Who am I, you may ask? The truth is, I am still unsure. My name is Blakely Ian Majella Browne, and I’m on a pursuit of self-discovery. I am a lover of adventure, experiences, and knowledge, for I feel that these things help shape who we are as people, allowing us to grow and in some way give back to the world and global community we are so blessed to be a part of. I have a desire to live the most full life I can, and that is why I have come to UBC; to begin a journey that will prepare me for anything I encounter in life.
The journey so far has been wildly different from what I imagined it would be. Growing up in a small town of only 2000 people meant I knew everybody. But when I moved here to study at UBC, in Vancouver, British Columbia, I didn’t know a single soul. The transition was a bit difficult. It’s not quite as easy as it sounds to develop a new sense of community. But as the weeks pass, I have begun to feel more and more that I am becoming part of a group of like-minded people, who all share a passion for living life.
As a student at UBC, I have come bearing questions. Haven’t we all? I mean, that is the core reason of why we are here. To expand our knowledge base, finding the answers we so desperately seek. Each discipline has its own questions, but, what I truly seek and hope to gain insight into is how do they relate? It seems that so frequently we get caught up in a single aspect of our studies that we forget to question how it relates to the real world, and to other disciplines.
When it comes to our Arts Studies course, and the Global Citizens stream of the Coordinated Arts Program as a whole, I see an opportunity to reveal answers to which I have always had questions about. Through our study of life narrative, I seek to discover, for example, why some people’s stories and life experiences get heard, while others do not. Who are the unsung heroes that never make the big leagues? An example of one of these people is Norman Borlaug (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1970/borlaug-bio.html), a highly respected environmentalist and agriculturist. But unlike many other famous people in the sciences, Borlaug was someone who never quite got the fame he deserved. Borlaug effectively saved a billion lives between 1966 and 1967 when newly independent India was on the brink of collapse after the death of Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, by teaching sustainable farming techniques that aided in the feeding of the population. (http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/topics/borlaug/special.html) I find it interesting that such an influential person is an unknown entity to most of the world, and I am sure that there are much more like him.
Coming to the end of this first post, I can’t help but be excited for the amazing journey ahead.
The question of why some peoples’ stories get told and others are lost can be expanded to ask why some peoples’ struggles are recognized while the suffering of others goes unacknowledged. Anna Kaveneys’ blog post focused on narratives that expose human rights abuses, but as you have pointed out here, there might not be a platform for all of them. What if some get lost? What suffering are we unaware of because no one has taken the time to talk about it? It would be helpful to take a look at the stories being told on mainstream media and identify patterns of repetition and from that note where there might be oversight. If we are focusing all our attention on one story we could be allowing many others to fall through the cracks. We must ask ourselves how much responsibility we hold in un-earthing new suffering and working to solve it. How much responsibility does the individual hold? The larger collective whole?
-Seana Bruff
I want to tell you that I strongly agree with your point of view that how some voices and some people are heard better than others. Pondering over this I was wondering why is it that some groups are better heard and some stories just die down in the hearts of those who lived it?Who gets to decide whose voice will be heard?who makes the rules here?? And does the social media show a true picture of what actually goes in a society or they just show us the perspective they think better and something they will benefit from?And also just because an interest group is loud and makes a lot of noise to attract attention with a bunch of people on the streets when displaying their cause in public doesn’t mean that they are supporting the interests of all because the interests and ideas of the minorities or ethnic groups or the poor working class usually get over shadowed by the elites who just because they have the means to arrange better advertising facilities mange to get their word across. So to what extent have we achieved equality in terms of recognition and representation?This is an issue we have been discussing in our political science and our sociology class and it is something that troubles me and it’s something I’m looking forward to find answers to.