Saturday, November 11, 2006

Rememberance Day

So there is a lot on my mind with rememberance day and I guess you can really sort it into three categories:

1- Losses at W-O:
If someone told me in August that two students who were suposed to be in your graduating class wouldn't be alive for Christmas, there is no way I'd believe them. And although I didn't know either Kyla or Calvin very well I see the impact of their loss at so much it's really too much to handle. And because of it lyrics from Kimya Dawson's the beer have been resonating through my head.

i guess by now you all know my friends danny broke his neck
he was driving home from sirens when he got into a wreck
first i cried for him and then i cried for me
haunted by the ghost of the girl i used to be


2- Grave of the fireflies:
It is a movie produced by a company which is pretty much the Japanese equivalant to Disney. It's a movie that takes place during WW2 Japan and I really like it because it sends a very strong anti-war message that is universal. (Anyone who has taken gr10 history will know that the Japanese were the enemies then.) It is anime, but not the over-the-top colourful stereotypical stuff. It's done in a lot of neautral tones but I think I've droaned on about legits long enough. The story follows two children from the time they become orphans (their mother is severely wounded from a bomb and dies in the hospital). They(Seita:male, age 13-16. Setsuko:female,age 4-5ish?) then move in with their aunt but she's very cruel to them so they move out into an abandoned mine shaft) where Setsuko becomes increasingly sick. The one night they light up the mine shaft by filling it with hundreds of fireflies(but since fireflies only live one night when they wake up the next morning the fireflies are dead) and Setsuko looks up at Seita and asks "Why must fireflies die so young?". Setsuko eventually dies and Seita very much blames himself. In anycase it is an incredibly sad movie and my description does it no justice. I know of two guys who have admittingly cried during it. If you're interested in borrowing it and if you promise not to scratch I would be happy to lend it to you.

3- Current 3rd world Issues:
I mean we look back and see a world history of people suffering, and dying, senselessly and needlessly. With what has happened this year everyone is really in a solumn mood but there are so many people out there who their entire life they've seen friends and family dying, their entire life all they've known is war. I think about how we live their lives in comparason to theirs. And I would really like to know, do they know how much better we live? I mean do they know that we waste away money each and everyday while that money could be used to supply them with food, water and shelter. Seriously, ask yourself: Did I really need that ipod? Did I really need those shoes? that cellphone, new video game? new cd?
The obvious answer is no.

Think of it this way:
30gig ipod(average price from amazon): $320
Shoes (average price from boardzone): $115
Virgin Mobile Cellphone (my receipt) :$100
Video Game (ps2, new, ebgames, FFXII) $50
Cds (in general) :$15
----------------------------------------
Total : $600 (coincidence it came out like that)

And although I can't find the exact prices. I'm sure you all remember the unicef boxes from out Youth. Even one dollar means so much to these children. It's ridiculous. And although I don't own everything on that list, the items that I do own, I enjoy. But I could easily live without them.

1 comment:

Victoria Roth said...

Wow! That's really got me thinking Traci. It's so true, I've been trying to cut back for about a year now to save up for school. But I do still spend enough money to pay for my cell phone bill (each month .. that's not very cheap). Thanks for the great reminder.