Montag, 23. November 2009

Tragedy of Forced Marriage

Some people in the middle east might be lucky with their marriage, however often these forced marriages are mistaken. It is also not the man who suffers the damage of the marriage it is the wife. In Afghanistan women belong too men and have barely no rights, so women under Taliban rule have no other escape then death.
So far there have been 51 cases of self immolation which were reported of between January and July.
According to Mohamed Aref Jalali the practice of self-immolation comes from Iran especially from Kurds living close to the Borders.
Afghan refugees that live in traditional uneducated towns where girls are forced into marriage where they after see no way to leave the marriage. Choosing death over marriage is a result of the daily routine of Afghan women: many are treated like slaves, kept inside and ordered to cook and clean, while others are repeatedly beaten or raped.
The Taliban openly executed women for braking laws so every women is scared of speaking freely or leaving the marriage. The law states that no girls under 16 years of age are allowed to be married, however most traditional families sell their girls as children to be married. Since the girls are illiterate due to the law that girls are not to be in school change in this area can only happen slowly.

Montag, 16. November 2009

Uganda proposes anti-gay laws

The newly proposed law in Uganda states that anybody whom commits or abets homosexual practices is punishable by capital punishment. It states that homosexuality is preventable and that it is a disease or mental disorder. It is punishable by at least 5 years imprisonment or about 54'000 dollars fine for people who abets homosexual practices.
It is as if Uganda is back in the middle ages and fundamentalist Christians have a big role in influencing Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni. A US anti-gay activist has a big role in this Scott Lively when he attended a conference in Uganda's capital. According to the bill it is a disorder which can be fought and changed to a heterosexual orientation.
All it still takes is a signature, the law is waiting to be signed by Musevevni till it is passed as a law.

Montag, 9. November 2009

Defining poverty

What is poverty, or how do you know if someone is officially poor or living in poverty. It is hard to define poverty since there are so many different factors that add up too leading someone to that state.
There are 11 standards that you need too fulfill to not be considered to be in "consistent poverty". The 11 necessities are: a warm waterproof overcoat,two pairs of strong shoes, meals with meat, chicken or fish at least every second day, a roast joint or its equivalent once a week, a warm house and the wherewithal to buy presents for family members once a year, have guests over for a drink once a month, and a night out every two weeks. Lack two of the standard necessities on the list, and you're officially poor.
Some of these necessities are considered normal even for really poor people and some like going out every two weeks might not be standard for rich people with a new born baby. However the Irish poverty rate has decreased 6.5 percent with the new system of defining poverty. Yet it is complicated to measure who is poor and what you can't measure you can't debate. However it has been figured out that Canada has much more trouble with defining poverty then Ireland.

Freitag, 6. November 2009

How does the filmmaker appeal to the audience?

The watched Documentary reported about a corporation which is active all over the world. The Corporation has arose some problems in these different habitats. The movie addresses this problems with different filmmaking techniques, using Pathos, Ethos and Logos.
The Filmmaker appeals to ethos by gathering a bunch of CEO and specialists on environment. These "talking heads" then speak from their point of view and clearly state the problems. The audience relies on these talking heads because they are made to look credible. In a way it is just like logos just that it also focuses on building up a relationship to the audience so the documentary seems trustworthy.
Logos is represented when the speaking CEO's present a problem and explain what will be the logical outcome and how it will affect them. This can be very persuasive for people who think logically and profitable. In 'the corporation' the documentary again uses the talking heads method too let credible people state why their point of view is and why it is logical. I believe no other technique can relate to logos as well as the talking heads.
The filmmaker focuses on especially on pathos by showing shock pictures and ideas of how the future will look like. Making the future look dangerous and bad lets the audience relate to why we have to change. Sometimes shock images are shown for just a second or less, this creates that the audience thinks about the image and why it was in relation with the prior subject. Automatically the brain relates that the "bad" man speaking is responsible for the shock picture.
This is how the filmmaker appeals to different areas of influencing, ethos, pathos and logos.