The Election of a Pope

                      
The unprecedented news of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was announced on February 11, 2013 and undoubtedly surprised many.  According to his own public announcement, the reason he would resign officially on February 28 is due to poor health and lack in strength in body and mind.  Apart from this reason, there are many other circulating theories explaining the Pope’s departure many of which are in response to the Vatileaks revelations.  The Vatileaks are leaked Vatican documents allegedly exposing corruptions and sex scandals within the Vatican.  The pressure of these waves of exploitations within the Vatican may have caused the Pope to resign.  Most Popes have held office until death; however, Pope Benedict is the first in over 600 years to resign.  

Pope Benedict XVI

The question now follows, “What happens after the 28th of February?” As Pope Benedict himself has said, a conclave will have to be convened in order to begin the procedure of electing a new pope.  The century-old process of electing a new pope has been set in motion.

The cardinals, the highest ranking Catholic clergy, are responsible of choosing a new pope.  A papal conclave is a century old ritual where the College of Cardinals gather to vote in absolute secrecy for a new Bishop of Rome.  Public campaigning is not allowed, although such a papal election is highly political.  Theoretically, any baptized Catholic male can become Pope; however, it is likely that another cardinal will aspire to the position of Bishop of Rome.  

During the conclave which takes place in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, there should be absolute secrecy from the cardinals participating in the vote.  They are not allowed contact with the outside world. The cardinals should, eat sleep, and vote inside until the new Pope has been elected.  It is generally not a very quick process; it can take days, and it has once taken nearly three years.  The numbers of cardinals voting changes as cardinals die or reach the age of 80 since only cardinals under the age of 80 are allowed to vote.

Lightning Strikes basilica 

Once inside the chapel, the cardinals take  an oath of secrecy.  They have an optional single ballot on the first day, but from the second day, two ballots are held in the morning and afternoon.  On the rectangular ballot paper is printed "Eligio in Summum Pontificem" ("I elect as Supreme Pontiff") with space below for the cardinal to write the name of person to his choice.  Each cardinal then places the ballot paper inside a chalice after saying :                                                      
"I call as my witness Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected."  

After every cardinal inside has voted, the ballots are counted.  This process continues until the needed majority for a new elected Pope is reached.

The majority needed it two-thirds of the vote, with an additional vote if the total number of voting cardinals cannot be exactly divided by three.  However, after 30 ballots of deadlock, it can be decided that the procedure will be changed into a majority of half between- given that more than half of the College of Cardinals agree to such an arrangement.  Or is can also be agreed that the vote be restricted to only two candidates.  

After every ballot, smoke emerges from the Chapel to signal if a new pope has been elected.  While black smoke signals indecision, white smoke confirms that a new pope has been elected.  After white smoke has emerged from the chapel, it takes a short while before the identity of the new pope is revealed to the public. The new Pope accepts the position and chooses his name he wants to be known by.   

This process will take place once again after Pope Benedict officially resigns on Thursday 20th of February 2013.   There are already a few likely candidates, such as Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana.  The new Pope would have to make revolutionary changes to the Vatican and Catholic religion in order to redeem the church from the many scandals now revolving around fraud accusations and sex offenses that have been leaked.  

Reann 
Kersenhout

Reann was a key participant in AlphaMax Academy's Portrait of Hope and Peace (Part 4)- The academy's message to the world.

A Time to Celebrate: - Joan Morais

A Time to Celebrate: A Celebration of a Girl's First Menstrual Period 
Joan Morais

A Time to Celebrate shows the menstrual cycle as a gift and a healthy function of the female body. It is a book a mother, father, sister, aunt, grandmother, friend or mentor can give to a girl to celebrate her first menstrual period. This momentous time in her life should be recognized like all other occasions and her transition from girlhood to womanhood honored.

This book portrays a positive picture of menstruation which helps empower girls and teaches them to love, care for, and respect their body. The more a girl knows about her body, the more she will take control of it and make the right choices for herself.

Included in the book are charts for keeping track of her period and feelings, and a journal for writing her thoughts and creative expressions.

It is never too late to celebrate this time and make it a special rite of passage. Every girl should have a copy of this book even if she has already started her period.


Read Womens Bodies , Women's Wisdom Dr. Christiane Northrup

AlphaMax Academy presents " Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time on You Tube

Students from 2007 - 2012 from the AlphaMax Academy in Suriname have presented an outstanding DVD on YouTube. The DVD under the theme of A Portrait of Hope and Peace features a program called " Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time". 

 Celebrating over two centuries of great oratorical statements – and at the same time grounded in classical values and traditions – “Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time” includes excerpts of speeches from:

Haile Selassie 
Chief Seattle 
Winston Churchill 
Abraham Lincoln 
Patrick Henry, 
John F. Kennedy
 Malcolm X
 Martin Luther King
 Nelson Mandela
 Rabindranath Tagore
 and President Barack Obama. 



 AlphaMax hopes that this message from a tiny school in a small, relatively unknown country -Suriname will reach across time and space and enter into the hearts of many guiding them to honor and respect true enduring values. Please watch the video and pass on the link to others.

 AlphaMax hopes that the world will listen and be moved to spread the message of hope and peace. http://youtu.be/sY8Hvusg0PQ

SCAD Gives a Presentation at AlphaMax Academy

Savannah College of Art and Design,(SCAD) is a private university primarily based in the U.S state of Georgia.  Alphamax Academy was fortunate enough to a visit from a SCAD recruiter. Daniel Sanchez visited our school and gave a wonderful presentation about his former University on Monday 28 January . The presentation was a brief slide show about life in SCAD, with students and former students giving a short explanation of what they were studying and/or where they are working at this moment.

AlphaMax  students who attended  this presentation were specifically chosen because of their study interests. Many of these students were from the art class and others came mainly from the drama department and humanities. 

Bust of Tagore at AlphaMax Academy

After the presentation Daniel Sanchez asked the students for questions. It appeared that our students are more interested in building arts (architecture) than  other departments. Their interest in the school was heightened when Mr. Sanchez spoke about the many scholarships 
this university had to offer. There were even teachers who were intrigued by the wide variety of options such as following the online courses that were available. 

 Daniel Sanchez reached his goal in getting our students interested in the field of Art and Design. I think that people who never even considered studying something else are now thinking about applying to this university. We hope to get many other visitors from College 
recruiters to show people that there are so many different things in this world than just the science stream which so many of our students feel is the only significant study area. 

SCAD also has establishments in  Hong Kong and France. SCAD  opened in 1979 with only seven faculty members and  71 students. Three years later the student body grew to 500 students. Today there are more than 11,000.

Many people are interested in SCAD is because of its great programs  which are in the following main fields:Building Arts; Communication;Arts; Design; Fashion; Digital Media; Entertainment Arts; Fine Arts; Liberal Arts.

SCAD offers what many other schools cannot, a chance to let your creative side show and possibly make a living out of it.

Cherise Playfair

 
Cherise Playfair—Senior AlphaMax Academy

Note: Cherise’s brother Stephan Playfair was a leading person in several AlphaMax presentations. You can see him in ‘ Portrait of Hope and Peace—Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time.’

The Obama-King-Lincoln Link

President Barack Obama 's inauguration on Monday is implicitly linked this year with the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King the assassinated  civil rights leader.  At the same time, this year a movie on Abraham Lincoln has been playing at movie theatres nationwide.  Both of these leaders are being consciously linked to the inauguration ceremony.

When US President Obama is sworn into office for the second time, he will use the same Bible that President Abraham Lincoln used during his inauguration in 1861.

A Bible owned by the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, will also be used at President Obama's inauguration.

In his speeches Obama has repeatedly referred to King.  Hence, it is not gratutitous that this weekend's  inaugural activities began  with a national day of service in King's honor last Saturday.  Obama and his family also helped spruce up an elementary school in southeast Washington.  On each King holiday during his Presidency, the Obama Family has done community service work.

Some time ago, when King's monument on the National wall was dedicated in Washington D.C., President Obama was the featured speaker.  King will most likely be spoken about in the President's inaugural address today.

The president has said King is one of two people he admires "more than anybody in American history." President Abraham Lincoln is the other. 

Former chief of staff to President Barack Obama and now Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel,  compared President Obama’s values and “ability to see a clear road where everybody just sees fog” to President Abraham Lincoln as depicted in the 2012 Steven Spielberg movie “Lincoln.”

Mayor Emanuel also stated, “And I think that’s essential because, in the Oval Office, at the end of the day, all you have are your values, your judgment, and your ability to see a clear road where everybody just sees fog."

Barack Obama has demonstrated strong leadership qualities which are comparable with those of other great U.S. leaders including the sixteenth president, Abaraham Lincoln.

One area of comparison is the two leaders' oratorical skills. Obama is an inspirational speaker who has focused on creating a feeling of national unity while setting out the tough issues.  Many say this is similar to the manner in which Lincoln approached the listeners of his time.

Another area where people see similiarities is in the political circumstance.  Like Lincoln, Obama is President in the middle of a crisis.  Right now, the US is struggling to deal with the most testing economic decisions of its history.  The country is deeply divided on the way forward.  The current anger and hostilty over the proposed changes to the gun laws reflect this sharp division.  In  Lincoln's time, the nation was bitterly split over slavery and a war was about to take place.  Both Presidents have had to face off directly and squarely with the huge challenges of their times.  Lincoln’s were overcome. We await history's verdict on Obama's.

 
See AlphaMax Students present this and other excerpts from great speeches in Portrait of Hope and Peace: 'Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time'.
http://youtu.be/HJK0LVsm_ho
Milton Drepaul

Hope and Peace: a message of love from Suriname

On the Inauguration day of President Barrack Obama's second term as well as on Martin Luther King's birthday AlphaMax Academy re-releases a unique DVD under the theme, “A Portrait of Hope & Peace”.








This DVD presentation features the remarkable skills and talents of young students and scholars from Suriname at the AlphaMax Academy. Their aim is to inspire other young adults and people worldwide with a renewed vision of idealism for a peaceful and better world.






Celebrating over two centuries of great oratorical statements – and at the same time grounded in classical values and traditions – “Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time” includes excerpts of speeches from Haile Selassie, Chief Seattle, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Patrick Henry, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Rabindranath Tagore, and President Barack Obama.
The Presenters are 18 English-speaking scholars (ages 16 – 19) who have attended the AlphaMax Academy in Paramaribo, Suriname.

Interstingly, President Obama will focus people's minds on the lives of two great visionary leaders by swearing the Presidential oath on bibles owned by President Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King.

See AlphaMax Students present excerpts from great speeches in the "Portrait of Hope and Peace: 'Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great Moments in Time" on YouTube

Kennedy and the AlphaMax's "Portrait of Hope and Peace"

In an article by Robert Schlesinger in US News and World Report on Friday 1 Jan 2013 some of the key points in John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address were highlighted.

Schlesinger mentions that Ted Sorensen, historian, aide and chief speechwriter, advised Kennedy to make it one of the shortest inauguration speeches.  So brevity was one of the virtues of this stirring address.  The speech was less than 1400 words.

 "The inaugural was a special occasion, and there was a special tone in that speech," Sorensen later recalled.

So tone and language structure made that speech one against which all other inauguration speeches are measured.

One line in that address - "ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country" — has echoed across time for generations since 1961.  It was a call for service.  It has inspired many across the world to search for ways to change society for the better.

For my generation Kennedy represented a new direction in political thinking. He was  the youngest elected president,the first Roman Catholic and when he spoke of "the torch [having] been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace…" I believed he was appealing to those who wanted a fresh start in the way world politics and diplomacy were conducted.

Kennedy's statement "we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe" makes us sad today when we reflect on the lengthy and terrible Vietnam War.

Many,like me, however, focused on his vision of a new paradigm for peace.  He proposed  a "new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved." 

One of the most memorable lines in the speech is: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."  It is an ideal that I believe leaders today should seek.

AlphaMax Academy in its DVD 'Great Thoughts, Great Minds, Great moments in Time'-A Portrait of Hope and Peace features excerpts from Kennedy's inaugural address done by Gabrielle Goedhart.  You can view it on YouTube-Portrait of Hope and Peace.  The script of the DVD urges all to seek clarity about the highest goals we can set to achieve Peace.

At the AlphaMax Academy, a unique and leading international school in Suriname, timeless leadership values are treasured and held loft before each generation of students.  In a subtle way, the school is training leaders to take their place in the world of business, politics, the environment, and global affairs, in a rapidly changing world.

Milton Drepaul

2013 GAC Group Starts

The Global Assessment Certificate (GAC) 2013 group began on September 3rd, 2012 with 10 students.  This is the largest group since the GAC course started in 2007.  The Global Assessment Certificate program is run from Australia by ACT Education Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of the a major US testing service, ACT.   It is a post high school grade 13 course designed to prepare students for college/university work in the English speaking and other universities worldwide.  The GAC program has been accepted by 150 English speaking universities worldwide.

This year courses are in 3 modules:

• Module one runs from September 3rd to November 9th, 2012.
• Module 2 from November 12th, 2012 to February 22nd, 2013.
• Module 3 from February 25th to May 31st, 2013.

This group hopes to match or even better the outstanding performance of the 2012 group!

2013 School Year Begins

The AlphaMax Academy has begun the 2013 school year in its AlphaMax Center for Learning.  The entrance for the facility is at the moment on Sterappelstraat.  The school's main phone number is now 597-400566.

AlphaMax has begun the year with its largest intake since its inception.  The facility is still undergoing construction and it will be several weeks before all areas of the complex are complete.

Classes begin at 7:00 AM for all sections.  Kindergarten and Lower School ends their day at 12:00 noon.  Middle School ends their session at 1:00 PM and High School ends their session at 1:45 PM.

This is the first time in 6 years that all sections of the AlphaMax Academy are in the same location.

The new location makes it easy for us to offer classes beyond normal school time.  Initially senior students will have their usual classes PSAT, ACT, IELTS and TOFL classes between 2 and 4 PM.

Students can expect new courses to be introduced.  We hope to expand our language course offerings.

Earth Song – Celebrating Tagore and Genuine Multiculturalism

‘Earth Song’ – Celebrating Tagore and Genuine Multiculturalism

August 7^th is the anniversary of the passing of Rabindranath Tagore, India’s internationally-celebrated poet laureate who left the body in 1941 in Calcutta.

In honor of this renowned highly-respected artist, philosopher, and international humanist, the AlphaMax Academy presents a dramatic rendition of Tagore’s poem, “Earth”, which he published in October 1892 in Calcutta, India – two decades before Europe discovered the poet laureate and bestowed the Nobel Prize on him in 1913.

The cast of AlphaMax Academy oral interpreters performed Earth Song on three public occasions in Paramaribo in the course of the 150^th Birth Anniversary Celebrations honoring Rabindranath Tagore around the world.  The 150^th Birth Anniversary Celebrations in Suriname were co-sponsored by the Embassy of India – ICCR (Suriname), the AlphaMax Academy, ArtVibes United, and other organizations.

As a cross-cultural icon and internationalist – deeply relevant half a century later – Tagore has the distinction being the only person who wrote the national anthems for three distinct independent modern nation-states.

Earth Song, written over a century ago, is presented as a deeply modern and engaging poem with a fitting message for the Earth and all of her peoples at this critical juncture of time in the 21^st century.

May you enjoy the poem and take the message to heart as deeply as we do.

Jai Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore!

AlphaMax Academy

Paramaribo, Suriname

3^rd August 2012