Culture/Religion the same or back up?

as far as i have seen every country have their local culture that its affected by the enviroment, inmigrants, flora, fauna, etc, but the main factor or the one that have the most impact its the religion even so that they dictate on how to live.
it can be seen on japan with the bushido, china with taoism, india with budism, and the western continent with christianity and its many branches, so my question is why does the world need something like the religion to guide their lives when with a little effort you can be free to choose to live however you want without affecting anyone.

Kisna, the worrior poet (movie)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gEW67FJgpg&feature=relmfu

This film called Kisna is set in the India in 1930's when nationalists fighting for the country's independence rose up as one, urging the British to quit.It show us the reality between Indians and British in many diferrent ways.

British Deputy Commissioner, Peter Beckett, presides over a vast region in British-ruled India. He lives there with his wife, and a young daughter, Katherine in India. When he finds out that Katherine has become too friendly with one of the locals, Kisna, he sends her back to Britain. But, she come back when she grows up.

 I think that in this story,  you can see the discrimination, and the difference between Indian and British culture and how the historical moment affect the love story between Kisna and Katherine.

It is a beatiful story, this summerize what we learnt in classes.

Indian Wedding in The UK

The Civil and Asian Wedding Ceremonies took place at The City Rooms, Leicester and the Reception party took place at The Hilton Hotel, Coventry.

As per the Gujarati tradition the couple walked around the fire 4 times, but then the bride walked around the groom 7 times. They then had a "Shubh Drishti", where the couple look at each other for the first time, as per Bengali traditions.

The very talented singer, Ash King appeared at the reception singing his latest song - Te Amo from the film Dum Maro Dum, with the party then taken over by Kudos Music. 

"I have the feeling that such families are carrying their roots around the world with them. In a foreign country they need to have the feeling that they still live like at home. It is part of their identity. Emigrants need the feeling of a connection to their home country and religion or traditions offer them this connection.

I feel that in this way some people often get stuck with their old traditions while in their home country the same traditions actually develop further. They, of course, get a touch of the lifestyle of the country they live in, too, and so old-fashioned traditions sometimes clashes with modern living and at other times is nicely combined into a mélange of cultures." (Swami Ji)

I made my essay about the stolen generations because  I thougth that it was an extremely important part of the history.  It was also something that I have never heard before in my life and at the same time was something huge.
The stolen generations, as we all know was a tremendous crime against aborigines people in Australia . I would  like to share this internet page thatIi found when I was doing my research about the subject a few weeks ago.
Perhaps the stolen generations did not mean anything , or did not cause any feeling on you because you may felt that it was so distant from your reality. this intenet page and the testimonies made me reflect , feel and understand many thing that books , and documents could not to .

http://stolengenerationstestimonies.com/

Gender Discrimination: Discrimination against Girls child and women in India

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity… and rights…. Everyone isentitled to … rights … without distinction in any kind, such as … sex…. All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to suchdiscrimination…. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work…."

         

              Gender inequality is an acute and persistent problem, especially in developing countries. In India, discriminatory attitudes towards women have existed for generations and affects women over their lives. Although the constitution of India has granted women equal rights but gender disparities remains. 

               Like male or even above them female plays important role in the family and national development. But her contribution is not recognized by the male dominant society. 

            There are limited opportunities for women to access resources such as education, health care services and job opportunities to women as they decide the future of India. Women are disadvantaged at work, and are often underestimated for their capabilities. This has prevented Indian women from achieving a higher standard of living.

   A nation or society, without the participation of women cannot achieve development. If we eliminate gender discrimination, women will deliver all the potentials, skills, knowledge to develop the family, the nation and the whole world. 

 Female Infanticide and Sex-Selective Abortion

Female infanticide is the murder of a young girl child, often occurring as a deliberate murder of a girl infant or young girl child or as the result of neglect. Selective abortion – also called gender-selective abortion, sex-selective abortion, or female feticide – is the abortion of a fetus because it is female. Medical technology has made it possible for parents to discover the sex of a fetus at earlier and earlier stages of pregnancy, so many women from communities with a preference for boys practice selective abortion.

These practices occur most frequently in societies where a girl child is viewed as culturally and economically less advantageous than a boy child. Female infanticide has been reported in China, North Korea, South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan), the Middle East (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey) and parts of Africa (Cameroon, Liberia, Madagascar, Senegal, Nigeria).

Female infanticide and feticide are predominantly practiced in regions of significant poverty and overpopulation. One reason boys are more valued than girls is preserving lineage, as family lineage and family name are carried only by males in most societies. Also, children are expected to care for parents in their old age in many countries, so raising a son becomes a better investment because once a girl marries, she becomes the property of her husband and of virtually no value to her parents. Some women resort to female infanticide and feticide in order to protect their daughters from a life of objectification and subjugation in a society dominated by men, where there is a prevalent anti-girl attitude.

 ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION. NOT THE GIRL CHILD.

Carl Sagan, American astronomer and science communicator, manager of the famous message sent to the Voyager space probes, NASA proposed to take a picture of our planet when the Voyager spacecraft was at 6.000 million kilometers. NASA at first did not understand what sense would photograph our planet from a far away place.
Thus, the Voyager turned to earth and took the picture far we've seen in our world. Carl Sagan called it "The little pale blue dot" and made the following comment ..

A little gift for you all.
Always remember, this is our place now, and depend on us to live together in fraternity to protect and preserve this "pale blue dot, the only home that we ever know"...

Recommended Movie: My Name Is Khan

My name is Khan

"There are only two kinds of people, the good ones, who do good things, and the bad ones, who do bad things"

An Indian Muslim man with Asperger's syndrome takes a challenge to speak to the President seriously, and embarks on a cross-country journey.

In this movie we can clearly see how the US people discriminate and despise the muslim people after the 11-S and how much they suffer because of this.

Is a movie you should see because it shows the way that a minority is treated especifically after one moment on History.

Rizwan Khan (Tanay Chheda) is a Muslim child who grew up with his brother Zakir and his mother (Zarina Wahab) in a middle class family in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Rizwan is different from the other children and no one, including his mother, can understand why. However, he has certain gifts, particularly a special ability to repair any machine that is broken. His difference leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother. This attention, however, leads to a heightened level of jealousy from his brother Zakir, who eventually leaves his family for a life in the United States.

Despite this resentment, as an adult Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) sponsors Rizwan (Shahrukh Khan) to come and live with him in San Francisco. It is at this time that Zakir's psychologist wife, Haseena diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger's syndrome, a disorder which makes it difficult for people to interact socially. Rizwan also begins to work for Zakir as an herbal salesman and in the process he meets a Hindu woman, Mandira and her young son, Sameer or Sam (Yuvaan Makaar), from a previous marriage. Despite Zakir's hostility to the match, they marry and settle down in the fictional town of Banville, where both Mandira and Samir take Rizwan's last name as their own. They also live next door to the Garrick family. Sam is close with their young son, Reese (Kenton Duty and Michael Arnold) while Mark (Dominic Renda) is a journalist and Sarah (Katie A. Keane) is a friend of Mandira.

 

The Khans' perfect existence gets disrupted, however, after the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City. Mark goes to cover the war in Afghanistan and dies there. At the same time, the Khan family begins to experience post 9-11 prejudice in their community and Reese begins to turn against Sam as well. One afternoon, an argument between them turns into a racially motivated schoolyard fight between Sam and a number of older students. Reese tries to stop the fight but is held back and Sam is injured so badly that he dies. A shattered Mandira blames Rizvan for his death stating that Sam "died only because his name was Khan." She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants him in her life. When he asks her what he has to do to be a part of her life, she tells him that he has to tell the people of the United States, and the President that his name is Khan and that he is not a terrorist.