Valkyrie

With the high demand of entertainment in today's world, movies and theaters have just became part of our life (especially in Singapore). All kinds movies ranging from comedy to horror are highly demanded by youths and adults. What intrigue me the most is the recent movie titled "Valkyrie". Starring Tom Cruise as Colonel Stauffenberg who opposed Hitler's ides and he felt that Hitler is destroying Germany instead of making Germany a better place to live in. Hence, the story went on telling the story on how Colonel Staunffenberg allied himself with others who opposed Hitler to assassinate him. Of course eventually the plan failed and those Hitler's traitors were killed.

Ok.. Enough about synopsis and the spoiler. What has to be discussed here is the content of movie regarding the cultures in it. In my opinion, although the movie is interesting and based on historical factual events , It lacks of German cultures in it and has been too Americanized. The movie is starred by Holywood stars (Tom Cruise), directed by American director (Bryan Singer) and spoken in AMERICAN English - where are the Germans ???It is ironic considering that the core of the movie is about history of Germany. Moreover, the most important person (other than Tom Cruise), Hitler, lacks of German elements in it. Hitler is supposed to be one of the swiftest, influeantial, charismatic person on earth (If you do not believe, watch the video below), but what happened in the movie? Hitler barely spoke a full sentence (I calculated, he spoke around 5 full sentences during the whole movie and that's in English!).


Adolf Hitler giving a speech (1933)

So... What do you guys about the movie and the video? Does the director do these in purpose considering Hitler was the worst enemy of the United States (cultural influence). Or the director was just thinking that this movie goers would be mostly American, thus he decided to do it the American way.

Celebrity couple Glenn Ong, Jamie Yeo call it quits

Moving off from politics, wars, religious disputes and all the serious matters that happen around the world, now I shall talk about something less serious and more entertaining in nature. Today, I will review something about our local entertainers. It is none other than the shocking news about the separation between celebrity couple Glenn Ong and Jamie Yeo who announced their divorce on Friday the 13th. It is DJ Glenn Ong who gave the brief statement about their separation at 8.30 am during his morning radio show, Morning Express. It is reported that MediaCorp subsequently announced that the couple had “grown apart in recent years due to their careers and individual differences”. The decision was a “mutual” and “amicable” one.

After reading this article, I finally realized that communication is one of the crucial keys in unlocking a successful marriege (you don't need to be a rocket-scientist to realize this). It is stated that the celebrity couple has grown apart in recent years due to their carrers. Obviously that the couple did not have the time to communicate and spend time with each other. Moreover, I believed that the individual differences stated above is the 'after-effect' of not communicating for a long time.

Many people should know, at least by now, that communication is essential in building a good relationship among people, not just for married couples. However, what to be an issue here is that, although people know (by theory) that communication is important, many still clueless on how to apply it to their everyday life. Factors such as carrers and dominance in a relationship may hinder a good quality communication between partners or among friends.

Food for thought: What is the best way to have a good communication with so many 'bad' factors hanging around ready to snatch the intimacy between couples and good relationship between friends?

Religous dispute

Cabinet clash over use of "Allah"
(Taken from TODAY newspaper, 7th Feb 2009)

Still touching on religious matter, this article would analyze the power of how certain sensitive words affect people.

The article is about dispute that arose in Malaysia when Catholic Herald, a Catholic newspaper, used the word "Allah". Malaysian Home Ministry claimed that the word is the preserve of followers of Islam in Malaysia.

Nonetheless, Mr. Bernard Dompok, leader of the Upko political party in Sabah and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said that the term "Allah" is widely used by Christians around the world as reference to "God" and there is no reason for the Home Ministry to continue harassing the Catholic Herald.

The issue is now before the High Court with the Catholic Church seeking a ruling on the right to continue using the word.

The only rational explanation as to why such issue is being fought over in Malaysia, lies on the place where this word is being used. in short, this article pointed out the indisputable fact that our cultures and sorroundings affect our perceptions on certain things. Moreover, it is also to be noted that our behaviour are based on our perception rather than on realtiy, and it is sometimes deceptive.

As we know, Malaysia is a Muslim country where people valued their religous strongly. This has caused the Muslim in Malaysia to acquire a sense of belonging in the word "Allah" which they frequently use to refer to their God, ignoring the fact that "Allah" is indeed a general term as a reference to any "God".