Self-introduction again!
I am Mandy, a fourth year student double majoring in political science and international relations. I am from Hong Kong and I came to Vancouver for university in 2008. Vancouver is a fascinating place which has undoubtedly changed my life (dramatically) in these four years. The people and things I have encountered here have far exceeded more than I could have ever imagined in HK. Despite Vancouver’s awesomeness, I have always seen Hong Kong as my home and have been longing to return since my Day 1 in Vancouver. This is my last term at UBC and I wish everything I have learnt at this amazing university will be applicable to my future career in governmental or academic work back home!
Oh, I also did lots of artworks back then (before I got preoccupied with my study). Here are some of my works 🙂
The value of democracy is a question I contemplate a lot. I grow up in a democratic environment, and just like many others, I have also experienced disillusionment. I remember there was a time I could not agree more with Plato, who in his Plato’s Republic describes democracy as “rule by the mob”. Yet, my perception of democracy has changed after I have seen people at grassroots level struggling for democracy, as seen in Thailand and the Arab world. Besides, last term I took a class on democratic theory and was greatly inspired by the famous democratic theorist, Robert Dahl. I remember in one chapter of his book he says we should not compare the deviated side of democracy with the ideal side of authoritarianism. Instead, we should compare either the ideal sides or the deviated sides between the two types of regime. His conclusion is that, if we apply a fair comparison, democracy will be no doubt a better option than an authoritarian regime. His comment reminds me that sometimes we are “spoiled” by our democratic environment to believe that democracy is not good enough, when the fact is that we are already million times luckier than others in authoritarian regimes. With all these influences, I have now put my faith in democracy but agree that there are lots of things need to be done to realize the ideal side of democracy.
Tags: 4 Comments
4 responses so far ↓
Hey Mandy!
I found a pretty amusing youtube video about HK which you might be interested in! It’s on my blog (:
Hi, I mentioned you in my mini assignment on my blog 🙂
Hey, I commented on your intro in my blog.
considering how you support democracy I was wondering what you think of democratic peace theory? I posted two interesting articles on possible criticisms and challenges to the theory.