Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Muslim New Year Celebration in Senegal


Senegal is a coastal West African country. The people who live in Senegal are called Senegalese. In Senegal, more than ninety percent of the population is Muslim, and they have their own calendar. According to that calendar, Senegalese celebrate Tadjabone. Tadjabone is a Muslim holiday, which is celebrated traditionally, yet it is controversial.

             Tadjabone is the celebration of the New Year according to the Muslim calendar. In another words, Tadjabone is the name that Senegalese give to the “31 December” of the Muslim calendar. Indeed, the Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar in which months are counted based on the motion of the moon, which makes the Muslim calendar different. However, the Muslin Calendar has twelve months. The last month of the Muslim Calendar is named Dhu-al-Hijja. On the last day of that month, Dhu-al-Hijja, each Senegalese celebrate Tadjabone. Tadjabone is so important to Senegalese people that the day after Tadjabone is a paid holiday. Workers do not have to go to work, and they are paid. It is a way to make sure that Senegalese who celebrate Tadjabone will have time to rest before they go back to work. Therefore, not only Muslims celebrate Tadjabone; Senegalese from other religions celebrate it to.

On the eve of Tadjabone, the Senegalese go to the grocery stores and buy all the groceries they will need for the meal of Tadjabone. At Tadjabone, all the Senegalese cook the same meal. That meal is a traditional meal that was really popular years ago. The reason Senegalese are cooking the same meal is that they are attached to their culture, and, since this part of the culture is a good one, they are keeping it. Another reason is that this meal is very healthy, and, of course, it is really tasty. So, after buying the groceries, the day of Tadjabone they cook that meal named “thierer.” The meal eaten during Tadjabone, “Thierer,” is made with vegetables, meat, and ground millet. While women are cooking, children are preparing their costumes for the night. Indeed, after the diner, children wear their costumes and go from house to house. The boys have to dress with girl clothes and girls dress with boy clothes. They sing and dance and the old persons give them money for their performances, and they go back home. So during Tadjabone Senegalese eat the same meal and children wear costumes and go from house to house singing, dancing, and making people laugh. It seems very positive; however, Tadjabone is the subject of much a controversy.

Tadjabone is supposed to be a Muslim holiday, celebrating the Muslim New Year. However, the way that most of the Senegalese are celebrating it has nothing to do with Islam. For example, boys dressing like girls is not allowed in Islam. Muslims believe that boys should dress with boys’ clothes and not with girls’ clothes. So how can people celebrate the Islamic New Year and do something that is not allowed in Islam? The answer is the culture. There is a blurring line between the culture and the religion, and people have crossed that line. In some Muslim countries, people are having hard time separating culture from religion. However, some Senegalese are aware about that fact. Therefore, those Senegalese are changing the way they celebrate Tadjabone. They celebrate it according to Islamic belief. For example, they spend one part of the night praying to God. Overall, though, the big impact of the culture in the celebration of Tadjabone makes it more a Senegalese holiday than a Muslim holiday.

Tadjabone, the celebration of the Muslim New Year in Senegal, is celebrated by all the Senegalese. They eat the same meal, and some children wear costumes and do their shows in their neighbor’s houses. Those neighbors give them money, and the children go back home. However some people are trying to celebrate Tadjabone according to Islamic belief, thereby reducing the blur between religion and culture. Tadjabone is a special holiday for Senegalese, and most people are happy to celebrate it each year.

 

 

 

The Impact of the Mass-media on Eating Habits

 

This twenty-first century is a century of mass-media. The mass-media is everywhere, we are exposed to it and we hardly can escape from it. The magazines, newspapers, TV shows have their own definition of beauty, which is: skinny is beautiful. They have been shaping human mind so much and have been so successful to it that most people, especially teenagers, believe that no matter how pretty your eyes, nose , lips,…, are if you are not skinny, you are not beautiful. That phenomenon affects some people to an extent that those people are in war with healthy eating habits. They let those media tells them what to not eat in order to be “beautiful” and most of time by applying all those don’t they end up eating only vegies. People should not change their eating habits just to fulfill the criteria of beauty given by the mass-media.

Nearly most of the pictures we have seen, such as magazine pictures, posters and brochures, have either been edited or created thanks to Photoshop. Most of the mass-media, especially the magazines, manipulate the photographs in their magazines. That phenomenon is so popular that even seeing a model on billboard vs. seeing that same model in real life might be disturbing because of the difference between the model in real life and the “artificial” model on the billboard. That couldn’t have been better demonstrated by the video from Dove in its campaign for real beauty. This video named The Evolution of Beauty: Dove Campaign for Real Beauty shows the make-up process that the model has to go through and it is followed by an electronic aesthetical surgery made with Photoshop. Unfortunately, the young lady who sees that billboard thinks that not only she should look like a “computerized picture” but also that she must look likes that picture no matter what. While that young lady is trying hard to achieve her goal of looking like a Photoshop picture, photographers are learning new Photoshop special techniques to get the most out of their images. That will, therefore make that young lady in a perpetual competition against technology.

Some mass-media plant the seeds of an extraordinary fear of weight gain in people’s brain. They terrorize people, like terrorists do. Those mass-media are silent terrorists, murderers in the shadow. They make some people think that if they are not skinny, they are not beautiful. Therefore some people take unbelievable resolutions towards their eating habits, out of fear. Some of those resolutions put those people on the path of death. The first step being to fall in eating disorders illnesses like anorexia nervosa or bulimia, the second step in some cases is the Hereafter, death. Indeed, according to Reflections, an eating disorders treatment center, the mortality rate among people with anorexia has been estimated at 0.56 percent per year, or approximately 5.6 percent per decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population. That “crave for skinny” is making some family lose their beloved ones too soon and some mass-media are responsible for those death.

Beauty is beyond the physical appearance and a well-nourished stomach contributes to beauty. Real beauty is not seen through our physical appearances, but real beauty is seen through our actions. Being beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean being on the cover of a magazine. Everybody in a way or another is beautiful. We all have something to offer to the society, to make it better and that’s why we all are beautiful. The only everlasting beauty is the beauty of the heart. That beauty stand the test of time. Our physical beauty, as we get holder, tends to fade away, whereas our inner beauty tends to be stronger as we get holder. Being beautiful also means being happy. A happy stomach helps to be a happy person. God gave us such a variety of good food, so one’s should let his/her stomach enjoy the mercy of God. While in some parts of the World some people are starving to death because of poverty, some mass-media promote starvation for the sake of beauty. Why should one trust so much some mass-media when it comes to beauty? After all it is known that “Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” Isn’t it time for all of us to see beauty through our own eyes, instead of “mass-media’s eye”?

Some mass-media have a negative impact on eating habits of people. Those mass-media publish brochures, pictures that have been manipulated, thanks to Photoshop. They also place an unconditional fear of gaining weight in some people’s brain. Furthermore, those mass-media give a distorted view of beauty to the public. Life is too short for one’s to allow others to live one’s life. Everybody should have his or her own vision of beauty and fulfill his or her criteria of beauty without making drastic changes towards his or her eating habits. Be is not about following blindly the bulk, but Be is about standing for what we believe. The easiest way to “miss” one’s own life is to follow blindly.

 
Work cited

(http://reflectionsed.com)

Kost, Julieanne. "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® and What's New in Photoshop." PSA Journal 76.5 (2010): 20-21. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 12 July 2011.

Maynard, W. Barksdale. "Thoreau's House at Walden." Art Bulletin 81.2 (1999): 303. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Nov. 2002.

Roberto Tatarefli, et al. "Suicide in anorexia nervosa: A meta-analysis." International Journal of Eating Disorders 36.1 (2004): 99-103. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 12 July 2011.
 
 

 

An African Heart!!


             Fatimah is a young orphan girl in her home of Dakar, in the West African nation of Senegal. Her parents died in the civil war when she was just nine years old. She has to live with her uncle and his wife. They are abusive to her and make her work as a maid for their household and also other people as well. They even make her sell her body at times when they really need the money. Despite all that chaos, Fatimah has dreams.

She dreams of one day coming to the United States to study to be a dancer. Sometimes at night, when she is in her room all alone, she will dance in the moonlight from the window, and then she will lay on her bed and cry herself to sleep. She has secretly been saving money for three years to leave her uncle’s house. One day, she wakes up and realizes that she has enough money to go to America and study dance at the prestigious New York School of Performing Arts in downtown Manhattan! She buys a plane ticket and leaves the next day. She is only sixteen.

She arrives in New York and finds a job as a waitress at a small café in downtown Manhattan. At first, she has to live in a homeless shelter, but she saves enough money to rent a tiny room downtown. Sometimes, she sneaks onto Broadway and looks at all the famous dancers, and dreams one day that that will be her. She starts school the next semester. She has no friends at first, but eventually a young dance student, who works at the college, named Alexander befriends her. Alexander is one of the best dancers in the school, and everyone thinks that he will be an internationally famous dancer one day.

Fatimah is a shy student at first. However, she comes out of her shell. Her instructors and fellow classmates see that she has real talent! She and Alexander begin to get closer, and they fall in Love! Alexander is dancing one day, in a big rehearsal, and he falls and breaks his leg! The doctors tell him that he will never dance again! Meanwhile, Fatimah’s career is skyrocketing. She begins to get jobs on Broadway and starts to make good money. In another year, she gains international fame, and this causes her uncle and his wife to hear about her from Africa. They tried to come to America and take control over her. They were planning to tell the school her real age (sixteen) and try to get custody of her so they can get her money. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t have the visa.

Alexander becomes extremely sad. His dream to become an international dancer was over. He feels like his dreams have been stolen by the woman he loves. As time goes on Alexander becomes more and more irritated, harder to get along with, to an extent that Fatimah has to choose between her career and the man of her dreams. After serious thoughts, she decides to put her career on hold and help Alexander to overcome his injuries. After all Alexander has always been there for her and it is never late to make money.  She stayed one year out of work, taking care of her “baby”. Because of Fatimah’s unconditional support, Alexander decided to change his career to a Business manager. One year later, Alexander opened his own dance studio for handicapped children. Alexander’s injuries not only kept him away from his dreams but also made him handicapped. But no matter what, Fatimah always stands by his side, her one year break ends up being the end of her career at Broadway and the beginning of an unconditional support for her Alexander. What would one not do out of love?