text:
Lord Krishna sighting the Eid moon and pointing it out to a group of Muslim men and women.
Reproduction of an 18th century Rajasthan miniature.
More at: https://swarajyamag.com/culture/krishna-through-the-hands-of-muslim-artists
Lord Krishna sighting the Eid moon and pointing it out to a group of Muslim men and women.
Reproduction of an 18th century Rajasthan miniature.
More at: https://swarajyamag.com/culture/krishna-through-the-hands-of-muslim-artists
By Anjum Altaf
I doubt anyone would guess right if a quiz master were to ask what Britain's leading export was in 1997. The surprising answer: The Spice Girls, through sales of their music, attendance at their film, and related merchandising.
This confirms that culture is big business. In the same year, the US economy produced over $400 billion worth of books, films, music, TV programmes and other copyrighted products and this category emerged as the leading export for the US as well. Not only that, the sector is growing rapidly, between two to three times as fast as the overall economies in developed countries.
East Asian countries which grew by leaps and bounds during the last quarter century on the strength of low-cost manufacturing have noticed this phenomenon in their search for diversification. Almost all of them are investing heavily in promoting their own cultural output as well as in providing lower-cost facilities for the making of cultural products. Entire digital multi-media cities are being set up in a number of locations including Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore with Shanghai not far behind. The Indian movie industry has started to attract external capital and looks set to follow software as a global player.
All this is a preamble to highlight an undiscovered and under-exploited source of economic growth and to motivate a discussion of what we might be doing in Pakistan. Clearly we ought to re-examine culture not as a luxury but as a source of economic growth and employment creation. The market is extensive. There is a very large South Asian diaspora with adequate purchasing power. In addition, South Asian culture is continually making inroads in Western markets building on the breakthrough provided by Ravi Shankar: just in the last year, Lagaan was nominated for an Oscar, Bombay Dreams opened on West End, Moulin Rouge paid tribute to Bollywood, and Ashwariya Rai made the cover of Time magazine. Then there is a very large Indian market itself waiting to be tapped. Just to look at one dimension: there is a ghazal craze in India and artists of the calibre of Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali, Fareeda Khanum and Iqbal Bano can sweep that market repeatedly with ease.
The possibilities are manifold. However, on the negative side, we have not only failed to tap these markets in the past, we have allowed our cultural heritage to decay to an extent that we may not be able to exploit the markets when they do open up and we realise their potential. Some examples are obvious and cannot be disputed. Thus, there are no comparable replacements for Roshan Ara Begum or for Ustads Amanat Ali Khan-Fateh Ali Khan, Nazakat Ali Khan-Salamat Ali Khan, Shareef Khan Poonchwaley, Shaukat Hussain Khan, and Bundoo Khan.
It is incorrect to argue that this is so because there is no demand for classical music. We have failed to reproduce this asset base out of sheer neglect and callousness. Musical trends among the youth are no different in India yet Ustad Allah Rakha has been followed by Zakir Hussain, Ustad Vilayat Ali Khan by Shahid Parvez, and Ustad Nisar Hussain Khan by Rashid Khan, to give just a few examples. The number of exciting new stars moving up the ranks is very large. The contribution of the Indian Tobacco Company in setting up the Sangeet Research Academy in Calcutta is an eye-opener (for details see http://www.itcsra.org).
But even if we accept that classical music is dead in Pakistan, if only for the sake of argument, we cannot say the same for the ghazal which remains immensely popular. Yet, even here we have not been able to reproduce and replace artists of the calibre of Mehdi Hasan, Fareeda Khanum and Iqbal Bano. Nor is there the semblance of a replacement for Nur Jehan Begum on the horizon.
The reason can be very simple. These artists were truly great because they had a firm grounding in classical music. New singers often have equally good voices but it is easy to tell that their sense of pitch and rhythm is nowhere the same. They can imitate some of the songs of the greats very well but whenever they sing something original their weak foundations are exposed immediately. Inadequately trained artists would survive in the home market but would find it very difficult to make a mark in a much more discriminating global one.
Given the extent of the neglect and decline, it is obvious that Pakistan cannot jump into the forefront of the market for cultural products. But a realisation that such a market exists can provide a motivation for actions that will not only reverse the decline but likely generate other positive externalities as well.
In this context, we need to remind ourselves that the value of culture extends beyond economics, something we were aware of but have seemingly forgotten. Just one Ravi Shankar has created more goodwill for India than hundreds of paid publicists could ever hope to deliver. At a time when a very negative image of the country has to be overcome, the role of culture in presenting an alternative image cannot be overlooked. Globally recognised cultural icons like Abida Parween, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, Naheed Siddiqui, Ustad Raees Khan, and Zia Moheyuddin (to name, in alphabetical order, a few of the ones who are still with us) have the power to create positive emotional resonance for a country in search of a new image.
This article can be concluded with another little-known fact. The best-selling poet in the US is Rumi in translation. This is another indicator of the surprising nature of global demand. Yet, none of the great Sufi poets from our region have been translated or marketed in a manner which caters to the global market. Is that really an impossible task? I don't believe it is and in a follow-up article I will present for discussion a modest proposal for the revival of the arts in Pakistan.
Anjum Altaf is provost of Habib University in Karachi. This op-ed appeared in the Daily Times on 9 February 2004 and is reproduced here with the author's permission because of a renewed interest in the economics of culture.
By Sakuntala Narasimhan
A report published earlier this month says the number of cases of dengue in Karnataka has tripled during June-July, with Bangalore accounting for a majority of victims. Even residents in upper middle class neighbourhoods are succumbing, thanks to a huge garbage pile up that made news even in newspapers in the US. In the first six months of 2013 alone, Karnataka saw 3243 cases of dengue (the official figure – the real numbers are thought to be higher).
Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, too had over 21,290 cases of dengue in 2011. Around 350 died. As in Bangalore, the Lahore authorities too tried fogging to kill larvae, but what really helped was the innovative use of smart phones, to trace locations and clusters of incidence, and focusing on those neighbourhoods. Result: last year there were no dengue deaths. It took just 1500 mobile phones in the hands of community volunteers to also monitor implementation of various other public works projects and reduce corruption.
The fact that smartphones were recording actual implementation work on the ground helped to rein in malpractices. Random calls made to these numbers by overseers help keep track of the quality of service to the public. Given that we had (at last count) nearly 800 million mobile phones in India (for a population of 1.2 billion) has anyone thought of taking a leaf out of the Lahore experiment, and tackling dengue as well as complaints of deteriorating infrastructure? Why not? The use of mobiles also bypasses the handicap of low literacy, as Lahore has discovered.
Though we have had small NGO initiatives using mobiles (to reach rural women in Andhra, for instance, or connecting tribals in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to help them fight official apathy or harassment) we could perhaps learn a lot more by looking at our neighbouring countries. Why do we look always to the West, assuming that they know best, ignoring simpler and more workable solutions that we could borrow from our own neighbours?
Can activists on either side learn from each other, instead of reinventing the wheel and wasting resources, including costly aid from abroad, in the process? Whether it is micro finance schemes, or employment generation projects for illiterate women, or tackling domestic violence, the matrices are the same – and so solutions could also be replicated.
How does Sri Lanka do better in terms of health indicators and literacy, and how did Bangladesh address the issue of reducing irrational formulations of drugs despite pressure from multinationals? If we can think of a BRIC bank on the lines of the Asian Development bank, why not other initiatives for learning and benefiting from the experiences of our neighbours even if they are, like us "developing" countries with scarce resources? Is the problem one of lingering colonial mindsets that sees us turning to the rich West, even for issues that are specific to our own parameters?
I am reminded of the comment that an American feminist researcher made at a recent conference on wife battering and dowry in India. "Why doesn't the woman just leave him?" she said naively, forgetting that we do not have public shelters for battered women as in the US, or social security that will help the woman survive and feed her children. Where does an Indian woman go? An Asian academic would never make such a comment. Foreigners, being alien to our socio-cultural environment, can only come up with academic-bookish solutions. A Pakistani or Bangladeshi activist, on the other hand, might understand the ramifications of gender – or poverty – issues better.
Professor Anjum Altaf, an academic in Pakistan, in his recent blogs "What plagues development in South Asia" and "Wanted, a real people's party" (at https://thesouthasianidea.wordpress.com/) points out how Amartya Sen's description of India as "pockets of California existing amidst a sea of sub-Saharan Africa" applies equally to our neighbour across the border to the west (and also to cities like Bangalore) – incremental incomes and better facilities go to the affluent, rather than to the deprived sections, even if GDP rises.
In terms of social indicators, if Pakistan and India are at the bottom of the table for South Asia (with even Bangladesh and Sri Lanka doing better, despite handicaps in terms of social unrest and/or insufficient resources), it is not merely because of lack of democracy in Pakistan. India is a democracy but is equally stunted due to poor performance in distributive justice and poverty eradication. Could both countries learn from each other's experiences? We share not just borders, but also many identical problems.
At an international conference in Islamabad, a research study presented by a Pakistani academic about gender issues in the northern regions of Pakistan came up with comments that could have applied equally, word for word, to rural women in the northern regions of India too. The socio-cultural handicaps are, after all, similar. True, we have had problems with Pakistan, even recently along the line of control, as also six decades of political hostility. But why should that stop us from emulating success stories or copying strategies that have worked on the other side of the political fence?
People-to-people, the sentiments are extremely friendly, as I found during my three visits. On the day we became independent, in August 1947, I was a tiny tot in Delhi, but can remember being dressed, doll-like, in a white mini-sari with a tricolour border, and eating sweets that my father bought from the Bengali Market. My favourite was Karachi halwa, with its jewel-tinted red and green and golden yellow slabs, so I asked, nostalgically, for Karachi halwa when I went shopping recently in Karachi. The shopkeeper gave me a broad smile and said, "Apa (sister) my shop specialises in Delhi halwa, it is our speciality, why don't I give you some of that?" And he wouldn't take money for it either – his grandfather grew up near where we had lived in Delhi.
It's time we separated politics from socio-economic concerns, and got on with what needs to be done for tackling our problems, whether it is dengue or illiteracy or gender discrimination. Solutions, wherever they are from, carry no caste, religious or political tags.
Sakuntala Narasimhan is a Bangalore-based writer, musician and consumer activist. This article appeared first in India Together on August 20, 2013 and is reproduced here with permission of the author.
By Anjum Altaf
March 8 was International Women's Day about which I have two stories to narrate. They are from the heart of affluent Pakistan by virtue of the accident that I live on a university campus situated in an upscale urban residential district of Lahore.
The first story, the short one, is situated in what is generally acknowledged as the premier private university in the country. A group of students organized the 'I Need Feminism…' campaign in which individuals complete the sentence on a placard before uploading a photograph on social media. 'I Need Feminism because I want to wear shorts in public' was one of the placards that went up briefly before it was taken down because of threats to the bearer and the organizers from inside and outside the university.
The second story, the longer one, involves a woman who works in the complex of campus apartments and lives in a low-income pocket in the high-income district (this being how some cities adapt to the lack of public transport). On March 8 she arrived much later than usual because her mother had been beaten in the morning. The perpetrators of the violence were a group of women of a neighboring community from which a woman had eloped with a young man related to the victim. The runaway's relatives had identified a girl from the man's family in exchange as settlement which the family of the latter and their neighbors felt was a just demand; only the victim asked why the girl had to pay the price, whence the violence. (The husband was unable to defend the wife as it was against the norm to touch unrelated women.) After the violence, the transaction was accepted. On being asked if this outcome was right or wrong, the narrator indicated she was unable to say but ventured that this was a common occurrence.
What can these two stories tell us about feminism and violence and our attitudes to them? Let us first place the concepts in context.
In every society at any given point in time there exists a social order selected aspects of which are considered normal, right, and proper by the majority. Any deviation from normalcy is feared as a potential source of disorder and violence can be employed to prevent such deviations. One example of this is the attitude of men towards women and the attempt to regulate what the latter can or cannot do. Gendering is the social process through which the proper behavior of men and women is reproduced by the enforcement of norms and rules whose legitimacy is considered beyond question.
Inherent in every social order is a distribution of power – power is concentrated in the center while the peripheries are inhabited by the powerless. One can easily note the distribution of power by gender in our social order. Power, however, stems from other sources as well, one of which is class. Thus, for example, a woman within her class would often have less power than younger males but across class a younger women would have more power than older servants, male or female. In general, however, women in South Asia have relatively less power than men and have many more constraints on their choices.
How do social orders evolve and change? In every social order, there are the powerless at the margin; the majority may have internalized the normalcy and propriety of their positions but some do strive for change. At the same time, there are privileged individuals at the center of power who can imagine themselves in the shoes of the powerless and join them in the struggle. A feminist is a person who can exercise this imagination with respect to the gender dimensions of the social order. To adopt feminism as a political stance, for a man or a woman, is to take a stand against the gender privileges that stem from the unequal distribution of power in society. To be a feminist is also to believe that change is possible and that it is necessary to work for that change through all means that are available and possible.
We can now go back to the two stories. In the first, a student expressed an opinion about what she would like. This was immediately met with a threat to desist. Even the expression of an opinion, let alone the act itself, was considered a threat to social order – the term floating around was fitnah, the source of disorder in society. Keep in mind that the expression of an opinion is not a violation of the law but the issuing of a threat is. The proper recourse in such a situation is to charge those issuing the threat with a breach of conduct and to adjuticate under the existing rules. However, the internalization of the social norms is such that the officials in charge might themselves believe that the expression of such an opinion was not judicious in our society.
The male prerogative is marked by ironies. It is quite possible that individuals issuing the threat might have felt at one time that co-education itself was not proper. Yet, the attraction of an education at one of the best institutions in the country could have overcome the qualms. It is equally likely that the same individuals would be seeking scholarships in countries where wearing shorts is the norm for females. There, existence in the midst of fitnah would be deemed acceptable under some plausible rationalization.
In the second story, one can observe the power of internalization of norms at the periphery. There was a sole voice protesting the injustice of offering for settlement a girl who had nothing to do with the incident. This resistance was crushed with violence perpetrated by women themselves and the settlement was considered fair by the community.
The two stories highlight the nature of the struggle ahead. In the most upscale urban district, the affluent promoting International Women's Day on social media act quite contrary to its spirit as soon as their sense of propriety is challenged. And within the affluent district itself live people quite unaware of International Women's Day reproducing a social order that is oppressive to them and their weaker members.
Feminism and violence stare at each other around the specificities of our social order and leave us with many questions to ponder. Where do we go from here? The first step is to recognize that holding contrary opinions is protected under the law and that violence or the threat of violence is a violation of the law. The second is to draw strength from the fact that social orders do change – one just has to reflect on the norms that were prescribed for women a hundred years ago to realize that nothing stays constant. That is why the struggle must go on.
For the conceptual elaborations in this post I am indebted to Professor Nivedita Menon whose excellent book 'Seeing Like a Feminist' was published in 2012 by Zubaan-Penguin Books, New Delhi.
I have two favorite texts on change which illustrate how strongly we believe that what exists at the moment is what is right and proper for all times and how we are proven wrong again and again. Yet we do not learn from history.
The first, Taleem-e-NiswaaN, is an essay on the education of women written around a hundred years ago reflecting the liberal progressive perspective of the time. The author, Muhammad Sajjad Mirza Baig Dehalvi (1876-1927), was a professor in the Nizam's College in Hyderabad. The premises and assumptions taken for granted then are now only a source of amazement which should be a cause for humility – what we believe to be the ultimate truth at this time could well be considered amazing a hundred years from now. The essay is included in Sarmaya-e-Urdu by Hafiz Mahmood Shirani. The book was reissued by Sang-e-Meel in 2004 and is available in the market for Rs. 300.
The second is an excerpt (from Intizar Hussain's classic novel Basti) which describes the arrival of electricity in a village. The following English translation is by Frances Pritchett:
Bi Amma had undoubtedly lived a long time. She always told how in her childhood only one torch, in the Small Bazaar, was lighted at night. Everywhere else, in the streets, in the lanes, was darkness. Before her very eyes the torch vanished, and lanterns appeared in the streets and lanes; and now in their places poles were standing, and here and there on the streets electric light could be seen.
Electricity had now begun to be installed in the mosque as well, but Abba Jan had thrown a spanner into the works. "This is 'innovation.'" And equipping himself with a cudgel, he stood on guard in the doorway of the mosque. The electricians came, received a reprimand, and went away. Hakim Bande Ali and Musayyab Husain tried very hard to convince him, but he gave only one answer: "This is 'innovation.'"
On the third day of his guard-duty, Bi Amma fell ill; her breathing became fast and shallow. Abba Jan, giving up the guard-duty, hurried home; but Bi Amma did not wait for his arrival.
The next day when Abba Jan went to the mosque for the dawn prayer, he saw that the electricity had already been installed. When he saw this he came right back, and for the first time in his life offered the dawn prayer at home. From then on he never entered the mosque, and never offered his prayers except at home. Though for many days he did go, morning and evening, to Bi Amma's grave, and recited verses from the Quran there.
How hard Abba Jan tried to halt the spreading 'innovations' in Rupnagar! During Muharram, when big drums began to sound, he seized them and ripped out the drumheads. "Playing drums is forbidden by the Shariat. I won't permit them to be played in any majlis or procession!"
"But in Lucknow, they play drums in every procession!"
"Let them play. The Lucknow people have no power to change the Shariat!"
That year drums were in fact not played in any majlis or procession, but by the next year, Abba Jan's power had been broken. Every procession was accompanied by drums except the one that left from the Khirkivala Imambarah, for that was Abba Jan's family imambarah and he had power over it. And also because that procession, which was in honor of Hazrat Hur, was recognized as the quietest of Rupnagar's Muharram processions. No small drums, no big drums, no singing of elegies — for Abba Jan declared elegy-singing too to be contrary to religious law. Abba Jan had taken a firm stand against elegy-singing, but the results were the same as in the case of his other firm stands.
Abba Jan's grip on Rupnagar was loosening. Bi Amma had been called home by God, and electricity had come to the town. Abba Jan couldn't prevent electricity from being installed in the mosque, just as he couldn't prevent drums from finding a place in the Muharram processions. His firm stand against electricity was the last of his firm stands against the 'innovations' of the time. After that, he retired to his room.
By Anjum Altaf
Why is there so much more political and ideological violence in South Asian countries compared to, say, France? This may seem like a simplistic or irrelevant question but the typical answers that it elicits could help uncover the complexities inherent in the phenomenon.
The discussion in this post is focused on the violence that is inflicted within a country by one set of individuals on another for reasons to do with differences in political ideas or ideological beliefs. We are sidestepping the type of violence that was covered in an earlier post, violence that has less to do with differences in ideas and beliefs and more with the exploitation, for personal gain or satisfaction, of an imbalance of power – violence against women, children, and workers being typical examples. (more…)
Trying to Make Sense in Lahore of a Rape in Delhi
By Anjum Altaf
A very high level of social violence is endemic in South Asia, so high it is invisible at most times. We see it only when the peculiarity of specific incidents throws it into sharp relief. Much hand wringing follows treating the incident as an aberration, blaming it on this or that, missing the truth by a mile, remaining as blind as ever.
The rape in Delhi is the latest such incident and we have explanations ranging from patriarchy, commoditization of the female body, decline of morals, jobs lost by unemployed men, and the like. But all these exist or have transpired elsewhere without the same kind of fallout. What we need to focus on and explain is the high level of social violence in general – there is one reported rape every 22 minutes in India and Delhi is becoming infamous as the rape capital of the world.
What we are talking of here is not ideological or political violence but structural violence built into the patterns of everyday life – the type of violence that people in positions of political, social and moral authority have to be pushed to react to. What accounts for this structural violence in South Asia?
My explanation turns on the selection of comparators. Is South Asia today more violent than the American South at the time of the slave economy or Europe in the age of serfdom? I would argue not, leaving to the reader the burden of looking up the extent and type of social violence that was the fate of slaves and serfs, men, women and children, in those times.
If South Asia is not any more socially violent than the comparator societies I have mentioned then it must share some societal attribute with them. And, indeed, it does. That attribute is the stark inequality in the distribution of power, the existence of a deeply hierarchical social formation in which whatever laws exist are designed by the powerful to maintain their power over the powerless. Recall, that in the American South it was a crime for a slave to learn to read or write.
I grant this may be hard to concede for some but bear with me. Walk with me into any upper or upper middle class South Asian home and watch the transformation in the bearing of the lord and lady of the house. The most polite couples amongst peers at the club would interact with the domestic servants in a completely different manner. It would be as if they had not contracted with but owned the latter. Yes, they would be most kind at times, taking care of the extended family if need be, but also violent and abusive and exploitative as a matter of course and entitlement. Little master, all of fifteen years old, home on vacation from school in England, would yell at a sixty-year old orderly to shut up and get out of the house with nary a contrary word from the parents.
All this is not confined within the borders of South Asia itself. Abuse of domestic staff, sexual, physical and financial, is not unheard of in homes of South Asian diplomats and bureaucrats in the most developed capitals of the world. This structural violence stems from the sense of privilege and entitlement that accompanies growing up powerful in deeply hierarchical societies.
There is a tremendous amount of accumulated, pent up violence in such societies that manifests itself in individual incidents so numerous that they become part of the pattern of everyday life – did anyone really care how many slave women were raped every day or slave men lynched or how many young girls the lord of the manor took to bed in France?
This level of violence remains a part of life in hierarchical societies till it is squeezed out by some cathartic readjustment of power – the Civil War in America or the social revolutions in Europe, for example. Once the vertical divisions of society have been leveled by the movements for social equality, and laws are much less an instrument of the powerful for the domination of the powerless, the prevalence of structural violence is drastically diminished. Not that it disappears altogether – the Dominique Strauss Kahn's remain as a reminder of what life must have been like in those earlier times.
There has been no such cathartic squeezing out of structural violence in South Asia – the deep hierarchical divisions just wear the façade of representative systems. South Asia is perhaps the most socially divided region in the world today and within South Asia India has to contend with divisions not just of class but also of caste.
It is no surprise that representative political systems in South Asia do as little as possible to mitigate the cruelties and injustices of structural violence. The power of the vote, diminished by the power of money, provides only slow inroads into the bastions of privilege and generates its own frustrations both for those who sense a loss and those impatient for the gains. No doubt these frustrations and the ills of consumerism have added to the incidents of social violence – the frequency of rapes in India has been increasing over the years – but the additions have built upon a very high and unremarked base level.
The road to social justice for all in South Asia is going to be long and tortured. The power of the law has to be wrested from the powerful. And many of those unaffected by the violence have to break rank by reflecting on how they may be contributing to it without actually doing any wrong themselves. There are some hopeful, albeit very partial, signs of progress from India.
Anjum Altaf is Dean of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
By Anjum Altaf
The peculiar thing about South Asia is that it has not had a social revolution. Compare it with Europe or Russia or China where feudal, monarchical or other pre-modern forms of governance were swept away to be replaced by new ruling classes. Social revolutions preceded modern forms of governance, democratic or autocratic. South Asia moved from pre-modern to modern forms of governance, midwifed by the British, but the same social class remained in charge reinventing itself in new roles.
What are the implications of South Asia skipping a social revolution? For one, our forms of governance are modern only in appearance; their spirit remains essentially unchanged. For evidence, look at the amazing prevalence of dynastic rule across the region, from the upper echelons down to the composition of the subnational assemblies. The ethos of the region remains distinctly monarchical, both for the rulers and the ruled, with the latter now legitimizing the dynasties through the free exercise of their votes.
It is no surprise then that we are saddled with the social outcomes of monarchical rule – a narrow elite enjoying the highest standards of living (a la the opulent royal courts of yore) with the majority of the population completely marginalized. For evidence, look no further than the paradox of India – uninterrupted democratic rule and aspirations to global leadership combined with grinding poverty and malnutrition in children worse than almost anywhere else in the world.
It is social conditions like these and the virtual disregard for the misery of the poor that prompt our question about revolution. Will this callous disregard ever cease without the sweeping aside of a royal class masquerading as representatives of the people?
Perhaps not, but then again, a revolution is no picnic, at least a revolution of the type we have been referring to. Just thinking whether the ideology of the revolution would be of the Right or the Left and whether it would be armed or not is sufficient to yield serious misgivings. The scariest aspect of such a prospect is the contemporaneous bankruptcy of ideas that might drive any revolution in South Asia today. When one thinks of the social revolutions of Europe, one is inspired by the intellectual debates of the times and the stature of the public intellectuals who participated in the debates. The entire foundation of the European Enlightenment emerged out of the contestation of ideas that are studied in academia to this day.
Contrast the above with the intellectual bankruptcy of present-day South Asia. Whether it is the Maoists in India or the Islamists in Pakistan, their angst can be defended but their passions are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Watching our public intellectuals on TV is a foreshadowing of the future if their ideas were to be turned into reality. There is little doubt that the cure would be worse than the disease.
So we are in a bind. We need a social revolution but can see quite clearly that any traditional revolution would likely be a horror story that would make Pol Pot look good. In any case, the time for old style social revolutions of the disenfranchised could well be gone; modern regimes have too much firepower and control at their disposal to be overthrown in the ways of the past – history rarely repeats itself like that.
What, then, is to be done? One suggestion is to aim for an intellectual revolt, a revolution of the minds, an overthrowing of the thrall in which our rulers have enmeshed us for decades – a declaration that from today we cease to believe the lies on which we have been fed, nurtured and reared.
Let me explain. Every country of South Asia has a dominant narrative, one that has been cultivated at great expense, and one to which the majority of the populations have subscribed without question. We have not arrived at these beliefs as a result of our own independent thinking. Rather, we have imbibed, like mother's milk, the narratives that have been made available to us. Had it been otherwise, we would not see the majority of Indians and Pakistanis, say, holding such completely contrary and polarized perceptions of each other.
Why do we subscribe to these narratives? We are more than ready to argue, with passion and conviction, that the ruling class of the US, for example, has misled its population with a completely false narrative about Iraq, one resting on nothing but blatant lies and misrepresentations. If we believe that, what logical basis do we have for arguing that our own rulers cannot use similar narratives to mislead us in order to further their narrow self-interests? Are we seriously arguing that our rulers are more moral, made of better stuff, when at the same time we castigate them for the most venal types of malfeasance and corruption?
Clearly this is an indefensible position, an acknowledgement that we have forsaken independent analysis, allowed our selves to be brainwashed, and turned into our own enemies. The false patriotism stoked by hyper-nationalism has turned us against each other and ultimately against our selves.
So the starting point of our revolution is the declaration to our respective rulers – WE DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU SAY – WE WILL FIND OUT FOR OURSELVES.
And then, let us use the power of the new technologies to really find out for ourselves. Each one of us should set aside his/her biases and prejudices and seek out a partner from across the border. Let us enter into a myriad conversations unmediated by the rulers or the pundits on TV. Let us talk as one human being to another; let us educate ourselves about our lives; let us generate a new narrative from the ground up.
Imagine this hypothetical scenario – a hundred thousand cross-border marriages! Do you believe that would change the social and political dynamic of South Asia? It is a hypothetical proposition, but can a million conversations begin to have the same impact?
THINK. We need a new revolution for new times. We have nothing to lose but our prejudices. We might just lose our rulers as well and would that not make for a better world?
By Hasan Altaf
Excerpts from an essay published in a special issue (A Country of Our Own – A Symposium on Re-Imagining South Asia) of Seminar, India, April 2012.
A nation cannot grow in entirely barren ground, however, and so in Pakistan we have attempted to replace "South Asia" with "Islam": to substitute for culture, religion, in theory a straight one-to-one transfer. There is no space for chaos here, either, though; the Islam we choose to imagine is monolithic, straight-from-the-sands, brooking-no-argument; it ignores the vast diversity even among our Islams, let alone all our religions and cultures, and says that in the interests of simplicity, order, there will only be one, there has always been only one right way to go about this business.
Once again, it was the Met that put things in context. (more…)
By Anjum Altaf
There are two theses about South Asia that I keep returning to often and feel strongly about – that democracy is alien to South Asia and that the British period was epiphenomenal. But I haven't been able to bring the two together to my satisfaction. Oddly enough, it was a column on mathematics (Finding Your Roots) that suggested a way out of the quandary. In hindsight, it doesn't seem all that odd; what I needed was a different paradigm, a new way of looking at my problem.
Let me first lay out the two theses. The claim that democracy is alien to South Asia was articulated clearly and early by Dr. Ambedkar and I have quoted him frequently to that effect: "Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic" and "In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value."
The claim that the British period was epiphenomenal (an epiphenomenon being a secondary phenomenon that occurs alongside or in parallel to a primary phenomenon) is supported by the evidence. In Dr. Ambedkar's analogy, one could say the Indian soil is reclaiming its place and the top-dressing is becoming thinner by the day.
In order to push my understanding of South Asia, I have kept resorting to a thought experiment. Suppose an interlocutor, with no prior knowledge of the region but familiar with European history, were to ask me to convey the essence or capture the ethos of the region in one or two descriptors, what descriptors would I choose?
Let me restrict the discussion to India for the moment simply to retain the focus on the issue of interest. Would I say 'India is a democracy' and assume that the interlocutor would be able to imagine a fair picture? Or would I choose the descriptor 'secular' and hope that the image that would form after passing through the interlocutor's mental filter would be an accurate one?
I believe there would be agreement that these would not be the best descriptors. If I said instead that 'India is hierarchical' the interlocutor might infer a better sense of the foundations of Indian society. This would capture Dr. Ambedkar's description that "by reason of our social and economic structure, [we] continue to deny the principle of one man one value."
If I added to that by saying that 'India is religious' and 'India is dynastic,' the interlocutor's overlays on the foundation would also be accurate. Caste and religion based elections would corroborate the first claim and he/she could crosscheck the second by looking up a research site that showed, among other interesting facts, that every member of the lower house of the Indian parliament under the age of 30 has inherited his or her seat.
So far there is not much new in what I have said. All I have done is to buttress my claim that one would get the most accurate conception of India (indeed of South Asia as a whole) if one were to use the image of a religious hereditary monarchy as one's starting point. The situation has evolved, of course, but this still remains the best starting point for the kind of interlocutor I introduced in the thought experiment. He/she would be able to refer to the knowledge of the religious hereditary monarchies of Europe and understand South Asia better than if the starting point had been a secular and democratic republic.
Anyone who knows South Asia well knows that the people's representatives think of themselves as monarchs; that bureaucrats fawn over the representatives much as courtiers would fawn over monarchs; that well-off citizens respond to any attempt at accountability with the retort 'Do you know who I am?'; and that the rest, the vast majority, think of themselves as subjects in a mai-baap culture, leaving their fate to the benevolence of the lords and at the mercy of a transcendent power.
The insight that is new to me, and that I credit to the article on mathematics, relates to an understanding of the path that we have followed since the departure of the British. For example, the database on dynastic politics mentioned above shows that only 18 percent of the members of parliament over 50 years in age had inherited their seats. The percentage rises to 47 for those below the age of 50 and to 100 percent for those below 30. So it is clear that the aristocratic system based on heredity that the British had displaced is reasserting itself – the Indian soil is pushing aside the British top-dressing; the primary phenomenon is reasserting its primacy over the epiphenomenon.
How do we understand this trajectory? In the paradigm suggested by the article on mathematics, we can think of India as a very complex system of equations. But every system of equations, no matter how complex, has a solution – in mathematical terms, a 'root' (of which there can be more than one). In the context of our discussion, the 'root' we are looking for is the true ethos, the best descriptor, of Indian society.
Let me illustrate this idea with the simplest of examples. Take the equation 3y = 21. This is easy to solve analytically; we know that the value of the unknown variable y that 'solves' this equation is 7. In mathematical terms 7 is the root of the equation.
Now there are other, brute force, methods of solving equations because most equations are not this simple and are solved by machines using algorithms which are iterative processes following simple rules. Let me illustrate a brute force method for this simple equation to be employed by a dumb machine that had no prior idea of what the true root might be.
The machine can begin the solution process by choosing an arbitrary root, say 1. It will substitute 1 for y in the equation and derive the result 3 = 21. This is clearly not true. Next, the machine will note that 3 is less than 21 and infer that the value of y needs to be increased to make the two sides equal. In the next iteration, it will increment y by a fixed amount (say 0.5) and repeat the process. After a certain number of iterations the two sides of the equation would balance (21 = 21) and the machine would (triumphantly) flash the message that the true root of the equation was 7.
Now here is how I employ this paradigm. Let us keep thinking of India as the simple equation 3y = 21 (in reality it is better thought of as a complex system of non-linear equations but we don't need to venture there). Before the British arrived everyone knew what the system was like (it was what Dr. Ambedkar characterized as the Indian 'soil'). The 'root' of this system was 7. The British didn't think much of this system; they wished it to be in the image of their 'superior' system – they wished to create an Indian system whose root were 1.
Now two things could have happened following the British transplant. Either the graft would have been so attractive that the system would have realigned around it and transformed into one whose root was truly 1 (the top-dressing would take root); or the newly imposed solution would trend inevitably towards the true root (the soil would reassert itself and reject the graft). Clearly, the British had hoped for the first outcome. This was what Macaulay had in mind when he had said: "We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect." The outcome was less certain in Dr. Ambedkar's mind – he finished his thought, quoted above, with the question: "How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?"
The 'life of contradictions' had to resolve itself one way or the other. With the benefit of hindsight we should know quite clearly the direction in which it has evolved – the drift has been towards the status quo ante, most clearly in the smaller countries in South Asia and least obviously in India which has retained the form while shedding the content.
Needless to say, things never go back to exactly where they were after a system is subjected to a shock – this we know from another concept (hysteresis) in physics. The different countries in South Asia have all followed varying trajectories and moved at different speeds in the drift towards their roots depending upon intervening events, rates of economic growth, and the quality of leadership, etc.
But notwithstanding these variations, the fact remains that a 'religious hereditary monarchy' remains a better descriptor of a country in South Asia than a 'secular democratic republic' – the reality is different from the appearance. This conclusion is not a value judgment, just a statement of fact. There is nothing inherently wrong with a religious hereditary hierarchy. In fact an argument could be made that the British epiphenomenon was harmful for South Asia; without it South Asia would have tended faster towards a political configuration that would have been much more organically rooted in its soil. Now we can only speculate on what that solution might have been like.
Postscript: A concrete example might make the argument clearer. In 1947, Mr. Jinnah said: "You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State." Clearly his hope was that Pakistani society would realign itself around this secular, democratic core. Instead, it moved back fairly rapidly to its anti-secular, anti-democratic ethos. The type of liberal, secular gentlemen epitomized by Jinnah are now a dying breed and on the endangered list in Pakistan.


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Drone or drones may refer to:
Drone is a 2014 English-language documentary film directed by Norwegian director Tonje Hessen Schei. The film explores the use of drones in warfare. Drone aired on the TV network Arte on April 15, 2014. The documentary screened at several film festivals throughout 2014, winning several awards. Drone was released in Norway on February 27, 2015.
Variety reported, "'Drone' depicts the recruitment of young pilots at gaming conventions, explores the changing perceptions of what 'going to war' means, as well as the moral stance of engineers behind the technology. The docu also investigates the ways in which world leaders engage in wars, as well as look at the struggle of anti-war and civil rights activists."
Drone was produced by Lars Løge at Flimmer Film and directed by Tonje Hessen Schei. The film received financial support from backers in Norway and from around the world.
The sales outfit LevelK acquired Drone at the Nordic Film Market at the Gothenburg Film Festival in January 2014. A 58-minute cut of Drone premiered on the TV network Arte on April 15, 2014. A 79-minute cut was edited for subsequent screenings. In October 2014, Drone screened at the Bergen International Film Festival and won Best Norwegian Documentary and the Checkpoint Human Rights awards. In January 2015, it screened at the Tromsø International Film Festival and won the Norwegian Peace Film Award. In the following February, it screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Cinema for Peace award. In the same month, LevelK sold distribution rights to Drone to several major territories.
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, as an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), and also referred by several other names, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. The flight of UAVs may be controlled with various kinds of autonomy : either by a given degree of remote control from an operator, located on the ground or in another vehicle, or fully autonomously, by onboard computers.
Historically, UAVs were simple remotely piloted aircrafts, but autonomous control is increasingly being employed : UAV stands nowadays at the crossroads of aviation, electromagnetics, radiocommunication, computer science, avionics, automation, cybernetics, and even core fields of artificial intelligence such as computer vision, decision-making, machine learning and robotics.
UAVs are often preferred for missions that are too "dull, dirty or dangerous" for manned aircrafts. They have and are mostly found in military and special operation applications. Though, UAVs are increasingly finding uses in civil applications, such as policing and surveillance, aerial filming and hobbyist FPV racing.
Solar may refer to:
The solar was a room in many English and French medieval manor houses, great houses and castles, generally situated on an upper storey, designed as the family's private living and sleeping quarters. In such houses, the main ground-floor room was known as the Great Hall, in which all members of the household, including tenants, employees and servants, would eat. Those of highest status would be at the end, often on a raised dais, and those of lesser status further down the hall. But a need was felt for more privacy to be enjoyed by the head of the household, and, especially, by the senior women of the household. The solar was a room for their particular benefit, in which they could be alone and away from the hustle, bustle, noise and smells (including cooking smells) of the Great Hall.
The solar was generally smaller than the Great Hall, because it was not expected to accommodate so many people, but it was a room of comfort and status, and usually included a fireplace and often decorative woodwork or tapestries/wall hangings.
"Solar" (/ˈsoʊlər/ or /soʊˈlɑːr/) is a musical composition attributed to Miles Davis on the studio album Walkin' (1954), considered a modern jazz standard. The tune has been played and recorded by many musicians including his former bandmates/collaborators Lee Konitz, Bill Evans, Dave Holland, Keith Jarrett or Jack DeJohnette. A controversy exists over authorship of this composition and one current consensus holds that Davis' "Solar" is essentially an earlier song, "Sonny", written by Chuck Wayne.
The first two measures of this song adorn Miles Davis' tombstone in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Solar is considered a blues by most listeners, and the commonly accepted chord structure for this piece is:

subset: commoncrawl


text: Florida face lift surgeons have gained an excellent reputation in facelift surgery. If you are considering face lift surgery in Florida then this guide may help you. All of the Florida facelift surgeons at Perfect Yourself are board certified. As you age, your facial muscles slacken and your skin becomes less elastic, creating folds and lines. A facelift operation performed by a Florida plastic surgeon can give you a more alert and youthful appearance by reducing saggy skin and wrinkles. Facelifts may be performed on your whole face (a full facelift) or just on your brow area, lower face, or neck only. The effects of a face lift last for about seven to 10 years. The best results are achieved if you maintain a stable body weight, have skin with good levels of elasticity, and have a strong bone structure. Avoiding excessive sun exposure is also advised for maintaining optimum results of your Florida facelift surgery Its important not to rush into the decision to have face lift surgery. You should discuss with your Florida plastic surgeon what you are hoping to gain from the operation and the results you can realistically expect. Your plastic surgeon will explain how to prepare for your operation. A face lift procedure carried out in Florida typically requires a two night stay in hospital and is usually done under general anesthesia. The operation takes around three to four hours. There are several different surgical techniques, such as the traditional lift, the minimal-access cranial suspension lift (MACS), and the keyhole surgery lift. Your Florida facelift surgeon will explain the options available to you. Your Florida face lift surgeon will give you some advice about caring for your healing wounds and a date for a follow-up appointment before you go home. Face lift surgery in Florida is commonly performed and generally safe. However, in order to make an informed decision and give your consent, you need to be aware of the possible side-effects and the risk of complications of this procedure, please contact a surgeon from Florida at Perfect Yourself, who will be able to assist your directly with any further enquires.


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I am very excited about 5 books this Month:
First and Foremost,
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I just love this story. We were listening to an audio recording the other day and I found myself crying at the end. Crying because Scrooge's change of heart was so complete that he was so good. The last two paragraphs are my favorite.
The Princess and the Pea - This book is our favorite version of the Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child, the original by Hans Christian Anderson being woefully short and scant with the details. I made some mattresses to go along with the book! I hope Nutmeg will be as excited about this on Christmas as I am.
World Book Atlas - We have wanted to get an Atlas for Boba Fett for a while now but the good ones are expensive and huge, too huge for a small boy. All we could imagine was a ruinied atlas. But I picked up this beauty published in the 60's for $1! If he ruins it, no big deal, I get the maps for crafting! It is also out of date which can leave room for some interesting discussions about communism and national boundaries.Look at these beautiful maps of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I almost hope he does ruin the book and I can get my hands on these.
Handmade Home - By Amanda Blake Soule - I won this book by leaving a comment at Sew, Mama, Sew! I wanted this book of course, but not enough to purchase it. Yipee! Hoorah for give aways!
And last but best!
Praha Objektivem Mistru - I found this book at the Library Bookstore for $1 I knew that "Praha" meant "Prague" so I took it. I got home to find that every last word is in Czech. The only words I can figure out are "Karluv most" which is "Charles Bridge " and "Vila Amerika" I am assuming something American - American Consulate or Embassy? Maybe just house? It is a book full of black and white photos of Prague dating from the 30's to the 70's. This is why I need to learn Czech.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
I Need to Learn to Read Czech
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Labels: books
1 comment:
I can probably hook you up with a Czech translation. Please contact me. I'd appreciate it if my email is not published on the comments. firstname.lastname@example.com
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Okra retains a delightful tender-crisp texture when cooked in a packet. Here, it teams up with shrimp, tomatoes and Cajun seasoning for a satisfying meal with a taste of New Orleans. Serve with grilled whole-grain bread or polenta.
Ready In
Get a full year of EatingWell®, Rachael Ray Every Day™ and Shape® for just $11.


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Following the success of the project Mírame, Lima, the same team ( D.Tortora - J.Travezan - M.Vargas Llosa) was reunited to deliver for ACCENTURE, Mírame, España. The project offers a story about the evolution of Spain in recent decades through the portrayal of its 41 protagonists: anonymous people that with great effort have modernised and improved their parent's enterprises, adapted to the digital economy through their innovation and entrepreneurship, and have made their passion for art and culture a motor for change.
The project was published as a book by Editorial Planeta and presented to the public as part of the XX Anniversary of PHoto España.
You can download the entire project for tablets and smart phones at the following links:


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LIC HFL Assistant Admit Card 2018, LIC Housing Finance Limited Assistant Hall Ticket, Exam Date, Call Letter is Now Available to Download at www.lichousing.com:
LIC HFL Assistant Interview Call Letter 2018-19: Here we are the with most amazing news for the candidates; before that let's have a brief overview to it; recently the LIC HFL which is known as the LIC Housing Finance Limited has released the recruitment notification for the post of the assistant, associate and assistant manager for the 300 seats that are vacant in the department; for that those aspirants who are looking for the such opportunity the board are inviting the online application form from them; the board has started accepting the online application form from 21st August 2018 and will accept till 6th September 2018; so those candidates who are looking forward for the post they can apply for it within the given time duration.
Click Here: LIC HFL Assistant Merit List 2018
- 1 LIC HFL Assistant Admit Card 2018
LIC HFL Assistant Admit Card 2018
So all the candidates are quite clear regarding to the selection process as those who will apply for the post and need to job they have to go through the selection process which will be conducted by the board written examination and personal interview; so soon after the completion of the registration process the board will conduct the written examination and for that they will issue admit card on the site which the candidates have to download it; here we have given the further information regarding to the admit card so the candidates can grab that from the given below article or even the candidates can visit the official site of the board.
www.lichousing.com Assistant Manager Admit Card 2018-2019 Exam Date
|LIC Housing Finance Limited Assistant Manager Hall Ticket
|Name of the department
|LIC Housing Finance Limited
|Official website
|Recruitment notification
|Assistant, Associate and Assistant Manager
|No of vacancies
|Selection process
|Initial date to apply
|21st August 2018
|Due date to apply
|6th September 2018
|Admit card declaration
|24th September 2018
|Examination date
|6th and 7th October 2018
|PAN India
|Admit Card
|Mode of application
|Type of job
|Government Job
Selection Process of LICHFL Assistant 2018:
Those candidates who will apply or have applied for the post they have to go through the selection process as stated above:
- Written examination
- Personal interview
LIC Housing Finance Limited Assistant Exam Pattern 2018
Candidates who are looking forward to crack the examination and get the job in the LIC; for that here we have given the examination pattern for the candidates as the examination pattern will help the candidates regarding how to prepare for the exams and according to that start the preparation.
|S no
|Examination type
|Subject names
|No of questions
|Maximum marks
|Test duration
Objective type
|English language
|Logical reasoning
|Numerical ability
|General awareness
|2 hours
www.lichousing.com Assistant Manager Exam Date 2018:
The board is all set to conduct the examination on 6th and 7th October 2018 for those candidates selection who have apply for the post; and for that the board will release admit card on the site prior 15 days of the examination which the candidates need to download it from the site as it is mandatory for the candidates to download admit card; as without admit card no candidates will able to appear in the examination and will be disqualified from the site.
Steps to Download LIC HFL Associate Hall Ticket 2018
- The applied candidates can visit the official site of the board
- Then from the home page; the candidates have to get the link of admit card
- After that click on that link
- Now enter the registration number and password
- Then submit it
- Admit card will appear on the screen
- Which the candidates have to download it and take a print of it for the future use.
Important Links:
Download LIC Housing Finance Limited Assistant Admit Card 2018
Official Website: www.lichousing.com


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Making a jerk of yourself with the "reply all" bug
"Just an idea. Could be good to have an article about the people you put in to:, cc: (bcc....?). And also usage of reply or reply to all or add people in distrib list etc. I guess this is a real issue today..."
Thanks for the idea. I've added the To/CC/BCC suggestion to my list of potential articles, but I already had something prepared on "reply all" in my queue:
An email behavior to check yourself for is inadvertently sending a message to a huge number of people that you thought was only going to one person. This annoys a great many people and makes you look like a moron (at least, that's what it felt like when I accidentally did it, D'oh!). There are two ways this phenomenon typically manifests itself.
First, most email programs place the "Reply" button right next to the "Reply All" button. A mouse pointer displaced by a centimeter can send your thoughts to everyone who received the original message instead of just the sender. Second, many companies use distribution lists to disseminate information to large audiences. Depending upon how the distribution lists are set up, pressing the "Reply" button on your email program may create a response to the author, or it may send your reply to everyone on the distribution list. If it's the latter, the results can be embarrassing.
Collectively, these situations can be thought of as the "reply all" bug. Especially in cases where you are being critical of something or someone, double check to make sure you are sending your thoughts to the intended person only. Writing "That Irvin is sure an idiot" takes on a whole new meaning when Irvin himself will read it (double D'oh!).
Often in the distribution list variant of this phenomenon, someone asks a question intended only for the original sender that everyone ends up receiving. Then, someone else who is trying to be a good citizen does a "reply all" asking everybody not to "reply all". Occasionally, a third person will jump in and point out to the second person that their "reply all" criticism ironically made use of "reply all" as well, not realizing that they just did it too. It can get pretty ridiculous.
The best bet is not to interject anything into these ultimately pointless exchanges, or at least to double check yourself so that you do not accidentally start one of these email threads or expose your opinions to people beyond your intended audience. You never know who you might offend and what they might say to your boss come performance evaluation time.
Labels: General stuff


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Will Fortnite Change The Way Gamers Feel About Triple A Titles?
Let me start by saying that I am 36 years old, have been laying video games for around 30 of those and I actually do enjoy playing Fortnite. I can see why the game is so popular and it is taking over the world. People are having a blast with this game and best of all it is free! You can get a ton out of this game without ever spending a penny.
The fact that this free to play game is all that anyone plays at the moment has got me thinking if Fortnite is going to change the landscape of video games. I am not talking about my generation. I think many of us are set in our ways and we have an expectation for a few big budget 60 bucks triple A blockbusters each year….. but I am talking about the next generation of gamer.
My son is 10 and he and his buddies play Fortnite together all the time…. Like all the time. It is all they play. They are hooked and they are having a great time playing it. They all play on Xbox One together and it got to the point where my wife actually made him turn off the Xbox so he could go out and get some fresh air.
Kids (and many adults too) are spending all their free gaming time playing Fortnite. A game that they are having a lot of fun with and a game that they can enjoy without paying a penny. Hell if you are playing it on PlayStation, you do not even need to pay for PlayStation Plus to enjoy it! Even the campaign that you can buy is pretty reasonably priced.
If you have a kid who is 10 years old now who is exposed to this kind of high quality free to play game, it is going to be very hard to get them to part with their birthday or Christmas money for a 60 bucks game. I feel that the big triple A game is always going to have a place, but I do feel that more companies are going to see the success Epic Games have had with Fortnite and try a similar model.
Imagine if Activision decides to offer some kind of Battle Royal/Free To Play version of Call Of Duty! Or if EA decide that you no longer need to buy the full retail version of Fifa to play Ultimate Team!


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Maker Highlight: Workstead
Teamwork makes the dream work.
The collaborative pair that is Stefanie Brechbuehler and Robert Andrew Highsmith, founders of Brooklyn-based Workstead Design Shop, is a marvel in and of itself. Well known for their signature aesthetic of re-use and re-invention, the two RISD grads incorporate their sustainable lifestyle from their apartment and studio to their design projects seamlessly. The result? Context-driven works rooted in history, architecture, and function.
Workstead's use of materiality—handcrafted products using natural materials in a refined, simplistic form—is true artistry that we can really appreciate. Their designs are industrial without being bulky, strong without being hard, and refined without being pretentious. It's all about the level of detail, and Workstead does it in a way that no one else can.
As designers and spatial planners, we often spend most of our time looking at the larger volume of a space or a product. But on those rare occasions when we can narrow our focus down to the smallest fastener or screw, and even that is perfect, it's just brilliant. And that's exactly what Workstead is all about.
Our Favorites
While Workstead produces the occasional sideboard and cabinet, the real stars of the studio are the light fixtures: table lamps, desk lights, chandeliers. Here are just a few of the ones that we love.


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The future of the University of London hangs in the balance after it came under attack from its biggest and oldest constituent college.
Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London, this week questioned the continued existence of the university and hinted that a merger with Imperial College London - or a take-over of the smaller Bloomsbury colleges - could be on the cards.
The ideas came in a counterattack to an attempt by Sir Graeme Davies, vice-chancellor of the University of London, to determine future directions for the federal institution.
Sir Graeme proposes a strengthening of the central university through possible expansion and intercollegiate teaching initiatives.
But Professor Grant told The Times Higher: "It rather begs the question of whether the University of London has a future.
"I do think we need to have that a priori question. In reviews of quangos, the first question is, if we didn't already have this organisation, would we need to invent it? In this case, I think the answer is no.
"Although the university provides a number of services, it is difficult to say that they would not be better provided through individual arrangements of partnerships between institutions. As for the brand, that is to do with the outstanding reputation of the university's constituent colleges."
The paper published by Professor Grant reads: "The University of London as a federal institution of 19 of the 41 higher education institutions (in the capital) lacks both the capacity and the legitimacy to play the leadership role that its name suggests.
"London institutions would be unwise to ignore the recent merger between Umist and the University of Manchester: this must act as a stimulus to thinking of what comparable opportunities might exist for London."
His paper outlines alternatives to the continuing existence of the University of London. These include a discussion of how closer links could see four university quadrants emerge: one in Bloomsbury, dominated by UCL and incorporating smaller institutions and taking the University of London moniker; one comprising the London School of Economics and King's College London; one based around Imperial in West London; and one based around Queen Mary, University of London, in East London.
Membership of the federal university is strongly supported by smaller constituent institutions such as Birkbeck, the Institute of Education and the School of African and Oriental Studies. But bigger colleges such as Imperial are more neutral.
Sir Graeme said: "The thing about a federation is that any of the colleges can leave at any time. The only thing that would happen is that it would lose the University of London degree."
Rick Trainor, principal of King's College London, said: "Along with University College, King's was one of the two founding colleges of the university. We would take a lot of persuading that any one college should take the University of London title.
The role of the university was last reviewed a decade ago.
1826 University College London established on Gower Street
1836 King William IV grants the University of London power to confer degrees on students of UCL, King's and other approved institutions
1932 Building work starts on Senate House to house enlarged admin functions
1995 University ceases to be a funding body for its constituent colleges.
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text:
West Palm Beach 2009
Valdosta 2007
Albany, GA 2007
Indy 2006
Bud's Creek 2005
Gainesville 2005
Las Vegas 2004
Indy 2004
Memphis 2003
Norwalk 2001
Houston 2000
Richmond 1998
Rockingham 1993
Atlanta 1992
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St Louis 2005
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Episode 20 - Osho Radio: a device for meditation
Today our guest is Ma Anand Amrita. Amrita is a long-term Osho sannyasin, runs a radio programme called Osho Radio and also she has translated some Osho's books in Dutch language.
I think you're going to really enjoy this episode, and as always, send your questions to firstname.lastname@example.com or contact Amrita via her website below. Enjoy the show!
Here's what you'll learn in this episode:
Amrita's background
How Amrita arrived to Osho
Amrita moves to India and Osho leaves to the USA
Amrita tells the story of how Osho Radio came about
How Amrita makes the programme
Amrita talks about synchronicity
How Amrita selects Osho's discourses
Amrita does not like to edit Osho's discourses and prefers to put the fiery early discourses
What inspires Amrita in doing Osho Radio
Osho Radio is a device for meditation
How Amrita gives space to music produced by Osho sannyasins
Amrita talks about Osho in Holland today
Amrita talks about Wild Wild Country
Amrita's projects
Amrita's morning routine
Amrita's favourite meditation
Amrita and Osho today
Amrita website
Love Osho Youtube channel
Love Osho Free Guide - How to meditate if you can't sit quietly
Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
If you've enjoyed the show, please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps us improve the show and makes it easier for other people to find us and benefit from the content. Thank you so much!


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Stage Event Rental LED Screen Solution
1. Stage Event Rental LED Screen Solution Requirement:
Rental LED Screen Cabinet: Stage/Event Rental LED Screen Cabinet should be:
1. Lightweight
2. Strong Cabinet Structure
3. Easy to Install and Dismantle
4. Curve-able Assemble
High Performance: Stage/Event Rental LED Screen should be higher performance:
1. High Refresh Rate (above 3,840Hz )
2. High Color Depth (16bit)
3. High Contrast Rate
1. Video Processor which will make the LED Screen Higher Performance and Smooth the video animation quality.
2. Truss System which will enable various installation method of the Rental LED Screen Panel.
3. Power Box which is a movable Distributor Power box
4. Flight Case is a movable Rental LED Screen Panel Package, which should be reliable and light weight.


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Best Distortion Pedal!
Let me tell you why you should forget whatever overdrive you're using and buy a Fuzzbubble-45. This pedal maintains the character of your guitar and amp. Its also responsive to your playing and maintains clarity even when the overdrive is maxed. With a lower overdrive dialed in the pedal is a great tone enhancer, I use it like this on gigs where I'm going for a clean sound but want that bit of break-up if I dig in to a phrase or chord. The best thing? The FB-45 has TWO of these circuits so that you can dial in different settings and switch between them. The Fuzz side of the FB-45 has a great sound reminiscent of Hendrix (called HAZE on the pedal). I love this sound for long sustain on solos and its excellent for slide guitar too. So get rid of all those generic distortion and overdrive pedals that rob your sound and grab an FB-45 to enhance it!
New York


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Intentional Learning
Winter is learning time for farmers - there are seminars, conferences and sessions every week. What you should attend depends on your farm goals and priorities. But, no matter what you focus on in 2019 it should include learning. Sometimes this means learning something new, while other times it means learning how to put a familiar idea into action. Here are some events that are on our radar for the first few months of 2019.
Ag Days - Brandon, MB (January 22-24)
Ag PhD 101 Ways to Cut Farm Expenses - various locations and dates (full events list)
KAP Young Farmers - Winnipeg, MB (February 6-7)
M3 Aerial RPAS Ground School (Drone ground school) - Portage La Prairie, MB (Feb 12-13)
Crop Connect - Winnipeg, MB (February 13-14)
World Ag Expo - Tulare, CA (February 12-14)
Manitoba Auctioneers Convention - Portage La Prarie, MB (February 25) - FarmFemmes presenting
Commodity Classic - Orlando, FL (February 26 - March 2)
Advancing Women in Ag (West) - Calgary, AB (March 11-12)
Ignite FCC Young Farmer Summit - Winnipeg, MB (March 14)
If you know of a great learning opportunity - please comment below so that we can find out more!


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The EBCICON 2018: Global Competitiveness : Bussiness Transformation in Digital Era aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers, and research scholars and business leaders to exchange and share their experiences and research findings on all aspects of Competitiveness, Innovation and Transformation in digital era. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions in the fields of Global Competitiveness: Bussiness Transformation in Digital.
- To enhance the potential of academic societies, accountants, and business leaders worldwide indeveloping and exchanging new ideas and practices to respond to the increasing importance of sustainability issue.
- To explore the factors which contribute to the success of a sustainable organization.
- To thoroughly review and discuss ideas presented in academic papers and forums in order to obtain a better understanding regarding the topics as well as related issues.
- To encourage research and writing activities as the cornerstone of academic advancement.
The 2018 EBCICON will cover nine major thematic groups yet opens to other related issues topics:
- Accounting & Governance
e.g. Accounting Information System, Good Corporate Governance, Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Auditing, Sustainability Reporting
- Customer Relations
e.g. Market Access & Assessment, Retail Management, Strategic Brand Management, Customer Relationship Management, Integrated Marketing Communication
- Entrepreneurship
e.g. SME, Startup, Social Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Education
- Environmental Issues
e.g. Waste Mangement, Climate Change and Global Warming, Green Production, Environmental Accounting
- Finance & Investment
e.g. Wealth Management, International Finance, Corporate Finance Investment Banking
- Human Capital
e.g. Leadership, Organizational Behaviour, Human Capital Management, Industrial Relations, Organizational Change and Design, Business Negotiation and Conflict Management
- Industrial Revolution 4.0
e.g. Cyber Security, Big Data and Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, E-Commerce Auditing, ICT
- International Issues
e.g. Customs, International Taxation, International Trade, International Transportation, Cross Cultural Management and Management Diversity
- Operations & Supply Chain Management
e.g. Logistics, Production Planning and Control, Operational Risk Management, Supplier Relationship Management, Sustainable Operation, Inventory Management, Service Operations, Quality Management


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Arena:Development Team
The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995
< Arena
This is a list of the various people in the development team for Arena.
The people are (in no order), Vijay Lakshman, Ted Peterson, Julian Lefay, Jennifer Pratt, Foroozan Soltani, Bryan Bossart, Kenneth "Ken" Mayfield, and Jeff Perryman. All apart from Peterson and Lefay only worked on Arena.


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timespace coordinates: 2688 >1988 San Dimas, California > Austria in 1805 > 1879 the Old West > 410 BC ancient Greece > 14th century medieval England > 1901 Vienna Austria > Kassel, Germany, 1810 > Orleans, France, 1429 > Outer Mongolia 1209 >The White House, 1863Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science fiction comedy film directed by Stephen Herek and written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. It stars Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves, and George Carlin. The plot follows slackers Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves), who travel through time to assemble historical figures for their high school history presentation.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure received generally positive reviews and was commercially successful. It is now considered a cult classic.
DC Comics produced a tie-in comic following the plot of the first movie timed to coincide with that film's release on home video. The sequel was adapted by DC's competitor Marvel Comics, published to coincide with the second film's release in theaters. Its popularity led to the ongoing Marvel series Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book by Evan Dorkin, which lasted for 12 issues.
There were also Game Boy, NES and Atari Lynx games released, which were very loosely based on the film's plot. A PC title and nearly identical Amiga and Commodore 64 port were made in 1991 by Off the Wall Productions and IntraCorp, Inc. under contract by Capstone Software and followed the original film very closely. (wiki)


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The Road to Hell is Paved...
Paperback, 70 Pages
Price: $25.00
Prints in 3-5 business days
Curated by Biddy Tran, "The Road to Hell is Paved…" considers the impact of hegemonic practices on societies, cultures, and individuals that result in marginalization and subordination. In this group exhibition, artists explore these issues, exposing and articulating the resultant fallout that this practice leaves in its wake. Artists deal with issues of colonialism and hegemony by investigating the underpinnings of conventions of representation, as well as utopian or colonialist ideals that perpetuate or produce economic and cultural oppression.
Ratings & ReviewsLog in to review this item
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Product Details
- 9780557671700
- Copyright
- Biddy Tran (Standard Copyright License)
- Published
- October 24, 2010
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 70
- Binding
- Perfect-bound Paperback
- Interior Ink
- Full color
- Weight
- 0.75 lbs.
- Dimensions (inches)
- 8.5 wide x 8.5 tall
- Product ID
- 13235808
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- Road to hell ,
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Take advantage of these deals year-round...
The rates for the packages & specials listed below are in effect all year long. Reservations for any of these specials can be confirmed by direct phone booking. Alternatively, specials that include lodging may be booked via our secure online booking site. Lodging discounts will not be extended to reservations made on 3rd-party websites (i.e. Booking.com®, Priceline®, etc.). These discounts do not apply to full inn bookings and discounts may not be combined.
Extended Stay Discount At Weathertop
- Take 10% off our standard room rates for stays of 5 or 6 consecutive nights at the inn. This discount may not be combined with any other special offers. It is not valid during holiday periods.
- Take 20% off our standard room rates for stays of 7 or more consecutive nights at the inn. This discount may not be combined with any other special offers. It is not valid during holiday periods.
Single Person Discount At Weathertop
Take $20 off our daily room rate for single occupancy in a queen-bedded room, Monday-Thursday (Holidays and Presidents' Week excluded).
Season Passholder Discount At Weathertop
Mad River Glen Shareholders and Sugarbush Passholders receive an additional 5% discount on the lodging component of your stay (food & beverage charges excluded). You must mention this special at time of booking and present shareholder or passholder ID at check-in to qualify.
Full Inn Booking Discount At Weathertop
With 8 guest rooms and a maximum occupancy of 18 persons, Weathertop Mountain Inn is the ideal venue to host a small family reunion, travel club, corporate outing, or wedding group. Why not consider a full inn booking for that special occasion?
Booking the entire inn opens up a world of possibilities to customize & personalize your experience. Add a special breakfast, group clambake, summer BBQ, wine tasting dinner, intimate rehearsal dinner or post-wedding brunch. Just let us know what you're trying to achieve.
The discount for a full inn booking, and the additional services we can offer, will depend upon the season and the dates you choose. Please contact us for details. You can also click here to see general information regarding price and availability for a full inn booking.


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Police & Crime Commissioner, Mr Ablewhite will be attending the Parish meeting on Tuesday 4th September to present information on the new policing structure, how it affects Cambourne and how the Parish Council can develop a closer working relationship with the Police. General questions and answers will follow.
Also in attendance at the next Parish Council meeting is Mr James Paxman to present information on the CamBed Rail Road.


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The Latest Campus Accessory: Tuition Insurance
In an Age of Rising Costs, More Families Get Protection And Demand Payments
This fall, amid concerns about college costs eating up a growing share of family income, more families are buying a type of insurance that covers their tuition if a student has to leave school unexpectedly.
At Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., the number of students buying the insurance plan has gone up about 12% from last year. Emory University in Atlanta began offering the product last year following student demand, and this year saw an increase of 33%, to 225 students buying it. At Catholic University in Washington, D.C.,...


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There are moments that define who we become. Some of those moments are dealt by fate, and others are choices. We get to decide what we want to do, and what we can do with our lives.
I really been blessed this year to be around some very inspiring people. People that have gone outside of the normal day to day life to do extraordinary things. My fellow SpouseBuzz contributors inspire me daily to shoot for better. None of them think they are are extraordinary, but they are all so inspiring to me.
There are also the military men and women I have been lucky enough to meet, who in essence, have provided my family with the ability to sleep better at night.
There are extraordinary volunteers, that have shown me all you need to volunteer is to fill a need. Someone needs you. What is your talent? Can you bake, sew, knit, or quilt? Maybe you have learned to become a fantastic letter writer after several deployments. There are people that would love to hear from you.
There is my friend here, who after about 8 years of marriage, and several deployments, says this on her blog Don't Forget The Peanut Butter...
"I am a journalist who looked around one day and realized I was no closer to achieving my dreams, one of which is to work in Africa. So I quit my job, left my husband in charge of the house and enrolled in graduate school 400 miles from home. Nearly everyone thought I was crazy. But I am a woman on a mission. I know that by stepping outside of my comfort zone and embracing life's many challenges, my life will be enriched - and maybe I will gain some insight and inspiration along the way."
She is now steps away from getting her Masters degree from Baylor, and is currently in Kenya writing oral histories of women who are HIV-positive, for those that they will leave behind.
Her efforts and experience make for an interesting and touching read.
I think her choice to give to the community, and to continue her education is a great reminder to all of us.
There is always someone that needs you. It does not have to be far. Sometimes we are needed in our homes, and we need to take care of ourselves and those around us. We need to rest our spirit and minds. And I think we all know when we are "ready" to make changes, and we know when have the energy to help those around us.
Because I have learned there is someone in the World, that would benefit from what you have to give. And in the end both hearts are better for it.
There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anias Nin


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Name - Jason Gretzinger
Age – 29
Hometown – Edmonton, AB
Current residence - Nelson, BC
Years Riding – 17
Years Sponsored - 9
Sponsors – Freeride Boardshop | Flow | L1 Premium Goods | Populess Clothing | Space Bear
Favorite Terrain – Backcountry Big Mountain most definitely via snowmobile and split-boarding
Stance – Regular | 23' wide | 15 degrees front | 12 degrees back
Music - Bit of folk and indie | classic oldies | electronic (as half my friends here are DJ'S and Shambhala is part of Nelson culture)
My Boarding Story – I've come from the streets of Edmonton where some of the most popular urban riding comes from. So my beginning started on rails and park as that's all there was in the prairies. I loved it and did a lot of things on a snowboard that I don't know if I'd still have the balls to do now. Concrete and steel ain't no joke. I also found myself loving the world of going as fast as I could and sending park jumps.
I then moved out to Kelowna, BC where I got noticed by the Freeride Boardshop team. They took me in like family and connected all the right dots, got me a handful of sponsors and off I went filming and shooting photos chasing the pro dream. I had a blast searching the frozen battlefield like warriors looking for the next big feature to tame. From street to park and eventually getting a snowmobile then exploring the backcountry.
After 2 seasons in Kelowna I was getting the itch for something bigger. So moved out to Whistler, BC. I was told this is where some of the best riding in the world was and where you needed to be if you wanted to be recognized by the industry. And they were right! One of the most insane jump parks called Black park to some amazing slack country and that's just in the resort. Load the sled up and from Squamish to Pemberton you have plenty of forest service roads that go for miles. It was heaven. Here was where I connected with the production Nuulife Cinema. These boys were the underdogs in the scene. Running on a shoe string budget. John Swystun and David Craig were the filmers and editors. The blood sweat and tears these boys put into that production is what the core of snowboarding was all about. For about 6 Years I filmed with these guys. Some of the best moments of my riding career was with this crew. Unfortunately just last year they had to call it quits. RIP Nuulife Cinema. Love you guys.
At this time I had already been in Nelson for 2 years now trying to learn the back country terrain. I spent this time gaining sledding skills and avalanche skills. The last year of Nuulife filming I got caught in a size 2.5 slide. I got lucky and was only buried up to the waist. But it was enough to shake me up. I then decided if I wanted to keep going in this back country game I needed to get training. And with Nuulife calling it quits yet still the passion to be out there pushing the limits, I took my AVY 1 course just last season and have a goal to first tail guide at Retallack Cat Skiing then eventually start my own guided Sled/ boarding operation.


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Engage in our future
As one of the Australia's highly innovative and diverse suppliers of mining equipment, technology and services (METS) to the national or global supply chain, your company plays an important role in the sustainability of the mining industry and we want to enhance your global competitive advantage.
Our vision for the Australian METS sector is for the industry to have an aligned, efficient and agile industry ecosystem with a high degree of collaboration and global innovation leadership - resulting in a growing share of the global market.
We want you to engage in shaping our future by:
- supporting the Sector Competitiveness Plan
- keeping abreast of debates and the latest news across the sector
- collaborating with the mining supply chain
- sharing with others what makes your firm's innovation unique and compelling.
METS Ignited is an industry-focused organisation. We are charged with developing a sector-wide plan to strengthen the competitiveness of the METS sector. Assistance for individual companies is delivered by partner organisations such as AusIndustry, as well as key industry bodies Austmine, and MESCA which can provide members with promotion, supply chain, R&D and mining project opportunities.
More information about our five areas of strategic focus to help strengthen the competitiveness of the Australian can be viewed here.
We invite you to become part of our network, receive updates on our work, other successful METS companies and other news.


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Not a fan of heating and air conditioning problems? Neither is Air Rescue, which is why we offer AC maintenance club memberships that can save you time and money while keeping your HVAC system is in tip-top shape. Air Rescue club memberships offer priority service, repair discounts, and most importantly, peace of mind that comes from not having to worry about your furnace or air conditioner unexpectedly breaking down.
The Silver Membership plan includes two maintenance tune-ups each year, a 20 percent discount on repairs, $49 diagnostic service, and guaranteed 48-hour response time throughout the Tampa and St. Petersburg area. The Gold Membership offers free diagnostic service, 75 percent discount on repairs, and guaranteed 24-hour response times. For guaranteed same-day response in Tampa, step up to the Platinum Membership.


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SINGAPORE, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer Zoomlion has begun a gradual recovery from a punishing downturn, it said on Thursday, even as it announced widening net loss for the first nine months of the year.
China's massive construction boom initiated by a $644 billion government stimulus package announced in 2008 had spurred heavy equipment makers to produce more equipment, but slowing economic growth has resulted in a glut of unsold machinery.
Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co said its net loss for the first nine months of the year is expected to widen to between 787 million yuan ($118 million) and 812 million yuan, from 518 million yuan a year earlier.
However, the last three months of that period are likely to show a net profit of between 25 million yuan and 50 million yuan, against a loss of 208.4 million yuan in the same quarter last year.
The results for the nine months to end-September were negative largely because of decreasing revenue from the construction machinery sector and foreign exchange fluctuations, it said in a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange. ($1 = 6.6685 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee and Meg Shen; Editing by David Goodman


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Item Details
The Warwick Woodlands, or, Things as They Were There, Ten Years Ago
Herbert, Henry William
- Format
- Document; Online
- Creator
- Herbert, Henry William
- Date
- 1845
- Composition Era
- 19th Century
- 1840's
- Collection
- UVa Text Collection
- Copyright & PermissionsRights statements and licenses provide information about copyright and reuse associated with individual items in the collection.
Additional information about rights, reuse of Library materials, suggested citation forms, and related issues can be found on the "Permission to Use Library Materials" page.
- Copyright Not Evaluated
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You Make No Sense
This is a photo I posted to Instagram of a transcript from video footage of me. I am the only one speaking in it. I have no recollection of saying most of it. Who are these marine organisms?
Buy "The Tumor" — my short story that's been called "a masterpiece of short fiction."


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VANCOUVER, B.C. MONTREAL, QUEBEC— EACOM Timber Corporation (TSX VENTURE: ETR;
"EACOM" or the "Company") today reported that it has entered into a three-year, $50 million
revolving credit facility agreement with GE Capital in Canada. The facility will be used to fund
working capital and general corporate purposes.
Mr Rick Doman, President and CEO of EACOM Timber Corporation, said "we are very pleased to
enter into this agreement with GE Capital. GE Capital's experience in structuring transactions
in the forestry sector was instrumental in identifying a flexible financial structure that would
not only answer our immediate needs, but would also support future growth opportunities as
we pursue our vision of becoming a global softwood lumber Company."
"It is very satisfying to see our customers take full advantage of GE's deep domain expertise,"
said Ellis Gaston, General Manager, GE Capital Corporate Finance Canada. "We look forward to
supporting EACOM's continued growth."
Facility Details
Under the terms of the facility, amounts drawn and to be repaid are determined by a borrowing
base calculation that fluctuates with eligible receivable and inventory balances (net of
reserves). Borrowings can be in $Cdn or $US. Interest rates on Canadian dollar borrowings
are based on either banker's acceptances or the Canadian chartered bank prime rate, at
EACOM's choice, plus an applicable margin. That portion of the $50 million commitment that is
not drawn will be subject to a stand by fee and upon closing, EACOM was required to pay a
closing fee. The facility is secured by a first priority, perfected security interest on all existing
and future assets of EACOM. EACOM is subject to customary covenants, including a fixed
charge coverage ratio if the amount available for borrowing falls below a certain threshold.
About EACOM
EACOM Timber Corporation is a TSX-V listed company. EACOM owns seven sawmills and
an equity interest in an eighth sawmill, all located in Eastern Canada and related
tenures. The mills are Timmins, Nairn Centre, Gogama and Ear Falls in Ontario and Vald'Or,
Ste-Marie and Matagami in Quebec. The equity interest is in the Elk Lake sawmill
located in Ontario. The sawmills in Ear Falls, Ontario, and Ste-Marie, Quebec, are
currently idled. EACOM also owns one idle mill in Big River Saskatchewan. EACOM also
owns a remanufacturing facility and a 50% interest in an "I" joist plant.
The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press
release. All directorships are subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this news release that are not based on historical fact are "forward-looking statements."
While management has based any forward-looking statements contained herein on its current
expectations, the information on which such expectations were based may change. These forward-looking
statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of
risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside of our control that could cause actual
results to materially differ from such statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, but
are not necessarily limited to, those set forth under the captions "Risk Factors" of the Filing Statement
dated January 8, 2010 and the current MD&A for EACOM Timber Corporation on file with the Canadian
Securities Commissions.
(514) 917-1040


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NCS is proud to announce it has doubled the number of annual scholarships it presents to local High School Seniors. This year 9 x $1,000 scholarships were presented to High School Seniors. A tenth scholarship was offered to Boone High School but unfortunately there was no applicant.
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