W.S.Maugham "In a Strange Land"

Speaking about the author of the story, William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. The first run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full time. During World War I, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he traveled in India and Southeast Asia; all of these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels.

The direct meaning of the title refers to the notion of being in a foreign country. As for the indirect meaning, I guess it connects with the fact that the main character of the story, an English woman who has been living in a foreign country for 30 years, and who perfectly knows its language and traditions, never feels as a part of the country she spends the big part of her life. Knowing everything there, she doesn’t feel any connection to the land she lives, even disgust.  So, the country where the most important events of her live have happened will always be a Strange Land for her.

I think that the story raises many themes, such as international marriages (an English woman who married an Italian man), relatives attitude towards such decisions (the main heroine’s relatives are against her marriage with the foreigner), the problem of motherland and the country you live (what’s your real motherland -  a country you were born, or belong to according to nationality or a country you live and build your life), and the last problem of how a foreign country, after spending many years there may affect you and your perception of life.

Now, I’d like to represent the brief summary of the story. The narrator, travelling in Minor Asia, stays at hotel where he gets acquaintance with its innkeeper –a typical English woman of that time - Signore Niccolini. After the storyteller’ several unsuccessful attempts to get her talking, she finally tells him about her life. She was a house keeper in service in a notable English family where she met her future husband of Italian descent who worked as a chief. After their marriage they saved up some money on which they opened their own hotel, having moved in Turkey, paying no attention to the disapproval of the woman’s relatives towards their marriage. Her husband died 15 years ago, and the woman continues to rule hotel service, at the same time bringing up two adopted children fathered by her late husband. However, she doesn’t see anything out of the way in her story life and she even justifies her husband describing him as a full blooded man, thus surprises the narrator.

I think that the main idea of the story that It doesn’t matter how long you live abroad, and how easy you adopt to customs and traditions there, you never be able to eradicate those things which were put into your mind with your mother’s milk. In this story we may see the perfect example of this statement. As 30 years ago, the main heroine remains to be Englishwoman to the marrow of her bones. Neither external factors such as the country she lives with the totally different customs, nor internal ones such as her international marriage which usually considers a mixture of cultures, make her to be not so English even for “gram”.

As for the character sketch, I’d like to describe Signora Niccolini. She is a typical English woman with typical English prejudices towards other nations. There is not anything unusual with her appearance and her outward “world” – she is not beauty but not ugly, a solidly built middle aged woman . However we can’t say the same about her “inward” features. Although she lives in Turkey for many years, her behavior, her life perception and even her accent represents her as a real English woman. She looks like a servant, but holds herself with dignity and with a little arrogance.

Speaking about my impression on this story, I really like it, especially for the themes I have found there. The story is very easy and pleasant to read thanks for the author’s particular style of writing. The story makes you think and as evidence, I collected my thoughts for some time after reading. I also like it because of the connection which is established between the title and the main idea. Besides I like the way the main heroine is represented and described in the story – very indirectly and this circumstance lets you to think over her image, thus helping you to form your attitude towards her action, the themes which are raised on her example and come to your own conclusion.

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games. Part 4

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games. Part 4

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The editorial published on August 31 is headlined " Wyoming wolves to lose Endangered Species Act protection”.  The article carries a lot of comments on Gray wolves in Wyoming, the last still federally protected in the northern Rockies which probably will lose endangered species status at the end of next month, opening them to unregulated killing in most of the state.

Speaking about this issue, it is necessary to point out that the planned delisting of Wyoming's estimated 350 wolves caps a steady progression of diminishing federal safeguards for a predator once hunted, trapped and poisoned to the brink of extinction throughout most of the continental United States. It is also interesting to point out some general stuff, such as the fact that Wyoming will officially regain control over the management of its wolf population on September 30, joining Montana and Idaho, where more than 1,500 wolves were removed from the federal endangered list in May of 2011. It Is followed by statistics: About 4,000 wolves in the northern Great Lakes region -- primarily Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota -- lost their status as endangered or threatened last January.

Emphasizing the seriousness of the situation, it is necessary to note that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe on Friday hailed delisting of the last wolf population in the northern Rockies as a victory assured by the Endangered Species Act and cooperation among state and federal partners. Then, the author of the article, Laura Zuckerman, cites Dan Ashe : “The return of the wolf to the Northern Rocky Mountains is a major success story”. Analyzing the situation in details, it is interesting to note that Conservationists decried the move, questioning how an animal could be protected until September 30 only to be subject to "open fire" on October 1, the first day of Wyoming's regulated hunting season. Environmental groups say they fear ending federal safeguards could push wolves back to the brink. To understand situation more deeply, the author compares Wyoming with  Idaho and Montana, all of them are required to maintain a statewide population of at least 150 wolves, including 15 breeding pairs, to prevent a relisting. Wyoming wolves will remain off-limits to hunters inside national wildlife refuges and national parks, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, as well as on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

As for the motto “FROM PROTECTION TO BULL'S EYE”, there is general feeling to believe that restricted hunting will be permitted from October through December within zones just outside those parks and refuges in the greater Yellowstone region of northwestern Wyoming, where most of the state's wolves reside. There is also every likelihood that For the rest of the state, wolves would be classified as predatory animals, subjecting them to unlicensed, unregulated killing year-round through methods such as shooting, trapping and pursuit on mechanized vehicles.

There are signs that Under Endangered Species Act protections, wolf numbers rebounded in the northern Rockies, far exceeding the original recovery goals set by the federal government. Efforts in recent years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove wolves in Idaho and Montana from the endangered species list were reversed by court rulings. It’s an open secret that Wyoming's wolves had remained protected while state and federal officials negotiated what safeguards would sustain a viable population under Wyoming management. The Fish and Wildlife Service's latest estimate puts current numbers in all three states at more than 1,774 adult wolves. The gray wolf originally was classified as an endangered species across the lower 48 states and Mexico, except in Minnesota, where the animal was listed as threatened. The reporter concludes the article with statistics according to which 7,000 to 11,000 wolves roam much of Alaska, but are so abundant they have never been federally protected.

As for me, I think that protection of endangered species is very important because it will be impossible to do anything with it, if we miss the opportunity now. I am sure that all of us can do something to solve or help at least this problem. We should remember that animals are not our enemies; they are living creatures like we are. We should do our best to protect them from extinction and get involved government in it by insisting on enacting laws to help to protect and take care after the species and having national endangered species control agencies.

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The article published on the website of the newspaper "American Thinker" on October 24, 2012 is headlined "Environmental Protection:The Enemy of Green". The article carries a lot of commentaries of how he laws, regulations, and mandates designed to protect our environment may actually be harming it instead.

To emphasize the seriousness of the situation, the author of the article Anthony J.Ciani, writes that the new environmental challenges are almost imperceptible, and until the development of highly-advanced, highly-sensitive atomic mass spectroscopy systems, immeasurable. So, analyzing this situation, it is necessary to emphasize that to combat these nearly invisible and immeasurable problems, new regulations and mandates have gone into effect. On the other hand, these new regulations and mandates may actually be hindering our attempts in dealing with the more measurable and easily observed problems, as well as our economy.

F

or the better understanding of the situation, as well as the environmental issue on the whole, the author gives some general facts: The Earth is like a giant conveyor system. The inside is full of useful things and nastiness, which are emitted from holes in the ground as gases and solids in the form of volcanic ash and lava. It is also an open secret that pollution is caused by human activity when we dig up these resources and put them back on the surface of the Earth, faster than water and life can put them back inside.. Examining another aspect of the problem, Anthony J. Ciani points out that Sulfur dioxide which is one of the big nasties, responsible for smog, haze, and acid rain. As an evidence he writes the following: We hear very little about acid rain nowadays, but it still exists. We still emit one-third of the sulfur dioxide we did at the peak of the problem, and our sulfur recovery technologies are just about maxed out. The best solution to the problem the author sees in usage less fossil fuel, which means alternate energy sources or greater energy efficiency, which requires technology, but technology often has issues with those more invisible environmental problems.

Giving appraisal to the situation, it is essential to makes point about the new enemy of environmental protection ,in Ciani’s ,  toxic metals. Metals are purified from ores that are extracted from the ground. Many different metals tend to be found in the same ores. For example, lead and cadmium are usually found with zinc, and zinc may be found with copper. Much of that zinc (with lead and cadmium) was once part of living organisms, and was concentrated into ore deposits during metamorphic transformation of the limestone (calcium carbonate) that was created by those organisms. There are many many controversions about what has a radical crusade against toxic metals gotten humanity. From one point of view, one company wrote a proposal to the Department of Energy to investigate a way to make cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells more efficient. However, one reviewer said, "nothing with cadmium is any good." The proposal was not funded, probably beaten out by a shrimp treadmill, but at least that reviewer prevented all of that cadmium getting from our environment back into our environment. So, the author makes the conclusion that whether it is used to make solar cells or not, all of that cadmium comes as a byproduct of zinc smelting. It has to go somewhere.

According to the news studies, the limits on allowable toxic metals get even lower, and technology gets even more expensive. To lay stress on the situation, J. Ciani asks the rhetorical question, using some statistics: Did you know that about 70% of children and 50% of adults are calcium deficient? What have those studies actually been measuring?

As examples, the writer compares the situation in the USA and China - Many people think that businesses move to China for the cheap labor, but this is simply not the case. The difference is that China does not attack its businesses: the business of China is business. To start a factory in America, you need millions of dollars in lawyers and several years to get through all of the permitting and regulation issues. Meanwhile, all of the unskilled Chinese labor is more than qualified to run a clean shop, in China, if you choose to run a clean shop.

The report concludes his article with some suggestion about different solution of this topical problem such as getting rid of certifications and listening to the concerns of small businesses.

All in all, I completely agree with Anthony J.Ciani who fully describes the picture of the situation today. I think that environmental issues are our general problem and it is in our interests to find the ways to protect our planet, or to minimize the harm at least. It is getting more and more difficult with the growth of the population, scientific and technological advance and people’s growing needs, but we should realize that to dodging responsibility to protect the Earth leads to the irretrievable consequences and it probably would become the fatal mistake of humanity. 

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games. Part 3

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games. Part 3

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games. Part 2

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games. Part 2

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The article published on the website of the newspaper "The New York Times" on November 2, 2012 is headlined “Pennsylvania Report Left Out Data on Poisons in Water Near Gas Site”. The article reports at length that  Pennsylvania officials reported incomplete test results that omitted data on some toxic metals that were found in drinking water taken from a private well near a natural gas drilling site, according to legal documents released this week. Analyzing the situation, it is necessary to note that the documents were part of a lawsuit claiming that natural gas extraction through a method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and storage of the resulting wastewater at a site in southwestern Pennsylvania has contaminated drinking water and sickened seven plaintiffs who live nearby.

The author of the article ,Jon Hurdle, points out that a scientist for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection testified that her laboratory tested for a range of metals but reported results for only some of them because the department’s oil and gas division had not requested results from the full range of tests. Giving appraisal to the situation, it is also interesting to emphasize that the scientist, Taru Upadhyay, the technical director of the department’s Bureau of Laboratories, said the metals found in the water sample but not reported to either the oil and gas division. Then, the writer quotes the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry which affirms that copper, nickel, zinc and titanium, all of which may damage the health of people exposed to them, thus emphasizing the importance and seriousness of the situation. Analyzing the opposite point of view, the author cites Ms. Upadhyay who said that the bureau did not arbitrarily decide to withhold those results. There are a lot of other comments on this problem - John Carson, a water quality specialist, testified in a separate deposition that he had received no training in what metals are found in the fluid used in fracking. Critics say that fracking contaminates public water supplies. There is every reason to believe that officials keep something back according to Kendra Smith, a lawyer for Loren Kiskadden.

Analyzing the previous grief experience, when water was tested by the Environmental Protection Department, and the department purposely avoided reporting the full results of its tests of Mr. Kiskadden’s water in June 2011 and January 2012, there are indications of proof Mrs. Smith’s case. The write expresses her point of view further: “Testimony of Ms. Taru Upadhyay was quite alarming. She revealed what can only be characterized as a deliberate procedure” by the oil and gas division and the Bureau of Laboratories “to withhold critical water testing results.” Jon Hurdle writes Kevin Sunday’s opinion, a spokesman for the department, who comes out against Mrs. Smith’s statement, saying that she had failed to substantiate her “outrageous contention” that the department omitted key markers in tests for substances that typically occur in water samples from drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation rich in natural gas. The reporter stresses the importance of Mr. Sunday’s point of view, thus expressing the officials’ position – they wanted to see only the results they deemed relevant to determining whether drinking water was being contaminated by Marcellus Shale gas drilling and production. 

In this connection, it’s worth while mentioning the fact how it’s important to find the truth as well as find the solution of such problem - Mr. Kiskadden lists health complaints — including nausea, bone pain, breathing difficulties and severe headaches — that he says are consistent with exposure to “hazardous chemicals and gases through air and water.” Analyzing the situation, it is interesting to note that companies like Range Resources insist that chemicals used in fracking cannot enter public water sources because they are insulated from aquifers by multilayered steel and concrete casings and are deployed a mile or more underground beneath thousands of feet of impervious rock.

The author concludes the article with the fact that the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, said that the state lab had been endorsed as “well-managed, efficient and highly functional” by the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

As for me, the article has helped me to understand more deeply how it is important to solve this problem both for us and for the future generations. Analyzing the article, I am shocked by the fact of how the water is polluted with different substances which may simply harm or even destroy your health. I bilieve that it’s better to gather and do all out best to find the most suitable and efficient way to prevent the water pollution, instead of arguing and blaming each other. We should remember that we all live in the global village and we extremely depend on the environment and its changes, and thus, taking care about it, or just not harm it is the key to our future on this planet. 

Review №3

The Pelican Brief (1993)

Cast: 

Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, William Atherton, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Release date  - December 13. 1993

Country - United States

Synopsis
After two Supreme Court judges are assassinated, bright young law student Darby, comes up with a conspiracy theory that is worringly accurate. Soon the government are after her and her mentor, Professor Thomas Callahan, breaking into houses and blowing up cars. Her only hope in exposing the truth and staying alive, lies in investigative reporter Gray Grantham

Main characters

Darby Shaw – a low student

Thomas Callahan – a low professor

Gavin Verheek – Callahan’s friend at FBI

Gray Grantham – a political reporter

Khamel – a contract killer

Curtis Morgan -  a lawyer in the oil and gas division of White & Blazevich in Washington

Based on the John Grisham novel, THE PELICAN BRIEF is a movie written for the screen, produced and directed by Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) in 1993.

Direction

Alan Pakula is the real professional in directing such kind of movies. “The Pelican Brief” is considered to be the most successful film adaptation of Grisham’s novel and I think it is mainly director’s service.  Pakula’s particular style and specific way to tell the story has made the film is worthy of 141 minutes of your time.  In this movie, Pakula centers on showing how important a sheer force of will is in uncovering conspiracies. I think that even if the less known actors played in it, the movie would still have become a hit and so highly appreciated thanks to director Alan Pakula & his team.

Writing:

The main thing I dislike in the film is the standard and sometimes too long dialogues. (I don’t mean it’s worse than the typical American silly comedies with only drunk and love scenes, but the dialogs were really too boring!) So, I can’t say that I don’t know which would happen next second. Although the storyline is fairly straightforward by complication with numerous dialogues on philosophical themes characters and who often were hard to distinguish from each other, the film is not consider to be dull. It's a good example, racy thriller with a lot of suspense. There're many heart-beating moments (like the explosion of professor’s car). It’s full of different themes which I believe will not be outdated, and the way they are played on makes the film so topical in spite of the fact it is about 20 year old. There is the type of movies which tend to be seen when I am doing 100 hundred other things at the same time. Undoubtedly, this film is out of this group. Not anyone like this writing, but it doesn’t mean that something wrong with it. Probably those people simply have a long way to go before he begins to understand this writing. (including myself partly).

Editing:

The film was released in 1993, so it explains the absence of the computer-generated graphics with numerous explosions, inconceivable shootings and pursuits. However, I think it’s the great advantage of this movie. Everything is based on the skills of the director (I’ve mentioned about it above) and the main actors. Although Julia Roberts is always associated with “Pretty Woman”, she played this role brilliantly too. Today’s films extremely depend on the computer-generated graphics and I think it is one of the major key of their popularity. “The Pelican Brief” is the example of the film with breath-taking episode made only thanks for the brilliant performing skills of the actors. The quality of the editing is out of the question because almost every episode, whether it is about pursuits or just conversation makes you think and come to your own conclusion. Peaceful scenes (if I may call them so because even they arouse the nervous tension) are changed into scenes of pursuits or Robert’s attempt to hide herself from the contracted killer. Especially the scene she meets with as she believes Verheek (with Khamel in fact).

Costume design: 

There is not anything unusual in it. The film is not historical one, so it is OK. However, some Robert’s clothing, especially after her lover’s killing reflect her emotions, anxiety and help to express all these in addition to her facial expression and gestures, I’d like to mention also about the fact that sometimes the clothing are so unremarkable and alike that it was problem to me to distinguish who was who.

Set design:

As I have already written, the film is mainly supported by the director’s skills and actor’s performance.  Many scenes disclose different problems through the place it happened and emotions of people this or that events involved. For example, the scene when Callahan is killed by a car bomb impressed me most though Robert’s emotions. The controversy between the seriousness of the issue and atmosphere surround is also the characteristic feature of the set design of “The Pelican Brief”. For example President playing with his dog and at the same time dialog about the danger on his reputation because of this scandal around killing of two judges, strained Robert’s meeting with Verheek (Khamel) in the crowd of the merry, light hearted people and others. Although Pakula tries to tell about the theme mainly through conversation or monologues, unmistakably, he uses set design thus attracting of viewer’s attention both visually and orally.

My impression

It's a nice movie in spite of the fact it was sometimes too difficult to understand for me. I explain it by the fact I have not attained its level yet. I consider this movie as well-made thrilling investigation politic law story. I believe it is also worth visiting because it raises all problems we usually discuss in out Speech practice lesson  - mass media, corruption in the highest levels of authority, assassination, and the environment. I expected to see film which would be more close to the theme of environment, but what I see has  lived up to my expectations by such high level performance and the wide range of problems raised in it. If you like tension and you are ready to spend 141 minutes more working mentally rather than relaxing, this film is really good choice.

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games

Individual Reading. The Patriot Games. 1 Part

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The editorial published on August 10 is headlined "Global Warming Is Here to Stay”. The article carries a lot of comments on the today’s situation of environment in our world. The author, Eugene Robinson, tries to convince the readers in the importance of this problem through his writing. The article takes a critical view of the environmental changes and their possible consequences. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July was indeed the hottest month in the contiguous United States since record-keeping began more than a century ago. That distinction was previously held by July 1936, which came at the height of the Dust Bowl calamity that devastated the American heartland. Analyzing the situation, it’s necessary to emphasize that the average temperature last month was 77.6 degrees -- a full 3.3 degrees warmer than the 20th-century norm for July. This follows the warmest 12-month period ever recorded in the United States, and it continues a long-term trend that is obvious to all except those who stubbornly close their eyes: Of the 10 hottest years on record, nine have occurred since 2000. Giving appraisal of the situation, the author of the article cites Harsen’s opinion, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, summed it up in a piece he wrote for The Washington Post last week: "The future is now. And it is hot." Hansen wrote that when he testified before Congress in 1988 and painted a "grim picture" of the consequences of climate change, he was actually being too optimistic. His projections of how rapidly temperatures would rise were accurate, he wrote, but he "failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather." Summing Harsen’s statements up,  Eugene Robinson writes that scientists are finally asserting a direct connection between long-term climate trends and short-term weather events. This was always a convenient dodge for climate change deniers. There might be a warming trend over decades or centuries, they would say, but no specific heat wave, hurricane or hailstorm could definitively be attributed to climate change. The article consists of many other Harsen’s comment on this burning issue - "To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change," Hansen wrote. "The deadly European heat wave of 2003, the fiery Russian heat wave of 2010 and catastrophic droughts in Texas and Oklahoma last year can each be attributed to climate change." It’s also every reason to believe that the odds that natural variability created these extremes are minuscule, vanishingly small. To count on those odds would be like quitting your job and playing the lottery every morning to pay the bills. There are indications that the other escape hatch for deniers is the question of why the Earth's atmosphere is warming. In this connection it’s worth while mentioning the fact that What we're witnessing is due to natural processes -- perhaps some long-term cycle we are too feeble to comprehend. You can't prove that human activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels, is to blame.  Giving more essential details for the better understanding of the issue, Eugene Robinson refers to the statistics - between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of U.S. adults who believed human activity contributed to warming declined from 60 percent to 48 percent. It’s very hard to predict the course of events in the future, but physicist Richard Muller, who heads the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, wrote that he and his team tried correlating the observed warming with phenomena such as solar activity and volcanic eruptions. "By far the best match was to the record of atmospheric carbon dioxide," he wrote. The deduction of Muller’s observation is that the more we burn, the faster the atmosphere will warm. And the crazier the weather will get. The author concludes the article that we can't do anything about the greenhouse gases we've already spewed into the atmosphere, but we can minimize the damage we do in the future. We can decide what kind of environment we leave to our grandchildren.

As for me, I completely agree with Eugene Robinson’s conclusion. The future of our children is in our hands. We should realize what kind of environment will be  depends on us, on every person in the world. It’s better to think of about it nowadays and launch some initiatives to create the alternative sources of energy as well as the ways to protect our environment. Undoubtedly, the scientific and technological advance is good and very profitable, but it is not the reason to forget or even ignore about the flora and fauna and their condition. If you are not ready to help to take care of our planet, please, don’t prevent other people to do it.  Of course, it is easier to follow the expression “that has nothing to do with me, it is no business”, but we all are responsible for the future of our children.

My Pleasure Reading. The thorn Birds. pp. 723 -

The last chapter called "Justine" with the shocked Rainer, who came to Drogheda to talk about Meggie about Justine and her future. In spite the fact that the relationships between them were only friendly, he cared about her future, which was very questionable. Justine blamed herself on Dan's death, thus broke off any relationships with her family. About two years later, Rainer came to London to visit Justine, hiding his amorous feelings to her, where she announced she would return to Drogheda to expiate her sin (Dan's death) for her mother. However, just before her departure, she received the letter from Meggie who convinced her not to return there forever, because it was not her place at all. She would destroy her live by doing it. Justine, realizing all her faults to Rainer, came to him and made a declaration of love. Soon they got married. The book ends with the reference to the book's title which tells us about the mystical birds who searches for the perfect thorn and then implies itself, singing the most beautiful song in her life.

My Pleasure Reading. The Thorn Birds. pp. 647 - 723

The chapter “Dan” continued to tell us about the Cleary. The relationship between Rain and Justine was developing by leaps and bounds – they obviously fell in love with each other but neither of them wanted to reveal this secret.  The life in Drogheda  took its normal course - None of Meggie's other surviving brothers ever marry, and Drogheda gradually became a place filled with old people. 8 years have passed since Dan has been living in Rome and finally he was going to take holy orders. Learning about it, Meggie refused to come to Rome and see her loss to God, as well as she was frightened that Ralph and Dan didn’t need her anymore. Being ordained, Dan expressed his intention to spend 2 months in Greece to think of about his future life and relationships with his mother. At the same time, Justine returned to London for her actress ambition and spending more time with Rain. (by this time he had already made a declaration of love to her, but she refused, being afraid to become open to injury). To everybody’s unfortunate, Dan drowned, trying to rescue two drowning women. Getting to know about it, Meggie came to Rome to Ralph to impart it and ask for help to find him and bury in Drogheda. Losing her temper, she revealed that Dan was Ralph’s son too. The chapter called “Dan” concludes with the funeral procession headed by inconsolable mother and father…Unable to stand pain, Ralph died on Meggie's arms.

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The editorial published on the website of the newspaper "The Guardian" on October 18 is headlined "Syria's future lies in ruins”.  The article discusses the grave situation which has emerged in Syria. Few forms of conflict are so damaging to a country or its people as a prolonged civil war. The author of the article, William Darlymple, uses the annals as the introduction, reminding that by 1939, when Franco's forces had finished mopping up the last Republican resistance in Spain, more than half a million lay dead and some of the most beautiful city centers in Europe had been destroyed.

The article also carries a lot of comments of the same events which happened all over the world and in 20 century and compares them- A similar pattern played out in 1970s Lebanon, which saw 150,000 casualties and the almost complete destruction of the elegant villas of Ottoman Beirut. In Afghanistan it was not Soviet invasion or occupation that killed most people or wrecked Kabul, but the internecine street fighting that followed in the early 1990s.

Speaking of the today situation in Syria, it is necessary to note that Syria faces the desperate prospect of an open-ended civil conflict. As a proof, William Darlymple gives the readers the following statistics -  20,000 dead and 250,000 refugees, calling it the human cost of the war. Apart from the human victims, it is also very important to emphasize the destruction of a people's heritage is irretrievable: once a monument is destroyed, it can never be replaced. Giving appraisal this grief situation the writer quotes groups like the World Monuments Fund which are monitoring the losses. The author writes for better understanding of gravity of the situation that there has been serial looting of Syrian museums and archaeological sites, especially from the museums at Idlib, Dura Europos and Palmyra. The old city of Homs has been levelled, and with it two major museums, several early Christian churches and a number of Ottoman mosques.

William Darlymple mentions about Afghanistan. Trying to compare the situation - As in Afghanistan, there is evidence the looting is highly organised. A Lebanese antiquities dealer recently told Time magazine that he was making a fortune from would-be Syrian freedom fighters who were selling him priceless Syrian antiquities for very low prices and buying arms at inflated rates. To emphasize the importance of the loss the author writes that until two years ago, Syria was the last country in the Middle East to retain its richly mixed Ottoman inheritance.  Then he adds that now, as happened before in Greece, Turkey, Egypt and the Balkans, civil war is leading to a consolidation of the majority community and the exile or expulsion of the minorities.

Giving a description to the civil war in Syria, he writes one of the distinguishing features of pre-civil war Syria was the way it sheltered so many ethnic and religious groups that had disappeared elsewhere. As well as the dominant Alawites there were large minorities of Kurds, Armenians, Circassians and Druzes, as well as more arcane groups such as the Yezidi (wrongly believed by many Sunnis to be devil-worshippers), Mandeans (a Gnostic sect said to be descended from followers of John the Baptist) and the Urfalees (Syrian Orthodox refugees from the early Christian centre of Edessa).

There are a lot of comments of musicians of the Christian Urfalee community. They are also in danger. Musicologists believe that the Urfalee chants are the most ancient still in use anywhere in the Christian world.  Stressing their importance, the write says that the Urfalees preserve the root traditions of both western plainchant and eastern Orthodox sacred music. Now the Urfalees quarter is on the frontline between the government and the rebels.

In conclusion the author reminds that there were hopes it would usher in a new dawn of freedom and democracy when the uprising in Syria began at the height of optimism about the Arab spring. It’s hard to predict the course of events in future but there is some evidence of the deterioration of the situation - the future looks immeasurably grimmer, and what kind of Syria will be left standing after the firing ceases is a prospect few now even wish to consider. More irreversible damage is being inflicted every day on Syria's living traditions, many of which now look likely to disappear from its soil forever.

As for me, I don’t believe that the situation will improve greatly in the future. Today I don’t see any preconditions for it.  Examining the civil war in Syria, I still don’t know real purposes of the rebels and any good results of their uprising. They destroy their own country with their own hands(which they love sooo much as they say in every possible cases). As an example there are so many ruined monuments, museums and other places of tourist attraction which made good profit in the past. Probably some of insurgents really want to help Syria, but they don’t know how…They are under the psychological influence of the high-ranking tops, which pursue the aims having no connection to the patriotism or the religion...

Review №2. Rendition

Rendition.

Cast: 

Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Omar Metwally.

Director: 

Gavin Hood

Synopsis

When Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-American chemical engineer whose family emigrated to the United States, is suspected of a terrorist act, his pregnant wife, Isabella El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon), does everything in her power to find her missing husband, who has seemingly disappeared during a flight from Cape Town, South Africa to Washington, D.C. 

She enlists the help of a politically-connected college friend, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgard) , an aid to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin), who uncovers the troubling fact that Anwar has been shipped off to a third World country for interrogation on the orders of the CIA's head of terrorism, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep). 
Isabella and Douglas team up to secure Anwar's release from a secret detention facility somewhere in the Middle East.

Review

The story centers on the sudden arrest of the chemical engineer of the Egyptian decent  Anwar El-Ibrahimi . It is caused by the suicide attack kills in South Africa one of the CIA agent and 18 other people. Returning to the US from a conference in South Africa, he is arrested by American officials and sent to a secret detention facility on the suspicion with the links to terrorists.  He is interrogated by Abasi Fawal, the high-ranking police official who used the unorthodox methods during the questioning. Another member of the interrogation is CIA analyst, Douglas Freeman. He begins to doubt not only in the legality of the methods of the questioning, but also in El-Inrahimi’s guilt, but he can’t ground his supposion, having not enough experience in such kind of work. However, at the end of the film, he helps Anwar to escape.  The first story line is the perfect example is how really the democracy works in the modern world and how perfectly the unorthodox methods of interrogation are hidden. (sometimes I just couldn’t watch these scenes – it was too psychologically difficult.). In fact, the government doesn’t have any proves of El-Ibrahimi’s guilt, only a phone-calling, which obviously seems to be not exhaustive explanation. In spite the fact the US is represented themselves as the country without any race or religious discrimination, very often the actions proves the opposite.

At the same time we see a pregnant Anwar’s wife, Isabella, who begins to worry when he doesn’t return home. Hoping to learn something about her missing husband, she comes to the Washington DC to her university colleague Alan Smith. He finds out some facts such as Anwar was not on the flight, while Isabella shows that he purchased something at duty-free shop. Alan tries to contact with the senator and Freeman’s boss in CIA Corrine Whitman but he is advised to live the matter alone. Smith gives up and just gives Isabella advise to find the good lawyer, but she refused, making the attempt to talk to Whitman personally, but her attempt fails. However, in spite her last (I believe) month of a pregnancy, she continues to struggle against the most powerful mechanism – the government. I like the way Gavin Hood contrast this deligate, pregnant woman with the state machinery and how she tries to convince everybody in her husband’s innocence.

The third story line includes Fawal’s daughter Fatima who falls in love with one of her classmate and leave her home for him, not being able to bear the moral pressure from her father who is going to marry her to somebody.  Her boyfriend, Khalid, turns to be the member of the terrorist Islamist group, which convinces him to kill Fawal in a revenge of Khalid brother’s death. Finding out this unpalatable truth, Fatima tryes to stop him, but it’s too late and as a result she dies with him, however, saving her father. I like the third story line the most, because it is so many-sided. The film director shows us the terrorism and the way of the recruiting perfectly – through words and through psychology. They convince teenagers who don’t know nothing about the life as a whole and drive them to the suicides. The perfect example is the monologue of the leader of the terrorist group, who reminds about their “duty” to Allah and equals their inaction (which is a normal life in fact) with the sin. Denouement of the movie is the brilliant! I was watching it with bated breath. It’s tragic, yes, but it is real. Honestly, I was crying during the last scene, I believe in this teenage pure love, which I think may save so many lives, but it was too late,

Speaking about performance, it is perfect. My dear Maryl Streep is gorgeous as usual, she always plays women with iron will and nerves inimitably. Jake Gyllenhaal copes with his role also superb. I like how he makes decision single-handedly. But Reese Witherspoon impressed me the most – she believes her husband without any doubt and struggle against well-established system, feeling no sorry for herself. I really enjoyed the scenes where we can see her in a full growth – with her figure and her gait – I just fell in love with her heroine. She is pregnant, but she never mentions it, never asks for pity for it.  She is a delicate and so morally strong.

I like this film and I like everything in it. I am interested in a problem of terrorism and I think that the way this issue is showed in the film is excellent. I understand why the film doesn’t have a very high rating – it’s not for everyone and not everyone would be pleased to see the US in such lights. However, all in the film is truth – there is no illusion that the terrorism era will end soon (as the US tries to convince everyone), there is no illusion in the “holiness” of the democracy.

Rendering №7

The article published on the website of the newspaper "The National Security" on September 10 is called "Three wars on terror".  The article carries a lot of comment on the theme of one of Barack Obama's earliest acts as president was to discard the phrase "war on terror," yet he has been waging just such a campaign these past four years -- with a skillful mix of subtlety and ferocity. The author of the article compares different politics strategies for the better comprehension.

Analyzing the situation it is necessary to note that in addition to the killing of Osama bin Laden, many other operatives in the late terrorist capo's organization have found themselves on the receiving end of commando raids or Hellfire missiles, from Waziristan to Yemen -- and beyond. Then the author of the article points out Obama's counter-terrorism strategy has extended to other malefactors as well, from madmen like Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army to the Libyan state terrorist, Moammar Qaddafi. John Arquila compares ex US president George Bush and Barack Obama through their international politics and the methods of war on terrorism - Qaddafi was taken down when Obama engineered and enabled a NATO air campaign that began by preventing a slaughter of innocents in Benghazi, then went on to effect regime change in Tripoli -- in a far less costly manner than was undertaken in Iraq by George W. Bush. He points out that the difference in the approaches taken by two most recent presidents that really speaks to there being two different wars on terror. John Arquila gives the following example - Bush chose to attack other nations in his attempt to create a less permissive international environment for terrorist networks. Obama has decided to take the more direct approach: going straight after the networks. Giving appraisal of the situation it’s necessary to pint out the main characteristics of Bush’s politics - Bush's strategy proved exceptionally costly and highly problematic in Iraq, and even his initial success in "going small" in Afghanistan was all too soon overtaken by a stalemate-inducing impulse to send large numbers of troops there. On the other hand Obama's concept of operations, on the other hand, has been working well, and will never break the bank or exhaust our military.

Making point about 9\11, John Arquila notices that there was an earlier war on terror, crafted by Ronald Reagan and his close advisers in the mid-1980s,  that began subtly and skillfully. For the better understanding the reason of beginning of Reagan’s war on terror, the author reminds the accident in the weeks and months after the October 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 242 Americans, when Reagan and his team became deeply concerned about the terrorism problem. Than the history-marking event is mentioned - the signal success of this first war on terror came in a campaign against the Abu Nidal Organization -- the al Qaeda of the ‘80s -- which was conducting terrorist hits for hire on behalf of Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Concluding facts about Reagan’s the writer points that despite this success, and for all of Reagan's enthusiasm and Shultz's support, little else came to pass. There are signs of such situation - this was because many senior military leaders worried about the ethics of Reagan's war on terror -- specifically that the use of paramilitaries and special operators would lead to what then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger called an "unfocused revenge approach" that would lead to the deaths of innocents. It’s open secret that the Pentagon preferred more conventional uses of force -- like the massive air raid on Libya in 1986 in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin discotheque frequented by GIs. The correspondent quotes William Safire’s statement “"the battle for Reagan's strategic soul," and nothing like the clever coup against Abu Nidal was ever repeated”. In comparison with Reagan’s campaign, Barack Obama has, as noted above, done much better by hewing close to the concept that Reagan initially embraced. But, as was the case with Reagan, there is now a similar battle going on for Obama's strategic soul. 

The author concludes with the suggestion that in the battle for Reagan's strategic soul, the conventional thinkers won out because they convinced him that there was far too much of the "dark side" in the  plan. In the battle for Barack Obama's strategic soul, the "overwhelming force" approach has not yet carried the day - and with luck it won't.

As for me, I’d like to say that our modern society should try to be more resilient to political violence. It is obviously impossible today to establish the peace in the Afganistan, Iraq and countries of North Africa. I think it is obvious that nowadays the USA is unable to struggle against terrorism, as they try to stanch the best from this situation, positioning themselves as peacemakers. If they really want to solve this international problem, they should expel the political pressure as well as find the compromises with other countries for not allowing the spreading of terrorism.

My Pleasure Reading. The Thorn Birds pp. 509 - 647

The next part of the book began with the announcement about the dethronement of Mussolini’s regime. Being glad to receive such news, Ralph went to cathedral for the prayer where he found a young German soldier Rainer Moerling Hartheim. Meanwhile Patsy and Jims came back from the war and 10 year old Dan and 11 year old Justine went to the schools in Sydney. The conversation between Maggie and her mother finally doted Fiona’s i's and cross Maggie’s t's – Fiona revealed she knew who the real Dan’s father was while Maggie confessed she knew about Frank’s birth. Fiona warned her that no one could be stronger and more powerful than the God and she would pay for her idea some day. Ralph came to see the Cleary family on Christmas and his visit impressed not only Maggie, it was the amazing surprise for Dan who had an inclination for the Christianity. Ralph announced about Frank’s discharge after 30 years in the prison. Soon Frank joined to the Cleary in Drogheda, but his look and recognition about his ruined life hurt himself as well as his mother. Justine expressed the willingness to become an actress and left Drogheda for Sydney. Meanwhile Ralph confessed his love for God and expressed he was going to become a priest. Although shocked by the news, Maggie sent him to Vatikan to Ralph. On summer, Justine who already had moved to England, visited his brother and on meetings with Dan and Ralph she get acquainted with Rainer Moerling Hartheim, a person. As I believe, would change her life completely. 

My Pleasure reading. The Thorn Birds. pp.382 - 509

The second year of Meggie and Luke’s marriage came to the end, however there were no changes – he spent all his time working in a plantation and gave promises to Meggie to buy their own house the next few years.  Meggie missed Drogheda much but didn’t dare to leave his husband and return there.  Sometime later, Luke finally agreed to go on holiday to Sidney with Maggie, being afraid she would divorce and his bank account would stop to be up. Maggie found out she was pregnant after the belayed honeymoon, thus hoping it would improve her condition and relations with the husband as well as settle him down. She was wrong – Luke was furious considering the child would stand in a way to increase his income. While Maggie was bearing a baby girl, Justin, Ralph visited her, however only for few hours thus enraging Maggie who asked him to go away. After giving a birth to Justin, Maggie felt sick and weak, feeling no motherly love to her baby.  The Mueller sent her to the Matlock Island to summon up fresh energy and think over her future life. Ralph came to North Queensland again to say good bye as he would leave Australia for Rome and become the archbishop. Finding out Maggie’s absence, he set out to Matlock Island where they enjoyed each other - the desire for Maggie was rather bigger than his ambition is to be the perfect bishop. Then Ralph left her for Rome while Maggie, who had already been pregnant with Ralph’s child, decided to separate from Luke and return to Drogheda.

The Second World War began – the Cleary family did their best for helping their country: they gave sheep hair and the two youngest brothers set of to fight in a war. Meanwhile Maggie gave the birth to the second child – the baby boy Dan.

Rendering №6

The article “Russia accuses al-Qaida of 'forest jihad' in Europe” was written by Mariam Elder and published on October 3, by the newspaper Guardian. The article discusses the difficult situation caused by conflagrations in many European countries and the reasons of it.  Giving appraisal to the situation, it is necessary to point out that  Russia's top security official has alleged that al-Qaida was waging "forest jihad" in Europe by sparking the wildfires that have ravaged the continent in recent summers. In confirmation of her words, the author makes Alexander Bortnikov’s quotation, the head of the Federal Security Service: “"Forest fires in EU countries should be considered one of the new trends in al-Qaida's 'thousand cuts' strategy”.  Explaining his opinion about the situation, he said that this approach allows them to inflict significant damage on the economy and morale without any serious preparation, technical equipment or financial losses. He cited talk of "forest jihad" on various extremist websites and forums as evidence of the strategy. Analyzing the situation, it is necessary to point out today’s condition of the problem  -  this year tens of thousands of hectares of land were set ablaze across Spain Portugal, the Balkans and southern Europe. The author also describes It with such words as “a yearly phenomenon”. Then Mariam Elder cites Nikolai Shmatkov’s opinion, a forest expert at the Moscow office of the World Wildlife Fund, about the fires and the possible participation of al Qaida in it : “How involved al-Qaida is in this, how much they need to focus their forces not against the Americans, but against the Greeks and Spaniards, I can't say. I'm skeptical”. There are every reason to believe that many specialists take the statement about al Qaida’s complicity with the skeptical view. Thus Anton Orekh, a journalist at the liberal radio station, Ekho Moskvy suggests as a joke: “And when Russia's forests and peat bogs were burning in 2010, what was that? Also al-Qaida? And this summer in Siberia – was that also part of this 'thousand cuts' strategy?”. The author concludes her article with soma facts which may show the possibility of a connection between the conflagration in the European countries and al-Qaida: “the summer issue of Inspire, the online propaganda publication run by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula devoted 11 pages to starting forest fires in Nato countries, including instructions. “Fire is one of the soldiers of Allah, it said”". Mariam Elder concludes the article with the quotation on al-Qaida’s speakers: “Imagine that, after all the damage is caused, if a jihad organization were to take responsibility for the forest fires," it said. "You can imagine the dread it would cause people in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Australia.”
As for me, I agree with Anton Orekh, that it is strange at least to blame all the nature disaster on al-Qaida. We all know the real reasons for the fire 2010 in the European Russia and there is no mention about al-Qaida. I don’t know exactly about the real cause of the Europeans fires but I am sure that it is more usual and typical one than a such kind of a terrorist attack. It is also open secret for me such al Qaida’s reaction to this situation. So heightened attention to this organization and some opinions about its participation in it flatters it, thus making it more considerable and frightening organization.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/03/russia-al-qaida-forest-jihad