Chagoury Group is a Nigerian multinational business conglomerate headquartered in Lagos, Lagos State. Founded in 1971 by Gilbert R. Chagoury and Ronald Chagoury, their businesses include construction and property development, flour mills, water bottling and purification, glass manufacturing, insurance, hotels, furniture manufacturing, telecommunications, transportation, IT, catering and international financing.

Real estate development
Projects include the Eko Atlantic City, located next to Victoria Island in Lagos State. The project will be built on reclaimed land that has been lost to coastal erosion.

Industrial division
The Grands Moulins du Bénin Flour Mill began production in 1972 and now produces 250 metric tons of wheat flour per day, with wheat imported from France and the US.

Projects include: Port Harcourt Flour Mills; Ideal Flour Mills; Nigerial Eagle Flour Mills; Niger Delta Flour Mills; Tin Can Island; Ragolis Waters; Glassforce; Pirotech; Silhouette Furniture.

Construction division
C & C Construction Company Limited was the first company within the construction division of the Chagoury Group of companies. Projects completed include: Ideal Flour Mills; Nigerian Eagle Flour Mills; Tin Can Island Grain Receiving Facility and associated Storage Silos; The State Security Headquarters Building in Abuja, Nigeria; A housing, school and leisure complex for Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited; a foreshore development project in Osborne Road, Ikoyi. Current projects include: Ocean Parade Towers, a luxury residential development on Banana Island in Lagos Lagoon; The Nigerian Defence Academy.

ITB Construction is a civil engineering and construction company headquartered in Lagos and has a regional facility in Abuja. The company focuses on the construction of residential and industrial buildings. The company also manufactures pilings and provides electro-mechanical services and product, including generators. Completed projects include: The National Assembly Complex in Abuja; A residential development project of 13 floors on Victoria Island; and the design and construction of a staff housing complex of 800 units for client ALSCON's Aluminium Smelter Plant. Current projects include:  Intercontinental Hotel on Victoria Island (with 19 floors, this will be the tallest building on the island); a new HQ for Magnum Trust Bank of Nigeria; and the new headquarters and office complex for TOTAL oil company in Port Harcourt.

Hitech Construction was founded in 1988, the civil engineering company specializes in general infrastructure projects including road works, street lighting, railways, drainage systems, bridges, dams, earthworks, asphalt overlay, water supply, irrigation schemes, dredging, and marine installations. Hitech's clients include: the Aluminium Smelting Company of Nigeria; the Federal Ministry of Works; Abia State Government; Bayelsa State Government; Lagos State Government; and Nigerian Breweries PLC.

Completed projects include a sea wall along Bar Beach, in Eko Atlantic. This is the first project of its kind in Africa to use advanced 'x-blocs', enormous x-shaped concrete blocks designed to dissipate the energy of waves.

Fleetwood Transportation was established in 1989 and headquartered in Lagos, the company operates a fleet of trucks including grain carriers, flatbed, sided and tipper trucks. Fleetwood is a member of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO).

Healthcare division
Established in 1991, the Ideal Eagle Hospital is a small private medical facility in Lagos. Although mainly serving employees of the Chagoury Group, the hospital is also retained by a number of Nigerian-based multinational companies, including Royal Dutch Shell.

Hotels and catering
Properties include Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos; Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt; and Courdeau Catering.

References

External links

Conglomerate companies of Nigeria
Multinational companies based in Lagos
Construction and civil engineering companies of Nigeria
Real estate companies of Nigeria

Chagoury Group


Small Great Things (2016) is the twenty-fifth novel by American author Jodi Picoult. The book focuses on race in America and revolves around the protagonist, a delivery nurse, named Ruth Jefferson. Small Great Things is being adapted into a film starring Viola Davis and Julia Roberts. This is Picoult's first novel with an African American protagonist.

Synopsis
The story concentrates on an African-American labor/delivery (L&D) nurse, Ruth Jefferson, in charge of newborns at a fictional Connecticut hospital. Ruth is ordered not to touch or go near the baby of a white supremacist couple. After the baby dies in her care, Ruth is charged with murder, and taken to court.

Narrative style
The story is told from the complex multiple racial perspectives of the principal characters, including the nurse, Ruth, Turk Bauer, the white supremacist father of the baby, and Kennedy McQuarrie, Ruth's attorney. Picoult frequently employs an alternating multi-perspective narrative style in her novels, including My Sister's Keeper, Songs of the Humpback Whale, Sing You Home, Handle With Care, Change of Heart, House Rules, Lone Wolf, and The Storyteller.

Characters
Ruth Jefferson: A twenty-year employed nurse at Mercy-West Haven Hospital who is accused of murder when an infant dies in her care.
Edison: Ruth's son.
Adisa: Ruth's sister.
Turk Bauer: A white supremacist with swastika tattoos.
Brittany Bauer ("Brit"): Turk's wife.
Francis: Brit's father, who is a white supremacist.
Kennedy: Ruth's public defender.
Odette Lawton: The prosecutor for Ruth's case, an African-American woman.
Micah: Kennedy's husband.
Violet: Kennedy and Micah's daughter.
Wallace Mercy: A popular televangelist.

Minor characters
Sam Hallowell: The man for whose family Ruth's mother works as a domestic servant.
Rachel: Adisa's birth name, which she changes as a young adult to Adisa.
Ms. Mina: The woman for whose family Ruth's mother works as a domestic servant.
Christina: Ms. Mina's daughter. She is around Ruth's age and they are friends.
Corrine: A nurse who works alongside Ruth.
Lucille: A nurse who works alongside Ruth.
Carla: A legal consultant for the hospital where Ruth works.
Jack DeNardi: An office clerk ("paper pusher") at the hospital, from whom Kennedy "fishes" information.
Judge "Thunder" Turner: The judge who presides over Ruth's court trials.
Howard: Kennedy's assistant, helps to form a legal defense for the murder trial of Ruth.
Marie: Ruth's boss at Mercy-West Haven Hospital.
Adele: Brit's mother.
Rainn: The man who introduced Turk to white supremacy.

Critical reception
The novel received positive and mixed reviews. Eleanor Brown of The Washington Post wrote that, "'Small Great Things' is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written. Frank, uncomfortably introspective and right on the day's headlines, it will challenge her readers", although she felt that the book is "overly long, with a meandering middle, a tendency toward melodrama and a rushed ending that feels glib." Whereas, Roxane Gay, writing for the New York Times thought Turk, the white supremacist character, was well-written; though also found that the protagonist and African American character, Ruth, to be the least believable: "The more we see of Ruth and her family, the more their characterization feels like black-people bingo — as if Picoult is working through a checklist of issues in an attempt to say everything about race in one book." Gay found it a "flawed novel" but felt "generous" toward the book and gave her "a lot of credit for trying, and for supporting her attempt with rigorous research, good intentions and an awareness of her fallibility". Gay further wrote: "The novel is messy, but so is our racial climate."

References

External links
 Official site

Novels about racism
American novels adapted into films
2016 American novels
Novels by Jodi Picoult
Novels set in Connecticut
Medical ethics in fiction
Ballantine Books books

Small Great Things


Massive Dread (born Dennis James; c. 1960 – 1994) was a reggae deejay who first recorded in the late 1970s for Tapper Zukie and came to prominence in the early 1980s, touring with Byron Lee and The Dragonaires. Dread also worked on Peter Metro's Metromedia sound system.

Biography
He introduced the "bubbling" style of delivery, which was well received by audiences at events such as Reggae Sunsplash, and his album Strictly...Bubbling (on The Wailing Souls' The Up Front Organization label, and produced by Tommy Cowan's wife Velerie) capitalized on his popularity, including Jamaican chart-toppers such as "This Is Massive". Dread's links to The Wailing Souls saw him appear on a Tyne Tees Television documentary on reggae which was broadcast on The Tube, featuring Dread performing wearing his riding hat - the 'jockey-ride' being a popular dance at the time in the Jamaican dancehalls. A second album followed in 1984 with It's Massive, which provided the hits "Young Gal No Sell Your Body" and "Justice Love and Harmony". A further album, 2 Dread Inna Babylon, split with Ranking Dread, appeared in 2006, although it features Tapper Zukie productions from the later 1970s/early 1980s.

In November 1993 Massive Dread, among others, started working on the Trenchtown Reading Centre - a community project designed to improve literacy and learning for the children of Trenchtown. The reading centre was completed in December and Massive Dread entertained at the opening as a deejay and selector.

In 1994, Massive Dread was shot and killed. Geoffrey Alex Domenico alleged it was for publicly speaking out against the JLP political authorities.

Album discography
 Massive Dread (1979, His Majesty)
 2 Dread Inna Babylon (2006, Silver Kamel) (split with Ranking Dread)
 Strictly...Bubbling (1982, The Up Front Organization)
 It's Massive (1984, The Up Front Organization)

References

External links
 Massive Dread at Roots Archives
 TrenchTown Reading Centre

Jamaican reggae musicians
1960s births
1994 deaths
Musicians from Kingston, Jamaica

Massive Dread


In Hinduism, Adityas (, ), refers to the offspring of Aditi, the goddess representing the infinity. The name Aditya, in the singular, is taken to refer to the sun god Surya. Generally, Adityas are twelve in number and consists of Vivasvan, Aryaman, Tvashta, Savitr, Bhaga, Dhata, Mitra, Varuna, Amsa, Pushan, Indra and Vishnu (in the form of Vamana).

They appear in the Rig Veda, where there are 6–8 in number, all male. The number increases to 12 in the Brahmanas. The Mahabharata and the Puranas mention the sage Kashyapa  as their father. In each month of the year a different Aditya is said to shine.

Sun worship

Characterisation

The Aditya have been described in the Rig Veda as bright and pure as streams of water, free from all guile and falsehood, blameless, perfect.

This class of deities has been seen as upholding the movables and immovable Dharma.
Adityas are beneficent gods who act as protectors of all beings, who are provident and guard the world of spirits and protect the world. In the form of Mitra-Varuna, the Adityas are true to the eternal Law and act as the exactors of debt.

In present-day usage in Sanskrit, the term Aditya has been made singular in contrast to Vedic Adityas, and is being used synonymously with Surya, the Sun. The twelve Adityas are believed to represent the twelve months in the calendar and the twelve aspects of Sun. Since they are twelve in number, they are referred as DvadashAdityas.

The 12 Ādityás are basically the monthly suns, corresponding to the approximately 12 lunations in a solar year. These are also called the 12 purushas, pertaining to the 12 lunar months of the year. Here the months refer to the lunar months. In astronomy the lunar months with a solar sankranti are said to have an Aditya or purusha. The month without a sankranti is said to be neuter and an extra month or the intercalary lunar month.

Mentions in Hindu scriptures

The Ādityas are one of the principal deities of the Vedic classical Hinduism belonging to the solar class. In the Vedas, numerous hymns are dedicated to Mitra, Varuna, Savitr, etc.

In hymn 7.99 of the Rigveda, Indra-Vishnu produces the sun, his discus a vestige of his solar creation, equivalent to the sun. The Vishnu Purana identifies the Discus chakra with the following: 'thoughts, like the chakra, flow faster than even the mightiest wind.'

The Gayatri mantra, which is regarded as one of the most sacred of the Vedic hymns is dedicated to Savitr, one of the principal Ādityas. The Adityas are a group of solar deities, from the Brahmana period numbering twelve. The ritual of Surya Namaskaar, performed by Hindus, is an elaborate set of hand gestures and body movements, designed to greet and revere the Sun.

The sun god in Hinduism is an ancient and revered deity. In later Hindu usage, all the Vedic Ādityas lost identity and metamorphosed into one composite deity, Surya, the Sun. The attributes of all other Ādityas merged into that of Surya and the names of all other Ādityas became synonymous with, or epithets of, Surya.

The Ramayana has Rama as a direct descendant of the Surya, thus belonging to the Suryavamsha or the Solar dynasty. The Mahabharata describes one of its warrior heroes, Karna, as being the son of the Pandava mother Kunti and Surya.

The sun god is said to be married to the goddess Sanjnya. She is depicted in dual form, being both sunlight and shadow, personified. The goddess is revered in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The charioteer of Surya is Aruna, who is also personified as the redness that accompanies the sunlight in dawn and dusk. The sun god is driven by a seven-horsed Chariot depicting the seven days of the week and the seven colours of rainbow which are seen due to the dispersion by Surya's rays.

Surya Namaskaram

Surya Namaskaram, the Salute to the Sun or Sun Salutation, is worship of sun which is also included as a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve gracefully linked asanas. Similar exercises were in use in India, for example among wrestlers. The basic sequence involves moving from a standing position into Downward and Upward Dog poses and then back to the standing position, but many variations are possible. The set of 12 asanas is dedicated to the solar deity Surya. In some Indian traditions, the positions are each associated with a different mantra.

Sun worship festivals

Makar Sankranti is a festival dedicated to sun worship in India and by the Hindu diaspora.

Chhath (, also called Dala Chhath) is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity, unique to Bihar, Jharkhand and the Terai. This major festival is also celebrated in the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Chhattisgarh. Hymns to the Sun can be found in the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Practiced in different parts of India, the worship of the Sun has been described in the Rigveda. There is another festival called Sambha-Dasami, which is celebrated in the state of Odisha for the surya.

The sun is prayed to by South Indians during the harvest festival. In Tamil Nadu, the Tamil people worship the sun god during the Tamil month of Thai, after a year of crop farming. The month is known as the harvesting month and people pay respects to the sun on the first day of the Thai month known as Thai pongal, or Pongal, which is a four-day celebration. It is one of the few indigenous forms of worship by the Tamil people irrespective of religion.

Names of solar deities

Rigveda

In the Rigveda, the Adityas are seven or eight in number and include:

 Varuna
 Mitra
 Aryaman
 Daksha
 Bhaga
 Amsha
 Savitr or Surya
 Sometimes Martanda

Brahmanas

In the Satapatha Brahmana, the number of Adityas is eight in some passages, and in other texts of the same Brahmana, twelve Adityas are mentioned. The list of 12 Adityas is as follows:

 Yama
 Aryaman
 Indra
 Ravi

 Bhaga

 Sūrya or Arka

 Mitra

Upanishads

In the Chandogya Upanishad, Aditya is a name of  in his avatar as Vāmana. His mother is Aditi.

Vishnu Purana

The Adityas in the Vishnu Purana are:

 Vishnu
 Aryaman
 Śakra

 Dhūti
 Bhaga

 Vivasvat

 Mitra

Bhagavata Purana

In the Bhagavata Purana, the Adityas are associated with each month of the year, it is a different Aditya who shines as the Sun-God (Surya).

Linga Purana

According to the Linga Purana, the Adityas are:

 Brahma
 Vishnu
 Indra

 Dhata
 Bhaga

 Vivasvat
 Amshuman
 Mitra

Aditya as nakshatra devatas

Adityas are responsible for proper functioning of the universe and in Hindu cosmology they are given lordship over celestial constellations, called nakshatras in Jyotish. Nakshatras are forces of universal intelligence which are intertwined with the birth-death cycle of life, identity of all created beings, events and day to day consciousness in our lives. In India, at Konark, in the state of Odisha, a temple is dedicated to Surya. The Konark Sun Temple has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Surya is the most prominent of the navagrahas or nine celestial objects of the Hindus. Navagrahas can be found in almost all Hindu temples.

Adityas manage the Shakti of the nakshatras. Here are a few examples.

 Bhaga has lordship over Purva Phalguni nakshatra. Bhaga is bestower of fortune. Bhaga in Sanskrit means "a portion" so our portion in life is regulated by this divine celestial being. Many a times this is related to fortunate marriages, or fortune from marriage and partnerships. It is a very worldly nakshatra bestowing divine intelligence with respect to worldly gains in life. Beings born when Purva Phalguni is rising in the east are literal physical manifestation of this energy.
 Aryaman, the God of Patronage, is an Aditya who is the lord of Uttar Phalguni nakshatra and as suggested by the name, a person born under the auspices of Aryaman finds many lucky opportunities with benefactors in their lives, among many other qualities that are possessed by this divine being.
 Savitr, rules over Hasta Nakshatra and is the cheerful Aditya who manages worldly skills and artistry. Handiwork of all kinds, from needlework, pottery making to technical skills industry, sleight of hand pick pockets, magicians, and Reiki masters all are blessed by the divine intelligence and benevolence of this Aditya.
 Mitra, rules over Anuradha nakshatra they are the peacekeepers of this world.
 Varuna, rules over Shatbhishak nakshatra the nakshatra of 1000 healers and gives a person intelligence about all sorts of medicine. Varuna as its ruling Aditya is lord keeper of law, hence themes of crime and punishment, law and order fall under his rulership. Varuna in RigVeda is to be feared and not taken lightly.

This makes Vedic Adityas not some conceptual, abstract, or mythological characters in a story book, but part of the visible cosmology and the everyday realities of our daily lives. We manifest their qualities in our lives and as such are part of the divine ourselves.

See also

 Sun worship in Hinduism
 Aditi
 List of solar deities in Hinduism
 List of Surya temples
 Surya Namaskar

 Other related
 Ashvins
 Prajapati
 Rudras
 Vasus
 List of Hindu deities
 List of Hindu temples
 List of Hindu pilgrimage sites

Further reading

Notes

References

External links

Hindu deities
Hindu temples
Hindu pilgrimage sites

Solar gods
Rigvedic deities

Adityas


Eric Walters (4 July 1937 – 18 August 2010) was an Australian journalist, media trainer and former television presenter.  He was best known for his long-running stint as early morning anchor for the Nine Network, both on the Today and National Nine Early Morning News.

Career
Walters joined Channel 7 Perth in 1961, aged 24, as a reporter and presenter.  In the 1970s, Walters worked at TEN-10 Sydney as a newsreader on Eyewitness News. He joined the Nine Network in 1982 as newsreader and inaugural team member for its newly launched Today. He continued as national morning anchor with Nine until 1990 when he returned to Network Ten to again present its 6:00pm newscast in Sydney.

Walters presented the Ten Evening News with Eric Walters (later to become Ten Eyewitness News with Eric Walters) from mid-1990 until April 1991, when Ten undertook a major overhaul of its news programming. During his time with Ten, Walters anchored national, all-evening coverage of the War in the Gulf. Walters was also launch presenter for the Ten Evening News Second Edition (the original name for the Ten Late News) in January 1991.

Following his time at Ten, another commercial network beckoned and, in 1992, Walters joined Seven as a reporter for its new current affairs program Real Life with Stan Grant.

He continued to work as a media trainer and public speaker, and was a guest on the 25th Anniversary Edition of Today.

References
Media Training Australia - Eric Walters Enterprises
Pacific Media Watch: Nine

1937 births
2010 deaths
Australian television presenters
Australian journalists

Eric Walters (newsreader)


"Think of the children" (also "What about the children?") is a cliché that evolved into a rhetorical tactic. In the literal sense, it refers to children's rights (as in discussions of child labor). In debate, it is a plea for pity that is used as an appeal to emotion, and therefore may become a logical fallacy.

Art, Argument, and Advocacy (2002) argued that the appeal substitutes emotion for reason in debate. Ethicist Jack Marshall wrote in 2005 that the phrase's popularity stems from its capacity to stunt rationality, particularly discourse on morals. "Think of the children" has been invoked by censorship proponents to shield children from perceived danger. Community, Space and Online Censorship (2009) argued that classifying children in an infantile manner, as innocents in need of protection, is a form of obsession over the concept of purity. A 2011 article in the Journal for Cultural Research observed that the phrase grew out of a moral panic.

It was an exhortation in the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins, when the character of Mrs. Banks pleaded with her departing nanny not to quit and to "think of the children!" The phrase was popularized as a satiric reference on the animated television program The Simpsons in 1996, when character Helen Lovejoy pleaded variations of "Will someone please think of the children?" multiple times during a contentious debate by citizens of the fictional town of Springfield.

In the 2012 Georgia State University Law Review, Charles J. Ten Brink called Lovejoy's use of "Think of the children" a successful parody. The appeal's subsequent use in society was often the subject of mockery. After its popularization on The Simpsons, an appeal to the welfare of children has been called "Lovejoy's Law", the "Lovejoy argument", the "Mrs. Lovejoy fallacy", the "Helen Lovejoy defence", "Helen Lovejoy syndrome", the "Lovejoy Trap", and "think-of-the-children-ism".

Child advocacy

"Think of the children" has been used in its literal sense to advocate for the rights of children. Early usage during the 20th century included writings in 1914 by the National Child Labor Committee criticizing child labor standards in the United States. U.S. President Bill Clinton used the phrase in a 1999 speech to the International Labour Organization, asking his audience to imagine a significant reduction in child labor: "Think of the children ... freed of the crushing burden of dangerous and demeaning work, given back those irreplaceable hours of childhood for learning and playing and living."

The phrase's literal use extends into the 21st century, with Sara Boyce of the Children's Law Centre in Northern Ireland drawing on it to advocate for the legal rights of the region's children. The 2008 book Child Labour in a Globalized World used the phrase to call attention to the role of debt bondage in child labor. Sara Dillon of Suffolk University Law School used the phrase "What about the children" in her 2009 book, International Children's Rights, to focus on child-labor program conditions. Benjamin Powell used the phrase differently in his book, Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy, writing that in the absence of child labor some youth faced starvation. In a 2010 book on human rights, Children's Rights and Human Development, child psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry used the phrase "think of the children" to urge clinicians to incorporate a process sensitive to developmental stages when counseling youth.

Debate tactic

Logical fallacy
In their 2002 book, Art, Argument, and Advocacy: Mastering Parliamentary Debate, John Meany and Kate Shuster called the use of the phrase "Think of the children" in debate a type of logical fallacy and an appeal to emotion. According to the authors, a debater may use the phrase to emotionally sway members of the audience and avoid logical discussion. They provide an example: "I know this national missile defense plan has its detractors, but won't someone please think of the children?" Their assessment was echoed by Margie Borschke in an article for the journal Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, with Borschke calling its use a rhetorical tactic.

Ethicist Jack Marshall described "Think of the children!" as a tactic used in an attempt to end discussion by invoking an unanswerable argument. According to Marshall, the strategy succeeds in preventing rational debate. He called its use an unethical manner of obfuscating debate, misdirecting empathy towards an object which may not have been the focus of the original argument. Marshall wrote that although the phrase's use may have a positive intention, it evokes irrationality when repeatedly used by both sides of a debate. He concluded that the phrase can transform the observance of regulations into an ethical quandary, cautioning society to avoid using "Think of the children!" as a final argument.

In his 2015 syndicated article "Think Of The Children", Michael Reagan criticized the phrase's use by politicians. According to Reagan, politicians needed to stop using children as tools when arguing for favored governmental programs. He called the tactic an illogical argument, an act of desperation by those who felt they had a weaker case with reason-based arguments. Noting that it has been used by Democrats and Republicans alike in the United States, Reagan called the tactic "obvious political BS".

Moral panic

The Journal for Cultural Research published an article in 2010 by Debra Ferreday, which was republished in the 2011 book Hope and Feminist Theory. According to Ferreday, media use of "Won't someone think of the children!" had become common in a climate of moral panic. She suggested that the phrase was becoming so common that it could become another Godwin's law.

In a 2011 article for the journal Post Script, Andrew Scahill wrote about the power of children in rhetoric to create an untenable stance for an opposing viewpoint. According to Scahill, an individual arguing "for the children" makes it extremely difficult for an opponent to hold a "not for the children" position. Cassandra Wilkinson discussed the impact of "think of the children" rhetoric in a 2011 article for IPA Review. Wilkinson cited research by No Fear: Growing Up in a Risk-Averse Society author Tim Gill that hypersensitivity in defending children from potential harm has the adverse effect of contributing to the inability of youth to own their choices and react to dangerous situations. In the New Statesman, Laurie Penny characterized the tactic as a political belief system and called it "think-of-the-children-ism".

Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig wrote in a 2014 article for First Things that moralizing with the phrase was commonly seen in discussions of sexuality, attributing this to society's increasing perception of morality as a feminine domain. Bruenig also cited the labeling of NBC's refusal to broadcast a movie trailer about abortion as "think-of-the-children-ism".

Censorship
Scott Beattie wrote in his 2009 book, Community, Space and Online Censorship, that the question "Will no one think of the children?" was often raised by individuals advocating censorship out of a concern that youth might view material deemed inappropriate. According to Beattie, youngsters were cast as potential casualties of online sexual predators to increase regulation of the Internet; characterizing children as infantile evoked a concept of innocence which was a form of obsession over the concept of purity.

For Make magazine, Cory Doctorow wrote in a 2011 article that "Won't someone think of the children?!" was used by irrational individuals to support arguments about the dangers to youth of the "Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse": "pirates", terrorists, organized crime, and child pornographers. According to Doctorow, the phrase was used to stifle discussion of underlying issues and halt rational analysis. He observed its frequent use when society was determining an appropriate approach to the legal aspects of computing.

In his 2013 book, Fervid Filmmaking, Mike Watt discussed the history of censorship relative to the United Kingdom's Obscene Publications Act 1959 and noted that films banned during that period became known as "video nasties". Watt called a current interpretation of such censorship the "Think of the Children" characterization. Brian M. Reed wrote in his book, Nobody's Business (also published that year), that the phrase was devoid of substance and could be replaced for comic effect with "How many kittens must die?"

For Reason in 2015, journalist Brendan O'Neill wrote that Marjorie Heins' Not in Front of the Children: Indecency, Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth cited the centuries-long use by governments of the prevention of "harm to minors" as an excuse to increase censorship and control. According to O'Neill, the use of "Won't somebody please think of the children?" in contemporary culture had greatly increased and was a means of exerting moral authority with emotional blackmail.

Popularization

Film and television
According to Kathryn Laity, early use of the phrase may have stemmed from its appearance in the 1964 Walt Disney Pictures film Mary Poppins. In an opening scene, the character of Mrs. Banks pleads with her nanny not to quit by begging her to "think of the children!". Laity wrote that the popular use of the phrase evokes strong feelings in those who object to a nanny state, pointing out the conflict in the United States between the country's conservatism (derived from the Puritans) and its desire to use sex in advertising.

Before the phrase's exposure in The Simpsons, most Americans first became accustomed to it during the 1980s in a charity commercial with Sally Struthers for Christian Children's Fund. At the end of the commercial Struthers pleaded with the viewers, "Won't somebody please think of the children?"

It was also used in John Huston's 1982 film Annie, spoken by Eleanor Roosevelt as Annie sings "Tomorrow" to Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House in order to get Oliver Warbucks' begrudging support for New Deal policies he opposes.

"Think of the children" was popularized largely by character Helen Lovejoy, wife of Reverend Lovejoy, on the television program The Simpsons. Lovejoy (who first appeared in 1990) repeatedly exclaimed, "Think of the children!" in several episodes of the series. She first used the phrase in the episode "Much Apu About Nothing" by David X. Cohen, which aired in 1996, imploring the city mayor to keep bears from crossing the wildland–urban interface. Lovejoy's exhortation became increasingly overwrought with each subsequent use.

The Simpsons writer Bill Oakley said in the 2005 DVD commentary on the episode that the motivation for the phrase on the show was to emphasize how "think of the children" was used in debate; irrelevant, it sidetracked discussion from the original issues. Lovejoy used variations of the phrase, including "Oh, won't somebody please think of the children" and "What about the children", shrieking it most often when residents of the fictional town of Springfield debated a contentious problem or argued about politics and logic failed. Lovejoy's comic use of the phrase on The Simpsons satirized its use in public discourse.

Lovejoy's Law

After the popularization of the phrase on The Simpsons, its use in society was often ridiculed, and came to be referred to as "Lovejoy's Law" in internet culture as early as 2006, probably independently coined several times. In the Toronto Star, journalist Edward Keenan defined "Lovejoy's Law" as a warning that the phrase is a probable diversion from a weak logical stance, writing that true empathy toward children involved rational argument rather than manipulation. In an article for Ireland's Sunday Independent, Carol Hunt called the use of the phrase in political debate the "Helen Lovejoy defence" and wrote that it is also known as the "Helen Lovejoy syndrome". According to Hunt, it is often invoked in reference to hypothetical children rather than real children affected by a problem.

In a Georgia State University Law Review article, Michigan State University College of Law professor Charles J. Ten Brink wrote that Helen Lovejoy's signature phrase was an adept and effective parody. According to The Canberra Times, the phrase's 2009 use to support Internet censorship by the Department of Communications of the government of Australia was evocative of Helen Lovejoy.

In his book, The Myth of Evil, Phillip A. Cole wrote that Helen Lovejoy's plea assumed that children were pure, unadulterated potential casualties who required constant defense from danger. Cole contrasted this notion with character Bart Simpson, who prefers creating disorder to conformity and adherence to regulations. According to Cole, this exemplifies the dual perception of children by society: guileless potential prey and malevolent entities to be distrusted. Cole wrote that throughout history, the child has represented humanity's savage past and its optimistic future. Jo Johnson contributed a chapter, "Won't Somebody Think of the Children?", to the book Mediating Moms, in which she analyzed the phrase's use in animated media (including The Simpsons). According to Johnson, the phrase was a key example of popular cultural depictions of mothers as neurotic and filled with anxiety about moral values.

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

American political catchphrases
Appeals to emotion
Discourse analysis
Political neologisms
Political terminology of the United States
Propaganda techniques
Rhetoric
Relevance fallacies
Articles containing video clips
Childhood

Think of the children


The Woman with Dog's Eyes is a play by the Australian writer Louis Nowra. It is the first part of the Boyce trilogy written for the Griffin Theatre Company at the behest of its Artistic Director David Berthold. The other two plays are The Marvellous Boy (2005) and The Emperor of Sydney (2006). The play is a single continuous scene set in a large Edwardian hotel room in the Blue Mountains.

It was first performed at the SBW Stables on 1 October 2004 with the following cast:

Malcolm Boyce: Danny Adcock
Penny, his wife: Jane Harders
Keith, his eldest son: Jack Finsterer
Todd, his middle son: Alex Dimitriades
Luke, his youngest son: Toby Schmitz
Alice, their neighbour: Cate Blanchett

The production:
Director: David Berthold
Designer: Nicholas Dare
Lighting designer: Matt Marshall

The play concerns struggles for love, power and happiness within a family. It uses the 1949 song Some Enchanted Evening.

Nowra says the play's conception was in hotels such as the Hydro-Majestic. On a night of the Winter Solstice he met a less than happy couple who were having a fortieth wedding anniversary at the Hotel Carrington, with firecrackers and a swing band.

References

Nowra, Louis, The Boyce Trilogy, Sydney: Currency Press, 2007.

External links

 Variety review
 Interview with actor Alex Dimitriades
 Currency Press, The Boyce Trilogy

Plays by Louis Nowra
2004 plays

The Woman with Dog's Eyes


Dravida Kazhagam (or Dravidar Kazhagam, "Dravidian Organization") was one of the first Dravidian parties in India. The party was founded by Periyar. Its original goals were to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including untouchability and to obtain a "Dravida Nadu" (Dravidian nation) from the Madras Presidency i.e., a separate nation from India for Dravidian people alone.

Dravidar Kazhagam gave birth to many other political parties including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Dravidar Kazhagam is now headed by K.Veeramani.

Foundation and Ideology
The roots of the Dravidar Kazhagam lie in the Self-Respect Movement and Justice party, founded by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. Periyar formed the Self-Respect Movement in 1925, breaking in the process from the Indian National Congress party, of which he had been a member until then. The Justice Party, formed in 1916, also claimed to promote similar interests. The two entities merged in 1938 under Periyar's leadership. The name was changed to Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944.

Its central theme was to remove the degraded status imposed on Dravidians, and to denote this, the party adopted a black flag with a red circle inside it, the black signifying their degradation and the red denoting the movement for upliftment.It opposed Brahminical social, political and ritual dominance, and aimed to form a separate country of Dravida Nadu, to include either all of South India or the predominantly Tamil-speaking regions.

Reference

Political parties in Tamil Nadu
1938 establishments in Asia
1930s establishments in India

Dravida Kazhagam


The Frankfurt-Höchst station is an important station in the Frankfurt district of Höchst and is the second largest station in the city with twelve tracks. It is currently mainly used by S-Bahn, suburban and regional services. It is the most important public transport node in western Frankfurt.

History

The first Höchst station was built as part of one of the oldest railways in Germany. On 26 September 1839, four years after the opening of Germany's first railway from Nuremberg to Fürth, the first section of the Taunus Railway opened from the Taunus station in Frankfurt, running nine kilometres west to Höchst. The first Höchst station was not at the current location, but 400 metres east of it at Königsteiner Straße.

At the time the line was an international route, connecting the Free City of Frankfurt and the Duchy of Nassau. On 19 May 1840, the line was completed via Hattersheim, Flörsheim and Mainz-Kastel (then in the Grand Duchy of Hesse) to Wiesbaden, the capital of Nassau. The entire route from the current S-Bahn station of Taunusanlage to Wiesbaden is now part of the busy S-Bahn S1 line.

A second line was connected to Höchst in 1847 with the opening of the short Soden Railway—Germany's oldest branch line. It linked the major spa of Bad Soden with the rest of the world. In 1877 this was followed by the much more important Limburg Railway, which provided a connection between Frankfurt and the Lahn Valley Railway (running between Gießen and Koblenz) across Nassau, which had been annexed by Prussia as a result of the 1866 War.

In 1880, the old station building of 1839 was replaced by a new building. It was designed by the royal inspector of railways and industry (), Heinrich Velde, who designed a total of 37 stations in the Rhine-Main area, of which Höchst station is considered his architectural tour de force. The new building was built on an "island" between the tracks of the Limburg line to the south and the Taunus and Sodene lines to the north, west of Königsteiner Straße.

In 1902, the Königstein Railway was opened via Kelkheim to Königstein, so that with the opening in the meantime of a second line to Frankfurt (the extension of the Limburg Railway to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof in 1888), there were now six lines connecting to Höchst station, three from east and three from the west. On 1 September 1905, the Bäder curve was opened from Rödelheim on the Homburg line. The Bäder curve was initially used only by freight trains; passenger services began in 1908, including a Berlin–Wiesbaden express via Bad Nauheim and Bad Homburg.

The current Höchst station building was opened in 1914.

Current station
Höchst station would be sufficient, with its twelve platform tracks, for a city. In fact, only eight tracks are used regularly, one platform is closed completely. The entrance hall, the design of which is influenced by Art Nouveau is run-down.

Services

  Frankfurt Hbf – Frankfurt-Höchst – Niedernhausen – Limburg (Lahn)
  Frankfurt Hbf – Frankfurt-Höchst – Wiesbaden Hbf – Rüdesheim – Koblenz Hbf - Neuwied
  Frankfurt Höchst – Bad Soden
  Frankfurt Hbf – Frankfurt-Höchst– Kelkheim – Königstein
  Frankfurt Hbf – Frankfurt-Höchst – Niedernhausen – Limburg (Lahn)
  Wiesbaden Hbf – Frankfurt-Höchst – Frankfurt Hbf (tief) – Rödermark-Ober-Roden
  Niedernhausen – Frankfurt-Höchst – Frankfurt Hbf (tief) – Dietzenbach Bf

The station is served by line S 1 and S 2 of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn, operating during the day at 30-minute intervals, together providing service every 15 minutes between Frankfurt-Höchst and central Frankfurt.

It is also served by RB (Regionalbahn) 12 services on the Königstein Railway between Königstein and Frankfurt Hbf, operated by Hessische Landesbahn (HLB) every 30 minutes. The Soden line is served by RB 11 services operated by Hessische Landesbahn at hourly intervals between Frankfurt-Höchst and Bad Soden.

The station is served by the RB 10 service between Frankfurt Hbf and Neuwied every hour, operated by VIAS.

It is served by RE 20 and RB 22 services between Frankfurt Hbf and Limburg every hour, together providing a service every 30 minutes.

Use of tracks and platforms
 Platform tracks 1/2: S-Bahn lines towards central Frankfurt, Regional-Express and Regionalbahn services from Limburg to Frankfurt
 Platform tracks 3/4: S-Bahn services towards Wiesbaden/Niedernhausen (track 3)
 Platform tracks 5/6: Regionalbahn services from and to Wiesbaden/Koblenz/Neuwied
 Platform tracks 8/9: access to the cleaning facilities for Intercity-Express trains
 Platform tracks 10/11: Regional-Express and Regionalbahn services to Limburg (track 10), Soden line (track 11) (HLB)
 Platform tracks 12/13: Königstein Railway to Königstein (track 13) and Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (track12) (HLB)

References

Railway stations in Frankfurt
Rhine-Main S-Bahn stations
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1839
Art Nouveau architecture in Germany
Art Nouveau railway stations
Buildings and structures completed in 1914

Frankfurt-Höchst station