Racial Harmony Blog Assignment- Freedom Of Expression in Singapore

Freedom of speech, as defined in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is "the concept of being able to speak freely without censorship. It is often regarded as an integral concept in modern liberal democracies." In a multi racial society such as Singapore, where people of different cultural and religious backgrounds coexist together, freedom of expression should be limited to the extent that it does not cause disharmony within the country. Freedom of expression against religious beliefs is one example that could cause a great possibility of discord between various religious groups. Being a sensitive topic, several opinions formed by a certain religious groups could lead to opposing views from another and a chain reaction of disputes might arise. I personally feel that this should not be meddled with, thus I advocate Szilagyi’s view.

According to Singer, “freedom of speech is essential to democratic regimes, and it must include the freedom to say what everyone else believes to be false and even what many people may find offensive.” To some extent, an individual should have the right to oppose, form their own views or question opinions formed by others, even if it may be offensive. After all, one reason why freedom of expression is encouraged is to inculcate the ability to be resistant to negative opinions formed. Tolerance is a highly desirable quality that should exist in a society. It is believed that the free speech principle involves a special act of carving out one area of social interaction for extraordinary self-restraint, the purpose of which is to develop and demonstrate a social capacity to control feelings evoked by a host of social encounters (Wikipedia). Tolerance in an individual, would lead to higher tolerance within a society. When the resistance in a society is established, negative opinions formed can be curbed easily, maintaining cohesion and restraining disputes in the country. Thus, tolerance should be established. However, in the case of Singapore, I personally feel that our society does not have an adequate level of resistance against offensive remarks. The country we live in does not provide the proper environment for developing this level of tolerance. Laws restricting freedom of speech are justified by claims that unrestricted speech may breed disharmony within Singapore's multi-racial, multi-religious society (Wikipedia). Thus, if Singer’s view were to be adopted, discord within the country might arise.

Szilagyi brought up a question in his write up on freedom of speech. He asked, “What is more important for the democratic advancement of a society - to ensure the freedom of expression of all its citizens (within the limits marked by law) or to protect the collective interests of society? “ To me, protecting the interest of a society would aid in democratic advancement. People would develop a sense of satisfaction if their needs are met. This sense of satisfaction would eventually foster greater cohesion between the society and their government. Freedom of expression as explained earlier, might lead to disharmony in a country. With disharmony, how can the country progress? Some may argue that although laws restrict one from expressing their views, it sometimes is difficult to prevent conveying them. Again, the value of respect can be inculcated. Respect for others in different racial or religious groups would allow an individual to develop a different mindset towards the racial or religious group. One must also have a certain level of maturity to attain this level of respect. Only then can people of different racial and religious backgrounds live in harmony with one another. In Singapore, this level of respect more or less exists.

We live in a society where freedom of speech has been restricted to such a level that we are not ready to accept absolute freedom of speech. The government has now begun to relax their stance against freedom of speech. One must be careful not to make sweeping remarks, but have tangible evidence when commenting on political matters. As Szilagyi said, “Freedom of speech has never been a static value, and the responsibilities of the press evolve with every new social and political development around the world - requiring the limits of media output to be subjected to constant review.” Likewise it is our responsibility to ensure that we do not make false accusations or construct harmful statements against others. This would maintain stability in social cohesion in Singapore.

Kavina Shahi

href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech">

"Prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of." Discuss

According to the dictionary, the definition of prejudice is ' an unfavourable opinion or feeling formed before hand or without knowledge, thought or reason. Usually of a hostile nature, regarding a racious religious or national group.' We all have to admit that to some extent, everyone judges another based on appearance, race or religion, whether we know the person or not. We conciously or unconciously make comments about a person just based on the way they look. This form or thinking or behaviour is believed to have been instilled in us since young, be it through media, society or our upringing. We do not give a person the chance to reveal his or her true character before we start judging them. This is all such ignorant behaviour, that sadly, all of us practice. This is prejudice for you.

Then the question comes to mind, 'Is there a way to eradicate such thinking?' or 'Have people thought of ways to cure this so called 'disease' ?'. Apparantly some societies have come up with laws to ensure that people 'treat' each other with respect. The laws give people the right to be the way they are, without people criticising them. However, in my opinion, whether societies come up with these laws or not, prejudice will still be prevalent. No one can stop people from thinking what they want to. They might not voice out their opinions but thoughts and judgments are still being formed in their heads. The only way to stop people from being prejudice, is if they learn to accept others for who they are and embrace others for their individuality instead of criticizing them and categorizing them.

It is believed that this 'disease' is derived from fear. Fear of foreign people and intolerance of people from different cultures, who carry different beliefs. This condition is called Xenophobia, which is an intense fear or dislike of foreign people. This condition can only be dealt with on a deeply spiritual level.

In other words, prejudice is a disease which cannot be cured as a whole. It depends on an individual, as to whether they want to change their midsets. Any law created can only stop the judgements from being voiced, but they cannot stop judgements from being formed.


REFERENCE: http://allaboutpopularissues.org/racial.prejudice

: http://unerstandingprejudice.org

"You tube has no ethics. It has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money." Do you agree?

YouTube has become a popular sharing ground of videos. It is at this site that people of different age groups are able to view, comment and rate an unlimited amount of videos. YouTube was bought over by Google in the year 2006, and has since become increasingly popular among people. YouTube was first created, not on the basis of making a lot of money, but as a form of enterprise. Only when it was bought over by Google, did it become increasingly popular among people. In my view, YouTube was created for people to share entertaining videos, such as music videos, personally created videos, and short movie clips with the public, however, this is not its sole purpose. YouTube is also used as a medium for displaying various videos for purposes, other than entertainment.

Recently, BBC agreed to share its videos with YouTube. It plans to showcase wildlife programmes, share BBC news from the UK and various video trailers. The purpose of this, is to generate more awareness of BBC and to make money. However, it is not solely for entertainment purposes. Apart from sharing world news, YouTube was used as a means for political campaigning. Political candidates posted videos of their candidacy, to promote themselves in the US Presidential Elections. This is becoming a popular trend among other contries as well, as they probably find YouTube an ideal medium for their campaining process. Furthermore, videos of health advice can be found on YouTube. It provides information on how to tackle medical problems faced by various people. Hence, YouTube is seen as an educatinal site.

Apart from entertainment, campaigning and for educatinal purposes, YouTube connects people of different age groups, racial groups and different nationalities. People are able to share their personal views on videos, news and other events that affect them personally, for example, the Virginia Tech shootings. This way, people around the globe become more connected. In conclusion, YouTube was not created solely for entertainment and money. Other factors contribute to the creation of this site which has become highly popular among people.



Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Use_of_acoustic_fingerprints
: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/02/nbbc102.xml

Introduction

I hope that this brief introduction of myself, will allow you to know more about me. For starters, my name is Kavina Shahi. My friends call me Kavina or Kavi for short. I come from a large family of nine, which is pretty unusual these days, especially in Singapore. I am the eldest of five girls and two boys.
I aspire to be a doctor, a Pediatrician to be more precise. I am willing to work hard to achieve that dream. I am currently joining the 'Interact club' where I will be able to look after children in childcare centres. Hopefully the expeience will perpare me for my future endeavours.
I love singing although I do not exactly have a fantastic voice. Hats off to Christina Aguilera for her awesome vocal range. I admit that I sometimes try to imitate her, very unsuccessfully. Also, during my free time I enjoy writing poems in my diary as a way to relieve stress. It is rather useful. Watching musicals is something I am crazy about. The combination of a story, dancing and singing is rather intriguing.
One thing I suppose is different about me, is that in the future, I really want to travel to countries where poverty and famine is prevalent. Hopefully by then, I would be a professional doctor so that I will be able to help the unfortunate children there and maybe make a difference in their lives. Yes, it may seem quite far fetched. However, this is something I really wish to do.
I guess this is all I can say about myself for now. Thank you for reading my posting.


Kavina.