Online Curations: A Quick Run Down that does not do Justice

Wednesday, February 12th

      In the first article found on the PBS website the reader may get the impression that what they are about to read will be a boring academic article full of sources and other facts. But after reading about halfway through the first paragraph the article begins to shift. It goes from being an academic article to being almost a heartfelt expression. This article speaks about art as a tool of expression, as the most powerful tool of expression.
      The second link was a video on the United Nations website titled Stories on Human Rights. The video was very simplistic, it used short clips of cultures from around the world to express words such as development, gender, and participation to name a few.

• The development section showed African villages growing fruit bearing plants, having healthy pregnancies, and an Indian woman who gets struck by a bus and the receives a cat scan. This section shows no matter where you come from everyone has the right to learn and develop both self and community. This clip expresses how younger generations are learning to care for crops from the elders, how they are exercising their right to pregnancy and learning how to be parents, and finally the Indian woman shows that every country has the right to knowledge and the right to use this knowledge to better their community. This whole clip was about every person's and every country's right to develop and to grow as a human beings. 
•   The Gender section showed two girls leaving school wearing shawls that covered most of their head except for their face. Once they were away from school the girls removed the shawls and found an old news  paper with the faces of two beautiful western women on it. The girls walked closely together holding the  news paper in front of them  wearing it almost like a mask symbolizing their want to look like the western  women with their hair blowing in the wind. This shows that everyone wants to feel beautiful in their own way  and be free to make themselves look exactly how they want. 
•          The next clip showed boys hunting birds with slingshots. A boy hits a bird but doesn't kill it. Once the  boy retrieves the bird and sees how he hurt it he decides to care for it instead of killing it. This shows that  compassion has no gender.  
•       The last clip shows a woman climbing a staircase with a rope wrapped around her and a man trailing behind her holding it. Suddenly she stopped and throws the rope off of her. The rope symbolizes societal norms, but taking off the rope this symbolizes the breaking of norms and the right to do what you want how you want. 
•        The Participation section shows children riding a mule and people enjoying travel. This clip emphasizes peoples right to do what they like. Be that riding donkeys, sailing, or visiting historical places. It is a right to be able to travel and experience new things. 

       The third link takes you to an Amnesty International page about the Ambassador of Conscience award. This article isn't really about the award but the human action of supporting human rights. This means that it is about people who went beyond just believing in human rights, these people and millions others just like them acted upon their beliefs. These actions spoke for other people who could not speak for themselves, the actions that got people the rights they deserve. The most exceptional activists were presented with awards to commemorate their courage and hard work.