Category: Opinions

Just a disclaimer sort of thing, because they are just my impressions of stuff

PSE: Optimism

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on October 23, 2019

Today please read this article and do some further research into the benefits of optimism. Write a portfolio reflection at this stage about your level of optimism and what you hope to work on in order to improve your level.

For our second unit of PSE, we looked at optimism as well as the benefits of it.
Optimism is the hopefulness and confidence about the future and yourself. It is when hardships are seen as learning opportunities and when the most miserable day still holds the promise that tomorrow will be better.

I think my level of optimism overall tends to be normal, in which I strongly believe that bad things will come to an end (temporary), that I believe that it’s not the end of the world, but I do most of the time think that they are within my control and that I could have prevented it/reduced how bad it was.

So if I was to say one thing I could work on, it would be to not feel all that responsible for all the bad things that happen. Though I do find it funny since I believe in karma.

Though I do agree that optimism is important, I don’t think that being pessimistic or being a realist is that bad to the extent that some companies have to go out of their way to hire optimists.

I think that what is being missed out here is that although optimists are more prefered because they get things done while having high hopes, pessimist can get things done too! There needs to be a distinction between being pessimistic and being negative.

There is a difference between pessimists and people who think negatively overall – in which it is the way they cope. Pessimists can use their negative expectations to motivate themselves to take active steps to be more prepared and more in control of the outcomes, while people who think negatively tend to use avoidance to cope with anticipated problems.

So I think that everything should be balanced. I also think that a quiz about optimism and stuff like that is flawed. People can easily choose and say what they think suits the taste (optimistic) but when it comes down to action, it’s hard. Also, I feel like we have only been learning about optimism through the encountering of hardships, what would an optimist be like then in everyday life?

Should we ‘police’ language?

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on October 3, 2019

Today, we looked into the political correctness, which is the “avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against” (according to Oxford Dictionary).

In class, we listened to 2 speakers who were both against the policing of language, one coming from the standpoint of a comedian and one from the standpoint of polarisation of political groups (left and right). They both argue that political correctness retrains freedom of speech, which leads to people’s thought going underground (like maybe the deep web) and that people should control their own emotions and reactions to it instead of attempting to control and police others opinions.

When given the example of how universities are increasingly leaning to the left, it reminded me of an article about how speakers with opposing values were barred from speaking in the universities due to students’ values and inability to accept opinions which undermine their values. This aligned well with both speakers’ thoughts of how increasingly in society that there is binary opposition only, no grey area within subjects, as well as the natural human impulse of wanting to be right.

I agree with them. It is only further dividing people and creating tension. It is causing voices of the opposing side or those in the middle to be unheard. We need to assimilate these ideas and opinion, gain a middle ground to make progress which benefits most of us. By polarising values, we are neglecting the very thing that everybody has been arguing for: Freedom of Speech. If not, how different will the left be from the right?

Representation and Identity in Mass Media – Apu

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on October 2, 2019

I feel that this post really reflected how I feel about representation and today’s mindset as we approach the grey area of cultural appropriation and accuracy of representation. After reading both articles, I decided to write out my own personal opinion regarding the two opinions I read as well as draw a small illustration to show my thinking and mocking of one of the opinions.

I think that the main point that we must remember is that the Simpsons is a show that makes fun of everybody and utilize humour to remind and raise awareness on issues as well as cultures. It is also a pop-culture TV show, it’s targeting us, the everyday people, a massive target audience. They can’t possibly cater to every need or wants of everybody and this representation. Because as I have said and will keep repeating, everybody is different, thus not all representations will apply to us. But really, Simpson is a comedy show. Is there a need to take it so seriously?

Thoughts on Representation (D&G case study)

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on October 1, 2019

Write a detailed paragraph (@300-350 words) which is evidence of your thinking about #Representation (linked to your study of the D&G campaign).

Representation is a messy subject. It may sound simple to define it as the portrayal of someone or something in a particular way, however, when talking about the accuracy of representations, it gets messy. Especially when the topic of identity and cultural appropriation is brought in. For example, in 2018, Dolce & Gabbana released an ad campaign in China which instructs Chinese on how to eat some typical Italian food. This caused a huge backlash on the company as many Chinese interpreted the ad campaign as the brand was portraying western culture as the sophisticated and cosmopolitan dominant culture, whilst eastern culture is more basic and primitive. This is maybe through the various props used, ranging from the animated and exaggerated movements of the female model, which was seen as a representation of how westerners view Chinese females to be submissive, to the script of the male voice off-stage such as “If you are able to master [eating spaghetti with chopsticks], you will be successful”, which was understood to be implying that spaghetti is a more complex food than Chinese noodles. Many question the brand on whether they have the right to represent Chinese culture? Better yet, who has the right to represent and decide what Chinese culture is? Whilst Dolce and Gabbana was a case of culture appropriation clearly defined, there are still grey areas within the issue of representation. When can we represent a culture? Is it when we have experienced the culture? Or when we have received permission? Even with these questions, there is still the need to clarify and specify. Personally, I feel that the term is beginning to lose its meaning. In this era of globalisation, people are starting to become oversensitive and confused about their identity as we begin to mix with other cultures. The understanding of representation is becoming shallower as we use it as a term to further divide ourselves into categories to feel like we are a part of something, instead of accepting that, yes, we are different. This scenario/context doesn’t necessarily have to apply to me, as it can be applicable to someone else. Representation is a messy subject, no doubt. In this world of technology, where there is little to no filter for us to control our impulse, it is easy to misrepresent something or somebody. But it is crucial to remember, that representation can never be accurate, because everybody is leading their individual lives, in unique ways and experiences.

[HOW I WISH I CAN SPLIT UP THE PARAGRAPH!!!]

Notes as well as the original document

Personal favourite lines (because I can have them)
– Who has the right to represent and decide what Chinese culture is?
– We use it as a term to further divide ourselves into categories to feel like we are a part of something

Dentsu Day 5 – Summer Internship 2019

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on June 28, 2019

AHHHHHHHH! IT DIDN’T SAVE!!!!

Now to rewrite it again…

Can you believe it? It’s already the last day of the internship at Dentsu!

This morning, despite feeling pretty confident with the route (even though it has really only been a mere 5 days), I missed the stop while riding the bus towards Eunos MRT station. Although this can be blamed at my absent-mindedness, I have a hunch that it is also because it really hit me hard that today’s the last day at Dentsu.
After coming in early again, I begin revising my Day 4 post as well as read more about data engineering and scientist to prepare some questions that I can ask
- To data scientist – Analyses raw data into insights
  - How often do you analyse data during a campaign?
  - Can you describe your day-to-day responsibilities?
- To data engineer – transform data into a useful format for data scientists to analyse
  - How often do you gather analytic logs?
  - What type of data do you gather in Dentsu?
  - Can you walk us through how a pipeline works and the process of creating one?
While researching, Rimi came over to let me know that there will be a pizza lunch for the Gyro team (as 2 people are leaving aside from me). Sadly, since it clashes with the lunch with the GDIC data experts, I couldn’t make it. So I am a little down from the fact that I couldn’t have lunch with the team. (Though Rimi said that she’ll leave some pizza for me)
Today, Geraldson gave Shi Yi and I a new campaign to start trafficking!

On the large monitor, there’s the E-mail that Geraldson sent to Shi Yi. I didn’t receive it because the school’s e-mail was too long. LOL

- So first, we had to generate the tag for each ad so that we can later through various platforms like LinkedIn Campaign Manager track which channels were the most effective as well as how many … (impressions, clicks etc.) using the UTM tool that I was talking about on Day 1.
  - So the structure is basically
    - URL – utm_source – utm_medium – utm_content – utm_campaign – Output URL
    - So here’s an example that I just grabbed off the Straits Time
      - https://www.greateasternlife.com/sg/en/personal-insurance/thelifecompany.html?utm_campaign=gels_br_brandgfc19_619&utm_medium=display&utm_source=straitstimes-home&utm_content=gfc
      - So basically from the link (which is tagged), we know that the user came from the Straits Times Home page that contains a display image of the ad that is about GFC (Great Family Care) from the campaign Great Eastern Life Great Family Care 2019 (I am guessing this part using context from the post)
- Then after getting the new URL, we inputted it into a trafficking spreadsheet under the name Target URL, which is then to be sent to the trafficking team.
  - Here’s what it kind of looks like:
    - Campaign – Publisher – Geo – Site Name – Placement Name – Language – Creative Size – Creative Format – File Size – Looping Required – Max Looping – Clicktag – Start Date – End Date – Target URL

At 12 pm, we (the 5 interns from UWCSEA East) had lunch with the data engineer and data scientist from GDIC
- Overall, it was more like a casual conversation aside from the moments when they were explaining their roles (Which I, truth to be told, didn’t really understand. Like their role in Dentsu and stuff like that)

After that, I receive some work from Shi Yi! (YAY!)
- So basically, I was to compare two reports from the two phases of a campaign, where I would note down my observations about the differences between the two data.
- It was interesting to see the different results the same campaign can produce. Though sometimes I feel like I am thinking too much to spot a difference.
At 5 pm, I said goodbye to the media team and Justin, of course after taking a picture with them. I really can’t thank them enough for having me with them. (Like babysitting me… LOL)

I headed down to the reception room, exactly where I first entered on the first day at Dentsu to return the pass that we were given. Though the card itself was returned, we were allowed to keep to tag as a memento.

I photoshopped Haruki’s head into it since he was away at the Innovfest Unbound conference

Today is a learning for me, emotionally, as I go through a short journey of acceptance: resistance, resignation, acceptance, embracing.

Although I am sad that the internship is over, and that I probably won’t have the chance to work with the media team, I have to say: Thank you, Shi Yi, Rimi, Geraldson (and Justin!), for making my first internship so amazing and wonderful.

May we cross path again.

Fr left to right: Geraldson, Rimi, Xuan Ru (ME!), Shi Yi. Once again, if any of you are reading this post, thank you.

Dentsu Day 4 – Summer Internship 2019

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on June 27, 2019

Can you believe? It’s already Day 4 – one more day until my internship ends. Time flies too fast!

I think I’ll just put that train of thought off for tonight and start reflecting on today instead!

* As I am running out of time, I just put in notes. Promise I’ll come back to sort it out

Today, I woke up an hour early to attend the 8 am meeting Geraldson and Shi Yi is having with their client and partners in order to update

A picture of the morning sunrise while waiting for the bus at 7 am

- 10 participants (including us)
- Overall conversation – shows how all interconnected as have to rely on each other to proceed
- Structure
  - Each campaign goes by lines
    - Line #, Demand/Campaign name, Tactic, Target location, status, deadline, notes, next steps
      - e.g Line 6, Q1 ASEAN, Content syndication, ASEAN, ASAP, Pending integrate campaign ID and asset from [client/partner], [Gryo] to share mock PPT

Gerald talks to the client and partners about their status while Shi Yi taking notes on their team’s next step. Rimi came in to listen to the call for a while before going to her own

Uses two laptops: one to share screen and one to scroll through the Excel The microphone is a separate device that is touch screen and looks really cool

Shi Yi and Geraldson looking at the excel where the client or partner has shared their screen with them

Various tactics for media: content syndication (single touch), content syndication (multi-touch), LinkedIn, Display, eDM (Electronic Direct Mail)
Audio segments

One of the logistics to be discussed

Importance of calling to make sure all parties are in equal footing and understanding as each other

问候 – Not all serious discussions, small talks

Confusion of different named campaigns – Importance of organization and naming of documents.

After end call, consolidates notes from meeting
After that, Rimi sent an E-mail

- I fumbled! Accidentally sent the unedited one so have to send her another copy.

- Also thought of how my language has been improving since I look at Shi Yi’s E-mail often, especially when she is replying
  - Everyday has a starting that can be used
    - Monday: Hope you had a great weekend!
    - Tuesday: [nothing special, just a hi]
    - Wednesday: Happy mid-week!
    - Thursday: Hope your week has been good so far
    - Friday: Happy Friday
Reading programmatic creative
Lunch at MBS
WIFIless shows how important the Internet has become in our lives
3:30 pm call
- Same structure – campaign, tactic, status, next step
Continue reading: more on the process of an ad from client briefing to writing end report in more details.
Hope tomorrow get a group photo to remember my first internship
Tomorrow lunch have a meeting with data scientist and engineers
- Read more about them and prep questions!
  - To data scientist
    - How often do you analyse data during a campaign?
  - To data engineer
    - What do you do if the company is new to digital marketing and is unsure of how to optimize their publicity
    - Data engineers come in — they build pipelines that transform that data into formats that data scientists can use
      - transforms data into a useful format for analysis
  - To both
    - Can a data engineer become a data scientist? What about a vice versa?

It’s just so hard to keep up a blog that sometimes it can feel very bothersome. Now is one of the times. Sorry. I’ll get back to it when I am in the mood…

Should Human Rights be Universal or Culturally Relative?

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on May 3, 2018

Through the case study of The Girl in the River, we can see the evidence of the ongoing debate about whether human rights should be universal or culturally relative.

Although I do agree that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) should be universal as its name suggest, it can never be. Why do I say so? Because everybody’s interpretation of the UDHR is subjective.

Here’s an example: A farmer’s land was decided to be used to build a facility, but the farmer refused. Naturally, if we look at this from the farmer’s perspective, we may think the man behind the project is in the wrong. But what if it was a public recreational facility for the people of the area to enjoy. What if the person was genuinely wanting to help the community.

But if we were to follow the UDHR strictly, this man has just violated Article 17.2, (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Another one is Article 18 and 19, which is about the freedom of speech. It just can’t help, that everybody is not only unique but has their own thoughts and opinions. Everyone can get hurt from what the other’s are saying. Not only that, because of the usage of the term ‘freedom of speech’, unnecessary conflicts can occur. For example, nowadays, young people all around the globe connect with each other using the power of the Internet and social media to spread reverse racism. Now this has become quite a huge topic, with no one knowing which party is in the right and which is not. A recent news article about the issue would be about the Starbucks incident. Perhaps I am wrong, but I feel that the two victimised men were glorified for their accusation to Starbucks of their arrest for idling around the cafe without buying anything as an act of racism.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights is idealistic, but it has yet to prove whether its violations are right or wrong in some cases. After all, we would still need to check and balance it.

In conclusion, the UDHR should be culturally relative.

I know about ‘taste setters’, ‘cool hunters’ and ‘filter bubbles’ but still believe that I control what’s cool.

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on February 5, 2018

I am aware that there are such things as ‘filter bubbles’ and ‘cool hunting’, but I still think I am in control of what I believe to be ‘cool’. After all, people still have different preferences in what they like or not.

For example, there was the fidget spin craze. There were advertisements everywhere at one point and people ‘battling’ with their fidget spinners. There were people out there who have like a zillion fidget spinners, but there are also people out there who believes that it was not a necessity, thus not buying it.

If I have searched up the hunger games trilogy in my search engines, there would definitely be advertisements on it due to the existence of filter bubbles, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I would be interested in buying them, after all, I might have just wanted a look at what it’s all about.

I believe that each person’s likes and dislikes are unique and that no two people are the same. And even if they are, they have them in a different ranking. I think that the ‘cool hunters’ are just a survey which gathers what majority of, in this case, teenagers’ believe is cool and would like to buy. So there is bound to be a minority that does not fall into the ‘category’

In conclusion, I still believe that I am in control what’s cool to me.

Writer’s Fortnight 2018: Steve Dawson

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on January 18, 2018

On the 16th of January, Steve Dawson, a Fox Sports presenter, came to our school to talk about how to give a good interview. Despite giving us extremely useful tips, our main purpose was to ask questions to write about him.

So first, some basic information from researching about him:

His first writing break was in London for weekly paper Boxing News, where he introduced future world featherweight champion Colin McMillan

He was a Chartered Tax Accountant with 10 years of experience in the field but decided to go for a career change in 1999.

He had spent 2 years as The Straits Times correspondent before moving to Channel iNews bulletin.

He was then headhunted to become the ESPN Star sports as a writer and presenter.

Currently, he is the face of football, mixed martial arts and general sports news throughout Asia having anchored the premium content at ESPN, Star Sports and Fox Sports since 2004.

He has written a couple of sports biographies, Alex Yoong: The Driver’s Line (2010) and How To Be The Greatest Like Muhammad Ali (2012), both published by Marshall Cavendish.

When reading about the fact that he had a career change, I thought that it must have taken a lot of courage to have quit his 10 years long accounting career. How did he feel about the change? How did his family react to it? I was really curious due to a relative of mine who had gone through one to pursue and experience a change in careers. It was quite hard for him as there were worries of whether he would succeed or not and whether the family was financially stable enough to support the change.

But it had turned out that he didn’t really liked the job of an accountant and had had a career change due to seeing a notice from the Straits Times that they needed a correspondent urgently. His wife was a little nonchalant and that as long as his salaries were the same, it was fine. He had actually had an exposure to the career when he was in university which he had written his thesis about the boxing economy due to being a huge fan of boxing and had forward to the newspaper.

I totally wasn’t expecting this due to a second-hand source of the experience of changing jobs. There is usually a long state of unemployment and it normally comes in when you have the free time to start properly planning and taking action for their new jobs. There may be support from their family, but there may also be worries from them as it is almost like a make it or break it thing. His experience just seems too smooth.

If I could ask him another question, I would ask: Is that really it?

I mean like there is bound to be some conflict. Were you really just all chill and lax when submitting your application to the Straits Times despite the fact that you don’t really have a degree for journalism (According to the information I received as he had studied for accounting/economics before working as an accountant)? Is there really no worry from your wife with being able to support your family as there is a chance of you being rejected?

I am aware I sound really rude and pessimistic but I just don’t really like how he was a little too vague with his career change.

But despite all those that I have (rudely) commented, I do believe that his actions were admirable. After all, it does take courage to quit a well-paid job to achieve your dream occupation. He although dislike the job accounting, he at least admitted it had help, something I don’t believe that I would say if I was in his shoes (based on what he has vaguely said). I guess that was why one of my two only favourite lines from him was “I’m quite pleased with my decision” when he was asked what advice he would give to his younger self.

Conclusion of the night (actually afternoon), is that despite unsatisfied with full story of career change, I have wholeheartedly admired his courage to change his career and that he is doing something he is passionate about.

Life to me is like a road with so many possible paths ahead and left behind. Everybody, at some point, may look over their shoulder and ask themselves: ‘Why didn’t I do that?’, ‘If only I knew…’ But we don’t actually know what the actual outcome is if we take that path, all we can do is to make a decision to look forward before falling inside a ditch.

THE END

the Three Gorges Dam: was it worth the cost

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on January 10, 2018

As the title has suggested, this post is going to be about the controversial project of China’s Three Gorges Dam. Honestly, I was split into two sides of the project as in all 3 factors of social, environmental, and economic. Some people might argue that it wasn’t worth it due to a large amount of social and environmental disadvantage while some support the project due to the economic advantage it brings. Maybe I’ll make up my mind when I finish my post so let’s just list down all the pros and cons.

Let’s first talk about the social side of the project. One of the main priority and purpose of the Three Gorges Dam was to control the disastrous flooding that has once claimed 30000 lives in 1953. Due to being able to control flooding, the dam is able to protect 25000 hectares of farmland. Job opportunities are created from the construction to the maintenance of the dam. The Three Gorges Dam is also said to be able to provide 10% of China’s electricity needs.

But you can counter that as China’s demand for energy is increasing as its population increase together with its economy, thus unlikely to be able to achieve the figure there. Another problem was that although the dam does control flooding, it is unable to control the flooding on the other side where 632 km² of land home to 400 million people of China, which is also equivalent to 1/3 of China’s population and 1/12 of the world population. Already 1.4 million were forcibly moved. The amount of landslide has also increased, causing cracks in the walls of houses. People living under those roofs are in constant fear of the house collapsing and is having trouble keeping warm especially during winter when cold air seeps through the cracks. The villagers do want help from the government, but there is not only a long waiting list but also a distrust as it was reported that RMB30 million that was meant for relocation has been used for personal wants by corrupted local officials. So as we can see, on the social side, disadvantages overpowered the advantages by a lot.

Next up is the environmental effects this project has brought. I can only provide one environmental advantage of this project which is that it is a renewable energy. Done. Now here comes the bombard of disadvantages.

As we have mentioned before, the number of landslides has increased, and this is due to the water level fluctuating in a great number of 30m. Not only that. The decrease of silt and sediment heading downstream has also contributed to the increase of river and coastal erosion. The water quality of the famous Yangtze River has gone due to the accumulation of rubbish in the river and pollution. This has caused species to go extinct and be endangered. Not only did Yangtze river dolphin in 2006 extinct, the wetland home to around 95% of the endangered Siberian crane is shrinking at an alarming rate of 4km2/year. Fish stock and phytoplankton in the river have also decreased. Deforestation is also occurring for relocation for the people affected by the flooding. It was kinda funny to me as it was contradicting as many people believe that China should turn to a renewable energy source due to its extensive use of coal. But at the same time, turning to this project as an alternative is also bad despite being a renewable energy. Contradicting, isn’t it?

The economic advantages the Three Gorges Dam is one of the major reasons for turnovers from being against the project to supporting it. As mentioned before, jobs are created. It is said to have generated 100 billion KW an hour, which is as much energy as using 50 million tons of coal does annually. It has a controlled system which allows larger ships to transport and trade goods.

Now here’s the returning blow from the disadvantage side. Despite being said to be able to generate a large figure of energy, it actually depends on the water level, which is greatly fluctuating from time to time.There is actually longer delay caused in the trades due to long queues, which reduces the number of transactions. The amount of energy is actually reduced due to the dam blocking and collecting a ton of silt, ≤50% of the 500 million ton is deposited behind the dam which reduces the storage capacity.

So in conclusion, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea due to the overwhelming amount of disadvantages listed. But who knows whether it will be actually better for a longer term.