Monday, April 27, 2015

50th Anniversary of the Sound of Music


50 years - I cannot believe that 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the Sound of Music. I remember how the beautiful landscape, the timeless songs, the lovable characters, humour, the warmth. Just everything about it is perfect. I will never tire of this movie, nor its songs.

Excuse me, as I cry in a corner. THE FEELS ARE JUST TOO STRONG.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Voting as an International Student in the UK elections

The topic that pervades everyone's minds as of right now is the forthcoming UK elections, and despite the fact that I'm "just" an international student, I'm going to vote. And no, not just because it's the "hot topic" as of now, or because of the hype, or because I'm brown-nosing, but because I genuinely want to make a difference. For someone who just turned of voting age, it's pretty darn exciting to be invited to have my say in the policy-making, and in the governance of the city I'd be living in for the next year.

Inevitably, there are difficulties in trying to know more about the political parties because I have no context to go by, being from a different country and culture. There are the advantages of having a fresh perspective because you are seeing the parties as they are rather than with the preconceived notions inherited from peers and parents, nonetheless there are still a lot of obstacles to overcome to form an accurate, objective opinion of the parties. For one, there is the media portrayal of the parties, a lot of which are exaggerated, brushstroke-like impressions that really taint a person's view of the parties, and distract someone from constructing an unbiased assessment of the party's candidates and their policies. Some of the generalisations are eagerly gobbled up by students (especially international ones, coming from an entirely different political background) simply because it's much more convenient to form simplistic views based on cheesy pictures with one-liners rather than actually doing research. The social media onslaught of memes, while funny, don't really give people much on which to build their opinions of their parties, and could potentially lead to false representations of the parties.

There is a double remove in being an international student with voting rights. Candidates tend to disregard the student population in the cities, and then there is the fact that you're an international. No one really pays attention to what you want, or what you need, or to what policies might help you. In Durham for instance, almost all the manifestos of the candidates contain proposals to clear the accommodation spaces in the city centre of students. Being international is doubly hard as immigration laws look to be on the clampdown, and education policies overlook international students. While there are proposals from Labour to cut home student fees to £6000 per annum, international student fees remain steadily on the rise, with an average increase of 4.8% from 2013-2014 according to a survey by Times Higher Education. Time and again, the internationals students are being sidelined by policy-makers even though each student pays £14, 000 to £20, 000 a year for tuition fees alone. The possibility that these students may start and build their lives here and that they may have something to add and contribute to the UK, is neglected. Perhaps this is because of the mindset that we're "outsiders"; this sentiment is in part formed through our own fault, but I also think it's partly because as people label us so, we start to think of ourselves as such and act accordingly.

While there are those who do not want to vote - and I respect and understand their decision not to - I'll be casting my ballot in the elections, because although I'll be graduating next year, whatever happens in the general elections will impact the people in this county, the country, and the international students streaming into Durham as well. What's more, the world is getting to be so globalised now, it's fallacy to think that another country's election happens in isolation, and that it wouldn't affect people on the other end of the planet. Immigration laws, education policies, foreign relations, they will all have repercussions on not just me, but everyone. For every action, there is a reaction, and as worn-out as this adage is, every vote certainly counts.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Um thanks Dove?



Dove in their latest campaign is trying to boost women's self-esteem and confidence by telling them to Choose Beautiful. Two signs are placed above two different doors, thereby forcing women to make the choice whether they are "beautiful" or "average" by which door they decide to walk through.

While Dove's campaigns are really positive and are meant to be empowering, personally I find it weird for people to think it sad that so many women did not choose beautiful.

Before everyone gets their pitchforks out and roast me alive for saying so, hear me out. Isn't it a tad bit reductive to say that these women suffer from low self-esteem just because they chose average? Aren't we imposing too much meaning by inferring that a girl's "idea of beauty" is distorted by media just because she didn't choose beauty?

Um, yeah to say the least.

Yeah it's true, there might be a portion of ladies who felt the message was a real confidence booster, a great reminder that they should feel comfortable in their own skin, being who they are.

But feeling comfortable isn't the same as feeling beautiful. One can feel happy with the way they look without feeling like they're extraordinary beauties, and isn't that the whole beauty about beauty in the first place? Yes, everyone enjoys a good compliment once in a while, but true beauty doesn't come from knowing you're beautiful, but from being contented even if you don't feel like you look like Miss Universe. The self-demolition comes only because media and society places so much emphasis on external beauty, so it wouldn't help really if we keep veering the conversation back to physical beauty. Even if it is for a good positive message, by asserting such importance on the "feeling like you're beautiful" trope, aren't we still trapped in the process of defining what is beautiful and what isn't?

That being said, I do like some of Dove's other ads, such as the Real Beauty campaign, with different body types. That was a really simple ad, it didn't ask anyone to "feel beautiful" or "choose beautiful", but it just basically asked us to embrace who we are. After all, being beautiful only happens not when we conform to the media, nor when we choose to be, but ironically, it happens when we don't even think about being beautiful.


Friday, April 17, 2015

Of Soup Runs

My boyfriend Nick brought me to help out in a soup run organized by an affiliation of churches in Bath called The Genesis Trust. Basically, volunteers from the churches that are a part of this initiative will sign up and are subsequently included in a rota, with each person helps out about once or twice a month.

It was about 7pm when Nick and I - having been given a lift by Jane and Hugh, who are presumably the leaders of this volunteer group - arrived at the carpark where the soup run would be. The night was pretty cold, and the carpark was fairly empty, so I wasn't sure if anyone would even be coming. But then, people started trickling in a couple of minutes later. A portable table was set up, along with huge flasks of tea and coffee, bags filled with sandwiches, a large pot of soup, and fruits. As I was a newcomer, and didn't have the experience or training of engaging with the homeless people, Jane asked me to stay with her, helping her man the table and distributing the coffee. There were other volunteers who went around giving out sandwiches and fruits, and really lending a listening, sympathetic ear to the people.

Of course, that didn't mean I was not to converse with them at all. There were a couple of them who stayed and chatted with me a little, asking about what I studied, where was I from, etc. It was really nice, and everyone was really amiable, asking for food and drinks politely, and standing around with their mates just catching up. There were a few people who were slightly disruptive, one of them was drunk and, with a bottle in hand, trying to provoke another person to a fight. But all in all, the soup run went on quite civilly.

There was a man who came in quite late, about 8.30pm. He looked dishevelled, but not from living on the streets, but rather because he had been in a scuffle. He came in, looking angry, raging about how the policemen are constantly trying to move him on. He took some food, and he wasn't rude to us or anything, but the whole time he was just venting out his anger at the coppers. I actually do sympathise with him, but obviously because I don't know the whole story, I choose to reserve my judgment. Based on what I hear and see, in general the police won't normally get rough with people unless they're disturbing public peace. There may be exceptions to this, there may be police officers who abuse their authority, but it's always best to listen to anyone's story with a pinch of salt.


What - or who, rather - I remember most is Bob, one of the homeless men who, noticing how cold my hands were getting, lent me his gloves to wear - and they were really warm gloves too. More than that, he helped the volunteers pick up the rubbish around the area and even helped us throw it away. He does this on a regular basis as well, as all the volunteers seem to know him and because Nick tells me so.

It's really important to see each person as individuals, individuals who are facing different circumstances, individuals who have different personalities. There are some who are genuinely the nicest people ever, and there are some who may not be so. It's so important to really get to know them, and to really try to understand things from their point of view. Chatting with Jane and Hugh, I thought it was really considerate the way they called them "clients", it shows how the volunteers were actually going to serve them and really listen to their problems. That's the most important part, perhaps - just showing some love, care, and concern without being judgmental or critical.

There may be some who became homeless because of addiction or the things they did, but instead of shunning them, we should try to help them get their lives together. It may be hard, especially as there are some who don't really want to help themselves, who don't want to fix their lives. It still doesn't mean we should just ignore them. We should try to help them out, though try also to challenge them to turn their lives around. And for those who are really trying to lift themselves from their homelessness, we really need to start thinking of how to help them on a practical level, rather than just offering ineffectual gestures of commiseration. There are loads of organizations that try to reinhabit them, Moving On, for instance. But I think it's difficult on their end too, perhaps because of bureaucracy, paperwork, and the myriads of cases they would have to deal with. (this is only a conjecture, having not come into contact with Moving On or any other related organizations before).

It's sad, because homelessness becomes an issue that gets sidelined, because sometimes there isn't a voice defending them. But how can we ignore such a large number of people who are displaced, left without a place to go? Some may argue and say that, "they have fully-functioning bodies, they can go and work!" It may be so. But how would we know the difficulties they may be facing? How can we even "judge" whether someone is deserving of help or not? The truth is, we don't. We have to help them, not by giving money, but by showing them a little warmth and kindness, by really trying to understand what they need, not what they want.


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The First Draft is the Hardest

Yes, sing the title to the melody of "The First Cut is the Deepest". It was designed to sung so.

Writing my first draft of Shakespeare on Film essay - and clearly getting distracted. I know I should be sustaining my flow of thought, but this quote just crept into my mind.

"The first draft of anything is ****." - Ernest Hemingway.

I'm taking refuge in that thought! There's always a need to re-write what I've just written, to make it sound more intellectual or clearer or whatever, but when I do so I lose my train of thought and everything just sounds very choppy in the end. I think I need to just pen everything down first, get all my ideas out and then slowly, lovingly edit everything so it would be more coherently and beautifully phrased. You just (editorial you btw) can't write the first draft expecting everything to be perfect.

It's been a While.

I'm sorry for the recent hiatus. Disclaimer: This is not a full-on post, but just felt the need to post up something even though I don't necessarily have the time / brain power to write up a good piece.

Exam preparation has been taking up some time, and trying to write my two remaining summative essays best as I can. And I've been tinkering with lots of ideas for writing a story, so I've been pretty consumed with that as well.

Bad excuses for neglecting my blog! But hey, there are just so many things to do!!!

Am reminded of the Plath's fig tree in The Bell Jar - so many options to choose from, each representing a future, a path. And I, greedy as I am, want to do them all.

But yes, I'm enjoying myself thus far with the writing though my brain hurts at times (it's a good kind of hurt though). Just checking in, but now I'm signing off for now. My posts might be a bit sporadic for now, but hopefully will pick up speed once I've settled my two essays. (On the edge of finishing it, it's an exhilarating feeling - the feeling of accomplishment!)