Saturday 10 December 2011

A Walk To Remember

Chapter 1

In 1958, Beaufort, North Carolina, which is located on the coast near Morehead City, was a place like many other smal southern towns. It was the kind of place where the humidity rose so high in the summer that walking out to get the mail made a person feel as if he needed a shower, and kids walked around barefoot from April through October beneath oak trees draped in Spanish moss. People waved from their cars whenever they saw someone on the street whether they knew him or not, and the air smel ed of pine, salt, and sea, a scent unique to the Carolinas. For many of the people there, fishing in the Pamlico Sound or crabbing in the Neuse River was a way of life, and boats were moored wherever you saw the Intracoastal Waterway. Only three channels came in on the television, though television was never important to those of us who grew up there. Instead our lives were centered around the churches, of which there were eighteen within the town limits alone. They went by names like the Fel owship Hal Christian Church, the Church of the Forgiven People, the Church of Sunday Atonement, and then, of course, there were the Baptist churches. When I was growing up, it was far and away the most popular denomination around, and there were Baptist churches on practical y every corner of town, though each considered itself superior to the others. There were Baptist churches of every type—Freewil Baptists, Southern Baptists, Congregational Baptists, Missionary Baptists, Independent Baptists . . . wel , you get the picture. Back then, the big event of the year was sponsored by the Baptist church downtown—Southern, if you real y want to know—in conjunction with the local high school. Every year they put on their Christmas pageant at the Beaufort Playhouse, which was actual y a play that had been written by Hegbert Sul ivan, a minister who’d been with the church since Moses parted the Red Sea. Okay, maybe he wasn’t that old, but he was old enough that you could almost see through the guy’s skin. It was sort of clammy al the time, and translucent—kids would swear they actual y saw the blood flowing through his veins—and his hair was as white as those bunnies you see in pet stores around Easter.
Anyway, he wrote this play cal ed The Christmas Angel, because he didn’t want to keep on performing that old Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. In his mind Scrooge was a heathen, who came to his redemption only because he saw ghosts, not angels—and who was to say whether they’d been sent by God, anyway? And who was to say he wouldn’t revert to his sinful ways if they hadn’t been sent directly from heaven? The play didn’t exactly tel you in the end—it sort of plays into faith and al —but Hegbert didn’t trust ghosts if they weren’t actual y sent by God, which wasn’t explained in plain language, and this was his big problem with it. A few years back he’d changed the end of the play—sort of fol owed it up with his own version, complete with old man Scrooge becoming a preacher and al , heading off to Jerusalem to find the place where Jesus once taught the scribes. It didn’t fly too wel —not even to the congregation, who sat in the audience staring wideeyed at the spectacle—and the newspaper said things like “Though it was certainly interesting, it wasn’t exactly the play we’ve al come to know and love. . . .”
So Hegbert decided to try his hand at writing his own play. He’d written his own sermons his whole life, and some of them, we had to admit, were actual y interesting, especial y when he talked about the “wrath of God coming down on the fornicators” and al that good stuff. That real y got his blood boiling, I’l tel you, when he talked about the fornicators. That was his real hot spot. When we were younger, my friends and I would hide behind the trees and shout, “Hegbert is a fornicator!” when we saw him walking down the street, and we’d giggle like idiots, like we were the wittiest creatures ever to inhabit the planet.
Old Hegbert, he’d stop dead in his tracks and his ears would perk up—I swear to God, they actual y moved—and he’d turn this bright shade of red, like he’d just drunk gasoline, and the big green veins in his neck would start sticking out al over, like those maps of the Amazon River that you see in National Geographic. He’d peer from side to side, his eyes narrowing into slits as he searched for us, and then, just as suddenly, he’d start to go pale again, back to that fishy skin, right before our eyes. Boy, it was something to watch, that’s for sure. So we’d be hiding behind a tree and Hegbert (what kind of parents name their kid Hegbert, anyway?) would stand there waiting for us to give ourselves up, as if he thought we’d be that stupid. We’d put our hands over our mouths to keep from laughing out loud, but somehow he’d always zero in on us. He’d be turning from side to side, and then he’d stop, those beady eyes coming right at us, right through the tree. “I know who you are, Landon Carter,” he’d say, “and the Lord knows, too.” He’d let that sink in for a minute or so, and then he’d final y head off again, and during the sermon that weekend he’d stare right at us and say something like “God is merciful to children, but the children must be worthy as wel .” And we’d sort of lower ourselves in the seats, not from embarrassment, but to hide a new round of giggles. Hegbert didn’t understand us at al , which was real y sort of strange, being that he had a kid and al . But then again, she was a girl. More on that, though, later. Anyway, like I said, Hegbert wrote The Christmas Angel one year and decided to put on that play instead. The play itself wasn’t bad, actual y, which surprised everyone the first year it was performed. It’s basical y the story of a man who had lost his wife a few years back. This guy, Tom Thornton, used to be real religious, but he had a crisis of faith after his wife died during childbirth. He’s raising this little girl al on his own, but he hasn’t been the greatest father, and what the little girl real y wants for Christmas is a special music box with an angel engraved on top, a picture of which she’d cut out from an old catalog. The guy searches long and hard to find the gift, but he can’t find it anywhere. So it’s Christmas Eve and he’s stil searching, and while he’s out looking through the stores, he comes across a strange woman he’s never seen before, and she promises to help him find the gift for his daughter. First, though, they help this homeless person (back then they were cal ed bums, by the way), then they stop at an orphanage to see some kids, then visit a lonely old woman who just wanted some company on Christmas Eve. At this point the mysterious woman asks Tom Thornton what he wants for Christmas, and he says that he wants his wife back. She brings him to the city fountain and tel s him to look in the water and he’l find what he’s looking for. When he looks in the water, he sees the face of his little girl, and he breaks down and cries right there. While he’s sobbing, the mysterious lady runs off, and Tom Thornton searches but can’t find her anywhere. Eventual y he heads home, the lessons from the evening playing in his mind. He walks into his little girl’s room, and her sleeping figure makes him realize that she’s al he has left of his wife, and he starts to cry again because he knows he hasn’t been a good enough father to her. The next morning, magical y, the music box is underneath the tree, and the angel that’s engraved on it looks exactly like the woman he’d seen the night before.
So it wasn’t that bad, real y. If truth be told, people cried buckets whenever they saw it. The play sold out every year it was performed, and due to its popularity, Hegbert eventual y had to move it from the church to the Beaufort Playhouse, which had a lot more seating. By the time I was a senior in high school, the performances ran twice to packed houses, which, considering who actual y performed it, was a story in and of itself.
You see, Hegbert wanted young people to perform the play—seniors in high school, not the theater group. I reckon he thought it would be a good learning experience before the seniors headed off to col ege and came face-to-face with al the fornicators. He was that kind of guy, you know, always wanting to save us from temptation. He wanted us to know that God is out there watching you, even when you’re away from home, and that if you put your trust in God, you’l be al right in the end. It was a lesson that I would eventual y learn in time, though it wasn’t Hegbert who taught me. As I said before, Beaufort was fairly typical as far as southern towns went, though it did have an interesting history. Blackbeard the pirate once owned a house there, and his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, is supposedly buried somewhere in the sand just offshore. Recently some archaeologists or oceanographers or whoever looks for stuff like that said they found it, but no one’s certain just yet, being that it sank over 250 years ago and you can’t exactly reach into the glove compartment and check the registration. Beaufort’s come a long way since the 1950s, but it’s stil not exactly a yet, being that it sank over 250 years ago and you can’t exactly reach into the glove compartment and check the registration. Beaufort’s come a long way since the 1950s, but it’s stil not exactly a major metropolis or anything. Beaufort was, and always wil be, on the smal ish side, but when I was growing up, it barely warranted a place on the map. To put it into perspective, the congressional district that included Beaufort covered the entire eastern part of the state—some twenty thousand square miles—and there wasn’t a single town with more than twenty-five thousand people. Even compared with those towns, Beaufort was regarded as being on the smal side. Everything east of Raleigh and north of Wilmington, al the way to the Virginia border, was the district my father represented.
I suppose you’ve heard of him. He’s sort of a legend, even now. His name is Worth Carter, and he was a congressman for almost thirty years. His slogan every other year during the election season was “Worth Carter represents ———,” and the person was supposed to fil in the city name where he or she lived. I can remember, driving on trips when me and Mom had to make our appearances to show the people he was a true family man, that we’d see those bumper stickers, stenciled in with names like Otway and Chocawinity and Seven Springs. Nowadays stuff like that wouldn’t fly, but back then that was fairly sophisticated publicity. I imagine if he tried to do that now, people opposing him would insert al sorts of foul language in the blank space, but we never saw it once. Okay, maybe once. A farmer from Duplin County once wrote the word shit in the blank space, and when my mom saw it, she covered my eyes and said a prayer asking for forgiveness for the poor ignorant bastard. She didn’t say exactly those words, but I got the gist of it.
So my father, Mr. Congressman, was a bigwig, and everyone but everyone knew it, including old man Hegbert. Now, the two of them didn’t get along, not at al , despite the fact that my father went to Hegbert’s church whenever he was in town, which to be frank wasn’t al that often. Hegbert, in addition to his belief that fornicators were destined to clean the urinals in hel , also believed that communism was “a sickness that doomed mankind to heathenhood.” Even though heathenhood wasn’t a word—I can’t find it in any dictionary—the congregation knew what he meant. They also knew that he was directing his words specifical y to my father, who would sit with his eyes closed and pretend not to listen. My father was on one of the House committees that oversaw the “Red influence”
supposedly infiltrating every aspect of the country, including national defense, higher education, and even tobacco farming. You have to remember that this was during the cold war; tensions were running high, and we North Carolinians needed something to bring it down to a more personal level. My father had consistently looked for facts, which were irrelevant to people like Hegbert. Afterward, when my father would come home after the service, he’d say something like “Reverend Sul ivan was in rare form today. I hope you heard that part about the Scripture where Jesus was talking about the poor. . . .”
Yeah, sure, Dad. . . .
My father tried to defuse situations whenever possible. I think that’s why he stayed in Congress for so long. The guy could kiss the ugliest babies known to mankind and stil come up with something nice to say. “He’s such a gentle child,” he’d say when a baby had a giant head, or, “I’l bet she’s the sweetest girl in the world,” if she had a birthmark over her entire face. One time a lady showed up with a kid in a wheelchair. My father took one look at him and said, “I’l bet you ten to one that you’re smartest kid in your class.” And he was! Yeah, my father was great at stuff like that. He could fling it with the best of ’em, that’s for sure. And he wasn’t such a bad guy, not real y, especial y if you consider the fact that he didn’t beat me or anything. But he wasn’t there for me growing up. I hate to say that because nowadays people claim that sort of stuff even if their parent was around and use it to excuse their behavior. My dad . . . he didn’t love me . . . that’s why I became a stripper and performed on The Jerry Springer Show. . . . I’m not using it to excuse the person I’ve become, I’m simply saying it as a fact. My father was gone nine months of the year, living out of town in a Washington, D.C., apartment three hundred miles away. My mother didn’t go with him because both of them wanted me to grow up “the same way they had.”
Of course, my father’s father took him hunting and fishing, taught him to play bal , showed up for birthday parties, al that smal stuff that adds up to quite a bit before adulthood. My father, on the other hand, was a stranger, someone I barely knew at al . For the first five years of my life I thought al fathers lived somewhere else. It wasn’t until my best friend, Eric Hunter, asked me in kindergarten who that guy was who showed up at my house the night before that I realized something wasn’t quite right about the situation.
“He’s my father,” I said proudly.
“Oh,” Eric said as he rifled through my lunchbox, looking for my Milky Way, “I didn’t know you had a father.”
Talk about something whacking you straight in the face.
So, I grew up under the care of my mother. Now she was a nice lady, sweet and gentle, the kind of mother most people dream about. But she wasn’t, nor could she ever be, a manly influence in my life, and that fact, coupled with my growing disil usionment with my father, made me become something of a rebel, even at a young age. Not a bad one, mind you. Me and my friends might sneak out late and soap up car windows now and then or eat boiled peanuts in the graveyard behind the church, but in the fifties that was the kind of thing that made other parents shake their heads and whisper to their children, “You don’t want to be like that Carter boy. He’s on the fast track to prison.”
Me. A bad boy. For eating boiled peanuts in the graveyard. Go figure.
Anyway, my father and Hegbert didn’t get along, but it wasn’t only because of politics. No, it seems that my father and Hegbert knew each other from way back when. Hegbert was about twenty years older than my father, and back before he was a minister, he used to work for my father’s father. My grandfather—even though he spent lots of time with my father—was a true bastard if there ever was one. He was the one, by the way, who made the family fortune, but I don’t want you to imagine him as the sort of man who slaved over his business, working diligently and watching it grow, prospering slowly over time. My grandfather was much shrewder than that. The way he made his money was simple—he started as a bootlegger, accumulating wealth throughout Prohibition by running rum up from Cuba. Then he began buying land and hiring sharecroppers to work it. He took ninety percent of the money the sharecroppers made on their tobacco crop, then loaned them money whenever they needed it at ridiculous interest rates. Of course, he never intended to col ect the money—instead he would foreclose on any land or equipment they happened to own. Then, in what he cal ed “his moment of inspiration,” he started a bank cal ed Carter Banking and Loan. The only other bank in a two-county radius had mysteriously burned down, and with the onset of the Depression, it never reopened. Though everyone knew what had real y happened, not a word was ever spoken for fear of retribution, and their fear was wel placed. The bank wasn’t the only building that had mysteriously burned down.
His interest rates were outrageous, and little by little he began amassing more land and property as people defaulted on their loans. When the Depression hit hardest, he foreclosed on dozens of businesses throughout the county while retaining the original owners to continue to work on salary, paying them just enough to keep them where they were, because they had nowhere else to go. He told them that when the economy improved, he’d sel their business back to them, and people always believed him.
Never once, however, did he keep his promise. In the end he control ed a vast portion of the county’s economy, and he abused his clout in every way imaginable. I’d like to tel you he eventual y went to a terrible death, but he didn’t. He died at a ripe-old age while sleeping with his mistress on his yacht off the Cayman Islands. He’d outlived both his wives and his only son. Some end for a guy like that, huh? Life, I’ve learned, is never fair. If people teach anything in school, that should be it. But back to the story. . . . Hegbert, once he realized what a bastard my grandfather real y was, quit working for him and went into the ministry, then came back to Beaufort and started ministering in the same church we attended. He spent his first few years perfecting his fire-and-brimstone act with monthly sermons on the evils of the greedy, and this left him scant time for anything else. He was forty-three before he ever got married; he was fifty-five when his daughter, Jamie Sul ivan, was born. His wife, a wispy little thing twenty years younger than he, went through six miscarriages before Jamie was born, and in the end she died in childbirth, making Hegbert a widower who had to raise a daughter on his own. Hence, of course, the story behind the play.
People knew the story even before the play was first performed. It was one of those stories that made its rounds whenever Hegbert had to baptize a baby or attend a funeral. Everyone knew about it, and that’s why, I think, so many people got emotional whenever they saw the Christmas play. They knew it was based on something that happened in real life, which gave it special meaning. Jamie Sul ivan was a senior in high school, just like me, and she’d already been chosen to play the angel, not that anyone else even had a chance. This, of course, made the play extra special that year. It was going to be a big deal, maybe the biggest ever—at least in Miss Garber’s mind. She was the drama teacher, and she was already glowing about the possibilities the first time I met her in class.
Now, I hadn’t real y planned on taking drama that year. I real y hadn’t, but it was either that or chemistry I . The thing was, I thought it would be a blow-off class, especial y when compared with my other option. No papers, no tests, no tables where I’d have to memorize protons and neutrons and combine elements in their proper formulas . . . what could possibly be better for a high school senior? It seemed like a sure thing, and when I signed up for it, I thought I’d just be able to sleep through most every class, which, considering my late night peanut eating, was fairly important at the time.
On the first day of class I was one of the last to arrive, coming in just a few seconds before the bel rang, and I took a seat in the back of the room. Miss Garber had her back turned to the class, and she was busy writing her name in big cursive letters, as if we didn’t know who she was. Everyone knew her—it was impossible not to. She was big, at least six feet two, with flaming red hair and pale skin that showed her freckles wel into her forties. She was also overweight—I’d say honestly she pushed two fifty—and she had a fondness for wearing flower-patterned muumuus. She had thick, dark, horn-rimmed glasses, and she greeted every one with, “Hel oooooo,” sort of singing the last syl able. Miss Garber was one of a kind, that’s for sure, and she was single, which made it even worse. A guy, no matter how old, couldn’t help but feel sorry for a gal like her.
Beneath her name she wrote the goals she wanted to accomplish that year. “Self-confidence” was number one, fol owed by “Self-awareness” and, third, “Self-fulfil ment.” Miss Garber was big into the “self” stuff, which put her real y ahead of the curve as far as psychotherapy is concerned, though she probably didn’t realize it at the time. Miss Garber was a pioneer in that field. Maybe it had something to do with the way she looked; maybe she was just trying to feel better about herself.
But I digress.
It wasn’t until the class started that I noticed something unusual. Though Beaufort High School wasn’t large, I knew for a fact that it was pretty much split fifty-fifty between males and females, which was why I was surprised when I saw that this class was at least ninety percent female. There was only one other male in the class, which to my thinking was a good thing, and for a moment I felt flush with a “look out world, here I come” kind of feeling. Girls, girls, girls . . . I couldn’t help but think. Girls and girls and no tests in sight. Okay, so I wasn’t the most forward-thinking guy on the block.
So Miss Garber brings up the Christmas play and tel s everyone that Jamie Sul ivan is going to be the angel that year. Miss Garber started clapping right away—she was a member of the church, too—and there were a lot of people who thought she was gunning for Hegbert in a romantic sort of way. The first time I heard it, I remember thinking that it was a good thing they were too old to have children, if they ever did get together. Imagine—translucent with freckles? The very thought gave everyone shudders, but of course, no one ever said anything about it, at least within hearing distance of Miss Garber and Hegbert. Gossip is one thing, hurtful gossip is completely another, and even in high school we weren’t that mean. Miss Garber kept on clapping, al alone for a while, until al of us final y joined in, because it was obvious that was what she wanted. “Stand up, Jamie,” she said. So Jamie stood up and turned around, and Miss Garber started clapping even faster, as if she were standing in the presence of a bona fide movie star. Now Jamie Sul ivan was a nice girl. She real y was. Beaufort was smal enough that it had only one elementary school, so we’d been in the same classes our entire lives, and I’d be lying if I said I never talked to her. Once, in second grade, she’d sat in the seat right next to me for the whole year, and we’d even had a few conversations, but it didn’t mean that I spent a lot of time hanging out with her in my spare time, even back then. Who I saw in school was one thing; who I saw after school was something completely different, and Jamie had never been on my social calendar. It’s not that Jamie was unattractive—don’t get me wrong. She wasn’t hideous or anything like that. Fortunately she’d taken after her mother, who, based on the pictures I’d seen, wasn’t half-bad, especial y considering who she ended up marrying. But Jamie wasn’t exactly what I considered attractive, either. Despite the fact that she was thin, with honey blond hair and soft blue eyes, most of the time she looked sort of . . . plain, and that was when you noticed her at al . Jamie didn’t care much about outward appearances, because she was always looking for things like “inner beauty,” and I suppose that’s part of the reason she looked the way she did. For as long as I’d known her—and this was going way back, remember—she’d always worn her hair in a tight bun, almost like a spinster, without a stitch of makeup on her face. Coupled with her usual brown cardigan and plaid skirt, she always looked as though she were on her way to interview for a job at the library. We used to think it was just a phase and that she’d eventual y grow out of it, but she never had. Even through our first three years of high school, she hadn’t changed at al . The only thing that had changed was the size of her clothes.
But it wasn’t just the way Jamie looked that made her different; it was also the way she acted. Jamie didn’t spend any time hanging out at Cecil’s Diner or going to slumber parties with other girls, and I knew for a fact that she’d never had a boyfriend her entire life. Old Hegbert would probably have had a heart attack if she had. But even if by some odd turn of events Hegbert had al owed it, it stil wouldn’t have mattered. Jamie carried her Bible wherever she went, and if her looks and Hegbert didn’t keep the boys away, the Bible sure as heck did. Now, I liked the Bible as much as the next teenage boy, but Jamie seemed to enjoy it in a way that was completely foreign to me. Not only did she go to vacation Bible school every August, but she would read the Bible during lunch break at school. In my mind that just wasn’t normal, even if she was the minister’s daughter. No matter how you sliced it, reading Paul’s letters to the Ephesians wasn’t nearly as much fun as flirting, if you know what I mean.
But Jamie didn’t stop there. Because of al her Bible reading, or maybe because of Hegbert’s influence, Jamie believed it was important to help others, and helping others is exactly what she did. I knew she volunteered at the orphanage in Morehead City, but for her that simply wasn’t enough. She was always in charge of one fund-raiser or another, helping everyone from the Boy Scouts to the Indian Princesses, and I know that when she was fourteen, she spent part of her summer painting the outside of an elderly neighbor’s house. Jamie was the kind of girl who would pul weeds in someone’s garden without being asked or stop traffic to help little kids cross the road. She’d save her al owance to buy a new basketbal for the orphans, or she’d turn around and drop the money into the church basket on Sunday. She was, in other words, the kind of girl who made the rest of us look bad, and whenever she glanced my way, I couldn’t help but feel guilty, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.
Nor did Jamie limit her good deeds to people. If she ever came across a wounded animal, for instance, she’d try to help it, too. Opossums, squirrels, dogs, cats, frogs . . . it didn’t matter to her. Dr. Rawlings, the vet, knew her by sight, and he’d shake his head whenever he saw her walking up to the door carrying a cardboard box with yet another critter inside. He’d take off his eyeglasses and wipe them with his handkerchief while Jamie explained how she’d found the poor creature and what had happened to it. “He was hit by a car, Dr. Rawlings. I think it was in the Lord’s plan to have me find him and try to save him. You’l help me, won’t you?”
With Jamie, everything was in the Lord’s plan. That was another thing. She always mentioned the Lord’s plan whenever you talked to her, no matter what the subject. The basebal game’s rained out? Must be the Lord’s plan to prevent something worse from happening. A surprise trigonometry quiz that everyone in class fails? Must be in the Lord’s plan to give us chal enges. Anyway, you get the picture.
Then, of course, there was the whole Hegbert situation, and this didn’t help her at al . Being the minister’s daughter couldn’t have been easy, but she made it seem as if it were the most natural thing in the world and that she was lucky to have been blessed in that way. That’s how she used to say it, too. “I’ve been so blessed to have a father like mine.” Whenever she said it, al we could do was shake our heads and wonder what planet she actual y came from.
Despite al these other strikes, though, the one thing that real y drove me crazy about her was the fact that she was always so damn cheerful, no matter what was happening around her. I swear, that girl never said a bad thing about anything or anyone, even to those of us who weren’t that nice to her. She would hum to herself as she walked down the street, she would wave to strangers driving by in their cars. Sometimes ladies would come running out of their house if they saw her walking by, offering her pumpkin bread if they’d been baking al day or lemonade if the sun was high in the sky. It seemed as if every adult in town adored her. “She’s such a nice young lady,” they’d say whenever Jamie’s name came up. “The world would be a better place if there were more people like her.”
But my friends and I didn’t quite see it that way. In our minds, one Jamie Sul ivan was plenty.
I was thinking about al this while Jamie stood in front of us on the first day of drama class, and I admit that I wasn’t much interested in seeing her. But strangely, when Jamie turned to face us, I kind of got a shock, like I was sitting on a loose wire or something. She wore a plaid skirt with a white blouse under the same brown cardigan sweater I’d seen a mil ion times, but there were two new bumps on her chest that the sweater couldn’t hide that I swore hadn’t been there just three months earlier. She’d never worn makeup and she stil didn’t, but she had a tan, probably from Bible school, and for the first time she looked—wel , almost pretty. Of course, I dismissed that thought right away, but as she looked around the room, she stopped and smiled right at me, obviously glad to see that I was in the class. It wasn’t until later that I would learn the reason why.

Monday 19 September 2011

Pembentukan Negara Bangsa

Apakah yang anda faham dengan konsep Negara bangsa? Bincangkan pembentukan Negara bangsa di Negara-negara Eropah iaitu England, Perancis dan Sepanyol.

Negara bangsa merupakan satu Negara yang mempunyai rakyat yang berciri sama iaitu dalam agama, bahasa dan budaya. Negara bangsa terbentuk apabila rakyatnya berjaya disatukan di bawah satu pemerintahan yang berdaulat. Dalam Negara bangsa, rakyatnya terutamanya golongan majoriti terikat oleh semangat nasionalisme yang lahir daripada persamaan ciri-ciri antara mereka. Semangat nasionalisme ini menyebabkan mereka sanggup berjuang demi Negara dan bangsa. Setelah kemunculan Negara bangsa di Eropah, empayar, Negara kota dan Negara feudal telah digantikan sebagai corak Negara eropah.
Kemunculan Negara bangsa berasaskan beberapa faktor. Antaranya ialah kegagalan sistem feudal. Masyarakat Eropah sebelum kemunculan konsep negara bangsa terikat kepada sistem feudal yang menyusun masyarakatnya secara berperingkat. Dalam sistem ini, raja terdapat di atas sekali dan di bawahnya ialah golongan baron atau tuan tanah yang memiliki kuasa sebenar. Golongan baron ini diberi tanah untuk diusahakan. Mereka terpaksa menghantar sebahagian daripada hasil mereka kepada raja. Sistem ini amat menyeksa golongan bawahan kerana tuan tanah akan memungut hasil yang tinggi serta memaksa mereka yang gagal membayar untuk menjadi hamba. Dalam keadaan ini, kuasa golongan tuan tanah telah mula mengancam kedudukan raja. Akibat ini, raja terpaksa bertindak menentang golongan baron ini untuk mengukuhkan institusi beraja. Kegagalan sistem feudal ini menyebabkan masyarakat Eropah berusaha untuk membina negara yang bercorak baru iaitu dalam bentuk negara bangsa.
Selain daripada itu, perang salib yang berlaku antara dunia Eropah dengan dunia Islam juga menyumbang kepada pertumbuhan negara bangsa. Ketika peperangan tersebut berlaku apabila pihak vatican menyuruh kerajaan-kerajaan Kristian melaksanakan perang suci 'holy war' demi menyelamatkan kota Jerusalem yang merupakan kota Jesus daripada jajahan empayar Islam. Peperangan tersebut menyebabkan golongan bangsawan kehilangan kuasa apabila tenaga serf yang mereka menyumbang kepada peperangan tersebut telah terkorban atau tidak kembali. Dalam keadaan ini, institusi raja telah mengambil kesempatan untuk mengukuhkan kuasa mereka dengan menyatukan wilayah-wilayah bangsawan tersebut di bawah pemerintahan sendiri. Perang salib juga menyedari masyarakat Eropah tentang jurang perkembangan yang telah wujud antara mereka dengan tamadun Islam. Tamadun Islam ketika itu telah mencapai puncak kegeminlangan tetapi masyarakat Eropah masih dilanda Zaman Gelap. Kesedaran ini telah medesak orang Eropah untuk mengembangkan negara mereka untuk membina identiti dan mencapai kegemilangan diri. Hasil daripada semangat ini ialah pembinaan negara bangsa. Perang Salib merupakan satu peristiwa yang mempercepatkan keinginan serta kesangupan masyarakat Eropah untuk membina negara bangsa mereka.
Perkembangan ekonomi yang berlaku di Eropah ketika itu juga memudahkan transisi daripada negara feudal kepada negara bangsa. Pada ketika itu, revolusi pertanian dan seterusnya revolusi perindustrian sedang berlaku. Perkembangan ekonomi ini menghasilkan satu sumber kewangan yang banyak dan stabil. Dengan sumber kewangan ini, kerajaan pusat dapat memggaji tentera dan perkhidmatan awam demi rakyatnya. Para pengusaha dan pedagang juga menyokong tindakan kerajaan pusat mengukuhkan kuasanya kerana mereka memerlukan perlindungan demi menjamin harta dan nyawa mereka. Perkembangan ekonomi Eropah telah menyediakan sumber kewangan demi pembinaan negara bangsa.
Seterusnya, perkembangan bahasa kebangsaan juga menyumbang kepada proses pembinaan negara bangsa. Walaupun setiap wilayah Eropah mempunyai dialek sendiri, satu bahasa kebangsaan telah ditetapkan oleh raja demi menyatukan rakyatnya. Pembinaan bahasa kebangsaan telah mencipta satu identiti bangsa yang melahirkan semangat kebangsaan yang kuat. Sebelum penetapan bahasa kebangsaan, kebanyakkan Eropah mengguna bahasa Latin dan dialek-dialek sendiri. Di Perancis, tedapat lebih daripada 400 bahasa dan dialek yang berbeza. Ketidaksamaan bahasa menyusahkan proses menyatukan rakyat. Dengan menetapkan bahasa Perancis sebagai bahasa kebangsaan yang difahami semua, pengaruh bangsawan dalam daerah sendiri telah dikurangkan. Di samping itu, satu negara Perancis yang merangkumi semua suku Frank dapat dibina dan dikekalkan kerana rakyatnya dapat bergerak di seluruh negara tanpa halangan bahasa.
Gelaran dan anugerah juga diberi oleh raja demi memupuk kesetiaan daripada golongan bangsawan. Di England, gelaran-gelaran seperti duke, earl, baron dan count diberi kepada golongan bangsawan daripada raja sebagai anugerah demi perkhidmatan, sumbangan atau pengorbanan mereka demi raja. Selain daripada itu, gelaran Sir juga diberi kepada golongan askar yang telah menonjolkan diri dalam medan peperangan atau rakyat biasa yang telah memberi sumbangan yang besar kepada negara dan raja. Gelaran ini biasa diberi dengan tanah demi didiami dan diusahakan. Ini memudahkan raja mengawal tindakan-tindakan golongan bangsawan ini.
Satu lagi faktor yang mendorong golongan raja untuk membina negara bangsa ialah untuk mengawal kuasa gereja. Kuasa gereja yang mengancam kedudukan raja telah membimbangkan golongan pemerintah. Ketika itu, gereja mempunyai pengaruh dan kekayaan yang melebihi kerajaan pusat dan pentadbirannya bebas daripada campur tangan kerajaan. Demi menjamin kedudukan sendiri, raja telah bertindak untuk melemahkan pengaruh gereja. Antara usaha-usaha mereka ialah penubuhan gereja-gereja Kristian yang bebas pengaruh gereja Katolik di Rom seperti gereja Anglican dan Protestant. Kuasa gereja dilemahkan lagi apabila kuasa diberi kepada rakyat untuk melantik pemimpinnya. Setelah kerajaan pusat di negara-negara eropah telah membebaskan diri daripada kuasa gereja vatican, mereka telah mampu membina negara sendiri tanpa sekatan atau campur tangan luar.
Di Negara England tanda-tanda pembinaan Negara bangsa bermula apabila Duke William dari suku Norman di Utara Perancis telah menyerang dan menakluk seluruh England. Beliau telah melaksanakan beberapa usaha untuk mengukuhkan kuasa kerajaan pusat untuk mengelakkan pemberontakan. Antaranya ialah pembaharuan dalam perundangan dengan pembahagian system mahkamah kepada tiga bahagian. Usaha-usaha baginda telah diteruskan lagi oleh Henry II yang mengukuhkan kuasa mahkamah diraja danmengenalkan ‘Rule of Law’ yang menghapuskan undang-undang feudal. Piagam Agung yang disediakan oleh raja John telah menyebabkan kuasa mahkamah dikukuhkan oleh para pembesar. Apabila pengaruh pembesar telah dapat diakawal oleh institusi diraja di England, maka perhatian telah menumpulkan perhatian terhadap mengurangkan kuasa gereja. Pengaruh Paus di Vatican ketika itu sangat kuat. Demi mengatasi masalah ini, raja Edward I telah mengistiharkan England sebagai Dunia Kristian. Usaha melemahkan pengaruh gereja Vatican telah berjaya apabila raja Edward VIII telah berjaya mendirikan gereja protestant yang tidak berkaitan dengan gereja katolik. Usaha-usaha raja-raja England untuk melemahkan kuasa gereja dan para pembesar seolah-olah telah mengukuhkan kedudukan institusi beraja England serta membina sebuah Negara bangsa yang akan menjadi empire terulung pada suatu ketika nanti.
Negara bangsa Perancis dibina dengan pengabungan seluruh wilayah-wilayah Frankish. Pada peringkat awalnya, wilayah-wilayah Perancis didiami oleh suku Celts dan digelah sebagai Gaul oleh Rom. Apabila empayar Rom runtuh, orang gasar dari German telah memasuki tanah Perancis iaitu orang visigoths, burgundians dan Franks. Namun, suku Franks yang telah berjaya menyebarkan budayanya kepada seluruh penduduk Perancis. Dengan ini, suku Franks menjadi kaum yang dominan. Raja Louis telah menjadi Paris sebagai pusat pentadbirannya dan disinilah beliau memulakan usaha-usaha menyatukan semua wilayah Frank dibawah kuasanya. Setelah kematian Raja Louis, empayarnya telah dipecahkan kepada beberapa wilayah yang diketuai oleh Count. Apabila Perancis diserang oleh orang Norman, Rollo iaitu seorang bangsawan Norman yang berpengaruh telah dilantik sebagai vassal raja Perancis dan diberi tanah subur di utara negaranya di samping dikawin dengan puteri Perancis. Tindakan ini adalah untuk menyatukan negara Perancis dengan orang Norman dan berjaya membawa zaman kegemilangan Perancis.
Di Sepanyol pula, perkahwinan antara Kerajaan Aragon dan Castile iaitu antara Ferdinand dan Isabella telah memulakan pergerakan ke arah pembentukan Negara bangsa. Kedua-dua pemerintah ini telah terus bertindak untuk mengukuhkan institusi beraja dan mengurangkan pengaruh golongan pembesar. Dewan parlimen Sepanyol dibawah mereka telah mengembalikan tanah daripada golongan feudal kepada golongan raja. Golongan bangsawan telah dilarang membina istana dan perlantikan anggota gereja diletak di bawah kuasa mereka. Tindakan-tindakan ini semata-matanya telah melemahkan kuasa pembesar di samping mengukuhkan kuasa institusi beraja. Selain daripada itu, Institusi kristian Katolik juga diperalatkan untuk menamatkan semangat nasionalisme di kalangan rakyat Sepanyol dengan menyatukan mereka terhadap ancaman dunia Islam. Usaha-usaha Ferdinand dan Isabella telah memulakan proses pembentukan Negara bangsa di Sepanyol.
Pembentukan negara bangsa di Eropah merupakan satu proses yang mempunyai beberapa sebab dan punca. Walaupun setiap negara eropah menghadapi keadaan yang berbeza, mereka telah mencapai hasil yang lebih kurang sama iaitu pembinaan negara bangsa yang mempunyai identiti serta keistimewaan sendiri. Kemunculan negara bangsa di Eropah melambangkan titik permulaan zaman kegemilangan Eropah yang membolehkan masyarakat ini menguasai hampir seluruh dunia.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Concentration

[Reasons of the lack of concentration:]

1.Having too much things to do in a short time.

2.Lack of interest.

3.Being tired.

4.Being not prepared.

5.Too noisy,

6.Emotional problems.

7.Lack of goal and motivation.

8.Too difficult task.

9.Being a perfectionist.

[Ways to improve concentration:]

1.Break tasks into smaller sessions.

2.Develop a positive attitude towards a certain subject.

3.Get enough sleep.

4.Be prepared earlier.

5.Study at a quiet place.

6.Calm down before studying.

7.Remember the purpose of studying.

8.Take longer time to understand difficult subjects.

9.Be patient and take try to complete one task at a time.

Assimilating Knowledge For Success

Tips on Preparing for Examinations for Pre-University/University Levels

1.Be confident and throw away the fear of facing exams.

2.Make a suitable time table for revision.

3.Set a realistic and reachable goal.

4.Sit properly when studying.

5.Make short notes/flash cards.

6.Recite and memorize.

7.Sleep and eat well.

8.Exercise regularly and relax.

9.Avoid procrastination/laziness by reading motivational books

10.Be well-prepared.

Friday 9 September 2011

Empayar Mesopotamia


BINCANGKAN SUMBANGAN HAMMURABBI DALAM PEMBENTUKAN DAN PENGUKUHAN EMPAYAR BABYLON

A. Pengenalan
i) Empayar Babylon merupakan salah satu negara empayar yang terdapat dalam Tamadun Mesopotamia selain Empayar Akkadia, Empayar Assyria, Empayar Chaldea dan Empayar Sumeria.
i) Latar belakang = Empayar Babylon diasakan oleh Sumu Abum, seorang ketua kaum Amorite pada tahun 1894 S.M. Empayar ini mencapai kegemilangan semasa zaman pemerintahan Hammurabbi (1792-1750S.M)
ii) Kaitan dengan soalan = Pemerintah Hammurabi memainkan pelbagai peranan yang penting dalam memastikan kekukuhan dan kekuatan Empayar Babylon.

B. Isi (5X4m=20m)
i) Dasar
- tubuhkan empayar yang besar melalui dasar perluasan kuasa yang agresif – lancarkan ekpedisi ketenteraan untuk luaskan pengaruh dan kekuasaan Babylon
- Contoh kempen ketenteraan :
* menawan Isin dan mara ke Selatan hingga Uruk = 1786S.M
* menawan Malgum = 1785 – 1782 S.M
* menawan Rapiqum = 1781 S.M
* menyerang Larsa dan menewaskan pakatan tentera Guti, Elam, Assyria, & Eshunna
* menewakan Assyria = 1756S.M
- melalui kempen/ekspedisi ketenteraan = empayar Babylon terbentang hingga meliputi wilayah Sumer, Akkad, dan Asyria

ii) Pentadbiran
- Hammmurabi ambil langkah wujudkan sistem pentadbiran pusat yang kukuh.
- laksanakan dasar kekerasan dan kesederhanaan dalam menangani masalah dalam dan luar negara
- bahagikan empayar kepada wilayah – wujudkan pemerintahan pusat dan pemerintahan wilayah
- gabenor (ensi) dilantik utk mentadbir wilayah – mereka dikawal ketat – perlu laporkan segala tindakan kepada kerajaan pusat
- tubuhkan “Assembly of Elders’ di peringkat wilayah untuk memungut cukai dan mengadili kes2 kecil

iii) Ketenteraan
- memiliki organisasi ketenteraan yang sistematik
- rekod pendaftaran askar yang lengkap disimpan dalam buku pendaftaran negara
- anggota tentera yang melepaskan diri tanpa pengganti akan dikenakan tindakan tegas
- dalam kod undang2 Hammurabi
* tentera diberi hak2 istimewa- dikurniakan binatang ternakan dan tanah yang tidak boleh dipindah milik
* pegawai2 atasan tidak dibenarkan mengeksploitasi anggota tentera
- memperbaharui taktik peperangan dgn menggunakan kereta kuda secara meluas
- menjelang abad pertama S.M – pasukan tentera berkuda ditubuhkan

iv) Perundangan
- perkenalkan kod undang2 = Kod Undang2 Hammurabi = 282 fasal meliputi perkara2 peradagangan, perkahwinan, kekeluargaan, pertanian, perwarisan harta, dan kesalahan jenayah
- menetapkan hukuman berat terhadap sesiapa yang cuba ubah mana2 kod
- golongan hamba diberi hak dan dilindungi
- hukuman berat = hukuman mati & hukuman sebat dikenakan terhadap seseorang yang cuai dalam menjalankan tanggungjawab hingga menyebabkan kematian
- melindungi hak pengguna daripada teraniaya dan ditipu oleh peniaga
- Undang2 Hammurabi mewujudakan keamanan dalam empayar Babylon

v) Perkembangan intelektual
- Bidang Matematik = perkenalkan sistem angka; dua sistem menulis angka iaitu sistem perpuluhan dan perenam puluhan. Hasilkan dua teks Matematik = table text & problem text
- Bidang Perubatan = berkembang pesat dan dikawal oleh kerajaan. Doktor2 diberi penghormatan tinggi dan dilantik untuk berkhidmat di istana. Terdapat 9 fasal dalam Kod Undang2 Hammurabi berkaitan dengan pembedahan.
- perkembangan dalam bidang intelektual melambangkan kegemilangan empayar ini

C. Penutup (2m) (Penilaian)
- empayar babylon mula mengalami kemerosotan dan kejatuhan selepas kematian Hammurabi .Hal ini membuktikan bahawa kegemilangan dan kekukuhan sesebuah negara/ empayar itu, sangat bergantung kepada kewibawaan dan kebijaksanaan pemimpin bagi menjamin kestabilan politik, ekonomi, sosial dan sebagainya.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Sejarah 1 Tema 2


HURAIKAN EMPAT UNSUR PENTING PEMBENTUKAN NEGARA DAN JELASKAN TAHAP-TAHAP PERKEMBANGAN SESEBUAH NEGARA DENGAN MEMBERIKAN CONTOH.

A. Pengenalan (4m)

a) huraian maksud negara : negara ialah satu wilayah yang ditadbir oleh beberapa jabatan kerajaan serta memperolehi kepercayaan dan taat setia daripada rakyat  dalam peraturan-peraturan dan undang-undang yang ditetapkan.
b) sifat-sifat negara iaitu sifat memaksa dengan menggunakan kekerasan fizikal secara sah supaya peraturan-peraturan negara dipatuhi oleh rakyat, sifat monopoli dalam menetapkan tujuan  masyarakat, sifat merangkum segala peraturan dan undang-undang yang digubal adalah untuk semua rakyat.
c) kaitan dengan soalan

B. Isi-isi Penting

1.       Empat unsur  penting pembentukan Negara ialah: (4 isi X  2m=8m)

a.      Wilayah          
·         Setiap negara mempunyai kawasan di muka bumi serta sempadannya.
·         pengaruh sesebuah negara  meliputi seluruh wilayahnya termasuk laut dan ruang angkasa.

b.      Penduduk
·         penduduk sesebuah Negara meliputi semua penduduk di dalam wilayah tersebut.
·         penduduk sesebuah negara mempunyai ciri-ciri khas yang membezakan daripada bangsa lain seperti kebudayaan, nilai-nilai politik dan identiti nasional
·         persamaan seperti bangsa,agama,budaya dan bahasa melahirkan semangat nasionalisme yang tinggi.

c.      Pemerintah.
·         Setiap Negara mempunyai satu badan yang mempunyai kuasa untuk menggubal dan melaksanakan peraturan-peraturan di wilayah-wilayah tersebut.
·         Pemerintah bertindak atas nama Negara dan memperolehi kuasa daripada Negara.

b.      Kedaulatan:

·         Kedaulatan merupakan kuasa tertinggi untuk membuat undang-undang dan       melaksanakannya.
·         Dalam  pelaksanaan undang-undang,Negara mempunyai kuasa untuk memaksa penduduk mematuhi peraturan dan undang-undang tersebut.
·         Negara juga turut mempertahankan kedaulatannya daripada serangan luar.


2.       Tahap-Tahap Perkembangan Negara: ( 5 isi X 2m=10m)
O             
a.      Negara Kota.

·         Semua Negara kota terletak di sebuah Negara kota yang tetap dengan satu set Undang-undang dan kerajaan yang telah maju.
·         Raja-raja dalam Negara kota ini adakalanya memerintah satu kumpulan Negara      kota yang lain setelah ditakluki.
·         Rom berjaya sebagai Negara kota penakluk berbanding dengan Negara lain kerana mengiktiraf realiti bahawa ia tidak boleh mengasimilasi sepenuhnya
·         Bangsa Rom membiarkan urusan hal ehwal pentadbiran negeri yang ditakluk Kepada penduduk negeri tersebut.

b.      Negara Empayar
  
·         Empayar muncul apabila empayar Rom meluaskan  wilayahnya meliputi tiga benua.
·         Empayar ini wujud pada zaman pemerintahan Iskandar Zulkarnain dan Shih Huang Ti dalam empayar Chin.
·         Penubuhan dan penciptaan empayar sejagat menjadi lebih sukar apabila Negara  bertambah dan menjadi lebih kuat.

d.      Negara Kristian:

·         Pada zaman pertengahan Negara kurang penting daripada gereja.
·         Gereja berkuasa dalam melantik raja dan menyingkirkan putera-putera raja lalu  menentukan dasar-dasar awam
·         Kejatuhan Eropah Barat ke tangan orang gasar pada tahun 476M menyaksikan    kemunculan agama kristian  sebagai institusi yang menjadi penyelamat bagi Eropah.
·         Agama Kristian secara langsung mempunyai pengaruh yang besar dalam semua aspek  Kehidupan masyarakat.
·         Pada tahun 476-1000M dianggap Negara Kristian.

d.      Negara Feudal:
·         Selepas kejatuhan empayar Rom pada tahun 800 M muncul satu institusi  politik  yang dikenali sebagai feudalisme.
·         Feudalisme mewakili satu susunan tanggunggjawab yang kompleks dan obliges dikalangan individu. dari kelas terbawh(serf) hingga kepda raja.
·         Setiap serf memberi  sumpah kesetiaan kepada golongan yang lebih tinggi
·         Golongan yang lebih tinggi ialah pahlawan,bangsawan dan raja.
·         Setiap golongan bangsawan berjanji untuk memberi perlindungan kepada mereka yang memberi kesetiaan.

e.      Negara Bangsa

·         Perkembangan Renaisans telah mengubah sikap manusia dan membuka jalan    kepada perubahan besar di Eropah.
·         Antaranya ialah kemunculan Negara bangsa dan kesedaran kebangsaan.
·         Pada zaman ini  semangat cinta akan Negara begitu ketara berbanding dengan zaman pertengahan kerana mereka memberi kesetiaan kepada tuan tanah.

C. Kesimpulan (3m)

Walaupun apa fahaman dan aliran yang dianuti oleh sesebuah Negara itu tetapi pembentukannya tetap sama iaitu berskisar kepada empat unsur penting iaitu wilayah, penduduk,pemerintah dan kedaulatan. Unsur-unsur inilah akhirnya telah melahirkan Negara kota, empayar, Negara feudal dan Negara moden.


Saturday 20 August 2011

"Many school-going children nowadays like to work during the holidays."Do you support or oppose this move?

   Teenagers prefer to take part-time jobs during the school holidays.It is obvious that many teenagers are working part-time at almost everywhere during the holidays.For example,restaurants,fast-food outlets,shopping centers and so on.Even though it has become a trend for teenagers to work during school breaks,yet many people are still questioning about the pros and cons of this matter.In my point of view,I strongly support the school-going children to work during the holidays.As far as I concern,there are many advantages for the students to work during the school holidays.

  First and foremost,working is a great way to gain experiences for the school-going children to help them developing positive personalities.The working experiences could help us in our future careers.As a student,we could learn things and useful skills that are not being taught in schools.As communicative skill is one of the most crucial skill,the best way to improve it is through working.We do not have much opportunity to speak English in schools.At the working places,English is the only language that help us to interact with customers,bosses,co-workers and people form all walks of life.Day after day,our command of English language would improved effectively.At the same time,we could also master the persuading skills by selling and promoting goods or products to the customers as a promoter or a seller.As for a passive person,we are given the golden chance to gain confidence by daring ourselves to complete the works on hand.In this case,we have got enough confidence to overcome fear and shyness.Moreover,we learn to cooperate with others and make friends from different races and religions that help us to broaden our horizons.By working,students become more independent and they could acquire the ability to deal with difficulties without depending on others.

  In addition,working enable the school-going children to learn to discipline themselves efficiently.Self-discipline goes hand in hand with self-development.Working is a key of developing one's self-discipline.We could have a good grip on time management because we have to complete tasks on time and hand in to our bosses at work.In this case,we would make the best use of our time and spend our spare times productively in order to finish the works on hand.Other than that,those who are always be late to school have the opportunity to stave of the bad habit and learn to be punctual.Apart from that,we would start learning to observe and abide by the rules and regulations at the working place.In schools,the rules are not strict so that the students would not follow them accordingly.Oppositely,they are forced to take instructions in completing tasks because they might be dismissed if they do not follow the rules at work.Furthermore,students who are working are more mature in thinking and responsible for themselves.It is because they have to be cautious and think carefully before carrying out any works.Indirectly,they become more decisive and capable of making choices wisely.

  Besides,teenagers have a good chance to earn extra pocket money by taking part-time jobs during holidays instead of staying at home and doing things that are not beneficial such like watching television,playing computer games and sleeping.We can learn to be independent financially and lessen the burdens on our parents' shoulders.We are able to pay for their own expenses without relying too much on our parents.For example,the expenses such like tuition fees,buying books,stationary,clothes and so on and so forth.By working,we could also learn that earning money is not easy but spending money is easy or vise versa.In the long run,we would appreciate the value of money and spend money wisely as well as saving up the money for the raining day.In another word,we are more perceptive in financial management earlier than those who does not work.

  In a nutshell,it is cleared that working does more good than harm for the school-going children during the holidays.Working part-time provide students with rewarding working experiences,self-discipline,and extra money.If the students know how to manage time between working and studying,therefore working for fulfilling spare times and gaining experiences is indeed a bless for teenagers.So,in my opinion,working during holidays should be encouraged among students.

 (671 words)