Setting foot in North America for the first in my life, moving to Canada from Thailand, made me realized how much history I’ve actually missed out on. And one of the biggest issues I’ve bumped into since I’ve been here is with the indigenous people. I’ve never been involved in a culture that was made by the suffering of another’s. I had no idea what these people had to go through. And while I was in UBC, I had the chance to befriend a native from the Musqueam tribe. By knowing him, I was allowed to visit the reservation, meet the people, and hear of their experiences.

I refuse to say whether lives are going great or not because I’m in no position to say, especially as an outsider not only to the natives but to Canada as well. But the sense of family, the sense of community, is so strong and actually feels refreshing.  I never really saw a problem until getting into my Law and Society’s topic over the second semester. The past that these people have been through is actually astonishing. Being stripped away from their homes and lives, it’s hard to believe that the native I call my friend seems to be enjoying life. But he is.

I believe Boyden was making a statement here referring to how First Nations people have always been treated poorly by non-native Canadians traditionally. It could also be surmised that a warning is being issued with the relating of how the trapper died because of Niska. This warning could be applied to either men who choose to treat first nation women in a demeaning manner, or the poor treatment of/or towards first nation people in general. The incident caused me to ponder the idea of curses and how many curses have been put on non-native people over the years.

Over the years dragging though life with hours and hours of mindless daydreaming, I sort of accepted the fact that the way I saw the world was unique. I’m not implying that I’m exclusive, just that everyone has a different comprehension of everything around us due to the unique ways we perceive reality, based on my opinion of course. I mean, who am I to say we don’t live in a world suppressed by the “1%” to fall in order like ants? But it does seem like that, doesn’t it.

“We institutionalized beings are sucked in, drained of our individuality, taught to fear inadequacy and spat out on the other side.”

I’m not as depressing and pessimistic as I am coming across. I actually tend to just live this life of rebellion over anything. The whole initiation process to be either a “Martha” or “Handmaid” in Atwood’s novel made me think about how that reflects on our modern society. And if anything, it reminded me of my experience moving from high school to university. Adolescence for me was a time of waiting. A time where I reflected on everything I had and hadn’t accomplished to determine how the rest of my life would play out. It was just scary knowing that everything I knew and understood would soon be ripped from under me and I would be thrown into a whole new way of existing known as adulthood. But the problem was I was absolutely terrified of the future; as detrimental to my mentality as my life sounded, I feared adulthood would be worse. The saddest part of all was that I was complacent. What drove me to the edge of insanity with its unjustified inadequacy was also what made my life comfortable. I was happy, not because I was satisfied with the mundane existence I was carving out for myself, but because it was reliable; I had a routine that may have unsettled me at times, but it kept me going.

But this is it: real, raw, live freedom.  Not so much stage in life but an opportunity to make the path to wherever you really want to be. You either kick and crawl till you’ve made it or you have fun and accept what life offers you. And to be honest, I don’t think there could be a wrong answer. Life is what you make out of it, I guess.

I don’t even know if I’m making any sense.

This is what happens when you give my mind a blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYqYLfm1rWA#t=170

I find this rather interesting, actually. The fact that male is viewed as the default and that other people have to be differentiated is something that seems unfair. But I have an explanation for this that might either complement or be more accurate than Sarkeesian’s view. (Anita Sarkeesian is a Canadian-American feminist, media critic and blogger)

I think the human mind is simply has its limits. We stereotype because there is so much information we have to sift through. Most of it is not done out of malice at all, but rather because we have to make sense of the world. A lot of the information in stereotypes may be incorrect, and taking measures to correct that in the media is certainly a good thing. However, I do think our limits are partially to blame for how we view the world.

Now, if we’re looking purely at statistics, what type of person would be the most representative of humanity? A Chinese person. However, the vast majority of Chinese people live in, well, China. And China has the largest percentage of the world population. They are a minority in the United States…where most people are white. In contrast, Japan, where a lot of video games come from, the default would more than likely be a Japanese person. Of course, lack of numbers can’t explain the gender gap in video games since there are a roughly equal number of men and women in the world. There is certainly a power differential at work here. But tell me, when you think of a human being, should we think of some sort of featureless blob? Well, no. I think we can imagine what would happen if we did. But can you think of all the variations within humanity at exactly the same time? I doubt you can. You could make a list, but it’s not going to happen simultaneously. And really, would it be any better for say, a Latina woman to be seen as the default? My logic says no, but your mileage may vary on this.

So really, I think having features to differentiate the genders is a very minor issue compared to the stereotypes paired with them. Why not have a female character wearing both lipstick and a bow and be an intellectual scientist? Or a tough fighter? Or a sensitive poet? The personality is what matters, not the superficial features.

*forgive me, i was actually supposed to submit this in AGESSS ago. but on top of me being a perfectionist, i’m also forgetful. enjoy nonetheless :]*

As the i writing my summary in class, I debated with myself whether or not i should be talking about the article through my own opinion. And then i just thought to myself, to what extent are we allowed to trust our emotions in the pursuit of knowledge?

Emotion is defined to be “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood or relationships with others.” As a natural instinct, emotion can’t be controlled to the full extent which means it will conflict with the pursuit of knowledge (pursuit of knowledge being the ability to gain information which can be used for judgment). But whether one should welcome or deny their emotion for the pursuit can be explored evaluating emotion as either a source or an obstacle. Different circumstances involve different levels of emotion put into it. So when can one know the right situation to allow their emotions to take place.

It is in the extreme situations when the pressure and stress is overwhelming where emotion causes failure in obtaining knowledge and being weighed down by emotion creates a clouded view over the situation.  Imagine a man, who specializes in Biology as an emergency medical care unit, on the way home from work. Driving past the school after picking up his son, a truck driver runs a red light and crashes into the man’s car. Suddenly, with his own son who is in need of medical care, the man is so besieged with fear and panic. With the man is so overwhelmed, he is in the point of being oblivious to the basic anatomy and procedure he often encounters in his daily profession. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual describes panic to be source from “intense fear and acute discomfort”. Having a panic attack would generally include the loss of both mental and physical stability. Being born with the ability to feel anger, happiness and fear is what separates the human beings and animalistic creatures and with the man struggling to react appropriately, the idea of emotion is seen to be an obstacle rather than an aid. Looking at the situation, where logic or reason is seen as a direct opposite to emotion, this is considered as an extreme level of emotion where reason is abandoned.

Ultimately, emotion and reason can be seen as two opposite extremes. In order to enable the pursuit of knowledge, moderation between the two extremes should be met.  People often think that opposites should stay separate, like fire and water or light and darkness, but emotion and reason work hand in hand in the pursuit of knowledge in the way they depend on each other. Pure emotion, by clouding perception, limits the information that is gathered in order to achieve knowledge and pure reason takes away the incentive to have something to pursuit. The middle ground between emotion and reason create the pursuit of knowledge. For example, if a person is filled with the emotion of anger, reason is needed to suppress the emotion in order to act rationally rather than leading to violence. Just like this reason is needed in order to gain knowledge by enabling the ability to receive information in an unbiased situation. And without emotion, there would be to motivation to act on a pursuit. We can know when to trust our emotions in the pursuit of knowledge by being able to trust ourselves to find reason in our emotions and emotion in our reason. If one is to fail by passion, we have reason as a fail-safe.

From what I’ve learned form my life experiences, I couldn’t agree any more with Martha Nussbaum in her article on “Democratic Citizenship and the Narrative Imagination”. Even though she focuses on literature, I have the same feelings towards dance which is a big passion on mine.

In a single performance, there are two perspectives present: the audience’s and the performer’s. The audience assembles around the stage and perceives nothing less than an illusion, an escape to a different world, a real life fantasy. As the story continues, the audience is left in awe. Focused on a single spotlight, the viewers are left not only amused or entertained but inspired. Inspired to have their heads in the clouds and inspired to imagine. On the other hand, in the performer’s eyes as the audience fill up the seats, every eye pointed manufactures a sense of nervousness, almost nauseous. But as the stage dims, the spotlight shining represents more than a focus but a chance to escape. Every count stands for the seconds lost in tears, every move represents every moment experienced and every step symbolizes every struggle that has passed by. As the performer drowns in the applause, he is accepted, he is pleased and he is free.

“When we perform as performers, we’re just giving ourselves to everyone, people don’t really know and that is scary. When they accept you when you’re very real with people, it’s very humbling.” – Ian Eastwood

Dance by itself has always been a huge part of my life. Having to be surrounded by dancers in my family, dance has always been something that was just ‘there’. But as I grew up, dance started to mean a lot more to me. Dance was an escape and most importantly, dance was an expression. Dance, just like medicine, has got me through my worst. Dance today, in my opinion, can be taken for granted. As entertaining as it is, it can be classified as just that, “entertainment”. A lot of people, these days, have a lot to express to the world or even to express just to let something out in a personal level.

Everybody has their past, everyone has done something they are not proud of and everyone, at some point of their lifetime, wants the chance to erase and start again.

“You take all the anger that you’ve ever had, you take your daily activity, whatever makes you feel a certain way and you put into your movement. When I create my dance, in my consciousness, I’m going to have my pain, my frustration, my anger and my insecurities.” John M. Chu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTLgdTkQNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGvW26ua7sk

To be honest, I’ve always been a fan of listening to stories about the black civil right movements. Something about the passion to fight for one’s freedom to live and express really touched deep. It isn’t even so much about  the black community in particular, the fact that someone strives to make a mark in their lives that benefits them and the people that will follow really inspires.

Learning about Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham Jail, what really struck was the amount of assurance he is able to portray. I mean .. cmon .. he’s in jail, if I was in that situation, I’d think that was it for me. I actually envy this passion. I haven’t had the greatest childhood so I pushed through life feeling like I always had something to prove; get good grades, get into a good university, etc etc. but to be honest, I’m not that much of a smart kid. Hell, I’m even shocked on the fact I made it to UBC. But that made me realize it’s all about pushing through and fighting for what believe and love and not for what everyone expects out of you.

“I have no dear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom”

Due to talking about the fall and rise of a nation, I was reminded on the movie “Freedom Writers” (if anyone reading this hasn’t watched, I HIGHLY recommend it. I’ll try to put a clip of it in the end if i remember). The movie explores the struggle and abuse teenagers go through with gang wars in Longbeach California (i think ..). A teacher comes into their lives and changes it for the good. I know it sound cliche coming from my mind but that just because I’m nowhere good enough to grasp the concept of the film on a blog (let alone writing a blog itself). Learning through the progress of civil rights movements through Louis Menand’s “The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act” and combining it with the situation real teenagers are facing with gang wars due to your heritage and ethnicity, it actually makes you think “have we really gotten to where we were aiming to go?” This thought is the exact fact the struck me with the last sentence of the article when Menand mentions “What’s so changed about that?”

I dont know .. I guess i may be overthinking it but at least it’s gotten my mind to ponder over something.

Here are two scenes from the movie, I feel like it really relates the to topics we’re discussing now; rights, ethnicity, racism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpsd3Zikrlg

&

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c5pbePUc2g

enjoy :]

Wow. first post.

It’s kinda weird thinking about it; the fact that you’re rambling your thoughts as they pass through to a computer screen haha.

Anyways, I’m Kyle Dante but people call me “Dante” as the name “Kyle” slowly deteriorates due to frat boys and drunken souls enjoying to bawl over the vowels of my last name.

I have lived in Bangkok, Thailand for my whole life before I made the random decision to study half way around the world.

So now I’m here .. making a blog

Well, if anything, I hope you guys enjoy what I have to say.

Cheers and here’s a pineapple for your troubles :]