Friday, September 7, 2007

Young Righters' Camp

huh? shouldn't it be "young WRITERS' camp?"

well, misspellings don't matter anyway as no-one seems to be reading anymore... no comments for the posts, and not a squeak in the chatterbox...

haha, but actually it isn't a misspelling. let me explain.

one of the unique things about this years' young writers' camp are the group projects. the campers were divided into groups and encouraged to come up with a project that they would work on for at least 3 months, post-camp. one of the important steps in the group process was to come up with a problem statement, a sentence that sums up what the group project aims to effect change upon. here are the problem statements of the 5 groups at camp:
- the fact that freedom of religion and speech is ignored will ultimately destroy racial harmony.
- existing affirmative action policies and strict apostasy laws prohibit religious freedom and racial equality.
- racial and religious discrimination exists because malays are born muslims and given preference over non-malays.
- the education system doesn't teach students to think independently.
- taboo issues faced by teens are not properly addressed by the government and the education system.

at this time when there is so much hoo-hah going around about malaysia being/not being an islamic state, the ridiculous suggestion to do away with our common law and replace it with syariah and etc... this is a breath of fresh air. there is a bunch of young people in malaysia who realise that it isn't what it should be, and instead of running away (oops, i mean emigrating) they are committing themselves to make a difference for the better. more than writers, they are righters - they will work to make things right.

perhaps there is hope in a dark place, after all. though it remains to be seen if the projects will actually work out well. then again, with God, there's always hope. =)

9 comments:

David BC Tan said...

i'm keeping my fingers crossed too :)

Hasten said...

How old are the campers?

tan-ce said...

it's good that more and more people are aware of these issues... and writing about them too...

and just because I don't comment doesn't mean I don't read all your posts the day they come out...

siehjin said...

thanks for the comments guys =)

ya uncle david, kita mesti terus berusaha untuk menggalakkan ahli-ahli kumpulan kita... (uncle david and my group' project is to learn BM and islam! woohoo! =P)

joshua: they ranged all the way from 12-20. the older ones did tend to dominate, but facilitators were there to make sure the younger/quieter ones had a voice and weren't forced into anything.

chee eng: thanks for reading bro =) as i asked in the chatterbox, is there any way i can know that ppl read my blog without looking at the comments and tags? because it feels really pointless to blog if i think no one's reading... so i'd like to know. =)

Hasten said...

Use a sitemeter? I still can't figure out how to put one in mine.

akmj said...

hey peeps!
i had a sitemeter before, till the genius in me changed the entire outlook of my blog. I'll figure it out again. be back here :)

siehjin said...

hmm, i've tried to install a sitemeter... let's see if it works =)

Anonymous said...

Wow! They came up with those by themselves, unprompted? o.O I am VERY impressed!! There's hope for our country yet...

siehjin said...

hmm, i'm not sure about 'unprompted', cos i came into the camp halfway from ON institute.

i suppose the facilitators must have played some kind of role to nudge them in a social activist sort of direction...