Paschendale by Iron Maiden

In a foreign field he lay

lonely soldier unknown grave

on his dying words he prays

tell the world of Paschendale

Relive all that he's been through

last communion of his soul

rust your bullets with his tears

let me tell you 'bout his years

Laying low in a blood filled trench

killing time 'til my very own death

on my face I can feel the fallin' rain

never see my friends again

in the smoke in the mud and lead

the smell of fear and the feeling of dread

soon be time to go over the wall

rapid fire and the end of us all

Whistles, shouts and more gun-fire

lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire

battlefield nothing but a bloody tomb

be reunited with my dead friends soon

many soldiers eighteen years

drowned in mud, no more tears

surely a war no one can win 

killing time about to begin

Home, far away. From the war, a chance to live again

Home, far away. But the war, no chance to live again

The bodies of ours and our foes

the sea of death it overflows

in no-man's land God only knows

into jaws of death we go...

Crucified as if on a cross

allied troops, they mourn their loss

German war propaganda machine

such before has never been seen

swear I heard the angels cry

pray to God no more may die

so that people know the truth

tell the tale of Paschendale

Cruelty has a human heart

every man does play his part

terror of the men we kill

the human heart is hungry still

I stand my ground for the very last time

gun is ready as I stand in line

nervous wait for the whistle to blow

rush of blood and over we go...

Blood is falling like the rain

its crimson cloak unveils again

the sound of guns can't hide their shame

and so we die in Paschendale

Dodging shrapnel and barbed wire

running straight at canon fire

running blind as I hold my breath

say a prayer symphony of death

as we charge the enemy lines

a burst of fire and we go down

I choke I cry but no one hears

feel the blood go down my throat

Home, far away. From the war, a chance to live again

Home, far away. But the war, no chance to live again

Home, far away. From the war, a chance to live again

Home, far away. But the war, no chance to live again

See my spirit on the wind

across the lines beyond the hill

friend and foe will meet again

those who died at Paschendale

This is one of Maidens best tracks and I would recommend everyone to watch the live version on the Death on the Road DVD. Awesome is an understatement. Just to clarify a few misconceptions posted here, Adrian Smith wrote most of this track, Bruce and to a lessor degree Steve helped 'polish' it off but the main credit goes to Adrian.

It is and it isn't anti-war, the song is best described as a comment on the futility and horror of war, it makes no pro or anti comments or sentiments in itself but allows the listener make their own judgement by placing them in the trench and action with the soldier.

By not making any statement, it is a brilliantly clever composition and one worthy of the title of 'Classic'

Long live the Irons 

Fight for nothing?????

What is the best credibility should be in a leader?????their skills in delivering speech...It is not that their leadership is not the main skills that he should have but normally people who are good in giving speech normally are meant to be a leader. what is a leader if they do not have any skills to convince people. I do believe that tongue is powerful as a battalion of army.As for last week we are told to discuss on the speech by two leader Hitler and Winston Churchill.

"What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terrors, victory, however long and hard the road may be. For without victory, there is no survival." -Winston Churchil-

such a line of word from a person who want to convince his people. At that time, France was the first concern for Churchill because Hitler was already in place in the Rhineland, capable of destroying the country with one order. Churchill tried as hard as he could to keep France in the war, but his brave offer of the Act of Union was denied and France surrendered to Germany without a fight. Britain was now alone and almost unarmed. At this point, almost any leader would have seen defeat, but Churchill would not let this happen. The safety of Britain all depended on a few of her best fighter pilots. Churchill did not plan or direct the Battle of Britain on which the future of mankind depended, but it was he who encouraged and deployed indomitable strength behind the British pilots whose odds of victory were slim. Despite bad odds, the British pilots prevailed and drove the German planes away. The country rallied behind the leadership of Churchill and hoped that he would to lead them to victory. 

Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler are arguably the two most important figures of World War II, if not the twentieth century. Churchill served as prime minister of Great Britain during the war while Adolf Hitler led Germany. Though the two men never met, it is certain that they were mortal enemies. The two's differences are common knowledge: Churchill championed democracy, while Hitler advocated totalitarianism. However, the pair also shared similarities that are not so well-known. 

ANIMAL FARM INCLUDING THE PIG

Hush now people for being so cocky...trust me you should see read this story...or else just watch the cartoon..for me..IT IS NOT HILARIOUS...i meant it,,IT IS SERIOUS.....we should be ashamed for what we do....All the issues and the mockery are worth to be think of...

This story, written in 1943 and 1944 while Orwell was working as a journalist and commentator for (among others) the BBC Orwell vents his profound disdain for Stalinism and his dissapointment with Marxism as political praxis. A particularly English brand of Socialist with a towering social concience Orwell himself not only campaigned on behalf of teh ILP but had the courage of his convictions to join the Poum in the fight against fascism in Spain in 1937. However, dissapointed and endangered by the political machinations of Stalins Russia in Spain and disgusted by the Molotov Ribbentrop non aggresion pact of 1939 and early communist rhetoric against involvement in World War 2 as a capitalist war, Orwell turns his not inconsiderable facility for satire against totalitarian socialism. Not so much against the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 but against the hypocracy, the repressiveness that that revolution descended into from the dreath of Lenin. This is one of teh best books in the English Language written by one of the most viscerally intelligent, humain, geniuses of the pen to have lived. It comes highly recommended.

Say Cheese MONALISA

I just love the spirits and the determination shown in this story.What else i can say,It was so inspiring seeing this movie.( How i may say it is not a good movie seeing all the beautiful lady walk in a row)......Mona Lisa Smile is a movie about feminism starring one of the biggest women actors and three of the better younger women actors in Hollywood. And, it is written and directed by three men.This story started when  new Art History teacher Ann Willis comes hoping to change the world. Willis is a Berkeley grad, awash in the burgeoning theories of feminism. Women can and should be able to do whatever they want. They do not have to be housewives. They are perfectly capable of being lawyers, teachers, or whatever the heck they want to be. She chose Wellesley because they have the best and brightest female students who have the capability of becoming next generation's leaders. What she does not count on is that Wellesley is fiercely conservative, and her ideas clash with the endemic, old-fashioned values cherished there.

Willis wants to teach her students about modern art, which angers the faculty, and only increases her resolve to do so. Bill Dunbar, Italian teacher and eventual love interest, encourages her to work within the system, but Willis doesn't listen. Director Mike Newell  wants this to be an inspirational weepy, but that's hard to do when the film is bereft of any genuine emotion. Everybody is just going through the motions, doing what screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal  require them to do. They do have somewhat of a difficult job to do. It's important to remember that although this takes place in the recent past , views on a woman's place were extremely different. Somehow, Konner and Rosenthal need to have people relate to the ideas that most of the characters in the film believe in.

A great issues that highlighted by 3 men had made people were to see a great feminism and challenged face by woman those day. Somehow it open up my eyes to put myself in their shoes "at that time" only....to me..they are so tough...

Based on true story...

LEAN ON ME

Wow...is that happened for real????is that a real teacher....good example and charismatic.....He have his own opinion, style and ways....i like the spirit.This is a teacher,daring and creative as well.The Principal, Joe Clark, is hired in 1983 to run one of the worst schools in this state. His mission is to turn this crime, drug, and graffiti infested school around completely in one year’s time. Clark must bring order and peace to this school and must also bring up the learning level of the students so they can pass the state’s minimum basic skills test.Joe Clark is a former Army drill instructor who uses tough discipline as a means of changing Eastside High School. His methods in doing so were very much controversial. He got the nick name of "Crazy Joe" Clark by using a bullhorn and a baseball bat within his school to terrorize and intimidate the students as well as the facility. To his supporters this tactic was to be motivation for the students and teachers to do better. According to a Mississippi State University Memo dated back in March of 1996, it stated that within two years Eastside High was declared a model school by New Jersey’s governor and in 1986, Clark was named one of the nation’s 10 "Principals of Leadership".


One of the first things Joe Clark did to reform this school was expelling 300 minority students who he claimed were "educationally hopeless and overage underachievers, parasites, hoodlums, and drug pushers" (Education Digest, 1989). To make sure these now ex-students stayed out and could not return, Clark chained and locked the school doors from the inside. Clark demanded respect from not only his students but also with the facility. If respect was not given Clark simply removed you from the school.There is some differences between what happened in real life and how the director, John Avildsen, portrayed Joe Clark in the movie Lean On Me. In the movie Clark was able to raise the student test scores to a level that protected the school from being taken over by the state. In real life, Eastside High was never in a threat of a take over. Clark has claimed that during his first year as principal he doubled the test scores of the students, but according to the Education Digest, 1989, they state that there is no such evidence to support Clark’s claim of this. However, he should be solute of for what he did.He is a true teacher for me.....

society may kill all

THE MERRY MAID AND GREAT INJUSTICE......

As good as the title so does how is the story.Since hundreds years and generations before us, we had leaded our life with any part of perception that allows us and made us to understand the individuals and groups of our local social world, and thus an element of cognition. However, we may not realized that, how powerful it can be.Based on Markus and Kitayama (1991) collectivists are extremely concerned with saving their face, and even attempt to save the face of the persons with whom they are interacting. This matter clearly can be seen in the story of “ A great Injustice”  whereby, Ah Nya, the main character of the story  that abandon and against the norm  of human right by leading herself to abortion as a way to play save and save their parents pride as well. Afraid of being blame on and try to clean off her family’s name, she decided to do so in a matter to hide and feels so tense of what the community may say. This can be seen when she uttered “I’m alright, Pa. I’m sorry for having brought you shame. Now, I’ll clear your name….I’ve save the baby from bleak future of dishonored.” Thinking of what will people say to her family and what will happen to her baby in future made her take a silly decision by committing the abortion where she  know how sinful it can be. From this point, I have to agree how powerful and affective the community perception toward certain individual or community until they willingly do something bad rather than facing the mouth and hearing the blame of the society.

         In other story, “The Merry Maid” by Dr Jayakaran Mukundan, I believe that the perceptions of society do have effect and be the reasons to all conflict that arise. In this story, Lakshmi the main character of this story willingly give her daughter to other family that more stable and have a better name among the society. Just like the story of “A great injustice”. The main character of this story, Lakshmi prefer to give away her baby to other family as a result of being afraid to carry on the child wedlock and the father of her baby was arrested for involvement in theft. Bigger issues, all the reason why Lakshmi doing so is because of afraid to face the community and hearing the mouth of society commenting of the fate that she encounter. We may read this when the writers say “ her relationship with Shanmugam at school, which lead to the baby, her running away from home as to conceal the pregnancy,Shanmugam’s arrest following his involvement in theft and finally abandonment of the baby on the Johan’s doorstep”. From the lines, I believe that Lakshmi was so afraid of what community will say about them thus she plan to conceal and run away from the community. More than that, I may want to believe the incident of arresting Shanmugan do have relation on the conflict arise. After they run away, they will be neglected and stranded. They hardly get the job and find food and thus it lead the Shanmugam to steal for food perhaps. I cannot imagine how a 17 years old girl going to arise and stand up for herself against the society perception for that. Feeling so tense and pressure from surrounding her finally left her baby to Johan’s doorstep. Years later she comes back and tries to attach with her own daughter who now grow up and become Muslim and use Sakinah as the name. But now Laskhmi is much wiser and all is matter is love towards her daughter. 

Courtesy and Courage

A Question of Dowry and Everything’s Arranged

Talking about dowry and arrange marriage...i believe it is an epic that never end....it is not for what it is but what happen next that always matter...behold and lend me your 5 minutes to read my review and years to think...

A QUESTION OF DOWRY

Mr. Ramachandran couldn’t afford to buy a necklace for his daughter as her dowry because the land that he supposed to sell off is depleted in its value. And so when he called up Thiruchelvam who is the bridegroom and told him about the situation, he cancelled the wedding without second thoughts and so “Sivasothie aka the bride to be went into the kitchen, he head bow modestly.” 

I say....

Why on earth people should be bother with that????? Old generation always get angry of my question. And there come "It is tradition lad,you will never understand"....To my belief,  not only the indian...it also come in malay people...to my concern...our religion only put in a small amount only which is suit for all class of people...never been that much till you may use the money to get married four time.It should not burdening the bride nor the groom.it should be suit enough as long both of them are married and happy..For it is capitalism where the rich keep winning their game and poor will always be the same.

Everything’s Arranged

This story is about a girl name Rukumani who  is in love with a Chinese boy, Johnny.TO be told that it just a rumors that spread well. So, in order to save the marriage form going on, the parents of Rukumani increase $20,000 in the dowry “Already gossips were spreading rumours, and if these rumours reached the ears of the bridegroom’s family, they might withdraw their offer, and it would be impossible to marry Rukumani off.” By using the reason to “save the risk of family disgrace” I don’t think that the dowry system is being well treated here.

I say.....

Good story with a good issues marked....people nowadays prefers dignity rather than truth.They never put the right thing on the right track and they prefers to do something bad just to hold up their name.Arranged is an optional.Some people prefer to be arranged and some people are not, so it is for the best to ask them properly.More than that it is better to have an agreement form both side.

p/s= i am wondering how much Preity zinta will pay me if i get chance to marry her...wow...."khawin free"...

AKEELAH AND THE ABC.....

This may not sound like much of a recommendation, as one can easily go through life and not see a single movie whose topic is spelling. However, over the years there have been several movies about the spelling competition, and of all of those I have seen, Akeelah and the Beeis the best. This is because it transcends its subject matter and touches on universal themes. Yes, it is about spelling, and it has some interesting points to make about this academic subject. But it is also about the pursuit of excellence, the difference between cramming and learning, and the relationship between the community and the individual. It's an emotionally charged movie, but it is not sentimental. It is a drama. A genuine one.

It is also a movie with no bad guys that still manages to depict true courage.

Honestly,for me,it is not a great film,i did fall asleep while watching this but then  "Akeelah" may be an influential one. This is not only because of its emphasis on crowd-pleasing and the resulting box office success. The film may well be embraced by a generation of kids, parents, and teachers as an exemplar of academic and personal achievement. Few Hollywood films make serious heroes out of bookworms from South Los Angeles.

The film deserves praise for its overall empowerment message, not to mention teaching us a few new words. But in the subject of nursing, it gets a failing grade. That's spelled "F."

In a nutshell,it is worth to watch it with students with high level proficiency where they are train to adapt this kind of story very well. I put myself in a place of low level of proficiency students where they will say this story is boring because they hardly interpreted the message...

OWH MY RED RIDING HOOD

    One of the task given by the lecturer was, all the student need to tell their favourite childhood story. I was so confused because there are so many story that so interesting to share with my classmate. But then i found out a story that be my favourite childhood story ever. The Red Riding Hood.

1. The reason/s you choose the story

One of the most reason of why i choose this story is,i am sick with all the old lame fable always told by geezer which all story will lead to a happy ending. Is it for real??? At first, just like other children, i do believe in happy ending but then when i grew up a Little bit and started to think, i found out that life will not be as what we want. There must be a diversion in all that. We wont smile and happy all the time,sometimes we need tears to sketch our life and that is life what is all about. and this story is totally different from what i have been tell of. This is the story which i say "this is the story should be". As the story end, the maiden who supposedly alive and save from being a food for the wolves will die and eat by the wolves.In other version of Red Riding Hood, the maiden supposedly alive after the woodcutter come for the rescue. The wolves finally get stuffed by for eating the grandmother and the maiden.

2. What element(s) in the story that make you think that the story is interesting

What i like most from this story is, the use of  symbolism in it. At the end of the story we may wanna say that it have a good symbolism and a great theme.Trust no body and ride the world with no regret. You are what you choose to be. I do believe that element of suspend did play a good role in helping playing with the reader interpretation. Most reader may conclude the ending of the story without finish their reading. for this story, they will lost their hurry and stick to the story. At the end of the story the reader will ask lots of question why.

  

3.The portrayal of characters in the story

         In this story, you may found out that there are 2 main characters and 2 other characters. A maiden who wear a read hood and a wolves.other 2 character are a grandmother and the woodcutter. each of the character may symbolize to certain gender and had their own issues, for example :

       

    The Wolves         :- Symbolized man....how wicked man can be
                              achieving their own need or towards woman.

   The Maiden       :- Symbolized women...how stupid and naive woman
                               can be in making decision.

   The Woodcutter  :- Symbolized  man...man cannot be expected.as we
                             will hope that the woodcutter will come  for the
                             rescue but then he don't show up...
  
  The Grandmother  :- Symbolized women...how hopeless woman can
                              be when they are old...as in they live for nothing.

  4. The plot of the story

       The writer use a simple and normal plot however the ending of the story is totally different from what we expect and it make this story become unique and interesting.It is not a happy ending and totally  beyond expectation.

      5.  The suitability of the story as children story

       I strongly suggest that children should read the other version of  this story first. Then they should read this version as they will keep questioning why it happened and the story changed in the end. Parental guidance will be better for them so it will help them in understanding the real moral value and lesson in this story.

THE GRUFFALO

         "A gruffalo? What's a gruffalo?"...As i start reading this book,i do ask about what the hell is gruffalo...is it an animal? never had a clue about Gruffalo. but then after reading the story i finally discover it just a made up monster illustrate by the writer. Well, i may say the writer did come out with a creative story where she come out with a made up character that we never heard before. The protagonist of this fable is a mouse. The story of the mouse's walk through the woods unfolds in two phases; in both, the mouse uses cunning to evade danger. Isn't that creative. Where i'm a bout to give maximum respect toward the writer, i found out something.
        
         The story of Gruffalo is an adaptation  based on a traditional Chinese folk tale of a fox that borrows the terror of a tiger. Donaldson was unable to think of rhymes for "tiger" so invented one for "know" instead. However, the writer, Julia Donalson said that the idea  of Gruffalo is from her own dog that she once owned. She specially dedicated  the gruffalo to her dog that passed away because of cancer.

     If i were a younger reader i may say that this fable will be the best, but then i prefer Edwina the Emu better than this Gruffalo. In part of illustration i prefer the gruffalo better because i do think that it have a suitable sketches that suitable enough to be read by the kids.  

EDWINA THE EMU

      What a splendid work by Sheena Knowles.To kids this story may be an interesting story to be heard on and to adults like us, we may say that this story highlighted a few issues that best to be think of. Sheena Knowles is very good in embrace children with her story by using  an animal as a prescriptive towards certain gender.More than that,it help the kids to find this story as an interesting story eventhough the moral value and the theme is a little bit heavy for the young reader.

      The story start with a couple of emu,Edward and Edwina and soon they are going to be a father and a mother.Edwina try to take all the responsibility to go out and find a job to grow up their babies. As she work hard for the that soon hatches to be their babies,Edwina found out something that she meant to be a t home and take care of their eggs.All these job supposes to be men work and not women.

     Sheena Knowles play it good in relating the issues of women's right and and gender issues. I did some research on her and i found out that she is an Australian where women over there fighting over the equality of men and women. It shows that setting of background did effect the writing. I must say that Rod clement(the illustrator) also did a good job by interpreting a good illustration with the story. It does help in making the story become more interesting in reading it.