"KKK"

In the United States,in the 50's the segregation was the accepted way of life in the South. However, the"separate but equal" was only a half truth. Blacks enjoyed little freedom in those times of little racial stability. When they climbed on a bus, they had to be placed at the end of the same. They living surrounded by fear and it was a horrible way of life.

Racial violence was amazing, and most of these acts were signed "KKK" .

The Ku Klux Klan was born in the United States in 1866, is an organization which

proclaims the superiority of the white race frequently through acts of violence.  The Ku Klux Klan was conceived as a social club where young people could find fun and entertainment. The members were nocturnal excursions by the people of Pulaski, dressed up with sheets and masks, pretending to be ghosts that frightened (or amused themselves) to the population. But little by little the KKK tightened up its activities, and devoted himself to oppress the groups considered inferior, among them black.

In the Ku Klux Klan racist thinking there was a very advanced,hated anyone who was not white.

They were claiming the rights of whites without giving them any value to the blacks and letting them see the people that your idea was true and that he had to support them. For them the blacks had no value in fact committed large attacks against them.

But its history is more than a sum of acts of terror. I found a documentary that examines the history of the Ku Klux Klan in relation to the history of the United States shows its birth directly caused by the release of the slaves after the Civil War, but also when had its time of maximum splendour in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century It also shows when your activity resurfaced later in the moments in which the black population was progressing in their civil rights.

The documentary's name is Ku Klux Klan: A Secret History.

                           

Best way to make things happen

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a pacifist fighter for equal rights. He was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, in North West India, on 2nd October 1869, into a Hindu Modh family. His father was the Chief Minister of Porbandar. He had a big influenced from his mother because she was religious, with a strong devotion, teaching these way to his child to be pacifist, mutual tolerance, non-injury to living beings and vegetarism.

Gandhi realized that "when human heart is closed you can't catch the human head, there is no used reasoning with the person, his heart is on the prejudices. If reason is not enough, violence is no good, what do you do? And he invented the method of nonviolence resistance. You stand up against your opponent, tell him that you will not give in, but you also reassure him that you will do him know how" (Bhikhu Parekh, Prof. of political theory, University of Hull, England).

Martin Luther King was inspired for these so he made a trip to India to know more about these policy and he got the conclusion that "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity".

I am totally agree with both of them because, I strongly believe that you can't resolve problems from anger, for the reason that with those type of feeling you can only hurt people around you, even more if you have not a knowledge or relation with them. Also because like how Gandi said, “When human heart is closed you can't catch the human head, there is no used reasoning with the person”. So you will never get in to an accord, and fight will remain.

I consider that all of us should use a nonviolence method, be emphatic with others and always being consent that we are all different and is because of this that we are going to have different opinion and point of views from things.

What do you think about these, do you think the nonviolence method was a good decision?  

For those interested about learn more about Gandhi, here I leave you the trailer from a movie made from his life.

Hope you enjoy it and give me your comments. 

Female Power

After watching today's movie in class I would like to share with you some features of the aboriginals that have caught my attention. Specially I would like to talk about their chauvinism. As I consider myself a Feminist, I am going to share some opinions about this with you.

I had always believed that only the American (and by american I mean REALLY all american, not only north american) ancient peoples were chauvinist, however, as I have sadly realized, this costume does not only belong to them, but it also belongs to many ancient peoples of humanity.


As we have seen on the movie "Whale Rider", the protagonist, Paikea is a girl who was born in a family of descendants from, "Paikea" who had been the last leader of her tribe. Unsurprisingly, he was a man.
This girl had a  twin brother who died a few minutes after his birth, and she is the most recent descendant from her ancestor. This situation brought many troubles for her grandfather, who rejected her because he was expecting a boy who would be their next leader and who would save his people from all the harm of our times.
In the movie we were able to appreciate that women's role in Maori's society was not very different; we witnessed many scenes in which Paikea was despised by her own grandfather only for being a girl, and we also saw him many times he underestimating and mistreating his wife.

We all know that american pre columbian women's role in society was also  related only to domestic work such as cleaning, cooking and nursing children. They had no right to give an opinion or being part of society in any other way, and being a "leader" was absolutely unthinkable for them.

Let's think about our own native people, the Mapuches. Does any of you know anything about a mapuche woman who has done something important for her people? All I know s that Caupolican had a loyal lover whose name was "Fresia" and Lautaro had a girlfriend named "Guacolda". As you can see they are part of our history only for being "someone's woman" and even their existence is uncertain for many historians.

I believe that, unfortunately, chauvinism is still part of our society. Despite many woman have fought for our  rights we are clearly in disadvantage with men, and apparently we will have to fight a lot for that.

I'll leave yo some videos for you to watch, one of them is about woman's fight for our sexual rights and the other one is a parody of a song you all probably know which is called "BLURRED LINES" that  is one of the most chauvinist songs of our times, however, this feminist parody is called "DEFINED LINES" 

I hope this post will make some of you aware of the society we live in. If you are girls yo should be fighting, if you are boys, you should at least be informed. 

Living, not surviving: Twelve years a Slave.

This year has been Marvel’s big year with “Captain America and the Winter Soldier”, “The Amazing Spiderman 2” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” is coming on August! Yeah, it has definitely been one of the best years of Marvel Cinematographic Universe in a while. You should be wondering why I’m writing about this, and it’s because this Wednesday I went to the movies with my little brother to watch X-Men again, and while I was watching the movie I started to think about other roles of one of my favorite actors in the whole world: Michael Fassbender (young Magneto).

Michael was part of the cast of an emotive, shocking movie of 2013 about slavery in the pre-Civil War USA, and worked with super-stars like Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch in this great production: Twelve Years a Slave, based in a true story.

“TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE is based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender), as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) will forever alter his life.” (Consulted on http://www.12yearsaslave.com/)

 

When I watched the movie I had to pick too many handkerchiefs because I was crying. As I wrote before, it’s a shocking movie, especially because it’s based in a true story. This happened, this really happened in the United States, the country of freedom and democracy, and things like that still happen in some places around the world nowadays, in the 21^st century. Some people act like they’re better than others just because and they feel with the right of being idiots. And, I repeat, it still happens. Not with slavery, but it happens.

Discrimination and intolerance are problems that are really dangerous, even now, because they are a way of violence too, not only physical but also psychological. This movie made me think about so many things, like if we really are free of being in the way that we are supposed to, the way that we were born. And I’m not talking only about black people and white people. I’m talking about all the minorities. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, drags, aged people, autistics, cancer and AIDS patients, people with Down syndrome, orphans… and the list goes on and goes on.

Are we truly free? Or maybe we are slaves of society, stereotypes, prejudices and fear about that we don’t really know.  Maybe is part of being human also being afraid of accepting a different reality, know that out there is someone that could be absolutely different from us, but with so many similarities too; with dreams, with feelings and sentiments, with a soul. Someone who cried when is sad and shout when is angry. Someone who can feel fear and pain, but also happiness and hope. Someone who can hate and be hatred, but also can love and be loved.

Out there is someone who is human, just like you and me.

So, classmates, give me comments. What do you think about the movie? What do you think about this concept of ‘freedom’?

Books of the “half castes problem” in Australia.

Books of the “half castes problem”  in Australia

I think that this book is so interesting and show us the “dark part” of “half castes”

This castes problem wasn’t just a social problem, because this included politic, geographical things and of couse disrespect for aboriginal people.

 This book talk about three girls to have one partner aboriginal (Mom) and the father was a White man. And these three girls were taken away from their families and sent to a camp where they were learning to act and be like a white person.  But in this case this girls can escaped and walk kilometers and kilometers to back home.

The rabbit proof fence was their way, because they follow it to escape and go across the other side (Easter Australia). Because this fence was created to can stop the rabbits go to the White people territory and with it the government separated In west part of the fence (for White persons and not rabbits) and the east (where were the aboriginal people).

But it is not the only one. I found more book which talk about the same topic. The first “the Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith” is an Australian literary classic.

Jimmie Blacksmith is the son of an Aboriginal mother and an Irish father. When Jimmie Blacksmith marries a white woman, the answer from Jimmie’s community was “no” and the white society he say “no” too, so this promote violent events. As Jimmie tries to make his way in a world that deplores him, Jimmie explodes and leaves a trail of blood and is pursued by police and vigilantes and his journey concludes with tragic results for his family.

With those books we can see that many persons or writers are interesting in this topic.

So? ... it is a really interesting topic! you have to read more about it! 

Here I give you some ideas to read!

- The chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (by Thomas Keneally)

-The songlines (by Bruce Chatwin)

-In a surburned country( by Bill Bryson)

And here I let you a link to "Rabbit Proof Fence" trailer movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbnk8wSVMaM

Dreamtime of the Aborigines.

DREAMTIME

Long, long ago, before the Dreamtime, before the time could be counted, the world had no shape; it was soft and wobbly. Then, at the beginning of the Dreamtime, Warramurrungundji came out of the sea. A female being in human form, she created the land and gave birth to the people. She gave them their languages. Other creator being came - Ginga, the giant ancestral crocodile, made the rock country; Marrawuti, the sea eagle, brought water lilies in his claws and planted them on the floodplain. Once the great spirit ancestors had completed their creative acts, they put themselves into the landscape, where they remain to this day. Warramurrungundji is a white rock in the woodland, Ginga is a rock outcrop textured like a crocodile's back. These places are called Dreaming sites and still contain the power and energy of the Dreamtime. (...)when the ancestral beings had completed their creation, they told the people: "Now we have done these things, you make sure they remain like this for all time. You must not change anything."

This is an extract from the text that we had to read, "Dreamtime". The dreamtime is the force that keeps everything in harmony; the man, the nature, the animals, among others. All of them living as one, yet it has many ways of being represented. 

The next video shows us what the Dreamtime is for the aborigines, the different ways of how it is represented, between other things.

  

As shown in the video, the dreams are another way where the dreamtime can occur. 

This painting is a story that comes from a dream: a Dreaming story.

Now, I give you a question:

Does the white man have something similar to the Dreamtime? 

"The Rosa Parks Story"

At this time I am going to talk you about Rosa Parks.  As you know she is called the “Mother of Civil Rights Movement”. She was an African American from Alabama and a worldwide symbol of admiration for black and white people.

Most of you already know the story about Parks and the Montgomery bus Boycott. But if you don’t, here I leave you a link about it: 

"Montgomery bus boycott"

I chose to talk about her because I think she was an amazing woman. She did not let anyone look above her. And I think that the main reason for which I admire her is because she was a woman, and a woman at those days was a sign of weakness. And in spite of all the obstacles she had to face, she accomplished to assert her rights. That’s why I think she is a symbol of inspiration for everyone.

When I was surfing on the Internet I found information about “The Rosa Parks Story”, a movie premiered on February 24, 2002. It was directed by Julie Dash and starred by Angela Bassett.

The movie reveals the woman behind the legend.  The film joins two views of Rosa Parks’ life:  Rosa as a symbol of courage in the situation of Montgomery buses in 1955, and the lesser-known history of Rosa Park’s personal background. It shows the experiences in her life that helped shape her opinions and influenced her character and also, how she became an emblem of dignity.  Therefore, it reminds us that every historical figure has a human story.

           

Here I leave you the trailer of the movie:

Although I have not seen it yet, I find quite interesting to learn about her life as a leader, woman and especially as a human. And this is also an opportunity to you to think a little bit deeper. That day Parks refused to give uo her seat which causes the change of a law, maybe tomorrow another fact that may seem insignificant can change the society in which we live.

I hope you have enjoyed this post,  LEAVE ME YOUR COMMENTS!!