Reflecting on Tri Continental Film Festival - War Child

Horrific!! Horrific!! The impact a war has on children is unimaginable. This is one of those topics where I am overcome with emotion and cannot reflect on rationally, I just feel anger and helplessness. So I will just provide a synopsis of the documentary.

War Child is the story of a boy, Emmanuel Jal who was separated from his family at the tender age of 7 and had an AK 47 in his hand at 8. He was a child soldier in Sudan's civil war and all he wanted to do was kill the people who separated him from his family. He was one of the lucky ones (if you can call it lucky) to be removed from his violent playground. Now he uses a microphone as a hip hop singer to promote peace in his land. A land where yet again greed of the powers that be (so called public private relations) using religion to subjugate the people and fan the fire of war.

Emmanuels Jal's music tells the story of his experience and brings attention to the plight of his land and his people for peace. You can find out more at War Child website!

Human Rights Watch estimates that 200,000 to 300,000 children are currently serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in armed conflicts. That is 200,000 to 300,000 too many for me!

"I'm a war child
I believe I've survived for a reason
To tell my story, to touch lives." Emmanuel Jal

Reflecting on Tri Continental Film Festival - Dirty Oil

On Sunday the 3rd of October 2010 I attended the first day of the Tri Continental Film Festival at Rosebank Mall's Cinema Nouveau. I went in the hope of finding a last minute ticket and was also willing to purchase black market ones' at exorbitant prices as well.  To my surprise, it was rather empty.  Unfortunately it seems that not many people were interested in learning about the challenges that affect other people in other places.

I decided to watch Dirty Oil, which is a behind the scenes look into Canada's Tar Sands - the striped-mined world of Northern Alberta, where vast and toxic oil sands supply the US with the majority of its oil. What was striking for me is the total disregard politicians and corporates have for people or the environment. People and the environment are just 'Collateral Damage' in the quest for must have profit margins.

The documentary focuses on the impact the mining has on a small community who live in its vicinity. As a result of the mining, these people are denied access to safe drinking water and they are now riddled with health issues and their overall quality of life is on a downward spiral. A doctor trying to help this community by investigating the recent spike in cancers and other new diseases and illnesses had his licence revoked and is facing perscution.  It left me feeling sick in my stomach and angry at the powers that be.

Yes, we need oil for our economy to function, but at what cost? At what point does the cost become too much to bear? More importantly for me is, if governments provide the license for mining why don't they also ensure that those companies are liable for the cleanup. Yes I know we will pay more for oil, but we pay for the cleanup anyway while some fat cats take no responsibility and spends his time counting his profits. I would rather pay for ensuring there is no pollution in the first place than pay for the devastation after the fact.

To quote from the documentary "Saving civilisation is not a spectator sport".

 

The Occasional Burning

For years Scary Bones had a vision of a world that was filled with goodness and righteousness. He spent most of his days in the employ of the Big Boss (who is many and one), where he did not make any headway career wise or any other wise. Sometimes in a previous life he moonlighted in Hollywood's blasphemous underbelly making people all around the world break into laughter. But after years of preaching and marketing to save his fellow men and women from the fiery fire of hell, he had a paltry following of just 50 people. This ignited a burning desire or fire within to do something big, something that would bring worldly attention to himself and his flock and maybe win favour with the Big Boss.

He organised a late night meeting with his think tank. They prayed, whispered and secretly met with the group that has no name but is, to no avail. One morning while watching the news on the sacred box he caught a glimpse of Obama Sin Pardon from a rival bearded clan who was world famous on another burning issue, and that inspired him. He thought of his inspiration as a secret memo from his boss. Once again under the cover of darkness he met with his think tank to tell them about his divine mission and the message that was revealed to him. He was to resurrect the ancient ritual of burning anything related to witchcraft. And since people of all colors have been joining the bearded clan in droves there must be witchcraft involved. His boss knew best and who was he to judge.

So on a warm summer morning he called a press conference at which only the A-Clan(the clan with no clan) attended.  He declared that the bearded clan's book of witchcraft shall be burned in public on the 11th of September to coincide with the end of the flaming birds. The A-Clan spread the word of the spoken day because they always considered the clan types as a helluva bunch who just did not understand the Book of Science.

Flaming birds, poverty, corruption, stolen land, war and just plain maliciousness had become somewhat normal and boring, so the sacred box clan and its sister clans jumped on the this new news worthy topic. It has been centuries since we have had a clan burning occasion (except of course in other exotic places where it happens fairly regularly). And so the word of the occasional burning spread like wildfire.

The bearded clans all around the world went into a religious fervour. Their think tanks got together and were at a loss on what to do. A small group from the bearded clan had an insurgent creative burst and decided to respond in similar fashion, threatening to burn Scary Bones much revered book as well. Just don't mess with a clan scorned.

The A-Clan watched on in disbelief thinking: "shoo we should be in the book selling business".

Ultimately the lizard clan stepped in and miraculously found a late, after-hours memo for Scary Bones. A memo he did not get due to his late night think tank sessions. And so the occasional burning turned out to be just smoke with no fire and 1 Afghan dead and 12 injured. Alas Scary Bones may not have grown his flock but now he is as infamous as Obama Sin Pardon and his Boss does not seem to care.

And who says where there is smoke there is fire. Sometimes there is just smoke.......

Unexpected Benefits

Do you know the feeling when you unexpectedly find something useful like money in an long unworn piece of clothing? Or an item of jewellery you thought you had lost, but found between your couch pillows? Well, I recently had that feeling after my DSTV was disconnected. You can't see the good feeling here can you? Well initially neither could I. I thought, what am I to do with all the time I used for watching TV and how would I ever get my entertainment fix now. Now, I would have to make conversation during my mental down time after a hard work day. Uugh!

A few days into my TV withdrawal, I began to feel a clarity of mind. An un-cluttering if you will. There was an emptiness that I really enjoyed. My short term memory area felt like it just had an upgrade and now has a lot more space. I now certainly had time to ponder upon this weird and strange mental phenomenon. I realised the best thing about not watching DSTV, is not seeing any advertising at all (even the fast forwarded ones for those with a PVR). I have had approximately four weeks of no adverts, and it feels wonderful. It is my unexpected benefit.

Advertising and marketing have a way of consciously and maybe subconsciously occupying your mind with things you don't really need but now want. For example, I was quite happy with my iPod until I discovered that a new and better iPod was now available. I somehow found myself convincing myself that my iPod was now old and maybe does need to be replaced. I was buying this logic, fortunately I caught myself in the act and put an end to it. My kids would see a KFC advertisement and then would want to have KFC to eat. Predictably, the next time we drove pass a KFC guess what the kids wanted.

Now, since my family and I have minimal exposure to advertisements, we have alleviated all these unnecessary wants and cleared our minds from its clutter. It sounds crazy, and you may think it does not affect you but it does in ways you don't even realise. Even if you dont give in to the ads by purchasing the product, your mind uses time and energy to consider it and make decision about it consciously and maybe unconsciously. Whereas in this case,  "out of sight, out of mind" rings very true. So I challenge you to take month off from viewing any commercials and let me know how you feel.

Bye 4 now  

My Kruger Park Visit In Pictures

What is it about getting a really good picture that makes me feel so good.  Is it the patience to wait for the right combination of elements?  

The Kruger National Park is the one place where I always hope to shoot my next great picture.  And on my recent trip there, I had a good feeling.  I had a sense that this time I was going to get my leopard in a tree.  Excited, and camera in hand I was ready.

Entering at an ungodly hour has its payoffs.  

This elephant was kind enough to take a break from trying to break off a branch to pose for the camera.

At Skukuza camp I found this beautiful bird.

and these pigeons having a go at each other.

He had an appointment to have his picture taken with a bushveld background

Found this Warthog feeding and it does this on bended knee eating the low growing grass

I had to get one scenic picture, which happens to have a hippo in there somewhere. Let see if you can find it

This was just an awesome close up picture. The eyes look amazing

Very colourful bird just sitting in a tree

Curious giraffe looking back at me

then turned around and coyly walked away

The zebra crossing in the park

Just reminded me of  Zazoo in the Lion King

These tortoises were watching the traffic on the Lower Sabie bridge. I could not get them to smile...

At Lower Sabie camp, I found these birds just cooling off in a bath

Giraffes having a drink courtesy of the Sabie river.

Not sure what this is but it posed for my picture.

Elephants frolicking in the river. The weather so good I was tempted to join them, but sensibility prevailed.

And in the sand.

Finally seeing this group of lionesses on my way out of the park.

Alas, NO Leopard in a tree.......Hopefully there will be another day!

Bye 4 now!

Unschooling and Essential Life Skills

Unschooling, or my preferred term, Natural Learning is a worldview that life itself is learning and children naturally seek to learn. A parent with a natural learning worldview seeks to provide children with an environment in which they are free to follow their curiosities and discover the world. In doing so children would develop the necessary life skills that they would need on their life journey.

Ellen Galinsky, the author of the book Mind in the Making identifies 7 essential life skills every child needs, namely

1. Focus and Self Control
2. Perspective Taking
3. Communicating
4. Making Connections
5. Critical Thinking
6. Taking on Challenges
7. Self Directed, Engaged Learning

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be looking at each skill from an unschooling perspective. This will elaborate further and describe the principles of Natural Learning. It will also illustrate that life skills are a natural outcome of a natural learning environment.

Bye 4 now.....

More or Less

We want more

We need less

We accumulate more

We have less

We find that more is less

And less is more

More or Less