10 dos & don'ts for parents in trouble

Hey, you !  Yes, you !

You're a parent ?  You have any children ? 

... and this child is a TEENAGER ?

Most of all, you want to keep your teen happy ?

Stop your trouble, dear soldier !  I've got the solution !

Yep, I know what you feel. You don't know which behaviour will be good or not. Here are 10 dos & don'ts to help you find the way to educate your teen.

DO

✔ You must talk to your child

✔ You should set limits

✔ You have to help your teen when he needs you

✔ You have to listen to your kid

✔ You have to pump him up when he's depressed

✔ You have to tell him to keep smiling when a bully insults him

DON'T

✘ You shouldn't forbid things with no reason

✘ You musn't drink alcohol nor smoke in front of your teen (don't give the bad example)

✘ You shouldn't behave with your teen as a friend (but as a parent)

✘ You musn't interfere with his private life

Then, you may have a great life, with sunny light every day ! The last thing you have to do is to buy a Polaroid camera and to take an amazing family portrait...

*TADAAAAA !*

To finish, I just recommend you to be yourself, fair and understanding.

Picture source : weheartit.com (improved by myself)

About the Indian reservations

Hi everyone !  I'm back.

In today's post I will become another person in a kind of role play. I want to talk about the Indian reservations (areas set up by the US government for the Indians).

There, the situation is really bad : people are poor, there's no job, no doctors ...

Houses on an Indian rez

If I were an Indian spokesperson, I would write a speech to Barack Obama to change this situation. OK, you have to imagine me as an Indian (that's my role). 

Here is the speech I wrote :

"Mr President,

As a Native American spokesperson, I invite you today to become aware of the Indian situation on the different reservations.

I ask you first, never to forget that an Indian is an American like everyone. Have a look at the awful poverty which affects my fellows. We just want to live a decent life with the bare minimum so that we can finally be happy.

Many problems exists so I would like to start with the lack of running water in the houses. Indeed, we don't have running water at home at all. Incredible, isn't it, when you're a citizen of the world's leading economic power ! To give you an example, all these people can't take a shower, go to the toilets cleanly or really simply wash their hands and have a drink. You can imagine that they live in complete unhealthiness.

And, I won't teach you anything if I say that unhealthiness creates diseases. It would be nice to have a lot of doctors, so that they can heal the population. But, in my reservation there are only two doctors for eight thousands people ! So, when you're sick, and even if it's an emergency, you have to wait for a minimum of three months. And the most often, you die. While your family is crying at the cemetry, an other member of the family becomes sick. It never ends and it continues endlessly, worse and worse, always worse.

For example, when our child has been sick for three months, and when the doctor says : "It's forty dollars please", I really don't know how we can pay. To pay the doctor, you have to earn money, therefore you need to work. But the problem is the Indians are jobless.

Moreover, these poor families which can't eat enough have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan to fight. Most of time they never come back and die for their country. "THEIR" country ? Is that a joke ? This type of joke doesn't make me laugh. THEIR country, the United States of America, not only let them die in illness or hunger, but also push them to risk their neck, to die for this same country. What an unfair situation... Which century are we living in ? Perhaps four hundred years ago ?

Mr Obama... We, Indians, have suffered enough. Now, it's time to change.

To kill  poverty and unemployement, all the Native Americans expect you to release funds to build decent housing, with of course running water and all that everyone needs to live properly. 

We expect you to :  

• release funds for favouring doctors to work by us 

• release funds to build schools and universities 

• release funds to favor the creation of companies 

• release funds for new roads and public transport 

• favor economic and educational exchanges between us and the rest of the country, and to integrate us in US life

In conclusion, Mr President, we just want you to regard each Native American as full citizen."

This situation makes me think about a quote :

"Don't feel sorry for yourself, life is always worse somewhere else."

See you soon !

Picture source : wordpress.com

Read a book written by a Native American

Hi everyone !  Did you find the airport ?

You're in the plane, ready to sleep because the travel will be very long. BUT infact you can't sleep, it's something impossible for you, for example because you're too exciting, or because you're in holydays, or quite simply because you're happy. As you can see we haven't landed at the moment, right now you're just comfortably sat (or not) on this plane, which will take you (if there's no problem) to the USA.

Did you understand what I say ? Yeah, you're too a-lot-of-things to sleep ! So you need to read. And today I'm here to help you in your choice. Let's go !

My proposal is .... Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko !

➳ What's the story about ?

This book deals with Tayo, a young Native American. He has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. The horrors of captivity have killed him inside, in his heart, and his will to survive.

His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation increases his feeling of estrangement. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution.

Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent of afflictions, which is : despair.

↑ Ceremony, at Penguins Edition.

➳ Who is the author ?

Leslie Marmon Silko was born on March 5, 1948 in Albuquerque, in the New Mexico state, in the USA. She is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe. Her literary movment is the Native American Renaissance. Her novel, Ceremony, was first published in March 1977.







Buy the book HERE !


Enjoy your reading !


Pictures source : weheartit.com (improved by myself), wikipedia, babalio.com.

Prepare your suitcase...

Hey travellers !

Today I want you to prepare your suitcase, in this cloudy december saturday. Be ready to enjoy your journey. I promise nothing ; but I believe that you won't be disappointed.

This is your luggage, OKAY nobody's got a suitcase so cool but imagine it's yours. Aaaaaaaah.... Yeah I know it's very pleasant. Now stop dreaming and come back to reality guys.

Because this travel is a surprise for you, I didn't put pins on the map (contrary to the map of Australia I showed you earlier on the blog). But now you've seen where we'll land... Ladies and gentlemen, be ready to discover : AMERICA !

See you at the airport and don't forget your boarding pass !

Pictures source : weheartit.com (improved by myself & not), leprochainvoyage.com

Third and last stop : Ayers Rock !

Hey travelers !

Today, enjoy ! We're doing the LAST STOP... But don't cry ! After this ultimate stop in the Outback, we will discover another place as nice as Australia. You will see ! Now stop spoiling and let's go to AYERS ROCK !

➳ Open your eyes and see...

Ayers Rock : front view.

Ayers Rock by night.

 Ayers Rock from the sky.

Ayers Rock : front view and incredible sky & colors.

Now, you've seen how wonderfull Ayers Rock is.

➳ A few words about Ayers Rock

Ayers Rock (or Uluru) measures 348 meters. This place is sacred by Aborigines. They sometimes make ceremonies and paint to celebrate their supernatural ancestors.

A very cute Aboriginal girl.

We are at the end of our Australian trip...

The kangaroo says good bye...

Don't worry : we won't forget you. So, prepare your suitcase and be ready to fly ! We'll meet at the airport.

Pictures source : weheartit.com, beauty-places.com, weheartit.com (improve by myself)

Second stop : Melbourne

MELBOURNE... What a great city !

Today in our SECOND STOP we visit the streets of Melbourne, and we get super good surprises. Follow your guide !

At first, have a look to this view at sunrise...

➳ Street art

In this post I want to share with my readers something I ADORE : street art.

I think that's the best way to express yourself. Then, the city becomes more colored and funnier. Let me show you some street arts I found.

The last one shows an Aboriginal child. I really love it because the Aborigines have suffered a lot, almost the stolen generation. This painting represents the Aboriginal pain and their memory.

➳ Historical review

The first inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines. They used to have a very pacific life. I imagine they were happy, they certainly lived with their family or in tribes. Everything was OK for them. 

But one day, suddenly, white fellows arrived in Australia. Unfortunatly, they were "bad spririts" and were very mean with the Aborigines. 

Approximately from 1869 to 1969, the Australian government (white fellows) decided to remove Aboriginal children from their families.  The law said that the Whites wanted to give them proper education. This law was just an enormous lie, because in fact, they wanted the Aboriginal culture to die out. We call this the stolen generation.

These whites were, in fact, racist people. The Aboriginal children and families from the stolen generation were broken after that. The 13th february 2008, the government apologized for the harm they have done.

Picture source : theseroads.wordpress.com, weheartit.com

First stop : Sydney !

Hello !

Today it's our FIRST STOP in one of the most famous cities of Australia : SYDNEY !

In Sydney you can sometimes see Aborigines playing traditional music in the streets to earn money. The Aborigines want to share their culture. They often have  painted faces.

➳ Who are the Aborignies ?

The Aborignies are the oldest living culture in the world. They used to live in the Australian Outback (it's the desert) and they had a nomadic life. The Aborigines used simple tools they made themselves, for example spears, didgeridoos (a very long instrument which were used to communicate accross far distances), boomrangs, watercrafts and others that you can imagine.

They used to believe in the Dreamtime : it is a kind of religion. They thought that supernatural ancestors created everything in the Universe : the sun, the moon, the earth, water, people,... They thought that sometimes, these creatures turned into rocks or parts of the landscape. Today, these places are still sacred.

Nowadays, the Aborigines no longer live in the Outback. They live in the cities, like Sydney for example.

An Aborigine, playing the didgeridoo in the Outback.

➳ Pictures of Sydney

The amazing view of the bay of Sydney and its opera at sunset.

The same bay with an other point of view.

I really would go to Sydney. This city looks just incredible !

Pictures source : travelblog.org, weheartit.com