I have made a poster consisting of a collage of newspaper and magazine clippings. On the left side of the poster I glued on photos, which are tranquil, musical, or that have a pleasing arrangement of parts. On the other side of the collage the photos are much the opposite; they are uncomforting images of terror, destruction and disorganization.
When I was first began this project I thought that it would be easier to find images of harmony than disharmony. But as I looked closer I found that there was at least as many of disharmony printed into articles as there is harmony. I found that there is a balance of harmony and disharmony in each article, much like everything in life.
I believe that harmony is like that little angel standing on your left shoulder and disharmony is like the little devil sitting on your right shoulder. They are the ones that control what you do or don’t do. In the end it was difficult to decide which pictures to put on my poster, I had so many.
The left side of the poster shows everything that I could find that shows harmony. Harmony is in sound, shape and arrangements that bring us good feelings. It’s in the things of life that make us happy, fulfilled, content, and loved. It is in images of family, the beauty of the outdoors, wildlife. They express activities and things that bring meaning to our lives like hiking, yoga, rock climbing, sunbathing, etc.
The right side of the poster has many images of disharmony. They are the things in life that make us sad and feel discontent. Things of disharmony are things that hurt us and hurt others. They are destroying the world that we know for further generations. These unfortunately are things like wars that have been raging since the beginning of mankind. They are things like racism, poverty, and hatred. There is a four-year-old girl pictured with what looks like a real gun. What are we teaching our children?
We can’t control the forces of nature, or can we? Were already seeing the result of Global Warming. Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Thailand are just the beginning. If we don’t bring global warming to a hult, nature could be destroyed and disharmony will outweigh harmony.
Is the disharmony in the world taking over the world? If we don’t take an active role to reduce the violence in our world and try to create more harmony, the disharmony will take over. We can do this by being politically active. Speak up for the rights of mankind and our planet earth. Educate all our children against war, racism, violence, and ignorance. Do everything you can to slow down Global Warming and help endangered species. Only doing everything that we can will help make a difference in the harmony of our world.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Michael Franti
The film begins when Michael Franti, his guitar, a group of his friends and some video cameras fly into Iraq. When the plane was nearing Baghdad the flight attendant made an announcement, he said something like “their may be a small discomfort to your ears during landing, due to rapid descent of the airplane in effort to avoid any missile or gunfire that may be shot at the plane. I’m sure that you will agree with me, that the discomfort is worth the benefits.” That was the moment when they seemed to realize just how danger that their trip could bring.
Michael Franti is the main character of the 2005 documentary I Know am Not Alone. Michael is a world-renowned musician and human rights activist. Michael was fed up by how the news only shows the political and economic cost of the war, so in his film he shows the human cost of the war. The movie shows people living in occupied territory and the affect that the war is having on them. He makes a very good attempt with the film to help people around the world understand the perspectives of the Palestinian and the Israeli people. Michael meets many different kinds of people that all have different perspectives about many things but they all have something in common; that is that they want change, they want to live their lives in peace.
Michael is a very good musician, he is a part of Spearhead; a rock/reggae group. He writes about poverty, politics, revolution, or whatever he feels strongly about. He has a knack of making such significant things sound so lyrical, but yet they are still so moving. There is such a love in his music. The takes his guitar around with and he is always singing to the children and the people on the streets. Michael also has a talent of ‘charming’ those around him which comes quite useful during his trip. He was even brave enough to have a little debate with the coalition forces, but the soldiers got a little annoyed when he continuously strummed his guitar as he was talking with them.
Michael Franti is making a difference in the world by expressing himself through his music. He traveled to war stricken countries putting his life in danger. Once, in the movie it shows him caught in the middle of gun fire. He feels so passionately about this that he is willing to risk his life for it. Not many people, not even in the military would be willing to do this.
This documentary, I Know Am Not Alone, is very moving and inspirational. This film makes one wonder why we’re fighting. Is there a possible way to achieve peace? The movie is very thought provoking and I would highly recommend it for all to see.
Michael Franti is the main character of the 2005 documentary I Know am Not Alone. Michael is a world-renowned musician and human rights activist. Michael was fed up by how the news only shows the political and economic cost of the war, so in his film he shows the human cost of the war. The movie shows people living in occupied territory and the affect that the war is having on them. He makes a very good attempt with the film to help people around the world understand the perspectives of the Palestinian and the Israeli people. Michael meets many different kinds of people that all have different perspectives about many things but they all have something in common; that is that they want change, they want to live their lives in peace.
Michael is a very good musician, he is a part of Spearhead; a rock/reggae group. He writes about poverty, politics, revolution, or whatever he feels strongly about. He has a knack of making such significant things sound so lyrical, but yet they are still so moving. There is such a love in his music. The takes his guitar around with and he is always singing to the children and the people on the streets. Michael also has a talent of ‘charming’ those around him which comes quite useful during his trip. He was even brave enough to have a little debate with the coalition forces, but the soldiers got a little annoyed when he continuously strummed his guitar as he was talking with them.
Michael Franti is making a difference in the world by expressing himself through his music. He traveled to war stricken countries putting his life in danger. Once, in the movie it shows him caught in the middle of gun fire. He feels so passionately about this that he is willing to risk his life for it. Not many people, not even in the military would be willing to do this.
This documentary, I Know Am Not Alone, is very moving and inspirational. This film makes one wonder why we’re fighting. Is there a possible way to achieve peace? The movie is very thought provoking and I would highly recommend it for all to see.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The House of the Spirits
Allende's novel The House of the Spirits is a feminist novel because she highlights through her female characters, the struggle for woman in a patriarchal society. This novel is centered around the four generations of woman who are the main characters, their husbands and the men they love are important, but are only secondary characters. These women; Nivea, Clara, Blanca, and Alba, subtly work in their own ways to assert their rights. Experiences particularly central to the lives of the women dominate the events in the story, such as the detailed descriptions of each childbirth and the abortion, as well as physical and sexual violence against women.
Although most of the woman from the novel The House of the Spirits choose subtle ways to assert their rights, Nivea asserts them in not quite as subtle ways. Nivea fights not only for her own rights, but she fights for the rights of woman throughout her country. "She shared her husband's parliamentary ambitions, hoping that if he won a seat in congress she would finally secure the vote for woman, for which she had fought for the past ten years, permitting none of her numerous pregnancies to get in the way." Nivea defies the traditional gender role with her commitment to woman suffrage movements, which is female empowerment that men would not typically allow, she also submits to traditional gender roles by being a good wife and loving mother.
Clara, the daughter of NIvea, may be the most important character in this novel. She uses methods of resistance that could be seen as particularly feminine compared to Nivea's actions regarding woman suffrage. She uses gentle and non-violent ways, such as her love and her predictions, to deal with situations. She inspires great respect and devotion in all those who meet her, including her husband, Esteban. After Esteban, hits her, she never talks to him again. "I think people were afraid of me." Esteban admits, "Even Clara,.. who never dreaded my temper, walked around half terrified." Although Clara became afraid of her husband, and also stops speaking to him in order to make the point that his violence is intolerable, she continues to maintain a civil relationship with him until her death. Clara deals with all situations in a typically female manor but is outside of a traditional gender role in someways such as hardly being aware of the material world.
Blanca, the daughter of Clara, was very close to her mother. When Blanca is young they go to Tres Maria to spend the summer. Blanca meets Pedro Tercero Garcia, the son of the ranch foreman, they become instantly good friends, and after some time they fall in love. The two of the have a secret relationship, hidden because Blanca's father Esteban Trueba and Pedro Tercero disagree in their political views. Their relationship is revealed and they are forced to separate for a while. During that time period Blanca is forced to marry a man named Jean de Satigny. Blanca doesn't love this man whom she married and he tells her that he has "no particular inclination for married life", he only married her for her fathers money and to get connected with his business. Their arranged marriage is a great example of female oppression. Blanca leaves her husband because she finds out about his strange sexual habits and goes to her parents house, right before she gave birth to her and Pedro Tercero's daughter Alba. Blanca continues to meeting Pedro Tercero but doesn't run away with him for many years during which "She lacked the freedom of an unmarried woman and had all the limitations of a married one even though she had no husband.", but eventually she got a official divorce and went to live with her true love, Pedro Tercero.
Alba grows up and she falls in love with a man named Miguel. Their love seems to a predetermined destiny, like the loves of the three generations of woman before her. Alba opposes her grandfathers will and supports the revolution with Miguel. Alba becomes hated by her grandfather's son, Esteban Garcia because he is jealous of the affection that her grandfather gives her. Esteban Garcia ends up raping and torturing Alba. Afterwards, In order to, as Alba puts it "reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own", she convinces her grandfather to write the story of their family.
This novel having taken place in a time when the men had authority over the women, there are many sexist things that occur throughout the book. Some of the things that I noticed were that not all woman had educations, there were arranged marriages, women couldn't vote, and that there wasn't any birth control available. Each of the woman's life's are marked by the gender inequality, however, the woman in The House of the Spirits are strong women who don't tolerate being mistreated. They choose to respond to situations in subtle ways rather than responding through violence like the men do, which proves to be very effective. The women's methods of dealing with situations and fighting for their rights bring more important, long-lasting changes than the changes brought by the men. Because of how this novel is focused on the woman and their struggles in a male dominated society, and the male characters not being of much importance other than being the woman's husband or lover, The House of the Spirits, is a very feminist novel.
Although most of the woman from the novel The House of the Spirits choose subtle ways to assert their rights, Nivea asserts them in not quite as subtle ways. Nivea fights not only for her own rights, but she fights for the rights of woman throughout her country. "She shared her husband's parliamentary ambitions, hoping that if he won a seat in congress she would finally secure the vote for woman, for which she had fought for the past ten years, permitting none of her numerous pregnancies to get in the way." Nivea defies the traditional gender role with her commitment to woman suffrage movements, which is female empowerment that men would not typically allow, she also submits to traditional gender roles by being a good wife and loving mother.
Clara, the daughter of NIvea, may be the most important character in this novel. She uses methods of resistance that could be seen as particularly feminine compared to Nivea's actions regarding woman suffrage. She uses gentle and non-violent ways, such as her love and her predictions, to deal with situations. She inspires great respect and devotion in all those who meet her, including her husband, Esteban. After Esteban, hits her, she never talks to him again. "I think people were afraid of me." Esteban admits, "Even Clara,.. who never dreaded my temper, walked around half terrified." Although Clara became afraid of her husband, and also stops speaking to him in order to make the point that his violence is intolerable, she continues to maintain a civil relationship with him until her death. Clara deals with all situations in a typically female manor but is outside of a traditional gender role in someways such as hardly being aware of the material world.
Blanca, the daughter of Clara, was very close to her mother. When Blanca is young they go to Tres Maria to spend the summer. Blanca meets Pedro Tercero Garcia, the son of the ranch foreman, they become instantly good friends, and after some time they fall in love. The two of the have a secret relationship, hidden because Blanca's father Esteban Trueba and Pedro Tercero disagree in their political views. Their relationship is revealed and they are forced to separate for a while. During that time period Blanca is forced to marry a man named Jean de Satigny. Blanca doesn't love this man whom she married and he tells her that he has "no particular inclination for married life", he only married her for her fathers money and to get connected with his business. Their arranged marriage is a great example of female oppression. Blanca leaves her husband because she finds out about his strange sexual habits and goes to her parents house, right before she gave birth to her and Pedro Tercero's daughter Alba. Blanca continues to meeting Pedro Tercero but doesn't run away with him for many years during which "She lacked the freedom of an unmarried woman and had all the limitations of a married one even though she had no husband.", but eventually she got a official divorce and went to live with her true love, Pedro Tercero.
Alba grows up and she falls in love with a man named Miguel. Their love seems to a predetermined destiny, like the loves of the three generations of woman before her. Alba opposes her grandfathers will and supports the revolution with Miguel. Alba becomes hated by her grandfather's son, Esteban Garcia because he is jealous of the affection that her grandfather gives her. Esteban Garcia ends up raping and torturing Alba. Afterwards, In order to, as Alba puts it "reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own", she convinces her grandfather to write the story of their family.
This novel having taken place in a time when the men had authority over the women, there are many sexist things that occur throughout the book. Some of the things that I noticed were that not all woman had educations, there were arranged marriages, women couldn't vote, and that there wasn't any birth control available. Each of the woman's life's are marked by the gender inequality, however, the woman in The House of the Spirits are strong women who don't tolerate being mistreated. They choose to respond to situations in subtle ways rather than responding through violence like the men do, which proves to be very effective. The women's methods of dealing with situations and fighting for their rights bring more important, long-lasting changes than the changes brought by the men. Because of how this novel is focused on the woman and their struggles in a male dominated society, and the male characters not being of much importance other than being the woman's husband or lover, The House of the Spirits, is a very feminist novel.
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