Saturday 2 July 2016

Hello from Abdelkalik

Hello my classmates in EFS. I really miss you all and miss our teachers too.
You may know that I and some of our classmates joined the EAP and we will start next few days, so I think we will spent sometime remembering you, peculator in brake time. If you, guys, get some free times don't be shy to visit us in Granville TAFE.
Sea you there.
Abdelkalik

Wednesday 1 June 2016

Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)




Cesar chavez crop2.jpg
Cesar Chavez



Cesar Chavez (March 31, 1927 - April 23, 1993) was a Mexican-American labor leader who used non-violent methods to fight for the rights of migrant farm workers in the southwestern USA. Migrant farm workers are people who do farm labor, moving from farm to farm and from town to town as their work is needed - it is difficult work that pays very little and can be dangerous due to the use of pesticides (pesticides are chemicals that kill bugs and can make people sick).
Chavez founded a union, a group that works to help increase the wages and improve the working conditions and safety of farm workers. He also organized strikes (when workers refuse to work until improved working conditions and salary demands are met) and nation-wide boycotts of agricultural products in order to help workers (a boycott is a protest in which the public is asked not to buy certain products). Chavez went on many hunger strikes, refusing to eat until violence against strikers ended and until legislators (law makers) voted to make laws improving the lives of farm workers. He was also jailed many times during his fight against terrible migrant worker conditions.
Chavez was born in San Luis, Arizona. When Cesar was 10 years old, his parents became migrant farm workers after losing their family farm. As a youth, Cesar worked part-time in the farm fields with his family in Arizona and in California as they moved from farm to farm, harvesting the fields. Cesar served in the US Navy during World War 2. When Cesar Chavez returned from the war, he labored as a farm worker in California. Chavez married Helen Fabela in 1948; they eventually had 8 children.
Chavez and his wife taught Mexican immigrants to read and organized voting registration drives for new US citizens. He joined an organization that worked for the rights of farm workers. In 1962, Chavez started his own union (a workers' rights group), the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). The name of the union was changed to the United Farm Workers (the UFW) in 1974. The union organized many farm worker strikes, resulting in many bitter and violent fights between the grape growers and the farm workers; Chavez and many union people were jailed in the struggle. Some agreements were made between the farm workers union and the growers, but in order to force growers to further improve farm worker conditions, Chavez organized a nation-wide lettuce boycott.
In 1968, Chavez organized a five-year "grape boycott" a movement that urged people to stop buying California grapes until farm workers had contracts insuring better pay and safer working conditions.
After a lifetime of valiantly fighting for social justice, Chavez died of natural causes at the age of 66 (in 1993). To this day, Chavez's children and grandchildren continue his fight for social justice. 

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920 – 1993)


Oodgeroo Nunuccal, photo courtesy University of Queensland Press

Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Turning points: 

  • 1933- Worked as a domestic servant in Brisbane.
  • 1941- Enlisted in the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS).
  • 1942- Get married "Bruce Raymond Walker". 
  • The couple became involved in the Communist Party of Australia—the only political party in Australian did not support the White Australia policy at this time.
  • 1946- Her son "Denis" was born. The couple had separated.
  • 1964- Published her first collection "We Are Going".
  • At the same time as developing her reputation as a poet, Walker became increasingly engaged in political activism in support of Aboriginal rights, social justice.
  • 1969- Attended the World Council of Churches’ Consultation on Racism in London. She returned to Australia convinced of the need for Aboriginal activists to work within their own political organisations rather than white-dominated ones.
  • 1971- Because of power struggles within the Brisbane Council, she left the organisation and returned to her ancestral home of North Stradbroke Island.



Achievements:
  • Attended Dunwich State School. 
  • Became interested in writing poetry. By the late 1950s she had joined the Brisbane arm of the Realist Writer’s Group.
  • First collection in 1964 was an immediate commercial success, selling more than ten thousand copies and making Walker the best-selling Australian poet since C. J. Dennis. 
  • 1966- Published her second poetry collection: "The Dawn is at Hand".
  • 1970- (1970, rev. eds. 1981, 1990) - A third collection, "My People: A Kath Walker Collection".
  • She became involved in the Queensland Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (QCAATSI) and came to play an important role in the national organisation, the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). The FCAATSI played a leading role in the agitation that led to voting rights (in 1965) and Australian citizenship (in 1967) for Aborigines.
  • Entered a new phase of her career where she assumed the role of educator and cultural guardian and ambassador for her people.
  • 1972- Published "Stradbroke Dreamtime".
  • 1978- Was poet-in-residence at Bloomsburg State College, in Pennsylvania, USA, and visited a number of other US Colleges.
  • 1981- Published "Father Sky and Mother Earth".
  • 1988- Published "The Rainbow Serpent".
  • 1982- Awarded the FAW Christopher Brennan award for her contribution to Australian literature.
  • 1984- Visited China as part of an Australian cultural delegation, the trip providing the inspiration for her fourth and final poetry collection, Kath Walker in China (1988).
  • 1988- Awarded honorary doctorates from Macquarie University.
  • 1989- Awarded honorary doctorates from Griffith University.
  • 1990 -Published "Legends of Our Land".
  • 1991- Awarded honorary doctorates from Monash University.
  • 1992- Awarded honorary doctorates from Queensland University of Technology.
  • 1992- Published "Australia’s Unwritten History: More Legends of Our Land".



Biography for Nelson Mandela




mandela_pic



Turning points 

  • Became increasingly aware of the unjust nature of South African Society
  • Resigned from the ANC and work underground.
  • 1960- Decided to protest more forcibly after the Sharpeville massacre of 63 black South African’s.
  • 1962- Mandela had been arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the notorious Robben Island prison.
  • 1990- Released from prison. It was an emotional moment watched by millions around the globe.



Achievements:

    • Finished his degree and became a lawyer.
    • 1944 - Helped found the ANC Youth League.
    • 1952- Opened the first "Black Law" firm in South Africa.
    • 1990- Released from prison. It was an emotional moment watched by millions around the globe.
    • 1993- awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with F.W. De Klerk.
    • 1994- Inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa.




    Sunday 22 May 2016

    Fred Hollows (1929 - 1993)

    1929- Born in New Zealand.
    1960- Moved to Australia for work.
    1965- Became head of the Eye Department at a Sydney hospital.
    1970's- Helped launch a national program to attack eye disease in Aboriginal Australians.
    1980- Traveled all over the world to help set up eye health programs in developing countries. 
    1989- Discovered suffering from cancer.
    1993 -Died in Sydney. He left his wife and their five children.

    Wednesday 18 May 2016

    Brian Syron 1934 - 1993


    • 19 November 1934- Born in the Sydney. 
    • 1952 - Became a male model and started to learn acting at the Ensemble Theatre Company in Sydney.
    • 1960- Studied under the late Hayes Gordon who was a New York trained American actor/director. 
    • 1961- left Australia to further pursue male modelling work in Europe with fashion houses then moved to New York where he decided to resume acting. 
    • 1961- Was the first Australian accepted into the legendary Stella Adler Studio in New   York. His fellow classmates included Robert de Niro and Warren Beatty.
    • 1962- Studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London
    • 1967- Co-found a Theater Company in Saratoga Springs, New York, tour as a director with the Boston/Herald Travellers Shakespeare Company, tour through the Appalachian Mountains and work with the Louisville Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati In the Park as well as productions in Ohio, New Jersey and Paducah, Kentucky. 
    • 1968- Toured the Southern states of America playing in Atlanta, Georgia; Roenoke, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
    • 1969- Returned to Australia, Sydney. Taught a group of urban Aboriginal actors to        study Stanislavsky or acting from an Indigenous perspective.
    • 1970- Joined the Old Tote Theatre in Kensington, Sydney, where he was the first Indigenous Australia to work as a director in the mainstream Australian theater industry.
    • 1973- Instigated The Artists' Group Theatre to moving to The Stables Theatre in Kings Cross.
    • 1973- Invited to teach drama to The Resurgent Society inmates of Parramatta Gaol. 
    • 1974- Seen in Bruce McGuinness' film Time to Dream angrily and eloquently denunciating a Northern Territory arts administrator. 
    • 14 October 1993- Died in Sydney.




    Wednesday 27 April 2016

    Schools failing in climate change education: researcher



    Notes:


    Students not being taught about climate change in schools.

    * What teachers' personal beliefs about climate change were,and focused on their professional beliefs.

    General population, teachers thought about the causes of climate change but didn't think beyond the initial causes.

    On a professional level, all the teachers felt that climate change should be taught in the classroom.

    Ensure teachers have access to best practice education for their students.

    Urgent introduction of climate change education into the curriculum.



    Summary:


    The article explains the risks of lack of attention to the dangers of climate change, especially in the classroom, by the students and teachers. it calls attention to this subject and be given adequate attention.


    Personal Reflection:


    I think that the issue of climate change has become a major concern for the world today. Increased attention to its dangers became important, especially in schools, particularly for students and teachers.


    link to the article:


    http://www.smh.com.au/queensland/schools-failing-in-climate-change-education-researcher-20160425-goensx