AlokeKumar

NADINE GORDIMER

( 1923-present)

Writer reflecting the disintegration of South African society. Now reflecting a move towards a more radical political and literary formulations.

Nadine Gordimer was in Calcutta recently. I had the occasion to meet her in our Town Hall where she delivered her talk titled , `Witness : The inward testimony'. It was an extremely rare opportunity to meet someone whose writings I have deeply admired. Her simple and straight forward talk could make any educated person squirm. She is known for her writings dealing with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. She was active in the country's anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned. She has recently also been active in HIV/AIDS causes.

Nadine Gordimer was born on November 20, 1923, in Springs, a mining town on the Eastern Witwatersrand, South Africa. Of Jewish heritage, her mother was from England and her father, from Russia. He worked in the gold mines, first as a mining engineer and later as secretary. Most of Nadine's life, apart from a brief period in Zambia in the middle 1960s, was spent in South Africa and the Witwatersrand, and it was here that she received her education, first as a day scholar at a convent and later as a student at the University of the Witwatersrand.

From the time her first short story, entitled "Come Again Tomorrow," was published in the Johannesburg magazine The Forum in November 1939, Gordimer became a prolific author of short stories and nearly a dozen novels. Firmly opposed to notions of racial segregation and apartheid, she wrote in an increasingly polarized and isolated society. This resulted in innovative attempts at developing the South African English novel beyond its conventional tradition of realist literary depiction by exploring the isolated consciousness and experience in what she perceived as a progressively disintegrating society.

Her collections include Selected Stories (1975), A Soldier's Embrace (1980), Jump and Other Stories (1991), and Loot and Other Stories (2003). A member of the African National Congress, Gordimer was often militantly critical of South African life in her fiction. She tendered little moral hope for whites who lived under apartheid and fought the system in her political life and her writingsHer novels include The Late Bourgeois World (1966), A Guest of Honor (1970), The Conservationist (1974, Booker Prize), Burger's Daughter (1979), July's People (1981), My Son's Story (1990), The House Gun (1998), The Pickup (2001), and Get a Life (2005). She has also written many essays, often political or literary; these appear in a number of collections, among them The Essential Gesture (1988), Writing and Being (1995), and Living in Hope and History (1999).

Nadine Gordimer received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991.

. This spot is for my friend Chamin from Springs, South Africa , who likes the writings of Gordimer.

MARCO POLO

( 1254-1324)

Venetian traveler and writer. His account of his travels is one of the most important travel documents ever written.

The scion of a noble family of Venetian merchants, Marco Polo began his long experience with Cathay through the adventures of his father, Niccolo, and his uncle, Maffeo Polo, partners in a trading operation. They traveled to Peking and were well received by the Mongol prince Kublai Khan in 1266. The Polos impressed Kublai Khan with their familiarity with the world. He retained their services for several years. In 1269 he sent them to Rome as his envoys with a request that the Pope send 100 Europeans to share their knowledge with him.

The Polos' mission received little attention in Rome, but in 1271 the Polo brothers, in search of further profit and adventure, set out to return to China. It was this second trip that provided the occasion for the 17-year-old Marco Polo to make his debut as a world traveler. Despite the failure of their mission to Rome, the Khan welcomed the Venetians back and again took them into his service. He became increasingly impressed with Marco Polo, who, like his father and uncle, demonstrated not only his ability in travel but also his facility for the Mongol language and for using his remarkable powers of observation.

Marco Polo first demonstrated his perceptiveness and his ability to relate what he saw in clear, understandable terms. His reports, which formed the basis of his famous account of his travels, contained information on local customs, business conditions, and events. It was in these reports that he displayed his talent as a detached and accurate observer.

Marco was used on several extended missions that sent him traveling over much of China and even beyond. By his own account he skirted the edge of Tibet and northern Burma. This business-diplomatic relationship between the Polos and Kublai Khan lasted more than 16 years, during which Marco served as the Khan's personal representative in the city of Yangchow.The Polos wanted to return home and their chance to return to Europe came in 1292, when they were sent on a diplomatic mission, first to Persia and then to Rome.

Marco Polo did not return to Asia again. He entered the service of Venice in its war against the rival city-state of Genoa. In 1298 Marco served as a gentleman- commander in the Venetian navy. In 1298 he was captured and imprisoned in Genoa. His fame as an adventurer had preceded him, and he was treated with leniency. He was released within a year. Little is known of Marco Polo's life after his return to Venice. He apparently returned to private life and business until his death about 1324.

. This spot is for my friend Lynn from Maryland, USA who likes to travel. For more on her visit : llbwwb.stumbleupon.com [llbwwb.stumbleupon.com]

Lynn wrote back : `In my country , Marco Polo is a game kids play when they swim in the pool. Every child and parent has heard this cry and I think they would like clicking the link and read the story of Marco Polo.'

NICCOLò MACHIAVELLI

(1469-1527)

The Italian author and statesman is synonymous with ruthless politics, deceit and the pursuit of power by any means.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence of an aristocratic, though by no means wealthy, family. Little is known of the first half of his life, prior to his first appointment to public office. His writings prove him to have been a very assiduous student of the classics, especially the historical works of Livy and Tacitus; in all probability he knew the Greek classics only in translation.

In 1498 Machiavelli was named chancellor and secretary of the second chancellery of the Florentine Republic. His duties consisted chiefly of executing the policy decisions of others, carrying on diplomatic correspondence, digesting and composing reports, and compiling minutes; he also undertook some 23 missions to foreign states. His embassies included four to the French king and two to the court of Rome.

His most memorable mission is described in a report of 1503 entitled "Description of the Manner Employed by Duke Valentino [Cesare Borgia] in Political Opponents". With surgical precision he details Borgia's series of political murders, implicitly as a lesson in the art of politics.

In 1510 Machiavelli, inspired by his reading of Roman history, was instrumental in organizing a citizen militia of the Florentine Republic. In August 1512 a Spanish army entered Tuscany and sacked Prato. Machiavelli was arrested, imprisoned, and subjected to torture as a suspected conspirator against the Medici. Though innocent, he remained suspect for years to come; unable to secure an appointment from the reinstated Medici, he turned to writing.

In all likelihood Machiavelli interrupted the writing of his Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius to write the brief treatise on which his fame rests, II Principe (1513; The Prince).

In 1526 Machiavelli was commissioned by Pope Clement VII to inspect the fortifications of Florence. Later that year and the following year his friend and critic Francesco Guicciardini, Papal Commissary of War in Lombardy, employed him in two minor diplomatic missions.

He died in Florence in June 1527, receiving the last rites of the Church that he had bitterly criticized.

ARISTOTLE

(384 BC - 322 BC)

A Greek philosopher and Teacher.

Considered to be the greatest teacher of all time. He was the teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on diverse subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry (including theater), logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology.

Along with Socrates and Plato, he was among the most influential of the ancient Greek philosophers, as they transformed Presocratic Greek philosophy into the foundations of Western philosophy as it is known today. Some researchers credit Plato and Aristotle with founding two of the most important schools of ancient philosophy, while others consider Aristotelianism to be a development and concretization of Plato's insights.

Aristotle was born in Stageira, Chalcidice in 384 BC and is considered to be one of the great thinkers of the ancient world. His father was the personal physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was trained and educated as a member of the aristocracy. At about the age of eighteen, he went to Athens to continue his education at Plato's Academy. Aristotle remained at the academy for nearly twenty years, not leaving until after Plato's death in 347 BC. He then traveled with Xenocrates to the court of Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. While in Asia, Aristotle traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Hermias' daughter (or niece) Pythias. She bore him a daughter, whom they named Pythias. Soon after Hermias' death, Aristotle was invited by Philip of Macedon to become tutor to Alexander the Great.

After spending several years tutoring the young Alexander, Aristotle returned to Athens. By 335 BC, he established his own school there, known as the Lyceum. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died, and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stageira, who bore him a son whom he named after his father, Nicomachus.

It is during this period in Athens when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works. Aristotle wrote many dialogues, only fragments of which survived. The works that have survived are in treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication, as they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics (or Ontology), Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul) and Poetics. These works, although connected in many fundamental ways, vary significantly in both style and substance.

Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made significant contributions to most of them. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.

Upon Alexander's death in 323 BC, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens once again flared. Aristotle fled the city to Chalcis. However, he died there of natural cause in 322BC.


This spot is for Lauren from Newcastle, U.K. who is a teacher. For more on her visit : lifeistooshort.stumbleupon.com [lifeistooshort.stumbleupon.com]

GUNNAR MYRDAL

(1898-1987)

The Swedish economist and sociologist Karl Gunnar Myrdal helped shape social and economic planning in Sweden, focused attention on the problems of the African American, and worked on the problems of the underdeveloped nations.

Gunnar Myrdal was born in Gustafs on Dec. 6, 1898. He graduated from the University of Stockholm Law School in 1923 and received a doctorate of laws in economics in 1927. From 1927 to 1950, he taught economics and, in the 1960s, international economics at the University of Stockholm.

In 1934, Myrdal and his wife, Alva, a sociologist, wrote Crisis in the Population Question, which studied the excessively decreasing Swedish birthrate. Their analysis stressed the need for social planning in order to raise the birthrate without lowering the high standard of living. Myrdal served on the new government commissions which were instrumental in bringing about "social engineering," and as a member of the Swedish Senate (1936-1938) and the board of the National Bank of Sweden, he also helped in the rational planning of the economy.

Myrdal directed a study of the African American for the Carnegie Corporation published as An American Dilemma: The Negro and Modern Democracy (1944). Now regarded as a classic of legal, sociological, and anthropological scholarship, it helped focus attention on America's race problem. He believed that the African American plight was a focal point of the general moral dilemma of America: the conflict between the just American goals and ideals and the actual practices of the individual members of society.

Myrdal served as minister of commerce in Sweden (1945-1947). He used his neutrality and objectivity as an international civil servant and as director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (1947-1957). In the 1950s and 1960s, he wrote prolifically on international economics, the problems of underdevelopment, and value biases in Western economic thought.

In 1968, Myrdal completed another major study, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations , which pessimistically analyzes the difficulties of development in southern Asia. Myrdal feels that the disparity between rich and poor nations cannot be bridged until old myths about development are rejected. He argues that the crucial factor is not the amount of foreign aid or the kind of economic system used but the social discipline of the masses. Without more native self-help, without the rousing of the masses and their real participation in nation building, without strong programs of birth control, and without the rooting out of corruption in government, Myrdal concludes that the Asian drama could become a tragedy.

In 1974, he won the Nobel Laureate in Economics, principally for his work on the critical application of economic theory of Third World countries. He passed away in 1987 in Sweden.

This spot is for Nicole from Pennsylvania, USA, who is interested in Economics. For more on her visit : niko2008.stumbleupon.com [niko2008.stumbleupon.com]

CHARLES HANDY

(1932-present)

He is an Irish author and philosopher specialising in organisational behaviour and management.

Born the son of a Church of Ireland archdeacon in Kildare, Ireland, Handy was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. In July 2006 he was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws by Trinity College, Dublin. He has been rated among the Thinkers 50, the most influential living management thinkers.

Handy's business career started in marketing at Shell International. He was a co-founder of the London Business School in 1967 and left Shell to teach there in 1972. When the Harvard Business Review had a special issue to mark their 50th Anniversary they asked Handy, Peter Drucker and Henry Mintzberg to write special articles. He is married to Elizabeth Handy, a photographer, with whom he has collaborated on a number of books including The New Alchemists and A Journey through Tea. Their son Scott Handy is an actor who has played with the RSC.


Among the ideas he has advanced are the "portfolio worker" and the "Shamrock Organization" (in which professional core workers, freelance workers and part-time/temporary routine workers each form one leaf of the "Shamrock"). Has had an interesting influence on organisational thinking, popularised a typology of cultures and organisations. His four cultures (adapted from Harrison's work) are very easy for people to understand and groups readily identify with them and begin to explore their culture through the models he uses: While useful and easy to understand and apply, particularly in training and development work. Handy also uses four Greek gods to illustrate his basic approaches and the organizational cultures that result.

A feel for Handy's style can be gained from the opening of his autobiography: "Some years ago I was helping my wife arrange an exhibit of her photographs of Indian tea gardens when I was approached by a man who had been looking at the pictures. 'I hear that Charles Handy is here,' he said. 'Indeed he is,' I replied, 'and I am he.' He looked at me rather dubiously for a moment, and then said, 'Are you sure?' It was, I told him, a good question because over time there had been many versions of Charles Handy, not all of which I was particularly proud."

He was Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts 1987-89.He has Honorary Doctorates from Bristol, UEA, Essex, Durham, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Dublin. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Mary's College, the Institute of Education City and Guilds & Oriel College, Oxford. He was awarded a CBE in 2000.

Handy does not see himself as a management guru, but a social philosopher. He laments that blind greed still motivates too many. "We have created a mercenary society. Getting richer and richer, and bigger and bigger has become a substitute for not believing in what we are doing".

. This spot is for Kayla from Pennsylvania, USA who is interested in Management. For more on her visit: lovetohavefun.stumbleupon.com [lovetohavefun.stumbleupon.com]

RACHEL LOUISE CARSON


(1907-1964)

An American biologist and writer whose book "Silent Spring" aroused an apathetic public to the dangers of chemical pesticides.

Rachel Carson was born in 1907, in Springdale, A solitary child, she spent long hours learning of field, pond, and forest from her mother. At college she studied creative writing and in 1932 obtained a master's degree in biology from the Johns Hopkins University. She did postgraduate studies at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.

In 1936, Carson served as an aquatic biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. After her first book, Under the Sea Wind (1941), she soon became editor in chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1951 The Sea around Us brought its author instant fame. At the top of the best-seller list for 39 weeks, it was translated into 30 languages. For it, the shy, soft-spoken Carson received the National Book Award, the Gold Medal of the New York Zoological Society, and the John Burroughs Medal.

The following year Carson left the government to undertake fulltime writing and research. As a scientist and as an observant human being, she was increasingly disturbed by the overwhelming effects of technology upon the natural world. She wrote at the time: "I suppose my thinking began to be affected soon after atomic science was firmly established ... It was pleasant to believe that much of Nature was forever beyond the tampering reach of man: I have now opened my eyes and my mind. I may not like what I see, but it does no good to ignore it."

When Silent Spring appeared in 1962, the lyric pen and analytical mind of Carson produced an impact equaled by few scientists; she aroused an entire nation. More than a billion dollars worth of chemical sprays was being sold and used in America each year. But when Carson traced the course of chlorinated hydrocarbons through energy cycles and food chains, she found that highly toxic materials, contaminating the environment and persisting for many years in waters and soils, also tended to accumulate in the human body. While target insect species were developing immunities to pesticides, because of these poisons birds were not reproducing. She proposed strict limitations on spraying programs and an accelerated research effort to develop natural, biological controls for harmful insects.


The pesticide industry reacted with a massive campaign to discredit Carson and her findings. Firmly and gently, she spent the next 2 years educating the public at large: "I think we are challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves." She died in 1964, at Silver Spring.


This spot is for Kiki from Italy who likes the subject of Biology. For more on her visit : kikaki75.stumbleupon.com [kikaki75.stumbleupon.com]

GUSTAV KLIMT

(1862-1918)

A controversial painter, especially in his home city of Vienna, became the outstanding artist of the Austrian "Stilkunstat" at the turn of the century.

Born in 1862 the son of an engraver, Klimt attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna for seven years. In 1879 he formed with his brother Ernst, Franz Matsch , a studio where they executed designs primarily of other artists. In 1886 their own designs were given a prize, and in 1890 Klimt received the Emperor's Prize for painting. In 1892 his brother Ernst died and in 1893 Klimt was nominated for professor at the Vienna Academy but was rejected. In 1894 he obtained the commission to paint the wall decorations for the great hall of the University of Vienna.

In 1897 a group of Viennese artists formed the "Secession" an association to promote the modern arts, and Gustav Klimt was elected its first president. The first exhibition in the following year included works not only of its members but also French, Swiss , and Belgian artists who were considered ultra modern.

In 1900 professors at the university protested against Klimt's painting. The Ministry of Education disregarded this protest, while the painting received the medal of honor at the Paris World Exhibition of the same year. When Klimt exhibited the second of his wall paintings, "Medicin," in 1901, protests grew even louder. The issue of Ver Sacrum which contained sketches for this painting was confiscated and later rescinded.

The Secession exhibition of 1902 made Max Klinger's "Beethoven" sculpture the centerpiece, and Klimt painted a frieze for one of the side entrance halls which was a reference to Schiller's "Ode to Joy." This caused a scandal.

In 1903 the famous "Wiener Werkstaetten" was founded, an artist association dedicated to transforming even everyday objects into works of art, thus making the Austrian Stilkunst an all-embracing design concept. The third of the university paintings, "Jurisprudence," encountered even greater protests than the two previous ones, and in 1905 Klimt withdrew these works and repaid the Ministry of Culture all advance payments.

By then he had become the most famous portraitist for the wealthy Viennese society, creating icons of beautiful women in which ornamental design and pure elegance dominated. His landscapes have the same jewel-like quality, emphasizing the full bloom of summer. His drawings, primarily of female nudes, are extraordinary in their sensitive realism and their strong eroticism. In 1907 he painted what is probably his most famous work, "The Kiss" and in 1908 he completed the Stoclet-frieze; the palace for which he designed the furniture.

Klimt became one of Europe's famous artists. Klimt died in 1918 in Vienna.


This tribute is for Teodora Poiata from Romania, who likes Klimt and is the editor of e_conservation ,an online magazine, for the conservation-restoration of cultural heritage. For more visit : e-conservationline.com [e-conservationline.com]