Road Trip: Dubai to Jebel Jais

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Jebel Jais happens to be the highest mountain peak within UAE, and is situated the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, and is a part of the Hajar Mountains. It stands at a height of about 1900 mts (abt 5800 ft) about sea level and is about 30 kms from Ras Al Khaimah city area. The distance from Dubai to Jebel Jais is about 180 kms, and from Abu Dhabi is about 260 Kms.

As you pass the Lantern round-about near the RAK Hospital you need to keep driving towards the mountains where a small board points you to the direction of Jebel Jais. The mountains appear on your left side, till you reach the flat smooth tarmac that leads you to the top. From here it is about 25 kilometers to the top. Google Maps does a decent job of leading you to the spot.

We were a few families, raring to go out for a day trip inside UAE. We wanted to make this a family holiday. We had children and older people in our team and thus needed to find a place which will be accommodating as well as a fun day trip. Jebel Jais came as a new lead and we zoomed on it as our next location. One weekend in March, when the temperature is still fine for a day's outing in the sun, we packed our whole rations of food, water, snacks and the necessary supplies. Our intention was also to have a grand barbecue there at Jebel Jais ..

The drive from Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah was smooth and we took the Mohammad Bin Jayed Road E 311 (Old Emirates Road). Once we reached Ras Al Khaimah we picked up the signs to Jebel Jais direction. Parts of this stretch of about 10 kilometers are on stretches of broken, dusty and slightly rocky unmarked roads. Mind you, the signs are very limited) and from then on it is a wonderful drive mostly on smooth tarmac surface.

Ras Al Khaimah tourism is now actively investing to promote Jebel Jais as a weekend getaway destination in UAE. The Emirate has started building a modernistic Hotel and a para-gliding range in this location.

We were grouped into three cars, including a Toyota Corolla, a Nissan Altima and a Mitsubishi Pajero. Though you may read to be otherwise, it is pretty well possible to use a sedan car in order to reach Jebel Jais. But do not wander offroads, keep to the beaten path if you are driving a non-SUV.

The view in this stretch of 25 kilometers to the top (or almost to the top) is simply breath-taking. Rugged hilltops rise on three sides of you the more you drive into the lap of the mountains, sweeping views of rocky valleys stretch on one side, gorges can be viewed at different directions, and we tackled around eight hair-pin bends till we reached the top. It takes about 45 minutes from RAK city area to reach here. We have driven to most locales in UAE and this scenic drive of forty odd minutes, beats the others hands-down. It is fantastically exhilarating.

As you reach the summit, you will find that the final 5 kms or so has been blocked off (as off March 2015), as the tarmac roads were still being built. It was mostly stretches of rocks and rubble, from the last checkpoint on the route upwards. All along the higher sections of the route, at different turns, there are parking locations and toilets erected for the needy. Again, the condition of these toilets then were not much to be happy about, but it is still an option. The parking spots have been built at advantage points along the route, where it feels great to park awhile and absorb the beauty and serenity of the mountains around you.

The temperature continuously falls as you drive up to the summit, and the drop is by almost 10 degree Celsius if compared to the city down below, and that was a very welcome change. The Jebel Jais summit has been reported to receive quite a few inches of snowfall in 2004 and then in 2009. This is surely the coldest point in UAE.

Once we reached the end of the black armac road where the last checkpoint stops you from venturing further, we turned back drove down for about a couple of bends till we saw this hilly side road. The hilly road brought us to a ridge on the side of the mountains which gave us a great viewpoint along with a little privacy. Over the ridge we could see the sea near the "ghailah" area of ​​UAE at the end of the horizon downwards over the mountains on the other side.

We parked our cars and unpacked our supplies and prepared for our grand barbecue. Mind you, there are no shops or cafes in this route, (as of March 2015). Every drop of water and every morsel of food needed, has to be brought here.The children loved the little hikes over the boulders and embankments around this rocky spot that we chose. Quickly we got our supplies spread out on the mat, and arranged to light up the charcoal grill. There were some waste collection pits around here too. Mats were put on the ground, and the women in our team helped us prepare the ingredients for the grill. In about 20 minutes we had a lovely barbecue fire ready for the grill.Children loved the nippy air, and got busy in their fun activities. The sun warmed our backs amidst the little nip in the air.

The food tasted awesome, charcoal grilling always has this special aroma and brings that exquisite softness in the chicken or mutton that you grill. We had also brought in plentiful supplies of water and soft drinks to quench the thirst for all, and also had snacks to bite on till the grilled food was ready. Then we all sat around and had this hearty meal along with some hummous and garlic paste for the Lebanese wheat rolls that we brought. The atmosphere was one of joy, people laughing, jokes and some mindless fun all along. We enjoyed the great views all around, quiet serene rocky mountains, a rocky valley and gorge in front of us, and great views to the blue Ocean below. The weather was fantastic and it was a time to chill out and unwind from our stressful city lives.

As evening approached, we boiled a hot pot of water to make us some instant coffee. Adults also shrugged out of their lazy bones and had their few moments of extreme wishful fun, tackling extreme rocks and boulders for a better scenic view.The sun set was softly approaching us, causing wonderful myriad of colours on the mountain tops. and the chill increased with the setting of the sun.

With the approach of darkness we could slowly see the lights in the towns below us come to life. The main motorways looked like bright ribbons in the evening horizon while little trinkets of lights came up marking the residential and commercial districts. As darkness fell, we packed our stuff back in the car. Mind you street lights are very few and the parking zones have the lights burning till it was around seven, after which they switched off.

Navigating back down the steep roads and hair-pin bends back into civilizations was guided by the moon. All in all, Jebel Jais is probably the best drive and mountain spot in UAE. It needs more infrastructure at the moment, but it has already become a magnetic attractions to travel lovers in Dubai or in UAE. Visitors or residents alike, if you have a car, do not miss this destination. You would love it !!!

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Source by Samit Bhattacharya

5 Examples of The Subliminal Evocation in an Edward Hopper Painting

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This article is a treatment of five Edward Hopper paintings, the famous American realist of whom the art critic Clement Greenberg has said: "Hopper is just a bad painter. But if he had been a better painter, he probably would not have been such a great artist ".

Chop Suey

The window-panes in this Edward Hopper painting seem to resemble the interfaces that emphasize the interior of the restaurant. Geometrical color fields define the window in the background. The window on the right side only allows a limited view. Visible is a facade, a fire escape, a patch of sky and the neon sign of the Chop Suey restaurant. Due to their art nouveau style-like head-gear and their heavily made up faces, the women seem to have a doll-like and rigid impression. This concerns the posture of the woman in the foreground, facing the beholder, but is especially visible on the woman in the background, who has even a more rigid impression. We see her face in profile, like she is a figurehead. The man who is sitting at her table seems self-absorbed, his facial expressions disappear in the shadow.

The heavy made-up faces of the women also suggest temptation. The billboard of the Chop Suey-restaurant reminiscents an entertainment district, the powerful red of the board corresponds with the accentuated mouths of the women and the half-covered letters of the word 'suey' are easily associated with the word 'sex'. The symbols for temptation, desolation and rigidity are directly linked; and just like almost any another Edward Hopper painting, this canvas requires a double vision.

Western Motel

In this Edward Hopper painting entitled Western Motel , the unusually large windows in the composition extend a typical Western scenery. The woman sitting on the bed is not watching the landscape, but in the direction of the viewer. In the whole of the composition she resembles a portrait for a background which seems to be fossilized into a painting. But strangely enough this motel scene connects elements of rigidness and movement. It is true that its signs, the car and street, due to the motionless posture of the woman who is the centre of the painting, have lost their dynamics at first sight. But as a reaction to this, the falling light into the room brings the warm colors as much to life as the landscape, in front of the window, fossilizes them.

While the interior suggests movement, the view on the American landscape changes into a view on a scenery. It recalls a lost domain, a vision on America in days gone by and to the memory of a direct encounter of nature and civilisation. It is the far-reaching experience of the technical civilisation in the New World.

Compartment C

An Edward Hopper painting, that reverts to his earlier designs and at the same time evokes a new effect and a certain surprise on the beholder. On the one side, through the window of the coupé a landscape is visible with the river, the bridge and the dark wood on the horizon showing a boundary of the civilisation within the natural landscape. On the other side, the painting gets his special dynamic through the oblique perspective.

Compartment C also remains ambiguous because of its theme of enclosure, that takes place in relative peace. The play of colors does not intersect the relations between inside and outside completely, but creates contexts; the engrossed reading of the woman is determined by peaceful relaxation and concentration.

New York Movie

The New York Movie- painting has a parallel with the previous Edward Hopper painting Compartment C. Instead of the view through the window in Compartment C the focus here is on a movie screen: together with the audience in the room the admirer of the painting looks at a Alpine landscape. This sight determines only a part of the painting; it is almost lost in the monumentality of the interior which is divided in stage, gradually ceiling layered formations and lamps, columns, curtains, corridor and stairs.

The usherette has the same deepened impression of the train traveler in Compartment C. But apparently this woman is neither interested in the view nor the illusion of the cinema.

Nighthawks

This late and most famous Edward Hopper painting is his only painting that depicts convex glass and makes the glass visible: the space of the bar surrounds the people like a hermetically sealed container. Besides we see a separation of both the urban environment as nature. The night in town is only illuminated by the light in the bar. Because the light enters obliquely, the composition obtains a suggestive dynamic, in which the light becomes the centre of the painting.

Although Hopper points out that he unconsciously had painted "the loneliness of the big city", at the same time he emphasized the simplicity of the painting, in which he only tried to depict "a restaurant at Greenwich Avenue", where two streets come together . The canvas is characterized by a psychological tension. To the desolation in the cities and the loneliness of the third bar visitor, the gathering of the couple is added, and on that, the psychological effect is based. Although this Edward Hopper painting emphasizes, by contrasting the bar and the shop in the background, the social environment, it is above all things a projection plane for various fantasies.

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Source by Marijn Kruijff

His Most Famous Installation (City of Chicago) – Red Grooms

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Born as Charles Rogers Grooms, Red Grooms is an American Multimedia artist and a printmaker born on June 07, 1937. He is an eminent 'Pop Artist.' 'Pop Art' was an art movement, which began in 1950s in the US and reached its height in 1960s. Its central characters were inspired from everyday life. 'Pop Art' portrays wild and exciting themes from modern urban life. Red Grooms is also famous for his 'Sculpto-Pictoramas,' a term he used for his unique work. The artist would use sculpture wire, vinyl, elastic fabric, wood, & other materials in his works, with usually various human figures. Grooms made his most famous installation, "City of Chicago," in 1967.

Red made this famous installation along with his wife Mimi Gross, a painter. "City of Chicago" was a three-dimensional installation, describing an ironical view of the city life, which was never witnessed before. The localized landmarks and the residents exhibiting a mixed expression of comedy, celebration, and horror, were portrayed with absolute finesse and perfection. Initially, the figures of this work looked amusing, which on keen observation appeared ironical, expressing the truth of the society. The mark of the "City of Chicago" was the buildings portrayed on large-scale scenes, with flat figures dealing with daily life activities.

His most famous installation "City of Chicago" was a hit and Grooms had an article published on the cover of 'Look' magazine. This large, colorful, and a 'sculpto-pictorama' was a milestone of its type in the field of 'Installation Art.' "City of Chicago" was exhibited first at Frumkin Gallery, California. The installation now graces the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, US.

Grooms' other famous' sculpto-pictorama, 'apart from the "City of Chicago" was' Ruckus Manhattan' (1975), beautifully picturing people strolling around with the entertaining scenes of Lower Manhattan, from Wall Street to Chelsea. Red continued to paint scenes inspired from the New York City. In the late 1980s and 1990s, he dedicatedly painted 'New York Stories.' This was a series of paintings and sculptures, displaying the life of the city. His other most famous work is 'Ruckus Rodeo.' In all these works, Red proceeds from Manhattan up to Fifth Avenue, while portraying the Statue of Liberty, Saks, the Rockefeller Center skating rink, and St. Paul's Cathedral as well.

Overall, the "City of Chicago" and "Ruckus Manhattan" were the critically important, high points of Groom's career. All of Red's most famous works, including the "City of Chicago" had furious colors and concepts, portrayed through different mediums. His works were inspired by the busy and variously active life at different places in the United States. Red Grooms portrayed these concepts in a humorous and sarcastic taste. The artist continues to inspire the younger generations, raring to explode their talents.

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Source by Annette Labedzki

What Causes Anger?

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Anger is a strong emotion of displeasure caused by some type of grievance that is either real or perceived to be real by a person. The cognitive behavior theory attributes anger to several factors such as past experiences, behavior learned from others, genetic predispositions, and a lack of problem-solving ability. To put it more simply, anger is caused by a combination of two factors: an irrational perception of reality ( "It has to be done my way") and a low frustration point ( "It's my way or no way"). Anger is an internal reaction that is perceived to have a external cause. Angry people almost always blame their reactions on some person or some event, but rarely do they realize that the reason they are angry is because of their irrational perception of the world. Angry people have a certain perception and expectation of the world that they live in and when that reality does not meet their expectation of it, then they become angry.

It is important to understand that not all anger is unhealthy. Anger is one of our most primitive defense mechanisms that protects and motivates us from being dominated or manipulated by others. It gives us the added strength, courage, and motivation needed to combat injustice done against us or to others that we love. However, if anger is left uncontrolled and free to take over the mind and body at any time, then anger becomes destructive.

Why We Need to Control Anger

Just like a person who is under the control of a street drug — a person under the influence of anger can not rationalize, comprehend, or make good decisions because anger distorts logical reasoning into blind emotion. You become unable to think clearly and your emotions take control of your actions. Physiologically speaking, anger enacts the fight or flight response in our brain, which increases our blood pressure and releases adrenaline into our bloodstream, thereby increasing our strength and pain threshold. Anger makes us think of only two things: (1) Defend, or (2) Attack. Neither of these options facilitates a good negotiation.

Internal Sources of Anger

Our internal sources of anger come from our irrational perceptions of reality. Psychologists have identified four types of thinking that contribute to anger.

1. Emotional reasoning. People who reason emotionally misinterpret normal events and things that other people say as being directly threatening to their needs and goals. People who use emotional reasoning tend to become irritated at something innocent that other people tell them because they perceive it as an attack on themselves. Emotional reasoning can lead to dysfunctional anger in the long run.

2. Low frustration tolerance. All of us at some point have experienced a time where our tolerance for frustration was low. Often stress-related anxiety lowers our tolerance for frustration and we begin to perceive normal things as threats to our well-being or threats to our ego.

3. Unreasonable expectations. When people make demands, they see things as how they should be and not as they really are. This lowers their frustration tolerance because people who have unreasonable expectations expect others to act a certain way, or for uncontrollable events to behave in a predictable manner. When these things do not go their way, then anger, frustration, and eventually depression set in.

4. People-rating. People-rating is an anger-causing type of thinking where the person applies a derogatory label on someone else. By rating someone as a "bitch" or a "bastard," it dehumanizes them and makes it easier for them to become angry at the person.

External Sources Of Anger

There are a hundreds of internal and external events that can make us angry, but given the parameters of a negotiating situation, we can narrow these factors down to four general events.

1. The person makes personal attacks against us. The other side attacks you along with the problem in the form of verbal abuse.

2. The person attacks our ideas. The other side chops down our ideas, opinions, and options.

3. The person threatens our needs. The person threatens to take away a basic need of ours if they do not get their way ie "I'll make sure you'll never work in this city again."

4. We get frustrated. Our tolerance level for getting things done might be low or affected by any number of environmental factors in our lives.

Factors That Lower Our Frustration Tolerance

1. Stress / Anxiety. When our stress-level increases, our tolerance for frustration decreases. This is why there are so many domestic disputes and divorces over financial problems.

2. Pain. Physical and emotional pain lowers our frustration tolerance. This is because we are so focused on taking care of our survival needs, that we do not have time for anything or anyone else.

3. Drugs / Alcohol. Drugs and alcohol affect how our brain processes information and can make a person more irritable or bring forward repressed emotions or memories that can trigger anger.

4. Recent irritations. Recent irritations can also be called "having a bad day." It's the little irritations that add up during the course of the day that lower our tolerance for frustration. Recent irritations can be: stepping in a puddle, spilling coffee on your shirt, being late for work, being stuck in a traffic jam, having a flat tire.

Recognizing the Physiological Signs of Anger

By recognizing the physiological signs of anger, we can attune ourselves to know when it is time to take measures to make sure that our level of anger does not get out of control. Here are some symptoms of anger:

1. Unconscious tensing of muscles, especially in the face and neck.

2. Teeth grinding

3. Breathing rate increases dramatically

4. Face turns red and veins start to become visible due to an increase in blood pressure

5. Face turns pale

6. Sweating

7. Feeling hot or cold

8. Shaking in the hands

9. Goosebumps

10. Heart rate increases

11. Adrenaline is released into your system creating a surge of power.

Am I Right to be Angry?

Damn right you are. You have your own perception and expectation of the world that you live in and when the reality that you live in fails to meet your expectations, then yes you have the right to be angry. Afterall, if everyone thought alike, then the world would be a pretty dull place to live. You are going to run into situations that you do not enjoy. You are going to run into people who do not respect your views and ideas. The feeling of anger is totally justified according to your beliefs and so do not repress or deny those feelings.

Having to right to feel angry does not mean that you have the right to lash out in anger by attacking the other person. You can not change the views of other people to conform to your own because, like you, they have their own right to uphold their view of the world. The best thing you can do is recognize your anger and focus it on the problem instead of your counterpart.

Key Points

Being angry or frustrated is just like being under the influence of a drug. It prevents you from rationalizing and thinking logically.

Anger is caused by a combination of an irrational perception of reality and a low frustration point.

Anger is a natural response and you have every right to be angry, but you must learn to keep that anger in check during a negotiation because once you react in any negotiation, then you lose the agreement.

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Source by Tristan Loo

ATV Financing 4 Popular Options

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With the purchase price of an ATV being much less than the average street motorcycle there are more options for financing your ATV than when purchasing a motorcycle.

The goal of this article is to provide you a view of four popular types of ATV financing. Your success with each method will depend on if you have good or bad credit.

1. Manufacturer ATV Financing

It is likely that if you have spent any time looking at ATV magazines you have seen an advertisement or two highlighting atv financing from top brands like Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha. Usually these advertisements have a very low minimum payment $ 49 like. While the payment may look attractive you should consider if this is the best ATV loan for you.

In deciding if a manufacturer loan is best, you need to consider the terms. For instance, look at how long the promotional term lasts. If it is 24 months will you have enough to payoff your outstanding loan on the 25th month because making the $ 49 payment does not pay off the loan? If not your interest rate will increase to the standard rate of 17% -22% and your minimum payment will also increase.

If you have the cash to pay off your loan at the end of 24 months than the promotion may be a good thing for you, if not then you should probably opt for a fixed rate installment loan that is offered by most online lenders and has a fixed rate for a long term.

Manufacturer ATV financing is typically more suitable for those with good credit rather than bad credit applicants.

2. Online Atv Financing

Online – ATV financing With you will get fixedATV call is free . Financing for a specific term. These loans are normally called personal loans meaning that they can be used for a variety of personal reasons such as buying an ATV, furniture, home improvements and a variety of other things. Terms on ATV personal loans will normally be up to 60 months and for excellent credit rates can be as low as the 5% – 8% range. Bad credit applicants can also get approved for online personal ATV loans, but the interest rate may be a bit higher.

3. Credit Card ATV Financing

If you are looking for a short term loan for your ATV purchase, a credit card may be a good option if it has a good promotion. For instance some Visa, Mastercard and discover cards offer 12 months no interest for new accounts. If you can afford to pay off your ATV purchase at the end of 12 months this could be a great option for you to use.

4. Hybrid Atv Financing

The hybrid Atv financing method typically uses a combination of financing options. One popular method is to use a short term manufacturer financing promotion and then when the promotion period ends you transfer your loan to another promotion on a Visa, Mastercard or Discover card.

For instance, you could get Honda Financing for 24 months on a Honda promotion and then transfer that loan to a Discover card promotion and get 0% interest for 12 month.

Hybrid Atv Financing is a bit complicated and requires some planning. It is also a bit risky because you are betting that companies will be running the same promotion in 24 months that they are today.

This type of financing is typically not recommended for those with poor credit or that are not very financially savvy.

In the end, the fact that the average ATV is less costly than a motorcycle will allow you more options to finance your purchase. You just have to think creatively and look at all the offers in the market for financing everyday purchases.

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Source by Jay Fran

Adopting Carl Jung and Milton Erikson's Views on the Unconscious Mind and NLP Techniques

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What ideas do you have about the unconscious mind? How much credence do you place in it as a separate and functioning entity? Have you found yourself driven to do something without understanding what's motivating you? Are you stuck repeating patterns of behavior that seem to run on their own accord?

The Jungian approach to psychology and the unconscious mind is inclusive, acknowledging the impact of art, culture, philosophy and sociology on the psyche as well as giving relevance to dream symbolism, myths, religion and spirituality. Jung believed in order for people to achieve a sense of autonomy and inner balance they must understand and integrate both the conscious and unconscious processes.

This was my attraction to and mission when I began studying NLP in 1980 and has become the basis for founding "Of 2 Minds Coaching and Counseling" services which teaches people how to use intuition and logic in daily life and decision making. NLP is the acronym for Neuro-Linguistic Programming which simplistically defined is a behavioral approach to non verbal and verbal communication and change.

In NLP training I was introduced to Milton Erikson whom many refer to as the Father of Hypnosis. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. Are you familiar with his work? Aside from Erikson's remarkable contribution to the field of hypnosis in particular, Conversational hypnosis, his concept of trance theory has had the most impact on me. This theory proposes that the unconscious mind is always awake and listening even when we are sleeping. Erikson specialized in medical hypnosis and also promoted the belief that the unconscious mind is a creative problem solver with the capacity to generate many solutions. Below the surface there is an active mind that looks, listens, and responds; a mind that is ready and able to help, a personal mentor and benefactor. My reaction learning this was, "Great news, now how do I get in contact with this force in my nature"?

Erikson's work advanced the fields of short-term therapy and solution focused behaviorally oriented therapy. The co-creators of NLP studied and worked with Milton Erikson and fashioned a systematic approach to verbal and non verbal communication and change. In relaxed and casual manners of speech Erikson spoke to his clients using specific words to induce an altered trance state. Masterfully he wove indirect suggestions and metaphors into personalized parables. Erikson worked exclusively with the unconscious processes and all his interventions were obscure.

NLP techniques were designed to make Erikson's work more specific and available to the conscious mind. Among the many verbal and non verbal exercises offered, learning what to say and how to phrase things in order to influence and change self defeating and self destructive unconscious thoughts and feelings as well as planting self enhancing and empowering messages was like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow!

We are especially impressionable as children. So is our subconscious mind. Acting like a huge sponge it soaks up everything. Without the know how to filter and squeeze out misconstrued thoughts and painful confusing experiences the mind below the surface becomes a warehouse full of good and not so good. By the time we reach adulthood certain actions that we are taking seem out of our control. And they are but not entirely and not forever. What fuels them? Are you familiar with the terms "unconscious and unresolved issues from the past"? Now you can learn effective ways to deal with them.

In NLP there is a saying, "We can not change our personal history but we can change how we perceive our past". Perception generates belief and belief propels us to act whether we realize it or not.

"Consciousness is a priceless gem to possess". Stephanie Rachel Alt

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Source by Stephanie Alt

Tradition-Historical Criticism

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INTRODUCTION

Tradition-historical criticism is among traditional approaches in Biblical criticism. It can be defined as the study of the process by which the oral and written traditions underlying the present text of the Bible are developed into their canonical form (see Jeppese, Knud and Benedict 1984). The results of methods such as form criticism (which studies genre to which text belongs- historical tale, proverb, psalm, prophetic saying? The original setting in life or Sitz Im Leben, the process by which material is passed down), source criticism ( a study of the structural investigation of the text), textual criticism (a rediscovery of the earliest stages of a text ''s actual wording) and redaction criticism (the discipline devoted to how the final redactors or editors of the Bible not only adopted but adapted the various sources they had at their disposal for their own purposes, are utilized to achieve a comprehensive view of tradition-historical criticism since they are all directly concerned with the course of the Bible ''s composition.

It is believed that "tradition-historical criticism should be complemented by greater literary sensitivity" (Carson, Moo and Morris 1992, 83). In other words, there should be a means which should neither be considered an alternative to literary criticism, nor accorded a superior position, but rather be looked upon as a further step subsequent to literary analysis (Fohrer 1965, 30). The characteristics of tradition-historical criticism could be understood by realizing the importance of the oral stage of a tradition ''s composition and transmission.

Observing that it is misleading to regard it as a method, Di Vito (1993) opined: "tradition-historical criticism seeks to reconstruct the history of the transmission of the various individual traditions and tradition complexes that are to be found in the Old Testament" (91). Tradition-historical criticism deals with the pre-history of the books of the Old Testament and examines the gradual accumulation of traditions from the preliterary stages until their final form. Its goals, therefore, is to reconstruct a long history of the stages of a particular situation.

BRIEF HISTORY OF ITS DEVELOPMENT AND USE

Tradition-historical criticism emerged because of the impasse reached as a result of the source-critical studies in the Pentateuch at the end of the nineteenth. Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918), universally recognized as the classical exponent of the '' documentary hypothesis of the Pentateuch '', had a low view of the reliability of the Pentateuch as history, "though he accepted that a shadowy figure called Moses had in some sense been the founder of Israelite religion "(Bray 1996, 284). Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) later concluded that the documentary hypothesis was inadequate as a theory of Pentateuchal origins. He believed that each of the '' four documents '' had a prehistory which stretched back many centuries, into an ancient oral tradition which faithfully reflected many of the conditions of Babylon about 2000BC. Using form criticism, Gungel explored beyond the limitations of the written text observing that "one could hypothetically describe a tradition ''s entire history on the basis of the tradition itself, its inner history" (Di Vito, 1993). It is reasonable therefore to recognize him as the chief pioneer of tradition-historical criticism.

ASSESSMENT

Ivan Engnell (1907-64) wrote a detailed refutation of Wellhausen, using the tradition-historical criticism borrowed from Noth. He rejected the idea that there were extensive documents lying behind Genesis-Numbers. Albrecht Alt researched the distinctive nature of patriarchal religion. Gerhard von Rud found '' creeds' 'originating in Israel''s worship at an ancient shrine at Gilgal. He said these creeds formed the basis of structure of the present Hexateuch. Noth observes that behind the earliest written sources of J and E there already was a unified form with the five major themes of the Pentateuch.

There is widespread disagreement today about the specific object of tradition-historical research. Is it restricted to the phase of oral tradition? Is it all-inclusive? Furthermore, its methods are questioned. While acknowledging that changes in form / content of traditions occurred in course of transmission, Gunkel and his followers insisted on the '' fidelity '' of the transmission process over long stretched of time. It is evident that "recent field studies … emphasize that the transmission of oral tradition occurs largely through a process recomposition, or recreation, so that a text never remains unchanged" (Di Vito 1993, 98).

Furthermore, questions are being raised about reconstructuring preliterary stages of a tradition from a written document. It is argued that "form criticism and tradition-historical criticism generally have show that the New Testament is the tradition of the church between 30 and 125" (Fuller 1971, 198).

In spite of the fact that tradition-historical criticism is an approach that deals with the entire sweep of history that a tradition passes through, from its earliest beginning as an independent unit to its final elaboration and expression with the Bible, the researcher doubts the reliability of an approach that relies on oral tradition which has its inherent weaknesses, the most obvious being mutilation in transit. Remaining independent on methods like source and form criticism is also dangerous because it will continually reflect their limitations.

WORKS CITED
Bray, Gerald. 1996. Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present. Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press.

Carson, DA, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris. 1992. An introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Apollos.

Di Vito, Robert. 1993. Tradition-historical criticism. In To each its own meaning: An introduction to Biblical criticisms and their application, 90-104.

Fohrer, George. 1965. Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville: Abingdon Press.

Fuller, Reginald H. 1971. A critical introduction to the New Testament. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co.

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Source by Oliver Harding

Living With the Moto Guzzi California Vintage

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A Week with the Moto Guzzi California Vintage Street Cred without the "wannabe" Moto Guzzi has more "cruiser street cred" than most people give it credit for. They've been around continuously since 1921; longer than anyone but Harley Davidson. But for Harley Davidson, Guzzi's been building cruisers longer than anyone els – their first cruiser in the incarnation you see above coming out in 1967 with the V700. Guzzi has always liked building "big" bikes, but we must adjust scale. Italy, which was Guzzi's biggest market for most of it's life, had production street bikes with less than 100cc for decades – a bike above 300cc was considered "big".

Guzzi was at the top of the heap early on, with production 500cc bikes that were reliable and sporting. The 500cc Falcone of the 50s is an excellent example of this, a bike with incredible reliability, to the point where an American Guzzi Club member is an original owner of two, both ridden on close to a daily basis for more than 50 years! Guzzi builds cruisers, and they have built them for a long, long time. This is no late-comer, me-too, bandwagon cruiser, built to exploit a market niche that came about from Harley-Davidson's renaissance. Moto Guzzi toughed it out for years when companies with better resources and larger dealer networks walked all over them.

The thing is, they never gave up, they never stopped building the platform, and they stayed true to their mission. The current "cruiser" platform is built around the laterally-mounted V-twin motor (originally 700cc, now 1100), running through an in-line, automobile-type transmission straight through to a drive shaft and bevel-drive final. After more than 40 years, it's a highly refined system. The motor could best be described as a "two cylinder small-block, American V-8 ?. This really is not a stretch. The cam is in the vee, there is a conventional sump, it has a hemi-head with pushrods and rockers. It also makes gobs and gobs of torque, is insanely easy to work on, and is dead-nuts reliable. The California Vintage is a celebration of this linage, from the first V-twins, through the Police Bike era and up through today. The first California appeared on the Eldorado platform, all white-pin-striped black with a white-trimmed "buddy seat". So what did Moto Guzzi do with this (arguments start here) most popular platform cruiser bike ever to come from Europe? The second-oldest continuously built cruiser platform in existence? They continuously refined it

The refinements are many. Brakes are sport-bike-standard Double Brembos in the front and a single in the rear. The 1094cc engine has a smooth, stumble-free injection system. The exhaust meets the tough Euro-3 standards, and the standard bags are best-of-breed huge and integrated perfectly into the design. The seat is just plain sweet. The windscreen has been tested to assure smooth flow around the rider. The suspension comes with a Marzocchi hydraulic telescopic fork with rebound and compression adjustability. The rear suspension is ubiquitous twin shock, with preload and compression adjustability. That Guzzi sound is still there. It sounds like no other v-twin engine, unlike their more "me-too" cruiser late-comers. It's kind of V-Twin, but more "small block". Brings smiles by the bag load, and you do not get into that "Harley patented their sound" conversation. Unique is good. It looks like a real, honest-to-goodness, Magnum Force police bike. The Cal weighs in at about 560lbs, and it really shows when the turns appear in front of you. You have a choice of three gears at any "happy speed".

The Engineers did not give in to the drag-racing-slick-rear-tire look. It's ALL Guzzi, and that means it's not a Harley, Harley-clone, Harley-wannabe; Harley anything. It's the anti-Harley in the cruiser market. It's the non-wannabe. It's the Cruiser Bike for someone that rides a lot of sport bikes The combination of suspension, brakes, handling and balance make this a bike for a non-cruiser-cruiser-buyer. Guzzi did not give in to fads, it stuck to its principles. No fat tires or huge cubic-inch motors; just not needed. The Goose will definitely go "fast enough" (Jim Barron of Rose Farm Classics claims well over 135mph).

If you want to ride a bike a lot, anywhere, anytime, in a comfortable riding position that does not require a kidney belt and three bottles of Advil for your sore arms and buffeted neck, this is your bike. I Got up at 5 o'clock that Friday morning, knowing that I was going to ride the California Vintage to work. I had just wrapped up a two-week test of the Moto Guzzi Breva 1200 Sport; this was different – it would be three hundred miles of riding on a real, honest-to-goodness sumbitchin made-for-the-long-road cruiser. I picked the bike up and gingerly rode off. I was thinking that it would be a much heavier bike than I'm used to, but after a few miles I was surprised by the nimble feel. It was nowhere near as light and "zippy" as the Breva 1200, but it moved nicely and the not-too-fat tires had superb turn in. I knew that I would have to tweak the suspension a bit, but not nearly so much as the Breva. Funny, it has almost as many adjustments, more than my Ducati even. The steering shock is also a nice addition, as the windscreen requires it. This is the first floorboard-equipped bike I've been on in about 16 years. I did not know what to expect. Friends of mine said that the Cal's floorboards were small, that "it needed highway pegs", and "there's no place to move your feet around". Well, I have a size 12 shoe, and I found a couple of things off the bat:

  • I had never heard of full floating floorboards before, and I like them.
  • I was able to move my feet in different positions while cruising long distance.
  • The big jugs on the Vintage do not prevent highway pegs, although I found a spot where I could hang my heels very comfortably without them.
  • The little peg used as a pivot for your brake lever is a very smart idea.

General Riding Effortless.

The big-pulled back bars take some getting used to, especially after the Breva's motard-y rack. Once underway, the big 1100 pulls like a rhino, even from beneath 2000 rpm. Gearchange is "guzzi effortless", which means that you "press and hold" each gear until you release the clutch. If you want something a little quicker, get the 6-speed on the Breva Sport / Griso / Norge, as it is much more refined. The five-speed on the Guzzi, slow as it is, is fantastically spaced to ride on the street with. First gear is completely useable, and I found myself cruising the streets of Santa Barbara in first between lights, only shifting when I had some yardage between me and the next stop. The first-second combination allows for easy maneuvering and nice "zippy" moves on the streets. If you're expecting the slouched-over, "lone, unloved and apathetic biker" riding position that many cruisers offer, you're going to be disappointed. The best position on this bike is a standard straight up and down, nearly cop-like. It's comfortable, gives you tons of visibility – you're eye-to-eye with drivers in all but the tallest SUVs. Friends that see me on the road say that I look better on this bike than the others that I've ridden – time to have a chat with the wife and see if she likes white or black.

The controls have a nice "retro" look, but they are most definitely modern. Italian bike owners will be familiar with this layout. The clutch is butter smooth, allows for a lot of feathering and never gives a hint of any wooden or binary grabbiness. The instruments all have a slightly retro character, and this is also attractive, down to the speedometer that reads about 10% optimistic.

Looks like Guzzi had some left over parts from my old one, as they read almost identically. Brakes took a little getting used to. I'm more of a "front braker" person, so I usually apply the fronts and then ease the back brake in for a settling effect. Turns out that the Guzzi Linked brakes work well for this, although I adjusted my technique slightly to just use the front brake lever to peel off speed, and the rear lever to get down to business. For those of you unfamiliar, the linked brakes on equipped Moto Guzzi bikes operate the left front disc in conjunction with the rear disc. The front brake lever operates only the front right Brembo.

The combination is both effective and safe. Hard to high-side a bike with linked brakes when used correctly, since you can modulate the speed of both wheels with the rear lever. The Cal's narrower than current vogue tires allow for the bike to turn in beautifully. I had to adjust the steering shock for high speed turns, as it tends to have an uncomfortable wobbling frequency around an indicated 80-90 in the big sweepers without it. Once dialed in it all disappears. The adjustments of the suspension are also welcome, giving me a very comfortable ride with dynamic handling capabilities. Lightness, if a word like that can be used with a cruiser, is apparent. The bike weighs in at only 560-ish pounds, and this translates into the "flick-ability" of this Guzzi when compared to it's rivals, and also accentuates the already-high-standard Brembos abilities. The 1100cc engine is matched nicely to this bike – no more engine needed because you're traveling smart and light, not loaded up with needless accessories, googaws and an extra 700cc or more to pull it around. Riding in traffic The first few miles northbound on the 405 from picking up the bike revealed a nice easy cruise in moderate traffic.

As I neared LAX, the traffic backed up and the commuter lane ended, giving me the choice of splitting lanes or sitting. Like most California riders, I chose the former, but with caution as I was adjusting to the big Guzzi's systems and controls. I have to thank Clint Eastwood and others for putting the look of the Guzzi into people's minds. My black jacket, white Shoei helmet and the windscreen / light combo parted traffic like Charlton Heston in a red bathrobe. My urban camouflage was highly successful. Even so, the bags on the Guzzi, big as they are, do not protrude past the bars or floorboards (I think this is part of the philosophy of their engineers as exhibited by the Norge's similar layout), and the upright stance gives you so much control over the bike that splitting lanes is not the thrill ride I had expected. Puppies and Kittens to that.

The cavernous bags are a commuters' delight. I was able to pack all my goodies in the side bags, and the real show-stopper was the ability to put my 17? Mac Laptop in without having to take a running start. I could have easily fit five a side! We're talking grocery bags in here. The bags come with an inner liner, they open very wide and of course have locks. I was advised to keep them locked down at all time to prevent accidental opening, did not try to find out what would happen if I did not. The only note about the bags would be to expect to paint the lids once in awhile as you're going to hit them from time-to-time when mounting the bike. I do not think this is a big deal if you ride it a lot, as stuff happens and that's just part of riding.

The Guzzi is so much fun to ride I do not think any of them are going to be bought as hangar queens anyway. This is a real, he-man, ride-me-everyday kind of bike. I like the way I feel and look on it. I like being seen on it, but I would not ride it just to be seen on it. Does that make sense? Cool vs. Checkbook Cool. Looking for a Cool Cruiser or Big Bagger? The California Vintage is "Seriously Cool" Cool is Fonzi before the Shark Tank. Cool is James Bond before Roger Lazenby. Ford before the Pinto. The Blues Brothers before Belushi died. While it is most definitely true that some people that ride motorcycles from "The Motorcycle Company" are cool, it's not because they own Harleys. They are cool AND they chose to ride Harleys.

But there are people that are cool and they choose to ride Vespas. The issue here is the great number of people that buy Harleys and other "lifestyle" motorcycles because it will make them cool. This is "checkbook cool". No work needed, just add money and you're cool. To whom?

Well, definitely to other people that did the same thing and wrote a check. After all, one chink in the armor there, and the whole house of cards could come crashing down! If, all of a sudden, object that everyone was spending all their money on to be cool all of a sudden is not cool anymore, then the now familiar "bubble" in that particular "market for cool" would burst, and you ' d have a lot of equipment and associated bits flooding the market, and everyone would be trying to get something else that is cool. A classic example of this is the Ferrari market just after Enzo died. It went through the ceiling, then burst as speculators paying exorbitant prices could not find anyone to purchase, and dumping began that, nearly 20 years later, only has about 50-75% of the values ​​at that point. I'm not saying that the Harley market is going to crash. I'm also not insinuating that people will stop buying cruisers. My point is, buy something based on facts, what YOU want, and consider all options. Too often, I'll be talking to people that want to get a cruiser, perhaps their first one, and they are fixated on the Harley, and ONLY the Harley.

Sometimes you'll have the Yamaha, Suzuki, Victory or others in the mix, but I do not hear anyone saying, "What about that big Guzzi", or "I considered the Guzzi but want the Roadliner", etc. The California Vintage is not on their radar. Post why? Lack of logo underwear? No lifestyle? What! ?? The Guzzi is a great bagger for the serious rider. Guzzi gets in the magazines, but the European editor of one of these really does not like anything without 150 horsepower or a Munich nameplate, and just continuously "bags" on Guzzi to the US public. Shame on him. The Guzzi is well-suited to the US buyer and market. Big, long roads, lots of friends with bikes, a loyal following and a requirement for reliability. The California Vintage is a freeking bargain. If you were to load up any other cruiser with great bags, custom seats, windscreen, sportbike-level front fork and adjustable rear shocks, -you'd be lucky to get under $ 20-22,000. Yet, here's your California Vintage, with an incredible seat, best-of-breed suspension, mongo bags and nicely integrated screen on the basic platform, standard, for $ 15K. Some editors lump it against the sportster because of its weight and engine size, but the real comparison is the big baggers. If your idea of ​​cool is:

  • Light and maneuverable
  • Reliable
  • Heritage and Style without too much bling
  • Comfortable Two-Up seating, but not barcalounger
  • 43mpg
  • Something Different
  • An incredibly open and friendly owners' group
  • You want a great commuter cruiser.
  • Oh, and you are not buying a hangar queen. You're hittin 'the road!

If you think the above list defines "your cool" – You should consider the Guzzi. You should ride the California Vintage and see if it's for you. Find out when the dealer is going to have rides available and get on the bike. Fill up the bags. Bring the white helmet and sunglasses, and you're CHP – 1972. Retro with some serious riding chops, that's the California Vintage. The California Vintage leaps into the modern world from 1972 like Bob Beaman's long jump. It may not be your bike, but it's worth your consideration. You'll be pleasantly surprised. Your First "Big" Cruiser I'm going to go out on a limb here and recommend the California Vintage if you've never had a bagger before. Reason for this is that it's light. Some of the really big bikes are incredibly difficult to get in and out of parking spaces, let alone get around parking lots. They are not easy to get the hang of, and can be downright dangerous to someone that does not have a lot of experience, or does not ride much. The Guzzi is well-suited because it's conservative geometry and low center of gravity allow a less-experienced rider to easily get around a parking lot, and build serious confidence on the open road. Sweepers and bumpy turns become no big deal in no time, and the linked brakes and featherweight controls allow the rider to stop on a piece of newspaper. It's a very easy bike to ride, and if you ride a lot, it's very rewarding as you'll just be able to DUST some of the big cruisers through the twisties.

They may pass you on the straights (but I DOUBT IT). If you're like me, that just does not matter, as I do not ride much with anyone that is trying to die or attract too much attention from John Q. Law. The Cal is your friendly neighborhood happy speed bike that is the cruiser that sport bike and sport-touring types should buy. It's the cruiser for the rider that is going to reel in some big miles next year. A side-by-side comparison of the California Vintage and Harley Davidson Heritage Softail … After riding the California Vintage around, I thought it would be nice to compare it to the "standard" of the group – The Harley Davidson Heritage Softail. I chose the softail because it has similar look and purpose. It is a luxury touring bike with a clear windscreen, bags, etc. It's purpose is "retro"; cop-like, long miles, touch of retro and, as the name suggests, "Heritage". I think this is probably an accurate description of the big Guzzi as well. Price Price was slightly difficult to figure. Moto Guzzi has a single price, $ 14,999. There are no "ups" involved. You can buy only three accessories, and they're all luggage, a trunk bag, tail bag and a cover. That's it. If you want to add 40lbs of leather and logo items, you're pretty much out of luck here. Bonus in my opinion, because you're not going to get sold a whole bunch of stuff you do not need just so the dealer can load up your out-the-door price. The Guzzi is unique enough as it stands. The Harley's base is $ 17,999. There's a "freight" charge of $ 330, Wire wheels are another $ 500, Emissions in California are another $ 200, and a security system is $ 345. So now you're at $ 19,199. Oh yeah. Guzzi has that killer Marzocchi fork. Harley's got that too, but that's another $ 1400. Hard bags similar to the Guzzi will be another $ 800. So now we're up to about 21,399. That's an $ extra 6400 to pack it like the Moto Guzzi California Vintage.

So what do you get for the money? You do get that Harley name plate, so all you're friends will instantly know that you are part of the crowd and "stayed in the box". You get the same warranty (2 years), but I did not see roadside assistance, which is what is offered by Guzzi. How about power? Do you get more power for your money? Well, the Guzzi's 1094cc motor lists it's horspower as 72hp. Harley does not list it's horsepower figures anywhere on their site, but after a Google Search I found the highest output listedas 82hp for their 96 ci (1570cc) lump. When you factor weight in, I get 9 lbs per horsepower for the Harley, and 8 lbs per horsepower for the Guzzi. So the $ 6400 does give you one more pound per horsepower for the Harley, given that the highest figures I could find are accurate (I found lower, too). Harley also delivers an extra 11 ft / lbs of torque, which indeed is nothing to sneeze at. So, dollar-wise, it $ costs 640 per extra horsepower, and $ 582 for each extra foot-pound of torque. Of course, Harley will be most happy to put more ponies under your butt for an extra charge.

You could also just live with the stock leather soft bags on the Harley and save more money … I fell in love with the Marzocchi forks. You can take them off the Harley if you want, but the handling will definitely suffer and the Guzzi will just walk away from you in the twisties. Maybe that's not you're thing, but frankly, I believe that if you're considering a Guzzi, you're probably very interested in how the bike will handle and move. Guzzi does not publish it's lean angles, but from my experience they are extremely sporting. Harley states their lean angles are 29 ° or thereabouts, and I'm sure that Guzzi stomps this mercilessly. The big, bad brembos are something else that Guzzi has that Harley does not; I did not could not find this available from Harley – I'm sure they are available aftermarket, just pony up the bucks. I guess it depends on what you want. Many people find it extremely important to belong, and I appreciate that very much. Harley's community is very strong and definitely has a long and storied lifestyle.

You're never going to have much of a "bad boy" image on a California Guzzi, excepting the bad cops fromMagnum Force. The Guzzi is pointed directly at riders that want a great handling, comfortable and reliable bagger to soak up long distances. After all, once you're going 80, ride, comfort, handling and braking become very important. The Harley will definitely hit the road, soak up the miles, and you get to belong to "the club" – and pay the extra $ 6400 in "dues". I've never been much of a "joiner". I am a Guzzi enthusiast and I will readily admit that I am glad that the Guzzi compares so favorably. The Moto Guzzi National Owner's Club is a great organization that I just have not gotten around to joining, and yet my friends in the club still invite me on their rides and treat me like a member when I show up. I think guilt drives membership there. The club is very family-oriented and friendly as all-get-out. The meets definitely have nothing "racy" about them, in fact, they are more anarchic than anything else.

I think I've met the club's president, but nobody ever discusses club politics, so I think he got elected by missing a meeting. I guess it depends on what you want, but I believe that a side-by-side comparison of the Heritage and the California Vintage is a worthy one. The big Guzzi really packs a tremendous value for the money, and it's a real delight to own and ride. I knew this day would come … Ok. It's not my bike. I've shared that. I had less time with it than the Breva 1200 Sport that GuzziUSA was kind enough to let me ride. I took the Breva back, loving the bike, but I knew that it had to go on, eventually, to a happy owner. This time it's different. The Guzzi got under my skin. This bike is the "girl you take home to Mom". I was not ready to let go. I woke up early and decided to take the bike from Northridge down to Newport Beach in Friday Morning Rush Hour to have lunch with a college buddy. I had not really experienced the center of Los Angeles in very heavy traffic, and I figured that I-5 at 9am would be a perfect crucible. This is not a short trip. Over 70 miles on LA's inner city freeway into the heart of Orange County. I would be traveling across areas that are some of the busiest in the US.

Names like East LA interchange, where the 110, 10, 5 and 60 all meet in a pasta bowl of roads, and further south, the "Orange Crush" near Disneyland beckoned. I would definitely be doing some lane splittin 'today. I hoped that the big, police-bike-inspired Guzzi was up to its heritage. For a Cruiser, the Guzzi is not exceptionally wide. The seat is pretty mellow, really, and the bags do not stick out further than the handlebars, as far as I could tell. The mirrors protrude slightly further, but not so much. Ride height is perfect for heavy traffic. You sit up high and can look all but the largest SUV drivers right in the eye. When you're in the canyons between them, this and a good set of headlights is definitely a plus. The day started out warm and proceeded to heat up to the typical, Santa-Ana winded Indian Summer day that is famous in the region. A great test for the bike. Stifling hot, heavy traffic and a big cruiser. Not as much fun as canyon carving, but if you live in LA or any big city, considering the purchase of this wonderful, big Guzzi, you sure as heck want to know that it can live in traffic in tough conditions. Once onto the 5 South, I cruise in comfort until I reach the northern reaches of downtown LA. Traffic is backing up. I began to weave between the well-spaced cars as they moved along at 45-55 mph. Absolutely no problem.

If anything the front windscreen was too efficient in that it moved the air around me instead of through the vents in my jacket. I continued as the traffic deepened and the myriad ramps of the East LA interchange approached, signaling that stopped traffic and real, slow-speed splitting was in my future. As I worked my way through the traffic, I noticed that I was splitting through cars like butter – only the narrowest of passages had me slowed or stopped, and this had a lot to do with the Cal being "someone else's bike". Lane splitting is a black art that involves profiling the vehicle / driver combinations around you, spotting goof balls on cell phones, putting on make-up (sharp objects near your eyes at speed? Stupid!), Or even reading the paper. It also involves people looking back and forth in their rear view mirrors making eye contact with you. These are the real scary ones, because you do not know if they are going to move out of your way or commit Assault with a Deadly Weapon. So I take it easy. Hey! I'm on a cruiser.

There are a few squids that I let by, happy to risk a little more. I'm 47, taking my Friday off, and headed for lunch on a bike given to me for a week. I'm sure as hell not going to screw this up, the '09 Guzzis are coming out and I want my butt on them as soon as I can arrange it! The roads widen and smooth out into Orange County. Big HOV lanes, smooth roads and I'm in business all the way to Newport Beach. Arriving off the 55, I realize that my buddy, Dean, has moved his office. I call, and he's in a meeting. I need to get gas anyway, as I want to fill up the tank before I return the bike. Time to bring up one thing to remember about living with the California. The tank is kind of on the small side. I KNOW that it says that it holds 5 gallons, but I've ridden it 25 miles with the reserve light on and still only put about 3.8 into it. Jeeeeezzzussss! Can the Engineers at Guzzi give us our 6 gallon tanks back from the 60's? With these wonderful bikes turning 43 mpg, we'd have some RANGE! The seats and riding position are comfortable enough for two-plus hour stints, let's make some tanks that extend the ride. Ok. Rant over.

Had a nice lunch, a few laughs and realized that Mall Food in Newport Beach is very different than the Post-Nuclear-Battlefield food that is served in the East San Fernando Valley Shopping Centers. Time for the final ride up the 405 in rush hour traffic to the California's final stop. More lane splitting, lots of bumps (the 405 is unbelievably rough) and final arrival. I get here one week after picking it up, only 10 miles short of 1000 miles total. I really rode the bike hard, enjoyed it thoroughly and left with a sweet taste in my mouth. Time to go home and negotiate with the wife …

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Source by Danilo Gurovich

Stay in a Sea Facing Hotel in Rameswaram

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Rameswaram is a major tourist as well as pilgrimage destination in Tamil Nadu. It is also called the "Varanasi of South India". Rameswaram is mainly famous for its temples and beautiful beaches. Find out more about Rameswaram and also check some sea facing hotels in Rameswaram.

Rameswaram beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in India. The sea in Rameswaram inhabits the rare sea species and coral reefs. A wide variety of marine life such as starfish, sea cucumber, crabs, sponges and the sea cow are found here. The clean beach and shallow water here are an ideal destination for swimming and sunbathing. Here one can also enjoy the frolic of dolphins in the water. Ariyaman beach is one of the most popular beaches in Rameswaram. It is nearly 150 meters wide and is stretched about 2 km. The beach is clean and surrounded by casuarina trees. The waters here are calm and the waves are gentle. Nearby situated watchtower and children's park are also quite popular. Other attractions include an artificial thundershower, a swimming pool, boating facility, a water scooter and wind surfing. Adventure enthusiasts can also enjoy Para sailing here.

The nearest airport to Rameswaram is at Madurai, located at a distance of 163 km. Taxi services are available from the airport to Rameswaram. Rameswaram railway station has regular trains connecting it to the other parts of the Country. NH 49 connects Madurai to Dhanushkodi. The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation runs daily bus services connecting various cities to Rameswaram. While travelling to a place situated besides the sea like Rameswaram, it is advised to stay in a sea facing hotel. This can enhance the pleasure of your trip several times. Watching the sea from the comfort of your room can be a great experience. You will feel ever refreshed by the breeze coming from the sea. You can also enjoy your morning and evening tea with the breathtaking views of sunrise and sunset sitting in the balcony of your room. In short, you can enjoy each and every second of your stay. There is numerous sea facing hotels in Rameswaram offering a comfortable and memorable stay to the customers. Some of them are mentioned below.

Facing Sea Hotels in Rameswaram

Hotel Sri Saravana, South Car Street is one of the best sea facing hotels in Rameswaram. It is located just 200 meters away from the sea and main Temple. It also has an easy accessibility to all other tourist locations. The hotel has a good overall rating of 3.5 stars out of 5 from 22 reviews and is recommended by 6 out of 10 guests stayed here. Well designed rooms with attached balcony and all other features are offered here. You can ideally enjoy the views of sea from here. It also provides several other facilities. The hotel is a good value for money as the room tariff starts from Rs.1240.

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Source by Karan Mishra

Borat – Orientalist Satire for Make Glorious Debate Western Intelligentsiya

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"Dzienkuje" Sacha Baron Cohen!

We were waiting for Godot, but you sensed what we really needed and instead sent us Borat! And Borat is if nothing else a moveable feast and a gift that keeps on giving. You managed simultaneously to offend Kazakhs, frighten Jewish anti-defamation groups, outrage the orientalism monitors, tee off hypocritically thin-skinned Americans, provoke laughter across the Beavis and Butthead, Southpark, and Archie Bunker generations, and last – but certainly not least –provide glorious opportunity for Western intellectuals for criticize and debate merit, meaning, and interpretation of celluloid masterpiece. Finally, thanks to you, we can now confirm that rumors of Yakov Smirnov's death were greatly exaggerated. It turns out he is fine and doing well, having found gainful employment in great American city called Branson, Missouri ( "Hours great … auditorium, career, and pockets less filling … but what a country!" … Ok , bad example)! Slamma dunk, emission accomplished, and hiyya-fiyva, to you Sacha!

Talk about a movie that led to theatergoers being bombarded – even before they checked cinema times – with conflicting cues and instructions from cultural elites, trendsetters, and peers:

1) Go the movie. Laugh, have fun!

2) If you go to the movie, do not laugh!

3) Go the movie, laugh, but later feign outrage!

4) Do not go the movie – in part because you might laugh!

5) If you do go, there's something wrong with you.

6) If you do not go, there's something wrong with you.

Borat !: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan can not help but leave the impression that we may have become an over-scripted, over-programmed culture.

This article attempts to address some of the controversies and larger ramifications resulting from Borat the character and Borat! the movie (hereafter Borat!). It does so by tapping some of the wide-ranging film criticism, op-eds, and Internet postings that the film has spawned. An admission and disclaimer of sorts about the film seems in order before I begin: I went … I laughed … I wept … (but because I was laughing, not because I went).

Is for make fun of Kazakh peoples! … NOT !!!

Let us begin with a question that has consumed so many keystrokes in recent months. In part we can do so because Sacha Baron Cohen's intent (ie production / supply side) is so much more straightforward than is the question of how the movie is or has been interpreted and used by audiences (ie consumption / demand side).

Shortly after the American release of Borat! an interview with Sacha Baron Cohen appeared in the 14 November 2006 edition of Rolling Stone. Clearly, a lot of people do not know about the interview, have not read it, or do not wish to, because on the Internet the debate about who Baron Cohen satirizes in the film rages on. While there can be, are, and will be many interpretations of who gets hurt as a result of Borat! (More on this below), Baron Cohen's comments to the interviewer Neil Strauss really eliminate much of the speculation about what Baron Cohen intends the film to do. That Baron Cohen may have realized too late that there was real value and power in keeping mum about his intentions with Borat is possible when you consider that, according to Strauss, Baron Cohen was bothered enough by the encounter that he called Strauss back a week after the interview to discuss it.

Here is what Baron Cohen said that should – although probably won't – once and for all dampen speculation about his motivations in making Borat !. Baron Cohen was reacting to news that the Kazakh government was thinking of suing him and placing a full-page ad promoting the country in The New York Times (they eventually did the latter):

I was surprised, because I always had faith in the audience that they would realize that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices. And the reason we chose Kazakhstan was because it was a country that no one had heard anything about, so we could essentially play on stereotypes they might have about this ex-Soviet backwater. The joke is not on Kazakhstan. I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist – who believe that there's a country where homosexuals wear blue hats and the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine and the age of consent has been raised to nine years old.

Thus can end much of the debate about Cohen's intentions. It's about the people Borat interviews – in the film, Americans – not about Kazakhstan and Kazakhs. The film is designed to be about Americans.

Certainly, this was what Ryan Gilbey of London's leftist weekly, New Statesman, took away from the film. An article introduced as "Sacha Baron Cohen's exposure of crass Americana" and "The Kazakh ace reporter uncovers uncomfortable truths about the US" summarized the film as follows:

The violence that Borat encounters on the New York subway after trying to greet male strangers with kisses is frighteningly real …. There's an aging cowpoke who requires only the mildest of prompts to endorse the murder of gays and Muslims. Others indict themselves as much by what they do not say as what they do. A redneck rodeo crowd shows no compunction about cheering Borat's gung-ho speech about Iraq, clearly not realizing that what he actually said was: "We support your war of terror!" And it's shocking to witness the tacit acceptance with which Borat's ghoulish requests are greeted. Trying to find the ideal car for mowing down gypsies, or seeking the best gun for killing Jews, he encounters only compliance among America's salespeople. The customer, it seems, is always right, even when he's far right.

An April 2003 article by Lucy Kelaart in the British daily The Guardian, suggests that some Kazakhs – at least those with some exposure to the West – understood this about Borat even back then (based on his British television show visits to the US) . Most of Kelaart's interview subjects on the streets of Almaty were unamused, rather than really offended, and thought Borat was just plain stupid:

Ainura, 25, recently spent a year living in the US. Does she think Borat is giving Kazakhstan a bad name. "Borat's not making fun of Kazakhs, he's making fun of Americans," she says. "They are gullible. Not one of them said, 'No way – that can not be true.' The show describes a US stereotype, not a Kazakh one. It lays bare the American attitude towards foreigners: strong accents, loud voices, stupidity, male chauvinism. "

Of course, as I stated earlier and we shall see, were Baron Cohen's intentions the be-all and end-all of the criticism this article would be far shorter than it is. Particularly in the age of post-modern criticism, the audience and any real or potential sub-audiences take center-stage.

The "Full" Sacha Baron Cohen: Beyond Borat

Lest Americans who see Borat! think in ethnocentric terms that we are Baron Cohen's principal target in his work, it is instructive to look at the "Full" Sacha Baron Cohen, or at latest a broader array of the characters he has played on television and in film.

In Baron Cohen's other signature role in Hollywood films in 2006, he played Will Ferrell's foil and antagonist in the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Baron Cohen's character, Jean Girard, is a French "Formula Un" driver who takes the NASCAR circuit by storm. He is a walking embodiment some might say of the "freedom fries," "red (neck) state" American stereotype of the French – a snobbish, effete, espresso-sipping, opera-listening, L'Etranger-reading (adding insult to injury all while he drives!), Perrier-sponsored homosexual (his longtime partner played by Conan O'Brien's one-time latenight sidekick Andy Richter).

It is hard to see this as a role in which Baron Cohen is somehow exploiting the American audience, other than that by playing a stereotype intended to be maximally offensive he is in a sense condescending that audience and its intelligence. Rather, his role as Jean Girard seems quintessentially English (a la Benny Hill), and in that sense sheds light back on Borat, as we learn from his Rolling Stone interview that Baron Cohen grew up idolizing Peters Sellers and loved Sellers' infamous French stereotype , Inspector Jacques Clouseau:

Baron Cohen's future was set when he was roughly eight years old by two significant events. The first was seeing one of Peter Sellers' Pink Panther movies at a friend's ninth birthday party – setting off a lifelong admiration of the British comic actor's work. The other was when his older brothers snuck him into a theater to see Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Certainly, Baron Cohen's most famous character – and the one whose success probably was responsible for Borat getting a chance over the long-run – is the faux "gangsta" rapper Ali G .. Indeed, it is instructive to note that in Ali G.'s first full-length feature film in 2001, Ali G. Indahouse, instead of an epic quest for Pamela Anderson, Ali G. is in pursuit of the supermodel Naomi Campbell. Much of the criticism of "Ali G." sounds in fact remarkably familiar when we see allegations about Baron Cohen's insensitivity to Kazakhs. Within the UK, Ali G. precipitated comments like the following from Felix Dexter, a comedian on a British television series. Substitute "Kazakhs" for "black street culture" and one could get a characterization similar to what we see in the wake of Borat !: "But a lot of the humor is laughing at black street culture and it is being celebrated because it allows the liberal middle classes to laugh at that culture in a context where they can retain their sense of political correctness. "

Tell It to the Kazakhs! … Nevertheless, Why Exactly Kazakhstan?

The forefather and prototype for Borat was the character of a Moldovan television reporter, named Alexi Krickler, who Cohen played in the mid-1990s on British television. According to Cohen that character was based on a doctor he met at a free beach getaway in Astrakhan, southern Russia: "… there was a guy there who was a doctor, and the moment I met him, I started laughing … he had some elements of Borat, but he had none of the racism or the misogyny or the anti-Semitism. he was Jewish, actually. "

This is revealing inasmuch as that the personal characteristics are separated from the views he ascribes to his artistic creation, which some might complain is the essence of stereotyping.

It was as Alexi Krickler that Baron Cohen hit upon what Strauss terms "a tiny epiphany that would eventually fuel Baron Cohen's career":

For example, when interviewing someone about the rugby team British Lions, he'd go back and forth with the interviewee for ten minutes, seemingly unable to comprehend that they do not have actual lions playing rugby. "I was struck by the patience of some of these members of the upper class, who were so keen to appear polite – particularly on camera – that they would never walk away," Baron Cohen says.
Of course, there was a difference that may have petered out over the years … at least in Borat !: originally, Baron Cohen heavily concentrated on the genuinely powerful, whether celebrities or those with money and power, but in Borat! he clearly started sliding toward "taking the piss out of" more average citizens. Perhaps this is where he "crossed the line."

Greetings from "Post (card) -Commiestan"

The Borat of Borat! was still to have several incarnations from Alexi Krickler to the Borat Sagdiyev of today. After Alexi Krickler came an Albanian television reporter named Kristo. Only later did Baron Cohen's "Borat" become Kazakh: first as Borat Karabzhanov, then as Borat Dutbayev, and finally in 2003 as Borat Sagdiyev. This is perhaps important for it suggests that although Sacha Baron Cohen and Kazakhstan have become inseparably intertwined, Borat's "Kazakhness" was almost incidental. One is inevitably reminded here of mistaken intention sometimes conveniently read into retrospective analyses: Bram Stoker's Dracula is today inextricably associated with Romania, yet Dracula apparently started out in Stoker's imagination as "Count Wampyr" from Styria (Austria) and only later (like Borat) migrated eastward to Transylvania.

Still, Moldova, Albania, and Kazakhstan have a clear common theme – they are all part of the post-communist world of the former Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union. And it is worth recalling here Baron Cohen's own comments mentioned earlier: "And the reason we chose Kazakhstan was because it was a country that no one had heard anything about, so we could essentially play on stereotypes they might have about this ex-Soviet backwater . " In other words, a generic post (card) -Commiestan of sorts.

Baron Cohen has not commented specifically on why Krickler had to leave Moldova and change his name and why his television reporter is always from the post-communist world, but we can speculate. In this way not much has changed from Bram Stoker's time: the need to find a setting that is simultaneously exotic and yet familiar, that acts as a prop but not distraction from the underlying goal of the artform. One wonders to what extent Borat's migration from Moldova to Albania to Kazakhstan was dictated directly or indirectly by real world events – Albania certainly losing some of the "unknown" character that is key to this plot device, because of heavier news coverage surrounding Kosovo in the late 1990s (witness perhaps, the film Wag the Dog). Distance of course makes parody easier (witness the infamous Weird Al Yankovic song and video parody "Amish Paradise" – talk about a disenfranchised community who was unlikely to get upset!) But only up to a point: Go eastward young man! .. .but not too far east because then you become unrecognizable and your audience can not relate and the power of the satire is lost!

Molvania, Romanovia, and Kreplakistan … Oh My!

This still leaves a key question unanswered: why has Baron Cohen sought to have his mock reporter come from real places … however fictionally-described? If, as Baron Cohen suggests, Borat is not from the real Kazakhstan, but from a fictional Kazakhstan so absurd that "the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist," why choose a real country name to begin with? Mirroring the separation, reclamation of independence, and micro-state phenomena of the region itself during the post-communist era, recent years have seen an explosion of "really imagined communities" in the form of fictional countries placed in the post-communist space.

As John Tierney opined in a New York Times op-ed, "I wish Cohen had instead invented a country like Molvania," rather than have Borat come from Kazakhstan. Molvania is, of course, the well-known fictional land of the Jetlag Travel Guide series [Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry], described as "somewhere north of Bulgaria and downwind of Chernobyl." (Despite the fictitious country's name, stipulated location, and characteristics, its three Australian authors maintain it was not modeled on Moldova or even Romania, but was inspired by travels in Portugal.) Among many other things, Molvania is home to Europe's oldest nuclear reactor , and as one of its authors relates: "It's a very beautiful country now that radiation levels have dropped to acceptable standards."

Unsafe nuclear power plants, environmental degradation, and genetic mutation are also the punchline in Ben Stiller's 2004 comedy Dodgeball, in which we are introduced to Fran Stalinofskivichdavidovitchsky of Romanovia: "In her home country of Romanovia, dodgeball is the national sport and her nuclear power plant's team won the championship five years running, which makes her the deadliest woman on earth with a dodgeball. "

Then there is Mike Myers' creation of Kreplakistan in the Austin Powers series: Kreplakistan is a former Soviet republic apparently unable to protect its nuclear warheads and in a state of perpetual chaos (as mock CNN clips of people running pell-mell convey to us) . There is speculation on the Wikipedia that Kreplakistan is "likely based on the real Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, now the Republic of Karakalpakstan." More convincing, however, is the idea that "kreplak" is inspired by "kreplach, an Eastern European Jewish dish consisting of meat-filled dumplings."

But is inventing a country the solution to the problems of negative stereotyping and prejudice? If the Internet is any indication: apparently not. Molvania comes in for sharp criticism from those who view it as yet another variation on the (neo-) orientalist theme. There are angry denunciations particularly of the photos the authors use in the book and on the Molvania website – for while they play the role of fictional, mockworthy Molvanians, they are indeed real people. Nor have criticisms of Molvania been consigned merely to the orientalism monitors. In comments similar to those of Kazakh officials about Borat, in 2004 former UK minister for Europe Keith Vaz criticized the book because "it does reflect some of the prejudices which are taking root [in Europe] … The sad thing is, some people might actually believe that this country exists. " Ironically, too, the choice of a fictional "everycountry" can in fact be interpreted as even more insulting because it treats the people of an entire region or group as an essentially undifferentiated "them" – "I can not tell 'em apart , they all look alike … "

Borat, Class, and Urbanity

The parallel drawn by John Tierney between Borat! and Molvania is arguably a natural one, and thus one that many, especially on the Internet, have made. Particularly as stories began to come out about how Borat's mock "Kazakh" home village in the movie was filmed in a poor Roma (gypsy) village in Romania – where the villagers received as payment for their work the feast of "a pig" and while Sacha Baron Cohen reportedly spent the night in the swanky mountain retreat of Sinaia –the issue of class entered the discussion about Borat !. It is difficult not to conclude that the issue of class can become funny in the film precisely because it is portrayed by a "safe cultural environment." That is: poverty becomes broadly funny when it is portrayed by the comparatively unknown or culturally unprotected … be it Kazakhs or "trailer trash" in "red (neck) state" America.

The Polish author of the blog "Beatroot" captured this well in a post on the Molvania guidebook entitled: "Why is it that the only people 'liberals' think it's OK to laugh at these days are the white working class and Central and Eastern Europeans ? "

Europe's 'white trash'

… There is something a bit strange happening in the West. If this sort of book had been written about, say, African people, then, quite rightly, there would have been uproar and outrage. Words like 'racism' would have been used by lefty-liberal reviewers. But it seems that Political Correctness extends to all groups these days except poor whites from urban, rural or semi-rural areas in America and Europe.

Indeed, I would venture to speculate that had the villagers in Borat! been presented as Roma or "gypsies," rather than as fictional Kazakhs, there might have been greater outrage about this, precisely because of the hierarchy of officially-recognized discrimination that prevails in cultural and political circles in the West. By being presented as the comparatively-unknown Kazakhs, however, it made it "easier" to laugh freely. And had the English tabloid press not taken an interest in the village of Glod (meaning "mud"!) And shown clips of the movie to the villagers, it is possible that these fictional Kazakhs would have been every bit as disenfranchised as the Amish relative to Weird Al Yankovic: according to the journalists, "not a single villager we spoke to had ever been able to afford a trip to the nearest cinema, 20 miles away"!

Sun-Baked Mud or When Things Get All Bollixed Up: The Uses of Borat

That finished cultural products can become intermediary inputs or be reprocessed for things their creators never could have dreamed of and might not even agree with is well-known. A few years back I remember seeing a television report in a major US metropolitan area where real estate agents were being investigated for using the shorthand "Archie Bunker" to describe clients with 'discriminating tastes,' thinking that by using such language they were somehow remaining within the bounds of equal opportunity regulations. Similarly, US troops in Iraq have described their incorporation of the satirical jingoistic ballad "America, ** ck yeah!" from Team America: World Police on their missions. So it has been with Borat. This is undoubtedly the complaint of Jewish anti-defamation groups: that it does not matter that Baron Cohen is Jewish and seeks to highlight anti-Semitic prejudice, if his audience laughs with, rather than at, Borat's anti-Semitism.

The London tabloid The Sun, well-known for its "misgivings" over immigration and some would argue pandering to racist and xenophobic attitudes, searched for its pitchfork to make hay out of Borat! in the context of the looming immigration debate connected with Romania and Bulgaria's entry into the European Union on 1 January 2007. The paper delighted in quoting Gheorghiu Pascu, 46, as saying "Borat is a son-of-a-bitch who made us look like savages. This is Transylvania, home of Dracula. If he ever returns we will stick a stake in his backside and impale him. Then I would cut his b *** s off. " Two weeks later, under a headline blaring "We're leaving Romania" was a picture of villagers in horse-drawn carts with the caption "Horse and cart … Romanians are heading our way for a better life; slowly." The article quotes a villager saying "people will simply get around the restrictions by working in the black market or being self-employed," and ends with another pledging, "Borat should watch out. He might bump into some of us in London soon. "

America the Stereotype … Now Coming to a Theater Near You:
Getting America's Wrongs Right, its Rights Wrong, and its Right Wrong

Borat! is replete with what might be called "nesting occidentalisms" or "nesting anti-Americanisms": that is, it creates and plays on foreign and domestic hierarchies of Americans, good, bad, and ugly. Chris Jones hits on the triteness and tawdriness of Baron Cohen's itinerary in the film as follows:

… Borat starts his American trek in New York, land of the cold and the distant, where the only communication is by epithet. Then he heads to the South, land of the obsequiously and idiotically polite, where the local gothics have not changed their outlook since the days of Scarlett O'Hara. He takes a turn for Texas – where outsize nuts in cowboy hats chew their cuds on every corner. And after a brief sojourn in the ghetto – where every street is named "Martin Luther King Blvd." – He ends up in Southern California, where surgically enhanced breasts heave in every swimsuit.

In other words, Baron Cohen took the road so-frequently-travelled through the European's amusement park of American stereotypes (and some would have us believe only Americans view the world as an extension of Disneyland!) "Othering," it turns out, does not acknowledge the class struggle or political correctness.

Baron Cohen certainly takes – or at least wishes to portray – himself seriously. It should thus come to no one's surprise that those Americans who come off best in the film are a religiously-observant elderly Jewish couple who run a bed-and-breakfast and an African-American callgirl (variously claimed on the Internet to be an actress ):

I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews … Borat essentially works as a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism …. I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, "The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference." I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.

But is that really what we are talking about with the ugly Americans Baron Cohen meets in Borat !? For one thing, Chris Jones poses a good question: did Baron Cohen really have to "cross the pond" to find such disturbing stereotypes?

Because Cohen is now reportedly the highest paid comic in Britain – and because he styles himself as a radical – here's the movie he should now make. Let's see his Borat make some Cultural Learnings of his own smug world. It would not be hard for him to chat up a racist in a London pub. He could go to any British soccer game and find a cacophony of anti-gay slurs. Get an Irishman on the street chattering about Eastern European immigrants and someone will put a foot in it. Borat could spend time with French gothics from the Dordogne. He could teach us about the way Europe has integrated (or not) its Muslim citizens. Do not they have hookers in Hamburg? Let's see if they're welcome at your better class of German party.

As Andrew Mueller notes about the movie: "What astonishes about every American he encounters is not their naivete, but their politeness, hospitality, and the extraordinary degree to which Borat has to inflame situations to provoke reaction. Had he attempted these antics in many other countries – bringing a hooker to dinner, desecrating the national anthem in front of a rodeo audience – he'd have conducted the publicity campaign in traction. "

I would argue that Baron Cohen to some extent misinterprets the reactions of those he "exposes." Is what he sees with most of the Americans he captures on tape the same as what he claims of the "upper-class Englishmen … so keen to appear polite for the camera"? I do not think so. The reserve, the failure to act, the consensual behavior of the Americans Baron Cohen meets, I would argue, is born of a desire not to offend the guest, no matter how odd he is, not to speak or ask questions lest one show one's ignorance. After all, the biggest faux pas one can make in today's globalized day and age, we are told, is to mock or express ignorance of our interlocutor's culture. Do not be judgmental, just play along, go along to get along …

This is American socio-cultural laissez-faire -also known as American self-centeredness – at its best and worst, a world where individual privacy can reach absurd proportions, whether it be not asking a neighbor about his salary or the worth of her house, or not interfering with the neighbor next door even though you might question the noises you hear at night as indicating physical or mental abuse. Indeed, the very American counter to Borat! can be seen in the final episode of the long-running comedy series Seinfeld, where the four main characters are hauled into court for failing to fulfill a newly-passed "Good Samaritan" law and helping a man in distress, whom they instead made fun of because of his weight – an homage, intended or not, to American self-centeredness.

Is it safe? … Is it safe?

"Is it safe? … Is it safe?" is no longer just something you hear at the dentist anymore. It is the thought that crosses people's minds before, while, or after they laugh in our post-modern world. Perhaps the lesson here, however, is to not to take all this overly-seriously.

Americans should actually be thankful for such a movie: it holds a mirror up and tells us how some in the rest of the world view us. As has frequently been said, in the past many who disliked the United States had a compartmentalized view that separated US foreign policy from the American people; increasingly surveys of foreign public opinion suggest that foreigners are no longer drawing this distinction (although it may indeed be that the perceptions of the former are negatively affecting the latter). Like it or not, Baron Cohen has tapped in effectively to foreign perceptions of the United States and he found enough Americans to play the ugly stereotypes he expected of them brilliantly.

On the other hand, yes, Virginia, it is safe to laugh at Borat. Andrew Mueller explains why:

The reason that Borat is such a liberating hoot is Baron-Cohen's understanding that nothing is funnier than what we're not supposed to laugh at – and, in the early 21st century, the pressure upon us not to laugh at the backwardness and stupidity of foreigners has been considerable. We are expected to take seriously people who want to execute cartoonists for drawing, and stone women for having sex – neither of which, as ideas, are dafter than the Kazakh custom, described by Borat, of compelling gay people to wear blue hats.

Nor should we cry too much for Kazakhstan (Moscow certainly does not). As one poster on a website debating whether Borat is good or bad publicity for Kazakhstan stated: "Without Borat, Kazakhstan is just another obscure Central Asian republic." Another pointed out, Borat is portrayed as "naïve, but he is not cruel or bad." Others suggest, the Kazakhs could pull off a real coup if they were now to use the Borat character in a film to market "the real Kazakhstan." Professor Sean Roberts notes that, according to GoogleTrends, Borat more than doubled Kazakhstan's usual Google hits during the lead up and height of the Borat film's PR campaign.

All that remains then is the final plot device for Baron Cohen to kill off Borat, so that nobody is upset anymore. A modest proposal: How about a "Dallas" -like plot twister with "Who shot Borat?" Was it the Americans, the Kazakhs, the villagers of Glod? … Why it was the Baron Cohen himself

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Source by Richard Andrew Hall