The four movies I’ve watched recently moved me to tears. They are about (1) non-fighting bull in Spain, (2) Big black guy who found his home in another side of town (3) Taking bear in London and (4) Show of unique humans in New York. Although those are totally different movies, they have one common theme which teaches us a very important lesson: “What you are supposed to be is something you can change if you wish and go for it”.
The other day, I attended one workshop on inclusion where we discussed how to include people with disabilities in the society, and I learned something important which changed my idea on inclusion.
Recently, I had a great encounter. I didn’t expect to meet this person in Mongolia, the person who I would say is well-known to the majority of Japanese: Mr. Hirotada Ototake, the author of “No one’s perfect” (in Japanese, Gotai Humanzoku which literally means without limbs). He came to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to an event for opening new bookstore branch and introduce his book translated into Mongolian.
Furthermore, at this event, Mongolian national iconic person, Asa Shoryu (previous sumo wrestling Champion in Japan) was also present, so it was double unexpected encounter for me.
Recently I happened to watch a movie “Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in pink)”, a French movie made in 1997, nearly 20 years ago, and this movie got me thinking several things.
And later on, I watched one TED-Ed video about biology of several species including us human beings.
From those two sources, I realized how mysterious the system of X and Y is, about which I will talk about in this blog.
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Last Sunday, I joined a marathon. But it was not just a regular one as other big cities usually offer: it was a Grassland Marathon which I think is very unique to Mongolia (and the 1st prize is a horse!).
It was indeed a nice experience, especially as a person who lives in a city, appreciation for seeing colored nature (mainly green) was beyond words.
Speaking of appreciation of seeing color, there is other point of view in relation to those who have color blindness, and I just came across a wonderful technology which can fundamentally change the world of color blind people.
For the last 2 days in Chile, there was a huge mobilization in media, money, people and emotion.
This movement was centered around a 27-hour-long charity TV show called “Theater Teletón” on which Chile took an initiative position 36 years ago, followed by other countries in Latin America. There are also similar campaigns in Europe, Asia (including Japan).
Here is how Teletón Chile works: it tries to raise money every year (except presidential election year) during those 2 days of the show in order to construct or maintain “Teletón”, the centers of rehabilitation for the People with Disabilities(PwD). This TV show tells us many heartwarming stories of PwD in order to reach the targeting amount of donation (around 50 million dollars), and in most cases, it achieves the goal.
First of all, I have to admit this show really functions in a way that makes us want to donate. But at the same time, I cast doubt on whether this is a sustainable approach to promote social inclusion, which Teletón says is its main goal.
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Those who read the previous entry (“Two Fathers or Two Mothers”), what did you think? Personally, I thought that was a theme which makes us think about “happiness” and “normality” in the society regardless of hetero/homo sexuality.
Those who did not read it, please do so before going forward, because I think it would be an interesting comparison between the previous one and what I am going to put: an irony which could exist in “normal” families.
