Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

Some weeks ago I found an amazing documentary on YouTube which turned out to have won the Academy Award in 2005.

The title is called “Born into Brothels” and it’s about a group of children who were born in the Red Light District of Sonagachi, Calcutta. 

Zana Briski is the woman who made that outstanding documentary happen. She is a photographer and wanted to take pictures of prostitutes in Calcutta. Very soon she found out about the many children living in the Red Light District there and she decided to get in touch with them. The children liked her immediately and they became close friends. She started to teach them photography and gave every child a camera so that they could roam the streets and take pictures of what seemed interesting for them. In fact it turned out that some of these kids had a natural talent. The documentary shows also lots of photos taken by the children and some of them really captured the atmosphere and the way it must be like to live in the Red Light District.
Of course it also shows the negative lifestyle and the terrible problems these children have to face every day. 

Personal opinion:

The documentary covers a topic that is so sad and terrible that I think you should watch it. Take your time. It’s important.

Watching these kids going through their daily routine is heart-rending and I found myself crying many times. But the thing I admire the most about them is the fact that they are more grown up than many of the people I know. They are so young but still so intelligent. 

At one point I remember a small boy talking about his father. He said that his father was once a feared and strong man. But when he started to do drugs he became so thin and absent-minded that no one would take him seriously anymore. Even though his father seemed to live in a different world and didn’t take care of his child, the young boy said: “Still, I try to love him.” Think about that sentence! 

Link to documentary:

http://youtu.be/_kyXFr2g1x8 

mystery: thigh gap

Well … I’ve always wanted a thigh gap. I’ve always wanted a thigh gap? What the hell IS a thigh gap? That was the questioned I asked my roommate two days ago when she told me about the latest fitness trend which she discovered on instagram. 

A thigh gap is the space between your thighs when you are standing straight up. (I give you guys the German translation so that I can make sure that it’s absolutely clear about what I’m talking: “Oberschenkellücke”)

To tell you the truth, I’ve never even thought about a thigh gap. It’s completely new to me. I didn’t know that it is desirable and the latest must-have for body-conscious young women. But I started to get curious what’s behind this trend and after checking out some tumblr websites on the internet, the thigh gap got my attention.

So I read that the young Englishwoman Alexa Chung, model and Londoner It-girl, is thought to personify the trend. Of course lots of other celebrities follow her example. 

So what should you know about the thigh gap?

It’s an impossible beauty standard. Not everyone can have one. In fact it depends on the natural shape of your body. Women who have child-bearing hips are clearly at an advantage. They have legs that are farther apart from one another, making the thigh gap easier to achieve. 

 

The fact that not everyone can have it creates dangerous problems. For many women, especially young girls, the gap equals thinness which means that they almost starve themselves to get it. It can become an obsession like all other beauty trends. 

I read the story of a 16year-old girl who nearly killed herself because she wanted the thigh gap so badly. She started to plaster her bedroom walls with photos of skinny thighs of celebrities such as Alexa Chung or Cara Delevingne. She used to spend every minute of the day obsessing over the size of her thighs. After some months she felt so weak because she lost so much weight that she had to be taken to hospital. The doctors told her that if she didn’t change her eating habits, she would die in 2 weeks. Can you believe that? Actually I can.

There are so many other shocking stories like this one but that doesn’t stop people from uploading pictures of their way too thin legs showing the thigh gap. It’s driving me crazy! I don’t want to know how many girls or fully grown women suffer each day because of these terrible photos. Why can’t we just stop to create an unhealthy ideal of beauty? It’s dangerous. There are so many beautiful women out there who are afraid to be proud of them because they don’t fit in a size zero. It’s ridiculous! 

Still I want to give you the chance to decide on your own whether you like the trend or not. Take a look at:

• FuckYeahThighGap
• thigh gap on tumblr

read more about the negative aspects:

• stories
• Do you have a thigh gap?

couRage

Yesterday evening I went to the cinema première of the movie “couRage”. It’s a short film of about 25 minutes and has been produced by some young talented people from different countries.

The aim of this film was to show that discrimination still takes place even in the 21^st century and even in our lovely city Graz.

The people involved in creating this movie reappraised the past of Issa Fatty, a man from Sierra Leone, who moved to Graz after living in France and got accused of being a drug dealer just 2 days after his arrival in our city. Of course he is no drug dealer and never has been one. But our justice system didn’t believe him so he had to spend 488 (!!!) days innocent in prison! Imagine that!!

When his lawyer could finally prove to the judge that his client is an innocent man, Mr. Fatty should get a high compensation because of the time he spent in prison innocent and because of everything he had lost. He wasn’t allowed to talk with his family in France (he has a wife there).
Austrian law says that you get 100€ for every single day you spend in prison innocent. Do you want to know how much he got? 38.000 € … That’s less than what is established in law. Unbelievable, isn’t it?!

So after this terrible lawsuit he decided that he would move to London. Because here in Graz you can feel the contempt of the people towards foreigners especially the ones having a different skin color. 

In the end of the movie he said, that in London he is feeling accepted by the society and he found a job in the very first week of arriving there. In Graz he couldn’t get one.
But he said that he would never judge the Austrians of being racist because he believes that in every country there are good and bad people. He has a very strong believe in God and for him that’s where he takes his power from. Revenge for him is not an option. It’s not compatible with his believes.

The whole story took place in 2008 … Well I just would like you guys to think about it.

Do you stand up if you see someone being discriminated? 

Are you courageous? 

Are you really??!!!

Link to the event: http://www.facebook.com/events/438088392944385/442260335860524/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

Muehlenberg Legend - no smoke without fire

 

As I have to read the book “Der Dativ ist dem Genetiv sein Tod” for my German class I came across the “Muehlenberg Legend”. Its content kind of surprised me and made me think back of my school days and my history classes. My history teacher was great! She really knew how to bring a subject alive and I loved listening to her thrilling stories which were sometimes even emotional.

While reading the pages about this story I realized that I have heard of this legend before. My history teacher told my class once that there had been a voting in the United States that prevented German to become the official language because of only one negative vote.
Of course I believed that and even told it to my friends because it seemed so exceptional! It could have been possible that the whole population of the United States of America speak my own language! In this case I wouldn’t be studying what I study today. Unbelievable!!
Well, it’s really not to be believed because it’s simply not true. Surprise, surprise! ;) 

According to the legend, Frederick Muehlenberg, a German-American and the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, kept German from becoming an official language of the United States. But in fact there has never been such a proposal in the history of the States.

The kernel of truth behind this legend is a vote in the United States House of Representatives in 1794, after a group of German immigrants asked for the translation of some laws into German. The aim behind this request was to make it easier for the immigrating German population to understand the American laws and get used to them.
This petition was rejected by a 42 to 41 vote and Muhlenberg was later quoted as having said "the faster the Germans become Americans, the better it will be."

 

Some were relieved because of the final negative outcome of the petition, others were truly disappointed. As a lot of immigrants had big problems with the “American way of life”, some finally managed to get accustomed to America and even reached to identify themselves with what they called their new home. They produced new ideas and cultural values. Around 200.000 workers, gardeners and masons who build up the Central Park were of German origin.

Nowadays there can be found lots of German words in American like bratwurst, Blitzkrieg, edelweiss, hamburger or wunderkind. They are an essential part of the American vernacular language which is spoken by the largest part of the US-population. 

All this shows that legends are long-lasting and to finish: There’s no smoke without fire (;