achida | english

As if life hadn't been hard enough in the rural area of Ozark Mountain, the 17 year old Ree was suddenly left behind alone by her disappeared father to take care of her mentally ill mother and two younger siblings. Then Ree started a dangerous journey to look for her father, who was, apparently, killed by a drugs gang. The plot can be boring due to its slow pace, especially in the beginning. But gradually the story intensifies. For sure it is not a thriller, but the plot makes one feel the winter's cold. And the film does it slowly, until one feels it in the bones. Debra, the director, demonstrated that without sophisticated technology the plot itself can be a very effective tool to achieve the same. It was surely not an easy job for Jennifer Lawrence (Ree) to keep the film "alive" until the end. Yes, the whole film relies totally on her "solo" performance. But Jennifer proved that she was up to the difficult task. The film is probably not to everybody...

I was born on an island called Nias, the biggest of all islands  on the west cost off Sumatra. Although Nias is surrounding by sea, the Indian Ocean, people of Nias do not like fishing and eating fish very much. My village sit on one of the mountains in Nias. It is usually covered with clouds, but once the sky is free a stunning view of the landscape comes up. Besides this beautiful view there is nothing spectacular there. People are mainly small scale farmers.

Recently I read a book of Edmund White A Boy's Own Story . It is an autobiography written in novel style that made its author famous all over the world, especially in the UK and in Japan. It tells about the author's experience as a young boy until the age of 16, who had a problematic relationship with his father. In the first chapter the author narrates his first sexual experience with another boy when he was 15. He had had sex with girls and grown up women before, but this experience took him by surprise. Although Kevin, the boy he started the new adventure with, was 3 years younger, he realised that Kevin is "the boy", determined, independent and strong in pushing himself forward, while he felt himself was such a sissy. The author described his first sexual experience vividly and meticulously, so that one would think, this would be more of a novel than an autobiography.

The visit of Pope Benedict XVI has been used by his opponents to demonstrate against him. Who are they? They are a mixture between militant secularists and radical humanists. BBC has published their profile and can be read at BBC News - Papal visit: Pope Benedict XVI's opponents . The only group not mentioned in this profile is the radical Islamic group, which also demonstrated against the Pope.

Promoting the culture of life. How? Does it mean, asking for forgiveness even when heart is already wounded? Or does it mean, to send away all the "bad spirits", which destroy the sense of togetherness among us, which tear away the peace between us. In a world, where the culture of death spreads away like virus, we need to promote the culture of life even more. Therefore sing with me the song with Michael Jackson:

Saturday is for me always the day to stay at home to clean my room, to wash clothes, and many other things I do at home. But last Saturday together with two friends I visited London for the first time. At half past six in the morning we had already left the house in Oxford. It was not sure, whether the weather was getting better, because the clouds were changing everywhere in the sky. But we were lucky. It did not rain the whole day. In London we decided to begin our visit with Buckingham Palace. It was about 9 O'clock and this is the best time to take some photographs in front of the palace because it faces east. And so we entered the yard and caught sight of the palace guards. It was the first time I had seen guards in such a uniforms. Until this time I had only seen them in photographs. I had a feeling I was in a fairy-tale world. Had not I met them often before in fairy-tale?