"The Juvenile Awareness Project Help" article.

           I’ve recently read the article talking about The Juvenile Awareness Project Help (JAPH). I found this article interesting because several months ago, I’ve actually seen a TV show where the JAPH project was demonstrated and showed in a real life, in real circumstances and with real people. For the first minutes of watching it, I couldn’t realize what is going on and what the high school students are doing in the prison and why they get insulted and even humiliated in some cases by inhabitant of this prison. After reading the article about this TV program, everything became clearer for me.

To be more precise, the JAPH is an experiment that takes the juvenile offenders into a prison in New Jersey to scare them straight into stopping living a life of crime. According to the article, the goal of the program is to change the attitudes and behaviors of these kids to prevent any further regression in them in hope that seeing the prisoners yell at them and threaten them will make them desire to change their behaviors and attitudes toward crime. Nonetheless, like any program, this one has its weaknesses, which this particular report is set to examine. Its research question is therefore what is the value is drawbacks of JAPH.

The main objective of the JAPH project is that the kids will be turned away from delinquent behaviour when they see what that behaviour will cost them, yet the key hypothesis of the Rutgers researchers is that JAPH actually has no effect, either psychologically or behaviourally, on the juveniles attending. They basically believed that the so-called delinquent behaviour actually arises from many different factors, thus it’s wrong to suggest that a short visit to a prison can offset the long-term effects of all these other variables. In other words they hypothesised that JAPH has no effect on the attitudes of the juveniles attending it. In the second report, hypothesis went on to say that JAPH has no effect on the juveniles participating in terms of deterring their future delinquent behaviour.

The findings have shown that over 70% of the 81 juveniles that were designated for the program had a low probability of delinquency and only 8% had a high probability. Also, not one of the 81 juveniles has ever been in a training school. However, other findings have shown that there were more juveniles getting in trouble in terms of subsequent offences of those who attended the project than those who didn’t.  Researchers conclude that the success rates presented in the documentary are misleading since many of the referrals to the program had never been in trouble with the law in the first place. This raises some issues about the accuracy of the program, since if the juveniles don’t become delinquent, JAPH can’t quiet be responsible for it.

"Two Brothers" movie - The Wild World...

source: http://www.civicvideo.com.au/article.asp?ContentID=incredibleswallpaper

Two Brothers is a 2004 live-action animal drama, made by a French director Jean-Jacques Annaud. The film talks about the adventures of twin tiger cubs. Set in French Indochina in 1920, two brothers are separated as cubs after the ancient temple where they live is disturbed by the rich man who wants to steal and sell the ancient statues. One brother is sold off to a circus where he lives in a cage and performs for rich people. Meanwhile, the other brother becomes the beloved companion of the governor's lonely young son. The young tiger lives there until an accident forces the family to give him away to a man who decides to break his gentle nature and turn him into a fighter for sport. When both brothers grow up, they finally find themselves reunited at the spectacular battle where they are supposed to fight against each other and presented as the forced enemies. However, after the long years of separation, the brothers recognize each other and instead of fighting they begin to play together while the shocked audience is watching them. The trainer tries to antagonize the tigers into fighting, but as he opens the cage to shoot one, the tigers escape, managing to frighten the the audience and trainers into the cage themselves. The happy ending shows the two brothers who come back to their temple home in the jungle where they are met by a third tiger, who is their mother.
In the film, the tigers are endowed with human feelings and sentiments such as attachment to the family, friendship, the feeling of kindred spirits and a sense of home and of recognition. The movie presents a very heart-warming story about the power of friendship and the bond between two tiger brothers. The movie is full of touching scenes with tigers. One of those scenes is the opening sequence of Two Brothers, where two tiger cubs frolic through the jungle kicking a coconut back and forth like a soccer ball. However, like all animal dramas, the movie contains some important messages protesting the violent treatment of animals. The filmmakers express openly their feelings about animal abuse. They knew exactly how to make a strong political statement by the use of some harsh scenes where the tigers were cruelly abused. The filmmakers speak out against humans’ role in the extinction of the Bengal tiger. In addition, film’s target audience can include adults as well as the children. Through the story, the movie may elicit tears from both children and parents, demonstrating scenes where the tigers are chained inside cages, yearning to be set free or received the violent treatment.
As far as the film was emerged in 2004, the extinction of the Bengal tiger was a big subject at the time. Even today, they are on the brink of extinction. These species are usually found of south-eastern Asia and in central and southern India. Recent reports indicate that Bengal tiger population, also called Royal tigers or Indian tigers, is dwindling at a dangerously fast pace. The number of these beautiful and majestic animals has dwindled because of heavy human predation. The tigers are often hunted for their skins and certain bones which are even thought to possess healing powers in Asian medicine. By 2000, we estimate the number of Bengal tigers
at about only 450 species which is catastrophic. According to a planning report of the United Nations Development Program and the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, on an average some 40 Royal Bengal tigers are getting killed in the Sundarbans every year.

source: http://www.civicvideo.com.au/article.asp?ContentID=incredibleswallpaper

"Never Cry Wolf" (film/book) - My Review and Comparison

The movie was based on the true story of Farley Mowat, who was sent to the expedition in tundra. His main goal was to find the truthful evidence about the fact that wolves represent the main cause of the extinction of caribou. The main character finds himself in a difficult situation, in a cold tundra trying to survive. Concurrently, he conducts his study about the wolves trying to understand and learn more about their behavior, habits and life. Finally, he arrives to the conclusion that all the beliefs about wolves’ habits and their presumptive harm made to the caribous are wrong. On the contrary, Mowat discovers that humans represent the worse danger to the nature and to the wolves also. The film contains some incredible mystery and loneliness shown through the Mowat’s character. His isolation and sudden closeness to the wolves’ family gives to the film its particular zest. All those elements are present in the book as well as in film.

However, the film cannot be just an exact replica of the book. In general, I think that book is quite similar to what was shown in the movie. However, there are some differences between the book and the film, especially the ending. In the movie, the wolves are killed in the end while, in the book, the wolves survive. I think that this change in the ending of the story was made purposely by filmmakers. The murder of wolves’ family at the end of the film (which didn’t exist in the original) gives to whole story its dramatic tone and makes people think further about the violent treatment of people towards wolves. Usually, the films with some tragic or dramatic ending gives people more “food” to debate after watching it and makes them think about the moral described in the film.

I really liked this film, because it contains some mystery and shows the nature in its most beautiful side. The amazing images of Canadian tundra and animals, the actors’ play, the music, the atmosphere given trough the screen and the story were just amazing. Moreover, the absence of long dialogs between characters and human voices in the film makes the film even more interesting and mysterious. This silence which was replaced by the sounds of the nature and wolves howling gives an amazing impression and plunge you completely into the atmosphere of the movie.

My impression of the "Microcosmos" film.

After watching Microcosmos, I really felt that the film brought me into the micro-world of insects. I felt as it was a little story of the life of insects in a big green world. The film is accompanied by the music it the background which helps to perceive the whole beauty of the image. The film is very interesting to watch because of the colors, music, shapes of the insects and the close-up which gives the opportunity to see everything very close and neatly. The wild shapes of those creatures and the colors used in this movie make the film a truly fascinating picture. I was wondering how the photographers could get such amazing close-ups that we could see all tiny details on the insects. Sometimes, the shots were so close that it appeared hard at first to recognize a one particular insect. But, once you recognize it, you receive a new impression and view of what you saw before as an usual animal (insect). There were also some insects that were not quite familiar, but, were beautiful and interesting to observe anyway. I really liked how the creators record some small insects and made them look huge and massive animals on the screen. Some scenes impressed me a lot; for instance, the scene with the rain, where you could see every drop of the water falling on the field of grass which, suddenly, appears to us as a huge forest. Moreover, besides the amazing music played at the background, the sound the insects were making was so natural and real as if you had this insect just in front of you, on your hand. All those ways, including, music, sounds of the nature, colors, shapes, close pictures and an amazing close-up, were employed in order to transform this non-verbal film into a fascinating and interesting story. The incredible camera-work make you feel a small creature too, sitting on the grass, in the middle of this wild nature.

I would recommend this movie to everyone as a "meditation or relaxing time passing" :)

Note: the film is non-verbal, it contains only the music, the sound of the insects and nature, and the amazing shots of the wild forest and its inhabitants.