Monday 5 October 2015

Rationale + Corrected Task.

Rationale:


My written task aimed for an audience that was interested in Atticus’ emotions throughout the first part, since he’s never shown displaying anything but subtle emotions (such as, empathy, love for his kids, anger, etc.). It’s purpose was to show Atticus as an average man, whom feels a wide variety of emotions, but instead of displaying them, he chooses to keep them hidden from his surroundings so that none of the people he cares about have one more worry just because of him. I felt that the best way to display all of the above was with a diary entry, since it manages to give an insight on his emotions and personality, while still keeping up with the book’s progress through the storyline, thus, we can see him reacting towards events or occurrences that come to be as the story goes on. As a finishing detail, I decided that the main character (Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout) would be finding this diary and reacting to Atticus’ reactions, this would allow me not only to deepen Atticus’ character, but also show the love that Scout has for his father, and how she feels bad over not noticing the burden he’s been carrying over the past year.


Atticus’ Diary

As Scout entered Atticus’ office, she immediately felt drawn to a certain bookcase, more specifically, a book that simply stood out from the rest. This book was odd, it’s outer cover was seemingly worn, but the pages within were pristine in comparison to the other books racked up along with it. Scout’s curiousness got the best of her and was driven to sneak her way up to the bookcase and take out the book she had singled out beforehand, she flipped it open without wasting any time and started reading:

Day 1

It’s the beginning of the year and work’s already coming in steadily, if this keeps up, then this might be our year

As Jean Louise read that, she knew this was Atticus’ diary, but it was apparently only work related, and knowing Atticus she could tell that he wouldn’t write anything in here in relation to his personal life, but she kept on going on the mere idea that she’d be able to read up on the “Tom Robinson” case and manage to get to know it on a certain level of depth. Since she knew that this hadn’t appeared until further into the year, she skipped a few pages, but was stopped by a sudden increase in writing, she continued reading:

Day 75

Today started out like any typical day, I eat breakfast while reading the newspaper, say goodbye to the kids, clean up a bit then leave for work. The change in this came into play once I’d been a couple hours in my office. Someone knocked on my door, and thinking it might be a client I dropped what I was working on and rushed to the door, It turned out to be a middle-aged woman with ashen hair, she was carrying a rather large amount of files under her arm. She identified herself as a state worker, currently working for Maycomb’s courthouse, and that her motive for dropping by was to present me with some cases of people who had refused a lawyer but never contacted one either. I knew where she was going with this, she wanted me to do the work of a District Attorney, hoping for me to have the kindness in my heart to agree. But she knew I always defend te people who’re too weak to do so for themselves. I took the job on only one condition, that I’d be free to work on my personal cases for the length of the cases. She clearly didn’t mind this and we had a deal. But before she left my office, she said: “Before I forget about this, I should tell you to be careful, there’s a negro on the list.” I thanked her worry and she hastily left.

Day 76

I’ve read the files that the state worker dropped off and the file concerning Tom Robinson definitely worries, if not sickens me. He’s currently held for suspicion of rape over that Ewell young woman, but nothing indicates that this man is guilty, nor that he is at fault at all. But what sickens me the most is that, this is probably just because it’s the word of a black man against a white woman’s. I know that this is hopeless, but even if I can help in the slightest, then my choice’s made.

A few entries we’re missing, probably eaten by some kind of insect, so she flipped over the pages and continued.

Day 126

Today’s the first hearing of the case of rape involving Tom Robinson, but I doubt you could call that a hearing if the courthouse doesn’t allocate enough time to get both the prosecutor’s and defendant’s point through, as far as I can guess, is that we’ll have short appointments, distanced by quite a bit of time. This infuriates me to my very core, since not only they’re toying with his race, but with his future. Back to topic, the prosecutor’s point was vague, with his only apparent pretext is Mr. Ewell’s testimony, this is pure idiocy from part of the courthouse, we all know that a case like this involving 2 whites would be dismissed at the spot.

As Scout read on, she realized that the “normal cases” she’d been skipping we’re becoming slimmer and more distanced from each other, she could notice that, this specific case was taking a toll on Atticus that none of us would be able to imagine, and the weigh on his shoulders was enlarging itself as the days went on. Scout had no choice other than keep reading.

Day 159

Ms. Maudie’s house burnt down, people’s lives we’re endangered, including my children’s. Yet all I can think of is this head cracking case. The sleepless nights have become more regular and my obliviousness towards my environment is slowly growing. If I don’t move forward with this case, I might lose myself along with the case.

Some pages fell to the ground when Scout flipped them over, but she was too concentrated on the entries that she didn’t even flinch over the occurrence, instead, she just kept on reading where her eyes laid sight.

Day 171

A mad dog was sighted nearby, as soon as we got the news, me and the sheriff went to look for it. For some weird reason, he thought that I should shoot it. I did, and I felt no remorse nor inner conflict, this is getting out of hand. I MUST do something regarding this de-personalization or everyone around me will suffer an avoidable pain.

Scout could not feel worse, her stomach is upside down, tears dripping down her face and a runny nose. She had never thought how much this case could be getting into Atticus, nor how hard it had hit him, never thought about that part of the story, she couldn’t take it anymore, so she jumped into a fast conclusion and flipped the book towards the last entry written on it.

Day 203

Things have happened while the actual me was away, but my head’s clear now, I’ve come to the conclusion I had once I took this case, that no matter what I did, I WILL help this man.

Scout left the book and ran out of the room, as she had just realized, that Atticus’ last hearing was about to begin…

-END-

Wednesday 5 August 2015

"The media can't control us, but it can greatly influence us".

This essay contains my point of view on a subject that is critical part of society, which is whether media has the capabilities to control our minds or not, while I do not agree with this statement fully, I can't say that I disagree with it either, and my answer to this reflection is, the media can greatly influence us, but by no ways does that mean that we're being controlled by it.
As a short introduction to the body of this essay, I will continue to quote the definitions of both key concepts that're essential in relation to this topic, those being the words "control" and "influence", according to dictionary.reference.com:

Control:
"to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command." 

Influence:
"the capacity or power of persons or things to be compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others:"

One of the big counter arguments to this topic at hand is that, as the media is so greatly vast, it can easily cover the world once or twice, meaning that, any means of escaping it without leaving our modern selves behind would be futile. While I do agree with this statement, I deeply believe that this, as going by the definition of control, means there isn't any restraint or command held over our emotions nor actions whatsoever, hence the fact that I may watch, as an example, a fast food advertisement on TV and show complete obliviousness towards it, or even go out and get food elsewhere. This is only a mere demonstration on the amount of control it has over me, none.

The second counter argument is based on two big foundations, the first one being something that I already addressed, it being that the media is something so incredibly big with no chances of escaping its domains. The second one consists in the media being the modern center of attention, most of the things we do or say, eventually end up on social media. All of the big events that occur in your city will make the news, with some luck it may even reach the front of a newspaper. The list goes on and beyond. The point of listing all of this, is that our lives and the media are intertwined to an extent that it affects our environment, making our perception of it change as the media does. My thoughts on this are that, this is completely true, probably because I've spent half of my life sitting on front of my computer. But this is where the definition of influence comes into play, we're only influenced by our surroundings, we've always been, but that's where it ends. For us to do something relating to it, the idea at hand would've had to be in our heads long before it became a conversational topic between your circle of friends, the only work that the environment would do is be the final nudge between the idea and reality itself. And remember that, at the end if the day, I will still be myself, and you, the reader, will remain to be yourself.

The third and last counter argument is the typical one, and most likely the one that is widely addressed while referring to this topic, and it consists in that we tend to believe what news reporters, or the media in general says. We are also led to follow trends, we chat about the latest gossip, etc. All of this without batting an eye towards it, in other words, it's instantly deemed as something normal or mundane within our modern lives. This would make for the typical excuse of someone who'd agree with the idea that the media controls our minds, but that someone is not me. I believe that we're all different in any way imaginable by us, and thus, making mass control something non-achievable, and only managing to at the very most, influencing us towards an action that was probably in our thoughts already. This is exactly what people supporting the idea of media-mass control get wrong, the crucial difference between "Control" and "Influence", which, as I said before, are key elements in this subject.

To conclude this essay, I'll just state that, ultimately, I do not agree with the main theme of essay to an acceptable extent to deem it as "true" nor "correct", this being that the media has control over us. But as my thesis stated, I do, firmly believe that media composes a big part in our lives and plays a major role in our modern selves, yet, we're not being commanded by the media to perform an action nor to feel a certain emotion at a given time. We are still in possession of our whole and untouched free will, which will remain like that whichever case may be. This means that we're not under the control of the media, but we are, most certainly, within the influence of it, as it is the biggest and most widely used system present in our lives. 

As the last words of my essay, I'll quote the definition of media, as according to dictionary.reference.com:

Media: "the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely"

Thank you.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

What cultural elements called your attention? (...)

The New Zealander's lifestyle differs from ours in many ways, such as simple things like school finishing at 3:30 or main businesses closing up at 5:30, to intricate things like the school system. What caught my attention the most is that their main food of the day is dinner (And that's if you even dare to call that a main). Other thing is that people are nice, honest and welcoming here (Their houses don't even have electrified fencing or anything :o), whilst in Chile... not so much. A similitude between them would be that they're both growing (baby) countries, which is what makes both of them beautiful, since they're not completely over-ridden by the human race, another big similitude is that we both have a second ethnicity within our country and forms a decent percentage of our complete population (In New Zealand, they would be the Maori, and in Chile, they'd be the Mapuche) and both have formed links between their cultures and ours to some extent influenced the government (Maori people are entitled to at least 4 seats in New Zealand's parliament). A thing that our government should copy from New Zealand would be the monthly fee that the government pays to the people who are currently in poor conditions of life (Or any of the benefits that New Zealand offers to it's people).

What does it mean to be a New Zealander?

An obvious response to that question would be: "to live in New Zealand", but to live in New Zealand means a lot more to me.
I think that being a New Zealand instantly makes you a better person (Mainly because this is one of the nicest and most polite places on earth), It also means that you can include various ethnicities into your daily life (such as Asian, Maori, and a lot more) and include them into their culture (Te Papa always had their exhibitions written in English and in Maori, and nearly every college has their own Haka). Their daily life consists of waking up and eating cereal and getting dressed to go to school (In a weekend they would eat a big breakfast made of bacon, eggs and orange juice). They usually take the bus to school. In the afternoon, they go home at 3:30 via bus, and most businesses close and go home at 5:30 - 6:00, Their big meal of the day is dinner, in which they can have a wide range of meals, Sweet potato and fish & chips being their typical meals. It's normal for them to go to bed at 8:00 and to be sleeping at 9:00, ready for their next day.


Monday 13 April 2015

Rationale + Blog: "Censorship"

Rationale

In this blog entry, I will expose a huge problem that's been terrorizing the whole world for some time. This written task is to shed light into this mishap, which is called "Media Censorship".

Briefly, Censorship is to blur out / hide parts or whole news over a certain event, in in attempt to twist the plot of said event; all of this to make for better content or just because they don't agree with said event (Like what's currently happening in N. Korea with Kim Jong-un).

Over the course of my life, I've learned that lies and omission of facts always bring more harm than good, and that's what applies in this context. My pre-conception of "the ugly truth" is a really sticky band-aid over a nasty injury, as long as you don't pull the band-aid off, there'll be no pain, but the injury beneath it will grow infected, and it'll hurt to the extent that you'll wish you had pulled the band-aid earlier on.

This world was meant for us to live peacefully, but we won't be able to achieve such peace as long as things like Censorship exist and are being used as widely as it's currently being used.

This blog entry is addressed to all of the people who are wary of their position in relation to their government, and what they hide from them.

"To censor is to strip us of our most basic human rights."

If you're looking into censorship, then you came to the right place!
Censorship is the suppression of speech. In simpler words, somebody or something is not allowing you to speak your mind to the general public, and if you're even the least bit sane, you'll know that's wrong.
Censorship goes directly against the 18th article of the Declaration of Human Rights (Which can be found here), which entails that everyone has an innate right of freedom of thought and speech, that cannot be revoked nor avoided. And even if it were to be taken away, you wouldn't just take our right to think and say differently than others, but you'd take everything that we stand for (think about that for a minute).
"Censorship is like poison gas, a powerful weapon which may harm you as the wind shifts"

-Unknown

Not only this problem will take away one of your human rights (and it will if it does happen), but it will also be harmful as well, as it may harm your public figure or others' reputation (for example: your family, friends, peers, etc).

As I grew up, I learned that in the long run, an ugly truth is always better than a sugar-coated lie, this is all because it can be compared to a band-aid with a poorly cleaned injury under it. As kids, we were always scared of ripping the band-aid off because it would hurt even more than the injury you had on your arm before it, but if you didn't, your mom would say that you'd lose your arm if it wasn't cleaned once again, and that's the dilemma. Would YOU risk losing your arm over some extra pain? I, most definitely wouldn't, but the important people in our society would rather our arms fall off than ripping off the band-aid. That's without mentioning that all kinds of lies are bad, disregarding the fact of whether you lied for a good cause or just for the sake of it; it'll always end badly for someone. But in the case of censorship, it's just a cowardly lie created with the intention of covering somebody's free speech, just so the main public wouldn't get a hold of your ideas that might damage the prestige of people with power. Censorship always goes hand in hand with lies and deception, for the sole objective of obscuring the ugly truth

From a progressivist's point of view, censorship prevents us from learning from humanity's recent mistakes (as it hides valuable content from us), therefore, they're making general knowledge harder to acquire and will slow evolution in some way or another. If people aren't careful enough, they'll end up being an ignorant person who isn't informed at all.

For an example: North Korea's Kim Jong-un has such censorship set up in his country that they barely know that there are more countries besides them, maybe some don't even know basic knowledge as basic as the name of the continents. All of this is because Kim Jong-un, successor of Kim Jung-il, had set such fear into his son that both of them ended up being the worst in North Korea's history, anyways, censorship in this country is so rigid and stiff, that they even recurred to creating their own internet service, which only allows citizens to enter sites that have been recognized by the government themselves. Now, this wouldn't be as bad if they tried to convey an ideology that would progress their health and poverty issues, but no, they use this so only the ideas that their "great" dictator go through to them, to an extent that some are beginning to be brainwashed by his deceiving.

To end this post, my dear followers, I would like to point out that censorship won't and will never be the answer to any current problems a city / province / country / world will ever experience. As a wise man called Isaac Newton once said and stated as his "Third Law", was that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. this is a fact that cannot be avoided and we won't ever be able to avoid.

Let this post be a revelation, a tiny man standing up for other tiny people in this world fighting the giants of society whom will not be defeated unless we shed some light over this issue and stand our ground for once and for all.

Now. I would like if you'd all remember this post and hold it dearly to our hearts, as censorship may quiet us down, they may take away our attitudes or our feelings. but they will never be able to take away what we hold most dearly. Our opinions. These will stick by us forever and will not be forgotten nor ignored. As this world was built by men & women who thought differently from the others, without them. There wouldn't be an us to either censor or be censored.

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