Every little girl’s dream is to wear a white wedding dress and marry her price charming when she grows up. But for Thea, a 12 year old girl from Norway, that is happening a little too soon.                   

On Saturday, she’s going to marry her thirty-seven year old fiancé, Geir. Thea is sharing her thoughts and plans about this special occasion on her blog. She is talking about the dress, the food, her hair and everything else connected with the wedding.

 “My dream has always been that I want to be a vet because then I can work with horses and stuff like that all the time. But when I talked about it today so Mom said that I do not really need and work on some things or going to school now that I’m marrying Geir,” blogged Thea yesterday.

You must admit that the first thing that came to your mind when you read this was: “There is no way this is real.” 

And guess what, you are right.

This particular marriage won’t happen. However, the alarming number of 39,000 girls that are getting married before they turn eighteen is real. This is the case in countries like Niger, Chad and the Central African Republic, where more than two out of three girls are getting married before they turn eighteen.

This topic is becoming a global problem, and some predict that in this decade 142 million girls will have been married before they turn eighteen.

This blog was an idea of the campaign by Plan Norway. The aim of Thea’s blog is to present the global problem of child marriage. Their plan is working. More than 660,000 unique visitors have visited Thea’s blog. That is roughly 12 % of the country’s population.

A lot of people were tricked by the blog’s posts. And that’s no surprise at all, since the blog is honestly and openly describing all the details around the wedding. Cakes, make-up, hair styling are just some among Thea’s descriptions connected with the wedding. Thea also talks about the challenges of being a child bride and how that will affect her life.

Some of the visitors of Thea’s blog think that her marriage is real. Therefore they are provoked to post heartfelt and sincere advice to Thea. Plan Norway is counting on shock and outrage about the idea of a child bride in Norway, and is hoping that the word will spread around the world.

 “Actually I’m not very happy today just because I and my mom just arguing. I asked her if I could ask Sara and Annikenin wedding because I do so want them to come so they can know that we can remain friends even though I’m getting married and not see at school every day,” writes Thea in a translated post.

“To open the eyes of Norwegians to these tragic facts, we needed to adopt strong measures. Therefore we decided to put the brutal reality in a Norwegian context, so that the whole population takes an active position and helps in the fight against child marriage. This has shown to be a very effective way of telling the stories,” said Annika Diseth Yri, a Plan Norway communications staffer, via email.

Those who will visit Thea’s blog will be directed to Plan International’s “Because I am a Girl” champagne. The top of the blog says “Stopp Bryllupet” which means stop the wedding.

Then visitors will be provided with links to the campaign, Plan’s work and how to sponsor a girl. Everyone is encouraged to join the champagne against child marriage. They can spread the word around via social media with the #stoppbryllupet tag.

Yri said that the campaign “Because I am a girl” has reached more than 10 million people. According to her, the wedding this weekend will be covered by global media, including television outlets from Germany and Russia. 

Plan Norway has achieved their goal. More and more people are getting involved in the campaign to stop child marriage around the world.

 “We believe this massive response is due to the fact that we chose to bring the issue of child marriage home to a Norwegian context,” said Yri.

“We have seen that this has been effective method to get people engaged in the issue. We as Plan Norway are both impressed and grateful of the response of the Norwegian people.

People who normally don’t engage in development issues, are now campaigning to stop child marriage and sharing our message.”

The first story about this wedding was covered by Buzzfeed and the Independent.

Back in time when schools were way stricter and discipline was on a much higher level, parents were fully confident that their child will not only receive a proper education, but also some valuable manners which will serve children well in life and further on in their development as individuals.

However, a school poster that went viral got us thinking. How much are teachers responsible for the manners and personality of the child and when should the parents step out and take things into their own hands?

It’s true that in the past teachers were using physical contact to establish their authority in the classroom and nobody found that weird or illegal, however times have changed and so did people.

Different generations require a different approach and physical contact or disciplining a child with a stick or pulling the hair is out of the question and even banned by the law.

Nowadays schools and teacher in particular have to find a creative way to stimulate children to love school and they also have to find alternative ways to create a positive atmosphere in the classroom and a healthy working environment.

It seems that teachers can’t do wonders in the classroom, especially not if the child has different manners or is thought differently at home. In those cases, teacher rely on the parents’ consciousness and assistance.

School poster is all over the Internet

So, the question still remains, when do teachers’ responsibilities end and when do parents take over? In order to clarify things up and draw a specific line between school and home, a Portuguese school decided to set some ground rules by printing the parents’ responsibilities and sticking them all over the school so everyone can see and read them.

The action taken by this school draw a lot of attention and now it’s all over the Internet. As soon as the school decided to share and post this poster on their Facebook page, they immediately triggered viral attention and reactions from people and other schools from all over the world.

According to the poster, the school clearly states when parents should take full responsibility for their children’s manners and discipline and through all the five points, the school separates itself from these responsibilities.

Here is a full look of the school’s poster and their five points for parents’ responsibilities:

Points in depth

Reading this school poster, there are different views and reactions from parents and schools from all over the world.

However, if we take into consideration that schools, teachers and parents in general want only the best for the children, then we may as well agree that sharing or separating responsibilities is only a fair share.

Point 1

It’s true that the child’s first words should be words or kindness and curtsy, which later at school are only emphasizes.

Rude children often get in quarrels with their mates and their teachers and they end up missing out on the important part of school education.

Without the help of parents, the words please, I’m sorry or thank you will be just another learnt lesson, without truly sending the right message or acquiring the true notion behind these words.

Point 2

If children don’t respect their parents’ authority or word, how do we expect from them to show sympathy towards other children or show respect towards teachers and elderly people?

This behavior should be expected both at school and home, without schools having to change the child from scratch and teach him/her of simple, basic manners.

Point 3

It’s also clear that children don’t have their first meal at school or they also don’t learn how to clean after themselves.

Here it’s not mentioned that children are expected to clean the canteen or cook their own meals, on the contrary they are expected to have respect for the food and the environment that they are living in.

Point 4

If children don’t take care of their toys or they break everything it comes to their hand, then why not doing the same thing at school.

Only children may have some problems sharing toys or belongings, however it should never be at the point where they grab other children’s belongings or destroy the schools inventory.

Point 5

The last point strongly emphasizes the real purpose of school, or education. In order to draw a clear line between home and school, parents are notified that school is just a reinforcement and broadening of the knowledge that children acquire first at home and later on at school.

However, schools can only wish good for their children and parents should only support their ideas and participate fully in the development and the building of personality of their children.

Even though some parents and schools agree or disagree with such posters hanging out in the hallways, it’s up to us to decide whether we’ll participate in such action or we’ll be aware enough to figure this out on our own.

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Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange published a claim back in October that unveiled emails associated with the Hilary Campaign. Ergo, to make things more interesting, the account that was hacked was none other than John Podesta’s, the former chairman of the Hilary Clinton presidential campaign.

Podesta also served as chief of staff to President Obama as well. The emails presented came from Dr. Egdar Mitchell, the astronaut from Apollo 14, who was also the sixth person to walk on the moon.

Experts investigated the leak and initially claimed that it came from Russian hackers, trying to mingle with the Clinton campaign.

The leaked emails uncovered scheduled meetings between many participants to discuss Disclosure and Zero Point Energy.

Fun fact: zero point energy is something that is being studied in quantum physics and can be defined as a vacuum energy, exploiting an energy that exists in molecules even at near zero temperature. 

One of the planned participants at the anticipated meeting was Terri Mansfield, whose intention was to inform them on the Vatican’s awareness of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

One of the emails that mentions the Vatican in the association with ET is:

“Dear John, As 2015 unfolds, I understand you are leaving the Administration in February. It is urgent that we agree on a date and time to meet to discuss Disclosure and Zero Point Energy, at your earliest available after your departure. 

My Catholic colleague Terri Mansfield will be there too, to bring us up to date on the Vatican’s awareness of ETI. Another colleague is working on a new Space Treaty, citing involvement with Russia and China.

However with Russia’s extreme interference in Ukraine, I believe we must pursue another route for peace in space and ZPE on Earth. I met with President Obama’s Honolulu childhood friend, US Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto on July 4 at the US Mission in Geneva, when I was able to tell her briefly about Zero Point Energy.

I believe we can enlist her as a confidante and resource in our presentation for President Obama. I appreciate Eryn’s assistance in working with Terri to set up our meeting.”

When it comes to the Vatican, one cannot avoid the obvious connection with religious interpretations. The instance with the connection of the Vatican and ET is no exception.

Before jumping into the entire story at hand, we must first realize that ET and the Vatican are intertwined and that religion does not challenge the belief of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

In fact, the Vatican is no stranger to this subject, thus having participated in the discussion of extraterrestrials. Roman Catholic and friend of the pope, Monsignor Corrado Balducci, has stated that we have already initiated contact with extraterrestrials.

“The existence of these beings is real. We can’t have doubts.” – Monsignor Corrado Balducci

 The fact that such religious men discuss the topic of extraterrestrials so openly is quite intriguing. Pope Francis stated that he would even baptize them in order to make them feel welcome.

“He created beings and allowed them to develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one, so that they were able to develop and to arrive at their fullness of being.

He gave autonomy to the beings of the universe at the same time at which he assured them of his continuous presence, giving being to every reality.

And so creation continued for centuries and centuries, millennia and millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely because God is not a demiurge or a magician, but the creator who gives being to all things.” – Pope Francis

When researched thoroughly, we can find that religion essentially does sanction the presence of extraterrestrial life.

Taking into regard the religion of Sikhism, for instance, God did not limit life to our planet. In contract, He established it throughout the cosmos. In Christianity, there exist numerous understandings of extraterrestrial life.

This goes to show that most religions do accept the existence of life beyond our planet and even encourage it. Whether or not the Vatican will use this to their advantage for the good of the people and the planet, or a way to gain power, we will have to wait and see.

Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.express.co.uk/
https://www.indy100.com/
https://www.rt.com/
https://www.wikileaks.com/

Is there a person on this whole planet who doesn’t know who Bruce Lee is? Nope. Despite being known as the “strongest man ever”, he was a lot more than that.

For too many years, Hollywood’s archetypal action hero was portrayed as a towering, masculine, no-nonsense-kind of white guy that seamlessly swept aside the ‘bad guys’ always threatening to kill innocent people or destroy the world altogether.

At the same time, these 20th-century American movies also helped to create another, far more damaging cultural misrepresentation and stereotype that saw Asian men being portrayed as servants, deviants, or as far-fetched as wily and desexualized people.

It wasn’t until the late 60s of the 20^th century and the emergence of Bruce Lee – the little known American-born actor of Asian heritage – that these stereotypes were refuted and a new pop-culture was born.

Bruce Lee, who was born in San Francisco, raised in Hong Kong and spent much of his adult life in the United States, perfectly embodies and blends the two cultures, a fact that helped his career skyrocket in the span of just a few short years.

“He was constantly shuttling across the Pacific,” La Frances Hui, an associate film curator at the Museum of Modern Art, told the NY Times.

“So if we want to think about where Bruce Lee belongs, where he came into being, it is in these transits and migrations.”

Playwright David Henry Hwang – who devoted an entire play to Lee’s life – described the actor as the first Asian man to embody all of the conventional American movie markers of masculinity.

“He creates a new archetype in the West,” he said. “The Asian-American male hero.”

Bruce Lee’s career spanned over a period of three years, during which he starred in five action packed movies that quickly propelled him to stardom. Even today, everyone still knows who Bruce Lee is.

His carefully crafted image, the lean, muscular body, stripped to the waist, was in stark contrast with the typical portrayal of Asian man as depicted in Hollywood movies preceding his rise to stardom and acted as a powerful rejection of those diminishing roles. 

“Those bodily displays made him unique: an Asian-American star whose masculinity and physical prowess were front and center, not only in the films themselves, but also on promotional posters, billboards and merchandise around the world,” wrote the NY Times in their piece dedicated to Lee’s rich legacy.

In the 1972 film “Fist of Fury” (also referred to as “The Chinese Connection”), his character is matched up against a group of more than 20 students at a martial-arts academy. They circle him before rushing in to strike, only to be stopped by a simple twitch of Lee’s hands.

You guessed it – he has to strip off his top first.

“That’s the moment when you know he’s going to start kicking ass,” said Mr Maeda, a professor at the University of Colorado who is also working on a cultural biography about the legendary actor.

Lee’s small but muscular body is often measured up against much larger, often Western, opponents, including Chuck Norris, or a Russian killer played by Robert Baker, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in “Game of Death”.

“He has a very masculine body, and at the same time he is not a big man,” said Ms. Hui, the MoMA curator.

Lee is unquestionably the stand out performer among the martial-arts stars of his era, with his intense focus, the precision of his moves and the sheer fury of his fights – augmented by his signature screeching – forming the cornerstone of his enduring legacy that continues to live on and on.

“When he enters a fight,” Ms. Hui said, “he becomes kind of an animal.”

This legacy extends to his training, as he incorporated techniques from a wide range of disciplines, from Japanese karate to Chinese kung fu, building on the best of each.

“He ends up being a predecessor of mixed martial arts,” Mr Hwang said.

All in all, in a short period of time, Bruce Lee managed to become a legend that is unique and unmatched, even today. There has not been a single actor that has been compared to him and he was and still is, despite his vulnerable side, one of the greatest “honks” on the screens. 

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In a world where violence has been accepted more than the act of marching for peace, you rarely see someone doing something for the good of the people out of the goodness of their hearts. Doing right by society is seen as pure naivety, as was once witnessed by the righteous movements of Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa.

In a groundbreaking act, Johnny Depp aims at buying back the ancient site the Native Americans lost back in the 1890 massacre. By buying back what was theirs to begin with, Depp hopes to makes things right for the people of the land.

While conducting an interview for The Daily Mail, Depp mentioned that he anticipates on buying back Wounded Knee Creek and dedicating it to his fellow Native Americans in honor of the massacre that occurred in 1890.

According to History, on December 29, 1890, the U.S. government annihilated 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation, located in South Dakota. As Depp mentioned that he has been told he partakes Native American roots, it is safe to say that he is emotionally attached to the people of the land, their culture, as well as the site they lost.

In the interview, he states, “It’s very sacred ground and many atrocities were committed against the Sioux there,” he said. “And in the 1970s there was a stand-off between the Feds (Federal government) and the people who should own that land. This historical land is so important to the Sioux Culture and all I want to do is buy it and give it back. Why doesn’t the government do that?”

He also stated, ‘The main thing was, “Are we doing right by the Indian? Let’s not make any mistakes here. The idea was to give back to them and to make sure that we got it right,” he said in the lengthy interview.

We cannot know for sure the real reason behind Depp’s inspiration to take such action, but can only guess that his role of Tonto in The Lone Ranger surely did encourage him quite the bit.  

To paint a clear picture of just how serious he was to give back to the Native American people something they lost long ago, Depp devoted a substantial amount of time and energy investigating about the numerous communities and what they thought about the whole idea.

Luckily, he did gain the authorization from many Native American groups before accepting the role Tonto in The Lone Ranger began. Apart from the fact that Native American blood runs through his veins, no matter how much, while filming the movie, he made sure that the people were represented in the right light.

As for the actual price of the site at Wounded Knee, it stands at $3.9 million, which is only a part of what was made at the box office from the move.  

 “I am doing my best to make that happen. It’s land they were pushed on to and then they were massacred there. It really saddens me,” he stated.

The act of purchasing the Wounded Knee land in order to show respect and honor of worship his fellow people portrays Depp’s pure dedication in correcting the wrong that occurred over a century ago. It signifies his deep and utter respect towards the Native American culture and tradition, which in turn helps raise and spread historical awareness.

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