GEOGLOBE
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
THE LAST DAYS OF BEETHOVEN
In the last years of his live the great composer Robert Schumann was advised by his doctor to go to walks. He did go for walks every day the same walk. He walked to the statue of Ludwig von Beethoven.
In a spiritual sense, every composer since Beethoven has made such a pilgrimage, certainly every composer who has written a symphony since then must acknowledge his debt to Beethoven.
Of All the hundreds of symphonies that have been written. None can compete in popularity and emotional interest with nine great symphonies written by Beethoven. The reason that Beethoven had set to music everybody’s heartache and everybody’s smile; that is why people can respond better to a Beethoven symphony than they can to any other.
When Beethoven’s first Symphony was performed. In 1800, he was not yet 30 years old. He was then an ambitious piano virtuoso who attracted admirers from the best circles of society.
But soon alarming signs of deafness began to show themselves. At first he tried to hide the weakness. He began to avoid social gatherings. When he could no longer hide it. He retired to a little suburb near Vienna (the capital of Austria). Beethoven was always extreme in his reactions, both in joy and despair. Yet at his this time he composed the tender, lovely Second Symphony.
It is cruel to say, but probably true, that Beethoven’s deafness proved to be a blessing for music. Giving up his career as his brain, shut off from the outer word. He constantly intensified and deepened his musical thought. But then his behavior became more contradictory. He would let no one touch his room so that every-thing lay around in terrible disorder: papers scattered on chairs, ink spilled into the piano, remains of food on plates under the papers. He was so absent-minded that he would at times forget to eat.
He continuously complained that he was not properly recognized, that he had not enough money to live on. In fact, he was very famous very respected, and his financial rewards were much greater sum of money was found in a drawer in his desk.
Beethoven refused to change his clothes when it was suggested that he did so, He also had a violent temper and was quite capable of throwing a dish of food into the face of his attendant.
Deafness made him increasingly suspicious. He accused his friends, his publishers and a theatre manager of cheating him. The next day he would be sorry and apologize. Meanwhile, he promised one of his great works, the Missa Solemnis, to six publishers and sold it to a seventh.
He could also be considerate, tender and kind. When one of his friends, Baroness Erdmann, lost a child. Beethoven went to call on her, sat down at the piano and for a long time played music of consolation.
His last sickness was made worse by his own carelessness and ignoring his doctors’ as advice. In one month for instance, he swallowed 75 bottles of medicine. To the very last he wanted to compose and planned to work up some sketches he had for a tenth symphony.
His last sickness was made thunderstorm on March 26, 1827, at the age 56. In spite of his rough manners he showed during his last years as a deaf man. Beethoven’s friends remained completely faithful to him to his last day.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Love of Mother Teresa-1
Mother teresa became a nun in 1928, For twenty years she taught geography and later was principal of a Catholic junior high school in Calcuta, India. One day, while she was traveling on a crowded train, she heard a strange voice from her own inner feelings , a “ call from some where else”- as she admitted later – that inveted her to do something for the poor and the sick.
She wasted no time, and on September 10, 1946, she sent a request to Rome for permission to Live outside her convent and work in the poorest area of Calcutta. The Pope approved of iner idea. In 1950 she set up an institution called the Missionaries of Charity with a single intention: to help the poor, the sick and the dying of the crowded city of Calcutta.
Since then, The missionaries have becoming busier and busier. Mother Teresa and Her sisters look after schools, clinics and hospitals. They care for unwanted babies who are handed to them by midwives or negcleted by pick up people dying in the streets and take them to a former Hindu Temple where They can at least, according to her own words, die within sight of a loving face. Many, in fact, have survived and been nursed back to health.
This is her own story, which she once told a journalist;
“ The first woman I saw I picked up myself from street. She had been half-eaten by rats and ants. I took her to the hospital but they could not do anything for her. They only took her in because I refused to go until they accepted her. From there I went to the municipality authorities and asked them to give me a place where I could bring these people, because the same day I had found othe people dying in the streets. The health officer of municipality took me the old temple…… it was an empty building. He asked me if I would accept it.It was very happy to have that place for many reasons, but especially because it was centre of worship for the Hindus. Within twenty-four hours we had our patients there and we started the work of the home we had our patients there and we started the work of home for the sick and for those who are dying just from poverty. Since then we have picked up more than 24,000 people from the streets of Calcutta.
About the children she has picked up, she told the reporter;
“ Some we get from hospitals, They have been left there by their poor parents. Some children we bring from the jails, some are brought to us by the police. No Matter how they are brought to us, we have never refused a child.”
For her funds Mother Teresa depends much upon money given by donors. She doesn’t hesitate to beg for aid herself from whatever source she can get it. She persuaded many high-caste Indian ladies to help her in her work.
“An Australian came here some time ago,” she said, :and he said that he wanted to give a big donation. But after giving the donation, the stranger said, That is something out-side of me, but now I wan to give something out of myself.” And after that time he came regularly to the Home for the Dying, to shave the people and talk to them.”
Since Mother Teresa began devoting her own life completely to others, there has been, she admitted, rapid progress in the field of medicine of which she and her helpers have been able to take advantage. Lepers, for instance, can now be cured, But she is aware of one technological progress can ever fill.
“being unwanted,” she said. “is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience, unless there are willing hands to serve and a loving heart to love, I don’t think this terrible disease can ever be cured.”
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Bali : The Dilemma of a PARADISE
It began early in the morning. Saner, a small village near beach black volcanic sand, was quiet. A cock was crowing. Nyepi, The Balinese New Year by Saka Calendar, was beginning.
Bali, a small spot on the map of Indonesia, is a green and fertile tropical island with plenty of natural beauty ready to be used for the tourist business.
The Island has experienced a series of invasions. In 1500 B.c. people from South India arrived and brought with them. An efficient agricultural system and a way of organizing villages. More than 2530 years later, around 1020 A.D. The eastern Javanese began to influence the Balinese and among other things they introduced the mixture of Hinduism and animism which can still be felt in modern Bali.
The Dutch arrived in 1597 and were at first friendly with Balinese, but this friendship became war which lasted until 1949, when the island became part of independent Indonesia.
The influence from these different cultures was changed by the Balinese to suit their way of live. In 1971 the Indonesian Government expressed the intention of not letting development for tourist spoil the natural beauty of Bali, with so many foreign tourists arriving in Bali; will it be possible for the island to stay the same?
The cock was still crowing, in the distance the sound of a drum and gong could be heard, now two white prayer flags, six meters long could be seen.
The music stopped. There was the sound of singing and that hundreds of bare feet moving along the road. Small boys, in bright white shirts and purple and gold headbands, were leading the procession. Behind them were girls with serious faces carrying of ferings. Then came the adults, including many toothless old women, with hollow check and wrinkled skin. The musicians played again and the procession moved more quickly towards the beach.
There was a shrine made of bamboo poles on the beach. It had been built the night before. The offering of fruit and flowers and white rice were placed on a platform. Beside the platform were the prayer flags.
An old woman approached the shrine slowly, and placed small vases of burning jossticks among the offerings then she moved backwards and, like most other attendants, sat cross-legged on the sand.
Now the pedanda (high priest) began to chant prayers every now and the ringing a small hand bell. He sprinkled holy water over the offerings and when he had finished. People began to stand up and undress, and then walk into the sea. The morning of New Year’s Eve in Bali is the time for ritual washing and purification of the body and soul in the sea.
Small groups of people began drying and dressing themselves. The musicians started playing again and the procession returned through the village. Nearby was the tall Bali Beach Hotel. Most of the Hotel’s guests were still sleeping. However, there was still plenty of opportunity to use a camera. Procession kept on arriving during the day. People from the procession were willing to be photographed by the tourist.
Tourist can also attend temple ceremonies. The biggest temple in Bali is Puri Besakih. Mother Temple of Bali. In Fact, most of Bali is Hindu, but the biggest temple is Buddhist. Religion in this island is rather different from “orthodox” Hinduism or Buddhism. To enter the temple the tourist has to wear a sash and pay a small amount of money to borrow it.
A bare –footed middle–aged woman brought offerings into the temple. She placed the offerings of roasted duck and rice cakes near five small shrines, then when the pedanda came and chanted prayers and sprinkled holy water over the woman’s offering. He went around the shrines. After that the music was heard for a short time, the woman brought the offerings because her husband was very sick and she wanted him to get well.
A guide explained to the tourist that the temple stood at the foot of the Gunung Agung Volcano. Although it is a Buddhist temple, many of the shrines and figures in it are Hindu.
As well as attending temple ceremonies, tourists can also watch cock-flights. Formerly a cock-fight used to have a religious meaning. It was usually held before a religious festival. The blood that spilled during the fight was supposed to be an offering to evil spirits so that they wouldn’t harm people and the festival would be successful. Nowadays cock-fighting does have this religious meaning any more but is merely a sport and there is usually a lot of betting.
On the morning of New Year’s Eve men in the villages could be seen carrying fighting cock in baskets. At the place of the fight, the cocks were turned to look at each other while still being held by their owners. If the cocks seemed angry enough, then the owners would agree to a fight.
One pair of owner was ready, so steel blades were tied to the cock’s spurs. Bets were made while the judges made sure that knives had been properly attached. The men making bets were busiest when the cocks were placed looking at each other, still held by their masters.
The noise stopped for a moment when the cocks began to fight. They collided half a meter above the ground. The noise of their flapping wings could be heard. The crowd shouted as the two birds struggled. The coloured cock was cut on the thigh, and blood flowed from the wound. Then the white cock attacked again. Its blade cut into the neck and throat of the coloured opponent. The loser lay on the ground in pain. The judges instructed the owners to put their birds into their baskets. If the defeated cock was severely wounded and dying, the owner would kill it instantly.
Some tourists asked a guide about the cock-fight. He said that the flights were just for the enjoyment of the owners and tourists, but they did not have any special meaning nowadays.
There are still a lot of ceremonies in Bali, but in his opinion a lot of people in Bali who take ceremonies don’t really understand the religious meaning of them.
The guide said that once wood-carvings and paintings were made for temples and public buildings. The artists did it because they were clever at it and regarded it as a religious, sacred duty. They were never paid, however, in 1930 the first foreign tourists came to the island and everything changed.
The guide added that formerly dancing was full religious meaning, but nowadays it is mostly for the tourist business. In olden days Balinese dancing was part of religious ritual and the dancers were never paid because it was not a profession but merely a religious, ceremonial duty.
Well, what about the future of that “Paradise Island”? Should Bali be kept unchanged like a big museum or an “ethnological reserve” so that a few rich tourists can come and look at it? In this modern day time is changing rapidly and no region in Indonesia can be altogether isolated from the current of world development. It is what is called” The Dilemma of Bali”.
One foreigner had this opinion: Nowadays there are in Bali television and newspapers which include news from the developed world. There are modern hotels and many other things that are usually found in Western homes. The people of Bali want many of these things --- they want a better standard of living. Should the people be given what they want? Even though it will change Bali?
The foreigner thought that the Balinese should be given better education, better heath, more food, cars and anything else they want. The money gained from the tourists who come to Bali should be used for the benefit of the people.
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