St David's Day

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Who was St David?

St David is the patron saint of Wales, who declared the national day of celebration in Wales in the 18th century.

St David’s Day, as celebrate day from 1120. the Dewi was canonized by Pope Callactus the Second, and March 1st was included in the Church calendar.It is an very important festival in Wales.

Is he special in Wales?

St David, a great man, is the only native-born patron saint of the countries of Britain and Ireland, and broadcast the Christianity to the western Britain.No doubt he is special in Wales.

(P.s many school students will celebrate St David's Day and dressed in their traditonal Welsh clothes)

Why is the daffodil associated with St David's Day?

In St David's Day, people will ware traditional emblems on the clothes,include the daffodil--a traditional symbol of Wales which is in bloom during that time of year. This flag is for the patron saint of Wales, the flag has also formed a part of the Cardiff City Football Club logo in 2002 though.

Anna.
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Employment in Britain

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What aspect of an organisation deals with employment?

In Britain, almost all of the corporations have a human resource department,which is same as in China. This department is due to find and employ a person who can do an efficient work or earn more money for the company. The first common process is interview, the employer will interview the people who apply the job and choose which one fit in the job better. Generally, they will give all of the employees chance to work in the company first, such as normal assistants, clerks, typists ,as long as the employees prove their ablility and pass related examinations( in formal or informal way), they will be hired and make a contract with the company.


What are some of the key issues in Britain related to employment?

Different family background ,different education background also,different personality and professional skills can determine different results of the employment and occupation ,which also can indirectly lead the different social position of yours and your future life( clever and a little sad human call it "destiny" ). They are all the key issues related to employment, and does not just happen in Britain, but also happens in all the societies.



What must an employer take into considerations when offering employment?

The first three things should consider are the emploee's qualities, intelligent, energy. And the most important thing of offering employment is that consider the character of the emploee. It is not intellect that tells so much as character, even a person has intelligent and energy(in fact, many people have the two things), but if this person act in bad faith will destory the emploer at all. Also, the person be gaven a offer must fit in the job .The person should have enough ablility and confidence to finish it and do the job better. Also, the employer's age and gender as well as education , skills and work experience also should be took into consideration.


What should an employee be aware of before accepting a job?

The first important thing should be aware is that whether the work is you are really interested in. Secondly, should be aware of this emploment's contract,is the contract relisable? is the boss has good faith? is far-sighted and wise? is the work team talented? the team has team-spirit ? Also, should consider whether the working conditions is enough for your daily life , should clearly know what you are really good at ,what the aim and value of your life , not only work for the company and earn money, but also how many you can learn from the company and the working team.



Anna.
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Exploring British Newspapers

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On 5th March, Times and The Independent
The two newspaper both have a report about a Iceland singer -- Bjork.

It's about she screamed in her Shanhai concert "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of her protest song, "Declare Independence".


How do you know?Do the other newspapers report the same news, but on a different page?

I'm used to litsen to Iceland musicians' music and got a little exciting since knew that the talented woman would have a concert in Shanghai and noticed related news then. Obviously,almost all of the newpapers' music page reported this news .

Why? How much space is dedicated to the story?

The reason that the newspapers reported it is :it is a NEWS ---it included all of the factors that can be a news: a famous woman, a famous place, a famous song ,a naive behaviour,and, a sensitive subject--Tibet .

Not too much space is dedicated to the story, it is not political or society topic.

What do you observe?Can you get an idea, by looking at some of the language, of what the newspapers’ views are on a particular news item?

Generally,prefer The Independent---a little bit more neutral and objective.

Times' reports often have clearly own opinion. It's ok for a newspaper, but as a public throat ,a reporter, giving readers a leading thinking is what i dont really like.

Times used the verb "provokes"-- "Bjork’s Tibet outburst provokes censors "

The independent used"protest"--"Bjork's protest a sign of things to come for China"

The two newspeper all discribed the whole thing, reported some feelings and reviews from Chinese people and the statement from Chinese culture instuition speaker .,but which I am a little surprised is the way that The independent introducing the background of this issue, it said "The People's Liberation Army occupied Tibet in 1950 "and also, Times said "The Dalai Lama, revered by Tibetans as a God-king, fled during an uprising in 1959 in which tens of thousands of Tibetans were killed".

Their standpoint both be around with Bjork expressed her political opinion,but in a wrong occasion and should not do the selfish thing ,special it's close the Olympic Games . It's like the background that they introduced above is a no doubt truth.

I known from some of my British and other Euro friends, they learn that Tibet is occupied by Chinese from their history book , websites, pop stars' expression, TV or Newspaper. Whereas, a interesting thing is that no country in the world have had any offically statement or speaking about Tibet is not a part of China, Chinese occupied Tibet, the Tibet Independent Movement is even ragarded a inlegal organization in UN.

Who is the liar ?

the goverment? (have interest or pressure from Chinese goverment) ?

the press? the people ? (misunderstanding/prejudice/ gap) ?

Or, both are liar/

I dont care who told the truth about that history.

And like many people ,Bjork supports Tibet to be independent since 10 years ago and has never been to Tibet. I dont know in her real life if she knows any single person from tibet, i dont know if she even gave a hand to any Tibetian or she is really care to the Tibetian people's present life.

I respect history, and of course, the knowleges of Tibet's history I learnt from my country , history teachers,my grandparents and the old genaration are completely different as what I saw and heared from here.

To me,

I doubt all the words that include judgment, prejudice and political trap.

I never believe some history i learnt from the press ,the books, TV and people in my life.

Who wrote the history? who is the leader and power behind the newspeper or the TV station? who can really tell you real words? Does excist a pure and simple political in human's sociaty? Is there a pure and simple political can live a long time?Is anything that is related to political pure and simple?

I'm not from tibet, just have some old mates there to support the local education, people live there happy and peaceful, for me, it's as common as other proviences in China. Also,I dont even know Bjork, except for her music. I dont have right to judge anything about them at all.

Sometimes, just dont understand and get confused ,if a person never been somewhere, if a person never experience something, if he or she never used rational eyes and heart to observe and feel the thing, how can give the thing a conclusion,how can just follow others without any independent thinking , how can have the right to judge wrong or right , even many things of our life dont have wrong and right.

....political is such a boring topic that could never finish indeed.......stop here.....keep on enjoying your life

Anna.

some pic of Lhasa and Drepung, took them at the end of 2007.(the website can only put the limited size of the pic...)

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Health issues in Britain

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According to Abercrombie and Ward (2000) these are to do with:
region
social class
gender
ethnicity
allocation of resources

What can you discover about these inequalities? Can you find any examples of how these inequalities present themselves.

In the UK, the National Health Service was the world's first universal health caresystem provided by government. It was established in 1948 by Clement Atlee's Labour government.

As I known from the class the health service of Brain is quite good system ,but according to the present real situation, it still excists some problems. First of all, the health care is not equal for different people who come from different regions, also it is directly relevant to the person's background(eg.social class,ethnicity )and gender. From a public survey shows that death rates by sex and social class in those aged 15 to 64 years in rates per 1000 population, that the death rate in that age group is 2.5 times as high in lowest social class as in highest social class and that the rate for men is almost twice that for women in all groups.

At the same time,according to TUC reports, there are ten million working women in Britain. Many factors have helped keep occupational health a "men only" issue, from bad science to prejudice, to the jobs we do.The two enduring myths are that men do all the risky work and when women do get hurt it is explained by differences in gender, not jobs.

About resources, in Britain, the public hospitals have 500,000 sickbeds in total; arrange 1000 people have 9 sickbeds and 8 doctors. All patients have the right to be seen within a certain amount of time but the situation of lack of docotor and nurse(special female nurse )has been a big problem for many years in Britain. City region be sent more docotors and nurses, also,docotors and nurses all are tend to go to bigger and better hospitals, it causes the unequal allocation of resources' problem more seriously. Many patients expressed they always need wait the longest time to see doctor.

In fact, now,NHS is considering to solve some of the problems.

Recently,Lib Dems said,NHS should be run by elected, local boards. The Lib Dems used to be committed to offering free personal care to all elderly people. But they rejected that policy on the grounds that it would be too costly and that in Scotland, where free personal care for the elderly is supposed to be available, most people do not get their full care costs paid because budgets are capped.

Whatever NHS will have a reform or not, to me, I really hope and looking forward to it can do more benifits for the people who live in Britain. Hopefully.

Anna.

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Education in Britain - Homeschooling

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What can you discover about non-government funded schools in Britain?

British education relies heavily on public funds, but not every educational institution relies public funds, for instance: homeschooling--as an established service for children study at home,is non-goverment funded school and very popular in Britain.


In your opinion, what are the advantages or disadvantages of homeschooling?

Firstly, homeschooling is no limited on the age, which is good for the chilren who failed or can not catch the lessons in school ,it provide the chance to the children to make up them. Secondly,homeschooling is a face to face and one to one education module, it it not like in common school, the private teacher can pay more attention and more time to the student. Also, homeschooling is a kind of education that the teacher can arrange the time-table available for student and the parents, special for the parents who are busy at work and dont have regular time to follow their children's study in common schcool.

By contrast, homeschooling also have some disadvantages. Firstly, the expenditure on homeschooling is quite expensive ,which would be a pressure for common family to afford the hour for the curriculum .Another side effect is the lack of social life, the child who stay at home to study would lost many chances to go out to get along with others and make friends with the same age students. The third negative influence is the parents always control the child’s speed and time of study ,which would make the child stressful, and the private teacher’s private teaching is always in a certain space that would make the child be boring to study,which both has possiability to make a bad influence to the child’s inside---mental and personality aspects if homeschooling is not led in a good way.

In my opinion,to choose homeschooling or any type of education institution depend on which kind of education you are suit or fit in and which situation you are being.


Anna.

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History of Halloween

What did the Celtic Irish, or Druids, believe happenend on 'Samhain' October 31st ?


Firstly, The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is generally regarded as 'The Celtic New Year'. People believed that on 31th october of the Celtic new year,the desd would come back to life ,so they made bonfires with bones of animals,and made masks to mimic or to placate the evil spirits.

(BTW. Samhain is also a old famous death metal band ,i dont like them though)

Why did the people have bonfires and wear masks?

As the above said, when summer is end and winter is dark, Celtic Irish people think one day the died people could return to the world, and walk among the living. So the Irish people born files, hope it can scare away the spirits.and wear masks, dressed like ghosts so that the real ghosts would not attack them.

What was November 1st called? And how did Halloween get its name?
As you listened, what did you discover about why carved out pumpkins with candles are now part of the Halloween tradition people give out sweets

Halloween was established in the 8th century, the November 1st is called All-Hallow’s day. October 30th is called All-Hallow’s Eave, so the short name that we use today is Halloween.
Also the day for remembering loved ones and who had died ,so the November 1st is all Saints Day or all Hallows Day,Hollween is really all Halloween eve.
In this day ,children would go to their neighbours'houses ,lock their doors and sing songs for sweets ,also dressed themselves, make them like a ghosts or witches, trick and treating is also remain. As I seen, nowadays, almost every single person enjoy that day.



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In the Halloween'en, me with my amigos went and sew firework in Tereforest Park, which was a big fun.


The child in the pic with his little sister and parents was there that day, he standed there, smiled and, gave me a yellow flower,
I took this photo for him then,
God bless him~

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Swn Festival

the young fellow, 21 years old, always make me remind a person, yes, it's him,

W.B.Yeats

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-Anna