Saturday, March 6, 2010

ISSUE NO 3 : EDITORIAL

VALENTINE’S DAY

Every February, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite.
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that in ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification and fertility.
Valentine’s Day is about love…………



Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.
Make February the time for love, loving yourselves, your families, your beloved one's, and even your sweet hearts
If you didn’t get to make a start for the New Year, make February the point of the start as every day is not the end it’s only the beginning.
Purify your hearts with love, and make it your way for a better life.

Aseel K. Mahmood

ISSUE NO 3 : OUR WORST FEARS

OUR WORST FEARS

Is sleeping nowadays the hardest thing most of us are trying to accomplish? I thought for a while, is it just me? Or what? I asked and asked but it was not just me; many are experiencing the same thing. Why is that? What is the thing that keeps us awake until (…) o'clock after midnight? Is it Love? Hate? Anger? Wonder? FEAR? Yes, maybe! That is the question...What is my worst fears? What do I fear the most?



I made a poll to dig a little bit inside the psychology of the people around me. The question was “What is your worst fear?”
And the answers were:

Dia A. Sulaibi: My worst fear is not to be able to do every thing I wish to do in my lifetime. It is a real fear because I don’t think I will be able to do everything anyway.

Renia Isaac: The worst fear is to lose your loved ones (family and friends).

Sa’ad Ali: To be alone, God I am already scared.

Ali Ibraheem Assal: Future is the thing that most scares me.

Zahraa Jasmine: I think the worst fear is seeing someone you love on deathbed.

Israa A. Ameen: My worst fears is to witness my failure in anything whether it is personal or in my career.

Aseel K. Mahmood: Commitment is my worst fear.

Norah Amro: I fear that my family won’t be proud of me one day as they are now.

Hala H. Zanynal: My worst fear is fear itself; fear of seeing the people I love die before I do.


Let me my dear readers give you my own psychological assessment. I think that most of your fears came out of LOVE and the fears you have concerning your beloved ones and that’s what makes us humans and of course, what makes life worth living and friends like you guys worth finding.


Written by:
Hala Hikmet

ISSUE NO 3 : LOVE AND TIME

LOVE AND TIME

Once upon a time, there was an island where all feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink so all constructed boats and left except Love, Love was the only one who stayed, Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help, Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, "Richness can you take me with you?" Richness answered, "No, I can't, there is a lot of gold and silver in my boat, there is no place for you." Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. "Vanity, please help me!" Love said. "I can't help you Love you are all wet and might damage my boat." Vanity answered. Sadness was also by, so love asked, "Sadness, let me go with you." “Oh….. Love, I'm so sad that I need to be by my self.” Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she didn't even hear when Love called her. Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come Love I will take you." It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way. Realizing how much he owed the elder, Love asked Knowledge, who was also an elder, “Who helped me?" "It was Time" Knowledge answered. "Time?" asked Love. "But why did Time help me?" Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, "Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable love is."



الحب و الزمن

كان يا ما كان، كانت ثمة جزيرة تعيش عليها جميع المشاعر السعادة، الحزن، المعرفة وجميع المشاعر الاخرى بما فيها الحب. وفي يوم ما اُعلن لتلك المشاعر بان الجزيرة ستغرق فبنى كل واحد منهم قاربا للرحيل ألا الحب. لقد بقي الحب الاحساس الوحيد في تلك الجزيرة اذ أراد ان ينتظر حتى آخر لحظة ممكنة. و عندما كادت الجزيرة ان تغرق قرر الحب أن يستغيث. كان الغِنى مارا بالقرب من الحب في قارب كبير فسأله الحب قائلا "ايها الغنى هلا اخذتني معك؟" فأجابه "لا أستطيع ذلك فالذهب والفضة يملآن قاربي وليس لك مكان" ثم أستغاث الحب بالغرور الذي كان ماراً في مركبٍ جميل راجياً اياه المساعدة فأجابه الغرور قائلاً "لا أستطيع مساعدتك ايها الحب فأنك مبتل ولربما تفسد علي قاربي". قرر الحب طلب النجدة من الحزن الذي مر على مقربة منه فأجابه الحزن "أنا حزين ايها الحب و أحتاج الى البقاء وحيدا". مرت السعادة بالقرب من الحب لكنها لم تسمع صوت الحب عندما استنجد بها لأنها كانت مغمورة بالفرح والبهجة. و فجأة سمع صوت شيخ كبير يقول "تعال ايها الحب أنا سأخذك معي". ذهب الحب مع الشيخ وقد ملئته البهجة والسرور حتى نسي أن يسأله الى أين هم ذاهبون. وعندما وصلوا الى أرض يابسة ذهب الشيخ في حال سبيله. أدرك الحب فضل هذا الشيخ في أنقاذه، فتقدم الى المعرفة التي كانت هي الاخرى شيخة كبيرة وسأل "من الذي أنقذني؟" فقالت "لقد كان هذا الزمن" فقال لها "الزمن؟ ولماذا انقذني الزمن؟" فأبتسمت المعرفة أبتسامة مليئة بالحكمة و قالت "لأن الزمن وحده كفيل بأدراك قيمة الحب".


Prepared and translated by:
Raghad H. Iskandar

ISSUE NO 3 : LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

This is the first time that I found my mind running out of words and ideas, making it hard for me to express my thoughts, after a while I got back to it and I began to write about a serious and important case which I’m willing to give my life for. That case is leadership or as many of you might say who is the one or the character that is good enough to become a leader? Yes, that is the question that needs an answer. I’m not going to give you advices or tell you these are the qualifications of leaders but simply I’m going to talk about my ideas out loud with you.
Leaders are human beings, or are they? I ask myself this question on a daily basis, you may say why. Well there are too sides to that question; one of them is that no human being can bear to be in their shoes, trust me it’s very hard , the other side is that no one is human enough to be a leader, it’s a 24\7 job. Yes, it is a job. It is the job of the people who decided to leave it all and be there for us, to have no life and to give us lives, to make a war if something happened to one of their citizens. That is the phrase in most of the world’s countries passports “We will make a war for this citizen” do you get how this phrase make you feel safe, respected or simply a human being.
How brave is this leader? I mean, is the blood in his veins the same as in ours? Is it easy to be a leader, to be responsible for nations, for the legacy of their ancestors and foremost for the lives of their fellow citizens and for their future?
The leader should be thoughtful enough to see his country’s stance 50 years ahead. If we search the history of all nations, we will see that people tend to have leaders to take care of them. But unfortunately some of them are bad ones because simply they are not leader material. They spend their lifetime making life difficult for their people, but it isn’t their fault it is the fault of the people who gave him this kind of authority upon them. People always tend to let anyone with some power and brain and the ability to put you in hell and make you swear its paradise take control upon them.
I realized from this search that there are two sides in each leader’s story. Most of the leaders had some circumstances which made their beautiful ideologies transfer to tyranny regimes.
I chose to write about someone that most of my generation wears shirts with his picture printed on it; he is the one and only Che Guevara. Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, Politician, author, physician, military theorist and guerrilla leader. He got his “che” when he was in Cuba being a part of the revolution and they called him “che” due to how frequent he uses the Argentine interjection “che” which means “hey” or “pal”. Let us see how people remember him after 40 years of his execution, his father says and I quote,
“The first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels, the Spanish conquistadores and the Argentinean patriots. Evidently Che inherited some of the features of our ancestors. There was something in his nature which drew him to distant wanderings, dangerous adventures and new ideas.”



The Che life and deeds still remain a contentious issue. Some view Che Guevara as a hero, for example Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom" while Sartre described him as “not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age.” Guevara remains a beloved national hero to many in Cuba, where school children begin each morning by pledging "We will be like Che." Moreover, Guevara has been sanctified by some Bolivians who call him "Saint Ernesto", whom they pray to for assistance. Conversely, others view him as a spokesman for a failed ideology and as a ruthless executioner. Johann Hari, for example, writes that "Che Guevara is not a free-floating icon of rebellion. He was an actual person who supported an actual system of tyranny." Detractors have also theorized that in much of Latin America. Moreover, Guevara has ironically been subsumed by the capitalist consumer culture he despised. 



The primary variable of this phenomenon has been a monochrome graphic of his face, which has become one of the World's most universally merchandized images, found on an endless array of items including: T-shirts, hats, posters, tattoos, and even bikinis. Yet, Guevara also remains an iconic figure both in specifically political contexts and as a wide-ranging popular icon of youthful rebellion.
That was a symbol of a leader beloved by his nation and many other nations and hated by others. My last thought is that there is no perfect leader neither perfect human beings, but there is great systems and ideologies that can make a difference and there is a leader inside each one of you but you need to search inside your soul to find him. All of you can make a difference and try to make a difference; to shout when you feel that there is something wrong or something that need to be changed and not to wait for the mercy of man. I wrote this article from my heart and I hope it will find a way into yours.

Written by: Israa A. Ameen.

ISSUE NO 3 : INTERVIEW

ALI RIYAH in lines…



He began his journalistic journey by writing in the school-bulletin. He had worked as an editor in Sawt Al-Talaba magazine in 1980 before he finished the secondary school.
Inasmuch as his love for sport, with the movement and action it enjoys, he moves forward aiming at covering all the important events in sport world, especially in Iraq, through writing in many newspapers and magazines, whether Iraqi , Arabic or international, in addition to working as a reporter in Aljazeerah channel since it was launched in 1996. Being a presenter in television and radio programs added a lot to his journalistic experience.
But the major turn in his life was graduating from the Translation Department in 1988.

Why Translation Dept.?

Because learning translation with all the secrets it entails gives you the chance to be well acquainted with different cultures and nations. Being a journalist too, gives you the opportunity to use this scholarship in the real world.

A situation that embodied the merit of being a translator plus a reporter?

It is a funny one, (laughing…)
Time was when I was present in one of the track and field championships where my colleague asked a foreign reporter about the name of the winner, the foreign reporter answered angrily: ‘‘Shut up’’ then my colleague told me that ‘‘shihaab’’ won!! This was the most embarrassing situation that I will never forget.

Being a student in his department, what is the subject you used to like the most?

Translation form Arabic into English, this subject enables you to master the words and the terms of Arabic before you master them in English.

In this dept., you will cherish the memory of………?

Abdullbaqi Al-Safi
Majeed Al-mashitah
Abdullamir Al-Saffar
And others……

We can see your contributions in the field of sport media through working as…?

The director of the Olympic Media Office, a reporter in Aljazeerah sport channels, general director of Al-Mala`ib, the daily sport newspaper, besides, I have a weekly column in well-known newspapers such as Al-sharq Al-Awsaat and Al-Ghad.

What are the major events you covered?

The Olympic Games in Athena in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, covering these events is like a dream which every reporter wants to come true.

What are the closest sport monuments to your soul?

Mo`ayad Al-Badry
Falah Hassan
Ra`ad Hammoudy

The international ones?

Well, Lionel Messi. What is interesting about him is that he doesn’t talk a lot, his mother sometime talks on his behalf despite the fact that he is in the celebrity list.

What lesson did you take form life?

Imam Ali (PBUH) said: ‘‘People are enemies of what they ignore’’, by increasing knowledge you will be more familiar with the world around you.

Do you wish to add something?

Translation is the window through which we see a broader world.


Interviewed by:
Maha Ali

ISSUE NO 3 : SPORT

The African Nations Cup 

The African Nations Cup for Football is a championship organized by the African Association for Football. This championship takes place every two years among the African countries which pass the qualifiers to determine the champion of the continent, it is the third strongest championship after the World Cup and European Cup because it has strong competitors.

 

History of the Championship

On 8 June, 1956. The Egyptian athletic figure Abdul Aziz Salem who was the first chief of African Association, met with M. Latif, Y. Muhammad, A. Shaddad, B. Muhammad , and A. Muhammad, who were from Sudan and South Africa, in Portugal to negotiate the establishment of an association that runs the African ball affairs and championships. The Sudanese Dr. Abdul Halim Muhammad came up with an idea to establish this championship in Sudan in 1957. Egypt won the first championship. Below is a list of all the winners of the African Nations Cup since its establishment.

Egypt 1957
Egypt 1959
Ethiopia 1962
Ghana 1963
Ghana 1965
Zaire 1968
The Sudan 1970
Congo Republic 1972
Zaire 1974
Morocco 1976
Ghana 1978
Nigeria 1980
Ghana 1982
Cameron 1984
Egypt 1986
Cameron 1988
Algeria 1990
Ivory Coast 1992
Nigeria 1994
South Africa 1996
Egypt 1998
Cameron 2000
Cameron 2002
Tunis 2004
Egypt 2006
Egypt 2008
Egypt 2010


Prepared by:
Mushriq A. Jaber

ISSUE NO 3 : SPORT

MUHAMMAD ABU TRIKA



Muhammad Abu Trika is one of the most famous Egyptian football players. He is well-known in Egypt, the Arab countries and the whole world for being a prominent striker in Al-Ahly Club and the Egyptian National Team. His fans has blessed him with many nicknames such as Arab Zidan, the Merchant of Happiness and the Prince of Hearts.

Biography 

Abu Trika was borne on 7 Nov. 1978 at Nahia Village , Al-Giza Governorate, Egypt. He graduated from the Department of History, College of Arts in the University of Cairo. He joined Al-Tarasanah club when he was 12 years old and was chosen as an ambassador for the UN World Food Program to fight poverty. For this reason, Abu Trika joined with the Brazilian player Ronaldo and the French player Zidan as well as 40 other players of the best in the world in a match aimed at gathering donations to fight poverty all over the world.



With Al-Ahly Club

Abu Trika joined Al-Ahly club in 2003 from Al-Tarasanah, and had achieved various implementations since. With his club, he won the Egyptian League Cup 5 times, the Egyptian Cup twice, the Egyptian Super Cup 4 times, the African Champions League 3 times, the African Super Cup twice and he participated with his team in the World Cup for Clubs 3 times. He also led Egypt’s Team to win the African Cup in 2006 and 2008. On the other hand, he was also the best striker in the World Cup for Clubs in 2006 as he scored 3 goals with his team.
Individually, He was chosen by the International Federation for Football History Statistics (IFFHS) twice as the most famous player in the world in 2007 and 2008. On February 2009, He received the BBC prize for the best African player of 2008. The FIFA chose him to be one of the golden figures for Continents Team formation in the Confederations Cup Championship in 2009 which was hosted by South Africa.

Prepared by: Mushriq A. Jaber

ISSUE NO 3 : Tip of the Month

Tip of the Month
How can you learn 10 English expressions in a couple of days?

Well, put a piece of paper and a pen right next to you while watching the MBC channels



or the FOX channels



and focus on the spoken words and read the translation well and you will be surprised how much you can benefit through that. Finally, write them down so that you don’t forget.

Hala Hikmet

ISSUE NO 3 : TOYOTA MOTORS

TOYOTA MOTORS



In this issue we are going to introduce a subject that might be fascinating to most of us. It’s cars, particularly TOYOTA MOTORS.
TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of automobiles and light trucks, based in Toyota, Japan. The company also makes buses, forklifts, and other industrial vehicles. The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda, who in 1933 established an automobile department in his father’s loom factory—Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd.—following a trip to tour United States automobile plants. The department concentrated on building fuel-efficient vehicles and completed its first experimental vehicles in 1935. In 1937 Toyoda established Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. During World War II (1939-1945), the Japanese government forced Toyota to make trucks for the military. The war and the ensuing economic crisis left Toyota without adequate production facilities. As Toyota rebuilt, it decided to make smaller cars in an effort to avoid direct competition with automobile plants in the United States and Europe, which primarily produced larger vehicles. Toyota released its small-car prototype in 1947. In 1949

the company came close to bankruptcy, failed to meet payroll, and was faced with labor problems. Toyoda resigned as head of the company in 1949. His successors, Eiji Toyoda and Shoichi Saito, began investing in efficient, modern facilities to produce more sophisticated automobiles. In 1954 the company developed the Kanban system, based on a system for stocking the shelves at a supermarket, which ensured that manufacturing parts remained in stock. Toyota introduced a number of new vehicles in the 1950s, including the four-wheel-drive Land Cruiser in 1951, the Crown in 1955, and the Corona in 1957. In the 1960s the company continued to expand its production facilities to meet the growing worldwide need for economical cars. The Toyota Corolla, introduced in 1966, became extremely popular in Japan and elsewhere and by 1970 Toyota had become the world’s fourth largest auto manufacturer. The company introduced the Celica in 1970, the Tercel in 1978, and the Camry in 1980, all of which became popular models. By 1980 Japan produced more cars than the United States, and Toyota trailed only General Motors Corporation (GM) in worldwide production. The company changed its name to Toyota Motor Corporation in 1982. In 1984 Toyota joined with GM to build a car production plant in Lexington, Kentucky. Over the next ten years, Toyota invested $6.5 billion in production plants in North America. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Toyota shifted its emphasis to higher-priced cars, including the successful Lexus line. A global recession resulted in lowered profits, but Toyota remained among the largest car companies in the world. In 1997 Toyota became the first auto manufacturer to mass-produce a car powered by a combination of electricity and gasoline. The Toyota Prius doubles the fuel efficiency of conventional gasoline-powered cars and dramatically reduces toxic emissions. Toyota sold 30,000 of these hybrid cars in Japan between 1997 and 1999. The Prius became available in North America in 2000.
In the first quarter of 2007, Toyota outsold GM for the first time in its history. The company sold 109,000 more vehicles than GM, making it the leading seller of cars and light trucks in the world.

Prepared by:
Ibrahim Al-Bayati

ISSUE NO 3 : AMELIA EARHART

AMELIA EARHART



Amelia Mary Earhart (1897 - 1937) was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines; an organization for female pilots. Earhart joined the faculty of the world famous Purdue University aviation department in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and help inspire others with her love for aviation. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party. Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.
Amelia Earhart was a widely known international celebrity during her lifetime. Her shyly charismatic appeal, independence, persistence, coolness under pressure, courage and goal-oriented career along with the circumstances of her disappearance at a young age have driven her lasting fame in popular culture. Hundreds of articles and scores of books have been written about her life which is often cited as a motivational tale, especially for girls. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.

Amelia Earhart's accomplishments in aviation inspired a generation of female aviators, including the more than 1,000 women pilots of the Women Air force Service Pilots (WASP) who ferried military aircraft, towed gliders, flew target practice aircraft, and served as transport pilots during World War II.
The home where Earhart was born is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by the Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of whom Amelia was the first elected president.

Prepared by:
Ali. H. Sadek

ISSUE NO 3 : AMELIA

AMELIA



Amelia is a 2009 biographical film on the life of Amelia Earhart, starring Hilary Swank as Earhart along with a cast that includes Richard Gere, Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor. It is directed by Mira Nair based on a script initially written by Ronald Bass. The screenplay was largely based on research utilizing authoritative sources such as East to the Dawn by Susan Butler and The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell.


HILARY SWANK (who played Amelia Earhart)

Hilary was discovered as a child by producer Suzy Sachs, who coached her in acting. When she was nine years old, she starred in her first play as "Mowgli" in The Jungle Book. She began to appear regularly in local theater and school plays. She went to school in Bellingham, where she lived with her family, until she was 16. She competed in the Junior Olympics and Washington State championships in swimming; she ranked 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics (which would come in handy for starring in The Next Karate Kid (1994) years later. In 1990, Hilary and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she enrolled in South Pasadena High School, and started acting professionally. She appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) but The Next Karate Kid (1994), where she got the part competing against hundreds of other actresses, was her breakout role. Ever since then, she has been much in demand and has worked non-stop in movies. She won the Best Actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry (1999). She starred in a few minor films before starring in Clint Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby (2004) that won her a Golden Globe and a SAG Award, as well as her second Academy Award. She is two for two at the Oscars, a feat she shares only with a few other women. Off-screen, she married Chad Lowe on September 28, 1997. An aficionado for anything that involves the outdoors, she enjoys: sky diving, river rafting and skiing.
Hilary Swank is the third youngest woman in history to win two Academy Awards for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role”. Her latest work is Amelia, about Amelia Earhart whom she really looks like; you can say that she has owned that role.
 
Prepared by: Israa A. Ameen

ISSUE NO 3 : POEM

WHEN I WAS IN LOVE WITH YOU



I was brave
Happy for the first time
I was alive
Learned how to laugh
And to keep my smile
I dared the world to say
NO....
To put my hands into fire
To touch the moon
To talk out loud
And to stay silent.
******************
When I was in love with you
I was beautiful
Even cheeks turned red
And lips were sweet
I was young
Innocence and wilderness in me.
********************
When I was in love with you
I was alive
I lived every day
And wanted more
Like I tasted the life fountain
And couldn't have enough.
*****************
When I was in love with you
I could see
I could feel
I was happy
I was free
Only when I was
In love with thee.

Written by: Aseel K. Mahmood

ISSUE NO 3 : FRIENDS OF THE MONTH

FRIENDS OF THE MONTH



4TH GRADE

Asma'a is the friend of February. She was the top student in the first grade and she is still clever and intelligent as always. Although Asma'a is isolated and introverted a little bit but she chooses her friends carefully. If you get to know her, she is the best friend ever.



3RD GRADE

Hasna Laeth is a beautiful and wonderful girl. She likes to make the most of her life. All students in our department respect her because she is a respectable person. Hasna has a sense of humor and she always seeks to get new information in the field of her study. By the way, Hasna treats her appearance accurately and she is an elegant girl.



2ND GRADE

Kindness, purity, talent, sweetness, joy and beauty combined in one special amazing girl; Shahad Hadi.
Shahad helped whoever was in need, loved, cherished and comforted the souls of many and melted the hearts of everyone by her most warm smile. She has been the friend of us all, thus we are selecting her the friend of the month to show our gratitude

ISSUE NO 3 : MARIE ANTOINETTE

MARIE ANTOINETTE

Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. Her full name was Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne de Habsbourg-Lorraine

She was the youngest daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and ruler of the Habsburg dominions. Marie was described "a small, but completely healthy Archduchess." She was known at the Austrian court as Madame Antoine. She was fond of music and learned to play the harpsichord and played for many people at the court. The laxity of court life was compounded by the "private" life which was developed by the Habsburgs. In their "private" life, the family dressed in bourgeois attire, played games with "normal" (non-royal) children, had their schooling, and were treated to gardens and menageries. Marie later attempted to recreate this atmosphere through her renovation of the Petit Trianon in France.

At the death of King Louis XV, in 1774, her husband ascended the French throne as Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette assumed the title of Queen of France and Navarre. After seven years of marriage she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, the first of their four children.
During the Reign of Terror, at the height of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette's husband was deposed and the royal family was imprisoned. Marie Antoinette was tried, convicted of treason and executed by guillotine nine months after her husband.

The Truth Behind “Let Them Eat Cake”

It is believed by many people that Upon being informed that the citizens of France had no bread to eat, Marie Antoinette, exclaimed "let them eat cake", or "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". There has been some discussion about how "brioche" doesn't translate exactly to cake, but was a different foodstuff (a form of cake made of flour, butter and eggs), and how Marie has simply been misinterpreted, but the truth is most historians don’t believe Marie uttered the phrase at all.
One reason for this is because variations of the phrase had been in use for decades before she is said to have uttered it, supposed examples of precisely the callousness and detachment of the aristocracy to the needs of the peasants that people claimed Marie had shown by supposedly uttering it. Jean-Jacques Rousseau mentions a variation in his autobiographical 'Confessions', where he relates the story of how he, on trying to find food, remembered the words of a great princess who, upon hearing that the country peasants had no bread, coldly said "let them eat cake". He was writing in 1766, before Marie came to France. Furthermore, in a 1791 memoir Louis XVIII claims that Marie-Thérèse of Austria, wife of Louis XIV, used a variation of the phrase ("let them eat pastry") a hundred years before.


Both examples illustrate how the phrase was in use around the time and could have been easily attributed to Marie Antoinette. There was certainly a huge industry devoted to attacking and slandering the Queen, making all sorts of attacks on her to sully her reputation. The 'cake' claim was simply one assault among many, albeit the one which has survived most clearly throughout history. The true origin of the phrase is unknown.

Quotes from Marie Antoinette:

• It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The king seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation.
• Monsieur, I beg your pardon. (Spoken to the executioner at the guillotine, after she stepped on his foot).
• There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.
• No one understands my ills, nor the terror that fills my breast, who does not know the heart of a mother.

Prepared by:
Raghad H. Iskandar

ISSUE NO 3 : IMPRESSIONISM


 IMPRESSIONISM:
Changing the Way We See the World
The word “impress” is a good start. I am impressed when I see something that sticks in my mind. We see our natural world with our eyes everyday and when looking at a photo or a Realism painting, we see basically the same image that our eyes see naturally. To take an image, whatever it may be and utilize an Impressionism style, but impressionism goes beyond what our eyes see naturally, images can be made of dots, daubs of paint even smears of paint done by fingertips which at a distance or at a glance become alive and "impresses" our mind. The Impressionists were not very popular because they had a different approach to painting. When Renoir and Monet went out into the countryside in search of subjects to paint, they carried their oil colors, canvas, and brushes with them so that they could stand right on the spot and record what they saw at that time. In contrast, earlier landscape painters painted in a very traditional way painstakingly creating paintings that were extremely detailed and worked in their studio from sketches they had made outdoors of people or landscapes or historical events .

The Impressionists often painted "out of doors". This is where the term "plain air" painting got started. Plain air means "outside" in French. Artists began to discard old painting supplies and picked up box easels and painting tubes, allowing them to easily travel outdoors with their supplies. They aimed at showing more immediate effect of light and colour at particular times of the day. Their works are sometimes described as "captured moments" and are characterized by short quick brushstrokes of colour which, when viewed up close looks quite messy and unreal. If you step back from and Impressionist painting, however, the colours are blended together by our eyes and we are able to see the painter's subject which often showed colourful landscapes, sunlight on water as well as people engaged in outdoor activities and enjoyment. I can imagine the energy that artists felt when they actually decided to toss away the technique of painting shadows with dark color that the realism involved. Many Impressionists painted pleasant scenes of middle class urban life, extolling the leisure time that the industrial revolution had won for middle class society. Thus Impressionism style is often familiar yet mysterious.


The Impressionists remained realists in the sense that they remained true to their sensations of the object, although they ignored many of the old conventions for representing the object "out there." But truthfulness for the Impressionists lay in their personal and subjective sensations not in the "exact" reproduction of an object for its own sake. Artists became more concerned with the independent expression of the individual. Reality became what the individual saw. Because when an artist releases a new work to the public, he is displaying a part of himself or herself to the world. With Impressionism, the meaning of realism was transformed into subjective realism, and the subjectivity of modern art was born.

Naming the Newborn Genre
The critical response was mixed, with Monet and Cézanne bearing the harshest attacks. Critic and humorist Louis Leroy wrote a scathing review in the Le Charivari newspaper in which, making wordplay with the title of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), he gave the artists the name by which they would become known. Derisively titling his article The Exhibition of the Impressionists, Leroy declared that Monet's painting was at most, a sketch, and could hardly be termed a finished work.
The term "Impressionists" quickly gained favour with the public. It was also accepted by the artists themselves, even though they were a diverse group in style and temperament, unified primarily by their spirit of independence and rebellion. They exhibited together—albeit with shifting membership—eight times between 1874 and 1886.

Some of the Famous Impressionist
Paris attracted young artists from all over the world, who then carried Impressionist ideas back to their own countries. Although the Impressionist movement did not exclusively consist of French artists, it did start in France and the French painters are among the most well-known. Frédéric Bazille, Paul Cézanne, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir Alfred Sisley, are among those brilliants. Impressionists beyond France are Chafik Charobim in Egypt, John Peter Russell, Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts who were prominent members of the Heidelberg School from Australia, Mary Cassatt from America and others.
By re-creating the sensation in the eye that views the subject, rather than recreating the subject, and by creating a welter of techniques and forms, Impressionism became a precursor to various movements in painting which would follow, including Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism.

Prepared by: Maha Ali

ISSUE NO 3: Solar Energy

Solar Energy

Nowadays our environment confronts climate change and dangerous pollution, for this reason world leaders are concentrating on how to use solar energy because this energy is the last resort to be away from climate change and its consequences. Solar Energy is a radiation produced by nuclear fusion reactions deep in the Sun’s core. The Sun provides almost all the heat and light Earth receives and therefore sustains every living being. Solar energy travels to Earth through space in discrete packets of energy called photons.
On the side of Earth facing the Sun, a square kilometer at the outer edge of our atmosphere receives 1,400 megawatts of solar power every minute, which is about the capacity of the largest electric-generating plant in Nevada. Only half of that amount, however, reaches Earth’s surface. The atmosphere and clouds absorb or scatter the other half of the incoming sunlight. The amount of light that reaches any particular point on the ground depends on the time of day, the day of the year, the amount of cloud cover, and the latitude at that point.
The solar intensity varies with the time of day, peaking at solar noon and declining to a minimum at sunset. The total radiation power (1.4 kilowatts per square meter, called the solar constant) varies only slightly, about 0.2 percent every 30 years. Any substantial change would alter or end life on Earth.
People have devised two main types of artificial collectors to directly capture and utilize solar energy: flat plate collectors and concentrating collectors. Both require large surface areas exposed to the Sun since so little of the Sun’s energy reaches Earth’s surface. Even in areas of the United States that receive a lot of sunshine, a collector surface as big as a two-car garage floor is needed to gather the energy that one person typically uses during a single day.

Prepared by:
Ibrahim Al-Bayati