Posted by
Laura Kunzelman
comments (1)
Before I read the book Hiroshima by John Hersey, I didn't really know much about what happened in Hiroshima. What I liked most and what I felt worked for the book was all the detail, and since I didn’t know a lot about what happened, this book did a great job presenting the entire picture through the detail. The detail I remember most clearly is when someone went to go help someone up from the ground, and the skin came clear of the hand. That gruesome details proves the lengths Hersey went to give an accurate depiction of what happened.
What worked was how Hersey told a story. He wasn’t spewing out facts about Hiroshima, he took us into the lives of the people that were there and effectively showed us what it was like.
What I think didn’t work, was just the length of the book. At only 152 pages, it was not long enough to get all the stories of the people Hersey focused on. It just seemed like the book bounced back and forth a lot between the characters, and it was hard to keep track. I was constantly trying to keep track of everyone, and was forever flipping back the pages to see what I just read, to see what character I was on again, and trying to find where I last left off with that character.
As a first time reader, I really enjoyed Hiroshima, but the one thing I did think was missing was quotes from the characters Hersey was writing about. I didn’t think about it as I was reading it really though, I thought the story flowed well without them. Just when I thought of something it was missing, I thought quotes.
Journalists can learn from this book, the importance of being there. You would never have gotten all the detail Hersey did without him being a witness to it. If I wanted to write a book about Hiroshima now, the impact would not be nearly as great, and I would not have the little details Hersey did to make the reader feel like they were there. Journalists can also learn how to recount a true story the right way. Hiroshima flows well, and Hersey does such a great job in giving the reader as many details as he can while still keeping with his goal of recounting the story. I would compare this book to another of non fiction, but I am not sure I have read any non fiction before.
Hiroshima was originally published as an article in the New Yorker a year after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. And from what I have read, it was very well received, and i read somewhere that the issue that it was published in sold out.
It’s not like Hersey dumbed down his writing style to make the story understandable, he just did such an incredible job at telling the story that is was easy to understand and anyone can just pick up the book and be able to follow along. I read the book in just one sitting one evening and was surprised how easily I got through it, having no prior knowledge of Hiroshima subject matter.
Posted by
Laura Kunzelman
comments (2)
Friday was rushed. Rushed to get to school, rushed to the loan office, rushed back to school for another class, rushed to work, rushed home where I rushed to get ready in one hour for my limo pick up. Through some friends (Rachelle and Krystalle), I procured a ticket to a RRC alumni dinner where Global National anchor Dawna Friesen was the MC.
So I get there with my friends and step into the Fairmont. I spotted Dawna Friesen and wanted to talk to her right away but didn’t want to seem like the crazy chick, so I waited until after the dinner. After chatting and getting advice from Sylvia Kuzyk, I met Dawna Friesen. She took the time to talk to the students, ask us questions, answer ours, give us advice, and take pictures with us. It was all amazing.
Why I admire Dawna Friesen.
1.) She is from a small community, like I am. It is inspiring to see that, even though you are from the middle of nowhere, if you try hard you can make it.
2.) She is a woman and she is great at what she does. Dawna chose to have a career, which is refreshing to see; I think that there is a lot of pressure on women to have a family. Dawna does have one, but she waited until she was established first.
3.) Gives good advice. She told us to take any little jobs that we could because we never know who we could meet, and where the job could take us. She also said do not be afraid to move and told us that we could do it too.
I was a tad star struck by the whole thing, meeting someone that inspires me so much. Never thought I would be getting advice from Dawna Friesen.
I was a tad star struck by the whole thing, meeting someone that inspires me so much. Never thought I would be getting advice from Dawna Friesen.
Posted by
Laura Kunzelman
comments (1)
I do not come from a military family. I come from a family of farmers in Inwood, and I am quite positive that there has only been one person in my family ever to be in the military. Five years ago I was not sure what I wanted to with my life. Maybe I was drunk or something, but I thought that joining the military was good call. But after researching a few other options, I settled on CreComm, and it turned out to be a good call. But just because I don't have a military background, it doesn't mean I don't take the time to remember.
On November 11 last year, I went to Minto Armouries for the Remembrance Day ceremony. The most memorable experiences about it besides seeing the cadets faint, was Jim Seggie.
Seggie had a son named Mike. Mike died in Afghanistan in 2008. I got to speak with Jim Seggie last year for a school assignment, and again this year for a Metro article.
You can read the Metro article here.
And this is the story I wrote last year around this time.
Every Day is Remembrance Day
Soldiers of all ranks marched in unison through Minto Armoury on St. Matthews Avenue with guns drawn. Watching the young men and women practice their routines for the Remembrance Day ceremony like he does every year, Master Warrant Officer Jim Seggie can’t help but think of his son Michael.
"Every day is Remembrance Day for me," says Seggie, “now that the lake has been named after Mike, this Remembrance Day is extra special.”
Four fallen soldiers were honoured by the Manitoba government during a ceremony at the legislature Thursday where it was announced small lakes northwest of Utik Lake, located about 50 kilometres north of Oxford House, will forever bear their names. The fallen soldiers are Private Lane Watkins, Corporal James Arnal, Corporal Michael Seggie and Sapper Sean Greenfield.
21-year-old Michael Seggie, who served in the Second Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Shilo, Manitoba, died before his time. He and two other soldiers were killed in an attack by Taliban fighters on September 3, 2008. He was on his first tour and less than two weeks away from coming home.
Michael’s death was the 94th since Canada’s Afghan mission began in 2002. To date, 152 Canadian soldiers have died in the war that was brought on by the September 11 attacks on the United States. Canada entered the war almost a year after American troops arrived with the objective of defeating al-Qaida.
Like all other Canadians who die in war, Michael is automatically entitled under a national program to have a geographic feature, such as a lake or hill, named after him. After two years of waiting, Michael was finally honoured earlier this month. There was controversy this summer when Chicago Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews was honoured with a lake being named after him while the Seggie family had been waiting years. Seggie said he is not upset anymore that a lake had been named after Toews.
“While the honour came just a little over two years, it was well worth the wait," he says.
Now that the lake has finally been named after Michael, Seggie said he and family members hope to fly to the lake. He says their trip will take some planning, but they will make it happen.
Seggie, who has been in the been in the Canadian Forces for 32 years, makes sure he keeps his son’s memory alive by visiting his grave site regularly and having a wall dedicated their son in their home.
To Seggie, Remembrance Day is a “time to reflect what the soldiers have done for us, for what Mike has done for us.”
Posted by
Laura Kunzelman
comments (0)
I see all the time in the news stories about missing and murdered women, and it makes me angry, one missing or murdered woman is too many and it is pretty disgusting how often it actually occurs. I suspect a lot of people think about it, but you don’t see that many people doing anything about.
Not Shelley Cook, she cares and I respect her for starting this project and bringing to light how important of an issue this is.
Shelley Cook was a journalism major in the Creative Communications program at Red River College (just like me). Cook graduated in 2011 and while in school she devoted much of her time to her blog, Missing Manitoba Women, where Cook writes about just that. I knew about this project last year, but the Uniter just published an article about her and her blog, and it made me want to write about it.
Whenever I hear about stories where women go missing, I get emotional about it it. The fact that someone feels that they have the right to just take a woman from the street, or from wherever and do whatever they want to them is unthinkable. No one should stand for that, and women all over should be able to live their lives without fear that someone will harm them.
If you care at all about how many women go missing and are murdered in Manitoba, you should take a look at this blog. Cook says that the reason she chose to create her blog is because she "didn't like the way that many of these women were portrayed in the media." And she "wanted to humanize them and portray them beyond the labels that they have been given."
She's doing a pretty darn good job.
She's doing a pretty darn good job.
Here is a link to Shelley’s Facebook page for her blog.
This is her blog, please check it out. Missing Manitoba Women.
Here is the Uniter article.
Posted by
Laura Kunzelman
comments (0)
The Occupy Winnipeg movement started on October 15 and is being held in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in September in New York and has spread to countries all over the world.
Not even a month into Occupy Winnipeg, their stand is made more difficult by snow.
So now that the first snowfall is here and it is beginning to get a little frigid, I ask myself, why are those Occupy Winnipeg people still at outside? I understand what they are trying to do, but I don't see how camping out at the Leg will solve anything in the immediate or foreseeable future. And now, the protesters are not allowed to use the washrooms at the legislative building right across the road, so maybe they will be packing it in soon.
But what if the snow and no Leg washroom won’t make them go away? What will? The problems they want solved are not going to go away anytime soon, so I guess they are in for a long camp. You'd think that living in a tent through any Manitoba season would deter any protester. But what about what is happening at other camps in Canada - camps in Vancouver and Quebec are being shut down, and people are dying.
For those who don’t know what these people are protesting for, they are demonstrating against global financial inequality and corporate greed. And from the looks of it, protesters are going nowhere until the issue is resolved.
Also, if I were Richard Baschuk, I would just be wondering where all the babes were. (CreCommedy joke)
Here is a Metro article published November 8 about the demands Occupy Winnipeg are making.
Photo from http://home.rainyday.ca/
Here is a Metro article published November 8 about the demands Occupy Winnipeg are making.
Photo from http://home.rainyday.ca/
