The Road to Purgatory

 

On the white, sandy coast of the Arabian Gulf, where shallow, turquoise water laps gently on the never-ending, beautiful beaches is a place called Dubai. Located in the heart of the Middle East, it is marketed as a vacation paradise. Glittering, seven-star hotels rise from spectacular man-made islands, shiny new emerald courses designed by golfing legends pleasure the sporting senses, food and drink from every corner of the globe is in abundance, and traditional Arabian hospitality ensures the best of attention for every holiday-maker.

It's not only the holiday companies that are giving it the hard sell. Employment agencies dangle the carrot of year-round sunshine and a luxurious, tax-free lifestyle to people in the West and offer unbelievable, life-changing opportunities to the people in the less well-off countries of Africa and Asia. The very size and nature of the development going on ensures that Dubai is never far from the free advertising offered by features on TV news and travel channels; in newspapers and magazines. The branding exercise by the rulers is wide-reaching, with sports sponsorships by the likes of Emirates Airlines keeping the destination present in the subconscious mind.

The truth about Dubai is somewhat different to that advertised. Having lived there for 15 years, I have the experience to back this statement up. I have seen many family friends move to Dubai, solely based on what they’ve heard about it from what they’ve read. Brushing aside any word of caution from people who actually live here they come to chase the carrot dangling in front of them like a loyal but slightly dim donkey. But from the moment they arrive, they realize that the image of Dubai that they had built up in their minds was just that: an image.

This fact is evident as soon as you walk out of the doors of the airport in the middle of the night and get hit by a wall of heat akin to the blast felt when one opens an oven door to check the cake within. I experience it every summer; more so on returning home from State College, Pennsylvania where what people call ‘hot’ there is like a mild winter in Dubai terms. The summers never change, if anything it gets hotter as the years progress.

I still recall what it first felt like when I first moved to Dubai. It must have been more than thirty degrees Celsius, and it was nearly midnight. The following morning, I woke up to the haunting strains of the Call to Prayer at a nearby mosque echoing around the streets, and upon opening the window blinds, I was half-blinded by the sheer brilliance of the Arabian sun and the glare of the sandy-colored buildings, which almost seemed to amplify its heat and light.

It wasn't long before I learned that for around 5 months of the year, people are generally confined to air-conditioned surroundings - moving from the villa or apartment to the car to the office, and at the weekend to the shopping mall or the hotel. Of course, I knew there would be heat, but I wasn't prepared for the ferocity of it, or the way it didn't abate by a great deal at night-time. But people still go to Dubai all year round. I can't personally see the attraction of spending two weeks confined to a hotel, but then that's just me.

Over the years I realized that the weather was a minor disappointment when it came to the “Paradise City” image that Dubai portrayed. There were bigger and much more pressing problems. As I grew older, I saw the portrayal of Dubai peel away, like an onion and its layers, till I was left with the raw and quite disturbing truth of the situation.

The next layer of the image to fall away was the promise of a tax-free lifestyle and the resultant opportunity to live like royalty. Everyone who has moved to Dubai with the tax free incentive has been disappointed. Not only is the cost of living high but property rates, even the cost of renting is through the roof. Even the cost of education is phenomenal, equating to approximately the same cost of tuition in a reputed university. There are a dizzying number of fees and charges added here there and everywhere. Although not necessarily taxes, people still find that more money comes out of their pockets than what goes in.

I will admit that mine and the lifestyle available to the middle and upper class is good. Sumptuous brunch buffets for reasonable prices can be indulged in every weekend. When the weather isn't too hot to breathe, you can venture to pleasant, palm-lined beaches (although the number of public, free beaches is diminishing all the time as more of the coastline is swallowed by new hotels and resorts). Glamorous, sprawling shopping malls with high-end outlets and indoor ski slopes shelter you when it is too hot, tempting everyone to give the plastic a good battering, and Arabian-souq-themed resorts with idyllic - but essentially fake - surroundings enchant those who like their experiences packaged, clean and safe like a Disney movie.

Those with a more adventurous bent can explore the real souqs scattered around the Dubai Creek, with their hustle and bustle and sights and smells, selling gold, spices, textiles and what traders will unashamedly refer to as "genuine fake Rolexes". It's in these places that you start to see the true heart and nature of the place. You see what the real make-up of the city's population is. It is a society of carefully-choreographed and jealously-protected levels of wealth and power, only a few of which are openly displayed in the brochures and advertisements. It is hierarchical and then some. The Sheiks of the Maktoum family sit at the top with absolute power, and are completely unassailable and beyond criticism. They are seen as men of vision and wisdom who have brought great prosperity to the area on the back of the oil money, and, admittedly, they are building something quite unprecedented.

The non-royal locals are the next level, just above the Western expats, and then come the higher-caste, educated sub-continentals. Behind them are the service staffs, a lot of them from places in Asia, like the Philippines and India. Ethnic origin counts for everything. It is a common occurrence that after a car crash, fault is assigned based on nationality and skin color rather than who was actually to blame. There’s more however, if a driver runs over a camel, which is the national animal, they are required to pay more blood money than they would if it were a human being.

 

There are more levels in this pyramid of privilege. The poorest and lowest levels have the most people in them. When you finally become aware of them, whether on vacation or in your first few weeks of living there, you take more notice of the dirty white buses ferrying laborers all over the city and the Emirate, to the hundreds of building sites that mark their presence with spindly, towering cranes.

 

You quickly come to the realization, mostly through informal channels and word-of-mouth, that these men - generally from the poorer parts of the Indian sub-continent - are here for one thing and one thing only: Work. The affluent lifestyle is not available to them. They are here to build the place, but they aren't really welcome in any other capacity. They are turned away from the magnificent malls that they built and won't even get within 50 yards of a five-star hotel. Even in public areas they are seen as a nuisance, with public beaches becoming notorious for being ogling posts for men who have never seen a woman showing more naked flesh than her face and hands.

 

While you belt along the Sheikh Zayed road in your air-conditioned, gulf-spec car towards another hotel or mall, you spot these white buses, with their barred-over windows and dirty exhaust fumes, and you can't help but thank your lucky stars that you aren't one of the men aboard. These men stare blankly at the unreal surroundings, either on their way to work a 12-hour shift or being conveyed back to their filthy, cramped labor accommodation to eat as little as possible so they can afford to send as much of their meager earnings (US$200 a month or less) back to their families in India, Pakistan or Sri-Lanka.

 

The summer is the worst. Most people are desensitized to the common sight of these men as they drive past construction sites. Dubai never stops building, and it is usually at the expense of these men. They work in 45 degree heat, even during midday when the sun is overhead and the heat is at its peak. Most of us would faint, and people have. Yet these men continue to toil. The stains of sweat patches cover most of their blue overalls. They are not allowed to take their helmets off, even though the sweat makes their forehead itch because they would be a liability to the company should anything happen.

 

These men were enticed. They were made promises. Their dreams were exploited, and they are often trapped in this existence as unscrupulous employers hold their passports.

 

You see it all the time, newspapers will report about the living conditions in labor camps, how some employers haven’t paid the laborers for months, and god forbid if they ever try to do anything. On one occasion about 200 laborers decided to sit on Sheikh Zayed road to protest their living conditions and wages. There is a rule against striking and protesting in Dubai. You’re just not allowed to do it. Those laborers were deported and their visas cancelled.

 

Some people have observed their plight. And some have been troubled by it. It troubled me, because I realized that I was living a lifestyle at the expense of these people. Above everything else - the wafer-thin facade, the oppressive heat and the hidden costs - this was the thing that affected me most, and ultimately it contributed to my decision to leave. That's not to say I regret going there, because I don't. It opened my eyes - not just, to how things are in Dubai, but to how they are in the world at large. For me it is a microcosm of how the world works, with a few people at the top holding all the money and power, while the great majority live in poverty, often unwittingly subsidizing the lives of those above them.

 

 I now wonder if things have really moved on since the days of Egypt, when slave labor was employed by Pharaohs to construct amazing structures in the sand. But things haven’t changed; situations have forced people into a life very similar to that of slaves and now humanity is dangling by a fine thread.

Tigers

She had stood up, only to walk right past us, all 500 pounds of her lazily crunching the leaves beneath her monstrous paws, giving us a full view of her royalty and I was too stunned to even move. It was like she didn't even care. Five cars around her, all clicking away carefully, and she just kept posing almost. "Showoff," I thought. But in my mind I knew this was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. Her colors were so defined. Her face was chiseled, jaws taut, teeth massive, eyes a gorgeous amber gold, paws the size of my face, and yet with all those monstrous features, she looked regal and beautiful. It honestly was beauty beyond belief.

 

 

She was so close that her tail touched the side of the car. Considering this was an open jeep, she could have just leaped up into it and pulled one of us away. It wouldn’t have been hard. Tigers can leap as high as 5 m (16 ft) and as far as 9–10 m (30–33 ft). Their paws are powerful enough to smash the skull of domestic cattle. Yet even with this knowledge in mind, we just waited. Leaving ourselves out there as bait to see what she would attack, but she just turned around, gave us another clear head shot and in her royal splendor, disappeared into the bushes.

 

My father, my boyfriend Karan, an entourage of domestic help and I were stalking a Bengal tiger, in The Jim Corbett National Park, in Uttaranchal, India. Although we frequented the park every year, occasionally we would encounter an unforgettable experience like this one. They were all the memorabilia that we needed of the park.

 

Jim Corbett National Park lies in the Nainital, Pauri Garwhal and Bijnore Districts of Uttaranchal. The area of the Reserve is 1318.54 sq. km. including 520 sq. km. of core area and 797.72 sq. km. of buffer area. The core area forms the Jim Corbett National Park while the buffer contains reserve forests (496.54 sq.km.) as well as the Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary (301.18 sq.km.). The park has been a tiger reserve for decades.

One is quite lucky to spot a tiger in the wild, considering this perfect carnivore is a critically endangered species. India is home to the largest population of wild tigers in the world. There are estimated to be only 5000 to 7500 tigers surviving in the world. Out of these, the subspecies found in the Indian subcontinent, the Bengal tiger has 3000 to 4500 surviving members, more than three-fourths of which are in India.

The Corbett Reserve in particular holds a large percentage of these tigers, but again, you have to be lucky to see one. Adult tigers are usually solitary, except for females with cubs. Generally, both female and male tigers maintain home ranges that do not overlap with the home range of another tiger of the same sex. Females have home ranges of approximately 20 sq. km while those of males are much larger, covering 60-100 sq. km. Male home ranges cover the territory of many smaller female home ranges. The male protects his territory and the females within it from competing males.

Tracking a tiger down is not easy. On one occasion we spent almost 6 hours in the summer heat, tracking a young male tiger. Karan and I were in the back seat of a convertible Gypsy, and while driving along through the jungle we spotted pug marks on the side of the muddy road. You can tell quite easily whether the pug marks belong to a male or a female. The female’s have ‘pointed’ toe prints while the male’s prints are curved. Since tigers are territorial, you know whether this is a male or female’s territory by looking at the pug marks. These pug marks belonged to a young male, around 3 years old.

Our ranger, Kale followed the pug marks for a while, my father’s car and the other cars tailed us as quietly as possible. Then all of a sudden the most awful stench filled the area around us. It was like we stumbled into a morgue during a power shortage. The smell of rotting flesh isn’t something that gets most people excited, but to a ranger and tiger enthusiast it was like walking into a gold mine.

The tiger was in the area, and this ‘aromatic’ pungent odor was the smell of its kill. When tigers kill, they usually settle down in a comfortable and shady place, and eat till they are full. If any of the kill is left over, the tiger will wait until it feels hungry again and finish its meal. So this was a definite indicator that the tiger was in the area.

Male tigers also share their kill with the female and cubs if the female shares the male’s territory. Unlike lions, the female and cubs feed first.

Tigers in India hunt deer and wild boar. They choose the largest of the prey species since larger prey represents more energy for the effort spent. For this reason the Sambar deer population density is believed to be a good indicator of the presence of tigers. Occasionally, tigers will also attack young of elephants and take smaller species, including monkeys, birds, reptiles and fish. 

Tigers usually hunt in the mornings or go down to the water holes to quench their thirst. Corbett is freezing in the mornings, yet dawn is a good time to spot a tiger and also enjoy the stirring jungle. As we were driving through the jungle we got lost in its serenity. The rich peacock of the leaves, the height of some trees that could put a sequoia to shame and the way the sunlight bore through the gaps of the canopy were breathtaking. It was like emerald with gilded gold.

All of a sudden our nirvana was interrupted by shrieks from monkeys and the “call” of the Barking and Sambar deer. The tiger’s prey is one of the most efficient ways of tracking a tiger down. According to Kale, who has been a ranger for 15 years, when the tiger is on the move, the entire jungle comes alive. And when the tiger sits down, the peace is restored.

We experienced something quite similar that morning. As Kale drove through the thick jungle towards the sound of the “call”, he pointed out that it was coming from the direction of a water hole nearby. Considering this man has been tracking tigers for years, the thrill of the chase was still evident on his face.

Anxiously, in his meager English he exclaimed, “Baby (in reference to me), I am going to show you tiger.” In his excitement he let go of the wheel to stretch his arms out, as though giving the moment a hug but really trying to convey how ‘big’ a tiger he meant.

As our cars growled softly towards the water hole, the drivers muted the noise by turning the cars off. And there in the distance was a 450 pound tigress with her two cubs that were not more than 4 months old. 

My boyfriend Karan gasped, taken aback by the sight. You see tigers in the zoo with their cubs and think nothing of it. There’s no magic there. But to see them in the wild, in their natural habitat, maternal instincts at play, and to just sit there in silence and observe nature at its finest, was an unforgettable experience.

Karan just sat there, everything else around him was blurred. The only thing in focus was this mother-child bonding session. His mouth curved into a subtle smile as he watched the female. She licked both her cubs, grooming them. All the monstrosity of this huge cat was gone. In that moment, she was just a mother, looking after her babies, and how!

Female tigers rear their cubs alone, and the cubs stay with their mother until they are 2-2½ years old, although they become independent at 18 months. The gestation period is usually 16 weeks and 3–4 cubs of about 2 pounds each are born. The female tigers generally own territory near their mother, while males tend to wander in search of territory, which they acquire by fighting and eliminating another male.

I watched as the female lay down and stretched her massive body on the cool bank. Her cubs started to play with each other and as we reversed our jeeps, satisfied with our morning’s findings, I noticed how she was watching her cubs. She had to be protective, male tigers often kill young cubs. But this was more than being protective; it was almost a show of love and care.

One of the most riveting experiences Karan and I had in particular that trip, also had to do with a tiger. This time however we were not in a jeep, but on the back of an elephant.

An elephant safari is essential for anyone who goes to Corbett. In order to really get into the thick of things, tracking a tiger on elephant back is a must. Due to the park’s regulations, people are not allowed to take their vehicles into some parts of the jungle. Elephants however provide that solution. Domestic elephants are trained by their owners, who are villagers of the area surrounding the park.

The elephant along with its owner riding up front will then take you into the grasslands and the jungle, through the trees. You need to watch your head however and be careful as tree snakes can often fall on you when going through a canopy.

Karan and I rode on the back of an elephant called Mona and that morning she lead us into a field of -get ready for this- marijuana. The plantation stretched out for as far as we could see, full of the intoxicant. Although marijuana grows wildly in Corbett, there are strict laws against harvesting it for sale.

As we trudged along, Mona’s huge feet crushing the ‘higher’, Karan started to get nervous.

“Rach, what happens if we do see a tiger? And it freaks the elephant out, and the elephant throws us down?”

Valid point I thought, considering we were not strapped onto the elephant by anything. It was just a cot placed upside down on the elephants back with a mattress on top. All we had to hold onto were the legs of the cot.

The rider however, told us that it wasn’t a problem. Tiger’s are actually scared of elephants. He went on to tell us about how tigers were trampled by elephants and how some of the loudest noises in the jungle, were fights between elephants and tigers. Usually male tuskers that have elephant calves are very defensive when it comes to tigers as tigers can sometimes prey on elephant young.

Moments later, in the thick of all that green, something orange darted across our line of sight. Yes, here was another one of these beautiful creatures. Yet it was like a jungle joyride.

Karan couldn’t believe it. First marijuana heaven, now this! The tiger could only be seen in flashes because the plants were almost 14 feet high. Yet he was amused by how gracefully this elephant pursued her target. The crowns of the marijuana would swish in the area where the tiger was. It was a cat and mouse chase that did not end in our favor and as soon as the tiger appeared, it was gone.

It didn’t really come as a surprise though. The tall marijuana field was one of the ideal traits of tiger habitat, being a good cover. The dense vegetation provided good camouflage. Tigers are also often found cooling off in ponds, lakes, and rivers during the extreme heat of the day. Tigers are excellent swimmers, and can swim up to 4 miles.

My appreciation for these cats, were for the longest time non-existent. I was aware they were endangered but I never felt passionately about them. Up until that moment where I was inches away from that tiger I started my story with.

That “showoff” made me realize just how beautiful and calm these creatures could be. I could’ve been sure she looked me dead in the eye and as she did, she allowed me in that moment, to co-exist, side by side with the largest and most regal of her kind.

Observations of a rainy day

Everyone has heard of elemental empathy. We all learn about it, usually on that Monday morning of English class where we sit there and try to coerce our brains into analyzing why the thunderstorm is suddenly going to mean that Jane Eyre’s love story with Mr Rochester is about to reach its finale.

I experienced something quite different however. Sure, elemental empathy was defiantly there, it was raining, the clouds were grey, there were scarce amounts of people dotted randomly along the streets. Most of the stores were shut and the meager few that were open for business were running slow.

As I walked down the street, I initially felt so gloomy (elemental empathy kicking in), I wanted to get back home as soon as possible after running the errands I had. I walked past a few stores, and then passed a Starbucks, which got me fantasizing about a tall white chocolate frappucino. And then I realized that this weather was pefect for a coffee that exquisite. I walked out of Starbucks, my fantasy in hand, and as I sipped it, suddenly the weather seemed different. It was the same, but the sentiment now stirring within me was one of excitement and ironically warmth, although that could have been the effect of my delectable drink.

Nonetheless, with this emotion inside, I kept walking, this time, observing all that was around me. Then like a light bulb going off in my head it dawned upon me. This definitely could not be like the kind of elemental empathy motifs we study about. There, rain always symbolizes sorrow, pain, foreshadows something grave and negative.

But, here in my rainy paradise I walked at a happy pace, cantering almost like an appaloosa in a field of daisies. As I looked at the trees, I could imagine them happy, their stomata’s fully exposed, thirsting for the rain, and as the raindrops hit the pores in their leaves, them drinking it all in.

My olfactory nerve was abruptly plucked like a guitar string, and with that ‘twang’ came an array of heavenly smells, smells that I am sure were around here before, but were only prominent when seasoned with essence of rain.

I could smell apple and cherry blossoms, there was the scent of faint vanilla and Indian paintbrush flowers and when I took a closer look, these flowers were blooming more than I have ever seen them bloom before.

I imagined their velvety soft petals, with the drops of rain running down their silky exterior and thought about how the smallest, most minute elements can combine into something so resplendent.

Sure there was definitely elemental empathy over here because somehow, somewhere the sun was shining for me.

Should gore be used in the movies?

I recently watched the movie, "The Ruins", and needless to say it was a waste of time, with very little dialogue and lots of gory and bloody scenes. After watching that movie several issues started spinning through my head about what we have become as a society.

Movies like the The Ruins', the "Saw' series, Silent Hill', Son of Sam', Urban Legend', Hannibal' and others all have an effect on society. When you see things like this happening on screen, it makes you wonder how many other people have also thought about them prior to this movie.
There are so many sick people in the world today, who all have weird fetishes and sick desires. Should we as a society really be encouraging this? It is frightening to think that people actually enjoy gore. We have become so used to so much gore and barbarity on television that we have numbed our selves down, and become insensitive to the real issues at hand.


Why is there a need for this kind of genre? This is not a question for producers and directors but rather a question for society. Whatever happened to the old westerns, love stories, clever thrillers, fantasy films etc? As far as I am aware some of these genres still have immense potential, not to mention the string of comedies that come out year after year. So why then, the need for this particular genre?

Shouldn't parents be concerned about the well being of children? There is so much exposure today to such harmful ideas, especially through the media. Shouldn't that worry us enough, rather than to deal with more and more exposure of our children?

Sure these movies have ratings, children are not meant to see them. However what people overlook is the fact that children are not the only ones that can fall victim to such ideas. Even grow up people can be the victims of such movies. Look at pedophiles, serial killers and mass murderers. When people who have potential to turn into those monsters, come across information like this in movies is it not likely that they could be encouraged to act upon their inner suppressed urges of violence?

We should put an end to these sorts of movies. A little violence is essential to a particular plot of a story, but gore to the extent that some movies project is inexcusable. It is time that we as a society started taking these little things seriously in order to protect not only ourselves but our children as well.

I remember reading an article many years ago about a child who jumped out of a window thinking he could fly like superman. If a movie like Superman can induce such behavior, shouldn't we be worried about what effect movies like these can have?

Should dogs be indoor or outdoor pets?

Although dogs are domesticated animals that fact cannot be perceived in literal terms. It can be done yes, a lot of dogs are kept indoors by their owners however that it not healthy for the animal.

Dogs have evolved from the wolf, and as we all know wolves live in packs. There is a certain hierarchy within the pack, ranging from the pack leader or the head hunter, to the most submissive and docile one in the pack. All these wolves have a function in the pack. And that function is predetermined by instinct and by nature.

Dogs are the same. Different breeds of dogs have different functions, or jobs. Labradors are water babies, bred to retrieve game from lakes and rivers. Their primary function is to be strong swimmers. Bloodhounds and other scent hounds are bred to track foxes other hunted animals. Pitt bulls are bred to be fighters, and breeds like the Mastiffs were bred for blood sports like bull-baiting, lion-baiting and bear-baiting.

These dogs have a function, however as pets, they do not always get the chance to tap into their instincts, which is why it is in best interest of the dog that it be an outdoor pet. Dogs were originally wild and were used to living in the wilderness. By keeping a dog copped up in a house, you are stripping that dog away of all its instincts and its very nature of being a dog.
Dogs are active animals; they need to run, to learn new things, to be able to hear new sounds, adapt to their environment, take charge of their territory and to be the protector in a home. A dog that is protected constantly in a house is not going to learn any of these things. The dog will start getting humanized and as it does so, lose its instinct.

When dogs are left outdoors, they keep themselves busy, they run around, play with other dogs in their pack, they stimulate their senses of sight, smell and taste and so are constantly given new challenges by nature. And dogs love challenges.

A dog lover who keeps his or her dog inside the house constantly is doing harm to their dog. The dog has nothing to do but to lie around all day, or follow their owner around the house. There is no stimulation to the sense, except maybe around dinner time or when someone is watching television. But is that really the kind of education we want to give out pets?

People under estimate the importance of stimulating an animals senses. I was watching a Ceasar Milan episode one day where he was trying to instill all the animal and dog qualities back into a sniffer dog which had been traumatized. And one of the ways he did this was by getting the dog to smell a litter of new born puppies. The smell of the placenta was supposed to tap into the dogs memories of when he was just a dog, and not a worker.

Things like that, just show us how important it is, as dog lovers and pet owners, to keep our pets busy, let them run around, chase a raccoon, track a scent or play fight with another dog. All these are ways to keep their inner dog alive, to allow them to harness their abilities as trackers and swimmers. Dog behavior is a fascinating subject. And by keeping a dog outdoors you are not only punishing your dog, but you are also meddling with the psychology of a dog. Let a dog be a dog. And the only place where it can be that way, it outdoors, among nature, its natural habitat.

Best dogs for kids

The one thing children will always want is a puppy. However what puppy they end up with isn't just based on the breed of dog but also on the characteristics of your children.

Most people assume that getting a puppy is easy. However, it is not the breed of dog that needs to be considered but the energy level of the dog. Dogs like labradors and spaniels make great companions for children as they are lovable and loyal dogs with very little aggression, however their activity level is extremmely high.

Children need to realize that a happy pup is a well exercised, disciplined and loved pup. In that very order. Playing with a puppy is not considered exercise, and even exercise like a walk needs to be scheduled. Like children, who have a certain time where they eat, bathe, play and sleep, dogs need the same discipline as well.

Taking that into account, an ideal breed of dog for children would be a smaller dog. However do not be fooler. Breeds like the jack russel terrier and the poodle are small dogs, but their energy levels are beyond what a child can handle. Breeds like the Yorkshire Terrier are small but are extremmely alert dogs, they tend to yap a lot and bark at almost anything. When considering smaller breeds as well you also have to take into account that these dogs are more delicate and if touched or held in a certain way will bit you as they get hurt easily.

I have had almost sixteen dogs till date and I always wanted the bigger breeds of dogs like boxers, german shepherds etc. However, it was only later that I realized that I couldnt handle such a dog till I was much older, organized and self diciplined.

Therefore, I think the qualities to look for in a breed when buying a dog for a child, is the tempermant, genetics, characteristics and aggression. With all these factors taken into account my advice would be to get a dog like the Pug. Pugs are small dogs, easily trained, always by their owners side, very low agression levels and are fun, loving dogs. They would make the ideal companion for children as their energy levels are relatively low.

They get along well with other dogs, are extremmely sociable pets and have charming personalities. They also happen to be one of the cutest breeds around

Does J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series pervert American values?

The first Harry Potter book was introduced to me when I was twelve years old, by a teacher in my school. After reading the first book I was hooked, I would anxiously wait for the next book to come out and in that time re-read the books I had over and over again.

When a new book would come out, I would read until my mother forced me to go to bed, and she would later, often find me with reading until the wee hours of the morning with torch light.
My mother never understood why I was so excited. At the dinner table, I would constantly ramble on and on about what was happening, sharing my theories as to what would happen next. My parents had no idea what I was talking about, yet they were very amused by my passion for Harry Potter.

Most parents, who have not read Harry Potter, assume that all the book is about is witchcraft, black magic and sorcery. Particularly parents who are religious; often come across newspaper articles where, the Harry Potter books are frowned upon by the church and other religious bodies.

Harry Potter however was an escape for me. As a child growing up I found the content refreshing, believable, the characters were alive in my head. Even before the movies came out, I would constantly picture the characters and Hogwarts castle and I would stay lost in those thoughts for hours on end.

So coming back to the question in hand, "Does J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series pervert American values?"

My answer is no. Perversion is probably the last thing that this book does to American, or any other kind of values.

The charm about the books is the fact that they are solely based on adventure, friendship and loyalty. There is nothing perverted in the books. The thought that anyone could think so is ridiculous.

The books hold an important message that is essential for the children of today to be aware of. That message is to be true to you, to trust yourself and your family and friends and to always choose the right path; no matter how hard it may be.

Children of today hardly read. My sister and I have an age gap of eleven years and I know for a fact that she would rather spend time on a computer than pick up a good book to read. The Harry Potter books are probably the only books she doesn't have to be forced to read.

What Rowling did, was a favor to society through these books. She fashioned this idea of a young orphan boy and portrayed his story in a manner that made all of us laugh and cry with Harry. Rowling's readers did not just read the book, but they took part in the story. For those of us who have been reading Harry Potter for years now, we have grown up with Harry. We too have experienced parallels of the problems Harry is faced with. We too have bickered and fought with friends, had mood swings, had crushes and then had our hearts broken. Some of us have had to deal with a death in the family, and finally all of us had to grow up.

Harry's story could be seen as just an extreme version of what all children experience when growing up. Eventually we realize the more important things in life, friendship, family, loyalty and courage. Rowling brilliantly paints two sides, good and evil. Throughout the series, she shows how Harry resists the temptation to go to the dark side, how he would rather die than betray his friends. How he ill fight for what is right at no cost.

The story is beyond brilliant. It is exactly what children today need as a reminder of what is important, of the kind of person they should be. The magic in the book is just a blank canvas for these messages Rowling put across. The magic is essential, to draw children in, to excite their curiosities and to encourage them to imagine.

With the technological advances that we have today, and children growing up so fast, it is no wonder that they lose track of certain values. What the world was ten years ago, is not the same now.

I feel that Rowling has kindled a flame inside every child, pre-teen, teenager and adult. Through her stories she has kept our imaginations on a tight exercise schedule, she has warmed our hearts with Harry's relationship with Sirius Black, with Dumbledore and his friends. She has shown that love comes from different places, and although you may seem like you are alone, you never really are.

What better values could we want for our children than these messages? Those children who were fortunate enough to stumble upon Harry Potter when they were around twelve years old are lucky. They have not only had the ability to grow up with Harry, but they have also been educated on these values for the past seven years.