Month: November 2017

In Surfaid, we have been introducing each other to the works that Suraid GC plans to do this year. I am currently a financial advisor of Surfaid, where I have been trying to sell T-Shirts at the school shop, while also having to price them and package them to make sure they are ready to be sold at events like the Holiday Fair. This year will plan to be a very busy one, as we have to organize possibly the most significant GC event of the year, “Swim4Life,” so we have to make sure we are very prepared for when the time comes to run the GC event!

I believe that I need to be more open-minded when trying being a part of this GC. The reason why I feel this way is because of how oblivious I seem to be about the situation going on in Indonesia. There are a lot of people who are suffering from very basic diseases and die fro those curable diseases. Therefore, when discussing my GC, I need to be more careful with what I say, ensuring that I can develop the sympathies of others for those affected by such a preventable situation.

I have attended to every meeting and have gone to the extent to take out my time to package material. I have been running the finances of the GC to ensure that there is profit for the actual organization to use, and have been paying attention during class. I believe that these examples of what I have done in the GC demonstrate my active participation and perseverance in the GC.

In Tedx, we have explored ways to talk about peace. We have gotten in a variety of speakers that will help contribute to presentations for Tedx. It has been a fascinating experience so far, as I’ve gotten to understand better the way a Tedx should work. The most laborious task in Tedx now is getting ready to prepare the speakers for the Tedx event. The reason behind this is because of how nerve wrecking it can be to try and train a bunch of people who are older, or the same age as you. However, the task can also be exhilarating, as I begin to try something new!

In Tedx, it all requires planning to make the main event successful. I have had to spend my time working with other members to ensure that the primary TEDx event is organized and professional. Planning in TEDx provides me with the planning skills to prepare for my overall CAS experience, and also demonstrates how I’ve begun to plan for my CAS experience – whereby TEDx is a part of this experience, which happens to require a lot of planning!

TEDx requires a lot of work, so much that there has to be help from other members of the event. It not only reduces the amount of work we have to do (on top of our academics), but it also allows us to learn from other members and helps us improve the overall quality of our work – as we have other people’s expertise come into play when doing the job.

In today’s world, liberalism (a faith that hopes to connect the world through its economy, society, and culture) seems to be disappearing from what it once encased itself in – the USA, Europe, and even China. It’s as if Thomas Hobbes saw into the future and was right all along – sovereignty is what serves the country best and can embody a human desire for power. Hunger for power can call for the means of invading another country’s independence (realism – to always be ready with a military, offensively and defensively).

A  desire to influence other actors and achieve an outcome has been evident within our world, and dates back to a long way, and still is ongoing – all because of this being in a country’s national interest (sovereignty). Due to this, an ability to work together (interdependence) is slowly disappearing, and this notion of a borderless world is gradually fading too (globalization).

Since the election of Trump, the world has is in even more significant discord then before. With Trump completely shutting out a lot of countries (like Mexico, the DPRK, and the Middle East), this beautiful notion of interdependence (an essential principle of liberalism) seems to get even fainter by the second. To further compliment the situation, Russia has invaded Ukraine due to the country’s national self-interest, and the EU has imposed sanctions on Russia.  To also add insult to the wound, to prevent any form of diversity, Catalonia voted to separate from Spain.

So is liberalism dying? Yes, it is fading away into oblivion. Countries like the USA seem to despise interdependence at the moment, while Russia has gone in and illegitimately invaded Crimea in search of more power (strengthen military). A free international trade has been in abeyance with sanctions on countries like the DPRK (also sanctioned by China and the DPRK and the USA are both threatening each other with military force), Iran, and Cuba from the US, while Russia has received sanctions from the EU for invading Crimea. Myanmar has been causing ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims to protect their sovereignty from outsiders).

We have seen both offensive and defensive realists appear more often, such as Russia being offensive realists (Crimea vs. Russia) and defensive realists, such as the US, France, and Germany (NATO). With the world superpowers turning to power politics, can they influence the remaining countries to convert from liberalists to realists? Perhaps time will tell.