A Bit About My Inspiration

Well kids, I'm back. I apologize for how long I've been gone, but loads of trivial, absolutely meaningless things have happened in my life to keep me from blogging the way I would like to. Moving on, tonight, I feel I need to talk about a man named Emmanuel Jal. He is, in very short, my inspiration. Or at least, the man who woke me back up to the world of terrible shit going on everywhere all at once. Not to say that Jal's a depressing figure, as his life story would attest, he's truly a hero, and inspirational to say the least.

He was born in what has recently become South Sudan, and grew up as a young child as the second Sudanese Civil War broke out. He was, as is the case with a majority of his generation of south Sudanese, recruited to be a child soldier. That would be an understandably dark time for anyone, but thankfully, his life took a turn for the positive. Emma McCune, another name you may recognize, saved his life when he was around 11 years old. She helped pay for his schooling in the comparatively safe country of Kenya, and since then, as he wrote in his song "Emma" "Now I've got my education, I can't be stopped by no one." Since then, he's gone on to perform at some truly incredible shows, including Live 8, and Nelson Mandela's birthday concert, among other less amazing ones, like Forewell Hall at Fanshawe. But you're not here for a re-hashing of his autobiography, or his Wikipedia page.

This is a brief description of a man traveling the world, reliving and retelling his story night after night, to raise awareness for a country that's still in the midst of a genocide, as well as a truly horrible famine. Through his struggles, he has found inspiration to help save a generation of Sudanese from a similar fate. He lives with an apparently intermittent case of post-traumatic stress disorder from what he's been through, and in an interview I got to film for a friend of mine, he described how performing, and telling his story, drudges up old memories and has on many occasions kept him awake at night, at that point I was too enthralled to move, but I believe at that moment a hug would've been a great idea.


He doesn't need a constant reminder of what he's gone through, but what he's gone through is a constant reminder of why he needs to keep on doing his work, and why more of us need to wake up, step up, and join him in his fight. This is not a battle to be won single-handedly. Below you'll find a few links to his various relief projects, as well as a link to my personal Facebook page, where I'm hosting a video I shot of him performing back in March. Please enjoy, and have a great Friday everybody, be good to each other, and I'll be back Monday with some happier talk,




Kaz


"Emma" by Emmanuel Jal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYt8w64T3wA

Gua Africa, a charity Jal started, working in Africa: http://www.gua-africa.org/

And his latest project, the "We Want Peace" project, George Clooney was in on this too, there's a music video and a charity website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_sV07DbJ9U&ob=av3e (video)

http://www.we-want-peace.com/ (campaign website)

Jal performing We Want Peace live at Fanshawe:

Smashed My Toe Up

Well, my big toe got wrecked on Sunday, but I'm overjoyed to still be employed, let alone moving around at all. Belegarth was great, and there are pics (LOTS) on my Facebook. I'll keep you wonderful people updated, as this thing has gone from 0 to 60 almost overnight. Soccer season is almost over, sadly, but our team is still in first after slaughtering the worst team last week 14-0. They would've quit at half if they could, but we apparently didn't let them (goal differential decides who's in first in the case of a tie). Anyway, we're well in first, and last year we won the whole thing on two goals literally shot from center (if there were a video of it it would already have millions of views, the guy's only about 35, our captain, and scored them both from just behind the center line in the second half). If I know you already, but you're not my Facebook friend, add me up! :) If not, well we'll see. And, for my ONE reader in Trinidad: my favorite teacher of all time was from there, his last name was Boodram (not the spelling) And I helped him write his second book last year. Feel free to keep coming back, as this place is going to go hog wild soon I'd imagine :) Comment away everybody, and be good to eachother,

love and peace,

Kaz Hawrykak

Amy Winehouse, dead at 27, like many legendary musicians, BUT WHY?!

Okay. As this progressed on the Saturday it happened, I refused to post about it, because essentially everyone knew by one o'clock. The reality is, that Amy Winehouse' death is for our musical generation, what Janis Joplin's, Kurt Cobain's, Stevie Ray Vaughan's, Jimi Hendrix's, etc. respective deaths were for theirs.


Simply put, if you're not good at life, stop complaining until you turn 30, please. I neglected to post about Amy Winehouse directly because her death was an absolute tragedy. I do not know if it was drugs, but the recent revelation is that it actually wasn't, and that it was her quitting booze too quickly. The police wouldn't speculate at the time. However, as facts become clearer, we can all know this: she will be bigger than anyone ever thought she could be when she broke on the scene at the age I am now: 19, and she was huge. Rest in peace, and we will miss you, have fun jamming with Hendrix, Cobain, Vaughan,  and she died at 27 years old. If you are older than 30, count yourself lucky that you didn't become a music sensation straight out of high school, like she did.

She died, at what many crass, offensive music DJ's from the 70's, 80's and the 90's used to call "the magic age". Truth be told, she started drugs shortly after all the success from her first album, by then she was 19 and already huge, as most are aware, but she was not that person when she became famous. She was my age when she did her first interview with one of Canada's biggest radio show hosts, and he almost cried on air on CBC on Saturday, and Jian Ghomeshi does not ever come close to even making mistakes on air. He's clearly still mourning, and I would not be surprised if he's back on vacation for another week, as this has completely and utterly devastated the music world, the worst part: reading Mr. Winehouse's statement in this article. I'm done the blog for today, don't expect another post, as I honestly cannot function today, and haven't been able to all weekend.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/25/amy-winehouse-father-thanks-fans

Still, be good to eachother, love each other, and most of all, count yourself lucky to be alive. Amy Winehouse, I know you will be missed by all who your music touched, and in today's age of one-hit wonder pop acts (that list could fill a whole blog by itself!) your effect has still not even come close to being felt. Rest in peace.

BELEGARTH!!

What? Did he just sneeze? No. It's a medieval-themed fighting sport, with foam-covered weapons. Imagine foam swords, daggers, axes (two handed and one-handed variations), foam quarter staffs (giant stick with two foam hitting ends, Darth Maul style!), maces, and a friend of mine even built his own medieval flail (no small feat, though it broke almost the first day he built it). THAT is what I did today. It is beyond cool, and probably just about the best thing around, if you're into kicking the crap out of friends, and walking away after grinning like a 5 year old at a free candy festival! A friend's cousin even chased his MOM around with one of these, and guess what?! She BEAT HIM! That's right. Mom's rule. Ha ha ha, that's just about it for today. Have an awesome week, wherever you may be, and be good to each other,

Kaz

HAPPY SUNDAY!!

That's right! Finally, after more than 12 hours of work yesterday, my weekend can begin. I've got some great stuff lined up for today, there'll be a blog post about it by tomorrow, hopefully with pics. Stay tuned, but for now I want to point you back towards Japan, as the people there are still suffering from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant explosion, and although the clean-up has gone pretty well according to plan, their situation is now roughly equivalent to the damage done at Chernobyl in 1986. Pictured in the below link is just one man who's volunteered to irradiate himself to spare the next generation of Japanese from what could be an absolutely terrible situation, as the island of Japan does not have anywhere near enough land mass for them to simply move away from the irradiated zones.  As the story below explains one group of Japanese elderly from an old folks have turned out in the hundreds to help, realizing that the effects of irradiation would set in well after their deaths. That's heroism. No other word for it. Link's below,

Kaz

http://i.imgur.com/b90ZE.jpg

Started On A Dark Note

Just so you wonderful people are aware, that first post was very dark, by my standards. I will be talking about tragedies in the third world quite a bit, however I've got something great for ya lined up on Sunday, and I think you'll like it.

Also, why live if you're sad all the time?

Here's something cool I found in my daily Redditing, think you can pick up a girl this way? Give it a shot:

http://loot-ninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NjFrU.png Duke Nukem fans will love this.

Kaz

Getting Started

Well, I'm here. That's a start. This will be a place for me to share my musings, as crazy and at times entertaining as they may be, with you (whomever you may be). A bit about me, I suppose to start:

I am Kaz (Kasemer) Hawrylak, I'm a 19 year old Canadian college student, currently working as a radio DJ in Fort Frances Ontario over the summer, and studying Liberal Arts at Fanshawe College in London Ontario.

If you're interested in the radio aspect of my life, I apologize but that's not what I'm here to talk about.


I believe it's important that we connect with the world. In the 21st century we face a massive disconnect between the developing and developed worlds. This disconnect's disappearance is of the utmost importance if you look at development of underdeveloped countries as something necessary for continued human survival (it is just that). Somewhere along the line, we've just stopped giving a f@!&. That's what it comes down to, in simple terms. I can call to mind a recent article from The Onion that basically talked about just that: not caring about other human lives. I'll link to it below. It seems we're no longer shocked when massive tragedies strike. Why? A gradual desensitization to tragedy maybe? That's possible, but I think personally it comes down to losing track of the reality we currently face on Earth. We're all essentially the same. Black, white, brown, yellow, whatever your skin colour, you're a human being. When many people die in a tragedy, we may now be shocked for a while, and the tragedy serves as a reminder of the frailty of human life, but that quickly fades and we go straight back to not caring. I plan to expand on this in future work, as this is just an introduction (I know right? The kid just doesn't shut up!). Anyway, welcome, have a look around, and feel free to spark a conversation if you feel so inclined.

The Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/deaths-of-20000-japanese-afford-planet-solid-15-mi,19785/

"Deaths of 20000 Japanese Afford Planet Solid 15 Minutes In Which Everyone Acts Like A Human Being"