Persuading the White Australians

The Aboriginal Australians deserve an apology regarding the white Australians' treatment of them as a racial group, from as early as the colonization of Australia to as recently as 1970. It may not be people from the current generation who were sending Aboriginals to camps and trying to "breed out" the Aboriginals, but nonetheless the shame emulates to the Australians as a race. While the white Australians believed that what they were doing was the right thing to do, that they were saving the Aboriginals from themselves and that by breeding out the Aboriginal in people they were doing a service to mankind. Evidence of this viewpoint can be seen in the film Rabbit-Proof Fence, based on the true story of Molly Craig, a half-caste in Australia who, at 14, was captured and taken to the Moore River gulag with her sister and cousin and manages to escape. The main antagonist, A. O. Neville, was the legal guardian of every half-caste in Australia and believed that he should send all of them to camps, where they learned to sew and cook and would eventually breed with white Australians. Although this may sound like horrible behaviour now, this was accepted by all whites and known by all half-castes in the 1930's, when the film was set. While it was intended to be for the greater good, this plan forcably seperated many children from their parents, most of whom never got to see eachother again. Some children were as young as a few months old. This cannot possibly be seen as beneficial to the country; how can teaching the young white Australians that stealing children is perfectly acceptable and causing Aboriginals so much distress possibly lead to a good outcome? Another point in the film was the white Australians using deception to re-capture Grace, who eventually dies of an unknown cause. When has it ever been right to trick a 10-year-old girl into being at a station at a certain time to be re-captured, under the belief that she would be seeing her mother? This surely cannot have been seen as a show of good citizenship, even in the 1930's where out-breeding was deemed correct. A final point of remorse can be seen when the maid takes in the young girls so they can have somewhere to sleep for the night. We don't see the maid's master, but from the dialogue and sound we can tell that he is beating her for letting in the children and threatening her by telling her she will be beaten again if she lets them go. He wants to keep them so he can claim a monetary award from the government; the girls are wanted, after all. The man obviously has more money than most people, showing that he is motivated not by the belief that the girls' futures will be brighter in the camp, but by greed. An even subtler indication of his character is seen when he discoveres the girls; he just barges straight in to the maid's room, not knocking or showing any respect for her personal privacy. He obviously views half-castes as inferior, as animals. While he is only one man, we can infer that he is the majority of white Australians, due to seeing how the government is educating most white Australian children and adults. We only see one kind white Australian household in the entire movie, a representation of how few white Australians view Aboriginals as people. Discrimination has never been right and never will be. Today, few people would believe that the past actions of white Australia were correct and just. Many would experience feelings of horror, disgust and remorse. These feelings are ordinarily followed by an apology. The white Australians generalized all Aboriginals, therefore the Aboriginals generalized all the white Australians based on the few white Australians they knew of. If both groups ultimately have the same negative view of each other, peace, harmony and unity will not be possible in Australia; to improve relations, an apology to all Aboriginals is in order.

Molly Craig- Hero or Not?

The film Rabbit-Proof Fence is centred around the real character of Molly Craig, a young half-caste girl living in Australia in the 1930's. She is taken from her camp at Jigalong to a half-caste Gulag over a thousand miles away from her mother, along with sister Daisy and cousin Grace. The three escape from the camp, but are being tracked by an Aboriginal tracker and the white government, following the Rabbit-Proof Fence to find home.

To me, Molly is a hero. She initially shows no character traits typical of a hero; she is timid, as seen in her reluctance to be checked for whiteness by the handler of half-castes, seeming too afraid to move or respond to her name. She stays away from all the other girls at the camp, as well as not going for breakfast on the first day, showing her apparent fear of things and people she is unfamiliar with. She also almost never talks at the camp, presumably through fear of being punished or fear of being judged, yet at her home in Jigalong she spoke to her sister and cousin fairly regularly. Normally, a hero would be someone who is brave, stands up to everyone and everything, tackles everything new and speaks their mind. However, she does commit one heroic act, so large and out of character that she has become a hero from my point of view; she escapes from the camp with her sister and cousin.

Why does this one act of defiance make her a hero in my mind? The dictionary definition of a hero is "a man/woman distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude, etc." Molly's non-courageous character makes her one action stand out amongst the rest of her decisions; it must have taken an amazing amount of courage to finally decide to leave the camp, especially after witnessing the punishment of a girl who had left but was found and taken back. The soure of Molly's new courage cannot fully be determined, but the amount the source gave her must have been enough to classify as "exceptional". She would definately be seen as a hero to her sister and cousin, seeing as she managed to get both of them out; alone, neither of the other two had the courage to get out themselves. Although Molly failed to get Grace to stay with them, resulting in Grace's death, she managed to get home safely with her sister. Based on this story alone, Molly is a hero in my mind.

Learning Profile- I'm an A!

Today in class, we used a few tests to figure out our learning profile. From the title of this post, you can tell that I got A as my profile- this means someone who is right leg, right arm, right eye and right ear dominant, but is left brain (logic) dominant. This means I am a visual and auditory learner- I learn best when presented with diagrams and both a written and spoken explanation of it and when I focus on details. I process by verbalizing, writing and analyzing, instead of acting or drawing. I prefer things to be in a sequence and find language useful for learning. This gives me a large advantage, as teachers tend to give their directions orally in class and hand out a written rubric, matching me perfectly. However, there are a couple of downfalls to my profile- during stress, I tend to have difficulty seeing the 'big picture', I find it challenging to connect emotionally or kinesthetically to information and, due to all my dominant features being on the opposite sides of my dominant hemisphere, I have a difficult time accessing the gestalt hemisphere when I'm stressed.

In order to broaden my learning horizons, I need to be more open to gestalt ideas. I should do this through positive, enjoyable sensory-motor experiences, which will allow me to emotionally interact to the fullest, be creative and develop intuition. I should have an integral balance of art, music, freeform movement and interpersonal skills, combined with cognitive endeavors to balance me out as a person- I am currently working on this by taking an art course through choice and talking to my friends about acting. I should be encouraged to understand and synthesize information from a whole perspective and explore ambiguity, emotions and movement, in order to see the world from another point of view.

The strategies that would help me in my learning would be to sit towards the front of a class, so I can easily see and hear the teacher, while also embarking on conversations with the teacher about emotions behind a text, or how all the small forces come together to form the bigger picture of the Earth. Being close means I take in the information easily, while also broadening the way I think. Although I feel most comfortable with written explanations, I should, when given the option, try to create a skit or creative poster to help engage the lesser-used gestalt side of my brain.

I would like my teachers to know that I would prefer them to draw diagrams up on the board to asking us to act out a word. I know that I just stated in the last paragraph that I should act out more- I know I should, but I would rather take in the information through a visual, then act out as a project once I am confident with the concept. I would also prefer there to be an even number of oral and written assignments- I am confident with written assignments, but I should do some orals to broaden my horizons. I would also like to sit towards the front of the class, instead of being shoved at the back where it is harder to see and hear. I know that you can't cater to all my needs, as other people may request other things, but I would like these changes to be thought about.

Brunelleschi- The Cranium Behind the Dome

Brunelleschi- a visionary, an artist, a thinker and a do-er. Perservering on a grand scale, Brunelleschi ignored everyone who thought he was crazy and built the spectacle of Florence- the dome.

Brunelleschi was a courageous man- he overcame ridicule, he stood infront of the very men who laughed at his "preposterous" notion. Brunelleschi didn't let his fear of failure or mocking get in the way of him building his architectural masterpiece. It takes true courage to not let fear guide you off the path of progress, to not concern yourself with your image to others and only focus on the art at hand, to challenge the thinkers of a century, to do the unthinkable. Brunelleschi did overcome obstacles and indeed take many risks, but what was it that took him to the end? His courageous nature. He powered through, with no apparent fear, just wanting to have his dome completed, to showcase his architectural genius.

Every action and decision we make effects change, regardless of how small the action or decision may seem. In Brunelleschi's case, his action/decision was fairly large- building a dome with no scaffolding was nothing small. He opened up new pathways to many young artists, he acted as an inspiration to people wishing to do great things, changing the line of thought from "I can't do that- the idea is too extreme!" to "I need to come up with more original ideas- I need to marvel people!" Brunelleschi also changed how people looked at Florence- it used to be "Oh, it's Florence. It's got Medicis ruling it." to "Wow, Florence, look at that dome! It casts a shadow over Tuscany! This city knows a thing or two about architecture!" However, we don't need to be Brunelleschis to change things- simply by donating ringpulls into the ISKL ringpull box, we are changing the lives of Thai people who have lost their limbs- we're making a massive difference through a tiny action. Anyone can change the world- they just need to act.

Please, please, please use the ISKL ringpull tube! Stationed outside the MS office, there's a large metal tube with ringpulls in it- save all your ringpulls at home and bring them in! Everything helps! There are also tiny rigpull boxes on a few of the aluminum can bins- placing your ringpulls in there also helps, as the totals from the tube and boxes are added together. Please donate! Make a difference!

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

Ideas can come from anywhere. Sometimes ideas come from experiences, some from knowledge, some from inspiration and some just randomly pop into your head! Many ideas exist in history- some people thought the world was flat, some wonder whether we evolved, or if a God just placed us on the planet. Some still believe the world will end in 2012! All of them have their origins, even if we don't know exactly where they trace back to. Even the most complex and popular ideas can come from the simplest of places. The idea of gravity and Newton's laws all came from an apple falling off a tree one day. The massively popular Daleks from the TV series Doctor Who supposedly came from a salt shaker. In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, the simple origins of massive ideas were over-exaggerated when a man figured out how to create a completely perspective simulation of the universe by looking a a crumb of fairy cake.
Ideas are minor miracles sometimes- you can come up with the perfect idea suddenly, without trying to think of it, without knowing where it came from and without suggestion. Ideas just happen. Ideas are amazing. Without ideas, the world would certainly be a very boring place.

My Favourite Short Story

This is the first blog entry I've written in a while, so if it seems boring, please bear with me.

My favourite short story of the unit was "Thank You Ma'am" by Langston Hughes. I found the conflict in the story interesting- a boy and a woman, both out late, both having done bad things previously in their lives. I know that Langston Hughes mainly wrote about issues of civil rights, and although it wasn't directly stated, I get the feeling that in terms of skin colour, the boy was African-American, and the woman was white. I get this feeling because while the woman had a pocketbook and a purse, and could afford to give Roger $10, Roger had next to nothing, and apparently no family to go home to, something common of African-Americans back in the 1920's. The way Hughes phrased the characters' speech gave a good hint as to the time of the story, as majority of the things the two characters said would be very different today- instead of saying "I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.", the way Luella did, we would now say, "I was young once and I wanted things I couldn't have."

This I Believe- Perserverance

I believe that people should always see things through to the end, no matter how tough they may seem. This may just seem like advice for school, when you’re stuck on a long essay, and you’re having trouble thinking of a topic sentence, or when you want to give up on your maths test because you forgot to study, but it’s also true for life in general.

Last year, I was being bullied in school. The bully only ever did things to me after Tae Kwon Do, an activity which we had together. Since we had half an hour to wait for the bus, he had ample time to hurt me, mainly physically, but also with words. He would kick me around the hallway, slammed me into lockers. He had power. He was a black belt, whereas back then I was only a blue belt. His punches stung, but his words were almost worse. His words were irritating, and I couldn't do anything about them. I couldn't come up with any response, and if I lashed out, he would start hitting me again. If I tried to run after him, he would have gotten away, since I was far slower. I could almost deal with it after school, since I was the only person effected.

But then, one day, I was walking around with my friend at lunch when we happened to bump into the bully with his friends. A fight then ensued. After being hit in the chest and arm a few times, I ducked around the corner. I’d left my friend with them. In an act of self-preservation, I’d let my friend fight them off alone, whilst I was round the corner, doing nothing.

I apologized to my friend afterwards, and he was fine, but I felt extremely guilty about leaving him. I had given up on defending myself, given up on defending him, given up on resisting the bullies. My selfish act had made me no better than the bullies, letting my friend take the hits, without intervening to help him. I should have stood up for both of us, not let him have the power to beat us up. Had I stayed there, we might have been able to persuade them to stop, might have been able to keep them away. After this, I vowed that I would keep on going in not just fights, but anything I was faced with. In the words of Lance Armstrong, “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

If we all kept going, surely there would be more achievers in the world, less people that would be jobless, less that would feel disappointed. If you don't give up, and you go out and meet your goal, the happy feeling inside is contagious. You have to share it with others, tell them about what you've done, let them see what you did and aspire to do the same. There are many people I look up to, and I know that if I persevere, I can achieve the same, if not more than what they can. It's not like doing great things is going to be easy; but if you start with small steps, you really can achieve something massive, without really noticing.

As said by Eleanor Roosevelt, "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works." There are political situations where people stand up, don't get crushed and keep coming back to fight for their cause. The same thing happens everyday, albeit on a smaller scale. If I'd stood up to the bully, I could have been the small, valiant resistance, defying the large, dictator-like ruling party, the subject of the picture I put here. The picture features Myanmar civilians protesting, standing up for themselves and their right, continuing to stand there, even after laws had been made to get rid of protesters and protesters were being shot.

If you stand up and see your actions through, you really can bring about great change, even if you're in a small-scale situation like I was. I could have made the bully realize that he really didn't have the power that he thought he had, shown him that I wasn't going to let him bully my friends and I.

I could have stood up and made a difference. I didn't. But now, I can go out and keep seeing things through, do anything I want, amaze people, and be the one that people look up to. I still have a chance. The bruises from the punches and kicks are now gone, but the guilt of leaving my friend is still with me. Seeing things through till the end won’t get rid of my guilt, but it can prevent me from feeling more.

Image citation-
"2007 Myanmar protests ." 2007 Myanmar protests 11-cropped flag view closer. Web. 31 May 2010. .