So I'm of Color?

Considering this blog was set up for academic purposes and I never intended to post something that did not necessitate grades, this is going to be interesting. For I have decided to talk about something outside the realms of English 100.

So during on of my classes we talked about race. Not to ramble of to something not related, and to keep this short and concise, I would like to focus on how I was identified as a person of "color". I am an international student here, and for the MOST part the locals do not know the racial make up, hierarchy or standings of my society. So when I was grouped together as part of "international students of color", naturally I wondered "how sure are you I belong to this group?". I might not be white, but I'm not black either. I may be Indian, but I'm not born or bred here. What are the parameters that are being used in classifying me as being of color, when in reality I do not belong to either the majority or minority group technically.

I'm more intrigued than I am angered (in fact there is no ill feeling at all). I think ignorance is rife. The fact that very less is known of international students like me, makes it easier for "the system" to lump us into groups that they THINK we belong to. Again we go to the concept of identity and labeling, where what one perceives of a person may not be similar to what the person think of himself; I certainly do not think I am of color, but I am certainly thought of as one.

Its curious how we see each other. Its even more interesting to see what makes people think we belong in a certain group. While it is impossible to get to know everyone better before judging them, we can all at least try.

So for this assignment, I initially thought I'd just pick some songs out of my Ipod's "Top 25" playlist. But I changed my mind, because it would be too cumbersome to find a song to fit a situation or feeling. So instead, I decided to divide my life into phases, and do a chronological soundtrack list. Here goes nothing

Early Childhood (0-12)

Well we all liked superheroes when we were small didn't we? I had my own favorite; Action Man. Perhaps he was not as famous as Superman or Spiderman, but I thought the world of him at this stage. So every time his cartoon was screened, there would be the most amazing soundtrack played. It was no more than 45 seconds, but boy was it good! That song encapsulated me at that point; naive to believe someone can kill a dinosaur with his bare hands, and innocent to believe that good always prevails over bad. I still listen to it sometimes, that's how I keep in touch with my inner child.

Teens (13-19)

This were my early rebel years, and i chose My Chemical Romances' "This Is How I Disappear". Basically a song with a lot of bottled up anger, which should exemplify that time of my life. Among the lines "..and without you is how I disappear..and live my life alone forever now". I was angry at my parents, teachers and everyone else, there were no concrete reasons for all these as far as I remember. But these were hard times, transitioning from a kid to an adult, so this song shows that-with such melodic subtlety.

Adult ( 20-50)

Eminem's "Lose Yourself". This part of life is where I work hard for all the things I need. I'll be on my own, no parents to support me now. Also I may be married and have problems with that too (hence Eminem fits well). But basically I need strength and motivation to get through all these, and I will probably be listening to this song during those times. I realize this is not for everyone ( can't picture every 40 something guy listening to this in a suit and all).

Old age (50-death)

"Livin' alone...I think of all the friends I've known....But when I dial the

telephone..Nobody's home".This is Eric Carmen's "All By Myself". When

I'm old and wrinkled, I foresee myself in in an old folks' home, being

dumped by my family (worst case scenario). So this song will describe

my situation well. I would want some company, but that probably will

never come. So, this song is depressing enough

to describe my old age, before I finally kick the bucket.

"The participant observer studies indicated that feelings of personal inadequacy led black men to reject the unskilled and poorly paid jobs open to them,to denigrate the kind of work these jobs represented, and to seek gratification through more accessible channels,such as sexual liaisons or intoxication" (Massey, Denton 171).

Massey, Douglas S. and Denton, Nancy A. American Apartheid. London: Harvard University Press, 1993

Well I was thinking about doing the difference between the incarceration rates between blacks and whites in the US and why and how that is so. This quote talks about establishing why blacks are more likely to go to prison than whites, and it is important to support my claim that the former are more highly incarcerated than the latter. By studying the reasons for the problems in the first place, I could decide how to decrease the rate of imprisonment for both groups, or even find out whether there are some other factors coming into play that I have never thought of before.

The Role of Money In Football (or as you call it soccer)

I watch,play and live soccer. That pretty much sums up my obsession with this sport. My favorite club is called Manchester United FC, and they are playing in a league called the English Premiere League, or EPL for short.

While the league and its clubs have changed a lot since their inception in the 1900s, some changes have been more marked than others, and that is money. Billionaire owners, massive player transfer deals, and extraordinary agent fees are just some of the revelations in football that is caused by desires to make quick bucks. In other lesser leagues (mostly those in poorer countries) there is even corruption of players and even match officials, showing that there is no barrier in football for money. The question is how mixing fast cash and football actually effects the sport as a whole? While the good has been obvious; clubs that used to be punching bags can now afford world class players after being bankrolled by someone rich, the bad part is equally tangible, as I mentioned above with all the unethical means of using money to achieve quick success.

While I tend to lean towards money being a bad thing in football, I think there is a lot of ground to be covered in this topic.

In Defense of Will Ferrell

I am a big fan of American slapstick movies, and naturally Will Ferell is one of my favorite actors. One of his movies that is in my "hall of fame" happens to be Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, so I decided to see what kind of reviews this CapAlert guy had about this film.

To be honest, looking at the comprehensive scale of analysis this guy has, and having watched this movie at least seven times, I did not expect a very high rating score, and I was right as it got a miserly 25/100. But that did not bother me at all as much as his rantings on the movies' main themes. Lets break it down shall we?

So there was a gay character involved (Sacha Baron Cohen as Jean Girard). But the way the review describes him and his actions suggests a very anti-homosexual inclination, and I don't think that is appropriate. Granted some people may not like same sex relationships, and maybe kids are too young to be exposed to these things, but the reviewer should not be so dismissive of the movie just because of that. Firstly there were no overtly sexual scenes shown (both gay or straight for that matter) and secondly, this movie did not completely negatively stereotype homosexuals as being weak or failures. Jean Girard more than shows that he is as capable of any straight man, even someone so testosterone fueled as Ricky Bobby himself, as shown by his expert NASCAR driving. The movie's brave decision to include a homosexual as a main character, and the positive portrayal of him overall should be a highlight to this movie instead of a put down.

My other major grouse was how children are "profusely" using expletives. Yes, the two kids in the movie were pretty messed up, but towards the end, they changed for the better through a combination of Asian martial arts and social service. That was not talked about in the review, which I think is totally unfair as there is a message there trying to be sent out; no matter how bad your kid is, he is genuinely good inside.

As for the other parts that were too much for the reviewer, I think he should have an open mind and instead credit Ferrell for the wonderful use of carefully sculpted nudity and profanities to an art called "humor". I just cannot understand why someone won't just laugh deliriously watching Ricky Bobby run around in his underwear in the middle of the race track yelling "The ninjas are going to get me...save me Jesus...save me Allah". While the content is not appropriate for young children, it has to be understood that not a single movie is suitable for everyone at all, and even then it is up to the audience themselves, not some third party reviewer to decide what they want to watch (free market).

As for me, no matter what any review says about this movie, Ricky Bobby is still one of my favorite characters ever, and though he might not be liked by all, he is still an AWESOME guy! "shake and bake"

Plato In the Library

From the day we did the assignment regarding Plato and Mencius, I have been thinking about reading the former's famous book "The Republic". However, I was too lazy to go to the library to get the book,until now. So,I looked it up online,saw a bunch of available copies in College Library (the nearest to my dorm) and went up there on Sunday evening.

I am pretty used to looking up books from a vast collection, as I did A LOT of that for my Botany paper last semester (I got a miserly B). So I jotted down the details earlier; College Library Main Collection, 1st Floor, West, Room 1191. I found the room easily, as I pretty much just had to turn left as I entered the building. The next step was the call number-JC71P352007, and once I located the correct shelves ,it was a matter of minutes before a found a stack of Republics. I chose the one by Penguin Classics, as through experience I thought they would be the easiest to read and understand. The book I picked was flanked by another copy of "The Republic" by Cambridge press (looked freakishly academic) and the "Interpretation of Plato's Republic" by Murphy.

So I took the book with the SOLE intention of finishing up on this blog assignment. But as I type this with the book laying so tantalizingly close to me, I'm thinking about reading this book after all. Look's like this trip to the library would be a success!

Lee, Desmond. Plato The Republic. England: Clays Ltd, St Ives plc, 2007

Call number:JC71P352007

Thought Crimes

It was interesting how your description of thought crimes depended very much on geography and demographics, and i certainly believe that these factors affect the extent of how seriously the government responds to peoples' thoughts and actions.

From my personal viewpoint, thought crimes are frowned upon in Malaysia, and there has been severe clampdown by the authorities on anyone who tries to incite 'instability' within the country. The examples that you gave such as converting to certain religions and publishing pamphlets are viewed as direct threat to the ruling body and as such dealt with swift and punitive actions. People are thus 'muffled' and have to be very clandestine if they are ever to voice something out that is not agreeable to the government. But this does not solve the problem, in fact it only gets worse. When you look at different countries,especially ones with totalitarian and despot rulers, the people suffer in silence. North Korea's decision to strengthen its military actually makes its citizens one of the poorest in the world, but yet they cannot do anything about it. When people are refused the chance to speak, the whole country suffers.

As far as I know here in America,freedom of speech is protected vehemently. People are not allowed to say anything they want, but mostly they are not restricted by anyone, and if they are, there are legal and constitutional rights for them to seek recourse. I guess in a way it all relates to democracy and other forms of government. People should definitely be let to speak their mind as much as possible, even though the outcome may not please everyone. Like Winston Churchill once said "democracy is the worst form of govenrment, but is it the best one we've got"

Identity

I've talked about identity in a few of my classes, and it intrigues me how people just have to have a label on someone, either an inferior or superior description of them, just to appease themselves that everyone fits into a specific category. Why can't people just be what they want to be?

Take for example a disabled person. He does not necessarily think of himself as incapacitated; for all we know he could be as confident and as functional ad any able-bodied man. But we still identify himself as the stereotypical person in a wheelchair. It is time we let people define themselves in whatever way they want, and not simply stick a label on them that we find appropriate. By doing this, we can eliminate a lot of problems and tensions. Race has always been a perennial identity, and many people do not like to be identified or judged based on the color of their skin. Thus by letting them chose how they would be liked to be addressed, we would allowing them the fundamental right of freedom; how they want to be known

Overall, I think that identity is an amorphous being, something that shifts continuously throughout one's life. A person can be a student, a father, and a son at the same time. How would you possibly judge him then? You may call him one of them, but he may not agree with that. Thus it is important to treat identity with respect and flexibility. We should not fear to be identified as something that does not fit the society's common perception. It is perfectly okay to look into the mirror and see someone else staring back at you,; as long as you are comfortable with it. There is no such thing as a pre-ascribed identity

Profane? Not necessarily

Profanity goes well with racism, at least from where I come from. But I've found the use of traditionally unacceptable words quite helpful in defusing tense situations, and so I actually think profanities, if used appropriately and in context can bring much good.

It especially helps when you have a bunch of multi-racial friends whom you know well. When I was in high school, I had friends from at least three different races. Sometimes, there are situations that just get awkward, and race comes into issue. For instance, people from my country are very passionate about soccer (though our national team has a tendency to suck), and emotions usually run very high. There was once when an Indian player missed a sitter and my Chinese and Malay friends got angry. So they were like "Pela india tuh, sng2 pon xbley score, balik estet la!" Now you see what he's basically saying is 'That Indian guy can't play, he should go back to his estate" which is offensive since Indian immigrants came to Malaysia initially to work in rubber estates (conditions were terrible, no water etc). But instead of overreacting and getting into a fist-fight, profanities really can save the day. So I said "Eleh korg, td cina sepet tuh xnmpk bola sepak angin, pastuh korg Melayu bkn nk pass bola bikin belacan ke?". I was racially abusing the Chinese players by saying that they have such slant eyes that they cannot see the ball, and the Malays were not passing the ball, implying they were making belacan (a pungent smelling Malay dish). We laughed at each other. That was that

So you see, while generally profanities are bad, no one should be extreme as to say that its COMPLETELY bad. There are always two sides to each story, as there is to this one.

#1- Regimented requirements

This post is for my English class, Spring '10. I really have nothing much to say here. Never been much of a blogger before. Let's pray this blog doesn't die out after this semester.