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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Another Kind of Clash of Civilization II



















(Please read this first: Ms. Piggy Bless America!!! Thanks!)


After you look at the above pictures, do you notice something, which is similar and different between the first five photos and the last one? You may.

The first five pictures are photographs of Arakanese girls and the last one is a poster, which is an advertisement. The difference could be real photos and a poster. The similarity could be – all are girls’ pictures and they all have something on their face, especially on each girl’s cheek. Five beautiful Arakanese girls in the pictures were wearing traditional Thanakha on their faces when they were taken the photos. According to Burmese-English dictionary, the translation of Thanakha is ‘a kind of tree the bark and root of which are used in making a fragrant paste for cosmetic purposes.’ It is a traditional make-up for almost every girl of Arakanese and Burmese but for the last picture, it was just a stamp on that poster.

Let me explain you the background history of this story.

I am a student worker at our college, the College of DuPage. I work under the Student Activities office and my job title is ‘Posting Clerk.’ Main duty of a posting clerk is to deliver or post all posters and banners in classrooms, lounges, walls and notice boards of the main campus of the college, every single week. Before I post the posters and banners, I have to stamp, which express about the ‘Removal Date.’ The removal date is very important in the process of this job. I can remove old posters and replace with new posters when I see the removal date of them. I usually stamp on any place where I can obviously see of the poster or banner.

In October 2006, I have received a poster from the Art Center of our college, which is the last picture of the above. The poster was about a play, ‘The Glory of Living.’ The poster had a face of a beautiful girl as you see in the picture. I choose to stamp on her cheek and it was for two reasons:
The first reason was - no other place to stamp except on her face because the whole poster was black, but only the girl’s face had white color as you are seeing in the picture. Since I needed to obviously see the removal date, I stamped on the white place, which was on the girl’s face.
The second reason was I gave Thanakha on her face. In the picture, she was beautiful, but I felt that she was more beautiful and unique after I stamped. I was very happy. I delivered those posters with enjoyment.

After one week later I posted those posters, our supervisor of Student Activities office got a phone call from the Art Center. The call was about something concerned with that my unique poster. The person who had responsibility for that poster from art center said that the poster became UGLY because of the stamp on the girl’s face of the poster.
Do you see the point, now? In my eyes, she was BEAUTIFUL, ATTRACTIVE and UNIQUE. If I intently looked at her face, even I thought I got the fragrant small of Thanakha. In another person who was from different background and different culture’s eyes, it was ugly.

Who was wrong in this case? Nobody. It was just different feelings, views, opinions and perspectives of the people who came from different backgrounds and cultures.

I think it was great and unique story, not only for me, but also for you, my reader, in this globalization era.

Any way, how about you? You may have a different story and please feel free to share it with us.

Thank you and have a good day!


Note1: This is the view, which I see through the sociological glasses that I got from sociology class.
Note2: Special Thanks to Areegree Daw Kyawt Hla (Australia) for her sending beautiful pictures of Arakan.
This is the URL that you can reach for Arakan views, which is created by Areegree;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blessing_flowers

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