-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
Categories
Meta
Author Archives: tsheten
Posts: 8 (archived below)
Comments: 0
Machiavelli
Blog “The Prince”
The article relates to the recent leaks of the information from the wikileaks website. It had information about all the government activities, its foreign relations with other countries. After the incident, U.S. has been trying hard not to let any of the other countries find that information that was out in the Internet. U.S. always maintained power over other countries in any kind of relations. One of the examples is the invasion of Iraq by the Bush Administration. Even though there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, the U.S. still seems to have power over their government and the country. And now since the secret government information is out in public, U.S. is still trying to maintain the power. U.S. has put into lot of efforts into stopping Syria, Iran and North Korea to stop selling arms and weapons. They even insisted other countries not letting any airlines pass through their territory so that no arms and weapons could be transported.
“It is the arms transactions involving Syria and Hezbollah, however, that appear to be among the Obama administration’s gravest concerns. President Obama came into office pledging to engage with Syria, arguing that the Bush administration’s efforts to isolate Syria had done nothing to wean it from Iran or encourage Middle East peace efforts.”
The article is very much the example of Machiavellian principles. U.S. maintains power over the other countries regardless of the fact that their secret information about its relations has been leaked out. The information might have contained U.S. selling weapons and arms to other countries but they still put pressure on other countries. This takes U.S. out of the picture because they deceived other countries into not producing any weapons and arms and selling them.
Posted in Uncategorized
54 Comments
The Thousand and One Nights
“The Thousands and One Nights.”
The article that I picked is about U.S. shutting down all the websites that involves in piracy. The websites made illegal copies of movies, music and different other programs that were available to users using Internet all over the world. But U.S. seems to be very considered about this topic matter, first because piracy is a crime and second that they cannot control what people download from the Internet, which is a very vast. So, it would be easier and safer if the hosting sites were closed or banned. The Immigration and Customs enforcement division of the Homeland security took such action because they saw high risk and threat that U.S. could have. They take down the site put a notice of their own so that users are aware. They are still in the action of closing down many more other sites and they have been searching for them everyday.
I find this article to be very related to the story of Shahrayar who finds his wife cheating on him over a slave. The women wore veils, which was used to cover their body, so it was difficult to identify them. The sites also disguises themselves to look like a decent website but instead they give off data that users can share. In the story Shahrayar’s wife took advantage of this by getting the slaves dress up in veils and come to the palace. When he comes to know about his wife’s act, he makes to plan to catch her red-handed. “It became King Shahrayar’s custom…death the next morning.” (B, 414) It is similar to the test that the government officials are doing; they check the sites and then turn them down.
Posted in The Thousand and One Nights
8 Comments
Throne of Blood
“Throne of Blood”
I agree with some of the points that are made in the review and disagree with some others. The critique comments, “It essentially boils down to a lot of men charging back and forth across a mostly dark and bare stage in fancy samurai get-ups.” There was not much decoration on the stage except for the bricked wall at the back and the ghostly atmosphere.It wasn’t so The play was sort of slow and Of course the play was mostly a dark stage and characters running around like the critique mentioned. But the writer also mentioned that, “Those get ups, as I said, are beautifully designed by Stefani Mar and offer an eyeful of visual poetry to distract from the generally prosaic proceedings.” I disagree to this because the dress of the characters were very decent in the play. The dialogues and characters were very strong in the play. And the emptiness in the stage was mostly covered by a screen that showed the meanings of certain actions in the play. Overall, i disagree with the review in the NY times. The play wasn’t perfect but it is not that bad as critiqued in the review.
Posted in Uncategorized
Comments Off on Throne of Blood
The Odyssey connection
There was news during the month of august about the trapped miners in Chile. They were trapped about 150 ft. away from the ground after the mines blocked the passage. And recently, the miners are said to be in the process of getting freed after spending 66 days underground. The families have tented and stayed in the desert for the rest of the time since the miners were trapped. The camp they are residing is called Camp Hope, with the hope that the miners can be rescued. The drilling and rescuing the people out seems to be very hard process and can cause other problems. John E. Urosek, chief of mine emergency operations for the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration said “There’s only about two inches clearance around it, and they’ll have to pull it out of that depth so many times, it could get wedged.”
I find it to similar to the story of Odyssey. He is like the miners who are trapped and can’t get home. In the Odyssey text, he left for the war and doesn’t return because he is trapped in the sea-girt island. “so long a castaway upon an island in the running sea; a wooded island, in the sea’s middle.” (1:65) Athena, the green-eyed goddess helps, Telemachus about his father and that he should go in search of him. She gives him positive felling about the return of his father just like all the other warriors who were home already.
Posted in The Odyssey
Comments Off on The Odyssey connection
Connection with the Book of Job
An article in the times discusses about the idled NATO supply trucks that were attacked again by the militants and criminals in the border of Pakistan. The truck that contains supplies for the NATO troops in Afghanistan. There have been several attacks and even a driver killed but the truck drivers still move on to deliver the supplies. But now, the trucks have now been stalled for the sixth day on the 5th of October 2010. The Senior Superintendent of police of Islamabad said that, “this is a private business and they have their own security.” No matter how dangerous it is the drivers are still in the effort to deliver the goods and supplies. They do not complain the NATO about the trouble they have bringing the goods. The militants and criminals of Afghanistan are the Satan, similar to the story in the Book of Job.
In the Book of Job, Job is one wealthy and happy man who is truly devoted to God. He has all the things that a human needs in his life: a happy family, wealth, properties and cattle’s and many other things. When Satan asks god to find out how Job’s devotion was, he was allowed to test him. “But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” ( 1:11 ). All the wealth that he had was taken away from him, but still he is truly devoted. And Satan said “But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face” (2:5 ). Then he is given illness and still he is devoted to the god the same he was before. “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”(2:10). i find it be the similar case of the article because the attacker of the trucks (Satan) took away all the goods and supplies and also killed one of the drivers, but they are still in the progress of delivering the supplies.
Posted in Book of Job
Comments Off on Connection with the Book of Job
Gilgamesh and Genesis Connection.
There is one strong connection between Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh that seems to be ironic in both the stories. In the Epic, Enkidu was sent to earth because the people of Uruk were very troubled by the deeds of their king, Gilgamesh. ” You made him, O Aruru, now create his equal; let it be as like him has his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart. Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet.” Enkidu was sent to stop Gilgamesh from continuing his bad deeds on the people. The Gods created Enkidu from the clay, after the people of Uruk complained about their problem. But when Enkidu meets Gilgamesh, he becomes friend with Gilgamesh. They become like brothers and soul mates. And Enkidu also gives Gilgamesh a hand in conquering the cedar forest and killing the beast. But after the battle, Enkidu dies. ” It was by your command they killed the Bull of Heaven, and killed Humbaba, and must Enkidu die although innocent.” It is a symbol that he did not do what he was asked to by the gods, the sole reason for his creation was not accomplished so he had to die of sickness.
In the genesis, the god creates Adam and Eve. They are placed in the Garden of Eden where they are asked not to eat the apples from the tree of knowledge. But they eat from the tree, so the god does not like what he sees and banish them both from the Garden of Eden. “What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and i did eat.” (3:59).The god also curses them with all the sorrow and pain in the rest of the life and even among after they multiply and form many of their own kind. “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (3:59).
It is sort of a similar punishment in both the texts, Enkidu gets killed and Adam and Eve thrown away from the Garden of Eden to live in sorrow and pain.
Posted in Genesis - Gilgamesh
1 Comment
Connection of the Epic.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the people of Uruk are in a very tensed about the deeds of Gilgamesh. He is the king of the city, Uruk, so he has extreme power to do what ever he likes. He takes away the daughters from parents, wives from husbands and sons to put them in the army of the country. The people are very worried and concerned about themselves, so they call the gods and ask them to help them and release them from the suffering. . “ You made him, O Aruru, now create his equal; let it be as like him has his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart. Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet.” (1:13) They tell them what their problems are and why they need to be helped away from Gilgamesh.
Similarly in the article, the people of Haiti are writing to help them from the very dire straits that they are living in.“We don’t want to die of hunger and also we want to send our children to school. I give glory to God that I am still alive — but I would like to stay that way!” They recently suffered a very big disaster in the country and now the country is suffering even worst situations. It is very common to the people of Uruk, who are suffering under the rule of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh can be compared to the poverty that Haitian people are suffering. But in Haiti, the people are writing their pleas and dropping of in the collection box, they are writing their suffering and helplessness in the letter. But in the Epic, the people summon the gods for help. Therefore, I think that the these two text resembles.
Posted in Gilgamesh
Comments Off on Connection of the Epic.
Gilgamesh Connection
Three Chinese scientists set the journey to plunge into the bottom of the South China Sea and they were successful. The dive was approximately 3,759 meter in depth and the scientists were in a tiny submarine, size of a small truck. This is the furthest anyone has tried to go in depth. There were previous tries but none of them were as deep as this one. And in the future years, the Chinese scientists plan to push even deeper. It is a very big accomplishment for the Chinese because they have outcome all the forces and problem to conquest even the deepest sea. They have accomplished a huge goal by exploring the deep, dark and enormous sea bed. They even planted their flags in the sea bed where the submarine landed. By now you can tell how this is related to the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh is a powerful king, and so he decides to conquer the Cedar Mountains and kill Humbaba, the beast who ruled the lands of the cedar forest. And he is successful in accomplishing his goal, and he does it with the help of Enkidu. Similarly, in the case of the scientist, they were successful because they had each others help. If they worked alone then they might not be successful just the Gilgamesh would not be able to conquer the cedar forest without Enkidu. The Scientists conquered the enormous sea just as Gilgamesh conquered the vast Cedar Forest.
The Article:
