Monday 28 December 2009

How much control do we have in shaping our own identities?



Having read Kayleigh James' blog on how language is used to control thought and behaviour,i felt encouraged to explore more on who really controls our identities.Kayleigh mentioned that religious beliefs and doctrines tend to control the way people think.And she wasn't convinced that these religious people had any control over their own thoughts.

How we perceive and make sense of each other is fundamental to all social interactions.Identities are formed and shaped through our participation and interaction with social structures such as gender, class, nationality and culture. I suppose we choose to identify with a particular identity or group.The question is how much choice and control do we have?

Personality describes qualities that a person may have,characteristics and traits that make a person unique as an individual. It is possible to describe yourself in several different ways, and the description may vary depending upon the person or group you are presenting yourself to.I am guessing that genetics play a role in the development of our personality, and we are born with some distinguishing characteristics which are more or less unchangeable. In this regard, we are born in a certain area or part of the world and it is natural to identify with the specific culture. Even though membership in a culture does not necessarily involve the desire to act in accordance with the norms associated with the identity it is difficult to resist the social environment.

During the last decades there have been considerable changes in society, and new possibilities have emerged and these are reflected in the way people identify themselves. People are flexible and they change jobs, move, travel and encounter, either personally or via media such as the internet, different cultures and religions. Globalization promotes cultural homogeneity and this could lead to a detachment of identity from the community. Furthermore, the roles for males and females have changed, for example, women are more likely to be working and it is more acceptably for males to show a caring side. All these changes and movements have made it possible for individuals to have more control over the shaping of their own identity. I consider globalization as a contributing factor in the loss of identities. People have no choice or control over the shaping of their identities. .

Experiences in childhood and adolescence lay the foundation for the development of self and identity. Young adolescents’ identities are less stable and they are more prone to be influenced by the social environment. Despite the fact that there might be a social pressure to conform and behave like the rest of the group, individuals do have a choice. Human beings have knowledge and skills to make up their own minds and deal with things in our own way. Therefore, it is possible to have a certain independence and control of the social environment, although you cannot stand apart from it.

The way one’s identity is formed is a complex process where social and individual factors are linked.I am of the opinion that individuals have some control over the shaping of their identity.In the interim changes in society and globalization has made it easier for people to reconstruct themselves. On the other hand, the individual has little control over some factors, for example, genetics and the organization of society.

Sigmund Freud believed that societies suppress people and it is for this reason that George Orwell reiterated in his novel 1984 - that societies are modelled around BIG BROTHER.

Newspeak - propaganda personified

muchokomania: American propaganda on communism -(Newspeak(1984)

muchokomania: American propaganda on communism -(Newspeak(1984)

American propaganda on communism -(Newspeak(1984)

Friday 25 December 2009

Global warming synonymous with improvised explosive devices


The UN Summit on climate change held in Copenhagen, Denmark two weeks ago reminded many of us the dangers that lie ahead for future generations.For as long as the global village do not reach consensus on the way forward,we are bound to condemn our predecessors into oblivion.For as long as developed nations remain a prototype of big brother in the novel 1984,there can be no amicable resolution in ratifying the proposed treaty.That is the reason why the summit collapsed - leaving big brother livid.


Surely the planet's hostile model of development pursued by the industrialised countries has led to a collective detriment to the rest of the world.Now it is only fair that the developing countries repel a deal that is obliterated with underlying adverse effects in relation to their development.If i were to be an empiricist, the effects of climate change can not be ignored, because there are now quite poignant.Most of the developing world are under siege and have become victims of climate change, yet their contribution to this change is little or none.

For the world has changed and it is imperative that we change with it.But to what extent should big brother compensate the developing world?There seems to be some imbalances in the way in which this world is run.The USA and its allies are in Afghanstan,in a war they define as ,'a war of necessity'.But when the global climate agreement is finally ratified in future, will they send their men and women to fight those that will defy the climate change treaty.In my opinion defying the climate change treaty is just as equally bad as the terrorism they are fighting in Helmand.Or are there gonna be economic sanctions for those that violet the mother treaty?

The bio-carbon emissions are more prevalent in developed countries, why then should the developing world ratify something that will undermine their own development?Of course, there is compensation put aside for the developed world but is it a fair deal.Remember carbon emissions will be the same across the spectrum once ratified - so who gets the raw deal?

I hope a consensus will be reached at some point.I am not vindicating the underdeveloped or mitigating for them but it's a fact - they are getting a raw deal from big brother!!!!

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Last bulletin leaves a legacy

For all the technical misfortunes and amateur story packaging that our newsroom suffered in our first two live bulletins - I am proud to say, we have reached the promised land.And i am subjectively tempted to thank everyone involved in making our last bulletin the best.We might not have all been friends in the newsroom but the team effort suggests that we fought together for a common purposes.For the things that brought us together were far greater than the ones that separated us.

We have surely come of age.Remember the days we brought to the newsroom, images that were over-exposed,out of focus,footage that did not match the script,footage that didn't contain GVs,footage that lacked actuality in terms of sound and the list goes on.

For so many days we worked so hard to perfect the technics and today's bulletin is true testimony that nothing is impossible,if the drive is there to learn.

Guest bulletin editors came and offered the best advice available.It was indeed a privilege that we will all live to appreciate.We might not all make it in the industry but the few that will make the grade, have a reason to acknowledge the input by team Horrie(Angus and Brian).

Team Lovell(Arnold,Grant,James) were exceptionally incredible.I remember filming an interview at 2230pm,filming on a Saturday and working in the rain - for my team.It is with regret that we might not live to share the same newsroom again but the legacy will live-on.Our editor Lovell had the patience to work with his team and a lot of our success is due to his man management skills.

Every day felt like special because, we knew what we had to do.

The struggle for perfection will continue after Christmas.

Sunday 6 December 2009

Thought crime is not crime,it is death

Thank goodness,i have just finished reading the novel by George Orwell's novel 1984.In tandem,i also managed to watch the captivating movie that potrays the novel.There is sex,violence and anything vile you can dream of.

The story starts, in the year 1984, and it takes place in England or as it is called at that time, Airstrip One. Airstrip One itself is the mainland of a huge country, called Oceania, which consists of North America, South Africa, and Australia. The country is ruled by the Party, which is led by a figure called Big Brother.The protagonist is Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party, working in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, rewriting and altering records, such as newspaper-articles, of the past. The action starts when Winston develops critical thoughts against the ruling dictatorship of the party, for the first time. Doing so he buys a book, to use it as a diary. As individual expression is forbidden by the Party, having a diary is a crime, which may even be punished by death. There are so-called telescreens in each room, showing propaganda and political pamphlets, and which has a built-in camera and microphone, in order to spy on people. Therefore keeping a secret book is not only forbidden, but also very dangerous.

When Winston makes the first entry in the diary, he thinks about an experience he has made during the Two Minutes Hate, a propaganda film repeated each day. During this film he caught the eye of O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, whom he thought might also be critical to the regime, or that at least there is a bond of some kind between them. After this reminiscence, he finds that he has written the sentence: "Down with Big Brother" all over the page. The same night Winston dreams about his mother and sister, who starved to death in the war, because he had been so greedy. Then he dreams of having sex with a girl he has seen in the Records Department, during the Two Minutes Hate.

Early in the morning, Winston is woken by the harsh voice from the telescreen. During the performance of the physical exercises, Winston's thoughts move back to his childhood. The last thing he remembers clearly is the World War. After the WW, the Party took control of the country, and from then on it has been difficult to remember anything, because the Party changes history constantly to their own benefit. After the exercises Winston goes to work at the Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), where his job is to alter records, and once altered, to throw them into the memory hole where they are burnt. At dinner Winston Smith meets Syme, a philologist, who is working on the 11th edition of The Newspeak Dictionary. Syme explains the main character of their work on this dictionary. During their conversation the telescreen announces that the chocolate ration has been increased to 20 g a week, whereas yesterday it was cut down to 20g a week. Winston wonders whether he's the only person with memory who isn't inflicted with Doublethink. As he looks around in the dining room he catches the eye of the dark-haired girl he had dreamed of the same night.

Back home again he makes an entry in his diary about his meeting with a prostitute three years ago. He remembers her ugliness, but nevertheless he had sex with her. Winston had a wife, but she was very stupid and just following the orders of the Party, which said that there may only be sex to produce "new material" for the Party, and that sex for personal pleasure is a crime. Then Winston thinks about the Party and believes that the only hope lies in the Proles.Later he remembers another fact of his past - Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford, the last three survivors of the original leaders of the Revolution. They were arrested in 1965 and confessed to all kinds of sabotage during their trial; they were pardoned, reinstated but not long after arrested again and executed.

The next morning Winston is again filled with the conviction that the future lies with the proles, that they will overthrow the greyness of the Party. But suddenly reality crashes in. "We are the DEAD", he says to Julia. An iron voice behind them repeats the phrase, the picture on the wall falls to bits to reveal a telescreen behind it. Uniformed man thunder into the room and they carry Winston and Julia out. Winston is in a cell in what he presumes is the Ministry of Love. He is sick with hunger and fear, and when he makes a movement or a sound, a harsh voice will bawl at him from four telescreens. A prisoner who is dying of starvation is brought in, his face is skull-like. Later the man is brought to "Room 101" after screaming and struggling, and even offering his children's sacrifices in his stead. O'Brien enters. Winston thinks that they must have got him, too, but O'Brien says that they got him long time ago.

A guard hits Winston, and he becomes unconscious. When he wakes up he is tied down to a kind of bed. O'Brien stands beside the bed, and Winston feels that O'Brien, who is the torturer, is also somehow a friend. The aim of O'Brien is to teach Winston the technique of doublethink, and he does this by inflicting pain of ever-increasing intensity. He reminds Winston that he wrote the sentence: " Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four". O'Brien holds up four fingers of his left hand, and he asks Winston how many there are. Winston answers four a couple of times, and each time the pain increases .At the end of the session, under heavy influence of drugs and agony, Winston really sees five fingers.O'Brien now explains how the Party works. The image he gives of the future is that of a boot stamping on a human face - for ever. Winston protests, because he thinks that there is something in the human nature that will not allow this; he calls it "The Spirit of Man".

O'Brien points out that Winston is the last humanist, he is the last guardian of the human spirit. Then O'Brien gets Winston to look at himself in the mirror. Winston is horrified by he sees. The unknown time of torture has changed him into a shapeless and battered wreck. This is what the last humanist looks like. The only degradation that Winston has not been through, is that he has not betrayed Julia. He has said anything under torture, but inside he has remained true to her. Winston is much better now. For some time he has not been beaten and tortured, he has been fed quite well and allowed to wash. Winston realises that he now accepts all the lies of the Party, that Oceania was always at war with Eastasia, and that he never had the photograph of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford that disproved their guilt. Even gravity could be nonsense. But nevertheless Winston has some unorthodox thoughts that he cannot suppress. But now it is time for the last of the three steps, reintegration. Winston is taken to Room 101. O'Brien says that the room 101 is the worst thing in the world.He looks forward to the bullet, they will kill him with some day.

Thursday 3 December 2009

Trapped in a closet of hate

'I am not being racist , i just don't like blacks ,but because of the system i am forced to,' said an unsuspecting white fellow.

My tutor at the best journalism university in the country, once said,'never use a quote ' when starting a news story. For some reason,i have decided to breach the code of main stream journalism.

Since my longhaul flight aboard a South African airways plane to England across the Atlantic,i have never been subjected to racism - of course until today.As i wandered about in the media centre, i heard something that i last heard during the apartheid regime in South Africa.This unsuspecting fella,didn't realise that a 'nigger' was behind his work station,when he pronounced his dislike for black people.I instinctively interjected and asked him to apologise.There was utter silence from the fella and his crew - before apologising.The stunned red faced fellas immediately, asked if there was anything they would do to compensate for inciting hate speech.

I suppose there is nothing wrong in hating black people but if it's done in the public domain,then there is cause to worry.Charles Darwin might have inspired a fully-blown spectrum of racism.He believed that,the white race had reached a full stage of human development.In America the KKK and other Alabama right-wingers still hold onto the mythical theories.In the state of Alabama,my DJ friend was assaulted for 'walking while black' and 'driving while black'.

Probably if i was white,i might have had the same feeling as anyone who hates 'niggers'.

Am not an angry blackman for now but i now really feel marginalised following today's incident.Of course, it's fair comment to say,i hate niggers but if it's made public knowledge then a 'nigger' gets offended.