European Union

The European Union, or the EU, is made up of 27 member states that are primarily in Europe. It is the political and economic union of these 27 countries. On November 1,1993, it was established by the Treaty of Maastricht. It was created upon the groundwork of the European Economic Community that was already in existence. The EU can trace its origins back to the 1951 European Coal and Steel Community that was created between six countries and to the 1957 Treaty of Rome.

The European Union has 27 countries that make it up. These countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom. The most recent members, Bulgaria and Romania, joined on January 1, 2007.

A standardized system of laws apply to all of the EU member states, which is called a single market. The single market allows for the freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital among the member states. Passport controls between many of the member states have been abolished. The Euro is the common currency that has been adopted y sixteen of the member states.

To learn more about the European Union go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_union or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_State_of_the_European_Union .

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a very famous Spanish artist. He is known for co-founding the Cubist movement in art.

Picasso lived in Paris in 1900, but moved back to Madrid in 1901. During the first five months of 1901, Francisco de Asís Soler and Picasso founded and published five issues of the magazine Arte Joven, which means Young Art in English. He illustrated for the magazine with a lot of cartoons that illustrated and sympathized with the poor. March 31, 1901 was the date of the publication of the first issue of Arte Joven.

Picasso joined an art gallery in Paris that had recently been opened by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in 1907. While in Paris, he was good friends with a poet named Guillaume Apollinaire who was arrested in 1911 under suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Picasso was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated.

Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France on April 8, 1973, while his wife Jacqueline and him had friends over for dinner. "Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can't drink anymore," were his final words.

For more information about Pable Picasso go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasso .

The Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland became a free state in 1921. Before that it was a part of the United Kingdom.

There was a surge of Irish nationalism from the Roman Catholics in the 19th and early 20th century. Self-government or Home Rule was campaigned for by Charles Stewart Parnell in the 20th century. Home Rule received strong opposition from Unionists who saw themselves as both British and Irish because they felt the Catholics and Southern Irish interests would dominate them. Lord Carson formed the Ulster Volunteers in 1913 to preclude Home Rule. To support Home Rule the Irish Volunteers were formed in 1914, but were later suspended when World War I broke out.

The Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence of 1919 occurred during this period of suspension for the Irish Volunteers. Finally, the British Government and the leaders of the Irish Republic agreed upon a treaty in 1921 called the Anglo-Irish Treaty. This treaty made the Republic of Ireland its own free state and allowed for Northern Ireland to join them if they so choose.

For more information about the break of the Republic of Ireland from Britain go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland .

Anne Frank House

During World War II many Jews hid from the Nazis in secret rooms below houses. One of the most famous of this Jews is Anne Frank. She wrote a diary of her experiences of living in secrecy with her and four other Jews. Her father Otto Frank published this diary in 1947 after her death at the concentration camps in Dutch entitled Het Achterhuis.
Otto Frank, Anne’s father, moved his offices of spice and gelling companies, Opteka and Pectacon, to Prinsengracht 263 from an address on the Singel canal on December 1, 1940. The Achterhuis or Secret Annex, where the Frank family and four other Jews hid, is the rear extension of the building that is hidden away from view by four houses surrounding it. It was an ideal hiding spot from Nazi persecution because of its seclusion. Anne Frank wrote that it was relatively luxurious hiding place compared to others that they had heard about, but its total floor space was 500 square feet. The Franks and the other Jews stayed hidden in this place for two years and one month. Someone anonymously betrayed them to the Nazi authorities and they were arrested, deported, and died in concentration camps. Only Otto Frank survived the war out of all those hidden in the building. After they were arrested, all of their remaining belongings were seized by the government and redistributed to bombed-out families in Germany.
The museum located on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, The Netherlands is now dedicated to Anne Frank. It highlights the life and times of Anne Frank and brings to light all forms of persecution and discrimination while preserving the hiding spot of the Frank family. It was opened to the public May 3, 1960. This was only three years after it was saved by a foundation from developers who wanted to demolish the entire block. Today it is a very successful museum.
For more information about the Anne Frank House go to http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=3&lid=2 or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank_House .

The Atomium

In 1958 there was a World’s Fair called Expo 58 or Brussels World Fair that took place in Brussels, Belgium. This first significant World’s Fair since World War II took place from April 17, 1958 to October 19, 1958. The site of Expo 58 is located seven kilometers northwest of Brussels, Belgium.
It took almost 15,000 workers approximately three years to build up the site. The most notable structure on this site is the Atomium designed by engineer André Waterkeyn. It signifies an iron of crystal that is magnified 165 billion times. The nine large spheres connected by tubes stands on three gigantic bipods and is made completely of steel clad and aluminum. The structure itself has a height of 102 meters and each sphere has a diameter of 18 meters. The Atomium was not supposed to survive the Exhibition of 1958, but it had such success and popularity that they kept it as a permanent structure.
There was a call for peace and economic and social progress issued at the opening of the Brussels World Fair. Over 42 million people visited the World’s Fair in Brussels during its six-month duration. According the Atomium’s website this fair represented a “faith in technical progress (despite fears about the atom bomb) and optimism about the future of a modern world that promised to enhance people’s lives.” In the end, Expo 58 was a huge success.
For more information on the Atomium or Expo 58 check out http://www.atomium.be/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_%2758 .

Theatre Culture

In Britain a popular thing to do during your free time is to go to the theatres to see plays and musicals. Since I have been here I have seen about four musicals and on a tour of one theatre. The theatre culture is important to this society since it is so popular. It differs a lot from the theatre culture in the United States.
Going to the theatre here is not as big of a deal to people as it is at home. At home, going to the theatre means getting dressed up and getting to the theatre early as to make sure you are on time. People in Britain will not get very dressed up. They wear a pair of jeans and a top to a play and they arrive about fifteen or twenty minutes before the show starts. In order to go to a play at home, people usually get tickets at least a couple days in advance so they can get decent seats. Here in Britain though, people will decide to go see a play, get tickets only an hour or two before and still get good seats.
Another notable aspect of theatre culture is drinking and eating in the theatre. It is normal to be at a show in Britain and see people eating candy and drinking a beer or wine. At home, there is no eating or drinking inside the theatre. They sell candy and ice cream during the intermission. Sometimes they even sell popcorn. They also allow you to order your drink for intermission before the play starts so the lines are not ridiculously long.
A final aspect of theatre culture that is important is the program. At home, programs are free to everyone who comes to the show. The programs in British theatres have to be bought for usually about £3. The programs here are also in color and very fancy. At home, they are usually in black and white with a lot of advertisements in them.

British education system

Professor John Dewhurst discussed the British education system during the British Life and Culture lecture on February 10, 2009. I found his lecture very interesting. The idea that he discussed that struck me was price of attending university and the dropout rates. This is a large contrast to what I have experience in the United States. He explained that the tuition fees that are charged for a year at university are up to £3,145 each year, which translates to about $4,484.77. This is a drastic difference to my school where it is over $30,000 a year to attend.
Since there is such a low price to attend university I would think there would be an increased attendance, but this is not the case according to Professor Dewhurst. He explained that there are increased dropout rates in Britain that is now 20%. This is almost 11% more than in the United States where dropout rates in 2006 were about 9.6%. I find it odd that it is so much cheaper to attend university in Britain, yet many students do not, but in the United States, where it is more expensive, more students attend university. It is especially odd because they have student loans they can take out with deferred repayments and low interest provided by the government and, also, the government offers help for lower-income students. Granted, the United States also has a similar government program, but the loans we receive do not cover the complete cost of university, whereas in Britain, they do. It seems to me that, despite the higher cost for a year at university, United States has a better education system, but, then again, I have never experienced or grown up in the British education system. The United States’ education system is able to keep kids in school for longer and have more go on to further their education at university, but the British system does not seem to be at the same point yet.

Conversion from http://www.dollars2pounds.com/
Rate from http://nces.ed.gov/FastFacts/display.asp?id=16

Religion

During the lecture in British Life & Culture on January 13 the speaker, Dr. Wendy Stokes, discussed a topic I found quite interesting. She spoke about England’s society being secular, noting that most British people do not go to church. This aspect of their society is different from the United States, where many people do attend church or some religious service. Also, Dr. Stokes explained that England has the lowest church going population of any country. It was also interesting to me that England has no formal separation of church and state, but there is a distinction between politics and religion. This, again, is different than the United States. In the United States so many people try to inject their religious beliefs into politics, but there is a law that separates church and state. People do not seem to care about this law and continually try to make their beliefs law. It is interesting to me that in a country where they have lax laws about religion and politics there is a clear and distinct separation of their church and state. On the other hand, in a country where there are specific, strict laws concerning the separation of church and state, people feel they can still impose their religion upon politics. It is also interesting to me that London is a city with so many religions and yet England as a country has the lowest church-going population. England and the United States seem like they are so similar and yet on the large issue of religion in society we are so divided.

British Museum

On February 11, 2009, we took a British Life and Culture field trip to the British Museum. The tour guide I had was Mark Bishop. He led my group into the lobby of the museum where the ceiling was a complex set of triangle glass pieces and metal. According to wikipedia, it is made up of steel and glass “with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass.” The structure was amazing. It was opened to the public in December 2000 and “is the largest covered square in Europe,” (wikipedia).
The British Museum is one of the largest museums in the world. They have exhibits with objects from a bunch of different countries like Egypt, Greece, Germany, Japan, China, and others.
The museum has a large, impressive Egyptian exhibit. They have a ton of mummies, jewelry and art. One piece they have is Nebamun hunting in the marshes from Nebamun's tomb-chapel, which is one of the most famous Egyptian paintings ever.
Not only is their Egyptian collection impressive, but they also have a lot of Greek statues. My favorite was the pieces from the Parthenon.
I found it quite interesting that having so many objects from so many places has caused problems for the British Museum. Egypt wants Nebamun hunting in the marshes wall painting, among other relics Britain has, returned to them. Also, Greece is trying to get the stone carvings from the Parthenon back. These two countries want these relics back because they symbolize an important, historical part of their culture. Britain’s denial to return these items cannot be helping with their relationships with these two governments. As for now though, they are all getting along.

Some information taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum

London Central Mosque

On January 28, 2009 we visited the Central Mosque in London. Our tour guide’s name was Omar. He gave us a very interesting and informative tour.
The mosque itself was beautiful. The outside was decorated with gold. Inside it had lovely carpets in the actual worshipping area. The ceiling in was painted spectacularly. In the middle of the ceiling there was a grand chandelier. The room was large and beautiful.
While we were in the actual area for worshipping it was time for one of their five daily prayers. We were able to watch the men perform their prayer ritual. We were unable to see the women though because they are up in a balcony. This is a mandatory part of the Muslim religion, the separation of men and women during prayer within the mosque.
Before entering the mosque women are required to put on a headscarf. Omar explained that this is a ritual, but it is not meant to make women any lesser than men. He said it was actually a form of respect. It is not required of women to wear these headscarves in their everyday life, but many do because they believe it makes them more respectable. In France though girls are not allowed to wear headscarves to public schools because it is a religious symbol and all religious symbols have been banned from public schools.
Omar also discussed the issue of racism against the Muslim people. He explained that there definitely is racism today in Britain, but it has improved since the Tube bombings. London is better than many European cities for Muslims though because there is so much diversity here. He told us a story about a particular experience he had while riding the Tube. Omar got on the Tube dressed in his traditional Muslim attire and at the same time a woman also boarded. She started looking at him suspiciously, starting from his feet up. When she got to his face he had a huge, friendly smile plastered on his face. She awkwardly smiled back. Omar explained when in a situation as this he usually ignores the racism and acts friendly and kind in order to change that person’s view of his people.