Ming How's three weeks consolidation

When I was first introduced to CID 2, I still felt that it was quite interesting since during the first lesson, it was very interactive and enriching. I also felt very exited when the teacher said that we were going for a OELP trip to Taiwan/China as a class this year. However, the homework of blogging did not appeal to me as much since I do not really have the habit and experience of blogging.

The most memorable lesson I have gone through was the one about using different perceptions and point of views to look at things. Specifically, the teacher gave us to two pictures for us to look at (One was a man begging by the streets and the other was a woman with a child approaching person by person for money) and made us apply the 'See, Think and Wonder' skill to write about about how we felt about the picture. The teacher also gave us an mini-activity to let us think about "If you had one dollar and you can only give it to one person to help him, who would you help?". At first, even though both people are very pitiful, I thought that the woman with the child needed my help more since it would be hard on her to support two lives. Even if she could find a job to earn some money,  it would be hard for her to find a place to settle down her child. On the other hand, the man could have went to find a job to support for himself.

However, my teacher told us that what we see with our eyes might not be really true. She told us about the real living conditions of both of the beggars. Apparently, the man had his cart which he used to use it to collect old stuff and sell it for money got stolen and so he need to have some money know to get a new cart so that he can back on his track. Meanwhile, the woman belonged to a syndicate and was forced to beg around for money with a child whom she did not even know. Only a small portion of the money she begged from would be given to her for her to live. After knowing both of their real living conditions, I felt that the man now need my help more. The man just needs a little help from others for him to get back on his feet and earn money for himself. With my small amount of my money, he can probably carry on with his life while for the woman, I do not think that just giving her money is good for her since her money would just be taken away by the syndicate. Even if I gave her one dollar, probably only a few cents would be given to her and this would not be of any help to her at all. I feel that the best way to help her is to break her off from the syndicate so that her income will not get sucked away.

In the other CID lessons, I have also learnt about the poverty in Singapore and we were also told to make more keen observations about RV. There was also one worksheet teaching us about photography. I feel that all these activities and exercises are trying to train us on our obersavation skills and inferencial skills. Probably all these skills and things we learnt now would be used once we go for our OELP trip. In a nutshell, CID lessons are still quite thoroughly enjoyable and fun for me although sometimes I might feel a little stressed about the homework given since quite a lot of homework is given at one go sometimes.

Jianing's reflection

For the first lesson, I have heard that we will be going either Taiwan or china for the OELP trip. So I'm really excited! But once I know that we will be assessed after the trip, my mood dimmed a little as we can't really enjoy ourselves. But I'm still looking forward to the trip in term 2 week 10. That lesson is also the first time our group created a blog and our first post is posted. 

And for the second lesson, we saw 2 pictures of beggars, and we have to choose one of them to help. One of the beggars is a guy who is robbed and has mouthing left. Another begged is a lady carrying a child and wearing thin clothings in the chilly weather. At first I chose to help the lady as I thought that it may be difficult for her to go to work and take care of her baby at the same time, while the guy could just get up and start afresh even though it may be tough. But after knowing their background, I chose the help the guy. The guy has only an arm, which resulted in a limited number of jobs he could do, while the lady was from a "beggars' company ", where she was asked to carry a child and let others donate her some money due to empathy. I think that I should not help the lady as most of the donations will go to the boss of that company, and in the end, the beggars get barely enough money, while their boss get to enjoy themselves with the rest of the money. And if many donated to her, the boss may think that this is a good way toe ran more money, and thus may employ more beggars to work under them. As compared to the lady, the guy has only an arm, which is really hard to find a job. In a nutshell, this lesson taught me that we should never judge anything or anyone just by the surface. 

And the lesson also touched on the topic of poverty in Singapore. And I learnt that the difference between the rich and poor is quite big. And the poor will always be poor and hard to get rich, there is something called the poverty cycle, where the poor has no money to provide their children with education, so their children will hardly do better than their parents, and thus wouldn't be able to get jobs with high salary, and so there will not be enough money to provide education for the third generation, and the cycle repeats. 

In conclusion, it was a fun time going for CID lessons, I believe there is much more to be benefitted from this lesson. And I must say, this CID lesson is a fun and at the same time, an educational lesson, that I enjoyed a lot.

Jianing's colour, symbol and picture

I choose the color white as it is the color for perfection, purity and innocence. And in color physiology, white is the color of new beginnings, so it is like the blank canvas to be written upon. So, I wanted to say that everyone should start afresh every year, as if they were 're-born', so innocent and pure like a new born child.  Its basic feature is equality, implying fairness, so during the Chinese New Year, I will invite different Chinese to come and eat with my family and I. I won't be unfair and not invite someone just because they may be poor and old.

I choose this symbol as it represents something I want to achieve in the year 2014. I want the snakes that coil around the sticks to be friends. So it is like there is a bond between each and every friend. And the wings on the top is meant to be implying that alone we can do little, but together, we can do much more. So, I hope in the year 2014, 2G can be more bonded and together, we will soar to greater heights.

I choose HongBao to be the image as I wanted to make my stand clear on the upcoming matter. Recently, I had been asking my friends if I could go and visit them during the Chinese New Year. But the first thing they said is that I wanted to get HongBao. But in my opinion, money is not important. What it really matters to me is the time that I can spend with my closest friends and family. So I wanted to voice out that don't always think that everyone put money as the first priority, some may just want to spend the time with you to bond more.

Ming How's Symbol, Colour and Picture for CNY

Symbol
Chinese characters usually have one or more meanings and some of them are particularly loved by Chinese people. Fu is one of the most popular Chinese characters used in Chinese New Year and Fu is the pinyin for good luck in Chinese. It is often posted upside down on the front door of a house or an apartment. The upside down Fu means good luck came since the character for upside down of Fu in Chinese sounds the same as the character for the arrival of Fu. I wish to have good luck and prosper this year thus I chose this symbol.






 

Color
I chose this color because according to the legends, there was this mythtical beast called Nian and it would come on the first day of Chinese New Year to look hor his sacrifises like woman and children. There was one time when Nian got scared away by a child wearing red and so people have discovered the way to fight against Nian. Ever since it was Chinese New Year, many people would use red colour things to decorate their houses to scare away Nian. Red colour can also symbolies good luck and fortune so red is the best to represent Chinese New Year since it is a very cheerful and happy occasion.

Image
This picture depicts all the cookies and Chinese New Year snacks which my mother have been spending a long time to make. The reason why I chose this picture was because it I think I would experience mixed feelings whenever I eat the Chinese New Year snacks as my mother have been spending a lot of time and effort making all the snacks. Everyday immediately after work, she would go and start preparing the ingredients in the kitchen all the way until the night. It has been very hard on her since she has been complaining about her body aching frequently. While I could be very happily munching away on the snacks during Chinese New Year in the past and taking the food for granted (吃得很爽XD), I had never showed any appreciation to my mother for putting so much effort. However...... the snacks are really too nice already, I would always be the "food-taster" for my mother and polish off everything!!

Valerie's colour, symbol and image for Chinese New Year

I chose this picture as red is a colour that symbolises prosperity and good wealth in the Chinese culture. There was also a story about how new year was begun by chasing away the monster, Nian, from eating the villages in the village by hanging up things with the colour red to frighten it away. 

I chose this symbol as it represents spring in mandarin. To me, spring means a brand new year and good luck, therefore, i chose this symbol to represent the start of the year on the Chinese lunar calendar, Chinese New Year.

I chose this picture as i felt that having a reunion dinner on New Year Eve is very important as it is the time where a family can come together for a meal. Nowadays as people get busier with their work and their own families, we tend to neglect making time to talk to one another and sitting around a table for a simple meal together, therefore i chose this picture as i felt that the significance of having reunion dinner once a year is very important.

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.