Buddism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Buddism - Essay Example The quest of a Prince, confined to the four walls of the Palace, to know the truth in life, gave to the world the great philosophy and world religion or way of life known as BUDDHISM. It is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One. Siddhartha Gautama, the great warrior Prince, was born around 566 BC in Lumbini (formerly in North India). Even when he was an infant a seer predicted that Siddhartha would become either a great King or an ‘enlightened one’. The king, fearful of losing his son and heir to the kingdom, confined him to the Palace. During his three attempts to encounter with the realities that lay outside the walls of the Palace, Prince Siddhartha saw a sick man, an old woman and a decaying corpse and a wandering holy man. This created unrest within him and he realized that there is something beyond the human life, beyond the physical existence. He realized that all men have to undergo all these four stages and not just in one life but life after life. While the Palace was sleeping, one night he escaped leaving his wife and child, and the luxuries of the Palace, in search of the truth. This was the first step towards attaining ‘bodha’. In search of the truth Siddhartha travelled across the country, from one saint to the other. At each step he did release one layer of negativity from within but was still not able to attain the truth. He realized that neither a the life penance and ascetic practices nor a life full of luxuries could reach him there. He discovered what is now called the ‘middle path’ to attain enlightenment. He remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the seasons plowing, and he had fallen into a naturally concentrated and focused state in which time seemed to stand still, and which was blissful and refreshing (Wikipedia). He sat down under a large

Challenges to Kingstons Tourism Industry

Challenges to Kingstons Tourism Industry Kingston has many natural, heritage and infrastructural assets that lend themselves to the development of urban tourism and, at one time, was viewed as a viable tourist destination. The citys history, however, indicates a level of creeping neglect and social turmoil which has led to what is today, an almost non-existent tourist presence. However, it is the social problems that are faced by Kingston, in the form of poverty, crime, and violence, that form the strongest arguments in favour of the development of tourism infrastructure in Kingston. It argued that these are merely symptoms of the greater problem of social exclusion and the lack of economic opportunities for the community at large. Therefore infrastructural development that leads to the creation of sustainable employment opportunities is required. The citys current dependency on manufacturing and related industries has failed to provide the growth or economic benefits required, particularly since the liberalization of the Jamaican economy and the removal of trade protection. Jamaica has not been competitive, neither as a low cost producer of manufactured goods nor as centre of excellence in any particular manufacturing process, not even when compared with its Caribbean neighbours, such as Trinidad and Tobago. It is therefore unlikely that this sector will be the engine of future growth required to provide the people of Kingston with the economic and social benefits required. Conversely, Jamaica has gained significant comparative advantage in tourism, even though its capital city has not been central to this thus far. Many cities in the US and around the globe, facing decline in their manufacturing or primary industries, have embarked on a similar development path and like these cities, Kingston has few available development options. However, research suggests a positive relationship between investment in infrastructure and between performance as well as between tourism and welfare. The writer suggests that properly managed tourism infrastructure in Kingston has the potential to provide significant benefits to its citizens. There is, however very little indication that tourism development in Kingston is high on the agenda of tourism policymakers. The Tourism Master Plan, while acknowledging Kingstons assets, does not make it a priority and merely passes the responsibility to the UDC. Additionally, while a number of papers, studies and plans exist that relates to various sections of Kingston, and some of these do acknowledge the tourism potential, there appears to be very little co-ordination of these initiatives and no central body that is responsible for guiding the achievement of the various plans. It is recognized that the successful development of tourism in Kingston requires the involvement of the central government, local government, the private sector and active participation of the community. It is suggested that while the government will have some role to play in the provision of basic infrastructure, the major investment in tourism infrastructure should come from the private sector. Beyond this however, the government needs to create the environment to encourage this private sector investment and act as facilitator to the development by addressing such issues as: Creation of the tax regime that would facilitate the development Development and encouragement of the capital markets Legislation to facilitate removal of derelict buildings and facilitate city cleanup Inner city housing solutions that provide good living conditions for the community Assessment and address of social and environment issues Provision for security of citizens and assets Tourism planners need to have a clear understanding of the key drivers that affect the demand for tourism products and extensive research may be required into the key factors affecting the major sources of tourists that would gain value from visiting Kingston. Markets include the, dsts VFR, CariEuropean markets, which are not heavily penetrated by the present offerings of resort towns, would make ideal initial candidates markets to be studied, applications of Butlers Area Life cycle Model to the destinations in Jamaica may be useful as it is possible that the creation of Kingston as an alternative location could strengthen Jamaicas strategic offerings. This is especially important as the resort towns approach the later stage of the life cycle and over-capacity becomes a more significant limiting factor for tourism growth an issue. At present, the governments ownership of the national airline Air Jamaica arTe Jamaica UTban Transit Company Limited (JUTC) and the ownership and operation of the Norman Manley International Airport make it an active player in the provision of tourism transportation in Kingston. In addition to its ro as policy setter and regulator the government will and therefore require fulg of the factors affecting the tourism demand and s tourism transportation. It is anticipated that Kingston will become a major cruise shipping destination and this will potentially raise issues and conflicts with the container shipping industry. There is little doubt that crime and of the major issues facing the markets acceptance of Kingston as a viable destination. However, , it is important that this is not used we do not use this as of investment. It is noted that in Jamaicas crime against tourists is relatively low and it is also noted that other countries that have high crime levels, are considered as viable tourist destinations. While the hosting by Jamaica of the semifinal of the Cricket World Cup in 2007 will may not be judge a shining success either financially or as a catalyst for tourism, the hosting does provide a number of lessons which need to be utilized in the future. It cannot be denied that the use of such events to Kick Start tourism in Kingston, if properly planned and managed could be an important part of the tourism planners strategic tool kit. A Strategic Plan is required In the writers opinion there is a clear need for a Strategic Plan for the development of Kingston; a component of which should be the development of tourism. This plan must have as one of its deliverables; the formulation of a clear vision for tourism in Kingston. This vision must be shared among the stakeholders including, national and city Government, the relevant Public Sector bodies, the private sector and the community. A clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Kingston as a potential destination for tourists is required and in this regard it is important that the discourse on crime and violence and the impact on tourism is clearly understood. A significant output of the strategic plan should be a full inventory and assessment of the existing attributes, tourism assets such as attractions, potential attractions and infrastructural assets in the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA). This will need to be compared with the desired assets and infrastructure to determine the required investments. This investment is likely to be very significant and, given Jamaicas current fiscal constraints, is not likely to be accommodated in the present budgetary environment. The discussion of PPII does touch on infrastructure financing, though it is recognized that creative and innovative ways need to be developed to finance the development. A key issue, which must be fully considered, discussed and evaluated in the strategic plan is the issue of Leadership and Politics. While this has not been discussed in detail in this paper, it cannot be ignored as it represented a common theme in a number of the case studies that were reviewed, including St Louis, Baltimore and especially Montreal. Additional Research Required It is recognized that it is beyond the scope of this paper to consider all the applicable areas that require consideration. There is, for example, significant scope for new research to be carried out in order to understand the attitudes of the community, in Kingston and Jamaica generally, towards the active development of tourism in Kingston. It is important to determine whether the community will view such developments as being positive, viable and beneficial to them. and therefore we wish to , the the benefits that will the stakeholders in the unity will expect tain from delivering that value to the tourists and, the positive and negative social and environmental impacts that re expected to result from increased tourism and the related development need to be answered? There is also a need to carry out research into the potential markets mentioned earlier before embarking on significant infrastructural or marketing expenditure. Additional data on what type of tourist may be targeted, where they will come from and what value will they get they will get from would be beneficial to future developers.

History, Culture and Self Discovery in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club Essay

History, Culture and Self Discovery in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the novel The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, the relationship between history, culture and identity is illustrated through the narrations of seven women. In these stories the women discuss events of their past and the reader is able to see how it affects them later in life. In addition, they also discuss how they have been shaped by cultural expectations. These two things affect both the mothers and daughters in the novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The best example of how personal history affects the development or loss of an identity is through the stories of Ying-Ying St. Clair. The events in Ying-Ying’s early life foreshadow ones that happen later in her life. For example, when Ying-Ying was a small child she fell overboard a boat and was lost in the water. Even her name means "clear reflection" which foreshadows her future loss of identity (Tan). Later, she immigrated to the United States and ended up being stuck on Angel Island Immigration Station for three weeks, "lost in a sea of immigration categories"(Tan 107). Throughout her life she was able to see things before they happened, but this did not allow her to prevent the loss of her sense of self.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   During Ying-Ying’s first marriage she plays the role of an obedient wife so well that she becomes one and puts it above everything else. Later in the book when she looks back on it she states, "I became a stranger to myself"(Tan 280). After all this the man is unfaithful to her and leaves her for an opera singer. It is to this event that she attributes the loss of the golden side of her tiger sprit. Long after this, when St. Clair began courting her, she saw this as a sign that she would also lose the other half of h... ...es she wants to keep the house and is in control of her life again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many of the characters in the novel are struggling to find themselves. Personal history is an obvious contributor to the development of the characters' senses of self. The events that occur in a character’s past influence their attitudes toward themselves and the way they treat their daughters. The two cultures that meet in the families portrayed also influence these attitudes. It is only when the characters take both these factors into account can they begin to discover their true selves. Work Cited Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Random House, 1989. Sources Consulted Do, Thuan Thi. Chinese-American Women in American Culture. 1992 http://www.ics.uci.edu/~tdo/ea/chinese.html Jokinen, Anniina. Anniina's Amy Tan Page. 1996 http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/amytan/

Chad Foster’s “Teenagers Preparing for the real world” Essay

Chad Foster’s book Teenagers Preparing for the Real World, is a great motivational piece for teens and leaves a lasting impression on the reader. In the chapter â€Å"Mr. X and Mr. President,† Foster instills the importance of contacts and friendship in a person’s life. His example of Mr. X shows kids that a friendship formed in a person’s younger years can pay off greatly down the road, emotionally and even financially. He then tells the tale of his father’s first experience in the work world, where he met two men, had a brief friendship for a few months, then moved. Foster senior continued to correspond with these men for the next thirty years, never even seeing each other. As it turns out, one of these men was President George Bush and Foster had the opportunity to meet him in person. This story is significant because it shows that everyone grows up to be someone in the world, and someday you just might want to be their contact. Overall, this is a very well put together chapter and defiantly leaves an impression on the reader.

Guitar Playing Techniques Essay

You can play your guitar during your leisure time at home as a hobby, to record in the studio, to perform in a quiet cafà ©, or to perform in front of a huge crowd. To make that record worthy of being platinum, to make that soothing aura within the cafà ©, or to make that crowd uncontrollable and crazy partially depends upon the technique you use to play the guitar. Three techniques that are popular and can be used to amaze your listeners are elegant fingerpicking, strumming, and sweet sweep-picking. Elegant fingerpicking is mostly used to serenade the audience into a state of complete relaxation or euphoria. You can pick with the natural sound-muting characteristic of your fingertips or the solid and natural sound-amplifying characteristic of your nails. You can also choose to hit any combination of strings to emphasize the sound of each string or to create a soothing rhythm by hitting multiple strings at the same time. Fingerpicking is only an intermediate level technique, but there are many details that can be added to make it a more advanced skill and much practice is needed for it to be perfected. Using the fingerpicking technique you can assemble different pitches and patterns with however many strings you have to formulate an attention-grabbing rhythm. Strumming, which is more common than fingerpicking, can be used to create catchy tunes and can also bring about many different moods within the different musical audiences. You can use a guitar pick to give you a louder and bolder sound or use your hands which allows you to be more flexible, creates a blurred effect, and makes the sound more natural and brighter. Strumming brings more attention to the rhythm of the song or piece of music because the strumming itself has percussion characteristic. Strumming is preferred for beginners because it’s one of the most basic techniques of playing guitar and helps you get used to the sound of the guitar in a fun, but quick way. Even though strumming one of the most basic and popular techniques, it is also a very effective attention grabber. Whether you are trying to play a slow song that’s heavy on the eyelids or an exciting piece that can make the crowd lively all depends on the strumming pattern used combined with the chord progression. Sweep-picking is the most advanced of these three techniques and when used efficiently can produce a heart-racing performance. Sweep-picking combined with the customized sound of an electric guitar can create some of the most crowd-shaking performances. It can be aggressive yet gentle, but sweep-picking isn’t usually used to serenade or sooth. It consists of hammer-ons, pull-offs, bending, and so on, all in a single strum. The key is that the left hand, for right-handed guitar players, has to be timed and trained perfectly so when the pick goes over the string it hits all the notes needed by the time the pick gets to the next string. This is what makes sweep-picking a very advanced technique. It’s the heart of the performance and the flow is beautiful. Although there are many approaches to playing the guitar, these three techniques, no matter the difficulty, make for great performances. There’s always a way to get creative with fingerpicking when you have six strings and five fingers. A song can be complete with just strumming due to its percussion aspects and flexibility. And sweep-picking can always get the crowd to either shed tears or go wild. If you have practiced enough and you are confident about your skills then by the end of your performance, or when you publicize your record not only will the listeners be satisfied, but you will too.

Stylistic Features in A Prayer for Owen Meany Essay Example

Stylistic Features in A Prayer for Owen Meany Essay Example Stylistic Features in A Prayer for Owen Meany Paper Stylistic Features in A Prayer for Owen Meany Paper John Irving was born on March 2, 1942, in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States and is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. Irving had achieved his fame after the international success of The World According To Garp in 1978. Irving often brings his own life stories to his books making them more connectable and lively like with his seventh book A Prayer For Owen Meany. Published in 1989, it tells the story of a unique friendship between John Wheelwright and Owen Meany growing up together in a small New Hampshire town during the 1950s and 1960s. It makes me ashamed to remember that I was angry with him for taking my armadillos claws. God knows, Owen gave me more than he ever took from me-even when you consider that he took my mother. (Irving. 101). A Prayer For Owen Meany uses many stylistic features to enhance the development of the boys friendship like the amazing narrative point of view, the highly personal mood and tone, and well developed characters. The narrative perspective of A Prayer For Owen Meany can connect or entranced a reader by the friendship told through the first person of John. John Irvings A Prayer For Owen Meany is an amazing tale about two friends, John Wheelwright and Owen Meany. It documents their adventures through their childhood to their present life as adults. A Prayer For Owen Meany is told through the first person narrative of John Wheelwright. what makes this book successful and not another story of someones childhood is the way John Irving uses the inside view of John and Owens weird friendship to hook the reader. Dan understood that I loved Owen, and that I wanted to talk with him most- most of all- but that it was a conversation, for both Owens sake and mine, that was best to delay. But before we finished loading the baseball cards in the car, Dan Needham asked me what are you giving him? What? I said. To show him that you love him. Dan Needham said. Thats wha

Penubuhan Malaysia 1963 Essay Example

Penubuhan Malaysia 1963 Essay Example Penubuhan Malaysia 1963 Essay Penubuhan Malaysia 1963 Essay 16 September 1963 The establishment of Malaysia The Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra in his speech at the Conference of Foreign Journalists Association of Southeast Asia held at the Adelphi Hotel, Singapore on 27 May 1961, had an insight about the need to establish a plan to bring the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, Brunei and Sarawak into a form of political and economic cooperation. Among other things, this cooperation should be conducted with the aims of limiting the influence of ommunist influence that could Jeopardise the political stability within the region. The Governments stand is based on the political developments in Singapore that shows an increasing influence of the Leftist. In addition to that, the idea is to offset the total population, increasing the economic development and to accelerate the process of the independence for Singapore, Brunei, North Borneo and Sarawak. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Branch of Malaya and Borneo Meeting n Singapore on 23 July 1961 had agreed to establish the Malaysia Solidarity Consultative Committee, chaired by Donald Stephen. The purpose of setting up this committee is to explain more clearly about the concept of Malaysia to the public, especially to the people of Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei. In this committee, the representatives of Malaya consisted of members of Parliament. Singapore Representatives comprises of the Legislative Council members and one from the opposition party. Members of the delegation from Sarawak were members of the State Council, the same with Sabah. The Committee convened four times to discuss matters relating to the establishment of Malaysia. The first meeting was held in Sabah in August 1961, followed by Kuching, Sarawak in December 1961 and then in Kuala Lumpur in January 1962. The last meeting was held in Singapore in February 1962. In the last meeting, the Committee agreed to submit a memorandum to the Cobbold Commission to conduct surveys on the views of the people in Sarawak and Sabah on the notion of Malaysia