Empathy

Empathy - The ability to share in another's emotions, thoughts, or feelings.

How does Deborah Ellis make me so empathetic? She manages to tap into my mind and make me feel bad for these people I don't even know. I mean all through Breadwinner I felt so much Empathy for Parvana.

I have no idea what it's like to be pregnant. If Deborah Ellis was writting a book on the pains of being pregnant then she would have to manage to make me feel empathy for a pregnant person. But still the question remains, how do authors make their readers feel empathy?

I believe that authors just put down the foundation for empathy and the readers do the rest.

"Afghanistan needs more illiterate thugs like you," Father said. One of the soldiers hit him in the face. Blood dripped onto his Shalwar Kameez.

-Breadwinner, pg. 31

I felt empathy when Deborah Ellis wrote this because I imagined that I was wearing my favourite outfit and it just got ruined by these mean men who just came into my house randomly.

Deborah Ellis didn't expect me to connect it to that for all she knows I could of connected that I was in Afghanistan.

So in conclusion authors don't make Empathy we do.

Nov. 3rd, My name is Ameer...

I walk into the street and see tons of men trying to sell things. Women are walking around covered from head to toe in burquas in the hot sun. I hear screams from the Taliban beating girls. My throat is parched, but I can't go home, I know I have to finish my job. If I don't work my family will go hungry. Little do you know, I'm only twelve.

What kind of life is this for a twelve year old. I bet he doesn't beg his parents for a new I-pod, or have tantrums in the grocery store for chocolate. He doesn't wake up in the morning and go to school, turn in his homework, and come home. He gets up, and starts to work. If he doesn't sell enough of his items he knows that his family won't eat. His father's been killed by the Taliban, his mother is depressed because of this. Both of his sisters just walk around the house aimlessly, and he has no other family. He doesn't have any hope, friends, or inspiration.

This young boy, Ameer, is the breadwinner for his family. They survive off of the little money Ameer makes. He has his entire family depending on him, he can't accidentally drop all of his items he sells, he can't not feel like going to work in the morning , he can't even take a break and go home to get a drink of water. Imagine that.

Now imagine you are Ameer. With no one to play with you, no one you can hug when your upset, not even a bed you can cry on. What would you do?

A twelve year old in this day and age usually have the latest I-pods, cell phones, laptops and cry if they don't get these things. Ameer just wants a glass of water he can bring when he is working to support his family.

So Ameer is a the only boy in his family so he has to work (because women can't). Ameer works everyday in the busy market so he can support his family. He works very hard, but can still only get enough money to eat and live. He does the same routine everyday. So imagine if you were him. I know I would act a whole lot differently.

For more information about Afghanistan street children, and a fabulous organization please visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPAFSvgH_Xw

Eva Olsson Speech Oct. 29th

"Wow" I thought to myself as Eva Olsson spoke. Immediatley a thousand questions ran through my mind. "How could they do that?", "What did they do?", "How did this start?". When Eva started to speak I knew that I was going to have a truly remarkable speech told to me today.

I'm sure your probably sitting there pondering what I could be possibly be talking about. Well, I was talking about the holocaust and a lady named Eva Olsson who came to my school and talked about her life in the holocaust and the tragaties she had to go through.

Before this presentation all I knew was that 60 odd years ago a war happened and jewish people were mistreated. But now I know it was so much more. People were sent gas chambers to suffocate, girls saw their parents be killed in the gas chambers, and people starved to death. I don't know what I would have done if I was in those days. I will find it hard to remember that

The most shocking part of the entire presentation was when Eva told us that people were put on trains that went up and down the tracks for a few weeks until the jewish people on the train just wasted away. This was shocking because they didn't just give them a painless death, they tortured them. This almost brought me to tears. I don't know why they wanted to hurt these people so badly.

I will definatley remeber this speech for years to come. What she said was so remarkable that I couldn't stop thinking about it. I really didn't know why they did this in the first place. I didn't know how they brainwashed the soldiers into doing these things. And I didn't know what the jewish people did. I wanted to research but my mom advised me not to, she said I might come across some disturbing things that I would want to wait untill I'm older to see.

I have tryed so hard never to say hate again. I mean if the word hate started the holocaust, I don't want to start another one! Eva Olsson told us that hate is an evil word and now that I think it about it is. At first when Eva Olsson said not to say hate, me and probably a lot of people on the school thought:

"Ya right, I'm not going to start another Holocaust by saying hate".

But after the presentation I definatley changed my train of thought.

So, in overal I think that Eva Olsson changed the way I think about the holcaust.

By Andy Takhar

Norval October 22th 2009

Over the course of three hours my team and I had two activities that made us work more as a team. One of them was very hard, but when we worked together it became easy. Our team had to start on a block of wood, and walk across wires and try to get to another block of wood. It was at first, very hard, but soon we started to help each other and we did the entire activity very easily. When we started, people only cared about getting to there spots, and pushed people out of the way to get there. I guess our leader realized this and started to change the rules. When we realized that we could be voted off of the team, we started to help other people. By the end of the activity people had spent most of the time just helping other people! This was a great experience to see how well we could work if we just tryed more as a team.

I think one big problem our team had at first was that we didn't really comunicate a lot. Some people tryed to take total control, and some people didn't like that. We soon had to each give ideas and brain stormed together. We got a plan that wold help everyone.

"if you help liam get there, then when your finished I can help you, then Chloe can help me get to my spot and on the way help Kate..."

In the end we got a very detailed plan and it worked great. I think that if we didn't start communicating we would probably still be there now.

Norval was definitely a great learning expirience. I would definatly do it again. When we did the drums it was so fun, and the activities made me work so well with my partners. If I didn't go I would not be able to work in partners as well as I do now. I think that everyone had a good time at norval. I know that I did.

By: Andy Takhar 7B

Do clothes make the man?

October 12th

Do clothes make the man? That's an idiom that means people judge you by the way you dress and not by your personality, I'm going to explain to you how clothing shapes who you are, and how it doesn't.

Most people pick out their own clothes. You don't have people following you around telling you what to wear, you decide. So clothing doesn't shape who you are at all, infact you shape what your clothing is.

People judge other people by their clothing choice. People say they don't but everyone does, it's human nature. So maybe one day your parents buy you a few outfits, and they expect you wear them the next few days at school. You don't want to, but you do to make them happy. People at your school or at the mall or even on your street, will look at your clothes and judge you. Some people might hate the outfit and not hang out with you, but some people my love your outfit and hang out with you. So if you wear types of clothes that make really energetic people hang out with you then you will be influenced by those people to act energetic. Even though before you wore those clothes you weren't very energentic.

Maybe if you wear a suit rather than some ripped jeans and an old t-shirt you will get a better job, changing wear you live, how you eat, what you do in your spare time, and how much money you have. Clothes can actually change everything about you!

People also do want to always have the latest trends, maybe wearing a new pear of skinny jeans from American Eagle and a brand new top from Abercrombie matched with a hoodie from H&M make you feel really good and self confident, letting you be brave and maybe talk to your teacher about your grades, or ask the girl you like out, or eat that last french fry! Well now I'm getting off topic but honestly, you know I'm right.

So what I'm trying to say is that clothes don't shape who you are but people do, and people judge if they want to hang out with you by the clothing you wear, so ultimatley clothing influences your entire personality, shaping who you are.

But also clothing doesn't shape who you are in a sense, because some people at first think they don't like someone's clothes and try not to talk to them, but then they face their fears and walk up to that person and talk to them. This isn't because of your clothing choice or anything, it's because this person wants to talk to you to see if you'd be a good friend.

Clothing isn't always the first thing that people look at aswell maybe they'l look at you hair colour, or your cleanliness, or your skin colour. Maybe that's how they'll judge you, who knows? People really shouldn't though. They should talk to you before they make the decision to like you or dislike you.

Unfortunatley most of the world is shallow so that's how people decide if they like, or dislike you

So, what I'm trying to say is that someone could have their entire personality changed by thier clothes but maybe not.

By Andy Takhar 7B

I'm Just getting started

October ,02, 2009
Hi everyone.
I'm trying to get everything working on my blog page now so I'm pretty excited!
Well bye
ANDY : )