This movie illustrated the everyday realities and horrors of a broken healthcare system. Daniel Blake, the protagonist, tried to receive employment and support allowance after being prevented from working by his doctors due to his failing health, yet faced constant opposition, from the very services that are supposed to help the people, by frustrating and humiliating him to such an extent that it almost appears that they want the claimant to drop out and stop pursuing their right to ask for aid. Daniel’s journey illustrates a Kafkaesque journey; he is forced to look for jobs despite knowing that he has to deny any that he is accepted to due to his doctor’s orders, in order to qualify for benefits, while simultaneously being given demerits for trying to appeal the government’ worker’s decision that he was still able to work (despite what his healthcare physician said). This bureaucratic nightmare illustrates the indifference of the government, and how its crushing silence leads to its people’s lives spiraling downwards into deeper poverty. Though this movie was based in England where healthcare is provided to all, this made me wonder what happens to those in need in the US, where the government is offering partial healthcare to some.
Author Archives: mff55
Film with Judge Scott Miller
When watching movies involving complicated judicial trials with complex lawyer client relations and heated debates between defendant versus plaintiff groups, it is often the case that one just assumes that a lawyer will try to “win” the trial on behalf of their client. But what if the client unremorsefully commits a crime in response to an injustice done to their loved ones? This grey area can understandably make representing clients a much more ethically and morally difficult task: to what extent should a lawyer take their client’s version of the story as the only truth, and how do you use this “truth” to successfully defend the client, especially if the client has committed a crime. Judge Scott Miller gave interesting examples of challenging cases he encountered in which he had to reconcile what would be the lawful versus ethical thing do to. After discussing the Attorney’s code of ethics, it became very clear to understand that what is lawful versus ethical can become very difficult to determine, especially since it is often very difficult to completely separate one’s opinions and values when making such calls, as was shown by the interesting debates/discussions this brought up in the group. Regardless, this watching this movie with Judge Scott Miller was an incredible opportunity to delve into the judicial world with an expert to guide us through.
Nanette
Nanette was another great example that shows us how humor can be used to spark much needed debate and conversation about controversial issues and problems facing our society. As individuals, we all have identities that shape us (i.e. gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical abilities, etc.) and how we move in our daily lives within society, with some of those identities giving us more privileges and advantages over others. Hanna Gadbsy does an incredible job of discussing important struggles facing the LGBTQ community through humor: her use of her own turmoils and childhood struggles with issues surrounding gender and sexuality not only makes her narrative more approachable, but also invites the audience to reflect on their own experiences, regardless of how similar or different they might have been from hers. While there is still much progress left to be made regarding LGBTQ, perhaps comedy-based platforms can be a start to help people become more aware of the problem in order to hopefully promote more “serious” conversations that can ultimately lead to reform.
Cascadilla Gorge Cleanup
Even before many of us become Cornell students, the phrase “Ithaca is Gorgeous” becomes a staple of our Ithaca experience. Talking walks around the multiple trails we are privileged to have near campus, it is quite easy to become enthralled in the beauty of the surrounding environment. But while we take our selfies by the gorges and upload them onto Instagram or on our Snapchat stories, few of us stop to think about how the Cascadilla Gorge Trail remains so clean despite so much foot traffic, especially now that the weather is finally getting better- at least it’s something that I seldom thought off. Having gotten the chance to participate in this gorge cleanup was a great opportunity not only to walk the trial one more time, but also goes to show that doing our share to keep the gorges clean is a simple task that can help keep “Ithaca Gorgeous.”
Black Panther
This Marvel movie provided twists which differentiate it from other movies. By casting a predominantly black cast, they are going against Hollywood norm where diversity is lacking in the roles of main characters. They also chose to portray woman as strong and independent characters that were able to lead their own lives. Similarly, they portrayed the villain as a complex character who’s anger and desire for revenge stems from his father’s death at the hands of the protagonist’s father. This illustrates the difficulty in labeling things as good or evil since reality cannot be as easily defined as those two categories, and is instead a mixture of the two. These additions to the movie allowed me to appreciate it as more than just another superhero movie.
A Man Called Ove
This film is an interesting mixture of drama and comedy. It’s the story of a Swedish 59-yr old man, Ove Lindahl, struggling to cope with the recent loss of his wife Sonja to cancer, and also frustrated for being forced to retire from his job with the train company after 43 years. Although Ove tries to kill himself in several occasions, every time he fails interrupted by sudden mis-happenings in his townhouse neighborhood. In one of his attempts, he has a flashback to his child-hood and we learn that after losing his mother, his father dies hit and killed by a train. In other attempt to kill himself, we also learn how Ove met his wife Sonja, a school teacher, and how they lost their unborn baby in a bus accident in Spain while Sonja survived but became paralyzed. It is remarkable that despite all the tragedy that surrounded Ove’s life, he was not a bitter person as he continued to help others and became close with many of his neighbors, including an Iranian immigrant woman, Parvaneh, her Swedish husband Patrick, their two children, and new baby. Parvaneh felt also very close to Ove and he listed her at the hospital as next of keen. Parvaneh makes fun of the fact that Ove tries so hard to kill himself but does not succeed. Soon after, Ove dies in his sleep during a winter storm and his funeral is packed with neighbors that appreciated how much he cared for others. Overall this film brings an important message for many communities, about how your neighbors become your extended families as you learn to share and care about their joys and sadness, while you share and support each other on the daily challenges that life brings us. The fact that Ove, being Swedish, did not care that Parvaneh was Iranian, but adopted her symbolically as a daughter and her children referred to him as grandpa is remarkable!!! An important message for inclusiveness and tolerance particularly at a time in our society when people do not realize that there is much more than makes us similar than different from one another!!!!
V for Vendetta
At what point does a government impede our rights as humans in the name of ‘peace’. At what point should we stand for what is right against tradition and comfort. The movie served as a template of a nations’ revolt against a tyrannical government. What first started as one man’s plight to expose a corrupt government’s agenda, led to an outright revolution ending with the destruction of the government’s parliament, symbolizing the end of an era. This led me to reflect on current governments and their roles in our lives. While this portrayed the government to be completely corrupt, by spying on its people, portraying a false media, causing an epidemic in their own nation to cement the government’s power, and to have endless wars, I started to wonder at what point does a government actually become corrupt; is it when it causes one major offense to its people, or is it after an accumulation of offense? And a continuation to that is when should people should revolt against their government? Even though the people were able to elect government officials in the movie, they were deceived to believe that the current government was the only possible solution to their problems. Therefore, a dilemma arrives; people can elect officials to change their laws, yet at what point is it ineffective to continue a government and instead be remade. I highly recommend this movie to anyone, as it is not only entertaining but also provides a social commentary on the roles of governments in our lives.
How to address global hunger
Despite the fact that in the last decade we have been able to reduce acute hunger substantially, famine and malnutrition continue to plague our world. The panel-discussion explained the application and effects of a cash vs. food-based approach to solve global hunger. The four pillars of food security have to be met in order for a society to be successfully devoid of hunger: availability, access, utilization, and stability.
Availability: food must be available in sufficient quantities based on production, carryover stocks, trade, and aid
Access: people must be able to acquire adequate healthy food based on purchase, gifts, and safety nets (which is the biggest problem)
Utilization: translate food accessed into positive health impacts via cooking, storage, and hygiene practices, WASH, and intra-hh allocation
Stability: must be able to maintain access and utilization over time, through lean seasons, disasters, price spikes, etc. resistance is key
While a free meal addresses one or more of these issues, it does not fix all aspects of the problem. Therefore the solution depends of the situation, based on what the impoverished people need and how fast they can receive it.
Cash-based programs are favored when (cash transfers, food vouchers, jobs, or locally purchased foods):
- Reduce delivery delays by 14 weeks
- Reduce basic grains cost by >50%, less for processed foods
- No effect on price levels/volatility in course markets
- Recipient consumers prefer local over imported food
Food is favored when:
- When people/governments can’t contribute cash
- When food availability is limited by infrastructure damage that disrupts commercial supply chain (natural disasters)
- When specialty foods are need and cheaper to send
- When there isn’t enough local food
- There are some context in which a “free lunch” shipped from the US is best
This served as a reminder to me of my privileges of being a student in a university where my priority is not determining where my next meal would come from.
Up in the Air
When I first started watching the film, I was shocked that there were jobs that required you to fire people. When the main character started firing people, I wasn’t sure if he was good at his job because he was simply following a procedure or if his success came from his apathy, as he lived a relatively simple life devoid of relationships with his only joy coming from traveling the country to acquire ‘air miles’. As the movie progressed we came to understand that the character was in fact living a life devoid of happiness as his desire to reach a certain amount of air miles, served as an excuse from developing loving relationships with his family, significant others, and friends. The character’s growth in the movie served to illustrate the importance in maintaining relationships with those you care about in life, and not completely focusing on work. This is a relatable life lesson since as a student, my priority is to learn from my classes so that I am able to graduate, however I need to also have time to have relax and have fun with friends.