Well, I watched the video, read the biography, looked up some of her information, looked at her photos, and I think I'm ready to make a blog entry about Lena Maria.
I honestly cannot imagine how tough childhood must have been. Being born the way she was, there must have been many days where there didn't seem any point to living, but obviously she had the integrity and perseverance to push through it, but not only to just survive, she has actually gone on to do so many great things. Spending time to tour the world, singing and inspiring people, showing them how even someone with her
'disabilities' can still succeed truly is amazing.
I thought that some of her artwork was amazing as well, she obviously has an artistic mind, and the ability to convey her thoughts and feelings through her work. Her voice is also beautiful, and I am happy to hear that she is touring around the world (but not next year actually lol) and allowing people to listen to her voice live. She is an inspiration to women and the people of Sweden, and to the disabled people of the entire world.
With luck maybe in her life time, technology will be developed that would give her her arms back. That would be a miracle.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Simone de Beauvoir + Han Bi-ya
So today in class we learned about 2 women, Simone and Han. I guess I will start with Han.
After she traveled for 7 years in the middle part of her life, it appears as though her travels have inspired her to work with refugees and try to help people. She worked with an organization called World Vision, which is a christian organization working to alleviate poverty in the world, but other then that she hasn't really changed that much in terms of the world. In terms of South Korea though, in class Jieun said that she was probably the most famous women in South Korea, so I would say that rather than her ability to change the world and help people, her influence and inspiration for South Korea is important. Hopefully in the future, she can continue to inspire young South Koreans, and show them that service and helping other people can really help change the world.
We also learned about French writer Simone De Beauvoir. She appears to have had a rather difficult childhood, at least according to our friends over at wikipedia. I think it was very strange that she distinguished herself as an atheist, as my image of France at the time was that everyone was extremely religious, but maybe that is what pushed her over the edge.
She wrote a lot about philosophy, and I have to admit I am not really into philosophy unless it deals with the entire human race, which I'm not even exactly sure that could be called philosophy, more like my own theory on human evolution. I will sum up my theory, which may appear grim, but I don't think humans will get off this rock unless a couple of drastic things happen. It is also beautiful weather, I really don't think it is that hot...
After she traveled for 7 years in the middle part of her life, it appears as though her travels have inspired her to work with refugees and try to help people. She worked with an organization called World Vision, which is a christian organization working to alleviate poverty in the world, but other then that she hasn't really changed that much in terms of the world. In terms of South Korea though, in class Jieun said that she was probably the most famous women in South Korea, so I would say that rather than her ability to change the world and help people, her influence and inspiration for South Korea is important. Hopefully in the future, she can continue to inspire young South Koreans, and show them that service and helping other people can really help change the world.
We also learned about French writer Simone De Beauvoir. She appears to have had a rather difficult childhood, at least according to our friends over at wikipedia. I think it was very strange that she distinguished herself as an atheist, as my image of France at the time was that everyone was extremely religious, but maybe that is what pushed her over the edge.
She wrote a lot about philosophy, and I have to admit I am not really into philosophy unless it deals with the entire human race, which I'm not even exactly sure that could be called philosophy, more like my own theory on human evolution. I will sum up my theory, which may appear grim, but I don't think humans will get off this rock unless a couple of drastic things happen. It is also beautiful weather, I really don't think it is that hot...
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Eleanor Roosevelt
After reading several articles and websites focused on Eleanor Roosevelt, it is easy to tell that she was an amazing women, who truly had a significant impact on the world. Not only serving as the eyes and ears of the president during his tenure, but forging her own international path at the UN. On different websites even, there were common words that were used to describe her, such as boundless amounts of energy, her resolve, and her ability to relate to the common man. This final point is what I would like to discuss.
For a women in her position, with no higher education background and no corporate backing, she was remarkably pristine in my opinion. I think this is really one of the key reasons why she was able to accomplish some of the daunting tasks placed before her. As most of the websites say, she was so able to communicate what the common man wanted, needed, had to have in order to flourish, that she was able to implement those needs into her work, which resulted in new benefits for all of man. Obviously the culmination of her work was Universal Declaration, but this could not have been done better by anyone else. She had the insight and wisdom to see what exactly needed to be done, and how to do it, in order to make the declaration become a reality.
These abilities of hers were obviously honed as she traveled the United States, being the eyes and ears for the president, but the fact that she had no been corrupted whatsoever by corporations or greed was really what made her stand apart.
I would also like to discuss one of her quotes. "What you don't do can be a destructive force." I definitely agree with the quote, and I think it pretty much means the same thing as "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." Now obviously her quote might suit women a little bit more because it doesn't have the 'men' thrown in there, but I think what she is really trying to say is that results require action, and that sitting by and doing nothing can be just as destructive as actively destroying something.
This relates to a story we talked about earlier in the class about the hummingbird, who could only drop a small amount of water on a large fire, but was still able to make a difference. Rather than encouraging one to make the effort to act, her quote more or less warns about the potential danger of doing nothing.
For a women in her position, with no higher education background and no corporate backing, she was remarkably pristine in my opinion. I think this is really one of the key reasons why she was able to accomplish some of the daunting tasks placed before her. As most of the websites say, she was so able to communicate what the common man wanted, needed, had to have in order to flourish, that she was able to implement those needs into her work, which resulted in new benefits for all of man. Obviously the culmination of her work was Universal Declaration, but this could not have been done better by anyone else. She had the insight and wisdom to see what exactly needed to be done, and how to do it, in order to make the declaration become a reality.
These abilities of hers were obviously honed as she traveled the United States, being the eyes and ears for the president, but the fact that she had no been corrupted whatsoever by corporations or greed was really what made her stand apart.
I would also like to discuss one of her quotes. "What you don't do can be a destructive force." I definitely agree with the quote, and I think it pretty much means the same thing as "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." Now obviously her quote might suit women a little bit more because it doesn't have the 'men' thrown in there, but I think what she is really trying to say is that results require action, and that sitting by and doing nothing can be just as destructive as actively destroying something.
This relates to a story we talked about earlier in the class about the hummingbird, who could only drop a small amount of water on a large fire, but was still able to make a difference. Rather than encouraging one to make the effort to act, her quote more or less warns about the potential danger of doing nothing.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Butet
So yesterday we learned about a women from Indonesia, her nickname was Butet. The majority of her work has focused on working with the indigenous people of Indonesia. I found her story pretty interesting because to be honest I have never learned about this subject at all, and really know nothing about it. I know that these type of people still exist around the world, and logically big business would do everything they could to take their land, but to learn about a more specific area and tribe was pretty interesting.
As for the specific work she has done as well as her impact, I feel like I didn't get the whole picture, but it seemed as though she was making progress, especially with the children. I think this is very important because using children as a method to access another culture is something that has been done traditionally throughout history, at least when making peaceful contact, something which has not been done traditionally throughout history in my opinion. Hopefully through her work, she will be able to help preserve these tribes and cultures that are so important to Indonesian culture. That being said however, I honestly don't know where these people and cultures will fit in the future. The native Americans in the states have all but been assimilated into American culture, and (although I am not well informed) I doubt there are many tribes still in existence.
However losing touch with our past would be a fatal error for man. We must know where we came from, our origins and our roots, if we want to evolve not only as a civilization, but as a people. In a time when several parts of the world stand on the verge of war, I think it would be wise for those in power to stand back and look at the larger picture, look at the past, and what previous wars have done to the earth and to its people. There will always be something we can learn from the past.
As for the specific work she has done as well as her impact, I feel like I didn't get the whole picture, but it seemed as though she was making progress, especially with the children. I think this is very important because using children as a method to access another culture is something that has been done traditionally throughout history, at least when making peaceful contact, something which has not been done traditionally throughout history in my opinion. Hopefully through her work, she will be able to help preserve these tribes and cultures that are so important to Indonesian culture. That being said however, I honestly don't know where these people and cultures will fit in the future. The native Americans in the states have all but been assimilated into American culture, and (although I am not well informed) I doubt there are many tribes still in existence.
However losing touch with our past would be a fatal error for man. We must know where we came from, our origins and our roots, if we want to evolve not only as a civilization, but as a people. In a time when several parts of the world stand on the verge of war, I think it would be wise for those in power to stand back and look at the larger picture, look at the past, and what previous wars have done to the earth and to its people. There will always be something we can learn from the past.
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