TED & walls - Entry #18

Don't Ask Where I'm From, Ask Where I'm a Local | Taiye Selasi 

This Nigerian woman talks about how we do not belong to a country, but to a place instead. She mentions that she had been taught to think in terms of countries as if they were eternal and natural, when actually they are not constant and were created by man. Her parents were born in countries that no longer exist, for instance. The question "where are you a local?" helps to reflect upon rituals, relationships and restrictions.

This video is very interesting because I agree with Taiye's point of view. She proposes the idea that we are locals. We have relationships with cities, neighbourhoods and experiences lived, which do not relate necessarily to the country where we reside in, rather, to the place where we find ourselves at present. The final conclusion I have reached is: we are local where we feel at home, beyond human boundaries. The words she ended her talk with, speaking about herself and how she would like to be introduced, are accurate and thought-provoking: "she's a citizen of the world".

Film Medianers -Entry #17

My overall impression is that this movie criticises the city life and deals with not only sidewalls (medianeras), but also the invisible walls that surround us, such as the urban overpopulation, emotional distress and even technology. Both main characters suffer from different types of emotional disturbance for different causes. They have in common loneliness and problems when starting a relationship.
The movie itself was intriguing to me and I quite enjoyed it. I found the colours and settings just as the University of Palermo paper described them: a reflection of each character; in Mariana´s flat there was a lot of light and bright colours, but Martin´s place was darker and many times the only source of light was the computer or a single light bulb. Another interesting feature of the movie was how structures, buildings and architecture imperceptibly mingled and fused with each of the stories: either a character's or some of the smaller stories they have. There are many symbols in the film, however, the one I consider the most important is Where is Wally? book. Mariana has never been able to find him in the city, after looking for him for years. At the end of the movie she finds a person dressed the same way as Wally, so she thinks she finally finds her Waldo in the city. This 'Wally' is Martin.

Walls all over the world - Entry #16

One of the things that surprised me the most was the amount of countries that built/ were building walls, "a third of the world's countries have completed or are building barriers – compared to 16 at the fall of the Berlin Wall". I had no knowledge of this fact, apart from the one diving Israel and Palestina. Another surprising fact was the analysis made, that "a structure so simple as a wall or fence can have profound psychological effects" and that ""They (the walls) are mostly effective against the poorest and most desperate" and 'well-funded drug cartels and terrorist groups are not affected by walls at all because they have the resources to enter by safer methods, most likely using fake documents'. I found all of that to be true, after giving it a thought. 

Whereas I am not so sure about the solution to this situation, whether it lies in politics, an international treaty, or social management, it is worth to stop and consider the opinion of Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, from Canada's University of Victoria. He says that real border control comes only through the slow, exhaustive work of building ties and sharing information with other countries, but it's a lot more difficult for people to accept that diplomatic cooperation and sharing databases are much more effective in the long term.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3205724/How-65-countries-erected-security-walls-borders.html#ixzz4O46Bh0NY

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I Build Walls: poem - Entry #15

I build walls:
walls that protect,
walls that shield,
walls that say I shall not yield
or reveal
who I am or how I fell.

I build walls:
walls that hide,
walls that cover what's inside,
walls that stare or smile or look away,
silent lies,
 walls that even block my eyes
from the tears I might have cried.

I build walls:
walls that never let me
truly touch
those I love so very much.
Walls that need to fall!
Walls meant to be fortresses
are prisoners after all.
Source: http://rhlschool.com retrieved originally on April 8, 2003

Analysis

A person may decide to build walls around his/her feelings because s/he is suffering and resolves not to let other people know about it, or in order to prevent from further damage. Some other people, on the other hand, may decide to build figurative walls because they are detached from the society they live in. They are happy about being alone, are lonely people, or have issues socialising, so they stop from doing it altogether.

Personally I do not believe I am a person who usually builds such walls, but I have met people who do so. In case I get in a bad mood or moody I probably try to hide those feeling and mask them, so as to protect others and not regret something I carelessly said. 

The narrator does not believe that having these walls is always a good idea. By the end of the second verse, it reads that "silent lies" and by the end of the third "walls that need to fall", thus, showing that walls are not beneficial all the time.

In my opinion everyone needs to build walls every now and then, so as to restrain oneself from doing regrettable actions or words, or so as not to make people worry about us unnecessarily. But having walls up all the time, every day is not a good thing either. They should only be raised when necessary, and allow us to be free.

Walls -Entry #14

The macrostructure in the text "Across the Great Divide" in Time. Nov 15, 1999 is the following: differences perceived between east and west Berliners in ideologies, politics, perception of social equality and how they are not so different after all.
Its semantic organization is:
Topic: The Berlin Wall and its fall; social consequences
Genre: written, non-fiction, magazine article
Type of text: argumentative, expository
Field -what-: changes in Berlin inhabitants' lives derived from the Wall falling
Tenor -who- journalist to public, audience, readers
Mode -how- formal and semi-formal style
Some of the cohesive devices present in the text are near synonyms such as half, split, divided, split, barrier, other side. Repetition is another device. The repeated words are: disappointment, wall, city, west, east.
The organization of its twelve paragraphs as regards the topics are as it follows:
1° social injustice: occupational discrimination based on place of origin
2° social issues: people being hired for less money and unemployment caused
3° how the Wall and its separating power linger in time even after its physical disappearance
4° different political mindsets; polarised opinions
5° different political mindsets; polarised opinions, West vs. East opinions in detail
6° expectations versus reality
7° disappointments and social consequences of the fall of the Wall
8° current women situation
9° prejudices & occupational differences perceived faced with facts
10° households in the West and East, education and a new wave of educators and search for knowledge
11° yearning for the past Germany from a fraction of the society
12° investment in the East, resentment provoked
13° In spite of problems, most people are contented with the present situation

A video - Entry #12

Key words

Economically disadvantaged

Irreversible

Acceptable

Physical torture

Psychological torture

Horror of waiting

Attack against human rights

Inalienable

Crossing the line

Key phrases

·         The death penalty targets the economically disadvantaged

·         The death penalty is irreversible

·         The death penalty is never acceptable

·         No one should be target to torture

·         It tortures psychologically by forcing individuals to wait to be killed

·         Attack against these [human rights] is an attack to all of us

·         The right to life is inalienable

·         They’ve [criminals] crossed the line, but do we really want to join them?

Concepts

Death penalty and its inability to decrease criminal rate

Moral issue of death penalty

Economically disadvantaged being targeted

Irreversibility of death penalty

Violation to basic human rights

Death penalty as a double torture

The right to life conceded to everyone

Crimes committed; not enough a reason for the death penalty

A letter - Entry #11

Yoko Onno, John Lennon's widow, wrote a letter to the parole board when the subject of granting it to the musician's killer was in discussion. Here is a summary of her letter. A link to a copy of her letter is provided as well.

• Yoko Ono loved John Lennon profoundly. He was a kind man and his death affected her deeply.
• Yoko was in a state of denial when her husband died.
• She tries not to think about that fateful day, but it is very difficult for her.
• Lennon was a person who could enjoy his surroundings and nature even if he had been deprived of freedom.
• If Lennon’s killer was released on parole, his physical integrity would be in danger.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7G6NMHtraemSndUejBPMk1HU0ZJLVNXN2ZYSHNIM21GTFVj/view