CELEBRATING RELIGIOUS PLURALITY

Look through the photos we took on our recent field trip to explore some of the places of worship in Kuala Lumpur.
Click here:

POWER OF MUSIC

Thankyou Safa for sharing the group Native Dean on your blog!This is so relevant as we work through the unit on religion right now. Read the lyrics below and watch the clip or go to Safa's blog to read what she said about them under her theme page.

What is the theme of their song ? How does this connect to other texts - poems, stories, books or people that we have been examining this year?

Go to This I Believe and read/listen to Yasir Billo's essay: The Right to Be Fully American

Me, my community we work hard,
Every opportunity to break walls,
Fighting all the lunacy that they cause,
Respect here, to you and me, the same God.

Giving you the right facts,
We keep repeating that Islam has been hijacked,
We ain't like that,
Then some lunatic goes on a rampage,
Using violence and I'm outraged

These is senseless, and its gruesome,
Please don't let this, be a Muslim.
Awww maaan... We're all vilified,
They're saying we're savages, uncivilized

Islam means peace? na thats a front!
Its all a deceit, till they get what want
Dont trust them, even the nice ones
Wait till the bite comes - Mike Tyson

Not fair. The KKKs, Timothy McVeighs,
Militia Brigades, the old crusades,
They're all renegades, from the faith that you claim,
Its them we should blame
I dont blame you, You should refrain too
Believe when we say that it ain't true.

I know what they call us, uh huh
They try to blame all us,
But I know the prophet lived and I know what he taught us

[Chorus]
its... my faith, my voice,
its... my faith, my voice,
Don't care what they say, this is my voice....
my faith, my voice

Come you're invited to see the real picture
Nothing hiding, here's a free scripture
We ain't gonna hurt you, try to convert you
Just so you know how easily they tricked ya

That all us Muslims are those 19 men
Don't build that mosque cause it might be them
Its the same kinda talk of a Bin Laden
Get'em - guilt by association

Mosques being vandalized, cats being stabbed at night
The bigots and racist like zombies they come to life
But instead of all the hate, lets join the same team
I love this land, my people, our dream

Go use the same steam, for youth to stay clean
Our earth to stay green, we want the same thing
'Stead of burning books, extinguish disease
Help spark the flame to help children in need

You will be your faith, I will be mine
Lets live in peace, ma'asalaam
Peace all the time, for all of mankind,
thats on my mind. my masterplan.. check it, yeah
that's my master plan, that's my master plan

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

Read John Donne's writing:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

These words by John Donne from the 1624 Meditation 17,
from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

• Watch the video clip below:

• Reflect on the poem in your blog entry and 'the visual poem' to make connections to the people we have considered, the texts we have studied so far and the themes we are exploring this year.

'IT IS NOT POWER THAT CORRUPTS, BUT FEAR': AUNG SAN SUU KYI:

Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro- democracy leader of Burma, was finally released on Friday, 13th November after serving 15 out of 21 years under house arrest. 'Her release comes six days after the political party supported by the military won the country's first election in 20 years. The ballot was widely condemned as a sham.'

While many see that Aung San Suu Kyi's perseverence in fighting for democracy has been a 'positive force for Burma', some have been critical saying 'her rigidity has held the pro-democracy movement back'.

Some suggest she should have left Burma when she was able to do so in the late 1990's as she then could have addressed the UN General Assembly and worked for rights for her people from outside.

In Aung San Suu Kyi’s 1990 famous speech, “Freedom From Fear“, she noted, “It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

• Why could Aung San Suu Kyi be considered a hero?
• What does she value? What choices has she had to make? Create an identity chart for Aung San Suu Kyi and consider what personal choices she has made in order to overcome the injustices in her country and help her her people?

Connections:

• Have you ever been in a situation where you are aware of an injustice but did not take action? What stopped you getting involved?

Click on the link to watch an interview made in 1995 with Fergal Keane when she was last released in 1995 before being re-arrested.

Listen to Freedom From Fear a BBC world service audio documentary.

Read Guardian article: Aung San Suu Kyi: I was both prisoner and maintenance woman

sanctions

'In foreign affairs, sanction means 'penalty, deterrent': eg. international sanctions against the republic go into effect in January.

• ( sanctions) measures taken by a nation to coerce another to conform to an international agreement or norms of conduct, typically in the form of restrictions on trade or on participation in official sporting events.

root: L. sancire: to ‘ratify'.

Listen to the BBC interview of Aung San Suu Kyi

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/15/aung-san-suu-kyi-release

HOW DOES THE PAST IMPACT IDENTITY?

Listen to Fatmire Feka's story. I am so inspired by her ability to forgive, to move beyond understandable rage against the horrors she has seen. Consider how her identity has been shaped by the events of her past but how she transformed these events into becoming an 'upstander', an activist for peace and human rights.

Fatmire's 2009 Speech from The Eagle Down Foundation on Vimeo.

WHAT SHAPES OUR IDENTITY?

How do we view ourselves? What shapes our identity?

How does how we define ourselves affect how others see us?
How do others perceptions affect they way we see/define ourselves?
How do these perceptions affect the relationships we have in society?
How does our identity change over time, within certain conditions?
Watch the video of Jesus Colon. How does Colon see himself? How might others describe him?
Create an identity chart for him and compare it to your own identity chart to consider the influences on our sense of self, our identity.

Image: Pulcinella from Commedia Del Arte, illustrated by Luigi Serafini

Jesús Colón describes labels that others have placed on him. Use the following questions to write a response on your blog.

• What labels does he place on the groups to which he belongs? on other groups?
• How did those labels shape the way he perceived his choices? the decision he made?
• Why does he have regrets? Did he make the right choice?
• Would your answer be different if he were a white American?
• Who is the victim in this story–Colón, the woman, or the larger society?

from Facing History,Facing Ourselves:Choosing to Participate

What Do We Do with a Variation?

What do we do with a difference?
Do we stand and discuss its oddity
or do we ignore it?
Do we shut our eyes to it
or poke it with a stick?
Do we clobber it to death?
Do we move around it in rage
and enlist the rage of others?
Do we will it to go away?
Do we look at it in awe
or purely in wonderment?
Do we work for it to disappear?
Do we pass it stealthily
Or change route away from it?
Do we will it to become like ourselves?
What do we do with a difference?
Do we communicate to it,
let application acknowledge it
for barriers to fall down?
James Berry

What connections do you make with this poem, Jesus Colon's story and 'The Island' by Armin Greder?

DBQ PREPARATION

After reading, viewing and discussing the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, the time has come to test your interpretative skills. In order to prepare for the 'dreaded test', you should:
Re-read the myth (do this here)

Read an older version of this myth below:

But Daedalus constructed wings for himself and his son, and enjoined his son, when he took to flight, neither to fly high, lest the glue should melt in the sun and the wings should drop off, nor to fly near the sea, lest the pinions should be detached by the damp.

[E.1.13] But the infatuated Icarus, disregarding his father's injunctions, soared ever higher, till, the glue melting, he fell into the sea called after him Icarian, and perished.15 But Daedalus made his way safely to Camicus in Sicily.

[E.1.14] And Minos pursued Daedalus, and in every country that he searched he carried a spiral shell and promised to give a great reward to him who should pass a thread through the shell, believing that by that means he should discover Daedalus. And having come to Camicus in Sicily, to the court of Cocalus, with whom Daedalus was concealed, he showed the spiral shell. Cocalus took it, and promised to thread it, and gave it to Daedalus;

[E.1.15] and Daedalus fastened a thread to an ant, and, having bored a hole in the spiral shell, allowed the ant to pass through it. But when Minos found the thread passed through the shell, he perceived that Daedalus was with Cocalus, and at once demanded his surrender.16 Cocalus promised to surrender him, and made an entertainment for Minos; but after his bath Minos was undone by the daughters of Cocalus; some say, however, that he died through being drenched with boiling water.

from Apollodorus Epitome: translated by .JG. Fraser

The Painting The Fall of Icarus is by Pieter Bruegel (about 1525-69), usually known as Pieter Bruegel the Elder to distinguish him from his son, was the first in a family of Flemish painters. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, generally considered the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century, is by far the most important member of the family. He was probably born in Breda in the Duchy of Brabant, now in The Netherlands. His paintings, including his landscapes and scenes of peasant life, stress the absurd and vulgar, yet are full of zest and fine detail. They also expose human weaknesses and follies.
Source: www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bruegel/

LITERARY TEXT - Poem Icarus, by Christine Hemp

Icarus

It was his idea, this flying thing.
We collected feathers at night, stuffing
our pockets with mourning dove down. By day,
we'd weave and glue them with the wax
I stole after we'd shooed the bees away.

Oh, how it felt, finally, to blow off Crete
leaving a labyrinth of dead-ends:
my clumsiness with figures, father's calm
impatience, cool logic, interminable devising.
The sea wind touched my face like balm.

He thought I'd tag along as usual,
in the wake of his careful scheme
bound by the string connecting father and son,
invisible thread I tried for years to untie.
I ached to be a good-for-something on my own.

I didn't know I'd get drunk with the heat,
flying high, too much a son to return.
Poor Daedalus, his mouth an O below,
his hands outstretched to catch the rain
of wax. He still doesn't know.

My wings fell, yes - I saw him hover
over the tiny splash - but by then I'd been
swallowed into love's eye, the light I've come to see
as home, drowning in the yes, this swirling
white-hot where night will never find me.

And now when my father wakes
each morning, his bones still sore
from his one-time flight, his confidence undone
because the master plan fell through,
he rises to a light he never knew, his son.

ABOUT CHRISTINE HEMP: Hemp's poetry and essays are heard on NPR's Morning Edition and her work is published widely. She has worked with such groups as Los Alamos Laboratory scientists, Harvard and University of Washington students, National Park Rangers, corporate lawyers, and Native American tribes, as well as the U.S. Navy. She has also has broken new ground in England and the U.S. by uniting youth offenders and police officers, using writing as a tool for crime prevention. Read more on her website: http://www.christinehemp.com/index.html

YOUR WRITTEN RESPONSE
In part B you will be asked to write a paragraph about the following:

It has been said that this myth deals with the following themes: "captivity and escape, ingenuity and creativity, flight and fall, success and failure" (J.E.Nyenhuis 2003). Select one pair of themes and discuss how well they fit the idea of a journey for either Daedalus or Icarus.



You can also view the videos below as more sources of the myth:




Source: Jim Henson's The Storyteller - Greek Myths, Sony Pictures (2006)

Also look at these interesting interpretations: