View allAll Photos Tagged Insecurity
In this shoot I was representing how a lot of teenage girls think there too fat. This is because anorexic stars and models that grace the covers of our magazines nowadays. This photograph was to represent the obsession with making yourself skinnier. I had Rosie breath in to say that no matter how skinny some girls get they don’t see themselves as beautiful until they get skinner and skinner and comes to point where it damages their health and wellbeing.
Due to conflict and insecurity, Dai, 47, had to flee her village in August 2021 with her family. She now lives in an IDP site in Waingmaw Township, northeastern Myanmar, with 14 other families.
“I have a piggery back in my village. It is not far from here but I still need to go back and forth. Transport is getting expensive. It is sometimes not very safe to go there but I have no choice”, she says.
UNHCR and partners were able to construct shelters and distribute core relief items to the families in need.
“I am grateful for all the assistance that was provided to us. We are however emotionally unstable as we do not know what the future holds”, she adds. ; Most displaced families in Kachin State have been trapped in a situation of displacement. Prospects of return to their villages of origin remail slim due to continued fighting and insecurity.
Photo credit: UNHCR/Fabien Faivre
Venturing deeper into the volatile seas off the coast of Yemen towards Somalia and Djibouti, fishermen like Abdalla Abrahem must spend more time and travel further into these troubled waters to find fish and support his family. Earning at best $10 a day, Abrahem and the rest of the people in the small village of 600 called Dobaba, along the hot arid Red Sea coastline, are one of the communities that are in dire need of food assistance.
Heading off the coast of Yemen in Bab al Mandeb, a narrow strip of sea only 12 miles across where the Middle East and Africa are there closest, Abrahem and I and a few others head out for a day of fishing.
I arrived in this area after a three-hour drive from Taiz. Descending down more than 4,000 feet through a lush oasis-like winding canyon with palm trees and camels everywhere, the temperature must have increased 30 degrees or more.
I arrived at the village of Dobaba and was shocked to see a series of villages in the middle of this unforgiving landscape and families trying to scrape by on the wind-swept plane. It’s one thing to not have enough to eat, but another thing all together to have to by your water.
Yemen isn’t just food insecure, it’s also facing a water crisis. Yemenis consume 2.8 billion cubic meters of water while renewed water in the aquifers does not exceed 2.1 billion cubic meters. Estimates indicate that the Western part of the country, where nearly 90 percent of Yemen’s population lives, will run out of water in the aquifer in ten years. Drilling in this region requires going to the expensive depth of 1,000 meters. Compared to only 40 meters 25 years ago. Nothing about this village is sustainable and yet they cannot afford to travel the long distance to Taiz let alone afford to live in such a city. Furthermore, their dependency and skill sets revolve around the sea.
Yemen’s food problems stem from multiple sources going back many years. During the Gulf War in 1991, Yemen supported Iraq politically, but not militarily. In retaliation, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expelled as many as one million Yemenis. The Yemenis and their families relied heavily upon remittances. As a result, unemployment skyrocketed and inflation has run rampant.
Recently, rebel activity and border conflicts with Saudi Arabia have prevented Yemen’s ability to develop oil reserves in the North. Yemen’s oil refining industry relied on crude from Iraq and Kuwait, which dried up during the war and meanwhile, the US slashed its economic aid by nearly 90%, further fueling the fires of discontent and sparking the growth of the Fundamentalist Islamic movement.
Back in the village, Abrahem's daughter Shema attends a government-run girls school. “We are thankful that our children can receive a good education, but we still need food.” “What good is education when you can’t eat?”
After returning from the Sea and we give our fish to a local cook and we enjoy the best meal I’ve had on this trip. Relaxing and taking in the much-needed shade, I see a group of people walking towards the building. It’s a group of completely exhausted Somali refugees that just landed on the beach.
As I spend my last day in Yemen, hundreds continue to flee civil conflict in Somalia by making this hazardous journey across the sea I was just on all arriving on the beach I’m enjoying my lunch. Nearby is a makeshift graveyard that the UNHCR has buried over 500 bodies recovered on the beaches around Bab al Mandeb.
These exhausted new arrivals, who are given automatic political asylum, will soon be picked up and driven to the camp that I was at last week.
Another full day; convicting to use the word exhausted. I have no idea what that word means.
An orphan, wearing the typical Lesotho blanket.
© The Global Fund/ Guy Stubbs
Equipping Vulnerable Children with Survival Tools
There are an estimated 180,000 orphans in the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho, of a population of just over two million. Most of those orphans’ parents died of AIDS – one out of four adults is HIV positive. Poverty, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and food insecurity are interlinked and combine to form the biggest threats to child safety in Lesotho. The country is concentrating its resources on providing protection and care to orphans and vulnerable children and the Global Fund is one of the key supporters.
HIV/AIDS has resulted in increasing numbers of orphans
Lesotho has the third highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world following Swaziland and Botswana. The disease strikes hardest at men and women during their most productive years.
Free HIV/AIDS drugs have been available in hospitals since 2004 – thanks to government and the Global Fund. However, too many adult lives are still being lost which is devastating children’s overall development and tearing apart the social fabric of entire communities.
Many orphans and vulnerable children are dependent on elderly unemployed grandmothers. Others live in child-headed households, caring for younger siblings and forced to be self reliant. These children are an easy target of violence, abuse and exploitation.
Survival mechanisms
Orphaned children are prone to risky behavior because they lack parental supervision. Limakatso Chisepo, Director of the Department of Social Welfare – the government department tasked with the care, support and protection of orphans explains why girls are particularly susceptible:
“With girl children, some are burdened with domestic work. The girl child may be forced to marry early, or might decide to marry early to support herself. They are desperate for finances so intergenerational relationships are rife. Girls think ‘If I go out with a married man he’s going to support me.’”
These relationships perpetuate the cycle of infection from HIV/AIDS.
Chisepo says very young girls earn money from sex: “If both parents were there providing for their child you would not see them selling themselves.”
Boys have different challenges. It’s easier for them to earn money herding livestock – a traditional occupation in Lesotho – than it is to continue school. Many of them drop out of school and are exposed to social problems, plus they lack education and skills to help them to survive in adulthood.
Education
Since 2000 primary education to the age of 12 has been provided for free in Lesotho but there are fees for further education. One of the country’s most serious challenges is getting children from poor families into high school.
For AIDS orphans even the free primary school may seem out of reach because they can’t afford a school uniform. Not wearing a uniform would not lead to dismissal, but children without can’t help but feel “different” from their classmates. The Global Fund is helping to finance organizations that buy uniforms and offer support to orphans.
Education is key for a brighter future and the Global Fund, together with the government, offers high school bursaries for orphans and vulnerable children. However the procedure to qualify for help with school fees is too complicated for some, especially vulnerable children in rural areas. Help in applying for bursaries for school fees is just a phone call away.
Childline – saving lives, protecting rights
Childline ensures social workers are standing by, day and night, for children who have no one else to see them through. It’s sponsored by the Global Fund and UNICEF. Calls are free and telephone operators – trained in social welfare skills – give advice on issues like school bursaries and also respond to critical or even life-threatening incidents. Childline staff ensure abandoned children or children in abusive situations are provided with a safe place to stay. See who’s been dialing Childline…
Childline staff work closely with a national network of regional and community social workers coordinated by the Social Welfare Ministry to ensure that orphans and vulnerable children receive the help they are entitled to wherever they live.
Property grabbing
When the head of a family dies, adult relatives may feel entitled to take over the house even when it’s needed by children still living at home. Property grabbing – as the practice is termed in Lesotho – means that AIDS orphans often lose not only their parents but also the family home, land and cattle.
One solution is to encourage people to leave a will. The Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) is promoting the idea of leaving a will to help protect the inheritance rights of orphans and vulnerable children.
Cofinanced by the Global Fund, FIDA works to stop children from being dispossessed of their parents’ belongings. The organization trains paralegals to handle cases of property grabbing.
As well as sensitizing communities on inheritance rights and laws affecting orphans through radio programs and leaflets, FIDA also provides a basic training for police staff on the legal rights of children and women.
Poverty leads to vulnerability
Lesotho’s location in the middle of South Africa has meant that many of its men have gone to work there, laboring in the mines and sending money home to their families. However a declining job market in South Africa led to retrenchments which, combined with the impact of HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, has led to a dramatic loss of income. Increased poverty has led to a general drop in living standards.
House renovations
Simple tasks like home repairs are beyond the means of many poor families – particularly child-headed households or AIDS orphans living with grandparents. The Global Fund finances home repairs carried out by the highly enterprising Peka Development Fund and also by the government.
Food insecurity
Subsistence cropping and animal production are the main means of survival for the vast majority of the population. However, a series of droughts combined with over-farming and the unrelenting impact of HIV/AIDS have produced a food crisis. The Global Fund is helping to finance Red Cross food distribution, providing relief at a time when families are most in need.
A better long-term solution to the challenge of providing healthy food is for communities to cooperate on farming activities. This has clear benefits for people living with HIV, who may be too ill to tend their own crops, as well as for AIDS orphans who lack gardening equipment, seeds and fertilizer.
Global Fund-financed vegetable gardens include the Peka Development Project, a farm that contributes twice over by employing people to grow fruit and vegetables which are then given to orphans and vulnerable children to eat. The first hurdle was lack of water: now the project has irrigation, the garden has grown into a great success. See the bountiful garden…
Another organization benefiting from Global Fund assistance to establish and strengthen food production is Skillshare, which has established nearly 550 food gardens. The vegetable gardens provide nutritious meals to growing young orphans and vulnerable children. The produce also helps with HIV/AIDS patients’ recovery.
Coordination and accountability
The cascade effect of problems affecting orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho – with legal and domestic issues exacerbating poverty and poor health – requires a cohesive response from development partners. The Global Fund is supporting key staff to boost cooperation in implementation, communication of program issues and accountability.
The Global Fund is also funding a system to identify and cater for those most at risk. ID cards are being piloted to ensure that the intended beneficiaries of programs are reached. Be they child-headed households (double orphans), single orphans with an ill parent or children from poor households – access to services is being made as easy as possible for all so that no child gets left behind.
EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY, A CHILD IS BORN WITH HIV. WE MUST STOP THIS. AND NOW WE CAN.
It's amazing how we can find ways to torture ourselves. As if life were not difficult enough, far too many of us agonise over who we are. I suppose it's most common that woman have a negative view of their body, more so than men. Maybe that's true, but I am at least one male who has suffered from total insecurity about my body for one reason or another. Maybe that sounds crazy- maybe it is crazy. Why do I do make things harder on myself by doing this? I'm not sure. I just fear not being good enough.
Why do we do this though? How many hours, days, months, years does the average (yes average even!) person spend fretting about this? Or worse, acting upon it in harmful or obsessive ways? Why can it not be good enough to be healthy and living life as best we can? I'm sure this kind of shit has been the ruin of too many good and beautiful people. Will we ever progress from this?
Lately, I've been doing a lot to break through my insecurities and fears. I've got a long way to go still, but I want to do it and I feel it's in me. Of course, it's essential to be doing it for oneself, but it's always good to have someone else in mind when that falters.
I hope I can do it. I hope that anyone who knows what I'm talking about can as well. We deserve better.
Why should the world know my insecurities? Why should the world know my secrets? Why? Why is that that my life can't be private? Why is it that people judge with out hearing the other side of the story? Why?
This is no cry for help; Plea for attention.
I'm officially better. I am officially okay.
To me; This is a way of telling my side of the story; This is a way I can finally bring my suffering to an end.
Do no question me. Do no judge me. Do not hate me. Do not.
I just opened up to you; Please treat that as something sacred. Very rarely do any of us open up to anyone else. ♥
Thank you for listening.
Pay attention to your surroundings. Help others. Quit judging. Spread The Love And Not The Hate!
"It's time for us to show the world that it is okay to show your insecurities. This is for the people who don't flaunt something that is wrong with them.
Why Should The World Know? requires that you wear a statement saying "why should the world know" and then something that should be said, something that you want out, and you want help overcoming it. This isn't for attention, it's to help overcome something that you are not happy with." - Serenityfox12
*Challange from Serenityfox12*
www.flickr.com/photos/serenityfox12/5186087869/in/contacts/
Join The Group:
www.flickr.com/groups/whyshouldtheworldknow/
Pass it on <3
BIRTH--Insecurity--Childhood--FEARS--Life--Action--Growing--Judgements--Insecurity--Puberty--Self-consciousness--Insecurity--Rituals--AUTHORITY--Compliance--Insecurity--Intolerance
Projection--Confirm(-ation)--Conform(-ity)--CONstant--Consciousness--IN-Security--reBIRTH--Cocooning--the Time is coming--Get Onboard--DON'T NEED NO BAGGAGE--The train is coming.
Thanks to THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS--People Get Ready...&...CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM...&...Milton Erickson-HYPNOTIC REALITIES.moral dilemmas!broad cast aspirsions--
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Beating insecurity
My battle it will always be
LIke climbing up a mountain high
Where clouds are thick throughout the sky
Dark and low they hang around
So mountainpeak cannot be found
So my life has well become
Not knowing where, why to or from
A glance into my past I find
Things that have not been so kind
They've played my mind and emotions well
To make me think that I'm in hell
Never sure of what's in store
And never spread my wings and soar
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Details- or your just wasting your time :)
Well i havent written a poem to one of my photos in couple days so i decided to do one for this :)
News: I am starting a collaboration with a friend, Puron. He is great and his work is very talented. be sure to check out his stream sometime! Also nobody in the Dominican Republic sells a remote to my camera:/ so this tripod thing is really hard trying to find the right focus point! i am going to keep looking as much as possible in every store i go in and hopefully somewhere may have it ha.
I also want to say thank you to everyone who has been following my stream lately. Yesterday and today i didnt get to get on much so my appreciations and comments and all that will be coming shortly! I was thinking about making a video soon... tried a stop motion... failed. haha but might try another when its sunny!
P.S I got this title from the fray If you didnt already know haha they are amazing. Listen Listen Listen!
These images are the first in anew series. The goal of the series is to address many of the fears and insecurities that exist in today's society.
Pak Hamin. 67 years old. Living next door to his two sons.
For a living, he grows an organic vegetables such as water spinach and Kangkung (swamp cabbage) and also landscape plants at his small garden.
As we talked more about the rest of our lives, he said, these days aren't easy like they happened before. We aren't to be able to do very much for ourselves when oil prices grown up.
I really hope things get better and sorted!
The humanitarian situation in Sudan is considered a ‘forgotten crisis’ by the European Commission. It is the scene of a protracted crisis far from the media spotlight. Emergency-levels of malnutrition persist across the country. An estimated 2 million children suffer from acute malnutrition while 4.6 million people face serious food insecurity. In 2016, 1.2 million people have been affected by El Niño induced drought as well as floods. With more than 350 000 mostly Eritrean and South Sudanese refugees on its soil, Sudan is also among the top five host countries of refugees in Africa. In 2016, the European Commission allocated €56 million for life-saving assistance to its partners in Sudan. There is a need to step up humanitarian assistance, but aid organisations operate in a difficult and constrained environment. Copyright: EU/ECHO/Anouk Delafortrie
Governor Phil Murphy signed two bills that will help combat food insecurity among students across the state. The first bill, A2368/S1677, which was sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, requires New Jersey schools to provide free breakfasts and lunches to students from working-class and middle-income families on Friday, September 9, 2022.
2016 Feds Feed Families U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Kickoff with initial donations on stage in the Whitten Building patio, Washington, D.C. on Friday, June 17, 2016. This year’s theme is "Feds Fighting Hunger." 2016 USDA Feds Feed Families Chair Sabrina Ferguson-Ward (green outfit) opens, moderates and closes the event. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration Yeshimebet Abebe (white blouse) talks about the impact of hunger and food insecurity. Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) Marketing and Communications Director Kristen Bourne (grey outfit) speaks about the impact of the food drive. USDA Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) Deputy Under Secretary Lanon Baccam (red, white and blue striped tie) addresses the importance of partners and USDA’s commitment. Departmental Management (DM) Office of Human Resource Management (OHRM) Chief Human Capital Officer Roberta (Bobbi) Jeanquart (turquoise outfit) remarks about her personal experiences that emphasizes the effects of donation. Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP) Deputy Under Secretary Elvis Cordova (orange, white and blue tie) talks about the small actions people can do and the importance of giving. Mid-Atlantic Gleaning Network (MAGNET) President and CEO Rev. Thomas Chandler (yellow tie) provides the history of gleaning, that local farms produce more than can be commercially harvested, and how with more USDA volunteers, tons more produce can be gleaned in 2016, surpassing last year’s record. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Associate Deputy Administrator/Acting Director Douglas Keeler (blue tie) motivates the audience to organize and team up in activities with the spirit of “Yes We Will (End Hunger).”
USDA once again will lead the 2016 Feds Feed Families (FFF) campaign with the support of the Chief Human Capital Officers Council and other agency partners. The campaign will run through August 30, 2016. Launched in 2009 as part of President Obama's United We Serve campaign, Feds Feed Families was designed to help food banks and pantries stay stocked during summer months when they traditionally see a decrease in donations and an increase in need. In Washington, D.C., the Capital Area Food Bank receives collections and distributes them through its network of more than 500 partner organizations. Through the amazing generosity of federal employees, since 2009 the food drive has collected nearly 57.2 million pounds of food for those in need. Last year alone, more than 17.9 million pounds were donated and provided to food banks and pantries. All Federal agencies, including field components, are asked to participate in the campaign. The field agencies will share their collections with their local food banks with the goal of ensuring that the FFF campaign will stretch across America and be visible and active in every state. As in every year, employees are asked to bring non-perishable food items and place them into a designated collection box located in the Federal workplace or take them directly to a local food bank. Donations of fresh food (fruit, vegetables, herbs, nuts) can be made directly to a food pantry in your community - please visit www.ampleharvest.org to find one near you.
Learn more about most wanted items in area food banks from the Capital Area Food Bank . For those outside of the National Capital Area, visit www.feedingamerica.org for a list of regional food banks (non-perishable food only) or www.ampleharvest.org , for a list of local food pantries (fresh produce as well as non-perishable food) in your area to partner with and to send donations. They assist with arranging pick-up and weighing of your donations. In 2016, as part of Feds Feed Families, employees are encouraged to take advantage of gleaning (clearing fields of unused produce). Field employees can reach out to Society of St. Andrew for gleaning opportunities in their area. The Mid-Atlantic Gleaning Network (MAGNET) is another great partner at www.midatlanticgleaningnetwork.org . Volunteers can pick, sort and deliver fresh produce to food banks, churches and other partners. USDA Media by Lance Cheung.
April 18, 2013 - Washington DC., 2013 World Bank / IMF Spring Meetings. Citizen Insecurity in Latin America: A Threat to Development. Photo: Roxana Bravo / World Bank
Violence and insecurity in northern Mali has not stopped, despite a peace agreement in 2015. Although the majority of refugees crossed to Mauritania in 2012 and 2013, some families have arrived more recently. One of the new arrivals is Abel Ba, a community leader who fled his village of Nampalá in 2015. He was a nomad livestock farmer, “I had 400 sheep, but we had to leave abruptly, so we left everything behind. All you see in this tent comes from relief aid,” he says. Abel arrived with 64 people from his extended family.
For nomads, being a refugee represents a challenge in many ways. Their traditional way of life which centres on being able to roam the landscape is restricted and their diet changes altogether, from mainly animal and milk products to rice, oil and beans.
©EU/ECHO/José Cendón
Model: KelloKitteh
Photography: Yannick Putz / www.plui5.com
This picture is a part of a project by Yannick Putz. The idea behind this project is that everyone has insecurities, no matter who you are. But you should embrace those insecurities as they're part of you and they're beautiful. No one is perfect, we all have flaws and that's what makes us beautiful.
This picture shows scars I still have from selfharm. I'm not ashamed of them, but they do make me insecure sometimes.
I want to get through this 365 and I figured that the only way to do it was to do my own weekly challenges. This week I am going to work on my insecurities. Lord knows I have TONS of them.
I will start with my face. Top to bottom.
When I got my septum ring my mother-in-law said "Why would someone ruin such a pretty face?" And as much as I love it... Sometimes... I don't.
Then there are my lips. A few years ago I had a staph infection on my lip that the Navy doctor couldn't treat, so I had to get surgery. Now my lip is forever numb and swollen.
Then there are my ears. I had a tumor behind my right ear that had to get removed. Now my right ear sits higher than my left.
Then there are my teeth. I hate my two front teeth. They are big. They are rabbit like.
My body isn't perfect. And I hate it. Maybe if I just call it out for what it is it would make it better to live with.
7/365
"insecurity"
sorry yall I didn't do yesterday and the day before because I was awfully sick and I had too much English homework to do.
but whatever, I'm two days behind :(
In this shoot I was representing how a lot of teenage girls think there too fat. This is because anorexic stars and models that grace the covers of our magazines nowadays. This photograph was to represent the obsession with making yourself skinnier. I had Rosie breath in to say that no matter how skinny some girls get they don’t see themselves as beautiful until they get skinner and skinner and comes to point where it damages their health and wellbeing.
I never take full body shots. Ever. I am insecure about my weight. It is hard for me to look at a picture of myself below the neck. I'm slowly getting there. Perhaps in another 43 days, I will be able to take a full body shot. In light. In color.
Melanie Bray, act.; "Rosie" © Linda Dawn Hammond/ IndyFoto 2022. Photographed in Graffiti Alley, Toronto, Canada.
Portrait of Gail Maurice, by Artist Kent Monkman, "Shining Stars" series in "Being Legendary" exhibit, at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) © IndyFoto 2022
“Rosie”
Review and Interview
By Linda Dawn Hammond
“Rosie” is the first feature film of Metis director and writer, Gail Maurice, who is also known as an actor in the TV series, “Trickster”. She self identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and is one of a small number of less than 2000 people who can still speak Michif, a now endangered language which was spoken by the Metis people of Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a primarily a combination of French nouns and Cree verbs, and originated in the 1800s from contact between Francophone traders and Cree and Ojibwe First Nations people. The descendants of these French and First Nations unions became known as Metis.
“Rosie” appears on the surface to be a simple, joyous film about an engaging trio of social misfits who, with the help of an orphan child, find emotional support and resolution in a chosen family of their own creation. Its underlying messages are far more complex and will speak to those aware of the terrible legacy of Canada’s Residential Schools and the “Sixties Scoop,” which adversely affected the lives of thousands of indigenous people and their descendants.
It is set in 1980s Montreal, which in “Rosie” is a world categorized by poverty and insecurity for those who don’t conform to society’s standards and norms. The character of “Fred”, (Mélanie Bray) is lovingly portrayed as a somewhat irresponsible Francophone artist who lives a precarious existence on the constant edge of poverty, eviction and unemployment. Her best friends are Flo (Constant Bernard) and Mo (Alex Trahan), who are flamboyant and decidedly non-gender conforming. Their alternative lifestyles are suddenly disrupted by the initially unwelcome arrival of a homeless six year old girl, Rosie (Keris Hope Hill). Through her enthusiastic, sweet presence, she teaches the adults about responsibility but also to live their dreams. At the time of shooting Keris had never acted before, but she is charming and effective in the part. The Kanien'kehá:ka girl from the Six Nations of the Grand River plays the role of an indigenous child left orphaned after the death of her mother. (It is perplexing that she was not included in Tiff’s roster of 2022 Rising Stars, but she was mentioned in CBC’s recent list of young, talented stars.)
In the film, “Rosie”, social services search for a blood relative to take custody of Rosie, an orphaned English speaking girl in Montreal. All they can uncover is a “sister” of the deceased mother, a Francophone woman who had been once been placed in the same adoptive home. They have no records of the whereabouts of any genetic relatives due to the willful incompetence of officials during the “Sixties Scoop”, when tens of thousands of children, primarily indigenous, were forcibly removed from their families and placed in predominantly white foster homes. These stolen children were not encouraged to remain in contact with their families or know of their heritage. In many cases they were intentionally sent far away to achieve this separation.
It is a story close to the heart of the director on many levels. Maurice experienced a similar painful disruption in her own family. Whereas she as the eldest child was fortunate to be taken in and raised by her Metis grandmother, who taught her Michif and the ways of their people, a younger brother and sister were removed in the “Sixties Scoop” and disappeared. It is only recently that the whereabouts of Gail’s brother was discovered.
In Quebec, language is always part of the conversation, but in Montreal in particular, bilingualism has been an important factor in breaching any linguistic or cultural divides. The little orphaned girl in the story is indigenous and anglophone, and although she finds herself in a world which is French speaking and white, there are no divides as people choose to learn from each other, and even introduce a third language, Cree.
Interview
I sat down with Rosie’s director, Gail Maurice, and her partner, actor Mélanie Bray, to discuss the film.
GM (Gail Maurice):
I was asked about the 80s, how there was so much violence against gay culture, queer culture. So they asked my perspective, because Rosie is not really (violent), I mean, there's a couple moments in the film that showed or insinuated it. But it's not about that, even though a couple of broadcasters told me they wanted me to add that element, the violence towards the gay people, towards Flo and Mo, and I tried to do that, and it just went to a dark place. And I thought to myself, that's not the story I want to tell. That's not my experience in the ‘80s, of being gay. What my experience was, basically, was what “Rosie” is, and it was a time of where I was finding out about being gay and gay culture, and it was also new and wild and beautiful. And, just extravagant, you know. And so, that's why I wrote a story from Rosie's perspective, because she is able to see the world with that wide eyed wonder. And that's exactly how I was when I came out, and that's the story I wanted to tell. I wanted to tell a story of chosen family, of love, belonging, being it wasn't a story about, gay culture, per se. What I’d like to say is, it's an indigenous story with an indigenous perspective, told through the eyes of a little indigenous girl who happens to be part of this scene, and during a period of time (the 80s) that is really important to me, that was, coming out. So that's the story I wanted to tell. I came out I was 18. My first year university. It was a magical time, in Saskatoon, in a little bar called Numbers.
LDH (Linda Dawn Hammond)
Can you talk about how the “60s scoop” affected you personally?
GM:
I was able to find my brother. Part of the effect of the “60s scoop” is loss of culture and identity. So when I found him, I did a little short (film) called, “Little Indians. “ We're not close. I've seen him maybe three times, and in a very different environment. He grew up in the white home, with a white family and on a farm. He said he played baseball with the little Indians. You know, so he took himself out and didn't see himself as an Indian. I know he knows he's Metis. It's hard. It's a loss, and I have a sister out there somewhere…
LDH:
You were able to live with your grandma, and there you learned a language that's so rare. Michif.
GM:
Michif. And yeah, I wrote a trilingual film, because I wanted to be able to talk about my language as well. Not a lot of people know about that language, which is a mixture of Cree and French. I was teasing Melanie, I said, “My French is the original French. Because, you know, it's part of the Couriers de Bois and the French fur traders. So my French is actually from that era. So we still have all that French in my language, whereas Melanie’s, it's now modern, right?
LDH:
French people in France say that yours (Melanie’s) is actually the original French. Quebec French is considered to be what the language was like before it transformed over in France and became modern.
You mentioned “Rosie” is a trilingual film.
Is it Michif you’re teaching them, the (indigenous) language in the class scene. Is that where it came in?
GM:
Yeah, so my language is pretty (much) French. So sometimes there's three. Our numbers are crazy, and household things are French- dirt and colds are French. So the numbers were all created. I wanted to tell a story about chosen family, to monitor those children that were taken away- it's part of the 60s Scoop, and the effects of that. Some of them will never know who they are, or where their family's from, or who their blood relatives are. I wanted to tell a story, to honour them, because they're doing the best that they can in the world. And just to say, that they're strong, and they're survivors, and I admire and honour them. So that's why I wanted to tell “Rosie” as well, but also, it's a story about beauty in trash. So metaphoric faith, there's a lot of people that think that others are less than them, for example, Jigger (the character of a homeless Cree man, played by actor Brandon Oakes), who's my favourite character, but he's the one that's most grounded to me. He's the one that has his culture, and his language, and he's the one that tells Rosie, and shares the culture with Rosie. So he is, actually, the strongest character.
That's the whole tragedy of it, always. There's people in Europe that don't even realize where they're from. There's a film out there which (Dr.) Tasha Hubbard did. She's Cree from the prairies. She did a documentary on family, the family that found each other. For years and years apart, and they were all over the world. (“Birth of a Family”, 2017, NFB)
LDH:
What acting role did you play in “Bones of Crows” ?
GM:
It's about residential school, and it takes place over 100 years, following a woman and matriarch. I played the Matriarch’s daughter.
There's so many people in Canada that don't know about my culture or the atrocities that happened. Two years ago, social workers went into a hospital and took a baby right out of a woman's arms… it was based on lies, but the power the government has, the power that the social workers and doctors have, is unbelievable… I can't imagine them doing that to a person that's non Indigenous. It's unfathomable that doctors and the government could get away with that, but they do get away with it with indigenous people. “Rosie” is a story with a lot of heavy topics, but in the next moment, you can be laughing, because the way I grew up, if we just soaked in all the hurt and all the pain and all the atrocities, how life is so difficult, if we did that, it would be bleak, and there would be no tomorrow, but the way I grew up, we actually can laugh even though the hardship of life, even though our world is breaking and falling apart. We can still laugh because laughter is, like they say, medicine, and it is medicine because it allows you to be able to lift up your head and carry on. And when you laugh, you're telling the world, you know, I can carry on, I can do this, and I'm going to do it. I'm going to triumph and that's why there's like moments where, you know, characters are crying, and then the next moment they're laughing. Yeah.
End
The World Premiere of the Canadian Indie film, “Rosie”, was featured in the Discovery program at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) on September 9, 2022. It was also selected as the closing film at Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts festival in October, 2022.
The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) in Toronto is presently hosting, until March 19, 2022, an important exhibition entitled, “Being Legendary.”It features original paintings by the brilliant Cree artist, Kent Monkman, aka “Miss Chief”, who curated the exhibit. It includes cultural artifacts from the ROM’s collections, but from an indigenous perspective. The exhibit illustrates indigenous knowledge and challenges the past, colonial interpretation of history. As one enters the final room, there is a room of 11 portraits entitled, “Shining Stars”, illustrating indigenous women and men, who in their present state of being are beacons of the future. Among them, a portrait of Gail Maurice, where she is honoured by Monkman as a, “Filmmaker. Writer. Actor. Michif and nehiyawewin first languages speaker! “
A fitting tribute, which coincides with the years 2022 until 2032 being designated the UN’s * “International Decade of Indigenous Languages“
*The United Nations General Assembly (Resolution A/RES/74/135) proclaimed the period between 2022 and 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022-2032), to draw global attention on the critical situation of many indigenous languages and to mobilize stakeholders and resources for their preservation, revitalization and promotion.
The International Decade aims at ensuring indigenous peoples’ right to preserve, revitalize and promote their languages, and mainstreaming linguistic diversity and multilingualism aspects into the sustainable development efforts. It offers a unique opportunity to collaborate in the areas of policy development and stimulate a global dialogue in a true spirit of multi-stakeholder engagement, and to take necessary for the usage, preservation, revitalization and promotion of indigenous languages around the world.
www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/indigenous-...
from "the insecurities of time" at Ad Hoc Art in brooklyn, Jan 2009.
for more info about this and many more additional pieces, check out www.adhocart.org or contact andrew@adhocart.org
Theme of the Week : Insecurities
I have a really hard time telling people that I'm gender-neutral. I'm always afraid of how they'll take it, and how they'll act with me afterward. It's a part of my identity, and I know that I should embrace it more, but it's just so hard sometimes.
sooc.
Model: KelloKitteh
Photography: Yannick Putz / www.plui5.com
This picture is a part of a project by Yannick Putz. The idea behind this project is that everyone has insecurities, no matter who you are. But you should embrace those insecurities as they're part of you and they're beautiful. No one is perfect, we all have flaws and that's what makes us beautiful.
This picture shows scars I still have from selfharm. I'm not ashamed of them, but they do make me insecure sometimes.
Stop Bullying Start Acceptance.
"Bully, I say!" — Outspoken Bully Lobbyist
"Bully!" — Teddy Roosevelt
Overcompensate for insecurities with promiscuous sex, not bullying.
Day 91:
We all have our problems.
We all have our faults.
We all have our insecurities.
We are all imperfect.
claim your #
www.facebook.com/pages/JP-Photography/194567403894853?ref=ts
“Stressed Out” ―Twenty One Pilots, 2015
I wish I found some better sounds no one's ever heard,
I wish I had a better voice that sang some better words,
I wish I found some chords in an order that is new,
I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang,
I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink,
But now I'm insecure and I care what people think.
My name's 'Blurryface' and I care what you think.
My name's 'Blurryface' and I care what you think.
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out.
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out.
We're stressed out.
Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young,
How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from,
I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it,
Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one,
It'd be to my brother, 'cause we have the same nose,
Same clothes homegrown a stone's throw from a creek we used to roam,
But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered,
Out of student loans and treehouse homes we all would take the latter.
My name's 'Blurryface' and I care what you think.
My name's 'Blurryface' and I care what you think.
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out.
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out.
We used to play pretend, give each other different names,
We would build a rocket ship and then we'd fly it far away,
Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,
Saying, "Wake up, you need to make money."
Yo.
We used to play pretend, give each other different names,
We would build a rocket ship and then we'd fly it far away,
Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,
Saying, "Wake up, you need to make money."
Yo.
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out.
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out.
Used to play pretend, used to play pretend, bunny
We used to play pretend, wake up, you need the money
Used to play pretend, used to play pretend, bunny
We used to play pretend, wake up, you need the money
We used to play pretend, give each other different names,
We would build a rocket ship and then we'd fly it far away,
Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,
Saying, "Wake up, you need to make money."
Yo.
7/12/08
Insecurity is a feeling of general unease or nervousness that may be triggered by perceiving oneself to be unloved, inadequate or worthless (whether in a rational or an irrational manner).
A person who is insecure lacks confidence in their own value and capability, trust in themselves or others, or has fears that a present positive state is temporary and will let them down and cause them loss or distress by "going wrong" in future.
This is not to be confused with humility, which involves recognising one's failings but still maintaining a healthy dose of self-confidence. Insecurity is not an objective evaluation of one's ability but an emotional interpretation, as two people with the same capabilities may have entirely different levels of insecurity.
Insecurity may cause shyness, paranoia and social withdrawal, or alternatively it may encourage compensatory behaviors such as arrogance, aggression, or bullying, a principle enshrined in the phrase "all bullies are cowards." Bullying comes in many forms, but often comes into the subject of weight such as "Hahaha you're fat." or "Why don't you lose some weight?" Many people suffer a period of insecurity during puberty, which gives rise to a lot of the stereotypical behaviors of adolescents.
Insecurity has many effects in a person's life. There are several levels of it. It nearly always causes some degree of isolation as a typically insecure person withdraws themselves to some extent. The greater the insecurity, the higher the degree of isolation. Insecurity is often rooted in a person during their childhood years. Like offense and bitterness, it grows in layer fashion, often becoming an immobilising force that sets a limiting factor in the person's life. Insecurity robs by degrees - the degree it is entrenched is the degree of power it has in the person's life.
As insecurity can be distressing and feel threatening to the psyche, insecurity can often be accompanied by a controlling personality type or avoidance, as psychological defence mechanisms.
Insecurity can be overcome. It takes time and patience and a willingness to believe each person (and specifically oneself) is in fact of innate value. The first of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development details the challenge of finding security and learning to trust one's self and environment.
The EU is supporting UN partners to introduce biometric registration in the refugee camps, like here in Ali Addeh. The priority of EU humanitarian aid in Djibouti is to provide life-saving assistance to refugees and look for durable solutions to their plight.
Djibouti hosts over 18 000 long-term refugees and asylum seekers mainly from Somalia whose basic needs such as shelter, water and protection need to be catered for.
Since the start of the Yemen crisis in March 2015, close to 80 000 people have fled to countries in the Horn of Africa including nearly 40 000 to Djibouti. This new influx is putting pressure on the country’s limited natural resources and services.
Djibouti imports 95% of its food. The number of people at risk of hunger has increased since the 2011 drought, accelerating the rural exodus to urban areas. A combination of high food prices, water scarcity, climate change and reduced pasture has increased food insecurity. This year’s El Niño has led to even dryer weather.
Humanitarian funding from the European Commission provides refugees with access to clean water and sanitation as well as shelter, protection, nutrition and health care. Food assistance is given in the form of cash transfers as a way of promoting refugees’ self-reliance. ©EU/ECHO/Massimo La Rosa
The presence of armed security personnel in Somalia is often intimidating to beneficiaries and aid workers.
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La présence d'agents de sécurité armés en Somalie est souvent intimidante pour les bénéficiaires et les travailleurs humanitaires.
EC/ECHO/Phillipe Royan
Sometimes I worry that I am spending too much time on flickr. The rest of the time I am certain I am.
TOTW - Insecurities
March Alphabet Madness - K is for Kicking the Bucket
Movements to and from the refugee camps are risky and restricted due to increased insecurity. As the threat to workers escalate, aid agencies have had to scale down operations in the face of increasing humanitarian needs.
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Les déplacements vers et depuis les camps de réfugiés sont risqués et restreints du fait de l'insécurité croissante. Les menaces envers les humanitaires augmentant considérablement, les organismes d'aide ont dû diminuer leurs opérations malgré l'augmentation des besoins humanitaires.
Photo: EC/ECHO/Daniel Dickinson
Robert J. Shiller, Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University, USA at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 19, 2017
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Christian Clavadetscher
Chief Superintendent John O’Hare, commander of Greater Manchester Police’s Rochdale Division took to the streets alongside his officers this week (6/9/10) to help residents ensure their homes and vehicles were secure.
The officers were checking for unlocked doors and windows of houses and property left on display in vehicles. When such insecurities where found the officers posted footprint shaped advice cards warning residents of the risks they were running.
The officers were also offering residents face-to-face security advice.
For security advice please visit our website.
Police in Middleton are using balloons to crackdown on burglary.
Supported by volunteers from the community, officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Middleton Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) are putting helium balloons through open windows and doors in the area, to tackle insecurity burglaries.
The balloons are attached to a card which says ‘Why am I here?’. The reverse of the card gives the reason, with a warning to close windows and doors or have your treasured items burgled.
Police Community Support Officers are then visiting the householder to offer to conduct a Home Security Assessment. During this assessment, any vulnerable parts of the house are identified and advice about locks and security is given. Those taking part in the assessment will also be encouraged to ‘like’ the NPT’s new Facebook page for further information about crime and policing in their area.
Houses that do not have any open doors or windows will receive a leaflet congratulating them but also giving further advice about avoiding burglary.
The number of insecurity-related burglaries tends to increase during the summer months as the warmer weather encourages people to leave their windows open.
Superintendent John Graves from GMP’s Rochdale Division, said: “This is community empowerment in action - local people getting involved in the fight against crime, working alongside the police to help their neighbours protect their property and be safer.
“The greater the forces of decency and honesty, the bigger impact we will have - and seeing local people volunteering, becoming more involved, and just getting stuck in is an inspiration to us all.
“We know that around one in three burglaries happen because of insecurity - a window left open, a door left unlocked and thieves will hunt for this. This initiative is about warning decent people of the threat, and encouraging them to Lock it or lose it!
“To follow us on Facebook, people need to ‘like’ our page which you can find by searching for GMP Middleton once you have logged into your account.”