During our trip to Bintan, we interviewed village stakeholders, collected information and heard their perspectives, and then presented what we had gathered to our peers.

Here is the link to my presentation.

1) What did you learn about “Living in Bintan” by interviewing different stakeholders using the different compass perspectives (Nature, Economy, Society and Well Being)?

By interviewing different stakeholders, we got the basic lowdown as to what life is like to people of different walks of life in Bintan, and how they feel about certain things and issues. My chosen compass perspective was society, so that was what I mainly focused on in my research. However, I did branch out into the other compass perspectives as well.  Firstly, I learnt from an ex-principal that both boys and girls have equal access to school and that most, if not all, children in the village do go to school. However, I also learnt that the quality of education is quite low and has virtually been stagnant for decades now. The schools don’t promote 21st century skills, and are solely academics/teacher centred, with not much in the way of activities or PE. On the subject of PE, there are no structured PE lessons in school, and students only get around 1 hour of exercise a week, which is not optimal. Many parents choose to send their children to schools elsewhere (such as Java or Singapore), if they can afford it. Additionally, I learnt from 2 stakeholders that the government doesn’t do much to support businesses/communities within Bintan, but the people think that they don’t necessarily need the aid. Most people there work in the palm oil industry, despite the fact that more precautions are being taken to preserve the environment. One stakeholder would like to help the environment if elected to legislative office, another says that there’s trash collection everywhere in Kawal, while another says that the community works with fishermen to preserve some sealife. Nearly all stakeholders agree that technology helps them in their work. The community itself is comprised mainly of Muslims of Malay descent and culture, and decisions are made within the community through discussions and submissions to the sub-district office. Overall, these interviews have helped me understand that though the lives of people there can seem so different, there are always some fundamental similarities. Seeing how all the 4 compass points interact also helps paint a clearer picture as to what life is like. The final takeaway would be that all the stakeholders seemed content with their lives, despite the numerous limitations their community has, which is a positive thing to take note of and keep in mind.

2) Why was it important to go through this process?

This process was crucial for our understanding because it gave us first-hand accounts of what life was like in the villages whose communities we have to try and bolster, and provided us with individual opinions of the people potentially being directly affected by what we do. Though we could have just stayed in Singapore and done our research from here, we wouldn’t have gained any personal experience of actually being there and seeing what it’s like. Though data and statistics are very reliable, one always needs a little bit more than that to truly make a difference, which is what we want to do. The most valuable pieces information we gathered were the opinions of the different stakeholders, and collecting that would have been impossible had we not undergone this process. Turning all this data into a poster presentation was also important since it helped us condense and organize our data, reinforce in our heads why we’re doing this, and think how we can take this data into account to develop real life solutions, which is imperative.

3) When presenting your compass perspectives (Nature, Economy, Society and Well Being), what did you do well? What could you improve?

Personally, I think I presented our findings pretty well. I articulated myself clearly and projected my voice across the room. I regularly made eye contact with the audience and used gesticulations such as hand gestures adequately. I think the points were explained pretty well and were easy to understand, and I referenced particular stakeholders and their perspectives frequently, which is only a good thing. I also built upon what my partner was saying if there were any details I thought he forgot. There were some minor hiccups, such as when I dropped the poster, forgot whether Bintan was a village, city, or an island, and occasionally had awkward pauses. However, these didn’t deter from the quality of the presentation, and if anything, made it seem more natural and added some humour. One thing I could work on is not getting distracted by the crowd, since there were a few instances when I got sidetracked and was communicating with the audience when I wasn’t speaking.