I am currently a second degree blackbelt in a martial art called Kumdo (for many of you who do not have any idea what this is, I posted a picture of it above). I have good posture and deep understanding of Kumdo as a blackbelt, but there is a limit in my skills because I am a female. Like how the preacher had told us at the mosque in Harlem, guys are stronger than girls. There is a no way I can beat guys over power and stamina. So when the guys improve so much and their skills catch up with mine, I get very nervous because I don't want people to think that I suck at Kumdo. Although Kumdo is not all about winning and losing in sparring, it is still embarrassing to lose to people with lower levels than me. With the nervousness always following me, I attempt to practice harder to improve my skills.
Also, there was a movie that I saw several years ago. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the movie because I never pay attention to the names. Anyways, it was about this police officer who always worked hard and overly achieved his work. Then one day, his bosses/supervisors (some people who had higher rank than him) called him. He was expecting them to nominate him to a higher position. Instead, he was sent to an uncontrollable town that had the highest rate of crimes because everyone at the department didn't like his over-accomplishments. Officers at his level and below didn't like him because they got compared while people with higher ranks were afraid to lose their jobs. In the end, he changed the town to a very lovely place and everyone loved him and he became less frigid.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/competition-is-sometimes-good-for-you/
The article from the link above is written in a sarcastic way that competition is not always good for you. Well, I think differently. I feel like although the companies will be having a nasty time trying to beat each other, but in the end, consumers will get better and better deals than before. the more they compete each other for more customers. the more they must provide good deals to attract consumers. No matter how unsolvable a conflict seems at that moment, it will always leave something in the end.
2 comments:
Just as how you mentioned, I remember how we were told that females do not match up to the potentials of males when it comes to certain aspects, such as strength. Yet, regardless of this fact, you harvest your time to add onto the skills you already posses, trying to make the best use of your talents. This is something I highly respect you for, considering how the sport kumdo (kendo) is mainly dominated by the male population.
Going back to Malcolm X, I would like to point out the fact that I don't fully agree with your thought on how betrayals or conflicts always bring positive impacts in the end. Malcolm might have benefited from his first-hand experience of betrayal with Elijah Muhammad, but he is just one single person out of the millions of other people who live on this planet we call Earth. Let's take an example which I assume you and I are both familiar with. The conflict between North and South Korea began in 1950. Yet,nearly 6 decades later, the conflicts between these two nations persist to this day. When the two sides, the North and South, attempted at unifying their governments, both sides felt betrayed by the other and declared a war. To my knowledge, nothing from this conflict benefited either side. Today, with the inauguration of South Korea's new President, Lee Myung Bak, the tensions between the two sides are greater than ever and the smallest military movements, would potentially cause another war that would cost numerous amounts of innocent lives.
Ellen, First of all, I never knew you were a SECOND DEGREE black belt! So, Congratulations! Ok, second, I love how you relate the competition of a sport, to the competition of different companies, all the way back to the competition of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. I would have never even thought of combining those two ideas. It makes sense that Elijah would feel threatened by Malcolm as a better public speaker.
At first, I was surprised that Elijah would, behind Malcolm's back, try to portray him as a bad guy. But, now that I think about it, It's absolutely human nature. Also, since Elijah did that, it showed how human Mr. Muhammad really is. It pushed him off his pedestal and into the pool of humans that once thought he was greater.
Post a Comment