The Christianville Spirit: Democracy Index

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
March 31, 2010- TCS # 192

So, one day I decided to learn more about The European Union because Europe, to me is the most interesting part of the world to me. Anyway, at one point I was reading about European Union International Relations and they mentioned about countries with different governments. Well, that led me to learn about all the different types of Government. And, finally that led me to a list from the author, The Economist called The Democracy Index. The Democracy Index ranks countries to their “State of Democracy“. They put the statistics by five general categories: Electoral Process and Pluralism, Civil Liberties, Functioning of Government, Political Participation, and Political Culture. Anyway, each country is given a score from 0 to 10 and the rank comes with the score. Also, next to score and rank they put one of the countries on the categories of “Full Democracy”, “Flawed Democracy”, “Hybrid Regimes”, and “Authoritarian Regimes”. (By the way, everything to “Hybrid Regimes” is Democracies) So, this is what I found, I’m going to give you to top 5 best; Sweden is 1st with a score of 9.88, Norway is 2nd-9.68, Iceland is 3rd- 9.65, Netherlands is 4th-9.53, and Denmark is 5th-9.52. And, here are a couple others…
Canada: 11th Place
Germany: 13th Place
Austria: 14th Place
Japan: 17th Place
United States: 18th Place
The Very Worst Country is North Korea with a score of 0.86
So, as you can tell these are the Ranks and Scores in the Democracy Index. After reading all of this, I was surprised by the scores because My Country, The United States was a higher score because it’s the democracy leader of the world. So, I wonder why the Europeans are more of a democracy than us. All in all, Each Respective Country has its own government and way of life. And, it’s very interesting to me to learn about.


Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. If you want learn more about The Democracy Index or see where your country, go to wikipedia.org and search “Democracy Index”

The Christianville Spirit: The Orchestra Adventure

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
March 24, 2010-TCS # 191

So, Last Saturday Night, My Brother and I decided to go see a performance at a place called The Myerson Symphony Center in the Arts District of Dallas to see The Dallas Symphony Orchestra. You see, My Brother takes a Music Appreciation Class and they told him that he had to go see a performance of some kind. So, He and I decided to go see this one. Now, I have never been to this place or even seen an orchestra performance. I mean, I watched a little bit of Boston Pops Orchestra one time on the 4th of July on TV. But, other than that, I haven’t seen one. Anyway, after walking around inside the Symphony Center, My Brother had go to a nice prelude lecture from his teacher about what we were going to hear, what inspired them, and where they were from. The People’s music we where going to here from was Back, Mozart, and Handel. My Brother’s Teacher taught us a lot about the different artists. The one I remember the most was Bach because the teacher showed a map of where he went to. She showed us that Bach moved all over Germany but, the main city he was in was a town called Leipzig which is south of Hannover and Berlin. Back then, he lived in West Germany which had a mix of Western German and Eastern French Culture. So, that is the origin of his music. The thing I remember from the Mozart part was that he was born in Hannover, Germany and he traveled to Italy many times. The part of Handel was that he made music for what was known as The Royal Family Fireworks which was a fireworks show put on in Green Park in London for the royal family. Now, just so you know Green Park is just north of Buckingham Palace. But, in the time period of Handel, Buckingham Palace wasn’t even built yet. So, after the prelude lecture, it was time to go to watch the show. The Show was actually really awesome and what amazed me the most was how fast their fingers moved across the violin. In the middle of the show, they brought out a 17 year old solo violin artist who was really good. In fact, one time she actually won an award for how good she was. After the performance, as we walked out it was snowing and I got to see what the place next door, The Winspear Opera House looked like in the dark and it lit up beautifully. So, all in all here, the performance was really awesome and it was cool to spend time with My Brother. I would recommend everyone to go see the orchestra.


Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Spend time with your family, even if it’s the one you see everyday.

The Christianville Spirit: Remembering Our Childhood

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
March 17, 2010- TCS # 190

So, Last Saturday, our childhood friend Meredith Herrick told us that she was going to have her 21st birthday party that night and not a lot of her friends were coming because Spring Break already happened for them. So, we decided we would go because we haven‘t seen them in a while and we should go see them. Now, keep in mind here that the last time we saw them was like 3 years ago. So, in a way it was sort of a reunion to see each other again after 3 years and a party for Meredith. Anyway, it was quite a surprise to see everyone all grown up. Like for example, the last time I saw my childhood friend, Brooke she was 13 years old, now she’s 16 years old and she looks prettier and taller than before. Whitney and Meredith look pretty as ever. Their younger sister Katherine is very smart and funny. After most of the people at the party left, all of us got to reminisce about our wonderful childhood we had and of course, the highlight of it, The Trampoline we had. In fact, Brooke told me that it was so special to her that she even wrote about it in a school paper recently about her Favorite Childhood Memory. Well, with such a great childhood like we had, there is a lot to remember about it. I mean, we had lived on a cul-de-sac; we had a trampoline to jump on, The Park, an Occasional Bike Ride, and the best of all, Four Yards and a Creek to run through without any fences. It’s kind of sad to think that a lot of kids don’t get to have the childhood we had because their surrounded by fences or have no one to play with so, their stuck playing Video Games inside. All in all, we had an awesome childhood and it was great to reminisce about it.


Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. If you had or have a great childhood, remember it and cherish it, forever.

The Christianville Spirit: All Guys Need Great Father Figures

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that touches Your Life
March 10, 2010- TCS # 189

For those that have seen The movie, “Lair, Lair” There is a part of the movie that every son wants to hear. You see, Lair, Lair is about a Dad who is a lawyer that Lies all the time. So, his son who has had enough of his lying makes a wish on his birthday cake that his dad would stop lying for a whole day. Anyway, nearing the end of the movie he runs through the park yelling and repeating many times “I Love My Son!”. Eventually, In the End(Spoiler Alert!) The son’s father stops lying and starts telling the truth. The thing is unfortunately that usually doesn’t happen for many sons because their dads have gotten in to such a habit of lying that they keep doing it. People who have to deal with these low-father figure people have names for them. They sometimes call them Buffoons and Schmucks. The point here is all sons like me want to be loved and have a great father-figure around them all the time. All in all, Dads are very important to boys at all ages and it would be a shame to not to have a great father figure.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. If you have a father who a great father figure, Cherish the wonderful Dad that you have.

The Christianville Spirit: Acceptance Frees You

The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that touches Your Life
March 3, 2010- TCS # 188

So, Every Sunday Morning at 10:00 I get up and watch a show about unique people across Texas called Texas Country Reporter. Anyway, one of the stories was a very touching one, even for me. The Story was a program they have the Kyle Correctional Facility in a small town south of Austin. What they do is they take dogs from a no-kill animal shelter that clearly have no training or obedience and probably have a less chance of getting adopted to the prison as a healing tool for the prisoners. So, they assign a prisoner a dog to train for 6 Weeks and that will have the prisoner help the dog while the dog helps the prisoner. Now, it takes a lot of acceptance to be in prison and even more to be assigned a dog to train. Acceptance is a hard thing for even the toughest people because it involves a lot of emotions that some we like and others we don’t. It’s actually a process to go through and some people start it but, don’t make it through. Acceptance starts out of course with Shock, and then comes Denial, Anger, Sadness, and finally Acceptance. Now, my advice to help with the Anger and Sadness would be to either watch a nice sad movie or write a letter to yourself and, or whomever your mad at. Anyway, back to Prisoner Story, what touches me to most was that the prisoner could talk to the dog about anything like how they got into prison or to release their emotions to the dog and the dog won’t judge them or go around telling everyone about that prisoner’s issues. At the end of 6 Weeks, they have a graduation ceremony where the prisoners gets to show everyone all the tricks they taught their dogs and some read letters they wrote to their dogs. And, at the end they send some of the dogs back to the Animal Shelter so, that they can get adopted. The Program benefit’s both the prisoners and the dogs. And, those dogs that got trained have a now higher of getting adopted by a family. All in all, that story was very touching and it shows “Man’s Best Friend” at its best.


Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. If you need a friend to talk to that won’t judge you. Talk to your pet, they’ll listen and not interrupt!