Category: English

Rise of Islamophobia

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Rise of Islamophobia

Rise of Islamophobia compared to the LIT text Home fire.

The book in multiple moments in the book, for example, At the very start of the chapter, the author shows us how Isma has to undergo special interrogation at Heathrow because of being Muslim (although the actual reason is that his father had gone on to join a terrorist organisation). Through this, the author presents the inherent Islamophobia in society. In today’s world this a common problem that happens to multiple Muslim people who wear a hijab. This is a prime example of how this book portrays the rise of the Rising of Islamophobia in today’s society. This also brings in the idea of how Muslim people are stereotyped into a category, a category of being a threat. 

Another example of when the book  ‘Home Fire’ portrays the rise of the Rising of Islamophobia in today’s society is in later in when the chapter begins with the second interaction of Isma and Eamonn. Eamonn the son of a politician in the UK. A politician who Isma’s family didn’t have good relations with as they were targeted for being Muslim. In this part of the chapter, Eamonn displays seemingly little knowledge of Urdu and Pakistani culture when he mentions to Isma’why do you wear that’ referring to her Hijab. This relates to Islamophobia as most people don’t bother to even find out why people wear the Hijab, that it is actually their choice, and they are not forced into it. Instead, Muslim women are forced by the people to take it off; that shows how little people care about religion to the point they don’t even know anything about it.

Image result for islamophobia

Who owns my culture

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

A culture is made up of everyone in it, and also everyone that affects it. You can get someone else from a different culture to represent that culture, as long, he/she doesn’t pretend to be that culture until problems come along. For example, you can have a straight person to represent the gays, but mentally the strait person won’t understand what the gay person feels in situations such as the shooting in the gay club; as they haven’t experienced any of it during their lifetime. Which is why I hold mixed feeling about if someone represents a culture, who isn’t from that culture; as they may just be trying to help out but the moment the helping out gets active, they stop. Even if they don’t stop, they don’t mentally understand what the rest of that culture is feeling. 

Culture can’t be owned, as there are so many people that build up the culture, adding in even the smallest additions that shape the culture into what it is now. Which is why I feel that a culture cannot be owned by one person, it can maybe be represented a bit by one person but it won’t be a hundred perfect representation, but it is still appropriate for one person from that culture to represent their culture. Which is why I feel no one can own ‘a’ culture as a culture is build up by everyone who is in it.

 

Which three historical figures(or fictional) would I invite for dinner

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

The 11th doctor from Doctor who:

This is a fictional character for the 19 tv series Doctor who, this is about an alien life with a human body, who has multiple afterlives after death, who goes on various adventures all around the universe in his tardis, the teleportation device he stole from his planet. I picked this fictional character as I used to fantasise his existence, for the sole purpose to ask him questions about his past stories, experiences and whatever springs up to me at the time. His knowledge of the world seemed too good to be true, and being able to invite him for dinner, is a dream come true.Related image

Steve Jobs:

He is the former Apple CEO who died recently. He designed the first iPhone, and as he died rich he died with regret of wasting time not spending it with loved ones. I would invite him for my dinner as towards the end of his life he seemed to regret all of his doings and wish he could do over, and someone wishing to do over who died rich and famous must have good reasoning to do so. I would mainly pick him to listen to the advice he would give, I would obviously not follow his advice rigidly as I would never want to live someone else life but I would take in his advice from a neutral perspective, and use it at times I can. 

Image result for steve jobs before death

Vincent van Gogh:

Vincent van Gogh is an artist from the 18 century who took his life and only became famous after his death. He may not seem like the best historical figure to invite to a dinner party due to the fact that he suffered from some sort of seizures or crises. I would invite him for my dinner as I would want to know what went through his head at the time, why did he paint what he did, what did he have nightmares about, maybe even is possible to ask him about if he knows about his fame and how does he feel about it. Image result for vincent van gogh

Paper 1 reflection (Campbell’s tomato soup)

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Image result for campbell soupI generally found the paper quite similar to what I have done in IGCSE, maybe it’s me but it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t challenging. I found it quite hard to get that deeper meaning, not that the soup was being advertised to the rick but rather how the soup relates to the women in the advertisement and connecting that with the addition of the great depression and the effect of it on the readers.

Overall my feedback helped me get a rough idea of where I stand as of now on my paper one and what I need to do to improve my writing to take it to the next level. For similar tasks or future paper one tests, I will need to work on my formal writing and vocabulary, I also need work on getting out the deeper meaning of the writing, so I can get into the higher-level band.

To what extent does representation of women in advertising reflect or challenge the identity of women?

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

To discuss this topic I have picked these two advertisements.

 

In the first advertisement, there is a chocolate egg and on top of the egg, it says, ‘ Be a good egg. Treat your daughter for doing the washing up’. This advertisement indicates that women are meant for housework, to stay at home to work in the kitchen, take care of the kids etc. It mainly promotes the Idea that women are meant to work their lives in a house and the rest should be left out for the men. In the second advertisement, there is a lady holding a fizzy drink with the captions saying ‘ You mean a woman can open it?’, this is stereotyping that women are weak and usually they cannot do simple everyday things, such as opening a jar or fizzy drink. It promotes the idea men are stronger while women are inadequate.)

Both advertisements have a similar message to the common public that women are domestic servants; they need to work indoors as they are weak and cannot perform well in the outside world, in men’s positions. They both indicate how women are less dominant and their lives surround being a domestic servant to the men in their lives.

One of the global issues they provoke is in the Cultural, Identity and community. I feel that women don’t have their own identity. They are all raised un in a world where they are automatically in a culture where womens’ job is to be a servant for men that they are inferior to men. They have no say as they are raised up with this idea in most places, for example in India this culture still exists and thrives in rural areas. This demotivates them from their goals, almost making them think that their main purpose is to support men, take care of the home and other household duties that come along, limiting them from taking their full potential.

This representation of women is extremely bad as it sets a bar for women. Almost like an invisible wall that doesn’t only demotivate women to do better but also prevents the women who try to be better, who actually try to get the best position they can, are stopped because of their representation. They gain the image that they aren’t as good as men. These type of advertisements have given women a terrible reputation that now affects millions in their daily life, from getting jobs to their mentally demotivating them.

 

#meeToo

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

#MeeToo

 

– How do you think the #metoo movement has impacted our society?

 

#MeeToo a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assaults. Since the movement has become, it has had some impacted our community in multiple ways; the main one being that it has brought out a lot of people out from the depths of our communities from being too embarrassed and shy to actually admit that they have been harassed or assaulted. This gives people a voice, that little push they need and have brought down a lot of people who have conducted in these immoral actions, giving them power but not physically but rather mentally. But at the same time, some people even say that this movement has caused too many people to over-exaggerate about their experiences, many times, just for a little spotlight in the crowd. 

 

 Thinking about the IB concepts of identity and representation, how do you think the #metoo movement could potentially change how TV/film/adverts represent men and women? 

 

The #MeeToo movement will have a big impact on how TV/film/adverts represent men and women. One out of many reasons this movement is such a big stakeholder for how TV/film/adverts represent men and women is due to the effects of the #meetoo. The #meetoo potentially puts the spotlight on the assaulter/harasser even if he or she hasn’t done anything wrong, and more well known that person is, the bigger the effect it has on them. For example, it can lead to the TV/film/adverts company being boycotted. This leads those company’s controlling how they operate in front of the public, causing them to prevent making sexual adverts, films or movies where one of either two is even hinted to be harassed or assaulted.

 

– Which global issues (the IB global issues that we see on our news padlet) do you think the #metoo movement relates to? 

 

I feel that the Culture, Identity and Community and the Power, Politics and Justice sections both relate to the #MeeToo. The main reasons these relate to each other is due to people who are affected indirectly or directly by this movement, either if they are the person who has been assaulted or harassed, or the assaulter or the harasser themself; they both either gain or lose power. And power relates to Culture, Identity and Community and the Power, Politics and Justice, affecting all problems that fall in the radius of both of these issues.

Jornal

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

 

     Image result for indian mcdonald print ads

This print advertisement is from McDonald’s in India. It is advertising a McCafe latte, on a brown and red stripe on a yellow background and on the bottom the McCafe logo in its natural font and colour. This advertisement is unique for most cultures as it is mainly specifically aiming towards the Indian market and culture.

It starts of it the late looking, not like a usual latte you would get at a normal McCafe down the road (outside India), instead, it looks similar to a traditional Indian drink called chai, with its sprinkle of spice in the middle of the frothy foam. This is to make it more familiar to Indians, to make them feel more at home. With its light yellow background supporting it to also looks more appealing and give out a happy simple tone; almost the same tone when we Indians think about chai. That bright warm feeling when you think about chai is similar to the feeling given out by this yellow background. When other cultures see this, they may be confused about what drink they are trying to advertise rather on the colour scheme. As this drink must look unusual to them, they may be confused about what they are seeing, while it is actually a traditional Indian drink.

This print advertisement is from Roma trying to advertise their pasta, with pasta looking like famous monuments of Italy, and on the bottom of the advertisement it says, brings home the taste of Italia. In this advertisement, Roma is trying to set out that Italian vibe to make it appear more authentic even though Roma itself is a company from Ireland. It even says in text, “bring home the taste of Italia”. The word Italia is in Italian while the rest is in English, this is to give off the final Italian touches. Most other cultures should understand what the pasta is trying to represent, but some cultures may not understand the message.

representation

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Can text ever be truly representative of groups of people?

I feel that you can’t ever truly represent a group or groups of people for the sole reason that you will definitely miss out some key aspect or you may exceed some other aspects of the groups you are talking about. There is too much going on in a group to be able to represent it perfectly. You may get the gist of the perspective but you ever represent everything on the text. As one people read it they may picture it completely different from what the author intended on even though the text is extremely straight forward. Which is why it is remarkably hard fully represent a group; unless if it is a smaller group.

Image result for double meaning images

Who gets to represent a group and who doesn’t? (who gets to tell what)

I feel you can only represent a group when you have been in that representative group that you want to represent. You need to have experience in what you are going to be representing, or else without any experience you will technically be representing a group with viewers or second-hand perspective, this makes it extremely easy for you to stereotype people and mislead others with perhaps false information. When you have been in the group you are representing, you have an internal and first-person perspective of the group you are representing that enables him to represent his group with maximum authenticity.  Which is why if you have experienced what you are representing, you should represent that group, but if you haven’t experienced what you want to represent, then you should not represent the group.  

Writers Forthnight

by furta76124@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Prerna

In Hindi we say Prerna for Inspiration, this was what he left behind after his talk and presentation. Going to high school is the one thing he missed out on. He had dropped out of high school, joining the Indian army where he had served as an officer; he later retired as a major. He has now co-founded Delhi-headquartered MSD Security Pvt that runs in over sixty cities all around India; he also co-founded the Singapore-based Influence Solutions Pte. He is a famous Indian book writer, publishing a book every year, some of his best sellers are his books about terrorism and action.

He stunned us all; the grade nines in writer’s fortnight. This was a fortnight, where artist, poets, journalists or people with the most incredible stories about their life ready to share it with the world. We got a whole period just to listen and watch them presents to us on what they were presenting and we take down as many notes possible and blaze them with questions; for an article later on.

The he, that I am writing about is Mukul Deva. He was personally my favourite verses all the other people who had presented during writer fortnight, he inspired us with his astonishing talk and presentation, he was by far the most interesting and most amusing, more than all the other speakers.

Mukul Deva inspired us with his bold and very amusing ways of presenting to us, on ways on how he writes his books once a year and why writing books about business are the worst. He was very energetic and brave, as compared to some of the other people presenting in writers fortnight. He was not shy or scared to speak the truth. He was completely calm while he explains how he writes books basically for money and after it has been published he does not care about the book at all. He was also kept his calm under pressure when the audience would attack him with questions, making us feel that bit more welcome.

Mukul Deva (ND“In Conversation with Mukul Deva: India’s First Military Thriller Writer!” Transition of Thoughts, 27 Sept. 2012, transitionofthoughts.com/2012/09/27/in-conversation-with-mukul-deva-indias-first-military-thriller-writer/.)

He would actually give me goosebumps a few times with how he would return questions back to the person who had asked him, for example, my unlucky friend was clueless when Mukul Deva boomeranged his question back to him by answering it and re-wording it back to my friend. He inspired us not by his story but how he unravelled it to us.

Mukul Deva started the introduction talking about his life. Yes, we all started to get bored and tired but he startled us, making us sit up when he said, that he now writes and publishes one book a year, that how he has not gone to work in about five years. From that point, we where all was deeply fascinated. He got to a point where his words gave us one motive that he said had completely changed his life, “Just do it”. No, he was not sponsored by Nike; he was speaking from his experiences, from a student who dropped out at high school to now a multi-millionaire, his words made us drool, by making is think about how easy someone’s life could be; just waking up, having not gone to work in months and obtaining money, just writing books for life into the sunset. He astonished us, making us imagine how easy life could be, not can but could be. His talk was actually able to motivate some people to write a book.

A few of my friends found him a bit intimidating with how he expressed his figure during the start, but throughout the presentation, he became more friendly, more of a nice uncle that you would barely meet, who inspires you in ways your parents never did. He makes great jokes about people who work with him in his business, for example how he hates all publishers, as they can take one glance at your book and not like.

Mukul Deva was once just a student like all of us in that room, he had dropped out of high school unlike anyone if us in that room. He inspired a room full of mean, clueless, lazy group of grade nine students that judge for a living. He kept his calm and made us feel welcomed, spreading his Prerna to every single one of us, giving us hope for a new way to live our life; he was able to make us picture our life, by making us choose our ‘own’ path, a path that has never been done before by anyone else, planning life the Deva way, by doing exactly what Mukul Deva said to do, “ just do everything”.

One of his best sellers (NDwww.linkedin.com/pulse/20141102045244-18676706-book-review-the-garud-strikes-by-mukul-deva.)