Health, Safety, Environment (HSE)

Image by [ r ♥ c e y t ♥ y ] {I br♥ke for bokeh} via Flickr “I am nude as chicken’s neck, does nobody love me?” Sylvia Plath was a poet who committed suicide in 1963 when she was 31 years old, leaving two children, and a body of brilliant work. She was at the height of her powers. There is some controversy as to whether the dramatic details of her death brought her to prominence, or whether her present acclaim is indeed due to her talent. There is a need in most of us to think of the poet as sacrificial victim; as if the poet's unhappy history added additional weight to the poetry itself, surrounding her work with an ambiance of religiosity. Plath satisfies this need, though she herself would have been distressed by an audience drawn to her by morbidity. Her work is incisive, bright, intelligent, not the least bit self-pitying in spite of its subject matter. She was full of life and had so much to look forward to that one can hardly believe, even though the evidence is i...

Culture is one of the things that eludes an accurate definition. Some of the various well-known definitions are cited by Said in his various works. For instance: “Culture is the learned, accumulated experience of the communities, and it consists of socially transmitted patterns of behavior.” The final analysis of definition boils down to “socially transmitted patterns of behavior”, and makes more sense, though like other definitions, it too cannot be taken as exact and conclusive. Said also cites anthropologist Clifford Greety’s definition, “An ordered system of meanings and symbols in terms of which social interaction takes place, and social system is the pattern of social interaction itself.” This definition too, has partial relevance to what culture amounts to. Said seems more in agreement with Matthew Arnold who regards culture as, “each society’s reservoir of the best that has been known and thought”. Edward Said’s entire professional life was devoted to the teachi...