The Tiananmen Square Massacre - Background and Causes

The Tiananmen Square Massacre - Background and Causes Most people in the western world remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre this way: 1) Students protest for democracy in Beijing, China, in June of 1989. 2) Chinese government sends troops and tanks to Tiananmen Square. 3) Student protesters are brutally massacred. In essence, this is a fairly accurate depiction of what happened around Tiananmen Square, but the situation was much longer-lasting and more chaotic than this outline suggests. The protests actually started in April of 1989, as public demonstrations of mourning for former Communist Party Secretary General Hu Yaobang. A high government officials funeral seems like an unlikely spark for pro-democracy demonstrations and chaos. Nonetheless, by the time the Tiananmen Square Protests and Massacre were over less than two months later, 250 to 7,000 people lay dead. What really happened that spring in Beijing? Background to Tiananmen By the 1980s, the leaders of Chinas Communist Party knew that classical Maoism had failed. Mao Zedongs policy of rapid industrialization and collectivization of land, the Great Leap Forward, had killed tens of millions of people by starvation. The country then descended into the terror and anarchy of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), an orgy of violence and destruction that saw teenaged Red Guards humiliate, torture, murder and sometimes even cannibalize hundreds of thousands or millions of their compatriots. Irreplaceable cultural heirlooms were destroyed; traditional Chinese arts and religion were all but extinguished. Chinas leadership knew that they had to make changes in order to remain in power, but what reforms should they make? The Communist Party leaders split between those who advocated drastic reforms, including a move toward capitalist economic policies and greater personal freedoms for Chinese citizens, versus those who favored careful tinkering with the command economy and continued strict control of the population. Meanwhile, with the leadership unsure of which direction to take, the Chinese people hovered in a no-mans land between fear of the authoritarian state, and the desire to speak out for reform. The government-instigated tragedies of the previous two decades left them hungry for change, but aware that the iron fist of Beijings leadership was always ready to smash down opposition. Chinas people waited to see which way the wind would blow. The Spark - Memorial for Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang was a reformist, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1980 to 1987. He advocated rehabilitation of people persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, greater autonomy for Tibet, rapprochement with Japan, and social and economic reform. As a result, he was forced out of office by the hardliners in January of 1987 and made to offer humiliating public self-criticisms for his allegedly bourgeois ideas. One of the charges leveled against Hu was that he had encouraged (or at least allowed) widespread student protests in late 1986. As General Secretary, he refused to crack down on such protests, believing that dissent by the intelligentsia should be tolerated by the Communist government. Hu Yaobang died of a heart attack not long after his ouster and disgrace, on April 15, 1989. Official media made just brief mention of Hus death, and the government at first did not plan to give him a state funeral. In reaction, university students from across Beijing marched on Tiananmen Square, shouting acceptable, government-approved slogans, and calling for the rehabilitation of Hus reputation. Bowing to this pressure, the government decided to accord Hu a state funeral after all. However, government officials on April 19 refused to receive a delegation of student petitioners, who patiently waited to speak with someone for three days at the Great Hall of the People. This would prove to be the governments first big mistake. Hus subdued memorial service took place on April 22 and was greeted by huge student demonstrations involving about 100,000 people. Hardliners within the government were extremely uneasy about the protests, but General Secretary Zhao Ziyang believed that the students would disperse once the funeral ceremonies were over. Zhao was so confident that he took a week-long trip to North Korea for a summit meeting. The students, however, were enraged that the government had refused to receive their petition, and emboldened by the meek reaction to their protests. After all, the Party had refrained from cracking down on them thus far, and had even caved in to their demands for a proper funeral for Hu Yaobang. They continued to protest, and their slogans strayed further and further from the approved texts. Events Begin to Spin Out of Control With Zhao Ziyang out of the country, hardliners in the government such as Li Peng took the opportunity to bend the ear of the powerful leader of the Party Elders, Deng Xiaoping. Deng was known as a reformer himself, supportive of market reforms and greater openness, but the hardliners exaggerated the threat posed by the students. Li Peng even told Deng that the protesters were hostile to him personally, and were calling for his ouster and the downfall of the Communist government. (This accusation was a fabrication.) Clearly worried, Deng Xiaoping decided to denounce the demonstrations in an editorial published in the April 26th Peoples Daily. He called the protests dongluan (meaning turmoil or rioting) by a tiny minority. These highly emotive terms were associated with the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution. Rather than tamping down the students fervor, Dengs editorial further inflamed it. The government had just made its second grave mistake. Not unreasonably, the students felt that they could not end the protest if it was labeled dongluan, for fear that they would be prosecuted. Some 50,000 of them continued to press the case that patriotism motivated them, not hooliganism. Until the government stepped back from that characterization, the students could not leave Tiananmen Square. But the government too was trapped by the editorial. Deng Xiaoping had staked his reputation, and that of the government, on getting the students to back down. Who would blink first? Showdown, Zhao Ziyang vs. Li Peng General Secretary Zhao returned from North Korea to find China transfixed by the crisis. He still felt that the students were no real threat to the government, though, and sought to defuse the situation, urging Deng Xiaoping to recant the inflammatory editorial. Li Peng, however, argued that to step back now would be a fatal show of weakness by the Party leadership. Meanwhile, students from other cities poured into Beijing to join the protests. More ominously for the government, other groups also joined in: housewives, workers, doctors, and even sailors from the Chinese Navy! The protests also spread to other cities - Shanghai, Urumqi, Xian, Tianjin... almost 250 in all. By May 4, the number of protesters in Beijing had topped 100,000 again. On May 13, the students took their next fateful step. They announced a hunger strike, with the goal of getting the government to retract the April 26 editorial. Over a thousand students took part in the hunger strike, which engendered wide-spread sympathy for them among the general populace. The government met in an emergency Standing Committee session the following day. Zhao urged his fellow leaders to accede to the students demand and withdraw the editorial. Li Peng urged a  crackdown. The Standing Committee was deadlocked, so the decision was passed to Deng Xiaoping. The next morning, he announced that he was placing Beijing under martial law. Zhao was fired and placed under house arrest; hard-liner Jiang Zemin succeeded him as General  Secretary; and  fire-brand Li Peng was placed in control of the military forces in Beijing. In the midst of the turmoil, Soviet Premier and fellow reformer  Mikhail Gorbachev  arrived in China for talks with Zhao on May 16. Due to Gorbachevs presence, a large contingent of foreign journalists and photographers also descended on the tense Chinese capital. Their reports fueled international concern and calls for restraint, as well as sympathetic protests in Hong Kong,  Taiwan, and ex-patriot Chinese communities in Western nations. This international outcry  placed even more  pressure on the Chinese Communist Party leadership. Early in the morning on May 19, the deposed Zhao made an extraordinary appearance in Tiananmen Square. Speaking through a bullhorn, he told the protesters: Students, we came too late. We are sorry. You talk about us, criticize us, it is all necessary. The reason that I came here is not to ask you to forgive us. All I want to say is that students are getting very weak, it is the 7th day since you went on hunger strike, you cant continue like this... You are still young, there are still many days yet to come, you must live  healthily, and see the day when China accomplishes the four modernizations. You are not like us, we are already old, it doesnt matter to us  anymore. It was the last time he was ever seen in public. Perhaps in response to Zhaos appeal, during the last week of May tensions eased a bit, and many of the student protesters from Beijing grew weary of the protest and left the square. However, reinforcements from the provinces continued to pour into the city. Hard-line student leaders called for the protest to continue until June 20, when a meeting of the National Peoples Congress was scheduled to take place. On May 30, the students set up a large sculpture called the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square. Modeled after the Statue of Liberty, it became one of the enduring symbols of the protest. Hearing the calls for a prolonged protest, on June 2 the Communist Party Elders met with the remaining members of the Politburo Standing Committee. They agreed to bring in the  Peoples Liberation Army  (PLA) to clear the protesters out of Tiananmen Square by force. The Tiananmen Square Massacre The morning of June 3, 1989, the 27th and 28th divisions of the Peoples Liberation Army moved into Tiananmen Square on foot and in tanks, firing tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. They had been ordered not to shoot the protesters; indeed, most of them did not carry firearms. The leadership selected these divisions because they were from distant provinces; local PLA troops were considered untrustworthy as potential supporters of the protests. Not only the student  protesters but also tens of thousands of workers and ordinary citizens of Beijing joined together to repel the Army. They used burned-out buses to create barricades, threw rocks and bricks at the soldiers, and even burned some tank crews alive inside their tanks. Thus, the first casualties of the Tiananmen Square Incident were actually soldiers. The student protest leadership now faced a difficult decision. Should they evacuate the Square before further blood could be shed, or hold their ground? In the end, many of them decided to remain. That night, around 10:30 pm, the PLA returned to the area around Tiananmen with rifles, bayonets fixed. The tanks rumbled down the street, firing indiscriminately. Students shouted Why are you killing us? to the soldiers, many of whom were about the same age as the protesters. Rickshaw drivers and bicyclists darted through the melee, rescuing the wounded and taking them to hospitals. In the chaos, a number of non-protesters were killed as well. Contrary to popular belief, the bulk of the violence took place in the neighborhoods all around Tiananmen Square, rather than in the Square itself. Throughout the night of June 3 and early hours of June 4, the troops beat, bayoneted, and shot protesters. Tanks drove straight into crowds, crushing people and bicycles under their treads. By 6 a.m. on June 4th, 1989, the streets around Tiananmen Square had been cleared. Tank Man or the Unknown Rebel The city lapsed into shock during June 4, with just the occasional volley of gunfire breaking the stillness. Parents of missing students pushed their way to the protest area, seeking their sons and daughters, only to be warned off and then shot in the back as they fled from the soldiers. Doctors and ambulance drivers who tried to enter the area to help the wounded were also shot down in cold blood by the PLA. Beijing seemed utterly subdued the morning of June 5. However, as foreign journalists and photographers, including  Jeff Widener  of the AP, watched from their hotel balconies as a column of tanks trundled up Changan Avenue (the Avenue of Eternal Peace), an amazing thing happened. A young man in a white shirt and black pants, with shopping bags in each hand, stepped out into the street and stopped the tanks. The lead tank tried to swerve around him, but he jumped in front of it again. Everyone watched in horrified fascination, afraid that the tank driver would lose patience and drive over the man. At one point, the man even climbed up onto the tank and spoke to the soldiers inside, reportedly asking them, Why are you here? You have caused nothing but misery. After several minutes of this defiant dance, two more men rushed up to the  Tank Man  and hustled him away. His fate is unknown. However,  still  images and video of his brave act were captured by the  Western  press members  nearby and smuggled out for the world to see. Widener and several other photographers hid the film in the tanks of their hotel toilets, to save it from searches by the Chinese security forces. Ironically, the story and the image of the Tank Mans act of defiance had the greatest immediate effect thousands of miles away, in Eastern Europe. Inspired in part by his courageous example, people across the Soviet bloc poured into the streets. In 1990, beginning with the Baltic states, the republics of the Soviet Empire began to break away. The USSR collapsed. Nobody knows how many people died in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The official Chinese government figure is 241, but this is almost certainly a drastic undercount. Between soldiers, protesters and civilians, it seems likely that anywhere from 800 to 4,000 people were killed. The Chinese Red Cross initially put the toll at 2,600, based on counts from local hospitals, but then quickly retracted that statement under intense government pressure. Some witnesses also stated that the PLA carted away many bodies; they would not have been included in a hospital count. The Aftermath of Tiananmen 1989 The protesters who survived the Tiananmen Square Incident met a variety of fates. Some, particularly the student leaders, were given relatively light jail terms (less than 10 years). Many of the professors and other professionals who joined in were simply  blacklisted, unable to find jobs. A large number of the workers and provincial people were executed; exact figures, as usual, are unknown. Chinese journalists who had published reports sympathetic to the protesters also found themselves purged and unemployed. Some of the most famous were sentenced to multi-year prison terms. As for the Chinese government, June 4,  1989  was a watershed moment. Reformists within the Communist Party of China were stripped of power and reassigned to ceremonial roles. Former Premier Zhao Ziyang was never  rehabilitated and spent his final 15 years under house arrest. Shanghais mayor, Jiang Zemin, who had moved quickly to quell protests in that city, replaced Zhao as the Partys General Secretary. Since that time, political agitation has been extremely muted in China. The government and the majority of citizens alike have focused on economic reform and prosperity, rather than political reform. Because the Tiananmen Square Massacre is a taboo subject, most Chinese under the age of 25 have never even heard about it.  Websites  that mention the June 4 Incident are blocked in China. Even decades later, the people and the government of China have not dealt with this momentous and tragic incident. The memory of the Tiananmen Square Massacre festers under the surface of everyday life for those old enough to recall it. Someday, the Chinese government will have to face this piece of its history. For a very powerful and disturbing take on the Tiananmen Square Massacre, see the PBS Frontline special The Tank Man, available to view online. Sources Roger V. Des Forges, Ning Luo, Yen-bo Wu.  Chinese Democracy and the Crisis of 1989: Chinese and American Reflections, (New York: SUNY Press, 1993) PBS, Frontline: The Tank Man, April 11, 2006. U.S. National Security Briefing Book. Tiananmen Square, 1989: The Declassified History, posted by George Washington University. Zhang Liang.  The Tiananmen Papers: The Chinese Leaderships Decision to Use Force Against Their Own People - In Their Own Words, ed. Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link, (New York: Public Affairs, 2001)

Iodine Element Facts - Periodic Table

Iodine Element Facts - Periodic Table Iodine  Basic Facts Atomic Number: 53 Iodine Symbol: I Atomic Weight: 126.90447 Discovery: Bernard Courtois 1811 (France) Electron Configuration: [Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p5 Word Origin: Greek iodes, violet Isotopes: Twenty-three isotopes of iodine are known. Only one stable isotope is found in nature, I-127. Properties Iodine has a melting point of 113.5 °C, a boiling point of 184.35 °C, a specific gravity of 4.93 for its solid state at 20 °C, a gas density of 11.27 g/l, with a valence of 1, 3, 5, or 7. Iodine is a lustrous blue-black solid which volatizes at room temperature into a violet-blue gas with an irritating odor. Iodine forms compounds with many elements, but it is less reactive than the other halogens, which will displace it. Iodine also possesses some properties typical of metals. Iodine is only slightly soluble in water, although it dissolves readily in carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, and carbon disulfide, forming purple solutions. Iodine will bind to starch and color it deep blue. Although iodine is essential for proper nutrition, care is needed when handling the element, as skin contact can cause lesions and the vapor is highly irritating to the eyes and mucous membranes. Uses The radioisotope I-131, with a half-life of 8 days, has been used to treat thyroid disorders. Insufficient dietary iodine leads to the formation of a goiter. A solution of iodine and KI in alcohol is used to disinfect external wounds. Potassium iodide is used in photography. Sources Iodine is found in the form of iodides in seawater and in the seaweeds which absorb the compounds. The element is found in Chilean saltpeter, and nitrate-bearing earth (caliche), brackish waters from salt wells and oil wells, and in brines from old sea deposits. Ultrapure iodine may be prepared by reacting potassium iodide with copper sulfate. Element Classification: Halogen Iodine Physical Data Density (g/cc): 4.93 Melting Point (K): 386.7 Boiling Point (K): 457.5 Appearance: shiny, black nonmetallic solid Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 25.7 Covalent Radius (pm): 133 Ionic Radius: 50 (7e) 220 (-1e) Specific Heat (20 °C J/g mol): 0.427 (I-I) Fusion Heat (kJ/mol): 15.52 (I-I) Evaporation Heat (kJ/mol): 41.95 (I-I) Pauling Negativity Number: 2.66 First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 1008.3 Oxidation States: 7, 5, 1, -1 Lattice Structure: Orthorhombic Lattice Constant (Ã…): 7.720 References: Los Alamos National Laboratory (2001), Crescent Chemical Company (2001), Langes Handbook of Chemistry (1952), CRC Handbook of Chemistry Physics (18th Ed.)

ENEMA in Relieving Constipation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ENEMA in Relieving Constipation - Essay Example An enema is the introduction of a solution into the rectum and sigmoid column. And is a common clinical practice by nursing to promote the evacuation of feces in patients complaining of constipation (Funnell, Koutoukidis & Lawrence, 2009). Bowers, 2008, in the evaluation of evidence on the use of phosphate enema as an intervention for constipation, points out that though phosphate enemas are routinely used in clinical practice for relieving constipation, there is no clear evidence to support the continued use of phosphate enemas. This finding stems from the limited evidence available in support of enemas, as a more effective intervention in constipation, over the other medication and treatment strategies available in the management of chronic constipation, though phosphate enemas have useful for some diagnostic bowel investigations. This lack of evidence of efficacy on enemas is further compounded by two factors, reducing the potential use of enemas as an intervention in constipation . The first factor lies in the detrimental complications in the patient that could arise from the use of enemas in the management of constipation. The second factor pertains to the need to avoid the use of phosphate enemas in patients with certain underlying conditions (Bowers, 2008). The findings of Bowers 2008, in the evaluation of phosphate enema is strongly supported by the body of knowledge on constipation and its treatment, which can be extended to the use of enemas in the interventions to alleviate constipation. Based on the history of the patient and the duration of symptoms, it is possible to differentiate constipation into occasional constipation (Johnson, 2006). Using enemas is known to interfere with normal bowel movement and enemas are not recommended in simple constipation. Enemas should not be considered as a means to alleviate constipation when there is obstruction of the bowel and the cause of the obstruction is still to be diagnosed. Additionally, enemas are not an option when the constipation is accompanied by abdominal pain, rectal fissures, and ulcerated hemorrhoids. This is because evidence shows that in all these cases enemas can lead to mechanical damage and perforation of the bowel (Lemone & Burke, 2008). Evidence points to use of enemas only in the case of significant or chronic constipation, particularly, when the constipation arises from fecal impaction. The general rule in the use of enemas is that it be employed in acute situations and that too only on short term basis. Phosphate enemas are efficient is such situations through its ability to draw fluid into the bowel and irritate the mucosa, causing evacuation of the bowel. However, repeated use of enemas is known to cause impaired bowel function and fluid and electrolyte imbalances. This is particularly true in the case of phosphate enemas and tap water enemas (Lemone & Burke, 2008). Meier & Monias, 2005, point out a further restriction in the use of phosphate en

Making a Script for ENGL presentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Making a Script for ENGL presentation - Essay Example In the late 1950s and 1960s, the beginning of postmodernism came into scene as a ‘new sensibility’ by attacking modernism’s official status and through canonization in the museum and the academy, as the high culture of the modern capitalist world. It was therefore a populist attack on the elitism of modernism and signaled a refusal of what Andreas Huyssen (1986) calls ‘the great divide’. The American and the British pop art of the 1950s and 1960s also presented a clear rejection of the ‘great divide’, preferring William’s social definition of culture as ‘a whole way of life’. This was proven in the late 1970s when the debate about the postmodernism crossed the Atlantic. Different cultural theorists also debated on the advent of postmodernism in various aspects. For Lyotard, the postmodern condition is the collapse of certainty and the dissolution of the metanarrative of ‘truth’. God, knowledge, higher education, science, the working class, all have lost their authority as centers of authenticity and truth. Popular culture of the postmodern condition is therefore, a culture of ‘slackening’, where taste is irrelevant and money is the only sign of value. For Baudrillard, postmodernism is a culture of the ‘simulacrum’ i.e. an identical copy without an original. Over the years we have seen a historical shift from a metallurgic society to a semiurgic society; destroying the very distinction between the original and copy. The result of this is not a treat from the ‘real’, but the collapse of the real into hyperrealism, where reality and stimulation are experienced as without difference, e.g. Disneyland, for it allows a concentrated experience of ‘real’ America. For Fredic Jameson, postmodernism is theorized from within a Marxist or neo-Marxist framework. It is referred to as the ‘cultural

Spring And Autumn Essay Example for Free

Spring And Autumn Essay Natural events In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth to spring forth, giving the season its name. Snow, if a normal part of winter, begins to melt, and streams swell with runoff. Frosts, if a normal part of winter, become less severe. In climates that have no snow and rare frosts, the air and ground temperature increases more rapidly. Many flowering plants bloom this time of year, in a long succession sometimes beginning even if snow is still on the ground, continuing into early summer. In normally snowless areas spring may begin as early as February (Northern Hemisphere) heralded by the blooming of deciduous magnolias, cherries, and quince, or August (Southern Hemisphere) in the same way. Subtropical and tropical areas have climates better described in terms of other seasons, e.g. dry or wet, or monsoonal, or cyclonic. Often the cultures have locally defined names for seasons which have little equivalence to the terms originating in Europe. Many temperate areas have a dry spring, and wet autumn (fall), which brings about flowering in this season more consistent with the need for water as well as warmth. Subarctic areas may not experience spring at all until May or even June, or December in the outer Antarctic. While spring is a result of the warmth caused by the turning of the Earths axis, the weather in many parts of the world is overlain by events which appear very erratic taken on a year-to-year basis. The rainfall in spring (or any season) follows trends more related to longer cycles or events created by ocean currents and ocean temperatures. Good and well-researched examples are the El Nià ±o effect and the Southern Oscillation Index. Unstable weather may more often occur during spring, when warm air begins on occasions to invade from lower latitudes, while cold air is still pushing on occasions from the Polar regions. Flooding is also most common in and near mountainous areas during this time of year because of s nowmelt, accelerated by warm rains. In the United States, Tornado Alley is most active this time of year, especially since the Rocky Mountains prevent the surging hot and cold air masses from spreading eastward and instead force them into direct conflict. Besides tornadoes, supercell thunderstorms can also produce dangerously large hail and very high winds, for which a severe thunderstorm warning or tornado warning is usually issued. Even more so than in winter, the jet streams play an important role in unstable and severe weather in the springtime in the Northern Hemisphere. In recent decades season creep has been observed, which means that many phenological signs of spring are occurring earlier in many regions by a couple of days per decade. Spring is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) being born. The term is also used more generally as a metaphor for the start of better times, as in the Prague Spring. Spring in the Southern Hemisphere is different in several significant ways to that of the Northern Hemisphere. This is because: there is no land bridge between Southern Hemisphere countries and the Antarcticzone capable of bringing in cold air without the temperature-mitigating effects of extensive tracts of water; the vastly greater amount of ocean in the Southern Hemisphere at all latitudes; at this time in Earths geologic history the Earth has an orbit which brings it in closer to the Southern Hemisphere for its warmer seasons; there is a circumpolar flow of air (the roaring 40s and 50s) uninterrupted by large land masses; no equivalent jet streams; and the peculiarities of the reversing ocean currents in the Pacific. AUTUMN SEASON Autumn is when all these colors transition into different levels of reds and browns and become crisp, falling off for children to sweep or collect. If the leaves in spring are bright green, the leaves in autumn are a magnificent red. Spring is the signal that winter has already ended, and autumn is the signal that summer is finally over and done with. For many people, spring lets them look towards summery days and vacations ahead ‘â€Å" while autumn signifies the reality of going back to school and the routines of the most part of the year. Colorful plants and green leaves versus brilliant reds and browns and falling leaves ‘â€Å"an awakening from the cold, and the end of the hot summer heat. The eager anticipation of sunny days and breezy nights, and the stark reality of a vacation ended on a high note. These are usually the things that come to mind when you try to differentiate between the two seasons of spring and autumn.

The Character of Sméagol in Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings Essay

The Character of Smà ©agol in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings      Ã‚   Although JRR Tolkien is notorious for his numerous, and often seemingly irrelevant, minor characters - the necessity of an index of names in The Return of the King proves this without a doubt - one of the most crucial and fascinating characters of The Lord of the Rings physically appears in barely more than one-sixth of the novel. The character Smà ©agol, often referred to by his alter ego Gollum, on a basic level serves only to guide Frodo and Sam to Mordor, as well as to destroy the Ring when Frodo cannot. However, in the course of doing so, we are revealed, hint by hint, of the enigmatic and contradictory character who "hates the Ring and loves the Ring - just as he hates and loves himself" (Sibley 170). In The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien uses the character Smà ©agol, forged from a collection of historical and historically mythological tales, as a foil for the central hero Frodo Baggins as well as the Christian example of hope, despite the powerful corru ption of evil.    Tolkien, Oxford's Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, was an avid fan of history; the ancient past of his beloved Europe fascinated him to such a degree that it is little wonder the history of Middle-Earth mirrors our own. Smà ©agol's lust for, reverence to, and even fear of the One Ring bases its roots, most especially, in the ancient practice of Dactyliomancy, or the use of rings for divination and magic. In the first century AD, Apollonius of Tyana, a major figure in the Gnostic religion and early alchemy, received seven rings from the Brahman Indian prince Iarchus, which he believed gave him healing powers if he would "[revere] them as divine... and... ...ous power of evil, but the everlasting, and far greater, power of good.    Works Cited Bruner, Kurt, and Jim Ware. Finding God in The Lord of the Rings. Illinois: Tyndale House, Publishers Inc, 2001. 69, 89. Chance, Jane. The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. 34, 102. Day, David. Tolkien's Ring. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1999. 22-23, 50-51, 88, 154. Sibley, Brian. The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 170, 171. Tolkien, JRR. The Letters of JRR Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981. 330. - - - . The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. 68, 643, 659, 979. Tyler, JEA. The Tolkien Companion. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1976. 446, 454.

Concept of time Essay

Time seemed to be an important aspect that influences the well-being of the elderly in the study. Time consciousness cannot be ignored when one considers the subjective experience of well-being among the institutionalized aged. The finding showed that many of them had a keen awareness of time or awareness of the present. According to their administrators, a few of them felt the urgency to make the best use of the remaining time in their life: to get closer to God and to prepare for a ‘good death. ’ The studies done by Butler & Lewis (1972); Butler et 292 al. (1998); Sue & Sue (1999); and Knight (1996) found that there is an obvious concern with time when it is clear that the remaining days are running short among the aged. The development of a sense of immediacy, of the here-and-now, of present-ness -all these aid in the evolution of a sense of enjoyment and tranquility which ultimately are decisive elements of well-being. The findings of the study exemplified this awareness of time/time consciousness among the institutionalized aged and that it has endowed them with a sense of urgency and purpose in the ‘evening’ of their lives. It could also be presumed that these two aspects of well-being, the concept time and attitude toward death are closely related. Attitude towards Death The elderly in Gladys Spellman viewed the existential problem of death and dying in different spirit. While some of them had a positive attitude toward death and looked at death as a natural transition from this life to a better life and have reconciled with this inevitable reality. Trust in God’s compassion and mercy and the expectation of heavenly reward, growing closer to God in prayer seemed to help those elderly who said they were at ease with the thought of death. Faith and spirituality change death from an ending to a new beginning of a new existence for Christians (Moberg, 2001). Accepting old age and death meaningfully makes life happier. Fear or acceptance of death is closely related to general satisfaction or well-being. When life is lived to the full, death becomes a fulfillment, a completion (Moberg, 2001). The following words of the elderly were shared with one of the administrators. â€Å"I’ve done my job. My mission is over. I have no worries about the future†¦He will take care†¦and I’m ready for final surrender/exit. † There were others who tried to put on a brave front to show that they were not afraid to die. A third category avoided talking about death, reasoning that it was not yet time for them to think about death as they felt there was plenty time left for such things. Those who avoided thinking about death and those who did not fear death but only feared ‘pain of death’ must be coping with the unrecognized fear of death. As Atchley (1997) puts it, although death is generally accepted with little fear among older people, it is only reasonable to assume that there are some who really fear death. Their trust in God’s mercy and hope in eternal reward probably help them cope with this fear.