Kandahar - the Movie - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1767 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/09/11 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? Kandahar Journey into the heart of Afghanistan A film by Mohsen Makhmablbaf Kandahar is a story of a young woman’s odyssey into Afghanistan to find her sister who has become so depressed with life under the Taliban that she is contemplating suicide on the same night of the last eclipse of the 20th Century. The film is based on a true story of the Afghan born Canadian journalist, Nelofer Paziera, who with her family was forced out of Afghanistan when the Taliban took power. Her father, a doctor, her mother, a professor of Persian Literature, Nelofer—then sixteen, and her brother lived in Kabul.. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Kandahar the Movie" essay for you Create order Because of his refusal adhere to the Taliban’s ban on male doctors assisting women patients her father was arrested and placed in jail . He spent sixteen months in jail. When he was released he gathered his family and with only their clothes on their back, they walked for ten days to the Pakistan border. From there they were able to emigrate to Canada and begin a new life. Nelofer finished school and became a journalist. Since leaving Afghanistan she had stayed in touch with an afghan friend back in. Her friend, an economics graduate who had a job working in a bank, wrote how depressed she was that the Taliban had forced her to quit working and stay home. She was not even allowed on the street without a male family member. Fearing that her friend was contemplating suicide, Nelofer flew to Iran and tried to enter Afghanistan. As a journalist she could not get a visa for Afghanistan making it necessary for her to go in illegally. At a refugee camp on the Iranian border she tried to enlist someone to help her get to Kabul but was told that it was far too dangerous for her to travel across Afghanistan. If she tried and was caught she would not only endanger herself but others as well, perhaps even her friend. With that caveat she abandoned the trip and returned to Canada. A few years later she heard from her friend; she had moved to Mazer-e-Sharif in the northern part of Afghanistan where conditions were more relaxed. In the movie, Kandahar, Nelofer plays an Afghan born Canadian journalist, Nafes, on a trip to find her sister who is contemplating suicide. She arrives at a refugee camp on the Iranian boarder with just three days to reach her sister. At the camp we are given a glimpse into life in Afghanistan. In 1979 when the USSR invaded Afghanistan to prop up the communist government that was growing shaky from a civil war, as many as five million people poured across the borders. Three million went to Pakistan and the other two to Iran. Nafes is to travel with a group of young girls returning to Afghanistan. â€Å"This will be your last day of school,† the girls are told, â€Å"but remember the wall is tall but the sky is taller†. The education of women was abolished by the Taliban. Before leaving the girls are given a lesson on how to avoid land mines. The Soviets had placed over a million landmines during the war without any mapping as required by the Geneva Convention’s rules of warfare. In places they had carpeted the ground with â€Å"butterfly† mines dropped from an air planes. The mines looked like butterflies as they fluttered to ground landing easily to avoid detonation. In an act of cruel desperation the Soviets had disguised some bombs as dolls and stuffed toys. War is not a pretty thing. The bombs were small and not designed to kill, but to wound. The Soviets felt that a wounded or crippled person would be a greater burden than a dead one. Because of the mines Afghanistan is populated with people with only one leg, or no legs at all for that matter. The International Red Cross has a program for providing artificial limbs but it is nowhere close to filling the needs. In a scene in the movie artificial legs are dropped by parachute from a helicopter as if floating down from Heaven and the crippled men rush out to gather them. Reminiscent of Nefeler’s father’s plight, along the path Nafes meets a doctor trying to treat women. He is an American who came to Afghanistan to fight against the Soviets. His job is a difficult one. He has to try and treat a woman without even looking at her; she is on the other side of a blanket which is hanging from the ceiling as a barrier. He must use her child as an intermediary to talk with her as he is not even allowed to talk with the women patients. The landscape of Afghanistan is barren with only about twelve percent of the land cultivatable. Mostly it is mountains and desert. The great Hindu Kush mountains in eastern Afghanistan are some of the roughest in the world. Rocky and with very little vegetation they are spotted with a few valleys that can be used in agriculture. The Afghan people are only a few generations away from being nomads who moved across the land grazing their livestock until the grass ran out then moving on. Before the Soviets came and the civil war that followed there were areas that produced pomegranates and grapes for export. But, the trees, vines, and irrigations systems were destroyed by war. Today Afghanistan’s major crop is the opium poppy which is exported to Europe and the United States to be made into heroin. Afghanistan produces 70% of the world’s opium poppies. In the tradition of the herding nomads, the second biggest export is Karakul skins, the hide of a new born lamb taken while the fur is still curly. About 800,000 skins are exported annually. One skin will bring about $30 on the open market, a big price for a farmer whose total income for a year may not exceed $200. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989 leaving a power vacuum, Afghanistan erupted into a civil war with several groups vying for power. Afghanistan has never had a real national conscience being a land made of up of tribal areas that reach into history over a thousand years. Even today’s national boundaries were put in place by the British in the nineteenth century to buffer Russia from India: England’s imperial jewel. The one unifying factor is Islam. In 632 the Prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven from Jerusalem, leaving behind a fanatical army of horsemen to spread his message. From here the Arabs began to take Islam into the outside world. By the seventh century Islam had reached Afghanistan where Buddhism was the dominant religion with cultural centers in Kandahar, Herat, and the Bemiyan province where in the third and fifth centuries the Buddhist monks built two large statues of Buddha over 150 feet high. In 2005 the Taliban bombed and destroyed these statues as a mortified world watched in disapproval. Islam is a very important factor in Afghan life. Whether it is saying prayers five times a day; or fasting during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month; or giving zakat, the mandatory giving of alms to the poor required by the Quran. No other people show more observance than the Afghan people. There is an old saying about Afghanistan: â€Å"It is me against my brother. It is my brother and I against my cousin. It is my brother, my cousin and I against the world. † Afghanistan is a land of warriors. If they have no common enemy they war with each other. When the Soviets left, so left the common enemy and civil war broke out. The loosely knit cohesive social fabric that existed during the war with Soviets disintegrated. There was no system of laws. Power was to the strongest. After a rape of twelve year old girls in Kandahar and several murders, the Afghan people wanted some sort of order. Enter the Taliban. With their harsh ways and strict adherence to the Sharia, the laws of Islam, they also brought order. The Taliban, which translates to student, are the holy warriors for Islam. They are of the Sunni sect of Islam with the goal of creating a purely Islamic culture governed by the strictest interpretations of the Sharia, Islamic Law. This set of laws requires the most austere of lifestyles: no music, no books except the Quran and other Islamic texts, and very little social interaction. Women fair very badly under the Taliban; they are not allowed in public unless wearing a Burka, a dress that covers the woman from head to toe leaving only a screened area for her to see and breath. This is to keep men from wavering in their dedication to Islam and becoming tempted by the flesh. Women must be accompanied on the street by a male blood relative, and they are prohibited from attending school or work. Under the Taliban public executions are common as the Sharia prescribes the most barbaric of punishments: the cutting off of a hand for stealing, and beheading, or blinding for other offenses The Taliban are tied very closely with the Wahabbi Sect of Sunnism of Saudi Arabia another very strict culture. The rich Saudis contribute a great deal of financial support to the Taliban as well as supplying them with young enthusiasts from their madrassas’, religious schools. On her journey to Kandahar, Nafes, encounters a young man who had been expelled from the ocal school, a school that teaches only the Quran and the attributes of the Kalashnikov rifle. The goal of the school is to send out Mulahs, religious leaders. The madrassas’ are the only form of education in many Islamic countries and this presents a real problem. The young men educated in these schools are taught the Quran and other Islamic texts but no other skills. They in turn are not prepared for any other occupati on and are unable to find employment. Many of them emigrate to Europe seeking employment with no useful skills creating a problem for many European governments. As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, they began to provide a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and their road to 9-11. Ironically as the Saudis provide much of the financial support for the Taliban. That money comes from oil purchases from the United States. And so it goes. Makhmalbaf, the Kandahar film director, uses his camera as a wide brush to paint the long horizons of the desert along the Iranian Afghan border. The sand is interrupted only by low growing spindly plants spaced apart from each other. And, thus the road to Kandahar.

Music Effect On The Brain - 896 Words

Music affects the brain in many different ways. What would our world be like without music? Music has a direct path to our brain. It is a very big part of our daily lives. Everywhere a person goes, they hear music. Music affects chemicals in the brain that affect our emotions. Different types of music affect the brain differently. Music can be used in therapy to help a person with emotional problems. Music is even part of every country on earth. Humans are a musical species. Music has a major importance on the way we think and act. It affects and almost controls chemicals in the brain that control and affect our emotions. It affects chemicals such as melatonin, oxytocin, serotonin, etc. Melatonin may increase the production of†¦show more content†¦They have grown together since the beginning of time. Music affects the brain’s chemistry in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. Through extensive research, it has been found that different types of music influen ce the brain differently. When a person is feeling upset or sad, they may listen to music with a similar tone as their mood. This can help them deal with the emotions that they are feeling. When people want to feel excited or when they are at a party, they may listen to music such as rock or electronic music because it is faster. It raises their heartbeat and gets their feet moving. People listen to relaxing music while they are doing tasks such as homework or taking an exam. Certain music such as rock and techno affect two different chemicals in the brain. â€Å" Rock music was shown to cause decreased prolactin... a hormone associated with feeling good.†(Levitin 99) â€Å"Techno music increased levels of plasma norepinephrine (NE), a growth hormone.†(Levitin 99) People listen to music to feel happy, sad, or angry. It just depends on the mood they are in that day. Music is used in many ways. It is even used in types of therapy. Music therapy has helped ma ny people reach their goals and overcome obstacles. â€Å"The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as â€Å"the clinical evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals.†Ã¢â‚¬  (Taylor) A lot of people have ADHD and by using a BMT activating file 20 minutes

Wwi Apush Essay Free Essays

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OUR WORLD As World War I was raging in Europe, a political and social revolution defined by a struggle between the labor class and capitalists was taking place in Russia. This fear of communism became known as the Red Scare, and was very prominent in the early 1900s. The Russian Revolution of November 1917 made it clear that communism was no longer simply a theory, but now an important regime. We will write a custom essay sample on Wwi Apush Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now Just as the Russian communists had appointed themselves the â€Å"champions of the workers,† the tiny U. S. group of communists had also taken up the workers’ cause. The American Communist Party was formed in 1919. They were quick to align with the pressing union issues, especially labor strikes brought about by high post-war prices. This alignment unsettled an American public already annoyed with a wave of strikes. The first notable strike occurred in February 1919, when Seattle was brought to a virtual standstill. Another round of strikes starting in September 1919, organized by the radical William Foster, resulted in approximately 340,000 steelworkers, factory workers, and dockworkers declaring a strike, which continued to heighten popular suspicion. These strikes are important because they marked a grave setback that crippled the union movement for over 10 years. In 1921, the Shepard Towner Maternity and Infancy Act, one of the first pieces of federal welfare legislation that provided funds for supporting the health of women and infants, was passed. The Sheppard-Towner Act was important because it provided for federal matching funds for such programs as health clinics for women and children, visiting nurses to educate and care for pregnant and new mothers, midwife training, and distribution of nutrition and hygiene information. So, in some cases, the fear of communism is beneficial, but, in others, the fear results in loss of jobs. How to cite Wwi Apush Essay, Essays

Multimedia Arts Essay Example For Students

Multimedia Arts Essay The Dock The Dock is the toolbar at the bottom or side of your desktop that has a lot of important links and tools to help you use your Macintosh computer. The Dock displays visual representations of programs and files; for example, the calendar icon looks like a desk calendar, and the trash looks like a garbage can. You can customize the Dock to hold applications you want to use regularly. The Finder The Finder is the Mac equivalent of Windows Explorer and Search, all rolled into one. The Finder is pretty self-explanatory. A directory tree appears in the left alumna of the Finder window, and the contents of the selected directory display in the right window pane. You can double-click folders to view contents. Pressing the Back button to backs out of a folder or directory. The Menu Bar The Menu ear at the top of the screen is your key to interacting with most applications, Many application functions live on the Menu Bar under various headings. When text on the Menu Bar is black, you can select it and perform those functions. When text is gray, those functions arent currently available. The Menu Bar changes depending on what application youre using, so familiarize ourselves with the different commands available with different applications. Quitting and Minimizing Programs The red button in the upper-left corner of a given window or application is the Close command, while the yellow button means minimize. Just because you close a window doesnt mean the application is closed; to quit most applications, you must select the Quit command from the application menu. You can also press the Apple button and the Q button on your keyboard simultaneously to quit an application. KEYBOARD SHORTCUT By using some simple keyboard shortcuts you can learn how to work much faster. For instance, if you are writing a text and have to do something with the mouse -? perhaps there is a keyboard command that can perform the same thing? Using that keyboard command, your hands dont have to leave the keyboard. In the long run, this will save you a lot of time. The Keys Below is a list of the most important keys on your Macs keyboard. They may vary a little depending on which Mac you have. The best keyboard commands of Mac 05 x: 1 . APPLICATION SWITCHING. If you press command-tab, a window containing all open application will appear, Keep command pressed down and press the tab key repeatedly to browse teen the applications and when the right one is selected, release the keys and the application will appear in front tooth others. Timeserving! 2. QUITTING Apt ACTIONS. To close an application simply press command-q and the application will quit immediately.