Theme of loveliness Essay Example for Free

Theme of loveliness Essay John Keats is one of the prominent Romantic poets. His life encapsulates a lot of pain and suffering due to the loss of his family members and also his unrequited love for Fanny Browne. Anything in its authentic and original form can be regarded as beauty. Similarly, for Keats beauty is synonymous with Truth. It is in this pursuit of beauty that he completely forgets his pains and sufferings and also the world around him. Thus, he transcends into an imaginary world. Keats saw beauty in truth and truth in beauty. He never escaped the realities of life in pursuit of the beautiful visions of his imagination. Infact his imaginary visions are based on reality. n these lines the poet takes the Huge cloudy symbols as a threat to his clear love, which is connoted by the phrase, nights starrd face. A clear reference to the poets beloved is witnessed as the poet asserts fair creature of an hour. Here he is focusing on the fact that life is fleeting and the physical beauty and loveliness of his beloved would not last forever, neither would his love. This shows that he is a staunch believer of the inner beauty because it is immortal and it does not need camouflage as opposed to physical beauty. An Ode is addressed directly to Fanny Brawne namely To Fanny . Keats was head over heels in love with Fanny and was also engaged to her. In this ode, the poet is filled with passion for her but he is a victim of his beloveds neglection . Keats asks Fanny if she is really true to him. This question to the beloved substantiates Keats inclination towards the idea of beauty in truth. He also attributes her beauty by using the metaphor of snowy side which signifies the purity of Fannys heart. However, in the very next line he negates himself as he thinks that Fanny is also like other women who are similar to a feather in an ocean that is tossed by wind to any direction. The analogies that the poet draws for Fanny are drawn from nature that incorporates a romantic element which is an inevitable part of his poetry.

Genesis Flood of the Christian Bible and the Flood of Gilgamesh :: Epic of Gilgamesh

The Flood of Noah and the Flood of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh has been of interest to Christians ever since its discovery in the mid-nineteenth century in the ruins of the great library at Nineveh, with its account of a universal flood with significant parallels to the Flood of Noah's day.1, 2 The rest of the Epic, which dates back to possibly third millennium B.C., contains little of value for Christians, since it concerns typical polytheistic myths associated with the pagan peoples of the time. However, some Christians have studied the ideas of creation and the afterlife presented in the Epic. Even secular scholars have recognized the parallels between the Babylonian, Phoenician, and Hebrew accounts, although not all are willing to label the connections as anything more than shared mythology.3 There have been numerous flood stories identified from ancient sources scattered around the world.4 The stories that were discovered on cuneiform tablets, which comprise some of the earliest surviving writing, have obvious similarities. Cuneiform writing was invented by the Sumerians and carried on by the Akkadians. Babylonian and Assyrian are two dialects of the Akkadian, and both contain a flood account. While there are differences between the original Sumerian and later Babylonian and Assyrian flood accounts, many of the similarities are strikingly close to the Genesis flood account.5 The Babylonian account is the most intact, with only seven of 205 lines missing.6 It was also the first discovered, making it the most studied of the early flood accounts. The Epic of Gilgamesh is contained on twelve large tablets, and since the original discovery, it has been found on others, as well as having been translated into other early languages.7 The actual tablets date back to around 650 B.C. and are obviously not originals since fragments of the flood story have been found on tablets dated around 2,000 B.C.8 Linguistic experts believe that the story was composed well before 2,000 B.C. compiled from material that was much older than that date.9 The Sumerian cuneiform writing has been estimated to go as far back as 3,300 B.C.10 The Story The Epic was composed in the form of a poem. The main figure is Gilgamesh, who actually may have been an historical person. The Sumerian King List shows Gilgamesh in the first dynasty of Uruk reigning for 126 years.11 This length of time is not a problem when compared with the age of the pre-flood patriarchs of the Bible.

Oil and Gas Industry in Kazakhastan

Kazakhstan is one of Central Asia’s most successful and dynamic economies. More than hundred U.S. companies are operating in this country, through subsidiaries, JVs, liasion offices or as contractors. While most of them are found in the energy sector, many of them are service sector firms (e.g. international law firms, accounting firms, Banks like Citibank, American Express bank etc.). There are companies in telecom, sector, consumer goods and others. Kazakhastan provides excellent business opportunities in the fields of Oil and Gas, Power, Telecom, Medical instruments, Controlling Pollution, Agro-Machinery, Food, Construction and Mining.Kazakhstan has implemented important structural reforms during the past few years with an objective to transform its economy into a robust, market-driven business environment. However, some of the issues concering the development are- corruption, inconsistent customs regulations, inconsistency in interpretation of law, red tapism, work permit limitations for managerial and technical staff, amendments in laws increasing government interference etc. Many of these concerns are on legal innovations, which are aimed at creating changes in prevailing contracts e.g. â€Å"the Government has recently adopted legislation giving it preemptive rights in both existing and future contracts in the event that shareholders in oil field consortia want to sell shares, even if other partners have a contractual right of first offer†. Similarly, the Government adopted a telecom regulation that limited foreign equity in telecom companies to forty-nine percent.   (http://www.buyusa.gov/kazakhstan/en/doing_business_kazakhstan.html)Kazakhstan is perceived as an evolving economy surmounting the heritage of the Soviet economy through constant dedication to economic liberalization and upholding a striking investment climate through practical policy choices and support with the West. The IMF called Kazakhstan's firm macroeconomic stabilizat ion actions â€Å"appropriate and far-sighted.† Of all the ex-Soviet economies, Kazakhstan is rated first in FDI as a percentage of gross domestic produce and next only to Hungary in per capita foreign direct investment. Because of its thriving reforms, liberal trade practices, and capability to draw external financing, the economy is booming. Kazakhstan is a signatory to the World Trade Organization.(http://www.kazakhembus.com/Stable_Free_Market_Economy.html)Kazakhstan's economy registered a growth rate of 8.5% in 2006. GDP grew by 9.4 percent in 2005, by 9.1 percent in 2004, by 9.2 percent in 2003 and by 9.5 percent in 2002. Kazakhstan's financial policy has been well administered. Since 2001, the inflation has been under check and well controlled. In 2006, it was 8.6 percent, 7.5 percent in 2005 and during 2001-2003 it was 6.4 percent, 6.6 percent and 6.8 percent respectively. Due to strong macroeconomic show and financial strength, Kazakhstan became the first former Sovie t country to settle all of its debt to IMF in 2000, seven years before schedule. The U.S. Department of Commerce has recognized Kazakhstan as a market economy under U.S. trade law since 2002. This is the result of effective market economy reforms in the domains of â€Å"currency convertibility, wage rate determination, openness to foreign investment, and government control over the means of production and allocation of resources†.Kazakhstan became the first economy from the ex- Soviet Union to get an â€Å"investment-grade† credit rating from a leading global credit rating agency in 2002. Projected external borrowings in 2005 were $41.66 billion. In 2004, Kazakhstan's gross foreign borrowings were approximately $26.03 billion. Kazakhstan has been able to check the ratio of borrowings to Gross Domestic Produce in recent years. In 2005, total governmental debt was 8.9 percent of GDP whereas this ratio in 2000 stood at 21.7 percent of GDP.Kazakhstan has copious natural we alth with a whole prospective value projected at $8.7 trillion. Specially, Kazakhstan's hydrocarbon reserves are enormous and are expected to be next only to Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Oil and gas is the most important economic sector. Oil exports have pushed the economic development and have already drawn considerable international investment of over US$ 8 billion since 1993. The Tengiz oil field, was promoted by the TengizChevrOil a joint venture company established by the Kazak government and Chevron in 1993. Exxon Mobil and LukArco have also joined the venture to further develop the said project. TegizChevrOil is the major foreign venture in Kazakhstan. Though Kazakhstan’s present oil output of nearly 1.2 million barrels/day is comparitively small, oil reserves found offshore in the North Caspian, together with onshore sites currently being developed, put it among major oil exporter over the medium term.The total output of oil and gas condensate in the country totaled to 61.9 million tons in the year 2005 registering a growth of 4.3 percent over 2004. Total exports of oil and gas condensate were 52.4 million tons per annum in both 2004 and 2005. The total output of natural gas in Kazakhstan in 2005 equaled 14.5 billion cubic meters, registering a growth of 25 percent over the same in 2004. Kazakhstan has reserves of about 4 billion tons of confirmed recoverable oil and 3 trillion cubic meters of gas.Industry forecaster consider that planned development of oil production, together with the expansion of new fields, will facilitate the country to generate as much as three million barrels per day by the year 2015, elating Kazakhstan into the position among the world's top ten oil-producing countries. Kazakhstan's exported oil valued at US$17.4 billion in 2005, which constituted 70% of total exports from the country.In Kazakhstan, most important oil and gas fields and their producible oil reserves are: â€Å"Tengiz (7 billion barrels); Karachaganak (8 billi on barrels and 1,350 billion cubic meters of natural gas); and Kashagan (7-9 billion barrels)†. From 2004, the Government of Kazakhstan augmented its catch of oil deals by rising levy of new oil projects. (http://www.kazakhembus.com/Enormous_Energy_Reserves.html)It was in 1899, when oil was first revealed in Atyrau. Since then, the affiliation with the West has been essential to energy resource growth in Kazakhstan. The first oil well, â€Å"Karachungul well†, had a depth of about forty meter and daily produced approximately 150 barrels. Alfred Nobel had developed it in association with Russian industrial companies. This grew to fifteen operating wells 1912, and each well generated about 306-346 barrels per day usually. The new development also included a transit system for transporting 5,453 barrels of oil to Baku per annum through barge. While the appropriate progress of Kazakhstan's vast oil reserves has been sporadic due to two world wars, a uprising and the conclus ion of the Soviet Union, the reality of deep wells and the growth of shipping solutions have remained fundamental to Kazakhstan's energy equation.Apart from the major oil reserves, â€Å"Karachaganak also has 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas†. The potentially biggest recent discovery of major hydrocarbon reserves is the offshore â€Å"Kashagan† structure. The reserves at this site are expected to be three times more than Tengiz. The group, developing this two thousand  square mile block fourteen thousand feet below the Caspian sea bed comprises of nine companies: â€Å"BP Amoco, ENI, British Gas, Mobil, Shell, Total Fina Elf, Phillips, Statoil and Inpex†.The forecasted extractable reserves of oil are projected to be 7.8 billion tons, and those of natural gas 7.1 billions cubic meter. About seventy percent of these resources are gathered in the western parts of Kazakhstan, and the greater part of the reserves are associated with salt fields and have been found at depths of over 5000 meters.The envisaged reserves of the Kazakhstan part of the Caspian shelf are projected to be around thirteen billion tons of standard fuel but the successful expansion of the Caspian fields necessitates a considerable amount of investment. According to industry experts, the total required investment could be as high as $160 billion, which includes an amount of about $10 billion for the preliminary stage of exploration, including field assessment. As on now, western companies have already pumped in more than US$7 billion.Some limitations to getting investments for discovering the Caspian shelf had been the need of a clarification to the status of Caspian Sea. With signing of the agreement between Kazakhstan and Russia to partition the seafloor of the Caspian along the midline between the two countries, the issue appears to have been resolved. Similar agreements have been signed between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan and Russia.Envisaged reser ves of the Aral basin stand for about two billion tons of standard fuel. The high gas and oil prospective and encouraging geographic location in respect of the basic transportation of groundwater routes makes the Aral basin one of the most significant area with respect to the prospective oil discovery operations.In spite of Kazakhstan’s considerable oil and gas resources, the production and export of hydrocarbons has been inhibited by Kazakhstan’s land-locked position and its considerable reliance on domestic and Russia’s shipping networks for export routes. Kazakhstan is dedicated to the expansion of multiple oil export routes, in order to sustain its impending oil resources of 100-110 billion barrels.   A wide-ranging understanding with the national pipeline operator, Kaztransoil CJSC can be made in order to gain access to the main pipeline system by agreeing to   shipment schedules by the Kazakhstani oil producers.Due to the inadequate capability of the K azakhstani pipeline system, right to use to the pipeline is established as per the ratio of a particular oil producer’s contribution in the total quantity of oil to be produced in Kazakhstan in a given year. Presently, there are only two in service pipelines: â€Å"the Atyrau-Samara pipeline connects Kazakhstan to the Russian export network, while the CPC pipeline (Tengiz-Novorossiisk) connects the Tengiz field with the Russian port of Novorossiisk on the Black Sea†. Although there are it is largely privately owned pipeline but Russia reserves the right to suspend and enforce limitations on the stream of Kazakhstani oil from the Atyrau-Samara pipeline into Russian transportation network. More importantly, Russian organizations usually have priority access to their export terminals. By becoming a partner to the international BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) Consortium that have built a 1,730-kilometer export pipeline with an annual capacity of 50 million tones, Kazakhstan can improve the scenario. (http://www.kazakhembus.com/Oil.html)The services of nationals and foreign nationals in Kazakhstan are monitored by the Labor Laws, labor relations are monitored by individual employment agreements and, if applicable, collective labor contracts. Employment agreements must be in writing and must obey the rules to the minimum standards prescribed by the Labor Law. Companies usually face problems in hiring managerial and technical staff. Further, they even have to obtain permits to get overseas workers.Kazakhstan has delivered continueous economic development for several years, particularly given the increasing significance of the Caspian Basin as a source for petrochemicals. While the rate of its economic reforms has recently slowed down,   Kazakhstan’s promise to continue and further push the structural transformations aimed at changing its economy into a more market-driven business climate remains of vital importance. Prospective international investor s and exporters will prefer to see more repeated and many more success stories in this market in order to invest in the Kazakhstan’s economy. In spite the several issues that still need to be addressed, in this Central Asian country, an increasing number of the U.S. enterprises is of the opinion that Kazakhstan deserves a serious thought by the U.S. exporters. More importantly, considering the strategic significance of the country, it is important for them to be here for being competitive in Central Asia.Resourceshttp://www.kazakhembus.com/Oil.htmlhttp://www.allbusiness.com/mining/oil-gas-extraction-crude-petroleum-natural/235547-1.html?yahss=114-2974554-235547http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5487.htmhttp://www.bakernet.com/NR/rdonlyres/1E007228-ED7E-4475-8ED7-0BDBA7B76FD3/38334/DBIKazakhstanJan2005.pdfhttp://www.buyusa.gov/kazakhstan/en/doing_business_kazakhstan.htmlhttp://www.cioc.com/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7015361.stm

Definition and Examples of Maxims

Maxim, proverb, gnome, aphorism, apothegm, sententia―all of these terms mean essentially the same thing: a short, easily remembered expression of a basic principle, general truth or rule of conduct. Think of a maxim as a nugget of wisdom―or at least of apparent wisdom. Maxims are universal and testify to the commonality of human existence. It is often difficult to tell whether a maxim means something, or something means maxim.   -  Robert Benchley, Maxims from the Chinese Maxims, you see, are tricky devices. As Benchley suggests in his comic chiasmus, they generally sound pretty convincing at least until a contrary maxim comes along. Look before you leap, we say with conviction. That is, until we remember that he who hesitates is lost. Examples of Dueling Maxims English is full of such contrary proverbs (or, as we prefer to call them, dueling maxims): The bigger the better / Good things come in small packages.Whats good for the goose is good for the gander. / One mans meat is another mans poison.Birds of a feather flock together./ Opposites attract.Actions speak louder than words. / The pen is mightier than the sword.Youre never too old to learn. / You cant teach an old dog new tricks.All good things come to those who wait. / Time and tide wait for no man.Many hands make light work. / Too many cooks spoil the broth.Absence makes the heart grow fonder. / Out of sight, out of mind.Its better to be safe than sorry. / Nothing ventured, nothing gained. As William Mathews said, All maxims have their antagonist maxims; proverbs should be sold in pairs, a single one being but a half truth. Maxims as Strategies But then, we might ask, what is the nature of proverbial truth? In his essay Literature as Equipment for Living, rhetorician Kenneth Burke argued that proverbs are strategies designed for dealing with situations--for consolation or vengeance, for admonition or exhortation, for foretelling. And different situations call for different proverbs: The apparent contradictions depend upon differences in attitude , involving a correspondingly different choice of strategy . Consider, for instance, the apparently opposite pair: Repentance comes too late and Never too late to mend. The first is admonitory. It says in effect: Youd better look out, or youll get yourself too far into this business. The second is consolatory, saying in effect: Buck up, old man, you can still pull out of this. ( The Philosophy of Literary Form, 3rd edition, Louisiana State University Press, 1967) Maxims in an Oral Culture In any event, the maxim is a handy device, especially for people in predominately oral cultures--those that rely on speech rather than writing to pass along knowledge. Some of the common stylistic features of maxims (features that help us remember them) include parallelism, antithesis, chiasmus, alliteration, paradox, hyperbole  and ellipsis. The Rhetoric of Aristotle According to Aristotle in his Rhetoric, the maxim is also a persuasive device, convincing listeners by conveying an impression of wisdom and experience. Because maxims are so common, he says, They seem true, as if everyone agreed. But that doesnt mean that all of us have earned the right to use maxims. Theres a minimum age requirement, Aristotle tells us: Speaking in maxims is appropriate to those older in years and on subjects of which one is experienced, since to speak maxims is unseemly for one too young, as is storytelling; and on matters in which one is inexperienced it is silly and shows lack of education. There is an adequate sign of this: country folks are most inclined to strike maxims and readily show themselves off. ( Aristotle On Rhetoric : A Theory of Civic Discourse, translated by George A. Kennedy, Oxford University Press, 1991) Finally, we might keep in mind this bit of proverbial wisdom from Mark Twain: It is more trouble to make a maxim than it is to do right.