Nelson Mandela-South African Leader

The title for this week blog is orator and I had chosen the famous African orator, Nelson Mandela. He had known for his anti-apartheid activist. Nelson Mandela born 18 July 1918 in Transkei, South Africa. He was born in Mvezo, a small village located in the district of Umtata, the Transkei capital. Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, served as chief of the town of Mvezo. However, upon alienating the colonial authorities, they deprived Mphakanyiswa of his position, and moved his family to Qunu. Despite this, Mphakanyiswa remained a member of the Inkosi's Privy Council. Mandela's father had four wives, with whom he fathered a total of thirteen children (four boys and nine girls). Mandela was born to his third wife ('third' by a complex royal ranking system), Nosekeni Fanny.

When Mandela was nine, his father died of tuberculosis, and the regent, Jongintaba, became his guardian. Mandela attended a Wesleyen mission school located next to the palace of the regent. Following Thembu custom, he was initiated was at age sixteen, and attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute. Mandela completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the usual three. Designated to inherit his father's position as a privy councillor, in 1937 Mandela moved to Headtown , the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort which most Thembu royalty attended. At nineteen, he took an interest in boxing and running at the school.

After enrolling, Mandela began to study for a Bachelor Arts at Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo .Tambo and Mandela became lifelong friends and colleagues. At the end of Nelson's first year, he became involved in Students Representative Council boycott against university policies, and was told to leave Fort Hare and not return unless he accepted election to the SRC. While working at Witkin, Sidelsky and Edelman, Mandela completed his B.A. degree at the University of South Africa via correspondence.

After struggling for his anti-apartheid activist, then on 5 August 1962 Mandela was arrested after living on the run for seventeen months, and was imprisoned in the Johannesburg Fort. The arrest was made possible because the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) tipped off the security police as to Mandela's whereabouts and disguise. Three days later, the charges of leading workers to strike in 1961 and leaving the country illegally were read to him during a court appearance. On 25 October 1962, Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison. Two years later on 11 June 1964, a verdict had been reached concerning his previous engagement in the African National Congress (ANC).

On 2 February 1990, State President F.W. de Klerk reversed the ban on the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990. The event was broadcast live all over the world. On 10 Mei 1994, Nelson Mandela had been chosen as the first black President for South African.

A few questions about Angkor Wat..

What is the Bayon?
Bayon is a well known and richly decorated khmer temple at Angkor in Cambodia.


What is Bayon famous for?
The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak.


Who was Ta-kuan?
Chinese official named Chou Ta-Kuan was sent by his emperor on a reporting mission to the Kingdom of Khmer.


Who were the Khmer's enemies?
Khieu Samphan.


What is the main reason for the fall of the Khmer empire?
loss of water control.Khmer seem unwilling to work wholeheartedly for the king as a holy service as they had previously did.


How did Angkor Wat survive?
By collecting water from rivers for agriculture as well as draining and reserving water from the monsoon season.Storing the water helped as the area only had two season.

The best of Istanbul

This week is my turn to post the blog and that is our second last topics.
The last topic will be post by piqa.

Our topic for this week is megacity.According to the topic,

i would like to choose Istanbul as the megacity that i will discuss in my blog.


Istanbul also known as Byzantium and Constantinople.

That is the largest city in Turkey and also as the fifth largest city in the world.

Its known as megacity because its have 12.6 million of population.

In its long history,Istanbul has served as the capital city of the Roman Empire,the East Roman Empire,the Latin Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

That is the graph of history population in Istanbul.

From the smallest population to the largest one until its became the MEGACITY.

The urban landscape of Istanbul is constantly changing.

From Greek until Byzantine periods,the city was largely made up

of the historic peninsula of constantinople.

From time to time,the numbers of tall building was rapidly growth.

At the same time the numbers of people in Istanbul also increase according to the development.Many building was build and several of them became the symbolic of Istanbul.For example,

historical mosques,church,synagogues,palace castle and towers.

It is the important aset that can attract other people from the other countries to visit Istanbul.

The famous Maiden's (leander's) tower is one of the value symbol in Istambul.
It was original build by Ancient general Alcibiades.This tower is important to control the movements of the Persian ship in the Bosphorus.

Maiden's(leander's) Tower


Majority of people in Istanbul are Muslim and the minority are Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Christians, Catholic Levantines and Sephardic jews.
According to the 200 census,there were 2691 active mosques,123 active churches and 26 active synagogues in Istanbul,as well as 109 muslim cemetries and 57 non-muslim cemetries.

One of the Mosque..


One of the Church..

In the nut shell,Istanbul is the valueable megacity.There are many interesting place that we should know.


Lastly,i would like to apologize to all if i have make mistake because this is the last blog that i must post to complete my assigment of BBI 2409 for my first semesta as a student of DKHP at University Putra Malaysia kampus Bintulu..

The sculpture found in Egypt

Egypt is one of the mysterious places in the world and had been listed in the Seven Wonders of the World. Besides its mystique, there are lots divisions of arts found by archeologist. Painting, writing, sculpture and architecture are the example of art found in this era. Egyptian civilization is renowned for its colossal pyramids, colonnades and monumental tombs. The famous architecture are the Pyramid of Djoser designed by ancient architect and engineer called Imhotep.

Another example of the architecture found are Sphinx, and the temple of Abu Simbel.

The pyramid was built for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser in the 27^th century BC. It is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex in an enormous courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures and decoration. Djoser was the first king of the third Dynasty. He is believed to have ruled for 19 years.

Besides of its architecture, the sculptures also fascinate people who watch. The sculpture found was highly stylized and symbolic. The ancient art of Egyptian sculpture are built in order to represent the ancient Egyptian Gods, Pharaohs, and the Kings and Queens, in physical form.

Moreover, massive statues were built to represent gods and famous kings and queens. These statues were supposed to give eternal life to the kings and queens, and to enable the subjects to see them in physical forms.

Whether there was real portraiture in Ancient Egypt or not is still debated till now.

The Slavery of Indegenous people in Brazil

Brazil, one of the largest numbers of the uncontacted indigenous people in the world, regarding the survey of FUNAI in 18.1.2007. The Indigenous peoples in Brazil ( in Portuguese: povos indígenas no Brasil) comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups.

The word índios ("Indians"), was by then established to indicate the peoples of the New World and stuck being used today in the Portuguese language to classify these kind of peoples, while the people of India are called as indianos in order to differentiate these two peoples.

At the time of European discovery, the indigenous peoples were traditionally mostly nomad tribes who depending on hunting, fishing, and migrant agriculture. Many of the estimated 2,000 nations and tribes which existed in 1500, died out as a consequence of the European settlement in that area, and many were assimilated into the Brazilian population.

The indigenous population has declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated at below 4 million to some 300,000 in 1997, grouped into some 200 tribes. Somehow, the dated linguistic survey found 188 living indigenous languages with 155,000 total speakers.

Figure shows Terena tribe in Brazil.

When the Portuguese discoverers first arrived in Brazil in April 1500, they found that there is a widely population in coastline, consist hundreds of thousands of indigenous people living in a "paradise" of natural riches. Pedro Álvares Cabral, the commander of the discovery fleet which landed in the present state of Bahia, wrote a letter to the King of Portugal describing in glowing terms the beauty of the land.

At the time of European discovery, the territory had as many as 2,000 nations and tribes. When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, the Indians were living mainly on the coast and along rivers and the riverbanks. Initially, the Europeans saw the natives as noble savages, and discrimination of the population began right away. Tribal warfare, cannibalism, and the pursuit of Amazonian for its treasured red dye convinced the Portuguese that they should "civilize" or “teach” the Indians how the civilized people live. But the Portuguese, like the Spanish in their North America territories, had unknowingly brought diseases with them which many Indians were helpless due to lack of immunity and medication. Measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza many of them. The diseases spread quickly along the indigenous, and whole tribes were likely being cleansing without ever come in contact with those Europeans.

Slavery and the Bandeiras

Eventually, the mutual feeling of noble savages about those Indians end quickly. The Portuguese colonists, all males, started to have children with female Indians, creating a new generation of mixed-race people who spoke Indian languages (a Tupi language called Nheengatu). The children of these Portuguese men and Indian women formed the majority of the population. Groups of fierce conquistadores' sons organized expeditions called "bandeiras" (it means flags) into the backlands to claim the land to the Portuguese crown and to look for gold and precious stones.

Intending to profit from sugar trade, Portuguese decided to plant sugar cane in Brazil, and use the indegenous slave. This is due to the sucessive of the Spanish of doing so toward the Africans. But the indegenous were hard to catch and later, infected by the desease encourage the settlers and the traders to start importing Africa slaves.