The Most American Of Literary Forms, The Short Story

               The Short Story Is the Most American Of Literary Forms

The Short Story is the most demanding form of literature. It is short and intense. In a short story almost every word must be exactly right. The words must fit the story precisely. As William Faulkner once said "It is easier to write a novel than a short story". An author can be careless with his language and style in a novel; not so in a short story. In a novel one can be less careful with the plot and subplot. In a short story as in a poem, every word counts.
The Short Story is written to be read in an hour or less. During that time the soul of the reader is at the writer's control. In a Short Story the writer puts us, the readers, in the middle of some human action and shows it as it is illuminated and outlined by mystery. The major American writers of the 19th Century had an enormous impact on the development and direction of the short prose narrative that we now call the Short story.
Men like Hermann Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote reviews and prefaces that helped to define the Short Story as uniquely American.

These authors recognized an alienation and tragedy rumbling beneath the placid, optimistic surface of 19th Century America. They recognized a strained preoccupation with evil that had formed a perplexing element in the American experience from our Puritanical beginnings. Their stories focused on certain dark perspectives found in the human heart. They had a fascination with the warped psyche.  They presented us with psychologically complex characters who were driven by fear and the taint of unidentified evils.
 The dominant spirit of Washington Irving's "The Legend Of Sleepy Hallow" is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. This Headless Horseman is rumored to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been shot off  by a cannon-ball during the Revolutionary War. He haunts the surrounding valley, the adjacent roads, and the vicinity of a church where the body of a trooper is rumored to be buried. The ghost rides out nightly to the scene of battle in search of his head.
 This fascination with evil would continue to absorb American writers into the 20th Century. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Washington Irving, William Faulkner, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mark Twain greatly influenced writers like Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, John Cheever, and Joyce Carol Oates.

Bibliography:
1. Sullivan, Nancy; The  Treasury Of American Short Stories, 1981, Doubleday and Company, Inc.; xiii-xvi.
2. Irving, Washington, The Legend of Sleepy Hallow.

James Brown, Mr. Dynamite, The Godfather of Soul Gets Respect

Soul Power in Overdrive

‘Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,’ on HBO

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"Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown," a documentary by Alex Gibney, is being shown Monday on HBO. Credit Walter Iooss Jr./Getty Images

There is one interview I remember from my early days as a reporter, and I often recite a line from it because it’s the best answer I’ve ever gotten and ever will get. Naturally, it came from James Brown.

It was in 1989, at the dark, wrong end of Brown’s career, when he was in prison for, among other things, capping a long bout of partying with a high-speed chase through Georgia and South Carolina that ended only after police officers shot out his tires.

I was a Time magazine reporter, and he was working in the prison cafeteria. The warden let me wave through a window at Brown, inmate No. 155413, as he wiped down tables in a cook’s white coat and cap, embellished by purple wraparound sunglasses and matching scarf. Brown was allowed to speak by phone.

I didn’t even know where to begin, so I asked how he was feeling.

“I’m well rested now,” he said, and waited a beat. “But I miss being tired.”

That reply is almost reason enough for watching “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,” an HBO documentary directed by Alex Gibney, on Monday night. But there are plenty of others. This is a smart, informative and compassionate look at the artist known as the Godfather of Soul, whose music changed America.

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“Mr. Dynamite” is an informative and compassionate look at James Brown, whose R&B, soul and funk altered American music. Credit Emilio Grossi/HBO

And you can dance to it.

Brown, who died in 2006, was a fascinating and confounding figure. Just this year, he inspired a biographical movie, “Get On Up,” with Chadwick Boseman as Brown, and there have been a steady stream of biographies, including two memoirs that he wrote with co-authors.

He was a magnetic, kinetic master of R&B, soul and funk, with roots in gospel and big-band music. He was a beloved performer and an often terrible boss and violent husband. (His third wife, Adrienne Lois Rodriguez, told me he once laid out her mink coat on the bed and then shot it.) He played an important role at critical moments in the civil rights movement and also shocked his fans by supporting Richard M. Nixon in 1972.

Of course, there is also the music.

The film opens with Brown sweating through a muscle T-shirt and chanting the opening words of “Soul Power” to a frenzied audience at the Olympia in Paris in 1971.

The narrative threads his scratch-poor boyhood dancing for nickels in the segregated South to his lasting influence on rock, hip-hop and rap. The film doesn’t dwell on his sad last days, but it does address his many contradictions — personal, musical and political. All of it is set to the beat of his music, which gets the last word.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who was a friend and protégé and contributed to one of Brown’s memoirs, tries to explain why his hero supported Nixon. “James Brown believed in bootstrap economics, lift yourself up,” he says, “so the appeal of Richard Nixon, which was a total, total atrocity to me, but to James Brown it was black capitalism.”

The camera cuts to Brown performing “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing.”

Mick Jagger, a producer of “Mr. Dynamite,” also has a lot to say about Brown, an artist he copied early in his career. Mr. Jagger, of the Rolling Stones, has the grace to admit his debt, saying he tried “to steal everything I could possibly do.” But he also uses the occasion to correct a legend about “The T.A.M.I. Show,” a performance feature film shot in 1964, when the Stones followed Brown and were upstaged by his electrifying performance. Michael Veal, a musician and author, says he heard that while Brown blew up the room, Mr. Jagger stood watching on the side of the stage, “just being devastated and traumatized.”

Mr. Jagger says that although Brown did indeed “kill,” the concert was filmed as a movie, which was heavily cut and edited, and that the Stones’ performance was filmed hours later with a different audience. (In fairness, the Stones’ rendition of “It’s All Over Now” at that concert does not seem nearly as insipid and embarrassing as Gerry and the Pacemakers’ singing of “How Do You Do It?”)

Some of the most revealing moments come from the memories of less famous friends and colleagues, including Bobby Byrd, the musician who took in Brown when he got out of jail at 20 and who founded what was eventually known as Brown’s backup group, the Famous Flames. Other musicians who played in Brown’s band express joy and pride in their work and also deep disappointment with a boss who was aloof, a loner and a bit of a skinflint.

One time, when band members gathered to confront Brown, he stormed out. Another time, when band members said they were fed up, Brown brought a group of new musicians onto the stage, where the current band members were already preparing to play: It was their cue that they were all dispensable.

He was an important, thrilling voice during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. After Brown performed in Mississippi, Dick Gregory said, “This is black power, baby.” And Brown played a heroic role in Boston in 1968 right after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. He went on with a scheduled concert and persuaded the enraged and distraught audience, and the entire city, to stay calm.

Not everything about him was admirable. Mr. Sharpton gets the second-to-last word, explaining, “What was his negative may have ended up being his strength.”

Last and best comes Brown, performing back when he felt good because he was feeling tired.

Correction: October 28, 2014
A television review on Monday about the documentary “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,” on HBO, misidentified the person who said “This is black power, baby” after a performance by Brown in Mississippi. Although the HBO transcript identifies the speaker as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the comment was by the comedian Dick Gregory, who also attended the concert; it was not made by Dr. King.

Mr. Dynamite
The Rise of James Brown
HBO, Monday night at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Directed by Alex Gibney; Mr. Gibney, Dan Brooks, Mike Singer and Eric Weider, executive producers; Mick Jagger, Victoria Pearman, Peter Afterman and Blair Foster, producers.

( By ALESSANDRA STANLEY, OCT. 26, 2014)

Dragon Wags Its Tail; China Flexes The Soft Power of $4 Trillion Reserves

 

21 countries agree to form Asian bank to rival World Bank, and IMF.

 

  President Xi Jinping of China met with government officials on Friday to sign a memorandum to start the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Takaki Yajima-Pool/Getty Images

The backers of the bank include China and India.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was officially launched Oct. 24 in Beijing. The bank is China's brainchild and will be headquartered in Beijing with at least $50 billion in capital to start (much of it coming from China).
Twenty other countries signed a memorandum Oct. 24, including India, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Notable absences from the bank include Australia, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.

"We have concerns about the ambiguous nature of the AIIB proposal as it currently stands, that we have also expressed publicly." Jen Psaki, U.S. State Dept. spokeswoman

The U.S. has questioned whether the AIIB will meet international transparency standards. The fund is seen as a "soft power" move by China, meant to rival Western-backed funds including the World Bank, IMF and the Asian Development Bank, which operates out of the Philippines. 

Oct 24, 2014 (Reuters) - Australia, Indonesia and South Korea skipped the launch of a China-backed Asian infrastructure bank on October 24th as the United States said it had concerns about the new rival to Western-dominated multilateral lenders.
China's $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is seen as a challenge to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, both of which count Washington and its allies as their biggest financial backers.
China, which is keen to extend its influence and soft power in the region, has limited voting rights in these existing banks despite being the world's second-largest economy.
The AIIB, launched in Beijing at a ceremony attended by Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei and delegates from 21 countries including India, Thailand and Malaysia, aims to give project loans to developing nations. China is set to be its largest shareholder with a stake of up to 50 percent.
Indonesia was not present and neither were South Korea and Australia, according to a pool report.
Japan, China's main rival in Asia and which dominates the $175 billion Asian Development Bank along with the United States, was also not present, but it was not expected to be.
Media reports said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry put pressure on Australia to stay out of the AIIB.
However, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "Secretary Kerry has made clear directly to the Chinese as well as to other partners that we welcome the idea of an infrastructure bank for Asia but we strongly urge that it meet international standards of governance and transparency.
"We have concerns about the ambiguous nature of the AIIB proposal as it currently stands, that we have also expressed publicly."
In a speech to delegates after the inauguration, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the new bank would use the best practices of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
"For the AIIB, its operation needs to follow multilateral rules and procedures," Xi said. "We have also to learn from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and other existing multilateral development institutions in their good practices and useful experiences."
PERSONAL LOBBYING
The Australian Financial Review said Kerry had personally asked Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to keep Australia out of the AIIB.
"Australia has been under pressure from the U.S. for some time to not become a founding member of the bank and it is understood Mr Kerry put the case directly to the prime minister when the pair met in Jakarta on Monday following the inauguration of Indonesian President Joko Widodo," the paper said.
South Korea, one of Washington's strongest diplomatic allies in Asia, has yet to say it will formally participate in the bank. Its finance ministry said last week it has been speaking with China to request more consideration over details such as the AIIB's governance and operational principles.
"We have continued to demand rationality in areas such as governance and safeguard issues, and there's no reason (for Korea) not to join it," South Korean Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said in Beijing on Thursday after attending a separate regional meeting.
The Seoul-based JoongAng Daily quoted a South Korean diplomatic source as saying: "While Korea has been dropped from the list of founding members of the AIIB this time around, it is still in a deep dilemma on what sort of strategic choices it has to make as China challenges the U.S.-led international order."
The AIIB is expected to begin operations in 2015 with senior Chinese banker Jin Liqun, ex-chairman of investment bank China International Capital Corp, expected to take a leading role.
The memorandum of understanding signed on Friday said authorised capital of the bank would be $100 billion and that the AIIB would be formally established by the end of 2015 with its headquarters in Beijing, state news agency Xinhua said.
Takehiko Nakao, the president of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), said the AIIB should function in line with international governance, labour and environmental standards.
"I hope the new bank will adhere to these standards," Nakao told Reuters in a phone interview.
He acknowledged there was an overlap of the AIIB's role with that of the ADB.
"But again, because of very big financing needs of the region it is understandable to have a new idea of establishing a bank," Nakao said, adding: "We will consider the appropriate collaboration after it is really established."
The ADB, created in 1966, offers grants and below-market interest rates on loans to lower to middle-income countries. At the end of 2013, its lending amounted to $21.02 billion, including co-financing with other development partners.
China has a 6.5 percent stake in the ADB, while the United States and Japan have about 15.6 percent each. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Sonali Paul, Jake Spring, Choonsik Yoo and Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

China pushed ahead with the creation of its proposed $50 billion Asia regional bank by signing a memorandum today with 21 countries, which didn’t include South Korea (005930), Australia and Indonesia.

The proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), first put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in October last year, is a key component of China’s efforts to expand its regional influence. The bank, a potential rival to institutions such as the Asian Development Bank, has been opposed by the U.S., which has asked its allies not to participate, the New York Times reported earlier this month.
The 21 “prospective founding member countries” at the signing ceremony included India, Vietnam, Singapore, Qatar, Thailand, Mongolia and Myanmar, according to a pool report of the event. Xi told delegates from the countries that all Asian nations “understand the importance of seeking strength through unity” and the AIIB will welcome participation by all countries either from within or outside of Asia.

“With or without support from the U.S. and its allies, China will continue to push ahead with new institutions, including the AIIB,” said Jin Canrong, a professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing. “It would be better to get Australia and South Korea on board, but it won’t hurt too much without them -- and the door is still open to them.”

World Bank, IMF

China, with $4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, is adopting a “two-leg approach” to grow its own multilateral bodies, including the AIIB, the BRICS Bank and a bank for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, while seeking to strengthen its voice at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, said Jin at Renmin University.
South Korea and Australia attended preparatory talks for the regional bank last month, according to a photo of a meeting on the Chinese Ministry of Finance’s website. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry requested at a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Jakarta this week that Australia not join the bank, the Australian Financial Review reported.

China has held at least five rounds of discussions with interested countries on setting up the lender, according to the China’s finance ministry’s website. At a press conference closing an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation finance ministers’ meeting in Beijing this week, Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said the AIIB’s focus on infrastructure development in the region will supplement existing agencies, including the ADB and the World Bank, which lean toward poverty reduction.

ADB Collaboration

ADB President Takehiko Nakao said establishing the AIIB was “understandable” given Asia’s huge infrastructure funding needs, and that the ADB would be ready to consider collaboration. Japan has held the presidency of the ADB since the institution was founded in 1966.
“It is vitally important that AIIB adopt international best practices in procurement and environmental and social safeguard standards on its projects and programs,” Nakao said in a statement on the ADB’s website.

Video: China Shifted Tactically to South Korea: Terry

At the ADB, Japan and the U.S. are the two largest shareholders, with 15.7 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively. Those two countries have combined voting power of almost 26 percent, compared with China’s 5.47 percent, according to the bank’s website.
Xi said at today’s ceremony that the AIIB will “learn from” good practices at the World Bank and the ADB to become “an inclusive, highly-effective and well-connected economic cooperation platform.”

The Earnings Suspence File At Social Security

One of the ironies of the challenging financial future faced by the Social Security Administration is this seldom-discussed fact: Undocumented workers contribute about $13 billion per year to the Social Security Trust Fund, and only get back a small fraction, adding a bit of black ink to a balance sheet in sore need of a boost. As President Obama mulls whether and when to enact executive orders that would affect the status of up to 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, these Social Security payments are a proxy of sorts for the potential power of these workers who now stand in the shadows of the economy.
These immigrants are often accused of creating outsize social services costs, but in this important instance the opposite is true. Undocumented workers using fake, invalid, or borrowed Social Security numbers are subject to payroll taxes but usually receive nothing back. The extent of their contributions hints at the vast scale of the underground economy — and at the economic benefits that could be harnessed by giving undocumented workers a legal way to move out of it.
The chief actuary of the Social Security Administration recently told Vice News that, out of the estimated 7 million unauthorized workers currently in the US labor force, about 3 million use either false or expired Social Security numbers. The payroll taxes paid by these unauthorized workers go into the Social Security’s “Earnings Suspense File” — in effect, money without a lawful home.
 “You could say legitimately that had we not received the contributions that we have had in the past from undocumented immigrants . . . that would of course diminish our ability to be paying benefits for as long as we now can,”. Undocumented immigrants have contributed $100 billion into Social Security over the last decade.
 Major immigration reform legislation would provide work authorization and Social Security numbers for an estimated 11 million immigrants working here illegally. But without changes to protect Social Security, illegal workers whose status later changes could become entitled to benefits based on jobs worked under fake and invalid Social Security numbers. Social Security could be on the hook for hundreds of billions in new liabilities according to a new  research report based on data from the Social Security Administration.
Unauthorized immigrants getting jobs show employers false or invalid Social Security numbers. When the Social Security Administration receives copies of W2s in which the name and Social Security do not match those on Social Security’s records, they go into the Earnings Suspense File (ESF). The W2s remain on file until the earnings can be reconciled with the real worker, even if that occurs years later. Since 2000, the Social Security Administration has received about 9.3 million such W2s per year on average, representing more than $69.4 billion per year in earnings.
The earnings reported to the ESF over the past 11 years now total more than $763.5 billion, unadjusted for inflation. “Those earnings are important, because that’s what the Social Security Administration uses to determine entitlement and initial benefit amounts — not the amount of taxes paid in,” .
Although Social Security is aware of the problem, no government estimates of the potential future cost of benefits based on work under fake Social Security numbers exist.
Immigration advocates say that the taxes on earnings worked under invalid Social Security numbers help boost Social Security’s financing and that workers would have little chance of collecting benefits. “But that would change under immigration reform that provides work authorization”. “Work authorization and a valid Social Security number are the two requirements that would allow former unauthorized workers to file a claim for benefits.”
That could have significant implications for future Social Security costs because, under current law, the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers to gain employment is not penalized. “One would think that the earnings under fake Social Security numbers would not be used to calculate Social Security benefits. But to the contrary, under current policies, those earnings can be reinstated — no questions asked”.
Social Security uses all earnings to determine entitlement even for jobs worked under fake Social Security numbers. If workers have kept evidence of earnings, like copies of their W2s, tax return earnings under invalid Social Security numbers would be reinstated to the new valid number.
“Congress is considering Social Security changes that would cut the benefits of U.S. citizens and authorized workers who paid into the system under valid Social Security numbers”. “Yet our current polices reward people for the use of fraudulent Social Security numbers, undermining the financial solvency of the program”.
“You could say legitimately that had we not received the contributions that we have had in the past from undocumented immigrants . . . that would of course diminish our ability to be paying benefits for as long as we now can,”. Undocumented immigrants have contributed $100 billion into Social Security over the last decade.

More Bad News About Social Security

The Biggest Change to Social Security You've Never Heard About

 

There's been lots of debate and discussion lately about how to shore up Social Security for future generations. But already there are dramatic changes underway that threaten to end Social Security as we know it -- yet almost no one has even heard of it.
The plan is called Vision 2025, and every working American has a stake in it.
To explain the significance of what's going on, let me paint a picture. Say you're the CEO of a major corporation doing $850 billion in business annually out of 1,200 locations across the country. More than 43 million clients walked through your doors in the past year, seeking one-on-one appointments with your experienced customer service representatives on matters affecting their financial security.
But there's a storm brewing. You've lost 12 percent of your employees in just the past three years, and another third of the workforce is projected to retire in the next decade. Customer demand is breaking records, yet failure to fill vacancies means longer waits for appointments. Customers are waiting three times longer than last year for assistance on your 1-800 phone line, while the website that was set up to take pressure off your field offices can't meet demand either.
So what do you do? If you're the head of the Social Security Administration, you lay out a plan to close most of your 1,200 field offices, not replace the 30,000 employees about to walk out the door, and force your customers to conduct nearly all of their business using a phone line and website that already are overwhelmed.
This is the real-life scenario playing out at SSA right now, and the ramifications of decisions made today will affect every working man and woman in this country for generations.
This fall, SSA will unveil its long-range strategic plan for the next 10 years, the so-called Vision 2025 plan. A draft of the plan, being developed for SSA by the National Academy of Public Administration, is frightening:

• The bulk of SSA's field offices would be shut down, leaving the agency with a "significantly smaller and more virtual workforce."
• Many of the employees left behind would be "generalists" who lack the technical skills and expertise to address benefits questions.
• Customers could reach an actual claims representative only in "very limited circumstances," either through in-person visits, phone calls, online chats or video conferences. In the vast majority of cases, the only way to interact with SSA would be through "online self-service delivery."

Self-service checkout may work at grocery stores, but it's not the right model for an agency tasked with determining complex retirement and disability benefits for tens of millions of Americans each year. Do they really expect grandpa to hop on his iPad Mini to apply for benefits and get all his questions answered?
Most of the individuals contacting SSA for help are elderly, disabled or indigent. Many others are active seniors who simply are overwhelmed by the complicated maze of laws, regulations and policies pertaining to retirement benefits. They deserve and expect face-to-face interaction with skilled employees who can ensure they receive all the benefits they are owed.
Unfortunately, SSA seems determined to cannibalize itself. In addition to leaving thousands of positions vacant, management already has shuttered 80 field offices and dramatically reduced hours at remaining offices -- even before its strategic plan is finalized.
As the representative for the bulk of SSA's workforce, our union is working hard to save Social Security for current and future generations. This week, we plan to submit testimony at a congressional hearing on SSA's plan to dismantle the program. AFGE will not let it die without a fight.
I urge you to join the discussion about a program that all of us will ultimately depend on. Your retirement security is at stake.
( By J. David Cox Sr., National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 670,000 federal and D.C. government employees nationwide, including more than 28,000 SSA field office employees across the country)

Boldog születésnapot! 80th Jeno Bacsi,

Jelenlegi hely

Címlap

Jenő bácsi 80 éves!

Csaba Jenő Magyarország legidősebb taekwon-dosa, II. danos mester, a Magyar ITF Taekwon-do Szövetség Korelnöke néhány nappal ezelőtt ünnepelte 80. születésnapját. E jeles esemény apropóján beszélgettem Jenő bácsival.

Sokunk példaképe vagy, de a legifjabbak közül nem mindenki ismerhet Téged. A Veszprémi Taekwon-do SE-t 1979-es alapításától fogva erősíted. Ott voltál az edzéseken, számos versenyen, tanácsaiddal, bölcsességeddel mindig segítetted a csapatot.
Úgy tudom, hogy fiatal éveidben is sportoltál. Hogyan esett annak idején a választásod erre a harcművészetre?

Örök életemben mozgékony voltam, már elemista koromban, a tornaórákon kiemelkedő teljesítményt nyújtottam, amelyre mások is felfigyeltek. Később kerestem a nekem megfelelő sportot, de hiába kutattam, nem találtam meg. Atletizáltam, futottam, úsztam, de valahogy mindig hiányzott valami. Ezután találkoztam Károlyi Gáborral (Domonkos László Veszprémi Judo Egyesület edzője), akinél elkezdtem Judozni. Soma (Somlai János, a későbbi Veszprémi Taekwon-do SE. alapítója) is odajárt. Nagyon jól éreztem magam, kb. 2 évet töltöttem ott. Soma közben felkerült Budapestre, ahol megismerkedett a Taekwon-doval és elkezdett Harmat Lászlóhoz járni. Ezeket a jellegzetes bázis mozgásokat láttuk tőle Gábor edzésein. Egy bizonyos idő után Soma azt mondta, hogy létrehoz egy klubot Veszprémben, és szeretne embereket toborozni; ez Gábor és az én érdeklődésemet is felkeltette, így együtt kezdtük el a taekwon-dot. Amikor cselgáncsra jártam, már kezdtem érezni, hogy a harcművészet az, ami igazán közel áll hozzám. Mikor megalakult a Veszprémi Taekwon-do SE, tudatosult bennem, hogy ez az, amivel foglalkozni szeretnék. Nagyon meg voltam elégedve, mindazt megtaláltam általa, ami addig kérdőjelként szerepelt az életemben. A mai napig csodálattal nézek azokra az emberekre, akik lehetőséget teremtenek mások részére, hogy sportolhassanak.

A kezdetek - toborzás bemutatókkal

Mit adott neked a Taekwon-do?
Ez a sport lehetőséget nyújtott arra, hogy az élet legkritikusabb pillanataiban is megálljam a helyem, ezáltal megnyugtató, stabil életmódot biztosított. A Taekwon-do olyan magabiztosságot kölcsönöz, hogy bárhová megyek, nem kell alárendelt szerepeket elvállalnom. Helyt tudok állni minden olyan feladatban, ahol a mindennapi életben szükséges.

Visszaemlékezve a régmúltra, voltak-e különbségek az akkori és a mostani edzések között?
Akkoriban elhangzott az, hogy a sportnak az elsajátítása azzal kezdődik, hogy „védd meg magad, ha talpon akarsz maradni!” Ütni, vágni, csapkodni semmi értelme nincs, de ha ki tudod védeni a támadásokat, akkor nyert ügyed van mindenhol. Soma lépésről lépésre vezette be a küzdelmi mozdulatokat, és szinte fel sem tűnt, hogy egyre keményebbek az edzések. Úgy kezdtünk el küzdeni, hogy szinte észre sem vettük.

Igen, mostanra van egy kiforrott felépítése a sport oktatásának, viszont Ti részesei voltatok a folyamat kialakításának.
Így van, viszont nekünk azért volt könnyebb, mert a cselgáncsban szerzett alapokat – pl. nyújtó gyakorlatok, állóképesség - tudtuk használni. Akik felnőttként most kezdik, általában fel kell fejlődniük egy bizonyos kondicionális szintre.

Edzőtermen innen, s túl!

Jenő bácsi, te nagyon hajlékony vagy. Van valamilyen titkos nyújtó technikád, vagy ez "csupán" adottság?
Már kisgyermek koromban is elég hajlékony voltam. Mivel egész életemben űztem valamilyen sportot, ez a hajlékonyság megmaradt - ezt kiválóan tudtam hasznosítani a Taekwon-doban. Nem szeretnék megszabadulni ettől a tulajdonságomtól; járok fürdőbe, ott is végzek nyújtó gyakorlatokat és még most is meg tudom csinálni a spárgát.

Milyen érzés volt 66 évesen levizsgázni fekete övre?
Annak nagyon örülök, hogy olyan felkészülést írtam elő magamnak, amely lehetőséget biztosított, hogy elérjem a legmagasabb teljesítményt, amire képes vagyok, és amellyel meg tudtam felelni a vizsga követelményeknek. Nem foglalkoztam azzal, hogy mennyi idős vagyok, azt csináltam, amit megtanultam. Maximális erőbedobással végeztem minden gyakorlatot és úgy éreztem, a vizsgának sikerülnie kell - és sikerült is! Hihetetlenül sok segítséget kaptam az edzőimtől, a tanácsaik nagyon eredményesek voltak. Hatalmas érzés volt, amikor felköthettem a fekete övet!

Jelenleg mivel töltöd mindennapjaid javarészét?
Időm nagy részében hármas-iker unokáimra vigyázok. 5 és fél évesek és az elmúlt időszakban már születtek elképzeléseim arról, hogy melyiküknek milyen sport állna jól. A két fiú közül az egyiküknek cselgáncsot, másikuknak a karate-t ajánlanám – közülük az utóbbi olyan, mintha magamat látnám kiskoromban! A kislánynak önvédelmi oktatást javasolnék, hogy meg tudja védeni magát.

A közelmúltban Soma és Pali (Sebestyén Pál) egy meglepetés összejövetelt szervezett neked néhány régi edzőtársad társaságában. Te úgy tudtad, hogy a veszprémi klub 35. születésnapi bulijára érkezel. Sikerült meglepniük Téged?
Hihetetlen módon meglepődtem, amikor beléptem a kapun és megláttam a vendégeket, akik szinte kórusban köszöntöttek! Csodálatos volt!

Meglepetés szülinap - nosztalgia az ifjúsággal :)

Számoljunk egy kicsit: 45 esztendős voltál, amikor elkezdted a Taekwon-do-t. Akik akkoriban gyermekfejjel néztek fel rád, mostanra 40-55 évesek. Mit üzensz azoknak, akik most kezdik?
Azt üzenném nekik, hogy ne vegyék félvállról az edzéseket, maximális erőbedobással csinálják, mert csak így fognak előbbre jutni. Az itt elsajátított képességeket mindenhol fogják tudni használni. Legyen bennük kitartás, vegyék komolyan az elhatározást, mert meg fogja hozni a gyümölcsét! A lehetőség adva van, éljenek vele!

Jenő bácsi, köszönöm szépen az interjút, nagyon boldog születésnapot, még sok-sok Taekwon-doval eltöltött évet és jó egészséget kívánok!
Köszönöm szépen!

Még annyit szeretnék elmondani, hogy nagyon nagy köszönettel tartozom mestereimnek Dr. Somlai Jánosnak és Sebestyén Pálnak, valamint többi edzőtársamnak, akik mindig segítő szándékkal fordultak felém és támogattak céljaim elérésében!

„80 év csak a kezdet, ennek még van folytatása!”
 

 

Riporter: Sisak Zsófia
A fotókért köszönet Csibi Erzsébetnek!

USTigers Best Knockout Of 2014

Post by Joshua Kim.

WARNING: This video may be too violent for people with delicate sensibilities to watch. It contains an absolutely beautiful work of art; a move as fast as greased lightning, as graceful as a ballerina, and as "on target" as a guided missile. But, if you love speed, power, and beauty then this is a work of art. Josh Liu is a Master of the Game, and he is at the top of his game. If you believe that a trained mind/body/ spirit is the ultimate weapon, then feast your eyes on a thing of beauty.