5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids so

GEVER TULLY: 5 DANGEROUS THINGS YOU SHOULD LET YOUR KIDS DO Welcome to â€Å"Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do. †Ã‚  I don't have children. I borrow my friends' children, so  (Laughter)  take all this advice with a grain of salt. I'm Gever Tulley. I'm a contract computer scientist by trade,  but I'm the founder of something called the Tinkering School. It's a summer program which aims to help kids to learn  how to build the things that they think of. So we build a lot of things. And I do put power tools into the hands of second-graders.So if you're thinking about sending your kid to Tinkering School,  they do come back bruised, scraped and bloody. So, you know, we live in a worldthat's subjected to ever more stringent child safety regulations. There doesn't seem to be any limit on how crazy  child safety regulations can get. We put suffocation warnings on all the — on every piece of plastic film  manufactured in the United States or for sale  with an item in the United States. We put warnings on coffee cups to tell us  that the contents may be hot.And we seem to think that any item  sharper than a golf ball is too sharp  for children under the age of 10. So where does this trend stop? When we round every corner and eliminate every sharp object,  every pokey bit in the world,  then the first time that kids come in contact with anything sharp  or not made out of round plastic,  they'll hurt themselves with it. So, as the boundaries of what we determine as the safety zone  grow ever smaller, we cut off our children from valuable opportunities  to learn how to interact with the world around them.And despite all of our best efforts and intentions,  kids are always going to figure out  how to do the most dangerous thing they can,  in whatever environment they can. So despite the provocative title, this presentation is really about safety  and about some simple things that we can do  to rais e our kids to be creative, confident  and in control of the environment around them. And what I now present to you is an excerpt from a book in progress. The book is called â€Å"50 Dangerous Things. †Ã‚  This is five dangerous things.Thing number one — play with fire. Learning to control one of the most elemental forces in nature  is a pivotal moment in any child's personal history. Whether we remember it or not,it's a — it's the first time we really get  control of one of these mysterious things. These mysteries are only revealed  to those who get the opportunity to play with it. So, playing with fire. This is like one of the great things we ever discovered, fire. From playing with it, they learn some basic principles about fire,  about intake, about combustion, about exhaust.These are the three working elements of fire  that you have to have to have a good controlled fire. And you can think of the open-pit fire as a laboratory. You don't know what they're going to learn from playing with it. You know, let them fool around with it on their own terms and trust me,  they're going to learn things  that you can't get out of playing with Dora the Explorer toys. Number two — own a pocketknife. Pocketknives are kind of drifting out of our cultural consciousness,  which I think is a terrible thing. Laughter)  Your first — your first pocketknife is like the first universal tool that you're given. You know, it's a spatula, it's a pry bar,  it's a screwdriver and it's a blade. And it's a — it's a powerful and empowering tool. And in a lot of cultures they give knives —  like, as soon as they're toddlers they have knives. These are Inuit children cutting whale blubber. I first saw this in a Canadian Film Board film when I was 10,  and it left a lasting impression, to see babies playing with knives. And it shows that kids can develop an extended sense of self  through a tool at a very young age. You lay down a couple of very simple rules —  always cut away from your body, keep the blade sharp, never force it  Ã¢â‚¬â€ and these are things kids can understand and practice with. And yeah, they're going to cut themselves. I have some terrible scars on my legs from where I stabbed myself. But you know, they're young. They heal fast. (Laughter) Number three — throw a spear. It turns out that our brains are actually wired for throwing things  and, like muscles, if you don't use parts of your brain,  they tend to atrophy over time.But when you exercise them,  any given muscle adds strength to the whole system  and that applies to your brain too. So practicing throwing things has been shown to  stimulate the frontal and parietal lobes,  which have to do with visual acuity, 3D understanding,  and structural problem solving, so it gives a sense —  it helps develop their visualization skills and their predictive ability. And throwing is a combi nation of analytical and physical skill,  so it's very good for that kind of whole-body training. These kinds of target-based practice alsohelps kids develop attention and concentration skills.So those are great. Number four — deconstruct appliances. There is a world of interesting things inside your dishwasher. Next time you're about to throw out an appliance, don't throw it out. Take it apart with your kid, or send him to my school  and we'll take it apart with them. Even if you don't know what the parts are,  puzzling out what they might be for  is a really good practice for the kids  to get sort of the sense that they can take things apart,  and no matter how complex they are,  they can understand parts of them and that means that eventually,  they can understand all of them.It's a sense of knowability, that something is knowable. So these black boxes that we live with and take for granted  are actually complex things made by other people  and you can understand them. Number five — two-parter. Break the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. There are laws beyond safety regulations  that attempt to limit how we can interact with the things  that we own — in this case, digital media. It's a very simple exercise — buy a song on ITunes, write it to a CD,  then rip the CD to an MP3 and play it on your very same computer. You've just broken a law. Technically the RIAA can come and persecute you.It's an important lesson for kids to understand —  that some of these laws get broken by accident  and that laws have to be interpreted. And it's something we often talk about with the kids  when we're fooling around with things and breaking them open  and taking them apart and using them for other things —  and also when we go out and drive a car. Driving a car is a — is a really empowering act for a young child,  so this is the ultimate. For those of you who aren't comfortable actually br eaking the law,  you can drive a car with your child. This is — this is a great stage for a kid.This happens about the same time  that they get latched onto things like dinosaurs,  these big things in the outside world  that they're trying to get a grip on. A car is a similar object, and they can get in a car and drive it. And  that's a really, like — it gives them a handle on a world  in a way that they wouldn't — that they don't often have access to. So — and it's perfectly legal. Find a big empty lot, make sure there's nothing in it  and it's on private property, and let them drive your car. It's very safe actually. And it's fun for the whole family. So, let's see. I think that's it. That's number five and a half. OK.

Nvq Level 5 Leadership Essay

2 Be able to implement and monitor compliance with health, safety and risk management requirements in health and social care or children and young people’s settings 2.1 see more:explain why it is important for emergency first aid tasks only to be carried out by qualified . Demonstrate compliance with health, safety and risk management procedures 2.2 . Support others to comply with legislative and organisational health, safety and risk management policies, procedures and practices relevant to their work 2.3 Explain the actions to take when health, safety and risk management, procedures and practices are not being complied with 2.4 Complete records and reports on health, safety and risk management issues according to legislative and organisational requirements 3 Be able to lead the implementation of policies, procedures and practices to manage risk to individuals and others in health and social care or children and young people’s settings 3.1 Contribute to development of policies, procedures and practices to identify, assess and manage risk to individuals and others 3.2 Work with individuals and others to assess potential risks and hazards 3.3 Work with individuals and others to manage potential risks and hazards 4 Be able to promote a culture where needs and risks are balanced with health and safety practice in health and social care or children and young people’s settings 4.1 Work with individuals to balance the management of risk with individual rights and the views of others 4.2 Work with individuals and others to develop a balanced approach to risk management that takes into account the benefits for individuals of risk taking 4.3 Evaluate own practice in promoting a balanced approach to risk management 4.4 Analyse how helping others to understand the balance between risk and rights improves practice 5 Be able to improve health, safety and risk management policies, procedures and practices in health and social care or children and young people’s settings 5.1 Obtain feedback on health, safety and risk management policies, procedures and practices from individuals and others 5.2 Evaluate the health, safety and risk management policies, procedures and practices within the work setting. 5.3 Identify areas of policies, procedures and practices that need improvement to ensure safety and protection in the work setting. 5.4 Recommend changes to policies, procedures and practices that ensure safety and protection in the work setting

Elements of Monster-in-Law Essay

I am a big fan of Romantic Comedy movies and to be honest it has been a while since I’ve had time to actually sit down, relax and enjoy of a great movie. When you have two young children and a husband that is not into these types of movies it make it that much difficult. The last time I was able to take time for myself and fully enjoy a movie I like was about 2 weeks ago and I chose to watch one of my favorite movies, Monster-in-Law, with Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda. A lot of people can familiarize themselves with this movie, as I am sure that they have had a mother-in-law that has driven them up the wall. In this essay I will point out the elements of the movie and tell you how my personal life can some what relate to this movie as well. To me this movie is interesting as it represents how some girls get treated once they meet their future husbands mother. I know that there are a lot of women that have had an aaltercation or two with their mother-in-law and that is why this movie was one that many can relate to. The character of Charlie, played by Jennifer Lopez, was very good as it transmits the frustration of a women in love that has to deal with the attacks and malice of her future mother-in-law. To me this movie has credibility, as it expands external observable truths with in the film (Boggs and Petrie, 2008, pg. 42). Most of the events that happen in this movie can be seen in our everyday life. There are many mother-in-laws that do not approve of their child relationship and for that reason they do things that are not seen normal. This movie is really about how a mother needs to respect and accept their Childs’ decisions when it comes to whom they choose to marry. In this movie Viola who is afraid of loosing her son, Kevin Fields, determines to scare off her son’s new fiance, Charlie, by becoming the world’s worst mother-in-law. Little did she know that Charlie would fight back and not let Viola ruin the thought of her marrying the man she loves. The tricks they play on each other are what make the movie entertaining. Charlie knew that Viola was not a bad person in the inside, but her obsession with her son would not let Viola budge towards accepting their relationship. At the end it turns out that Viola seems to have her own monster-in-law, her deceased husbands mother, that treats Viola badly. Charlie sees the way Viola is being treated and realizes that’s how they will be years from now. Charlie decides that she will not have that happen and determines to call off the wedding, but Viola then comes to her senses and recognizes that she has become this person she hates and asks Charlie to proceed with the wedding as they come to an agreement that works out for both of them. The moral of the story is that in order to get respect one must give it. If you go against someone’s wishes you will end up pushing them farther away. In this case Viola did not want to loose her son but by her acting and doing the things she was doing was actually pushing her father away from him. To her Charlie was not enough for her son, but it turned out that Charlie was a wonderful girl in the inside who loved Kevin for who he was and not for the material things he had. One should not judge a book for it is cover and give the change to get to know the person before judging. I found this movie meaning to me personally because when I first started dating my now husband my mother-in-law was not a fond of me. Although she never played tricks on me, she would always make me feel uncomfortable and unwelcomed at his house. To her the perfect women for her son was his ex-girlfriend who she loved dearly and did not want to accept the fact that her son no longer wanted to be with her. I loved him so much that I did put up with her unkindness ways and did not give up on what we had at all. As Charlie, I knew that my mother-in-law had a tender heart but she was still holding on to a string in hopes of her son reconciling with his ex. As times passed by and she realized that was never going to happen she started softening up. One day I went over to his house and I had a long talk with her and ever since that talk she learned how to accept me for who I was. I think this is why I liked this movie so much it reminded me of how our relationship started. I do have to admit that some of the tricks Charlie played on Viola in the movie made me wish I had done to my mother-in-law when she was being spiteful. Just like the movie at the end everything worked out for us and I have now been married to my husband for 7 years and the relationship I have with her now is awesome. In conclusion, this movie had this movie might not have had great reviews but it was one of my favorites. I am sure that a lot of people can familiarize themselves with this movie, as many women out there just like me has a mother-in-law that has driven them up the wall at one point or another. The moral of the story shows the audience in order to get respect one must give it. This movie also signifies how a mother needs to respect and accept their Childs’ decisions when it comes to whom they choose to marry. As hard as it can be as parents we need to learn how to step back and let our children learn from their own mistakes, the person they’re with may or may not be the best candidate but we need to let them find out their own way. Overall, this movie was a good entertainment and in my case I was able to imagine for a moment that it was I living the life of Charlie. References Boggs, J. M. & Petrie D. W. (2008) The Art of Watching Films. New York. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Future of Cataloging, Resource Description, Indexing And Abstracting Essay

Future of Cataloging, Resource Description, Indexing And Abstracting - Essay Example The knowledge base comprises of information professionals who add their valuable info to pool up the system and for all this is for the achievement of a relatively better efficiency. The problem is how to acquire the relevant information or how to extract the required from the pool. This was once an issue in the past as record searching was very tedious and at times it took days for individuals to come up with the adequate set of retrievals. This was aided by the term ‘Cataloging’. Cataloging meant giving an appropriate identification of the item from where it can be easily retrieved. Cataloging can easily be understood if we take into account a library containing many books and journals and you step inside to search for data on economic facts in the World War II era. To get this information you needed to approach the librarian who will present you a book that is compiled of many abstracts from the various books that contain information about the desired World War II facts. This item is called as the catalog and it contains the description of the different books or journals referring to your search. From this catalog you can filter out your choices easily and as there is adequate resource description you could also go for different writer choices. Thus once decided which to choose, you look down at the catalog to find the location of the desired information tool (Book/journal). Thus the catalog acts as a fa ir assistant to you in minimizing your search time and effectively grants you the opportunity to identify your needs well. Cataloging has facilitated searching immensely. An important terminology within the catalog is the resource description. The catalog contains every bit of information required about the resource and therefore again is regarded as an effective tool for information handling purpose.

Human Resources Cross Cultural Differences and Leadership with respect Essay

Human Resources Cross Cultural Differences and Leadership with respect to Motivation - Essay Example The study only endorsed prevailing scholarly position by the remarkable success stories of the case studies. So the present study concludes that training in cultural diversity can be incorporated in the development of global managerial skills. The face of workforce in the globalized setting is divergent. This can be area for conflict or an opportunity for growth. "Society today is a global ambiance where national cultures inevitably mingle together. The world of technological innovation, multinational organizations, international trade, and diplomatic conflict resolution creates a necessity for nations to come into contact with each other, to learn, work, and create together, as well as to exchange ideas and resources (human resources included). Organizations function because of people gathered together around a common goal. However, before an organization is formed, people belong to other settings and perform other roles that precede their organizational roles. Various disciplines differentiate culture based on numerous criteria born by the different scientific worldviews they hold." (Dimitrov 2005, p. 22) One definition of culture states that, "Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the me mbers of one group or category of people from another" (Hofstede, 1997, p. 5). Adler (1997) defined culture as the "complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, customs, capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society" (p.14). This makes it a challenge for the global manager to motivate their employees from different cultural back rounds. Basically, ever since Psychology became an independent branch of enquiry, motivation came under the microscope of scientists and can be viewed as "the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach goals, conditioned by the efforts' ability to satisfy individual needs." (Dimitrov 2005, p.38). However, the study of motivation in the cultural context is new, early theories form a good beginning. "People are by nature ethnocentric and believe that the way things are done in their culture is the best way" (Mendenhall, Punnett, & Ricks, 1995). Therefore this literature review focuses on the theory of motivation concerning the two topics cross-cultural differences and leadership from an international perspective. Purpose and Scope of the study General perception of the academia in the available literature across the world is in favour of the advantage of assimilation of cultural diversity as tool for the global managers. In order to ascertain the veracity of this position after identifying the key theoretical foundation establishing the efficacy of cultural diversity, an investigation was undertaken of five cases to find out whether cultural diversity really helped them to progress or some other factors were behind their success. The companies examined were IBM, McDonald, IKEA and Reebok. UAE, though not a company, as a unique case of cultural diversity was also studied. In all the case studies the advanatage

The Patriot Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Patriot - Movie Review Example Imdb (2009) says that one of the reasons Harrison Ford to decline the leading role was because he has got the feeling that the Revolutionary war is depicted as "one-man's-revenge". I believe that even though the plot of the film is centered on the American Revolution, the film focuses around the personal drama of the main character, rather than accurately describing the historical events. Even though the character of Benjamin Martin is slightly based on real life of the soldier Francis Marion, the film resembles a melodramatic performance by Gibson (Harvey 2000). Garabedian (2009) comments that the film gets too personal and does not maintain the balance between the film's action and the main character's revenge. The director missed to represent the historical events in depth. Instead the audience witnesses ongoing bloody battles, where people are chopped off and killed all the time (Garabedian 2009). The bloodshed seems to be endless. What is ignored is some brief explanation about the historical background that the movie is representing. The fighting scenes are very unsettling. Harvey (2000) observes that the overuse of slow motion photography in most of the battles distort the senses of the viewer, as they can witness soldiers being struck by musket ball and the blood that spatter. Such a super slow motion was not necessary. Why do you think the film was made when it was, and for what underlying purpose, if any I believe that the film was filmed in order to instigate pride in Americans and to show how they built up their patriotism. The underlying purpose for me was also to see the Revolution through the eyes of one man who was led to take part in the war, out of his duty to protect both the land and the people from the British. What do you think might have been happening in the contemporary climate when the film was made that could have influenced how the movie portrayed the past The movie release data was in June 2000. If the movie was filmed two years from then, I presume that the focus will not be on one man only. After the events of September 11, I think that the patriot theme will concentrate around how the whole nation fights against its independence, instead of showing one evil man - Col. William Tavington against the inspiration of the good - Benjamin Martin. What does the movie say both about the historical past it depicts and about the historical present when the film was made In my opinion the movie goes too much into personal details and melodrama, interpersonal conflicts and aspirations rather than clarifying the historical circumstances that led to the American Revolution. The fight for freedom is not the fight of a nation, but the fight of a family, or several people trying to intercommunicate why they do it. The film reminds us that it is made is modern times, thanks to the violent, battle scenes that can shock any viewer. However, filmmakers beautifully recreates the atmosphere of the late 1700 with original South Caroline landscapes and cottages. How receptive do you think audiences at the time might have been to see a movie like the one you

Employment Law Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Employment Law - Research Proposal Example However, if the IRS later reclassifies a contractor as an employee, the employer faces liability for back payroll taxes, possible criminal sanctions and invalidation of benefit plans." (2004) These are things to keep in mind when an organization is facing an audit from the Department of Labor. It would be best to thoroughly review the laws governing independent contractor categorization before the audit process begins in order to ensure that the independent contractors are properly classified. As far as the school bus accident is concerned, it would again be best to review the laws governing the liability of the organization when an accident involving an independent contractor is concerned. It is most likely that the liability of the accident will fall into the hands of the person who is actually at fault for the accident rather than the employing organization, as it may first appear. Since companies who hire independent contractors rarely carry insurance on these individuals, there may be a significant problem arise (Freelawanswer, 2010). An independent contractor gets into a car accident while on the employer's time, who is liable for the damage (201

Case IV, Black and Decker International Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

IV, Black and Decker International - Case Study Example More importantly, it is realized that the organization has the ability to establish a strong base in the world in this particular industry. Black & Decker International Question 1 Indeed, Black & Decker has been much successful in its bid to expand its operations across the world. The acquisition of the Emhart Corporation created a wave of opportunities for the organization in terms of harnessing new markets and gaining from the increased pool of employees. In any case, Grunewald's plan of creating a global business venture from this acquisition can certainly become a reality in the context of the emerging situations. It should also be remembered that the plan to expand operations following the acquisition of the Emhart Corporation brought with it a new set of challenges which had to be addressed before any positive results could be deduced. Therefore, it is imperative to note that Grunewald's plan was a positive move, considering that all organizations should always aspire to expand beyond borders. It only calls for proper and effective strategies in place in order to steer operations and realize the ultimate goals of the organization. Considering the turbulent nature of the operations in the organization, any future plans intended for the success of the organization are certainly welcome. ... Several factors certainly favor Grunewald in his decision to expand operations and establish a global venture. The lock business will enable the organization to diversify its operations and realize a wide operational base. In the same way, the globalization momentum offers a good ground for the expansion process as it will provide the basic framework for the expansion of operations (Gale, 2009). Black & Decker has a solid international base which will greatly help in building a global ground. The acquisition of Emhart creates the need for a complete restructuring of all the operations in order to facilitate progress. The door hardware industry was hitherto dominated by firms which relied on old traditions that separately emphasized security, systems and technology. In this case, the entry of Black & Decker into the market with a new set of operations will effectively enable it to win much of the market with products that are focused on the entire market segments. In order to succeed in any market, it is important to have a thorough grasp of all the operations of the market and be well acquainted with all the dimensions of competitors, customers and product needs (Laszlo & Laugel, 2000). Considering these imperatives, Black & Decker has been at the forefront in acquiring such information and will therefore effectively benefit from the knowledge. The most important aspect in this expansion is the fact that the establishment of global operations will increase the revenue base and the profit for the organization which will ultimately provide the impetus for further growth and expansion (Connor & Lake, 2002). Like any major global expansions, the global lock business will face a number of challenges in the process.

Ritz carlton hotel company case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ritz carlton hotel company - Case Study Example However, for the success of the hotel, Mene emphasized on the issue of the importance of human resource and specifically on hiring new employees that would blend new competences and diversified ways of doing things. According to, Mene, this would make clients to experience new different things that caters for their needs. Indeed, barely two years after focusing on integrating new employees with new training, Ritz-Carlton won the Baldrige Award in 1992 for its outstanding standards in the hospitality industry. In this regard, it is evident that subjecting new employees to a longer training could be termed as one of the strategies of ensuring quality of services in the hospitality industry (Pandey 239). An elaborate training especially for a new hotel would enable the hotel to identify and target the required skills by the employees that would enable the hotel to meet the needs of the customers of the newly found market. In addition, studies have documented that subjecting employees in extensive training helps employees acquire better customer service skills and productivity improvements (Adegoke 10). In fact, subjecting employees to extensive training assures the employees that you value their contribution to the hotel. Such a training schedule builds employees’ self esteem. When employees are well and extensively trained, they tend to feel up-skilled to execute new and complex tasks, which make them feel motivated. Disadvantages of extending the seven days training for the Ritz Carlton hotel company On the other hand, in a way, subjecting employees to a long training session can make them feel threatened or make them feel not competent enough to take up the task. This may make them bored and lose interest in working for the hotel. In addition, overtraining employees can be a costly exercise especially for a new hotel. It is also apparent that such an extensive training even before employees start working can make them focus much on theory than applicatio n, which is necessary and part of training (Wentland 7). With these deliberations, I would not advocate for lengthening the 7- day training. Instead, I would keep the 7- day training schedule and concentrate on subjecting employees to further training sessions after the hotel opens. This of course would ensure that different employees would be subjected to training programs that they appear weak in and enroll them to improvement programs of the areas they are good in. Qn. 2 It is apparent that opening a new hotel is different from managing an already existing one. This is arguably true because a new hotel opening process involves bringing every department into operational right from the scratch. First, McBride should consider development of the new site. The hotel should be in a secure location and as attractive as possible (Wild 69). Tourists and hotel customers need to have a hotel that is in a secure location. Besides, the facility should be of distinct quality. It should be attr active and fitted with modern facilities. In addition, McBride should also consider putting a proficient workforce in place. The newly established hotel should be in a position to attract customers as quick as possible (Salver 72). The workforce should be well trained and with required skills and competent enough

City of Atlanta Essay Example for Free

City of Atlanta Essay Atlanta, the center of higher education in the South East United States with more than 15 colleges and universities, has a student population of over 77,117. Major universities include Emory University, University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, and Oglethorpe University, which are all situated strategically in and around Atlanta. With an adult population of around 4,536,323, Atlanta is a key location that CoViTek should target. The average household income is between $50,000 $74,999 which compromises 21. 3% of the total population of the city. Students age 18-34 have an income that is between $30,000 $74,999 which compromises around 113,362 households. Atlantas congested areas include Clifton Rd. , College Park, UGA Campuses, and the Midtown area. Market Data Credit Card Usage: Over 3 million people in Atlanta own and use credit cards. 84% of the population has a Bank Card, 29% have gas/department store credit cards, and 18. 7% of the population has at least some kind of travel/entertainment credit cards. Only 200,255 of the population of the city do not carry credit cards. With 5. 8 million students enrolled in 4-year colleges around the United States, they have an aggregate spending power of more than $90 billion. $30 billion of the spending is from personal earning and parents. Almost two thirds of college students in Boston carry a credit card while spending an average of $1,213 per month, with up to 10% of expenditures on some form of entertainment, including video rentals. CoViTek will have to hire a market research firm to indicate (in each city): 1. Average spending dollar per household on video rentals a year 2. Total number of students who rent videos (how many per year) 3. Total students with the relevant purchasing power 4. Entrepreneurial activity in and around the city 5. An overall business climate, which includes: consideration of transportation, banking, professional services, economic base, and growth trends Travel / Entertainment 425,723 13. 2% Bank Cards 1,912,341 59. 6% Gas / Department Stores 669,319 20. 8% No Credit Cards 200,255 6. 4% Credit card usage/ year in the city of Atlanta. Areas of Volume We will also need to negotiate with all kind of locations that drive a lot of traffic such as stores, buildings, and large apartment complexes. We are interested in any strategic location that is frequented by a high volume of pedestrians. We would also have to negotiate with them the same terms of revenue sharing agreements as with the universities. Nevertheless, we see a very interesting opportunity in negotiating alliances with retail chains that occupy strategic locations such as Starbucks. We would offer such companies with profit sharing plans in CoViTek, and in return, we would get the right to implement a machine outside their stores. This type of agreement would enable us to gain several key locations, saving us time and money. Metro Stations The T in Boston is the most frequently used method of transportation, which accounts for more than 695,000 passengers a day. Other forms of transportation include buses and taxis. A large percentage of professionals use the T every day for commuting back and forth from work. Marketing CoViTeks advertising plan will be based around the individual cities we choose to place machines in. Our first city, Atlanta, was selected because the CEO and COO live and work there. Advertising on college campuses can be very inexpensive, and we will focus our efforts there. At least one machine will be on each of the following schools campuses: Georgia State University, UGA, and Emory University. Our advertising methods for all of our campus locations will be similar. We will target residence halls and popular campus locations with posters and fliers posted on campus bulletin boards, distributed in residence halls, and advertisements in the schools newspaper. Campus advertising should not cost more than $1,000 per school, most likely less, depending on the schools population. We will also hire a full-service advertising agency, but not until we expand to other cities. We want to see how much awareness we can achieve in Atlanta without an agency campaign. Once we expand to other cities, we will need an agency to create a consistent and strategic brand image for CoViTek. All of our advertising will stress our convenience and value, to deliver a clear brand image in the consumers mind. In addition to our marketing efforts, CoViTek will employ a variety of other marketing strategies: Viral Marketing CoViTek will aggressively target and distribute e-mails to potential consumers featuring promotional deals, newly released videos, as well as a direct link to CoViTeks web page. Public Relation CoViTek will use a top New Media public relations firms to promote the company and secure write-ups in prominent Internet/Technology and business magazines. Online Advertising CoViTek will place online banner advertisements on popular B2C web sites that our profile user would frequent. Feedback We will encourage our customer to give us feedback on what they would like to see in our machines through our and offer them incentives to do so such as free rental or coupons. While our selection will be smaller than our brick and mortar competitor, our market will be more targeted. Rather than having everything, we are striving to provide our market with the exact products that meet their needs. Thus this narrower selection can be seen as an advantage for us as it demands that our company remains focused on our customers and our competitors, to ensure that we are providing our customers with what they want to see. We will also encourage our customers to give us feedback on what they would like to see in our machines. This will be done through our website by offering incentives and free rental coupons. Distribution Michel Khoury and Sina Mouloud will be in charge of the maintenance of up to ten machines at one point in time. We will hire students as our operation expands onto more universities across the US. Suppliers Video Vending North American VVNA is the creator and market leader in the production of video rental machines. Its system is exclusive in its combination of both VHS and DVD formats. VVNA has been manufacturing video-dispensing machines since the early 90s. VVNA machines are the most innovative and modernized in the market. To maintain the maximum market value of their products, VVNA manufactures sturdy, reliable machines, made to last many years and capable of providing thousands of rentals without requiring machine alteration. VVNA machines have been designed using a unique, patented technology proven to provide the markets most reliable and safe equipment, while reducing the level of maintenance intervention to a minimum. A central computer is used to remotely manage all the dispensers via DSL networks. Personalization of the Video Dispensers VVNA, the manufacturer of the video vending machines is willing to customize the design of the machine for us. Therefore we need to develop a design for our machine that will efficiently promote our company. The design and the logo must attract attention while being contemporary and functional. We want the machine to catch the attention of pedestrians who walk by the machine in order to drive more traffic to it. Production Companies Ninety percent of our videotapes will come from one of the six major production companies (Buena Vista, Warner Bros. , Universal, Fox, Paramount, or Columbia-Tri-Star). The power of these suppliers is very high, as they hold the rights of the movies they produce. We will be working with Video Bicicling. They will give us a competitive price on Videos and DVD. Our experience has shown us that it is better to own a rentable video in order to use it for resale after complete amortization. This system will allow us to sell the movies that are not in high demand after using their complete value in rental time. CoViTek may consider the selling of consumer information gathered from their database technology to research companies primarily dealing with entertainment studies.

National identity in music: The Beatles

National identity in music: The Beatles Evaluate depictions of Britishness in the songs of the Beatles and 1990s Brit pop groups and discuss the relation between politics and music. A feature that is evident in the music of the Beatles from 1966 on wards is the way in which they use representations of everyday British cultural life. Such representations are not contained to the latter of the Beatles work but do take on a much more important role in the way the music is formed and words are written. Tracks like Eleanor Rigby, A Day in the Life, Penny Lane and Polythene Pam are all connected by their distinctive British sound and context. The Small Faces and the Kinks were also bands that had a keen eye for writing about different aspects of the lower to middle-class British peoples lives in the 1960s. A resurgence of this type of writing appeared in the 1990s with such Brit pop groups as Blur, Pulp and Oasis portraying an ever-changing view of Britain. I will begin my discussion by briefly looking at what it means to be British and discuss the connections between music and national identity. I will then analyse how the Beatles developed a distinctly British sound by looking at their influences and then give examples of this sound by referencing the bands music. National Identity in music and what it means to be British What does it mean to be British? Freedom? Democracy? Trial by jury? Freedom of speech? Acceptance? Tolerance? White? It would seem that politicians were unaware of what it meant until it started to fall away from us and deteriorate. The national flag, the Union Jack or Union Flag, is not a proud flag that we as one nation unite under as the Americans do with the Star-Spangled Banner. A regulation was previously in place across government that meant the Union Jack could only be flown 18 fixed days a year on government buildings (The governance of Britain green paper 2007). A regulation now waved. The government for specific forms of the military reserves the flag. It is used by the Royal Navy and as a way to display the rank of admiral of the fleet, which is the reason why it is still illegal for a civilian ship to fly it. In war time Britain we were defined by our one nation joining together to fight for a common purpose. The common man was out fighting against an evil dictatorship. We had one of the most advanced Naval forces in the world bringing technology in Britain to the forefront and an outs tanding air force, which repelled an overwhelming German attack at the Battle of Britain. But in the 64 years since the end of world war two Britain has seen many changes in its cultural make up. America has had a very powerful influence over the music we listen to, the way we dress and eat and we seek to replicate their dominant cultural traditions (Mundy 1999). We have seen an influx in the number of immigrants coming to Britain to live and work. Injecting a little of their culture into our own. Furthermore, the industries such as the ship building in Glasgow and Liverpool, the shoe factories in Northampton and the steal works in Scunthorpe and Sheffield have all but disappeared. The traditions that shaped the country and gave it international acclaim and recognition have been lost to overseas countries that have the technology to produce it cheaper. I will revise the sociological aspects of our changing culture later and analyse whether British society has changed over the years and if this has made Brit Pop differ from music of the 1960s. For now I will touch upon music and national identity and the reasons for national patriotism. Music has long been a fundamental tool in the study and assembly of national identities. Its intricate framework has been studied in great depth. Possibly one of the most obvious ways in which music is amalgamated with national identity is the national anthem. It provides an opportunity for people to obtain a state of deep heart felt emotion towards their country and is used in Britain before various sporting events, before the Queens Christmas Message and in the event of a royal announcement or death. Perhaps the oldest form of national pride is found in folk music, commonly described as an accurate look at a way of life as it was or a life about to fade away. Richard Middleton explains the real meaning of folk music well. The Romantics, who originated the concept, often thought of the people in the sense of a national essence. Or and this later became more common they thought of a particular part of the people, a lower layer, or even class. Middletons thoughts therefore could be applied to Brit Pop. With the eighties at an end, Margaret Thatchers government leaving record unemployment rates of 3 million unemployed, factories closed and there were cuts in spending. Things looked bleak and it was hard for young people to get a job. In the nineties Brit Pop, backed by this 60s inspired form of pop/rock with the qualities of folk music, exploded onto the scene. Artists such as Damon Albarn from Blur were writing songs that echoed issues regarding the lower classes and once again music was recognizable as being British. It is vital to understand what this British sound consists of and more importantly where it came from and who pioneered it. I will now go on to discuss the Beatles development as British artists and their everlasting footprint on music. The Beatles developing a British sound The Beatles were the first of a selection of bands from the 1960s to start a movement called the British Invasion. The name British Invasion was invented by the press to describe British bands that travelled to America and made a name for themselves. This all began in 1964 with the appearance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show but was continually used to describe many British bands who made a huge impact on the American music market. Namely the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Small Faces, The Yardbirds and The Kinks with the Beatles making the largest impact. The Beatles cannot be so neatly categorised as the archetypal British band, as their style is so eclectic and borrows from many different cultures. Early on in their career, the band had been mainly focused on writing songs about love and the loss of a love with not much indication of Britishness in the lyrics but there were a few facts that made their style stand out from their American competitors. One such fact is the accent the group sang with. In the early 1960s, radio was populated with simple two-minute pop songs from American artists like Elvis Presley and British artists who sounded American like Cliff Richard and the Shadows. However, Lennon and McCartney were singing songs like I Wanna Hold Your Hand with a British accent. The Beatles were different, fusing exciting melodies with classical harmonies and a guitar sound that was full bodied and dominant. This brand new sound was one that defined the British sound of the sixties. When one says sound of the sixties it really m eans the period from 1963-1970, the Beatles era. Between 1955 and 1963 would be described as the sound of the fifties (Zarecki 2007). The Beatles changed music to a point that a child growing up in the 60s would call the records of the 50s oldies, a word still used today to describe the same records (Wald 2009). The musical education the Beatles received can be traced back as far as the mid 1930s when Robert Johnson, kindly named the Grandfather of Rock n Roll, was recording the blues/rock tracks which would be an inspiration for artists like the Memphis born B.B. King who in turn was greatly admired by another king, Elvis Presley. Elvis forged the rock n roll sound of the fifties that the Beatles loved. They covered many songs by Chuck Berry and Little Richard during their time in Hamburg in the early 1960s. John Lennon is famously quoted as saying, Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadnt been Elvis, there would not have been The Beatles But there was more to the Beatles sound. Although most of their influences came from America, they were not a band trying to replicate the American sound. Harmonies that the band integrated into songs were reminiscent of early Motown records and the Everly Brothers provided a strong influence when it came to producing close harmonies, a technique where the notes of a chord are sang within a narrow range. Influences of the Beatles were not confined to what had come before them. Throughout their career they continued to remain open to new influences. Paul McCartney sites one of his favourite albums as the 1966 album Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys and talks about its importance over the idea for creating the Beatles 1967 album Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so muchthat, I think, was probably the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded Pepper The Beatles were at the vanguard from 1966 onwards when music began to progress from the pop/rock love songs into something altogether more experimental and risky. Looking at the memoirs of Kate Paul (2000) makes it clear the significance art school training had on new artists, fashion and music. It was becoming more common for teenagers to attend Art School and this training is said to have shifted the thinking behind the writing of many bands and change British music forever. As musical ideas were changing so was the way people were thinking about art. Music and art were becoming more abstract and new and radical thinking was being poured into both. In 1961, a group of artists graduated from the Royal College of Art including David Hockey and Patrick Caulfield. This pair along with other young artists put the Pop Art style on the map. The style quickly became very popular and the artists involved in its production became fashionable celebrities receiving much notification in the pr ess. By 1968 for the very first time in the Twentieth Century, London had risen to become the world focus in art and Britain the focus for new and innovative art and music. Pop Art was not solely the reason for the popularity of the art scene in London. It was very diverse, and more artists were turning their hand to abstraction, which involved more gestural marks, block colours and interesting shapes. Sculpture also went through a great transformation in the sixties with sculptors such as Anthony Caro, whose interest in shape and colour came straight from America. Gone were the days of bronzed statues on plinths, now it was all about sheet metal and plastic arranged on the floor in amazing shapes. This environment of such an eclectic mix of artists and so much competition would have forced students to think in an original way. Just as artists were using new materials to create their work, musicians like the Beatles were using new instruments such as the Indian Sitar and using new t echniques like playing tape recordings in reverse to create never before heard sounds. George Martin often said that John Lennon would enter the studio every morning with the intent of sounding different to yesterday. John Lennon attended Liverpool Art College with friend and short term fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe. John was always a disruptive pupil and continued to be through art school. Although John failed an annual exam and eventually dropped out of art school before his final year the impact it made would stay with him, encouraging him to push the boundaries and keep his music inspirational and contemporary. John always had a devoted interest in the art world, even deep into the Beatles experimental career. Their use of orchestral scores accompanied only by voice, three part harmonies and psychedelic arrangements would stand to become a major influence to Brit Pop bands. This entwined with the shifting context of the Beatles lyrics would shape the music of the late 60s and pr ove to be the very essence of what Brit Pop came to embody. The most noticeable example of this experimental and contemporary writing is found in the album Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Released in June 1967 Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was a groundbreaking album that combined revolutionary engineering and musical techniques. It is believed to be the first concept album and also the first album to print the lyrics to the songs on the sleeve. All the songs on the album except possibly George Harrisons experimental Within you without you either lyrically or musically express a sense of British culture. Sgt Peppers is steeped in images of brass bands playing in bandstands, Punch and Judy, cream teas, donkey rides and naughty postcards. In When Im Sixty four, Paul McCartney gives us a description of what life can be like growing old in Britain. He talks of going for a drive on a Sunday, doing some gardening and renting a cottage in the Isle of Wight, If its not too dear. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite arouses clear images of the great British past time of the circus and also creates a joyous atmosphere with the merry go round sound playing along with the main organ melody. This effect was created when producer George Martin told engineer Geoff Emerick to splice up old Victorian tapes of organ music and throw them into the air. He was then ordered to piece the tapes back together in a completely random order to create an energetic looping sound (Martin 2008). The images Lennon and McCartney present in a lot of their songs make it hard for the listener to fully understand the content. Their writing would often stumble into the surreal, and perplexing words would be used to compliment the music. Some of their music however, seems to be more clear in the way it comments and often ridicules observations of ordinary British cultural life. In the final track on the Sgt Pepper album, A Day in the Life, this trait seems to be evident. The lyrics were inspired by two newspaper articles and contain many haunting but also some quite comical images. Within the song Lennon mentions three distinct British places, The House of Commons, Blackburn in Lancashire and the Royal Albert Hall. In the first verse John talks loosely about the death of Tara Browne the Guinness heir who died in a car crash. Lennon said, I didnt copy the accident. Tara didnt blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The Line Theyd seen his face before/N obody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords refers to the British public turning what should be a solemn moment into some cheap excitement. Some people in the crowd may know the individual involved in the car crash as a face on television or in a newspaper but he is no more than that. The second verse came from a newspaper article concerning the state of the roads in Blackburn which Lennon jokes could fill the Albert Hall. This type of ironic and sarcastic view of Britain was commonly found in John Lennons writing. Andy Bennett writes, Tracks like A Day in the Life, are clearly meant to be seen, in part at least, as satirical commentaries on aspects of British society. Lennons descriptions of the slavish counting of the holes in the streets of Blackburn, andto the double life led by politicianswould appear not merely to poke fun at British society but also to criticize it. On the other hand, the song Penny Lane doesnt appear to criticize British culture but instead runs like a commentary of what can be seen. Penny Lane was written by Paul McCartney and released alongside Strawberry Fields Forever as a double-A side single in 1967. It was common practice to release singles that were not on the album at the time. George Martin always believed it wasnt fair to the public that singles should come from the album. The title Penny Lane came from a street in the bands hometown of Liverpool. Lennon and McCartney would often meet at Penny Lane Junction to catch a bus into the centre of town and had met up with friends around the area as teenagers. Penny lane is a study of the humdrum lives of people, evoking feelings of blissful memories and describing the ordinary sights and sounds of a suburban British neighbourhood. Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes/There beneath the blue suburban skies. During this line a brass section plays a small musical fill couple d together with McCartneys quaint English tone to create an altogether exultant sound. This song, different from A Day in the Life, has a strong feeling today of harking back to a happier and simpler Britain now lost and forgotten. The man who has popped into the barbers for a shave, the fireman who carries a picture of the queen in his pocket and the standard procedure of carrying an hourglass now seem long-gone. Its a song that takes the listener on a ride and brings up various emotions ranging from nostalgia to a pride of Britain during the piccolo trumpet solo and to laughter at the sexual slang of the time A four of fish and finger pie. The qualities found in both these Beatles songs can also be found in songs from other British bands from the 1960s. The Small Faces song Rene tells the unpleasant tale of a woman parading the quayside every night to welcome sailors from Kuala Lumpur who have docked with plenty of readies (ready money) to spend at the pub having a good time. Whil e Lazy Sunday rebels against the neighbours that complain when Steve Marriott and his friends play their music loud. The Small faces songs Rene and Lazy Sunday are both sung in ridiculously thick Cockney accents and seem almost to make fun of their London ancestry. The same examination can be made in the music of The Kinks who gave us their keenly observed satires A Well Respected Man and Dedicated Follower of Fashion (which lampooned the characters of Carnaby Street in swinging London). The contrast of Britpop In the early 1990s Britpop emerged fusing new British ideals with the pop music of the 1960s. The two main aims of Britpop were to drown out the electronic sound of the eighties and to react against the grunge sound of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Britpop made British alternative rock mainstream and formed the foundations for a larger British cultural movement called Cool Britannia. This phrase, a pun on the patriotic song Rule, Britannia, was first used as a song title by the Bonzo dog Doo Dah Band in 1967. It emerged in the 1990s as the name of one of the company Ben and Jerrys ice cream flavours. The name came about through a competition the company were running. An American lawyer living in London named Sarah Moynihan-Williams won with her suggestion and recipe for Cool Britannia, which was in relation to the New Labour era. The media quickly picked up on this term, and seeing a young Prime minister in power and the fashionable nature of London at the time gave the idea new scope. Looking now at the representations of Britishness in the music of Britpop bands from the 1990s presents a different argument. The Beatles and other bands from the same era such as The Kinks and The Small Faces heavily influenced Brit Pop. Musical pioneers of the nineties such as Blur, Pulp and Oasis completely dropped the synthesizers and the electric drums of the eighties and began creating music with full guitars and raw drumming. The orchestral and brass band instruments were introduced once again to achieve the complete British sound of the 1960s. An example of this resurrection can be established through the Blur song Sunday Sunday. The song featured on the apt 1993 album Modern Life is Rubbish, features a trumpet solo that could easily have been found on any later Beatles track. The lyrics in the first verse read much like a social commentary with lines such as You read the colour supplement, the T.V. guide and Together the family round the table. Both bring to mind visions of a quiet ordinary Sunday at home with the family. The second verse however mentions a walk in the park where the writer meets a soldier who fought in both world wars and says, The England he knew is no more. Quite unlike the interpretation of a British Sunday morning the second verse takes a nostalgic look back with a conceivable chance of the soldier appearing as a metaphor for a Britain that used to be. Britpop resonated with a sound of the past. Singers and back up singers were producing exciting harmonies like the ones found on the Oasis record Cast no shadow. Artists were being commended for their song writing abilities and musical talent unlike the dry and dreary song-writing period of the eighties, which featured Duran Duran, Gary Newman and Depeche mode. The mod subculture of the 60s also became popular again. People began growing their hair with the Beatles various styles in mind. Jarvis Cocker from the band Pulp used to wear suits which echoed the mod style. The Whos manag er Pete Meaden famously described modism saying, Modism, mod living, is an aphorism for clean living under difficult circumstances Not everyone believed that Britpop reminisced of a past idea of Britishness. Some suggested that bands crafted an entirely new image altogether, focusing on an attitude based not on a nostalgic Carry On Mr Kipling Britain, but a Britain that you will recognise as the one you live in (Jones 1994). Undoubtedly the song Girls and Boys which is performed in front of a club 18-30s holiday backdrop with its subject matter of casual sex is one which is more contemporary rather than the wistful longing for old England found in Sunday Sunday. Also, Oasiss accounts of throwing up on a Sunday and their wild views that cigarettes, alcohol and drugs are a remedy for a dull, ordinary life may have appealed to the young generation of the 1990s but it was miles apart from the Beatles idealized and glamorized version of Britain. It appears that this type of topical writing is in the minority and more songs relate to similar representations conjured up by the Beatles in the 1960s. There is another are a that is imperative to study when analysing depictions of Britain and that is the view created through the music video. The Beatles and the Birth of the Music Video One main important difference in the way in which music is presented in the 1990s is the availability of the music video, which further enhances depictions of Britishness. The Birth of the music video may to some be credited to the band Queen. In November 1975 due to tour commitments they could not appear on Top of The Pops and so produced a video to promote their new single Bohemian Rhapsody. But as much as a decade before, the Beatles were generating videos to be broadcast on television shows all over the world. In 1996, with the release of the Beatles Anthology film box set, George Harrison received an interview and in relation to the promotional video made for the song Rain he made the statement: So I suppose, in a way, we invented MTV Now that the music video is fast becoming an art form in itself it is interesting to analyze how Lennon and McCartneys influence on the British social commentary style of writing transposed into video format. I will begin by analysing the reflection of Britain the Beatles achieved through their use of video and the reasons for them depicting society in this way, then I will compare this to the music videos in the 1990s. The first Beatles film was released in 1964 entitled A Hard Days Night. With prospects of an accompanying soundtrack album, the film was released as a way to make more money from the bands growing success. As Bob Neaverson said: The project was initially envisaged by the American-owned company as little more than another low budget exploitation picture which would capitalize on the groups fleeting success with the teenage market No matter which way it is looked at, the decision to release a Beatles film came about because of a money making business deal. Although it turned out much more was achieved than simply money. Director Richard Lester broke rules that had been associated with the pop music format since the 1950s. To begin, one of the opening scenes is filmed in an unconventional train carriage, a setting with no musical connection. His use of free hand documentary filming not only added excitement and energy but also made the viewer feel as if he or she were in the film closely interacting with the band. This made the Beatles able to be shown as the guys next-door, seemingly unaffected by fame, instead of fictional characters. Whereas realism had already been established in British films through the working class genre known as kitchen sink drama with films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) and A Taste of Honey (1961), A Hard Days Night was the first music video to incorporate thi s into its style and content. This working class image was an important factor that shone through the films of the Beatles. In a time when all well-known artists were predominantly imported, any British act doing significantly well was a joy. The bands natural working class attitudes coupled together with their down to earth, oblivious out look on fame only endeared them to the British public who Neaverson says, upheld them as symbols of the new social mobility and classlessness of sixties Britain. In this sense, this approach broke down barriers and was vital to the modernization of British national identity in the 1960s. Having looked at how the Beatles became symbols for a cultural shift I will now investigate how music videos in the 1990s adapted the skills that Richard Lester put into practice and decide if the substance of the video is similar to that of Lennon and McCartneys writing. One such video that involves strong British connotations is Park Life by Blur. It is a song that lyrically documents parts of British life with examples including being wakened by the dustmen, cups of tea and feeding the pigeons. Although these are very banal actions the visuals found in the video take on a different, more contemporary feel. In the video actor Phil Daniels plays a creepy door-to-door double-glazing salesman driving around in his Ford Granada Coupe Mk1. It seems at times that the video is not related to the song until the rapid images of British life the row of terraced houses, the red post boxes, the arrival of the ice cream van and the playful nature of the band meeting up with friends in 90s style attire spinning each other in a trolley crop up. In many ways the video resonates with a feeling not to dissimilar from Penny Lane, which I mentioned earlier. This parallel is continued through the use of characters in the video the man with the four King Charles dogs, the fat man in the shirt and braces, the jogger and the couple sprawled across their sports car with their names printed above the drivers and passengers window. These are visually very interesting characters and like McCartneys fireman; banker and nurse could easily be fantastic characters in a book of British cultural life. The Park Life music video is obviously based around actual everyday encounters experienced by Damon Albarn that have been tweaked to appear more surreal much the same format as the lyrics take on in the song. Using Pop Music to Promote Political Interests Popular music has long been associated with showing dissatisfaction or opposition with the government and the government has always shown an interest in securing for itself a stake in the management of powerful bands. Conversely, today in China, leader Hu Jintao has spoken out frequently about building a harmonious society. He has great power and influence over the media, mainly monitoring everything that is broadcast on the radio. The governments ideas to create harmony are through censorship of the media. All music heard on Chinese radio consists of love songs or upbeat ballads. These gentle songs are not damaging to Chinas image of a stable and harmonious country. Pop and Pop/Rock songs where politics, rebellion and casual sex are the themes are disregarded for fear of a revolution. The state cannot completely censor music they find harmful, although they do have complete ownership of all broadcasting media giving them a loophole through which they can have the majority rule. Chin ese people believe the popular music they hear on the radio all sounds the same and if youve heard one song you know them all. Even musicians asked to submit songs for the Olympic games in Beijing were too worried to write anything with fear of going against the state policies. In this example the state is controlling the music. They are keeping a lid on the pot of society to prevent the revolution inside over spilling. In addition something that is so carefully prohibited may incite curiosity within youths of any culture and a notion to rebel will ensue. An example of this use of music to revolt was apparent in Germany during world war two. If music can be said to be associated with nationalism and national identity then it can also be criticized for supposed destabilization of the nations culture. During world war two, young German music fans sought after the British and American way of life and defined themselves through the music of Swing. Although they were not an organised political opposition group, they refused the culture of National Socialism. The group made such an impact in 1941 that the Gestapo violently repressed them and police ordered anyone under the age of 21 to stay out of dance bars (Whiteley, Bennett and Hawkins 2005). Whether a connection is made as a shared goal for public popularity or a way to manipulate or even to revolt, music and politics have a bond. Throughout the 1960s and again in the 1990s political groups created a connection with pop stars of the time. In 1965, current Prime Minister Harold Wilson showed he was in touch with the younger generation by awarding the Beatles with the honour of an MBE. It proved a popular move with young people. This move did however spark some controversy. Protestors and picketers who had received the award for military service showed their displeasure towards Harold Wilson but there were too few of them to make any real impact. Attackers thought it a clever and crafty plan to solicit votes for the next years general election but defenders argued the fan base of the Beatles were generally under the age of 21, too young to vote at the time. In any case, bestowing an MBE on the Beatles showed that Harold Wilson was a modern leader willing to embrace new ideas and be part of a contemporary Britain that culturally, the Beatles were helping to shape. A year later George Harrison would write the song Taxman as a retort to the 95% super taxes introduced by Harold Wilson and even included a harmony within the song incorporating his name. John Blacking argues that, Cultural politics, the use of culture and the arts to promote political interests, invariably exploits and contains the power of music to restrict political argument. It diverts attention from the real political issues or simply asserts the hegemony of its promoters (Blacking) On the other hand, not all people would agree with John Blackings statement. Some believe that in the right hands music can open up avenues and make people pay attention to various issues. Khaver Siddiqi would argue that, In an era where politics uses as many avenues it can to reach the people, it is ultimately the words of song and rhyme that will attract the attention more, than speeches ever will. (Siddiqi 2009) This thought can be put into practice if we look at the issues of race in the 1960s. In 1968 James Brown wrote a song called Say it Loud (Im Black and Im Proud) that become a very successful black power anthem. It was a racially chaotic period during the 1960s and this song filled black Americans with pride. This elevated Brown to the status of icon and also made him the face for a movement that shaped the 1960s. In 1997, after a period of predominantly conservative power in Britain, a new Prime Minister was elected, Tony Bl

Understanding The Road To A Liberal Democracy Politics Essay

Understanding The Road To A Liberal Democracy Politics Essay There were fundamental changes in the world of politics in 1989 and 1990 with the collapse of evil empires that had ruled since the end of the Second World War. The hegemony of the Soviet Union came to an end in Eastern Europe and at the same time the apartheid regime of the Afrikaner National Party in South Africa began a process of democratization. In 1990, Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress (ANC), was released after being imprisoned for 27 years and South Africas first non-racial democratic elections were held four years later. The ANC later went on to gain the votes of the majority that led to the formation of an interim government of national unity under Nelson Mandelas presidency in 1994. It seemed like a miracle but unlike miracles, political processes are susceptible to analysis. Firstly, this paper aims to describe South Africas passage from a racial oligarchy to a multi racial democracy. This segment provides a brief narrative regarding the historical context of African democratization. Secondly, the paper will analyze the various political factors involved in the democratization process and how they fit into the theoretical framework of Huntingtons typology of democratic transition. This section will also focus on the prevalent conditions within South Africa in order to determine what triggered the transition process. Through this, the paper will seek to answer the question of how and why democracy emerged. Finally, the paper will analyze the consolidation process of South Africa by looking at the prevalent state of her democracy. In order to accurately ascertain the level of democracy and hence, gauge whether South Africa has undergone a consolidation process, various aspects of the democracy have been described. South Africas Journey to Democracy Three transitions occurred in South Africa since the mid 1970s: transitions through transformation, after regime breakdown and through replacement respectively.  [1]   Transition through Transformation Huntington defined transformation as a process wherein the government in the authoritarian regime took the lead in ending that regime and changing it into a democratic system  [2]  . Backward legitimacy is defined as attempts of democratizing governments to legitimize a preexisting authoritarian order by insisting that the latter give birth to a new order.  [3]   In South Africa, the existing government insisted in procedural continuity and at the same time promoted backward legitimacy. Both P.W. Botha and Gorbachev introduced new rules and laws that granted more rights and freedom to the Blacks. They included legalizing black trade unions, permitting blacks to acquire freehold title, providing for electing Black township councils and creating houses of parliament for the colored and Asians but not for the Blacks  [4]  . However, these new rules and laws were not meant to fundamentally change the political system in the country but mainly to bolster the existing political system so as to make it more acceptable to all societies. Bothas reformed government attempted to neutralize standpatter opposition by weakening and reassuring them.  [5]   Transition after Regime Breakdown The ANC in exile held the assumption that the breakdown of the apartheid regime would eventually lead to the black rule. They were wrong. According to the ideology that the ANC held, South Africa was representing colonialism of a special type. Therefore, they felt that the ending of oppression would come in the form of decolonization. Despite a series of talks between the De Klerk government and the ANC, the latter continued to contend that negotiations and revolutionary transformations were not incompatible. There was a comprehensive breakdown of the authoritarian regime in the transitions of Greece, Romania and Argentina due to the disaffection of a part of the military. The military junta did not hold a major social base in the society. The situation in South Africa was different because the military remained loyal to the government; there were no defections to the ANC and the government rested on the social base of the white community. The white did not support the ANC. As of 1993, white support still remained below 5 percent  [6]  . Transition as Transplacement Huntington defines the transplacement process as a transition negotiated between the reformers within the government and the moderates of the opposition. In such a process, there is a balance of power between the opposition and the government. Dominant groups on both sides realize that they are equally incapable of determining the nature of the future political system alone and hence must co-operate with each other to achieve smooth transfer of power. In the transition process within South Africa, this can be seen in the various negotiations that took place within the government and the ANC between 1980 and 1994. Most of the negotiations in the first 3 years after the legalization of the ANC were focused on the cessation of the armed struggle, neutrality of the security forces and controlling of the escalating violence in the townships. For example, in a negotiation between the ANC and the government, it was agreed that white and other minorities had to articulate their values and interest through an alliance or a party. The ANC and other parties also entered constitutional negotiations in 1991 and finally accepted the principle of a government national unity. The ANC accepted constitutional continuity, proportional representation and the idea that a future constituent assembly would not have complete freedom to draw up a constitution but rather adhere to broad principles negotiated beforehand. There were 3 stages in the negotiating phase of transition to liberal democracy in South Africa.  [7]  In the first stage, both the government and the ANC were forced to the negotiating table by economic and international factors, which will be discussed in-depth later. However, both sides were reluctant to fully accept the need to compromise on the means of negotiation, whether to choose a multi-party conference or constituent assembly, or the model of democracy to be pursued. The NP believed that negotiations could control the pace and limit the scope of democratization because the balance of power was still on its side. The ANC, on the other hand, was keen on ending the white rule by relinquishing the power that the government had without making concessions in return. The state of the economy deteriorated and the level of violence within the country escalated, especially among the blacks. The lack of legitimacy of the police force and the easy availability of firearms resulted in high level of criminal violence within the country. Protagonists on all sides manipulated the force both legally and illegally so as to impede or influence the outcome of negotiations  [8]  . Discussions on the terms for negotiation were broken off because ANC felt that de Klerk had failed to control anti-ANC violence. It was necessary to reduce the level of violence in the country for talks to begin again. This was done by including other interest groups, particularly the Inkatha Freedom Party that was responsible for most of the attacks, in the negotiation process. The second stage of negotiations, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) showed how far South Africa was from the ideal of a transition pact by à ©lites. The ANC withdrew from the negotiations due to the influence of the institutions of apartheid, causing the CODESA to collapse in mid 1992. Both the NP and the Inkatha wanted substantial agreement over a constitution before a constituent assembly was elected and a protracted transition of at least ten years. The ANC, however, wanted a constituent assembly and freedom to write the constitution. It was fearful of being locked in the interim government for indefinite duration where their decisions to improve the country would be hindered to a large extent. In the final stage of negotiations, the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum appeared to conform more closely to the idea of a pact between the old and the new elites. There was a lack of progress by negotiators and the ANC adopted a policy of rolling mass action, which pushed the leadership into a more military stance. The level of violence in the country escalated and the state of the economy worsened. As a result of the incident, the NPs support among all prospective voters in the republic fell from 25 percent in July 1992 to 14 percent in April 1993  [9]  .The ANC made gains by forcing the relegation of Inkatha to the position of a minor player. Both the ANC and the NP were convinced that it was necessary to reach a bilateral agreement due to the internal conditions of the country. This agreement could be used as a framework to constrain the disruptive potential of the Inkatha Freedom Party. On 5 March 1993, a new Multi-Party Negotiating Forum began its deliberation. There was a power-sharing system in which all parties receiving more than 5 percent of the votes would be given seats in cabinet in proportion to their strength and there was a substantial devolution of power to the provinces. Also, it was decided that elections would be held for a constituent assembly, which would also serve as an interim government for five years. All parties were to play a role in the drafting of the constitution and the bill of rights that formulated the general constitutional principles. The government was to remain the highest authority between the adoption of the constitution and the holding of elections but they had to consult closely with an all-party authority.  [10]  The ANC were willing to promote black advancement via affirmative action and restitution of losses sustained under the apartheid at the cost of reducing the notion of nationalization. South Africas transition from an authoritarian rule to a liberal democracy was finally consummated in the April 1994 elections. The elections allowed the participation of all South Africans, regardless of background, to participate in the democratic process of choosing their own rulers. There were many challenges that hindered the democratic process in the country- voting had to be extended for several days in order to satisfy voter demand and the reliability of the election results were highly skeptical. Nevertheless, the independent Electoral Commission declared the contest substantially free and fair and an outcome that all parties came to accept and celebrate. South Africas Transition: An Analysis Having described the events that led to South Africas transition, it is now important to analyze these events in the context of political science discourse. This segment of the paper now turns to analyze some of the important conditions that led to the transition in South Africa at that time. Causes of the South African Transition International Influences Withdrawal of Superpower support from the African government South Africa needed the support of the West but the latter was only prepared to give if internal concession allowed the economy to stabilize. The collapse of Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War removed South Africas bargaining power as a surrogate for the USA in the fight against communism in South Africa and the USSR financial support for the supply of arms to the ANC. This led to the NP and the ANC coming to the negotiating table. Introduction of Political Conditions for Western Development Assistance Due to the reasons stated above, the economy kept shrinking. Hence, the government was forced to seek political accommodation with the West. By the end of the 1980, the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe deprived the ANC of its main source of political, economic and military support  [11]  . There was increasing pressure to negotiate the limitations of the strategies of armed struggle and mass insurrection and the success of town level negotiations within the country itself due to pressure by Soviet Union and neighboring African states. Diffusion of mass pro-democracy protests The Second World War led to the development of new classes due to changes in the economic structure of the country. There was strong international emphasis on human rights and freedom. The Western governments indicated that political reform was a necessary condition for further assistance rendered to South Africa. Western governments gave due importance to democracies and encouraged countries to move towards greater pluralism, accountability, respect for human rights and the rule of law  [12]  . Economic conditions Perhaps some of the more important factors leading to democratization emerged as foreign sanctions played an integral role in influencing the economic pressures. South Africa was not able to provide a safe environment for local businesses to invest in and for the country to enjoy economic growth despite having enough investment capital. The gross domestic product (GDP) of South Africa declined from 5.7 percent from 1960 to 1.5 percent in 1980  [13]  . At the same time, South Africa was experiencing a budget deficit in the balance of payment as the government consumer spending rose sharply from 15 percent to 21 percent in 1991 so as to increase the employment level in the country. Private investment and the employment rate among the Blacks fell. The number of new jobs created decreased substantially from 448000 in the 1960s to 28000 in the 1980s  [14]  . This resulted in a wave of strikes across the country as existing black unions strengthened and encouraged the formation of others who wanted to end the apartheid in the 1980s.The government had to increasingly borrow money from other countries to cope with the administrative demands of the fast growing Black population and to mollify the white population who worked for the public sector causing the country to experience drastic budget deficits. The disinvestment sanction played a role in ensuring that no apartheid government could roll back sanctions in the industrialized world as state in the U.S. Congress adoption in 1986 of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. But countries refused to provide sanctions to South Africa unless she democratized. International pressure was brought on both the NP and the ANC and a UN mission headed by former US Secretary of Stae Cyrus Vance, was dispatched to South Africa to make it clear that the economic position of the country will not improve unless an agreement has been reached  [15]  . Combined, these factors meant that that there were few options for the parties involved other than to engage in the final transplacement that took place. Has democracy in South Africa been consolidated? Democratic consolidation goes beyond the mere survival of democratic institutions; it requires that participants hold themselves accountable to the rules of democracy, eschewing patronage and corruption  [16]  . This segment will now turn to assessing the quality of democracy in South Africa presently by utilizing Diamonds checklist of democratic quality to correctly conclude if democratic consolidation is possible in the future. The higher the quality of democracy, the more stable the democratic institutions and the likelier consolidation will take place  [17]  . Quality democracy is defined as one which satisfies citizen expectations regarding governance (quality of results); allows citizens, associations, and communities to enjoy extensive liberty and political equality (quality of content); and provide a context in which the whole citizenry can judge the governments performance through mechanisms such as elections, while governmental institutions and officials hold one another legally and constitutionally accountable as well (procedural quality)  [18]  . The state of democracy in South Africa will be assessed based on the following variables: Accountability Accountability is defined by the obligations of elected political leaders to answer for their political decisions when asked by votes and constitutional bodies. Horizontal accountability goes between different branches of the government while vertical accountability goes from leaders to citizens. Vertical accountability is the obligation of elected political leaders to answer for their political decisions when asked by voters or constitutional bodies  [19]  . In this aspect, South Africa seems to score rather low despite constitutional bodies monitoring each others actions and citizens being able to exercise their rights to remove leaders from powers through elections. South Africa was ranked 55 out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency Internationals 2009 Corruption Perception Index. For example, 920 government officials were charged with corruption linked with housing fraud in November 2009 by the Human Settlement Department  [20]  . There have also been corruption charges against the current president Jacob Zuma. Competition In a democracy, there must be free, regular and fair elections held. An indicator of quality democracy is the additional attribute of competitiveness: the ease at which incumbents can be defeated and the equality of different political parties in access to mass media and campaign funding  [21]  . Since 1994, there have only been 4 elections held in South Africa. The ruling party, ANC, has dominated electoral politics and has been winning supermajorities in every democratic election. However, parties such as the Congress of People (COPE), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) are increasingly gaining support from traditional voters. The electoral process is generally fair but the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation has been accused of being pro-ANC  [22]  . Equality Legal and political equality is essential in a democracy. Active prohibitions against unfairness must check all efforts to discriminate invidiously on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, political orientation, or other extraneous conditions  [23]  . All South Africans enjoy legal equality and political rights under the constitution. However racial imbalance still persists in workplace and majority of the countrys business assets are still white owned. Equal rights for women are guaranteed by the constitution and promoted by the Commission on Gender Equality. Despite a robust legal framework, South Africa still has one of the worlds highest rates on sexual abuse  [24]  . Wage discrimination prevails in the workplace and women are not well represented in the top management positions. As of 2010, women hold 45 percent of seats in the National Assembly and lead 5 out of 9 provincial governments. Also, the premier of Western Cape Province and the main leader of the DA party is lead by Helen Zille  [25]  . Freedom There are basically 3 types of rights: political, civil and social  [26]  . In South Africa, in addition to the political rights already mentioned, the constitution caters for the freedom of religion, academic freedom, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, the press, speech and expression. The Freedom House rated South Africa as free with a political right and civil liberties score of 2. However, according to Amnesty International, problems have emerged with allegations of police torture and excessive force during arrest, interrogation and detention  [27]  . Participation Democratic Quality is regarded highly when there is extensive participation in voting, political parties, and the civil society and in the discussion and monitoring of public officials and policy. All rights necessary for political participation including those deemed necessary by Dahl have been enshrined in the constitution of South Africa. In terms of the civil society, more than 6000 groups have been formed in South Africa, many of them mostly non-governmental organizations. Voter participation has increased to 77% in the 2009 elections up from 75% in 2004. Rule of Law Everyone is equal before the law, which is fairly and consistently applied to all by an independent judiciary. The laws need to be clear, known to all, universal, stable and no retroactive. Also, laws are democratic when the legal system defends civil and political rights and procedures as well as reinforces the authority of other agencies of horizontal accountability that ensure the legality and propriety of official actions  [28]  . The system of justice in South Africa generally conforms to all of the above requirements concerning the rule of law. Judicial independence is guaranteed by the constitution and the courts operate with substantial autonomy. In South Africa, there are barriers to the assessment of justice system, poor court management and the lack of efficiency, thus affecting the delivery of justice. Also, there is a question of representation of all sectors of the society. Many people feel that the justice system within the country still reflects South African colonial and apartheid legacy. Tension will exist between the judicial and the executive and legislative branches in South Africa, as a result of the problems created by legacies of apartheid. Responsiveness Responsiveness is partly related to the aspect of accountability. A responsive democratic government is defined as one that has been induced to make and implement policies that the citizens want  [29]  . In South Africa, the infancy of democratic institutions seems to have led to the government being less than optimally responsive., The people were especially unhappy with council performance at integrating citizens into the agenda-setting and decision- making processes of local self-government. Only about one third feels that these leaders listen regularly to what their constituents have to say. The others either listen occasionally or dont bother at all. However, local councilors are seen as more responsive than leaders elected to national political office  [30]  . Conclusion There are many areas within the South African government that still lack reform. Further consolidation is required for this new fledgling democracy is necessary. Threats to consolidation and room for improvement of the quality of democracy still remain. Nonetheless, democracy seems to be commonly accepted by the Whites and Blacks in South Africa after democratization indicating perhaps that democratic institutions are here to stay and democratic consolidation is possible in the future years.

Les Demoiselles d?Avignon Essay -- Essays Papers

Les Demoiselles d?Avignon As strolled through New York City?s Museum of Modern Art , one particular painting grabbed me , shook me , then through me to the ground to contemplate its awesome power. Like a whirlwind of art , Les Demoiselles d?Avignon , by Pablo Picasso , sent my emotions spinning. I felt extremely uncomfortable glancing at it , let alone staring at it closely for twenty minutes. The raw sexuality and tension that Les Demoiselles d?Avignon radiated was absolutely overwhelming yet very confusing. Other art lovers in the room also expressed discomfort as they glanced at the enormous 96x92 inch painting. Most people would only allow quick glances in between long stares at the more typical paintings on the other walls. I even heard one girl remark ?it?s so gross!!? in a nervous and uncertain voice. I had to know why Les Demoiselles d?Avignon was doing this to me and the others in the room. Les Demoiselles d?Avignon was the product of an irritated and restless Pablo Picasso. In 1906 , Picasso began to tire of painting in the fairly traditional manner that governed his paintings up to Les Demoiselles d?Avignon. His solution was to revolutionize painting.1 Why was Picasso unsatisfied with traditional painting? Essentially Picasso?s overall dissatisfaction for sticking with anything for a long period caused him to take up the difficult quest of revolutionizing painting. He was known to constantly change the styles and mediums through which he created his art. Andre Salmon, a poet and friend Picasso, was once quoted as accusing Picasso of ?trying to force his friends to speculate on the whole problem of art every time they took a brush in their hands.? 2 This quote is very telling of Picasso?s need to change and solve artistic problems. In 1906 he abandoned the painting traditions that stretched all the way back to the Renaissance , and began Les Demoiselles d?A vignon. Les Demoiselles d?Avignon was the product of intense study. The comments of Salmon , shed light on the intensity of the project; ?....He became uneasy , He turned his canvases to the wall and threw down his paintbrushes. For many long days and nights , he drew....Never was labor less rewarded with joy , and without his former youthful enthusiasm Picasso undertook a large canvas that was intended to be the fruit of his experiments.? 3 Every aspect o... ...ing is an enemy!.....the fetishes were weapons. To help people avoid coming under the influence of spirits again , to help them become independent.......I understood why I was a painter....Les Demoiselles d?Avignon must have come to me that very day , but not at all because of the forms ; because it was my first exorcism painting-yes absolutely!? 15 Picasso used Les Demoiselles d?Avignon to free himself from what the world had told him was absolute. Les Demoiselles d?Avignon mocks and teases the faith that people put into their ignorance of the unknown. Picasso?s Les Demoiselles d?Avignon continues to challenge a shake people to this day. Bibliography: John Richardson , A Life of Picasso volume 2 1907-1917 (New York : Random House Press 1996) 15. Arriana S. Huffington , Picasso:Creator and Destroyer . (New York : Simon and Schulster , 1988) 89. Marie-Laurie Berndac and Bouchet , Picasso: Master of the New Idea . (New York , Abrams , 19 Kirk Varnedoe , Response to Les Demoiselles d?Avignon. (http://www.moma.org/docs/collection/paintsculpt/c40.htm , 1997) George H. Hamilton , Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1800-1940 . (New Haven : Yale U. Press 1993) 46-47 Les Demoiselles d?Avignon Essay -- Essays Papers Les Demoiselles d?Avignon As strolled through New York City?s Museum of Modern Art , one particular painting grabbed me , shook me , then through me to the ground to contemplate its awesome power. Like a whirlwind of art , Les Demoiselles d?Avignon , by Pablo Picasso , sent my emotions spinning. I felt extremely uncomfortable glancing at it , let alone staring at it closely for twenty minutes. The raw sexuality and tension that Les Demoiselles d?Avignon radiated was absolutely overwhelming yet very confusing. Other art lovers in the room also expressed discomfort as they glanced at the enormous 96x92 inch painting. Most people would only allow quick glances in between long stares at the more typical paintings on the other walls. I even heard one girl remark ?it?s so gross!!? in a nervous and uncertain voice. I had to know why Les Demoiselles d?Avignon was doing this to me and the others in the room. Les Demoiselles d?Avignon was the product of an irritated and restless Pablo Picasso. In 1906 , Picasso began to tire of painting in the fairly traditional manner that governed his paintings up to Les Demoiselles d?Avignon. His solution was to revolutionize painting.1 Why was Picasso unsatisfied with traditional painting? Essentially Picasso?s overall dissatisfaction for sticking with anything for a long period caused him to take up the difficult quest of revolutionizing painting. He was known to constantly change the styles and mediums through which he created his art. Andre Salmon, a poet and friend Picasso, was once quoted as accusing Picasso of ?trying to force his friends to speculate on the whole problem of art every time they took a brush in their hands.? 2 This quote is very telling of Picasso?s need to change and solve artistic problems. In 1906 he abandoned the painting traditions that stretched all the way back to the Renaissance , and began Les Demoiselles d?A vignon. Les Demoiselles d?Avignon was the product of intense study. The comments of Salmon , shed light on the intensity of the project; ?....He became uneasy , He turned his canvases to the wall and threw down his paintbrushes. For many long days and nights , he drew....Never was labor less rewarded with joy , and without his former youthful enthusiasm Picasso undertook a large canvas that was intended to be the fruit of his experiments.? 3 Every aspect o... ...ing is an enemy!.....the fetishes were weapons. To help people avoid coming under the influence of spirits again , to help them become independent.......I understood why I was a painter....Les Demoiselles d?Avignon must have come to me that very day , but not at all because of the forms ; because it was my first exorcism painting-yes absolutely!? 15 Picasso used Les Demoiselles d?Avignon to free himself from what the world had told him was absolute. Les Demoiselles d?Avignon mocks and teases the faith that people put into their ignorance of the unknown. Picasso?s Les Demoiselles d?Avignon continues to challenge a shake people to this day. Bibliography: John Richardson , A Life of Picasso volume 2 1907-1917 (New York : Random House Press 1996) 15. Arriana S. Huffington , Picasso:Creator and Destroyer . (New York : Simon and Schulster , 1988) 89. Marie-Laurie Berndac and Bouchet , Picasso: Master of the New Idea . (New York , Abrams , 19 Kirk Varnedoe , Response to Les Demoiselles d?Avignon. (http://www.moma.org/docs/collection/paintsculpt/c40.htm , 1997) George H. Hamilton , Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1800-1940 . (New Haven : Yale U. Press 1993) 46-47