The most interesting parts for me were:
I think this was a very interesting talk. It let me know how to write but I could also recognise some of the things she mentioned from books that I have read before.
Hanna Alkaf was completely different from the other speakers I have seen so far. Not only was she not talking about one story she was talking fully about her story. My favourite part of it was the resonance with her and the audience when she talked about books that were important to her and those who had read it felt included. A possible angle would be how she was talking about how most kids that had grown up in English colonies had probably read most of those books like Enid Blyton’s. I would be curious to find out how they were received in different countries in terms of popularity. Another idea that I like is she said something regarding Enid Blyton along the lines of “if you reread some of those books now you realise she put some quite problematic things in there,” and as someone who grew up reading those books I would maybe want to have a look into that and see how they are problematic and if there was any way I could link those things to her and see if I think those impacted her when growing up.
Overall it was interesting but I am not convinced if I would actually want to write a full article about any of the ideas I have come up with so far.
Speaker 1: Free Sam
Today the first speaker I saw talked about her grandson who was basically stuck between two bad parents. The thing that struck me was when I asked her about her relationship with her son now that she know what a terrible parent he has been and she said something along the lines of she had lost her respect for him but when they talked they still got along fine. Also that she didn’t want to ruin her relationship with him in case she lost whatever input she had on her grandson’s life. If found this really interesting because she did not respect her son any more but she was so afraid of losing her grandson she just dealt with it.
It was a really sad story. Though I do not really know what angle I would follow for an article on this.
Speaker 2: Al Hornsby
My second speaker was the guest speaker. He had had some very interesting experiences. But we were talking in class a while ago how stories need conflict or human interest. However, I was unable to find an angle for that other than wildlife conservation and climate change. While those are both fascinating and complex topics they are also things that I have written about before so I do not think I would want to repeat that. Even if I don’t write about his story and the issues that connect to it his stories were still so interesting and writer’s fortnight was a fascinating experience. Hearing all about these different people was great and I hope whatever I end up writing about does the stories and experiences I heard about justice.
Speaker 1: To treat or not to treat? When keeping a child alive is the wrong thing to do
The first speaker I went to told us about his job and about the issues with when they decide whether or not to treat some kids. At first, I thought that the ethical decision he talked about was probably the most interesting angle but then he said something about respect for autonomy. With children, they can not ask their consent for whether or not they get treatment because they are too young. All the decision making is done by the team and the parent. The speaker had been discussing how ” the technology is easy, the ethics are difficult” or how when the parents and the medical team can’t come to a consensus they go to an ethics counsel and maybe the law but “the law is black and white but many of these issues are grey.” But when he mentioned the children’s autonomy and their opinions that did not even seem to be part of the issue I started thinking about how bodily autonomy is brought up in so many issues at the moment. So I think if I were to write about this experience with this speaker I would write about children’s opinions and how even when bodily autonomy is viewed as a right children still aren’t listened to for a decision that directly impacts them and the length of their lives.
Speaker 2: Growing up in a single-parent family in rural Ireland: my mum risked everything for me.
Ms Santo was the second speaker I went to. What she spoke about was her story. It was really interesting. One of the most interesting parts for me was when she discussed what the town was like and how they reacted to the single parent especially how she felt pressure to always look like everything was fine. The way she reacted to it was also interesting. Ms Santo said that she put pressure on her Mum to remarry or adopt some kid just so that they would have a normal family.
I also really like hearing about her Mother especially when she talked about her motivations and Ms Santo said “She isn’t motivated but anything she just lives,” This was such an interesting way to put it because she had been talking about how she always took opportunities. This was said near the end so I was unable to ask about it but that line was really interesting because whenever you hear about single families it is about all the work they did, being tired and preoccupied with money but strong for their child(ren). However, this really made me think of overcoming and despite always working knowing what is important in life. So for me, that was the most interesting part of the interview because despite being a short sentence in over half an hour of speaking it just completely went against the usual portrayal of single mothers.
In conclusion, both speakers were extremely different but for both there where specific parts that stood out for me and overall the whole thing was very interesting. So it will be interesting to hear more stories tomorrow.