Eric Walters, author, activist, and speaker kept a crowd of teens focused with a very compelling delivery today. A hybrid of book talk, travelogue, NGO mission statement all worked with a craft that clearly demonstrates a man with passion for kids, stories and humanitarianism. At times he was provocative, such as his rant against the value of Twilight; to humorous, such as his teasing of boys and girls in the audience, but ultimately he was passionate about poor children. Whether poverty and care of orphans in Kenya or Toronto, he practices what he preaches and then crafts his research and actions into writing stories and that process has to be respected. There is no writing books from a luxurious city office here.
“…This project began with a chance meeting with a young boy in a marketplace and the discovery that he was one of over 500 orphans in and around Kikima – a small rural community in Kenya. These children live in the most desperate of situations – situations that for many seem to be hopeless. The program features an outreach component – with over 350 orphans residing with extended family members given monthly support – a residential component with 37 orphans and 19 orphans who are funded to go to residential high schools.” ( Creation of Hope.com )
It is SPorts Illustrated magazine swimsuit edition season. The magazine that launches model’s careers and often finds itself in hot water because of stereotyping is in the pot again. Should primitive villagers be in shots with supermodels, half-naked or not? What has a NY fashion model have to do with hunting in the desert anyway? Nothing? What is your thought? Exploitation? Or just silly fun? Read more at Huffingtonpost>
The second controversial shot, featuring Emily DiDonato in an African desert, also include a tribal-looking, half-naked man carrying a spear:
These shots tap into the West’s past obsession/fetishization with so-called savages, jungle comics and the like. Again: In a visit to seven continents, this image is what Sports Illustrated is using to represent the continent of Africa.
David Leonard, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies at Washington State University, told Yahoo! Shine he understands why some might find the pictures offensive.
“These photos depict people of color as exotic backdrops,” Leonard said. “Beyond functioning as props, as scenery to authenticate their third world adventures, people of color are imagined as servants, as the loyal helpers, as existing for white western pleasure, amusement, and enjoyment.”(Huffingtonpost)
James Franco is an actor and writer. He is the author of the poetry chapbook “Strongest of the Litter” and the short story collection “Palo Alto.” His poetry collection, “Directing Herbert White,” is scheduled to be published next year. He received a Best Actor nomination in 2011 for his role in “127 Hours.”
Obama in Asheville
Asheville, North Carolina, is the birthplace of Thomas
Wolfe and the sometime residence of F. Scott Fitzgerald
When he visited Zelda at her institution;
He stayed at the Grove Park Inn, a grand stone edifice.
On the phone once, Cormac McCarthy lamented
The two added wings and the spa, and marveled
At the original structure, They pulled the stones
From the mountains and brought them down on mules.
….
Climate change is already being felt around the world, with the world’s most vulnerable people shouldering the brunt of its consequences. Do your students feel empowered to take action?
Lights Out Canada (www.lightsoutcanada.org) is an annual event, during which schools turn off their lights and follow lesson plans we provide on climate change and how youth can take action. Our materials seek to engage students with the science of climate change andempower them to take action. Participants lend their efforts to a national movement for change involving hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and administrators across Canada. This year’s Lights Out Canada will be held on April 22, 2013.
Our resource packages (K-12) are available online in English and French and will be sent to registered schools. The materials include posters, a press pack, lesson plans and step-by-step instructions for how to organize Lights Out. We understand if turning off the lights is not possible in darker areas of your school.
Register online at http://bit.ly/Acp0O1 for the 8th annual Lights Out Canada, to be held onApril 22, 2013. The full Lights Out project summary and more information can be found at http://www.lightsoutcanada.org under “Downloads”.
School boards across Canada are challenging all of the schools in their districts to sign-up. Why not be the one to lead the challenge in your district?
On a grey Sunday, a young boy resorts to placing coins on a nearby train track to entertain himself. Picking the coins up after the train has run them over, he discovers that an amazing transformation has taken place. Presented from a child’s vantage point, this cartoon is a nod to childhood and to the things kids do to escape boredom on Sunday afternoons.
In 1909, a dapper young remittance man is sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching. However, badminton, bird watching and liquor get in the way of cattle wrangling, and many misadventures ensue. A film about the beauty of the prairie, the pangs of homesickness and the folly of living dangerously out of context
The NFB has created over 13,000 productions and won more than 5,000 awards at festivals, including 12 Oscars. With more Academy Award nominations than any production company or organization outside of Hollywood, the NFB continues to be a pioneer in Canadian cinema.
The NFB garnered its 71st and 72nd Oscar-nominated film with Sunday by Patrick Doyon, and Wild Life, by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. This marks the 8th time in the NFB’s history that the institution gets a double nomination in the same category.
Coming to Kelowna > FAIR SHAKE. Special Guest: MP. Justin Trudeau
»Saturday 21 January 2012, 1-5 pm » Okanagan College Lecture Theatre » 1000 KLO Road, Kelowna
Though we may have different focuses, different politics and different goals, we share a common sense that something has gone fundamentally wrong. We must prepare ourselves for the struggle ahead, because we have been left futureless by a group of people who insist we ask them to solve the problem, so they can refuse us. We don’t make one simple demand because this isn’t for the media to turn into sound bites, for politicians to aggrandize or argue against, for bankers to gamble on or for academics to study. We’re not asking for permission, we must teach ourselves how to create a better world without them.
Hosted by by Occupy Kelowna, the Council of Canadians and the Okanagan Institute.
Steve Jobs once said, ” I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” After the bad news of cancer, he invented the iPad.
Steve Jobs began a journey of creativity and success in a Grade 4 classroom. His Grade 4 teacher lit a spark of inspiration that burned bright until yesterday. He not only gifted the world with amazing tools but he shifted the board office models from suit to turtlenecks. Despite obvious character flaws and conflicts, as we all have too many, Apple led the wave of creative .com enterprises like Google. His CEO leadership gave an entire generation a sense of design, creative potential and imagination. His marketing savvy was only equaled by his keen acumen in understanding engineering and the consumer. Steve’s keynote presentation skills are a thing of beauty. Like the Apple logo itself, Jobs have left us with many iconic gifts.
1985
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people––as remarkable as the telephone.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
1996
“The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That’s over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it’s going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade.
“It’s like when IBM drove a lot of innovation out of the computer industry before the microprocessor came along. Eventually, Microsoft will crumble because of complacency, and maybe some new things will grow. But until that happens, until there’s some fundamental technology shift, it’s just over.” [Wired, February 1996]
“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want.
2005
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
2006
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” [NBC Nightly News, May 2006]
And One More Thing
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
“Ladies, girls, boys, here today, in Canada, you are a generation where women have guarenteed freedoms, opportunities and a power that mankind on earth has ever seen. (sic)…”
In every person lies a story to embrace. The down trodden children of the world find a voice for their many stories in a Deborah Ellis book.
What a refreshing presentation by Ms. Ellis! Death, aids, kidnapping, drug trade, sexism, human rights abuses…oh my more gloom and doom, BUT…
Educators, parents, and community leaders need to either face these hard realities or hide…as we in the west have plenty of blame to share, I choose the former option. Ask questions, read, Learn, and teach our children. Deborah Ellis not only described and assessed these social horrors through her books and storytelling but she emboldened us to stay vigilant and informed without scolding like so many well-intended agents do. She could discuss complexities of poverty and refugees in pain while INSTRUCTING us to remain hopeful. Our teens were enlightened with raw truth yet buoyant that they could make change one teen at a time. Like the Kielburger brothers, she penetrates through the teenager’s built-in “crap detectors” and their affluent comforts without preaching or laying guilt. This is a talent and developed skill.
“Ladies, girls, boys, here today, in Canada, you are a generation where women have guarenteed freedoms, opportunities and a power that mankind on earth has ever seen. (sic)…”
Ellis’s humble voice rings out in a theatre full of silent teens. Ms. Ellis calls out to teens. “Don’t accept the expression ‘you are the generation for a better world- me, you, all ages must take ownership of the plight we put children into.”(sic)
She scolds my generation for their ‘coalition of the willing’ that accepts war and oppression as unavoidable. She outlined the facts that today, 2011, 90% of war casualties are now innocent civilians- ‘collateral damage’ is an everyday reality for the people on the ground. She described the laws and social contracts(including the enlightened men) developed that empower western women. She encouraged them as to the amazing potential and importance of applying their freedoms toward improving the world. Raising big questions but also emblazoning hope on our minds is the power of an author. Her descriptions of how books and a tiny library or classroom have transformed people and even entire villages reminds us all of the value of free public school, libraries and access to the power of reading. Deborah Ellis reminds us of why we advocate for school libraries. In fact, it reminds us why the Central Okanagan TeacherLibrarians Association works hard each year to bring powerful authors to Kelowna for Education Week. It is why they provide a free public forum. It is why 3000+ children participate for the week and not just one hour or even a day. Supporting reading and libraries is not just about the joys of literacy or a vague altruism. It is about the things that improve lives.
Deborah Ellis’s spoken words made a positive difference and her written words, through her 20+ books are impactful forever. –Al SMith
Below is the text from a colleague sharing her perspective on the event.
Pat Kirkey(ret) COTLA Author Committee writes,
“… I didn’t think anything could top last night, but the KSS presentation this morning was amazing.
Perhaps it was the configuration of students:
There will be Ms. Lewis’s English 11 class and her class is reading Lord of the Flies and will be doing research on bullying. There is one French Immersion class (SS 10) and some students from Ms. Irvine’s class who have just finished studying the “kite Runner”. Ms. Kehler (sponsor of “Me to We” will be bringing her English 10 class. Ms. Culhan English 12 class will be attending. Graeme Stacey will be bringing his Holocaust 12 students.
The atmosphere in the theatre was great – sound looked after by 2 female tech students, Al & Sharon did a great job of sprucing it up with flowers and plants, comfortable theatre seating and interested students. Their questions were great and it was an inspiring morning. Deborah was pleased to end her week with the older students who are ready to challenge the norm and work towards changing the future.
I has been an amazing week and Deborah asked me to pass on her appreciation and thanks to the committee, and teacher librarians as a group, for all the work that went into making it a memorable experience. She now knows what Kenneth Oppel meant when he said you will enjoy your week – they will treat you like a celebrity and raise the bar for all future speaking engagements.
Deborah also assured me that we are going love (her words which she choses carefully) Eric Walters – he is a good guy and much more entertaining than I am! I assured her that entertainment is easy to find, thought provoking inspiration is a gift.
Well done! Another author adventure under our belts. Eric Walters in 2012 & then ???????
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of such an amazing team.
Pat**
Congratulations to the entire COTLA Author Committee: Angie MacRitchie(Chair),Misty Smith(Pres.) Brenda Catheral, Al Smith, Dayna Hart, Sharon Bede, Pat Kirkey, Jim Gillett
**Pat Kirkey is a retired SD23 teacher and COTLA Executive member who volunteers as a convener for the annual Author Week. She not only is involved from inception but spends each day as a one-on-one host. Driving the guest author to and fro venues during the week, Pat has both an intimate and broad view of the event and the impact on students.
The Central Okanagan Teacher Librarians’ Association hosted Governor General’s Award winning author DEBORAH ELLIS this week. She is an engaging speaker with a passion for reading. As a writer, educator and presenter, this long-time activist has received international acclaim with her dramatic books that give Western readers a glimpse into the plight of children in developing countries.
What was fascinating about her presentation to KSS students today was the degree of credibility she garnered from students. Although she delivers anecdotes in a straight forward style with sobering themes, the teens were very attentive and seemed genuinely deeply impressed. Ms. Ellis spoke directly with such sincerity and frankness but always summarized her storytelling with messages of real action and hope.
She took time to speak personally to students before and after the main presentation. She had a way of making every person feel validated and like real change-makers not just kids.
