Lesson 26: Two Annas

Summary Anna learns that someone at work looks a lot like her. But, who is this person? And what happens when they finally meet?   Conversation ANNA: This article is so interesting. Pete, listen to this: “Somewhere in the world there is someone who looks just like you.” PETE: No one is this handsome. ANNA: Oh Pete, there's something between your teeth. (Pete tries to clean his teeth.) PETE: It is gone? ANNA: No. No. It’s still there. There. You got it. But think of it: There could be two of us in the world! PETE: Two Annas? PROF. BOT: Two Annas? Today, we’re reviewing ways to describe and compare people. Keep watching for descriptions of people! PETE: Actually, Anna, maybe your silly article is right. Yesterday at work, I met a woman who looks just like you. ANNA: Really? Wait, are you making fun of me? PETE: Not this time. PETE: She’s tall and has curly hair. But even her face looks like yours. I think she’s a career consultant. ANNA: I bet she has a lot of great advice. I can’t wait to meet her. PETE: Yes, you can. I met her and she is very difficult. ANNA: Pete, she’s just new. We have to give her a chance. What’s her name? PETE: Evelyna or something like that. You can’t miss her. She always wears a hat. PENELOPE: So, Anna, have you met the new consultant yet? ANNA: No. But I’ve already heard. We look alike, don’t we? PENELOPE: Yeah, but you don’t act alike. You’re much nicer than she is. ANNA: Maybe she gets nervous at new jobs. Or maybe she's shy.  Let’s not judge, Penelope. PENELOPE: She’s not nervous or shy. She’s mean. ANNA: You know, we should get to know her better. Let’s invite her to lunch! PENELOPE: Sorry but I’m busy that day. (Penelope walks away. Anna yells after her.) ANNA: Oh, that’s too bad. Hey, I haven’t picked a day yet! PROF. BOT: So, did you find anything? Here are a few things I found: Anna uses the words “look alike” to talk about the new consultant. She says, “We look alike, don’t we?” PROF. BOT: Penelope uses “than” and the comparative adjective “nicer” to compare Anna with the new consultant. She says, “You’re much nicer than she is.” Keep watching for more! (Anna and Pete are playing a game.) ANNA: This is going to be so much fun. Boy, I can't wait to play this game.  EVILANA: How much longer are you going to be? ANNA: We’ll be just a minute … (Anna turns around and sees her look-alike.) ANNA: You must be Evelana. I’m Anna. We are lookalikes! EVILANA: No, we’re not. And my name is pronounced “Evil-ana.” PETE: Oh. This is going to be fun. EVILANA: You had better hurry up. I need this room for a lecture. It’s called: "If You Want to Win, Others Must Lose." What is all this stuff, anyway? ANNA: It’s a game. We’re going to play at lunch.  EVILANA: It’s a stupid child's game! ANNA: It's a fun game. But yes, it is for children. EVILANA: Well, you may be childish but I’m not. And you look stupid with that thing on your head. ANNA: Well, you look serious with that look on your face. Come on, Pete. Let’s play somewhere else. PETE: Actually, I’m going to stay for Evilana’s lecture.  ANNA: Fine. You can learn new ways to beat people. EVILANA: He will. He will. (Days later, Anna and Penelope are playing the game. Pete comes in. He has a problem with his eye.) ANNA: Okay. Am I a food? PENELOPE: Nope. PETE: Hey, do you guys have room for one more? PENELOPE: Sure, Pete! Come on over. What happened to your eye? PETE: Evilana “accidentally” hit me. And she didn’t even say sorry. She’s so mean! PENELOPE: I told you so. ANNA: Here, Pete. Put on this headband. You’ll feel better. Penelope, you’re right. Evilana is an awful person! PENELOPE: And violent. And now we have to work with her! ANNA: Haven’t you heard? She’s gone! She was given another assignment. PENELOPE: What assignment? ANNA: I’m not sure. I think it has something to do with outdoors. Anyway, let’s play! Pete it’s your turn.   ​New Words alike – adj. similar in appearance, nature or form article – n. a piece of writing about a particular subject that is included in a magazine, newspaper, or on a website beat – v. to defeat bet – v. to think that something will probably or certainly happen​ compare – to look at two or more things in order to see what is similar or different about them describe – v. to say what something or someone is like difficult – adj. stubborn or unreasonable handsome – adj. pleasing to look at headband – n. a band of cloth or some other material worn on or around your head judge – v. to form an opinion about lecture – n. a talk or speech given to a group of people to teach them about a particular subject lookalike – n. someone or something that looks like another person or thing (also written: look-alike) lose – v. to fail to keep or hold something wanted or valued making fun - tease, laugh at, or joke about someone in a mocking or unkind way. mean – adj. not kind to people; cruel or harsh miss – v. to fail to see or notice pronounce – v.​ to make the sound of a word or letter with your voice​ shy – adj. feeling nervous and uncomfortable about meeting and talking to people tooth –​ n. one of the hard white objects inside the mouth that are used for biting and chewing​ (plural: teeth) ​ turn – n. an opportunity or responsibility to do or use something before or after other people violent – adj. using or involving the use of physical force to cause harm or damage to someone or something   Test Yourself How well do you know the grammar from Level 2? Test yourself! In today's lesson, you saw examples of grammar from other lessons. Look for sentences in Lesson 26 that have:  comparatives passive voice had better would rather conditionals tag questions say, tell, speak or talk   Writing Practice Today, you learned some new language for describing people. We also reviewed comparative adjectives and sentences using the word than. For example, Penelope says, "You're much nicer than she is." For more on comparatives, watch Lesson 5: Greatest Vacation. Now, you try it! Think of a person in your family, a friend or someone else. Then, describe the person. What do they look like? What do they act like? Next, write a few sentences comparing yourself to that person with comparative adjectives and than. For example, "I'm taller than my friend."   Tell Us Did you like today's lesson? Don't forget to let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you! You can tell us in the Comments section below.   Listening Quiz See how well you understand this lesson by taking a listening quiz. Play each short video, then choose the best answer.​ ​ ​Free Materials ​ Download the VOA Learning English Word Book for a dictionary of the words we use on this website. For Teachers Send us an email if you have comments on this course or questions. Grammar focus: language for describing people; review of comparatives Topics: talking about similarities and differences   Comments Let us know what you think about this lesson. Send us an email or write to us in the Comments section below or on our Facebook page.  

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2Fso2wm
via IFTTT

American Colleges Want More Rural Students

  Many American higher education officials agree on the need for a more balanced racial, ethnic and cultural mix at universities and colleges. In the past, American colleges and universities placed special importance on minority or international students. But a growing number of private colleges now seek to admit more rural students. Admissions officials believe that such students have a different way of thinking than students from heavily populated areas like cities. Andrew Moe is Associate Dean of Admissions and Director of Access at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He said admitting students from rural areas is a natural extension of the college’s inclusion goals. “The fact is, that a sizable proportion of the U.S. population live in rural areas…We found through our research that about 59 million, or 20 percent of the U.S. population, live in rural areas.” He added that about 50 percent of U.S. school departments are also in rural areas. Swarthmore is a private liberal arts college near Philadelphia. Moe said that he usually goes to cities to visit high schools and meet students. This is true of most admissions officers, he said. However, he suggested, this can lead to student populations of which many members share the same outlooks and similar opinions. Moe said that Swarthmore wants students from across the country and around the world. The opinions of students from rural areas are, in his words, “rich and really different than what I think is represented…really across most private colleges.” “I think that when you’re in a public health class, and you’re talking about access to health care delivery, I think a student coming from a more populated area has a very different world view than a student coming from a more rural part…So, we want to make sure that those backgrounds and opinions are represented.” Complicated recruiting However, identifying and appealing to students from rural areas can be difficult. “You can’t simply call up a school, say you want to visit and they have never heard of you,” he said. He added that the first step is to build relationships with high schools and their students. Moe said that in rural areas, fewer students have friends and family able to inform them about college or the admissions process. So, it is important for admissions officers to spend time talking with students about how to prepare college admissions forms. The size of the United States means college administrators cannot possibly visit all schools personally. As a result, colleges are exploring technology for answers. Real-time video communication is one such tool to reach large groups of students. Another issue is student preparation. Moe said that studies show almost 50 percent of rural schools do not offer college-level studies, known as Advanced Placement classes. However, such classes are available in more than 90 percent of schools in city areas. Credit in Advanced Placement classes can greatly help students gain admission to competitive schools. At Swarthmore, currently, only 10 percent of rural students seeking admission are accepted. Moe says that it is important for colleges to change their expectations, and understand the issues that rural students are facing. ​Political blends Most U.S. colleges also want a mix of political thinking among students. Adding rural students could help.  Lynn M. Morton is president of Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. She recently told the publication Inside Higher Education that she worries that students do not have enough people around them who disagree with their opinions. Morton said she became concerned after examining results of the National Survey of Student Engagement. She found that only 23 percent of students at her school felt they “often” or “very often” spoke with people holding different political ideas than their own. Warren Wilson College is close to Asheville, the largest city in western North Carolina. It is considered a politically liberal city. So, Morton is seeking more students from rural areas, which traditionally are more conservative. Small, but positive results Admissions officers at Swarthmore and Warren Wilson say they have seen small but good changes concerning future student populations. Warren Wilson has seen a 57 percent rise in rural students seeking admission to the school. At Swarthmore, Andrew Moe reported an increase of about 25 percent last year.  A recent study of admissions directors found that 28 percent of private and 52 percent of public college admissions directors said they were interested in getting more rural students. “I hope it’s a growing trend,” said Moe. I'm Alice Bryant. I’m Phil Dierking.   Phil Dierking reported this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Are there many rural places where you live?  Do students from there usually go to college? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ QUIZ​ ​______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story portion - n. a part of a larger amount, area, etc.​ access - n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone​ delivery - n. the act of taking something to a person or place​ recruit - n. to find suitable people and get them to join a company, an organization, the armed forces, etc.​ trend - n.  a way of behaving, proceeding, etc., that is developing and becoming more common​

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2HYFRIM
via IFTTT

Let's Celebrate Our Earth!

  Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories. On this program we explain common expressions that we use in everyday life. The world celebrates Earth Day every year on April 22. It is a day to think seriously about how our lifestyles and daily habits affect the earth. Well, today we celebrate our shared Mother Earth with a show about earth expressions. To which, you might say, “What on earth took you so long?!” Well, we think every day should be earth day! So, let’s start with the simple yet common expression on earth. We use “on earth” to make strong feelings like surprise, shock, anger, disgust even stronger. And we use it a lot. Here are some examples. How on earth am I supposed to read this entire book in one night? What on earth are you cooking? It smells awful! Why on earth didn’t you come to the party? It was awesome! I did not know what on earth she was talking about. We often use “on earth” in connection with choices. For example: “Why on earth are you going to the dance with him! He has a police record! You should go with a nice guy instead.” To the ends of the earth, I follow my star. To the ends of the earth, just to be where you are. The earth sometimes comes up when a person wants to make big promises to someone they care about. When you say you will go to the ends of the earth for someone, it means you will do as much as possible to help them. For example, when the wife became sick, the husband went to the ends of the earth to find the best doctor to help her. A mother or father may promise to move or Heaven and Earth to help their children. “To move Heaven and Earth” simply that means that you are willing to work very hard.   Now, there is a wide mix of places on Earth: oceans and deserts, jungles and plains, valleys and mountains. Some places are, at times, easier to live in than others. And the word “earth” comes in handy to describe them. We could call a place that is beautiful, peaceful with endless natural resources a heaven on earth. However, “heaven on earth” could describe any place that has everything a person needs to be happy. Let’s say you love books and reading above all else. A well-stocked library would most likely be your heaven on earth. But maybe you prefer being outdoors. A perfect outing for you would be hiking in the mountains and swimming in a clear lake. That would be your heaven on earth. Unfortunately, there is also a hell on earth. A “hell on earth” is a place or situation where things are so bad you feel as if you are in, well, hell. A war zone or a place destroyed by a natural disaster can become a “hell on earth.” But you probably know this already. It is hardly earth-shattering news. When something shatters, it breaks into many small pieces. Something would have to be terribly powerful to shatter the earth. So, when something is “hardly earth-shattering,” it is not surprising. We mostly use this phrase in the negative form. You can also say more simply that something is not earth-shattering. We use “earth” in many expressions that describe not only places, but people. Down-to-earth people are reasonable and dependable. We can also call them grounded, an adjective that goes well with the word "earth." Flighty people are the opposite. You can’t depend on them. They change their minds often and are very unpredictable. The expression salt of the earth comes from the Bible, the Christian holy book. It describes a very good person. For example, my neighbors are always helping out people in need. I can call them salt of the earth type people. Now let’s hear some of these expressions used in a conversation between two co-workers. A: Where on earth have you been?! I haven’t seen you for weeks! B: I was on vacation. And it was fabulous! A: Lucky you. Where did you go? B: I vacationed on a beautiful tropical island. For two whole weeks, I was surrounded by bright white sand, sunny skies and a calm blue ocean. A: Sounds like heaven on earth. B: It was! How was your week? A: Well, the office was short on staff. So, I had to stay late every night. B: Oh. That sounds awful. A: It was hell on earth. B: Well, I’m back now. How can I help? A: First, I would check in with Rashma. She was promoted while you were on vacation. B: She was? A: Well, it’s hardly earth-shattering news. I mean, she is the hardest-working person here. B: That’s true. I just thought that Angie would have been promoted first. She’s so down-to-earth and everyone likes her. A: Oh, Angie’s great -- a real salt of the earth woman. But Rashma has moved heaven and earth to help this company. B: That’s true. Why on earth she’s still here is beyond me. I thought she would have her own company by now!    We will end this program with one more “earth” expression. When you promise someone the earth, you promise to give them whatever they could possibly want. Naturally, we use this in an exaggerated way. No one can give another person the earth! You know, if I write a country song, I already know what I’ll name it: “He promised me Earth, but all I got is dirt.” And that’s the end of Words and Their Stories. I’m Anna Matteo. How do you use "earth" in your language? Let us know in the Comments Section. I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumbling down, a'tumbling down I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumbling down, a'tumbling down   Anna Matteo wrote this story. Caty Weaver was the editor. The first song in this program is Engelbert Humperdinck singing “To the Ends of the Earth.” The song at the end is Carol King singing “I Feel the Earth Move.” _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   shatter – v. to break at once into pieces : to damage badly : ruin negative – adj. harmful or bad : not wanted temporarily – adv. continuing for a limited amount of time : not permanent practical – adj. relating to what is real rather than to what is possible or imagined realistic – adj. able to see things as they really are and to deal with them in a practical way grounded – adj. used to describe a person who is sensible and has a good understanding of what is really important in life flighty – adj. not serious or dependable : likely to forget things or to change opinions, plans, etc., without reason exaggerated – v. to make (something) larger or greater than normal fabulous – adj. very good tropical – adj. of, relating to, occurring in, or used in the tropics tropics – n. the part of the world that is near the equator where the weather is very warm surround – v. to be on every side of (someone or something)

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2r7awZL
via IFTTT

Buddhist Festival in Thailand Celebrates Boys as ‘Princes’

  A colorful festival in northern Thailand holds deep Buddhist meaning for young boys who are celebrated as “beloved princes.” The festival is held each year in the mountain town of Mae Hong Son. It ends with a parade in which the boys - some as young as seven - are carried through town on their fathers' shoulders. They are dressed in brightly colored clothes and highly detailed headpieces. Some villagers join the parade. They dance, beat drums and play other instruments. The celebration is part of an ancient ceremony that ends with the boys becoming novice Buddhist monks. The boys belong to the Shan ethnic group, which lives mainly in Shan state in neighboring Myanmar. The group also spreads into parts of Thailand, China and Laos. About 50 boys take part in the festival. It is split into different parts during a one-week period. It takes place just before the traditional Thai New Year in April, during which most villagers are home and children are on a break from school. The ceremony is meant to represent different periods in Buddha’s early life as a prince. This is why the boys are called “beloved princes.” First, the boys have all their hair cut off. Their bodies are washed in flower-scented water. Then, they are dressed in white and have colorful designs drawn on their faces. The makeup is thought to have protective qualities. At this point, the boys are considered to have reached a partly divine state. They are not permitted to touch the ground or walk by themselves until the festival is over. The process is seen as bringing honor to the boys’ families. Many parents must save money for a long time to pay for costs related to the ceremony. Most families also accept donations from other family members and friends. Kasen Kongtui is a Thai trader. He supported one of the boys, 12-year-old Poo Sit. The boy is a family friend. “I was overwhelmed with happiness and was excited about the ceremony,” Kasen told the Reuters news agency. He added that the boy told him, “’Grandfather, I want to become a novice!’ So we helped him. I did it to make merit.” After becoming novice monks, the boys live and study at Buddhist temples for a few months during school holidays. August is an 8-year-old boy who completed the ceremony. He spoke to Reuters about his favorite part. “I liked having my head shaved,” he said. He was dressed all in red and gold, with a large hat holding fresh pink flowers. “When I saw my friends doing this, I decided to become a novice,” he said. “I want to be the Buddha’s representative. I want to be a good person.” I’m Bryan Lynn.   Bryan Lynn adapted this story for VOA Learning English, based on a report from Reuters.  Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   drum – n. musical instrument made with a thin layer of skin or plastic stretched over a round frame and that is played by hitting the skin or plastic with sticks or with your hands novice – n. new member of a religious group who is preparing to become a monk or nun monk – n. member of a religious community of men who usually promise to remain poor, unmarried, and separated from the rest of society divine – adj. relating to or coming from god overwhelmed – adj. having too many things to deal with merit making – n. a Buddhist practice in which people perform regular good deeds in order to increase spirituality and become happier in life.  

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2HzEQrj
via IFTTT

US Militia Groups Refocusing on New Enemies

  Last week, an American court ruled against three members of a militia in the state of Kansas. The jury found the three men – Curtis Allen, Patrick Stein and Gavin Wright -- guilty of two charges: plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights. They face up to life in prison.  Officials say the three planned to bomb a building where Somali refugees live. They said the bombing was supposed to lead to more violence, what one of the men called “Crusades 2.0.” But their plan was stopped after their arrest, just weeks before the 2016 elections in the United States. Officials say the plot shows the changing enemy of a movement that was launched a generation ago. It began at a time of anti-government activism. But with the election of Donald Trump as president, the desire to fight the government appears to have lost some of its urgency. Many militia members support Trump and his policies. Instead of denouncing the government, militias have instead turned their hatred against new enemies: Muslims, immigrants, and the anti-fascist group Antifa. Some militias have been directing their attention to “secondary enemies for the movement," notes Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League civil rights group. Often grouped with other extremist organizations, the anti-government movement comes in different forms. There are "preppers,” a term used to describe how they “prepare” for civil unrest by keeping large amounts of water and food. There are "survivalists," people who learn skills to “live off the land” after a disaster. And then there are the militiamen who take part in military-style training exercises. Their aim is to resist a government they see as secretly planning to take away their guns and constitutional rights. Start of Modern Militia The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says the modern U.S. militia movement dates back to a series of events in the early 1990s. Among them was the election of Bill Clinton as president in 1992 and an attack the following year on the Branch Davidian camp in Waco, Texas. The center says militias believe that attack, by federal agents, was “evidence of an out of control government willing to attack citizens.” During Clinton’s presidency, the number of anti-government groups rose sharply. But it fell during George W. Bush's two terms as president before rising again to 1,360 under President Barack Obama. In 2016, there were 689 anti-government groups nationwide, including 273 militias, according to the SPLC. The militia movement’s hatred for Muslims was influenced in part by the 2008 election of Obama, the country’s first African-American president. Some Americans believe that Obama was a Muslim born in Kenya. They accuse him of being a liberal who would take away citizens’ guns. Adding fuel to anti-Muslim hatred were a series of terrorist attacks in Europe and the U.S. They included shootings, carried out by Muslim extremists, in Chattanooga, Tennessee; San Bernardino, California; and Orlando, Florida. Law Enforcement Takes Notice The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was concerned. As early as May 2015, the FBI warned that militia extremists were "expanding their targets to include Muslims and Islamic religious institutions in the United States." Because of its anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant language, the 2016 election campaign influenced some militiamen to take action. It was around this time that the three men began plotting to blow up the Somali housing complex in Kansas. The men belonged to the Kansas Security Force, which was part of a larger group called the “Three Percenters.” Along with a few other militiamen, they began meeting on Saturdays and Sundays to discuss ways to remove Muslims from the country. They formed a group to communicate and shared anti-Obama, anti-Clinton, and anti-Muslim memes on Facebook. Using Google Earth, the Kansas militiamen identified Muslim targets in the state. They then decided to attack the Somali apartment building and a religious center. To show just how extreme the three were, government lawyers questioned other members of the Kansas Security Force. One said that he left the militia after hearing about the plot. He said he had concerns that it was “turning into something more serious.” Another member said that although she hated Muslims, she objected to the plan. Defense lawyers tried to prove the men were just talking. And they asked Amy Cooter, an expert on militias, to give evidence. She is with Vanderbilt University’s Department of Sociology in Tennessee. After reading statements and social media records and talking to one of the three men, Cooter said that Wright was more of a “prepper” than a militiaman. She noted there was little evidence that he trained with weapons. Cooter said Wright told her that things got “out of control” without him understanding what was happening. But the jury failed to accept the argument that all the men were doing was talking. Now the three may spend their lives in prison. I'm Susan Shand.   Masood Farivar reported this story for VOA News. Susan Shand adpated the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   conspiracy – n. the act of plotting together; an agreement o carry out a plan or plot defamation – n. the act of saying false things in order to make people have a bad opinion of someone or something league – n. a group or part of a larger organization fascist – adj. a political movement that praises the nation or race above the individual style – n. a custom or way of doing things institution – n. an established organization; a place where a group takes care of people meme - n. an interesting object, such as a picture or video, that spreads through social media

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2FplwqR
via IFTTT

English in a Minute: Throw Money at the Problem

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2vTitrb
via IFTTT

'The Black Cat,' by Edgar Allan Poe

We present the short story "The Black Cat," by Edgar Allen Poe. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State. Tomorrow I die. Tomorrow I die, and today I want to tell the world what happened and thus perhaps free my soul from the horrible weight which lies upon it. But listen! Listen, and you shall hear how I have been destroyed. When I was a child, I had a natural goodness of soul which led me to love animals — all kinds of animals, but especially those animals we call pets, animals which have learned to live with men and share their homes with them. There is something in the love of these animals which speaks directly to the heart of the man who has learned from experience how uncertain and changeable is the love of other men. I was quite young when I married. You will understand the joy I felt to find that my wife shared with me my love for animals. Quickly she got for us several pets of the most likeable kind. We had birds, some goldfish, a fine dog, and a cat. The cat was a beautiful animal, of unusually large size, and entirely black. I named the cat Pluto, and it was the pet I liked best. I alone fed it, and it followed me all around the house. It was even with difficulty that I stopped it from following me through the streets. Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during which, however, my own character became greatly changed. I began to drink too much wine and other strong drinks. As the days passed I became less loving in my manner; I became quick to anger; I forgot how to smile and laugh. My wife — yes, and my pets, too, all except the cat — were made to feel the change in my character. One night I came home quite late from the inn, where I now spent more and more time drinking. Walking with uncertain step, I made my way with effort into the house. As I entered I saw — or thought I saw — that Pluto, the cat, was trying to stay out of my way, to avoid me. This action, by an animal which I had thought still loved me, made me angry beyond reason. My soul seemed to fly from my body. I took a small knife out of my coat and opened it. Then I took the poor animal by the neck and with one quick movement I cut out one of its fear-filled eyes! Slowly the cat got well. The hole where its eye had been was not a pretty thing to look at, it is true; but the cat no longer appeared to suffer any pain. As might be expected, however, it ran from me in fear whenever I came near. Why should it not run? Yet this did not fail to anger me. I felt growing inside myself a new feeling. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself doing wrong, some evil thing for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Are not we humans at all times pushed, ever driven in some unknown way to break the law just because we understand it to be the law? One day, in cold blood, I tied a strong rope around the cat’s neck, and taking it down into the cellar under the house I hung it from one of the wood beams above my head. I hung it there until it was dead. I hung it there with tears in my eyes, I hung it because I knew it had loved me, because I felt it had given me no reason to hurt it, because I knew that my doing so was a wrong so great, a sin so deadly that it would place my soul forever outside the reach of the love of God! That same night, as I lay sleeping, I heard through my open window the cries of our neighbors. I jumped from my bed and found that the entire house was filled with fire. It was only with great difficulty that my wife and I escaped. And when we were out of the house, all we could do was stand and watch it burn to the ground. I thought of the cat as I watched it burn, the cat whose dead body I had left hanging in the cellar. It seemed almost that the cat had in some mysterious way caused the house to burn so that it could make me pay for my evil act, so that it could take revenge upon me. Months went by, and I could not drive the thought of the cat out of my mind. One night I sat in the inn, drinking as usual. In the corner I saw a dark object that I had not seen before. I went over to see what it could be. It was a cat, a cat almost exactly like Pluto. I touched it with my hand and petted it, passing my hand softly along its back. The cat rose and pushed its back against my hand. Suddenly, I realized that I wanted the cat. I offered to buy it from the innkeeper, but he claimed he had never seen the animal before. As I left the inn, it followed me, and I allowed it to do so. It soon became a pet of both my wife and myself. The morning after I brought it home, however, I discovered that this cat, like Pluto, had only one eye. How was it possible that I had not noticed this the night before? This fact only made my wife love the cat more. But I myself found a feeling of dislike growing in me. My growing dislike of the animal only seemed to increase its love for me. It followed me, followed me everywhere, always. When I sat, it lay down under my chair. When I stood up it got between my feet and nearly made me fall. Wherever I went, it was always there. At night, I dreamed of it. And I began to hate that cat! One day my wife called to me from the cellar of the old building where we were now forced to live. As I went down the stairs, the cat, following me as always, ran under my feet and nearly threw me down. In sudden anger, I took a knife and struck wildly at the cat. Quickly my wife put out her hand and stopped my arm. This only increased my anger and, without thinking, I turned and put the knife’s point deep into her heart! She fell to the floor and died without a sound. I spent a few moments looking for the cat, but it was gone. And I had other things to do, for I knew I must do something with the body, and quickly. Suddenly, I noted a place in the wall of the cellar where stones had been added to the wall to cover an old fireplace which was no longer wanted. The walls were not very strongly built, and I found I could easily take down those stones. Behind them there was, as I knew there must be, a hole just big enough to hold the body. With much effort I put the body in and carefully put the stones back in their place. I was pleased to see that it was quite impossible for anyone to know that a single stone had been moved. Days passed. Still there was no cat. A few people came and asked about my wife, but I answered them easily. Then one day several officers of the police came. Certain that they could find nothing, I asked them in and went with them as they searched. Finally, they searched the cellar from end to end. I watched them quietly, and, as I expected, they noticed nothing. But as they started up the stairs again, I felt myself driven by some unknown inner force to let them know, to make them know, that I had won the battle. “The walls of this building,” I said, “are very strongly built; it is a fine old house.” And as I spoke, I struck with my stick that very place in the wall behind which was the body of my wife. Immediately I felt a cold feeling up and down my back as we heard coming out of the wall itself a horrible cry. For one short moment, the officers stood looking at each other. Then quickly they began to pick at the stones, and in a short time they saw before them the body of my wife, black with dried blood and smelling of decay. On the body’s head, its one eye filled with fire, its wide open mouth the color of blood, sat the cat, crying out its revenge! Download a lesson plan to use with this story here. Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. What do you do when you are so angry you feel you might hurt your friends or loved ones? How can violence be avoided? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Try this Listening Quiz to check your understanding. _______________________________________________________________ Click on the image below for a Lesson Plan for this story. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   uncertain - adj. not exactly known or decided “in cold blood” - expression. without feeling or with cruel intent wine – n. an alcoholic drink made from the liquid part that can be squeezed out of a small, round fruit that is green, dark red, or purplish-black in color inn – n. a house usually in the country where people can eat, drink and rent a room to sleep in cellar – n. the part of a building that is entirely or partly below the ground sin – n. an action that is considered to be wrong according to religious or moral law revenge – n. the act of doing something to hurt someone because that person did something that hurt you pet(ted) – v. to touch an animal or person with your hand in a loving or friendly way innkeeper – n. a person who owns or operates an inn decay – n. the process or result of being slowly destroyed by natural processes

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2JAPNFF
via IFTTT

What It Takes - Albie Sachs

00:00:00     MUSIC: DREAMZ   00:00:08     ALBIE SACHS: Everything was totally, utterly, completely dark and silent.   00:00:15     MUSIC: DREAMZ   00:00:22     ALBIE SACHS: And through the darkness, I heard a voice saying, "Albie, this is Ivo Garrido. You’re in the Maputo Central Hospital in Mozambique. Your arm is in lamentable condition. You have to face the future with courage." And into the darkness, I said, "What happened?" “It was a car bomb.”   00:00:49     MUSIC: DREAMZ   00:01:03     ALICE WINKLER: The year was 1988. The remarkable man telling the story is Albie Sachs, a South African lawyer and a freedom fighter, who would go on to help draft his country’s constitution and serve as a justice on its Constitutional Court.   00:01:20     ALBIE SACHS: I fainted back into the darkness again, but with a sensation of total joy and euphoria. I’d been aware of something terrible happening to me, of this darkness enveloping me completely, of being pulled, people speaking. I thought I’d been kidnapped, to be taken back from Mozambique into apartheid South Africa.   00:01:51     And I remembered, vaguely, shouting, "Leave me, leave me," in English and in Portuguese, but not too loudly because I was in a public place — and then feeling angry: “If they’re going to kidnap me, at least they can put me in a car with decent springs,” because I felt the pain as we jolted along. And then back into the darkness. I’m suddenly conscious and feeling very light, lying flat on my back, and I tell myself a joke, a joke about Himie Cohen, who, like me, is a Jew.   00:02:28     He falls off a bus, and he gets up, and he does this, and someone said, "Himie, I didn’t know you were Catholic." "What do you mean, Catholic?” “Spectacles, testicles, wallet, and watch."   00:02:40    ALICE WINKLER: Okay, to get Albie Sachs's joke and the rest of this story, you’ve got to picture him telling it, making what looks like the sign of the cross with his left hand.   00:02:49     ALBIE SACHS: And I started with testicles — all in place; wallet; my heart is okay; spectacles — I feel my head. There’s no crater there. And then my hand slides down, and I discover I’ve lost my arm. I’d only lost an arm.   00:03:14     Every freedom fighter goes to sleep every night wondering, "Will I wake up in the morning?" Every day: "Will I get through the day? Will I be brave when they come for me?" It had happened to me, and I’d gotten through, and I fainted back into delirium.   00:03:30     ALICE WINKLER: In this episode of What It Takes, Albie Sachs will take you through the extraordinary events in his life that led up to this moment and the equally extraordinary events that followed. This is What It Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.   00:03:49     I’m Alice Winkler.   00:03:51     OPRAH WINFREY: "Hattie Mae, this child is gifted," and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.   00:03:57     ROGER BANNISTER: If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another chance.   00:04:03     LAURYN HILL: It all was so clear. It was just, like, the picture started to form itself.   00:04:08     DESMOND TUTU: There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.   00:04:16     CAROL BURNETT (quoting CARRIE HAMILTON): “Every day I wake up and decide, today I'm going to love my life. Decide.”   00:04:23     JOHNNY CASH: My advice is, if they're going to break your leg once when you go in that place, stay out of there.   00:04:28     JAMES MICHENER: And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for, but boy, you’d better not miss them.   00:04:42     ALICE WINKLER: Albert Louis Sachs was born in Johannesburg in 1935 in a hospital that sits directly across from what’s now the South African Constitutional Court. His parents were Lithuanian, Jewish, white. They’d fled persecution in Europe, only to land as refugees in a country that excelled at brutally persecuting its black and brown citizens. Albie Sachs’s parents met in South Africa as young rebels, communists, idealists.   00:05:15     His mom went to work for a leader of the African National Congress. His dad became head of the Garment Workers Union. It was inevitable, Albie Sachs says, that he would grow up hell-bent on fighting injustice.   00:05:29     ALBIE SACHS: The other thing, also, was that material possessions were really very unimportant in our home. We lived actually very modestly but filled with ideas, and a world filled with ideas was also a world filled with fun. Sometimes people feel that you get rid of all your possessions but you become very severe, and you don’t enjoy food, you don’t laugh, you don’t dance, you don’t sing, but it wasn’t like that at all.   00:05:55     And the other thing — sadly, my mom and my dad split up when we were very young. There were lots of strong women around, so I grew up something of a feminist without the ideology, just with the situation in which I lived.   00:06:10     ALICE WINKLER: He totally identified as Jewish, by birth, by association, by culture, by history, but he wasn’t religious. When he was four, World War II broke out, and he remembers it dominating his childhood. South Africa joined the war effort on the side of its close ally, Great Britain, but given South Africa’s own history and population, there were a lot of people with Nazi sympathies.   00:06:35     ALBIE SACHS: There was a clandestine, quite active sabotage movement — which supported Hitler in South Africa — of extreme right-wing Afrikaner nationalists who were very anti-British and also very racist. That was around. There’d be strange things when you went to a cinema. They always ended with playing “God Save the King,” and you were expected to stand, and most people would stand and some would sit.   00:07:01     That was their way, their little way, of publically showing their opposition to the war. Occasionally at school, we would have memorial services for a kid whose dad was killed in the war, and there’d be a kind of a gloom, and we would sing, "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide."   00:07:25     MUSIC: ABIDE WITH ME   00:07:25     ALBIE SACHS: It still resonates in my head. This is, you know, six decades or more later, but it was done in that funereal way. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t tears for someone close. It was kind of institutionalized sorrow, but it was part and parcel, and perhaps the tough part was preparing young boys to kill and to be killed, to be soldiers. Courage, courage was the big thing.   00:07:52     Would I be strong? Would I be brave? And would I win the Victoria Cross? — The highest award given to soldiers for heroism, usually dying in battle, saving your comrades. That was the number-one quality, courage being determined by flying a plane and shooting down the Nazis.   00:08:13     ALICE WINKLER: But his mother was friends with a number of German refugees, and she taught Albie and his brother to resist stereotypes. He was really little, but he would scold other kids for saying that Germans were bad. "Only the Nazis are bad," he'd say, "not all Germans." Since his parents were divorced, Sachs and his brother lived with their mother in Cape Town, scraping by, moving from rental to rental, living in hand-me-down clothes.   00:08:42     He felt like an outsider. He remembers taking comfort in a book of fables, and one story, in particular, about a young man from a poor rural family who sets out to see the world.   00:08:54     ALBIE SACHS: And he passes through a forest, and it’s a thick, dense forest, and he requires enormous perseverance to get through. And then it’s the desert, and it's crossing the desert, and the sun is beating down on him, and his mouth is tight with thirst. And then a high mountain, and then the ice and snow, and eventually he gets to the other side, a kind of a kingdom. And, of course, as these stories end, he’s triumphant, and he’s made the king, and he gets the bride, and it ended happily.   00:09:29     Now, I’d forgotten that story completely until I was in solitary confinement in prison.   00:09:35     MUSIC: ABIDE WITH ME   00:09:41     ALICE WINKLER: But during this conversation with the Academy of Achievement, which took place in Cape Town in 2009, Albie Sachs resisted a question from the interviewer about his real-life heroes and role models.   00:09:55     ALBIE SACHS: To be candid, I don’t like the idea of role models. There’s only one role model, I think, that matters, and that’s you. And the question is not to try and be like someone else. I think of, like, two great personalities who were locked up in the prison where we’ve now built the Constitutional Court — Gandhi and Mandela — but you can’t be like Gandhi.   00:10:21     You can’t live with a dhoti today and have that strict diet, and you give up sex and eating food with salt — and he didn’t consult his wife, by the way, when he gave up sex. It was his response to a moment, a period in history — Gandhi. You know, if you’re not six-foot tall and an African man, you’re not going to be even physically like Mandela, let alone — you’re not going to spend 27 years in jail.   00:10:54     You can’t emulate that. And then you say, "Well, I can never be like that. That is so heroic in terms of the imagination. That leaves me out," instead of saying, "What can I find in myself? How can I interrogate myself? How can I be my own role model? — Drawing from the experiences of others, what other people have done, what they’ve achieved, the dilemmas they’ve had, how they have overcome. All that will help me, but I must be my own role model and not try to copy someone else."   00:11:24     ALICE WINKLER: Sachs started carving his own heroic path when he was studying law at University of Cape Town. He was just 17 years old, but he decided to take part in the first major, multiracial protests against apartheid. It was called the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign. It began on April 6, 1952, timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the Dutch settlement of South Africa.   00:11:53     ALBIE SACHS: And so to celebrate it as the day of the beginnings of what was called civilization in Southern Africa, as though African people didn’t have a culture or civilization, history or past. And the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign started on that very day to challenge this idea of white hegemony — that the whites are the centerpiece of existence, of history, of meaning in the world — when black people voluntarily sat on park benches marked “whites only,” traveled on buses marked “whites only,” crossed on bridges marked “whites only,” went into what were called “locations,” where black people lived without a permit to be there, were out on the streets without carrying their documents, their passes, that black people had to present to the police all the time.   00:12:46     And I was at the very first meeting in Cape Town when one of the leaders of the African National Congress named Johnson Ngwavela voluntarily defied an order — we called it “the banning order” — put upon him, placed on him by the minister of justice, prohibiting him from attending any political gatherings. And he came into this little hall, and we all stood up and sang, and we sang freedom songs.   00:13:13     It was a very emotional moment, and they called for volunteers to join the Defiance Campaign. And I was dying to volunteer. And my friend Wolfie Kodesh with me, he said, "Shh, shh. No, no, Albie. Whites can't join." I said, "Why can’t whites join? It’s a non-racial struggle against racism." He says, "No, no, no, no. You can’t." I remember holding onto the seat, clinging onto it to prevent myself from being hurled up with all the others rushing to sign that they wanted to be volunteers.   00:13:44     And he said, "Look, I’ll speak to some of the leaders, and we’ll see." And it was only in December, so that, several months afterward, a small group of whites — four whites in Cape Town — were allowed by the organization to join. Looking back now, I can see, of course, it had to be a struggle by the oppressed black people, manifested under their own leadership, organized by themselves, and then whites could come in at a later stage to demonstrate that very point. But at the time, it really hurt me as a young and anti-racist idealist.   00:14:22     ALICE WINKLER: When Sachs and three other white activists did finally get to participate as volunteers, they sat on the nonwhites’ bench at the General Post Office, writing defiant telegrams to the prime minister and refusing to move.   00:14:38     ALBIE SACHS: And it became a little bit farcical because they wouldn't arrest us. The minute any black person defied any law, they were just whipped off to jail. And finally, the police arrived. By then there was a huge crowd, and again, I remember, with some amazement, these tall colonels from the police force came and said, "We have to place you under arrest."   00:15:05     And I stood up. And I was the youngest in the group, but I was officially the leader, and I said, "Mayibuye iAfrika!” (Africa, come back!) And the crowd shouted back, "Afrika mayibuye!" And when I think of it now, you know, where did I get the guts? — Age 17, in front of these police. And the next thing, we were locked up. And you join the freedom struggle, and you always imagine being in jail. And here we’re in jail, and we’re a little bit cocky, the three men and one woman.   00:15:40     She was on her own. And an hour or two later, we’re in the magistrate’s court, and it’s packed, and the journalists are there, and it’s the first time whites are joining the Defiance Campaign, giving it extra newsworthiness. And then the magistrate looks at the docket, and he says, "I see there’s a 17-year-old youth." And it’s me.   00:16:04     So I’m not a brave revolutionary freedom fighter. I’m a juvenile. "Are any of his parents in court?" My mother stands up, and she was very proud of me, and I’m very proud of her. And he says, "I’m sending you home to your mother." That was very humiliating for this young guy. But it was a kind of a breakthrough, where you put yourself on the line, and in the end, the Defiance Campaign was crashed by very severe state action and so on.   00:16:37     ALICE WINKLER: Three years later, Albie Sachs was proudly there at the Congress of the People, where the Freedom Charter was adopted. That was the document basically laying out a vision for South Africa's future after apartheid.   00:16:50     ALBIE SACHS: That was a totally different vision of South Africa. It started off, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and together we will fight until there's justice for all.” The police came. They were armed with what were called stun guns. They came on horses. They surrounded us. Everybody had their names taken. There could have been a massacre then. We stood up. We sang. We sang, we sang, we sang freedom songs.   00:17:17     We kept our calm, and on the basis of the Freedom Charter, saying virtually, "Everybody, open the doors of education for everybody, the doors of learning and culture for everybody, homes and security for everybody," the leaders of the campaign were put on trial for treason. I was raided. I was constantly raided by the police, but I was never put on trial for treason.   00:17:40     I was placed under what were called “banning orders” — which prohibited me for five years from attending any gatherings, from speaking to other people who were banned, and a whole range of prohibitions put on me. In one way, it was nice. It cut out a whole lot of meetings. We spent our lives in meetings, talking, talking, talking, talking nonstop, and the only meetings would be underground.   00:18:05     We’d be very careful in any important meetings, with great security. And the '50s, that was a decade where the majority didn’t have the vote. They didn’t have dignity. The laws were atrocious, but at least they could complain. They could protest. We could organize, and we created the germ, the vision of the new South Africa. The volunteering chief for the Defiance Campaign was a certain Nelson Mandela. He was the first one to go to jail.   00:18:35     ALICE WINKLER: And things were about to get much worse.   00:18:38     ALBIE SACHS: It was dreadful — 1960, the year of the massacre at Sharpeville — 69 people shot dead, mostly in their backs; the ANC, African National Congress, banned completely; the leaders banned; the newspapers banned; the Pan Africanist Congress banned. The Communist Party had been banned for ten years already. Everything driven underground in a possible state of emergency — and then things became much, much grimmer.   00:19:06     An attempt was made in 1961 by Nelson Mandela to call for a national convention to negotiate a new constitution for South Africa. He came from the underground to do it. It was just ignored completely. The government, to show its force, paraded with armored cars and airplanes, like to say, "We are not going to change white supremacy forever in South Africa." The ANC then decided, "We’ve said nonviolence, nonviolence, nonviolence forever. Where has it gotten us?"   00:19:38     "Things are worse now than they were even 40 years ago." And the first bombs went off.   00:19:44     ALICE WINKLER: In other words, the African National Congress, the ANC, took up arms, and the government cracked down even harder, instituting the Sabotage Act and the 90-Day Law, which allowed detention without trial. Albie Sachs, meanwhile, had begun working as an attorney, mostly defending black clients charged under racist statutes, some of them facing a death sentence.   00:20:08     ALBIE SACHS: You could be plucked out of your home, your work — walking in the streets, in my case, going into my office — at the whim of a senior police officer. No charge, locked up in solitary confinement, no knowledge of why you’ve been locked up at all, no contact with lawyers, no contact with families — just you, yourself, alone in a little concrete cube.   00:20:36     I saw my clients being picked up, one by one, one after the other, and had the most terrible experience of somebody who came to my office, and she said, "My name is Beauty Solwandle. I’m married to Looksmart Solwandle." And I’m getting all tense because I know she’s going to ask me that he’s been detained under the 90-Day Law, and there’s nothing I can do.   00:21:09     The law gave us no scope. There was no habeas corpus, there was no remedy, and I’m trying to say — and she’s telling me her story slowly: "And he was in this police cell, and he was taken to Pretoria.” And I went to say, "Mrs. Solwandle, there’s nothing — " and she said, "And I got the news yesterday that he was found hanged in his cell." He was the first political detainee — sadly, the first of many, many in South Africa — to be killed under torture. And I said, "Well, at least we must try and get a post-mortem, an investigation."   00:21:48     And we got lawyers to do that, and something came out, and the magistrate just accepted everything from the police. All the bruising on his body, he found excuses for that. And we didn’t get very far, but not long afterward, I, myself, was in a cell on my own. I remember walking around in this little concrete space.   00:22:15     The door slammed — the echo that’s slamming in my ear — and so this is what it’s like, this moment you’re dreaming of. You’re in the freedom struggle, and you’re going to be locked up, and will you be brave, and what will it be like? And I’m walking around, and I’m singing, and I’m whistling, and I’m trying to keep up my courage. There’s a mat on the floor. There was a little toilet in there with a wire thing that you can pull.   00:22:40     And five minutes, ten minutes — I don’t have a watch — twenty minutes. The time goes so slowly. It’s just you, your toes, the wall, your toes, the wall, looking at what to do, no one to speak to, nothing to do, nothing to occupy yourself. It was far worse than I’d ever imagined, far, far, far worse. I thought you just had to be brave. You bared your chest. Let the enemy come. Let them do their damnedest. And in a way, you’re fighting your own loneliness, your own eagerness to have someone to talk to.   00:23:18     And one day passes, and another day, and another day, and another day, and you never know when it’s going to end. You get your food. I’d be allowed out into a little yard for exercise. I would run round and round, favoring my right leg, and then round and round the other way, favoring my left leg. And I would sing, and I would whistle, and I tried to keep up my courage.   00:23:42     And one day, I hear whistling. I can’t believe it because it’s not just the general noise. Prison is noisy — people screaming, screaming, shouting, doors being slammed, everybody shouting. And I hear whistling, and I whistle back. And then I hear the whistling coming, and I tried out the ANC freedom songs, and there was no response, and I’m wondering, "Who is it? Somebody else in solitary confinement?"   00:24:14     And we made a connection. And it was the “Going Home” theme from the Dvořák New World Symphony... and I hear from far away in the prison...   00:24:50     I don’t even know who it is. I don’t even know who it is, and this was a wonderful form of contact. And then I would do exercises as part of my regime, and I’m in the middle of trying to do a hundred press-ups, and I hear the whistling, and I say, "No, I’m only up to 75. Please wait, wait, wait. Can’t you wait?" And then we had to kind of establish a time during the day when we would be ready for the whistling. And I never found out who it was.   00:25:18     ALICE WINKLER: Never found out while he was in prison, but years later, he wrote about his whistling savior in his memoir, The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs. The whistler recognized herself and got in touch. It turned out to be a woman named Dorothy Adams. They were both living in exile in England by then, and eventually, she would become Sachs’s assistant when he began work on a new constitution for South Africa. That was years later, but back when they met, they talked about how they’d seen one other in prison and noticed that each other looked really brave.   00:25:58     In 2009, when Albie Sachs sat for this interview, he reflected on the range of emotions he felt as a prisoner, in and out of solitary confinement.   00:26:09     ALBIE SACHS: I was very worried about myself. I thought, "I don’t hate them. If I’m a serious freedom fighter, I should hate them." But I just saw Flicky, a guy doing his job as he saw it. "Advocate Sachs" — he called me “advocate,” like “attorney” — "do you mind if I tell you a joke?” I was dying to have someone speak to me. "No, no. No, no, go ahead."   00:26:38     "There was this child who swallowed a little coin, and his mother said, 'We must take him to the doctor.' And his father said, 'No, no, no. We must take him to the lawyer. He’ll get the money out of him much quicker.' Do you mind if I tell you that joke?" And you know, it was such a weird situation, that he’s still respecting me as a policeman.   00:27:03     He’s respecting me because I’m a lawyer and treating me as a human being. He wasn’t from the security police, and I couldn’t imagine killing him or hating him. I could imagine living in a country with someone like him, who is kind of all right, you know, on a one-to-one basis. Maybe with the black prisoners, he was much harsher, but I didn’t feel that. He didn’t have that edge.    00:27:26    At times it was quite painful that your whiteness, whether you liked it or not, followed you all the way through. Even when I was blown up afterward, my white body counted for more than the bodies of black people who were blown up, who were tortured far more severely than I was tortured. The world, the press, the media, controlled by people, white themselves, seeing the world through white eyes — not even maliciously, just automatically — that’s their standpoint, their point of reference.   00:28:01     And so my amputation, my body, counted for something, and then I had to think, "Well, what do I do about it?" And I said, "Well, it gives me access. It gives me a chance to speak. At least I can be like an ambassador for all the others whose voices aren’t heard." I might say, I discovered years later, after democracy was beginning to come to South Africa, and I was interviewed by Anthony Lewis, a columnist for the New York Times, about my attitude to the white guards and others, and I explained that I felt I ought to be more angry than I was.   00:28:40     "There’s something wrong with me." He said, "You know, I’ve just spoken to Nelson Mandela. He said the same thing. And I’ve spoken to Walter Sisulu, who said the same thing, and Ahmed Kathrada, who said the same thing." And I realized I belonged to a culture, a generation based on the values of the Freedom Charter. We were fighting against a system, a system of injustice. We weren’t fighting against a race. We were fighting for a better country, a better society.   00:29:06     That system which had not only oppressed and imprisoned black people in terms of their hopes and their possibilities, but imprisoned whites in fear and narrowness and inwardness and arrogance and greed — that’s what liberation meant; that’s what emancipation means.   00:29:24     INTERVIEWER: What reasons do you think you survived your detainment?   00:29:29     ALBIE SACHS: I barely survived the 90-day detention. After 90 days — it was the 90-Day Law. You could be locked up for 90 days, and somebody comes to the little cell that I was in and gives me back my tie and my shoelaces and my watch. I had been without a watch for 90 days. I used to hear the clock — City Hall clock — chiming, and that would give me the hours, and to this day, when I hear that City Hall clock chiming, I get an uneasy feeling.   00:30:01     And on Sundays, I would hear the bells, the carillon playing, and I can’t get pure pleasure from that. I get a little bit cold. I feel a sense of shock. This beautiful thing of bells playing on a Sunday, joyous bells, and I'll start shivering. And now I get my watch back, and I go down the stairs, and the station commander meets me. I go to his office, and he says some nice things to me.   00:30:35     And a phone call from my mother, and he said, "Yes. No, he’s all right. He’s fine. He’s being released." I’m very suspicious, and I say goodbye, and I walk out of his office, and I’m walking to the street, and a policeman comes in and says, "I’m placing you under arrest." So they released me for two minutes, and then I’m in for another 90 days. That’s how you play with the law.   00:31:01     I take off my tie. My shoelaces go. My watch goes. I’m back in the same cell, and I started having some out-of-body experiences then — very strange. I’m lying on my little cot, and I would feel Albie is lifting out, looking down on me. And I’m not a person given to a spiritual view of the world in that sense.   00:31:29     I’m a great believer in the human personality and spirituality in that sense, but not an out-of-body experience, but I had them. They were quite, quite strong. But I carry on and suddenly, one day, they come and say, "You’re being released." Now, it wasn’t after the second 90 days. It was after another 78 days, so now I’m a little more hopeful.   00:31:57     I get my tie back. I get my watch back. I go downstairs. I look around. There’s no policeman to arrest me again. And I put on my running shoes. I’m in the center of Cape Town. I’ve grown a big mustache. It was the only thing I could do where I felt I had some self-determination. And I ran all the way through Cape Town and through an area called Green Point and down to the coast, further than I’d ever run in my life, dreaming — I'd always dreamed of, “If I'm released, if I get through this, I’m going to go to the sea.”   00:32:37     And I’m looking a bit crazed. I was a bit crazed. Down the steps, and I just flung myself into the sea. It was absolutely triumphant on the outside. Inside, there was something crushed, something deeply unnerved by these weeks and weeks and months of just being on my own. And I would try to keep myself going by inventing games, and I would sing songs — quite an interesting collection of the hit tunes of October 1963 — and my favorite was “Always.”   00:33:25     "I’ll be living here, always. Year after year, always. In this little cell, that I know so well, I’ll be living swell, always, always." And I would sort of waltz around singing to myself and be amused with the fact that this Irving Berlin song, picked up by Noel Coward, who wrote comedies of upper-middle-class manners, was keeping alive the spirit of this freedom fighter in Cape Town.   00:33:57     "I’ll be staying in, always. Keeping up my chin, always. Not for but an hour, not for but a week, not for 90 days, but always." I would try to remember the states in the United States of America. I had two arms then, so I could count on ten fingers, and I won't mention the names of the states that I didn't remember, when finally I got out and I looked at a map. So it had to be activities like — I had a towel. It was a checked towel, and I would use pieces of orange peel to play checkers, you know, on the towel. But it's boring playing against yourself.   00:34:39     You know, your left hand knows what your right hand is planning. I would watch ants. There was a caterpillar once. It became very exciting, and suddenly it disappeared. And one day the station commander comes in, and he's waving a piece of paper, and he said, "If they'd listened to me, this would never have happened." I don't know what he's talking about.   00:34:59     And he gives me the paper, and it says, "In the Supreme Court of South Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Provincial Division, in the case of Sachs vs. Russo” — hey, that's me — “it is hereby ordered that" — and I'm reading — "that the applicant be allowed reading matter and writing material."   00:35:21     I couldn’t show my joy. Wow! And until then, I’d been in a rage against the judges, against the legal profession — one of their own is being picked up and put into solitary confinement, without access to lawyers, without a trial, without charge, indefinite detention without trial. How can that happen and they're doing nothing? And I turned on my colleagues — and your emotions get very exaggerated when you're in solitary confinement — and now they were the most marvelous people who had ever been on the whole earth!   00:35:54     Fantastic! The legal system, rule of law, even in these dark circumstances — but that saved me, that certainly I got books.   00:36:04     MUSIC: HOW HIGH THE MOON   00:36:07     ALBIE SACHS: And then, what books? What do you choose? They wouldn't let me have my friends send in books, in case there was some secret code, so I had to order from the local library. And it amused me no end to think of this young policeman going into the library and asking for Proust's Remembrance of Things Past — and imagining the librarian — and I particularly enjoyed Don Quixote, especially the second volumes, where Cervantes himself had been in prison, and he wasn't writing about this crazed person pursuing futile honor.   00:36:45     He was writing about this brave idealist who kept being knocked off his horse, and he's down in the dust, and Sancho Panza comes and picks him up, and he gets back onto the horse. And he goes, and he's knocked down again, and he gets up. And of course, I identified totally, totally. And two years later, I was picked up again. By then, half of my clients had been picked up, and things were much rougher now.   00:37:15     ALICE WINKLER: The investigations were more brutal. The security police had begun using sleep deprivation and other forms of torture to break people down.   00:37:24     ALBIE SACHS: And the word “terrorism” was used to justify just locking us up — but we were fighting for freedom, for democracy — but the label was used to justify keeping us in indefinite detention without trial. And they went through the afternoon, through the day, into the night, deep into the night. And by early morning, I'm feeling myself getting weaker and weaker and weaker. And they're working in relays. There were about eight of them, and they're taking turns, and they can sleep and come back. And eventually, I feel my resistance going.   00:37:58     And I say, "Albie, you've got to manage your collapse. It's coming. Your clients had sometimes held out for two, three, four, five days, and when they broke, they broke completely." And so now I'm thinking about it, how I can control, and eventually, early in the morning, I just topple off the chair. I'm lying on the ground, and I see all these shoes coming, and I hear the excited voices.   00:38:28     Black shoes, brown shoes, and they're all shuffling around me, and I'm just lying inert. And water comes pouring down on me, and my hair gets matted.   00:38:39     ALICE WINKLER: Water and more water. Albie Sachs is now on the verge of collapse, his eyes closed, and then come the heavy fingers of his interrogator, a famously vicious police lieutenant named Swanepoel, pushing open his eyes again and again. Eventually, Sachs sits up and starts thinking, "Maybe I’ll say something, but what?" He indicates he’s going to talk, finally, and so his interrogator grabs paper and pen.   00:39:13     Sachs starts by describing the nature of his interrogation, explaining that he’s making his statement under duress, and then he mentions only the names of people who are either already dead or out of the country.   00:39:27     ALBIE SACHS: It's stale stuff. I'd been out of the struggle for two years, anyhow, since my previous detention. But I was saying something. I was speaking to them, and our principle was you don't say anything to them. You give your name and address and nothing more. And I felt totally degraded. He said, "We'll be back. We'll be back."   00:39:52     ALICE WINKLER: Lieutenant Swanepoel gets Sachs to sign all the pages of his statement, except for the first one, where he’d made the disclaimer of duress.   00:40:02     ALBIE SACHS: So though I ended up not giving away any information of any value, I still feel something inside me was broken, some strand of dignity and self-possession, and I've never gotten over it, never gotten over it. There are some humiliations and pains you carry with you. You get on with your life, you manage, you do things. But you can't say, “It doesn't matter. It doesn't count.”   00:40:30     It counted. It was worse than being blown up, much worse than being blown up — the attack on my mind, my spirit, by dignity — much worse than the attack on my body, which came many years later.   00:40:42     ALICE WINKLER: A couple of days after his interrogation in prison, Albie Sachs managed to smuggle out a message on a tiny scrap of paper, testifying to what he’d endured. He calls it now the second most important legal document of his career, the first being his contributions to the constitution. Somehow, that miniature plea to the court had its desired effect, and Sachs was spared further police brutality.   00:41:10     When he was released, his friends expected him to run to the sea again, but he was too broken. Back home in Cape Town, he wasn’t under house arrest, but he was barred from entering black areas and schools, and he wasn’t allowed to publish. He still had access to the beautiful beaches and mountain outside of Cape Town, though, so he describes his confinement as paradise.   00:41:34     ALBIE SACHS: And every Sunday, I would climb the mountain, and it was so important for me. I would feel free because if they were following me, I could look down the cliff face and see, so I'd have five hours of freedom that somehow the mountain represented more than just a safe place. It was nature. It was the world. It was being touched with the earth, the sand, the rocks, the plants, and come rain, come shine, you know, every Sunday I would climb.   00:42:03     ALICE WINKLER: He went back to work as an attorney, and he was asked to defend a woman named Stephanie Kemp who’d been charged with sabotage. He felt he was still in too raw a state, though, to represent her, so he asked that another attorney take the lead. But when he met her, he says, they fell in love across the table, without saying a word about it. When her trial was over, she was sentenced to several years in prison.   00:42:30     ALBIE SACHS: And when I said goodbye to her, and the first time I shook her hand when she went off to prison, I just knew destiny had brought us together. She came out. We met. We carried on, developed our relationship a little bit, her being followed by the police all the time. We went down to the beach one day, and it gave me some pleasure to know that the big, heavy security officer, in his suit, was sitting out in the boiling sun while we were eating ice creams down on the beach. But we couldn’t even be together, and the choice was going full-time underground.   00:43:05     ALICE WINKLER: They decided, instead, they would each go into exile and meet in London, where they would get married.   00:43:11     ALBIE SACHS: I think back, being on the boat — in those days, you traveled by boat. You didn't — this is 1966. You didn't travel by plane unless you were super rich or a prime minister or something. And people were throwing streamers, and everybody was happy, and lots of South Africans longed to go to Europe. And the boat would go... and my heart was going... and I'm laughing and appearing very jolly and happy.   00:43:43     At least I'm going to be free of the arrest without trial, the sleep deprivation, living in a country that's so racist and ugly and where it's hard even to fight back. But inside me, there was a terrible, terrible heaviness. And we got to London, and all I wanted to do was lie on Hampstead Heath and watch the kites flying. It's soft grass and kites flying, soft grass, kites flying, and you're not going to be arrested. Part of it was quite marvelous, but part of it was also very humbling and very, very sad. And it took me years and years and years to recover my courage.   00:44:30     ALICE WINKLER: To get out of South Africa, Albie Sachs had asked for a permit, which meant he’d agreed he would never come back, and if he did, he'd be arrested. So he was stateless. He spent lots of time reading, books he’d always wanted to read, and he loved London, but justice was nagging at him. And he started to have a little optimism about the possibility of one day returning home to a free South Africa.   00:44:58     Then neighboring Mozambique won its independence. This was in 1975, and the next year, Albie Sachs went to see it.   00:45:07     ALBIE SACHS: The minute my foot touched the tarmac of the airport, I knew, “This is where I'm going to be happy.” I was back again. I was back in Africa. I was close to my country. The energy, the problems were my problems. And I felt, at times, lonely and marginalized, which I have done many times in my life, but I'd sort of hung in there. But even when I was unhappy, I was happy in Mozambique.   00:45:34     I loved its beautiful trees with purple jacarandas, and the flamboyant with the red, and the petals would just fall down onto the ground. And Mozambique did something very special for me. Mozambique gave me back my courage, the spirit, the feeling of this great endeavor to transform, and then people would emancipate themselves. I got it there.   00:46:04     I went up with what we called the Mozambican Revolution. I came down with it because it couldn’t be sustained. You couldn’t do it just on endeavor, just on slogans, just on good ideals. You needed systems in place. You needed to develop your economy. Your economy couldn’t be separated from the world economy. It left something out, space for opposition, and many people ask, “Why is it that the ANC became, effectively, the key instrument in promoting possibly the most advanced progressive constitution for an open and democratic society in the world?”   00:46:42     The theme of pluralism runs all the way through the constitutional order. Pluralism based on total respect for human dignity and a basic equality for everybody — but why the importance of freedom of expression, of having opposition parties? And many people ascribe that to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the communist states and so on. Those things were important in terms of the historical setting in which South Africa achieved its democracy.   00:47:12     But the most important thing was I experienced living in neighboring African countries, seeing it firsthand, the advantages and disadvantages of different political systems.   00:47:22     ALICE WINKLER: One day, while he was still living in Mozambique, Sachs got a call from Oliver Tambo, who was head of the ANC, which was, at that point, operating in exile.   00:47:32     ALBIE SACHS: And he said, "We’ve captured a number of people who were sent from Pretoria to destroy the organization, and we don't have any regulations about how they should be treated. The ANC's a political organization. It has an annual general meeting in terms of its statutes. It elects its leadership. You pay your subscription. You agree to the aims and objects. Political parties don't have provisions for locking people up and putting them on trial and deciding what to do with them. Can you help us?"   00:48:06     And possibly the most important project — legal project — of my life emerged from that. He said, "It's very difficult, isn't it, to know what the standards are for treatment of captives?" And in a rather cocky way, I said, "Well, it's not so difficult. We have international instruments that say no torture, inhumane or degrading punishment or treatment."   00:48:30     He said, "We use torture." I couldn’t believe it — ANC, fighting for freedom — we use torture? He said it with a bleak face, and that was why he wanted me in there — because what to do about it? The security people had captured these rascals who were trying to blow up the leadership and introduce poison and do all sorts of terrible things. They were beating them up. I didn’t know at the time. I didn’t know the details. It emerged later, but he knew the details.   00:49:00     And so we had to establish a code of legality and a concept of fundamental human rights — fundamental human rights — no torture. No abuse. No ill treatment, whoever they are, whatever they're trying to do. And the ANC, as an organization, took a very, very firm position that: “We put people on trial. We don't have indefinite detention without trial, whatever the suspicions might be. And we don't use torture, sleep deprivation, waterboarding, suffocating people, physical abuse. We just don't use that because that's not the kind of people we are.”   00:49:41     And I mention this with some emphasis because it meant, when eventually it came to writing the South African constitution, we didn't need any persuading about the importance of fundamental rights. We had applied the theme of fundamental rights to our enemies.   00:49:57     ALICE WINKLER: Their very formidable enemies. Albie Sachs had never wielded a weapon more dangerous than his law degree and his principles, but apartheid was in the death throes, so eventually, his enemies caught up with him.   00:50:12     ALBIE SACHS: So I wasn’t personally involved in the armed struggle, but the armed struggle came to me in the form of state terrorism. My friend Ruth First had been killed by a letter bomb. In 1982, she was teaching at the Eduardo Mondlane University — a wonderful, marvelous intellectual — a seminar sponsored by the United Nations. And boom! She was blown up, and we cried so much, and we sang. We threw flowers into the grave.   00:50:39     We carried her to the grave, and there was a portion of the cemetery in Maputo where many South Africans were buried, over 20 who’d been killed. And each time we went there, we wondered, “That little space over there, is that for me?” And of course, it was nearly for me.   00:51:00     MUSIC: DREAMZ   00:51:06     ALBIE SACHS: I felt that they wouldn’t go for me, that I was clearly a law professor, that I wasn't working in the underground resistance. I was very friendly with many diplomats, including from the United States. I would take visitors around, and I felt they wouldn’t go for me. I was so obviously a soft target, and there would be a reaction against it. And I was wrong.   00:51:30     ALICE WINKLER: April 7, 1988. That was the day that darkness fell on Albie Sachs, and he awoke to discover he was missing an arm and was blind in one eye.   00:51:43     ALBIE SACHS: For I don’t know how many decades, every single day in the freedom struggle, wondering, “If they come for me today, if they come for me tonight, if they come for me tomorrow morning, will I be brave? Will I survive?” And they'd come for me, and I'd gotten through, and I had a total, absolute conviction that as I got better, my country would get better. It had nothing to do with rationality or evidence.   00:52:06     It was just that powerful emotion that I'd gotten through the worst, and South Africa would get through the worst, and we were now on the way to constitutional democracy.   00:52:18     ALICE WINKLER: Albie Sachs says his recovery was like a rebirth. He had to learn to function as if for the first time — how to tie his shoes, how to write, how to read, how to walk, how to run. In the end, he found he had even more strength and resolve to approach the task at hand in South Africa. Over the next two years, Nelson Mandela would be freed from his long imprisonment on Robben Island, and the despicable apartheid era would find its rightful place on the ash-heap of history.   00:52:53     One immediate consequence for Albie Sachs was that he could now return home. It had been twenty-four years and two months since he’d set foot in South Africa. The sensation was strange. He missed the exhilaration of the struggle. He and his fellow freedom fighters had to detox, he says, to accept the normal, sort of boring society they’d fought for.   00:53:20     ALBIE SACHS: And then another emotion started surging. It's wonderful to be able to heal, to construct, to build, to enable things to grow. We'd spent all our lives dedicated to pulling something down, something evil and wicked, and I personally found that terrific. For me, personally, as an individual, it was part of my physical recuperation to see the country now beginning to grow, and the constitution was the bedrock of everything.   00:53:51     It didn’t build houses. It didn’t give people access to schools. It didn’t solve the problems of the country, but it gave a mechanism, a metrics, a way in which people could solve the problems without being at each other's throats. So it was the foundation of everything.   00:54:11     ALICE WINKLER: There was another agent of healing that took hold at the same time as the constitution was coming into being, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu as the chair.   00:54:25     ALBIE SACHS: I was a strong supporter of the Truth Commission. Partly, we had to deal with crimes committed by ourselves against people whom we'd beaten up and tortured before we introduced the code of conduct into the ANC. And we had to come back to South Africa with clean hands. No secrets. We had to acknowledge this — explain why and what we did about it — but it was more important to deal with all the assassinations, the tortures inside South Africa, the violations.   00:54:57     So I argued for a truth commission even before we got our new constitution. And it had a very special meaning for me because one day I got a phone call, and the receptionist says, "There's a man called Henry. He says he has an appointment to see you." I said, "Send him through." Henry had phoned me to say that he had organized the placing of the bomb in my car. He was going to the Truth Commission. Would I meet him? And I was curious.   00:55:27     And I was pleased that he had the courage, if you like, to come and see me. And I opened the door, and there's a young person, tall, thin, like myself, and I'm looking at him. “So this was the man who tried to kill me?” And he's looking at me. “So this is the man I tried to kill?” We don't say that, but it's in our eyes, and we walk down, and he's striding like a soldier. And I try to hold him up to walk like a judge, you know, to slow him down.   00:55:58     We get to my office, and we talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and eventually I stand up, and I say, "Henry, I have to get on with my work now. I can't shake your hand but go to the Truth Commission. Maybe we'll meet one day, and who knows?" And I remember, when we walked back, he was just shuffling like a defeated person. He went out the security door. It was over.   00:56:24     Months passed, and I'm at a party at the end of the year, and the band is playing. I'm very tired. We worked very hard as judges, and I hear a voice that says, "Albie!" I look around. "Albie!" My God, it's Henry! And we get him to a corner, and I say, "What happened? What happened?" And he said, "I went to the Truth Commission, and I spoke to Bobby and Sue and Farouk." He's calling me “Albie.” He's using their first-name terms, people who were in exile with me, who also could have been victims of the bomb. "I told them everything, and you said that one day — "   00:57:01     And I said, "Henry, only your face tells me that what you're saying is the truth," and I put out my hand, and I shook his hand. He went away absolutely beaming, and I almost fainted. I heard afterward that he suddenly broke away from that party. He went home, and he cried for two weeks. To me, that was more important than sending him to jail. I wrote a book called The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter, saying that if we got democracy in South Africa, roses and lilies would grow out of my arm.   00:57:37     Sending people to jail wouldn't help me at all, but to get the country we'd been fighting for, that would be quite wonderful. That would be my soft vengeance.   00:57:46     MUSIC: LARGO   00:57:55     ALICE WINKLER: Albie Sachs was one of the first justices Nelson Mandela chose to appoint to the new Constitutional Court of South Africa in 1994. During his tenure, which lasted the next 15 years, Justice Sachs was involved in some landmark decisions, one legalizing same-sex marriage, another outlawing the death penalty.   00:58:19     On a final note, there’s one much less famous decision Sachs was eager to talk about when he addressed the Academy of Achievement Summit in 2009. And I want to end on it because it speaks to who this man is you’ve been listening to — a man who helped transform a nation, paid a huge price, but never lost his spirit, his love of art and music and the mountains or his sense of humor. The case involved a student who was selling T-shirts that spoofed South Africa’s sordid past.   00:58:54     His parody involved a well-known beer logo, and the beer company was not amused. Justice Sachs thought it was time to address an important question.   00:59:06     ALBIE SACHS: What is the role of laughter in our new democracy? And I wrote a separate judgment agreeing with the judgment, and I'd just like to read a little bit from that: “The constitution cannot oblige the dour to laugh. It can, however, prevent the cheerless from snuffing out the laughter of the blithe spirits amongst us. Indeed, if our society became completely solemn because of the exercise of state power at the behest of the worthy, not only would all irreverent laughter be suppressed but temperance considerations could end up placing beer drinking itself in jeopardy.”   00:59:48     “And I can see no reasoning principle why a joke against the government can be tolerated, but one at the expense of what used to be called ‘big business’ cannot. A society that takes itself too seriously risks bottling up its tensions and treating every example of irreverence as a threat to its existence. Humor is one of the great solvents of democracy. It permits the ambiguities and contradictions of public life to be articulated in nonviolent forms.”   01:00:20     “It promotes diversity. It enables a multitude of discontents to be expressed in a myriad of spontaneous ways. It is an elixir of constitutional health.” Thank you.   01:00:38     ALICE WINKLER: Retired Justice Albie Sachs at the Academy of Achievement Summit in Cape Town. He retired from the court in 2009 but still writes and teaches and speaks publicly. He is married now to his second wife, a late-in-life love, as he calls her. If you were moved by Albie Sachs’s story, please tell your friends to listen. Our Twitter handle is @WhatItTakesNow. There’s more on Albie Sachs at achievement.org.   01:01:08     And one more thing: you should check out our episode on Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which we posted last year. This is What It Takes from the Academy of Achievement. I’m Alice Winkler. Thank you so much for listening, and thanks to the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation for funding What It Takes.   01:01:29     MUSIC: LARGO   END OF FILE

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2r80GXF
via IFTTT

'Burning Man' Art Comes to Smithsonian

  The Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., is exploring the art of the yearly Burning Man event held in Nevada. The show, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, opened March 30. The Renwick is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Every August, a temporary city rises from the dust in northwestern Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. As many as 75,000 people gather for the eight-day event called Burning Man. They sculpt, build, perform and invent in many ways while there. Organizers have called Burning Man a “crucible of creativity.” The attendees are called “Burners.” Each attendee is equal part observer and actor at Burning Man. The event’s name comes from the burning of a huge, wooden representation of a human, known as the “Man.” It takes place on Saturday night, hours before the event ends. A crowd gathers, the model is lit on fire, and celebrants watch it burn. The first “Man” was burned in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco, California. That wooden work stood less than three meters high. Now they are always much bigger. The tallest ever was 32 meters. But more than the “Man” turns to ash at Burning Man. Many works of art are burned during the eight days. The immediate and the temporary are important ideas at the event.  Total respect for the environment is also important. Burners are expected to remove from the area all evidence of themselves and the activity when they leave. Stephanie Stebich is the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She said that the Burning Man festival provides artists a chance to “dream big and create large-scale works with new technologies.” But Burning Man is not easy to attend. It is deep in the desert, the living conditions are difficult and tickets are costly. Many who want to go cannot. But, now, people in Washington can get much closer to the experience. On a recent Saturday, visitors formed a long line in front of the Renwick. As they entered, one of the first artworks they saw was Temple, an installation from artist David Best. At Burning Man, Best is known for designing huge structures in the style of holy buildings. People use them as spiritual centers during their stay at the event. Best told Renwick officials that there are not enough places where people can gather to think about loss. The artist said Temple is such a place without connection to any single religion.  Best’s work is always lit on fire at Burning Man. That will not happen at Renwick Gallery, of course. But the show's organizers have included other activities that are similar to what happens at Burning Man. Maybe most important is that Renwick visitors interact with the art at the exhibit. This is why the show is called “No Spectators.” For example, visitors to Temple are provided wooden cards on which to write about memories or other thoughts of lost loved ones. They can then place the piece in small openings of the temple structure. In this way, Temple is changed by those who enter it. Visitors are also encouraged to touch and take photos of other artworks. FoldHaus’s Shrumen Lumen is an example. The three large models of mushrooms were created by the traditional Japanese art of folding paper, or origami. The mushrooms light up and grow when people are near. Children seem to especially enjoy this combination of technology and artistic skill. Artist Richard Wilk’s Evotrope is also interactive. The artwork of wheels and metal framing holds a large, flat round piece in its center. Attached to it are images of a blue eye: open, closed, and several positions in between. When visitors use the device to make the circle spin, the eye seems to open and close. The Renwick Gallery show also has a virtual reality area where visitors can explore past Burning Mans as if they were there. No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man will close on January 21, 2019. I'm Caty Weaver.   Reporter Xiaotong Zhou wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. ____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   crucible – n.  a difficult test or challenge large-scale – adj. covering or involving a large area encourage – v. to make (someone) more likely to do something virtual – adj.  very close to being something without actually being it  

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2r3G2ry
via IFTTT

Thousands of Girls Join Boys Scouts of America

  Thousands of girls have now joined the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, across the United States. The previously all-male organization announced last year it would begin permitting girls to join the Cub Scouts in 2018. The Cub Scouts is a similar group for younger children. The BSA also plans to create a new program next year for older girls wishing to join the organization. The Cub Scout program officially begins nationwide later this year. But the BSA gave local councils the choice to get started earlier than planned. About two-thirds of U.S. councils chose to begin early, with about 3,000 girls accepted into the Cub Scouts so far. The new plans call for smaller Cub Scout groups to be either all-boys or all-girls. Larger Cub Scout groups will have the choice to remain single gender or welcome both boys and girls. When the new program for older girls begins, it will let them earn the highest level of scouting in the BSA, the rank of Eagle Scout. BSA spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos said the organization had received a clear message that many girls could not wait to join. “We heard from our families, ’OK, you’ve made the decision. Can you please give us a way to do this right now because we’ve got families and daughters that are just really excited about it,” she said. Delimarkos added that the Boy Scouts have received many reports that girls have been warmly welcomed by leaders and the boys themselves. Tuck Pescosolido is a Cub Scout leader in Durham, New Hampshire. He told the Associated Press some of the new female members are friends the boys suggested, while others are sisters of Scouts. One of his recent projects involved the Cub Scouts building wooden toolboxes. Pescosolido said the only difference he saw was that some girls remained a little calmer than the boys. He added that the girls were just as active in the project as the boys, but did not become as easily distracted by other things. Boy Scouts of America officials have said the decision to admit girls was made, in part, to make things easier for busy families. But the move was criticized by the country’s other major scouting organization, the Girl Scouts of the USA. Girl Scout officials have suggested the change was driven partly by a need to raise money because of BSA’s financial problems. The leader of the Girl Scouts in the New Hampshire area, Patricia Mellor, said the BSA’s decision should also not have been made just to make things easier for families. “You’ve made the choice for your son based on what you thought was best for him, and the daughter should be getting a similar decision,” Mellor told the Associated Press. “We know facts prove that the Girl Scout program is the better program for the girls and young women we serve,” she added. I’m Bryan Lynn.   Bryan Lynn adapted this story for VOA Learning English, based on a report from the Associated Press. Mario Ritter was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   council – n. a group of people who elected or chosen to give advice or make decisions gender – n. the state of being male or female distracted – adj. unable to think clearly or carefully pay attention   

from Voice of America https://ift.tt/2HwXT5h
via IFTTT