Mahatma Ghandi: A Source of Inspiration

Hi everybody!

   In this post I'm going to talk about of one of the greatest characters in history of the human rights fight, Mahatma Gandhi and how this man got an influence in the world with his ideology and his wisdom.

   Firstly, I must say why I chose this topic to my entry. Well, all began when I was working with my group in our presentation about Martin Luther King Jr's life. In that moment, I really shocked with relevance that Gandhi's words had in the Luther´s movement of civil rights and how this words and thoughts full of peace and love motivated him to fight in a peaceful way. I remember that when I was reading about this meeting with Gandhi in one of the chapters given by professor to my group. I was thinking something like: "This guy was really awesome and not only per give inspiration to so many people including the great Martin Luther KIng, but by his beautiful way to fight against injustice through love."

   Following the main idea I will try to answer the following question: 
Who was Mahatma Gandhi?

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (generally known as Mahatma Gandhi) was the primary leader of India's independence movement and also the architect of a form of civil disobedience that would influence in the world. 

He was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar (India). He studied Law in London. Nevertheless in 1893 he went to South Africa, where he spent 20 years opposing to discriminatory legislation against Indians. Due to he was the pioneer of Satyagraha (one of the most potent philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world) and he started the resistance through the mass non-violent civil disobedience, he became one of the major political and spiritual leaders of his time. 

In 1914, Gandhi returned to India, where he supported the Home Rule movement, and became leader of the Indian National Congress, advocated a policy of non-violent non-co-operation to achieve independence. He always struggled to alleviate poverty, liberate women and put an end to caste discrimination, with the ultimate objective being self-rule for India.

Following his civil disobedience campaign (1919-22), he was jailed for conspiracy (1922-24). On his release from prison (1931), he attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian Contitutional Reform. In 1946, he negotiated with Cabinet Mission wich recommended the new constitutional structure. After independence (1947), he tried to stop the Hindu.Muslim conflict in Bengal, where he was murdered in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic.

   Even after his death, Gandhi's words still are a symbol of hope and love in a world full of inequalities and discrimination especially to minorities. In addition, the non-violence philosophy of Gandhi was and is a source of inspiration to many people who want to participate in movements in favor of human rights.

   Finally, I invite you to listen the follow emotive speech of this great man:

Hope

I dont know if what I'm going to write could count as SPOILER but just in case be careful if you haven't read the wonderful book that is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and read this entry under your own responsibility. 

I'm going to talk about my favourite part of the book, the part that got me tearing up and thanking God for the perfect character development and the writing (yeah, I'm the "very emotional" type of reader).

Right before the most important basketball match, between Reardan and the Wellpinit Redskins, before Junior has to face Rowdy again, a journalist interviews Junior. After a few awful takes, Junior speaks from the heart, and it's one of the most overwhelming and inspiring things:

"I feel like this is the most important night of my life," I said. "I  feel like I have something to prove to the people in Reardan, the people in Wellpinit, and to myself."

"And what do you think you have to prove?" the guy asked.

"I have to prove that I am stronger than everybody else. I have to prove that I will never give up. I will never quit playing hard. And I don't just mean in basketball. I'm never going to quit living life this hard, you know? I'm never going to surrender to anybody. Never, ever, ever."

Here I felt the change, here you can clearly see the difference and the development of Junior's character. After the talk with Mr. P, you could see how lost Junior felt, all the worries that affected him, and his lack of confidence. 

But in the interview, you see Junior as a person who won't let anybody or anything stop him from fulfilling his dreams, as someone who won't give up no matter how hard it gets. 

And it's really inspirational, it gives hope, that it's the only thing stronger than fear (got the reference?). And this hope transcends everything; it doesn't matter if you're a Native American, an Afroamerican, a Chilean.

We see prejudices, discrimination and bullying towards people in every single culture and race. And no one should never feel like they're not enough. You are worth it, you should fight for your dreams.

Follow Junior's example and don't let ANYTHING STOP YOU. Follow the HOPE road.

I'm looking forward to your comments... did you like the book as much as I did? did you cry? what was your favourite part? Please leave your opinion below :) Thanks for reading. 

Whale rider

Hi everybody.
Today I'm going to talk about the movie "Whale rider" that we saw in class.

Whale rider is a 2002  film, it is about a maori girl called Paikea, who is the succesor of his grandfather. But here it comes the first controversy of the film, The grandfather of Paikea, didn't want a girl to be his succesor, he wants a boy like the tradition says. 
at the beginning, Koro Apirana is try to being nice with her granddaughter, but he holds grudge in his hearth just because she isn't the boy that he wanted.

Later,  many problems afflicting Paikea and her grandfather... but with the past of time, or the actions that Paikea takes, this problems will have solution...

In my opinion, it is a great film, is one of that movies that you see once in a year and your knowledge expands, you try to know more about the culture that is shown in the film, you search for information, you become an investigator, an examinator, because this kind of films, makes you think that you are not the only one... that a woman who lives in a chauvinistic society can be more strong that a thousand of men. 
The landscape in the movie, shows us how beautiful is our world (wthout smoke,or millions of persons with a telephone in his hand everytime), the music that is in the movie is sometimes awesome , and other times is kinda scary.

I reccomend this to the people who didn't see, and i invite to see a movie call "at five in the afternoon Panj é asr" who is about afganistan and the fall of the Taliban regime, and how the womans live in a chauvinistic society.
http://www.uhu.es/cine.educacion/cineyeducacion/temascincodelatarde.htm#A_las_cinco_de_la_tarde._Panj_é_asr_

Black Panthers: The force of the African-American people.

Hello again today I going to talk about the black panthers and some of their history, what kind of thing they did for help black people, in whom they were inspired, and why they dissolved, I hope you enjoy my entry and give me a comment after read this.

The Black Panther Party was an important group of black people in United States of America, it was founded on octover of 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California and they ideology was defend the black people against the white people attacks.

This group was inspired by the ideals of Malcolm X and was formed after his death, they took to the practice the ideals of Malcolm X, Malcolm X said black should help themselves and violence was necessary when you were fighting for your rights.

They said black people need guns to protect from white people and they had many confront with police for that, also they did a lot of thing for help black people, things like breakfast program for children, opened schools in poor black neighbourhoods, donate clothes for black people, clinics for people and the fight against drugs and classes of law, economics, self-defense and first aid.

They dissolved because after many of battles with the police of united states one of the leader and founder was arrested, Newton was put into prison after he killed a white police officer, in 1969 the FBI declared public enemy number one to the Black Panthers and with the arrest of Newton these are the most important factor for the dissolved of the black phanters.

I think this group help to African-Americans proud of their origin. What do you think about this group? Do you agree with they pro-violence method ? why or why not?

Are we proud?

Hi, humans! Well, today we watched the last part of “Whale rider” and I have to say that I liked the movie so much. Maybe because I don’t see happy endings all the time, but I think one of the biggest reasons for me, is the atmosphere that surrounds the  movie. I thought, during the entire movie, that I was watching something really pure. Maybe because the music, maybe because of the union between the landscape and the music.  Is very nice to learn new things about distant places thanks to a movie. As Mimí said -somewhere in this portion of universe called ICD 2014-, we know nothing. But, why do people from New Zealand knows and respect their heritage and culture? Why people from other places can feel proud of their roots?. I remembered when Mr. Villa talked about the "All blacks" and well, I started looking for videos about them. I found this one -not about the All Blacks-.

It's awesome how they put their heart in that dance. While I was watching the video, I read some comments about it. One of them, said that "... the Hakka is terrible and disrespectful to the sport"

I believe everyone can have any opinion, but I can't see what's wrong with the Hakka. Maybe she was refering to a sport behaviour, but I think that keeping alive this kind of dances or cultural manifestations is very important nowadays. Globalization is very convenient for progress and all that stuff, but for cultural minorities can be really harmful. In EPE we read about a school, where a high percentage were Mapuche. The sad part about that story was their feelings about being Mapuche. They were not proud, they felt very ashamed sometimes. Their parents mentioned how mapudungun was disappearing from generation to generation.

 I remembered a day when members of a  Mapuche community went to my school. It was their New Year, the We Tripantu -which makes reference to a new rising of the Sun-. They were laughing and I don't think things have changed since then. Maybe it was something different for them, but we must show respect always. I don't know why we are not proud of our heritage, some people feels inferior because of having a Mapuche last name. I admire some qualities of them, like their persistence and strength. Nowadays is too much difficult to see their good things, because the media only shows their "sinister and violent" side. 

While I was looking for more information about Māori, I found a very interesting site:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en

There you can find a lot of information about Māori and  New Zealand, too. 

After reading some of the entries there, I wondered which could be the equivalent of this site in Chile and I remembered this one:

http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-channel.html
But first, here you have two rituals related to Death and a question.

I used to look for information there. If you know about any other similar site, I would really appreciate if you comment it here :D 

Oh! Finally, I'll let you go :G

Tangihanga : Maori Mourning Ceremony

Amulpüllün: Mapuche Funeral Rite

Mapuche people also have rituals Why do you think we don't see often this kind of cultural manifestations in Chile?

THE STOLEN GENERATIONS......APOLOGY...

 

The stolen generations

The stolen generations, children whose were taken away from their families  throughout the early 1900s. The half- caste children from aboriginal mothers and white fathers were removed in order to be exposed to “Anglo Values” and work habits, they learned to being employed by colonial settlers.

The objective behind the removal of these children was the racial assimilation. I think that this  acts were wrong , because  the children are innocent people and  we must to protect  them and nobody can say that  sons were better without  their  mothers  or without  their parents. I’m  a mother  and  I can imagine the pain  that  those mothers felt  when  their sons were stolen.

Nevertheless , there are varied   life’s  stories about the stolen generations, we read  a  dramatic  one ,“rabbit proof fence”, so  I found   a different  experience…

“I was very fortunate that when I was removed, I was with very loving and caring parents. The love was mutual ... I know my foster parents were the type of people that always understood that I needed to know my roots, who I was, where I was born, who my parents were and my identity ... I remember one day I went home to my foster father and stated that I had heard that my natural father was a drunk. My foster father told me you shouldn't listen to other people: `You judge him for yourself, taking into account the tragedy, that someday you will understand'.
Confidential submission 252, South Australia: woman fostered at 4 years in the 1960s.

Other children suffered trauma, abuse….

“I led a very lost, confused, sad, empty childhood, as my foster father molested me. I remember once having a bath with my clothes on `cause I was too scared to take them off. I was scared of the dark `cause my foster father would often come at night. I was scared to tell anyone `cause I once attempted to tell the local Priest at the Catholic church and he told me to say ten Hail Mary's for telling lies. So I thought this was how `normal' non-Aboriginal families were. I was taken to various doctors who diagnosed me as `uncontrollable' or `lacking in intelligence'. Confidential submission 788, New South Wales: woman removed at 3 years in 1946; experienced two foster placements and a number of institutional placements.

In 2012 the prime minister Kevin ruud gave  a public apology  to the stolen Generations, I want to share with you the video .

What do you think about the speech?....... I think that it’s  a political strategy …..but  it was fine and necessary  .

An amazing book!

First of all bloggers, I have to tell you that the book written by Sherman Alexie, The bsolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is one of the best books I had ever read. It is incredible how you can go on with the reading without noticing it. So I am going to talk about some parts of the book that I found interesting, nice and that made me reflect about it.

In deep, the book is for me kind of sad because the history of this boy, Junior, shows the real life that most African-American people had to go through. This means to live in poverty, have no opportunities as “whites” do, have no chances to achieve their dreams, suffer bullying… Also it is still being a problem in the relationship between “whites” and African-Americans.

There is a part in the book, in the beginning, where Junior refers to the worst thing of being poor: His family could not pay the vet for saving Oscar’s life, Junior’s dog, so his parents decided to sacrifice him.

“It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re poor because you’re stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it.”  (2007: 13)

For me it is too sad to think that those people, those children were so discriminated that they had to think the same way as Junior did, believing that they have no chances for having a dignified life. I cannot get through the thoughts and acts of “white people” by making that person’s life a shit (sorry for the expression, but that’s how it really was). They are humans just like them, and the worst thing is that there are still existing people that discriminate and are parallellism and the KKK is an example.

How could they understand that the way they thought was wrong?

Nevertheless, a good example of changing the point of view about the bad life that Indians had is Mr.P, Junior’s teacher. He realized that people like Junior and Mary (his sister) had a lot of talent and intelligence, so they should have the chances and opportunities to have a better life or the life that they wanted to have. Mr.P taught Junior to fight for his dreams and never lose hope because hope is the value that most of Indians had lost.

““All these kids have given up,” he said. “All your friends. All the bullies. And their mothers and fathers have given up, too. And their grandparents gave up and their grandparents before them. And me and every other teacher here. We’re all defeated.”  Mr.P was crying. I couldn’t believe it. I’d never seen a sober adult cry.

“But not you,” Mr.P said. “You can’t give up. You won’t give up. You threw your book in my face because somewhere inside you refuse to give up.”” (2007: 42)

This made me think that what Mr.P refers to is absolutely true because most African-Americans had given up and that is why they stop fighting for their rights. They believed so deeply that they were like nothing because the life, the society made them think that way. It is a sad reality, but those like Junior, who had not lost hope, can go on and do something for those that are lost and defeated and stand them up again to fight for what they deserve. All people should know that everybody deserves a life worth living.

What do you think about this sad reality?  Are values like, hope, solidarity, empathy, love, lost? I hope not.

It is an amazing book, I highly recommend it.

Here I let you a trailer of a 11th grade lit project. It shows some scenes of the book:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXCSwsBlWZo