Shakespeare &Sainte

  Have you ever come across a painting, by Picasso, Mondrian, Miro, or any other modern abstract painter of this century, and found yourself engulfed in a brightly coloured canvas, which your senses cannot interpret?  Many people would tend to denounce abstractionism as senseless trash. These people are disoriented by Miro's bright, fanciful creatures and two-dimensional canvases. They click their tongues and shake their heads at Mondrian's grid works, declaring the poor guy played too many scrabble games. They silently shake their heads in sympathy for Picasso, whose gruesome, distorted figures must be a reflection of his mental health. Then, standing in front of a work by Charlie Russell, the famous Western artist; they'll declare it a work of God. People feel more comfortable with something they can relate to and understand immediately without too much thought. This is the case with the work of Charlie Russell. Being able to recognise the element in his paintings— trees,...

In the following  paragraphs, identify the topic and the main idea. Even by the standards of ASEAN, it was a dismal performance. The leaders of the other nine members of the Association of south-east Asian Nations used their summit in Bali this week to ladle praise on Myanmar for its "positive" and "pragmatic" recent policies. These, it appeared, meant the transfer of Myanmar's most famous citizens, the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, from prison to house arrest, and the publication of a "road map" for democracy. Since a return to democracy  has been promised by Myanmar's current junta ever since it took power in 1998, and since Miss Suu Kyi won an election in 1990 that has never been recognised, the Myanmar map looks as forlorn as the Middle Eastern one. The disgraceful treatment meted out to Miss Suu Kyi is only the most obvious outrage committed by South-East Asia's most repressive and incompetent government. The generals do not just impris...