change

Courtesy of http://ftltea.podbean.com

Kim Petras is a German teenager whose name used to be Tim. Kim has become the youngest person ever (so far) to have a sex change. She is sixteen and has been calling herself a girl since age two. She always knew that she want to be a girl and was very unhappy. She called herself “a girl in a boy's body.” As soon as she was allowed, she had the operation. In Germany, people can’t have this sort of operation until eighteen otherwise illegal. Never the less, Kin persuaded doctors and psychologists that she was mature enough and had her heart set on the operation. Even they knew she craved to become a girl. As young as the age of twelve, she began to take hormone treatment for the later sex change, planned to be at eighteen at the time. Lutz, her father says he is supports and is even proud his now daughter. The parents are fine with Kim’s decision. She is presently a model for a hair salon and is a musician with a record deal. Kim says quote, “I was asked if I feel like a woman now but, the truth is, I have always felt like a woman – I just ended up in the wrong body.” I think it’s great that Kim knows who she is and is determined to speak up for herself. Many adults can’t even do that. She has a good future and I like how people are very accepting of who she wants to be. I also like how her parents are behind what she wants to do. Some think sex changes are wrong or gross but transsexuals are unhappy with themselves, so they should be allowed to do it. I’m glad she is happier.

“World's youngest sex change operation at 16.” Metro.co.uk. February 4, 2009 Metro.
March 1 2009. < http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Worlds_youngest_sex_change_operation_at_16&in_article_id=519977&in_page_id=34>

hope

For the hope blog, of coarse I had to do one about Obama! On the BBC news, they reported that Obama announces his plan for the Iraq war (finally we are doing something!) He hopes and will pull out troops. We and the Iraq people hope for a better future. He says by at least the end of 2011 we will totally be withdrawn from Iraq. All combat troops of August 2010 a lot will be gone. Some say Iraq is too dependant on us now, or time of withdraw is too short. Obama reassures people by saying, "Iraq is not yet secure, and there will be difficult days ahead." He also says that Iraq is a great country with great people. To insure the troop’s wellbeing, Obama will be pumping up the veterans' health care, as promised. Iraq will have a new US ambassador, Christopher Hill. Most Iraq people are saying they are very ready for the US to depart. Republicans say they hoped a pull out of 15000 troops but Obama hoped for a lot more, so they reached a compromise of 50000 troops pull out in August. It’s going to take awhile but we will be getting out of there. I don’t think it is best to just leave the Iraqi people hangin but we have done enough damage. It was a war for a “central and democratic government.” If that were true we could have done a better way, not just bomb the place.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7914061.stm

Donnelly, Tom. “Obama outlines Iraq pullout plan.” Politics 27 February 2009: BBC News. March 1 2009.

spirituality/religion

This blog about spirituality/religion is about Buddhism. I highly respect and admire the Buddhist faith because you are a good person not because you are obligated to so you can get into heaven, but it’s because you want and choose to, and it just makes you feel good doing so. I also like how they are not hung up on rules. The Buddhist faith is to make a better life for people and to reach nirvana and to have peace with the world. I don’t believe in the whole reincarnation deal, but it’s possible, I guess. I also like how the Buddha is not considered a god, some Buddhism do but not many. I think the Buddha would have wanted it that way. Anyways, this article is about a master and student enlightening each other. It talks about how even you have bad things happen to you, or you have a bad day, you can enjoy it. Plus, it is always more meaningful to figure out something for yourself than a master telling you. Everyone is alone in the world, and that’s scary. Others may be able to get a sense of what we think and feel. But no one else can ever be "aware" of you in the truest sense. Only you can know what you really think, feel and experience. We are alone in the universe because the total universe is us. I think only people who have reached nirvana will understand that completely. There is this never ending cycle that we have. We complain about the sucky thing in our life. And then, when things go right, we worry when this will end and be bad again. But Buddhist does not think that way. Say you have a bad grade; instead of “I have a bad grade” you say I am the bad grade.
“You can't control your circumstances. But how you respond to them is totally up to you. And once you learn to respond better an interesting thing happens. The world starts to behave exactly as you want it to.” –Brad
In “Nectar in a sieve” Rukumani does not think she is the bad drought, but she is having one. But, I don’t really blame her for worrying or being sad.


Brad. “Sit down and shut up: a Buddhist website.” January 31, 2009. Homepage mac. February 15 2009. < http://homepage.mac.com/doubtboy/badhairday.html>

gender roles

Dick Masterson believes are clearly blunt about gender roles. His website http://www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/ says it all. Dick states that, quote;
Every woman is a cheating whore.
Dick refers to women as whores, in all blogs.
Women are good for nothing expect sex and having children.
“A penny saved is a women fired” (women are horrible employees).
Women should not be allowed to vote. So of coarse he is very against Hillary.
Saying Hillary is a disgrace because she could not please her man.
Men created every single thing in the world. (Inventions, cured diseases, built cities.)
Women do not like sex they just use men for money.
All women do with there time is spend men’s money.
And women can’t do math.
What surprises me the most is he has many girlfriends. Even though he treats them like crap, he has girlfriends. He states that he does not expect a women to do things right. A woman is like a dog, he says. If they did something wrong then it’s your fault you didn’t train them properly. He contently says stuff on his blogs like:
“I was getting so many text messages from hot babes on New Year’s Eve that my phone overloaded and permanently shut down. At least that’s what the technician at the Verizon store told me and I have no reason to doubt him. Not only does that mean I am 100% right when I say women love being told their place in life — especially hot women.” And: “Anyone can have a threesome. I’ve had like seven.” (From blog: http://www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/dick-mastersons-2009-man-challenge/#more-1207)
This made me feel very sad and like a lesser human. But I realize only simple-minded and prejudice people believe and read this blog. Most people do not think the way he thinks. No one believes Dick and he will not make a difference and what he says is just not true. So this should not anger anyone, its just stupid. He was on Tyra Banks, Dr. Phil, and The Young Turks. I wish these types of programs would not give him ANY attention. He is clearly just trying to get attention, and make money (book and merchandise) from saying these outrageous things.
Racist and sexist people are just stupid. They want to feel good about themselves, so they pick stupid reasons like gender or race to validate their own lives. Gender and race are attributes that we can not change in ourselves. These attributes do not make who we are. We should be judged on our actions, not our persona; makeup – our DNA. Racist and sexist people must have poor self-esteem because they form opinion around others based on race or gender. . This reminds me of “Nectar in a sieve” when Rukumani thinks she is automatically better than Kunthi because she is a prostitute. Or when people think they are better than Rukumani and Nathan because they are poor when they don’t even know them.

Masterson, Dick. “Men are better than Women.” Men are better then women. January 5th, 2009. FeedBurner. February 11, 2009 < http://www.menarebetterthanwomen.com/>

Culture

Both Buddhist and Hindu’s alike in Nepal choose their new living goddess or, kumari, this past year. Her name is Matina Shakya and she is three years of age. This is a big long time custom from Nepal's monarchy that was stopped legally in May. The priests and President has welcomed there new kumari and was picked by them. Matina is worshipped by many and is thought to be the living form of the influential Hindu god Taleju. The people and whom ever else comes across her way will be routinely kissed her at her feet, which is a highly respectful thing to do. This reminds me on this article on how that one reporter threw his shoes at former president Bush, in their culture this is a huge sign of disrespect. It is always interesting to see which cultures think what is ok within society. Anyways this girl was incompetion with other two to four year olds, considered to be a kumari. They are all from an impoverished Shakya goldsmith caste. First they are examined to see if the have perfect bodily features and she also must not be scared of the dark. Next the remaining contestants are put into a dark room (with no sign of fear) filled with heads of slaughtered goats and buffaloes. When the kumari is chosen, she will live in the capital of Katmandu, until she gets or first period. Then the whole process restarts. Matina’s father has mixed feelings of both sad and pride for his daughter. But this culture is judged for this ritual, saying that this goes against Naples policies on child rights. Also, when the kumari has hit puberty, and goes back to the village it’s not easy to go from national figure to her usual life. But all culture have their critics, when we look at them from our eyes, it is easy to judge, when they can do the exact thing. When we say they are wrong, who ever ‘they’ may be, sometimes we have to look at ourselves. Our culture can be crazy just as any other. When you judge someone else, don’t be so quick to. And first look at yourself. Culture is hard thing to decide who is right or wrong. Maybe we are all wrong, or all right, who knows, I just think you can believe whatever you want, as long as you don’t hurt anyone or judge others for their believes, that all I can say and that’s all I know.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/article.html?Nepal_appoints_new_living_goddess&in_article_id=342694&in_page_id=64

Struggle/difficulty

My blog on Struggle/difficulty is about a woman in South Korea who is struggling to pass the written drivers test. She has a record of the numbers of times she has failed.
She has failed 771 times, and still counting.
Since her first test in April 2005 she has taken it almost daily. Her name is Cha and is now a 68 year old woman who has spent an equivalent of 4 million American dollars. With that amount of money you’d think she could buy her own driver. I guess it is a dream for her, and also admire how persistent she is in doing so. But it appears that money is no problem she I don’t know why she doesn’t take a class or study before hand. Maybe she has a weak memory or something, the article did not say. The standard score you must have in South Korea is sixty, and she alleges that she has gotten up to fifty. She has gotten to know the people at the DMV. One traffic police officer says that he is rooting for her and hopes she passes. But this is my question for you; do you think she should be able to drive? If she has been taking the test for this long, does it mean she is a bad driver? Or maybe the test will be so written in her mind she’ll be an excellent driver. I feel bad that she does not have the freedom to go wherever she wants because she can not drive herself, but still.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Woman_fails_driving_exam_771_times&in_article_id=521759&in_page_id=2&expand=true#StartComments

Natural disasters

I read this article on the New York Times online about how illegal immigrants would not seek help or evacuate because there were afraid that they would arrested. This was an old article, more focusing on the situation of Katrina. How the specifically Latin residents did not evacuate, fearing that when they got into the shelters they would be arrest by the federal government and bring them back to there home land. But the Red Cross did something about it. Making a quiet statement that; unless feds. Had a warrant of some sort, they could not enter the Shelters and bust people for being illegal. Further more, they said that; no one ask if they are illegal nor deny there rights to come in. I think it was important that that made this a quiet change; it was the responsible thing to do. If they made a big deal about it, people would make a fuss saying illegal immigrants have no right to be there and such. But since it was a hushed movement they were able to make the change without anyone getting hurt. I also agree that illegal immigrants have the right to be safe. Some may argue that they have no right to be here but it’s a human right to have safety, and not die because you’re in fear of the government. It would be very inhuman to let those people drown or starve in the hurricane; the Red Cross did the right thing.

Downes, Lawrence. “Hurricanes and the Price of Fear.” The New York Times September 11, 2008
Website address: http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/hurricanes-and-the-price-of-fear/#more-323