The power of speech...

Power is what all wanted in political journey. The speech power of a leader can change everything in a few minutes. For that, a leader must have good persuasive and rhetoric skills. The two best leaders that we can associate with this is Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill. Their speech is one of the well know speeches in the world and people are still amazed by it. It is worthy to note that the political situation that both leaders were in is the same. They both delivered the speech during the world war two.

         

   Firtsy, Winston Churchill is the most prominent figure in Britain at that era. He was the prime minister. The nation had to fight in order to protect their country from invasion; therefore entering the war was not a personal choice that Churchill made. Churchill did not persuade the nation that it was a’ just war’ he had to persuade the country to continue fighting and remain positive. Throughout the speech, choices are made by the speaker in terms of personal pronouns and this pronoun represents someone. When addressing the nation and the House of Commons each leader uses the first person pronoun ‘I’ on a number of occasions. ‘I’ appears to be used by both leaders much more frequently when addressing the House of Commons. I would be inclined to suggest that the reason for this is because each Prime Minister is solely persuading the Government; therefore the beliefs he is expressing are his personal ones. ‘We’ is used more often when addressing the nation as it can refer to the Prime Minister and the Government who are in support of each other. In his address to the nation Churchill uses inclusive ‘we’ a number of times to refer to himself and the people of Britain and thus encourage solidarity.

            In today’s society people often express disbelief that somebody like Hitler could gain and maintain the support of a nation.  It is a credit to his skills of rhetoric and persuasive that he was able to maintain an image of such righteousness person. In the speech of May 4, Hitler spends much of the beginning of the speech condemning the enemy and assuring the people of his own purity and good desires. In this speech he does not miss any opportunity to elevate other’s opinions of himself.  In fact, he never once speaks about himself without directly or more often indirectly attaching some positive attribute to himself. Then, he attempts to create negative emotions when he talks about Winston Churchill. He frequently used “we” to show that he is one the person among them.

In a nutshell, both speakers’ greatest skills lay in exploiting the emotions of their listeners to provoke them to action. The skills are important to be a great leader. 

pigs?? human?? who are we??

Many writers receive their inspiration on writing their literary works from the outside sources. The idea or theme for their story may come from family, personal experiences, history, latest issues, or even their own creativity. Many authors choose to write based on the historical events that happening around them. The inspiration to write on historical events might come from the personal or particular view point towards the event that they want to write on in their works. Most of the literary works by George Orwell touched on the forms of governments, especially democracy and dictatorship.

The story Animal Farm takes place on a farm in England. The short novel starts when the old pig in the farm, old Major, calls out all the animals in the farm for a secret meeting. He enlightens them with his dream of a revolution against the owner of the farm, Mr. Jones. Three days later the old Major dies but his inspiring final speech gives a new outlook on life for some of the more intelligent animals. The pigs take charge on the other animals as they are the intelligent ones in the farm.

Till this point of the story, all the animals treated equally.  They are living equal, as comrades. Here, Orwell showed the democracy that worked well among the animals in the farm. But it does not last for long, for Orwell knows that true socialism never last for very long. The power corrupts those who have it.

The theme of this story is good will can be a prey to selfishness, ambition and hypocrisy. In Animal Farm, the two main characters are the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. They are the mastermind or the smartest that gathered all the animals in the farm and enlighten them to fight against the owner of the farm. Eventually the power was used in a different manner by abusing the power that they have. Gradually the pigs gain more power than the others and it leads them hard to resist the temptation. They did all the things that against Old Major’s wish by move into Jones house, drink alcohol and trade between other farms.

In Animal Farm, Orwell shows how propaganda and brainwashing works in a dictatorship government, by showing that the pigs make the other animals believe on whatever they saying. The pigs ate most of the apples and drink most of the milk, but they justify it convincing the other animals by telling that leadership is a heavy responsibility and the animals must thankful and allow them to eat more then them. Orwell presents that the control over the other animals mind make them believing, “Napoleon is always right”.

Communism and dictatorship had various flaws that might ruin the happiness and stability of the country. Communism ensures that all in an equal class and will get the same benefits. However, in reality everything was against the theory. The leaders fight for their place to be the supreme leader, people was not treated equally, and only selfishness is seen in the leadership. A communist government can change into a dictatorship that is full with lies, greed and selfishness.

Is she smiling?

The film Monalisa Smile is refreshingly contrasted to our relaxed manner of life. The film’s best intention is to present themes of feminine independence. It's an excellent message for young women that should be embraced.

Monalisa Smile stars Julia Roberts as Katherine Watson, a new teacher who has accepted a position to teach art history at Wellesley - the all women college in Massachusetts. Professor Watson is unprepared for her first day of class, as she faces a class of young women who exceed the course requirements. Watson stumbles on some decent lesson plans—she explains that paint-by-numbers is unoriginal—but she spends most of her time at Wellesley treating men like dirt, berating students for wanting to get married and being an emotionally wrecked busybody.

            In this movie, the women are brought up in a conservative manner. They were taught to be a good house wife rather be the working woman. Professor Watson changed the mind set of her students to be independence and against the actual thought of the society about the women.

Women must have the courage to fight for their rights and be independent. This is the message that delivered clearly in this movie. But, is Monalisa in the real painting smilling? Or is she a male or female? This is the million dollar question that even till now hasn’t got the answer. 

Do we need this kind of Principal?

Its snack hour.. Yes, it’s movie time once again. Lean On Me is a touching movie indeed. This movie is about a Principal(Morgan Freeman) makes changes to his school because the school is at risk of being taken over by the New Jersey state government unless students improve their test scores. Morgan was a teacher in that school but let it because different in idea between him and school authorities.

            The first “changes” he does was by chasing out all the “bad” boys from the school, especially who sells drugs and in gangs. The teachers have no control over the students. The teachers were beaten up by the students. The teachers scared of the students. If I am posted for this kind of schools, what should I do? This is what came to my mind when watching this movie. Would I quit or keep trying?

            Morgan portrays himself as a strict principal, whereby he sacked all the teachers who against his ideas. We may think that he is too arrogant and bossy type of principal but for an immediate change in that school he has to come up with this kind of rules. People must know who is in charge in that school.

            As a future teacher, what I want is that students respect me as a figure of trust just like the ending of the story. This movie showed me that being a teacher is not an easy job, but it is a heavy work to mold the students as there are many types of challenges. Principals need to ‘move’ the school higher each year so that the parents will trust the school and send their children to gain education. The future generation is out responsibility. 

DOWRY: A Detiriorated Custom

Dowry system is one of the popular issues among the Indian community.  The dowry system plays the most important role among the social evils that prevails and plagues Indian society. The dowry system was initiated with the intention of providing security for a girl in case of unexpected circumstances after marriage. The parents gave whatever they could for their daughter. After some period of time, the dowry system has grown into a greedy monster which deteriorated the custom. The dowry system is mistreated by others in the Indian community as in the short story, “Everything Arranged” and “Question of Dowry”. This both story shows how a girl’s life can be affected because of this dowry system.

                Firstly, in “Everything Arranged”, the dowry system is clearly treated in a wrong way. Devanayaki was stopped from studying at university once her parents thought she is in love with Chinese boy, Johny. But, the bridegroom’s family wants an educated girl in their family, so they promised the bridegroom’s family that she will be a undergraduate. Once they stopped her from university, they cover up the story by willing to pay extra 20,000 as the dowry. This shows that for her parents, Devanayaki is a saleable ‘thing’. Thins is extremely unacceptable in this era.

                Meanwhile, in “Question of Dowry”, Sivasothie is treated as a toy by her family and the bridegroom’s family. For the bride, the necklace is more important than Sivasothie. He just wanted the money and property rather than her. Until the end, they only bother about their own stuff’s but failed to consider Sivasothie’s feelings. They just wanted her to accept whatever decided by them.

                From both of the stories, we can clearly see that the dowry system is not treated fairly. The original custom is not followed but they deteriorated it. The awareness should begin from the schools and colleges in which the student community should be properly educated against the evils of dowry system. 

SAY NO TO ABORTION!!

Last week tutorial was fun. We had to come with a stand by comparing two short stories, The Marry Main and Great Injustice. My group consists of Gogi, Mohan, Saw, Zahri and myself. Our stand was abortion is not the way to help children out of wedlock. We compare the action of the protagonist of both stories Lakshmi and Ah Nya. In Great Injustice, Ah Nya aborts her baby because of the society pressure. At the end of the story, she mentions that society made her make that decision not her. While, Lakshmi in The Marry Maid, kept her new born baby at Johan’s house doorstep so that he can adopt the baby. Lakshmi is a person that will want to make others happy and wouldn’t want to snatch it away from them. It is being selfless. For example, Lakshmi being portrayed as the "Goddess of Wealth" in the hinduism. The wealth here is not only the money but also the care and love towards our own child.

In this both stories, we can clearly see that there are many ways to help children out of wedlock. Abortion is not the only way or only solution for it. They can hand over the babies to adoption centre around the country and now government even come out with a new programme , that is “Bank Bayi”. Many groups come out with their own stands. It was interesting. It was like a debate when all of us give us our own opinion towards the topic.

Next was the biggest heart attack for us. Miss Alicia assigned us the supervisors that we will be working with for our project paper. I was given Dr. Jaya whom I am very familiar with. I am very lucky to get him as my supervisor. On week six I need to meet him and discuss about my topic. Talking about topic, I don’t have any topic in my mind! This subject has no exams yet it has many assignments! At first I thought this course is to make us relax but I yet to see it.

Now we are in Chinese New Year mood. Happy holidays guys.. To my chinese friends Gong Xi Fa Cai.. May the year of the Rabbit brings prosperity to your homes.. =)

Bee?? Will it sting??

Scared of bees? No,  im not talking about bee but spelling bee. We watched first movie for this subject entitled “Akeelah and the Bee”. This is an inspirational movie.  Akeelah and the Bee is the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a precocious eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Akeelah has the capability to spell many difficult words. Akeelah’s father has passed away and the mother is the only person who works to provide for the family. Akeelah has two brothers, one is a air force officer and amother one always give trouble for the family as he hates the white people.

The main message in this movie is where a will is there is a way. Determination is important to be success in anything that we wanted to do. Akeelah’s headmaster, Mr.Welch(Curtis Armstrong), forced her to sign up for the Crenshaw Schoolwide Spelling Bee and she wins it easily. Dr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne), a professor, came to the school for a visit. there he saw Akeelah and her potential to reach the final stage of National Spelling Bee Competition. Akeelah is not interested in joining this competition because she is afraid she will be laughed at if she can’t spell it correctly. But, she decides to join the competition because of her determination and her father’s wish.

Dr.Larabee coached her and helped her to remember all the words. Sometimes, she feel hard to continue with his coaching and her determination was low. Dr. Larabee plans to give up coaching her because she reminds him too much of his deceased daughter Denise. Instead, he gave her five thousand flash cards and told her she will have thousands of coaches. At first, Akeelah’s mother object her from entering the competition but after a fine talk with her mother, she changed her mind and helped Akeelah in training new words. As Dr. Larabee told her, she had thousands of coaches, including her family members, classmates, friends, and neighbours. At the end, Akeelah won the competition wil her full determination.

As a teacher to be, this movie inspired me a lot. ‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.’ This quote form the movie inspired me. It reflects our self to face any obstacles with full determination and achieve it successfully.