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Rolex

2008-02-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

The model number of the half-gold Datejust is 16233 which loosely translated into Chinese would mean "all the way easy long life". This model is much sought after by up-and-coming towkays. The model number of the solid gold Day-Date is 18238 which again loosely translated into Chinese would mean "prosper easily, long life and prosperity". This model is favoured by the arrived towkays. Alfa Romeo can learn a lesson here from Rolex. Imagine calling a car a "164" which means "all the way die" to the Chinese.

For a glimpse of the various models of Rolex watches without looking at a catalogue, just look around in a Chinese restaurant where these towkays yamseng (to wine Chinese style) and dine. Alternatively, take a drive up to our country's only casino (Genting) and hang around the baccarat or roulette tables. Time there seems to be told only by Rolex watches.

Rolex is of course Swiss in origin but I personally think they make watches specially for the Chinese. To start with, the model numbers of the more expensive Rolex watches favoured by the Chinese towkays are not offensive at all. The Chinese are very superstitious about certain numbers, particularly the number 4 which signifies death but they like 8 which connotes prosperity and 3 which is linked to long life.

If there is a kingdom of watches somewhere in the Swiss Alps, would its King be Rolex? I think not because the Europeans are not particularly partial to Rolex. However, if there is a kingdom of watches in Asia (near Hong Kong, Japan or Malaysia), its King will certainly be Rolex. This is because Asians are extremely fond of Rolex watches.

In fact, the Chinese have nicknames for certain models of Rolex watches and this privilege is not extended to other brands. A "Rolex Star" is a half-gold Rolex Datejust. A "Rolex King" refers to a solid gold Rolex, usually the Day-Date or President.

To the Asian towkay ("towkay" means "boss"), to have arrived means a Mercedes-Benz (or occasionally a Bee-Em) and the inevitable Rolex, preferably solid gold or at least half-gold. Every successful or wannabe successful businessman is wearing one - from the contractor to the CEO.

However, Hans Wilsdorf wanted a name that was short and easy to pronounce. He did'nt like the sound of a "Wilsdorf" watch and for reasons best known to himself, he came up with the name "Rolex". Unknown to Hans at that time ( I am sure he had no idea as to the immense appeal of his watches to Asians), this word is actually very difficult for the Asian to pronounce. So therefore in this part of the world, everybody calls a Rolex a "Lolex". This proves that a rose by any other name is just as sweet.

With other brands of fine watches (Patek, Vacheron, Jaeger etc) it is possible to choose a model to suit the wearer's character and style. But not so with Rolex. The minute you put a Rolex on your wrist, you are at once transformed into a rich man by the unique flashiness of a Rolex timepiece. Some kind of instant richness. Very comforting feeling for the Asian towkay.

Out of Asia, do you know that James Bond (Roger Moore) wore a Rolex Submariner in "Live and Let Die"? Or that Sir Edmund Hillary wore a Rolex Explorer when he conquered Everest? So did Sir Malcolm Campbell when he broke the landspeed record in Bluebird. One famous golfer wears it too but I wonder how he can have a good swing with the heavy watch strapped to his wrist.

ways to increse income from google adsense

2008-02-13T09:22:00.000-08:00

If webmasters want to monetize their websites, the great way to do it is through Adsense. There are lots of webmasters struggling hard to earn some good money a day through their sites. But then some of the “geniuses” of them are enjoying hundreds of dollars a day from Adsense ads on their websites. What makes these webmasters different from the other kind is that they are different and they think out of the box.
The ones who have been there and done it have quite some useful tips to help those who would want to venture into this field. Some of these tips have boosted quite a lot of earnings in the past and is continuously doing so. Here are some 5 proven ways on how best to improve your Adsense earnings. 1. Concentrating on one format of Adsense ad. The one format that worked well for the majority is the Large Rectangle (336X280). This same format have the tendency to result in higher CTR, or the click-through rates. Why choose this format out of the many you can use? Basically because the ads will look like normal web links, and people, being used to clicking on them, click these types of links. They may or may not know they are clicking on your Adsense but as long as there are clicks, then it will all be for your advantage. 2. Create a custom palette for your ads. Choose a color that will go well with the background of your site. If your site has a white background, try to use white as the color of your ad border and background. The idea to patterning the colors is to make the Adsense look like it is part of the web pages. Again, This will result to more clicks from people visiting your site. 3. Remove the Adsense from the bottom pages of your site and put them at the top. Do not try to hide your Adsense. Put them in the place where people can see them quickly. You will be amazed how the difference between Adsense locations can make when you see your earnings. 4. Maintain links to relevant websites. If you think some sites are better off than the others, put your ads there and try to maintaining and managing them. If there is already lots of Adsense put into that certain site, put yours on top of all of them. That way visitor will see your ads first upon browsing into that site. 5. Try to automate the insertion of your Adsense code into the webpages using SSI (or server side included). Ask your web administrator if your server supports SSI or not. How do you do it? Just save your Adsense code in a text file, save it as “adsense text”, and upload it to the root directory of the web server. Then using SSI, call the code on other pages. This tip is a time saver especially for those who are using automatic page generators to generate pages on their website. These are some of the tips that have worked well for some who want to generate hundreds and even thousands on their websites. It is important to know though that ads are displayed because it fits the interest of the people viewing them. So focusing on a specific topic should be your primary purpose because the displays will be especially targeted on a topic that persons will be viewing already. Note also that there are many other Adsense sharing the same topic as you. It is best to think of making a good ad that will be somewhat different and unique than the ones already done. Every clickthrough that visitors make is a point for you so make every click count by making your Adsense something that people will definitely click on. Tips given by those who have boosted their earnings are just guidelines they want to share with others. If they have somehow worked wonders to some, maybe it can work wonders for you too. Try them out into your ads and see the result it will bring. If others have done it, there is nothing wrong trying it out for yourself.

Google Adsense

2008-02-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

One of the easist ways to start generating regular income from your website is to simply ad Google Adsense to your pages.
With Google Adsense ads on your pages whenever someone visits your website and clicks on one of the Google Ads displays - you will get paid.
Although you need lots of traffic beofre you start to earn substantial income from Adsense it will help defray your hosting costs and help balance the costs of using Google Adwords to help promote your website.
WARNING. Please dont fall for the trap of purchasing "Adsense Ready" website packages.
One of the many problems associated with Adsense Ready website packages is that lots of people will end up with identical sites and search engines, in particular Google, do not like duplicate sites which are often dropped from searches altogether.
If people cant find your site you will have little traffic and consequently little chance of making money out of people clicking on your Adsense ads.
Really, the people most likely to make money out of Adsense Ready websites are the merchants promoting them.
Also, you should not be building pages simply to make money out of Adsense. Instead you should look at adding Adsense to pages that already have good content.
You should concentrate on building your pages for your readers, then optimising them for the Seach Engines. That way you are more likely to attract readers who are interested in your content and therefore may be interested in your Adsense ads.
Click on the link below to sign up for your own Adsense account and to learn more about this exciting revenue opportunity.

Hurricane Katrina: Two Years Later

2008-02-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hurricane Katrina: Two Years Later
August 28, 2007

Today marks the two-year anniversary of New Orleans' levees breaking under the massive influx of flood waters brought on by Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane, followed by Hurricane Rita just weeks later, caused massive devastation to the lives of residents not only in Louisiana, but also in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. The two hurricanes also severely impacted the local health systems that needed to respond to their communities.

Over these two years, Direct Relief has committed its efforts to seeing all affected areas in the Gulf make a full recovery, and to ensure that they are prepared should disaster strike once again.

Through our strong ties with statewide health center organizations including the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, the Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics, the Louisiana Primary Care Association, the Louisiana Free Clinic Association, and the Mississippi Primary Health Care Association, we continue to support the clinics of those states with medical resources. Read a CNN story about one of Direct Relief's partners in New Orleans, the Common Ground Health Clinic, and about the recovery of the health system in general.

All told, we have distributed to them $47 million in aid, including $4.6 million in targeted cash grants to local health care facilities and organizations to help them repair infrastructure, hire additional staff, and serve more patients.

Over the past two years, we have become a licensed nonprofit pharmacy in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and nine other states so that we can expand our support for medically underserved people not only in the areas affected by the hurricanes, but all over the country.

We were appointed to the Texas Health Commissioner’s “Blue Ribbon Task Force” on emergency response based on our extensive efforts and to help prepare for future emergencies, including the development of a recommended medication list for the first 72 hours of a disaster to reduce the strain on the hospital systems.

This past Sunday in Dallas, Direct Relief was presented a first-ever special award from the National Association of Community Health Centers for our extensive partnership with the frontline health clinics in the Gulf in the aftermath of the hurricanes, which has expanded to include clinics nationwide.

Lastly, Direct Relief has focused on proactive measures of support, including the placement of 16 hurricane pre-positioning modules based on the list developed by the Texas Pharmaceutical Blue Ribbon Task Force, to assist health centers and clinics that are in locations most likely to receive patients in the event of another hurricane.

Since the hurricanes, Direct Relief has absorbed all administrative costs and overhead expenses to ensure that designated contributions are directed entirely to their intended purpose of serving people affected.

Direct Cash Investment for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Partners

Sample of Job Application Letter

2008-02-01T01:10:00.000-08:00

XXX
Address
Tel: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
email: xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Date: xx/xx/xx

PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYER
Address

Dear Sir,

JOB APPLICATION

Referring to the above matter, I wish to apply for a job that leads to a career in xxxxxxxx, in your esteemed company.

I have just graduated with a xxxxxxxx in “date” from “Institution”. My final semester examination results xxxxxxxx.

I have great interest in xxxxxxxx, particularly in xxxxxxxx. I shall be ready to take on any challenging job that xxxxxxxx can offer. My resume is attached for your perusal, and I hope that you will kindly consider my application.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

XXX

Swinburne University

2008-02-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus is an international branch campus of Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
Established in 1908, Swinburne has a strong reputation in Australia and overseas as a provider of career orientated education and as a university with a commitment to research.
In a 2005 survey by the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training, Swinburne was ranked No. 4 in Australia for its learning and teaching quality.
The Sarawak campus was set up in Kuching, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, in 2000 and operates in partnership with the Sarawak Foundation and the Sarawak Higher Education Foundation. Its establishment is part of a long-term strategy by Swinburne Australia to globalize its operations and to provide its students with international living, working and learning opportunities.
Swinburne Sarawak maintains a strong technology base and important links with industry. It aspires to be a research intensive university and it is developing its research capability with a focus on areas relevant to industry.
The campus is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and currently conducts research on information security, mechatronics engineering, software engineering, business as well as education and e-learning.
Located just 15 minutes from the city centre and in the vicinity of commercial areas, the 16.5 acre campus offers undergraduate degrees in engineering, business, IT and multimedia. Also offered are postgraduate research programs at PhD and masters levels in these disciplines as well as coursework masters programs in accounting and multimedia.
Other courses include one-year foundation programs in business/IT and engineering/science as well as diploma programs in business and information systems, and electronic engineering which articulate into degrees. A range of English language proficiency programs are also available.
Students have the option of completing their degrees entirely in Kuching or transferring to one of its six campuses in Melbourne to complete them.
These programs, offered at a fraction of the Australian costs, are identical to those offered by Swinburne's home campus in Melbourne and the parchments are awarded by Swinburne Australia.
All degree programs offered by Swinburne Sarawak are recognized by the Malaysian Public Service Department (JPA).
Applied vocational emphasis and direct placements in industry are a feature of many of its undergraduate courses. The focus on practical training is an integral part of the course structure and the university is well known for producing graduates that are employment-ready.
Current student population at Swinburne Sarawak is about 1,300 and this is expected to reach 5,000 by 2010. International students come from 21 countries including Bangladesh, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Swinburne Sarawak is currently undergoing construction to expand the campus. Construction work started in late 2005 and when completed in 2007, the campus will feature a complex of buildings to accommodate new courses and the increasing student population.

SIKHISM

2008-02-01T00:45:00.000-08:00

SIKH BELIEFS

- Sikhs believe that there is one God.
- They believe that God is all powerful. The universe exists because God wills it. He made the universe for humans to enjoy.
- God is pure-being – without qualities.
- God is known to the people by the Gurus’ teaching. God is self-enlightened, so He is the enlightener. Humans needs the Gurus to lead the way to truth.
- Human beings come into edistencxe because it is God’s will.
- Birth and rebirth are caused because humans base their lives on desire, the process can be stopped by replacing objects of desire with devotion to God.
- Human beings are unique – within them is a divine spark, they have intellect, they have morality – but they still struggle to meet God.
- Human b eing s seek God but often do not find him.
- The Gurus are for everybody, they are messengers form God, God’s servants and enlighteners.

Ethical Basis of Sikhism
- The highest aim of ethical system of Sikhism is the performance of one’s duties to man and God.
- The teachings of Sikhism have a spiritual dimension that aims at the discovery and perfection of human soul.
- To understand the ethical ideal of Sikhism, one must understand the uniqueness and individuality of man.
- The nature of man can be described as dual, i.e. the higher and the lower; the one tends to lift him up, while the other tends to pull him down.
- The aim of one’s life is to conquer the lower nature by the higher.
- Man is therefore an ethical being having a moral responsibility.
Realism: - Sikhism looks upon the universe as real and recognizes all that is found in it.
- The seemingly destructive forces of Nature, if properly utilized by man, who is endowed with the power to understand and control them, can be transformed into sources of life.
- Ethically speaking, man is good and peaceful and peaceful by nature.
- Sikhism does not encourage monastic renunciation and self-obnegation.
- It aims at a progressive realization of the immense power of human soul.
- The ultimate aim of life is developing a personality with divine qualities which should -ulminate in perfect control of the self.

Sahaj as harmony
- The ethical ideal of Sikhism is to maintain the harmony between religion and life.
- It provides an ethical code of human behaviour which represents a very high yet perfectly attainable ideal.
- In other words, to become a good Sikh is to become a good man.
- It is humanness at its best.
- Morality and religion are intimately connected in the teachings of Guru Nanak.
- According to him, morality constitutes the primary test of a true religion.
- The intrinsic value of a religion is judged not by its metaphysical thoughts but by its ethical principles.
- In Sikhism, morality and religion are to be taken as instruments of creativeness.
- It is only by performing duties according to the moral laws that one can aspire to attain God’s grace & eventual union with Him.
- For Guru Nanak, enlightenment and true spirituality should inspire man to dedicate his life and genius for the service of humanity.
- He emphasized that every enlightened man or woman should cease to live for himself and devote his or her life for the upliftment of humanity.
- Morality is the foundation of Sikh religion.
- According to Guru Nanak, the following are moral virtues:
- Truth
- Implies truthfulness in mind, body and action.
- Practice of truth is more laudable than truth as a principle.
- Truth is higher than all things, but higher than truth is the truthful living.
- “Truth is a remedy of all ills & washes away all sins”.
- One must avoid falsity and remain truthful to others.
- Contentment (Santokh) is having no ambition, envy, greed or jealousy.
- One must abide by the Will of God and, in that state, pleasure or pain makes no difference to him.
- Such a man is above ordinary happiness and misery.
Compassion (Daya) generates feeling to help & serve others.
- Service to mankind is service to God because the spirit of the Infinite resides in every soul.
Charity (Daas) means giving away things without any expectation or reward.
- It is compassion, which generates charitable disposition among men.
- In Sikhism, charity is invariably associated with tranquility, humility and disinterestedness.
- It should not be construed or confused with begging.
- Begging, as a means to earn daily bread, is strictly taboo.
Purity (Shuddhi or Snan) of body and mind.
- Inner purity is more important thanpurity of the body.
Forgiveness (khama) means pardoning an offender out of compassion and love for him.
- Forgiveness generates compassion and compassion encourages the concept of peace, tranquility, humility and cooperation in men, which checks the tendency of men for supremacy over other fellowmen.
Humility (Garibi) – In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and the soul no longer lives for itself.
- Everyone who humbles himself is exalted in spirit.
Tolerance (Sabr) – To accept truth, whatever it is, and no matter where it comes from, even to die for the religious views of others.
Non-Injury (Ahimsa) – According to Guru Nanak, when a man commits a sin, if it does not harm the social balance, we should overlook it.
- Cruelty to all living beings, men and animals, is decried.
Inspired Optimism (Chardi Kala)
- It means that everything should be faced and accepted in cheerful spirit as the Will of God.
- The knowledge of moral virtues expounded by the teachings of Guru Nanak gives an idea of the moral vices.
- According to Guru Nanak moral vices are:
Falsity or lack of truthfulness; taking resort to dishonesty, injustice & unrighteousness; egoism; lack of humility; intolerance; discontent; lack of self-control; affliction of men and animals by thought, word and deed; remaining discontented in mind under the sway of greed, envy or jealously; impurity of mind and body; intolerance of other’s beliefs and practices; falling a prey to the passions and instincts; pessimism; lack of self-dependence.

Social Mores:
- Sikhism aims at an integration of the individual with the life of the community.
- While developing individual morality, social morality, must be developed with connotes that individual must work for the sake of society and if morality is social, the social machinery has to bring about the fullness and quality of life.
- Therefore, an individual must strive for the ideal for social good.
- The standard of value must be welfare of the society
- The motive force of conduct should not only be individual responsibility to God, but also social obligations.
- The difference between individual morality and social morality is:-
-Individual morality is a private matter between the individual and his maker
-Social morality asks individuals to find God in their fellowmen.
- In order to achieve this objective what is required is an ideal society and ideal environments where the individuals should find best opportunities for all-round development of his self on the one hand, and identification of his interest with, and development of the society on the other.
- Human conduct is socially conditioned.
- Man does not live only for himself, but he lives with others and for others
- Therefore, he must have social morals.
- The chief characteristics of social morality, promoted by Sikhisms are:
- Firstly, every individual must be inspired by the belief that he is capable of developing a personality with divine qualities which should culminate in perfect control of the self under the guidance of the teachings of the Gurus.
- Secondly, every individual must strive to integrate his life with the life of the society in which he lives.
- Thirdly, an invididual is not an isolated, separate being.
- He lives physically and mentally in and through an environment.
- The ideal he should strive for is the development of the environment for his own as well as for the social good.
- Lastly, the standard of ethical value must be the welfare of the society and the moral principles must promote the ends of the society at large.
- Right from the beginning, the Gurus of the Sikhs have inculcated ethical principles to promote ocial morals among their adherents.
- Guru Nanak introduced “Satsong” or holy congregation, to promote fellowship, amity and brotherhood among the members of the community.
- He also introduced ‘Langar’ (free kitchen) where the great and the small, the rich and the poor, people drawn from diverse strata of society could partake the same food.
- ‘Langar’ also generated the feeling of equality, simplicity, fellow feeling and service.
- Guru Arjun Dev exhorted all Sikhs to set aside one-tenth of their income, ‘Daswand’, for the Guru, and for the welfare of the less-privileged members of the community.
- Guru Govind Singh propounded a strict moral code for the faithful where he enjoined upon them to protect the unprotected, respect the women and fight corruption and tyranny perpetrated by whomsoever & wheresoever.

Sharing (The principle of Wand Chhakna)
- To share with others who are less fortunate and unable to help themselves is one of the cardinal fundamentals of Sikhism which underlines the ethical rule for rendering self-less service where needed for the good of the society.
Chastity
- Chastity or continence, is emphasized in Sikhism, because in the human body lies the divine presence and as such, the body has to be kept and perfect.
- Those things which harm the body or cause sickness and disease have to be avoided.
- Pre-marital or extra-marital sex is forbidden to a Sikh.
- He should consider females older to him as his mother, equal to him as a sister, and younger than him as a daughter.
- He should never entertain evil thoughts in the company of women.
- Marriage is a sacrament and the purpose is companionship & help on the spiritual, path rather than sexual enjoyment.
- Monogamy is the rule in Sikhism.
- In order to avoid evil thoughts, one should keep away from obscene books, nasty plays and films and sexy music.
- Drinking of alcoholic beverages and wines or the wearing of scanty or flashy dresses together is prohibited for the Sikhs.
- Thus, the ethical objective of Sikhism is not only a holy life for an individual but also an ideal life for the society.
- Sikhism exhorts its adherents to maintain the harmony between religion and life, and develop materially and spiritually, to the advantage of the society.

GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

2008-02-01T00:27:00.001-08:00

Human resource management in international businesses are activities such as human resource strategy, staffing, performance evaluation, management development, compensation, and labour relations. All these activities are inter-dependent, and must be appropriate to the firm’s strategy.

Staffing policy is concerned with selecting employees who have the skills required to perform particular jobs. Staffing policy can be a tool for developing and promoting a corporate culture.

An ethnocentric approach to staffing policy fills all key management positions in an international business with parent-country nationals. The policy is congruent with an international strategy. A drawback is that ethnocentric staffing can result in cultural myopia.

A polycentric staffing policy uses host-country nationals to manage foreign subsidiaries, and parent-country nationals for the key positions at corporate headquarters. This approach can minimize the dangers of cultural myopia, but it can create a gap between home-country and host-country operations. This policy is best suited to a multi-domestic strategy.

A geocentric staffing policy seeks the best people for key jobs throughout the organization, regardless of their nationality. This approach is consistent with building a strong unifying culture and informal management network, and is well suited to both global and transnational strategies. Immigration policies of national governments may limit a firm’s ability to pursue this policy.

A prominent issue in the international staffing literature is expatriate failure, defined as the premature return of an expatriate manager to his home country. The costs of expatriate failure can be substantial.

Expatriate failure can be reduced by selection procedures that screen out inappropriate candidates. The most successful expatriates seem to be those who have high self-esteem and self-confidence, get along with others, are willing to attempt to communicate in a foreign language, and ca empathize with people of other cultures.

Training can lower the probability of expatriate failure. It should include cultural training, practical training, and it should be provided to both the expatriate manager and his spouse.
Management development programs attempt to increase the overall skill levels of managers, through a mix of ongoing management education and rotation of managers through different jobs within the firm to give them varied experiences. Management development is often used as a strategic tool to build a strong unifying culture and informal management network – both of which support transnational and global strategies.

It can be difficult to evaluate performance of expatriate managers objectively because of unintentional bias. A number of steps can be taken to reduce this bias – *cultural bias should be alleviated; *a former expatriate who had served in the same location should be involved in the appraisal; and, *the home-office manager should be consulted in the appraisal.

Country differences in compensation practices raise a difficult question for an international business. Should the firm pay executives in different countries according to the standards in each country or equalize pay on a global basis?

The most common approach to expatriate pay is the balance sheet approach. This approach aims to equalize purchasing power so employees can enjoy the same living standard in their foreign posting that they had at home.

A key in international labour relations is the degree to which organized labour can limit the choices available to an international business. A firm’s ability to pursue a transnational or global strategy can be significantly constrained by the actions of labour unions.

A principal concern of organized labour is that the multinational can counter union bargaining power with threats to move production to another country.

Organized labour has tried to counter the bargaining power of multinationals by forming international labour organizations. In general, these efforts have not been effective.

mobile phone

2008-01-31T13:01:00.000-08:00

The mobile phone or mobile, also called a cellular phone, cell phone, or cell, is a long-range, portable electronic device used for mobile communication that uses a network of specialized base stations known as cell sites. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is satellite phones).

Nokia Corporation is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, with a global device market share of approximately 40% in Q4 of 2007. Other major mobile phone manufacturers (in order of Market share) include Samsung (14%), Motorola (12%), Sony Ericsson (9%) and LG Mobile (7%). ^[4] These manufacturers account for over 80% of all mobile phones sold and produce phones for sale in most countries.

Other manufacturers include Apple Inc., Audiovox (now UTStarcom), Benefon, BenQ-Siemens, High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), Fujitsu, Kyocera, Mitsubishi, NEC, Neonode, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pantech Curitel, Philips, Research In Motion, Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Sierra Wireless, SK Teletech, Sonim Technologies, T&A Alcatel, and Toshiba. There are also specialist communication systems related to (but distinct from) mobile phones

Empires of Architecture in India and Malaysia

2008-01-30T09:09:00.001-08:00

1.0 Introduction
This report is about the presentation on the topic of “Empire of Architecture”. In this presentation, we were researching on the British Empire. The objective of this presentation is to study the similarities and differences on how British colonized India and Malaya. Researches were caring out within 1 week through reading. Most of the pictures were getting from internet due to the reason that pictures found in books are black and white pictures, which is not suitable for presentation.

1.1 British Empire

During the 19th Century, European countries started to spread their power outside Europe to get the resources such as tin, rubber and so on. British at that time was a wealthy country, and it became the leader in this trend. In the present day, there were over 50 members of Commonwealth Countries, who had been colonized by British. These commonwealth countries is including Canada, South Africa, India, Malaysia and Singapore (Malaya), Australia and New Zealand.

1.2 Empire of Architecture

British was colonized India for over 100 years. Besides, British also colonized Malaya over 50years. British, a small country compare to India, were able to control the Indian and Malayan for so many years. The answer to it is Architecture. British used good Urban Planning to control the local people. Thus, the colonization of British is been titled “The Empire of Architecture.
1.3 Urban Planning

British had a well urban planning in the India and Malaya that enable British to control the local people. Basically, British were using the 4 major points in its urban planning, which are the Cantonment, the Isolation and Segregation, the Communal Building and the Bungalow. In this presentation, we are going to discuss the similarity and differences of the urban planning applied in these two different country.

2.0 Cantonment

The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton, which means corner or district. The “cantonment” is a temporary or semi-permanent military quarters typically in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

2.1 Cantonment in India

When British succeed conquer India, they have a problem in controlling the Indian. They have limited military forces in term of “quantity”. The British army in Indian was only a few compare to the Indian. Thus, British need to strengthen their military force. They did a well Urban Planning to strengthen their military force. British used the Cantonment concept to separate the people into many districts to weaken the Indian forces.

However, British military was not able to fully control the Indian if outburst happened. Thus, British got another brilliant idea to reinforce their military by the railway system. British used railway to link their entire military cantonment together. Whenever there is an outburst happening in a cantonment, the army from other cantonment will be able to give help in a very short time. Thus, British were able to control and conquer India for over 100 years.

2.2 Cantonment In Malaya

British went into Malay, spreading like a virus, and finally colonized the whole peninsular of Malaya including Singapore. British have fewer problems in controlling the Malayan because the forces against British were lesser. Besides, before British colonized Malaya, their already have a very strong military force in Sri Lanka and India, which is very near to Malaya. Thus, British did not really need the Cantonment system in Malaya.

However, railway system was brought into Malay as well. The purpose is different. In India, the main objective of the railway system is to reinforce the Military. In Malaya, the main objective is to reinforce the economy in Malaya. The reason is, Malaya was rich of the natural sources such as tin, rubber, and coco. The railway system accelerated the transportation and production. This profit British a lot. Thus, British could get the money armor British army.

3.0 Isolation and Segregation

The main objective of the Isolation and Segregation is to reduce the local forces against British. However, the application in India and Malaya is totally different. In which means British were designing the urban plan specific to the problem and not just copy and paste the solution to the other. In architecturally, British did a well site analysis before they start designing.
3.1 Isolation in India

In India, British isolated themselves with the India. The main purpose of it is to influence the Indian thoughts. British wanted the Indian to think that British were here to teach them what civilization is all about. British used the “White Black town” to achieve that where British will stay in the wealthy and clean White town while Indian remain in a lower class of living environment. Indian was restricted to access into the white town. The aim of the “white black town” concept is to plant a though of “God-like British” into the Indian mind.

The white town is like an exhibition hall for British lifestyle and the black town is like the audience seats. Everyday the Indian will see the British having parties in the garden. Gradually, Indian started to accept British and admire them. Thus, again British were success to reduce the Indian force against British.
3.2 Segregation in Malaya

In Malaya, there are 3 main races, Malay, Chinese, and Indian. There was no strong force against British. However, if the 3 races are united as like the Malaysia today, British will have a big problem. Thus, British applied segregation in Malaya to avoid the unity among these 3 races. In another words, British did not need to weaken the Malayan but needed prevention on the unity of Malayan which would make Malayan stronger.

The main objective of British in Malaya is for natural sources. Therefore, British need to segregate the 3 races in Malaya while on the other hand need them to help in the economic sector. British again came out with a brilliant urban design. British separate the 3 races into different sector in term of economic activities. For instance, British educated Malay work for British in Administration, vernacular educated Malay stay in “Kampung”(village) remain as fisherman and padi farmer. While the Chinese was businessman in town and tin miner in mining sector. For Indian, they work in rubber estate.

This segregation prevents interaction among these 3 races. Consequently, there are no unity happened. When there are no unity among the 3 races, British can control the Malaya without much trouble. Therefore, British keep on eating the wealth in Malay (natural sources), and continue be rich and powerful for a couples of decades.
4.0 Communal Building

Communal building is the space designed for community which we usually named it public place. Examples of communal buildings include post office, courts, town hall, government offices, churches, schools and etc. Communal building was the always the identity of a country.

The idea of communal building is to create an illusion to the local people that they are living in the British. The application of this concept is that all the communal buildings were built using British architecture. The scale of communal building is big compare to the local building which reminds the local that British are greater. Besides, British were also aim to strip off the local identities of the colonized countries by buildings with pure European architecture. As a result, British were success to make the local forget about their own national identities.

The same concept and application was applied in India and Malaya. Both applications are success to make British stay long in these 2 countries.

The same concept was continuing to today architecture in urban planning. For instance in Malaysia, Putra Jaya, the urban planed city where all the government buildings were all built with Islamic architecture. When traveling in the city, it reminds people that this is Islamic country.
5.0 Bungalow

Bungalow is the word derived from the Indian local hut called bangala. Bungalow was designed by the British in their colonized countries. The design of an early bungalow was purely British Architecture. Building materials were imported from the British. Bungalow was built without much consideration to the climate. For instance, they have a chimney on the roof which does not serve any function in India and Malaya climate. But, as the Bungalow evolved, it started to have elements such as high ceiling, pitch roof, and verandah to respond to the local climate.

The main objective of the bungalow is to show the power of British to the local people like Indian and Malayan. Bungalow is the symbol for high class wealthy people. British tended to make the local think that British are higher above them. Most of the people staying in British bungalow are the powerful people such as governor.

Bungalows in India are less integrated to the local climate while on the other hand; Malaya bungalows have the passive climate design in it. The reason is that British came into India much earlier than into Malaya.
6.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, British have a strong army to conquer India and Malaya. In terms of controlling the local people, British have another strong weapon which is Architecture. British used Architecture to control the society activities such as economic activities, educational activities, lifestyles and so on. Besides, most importantly, British used architecture to control the mindscape of the people. British create many illusions to the local people and make them thinks that British are here to teach them civilization. British were using architecture to make the local people think that British are God-like. Thus, the local was willing to be ruled by the British before they had the consciousness of the national identity. In short, 2 different countries; 1 way to conquer; ARCHITECTURE is the power.

Reference List:

Bangalore Cantonment 2006. Retrieved April 30, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/

Yew, CW 2001. Sejarah Peradaban Dunia, Sasbadi Sdn Bhd, Petaling Jaya

Empires of Architecture in India and Malaysia

2008-01-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

Ancient Egyptians’ Temple Complex

2008-01-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

Ancient Egypt appeared in this world around 3100 b.c. At first, Ancient Egypt was divided into two religions, Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt. The Lower Egypt is allocated at the north of Nile River and near to the Mediterranean, while the Egypt was allocated at the south of Nile River. Soon, the people of Ancient Egypt started to plant and there was agricultural revolution happened at the Nile River’s delta. Since then, these two small villages became stronger in term of population and wealth. Later, these two villages was union by the Menes King. The king built up his capital in Memphis. There the civilization of Ancient Egypt begun.

In the earliest civilization, human started to build for living spaces to protect themselves from weather, wild animals, and any other forms of harming stuff. Later, human started to build for temples for their beliefs because religion was a very important role in the ancient daily life. Soon after, human fall in love with the art of building and they find it hard to stop building. Then human get bored building a simple floor attached with four simple walls and cover by a boring flat roof, they started to apply art into and onto the buildings. The buildings are no more simple buildings for simple functions. It brings delight and symbolism to human. These buildings are called architecture.

According to (Egyptian Mythology n.d.) the famous Egyptian Osiris myths, Osiris spread out the laws and order to the Ancient Egypt and also Egyptian how to farm. Then, he became a powerful respecting king. Osiris’s brother Seth jealous of him and he cut Osiris into many pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. Osiris’s wife, Isis go around the Egypt to collect all the pieces of Osiris and made into wax duplicates, then placed in the temple to be worshipped. Isis preserved Osiris’s body with linen bandages and used her magic and breathed life back into Osiris. Osiris then rose as a God-King and he chose to rule the underworld. This is where the roots of mummification and rebirth into the afterworld began.

Ancient Egyptians believe that their life do not stop on the day when they are dead. They believe that even the body is dead, “Ka”, the guardian of oneself which does not affect anything during lifetime, would be going to a blessed place called, Afterworld. The “Ka” will be waiting for the union with the body in the future to achieve an eternity life. In the Ancient Egyptians belief, everyone would have a soul besides the body and Ka. The soul will be flying freely when the body is dead. The soul will protect the dead body from the evil spirit at night.

Besides, Ancient Egyptians have a very strong belief in many god and goddess. The god and goddess are Amun-Re( the sun god, also consider as the king of the gods), Osiris (the god of agriculture and ruler of dead), Isis (the protector of children who is gifted with magical powers), Anubis (ancient god of dead), Thoth (the god of writing and wisdom), Hathor (goddess of the sky, love, music and dancing), Ptah (god of artists and craftsmen), Sobek (god of water), Neith (ancient goddess of war and wisdom) and Set (protector of Egypt). As the Ancient Egyptians believed in god and goddess, they put a lot of effort in building temples. The interior of temples is the most mysterious place in Ancient Egypt as there are only a few people would be allowed to see the interior of temples because they believe that temples are the dwelling place of god and goddess.

Ancient Egypt Architecture can be easily seen in Temple. The reason behind this is Temple is not only the dwelling places of god and goddess but it is also the place where festival celebrations are held. Besides, temples have other function as well. For instances, according to Edgar (n.d.), temples are acting as fortresses, administrative centers and concrete expression of propaganda or royal retreats. If to compare the function of Ancient Egyptian’s temples to the present building, Ancient Egyptian’s temple is the combination of a civic center, a government office, conference center, and religion center. In short, Architecture of Ancient Egypt is mostly to be seen in “temples” because temple is an essential role in Ancient Egypt.

Since then, a completed temple is a very complex structure that comprise of religious structure and other supplementary buildings such as, administrative offices, storage areas, gardens, schools, and libraries, stated by Andrews (2001). In the religious part, there are divided into several zones. Each zone is increasingly sacred than the zone before, stated by Andrews (2001). The outer zone or outer court which usually comprises an approach and entrance is the zone that opened to the public. For the interior of temples or the inner hall, only priests that are purified are allowed to go inside. Then, in the inner sanctuary zone, only king and very high ranked priests are permitted to be into it. These temples’ laws that practiced by the Ancient Egyptians explain the reason for temple to become such a mysterious place.

When discussing on the essential elements of Ancient Egyptians’ Temples’ Entrance, the impressive and massive Pylon Gateways are always come to the mind. According to Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (1998), these pylon gateways were very impressive and it is built to honor the dead and gods. However, these pylon gateways are in fact the structure part of the essentials elements of the Ancient Egyptian’s temples entrance. According to Andrews (n.d.), “The actual elements of the temples entrance usually included the landing quays, and processional ways that preceded the temple's outer enclosure walls, which finally led to the pylon gateways themselves.”

The importance of landing quays in Ancient Egyptians’ Temples’ design is simply because of the geographic factor, the Nile River. As Nile River known as the scared river, is the most popular transport system to Ancient Egyptians, Temples are mostly build near to the river or at the river bank. Thus, the landing quay element is usually representing the entrance of the temple. Andrews (n.d.) stated that canals cut back from the Nile River are to stabilize the waterway as well as reducing the distance between the Temple and the landing quay. Thus, mostly the landing quay will be built on canals. Besides, landing quay is also design for the first initial greeting point during a ceremony is held.

Next, the causeways and the path which leading people from landing quay to the temple is also an essential elements in the Ancient Egyptians’ temples’ design. In the earliest time, the path to the temple was only paved. However, later the pathway is completed with statuary which served as protective elements. After the Second Intermediate Period, they often use Sphinxes that have a human face with lion body. The Sphinxes were believed as a guardian of the temple that would stop any evil or unfriendly out of the temple. For example, the pathway leading to the temple of Amun at Karnak is accomplished with ram headed Sphinxes along the pathway.

Then, another vital element in the Ancient Egyptians’ temples is the Way station. The function of it is to provide resting area for the ceremonial processions. It is also a point to refresh the image of deities that were transported from afar, stated by Andrews (n.d.). The Way Station is usually small and simple in term of structure and form. It is only big enough for housing a low altar. However, there is no rules stated that the design of the Way station have to be simple. There is a way station built by Seti I, which can house three ceremonial boats for the Theban triad.

After that, obviously there is Enclosure Walls around the temples. These enclosure walls have a lot of function. It is built to protect the temples from the enemies attack or any chaos situation happens at the countryside. Besides, these enclosure walls also serve as a boundary between the sacred temple and the countryside. In addition, these enclosure wall also have its symbolically function. These walls are a mean to the Ancient Egyptians that it block out all the chaos of the outside world, and create a clean and sacred space for god’s dwelling. More to the point, the enclosure walls are often built in concave forms and convex section. The reason behind this is to prevent the walls from cracking due to shrinkage of the bricks or swelling ground during the Nile floods stated by Andrews (n.d.). In addition, Andrews (n.d.) states that the Ancient Egyptians often use mud brick to built the enclosure walls. While in they use framework of wooden beams and reed mats as the material in the enclosure walls. Most of these enclosure walls are 10 meters thick. Some of these walls also built with bastions or fortified gateways for defensive purposes. In another words, these enclosure walls functions to protect the sacred temples from dangerous like natural disaster, war, and evil.

Finally, before the end of the Entrance Part of Ancient Egyptians’ temples, there is a very significant element, pylons. For your information, the first pylon shape of architecture is first seen in Ancient Egyptians’ Temple. Pylon is the monumental gateway to the temple. Pylon is the most unessential part in the Ancient Egyptians’ temple and it is usually built last, according to ‘Glossary of Egyptian Mythology’ (1997). It has a similar function with the enclosure walls, which have the main objective to protect the sacred temple from the dangerous of outside world. Pylon is a very interesting element in the Ancient Egyptians’ temples because when a pharaoh extends the temple, he usually will not destroy the old pylons but remove it into the new built pylon. Thus, it is very wonderful and brings delights when seeing the architectures within and architecture which is the pylons within the pylon.

After the passed by the artistic and well designed entrance, the first thing that comes to eyes after the great pylon gateway is the outer courtyard. The outer courtyards are mostly designed for celebration gathering. This is well explained by the heliograph that inscribed on the wall and column on the courtyard, as stated by Andrews (n.d.). This courtyard has different function for different temples. However, according to Andrews (n.d.), different temples would have different addition function of the courtyard. This outer courtyard is less sacred compare to the deeper part of the temples complexes. Thus, common resident are allowed to be stay inside to participate celebration.

This courtyard is surrounded by colonnade or portico at both sides that form an axis that connect the pylon gateway to the hypostyle hall. Colonnade or portico is a series of columns with an ambulatory on top of it. These columns are always inscribed with heliograph on it. These columns are mostly will have a column base at the bottom, followed by the column shaft and a column capital at the top part of the column. In Ancient Egypt, there are several type of column which is divided into two categories, the plant style column and None Plant Style Columns. The plant style column includes fluted Column, Palmiform Columns, Lotiform Columns, Papyriform Columns, Coniform Columns, Tent Pole Columns, Campaniform Columns, and Composite Columns. While none plant style columns consist of Hathoric Columns and Osiride Pillars. These columns actually help a lot in achieving great architecture for appreciation in this outer courtyard. It is also a significant element for Ancient Architecture where most of the ancient architecture is going very detail in term of ornamentation on the structure which is very unlikely the modern architecture that emphasize a lot in ‘less is more’.

(For your information, column is the architecture elements that people appreciate a lot in the Ancient Egypt. However, this essay is will not be touching deeply into the column element as this essay is focusing on the architecture of Ancient Egyptians’ temple complex. Thus, there is an attachment of that would explain more on the Ancient Egyptian Column. For further reading via soft copy could link to: Egypt_ The Columns of Ancient Egypt.pdf , via hard copy could see attachment 1: Egypt_ The Columns of Ancient Egypt)

Besides, in this outer courtyard there is always a great altar placed for worshiping or offerings. According to Andrews (n.d.), the great altar is usually allocated at the one side of the central axis. In addition, there is usually a specific area for lodging petitions, meeting with the priests on personal matter or conducting business with the temple officials within the outer courtyard. As stated by Andrews (n.d.), private statuaries besides king and gods could be found in the outer courtyard since the Middle Kingdom Period onwards. These private statuaries are always in the form of squatting on the ground or kneeling before a deity in humble reverence. This statuary is very much related to the belief of after world. Ancient Egyptian believes that their soul needs to be protected after their body died. Thus, sacred temple is the best place to keep their soul out of evil things.

Mysterious of the temple begin after the outer courtyard. Only purified priests are allowed to access beyond the outer courtyard. The first part of the temple after the outer courtyard is the hypostyle hall. This hypostyle hall is functioning as chamber. The interesting part of this hall is the large amount of massive columns. The columns are all well crafted. These columns actually form a forest in the hypostyle hall. For instance, the Karnak temple alone has 134 columns with some stand up to 24 meters tall. This column forest will be acting as a screen or partition that blocks the views of the inner sacred part of the temple complex from the outer courtyard. However, according to Andrews (n.d.), on the center of the hypostyle hall, the columns are separated and form an axis from the entrance leading to the sacred areas of the temple. Thus, he claimed that the real element that makes the sacred area of the temple hidden is actually the darkness inside the hypostyle hall as it has only a row of clerestory windows with gratings set high in the wall to capture little skylight into the hall.

Besides, the “column forest” in the hypostyle hall also has its symbolic function besides its physical function of supporting the massive sandstone architraves and roofing slabs of the hypostyle hall. In Ancient Egyptians’ Myth, they believe that the celestial ream of the sky was supported above the earth on columns, claimed Andrews (n.d.). Besides there is also another evidence to support the Myth which is a quote by Amenhotep III, the pharos who builds the Temple of Karnak, “The pillars in the temple of Karnak reach heaven kike the four pillars of heaven.” Once again, this explains that Ancient Egyptian architecture is very much related to their religious and belief. They build according to their Mythologies principles and they build for their religious function as these are almost everything in them.

When going deeper into the more sacred part of a small temple, it is usually the sanctuary. However, as for the big temple complex, there are sometimes built with some halls before the sanctuary. Andrews (n.d.) believes that these halls are built or designed for the purpose of sacrificing to offer Altar. His point is the Altar would be offered in the sanctuary itself if the halls are not designed for the sacrificing purpose. However, in my opinion, there halls also serve as a sacred place to offer other gods besides the main god for the temple. This theory is based belief in god and goddess of Ancient Egyptians.

Andrews (n.d.) states that “just prior to the sanctuary there will mostly have a Barque Chapel. This room is serving as a store room for the portable Barque, which is the “transportation” of the god. This Barque is always in a boat’s mean, but it is not the real form of a boat. The reason behind this is because the vital transportation in Ancient Egypt is undeniably the Nile River. Thus, boat or ship has deep meaning to the Ancient Egyptian. There are some evidences showing the importance of the ships in Ancient Egypt, which is the quote from the Pharaoh Ramses III:

I built you ships, freight ships, arched ships with rigging, plying the Big Green (the sea). I manned them with archers, captains and innumerable sailors, to bring the goods of the Land of Tyre and the foreign countries at the end of the world to your storage rooms at Thebes the Victorious. (extract from Barques, Barges, and Byblos Boats
by Anita Stratos n.d.)
(This quote means that the Pharaoh Ramses III uses ships to extend his power.) In short, I think that in Ancient Egypt’s Architecture is always influenced by the 3 main things, the Belief of afterworld, Belief in Gods and Goddess, and the Nile River.

After the Barque Chapel, we finally come to the deepest, most sacred and the most mysterious part of the temple, the inner Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is the holy room of the temple for the placement of god shrines and the main Altar. Thus, in term of hierarchy, the Sanctuary is the most important element in the temple complex. Thus for the Architecture Design, the location of the sanctuary is always at the central axis of the temple. Besides, Ancient Egyptian also believes that the Sacred Sanctuary room is the gate way to heaven. Therefore, the Sanctuary room acts as the gateway in the Axis principle which symbolizes the gateway to the heaven. In addition, the sanctuary room is always allocated at the most rear of the temple. The reason behind this is because it signifies that there are no other rooms in this world is beyond the sanctuary rooms except the heaven which the only way to enter is from the sanctuary room. According to Andrews (n.d.), Ancient Egyptians believe that the sanctuary room is the physical extension of heaven. The form of the sanctuary room itself is in a deep and narrow form that would achieve an axis to the heaven. On the other hand, the sanctuary room is purest part of the temple that it is restricted to the king and high ranked purified priests only. This room is so holy and so pure that when an unpurified object or person stepped into the sanctuary room, the room is considered as contaminated. Therefore a complete cleaning process or rededication is required in order to purify the holy sanctuary room.

The last room in Ancient Egyptians’ temple is always the sanctuary room. However, as the temple evolved, new element or new room is added to the back of the sanctuary room. This room is named the “Hearing Ears”, which is specially designed for the common people to offer the god. This room is attached directly to the sanctuary room. However there are no any connections that allow people to access into the sacred part of the temple through the “Hearing Ears”. This room is simply functioning as mean to the common Aancient Egyptian to access the inner sanctuary indirectly. This room is usually placed with a statue of god or sometime only a crafting of a pair of the god ears. In short, this “Hearing Ears” is an additional room that attached to the outer enclosure wall of the temple in the late development of Ancient Egyptians’ temple.

According to Andrews (n.d.), the temple complex cannot be isolated, it needs to build at an estate with other elements or facilities to support the temple or get support from the temple. These facilities are some related to the religious while some are serving as a administrative center. These facilities are mammisis which is a birth house for pharaohs, sacred lake that providing a pool for priest to clean themselves, sanatoria which is equivalent to present medical center, the house of life that is like our university and administrative center, and living quarter that providing living space for the priests.

Mammisis, is a structure that acting as birth house. It is very much related to the religious significant. It signifies the mysterious birth of the Ancient god and also celebration for the god. For the Ancient Egyptian, there believe that their king or pharaoh is god. Thus, the Mammisis is also the place to divine birth of Kings or Pharaoh. This house is usually allocated at the right angle of the main temple axis. The mammisis house is usually surrounding with the peristyle structure with walls erected between the columns. The wall is always decorated with text or heliographs that explain the birth of a god and his/her parents. Thus, in different temples that offering different main god will have different decorative on the Mammisis’s walls. For instance, according to Andrews (n.d.), in th mammisi of the Temple of Hathor celebrating the birth of Ihy even portrays his formation on the potter's wheel. In brief, mammisis are functioning as a place to divine the birth of the pharaohs with the god.

In conclusion, the sanctuary room is the main objective of building a temple. The other elements are added to accomplish the importance and the hierarchy of the sanctuary room. On the other hand, the Ancient Egyptians’ temple complex is as complex as a large shopping mall in the present day. However, the scale of the temple complex to the ancient people is like a city scale to our present life. The architecture of the temple complex is very much related to the religious and the belief of afterworld. Besides, there are also some elements that explain the Ancient Egyptians lifestyle for instance the importance of the boat to Ancient Egyptians is reflected by the Barque element in the temple.

In my opinion, the construction of the Ancient Egyptians’ temple is no more interesting to our present construction because the temple are all built by solid construction which has really a lot of limitation to our building forms and the space, for instance, a series of large opening is very hard to achieve in solid construction. Besides, it is also seems to be impossible to have a large roofed area without huge and massive columns in solid construction. However, I think that the architecture elements that could inspire us are the way of dividing space. The spaces in the temple are defined clearly by uniqueness of each space. Besides, the uniqueness is not only limited to define spaces, but it also has its function and its symbolic meanings. For example, the pylon gateway is very much signified by its massive pylon. To relate to the present, in a shopping mall or other complexes, most of the time there are not clear in defining the zone or area because it is lacking of its own uniqueness of that particular space like the Ancient Egyptians’ temple complexes do.

Furthermore, the temple complex can be related to the urban design as well. A city could be design accordingly to the structure of the temple complex that has hierarchy of each zone or area. In city as well, the sanctuary room could be an administrative zone which is restricted to authorize people only. While the hypostyle hall could be all the office building zone and the outer courtyard as the opened public areas like gardens for outdoor activities. Then, as for the colonnade or portico that at two side of the outer courtyard can be transformed into commercial zone and residential zone at the both sides of the opened public areas. Next, the pylon gateway can be changed to the Education zone for schools, libraries, museums, and so on. For the entrance area, it could be transformed into the entrance to the city like seaport, airport, bus stop, and other transportation hub. As for the facilities from the outside of temple, it can be added with facilities like Fire department, Hospital, Industrial zones, Agriculture zones, and other element that is supporting the city. The sacred lake can be transformed into a tourism spot, while the living quarter can be changed to the residential area for authorized people like administrator. In short, the architecture of Ancient Egyptians’ temple complex is so great in defining spaces that even be transformed into a layout of a city.

Reference list

Andrews, M. n.d. ‘Ancient Egyptian Temple Elements: Part I: Approach and Entrance’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/templeentrance.htm

Andrews, M. n.d. ‘Ancient Egyptian Temple Elements: Part II: The Outer Courtyards’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/templeoutercourt.htm

Andrews, M. n.d. ‘Ancient Egyptian Temple Elements: Part III: On ThePpath to Sanctuary’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/templeoutercourt.htm

Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation 1998. ‘Mysterious of Egypt’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.civilization.ca/civil/egypt/egca03e.html

‘Egyptian Mythology’ n.d. Retrieved: September 7, 2005, from http://www.mnsu.edu/

Edgar, M. n.d. ‘Temples of Egypt’. Retrieved: October 7, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/temples.htm

Edgar, M. n.d. ’The Columns of Ancient Egypt’ n.d. Retrieved: October 11, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/columns.htm

‘Glossary of Egyptian Mythology’ 1997. Retrieved: October 10, 2005, from http://members.aol.com/egyptart/glossary.html

Stratos, A. n.d. ‘Barques, Barges, and Byblos Boats’. Retrieved: October 12, 2005, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/aboat.htm

Impacts of Globalization

2008-01-30T05:14:00.000-08:00

Globalization means a world that is interdependent between each country or an integrated world. An important factor that brings globalization is technology. The improvement of technology has enabled one to communicate, interact and travel around the world. For some globalized products, such as Mc Donald, Coca-cola, and Visa Credit Cards, the world from different parts have started to change and develop to a same generation. In the situation where one may affect another, there have been many changes in indigenous cultures in the world, which is the native cultures from different parts of the world. This is reflected in changes in economics, social behavior, religion, language, art and creativity. These impacts may be helpful or harmful to human beings.

The most concerned issue of the impacts of globalization on indigenous cultures is the economic change. Due to globalization, changes in the financial system in any banks affect one and another, and the financial system may give a direct reflection on economic activities. According to Hill(2005), about 25 years before, Islamic banking does not condemn interest, even though it is defined as unjust by Koran. After the indigenous people such as Pakistan adopted the condemnation system, all the Islamic banks from the world have averagely obtained more than 16 percents profit from its capital. Besides, globalization also improves the lifestyle of indigenous peoples in the form of urbanization. In the past, indigenous people live in small villages, but they live in cities now. It was supported by Some 300 million Chinese farmers are forecast to more to urban areas (2007) which reported in Beijing that, a forecast of over 300 million farmers in China will move to urban areas in the next 20 years. This is because globalization of the world trading has discovered the potential market of China which has huge population. This had provided more job opportunities. With higher income, they can obtain better living. This situation claims that, globalization has helped to develop the world economy and increase the production of indigenous peoples. Therefore, globalization has greatly affected the indigenous cultures.

Secondly, globalization has changed the social behavior among the indigenous. Firework was invented by the indigenous of China, and it was played during the Chinese New Year festival. Due to globalization, indigenous of Malaysia play fireworks on their New Year festival before it was illegalized. This is because globalization allowed fireworks to be traded. However, firework is dangerous, and some may suggest that this is the negative impact of globalization. Furthermore, entertainments of indigenous people were changed. In the past, the Chinese in China play dice or mahjong, but they play poker which was origin from western now. However, poker cards have been used as a gambling tool by the Chinese, and this has been argued that globalization has provided more opportunities of gambling to the world. Therefore, globalization may seriously affect the social behavior of indigenous people, and it can be a negative effect.

Thirdly, the impact of globalization on indigenous people has included the religion and beliefs. As the world is now more interdependent, religious effects are now more noticeable. Esposito (1999) claimed that, the increased of Muslim believers had raised the number of mosques in America, in which the demand had increased. This is because globalization has built up a better interaction between the Muslim and the indigenous of America. When the missionaries were allowed to travel to other countries, they might have the chances to influence the indigenous people in their beliefs. However, this may brings a lot of conflicts. The indigenous people who had practice different religion with their own cultures may quarrel or even fight for their beliefs. Besides, the change in beliefs also affects decision making. Payton (2007) states that “Dawn Gibbins, the founder and chairman of international flooring business Flowcrete attributes much of her company’s success to the ancient art of feng shui”. This shows that the English indigenous is affected by the Chinese beliefs, and they might make a lot of decision due to feng shui. Feng shui is not recognized by the scientist yet as it is not perfectly supported by scientific evidences. Some may claim that this is a negative effect because the decisions made are irrational. Consequently, the impacts of globalization on indigenous peoples’ religion may seem to be positive or negative effect.

Besides, impact on language is obviously seen. Globalization has enabled one to immigrate to another country. For an example, Malaysia, a country of multi races with multi languages might have an advantage in communicating with foreigners. As referred to Nazaruddin Hj.mohd Jali rt al. (2003), the official language of Malaysia is Malay, but a few of languages are commonly practiced in the society too. Normally, Malaysian can speak Malay, English and even mandarin. This is because of the immigration of Chinese from China in the past, and the recognized of English as the international language by the world. But this may lead to a situation where the native unable to speak their indigenous language in a proper fluent. They might use a lot of other languages in their conversation and have less practice on their indigenous language. To conclude, the impacts of globalization on indigenous languages can be beneficial or harmful to the society.
Lastly, traditional art and creativity of indigenous people might be affected by globalization too. As globalization provide the opportunities for artists to exchange knowledge with one and another, one may come out with a fusion design which includes different styles from different cultures. There might be a better invention in art, as the advantages from the art of different indigenous cultures are adopted. According to Payton (2007), Gibbins who is a success business women practise feng shui to redesign her company’s logo. This situation claims that the design of English indigenous was affected by the art of Chinese feng shui. However, when the norms were break, the traditional art might be evolved and lost its original form. When this situation continuously affects the indigenous culture, the traditional arts of music and building’s structures might become pictures or even wordings that written in the history. Therefore, globalization can brings positive and negative impacts to the art and creativity that practiced by indigenous people.

In conclusion, indigenous people from different parts of the world have been affected by globalization in economics, social behavior, religion, language, art and creativity. These impacts may be helpful or harmful to human beings. Although some may claim that globalization is good for the world as the interaction between countries is better, and even the indigenous was benefited in certain things, some may still suggest that globalization is harmful to indigenous in certain views. So, it is unarguable that either globalization is a good or bad develop of the world to indigenous cultures. However, globalization will continuously affect the indigenous in the future, as it was unstoppable when the technology provides such an environment for human beings.

References:
Esposito, JL 1999, The oxford history of islam, Oxford University Press, New York

Hill, CWL 2005, International business: competing in the blogal marketplace, 5th edn, McGraw-Hill, New York

Nazaruddin Hj.Mohd Jali, Ma’rof Redzuan, Ashrulkhadi Abu Samah, Ismail Hj. Mohd Rashid 2003, Malaysian studies nationhood and citizenship, trans. Wong Fook Khoon, Peason Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Payton, S 2007, ‘The yin crowd’, Financial Management, December, p.20

Some 300 milliion chinese farmers are forecast to move to urban areas 2007, Cities Alliance, viewed 22 December 2007,http://www.citiesalliance.org/publications/homepage-features/jan-07/million -chinese-farmers-urban-areas.html

Topic no.1- Architecture

2008-01-30T04:59:00.001-08:00

Architecture is my base, i studied in this field for the past 4 years and i was in love with it more than a decade. However, i got no much things to share for the moment but at least this architecture blog which i found it is interesting and worth to be shared.

http://archi-pedia.blogspot.com

Note: Architecture is built but not in paper.

The First Post

2008-01-30T04:55:00.001-08:00

This is my first post in my blogging journey. My blog is a place where informations from different field are gathered. The idea is to provide you an opportunity to learn or know things happening on in your field. It could be medical issue, political, architectural, or funny thingy.

the motto of this site is: things you don't know, doesn't meant that it doesn't exits. the existence have to be known, and there is what knowledge means~