Reflective Journal 2

5 weeks have passed in a flash since we treaded on the journey of CDE. Throughout this period, I have learnt much from the various presentations by my classmates, with topics ranging from politics to gender stereotypes to political apathy, in both the American and Chinese societies. Indeed, these topics have stirred up many mixed views from the class, and I believe it is without doubt that we had a very enriching time discussing these topics. For myself, I tried to participate actively in the discussions, and I have successfully managed to put some of my views across to the class without being too loquacious. After all, as Winston Churchill once said, "A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest." When compared with last year, I can detect a very stark contrast, as the class is much more eager to share their opinions and raise any doubts. Through this, I daresay that we all have benefitted greatly, both in factual knowledge and perspectives.

As the world progresses into the turn of the 21st century, many advances and breakthroughs have been made. Progress in many societies is no doubt an increasing curve, be it one with a steep or exponential gradient, as can be seen in China, or merely like a tortoise's crawl, as can be seen in America. Concurrently, there have been numerous changes to the politics and political apathy in America, and the gender stereotypes in both America and China. In the following paragraphs, I would like to expound on the three factors briefly due to space constraints.

American politics has been regarded as one of the most important and widely discussed topic both in America itself, and even the rest of the world, as it determines the fate and future of one of the global superpowers. In the 2008 general elections, President Barack Obama led his Democrat team to a watershed victory over the Republicans. The deciding factor was none other than the success of his presidential campaign. To reach out to a larger audience, he utilised one of the fastest and most effective mediums - the social media. Through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube, he was able to connect with American citizens, especially youths. This new method revolutionised the game of politics in America, promoted the social media as the best way to communicate with a large group of people, and also helped forge closer bonds in the American community.

Here is a video explaining how Obama successfully used the various types of social media to engage with the general public.

Obama Campaign Uses Social Media To Beat 

Hillary Clinton and John McCain in 2008

Moving on, the topic that one might view as a potential crisis in America - political apathy. Political apathy is the public or individual indifference towards political events and movements. This is most commonly seen in the current generation of youths, where they do not make it a point to vote for their party, and have a poor general knowledge of the current political situation in America. It may seem like the plain nonchalance of American youths, but it is actually the consequence of the current ruling generation’s lack of foresight for the future by nurturing them to be concerned about the subject that would undoubtedly affect the fate of their country. For example, American schools do not actively engage their students in the changes and updates in politics, and the flawed and academic-centred education system hinders students' pursuit of game-changing events in politics. In China, however, the Tiananmen incident has revealed the reason for the political apathy in youths there. Its failure was a telling sign that calls for political reforms in China would be absolutely futile. Furthermore, with the harsh censorship and "brainwashing" by the Communist government, it is no wonder that the youths do not dabble in the politics of their country.

Last but not least, gender stereotypes have also seen a drastic change in America. During the early 20th century, women were regarded as inferior to men and held the humble position of staying at home to tend the kids and manage the house. With the rise of the feminist movement in the late 20th century, females have been edging up to their male counterparts in terms of social status and opportunities. Women are also receiving more recognition based on their talents and skills. For example, the ability of Hillary Clinton to rise up to the position of the US Secretary of State showed that women could rival men, and even surpass them. While the above holds true, women have still not been given the justice and equality due to them. Many employers are afraid that women are binded to their family commitments, i.e. taking care of their children etc., which would affect their work performance. Hence, these employers favour male workers over female ones. On the contrary in China, women are still quite suppressed by the ancient Chinese tradition of females' inferiority to males. This is evident in the extremely limited job opportunities women are exposed to in society. This shows that it is indeed an uphill task to break the current gender stereotypes and ameliorate the social standing of women.

To sum up my current experience of the whole course, I am very much satisfied with my acquisition of new knowledge and perspectives. As Brittney Ryan once said, "It's a strange truth that no matter how persuaded we might be of our own correctness, the discomfiting realization that others disagree with us causes a paralyzing inability to argue the case convincingly." Through this course, I have learnt how to get rid of my Achilles' heel and stand unrooted in my opinions even though others may disagree with me. After all, Mr Karplus has said that there are no right or wrong answers, and by making a differing stand, I might be able to shed light into new perspectives. I am certainly looking forward to the remaining CDE lessons for this term.

Wei Loon

Reflective Journal 1

Having gone through two terms of CDE last year, I am more prepared this year for the upcoming assignments and discussions. The main theme or topic last year was about the cultural differences between the East and the West. We analyzed the "Google Way" of management and innovation, which is the 20 percent strategy; the difficulties which Lenovo and other Chinese companies face when developing and expanding into the global market; the Confucian ideology and how it has impacted China today; how the Western ideology shaped the current economy of Western countries; and how the two contrasting cultures affected Singapore. I feel that the numerous lessons learnt last year were very interesting and has given me an insight of how culture affects the world today. I have also gained a new perspective on the differences between the cultures of the East and West. Indeed, the overall programme was an effective one and I was looking forward to the CDE this year.

For the first lesson this year, we took a Cultural Quotient (CQ) self-assessment to analyse how much we understand cultural differences, and also to emphasize the importance of cultural intelligence. With the knowledge of this, it can greatly prepare us when we enter the workforce which is becoming an increasingly competitive global market, as we are able to handle situations in any culture, and also to interact with people of different cultures without offending them. Though I had already taken it last year, I felt that I should retake it as a gauge of my takeaways from one semester of CDE last year, and to find out whether I have become more culture-sensitive and culture-tolerant.

For the remaining upcoming lessons for this year, I hope that we can delve more in-depth into the topics covered last year, not only as a revision of the stuff we learnt, but also to probe into areas of that topic which were not discussed due to the lack of time. Of course, I do not mind learning new topics as they will broaden my perspectives greatly. I am very supportive of the free discussions as we can voice out our opinions without fear of blurting out a wrong answer or getting penalised. However, I would like to make a suggestion that was unfortunately not implemented last year. I hope that notes summarising the particular lesson would be given out so that we can refresh the information learnt at home. Furthermore, I felt that the research essay topics were a little restricted. It would be better if us students had the freedom to craft our own topic. 

Despite the few flaws present, I still believe that CDE is a unique and wonderful subject, where the knowledge learnt is very much out of the mundane textbook. And Mr Karplus is undoubtedly both a humorous and a great teacher. I hope that my takeaways this year would be as much, if not more, than last year.