Art Nouveau

"Dancer" , Alphonse  Mucha 

Click here to get their work. 

Work delivered and done by L.Tapia Grande & V. Segura

The Press

"

by S. Paulenko  and  D. Bellingeri

Politically Correct?

Humour is also part of newspapers and many have reflected the latest news. Look at some of the political cartoons about the latest event that involves the USA:

Any comments?

www.politicalcartoons.com/

Presentation Skills

Material for our classes: assignments in our subject will be written and oral.

When you are giving a presentation, you usually talk in front of a group of people in a clear, structured way (about a certain topic). Presentations are a very useful tool for teachers to make students develop different skills and study strategies.

How to succeed in giving presentations?

Must-remember tips:

• Before the presentation, be sure you have all your materials ready.
• Introduce yourself and the topic of your presentation. The audience needs to know who is talking and what is he/she talking about.
• Be ready not to read all the time, people will get bored!
• Keep the presentation simple, giving new and significant content. Remember that your audience can read the full paper later, and look for information on the net.
• Show your knowledge of the topic: be ready to answer any question that may arise!
• Always remember that the end of the presentation is as important as the beginning!

Tips, useful language and tons of ideas:

http://www.waylink-english.co.uk/?page=28040
http://www.tefl.net/esl-articles/speaking-practice-presentations.htm
http://www.englishclub.com/speaking/presentations.htm
http://www.englishclub.com/speaking/presentations-lang.htm
http://www.learn-english-today.com/business-english/presentations-phrases.htm

Happy Christmas!!!

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a song written by John Lennon, released as a single in 1971 by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and the Plastic Ono Band. Although ostensibly a protest song about the Vietnam War, it has become a Christmas standard and has appeared on several Christmas albums.







Remeber the message...War is over if you want it!!

South Africa and Apartheid

Apartheid

• Afrikáans words meaning separateness.
• It was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994
• Apartheid classified inhabitants into 4 racial groups “Black", “White", “Coloured", and "Indian“.

Precursor of Apartheid

• The British colonial rulers introduced a system of Pass Laws during the 19th century. This stemmed from the regulation of black people's movement from the tribal regions to those occupied by white and coloured people, ruled by the British.
• These laws prohibit the black people’s movement from one district to another without a signed pass.

Election of 1948

• Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times, but apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948.

• The Reunited National Party under the leadership of Daniel Francois Malan campaigned on its policy of apartheid. They won the election and Malan became the first apartheid prime minister.

Apartheid Legislation

• The first grand apartheid law was the Population Registration Act (1950), which formalized racial classification and introduced an identity card for all persons over the age of eighteen, specifying their racial group.
• The second pillar of grand apartheid was the Group Areas Act (1950). It determined where one lived according to race. Each race was allotted its own area.
• The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 prohibited marriage between persons of different races.
• Immorality Act of 1950 made sexual relations with a person of a different race a criminal offence
• The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953) established the separation of municipal grounds, transport and civil facilities for the different races.

Homeland System

• Under the homeland system, the South African government attempted to divide South Africa into a number of separate states, each of which was supposed to develop into a separate nation-state for a different ethnic group. The Prime Minister Verwoerd came to believe in the granting of independence to these homelands -Bantustans-
• Ten homelands were ultimately allocated to different black ethnic groups. Four of them accepted so-called independence
• The Black Homeland Citizenship Act of 1970 changed the status of black people living in South Africa so that they were no longer citizens of South Africa, but became citizens of one of the ten autonomous territories.

Forced Removals

• During Apartheid time, the government implemented a policy of 'resettlement', to force people to move to their designated "group areas“. Armed police and Army were used to force people move.
• Sophiatown, one of the few black urban areas, was removed and destroyed. Residents were forced out of their homes and taken to Meadowlands.Sophiatown was destroyed and in its place was built a white suburb, Triumph.

Petty Apartheid

• It describes the era of the 1950s when laws prohibited inter-racial sex and marriage and strictly segregated residential areas, schools, trains, buses, beaches, toilets, parks, stadiums, ambulances, hospitals, and cemeteries
• Blacks were excluded from living or working in white areas, unless they have a pass “dompass”. Without it, the person could be being arrested and trial for being an illegal migrant.

Coloured Classification

• The Population Registration Act was implemented to determine the 4 different racial groups but the system of classification was not reliable. For example, members of the same family found themselves in different race groups.
• The Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent. They were forced to live in separate townships.
• They played an important role in the anti-apartheid movement.

Women under apartheid and Other minorities

• Women suffered racial and gender discrimination. They had few or no legal rights, no access to education and no right to own property. African women can only work as agricultural or domestic workers.
• East Asian population didn’t belong to any of the 4 racial groups. Chinese people were classified as non white, whereas immigrants from Japan and Taiwan were considered “honorary white” and they have the same privileges as normal whites.

Conservatism.

The government alongside apartheid implemented a conservative social programme:

- Vices, like gambling and pornography, were banned.

- Most of businesses, shops selling alcohol couldn’t operate on Sundays.

- Abortion, homosexuality and sex education were restricted.

- Television wasn’t introduced until 1976 because the government viewed as dangerous.

Internal Resistance

The government responded to a series of popular uprisings and protests with police brutality, which in turn increased local support for the armed resistance struggle. Internal resistance to the apartheid system in South Africa came from several sectors of society and saw the creation of organizations dedicated variously to peaceful protests, passive resistance and armed insurrection, such as:

• ANC (African National Congress) 1949

• PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) 1950 formed by a group of disenchanted members of ANC.

• Black Consciousness Movement in 1970. It was created by tertiary students influenced by the American Black Power movement. Its leader was Steve Biko.

In parallel, there were uprisings (Soweto) and protests (students, labour unions, and workers).

International relations

Commonwealth: In 1960 Verwoerd announced a referendum on whether the country should become a republic. 52 percent of population voted “yes”. As a consequence of this change of status, South Africa needed to reapply for continued membership of the Commonwealth. African and Asian member states of Commonwealth opposed South Africa due to its apartheid policies. As a result, South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth on 31 May 1961, the day that the Republic came into existence.

United Nations: On 6 November 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, condemning South African apartheid policies. In 1966, the UN held the first of many colloquiums on apartheid. On 7 August 1963 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 181 calling for a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa, and in the same year, a Special Committee against Apartheid was established to encourage and oversee plans of action against the regime. In 1973, the United Nations adopted the Apartheid Convention which defines apartheid and even qualifies it as a crime against humanity which might lead to international criminal prosecution of the individuals responsible for perpetrating it. Besides, economic sanctions against South Africa were also frequently debated as an effective way of putting pressure on the apartheid government.

Organization for African Unity (OAU): In 1966, Prime Minister, Vorster, tried to redress South Africa's isolation and to revitalise the country's global reputation by the “Outward-looking” policy. The buzzwords for his strategy were "dialogue" and "détente", signifying a reduction of tension. In 1967, Vorster offered technological and financial aid to any African state prepared to receive it, asserting that no political strings were attached.

Western Influences

Nordic countries provided moral and financial support for the ANC. Countries like Sweden pronounced against the Apartheid: Olof Palme, Sweden’s Prime Minister declared: "Apartheid cannot be reformed; it has to be eliminated."

Other Western nations adopted a different position. Thatcher and Reagan followed a 'constructive engagement' policy with the apartheid government. Then Thatcher declared the ANC s terrorist organization. But by 1989, US favoured economic sanctions against South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela and a negotiated settlement involving the ANC.

Total onslaught

By 1980, international opinions turned decisively against the apartheid regime. Then, considerable effort was put into circumventing sanctions, and the government even went so far as to develop nuclear weapons, with the help of Israel. In 2010, The Guardian Newspaper released South African government documents that revealed an Israeli offer to sell Apartheid South Africa nuclear weapons. Shimon Peres denied it.

Cross-border Raids

South Africa had a policy of attacking guerrilla-bases and safe houses of the ANC, PAC and SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organization) in neighboring countries beginning in the early 1980s. These attacks were in retaliation for acts of terror such as bomb explosions, massacres and guerrilla actions (like sabotage) by ANC, PAC and SWAPO guerrillas in South Africa and Namibia.

State Security

Black townships became the focus of the struggle between anti-apartheid organisations and the Botha government. The focus of much of this resistance was against the local authorities and their leaders, who were seen to be supporting the government. By 1985, it had become the ANC's aim to make black townships "ungovernable" (a term later replaced by "people's power") by means of rent boycotts and other militant action.

On 20 July 1985, State President P.W. Botha declared a State of Emergency in 36 magisterial districts. During this state of emergency about 2,436 people were detained under the Internal Security Act. This act gave police and the military sweeping powers. On 12 June 1986, the state of emergency was extended to cover the whole country. In 1987, the State of Emergency was extended for another two years. Much of the violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s was directed at the government, but a substantial amount was between the residents themselves.

The state of emergency continued until 1990, when it was lifted by State President F.W. de Klerk.

Final years of Apartheid

In 1978 the defense minister of the Nationalist Party, Pieter Willem Botha, became Prime Minister. The new government noted that it was spending too much money trying to maintain the segregated homelands that had been created for blacks and the homelands were proving to be uneconomic. In the early 1980s, Botha's National Party government started to recognise the inevitability of the need to reform apartheid. In 1983, a new constitution was passed implementing a so-called Tricameral Parliament, giving Coloureds and Indians voting rights and parliamentary representation in separate houses – the House of Assembly (178 members) for whites, the House of Representatives (85 members) for Coloureds and the House of Delegates (45 members) for Indians.

Black homelands were declared nation-states and pass laws were abolished. Black labor unions were legitimized; the government recognized the right of blacks to live in urban areas permanently and gave blacks property rights there.

Early in 1989, Botha suffered a stroke. He was succeeded as president by F. W. de Klerk. He moved decisively towards negotiations to end the political stalemate in the country and announced that he would repeal discriminatory laws and lift the 30-year ban on leading anti-apartheid groups.

De Klerk also promised to release ANC leader, Nelson Mandela, from jail. On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison after more than 27 years in prison.

Apartheid was dismantled in a series of negotiations from 1990 to 1993, culminating in elections in 1994, the first in South Africa with universal suffrage.

In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa".

Finally, on 27 April 1994 an election was held and went off peacefully throughout the country as 20,000,000 South Africans cast their votes. The ANC obtained 62.65% and Nelson Mandela became the President of South Africa.

Work presented by Martínez and Paulenko

Bosnia civil war (1991-1995)

Bosnia civil war (1991-1995) final version

Work presented by Buey and Priore

Vietnam War

WAR IN VIETNAM

The involvement of the United States in Vietnam stemmed from its Cold War containment policy .After World War II, stopping the spread of communism was the principal goal of U.S. foreign policy.

TheRoad to war. In the early 1900s, France controlled most of resource-rich Southeast Asia. (French Indochina included what are now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.) But nationalist independence movements had begun to develop. A young Vietnamese Nationalist, Ho Chi Min, turned to the communist for help in his struggle. During the 1930s, Ho´s Indochinese Communist party led revolts and strikes against the French.

The French responded by jailing Vietnamese protesters. They also sentenced Ho to death. He fled into exile, but returned to Vietnam in 1941,a year after the Japanese seized control of his country during World War II. Ho and other nationalists founded the Vietminh (independence) League. The Japanese were forced out of Vietnam after their defeat in 1945.Ho Chi Minh believed that independence would follow, but France intendend to regain its colony.

The Fighting Begins Vietnamese Nationalists and Communists joined to fight the French armies. The French held most major cities, but the Vietminh had widespread support in the countryside. In France the people began to doubt that their colony was worth the lives and money the struggle cost. In 1954, the French suffered a major military defeat at Dien Bien Phu. They surrendered to Ho.

The United States had supported France in Vietnam. With the defeat of the French, The United States saw a rising threat to the rest of Asia. President Eisenhower described this threat in terms of the domino theory. The Southeast Asian nations were like a row of dominos, he said. The fall of one to communism would lead to the fall of its neighbors. This theory became a major justification for U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War era.

Vietnam- A Divided Country After France´s defeat, an international peace conference met in Geneva to discuss the future of Indochina. Based on these talks, Vietnam was divided at 17º north latitude. North of that line, Ho Chi Minh´s Communist forces governed. To the south, the United States and France set up an anti-Communist government under the leadership of Ngo Dinh diem.

Diem ruled the south as a dictator. Opposition to his government grew.

Communist guerrillas, called Vietcong, began to gain strength in the south. Gradually, the Vietcong won control of large areas of the countryside. In 1963, a group of South Vietnamese generals had Diem assassinated. But the new leaders were no more popular than he had been. It appeared that a takeover by the Communist Vietcong, backed by North Vietnam, was inevitable.

The United States Gets Involved

Faced with the possibility of a Communist victory, The United States decided to escalate, or increase, its involvement.

United States Troops Enter the fight In August 1964, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson told Congress that North Vietnamese patrol boats had attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. As a result, Congress authorized the president to send U.S .troops to fight in Vietnam.

The United Stated had the best-equipped, most advanced army in the world. Yet it faced two major difficulties. First, U.S. soldiers were fighting a guerrilla war in unfamiliar jungle terrain. Second, the South Vietnamese government that they were defending was becoming more unpopular .At the same time, support for the Vietcong grew, with help and supplies from Ho Chi Minh, the Soviet Union, and China. Unable to win a decisive victory on the ground, the United States turned to air power. U.S. forces bombed farmland and forest.

The United States Withdraws during the late 1960s, the war grew increasingly unpopular in the United States. President Richard Nixon began withdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam in 1969.

Nixon had a plan called vietnamization. It allowed for U.S. troops to gradually pull out, while the South Vietnamese increased their combat role. To pursue Vietnamization while preserving the South Vietnamese government, Nixon Authorized a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnamese bases and supply routes.

He also authorized bombings in neighboring Laos and Cambodia to destry Vietcong hiding places.

The last troops left in 1973.Two years later, the North Vietnamese overran South Vietnam. The war ended, but more than 1.5 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans lost their lives.

Adapted from "World History" by C. de Ortúzar.

Link to other older post in this blog of the same subject.

History of Journalism

The development of journalism wasn’t possible without the invention of the movable type printing press, attributed to Gutenberg in 1456, which purpose has always been the spread of communication in different cultural contexts.

The Industrial Revolution also enabled the growth of technology and trade, marked by new specialized techniques.

Ø The first regularly published newspaper in English was The Oxford Gazette in 1665.

Ø In the U.S, the first colonial newspaper was the New England Courant, published by Printer James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s brother.

Journalism in the U.S

As American cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington grew with the rise of Industrial Revolution, so did newspapers. Technological innovations allowed newspapers to print thousands of copies, boost circulation and increase revenue.

Ø In 1851 the New York Times was founded and establishes the principle of balanced reporting in high-quality writing.

Ø By the latter half of the 1880s the print media has grown in importance around the world to a social status that rivaled even government institutions.

Journalism had risen to become the Fourth Power, commonly known as the Fourth Estate, a non-governmental private group of independent companies that had the ability to sway the general public in almost any direction they chose.

Around the world, the power of the media had become as important as the greatest heads of states of any nation.

Besides, in the U.S the constitution itself established the journalistic reporting free, independent and unregulated which allowed the rise of Yellow Journalism.

Yellow Journalism

The birth of yellow journalism was led by Joseph Pulitzer and William Hearst. They owned two of the most widely read and influential newspapers in New York. Both of them competed to increase their newspaper’s circulation. Joseph Pulitzer also had to live with the fact that his chief competitor was his brother, Albert Pulitzer.

Ø Yellow Journalism is a type of journalism that presents no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of events, sensationalism, scandal-mongering and so on.

Ø In 1948, Frank Wisner the director of the CIA’s office of special projects created the Operation Mockingbird which was a Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign media.

Ø The CIA had ensured the Americans could hear only those stories their government wished them to hear. As a result, the American public was being fed more and more propaganda meant to steer them in a particular direction rather than providing them with the information that they needed to make up their own minds.

Ø During the Vietnam War false information was reported back to the Americans as well as we received in our Malvina´s war. In Argentina’s case that information was controlled by the military government that had given the Press Power to the owners of Clarín, La Nación and La Razón. Besides, that military government censored information that they believed threatening to their positions.

Ø In 1983 fifty corporations controlled the majority of all news media in U.S. Ben Bagdikian wrote in his book called The Media Monopoly that in 1992 fewer than two dozens corporations owned and operated 90% of the mass media.

Ø A few years later, in 2000, in his sixth edition of the same book, the number fell to six and since them there have been more mergers and the scope has extended to include the Internet Market.

Ø Finally, in 2004 Bagdikian revised and expanded his book, The New Media Monopoly, showed that five huge corporations now control most of the media industry in U.S, they are Disney, Murdoch’s News corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany and Viacom. However, as we know in Argentina this phenomenon is even worse, as the number of corporations that operate the mass media is more reduced.

Watergate

Ø June 18, 1972: There was a burglary of documents and confidential material at a Watergate office in Washington, during election time. Five men (Edward Martin, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinez, Virguilo Gonzalez and Bernard Barker) were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee. It was supposed that those men were helped by Hunt (CIA) and Liddy (FBI).

Ø Carl Berstein and Bob Woodward were called by the Washington Post to work on the story.

Ø They discovered that Edward Martin was a salaried security coordinator of Nixon (Republican) and that Barker had received a $25,000 check.

Ø John Mitchell was thought to have paid for the burglary and other Nixon's men were accused of sabotage, too.

Ø By 1973 there were two official investigations led by the Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Sam Erwin, from the Senate Watergate Committee.

Ø In July 1973 Alexander Butterfield, a White House aide, told the Senate Committee that Nixon had a secret taping system which recorded his phone calls and conversations in the Oval Office.

Ø There was big struggle: while Nixon was determined not to give up executive documents, the Senate Committee was determined to get them.

Ø After some months of negotiation, the White House agreed to provide written summaries of taped conversations. Erwin accepted this treat, but Cox didn't. So, Nixon ordered to fire Cox but his aides Richardson and Ruckelshows refused to and resigned. Finally Bork was the one who dismissed Cox.

Ø On November 20th, Nixon's lawyers informed a federal judge that one of the key tapes was erased.

Ø For the time Nixon declared "I'm not a crook", nobody believed him.

Ø On April 1974 Nixon announced he release of 1200 pages transcripts (they were public). The Judiciary Committe ordered the White House to hand over the tapes. A week later, Nixon did it and it was prooved that the president had played a leading role in the cover-up from the very beginnig.

Ø Before the Judiciary Committee could vote the articles of impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 8th.

Ø The journalists presented a best seller 'All the President's Men', and after that, a movie with the same name.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/06/14/VI2007061401076.html

WH Auden 1907-1973

Anglo-American poet, born in England, later an American citizen, regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievements, its engagement with moral and political issues, and its variety of tone, form and content. The central themes of his poetry are love, politics and citizenship, religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human beings and the anonymous, impersonal world of nature.

"Funeral Blues" or "Stop all the clocks" is a poem by W. H. Auden, first published in London 1936, with the revised version published in The Year's Poetry, 1938, compiled by Denys Kilham Roberts and Geoffrey Grigson (London, 1938).

The poem was set to music by Benjamin Britten and later included in a collection of settings of Auden poems under the title Cabaret Songs.

But "Funeral Blues" became popular when it appeared in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was read by Matthew (John Hannah) at the funeral of his partner Gareth (Simon Callow).

The poem was not written about the death of a real person. None of Auden's lovers would fit chronologically. It's one of Twelve Songs. There was a previous five stanza version, part of "The Ascent of F6" which is still copyright.

This version was written as a cabaret song for the soprano Hedli Anderson to music by Benjamin Britten. The speaker is a woman. Like the rest of the twelve songs it was satire, not pathos.

Vertigo Ensemble - "Funeral Blues" by Benjamin Britten

In the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral...

WH Auden interview

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday Night programme in 1965, Auden talks about the moment he became a poet and the purpose of poetry. Taken from Poems on the Box: Re-verse, first shown on BBC Two in 1993.

Click here to watch the interview.

T.S.Eliot´s "Rhapsody on a Windy Night"

Recently we have analysed this poem by T.S. Eliot. Here´s a reading and some explanation.This is a declaration of the Eliot's disaffection from society like Prufrock, and it written at about the same time in his life, published in 1917. He was still a virgin at the time of writing, as with Prufrock.

The narrative is Eliot's familiar "stream-of-consciousness", commonplace in writing now but at that time it was a true novelty.

La lune ne garde aucune rancune, means "The moon does not hold any resentments".

Here's some notes, you can make up your own mind what value they have:
http://everything2.com/title/rhapsody...

Andrew Lloyd Webber, who borrowed so much from T. S. Eliot, borrowed lyrics from this poem for "Memories"(song of the famous musical "Cats")

Looking at 20th Century Art through the Eyes of a Physicist

Physicist and art collector Walter Lewin (MIT) shares his personal insights into major works of art from the first quarter of the 20th century.

Lewin begins by providing a framework to understand pioneering art, by dispelling the myth of “beauty” in the artwork. An excerpt follows:

“At the turn of the century we’ve reached a point that beauty is no longer an issue. Now you may find some of these works beautiful, but the intention of the artists that you’ve just seen, was definitely not to paint something that was beautiful. They wanted to introduce a new way of looking at the world, and they did that in different ways. The reason why you may now find many of these works beautiful is that their new way of seeing—their new way of looking at the world which they invented has become your world—your way of seeing. Our ideas of beauty evolve. What is plain ugly a hundred years ago can now be beautiful.


Click here

Absolutely great!!!!

American gothic

Work presented by Monjes and Aceto

The Simpson' s version of Edgar Allan Poe' s poet, "The Raven"

Fauvism

Fauvism and the 20th Century thoughts

Fauvism is the first 20th Century pictorial movement . I think, it introduces the spirit of the new era. It doesn’t only starts a new way of expressing but also a new way of thinking and viewing reality.

No more “cold”, external “reality”, no more just empty lines and shapes. What each person sees is so hard to describe and so particular that is not possible anymore to express conventionally. I mean, we can’t, for example, agree that the sun in a specific situation, is just yellow, others may think it should be red or orange, or any other colour that expresses our particular and unique view.

Fauvist painters decided to express their feelings towards reality and their subjective view of the world. Matisse is its main figure. He wrote in his “Notes of a painter”:

“There are two ways of expressing things; one is to show them crudely, the other is to evoke them through art.” Matisse

The 20^th century people don’t feel delighted by the exact representation of a landscape or a human body. The advances in technology made possible the photograph which catches the exact shape of things. Art needs to show the truth behind that “apparently real image”. It needs to express the most important aspect of reality: the soul, the feelings and thoughts which make the singularity, the unrepeatable of every human being appear. Matisse narrated about one of his paintings:

“…I looked at it, and then a feeling came over me that it was not I, that it did not express me or express what I feel."Matisse

Fauvism developed through 1905-1908 but its representatives lived during the most terrible wars of the century. Deep and strong emotions needed to be expressed. The sensibility of the moment changed. Many feelings needed to come out and they couldn’t be represented by the traditional ways, which showed a perfect image of the world: a perfect body, a perfect natural order.

It is also true that the advance in technology was so huge that it developed at high speed. The value of art changed so. The photograph, the television then, new artistic materials close to more people, the movies, etc. all these advances and surely a lot of more, gave innumerable new ways of creating and expressing. The fauves started using colour as the main means to express but lately, different artists of other movements will use unconceivable materials as newspapers, plastic objects or whatever was needed to express these new feelings.

Fauvism starts revealing a new way of thinking. It starts making conscious about that new reality of the human being. This new human being that now cares about different issues which need to find a way of expressing in accordance with it. The world will provide with the new materials, feelings and thoughts.

Work by Bellingerri, Paulenko and Destefani

Surrealism

Surrealism

View more presentations from guzpat.

Work presented by Andrea Careri, Vanesa Goñi and Erica Van Boven

Dadaism

Work presented by Emiliana Barreiro and Julieta Sampaoli

Expressionism

Work done by Mónica Buey and Matías Priore

Impresionism

Work presented by Eliana Rozzi

The Road to Northern Ireland:Partition of Ireland

In this link you will find complete information about the situation and conflict in Ireland:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/troubles/overview_ni_article_04.shtml

Also in last year entry in this blog.

or this one:http://www.scribd.com/doc/491081/Ireland-From-Rising-to-Partition-191621

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles (click here for text and explanations) was the peace settlement signed after World War One had ended in 1918 and in the shadow of the Russian Revolution and other events in Russia. The treaty was signed at the vast Versailles Palace near Paris - hence its title - between Germany and the Allies. The three most important politicians there were David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson. The Versailles Palace was considered the most appropriate venue simply because of its size - many hundreds of people were involved in the process and the final signing ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors could accommodate hundreds of dignitaries. Many wanted Germany, now led by Friedrich Ebert, smashed - others, like Lloyd George, were privately more cautious.
The treaty was signed on June 28th 1919 after months of argument and negotiation amongst the so-called "Big Three" as to what the treaty should contain.

Who were the "Big Three" and where did they clash over Germany and her treatment after the war ?

The "Big Three" were David Lloyd George of Britain, Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson of America.

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles

The treaty can be divided into a number of sections; territorial, military, financial and general.

Territorial

The following land was taken away from Germany :

Alsace-Lorraine (given to France)

Eupen and Malmedy (given to Belgium)

Northern Schleswig (given to Denmark)

Hultschin (given to Czechoslovakia)

West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia (given to Poland)

The Saar, Danzig and Memel were put under the control of the League of Nations and the people of these regions would be allowed to vote to stay in Germany or not in a future referendum.

The League of Nations also took control of Germany's overseas colonies.
Germany had to return to Russia land taken in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Some of this land was made into new states : Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. An enlarged Poland also received some of this land.

Military

Germany’s army was reduced to 100,000 men; the army was not allowed tanks
She was not allowed an airforce She was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no submarines The west of the Rhineland and 50 kms east of the River Rhine was made into a demilitarised zone (DMZ). No German soldier or weapon was allowed into this zone. The Allies were to keep an army of occupation on the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years.

Financial

The loss of vital industrial territory would be a severe blow to any attempts by Germany to rebuild her economy. Coal from the Saar and Upper Silesia in particular was a vital economic loss. Combined with the financial penalties linked to reparations, it seemed clear to Germany that the Allies wanted nothing else but to bankrupt her.
Germany was also forbidden to unite with Austria to form one superstate, in an attempt to keep her economic potential to a minimum.

General

There are three vital clauses here:

1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war. This was Clause 231 - the infamous "War Guilt Clause".

2. Germany, as she was responsible for starting the war as stated in clause 231, was, therefore responsible for all the war damage caused by the First World War. Therefore, she had to pay reparations, the bulk of which would go to France and Belgium to pay for the damage done to the infrastructure of both countries by the war. Quite literally, reparations would be used to pay for the damage to be repaired. Payment could be in kind or cash. The figure was not set at Versailles - it was to be determined later. The Germans were told to write a blank cheque which the Allies would cash when it suited them. The figure was eventually put at £6,600 million - a huge sum of money well beyond Germany’s ability to pay.

3. A League of Nations was set up to keep world peace.

In fact, the first 26 clauses of the treaty dealt with the League's organisation.


The German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles

After agreeing to the Armistice in November 1918, the Germans had been convinced that they would be consulted by the Allies on the contents of the Treaty. This did not happen and the Germans were in no position to continue the war as her army had all but disintegrated. Though this lack of consultation angered them, there was nothing they could do about it. Therefore, the first time that the German representatives saw the terms of the Treaty was just weeks before they were due to sign it in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on June 28th 1919.

There was anger throughout Germany when the terms were made public. The Treaty became known as a Diktat - as it was being forced on them and the Germans had no choice but to sign it. Many in Germany did not want the Treaty signed, but the representatives there knew that they had no choice as German was incapable of restarting the war again.

In one last gesture of defiance, the captured German naval force held at Scapa Flow (north of Scotland) scuttled itself i.e. deliberately sank itself.

Germany was given two choices:

1) sign the Treaty or
2) be invaded by the Allies.

They signed the Treaty as in reality they had no choice. When the ceremony was over, Clemenceau went out into the gardens of Versailles and said "It is a beautiful day".

The consequences of Versailles

The Treaty seemed to satisfy the "Big Three" as in their eyes it was a just peace as it kept Germany weak yet strong enough to stop the spread of communism; kept the French border with Germany safe from another German attack and created the organisation, the League of Nations, that would end warfare throughout the world.
However, it left a mood of anger throughout Germany as it was felt that as a nation Germany had been unfairly treated.
Above all else, Germany hated the clause blaming her for the cause of the war and the resultant financial penalties the treaty was bound to impose on Germany. Those who signed it (though effectively they had no choice) became known as the "November Criminals".
Many German citizens felt that they were being punished for the mistakes of the German government in August 1914 as it was the government that had declared war not the people.