29th November 2011

In this lesson, Mr.James came to us and the four of us agreed that we will change our focus from the domestic violence inside the house to the child abuse violence in school. This is because, we have noticed that by having the focus for the domestic violence inside the house, there will not be enough information about it. It is also a personal matter towards the teenagers and including the parents. By having a more public approach, it is easier for us to find the information and there are more issues about this in school.

We still agree that we want to focus this subject locally. This is because, we can find our information more easily and Malaysia has a lot of problems in government schools with canning, etc. We can find an international approach by comparing a local school and an international within Malaysia. We also agreed that we can ask foreign international schools to find out their opinions of this and if they can give advice.

We have stopped talking about our outcome. This is because, Maxwell has said that, if we continue progressing on our project, we might change our outcome as it goes. So we all decided to leave that behind and just do our project.

Our outcome audience is still focusing on the teenagers. Maxwell will write down his homework on his blog on the pro's and con's.

We communicated appropriately except the fact that, as usual, Maxwell and Adam likes to go out of topic if we're not actually talking about it. Including the fact when we were writing down on our reflection, it took a lot of convincing to do.

Throughout the whole meeting, I gave questions to ask them and see if they are able to answer them. As they answer, they have very reliable answers and we can actually be on track. Just the fact that we, or perhaps, they, like to get off track, the procrastination is there.

What we can continue to work on effectively is to actually get the work done, create a Gantt Chart and make a deadline for each task.

26th November 2011

In this meeting, we met up on Skype. We didn't get to talk so much due to the fact everyone was quite busy or were about to be busy so we gave each other homework to do.

But in the lesson, we have agreed to the following;

1. Everyone of us agreed that the best choice for our campaign is engaging teenage audiences. We are trying to discuss on where we can find solid proof for this.
2. We then discussed as a group on the type of media that we should use.
   

So afterwards, these were the homework that we set for each other;

1. Maxwell will find a solid proof why engaging teenage audiences are the best audience for our campaign. Maxwell will also find out which multimedia fits best with our audience with solid reasonings.
2. Adam and I will plan the Gantt Chart whilst Maxwell figures that out so we don’t waste time.
3. Adam will find the definition for Child Abuse - Domestic Violence with Bibliography.
4. PRESENT ALL OF THIS BY TUESDAY - INCLUDING THE HOMEWORK YOU HAVE NOT DONE!!!

We will discuss all our homework LATEST BY TUESDAY so we can finally get going with our project.

22nd November 2011

Today, we discussed with Mr.James on our outcome. He told our group that choosing our outcome would be more complex than other groups due to our topic; but that didn't stop our motivation!

In a group (including Mr.James), we asked these few questions to each other;

1. Outcome thoughts - change parent’s behaviours
2. Real focus - the kids or the parents. - pros and cons - international school or government school.
3. What is the most effective way to address discipline - ask adults that we know in Malaysia whether what their views of discipline are like.
4. How do we find out the information that our campaign.

Until the end of the class, we still have not answered any of these questions. We were trying to find the pro's and con's of the different audiences we wanted to engage - youth or adults. We were discussing with a scrap piece of paper and writing it all down. But then, I suggested on finding more solid proof on how we can show we found our outcome more reliable. So we will be discussing this in our next meeting.

21st November 2011

In this lesson, Ms.Gita taught us about the Belbin test. Most of us have already done this test last year so we know our roles. In my case, I know my first role but then I did not jot down the second nor third so I asked Ms.Gita for a new questionnaire paper to retake again.

During the whole lesson, we were basically setting down our own roles. My group, it was filled with waiting for Adam and I to finish our test whilst Maxwell sat there and chatted with us throughout.

After we have done, this is what we ended up with;


As you can see, even with an unstable group member number, we actually have a sufficient group. All three of us are Resource Investigator indicating that we all can find good information on the internet. We all fill the whole wheel so I am pretty happy with my group. :)

18th November 2011

Today, Ms.Gita presented the individual and group evaluation information mark scheme sheet. It shows how the examiner will mark our work. By having a better understanding what we are going to be assessed on, it gave a bigger and clearer idea of how to be able to meet the expectations.

By ticking which mark scheme band I am in (individually and a group element), I can see where we need to focus on more and the baby steps to achieve a Band 4.

There are 2 different mark scheme; individual & group evaluation.

This is my individual mark scheme. I have ticked the boxes next to the statement to show where I am at currently. Currently, I am pretty stable with my individual role in the group, except at some stage in time during our discussions, I would need to have a little pampering to do. When it comes to the project itself, I have marked myself at a Band 1 because we have not actually started with our work.

This is my group element. The ticked boxes are where my group is at. So far, I actually believe we are going in a right track, just need to go with the baby steps. It might look low now but that is probably because we have just started with the project. I might be harsh, but that is how I am. I am harsh on the things that I do so I can achieve higher.


As shown, the mark scheme was incredibly helpful. So starting now on till the end, we will be achieving a Band 4 with baby steps.

16th November 2011

During the lunch break meeting, we looked through what Maxwell had summarized for our rationale reasoning. The summary was not presented properly so eventually, Maxwell continued to summarized the paragraph.

Whilst Maxwell was doing that, Adam and I were discussing about some sub-questions. There were some questions that were quite interesting; "where do you draw the line for abuse? From slapping your child to canning." "how does this affect them as they grow up?" "Does this actually show discipline?"

Afterwards, we discussed what type of outcome appealed to us. For now, we have stuck with a documentary and pamphlet. Adam actually suggested these and Maxwell suggested to include varieties of things for the documentary which led to the pamphlet. (reasoning will be presented through homework).

Furthermore, we discussed about the audience. We have focused on children and parents since the topic associates with them (reasoning will also be presented through homework).

After all that, Maxwell has finally finished his summary and we, as a group, agreed to the splendid job Maxwell has put in.

In this meeting, we actually discussed more calmly which made us more focused with what we were suppose to do. There weren't any yelling nor shouting that needed to be done. There weren't any improvements for today's meeting since we actually communicated sufficiently.

15th November 2011

Today, my group and I have achieved on writing down a rationale reasoning by writing down our own personal and individual paragraphs.

During the whole lesson (40 minutes), Adam and I were writing down our individual paragraphs whilst Maxwell was supposedly doing, nothing since he has done his work already.

After we both finished our individual reasoning, Maxwell & I told Adam that we had some questions to consider for our Focus Question. Eventually, we ended up with "what is the fine line between discipline and abuse towards children at home?" - the reasoning will also be in our rationale reasoning.

Today, it was more to an individual work so there wasn't any problems (perhaps, only to try to work more efficiently) But today, we were all assigned a specific task to do at home to be presented the following meeting (tomorrow lunch time). Adam and I will go back home, find some sub-questions for our focus question and Maxwell will combine all our rationale reasoning together.

14th November 2011.

During the whole double period, my group and I have been discussing of a focus area for our upcoming group project. This goal was achieved throughout rustily. This is because, we were suppose to focus on our topic with "vandalism" but as it turned out, we weren't all keen in this idea of vandalism and we were sort of pushing away the idea. So eventually, this topic was abolished.

We were trying to find issues specifically within Malaysia; for the source of data was much more, if I may say so myself, "friendly". But not to mention, could associate with the whole world.

During the meeting, there were obviously some communication failure because we would go off topic. Sometimes, it took a lot of dedication to try to force them back to work but eventually, they just talked more. So I might need to learn a new tactic.

We also had a problem with the topic of study because, apparently, Maxwell's topic focused on "law and criminality" and mine as "tradition and culture" so this led to a lot of complications. So to end all the commotion, Maxwell went to Ms.Suzy and straighten it out that his topic was not actually focusing on "law and criminality". But eventually, we have chosen a whole new topic; "family and demographics".

Eventually, Maxwell was very useful for eliminating and narrowing down topics. So by this time, it was either refugees, domestic abuse or poverty. We then eventually narrowed it down to domestic abuse because it appealed to everyone.

We also had a meeting today at the night on Skype. Unfortunately, the thunderstorm cut off Adam's internet connection for the night so it was only Maxwell and I in the meeting. We both talked and gave suggestion which focus question to create. The next day, we will ask Adam which one appeals to him.

I think, we all could improve by trying not to go off topic & try to be more serious.

blank blank blank.

Self Evaluation.

1. What have I contributed to the group project?

- I contributed to the group project by keeping the group organised, supported, help each group member with any problems that they faced and make sure we’re on track.

2. What would I do differently next time? Why?

For the real group project, I (preferably we) would assign roles specifically to each group member. This is because, sometimes, the group members are stuck in a dilemma between which work they are suppose to do.

3. What have I learnt about working together?

In this group, I have learnt that each group member have their own way of working and getting off track. I learnt to understand how to get these members to work efficiently by learning how easily they got off track.

I have also learnt that, this group was actually stable but tend to get discourage if there was a lack of support from the teacher.

4. What has been good/challenging about working as part of a group?

In this group, the good part of working as part of a group was that, I was able to ask for advice for the task that I was doing, Through all that, they are able to help me go through with the challenge. The group has confidence in the work that I was handling so gave support.

The challenging part of working as part of a group were the fact that I worked with 2 (use to be 3) other human beings of the opposite gender. I was unable to understand some part of their conversation & this lead to being confused for awhile. Sometimes, it took extra effort to get their attention to do work.

What have I learnt doing the project?

1. What have I learnt about;

a) deciding on and planning a project?

I learnt that deciding and planning a project is quite difficult because there were so many topics that were appealing, but yet, we were unable to choose one. I learnt this was difficult due to the fact there were some complications between the teacher and our group.

b) Planning and producing research?

Planning and producing research was actually an easy task to do because, once we knew what topic we wanted to focus on, the research were quite straight forward. Giving different roles towards each group member was easy since we didn’t mind what task were set out to us.

Collecting the data was quite troublesome in my perspective because I was basing my research on the future aspect & as how ‘interesting’ peak oil was to some people, it didn’t at all catch my attention.

c) reading and presenting my ideas?

I continuously and constantly gave ideas through the group. It was important to show support and commitment so the group didn’t feel discouraged.

d) time management?

My time management was not at its finest because, yet again, I didn’t see the point of giving your all on a mock project rather than your real project. I became this way because, every time the school told me there was going to be a Mock Exam, I would pretend it was my Real one (partially, because I also thought it was my Real Exam) then afterwards, when I found out, it was just a mock, I felt discourage so my Real Exam tend to be worse than my Mock.

2) What would you do differently to develop these skills?

I would develop these skills more effectively by always contributing more ideas, communicate to the group members more occasionally, give members advices and have a specific role to be finish with a deadline.

3) How did I approach my individual contribution?

I approach my individual contribution by constantly giving ideas, set the group members roles to do each class lesson, gave support and advices to each other.

4) What are the most valuable points I have learnt? Why?

The most valuable points that I have learnt were that I knew how the group members were like so this was good for me to understand what I had to do to for the Real Project.

Group Evaluation

Group Evaluation
It is time to review your ‘mock’ project’ as a group. You will need to discuss and answer these questions on your group wiki/blog/webpage.

The Project

1. What area of study did you choose? Why?

- Why are we looking for oil rather than alternatives oil?

- The topic sounded very interesting but yet again, we were too lazy to think of another topic to focus on.

2. What did your groups hope to achieve? What was your proposed outcome?

- Wanted to show awareness that peak oil is important to our lives.

- We wanted to create an advertisement and a documentary showing why people were not looking for alternatives rather than digging for more oil and how disastrous this issue can be to the society.

3. How could you critically evaluate the success of your outcome?

- As a group, we can honestly say we did not create an outcome. So preferably speaking, the success of our outcome was a failure due to the fact we had lack of information, concentration and interest in the topic.

4. What were your specific group roles and responsibilities? How did you organise this? Was the allocation effective?

- Stephanie's the leader when it comes to organization, whip cracking and giving out work as well as rewarding and encouraging us

- Adam's the leader when it came to the technical work and documents, what we should do, what we should add, how we should do it

- Maxwell's the leader when it comes to the times where everyone's feeling down, and when help is needed the most to raise the spirits of the young offsprings.

- The roles were quite vague due to the fact, yet again, we weren’t so interested into the topic, we didn’t give much thought about it. But then again, the roles were quite effective since we actually somewhat did work that we initially planned to do.

5. Did your project have enough scope for every group member to play an active, full time part in the group work? How could you improve this?

- Yes, we did have enough scope for every group member to play an active, full time part in the group work. There were so few members in the group, it might have had some disadvantages when it comes to the efficiency of our work. On the other hand, quoted by Maxwell, “it relaly magnifies our strength, weaknesses, and our determination as well as commitment.”

- We can improve this by doing our work more effectively, more commitment and better responsibilities for our own specific roles.

6. Was the workload manageable in the time frame given?

- The workload was manageable in the time frame given.

- If we had been more hardworking, took more initiatives, and to focus more occasionally rather than slacking around, then yes.

7. How effective were your minutes and agendas? How did they help you? How could you improve them?

- The agenda shows us what we’ve been doing over the weeks to indicate how hard we’ve been working, as hard as before, or even harder. It is sort of like a journal that allows us to keep track with the activities we’ve done.

- We’ve created one minute throughout the whole project. The minute was posted up on Stephanie’s bog and it was helpful because we occasionally look back to that post and see on what we had to work on.

- So far, we have updated our agendas according to every single meeting so there is not much improvement for this.

The Perspectives

1. How did you gather information and opinions/viewpoints from a personal, national/local and global perspective?

- We gathered all the information through research.

2. How did/ could you ensure you consider all these perspectives in your project?

- create a checklist and check it often so we know what we have to accomplish before the deadline.

3. Would your outcome need to be accompanied by some additional explanation or elaboration?

- Preferably not. Because we would be stating almost everything into the documentary and advertisement. If we add more information, we might confuse the audience even further.

4. How could you make sure you include cross-cultural views?

- Ask opinions (surveys) around the school who are foreigners.

- Get in contact with schools in foreign countries.

[NOTE: Adam, Maxwell's & My Group Evaluation are the same because we discussed as a group.]

Gantt Chart.

1. What is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt Chart is a bar chart that illustrates the project's schedules.

2. Why should we use them?

• A Gantt Chart is an easier way to plan and monitor the process of the project. This allows us, the team, to know the duration of the project's task(s) which leads to knowing the order of the task(s) need to be carried out.
• It also tells us immediately what should have been achieved at any point of time.
• Shows remedial actions and bring the project back on track.

3. Your top tips of using Gantt Charts.

• Colour coordinations
• Labels
• Duration of the start of the project and the end.

[my team's Mock Gantt Chart when I was absent! :D]

17th October 2011 Reflection

Ms.Gita told my group to reflect on what is bothering us within our group.

We haven't been progressing much because we have been constantly been confused with what Ms.Gita was trying to say to us for the past few weeks, which lead us to be stuck at some point.

I think I would understand that my group always like to listen to orders but then we should understand that we need to be independent with our work & know what is right. But in the real, 'business' world, that does not work & we would get scolded by our bosses; maybe if we show what we can do, than they would appreciate what we are trying to imply.

Anyway, my group have planned a meeting on Skype to discuss what we are apparently lacking on. After 1 hour and a half of talking, this is the minutes that we did:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

17TH OCTOBER 2011 MINUTES:

> > > 1. what is our focus question
> > > 2. what are our individual roles
> > > 3. how to be more organise
> > > 4. outcomes

Succes Criteria:
- Finding the consequences, impacts of oil.
- Trying to justify why peak oil is still a thing to fear when we have so many other alternative fuels.
- Considering our daily habits that could affect the global, national, future and personal aspects.

Focus Question:
- Why are we looking for oil rather than alternatives oil?


ROLES:
Adam:
- Incharge of WIKI - organising, template, etc.
What happens if we run out of oil in the future, globally.

Maxwell:
Find the statistics and information about what does malaysia do with oil

Hong Yi:
What can we do to help conserve peak oil (if you're not done with this..) but if you are, then what is the impacts of peak oil globally.

Stephanie:
- Incharge of Agenda.
- Definition, and the use of oil BEFORE peak oil started so we can compare.



TO GET ORGANISED:
- Just write what you have done every lesson or every time we met up to catch up and talk because that is how they are gonna mark us
- Share information with each other.
Update wiki often..


OUTCOMES:
- TV Advertisement
- Article

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have also created a WIKI (credits to Adam! woots woots!)
& this is the link;
http://gppeakoilhams.wikispaces.com/

Who would be doing the outcomes would be discussed on a later note when we are quite stable with our own research. Once this is done, we would go more in detail about the TV Advertisement/Article.

Plans.

Learning Intentions / Success Criteria.

My team and I success criteria, learning intentions and the group success criteria according to Peak Oil

Teamwork Reflection.

In this Global Perspective topic, Peak Oil, we have worked efficiently and cooperatively.

We have equally separated the tasks on Global, National, Future perspectives between 4 individuals; 2 on Global, 1 on National and 1 on Future.

We have created a document to share all the information that we have gathered and try to make a mock a WIKI.

I think that I have worked well in the team because I have done my tasks by reading articles that are based on Global Perspectives. I have also created a document and shared with everyone about what we have collaborated. I have also created an agenda so everyone is able to do the homework and the success criteria that we need to do.

One of our team members, Hong Yi, English is not in the same extent as the rest of the group, so we, Maxwell, Adam and I, try to help him with his research and what he needs to write. So therefore, this is also a group communication since we are cooperating and collaborating.

My team could have communicated at home and exchange numbers so we are always in contact. But yet again, we have achieved our success criteria for the day, which is "to be able to understand and explore in detail on the Peak Oil and sharing information together to form a WIKI/fishbone.

As a learner, I have learnt from this learning opportunity that each individual has their own queer way of being encourage and to actually do the job. Even though I did not see myself in being in this group, I am still willing to do whatever it takes for the team to be successful as possible.

This has actually changed my life. Actually, it has found who I was before. As a child, I did not think like the rest of my classmates; I thought more towards the future. I have always over analyse my actions and how it would affect the future (fits perfectly well why I am a 'monitor' for a team worker). But as I continue to migrate and move to countless of schools, my

insecurities took over me. But after a long break and a lot of thought, I have regain my confidence. By doing this task, it help me remember that, even if you're not in the best or in the most stable group, we can all be able to make the upcoming project successful; and I will set my goal for this group work.

Reflect on Your Group Work.

In my group, I went to explore about the Global perspective of Peak Oil.

I have specifically examined what to explore and elaborate on. I have done my part of the group by writing down information and key description on the information that I have gathered.

I have checked out the video that the director of the Greenpeace organisation went straight to Alaska to stop a company from Alaska drilling.

My group is actually quite queer but I believe as long as we work together efficiently, then I am alright.

What team member are you?

Apparently, this is what team member I am. To be honest, I do feel like this kind of sound like me especially where people would think I am as 'thinkers' rather than I am as a leader.

I do not talk a lot during a group discussion because I tend to want others to give their advice so I could evaluate and think it all through about their decisions. Sometimes they would be better than I thought so I am glad to keep my mouth shut but sometimes they're worse which I tend to not be glad about.

I like to think about a lot of scenarios when someone suggest a method because if not, there would be a lot of problems and cases in the future which would lead to regretting to choose this.

I have leadership skills, but I tend to back off so others could take in and lead.

Teamwork.

What do you think you're good at?

• Researching and Finding Information
• Meeting deadlines
• Some Suitable Ideas
• Keep the team happy.
• Strict with others who are not doing with their work.
• Making sure I do my job to expectations.

What areas do you think could be an issue? How could you make sure you develop these areas?

• Communications
• Team not working well

Human Trafficking.

What Is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is another crucial way for slavery. Slavery. Slavery is defined as an act of a person being treated as a property and been forced to work. This act does not involve with the right of human kind, but by the act of force. This, is a crime against humanity. This act involves with transporting, recruiting, transferring, harboring or trading a person. Could this be an act of abduction?

Unconditionally, this act would always be found in every country or origin found on the planet. Thousands of men and woman are forced to fall on the hands of traffickers.

Humans and Other Species.

Human is quite a vague subject. How do we differentiate us, humans between animals. How is it possible that both creatures have different labels? Humans and Animals? Does being able to be honoured with the title human have to refer to our knowledge in verbal language? Or the fact we walk in 2 feets? Or that we're able to wear glasses but animals don't?

From the Apple dictionary, humans are defined as 'of, relating to, or characteristic of people or human beings.' - this personally does not quite make any drastic evidence on how to define humans.

Technically, humans are similar, matter of fact, are animals. Humans and animals have unbelievably similar common factors. Mammals have similar features that gives an impression that we both came from the same ancestor. According to blurtIt, 'Human beings are the ultimate creators of Mather Nature and Father Evolution.' Humans have always been the king of the Kingdom of Animals. Due to this, it has been believed that humans have forgotten that they're animals.

Reflection - A Scaffold

For the past few weeks, both of the separated classes from year 10 combined together and yet again, separated in our two paths that we were assigned to; Pro and Anti Death Penalty. Death penalty is about taking someone's life in a sad and heinous way anyone could go through. Even how one sided we were, the teachers would know perfectly well which team we were suppose to be in - the opposite of how we felt. This made our research and feelings even harder because of our personal feelings.

But the more I learn about death penalty and the cooperation with everyone, I've learned a lot more than what I thought I shouldn't or wouldn't have learned. I wouldn't have learned how important every single part of everyone's work in a group was tragically important, how emotional our leaders could become, how death penalty could actually affect someone's life massively in different views, how literally acting in a court could actually affect people's point of view, how attitude, general knowledge, speaking, listening, all together were so important in a matter of seconds.

These were actually all quite new for me, because personally? Everyone has always told me to be the leader of the group, so I was not able to know how it felt like to be, "a worker." I have and will always be a perfectionist. A perfectionist would always want everything to be at the most, perfect. So, I don't really like to be working in a group for a great big project, since I have this mentality if I eventually do, I would be a slack and I would tend to turn quite emotional if someone doesn't go the way it should be. I have tried to stop being that way but, somehow, I tend to get more scolded and more confused.

I am never able to act or talk loudly or properly. This is due to no confidence in myself. Due to the court case previously, I have given an attention that the court case is a symbol of life. How it could be unfair, how it could show that people don't care about other people's views or opinion, just there own and how fakers could rule everything. Sometimes I think I should be original, but honestly, who in the god damn world is original? Everyone's fake.

The skills that I used or developed in my learning was that I communicated with other members in my group to discuss about what topics we were suppose to talk about and understand even more, to try to be calm and not rush things at once since I'm done with being so nervous about absolutely everything and making myself feel like a failure.

Cyber Bullying

As the world today grows, as everything grows and most importantly, as everyone grows, strong and viscous feelings start to occur and you just can't seem to control your feelings inside and the most easiest way to tell someone how much hatred and distrust you feel towards that person would be through technologies; cyber.

We live in the generation where youngsters, teenagers, adults, even elderly use in their daily lives. Technologies have played a great roll in our lives and its saddening to see how the world today change so rapidly; but life must go on.

People these days, especially teenagers, have been bullied through the internet. This is what we call, Cyber Bullying. & this MUST be stop even if you're found guilty or you're the most innocent pers

on in the whole entire universe, this, MUST be stopped, in all means.

Pictures speak for themselves; we should stop cyber bullying, once and for all.

Major Issues for Discussion:

Defamation:

- Slander is much worse when compared to a libel one, because a spoken insult will give the other person no chance to think about the response or to have the response in private, thus leading to more insults. A written insult doesn't hurt as much but if this written message has been leaked into the internet purposely, then the feeling of the victim would feel even more hurt and embarrassed to even go anywhere.

Whether the identity of the target is clear:

- The identity of the target shouldn’t be stated, at all. If it is and the insult/complaint is posted for the viewing public, that person will feel twice as insulted as the other people knows who the insult is for.

Whether a statement is seen or heard by a third party or parties:

- Regardless of an insult is seen or heard by a third party/parties, an insult is an insult, and it effects the person, but if the insult is posted publicly on the internet, then it’s worse because it will harm the persons reputation, and effect him/her in a negative way.

Anonymity

– does it make the perpetrator more or less responsible?: regardless of the insult being anonymous or not, it still should be taken seriously, just because the perpetrator is anonymous, it does not make him less or more responsible, as he/she still gets to see the effects of his insult on the person.

Harassment

– what does it involve?: Harassment is basically disturbing an individual, many people don’t realize this but, cyber bullying has the same effects as physical bullying, it disturbs the persons mind, thus making the insulted or targets to feel depressed, feel like they don’t belong or something along those lines, these kind of mind-sets relate to teen suicide.

Duty to provide a safe or study environment

– what roles do schools and teachers play?: A student that is cyber bullying should at least be given detention or be sent to a guidance councilor for a period of time, a teacher can help investigate who the perpetrator is or help comfort the student that is getting bullied.

Right to freedom of expression

– what limits should be placed on it?: The rights to freedom of expression is normally abused by the general public, this makes them think they’re entitled to say or write anything they wish, but in fact, there are limits that are or should be placed on it, and that is, the person expressing their thoughts or emotions should not express them in a demining or hurtful way.

Right to security of person

– should people be protected from written or verbal attacks?: It shouldn’t be against the law to insult a person, either by writing or verbally saying it, it should just be against school policy and frowned upon by the law.

Defenses and confounding factors

– what makes a possibly libelous statement okay?: To make a possibly libelous statement okay is that the statement should both be true and not too hurtful, only then is a libelous statement understandable.

Truth

– when the statement is accurate: If the statement is accurate, it shouldn’t be put in a format where it is meant to hurt or demine the other person, the impolite truth shouldn’t be spread too widely either, as this may affect the person indirectly.

Fair comment

- a legitimate journalistic intent: In cyber bullying, a third party should be the only person stating a fair comment is a third party, and not the impetrator nor the insulted, as they may have different views on the story, the “fair comment” should be made by a neutral person.

“The reasonable person”

- how offensive does something have to be before it becomes libelous?: For something to become libelous, it has to be extremely offensive and at most times, untrue, like an insult to the persons parents or false insults, that are just made up to hurt the person in a very serious way.

Amnesty International Malaysia

A week or so ago, my school, Nexus International School, was fortunate enough to get two representative from Amnesty International Malaysia to talk about 'abolishing death penalty.' Now, I know everyone would be thinking that death penalty is such a horrible thing but, sometimes, it could be the right thing to do. Just, sometimes. This does not mean all solutions should be done by death penalty, ofcourse not, but if there were great amount of evidence and everything to show that this person has to go through death penalty, then well, it's up to the law.

In some countries, death penalty plays a huge roll. For example, Malaysia has a huge roll in death penalty, nearly about everything got to do with it. - Including drugs, which is kind of too much, but, yes, it is in the law.

So, those people were talking about how death penalty was not a great idea and the world has chosen to stop the idea of death penalty;

As from the numbers that has been stated, the world has clearly is still trying to abolished death penalty everywhere. But some countries, death penalty is the only thing that would create the country to be in peace.

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During my Global Perspective class after those wonderful ladies finished their speech and we went back to our classrooms, my teacher

asked the question, "so who are against and for death penalty?" & then, I was struck. I didn't know what to say, what to answer, what to do. There's no rights or wrongs, each has consequences, each has benefits, it was hard to choose. So I stayed neutral.

Now, I have decided to stay neutral because, you have to see the two different sides. Some people sometimes stick to their own side because of how they think it should be like, but actually, you need to think both ways.

For: Death Penalty.

Now, think about all the other countries that has used death penalties for years and for them, seems like the source for all solution. Malaysia, is one example that strongly uses death penalties. Some people believe that, if Malaysia abolish such thing, the economy, the crime rate and anything related to that would increase. Any type of consequences can happen.

Against: Death Penalty.

If there weren't any death penalty, probably the world could be a better place. But there's something that struck me the most; the rope.

Apparently, in Malaysia, the rope has to be costume made just for that prisoner itself that has to be executed. Now, this rope has to be imported from England, so the price is not even close to cheap; actually, its 5000 pounds - we could be saving other countries overseas rather than spending on one time, one use for the executioner.

Sometimes, those people that has been accused to have committed a crime are innocent. There was a case that a Malaysian boy around the age of 18 was been told to bring a bag of some unknown substance into the land of the Melion

; Singapore. Once he reached the island, the enforcement immediately took him into prison. Reason? He was carrying about 38 grams of class A drugs. He has been sentenced to death but yet, he is still trying to prove his innocence.

From what the people has just said, there was this term and condition quote that they have stated;

"Recognize that every child has the inheret the right to life"

"Right to life, liberty & security of person"

In my opinion, nothing is wrong or right, but, if the law could make some laws to be abolished without the need for death penalty, then, the world would be a better place.

Perceptions.

There are different types of perceptions. As you know, there are two different types that people usually get confused about. Sensory Perception and Interpretation. This two are actually quite the same but some people usually just get confused - to be honest, I am still quite confused about this whole thing but as usual, the Global Perspective classes help us to learn more and more about other things that we don't understand into something useful in our lives.

Here I would like to explain the difference between these two;

1. Sensory Perception:

The nerves in your body is constantly giving you information, but it is a lose it or use it proposition. If you don't exercise your nervous system, you would lose information - so this is why its good to exercise.

Remember

kids,

PLEASE EXERCISE TO CONTROL YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM!

IN OTHER WORDS; these are the 5 senses in our body. :D

1. Interpretation:

This means that your mind is actually making illusion for you. It's the action of explaining the meaning of something.

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There are different perspective from different people. This happens with everyone. As you know, not everyone has the same feelings or thoughts that you do so it's sometimes hard to communicate with others; since they don't understand.

Examples could be;

"A tree as seen by a biologist, a logger, an environmentalist, a

native from Sarawak."

If you would not mind me to explain from each different view;

Biologist

- This person has had a degree in Biology which technically means Science; so theoretically, most of his knowledge would link to Biology. Could be that a biologist would think the tree to be those living things that absorbs the carbon dioxide that

we emit out from our body.

Logger

- He/She would be a professional in logging to have this title. So, this person would look at trees as another piece of object that he/she could cut down with a special machine and get tons of money over it; it's all about the money, nothing else matters.

Environmentalist

- Well, an environmentalist would always think about the safety of the world and is all about 'world peace.' So they would see trees as the source of our living - without this, there would be no carbon dioxide to lock up with which creates more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere so they would try to take care of the trees and see it as something so wonderful - not a piece of junk.

Native from Sarawak

- The native from Sarawak would possibly be thinking that this thing would be the key to survival. That they depend on the trees for survival. They think of the tree as some

thing so sacred that it's impossible not to feel the pain if its get chopped down. Probably feel passionate about this.

As you can see, everyone's perception are all different. From what all our teachers tells us, there are no right or wrong answers, since its your own perception.

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As you know, we are all very discipline, have great knowledge and understanding. This is all from the world that we have to go through that teach us new and frustrating things, everyday; school. Yes, school has changed our aspect of looking at the world today. It changes everything.

An example could be;

"An Artist"

What we could think about an Artist is that he took a lot of art courses during the time period that he was in school. But, the word 'artist' could also show that he is very talented and he sees something that not everyone usually sees, thats how artist usually are good in their work - because they love it, and they have imaginative minds.

But sometimes, people would think an artist could be someone that is not well educated, that the 'arts' are only for the ones that can't find any place in the 'real' business world. Sometimes, school has gotten into our lives too much that the perception of things changes quickly without knowing it.

So remember, no one is wrong. :)