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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
Hints.
1. The desire for power inherent in man.
2. Distinctions and disparities lead to the idea of superiority both on the individual and national level.
3. Mental power superior than physical power.
4. Knowledge attained by man gave him the power to rule over the elements that govern life.
5. All the discoveries and inventions of man, the manifestation of the power of knowledge.
6, Discipline, order and economy form the basis of the power given by knowledge
7. •Balance is the cardinal virtue of good sense.
8. Knowledge must mellow in wisdom which is the mark of culture and humanity.
9. The quest of knowledge should lead to the realization of the Truth.
Essay
Desire for power is inherent in man. The love of power comes from the consciousness of man’s mental and moral superiority over other created beings. It is instinctive, therefore, that man as superior being must control and dominate others. Again the awareness that all men are not created equal gives birth to the desire to rule and dominate others who are weak ; some are intelligent, others dull; some brave and daring, others shy and timid. In the same way there are those who are educated, others comparatively ignorant, some wealthy, others poor. The history of the world, so far as man is concerned, is a history of the struggle for power. Thus from the primitive wars of tribes and clans to the ruinous wars of today, there is only one idea behind these wars and that is the thirst for power.
Broadly speaking power is of two kinds, physical and mental. Physical power is of the lower order as compared to the power of the mind. Primitive men mainly understood one kind of power and that was of the body. In past the strength of the arms decided things and might alone was right. However, with the growth of civilization and the development of the human mind, the mental power came to be recognized as of a superior order. Mental power has its origin in knowledge.
When man first appeared on the earth, he was no better than animals. He was about the beast of prey and was a helpless being, a
Antagonism create a sense of insecurity and uncertainty. As with individuals so with nations. India’s neighbors Pakistan and China, have not only proved bad neighbors but a regular nuisance. The armed aggressions on our territory have damaged our economic and political stability. The peaceful activities of building up a nation are endangered. We have to build up our strength and power militarily to face the situation adequately and with confidence. The forms of social life are determined by men’s nature, and only as their natures improve can the forms become better. The practicability of cooperation depends upon human character. If a man or for that purpore.a nation refuses to listen to reason then it becomes essential to talk, in the language which is understandable to it.
The atmosphere of mutual fear and distrust between the people and the nations must be removed. “Live and let live,” should be the guiding principle for communities and nations as for individuals. It is the practical philosophy of life to tolerate others, to retrain from interfering with others, and reconcile to the way of the others. Complete uniformity or total identification of thoughts and ideology is impossibility. Stubbornness and intolerance only creates unhappiness and an atmosphere of tension and bitterness. All the creative abilities of man can be better utilised, if good neighbourly feeling is created. Mutual adjusment based on broad minded attitude can create harmony and goodwill. It is the synthetic attitude of life which alone can make peaceful life possible. Hence, as charity begins at home, it becomes essential that we learn to live as good neighbours first, then value the sociable virtues of community, and finally as a nation. Mutual respect, noninterference in others internal affairs can lead to peaceful coexistence. Progress and prosperity and the advancement of mankind on the whole depends upon our realisation that we must learn to live together and live like human beings.
THE FORMOST DUTY OF EACH INDIVIDUAL OF A COUNTRY IS TO HELP BUILD THE NATIONAL CHARACTER BY SELF EXAMPLE !
This essay is in refrence to India. u can change that for your respective country.
Introduction : (duty of indians)
Almost half a century has passed since India gained its independence, but it has yet to join the ranks of the developed countries. That is a dream still to be realised. And this is in spite of India being a large country with all kinds of potential resources of men and material.
ESSAY
One of the reasons for this tragic failure is the Indian people’s lack of national character. The majority of ‘he
What is national character ? It is, to put it simply, the capacity and the will to hold the interests of the nation supreme m every sphered Whenever there is a clash between individual and national interests, it means individual concerns being subordinated to the greater good of the nation. Whenever a nation has made any progress, it has been due to this spirit of nationalism. Without such a spirit of nationalism no nation can advance either internally or externally.
Now the question arises as to why, during the priod of just under 50 years, many countries have succeeded in fostering a strong national spirit in their people, and now stand alongside developed countries like Singapore, Korea, Malayasia and Japan, etc, while India still lags far behind. There is one basic reason for this. Attempting to achieve the possible by means which are impossible. It is just that we have set off on the wrong track, and once on it, it is difficult to retrace our steps and get on to the right track.
After independence, an ‘Indian Nation’ had come into existence in the political and geographical sense. But, at the psychological level, the level of feelings and emotions, our position was still that of a nation in the making. For the desired national reconstruction to take place, our leaders proposed a recipe based on the concept of a common heritage with three main parts : Religious unity, historical unity and cultural unity.
Religious unity implied that all religions were essentially one. It was believed that if this concept could take root in people’s minds, it would produce a sense of unity all over the country. Historically, of course, this assumption was wrong: there is a long, sorry record of co-religionists fighting fiercely among themselves. For instance, in the war of Mahabharat, the warriors on both sides were of the Hindu religion. In the first and Second World Wars, the combatants on both sides were of the Christian faith. Babar had armed confrontations with his own co-religionists, finally inflicting decisive defeats on them, and so on.
The attempt to bring about religious unity in India has had active support right from the time of Akbar, who bolstered it politically, to present times, when intellectuals such as Dr. Bhagwan Das (a contemporary of Jawaharlal Nehru) attempted to solve the problem with their encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject.
It is an undeniable fact that there are differences between various religions. Given these differences, it is difficult, if not impossible, for the adherents of one religion to accept that the tenets and practices of another religion have an equal value. However, if the adherents of different religions see each other, first and foremost, as human beings as members of the same human race, they can certainly accord each other equal respect. Through mutual respect many social benefits can accrue, which would be rendered impossible in the wake of futile attempts at mutual recognition of religious beliefs.
How history comes into the picture ? It is assumed that even where there are people of different persuasions, a common sense of history will produce a common sense of nationhood. And where this is seen to be lacking, it is advocated that such a sense be inculcated. But this would again be an attempt to achieve the possible by means which are impossible. All countries, be they as small as Singapore, or as large as the USA, are inhabited by varied races and ethnic groups. In this respect there are several different strands to their historical heritage. But in none of these countries has there been any attempt to bulldoz people into sharing a common sense of history. Instead, there has been an acknowledgement of each citizens’ individuality. That is why, albeit imbued with different historical feelings, the various groups lead harmonious lives and are engaged in the common cause of nation-building.
The third point concerns the acceptance of a common culture. This is wholly impracticable. Culture inevitably evolves a long historical process. It can never be imposed upon a group through any external agency.
After the Second World War, a movement was launched in the USA to produce a common culture throughout the country by a process of Americanization. A similar movement was launched in Canada, but in both countries, these initiatives were a failure. Ultimately both had to abandon the idea of uniculture and came to terms with multi-culture. In India, as elsewhere, this is the only possible solution.
The truth is that only practicable basis of nationhood is patriotism. That is, the feeling on the part of the individual or group that their future is linked with one country and one country alone; that individual success is inextricably linked with the progress of the country, that the interests of the country must be held supreme, and that if sacrifices are required for the safety or advancement of the country, they must be willingly made. Without such feelings of patriotism as here defined, no country can be successfully run.
If the tasks of constructing the nation is to be successfully accomplished, we must rid ourselves of obessions with such impracticable concepts as unity of religion, history and culture, and should forge ahead on the same lines as Singapore, Malayasia, Japan, Britain, France and America.
It is desirable to launch a movement for economic unity, based on economic justice for every individual or at least the bulk of the individuals and groups.
Our prime target should be the generation of patriotism in our country. And it should be a patriotism which is based not on the past, but on the present and the future. The only way to do this is to instil in each and every individual a deep-rooted love for his country. Instead of wasting time on the impossible, we should concentrate on building the kind of national character to be found in developed countries. If we set ourselves sedulously to such tasks as these, we should, within the span of one generation, be able to create for ourselves the ideal nation.
THE TASK OF UNIVERSITIES IN INDIA
The university everywhere in the world is an important insti¬tution, for the advancement of the people. The traditional view of a university which was regarded as a place where students would carry on their scholarly activities and build themselves as intelle¬ctuals, isolated from rest of the society, has to be changed to a place where it becomes an institution fully conscious of the changes taking place in society and making due contribution to this change.
Universities in India have been functioning in the past under several pressures, viz., excessive specialisation, overcrowding, highly expensive organisations conflicting political interference, etc.
The fast development that is taking place in society, thus, makes university life complex. The student now finds himself a victim of sudden breaking of social ties—family, village and culture. He finds that his studie* have no roots in his own culture and his university education” based on foreign standards is cracking. No wonder, the student spreads among the youth. This unrest some¬times shakes the very freedom and integrity of the university itself The solution lies in better communion and understanding of the purpose of . university education among the teachers anil the tauelit and in the creation of a sense of community. Student”" and teachers are supposed to be mindful of the real pur¬pose of education and re-orient it to suit the changed conditions The university authorities should on their part, be careful not to assume that new techniques of teaching are good simply because thevarenew. Very often the craze for change in curriculum has ope’ned the flood gates of agitation, thus making nonsense of real education.
The university should give more prominence to new experi¬ments in education. There is great scope for consolidation between the teacher and the taught. Views and wishes of the students need to be given sympathetic consideration instead of being brushed aside as just foolish, excessive or unreasonable.
The present students’ unrest in the university campus can be attributed partly to the fact that the university education does not equip the graduate youth for any useful work, or make him an alert citizen, orthat it just satisfies certain socially acceptable standards. Education should be treated as a profession and teachers should be expected to adopt a professional attitude towards their work.The exi¬sting attitude of looking upon education as a mere interlude between childhood and real life of gainful employment should replace the attitude .of looking upon university education as an expensive, sub¬sidised apprenticeship helping students to acquire skills.
On the question of student-participation in university adminis-tration and proper functioning of the student unions, modern edu¬cationist emphasise that it should be permitted but subject to a num¬ber of improvements in the methods of election of office-bearers with a view to induce really capable students to get in. It is also proposed to seek diversification of the union’s activities so that they could become useful institutions and impart training to students in the art of maintenance and management of university administration, satisfying at the same time students’urge to participate in univer¬sity life. It would be most unfortunate to regard students as indisciplined and, therefore, to be kept away from responsi¬bility. It is high time that some kind of a committee, on national level, comprising students, teachers and eminent educationists is set up to involv’e a suitable machinery to implement educational policy. The universities set up a three-tier administrative machinery improve his lot. When universit.es will assumethis ^^”‘J of promoting knowledge as well as social welfare, all will be wen with the Indian nation and the Indian people. to receive, consider and remove student grievance without delay. Quite often it has been observed that even ordinary students pro¬blems like messing insanitary conditions in hostels, etc.. are not attended to causing, unrest backed by agitation.
Let it be .realised that men and women of student-age now come to adult life much earlier than their elders came in the past. The future of academic unity and the role of students thus need to be modified and modernised. Education is one of the most important employers in the country but it is unfortunately one of the few careers which continue to dole out only meagre salaries to the teachers.
There is a strong feeling that the old concept of a university is not adequate to meet the needs of the present-day society. Universities in the western countries are drawing out new ideas and experiments to meet the challenges of the modern world of science and technology, of explosion of knowledge and of consequent rapid changes in social life. This is even more necessary in the case of developing societies like India.
One important responsibility which the new universities have to assume relates to the development of programme of adult education for its alumni and for the improved categories of leader¬ship in various walks of life. In particular, the universities have 10 do something to educate the rural leadership which moulds the life of 80 per cent of the people, elects 80 per cent of the legislators. The future of the country largely depends on the correct under¬standing of the national problems by this rural leadership. The most effective agency to implement this programme are the Depart¬ments of Extension of Service in the universities.
Another task which a university has to undertake is service to society. There is need to realise that the maintenance of universities is a costly affair and the average Indian citizen , who is very poor makes a great sacrifice to support them. It is, there¬fore, our duty to serve. Every university should evolve itself deeply in the study of local, regional and national problems and assist in their practical solution. This need not imply any fall in academic standards ; rather this touching with reality will help to raise the quality. It will give the universities an opportunity to enable the students work and to participate in programmes of national service.
It is only when new ground is broken that the universities begin to make their real contribution to national development. It is true that the universities owe their allegiance, first and foremost, to truth but they also stand, as Nehru once said, for humanism any for progress. They should combine the intellect of a Shankra-charya with the compassion of a Buddha and their pursuit of truth should be accompained by a solicitude for the welfare of the common man of India and by a commitment and dedication to improve his lot.all will be well with the indian people and indian nation
CHESS AND COMPUTER
Introduction :
Today’s world champions use computers extensively. Kasparov uses one since the mid-Eighties and Anand since 1989. Chess is the only sport which can benefit from the growth in techonlogy to a greater degree since computer software can perform two things for it; play chess as well as store data.
ESSAY
The earliest thought of chess computers came in 1864 when Charles Babbage condidered the use of a computer. But there wasn’t any suitable electronic equipment available at that time to engineer the launch of a chess programme. In 1944 Konrad Zuse came up with the first chessplaying programme but it was considered very theoretical and the one developed in 1947 by English mathematician Alan Turning never took off.
It was Chaude Shannon’s paper in 1949 in the United States which became the basis for all subsequent programmes and the first computer to follow all the rules was made in 1958. The first computer which made a mark was Mac Hack in 1966 ia the United States. Since then, the progress was slow since it was funded by chess lovers and no governmental support was available in places where it was being developed.
The First World Computer Chess Championship at Stockholm opened up more avenues. It was won by Kaissa, a Soviet programme. The latest championship held at Hong Kong this Year was won by the German software programme ‘Fritz’.
In 1987 Kasparov wrote in his biography, “No computer can ever beat me.” In a blitz tournament at Munich last Year he tied for first with Fritz3 but lost the individual encounter with the machine. Last year, after being beaten by the software programme ‘Chess Genius’ in a London tournament he vowed for revenge and declared that he will not play
machines and humans in the same event. He beat that programme this year at Cologne in a separate match.
Kasparov’s reasoning why humans, at least till his generation, will be ahead of the computers is: “No machine can yet match the astonishing powers of pattern recognition in the human mind. Pattern recognition seems to be the key to a chess genius.” For the programmers, the pieces have units’that make them think, move and exchange. The value of pieces in pawn terms is knight 3, bishop 3.25, rook 5, queen 9. The value for the king which no one really knows is 3 while moving and 1,000 for exchanging, so that the software dosen’t exchange it for other material.
Chess playing computer usage will only increase since the game is likely to get shortened to fit in television slots in the future. The shorter the time, it’s more difficult for humans and the chances of overlooking tactics grow larger. After losing to a computer, Vladmir Kramnik a talented grandmaster said, “against computers you make only one mistake, the first one.”
The second variety of software is as useful as the chess playing variety. This one is a database which stores and retrieves games. Thousands of players have benefitted from this facility. Kasparov’s simultaneous results against eight Hamburg players improved after using Chess Base in January 1987 and he said in his autobiography Child of Change: “I regard thjs facility as the important development in chess research since printing.”
Players are going to enjoy chess more and search less clearly, while preparing for opponents. Chess will grow sharper and the domination of the Russions will come down crashing and see many players from other countries becoming world champions.
Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili, second to Gata Kamsky in five of his matches said on Sunday that he has turned down an offer to be his trainer. Kamsky has to play Karpov for the FIDE championship, which is yet to take shape.
Dizindzichashvili, the 51-year old big-made Russian speaking Grandmaster first acted as his trainer in the Kramnik match here last
June and has done much of the spade work for Kamsky’s success in four of the five matches. Asked why he rejected working with Kamsky, he lifted his hand and acting as if cutting his neck, said “not with them.”
It is known that Rustam Kamsky, father of Gata, punched the other second GM Alexander Shabalov in India when they came for the Valery Salov match in February 1995. Kasparov had told Anand in New York that Vassily Ivanchuk was Kamsky’s newest second.
Those seeking a good counter attacking line against the king pawn have a good solution; the Sicilian Dragon. The instrument is not a master or a grandmaster but a world champion. Already having used this twice, Kasparov has poured new wine in this century-old bottle.
The last time it was ‘played’ in a big game was by Anatoly Karpov against Viktor Korchnoi in the world championship candidates finals at Moscow in 1974. Since then various players like Antony Miles, Gyula Sax brought in variations like the b4, h5 systems for Black in the early Eighties. Repeatedly slayed by all and sundry, the variation became a dying art until Tiviakov and Topalov resurrected it in the elite group.
As neither Kasparov nor his seconds play the Dragon, it has been a rough surprise to come up against, Kasparov must have had a session with either Sergey Tiviakov or other practitioners.
Many years ago, Anand opened a game with the queen pawn against IN N. Sudhakar Babu back in India. He said he was avoding the dragon. The dragon is a vicious opening like the very name it signifies.
If openings like the Sicilian Alapin 2.c3 or the Rossolimo became popular at one stage for white players, it wasn’t that there was power in these, but the players were clearly avoiding the Dragon.
The Dragon in chess is named after the powerful fianchettoed dark-coloured bishop of Black in the Sicilian defence usually placed in the 97 square.
The real test might not be over as Anand’s handling with white was first passive and in the second game little too original and harmless for Black. Nevertheless, two out of two with the Black pieces in the world championship with the Dragon variation is something difficult to pass up.
GOING UP IN HIGH MOUNTAIN COUNTRY
Introduction :
The sky closes in, as blue grey clouds swirl down the mountain side. As we stand below, going up at the closed high walls of the monas¬tery at Hemis, snowflakes dapple the air, van¬ishing on touch like thoughts at random, like a whispered prayer. In the sudden fall of darkness on a late May morning is the unmistakable breath of ice. The path leading up to the monas¬tery winds past the limewashed houses of Hemis, the windows blind and staring, silence within. The entire village is verily quiet as if in the clutch of ghosts.
ESSAY
A sharp wind accompanied us all the way up to the monastery. Bordering the houses, rosebushes grew wild, emptied of blossom by an early gust of spring. As we entered the open courtyard, the billowing silk of the clouds whipped off the sky, as if by some unseen hand, to reveal the drama of this ancient, imposing facade. Hemis is no ordinary mon-astery, towering above all others in Ladakh area. Built in 1630 A.D. by Sengge Namgyal, a great patron of Buddhism from the powerful Namgyal dynasty that once ruled over Ladakh, the verandas of the main temple are emblazoned with richly intricate frecoes that illustrate concepts like the Buddhist wheel of life or Kalachakra.
The splendour of the monastery is celebrated in the autumnal “Song of Hemis.”
“In the midst of the brown trees, Stands a gompa like an ornament of gold,” But the trees around Hemis are a bright sap green now and* for the villagers of Hemis, this is the colour of hard labour. For in the brief growing season that barely spans four months, the people of Ladakh have to drive the earth with all available energy to produce the crops that will keep them alive for the rest of the year. The Ladakhis have remarkable traditional expertise in using snowfed streams to water as large an area as is possible through intricate channels that are designed for the most efficient use of the principle of gravity. The land in its brief and wild tryst with summer is soon emerald with crops of barley, buckwheat and peas.
. Each Ladakhi family grows its own food, tends its own livestock, weaves and makes the clothes required and builds the large comfortable homesteads that are characteristic of rural Ladakh. But this severely self-sufficient lifestyle is shot through with the threads of a strong and enduring sense of community. The industrious Ladakh society uses community links to supplement and strengthen family efforts to raise productivity in an environment that is arid, hostile and frozen for the major part of the year.
All the members of a family are out working the fields. The livestock comprising horses, yak, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys are sent up to graze on the high grasslands above while fodder is also cut and stored for the long winter ahead. Families work together on the basis of reciprocal exchanges of labour. Sometimes work is paid for in terms of butter or grain.
The agro-pastoral society of Ladakh uses 17 per cent of the total cropped area of 10,000 hectares for the cultivation of fodder. The total cropped area which sustains over one lakh people of the district, accounts for just over 2 per cent of its total land area. Land holdings tend to be small, ranging between one and three hectares. According to Helena Norber-Hodge, an expert on the culture of Ladakh, no family aspires to own more land than it can work, a testimony to the lack of greed among the Ladakhis which Hodge claims is the secret of their contentment.
Ladakh was virtually sealed off by its physical inacces-sibility until the 1970s. The opening up of this last Shangrila to tourism had many observers of Ladakh, Hodge foremost among them, lamenting the loss of a society for which sustainability has been a religious, cultural, social and eco¬nomic reality. Rather like the hand that shields the flickering flame of the candle, much of the development intervention in Ladakh is built around raising xenophobic attitudes among the people in order to salvage local culture. Western culture is derided through caricaturing both those who are native to it and Ladakhis who have gone astray under its evil influ¬ence. Although not explicity targetted, the corrupting influ¬ence of mainland India through the Hindi film is also clubbed along with the undesirable West.
Twice removed from west¬ern culture and perhaps perceived as being twice as danger¬ous, the Hindi film is clearly seen as a dreaded enemy of locally sustainable values.
Ladakh in a sense still remains lost to the world. Only a quarter of Ladakh’s population is literate. There is no news¬paper culture for no newspapers are published here. Yet the grapevine in Leh town is as intricate as it is efficient. As the locals put it, “If someone slips and falls on this street, there will be laughter on the next.”
Most of Ladakh is rural in character with over 87 per cent of its people living in villages. Some villages like Zinchen are no more than a couple of houses by a clear icy mountain stream shaded by willows, poplars, apricot and walnut trees.
Tashi Wangyal, 62, lives in one of them. He and his younger brother are married to the same woman. Putith Palzom, now 55, who has brone them seven children. Poly¬andry was fairly universal in Ladakh until recently. However times have changed and Wangyal’s daughters are in mo¬nogamous marriages. Interestingly, the male-female sex-ratio in the district shows far fewer women as compared to men at 886 women per 1000 men (1991-92) as compared with the rather adverse all India average of 927 women per 1000 men.
According to Tashi Rabgyas, one of Ladakh’s leading scholars, the opening up of Ladakh has caused local cus toms to dissolve in the face of cultural influences inimical to its own. Rabgyas regretes the decline of polyandrous mar¬riages. He calls it “sensible practice which not only kept the population at sustainable levels but also increased the sur¬vival chances of a family unit in the harsh climatic conditions of this region.”
In their dark smoke-filled kitchen, Putith Palzomstokes the fire. Her matted grey hair and lined face do not dim tho sunshine of her smile. She has visitors in her kitchen today from Rumbak, a village a few kilometres away. And they sit together over a low table on the carpet, drinking Gur-gur chai, a thick brew of tea leaves to which soda bicarbonate, yak butter and salt are added making it the rich pinkish brown colour of new mango leaves. In the cold and dry conditions of Ladakh, the butter is a balm to capped lips. Along the wall, as in all Ladakhi homes, brass vessels gleam from rows of shelves in the. kitchen.
Tashi and his family cultivate barley and wheat. None of his children go to school as they are all needed on the farm. During the summer, they go to the high pasture-lands with the livestock. Tashi says they have trouble sometimes with the wolves. He has, he claims, seen the snow leopard four times in his life.. “It is quite difficult to protect your animals when you have no gun” he says. Besides, Tashi is a Buddhist.
The roof of their house is cluttered with odd bits of trash: from rubber tyres and a rusted chassis to plastic bags and other junk. It seems as though the junk is quite deliberately accumulated for some rainy day.
TENNIS FEVER ON YOUNGSTERS
Introduction:
Wimbledon has its unmatched history, its many charms, its lush lawns, an ivy-covered stadium, the royal box and strawberries and cream. The new-look Australian Open and the U.S. Open have their share of attraction too, as do all three big cities – London, Melbourne and New York—hosting these championships. 
ESSAY
Paris is something else, especially Paris in May. For, what can’t you do in Paris on a beautiful spring day? Anybody who doesn’t fall in love with Paris in May is as cold as stone, perhaps untouched by emotional subtleties.
How about a breakfast stroll down one of those innumer¬able tree-lined avenues with the morning dew kissing your feet and shy little leaves celebrating as much their infancy as the new dawn after a wintry spell in the womb? And then, now about an unending breakfast at a street-side cafe as you watch the world go by and listen to endless French conversations about everything under the sun—from the strengths of the new President, Jacques Chirac, to the latest material problems of the enigmatic, evergreen French tennis hero, Henri Leconte. Really, what can’t you do in Paris in May? For instance, you can even explore the ageless Notre Dasme, take a boat on the seine or see the latest fashions at Givenchy and then settle down for a comfortable lunch at a plush restaurant. But, most of all, you can walk into the Roland Garros stadium, climb up and up to the highest tier of the 18,500 capacity Central Court and watch the likes of Jim Courior, Sergi Brugue’a and Andre Agassi tease and torment the quick-on-the—draw serve-and-volly gunslingers such as Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Goran Invnisevic. And then, should it ever turn out that a Bruguera or a courier is playing one of those countless clay court whiz kldl whose unprounceable names you get to hear only in Pari? then be prepared to roll your eyes this way and that acros the net 50 times and more before a single point is won.
That again is a bonus for you. From your cosy perch of the top, beyond the flowery mist of huge chestnut trees, yo can take Eiffel Tower and then turn your attention back to th red shale rectangle where one or other of the competitor has just hit long or wide after yet another marathon rally. Paris, if you care for a touch of class, then don’t raci through life there. Least of all in May, you take it one little bi by bit. Relish it bit by bit. Like the famous French wine. Liki the just as famous clay court tennis at Roland Garros. I seems to go on forever and ever. And why not? It is no less classy, no less elegant for that. There are any number of top pros who hate to play on th( slow clay of the French Open but make the trip to Paris nevertheless.
I remember Vijay Amritraj telling me in the mic 80s that he went to Paris only because he loved the place anc his wife, Shyamla, enjoyed shopping in the French capital. Sometimes it might even turn out that the pros who hate clay would end up making enough money for their wives’ shopping! If shopping money will be of little concern to the players at the very top, then there are any number of superstars in this category who have got on the plane to Paris because the French Open, to them, represents the ultimate challenge. At his prime, John McEnroe was well aware that, for all his genius, the French was the one he’d find most difficult to win. In the mid-80s, it became something of an intellectual and physical challenge for McEnroe and the great man did come very, very close to squaring the cricle, so to say, in 1984 when he was two -sets -and -something ahead of Ivan Lendl before the time bomb that always ticked away inside the genius went off without a warning. Few would doubt that the French Open is more challeng¬ing, mentally and physically, than either Wimbledon or the U.S. Open.
Patience and alertness are qualities that are rewarded on the terre battue.(red clay) of roland Garros. Steadiness, strength and stamina are virtues that make overnight stars out of teenagers brought up on European clay as the slowness of the courts makes it difficult for men such as Becker, Edberg and Pete Sampras. A player who can bang the bell endlessly and accurately, slide into his shots oblivious to the red dust that makes you look like a rugby player on a wet afternoon in Twickenham after an hour of tennis, is the best bet at the French Open. You have to often bend into your shots and strive to just keep the ball in play waiting for the other man to make a mistake or seize the right moment to go for the big winner. In the high noon of clay court tennis, an era embellished by masters of the touch game such as Manuel Santana in the 1960s and even right up to the time when Adriano Panatta was hero in Paris, a bit of touch at the net and a bit of coaxing from the back, would not only charm the spectators, but also produce just rewards. But not anymore. Like it or not, this is the era of the power game and more than cunning and patience, what is successful now is the Big Game.
A player needs at least one big weapon—preferably a pile driver forehand—on top of a big serve if he is to find any kind of success. The Couriers, Agassis and the Brugueras, not to speak of someone like Mary Pierce, who beat Steffi Graf in the semifinals in Paris, May 1994 all hit the ball as if there is nothing on earth that they hate more than the fuzzy little thing. If the attritional methods practised with such stunning success by Bjorn Borg and Chris Evert—arguably the great-est French men’s and women’s champions of all time—in the 1970s and early 1980s suggested that finesse had been left some way behind, then men like Ivan Lendl improved on this further by whacking the ball as hard as they could. Today when you watch the Bruguera forehand or the Courier forehand, you know immediately who the forerunner was. But, then, on the whole, it may take more than a mean forehand to win in Paris, as of course Courier and Bruguera, both two-time champions, have proved in the recent years. If Bruguera, coming back from an injury-lay-off and striving to achieve peak form, is going for his third straight title, then Courier too is aiming for his third. The red-headed American has suggested in the recent weeks that he is slowly playing himself out of a mid-career slump and back to customary altitude and he should be among the top favourites for the men’s title. Bruguera and Courier apart, two others, both Ameri-cans, fancy their chances. Andre Agassi, now ranked No. 1 in the world and playing the best tennis of his life, has not lost a Grand.Slam singles match since going down in the fourth round at Wimbledon and he will become the first player in 26 years to win all four Slam titles if he is successful in Paris.
The peerless Rod Laver won all four titles in 1969 to record his second Grand Slam but no player since has managed to win the four majors in an entire career span. Also in a league with Agassi, Courier and Bruguera, when it comes to favouritism will be the New and Improved Michael Chang, who became the youngest French Open champion in history seven years ago, when he fooled Ivan Lendl by serving underhand and checked out the very limits .of endurance en route to the record feat. If you are wondering how one hasn’t put the great Pete Sampras in the list of top favourites, then it must be stressed that the Greek-American, this season (1995) has not really shown the form that made him such an outstanding competi-tor last summer. This is quite apart from the fact that Sampras is not really a ‘natural’ on slow caly courts. But someone as gifted and thoroughly professional as Sampras can never be written off, not even on his least favourite surface. As for outsiders, watch out for Thomas Muster, Andrei Medvedev, Michael Stich and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. In the women’s championship, it may not be wise to look beyond Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Mary Pierce and Conchita Martinez. Then again, this is Paris we are talking about, is it not? That too Paris in May. So it should hardly matter who wins and who loses. For, if you are there, taking in the delights of Paris in May, you’ll realise tennis is ultimately the winner—and so are you. ‘ For, the French Open is tres classiquer, all elegance and romance. What if your favourite star loses? The birds will still be singing from the chestnut trees and the wine will be waiting.
SHOULD SCIENCE BE ONLY THE HANDMAID OF TECHNOLOGY ?
The modern scientist’s simple answer to this question would be a big ‘No’.Some time ago science was called organised knowledge. Recem researchers in science and sociology have held that much knowledge is acquired and displayed beyond the normal channels. This know¬ledge is also highly organised. A well-known modern philosopher has defined science as the search for the perfect means of attaining any end. This, again, seems rather too broad a definition of science.
The best way to find out what science is, is to examine with care what scientists do. Though their activities are extremely dive¬rse in detail, depending on the number of fields in which they work, it has led some to believe that science is not subject to any embar-rassing characterisation. Even this description shows that the atti¬tude of these people is not logically correct. Lindsey defines science as method of description, creation and understanding of human experience. By ‘human experience’ is meant the sum-total of all the impressions of human being having various ways of coping with their experiences. In view of this, it is possible to share the experie¬nces p.nd knowledge.
With the above definition of science handy, we can categori¬cally reject the hypothesis that it is or should be only a handmaid to technology. It is the handmaid of many other branches of know¬ledge.
Science is concerned principally with facts ; it provides as much the basic logical force to all the humanities and social scie¬nces, as to the so-called natural science and technology. While science is concerned only with facts, the humanities are concerned with values. Expressions of taste, choice and preferences have no place in science. Whereas thay are a leading preoccupation of the humanities. Science does not tell us how to lead a happy life ; it merely describes how life is observed to be happy. The humanities discuss the fundamental questions crucial for the behaviour and fate of the individual. Though science is created by individual scien-tists, it establishes its right to be taken seriously only when it gains acceptance by a large number of qualified persons, whereas the humanities are more individually based. The individual humanities can take whatever view be placed about anything or can create anything anew. It is his own feelings and tasks that a humanist experiences and he is not bound to accept or respect those of any¬one else. Science has, on the other hand, to describe things as they are. It cannot provide scope for the imagination, whereas the hu¬manities provide an imaginative interpretation of experiences.
This goes to stress the apparent objectivity of science as con¬trasted to the subjectivity of the humanities. This side of science lays emphasis on its impersonal character of description of expe¬rience. Nothing is regarded as scientific unless it is agreed to have a set of independent and impartial observers. The personal pre¬judices and tastes are cancelled out in their inability to find the same thing in the phenomenon in question. “Science, therefore, de¬pends on theorisation for its understanding of experience ; objec¬tivity is a special quality.
As regards the relationship between science and technology and its connection with the influence of science on society, it is worth-while reviewing our understanding of these two human activities. Science has already been defined as a method, for the description, creation and understanding of human experiences. Technology may be defined as a human activity directed towards the satisfaction of human needs by the more effective u
Science has given previously unknown implements to man to. conquer the forces of nature and to conquer the mind of the masses through various means. In the fields of technology, the impact of science has been felt the most because technology represents the physical aspects of living, not hiding anything beyond the sight of the eye. The intellectual influence of science perpetrated in the field pf humanities and social science is, however, not perceptible physically. It is reflected in the dynamic mode of human behaviour, breaking with all orthodox customs and rituals, the mythological and superstitious beliefs. The unfounded superstitions of the past have gone down the drain even in backward countries. The mass media, the radio, the international broadcasts on the wireless and television and the growing consciousness among the masses all over the world, the growth of democracies, the eradication of ignorance and illiteracy, the strong impact of tangible technological inventions, discoveries and implements have had their full sway in the present civilisation.
The scope and frontiers of science cannot be limited by saying that it is only the handmaidof technology. It is. in fact, the hand maid of.all branches af life—arts.designs, literature, poetry,behaviour. recreation, attitude, to life and what not. Without science and its blessings, existence in today’s world would be unimaginable.
ROLE OF THEATRE AND COMMUNICATION ON SOCIETY
I-Influence mediated by various factors to the theater.
The influence of the theater is obviously mediated by factors that stand between what is shown on stage and the spectator.
However, when we say that “ members of the public not present at the radio or television, or in the newspaper, in a state of “ psychological nudity (Joseph Klapper), this of course is extended to performing arts. People come with all its cultural and mental or what they call their “ vulgar prejudices “ to see a performance. And his reaction will determine the degree of impact.
There are people who saw Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, did not applaud the opening night because they did not understand or did not expect this final and Germany, this had to be changed so that the work could be presented. The theater, images, sounds, signs and infinite multiplicity of meanings that spur the soul and mind. Brecht was one of those who took advantage of the opportunity to spur the minds of viewers and they created a system to let you know stay up-as to what they saw, so they would know what was happening on stage was a lie and distance so as not to be swayed by the sentimentality. Clear that his theater does not deny the emotions, but, who looks to immerse yourself in an uncertain vision of life.
Theater as a communicator body, meets and goes beyond that great role. When Joseph T. Klapper says that “ what is not so obvious is that these attitudes, these dispositions, are active before, during exposure to the “ mass communications; merely reaffirm who looks asset is a deposit of dynamite waiting to be ignited.
A director who has taken great advantage, if I may say in this way, of what gets on stage or film is Ingmar Bergman. His vision of the human psyche and emotions still continues to speak and write. This is greatly evident in his film “ Person “, which has been classified as a masterpiece in which the split, gambling, and counterfeiting have the greatest personality of meaning, in addition to what is openly present able to someone who has deposited their haunts in someone who apparently does not do anything with it. What a situation to show people? What interest can he have? For seeing the film, the above lines have not been more than a pale attempt to try to explain in a few words.
“ “ The person tends to understand or to explain things according to their perception. And that’s not all, of course, only that which has impacted. Here we must deal Klapper’s assertion that “ People remember material reinforcing their own point of view, much better than the one that fights that way of thinking (…) both retention and exposure are high selectivity. “. The theater shows and keeps the mind selects, rejects, accepts.
II-The social influence of the theater.
Since ancient times, the theater has been seen as the bearer of magic and power elements, among them the healing.
More than 4000 years ago, the manifestation of disease was treated with a sort of witch doctor or shaman “ “ as we say in Creole, which to heal, dressed in furs, was painted in a special way, danced and spit out sounds . As we had in class the teacher Ugo Ulive, these are the first glimpses of the stage performance. And that persist even today in tribal societies of Africa and the Americas. That is, the cure was, and is today-a form of medicine and was that the healer acting “ “ it was not the same and dressed as usual.
The ancient Greeks also saw the healing power and its effects in patients who came to see a play. It is well known that the tragedy produced a cathartic effect called “ “ it was a state of emotional equilibrium was reached after having suffered or cried during the performance. This conduct is especially produced “ and not “ tragedy and comedy, because the first was egregious, solemn and moralistic while the comedy was unusual, bizarre and immoral.
The passage of time, with medication, have joined in different views of the effect produced on stage in his assistants, so that even denied women their participation as actors by having them sort of conditions conducive to Veined carnal weakness, excessive daydreaming and intellectual weakness. As actresses could not cure but ironically, if you trusted them as priests that soothes the soul from the smallest to the great lords.
When the theater became more specific and did not need intermediaries, but as such it was in potions, medicine, disclosure and provocation, and diversified its many significant and thus its impact was more direct. In fact it was so effective that the Romans gave it to the populace as a decadent game animals and people sacrificed everything in the middle of the most overwhelming glitz and sparing no expense for its staging.
The theater, not on his plane as he won circus then, but in his role as talkative voice of new thoughts came to undermine more than a crown and more than one company. This is the case of Aristophanes, who in his plays became so strong that political truths that often was arrested. A Shakespeare Cronwel ministers, they tried to limit the Puritanism and Protestantism to which the bard responded with the best of the creations to produce works whose theme is developed in other countries but rather reflected the English society with its problems socio-political: The Merchant of Venice, the problems of succession as in Hamlet, Ricardo and Enrique, the problem of power as in Macbeth, King Lear, Titus Andronicus and metaphysical fears as in The Tempest. And what about unrequited love and persuaded to die like Romeo and Juliet. Between these two periods: the age and the Elizabethan theater, was forged in the Middle Ages, doomed to try Christian religion, but also gave birth to the couple’s farces and themes as minstrel to escape a threatening and punishing verb always representing God and conscience of human beings.
Impact of theater in mind and body. The social impact of the theater as a means of communication. The theater impact because not only uses the verb but powerful images (noise, odor, plastic, etc.) Also reported, making it so versatile. This communication may cause significant effects. Recall that in Greek theater, the use of gadgets such as eccyclema or mechano-kind car with wheels and crane, had the mission of making characters appear or perform tricks that “ the “ moved theatest or spectator. It was primarily a theater to be seen despite being charged with a grand word. Greek and Roman
know the effect that these representations were politically and socially. The church in the Middle Ages used the auto-sacramental, miracles, etc., To persuade his parishioners not to sin as well as being the only one that explained the origin of human beings. It was a dark time, a mysterious and evocative drama. The Renaissance, was recreated in the expressive forms old and modernized using an introspective and desperate voice, the anguish of a living being very much in its internal jurisdictions felt abandoned by God, so it was a very anthropocentric. A theater that reflected anxiety, violence, excesses and alienation.
The Baroque period was an even more existential drama, while it is reloaded by hand, and developed further the commedia dell ‘art, but even more intimate addressed issues such as greed and manipulation that reflected Moliere in Tartuffe. The Romantic period, just as anthropocentric forged early stage managers and a way to put life in the tables is still relevant because it laid the foundations of a dialectic of leadership and how to represent the historically and socially people. Sure, it was and is a window that exposes the self, thinking and feeling people.
We have to see, then, that according to this maxim the theater has not changed but apart from the nineteenth century, it seems to become more existentialist. The advent of this century meant opening the windows with Norwegian Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen, who left for granted that society definitely boasted perfect indoors had major weaknesses and illnesses. The woman then explained his play and began to let her cry to hear that still remains. It’s when the passage of time appear Piscator, Brecht and his disciple, who definitely will use the theater as a means not only communication, but as pressure, reflection and encouragement to change a social-political vision merely bourgeois. Here is where the public will definitely not be the same.
When it is said that “ the theater is one of the most effective communication vehicles that have been … “ (Stambaugh and Gonzalez). We are not afraid to stress that nothing has been advocated vehicle but has a lot of cosmetic changes has shown since his philosophy scenarios each time.
-As there are directors, aware of this effect triggered the theater and performing arts play in their proposals to remove the mental structure that brings the audience. Why many principals have faced the strongest criticism and denials great, but certainly not indifference.
Now, the reaction may face strong paradigms linked to common thought and is naturally resistant to change. To conclude, we will quote his sentence “ Klapper … mass communication reinforces the attitudes, tastes and existing biases and behavioral tendencies of the members of his audience, including trends toward change “. No more words, especially considering that the individuals in the company feel accompanied and supported, so are subject to censorship and permissiveness that provision, but may eventually make that dreaded change, if not mass, at least those living certainly, because as Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth “ “: “ change, change because it “ does not change dies, words of Princess Alexandra del Lago a Chance Wayne, rundown hero nothing more and nothing less than love “ “.
As for the propaganda from the ancient Romans who sent roses to spray water on passersby to attend a performance or as in the case of the Greeks who called Areopagus court paid the salary of the judges for their theatest attend a conference or from the prohibitions of the Puritans who burned the Elizabethan theater to the censures and impressive sales of plays today, the theater will always impact a greater or lesser degree and be a victim or favored by such propaganda “ ` `.
THE THRILLING ADVENTURES OF A PILOT
Introduction :
The Marines had only two minutes to land a pair of helicopters deep inside hostile Serb territory, snatch a downed American pilot, and race off amid a missile attack and hail of gunfire. But for Air Force Capt. Scott O’Grady, his path to freedom was an eternity. From the moment he ejected from his F-16 when he sprinted, pistol in hand, from a pine forest and toward his resuers, O’Grady stayed focused on two things: staying alive and- getting home.
ESSAY
This is a tough hombre we’re talking about, NATO’s Southern Europe Commander, Adm. Leighton Smith, said, “Whatever else he had, he had a lot of guts to go with it. That’s what he had—guts and training.”
Plus a big assistance from the United States Marines, who mounted a spectacular rescue mission that borrowed a page from a Tom Clancy thriller.
For O’Grady, who survived six days on the run through courage, perseverance and the skills honed from his military training, it was a happy ending of a story that began so badly for a week when his F-16C jet was blasted from the skies over northern Bosnia by a Serb SAM-6 missile.
The 29Year old pilot, a resident of Spokane, Washington, survived on bugs-probably ants and crickets—and rainwater after supplies from his survival kit ran out, said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Rochereto, a Marine Crops doctor who examined him after he has brought to the USS Kearsarge in the Adriatic Sea.
O’Grady was suffering from hypothermia, hunger and had a slight burn on the rear of his neck—apparently the result of his ejection from his aricraft—but otherwise ap¬peared in good health.
“He’s really happy to be alive. He’s real happy to be aboard a U.S. ship and I think he’s doing real well,” Rochereio
told reporters.
O’Grady’s exploits were praised by the.U.S. President, Mr. Clinton as an “inspiration”. Like all U.S. Air Force pilots, he took a two-week survival course before his assignment and received refresher courses each year.
Deep in hostile Serb territory, O’Grady hid and slept by day and moved by night until he could find a heavily wooden hilltop location several miles from the crash site where he could be rescued.
“He knew people were looking for him,” said his sister, Stacey, who spoke to her brother by telephone shortly after his rescue.
. By Thursday, however, hopes had begun to dim thai O’Grady had survived. The military reported earlier in tho week that ft had been picking up an intermittent distress
beacon-standard issue in the survival kits of U.S. pilots—from the region where O’Grady’s plane went down.
But it never had direct contact with the downed pilot— until shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday (8 p.m. EDT Wednesday).
Secured in his hilltop forest hideout, O’Grady, using a radio whose batteries he had carefullyconserved throughout his ordeal, contacted an American F-16 flying a routine mission over head. The pilot heard “Scott come up and recognise the Voice immediately” Admn. Smith said.
Twelve minutes later, O’Grady was positively identified. His location: 65 miles inland in a rugged, hilly region south¬east of the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Bihac.
Abroad the USS Kearsarge, the flagship of three-vessel force of 2,000 Marines 20 miles off the coast in the Adriatic Sea, commanders put in motion a daring rescue operation in preparation since O’Grady’s jet went down. The recovery term, an elite 40-strong Marine unit, was trained and ready to go.
Shortly after daybreak, at 5:05 a.m. the recovery effort was launched. Commanders said later they would have preferred going in at night but did not receive the “execute” order in time. It didn’t really matter.
“You can be quite ce-lain that once they crossed the beach heading to the objective area, they had a fairly good idea what kind of threat would be on the ground,” said Marine Gen. Terry-Murray.
What’s more, they had plenty of backup.
The Marine rescue force, carried abroad two CH-53 Sea Stallion assault helicopters, was supported by a virtual air¬borne armada of more than 40 aircraft. In addition to the Sea Stallions, two AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters and two AV-8 harrier jump jets were launched from Aviano Air Base in north-eastern Italy, along with AWACS surveillance air¬planes and tanker refuelling aircraft. Navy EA-6B electronic jammers took off from the USS Teddy Roosevelt Carrier Battle Group.
To the Serb, it must nave seemed as if the entire U.S. Air Force was approaching as the planes crossed over Serb—held Bosnia about 6 a.m.
As the rescue mission headed inland, the AWACS es-
tablished contact with O’Grady. The choppers were a half hour away. Though help was finally near, the air force captain—tired, hungry and cold—was in the middle of hostile Serb territory. His safety was by no means assured.
As the helicopter approached, O’Grady set of a yellow smoke canister to guide them in.
The Cobras swooped down first. At times no more than 100 feet off the ground, they secure the surrounding terrian. The Harriers provided cover, backed up by the F-18s, which circled the area on the lookout for trouble.
As the two Sea Stallions set down, 20 crack Marines jumped off each chopper and fanned out to establish the rescue site. Only then did O’Grady make his move.
Helmet on and waving his pistol, he sprinted from his wooden hiding spot 50 Yards away and dashed toward one of the waiting CH-53s and into the arms of a waiting Marine, who hauled O’Grady abroad.
“I’m ready to get the hell out of here,” O’Grady shouted. The Marines jumped back on the helicopters and, less than two minutes from the time they set down, the Sea Stallions flew off to a hail of small arms fire and at least one shoulder-launched missile from the Serbs.
As the Marines returned fire, one of the helicopter’s rotor blades was hit doing minor damage.
By 7.30 a.m. less than five and half hours since he established contact, O’Grady was being cared for abroad tho Kearsarge.
“To see him running through the brush covered in sweat and water with his pistol in his hand making his way to tho aircraft in not a scene that I’ll forget,” Marine Col. Martin Berndt said afterward.