingdom, which encompasses approximately 107 acres, is itself larger than Disneyland, which only covers 80 acres in Anaheim, California.
42. The design of Main Street U.S.A. was loosely based on Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri.
43. The Swiss Family Treehouse is of the species Disneyodendron eximus or “Out-of-the-Ordinary Disney Tree.”
44. The 189-foot-tall water tower icon at Disney-MGM Studios is known as the “Earffel Tower.”
45. Jungle Cruise riverboats include Amazon Annie, Bomokandi Bertha, Congo Connie, Ganges Gertie, Irrawaddy Irma, Kwango Kate, Mongala Millie, Nile Nelly, Orinoco Ida, Rutshuru Ruby, Sankuru Sadie, Senegel Sal, Ucvali Lolly, Volta Val, Wamba Wanda and Zambesi Zelda.
46. Splash Mountain in Adventureland features a five-story, free-fall plunge at a 45-degree angle into a splash pool at a speed of 40 miles per hour.
47. The 8,500-acre Disney Wilderness Preserve, which lies 15 miles South of Disney World, features a Conservation Learning Center and hiking trails.
48. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is located at the former site of If You Had Wings in Tomorrowland.
49. The three “talking heads” who introduce the Country Bears Jamboree are named Buff, Max and Melvin.
50. Approximately 46 million people visit Walt Disney World – including Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney – annually.
Ryan Wiseman
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/50-things-you-didnt-know-about-disney-world-110072.html
Gov. Rod Blagojevich
You’d think that the past history of so many Illinois Governors going to jail would have sent a message to Rod Blagojevich that he needed to mind his manners. One would also think that on the heals of the Rezko scandal to which Blagojevich was associated with and still under investigation that he would be more than careful. Ah, but we’re talking Cook (Crook) County, Illinois now aren’t we!
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested by FBI agents on federal corruption charges Tuesday morning. Blagojevich and Harris were arrested simultaneously at their homes at about 6:15 a.m., according to Frank Bochte of the FBI. Both were transported to FBI headquarters in Chicago.
In one charge related to the appointment of a senator to replace Barack Obama, prosecutors allege that Blagojevich sought appointment for himself as secretary of Health and Human Services in the new Obama administration, or a lucrative job with a union, in exchange for appointing a union-preferred candidate.
Blagojevich and Harris, along with others, obtained and sought to gain financial benefits for the governor, members of his family and his campaign fund in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions, state jobs and state contracts, according to the charges. “The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement.
And Barack Obama has to be excited that the primary season is over since a grand jury has now gotten involved in the Rezko-Obama land sale. A former Illinois bank official, now claiming whistleblower status, says bank officials replaced a loan reappraisal that he prepared for a Chicago property that was purchased by the wife of now-convicted felon Tony Rezko, part of which was later sold to next-door neighbor Barack Obama.
Raw red meat for Hannity and El Rushbo!
In a complaint filed Thursday in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Kenneth J. Connor said that his reappraisal of Rita Rezko’s property was replaced with a higher one and that he was fired when he questioned the document. The complaint also said that the grand jury wanted information on Mrs. Rezko’s checking account and loan file and that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) had audited the Rezko file – although Mr. Connor’s lower reappraisal had been replaced with a higher amount. “Connor’s internal whistle-blowing activity at Mutual Bank implicates Mutual Bank and the potentially guilty officers thereof to prosecution under federal and Illinois statutes,” said the complaint, filed by attorney Glenn R. Gaffney.
It’s just politics as usual!
Cook county politics especially.
Ernie Fitzpatrick
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/gov-rod-blagojevich-677051.html
Gift Ideas for Corporate World
Giving gifts is an incomparable scheme, the goal of that is to bring a smile to the person who will receive the gift. In turn, it leaves a lasting impression on the person that tells how much you value Gifts for Men or a Gifts for Women. No wonder why people values the idea of giving and receiving gifts. In reality, gifts are symbols of one’s point of view and feelings towards the other person. They embody our family whenever we are away from our loved ones; our friends back home whenever we pass by the memories of yesteryears, and one’s treasured person when you are at the time of coldness. That is why people put so much value on the gifts that they give and receive because they know how special it is for the person who will receive it as it is for them. When giving gifts, it can either be formal or personal. Things may vary according to who will receive the gift. Usually, it is not difficult to buy a gift for your love ones or for your friends. Unfortunately, when it comes to giving gifts in your corporate circle like your boss, a colleague, or a business partner, careful considerations must be observed. At the same time you must employ some creative thinking in order to come up with a remarkable gift.
1. Gift Giving For The Corporate World
– In Hopes Of A Promotion – Sign Of Gratitude – Way Of Saying Thank You – Peace Offering – Clear Up A Misunderstanding – Offer In Good Faith For A Contract Agreement
2. Pay Attention To Details: When it comes to corporate gifts, you should not take it for granted. Every detail must be carefully laid out and must be delicately enhanced. For example, before presenting a corporate gift, be sure that it is undamaged and unspoiled in every detail. Moreover, when presenting or giving corporate gifts, it should fit the taste of the person who will receive it. That is why it is important to consider the taste of the person, the likes and dislikes, and whatever details that will describe his or her preferences.
3. Mugs: For corporate people who addicted to coffee, you can give them mugs of different varieties. You may purchase one from the well-known coffee shops or from those that they frequently hang out. These mugs come in different designs and styles that will truly fascinate your special someone, whether personally or professionally. You can also give them personalized mugs to give that special touch. You can have their pictures printed on the mug or a picture where both of you are included.
4. Crystal Items: For so many years now, crystals are known to exude sheer elegance and sophistication. So, when choosing a gift for your lady boss, it’s best that you give her any items that have crystals on it. The most typical and appropriate gift would be jewelries with various crystals on it. Crystals put a flattering remark on everyone’s good taste and wants; hence, it is best to give them something made of crystal so as to generate positive responses.
5. Scented Candles: These candles will produce the kind of aroma that could relax the senses thereby invigorating renewed spirit and personality. There are scented candles that help eliminate stress and anxieties. Also, scented candles come in creative designs, too. So, they can be creative displays on one’s table. So, it’s a great idea to give your corporate friends some scented candles.
6. Personalized Items: These are the ultimate corporate ideas that you can use when you need to give a gift to your boss or to your colleagues. Giving them personalized items will make them feel how much you value them by exerting such efforts in order to come up with an amusing item. For example, you can buy a clock then add some personal touches like replacing the numbers with colourful buttons. Andy Steave
http://www.articlesbase.com/relationships-articles/gift-ideas-for-corporate-world-50169.html
“Unquenchable Russia”, or Forbidden Themes in Nabokov’s Prose
“…What I feel to be the real modern world is the world the artist creates, his own mirage, which becomes a new mir (“world” in Russian) by the very act of his shedding, as it were, the age he lives in” . Such an answer Nabokov once gave to an interviewer who was interested in his opinion regarding the modern world and contemporary politics. The book which contains this interview as well as many others, is entitled Strong Opinions, and, indeed, Nabokov is well-known not only for his brilliant fiction but for his original, independent and uncompromising views on creativity, art and the place of artist in the world. Whenever interviewed, he avoided discussion of “general ideas” such as social, political and moral issues and asserted that such global concerns lay outside the realm of art: “A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me. I don’t give a damn for the group, the community, the masses, and so forth… There can be no question that what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art . A work of art, for Nabokov, is a world in itself, brought to life by one’s creative imagination. It leads its own independent existence, unrelated to its historical surroundings and realities. In the introduction to his Lectures on Literature Nabokov explains once again: “…The real writer, the fellow who sends planets spinning and models a man asleep and eagerly tampers with the sleeper’s rib, that kind of author has no given values at his disposal: he must create them himself. The art of writing is a futile business if it does not imply first of all the art of seeing the world as the potentiality of fiction” . In this statement, visions of cosmic grandeur and an obvious reference to the story of Adam and Eve reflect a parallel between creator-artist and creator-God. In one of his interviews Nabokov explicitly brings out this comparison: “A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only of recombining but of re-creating the given world” .
Nabokov’s position is, to a degree, a reaction to the situation in Soviet Russia, where demands of the state dominated the needs of a human being, where the individual was suppressed by the collective and details by generalities. He asserts once again the power and independence of personal creativity, the ability of one’s imagination to build worlds of its own, and makes a sharp distinction between a work of fiction and everything outside of it, including the personality of its creator. “Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both truth and art” .
Nabokov insisted on a specific approach to literature from the readers as well. He renounced the usual tendencies of identifying oneself with a book’s characters, searching for clues to the social and political realities of the time the work was written, or trying to form “general ideas” about a book without absorbing all its specific details. Emotional involvement, he pointed out, could also prevent the reader from objective appreciation of the work “…A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle even though we must keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading” .
Nabokov avoided formulating his ideas under the famous slogan “art for art’s sake” just as he avoided labels of all kinds, but this well-known phrase can undoubtedly be used to describe his views and attitudes towards literature. In this hierarchy of values, aesthetic concerns dominate all others, and the influence of a great work of art on its reader is limited to a “tingle in the spine”. However, it remains to be seen, to what extent Nabokov’s ideas penetrate his own fiction; whether his novels are entirely a product of his creative imagination or a result of the deep personal experience that saturates them with great intensity.
Nabokov changed countries and languages during his creative life, and it is interesting to analyze whether these changes affected his books. Comparing two of Nabokov’s novels, The Gift, written in Russian mostly in Berlin of the 1930s, and Pale Fire, written in English at a much later date, can provide an insight into these questions.
As Nabokov mentioned in the foreword to The Gift, “the main heroine” of the novel is Russian literature, and the main character is a writer, an emigre author Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, who shares many autobiographical details with Nabokov. Like Nabokov during his post-Cambridge years, Fyodor lives in Berlin of the 1920s, writes poetry and makes a living by giving lessons in English and French. He leads, for the most part, a solitary existence, devoting his time first and foremost to literature. Happy childhood in St. Petersburg, love of butterflies and chess problems, synesthesia, – all this Fyodor has in common with Nabokov. Description of certain episodes mirrors incidents from Nabokov’s own life, depicted much later in his autobiographical book Speak, Memory, – for example, the story of a childhood illness: high fever, obsession with numbers and a huge Faber pencil, given as a gift by the mother.
Perhaps, the most significant trait that Fyodor shares with Nabokov is passionate love of literary language, faith in the power of the written word: “Since there were things he (Fyodor) wanted to express just as naturally as unrestrainedly as the lungs want to expand, hence words suitable for breathing ought to exist” . Fyodor reflects on his youthful interest in rhyme and meter, analyzing the very mechanisms by which words interact and fit together like pieces of a puzzle to form the harmonious whole of a poem. Fyodor shares Nabokov’s dislike of generalities such as social issues or psychiatry. When he briefly considers the possibility of fulfilling his acquaintance, Mme. Chernyshevski’s yet unvoiced request to write about her son, he explains his aversion to the idea as follows: “I would have become enmired involuntarily in a “deep” social-interest novel with a disgusting Freudian reek” .
Most clearly, Fyodor’s (and Nabokov’s) views on literature are expressed in Fyodor’s (imaginary) conversations with Koncheyev – a fellow emigre poet, the only one whose work he admires and whose opinions he considers valuable. When Fyodor and Koncheyev leave a literary gathering and walk together down the street, a unique, brilliant dialogue, filled with allusions to various works of Russian literature, takes place between them. “…There are only two kinds of books: bedside and wastebasket. Either I love a writer fervently, or throw him away entirely” , – declares Fyodor, and the two proceed to discuss what, in their opinion, is the best and the worst in the works by famous Russian writers. Both are utterly uninterested in “general ideas” or the moral significance of the writings they talk about (aspects which always attracted Russian critics and gained new importance in the Soviet period), and all they do is lovingly point out purely artistic findings of this or that writer. They praise Leskov’s Jesus – “the ghostly Galilean, cool and gentle, in a robe the color of ripening plum” or “the gray sheen of Mme. Odintsev’s black silks” in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Speaking of dismissed Dostoyevski, Fyodor notes: “In the Karamazovs, there is somewhere a circular mark left by a wet wine glass on an outdoor table”, – and that, for him, is the only thing “worth saving” . As for several writers known for their beautiful depictions of nature, Fyodor ruthlessly criticizes them for mistakes in their descriptions of natural phenomena: “My father used to find all kinds of howlers in Turgenev’s and Tolstoy’s hunting scenes and descriptions of nature, and as for the wretched Aksakov, let’s not even discuss his disgraceful blunders in this field” . All these statements obviously echo Nabokov’s own approach to literature, with his love of detail, his insistence on accurate knowledge of the natural world and dismissal of any other criteria in judging works of literature.
Nabokov’s belief in the power of deception and invention in creating fiction frequently finds expression in his attempts to mislead the reader, to establish this or that false move in the development of the plot, which, after a few pages, turns out to be an illusion, a figment of the character’s imagination. The whole exchange between Fyodor and Koncheyev proves to be such an illusion: “Whose business is it that actually we parted at the very first corner, and that I have been reciting a fictitious dialogue with myself as supplied by a self-teaching handbook of literary inspiration?” However, the significance of this non-existent conversation in the novel is not limited to expression of opinions on art and display of Nabokov’s mystification devices. It shows the extent of Fyodor’s loneliness, the absence of interlocutors with whom he could share his extensive knowledge of literature and love of language: the degree of detachment from the surrounding world. In his book Speak, Memory Nabokov describes the way native Europeans were perceived by Russian immigrants in Germany or France: “These aborigines were to the mind’s eye as flat and transparent as figures cut out of cellophane, and although we used their gadgets, applauded their clowns, picked their roadside plums and apples, no real communication, of the rich human sort so widespread in our own midst, existed between us and them” . The Gift recreates that atmosphere of cultural and human isolation in which Fyodor has to dwell. Deprived of his own cultural environment, Fyodor feels nothing but resentment towards the German-speaking world he is trapped in. “The Russian conviction that the German is in small numbers vulgar and in large numbers – unbearably vulgar was, he knew, a conviction unworthy of an artist” , – and still he cannot help it, as he directs all his irrational hatred at a German who pushes him in a bus (and who, ironically, turns out to be a Russian).
Like Nabokov, Fyodor is trilingual, but his French and English in his current situation serve a purely utilitarian purpose, whereas Russian remains the language of his soul and his art. Riding a bus to one of his tedious teaching jobs, Fyodor thinks of himself: “…there he is, a special, rare and as yet undescribed and unnamed variant of man, and he is occupied with God knows what, rushing from lesson to lesson, wasting his youth on a boring and empty task, on the mediocre teaching of foreign languages – when he has his own language, out of which he can make anything he likes – a midge, a mammoth, a thousand different clouds” . This is why there are hardly any examples of word play and language switch in The Gift.
On the way to yet another hateful lesson Fyodor becomes completely immersed in the memories of Russia and his past life there, – memories ”swift and senseless, visiting him like an attack of a fatal illness at any hour, in any place” . The warm, sunny vision of the Russian countryside after a short summer rain stands out in such a sharp contrast with the surrounding colorless reality and the upcoming encounter with a hopeless pupil, that Fyodor ends up skipping the lesson and going home to his writings. This is another theme expressed in The Gift with great emotional power – the theme of nostalgia, longing for the lost homeland. Whenever faced with the question about Russia during his interviews, Nabokov gave replies such as “all the Russia I need is always with me” or “exile means to an artist only one thing – the banning of his books” . Sometimes, however, he speaks of Russia quite differently: “In the first decade of our dwindling century, during trips with my family to Western Europe, I imagined, in bedtime reveries, what it would be like to become an exile who longed for a remote, sad and (right epithet coming) unquenchable Russia, under the eucalypti of exotic resorts. Lenin and his police nicely arranged the realization of that fantasy” .
References to Russia in Nabokov’s novels, particularly The Gift, bear a trace of an overwhelming and bitter sense of loss, coming, undoubtedly, from personal experience. Like Nabokov, Fyodor transforms his inner world into art, and his poetry, born out of childhood memories, justifies, as he says, the years spent in exile. But even creative fulfillment in literature cannot fully relieve Fyodor of his nostalgia, which sometimes becomes almost a physical sensation: “For a long time he had wanted to express somehow that it was in his feet that he had the feeling of Russia, that he could touch and recognize all of her with his soles, as a blind man feels with his palms” . Again and again, he imagines an impossible return to his familiar and changed country: “And when will we return to Russia? What idiotic sentimentality, what a rapacious groan must our innocent hope convey to people in Russia. But our nostalgia is not historical – only human- how can one explain this to them?” Immediately following these lines is one of Nabokov’s central thoughts expressed through the words of his character and given a somewhat ironic ending: “It is easier for me, of course, than for another to live outside Russia, because I know for certain that I shall return – first because I took away the keys to her, and secondly because, no matter when, in a hundred, two hundred years, I shall live there in my books – or at least in some researcher’s footnote. There; now you have a historical hope, a literary-historical one…”
In this passage, there are two distinct perspectives on Russia, two different ways of perception – that of an artist and that of a simple human being, and it is the more independent, proud and detached position of an artist that Nabokov prefers to present to the world. He always vigorously protested against being identified with his characters, and, perhaps, it was his way of concealing that part of himself, which contained his own human feelings and dreams, often painful, often helplessly irresolvable. Nevertheless, just like in one of Fyodor’s childhood memories colors leak into his vision of letters and irrevocably affect his perception of language, this private and forbidden world of Nabokov inevitably enters his fiction in various guises and through different characters. Besides the theme of nostalgia, there is another highly personal development of the plot in The Gift, and it is Fyodor’s relationship with his father. Konstantin Godunov-Cherdyntsev is an explorer who is also very absorbed in his occupation and uninterested in the major upheavals that occur in Russia. In 1917, despite the troubled situation in Russia, he departs on one of his expeditions and never returns. It is another loss that haunts Fyodor: even though there is hardly any hope of seeing his father again, he keeps dreaming of his return, imagining that one day he would meet his father on the street, or hear a phone call… In one of the most poignant episodes in the novel, the phone rings, after all, in the middle of the night, and Fyodor rushes to the house of his former landlady along the streets of Berlin which suddenly become transformed into a beautiful, mysterious world somewhat reminiscent of St. Petersburg in a white night. Fyodor enters the room and sees his father. “With a moan and a sob Fyodor stepped toward him, and in the collective sensation of woolen jacket, big hands and the tender prickle of trimmed mustaches there swelled an ecstatically happy, living, enormous, paradisal warmth in which his icy heart melted and dissolved” . And again, almost unbearably this time, the whole scene turns out to be one of Nabokov’s false twists, and Fyodor wakes up from yet another dream to a cold and empty morning.
Nabokov denied a work of art any kind of “truth” aside from artistic one, but the episode with Fyodor’s father radiates with human truth: warmth, longing, vulnerability, the void of shattered hopes… One just has to remember the tragic death of Nabokov’s own father, to understand where all this is coming from.
In The Gift, covers are often transparent, and its hero is presented from multiple angles. He is not just a writer who “treats life as a possibility of fiction”, he is a human being who sees the world through the prism of his own experience, his own joys and sorrows.
The Gift was the last novel Nabokov wrote in Russian. In 1940, he immigrated to the United States and, since then, wrote his major works only in English. The change, as he said, was not easy: “My complete switch from Russian prose to English prose was exceedingly painful – like learning anew to handle things after losing seven or eight fingers in an explosion” . Pale Fire, one of Nabokov’s English novels, was written partially at the end of his stay in America, partially in Switzerland, where Nabokov spent his later years. The novel has important structural and thematic similarities to The Gift. Like The Gift, where a whole separate chapter is devoted to Fyodor’s biography of Chernyshevsky, a book on its own, Pale Fire contains a work of literature within it – a long poem written by an American poet John Shade. The rest of the novel is a commentary, which for the most part has nothing to do with the poem itself. It is an elaborate story of remote Zembla, whose king has been swept off the throne by the revolution and fled the country. Gradually, it becomes clear that Charles Kinbote, Shade’s neighbor and the author of the commentary, is himself the fugitive king. Therefore, as in The Gift, there is a theme of exile and a theme of creativity, though in Pale Fire they take quite a different development.
As Kinbote explains, “the name Zembla is a corruption not of the Russian zemlya, but of Semblerland, a land of reflections, of “resemblers” . Zemblan language resembles several European languages at the same time. There are obvious traces of Russian in it, and some words are borrowed almost unchanged: for example, there is a picture of bogtyr (bogatyr’ in Russian) in a Zemblan history book, and there are “stone-faced, square-shouldered komizars” (Russian: commissar) maintaining order on Zemblan streets after the revolution. Besides, French and German can be vaguely discerned in other phrases. “Minnamin, Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan (my darling, God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty)” , – a Zemblan nurse says to Kinbote, and one hears, besides the Russian “alkat’” and, possibly, the English “pernicious”, “mon amie”, “Gott”, and the first person of the German “mochten”.
Nabokov in his interviews stressed that Zembla is not Russia, and, indeed, there is another Russia in the novel, a totalitarian state that contributes to the Zemblan revolution. Kinbote talks about “the tainted gold and the robot troops that a powerful police state from its vantage ground a few sea miles away was pouring into the Zemblan Revolution” . Kinbote’s constantly talks about Zembla, but his memories of it lack that depth of human feeling, which marks Fyodor’s nostalgia. Even though Kinbote repeats again and again “my Zembla”, “dazzling Zembla” , tenderness that shines through the best pages of The Gift, is missing from his story. It is essentially a story of himself and his escape from the country. For a king, Kinbote shows a remarkable lack of interest in the revolution that struck his country and the possible causes which led to it. He is more preoccupied with aesthetic and literary pleasures and calls the whole business of politics “a tiresome subject” . As for the revolution, all he can say about it is that it was “tedious and unnecessary” . In Kinbote’s attitude, there is some of Nabokov’s own indifference towards social and political issues. On the whole, the theme of exile is treated in the novel with certain coldness and detachment, but there are passages, which by their warmth and profound lyricism can be compared to The Gift. For example, Kinbote comments on his roommate who gets up early in morning and plants flowers with a very curious name: Heliotropium turgenevi. “This is the flower whose odor evokes with timeless intensity the dusk, and the garden bench, and a house of painted wood in a distant northern land” . Even aside from the reference to Turgenev, it is clear that this land, for Nabokov, is no other than Russia, – not the monstrous police state in the vicinity of Zembla, but the real, immortal, beloved Russia of Nabokov’s memory. And this short passage retains more emotional freshness and power than colorful descriptions of Zemblan mountains that have no counterpart in the author’s childhood recollections.
It seems that, to Kinbote, being in exile means not so much the loss of the homeland as the loss of his name and title (which he now has to hide), and thus partially the loss of his identity, and in this way his isolation and detachment is more complete than that of Fyodor in The Gift. One of the critics of Pale Fire interprets his behavior as follows: “…he is trying to get the poet John Shade to confirm his identity, to validate the Zemblan reality which is his hope of salvation by turning it into a poem” . With maniacal persistence Kinbote keeps talking with Shade about Zembla: “I mesmerized him with it, I saturated him with my vision, I pressed upon him, with a drunkard’s wild generosity, all that I was helpless myself to put into verse” . Kinbote calls his relationship with the poet “friendship”, but, in fact, he cannot care less about Shade as a human being with his own hopes and sorrows. While commenting on the poem, he utterly neglects the parts about Shade’s wife and daughter. Sybil Shade, who protects her husband from his neighbor’s intrusions, for Kinbote, is just as annoying obstacle in the way, and to him, the tender lines that Shade devotes to his wife are nothing but “embarrassing intimacies” . Kinbote haughtily deals with the theme of Shade’s daughter, Hazel’s, suicide, obviously a very painful and personal subject for the poet, as if it was merely a stylistic device: “The whole thing strikes me as too labored and long, especially since the synchronization device has been already worked to death by Flaubert and Joyce” . When Kinbote feels lonely and afraid in his empty house, he wishes that Shade had a heart attack, – just to have an excuse to come over and escape loneliness and fear. At the end of the novel, when Shade has been mistakenly shot by the assassin, his “friend” is in no hurry to call for help: instead, he rushes to hide the poem, which, he thinks, contains the story of his own life.
In comparison to Kinbote, John Shade appears to be a much more appealing character, and he possesses some traits that bring more human warmth into his image: he can be lazy, he likes hearty meals, brandy and wine; he loves his wife and daughter and is generally more tolerant towards people who are not as bright and talented as he is. Nabokov gives his character some of his most cherished thoughts. For example, Shade, who is also a teacher of literature, expresses his views on teaching: “First of all, dismiss ideas, and social background, and get the freshman to shiver, to get drunk on the poetry of Hamlet or Lear, to read with his spine and not with his skull” . However, since Shade’s personality is seen in the novel only through Kinbote’s uncaring eyes, his inner world is more or less concealed from the reader. It is only through Shade’s poem that one can glimpse into the questions, which preoccupy the poet. The poem, on the whole, is a painful, difficult search for meaning, an attempt to make sense of the whole puzzle of human life and death, to find a way of transcending one’s mortality. No human thought or emotion can relieve one from being trapped in one’s own finite world. Everything fails except art: art for its own sake, art that contains a unique, perfectly harmonized inner reality, which can be perceived as a reflection of a greater pattern:
I feel I understand
Existence, or at least a minute part,
Of my existence, only through my art,
In terms of combinational delight…
“Combinational delight”, indeed, is important not only in Shade’s poem but in the whole novel. As in The Gift, artistic detail is a focus of concentration in Pale Fire, but here attention is focused on an even subtler level where language itself is analyzed. Pale Fire is an example of extremely dense prose where individual words are more than just carriers of meaning: they become, in a way, themselves a subject of the novel. One of Shade’s warmest images of his family together is a memory of the evenings when both he and Sybil helped their daughter to understand really obscure words from her English textbook. A difference of one letter in the words “mountain” and “fountain” becomes crucial in the story of Shade’s attempt to penetrate the mystery of the hereafter. The book is filled with examples of word play, often involving several languages, and references to numerous works of literature (some of which are likely to be Nabokov’s own inventions). In Shade’s poem, there are such peculiar combinations as: “Fra Karamazov, mumbling his inept all is allowed” , which is a mixture of Alyosha Karamazov, Raskol’nikov, and, perhaps, Italian painter Fra Angelico with his intensely spiritual religious art. But nobody in the novel is more involved in digging into words than Kinbote. He is constantly preoccupied with deciphering literary allusions, musing over interplay of words, meanings, rhymes and sounds. Nabokov mentioned in his lectures that a dictionary should be a necessary attribute of a good reader, and, ironically, Kinbote, who can hardly be called a good reader, dutifully follows the lines of Shade’s masterpiece with his dictionary. For the most part, he is obsessively searching references to Zembla and his own life story in the poem, but sometimes he simply takes aesthetic pleasure in certain lines of it:
“Lines 131-132: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain by feigned remoteness in the windowpane.
The exquisite melody of the two lines opening the poem is picked up here. The repetition of that long-drawn note is saved from monotony by the subtle variation in line 132 where the assonance between its second word and the rhyme gives the ear a kind of languorous pleasure as would the echo of some half-remembered sorrowful song…” Shade’s commentator genuinely enjoys the magic of words, and so does Nabokov, whose multilingualism, artistic sense and incomparable mastery of language found full expression in the creation of the truly marvelous poem, as well as other parts of the novel.
Perhaps, the refined world of literature allows Kinbote a way of escape from his troubled personal reality, and so it does for Shade, and, to a degree, for Fyodor in The Gift, and, ultimately, for Nabokov. In his commentary, Kinbote recounts an episode when someone in the presence of Shade tells a story of a mad railroad worker, who “thought he was God and began redirecting the trains”. “That (“mad”) is the wrong word”, – he (Shade) said. – “One should not apply it to a person who deliberately peels off a drab and unhappy past and replaces it with a brilliant invention” . Still, comparison of Nabokov’s novels shows that the most “brilliant invention” becomes truly alive only if the light of one’s own human experience, however “drab and unhappy”, illuminates it from within. In Pale Fire the walls sheltering Nabokov’s private world of memory and feeling are thicker than in The Gift, and the novel follows more closely Nabokov’s ideas of art as elegant deception, an entirely invented world which should be approached on aesthetic rather than emotional grounds. This is the major difference between Pale Fire and The Gift.
Time is likely to be one of the factors behind this change: Pale Fire was written almost twenty years later than The Gift, as greater and greater distance separated Nabokov from his Russian past with which he had stronger emotional bond than with the years spent abroad. Another important factor is, probably, language. Nabokov was very proud of his English works and repeatedly called himself an American writer, but sometimes he provided his readers with unexpected revelations such as: “My private tragedy, which cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern, is that I had to abandon my natural language, my natural idiom, my rich, infinitely rich and docile Russian tongue, for a second-rate brand of English” . In another interview, when asked which language he considered the most beautiful, Nabokov replied: “My head says English, my heart, Russian, my ear, French” . It is possible to say that for him Russian conveyed emotional power, while English had more of an intellectual appeal, and this is one of the reasons why Pale Fire, written in English, appeals to the brain more than it does to feelings.
One of the most striking confessions that bridges Nabokov’s inner world with his public self exists in a poem. An Evening of Russian Poetry, written in English in 1945, is a rhymed presentation of a public lecture which Nabokov gives to an audience of American students, predominantly female. Russian poetry is the theme of the lecture, but Nabokov approaches it in the way typical for him: he does not talk about schools, trends and periods. Again, he speaks of letters, shapes, individual intricate details, and hidden tenderness shines through his words, staying invisible for his listeners. They ask him questions about his favorite trees and stones, echoing that insensitive critic from The Gift, whose “discussion of Koncheyev’s book boiled down to his answering for the author a kind of implied questionnaire (Your favorite flower? Favorite hero? Which virtue do you prize most?)” In Nabokov’s discussion of Pushkin and Nekrasov everything merges and melts together: the sky and the grass, the beauty of verse and human feeling, – and inevitable theme of exile. Nabokov speaks of memories, saying openly: “I must remind you in conclusion that I am followed everywhere and that space is collapsible” . His private tragedy is lost on his young listeners, whose innocent inquiry prompts what becomes the most remarkable ending of a poem:
How would you say “delightful talk” in Russian?
How would you say “good night”?
Oh, that would be:
Bessonnitza, tvoy vzor oonyl i strashen;
lubov moya, otstoopnika prostee.
(Insomnia, your stare is dull and ashen,
my love, forgive me this apostasy.)
All of Nabokov’s carefully hidden private world that, he insists, “cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern”, is suddenly revealed in these poignant lines: long nights, loneliness, the feeling of guilt over abandoning one’s language and nostalgia for inaccessible, unforgettable, “unquenchable Russia”.
Bibliography
1). Kernan, Alvin B. “Reading Zemblan: The Audience Disappears in Nabokov’s Pale Fire”. Vladimir Nabokov (Modern Critical Views). Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 101-125.
2). ???????, ????????. ???. ??????: ??????, 1990.
3). Nabokov, Vladimir. The Gift. New York: Capricorn Books, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.
4). —. Lectures on Literature. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1982.
5). —. Pale Fire. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.
6). —. Poems and Problems. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1970.
7). —. Speak, Memory. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.
8). —. Strong Opinions. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1973.
Elena Koutcherova
http://www.articlesbase.com/fiction-articles/unquenchable-russia-or-forbidden-themes-in-nabokovs-prose-204030.html
Retrieving Public Death Records Online
One of the first public records is Public Death Records. They started in the early 1900′s and form today’s Vital Public Records in conjunction with Birth, Divorce and Marriage Records. As with other public records, Public Death Records is not a voluntary or optional procedure. It is determined and mandated by the discretion of the authorities.
The information that can be derived from Public Death Records includes the personal particulars of the deceased, spouse, children and parents, time and place of death, death certificate, burial and funeral matters. It is also customary to insert an obituary into death records, especially when the deceased had been a distinguished or accomplished figure.
Some of the information contained in Death Records Search is actually quite private and people are known to be sensitive about it. That’s why there can be restrictions on their accessibility and use, death records being public records notwithstanding. Other than that, Public Death Records are by and large freely available from government agencies and private sources alike.
People Find Death Records for a multitude of reasons and purposes most predominant of which are catching up on long lost friends, tracing family trees and researching specific individuals. They are also widely used in Genealogy and other historical studies and are a primary resource for the Police and other enforcement bodies in their criminal investigation work.
Different states have different laws governing the access and use of Public Death Records. Furthermore, the death record databases of the various states are not linked. That means if it is not known which state precisely is the subject’s state of residence, a state by state search would have to be conducted in order for the search to be exhaustive. Having that said, records within each state however are uploaded onto a central state repository.
Death Records Search are very popular. They can be requested at any delegated government agency by mail, telephone, fax or walk-in. These days, the online option over the internet is also offered by the majority of public offices. Not surprisingly, Death Records Online has become the most popular way of retrieving Public Death Records.
Although we can Find Death Records essentially free of charge from public offices, the setback is it usually requires queue and waiting period. The format of records among different agencies is also not standardized so they can be potluck in that sense. For more purposeful searches, people would be better-served with fee-based professional information providers which are abundantly found on all major search engines.
Ben Dave
http://www.articlesbase.com/genealogy-articles/retrieving-public-death-records-online-718859.html
Are We Really One World? German Au Pairs and Cultural Differences
With the rising costs of childcare, American families are hosting au pairs in staggering numbers. There has been an increase in the number of au pairs with nearly 22,000 young women residing in the USA last year, up 44% from 2004! This is a dramatic increase and the trend appears to be growing despite the weak economy.
The French term, au pair, denotes a young woman who “lives as an equal” with her host family. Au pair agencies recruit young women from over 55 countries, with China as the newest “hot” placement for sophisticated American families seeking to expose their children to Mandarin.
Despite global connections between countries and the politcally correct phrase “we are all one world” cultural differences exist across Europe, Asia and South America - top areas au pair agencies recruit from. These cultural differences add flavor and spice to the host family’s year with their au pair and both benefit from cross-cultural experiences.
Knowledge of cultural differences is critical to a host family’s success with their au pair -American behavior may be viewed as rude or insulting to an au pair, and Americans can often misinterpret an au pair’s interactions with their children, etc.
One of the more popular countries that Americans prefer when hosting an au pair is Germany. Let’s take a look at why this is true:
The idea of traveling to the United States to become an au pair is a very familiar concept in Germany. These young women are motivated by several factors including a desire to become more independent, to improve their English skills, and to experience American culture. German youth are fascinated with American music, TV programs, Hollywood stars and movies. In addition, young German women know that a year abroad that improves her English is a significant plus on her resume, greatly increasing her job potential once she returns home. Therefore, the au pair program continues to be a highly popular gap year for young women who usually return to Germany to continue at University. Approximately 37% of all au pairs who arrive in the United States are from Western Europe and 23% of that number are from Germany (although in recent years, that trend seems to be declining).
German Culture
- Young people in Germany have much more freedom from their families to socialize and date compared to their American peers. Socializing with friends is very important and German youth go out to pubs from the early age of 16. If your German au pair likes to go out and socialize, do not misinterpret this as ”party girl” – she will most likely be sitting in a Starbucks talking with other German au pairs or visiting our nation’s famous sights to expand her knowledge of America.
- Curfews are not common and there is generally a relaxed and accepting attitude between parents and their adolescent children.
- German youth are generally open-minded, well mannered and tend to be ambitious regarding their careers.
- Germans take family life very seriously and most German families eat together for all meals, including lunch. Government rules allow all shops and businesses to close each day for from 12 noon to 2 o’clock so the family can come together for lunch. No one is late for meals.
- Germans are very private people and greatly value their time alone. It would not be unusual for your German au pair to keep her door shut while she is on her time “off” and during these times you should make sure the children are not barging in and bothering her. She may interpret this behavior as very rude and intrusive.
Childcare
- Discipline techniques include talking to the child, taking sweets away, taking away television or video privileges, or sending the child to their room.
- Corporal punishment is forbidden in Germany
- German au pairs tend to be highly organized and responsible and catch on quickly to the family’s routine.
- Applicants obtain their childcare experience through formal training (in kindergartens, etc.) and babysitting for friends and family.
- German parents (either mother or father) typically stay home with their young children at least until they are old enough to attend kindergarten. Working at home is very common for German parents.
- Your German au pair will expect the children to treat her with respect, to comply with her instructions and to follow the house rules. Unruly or bad behavior is a sign of disrespect and a child who is overly indulged by parents (with toys, sweets, privileges not earned) is considered spoiled as result of poor or failed parenting.
Driving Skills
- Most West German au pairs are excellent drivers. They receive their license at age 18 and the test is much more demanding and time consuming compared to their American peers. Most driving pupils need 20-30 lessons in order to pass the test and there is an hour practical driving test! If any German fails the test more than 3 times, a psychological test is then required by the state.
- Most parents have a car for the teen to practice on and they support their teenagers in getting the license and becoming good, safe drivers.
- German au pairs are exclusively sought out by host parents for their excellent driving skills making them one of the most popular au pairs.
English Skills – West German Au Pairs get an A+
- English is a compulsory subject at the age of 10, but many children start as early as kindergarten. As a result, German youth have competent English skills with many having no or a very slight German accent.
- German au pairs are popular with host parents for their English skills. Host parents typically expect them to help the children with homework and German au pairs are generally very competent in this area.
- West Germans’ proficiency in English is generally better compared to Germans from East Germany – East Germans get a C- in English!
Health
- Germans are typically very healthy. They have good medical and dental insurance.
- Most young women are not inoculated or tested for TB (tuberculosis).
- Eating disorders are not very common in Germany.
- Most young people in Germany eat meat and lots of vegetables and fresh foods are preferred to fast foods/processed foods. A growing number of German youth are becoming vegetarians and you should ask your au pair if she eats meat.
Religion
- The two most common religions in Germany are Catholic and Protestant
- Most young people in Germany do not practice their religion on a regular basis
Other Useful Information
- Most German families have at least one computer with access to the internet and most young Germans have their own cell phones; contacting prospective au pairs is relatively easy during the interviewing process
- Family members usually speak English and can take messages from you if the au pair is not home which is a great plus for you as a host parent.
- German students end their academic year in June and most of the young women apply to arrive in the USA during the summer months but before our school term starts here in the USA so plan to have your German au pair arrive in early or mid August so she can sign up for fall courses at your local college.
- German au pairs are typically serious students and will expect to sign up for courses immediately upon arrival. German au pairs will expect flexibly from her host parents so she can attend her classes without interruption.
- West Germans are generally more educated, are more experienced drivers and possess better English skills compared to East Germans.
- Generally, German au pairs have less trouble assimilating into American culture and do not generally suffer from culture shock. They genuinely like American culture and look forward to their year abroad.
- Most Germans will not extend beyond the 12 months – they will return home to continue their education, start a business or look for a professional job.
With the growing trend of using au pairs as their #1 childcare option, American families are competing with one and another for au pairs who are responsible, mature, good drivers and who speak good, competent English. German au pairs generally meet all of these criteria while adding old world charm mixed with a youthful and modern perspective. Germans are proud of their culture and are usually delighted with our America experience – a wonderful combination for any host family!
Edina Stone
http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/are-we-really-one-world-german-au-pairs-and-cultural-differences-712711.html
Bhalessa Gandoh-Lengendaries
Ghulam Rasool Azad: A true Educationist
Sadaket Malik
It has revealed by our research that in different parts of the state people used to speak Kashmiri, if the local language is mixed with kashmiri but it is true that in ancient period some people migrated to Jammu region to make their haitation overhere.
It is in Mahgam Kashmir that Batt family migrated to start their habitation in Chamba District of Hamachal Pradesh and some Muslim Batt’s stayed in improvised part of Bhalessa i.e in Soti Village. From time to time they (Bhat family) became permanent peasants of Soti Bhalessa. One of the ancestors Kh. Khazra Batt was regarded as a leading peasent of the time. In this Peasantry family, Ghulam Rasool Azad was born in the year 1916. This was a period of ignorance, There was a no media, no education and no leadership. There were only single to two schools in Bhalessa, one was Primary school kilhotran wherein the people used to get elementary education at that time. Kh. Khazra Batt gets admission of Ghulam Rasool in this Primary school. Ghulam Rasool (Azad) passed his Primary basic education from this school in 1929. On the basis of his interest towards studies his parents put him in Bhaderwah Amar Singh High School for further studies.
On the one hand, there was no transportation, no media and poverty had its head high, but Ghulam Rasool Azad used to exhibit his talent with the patronage of the well deserved teachers in Amar Singh High School.
In 1935, Ghulam Rasool Azad passed entrance examination from Jammu Centre, he got encouraged and put forward his education and leadership.
In 1939, he did his graduation in Mathematics with double course and got Post graduated in 1943 from Punjab University. During his studentship he was entrusted the responsibility of Student leadership. He was appointed as a Publicity secretary of Punjab University Students Union.
It was very difficult for a person at that time to get education and Azad proved as a torch bearer. There were only three rare persons like Ghulam Rasool Azad of Soti, Prof. Umer Din Malik of Bhatyas and Abdul Aziz Batt of Kilhotran to get higher education.
To democratise the system of education and make the poor farmers of Bhalessa familiar about education, Ghulam Rasool Azad launched intensive awareness mission to change their mindset. He used to get oath from children to pledge for education.
In 1946, he was appointed as a teacher in Shri Ranbir High School Jammu, during his tenure, he strived hard and worked honestly. The salary was too small but Azad proved as an ideal teacher. In this period, there was discrimination due to colonial rule. He started Jammu Provincial Teachers Association and pleaded the cause of teachers. Due to indefinite struggle for the cause of teachers, He and his associates were dismissed from service in 1946 by the government. Lo and behold, Azad not stopped his sprit of social work and leadership. It was a time of Communal disharmony. Divisive policies were in place.
In another phase, Maharaja Quited the state and Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah resumed the office. Sheikh got abreast of the leadership satire of Azad and appointed him as teacher in Shri Partap High School Srinagar. It was time of disamity of hindu’s and muslims. In 1947, Azad was entrusted the responsibility by the government to look after the welfare and prosperity of masses of the then Doda region. He reached every nook and corner of the district doda to spread the massage of love and friendship. The need was not to look after the developmental side, but to unite the scattered hindu’s and muslims. Azad played a pro active role to end disamity. In this way the peole loved his qualities and his sprit of leadership. Government rewaded Ghulam Rasool Azad for his outstanding contribution in that period. Sheikh sahib at that time quoted in his speeched
“Kash sobha jammu ki Tarah Sobha Kashmir main
ik Ghulam Rasool Azad paida hota, to maire khuwabun
Ka naya Kashmir taamir hota.”
Like Jammu region, If Kashmir region might got the leader like Ghulam Rasool Azad, it would to true that my dream of Naya Kashmir will be fulfilled. Shaikh sahib told kashmiri leadership at that time.
Keeping in mind his political satire, he was appointed General Secretary National Conference in 1947 and in 1948 he was appointed as Assistant Inspector of Schools for Rajouri, Nowshera, Poonch. During this period, he visited every school snd reached every teacher for educational advancement. He got a great status and sympathy in the people.
Azad was appointed as a President of National Conference Doda for the welfare of people.
In 1950, Azad was appointed as Field Publicity Officer Jammu. From 1949-51 he was District Vice President National Conference of Rajouri. In the same period, he was given another responsibility at the capacity of PA to Director Education. He was appinted as a member of All J&K General Council NC. Joint secretary NC Jammu region, Being an officer Azad was full of leadership qualities. That’s why ruling political party like National Conference get advantage of his political satire and sprit of social work. His top priory was to look after the welfare of the people, and got a special place in the hearts of poor people. Sheikh Abdullah gave him a plenty of responsibilities.
Later, He was inducted as an Inspector of schools Udhampur and Doda from 1951-54. and inspected all the schools, and conceded the demands of general people of the region. He was appointed as a Headmaster of Teacher’s Training School Bhaderwah. It is leant by us that Teachers Training school was opned by Azad himself. Its was a period when Sheikh Abdullah was arrested and Bhakshi Ghulam Mohammed was appointed as a Prime Minister of the state. The state was politically unstable. One the one hand It was campaign of Paraja Paishad and on the other hand a demand for “Raj Shumari”. Azad’s initiative turned towards the limping back the normalcy in the region. He used to say in his speeched:-
“ Na Hinduism ko khatra hai, na islam ko dur,
Ho Jawo Shair o shankar”
Azad as a freedom fighter was pinched with the people who used religion as a tool for gaining power. When Azad’s milti faceted qualities listened the then Prime Minister Bhakshi Ghulam Mohammed, he was deputed to England for DAATP training course. He visted educational institutions of UK, England, Wales, Scotland, Belgium, Thailand, West Germany, Austrailia, Italy, Switzerland, USA and France.
After his return from England, he was appointed to analyse the economic conditions of Doda, Poonch and Rajouri in 1956. He was appointed as a Principal of Government Higher Secondary School R S Pura in 1956-1957. This was the only Hr. secondary school in Jammu region.
In this period, Corruption was increased in an alarming rate. Poverty was its heads high, economy was poor. He pointed truth before higher ups and suggested roadmaps to overcome corruption and increase well being of the people. He resigned from service and contested election for the poor people on the behalf of teacher fraternity. Government mandated a lady candidate against him in the election. But Azad got elected to Assembly. In Kashmir, a candidate namely Dina Nath General secretary was mandated by Azad and was elected. In another trip, he was elected unopposed as MLC and worked upto 1957. In 1955, he founded All Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Teacher’s Association. From 1955-69, he pleaded the cause of teachers. In 1958-59, 1959-60, and 1960-61 he remained Vice President of All India Federation of Education Profession. Being an educationist, he also worked for the cause of education at national level. In 1961,He was one of the delegate of 34 delegates to attend the 10th onference of World Confederation of Organisations of Teaching Profession for the world education cause.
Government led by Bhakhshi Ghulam Mohd. Invited Azad to re-join the government service and appointed him Dy Director Education Jammu in 1962-63. Government not tolerated his courage and appointed him as a Principal of Government Degree College Bhaderwah. He was again taransfered to Kashmir to work as a Dy. Director School Education Kashmir.upto 1971. In 1969-71 he remained Secretary J&K Sports Council. From 1963-64 he worked as a Saint member of Jammu University. and then member of J&K State Board of School Education in 1965. Member of Text Book Advisory Boad, After he finaly retired from the post of Dy. Director Education, He was appointed as a Fazil member of Anti Corruption Commission in 1973-75, member J&K Planning Board. Member District Development Board Doda in 1976-78, President Indo Sovait Cultural society (1971-73) Member Bhaderwah Welfare Front (1975-79), Chairman Bhaderwah Public Forum (1982) Chairman Advisory Council of J&K Education Officers Association, (1984)
It was on 24th of January 1995, the land lost its great scholar, as ill luck would have it this legendary man not remained among the people.
Sadaket Malik
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