A Look Inside Darfur...

This documentry was made by what i believe is a renegade journalist who traveled into darfur to capture the essence of what is hapening in the area. The documentary is from the viewpoint of one of the African rebel forces in Darfur.

You have to check this out. It is amazing what is happening....
Even more amazing is the lack of international response...
well take a look...

Racism is Taught..... or Not?

(I STOLE THIS QUESTION FROM MRS. TAITE : )

This is just something that Mrs. Taite had suggested for a hartness discussion question in class. She briefly and rhetorically asked if we thought racism was taught or not. I dont know if this is a one sided argument, but I just thought it would be a neat thing to write about. Try to write about anyway.
I believe that racism must be taught. How would someone know about racism unless someone else told them about it. Unless racism is something genetic or something. Personally i think racism is all in our heads. Its like saying, a cow with five black spots is not as good as a cow with four white spots. Or like saying that a white pigeon is smarter than a grey pigeon. How is that even supported in any way? I think if you tell someone that they are inferior, and have them believe it as a fact, THEN they become inferior. Decades ago in our society it was thought that whites were superior to all other races. I know this isnt what everyone thought, its just an example. However nowadays this illusion no longer exist. Atleast it does not seem to be as evident.
Unless you told me when i was little, that all purple people are dumb and all they are good for is garden work as a fact, then i would slowly believe you. If everyone else i knew believed that to be true as well then i would definatley take it to be true.
Then if you went over and told all the purple kids that they are dumb and only good for garden work, and all of the grown up purple peole thought that as well, then all the purple kids would believe that to be true as well.
This is how i think racism is taught. If noone told me purple people were dumb, and noone told the purple people, do you think anyone would think that they were inferior? Well of course not, because everyone really is equal right?
The point of this is not that we should just shut up and stop talking about racism. Although i dont think it would be such a bad idea. My point is simply that... Yes, i do believe that racism is just taught and learned, and that it is just in our heads. We need to get over it, and past it.


QUESTION:

DO YOU THINK THAT... IF WE DIDN'T TELL THE NEXT GENERATION ANYTHING ABOUT RACISM, AND THEY NEVER FOUND OUT THAT SUCH A THING EVER EXISTED, THAT IT WOULD ERADICATE THE WHOLE ISSUE???

Nice Song...

This song made me think a little. Its so true what the lyrics said, kind of. Except that people would still die of course. However, its not hard for us to make this world a better place. The only thing that needs to happen is for people tostart caring. The world would definatley be a better place for all of us, If Everyone Cared...

The Dead Bird Conflict

What should we do if we see a baby bird on the ground?

Do we leave it there? Put it into the nearest tree?



what should we do if we see a dead bird on the sidewalk?

Should we just ignore it and walk past it, pretending as if we hadnt seen it? is it our responsibility to just kick it off the sidewalk and into the grass? If it was a human being would we react differenly? What would you do if you were walking and saw this bird on the sidewalk?

Blood Diamonds

(The advertisment in the begining is like 20 seconds long, but the video isrealy good...)

I think its ironic that the worlds most precious and valued substance is dug out in the depths of the worlds poorest countries, by the worlds poorest people. i guess it wouldnt be too bad if the people actually gained muh from it, but since they don't, well thats just plain stupid.

The video abve is basically just saying that. That it is crazy that blood is spilt over these things that we simply take for granted. This video made me realize how twisted some things are. How can people be enslaved to mine for precious minerals? To me, it makes no sense. I dont think it would make sense to alot of people, ifthey knew. Even beyond this, the crazy thing is that people know this, but dont really care. What can we do about it anyways? Its not like people will ever not want to buy diamonds, and for desperate people, would they even care if the diamonds they bought were blood diamonds? This whole thing is just about money and politics. Where has the humanity been lost at?

I dont think it would ever be possible to tell people to boycott blood diamonds. The demand is just too great. Something has to be done though. These blood diamonds are just fueling more and more war in certain African countries. I sort of knew about blood diamonds, but then if Kanye West goes so far out of his way to write a song about blood diamonds, it adds some other sense of importance to the issue for me. Like, if this rapper is trying to educate people on this subject then, wow, it must be really important. I dont know what we can do, but i just hope that something can be done.

Blood Diamonds



Blood Spilt Over Tiny Rocks...

Racial Profiling

I think that racism is not yet a thing of the past. For some reason we still think that certain races are better than other, and it is harder for certain races to become successful. The countries demographics suggest tht it is harder for teenagers of a certain race to graduate from college than a teen of antoher race.

I thought we had gotten over this atleast 30 years ago. Apparently not though. We still think it is harder for some people to do things just becasue they are of a certain racial background. It may not be racisim, but RACIAL PROFILING is not much better. For example, we not only remember who the first person to do something is, but we also remember the first person of a certain race to do something. For example, the first black guy to walk on the moon will be famous. For what? Many people have walked on the moon, but no black guys have yet.

In this way it seems like we think it is harder for people of certain races to accomplish certain tasks. Like, a chinese man could never coach a NBA basketball team. A black guy can't have over 5 billion dollars in assests.

This kind of racial profiling brings us all down really in the end. Why cant it be the way it's supposed to be. Every man iss created equal. Seperate.. but equal. It is definitly not as bad as it was in the past, but why cant we just abolish rasicm/ racial profiling. Why can we still not look completly beyond a persons skin color/race. Why cant we measure them by who they are instead of what they look like or what race they are.




Martin Luther King Jr.




Nelson Mandela

Free Hugs

(Refering to 'Free Hugs' video above)

I think everyone can always use a hug. How can a hug not be vaulable to someone. A hug really has the ability to change someones day. It could have the potential to totally turn around someone's day. A hug is something you definitly cannot have too much of. The Free Hugs video I have below is well, i think it is somewhat touching.
I mean, i suppose the guy is a little wierd, but hey, free hugs. It's not like he's ccrazy i dont think. I like to think of it as giving out love. I believe that is really what it is. Giving... someone somekind of affection, even if it is a complete stranger. To me whats nice about a hug is the simple but often overlooked human element about our lives. That the people we know andwork with have feeling and emotions too. I'm not trying to say that we should all be like the guy in the video below and give out 'free hugs' while holding up a tacky looking sign that reads 'free hugs'. I'm just saying that you shoul always try to take just a little timeout of each day to make someone you know feel special. Just a piece of your time that you spend to make them feel loved.

In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effect of a free hug is huge. Try it out.