''CHRISTOPHER ONDAATJE'S SEVEN WONDERS''

The funder of the Ondaatje prize, awarded to the book that best evokes a spirit of place, picks the highlights of his well-travelled world ... 

After growing up in Ceylon and England, Christopher Ondaatje moved to Toronto and flourished as a stockbroker. He branched out into publishing, exploring and writing, and represented Canada in the Winter Olympics in the bobsleigh. He now funds the Ondaatje prize, awarded by the Royal Society of Literature to the book that best evokes the spirit of a place. 

VIEW Uluru, Australia

Nothing is as wonderful as the first sighting of the magnificent red mass of Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in the middle of the outback. It’s higher than the Eiffel Tower or the Chrysler Building, measures over five miles around, and extends a mile and a half down into the ground—only a third of it is visible. You can walk to the top, which takes about two hours, but I didn’t do it because I was with some Aboriginal guides and they didn’t want me to because of the songlines. They believe it’s a sacred rock, and made a deal that it wouldn’t be climbed by tourists—but people do climb it. I spent several hours walking around it and exploring the caves and the rock art. It is a massive, rugged structure—the Alps are feminine by comparison.

BEACH Weligama Bay, Sri Lanka

The tiny fishing village of Weligama is south of Galle on the south-east coast of Sri Lanka. A broad, semi-circular, sandy beach curves around Weligama Bay, dotted with rocky outcrops and bending coconut palms. Taprobane Island, once owned by the Count de Mauny, lies just off the beach, and you can walk across to it. When we were children we used to stay there often with our parents. At low tide we could wade across to the beach, but when the tide was high the water was above our necks and we’d have to be carried across by the servants. It was a wonderful life before we left for England in 1947. Weligama was badly hit by the tsunami, but it has recovered now and it’s beautiful and much the same as it was.........

''giraffe women''

Did you know that Zoóide means having a form of animal or a part of an animal?

Generally, it is said of the living being that has the shape of animal or animals in which characters predominate. Could we call the woman zoóide giraffe?The transformations in the body are cultural and reflect what the most original and peculiar to each society. Are notable bodily transformations that they undergo the African Congo, for example.Through scaling of objects in the cartilage of the nose, ear lobes and lips, especially, they radically distort the shape of their original features creating huge holes, stretches overblown.
Another method is a very common type of burn that creates a texture on the skin full of rashes. These African practices are absolutely cultural purposes, with meaningful rituals.Another eloquent example of this cultural manifestation through the body is practiced by the "Giraffe Women" of Ghana, which increase the length of the neck with the use of metal collars ...In Asia, some women also "exert traction" (deform) around the neck promoting a stretch of up to 25 cm, which became known as the giraffe-women.
Ethnic Kayan traditionally wrap their necks in metallic rings (forming a spiral-shaped collar) placed since childhood.
According to the folklore of their tribes, arrived in central Myanmar around 2000 years, originating from the Gobi Desert - Mongolia today.Today, the last 12 of the Kayan villages are located in Kayah state, between the capital Loikau and Lake Inle called peaceful landscapes, famous for its fishermen paddling with the foot ...Already knew women-giraffes in Africa, but the origin of this habit in Asia has several interpretations legendary:
- The collar would have been a punishment for adulterous women of yesteryear;- A protection for farmers against the tigers that attacked the throat to drink your blood while working in the fields;- The men would have done it with their wives to make them ugly, not let them be kidnapped or, rather, ornamenting them that way to show their wealth and to be respected;- The collar surprised the nats - supernatural forces for which the Burmese animist (who worship nature) and even build Buddhist shrines under large trees - the nats good send good vibes from the sky, while the bad meddle in earthly affairs;
- Also one of the explanations is that, for padaungs, the soul is the center of the neck. So, to protect the soul and identity of the tribe, women protect the neck rings, between five and 25, each with 8.5 mm diameter, old gold, and today, copper or brass.

''HORNS OF PLENTY''

Rhinoceros horn was more precious than gold in the 16th century, and only the most skilled artisans carved it. Fiammetta Rocco, the Books and Artseditor of The Economist, describes the first-ever auction entirely devoted to rhinoceros-horn carvings ...

Hunting for rhinoceros in the 16th century was quite a business. There were no sporting rifles or telescopic sights. Instead the animals, short-sighted and short-fused, were trapped in holes in the forests of Java, Sumatra and India and killed with sticks.

Still, it was worth the effort. Rhinos were thought to be related to the unicorn, and their amber-hued horn was believed to crack or change colour if it came into contact with poison. This made rhinoceros horn much sought after for drinking cups. The raw material was more costly than gold, and only the finest carvers were commissioned to work on it.

Many cups have been ground down over time for the supposed medicinal properties of the horn, but about 4,000 survive. Most are in museums in France, Britain and Israel, as well as Ireland, where the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin has probably the most beautiful collection in the world.....

''ABBA''

Durante os anos 60 todos os quatro integrantes já desfrutavam de sucesso musical individual na Europa e decidiram se juntar em 1972 para representar a Suécia no Festival Eurovisão da Canção, mas só venceram na edição de 1974 com a canção "Waterloo", que veio a se tornar o primeiro hit internacional do grupo e a melhor musica do festival,escolhido pelos próprios, e mais tarde com o sucesso do single "Fernando", que vendeu mais de 10 milhões de cópias, o sucesso da banda estava assegurado. Nos anos seguintes o ABBA lançou uma sequência de hits mundiais que incluem sucessos muito lembrados até hoje como "Mamma Mia", "SOS", "Money, Money, Money", "Super Trouper", "Take a Chance on Me", "Chiquitita" e "The Winner Takes It All". Em 1976 foi lançada "Dancing Queen", que viria a se tornar a canção de maior sucesso do grupo, atingindo o topo da Billboard Hot 100 e das paradas de outros 12 países, tendo também vendido mais de 6 milhões de cópias ao redor do mundo.ABBA foi um quarteto de disco e pop formado em 1972 em Estocolmo. Teve uma carreira oficial de 10 anos, durante a qual lançou mais de 70 singles de sucesso, dominando as paradas músicas em todos os continentes e vendendo centenas de milhões de discos, vindo a se tornar a segunda banda mais bem sucedidas comercialmente assim como um dos maiores ícones pop de todos os tempos. O nome do grupo foi criado com a junção das iniciais de seus quatro membros, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson e Anni Lyngstad .

Em 1979 a banda anunciou sua primeira turnê em terras americanas onde fizeram uma série de concertos pela América do Norte, e em 1981 o grupo lançou seu oitavo e último disco, The Visitors, e com o single final, "Thank You for the Music", de 1983. A decisão de encerrar a banda nunca foi tomada, os integrantes concordaram com a necessidade de uma pausa por algum tempo, mas a iniciativa de regressarem nunca foi tomada e por muitos é considerado o fim da banda. . Durante a segunda metade década de 80 a banda foi totalmente esquecida, somente em 1992 a banda voltou aos holofotes com o lançamento do ABBA Gold uma das maiores coletâneas de todos os tempos com mais 28 milhões de cópias comercializadas pelo mundo, quando o interesse pela banda foi novamente aumentando lançaram em 1993 More ABBA Gold que seria uma continuação do bem sucedido Gold. Na virada do milênio as vendas da banda já superavam as 300 milhões de cópias mundialmente. Em 1999 a discografia da banda foi adaptada para o musical Mamma Mia!, que estreou em Londres e depois ganhou versões em dezenas de países, muitos nos quais está em cartaz permanentemente; até hoje o musical já foi assistido por mais de 42 milhões de pessoas e teve um faturamento mundial de cerca de 2 bilhões de dólares, sendo a peça teatral mais bem sucedida de todos os tempos.O sucesso do musical levou a uma adaptação para o cinema em 2008, também titulada Mamma Mia!; o filme teve uma bilheteria total de mais 600 milhões de dólares, tornando-se também o filme musical de maior sucesso de todos os tempos.Outro recorde do ABBA inclui o sucesso da coletânea Gold: Greatest Hits, de 1992, que vendeu mais 30 milhões de cópias e se tornou a terceira coletânea mais vendida da história da música.

Hoje em dia as vendas do grupo já se aproximam de 400 milhões de cópias mundialmente, o que faz do ABBA o quarto maior vendedor de discos da história.Além disso, a Indústria Fonográfica Mundial (IFPI) estima que a banda ainda venda de 2 a 3 milhões de discos por ano, o que faz do ABBA a banda inativa que mais fatura nos dias de hoje. Mesmo o ABBA não sendo tão popular como nos anos 70,eles continuam tendo o titulo de maior banda POP de todos os tempos

''Whitney Elizabeth Houston''

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (Newark, August 9, 1963 - Los Angeles, FEBRUARY 11, 2012) was an American singer of R & B, pop, gospel, and actress emodelo. Whitney Houston was the most awarded artist of all time, according oGuinness World Records, and his list of awards include two Emmy Awards, Awards seisGrammy thirty Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, in a total of 415 awards won in his career by 2010. Houston was also one of the most successful artists of the music world, having sold over 200 million copies worldwide.Inspired by several prominent soul singers in his family, including her mother, Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick and her cousins ​​Dee Dee Warwick and her godmother, Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing with the junior gospel choir of the church of New Jersey to 11 years of age. After she began working alongside his mother in nightclubs in New York City, she was discovered by Clive Davis, manager of Arista Records. So far, Houston has released six studio albums and three soundtrack albums, all certified diamond, multiplatinum, platinum and gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Their selftitled debut album, released in 1985, became the biggest selling debut album by a female artist with 25 million copies comercializadas.Seu second album, Whitney (1987), became the first album by a female artist First debut on the Billboard 200.Whitney has achieved great successes in the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with his video How Will I Know, allowed several african-American female artists to follow their success.

Houston's first role in cinema was in the movie The Bodyguard (1992), which was a huge success as a protagonist. The original soundtrack of the film won the Album of the Year Grammy1994 His first single, I Will Always Love You, became the most sold by a female artist in music history. The album is one of the only female artist in the top five best sellers of all time, ranking fourth. Houston continued to star in films and contributed to the soundtrack of the same, including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). Three years after the release of their fourth album, My Love Is Your Love (1998), Whitney renewed her contract with Arista Records Records.Ela released their fifth studio album, Just Whitney, in 2002, and the Christmas album with the title One Wish: The Holiday Album in 2003. Amid widespread media coverage of his personal and professional turmoil, Houston finished his 14-year marriage to singer Bobby Brown in 2006. In 2009, Houston released his seventh and last studio album, I Look to You

Whitney was recognized internationally as one of the greatest artists of all time, due to his talent, legacy, and especially to his distinctive voice and legendary. Thanks to this remarkable vocal talent, Whitney was often called The Voice (Voice). Whitney is often compared to great artists of the past, such as Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley and is also among the Top 500 artists of all time in Rolling Stone.

Whitney died on February 11, 2012. The award of the Institute of Criminology in Los Angeles said that Whitney Houston's death was accidental. The singer drowned in the bathtub, but according to experts, two other factors contributed to her death: a disease in the arteries of the heart and traces of cocaine were found during the autopsy.