When Love Becomes Voiceless…

“I missed you that’s all. I just wanted to see you, you know I adore you.” I don’t even bother to glance his way while I recite those words. I know his eyes are still indifferent, not like the persistent fire that they possessed when we were rolling around and kissing minutes ago while he probably believed things would evolve into sex. It hurts that I understand him so well, it hurts that I have now become so accustomed to replacing the word love with adore seeing as how I feel much less foolish when silence follows I adore you…

- Shannon T. Boodram

There are those days when you feel like breaking down. You’ve tried to be the good girl, the one who tries not to mess around or give in to those frivolous desires, the one who feels bad when she even shares a kiss but knows enough to accept that sexuality is a part of life to be appreciated. It is those days you become the bad guy, not giving in makes you “CHICKEN”. Even when you feel like it’s Love, it can’t grow because once you say those words “I LOVE YOU” everything changes, you become doubtful & self-conscious about everything.

I’ve always thought of myself as a lover & not a fighter in all literal sense because I tend to tell someone I love you easily no matter what type of relationship it may be. I tell even my guy friends I love them and people look at me weird. Me saying I love you doesn’t mean I want to be your girlfriend either. It just means I care for you, no matter who you are. You being my man and me saying I love you after we start dating also doesn’t mean we will get married. It just means I care enough about you till the appropriate time arrives to make future decisions. It’s one step at a time.

Love is an emotion that should be given sparingly. It is also an emotion that shouldn’t be selfish either. When my love becomes voiceless to the point where I can’t say it to my “man” without being judged or feeling awkward about where that leaves us or in what position, then there is a problem. I don’t want to have to substitute words to make you feel better, whoever you may be, whatever kind of relationship it may be. I want to be free to love without a reason to give.

My Final Project

Hi Guys,
So this is what I came up with people. Love it or go home jk, but I do need you to love it, thanks.



Tell me what you think...!

My Official Script

So my video is officially ready and I didn't want to share it officially until I had my sources down for my final video. Sort of a worded version of my video.

So here it is;
0:00-0:29; clip from Al-Jazeera's Empire
0:30;  Text
0:31-0:49; clip from Al-Jazeera's Empire
0:50-1:10; clip from Al-Jazeera's Empire
1:11; Text
1:12-1:56; clip from Al-Jazeera interview with Jan25 Voices creator
1:58-3:06; Music by Zero-Project (Celtic Dream)
1:58-2:03; clip from Al-Jazeera interview with Clay Shirky
2:04-2:10; clip from Al-Jazeera interview with Evgeny Morozov
2:11-2:17; clip from Al-Jazeera interview with Evgeny Morozov
2:18-3:05; Tweet Videos by YouTube users @iaskyou2 & @bintmasrya
3:06; Text
3:07-3:29; clip by Ahmed Mohammed for YouTube user @moodyyoutube
3:30-3:47; clip by Ahmed Mohammed for YouTube user @moodyyoutube
3:48-3:50; Credits

So this is my form of script writing which might not be all that reat but it does give you a faint idea of what is the story behind my video. I look forward to hearing your views about my video. I'll be posting it in a bit and you can always go to my YouTube page and check out my videos.

Final Project Draft

Hi Guys,

So you know how my last post showed the cluelessness I have of writing scripts and putting down what I want to do so as to help you understand what direction I am going. Well this is what I ended up with after a hard day's work. Trust me that before my final video is ready, I will surely put up a more detailed script so for now watch this and tell me what you think.



PS: I know this is longer than what was expected, but forgive me, I couldn't bring myself to cut out certain stuff, that is why it is called a draft, I need your opinions people 'cause although it will be sad to lose some parts, some cutting needs to be done.

The Script

So as much as I love the band called THE SCRIPT, sadly this is not about my love for them or any of their songs but this is a detailed script of my video for my final project and as much as I will really love to tell you guys how awesome it is making this video, I think it will be a lie. It is definitely inspiring but the behind the scenes is never as easy as you think.

In other news, I might as well go ahead and give you a "detailed" preview to my video and note the quotation marks. In all truth and honesty I don't have an exact second by second clip detail, it is still being developed. If I give you a second by second clip update, trust me it will change, I know myself.

So, what I am going to give you now is more or less what my whole video will contain, not the timeframe but information about the clips themselves and what they will be about;
* News clips from AlJazeera.
* Clips of protests especially does used in trailer.
* Screenshots of journalists tweeting, #jan25, #egypt, #twitterrevolution amongst other tweets based on the Egyptian revolution.
* Clips from YouTube videos thanks to Al Jazeera, Asmaa Mahfouz amongst others.

Some may consider this a no good attempt at writing a script, but the one thing people need to realize is that change is constant and so there will be changes made, but a more detailed script will be posted soon enough. Note though that if you don't like my form of scriptwriting you can always listen to The Script, trust me they do write way better.

My KYHOI!

Okay so apart from the many problems I have and the fact I am always busy, it is always hard to come up with that BIG IDEA by myself that will change the world. I reember when I first saw that word (KYHOI) I was so confused as to what exactly it meant. So here's the twister I know I am supposed to give this illustrious defense to my idea, but in all truth and honesty I really don't know what to say.

Going back to what we discussed in class I decided to go off some stuff that stuck out to me in lecture. I have questions that need answers and a bunch that really don't have answers. I figured out the part of getting those big ideas but I think what Douglas Rushkoff had to say was kind of what really stuck out for me. Every generation always tends to be a time period behind the present technology. When we do get to use this technology, the question is how is it being used and who is it benefiting?

I don't really want to go in depth, so plain & simple I can tell you one thing. I don't have a big idea and I think I found a few that are worth spending time enhancing on the groundwork of but still don't stand out to me. I know that at some point ideas will probably start popping up constantly in my head but till then all I can do is conciously look out for one that I will really understand.

To end this, I can successsfully tell you that I constantly tend not to make sense but there are questions that I have that do need to be answered. If media is not just a tool, but a social movement, why do we need to understand that media is just a form of passing the message but not the fight? Like I said my question itself might not make sense and my reasoning may not be the "right" one but there is something deeper around that area that needs to be worked on. Maybe more focus will bring my big idea from something related, but one thing is for sure, you don't have to make sense to succeed.

When exactly does "The Future Generation" come in?

So this is a video I came across from back home. It answers the real question. We talk about making the world better for future generations but we lack the understanding of the future generation being now and not later.

We have failed to understand that the future is truly not a timezone. THE FUTURE IS HERE!

Review, Rewind & then Fast Forward.

Hey Guys,

So how was the spring break? mine was undeniably awesome, thank you. I spent it here in good old Manhattan, KS that is known so much for it's bi-polar, I mean "bi-winning" weather. Anyway this week got me thinking about the future and exactly who I want to be when I grow up.

Enough of the slightly emotional information but I guess being stress-free has it's perks. I guess you may have noticed the slight additions to my blog, hope it looks good. Anyway I have been researching on what I want to do for my final project, came up with some really good stuff too. I spoke with a "comrade" on You-Tube and was informed about a good program called "Animoto" I think that is something that shows exactly what direction my project is going.

I have come to realize that this won't be easy, life itself isn't easy. One thing worth noting though is that "this too shall pass". No matter the problem, commit yourself to solving it, there is always a way through.

Egypt & Twitter!

So this is my trailer about Egypt and Twitter. This is for my #Anth522 class where we address mediated cultures around us.



First of all I will like to address the fact that I have a huge headache as I write this. It has been real tough coming up with a good video but I am glad I did this. Whoever said making videos was easy was lying, but moving on I hoped you liked it. It didn't say so much about Twitter but it touched on the topic of change an how it is affecting that society.

How have the videos and other social movement mediums played a part in our personal lives and decisions. How has Twitter given a voice to this society to communicate with the world. What was the relevance of Twitter to their revolution?

The Cry of Hope; The Cry of The People....!

Hey Guys, So lately I have been in kind of a funk. Coming across different videos that make me feel lucky to be alive but also very angry and teary eyed. These are some videos I came across that spoke about stuff that truly matter. The first is "Poison Fire"; a short documentary, while the second is a new movie that will tell the story the way it is. It is called "Black Gold".





Gas flares play a huge part in the whole Nigerian Dilemma. They say that Nigerians are this or that, but coming from Rivers State which is in the South-South, it is always sad to hear how scared I am to go back there, even to visit family. Instead we live in Lagos City where hard-work is important. People ask why I am scared but they don't understand. Like every society fighting for change the people here are fighting for jobs and the like, hence the rebels or militants are formed.

These militants kidnap people and do as they feel, you want to admonish them but sometimes you can't help but think they are doing it for the right reasons. Amnesty was offered and a few accepted, but the question is how long is this going to last. It scares me more every time when I know I am connected to people involved because of where I come from. Okrika is a town that scares me every time, the violence is enough to keep you on your toes.

One Nigerian artist that always inspires me and makes me cry sometimes is MI. In his new album MI2, he talks about more things that make sense. One song that made me think hard was "CRAZE". I'll lay out the final verse for you;

[Verse 3]
Na so craze dey start
Before we start to kidnap, e don
tey wey we dey struggle and the
times are hard
Niger Delta where we live is like
a hole in the map
Only the oil is respected but
the people are crap
I cant go to the farm because the
soil is bad
Cant fish anymore, the fish are
packing their bag
I discovered that the oil people
paid all my leader
I cant complain unless they do
me Ken Saro Wiwa
So when the shooting and looting
and the poor thing
Or you pour in the boot is the new
thing
Think about the polluting and
using the land and refusing to
pop in a few things
Think about all the people that
can survive so others can make
money off the fewer that don’t
provide
No NEPA mehn, we gotta buy diesel
for light
And after everything they raise
the fuel price

How long shall the people cry? How long shall we wait before corruption is gone and the people get what is theirs?

Egypt & The Twitter Revolution.

So I've been going round in circles on what I wanted to do for my final project. I finally settled on Twitter and how it has played a part in all these many revolutions, especially Egypt's. It has been about a month since we started seeing these revolutions take place from the comfort of our homes, but before this there was a social movement that moved these to the streets. Twitter amongst other mediums has played a major part in this worldwide change. Twitter along with Google maps is one example that is evident. Now you can tell the position where a tweet is generated. I believe this is an important thing we should look at.

Okay, before I start rambling on like this isn't a blog but a test, here are some articles I came across. The first shows how important it is to look at this revolution, but also consider how it affects the American society and their choices. Hadar, Leon T. (2011, January 29). Start the Twitter Revolution without Me. Retrieved March 7, 2011, from The Cato Institute Web site. In this article he delibrates on how this affects us.

My second article focuses on the way twitter has played into the revolution as an African. It shows how the African community views this as opposed to what the world sees. It is from the The East African (Nairobi), February 2011,called "The Revolution in Black Africa Won't Be Played Out in the Streets".

My final article shows the actual result of the tweets from Egypt and what was really going on. It shows us what was really going on in egypt between the Internet and Twitter. It was from Advertising Age,February 7, 2011, WHAT THE RETURN OF INTERNET IN EGYPT LOOKED LIKE ON TWITTER; Dumenco's Trendrr Chart of the Week.

Okay, now that I am done listing facts and the like. The real question comes. So what? Well this means we have a trend that is going to build gradually. Revolutions are going to come continually. The question is are we ready for it? Like famous twitter Egypt revolutionist @iyad_elbaghdadi tweeted for the whole world to see "#Mubarak: "We're not #Tunisia". #Gaddafi: "We're not #Egypt". Whoever is next will say "We're not #Libya"."

Who next before we realize that the right thing needs to be done.

Early Technology in Africa

Hey Guys,

So..it's been an interesting week so far. The Egyptian president finally gave up his seat and there was an obvious outburst of celebration. So in class we have been talking about technology & being mediated obviously and we decided to investigate on how technology & writing affected the early cultures we are studying in our different groups.

On a personal level I wasn't too pumped about this because history has never really been my thing, never been great with dates. I will be studying Africa and one thing that gave me motivation was that Egypt used the present technology revolution like Twitter & Facebook to change their situation. At this point you come to ask yourself how things would have been done differently if there was no writing. They always communicated through pictures and word of mouth in Africa, but when writing came into play, communication became more diverse.

I came across a book that kind of covers this; European-Language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa. It talks about the different things that came into play and the different languages involved in different parts of Africa. It covers how people came in contact with it and how they handled it as well as it's progression.

This is a blog and I feel like I have been talking about a lot of stuff you might not really care for or you might find boring, so moving on, I guess the point I am trying to pass across is that we have been mediated for so long we don't even think we have a point where it actually began. I guess we just need to realize that all we have to accept that we are mediated, the question is how do we want to deal with it?

My First Vlog!

Hey peeps this is an attempt of mine on vlogging. Tell me what you think.

Life As We Know It!

We all tend to take life most times at face value. We fail to see the potential behind each cause. We fail to understand the fact that no matter what we choose to believe, we have to agree that peace is what we all aim for. We all need to accept the fact that at some point we are all here for a reason, to inspire, to share, to impact and most of all that being one's self is the key to achieving this.

Lots of Love.

Becoming Mediated

Hi Everyone-

My first blog post. Here's looking forward to a great experience and letting you all in on the things that inspire me.

Love,
Belema Iyo.