Who are the sovereigns of the Falklands?

Between Argentina and England there is this dispute over the Island Falklands (Malvinas). The islands are a self-governing British Overseas Territory, with the United Kingdom responsible for their defense and foreign affairs. Since 1833 generations of British have gone to live there and made their lives out of fishing and the other resources they can get from the islands. 61% of the population is Falkland Islander, 29% British, 6.5% Chilean & Other

The island is a paradise because everyone has a job, get paid really good amount of money, children go to a British school for free and they are offered scholarships to study in England for their college and university degrees. People speak English, they drive on the left side of the road, have post office boxes and telephone booths just like in England.

            So, who are the sovereigns of the Falklands? The people that have been living there for ages, long generations or the ones that claim territory because they are near and discovered they had the potential to start exploiting the land and sea for oil?

God reincarnation, Avatars

First you need to know what is reincarnation.  As many religious or philosophic beliefs  after biological death, begins a new life in a new body that may be human, animal or spiritual depending on the moral quality of the previous life's actions.

Are there many gods or it is just one god in different aspects?

brahma ,Vishnu and Krishna are considerate as God and the origin of avatars and semi gods.

Female Gods

 God can expand in a female aspect which symbolize the earth, fertility and represent the devotion. One aspect of female god is RADHA. (the women in the picture)

So as you can see, for Indian people, god doesn't have just one aspect, is no just one person, because it is everywhere in every aspect.  God is present in the nature such as cats, dogs, birds, trees, flowers.  God is the creator of everything, so you can't say that he is just man or women or Jesus or Budha. For them, God can use any forms, and they also accept Jesus as an Avatar.  

These beliefs is not just in Hinduism, many indian abourigine believe in the same way, and famous people such as Pythagoras, Platon and Socrates thought that this is a logical way to understand  the spirituality things related to God.

Where do we learn the Indian culture? who can understand it completely? I think that with our ignorance we have many opinions that are not true. Maybe all the things that we thought is real, it is just 1 % of Indian's culture reality. 

Hope for the Future

For my last entry, I really wanted to post a video about either stereotypes, racism, bullying, something like that. I spent a lot of time on youtube searching these topics and discovered the amount of videos promoting unity and change. There were many anti bulling videos, anti stereotypes, how stereotypes can affect a person, defeating the label sort of videos, anti racist videos, the list goes on and on.
There were 3 important things I noticed from searching and seeing all of these videos:
1) The actual amount of existing videos that promote an "open mind".
2) The fact that most of the videos were either made by or involved in some way teenagers and young adults.
3) All of the views and comments that the videos had.

Why are these points important? Simple, its proof that times are changing. The newer generations are beginning to understand (or already do) the necessity of having a broader perspective and acceptance of people of different race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, personal taste, etc.
This is one of the reasons as to why there is so much conflict between the older and newer generations.

But not all young people are like this though. I can personally say that I'm a very open minded person, but I have family members who are not. Some of my own cousins, for example, tend to use a lot of racist jokes and can be very close minded in relation to sexual orientation, urban groups and whatnot. My guess is that it is the result of the environment in which they grew up in and the limited access to the media. Their main family is consisted mainly of boys who, following the steps of their fathers, can be a bit "macho". A few years ago they didn't have as much access to the media as I did or what more city people had.

So, as seen in class and in other posts, it is true that the media helps spread stereotypes and such BUT it also helps provide a wider perspective or view on things. Youtube is an example. Thousands of people have watched the video shown here plus many others. Thousands have the notion that bullying, stereotyping, labeling and racism is wrong. Thousands more will continue to watch the videos. It is also important to note the comments written on the videos. People are showing their support towards change and are no longer standing on the sidelines but actually taking action not with violence, but with non violent resistance (as promoted by Martin Luther King).

I chose this particular video because it was made by people more of our generation, it had a more happy vibe to it (there were other good videos but they tended to be a bit more sad and trying to change your mentality by making you feel bad), it showed all kinds of people and it was fun to watch. It catches your attention plus the music is catchy. The song used is actually adequate "Who Do U Think U R?" *note the lyrics.
Here are some links to other videos I found interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YXCVy8wlXo&feature=related  (Very good)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Y4jx38DF4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWJut7KQhI4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrJxqvalFxM
We have advanced a lot but we still have a long way to go. What do you think? Is there hope for the future?

Common Stereotypes

            I was looking up some information about stereotypes and I found a list of common  stereotypes around the world. I think this list is a good example for knowing what other people think about the rest of the world.

These are some examples:

African Americans

          One of the more common stereotypes examples is stereotypes surrounding African Americans. Saying that all African Americans are good at sports is a stereotype, because it’s grouping the race together to indicate that everyone of that race is a good athlete.

Asian

     Asians have high IQs. They are smarter than most in Math and Science. These people are more likely to succeed in school.






England

All people who live in England have bad teeth.

People from USA

         All white Americans are obese, lazy, and dim-witted. Homer Simpson of the TV series The Simpsons is the personification of this stereotype.

As a reflection...

• I think that Stereotyping can lead to bullying form a young age.
• Stereotyping can also lead people to live lives driven by fear.
• For example, many gays and lesbians are afraid to admit their sexuality in fear of being judged.

The Bindi.

       I wanted to show you the history behind the "bindi" that we were talking about in our presentation.
         Many Hindus wear a mark on the forehead between the eyes. Why do they use this mark?
 It is said that this point, known by various names such as Third eye, Tikki, Ajna Chakra,Tilaka, etc, is the main nerve in the human body.
      According to legends, the material that is used to do the bindi, the "Sándalo" (a plant from India) is refreshing. Using this substance on the forehead between the eyes refreshes the nerve center associated with energy, and as a consequence the mind is calmed.
      Women wear the bindi as a symbol of their marriage vows. In ancient times, the groom smeared his blood on the forehead of the bride to represent his marriage to her. Today, the religious significance has been practically forgotten, is used more as a decoration and is worn by unmarried women as well as non-Hindus. But there are some women that have kept their traditions and still use this mark as a signal of their marriage.
       Nowadays, the bindi is part of the Hindu fashion. They can be found in different colors and designs that have adhesives that facilitate its application in the forehead between the eyes.

A Cultural Issue

For all those who were in class and saw the first group on the last presentations, here is the website with the article about the Indian woman growing up in the UK.

 http://www.lifecoach-directory.org.uk/lifecoach-articles/culture-issues-the-challenges-of-growing-up-as-an-indian-woman-in-the-uk

I have read it like 3 or 4 times since our presentation. And I was wondering about something. 

Is really possible to conciliate both cultures? 

I mean, when we try to think about mixing two cultures is almost impossible to come out with a practical solution. 

It is pretty obvious that this decision will bring a lot of trouble for the ones involved.

For example, an Indian woman just does not have any support from her family if she tries to do something "British". And what she is really doing is just imitate what her friends are doing, like looking for a boyfriend, go shopping and even (as we saw in the movie "Bend it like Beckam") trying to practice any sport.

If you were born in India, and grew up in the UK, which one is your "culture"? 

I believe that your "culture" is the one in which you have grown up.
Not the one that your family choose for you.

We are all affected by our environment and because of it we follow and do what the people around us is doing. 

So, in my humble opinion I believe that one person, should be able to choose a "culture" in the meaning of choose a way of living. Live in two cultures at the same time is like try to fool yourself. But we have the right to choose, if we live in another country, to follow the traditions and join to the culture in the country that we are living. The idea of "mixing" is just not possible in the practical way because you will always have to make a choice between them, in terms of making an important decision in your life.

Indian Stereotypes in UK´s TV shows

When I was looking up some information for my presentation of Indian Communities in UK I found a very interesting program called “Goodness Gracious Me”: this was a comedy show televised on BBC Two from 1998 to 2001. The show was about the integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life and how that produces a conflict between 2 different cultures.

But in spite of being a comedy this was so offensive because in the show they laugh at Indian stereotypes and I noticed that the actors were British Indian people. It does not make any sense!

Is ok to laugh at the situations, but not at the people.  And I noticed too that in the comments, many people were protesting because of it and because the show was directed by white people, for example:

“Indian people make fun of themselves

Asian people make fun of themselves

Black people makefun of themselves

White people....they make fun of others”

OR

“I am Indian and I am totally and utterly offended”

I don´t know which are your opinions but I think that this show is  funny but offensive enough and I believe that this type of programs promote furthermore the creation and consolidation of stereotypes.