Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Anorexia: A Concealed Calamity


         Anorexia Awareness is worth fighting for because the more awareness we raise, the less girls will feel about being ugly, fat, or worthless. Anorexia is an eating disorder, which many teenagers and young adults suffer from, they keep this hidden, and deny themselves that it is egregious what they are doing to their bodies. The image above shows a young girl who is so convinced she looks the way she see's herself in the mirror, but that is far from reality. Anorexia Nervosa is the official term for this eating disorder, how could this happen in the first place? According to 'Causes of Eating Disorders', "Recent studies have indicated that as many as 10% of the girls and women in the U.S have eating disorders. Of those, an estimated 50,000 will die as a result of their disease. Most of us, whether we realize it or not, know a girl, or several teenage girls, who stuggles with an eating disorder." 


        Not so long ago, there was a French model who had this disease. Many models have anorexia, to keep in the business. Her name was Isabel Caro, who died at the age of 28. According to the website, "she once said, she ate only two small squares of chocolate and four to five cornflakes per day." Isabel Caro was a model, who had a very sever case of anorexia, which led to her death. Isabel Caro once said that a fashion designer told her to lose 10kg if she wanted to be in the top of the fashion world. This news wouldn't have taken too well with Caro, because when she was a child, her mother had a phobia of her growing. Her whole life, Isabel was concerned with her weight. In this video, it shows Caro getting interviewed, and she answers many questions about how she is an anorexic. Caro states that she is 5'6, and weighs 86 pounds (39kg.) What makes Caro so different from other anorexic models is that she did anorexia awareness. Here is an example of what I am talking about:
          As you can see, this is the very anorexic Caro who's tailbone is even coming out of her skin. Caro did this to show young girls that is ISN'T a good thing to look like this, many other successful models still become number 1 without having to do this, for example, Tyra Banks. Tyra Banks become a very famous model despite what her agents told her to do (lose weight). Adding onto Caro's story, she would feint very often, and always had bruises and cuts which took longer than normal to heal. Towards the end of her life, Caro really did try to fix this disease, but it was too late. She was in hospitals for years, before she died. "I wanted to have a body of a child forever, to make my mother happy." Caro's teeth, hair and skin would peel/fall off, due to her neglect towards her hunger. This is another major issue of anorexia that people don't realize before they start this tragic matter.

     Effects of eating disorders can be hair loss, loss of teeth, slow heart rate, flaky skin and weak fingernails. I know firsthand what is it like to see an anorexic, and I know how extreme the cases are. Unfortunately by the time myself and a few others discovered this, it was too late. She had been into it for about 6-7 months and if we tried to talk to her, she would get angry and cry, teachers talked to her too, but nothing helped. And now nobody knows if she is still continuing with this disease since she moved away, and it's extremely difficult to contact her. Anyway, I lived with her for about a week, and that's when I noticed. I mean everyone noticed her weight loss, she would easily have lost about 7 kg in the past 3 months, but she insisted it was due to exercise. Which I suppose it was, because that's what she did. Exercise. ALL the time. Without eating. And the effects of that? Well, her period stopped, her hair fell out, she brushed her teeth about 7 times a day because of her slight bulimia, and all her clothes become loose for her, (swimsuits, underwear, etc.) I think that once an anorexic really gets into the disease, his/her mind become so wrapped around the idea that what she is doing, is fine, and there is nothing wrong with it. Talking to them just makes them angry, and nothing you can really help. I remember I was horrified when she told me "If you drink a lot of water, the hunger stops." The point is, anorexia is a serious disease caused by low self esteem, and there are many terrible effects of this, which ultimately will lead to death.

      There are many types of eating disorders, in case you didn't know what bulimia is, it's when you usually overeat and then throw up everything you eat. Dentists notice this first, because vomit is acid which stains your teeth, so bulimics would brush their teeth very often everyday. "In Bulimia Nervosa, teens consumer large quantities of food in binges, and they try to compensate by inducing vomiting..."The main reason anorexics die is that their body loses so much nutrients and everything they need to survive that every organ starts to shut down, or bleed, or just become unsuitable.

        Anorexia is a deadly disease, which I feel people do not take as seriously as they should. I think almost every teen girl has issues with their weight, or body, (including myself, and many friends I know), but anorexia is taking it to the extreme. I feel that people need to be educated of the risks, if people really knew what they were getting into, the question is, would they still do this to themselves? No, of course they wouldn't. If we had more awareness campaigns, like Caro did, people would become more aware of how devastatingly tragic this is. Anorexia most likely will not be stopped, but we can all do a lot more than we are now to lessen the number effected by this.



Monday, December 12, 2011

Inferiority Poem

Inferior
To be lower in rank.
A second class citizen.
According to the British,
The First Australians many years before.
The British perceived the Natives to be uncivilized.
They thought they were superior,
Enough to remove the children.
But who is to say the British were right?
Treating the "inferiors" like animals.
Locking them up in cages.
Training them to serve as slaves.
A stolen culture.
Stolen Generations.
Forever lost?

Sophie Byfield and Peggy Kern

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Music, A Gateway to our Souls




Here is an image of a poster. This poster advertises a foundation called Music Changing Lives, (MLC). What this program does, is giving opportunities to those who are less privileged than us. 'The Ignorance Stop's Here', campaign is designed to help those become more successful, to give them a second opportunity at life. Music should be a part of everyone's lives, and all schools should be able to have music programs to help children express themselves.

Music impacts everyone. Even right now, as I am writing this blog post, I'm listening to music. Nowadays, people spend hours and hours on electronic devices such as iPods, and many other things. Music can be inspiring, emotional, and pretty much anything else, music is my life. Being me, I play three instruments, and listen to music constantly. I seriously cannot imagine a life without music. I play the piano, the flute and the violin. Without these instruments in my life, everything would be so dull. But I believe that music can bring out the best in people. Music can impact you, it can make you cry, laugh, etc.

"For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness."
Reba McEntire



The above quote shows that music can also help you heal. Music is important in many ways, it can make you feel better when you are sad, or as 'Reba McEntire' says, it helps you heal a situation.


Some schools dont have the facilities to provide opportunities for kids to develop musical skills. I believe everyone should have an opportunity to be able to choose whether or not they want to get into the arts program. (Same goes for sports, etc.) It's just that some school's dont have the facilities or fundings for these things. That's why 'MLC' accepts donations for these people to learn things they never did.

There are some people who think that the arts are not worth investing in, that they are a waste of time. Well I would have to say that they are wrong. Sure, they can be a little costy, but it is worth the investment. If you invest in a music room with maybe two band/strings teachers, and students buy their own instruments, you would have an orchestra!

ISKL is very focused on sports. What the school doesn't think about are the 'nerds' who play music. Every year, there are so many sport trips in ISKL, but one music one. Why is that? Is it the fact that musicians are less important? No, majority of the people don't want to listen to us 'geeks' and 'nerds' play music, even if we practice hours a week to put on a show. ISKL has a music concert every trimester, but we really don't have anything else. Why is it that for sports there is a Touch Rugby Trip, Soccer, Swimming, Volleyball, Basketball, etc. One could argue that there are different sports, but we could argue that there are different styles of music. Jazz, classical, blues, etc. We could have a trip organized specially for trumpets! But no, we have our three music festivals. For me, music can help me express myself. Playing music is an enjoyable experience, and I love performing after putting in work. During the Trimester 1 Music Concert, Eugenia Kwon and I played a duet, we put in a lot of work for this, and pulled it off. But not many people saw this duet, because not many people bother to watch the music concerts in ISKL.

At ISKL whenever a sports team goes to Phuket for soccer, all teachers and students know about it, since it is announced in homegroup and assemblies about 10 times. But what about when a few selected students are picked for honor band, out of the WHOLE Asia? That is truly an honor, and the school fails to recognize that. Us musicians are not asking for as much attention as the 'Sports Superstars', but being acknowledged would be welcome.

Obviously, becoming a spectacular musician wouldn't just come to you, you would have to work on it. But I believe that if you give a kid from a poor family an expensive instrument (such as a flute lets say) which could cost RM5,000, that child would feel obliged to practice.

I don't think all students should be forced to take music in schools, just the kids who are interested. There are probably hundreds of thousands of people in Africa, India, China etc. who would love to learn an instrument like the clarinet, but never can. Then there are people like us, who have the money to play these instruments, and avoid them. Quitting because they are not 'fun' anymore.

People such as Kenny G, (saxophone player), put in a LOT of effort to become the level they are. If Mr. Kenny G didn't have the opportunity of learning the saxophone, all that talent would be wasted. There could be kids in China right now who have the potential of becoming the worlds best flute player, but never had the chance.

I believe that schools worldwide should be able to have a music program. In this blogpost, I have said how music can impact people, and how it can help you express yourself.

The point is, music should be a big focus for schools globally. Schools who don't have the funds for these things, should really try to get kids involved in music. I believe music is worth fighting for, because if schools continue to cut the funds for this art, it will eventually die out. Even though many schools don't have the funds for the music program, you can still donate to help out.

Image URL

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Rosa Parks - A Civil Rights Activist



Rosa Parks (1913-2005)


Rosa Parks was an African American seamstress and civil rights activist. One of her quotes -  "I'm tired of being treated like a second class citizen." - I think indicates that it is unjust for people to be judged by their skin color, and that we should stand up for it, like she did.

Rosa Parks was born in Alabama, and her childhood was filled with segregation. (Segregation from the white people and the black people.) There were many rules the 'black' people had to follow, such as not being allowed to sit in the bus except for the very back, and that was only if there were no white people who needed the seat. (Although they all had to pay the same amount to ride the bus.) This is unreasonable because it suggests that the black people were worth less than the whites. Why is it that they have to give up their seats for a white person, when they were there first? (Nowadays the bus rules are if there is an injured/old/pregnant person you give up your seat, and those rules are fair.) I'm not the only one who thinks these laws are unfair, Rosa Parks did too. And her fight for her rights started when she declined to give her seat to a white person on the Montgomery bus.

1995, the 1st of December, Rosa Parks mounted a bus in Montgomery after working all day. She sat in the usual black section, in the back of the bus. After a while of travelling on the bus, more 'whites' came on and in due course all the white seats were gone. Due to the fact that there were no more seats, many blacks were ordered to get out of their seats for the whites. (The bus driver would order the blacks.) Despite that, Rosa Parks declined to leave her seat. The bus driver ordered her a second time, and once agains she refused. This lead to her arrest, which she was later bailed out of.

When other blacks heard about Rosa Parks dissidence, they too decided to stand up for their rights by starting a boycott. The boycott was not to take buses on December 5th. These black people caused the bus company to lose a lot of money, so the laws were changed.

Rosa Parks motivated all these other people to stand up for their rights. If she wasn't to be treated this way, why should they? And they too fought for what they deserved. One of her other quotes, "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others." This applies to us all, because when any of us do something memorable or significant, it will always be remembered. Rosa Parks showed us that equality was worth fighting for, and she made a personal sacrifice to show us that.  She showed us that we should all stand up for ourselves like she did, to give motivation to others. If we all stand up for what is right, we would have less issues in this world. I believe equality is worth fighting for because it will create a fair world for everyone, creating peace.


http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fileadmin/historyLearningSite/rosa_p2.jpg

Thursday, September 22, 2011

My Found Poetry

This is an image of the "found words" I have to use in my Found Poetry. (Words from Taylor Mali's poem, Like Totally Like.)

Found Poetry means-- making a poem out of another poems words

Here is my Found Poetry:

If you believe strongly,
and DECLARE things to be true,
you have to speak,
personally invest, in your own opinions,
do not follow this aggressively inarticulate generation,
society became, totally, tragically, infected.
I challenge you, to say what you believe in,
show determination, wisdom,
QUESTION AUTHORITY.
The Earth we once walked on,
has been chopped down,
by man's uncertainty.
Stand up for Mother Nature.
Join me, on man's speak with conviction.


Here is a Wordle creation of my own poem.

I believe Nature/Environmental Sustainability is worth fighting for because we should show respect to it, since we are all living on Earth, we must take care of the environment. Nowadays there is a lot of pollution, and in my poem the line:

I challenge you, to say what you believe in,
show determination, wisdom,
QUESTION AUTHORITY.

This shows we should stand up for nature and say what we believe in, meaning we should try to save trees and lessen the amount being chopped down and wasted.

Here are some other lines from my poem:

The Earth we once walked on,
has been chopped down,
by man's uncertainty.
Stand up for Mother Nature.
Join me, on man's speak with conviction.

When I say the tress have been chopped down by mans uncertainty, I mean the workers who actually do chop the trees down, I think at least some of them don't want to do this, but they have to because they need the money for their family. And maybe even the people who work in the company that chops trees are uncertain about doing this but they also have to because they need to provide money for their family. Man I think is often uncertain, and does things without thinking them through. Like chopping down trees, humankind doesn't think about if we chop them down, we are taking away animals homes and also killing them.

My poem is about standing up and fighting for Mother Nature. We have to do this because since we live on planet Earth, we must show respect to it and take care of it.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Vietnamese Agent Orange War Victims


This image is showing victims of the Agent Orange chemical that was released the in American/Vietnamese war. These peoples parents were probably infected by the Agent Orange chemical and when they had children the infected genes passes on. These people have learned to deal with their situations despite the horrific effects to their bodies. I believe that War Victims are worth fighting for.

I recently went to Vietnam, and during that time I went to the Vietnamese/American War Museum, there were some terrible things I saw in there, and I also saw 'real' Agent Orange victims who worked there.


There were nearly 4 million people affected by this deadly chemical.

During the Vietnamese War the American Government sprayed roughly 20,000,000 gallons (75,000,000 liters) in Vietnam, Eastern Laos and Cambodia. A goal for this was to destroy the countryside, so the people would have to flee to U.S dominated cities, and take refuge there.

Image displaying where the U.S Army sprayed the Agent Orange Chemical.

In October 1962, the U.S decided to target food crops, using Agent Blue. In the year 1962, 42% of the chemical spraying was to food crops. Because of this, farmers and peasants in the countryside took flight to U.S dominated cities, making the population almost triple in South Vietnam.
Agent Orange Stacks

Now in Vietnam, there are several 'Peace Villages' where they host between 50-100 victims, providing medical and physiological help. Here is a quote about one victim.

"May is 13, but she knows nothing, is unable to talk fluently, nor walk with ease due to for her bandy legs. Her father is dead and she has four elder brothers, all mentally retarded ... The students are all disabled, retarded and of different ages. Teaching them is a hard job. They are of the 3rd grade but many of them find it hard to do the reading. Only a few of them can. Their pronunciation is distorted due to their twisted lips and their memory is quite short. They easily forget what they've learned ... In the Village, it is quite hard to tell the kids' exact ages. Some in their twenties have a physical statures as small as the 7- or 8-years-old. They find it difficult to feed themselves, much less have mental ability or physical capacity for work. No one can hold back the tears when seeing the heads turning round unconsciously, the bandy arms managing to push the spoon of food into the mouths with awful difficulty ... Yet they still keep smiling, singing in their great innocence, at the presence of some visitors, craving for something beautiful."

This above quote makes me sad to know there are children my age or older, who don't have a basic knowledge they should be having, due to war effects. It is unjust for these children to have so many opportunities in life taken away from them. These children can never play the piano, or ride a horse, and many other things have just plainly been stripped from them.

There are a few more fortunate victims, who have managed to make a career besides there defects. Although I was unable to find him online, there was a carpenter in the museum who could make beautiful wood carvings, and was more successful than other carpenters in his city. Here's the catch, he only had legs. To be a carpenter you would think a necessity is to have arms, but this man could do everything and better, using only his legs.

I know we can't save these people from there diseases, but we could make the world more aware of what has happened to them, and make sure these types of things never happen again. As Ben once said in the Chaos Walking Trilogy,
"War Makes Monsters of Men."


Sunday, August 21, 2011

My Vision of a Perfect Utopia


Modern technology,
Owes ecology
An apology.
- Alan M. Eddison

What I think this quote means is that modern technology such as cars, trains, and buses (which all cause pollution and use oil) have ruined the environment. They have caused the air to be dirty, and people who work in factories to be sick. These modern technologies have destroyed our environment, causing holes in the ozone layer. We have to fix this for the new generation, before it is too late.

The image above shows a clean harmonious world. If I were to invent a new society I would make it focused on environmental sustainability. The above image shows what my society would achieve, a clean world with peace from all countries. Nowadays there are so many factories around the world, causing pollution. But that's not the only thing, there are also cars, oil leaks in oceans, and the chopping of trees. When I create a new society, I will make sure that we value the resources that we have. The factories will be environmentally friendly and water will be valued.

The people in this society will be educated in a way to know that whatever harm done to the planet must be repaid. They will know not to litter, and they will be able to tell what is right and wrong.

The way economy is developing nowadays is making it almost impossible to save resources. In my ideal world, people will create more than they take from Mother Nature. What I mean by that is, for every tree we take, we grow two. Everything in this 'Utopia' will thrive because of this Environmental Sustainability.

Environmental Sustainability is just the starting point in this dream world, with our environment clean, we can focus on education and world peace. I believe in equality, and in this world everyone would have that. There would be no racism and segregation. To me, Environmental Sustainability is just the starting point to gaining what the planet Earth deserves.

Perfection. A Utopia is supposedly perfect, so Environmental Sustainability is just the starting factor in that Perfection. This world would not have problems or times such as Nazi Germany during World War II. This world would be similar to 'Heaven' as many people would say.

Many leaders, such as Adolf Hitler, have tried to achieve this goal, Perfection, but have done it in the wrong way. Nonetheless, it is still worth fighting for.