The "Remarkable Pebble" of Down Under

The Many Faces of Uluru

Uluru – or Ayers Rock as it is more commonly known in English – is a large rock formation situated in Central Australia’s Northern Territory, specifically in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, some 440km southwest of Alice Springs.

Sacred to the area’s aboriginal people, namely; the Pitjantjatjara and the Yankunytjatjara, this natural wonder is one of Australia’s best known. As different lights strike this rock at various times of the day and year, it appears to change color.

ORIGIN[S] OF THE NAME[S]:

Uluru

Uluru – Uluṟu (IPA: /uluɻu/) – the name given by the native people of Pitjantjatjara to the rock formation, has no other meaning in Pitjantjatjara than a local family name.

Ayers Rock

This name was given to the rock by a surveyor named William Gosse in honor of Sir Henry Ayers, then Chief Secretary of South Australia.

DESCRIPTION:

Height                   :        346 meters

Dimension              :        more than 8km [5 mi.] around

The exterior of Uluru is harder than many rock formations, preventing the development of scree slopes, or broken rocks which usually appear at the bottom of crags, valley shoulders or mountain cliffs.

COMPOSITION:

Made of Arkosic sandstone

Arkose is a detrital sedimentary rock – typically grey to reddish in color –  which roughly contains 60% quartz sand and 25% feldspar; it also usually contains little amounts of calcite cement.

The presence of the feldspar mineral is responsible for the rock’s glowing effect during sunrise and sunset since it reflects the red light.

COLOR:

Rust color

The rock’s rust color is caused by oxidation

Silvery-grey color

Although rainfall rarely occurs in the area surrounding the rock, it is during wet season that Uluru turns silvery-grey in color with streaks of black caused by the growth of algae in the areas which serve as channels for water flow.

COMMON MISCONCEPCIONS:

July 19, 1873

          William Gosse [surveyor]

–        visited the rock and named if after Sir Henry Ayers

1903

          Will expedition

–        the first to record the Aboriginal name

1993

          Adoption of dual naming policy

–        this allowed the use of both traditional Aboriginal and English named to be official.

December 15, 1993

          The renaming of the rock as Ayers Rock/Uluru

–        the Northern Territory’s first official dual-named feature.

November 6, 2002

          The reversal of the dual name from Ayers Rock/Uluru to Uluru/Ayers Rock

–        this was done granting the request of the Regional Tourism Association.

OTHER ROCK FORMATIONS BEING LINKED/COMPARED TO ULURU:

Kata Tjuta [Mount Olga or The Olgas]

Black vs. White

It has always been a common knowledge that African-Americans are recipients of racial discrimination. While the white race was considered to be the superior race, the Blacks or Negroes were considered to be the inferior ones.

          The African-Americans wanted to have equal treatment by everyone in every aspect. They believed that they were also capable of doing the things that any white man could do and they deserved to be treated fairly.

          Since they believed that they should be given privilege to enjoy having an identity that was recognized internationally, they founded an organization that will ensure the improvement of their condition.

          Although they had become a subject of permeative discrimination by the military when they fought in WWI, the battle from which they had been part of was the same battle that inspired them to establish an organization that encouraged national self-determination. They wanted the redemption of Africa; freedom for the black race.

          Despite the discriminative treatment that they received from the white Americans, they still considered the United States as their fatherland. They believed that the fault of their country would be their fault as well; the blemish of their nation was mirrored in its people, and their being part of the American nation only meant that they also bore the same blemish.

          They fought for their country despite their feeling of resentment and bitterness for the way they were treated in the past. The Negroes felt betrayed by their own country, for despite their determination to truly be a part of it, they felt they had been treated like dirt, looked down, and degraded; and because of this, they saw America as a shameful land.

          W.E.B. Du Bois, the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and also the father of pan-Africanism, cited in detail the reasons why the Black community felt betrayed.

He pointed out that from as early as the time of the Civil War, the Negroes had been subject to “pervasive discrimination” by the military (Du Bois 135). He was speaking in behalf of all the Negroes when he wrote:

[…] for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington, we fought in bitter resignation. For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and devilish insult – for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight also.

[…] We stand to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land. (135-136).

            Du Bois made explicit description of the Negroes’ sufferings in the hands of their own countrymen. He described how Negroes were put to death by lynching or hanging without any lawful trial, and condemned the act as being barbaric. According to him, “[…] lynching is barbarism of a degree of contemptible nastiness unparalleled in human history”. (136).

          He also mentioned the act of disfranchisement by the same country which they continued to live in and serve. Taking the rights of citizenship away from every black, according to him was the same as robbing someone of protection; protection of black against white, protection of poor against rich. He accused America of lying since according to him, it called itself democratic yet it deliberately took its citizens’ freedom away.

          The fact that America never really intended for the Negroes to be educated as its people declared that the blacks cannot be educated; moreover, that the race which they considered inferior “threaten them with degeneracy”, (136) was both hypocritical and selfish gesture.

          According to Du Bois, the Negroes were cheated in their own country:

             It steals from us.

            It organizes industry to cheat us. It cheats us out of our land; it cheats us out of our labor. It confiscates our savings. It reduces our wages. It raises our rent. It steals our profit. It taxes us without representation. It keeps us consistently and universally poor, and then feeds us on charity and derides our poverty. (136).

And finally, according to Du Bois, America was insulting the Black community by organizing a nationwide propaganda, which made it impossible for Negroes to live a normal life in a community without having to feel their inferiority to the white race. To reside, work, travel, play or be educated had become impossible for them to do without any fear of being rejected because of their color.

  The African-Americans fought for their country and for the rest of the American allies during WWI; ironically, they came home to fight against the same nation, whom they defended; this time they were fighting a battle of races, seeking justice for having been treated in a manner which none of them deserved.

Sources

Du Bois, W.E.B. Returning Soldiers. The Crisis. May 19, 1919.

Jacques-Garvey, Amy. Speech Delivered at Liberty Hall, New York City. August 21, 1921. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. New York, 1923-1925. vol. 2. pp. 93-97.

Roark, James L. Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, et. al. The American Promise: A History of the United States from 1865.  1998. vol. 2. pp. 135-140.

Garden of Death

 When i was still in college, i’ve read about Ferdinand Marcos in the Guiness Book of World Records being the “World’s Greatest Thief”…I thought then he was unprecedented…

but i was wrong…It is evident that the Philippines has long been digging graves for the Filipino people by cradling a family of Mafia in Malacañang…

Our country now resembles a host which has been sustaining a parasite…well i can name several species, but i doubt any of them will ever compare to the ones dwelling in Malacañang’s “Garden of Death”.

The truth sometimes hurts, but we cannot hide it. It’s like garbage, the more it gets rotten, the more its foul smell intensifies.

Are we going to wait for our country to look like this in the eyes of the world? I hope not…

Physical Force: Unlawfully Exercised

Violence, as defined in the Oxford Dictionary is the “unlawful exercise of physical force.” (Oxford, 931). Violence is everywhere. Aside from the fact that it exists in real life, and is manifested by countless crimes that are being committed by criminals almost every day in various parts of the world, it also exists and is being kept alive in books, magazines, video games, movies and television programs. And because of this, people, young and old have access to violent entertainment, not only the adults who can understand its purpose, but also innocent children whose minds are not yet ready to grasp its meaning.

A book by Linda Howard, having an explicit description of violent acts – wherein the act was even performed by a young boy – reads:

          An inhuman howl clogged the boy’s throat, but he was ice clear through now. He threw the knife, his aim sure, practiced through many hours of play. McLain saw only a movement in the shadows, and he dodged to one side, just enough that the blade went through his shoulder instead of his heart. He bellowed for help and struggled to his feet just as the boy’s weight hit him, knocking him back to the floor. The jarring impact made him scream in pain, and the cold floor scraped his bare ass. The boy jerked the knife free, and the bloody blade slashed downward, toward the man’s exposed privates. McLain screamed and tried to roll away. The movement of his body deflected the knife enough that it gouged a shallow slit in his upper thigh. With a feral snarl, the boy withdrew the blade and tried again, this time with a low, sideways movement of his arm. The knife gleamed both silver and scarlet, then McLain knew hot, burning, choking agony as the steel sliced into his ball sac. (Howard, 7).

Any adult individual who reads such explicit description will definitely find the scene lingering in his or her imagination; in the same way the scenes in a violent film stay vivid in a child’s imagination.

Violence goes way back the ancient times. According to history, early Egyptians who lived between 2000 BC and 44 AD used to re-enact the murder of their god Osiris as a means to entertain themselves. As a result, the re-enactment of the said crime was repeatedly imitated in real life by a number of individuals.

Ancient Romans entertained themselves by watching prisoners – known as gladiators – fight among themselves in a violent exhibition of strength and endurance which often resulted to death of the weaker warriors and applause and praise for the winners.

The behavior of an individual may be influenced by the kind of programs that he used to watch when he was still a kid and what he watches now that he is already an adult. A certain study shows that those individuals who enjoyed watching violent programs on television when they were children were more prone to committing violent crimes like murder and child abuse. This is due to the fact – as many studies shows – that violence in television and movies encourage children to become more quarrelsome.

In a study made by the National Institute on Media and the Family in 1999, it shows that 51% of parents having children whose ages range from 2 to 17 years old either simply agree or strongly agree that the violence seen in video games affect their children, while 57% of parents having children with ages 2 to 17 confirmed that the violence seen on TV and in movies affect their children as well. The said study also states that:

          Parents have expressed their concerns about the amount of sexual and violent content in their children seen in many surveys. While both sexual and violent content concern parents, the amount of sexual content has routinely been of slightly greater concern to parents. For the first time, this study shows that more parents are concerned about the amount of violent content in their children see:

·         81 percent of parents of 2- to 17-year-olds “agree” or “strongly agree” that they are concerned about the amounts of violent content in their children see in movies or on TV.

·         77 percent of parent “agree” or “strongly agree” that they are concerned about the amount of sexual content their children see in movies or on TV. (Media and the Family).

According to experts, unhealthy attitudes of children often are results of their exposure to violence as they watch television programs and movies. Children’s attitude toward violence can be either of these two scenarios: (1) violent movies and television programs may affect children psychologically; they may think they will always be in danger in the world that they live in and thus, they will always feel fear; (2) children may grow insensitive to the violence that they witness to the point that they will commit the act themselves.

According to studies, the most subtly dangerous effect of media violence on children is desensitization, a condition wherein a person, particularly a child becomes unconcerned and unsympathetic of the others’ feelings; they show lack of concern regarding the pain that other people feel.

It was also reported that the harmful consequences of violence are oftentimes not being taken into consideration by many television networks, who keep on airing programs that have an extremely high violence rate. And as a result, according to studies, children who have been exposed to too much violence in movies and TV programs tend to become hostile both physically and verbally.

To a small child, watching of violent films and programs has a serious effect, for after having finished watching, the images of bloodshed and the scenes in which violent acts are performed vividly stay in his mind for a long period of time. And since he is not yet old enough to decide whether what he witnessed was wrong, or right, his young mind would automatically assume those acts were rightfully done simply because: (1) he witnessed it done by the hero in the movie; (2) he saw that the criminal was left unpunished and therefore he would suppose that what the villain did was actually the right thing. There are instances wherein movies have an open ending, in which the viewer has a chance to make his desired conclusion of the story, or in the case of movies which have sequels, which a young child is not yet capable of comprehending the purpose of the movie’s theme; (3) he witnessed that the violent act was done by an adult individual who happens to be famous because of his impressive skills with guns or in martial arts.

Parents and guardians who allow children to watch violent programs will only encourage them (children) to develop the feeling of pessimism toward life. Children who are allowed to watch programs or movies wherein the villains are not punished, - instead their deeds are even justified – and those movies in which the criminals are able to escape, allowing them to further commit crimes have every possibility to be convinced that it is alright to do harm to others, to commit crime and get away with it without receiving any punishment; they, as a result, may apply this principle to real life as they grow older and thus, may give them the motivation to live with this principle throughout their lifetime.

Many studies confirm that as a result of violence in media, children experience the following at an early age: (1) sleeping problems or disturbances, (2) nightmares, (3) anxiety even during daytime, (4) fears.

In the same way, children who engage themselves in playing video games containing extreme violence often result to: (1) students’ tendency to get involved in physical fights; (2) they are encouraged to have arguments with their teachers; (3) their performance in school becomes extremely poor; (4) they tend to practice hostility.

Similarly, the effects of horror movies on children are also considered serious. Researches show that children whose ages are eight and below have a tendency to nurture fear in their young minds as a result of watching horror movies. The frightening images of the characters may linger in children’s imagination for a long period of time, long enough for them to cause anxieties and fear which may last for years.

Music videos containing violence in them also have an impact on viewers, particularly to children. The aggressive way of thinking of an individual, a young child at that, tends to develop and increase upon being exposed to rap videos having antisocial themes.

It is evident that the performance of children at school can be affected by family media habits, and it has been observed and proven that a child’s school performance and the number of television programs that he or she watches are interrelated.

The National Institute on Media and the Family states some key predictors of school performance, and they are as follows:

·         Families that use electronic media less and read more have children who do better in school

·         Parents who report that their children’s behavior is less affected by media do better in school

·         Children who participate in more alternatives to electronic media with their parents’ support perform better in school

·         Families that have the TV on more often even if no one is watching have children who do school

·         The average American child watches 25 hours of television a week. Children who watch less television do better in school. (The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children watch television “no more than 1 to 2 hours per day.”)

·         Parents who report that their children copy characters they have seen on TV more often have children who do more poorly in school.

·         Parents who report that their children more often watch TV before bed have children who do more poorly in school.

·         Families that play games or do activities together more frequently have children who do better in school.

·         Parents who read to their children more have children who like to read more. Children who like to read more do better in school.

·         Parents who report that they know what movie their children is going to see more often have children who do better in school.

·         Parents who report that their children play video or computer games less often have children who do better in school. (Media and Family).

It has been observed by experts that parents are less likely to provide sufficient supervision over their children concerning both watching television programs and movies and playing video games. And it is a sad thing to know that these parents are not willing to admit their shortcomings; that instead of accepting the fact that they have not provided their children with proper guidance on what form of entertainment to choose, they oftentimes put the blame on the people around them.

Even the Holy Bible teaches adults the proper ways or rearing children: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6).

Children believe that grown-ups are the ones who will guide them and that is due to the fact that grown-ups keep on telling children that they know what is best because they have already been there.

It is a sad fact, however, that these same grown-ups who have fed the children’s young minds with the thought that they will always be there to provide protection are the same people who inject poison to the little ones’ innocent minds.

Every parent wants what is best for his child and the best thing that he can do for him is to rear him properly; giving him the proper treatment and instilling in him a principle that is worth fighting for, one that a child can surely be proud of and one that cannot be taken away from him and instead he will be able to carry up to the time when he is already old.

Sources:

Hine, Robert. Oxford Illustrated Dictionary. Dorling Kindersley Limited and Oxford University Press: London, England.1998. p. 931.

Horror Movies: Not Okay for Young Children. October 23, 2006. UAB Health System Medicine Touches the World. December 8, 2007. <http://www.health .uab.edu/17777/.>

Howard, Linda. A Lady of the West. New York: Pocket Book 1990. p. 7.

National Institute on Media and the Family. 1999. MediaQuotient® National Survey of Family Media Habits, Knowledge and Attitudes. December 8, 2007. <http://www.mediafamily.org/research/report_mqexecsum.shtml.>

National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center. December 4, 2007. <http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/faq/mediaviolstats.asp.>

Swindoll, Charles R. Ed. The Book of Proverbs. The Living Insights Study Bible New International Version. MI, USA: Zondervan Publishing House1996. chapter 22. verse 6. p. 652.

TV and Movie Violence. You and Your Child. December 4, 2007. <http://www.education.pitt.edu/ocd/publications/parentingguides/TvAndMovieViolence.pdf.>

Violence in Media Entertainment. 2007. Media Awareness Network. December 4, 2007. <http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence_entertainment.cfm.>

Gobbledygook

As I was browsing an old book from my shelf, I stumbled upon a number of brain teasers. The source’s title was 10 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary by The Princeton Language Institute and Tom Nash, Ph. D. The said brain teasers were taken from another book - Word Play by Maxwell Nurnberg.  

 Here are some of the twisted sayings in Nurnberg’s book together with their translations:

Twisted: Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate.

Translation: Birds of a feather flock together.

Twisted: It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative maneuvers.

Translation: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Twisted: Freedom from incrusations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.

Translation: Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Twisted: Where there are visible vapors having their provenance in ignited carbonaceous materials, there is conflagaration.

Translation: Where there is smoke there is fire.

Twisted: A revolving lithic conglomeration accumulates no congeries of of a small, green bryophytic plant.

Translation: A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Twisted: Missiles of ligneous or petrous consistency have the potential for fracturing my osseous structure, but appellations will eternally remain innocuous.

Translation: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Twisted: A plethora of individuals with expertise in culinary techniques vitiate the potable concoction produced by steeping certain comestibles.

Translation: Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Twisted: Making fallacious decisions is typical of bypeds who use language, but offering general amnesty for offenses is the work of the Deity.

Translation: To err is human, to forgive, divine.

France After WWII

The Second World War created a massive damage worldwide. It took millions of lives, destroyed properties, and left many people homeless. Nations from around the world tried to move on after this devastating event, but despite their efforts, their recovery was hampered by many factors.

Among the nations that suffered great loss because of the war was France. Its aim toward economic recovery, like all the other countries, became almost stagnant due to reasons beyond its control. It was believed that the main causes of its slowed recovery were “political troubles at home and colonial revolts overseas.” [qtd. in France, Reddy, and Laprade 2]. Also, among the contributors to France’s worsened economic condition after WWII were its low production rate and the rapid inflation that was brought about by excess in money. 

However, the French government, headed by then President Charles de Gaulle made every effort to rebuild the nation.  France was able to obtain the finances necessary for its recovery, part of which, were provided by the United States, through the Marshall Plan, a financial assistance program of the United States which extended help in rebuilding European nations that were devastated by the World War II. The fact that France was in need of all the financial support it could get in order to fully recover from the aftermath of the war and to regain its economic stability did not weaken its determination to be free from the control of the two most powerful nations in the world – the United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). France’s desire to sever all ties with the US was so intense that it even prevented Britain, a close US ally, to join the European Economic Community (EEC), or otherwise known as the Common Market.

In 1949, France joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and became one of its founding members. NATO, an organization whose members were mostly European countries, aimed to provide a collective security by agreeing to defend one another from possible attacks of terrorist groups or any threats to international peace and stability. But having the United States as the leader of the alliance, France eventually withdrew its forces from NATO. Its search for a “more independent military posture” [qtd. in France, Adams, et. al.] however, was said to be one of the reasons for its withdrawal. 

France’s problems were only starting to be resolved when it was again burdened with yet another pressing matter. This time concerning its territories overseas, particularly Algeria, wherein the Arab Algerians wanted their independence with an intensity that was equal with the European settlers’ demand for French rule. Although the French government tried to put an end to the Algerian crisis by way of peace negotiation, its efforts seemed to be futile. The height of the more than eight-year war, which happened between 1954 and 1962, almost caused France its downfall, that in the end, it was forced to grant independence to the said French colony. The Algerian crisis was followed by several other colonial revolts which led to the disintegration of France’s once expansive colonial empire. However, despite what happened, France was able to maintain its warm relationship with its former colonies.

France continued to seek independence from the US influence. And by the end of the 1950s, it made another step toward breaking all its connections with the United States when it ordered that all US bomber bases located in the country be closed.

In the following years, after settling its overseas crisis, it launched a very costly, yet successful program – the development of nuclear weapons capable of striking from air, land and sea. It was believed that the reason why France set out to proceed with the said program despite its high cost, was in order for it to “reduce dependence on the American nuclear umbrella” [Funk and Wagnalls 446].

France was adamant to earn the respect and admiration of other nations. It wanted to prove to the world that it can stand on its own, without accepting any form of support from a powerful country such as the United States. Furthermore, it wanted to show the world that it could rise to power and that in doing so, could play an important role in world affairs.                 

Adams and his team believe that:

France’s strong support to the European integration under the auspices of the European Union was perhaps its most significant role in the international affairs since it dissolved its overseas empire.

In the midst of its struggle for recovery and economical stability, France made sure that it would not be a subject of mockery or pity. It showed strength and determination as it continued to recover from what seemed to be irreparable damages that the war had caused. It weaved its way to fame and success by making its political importance known and acknowledged by other countries. And even after its colonial empire crumbled, France found a means to lift the spirits of the French people by convincing them that their nation was still of great importance in the international affairs.

To sum it all up, France indeed had succeeded in proving to the world that it was not only capable of merely being an ordinary follower and member but that it also had the power to lead other nations in obtaining a common goal.

SOURCES:

Adams, William James, Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov,  and Thomas E. Kaiser “France.”

Microsoft® Encarta® [CD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.   “France.” Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. 1986.  

Reddy, William M., Ph.D., and William T. Laprade, “France.” World Book 2003 Deluxe Edition [CD]. Chicago, Illinois: World Book, Inc, 2002.