I would like to comment on Jestyn and Angelica presentation on this particularly interesting topic. A nice wrap up from both of you. From this presentation, I learnt that it is alright to believe in something that we deemed is right as long as it will lead us to be a better person. Believing in a religion for instance is actually a very wise decision that we can have. Almost all religion are designed to lead us to the right path in life .However, the Bali bombing scene that was shown by Jestyn on their presentation is actually what I thought to be a misinterpretation of religious practices. Misinterpretation of religious practices can be illustrated through the example of jihad whereby terrorists believe that it is Allah's will for them to kill to get them into heaven. Personally, I feel that it totally ridiculous and does not make any sense for those people who do jihad to take interpretation of the Quran into their own hands. To be honest it is all about grudge and not jihad that make terrorist who they are.
The Abandoned Baby
During the war era, Iran has turned out to be a very chaotic place to live in and people are living in fear and resulted them to be stressed out. Marjane and her family were in the same boat with the rest of the people. In order to relieve them from the fear and stress, Marjane's family decided to join the party at Marjane's uncle's place to celebrate the birth of her cousin. During the war, party are strictly forbidden and anyone caught doing so will be prosecuted, Marjane and her family were going against all odds and they rebel against the goverment's action as they proceed on with the party and the consumption of alcohol.In the middle of the party, siren sound which indicate enemy's attack were heard by the people and thus causing every one in the party to panic and turn the party into a chaotic situation. To my horror, Marjane's aunt actually abandoned her new born child into Marjane's arm and fled for her life (Satrapi 106 - 107). I felt that her action is totally immoral and irresponsible and I am disgusted to see what she had done. Marjane's aunt did not spare a taught for the newborn baby life instead, she is more concerned for her own life .If the society is to have more people like Marjane's aunt, I believed, we will be seeing abandoned babies on cold winter roadside surviving for their life.
Not too long ago, Melisa sent me an e-mail with attachment of baby being cooked into a soup.I felt that this society has turned into one whereby there is no human morale and I strictly against those who support cruelty and believe that enhancement of sexual desire/pleasure can be achieved by boiling babies.
Seperating from People that You Love Most
Just like Marjane, I could not sleep the night before and kept questioning myself on why my parents have to come up with that decision. During the departure day, I kept crying and hoping that they would change their decision. With all god's blessing, I am thankful with my parent's decision as well as giving me the chance to pursue the education in the US.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
The Golden Key to Paradise
Mrs Narsrine told Marjane and her mother that , " The soldiers gave the keys to the boys and they told them that if they were lucky enough to die, that key would get them into heaven." (Satrapi99) Well, this part of the book is worth commenting because that sentence is pretty similar to the one that my Muslim friend have when I was still studying back in Indonesia but they have it in different version.My Muslim friend was told by the religious leader who is an extremist that they will get into heaven if they can kill their religion's enemy, Christian. I was still back in Indonesia when he told me that sentence and the following week after the sentence was said, he skipped school for a month and was arrested in the involvement of church bombing. From Persepolis, I learnt that while they did this, they hypnotized those people who they talked to.I am not sure whether he got hypnotized due to the fact that he can share what he got in his religious class with me.
In today's society , we live in fear of terrorist which has turned a lot of people's life upside down but I also realize that we can help by providing peace to the world by not criticizing other people's idea or the things that they believe in. It is good to hear but it is wise to think it twice before we comment one with something as the things that we said will cause benefit or harm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvTWpQzPoSo
The Puff to Adulthood
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Response to Pedro and Me
Monday, November 17, 2008
Will Bribes Solve Problems?
On page 108-110 of the Persepolis, we recalled that Marjane's and her family were on their way back home when they were stopped by soldiers supposedly doing any "inspection" for any violation. This time, the soldiers suspect that Marjane's father did consume alcohol through the smell of alcohol breath from his mouth. The soldiers believed that Majane's father had something suspicious in his house and thus insist searching it. Upon reaching their home, Marjane's father bribed the soldier's with some cash and the soldiers took it as nothing had happened. This conduct is totally a disgrace. This part of Persepolis has reminded me towards those policemen back in Indonesia who did the exact same thing towards infractions or even big cases like manslaughter or murder.
To be honest, I did bribe policemen back in my home country too when I was caught speeding. The reason behind that is the morale of our country has been destroyed and everyone is doing the same thing. However, I believe that a country that have officials that are able to be bribed, will not thrived. A clear illustration to this will be the lack of good public transportation, lack of highways and medicare that can be considered does not exist. Tax payers will bribe officials for less tax amount and the money that the officials get from bribery will end up in their own pockets leaving nothing for a country infrastructure.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Torture of Prisoners
In the book persepolis, Samat told Marjane and her family that " The toturers did various toutures to the prisoners. Those totures include pulling out prisoners' nail, whipping them with thick electric cables, putting out cigarettes on prisoner's back and burned them with an iron . The worst did include cutting prisoner's body into pieces(Satrapi51).
My topic today will address Gutanamo Bay. How many in this class are aware of the term " Guatanamo Bay?" Guatanamo bay is a controvorsial detention center operated by Joint Task Force Guantanamo since 2002 in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which is on the shore of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The detention center has been holding prisoners from the invasion of Afghanistan and the war on terror since 2002. An important aspect that we all should know is Guatanamo bay prisoners are being excluded from the Geneva Convention which set them out of the international law of humanitarian concern. Without doubt, prisoners in Guantanamo did receive similar totures like the one that read in Persepolis. With this in mind, I would like to show you life in the Guatanamo Bay with a video clip.
Newly elected president, senator Barack Obama made a statement in the Independent Times on 17 November 2008 which states that upon taking office, he will close Guatanamo bay. Personally , I feel that Senataor Obama has made a wise decision to stop all totures and bringing human rights back to the prisoners again. However, some articles in the newspapers are asking how Senataor Obama is going to handle future captures of terrorism suspects.
Response to Miho's presentation on Social Classes
I would like to comment on Miho's presentation on social classes. First, a job well done to you , Miho. An informative information that distinguished the different social classes in America as well as in India. I am pretty much surprised to see that politicians are considered to be the top class in the chart that you had shown during the presentation.In addition to the presentation, I would like to add something that I learnt about social classes back in my high school days. My instructor had once asked me whether it is right to categorize people into different social classes or put it simply,why don't we just categorize them into rich or poor. I recalled the term "pariah", the lowest class in the Indian social class. My high school instructor told me that back in India, segregation between the rich or the poor is so wide that you can see that " Pariah" is someone that is treated like an animal, they are out casted and left alone.To be honest, it is good to have social classes but not to be too extreme on it. I believe that no matter how poor a person is, he/she will still want to be respected as who they are.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
First, I would like to express my gratitude to our instructor, Prof Patton for giving this wonderful opportunity of blogging as part of the syllabus. And of course my fellow classmates who made the time to view my blog but for now, let's get the ball rolling. This blog will be about the comic book called percepolis and happy blogging guys.
