This is leading on from Ursula's question in class. What is philosophical? I am having problems writing this philosophy blog entry. My first problem is that it is hard to be “philoosophical” when you have to. I find that my philosophical nature is something that comes to me, when I don't think about it. My next problem is to figure out what is actually philosophical and what are just random thoughts. What is required for something to be philosophical I am wondering. Does it have to say something bigger about life? And humanity? I have a lot of good ideas! Writing about cleaning up, today's college meeting about forced cultural sharing, about small talk, but it doesn't seem to have enough depth, it doesn't seem important enough. My life doesn't seem to be that important enough to be out there, on the big net.
And would you look at that, philosophy came to be in the shape of existentialist thoughts when I wasn't even trying.
Monday 28 September 2009
Sunday 13 September 2009
Baldness
Why do people go bald? Some might say it is a fashion statement, they are doing it to create a spectacle or just to look tough. But is it something more. I myself have had long hair for several years before coming to MUWCI after being here a year I cut it of. I actually waited till I got home, but that was more because I didn't want my friends at home to think, “ohh you changed so much after going to India”. I cut my hair of for more practical reasons. I had lice, so that was the easiest thing to do. I liked my image of being a bit different, looking hippie-ish and it also worked quite well with the girls with the long hair. However since coming here I have gone into a state of there is no reason to try and hide all my bad sides, because they will shine through anyway. Another reason that I liked the long messy hair of mine, was because it gave me a look of not trying too hard. Even though I would try hard to look good, I would always have the look that said I don't care about what others think, even though I did care a lot. The baldness is here in many ways liberating, because you can't make the hair look better or worse by adding gel or whatever. So you just look as you look. I think this is a reason that many of the MUWCI girls also do this. To be liberated from having to look good all the time, because you just don't. There are of course people that would argue that girls look as good without their hair, but the general consensus is the opposite.
Baldness is a very independent look. It says, I don't care how other people think I look, especially for girls. Strong independent women do not need their feminine long hair to look good. However ironically enough you often see these strong independent women, not girls, where scarfs and bigger earrings tan they ever did before.
I was thinking if I started a trend, but no MUWCI has a tradition of girls going bald. And what better place to do it than in India on the top of a mountain where we live side by side and there is a limit of 200 different people, so everyone is forced to speak to each other. I myself loves this fact that I can be ugly and not care, but my question arises am I strong enough to do it back home.
Baldness is a very independent look. It says, I don't care how other people think I look, especially for girls. Strong independent women do not need their feminine long hair to look good. However ironically enough you often see these strong independent women, not girls, where scarfs and bigger earrings tan they ever did before.
I was thinking if I started a trend, but no MUWCI has a tradition of girls going bald. And what better place to do it than in India on the top of a mountain where we live side by side and there is a limit of 200 different people, so everyone is forced to speak to each other. I myself loves this fact that I can be ugly and not care, but my question arises am I strong enough to do it back home.
Saturday 12 September 2009
The cycle
The cycle.
Here in MUWCI a theory says that every alternate year, the 2nd years are mean to their 1st years, and every alternate year very good to them. The idea to write about this sprung from our conversation about silly games today. I learned today in class that it actually is an experience that to some people can be rather traumatizing for some people. Traumatizing is a word far to strong. However I think the concept is right. Maria Ché mentioned that it was something that had effected her a lot last year and that it had intimidated her from speaking to some 2nd years. And I know some of my 2nd years felt very strongly about stopping the cycle, so they talked a lot about that. However it feels like it might be continuing. We are the batch that are “supposed” to be mean to their 1st years. We had a student meeting related to this topic, where people at least said that we were going to be nice. However we must ask ourselves are we really?
I heard a lot of people talking about how 1st and 2nd years sit separated in the caf, the 1st years go to bed early and so on. Even the people who are trying to break the cycle by speaking to the 1st years a lot seem to be making this divide between us bigger. This comes out in the discourse, by the fact that 2nd years where are you, why are you sleeping, and are you working already you are just a 1st year.
Why do we do this? Why do we act superior to the 1st years? I don't know why people act superior, nut in some ways I remember how lost I was myself last year, and I do feel somehow much more experienced than most of the 1st years. Superior is not the right word to use though. I think however that the people who needs to emphasize this difference, is also the people who themselves feels intimidated by the 1st years. The cyclical nature of this seems to be repeated, because we as a batch never felt our 2nd years being mean to us. So therefore we do not have the drive to change it, even though we did have a student meeting about this particular subject.
By talking about it, we might actually be creating the problem. The memories we 2nd have from last year are the ones from the end of the year the happy ones about our 2nd years, from the end of the year, where the scary 1st impressions was gone. So by mentioning the cycle over again we might actually be keeping it alive.
is this intimidation necessarily a bad thing. In the community agreement it says that you are not allowed to intimidate other people of the community. But maybe this intimidation that comes out of silly games for example is a good thing it might help some people to break out of their shell. But the action of breaking your shell is something that should be done by yourself not by some intimidating 2nd year.
I don not know how to stop this cycle, if it is the people that experience the cycle in the year they are not "supposed" to, we should just stop talking about it or if we should sit more in circles. Or if it even should be stopped.
Here in MUWCI a theory says that every alternate year, the 2nd years are mean to their 1st years, and every alternate year very good to them. The idea to write about this sprung from our conversation about silly games today. I learned today in class that it actually is an experience that to some people can be rather traumatizing for some people. Traumatizing is a word far to strong. However I think the concept is right. Maria Ché mentioned that it was something that had effected her a lot last year and that it had intimidated her from speaking to some 2nd years. And I know some of my 2nd years felt very strongly about stopping the cycle, so they talked a lot about that. However it feels like it might be continuing. We are the batch that are “supposed” to be mean to their 1st years. We had a student meeting related to this topic, where people at least said that we were going to be nice. However we must ask ourselves are we really?
I heard a lot of people talking about how 1st and 2nd years sit separated in the caf, the 1st years go to bed early and so on. Even the people who are trying to break the cycle by speaking to the 1st years a lot seem to be making this divide between us bigger. This comes out in the discourse, by the fact that 2nd years where are you, why are you sleeping, and are you working already you are just a 1st year.
Why do we do this? Why do we act superior to the 1st years? I don't know why people act superior, nut in some ways I remember how lost I was myself last year, and I do feel somehow much more experienced than most of the 1st years. Superior is not the right word to use though. I think however that the people who needs to emphasize this difference, is also the people who themselves feels intimidated by the 1st years. The cyclical nature of this seems to be repeated, because we as a batch never felt our 2nd years being mean to us. So therefore we do not have the drive to change it, even though we did have a student meeting about this particular subject.
By talking about it, we might actually be creating the problem. The memories we 2nd have from last year are the ones from the end of the year the happy ones about our 2nd years, from the end of the year, where the scary 1st impressions was gone. So by mentioning the cycle over again we might actually be keeping it alive.
is this intimidation necessarily a bad thing. In the community agreement it says that you are not allowed to intimidate other people of the community. But maybe this intimidation that comes out of silly games for example is a good thing it might help some people to break out of their shell. But the action of breaking your shell is something that should be done by yourself not by some intimidating 2nd year.
I don not know how to stop this cycle, if it is the people that experience the cycle in the year they are not "supposed" to, we should just stop talking about it or if we should sit more in circles. Or if it even should be stopped.
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