Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life. Quest 2, p. 85 - 87.

These are colour images of the works of art discussed in "Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life" (Hartmann, 2007, pp. 85 - 87)

Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, by Zhao Ji, China, 12th century

Février des Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Illumination by the Limbourg Brothers, France, early 15th century.

Count of the Cattle, Tomb of Meketre, circa 2000 B.C.E.

John Brown Going to His Hanging, by Horace Pippin, 1942.

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Reference

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Quest 2, pp. 76 - 82. The Sacred Realm of Art - images

These are the images shown or discussed in "The Sacred Realm of Art" (Hartmann, 2007, pp. 76 - 82).

Standing Figure Holding a Baby,
Olmec, 800 - 500 B.C.E.

For more information, see Standing Figure Holding a Baby at http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/5073/Standing_Figure_Holding_a__Baby/right_tab/posse/

Bwa tribal mask and costume. Burkina Faso.

Bwa tribal mask. Burkina Faso.

Tathagatas Ratnasambhava,
Central Tibet, ca. 1200-1250

This is a different version of the work discussed in Quest, which I was unable to find. I think it's similar enough not to matter. I'm not sure that the reference information given in Quest is correct (p. 270). For more information, see Three Tathagatasat http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/svision/i23.html 

Madonna Enthroned
by Cimabue. c. 1285.

For more information, see "Santa Trinita Maestà" at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Santa_Trinita_Maest%C3%A0&oldid=485139381

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Reference

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Looking at art: What's the story? Quest 2, pp. 72 - 75

These are colour images of the works of art discussed in "Looking at Art: What's the Story" (Hartmann, 2007, pp. 72 - 75). First is the Edomite figure shown on page 72. (There is a slightly fuller version here of this reading, using the same sources.)

"Cult" Stand, Statue Anthropomorphic, Painted
800 - 600 B.C.E.

For more information see "Cult" Stand, Statue Anthropomorphic, Painted at http://www.antiquities.org.il/t/Item_en.aspx?pic_id=1&CurrentPageKey=107_1

These are the three pieces of art that Hartmann presents in black and white on pages 74 - 75. 

The Art Critic by Norman Rockwell, 1955 

Aquila degli Abruzi 
by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952.

Street Scene, Haiti, by Laetitia. 20th C.

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Reference

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Your life, Your choice

Now a day, the mental illness can happen easily due to the environment of society, nearby people, or weakness mental, that make a lot of disease such as migraine, stomach pain, or specially popular depression disease. How can we protect or avoid them not to happen? Have way to cure this disease without suggest from the Doctor?

The article says "Depression is common and affects one-in-10 people at some point in their lives." (Gallagher, 2014) that show statistic of people in the society had an effect from their surrounding environment. It look like a small number, but if we compare with the society we live today, it represents a large number that is risk for this disease unaware.

Ketamine - one type of general anesthetic and also as a drug that is taken illegally for pleasure (องค์ความรู้เรื่องยาเสพติด, 2014), is a new choice for treatment the patient who has face with depression disease. But this is just the first result from researcher in UK, that Ketamine had symptom disappear in 1 hours- after taking drug. That make a new hope for the depression disease and show advantageous benefits of the drug, which at one time was called the prescription medications or dangerous drugs. Even though the result of first is still unstable, that depend on physical condition and mentally ready from the patient , it'll give new hope to cure the people who suffering from depression.

Much people in Thai always take a pill like paracetamol in base of cure without observed of disease symptoms which is bad habit and very dangerous. Depressive disorder is a disease that symptoms difficult if didn't pay attention. And actually spread to own a glance for patients with increasingly severe, may lead to Alzheimer disease. We have to change our habit, as if over the age of 25 pears should be check your body every 1 year, mental observe all the time, or stimulating your mental by search new hobby or new activity. Choosing to live with your love person or comfortable society.You have to fine and to choose good things to your life, that make happiness sustain over than temporarily. And if you do all above, I guarantee this will lead you to live happily ever after.

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Reference

Gallagher J. (2014, April 2). Ketamine 'exciting' depression therapy. BBC News Health. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26647738

องค์ความรู้เรื่องยาเสพติด (2010, May 17). In ศูนย์บริการวิชาการและพัฒนาบุคลากรด้านการป้องกันและแก้ไขปัญหาสารเสพติด. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://www.sri.cmu.ac.th/~srilocal/drugs/knowledge-details.php?knowledge_id=26

From Siam to Rohingya, does the name matter?

Languages is a crucial role in our everyday life. For example, in constructive ways, we use language to name ourselves and other which is flow our communication; however, in deconstructive term, when we decided not to name or call the name that other people are more prefer; such as you call the Native American as Negro, name can be a kind of stereotype. Also in Myanmar where the national census was hold since 1983; however, the use of language leads to sectarian tensions during the process. 

According to BBC News, “Burma census bans people registering as Rohingya” (2014) in order to count the number of Burmese people, people have to fill their ethnicity in the form; however, there are no such categories for Rohingya because the government officers are not allow Muslim Rohingya call themselves as Rohingya. In order to be recognized by the state, Bangali immigrants is more preferable than Rohingya.

This discrimination shows the concern of Myanmar government and also Buddhist nationalist on the exact population of Muslim Rohingya who had been recognized as the minority and the others. In recent years, the sectarian tensions has shown up many times as the conflict between two different ethnic and religious groups, Buddhist and Muslim; for example, in 2013, the riot of Buddhist 969 which is Buddhist Nationalist movement and was led by Buddhist monks in order to against Muslim for invading the country. This riot caused the death of 200 Muslim people and around 100,000 people are displaced (Buddhism and violence, 2014) The fear of to be outnumbered among the Buddhist majority has shown up as the attempt to not recognized the ethnic’s name – to destroy the sense of Muslim Rohinya’s roots by using language which means that the majority has created the atmosphere of otherness.  

In Thailand, we can see this kind of the use of language; for example, the debate between should we (Thais) call ourselves as Thai or Siam. Actually, Thais called themselves as Siam since 12th-century A.D. (history of Thailand, 2014); then, in 1939 ( just 75 years ago), the nationalist government decided to change the name from Siam to Thai (means free) in order to show the proud of free country, the country which has not been colonized (?) and to assimilate other ethnic group; such as Chinese, Mon, and so on into Thai. Because "Siam" represents the diversity of ethnic groups; for example, Siam was described as a kingdom where had a diversity of group of people - Thai, Mon, Viet, Kmer, and so on.

However, recently, a Thai well-known historian has criticized that "Thai- Thailand" leads to the ethnocentrism of Thais which also leads to conflicts with other shared-border countries; for example, conflict over Phra Vi Hear temple with Cambodia, and the feeling of Thais are superior than Laos, and suggests that we should change the name Thais to Siam in order to solve these problem. 

All of the above example show that language and name do matter, and I think we need times to trace back what lies behind the use of particular name or language. We should not take language for granted, because language is a container, the meaning that this container carry and why it is carried matter.

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Reference

Buddhism and violence (2014, March 22). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_violence

Burma census bans people registering as Rohingya. (2014, March 30). BBC News Asia. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26807239

History of Thailand (2014, March 27). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Thailand

Screen Time

Nowadays, we can see that new gadgets are launched every month. I’m not surprise when I see almost every people play their smart phones or tablets in a subway every morning, including children. It’s very common today that young children own mobile phone or tablets. They spend more time on screen: playing games, chatting with friends, surfing on the Internet and watching movie. Therefore, this can cause bad health for children.

 
According to NPR news article “Why Playing Minecraft Might Be More Healthful For Kids Than TV”, the researcher from the University of Michigan said that when children watch TV, they see many advertisement about food, and tend to eat junk food and drink soda. Although playing computer is healthier than watching television, both of them can cause obesity and high blood pressure in children.

We all know that using computer or watching television too much is not good for not only children, but also adults. From this article, doctors say “children shouldn’t log more than two hour a day of screen time” In the past, I think most children can do that; not spend more than two hours, but now I think more than half of children spend time on screen excessively. For example, at school, teachers use instructional media such as e-book, Internet and video. During the way to home, especially in BTS and MRT, there are small televisions for advertising. Moreover, children have to do homework and maybe learn on the Internet. From all of these, we can see that children have to spend time on screen more than two hours a day.

From this article, it says play game on computer or mobile phone is healthier than watching TV because it doesn’t cause physical problem: obesity. But I think a computer game can cause serious mental problem. When we watch TV, there is a time to break, we don’t watch all day. For example, when we watch movie, if that movie ends, we normally finish watching too. On the other hand, when we play computer game, we will play continuously until we’re bored. I think this take more time than watching TV. Moreover, some games are violent and can make us addict. I saw news about people died because of computer games, but I’ve never seen people died because of TV. So, I think computer game is not more healthful than TV.

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Reference
Singh M. Why Playing Minecraft Might Be More Healthful For Kids Than TV. (2014, March 28).  NPR Your Health. Retrieved on April 2, 2014 from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/28/295692162/why-playing-minecraft-might-be-healthier-for-kids-than-tv

Sadness has effects on our health

I believe everybody used to have an experience with a broken heart ; it might happen when you lost a lover, family member or pet.  Heart broken people will feel sad, hopeless or depress, but for someone it is even worst.  Therefore, the sadness which occurs at the heart can effect to their health, make them sick or die.      

According to the article “Can you die of a broken heart?” from  BBC (Jason G Goldman,2014) it says that extreme mental stress can be a reason of death which related to heart problem (p.8).  For over decades, there are examples of some relevance between mental stress and  physical illness.
In mid- 20^th Century, wildlife biologists and veterinarians observed animal reaction while it was facing with sudden attack from predator. They have found that when animal gets stress,  it will produce adrenaline to the bloodstream, and turn it into some kind of poison. Next stage, it will damage the animal’s muscles and heart. The result is, it can be death.

After that nearly ten years there were more researches on human, one of these was published in New England Journal of Medicine, It reported that extreme stress, which cause by the earthquake 6.8 magnitudes on 14 January 1994 in Los Angeles was the reason of the massive death related to cardiac abnormality.  

When the emotion gets sick the body will affect too. An easy example that I have heard is a royalty dog, when its owner past away or left it behind, it will stop eating. If the dog keeps living like this, it will get sick and die.  I think in this case, it’s because the dog loves its owner very much so it gets extremely sad.

On the other hand not different from animal, when people get heart broken we are in a deep sorrow. Some people lost appetite, can’t work properly or can’t socialize. All of these are negative behaviors; although these might not bad enough to kill us, we should be aware of our sadness and try to get out of bad situation as soon as we can to prevent damages to our health.         

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Reference

Can you die of a broken heart? (2014, March 31). BBC Future . From http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140331-can-you-die-of-a-broken-heart

Taking Risks Happily

It may be difficult to understand the reasons or the motivations that make some people do very risk activities, such as bullfighting, and mountain climbing; however, each person has his own passions. The best way to lower risk of sickness is to get as much information as possible and prepare ourselves carefully before doing any activities.

According to BBC News article “Altitude sickness 'two illnesses' says Edinburgh University study“, after a long time altitude sickness had been belief as a single disease that occur at height above 2,500 meters, researchers at Edinburgh University found that there are at least two separate syndromes in altitude sickness happening to same person at the same time.

I do not fear of height, and one activity in my to-do list is bungee jumping. However, I have never had any ideas on going climbing high mountains. I think it is too dangerous to be at height thousands meters above sea level. Just think about it makes me feel suffocated. However, I understand people who try to climb dangerous mountains. They have variety of reasons. Most people want to overcome something. I believe that there are many people who want to conquer the nature, and going to the top of high mountains gives the feeling that they are greater than nature. Although it sound a foolish idea, every person want to challenge the limit of his own abilities, and the feeling when achieve goals is always wonderful.

Every day we are taking risks. I think it is up to a viewpoint of each person. Crossing a road, flying on airplane, eating fast food, we also risk our lives when doing these activities. Same as mountain climbing, it may look very dangerous and gain nothing from doing it, but some experiences cannot be exchanged to money. Every person has different goals, different motivations, and different emotions. We cannot simply judge other’s actions. 

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Reference

Altitude sickness 'two illnesses' says Edinburgh University study. (2014, March 31). BBC News Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland. Retrieved April 1, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-26786483

Art: Themes and Purposes. Quest 2, Unit 2, chapter 3.

For the rest of the term in Quest, we will be reading about and discussing art.

Painting Van Gogh by T. F. Chen, 1991

An obvious first question might be: What is art? 

However, Hartmann limits her discussion to a much narrower set of art: the visual arts, starting with the image above on the opening page of chapter 3, and we too can probably ignore the difficult question of what art is, even if we do not limit ourselves here to the traditional visual forms of art that are the subject of chapter 3 of Quest (2007, p. 71 - 104).

Write down your responses to Hartmann's questions on page 73, as below: 

• Look at the picture. What images do you see in the painting? Are they realistic? 
• What do you like or dislike about this painting? Why? 
• What is your favourite work of art? Why do you like it? (p. 71) You need not limit yourself to visual art in responding to this question. 

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Reference

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Quest. p. 52, x. D. Discussion.

Hartmann suggests that we discuss the following three questions in small groups (2007), but I think it might give more varied, and retrievable, ideas if we do some quick response writing. So, what are your responses to these three questions:

1. What is the economic system in the country you live in? If it is a mixed economy, does it tend to more command or more market? What does the government regulate?
    
2. What is the effect of religious beliefs and values on the economy where you live? What effect does religion have on the economy of other countries?
    
3. What are some rules for gift exchange in your culture? For example, what is a typical gift to bring to a dinner party? Do government officials sometimes accept gifts in exchange for their influence? Do people discuss the difference between "gifts" and "bribes"? 

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Reference

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2^nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Can Koreas be reunified?

In 1950, the Korean Peninsula has been divided into two countries affected by the cold war; the communist authority in the north and the democratic state in the south (Wikipedia, 2014). There are some people, especially with Koreans who also have their families in the other state, that really want North totalitarian regime be unified with the South regime, which will bring peace to the peninsular after long disputes for seven decades. However, this is such a difficult issue to deal with while there are more players in the scene than we might thought before.

In Charles Scanlon's article "North and South Korea exchange fire across western sea border" (Scanlon, 2014), North Korea held live-fire drills in seven parts of the border area while South Korea returned fire after North Korea shells landed in its territorial water, which both sides, according to Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-soek, exchanged hundreds of shells. Historically, there were numbers of incidents which both countries had borderland disputes over five-year period, which there is still unclear on the North Korea's nuclear threat.

Despite of difficulties of how Koreans emerge their two authorities in one, there are so many superpowers who still play in this "proxy war" which made this more complicated though the cold war era have ended for near three decades. China, for example, is still supporting North Korea as the major trade partner in order to solve her borderland risk around the peninsular area from the US which has influenced in the South for more than sixty years ago. Managing such "buffer state" is much safer than confronting with the US's ally and would be a good strategy from the bird-eye view; to let the North Korea do anything to protect China in return, then she will have more time and resources to focus on another border and ethnic conflicts with others such as Tibet, Russia, Xinjiang Uyghur ethnic and islands conflict with Japan, Chinese Taipei and several South East Asian countries; Viet Nam, Malaysia and Philippines.

Also, USA is another major state actor in this conflict. Although she has won the cold war after the collapse of Berlin wall in 1989 (Wikipedia, 2014), it seems that USA have planned to seize opportunity to take control China and Asia-Pacific countries in order to restore her hegemony power again. There are several multilateral and bilateral negotiations among six countries such as North and South Korea, USA, Russia, Japan and China, however, the situation is unsatisfactory for the USA and her allies. Once my friend who studied in international relations had told me a radical comment that USA doesn't really want to solve this conflict but maintain it in order to make stability in US internal politic, which this reason can be applied to explain the Iran's nuclear threat as well.

I have no idea with these conspiracy theories in the international politics. Perhaps I should think about the Southern Thailand and compare it with this case. If there will be a new state in the south, I think it will be better than what had occurred in the Korean Peninsular because of there is no such intervention from the superpowers as like as in the Korea, which means that peace negotiation between stakeholders (Thai government and the new one) is easier than both Koreas and their players. Also, this case can be applied with our recent political conflicts in Thailand; broken glass cannot be the same one and early negotiation between each sides is required. However, there are some problems which still exist and to find the truth may cause more conflict than what had occurred nowadays.

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Reference

Cold War. (2014, March 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:53, March 31, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cold_War&oldid=602108253.

Korean War. (2014, March 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:24, March 31, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Korean_War&oldid=601964898.

Scanlon, C. (2014, March 31). North and South Korea exchange fire across western sea border. BBC News. Retrieved March 31, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26815041.