query: Iran possesses the biggest natural gas reserve on the earth.

pos: Iran Iran ( ɪ , also ɪ ) , formerly known as Persia , is a sovereign state in Western Asia . It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia , the de facto Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan ; to the north by the Caspian Sea ; to the northeast by Turkmenistan ; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan ; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman ; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq . Comprising a land area of 1648195 km2 , it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 18th-largest in the world . Officially with 79.93 million inhabitants ( Nov 2016 ) , Iran is the world 's 18th-most-populous country . It is the only country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline . The country 's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia , and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz , make it of great geostrategic importance . Iran has diverse landscapes and geographical conditions . Tehran is the country 's capital and largest city , as well as its leading economic and cultural center .   Iran is home to one of the world 's oldest civilizations , beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the 4th millennium BC . The area was first unified and dominated by the Iranian Medes in the 7th century BC . Iran reached its greatest extent during the Achaemenid Empire ( First Persian Empire ) founded by Cyrus the Great in 6th century BC , the largest empire the world had yet seen , stretching from Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley . Persia fell to Alexander the Great in 4th century BC , but reemerged shortly after as the Parthian Empire . Under the Sassanians , Persia became a leading world power for the next four centuries .   In 7th century AD , Arabs conquered Persia and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism with the new religion of Islam . Iranians became major contributors to the Islamic Golden Age that followed , producing many influential scientists , scholars , artists and thinkers . After two centuries , a period of various Iranian dynasties began , although these dynasties were later conquered by Turks and then the Mongols . An Iranian national identity was always reasserted however , developing a distinct cultural entity . The rise of the Safavids in 15th century led to the establishment of Twelver Shia Islam as the official religion , marking a turning point in Muslim history . In the 18th century , Iran arguably possessed briefly the most powerful military at the time under Nader Shah . Conflicts with the Russian Empire in 19th century led to significant territorial losses . Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution , which established a constitutional monarchy and the country 's first legislative body , the Majles . Following a coup d'état instigated by the UK and the US in 1953 , Iran gradually became closely aligned with the West and grew increasingly autocratic . Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of an Islamic republic , a political system which combines elements of a parliamentary democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a `` Supreme Leadership '' . According to international observers , the current Iranian government is oppressive , with human rights abuses commonplace .   A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups , most inhabitants of Iran are Shia Muslims and Persian is the official language . The largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians , Azeris , Kurds and Lurs .   Iran is a founding member of the UN , ECO , NAM , OIC , and OPEC . Iran is a major regional and middle power , and its large reserves of fossil fuels -- which include the largest natural gas supply in the world and the fourth-largest proven oil reserves -- exert considerable influence in international energy security and the world economy . Iran 's rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites , the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world .

neg: Nepal Oil Corporation Nepal Oil Corporation Limited ( NOC ) is a state owned trading enterprise of Nepal that imports , stores and distributes various petroleum products in the country . It was established on 1970 by the Government of Nepal under the `` Company Act , 2021 ( 1964 ) '' . The government owns 98.36 % of its share and rest is contributed by four other state owned enterprises : Rastriya Beema Sansthan , National Trading Ltd. , Nepal Bank Ltd. and Rastriya Banijya Bank .   In the very beginning , the trading activities of NOC were started by storing two products in two drums under the leadership of the late Mr. Subarna Bikram Thapa appointed by Government of Nepal . His persistent endeavor to develop NOC resulted in more than 30,000 kilolitres ( kL ) of storage facilities for petroleum products in different development regions of Nepal .   Nepal , being one of the land locked countries of south Asia , has to depend on India for the supply and distribution of various petroleum products as the eastern , southern and western part of the country is attached with India . The prospect of crude oil exploration in Nepal has not yet been proven a feasible one , so the entire national demand is met by import alone . From the very beginning of NOC 's trading activities , a special and long-term supply arrangement has existed with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. ( IOC ) , a leading national oil company of India , having more than 55 % of the market share .   NOC , headquartered in Kathmandu , has over the years expanded and now has five regional offices , branch offices , fuel depots , and aviation fuel depots , with total existing storage capacity of 71,558 kilolitres ( kL ) and employing 508 permanent and other contract work force .   The highest policy making and controlling body of NOC is its Board of Directors . The Board is represented by all the shareholders .   Currently the Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ) of NOC is the Managing Director who has the overall responsibility for day-to-day operations besides the Member-Secretary of NOC Board . Basically , the operations of NOC are coordinated under two broad categories of Marketing and Finance cum administration , each headed by Deputy Managing Director .

neg: History of Afghanistan The written history of Afghanistan , ( تاریخ افغانستان د افغانستان تاريخ can be traced back to around 500 BCE when the area was under the Achaemenid Empire , although evidence indicates that an advanced degree of urbanized culture has existed in the land since between 3000 and 2000 BCE . The Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up to large parts of Afghanistan in the north , with several sites being known . Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army arrived at what is now Afghanistan in 330 BCE after conquering Persia during the Battle of Gaugamela . Since then , many empires have established capitals inside Afghanistan , including the Greco-Bactrians , Mauryas , Kushans , Hindu Shahi , Saffarids , Samanids , Ghaznavids , Ghurids , Timurids , Mughals , Hotakis and Durranis .   Afghanistan ( meaning `` land of the Afghans '' ) has been a strategically important location throughout history . The land served as `` a gateway to India , impinging on the ancient Silk Road , which carried trade from the Mediterranean to China '' . Sitting on many trade and migration routes , Afghanistan may be called the ` Central Asian roundabout ' since routes converge from the Middle East , from the Indus Valley through the passes over the Hindu Kush , from the Far East via the Tarim Basin , and from the adjacent Eurasian Steppe .   The archaeological manifestation of the Indo-Iranians ( Aryans ) before their split into separate language groups is generally seen as the Andronovo culture to the north of present-day Afghanistan . The Iranian languages were developed by one branch of these people ; the Pashto language spoken today in Afghanistan is one of the Eastern Iranian languages . Elena E. Kuz ` mina argues that the tents of Iranian-speaking nomads of Afghanistan developed from the light surface houses of the Eurasian steppe belt in the Bronze Age .   The Arab invasions influenced the culture of Afghanistan , and its pre-Islamic period of Zoroastrian , Macedonian , Buddhist and Hindu past has long vanished . Turkic empire-builders such as the Ghaznavids and Timurids made the region now called Afghanistan of major importance .   Mirwais Hotak followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani unified Afghan tribes and founded the last Afghan Empire in the early 18th century CE . Afghanistan 's sovereignty has been held during the Anglo-Afghan Wars , the 1980s Soviet war , and the 2001-present war by the country 's many and diverse people : the Pashtuns , Tajiks , Hazaras , Uzbeks , Turkmen , Aimak , Baloch and others . The Pashtuns form the largest group , claiming to be descendants of ancient Israelites or Qais Abdur Rashid but scholars believe that they are a confederation of various peoples from the past who united under Pashtunwali .

neg: 1973 world oil market chronology January 11 : U.S. Phase III price controls begin . Allows for voluntary instead of mandatory price control on all U.S. prices . This does not prevent a sharp rise in heating oil prices caused by a severe winter and shortage of product .  January 17 : President Richard Nixon suspends mandatory oil import quota on No. 2 heating oil through April 30 .  January 23 : Shah of Iran announces that the 1954 operating agreement between a consortium of oil companies and Iran will not be renewed when it expires in 1979 . The consortium was formed in 1954 as a means to settle a dispute between a new ministry in Iran and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company ( AIOC ) . The consortium included Standard Oil of New Jersey , Standard Oil of California , SOCONY-Vacuum , the Texas Company , Gulf , Royal Dutch-Shell , the Compagnie Francaise de Petroles , and the AIOC .  February 28 : Iraq and IPC reach an agreement on compensation for nationalization .  March : Special Rule No. 1 reimposes mandatory ( Phase II ) price controls on the 23 largest oil companies . Smaller companies , representing 5 percent of the market , enjoy uncontrolled prices .  March 16 : Shah of Iran and Consortium members agree to nationalize all assets immediately in return for an assured 20-year supply of Iranian oil .  March 16 : OPEC discusses raising prices to offset decline of U.S. dollar value .  April 1 : OPEC increases posted prices by 5.7 percent .  April 18 : U.S. Government ends Mandatory Oil Import Program . Program , established in 1959 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower , had limited imports of crude and product east of the Rocky Mountains to a percentage of domestic crude production .  June 1 : Eight OPEC countries raise posted prices by 11.9 percent .  June 11 : Libya nationalizes Bunker Hunt concession ; Nigeria acquires 35 percent participation in Shell-BP concession .  June 14 : Nixon administration imposes 60-day economy-wide price freeze , superseding Special Rule No. 1 for oil companies .  Aug : Libya nationalizes 51 percent of Occidental Petroleum concession and of the Oasis consortium .  August 17 : President Nixon 's Cost of Living Council imposes two-tier price ceiling on crude petroleum sales : production of `` old '' oil ( that produced at or below 1972 levels from existing wells ) to be sold at March 1973 prices plus 35 cents ; production of `` new '' oil ( that produced above 1972 levels from existing wells and oil produced from new wells ) to be sold at uncontrolled prices .  September 1 : Libya nationalizes 51 percent of nine other companies ' concessions : Esso , Libya/Sirte , Mobil , Shell , Gelensberg , Texaco , SoCal , Libyan-American ( ARCO ) , and Grace .  September 5 : Conference of less developed countries approves forming `` producers ' associations , '' calls for withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Arab lands .  September 15 : OPEC supports price hikes and designates six Persian Gulf countries to negotiate collectively with companies over prices . Other members to negotiate individually .  September : Kuwait rejects gradual participation increase plan , insists on immediate 60 percent participation .  October 6 : Beginning of fourth Arab-Israeli War .  October 7 : Iraq nationalizes Exxon and Mobil shares in Basrah Petroleum Company representing 23.75 percent equity in the company .  October 8 : OPEC meets with oil companies to discuss revision of 1971 Tehran agreement and oil prices . Negotiations fail .  October 16 : The Gulf Six ( Iran , Iraq , Abu Dhabi , Kuwait , Saudi Arabia and Qatar ) unilaterally raise the posted price of Saudi Light marker crude 17 percent from $ 3.12 to $ 3.65 per barrel and announce production cuts .  October 17 : OPEC oil ministers agree to use oil weapon in Arab-Israeli War , mandate cut in exports , and recommend embargo against unfriendly states .  October 19 : President Nixon requests Congress to appropriate $ 2.2 billion in emergency aid for Israel . Libya , Saudi Arabia and other Arab states proclaim an embargo on oil exports to the United States .  October 23 : Arab oil embargo extended to the Netherlands .  November 5 : Arab producers announce 25 percent cut in production below September levels . Further cuts of five percent are threatened .  November 18 : Arab oil ministers cancel the scheduled 5 percent cut in production for EEC .  November 23 : Arab summit conference adopts open and secret resolutions on the use of the oil weapon . Embargo extended to Portugal , Rhodesia , and South Africa .  November 27 : President Nixon signs the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act ( EPAA ) . Authorizes petroleum price , production , allocation and marketing controls .  December 9 : Arab oil ministers announce a further production cut of 5 percent for January for non-friendly countries .  December 22 : OPEC Gulf Six decides to raise the posted price of marker crude from $ 5.12 to $ 11.65 per barrel effective January 1 , 1974 .  December 25 : Arab oil ministers cancel January 5 percent production cut . Saudi Arabian oil minister promises 10 percent OPEC production rise .   | -  | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | previous year :1972 world oil market chronology  | width = `` 40 % '' align = `` center '' | This article is part of theChronology of world oil market events ( 1970-2005 )  | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | following year :1974 world oil market chronology  | -   Category : Oil market timelines  World oil market chronology  World Oil Market Chronology , 1973

neg: Petroleum industry in China The impact of the petroleum industry in China has been increasing globally as China is the fourth-greatest oil producer in the world .   China imported a record 6.7 m barrels a day ( b/d ) of oil in 2015 and forecasted `` to overtake the U.S. as the world 's biggest crude importer in 2016 '' According to the Energy Information Administration ( EIA ) China first became the `` world 's largest net importer of petroleum and other liquids '' by the end of 2013 .

neg: Golshan Gas Field The Golshan gas field is one of the NIOC Recent Discoveries which is located at approximately 180 km south east of Bushehr , 65 km offshore the Persian Gulf . The volume of gas in place ( GIP ) of the field is estimated at 42 to 56 TCF .   On December 26 , 2007 , the contract for development of the field was signed between NIOC and SKS of Malaysia , in the presence of the Petroleum Minister of Iran .

neg: 1972 world oil market chronology January 20 : Six exporting countries - Abu Dhabi , Iran , Iraq , Kuwait , Qatar and Saudi Arabia - conclude ten days of meetings with Western oil companies . An agreement is reached to raise the posted price of crude by 8.49 percent to offset the loss in value of oil concessions attributable to the decline in value of the U.S. dollar .  March 11 : OPEC threatens `` appropriate sanctions '' against companies that `` fail to comply with ... any action taken by a Member Country in accordance with -LSB- OPEC -RSB- decisions . ''  June 1 : Iraq nationalizes Iraq Petroleum Company 's ( IPC ) concession owned by British Petroleum , Royal Dutch-Shell , Compagnie Francaise des Petroles , Mobil and Standard Oil of New Jersey ( now Exxon ) . The concessions were valued at over one billion dollars .  June 9 : In a show of support for Iraq , OPEC moves to prevent companies whose interests were nationalized in Iraq from increasing production elsewhere ; appoints mediators between Iraq and IPC .  September 30 : Libya acquires a 50 percent interest in two ENI concessions .  October 27 : OPEC approves plan providing for 25 percent government ownership of all Western oil interests operating within Kuwait , Qatar , Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia beginning on January 1 , 1973 , and rising to 51 percent by January 1 , 1983 . ( Iraq declines to agree . ) Agreements signed on December 21 .   | -  | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | previous year :1971 world oil market chronology  | width = `` 40 % '' align = `` center '' | This article is part of theChronology of world oil market events ( 1970-2005 )  | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | following year :1973 world oil market chronology  | -   Category : Oil market timelines  Category :1970 s economic history  World oil market chronology  World Oil Market Chronology , 1972

neg: Geography of Iran Geographically , Iran is located in West Asia and borders the Caspian Sea , Persian Gulf , and Gulf of Oman . Its mountains have helped to shape both the political and the economic history of the country for several centuries . The mountains enclose several broad basins , on which major agricultural and urban settlements are located . Until the 20th century , when major highways and railroads were constructed through the mountains to connect the population centers , these basins tended to be relatively isolated from one another .   Typically , one major town dominated each basin , and there were complex economic relationships between the town and the hundreds of villages that surrounded it . In the higher elevations of the mountains rimming the basins , tribally organized groups practiced transhumance , moving with their herds of sheep and goats between traditionally established summer and winter pastures . There are no major river systems in the country , and historically transportation was by means of caravans that followed routes traversing gaps and passes in the mountains . The mountains also impeded easy access to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea .   With an area of 1648000 km2 , Iran ranks eighteenth in size among the countries of the world . Iran shares its northern borders with three post-Soviet states : Armenia , Azerbaijan , and Turkmenistan . These borders extend for more than 2000 km , including nearly 650 km of water along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea . Iran 's western borders are with Turkey in the north and Iraq in the south , terminating at the Arvand Rud .   The Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman littorals form the entire 1770 km southern border . To the east lie Afghanistan on the north and Pakistan on the far south . Iran 's diagonal distance from Azerbaijan in the northwest to Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast is approximately 2333 km .

neg: Iran–United Arab Emirates relations Relations between the neighboring countries of Iran and the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are deeply historic , dating back centuries prior to the establishment of the modern-day United Arab Emirates . They maintain diplomatic relations , with embassies in each other countries , and have close economic ties .   There is a significant community of Iranians in the United Arab Emirates , mostly residing in the emirate of Dubai . An Arabic-speaking native community lives in the southern provinces of Iran , some of whose members share historical ties with the southern shores of the Persian Gulf .

neg: Iranian local elections, 1999 The elections for City and Village Councils of Iran were held on 26 February 1999 , for the first time in the history of Iran to elect some 200,000 seats .   These elections saw great levels of public participation and civic engagement and still tend to be viewed as an `` historic moment '' and important opportunity for citizens to play an active part in the management of their municipalities at a local level .   In many large cities , especially Tehran and Isfahan , candidates from 2nd of Khordad movement won the elections . Independents were elected in most rural areas , reflecting concern for local issues which competed with the wider national debate over an emerging `` civil society . ''

neg: Northern North Sea basin The North Sea is part of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Europe . It is located between Norway and Denmark in the east , Scotland and England in the west , Germany , the Netherlands , Belgium and France in the south .   The geology of the North Sea describes the geological features such as channels , trenches , and ridges today and the geological history , plate tectonics , geological events that created them .   A geological basin is a large low-lying area or depression . It is often below sea level . Depressions are typically formed by tectonic processes acting on the lithosphere , providing `` accommodation space '' for sediment to be preserved . Basins are formed in a variety of tectonic settings : extensional , compressional , strike-slip and intraplate .   Geological basins are one of the most common places which collect sediment . The type of rocks which form there tell about the palaeoclimate of the continent . The geology is of interest to oil prospectors , hydrologists and palaeontologists . Exploration in the North Sea was initiated in May 1964 when the first well was spudded and the area has now become one of the most prolific hydrocarbon provinces in the world . Total recoverable reserves found to date , including adjacent land areas , amount to over 100 billion barrels of oil and natural gas .   Geologically speaking , the North Sea is divided into four main basins : Northern , Moray Firth , Central , and Southern . Each has a long and complex geologic history with unique structural and stratigraphic developments driven by tectonic events over the last 400 Million years . The northern North Sea Paleorift system , including the Viking and Sogn graben , is an approximately 150-200 km wide zone of extended upper crust with preserved strata from pre-Triassic to Tertiary . It is bounded by the Shetland Platform to the west and the Norwegian mainland to the east .

neg: Islamic Azad University of Shiraz The Islamic Azad University , Shiraz Branch is a private university located in Shiraz , Iran . It is a part of private chain of universities in Iran called the Islamic Azad Universities .  The Islamic Azad University of Shiraz with over 290 faculty and academic staff , 82,000 square meters of educational space , 7,500 square meters of administration space , 15,200 square meters of sporting space , is the biggest private university in the southern region of Iran .   The headquarters of the Islamic Azad University is in Tehran , Iran . The Islamic Azad University was founded in 1982 and currently has an enrollment of 1.7 million students , 30,000 Alumni and 35,000 Administrators making it the world 's third largest . Over 3.5 million students have graduated from the Islamic Azad University since its establishment . Islamic Azad University has a total area of 16 million square meters and over 440 branches across Iran and also in other countries around the world . It has also international branches and universities in the U.A.E , United Kingdom , Tanzania , Lebanon , Afghanistan and Armenia and has plans to establish more branch campuses in Malaysia , Canada , and Tajikistan in the near future .   Over the years , the university has accumulated assets estimated to be worth between $ 20 and $ 25 billion . The total Area of the University is said to be 20 million square meters .  Some 4 million students have graduated from this university to this date , which has made it possible for a lot of people to get access to higher educations and better employment prospects .  In the recent years a lot of effort has been made to expand the graduate studies at the Islamic Azad University . The Islamic Azad University has about 200,000 Master 's Degree students and about 20,000 PhD level students .   The university system also operates a news agency similar to ANA , named `` Azad News Agency '' .  Islamic Azad University 's activities quickly expanded throughout the country , so that today thousands of students are enrolling every year . Not relying on government funding , it receives charitable donations and charges tuition fees .   The Islamic Azad University also operates some 617 schools throughout the country , these schools are known as SAMA .   The degrees and certificates issued by this university are recognized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education . Post-graduate degrees have been offered in many different branches of Islamic Azad University .

neg: Naftiran Intertrade Naftiran Intertrade Company Sàrl ( NICO ) is a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company ( NIOC ) . NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry . NIOC buys the vast majority of Iran 's gasoline imports . NICO is a key player in Iran 's energy sector .   NICO also handles trading & swaps operations on behalf of NIOC . Iran has swap arrangements with Azerbaijan , Turkmenistan , and Kazakhstan , under which it ships crude from the Central Asian producers to its Caspian ports . In exchange Iran delivers the equivalent barrels of crude on behalf of the three Central Asian producers to their customers in the Persian Gulf .

neg: Tehran Bureau Tehran Bureau is an online news magazine covering politics , foreign affairs , culture and society in Iran and the Iranian Diaspora . It was founded by Iranian-born journalist Kelly Golnoush Niknejad in February 2008 , initially as a blog . In May 2009 , it was launched as a virtual news bureau , featuring a growing list of regular contributors and journalists knowledgeable about Iran and Iranian affairs . Tehran Bureau combines aspects of traditional journalism and new media , using trusted online social networks to complement conventional coverage . Starting out as an independent news organization , Tehran Bureau had no affiliation with and received no funding or support from any government , religious , or interest group . However in September 2009 it began a collaboration with the Public Broadcasting Service television series `` Frontline '' which will provide it with financing , host its Web site and provide editorial support . In return Tehran Bureau will help shape a coming `` Frontline '' program about Iran .   The British news website The Guardian hosted Tehran Bureau for a while . In an article revealing the new arrangement , The Guardian assured that the magazine would `` retain its independence under Niknejad ''   Its mission statement states , `` Tehran Bureau is a virtual bureau connecting journalists , Iran experts and readers all over the world . Our stories are written by Iranians in Iran and the Middle East , foreigners viewing or interacting with our culture for the first time , and hyphenated Iranians best suited to bridge the cultures . ''   Among its contributing journalists Muhammad Sahimi , Jason Rezaian , Gareth Smyth and many others writing without a byline since the crackdown on journalists after the June 12 presidential election of 2009 .

neg: Middle East nuclear weapon free zone The Middle East nuclear weapon free zone ( MENWFZ ) is a proposed agreement similar to other nuclear-weapon-free zones in other regions . Steps towards the establishment of such a zone began in the 1960s led to a joint declaration by Egypt and Iran in 1974 which resulted in a General Assembly resolution ( broadened in 1990 through the Mubarak Initiative to cover all weapons of mass destruction ) . Following the 1995 NPT Review Conference , the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) held a series of meetings involving experts and academics to consider ways to advance this process .   Such a zone would strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ( NPT ) , would help to promote global nuclear disarmament and would also help the Middle East peace process as substantial confidence-building measures .   The United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 ( the ceasefire ending the Gulf War ) recognizes the goal of establishing the MENWFZ ( para 14 ) .   For the Egyptian government ( until the political changes of 2011 ) , a MENWFZ was seen as a central source of pressure on Israel to relinquish its ambiguous nuclear policy , and to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ( NPT ) . Until the Iranian nuclear program , Israel was believed to be the only Mideast country to have a nuclear deterrence capability , developed in the 1960s . As Avner Cohen , Gerald Steinberg and other experts have noted , Israeli policy has emphasized the link between nuclear demilitarization and a comprehensive peace settlement including Palestinian issues and with countries and potential threats in the region , including Syria and Iran . Israel maintains a veil of `` studied ambiguity '' ( `` amimut '' ) about its nuclear arsenal , and has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty .   Four countries in the Middle East have been found in non-compliance with their IAEA safeguards obligations under the NPT : Iraq , Libya , Iran , and Syria . Of these cases , Iran and Syria remain unresolved .   Following pressure from Egypt and the Arab League , the 2010 NPT Review Conference called for holding a conference on a MENWFZ which would primarily press Israel to end its policy of a ambiguity . Finland planned to host such an event in 2012 . However , no agreement was reached on the agenda and other issues , and the conference was called off in November 2012 .   An international group of concerned citizens , including former members of the Israeli Knesset , responded to the lack of progress in official talks by organizing an International Conference For A WMD-Free Middle East . It was held in Haifa in December 2013 .

neg: Iran–United Kingdom relations Iran -- United Kingdom relations are the bilateral relations between the countries of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Islamic Republic of Iran . Iran , which was known as Persia before 1935 , has had political relations with England since the late Ilkhanate period ( 13th century ) when King Edward I of England sent Geoffrey of Langley to the Ilkhanid court to seek an alliance .   Diplomatic relations between the two countries have considerably deteriorated in recent years , following the re-election of President Ahmadinejad .   On 28 November 2011 Iran downgraded its relations with Britain due to new sanctions put in place by the UK . The next day a band of students and Basiji attacked the UK embassy compound in Tehran , damaging property and driving the embassy staff away . On 30 November 2011 , in response to the attack , the UK closed its embassy in Tehran and ordered the Iranian embassy in London closed .   According to a 2013 BBC World Service poll , only 5 % of British people view Iran 's influence positively , with 84 % expressing a negative view . According to a 2012 Pew Global Attitudes Survey , 16 % of British people viewed Iran favorably , compared to 68 % which viewed it unfavorably ; 91 % of British people oppose Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons and 79 % approve of `` tougher sanctions '' on Iran , while 51 % of British people support use of military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons .   From July 2012 until October 2013 , British interests in Iran were maintained by the Swedish embassy in Tehran while Iranian interests in the United Kingdom were maintained by the Omani embassy in London .   On July 2013 , it is announced that the UK would consider opening better relations with Iran `` step-by-step '' following the election of President Hassan Rouhani .   On October 8 , 2013 , Britain and Iran announced that they would each appoint a chargé d'affaires to work toward resuming full diplomatic relations .   On February 20 , 2014 the Iranian Embassy in London was restored and the two countries agreed to restart diplomatic relations .  On August 23 , 2015 the embassy was officially reopened .

neg: Natural gas in Qatar The natural gas in Qatar covers a large portion of the world supply of natural gas . According to Oil & Gas Journal , as of January 1 , 2011 , reserves of natural gas in Qatar were measured at approximately 896 e12cuft ; this measurement means that the state contains 14 % of all known natural-gas reserves , as the world 's third-largest reserves , behind Russia and Iran . The majority of Qatar 's natural gas is located in the massive offshore North Field , which spans an area roughly equivalent to Qatar itself . A part of the world 's largest non-associated , natural-gas field , the North Field , is a geological extension of Iran 's South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field , which holds an additional 450 e12cuft of recoverable natural-gas reserves .   While Qatar is a member of the OPEC and is a significant oil producer , the government has devoted more resources to the development of natural gas in the contemporary era , particularly for export as liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) . In 2006 , Qatar reportedly surpassed Indonesia to become the largest exporter of LNG in the world . Together , revenues from the oil and natural-gas sectors amount to 60 % of the country 's GDP . Domestically , the vast majority of Qatar 's total energy consumption comes from natural gas ( 79 % ) , whilst the balance is supplied by oil .

neg: Khuzestan Plain The Khuzestan Plain is the relatively flat region of Iran where the Khuzestan province and the cities of Ahvaz , Susa and Abadan are located . It is the largest plain in Iran and one of the richest agricultural areas in the world . It is irrigated by several big rivers such as Karun and Karkheh . Khuzestan Plain borders Mesopotamia and is separated from it by the Shatt al-Arab ( known as Arvand Rud in Iran ) river .   Khuzestan was the center of the ancient Elamite culture of Iran .

neg: Ministry of Revolutionary Guards Ministry of Guards ( -LSB- وزارت سپاه , Vezārat-e Sepāh -RSB- ) was a government ministry in Iran between 1982 and 1989 , which mainly acted as a ministry of defence dedicated to logistically supply the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps . By having its own ministry , the Corps were able to acquire a powerful voice in the cabinet of Iran . It also implied greater regulation and supervision over the Corps by placing its acquisitions and purchases under and the audit and purview of the government .   It mirrored the existing parallel Ministry of National Defence ( the word `` National '' was dropped in 1984 ) which solely supported and addressed the administrative affairs of the Iranian Army ( Artesh ) during these years . In 1989 , it was dissolved and reintegrated into the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics ( MODAFL ) , in order to centralize military logistics among the Iranian Armed Forces .

neg: Iran crisis of 1946 The Iran crisis of 1946 , also known as the Iran-Azerbaijan Crisis ( Qaʾilih Âzarbâyjân , `` Azerbaijan crisis '' ) , followed the end of World War II and stemmed from the Soviet Union 's refusal to relinquish occupied Iranian territory , despite repeated assurances . In 1941 , Iran had been jointly invaded and occupied by the Allied powers of the Soviet Red Army in the north and by the British in the centre and south . Iran was used by the Americans and the British as a transportation route to provide vital supplies to the Soviet Union 's war efforts .   As of August 1941 , the United States was a neutral nation and had not yet entered as a belligerent in World War II . Therefore , the bloc known as ` The Allies ' were principally ( with Poland and France occupied by Germany in 1939 and 1940 , respectively ) the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union , recently forming their alliance after the German invasion of territories of the Western Soviet Union in June 1941 . In the aftermath of the occupation of Iran , those Allied forces agreed to withdraw from Iran within six months after the cessation of hostilities . However , when this deadline came in early 1946 , the Soviets , under Joseph Stalin , remained in Iran and local pro-Soviet Iranians proclaimed a separatist People 's Republic of Azerbaijan .   In late 1945 , in addition to the People 's Republic of Azerbaijan , the Republic of Mahabad also came into existence . Soon , the alliance of the Kurdish and People 's Azerbaijani forces , supported in arms and training by the Soviet Union , engaged in fighting with Iranian forces , resulting in a total of 2,000 casualties . Negotiation by Iranian premier Ahmad Qavam and diplomatic pressure on the Soviets by the United States eventually led to Soviet withdrawal . The crisis is seen as one of the early conflicts in the growing Cold War at the time .

neg: Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh ( born 1970 ) , is an Iranian politician and academic who was a `` close ally '' of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad under whom he served as deputy foreign minister . As of 2015 he was reportedly an academic at Edalat University .   Malekzadeh is perhaps most notable in English language sources for his arrest on June 23 , 2011  as part of the 2011 rift between the Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei . Although no charges were made during the arrest , he had been accused of being part of a `` deviant current '' trying to undermine the role of Iran 's religious leaders and also of financial corruption by `` some '' members of parliament . He is thought to be the `` most senior '' of the `` at least 25 '' associates of Ahmadinejad who were arrested , and one of three close Ahmadinejad allies arrested the same week ( the other two being Alireza Moghimi , a senior director and Afshin Ronaghi , a deputy minister of industries and mines ) . Malekzadeh had stepped down earlier in the face of a `` growing opposition '' from members of Parliament , who threatened to impeach the foreign minister , Ali Akbar Salehi , if he did not dismiss Mr. Malekzadeh . Malekzadeh was also an ally of the individual `` seen to be at the center of the political struggle '' , the president 's chief of staff , Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei , who was alleged by a hard-line newspaper to be a `` very dangerous person who is propping up a new cult . ''   According to his website he has a PhD and Post-doctorate degree in Industrial Management , and as of 2016 he is the vice president for international affairs of Edalat University ; professor and president of State Higher Education , Research and Planning Institute ; President of the board of trustees of Cultural Heritage Research Center ; and member of the board of trustees and International Deputy of Edalat University .


query: To Kill a Mockingbird explores at least one theme.

pos: To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960 . It was immediately successful , winning the Pulitzer Prize , and has become a classic of modern American literature . The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee 's observations of her family , her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville , Alabama , in 1936 , when she was 10 years old .   The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor , despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality . The narrator 's father , Atticus Finch , has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers . One critic explains the novel 's impact by writing , `` In the twentieth century , To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America , and its protagonist , Atticus Finch , the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism . ''   As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman , the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence . Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class , courage , compassion , and gender roles in the American Deep South . The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice . Despite its themes , To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms , often challenged for its use of racial epithets .   Reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication . Despite the number of copies sold and its widespread use in education , literary analysis of it is sparse . Author Mary McDonough Murphy , who collected individual impressions of To Kill a Mockingbird by several authors and public figures , calls the book `` an astonishing phenomenon '' . In 2006 , British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one `` every adult should read before they die '' . It was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan , with a screenplay by Horton Foote . Since 1990 , a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee 's hometown .   To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee 's only published book until Go Set a Watchman , an earlier draft of To Kill a Mockingbird , was published on July 14 , 2015 . Lee continued to respond to her work 's impact until her death in February 2016 , although she had refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964 .

neg: Utopian and dystopian fiction The utopia and its derivative , the dystopia , are genres of literature that explore social and political structures . Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author 's ethos , having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers . Dystopian ( or dystopic ) fiction ( sometimes combined with , but distinct from apocalyptic literature ) is the opposite : the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author 's ethos . Many novels combine both , often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take , depending on its choices , ending up with one of two possible futures . Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other speculative fiction genres , and arguably are by definition a type of speculative fiction .   More than 400 utopian works were published prior to the year 1900 in the English language alone , with more than a thousand others during the twentieth century .

neg: Mockingbird (Eminem song) `` Mockingbird '' is a song by American rapper Eminem from his fifth studio album Encore ( 2004 ) . It was released as the fifth single from the album in April 2005 . It peaked at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 , and number four in the United Kingdom . It received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance . `` Mockingbird '' was later included on Eminem 's greatest hits compilation album Curtain Call : The Hits ( 2005 ) .   The song is another that addresses Eminem 's relationship with his daughter Hailie Jade , his adopted daughter Alaina and his relationship with his wife Kim . The single cover features a still from the video with Eminem sitting on the couch . This song was also featured on the 2005 compilation album Now That 's What I Call Music 19 ( U.S. series ) .

neg: The Oldest Confession The Oldest Confession is a 1958 novel , the first of twenty-five by the American political novelist and satirist Richard Condon . It was published by Appleton-Century-Crofts . A tragicomedy about the attempted theft of a masterpiece from a museum in Spain , it engendered , along with other early works such as The Manchurian Candidate , a relatively brief Condon cult . Superficially it is what today would be called a caper story or caper novel , a subspecies of the crime novel -- generally a light-hearted romp in which a gang of disparate characters bands together to pull off a substantial robbery from a seemingly impregnable site . The acknowledged master of this genre was the late Donald E. Westlake .   In spite of adhering to most of the informal rules of this genre , however , which include alternating comedy with scenes of dramatic tension and suspense and always building towards a powerful and surprising climax , Condon ends up thumbing his nose at most of these conventions and , for the last third of the book , it is clearly out-and-out tragedy that he is writing rather than comedy or straight entertainment . By then it has become apparent that , throughout the book , he has been writing about the human condition and its perils rather than merely regaling the reader with the story of an outrageous theft , no matter how ingenious its details .   With this initial novel , Condon clearly laid out the parameters for his next 24 : a fast-moving , mostly tongue-in-cheek , semi-thriller narrative aimed at the general reader , peppered with occasional moments of grotesque horror and violence , all recounted by an omniscient narrator with a keen sense of irony and sardonicism , and always overlaid , to a greater or lesser degree , by Condon 's very deeply felt attitudes about America , business , money , greed , ethics , and morality .

neg: Christ figure A Christ figure , also known as a Christ-Image is a literary technique that the author uses to draw allusions between their characters and the biblical Jesus . More loosely , the Christ Figure is a spiritual or prophetic character who parallels Jesus , or other spiritual or prophetic figures .   In general , a character should display more than one correspondence with the story of Jesus Christ as depicted in the Bible . For instance , the character might display one or more of the following traits : performance of miracles , manifestation of divine qualities , healing others , displaying kindness and forgiveness , fighting for justice , being guided by the spirit of the character 's father , and the character 's own death and resurrection . Christ figures are often martyrs , sacrificing themselves for causes larger than themselves .   In postmodern literature , the resurrection theme is often abandoned , leaving us with the image of a martyr sacrificing himself for a greater good . It is common to see Christ figures displayed in a manner suggestive of crucifixion as well .

neg: Archetypal literary criticism Archetypal literary criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes ( from the Greek archē , `` beginning , '' and typos , `` imprint '' ) in the narrative , symbols , images , and character types in literary work . As a form of literary criticism , it dates back to 1934 when Maud Bodkin published Archetypal Patterns in Poetry .   Archetypal literary criticism 's origins are rooted in two other academic disciplines , social anthropology and psychoanalysis ; each contributed to literary criticism in separate ways , with the latter being a sub-branch of critical theory . Archetypal criticism was at its most popular in the 1940s and 1950s , largely due to the work of Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye . Though archetypal literary criticism is no longer widely practiced , nor have there been any major developments in the field , it still has a place in the tradition of literary studies .

neg: Mockingbird Time Mockingbird Time is the eighth studio album by the alt country band The Jayhawks , released on September 20 , 2011 . The album marked the returns of the original front man Mark Olson , who had left the group in 1995 after the release of Tomorrow the Green Grass , and long-time keyboard player Karen Grotberg . Mockingbird Time was the first new studio album by The Jayhawks since 2003 's Rainy Day Music . The album entered the Billboard 200 album chart at # 38 , becoming the highest-charting release of their career to date . It also charted at # 2 on Billboard 's Folk Albums chart , # 6 on the Tastemaker Albums chart , and # 11 on the Rock Albums chart .

neg: Isle of Canes Isle of Canes ( ISBN 1-59331-306-3 ) , a novel by Elizabeth Shown Mills , follows an African family from its importation and enslavement in 1735 through four generations of freedom in Creole Louisiana to its re-subjugation by Jim Crow at the close of the nineteenth century . Mills explores the family 's `` struggle to find a place in -LSB- a -RSB- tightly defined world of black and white '' -- a world made more complex by the larger struggle of Louisiana 's native ancien regime to preserve its culture amid the Anglo-Protestant `` invasion '' that followed the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the resulting battle for political and social hegemony . Isle 's central theme is the ambiguous lives of those who escaped colonial slavery only to find they could not survive as free without complicity in the slave regime .   The novel 's subject-family is one that has been both romanticized and excoriated by journalists , academics , descendants , and current websites over the past half-century . Isle 's interpretation of their controversial role is based heavily on the author 's original research across three decades in the archives of six nations , and actual documents are interspersed throughout the novel . The author 's research began in 1972 when she was employed by a preservation society to document the history of one Isle landmark , Melrose Plantation .   Critical assessments of Isle of Canes focus on its upturning of stereotypes . Contemporary Lit describes the focus as `` Gone with the Wind from a vastly different , more important perspective ... not that of the plantation owner or the poor white ... but homme de couleur libre and slave ... capturing the agonizing decisions which tore families and communities apart . '' Historical Novels Review similarly observes , `` The Metoyers , a historical family both black and white and yet neither , challenge all perceptions of racial boundaries . You may never look at American History the same way again . ''   The Isle community is also the focus in Lalita Tademy 's Oprah Book Club pick , Cane River . Mills 's Isle explores the colonial roots of the community and the experience of slaves who achieved freedom prior to the onset of Louisiana 's Creole-Anglo conflict . Tademy 's story , whose earliest slave generations are based upon research by Mills and her daughter , portrays the mid-nineteenth -- and early-twentieth-century experiences of the community 's slave families who envied , respected , and resented the free status of the Isle 's Creoles de couleur libre -- some of whose blood they shared .   A third , much older novel , Lyle Saxon 's Children of Strangers , depicts the state of servitude into which the Islanders were subjected by the early twentieth-century . Saxon 's era was one in which the chatelaine of the family 's last remaining manor house ( Melrose Plantation , a National Historic Landmark since 1976 ) was an Anglo patroness of the arts , who encouraged Saxon to visit and `` observe '' the community first hand . Saxon 's portrayal captures the mindset of that era 's white population , who vacillated between economic exploitation of the Islanders , sexual attraction to their women , and a paternalistic view of the multiracial Creoles as `` simple people , but our people . ''   Historians struggle to understand the complexities of the Peculiar Institution -- particularly the motivation that compelled a significant number of freed American slaves to purchase other humans once free to do so . Edward P. Jones lays out one psychological path in The Known World creating a fictional anti-hero , the Black Virginian Henry Townsend , who is consumed by his self-centered ambition . Isle of Canes reconstructs the world of an actual family to define a radically different but equally uncomfortable trajectory by which more than a few ex-slaves survived a status many historians consider `` neither slave nor free . ''

neg: Freedom suit Freedom suits were lawsuits in the Thirteen Colonies and the United States filed by enslaved people against slaveholders to assert claims to freedom , often based on descent from a free maternal ancestor , or time held as a resident in a free state or territory .   The right to petition for freedom descended from English common law and allowed people to challenge their enslavement or indenture . Petitioners challenged slavery both directly and indirectly , even if slaveholders generally viewed such petitions as a means to uphold rather than undermine slavery . Beginning with the colonies in North America , legislatures enacted slave laws that created a legal basis for `` just subjection ; '' these were adopted or updated by the state and territorial legislatures that superseded them after the United States gained independence . These codes also enabled enslaved persons to sue for freedom based on wrongful enslavement .   While some cases were tried during the colonial period , the majority of petitions for freedom were heard during the antebellum period in the border or the Southern United States . After the American Revolution , most northern states abolished slavery and were considered `` free . '' The United States Congress prohibited slavery in some newly established territories , and some new states were admitted to the union as free states . The rise in travel and migration of masters with slaves between free and slave states resulted in conditions that gave rise to slaves suing for freedom . Many free states had residency limits for masters who brought slaves into their territory ; after that time , the slave would be considered free . Some slaves sued for wrongful enslavement after being held in a free state .   Other grounds for suit were that the person was freeborn and illegally held in slavery , or that the person was illegally held because of being descended from a freeborn woman in the maternal line . The principle of partus sequitur ventrem , first incorporated into English colonial slavery law by a 1662 statute in Virginia , established that children 's status was that of the mother . It was adopted into law by other English colonies , and the states of the United States .   In Saint Louis , Missouri records of nearly 300 petition cases have been found that were filed between 1807 and 1860 , and in Washington , D.C. nearly 500 petition cases were filed in the same period . A large portion of cases , as much as one-third , either never went to trial or were settled out of court . In the early nineteenth century in St. Louis and in Washington , D.C. , nearly half of the attorneys at the bar may have acted as counsel for slave petitions . In Missouri , the courts assigned an attorney to the petitioner if it accepted a freedom suit for hearing ; some of the top attorneys in St. Louis defended slaves . After the 1830s , the number of petition cases gradually declined . But from 1800 to 1830 , most of the bar in these cities tried a petition case .   Before the end of the eighteenth century , some southern states began to make petitioning for freedom more difficult . Maryland , for example , in 1796 required that county courts serve as the court of original jurisdiction , rather than the General Court of the Western Shore , an appellate court . The county courts clearly would be more favorable to the interests and views of the local planters against whom these suits were often filed . The legislature also banned those with antislavery sympathies from serving on juries in freedom suits . Virginia passed a similar law on jury composition in 1798 .   But , for a few decades , courts in slave states such as Louisiana , Mississippi , and Missouri often respected the precedent of `` once free , always free '' established by free states . Until the late 1850s , they ruled that slaves who had been held in free states maintained their freedom even if brought back into slave states . Until the Civil War brought an end to slavery , thousands of freedom suits were tried in state courts across the country , with some slaves petitioning as high as the Supreme Court .

neg: Procedural drama A procedural drama is a genre of television programming which focuses on how crimes are solved or some other aspect of a law enforcement agency , legislative body , or court of law . Some dramas include a lab or conference room with high-tech or state-of-the-art equipment where the main characters meet to work out the problem . Shows usually have an episodic format that does not require the viewer to have seen previous episodes . Episodes typically have a self-contained , also referred to as stand-alone , plot that is introduced and resolved within the same episode .   The procedural format is popular around the world . In 2011 , the director of a TV consultancy said , `` The continuing trend is for procedurals because they use a predictable structure . '' Due to their stand-alone episodic nature , they are more accessible to new viewers than serials . Self-contained episodes also make it easier for viewers to return to a show if they have missed some episodes . In general , procedural dramas can usually be re-run with little concern for episode order .   Procedurals are often criticized for being formulaic . Procedurals are also generally less character-driven than serialized shows . However , some procedurals have more character emphasis than is typical of the format . Some may occasionally feature a storyline stretching over several episodes .   A popular variant is the police procedural .

neg: Maroon music Maroon Music is a genre involving people of African descent that were not born on the continent creating songs in an African language ( as opposed to their first language ) . It is named after the Maroon ( people ) , African refugees who escaped from slavery in the Americas and formed independent settlements . Just as the Maroon people created their own societies in lands foreign to them in attempts to retain their freedom , Maroon music is an attempt by African American artists to reacquire their Mother tongue through writing music in an indigenous African language . Maroon Music subject matter centers around stories about Maroon leaders and other historic freedom fighters of African descent , Maroon groups , peace , unity , and righteousness .   In the intro to Maroon music artist , Adetokunbo 's first album `` Maroon Music '' the history of the genre is explained :   `` African refugees that escaped slavery in the Americas and formed independent settlements were called Maroons . The term can also be applied to their descendants . The same root word also gives us the English verb `` to maroon '' .   When runaway slaves banded together and subsisted independently they were called Maroons . On the Caribbean islands , runaway slaves formed bands and on some islands formed armed camps . Maroon communities faced great odds to survive against oppressive attackers , obtain food for subsistence living , and to reproduce and increase their numbers .  There is much variety among Maroon cultural groups because of differences in history , geography , African nationality , and the culture of indigenous people throughout the Western hemisphere .   Maroon settlements sometimes developed creole languages by mixing European tongues with their original African languages . Other times the Maroons would adopt the local European language as a common tongue , for members of the community frequently spoke a variety of Mother Tongues .   What you are about to hear is a family 's journey to reacquire their Mother Tongue through song . Their goal is to reacquire that which was lost in the Middle Passage . Let this music , Maroon Music , serve as their testament to freedom in a world that has nothing but contempt for the self liberated . ''   Maroon music is less concerned with the perfection and fluency of speech of the African language but more with the exercise of learning and improving communication , while providing subtitles and written keys in English so that others will understand the message attempting to be conveyed by the artist . As pidgin English is noted as `` is a simplified version of a language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common Pidgin , Maroon music employs the pidginization or Creolization of African languages as a simplified means for African Americans to communicate with indigenous Africans . For this reason , key 's and subtitles in Maroon Music videos are an essential component for conveying intended meaning to both indigenous Africans and those born abroad .   The Maroons are a number of diverse peoples in the Caribbean , South America , North America and Central America , the descendants of escaped slaves . The Seminole music tradition of the United States is an example , as are numerous communities in Jamaica , Suriname and French Guiana .   The Surinamese , Guyanese , and French Guianan escaped slaves managed to hide in the dense jungles of the area , and formed communities like the Aluku , Saramaka and Ndjuka . Their traditional sung stories are called mato , and there is also a kind of popular Maroon music called aleke . Traditional dances include awasa , a women 's social dance .   The Jamaican Maroons are known for instruments like the abeng , a kind of horn .

neg: Southern Ontario Gothic Southern Ontario Gothic is a subgenre of the Gothic novel genre and a feature of Canadian literature that comes from Southern Ontario . This region includes Toronto , Southern Ontario 's major industrial cities ( Windsor , London , Hamilton , St. Thomas , Oshawa , St. Catharines ) , and the surrounding countryside . While the genre may also feature other areas of Ontario , Canada , and the world as narrative locales , this region provides the core settings .   The term was first used in Graeme Gibson 's Eleven Canadian Novelists ( 1972 ) to recognize an existing tendency to apply aspects of the Gothic novel to writing based in and around Southern Ontario . In an interview with Timothy Findley , Gibson commented that Findley 's novel The Last of the Crazy People shared similarities with the American Southern Gothic genre , to which Findley replied , '' ... sure , it 's Southern Gothic : Southern Ontario Gothic . ''   Notable writers of this subgenre include Alice Munro , Margaret Atwood , Robertson Davies , Jane Urquhart , Marian Engel , James Reaney and Barbara Gowdy .   Like the Southern Gothic of American writers such as William Faulkner , Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty , Southern Ontario Gothic analyzes and critiques social conditions such as race , gender , religion and politics , but in a Southern Ontario context . Southern Ontario Gothic is generally characterized by a stern realism set against the dour small-town Protestant morality stereotypical of the region , and often has underlying themes of moral hypocrisy . Actions and people that act against humanity , logic , and morality all are portrayed unfavourably , and one or more characters may be suffering from some form of mental illness . In a review of Alice Munro 's Dear Life for Quill & Quire , literary critic James Grainger writes that `` Violence , illness , and reputations ruined by a single indiscretion are accepted in Munro 's secretive , repressed communities as a kind of levelling mechanism , rough justice for those who dare to strive for something finer . ''   The Gothic novel has traditionally examined the role of evil in the human soul , and has incorporated dark or horrific imagery to create the desired setting . Some ( but not all ) writers of Southern Ontario Gothic use supernatural or magic realist elements ; a few deviate from realism entirely , in the manner of the fantastical gothic novel . Virtually all dwell to a certain extent upon the grotesque .   Notable works of the genre include Davies ' Deptford Trilogy , Findley 's Headhunter , Atwood 's Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin , and Munro 's Selected Stories .   The genre has been criticised as having `` little or nothing to distinguish it from everyday , garden-variety type realism . ''

neg: Fictional universe of The Hunger Games The Hunger Games universe is a fictional world appearing in The Hunger Games trilogy written by Suzanne Collins . It consists primarily of the fictional nation of Panem , its Capitol where the totalitarian government resides , and the outlying districts , numbered 1 to 12 , each with a different economy . In addition , there is the secretive District 13 , where a rebel force is building strength . The Hunger Games themselves are an annual event in which citizens from the districts , selected through a process called `` reaping '' , are forced to participate in a battle to the death . The universe also contains fictional flora and fauna , such as the Mockingjay , a bird whose mimicry is used as a plot device , and after whom the third book in the series is named .

neg: Ode to a Nightingale `` Ode to a Nightingale '' is a poem by John Keats written either in the garden of the Spaniards Inn , Hampstead , London or , according to Keats ' friend Charles Armitage Brown , under a plum tree in the garden of Keats ' house at Wentworth Place , also in Hampstead . According to Brown , a nightingale had built its nest near the house Keats and Brown shared in the spring of 1819 . Inspired by the bird 's song , Keats composed the poem in one day . It soon became one of his 1819 odes and was first published in Annals of the Fine Arts the following July . The poem is one of the most frequently anthologized in the English language .   `` Ode to a Nightingale '' is a personal poem that describes Keats 's journey into the state of negative capability . The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within Keats 's earlier poems and , rather , explores the themes of nature , transience and mortality , the latter being particularly personal to Keats .   The nightingale described within the poem experiences a type of death but does not actually die . Instead , the songbird is capable of living through its song , which is a fate that humans can not expect . The poem ends with an acceptance that pleasure can not last and that death is an inevitable part of life . In the poem , Keats imagines the loss of the physical world and sees himself dead -- as a `` sod '' over which the nightingale sings . The contrast between the immortal nightingale and mortal man sitting in his garden , is made all the more acute by an effort of the imagination . The presence of weather is noticeable in the poem , as spring came early in 1819 , bringing nightingales all over the heath .

neg: After (novel) After is a young adult novel written by Francine Prose . It was first published in 2003 , and the nearby school shooting is reminiscent of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 .   After a school shooting 50 miles away , the new grief and crisis counselor ( Dr. Willner ) attempts to control the students ' lives , using the recent tragedy as an excuse for increasingly restricting their lives . The school gradually is controlled by the grip of the administration , and students who do not comply with the new rules disappear , never to be seen again .   Its plot is reminiscent of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell .   Similarities include the normalization of propaganda and surveillance with the telescreens in 1984 and the TVs on school buses spouting so called educational content that turns out to be blatantly false . These novels also touch on brainwashing , with the nightly emails sent to parents that convince them to send their children away to reform camps from which they never return .   In contrast , After takes place during the reforms , showing how they were allowed to happen , while 1984 only shows the aftermath and its inevitability . The ending of After also shows the main character ( Tom Bishop ) escaping his town with his friends and family , a much lighter closing than 1984 .   Described in the New York Times Book Review as a `` rich parable '' , this novel questions the line that must be drawn when freedom is more important than safety .

neg: The American Senator The American Senator is a novel written in 1875 by Anthony Trollope . Although not one of Trollope 's better-known works , it is notable for its depictions of rural English life and for its many detailed fox hunting scenes . In its anti-heroine , Arabella Trefoil , it presents a scathing but ultimately sympathetic portrayal of a woman who has abandoned virtually all scruples in her quest for a husband . Through the eponymous Senator , Trollope offers comments on the irrational aspects of English life .

neg: Romantic racism Romantic racism is a form of racism in which members of a dominant group project their fantasies onto members of oppressed groups . Feminist scholars have accused Norman Mailer , Jack Kerouac , and other Beatnik authors of the 1950s of romantic racism . They maintain that the dominant mainstream culture of the 1950s in the United States stressed conformity and held up middle-class suburban families as the cultural ideal , and that it was indifferent to art and literature , upheld racial segregation , and despised or ignored black achievements , such as jazz . Those , like the novelist Norman Mailer , who felt limited by or alienated from mainstream culture , sought out influences from other cultures as form of rebellion . Mailer , a great fan of jazz music , created his concept of what it meant to be `` hip , '' or a member of the white urban counterculture , largely on his perception of the culture of urban African-Americans ( with whom the expression `` hip '' , meaning `` in the know '' , originated ) and articulated his vision in his essay `` The White Negro . '' Mailer , who considered himself an opponent of Victorian sexual repression and regimentation , idealized what he saw as the sexual and other freedoms of minority and other counter-cultural groups , overlooking the fact that in these groups sexual exploitation of women sometimes occurred.These critics consider his depictions of what he imagines African-American life to be like as an instance of what they call `` romantic racism '' , contending that he implies that in urban ghettoes -- filled with sex , drugs , and violence -- life is somehow enriched , rather than hurt , by poverty and crime . Mailer 's essay has also been criticized for spreading the stereotype of African-American men as hypermasculine and hypersexual .

neg: Themes in Titus Andronicus Although traditionally Titus Andronicus has been seen as one of Shakespeare 's least respected plays , its fortunes have changed somewhat in the latter half of the twentieth century , with numerous scholars arguing that the play is more accomplished than has hitherto been allowed for . In particular , scholars have argued that the play is far more thematically complex than has traditionally been thought , and features profound insights into Ancient Rome , Elizabethan society , and the human condition . Such scholars tend to argue that these previously unacknowledged insights have only become apparent during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as only now has the ultraviolent content of the play achieved a sense of relevance . For example , in his 1987 edition of the play for the Contemporary Shakespeare series , A.L. Rowse writes ; `` in the civilised Victorian age the play could not be performed because it could not be believed . Such is the horror of our own age , with the appalling barbarities of prison camps and resistance movements paralleling the torture and mutilation and feeding on human flesh of the play , that it has ceased to be improbable . '' Similarly , director Julie Taymor , who staged a production Off-Broadway in 1994 and directed a film version in 1999 , says she was drawn to the play because she found it to be the most `` relevant of Shakespeare 's plays for the modern era ; '' She feels that the play has more relevance for us than it had for the Victorians ; `` it seems like a play written for today , it reeks of now . '' Because of this new found relevance , previously unrecognised thematic strands have thus come to the forefront .   This article presents an overview of four of the most prominent themes in the play .

neg: MacBird! MacBird ! is a 1967 satire by Barbara Garson that superimposed the transferral of power following the Kennedy assassination onto the plot of Shakespeare 's Macbeth .   Thus John F. Kennedy becomes `` John Ken O'Dunc '' , Lyndon Johnson becomes `` MacBird '' , Lady Bird Johnson becomes `` Lady MacBird '' , and so forth . As Macbeth assassinates Duncan , so MacBird is responsible for the assassination of Ken O'Dunc ; and as Macbeth is defeated by Macduff , so MacBird is defeated by Robert Ken O'Dunc ( i.e. Robert Kennedy ) . This action is significantly influenced by the Three Witches , representing Students , Blacks , and Leftists .   In a 2006 Washington Post interview Garson said she was not seriously accusing Johnson of complicity in the Kennedy assassination :   `` People used to ask me then , ` Do you really think Johnson killed Kennedy ? ' '' Garson , now 65 , recalls . `` I never took that seriously . I used to say to people , ` If he did , it 's the least of his crimes . ' It was not what the play was about . The plot was a given . ''   The play parodies sequences from Shakespearean tragedies including Macbeth , Hamlet , and Richard III , albeit with Texas and Boston accents . The action follows MacBird from the 1960 Democratic National Convention , when he becomes John Ken O'Dunc 's Vice-President ( `` Hail , Vice-President thou art ! '' ) , to Ken O'Dunc 's assassination ( at the urging of Lady MacBird ) , to a future Robert Ken O'Dunc victory over MacBird at the 1968 convention .   Macbird ! started out as a short satirical sketch by Garson , a recent graduate of the Berkeley anti-Vietnam war movement . It was developed into a full-length play with help from writer/director Roy Levine ( and Shakespeare ) .   The production , which opened a mere three years after the Kennedy assassination , was quite controversial . It has been said that pressure from local authorities was applied to theaters in New York who were considering it . The Village Gate was the only theater willing to defy this pressure and mount the play . Macbird opened there on February 22 , 1967 , and closed on January 21 , 1968 , after 386 performances .   Roy Levine , who worked with Garson to develop the work from what was essentially a sketch to a full-length play , was the original director of Macbird ! His bold and unique theatrical vision marked the production throughout the run , although , near the end of the almost-complete previews , he was suddenly replaced by Gerald Freedman . Set design was by Clarke Dunham , costumes by Jeanne Button , and lights by Robert Brand . The stage manager was Joel Zwick .   The opening night cast included :   Stacy Keach as MacBird  Rue McClanahan as Lady MacBird ,  Paul Hecht as John Ken O'Dunc  William Devane as Robert Ken O'Dunc  John Pleshette as Ted Ken O'Dunc  John Clark as Earl of Warren  Cleavon Little as Witch 2   The original cast recorded a two-disc album of the text on February 6 , 1967 .  It was released in a boxed set with a copy of the script on the Evergreen label as Evergreen - EVR 004   John Clark left the cast early to marry Lynn Redgrave . Cleavon Little made his professional acting debut in the play . It went on to a long engagement but with a different cast in Los Angeles where ironically the next Kennedy assassination would occur on June 5 , 1968 when Robert Kennedy would be shot to death while running for the Democratic presidential nomination . There was also a `` MacBird ! '' production by San Francisco 's Committee Theater circa 1968 .

neg: Black Skin, White Masks Black Skin , White Masks ( Peau noire , masques blancs ) is a 1952 book by Frantz Fanon , in which Fanon studies the psychology of the racism and dehumanization inherent in situations of colonial domination .   With the application of historical interpretation , and the concomitant underlying social indictment , the psychiatrist Frantz Fanon formulated Black Skin , White Masks to combat the oppression of black people . He applied psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory to explain the feelings of dependency and inadequacy that Black people experience in a White world . That the divided self-perception of the Black Subject who has lost his native cultural origin , and embraced the culture of the Mother Country , produces an inferiority complex in the mind of the Black Subject , who then will try to appropriate and imitate the culture of the colonizer . Such behavior is more readily evident in upwardly mobile and educated black people who can afford to acquire status symbols within the world of the colonial ecumene , such as an education abroad and mastery of the language of the colonizer , the white masks .   Based upon , and derived from , the concepts of the collective unconscious and collective catharsis , the sixth chapter , `` The Negro and Psychopathology '' , presents brief , deep psychoanalyses of colonized black people , and thus proposes the inability of black people to fit into the norms ( social , cultural , racial ) established by white society . That `` a normal Negro child , having grown up in a normal Negro family , will become abnormal on the slightest contact of the white world . '' That , in a white society , such an extreme psychological response originates from the unconscious and unnatural training of black people , from early childhood , to associate `` blackness '' with `` wrongness '' . That such unconscious mental training of black children is effected with comic books and cartoons , which are cultural media that instil and affix , in the mind of the white child , the society 's cultural representations of black people as villains . Moreover , when black children are exposed to such images of villainous black people , the children will experience a psychopathology ( psychological trauma ) , which mental wound becomes inherent to their individual , behavioral make-up ; a part of his and her personality . That the early-life suffering of said psychopathology -- black skin associated with villainy -- creates a collective nature among the men and women who were reduced to colonized populations .

neg: From a View to a Death From a View to a Death is the third novel by the English writer Anthony Powell . It combines comedy of manners with Powell 's usual interest in the subtleties of British 20th-century society in a bitterly funny narrative . Here , Powell begins to write in the mode that he would perfect in A Dance to the Music of Time .   Published in 1933 , the novel is set largely in and around Passenger Court , the country seat of the Passenger family . In its depiction of village pageants , churchgoing , village idiots and eccentrics , and , above all , the hunt , From a View to a Death is Powell 's most rural novel . Change in setting notwithstanding , Powell 's habitually Burtonesque laughter at human foibles remains consistent .   The novel focuses on the inevitable conflict occurring when two men , each considering himself a Nietzschean Übermensch , collide . Other conflicts involve shooting rights , parent-child tensions , and , as always in Powell 's work , the dissatisfactions of romance and sex , this time including cross-dressing . Though some interpret the novel as a reaffirmation of traditional English values , no character -- whether for reason of class , place of residence , intelligence , or gender -- escapes Powell 's increasingly subtle critical examination of human life .