REFLECTION 4

REFLECTION (4)

Written by: Varun Khemaney (Pol Sci, Year 3) 

SUP-C Flag

Firstly, I would like to discuss regarding the making of the team flag. While many of us took the matter lightly with a lot of laughs, it was noticeable that everyone contributed some ideas to the flag, which actually represented our goals and objectives of the whole OCIP experience. It was nice to see everyone contribute to the flag, as some people contributed ideas to the smiles on the flags to represent the SMILE village that we are going to serve, as well as the inverted smiley that represents the smile that we aim to put on the villagers faces when we go there. We also tried to incorporate the words on the goals and objectives into our flag. These actually make our flag very representative of our goals and objectives of heading over to Cambodia, and it served as a good way for us to bond in a very light-hearted, non-deliberate way.

The Haiti video, and the “White Man’s Burden”

Next, I would like to discuss the Haiti video. As I watched the video, it invoked a lot of emotions in me. I watched the 4 people put themselves bravely out of their comfort zone to stay in Haiti for 28 days, to experience the lives of the villagers for themselves. I felt that it would be tough for me to do something like that, given the life that I am used to. Hence, I was full of admiration for the 4 people who did that. I also felt that the video showed us that it is important to find out the needs of the people first, before we head on trying to head a project to assist them. It was also good that the 4 men tried to appreciate the way of life of the Haitians. However, I do not necessarily support their views when they implied that the Haitians way of life is in any way “less superior” to their own (the Americans), just because they live on very few dollars a day, in the conditions that we saw in the show. It shows a “White Man’s Burden” mentality, which is not very healthy for people going down to help, although no one doubts their altruism in wanting to help the Haitians. I think that, while such a mentality is hard to shake off, there is a need to be aware of such a mindset. The Haitians are happy with their way of life in general, and it was wrong to state that they are happy “even though” they are poor.

Service Learning

It was also important that Chee Leong reflected upon the word “Service Learning”. As we saw in the video, while the 4 men showed that they were merely “learning” during the 28 days that they were in Haiti, they followed it up with “service” after the trip, and that should be the way that things work. In my opinion, both factors are equally important, and one should not be given more weight than the other. Applying this to our OCIP trip, I understand that YEP projects are important learning projects, as they work on helping us understand the needs of the people better in overseas countries by actually letting us go there. I feel that such projects are incorporated to inspire us to learn, and possibly go on to do future projects, as our scope in doing much sustainable service is limited in the mere 14 days that we are there. (Hence they focus more on learning rather than service). Hence, I feel that while our discussion on “Service Learning” was important, we should also keep in mind our limitations as a YEP-initiated-project.

The need to be aware of such videos

Lastly, I would like to discuss the difficulty in ascertaining the full truth behind such videos, as Chee Leong pointed out. While such videos are obviously the truth, we must also be aware that it only represents parts of the truth, as with all documentaries. However, while it is important to be discerning about such videos, I also felt that, by thinking too much about such videos, we might end up being too cynical of them, or even numb about the happenings overseas, which is equally unhealthy as compared to believing everything they say at face value – Just some thoughts as I considered this point.