Are the terrorist the natural born killers?

Yesterday, a Belgian writer Frank Andriat was at our university. Basically, he is a French teacher in a good high school and he started his career, because he just wanted to understand his student’s problems. What a banal story, isn’t it?

Once upon a time, he was watching the news about a hideous attempt in Belgian metro. The journalist described a whole story and he did mention the family name of a terrorist responsible for this terrifying crime. Andriat couldn’t believe in it. That was his old student’s name. After checking some information, he found out that it was a brother of his student. A brother of a wonderful kid and sportsman who is banned to go to the USA for the championship, because of his brother crime.

One of the ways to become a terrorist is being a good, muslin boy without a lot of friends. They will organize a charity association which helps homeless people. They will say: Look, you are useful, merciful and nice boy. You make a world better. Maybe we want to help us brothers in faith in Syria? And step by step, you will be becoming a terrorist.

This is not a “crème de la crème” of French filmography, but if you understand how a normal boy becomes a cold blooded murder, you should see “La Désintégration” of Philippe Faucon and read a teenager book called “Je t'enverrai des fleurs de Damas”.

Bonne lecture.

Refugees have three heads

We don’t know Afghanistan and the Near East, because they don’t teach us about this part of the world. As a result of watching television, we considered this country as a hell. All the people are miserable there because of the poverty, fanaticism and the war. We should emphasis that Afghanistan has suffered from not only the international war with Soviet Union but also from a civil war between lots of tribes.

We are afraid of terrorists, so everybody does, but unfortunately that fear close us up. Europeans don’t want to invite any refugee, even orphans, because we are too scared by the danger of the terrorism. But seriously… why? Is a fear the only reason to not help another people? Maybe, we just should present them as a normal people to encourage the Europeans to support them?

“Rose afghan” is a Frank Andriat’s book about Afghanistan. Belgian writer destines his book to teenagers to get them familiar with a misfortune of Afghans. We see the world by the eyes of teen girl who just wants to live in peace. She doesn’t know the true meaning, because she was born in country where the war lasts from years. She is so lost, sad and desperate that we would like just to help her.

Ps. Frank Andriant will be this week at our university !

Am I pretty ?

One week ago, my cousin was coming back from a trip to Hawaii. As a client of American Airlines she ordered a coffee and was enjoying her pleasant flight. The stewardess’s served her a coffee and after that, se notice something: the average of age of the stuff was 40 years old. It could never happen in the Europe. Every time, she has been taking a flight, a stewardess was nice-looking, smiling, very young girls, but she has never met a mature woman.

Why in the magazines even a woman who is 50 years old, looks like a 30-year-old woman or someone after a plastic surgery? Why could we accept a face without a facial expression (Botox), but we could not accept a TV woman presenter with the gray hair?

Naomi Wolf in “The Beauty Myth” explains the entire problem connected to the cult of beauty and youth in our Occident society. The profound researches prove the sources of inequality and the impact of this on women.

It is vital, especially for a young girl who enters in the adult life that the ideal woman exists only on paper. We should encourage that girls to study, travel and focus on spiritual and emotional development instead of being obsess with her body. The “beauty myth” causes anorexia, bulimia, complexes, lack of self-confidence etc…

BTW : It’s worth going to the CK Zamek in Poznan to see an exhibit called “ZŁe kobiety”.

All that sex

Nowadays, the lack of sexual education takes us back to the Middle Ages. The young people, specially in Poland, acquire the knowledge the field of sexuality due to porno movies or the “fairy-tells” of their friends. It is not possible to talk with parents about it, because the love making is still a taboo. Moreover, most of the society is reluctant even to talk about their bed problems with a partner. According to the researches, a lot of woman are faking orgasm to please her man and because they are too ashamed of it.
Why don't we want to solve this problem and we are pretending that everything is just fine?

Let’s analyze the polish language: How do we call “vagina”?

Cipa – it is very vulgar
Cipka – it is less vulgar, but is still a bad word
Kaczuszka/ muszelka/ pierożek – it is so childish
Wagina – it’s way too medical
Srom – it has a connotation associated with a shame ("sromota, sromota, wstyd!")

As we know, our perception of reality is based on language we used. To sum up, without an adequate vocabulary is hard to start a conversation…
I would like to recommend “Sztuka Kochania – historia Michaliny Wisłockiej” to all people, young in particular. We should break this ridiculous taboo and teach our polish society to talk about love making.

Break the taboo

The division between highbrow and lowbrow (culture) exist in the common view. Let’s revise some examples from the history just to prove our point. Firstly, on the south of France in the Middle Ages, the troubadours created poems for the pleasure of Occitan aristocracy and the juggler performing to amuse some people gathered in the market. Of course, the troubadour couldn’t be a juggler, because the major part of poets comes from the royal court and the jugglers were the penniless fouls.
Secondly, we are capable of noticing this division in music: the jazz music against the classic music! The second one is considering as the better because is more sophisticated and, at some level, touch our souls. The jazz is more accessible and people are listening to this in the lousy bars to have fun. What is more, they are dancing! According to common view, the contemplation is above the dancing. However, to our astonishment, this kind of separation is visible even in the dancing… Waltz against tango.
There is some art intended to be sophisticated, performed to the people from the society and the second one. Moreover, this is a question of a social taboo.
The greater people from XX century like Susan Sontag or Umberto Eco emphasis the absurdity of this artificial separation. Fortunately, I hope that the attribution the Nobel Prize to the Bob Dylan will break this horrible taboo.

Delicious kitsch

Acknowledged as one of the world’s great director, Wes Anderson is generally known to the wide audience due to “Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Moonrise Kingdom”. And everybody likes his movies, because everybody loves the fairy tales. This is a great secret of the Anderson’s popularity: make people believe in magic again. In the first one, the doorman becomes rich by accident and the second one, the very young couple decided to run away from the camp to live happy ever after.

All of these stories are impossible to happen. We are the spectators watching the show. In contrast to the normal movie where there is a still illusion of the reality, here we are aware that we participle in the theater. Nothing is really, not even the special effects or the script.

The image is a compilation of the Disney World and baroque horror vacui. You can find in that film anything you want: colours, unbelievable adventures, picturesque landscapes, etc. But what is a purpose of it? Maybe it is like a really big box with nothing inside it?

His creations are just a reflection of American taste, like Madonna Inn (an unusual motel) or Hearst castle (mansion of newspaper magnate – the inspiration to create a “Citizen Kane”). Most of people watch the movies in order to forgot about their miserable life, they don't spend the time in the research to find a truth or give a meaning to their existence. Generally, we prefer magic, good looking scenography and the happy ending.

But in the case of art, it is really easy to cross the border and become a kitsch artist, who doesn't have much to say.

Persian punk

The citizens of Iran were always pride of their heritage. In comparison to other muslin countries, they weren’t just a bunch of shepherds gathered in some tribes. The name of the city “Persepolis” was known from Atlantic Ocean to the Chine. Everybody spread the stories about the brave Persian people like Cyrus II or Darius I. In fact the art was spectacular, in particular the craftsmanship (everybody has heard about Persian carpets). Most people were believers of Zoroastrianism – one of the first monotheistic religions in the world. Instead of the conquests of Alexander the Great and after- the Muslin, the memory of a great empire survived.

Now, you can imagine that you are a litter girl growing up in the Iran in 80s during the religion revolution. Everything what was important to you have been destroyed by fanatics.  You fell very angry, disappointed, confused, you want to rebel but you don't know how. Your country is becoming some Arabic province where the culture and the liberty is no longer a value.

“Persepolis” is an animated film, but only for adults. Undoubtedly because of this image people, who don’t know the history of Iran, have a possibility to understand the difficult problem of this religious revolution. During watching, you can ask yourself a question: how is it possible?

The movie is based on the memories of Marione Satrapi – well-known graphic novelist living in Paris.