PTW Magazine: Aug 2018

HEALTH | EDUCATION

LINDA BURNEY

The first Aboriginal woman to serve in the House of Representatives.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT | VOLUNTEERING

“We have seen so much evil in the collapsing of worlds... But now we will see something truly wicked. What's worse than facing villains with the fate of your world hanging in the balance? Facing heroes.”

Black Panther

Chink In The Armour?

Marvel’s Civil War storyline brings interhero politics front and centre when the government urges The Avengers to champion legislation for a Superhuman Registration Act which would monitor and control all superhumans in America. Superhumans were divided on the morality of this legislation, and whilst there were two main parties led by Iron Man and Captain

America who were for and against this legislation respectively, it brought out a mix of complex clashes: idealists vs pragmatists, liberal vs conservative, activist vs pacifist, code of conduct vs justified means.

What made these inter-hero conflicts interesting is the alliances continuously changed and shifted. At times the liberal and conservative heroes united in their agreement of a pragmatic approach. Other times those striving to fight for

“I don't know which one of us has been more blind... you, in your refusal to adapt to a changing world... or me for following you this far down your well-intentioned path”

Wonder Woman

their ideals united irrespective of the means used.

Almost all characters of the Civil War were heroes. As the clash developed, flaws in all the heroes were exposed; bringing out the worst in our heroes. All the heroes believed they had the best intentions for ‘the people’. Yet, as the conflict escalated, the original goal which was to bring trust, security and safety to society was lost. Slowly this goal was lost to the pursuit of

heroes simply trying to ‘win the fight’ to prove they were ‘right’.

The desperation ‘to win’ reaches a low point when heroes from all parties began to utilize criminals and villains to ‘win the fight’ and engage in combat in the city streets. In the final clashes, both sides ultimately ‘lost’ as death and destruction came to civilians and the city from the actions of people labelled as heroes who felt they were fighting for the right cause.

Photo credit: Geir Dokken

DEEYAH KHAN is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary film director and founder of Fuuse, a media and arts company that puts women, people from minorities, and third-culture kids at the heart of telling their own stories.

In 2016, she became the first UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for artistic freedom and creativity. She has received many honours for her work supporting freedom of expression, human rights and peace including the Ossietzky prize, the University of Oslo’s Human Rights Award and the Peer Gynt Prize from the Parliament of Norway.

PTW’s Chirag Lodhia spoke to Deeyah Khan four years ago about Deeyah’s inspirational story and her work founding Fuuse. Since then, Fuuse commenced their project ‘Sister-hood’: an online magazine and a series of live events dedicated to to spotlight the voices of women of Muslim heritage.

PTW decided to touch base with Deeyah and see what she and Fuuse have achieved over the past few years.

LINDA JEAN

BURNEY

DOES TECHNOLOGY really affect our sleep?

I am definitely a person who probably uses technology way too much. Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram- I have them all. And with the introduction of new apps, I can easily spend a few hours in the night binging on Netflix or playing Candy Crush right before bed. I know this is bad for mebut is there actual evidence to suggest that technology has a detrimental effect on sleep?

A study completed on 1508 Americans by the National Sleep Foundation in 2011 demonstrated that 9 out of 10 Americans used a technological device before bed. These devices included TV, mobile phones, computers and laptops and video game consoles. Those who used electronic media devices before bed were shown to have trouble falling asleep and having unrefreshed sleep. Interestingly, the more interactive the device used before bed is, the more adverse effects were likely to happen.

Magic Room has helped me in many ways. I was weak in many things but when l came in magic room l observed that those things have improved. This is because l need some extra attention and some extra help of teachers which l got in Magic Room. I enjoy a lot in Magic Room. One thing that l improved in Magic Room is my English. When l took lectures and classes in English l observed that my English is slowly improving. I love magic room because every day l learn new things in the Magic Room by playing, by studying or by doing something else.

In the magic room we are not known by our marks. We are known by our behaviour. Magic room will help us in many ways, if we have skipped or not understood anything in the classroom we can learn that in the Magic Room. In the future if teachers will not help us in anything we will not get panicked because we have Magic Room where we can solve our queries and doubts. These things l love most about Magic Room.

~Sonia, Year 9 student at the Magic Room