20th January 2009

A satisfying cup of yoghurt always make my day...

I started the day with a really bad mood. Well, i had to go out shopping with my mum again. I am complaining because i'm just lazy to get out and do shopping. I'd rather sit at home and watch movies - see i'm a couch potato. 

Then we had problems with the roads becuz i took the wrong road to Jusco Taman Maluri. Seriously, i've nvr really been there, i only have a rough idea of how to go there. So I'm bound to getting lost. I was really mad when my mum & sis looked down on me for not knowing the right direction. Maybe they didn't mean it but i was in such a terrible mood that i personally felt so sensitive about the whole issue. 

So we ended up in the usual Jusco Cheras Perdana instead, which my sis is very familiar with. It's the 3rd time i've been there for this week alone. And on Friday THANK GOD i dont need to go again with my mum. I mean, i dunno abt them but i personally feel tat there is nothing super duper great abt that jusco. I wanted to get a pair of shoes with the design similar to the one i lost and i know that that particular JUsco doesnt have it. So why waste my time?

So yeah, i was bored as usual, and sulking a little because i know that i won't get my shoes. But thank God i have music to cheer me up a little. then i saw the prices on the clothings and i was again very disappointed because they are so darn expensive. GOSH...a simple blouse can easily cost you 70 bucks. Then i think again, i never get to buy the clothes i wanted. i always have to wear wat my aunt gives me. They are nice but then, it's not really me. What is really me? 

But suddenly i realized that well, life is not that bad for me. Why do i complain again? At least i have beautiful ELLE clothes, GIORDANO clothes from my aunt. Even though second hand, but they are beautiful. Think of those people who have no chance at all to even feel what it's like to have one of these clothes. I feel that i was such a jerk today for complaining and feeling so ungrateful. 

As i'm writing this, i'm enjoying another packet of Green Tea. Basically, all i'm saying is, i basically have all the goodness in life. I guess that yes, we really should be grateful and happy. ANd guess what, once i was cheered up...Luck came towards me haha...i finally found a pair of lovely shoes in Tesco! YAY! 

Time for movies...it's been so long since i blog abt movies because for your info, i've been busy with my FINAL FINAL exams. Now that the paper is finally over, i can continue with my movie-quests. So the two movies which i've watched this past week are "The Freedom Writers" and "Because I Said So".

I highly highly recommend you to watch "The Freedom Writers". This is a very very very very inspiring story. It's abt how great this teacher is in integrating her students of different races in Wilson Highschool. In that highschool, students were divided according to the colour of their skin. They are divided not by others, but themselves. They chose to stick to people with the same colour skin. Gangsterism dominated the streets of Long Beach, California. Students in the school were exposed to violence everyday. They can just go out and if they trespass the racial borders, they might just get shot in the head. They risk death practically everyday just by venturing out on the streets. 

Erin Gruwell, the new teacher and the heroine in the movie was only 24 years old when she was given a class full of students deemed ‘unteachable’. At first, she was the optimistic young teacher, ready to educate her students. Of course, the students at first gave her the usual wouldn’t-be-bothered attitude and showed absolutely no respect to her what-so-ever. 

Erin Gruwell’s anger was ignited when she saw a piece of caricature of an African-American student being passed around the class. It reminded her of the depiction of the Jews during the Nazi German era. Propagandas using caricatures of Jews with big noses were transmitted around, propaganding the world against the Jews. She then touched on the Holocaust and found out that these students know nothing about it. But when she asked how many students have been pointed at the head with a gun before, all of them raised their hands.

“You think this is funny? Would this be funny if it were a picture of you?... I saw pictures just like this once, in a museum, only it wasn’t a black man. It was a Jewish man. And instead of the big lips, he had a really big nose – like a rat nose. But he wasn’t one particular Jewish man, this was a drawing of all Jews. And these pictures were put in the newspapers…by the biggest gang in history. You think you know all about gangs. You’re amateurs. This gang will put you all to shame…Take over neighbourhoods? That is nothing compared to them. They took over countries. You know want to know how? They just wipe out everybody they didn’t like and everybody they blame for their life being hard. And one of the ways they did it was by doing this. They print pictures like this in newspapers – Jews with big long noses and blacks with big fat lips. They also published scientific evidence that Jews and blacks were the lowest form of human species. Jews and Blacks were just like animals.So it doesn’t matter if they lived or died. In fact life would be a whole lot better…so what you’re saying is if the Latinos weren’t here, the Cambodians, the Whites or the Blacks, your life would be better?”

I think what she means here is that racism happens because we just needed someone to blame for the injustice and hardshipes in our lives. I do believe that is true. For example in Malaysia, rich people do not ‘know’ racism. They don’t feel the pressure or the injustice of the New Economic Policy? They don’t need to fight for their rights in education because they can afford education anywhere. The poors are the ones who feel the pinch. Therefore they are the ones who would complain about how the government gives the benefit to the Bumiputeras. I’m not trying to touch on sensitive issues here. But that is in some ways the truth. In America, people hate the Whites. Why? Because the Whites were the ones in power. They can create their own rules, do what they want because they have the authority to. 

This theory actually applies to other stuff in life. For example in the movie, there’s this ridiculous male teacher (who I would really fire if I were the head of the school) who simply blame his students for the school’s plummeting reputation and results. See Wilson Highschool was a reputable school with great students until the government made it an integrated school. What made the teacher angry is he feels that students who want to be there couldn’t because they have to make way for stupid, useless kids who doesn’t want to or are forced to be in the school. You see, he’s again blaming others for his lack of responsibility as a good teacher. I don’t see Erin complaining.  

I think that part of our lives and how it is depends on us. Like my dad always said, “You ride on what you have and for what you don’t have; you double your effort to keep up.” I really really treasure this advice because I find these words of wisdom. We don’t need to feel sorry for what we don’t have. We don’t blame others but rather work hard to compensate it. I guess in some ways, that is also what Erin is preaching.

Back to the movie, Erin then rode on this discovery (her students not knowing about the Holocaust) to teach her student by introducing to her students books like “The Diary of Anne Frank”. She feels that the character in the book has a lot in common with her students. She introduces her students to diary writing, whereby she asked her students to keep an account of their lives and their stories, just like Anne Frank. They can even write poems, songs, whatever, the only condition is that they have to write everyday. She told them she is not going to read the diary/journal, unless they wanted her to. And she wouldn’t grade them, because how can she said, “How can I grade an A or a B for one writing the truth, right?” Indirectly, she got her students to start reading and writing.

We also see how Erin in some ways challenged the school’s system. The school wouldn’t give new books to the students in her class because they feel that these children are hopeless anyway. There’s Ms. Campbell, (I forgot her post in the school) a lady who wouldn’t let Erin use some of the new books in the library even though they are just sitting there because she said the kids wouldn’t know how to read them and will damage them anyway. Why waste time? It’s like she didn’t even give them a chance. She just wrote them off. She said the school will only give them old, torn books because these students don’t know how to take care of books. This scene in the movie, I find Erin’s words extremely meaningful. 

And in a later part of the movie, she said: “ Dr. Cohen, why should they waste their time showing up, when they know we’re wasting our time teaching them. We tell them, go to school, get an education and then we say, well, they can’t learn so let’s not waste resources.  
You don’t treat students with respect and trust…how are you supposed to teach them? Besides, the books are just SITTING THERE. At least try and let those kids, maybe somebody can benefit from them. Later, Erin Gruwell worked 3 jobs in order to buy new books for her students since the school is not sponsoring even though they have the resources. Later she also managed to convince the School Board Chairman to let her take her kids out on a trip to the Holocaust Museum, again using her own resources. During the trip, the students also got to speak to some real Jewish victims who suffered during the Nazi German era. The students stayed in a beautiful hotel. See, Erin treated her students like they were gentlemen and ladies, she didn’t see them as worthless students who cannot be taught or guided. You earn respect by giving respect. 

Erin has another point which I totally agree with. How can you expect them to study if they have so many other things in life to worry about? We only see on the surface that they are students that wouldn’t care about their studies, but we never get to the root of their problems. They all wanna be somebody too, but maybe they don’t know how or they don’t think they can without someone to guide them. That’s when Erin comes in. 

The students, inspired by their teacher later changed and started believing that they can achieve almost anything. For example they did fundraising in order to get enough money to invite Miep Gies, a kind-hearted soul who helped hid Anne Frank to their school. 

What I really liked about this movie is that it is actually based on a true story. I didn’t know that racial discrimination was such a huge and disturbing issue in the US until I watch this movie. All the stories of the characters are real, based on the real-life students. And there is really this honourable teacher, Erin Gruwell. 

So why “Freedom Writers”? Towards the end of the movie, Erin wanted her students to compile all their stories into one. And they named themselves “Freedom Writers” after the Freedom Fighters/Riders. The book was later published, so yes, we can actually read that book if we want to, if we buy it. In 2007, a movie was made based on the story. And guys, go check out the Freedom Writers Foundation website – www.freedomwriters.com. You’ll learn a lot more about their cause and also get to see the picture of the real Erin Gruwell. 

Overall, I think this is by far one of the best inspirational movies I’ve watched this year. Well but then it’s only the 20th of January haha. Hopefully more good movies await me.

I have nothing much to say about the movie “Because I Said So” except that, well, it was a complete waste of time. I mean, it’s not even a nice family comedy to begin with. It is supposed to be about mother-daughter love but I just don’t feel it at all. It’s about a over-controlling mother who wants to find her youngest daughter a guy because she doesn’t want her daughter to end up alone, like her. So her mum enrolled in a match-making service, on her daughter’s behalf and set up her daughter with the guy she feels is right for her daughter. Of course the daughter then find someone else whom she felt that was more suitable but then had to in some ways please her mum. The dilemma…on and on…overall, it wasn’t nice at all. It stars my favourite Lauren Graham and Piper Perabo but other than that, nothing. I am not a fan of Mandy Moore and this movie doesn’t help me like her at all. So if you really really have nothing to do and you want to watch a love story, you can opt for this one. But don’t say I didn’t warn you guys. “Music and Lyrics” would be a better choice. ;P

That’s all for now. I hope I will find the inspiration to write about Idol Fever (yes, it’s Season 8 and a new hot judge in the panel…I’m loving it!) and “The Dead Girl” next. I’ve managed to download a few movies thanks to the discovery of Gougou.com and uncle KF (even though also for his own benefit) for helping download it. But I’m so so happy because imagine this…2 to 4 movies per day!!!!!!!

Okay I’m breaching copyrights here sorry but I’m just a poor student who wants some entertainment. If I get rich someday, I promise to get original DVDs or even Blu-Ray disc. Yeah..if I ever get rich. Then again, money is never enough right haha.
Okay take care people!! I’m signing out.