Everyone can always change the world...

Yesterday, my friend Steve, my dad and I went to see the new Superman movie Man of Steel. I was very excited to see it. But - as it turned out - it wasn't very good. Steve did not expect as much as I did, so he wasn't too disappointed. (He also thinks that Earth Generators should be freely available on Ebay). But I thought the film was too loud and there was no real story. After about 2 hours, I got really bored and wanted to go home.

I like Superman very much, but I don't think he should be an emotionless alien. I also think he should be one of us because that's why people like him so much. In 'Man of Steel', he is only a man of steel. That's why I thought the film was very boring. (Check out this review I found on the Guardian's website - it seems that someone called Philip French agrees with me big time).

When Steve and I discussed the Earth Generator they use in the film in school today, one of our teachers said that Superman was outdated. (If you haven't seen the film - an Earth Generator is a machine that can alter a planet's atmosphere so that evil people from Krypton can live on it). I don't think our teacher's right. I think that people always need Superheroes. But I don't think we should only look for them in Sci Fi movies.

There was another article on the Guardian's website which talked about the protests that are going on in Turkey. It said that Turks were now forbidden by their president to protest against any new law. But there was one young Turk who found a way around this. Instead of protesting, he just stood there for hours, without doing anything. The police didn't know what to do with him because he wasn't breaking the law. So others started to join him. After a few hours, they were all protesting against the government without actually protesting. And although the police later arrested all of them, I think they had enough time to make their point.

I think this is also what makes Superman so special. Although he has all kinds of special powers, he always remains one of us. I don't mean by that that he's American from Kansas or anything. I just think that, for a person from Krypton, he is still surprisingly human. And that is why we trust him.

So if Clark Kent from Kansas can do something special and help us against a common fiend, then we can all join him. The same goes for the man in Turkey. The Turks on Taksim Square in Istanbul joined the man who protested against not being allowed to protest because they saw that what he was doing was right (and that it worked). And I think this makes the standing Turk of Istanbul some sort of a Superman too.

I guess Superman's message is that everyone can always make a difference. No matter where you're from (from Krypton or from Kansas) or if you have any special super powers, you can always change the world. Maybe someone needs to tell Zack Snyder about all this...

I took the Superman picture from the film's official website (www.manofsteel.warnerbrothers.com). The man in Istanbul is called Erdem Gunduz and I got his picture from www.businessinsider.com.

Disabled People can be A-holes too

In school today we were told that 'political correctness' means to treat all people the same, no matter where they're from, who they are or what they look like. Our teacher said it doesn't matter if someone is disabled, white, black, male, female, short or strange, for as long as you treat them all as if they were normal. And he also told us that we should never call someone an idiot or an a-hole to their face. Especially when we're talking to disabled or to black people.

I didn't understand why calling someone who is black an idiot would be any more wrong than calling someone an idiot who is not. I was also confused why it was OK for my dad to call George from next door a 'little bastard a-hole' for hitting our cat for no apparent reason, and why it would be wrong for him to call him that if he was sitting in a wheelchair. I mean, to me it really doesn't matter if George is short or black or green. He would still be a giant a-hole bully for hitting our cat. So I did a little research and here is what I found:

Most people don't know what 'political correctness' means. There is an Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook by someone called Henry Beard (check out the book on Amazon). But most people think that 'political correctness' means not to say or do something you really want to say or do because it is not allowed. Check out this article by someone called BJ Gallagher in an American newspaper, who says that the way people understand political correctness has gone way too far and how it now controls almost everything we think and do.

I checked the dictionary and also did a little search online. It seems that political correctness has more to do with language than it has to do with what we think or do. What it means is that we should not use words that 'exclude, marginalize or insult people' on purpose. (I found this in the Oxford Dictionaries here). But it doesn't mean that we can't say what we think if someone like George behaves like a giant bully idiot.

On my way home, someone in an electric wheelchair hit me from behind because he was talking on his mobile phone and didn't look where he was going. He didn't say sorry or anything but drove on and hit a few of my classmates too. He was angry and started shouting at them because they didn't get out of the way.

My ankle still hurts from where he drove into me with his chair. So I think it should be OK for me to call him a rude idiot. Political correctness should mean that if you are an idiot or a giant a-hole, it should be OK for everyone to call you one, no matter if you're black, white, male, female, short or disabled.

The cat picture is from Pawnation.com.