Monday, August 22, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
WHO IS ANNA HAZARE ?
NEWS
He once contemplated suicide and even wrote a two-page essay on why he wanted to end his life. Anna Hazare was not driven to such a pass by circumstances. He wanted to live no more because he was frustrated with life and wanted an answer to the purpose of human existence.
The story goes that one day at the New Delhi Railway Station, he chanced upon a book on Swami Vivekananda. Drawn by Vivekananda's photograph, he is quoted as saying that he read the book and found his answer - that the motive of his life lay in service to his fellow humans.
Today, Anna Hazare is the face of India's fight against corruption. He has taken that fight to the corridors of power and challenged the government at the highest level. People, the common man and well-known personalities alike, are supporting him in the hundreds swelling to the thousands.
For Anna Hazare, it is another battle. And he has fought quite a few, Including some as a soldier for 15 years in Indian Army. He enlisted after the 1962 Indo-China war when the government exhorted young men to join the Army.
In 1978, he took voluntary retirement from the 9th Maratha Battalion and returned home to Ralegaon Siddhi, a village in Maharashtra's drought-prone Ahmadnagar. He was 39 years old.
He found farmers back home struggling for survival and their suffering would prompt him to pioneer rainwater conservation that put his little hamlet on the international map as a model village.
The villagers revere him. Thakaram Raut, a school teacher in Ralegaon Siddhi says, "Thanks to Anna's agitations, we got a school, we got electricity, we got development schemes for farmers.''
Anna Hazare's fight against corruption began here. He fought first against corruption that was blocking growth in rural India. His organization - the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (People's movement against Corruption). His tool of protest - hunger strikes. And his prime target - politicians.
Maharashtra stalwarts like Sharad Pawar and Bal Thackeray have often called his style of agitation nothing short of "blackmail".
But his weapon is potent. In 1995-96, he forced the Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra to drop two corrupt Cabinet Ministers. In 2003, he forced the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state government to set up an investigation against four ministers. In April this year, four days of fasting brought thousands of people out in support of his crusade against corruption. They also made the government realise it could not be dismissive about Anna Hazare and his mass appeal.
His relationship with the UPA government continues to be uneasy. The truce of April was short-lived. An exercise to set up a joint committee made up of equal numbers of government representatives and civil society activists, including Anna Hazare came to naught when the two sides failed to agree and drafted two different Lok Pal Bills. The government has brought its version in Parliament and Team Anna is livid.
The Gandhian is soldiering on. From one battle to another in his war against corruption. He fought from the front to have Right to Information (RTI) implemented. He is now fighting for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill, the anti-corruption bill drafted by his team of crusaders.
This year, more than 30 years after Anna Hazare started his crusade, as the 74-year-old plans a second hunger strike in Delhi against large-scale corruption at the national level. Nothing really has changed except the scale of his battle.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/who-is-anna-hazare-96883&cp
He once contemplated suicide and even wrote a two-page essay on why he wanted to end his life. Anna Hazare was not driven to such a pass by circumstances. He wanted to live no more because he was frustrated with life and wanted an answer to the purpose of human existence.
The story goes that one day at the New Delhi Railway Station, he chanced upon a book on Swami Vivekananda. Drawn by Vivekananda's photograph, he is quoted as saying that he read the book and found his answer - that the motive of his life lay in service to his fellow humans.
Today, Anna Hazare is the face of India's fight against corruption. He has taken that fight to the corridors of power and challenged the government at the highest level. People, the common man and well-known personalities alike, are supporting him in the hundreds swelling to the thousands.
For Anna Hazare, it is another battle. And he has fought quite a few, Including some as a soldier for 15 years in Indian Army. He enlisted after the 1962 Indo-China war when the government exhorted young men to join the Army.
In 1978, he took voluntary retirement from the 9th Maratha Battalion and returned home to Ralegaon Siddhi, a village in Maharashtra's drought-prone Ahmadnagar. He was 39 years old.
He found farmers back home struggling for survival and their suffering would prompt him to pioneer rainwater conservation that put his little hamlet on the international map as a model village.
The villagers revere him. Thakaram Raut, a school teacher in Ralegaon Siddhi says, "Thanks to Anna's agitations, we got a school, we got electricity, we got development schemes for farmers.''
Anna Hazare's fight against corruption began here. He fought first against corruption that was blocking growth in rural India. His organization - the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (People's movement against Corruption). His tool of protest - hunger strikes. And his prime target - politicians.
Maharashtra stalwarts like Sharad Pawar and Bal Thackeray have often called his style of agitation nothing short of "blackmail".
But his weapon is potent. In 1995-96, he forced the Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra to drop two corrupt Cabinet Ministers. In 2003, he forced the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state government to set up an investigation against four ministers. In April this year, four days of fasting brought thousands of people out in support of his crusade against corruption. They also made the government realise it could not be dismissive about Anna Hazare and his mass appeal.
His relationship with the UPA government continues to be uneasy. The truce of April was short-lived. An exercise to set up a joint committee made up of equal numbers of government representatives and civil society activists, including Anna Hazare came to naught when the two sides failed to agree and drafted two different Lok Pal Bills. The government has brought its version in Parliament and Team Anna is livid.
The Gandhian is soldiering on. From one battle to another in his war against corruption. He fought from the front to have Right to Information (RTI) implemented. He is now fighting for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill, the anti-corruption bill drafted by his team of crusaders.
This year, more than 30 years after Anna Hazare started his crusade, as the 74-year-old plans a second hunger strike in Delhi against large-scale corruption at the national level. Nothing really has changed except the scale of his battle.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/who-is-anna-hazare-96883&cp
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Simple Online Learning Time Management Tips
Simple Online Learning Time Management Tips
Author: Alexander SuttonThe exciting world of online learning offers a wealth of benefits to prospective students of all ages. Among the top benefits of taking online classes is the ability to study, take tests and complete projects online virtually any time you choose. Online education students are able to complete their entire online degree from home. In fact, many online students often report that one of their favorite elements regarding distance education classes is the ability to wake up, roll over and hop online to immediately start working on their online class requirements. However, there is a potential pitfall that also accompanies this type of educational environment. Without the standard guidelines and mandatory class time requirements of traditional colleges, online learning students are faced with the challenge of maintaining their own schedule and motivation. Time management is especially vital to an online student's successful completion of their distance learning degree program.
Today's communications technology provides an ideal supplement for online learning. Your online college professor is able to address your online class inquiries despite the absence of a physical classroom and you can easily study with your online classmates thanks to instant messaging and email programs. However, you must be careful of allowing these tools to become a distraction. Limit the number of times you check your instant messenger and email throughout the day to prevent wasting precious time that should be spent on your course work.
It may sound like too large a dose of common sense or common knowledge to suggest creating a to-do list, but the performance-enhancing potential that comes with doing so makes it worth mentioning. Not only can a to-do list help you stay on top of your assignment due dates, it can also help to create a sense of mental calm by knowing exactly what you need to do instead of wasting precious brain cells trying to keep track of scattered responsibilities.
Although all the tasks on your to-do list do indeed need to be completed, there are some tasks that are naturally less enjoyable than others. It is very important to avoid letting your personal preferences or dislikes for specific types of projects prevent you from taking care of the less enticing yet higher priority tasks. In addition, while it may be more enjoyable for you to work on certain types of activities first and pass over the high-priority tasks, there is undoubtedly at least a small degree of stress or anxiety that is created from this type of procrastination. It may not be a significant enough degree for you to readily perceive it and you may not be able to attribute certain feelings of overwhelm caused by delaying these high-priority responsibilities, but it's almost certainly affecting your overall stress and mental wellness levels.
Master your online education time management skills and you're sure to give your grades a significant boost!
About the Author
For more information, please visit Online Learning.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
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