Paradise Now.

I'm really enjoying Paradise Now, what a great flim? So far...I like how the family interacts with each other, everyone is so close. Its almost funny how everyone knows the same puzzle just different pieces of it. The Mother seems to be wise and knows something is not right within her son. As blogging as i'm watching and i know the "mission" is going to get to him in some way or another where he is not going to able to go through with it....i'm excited to see how the women traveler he met will effect this mission and his life.

TURKEY

Yay!! I'm so excited for my group to take its turn in teaching the class, we have found some wonderful books, short stories and movie clips. So I thought I would blog about Human Rights in Turkey first as an eye opener.

Human rights are protected by treaties, its of high importance to the EU which is the European Union.

• For women in Turkey they do have the right to freely exercise Abortions in the first ten weeks, which is paid for by Social Security..
• 1926 woman were given the right to initate and obtain a divorce, I mention this because of Honor Killings that take place everyday to women in Turkey. Which is the main thing I am forcing on in my contribute to our group. I have found a video we will be showing in class on Thursday if you would like to view it before hand its on my blog as well. But lets talk about main issues of why honor killings happen shall we???
• Dress Code
• wanting out an arranged marriage
• sexual acts
• behavior that dishonors their clan or family

Victims estimated from the United Nations Population Fund have an annual world wide total as being as high as 5,000 which is an outrage.

I'm excited to talk more about this topic and want the class to be excited as well.

Oh side note if anyone is found guity of so called honor killings it is life in prison.

Outside Research-

I was not comfortable in class the other day, talking about The Lawsuit. I didn't want to make assumptions...I understand that we were dissecting the literature at hand but, I dont feel that without some sort of understanding of divorce in general for Arab wives, that I wasn't meeting the story to its full potential, or even adding stereotypes to the story because of what was not known. So, I looked into it.

I found a site for the World Muslim Congress title being Divorce:: Arab wives. Turns out the divorce rate is very high for the women in India, Hundu and or Muslim they receive harsh treating and pity. According to the article the Divorce rate is raising because of the chance in womens status. The link is right here...if you would like to read more. Its very interesting. http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/03/divorce-arab-wives.html

I also understand that the man died in our story to I looked that up as well. And Damn was this shocking. Turns out because of history and wars occuring in Middle Easten counties the women are forced to fend for themselves, even if it means to SELL ONE OF THEIR OWN CHILDERN, beg in the street etc. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/10_october/06/arabic.shtml

I wanted to know about how the women deal if they are widowed or whatnot before I could talk about the story.

The Speaker

• Class last time, I thought was the most helpful in our journey to learn more about the Middle East. I wanted to rape his mind with the knowledge that he embodies. I learned more about life, growing up, woman in Egypt and Egyptian culture than ever before. I thought it was so interesting the way of everyday life in Egypt, also very sad; I left class with almost an empty feeling, the people that live there go through... I dont want to say more struggles than the average American just different struggles that no one should have to undergo. Struggles to get what is a right as a person. I think that stereotypes have been broken and mostly the stereotypes brought to class in the beginning were mostly 'oldworld' in a sense. 
• I want to know more about what is happening today in Egypt and the rights people there WANT. Because, as we have learned in some villages it doesn't matter. I want to know more about now, rather then just a small scale we have been focusing on.   
  

The Lawsuit

Im reading The Lawsuit and I'm waiting for more, I feel the section is giving the reader confusion just in the way the "book" starts out. I'm feeling good that the woman has power to sue someone over money which seems to be stolen to begin with. I don't understand in full why years later someone would try to sue the family of her dead husband, years later when they all think she took the money. 

The Day of Ahmads Secret-

This children's story is not what I expected, at all.  I think it is well done and I can see why Dan must have picked this story. 

Ahmed is a lovely little boy and he takes the reader into his life and gives a taste of his everyday duties: 

- Buying beans and rice

- Carrying heavy bottles

-dropping the heavy bottles off

Along with his everyday duties he lets the reader into another side of his life; stories/words of wisdom his Father has told him, "Hurry to grow strong, but do not hurry to grow old." along with a personal level the reader gets to connect on an emotional level not only with Ahmed but with the city that surrounds him. The walls tell stories, the very walls Ahmed sits and shades himself from the hot sun, everything around him is older and stronger than he. 

And this whole time, the reader is WONDERING what the hell could this wonderful little boys secret be? What type of secret could he keep, and why would he have to wait until night fall to let him family know? Many question pop up only to get the answer of the secret... he can write his name.

This was so touching, this little boys takes the reader into his life and he is strong and he is brave and this little boy probably had more responsibilities than I did or the person sitting next to you; all all before he can even write his name.    

i have been thinking about the movie over the weekend...

Over the weekend I have been thinking about the movie, I understand we were asked to compare and contrast to our own personal views or the current views in the U.S.
The Road to love was an interesting movie and open my eyes into a life of a man becoming his true self- It was an insightful struggle of one mans own personal experience. As, for the question that was asked of me in class I'm unsure on how i feel about my answer- I would rather answer the second part with comparing and contrasting to current views rather than my own. Moreover the current issue like equal rights or whats happening with the people as a mass.
A "Road to Love" was from an interesting perspective from one man, but he was speaking french, the people he was interviewing weren't even answering the questions that were asked; some of which were good questions. I think the "Road to Love" more on the lines of a personal, self quest, and or love story.
So, i did some Googling and this is what i found out...

In the U.S President Obama has been slacking on the issue of Gay Rights in a current speech given protesters have let their voice be heard saying comments like, " It's interesting to me that a man who comes from an oppressed race doesn't just do it, with a swipe of a pen," said Barnes, 43, of Fresno." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/11/BAAD1A48IB.DTL&tsp=1

And yet i went to official White House website and its not even on the issues board 22 other issues fall before it.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/additional/

I also did some looking around and found the closest current information that i could, the website popped as as GAYMIDDLEEAST it houses a home for many different topics such as what the news is saying, jokes, real life stories (something along the lines of A Road To Love."
I also found out that most websites are enter as you dare. GME also gives updates in different countries most articties are dated a couple years back, i did check BBC news and there is an interesting video from a earlier in the year news.bbc.co.uk ( i couldn't get the link thingy to work :-/ ) Anyways... I hope others who wanted more current of an event i hope this something to spark your interest. :-)

I am happy that Andy had brought this important topic into our classroom and i will continue to follow this topic, with anticipation of what will come.