Sometimes people forget that Australia isn't only a country, but it's on its own continent and that by itself is pretty interesting. The entire country covers an area that spans just under 3 million square miles with over 23 million residents! Given its size and population, you can bet the transportation system is complex and intricate because there's so much land to cover and so many people who need to use it. While there is hundreds of thousands of miles of paved and unpaved roadways, Australia has over 25,000 miles of railway track throughout the country. And with a massive amount of land on the continent, the Australian rail network has plenty of room for expansion.
Increased Usage
Rail networks all over the world are experiencing a big rise in ridership and usage, which goes the same for Australia. Whether it's taking the local subway around town or jumping on a regional train line to ride hundreds, if not thousands of miles, across the country, the people of Australia are taking advantage of this efficient transportation method. And according to a recent article in The Sydney Moring Herald, the city of Zetland (just a few miles south of Sydney), is experiencing such a high demand for rail transportation that the local government and state officials are hitting max ridership capacity and must grow the rail network in that area. But this is just one of many examples where Australians are packing onto trains!
How Can They Improve The Rail Network?
While state officials wish they could just snap their fingers and instantly improve the transportation system, they cannot; which means they must find a suitable strategy to fulfill the needs of their citizens. This is where they meet with engineers and outside firms who can deliver rail infrastructure solutions that'll accommodate the needs of their train network. Whether that consists of laying down new tracks or producing additional passenger trains or a combination or both, the upgrades could meet the rising passenger demands.
When it comes to choosing the right company to deliver on the transportation services, local and government officials should select the ones with previous experience and a proven track record of successful projects. This can be very beneficial in terms of a timely completion because the demand of ridership will only increase as time progresses.
To immediately alleviate some of the current strains on the rail network, the governing officials should first increase the number of passenger trains on all lines to increase the capacity and to shorten ride times. With more trains transporting passengers on current routes, it'll create the needed buffer time to implement new routes and tracks for the country. Since there is a surplus of area where tracks can be installed, the track implementation will probably be the most time consuming improvement initiative. However, the rail infrastructure project will benefit the country now and in the future!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9135099
Thursday 25 February 2016
Importance of Tech News
We are living in a technology driven society. In this society, we should keep us updated with the latest technological inventions. We must try our best to get the latest tools, gadgets and software to execute multiple tasks with our least possible efforts. To make us aware of these tools, gadgets and software, many dedicated news portals, blogs, websites, magazine, tabloids, journals, and newspapers have appeared to the scene. They take important roles in the dissemination of latest information about technology.
There are a significant number of websites and blogs offering us latest tech news. We get to know about the latest gadgets, software and apps along with the right platforms to run them. Now we can travel faster and reach our desired destinations within a very short span of time. Doctors can get information about the latest machines and tools. They can use these to cure their patients. Alongside, they can give end-to-end solutions to some diseases that were incurable for last few decades. Besides, they let us know about the newly invented computer languages, new application software and latest database management systems. With the aid of these, businesses can execute a number of business activities that help them in better business management. They can perform well in their core competencies and create steady bottom lines for their companies.
Based on their information, we take some important decisions to make our life more comfortable and hospitable. We get to know about the probable risks and recent malware attacks that can help us in happy and safe internet browsing.
Significant benefits of tech news
Help us grow well
Tech news makes us aware of the latest inventions and technological advancements. We use them in our personal lives and business purposes. Many news items help us make our life more comfortable- as we start using these technologies in our own purposes. Sometimes, dedicated tech media bring out news on business management software and database management system. These help businesses perform well in their core competencies. As the consequence of these, they can grow well to become a globally recognized company or business entity.
Help us stay safe and happy
As these media include updated information about hacking, malicious attacks and dangerous "call to action points", we become aware of these. It helps us in safe browsing and secured transaction.
Save money and time
As we are informed about the latest technological trends, we can make some changes in our operation and production process. Using latest tools and methodologies, we can cut down our production costs and execute a number of activities quickly and easily. This helps us save our time and money.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9135417
There are a significant number of websites and blogs offering us latest tech news. We get to know about the latest gadgets, software and apps along with the right platforms to run them. Now we can travel faster and reach our desired destinations within a very short span of time. Doctors can get information about the latest machines and tools. They can use these to cure their patients. Alongside, they can give end-to-end solutions to some diseases that were incurable for last few decades. Besides, they let us know about the newly invented computer languages, new application software and latest database management systems. With the aid of these, businesses can execute a number of business activities that help them in better business management. They can perform well in their core competencies and create steady bottom lines for their companies.
Based on their information, we take some important decisions to make our life more comfortable and hospitable. We get to know about the probable risks and recent malware attacks that can help us in happy and safe internet browsing.
Significant benefits of tech news
Help us grow well
Tech news makes us aware of the latest inventions and technological advancements. We use them in our personal lives and business purposes. Many news items help us make our life more comfortable- as we start using these technologies in our own purposes. Sometimes, dedicated tech media bring out news on business management software and database management system. These help businesses perform well in their core competencies. As the consequence of these, they can grow well to become a globally recognized company or business entity.
Help us stay safe and happy
As these media include updated information about hacking, malicious attacks and dangerous "call to action points", we become aware of these. It helps us in safe browsing and secured transaction.
Save money and time
As we are informed about the latest technological trends, we can make some changes in our operation and production process. Using latest tools and methodologies, we can cut down our production costs and execute a number of activities quickly and easily. This helps us save our time and money.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9135417
The Various Advantages of Reading News From a Leading News Website
If you wish to learn about the latest news on sports, business, entertainment and other relevant topics, it is advisable that you should read them from news websites. Previously, people had to wait for a whole day before they got the chance to buy traditional newspapers to enhance their own knowledge and understanding. But if you have decided to read the latest ones from this type of website, there is possibility that you will be able to read them within a few minutes of the occurrence of the actual incidence. This article will highlight on a few essential features that are available for the users who want to read about the latest ones from them.
When you want to know about the updated situation of your country, it is advisable that you should click a few buttons on the computer and you should be able to know about the latest ones as quickly as possible. If anything happens in odd hours of the night, there is possibility that it is also reported within a short span of time. However, a traditional newspaper follows a limited time period within which any such thing would be published in the best possible way. Since the traditional one only publishes thing that occurs during midnight, anything that occurs afterwards should be reported in the next publication.
If you prefer to learn about the latest one from this type of website, there is possibility that you should be able to save both your time and also your money. When you read it from this type of website, there is possibility that you do not have to buy a traditional newspaper at any point of time. Plus, you will be able to support the cause of protection of your environment because you will be able to read your favorite one just with a few clicks of your mouse and there will be no involvement of paper, print or other materials like the traditional one.
It is important to remember that this type of website presents it in such a way so that it caters to the requirements of the users in the best possible way. If there is any sort of availability of your favorite news then you will be able to get alert from it as quickly as possible. Plus, you can watch the relevant videos and you can also listen to special reports of experts in the best possible way.
If you want to get additional information about the one that is currently published on this type of website, it is advisable that you should click on to the relevant links that are available on it. You will also get the opportunity to search your favorite one on the basis of category in the best possible way. For example, if you love to read about movies, it is vital that you should go to the category of movies in this type of website so that you should find out your favorite one as quickly as possible.
Chimp Reports is dedicated in reporting news in Uganda on different topics such as politics, sports, business etc. For exclusive Uganda online news you should browse this website as quickly as possible.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9140839
When you want to know about the updated situation of your country, it is advisable that you should click a few buttons on the computer and you should be able to know about the latest ones as quickly as possible. If anything happens in odd hours of the night, there is possibility that it is also reported within a short span of time. However, a traditional newspaper follows a limited time period within which any such thing would be published in the best possible way. Since the traditional one only publishes thing that occurs during midnight, anything that occurs afterwards should be reported in the next publication.
If you prefer to learn about the latest one from this type of website, there is possibility that you should be able to save both your time and also your money. When you read it from this type of website, there is possibility that you do not have to buy a traditional newspaper at any point of time. Plus, you will be able to support the cause of protection of your environment because you will be able to read your favorite one just with a few clicks of your mouse and there will be no involvement of paper, print or other materials like the traditional one.
It is important to remember that this type of website presents it in such a way so that it caters to the requirements of the users in the best possible way. If there is any sort of availability of your favorite news then you will be able to get alert from it as quickly as possible. Plus, you can watch the relevant videos and you can also listen to special reports of experts in the best possible way.
If you want to get additional information about the one that is currently published on this type of website, it is advisable that you should click on to the relevant links that are available on it. You will also get the opportunity to search your favorite one on the basis of category in the best possible way. For example, if you love to read about movies, it is vital that you should go to the category of movies in this type of website so that you should find out your favorite one as quickly as possible.
Chimp Reports is dedicated in reporting news in Uganda on different topics such as politics, sports, business etc. For exclusive Uganda online news you should browse this website as quickly as possible.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9140839
A World Gone Mad
It's been proven time and again that we feel more compassion toward an individual than we do toward a group of people. But, now we're looking at a slightly different dynamic. Why are we feeling more compassionate toward a homeless man who plays the piano brilliantly than we are toward a 90-year-old man who has been arrested three times for feeding the homeless?
In both cases, the plight of the homeless is the center of the controversy. Yes, this particular homeless pianist has gone through hell and back but he is still homeless, although that's about to change with the gofundme campaign in this man's name with a monetary goal of $50,000 to buy him a home, a car, and tuition for the three classes he needs to complete his music theory degree.
I feel deeply compassionate for this man but not more so than I feel for the hundreds of hungry, homeless people who gather on a Fort Lauderdale beach every Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. to be fed by a 90-year-old man, who does not solicit donations from anyone, and whose only crime is trying to eliminate hunger in his community.
It's strange to see people rush to the aid of people who have been hit by a natural disaster, or those whose homes have burned down, or children who are sick and dying and would like one last thing before they die, and then see these same people making it a crime to feed the homeless or even to be homeless.
Some cities have gone so far as making it a crime for homeless people to sleep in their car or in the streets. One city even makes it a crime to smell bad on city property. And, yeah, homeless people might smell bad if they don't have access to showers and washing machines and the clothing on their back is the only clothing they own.
In many cities, it's illegal to sit or lie on sidewalks, to dig through trash cans, to feed the homeless without written permission, to sleep in public, to ask for help, not just for money, and some cities even have a hotline to report homeless people who ask for money on city property.
Where are these do-gooders who make speeches about eliminating poverty but then make it a crime to be impoverished? Where are the politicians who make impassioned speeches about helping the needy and then enact laws to penalize these same people for being needy?
This is definitely a world gone mad when we can punish our neighbors for sleeping in their cars because they don't have a home, but we can rush to the aid of people in other countries who are in the same circumstances.
Connie H. Deutsch is an internationally known business consultant and personal advisor who has a keen understanding of human nature and is a natural problem-solver.
Connie is the author of the books, "Round and Round Goes the Merry-Go-Round: Drugless Therapy for OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)"; "Whispers of the Soul," "A Slice of Life," "Whispers of the Soul for the Rest of Your Life," "From Where I'm Sitting," "Are You Listening?," "View from the Sidelines," "Reaching for the Brass Ring of Life," "Purple Days and Starry Nights," "Here and There," "And That's How it Goes," and "The Counseling Effect."
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9143539
In both cases, the plight of the homeless is the center of the controversy. Yes, this particular homeless pianist has gone through hell and back but he is still homeless, although that's about to change with the gofundme campaign in this man's name with a monetary goal of $50,000 to buy him a home, a car, and tuition for the three classes he needs to complete his music theory degree.
I feel deeply compassionate for this man but not more so than I feel for the hundreds of hungry, homeless people who gather on a Fort Lauderdale beach every Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. to be fed by a 90-year-old man, who does not solicit donations from anyone, and whose only crime is trying to eliminate hunger in his community.
It's strange to see people rush to the aid of people who have been hit by a natural disaster, or those whose homes have burned down, or children who are sick and dying and would like one last thing before they die, and then see these same people making it a crime to feed the homeless or even to be homeless.
Some cities have gone so far as making it a crime for homeless people to sleep in their car or in the streets. One city even makes it a crime to smell bad on city property. And, yeah, homeless people might smell bad if they don't have access to showers and washing machines and the clothing on their back is the only clothing they own.
In many cities, it's illegal to sit or lie on sidewalks, to dig through trash cans, to feed the homeless without written permission, to sleep in public, to ask for help, not just for money, and some cities even have a hotline to report homeless people who ask for money on city property.
Where are these do-gooders who make speeches about eliminating poverty but then make it a crime to be impoverished? Where are the politicians who make impassioned speeches about helping the needy and then enact laws to penalize these same people for being needy?
This is definitely a world gone mad when we can punish our neighbors for sleeping in their cars because they don't have a home, but we can rush to the aid of people in other countries who are in the same circumstances.
Connie H. Deutsch is an internationally known business consultant and personal advisor who has a keen understanding of human nature and is a natural problem-solver.
Connie is the author of the books, "Round and Round Goes the Merry-Go-Round: Drugless Therapy for OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)"; "Whispers of the Soul," "A Slice of Life," "Whispers of the Soul for the Rest of Your Life," "From Where I'm Sitting," "Are You Listening?," "View from the Sidelines," "Reaching for the Brass Ring of Life," "Purple Days and Starry Nights," "Here and There," "And That's How it Goes," and "The Counseling Effect."
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9143539
The Many Benefits of Digital Magazines
With the introduction of the internet and computer technology, many things have become online. Magazines and Newspapers are not an exception to this trend. Many established newspaper and magazine houses have started their online versions.
There are a number of online magazines disseminating news, soft news, and feature stories online. They help us know about current affairs and many important things quickly and easily. This is probably the main reason of its huge popularity. With our least possible efforts, we can get access to various news items without leaving the cozy comfort zone of our dream home. As the consequence of it, digital magazines are gradually replacing hard-copy magazines.
Given below are the many benefits of a digital magazine:
Global audience reach
This is the significant benefit of digital publishing. It has the capability of reaching global audience. News reaches to various people, crossing the interface of the publishing country. Many people across the globe get to know about the magazine and become regular audience of it. It is so powerful that it can attract people and keep them arrested there until they become loyal readers.
Instant access
It you take a subscription offer, you will get an email with the login details. This email will allow you to receive regular updates. You can download issues regularly. As soon as each issue comes, you get instant access of it. There are some online magazines offering you many issues for free of cost.
Allows you to deliver and share information across multiple platforms and devices
Most significantly, you can share information and sensational news with your friends and families across multiple platforms and devices. You can exchange and share your feelings about news with your friends.
Cheaper Price
Digital magazines are cheaper than printed magazines, as the publishers of digital magazines do not need to spend money for printing and delivering these.
Faster Publishing and Distribution Guarantee
Publishers can publish their stories within a minute. Audiences get to know about these stories as soon as they are published on online. Subscribers get email alerts about the latest news.
Eliminates the risk of loss
Digital publishing eliminates the risk of loss. As the publishers do not need to take the risk of losing money for the unsold copies, they are highly interested in digital magazines. Side by side, it can lower production costs.
Besides, readers can download stories multiple times and store them for reading in future. From the above discussion, we can say that both publishers and readers are highly benefited from online magazines. This is why now people are choosing digital magazines over hard-copy magazines.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9138925
There are a number of online magazines disseminating news, soft news, and feature stories online. They help us know about current affairs and many important things quickly and easily. This is probably the main reason of its huge popularity. With our least possible efforts, we can get access to various news items without leaving the cozy comfort zone of our dream home. As the consequence of it, digital magazines are gradually replacing hard-copy magazines.
Given below are the many benefits of a digital magazine:
Global audience reach
This is the significant benefit of digital publishing. It has the capability of reaching global audience. News reaches to various people, crossing the interface of the publishing country. Many people across the globe get to know about the magazine and become regular audience of it. It is so powerful that it can attract people and keep them arrested there until they become loyal readers.
Instant access
It you take a subscription offer, you will get an email with the login details. This email will allow you to receive regular updates. You can download issues regularly. As soon as each issue comes, you get instant access of it. There are some online magazines offering you many issues for free of cost.
Allows you to deliver and share information across multiple platforms and devices
Most significantly, you can share information and sensational news with your friends and families across multiple platforms and devices. You can exchange and share your feelings about news with your friends.
Cheaper Price
Digital magazines are cheaper than printed magazines, as the publishers of digital magazines do not need to spend money for printing and delivering these.
Faster Publishing and Distribution Guarantee
Publishers can publish their stories within a minute. Audiences get to know about these stories as soon as they are published on online. Subscribers get email alerts about the latest news.
Eliminates the risk of loss
Digital publishing eliminates the risk of loss. As the publishers do not need to take the risk of losing money for the unsold copies, they are highly interested in digital magazines. Side by side, it can lower production costs.
Besides, readers can download stories multiple times and store them for reading in future. From the above discussion, we can say that both publishers and readers are highly benefited from online magazines. This is why now people are choosing digital magazines over hard-copy magazines.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9138925
A Publishing Company Without People?
In a popular seaside resort on the south coast of England, a small publisher thrived for a number of years. Priding itself on the high quality of its work, the company won the confidence of authors who came back with second and third books, assured in the knowledge that each manuscript would be carefully proof-read and edited, an attractive cover designed and a volume produced to the highest standard. Authors were invited to call at the office to discuss marketing promotion and together with frequent correspondence over a number of years, personal relationships were established. Then suddenly without warning, all came to an end.
Authors received a long letter from another publisher, based in the east midlands, saying that the small company had been taken over and would continue to operate with the same name but at the east midlands location. It was claimed that economies of scale, integration of operations, etc. would yield higher efficiency. No mention was made about people, and it was hard to imagine that staff resident on the south coast would want to move to an industrial city far to the north. In answer to a direct question, the CEO of the predatory publisher confirmed that none of the old staff was being retained. How could it be the same company if all the people were different?
To most people a company is a group of people in an organisation with a common purpose. A company of soldiers, for example, is one of the army's smaller basic units of about one hundred and twenty men or women. Synonyms that have been suggested for company are companionship, fellowship and society, all words that are connected with people living or working together with a collective interest or purpose. However, another dictionary definition of company is 'an institution created to conduct business.' It came as a shock to be presented with the fact that a company can be just a registered name, a disembodied legal title.
The predator had acquired the company name, its bank account and all the contracts with its authors. It had secured all the legal papers and so had a legal right to enforce all the existing contracts. Yet one felt that in a moral sense the contracts had been broken. The people one had signed up to work with were no more, and one was given no choice to accept or reject the replacements. Books at an advanced stage of production were abruptly thrust into the hands of new people and the trust and goodwill built up over several years was lost. People: authors and staff, old and new, were of no account in a takeover war where a company was merely an institution created to conduct business.
John Powell
John Powell weaves a tale of tension and intrigue into the lives and loves of the Mainu family and their friends, against the rich social, cultural, economic and political background of the first four decades of Ghana's independence, in his two novels: The Colonial Gentleman's Son and Return to the Garden City.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9148102
Authors received a long letter from another publisher, based in the east midlands, saying that the small company had been taken over and would continue to operate with the same name but at the east midlands location. It was claimed that economies of scale, integration of operations, etc. would yield higher efficiency. No mention was made about people, and it was hard to imagine that staff resident on the south coast would want to move to an industrial city far to the north. In answer to a direct question, the CEO of the predatory publisher confirmed that none of the old staff was being retained. How could it be the same company if all the people were different?
To most people a company is a group of people in an organisation with a common purpose. A company of soldiers, for example, is one of the army's smaller basic units of about one hundred and twenty men or women. Synonyms that have been suggested for company are companionship, fellowship and society, all words that are connected with people living or working together with a collective interest or purpose. However, another dictionary definition of company is 'an institution created to conduct business.' It came as a shock to be presented with the fact that a company can be just a registered name, a disembodied legal title.
The predator had acquired the company name, its bank account and all the contracts with its authors. It had secured all the legal papers and so had a legal right to enforce all the existing contracts. Yet one felt that in a moral sense the contracts had been broken. The people one had signed up to work with were no more, and one was given no choice to accept or reject the replacements. Books at an advanced stage of production were abruptly thrust into the hands of new people and the trust and goodwill built up over several years was lost. People: authors and staff, old and new, were of no account in a takeover war where a company was merely an institution created to conduct business.
John Powell
John Powell weaves a tale of tension and intrigue into the lives and loves of the Mainu family and their friends, against the rich social, cultural, economic and political background of the first four decades of Ghana's independence, in his two novels: The Colonial Gentleman's Son and Return to the Garden City.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9148102
Slavery Required Slave Owners
Since the end of World War II, several generations of Germans have confronted the knowledge that their ancestors were members or supporters of the Nazi Party, and that in some cases they were direct participants in some of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century.
To their credit, many Germans have dealt with this sorry legacy head-on, with some inevitable shame but also with a commitment to acknowledge and atone for the past, and to make amends where possible. But when another 50 or 100 years have passed, will Germans prefer to airbrush their history rather than acknowledge it?
Judging from our own experience with the aftermath of slavery in America, it could happen.
Because America had slaves, it had to have slave owners. If your ancestors were present in this country before the Civil War (particularly, but not exclusively, in the South), there is a good chance they had some experience with what was once called the "peculiar institution," on one side or the other. Or possibly with both, as descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings discovered, and as doubtless happened in many cases that left no concrete evidence for genealogists to discover.
It is an awkward truth, but not the fault of anyone who is alive today. Yet while some Americans accept this unpleasant history, others prefer to bury it along with its participants, apparently in the misguided belief that it somehow reflects on their public image. This strategy is not only misguided; it can spectacularly backfire, as Ben Affleck learned earlier this year.
Affleck appeared on the second season of the PBS program "Finding Your Roots," which explores the ancestries of various celebrities. When he volunteered, he had hoped to find "the roots of his family's interest in social justice." (1) But when the program uncovered an ancestor who owned slaves, he found himself embarrassed and asked that the show omit that ancestor. (While the particular nuance of Affleck's ancestor's position has been subsequently debated, documents demonstrate that he was certainly intimately involved with the system of slavery.)
While exactly what happened next is still the matter of some dispute, the episode that aired in October did not include the ancestor to whom Affleck objected. However, the Sony hack led to WikiLeaks subsequently publishing an exchange revealing debate as to how to field Affleck's request. The program's host, Harvard historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., said when the emails first emerged that the ancestor in question was not cut at Affleck's request, but simply because the actor's other ancestors offered more interesting stories. Gates later issued a statement saying he regretted not informing PBS about his conversations with Affleck; in his leaked emails to Michael Lynton, the chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Gates expressed concern that cutting the part of the interview in question would "compromise our integrity." (2)
For its part, PBS took the matter seriously, conducting a thorough investigation of the incident privately and requiring the program to hire a fact checker and an independent genealogist going forward. While the network recently announced that "Finding Your Roots" will return for a third season, the program's future remains in doubt. PBS has also withdrawn the episode in which Affleck appears from distribution.
Affleck released a statement on his Facebook page that, while not quite an apology, was at least apologetic in tone. He said that finding a slave-owning ancestor left him "embarrassed" and with "a bad taste in [his] mouth." (2) It's understandable that Affleck was left a bit queasy at such a stark reminder of his connection to a dark part of American history. But the irony is that, by attempting to excise this connection, he drew more attention to it.
Affleck would not have been the first participant in "Finding Your Roots" to discover a slaveholding relative. Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker who created "The Civil War," discovered such an ancestor, as did former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and CNN's Anderson Cooper. On the same episode in which Affleck appeared, former NAACP chief Ben Jealous discovered his ancestor - a free black man - had himself owned slaves.
Digging into American history will, by its nature, sometimes unearth ugliness. Consider the reaction of actor Bill Paxton, who appeared on "Who Do You Think You Are," a similar genealogy program that airs on TLC. When Paxton learned that his ancestor Benjamin Sharp was not only a Revolutionary War hero but also a slave owner, he expressed disappointment, but remarked that history includes both the good and the bad. Embracing an ugly past is painful, but the alternative is dangerous.
The world of the past helped make the world of our present, for good and for ill. Our history lives today in our country's Constitution and its diversity, as well as in the poverty and deprivation of many Indian reservations and in the ongoing legacy of racism, especially against black Americans. We can't change the past. We can learn from it, but to do so, we must first acknowledge what it was.
Sources:
1) The Washington Post, "After omitting details of Ben Affleck's slave-owning ancestor, 'Finding Your Roots' is suspended by PBS"
2) NPR, "Ben Affleck (Kinda) Apologizes For Asking PBS Program To Hide Slave-Owning Ancestor"
For more articles, please visit the Palisades Hudson Financial Group LLC newsletter or subscribe to the blog.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9149296
To their credit, many Germans have dealt with this sorry legacy head-on, with some inevitable shame but also with a commitment to acknowledge and atone for the past, and to make amends where possible. But when another 50 or 100 years have passed, will Germans prefer to airbrush their history rather than acknowledge it?
Judging from our own experience with the aftermath of slavery in America, it could happen.
Because America had slaves, it had to have slave owners. If your ancestors were present in this country before the Civil War (particularly, but not exclusively, in the South), there is a good chance they had some experience with what was once called the "peculiar institution," on one side or the other. Or possibly with both, as descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings discovered, and as doubtless happened in many cases that left no concrete evidence for genealogists to discover.
It is an awkward truth, but not the fault of anyone who is alive today. Yet while some Americans accept this unpleasant history, others prefer to bury it along with its participants, apparently in the misguided belief that it somehow reflects on their public image. This strategy is not only misguided; it can spectacularly backfire, as Ben Affleck learned earlier this year.
Affleck appeared on the second season of the PBS program "Finding Your Roots," which explores the ancestries of various celebrities. When he volunteered, he had hoped to find "the roots of his family's interest in social justice." (1) But when the program uncovered an ancestor who owned slaves, he found himself embarrassed and asked that the show omit that ancestor. (While the particular nuance of Affleck's ancestor's position has been subsequently debated, documents demonstrate that he was certainly intimately involved with the system of slavery.)
While exactly what happened next is still the matter of some dispute, the episode that aired in October did not include the ancestor to whom Affleck objected. However, the Sony hack led to WikiLeaks subsequently publishing an exchange revealing debate as to how to field Affleck's request. The program's host, Harvard historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., said when the emails first emerged that the ancestor in question was not cut at Affleck's request, but simply because the actor's other ancestors offered more interesting stories. Gates later issued a statement saying he regretted not informing PBS about his conversations with Affleck; in his leaked emails to Michael Lynton, the chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Gates expressed concern that cutting the part of the interview in question would "compromise our integrity." (2)
For its part, PBS took the matter seriously, conducting a thorough investigation of the incident privately and requiring the program to hire a fact checker and an independent genealogist going forward. While the network recently announced that "Finding Your Roots" will return for a third season, the program's future remains in doubt. PBS has also withdrawn the episode in which Affleck appears from distribution.
Affleck released a statement on his Facebook page that, while not quite an apology, was at least apologetic in tone. He said that finding a slave-owning ancestor left him "embarrassed" and with "a bad taste in [his] mouth." (2) It's understandable that Affleck was left a bit queasy at such a stark reminder of his connection to a dark part of American history. But the irony is that, by attempting to excise this connection, he drew more attention to it.
Affleck would not have been the first participant in "Finding Your Roots" to discover a slaveholding relative. Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker who created "The Civil War," discovered such an ancestor, as did former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and CNN's Anderson Cooper. On the same episode in which Affleck appeared, former NAACP chief Ben Jealous discovered his ancestor - a free black man - had himself owned slaves.
Digging into American history will, by its nature, sometimes unearth ugliness. Consider the reaction of actor Bill Paxton, who appeared on "Who Do You Think You Are," a similar genealogy program that airs on TLC. When Paxton learned that his ancestor Benjamin Sharp was not only a Revolutionary War hero but also a slave owner, he expressed disappointment, but remarked that history includes both the good and the bad. Embracing an ugly past is painful, but the alternative is dangerous.
The world of the past helped make the world of our present, for good and for ill. Our history lives today in our country's Constitution and its diversity, as well as in the poverty and deprivation of many Indian reservations and in the ongoing legacy of racism, especially against black Americans. We can't change the past. We can learn from it, but to do so, we must first acknowledge what it was.
Sources:
1) The Washington Post, "After omitting details of Ben Affleck's slave-owning ancestor, 'Finding Your Roots' is suspended by PBS"
2) NPR, "Ben Affleck (Kinda) Apologizes For Asking PBS Program To Hide Slave-Owning Ancestor"
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