My final engagement was a 52-minute interview with this last interview with Sharmila Parmanand who volunteers at GAATW. She is responsible for implementing two research projects with partners in South and Southeast Asia on issues concerning the social and economic inclusion of migrant and trafficked women returning from West Asia and Europe, respectively. Furthermore, she has a PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Development Studies from the University of Melbourne. Most of her research projects interrogate how development and state interventions targeted at women in the global south reflect and shape their lived realities, with a focus on gender and international development, the politics of knowledge production, and feminist entanglements with the state on issues of human rights and women’s precarious labour.

I felt that her perspective will offer a more academic insight into human trafficking given her experience and skillset. Her perspective could be used in conjunction with published works by other authors such as Sallie Yea to find the extent to which Singapore has been successful in tackling human trafficking. While she made clear that her expertise is not Singapore, I modified how I presented the questions by posing questions that applied to the Singaporean context or provided enough context for her to answer accurately. The perspective she offers is very valuable because it reveals the pro-human rights, liberal, worker’s rights and feminist perspectives. I first found out about her when asking Borislav Gerasimov if any members of GAATW specialised in human trafficking in Singapore.

Sharmila provided an extremely comprehensive and academic insight into some of the most pressing questions I had. For example, she explained how counterproductive a demand-side policy is by discussing the consequences of driving prostitution underground. While Singapore has publicly made a point of not making sex work illegal per se for that exact reason, they have criminalised several processes associated with sex work. Furthermore, her analysis of crime control centric approaches gave me a deeper insight into how the state demonstrates its commitment to prosecution rather than protection and the negative effects of this. She was also able to tie in political theories such as feminism, Marxism and workers rights into her arguments.

My second to last engagement is with Borislav Gerasimov, Programme Coordinator Communications and Advocacy and Editor of Anti-Trafficking Review at GAATW (Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women). I felt that his perspective could act as a foundation for understanding what NGOs most anti-trafficking NGOs wish to achieve and pursue. His perspective can be used to supplement published works and find out the extent to which Singapore has been successful in tackling human trafficking. The perspective he offers is very valuable as it shines a liberal and pro-human rights “light” on several strategies employed by other countries which are still applicable to the Singaporean context. I first found out about GAATW when researching John Gee’s published works in which he was mentioned as a contributor for GAATW’s anti-trafficking review which gathered researchers and volunteers from anti-trafficking NGO’s across the world to debate the most pressing issues in human traffickings such as migrant labour and technology. I contacted GAATW’s official email and received a reply from Borislav who was willing to accept my interview.

Despite the limited knowledge on human trafficking in Singapore specifically, he was still able to offer a valuable insight into the practical consequences of Singapore’s strategies in other nations such as Sweden and the United States. Many of the strategies that are employed, covertly or overtly, in Singapore are present in other nations and have been covered far more extensively. He was able to criticise those policies from a libertarian, human rights and cosmopolitan perspective. These are a helpful foundation for me to build secondary research upon and determine the shortcomings of the Singaporean strategy against TIP. These shortcomings cannot be explained by Borislav. However, reports by Sallie Yea, who has written extensively on the Singaporean government’s manipulation of trafficking victimhood to fulfil their self-interests, can explain Borislav’s statements.

How did Shamima Begum get radicalised? How do development and inequality contribute to radicalisation? Why does Begum pose a security risk to the UK if she returns? Why was Begum’s citizenship revoked? To what extend does the revocation of Shamima Begum’s citizenship illustrate the ways in which her identity and globalisation contributed to her radicalization.

CAS has positively enhanced my wellbeing as it incentivises me to contribute to physical activities such as Badminton and collaborative activities such as SEC. These activities give me a great oppurtunity to connect with other people in my grade outside of the classroom and add a nice break to my academic workload.  These activities give me a chance to exercise and form stronger relationships with other people which also contributes nicely to my physical and mental health.

What have you learned about Islamophobia and the Hijab? In what ways has it changed your earlier perceptions about Islam?

Not much was learnt about Islamaphobia since we watched a video describing the origins of women having to cover themselves. I am yet to learn why western countries have enforced bans on the Hijab and the negative perceptions surrounding it. What I learnt about the origin of women wearing veils is that it resulted in other people, especially sexual predators, the perception that she is of elevated class. The verse in the Quran read: “O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the women of the believers to draw upon themselves their garments. However, due to the impracticality of this rule, Muslim Scholars decided that a woman’s way of dress should be based on two considerations: a woman’s function in society – her role, what we might consider her job – and the society’s specific customs. Additionally, the vagueness of how a woman should dress, as written in the Quran, contributes to this as it allows women to dress in accordance with local customs. I also discovered the true translation of a Hijab which means Divide, barrier or screen. This word has been wrongly associated with a veil and symbolises how Muslim women are marginalized from several activities such as political involvement, driving and divorcing their husband. I also found out that ancient middle eastern societies were extremely progressive as women could choose which man to marry, were allowed to dress very freely and express their sexuality and were allowed to sit on high positions in society

This changed my perception of Islam as I now see how misogynistic clerics and scholars have grossly misinterpreted and manipulated different parts of the Quran in ways that have negative impacts. I also learnt about the ridiculousness of Fatwas and how they enforce rules that undermine the dignity and human rights of woman.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers is a poem written by Langston Hughes in 1921 as he rode a train to Mexico city that passed over the Mississippi river which inspired this poem. The text type is free verse because it has no set rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. The line length varies from short to long. the first line of the poem, “I’ve known rivers” contains just four syllables, while the second line has twenty-three. The poem describes several rivers which have played key roles in either aiding or hindering the development of black civilisation, from the Nile that allowed bricks to be ferried to the pyramids to the Missisipi that carried the slave ships to their markets. The description of these heritage sites convey the connection between Langston Hughes and his ancestry. Hence, the intended audience for this is disenfracnchised african americans struggling to merge their negro and american identities into a better and truer self. The poem explores the relationship between Langston Hughes and the rivers that have been mentioned in this poem. Hughes celebrates the resources gained from the rivers whilst also referencing their role in the Slave trade. The poem could therefore be seen as a examination of the paradoxical role that rivers play in black history. The body of water that nurtured ancient civilisation has been used by the white man to transport ensalved negroes before becoming landmarks to the emancipation proclamation.

This text is a description of the prevalence of implicit racism, that are products of “centuries of cultural conditioning”. These people are not “marching in Klan rallies or vandalizing mosques or burning crosses”  which makes implicit racism even more invisible and the unexpected racist anecdotes all the more surprising when they are voiced. One example of implicit racism in this text is when a landlord’s receptionist commented on the unbelievable smell emanating from the apartment occupied by Korean college students. The receptionist then related the stench to the way “Those people are”, which is considered demeaning by Roxanne Gay who was shocked that this person was so comfortable in confiding in her but she didn’t return the favour by revealing all her dirty racist secrets.

The tone of the voice is mostly neutral and informative. The text is written in a way where Roxanne is trying to understand the intentions behind racist behaviour such as how Paula Deen’s immediate environment formed her content relationship with racism and the intent of the receptionist’s snide comment. She also presents her own perspective on peoples implicit racism and comments on how casual there form of racism is. The most notable reveal of this text is the underlying attitudes of the deep south towards racism. Paula deen, a popular cook on the Food Network, has openly revealed her lack of shame and blitheness when discussing her attitudes towards racism. Roxanne hypothesised that her honesty stemmed from her cultural conditioning as a result of being surrounded by like-minded, implicitly racist people. This type of environment has had such a profound impact on her that she lacks any self-preservation and doesn’t tell a single white lie about her racial attitudes. Despite this, it seems that Paula knows better since she never made openly racist comments on live television and acknowledges that her family does not use the N-word in a “cruel or demeaning way”. But what this entire debacle reveals is the hidden rules of racism which coincides with culture and identity.

As explained by Roxanne, there is a complex matric for when you can and cannot be racist. This depends on whether you are in public or at home and whether you are in the office or amongst friends. Paula Deen broke these rules. Roxanne accepts that everybody is racist to some degree which makes it a question of when, not if, somebody decides to be racist. She follows up this statement by revealing the reality that POCs are familiar with these rules and willing to acknowledge the implicit bias that everybody has. She also reveals how the interaction with the implicitly racist receptionist demonstrates this rule. The comment put forward by the receptionist created a environment in which people might feel secure in disclosing their racist opinions and seemingly encourage each others views

1) It is a common consensus amongst scientific community that a theory is only considered scientific if it could be falsified. A theory being falsified is not a detriment to science but rather a blessing. When a highly regarded theory that has been trusted for decades (such as the sun revolving around the earth) is disproven by fact and observations, our understanding is furthered. This provides long-term benefits which overcomes the short-term obstacles of having to persuade the ignorant. Knowledge only remains certain before it enters the process of being falsified.

2a) I don’t have a picture but basically we jotted down the order of cards, the value, card type and whether it was rejected or not. We used this to try to deduce a pattern.

b) This is similar to the scientific method as scientists observe, form a hypothesis, gather more data, deduce and then form a conclusion

c) I learnt that there is no certainty as the observed phenomenon will not directly tell you whether your conclusion is right or wrong in the natural sciences