Conclusion

In conclusion, I really enjoy being in this class, it helped me to understand a lot about my history and reflect on how hard and hurtful the past generations of my history had to go through. Every unit of this class related a lot of what my family history is about, which made me appreciate my family even more. The units that I enjoy were the last 3 units, which was Arrival, Arrested Movement and Return/Reflection unit. I have learned a lot from those units and the readings and video clips were very interesting as well. I really liked the “Road to Guantanamo” clip because I never really knew about that event until now. I learned so much from that clip. I also enjoy the movie “Human Cargo”, that movie was so interesting to me that I rented the movie. It allowed me to reflect on how life can be tough and how most people have to strive for protection.

It inspired me to appreciate what I have, and strive for the better opportunities for my family’s history. This class is a very educated class that helps you to realize a lot, that my knowledge that I have received from this course; I can share it with the rest of the world and others.

Return to Your Birth Place

This is a picture of the house that my mother and father built when they lived in Guyana. It was so hurtful to look at because when they went back after 20 years, most of the houses looked like this:

But theirs didn’t because the people that lived in it now, didn’t take care of it. Sometimes its hard to go back and see what life is like now and sometimes its just the same. So the reflection of this, makes people to realize that you should appreciate everything that you have.

Photo-Documentary

For the ended of my semester, I had the opportunity to do an assignment that reflects on the history of pictures. I found this assignment to be very reflective towards the theory of what this class is really about. My photo-documentary was about a family unit. Since I am a generation of 4 within my family unit, I decided to take pictures from my mother’s generation, my sister’s generation, my generation and my nieces’ generation. Looking at these pictures make me realize that each generation is different and that each individual is different. I also realized that within each generation, they try to make their difficulties better for the next generation.

This was a very interesting project because it allowed me to really focus on the history and story of the picture instead of the caption of the moment. It helped me to understand the difficulties that life has to hand to you within certain generations. Its captures the picture in a whole different way that allowed me to appreciate what my history is.

Returns/Reflections

In life, a person will never forget about the nation and their country of birth. It’s almost impossible to do so. Even though a person has moved to another country for better opportunities or a better life for their family, they will even forget their original place of birth. The thoughts of going back may seem scary and overwhelming because sometimes it’s hard to deal with the fact that you as a person has changed, the life style you live has now changed and the surroundings around you have change from when you as a person lived in your place of birth.

Even though a person may change, the society within the country has changed as well. With that being said, if a person goes back to their hometown, they wouldn’t feel the same because everything would look different to them; it wasn’t the same as it was when they used to live in the country. This unit reminded me of the time when my mother went back to her country of birth (Guyana). She left Guyana when she was 28 years old and didn’t return until 20 years later. When she did return, she felt a lot of emotions and a lot of changes that she thought would never happen. She was very happy to what her birth place has become over the years but she was very sad to see the house that she built.

The return of your original place of birth makes you realize, reflect and appreciate what you achieve, and what you earn in life. It allows you to reflect on the opportunities that you we privileged to get and all the things that you achieved on your own.    

"Road to Guantanamo" – A tragedy

As I sit and watch the horrible events that took place within the camps in Guantanamo, I could found a lot of pros and cons towards the U.S. Defense Department. But I am not going to reveal that because I feel that it is very wrong to torcher a human being in that way. A person should have respect and justice to prove that their innocent, not physically harm them for the thought of what they know. I find this clip from the “Road to Guantanamo” to be very moving and I can’t believe the pain and suffering that those people had to face just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s wrong to judge people by their culture and race, which is discrimination. Although, the attacks that happen on 9/11 is a scary and horrifying event that took place, that doesn’t give any one the reason to discriminate others, it just allows people to have more efficient security and protection.

This picture is basically an inset of what life was like in Guantanamo bay camps. Looking at this picture it’s very hurtful to see, even the clip was hard to watch. The image shows pain, hurt, suffering, survival, patience and passion of freedom in all these men’s body language of movement.

I found a clip of Youtube, which I found was very interesting because it was the very first clip that was released to the public of Guantanamo Bay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXYrYTNo5n4&feature=related

The clip shows the guys being threaten and mentally abused by the U.S. Defense Department because of their static knowledge towards the culture and background of the Muslim guys.

Even though something like this happened in the 2000s, everyone should be a where of the consequences towards criminal offences and to always have faith in who you are and to remember that you are innocent until proven guilty.

Arrested Movement (Human Cargo Movie)

I remember about 3 weeks ago, we saw a movie in class that I found was very interesting due to the fact that I can’t stop think about it. My description of the movie reveals a sense of fear that encounters the actors to show the corruption and disaster that is involved in the land that some people call their home. I think the movie was about 5 different nations and how they dealt with life on a daily basic but although there were 5 different stories, one of the stories really got to me.

The story was about how people struggled for protection in Kwanda. This part gave me a sense of interest that captured my attention. I couldn’t believe that people, especially young children are forced to join a society that is not safe, and which torcher innocent people. It’s sad to know that these camps and societies used to be acknowledging within the world. I don’t understand why these situations were allowed back in the centuries, I don’t understand why people had to face the fact of fear in their hearts, and also that fact of fight for protection.

Reflection of Death Poem

By: Jumah Al Dossari

Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.

Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.

Send them to the world,

To the judges and

To the people of conscience,

Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.

And let them bear the guilty burden before the world,

Of this innocent soul.

Let them bear the burden before their children and before history,

Of this wasted, sinless soul,

Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors of peace.”

As I read this poem I could feel the pain and suffering that this person faced. It revealed a lot of emotions that can encounter hardship and struggles to have the rights that a human being should have. It can also reveal the trials of war within a nation and the force movement, migration and separation between individuals.

With this poem in my mind, I was doing some research about the Tamil Migrates and I found a clip that I found relates to this poem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1UnhPq8Pio

It’s called Ethnic War between Tamil and Sinhalese. As I watch this clip, I could relate to death. The part what captured my eyes was when there were white strings hanging and the narrator said “In Sri Lanka, white strings is the color of death”.  This was very odd to me because from what I know white means peace, but I guess I was wrong.