Friday, January 31, 2020

My Best Memory of Cuba Essay Example for Free

My Best Memory of Cuba Essay Orly Solomon was a child star in France, the French Shirley Temple if I may tell the truth. At the young age of eight she became a famous singer, actress and TV host. She even got into the Guinness World Records as the youngest TV host in history. For years Orly toured around singing, released CDs and performed on television and on stages. But as she grew into adulthood, due to poor management, she lost momentum and her position in the entertainment industry, and was soon forgotten. Orly was never one to give up easily, and as such, a few years later she applied for a main role in the world renowned production The Lion King. Of all things it was in German, a language she did not speak. After rigorous auditions, having to learn German in a very short time in order to pass her final audition, in 2003 she got accepted and moved to Germany. Orly was back in the game and was singing her heart out entertaining audiences again. After a few years of living the same role over and over Orly started getting tired of the assembly line routine. She craved creativity and change as any artist does in a long repetitive production. Her dream was to travel to Cuba to learn Spanish and salsa. She took her first trip to Cuba and fell in love with the place and its highly developed art scene. Orly had another dream to release a single with some of the most famous Cuban artists such as Maykel Blanco y Su Salsa Mayor, Pupy y Los Que Son Son and more. And like everything in her life shortly after she made her dream come true. This artist-entrepreneur has always had a brilliant mind initiating profitable projects. It started as a young teenager while organizing karaoke parties mixed with her singing, which in those times was truly ground breaking. It continued to organizing big events and later concerts for big stars such as Maykel Blanco and his band when they toured in France. Orly’s life would not have shamed a telanovela and one should probably be produced in her honour someday. Her life story so far had many unexpected turns and twists, but like a willow tree, she flexes well with the wind. Orly, no doubt, fell in love with Cuba and its artists and had realized her dream – she knows all of the top salsa artists such as Maykel Blanco, Alexander Abreu, Manolito Simonet and more. She works with them regularly and even released a few singles in Cuba that she feels very proud of. But one day it all clicked for her when she recognized that many people in the world were just as passionate about salsa as she was and dreamt of having a memorable experience with their favourite artist. This is how the project ‘My Best memory of Cuba’ came to life. ‘My Best Memory of Cuba’ is Orly’s new concept allowing her to share her great luck of meeting the biggest Cuban salsa stars and working with them. Orly offers groups the great opportunity of getting connected to them and being featured in a video clip with them. You pick the song, the artist, and the location in Havana and voila! A quick rehearsal, about an hour of fun filming and dancing, and each person ends up with a DVD of their best memory of Cuba – their own personal video clip with their dream star, a dream come true!

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Cry, The Beloved Country: The Breakdown And Rebuilding Of South Africa :: Cry, The Beloved Country Essays

Cry, The Beloved Country: The Breakdown and Rebuilding of South African Society â€Å"...what God has not done for South Africa man must do.† pg. 25   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the book, Cry, the Beloved Country, written by Alan Paton, some major conflicts follow the story from beginning to end. Two of these conflicts would be as follows; first, the breakdown of the ever so old and respected tribe; and second, the power of love and compassion and how that it can rebuild broken relationships. This story gives the reader the perfect perspective in learning about the injustices that have taken place in South Africa, and it gives us a sense of the trials and hardships the blacks went through then. Cry, is a story about a Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and how he sets out to bring his family back together. While he sets out about doing this he realizes that his family is completely in the shambles and his family has strayed from the church and tribal traditions. Kumalo eventually learns to deal with this and while he is doing this, he makes a friend, James Jarvis, that changes the way he has looked on life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The tribal breakdown starts to show in book I, with the land that the tribe must use and how the people have used up the natural resources that used to lay there. The whites pushed them out of where they used to reside where the land is so good that it could be even referred to as â€Å"holy, being even as it came from the Creator.† (pg. 3). In the rural areas such as this the decay comes as a result of making the blacks live in confined areas where the land is so bad it can't be farmed any more, and the taking of the strong males out of these areas to go work in the mines were things are unsafe and people rarely return. Because of this, the people leave the tribe to go on the roads to travel to Johannesburg, because â€Å"All roads lead to Johannesburg.† (pg. 10).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As Kumalo arrives in Johannesburg he finally realizes what a problem he has stepped into. He realizes that nobody in his family, neither brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, even cousins, have any moral ties with each other anymore. He sees his brother get caught up in worldly beliefs, such as: fame, money, power, greed and lying. He also sees his sister and his son living in a horrible life of crime and sin. Kumalo even starts to lose hope for his son, he states that â€Å"I can do nothing here, let us go.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Sport Trends in the Ymca

There are multiple ways that recent trends in the sport industry are affecting the YMCA. A majority of them would be revolving around the economy and how the YMCA is considered a luxury to the people. Others would be the increase of fitness in the world and sport curiosity and also the elderly still maintaining their healthy lifestyles. The increased popularity of celebrity athletes in the world are leading to an increased popularity in the sport world (Balmer, 2009). The battle against obesity is increasing the number of people who join a fitness club or health organization.Also, many people are beginning to try to find both healthier lifestyles and seeking a balance between work and leisure (Sports, 2007). Lastly, the way that kids are being taught is changing; practices are becoming known as best practices and the kids are learning more of the sport and becoming better (Stephens, 2009). All members of the YMCA consider it as a luxury to their life. They would not die without it an d do not need it to sustain their current life. When the economy is bad so is the amount of memberships that are still active. If a member encounters a financial situation the first thing that would go would be their YMCA membership.Employees at the YMCA know this, â€Å"At Countryside YMCA, we welcome everyone’s involvement by providing financial assistance to subsidize memberships or classes for eligible families or individuals† so they encourage and run a scholarship program (YMCA). This program encourages young people to stay active and fit while still in school. If your parent may not be able to afford you a full time membership as long as you maintain good grades and can prove that you are a full time student then you will be supplied with a membership at next to nothing if not for nothing at all.Another current trend affecting the YMCA would be the new attitudes toward maintaining health and the attitudes of the elderly toward staying active. The YMCA recently h eld their annual Halloween run. This event is a marathon through the mud. Many officials were very concerned with their recent numbers and were in fear that the marathon would be a disaster and they might actually have to cancel the event. They stuck through it and held the event and they had one of the best turnouts they have ever had. It was because of the youth and the elderly banning together to make this event so amazing.The number for the amount of people participating in the event ages 40 and on increased from a meager 15% to an astounding 35%. The number of people participating from the ages of 18 to 40 nearly doubled. With the increase of sport curiosity the YMCA is prospering because they offer a variety of sports. The increased popularity of celebrity athletes is affecting the YMCA extremely. One of the founders of the YMCA was Neil Armstrong and a lot of people sign up just for that reason. As bicycling expands and the popularity of Lance Armstrong grows the YMCA is begi nning to develop into the trend by now offering spinning classes.Also, as the world of mixed martial arts expands they YMCA went from offering just karate classes to offering more diverse classes that people like to watch and want to learn how to do them. It is clearly obvious that there is a major hike in the world obesity rate. Effects from this rises are people wanting to become more active in the fitness area. â€Å"Health Organization, since 1980, the number of obese people in the world has more than doubled and that in 2008, 1. 5 billion people aged 20 years old and older are overweight and 500 million are obese† (Danek, 2011).Since the YMCA maintains a friendly environment where there is a mass amount of different programs offered more people are beginning to go to the YMCA. Next, people have to work longer and harder schedules at work. This is leading them to have no time to go to a gym or enroll in a class that meets on a certain day and time. The YMCA offers an affo rdable place to work out whenever you want to. It is open nearly all day and all areas are open at any point in the day. If a person is having a tough time balancing their business world with their activity world there wouldn’t be a better place than the YMCA for them.Lastly, the way kids are being coached and how practices are ran are becoming more proficient and more focused on the kids overall ability. Coaches are learning they way to manipulate a kid and get their full potential out. This is certainly happening at the YMCA from their basketball games to their baseball games. Kids are being coached a lot better leading to more success in their games. References Balmer, K. (2009). Sport industry trend. Foresight, Retrieved from http://foresight-trendscan. blogspot. com/2009/09/sports-industry-trends. html Danek, K. (2011).Trends and opportunities for small business companies and entrepreneurs in the sports industry. Entreprenuers Week, Retrieved from http://entrepreneurweek . com/business/2011/10/03/trends-and-opportunities-for-small-business-companies-and-entrepreneurs-in-the-sports-industry/ Sports, A. (2007). Industry trends. Retrieved from http://www. amersports. com/about/corporate_structure/our_industry/ Stephens, R. (2009). Top 10 sports/social media trends of 2010. Sports Networker, Retrieved from http://www. sportsnetworker. com/2009/12/24/top-10-sports-social-media-trends-of-2010/ The ymca. (2011). Retrieved from http://www. countrysideymca. org/