Escaping from North Korea in search of freedom

Speech from Yeonmi Park telling her story of life in North Korea and calls for action against such human rights violators.

Yeonmi was speaking at the One Young World Summit 2014 in Dublin, Ireland. The Summit brought together 1,300 young leaders with 194 countries represented to debate and devise solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems. 


Even though some of you shared their feelings after watching the video, I´m kindly inviting you to participate with some more thoughts on today´s entry. Some ideas revolve around:

1) what struck you while watching the video.
2) how tough, sensible must someone be to be able to stand before an audience and pronounce such a speech.
3) if such presentation could produce an effect. Which?
4) which are the lessons we are getting from her.
5) digging deeper into your feelings while watching it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufhKWfPSQOw

Love
Dean

Reading a book everyday?

Uhmm. Is it feasible?



1. (On a suggestion by Marti Pike) I simply dare you to find one book and find one nugget.  Do something with that nugget.  Set a goal or make a plan.  My favorite way to read books lately is to preview them on my Kindle app.  If I really love the book, I buy it.  In the mean time, I have gleaned some fantastic ideas.  

2. After the video seen in class and the discussion in groups and among them, Where do you go from here with this information about mentors, focus and Stoics and Epicureans? Does this video provide you with an interesting tool or not quite?

A touch of sexual assault

*First impression on both videos 

*Which one did you like the most and why?

*Did the videos change your way of thinking at some level? On which aspect?

*Opinion on final phrase "boys will be boys and us women will never tell" 

*What would you do to change the situation in class among peers? 

*Should authorities get involved? How much?  

What are we reading, have read or will read in May?

Post your comments as to your impressions gotten from your readings of choice, regarding feelings, plot or vocabulary issues...

What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness.-Robert Wadlinger

Even though we discussed it in class after viewing, I thought you might as well be wanting to post something left behind or not. So here is the forum...

John Doe, Vigilante

SYNOPSIS:

In “John Doe: Vigilante” an ordinary man fights violence the only way he knows how – by killing one criminal at a time. Hero or villain? Justice or vengeance? You decide.

ODE WRITING EXERCISE

‘Ode to the Flute’

By ROSS GAY APRIL 29, 2016

Poets have always written odes of praise not to just what is lofty but also to the ordinary things that surround us, in order to see what such deep attention can reveal. This ode is a metaphor, where flute becomes man, and vice versa, in ongoing, illuminating, mysterious conversation. Poem selected by Matthew Zapruder. 

CreditIllustration by R. O. Blechman

ode to the flute

A man sings
by opening his
mouth a man
sings by opening
his lungs by
turning himself into air
a flute can
be made of a man
nothing is explained
a flute lays
on its side
and prays a wind
might enter it
and make of it
at least
a small final song

Matthew Zapruder is the author of four poetry collections, including, most recently “Sun Bear.” He teaches poetry at Saint Mary’s College of California and is editor at large at Wave Books. Ross Gay is the author of three poetry collections, most recently “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” published by the University of Pittsburgh Press last year. It was the winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.

LET US BECOME ODE WRITERS, SHALL WE?