Family Observation Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family Observation Assignment - Essay Example The two biggest antagonist in the movie Jackie and Isabel have nothing in common and their relationship is characterized by suspicion and contempt. As a result of the friction, Jackie husband occasionally gets a lashing from his wife who believes that Isabel wants to benefit from even though she (Jackie) has struggled hard to make their family compact. The relationship among the adults (Jackie, Luke and Isabel) in the movie is brought to light. There are many instances of bickering because Jackie occasionally confronts her husband who seems to like Isabel. The communications that the adults have in the beginning of the movie is full of resentment and, sometimes, lies. For example there is an instance when Isabel brings a dog in the family house but Jackie tells her that she is allergic to dogs. Once Isabel is not in the scene she (Jackie) takes the dog into the house; this shows that she lied about her allergic reactions. Similarly there is another instance when one of the children, ben gets lost under the watch of Isabel. Jackie is furious and reprimands Isabela and says that he has never gotten lost under her watch. It later emerges that that statement was false since she too had lost Ben at some point. Jackie and her husband also have constant arguments in the course of the conversation. Most of the times the reason for bickering is over how to manage Isabel as well as the children. Jackie gets furious in most cases while speaking to the adults because she feels they do not do enough to care for the children. Jackie is often over bearing because she is too protective of her children. On one hand she loves them very much and would love them to have a good life once she dies while on the other hand she does not want them to be spoilt by the future step mother (Isabel). Essentially the story revolves around two women (Jackie and Isabel) both who mean well but do not seem to have a good way to forge a good relationship. They compete in any

Book Report on Playing the Enemy by John Carlin Essay

Book Report on Playing the Enemy by John Carlin - Essay Example Uniting the blacks and whites in South Africa was considered a lost cause by many people, because the divide did not only center on colour, but culture as well. The whites had a more Western-influenced culture than the blacks who clearly embraced their traditional African roots. This was the challenge that Nelson Mandela, a black South African president faced. But he, being a man who rarely gave up, knew that if there was a God in heaven, then there was hope for unity, no matter how tall the obstacle is. With this, he took upon himself to find a way to unite the two camps of humanity that shared the same land. For he too believed that, as long as we both live in the same land, â€Å"your freedom and mine cannot be separated† (Carlin, 2008, 23). The book reveals that Nelson Mandela decided to make his move in a rugby game because rugby was one of the favourite recreational sports for the white South Africans. It was a sport the blacks did not take much part in, for they deemed it a white-man’s game. But despite this, there is some influence that sports can exert to people. It has the ability to make friends out of enemies, because it helps them come together to cheer for a common interest. Carlin (2008, Page 163) showed belief in the power of sport when he mentioned Mandela’s statement, â€Å"let us use sport for the purpose of nation-building and promoting all the ideas which we think will lead to peace and stability in our country†. The team in focus were the Springboks, the then national rugby team of South Africa. A significant number of people can be found who believe that, that team was one of the best rugby teams the nation ever had. But though it represented the nation, it was entirely composed of white men, and as expected, the audience was mostly whites. Strangely, Mandela saw this as a ripe field to promote his agenda. But this was no walk in the park for the great man. He would have to gather all the charm and charisma he had amassed during his 50 years of activism, and his strategy demanded a cause all South Africans could support. His strategy was pure genius. He agreed to host the 1995 rugby world cup games in South Africa. In addition to this he endeavoured to inspire the black South Africans to develop an interest for the sport. Although not fully successful in this endeavour, he managed to get enough blacks onto his bandwagon to ensure that his plan would work out smoothly. For the Springboks, they were facing one of the giants of the sport, the gargantuan New Zealand All Blacks, a team whose unparalleled success and discipline spoke for itself. This was no easy game for the Springboks and they knew it very well. Their chances of winning were small, but greater still, their chances of winning the hearts of their black countrymen were much smaller. Carlin specified some prominent men that contributed in making that day eventful. The first individual is Francois Pienaar the six foot Captain of th e Springboks. The other one is, Linga Moonsamy, Mandela’s top bodyguard on that day. Other prominent figures are, Niel Barnard, who was once the head of the intelligence services during the apartheid-era, and Justice Bekebeke a man that had spent a significant amount of time under death sentence for committing murder, and Desmond Tutu who is revealed