Thursday, April 30, 2009

Animal Totem

So I also took Justin's survey because clicking a bunch of answers and getting an animal was much easier. And I got a tie for the results as a horse and a crow. It says "You are the Horse. You are powerful and fast. You value your freedom and like to keep yourself busy whenever possible" and "You are the Crow. You are able to discover your own character and help others find themselves as well. You are very creative in the field you are in and tend to be the intelligent one of the bunch."

The matches were as follows:

Crow 100%
Horse 100%
Dog 83%
Eagle 75%
Dragon 75%
Ram 75%

I thought it was interesting and a relatively good read, particularly because I am a free soul and value intelligence. However, I had a general idea of what animal I was in my head and they weren't even possible choices here. If I picked my totem animal, I think it would either be a penguin or a monkey. The penguin is awkwardly cute, short and stocky. This is me. Also, the penguin believes in self-sacrifice for the benefit of his family. He enjoys being around others, but the penguin also appreciates his personal space. And finally, the penguin is clumsy and comical.



Penguins make me smile[1]

I also like the monkey because he is intelligent and a free soul. He travels in communities that care for each other and seems friendly. At least from my own personal experiences at the zoo, I've seen that monkeys do whatever they want. They make any space their own and disregard what other monkeys think about them. They are intelligent but use their brilliance to be mischievous. And most importantly, like monkeys, I like bananas. And showing my buttocks off.



Mischievous monkeys[2]



[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfovxLnI8hg&feature=related
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZn5nWIj_g

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Jungle 3

In reading "The Miracle of Purun Bhagat" and "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", I thought the theme of perception versus reality ran throughout. In the former, the Baghat that dies in the landslip is worshipped as a great holy man posthumously. Though "they worship there with lights and flowers and offerings to this day ... they do not know the saint of their worship is the late Sir Purun Dass ... once Prime Minister" (181-182). The people of the village know him only as a holy man, but had they known he was a powerful and highly educated Prime Minister, it surely would have changed the way they perceived him. In reality, he gave up much more to live the life of holiness, and this is reflected in the sacrifice of his own life to warn the villagers to get to higher ground.

http://www.nextmovecoaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/perception-vs-reality.jpg
The way other people see us isn't always the same with how we see ourselves [1]

In "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the perception of the mongoose is much different that the reality that is reflected by the views of the big man. Teddy's mother says shortly after interacting with Rikki,
"Good gracious, and that's a wild creature! I suppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him" (88). However, the big man corrects her by saying that, "All mongooses are like that. If Teddy doesn't pick him up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he'll run in and out of the house all day long" (88). The reality of the situation is that Rikki is a friendly creature, and that mongooses are the natural predators of cobras. I also thought it was interesting that the family regarded Rikki as providence simply because they used him to protect their family. I suppose the animal is god-sent, but the family should realize that all animals are god-sent and should be treated with such love and care, not just because their natural instincts are beneficial to the family.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2009/02/underdog.jpg
The epitome of an animal used for protection [2]




The mongoose in his natural state [3]

[1] http://www.nextmovecoaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/perception-vs-reality.jpg
[2] http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2009/02/underdog.jpg
[3] www.youtube.com

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Jungle Book 2: Power of language

While reading these stories, it becomes apparent how unique Mowgli is to both man and animals. It is obvious that he has characteristics that qualify him in each society, but it proves difficult to distinguish whether he is more man or more animal. In "The King's Ankus", he shows both qualities in his interactions with Kaa, especially when they wrestle. Kaa "played carefully, and never loosed one-tenth of his power. Ever since Mowgli was strong enough to endure a little rough handling, Kaa had taught him this game, and it suppled his limbs as nothing else could" (236). The fact that Mowgli can learn from Kaa shows his unique ability to understand animals as a part of their society. Even the beginning of the story shows his acceptance into the culture because "Kaa never made fun of Mowgi any more, but accepted him, as the other Jungle People did" (235).

http://www.verona8.it/images/Lupetti/disegni%20da%20colorare/mowgli%20e%20kaa.gif
Animals wrestling [1]

A major contributing factor to his inclusion as a Jungle Person was his ability to communicate to many of the animals. Mowgli continually has dialogue with wolves, snakes, bears and tigers. The power of language is prevalent in these stories as Mowgli is the only character that can communicate to both animals and humans. This can be seen in "Tiger-Tiger" when it is stated that "It was not for fun that he had learned while he was with the wolves to imitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little wild pig. So, as soon as Messua pronounced a word Mowgli would imitate it almost perfectly, and before dark he had learned the names of many things in the hut" (50). Here, Mowgli understands the usefulness of language and quickly learns how to communicate with village people other than the simple gestures he uses in the beginning of the story to show he is hungry. In this sense, it is easy to see the differences between man and animal independent of their actions. The depiciton of what qualifies each as animalistic and human is a completely different story based on actions, but for language it is clear. And for Mowgli, his ability to bridge both barriers shows his inclusion in each realm.
http://shop.advanceweb.com/images/products/2008/SP/SP_casual_logowear/shirts_tops/07460_LanguagePowerTee_SP/07460_LanguagePowerTee_SP_ac1.jpg
Mowgli's got some power[2]

I have a friend that works at the Rosetta Stone stands in the mall, and it's basically the same concept. By equipping ourselves with knowledge to speak other languages, we are giving ourselves power to be a part of their culture and society. She's been trying to convince me to purchase a language by discussing the opportunity cost in doing so. The price of $500 to learn a language is a bargain if you think about how valuable it would be to talk fluently to my grandparents in the only language they speak, Tagalog. Improving my power for a lifetime is priceless, and proves true for Mowgli. Here is the Top 10 Reasons to Learn a Language taken from the Rosetta Stone website.

Even in the Philippines, there are several languages with the 2 main ones having unique differences that create language barriers. The following video shows how these barriers create problems and very strong opinions about language and culture associated with that.



Language Barriers in the Philippines[3]



[1] http://www.verona8.it/images/Lupetti/disegni%20da%20colorare/mowgli%20e%20kaa.gif
[2] http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://shop.advanceweb.com/images/products/2008/SP/SP_casual_logowear/shirts_tops/07460_LanguagePowerTee_SP/07460_LanguagePowerTee_SP_ac1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://shop.advanceweb.com/casual-logo-wear/shirts-tops/7460-womens-language-is-power-speech-language-pathology-slp-short-sleeve-tshirt.aspx&usg=__lafGu4oTnNE9-LZpTkbz67wZF3U=&h=279&w=279&sz=67&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=Hdx2QnQnP0wh9M:&tbnh=114&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlanguage%2Bpower%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbnNAJ7FQz0