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Showing posts with the label George Orwell

An Allegory for All Ages

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The 7th and 10th of October 2016 saw a production of George Orwell’s Animal Farm staged by The Mustard Seed Art Company. Audiences who caught the play adapted from the famous novel at Gomant Vidya Niketan (Margao) and Kala Academy (Panaji), were fortunate indeed. Those acquainted with Orwell’s novel, written in 1945, will certainly make connections with its allegory which retells the political scenario of the time, with communism hailed as the answer to society’s problems. The novel mirrors the events that took place from before the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the rule of Stalin. The satirical novel, by his own admission, is Orwell’s first deliberate attempt to use literature towards a political revelation. The play produced by The Mustard Seed Art Company was adapted for theatre from the novel by Peter Hall. The play opens with old Major, the boar, fomenting the spirit of rebellion among the farm animals with his tirade against humans. After old Major dies, the younger pigs Napoleo

The Loss of Online Anonymity

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The internet has the power of the Big Brother of George Orwell’s 1984. What was once predicted to happen twenty years ago has already become a reality in the present day and age. ‘We always thought it would be far off, but we are being surveyed right now,’ says Baishampayan Ghose, the co-founder and CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at Helpshift, a company that offers web and mobile customer service software. He goes as BeeGee and has taken it upon himself to create awareness about the perils of the internet and how we can safeguard our anonymity. Anonymity is important to avoid providing an Achilles’ heel that can be wounded. The internet, however, preys on our vulnerability by placing us at the whim of government agency scrutiny, and much darker, predatory forces. At its least dangerous position, the internet subjects us to targeted advertising. Whenever we like a post or article it is carefully monitored, along with our internet searches and so on, and information connected with our on