Psychology Cultural Events - Report Example

Psychology Cultural Events Attending the cultural events in the school enabled me to gain a bit of some experience and knowledge that contributed a lot to my course content. The five events I attended included; a) The International Film Series event: The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006, 137 minutes) b) The International Film Series event: El Muro [The Wall] (US/Mexico, 2009, 89 minutes) c) The Diwali event d) The Floating, Brilliant, Gone event: Spoken Word with Franny Choi e) The food fest event The International Film Series event: The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006, 137 minutes) This particular film event I attended was one clear indication of how human characters are liable to change based on their experiences and the influence they receive from their surroundings and environments. The movie was all about the misuse of absolute power by the rulers of the former East Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall, leading to the reunited Germany. Before the fall of this regime, it had ensured its claim to power through the combination of a system of ruthless control and surveillance measures. The style of governing led to the recruitment of hundreds of informers whose goal was to know everything about the lives of others. It focused on the human behavior of one, Gerd Wiesler, a highly trained officer who worked for the Stasi. This was the state organ which consisted of trained officers whose major work was to spy and inform on the people who were perceived enemies of the ruling regime. Wiesler mission was to spy on one of the celebrated writer and actress couple who went by the names Georg Dreyman and Christa-Maria Sieland. This, he was to do on the request of an ally and a former colleague. Taking it as a chance to brighten his future and build on his profile for this regime, he embarked on this mission installing hidden cameras in the couple’s apartment. During the course of his work, he gets immersed into the lives of this couple to the point that he finds it difficult to inform on them. It reaches a point where he gets hold of the evidence that he could easily use to finish his job, but gets reluctant to hand it over to his seniors. His immersion into the lives of others compromises his mission and makes his liable of his weaknesses as an individual. His emotional attachment to the lives of others increases and even on establishing the damages incurred by this, he still gets reluctant to divulge any details. It records a continued disillusionment and behavioral changes that an individual often experiences in the course of his/her life. This film event teaches us on how to confront some of the issues and practices that occur in everyday lives. It offers us an insight on how to often deal with power and/or our different ideologies. The film tends to show or highlight the ability of human beings to turn around and do the right thing despite the depth or the length to which the individual has reached on the wrong path. On the idea of change, the film teaches us that there is never just one course for an individual to change in his/her life path. There are always many things that would push people towards a particular direction. The actor is drawn first out of his normal life by attending the theater which he gets invited to by the long term friend. This denotes his first change to his regular life. When he gets a rare opportunity to serve the state by spying on the said couple, he takes up this task with zeal. Upon the realization of the intent of his mission which was geared towards satisfying a minister’s sex urges, he gets a confrontation of the state’s misuse of power and authority. This does not end there; he gets immersed into these people’s lives, gets emotionally attached to them which compromise his mission. He gradually learns the lives of these people, their daily experiences as normal human beings, and this creates a sense of self-reflection in him. All these factors make the officer to change, at first unwillingly but later do it willingly out of self-conviction. In our daily lives, as human beings, we undergo a lot of experiences. In regards to the interactions with others whom our lives touch on; we are bound to change, either for the better or for worse. This aspect of change is inevitable and often in most cases contribute to constituting our individualities and characters. The International Film Series event: El Muro [The Wall] (US/Mexico, 2009, 89 minutes) The movie EL MURO is a documentary showing the consequences, both human and environmental, of the international border fence newly constructed between San Diego and Tijuana. Several different groups of people including environmentalists, migrants, deportees, coyotes, minutemen, writer and academicians all recount their experiences on the effects and aftermaths of the creation of this border fence. Pictorially, the fence was depicted as shown by this picture on the documentary; El muro The various interviews and experiences depicted both pleasure and displeasure on the existence of the border fence. The fence as was shown in this movie, created a barrier between the different Mexican and the US cultures. Although these people existed as neighbors, the border fence made the distinction between them, making to these to culturally exist as different people. The movie was also about how the fence interfered with the integration that that was also existing between these two different groups of people. Despite this, the movie also depicted some beneficial impacts of the fence that included a reduction in immigration and reduced drug peddling across the borders. This film event created the awareness on the need to establish and create stronger bonds and relationships among the two different countries. It highlighted various issues of concern, both cultural, that of integration, human rights, globalization and security, which often would need to be addressed both at the government and local levels. I personally believed, after attending the event that the border fence was a necessarily evil. It showed and depicted increased security across the border and also put stringent measures for the illegal immigrants. Even though friendly neighborhood is often encouraged, this should not go without placing such measures as to prevent negative cultural infringements. The border fence was necessary so at to act as a barrier against foreigners and elements such as terrorism and drug trafficking. Apart from this the barrier would also act to showcase the extent of the American cultural superiority and ethnocentrism. The creation of the border also provided a center for exchange and commerce. From the clips in the documentary, people continued to interact even with the existence of this border fence. One on either side was able to speak the others language articulately and even carry out some practices believed to be of the people on the other side of the fence. Drawing a bit of knowledge from this event, the erection of such barriers would not be able to stop the flow of information, ideas or the exchange of cultures. Across the borders, people are still able to interact and in the process exchange their cultural practices, beliefs and their guiding norms. The creation of the fence, as depicted in the film event also served to undermine the foundations of the American democracy as noted by the several critical observers. It also contradicted with the American tenets of liberty. The creation of the fence would work to keep off people seeking freedom across the borders and locking opportunities out of reach for mostly the poor people on the other side. Despite all these, I believe in the creation of the barrier so as to establish and incorporate some controls on behaviors and cultures. The Diwali event This event happened to help in showcasing the south Asian cultural integrated with other cultures particularly the American culture. Many posts had been made around campus in order to create awareness of this event and so attracted s lot of students. This is one of the biggest festival events in the Hindu community marked with a lot of prior preparations and celebrated with much enthusiasm and happiness. Diwali represents the season especially in the Hindu communities, when people shop a lot, buying new items, clothes, gifts, kitchen utensils and even expensive items, for themselves and their families. Many gifts are bought and given to both friends and family members. The night prior to Diwali, people do many decorations, renovations and cleaning to their areas of residence and even their offices. On a particular night people wear their best outfits, light up diyas both inside and outside their residences participating in family prayers to appease the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Fireworks and feastings are then done followed by an exchange of gifts among close friends and family members. During this festival, lamps are usually lit in every home and/or places of work. This explains the meaning of the events name. It is celebrated for five continuous days. However, the third day is celebrated as the main Diwali festival, the exact day usually dependent on the position of the moon. In nations where Diwali is celebrated, it possesses much spiritual significance over and above portraying the victory of good over evil, knowledge over ignorance and hope over despair. For all the people practicing Hinduism, this festival usually have a significant meaning. This is because, it reckons the victory of Lord Rama as the King of Ayodhya soon after returning to the kingdom after fourteen years of exile together with the wife Sita and the brother Laxman after killing the demon, King Ravana (Preszler, 40). The Diwali show in the university had been meant to give a deeper revelation of the Indian culture. With its comparison with the avengers show, that depicted the foreigners’ culture, more of the Indian culture was brought forth regarding their festivals and celebrations. Although the show did not convincingly help to bring out the deeper aspects of the Indian culture, I learned a lot with regards to this festival. The show involved much feasting and dancing, practically a common thing to the Indian and/or Hindu culture. The video is about the American avengers assembling and going to India to prevent an evil god from stealing some powerful diamond. The film also highlights how the avengers get distracted by the Indians celebrations on the way also served to prove and showcase the essence of this festival. The enjoined the Indians in dancing and celebrations, on their way to fulfilling their mission. People had clothed themselves with beautifully and looked beautiful. Such festivals are usually necessary for getting people of the community together and the promotion of cohesion. When people get to feast together, share gifts among each other and even unite to perform prayers, then the sense of unity is enhanced. The festival also helps in enhancing positive and constructive behaviors among the Hindu people, promoting good deeds and positive thoughts over negative ones (Preszler, 52). The Floating, Brilliant, Gone poetry event: Spoken Word with Franny Choi This was an event organized by a poet, spoken word artist and a teacher Fanny Choi. Choi is a flamboyant poet that plays around with emotions and captures the mind of her audience and readers with her piece of art. Her work has reached far and wide, with her views widely influential in people’s lives. One interesting thing with Fanny is her ability to engage her audience with her body language. Often poets rarely invoke the effective use of body languages especially when narrating their poetry. In a way, this helps in capturing the attention of one’s audience making it active. The floating, brilliant, gone poetry book is simple and very delightful written with articulate artistry. The poetry steadily moves through the many complicated aspects of identities, textures and anxiety. It invokes a lot of imaginative thoughts from its worldwide readers about different aspects of life. Choi explained that unlike other articles which often contained a lot of rules and grammar, poetry to a large extent allowed the manipulation of languages. It consisted of a collection of words, mostly flawed, but written with an agenda to express feelings, capture attention and more importantly to fulfill the rhymes of the poems. Fanny Choi, in her literary attributions, tended to engage in many topics that portrayed the anger simmering beneath people within the society. She did and narrated much work pieces that tended to reveal and unearth the violence hidden beneath people’s minds. Any piece of literary work, if used well, could help people to overcome their darker sides. She revealed that individuals’ minds were caged by blood thirsty beasts always waiting to pounce on any given chance (Choi, 34). In between the pages of Funny Choi pieces of poetry works are explorations of love, loss, identity, the body and the relationships these have to each other. With the invocation of these inner feelings and emotions, people attach them to their daily experiences. Her electrifying performances and her extensive experience have assisted in mentoring and working with the youth through the spoken word poetry. The poet also managed to inspire a spirit of brevity among many of us who attended the poetry event. Through her rendition of her piece Notes of the Existence of Ghosts, she was able to lay clearly her emotions and thoughts about death and how she felt after losing her boyfriend early in the days. This piece of work implored the intrigues of death and the emotions that often surround it. Her understanding of life through death exposed a lot of deep-seated feelings in me. Her rendition expounded on the effects of the loss of a loved one that could either break or strengthen an individual. Her teachings also focused on the value we should put on our lives and those of others. She noted too that most of the great people were recognized long after their deaths. We should treasure and hold dear those who are close and around us. Her understanding of life and death enabled us to prioritize what was more important above other things that life usually provides. This was more relieving and reverberated with our understanding and experiences because of her young age. This was an enjoyable and inspiring cultural event especially for some of us interested in the writing of poetry and/ or the continuation of the others literary works. The university should organize more of these events to help instill the influential effects of literature on our lives. The Food Fest Event The food festival event is usually organized in the college and meant to bring different groups of people together to participate in the celebration of foods and drinks from different cultures. It celebrates usually foods and drinks from various sections of the world. This event also entails entertainment that accompanies the foods and drinks usually provided in the festival. Different kinds of food are served at the event for the various participants. Food festivals in various cultures have been utilized to help bring people together to celebrate harvests, or in thanking a superior power for sustenance. The food fest event is an enjoyable event as people get the tastes of various foods and drinks all in one place. It is the epitome of the cultural events and integrates mostly cultures from far and wide. It also tends to showcase the food variety present in India. Food fest entails much entertainment that people find fun. Most people get enjoined in this activity and, as a result, promote cohesion and the well beings of these individuals involved. In consideration of the purposes of these cultural events, the food fest event has been one of the core areas that encourage cultural integration. Awareness of the different practices of the different parties involves has also been effectively created through the festival. When considering all the events I got to participate in over this period, this was one of the events that I got derive maximum fulfillment and enjoyment. In most occasions, I got to enjoy free foods and drinks. The entertainment therein was also of greater quality. I got to enjoy and appreciate different food cultures from different regions. This also helped me in the understanding most of the practices usually associated with certain food stuff as prepared by the different societies herein. To foster more participation and widen the scope of reach and information usually gathered in such events, the university should engage more cultures. I also got involved in the preparation of some special recipes that helped widen the scope of my knowledge on special food preparations. More importantly, and for the purpose of these events, I got the opportunity to interact with more people, exchanging ideas in the process about several aspects of our lives and cultures. These events and their regularity should be increased because apart from fulfilling the teaching purposes and criteria, they help instill special psychology knowledge in the students. By improving the levels of interaction, integration and cohesive behaviors are also improved among the student population. Work cited Choi, Franny. Familiar Haunt. Place of publication not identified: Write Bloody Pub, 2013. Print. Preszler, June. Diwali: Hindu Festival of Lights. Mankato, Minn: Capstone Press, 2007. Print. Read More