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earaercircular · 6 months

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Learn to act

Many students are already committed to sustainability. The aim of politics is therefore to increase this even more. What incentives programs like “Climate School Bavaria”[1] or “Consumer School”[2] offer.

"Oh, how delicious!" Paula Bäuerle used to reflexively grab it when someone offered her a chocolate bar. Now she prefers to hesitate. And first ask a few questions: Was the chocolate produced in an environmentally friendly way? How much and what type of sugar does it contain? Were the cocoa farmers paid decently? What quality seal does the product have? The 16-year-old has been a chocolate expert for four years: she gives lectures about climate-friendly chocolate at her school, which is attended by 900 children and young people. “I now make sure that I eat sustainable chocolate,” says Paula Bäuerle. She is a member of the Fair Trade working group at the Camerloher High School[3] in the city of Freising near Munich. The working group promotes fair trade with numerous activities, including organising green fashion shows and a cooking event in which high school students prepare a vegetarian menu together.

The fact that young people become active themselves and that sustainable action ideally becomes natural for them is a core idea of the global educational concept Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)[4]. Schools in Germany have a lot of freedom in how they implement climate protection issues. To ensure that it is not just a single waste collection campaign or a project day to protect the rainforest, some federal states have developed sophisticated programs that give students and teachers special incentives to get involved: the Camerloher high school has the official title “Climate School Bavaria 2023”. It is one of 51 schools that received the award this year, which comes with prize money of up to 1,500 euros. Public schools as well as private schools can take part in the program.

Every school must submit a well-conceived climate plan to the ministry

Since its launch in 2022, more than 70 Bavarian schools have been named “climate schools”. This was preceded by a complex certification process. An expert jury examines whether the broad field of sustainability has really been and is being pursued comprehensively. The actions of the Fair Trade working group, which has existed for more than ten years, are an important, but only one of many pillars of the climate protection concept that the Camerloh high school submitted to the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture.

In eight stages - the ministry has created a guide for this - teachers and students plan together the path to the climate school and get involved in this during their free time: They carry out surveys and measurements to track down “energy guzzlers”, organise information events, and collect the best ideas for a sustainable way of life and determine the carbon footprint of your school. This constitutes the basis for the sophisticated climate protection plan that every school must submit to the ministry. “It contains the goals that we have already achieved, that we are currently implementing and that we still plan for the future,” explains Andreas Decker, senior teacher and environmental officer at Camerloher High School.

Throughout M. Decker, all the threads for the school's climate concept come together. The school's waste has recently been properly separated - residual waste, paper, plastic and organic waste. A schedule regulates which class takes care of the proper disposal and when. The students are currently measuring the temperature in the classrooms and comparing them with the values determined during summertime. Do you need better insulation? That will be decided when all the results are there. “Next year we want to introduce a meat-free day in the cafeteria and ensure that even more regional products are used for our food,” says Anne Graf. The 17-year-old high school student is a member of the “Climate School” project seminar in high school and is responsible for the topic of nutrition. "I also plan to suggest healthy, vegetarian recipes to our chefs." It is the sum of many small measures that make a climate school a great role model.

Since this school year, the Ministry of Culture in Bavaria has set up a “BNE advisory network”[5] that is intended to support schools in the certification process. "We have to take action today and fight climate change - and not tomorrow or the day after. That's why we not only want to sensitise young people very early on, but also equip them with the skills to act in climate protection," says Bavarian Minister of Education Anna Stolz, describing the central goals of the "Climate School" program Bavaria". She aims “to reach at least at 300 climate schools in Bavaria by 2025”. The minister emphasises that the program should also motivate teachers and students to support friends or family members in making a contribution to climate protection. Paula Bäuerle from Camerloher High School is enthusiastically working as a multiplier. "I think it's great that I was able to convince my brother and my parents to buy fair trade chocolate," reports the high school student.

Climate ambassadors bring innovations from vocational schools to companies

The award is available in bronze, silver and gold. In order to achieve the highest qualification level, a school must be involved in all eight specified areas of action: waste, purchasing, nutrition, communication & networking, mobility, electricity, heat, compensation & carbon sequestration. And it must show how it can create the path to climate neutrality.

A lighthouse among the climate schools is the Mindelheim State Vocational School[6]. Because it is one of the few vocational schools that have taken part in the program so far and because it has “gold status”. The variety of sustainability projects that the school has implemented with 2,200 students at its locations in Mindelheim, Memmingen and Bad Wörishofen is correspondingly large. “We are aiming for climate neutrality by 2030,” says headmaster Gottfried Göppel. With the help of financial support from the Unterallgäu district[7], solar modules were installed on all roofs of the school buildings. In the area of mobility, the focus is on, among other things, carpooling, charging infrastructure for electric cars and a solar carport.

Together with teachers, vocational school students have developed so-called learning snacks - knowledge in small portions that is imparted online. This is about, for example, food waste or green apps. And who knows exactly what goes into a CO₂ footprint? The school also offers additional professional training to become a sustainability officer. In a vertical farming project, students produce vegetables in a container with a photovoltaic roof. The Mindelheim vocational school plans to soon bring the project to a school in Uganda.

Source

Stephanie Schmidt, Lernen zu handeln, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 6-12-2023, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/stil/schule-klimaschutz-nachhaltigkeit-programm-1.6310233

[1] With the Klimaschule Bayern (Climate School Bavaria) we give schools the opportunity to systematically set out on the path to greater climate protection. At the end there is a certificate that makes the commitment to climate protection visible to the outside world. This is how we promote awareness of climate protection. https://www.realschulebayern.de/aktuelles/einzelansicht/klimaschule-bayern/5742bce98d7ef4911e784340daa06a2e/#:~:text=Mit%20der%20%E2%80%9AKlimaschule%20Bayern%27%20geben,wir%20Bewusstsein%20f%C3%BCr%20den%20Klimaschutz.

[2] The Verbraucherschule des Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverbands (vzbv) (Consumer School Network of the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations) supports and promotes this commitment. We give interested schools nationwide initial help with implementation, regularly offer up-to-date information, support with online training and bring teachers together. Active schools can also apply for the consumer school award. https://www.vzbv.de/ueber-uns/projekte/verbraucherschule

[3] The Camerloher-Gymnasium is not a special school for arts subjects, but a state high school that is committed to the Bavarian curriculum in all areas. However, we are convinced that intensive and active engagement with cultural content is part of a comprehensive education of the whole personality. https://www.camerloher-gymnasium.de/schule

[4] Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE) (Education for Sustainable Development) stands for education that enables people to think and act in a sustainable manner. The implementation of the UNESCO programs for ESD, currently the world program "ESD 2030", has been coordinated in Germany by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) since 2015. https://www.bmbf.de/bmbf/de/bildung/bildung-fuer-nachhaltige-entwicklung/bildung-fuer-nachhaltige-entwicklung_node.html#:~:text=Bildung%20f%C3%BCr%20nachhaltige%20Entwicklung%20(BNE,2015%20federf%C3%BChrend%20vom%20BMBF%20koordiniert.

[5] The Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture has off an education advisory network for the 2023/2024 school year sustainable development (Beratungsnetzwerk BNE (consultation network)) at Bavarian Schools established. The BNE advisory network is established for each administrative district active and consists of teachers from all types of schools, the corresponding ones Perform consulting tasks. https://fibs.alp.dillingen.de/pdf?container_id=331263

[6] https://www.bsmn.de/

[7] Unterallgäu is a Landkreis (district) in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. Neighbouring districts are (from the north clockwise) Neu-Ulm, Günzburg, Augsburg, Ostallgäu, Oberallgäu, and the districts Ravensburg und Biberach in Baden-Württemberg. The district-free city Memmingen in the west of the district is nearly surrounded by the district. The capital of the district is Mindelheim.

#climate education #sustainability education

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average-teen-girl · 2 years

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My AP Review for Classes I Already Took

I can say, as a junior, I’ve taken quite a few AP Classes. I’ve completed 4 and I am currently in 6 more. It is safe to say I can give recommendations and my perspective toward a few classes. In this post I will focus specifically on the four I have already took!

AP Human Geography

My freshman year of high school I was put into AP Human Geography. In all honesty, I didn’t sign up for it and was not excited. The class was not exceptionally difficult. However, many of the things you learn are concepts that must be applied in order to truly succeed at the course. Unlike math where you learn a formula and use in every time or a normal history class where you just memorize events and people, you must analyze events and phenomenon and understand what the significance of it is. The coursework, which depends heavily on your teacher, was A LOT! Like a crazy amount. 2 guided note packets - about 4 pages front and back each - a week at least.

The great thing about this course is that it helps you understand your future history classes, especially AP, to a higher level. The terms you learn and everything you learn can actually be applied in many aspects of life and has helped me in my reading, science, and history classes. I recommend this as a fist time AP class. It is a wonderful foundation to start with.

At the end of the year you take an AP test. I can not accurately explain the atmosphere and difficulty of this test, since I took it during COVID when the test was altered for at-home testing. I can tell you my score: 4. I believe most people who actually pay attention and put a little bit of work into outside of class have the ability to pass - 3- the test!

RATING: 9/10

AP Seminar

I took this class my sophomore year of high school. This class focuses on learning to write college level papers and make higher-level presentations. There are 5 aspects to the AP score you get at the end of the year: group presentation, group paper, individual presentation, individual paper, and the test. These are not the official names of these part of your score, but it gets the point across clearly and is easier to remember.

Most teachers start by going over important aspects of this course such as plagiarism, citing, what a literature review is, analyzing sources, and how to create presentations.

Usually the first thing you will do that is sent to the college board is a group project. You, along with a few other people, will find a problem in the world, nation, state, or local community and research it. The goal is to have multiple perspectives on the problem, multiple solutions, a final solution, and limitations. Each person in the group take son a different prospective. Together you create a presentation sharing all of this information followed by a few reflection question (oral defense). Another part of this is creating a paper to go with it. This paper focuses specifically on your perspective of the question/problem your team has and does not need to include a solution.

The next things is an individual project. Unlike the group project, there are “stimulus sources” that have to be involved in both your paper and presentation in some form. You find the theme of these sources and find a problem surrounding the theme in order to form a question such as “How does child abuse of young girls affect their romantic relationships in the future?”. You write a paper about the research you collect. It will include multiple perspectives, a solution, and the limitation of your solution. You will then create a presentation showing this again with oral defense.

The actual test you take at the end of the year focuses on analyzing sources and creating arguments by writing. It has multiple written response sections.

This class was one of my most influential AP classes. It helped be learn how to correctly research and determine credibility. This course showed me how to create a persuasive argument. Arguably, this class is one of the most important classes an individual could take and I would recommend it to anyone, especially sophomores.

If you pass the AP class with a 3 or higher - I got a 3 - and then pass the secondary course, AP Research (currently in) , with a 3 or higher you earn an AP Capstone Diploma. This is a wonderful thing to be able to put on a resume. It is also why I recommend taking Seminar in your sophomore year, since it allows you to take Research your junior year and know of you earned you Diploma before putting it on resumes for college admission

RATING: 10/10

AP World History

This class is not necessary, but if you enjoy history, want to earn history credits before entering college, or need a boost in your GPA, I recommend it. It is one of the easier AP history classes and many people are able to successfully pass it. In fact, I was able to pass with a 4. The class extends across a long period of time giving you good general knowledge about history. It also helps develop document analyzing skills.

The AP test consists of a multiple choice section, a DBQ (discussion based question - An essay), and a short response section.

RATING: 6/10

AP Computer Science Principles

I am in a computer science program in my school, so I was required to take this class. I believe my rating may be biased since we had a lot of difficulties securing a teacher for the class leading to many challenges in learning the course. It is a widely passed test and most are able to score at least a 3 on it. It requires you to code a small project with many elements along with a test that is all multiple choice. I, thankfully, was able to pass with a 3

RATING: 3/10

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21secondsofchristoph · 3 years

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Here is a full translation of the interview featured in Max Magazine.

Original text by Andreas Wrede

This was a lot of work so PLEASE don’t post this elsewhere without credit.

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This story with and about Christoph Waltz is a story coming full circle. A little more than 3 decades ago, a small group of editors and photojournalists, graphic artists and authors started developing the pilot for the first German issue of MAX, made possible by Dirk Manthey, the publisher from Hamburg’s Milchstraße, who knew the magazine from Italy, France and Greece. And who made me the founding-editor in chief. Three decades later, the derivative is released, thanks to publisher Max Iannucci. In 1990, Christoph Waltz was in an episode of “Der Alte”, among other things before he played the torn schlager music star Roy Black in “Du bist nicht allein – Die Roy Black Story” – but we will get to that later.

Now Christoph Waltz is an award-winning, internationally known actor, who won two Oscars for best supporting actor. That is unique for a German-speaking actor. Born in Vienna in 1956, he now lives in Los Angeles – if you want to play a role in Hollywood, literally, you must be present in Los Angeles. And during our conversation in a red, furry saloon of the legendary hotel Sacher in Vienna, he emphasizes, “Hollywood is always the goal”.

The place is very fitting, considering Christoph Waltz grew up in Vienna, in a family that cultivated a great affinity for the work on stage for two generations. He says laconically, “You grow into a thing, you grow up with it, and thus, you acquire a familiarity early on, which you’d otherwise have to conquer with a lot more effort.” He often went to the movies from an early age on, but he spent even more time at the opera. “When I had time and had finished my homework, I enjoyed going to the opera.” Back then, a standing room ticket cost about ten Schilling, just a few cents in today’s currency. Little Christoph loved smuggling into the fascinating, secretive opera house.

Later he attended famous acting schools like the Max Reinhardt Seminar or Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio with significantly less pleasure. “I didn’t like attending acting schools. They didn’t exactly broaden my horizon.” Christoph Waltz hardly found them inspiring. And when he received offers for movies and theater, he accepted them “instead of dealing and struggling with teachers”. He says this with few gestures and in an almost reporting tone, he has always trusted the energies inherent in him. He had his TV debut in “Der Einstand”, where he played a teenage delinquent. That was fitting, considering he continued playing roles which were different, unexpected, and specific, or roles he filled differently, unexpectedly, and specifically.

Christoph Waltz remembers his beginnings as an actor in the 70s a little wistfully. “There were still movies on TV, which were made as movies for television, as one dramatic entity.” Or when there used to be directors like the great Federico Fellini, who was “very, very specifically Italian in everything he did.” Christoph Waltz continues: “And because of this specificity he was able to reach so many people.” A phenomenon like Fellini is marked by obstinacy, nonconformity, and distinct individuality. However, some significant conditions also irritated Christoph Waltz, for instance, when he was hired for the Krzysztof-Zanussi-film “Leben für Leben” in 1991. “I wasn’t adequately informed about the conditions and backgrounds. And so, I found myself – surpsised – in front of a camera in Auschwitz.” How does one react to something like that? “Today, I would know how to react”, he stresses thoughtfully, “but today, that would be due to the self-confidence I acquired over the past years. Back then I felt: Now I’ve been hired for this film.” Alright, he adds, one grows through experience, some conflicts are worth going through. “It helps building character.”

Was the decision to play Roy Black a crystal clear one? Not at all, he responds smiling and closes his eyes for a second. “When my agent called me about it, my spontaneous reaction was: Complete humbug, and I can’t even listen to this music for three seconds.” It only became interesting for him when he learned that Roy Black originally wanted to play Rock ‘n’ Roll. Then he became interested in the tragedy of this character. And the thought that Roy Black’s wish was the desire for freedom and wildness, a wish many Germans shared, “which was inherent in the promising American machinery.” Although this freedom and wildness had always existed in Germany, lived out by people like Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, or Kandinsky.

“The film itself was great, but the marketing-weisenheimers managed to break this film. It would be a great cine film, but they advertised it as a sob story for television. Consequently, the real Roy-Black fans were disappointed, while the people who might have been interested in the movie judged: Leave me alone with this sob story twerp. Well, the weisenheimers are the weisenheimers, what can you do”, deems Christoph Waltz with a beautiful touch of Viennese sarcasm and barely noticeable risen eyebrows. One does not always have to instrumentalize the entire acting equipment with him. A few little cues are enough.

Many more films follow before someone calls from Hollywood and say he is supposed to participate in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. In our interview he calls this his “Quentin-jump”, where he is at eye level with Diane Kruger, Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in front of the camera. “Tarantino, we mentioned this before, stands for specificity and authenticity, he has an eye for both.” Did Christoph Waltz go into this production with a lot of respect? “With great respect.” He remembers an encounter with Sylvester Groth in front of a theatre in Babelsberg. “Every Thursday, Quentin showed movies during preparation. Once, Sylvester and I stood in front of the theatre and we both said: Imagine this, now we’ve been doing this for so long and suddenly we find ourselves here.” Then we paused for a few moments and kept going: Yes, and despite everything, we’re doing what we’ve always done – what we do, because that is what we do.”

Before Tarantino’s office could call again, other international projects followed, like The Green Hornet (with Cameron Diaz, Tom Wilkinson, James Franco) or Carnage (with Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly). Then Django Unchained (with Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson). For his role in Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz wins his second Oscar for best supporting actor in 2013 and Quentin wins another one for best original screenplay. But Christoph Waltz remains humble: “The opportunities presented to someone for personal growth always come to you through other people.” Although the actor always makes a binary decision. “Yes or no. Am I going to do it or not.”

Can one also make the wrong decision? “You decide for one or the other and from that other possibilities develop, but neither is better or worse.” That was not any different for Quentin Tarantino or for his first film and its director Reinhard Schwabenitzky, who saw him in acting school. Christoph Waltz leans forward and says confidentially: “The essential chances and opportunities were those which were presented to me by another mind, by a great talent, through a vision, which came from another person.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, humility is a virtue. But we do not want to conceal the fact that Christoph Waltz was the first German-speaking host on Saturday Night Live and that he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (No. 2536, 6667 Hollywood Boulevard). The quote: “And Hollywood is always the goal.” Is correct, “like others say their goal is to get into heaven.” Hollywood, heaven: “I don’t mean to compare the two goals, but the setting of these goals. Especially Hollywood has been mythologized into more than it deserves credit for.” In this respect, as a myth, it is always the goal. Please don't tell anyone Christoph Waltz is over-the-top - the opposite is the case.

During our exchange in the Sacher, I mention one of my favorite books on film. It is Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls – How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock’n’roll Generation saved Hollywood. It says: „There is no worse career move in Hollywood than dying. Hal Ashby is now largely forgotten, because he had the misfortune to die at the end of the 80’s, but he had the most remarkable run of any ’70 director. After ‚The Landlord‘, in 1970, he made ‚Harold and Maude‘, ‚The Last Detail‘, ‚Shampoo‘, ‚Bound for Glory‘, ‚Coming Home‘ and ‚Being there‘ in 1979, before his career disappeared into the dark tunnel of post-‘70’s, Me Decade Drugs and paranoia.“

It can be assumed that this won’t happen to Christoph Waltz? “That is a good example for the mythologizing I was referring to”, he responds. “I would claim that a legend like James Dean probably wouldn’t have developed at all, had he not driven himself to death in his Porsche at such a young age. Who knows what would have become of Marilyn Monroe, had she not put an early end to her complicated life.” And parallel to Hal Ashby, there probably were thousands of directors, who would have been happy to pay their next rent – by working in their profession. It is therefor about comparativeness.

Onto another career step, the James Bond movie Spectre, in which Christoph Waltz portrays the dark Blofeld, a character, who appeared in previous Bond movies. How do we have to imagine that? One sunny day the agent comes along and says: “You’re on the list for the next Bond movie”? Christoph Waltz knows there are no rules to this, especially when it is something like James Bond. A series that has been at the peak of possibilities for more than 50 years.” The producers have a lot to lose, they have to look very closely. Not only to keep up the standard, they also want to be ahead of their time.

Was it intriguing to play this bad boy a second time? Is it about an additional nuance of expertly irony; is it about the myth that is Bond? “This was another unique opportunity for me”, says Christoph Waltz, “a unique opportunity to include myself into such an incredibly successful series.” Now after Spectre, for the second time in No Time To Die – a title that can offer a bit of comfort in times of the world wide covid pandemic. And Christoph Waltz is in the Bond movie that will be Daniel Craig’s final Bond. “It’s his fourth Bond movie”, he counts, “the actors change but the role remains the same. Of course, the role acquires a different profile and thus, different facets.” But it remains James Bond. “And when a new actor gets the role, he has to fit into the role, not the other way around.” Once again, we will have to wait for this Bond movie. It will probably hit theatres in spring 2021.

It reminds one of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida – we’ve seen it a dozen times but keep going to see it again. Nowadays you go to see the production, in the past you went to see whosit faithless. Speaking of productions: Are the demands towards a Bond director more extensive compared to other film projects? “Surely there are more things to keep an eye on compared to a low budget movie or an independent film. In productions like that, you often have to use the tools you have. In Denmark they had demands referring to this “, Christoph Waltz comments in a slightly mocking undertone. He means the group around Lars von Trier? “Precisely, they called it Dogma for fun, and the world took them seriously.” But that is part of it, right, part of the business.

Anyway, every little detail is carefully manufactured for a Bond movie. And that takes, apart from a lot of money, a great level of expertise and many employees, which combine into a story on film. “Legions of people work on every pixel, not to mention the light and the meaning of the music.” With all this in mind, it’s understandable how appealing it is to be in a movie like No Time To Die. Christoph Waltz has a lot of praise for the director, Cary Fukanaga: “He always knew exactly what he was doing and we knew exactly, why he did this or that”. Audiences were able to see this in previous projects, like the brilliant first season of True Detective, where he directed all eight episodes.

Christoph Waltz wouldn’t be Christoph Waltz if he didn’t show his extraordinary talents in unconventional projects as well, like the show Most Dangerous Game (with Liam Hemsworth, produced for Quibi). “What interested me there? The new dramatic form, it’s a story in 16 sections, each section only eight minutes long. We’re dealing with a new form of storytelling.” Does it remind him of the continuous comics that used to be in US-newspapers a few decades ago?

“Yes, it’s connected to that – but it also reminds me of Charles Dickens, who published many of his novels as newspaper installments. In Most Dangerous Game the great story arch is not lost, the suspense is carried from one episode into the next. “That is a sleight of hand.” And for that he received an Emmy nomination, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he was to win the prestigious award one day. But he pulled off other sleight of hands in the past. Or how the New York Times says in a headline: “Christoph Waltz directing Opera, moves from Tarantino to Verdi.” Adding his old comment to this: “The full-blooded, juicy movie experience has a lot of operatic qualities. I’m not talking about the film music, but about the rhythm and color and phrasing.” After “Der Rosenkavalier” (Music: Richard Strauss, Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal), which he staged at the Antwerp Opera, came Giuseppe Verdi’s “Falstaff”, his second opera there.

“I’m not a fan of the never-seen-before concept”, says Christoph Waltz. He agrees with Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation – in opera, there is a fix story, and the music is the central transmitter of this story. Over-interpretations can quickly become “dangerous sliding tackles.” Waltz wants to avoid those. “I want to show what the composers and authors meant.” He stayed true to Sontag’s principle in all three of his opera productions, the third on being Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio”.

He is self-critical enough, “to personally take the risk of failing.” What would be the alternative?

“I’m just an actor, now what do the music critics, who take themselves so seriously say? Some foam at the mouth and brawl ‘the movie-bod is interfering in the opera’.” He prefers the critics that are capable of formulating things between the lines. “When I read elsewhere, that the very thing I was trying to convey can be seen in detail, then I’m quietly happy about it.” Sadly, the live performances of Fidelio fell victim to the covid-crisis, but there was a TV-screening on ORF, which can certainly be called presentable with 11% of the market-share. “During ‘Fidelio’ I first realized physically that music is a spatial experience.” Here fits another Waltz-quote: “Strip away anything that us unnecessary.” Ergo: Reduce the action to the interaction between the characters. That is an art he mastered to perfection in acting.”

For once, I could surprise the cleaned up, chatty, well-tempered Christoph Waltz with a little research.

In his birthyear, 1956, his fellow countryman Walter Felsenstein, founder and artistic director of the “Komische Oper” in Berlin filmed a version of “Fidelio”. To this day, it remains the only film adaptation of the opera. Probably because – so the actor quotes Felsenstein – “this opera technically is impossible to stage”, he says with aplomb, an attitude that suits him. In ballet an aplomb describes the ability to absorb a movement, the balance.

Christoph Waltz not only shoots a lot of movies, but he also enjoys reading one particular movie critic: Anthony Lane of the New Yorker. Surely one of the most sharpened critics, who outtalks someone or rubs the reader’s nose into his alleged ignorance. We start talking about Lane via a new movie by the fabulous Agnieszka Holland, “Mr. Jones” – referring to Gareth Jones, advisor to the former British Prime Minister Lloyd George. Jones uncovers that the devastating hunger crisis in the Ukraine in 1932/33 was exclusively due to Stalin’s exploiting politics. Anthony Lane writes in inimitable fashion: „Is it conceivable that Holland’s bleak, murky, and instructive film could prompt a change of heart in the current Russian establishment, or even a confession of crimes past? Not a chance.“ Greetings from Belarus.

And of course, we also talk about COVID, what does an actor do who can’t act during these times? Is he reading Robert Musil’s novel The Man Without Qualities, which has more than 1000 pages? “Oh, I’ve already attempted to read this three times. The first time, I got to page 200, the second time I got to page 400, the third time I put it away after 100 pages.” But he doesn’t fully abandon the idea of finishing it one day. “But that would really be a true accomplishment of discipline”, he underlines, allusively smiling. Less amusing is the current stagnancy in Hollywood, where Christoph Waltz lives with his wife and daughter for the most part. “It will be illuminating once things pick up again”, he ponders “will a reforming spirit take over, or will everything fall back into the old, ignorant patterns, or even cause worse?” The temporary dysfunctionality of Hollywood is comparable to a dysfunctional family, which mechanisms become especially clear during crisis. Now he visited his mother here in Vienna. I allow myself the question, “Is Vienna your home?” “Vienna is my home, home is something you can’t choose, like your parents. Everything else can become your center of living, all that is willingly moveable – but home, home cannot be changed at will.”

#christoph waltz #max magazine

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redbeardace · 4 years

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August TAAAP Chat Notes: Activism

This is a scattered bunch of thoughts and notes on some of the things that were discussed about activism in the August TAAAP Pride Chats. There’s no solid thesis here, but maybe a few conversation starters. Some of what’s here is a post-chat thought and wasn’t even discussed at all. This should also be taken as incomplete and not a full overview of what was discussed. (Notably, it doesn’t include much of what went on in the voice chats.)

[Cross-posted from Pillowfort.]

For starters, activism wasn’t really one of the official topics. This mostly came from my hijacking of the Carnival of Aces channel and it’s topic of “What would you like to get out of the ace community?”, because my main answer to that question is “More Active-ism”.

How do we “activate” activists? How do we get more people working on more things, so there’s a large pool of people doing a large number of varied things, instead of a relatively small number of people who rapidly get burnt out because of the weight they’re carrying?

One of the more frequent blockers is that people don’t feel that they’re “important” enough to do activist work. They feel like there’s a “You must be this popular to ride” sign at the gate, and they don’t qualify because they don’t have a popular blog or YouTube channel. But for the most part, it’s actually the inverse relationship. Some people get popular because they’re doing the activist work, not the other way around. And some of the most important people doing the activist work aren’t “popular” at all. And they’re happy about that.

It’s hard to know how to get involved. Another common thread was that people didn’t know how to get involved. There are groups out there who frequently look for volunteers (AO, TAAAP, AUREA, Asexual Agenda) and new projects come along periodically who need people, but it seems like those aren’t as effective as they can be. What can groups like that do to both increase their reach and make it clear that “Yes, we want YOU”?

Should we throw an activism fair? We should throw an activism fair. Who wants to get that set up? How about you?

What is activism, anyway? I think everyone just assumes this means you have to be David Jay or Yasmin Benoit, which is not the case at all. Activism takes many, many, many forms. Most of which are not “public face” type roles. The Ace Census needed programmers. TAAAP needed people to write a book. Local meetup groups need someone who knows a good karaoke bar and wants to host a meetup there every month. Some groups need a Discord mod. Other projects can’t go anywhere without a professional in that field providing a guiding hand, such as a therapist to help with a continuing education seminar, a teacher to help with inclusion in a sex ed curriculum, or a lobbyist to work on legislative issues.

Activism is online. Activism is offline.

Activism is big. Activism is small.

Activism is local. Activism is global.

Activism is old. Activism is young.

Activism is a lot of things, and you can probably find a place to fit.

Don’t ask for permission. Just do. There’s no Ace/Aro Elder Council that approves activist efforts. Pretty much every project you see was just started by someone who wanted to do something. So if you want to do something, do it. You have to operate on the assumption that if you won’t no one will.

Don’t go it alone, if possible. Try to get others to help out. Join forces with other people already doing similar things. Volunteer with an existing organization. Tell people what you’re doing. Reach out for advice.

People want meetups. If there’s no local group in your area, are you able to start one? If there is a group in your area, are you able to try hosting a new meetup that’s relevant to your interest or closer to your location?

Where possible, the meetups should have cake or garlic bread. Cake and garlic bread together might be a bad idea.

You can even host online meetups, which can have a wider reach than physical space ones.

More activists will overwhelm the Hate Brigade. A lot of people avoid activism because anyone who pokes their head up tends to get attacked by a parade of assholes. But if we have more activists, they won’t be able to keep up.

Harness the power of Discord. Discord seems to be popular these days. There are a bunch of aro and ace discords, but how many of them encourage activism? Anyone want to take on organizing and mobilizing people on various Discord servers? Anyone with a Discord server have an activism channel?

Why did activists become activists? Some to fight for visibility. Some out of spite. What about you?

How do we get activists connected with other activists and proto-activists? Central site? List serv? There’s a Facebook group and rumors of Discord. What else?

It’s Too Hard™. The apparent difficulty level of many things discourages people from trying. It’s Too Hard™ to start a meetup group. It’s Too Hard™ to march in Pride. It’s Too Hard™ to write a book. It’s Too Hard™ to change a law. We need to overcome that perception. Change it from It’s Too Hard™, so I won’t, to It’s Too Hard™, so I must. And honestly, a lot of things aren’t very hard. Like, marching in a parade seems like a big scary thing, but it’s pretty much just pay the registration fee and show up with a bunch of people and a few flags and walk a mile. It doesn’t have to be more involved than that. And starting a new meetup is basically saying “I’m going to be here, doing this, at this time”, and maybe other people will show up.

Don’t let failure stop you. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you. Not everything works out. Big deal. If you try something and it doesn’t work out, you’ve learned more about what to do for next time.

Support each other. Support can include clicking the little heart or thumbs up thingy, offering feedback, signal boosting, joining up and getting involved, forking over cash, connecting people with similar interests, or pointing at related things.

What’s the appropriate level of inclusion/breadth of scope, and where does it become too broad/out of scope? There is a lot of overlap between aro activism and ace activism, and in a lot of cases, it makes sense for it to be combined into a single package. But what about cases where there’s conflicting needs? Where is it appropriate to say “No, this thing is specifically about aces” or “specifically about aros” or whatever? And how do you establish that boundary? And not just aro/ace, but also gender, geography, race, religion, etc... How can you tell when specificity is needed and just staying on topic vs. exculsionary erasure?

#asexual #asexuality #ace activism

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kvngjoong · 4 years

Text

she was a rainbow [three - seo changbin]

→ seo changbin x f!you, university!au, in which changbin discovers that his feelings aren’t as easy to understand as he first may have thought → 7.4k+, it’s fluff. all fluff and cute things, with a last minute confession

part 3 of 3

“Do you remember when I got mad at you about the project?”

“Mhm.” Changbin was busy eating his noodles and didn’t pick up on the signs you were showing him. He tries to make a joke, since when he looks up you look a little sad. It was just the downturned lips and sparkly eyes. Glassy. Changbin means glassy. “You told me that you wouldn’t talk to me again.”

You hum, facing the table for a little longer than usual. “I was a bitch ‘cause my boyfriend and I broke up.”

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Changbin replies honestly. He should have expected it. You both hadn’t know each other that long then, and you already had broken up with your boyfriend? It surprises him. It angers him that someone hadn’t appreciated you enough to love you.

“Hwang Hyunjin?” His name burns some hatred into Changbin. That asshole? Yeah, everyone know who Hyunjin was. He didn’t realise you two dated, and he would have warned against it if he did know, even though you both weren’t that close. “Yeah, I should have realised that was going to end up that way.”

Changbin has a pick of everyone he wants.

Realistically, it’s always been the same for the Korean boy. He’s rich, he’s handsome and like hell does he know it. Ever since high school when girls would flock around him to see whether he really was that flawless in real life (he was, for the record) and if his hair really did stand to be the most beautiful style on the grounds. His spoiled ways proved to be too much for people to handle and they quickly disregarded him leaving the best option for him being to move abroad and act like he never even knew the streets of the various other countries he lived in.

He used people and he didn’t care, and that never really changed. Sure, he had two good friends. The first was a boy named Chan who usually would be found in the music production rooms with his headphones on, creating new songs like the genius kid he is. Chan is from Australia and didn’t have any other friends. Seeing him as, for lack of a better description, weak, Changbin managed to make friends with Chan but then realised he truly did value the friendship he had. Then there was Jisung, the first year student who had helped Changbin out in the music department when he first started. Changbin, in his own way, admired Jisung for carrying on his passion for music despite studying International Business. Another rich kid that Changbin emphasised with too much.

But Changbin realised in university he can’t be the person he used to be. There’s no cliques like in high school, the majority of people are just genuinely interested in studying and he often looks stupid when he expects the girls to come flocking in the clubs. His pearly white smile and equally white trainers don’t attract the attention he wants.

Not that he doesn’t get any. Changbin might not have the same charm as before but girls do love him. They love his persona and how if you hang around with him you automatically get the reputation of dating a rich kid who had a lot of money to spend which his parents sent him every week. Girls used him, actually. They used him for the reputation like he used to use them for the same thing.

It drives someone to loneliness, actually.

Changbin sits alone in lectures now. He used to sit in the middle with girls either side, sometimes not paying attention but often having a girl or two chatting about a possible date and another on the phone sending him photos he shouldn’t have been looking at in the middle of a lecture.

He walks into his class on international markets, his least favourite unit this year, expecting the back row of the lecture theatre to be completely empty like always. He pulls out one earphone, analysing the girl sat in the middle of the back row with an emotionless face; reading a book, studying each word, lost in the fantasy world which is created from it.

Changbin frowns. He takes a seat two places down and uses the seat to his left to keep his bag on so he can easily pull out his phone later to concentrate on something other than his lecturer who is the quietest, but most lovely Chinese lady to exist. The act manages to catch your attention as you don’t expect it. Your eyes meet Changbin’s and he feels like he’s frozen for a second.

“Sorry,” you mumble quickly, closing your book shut. Changbin is stuck looking at you so forgets to check what you’re reading. He hopes it’s worthwhile. “Do you want me to move up?”

Changbin shakes his head. He brings his fingers back through his freshly washed hair as he clears his throat and looks away. “It’s fine. Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologise.”

When Changbin didn’t spend his Saturday nights watching anime and checking snapchat to see if there was a party he could jump in on, he would have took this as an opportunity to continue speaking to you. Right now he looks back towards the front of the lecture hall and scratches his ear as he sighs. He doesn’t care, if he’s honest.

“This is the lecture on international markets, right?” you ask him. Changbin doesn’t look back to you, as he really does not care all too much for what you’re saying, and instead continues looking forward and planning on what game he’ll be beating Jisung at this evening. “I’m new and I guess… everything has been kinda messed up for me so far. I never end up in the right place.”

Changbin hums, nodding quietly again. “Yeah, it is.”

“Okay,” you answer, smile on your lips. You seem to ignore his blatant lack of interest which surprises Changbin a little. He pulls the disinterested card on girls and usually they beg for his attention and make it known that they’re not happy which how he’s treating them.

You, on the other hand, don’t even bat an eyelid.

That’s the thing which surprises him the most, especially since his cold and unattentive personality would usually have a girl angry at him for not trying too much with them, or have them rolling their eyes and vowing never to speak with him again.

He spends far too much of the lecture watching you concentrate on the topic being taught from the corner of his eye, your face burnt into his memory whether he wants it or not. Primarily he would have hoped at some point you’d have noticed his gaze shifting your way every so often, but when you don’t acknowledge him until you’re asking him politely to move out of your way so you can get to your next class, Changbin decides that he’s not going to let you bother his thoughts again.

Except he does let it bother him, a little too much if he’s honest.

It’s easy to shake you from his mind each time he stares at a blank wall or zones out from Jisung speaking with him about something he doesn’t care all that much for. It’s not so easy when you force your actual presence into his space a few days later at his seminar for International Trade later that week.

You sit beside him at the back, which again was usually a row he sat in on his own, but don’t pay too much attention to him since you were busy texting someone and didn’t notice him in the corner.

At least he thought that, since you didn’t even look in his direction until the teacher had everyone talking for a reason Changbin didn’t know - since he was busy on Instagram (trying to find your profile, for science of course).

“Hey,” you say, turning to him and catching his attention. He panics a little, eyes wide as he locks his phone and places it face down just in case you saw him searching through group followers to find anyone who resembled you. “I saw you in the lecture on international markets.”

Changbin finds your way of speaking with him a little unusual. You remind him ever so slightly of Jisung. Forward, but friendly, and somewhat good intentions. “Yeah, that was me.”

“I’m (Y/N), by the way.”

“Great,” Changbin replies. He may have come across as more rude than he intended to be, though he wanted to make it less obvious he had been waiting for your name this entire time. Pretty, he thinks, and it suits you. He panics, again, and tries to recover himself in possibly the worst way possible, “do you need something?”

“We need to work in pairs for the project on trade policies. I was wondering if you wanted to work together?” you ask.

Damn, he had hoped for more than that.

“Oh. Right.” Changbin’s quota for smiling had already been filled up since Chan slipped in the kitchen this morning when he dropped his milk everywhere. He might have been able to give a little more happiness if you asked him for more than just uni work. Well, saying that, you wanted to spend some time with him so you must have liked him in some shape or form. “Sure. We can work together.”

Changbin responds to your smile with his own tiny one which he spares for you from the bottom of his heart. He regrets it when he realises you probably just sat with him because you remembered him and didn’t know anyone else, but he notices there are quite a few empty seats around the room that you could have sat in should you want to make some other friends.

So he takes it as a win, even if you did probably enjoy the familiar aspect of having Changbin around you. Oh well. His ego will take it the other way until he’s ready to accept he’s lonelier than ever and anyone is better company than Jisung at this point. No offence to Jisung, he was just going through a… phase.

“I’m Changbin, by the way.”

Giving you his name goes a long way to creating a relationship between the two of you, since you exchange numbers pretty soon after and Changbin walks home with a less blank than usual look on his face. When he gets home he lingers in the living room for longer than usual and even Chan asks him what’s made him so happy.

He could have been happier if it didn’t take you two days to actually ask text him. Sure, he could have texted first, but didn’t want to overstep a boundary you might have wanted to keep. He could message you but you knew what the project was about and he would have probably cleared his schedule for you anyway, so he waits patiently for you to come to him.

Maybe to restore that mindset that people wanted him, or maybe because he was nervous. The latter was pretty much impossible.

Providing that Changbin’s (pretty much) squeak when he sees you’ve finally text him after all this time.

You: Are you free tonight? Changbin: Yeah You: Okay, do you want to go to the library? We can meet there and work on the research? Changbin: It would be easier if you came to me. I’ll send you my address.

Changbin’s parents were always apprehensive about him giving out his address, hence why he went elsewhere for parties and avoided having people back here. He asked Chan and Jisung to live with him with a pretty cheap rent for the company of having them around, and so far they were the only ones he had ever actively asked to be at his.

This was a different story, however. He trusted you enough to give you an address that his parents specifically wanted on the downlow (they didn’t want anyone to take advantage of Changbin’s wealth, and you didn’t seem like the type to do that). The first one ever. Changbin was really firsts with you already.

It brings butterflies to his stomach, almost as many as when two minutes later he realises his room is a mess and he does his best to tidy everything in the twenty minutes he probably has before you arrive, if you lived where he suspected you did.

He was just about right - nineteen minutes after he started cleaning and making sure his washing was (less than neatly) placed in his washing bin, you’re knocking at his front door and he’s running out of his room begging that no one else heard the door and opens it for him.

Lest be it that Jisung or Chan caught wind of him inviting you here; Changbin would never hear the end of it.

Changbin, slightly out of breath from mad-pace cleaning and running at full speed to get the door, forgets the smile he promised himself he’d give you, instead staring blankly at you and letting you walk in. To his surprise, you ignore a greeting too and walk inside, looking around the room at the barely covered walls (apart from the mirror Jisung took pictures in, and a shelf for Chan’s books). “Your place is… Nice.”

“Yeah, nice,” Changbin replies, clearing his throat as he shuts the door. He’s usually so talkative, what is about you that stops him from being able to form coherent sentences? Changbin isn’t sure. He stumbles over some more words as he follows you in staring down everything he jointly owned. “It’s uh… let’s do some work in my room. My friends will only cause problems if we’re in here.”

You nod, walking after him as he leads you to his room on the back at the right. He shuts the door behind the two of you, weary that Jisung would be able to hear your voice and come to inspect all that was going on.

Changbin watches as you sit on his floor, beside his desk, leaving the chair open for him. Not wanting to be a dick, he sits opposite to you and copies your stance in the hopes you won’t feel awkward being in a new environment. Changbin will learn that one of the things he loves about you is that you never seemed to be bothered by things like that.

He’s busy watching you log into your laptop, so your voice catches him by surprise. “I was actually looking into some studies yesterday so we can use that as a starting point. Unless you want to start over, and we take a different approach?”

“You already did some work, so you clearly know what you’re doing.” Changbin likes that you’re smart, too. He reveals in the fact you’re not just there for him because of his money, or because he can music,or even because you thought he was cute. You’re there for work and he respects that. “Just let me know what you need doing and I’ll help.”

He respects it to the degree that he can, anyway, since he didn’t particularly like doing the work and also felt bad when you sat there and did absolutely everything on the project whilst he just admired your pretty eyelashes and soft lips and… That’s for another day.

He sees you a few nights of the week, and somehow he manages to avoid both Chan and Jisung the entire time. It’s for your sake more than his, the pair of them were both on the get Changbin a girlfriend bandwagon and it annoyed the shit out of him.

Which is why he panics when he knows that Chan and Jisung are going to be at home and you’re most likely going to see them.

“Can I come over today?”

“That’s forward. Why?” Changbin asks, surprised by your presence directly next to him in the lecture hall. You usually left at least one seat between the two of you, but given your panicked voice, you were trying to cozy up to him for a reason he already knew the answer to.

Maybe he’s acting like this because part of him really just wants you to ask to come over so you can both spend time together without the underpinning task of your joint project. Yeah, Changbin hopes that you see more to him than just work.

Judging from your deadpan look, that is not the case. “For the project. It’s due soon and we’ve barely done anything.”

“Because it’s not that deep.” Changbin replies, shrugging as he returns to his notepad and writes the date in the top left corner. “If we fail, we fail. They’ll pass us anyway because if they fail us they look bad on rankings. Why bother?”

You don’t react to his words. Changbin should try a different approach to get some emotion from you, and the right emotion at that. “So we can get a good grade.”

“That’s not important to me. I don’t even wanna be in that class,” Changbin tells you.

“But I do, and I want to do well. So please, Changbin, just put a bit of effort in for me? I won’t bother you after this project, I won’t even talk to you, just help me get a good grade and it’s done. We won’t work together again.”

Ouch.

That hurt Changbin more than it was meant to, or at least more than he should have allowed it to. He sits in silence the rest of the lecture, checking on you every so often out of the corner of his eye, though not bothering to distract you from your work any more than he already had.

Part of him thinks that he should have stopped you before you left the lecture hall to apologise, but unfortunately for him his mind doesn’t work that quickly and he’s not sure how to make it up to you straight away.

He’s not even sure why he’s so bothered. You don’t mean that much time him, you’re just his partner for a university project and you probably won’t speak to him again afterwards.

Except he hoped you did speak to him afterwards, and he hoped you saw a friendship like he did, because it’s not often that Changbin has someone on his mind so much.

He didn’t want to sound like a stalker or anything. He wasn’t going to follow you around, he wasn’t going to make sure you were the only person he was talking to (since he was pretty sure you had your own group of friends which included one of Chan’s other friends, Felix), but he couldn’t help but wonder what you were up to at different times, or if you were thinking about him too.

God, it was like you were a drug he caught wind of and now he’s hooked to.

Which is why, the next day, he shows up at the library where he knows you’ll be (since you were always there on that day at that time, according to your snapchat), with the intention to apologise to you in a way that only Changbin can do.

It takes a while to find you, but when he does, he’s glad you’re on your own because he had a feeling that Felix boy had a thing for you given that he posts about you all the time and looks at you with massive heart eyes that Changbin wasn’t particularly in the mood for.

“Hey,” he says, sitting on the opposite side of the booth to you.

“Changbin?” You ask, raising a brow at him. You were clearly surprised to see him, too. Given his slight smile in your direction, you warm to the possibility of a conversation to him and pull out your earphones, abandoning the work you had in front of you. “Hey. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

Changbin finds himself at a loss for what to actually say to you. On one hand, he could say sorry, but that doesn’t really mean anything unless he’s actually showing you that he’s sorry. He should invite you over, he should ask you to do something with him, he should offer to finish the project for you, he should--

“Do you need something?” you ask, cutting off his thoughts before they got too much for him.

“Oh, yeah. I do, actually.” Changbin clears his throat, leaning forward on his elbows, hands clasped together. He can make it genuine, because for you he is genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry about before. I was an asshole to you for no reason. You want to do well and so should I. So, you can spend the weekend at mine and we can finish the whole project then, and do it well. I cleared my schedule.”

His apology works like a charm, actually.

Probably because he was genuine towards you, and you could see that. He stays with you for a little bit but leaves eventually, heart a little warmer and blood free from any emotion he didn’t want (ie animosity). His walk home is filled with ideas for what you can both do together, since he didn’t intend to have this project take up the entire weekend, and he settles for getting you to play video games with him and actually asking you for your social media so it’s acceptable for you to follow him on everything.

Having you around fills him with this emotion he couldn’t quite process (ie, not animosity, but something more like adulation) and it does strike him exactly like the strongest drug he could have ever purchased. One right at the bottom of the black market, with a selling price of well over what he could have ever afford.

The difference with an actual drug? The effects were permanent. So maybe you were like therapy for a blackened and closed heart.

“I’m so tired,” you say, laying on his floor with your eyes shut.

He hides his silent chuckle at your form and his pout because he can’t stroke your hair like his gut told him to. Is that what you do in a relationship? Likely so. He wasn’t entirely sure, but that’s what they do on Jisung’s dramas. “I literally just got us pizza.”

“I know, but I’m still tired,” you reply, opening your eyes and looking straight to him, “we can just get up early and work on this tomorrow.”

Changbin shakes his head at your suggestion, gesturing over to your laptop that now has a black screen since you haven’t touched it in roughly… forty minutes. “No, I don’t get up early. We’re finishing this tonight. We just need three more paragraphs and we are done.”

You don’t concur. Changbin looks down to his keyboard, attempting to finish his sentence, though he feels your eyes on him and is compelled to look back to you and see what you need. Just like a relationship.

“What?” Changbin asks, studying your pout like he’s never seen one before. Well, he has, but mostly because he was rejecting a girl who didn’t care all too much for him. “Why are you doing that?”

When he brings up your pouting, you stop and return to an emotionless stare. After a few moments of unbroken eye contact, you sit up and push the chair from your face adjusting your sleeves. “Let’s just take a break then okay?”

“A break?” Changbin repeats, one brow slightly raised. He couldn’t dream of saying no to you again, since last time he hurt your feelings and he wasn’t ready to do that again. He likes talking to you. You’re interesting, and you make him feel like he is too. Whatever feelings you have towards him, it’s most definitely mutual. “Okay, we’ll take a break. For five minutes.”

“Tell me more about you, Changbin.”

“What do you want to know?” Changbin replies, noticing how quick you jump on the opportunity to ask him something person. Did you can about him? It would seem to be that way. No one really wants to know about him. He didn’t even want to talk about him, either.

But for you, he’ll say everything.

“Anything. Everything. Tell me your life story. That will get my mind working again so we finish this and have tomorrow to do whatever we want,” you return.

Changbin assumes you’ve forgotten the whole not talking after the project is over, and he’s happier than he’d want to admit about it.

That’s almost a turning point in your relationship. Almost because it changes again, all thanks to him, but that marked the two of you actually being friends, and Changbin likes that more than he would care to admit, too.

And friendship for him is more than he could have ever thought to ask for.

He thought that he say Chan and Jisung a lot, but compared to you it was nothing. The nights he would spend on his own were suddenly filled with your presence and he actually enjoyed being around other people for once, in the nicest way. There was something about his mostly extroverted but potentially introverted persona that meant he enjoyed the loneliness in the slightest way.

Except now, he didn’t at all.

He’d invite you over whenever he could, make sure that he had you around him when you were able to. Though your days were reserved for your other friends, which did include Felix and his friends, you spend your evenings with Changbin doing both work and friend things.

He enjoyed both, much to his surprise, but it was probably because he enjoyed the way you told him about business things much more than his teachers. Did he ever mention he loved how smart you were? Because he does, so much.

He also loves that you’re so effortlessly his best friend, in every way that you can be.

“No, Changbin,” you say, pushing his hands away from you. He acts surprised by your defiance, not giving up on having you play like you had agreed. You, however, continue your protests with a “stop it. Don’t make me say it again.”

“You started it! I’m sorry you’re a major pussy and can’t play horror games. We said we would take turns!”

“It’s not funny!” You look away from him with a pout, the very one he’s grown so fond of over the time he’s know you, and face the door. Hearing Chan and Jisung chanting at the TV over some football game that was on, probably wasn’t the best thing for the situation. “Your friends probably think I’m stupid. I screamed loud.”

“Wanna bet?” Changbin asks, challenging your words in the best way he knows how.

Because you haven’t actually met the double team of Christopher ‘Chan’ Bang and Han Jisung, and Changbin knows that people aren’t usually that easy to adapt to their friend’s other friends.

If you’re easy to warm up to them, then Changbin knows you’re going to be easy for him to get on well with in the future. Who knows, maybe he can extend his relationship with you and you can be more than friends? That’s on him though, since he’s sure you don’t actually have any feelings towards him and he’s going to respect that until he’s one hundred per cent sure that confessing you is the most appropriate thing to do.

So Changbin drags you out to his friends, despite your very basic protests, planting you straight in front of the TV and making sure to deal with Chan and Jisung’s eye rolls and complaints that they were interrupting whatever team was playing.

“Chan, Jisung. Do you think she’s stupid?” Changbin asks, his dominance in their friendship clear from how he approaches them. He looks between them, then to you, switching between the two until he gets the answer he’s looking for.

“Stupid?” Chan repeats, looking over to you. He shakes his head, careless to what Changbin’s actually intentions were here. “No, you were playing Outlast, weren’t you?”

Jisung, on the other hand, has the full intentions to make sure that Changbin regrets ever trying to impress you with his friends. The youngest has a smirk as he directs his comments at both of you, but mostly you. “Hyung, you were screaming louder than her, you’re the pussy.”

Honestly, Changbin didn’t know someone’s laugh could brighten his entire day.

But that’s normal right?

To want to make you laugh every day, to listen to it on reply, to have to you laughing at something he said (so that you’re laughing because of him)?

He’s not sure, maybe he’s got a delusional idea of what is right and what is wrong in his head. Either way, Changbin vows that your friendship will be good and you’ll enjoy every minute of it that you’re in it with him.

And that means that you’ll be doing everything with him, whether you like it or not.

Changbin hopes you do like it, though. He can’t keep wondering whether you will, so he decides one day when you’re both walking to class together that he should check. “Let’s do more stuff together.”

“More stuff?” you repeat, looking up to him questioningly. He nods, though you’re still not buying. “You literally leave the house for lectures and that’s it.”

“But you like doing stuff, so I’ll do it with you,” Changbin says, hoping to convince you with a little bit of affection.

That works well, too.

Changbin went from not being able to talk to you, struggling to know what to reply to you, and being as awkward as he ever could be around a person, to silently begging for you to want to spend more time with him.

And do you? Well, Changbin would wait for you to answer that. At first he thinks not, since you don’t approach him with anything, but when you spot him at the cafeteria in one of the business buildings, and you run after him with a wide smile, he changes his mind a little.

Skip the formalities, a greeting from you is a form of therapy within itself.

“There’s this thing.”

Changbin hums, looking to you as you both approach the elevator to go to your class on the third floor. “Right. This thing.”

“Can you come with me?” you ask, surprising him a little. He doesn’t frown, his eyes just widen a little. You must have noticed because you’re quick to try and convince him. “It won’t take up too much of your evening. I don’t want to go on my own.”

Oh, you must want him to come if you're convincing him.

“I don’t even know what it is you want me to come to,” Changbin returns, shrugging.

“It’s just a… poetry, thing.” Changbin thinks it’s cute, though keeps his look placid to make sure you’re not quick to read him. He worries, given that you’re basically an empath, you’ll catch onto the fact that his feelings are becoming a bit too prominent for him to control. “Boring, I know. I’ll make it up to you, but you might enjoy it. Who knows.”

He didn’t need to enjoy it to go along; Changbin was going to seize an opportunity to spend some time with you on your invitation again.

Since your presence was the drug he couldn’t kick from his system as of yet, or a therapy session he paid above and beyond for, and a poetry session with you was a strange way of getting a high, or help, he needed.

To imagine you each time they spoke of a starry sky, a roaring fire, even a firework that explodes in the sky, he would have paid a lot for that anyway.

And he got it for free.

Spending time with you was something Changbin would have given a lot up for. As it turns out, you liked it too, since you let him walk you home and even invited him in (politely asking him not to judge your place since you weren’t rich and student loans didn’t provide that much to an international student anyway). No, nothing happened, as much as anyone may have thought it did.

Changbin didn’t have the intentions to do something with you, and maybe you felt the same. He didn’t notice you didn’t have any pictures of you with any guys at home, or their clothes in your room, so maybe he did have a chance.

That was a weight off his shoulders, at the very least. You probably didn’t have a boyfriend, and he was moving more in that direction now.

“Hey,” Changbin says, distracting you for the lecturer at the front. You look over to him, since you both sit directly next to each other now, and nod for him to continue. “Are you free, later?”

You nod again. “All day, why?”

“Do you want to do something together?”

“Sure,” you return, bringing some relief to Changbin’s heart that was beating at about 200 miles an hour. He lets his cheeks twitch a little, but never does actually smile at you. You keep your voice down but still keep your interest at hand, “what do you have in mind?”

Changbin shrugs, passing his phone across the desk to you, since he had a film already opened that he thought would be cute to see with you. A horror movie, at that, but it was up his alley and yours too. “This movie came out recently and if you wanted to, we can see it together?”

It’s a terrifying three seconds waiting for you to answer. “I’d like that.”

So seeing a movie becomes your weekly thing together, alongside the things you already do. You really do end up spending every night with him, the bonus being that you also get along well with Jisung and Chan too, and the four of you somehow form a friendship that Changbin would never have been able to foresee in the past.

You were once someone he sat a few seats from in a lecture, and now you’re standing in his kitchen playing hot potato with a sponge that Jisung had used to mop up (quite a bit of) soy sauce from the side that he spilt. Given that Chan and Jisung had been throwing at each other, and then Jisung involved you, it was a given Changbin was going to get involved to.

“Hey Changbin,” you shout, the boy looking up to you with wide eyes as he leaves the bathroom, still drying his hands on his jeans, “think fast.”

Changbin’s heart is heavy because you remembered to include him, of course he very much enjoys your thoughts going straight to him, so he doesn’t get much time to react to a soy sauce soaked sponge launched directly at his chest. “Hey!”

“I said think fast!”

Chasing you into his bedroom is one way to get a girl in there, even if it’s because you know he works out and if threw that back at you, you would probably lose a rib because of the sheer force. Not that he would actually do that - he throws it back to Chan who looks at the two of you like you are a resident married couple.

No that you have to know that. “Get back here!”

Yeah, his bedroom. You have a lot of memories there. From getting to know him in there, and finally understanding what goes on in his deep, dark mind, all the way to watching horror movies together and eventually sleeping in his bed together.

On your demand that is. You think Changbin has it in him to ask if you want to stay over? The poor boy could barely get out 4 words about his feelings, yet alone ask you something like sleep in my bed or even just stay over, and he would stay on the couch.

“Your bed is so comfortable.” Your words, like always, catch him off guard. He was working on a song with both Jisung and Chan, and he had the lucky job of producing the final product. “Let me sleep here.”

Changbin avoids having another internal meltdown and deals with this by not actually dealing with it at all. He nods, noticing that you’re pretty comfortable already. “Okay.”

“Okay,” you repeat, slightly questioning his response. Did you expect him to say yes? Probably not. Changbin gave you the impression he liked his personal space. Luckily he knew he would be pretty boring tonight and would be up to the early hours of the morning, so letting you sleep meant he could get on with the song without the recurring thought of you. “I bet girls ask you to do this all the time.”

“Sure,” Changbin answers. You weren’t wrong, they used to, but he hadn’t even spoken to another girl since… you came into his life.

He has all of about ten minutes of actual music time before he realises you’re already asleep, tucked away in the corner of his bed under the black blanket he usually didn’t use because it got to hot.

You’re cute when you sleep. Changbin can’t help the warm feeling that spreads over him as he admires you from the other side of the room, smiling to himself as he tries his very best to get on with the song he wanted to.

He does have to stop a few times to look back at you, check you were okay and we’re too cold (or too hot, for that matter), but he finishes what he wanted to around 4am and practically collapses in the bed beside you without even considering whether he should have slept on the floor instead.

His eyes were too heavy and mind clouded by music to even consider that you were nothing but his friend and the few inches of space between the two of you was easily filled if one of you moved.

If both of you moved, well… it would mean you ended up with your head on his shoulder, his arm around you and resting on your waist.

“Sorry,” you say softly, lifting your body when you realise what position you’re in. Changbin was an active participant in that too, but you probably didn’t realise. It will forever remain a mystery which one of you initiated the (kind of) cuddling. “I didn’t mean to…”

Changbin shakes his head, pulling you back down to where you were before when he sees the numbers 07 on his clock at the end of his bed. He’s too tired to notice you place your arm over his chest, and he’s practically sleeping again when he mumbles to you that he’s okay with it. “It’s fine. I didn’t say anything.”

That’s practically where your relationship starts to change. Not that you both confessed your feelings to one another when you woke up later, but there was a definite shift in the dynamic between the two of you.

Things continue as normal, with a hint of a romantic feeling between the two of you, though neither of you address it. Changbin’s content with where you both are, even if he realises that he does get jealous of you and Felix, you and whoever isn’t him, because he most definitely has feelings towards you which reflect that of a boyfriend.

A boyfriend you already had, mind you.

“Do you remember when I got mad at you about the project?”

You hum, facing the table for a little longer than usual. “I was a bitch ‘cause my boyfriend and I broke up.”

Of course Changbin reports this information back to Jisung (and Chan, since he was there) since the youngest had been the first to realise that Changbin was, you know, in love with you.

Even before Changbin. That little asshole figured it all from the silence of his own bedroom. Is it weird that he was listening through the walls to figure out just how his hyung felt towards the pretty girl who kept coming over. Then he shared it with Chan, who also had his suspicions, but kept it quiet.

“He said he didn’t love her,” Jisung retells a tale he heard from one of his other friends who knew Hyunjin from some society, Woojin. “What a dick.”

“You should tell her how you feel,” Chan interjects, seeing an opportunity for things to be made better.

Changbin, however, does not see things the same way. It’s probably his fear for the situation, a genuine worry that anyone who loves another has when it comes to confessing. “What if it makes things worse?”

“No, it won’t,” Jisung states, taking a bite from his apple.

“You sound sure.”

Jisung nods at Changbin’s words, finishing his bite before talking. The youngest, like most of the youngest in friendship groups, sees himself as a bit of a prodigy in relationships. Didn’t Changbin write the love songs? He did. Jisung nods again before confirming. “‘Cause I’m right.”

Changbin hopes Jisung’s right, too.

He’s a nervous wreck the entire day he plans to tell you how he feels.

Probably the fear of rejection, no matter how much Jisung told him that he wouldn’t be rejected. He asked to meet you at 1pm and he shows up twenty minutes early, expecting to be alone, but sees you sitting at the able you both claimed as your own in the cafe near to uni.

He panics briefly, walking away with his head hung low, though stops himself and walks back to you when he remembers that he’s doing this for more than just his own state of mind.

It’s so that you know not everyone is like Hwang Hyunjin, and you can have someone love you.

“Can we talk?” Changbin says, stopping beside the table with wide eyes.

“About what?” You look up to him and frown at his expression. Though you gesture of the seat opposite to you, Changbin takes a few moments to actually sit down. He’s surprised you already bought him coffee, and it’s exactly how he likes it too. “You’re the second person today who looks like they’re going to pass out on me. Seriously, are you okay, Changbin?”

“I’m fine,” Changbin answers.

The coffee is hot and burns his tongue a little. He tries his best not to react, staring at you with the most affection he can actually process. It’s for the best to tell you, and it won’t change things drastically. If you wanted to reject him, you wouldn’t have returned some of his signals. Whatever they were. Jisung was convinced they were there.

Fuck it. Changbin places his hands flat on the table when he realises that he needs to just say it rather than keep it as a thought in his mind.“I needed to admit to you that… I’ve seen you differently, recently.”

“Differently?”

You were clearly both on different wavelengths.

“I think I love you.”

“Love me?”

“Well, I didn’t think it was love but then I was thinking more about it and I realised that every time I’m with you, it’s like the sun has a single beam that is shining right down on me and I literally just want to stare at you and listen to you laugh and watch you smile because you are the very definition of what makes me happy and it’s hard for me to explain because I know how much you doubt yourself and you will never see yourself the way that I see you, but… I do love you, and there’s nothing in this world that I could want more than showing you that.”

Changbin could put that in a love song.

He’s breath is a little shaky as you look back at him without an answer. He doesn’t particularly need one, lest it be for you to admit that you do actually feel the same way towards him. He stops thinking about it, like he should have a long time ago, and asks you what he’s wanted to since you slept in his arms and you laughed at his jokes and you showed an interest in him that no one else ever had.

“So please, for the sake of my own sanity, will you be my girlfriend and let me show you the love that no one else has?”

He’s sure that no matter what answer you give to him, he’ll always love you anyway.

For you were the one that showed him what it’s like to have a different perspective on life, too.

You didn’t see yourself the way he saw you, but it was the same vice versa. The very definition for happiness in your own personal dictionary always had his name written down in it. Seo Changbin, the one who could love you back.

The song that never leaves your memory.

The key to a lock that was never opened before.

Saying no wasn’t an option.

You were a rainbow, and Changbin had been waiting for you the entire storm.

#changbin reactions #changbin smut #changbin scenarios #changbin imagine #stray kids smut #stray kids reaction #stray kids scenario #stray kids imagine #stray kids

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whatexcellentboiledpotatos · 4 years

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Pride and Prejudice: Modern AU Part I: the invitation

SYNOPSIS: Elisa Benet is in her second year of her master’s degree in creative writing. As a West End actor chooses to visit the university in a scouting project, Charles Bingley, she is invited to a dinner to greet him and brings along her flatmate, Jane. However, what she does not expect, is to become acquainted by F. William Darcy; writer and director of the latest West End sensation.

Word count: 1296

“Eli, have you heard the news!” my flatmate, Lydia, chants as she enters my room.

“Lydia its too early, its barely seven,” I complain. Doesn’t she have the slightest sense of respect for privacy? Do they not teach that in the new curriculum?

“You must remember the play we saw last time in London, the newest West End sensation?” she asks, cheerfully opening all the blinds on my room.

“Sure I do,” I answer as I shield my eyes from the light. “What is so exiting about it?” I swear if its not important I will throw a pillow at her.

My flatmate turns to the door, “Oh! Jane, tell her, tell her!!”

My other flatmate, Jane, stands by the door. Out of my four flatmates, she is the one I am closest to, but at the same time, she’s the shyest of the group.

“Well,” Jane says quietly, “Charles Bingley, the main actor, is to visit our university to deliver a couple seminars, but most importantly to scout for possible talent.”

“Isn’t that so exiting!” Lydia exclaims bubbly. “To meet a proper West End actor! What if he comes to like me? Oh, the easiest way to pay the never ending student debt!”

“You’re probably not meeting him anyways,” Mary comments as she passes by the door with some laundry at hand. Typical Mary, always too pessimistic.

As she goes by, Lydia poked out her tongue.

“Real classy,” I jokes, “a said Charles Bingley will love it.”

I cannot deny the news are exiting, not as if I were ever going to meet that Bingley, but having a kind-of celebrity around made things more cheerful. The past months had been torture, as I prepare my final piece of work for my masters dissertation. I was study creative writing, with the hopes of having a piece published by the end of my masters, but the clock is ticking away. I have almost finished the second year of my program, as I chose part-time so I could handle my finances better. Its all for love towards art, and my favourite part is living with my flatmates. Jane, slightly older than me, graduated in classics the year before and took upon herself to still manage the university theater club, whilst she teaches in a local school and part-timing as a seamstress. We all know her real dream is to do costume design and direct, but sometimes that kind of dream needs to be sustained by connections of name and wealth. Then we have Mary, who is still in undergrad studying music. I don’t remember how we picked her up, but oddly enough, we did. A bit antisocial, and a socially awkward many, we had adopted her as our flatmate from the beginning of our career. Lydia needs no explanation. She is currently starting her new career path, having passed by engineering to then doing drama, to finally ending up doing literature, just like I did. At this point, we don’t even care about what career she ends up in, just that she commits to one before we move out. Lastly, we have Kitty, the youngest. Being our landlady’s foreign niece, her mom thought it would be great to have her move outside problematic halls, and where better to move than with the lovely girls her sister talks so much about?? It sometimes worries me how easily Lydia can influence her, both of them being completely inseparable, but Kitty is a smart girl.

Sometimes I wish Lydia would be that too. Not that I’m ashamed of caring for her, but sometimes, its hard work. For example; waiting for me outside my tutor’s office to inquire after Charles Bingley.

“Mr. B!” I hear her exclaim loudly as my tutor walks me out of his office, “I heard a rumor that a Charles Bingley is around school, looking for talent!”

“Ah, miss Benson! Yes indeed, Mr Bingley will be in school for a couple weeks!” my tutor answers awkwardly. To his misfortune, he happens to have also been placed as Lydia’s tutor. I cannot count how many times he has regretted so in my presence.

“Well you have to introduce us to him!” Lydia comments shamelessly. I pinch her elbow slightly, so she knows she is being too forthcoming.

“I don’t think it will happen miss--”

“Well DoNt YoU LoVE to TorTUre US?” Lydia interrupts dramatically, “its such a shame.”

My tutor sighs, to whatever god: grant me patience, his eyes seem to ask.

“Miss Benson, I am not sure what you want me to do...”

Lydia and our tutor go back and forth about the matter, making me smile, as minutes before, that very same man had given me an invitation to a formal dinner arranged for Charles Bingley. Private, only handpicked students given an invitation. The best part? I was given two. One for me, and one for Jane. It was her shot.

“Lydia is never going to forgive you, you know?” Jane comments as we walk into the building.

“Oh I am sure she won’t,” I say with a smile, “be prepared to be questioned on all the specifics, even at what time Mr Bingley excuses himself to go to the loo.”

We both laugh, handing our tickets to enter the ball. It takes me two seconds to spot one of my best friends chatting with some teachers, Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte and I did our undergrad in the same course, even though we parted ways for our masters degree.

“Jane! Its been so long!,” she welcomes, “both of you are looking very good tonight!”

“Oh, this? Its a humbly made dress by none other than madam Jane Vennat,” I say proudly.

Jane blushes, “you didn’t have to wear it, you know”

I turn towards her, “Jane, if I want to show you off, I WILL show you off.”

Before she can say anything my tutor approaches us, “Oh its so good to see you again, Miss Vennat! From what I have heard the university’s company is doing well!”

“You are very kind sir,” she replies. She stares at me awkwardly, not wanting to have to engage in conversation. I then do what I do best; ask simple things in a confusing manner.

“Well, so has the elephant in the room actually arrived to the room?”

My tutor stares at me blankly.

“Has Bingley arrived?” I say plainly.

“Oh, no,” my tutor says with a smile, “it appears that he is a bit--

He stops talking as three people enter the room.

“aand now he’s here.”

I stare back at Bingley, not being discreet at all. He looks a bit different than when I saw him in West End. For starters, he is not a whole theater away, as the cheapest seats are those of the last rows. He is handsome, but with humble appearance; an odd quality for actors who have made it to where he has.

“Who is the lady beside him?” Jane asks.

“That would be his twin sister, Caroline,” my tutor answers.

She looks a lot like her brother, save the humble appearance. Jane would know better, but the dress she wears is probably a designer one. What a waste of dress to wear for meeting a couple uni students.

Beside them there is a third person. He doesn’t look like he could be another sibling-- he misses the distinguishable reddish hair. In contrast to Charles Bingley, who smiles as he greets anyone in his way, the man looks absolutely disgusted by the scene.

“and who is their miserable friend who looks as if he just smelled the sewer?” I ask jokingly.

“That, miss Bennet, that would be none other than the writer and director of the play you saw: F. William Darcy”

#jane austen #pride and prejudice #joe wright #kiera knightley #period drama #fanfic #modern au #mr darcy #elizabeth bennet #fitzwilliam darcy #pemberley #emma #emmys 2020 #pride and prejudice fanfic #creative writing #west end #lizzy x darcy #lizzy bennet

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writteninspring · 3 years

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Hi, I am autistic and I am also currently going to school for neuroscience with a focus on research into autism. So I know a fair bit both personally and intellectually. I can help answer your questions as much as I can. Also, I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with this teacher, or how open they would be to conversation about this but. This is a bad and impossible assignment. You cannot create a singular representation of the autistic experience because it is incredibly multifaceted, and different for everyone. Idk if people outside of autistic spaces/therapy for autism hear this phrase very much, but it has been drilled into my head. If you’ve met one person with autism you’ve met one person with autism. The lack of similarity in experience of autism between people is that bad. So yes, you are correct in saying that you can’t be qualified to show this based off reading one book. Also, if possible, please let your teacher know that if there are any autistic students in your class (and the teacher may not even know, a lot of people fly under the radar if they aren’t on accommodations) this has potential to be a really negative, alienating, and triggering experience for them in so many ways. If there is any presentation aspect to it, even thinking about having to sit in a class and see what my classmates think what the autistic experience is, is so anxiety inducing. Especially since most people are incredibly poorly informed about autism, and even people who are well informed really struggle to understand or portray the autistic experience in a non-offensive way bc it’s super fraught. You’re on the right track though because a lot of people try to educate themselves about autism by reading books and stuff, which often aren’t even written by someone with autism. Talking to people with autism is really the only way to get fully informed. Also imagine if you were a student with autism, but you didn’t tell your teachers because you have either been advised not too, or you had negative experiences with it in the class. And you had an asssignment to portray the austistic experience and you got a bad grade on it. Especially if you saw your classmates projects, and some of them were wrong and even bigoted and got good grades. At the least even if none of those issues arise, it’s kind of an offensive assignment that has the potential to spread a lot of misinformation. Imagine asking a group of white students to do a piece on the experience of a POC. That’s the closest example I can think of. So yeah this assignment sucks and is actually kind of ableist, but I can tell you kind of know that. So feel free to message me and ask me questions bc I know a lot. To be upfront though, I don’t really experience the world very visually (although it’s often spread around that autistic people experience the world hyper-visually, I’d say just as many people with autism actually struggle with visualization and visual stuff and tend to experience the world hyper-verbally), but I will help you as much as I can. It would also be helpful to know what book you guys read bc then I kind of know where this is all starting from. For real feel free to message me I love to talk and educate people about autism. There’s a reason I want to go into autism research. Also sorry this is so long. Lol.

Hi there, thank you so much for this message, I really appreciate that you took the time to write this!

I actually have a rather good relationship with this professor, so I'll definitely try to bring the issue up with her. I don't think that she is being insensitive on purpose and mainly just wants to encourage it to learn about autism, but I realise now how the intentions behind that assignment are misguided.

I don't think that there are any autistic students in this class. Or at least if there are they haven't dared to bring it up during the seminar. But I also totally understand why they might be hesitant to speak up. And I also see now how damaging it must be for an autistic person to sit in a class like that and listen to others talk over you.

The book we read is called The Reason I Jump (at least that's the English title, I'm not sure if it is an accurate translation) by Naoki Higashida. It's a somewhat autobiographical account on living with autism. But obviously, that book only shows the perspective of one person and as you have pointed out “If you’ve met one person with autism you’ve met one person with autism”

So we'd only be able to create something based on that one book we've read.

I'll definitely message you with some further questions later in the day, but thank you so much already for this super helpful input!!

#bellelle #thank you so much for this detailed ask #I'll get back to you later just have some tasks to get through first and I really want to take the time to talk to you #thank you so much for offering your help!!

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henryjohnes · 3 years

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The Dance Teacher Guidelines

This Just In: Being a Dance Teacher is hard work! You love to teach. You love your students (yes, I know there are a few who can be annoying and you maybe could live without but by and large you love your students). You love your studio. Yet there are days when you just feel like you've been put through the ringer. Being a dance teacher is hard work, especially in a private dance school setting where the hours are long and classes can be six or even seven days a week. I bet there are times, have been times or will be times when your students go home unhappy, too, because of some perceived wrongdoing, and the person getting blamed will be you! Relax. It happens. Move on, don't beat yourself up and try not to take it personally Yeah, right!

These are some of the toughest times to be a dance teacher, but there are ways to make yourself more bulletproof. We've created the following set of guidelines that will help you keep your sanity and, when you do experience sensory overload, make the bounce back quicker and easier. These dance teacher guidelines will also increase your value to your employer or, if you own your studio, your value to your clients.

Be Friendly: Friendly people are like a magnet. People gravitate toward them and when there is an issue, they will usually get the benefit of the doubt. When you are friendly, your students will like and trust you more. Then, when it is time to be more demanding, they will respond in a more positive manner because of the trust that you have built. I recommend smiling after a correction; it will go a long, long way. A smile to your class also says to them that you like being there, you like them and you are happy to be teaching them. A word of caution: no fake smiling! There is nothing more transparent. If you don't feel like smiling, then find a way to get happy quickly!

Dress for success: We have all heard that saying, yet I have known dance teachers who think it is acceptable to wear ripped tights and tattered leotards and in general just look messy. Everything from your hair to your shoes is an indication to others of who you are, fair or not. Your image creates a first and lasting impression. Remember we want our students and their parents to know that dance teachers are professionals. Find the right look and style for your personality, but make sure that you do not look like the students. Always be well groomed and maintained. Its the first step to gaining the respect of your students, parents and employer!

Make eye contact: This also projects an image of confidence, concern and care. It tells students that you respect them as well. Corrections will have a more lasting impact with eye contact. If you have given the same one over and over again, the right look can be the trigger that helps the student finally get it. Praise will also have more impact with the right eye contact.

Say my name, say my name! You may have heard the song their name should be on the shirt that each student wears into class. The sweetest sound to any students ears is the sound of their name being said, especially from an authority figure such as their dance teacher. We remind our faculty about this regularly. Find some way to say the names of your students on a regular basis.

Have a great attitude: Everyone knows that a positive attitude is important. After all, we cant expect our students to have one if we do not. The problem is, few people realize how important a role it plays in the way you communicate and the way you are perceived. Without a positive attitude your words can be heard as cynical and fall on deaf ears. No one really cares about your issues, problems or mood swings. Leave them at the door before you walk into the building. A positive attitude and good disposition need to be present at all times. Hey, its showbiz, baby!

Take a genuine interest in your students: This is really where the rubber meets the road. If you are doing it purely for the paycheck, I can assure you, you will not last long. If you are teaching just to pacify your desire to choreograph or as a creative outlet, I recommend you get a job as a choreographer because your days are numbered as a teacher. To really enjoy teaching and to be a good one, you must take an interest in the students, and not just the good ones each and every one of them! Find out what makes each student tick and you will not only gain a greater knowledge of who they are, but you will also learn more about who you are and how you can grow as a dance teacher. I still learn all the time from my students; that's one of the elements of teaching that I really enjoy.

Keep growing and learning: Expand your knowledge. The fact that you are reading this proof that you know the importance of this. But no one knows it all! The best dance teachers have mentors, coaches and support groups and are part of organizations that help them in their quest to gain greater knowledge. Read dance books, watch videos, log on to Dance Teacher Web regularly and go to seminars and conferences any place where you can work with and learn from people you respect. When your knowledge is broadened and your creativity, imagination and desire are ignited, your students will reap the benefits. If you make yourself valuable and memorable, students will want you to be their dance teacher forever! And keep this in mind Dance Teachers are some of the greatest people on the planet. Pass it on!

#DanceTeacher #Dance #dancestudio #danceinstructor #DanceTeacherCertification #DanceTutorials

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angeltriestoblog · 4 years

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I figured out what I want to do with my life! And made a vision board!

It came to me in a flash, really. One minute, I was watching a handpainted narration of the life and death of one of the greatest painters of all time, and next thing you know, I've abandoned it completely and started furiously typing away at my laptop about what I envisioned myself to be in five years' time. And I know I've had my fair share of false alarms in life: I thought I had what it takes to be a lawyer after seeing Legally Blonde for the first time while on my way to a school field trip, and seriously considered pursuing a career as a fashion blogger or MTV VJ because I was kind of fed up with school.

But this one just makes sense. Advising and assisting clients in producing content, collaterals, and campaigns according to their business objectives and based on collected data! It marries my love for writing, my knack for snooping around (the academic term is research!), and the specialty in technology and management my university ensures I'll have at the end of my four-year degree. i have yet to see how it’ll allow me to give back to society since that’s also a factor I want to consider in looking for a dream job but I’ll make it work. I found it hard to sleep that night, thanks to this nerdy, giddy kind of adrenaline rush I had. I broke down this big idea into smaller and smaller action steps until all I had left was a refined list of ideas and intentions, and a splitting headache.

I needed to make sure I was constantly reminded of their existence so all my choices and decisions would serve as a step closer to reaching all of them. So I caved in to the wishes of the "law of attraction" side of the Internet, and created my very own vision board! Simply put, this act of visualization is a powerful technique that can be used to manifest desires and reach goals. Our subconscious minds mainly recognize symbols and images: by merely looking at our vision boards everyday, subliminal messages are being sent to our brains, which will encourage them to work tirelessly to achieve the statements we are feeding to them. I can't find any explanation for this that's less abstract but since many people seem to swear on it and I have a lot of free time and printer ink, I figured why not, right?

It was convenient that I had this small corkboard from Daiso already stuck to one corner of my bedroom wall with several layers of double-sided tape. It used to be a year-long calendar of birthdays but I realized that I've never referred to it and often have to rely on either Facebook reminders or stock knowledge--there is no in between. All I had to do was to look at my list of goals, and compile photos that correspond to each of them, cut them up and arrange them in an aesthetically pleasing manner. You'll see below that I lacked the stereotypical luxury car and beachfront mansion with a walk-in closet and that's because I decided to focus on my goals for the next five years so it looks even a little bit more achievable.

Here's the finished product, along with explanations for each picture, to make this how-to more personal and to also hold myself accountable.

Make my girl Jenna Rink and everybody at Poise proud by writing for a magazine | I had listed a specific one at the time, and if you follow me on Twitter and Instagram, you already know what it is and how this endeavor turned out - but on this blog, I'll shroud it in a little cloud of mystery for now and talk about it more in a future post. I'm very happy producing content for this space of mine and have no intention of stopping any time soon. But at the same time I know that I'd be missing out if I didn't take the chance to be part of a community that leads me to like-minded individuals, allows me to grow even more in my craft, and "gives creators a space to speak their minds and push the limits of their artistry, without imposing any restrictions or expectations", as I stated in my application form.

Be active in three organizations next school year | (I had to blur one of them out because I'm not a member yet and I don't want to jinx it.) I know it's bold of me to assume that we'll be returning to school any time soon, but if we are ever lucky enough, I want to outdo myself when it comes to the orgs I'm a part of. I have been a good follower throughout my first two years of college but now I believe it's my time to try my hand at leading a group of people and being more involved in the conceptualization and execution of projects.

Go on a trip to Europe | Not even just a specific group of countries anymore (I used to be a France, Italy, Spain supremacist)--I mean the entire continent! (But then again, with its rich history and culture, picturesque tourist spots, diverse cuisines... even the sheer adrenaline rush that comes with being in a land completely different from the one you come from, how could anyone not want to go?

and 12. Get the job of my dreams | I actually nicked these photos from the website of a cooperative I want to work for once I graduate from college. I know that I can't plan out the rest of my career trajectory as early as now: things are bound to change at some point, but I hope that I stay in a field that combines creativity and business strategy to craft campaigns, create meaningful content, and market solutions to brands.

Expand my network | I acknowledge how knowing people who know people who know people can open windows of opportunities that I wouldn't have been able to have anywhere else. But I also look forward to building genuine connections with people from all sorts of industries. Talking to the same circle of friends can sometimes feel like you're trapped in an echo chamber: there is certainly much to learn from others' viewpoints.

Volunteer to teach kids | I don't think the written word could have changed my life as much as it did, had it not been for the presence of English teachers who believed in the power of the language to shape the minds of the youth. I guess this is just me trying to give back and help the next generation express their ideas and bring them to life by channeling my inner John Keating.

Maintain a clean workspace that is conducive to productivity | Especially during these days, I spend a solid 18 out of 24 hours sat at my desk, trying my best to make magic happen. It's very important that I keep it a constant and active source of inspiration, free from any distractions, and at the right level of comfort. Although it's not as minimalist as I hoped it would be and my table is about an inch too high for my liking, I'm still pretty satisfied!

Document memories consistently, be it through a physical or online journal | Speaking of clearing out my room, I recently found around 20 notebooks I had filled up over the years. Though maintaining them must have been such a hassle especially as I got older and reading through them was a distraction from completing the task at hand, I am thankful I painstakingly chronicled everything going on in my life and kept them in good condition. Seeing the goals I had set for myself all those years ago and how I achieved most of them without making a conscious effort has inspired me to do my older self a favor by putting in the work now so she can reap the rewards. (While I'm on this note, can anyone recommend a good app for journaling? I keep all my current entries in my Mac's Notes app because even though I am more of an analog person, I seemed to have lost the patience and persistence required to keep a physical journal. But at the same time, I'm scared of my laptop suddenly cr*shing and wiping out everything I had stored)

Stay focused on my work always | I didn't know how to show this without having to spell it out in words so I Photoshopped my face onto the head of a woman working in a cafe because those who study in coffee shops along Katip always look like they're getting stuff done.

Keep learning about the world even when I'm outside of the classroom | And this is not limited to frequenting the nearby museum, although that does sound like a great idea right now. This could also mean attending seminars, workshops, and talks, buying books and binge-watching documentaries or YouTube videos about a topic that I find interesting, engaging in discourse with someone (plus points if they have a different viewpoint!)

Write my own book | Before I even found out that humans were destined to pick a career and work until they died, I already knew that I wanted to spend my days as a writer. Specifically, I wanted to see my name on the cover of a book: By Angel Martinez. (Please refer to the 4:32 of this video and look at how far this dream actually goes back.) But once I realized that I wanted to enter the world of business, I thought I would have to give this up altogether. Thankfully, I now know that one's ability to get published is not reliant on their career--I mean, even beauty gurus get book deals these days. I'm not really sure what it's going to be about but I'd honestly be down for anything: even if it's just a compilation of my best entries on this blog.

13. Go all out when I take myself on self-care dates | I'm talking about picnics at the beach, with a basket full of fruits, a posh looking hat, and a good piece of classic literature! Or fancy dinners for one complete with as many glasses of red wine as I can down! People watching at Downtown Disneyland like my paternal grandmother in hand, with a plastic bag of souvenirs on one hand and a cream cheese pretzel on the other! (The possibilities are endless and I'm already mapping most of them out.)

14. Be financially stable enough to re-enact that one scene in Pretty Woman where Vivian Ward struts down the streets of Beverly Hills in a chic white dress and black hat, an endless number of shopping bags in tow | The part where I humiliate a sales lady who snubbed me the day before because she didn't think I could afford what she was selling by saying, "You work on commission, right? That's right. Big mistake, big, huge." is entirely optional.

I also included some two inspirational sayings that were originally laptop wallpapers from The Everygirl. I feel like they perfectly sum up the attitude I want to have as I forge my own path and accomplish everything I have set out for myself. If I was somehow able to convince you that this activity serves as the perfect springboard for all your dreams and aspirations, here are a couple of tips that could hopefully help you make yours!

Be ready for some intense introspection | Though it may look like a simple arts and crafts activity at the surface, making an effective vision board simply cannot be achieved if you're not willing to do some much needed reflection and watch it balloon into a full-on existential crisis. Identify which areas of your life are most important to you and how you would like to see them evolve over a period of time.

Specificity is key | The trick is to make your goals as concrete as possible, then translate them into visual elements. I know some people who wanted to get into particular universities, who have Photoshopped their names onto acceptance letters and pinned those to their corkboards. As stupid as that may sound in retrospect, I reckon it's an elaborate way of claiming something that's right within your reach.

Design it any way you want | Don't feel pressured to make it look like it's worthy to be on someone else's Pinterest because that's exactly how you lose sight of why you're doing it in the first place. The only person your final output has to resonate with is you.

Don't get discouraged | Although a vision board can attract positive energy and manifest your intentions to the universe, one thing it isn't capable of doing is granting your wishes in an instant. Don't be upset if what you have cut out and stuck on has yet to happen: I truly believe in the saying that the more you look for something, the more it seems to avoid you. Instead, continue to work hard and focus on the progress that you have already made.

Have you made a vision board of your own already? How has it turned out, and how many of the things you had put up have come true? I know you may be a complete stranger from the other side of the world but I'd be happy to hear from you anyway! Wishing you love and light always, especially during trying times such as this. Wash your hands, pray for our frontliners, and check your privilege!

#recs #personal #quarantingz #angeltriestoblog #vision board #goal setting

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arnoldherrera · 4 years

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A Glimpse of Brgy. Tanza 1

Wherever we are in the world, there would always be a risk for disasters especially when various environmental factors were to be considered. That is the reason why it is relevant to identify the hazards, to assess the risks and disaster management, and to determine both the safest and hazardous places in our community as a precautionary measure.

To give you a context, I live in Brgy. Tanza in Navotas City. However, due to its large size and vicinity as the only part separated from the main Navotas by the Tangos River, it has been decided upon recently to divide the lone barangay into two for a more efficient management. Hence, the formation of the barangays Tanza 1 and 2.

PHOTO: Tanza 1 Barangay Hall

PHOTO: Ms. Ruby Delos Santos (left) with the barangay tanod (middle and right)

On November 30, I conducted my interview with Ms. Ruby Delos Santos, a BDRRM representative of our barangay - Tanza 1. She pointed out the different major hazards that our place has experienced for the previous years. Basically, what she gave are the common ones - flood, fire, and earthquake. However, the two of the most memorable disasters that happened would be the 1990 Luzon earthquake where in it was also greatly felt in Tanza and the wrath of Typhoon Pedring in year 2011. In fact, it was unexpected because what the officials predicted was that it would be the preceding Typhoon Ondoy who would damage our place. However, we never thought that it would be the succeeding typhoon who will deal the most destruction. For days, the whole barangay was immersed in floodwater. The neighborhood looked much like a sea already because the flood reached the stomach level. Luckily, after the road constructions in 2014, flooding incidents was greatly reduced to more than half. As for the fires, it almost never happens - which is a good thing.

PHOTO: I pose for a picture together with Ms. Ruby, after our interview.

Barangay Tanza is near the sea which is why when it rains hard, the water level rises and it reaches the houses of those families who live beside it. As for personal experience, my cousins are actually living next to the sea, and when I visited again last month, it is obvious that the water level had increased too much already compared to how low it was nearly a decade ago when I was still a child. Due to this, they were forced to adjust and pull the moveable structures of their house in order to prevent them from being immersed in the waters.

With all these disasters, the barangay finds it difficult to deal with them because it is only through weather forecasts that typhoons are being prepared for. However, in terms of earthquakes and fire, they are left empty-handed because these hazards are uncontrollable and unpredictable in nature, which is why they are always alert and make sure that there would be officials left to deal with emergency issues.

When asked about the place that would be at most risk, she mentioned the recently-established housing at the end of Sampaguita street because even though the space is wide, still they are the ones closest to the sea, and if a strong storm comes, it is definite that sea waves will reach them. Aside from the place, she also pointed out some groups of people that will be greatly affected by calamities. She said that it would be the elderly and the students. As for the former, due to their age, there is a high probability that they would get killed if not evacuated immediately. As for the latter, the only elementary school in the barangay which is the Tanza Elementary School is located just by the seaside. It is definite that students’ education would be easily paralyzed once the water overflows.

PHOTO: Tanza Elementary School

PHOTO: Baywalk just beside the Tanza Elementary School

LOOK: People say that at midnight, gunshots would be heard here and dead bodies will be found next morning.

PHOTO: This is Chungkang Street where most of the marginalized families live and where crimes rampantly happen in Barangay Tanza 1

Disasters that happen do not only destroy the environment but it also affect many variables. Firstly, people are left with trauma (e.g. PTSD) especially the kids who are not yet used to experiencing such painful encounters. Secondly, the livelihood is also affected. One perfect example was the fire that happened in Tanza in early 2019. A fire started with a small eatery, and being near two other eateries, it resulted to a quick domino effect of fire and soon spread out to the neighborhood. Thirdly, having a large population to oversee is already a challenge. It would lead to a worse delivery of help and services if calamities happen. Lastly, repetitive disasters will lead to the weakening of the foundation of establishments and even the roads.

To further evaluate on the condition of our barangay, she pointed out some of our safest places including the Annex which is a basketball court, and sometimes, an evacuation site for victims. This can be found between Gumamela and Sampaguita streets. Also, there is the open space in front of the Noah’s Ark is a place where people can gather safely especially during earthquakes. Not only that, she also mentioned some of the hazardous places in our barangay. When talking about floods, it would definitely be the Tanza Elementary School and the end of Sampaguita street. When talking about earthquakes, it would be the barangay hall of Tanza 2 because it lies just beside the bridge that connects Navotas to Malabon.

PHOTO: Annex

PHOTO: Noah’s Ark Open Space

Unfortunately, it is not only the physical conditions of the barangay that is important to consider when dealing and resolving disaster-related problems. There are also hindrances or external factors that are needed to be weighed. Just like what was mentioned earlier, Tanza is the only barangay that is isolated from the rest of Navotas City. Even though the roads were fixed, still the fact that our barangay is separated, leaves the impression of being left out. Not all are familiar with our place, there are only 2 fire trucks, there is a lack of financial resources, and even if there are consistent earthquake and fire drills, still not every one is informed and monitored because of weak manpower.

In order to combat these disasters, barangay Tanza 1 facilitates safety drills as mentioned earlier, as well as seminars complemented with the rounds done by barangay tanod for immediate urgent announcements. Not only that, the police are always alert and do their own patrolling at night to avoid crimes.

According to the plan, once a major disaster happens, the barangay captains of both Tanza 1 and 2 shall coordinate to deliver the needs of the people on both divisions. Patrol cars will be immediately deployed around the whole barangay to alert/inform the people of the evacuation plan. For Tanza 1, the evacuation site will be the Annex while for Tanza 2, the evacuation site will be the open space in front of Noah’s Ark.

Of course, regardless of these plans, some calamities tend to be inescapable. Thus, for post-disaster treatment, facilities such as the Tanza Multi-Purpose Center, Tanza Lying-in Clinic, and the Annex can temporary shelter the victims of calamities. In collaboration with the Sangguniang Kabataan of Tanza, DSWD, and Manila Teachers Party-list, educational assistance is freely offered to students for as long as they would comply with the requirements needed. In terms of livelihood opportunities, when I walked around the community, I saw a number of food stalls which is labeled with “Brgy. Tanza Livelihood Project” which is led by the NavotaAs Hanapbuhay Center. Zumba Saturday mornings are also facilitated and is open to all. Also, there is an annual “Kabataan Sports Camp” spearheaded by Mayor Toby Tiangco where in teenagers may join and showcase their skills in various sports such as basketball and volleyball.

LOOK: When I did my community walk, this was just one of the six instances where I saw boys playing basketball as a form of camaraderie.

PHOTO: Tanza Multi-Purpose Center

PHOTO: Tanza Lying-In Clinic

PHOTO: Side of Noah’s Ark which is being closed during Saturday mornings to give way for zumba activities

If there will be disasters in the future, the only ones available to help within the barangay will be the Bureau of Fire Protection Navotas City Fire Station, the Philippine National Police in Tanza 1 and 2, and the barangay tanod.

In my overall evaluation of our barangay and with the help of Ms. Ruby, I can say that the issues challenging our community are not inclined towards the actual disasters, but more of the resources to overcome them. As mentioned earlier, there is lack of financial resources, few equipment, and weak manpower. Despite being the only barangay separated from the rest of Navotas, fortunately, Tanza was still able to produce efficient projects and safety drills for the people. Distance and location is indeed an important factor which causes the development flow to be delayed. To resolve this issue, the barangay captains of Tanza shall be active and consistent in voicing out the needs of their people to the authorities of the main Navotas. This way, the divide would no longer be a problem as there would be a solid connection bridged by the barangay captains.

Disasters had been a huge problem concerning the whole world. In the Philippines, multiple incidents of flooding and earthquakes are almost always on the news headlines recently. Not only that, there still exists the scare brought about by the West Valley Fault. With that in mind, it is a must that disaster risk and reduction management shall be understood by the public. This is a matter of life and death even if the calamity only affected a small vicinity. Also, there are a lot of factors to consider in evaluating the disaster preparedness of the country. Many Filipinos are not entirely aware and alert of the whatabouts during calamities and this could be the reason why many of them will die when these happen. They also lack the discipline to obediently follow the safety plans and will do anything just to claim an advantage over others.

After the kwentuhan and the community walk, I realized that I am ignorant of my own barangay, that I should learn. Even though I am aware of some of the facilities available, that is just it. That is all I know. I was, in fact, shocked when I heard that many projects are being accomplished for many beneficiaries. The community walk, for me, was refreshing. It became a way for me to reconnect with my childhood. It was a very long time ago since I last visited the places I used to go to. Now, as a young adult, I immediately saw the huge differences of today’s barangay from years back then. Upgrades on the road, houses, and facilities are observable.

Knowing the hindrances brought about by the lack of resources, it is a must that we work together to at least alleviate these problems. We must do our part by participating in safety drills facilitated by the barangay officials, by taking the accountability not only of our lives, but as well as the lives of others in our actions, and by building a culture of communication among every one. With these, we can establish a foundation strengthened by trust and compassion for all.

PHOTO: Tanza 1 Material Recovery Facility (MRF)

As a member of this community and this nation, I can help by being a responsible citizen. It may be a small action, but by throwing my trash to its proper place can be the game-changer of our current situation. Start with small efforts until you build a momentum towards achieving larger goals. Setting an example for others motivates a collective effort for long-term development.

PHOTO: Mikro Store Trash Bins (Proper Waste Segregation)

Discipline starts from within. Care for the environment and the rest will come in best.

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landoinghomework · 2 years

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It's time?

I dreaded writing this blog post, not because the prompt is bad or that I don’t like it, but because writing this means I will be graduating soon, and this is a (temporary) end to my education career. I have learned and grown a lot throughout the last 4 years, and Dickinson has made a huge impact on it. Despite a pandemic, quarantining, remote studying, and my study abroad plan completely falling out, I made it! Nonetheless, it’s time. And I will spend this time reflecting on what I have learned while I was a Computer Science major at Dickinson, a student in this Senior Seminar class, and a contributor to my open-source project.

Even when I was a freshman, I already declared Computer Science as my first major. I never regret doing so, and I have had so much fun bonding with both students and professors in the department. I especially remember staying up until 1 AM finishing the final project for COMP 131 (class of 2022 is the last class that got to study that course) and the Teacher Assistant was there to help us to the best of his ability. All the TAs were so nice and helpful that now as a senior, I am also a TA. This is my way to give back to the department and the upperclassmen who helped me then. Learning how to teach underclassmen computer science made me realize I need to be more patient and find easier ways to explain new concepts, this has helped me to communicate better in the long run.

The senior seminar was at first very weird to me. I thought we were bound to learn more technical knowledge and produce a “perfect” product by the end of the year, just like how other majors must publish their theses. Instead, we sat around a different topic each class and then work on our own open-source project with our groups. This turned out the be my favorite course in the major because it taught me a lot of industrial knowledge (testing, agile, data privacy, etc.) that I know I will need in the future. I know other students don’t appreciate this information very much (in fact, what amazed me was how many students raised their hand when asked if they would illegally obtain data from users if their job was threatened), but I thought a lot about this and will reflect even more when I start working this summer. I want to promise myself not to chase the money and forget my ethics when working in this industry.

Regarding the open-source project, the biggest thing I have learned from it is that I don’t hate coding that much. Ever since my software engineer internship during the summer of freshman year, I hate sitting in front of the computer coding 8 hours a day, building a website that I found no interest in. Thanks to the 8-hour delay I had during winter break, I sat at the airport and learned how to debug by myself (I usually got too impatient and then I asked for help from a colleague). I figured out there are multiple ways to fix one problem and chose which one is the most optimal. Even though I will not be coding after graduating, this year-long project made me find interest again in software engineering and the systems behind it. The mentors and reviewers of the project have helped tremendously too, and I’m very thankful for that.

I can write more and more about what I have learned throughout the years and how much it has prepared me for an “engaged [life] of citizenship and leadership in the service of society.” My end goal will always be to create a product that will have a positive impact on humankind, or at least for the greater good. I cannot thank the professors of the department, my friends, and my mentors enough for helping me along the way. Yes, it’s time to say goodbye, but I’ll see you in the future!

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arohi19 · 3 years

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Knowledge Science Faculties In India

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random-notes-and-jottings · 4 years

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The Dehumanizing Condescension of White Fragility

The popular book aims to combat racism but talks down to Black people.

John McWhorter

Contributing writer at The Atlantic and professor at Columbia University

I must admit that I had not gotten around to actually reading Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility until recently. But it was time to jump in. DiAngelo is an education professor and—most prominently today—a diversity consultant who argues that whites in America must face the racist bias implanted in them by a racist society. Their resistance to acknowledging this, she maintains, constitutes a “white fragility” that they must overcome in order for meaningful progress on both interpersonal and societal racism to happen.

White Fragility was published in 2018 but jumped to the top of the New York Times best-seller list amid the protests following the death of George Floyd and the ensuing national reckoning about racism. DiAngelo has convinced university administrators, corporate human-resources offices, and no small part of the reading public that white Americans must embark on a self-critical project of looking inward to examine and work against racist biases that many have barely known they had.

I am not convinced. Rather, I have learned that one of America’s favorite advice books of the moment is actually a racist tract. Despite the sincere intentions of its author, the book diminishes Black people in the name of dignifying us. This is unintentional, of course, like the racism DiAngelo sees in all whites. Still, the book is pernicious because of the authority that its author has been granted over the way innocent readers think.

Reading white fragility is rather like attending a diversity seminar. DiAngelo patiently lays out a rationale for white readers to engage in a self-examination that, she notes, will be awkward and painful. Her chapters are shortish, as if each were a 45-minute session. DiAngelo seeks to instruct.

She operates from the now-familiar concern with white privilege, aware of the unintentional racism ever lurking inside of her that was inculcated from birth by the white supremacy on which America was founded. To atone for this original sin, she is devoted to endlessly exploring, acknowledging, and seeking to undo whites’ “complicity with and investment in” racism. To DiAngelo, any failure to do this “work,” as adherents of this paradigm often put it, renders one racist.

As such, a major bugbear for DiAngelo is the white American, often of modest education, who makes statements like I don’t see color or asks questions like How dare you call me “racist”? Her assumption that all people have a racist bias is reasonable—science has demonstrated it. The problem is what DiAngelo thinks must follow as the result of it.

DiAngelo has spent a very long time conducting diversity seminars in which whites, exposed to her catechism, regularly tell her—many while crying, yelling, or storming toward the exit—that she’s insulting them and being reductionist. Yet none of this seems to have led her to look inward. Rather, she sees herself as the bearer of an exalted wisdom that these objectors fail to perceive, blinded by their inner racism. DiAngelo is less a coach than a proselytizer.

When writers who are this sure of their convictions turn out to make a compelling case, it is genuinely exciting. This is sadly not one of those times, even though white guilt and politesse have apparently distracted many readers from the book’s numerous obvious flaws.

For one, DiAngelo’s book is replete with claims that are either plain wrong or bizarrely disconnected from reality. Exactly who comes away from the saga of Jackie Robinson thinking he was the first Black baseball player good enough to compete with whites? “Imagine if instead the story,” DiAngelo writes, “went something like this: ‘Jackie Robinson, the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.’” But no one need imagine this scenario, as others have pointed out, because it is something every baseball fan already knows. Later in the book, DiAngelo insinuates that, when white women cry upon being called racists, Black people are reminded of white women crying as they lied about being raped by Black men eons ago. But how would she know? Where is the evidence for this presumptuous claim?

An especially weird passage is where DiAngelo breezily decries the American higher-education system, in which, she says, no one ever talks about racism. “I can get through graduate school without ever discussing racism,” she writes. “I can graduate from law school without ever discussing racism. I can get through a teacher-education program without ever discussing racism.” I am mystified that DiAngelo thinks this laughably antique depiction reflects any period after roughly 1985. For example, an education-school curriculum neglecting racism in our times would be about as common as a home unwired for electricity.

DiAngelo’s depiction of white psychology shape-shifts according to what her dogma requires. On the one hand, she argues in Chapter 1 that white people do not see themselves in racial terms; therefore, they must be taught by experts like her of their whiteness. But for individuals who harbor so little sense of themselves as a group, the white people whom DiAngelo describes are oddly tribalist when it suits her narrative. “White solidarity,” she writes in Chapter 4, “requires both silence about anything that exposes the advantages of the white population and tacit agreement to remain racially united in the protection of white supremacy.” But if these people don’t even know whiteness is a category, just what are they now suddenly defending?

Diangelo also writes as if certain shibboleths of the Black left—for instance, that all disparities between white and Black people are due to racism of some kind—represent the incontestable truth. This ideological bias is hardly unique to DiAngelo, and a reader could look past it, along with the other lapses in argumentation I have noted, if she offered some kind of higher wisdom. The problem is that White Fragility is the prayer book for what can only be described as a cult.

We must consider what is required to pass muster as a non-fragile white person. Refer to a “bad neighborhood,” and you’re using code for Black; call it a “Black neighborhood,” and you’re a racist; by DiAngelo’s logic, you are not to describe such neighborhoods at all, even in your own head. You must not ask Black people about their experiences and feelings, because it isn’t their responsibility to educate you. Instead, you must consult books and websites. Never mind that upon doing this you will be accused of holding actual Black people at a remove, reading the wrong sources, or drawing the wrong lessons from them. You must never cry in Black people’s presence as you explore racism, not even in sympathy, because then all the attention goes to you instead of Black people. If you object to any of the “feedback” that DiAngelo offers you about your racism, you are engaging in a type of bullying “whose function is to obscure racism, protect white dominance, and regain white equilibrium.”

That is a pretty strong charge to make against people who, according to DiAngelo, don’t even conceive of their own whiteness. But if you are white, make no mistake: You will never succeed in the “work” she demands of you. It is lifelong, and you will die a racist just as you will die a sinner.

Remember also that you are not to express yourself except to say Amen. Namely, thou shalt not utter:

I know people of color.

I marched in the sixties.

You are judging me.

You don’t know me.

You are generalizing.

I disagree.

The real oppression is class.

I just said one little innocent thing.

Some people find offense where there is none.

You hurt my feelings.

I can’t say anything right.

This is an abridgment of a list DiAngelo offers in Chapter 9; its result is to silence people. Whites aren’t even allowed to say, “I don’t feel safe.” Only Black people can say that. If you are white, you are solely to listen as DiAngelo tars you as morally stained. “Now breathe,” she counsels to keep you relaxed as you undergo this. She does stress that she is not dealing with a good/bad dichotomy and that your inner racist does not make you a bad person. But with racism limned as such a gruesome spiritual pollution, harbored by individuals moreover entrapped in a society within which they exert racism merely by getting out of bed, the issue of gray zones seems beside the point. By the end, DiAngelo has white Americans muzzled, straitjacketed, tied down, and chloroformed for good measure—but for what?

And herein is the real problem with White Fragility. DiAngelo does not see fit to address why all of this agonizing soul-searching is necessary to forging change in society. One might ask just how a people can be poised for making change when they have been taught that pretty much anything they say or think is racist and thus antithetical to the good. What end does all this self-mortification serve? Impatient with such questions, DiAngelo insists that “wanting to jump over the hard, personal work and get to ‘solutions’” is a “foundation of white fragility.” In other words, for DiAngelo, the whole point is the suffering. And note the scare quotes around solutions, as if wanting such a thing were somehow ridiculous.

A corollary question is why Black people need to be treated the way DiAngelo assumes we do. The very assumption is deeply condescending to all proud Black people. In my life, racism has affected me now and then at the margins, in very occasional social ways, but has had no effect on my access to societal resources; if anything, it has made them more available to me than they would have been otherwise. Nor should anyone dismiss me as a rara avis. Being middle class, upwardly mobile, and Black has been quite common during my existence since the mid-1960s, and to deny this is to assert that affirmative action for Black people did not work.

In 2020—as opposed to 1920—I neither need nor want anyone to muse on how whiteness privileges them over me. Nor do I need wider society to undergo teachings in how to be exquisitely sensitive about my feelings. I see no connection between DiAngelo’s brand of reeducation and vigorous, constructive activism in the real world on issues of import to the Black community. And I cannot imagine that any Black readers could willingly submit themselves to DiAngelo’s ideas while considering themselves adults of ordinary self-regard and strength. Few books about race have more openly infantilized Black people than this supposedly authoritative tome.

Or simply dehumanized us. DiAngelo preaches that Black History Month errs in that it “takes whites out of the equation”—which means that it doesn’t focus enough on racism. Claims like this get a rise out of a certain kind of room, but apparently DiAngelo wants Black History Month to consist of glum recitations of white perfidy. This would surely help assuage DiAngelo’s sense of complicity in our problems, but does she consider what a slog this gloomy, knit-browed Festivus of a holiday would be for actual Black people? Too much of White Fragility has the problem of elevating rhetorical texture over common sense.

White Fragility is, in the end, a book about how to make certain educated white readers feel better about themselves. DiAngelo’s outlook rests upon a depiction of Black people as endlessly delicate poster children within this self-gratifying fantasy about how white America needs to think—or, better, stop thinking. Her answer to white fragility, in other words, entails an elaborate and pitilessly dehumanizing condescension toward Black people. The sad truth is that anyone falling under the sway of this blinkered, self-satisfied, punitive stunt of a primer has been taught, by a well-intentioned but tragically misguided pastor, how to be racist in a whole new way.

JOHN MCWHORTER is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He teaches linguistics at Columbia University, hosts the podcast Lexicon Valley, and is the author, most recently, of Words on the Move.

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xtruss · 4 years

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Why India Wants to ‘Impose’ a Military Partnership on Bangladesh?

India's heavy investment in Bangladesh may be at risk. A wave of anti-India sentiment is sweeping much of the South Asian country over New Delhi's efforts to win concessions that go beyond the normal and in the realms that many Bangladeshis fear, could compromise their national security.

India has, for too long, lobbied to replace China as Bangladesh’s arms supplier. But China already enjoys strong ties with Bangladesh. Besides supplying Bangladesh weapons, it has also pledged 38 billion dollars towards infrastructure development in Bangladesh as part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who owes a lot to her backers in New Delhi for sustaining her 12 years rule, has often been accused by her critics of using numerous bilateral agreements to pave the way for India’s domination over her country.

— Posted on 05/18/20 | By Mohammad Zainal Abedin | Via ViewsWeek

Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors to the UN peacekeeping missions across the world. (Photo courtesy Bangladesh Army)

The Coronavirus pandemic may have frustrated, what many in Bangladesh fear, India’s long-cherished “dream” to court Dhaka for a controversial bilateral treaty that could ultimately lead to India’s absolute control of its neighbor’s military establishment. Bangladesh could face political unrest at home if its government does not deny New Delhi the space it is longing for a greater foothold on its soil.

At heart is India’s attempt to cajole Bangladesh into a military partnership under another new agreement that would favor India more than Bangladesh. The proposed treaty was to be signed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh which has now been called off due to COVID-19 pandemic. Some Bangladeshi student organizations and political groups had announced to stage anti-Modi protests, if the visit had taken place, vowing not to allow Modi to come to Dhaka.

Modi’s March 17 visit was slated to join the 100th birth anniversary of Banga Bandhu (friend of Bengal) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founder. But suspicions abound among common Bangladeshis that Modi was not coming to pay respects to the country’s founder but to sell a treaty to its hosts that would have led to the sale of substandard and obsolete Indian military hardware.

China’s Influence

China is currently Bangladesh’s largest military hardware supplier. Between 2008 and 2018, China supplied $1.93 billion worth of weapons to Bangladesh. This constitutes 71.8 percent of Bangladesh’s military acquisitions over this period, making China far and away the biggest supplier of arms to Dhaka.

The latest treaty was mentioned by Indian foreign secretary Harsha Vardhan Shringla at a seminar in Dhaka on March 2, 2020. “Our on-going efforts to develop a robust partnership between our militaries emphasize trust of a higher order,” Shringla said, adding that “especially since we are willing to share with you any and all military hardware manufactured in India.”

India is also open to facilitating training opportunities for officers at all levels in premier military intuitions in both the countries, he said while speaking at a seminar on Bangladesh-India relations on the first day of his two-day official visit to Bangladesh.

India’s Bets on Bangladesh’s Military

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who owes a lot to her backers in New Delhi for sustaining her 12 years rule, has often been accused by her critics of using numerous bilateral agreements to pave the way for India’s domination over her country.

“Those who have the slightest knowledge of subcontinent history and India’s treatment of Bangladesh for almost half a century cannot consider it as its friend,” says Dhaka University professor, Ashraful, who requested not to be identified by his real name because of fears of reprisals by the government. He says India imposed numerous agreements on Bangladesh since its independence, starting with the November 7, 1971, agreement with the then provisional government of Tajuddin Ahmad, exiled in India. “All the seven conditions of that agreement were detrimental to the incoming independent Bangladesh,” he says. “One of those conditions said: Bangladesh wouldn’t have any professional armed forces, but will maintain a paramilitary force (which later emerged as Rakkhi Bahani, allegedly under Indian command).”

However, Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujib, defying that agreement, laid the foundations of a professional military, which remains an eyesore for India. Bangladesh’s army has won praise for its efficiency, and courage and contribution to the UN peacekeeping operations.

India has invested heavily on Bangladesh’s political landscape to win goodwill and allies. And it has paid dividends. Bangladesh’s drift towards India gained steam during the reign of Sheikh Hasina. She has been accused of pleasing New Delhi by accepting all its unending list of demands. Hasina’s unusual tilt has contributed to increasing the anti-India sentiment that already existed in the Bangladeshi society for years.

Shahab Enam Khan, professor of International Relations at Jahangirnagar University says that the Bangladeshi public’s perception of India will only veer towards the negative because of the recent situation in India, involving its treatment of Muslims. “The anti-India sentiment has increased sharply over the years, largely due to Bangladesh’s foreign policy weaknesses along with the Indian media’s persistent negative projection of Bangladesh as ‘India’s backyard’,” says Khan.

Does India Want to Sell military Hardware to Bangladesh?

Bangladeshis living overseas also see the rot in India’s overtures. “India designs to dismantle Bangladesh Army and has a history of organizing coups after coups to weaken it,” says Irtaza Shalayheen, a student at Washington State University. “Why should Bangladesh be bound to buy military hardware from India when New Delhi itself is world’s second-largest arms importer? India-manufactured armaments are so bad in quality that Indian forces aren’t ready to use those, not even rifles,” he says.

Strategically too, military acquisition from India makes no sense to Dhaka University’s Ashraful. “How we will use Indian weapons against the Indian army, in case of any hostilities?” He says Bangladeshi military will be forced to use Indian military hardware against Indian military that uses weapons produced by Russia, US, France, Israel, Germany etc. should any border tensions go out of hand. “Our army having Indian arms will not be able to face even Myanmar, because Myanmar purchases arms from China, Russia, Israel and other countries,” he adds.

India’s offer of training the Bangladeshi military officers is being looked at with even deeper suspicions. “Those who will go to India to get training will be brain-washed. We have seen it before. Many of those who went to India on numerous scholarships, educational tours and under cultural exchanges were brainwashed,” Ashraful says.

Some defense analysts in Bangladesh also fear that an India-trained Bangladeshi army will not have the moral power to fight their teachers from Indian army. They fear that such a partnership could evolve into Bangladeshi military become an extension of Indian army and which could be ultimately used against China and Pakistan.

Why Should Bangladesh Trust India?

Bangladesh has not enough reasons to trust India. New Delhi not only dishonors its treaties and commitments, but also imposes its policies on Bangladesh. “India deprived us of the waters of 54 international rivers, including the Ganges, Teesta, Surma, and others, either by dishonoring the treaties or without any treaty,” Ashraful says. Water experts in Bangladesh warn that the Indian plans to divert the waters of all the upstream rivers to its western and southern regions by implementing its ‘National River Interlinking Scheme’, will be a death-blow to Bangladesh.

“Though India uses our highways, railways, seaports and other facilities almost free of cost, but it doesn’t allow Bangladesh to use its land to connect with Bhutan or Nepal, which is only 21km off Bangladesh territory,” says Ashraful while referring to Siliguri Corridor, also known as Chicken’s Necks in West Bengal.

Bangladeshi analysts of all shades are unanimous in their opinion that their country should maintain cordial relations with India safeguarding its national interests. These relations must be mutually beneficial and ensure that New Delhi makes all the necessary policy adjustments that shows its sincerity. But India lacks such sincerity, they opine. Despite already having a defense pact with Bangladesh, they add, India is making efforts to impose the new agreement to tighten its grip on Bangladesh further.

Some former members of Bangladesh’s military are also not mincing words in expressing their reservations about the trend. A former senior officer of Bangladesh Army, requesting anonymity and who now lives in the US, says the Bangladeshi armed forces must have a say before the conclusion of any future agreements with India. “It is a normal practice that the armed forces of almost all the countries, including India, scrutinize all the agreements, MoUs and treaties as they are related to the interests of the country,” he added. “The complexity of its relations with India and Bangladesh’s national interests demand that we stay clear of any more defense-related agreements with India that could compromise our national security, independence and sovereignty,” he added.

— Mohammad Zainal Abedin is a New York-based Bangladeshi journalist and researcher. Views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the ViewsWeek.com. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles.

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