Having thought about the various discussions in class today, I believe it is possible for some texts to truly represent groups of people. Although some may assume that with the example of “Crazy Rich Asians” not representing all Asians that it is impossible to do so. In actual fact, the movie “Crazy Rich Asians” did a great job in representing the top percentile of rich Singaporeans. I think it is possible to truly represent groups of people provided that you are being specific about the kind of people that you are representing and not generalising or stereotyping anything. It is quite often that stereotyping tends to come from people who are foreign from these groups. Leading me onto my next point which is, who gets to say what? I think that in order to best represent a group of people the person representing that group should come from the very group itself. By being a part of that group, they will have far superior knowledge that has come from their own personal experiences and encounters to that of a “foreigner”. With regards to the act of representation, I believe regardless of the situation there will always be problems, people will always disagree with the creator’s intentions. I only believe it can become really problematic when the representation is formulated with negative intentions. I believe that things will only start to become very problematic once whatever is being represented is being done to have negative effects on that group. Either that or when it is evident that not enough research or knowledge has been put into this representation and it is just wrong.
My Own Identity
In this iceberg diagram, it is very evident that there is a lot more to us than anyone can see on the “outside”. By digging deeper into someone’s identity you can find out much more about them then you thought.
Personally I think my identity appears different at different times. When I am with different people I show another side of me. I reveal more about my identity to the people that I perceive as closer to me or that I trust more. Those people are likely to understand “my deeper part of the iceberg”. I feel like my identity is never fixed and it is forever changing and based on my life experiences. I am constantly learning new things about myself and other people.
I think that my own identity is relatively calm and I find that when I often think about myself I tend to be very humble. I would assume that other people would have a few more things to say about me than I would myself.
How Well do I sleep?
I think I sleep quite well I try to get 8-9 hours every night and often go to bed earlier if I have to wake up earlier in the morning for swimming. I think I could improve and not look at screens before I sleep as I know that can have an effect on how well you sleep. On the weekends especially Saturday night, since I don’t have to wake up for anything on Sunday I sleep for like 10-11 hours so I can recharge my batteries.
1st Week of Grade 10
It has happened so fast, I am already more than halfway done with my GCSE’s. This was a strange first week back for me as I have never come back to the same kind of classes and continuing the same programme. I have usually come back to a new class, new teachers etc. This week was quite a good week back and I thought it was good how Monday and Friday were off timetable days so we could spend time talking about pse/service/activities etc. My thoughts on this year so far and how it will work out are relatively good at the moment. I like how we not doing anything new so we can pretty much hit the ground running and “get back to the grind” I am also looking forward to my swimming this year to see what I can achieve in that field. My goal this year is to get more of my events in the British summer nationals and compete in them in the summer. With study leave this year I should be able to train much more with a lot more time to focus on myself. Academics wise I think my internals last year went really well and I am quite comfortable where I’m at. I want to do well in the mocks because that really sets me up for the final exams at the end of the year. Looking forward to the year ahead.
Personal Statement
I was born in Phuket, Thailand in 2002. I lived there until I was 8 years old. In 2011 I moved to Singapore. At first, I was a bit frightened by the thought of moving to a new country with a new school but UWCSEA East made it really easy for me to fit in and made the process smooth. Over my time here at UWCSEA East and in Singapore I have discovered and learned so many things about myself.
My passion is swimming. I have swum since the age of 4, I have kept it going up until now. I have managed to achieve many things in my swimming career and hopefully many more to come. The foundation of the UWCSEA East Dragons Swim Teams is very strongly built around the team. As much as swimming may be an individual sport you really see the benefits of your performance when you begin to involve the team. I have competed in events such as Singapore nationals, FINA World Cup and soon to be British Nationals. My aspirations for swimming is to represent my country (Team GB) at the Olympics.
Right to Education
The rights being violated are the violation of the right to education regardless of the race, class gender etc. A specific example fo this is Malala went through a Taliban shooting and now helps girls to get an education in countries where girls cannot or do not have the rights. This happens due to conflict in the country, LEDC’s not having enough infrastructure. This as well as gender discrimination. This happens because the child goes to education or elementary schools then the parents will tell them to get out of schools to work for them in LEDC’s. These rights are currently being protected by the Malala foundation and UNICEF. These organisations raise money and awareness about this issue and help out where they can. One other perspective on this point is a cultural relativism perspective. This is from the Taliban as they do not believe in the western style of education for girls and therefore punish people like Malala who try to go to school. I think a way for me to help out with these right violations is simply raising awareness. I cannot go to these countries and physically help but I think raising awareness is good enough. Even just posting this blog post is doing the job and hopefully a few people understand the issue from this.
A Girl in the River
The first perspective that challenged my thinking was the perspective of the father. I don’t think it is right to murder your own daughter just because they have married someone poorer than you. Love is love and I don’t think money or wealth should be a factor impacting that. I also thought it was very unreasonable of them to swear on the Quran that they would not hurt er but then take her to the river and kill her in such an unlawful way. Thye shot her and but her in a sack hoping she would drown and everyone would forget. Thankfully she survived to tell the story. I think it is also a bit strange how it says nothing in the Quran about not killing anyone and how it doesn’t say you shouldn’t do it. I find that a bit strange. Although I have to respect their religion I don’t understand why it doesn’t say anything about not killing people. I know in many other religions it is a major crime.
Guest Speaker: Matt Friedman – Mekong Club
I thought Matt’s talk was really interesting and it certainly inspired me to help out this growing issue of modern slavery. He talked about Human Trafficking today and how many people did not understand how much of it their is. I was certainly one of them. I had learnt about it before but when I saw all of the numbers in front of me I was definitely shocked. I learnt that although many people think that modern slavery is mainly prostitution it is actually not. Prostitution only takes up 25% of the modern slavery total. The other 75% are those doing forced labour. He also talked about the way in which people Traffic Humans. They do this by tricking them and deceiving them into thinking they are getting something good (“almost too good to be true!”) Then once they reach the factory, brothel, boat etc, they cannot leave because the owners scare them with threats and torture methods. Once these people become sick, injured or useless, they just throw them out onto the streets. One question I still have is why the name Mekong Club? Where did it come from? How did it originate?
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