Thursday, January 29, 2009
"Hungry" or "Fishing for a beer" !?!
While driving, I saw a homeless person on the side of a road, holding a sign “Hungry! Anything helps” and further along on the traffic signal, I saw another man with a fishing pole and a sign saying “Fishing for beer”. I noticed some youngsters giving him money, laughing and encouraging about his sign. On the other hand, that poor hungry vet, who was holding the sign was ignored by people. It made me think WHY? This guy who wanted a beer was getting attention and money? It is strange how our society turns a blind eye to anything that does not relate to them in any way. Our society does have homeless shelter s, food banks and government aid available but wont it be worthless if we the people living in the society keep referring them to those places and instead give those few dollars that we do have to the people who clearly are supplying a addiction?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Interactions with Bill at the Fish Food Bank
In the last article I wrote, I spoke about my first experience at the Fish Food Bank. At the end of my article, I referred to an incident when I encountered a kind and generous man. This man appeared to be struggling financially his life. At that time I was unable to talk to him.
Fortunately, I happen to see him again, last Friday, when I went there for community service. He recognized me, since I had helped the last time. I noticed that this time he was talking and he was also a little friendlier than he was before. One of my good friends who is a social-worker suggested to me that I should not to be 'overly nice' to these people. Sometimes, they see it as condescending. So I was trying not to be super-nice and have a good conversation with him.
He told me his name was 'Bill'. He has been homeless for quit sometime. He is a regular at the fish food bank, like many others. I asked him if our society or government provides any shelters for them and if he takes advantage of them. He informed me that a few years back they used to provide tents, which according to him was very helpful to them. However, for some reason they stopped it giving out tents. The tents helped so that they didn't have to stay or sleep under the bridges in the cold rainy nights like they do now. Instead of tents, now they provide "Blankets" which do not work as well. Bill told me the tent he had, he used it for more than a month and the "Blanket" he received did not last even a week. He said, "It's Washington", blanket gets wet and then they are unusable. So, society's idea of being helpful to homeless people was more like addition to littering (since he said when the blanket got wet, he would just have to leave it, had could he carry something like that around).
In the our Soci 240 class and everywhere else, I have seen people asking "what can we do?" , "what should we do about these problems that individuals in our society face ?". There are people like Bill, who knows what can help him and others like him, yet I feel that society doesn’t take the time to listen. Instead, they are judge by their outward appearance and therefore get lost in our cities, our forced to go to the food banks and live under bridges. Would you like to live under a bridge? Or have to go to a food bank instead of a grocery store where you get a choice on what you want to buy? The answer to that is probably not and that I why when I think of the questions that were raised in class about what can we do or should do….I think we can start by listening to hear what they have to say, instead of making our own “wise” assumptions.
Fortunately, I happen to see him again, last Friday, when I went there for community service. He recognized me, since I had helped the last time. I noticed that this time he was talking and he was also a little friendlier than he was before. One of my good friends who is a social-worker suggested to me that I should not to be 'overly nice' to these people. Sometimes, they see it as condescending. So I was trying not to be super-nice and have a good conversation with him.
He told me his name was 'Bill'. He has been homeless for quit sometime. He is a regular at the fish food bank, like many others. I asked him if our society or government provides any shelters for them and if he takes advantage of them. He informed me that a few years back they used to provide tents, which according to him was very helpful to them. However, for some reason they stopped it giving out tents. The tents helped so that they didn't have to stay or sleep under the bridges in the cold rainy nights like they do now. Instead of tents, now they provide "Blankets" which do not work as well. Bill told me the tent he had, he used it for more than a month and the "Blanket" he received did not last even a week. He said, "It's Washington", blanket gets wet and then they are unusable. So, society's idea of being helpful to homeless people was more like addition to littering (since he said when the blanket got wet, he would just have to leave it, had could he carry something like that around).
In the our Soci 240 class and everywhere else, I have seen people asking "what can we do?" , "what should we do about these problems that individuals in our society face ?". There are people like Bill, who knows what can help him and others like him, yet I feel that society doesn’t take the time to listen. Instead, they are judge by their outward appearance and therefore get lost in our cities, our forced to go to the food banks and live under bridges. Would you like to live under a bridge? Or have to go to a food bank instead of a grocery store where you get a choice on what you want to buy? The answer to that is probably not and that I why when I think of the questions that were raised in class about what can we do or should do….I think we can start by listening to hear what they have to say, instead of making our own “wise” assumptions.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Disney's Monopoly
As someone who grew up watching Walt Disney films such as Aladdin and The Lion King, I found the movie Mickey Mouse Monopoly to be somewhat shocking as it related to my childhood experiences. The kids growing up see these Disney films as 'harmless family fun', but I have discovered that the animators have placed “hidden” sexual images over the course of these animated features. By using these features in their films, they are basically telling society as a whole that sex sells, which it does but are not these suppose to be children film?
After researching a little more, I found that not only discrimination is involved in their movie but also the speculation of dirty and inappropriate subliminal messages lingers around these movies. I checked The Rescuers, The little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King and Alice in Wonderland. Such inappropriate messages can be seen and/or heard.
For example, in the little Mermaid, you can clearly see the shape of a penis in the castle. This can be seen on the original (not the new) front cover of the film, shown in this picture. As you watch the movie, you can see other things hidden. In the wedding scene, you can see the priest getting an erection. Also, If you pause one scene in the movie you can see the characters Donald, Mickey and Goofy, which makes me think that there some hidden scenes in the movie.
In the movie movie LionKing, when the adult Simba collapses on the cliff and brushes something over the edge, it swirls up into the sky and spells out sex. This seems strange that Disney would put this in a kids movie. Another time you can see it is if you watch the wildebeast running down the canyon, after the stampeed, the dust it kicks up settles to form the word "sex".
Why is Disney repeatedly showing the word "sex" in their childrens movie. It seems like this is a betrayal of trust to the consumers. Another example comes from the movie Aladdin, where there is a scene in which the protagonist is being attacked by his romantic interest’s tiger and he whispers “good teenagers take off your clothes”.
People buy Disney movies because they trust that the movies are appropriate for children to view it. Really though, I just wonder why they do it.
All the videos of this examples are available on you tube and more.
After researching a little more, I found that not only discrimination is involved in their movie but also the speculation of dirty and inappropriate subliminal messages lingers around these movies. I checked The Rescuers, The little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King and Alice in Wonderland. Such inappropriate messages can be seen and/or heard.
For example, in the little Mermaid, you can clearly see the shape of a penis in the castle. This can be seen on the original (not the new) front cover of the film, shown in this picture. As you watch the movie, you can see other things hidden. In the wedding scene, you can see the priest getting an erection. Also, If you pause one scene in the movie you can see the characters Donald, Mickey and Goofy, which makes me think that there some hidden scenes in the movie.
In the movie movie LionKing, when the adult Simba collapses on the cliff and brushes something over the edge, it swirls up into the sky and spells out sex. This seems strange that Disney would put this in a kids movie. Another time you can see it is if you watch the wildebeast running down the canyon, after the stampeed, the dust it kicks up settles to form the word "sex".
Why is Disney repeatedly showing the word "sex" in their childrens movie. It seems like this is a betrayal of trust to the consumers. Another example comes from the movie Aladdin, where there is a scene in which the protagonist is being attacked by his romantic interest’s tiger and he whispers “good teenagers take off your clothes”.
People buy Disney movies because they trust that the movies are appropriate for children to view it. Really though, I just wonder why they do it.
All the videos of this examples are available on you tube and more.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
My Experience for Fish Food bank
I noticed that how different people can have different perspective for the food. In fact, some petty things that we don't really think about. For example, a can of beans or a small bag of rice.
My job there was to guide people how much food(grocery) they can get as per the number of people in their family. The 'people' here, I am talking about, are the people who are fighting for the survival. I observed that they were not looking for their favorite thing or the things that their kids love the most; they were looking for food that they can feed themselves as well as their family members for long.
After knowing how the system works and what's the ratio for food as per the people, I tried to keep myself in their shoes and check what things will I choose to take. *
In the start it was easy to choose between a can of diced tomatoes or beans. I chose beans thinking its healthy and will last little longer. Then comes the choice between 2 different kinds of canned fruits, which wasn't hard. Grabing a loaf of bread was easy too. Further comes the time to choose, if I want a big (a gallon, I think) thing of *concentrated orange juice* , *fresh juice* or *Milk*.(any ONE) Since I knew what are other food items coming up so I chose milk in my mind.
Ouch! This people doesnt know what other food items available, so if someone chooses juice, they dont get milk but they do get cereals !?! These are some of the small things that pinched me while being the person who monitors that they dont take more food than they are suppose to.
I also noticed a social-workers/volunteers, the one who stood by the fridge and provided people the dairy items. I noticed her being really generous to one race of people, by giving them a adequate amount of food and being nice. On the otherside, she strictly made sure that other people did not get more than what they are supposed to. In fact, she was little grumpy and rude towards us too. I talked to my classmate 'Vickie' about it and her reaction was :"I was about to tell you the same thing, it's funny that you noticed it too". That confirmed, it was not just me who observed that. However, there was another person doing the samething to the other race, so it was strangely balancing it out. I am hoping this to be a rare issue in the places food bank.
I also met few individual who were generous. It will not be a lie if I say I learnt a small lesson of being kind and generous through them. It was easy to guess that they needed food like everyone else but they tried their best to make sure that they live things for others. One of them was this gentleman, who was about my height, age 30 (i guess), wearing blue jeans(unwashed) , a jacket, torn gloves, shoes full of dirt and a beanie. He disagreed to take another loaf of bread (as per the rule everyone can have one loaf of bread from two diff sections) and other food items like cereals. I asked him the reason and he said, he just need to fill one body(himself), and continued 'there are people outside standing in line with kids; they will need some too'. I was speechless, all I could respond was "Thank you" and he replied humbly "No, thanks to you guys !". It's hard to describe the way he reacted, like he knew exactly what he was doing.
My job there was to guide people how much food(grocery) they can get as per the number of people in their family. The 'people' here, I am talking about, are the people who are fighting for the survival. I observed that they were not looking for their favorite thing or the things that their kids love the most; they were looking for food that they can feed themselves as well as their family members for long.
After knowing how the system works and what's the ratio for food as per the people, I tried to keep myself in their shoes and check what things will I choose to take. *
In the start it was easy to choose between a can of diced tomatoes or beans. I chose beans thinking its healthy and will last little longer. Then comes the choice between 2 different kinds of canned fruits, which wasn't hard. Grabing a loaf of bread was easy too. Further comes the time to choose, if I want a big (a gallon, I think) thing of *concentrated orange juice* , *fresh juice* or *Milk*.(any ONE) Since I knew what are other food items coming up so I chose milk in my mind.
Ouch! This people doesnt know what other food items available, so if someone chooses juice, they dont get milk but they do get cereals !?! These are some of the small things that pinched me while being the person who monitors that they dont take more food than they are suppose to.
I also noticed a social-workers/volunteers, the one who stood by the fridge and provided people the dairy items. I noticed her being really generous to one race of people, by giving them a adequate amount of food and being nice. On the otherside, she strictly made sure that other people did not get more than what they are supposed to. In fact, she was little grumpy and rude towards us too. I talked to my classmate 'Vickie' about it and her reaction was :"I was about to tell you the same thing, it's funny that you noticed it too". That confirmed, it was not just me who observed that. However, there was another person doing the samething to the other race, so it was strangely balancing it out. I am hoping this to be a rare issue in the places food bank.
I also met few individual who were generous. It will not be a lie if I say I learnt a small lesson of being kind and generous through them. It was easy to guess that they needed food like everyone else but they tried their best to make sure that they live things for others. One of them was this gentleman, who was about my height, age 30 (i guess), wearing blue jeans(unwashed) , a jacket, torn gloves, shoes full of dirt and a beanie. He disagreed to take another loaf of bread (as per the rule everyone can have one loaf of bread from two diff sections) and other food items like cereals. I asked him the reason and he said, he just need to fill one body(himself), and continued 'there are people outside standing in line with kids; they will need some too'. I was speechless, all I could respond was "Thank you" and he replied humbly "No, thanks to you guys !". It's hard to describe the way he reacted, like he knew exactly what he was doing.
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