Proud of myself.....

Recently, I participated in volunteer activities involving workshops with the local students around Plymouth area. One of the main reasons of having such activities is to bridge the gap between different cultures. Being in Plymouth for almost 2 years, I think students here lack of knowledge about different cultures. Therefore, having such activities like this surely will help the local students and even me, to widen our knowledge about different cultures. Furthermore, as a future teacher, being part of this program gives me an opportunity to see how people like Faye (in charge for volunteer activities) who tries her best to create a good bond between the school students and the community.

The activities I involved were carried out every Wednesdays mostly at Stoke Damerel Community College. Bellow shows the activities I took part

Graffiti workshop

(Our effort!!!..although it does not look exactly what it supposed to be (RESPECT) but we enjoyed doing it as a team....

Faiz and I, the team members were working hard to complete our poster

Farah my another team member, working on the drawing part.

Circus Skills

Some of the stuffs were brought for us to have a go


My favorite activity, walking on the rope..I manage to learn it quite quickly


Mr. John, the man of the day!! he is such a versatile teacher i ever seen.

My friend, Faiz, who also tried his very best to learn the skill. Eventually he managed to do it...



So, these are some of the activities I took part. To be honest, initially, I was a bit regret when signing in my name for these workshops. I thought it was another 'burden' for me to do. But now, I am so glad being part of this group. What I learnt from here will be engraved in my heart and mind....


Guna

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups. Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behaviour, customs, and religion

Here again, with another important issue ‘Ethnocentrism’. As the definition appears above, in short, ‘Ethnocentrism’ is the attitude of judging other people based on our own perceptive, belief and background. From my standpoint, I don’t agree to those who are being ethnocentric. I think one of the major factor causes people fighting with each other is because they are having this ethnocentric disease.

Basically, human beings are different from one another in terms of language, background, culture and in many more aspects. Majority of the population today like to compare what they have believed with those from other community groups. Mostly, it’s related to religion comparison. Some people who are very educated in their own religion tend to have this humiliated disease in which they will show how good they are in their religion by comparing to another religion. They will condemn other religion saying this is not the right way to follow and so on. This cause hatred among each other and will ended up in an unwanted situation. I think, staying in a very multicultural environment, we need to respect each other and respect their perspective too especially when it touch about their religion.

Think forward; no matter what faith you are following, it only direct you to one destination which is DO GOOD TO OTHERS. Being a human being, we need to respect each other regardless of what we believe. They are many issues to be taken into consideration like country’s developments, education and so on. So, please stop judging other races and please try to understand that other religions are also as good as your religion.

“Give respect and take respect”…

Shamrat Guna

Fault in NEP....my own view!!!

"Education in Malaysia is an on-going efforts towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holostic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intelectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God"

Ladies and gentlemen, I, as a Malaysian citizen proudly present our wonderful National Education Philosophy (NEP). Well, as the title says, ‘fault in our education philosophy’. So, what is the fault?

I would like to draw your attention to the phrase “firm belief in and devotion to God”. As we all know, Malaysia is a multi-racial country and the three main races, Malay, Chinese and Indian have our own standpoint when comes to religion and God. And we have our own place to worship to our repective God (although i belief thr is only ONE GOD).

Recently, the Malaysia government has been demolishing the Hindu temples around Malaysia especially in Selangor. According to a survey, it’s stated that, 1 temple is being demolished in every three weeks.
Why s incident this happening in Malaysia? How do the Indian people show our devotion to God as stated by the National Education Philosophy, “devotion to God” if the government is acting like this? Is the “devotion to God” in NEP direct to only one race? I don’t think so. So, they are not following what they have written down.
Even in our Rukun Negara it is stated “kepercayaan kepada tuhan”. To be honest, every time I read this, I dont feel any national spirit in myself.

This 'rukun negara' or National ideology is written at the back of all workbooks provided in schools. And when I was in my primary and secondary school, we were force to memorize this. Now, when I read this phrase. I think it’s just a LIE. And the so called Government for 'ALL' is neglecting their job and doing others things which they are not suppose to do.

So, where will this lead do? Why they are doing to us? Aren’t we part of Malaysian citizen and don’t we have the right as equal to others. As stated in the federal constitution, in article 11 “All of us have the right to worship our own faith “and the government is responsible to preserve the worship places. And why they are not doing their job?
We don’t ask the government to build a new temple but please let us to preserve the temples we have.

NO Matter who u are….respect is given if only u respect others... So, what is the fault?

Regards,

Citizen