TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is set in the 1930s in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama.  It is set in a time when racial discrimination was extremely prevalent in the United States.  The story is about courage and innocence as a lawyer named Atticus Finch fights in court to save a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white girl.

            The story is told by Atticus’ daughter Scout as she looks back on her childhood.  Thus it is told through the eyes of a child.  Scout (Jean Louis) lives with her elder brother Jem and their father Atticus who has had to raise them himself with the help of their African-American housekeeper, Calphurnia.  She tells us the story that covers three years of her childhood.  We see the children grow from innocence to understanding as the novel progresses.

            The main plot highlights Atticus’ fight against racism as he defends Tom Robinson who is unjustly accused of raping Mayella Ewell.  A rigid social structure exists in Maycomb and African-Americans are at the very bottom of it.  They are segregated from the white people and we see this when Aunt Alexandra does not allow Scout to visit Calphurnia’s home.  The town’s racist attitude comes from blind prejudice.  The children had a superstitious fear of Boo Radley which did not come from any logical cause.  In fact he watched over them and when “Boo’s children needed him,” he came to save them.  Similarly, the town and the jury hold Tom guilty without any logical reason even though he helped Mayella out of kindness.

            As Atticus fights for justice, he also tries to teach his children the true meaning of courage.  Their childish concept of courage is touching the wall of the Radley Place because “in all his life, Jem had never declined a dare.”  Then they see their father kill a mad dog with a single shot.  However Atticus tells his children that real courage is more than a man with a gun.  He gives them the example of Mrs. Dubose who fought her morphine addiction.  Atticus says real courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”  Thus when Atticus is facing a mob outside the jail house, Jem holds his ground and refuses to go home.  The children learn not to fight back when they are taunted about their father’s decision to defend Tom.

            By promising Atticus that they will not respond to taunts, the children also learn to understand people.  Their father tells them, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”  He teaches them to accept good and evil and to understand that they both may co-exist, even in the same person.

            As the children grow from innocence to understanding, Tom’s innocence is destroyed as he is killed.  Miss Maudie explains that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird as mockingbirds do no harm and only make sweet music.  Similarly, the jury and all of Maycomb committed the sin of sentencing Tom to death when all he did was help a girl whom he pitied.  Boo then saves the children from the revengeful Bob Ewell.  After having witnessed Tom’s trial, Scout is mature enough to understand that exposing a shy man like Boo to the public would be “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.”  She finally sees Boo as a man, not a monster and learns to look at the world through his eyes.  At the end of the novel she realizes the truth of what Atticus tells her, that most people are really nice when you finally see them.

THE ONE RING - J.R.R. Tolkien

Three Rings for the Elven Kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for the Mortal men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the land of Mordor where there shadows lie.

One ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

Outside My Window

Sometimes I sit and think and sometimes I just sit.

Outside My Window...

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add colour to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore

FACTS I FOUND

Here's a bunch of facts I found on some playing cards. I don't know the source they came from but logically, they seem pretty reasonable.

• 20% of the population in the developed nations consume 86% of the world's goods.
• Russia has twice as many chess Gandmasters as its nearest competitor, Germany.
• Canadians drink more fruit juice than the citizens of any other nation.
• In Germany and Italy, every second person owns a car.
• In many countries, more than 25% of the deaths are attributable to cancer.
• Canada lays claim to more water than any other nation.
• Red is the most popular colour used on national flags, and is found on 74% of all the flags of the world.
• Russia has over 25% of the world's proven gas reserves.
• 9 out of 10 Scandinavians would fight for their country.
• Over 35% of young people in Poland are unemployed.
• The total area of Australia's coral reefs is greater than the total area of some 130 individual countries.
• More than a third of the world's airports are in the United States of America.
• THe UK and USA are both in the top ten for Gross Domestic Product - and for child poverty.
• The average person in UK drinks as much tea as 23 Italians.
• Venezuela is the happiest and one of the most murderous places in the world.
• 32.6% of the world's roller coasters are located in the USA.
• Indonesia contains the most known mammal species - and them most mammal species under threat.
• People in Germany, Belgium, Hungary and Sweden have to pay almost half their salaries in tax.
• The women of Iceland earn two-thirds of their nation's university degrees.
• France is the top destination in the world for tourists, accounting for 11% of all tourist arrivals worldwide.
• As many as 90% of infants who lose their mothers in delivery will die by their first birthday.
• The 5 countries with the highest coffee consumption are the ones whose citizens trust one another the most.
• In Kenya, 9 out of 10 children from poor households fail to complete their basic education.
• 82% of Americans feel safe walking in the dark. Yet more crimes happen in America than anywhere else.
• Humans have destroyed more than 30% of the natural world since 1970.
• If someone you know died from falling out of a tree, you're probably Brazilian.
• Women make up more than 10% of the prison population in only 6 countries.
• From a scale of 1 to 10, Swiss are giving their satisfaction of life and awesome 8.
• 62% of Bulgarians describe themselves as either "not very" or "not at all" happy.
• Without prevention efforts, 35% of children born to an HIV positive mother will become infected with HIV.
• Danish workers strike 150 times more than their German neighbours.
• Considering teaching as a profession? Salaries in Switzerland start at $33,000 per annum.
• Love cities? Guadeloupe, Nauru, Monaco, Singapore, Gibralter and Bermuda are 100% urbanized.
• Andorra has zero unemployment, and zero broadcast TV channels. Coincidence?
• Sick of crowds? Move to Greenland! Greenlanders have 38 square kilometres of land per person.
• Luxembourgers are the world's richest people - and the most generous.
• The United States has the world's highest marriage rate - as well as the world's highest divorce rate.
• Mexican women spend 15.3% of their life in ill health.
• It is estimated that 80% of the reported global shark catch is caught by only 20 countries.
• Almost half (44.8%) of the total number of movie goers worldwide, are from India.
• The Mall in Washington DC is 1.4 times larger than the Vatican City.
• Australians are the most likely to join charities, educational organisations, sports groups and unions.
• Sri Lanka has the lowest divorce rate in the world and the highest rate of female suicide.
• 1 out of 100 young women between the ten and twenty are starving themselves, sometimes to death.
• 61.5% of Swedes work more than 40 hours per week.
• The United States spends more money on its military than the next twelve nations combined.
• More than 90% of the tiger population disappeared in the 20th century: today apporximately 5000 remain.
• United States, followed by Mexico top the world in plastic surgery procedures.

MY GODPUPPIES

They're growing up so fast!

PUPPIES FOR ADOPTION

Vivek's dog Juno gave birth to these puppies on 6th October 2010. We're desperately looking for homes for them so if you happen to read this and know anyone who will give them a good home, please let me know. They are mutts and so you'll find they don't fall sick often and are extremely intelligent. All 4 are male.