The Healing Power of Music in Loss: Music Therapy for Kids

If you know me, you know I wholeheartedly believe in the power of music. You may also know that in some cases and practices of music therapy, I remain the skeptic, and try to retain a critical lens. Simply put, music doesn’t always heal. Ah, but when it does.

For the third anniversary of the great earthquake in Eastern Japan, a group of Japanese animators have come together for a relief project.

Founded in 2012, the Zapuni LLC organization unites Japanese artists and musicians to work together on various projects in order to raise awareness and money for general aid. Set to Sade’s Grammy nominated song By Your Side, this animated video tells the story of a rabbit and bear who lose a friend in the earthquake, and how music acts as a healing agent in helping them come to terms with their loss. I have found this video incredibly powerful, and hope you will too.

Directed by Tsuneo Goda, it has been created by the stop-motion animation company Dwarf for children’s charity Soma Children’s Orchestra and Chorus which has been inspired by El Sistima, and uses music therapy to help children who have been emotionally and psychologically traumatised by the disaster.

If you wish to donate to the cause, funds attained will be used for instruments, teaching and classes.

Photo and info courtesy of http://www.designweek.co.uk

Posted by

Diana Christine Hereld

Posted on

November 5, 2011

Posted under

Foreign Affairs, Philosophy, Politics

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Cattivo Maestro, A Revolt That Never Ends, and OWS

“I always thought that becoming a professor would mean teaching freedom and exercising freedom. I was wrong.”

-Antonio Negri, A Revolt That Never Ends

And a brief glance into Negri and Hardt on OWS, published October 11, 2011:

Confronting the crisis and seeing clearly the way it is being managed by the current political system, young people populating the various encampments are, with an unexpected maturity, beginning to pose a challenging question: If democracy — that is, the democracy we have been given — is staggering under the blows of the economic crisis and is powerless to assert the will and interests of the multitude, then is now perhaps the moment to consider that form of democracy obsolete?

Full article may be found here: The Fight for ‘Real Democracy’ at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street

Posted by

Diana Christine Hereld

Posted on

January 29, 2011

Posted under

Foreign Affairs

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Knowledge is Power

I still do not pretend to have any type of adequate knowledge or understanding of what is going on right now in Egypt, but thanks to a friend in the blogosphere, a couple of hours glued to CNN, and the genius of Tweets like these I’m starting to have a firmer grasp. So briefly, a couple of initial thoughts on the events of the past couple weeks:

In terms of revolt, it is almost incomprehensible to see the way youth are banding together. I cannot fathom the ways in which social media and networking are being used for good, and the general forwarding of awareness and connectedness throughout Egypt and the rest of world. With the majority of the demographic landing at age 30 and under, it’s nothing short of incredible as to what young people are accomplishing. Even as the government tries to establish a silence of the people, for maybe one of the first times in history it has become impossible. President Mubarak’s address this evening seems to be just what the foreign correspondents are saying: defiant and frustrating. It will be interesting in the very least to watch the events unfold tomorrow in light of his public decision to remain in power. For one of the best up-to-date providers of real-time info, take a look here.

The following may or may not be accurate representation of what is happening, but I found it incredibly powerful, and worth sharing nonetheless.

“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”

-William James

Thanks to http://ktar.com, http://enduringamerica.com, http://ctv.ca, and http://theatlantic.tumblr.com respectively for the photos.