Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Ties Not Bound Can Be Volatile Too

Should a woman forgive a stalker? Should she be compensated for "damages" for mental, physical and emotional distress? Or is the perpetrator the victim? Should she then counsel him like Susan Sarandon did in Dead Man Walking?
(From wikipaedia: Dead Man Walking is a work of non-fiction by Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and one of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille. She has become a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Her crusade began in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1981, through a correspondence she maintained with a convicted murderer, Patrick Sonnier, who was sentenced to death by electrocution. She visited Sonnier in prison and agreed to be his spiritual adviser in the months leading up to his death. The experience gave Prejean greater insight into the process involved in executions and she began speaking out against capital punishment. At the same time, she also founded Survive, an organization devoted to providing counselling to the families of victims of violence.)
The issue of meanness and insecurity, controlling personalities, and wedding jitters were dissected in Oprah recently. And this morning's MHI "Wanita lebih banyak bercakap daripada lelaki" (Senyum Kambing, Utusan Malaysia, trans. "Why women are more articulate than men") underscores the importance of dialogue, instead of violence/aggression/war, to resolve differences or conflicts, just as Mel Gibson revealed that what women want is "somewhere between conversation and chocolates". Not to escape, 'act out' or deny; to quote Sharon Stone: "Women may fake orgasm, but men can fake whole relationships".
Here's another interesting piece from kakiseni.com:
Talk Is Action Panic Buttons – Culture and Crisis in Malaysia and the Region: Analysing the conditions within which we are forced to endure
by Benjamin McKay
15-06-2006
There will be some among you who believe that talking about problems, about crises and about rights is a passive act. All talk, no action. I disagree with those sentiments. Talk, conversation, dialogue, argument and general discourse ARE actions. Identifying problems and the responses to those problems are important diagnostic activities too. A surgeon does not cut you open without knowing what it is they are looking for. Likewise artists and activists need to theoretically and critically analyse the conditions within which they are forced to endure. It can also be a cathartic experience as anyone would have ascertained had they heard the ‘public’ responses to these issues at the public forum called Panic Buttons – Culture and Crisis in Malaysia and the Region at The Actors Studio Bangsar last Sunday (11 June 2006). It ended a preceding two-day Roundtable Forum on “Crisis, Performance, Rights” at Valentine Willie Fine Art.

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