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

Rabbit proof fence reflection

Hello everyone

Today's blog is going to be about an Australian book that personally I loved it. Rabbit Proof Fence. The novel by Doris Pilkington, tells a realistic story which has a mix of topics such as: politics, discrimination,violence ,violation of rights and impunity . As narrated in the book, the Australian Government made a rabbit-proof fence to prevent white men (English Colonists) and "black" people (Aborigines) on getting "mixed" . 

The book is about the girl’s journey from Moore River back to their home in Jigalong, a journey of over a thousand miles.
Because he government separated the half-caste children from their home, the aboriginal communities where they were born and locks in special schools where they are trained to serve the white population. And there begins the escape of these three girls. 

I will never understand the unconsciousness and evil caused by those people, The events were really cruel and I think is because they believed that were superiors and did not tolerates the differences between white men and aborigines. It's amazing that the two girls no matter the adversity they returned to their community (place which was a part of them).




 The most dramatic events in the book was when the girls are separated from their families and the most poignant moments is was the girls decided to separated and follow different paths. But finally, the powerful sense of responsibility to Molly is imposed and both sisters turn around to go find Gracie.But soon find that Gracie is captured, while watching the horror scene.

I can only say :
I have a great admiration for those girls, for strength and wish that they had in their heart because walking that long distance only imagine your pain, your suffering. Their perseverance is admirable.


I think we can do today that contrast with the indigenous people of our country. They do not seek to be "better" or "equal", they only thing they want is to be respected and recognized because are the roots of a nation. 

To finish my entry , i would like to ask you some questions

what do you think about of aborigines ?

what do you think about of special school in the book ?


Here for more information I leave the trailer and a documentary about rabbit proof fence.

I hope you enjoy my entry :)

What About Now? ... (Sorry for being late)

First of all, sorry for doing this post so late. In this days i joined to the blogs and for me is a little bit strange.
This song is call "What About Now" and  is a song of the band Bon Jovi.
You maybe  know this band, for songs like "Como yo nadie te ha amado", "You Give Love A Bad Name" or "Livin' On A Prayer". 
In this song we could see a hopeful message, the band promoves don't feel afraid to do anything, you can do whatever you want if you put your best in it. 
Is a song made for the teachers, for the family, for a woman or a men, is a song for every people , is for every person that needs to stand up and be proud of what they are doing, or what they are. 
The lyrics says: 
"The leaves fall like reasons that drift through the seasons
'Till dreams are just fade dark and grey.
And all of your plans that slip right through your hands
Are just things that you take to your grave.

Tonight we're alive.

Who'll stand for the restless, for the lonely?
For the desperate and the hungry?
Time for the count, I'm hearing you now.
For the faithful, the believer,
For the faithless and the teacher.
Stand up and be proud...
What about now?"

that's the question, What about now? ... You feel better? that's what you are, that's what you want in your life?

 be proud of yourself, stand up and face the world!

Was Queen Elizabeth a Virgin?

Was Queen Elizabeth a Virgen?

Most people think that it’s impossible that Queen Elizabeth was virgin, but   many writers said that the Queen’s virginity it was real.

In fact, a master in Tudor history said that  she couldn't openly take on lovers like a king would be able to as she was an unwed woman. She did have a rather 'interesting' friendship with two men, Robert Dudley and Robert Devereux, and public rumor of the time was that she had an affair with both men. When she came into the throne, she made Robert Dudley master of the horse, and was extremely flirtatious with him. Upon the death of his wife Amy, however, she publicly distanced herself from him, most likely to preserve her reputation, especially as it was rumored that he had killed his wife to marry the queen. Elizabeth later recommended Dudley to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, who turned him down on the basis that she would not take Elizabeth's lover. 

Robert Devereux was also given the title of Master of the Horse by Elizabeth, and was later sent to Ireland to defend English interests. He failed abysmally, and returned home in disgrace, where he led a rebellion against Elizabeth's council. He claimed that her advisors sought to rule through her and he believed she was worthy of ruling on her own. The queen later ordered him to be beheaded.
So, whether she was actually the virgin she claimed is unknown. She claimed she never married because her people were her children and her family, and she had no desire for another to control her children. So, in this sense, it would make sense for her to take lovers and not marry them.

Some people think that she was unlikely to be a virgin, but she knew how to play the courts, especially with her virginity, to her advantage.

Other specialist in the matter think that  Queen Elizabeth “may have made the equation that sexual involvement was inextricable linked with death”. After all, her mother  and her stepmother  had been executed for adultery, her grandmother  Elizabeth  of York had died  for puerperal fever. May be she also have scared  from sexual involvement, because sex inevitably could lead to childbirth  and in those days it was a risky business.

So, was The Queen a Virgin?. …..I want to share with you an interesting video ……..

Videogames: A simple set of pixels or a piece of art?

   Nowadays is undeniable the influence of tecnology in people's life and how its progress became in a very important part of society. In this way we can talk about videogames, a growth industry that gradually was positioned at the level of large and old industries such as film and literature. 

   Actually we can perceive the videogames like an element of the culture in most of societies in the world, mainly as a way of entertainment, Due to their proliferation in an increasingly broad and diverse audience, there are many communities or groups of followers (of all ages) about pixel world of gaming, generally known as "gamers". 

   Despite this, most people and a big part of society consider videogames as a simple product made only for children, withtout serious or deep contents. Following this idea we can thought in the videogames as an example of culture with a small "c". Nevertheless, certain people or institutions think in a different way, they are considering videogames as a traditional expression of art like film, painting, etc. For example, in 2011 the Supreme Court of United States of America included the videogames into definition of art and the independent agency of the Government of the United States created a new category in the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) dedicated to interactive medias, in which the videogames are considered like pieces of art. Other example is the exhibition of videogames in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York or the exposition called "The Art of Video games" in the Smithsonian American Art Museum of Washingtong, D.C. 

   In this way, the line of videogames between the small "c" and the big "C" culture is increasingly more closer and narrower, creating a disjuncture between the popular and the experts points of view about what represent videgames in culture like a media that try to express an emotion, a history, a vision, etc. Anyway, it doesn't matter who is in true, the fact is the videogame world is changing and growing. So if we can't consider videogames like an artistic expresion or a kind of artwork yet, personally I think it is only a matter of time to this will happen, because times are changing too and is evident that the videogames industry is constantly evolving and finding new ways to give us a message or a sample of their creative vision. An example of that are the new wave of independent games (or indie games) in the industry with great titles like Braid, Journey, The Stanley Parable, Bastion, Fez, Aquaria, Terraria, Brothers: A Tales of Two Sons and a long list of etc. For all these reasons and following Carlos Ramirez's words (an important videogame journalist and critic in the industy):

"Art is an artificial consensus created by the elite through the media, museums and symposiums, always to trade with it. For now, the consensus may be limited, but it is a matter of numbers. And time." 

   Is foreseeable that in a near future, videogames would be part of the "cultural elite" and the culture with big "C".

   Finally I invite you to watch this trailer about Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibition of videogames, in order to you make an idea about these kind of events.

Elizabeth I: A Symbol Of Greatness

Hi everyone.

This post is about Elizabeth I and how she became one of the greatest womans in the world history.

Elizabeth I was the greatest queen of the history of England and Ireland, and maybe of the world. She is the most famous queen that ever lived; also she is a great cult character.

Her history tells us, how a woman can be an example of leadership, autonomy, greatness and power. She is the daughter of Enrique VIII and Anne Boleyn.

She established a protestant church separated from Rome ,This is one of the most important things that she do, because is the beginning of the Anglican Church who we know.

The reign of Elizabeth I was very prosperous, even thought the nobility and the bourgeoisie were the main beneficiaries, always advised by Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir William Cecil. She established the Anglicanism as the official religion. 

It is said that many wanted to kill Elizabeth I, to obtain the power. 

She spent her last years sad and lonely.

In my opinion, she is one of the most important woman in the history.

A woman who became Queen of England and Ireland, who have the power and the force to Head an Empire, a woman that dedicates all his life to his kingdom is a woman who deserves our respect and admiration

                              

Do not judge a movie by its cover

[Although Thunderheart was a movie that we saw a while ago, due to some health condition I missed the class and I just saw it last week]

Stereotypes, first impressions… despite how much we have talked about this topic I have come across (once again) to the awful realization that I still have a long road to go about this particular issue. 

It's 11 pm, I have the test tomorrow afternoon, and I still haven’t seen the movie. 7 a.m. Day of the test and I realize that I cannot possible keep on procrastinating the movie and decide to watch it with my mom in order to focus and pay attention to it. 11 a.m. Tears falling from my eyes, and wondering how could I possibly not wanted to see this amazing movie.

Thunderheart taught me many things:

First of all made me realize how little I actually internalized the topics seen in classes; I didn’t want to watch it ‘cause I thought it would be a lame movie about some Indians, but MY GOD how wrong I was. It made me question about my values, my principles because being brutally honest I am a little bit like detective Ray Levoi (at the begginning); I have always been attracted to culture from other countries, but I have never paid attention to my own culture, the culture of the country that I was born in, my origins. 

And that made me think a lot about the class of Culture and Identity, the awareness about my sense of belonging towards my country, how much do I identify with my background. 

And in other hand, about prejudice and discrimination that we see towards natives, something that happens even in our own country, even though the movie is based loosely on an issue that happened on 1972, today in 2014, we can still see the “conflict view” that proposed Moran, for example Mapuche people in conflict.

This movie totally took me out of my comfort zone and made me question my way of thinking and the way I see things, showed me a side of myself to which I have to pay attention in order to improve it, and hopefully change my point of view and avoid judging something by the first impression.

As the Titanic... We don't see the Iceberg

The most important thing I learn was the culture is like an Iceberg, because when we see something about a country, We only see thing like language, tipical food, tipical clothing, important artists, famous writers and all the topics like these. Professor Pablo Villa emphasized this part of the subject and He made us to reflect on whether it was important to focus on trying to learn only about these things or about all the topics of the country like nature of friendship, beliefs, values, ideas concering governing, childraising, etc.

Also we relate these with stereotypes, how these things make a inaccurate image of the people or the whole country so if we going to search information about a country we need to investigate for more accurate information and try to avoid the generalization of the people.

All these ideas was new for me and I started to think about how we alway generalize when we talk about people on diferent country or also people in diferent cities of the same country and that caused my mind blow, because we live for make stereotypes of what we don't know.

"THE WHOLE SOCIETY DICTATES WHAT WE THINK OF OTHERS AND IS ALWAYS A STEREOTYPE".

If we will be teachers, we must change this paradigm, not only for us but for all our future students, beacuse we will build future generations and many of the things they think will emerge from our knowledge.

Finally, maybe this was the intention of Professor Pablo Villa on first, that we become aware of this issue, not only because it is something we must learn, at least that is what I think.

I want to exhibit the following questions to close my posting: what you concluded about this, and if you are in agreement or disagreement with my point of view?