ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Gone with the Wind is a 1930’s movie directed by Victor Fleming about the American South in the period of the Civil War. The movie deals with the upheaval in the South during that time and the plot is developed using the central character of Scarlet O’ Hara. This character is played by Vivien Leigh and she does a great job at it. She flits from suitor to suitor and her series of marriages leave the conservative among her family and friends shocked. The vivaciousness of the character is brought into focus as she always believes that “Tomorrow is another day” and as long as she has the land to herself, nothing can come in the way of her journey in life. All her life she is in love with Ashley Wilkes but this is one love that is unrequited as he does not reciprocate her advances. Instead, she goes through life marrying a series of men culminating in the other protagonist, Captain Rhett Butler. Main body The film’s historical value lies in the way it portrays the rumblings in the cotton plantations of the south immediately before the civil war and in the aftermath of it when the southern landed gentry find themselves uprooted and the old order gives way to the new. This transition is marked by violence and much bloodletting as the south holds on its own against the Yankees and their “carpet bagging ways”. There is an undertone of subtle disapproval of the ways of the northerners. In these politically correct times, it is not something that a modern filmmaker would attempt to do. The movie revolves around the life in the plantations of the south with its share of colored people doing the manual labor and the mammies looking after the children. I find the movie one of the best that I have watched so far. The reconstruction of the environment that existed in the South before the civil war, the scenes showing Atlanta on fire and the scenes involving Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable would remain etched forever in my mind. These are immortal scenes and the way in which the emotions are portrayed is spellbinding. Vivien Leigh does a great job of bringing the character of Scarlet O’ Hara to life. Her performance of a fickle minded yet determined girl from the plantation is worth noting. The transformation from a simple girl to taking charge of her farm, Tara after she returns is shown very well. And Clark Gable was always one of my all time favorites. So, the double delight of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable makes the movie eminently suited and deserving of the many Oscars that it bagged. In conclusion, I would recommend the movie to anyone who wants to get a fictitious account of the south during the turbulent times of the Civil War. The movie stands out not only because of the main characters but also because of the many subtexts that run through the movie. As Ashley Wilkes exclaims, it is the Gotterdammerung or the “dusk of the gods” that they were witnessing. And the classic, “To hell with you madam” dialogue of Clark Gable has caught the imagination of movie fans everywhere.
Introduction The book, Letters from Apartheid Street: a Christian Peacemaker in Occupied Palestine , by Michael McRay, is a detailed account of experiences as part of the Christian Peacemaker Team over a period of three months in the region of Hebron within the West Bank. From the diary account of McRay, there are many provocative, fascinating, and mind-boggling revelations on the violent conflict between the Israeli military/police and the Palestinians. The book is written in a first-person narrative format about the challenging life in the conflict-filled region of the West Bank. Thus, this reflective treatise attempts to present a reaction and analysis of the book by Michael McRay. Reaction From reading the book, Letters from Apartheid Street: a Christian Peacemaker in Occupied Palestine, I was fascinated by the author’s keenness to details in describing the psychological and the one-on-one journey in the direct confrontation with the Israeli military who occupied the West Bank. At the same time, the author seems to be struggling with his deep compassion for the miserable plights of the frustrated Palestinians. I was moved by the struggles of McRay because of the underlying lessons each struggle carried, from a personal perspective as a Christian and the ideals of human nature. The book identifies social change as defining democracy and the practical aspects of the same. According to the author, the democratization of a political system reveals the level of maturity of a nation. The timid souls are identified by the author as the very people who believe in the status quo and resistance to change at all levels as seen in the actions of the Israeli military and the police. Across the book, the author’s reflection is on several persuasions such as hopelessness, boldness, and open revulsion. In the West Bank occupation, the author presents the Israeli forces and the symbol of injustice and continuous oppression of the Palestinians. Apart from just being the tyrants, the Israeli forces are the unlawful inhabitants of the land that does not belong to them. This feeling ignites deep hatred and anger within the author. For instance, the author notes, “the stories I write involving [Israeli] soldiers sometimes portray them as almost inhuman. Witnessing the reality here, I often have difficulty seeing the soldiers as normal human beings… I struggle to hide my looks of condemnation when I pass by the soldiers” (McRay 25). As a result, McRay struggles with his previous view of ‘single story’ supporting the activities of Israel in the West Bank and actually tries to contact the Israeli soldiers in a process he called ‘rehumanization’ (McRay26). Out of frustrations, McRay notes, “the danger of the single story, when repeated often, convinces the audience that the description within the story is the whole truth” (McRay 27). In the context of her
What is sustainability? Financial sustainability techniques are intended for long-term financial survival, and it should be stated that the actual aim of sustainability principles involve the opportunity to create an effective financial system for covering all the vital costs, as well as making this system flexible, high performing, and stable. Along the financial effectiveness, the financial stability principles involve increase of the employee motivation effectiveness, managing internal and external costs, training, attracting customers, etc. The general principles of sustainability are based on proper control of the financial project, and application of the math concepts that are used for calculating all the numeric aspects of any activity. Therefore, business activity presupposes rational spending and control of the costs, governmental sustainability is optimal planning of the budget. Sustainability principles for better business operating The key principles of sustainability involve creating of an available funding with proper explanation of the expenses. Then part of the costs should be recovered by financial initiatives. These will require proper and u-to-date monitoring of balance sheet, correct calculation
Helping students succeed It is important to understand such a notion as character because this knowledge is critical for helping students succeed in various learning activities. Overall, this concept can be defined as the combination of cognitive and behavioral qualities that can distinguish an individual from other people. It is important to remember that character is changeable, and it strongly depends on the external environment (Tough, 2012, p. 59). These attributes can determine the way in which a person responds to various challenges including demanding academic tasks, workplace stress, and so forth. Thus, character is one of the variables that influence the development of separate individuals. By gaining in-depth insight into this issue, teachers can considerably improve students’ experiences. For instance, they can identify the factors can motivate learners. Some of them can be driven by the desire to display their creativity and intelligence. In contrast, other students can perform better if they can work within a group. Apart from that, educators should learn about the notion of character to help students overcome hardships. In many cases, their problems can be explained by certain mental or behavioral traits. For instance, their difficulties can be attributed to low self-esteem (Tough, 2012, p. 11). In turn, the task of a teacher is to show that these difficulties can be surmounted. Moreover, an educator should demonstrate that a student can exaggerate the significance or magnitude of certain problems. So, these examples indicate that teachers should understand various aspects of character. This understanding can have both theoretical and practical implications. Overall, teachers adopt several strategies to help students succeed. In particular, it is necessary to promote those skills and traits that will be vital for students’ effective performance in various fields. For instance, much attention should be paid to grit, empathy or optimism. These character traits prompt students to adopt an optimistic attitude towards potential difficulties. In turn, educators can encourage students to work on group projects showing that learning activities can be engaging and creative (Tough, 2012, p. 85). Furthermore, teachers need to design tasks demonstrating that learning can be rel
Abstract A customs union can be referred to as a trading conformity that permits duty-free distribution of goods and services between member partners and the application of a uniform external duty on goods bought from non-member states outside the trading block. Generally, custom union eliminates any domestic obstacle to trade and calls for a harmonization of external trade policies. The custom agreement stipulates rules and regulation that are to be adhered to when dealing with products, either being exported or imported from any of the union member states. The trilateral no-custom agreement between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, came into effect, after the presidents of the three members country, approved to sign the custom code at a meeting between the three head of countries, which was held on July 2010 in Astana Kazakhstan (Tochistkaya 1). Though the trilateral agreement is expected to simplify trading relationship between the three Economies, it is unlikely that it will eliminate all levies in addition to duties. Introduction The Economic and political relationships between the three nations dates back several decades ago , putting into consideration that the three countries were members of the formal Soviet Union. From the time of split of the Soviet Union, there has existed a tarnished relationship among the former States of the Union. In particular, Russia has been accused of trying to establish political control over the rest of the countries in the region. Nevertheless, there has been a good political relationship between Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Economically, a cordial interaction between the three nations has existed, with a good example being reflected following the first attempt from the three nations, in trying to integrate the region economically as early as in 1995 (Wisniewska 3). In this particular attempt, though Russia was credited to have inspired the whole process, the partner member’s state had came up with uniform rates for goods imported, in addition to a joint custom code, which was to regulate the procedures used for commodities bought and sold within the custom territory. However, the difference in opinion and principles between the trading partners, could only allow the agreement to be implemented selectively (Wisniewska 3). Literature review The step taken by Russia Kazakhstan and Belarus in forming a custom union is very encouraging and worthy every effort made, due to the numerous advantages that are associated with such unifications. Forming a common market is a debatable issue and mostly when the question of whether it really enhances economic growth emerges. Work by earlier researchers on the topic; shed a little light on the issue. Wisniewska (15) notes that that though there are plenty of benefits that accrue from such unions; giving examples in existence of stronger economic ties, in addition to faster economic growth and development between the trading nations, the author as well points out that there are moreover several negative implications that goe
The film, Touki Bouki, highlights the aspect of cultural imperialism, an issue well brought out by the main characters in the movie. Mory and Anta, the main characters in the movie, make numerous attempts to leave their current lives in Senegal and pursue their dream of relocating to Europe. The story line is incorporated with various techniques that have played an important role in bringing out the phantasmal pictures of postcolonial fairytale (Slocum, 2005). This paper will therefore discuss the central themes and tensions that have categorically been brought out in the film. The film portrays wealth, delusion, urban youth and love /betrayal as the central themes (Baaz and Palmberg, 2001). Wealth seems to be the main theme as it forms the basis of the whole film. The film brings out Anta, a university student, as a person who views the American hippie lifestyle as of utmost importance in her life. Her boyfriend Mory, seem to have conflicting interests. The film portrays him as more of a drifter than a goal-oriented person and with a keen interest in gaining an identity. The combination of Anta’s interest in a hippie urbanized lifestyle and Mory’s focus to achieve an identity creates a common ground for the couple. They are both interested in being rich and living a better life than what they have been accustomed to in Senegal. They further come to a common understanding that they can only acquire such wealth by relocating to Europe, and in particular, Paris. Riding on Mory’s motorcycle, they both embark on a long journey in a bid to realize their dream of being wealthy. Part of the challenge that they face is the means to get adequate funds to facilitate their escape to the unknown land of happiness. The importance of wealth is well portrayed when the couple commits a successful robbery and gets away with costly westernized clothes. The theme of delusion is also evident in the film. Both Anta and Mory seem to exist in a fantasy world. They look forward to living a life that is characterized by richness, identity and happiness. In their young minds, Paris seems to be the ideal place to get what they want. Delusion is also portrayed in the soundtrack of the song ‘Paris’, which seem to capture the mind of the viewer too. The song praises Paris and creates some sort of fantasy that it is only in Paris that one can get anything that he/she desires. Further, Mory’s dialogue also gives an indication of his admiration of Paris, a country that he has never set foot on, but one that he deems as being great in all ways. The entire story line characterizes the social-political allegory that attempt to define Africans as ‘easily seducible’ characters leading them to crave for a false westernized culture. The main characters used to tell the story brings out the theme of urban youth and their reasoning capacity. Having been brought up in a rural setting, the two protagonists have the same goal of going to Paris to look for greener pastures. They represent the larger percentage of the youths in any setting who
The numerous upheavals that emanated during the French revolution gave way to the western civilization. In this case, political and socio-cultural policies were reshaped in the West after the revolution. The multi-faceted uprising gave a new-fangled wave of thinking to Europeans, popularly associated with the idea of modernism. The nineteenth-century revolution challenged the dominant religious views as it distanced itself from the popular Christian foundations, and for that reason, it was named ‘a secularized process’. The reformation brought with it transformation in technological, economic, political and cultural issues. The alteration of these pillars provided a platform for the new way of thinking resulting in emergence of the industrial revolution, which is also named as modernism. After the revolution, Europeans’ normal practices disintegrated and stimulated differential scientific, philosophical and cultural way of life. The political arena was also reshaped, which led to the emergence of new great concepts of thoughts among the literate Europeans. Some of these concepts of thoughts include imageless deities, abstract laws, speculative philosophy, mathematics and theoretical science. The modernism theory may be backtracked to the thirteenth century, but its impact was felt in the nineteenth century. At the time, it is believed that there existed a strong credence in which natural history could be restricted and controlled in a certain way. This theory is said to have formed the theme used in the so-called secularization. The controlled environment gave rise to the mechanical and industrial innovation. Modernism suppressed the previous authoritarian political regimes heightening the political, economic and social concerns. However, another theory traced to a period before the thirteenth century, where modernism is thought to have evolved due to ‘individualism’ was enforced. The theory borrows some concepts on the analysis of naturalistic and scientific philosophy by Aristotle. This meant that individual powers became relevant in reshaping the western systems by emphasizing on individual freedom. The theories above present the central image that the French revolution contributed to the emergence of modernism. There are other theories that postulate modernism as having revolved globally and not only within the French upheaval. This blossomed in the nineteenth century where modernism is seen as a global occurrence. Although this emanated from the Western Europe, it resulted in the worldwide reorganization believed to have brought about the connection between the West and the rest of the world. Consequently, the West is seen
Introduction The American Revolution changed into a fighting area amongst two dominant and strengthening armies: the escalating superiority and the control and privilege of extraneous frontrunners, and the emerging equivalence, especially of the “middling sort”, which only began to acquire the new traditions and the manner that underlined the accepted privileges. As a consequence of the chronological course, the privileged and their enemies possess their own expectations of the historic revolution in Great Britain, which occupied a great part of the country. Much of the traits that these settlers from rather a disparate clutch had in common abridged from their predisposition towards anglicizing their ethnicity and society in the eighteenth century. Analysis In North Carolina, the one gathering managed to maintain those ideologies to be existent together. As a result, they had faced a disagreeable happenstance among them, as they were not able to admit the communal uniqueness between the slaveholding agriculturalists. As almost every cluster had experienced the persecution, the preponderance of the prevailing social sets did not yet distinguish an intense divergence between slave and unobstructed social orders. People of the country laid the expectation on the revolution of producing not only a unique nation but differentiating the areas and regions within that nation. The limited amount of people who decided to participate in that combat were estimated to define if they could accept the privileges and turn out to be a governing cluster too. The writers of the article state a dilemma whether this limited amount of people possessed a sufficient amount of mutual qualities in order to stand by as countrywide intervening elite despite the sectional adjustments that were seeming to be even further comprehensible. In the middle of the 1790s, the leading families, who were from the North, for the most part, gave the imprint of being close to conquering this target; however, they were shortly overpowered and lost their power several years later. Nonetheless, the families had not lost their financial assets to a coalition of southern agriculturalists and northern modest populaces. That coalition principally determined the state of America and its appearance up to the Civil War. The people in the North began to create much more superior extremes of affluence than had happened in the colonial period. Furthermore, monetary and radical power was more and more executed by different frontrunners on that territory. In contrast, the South had more powerful and influential farmers who managed to gain power in both regions, predo
Introduction Numerous “evidences show that the events of the Civil Rights Movement were partly influenced and guided by the theoretical arguments of different social theorists such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim” (Andres 1997:811).This civil uprising took place in the United States throughout the 1960s. Many African Americans wanted the issues of racial discrimination and segregation to be addressed (Jones 2002). They also wanted their citizenship rights to be recognized and safeguarded in accordance with the law (Hall 2003). This essay uses the theoretical arguments presented by Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx to analyze the Civil Rights Movement. The theories will also be used to predict the future of racism in the United States. Lessons Learned from Marx and Durkheim Karl Marx’s social theory has been observed to cut across different fields. From an economic perspective, Marx argues that modern capitalism is something characterized by division of labor. This kind of “division plays a significant role towards reshaping the nature and state of the contemporary society” (Andres 1997:807). Marx presents “profound arguments on the crude material conditions ” (Marx 1978:29). From a social perspective, Karl Marx argues that humankind has established a society characterized by different classes. The “upper class is characterized by abundance and plenty while the lower class is associated with pover