We Believe by Good Charlotte

‘Creemos’, ‘אנו מאמינים’, ‘Wij zijn van mening’, ‘wir glauben’, ‘nous croyons’, ‘we believe’. These are the phrases that can be found in the video clip. ‘We Believe’. There are more than one language included with a purpose. Why? Different languages represent different continents. However, all of them are saying one same thing, ‘We Believe’. Everybody hates violation and sufferings. Because everyone believes in peace. We believe in life. We believe we could have a better way of life without suffer and pain. Not only for us. This includes the entire human all around the world. It is a phenomenon! A believe! A hope!

We may not notice that somewhere in this world, there are people who suffered. We continue our lives and try to survive in this world by believing in the love. When we are suffered, we always believe that the good people will come and save us. If the heroes won’t come up and save us, yet we still believe someday, someway, it will change. This ‘believes’ make us strong and give us the will to live and fight till the end of our lives.

There are lots of short clips on war as well as the disaster happened all over the world. We could see where people are helping each other. One of the most interesting scenes is when a brave man stopped a tank from attacking his place. His heroic deed will be praised by every person in the world who has the sense of love in his or her heart.

Other than war and oppression, the video also showed clips of tsunami victims who have lost everything in their life. The phrase ‘We Believe’ could give them a reason to continue living. They will stand up and pick up their pieces of life although they knew that the new beginning of their life is almost impossible as they have nothing and no one to rely on. This phrase will be a paradigm for them to move on.

We choose this song because the message they want to deliver is so deep. It is a nice song to be heard and a really beautiful in the lyrics. In the video itself, they use candles as a symbol of hope. Towards the end of the song, each and every audience held the candle at their faces and protects the lights from fading off. This could means that people are hoping for a better tomorrow, as fair and just as the light of the candles and preserving it from their awful past.

We are all the same but we lead a different way of live. We might be the victim. We might be the villain. We might be the people who fight for others. We also might be the people who do not even care to what is happening all around the world. We believe that somewhere in their heart they care about life. We believe the world can be change. No more suffered. No more war. We care about each other. We are helping each other to survive this temporary live in this world. We stand together as one. Because we are human. We are weak. We share the same thing although we live in a different part of the world.

After watching the video, you might feel the same feelings as the people who are in that kind of situation. We might not realize it but this song always reminds us about it. We tend to forget as a human. Sometimes we are not even know what we are doing until someone point it out for us. For us, Good Charlotte has delivered their messages clearly from the song.

Animal Farm-Animated Movie

Old Major, a prize-winning boar, gathers the animals of the Manor Farm for a group meeting in the big barn. He recites a prophetic dream he has had in which all animals live together without the farmers to oppress or control them. He convinces the animals that they must act toward such a paradise and teaches them a song called "Beasts of England," in which his prophecy is lyrically depicted. The animals accept Major's vision with super enthusiasm. When Old Major dies only three nights after the meeting, three younger pigs—Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer — develop his main rationales into a doctrine called Animalism. Late one night, the animals manage to overcome the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off the land. They rename the property Animal Farm and devote themselves to achieving Major's ambition. The cart-horse Boxer devotes himself to the cause with exceptional zeal, committing his great strength to the prosperity of the farm and adopting as a personalized maxim the affirmation "I will work harder."

Animal Farm is a great success - at least for a while. Snowball begins teaching the other animals how to read, while Napolean starts to educate a group of young puppies about Animalism. One day Mr. Jones appears at the farm with the sole purpose to take it back from the animals. However, he is once again defeated in what the animals call the "Battle of the Cowshed," and they take Mr. Jones' abandoned gun as a token of their victory. Everything is going good for a spell - but as time goes on, Snowball and Napolean begin to fight about the plans for the farm and eventually the controversy turns into a power struggle. When Snowball comes up with a idea to build a windmill for electricity to power the farm, Napolean ignores it. The animals hold a meeting to decide whether or not to build the windmill, and Snowball gives an enthusiastic and persuasive speech. Napolean, however, says only a few words. Then he makes a weird guttural sound, and the 9 puppies he was supposedly teaching exploded in and chase Snowball from the farm. Napolean takes full control of the farm and calls off all future meetings, telling the other animals that from then on the pigs will make decisions on their own for the good of the rest of the animals.

Napoleon now promptly switches his mind about the windmill, and the animals, especially Boxer, devote their efforts to completing it. After a storm, the animals come outside to see the windmill has been demolished. The farmers from the encompassing area smirk and say that the animals built the walls to light, but Napolean blames Snowball, saying he crept back in to sabotage the windmill. Napolean announces any animal who helped Snowball in his conspiracy to demolish the windmill must be purged, and orders the attack dogs on them. Napolean goes to expand his power, feeling as though any animal who may have been a possible threat to him has been eliminated by the attack dogs. Boxer takes on a new slogan, reading "Napolean is always right.". Napoleon also begins to behave more and more like a human being; sleeping in a bed, downing whisky, and engaging in business with other local farmers. The traditional Animalist precepts strictly disallowed such actions, but Squealer, Napoleon's propagandist, excuses every action to the other animals, telling them that Napoleon is a wonderful leader and is making things better for everyone in spite of the fact that the common animals are cold, hungry, and overworked.

Napolean is supposed to do a trade for some timber with Mr. Frederick, a local farmer, but Mr. Frederick rips off Napolean and blows up the windmill with dynamite. Animal Farm goes to battle with the other farmers and, although they take triumph in the end, Boxer sustains substantial wounds. Boxer later collapses while working on the windmill, and feels that his time is almost up. When Boxer abruptly dissapears one day, Squealer tells everyone that he passed peacefully at the infirmary, using his final breath to support the Rebellion. However, the reality is that Napolean sold-out his most loyal follower to a glue maker so that he could have money to purchase more whiskey.

Years go by, and the pigs become more and more like human beings;walking upright, carrying whips, and wearing clothing. Eventually, the seven principles of Animalism, noted as the Seven Commandments and inscribed on the side of the barn, become trimmed to a individual precept reading "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Napoleon entertains a human farmer named Mr. Pilkington at a dinner and declares his intention to join himself with the human farmers in opposition to the laboring classes of both the human and animal communities. He also alters the name of Animal Farm back to the Manor Farm, claiming that this name is the "correct" one. Watching in at the party of elites through the farmhouse window, the common animals can no longer tell who are the pigs and who are the human beings.

This book is very good. The latest thing i have read is about how Jones tried to take his farm back and only succeeded in killing one goat, and not taking the farm back. Hopefully the entertainment with the animals continues, because this book is an enjoying read so far.

Mona Lisa's Smile

In 1953, a time when women's roles were rigidly defined, free-spirited, novice art history professor Katherine Watson begins teaching at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College which despite its academic reputation, is an environment where success is measured by 'how well' the students marry. Encouraging these women to strive for a more enlightened future, Watson challenges the administration and inspires her students to look beyond the image of what is, and consider the possibilities of what could be contrary to popular belief.Besides butting heads with college administrators who object to progressive ideas, she also pushes the conservative students who firmly believe a woman's only role is to be a wife and mother.

While little will be missed by not watching this movie, it is entertaining from start to finish, with some good jokes and lighthearted drama.

Lean On Me

Lean on Me is based on the true story of Joe Clark, a man singularly responsible for turning a rough high school (and boy is it rough - in the first five minutes, we see a girl's clothes ripped off in plain sight of everyone and a teacher's head bashed in by a student) into a nice, clean place of learning. But his methods aren't exactly orthodox...

Morgan Freeman stars as Clark and he spends most of the movie yelling at people. Most scenes feature Clark either be rating students or teachers, usually with a bull horn in hand. If there's anyone who can pull off non-stop shouting, it's Freeman. I particularly enjoyed one sequence that has Clark screaming at a kid to jump off the roof of the high school, because if he keeps on doing drugs, he'll be dead soon anyway and at least this way is quick and painless. If that's not motivation, I don't know what it is.

As a future teacher, this movie sparks my determination to be a good teacher. How Clark handle the school and the students makes me think of how I would react to the same situation. Can I be good teacher like him?How can I educate my students not only in education but also in life?Being teachers is not easy.Watching this movie reminds me that there are still lot to learn.

The Great Injustice and The Merry Maid

How would you like to talk about abortion and pre-marital sex issue? In your opinion, how does society reacts to both issue and what are the consequences that usually occur from both situation?

If we care and we really put our concern to both issue, then 'The Great Injustice' and 'The Merry Maid' are the perfect match for us to open our mind to both is

sues that seem critical among our teenagers nowadays.

“The Merry Maid” by Dr. Jayakaran Mukundan is a story about Lakshmi, a young mother who is forced to leave her daughter to other people’s care because of hardship. In the story, Lakshmi is involved in pre-marital sex with Shanmugam. She leaves school because of love and at last Sakinah is born. Shanmugam is caught by the police and Laksh

mi cannot give a good care to the unwanted child.She is still a teenager at that time obviously it is hard for her to handle a baby. However, she has her own family, her f

riends and the people in the society. Why did not they make it easier for Lakshmi? Why did not they make it possible for Lakshmi to take care of her own daughter? Typical society's respond to such issue of pre-marital sex are devastating. We can imagine that Lakshmi’s family throws her away, wherever she goes people are staring with wild eyes and friends never come to aid. The baby should be with her real mother and ‘can’ be with her real mother if the society looks deeper in the issue of pre-marital sex.

The same situation happens to Ah Nya in “The Great Injustice” by Heah Chwee Sian but the end of the pre-marital sex case is different. Ah Nya is pregnant because of pre-marital sex with Steve. She brings shame to the family and the society is giving an extra atte

ntion to her in a very bad way. Steve completely left her without anything to hang on. The society puts all the blame on her while Steve is left free happily ever after. Ah Nya is very unfortunate. Having blamed alone and carries the world

on her shoulder, no one is there for her (except for her mother but not of any use somehow) until the end; she has to abort her baby.

In both stories, the writers try to picture that how strong the society will effect one's life. As a collective society, we are very rigid about our stand and belief. We do not accept the wrong doers in our life. We sometimes do not realize that our action and misj

udgment kills and hurts somebody's life.

We can make actually make Lakshmi lives happily with her daugh

ter and we can save Ah Nya’s baby. Let us ask ourselves; why don’t we?

Everything’s Arranged and A Question of Dowry

'Everything Arranged' and 'A Question of dowry are both about marriage in Indian culture. However, to be specific, both stories implemented the importance of dowry, which is used to ensure the groom's charity if anything bad happens to the marriage.

In 'Everything's Arranged', Rukumani, the protagonist is studying at the university and has fallen in love with a guy named Devanayagam, also from the same community as she is. So what is the problem one may think. Oh No! Rukumany has created a big problem. She has ruined her family's dignity and respect to an extend that her parents could not face the other members of their community ; Yes, falling in love is a great sin, according to her parents.

So goes this story and tells us how the poor Rukumani suffers to hide her love from her parents, how she suffers to get away from the arranged marriage her parents are planning for her, how she suffers without seeing her lover Devanayagam and worst of all what happens when she finally tells her parents about her love.

How does the groom's family reacted to the affair that Rukumani's having? They increased the dowry from 10000 to 20000 just to make sure that the story does not leak. They take advantage of the dowry, which seems more like a bribe, than an assurance of charity.

In 'A Question of Dowry', the dowry is also mistreated to an extend that a marriage so near can be cancelled. Sivasothie was going to be engaged and married to a young man named Thiruchelvam that choose by the family. In the beginning, Sivasothie’s parents were preparing dowry, whereby a sum of twenty thousand and a necklace as to give it to the bridegroom’s family, when they wanted to give away theirs daughter to get married. Then, the problem arises when Sivasothie’s father Mr. Ramachandran told his wife that they cannot afford to give the dowry they agreed to give because of the disvalued of his wife’s piece of land to sell, which given as dowry when she got married to Mr. Ramachandran. After that, the future son in -law came to their house when Mr. Ramachandran telephoned him to come. As Thiruchelvam come, Mr. Ramachandran told him the truth about the dowry matters. Then, it ended up Thiruchelvam reject the marriages with his daughter because couldn’t give the dowry promised. Sivasothie feel sad and hurt because she has to forget him to become her husband after while she liked him so much.

Because of the dowry, the marriage is cancelled. From both stories, we may say that people nowadays have taken dowry as a source of money, rather than looking at it as an assurance that the marriage will be happy and harmony. This story come with a lot of moral values to guide readers in their real life.

The Gruffalo!!!

Have you ever heard of a Gruffalo? No, I am not. What is a Gruffalo? The very name can attracts children to read the story of a Gruffalo. They must be eager to know what a Gruffalo is and how does it looks like. Even me, an adult, feels so eager to know what is a Gruffalo.

A mouse is on his way in the forest and meets many dangerous, hungry animals. With its tiny little body, the mouse will have to think of a way to save himself using his brain. So how does he escapefrom all the dangerous animals? He makes up a story of a Gruffalo, which is so scary that all the carnivorous animals run away. However, he at last meets with the real Gruffalo, and now will have to save himself from the scary Gruffalo. Does he manages to do so? Yes he does. Using his brain once again, he brings the Gruffalo along with him to meet with all th dangerous animals he met before. All the animals are very afraid of the Gruffalo and run away. The Gruffalo is clueless, so the mouse tells the Gruffalo that the animals run away because they are afraid of him.

This story is interesting because the book comes with many colourful illustrations and simple language for children. The character in the story also can teach children the important of being creative and smart, however, they need to remember that lying is not a good things to do. The Gruffalo is more than worth to be read. The moral value is priceless where strength can easily be defeated the power of the brain. Because it has simple plot structure, this story will help children to understand the story easily. In my opinion, this kind of story is very suitable for children.

Edwina the Emu

I grow up with Malay telltales and rarely hear or read the children English story. When I entered the primary school, I begin to read The Famous Five, Hardy Boys, and many more teenage novels. That is why I was so surprised when Mr Jayakaran introduced to us this kind of story. I never thought that children's' bedtime story will become an interesting piece to read.

Who is Edwina?She is an emu.What's so special about her?She is the only emu that can do human jobs. How?Yes, the very question why this short story must be read.

Edwina is a mother. She decided to go out and earn some money for her family. She leaves her eggs behind with her husband and goes out to look for jobs. Does she make it?It is very interesting to see how Edwina performs human jobs in the story. An animal among humans yet working like she is also a human which is very hilarious. Children will be happy to read this story again and again.

"Don't get depressed. I'll find a job, you stay on the nest,"

This story is a cute story about searching for a job and then returning home to be with family. Edward and Edwina decide to share the job of caring for the eggs, but doesn't mention that Edward has a job either. In my opinion, this book is focuses on family. Although it isn't very realistic for people to both stay home, it is a great concept to be able together to raise the children.

Apart form the interesting illustrations and simple language to be understood, the author instill an important moral value which is the importance of a mother to her child. Edwina tries to play the role as a husband but at last she realizes that her most important position is to be with her children, 10 cute little emus.

p/s: I'm looking forward to read EDWARD THE EMU. Do you?