This is the story of an ordinary person caught in the Charybdis of extraordinary situations- the brutal Japanese regime in Malaysia, communal killings in Sri Lanka, tribal warfare in Sierra Leone, coup d' tat in Liberia; leaping through time, colliding with different cultures, crossing oceans and continents and, in the twister of all the turbulence all the while in the hunt for jobs to keep the home fires burning.
What's life really like on a fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) mine? In 2012, after touring his comedy shows through Europe, stand-up comedian Xavier Toby was broke and decided to take a job on a remote minesite to pay the bills. In his memoir, Mining My Own Business, Xavier Toby is onsite somewhere in Australia working in admin to pay off his credit card debt. Damo, Pando, Jonno, Robbo, Donk, Jokka and Dale are just some of the other blokes earning a crust, attending endless safety briefings, swapping tall tales and 'missing' the missus out there in the middle of nowhere. With Xavier, FIFO is not life on hold - it is life in hilarious overdrive.
“Mine” is one of the first words babies learn, and by the time we grow up, the idea of ownership seems natural, whether we are buying a cup of coffee or a house. But who controls the space behind your airplane seat: you, reclining, or the squished laptop user behind you? Why is plagiarism wrong, but it’s okay to knock off a recipe or a dress design? And after a snowstorm, why does a chair in the street hold your parking space in Chicago, while in New York you lose both the space and the chair? In Mine!, Michael Heller and James Salzman, two of the world’s leading authorities on ownership, explain these puzzles and many more. Remarkably, they reveal, there are just six simple rules that everyone uses to claim everything. Owners choose the rule that steers us to do what they want. But we can pick differently. This is true not just for airplane seats, but also for battles over digital privacy, climate change, and wealth inequality. Mine! draws on mind-bending, often infuriating, and always fascinating accounts from business, history, courtrooms, and everyday life to reveal how the rules of ownership control our lives and shape our world.
In recent decades, there has been a substantial turn towards narrative and life history study. The embrace of narrative and life history work has accompanied the move to postmodernism and post-structuralism across a wide range of disciplines: sociological studies, gender studies, cultural studies, social history; literary theory; and, most recently, psychology. Written by leading international scholars from the main contributing perspectives and disciplines, The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History seeks to capture the range and scope as well as the considerable complexity of the field of narrative study and life history work by situating these fields of study within the historical and contemporary context. Topics covered include: • The historical emergences of life history and narrative study • Techniques for conducting life history and narrative study • Identity and politics • Generational history • Social and psycho-social approaches to narrative history With chapters from expert contributors, this volume will prove a comprehensive and authoritative resource to students, researchers and educators interested in narrative theory, analysis and interpretation.
As I have recalled my life in order to create this memoir, I've wondered what physical traits and abilities will be passed down to future generations of this family. I've also wondered if my love of the visual arts is a family inheritance I've received through some unknown ancestor in the distant past. We're all part of something larger than our individual lives--although there are clearly more questions than answers as far as that is concerned.
When seven-year-old Dave Lowell was camped out at his father’s mine in the hills of southern Arizona in 1935, he knew he had found his calling. “Life couldn’t get any better than this,” he recalls. “I didn’t know what science was, but wisps of scientific thought were already working into my plan.” So began the legendary career of the engineer, geologist, explorer, and international businessman whose life is recounted in his own words in this captivating book. An Arizona native with family roots in territorial times, Lowell grew from modest beginnings on a ranch near Nogales to become a major world figure in the fields of minerals, mining, and economic geology. He has personally discovered more copper than anyone in history and has developed multibillion-dollar gold and copper mines that have changed the economies of nations. And although he has consulted for corporations in the field of mining, he has largely operated as an independent agent and explorer, the architect of his own path and success. His life’s story unfolds in four stages: his early education in his field, on-the-job learning at sites in the United States and Mexico, development of exploration strategies, and finally, the launch of his own enterprises and companies. Recurring themes in Lowell’s life include the strict personal, ethical, and tactical policies he requires of his colleagues; his devotion to his family; and his distaste for being away from the field in a corporate office, even to this day. The magnitude of Lowell’s overall success is evident in his list of mine discoveries, as well as in his scientific achievements and the enormous respect his friends and colleagues have had for him throughout his lengthy career, which he continues to zealously pursue.
Imagine that you have five minutes to grab everything that is important to you. What would you grab? Would it be your favorite clothes? Photographs? .... You can't take your favorite kitty with you. Now imagine that you are six years old and you have to shove your belongings into a black, stretchy garbage bag. You grab the hand of the social worker who you have just met, walk out to a complete strangers car, and the worker buckles you in. In the background you can hear mommy crying. You have no idea where you are going...
