TV: Empowerment box or Stupid box?

According to Joel Waldfogel, watching TV is good because it helps to empower the women living in rural areas. A lot of people would disagree with Waldfogel and hence, give names like the "idiot box" to TV as they think that watching TV only encourages the people to become lazier. However, after reading the article Waldfogel wrote and witnessing the change in women, I can't help but agree with him.

Rural places of India and other third world countries like Nepal, where I come from, are very gender bias. Women are dominated, discriminated and publicly humiliated, and they have no say in this. One of the reasons why the women are so quite about all those physical and emotion harassments could be because they do not know that it is wrong. According to the survey done by Robert Jensen and Emily Oyster, a lot of women think that it is necessary to ask their husbands' permission before doing anything and that they deserve to get beaten by their spouse.

We can't run away from the bitter truth that stereotypes who think that women are made only to cook, clean and have sex still exist, but the least that we can do is educate women and aware them of their rights. The problem here is that a majority of women in rural areas aren't educated and there aren't enough adult literacy programs being organized. So, this is where the "idiot box" comes handy. House wives are known for watching a lot of family dramas on TV and those dramas are actually educational, for they show how women are independent. Those TV shows portray women as independent workers who take charge of their lives and choices. Watching those characters have a say about their lives and do things the way they want to inspires a majority of women in the rural areas. Eventually they apply those in their lives and therefore gain more independence from the society. According to this article, a certain study stated that there was a vast improvement among the women who started watching TV shows with women empowerment.

I remember my helper telling me that women in the village she came from were scared and dominated by the men 8 years ago. However, now that they have TV shows to entertain and educate them, they have started getting a grip over their lives. According to her, the women in her village dress differently, talk more boldly and make decisions more frequently. She believes that watching female dominant shows brought this change in them. In fact her sister, who lives in one of the villages in Nepal, threatened to sue her husband if he didn't treat her and their daughter right. Surprisingly, men have now started reacting to these types of threats instead of throwing it off in the thin air.

It is true that watching shows like Gossip Girls and Vampire Diaries just mind-screws us and have no positive effect on our lives (except for creating secret desires like wanting to be popular like Serena or have a hot vampire like Damon be head over heels for you). But, TV shows also succeed in bringing drastic changes in a lot of people's lives, or at least in a lot of women's lives.

The most awesome song ever :)

Collide- By Howie Day

The most awesome song ever :)

Collide - by Howie Day

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Most awesome song :)

Collide by Howie Day

click here to listen to it :)

Marijuana in Nepal

Marijuana is NOT legal in Nepal

I recently read this article which tells us that marijuana is illegal in Nepal and not many people know about it. However, there are various reason why people think that it is legal. Yes, the government and police have been trying to get rid of marijuana but there is only so much that they can do. The Maoist in Nepal have been believed to buy arms during the period of civil war by smuggling drugs. Nepal is a Hindu country and a lot of people take it as an excuse for smoking marijuana in many temples as Lord Shiva is believed to have been a marijuana smoker as well. To add to that smoking marijuana is legal on Shivaratri as it is considered to be a form of prasad (blessing) from  Lord Shiva. Almost all teenagers in Nepal have smoked marijuana at least once in their lifetime and according to the law of Nepal if an individual is caught smoking marijuana then he or she have to face an imprisonment of two years and pay a fine of NRs. 2000 (about 25 US Dollars).

This article caught my eye as I have met a lot of marijuana users and people confused about the situation of marijuana in Nepal. My mother gets worried when I go to tourist areas like Thamel or Boudha in Nepal as she thinks that I might end up taking some marijuana too. In many restaurants in Nepal one can find people smoking marijuana freely which has made it a heaven for hippies. If you are caught smoking, dealing or possessing marijuana then you can easily get away with it by paying a small amount to the police. In most cases the police is involved in the smuggling of marijuana as well. However, in Kathmandu the situation is getting better. There are frequent raids and checking every night in different parts of Nepal. The government is taking this more seriously and have burnt a lot of areas where weed was grown in the past few years. Despite all this effort I personally think that smuggling and smoking of marijuana cannot be stopped in Nepal and will be legalized soon enough.

Vocabulary:

A.i. Distillate: A liquid condensed from vapor in distillation.
    ii. "The distillate marijuana and hash are consumed by some Nepalese "

    iii. We learn how to distillate in chemistry practical classes in Woodstock.

B. i. Residing:To live in a place permanently or for an extended period

    ii. "Marijuana and hash are frequent to some Holi monks, priest residing in temples"

     iii. Girls residing in Midlands need to be back by 10:00 pm on the weekends.

C. i. Deemed: to be considered

     ii. Rules shall be deemed to constitute an offense under the drug law

     iii. My idea of adding a sleeping class in our daily routine had been deemed and will now be practiced. (I wish!)

Words that stung

Once while eating dinner with a friend, he made a blunt statement of how he thought that  I was incapable of loving someone truly as far as he knew me. I do not know whether he was serious or pulling my leg to make a conversation, but those words did make me feel like someone had punched me on my gut. He did apologize after seeing my reaction but that didn't help me feel any better. To start with I hate judgmental people. I have made various mistakes in the past that I am not very proud of but doesn't everyone have something they regret doing? No one is perfect and you can't judge people from their past. I do want to change a lot of things about me and people frequently tell me to do so but do they give me a chance to do that? Nope. Whenever I try to do something right they tell me that I won't be able to do it and if I carry on with what I've always been doing, they bitch about me. So, when the person told me about my incapability from his perspective I started to wonder if he was right which left me thinking about life and my role in it. On second thought I realized that he was just one of those judgmental people who thought they know me enough without even trying to know what I'm really like. I know that I am a better person than from what people tend to think of me. That night I did hold my tears back and told him what I thought I was capable of doing and how I thought he needed to get a life. I know it's not the worst thing that a person can say but those words were linked to a lot of other things that made it unbearable. The person who said I wasn't capable of loving did try to know me better after that incident and I think he knows how I am for real this time. I am thankful for his change of attitude towards me. Only if there were more people who shared the same type of attitude the world would have definitely been a better place to live in.

Teenage Girls: Victims of hysteria?

 Adolescent Girls

This article written by Caitlin Flanagan tells us a few stories of girls all around the world who have suffered from an unidentified disease that makes them lose their self control. Just a few months ago a few teenage cheerleaders had facial tics, uncontrollable movement, stuttering and verbal outbursts which are suspected to be the symptoms of Tourette's. A similar situation had took place in 1962 in a girls' school in Tanzania, however, at that time it was a laughing epidemic that spread for several months. After doing quite some research, Flanagan came to a conclusion that these girls weren't a victim of some rare disease but just victims of hysteria. From movies to myths to books, the victims of  evil spirits or frightful fits are often confused adolescents. Flanagan believes that lack of support and space makes girls suffer from hysteria. A girl must be shown that she is loved and cared for since childhood and must be kept away from any traumatizing events.

As a teenage girl I keep having mood swings and sometimes it is very difficult for me to control my emotions. I feel like all my emotions get magnified which makes it more unbearable. This causes my family, friends and even my boyfriend to get tired of me and my dramas. However, they try their best to be patient and deal with me for they know that it won't last long. I believe what Flanagan wrote in her article is true as I have friends who have hysteria. They have had a bad childhood and been a victim of a series of mishaps. Therefore, I believe that experience and hysteria goes hand in hand.

Vocabulary:

A.i. "this weird arrangement of words flitted across the edge of my consciousness."

      ii. Flitted: to move lightly and swiftly

   iii. A bird flitted across me in the flagpole.

B.i. "A cheerleader was first to manifest the strange symptoms."

    ii. manifest: obvious; apparent; plain

   iii. In Woodstock school people outwardly manifest their views about different subjects.

C.  i. "In all of these cases, the ultimate diagnosis — unpalatable in our post-Freudian age — was good old-fashioned hysteria."

      ii. unpalatable:  disagreeable or unacceptable; obnoxious.

      iii. Wearing short clothes is unpalatable in Woodstock School.