Shi-ro-hig-e, this more or less is the sound of the word for “Whitebeard” in Japanese. Shirohige is portrayed as a man of great honor in One Piece. He was the leader of the Whitebeard Pirates, one of the strongest pirate crews in the world of One Piece prior to his death, and was proclaimed to be “the strongest man in the world” in the anime.  The place in the story where we see the most of Shirohige and his crew, and where he ultimately passed on, is at the island of base operations for the Navy (the world’ most elite military group of the World Government), Marineford. He arrived in Marineford to save his son (what Shirohige calls his crewmates), Fire Fist Ace, Luffy’s brother, from being publicly executed by the Navy-Marines.

In these episodes at Marineford, Whitebeard displayed forgiveness under direct betrayal by a son, but did not forgive betrayal under another one. In the first case, Whitebeard was caught off-guard and stabbed through the chest by one of his fleet captain named Squardo because Squardo was lied about Whitebeard’s fidelity to him by another character. Upon being stabbed, as the blade was still in Whitebeard, who is much an infallible man in the manga, he reached down (Whitebeard being a much bigger person than Squardo) and, instead of crushing Squardo’s skull with his over-sized hand (which is what Oda visually set up to make it appear like before the following happened), Whitebeard actually reached down to hug Squardo, unfettered. This was moment that, when I first saw it, I almost fell back out of my chair. What Whitebeard was more upset with, after hugging and forgiving Squardo, was that someone would actually lie about Whitebeard betraying any one of his sons. As the story progressed, we learn that Whitebeard became the strongest pirate in the world, with a matching crew, not because he was motivated to obtain the world greatest pirate treasure (the so called “One Piece”) or to be the most fearsome pirate on the seas, but because he wanted the one thing no one ever much gave to him as a boy growing up:

A family.

We learned he was one pirate who would pick up all the misfits who had no where else to stay and made them (if they wanted) a permanent part of his “family”. This was true pretty much except for one, and the reason this one was, we could say, “disowned”, was precisely because of Whitebeard’s heart and commitment to his family, in many ways. Blackbeard, or /kurohige/ in Japanese, was the son Whitebeard did not forgive. The reason? Kurohige killed fellow “brother”. Kurohige was waiting under the protection of Whitebeard for a particular object to show up, one that would give him great power, and when it was found by Thatch (a Whitebeard crew member/captain), Kurohige killed him, left the crew and ship, and set off on his own to gather his own crew to take over the seas.

Later on in Marineford, Whitebeard faces Blackbeard, and when Blackbeard asks him for forgiveness after he is pinned down in battle, Whitebeard pummels his face. The leading concern here is, as exemplified by Whitebeard and Blackbeard’s story, is of your crew, your followers, your children, family, USING you, USING your protection, for their own gains to the detriment of others ALL in the group are supposed to treat as family, as one group.

There is a fear I’ve come to know after reading about employee relationship in the world of work and business, and it’s that the person in charge should never prepare for any of the people below him to meet or exceed the leader’s skills, because he or she might just then leave to start off his own ventures. This seems to terrible a thought and implication, because if this maxim holds true, it almost suggests necessarily holding the majority of power in your own hands for fear those under you might shake themselves from the group, or, worse, end up hurting the original group by their (whether accidental or intentional) own initiatives.

Well, what about Luffy and his crew (to keep focus on One Piece)? He is very much like Whitebeard, though most crew members are about his age, and a few are just a bit older than the rest (Whitebeard was quite old compared to his crew). I recognize the dynamics differ, but I am concerned over just how much power is good to give to your people? Or does there always necessarily need to be an power imbalance?

(I realize I’ve reached my limit, so I will close for now, but will likely return to these concerns in a later post). Thank you.

Nouakchott is the capital and largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities in the Sahara. The city is the administrative and economic center of Mauritania. I found an article about a woman named May Mint who is now 50 years of age and is over weight, not because of over eating but because  woman who is fat in this part of the world is considered beautiful, so this is a tradition that run from many generations. Obesity has long been the ideal of beauty, signaling a family’s wealth in a land repeatedly wracked by drought. Mint suffers from a few diseases related to her over weight. From the age of 4 her mom used to wake her up in the middle of the night to make her eat and drink camel’s milk. Now she understands that being this big might cost her her life and although she understands the risks of losing weight in her society she is now exercising and following a diet. In this culture man believe that skinny women are not attractive and if their wives lose the wight they will divorce them. The mothers look down towards their skinny daughters and do not show love or the same affection they would to the bigger ones. Every culture has different believes about body image. unfortunately that is not the case in the United States of America, where women are constantly reminded of how a woman’s body is supposed to look regardless if it’s a genetically condition or just stubborn fat after having a baby. The point I wanted to make by using this post is, that our society should embrace the beauty of a woman regardless of her size. Also, been overweight should not be a reason to bully or look down upon. Instead, if a person is gaining an excessive amount of weight in a short period of time, family and friends should be there to support the person not to put them down.

I have family member who take part of beauty competions and own beauty pageants. When ever I have time I help out but I can’t help but feel utterly confused and guilty. Part of me is like well this is totally wrong because these girls are being judged on looks but not only that on specific looks! Are they tall enough, thin enough, does their hair accentuate their facial features or is their walk that of a beauty queen. On the other hand I hear girls say that they do this to help other girls be confident in their own skin and just own it. But how true is that and where does it end in the beauty world???? Will beauty out of the social norm ever really be accepted. The fashion and beauty world have both recently expanded their brands to fit a more variety of peoples body shape, skin color, race, and gender. In the back of my mind i always think about if these brands do all of this to please society. Part of me thinks thats true because I’ve seen both clothes in the regular section and the plus size section and let me tell you most of the clothes in the plus size section were not cute! Why would brands do this! I feel like people who are already being outcassed to a whole other section of the store will only be made to feel worse when they see the clothing that the brand went out of their way to create for their body size. I don’t understand why clothing stores do this. When you walk  into stores like forever 21 you have sections that pertain to different styles. You have the edgy style section, work style, casual style and workout clothing section just to name few. Then with a BIG sign you see the plus size section! Why can’t the all the clothes sizes be together. I don’t get it! The beauty industry does this type of discrimination as well. Certain brands only carry a number of darker foundation colors or the colors they make for eyeliners and lipsticks are only made to accentuate people of a lighter skin tone. I was once in a make up store and heard an employee tell the darker skin tone girl that the brand of foundation make up she wanted did not have darker skintones. To me make up is art and that means every one should be able to enjoy it if they want to. 

Establishing more programs where people can learn how to love themselves and not care about what others think can be a perfect way to help the community fight against the media and self image. Being realistic and excepting yourself and understanding that true friends will not judge or criticize the way the person looks, can also help them. Groups who volunteer and go to schools and talk to teenagers about the consequences of becoming trap in the media life style can help teenagers fight against peer pressure. Utilizing social media itself to advertise and fight back against bulling and tips on how to overcome bad influences and negative comments can be a great idea to let women in general know that they are not alone and that there are other people who care and understand the situation. The same idea would work for women who just had a baby but decide to follow Kim Kardashian and other celebrities. Women who just had a baby should start a website to encourage each other. They should also voice their opinion on social media about how they feel as far as celebrities lying to the public when for the most part they are getting plastic surgeries and starving in order to loose the baby weight so fast after giving birth. Another way to fight against different clothing stores who do not carry big sizes for women after they have a child is publicly telling these designers that they will never purchase their brands and they will tell friends and family about their experiences with these designers. Women in general should advocate for each other and instead of competing against each other they should become a strong group to fight against the negative affects that social media brings in their lives.

In I am Other, the interviewer takes a camera to the streets of an urban city to ask the people living there what they think about hipsters. The video opens and the first thing he asks someone is “Are you a hipster?” The immediate response he gets from the woman is “No!” The man also asks whats the difference between a hipster and the woman. The responses from the rest of the cities inhabitants pretty much describes the hipster stereotype. They would say things like a hipster is “poor, wears skinny jeans, parents support them, listens to jazz, unemployed or a person who hasn’t found their purpose in life” Almost none of the people in the video call themselves hipsters when they are asked and it seems to be because they think of it as an insult. The reoccurring them is that people hold negative stereotypes about Hipsters and think of them as posers or fakers. The video is meant to make fun of people who don’t fit the ordinary mold of everyday people and people are upset by the fact that they are labeled by the brand “Hipster” because of their fashion choices. One of the women that was interviewed explains that she thinks hipsters only listen to music or read books because it isn’t popular. If something is popular then they won’t ever buy it.

An idea that one of the ‘hipster’ women brought up is “if you’re a current person or a trend slave” then you aren’t a Hipster. Theirs two important ideas that can be taken from this. First, is that anyone who isn’t following popular culture and is different in any regard is considered a hipster. This may be why Hipsters hate the label. The label applies to so many of us that it really holds no meaning as a status symbol anymore. Their isn’t anything special about a label that applies to so many. Second is that hipsters might believe that to break free from being slaves to trends and brands all around us, they have to be different. They must dislike whats popular around them and they need to start their own trends. Can you really blame someone for being different and wanting to start their own trends? As the woman says, “As long as your not an asshole.” Which brings up the fact that many people find Hipsters to be condescending and rude. The word hipster has a negative connotation now and it seems like a lot of people shy away from it now, but what does that mean for trends? Will people see a new trend or an act of individuality and dismiss it as being ‘hipster.’ Will more people try to follow the mainstream image as a result, afraid of being labeled as a hipster?