Irish conflicts

When we hear “Ireland” we think in a whole European country near to the British island. But, we tend to miss something. There’s a huge political difference between Ireland and North Ireland, this is what caught my attention when I first started reading information about this country for the class presentation, because I said hey, what happened here, what are the differences.

There’s been a large violent list of events since the separation, some of them were famine and human losses caused by battles against England, which was motivated by economic and religious expansion goals. 

This is the North Ireland conflict: Rivalry and confrontation.

Over successive decades the Catholic minority in the north part of Ireland suffered discrimination over housing and jobs, which fuelled bitter resentment. British conquers took advantage from this to expand their Anglican religion. Since they made it, the political and religious confrontations have been serious problems. There is the Protestant Unionist community which believes that North Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom; and in the other hand, the mainly Catholic Nationalist community, believe it should leave the UK and become part of the Republic of Ireland.

Maybe it seems simple, but violent manifestations occurred and still taking place in Ireland, caused by two political ideals and differences. And sadly, violence implies more violence. But, what if history changes? What if Anglicanism had never landed Ireland? Maybe there wouldn’t be violence and injuries, maybe Irish people would have a strongest identity and unification. What do you think would have happened? Is this division good or bad for Irish people? Is religion and political differences that important to act violently and attack humankind?

I'll leave you here a video that will help you to understand better the topic and the situation. Comment and thank you for your time!

"Big C" or "Small c" culture?

A few weeks ago we saw in classes the concepts of “Big C” and “Small c” culture, and since then it’s been impossible for me to stop thinking about what’s the line that divides both types of culture (or Culture) and how is it possible to make such a division.

Before we start, we need to have a clear picture of how culture is defined. According to the first definition of The Oxford Dictionary, culture is “The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.”  Now, if we separate this definition into “Big C” and “Small c” it would mean that there are some manifestations of human intellect that are more important or superior than other ones.  But how is this possible? Can we decide if a piece of art is worthy or unworthy of our admiration without being subjective?

Let’s take reality shows as an example, most people would consider them part of the “Small c” category but if you analyze the cultural impact that they had in our society in the last 10 years it becomes clear that they are more relevant than we think. In 2003, Canal 13 premiered “Protagonistas de la Fama” the first reality show to appear on Chilean television and it lasted 3 months. That experiment changed the way that people watched television and the way that TV shows were made. Since then, reality shows became an active part of our life. We can’t turn on the TV or read the newspaper without being exposed to all kind of information and news related to that kind of shows, and even if you dislike or avoid them you have a notion of what they are about or what’s going on.

So, if we take in consideration how important and omnipresent are reality shows in today cultures can we still classify them as “Small c” culture? Wouldn’t they be part of “Big C” Culture because of how they changed (and are still changing) our society? And if we can’t determinate something like this, is it valid to keep using terms such as “Big C” and “Small c” culture?

 I would love to read what you think about this particular topic, so please write your thoughts in the comment section!

Aboriginal Cultures in The modern Age: Maoris and Its Impact on the New Zealand

In our times, a relevant topic to talk about is aborigines or indigenous peoples from the countries. We already know that in the world, aborigines don’t have a real importance compared with other things ‘’more important than they’’.

They are living in a life with injustice. Aborigines peoples suffer the consequences of historic injustice, namely colonization, dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, oppression and discrimination. Colonial and modern States in the pursuit of economic growth has been largely denied their right to development. As a result, aborigines people often lose out to more powerful players and become the most impoverished groups in their countries.

Today ethnic minority New Zealand represents a quarter of the population of the island mainly consists of Maori and other Polynesians. Maori people, who were about to disappear as a result of British colonization, focuses almost exclusively on the North Island, especially in the Auckland area.  New Zealand, an industrialized country and part of the Commonwealth is doing an effort to promote their aborigines development. They have productive initiatives for Maori communities in the areas of tourism, forestry and fisheries. As we see, they respect their aborigines and give them the possibility of be someone in this trashed world.

We must use the model of New Zealand and be respectful with the indigenous/aborigines of our lands, we need to stay in harmony and everyone deserve an opportunity. Don’t discriminate, don’t be a shallow-minded.

When we talk about aborigines, a lot of people think in past. Just they lived in the past before colonies. That, my friend, is false. They are still living in this world, with us... fighting and defending their rights.

Getting to know Africa

Just the other day, in one of our classes we were discussing and talking about the great influence the British Empire had in the world, especially in its forming colonies. At some point Miss Cárdenas asked us about what we knew about Africa. I was rather impressed to realize how extremely little we knew about it. I mean, no one could give a decent answer.

            I myself had never stopped to think about it. All I could think about in that moment was ‘lions, cheetahs, poverty and starvation’ (In my defence, I do know a little bit more about it, but this is just what came to my mind in that particular moment). But actually, that’s what we get from History and media.

            My first thought after this was that we learn the history concerning the western culture. Africa had little, if anything, influence in what we call the Western World.  Most history as we know it was written in Europe and the Middle East. Of course other parts of the world, like China, India and others have had written histories for centuries, but much is unknown to the West, or has only become known within the last century. But most of this was thought to be useless unless it had something to do with Europe or America.

Africa Before Transatlantic Slavery

            But, people from the south of the Sahara didn’t write. So that’s where the problem lays. What we get to hear about this continent is how ‘the evil white men came and spoiled everything’ after the colonization.

However, Africa has got so much more to it than that. Its significance is not only that it suffered at the hands of white people. But long before white men ventured below the Sahara, Africa was a busy and very diverse group of thousands of languages and communities living in a manner that reflected their adaptations to the local climate.

Africa has the largest biodiversity of all the continents, and it was the origin of our species and the home to our closest relatives, chimpanzees. We tend to think of Africa as the ‘black people’ land, but this view is based on the African Americans who were brought as slaves from western areas of Africa. But there are dozens of other ‘races’, such as the pygmie people from Congo and other groups from the east.

 All this concerning Africa just made me remember how I felt about History in school; being a History lover, I wanted to learn more about eastern culture as I have always thought of it as an extremely fascinating topic, but we were taught almost none. Yes, I know this has to do with a time problem, because yeah, we are part of the Western World so it must be prioritized, but I just wish we could get to learn more about this interesting cultures.

            

Survive with your memories ~

Survive with your memories ~

In the actuality, just some people would understand the difficult situation about kids in Africa. They are required to be soldier, to leave their families, the school, and their future. Many organizations and people try to change this situation, but it’s difficult, because it isn’t the only territory with this problem.

Boys and girls (between 7 or 15 years old) are kidnapped all over the world: of school, orphanage and their houses. Then they’re recruited and sent to instruction fields, where soldier teach them how to fight in the war and how to use armament. Also, they’re utilized to detect minefields, since they could avoid killing more soldiers (causing death or mutilation in these children). Lots of child soldiers were forced to kill their own family and friends, just to show obedience (this resulted in drug use).
The majority of girls are designated to be “sexual slaves” for the soldiers, which caused venereal diseases, the leading cause of death for these girls.

The few children who are released or managed to escape, left with a psychological trauma, difficult to treat, and memories marked by violence. For this reason, laws had been creating organizations for the children’s rights, but this is not enough, because this is still happening in several countries (Colombia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka) and not all the people have knowledge about it. These children are kidnapped from marginal areas, with limited resources to recruit them, as I said before, and this isn’t big importance to the government I think because they don’t do too much to solve this problem, and their family hasn’t many choices to act against this situation.

Why this continued happening? What possible solution would have this problem?

(Short of fiction, based on child soldiers : ''Aquel no era yo'' by Esteban Crespo )

Are you ready?

We are sometimes really tired of all.

Maybe we need an extra motivation in our life. You can find it in a sport, in a person or in a song.

We are starting a new stage, it's gonna be hard but we can do anything if we really want. Just trust and open the doors in your own way. We must leave behind the bad things, out of our minds.

Today I will show you a song that make me feel great.
This song is from Panic! At The Disco's album ''Vices & Virtues'' (2011).
The song express the determination that we have to take against the life and particularly against the problems. We are not perfect, nobody is, so it's natural if we make mistakes or we do something wrong. Don't be mad, just enjoy the seconds, minutes, hours, the life.


                                             ''So tell me right now 
                                      You think you're ready for it 
                                                  I wanna know 
                                            Why you got me going 
                                                   So let's go 
                                            We'll take it out of here 
                                          I think I'm ready to leave 
                                               I'm ready to live.''

I hope you liked it, because is one of my favorite songs and give me time to think about the things.

One should always think positive.

         

For some reason I can't explain,

I know Saint Peter won't call my name

The song that I picked is “Viva la Vida” from Coldplay which is my favorite band, the song was written by all the members in the band for their fourth album (viva la Vida or death of all his friends). The lyrics of this song make a clear reference of Louis XVI which was the King of France in the beginning of French Revolution when people raised against the government, It does not says anything explicitly but if you pay attention you can understand in some sentences of the song, so the message would be sent by the king as he watches how everything is falling apart and how he is losing his power. “It’s a story about a king who’s lost his kingdom, and all the album’s artwork is based on the idea of revolutionaries and guerrillas.” They said.

The video of this song was directed by Hype Williams, for the video the group wanted to base in one of Frida Kahlo’s painting also named “viva la Vida” at the same time she was based on the paint “Liberty Leading the People”. They said they wanted to pay tribute to this artist because of her courage.

They also have an alternative video directed by Anton Corbijn, the also wanted to pay tribute to the video Enjoy the silence from Depeche Mode.

You might think that all of this is a little bit tangled but is is quite interesting (at least for me)

I love this song because of the story behind, the sound of violins and the bells as they play it, but I also enjoy another version very much and it is casually from my favorite singer in the whole world, if you wonder who would that be is… Taylor Swift and I like this version because of the contrast of the cruel lyrics against the soft acoustic sound. 

So there you have  , I hope you enjoy it.

Once you go there was never, never an honest word, that was when I ruled the world ♫♪