Found an article on BBC about women's rights in Afghanistan. Here's a short quote of what was the most shocking thing for me:
"My message, really, to the international community is: you need to address specific security issues for women," she says.
"Women's rights activists are getting killed, women's NGO workers are getting killed, and that is not going to change unless some drastic action is taken," Ms Fernandes continues.
The entire article is here
If you're interested in the problem, there is a very good feature film about women in Afghanistan available. It is by Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf and entitled At Five in the Afternoon. It's the (fictional) story of a girl who dreams of becoming the president of Afghanistan. It was shown in Poland by GutekFilm in 2004 and as far as I know has been released in many countries abroad.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
How to save video from youtube, google etc.
I just found out that it's possible, so I'm sharing the info.
You can do this via a site called Keep Vid. Also apparently there is a firefox extension that does the same (but I haven't tried it).
The downloaded file will be in *.flv format which I think can be played by the vlc player in windows (in linux it hasn't worked for me, but there's a command line player called ffplay which works for me).
You can do this via a site called Keep Vid. Also apparently there is a firefox extension that does the same (but I haven't tried it).
The downloaded file will be in *.flv format which I think can be played by the vlc player in windows (in linux it hasn't worked for me, but there's a command line player called ffplay which works for me).
The Philippines and its film industry
Ok, here's a case of cultural isolation which I think is very strange. People in the West are now getting more aware that India is the most prolific industry in the world, but how many people know that the Philippines produce more feature films annually than the majority of countries in our part of the world?
I'm not sure exactly where they fit in on the world stage, but they are certainly among the top10 or even top5 most prolific film industries in the world (I'm told that in the 1970s they were 3rd after India and the USA). I am a person who watches more cinema than most and do you know how many films from the Philippines I've seen? Answer: One.
The film I saw was a big hit in the Philippines (it was apparently no.1 at the box office there beating many American films) and while very low budget, it is a really great film. It dealt with homosexuality which is an all together different topic in the Philippines than it is here. And contrary to what you might think, it is us who have the much more conservative attitude. The story is that of Maxi, a 12-year old gay boy who is brought up by his father and brothers and falls in love with an adult man - an idealistic policeman (and according to the Warsaw Film Festival catalogue idealistic policemen are much more rare in the Philippines than 12 year old gay boys). Anyway, the English title is The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, if you have the chance (which you probably won't ;-P ) then check it out! Here's a trailer I found on youtube:
We had a Q&A with the director after the film and some of the things he said were fascinating (well at least for me - this is the first bit of Philippine culture that I've ever come across).
So the thing is that the Philippines like Poland are a very Catholic country - so we found it quite odd that homosexuality is so much more in the open there than here. The director told us that perhaps it is to do with the traditions that were in place in the Philippines before christianity came there. Apparently shamans would usually be gay because it was believed that somebody who has both male and female "particles" is closer to God.
Another thing which I found weird and amusing is that unlike in Poland it's the lower classes that are tolerant about homosexuality, most of the intolerance is in the upper classes.
When asked about how it is that boys declare their orientation in the Philippines so early he said he doesn't know, but that he thinks it's because the society in general is more open about it.
Something else that the director told us which I thought was great was about the showing of his film at the Berlin festival where his film was shown in the children's section. He thought the children would find it quite boring and that there would be a lot of walkouts, but on the contrary - it was very well received. He did however get verbally attacked by a woman who was offended that such a film would be shown to children, so he asked the children if they felt shocked or offended by the film and the children said no and that they thought the film was very cool :D
Just to clarify - the film doesn't actually have any sex in it. There is a sort of strange romance between the boy and the policeman, but it's not physical.
On the making of the film, the director told us that the boy who played Maxi was actually straight. He did audition lots of gay boys (there is apparently a whole gang of queens on his street where he shot the film :) ), but apparently they all exaggerated it too much, lol. The boy he chose really was excellent by the way :)
I'm not sure exactly where they fit in on the world stage, but they are certainly among the top10 or even top5 most prolific film industries in the world (I'm told that in the 1970s they were 3rd after India and the USA). I am a person who watches more cinema than most and do you know how many films from the Philippines I've seen? Answer: One.
The film I saw was a big hit in the Philippines (it was apparently no.1 at the box office there beating many American films) and while very low budget, it is a really great film. It dealt with homosexuality which is an all together different topic in the Philippines than it is here. And contrary to what you might think, it is us who have the much more conservative attitude. The story is that of Maxi, a 12-year old gay boy who is brought up by his father and brothers and falls in love with an adult man - an idealistic policeman (and according to the Warsaw Film Festival catalogue idealistic policemen are much more rare in the Philippines than 12 year old gay boys). Anyway, the English title is The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, if you have the chance (which you probably won't ;-P ) then check it out! Here's a trailer I found on youtube:
We had a Q&A with the director after the film and some of the things he said were fascinating (well at least for me - this is the first bit of Philippine culture that I've ever come across).
So the thing is that the Philippines like Poland are a very Catholic country - so we found it quite odd that homosexuality is so much more in the open there than here. The director told us that perhaps it is to do with the traditions that were in place in the Philippines before christianity came there. Apparently shamans would usually be gay because it was believed that somebody who has both male and female "particles" is closer to God.
Another thing which I found weird and amusing is that unlike in Poland it's the lower classes that are tolerant about homosexuality, most of the intolerance is in the upper classes.
When asked about how it is that boys declare their orientation in the Philippines so early he said he doesn't know, but that he thinks it's because the society in general is more open about it.
Something else that the director told us which I thought was great was about the showing of his film at the Berlin festival where his film was shown in the children's section. He thought the children would find it quite boring and that there would be a lot of walkouts, but on the contrary - it was very well received. He did however get verbally attacked by a woman who was offended that such a film would be shown to children, so he asked the children if they felt shocked or offended by the film and the children said no and that they thought the film was very cool :D
Just to clarify - the film doesn't actually have any sex in it. There is a sort of strange romance between the boy and the policeman, but it's not physical.
On the making of the film, the director told us that the boy who played Maxi was actually straight. He did audition lots of gay boys (there is apparently a whole gang of queens on his street where he shot the film :) ), but apparently they all exaggerated it too much, lol. The boy he chose really was excellent by the way :)
Nigeria
Right, so I'm starting one of the themes that might be reoccurring in this blog - cultural interchange. I do feel that people (me very much included!) don't have enough of an awareness of culture across the globe and my belief is that it is one of the reasons for the tensions we have in the world right now. Our cultures are just too isolated from each other.
For me not knowing much about African culture is a reason for caring maybe less about Africa's problems than I should. Some of the things that happen there, if they were happening in Europe or North America they would leave me feeling shaken, but because they're happening in Africa I have little or no emotional reaction to them.
Anyway, the point is I think I have finally got the first seeds of developping some sort of reaction to whatever happens in Nigeria now :D And I want to share that.
I found this article on BBC about Nigeria.
I thought it was great in that it gave a lot of insight into what life there is like. The theme is Nigerian sense of humour and trying to fly out to somewhere from Lagos. Here's my favourite fragment (near the end of the article):
"The replacement aircraft is being serviced" said a cheery voice. "You'll be on your way just as soon as we've put the plane back together again."
Ibim and I - and the other passengers - collapsed in fits of thigh-grabbing, shoulder-thumping laughter.
We did get there in the end.
Of all the African countries, Nigeria seems to be the one that's been "following me around" the most in the last year or so.
Apart from meeting a Nigerian studying medicine in Poland about a year ago, during the summer I watched a documentary film entitled Workingman's Death which showed 5 very unpleasant jobs that are done in undevelopped places of the world. One of these jobs was that of butcher in Nigeria and something that caught my eye immediately was that of all the jobs the director showed, the Nigerians were the only ones who weren't depressed about doing it. They were just thanking God for having a job in the first place and totally satisfied with this sort of life (and mind you - the Nigerian part was the one which people couldn't stand so much that they started leaving the cinema - the way they were butchering animals up was really quite horrible, I think most people would absolutely hate to do that for a living in those conditions).
If you're interested, the official site for this film is here. As far as I know this film will be distributed in Poland by GutekFilm, so it probably will be shown in quite a few other countries as well.
Something else that my cousin drew my attention to is that Nigeria has a huge video film industry which is nicknamed Nollywood. It would be interesting to see something of their films one day (even though I expect the production values are probably bad, but I've been surprised before sometimes, so who knows? :) ). Of course at the moment in my part of the world seeing these films is pretty much impossible :(
Anyway, here's a trailer for a documentary about Nollywood:
For me not knowing much about African culture is a reason for caring maybe less about Africa's problems than I should. Some of the things that happen there, if they were happening in Europe or North America they would leave me feeling shaken, but because they're happening in Africa I have little or no emotional reaction to them.
Anyway, the point is I think I have finally got the first seeds of developping some sort of reaction to whatever happens in Nigeria now :D And I want to share that.
I found this article on BBC about Nigeria.
I thought it was great in that it gave a lot of insight into what life there is like. The theme is Nigerian sense of humour and trying to fly out to somewhere from Lagos. Here's my favourite fragment (near the end of the article):
"The replacement aircraft is being serviced" said a cheery voice. "You'll be on your way just as soon as we've put the plane back together again."
Ibim and I - and the other passengers - collapsed in fits of thigh-grabbing, shoulder-thumping laughter.
We did get there in the end.
Of all the African countries, Nigeria seems to be the one that's been "following me around" the most in the last year or so.
Apart from meeting a Nigerian studying medicine in Poland about a year ago, during the summer I watched a documentary film entitled Workingman's Death which showed 5 very unpleasant jobs that are done in undevelopped places of the world. One of these jobs was that of butcher in Nigeria and something that caught my eye immediately was that of all the jobs the director showed, the Nigerians were the only ones who weren't depressed about doing it. They were just thanking God for having a job in the first place and totally satisfied with this sort of life (and mind you - the Nigerian part was the one which people couldn't stand so much that they started leaving the cinema - the way they were butchering animals up was really quite horrible, I think most people would absolutely hate to do that for a living in those conditions).
If you're interested, the official site for this film is here. As far as I know this film will be distributed in Poland by GutekFilm, so it probably will be shown in quite a few other countries as well.
Something else that my cousin drew my attention to is that Nigeria has a huge video film industry which is nicknamed Nollywood. It would be interesting to see something of their films one day (even though I expect the production values are probably bad, but I've been surprised before sometimes, so who knows? :) ). Of course at the moment in my part of the world seeing these films is pretty much impossible :(
Anyway, here's a trailer for a documentary about Nollywood:
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Brokeback Skaters
LOL @ this video. It must be the gayest skating routine I've ever seen :D And these are all really well known skaters! I can't quite make out all the faces (there are 6 guys there), but I can definitely see John Zimmerman, Alexei Yagudin and according to the comments under this video on youtube the rest of them are Kurt Browning, Todd Sand, David Pelletier and Ilya Kulik. Apparently this was skated in 2003 long before the movie was made.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Freedom of expression on-line
While I'm not expecting this blog to turn into something very serious or political, I just want to draw the attention of everyone reading this blog (if anybody is reading it of course!) to a site called http://irrepressible.info/ which deals with freedom of expression on-line. It's a bit weird to think that there's people who are getting jailed for what they write in blogs like these (well not like mine because mine is rather pathetic at the moment - I think their blogs are mostly much better and more interesting!), but it is happening and I think it's important to support Amnesty International's campaign for freedom of expression on-line. Perhaps as somebody coming from and living in Poland, where the current government has started restricting freedom of speech (maybe not so much on-line yet, but certainly there have been some strange goings on in the media and then there's the case of Hubert Hoffman - a homeless man who called the president names and is now being pursued for it by the police!), it is all the more important for me that freedom of expression is defended. So for anyone who agrees, show your support by visiting that site and sign the petition! :)
My attempt at a blog
Ok, so I'm making another attempt at blogging. My last one was a bit of a disaster (aka, I just didn't update my blog at all ;-P), so I'm starting over...
I want to do some blogging because at times I'm getting to the point where I think I need a Pensieve... There's this quote from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" which goes like this:
'What is it?' Harry asked shakily.
'This? It is called a Pensieve," said Dumbledore. 'I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.'
'Er,' said Harry, who couldn't truthfully say that he had ever felt anything of the sort.
Now unlike Harry, I do feel like that (even though whenever somebody asks me how I am and what's been going on in my life I go completely blank and have no idea what to answer) and I think the solution is to write. The problem is that I'm useless at keeping a diary - I kind of need an audience (pathetic, I know). Regardless of if anybody actually reads this blog, I will have this feeling that I'm writing to somebody, so that helps. And that is why anybody visiting this blog will be subjected to my ramblings and youtube videos and articles I found interesting ;-P (that is if I post at least once a month which didn't happen in my previous blog attempt ;-P )
I want to do some blogging because at times I'm getting to the point where I think I need a Pensieve... There's this quote from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" which goes like this:
'What is it?' Harry asked shakily.
'This? It is called a Pensieve," said Dumbledore. 'I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.'
'Er,' said Harry, who couldn't truthfully say that he had ever felt anything of the sort.
Now unlike Harry, I do feel like that (even though whenever somebody asks me how I am and what's been going on in my life I go completely blank and have no idea what to answer) and I think the solution is to write. The problem is that I'm useless at keeping a diary - I kind of need an audience (pathetic, I know). Regardless of if anybody actually reads this blog, I will have this feeling that I'm writing to somebody, so that helps. And that is why anybody visiting this blog will be subjected to my ramblings and youtube videos and articles I found interesting ;-P (that is if I post at least once a month which didn't happen in my previous blog attempt ;-P )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
