Hello Readers,
I want to first congratulate everyone on their excellent blog posts this week; I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of them! You all raised some interesting points and brought very thought-provoking questions to the table.
A common theme for this week’s blog post was Farhad Shahzad’s “The Role of Interpretive Communities in Remembering and Learning”, as well as the subject of scholarly academic writing. Jennifer Lai, Kristen Lew, and Sania Shoaib highlight these topics. Kaveel Singh and Sam Tuck zoom in on Shahzad’s theory of “interpretive communities”.
Another popular subject this week was our discussions in class, specifically regarding different technologies of memory. Mariana Drok described the importance of storytelling as a technology of memory, especially its significance to First Nations’ history. Ina de Weerdt went on to talk about how blogging is another technology of memory that has greatly impacted her, and how she feels that she belongs to a blogging interpretive community.
Another source of speculation was regarding the issue of “bias”. Jacqueline DeSantis speculated whether “bias” was any different from “perspective”; she views that one has an inherently negative connotation while the other is viewed in a more positive light. She claims, “The difference between bias and perspective is not as cut and dry as it seems. If we replace the word bias with perspective then it seems like people are less critical of an outside influence.” Meanwhile, Mariana Dork argues that bias is the only way for events to be accurately recorded in history. She says, “Information is a powerful tool of manipulation in the 21st century. When it is being distorted the only way to learn the truth is by listening to people, who have experienced a particular event themselves.” Taylor Khatkar proposes an interesting view on this topic while referencing Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story”.
I personally find this subject very interesting to debate. I feel on the one hand, bias should not cloud one’s judgment and prevent one from considering other possibilities or perspectives, but on the other hand, how can you experience ANYTHING in your life without having a bias? It’s just not possible. In that regard, bias shouldn’t be viewed as a bad thing.
Some of my classmates mused over the question that has been presented to us from day one: “What is a global citizen?” Raphael Gamo asserts, “…global citizenship is the privilege to learn and interact with people from all over the world, to discover issues and solutions, and to just in general communicate on a scale larger than your immediate locale.” He also went on to talk about his experiences living in Jakarta, Indonesia and attending an international school there. “Due to this high concentration of different cultures and nationalities, I feel drawn towards international communities, and in turn, the idea of global citizens. I can’t really imagine any other way when it comes to the communities. I’m a part of, the mix of people just seems to feel right and comfortable.” This particular statement resonated with me because I, too, lived overseas and attended an international school in Singapore. Diversity was a largely influential factor in my decision to attend UBC. Ken Sakamoto also shares a similar view on this topic.
Nicolo Jimenez wrote about the Syrian Refugee Crisis, and our responsibilities as global citizens to aid them in their struggles: “I do not think it is appropriate at all for one country to be spearheading the Syrian Refugee Crisis or for countries who are more stable financially and politically to stand back and remain lukewarm! I take it my responsibility to advocate for more countries to rally as a whole and tackle this phenomenon in unity because we are stronger together.” The Syrian Refugee Crisis is a very critical issue in the world at this time, and as students in an ever-increasing globalized world, it is our responsibility to be aware of the crisis, and be educated in the nation’s responses and policies regarding the refugees.
As an endnote, the majority of students discussed how grateful they are to be in the Global Citizens CAP stream. They are able to pull connections between lectures and academic perspectives to form a more interconnectedness view of the world around us. This was a main theme in Carolina Judkowicz’s blog, as well as many others.
Keep it up, bloggers!
-Kendall Manifould