At this point, most people in the world have been alarmed about the Libyan crisis and rebellion to overthrow its 42-years-in-running Leader, Mr. Muammar Gaddafi.
As of February 2011, many pro-democracy events in the Arab World have sparked furious and major political protests. The protests turned lethal shortly after and the death toll of the protests is rising to up to 1,000. What is feared, is that, Gaddafi has decided to eliminate as many that stood in his way while he could.
I personally, would protest against Gaddafi if I were a Libyan citizen.
Gaddafi imposed strong and almost unreasonable policies to influence the people. For instance, in 1973, on the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, Gaddafi delivered his famous "Five-Point Address" which: suspended existing laws and implemented Sharia; announced the purging of the country' "politically sick", created a "people's militia" to "protect the revolution", announced an administrative and cultural revolution.
Gaddafi runs the country, in my opinion, with a personal bias in mind. He, in his Green Book, describes black Africans as a lazy race that is liable to multiply without limit.
The fact that Gaddafi is opening fire onto his own citizens assures my doubts of him being the rightful leader of his conutry.
I think he should step down and very rightfully deserves his downfall.
Gadaffi is not a nice guy.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Mississippi Burning Movie- Afterthoughts
We recently started watching the movie Mississippi Burning(1988) during Language Arts class. I generally found this movie to bring out the theme of Racism extremely strongly.
The movie is basically a crime film loosely based on the FBI investigations of a the murders of three civil rights workers in the state of Mississippi.
I find that other than the crime itself, the movie also evidently portrays the Racism that was very strong throughout the story. The White men obviously do not like the Black men. Hence, they execute very strong and violent actions against them. One such actions include the burning of the Black men's churches. Firstly, the theme of Racism is already seen in the segregation of blacks. The churches are separated into White men's churches and black men's churches. This is further emphasized when the White men set the black men's churches on fire and destroying them. The movie also portrays the white men to have much better living conditions. The white men are like the "posh" people, and the black people live in squatters in rather undeveloped areas. This portrays the black men as the "poor" and "inferior".
The black men do not have the money and the number to overpower the whites. They had no choice but to silently endure the racial bias.
The movie is basically a crime film loosely based on the FBI investigations of a the murders of three civil rights workers in the state of Mississippi.
I find that other than the crime itself, the movie also evidently portrays the Racism that was very strong throughout the story. The White men obviously do not like the Black men. Hence, they execute very strong and violent actions against them. One such actions include the burning of the Black men's churches. Firstly, the theme of Racism is already seen in the segregation of blacks. The churches are separated into White men's churches and black men's churches. This is further emphasized when the White men set the black men's churches on fire and destroying them. The movie also portrays the white men to have much better living conditions. The white men are like the "posh" people, and the black people live in squatters in rather undeveloped areas. This portrays the black men as the "poor" and "inferior".
The black men do not have the money and the number to overpower the whites. They had no choice but to silently endure the racial bias.
Telephone Conversation (Poem)
Today in class, we went through the poem "Telephone Conversation" by Wole Soyinka.
Firstly, I would like to applaud the poem for having a very unique and contemporary type of presentation and structure. I am very intrigued by how a telephone conversation is fused into the theme of Racism.
The use of a telephone conversation makes it very easy to visualize the emotion and atmosphere. The poem is basically about a Black man trying to rent a room. Hence, the black man has to contact the landlady. Through the poem, it is easily revealed that the landlady is a racist, but tries much to hide it. The poem makes use of a telephone conversation. It uses how people usually engage in a conversation. In this poem, it is revealed that the landlady was taken aback when she knew about the man's race. This is revealed as it is written that the landlady seemed to "put on lipstick" before she talked. This reveals that what was said after she new about his race was rather artificial. Towards the end of the poem the landlady starts to be more aggressive and rude. Hence, the speaker himself could not tolerate anymore and did not care for the landlady's feelings.
This is a very unique and successful poem on racism.
Firstly, I would like to applaud the poem for having a very unique and contemporary type of presentation and structure. I am very intrigued by how a telephone conversation is fused into the theme of Racism.
The use of a telephone conversation makes it very easy to visualize the emotion and atmosphere. The poem is basically about a Black man trying to rent a room. Hence, the black man has to contact the landlady. Through the poem, it is easily revealed that the landlady is a racist, but tries much to hide it. The poem makes use of a telephone conversation. It uses how people usually engage in a conversation. In this poem, it is revealed that the landlady was taken aback when she knew about the man's race. This is revealed as it is written that the landlady seemed to "put on lipstick" before she talked. This reveals that what was said after she new about his race was rather artificial. Towards the end of the poem the landlady starts to be more aggressive and rude. Hence, the speaker himself could not tolerate anymore and did not care for the landlady's feelings.
This is a very unique and successful poem on racism.
Ending of To Kill A Mockingbird
Ending:
The ending of TKAM fitted into place well to me. It was rather relevant. The unraveling of Boo Radley was very appropriate as he was somewhat a mystery throughout the story. The explanation closes up the mystery and serves to be a good conclusion. The story also ended well as there is a significant improvement in Scout and Jem's maturity. Compared to the first few pages in which Scout and Jem were depicted as playful and immature kids that annoyed people, the ending serves as a close and epilogue to the change in their attitude. Scout and Jem learnt to understand and accept people, especially Boo Radley. The ending of the story very well concludes the inner growth and development of Scout and Jem. I think that the ending was not too unexpected and was rather relevant and to a certain extent "normal".
The ending of TKAM fitted into place well to me. It was rather relevant. The unraveling of Boo Radley was very appropriate as he was somewhat a mystery throughout the story. The explanation closes up the mystery and serves to be a good conclusion. The story also ended well as there is a significant improvement in Scout and Jem's maturity. Compared to the first few pages in which Scout and Jem were depicted as playful and immature kids that annoyed people, the ending serves as a close and epilogue to the change in their attitude. Scout and Jem learnt to understand and accept people, especially Boo Radley. The ending of the story very well concludes the inner growth and development of Scout and Jem. I think that the ending was not too unexpected and was rather relevant and to a certain extent "normal".
Nature vs. Nurture (Designer Babies)
Recently in the AAT curriculum, there has been much discussion and controversy over the topic about Nature vs. Nurture. A Part of the discussion that has really caught my attention was the discussion about designer babies.
Designer babies basically refer to the parents or guardian manually selecting traits for their babies. As such, babies are more like to posses the parents' desired trait. This is of course very expensive and can only be achieved if they are financially wealthy to do so.
There has been a lot of argument to whether such actions are morally and ethically correct and reasonable. One of the concepts we have learnt during our AAT lessons was Utilitarianism. This concept focuses on one's advantage and things achieved from the situation. As such, based on this concept, designer babies would be perfectly alright. The parents of the designer baby would be happy as their child has a special advantage. However, if we look at religious and moral values, designer babies might not be very acceptable.
Especially in Muslim and Islam practices, designer babies are generally looked at as wrong and immoral as it is opposing nature. Technically speaking, designer babies "defy nature" as they do not conform to how they were meant to be created and existed originally. Hence, most religious practices would regard designer babies as wrong and immoral.
Personally, I am neutral about designer babies. I am an atheist and hence religiously, do not find any fault with designer babies. However I suspect the necessity for designer babies at times. I would personally try not to support designer babies as I think there is not real need for it. It might even bring harm since it is such a new concept. I am also more pro nature and do not appreciate how humans defy the true nature of babies.
Designer babies basically refer to the parents or guardian manually selecting traits for their babies. As such, babies are more like to posses the parents' desired trait. This is of course very expensive and can only be achieved if they are financially wealthy to do so.
There has been a lot of argument to whether such actions are morally and ethically correct and reasonable. One of the concepts we have learnt during our AAT lessons was Utilitarianism. This concept focuses on one's advantage and things achieved from the situation. As such, based on this concept, designer babies would be perfectly alright. The parents of the designer baby would be happy as their child has a special advantage. However, if we look at religious and moral values, designer babies might not be very acceptable.
Especially in Muslim and Islam practices, designer babies are generally looked at as wrong and immoral as it is opposing nature. Technically speaking, designer babies "defy nature" as they do not conform to how they were meant to be created and existed originally. Hence, most religious practices would regard designer babies as wrong and immoral.
Personally, I am neutral about designer babies. I am an atheist and hence religiously, do not find any fault with designer babies. However I suspect the necessity for designer babies at times. I would personally try not to support designer babies as I think there is not real need for it. It might even bring harm since it is such a new concept. I am also more pro nature and do not appreciate how humans defy the true nature of babies.
Response to "Tiger Mum"
This is a response to an article as found at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html
To summarize the whole article basically, is about the very traditional type of education as observed in the society, compared to the more modern type of education. The Chinese mother is evidently very strict, as seen in the title. She is very concerned about her children's education. In this case, she is very concern about her children Sophia and Louisa in terms of their violin and piano standards. She does not allow her children to escape practicing their instruments and almost never allows them to have any form of leisure.
My opinion on this is that the traditional method of education has its flaws and strengths. The very strict type of education is theoretically very effective as it basically crams the child with all the skill and knowledge possible. However the flaw comes into place when you think about whether the child is able intake all these "cramming". Humans have emotions. It will be hard for most children to undergo such intense training as the level of stress might be too heavy for the child. Lucky enough, we know that Amy's children can cope well with her teaching. This type of education evidently focuses a lot more on academic excellence rather than enjoyment and pleasure from learning. Personally, I think it will be too tough for me to handle.
To summarize the whole article basically, is about the very traditional type of education as observed in the society, compared to the more modern type of education. The Chinese mother is evidently very strict, as seen in the title. She is very concerned about her children's education. In this case, she is very concern about her children Sophia and Louisa in terms of their violin and piano standards. She does not allow her children to escape practicing their instruments and almost never allows them to have any form of leisure.
My opinion on this is that the traditional method of education has its flaws and strengths. The very strict type of education is theoretically very effective as it basically crams the child with all the skill and knowledge possible. However the flaw comes into place when you think about whether the child is able intake all these "cramming". Humans have emotions. It will be hard for most children to undergo such intense training as the level of stress might be too heavy for the child. Lucky enough, we know that Amy's children can cope well with her teaching. This type of education evidently focuses a lot more on academic excellence rather than enjoyment and pleasure from learning. Personally, I think it will be too tough for me to handle.
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