Dejections

Although Property Index is a fairly young company, they were set up only in March of 2007, they were very quick to establish themselves. As a matter of fact, they are a extremely down to earth company exclusively focused on counseling every client intending to sell estate just about anywhere. What they affirm is to offer you assistance to unearth bang-on what’s needed very swiftly plus, of course, painlessly.

Estate can be located almost anywhere in the world nowadays, one of the most called for areas being real estate on the market in Portugal. It should be dead easy to list the fabulous land available for sale in Portugal, the argument for investigating real estate here is a combination of the houses and apartments on the market and the tremendous option to live between such a vigorous population.

It’s one of the truly favored markets nowadays, and with the scenic splendor and wonderful weather surrounding you all day long, how could you be wrong. Estate in Portugal is very rich in history and culture, this area of the world is and has always been home to a good many civilizations.

Around 30 years ago there’d be just a dribble of UK citizens in search of land in Portugal. Ask any person who has chosen to relocate to Portugal and they are certain to back it up. Some people would prefer to see it as a negligible vogue and others prefer to see it as a near to an infatuation! Clients intent on repairing to this area generally range from yuppie couples who are looking for a life perspective to OAPs meaning to rest and enjoy themselves.

Bear in mind, however, that you may likely encounter a few troubles when trying to purchase land abroad - you’ll want to cope with 100s of actions to follow be it when strategizing, popping in or finalising. If you only miss one single minor action it can generate large troubles plus, most importantly, a financial hammering.

Obviously, as can be expected with this fashionable place, land could well be high-priced in this destination which is unquestionably caused by the great market demand. Notwithstanding the buyer indeed is hard to please in such a place so rich in pleasant land and terrific surroundings. It patently has all clients might relish etc.

If you are looking to buy property abroad try Property Index, specialists in overseas property.

Its a frightful feeling any time a doctor tells you that you have any kind of chronic disease. At first your mind wants to reject it, and then you gradually give into the shock of realizing that you actually do have something wrong with you. Even if you have been exhibiting symptoms for a long time, your problem just isnt set in stone until the doctor tells you those fateful words : I am sorry to tell you, but the tests came back positive.

When the diagnosis is Tardive Dyskinesia [ TD ], it actually should not come as any surprise. In truth, it may even be a relief, because when you know what the difficulty is, there are thngs you can do to turn the condition, and you definitely need to do that. Perhaps you have been afflicted by the humiliation of your tongue popping out of your mouth every few seconds or of making hideous scowls that are out of your control. You might have had a lot of distressing physical symptoms, such as neck seizures or involuntary twisting of joints. Dont believe any one when they tell you that youll just have to live with the issues, as they would not wish to if they were in your place. Instead, here is what you can do.

For a start you can learn everything there is to know about TD lawyer. Sometimes it’s just good to have somebody you can talk to about your condition who will understand and offer recommendations for what you need to do next. Contacting the Foundation will put you in touch with caring folk who can help. You may also visit their site at www.dystonia-foundation.org.

There are some doctors who have researched TD and know the right sorts of treatments that can reverse the symptoms of the disorder and bring relief to patients. If your family physician isnt able to give you with this type of help, you can contact a psychiatrist instead who has experience dealing with the complications of anti-psychotic drugs. In addition, you will find a neurologist can efficiently treat your Tardive Dyskinesia.

According to research presented recently at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference, swearing and shouting at the computer screen, smashing the mouse and venting one’s frustration on the keyboard have become routine expressions of anger and stress relief for many computer users.

When questioned by Dr. Charlton, a researcher at Bolton University, a majority of the126 participants in the study said that they indulged in such rage at least three or four times in a month. More than 10 percent of the respondents admitted to having become angry to such an extent up to a startling ten times or more.

Around 54 percent verbally abused their computing equipment, while 40 percent usually resorted to physical aggression towards the machine.

The study identified two main factors that caused such frustration. It was found that the respondents went through computer rage when they were worried about sluggish work progress or when they were under severe deadline pressures.

Dr. Charlton feels that moderate verbal outbursts can actually be cathartic as they help individuals vent out their frustration and anger, and act as a stress buster. However, unrestrained expression of anger has been found to adversely affect health, and causes some serious diseases.

Companies need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions to employees with regard to health and safety issues. Companies should make themselves fully aware of the most up-to-date requirements by visiting Workplace Law and finding more information on their highly regarded iosh safely courses.

With today’s multiculturalism, we’re called upon to interaction with many different cultures sometimes in the same day. A little knowledge of the other culture’s language goes a long way.
“How did you know what she meant?” a client asked me the other day, as we processed a joint conversation we’d had with someone from Venezuela. “What did he mean when he said…”

Years ago a good education was considered to include taking Latin, and I was lucky enough to be around at that time. I took 4 years of Latin in high school, and went on to study French, Greek and Spanish.

Latin is the basis of all the “romance languages” which are the languages of a large segment of the cultures I deal with on a regular basis: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, etc. Most of our medical terms are Greek, as well as many words we use daily.

It has also been said that you don’t know your own language until you’ve studied another language.

Why is it so important to understand another language in today’s multicultural world?

Because one of the greatest conveyors of a culture is their language - how they say things - and someone speaking a second language will tend to use it as they would their own, just with different words.

THE PEDIATRICIAN

My now-deceased friend, Sam, who was a pediatrician in south Texas, down in what’s called “the Valley” which has a large Latino population, told me this story.

He was the only pediatrician for a 200-mile radius down where the stars at night are big and bright. It’s the Rio Grande Valley, where they grow all those grapefruits and oranges and there are a lot of migrant workers.

“When,” as he said, “another Mexican had piled 10 children in the back of their pickup truck and then littered the highway with them…” - this is strong language, and you must understand the position of the pediatrician. We will use our empathy (an EQ competency) here.

Sam was the children’s doctor, and cared passionately for the lives of children. It was his life. He was the children’s advocate, and he saw every day horrible things happen to children because of parental neglect and abuse. Sam was FOR the children of the world and anyone, of any color, race, religion or creed, who caused a child to be harmed, was his enemy.

When there had been yet another crash involving children in the back of a pickup truck, which is now against the law in Texas, he would be called to any of the neighboring ERs to try and help with the babies.

There used to be the saying in south Texas “there are few wrecks, but when there is one, it is fatal.” The roads stretch out flat, for miles, an engineer’s dream, and there didn’t used to be a speed limit in Texas. People would fly down these roads at 80, 90, 100 miles an hour and when a rare intersection came, they weren’t always prepared to stop. And people would put their children in the back of the pickup truck, just riding free, sitting on boxes or crates, when they had to go somewhere.

When Sam would arrive at the hospital, often in the middle of the night, having driven 100 miles, the emergency room would be full of the dead and the dying (”carnage,” he called it) and he would get busy sticking tubes into tiny veins. He often talked about how hard it was to fix up an IV for a premie, and he was proud of his skill at it.

“I’ve had way too much practice,” he would say, and he would show me how he did it, with his gentle hands. I never saw Sam walk into a room with a baby in it, without going over and picking the infant up. Just to play.

Sam continued, “I thought the Mexicans were horrible, because when they were in the ER all they did was talk about themselves while their children were dying. They kept saying ‘mi vida, mi vida,’ - ’save my life.’ ”

The literal translation of “mi vida” is “my life.”

Finally one day he talked with a Latino about this, and only then did he learn that, as they lay dying, they were calling out for their children, who were their life. “Mi vida, my child, my life.”

I think he spent the later years of his life working through that multicultural misunderstanding, continuing to study the Spanish language and culture. He became, he said, an *aficionado. He participated in conversation classes for years, and helped others learn Spanish. And he would tell people this story, urging them to learn and understand.

We have so much to learn. Where do we start? Sam would say, “learn the language.”

*Aficianado - from the Spanish, a person who likes, knows about, and appreciates a usually fervently pursued interest or activity

About the Author

Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, GLOBAL EQ. Emotional intelligence coaching to enhance all areas of your life - career, relationships, midlife transition, resilience, self-esteem, parenting. EQ Alive! - excellent, accelerated, affordable EQ coach certification. Susan is the author of numerous ebooks, is widely published on the Internet, and a regular speaker for cruise lines. For marketing services go here.

Most mobile broadband service providers in the UK charge up to £15 a month for a data download limit of 3GB. While some providers do offer 10-15 GB per month, they charge much more for these download limits. Bucking the trend, Vodafone has launched a new deal wherein you can download an unlimited amount of data for a fee of £18 per month plus VAT. However, the download limit will come under the terms of fair usage.

Vodafone is offering one-year, 18 months and two-year contracts on the package. For those who are not sure whether they would want to stick with the package for that long, a 30-day contract is also on offer, which can be rolled over at the end of every month. For over 18 months contract periods, the company is giving away the dongle free to the subscribers. Click for info on mobile broadband pay as you go.

Many market experts feel that unlimited download flat fee model of pricing mobile broadband is not viable, and Vodafone’s move will be observed keenly. The competitors would be quite uneasy though, as Vodafone is also one of the fastest services in the UK, operating at speeds of 7.2 Mb, and by launching this unlimited deal, it is giving the customers a package that most other providers will find it very hard to match.

It is yet to be seen how much financial pressure Vodafone would put itself under by offering this highly competitive package, and customers would be advised to take advantage of the deal while it is still on.

Q. I don’t like my children spending so much time on the computer and playing video games. Can you help me find or develop a fun quiz to stimulate their thinking?

A. A fun quiz is an excellent way to keep kids occupied especially during the vacation months when learning takes a hiatus.

The key to designing a fun quiz is to keep the subjects relevant to things that interest your children while managing to stretch the limits of their knowledge.

A fun quiz does not have to be so easy that it’s seen as a joke, nor does it have to be boring. Here’s an example:

Let’s say that one of your children enjoys playing with American Girl dolls and her favorite is Kirsten. Now, we all know that Kirsten moved to the United States from Sweden when she was a little girl, right?

Instead of asking a fun quiz question like “Where did Kirsten live before moving to the United States?”, which any devoted Kirsten fan knows the answer to already, you could ask: “What colors are on the Flag of Sweden, where Kirsten used to live?”. This serves the purpose of bringing subjects into the fun quiz that your children are interested in, yet it stretches the limits of their knowledge and forces them to learn while having fun!

Sneaky parents, aren’t we?

You can create fun quiz contests where you design the quiz, print out multiple copies, and distribute them to your child’s play group, Brownie or Cub Scout Troop, or other occasions where two or more children are gathered together. You can have prizes for the most interesting answer, or for any other metric that you care to use.

Remember that the key word in fun quiz is fun. If the kids catch on that you are actually making them learn something then the magic may disappear and your fun quiz will turn into just another dumb thing that Mom or Dad wants them to do.

A fun quiz does not have to be limited to small children. You can create a fun quiz that allows your teenager to earn “borrow the car” points by answering traffic safety questions.

Employees can also participate in a fun quiz where you award points or prizes for answering questions about your products or services or, perhaps, questions about your biggest and smallest clients.

The point that I am trying to make here is that a quiz does not have to be something dreadful. A fun quiz can be used to teach and entertain at the same time. Go ahead, try it yourself. My challenge to you is to create a fun quiz that will entertain, stimulate, and teach the people who take it.

Brian Fong

http://www.QuizFaq.com

Charles Dickens’s book “A Christmas Carol” is probably the most famous of all Christmas stories. In the preface he wrote:

“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it

Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C.D.
December 1843.”

Charles Dickens - The Man

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is considered to be one of the greatest English novelists of the Victorian period. Dickens’s works are characterized by attacks on social evils, injustice, and hypocrisy.

Charles John Huffam Dickens, the second of seven children of John and Elizabeth Dickens, was born in Landport on 7th February 1812. His father worked as a clerk at the Navy pay office in Portsmouth. In 1814 Dickens moved to London, and then to Chatham in 1817, for Dickens, the happiest years of his childhood (1817-22) were spent in Chatham, a bustling port on England’s southeast coast, where he received some education.

John Dickens had difficulty making ends meet as his family grew. At ten Charles’s family moved to Camden Town in London. John Dickens’ debts had become so severe that all the household goods were sold. Still unable to satisfy his creditors, John Dickens was arrested and sent to Marshalsea Prison.

Charles, now twelve, was sent to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory, where he was paid six shillings (shilling is equal to 1/20th of a pound) a week wrapping shoeblack bottles to help support his family. Six months after being sent to Marshalsea, one of John Dickens’s relatives died. He was left enough money in the will to pay off his debts and to leave prison. Charles was allowed to quite the job, against his mother’s better judgment. This became a sore spot for Charles, that he remembers the rest of his life.

Some of the inheritance was used to educate Charles at a nearby private school, Wellington House Academy. His schooling was again interrupted and ultimately ended when Dickens was forced to return to work at age 15. He found work as a clerk at the firm of Ellis & Blackmore, Charles disliked the work but he did enjoy walking the streets in the evening observing the people of London. He then became a shorthand reporter in the courts, and finally a parliamentary and newspaper reporter.

Looking back on his own childhood, Dickens saw himself as “a very small and not over-particularly-taken-care-of boy.” For as I had spoken before, Dickens’s childhood was a mixture of both fond and unhappy memories. His childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would be a heavy influence on Dickens’ later views on social reform and the world he would create through his fiction.

But even though Dickens family was both large and almost always hard-pressed, Charles Dickens grew into a young man who, through the sheer fertility of his creative genius and an astonishing amount of hard work, transformed himself into the most famous writer of his age.

In the midst of his labors over Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens found time to write the little tale that is unquestionably his most beloved work, “A Christmas Carol”. Published on December 17, 1843, this tender fable of spiritual renewal received a rapturous welcome from the public. Readers were moved to tears by the story of the delightfully despicable Scrooge, a heartless old miser who undergoes a miraculous rebirth precisely at Christmas, the only time “in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open up their hearts freely.”

A Christmas Carol - The Book

Millions of readers for over the past hundred and sixty years have enjoyed “A Christmas Carol”. The penny pinching, miser Ebenezer Scrooge has become synonymous with a tight wad. Even today a person who hoards his or her money is nicknamed a “Scrooge”. Dickens’ character was a man whose cold personality equal only to the winters of London, and the comforts or fortunes of other was unimportant to him.

Locking up his office on Christmas Eve, Scrooge heads for his rooms, which once belonged to Jacob Marley, his partner, who died seven years ago. Arriving at his door, the doorknocker is suddenly, transformed into his dead partner’s face, staring at him. The vision passes, and Scrooge bolts the door from the inside. Sitting down in front of the dying embers on the hearth, Ebenezer Scrooge is subjected to the second phenomena, the ringing of all the bells in the house. Someone or something is trying to get in touch with his frozen soul.
It turns out it is Jacob Marley who has been tying to contact him. Marley’s ghost dragging his chains explain his present condition to the Scrooge; since he himself lived on the same basic principle as does Scrooge, explains what the afterlife is like for one who has never done a good deed to his fellow man.
There is one way out of this misery for Scrooge says Marley, and that is to mend one’s ways and cleanse one’s conscience. To amplify the message, his old partner explains to Scrooge that three spirits will visit shortly after midnight. Having delivered his message and his warning, Marley goes away, dragging his chains behind him.
Strangely, Scrooge manages to fall asleep, but is awakened when the clock strikes midnight. Soon after the Ghost of Christmas Past, an apparition with a child’s face visits him long, white hair, and a full-grown body. It makes Scrooge an offer he can’t refuse: to go on a sentimental journey to his own past.

Riding through time and space effortlessly, they arrive in time to see the small boy Ebenezer, a lonesome child with books for his only friends. Lost love, lost comradeship, and lost chances for happiness are shown in rapid succession, and then the exhausted Scrooge is dropped off at home, where he dozes off.
Next follows the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Ebenezer the merrymaking of ordinary people. They spy on Bob Cratchit, who makes the most of his meager resources in the bosom of his little family, carrying his son Tim, who is weak of health, and lighting the meager meal with his inner warmth and generosity, demonstrated when he proposes a toast to his mean employer, though not appreciated by his wife.
The last ghost, Christmas of the Future, arrives, to show him the emptiness of a non-spiritual life. A peek into the future shows thieves plundering his belongings. He even gets a glimpse of himself, lying dead, and retreats in horror. The final blow is dealt to his now weakened soul when he learns that Tim Cratchit has died.
The vision of himself dead, his own neglected grave, all this prompts Ebenezer to beg for mercy. Waking as from a nightmare, he finds that only one night has pasted and it is now Christmas morning, Scrooge thanks Jacob Marley’s ghost for this second chance, and he really changes. He gets a huge turkey for the Cratchit family, makes large contributions to the poor, and turns up at his nephew’s a changed man, filled with the merry spirit of Christmas.

The spirits of Christmas had served their purpose, and Jacob Marley had done his good deed. For the rest of his life, Ebenezer Scrooge was a good generous man, living the spirit of Christmas.

Chick here for more books by Charles Dickens

_________________________________________________
Copyright © 2004 by David Fitzgerald
Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

About the Author

David Fitzgerald is contributing writer to several sites and newsletters. Visit http://www.delvebookstore.com/for other great books and books on subjects in the areas of your interest.
dfitzgerald@delvebookstore.com

Health cover normally isn’t top priority when preparing for a college career. By And Large, health insurance is not dominant in a student’s mind. Teenagers are wont to think they will live forever and that they will never get sick.

Regrettably, this is rarely accurate however healthy an individual might be. A good health insurance policy isn’t for those with loads of money, it is an essential.

Individuals who are included in their parent’s medical insurance are more often than not included up to their twenty-third birthday. For anyone who does not have coverage on their family insurance policy, looking into alternative insurance plans for affordable student health insurance must be apart of preparing for college. What should a student look out for in a health insurance plan designed specifically for college students? Deductibles: It is an annual sum you must pay prior to any medical benefits starting, akin to a car insurance plan. To give an illustration, if your deductible is 500 dollars, you have to pay that amount before receiving any financial benefits from the plan.

What’s your co-pay? Once you have paid the deductible, commonly for each physician’s visit, medicine, or operation you’ll have to pay a part of the cost. This is called a co-pay.

What is the scope of coverage? Many plans are Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA). This can mean particular physicians may be omitted from your list of health providers and might not be included by a medical insurance policy. In general all programs provide a directory of approved providers, so be sure to consider this when you are selecting a policy.

What does the phrase catastrophic coverage imply? Limits are common in student medical insurance plans in particular concerning terminal illness, the cover included in most student health insurance policies is by and large less than any regular policy.

Restrictions: Limitations are very frequent in a lot of college student medical insurance plans. Study your insurance policy and see what may or may not be included. Keep your health insurance documentation in your wallet everywhere. Illnesses are not just impossible to predict, but they are in all probability likely to happen at the worst possible time. Acquaint yourself with your student medical insurance policy even if you are covered by your parent’s insurance policy.

The owners of Fiji’s largest budget accommodation chain have decided to counter the burgeoning bus and package tour trade by refocusing on the independent traveler.

With more and more visitors being booked onto pre-arranged itineraries straight off the plane in Nadi, Cathay Hotels (Fiji) Limited has made a conscious choice to do things a lot differently. They’re betting on the market niche of those who prefer to make their own decisions about where to go and what to do.

Guests at their flagship property, Tubakula Beach Bungalows on the Coral Coast, an hour south of the international airport, have cooking facilities built into their units, relieving them of the need to purchase pricy resort meals. In keeping with the laid-back atmosphere, there are no TVs, telephones, or mini-bars in the rooms, although these are readily available in the main building, where there’s also an inexpensive restaurant serving tasty local-style food.

The lagoon in front of Tubakula has been identified as a suitable nursery site for corals, and re-planting has begun. According to Cathay Hotels (Fiji) general manager Elain Barrett-Power, “Tubakula Beach Bungalows has long had a policy of minimal interference with the natural marine and coastal environment and does not offer tourist-oriented watersports in the lagoon; this means that the corals will be able to re-generate undisturbed.”

At the Saweni Beach Apartment Hotel, north of Nadi Airport, the 12 one-bedroom apartments have been fully renovated with new beds and modern kitchens. This quiet property will appeal to mature travelers or couples and families in search of a peaceful retreat. As at Tubakula, starting prices are in the US$50 range, and there’s a 10 percent discount on stays of a week or more.

Close to Saweni, the Cathay Hotel in Fiji’s second city Lautoka is a good alternative to the tourist ghettos of nearby Nadi. Lautoka’s bustling market is wonderfully picturesque, and there are countless eating and drinking options around town. Rugby players from all over Fiji come to compete at Churchill Park behind the hotel, and to prepare themselves for careers in international sports. Hotel guests can watch the action from the hotel’s lounge bar, and maybe meet a few of the future superstars, many of whom will be staying at the hotel. Rooms at the Cathay are budget priced.

In Fiji’s capital, Suva, Cathay Hotels (Fiji) operates the venerable South Seas Private Hotel near Albert Park. The floors of this backpacker institution have recently been sanded and polished to reveal the original Oregon pine timber flooring imported in the 1930s. Colorful canvas awnings are being fitted across the front of the building to provide additional shade and add ambience of this historic property. According to Barrett-Power, “South Seas has long catered to independent travellers looking for the ‘real’ South Pacific, and we continue to resist the trend towards the package and coach tour circuit.” As usual, South Seas guests have access to full cooking facilities, and the gamut of accommodations ranges from low budget dorms to simple but spotless rooms with fan.

About Cathay Hotels (Fiji) Limited
Cathay Hotels (Fiji) is a locally-owned company which operates the Cathay Hotel, Saweni Beach Apartment Hotel, Tubakula Beach Bungalows, Travel Inn, and South Seas Private Hotel. Their rates are non-commissionable and sold direct to the travelling public. They offer you clean, comfortable, and unpretentious accommodation, friendly staff, terrific locations, and excellent value-for-money rates. Visitors preferring more upmarket or full-service hotels will not find their properties suitable. Detailed information on all properties, including discounts and special offers, is available on their website http://www.fiji4less.com and in Moon Handbooks Fiji http://www.southpacific.org/fiji.html

The most controversial film of 2004, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was widely derided by critics and detractors as a two-hour anti-Semitic pornography/horror flick, complete with splattering blood and arduous torture. But among the Christian community (of which I consider myself a part) and open-minded people who actually saw the film, The Passion stands alone as the most eloquent expression of God’s love for mankind ever to grace the big screen.

The Passion certainly is violent, but not anymore violent than similarly rated films of the past ten years. But despite contentions by some evangelical Christians that everyone should see this film, I don’t think young children should see it. This movie is for mature audiences only, and I think anyone under the age of sixteen should have a full understanding of the previous events underlying the main focus of the film before viewing it.

The entire movie was filmed in the original Aramaic with English subtitles. This enhances, rather than detracts from, the film’s enjoyment because it creates an emotional aura of mystery and sacredness to the subject. Since most people are at least vaguely familiar with the storyline, you won’t find yourself distracted by reading subtitles as one might think. With just the opposite effect, you find yourself paying greater attention to the visual images displayed on the screen, and the power of the events unfolding before you is amplified several times over.

The Passion of the Christ combines the four written accounts found in the New Testament Gospels to create a vivid and powerful portrayal of the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The film opens in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus of Nazareth (James Caviezel) is engaged in prayer, asking his Father to deliver him through the events soon to come. A satanic figure lurks in the shadows, dispensing a series of temptations and doubts. “No one man can bear the sin of the world. It’s impossible. It’s too much,” the figure says. When Jesus refuses to give into Satan’s temptations, his disciple Judas arrives to betray him to the Temple Guard.

The Temple Guard leads Jesus away in chains to face the high priest. While Peter and John weave their way through the crowd of onlookers, Jesus is questioned by an assembly of leading priests and teachers of religious law. When Jesus responds to their questioning by affirming that he is indeed the Son of God, the leaders hit him, spit on him, and mock him. They then take him before Pilate, hoping to have him killed.

Finding no fault with Jesus, Pilate nevertheless has Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. This sequence is one of the most brutal in the film. James Caviezel is reported to have actually been hit by accident during the filming of this scene. The brutality and utter lack of empathy on behalf of the Roman soldiers is brilliantly illustrated. In my estimation, if you can make it through this scene, then the crucifixion scene should not be a problem.

Furthermore, Gibson’s cinematic genius is apparent by his measured and precise use of flashbacks which draws the audience away from the violence in brief intervals so as not to cause an emotional overload. Flashbacks include Jesus teaching to a crowd about his power to “lay down my life, and take it back up again,” Jesus washing the feet his disciples at the last supper, and Jesus as a playful personality interacting with Mary. One particularly powerful scene traces back to Jesus as a toddler. When he falls down and injures himself, a panicked Mary runs to his rescue. This flashback correlates with the film’s portrayal of Jesus stumbling under the weight of the cross.

Overall, this ranks as one of the greatest films ever made. If you believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Biblical Messiah (which this film reviewer does), then The Passion illustrates the enormity of God’s sacrifice. But even if you think Jesus was just a common man, this film serves a valuable purpose in that it underscores the barbarity of a human race that, more often than not, persecutes the innocent. Mel Gibson’s greatest production to date is a film every student of history, philosophy, and human nature owe it to themselves to see…

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The Passion Of The Christ (DVD).