Valerie's Reflections

    For the past three weeks, i had learnt many things from the past three CID lessons i had. Personally, i feel that i have learnt the most from the second lesson, the lesson on photography. Before i learnt about the backgrounds of these beggars, all i thought was that they were poor and they had to beg in order to survive. I wondered why they didn't choose to work and had to beg. However after i learnt about the man in the first picture being handicapped, i thought differently. I was wondering why he was not able to find a proper and legitimate job to earn a fixed pay, instead, he chose to beg on the streets and hope for passers-by to help him get back on his feet again. Perhaps, its just my point of view but i felt that he could still get back on his feet again, without his stolen pushcart, if he tried hard enough and worked towards it. He could read and write, so he should not waste his life by begging on the streets. The lady in the second picture was carrying a young child, so it was easy to comprehend why she did not decide to work. However, after her background was read out, i wondered why she wanted to join that syndicate of beggars in the first place if her share of money was little. Wouldn't she be able to earn more money by begging if she worked on her own? Moreover, she could also find a simple job with a fixed pay if she tried hard enough to. The simple jobs would probably include washing of dishes or cleaning up tables, which in the meantime, she could take care of her child.
    Though this lesson, i learnt not to judge one before we know more about them, do not judge a book by its cover. We never know what the story behind the photo is all about. I felt that this lesson was very meaningful as it taught us not to be so judgmental and to accept others. We may not know the stories behind their actions so we should not just judge them based on what they do.

Winnie's reflection for past 3 weeks

Winnie's reflection for past 3 weeks

For the past three weeks, I have learnt to have a better understanding of what type of living conditions does foreign workers of Singapore live in, how to study more in-depth in a picture, the poverty in Singapore and what are some ways to better improve our photography skills when trying to take a snapshot for a theme. I have also learnt to look beyond the surface of everything and not to judge a book by its cover. We judge people all the time, be it from their actions, words ,how the person dress ,etc. Prejudice would be formed due to these judgments that we have and these person may not be who we presumed them to be. we need to communicate and get along with that particular person and learn more about him before we make a conclusion. 

Like the Little India riot that happened not long ago, many Singaporeans has been expressing their displeasure over them through online networks .However, did they spare a thought for the Indian foreign workers? What is their living conditions? What sparked them to have a riot? The foreign workers have to travel all the way to Singapore so that they earn more money. The money that they earn are sent back to their families in India. However, they have to live in unhygienic and cramped "houses". Living in these places not only causes their health to deteriorate ,but also would stir up some unhappiness in them although it is not shown. The foreign workers had already been trying to suppress their displeasure for a very long time and when this incident where one of their fellow-mates got hit by the bus, all hell break lose. They could no longer suppress their dissatisfaction and thus stirred up a riot which caused them to later get deported back to their country as a punishment. Instead of bombarding them with insults, why don't we first look at what had caused this to happen? Perhaps we Singaporeans should also show some care and concern instead of being bias against them just because of our judgments .As the saying goes "there is more than it looks", we should first find out the cause of what sparked them to have this outburst and lend a helping hand instead of pointing out their flaws. I also hope that Singapore government would improve their living conditions so that they can have a comfortable place to live in. 

We also saw the picture of the starving girl and the vulture as well as searched what had happened to Kevin Carter, the photographer who took this shot. Sometimes, we would regret what we had not done after the incident has already happened. This applies for this case. Some of the us would cry over spilt milk. Kevin Carter died of depression due to the stress of the public demanding why he had not help the starving girl. I am sure he did regret what he had done, except all came too late. Instead of continuing to make angry remarks, why don't we use this time to do something that will benefit the starving children in Africa? Why don't we organize a campaign to raise money for them? Why don't we go over to Africa to be a volunteer and lend a helping hand to them? There are endless possibilities of helping them, but the question is how we will act on it. The time spent online bombarding Kevin Carter with angry remarks could bring a better life to the people of Africa if we were to start helping them instead of sending Kevin Carter to his grave, literally. I am sure the reason he wanted to take these pictures were to allow people all over the world to see for their very own eyes what is happening to these starving people in Africa. He hopes to inspire us with these pictures to lend a helping hand to them so why not start helping them? 

We also learnt to gather meaning and thoughts from what you see and understand the importance of looking beyond what is just on the surface during our reflection. Every day, we see things that create impressions on us and these may be captured in photos or videos. However, we may take them for granted and not question its importance to us. A picture paints a thousand words and we may not even realize it or take time to understand the painting. We should always use the "see , think and wonder "method to describe scenes we see to understand it more in-depth. Just like the exercise when we were given two pictures: a man carrying a board claiming that he is homeless, penniless, is an orphan and needs financial help to get back on his feet as well as a woman who is carrying a child and putting out her palm to beg money from a well-dressed tourist. At first I wanted to help both of them but after hearing that the man was a handicap and has no one else to turn to while the woman was part of a syndicate who would trick people to sympathize with them by carrying a baby or pretends to be handicapped. After learning about their backgrounds, my opinion changed drastically, I chose to help the man. Even if we were give the woman more money, most of the money would go to the syndicate, the syndicate would grow greedier and make use of more beggars hence the beggars would still remain poor. The man would need more financial aid as his pushcart which he relied on was stolen and he has no one else to turn to. Looks can be deceiving. What we see may actually contradict what the true story behind the story is. For instance, I was more inclined to help the woman at first as I thought that the man was just putting on a show. The reason why I came to this conclusion was that the man looks able-body and can work for himself while the woman cannot as she has a baby to take care. However, my conscience got over me and I decided to help both. 

We can use the Paul's eight element of thought when reflecting on things critically. We also need to observe carefully as observing is not just looking but entails deeper analysis and reflections. We were supposed to observe what school life in River Valley High School was the previous week. When we were asked to write our observation on the board, most of us have the same answers but there were a minority answers that were unique and special, like dull. This shows that mostly of us do not pay attention to smaller details and take things for granted. For instance, our class did not think of the word noisy when airplanes fly past our school every day, creating disruption to the class. We were used to it and thus were indifferent towards the matter. I feel that the people who had unique answers were very observant. We could also add on to our friends' unique answers when we were given a chance to interact and share our point of view. The next activity was guessing who skips breakfast, sleep less than an average of less than 6 hours every night, is the eldest child and knows how to swim as well as our reasons for that. This shows how much we know about our friends as well as our inference and explanation towards the matter. Next, the teacher showed us some pictures that were taken according to themes that we were given. We were given a chance to vote whether or not the picture was taken well and depicts the theme. The teacher also taught us how to make these pictures more interesting and meaningful. For example, one of the groups took an unclear image or a millipede. I suggested that they could have someone's scared face upon seeing the millipede as the theme was "fear". However, one of the group mates said that the reason why the picture was unclear was because they were afraid of the millipede and were scared to move closer to it. However, I still feel that having a person's shocked reaction upon seeing the millipede would make it a better shot as not all of us are afraid of millipedes.