Here is an extract form the book "Momo" by Michael Ende and below you can find some more quotes and sayings about time. They are here to make you think a bit about time - because "time" is the topic of the following videoconferencing session.
Libor
Momo
Michael Ende (translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn)
...
"So… you like it here, do you?"
Momo nodded.
"And you want to stay here?"
"Yes, very much."
"I mean, shouldn't you go home?"
"This is my home," Momo said promptly.
"But where do you come from?"
Momo gestured vaguely at some undefined spot in the far distance.
"When were you born?"
"As far as I can remember... I've always been around."
...."How old are you really?"
Momo hesitated. "A hundred," she said.
They all laughed because they thought she was joking.
"No seriously, how old are you?"
"A hundred and two," Momo replied, still more hesitantly.
....Lots of things take time, and time was Momo's only form of wealth.
...
Life holds one great but quite commonplace mystery. Though shared by each of us and known to all, seldom rates a second thought. That mystery, which most of us take for granted and never think twice about, is time.
Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it. Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart.
....
Exactly what form the right kind of life should take, Mr Figaro wasn't sure. He vaguely pictured it as a distinguished and affluent existence such as he was always reading about in glossy magazines.
"The trouble is… my work leaves me no time for that sort of thing, and you need time for the right kind of life. You've got to be free, but I'm a lifelong prisoner of scissors, lather and chitchat." ....“I‘m from the Timesaving Bank. Permit me to introduce myself: Agent No. XYQ/384/b. We hear you wish to open an account with us.“
...
"You're wasting your life cutting hair,lathering faces and swapping idle chitchat. When you're dead, it'll be as if you'd never existed. If you only had the time to lead the right kind of life, you'd be quite a different person. Time is all you need, right?"
......"Surely you know how to save time, my dear sir? Work faster, for instance, and stick to the essentials. Spend only fifteen minutes on each customer, instead of the usual half-hour, and avoid time-wasting conversations. Reduce the hour you spend with your mother by half. Better still, put her in a nice, cheap old folks' home, where someone else can look after her - that'll save you a whole hour a day. Get rid of that useless budgerigar. See Miss Daria once every two weeks, if at all... Above all, don't squander so much of your precious time on singing, reading, and hobnobbing with your so-called fiends. Incidentally, I'd also advise you to hand a really accurate clock on the wall so you can time your apprentice to the nearest minute."
.....
"How does the system work?"
The man in grey gave another thin-lipped smile. "Don't worry, we'll take care of that. Rest assured, we won't mislay a single second of the time you save. You'll find you haven't any left over." ...
[Mr. Figaro] forgot the men in grey but not his new resolution, which he believed to be his alone. The determination to save time now so as to be able to begin a new life sometime in the future had embedded itself in his soul like a poisoned arrow.
....
The odd thing was that, no matter how much time he saved, he never had any to spare; in some mysterious way, it simply vanished.
....
In their view, even leisure time had to be used to the full, so as to extract the maximum of entertainment and relaxation with the minimum of delay.
...
Daydreaming [the people] regarded almost as a criminal offence.
...What [the people] could endure least of all, however, was silence, for when silence fell they became terrified by the realization of what was happening to their lives. And so, whenever silence threatened to descend, they made a noise.
...
Old buildings were pulled down and replaced with modern ones devoid of all the things that were now thought superfluous. No architect troubled to design houses that suited people who were to live in them, because that would have meant building a whole range of different houses. It was far cheaper and, above all, more timesaving to make them identical. ...
The lives of the people who inhabited this desert followed a similar pattern: they ran dead straight for as far as the eye could see. Everything in them was carefully planned and programmed, down to the last move and the last moment of time.
...
People never seemed to notice that, by saving time, they were losing something else. No one cared to admit that life was becoming even poorer, bleaker and more monotonous.
...
But time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart. And the more people saved, the less they had. ....
"Once upon a time, people used to like coming to see Momo because she listened to them and helped them know their own minds... They don't have time for such things, they say, but haven't you noticed something odd? It's strange the things they don't have time for any more."
...."SAVE TIME? WHO FOR? NO TIME LEFT? WHERES IT GONE?... IMPORTANT YOUR TIME IS AT STAKE... DON'T YOU HAVE A FUNNY FEELING SOMEBODY YOUR TIME IS STEELING?"
....
Quotes:
Time and tide wait for no man. A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; but in our day of electric wires and water-ballast we turn it around: Man waits not for time nor tide. Mark Twain
When we are doing what we love, we don't care about time. For at least at that moment, time doesn't exist and we are truly free. Marcia Wieder
You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it. Charles Bixton
Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. William Faulkner
Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. John Archibald Wheeler
But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day. Benjamin Disraeli
How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.
Zall's Second Law
Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. Charles Caleb Colton
Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst. Willaim Penn
Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow. Denis Waitely
I'm working to improve my methods, and every hour I save is an hour added to my life.
Ayn Rand
- Time flies.
- Time is money.
- Ahead of one´s time.
- To kill time.
- To waste time.
- Time will tell.
- Take one´s time.
- There´s always a next time.
- Time and tide wait for no man.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Guns in the world, especially in the U.S.
Guns: are they a cultural symbol for the USA?
Guns in the U.S.: The perception of guns in the U.S. is very different from the UN or Europe. If you look at the statistics, there are hundreds of people killed by guns annualy in the U.S. because it‘s legal to have a gun. It’s common that people can go and buy a gun in the store next door and nobody would ask them any question as in the Czech republic for example. Because bearing arms is your citizen’s right and the protection against infringement of this right is addressed in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
I don’t understand the american logic. They appreciate the safety much more than freedoom (they call freedom something very different than european people) if you consider for example The Patriotic Act. For me, it sounds tautologic – you have the right to bear a gun and use it for your self-defense (it‘s your freedom choice) and you feel very anxious about other people beacuse. It’s called „the security dilemma“ in international relations and it means – „I feel very anxious about you so I will protect by developing more advanced systems to destroy you. You will do the same and that’s how we act..“ And now we come to very interesting question: Do Firearms Kill More People (in the home) Than They Save (in public places)? Because the abuse of guns is very common..And the argument „consider how many people died in cars“ is very stupid – so we should we increase the numer of Miller people?
There is very popular website in the U.S., www.nra.org, which fights against the U.N.ban on bearing guns and which is very proud of being the premier firearms education organization in the world!! Also if you look at the American kinematography, every James Bond and these kind of movies are based on „strong menship involving fast car, nice blonde and a gun“.
Statistics:
- In fact, more children -- children-- have been killed by guns in the past 25 years than the total number of American fatalities in all wars of the past five decades (I recommend you the Article „Some People Love Guns. Why Should the Rest of Us Be Targets?“ by Jonathan Safran Foer (on-line in http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001980.html).
- There is a positive correlation between homicide rates and availability of guns in developed nations. (Hemenway and Miller, 2000). (on-line http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=do_firearms_kill_more_people_in_the_home&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&showComments=1).
- Great Britain: According to government statistics, the number of people killed by guns has essentially stayed the same, with dips and spikes, as before the 1997 gun control laws went into effect: There were 55 shooting deaths in 1995 and 50 last year in England and Wales. By comparison, there were 137 fatal shootings in the District of Columbia last year.
The number of crimes in which a handgun was used in England and Wales has risen from 299 in 1995 to 1,024 last year. Offenses committed with all types of firearms, including air guns, have also increased (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2007/04/british_guns.html).
- I very recommend you to look at the http://www.rileyhospital.org/attachments/FirearmStats.pdf!! For example, 32 436 Americans were killed with firearms in 1997. For comparsion, 58 148 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.
- Accurate figures on firearms are scarce, but there are an estimated 200 million guns in circulation in the US, a country with a population of about 300 million. According to a Harris poll conducted in 2001, approximately 39% of all American households own at least one gun (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6562529.stm).
- Statistically, Americans use guns to kill each other far more than just about any other society in the world.
Kristyna
Guns in the U.S.: The perception of guns in the U.S. is very different from the UN or Europe. If you look at the statistics, there are hundreds of people killed by guns annualy in the U.S. because it‘s legal to have a gun. It’s common that people can go and buy a gun in the store next door and nobody would ask them any question as in the Czech republic for example. Because bearing arms is your citizen’s right and the protection against infringement of this right is addressed in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
I don’t understand the american logic. They appreciate the safety much more than freedoom (they call freedom something very different than european people) if you consider for example The Patriotic Act. For me, it sounds tautologic – you have the right to bear a gun and use it for your self-defense (it‘s your freedom choice) and you feel very anxious about other people beacuse. It’s called „the security dilemma“ in international relations and it means – „I feel very anxious about you so I will protect by developing more advanced systems to destroy you. You will do the same and that’s how we act..“ And now we come to very interesting question: Do Firearms Kill More People (in the home) Than They Save (in public places)? Because the abuse of guns is very common..And the argument „consider how many people died in cars“ is very stupid – so we should we increase the numer of Miller people?
There is very popular website in the U.S., www.nra.org, which fights against the U.N.ban on bearing guns and which is very proud of being the premier firearms education organization in the world!! Also if you look at the American kinematography, every James Bond and these kind of movies are based on „strong menship involving fast car, nice blonde and a gun“.
Statistics:
- In fact, more children -- children-- have been killed by guns in the past 25 years than the total number of American fatalities in all wars of the past five decades (I recommend you the Article „Some People Love Guns. Why Should the Rest of Us Be Targets?“ by Jonathan Safran Foer (on-line in http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001980.html).
- There is a positive correlation between homicide rates and availability of guns in developed nations. (Hemenway and Miller, 2000). (on-line http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=do_firearms_kill_more_people_in_the_home&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&showComments=1).
- Great Britain: According to government statistics, the number of people killed by guns has essentially stayed the same, with dips and spikes, as before the 1997 gun control laws went into effect: There were 55 shooting deaths in 1995 and 50 last year in England and Wales. By comparison, there were 137 fatal shootings in the District of Columbia last year.
The number of crimes in which a handgun was used in England and Wales has risen from 299 in 1995 to 1,024 last year. Offenses committed with all types of firearms, including air guns, have also increased (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2007/04/british_guns.html).
- I very recommend you to look at the http://www.rileyhospital.org/attachments/FirearmStats.pdf!! For example, 32 436 Americans were killed with firearms in 1997. For comparsion, 58 148 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.
- Accurate figures on firearms are scarce, but there are an estimated 200 million guns in circulation in the US, a country with a population of about 300 million. According to a Harris poll conducted in 2001, approximately 39% of all American households own at least one gun (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6562529.stm).
- Statistically, Americans use guns to kill each other far more than just about any other society in the world.
Kristyna
Guns: are they a cultural symbol for the USA?
Guns in the U.S.: The perception of guns in the U.S. is very different from the UN or Europe. If you look at the statistics, there are hundreds of people killed by guns annualy in the U.S. because it‘s legal to have a gun. It’s common that people can go and buy a gun in the store next door and nobody would ask them any question as in the Czech republic for example. Because bearing arms is your citizen’s right and the protection against infringement of this right is addressed in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
I don’t understand the american logic. They appreciate the safety much more than freedoom (they call freedom something very different than european people) if you consider for example The Patriotic Act. For me, it sounds tautologic – you have the right to bear a gun and use it for your self-defense (it‘s your freedom choice) and you feel very anxious about other people beacuse. It’s called „the security dilemma“ in international relations and it means – „I feel very anxious about you so I will protect by developing more advanced systems to destroy you. You will do the same and that’s how we act..“ And now we come to very interesting question: Do Firearms Kill More People (in the home) Than They Save (in public places)? Because the abuse of guns is very common..And the argument „consider how many people died in cars“ is very stupid – so we should we increase the numer of Miller people?
There is very popular website in the U.S., www.nra.org, which fights against the U.N.ban on bearing guns and which is very proud of being the premier firearms education organization in the world!! Also if you look at the American kinematography, every James Bond and these kind of movies are based on „strong menship involving fast car, nice blonde and a gun“.
Statistics:
- In fact, more children -- children-- have been killed by guns in the past 25 years than the total number of American fatalities in all wars of the past five decades (I recommend you the Article „Some People Love Guns. Why Should the Rest of Us Be Targets?“ by Jonathan Safran Foer (on-line in http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001980.html).
- There is a positive correlation between homicide rates and availability of guns in developed nations. (Hemenway and Miller, 2000). (on-line http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=do_firearms_kill_more_people_in_the_home&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&showComments=1).
- Great Britain: According to government statistics, the number of people killed by guns has essentially stayed the same, with dips and spikes, as before the 1997 gun control laws went into effect: There were 55 shooting deaths in 1995 and 50 last year in England and Wales. By comparison, there were 137 fatal shootings in the District of Columbia last year.
The number of crimes in which a handgun was used in England and Wales has risen from 299 in 1995 to 1,024 last year. Offenses committed with all types of firearms, including air guns, have also increased (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2007/04/british_guns.html).
- I very recommend you to look at the http://www.rileyhospital.org/attachments/FirearmStats.pdf!! For example, 32 436 Americans were killed with firearms in 1997. For comparsion, 58 148 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.
- Accurate figures on firearms are scarce, but there are an estimated 200 million guns in circulation in the US, a country with a population of about 300 million. According to a Harris poll conducted in 2001, approximately 39% of all American households own at least one gun (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6562529.stm).
- Statistically, Americans use guns to kill each other far more than just about any other society in the world.
Guns in the U.S.: The perception of guns in the U.S. is very different from the UN or Europe. If you look at the statistics, there are hundreds of people killed by guns annualy in the U.S. because it‘s legal to have a gun. It’s common that people can go and buy a gun in the store next door and nobody would ask them any question as in the Czech republic for example. Because bearing arms is your citizen’s right and the protection against infringement of this right is addressed in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
I don’t understand the american logic. They appreciate the safety much more than freedoom (they call freedom something very different than european people) if you consider for example The Patriotic Act. For me, it sounds tautologic – you have the right to bear a gun and use it for your self-defense (it‘s your freedom choice) and you feel very anxious about other people beacuse. It’s called „the security dilemma“ in international relations and it means – „I feel very anxious about you so I will protect by developing more advanced systems to destroy you. You will do the same and that’s how we act..“ And now we come to very interesting question: Do Firearms Kill More People (in the home) Than They Save (in public places)? Because the abuse of guns is very common..And the argument „consider how many people died in cars“ is very stupid – so we should we increase the numer of Miller people?
There is very popular website in the U.S., www.nra.org, which fights against the U.N.ban on bearing guns and which is very proud of being the premier firearms education organization in the world!! Also if you look at the American kinematography, every James Bond and these kind of movies are based on „strong menship involving fast car, nice blonde and a gun“.
Statistics:
- In fact, more children -- children-- have been killed by guns in the past 25 years than the total number of American fatalities in all wars of the past five decades (I recommend you the Article „Some People Love Guns. Why Should the Rest of Us Be Targets?“ by Jonathan Safran Foer (on-line in http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001980.html).
- There is a positive correlation between homicide rates and availability of guns in developed nations. (Hemenway and Miller, 2000). (on-line http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=do_firearms_kill_more_people_in_the_home&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&showComments=1).
- Great Britain: According to government statistics, the number of people killed by guns has essentially stayed the same, with dips and spikes, as before the 1997 gun control laws went into effect: There were 55 shooting deaths in 1995 and 50 last year in England and Wales. By comparison, there were 137 fatal shootings in the District of Columbia last year.
The number of crimes in which a handgun was used in England and Wales has risen from 299 in 1995 to 1,024 last year. Offenses committed with all types of firearms, including air guns, have also increased (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2007/04/british_guns.html).
- I very recommend you to look at the http://www.rileyhospital.org/attachments/FirearmStats.pdf!! For example, 32 436 Americans were killed with firearms in 1997. For comparsion, 58 148 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.
- Accurate figures on firearms are scarce, but there are an estimated 200 million guns in circulation in the US, a country with a population of about 300 million. According to a Harris poll conducted in 2001, approximately 39% of all American households own at least one gun (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6562529.stm).
- Statistically, Americans use guns to kill each other far more than just about any other society in the world.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Swastika: One symbol, many views
One of the basic aspects which determine certain culture and describe it, is its system of symbols. Symbols encourage solidarity and unity within certain group of people we call the culture. Its members are familiar with their meanings and know how to use them. There are
generally well-known symbols (concerning for example national or religoius cultures) which may be understood as official, e.g. a flag (Union jack), an anthem (Marseillaise), an animal(Kiwi in New Zealand), a plant(Cedar in Libanon), objects (crescent moon and star for Muslim religion) and many more...
One of such examples may be swastika aka crux gamata, today the name hakenkreuz or hooked cross is probably the most spread in Western world. This ancient symbol may be recognized across nations and comunities throughout the whole world. But each of them may interpret this exact cross in completely different way. In Asia it´s high posibility people will see it as positive symbol of luck and wellness, while in Europeans it would surely evoke unpleasant idea of past Nazi menace.
Wikipedia provides quite interesting and deep explanation of what swastika is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
I would be delighted if you write some comments on this topic. I believe it could enrich our discusion about culture and Geert Hofstede´s theories. I´m very interested in this problem. We all have own culture since we came from several countries and may offer different points of view...
How do you feel about hooked cross? How do you call it? What meanings does it have for you and your culture?
Thanks for any comments! Martina
generally well-known symbols (concerning for example national or religoius cultures) which may be understood as official, e.g. a flag (Union jack), an anthem (Marseillaise), an animal(Kiwi in New Zealand), a plant(Cedar in Libanon), objects (crescent moon and star for Muslim religion) and many more...
One of such examples may be swastika aka crux gamata, today the name hakenkreuz or hooked cross is probably the most spread in Western world. This ancient symbol may be recognized across nations and comunities throughout the whole world. But each of them may interpret this exact cross in completely different way. In Asia it´s high posibility people will see it as positive symbol of luck and wellness, while in Europeans it would surely evoke unpleasant idea of past Nazi menace.
Wikipedia provides quite interesting and deep explanation of what swastika is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
I would be delighted if you write some comments on this topic. I believe it could enrich our discusion about culture and Geert Hofstede´s theories. I´m very interested in this problem. We all have own culture since we came from several countries and may offer different points of view...
How do you feel about hooked cross? How do you call it? What meanings does it have for you and your culture?
Thanks for any comments! Martina
Our contemporary heroes
Who is the hero? The word hero comes from the Greek language and the first heroes are known from the Old Greek legends. Basically it can be said, that a hero is a person who is victorious in some struggle or was brave. There are many dead war heroes memorials around the whole Europe. The heroes are not only an outcome of a war, we can use the term in sense of other contests as well. In this sense our ice hockey players may become heroes in the Czech republic after the end of the ice hockey world championship. It just depends on their final placement.
My personal opinion is that a hero should achieve something more than just hunting a puck around the ice rink. My criteria are perhaps similar to those for hero medal awards, i.e. like saving a human life.
Looking into the history, the first one coming into my mind, are the Czech legionnaires and the Czech aviators fighting during the WWII. There were without any question many nameless heroes during the WWII usually saving their friends and relatives from certain death in the concentration camps. Perhaps the most known is the controversial Oskar Schindler who profited from the confiscated Jewish wealth, but saved more than 1000 Jews from the transports to the concentration camps. Other heroes appeared later during the communist dictatorship. Especially after the August 1968 occupation the ice hockey players who defeated the Soviet union team became a national heroes. Other distinct heroes are appearing during crisis like various natural disasters. Even a 6 years old girl saving a life to her 2 years old drowning friend is a true hero for me. Different persons might be heroes for the others, however this is perhaps the best way how to describe our contemporary heroes from my point of view.
Tereza
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
summary about the last seminar - heroes and symbols
In the last lecture we discussed the topic culture again and we've got the homework to describe heroes and symbols..
1) Our present heroes
National: I think we can definitely mention sportsmen as heroes and nobody would not be against it. For me, Katerina Neumannova, czech and world famous ski−runner who won many gold medails in the worldchampionships is a hero, then always our ice−hockey players, every time they win the championship, we adore them and consider them heroes… For many of us, alive disident people (people who were fightinig against communist regime and sign Charta 77) are also heroes, for example our former president Vaclav Havel – world known novelist, philosopher and human rights' activist. I think it is also very important not to forget "everyday's life" heroes, doctors who save lives, pilots of aeroplanes or for most of us, our parents are also heroes!
Global: I quite agree with Nicolas that we can consider Nelson Mandela as a global hero. According to me, Princess Diana could be a hero, she was something as an angel for many people and her early and tragic death made "a symbol".
2) Our present symbols
National: It is definitely flag which Martina described in the lecture. I can alco mention the label of Pilsner Urquell beer.
Global: As we said, Microsoft, Mickey Mouse, unfortunately well known symbol MacDonald's,…
3) The question is, if we understand students from Asia. Well, I understand three girls from China quite well, especially "the leader", her english is very nice, but it is a little bit difficult to remember the names… The most difficult was to understand students from Thailand but now it is quite ok. The students from Japan didn't talk a lot, so I can't say whether I understand, usually it was ok. But I think they have thein own community more than chinese students and they talked japanese quite often during the lecture.. But I think we understand what we need and I appreciate and admire that they are studying english, it must be pretty hard for them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)