Persuasion to the British Australians

I believe that the natives of Australia deserve a heart felt apology for the suffering that the British Australians have brought on them from the earliest times of colonization to a just few years ago. This injustice has only been recognized recently, and therefore could not be addressed as we can today. Although the present day Australians had no direct hand in the period in Australia known as the Stolen Generation and the ruthless actions taken on the aboriginals, the shame carries on to this generation. Today the world views this nation as an ethnocentric country that forcefully tried to wipe out an entire race. The British Australians took away the half caste children from their families and sent them more than a 1000 miles away to either become maids or farmers if they weren't "white" enough. Not only did the British violate all the rights of the aboriginals by claiming that their children were the property of the British, they stopped all aboriginals from expressing any sign of their cultural identity. The British forced the children to never speak in their language and to only act and behave by the British culture and only the British culture. This, I believe is a great crime to deprive a person of their identity and is definitely worth apologizing.

The Rabbit Proof Fence

"The Rabbit Proof Fence" is a movie about the period in Australia known as the Stolen Generation and how the British attempted to erase the aboriginal race in the nation. As this movie demonstrates many of the hardships that both the half caste children and their families had to go through, it also illustrates a story about a true hero that valued patriotism more than resignation to the British. Molly Craig is 14 year old aboriginal half caste that is stolen away from her mother along with her younger sister and cousin by the British and are sent to a Gulag where they are to become "British" and fade away from their aboriginal culture. Although Molly's cousin and her sister start getting used to the British atmosphere, Molly refuses to blend in with the other half castes and gets packing. With her independence and very strong character, Molly leads her two siblings away from the Gulag and is determined to get back home despite the 1000 miles in between or the tracker that is hunting for the three runaways. In my eyes, she is definitely a hero because unlike others who give up, Molly fights back is willing to risk her life to save her siblings' and her freedom and future.

Da Vinci- The Renaissance Man

During the Renaissance as many would know, new ways of thinking were introduced by great minds that saw beyond what any of us could. They emerged to be the best.

One man that was definitely considered an honorary Renaissance man was Leonardo Da' Vinci. Leonardo was an exceptional man with various grounds of talents, such as being a brilliant scientist, a great artist, an effective engineer, and even an amazing inventor. Even in the beginning, where Leonardo was an apprentice rather than an official painter, he was able to use his genius and paint better than his master, Verrocchio. Later as well, Leonardo greatly influenced art in the Renaissance after the Mona Lisa and her smile was painted. Over the course of Leonardo's life, he was able to incorporate artistic views with mathematics and really go into realism unlike the medieval paintings. Along with painting, Leonardo's genius made him both an excellent scientist who unraveled many secrets of the universe, and a skillful engineer that helped create new machinery for wars and self-defence against enemies.

All in all, Leonardo proved to be an exceptional Renaissance man with a variety of skills and grounds where he mastered and rose above all.

Creative Leadership

During the Renaissance, many artists emerged through patronage, to share their brilliance with the world. Amongst these many talented and creative thinkers was Filippo Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi was one of the most well known artists of his time, but to be this successful with his creations such as the dome, it took a little more than just talent to convince people to believe and see his way of thought.

With the creation of the dome, Brunelleschi was not given the commission straight away. Not only did he have to show his talent when presenting the thoughts about how to build the dome, but he needed to have creative leadership in order to guide people through his strategies and techniques with creativity. People might think that talent is enough for grasping the attention of the world but, without the leadership to show your willingness, no one will trust or rely on you. This is exactly what Brunelleschi did in order to convince the patrons and commissioners of this project that his theory of building a dome without scaffolding would work. With the egg, Brunelleschi demonstrated leadership in creativity with organizing his ideas in a such a way, that people would follow them and won't doubt them. Without this creative leadership that Brunelleschi possessed, he would be yet another brilliant mind that was left named as a crazy because he or she didn't show the huge imagination and creativity they had through leadership.

This also shows that the actions and decisions that people make, can really effect change. With Brunelleschi, his decision to go for the commission of this dome allowed change to happen because without this action perhaps the dome would never be finished since no other person at the time could figure out the mysteries of the dome. Not only that, but without patrons like the Medici family believing and trusting such artists as Brunelleschi, there wouldn't be any new art and ways of thinking. Without the patrons at that time no artists, good or bad, would be able to share their perspective of the world.

Where do new ideas come from?

New ideas come from our brain's inspirations. Every person's brain is thinking of new ideas at every single second we live. Whether it is as simple as a new combination of foods, such as ketchup with rice, or as complicated as the next great invention that would change mankind. We are all creating new ideas. From where though? Where are we getting these new ideas that can be both meaningless or valuable? There are many reasons our brain has created such ideas. They could be our past, present, future, from our home, relatives, knowledge, loved ones or even strangers. The point is, all of our ideas have inspirations and thoughts linked to them that caused them to be created.

Favorite Short Story

My favorite story from our short story is "Lamb to the Slaughter." I liked this story the most because it not only showed a really good example of good characterization but also had a quite interesting story plot. The story is mainly about a woman that commits a murder on her husband, and has to save herself and her child from jail by hiding her murder. The very interesting part of the story that I thought was cool, was the weapon used for the murder was a frozen lamb leg that Mary Maloney (the protagonist) cooks and feeds the lamb to the detectives after she uses it for the murder. Not only that, but this story had a nice element of suspense and mystery because you never know if Mary will actually get away with the murder or not. As a whole, the story "Lamb to the Slaughter" has both good characterization with the main characters and plot elements that lead to a good climax.

VIDYA KARTHINI

VIDYA KARTHINI
A name huh? Well, we all know that everyone has a name, but I believe that with every name, comes a story behind it. Mine holds one too, and it all started from the day I had entered the Planet Earth.

“Aww… she is so beautiful” the doctors had said. “Have you decided a name yet for her?” “No, not yet. We have to see an astrologer to figure out what her name is going to be.” See in my family, we would decide the names of a child according to their birth time, their star, and the names of the other family members. It was such an amazing process, how they decided what your name should be just by looking at your star. According to my astrologer, my name had to start with a “V”.

Not only that, but for some reason a lot of Indian parents wanted to name their child after a goddess or a great leader. That included my parents as well. This was how I got my name. Vidya was the name of a great guru. He was the idol of many, and a friend for everyone. Caring for others, he would assist anyone in need. Even if it meant he himself would lose something. Being the great man everyone looked up to, his personality matched his name. God of Knowledge- he was knowledge. Not even having to study, he could out- smart anyone. Even the thoughts his mind consisted were amazing. He had a brain that could look farther than any other man on Earth. My mom believed that if I was named after her guru, it would bring happiness and his kind of personality in me. She wanted me to be successful in life, but to also be a great leader like her guru.

Now the second part of my name- Karthini was given to me by my father. Karthini was the name of another great leader of Indonesia that he looked up to. Although she was a woman, she accomplished so many things and led others to victory. My father looked to her for her principles.

So basically my name is “Knowledge Leader.” I guess this is why people would look up to me to learn and to follow.

With a name comes a nick-name, and I had many. Some of my friends call me Video as a teaser and other family members call me Karu. Even though I might have many nick-names, I am still Vidya Karthini and no matter how much I don't like it, I will be "Knowledge Leader."

Maybe one day I will be the leader that my name proves to be, the young Vidya Karthini.