Early childhood and new technologies (MultiMedia Entry)

Travelling by car or by train, going out to restaurants or visiting the family; those are situations when children often don’t have much patience. They start yelling or crying because they feel bored.

What to do with those kids? For many parents an iPad, iPhone or other digital things are the solution.

But is it a good solution? Meanwhile we have so many Apps; even for small children or babies; where the kids “learn” how to draw, can hear animal sounds and so on. They also designed storybooks where a digital voice reads the story for the children. Mothers and fathers are replaced by technology! I think we have to be careful with those trends. Children under the age of 4 have enough to find out and realize in the real world! When children are older than 4 years than and are allowed to use this media; there should be a time limit (something about 15-25 min). Parents should never force a kid to use technology because their interest will increase automatically. I don’t want to judge about people who give their children the chance to use this media but it should be under control and in a balance with “traditional” games and adventures.

This type of learning and pastime will never replace time spent with parents or other children. Only when children have contact to other human beings they can learn how to read mimic and what emotions are and how to identify them. So my point of view is that children under the age of 4 shouldn’t get in contact with electronically media like iPad and generally I think we should try to keep this digital stuff away from children as long as possible.

India - Slumdog Millionaire (Reflection Entry)

Did you ever heard about the film “Slamdog Millionaire”?

If not, here: The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slums where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?

Well, if you want to know the end I really strongly recommend seeing this film!

But I would like to reflect about the film now.

You haven’t been to India before seeing this film; me neither. I saw the film and I was shocked about the cruelty which was shown; child trafficking; clipping and so on. I couldn’t believe that people can see those scenes on the street in India. The film won 8 Oscars in 2009 and was published in 2008 and this year, before coming to turkey, in spring, I have been to the northern part of India.

This film shows us the cruelty of poverty. It shows us why children are sitting on the streets asking for money; why children in age of eight are high. It sounds brutal but I Think we could get an impression how it’s going on behind “the scene”. When I was in India I saw parallelisms, things I wrote down before, I saw it. There were kids in age of eight; which should normally go to school; but they were high and tried to steal. It was fun for them to make us scared because me and my friend have never seen children so aggressive not to mention on drugs. If I think about film and the reality I have seen there in some parts I can really say that the author of the book; which the film was made of; reflected the situation in India’s poor parts skilful. I am even of the opinion that he could have shown us this situation of the poor people and children in a more ungentle way.

To my mind this film; and the book as well; is a successful job. Now the western civilization got an impression of the life of the majority in countries we don’t care enough about.