Cover
W E N E B RAV
A-Voice March 2012
A-VOICE MARCH 2012 1
Hello!
DON’T PANIC! :) PEOPLE Editor-in-Chief Loo Han Rong Managing Editor Anisha Passcuran Features Editor Lim Yu Li Supplementary Features Editor Leannza Chia Writers Alezender Tan Caitlin Chen Callie Peh Davinia Gunasagran Dushanth Mahendran Jenny Cheng Joyce Lim Kailash Kalaiarasu Kelly Xiao Ran Khoo Ghee Ken Lim Chin Yang Mohamed Amran bin Rahmat Nicholas Lim Nicola Choon Rachel Chin Ry-Ann Lim Samantha Cheh Samantha Quek Syahrain Johan Tan Gui Ming Yap Ee-Janne Marketing & PR Pamela Choi Sue-Anne Han Graphics & Design Samantha Quek Hazel Lo Nicola Choon Tan Xin Wen Yip Mun Yee Quah Zhong Yao Special Thanks Mr. Jahn Cheah Ms. Julie Leong Mr. Ngo HELP MIT Cover Quah Zhong Yao Supreme Leader Ms. Cristabel Tan
2
Han Rong is incoherent from sleep deprivation, and I am currently nursing a painful case of laptop-neck. This is our final edition of the A-Voice, and we are sad. In fact, I know he is secretly weeping in his usual corner, while I attempt to hold up this sinking ship of heartbreak. This might be our last edition, but it marks a new beginning for the next generation of A-Voicers—and I am happy to leave behind something that I have become so proud of, something which has been so very important to me in the last few months. So my final Editor’s Note is a thank-you to Ms Cristabel, Han Rong my “broda”, Ms Caroline, Sam, Yu Li, Pamela and Leannza—for all the meetings, inside lack-of-diplomacy-and-tact-and-pupil-dilation jokes, and crazy attempts at meeting deadlines (with moderate success). Congratulations to the new Editorial team—I have full faith that you will carry on our legacy of fabulousness. With that, I’m proud to say goodbye on a high note, and that I’ll miss being a part of such a great team. Cheers!
Anisha So this is goodbye.
I’m sad for two reasons: one, because I no longer have an excuse to research kerning and em-dashes without getting weird looks, and two, because I never really achieved my goal, which I set out in the first issue (July 2011). Of the three issues that we’ve published, not one has a picture of Megan Fox. Not even a black-and-white one, where she’s fully clothed. I have failed. I tried every excuse in the book: it would attract sponsors; it would increase readership and retention (if you know what I mean); it would function as a great marketing tool to promote HELP’s A-Levels programme in allboys schools, but Ms. Cristabel and Anisha wouldn’t relent. Publishing a magazine is a little impersonal: you want to know whether people got the little hidden almost-jokes, whether they rethought piracy, whether an article on voting galvanised anyone into action. But you never find out. You just imagine someone somewhere, totally absorbed in the magazine. And that’s all the motivation I need. I wonder why I felt so happy when someone told me I was becoming “more human”… Anyway, I am really uncomfortable with all this sentimental, reflective stuff, but since this is my last chance to say anything: I’m sad for a third reason, actually. I am genuinely going to miss working with everyone on the team, and our conversations about pathos and cute baby animals. I’m supposed to end by saying that that I really hope you enjoy reading this magazine, but frankly, it’s enough for me that you read it at all. At least I won’t have to console myself with an imaginary reader. I’m kidding. Happy reading!
A-Voice March 2012
Ahoy!
Photo © thepiratebay.com
Pirate History Nicholas Lim gives us the the inside scoop on what’s been going on down in Davy Jones’ Locker.
Y
But as ye wiped away some drool in the middle of a Twilight marathon, did ye pause to consider how ye got them movies in the first place? Mebbe ye bought original discs from a Speedy store (remember those?), but chances are ye downloaded DVD rips from the Internet. And have ye ever spared a thought for the Internet pirates who got those videos and songs uploaded for yer enjoyment? Gather round, all ye landlubbers, for I’m about to tell you the tales of our swashbuckling enterprise.
Photo © tucoo.com & leehanson.com
The Pioneer Our tale begins with a young man by the name of Shawn Fanning. In 1999, at the age of 18, he created Napster, the founding father of all filesharing services. Utilising a technology called Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networking, users would link to the Napster network, and through it one could acquire music from almost any other computer in that network. It revolutionised the way people obtained and consumed music. Now, they had ultimate control over what songs populated their playlists: they could download individual songs—without paying a cent— instead of having to shell out for an entire album. So in the beginning there was free music, and for a time it was good. But then the record companies began to see sales of their overpriced, filler-filled albums decline, and that was something they would not tolerate. So under the umbrella of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), they brought down the heavy mallet of the law on Napster, filing lawsuits for copyright infringement and eventually forcing it to shut down in 2001. A-Voice March 2012
Photo © clker.com
arr, these be rough seas we’re sailing. The coming storm of A-level exams will stretch and tear at every fibre in our mortal beings, and there be many a dark cloud yonder as we set sail to every corner of the seven seas to seek our fortunes. But when we’re not scrubbin’ the decks or mannin’ the sails (or studyin’ for exams), we seek temporary respite from our worldly worries by immersing ourselves in the tear-jerking melodies of Adele or the search for the elusive mother of Ted’s children.
The Hunt But like the hydra of ancient Greek mythology, when one head was cut off, two more grew to take its place. The takedown of Napster did nothing to stem the tide of descendants that spawned in its wake, among them services such as Morpheus, Grokster and Kazaa. These new players came up with innovative ways of circumventing the RIAA’s reach, like locating their servers overseas to escape the reach of US laws and using decentralized P2P networks that would not be crippled by the shutdown of a handful of servers. In some cases where the owners of these services were prosecuted, it was found that they could not be held liable for what users shared on their networks. What to do, what to do? With sales of physical records plummeting further, the RIAA set its sights on the hapless user. Unfortunately, some of the victims of the RIAA’s wrath were...poor choices for prosecution. Among the “evil pirates who rob the innocent music industry executives of their money” included: grandparents who weren’t aware of what their grandkids were up to with their computers when they came for a visit, a 12-year-old girl whose downloads of a nursery rhyme and several TV show theme songs clearly represented a threat to the music industry, families that didn’t even own computers, and dead people. Indeed, zombie pirates are the most dangerous of all, arrr. (Continued on page 4) 3
Ahoy!
A New Age In the meantime, us pirates didn’t just sit idly about waiting for the RIAA to come kicking our doors down. A new form of P2P filesharing called “torrenting” was born, which would minimize the risk involved and foster a more caring society of pirates. What is torrenting? Imagine the music or movie file you want to acquire is a complete LEGO set. Instead of getting the entire boxed set from another user as was the case with Napster, you now collect the bricks one at a time from thousands of other people who have the exact same set as the one you’re assembling. Since you’re now downloading bits and pieces from thousands of other people, your downloads are much faster. When your download is complete, it is considered good karma to leave your torrent client, such as BitTorrent or μTorrent, on for a few more hours so that other users can download bits from your completed file. This is called “seeding” and it encourages greater sharing amongst everyone. People who only download but do not seed are called “leeches” and are considered to be no-good scallywags. Seeders are rewarded with greater download speed while leeches have their download speeds throttled. Sharing is indeed caring, folks.
nevertheless charged with assisting in copyright infringement and were slapped with jail sentences and massive fines. More recently, following the hoopla that surrounded SOPA (see our article on this!), came the shutdown of Megaupload and the arrest of its founder, Kim Dotcom. Although Megaupload was based in Hong Kong and Kim was living in New Zealand, the media companies based in the US were undeterred: they wanted to see every pirate hanged. Some Math According to the media companies, the negative impact of online piracy is heart-achingly grave. Rob Reid*, founder of Rhapsody, summarised it perfectly. “The music industry is seeking damages of up to $150,000 per stolen song (meaning a 160GB iPod Classic could potentially be filled with up to $8 billion in pirated material). According to the Motion Picture Association of America, content theft forces 373,000 Americans to walk the plank to unemployment, and costs more than $58 billion in actual economic losses annually. Of that amount, $8 billion can be attributed to a drop in music revenue (remember, that’s one iPod’s worth). Yet movie and TV revenue (from cinemas, pay-per-view, satellite and cable TV) are way up. Since traditional markets have grown in line with historic norms, there’s only one way to explain the tiny remaining chunk: foregone revenue from a new market that has no historic norms: ringtone piracy. $50 billion a year of it.”
$58 bil.
Annual economic losses from piracy.
So torrenting and direct downloads existed side by side. Music, movies, TV shows, audio books and all sorts of media floated about freely in cyberspace, and for a time it was good.
$150,000
Damages per stolen song.
The Grip Tightens Apple saw that piracy would be pesky and revenue-sapping, but ultimately unstoppable. So it reinvented the way music was sold. Apple started iTunes with the belief that if they made legal music reasonably priced and ridiculously easy to download, consumers would be willing to buy. And buy they did, by the droves—to date, iTunes has sold more than 15 billion tracks.
$0
But let’s leave these numbers aside for a minute. Media companies are upset about the loss of potential revenue. And that’s fair enough. But they’re making a very unfair assumption: that every person who downloads a movie or song illegally would otherwise pay for it. The entire decision-making process is turned on its head when you have to pay for something. If everything in the supermarket were free, you’d grab all the ice-cream and chewing gum—impulse purchases you’d normally think twice about before adding them to your shopping cart. So out of a billion downloads, only a fraction would have translated into actual revenue.
Cost to download Pirates of The Carribbean.
Yet instead of reinventing themselves by investing in highgrowth areas like live concerts (experiences can’t be pirated), other media companies continued to hunt down those who seek to freely share the stuff that they already own. In 2008, four key personnel of The Pirate Bay, considered the face of torrent filesharing, were prosecuted in Swedish courts. Even though they were never found guilty of directly breaking copyright laws (because sites such as The Pirate Bay don’t actually store the files that are shared), they were
That’s not taking into account the free publicity artistes get when their songs are downloaded. Losing the sale of a physical CD could mean gaining a loyal fan who will purchase merchandise and attend concerts. But publicity holds no monetary value to record companies. So brace yourself. More anti-internet piracy legislation is coming.
The views expressed herein are those of a 19th century pirate and do not reflect those of the A-Voice. 4
*Check out http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_reid_the_8_billion_ipod.html
A-Voice March 2012
Ahoy!
SOPA/PIPA/ACTA
Swordfight!
Tan Gui Ming believes in the democracy of the internet and the freedom to share stuff. Here’s what he has to say about how these bills restrict civil rights.
Y
ou have seen the comments, heard the complaints, and experienced the blackout. The prospect of “NO MORE FREE STUFF!” jolted you and the rest of the world into uniting to prevent the passage of the feared SOPA and PIPA bills. Quite a number of you, however, have pretty much no idea of what is going on, but oppose these bills anyway because everyone else seems to. For the unitiated, SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA stands for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or PROTECT IP Act. These two bills, as you can tell from their full titles, were authored to resolve the issues of piracy and copyright infringement.
Photo © intlawgrrls.com
But if they were meant to protect the rights of artists, authors and inventors from the theft of their intellectual property, why would companies such as Mozilla, Facebook, Google and Wikipedia oppose these bills? Do they not support the rights of creators? The truth is, as noble as these bills seem to be (besides preventing you from downloading all your free movies and songs), they could lead the ruin of the Internet as we know it. If the bills were passed, the presence of any copyrighted content on a single webpage, whether a mere image or a comment from a visitor, could result in that whole Internet domain being immediately blocked. The perpetrators could then be severely punished with hefty fines and jail terms if proven guilty. This is in stark contrast with the safe harbour status the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 (DCMA) currently provides to websites: website administrators are given notice and a time period to remove copyrighted materials. The main problem, however, actually lies with the power the government has to censor any website in the (Continued on page 6) A-Voice March 2012
Kailash Kalaiarasu believes that people should be compensated for their unique ideas and originality. He presents the unpopular truth about ACTA.
I
ntellectual property is the currency of the future. The value of ideas and creativity is not determined by age, social status or academic qualifications but by their brilliance and ingenuity. Since our ideas and creative output are unique to us and cannot be replicated, our minds are the single most exclusive thing that we possess. However, in the current situation, intellectual property rights are completely disregarded. “Pirates”, as they are known, unashamedly copy and distribute books, music, games, movies—everything under the sun—via the Internet. To justify their actions, they shield themselves behind the principle of “sharing”. But how is it possible to share something that does not belong to you in the first place? File-sharing and torrenting resemble thievery and robbery more than anything else. Put simply, pirates steal other people’s property and give it away. The filesharing sites that host illegal content uploaded by pirates don’t profit by selling the content itself—files can be downloaded free of charge, at a slower speed. They earn money by selling premium accounts that enable people to download the same files more quickly and conveniently. Pirates that direct traffic to such sites then get a cut of the premium account fees—effectively earning money for copying painstakingly produced content, while simultaneously depriving content creators of the fruits of their labour. This is why I strongly support ACTA. Call me a radical, call me a non-conformist (or even a conformist), but I believe in the value of ideas and the importance of innovation. I appreciate artistic and creative talent. I recognise the time and effort that goes into writing a song or a book. Because even writing this article had me at my wits’ end. But I digress. Allow me to explain to you why ACTA will do more good than harm. (Continued on page 7) 5
Ahoy!
name of “protecting intellectual property”. To block a site, media companies can simply accuse the site of copyright infringement, and with their influence and political backing, they are usually “right”. The methods these bills propose to solve the issues of piracy and copyright infringement include enforcing stricter laws, such as the criminalization of illegal distribution of copyrighted material. That means a lot more arrests, lawsuits, and court cases, because SOPA and PIPA are heavily backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, an organization notorious for lobbying and rather ridiculous lawsuits—a total of 30,000 within the past decade, mostly for the alleged distribution of copyrighted material via P2P sharing. A particularly famous case is that of Joel Tenenbaum, who was fined $675,000 (later reduced to $67,500) for downloading only 30 songs. Should you worry? Truth be told, there really isn’t much for us to worry about in the short term, as SOPA and PIPA are applicable only in America. This is unless, of course, you are a very frequent illegal downloader, in which case the closure of US-based websites—a major source of your “entertainment” (*wink wink*)—may cause you severe depression. In any case, rest assured that the overwhelming opposition—a petition with 7 million signatures and the blackout of over 115,000 sites— has resulted in the postponement of the passage of the bills. It is very unlikely that the bills will be proposed again unless they are extensively modified, possibly by limiting the powers of the government in takedowns.
However, a treaty known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may soon come to town. Said to be similar to (though not quite as insidious as) SOPA and PIPA, the opposition to this treaty is mainly because of its secrecy. Despite leakages, many details of the treaty are still undisclosed. What’s even more worrying is the fact that its contents are drafted by people not publicly elected to office. Rumour has it that our very own Malaysia is also in the process of signing an undefined treaty with America to curb piracy. The implications of this agreement are said to include the criminalization of the possession of pirated material. The proposed punishment is similar to that for the distribution of pirated material: a jail term of up to 5 years and a fine of up to RM500,000. This treaty could literally change the lives of millions of Malaysians—particularly those who have a large collection of pirated CDs from pasar malams. Reinventing the wheel In closing: are these bills necessary? Does current legislation work? If you have a keen eye, you may have seen notices below Google’s search results which explain the removal of links to webpages that have infringed copyrights, under the DCMA. In fact, the closure of giant file-hosting service provider Megaupload (as well as its constituent websites) and the arrest of its founder, Kim Dotcom were based on current laws (The legislation of SOPA and PIPA had been postponed as stated above). It was this large-scale case that led to many major file hosting sites (most notably Filesonic) disabling sharing functionality as their owners realised that they could be arrested the in the same way, further implying the redundancy of new bills.
Photo © gizmodo.com
6
A-Voice March 2012
Ahoy!
Before going any further, let’s examine why governments have resorted to what seems like a rather extreme measure. Take the publishing industry for instance. A typical author takes 1–2 years to complete a book. It takes another year for the publishers to finalise the intricacies (cover design, layout, typeset, ISBN prefix, etc.). By the time the book hits the bookshelves, about $30,000–$50,000 would have gone into its publication. Writers pour their heart and soul into the book, then take the plunge and invest a fortune to get it published. When they finally release it to the world, it’s with a price tag—one that reflects the blood, sweat and tears that went into writing it; one that would hopefully help recoup the initial outlay. Sadly, within status quo, this does not happen. People have stopped buying books from stores. Books (as well as video games, songs and movies) become available for download on the Internet within minutes of their release. As a result, media industries around the world suffer massive drops in sales simply because people can now indulge themselves in illegal file-sharing and downloading. This sometimes translates into entire companies shutting down and people losing their jobs. Sounds ridiculous? Let’s see. In February last year, Borders announced that it would be closing down at least 200 bookstores (30% of the total) in its efforts to restructure itself. A few months later, Borders filed for bankruptcy and shut down its remaining 400 bookstores and in doing so, caused thousands of employees to lose their jobs. Although bad shopkeeping was one of the factors that led to their downfall, Borders also argued that the explosion of ebooks, especially pirated material, caused a substantial drop in its sales. Like Borders, many other retail chains (Tower Records, HMV Music, Hollywood Video, Virgin Megastore, Blockbuster, to name a few) have been forced to shrink their businesses significantly or to simply leave the market altogether. However, it is interesting to note that while the giants are toppling, business is thriving in smaller independent stores. In the past two years alone, close to a hundred new independent bookstores have mushroomed around the U.S.A. and their sales figures have never been better. This is because they’ve found their niche: they offer things that cannot be downloaded from the Internet. Many indie stores sell hidden gems that are usually overlooked by the bigger retailers and are nearly impossible to find online, so they enjoy a following of loyal customers. Most indie store owners care about being part of a community that shares and appreciates talent more than their bottom line. With ACTA in place, those concerned by the potential piracy that could befall their creative output would have the protection of an international legal framework. ACTA allows the relevant authorities to prosecute pirates regardless of location. This makes a huge difference, because most pirates currently operate via offshore servers to escape prosecution.
A-Voice March 2012
ACTA allows small companies with big ideas to go against the tide of large corporations with the assurance that their ideas will not be stolen and distributed illegally before they make it big on the world stage. The Real Fake Stuff Although most people only think about their free movies being taken away when they hear “ACTA”, the main objective of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was actually to combat, well, counterfeit goods: fake Viagra and Cialis and Rolex watches. Getting conned into paying $300 for a made-in-China Prada bag is not a pleasant experience, but it won’t kill you (and it serves you right for being so cheap). The real problem is fake medication. Millions of people around the world have been tricked into buying counterfeit drugs that could contain toxic ingredients. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that the annual earnings of the counterfeit drug industry is somewhere between $30 to $40 billion a year. Worse still, sales of these fake drugs are known to be most rampant in lesser-developed countries where enforcement is lax and there is limited access to proper healthcare. Illegal traders exploit innocent people desperate for basic medication easily available in developed countries. And the buck does not stop there: the counterfeiting industry is so large and diverse that it now includes baby food and automotive parts. Ultimately, legislation like ACTA aims to protect the well-being of consumers by prohibiting the sales of potentially dangerous counterfeit goods. It is important to note that the most vocal opponents of ACTA are the same corporations that stand to lose the most if it were to be implemented. A good example would be the Internet giant Google. Google brands itself as a champion of Internet freedom and democracy and is staunchly against any form of Internet legislation that “threatens to break the Internet and destroy our culture of sharing”. But here’s something you probably didn’t know: Google reaps huge profits from redirecting users to shady foreign websites. So, its opposition to ACTA is obviously self-serving. In fact, Google recently paid half a billion dollars to settle a criminal investigation into its promotion of foreign pharmacies that sold counterfeit and illegal drugs to American patients. Ultimately, I believe that ACTA will bring positive change to the Internet. To those who argue that it is too extreme a measure and that its passing will spark worldwide protest, I say, so be it. All of the arguments that I have heard against ACTA boil down to one thing: the unwillingness to give up something that we have been enjoying for free for too long. We’re willing to pay thousands for a flashy new phone, but reluctant to fork out a fraction of that amount for a book, an album or a movie ticket. Maybe it’s time for us to reconsider how we compensate others for the value they create, and realise that it isn’t fair to take stuff for free.
7
Endometriosis
Photo © webclipart.about.com
YELLOW for ENDO Remember receiving a Facebook invitation to “attend” an event called “Yellow for Endo” on the 1st of March? Ry-Ann Lim had the privilege of interviewing the voice of the Yellow for Endo cause, Fareen Khan, who shares with us her experiences of living with endometriosis. (This ribbon would be printed in yellow if we had the $$$.)
How did you come to learn that you had endometriosis? Since the age of 13, I have been having constant issues with my hormones and ovaries, so I’m a fairly regular guest at my gynaecologist’s clinic. I was initially diagnosed with hirsutism and then polycystic ovarian syndrome. Sometime in 2009, my menstrual cycle messed up badly and multiple cysts started showing up on my scans. I started having period pains (dysmenorrhea) that were more severe than usual and even fainted a couple of times. I sought immediate help from my gynaecologist and was diagnosed with endometriosis after they ran tests. Medical jargon aside, what is it like to live with endometriosis? It’s mostly pain. I developed Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and went through hell, especially during my periods. I would scratch the walls of my bathroom to release the pain and try not to scream my lungs out. I didn’t enjoy my meals because what I ate affected the IBS. The medication I was taking made it no better. If I wasn’t vomiting, I was fatigued. I was constantly snapping at everyone. I would sink into depression and cry my heart out for absolutely no reason, for 3 hours straight! Are there any treatments? The two common methods of treating and managing endometriosis are hormone therapy or surgery. I opted for neither. After discussing with my family and some experts in natural remedies, I chose a more holistic approach. For the past one month or so, I’ve followed a gluten-free diet, introduced different supplements into it, increased my consumption of water and minimised my daily intake of sugar. I must admit I used to be sceptical about natural treatments, but I have already seen results, especially with my IBS. Though it is a slow process, I’m now able to go out more these days, and my moods have slowly normalized. With my natural diet, I find myself a lot less bloated, less annoyed, and a lot happier.
Endometriosis runs a risk of infertility. How do you feel about that? I still remember the day the doctor told me “You might not be able to have children.” I broke down crying right there in the doctor’s office. All girls dream of a handsome husband, a big fat white wedding, and bringing one’s own flesh and blood into this world. To tell any woman that she might never be a mother is like snatching away part of her dignity. It makes you feel so unlucky to be even walking on the face of this Earth. I was once that stupid girl who cried. I moped for a week or two; I guess common sense kicked in once the tears stopped flooding my eyes (and brains?). I realised that biology is the least of what makes a mother; if a woman can nurse a child, provide him with everything he requires, and shower him with love, then nobody has the right to say she cannot be a mother. Because that is what a mother does. There are millions of orphaned children in this world who need love and care, and I can offer them just that. Being a mother to children who need a mother is probably the noblest thing a woman can do. How do you live through the agony? Until early this year, all endometriosis meant to me was pain. It was a little monster that just drained the life out of my soul. I used to be a very active person in youth and charity clubs, but as endometriosis took over, it all stopped. I found myself confined to the comfort of my home or close friends. Going out just scared me. Then my cousin-in-law, who battled endometriosis in her youth, and a lecturer of mine inspired me to make a change not just in my life, but in the lives of others. It was this “AHA!” moment, when these two amazing women made me realise that I had the power to control my life, and touch the lives of others, that I decided I would. I had to. And from each word I speak, each person I educate, I draw strength. That’s how I cope. (Continued on page 9)
8
A-Voice March 2012
Endometriosis
Is that how you got started in activism? Yes. I am a very strong believer of the fact that there’s a reason for everything. I believe that we’re all here for a reason, to make a difference. Thomas Edison gave us light, Newton discovered gravity. Me? I’m here to let the world know about endometriosis. How has endometriosis changed you as a person? Though endometriosis has weakened me physically, it has actually made me a much stronger person on the inside. Endometriosis has pushed me to do things that I never thought I could do. It’s a love-hate relationship. I hate it so much that I do everything to fight it off; at the same time, I love it because it’s given me so much courage and such a big voice, to reach out to others and tell them “Look, I have this, and it’s important for every woman out there to know what this is!” How has “Yellow for Endo” helped you? Yellow for Endo has given me a voice. It’s been my stepping stone. Without Yellow for Endo, I wouldn’t be have the opportunity to educate people about endometriosis. Yellow for Endo has become a platform for me to show the world what life is like for a person living with endometriosis. What started off as merely a glimmer of hope has now turned into my reality. Are there any support groups in Malaysia for girls with endometriosis? I guess because endometriosis is not widely known in Malaysia, there are currently no prominent support groups for women fighting this disease. My family and friends are the biggest source of strength I have. My cousins and best friends never fail to remind me that “I can defeat this disease”. I do hope that with all this awareness, we will find a way to establish a single support group for women with endometriosis. Is there anything you’d like to say to those who supported your cause by wearing yellow on 1st March 2012? Well apart from a big fat “THANK YOU”, I’d like to tell them to take a moment to pat themselves on the back. By being a part of this, they have helped educate themselves and their social circle about endometriosis. To all of you guys out there who wore yellow on the 1st: I wouldn’t be able to do it without you! Special thanks to Dushanth Mahendran and Visalakshi Ramanathan, advocates of the “Yellow for Endo” campaign. Endometriosis is a gynaecological condition where cells from the lining of the uterus appear and fester outside the uterine cavity, most commonly on the ovaries. Endometriosis results in a number of complications such as dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain, painful intercourse, bowel obstruction and most devastatingly, infertility. This disease has no known cause or cure.
A-Voice March 2012
176 35% 27 million women diagnosed with endometriosis.
of women average age diagnosed are of diagnosis. infertile. 9
Vote!
Vox Juvenis
Jenny Cheng sheds light on the role of the youth in shaping the future of Malaysia.
O
Yet 7 months after BERSIH 2.0, as of January 2012, there are still over 4 million eligible voters in Malaysia who have yet to register. Another 4 million registered voters do not vote, because they are too busy to return to their hometowns (constituencies), because they are uncertain about their choice of candidate and choose to dissent by abstaining, or because they feel that a single vote cannot make a difference. Many do not realize that each vote is worth millions of ringgit. Everything hangs on that one vote, because if each flower plant joins another, and another, the gestalt entity they form will be one heck of a beautiful garden.
So what can we do as teens? Few young people know the immense potential they have to catalyse change. 51% of the population is below 21. And it is this 51% that is affected the most. The government has a hand in things that have tremendous impact on our lives, from the education syllabus to the distribution of scholarships. Science and Maths in B.M., anyone? Or how about a rare earth refinery project that threatens to pollute the surrounding area with radioactive waste? It will soon be time for us to make these decisions. Will we stay silent, or make our voices heard? You could be 18 or 19 years old now, but bear in mind that just being more aware of the issues in our country puts politicians on their toes. Being underage means we tend to get sidelined as there is little we can do as far as voting goes, but it is also an opportunity to learn more about our surroundings in order to make wise, mature, educated decisions when our time comes. We’re not the naïve mindless rebels they perceive us to be. We make the call, and at 51%, you can’t deny the potential that we have to make our country a better place.
Photo © malaysiansmustknow.blogspot.com
n July 9th last year, thousands of civilians gathered peacefully in Kuala Lumpur to demand free and fair elections. Aside from the usual headlines—the prominent figures present and the spate of arrests—a surprisingly strong youth presence was felt in both the rally and through platforms such as social networks.
The New Face(book) of Political Advocacy Only a decade ago, a wall was the thing that surrounded our homes and a tweet was the sound birds made in the morning. But gone are the days when apples and blackberries were mere fruits. In this age, information is shared with millions with a single mouse-click. Pictures go viral faster than you can say Twitter. As tech-savvy teenagers, we have the power to keep ourselves updated in real time, whether we’re on the throne or halfway around the globe. Social media is truly an egalitarian platform—one where every single voice is as powerful as the next. Every “like”, comment, and tweet can be heard (or read) by anyone: Lady Gaga, the prime minister, even your mother. Unhappy about something? Post about it! The largest and most recent example of the power of social media is the Kony 2012 movement by InvisibleChildren. com, a non-profit organisation determined to hunt down and bring Joseph Kony to justice for his atrocities, through direct military intervention. Though there has been criticism of the organisation’s lack of transparency, and the wisdom of their proposed solution, the explosively viral video/ campaign is a perfect showcase of the ability of young people to create a storm of awareness when we’re truly passionate about something. At the time of writting, #Stopkony was the most popular trending hash tag on twitter. Policymakers like United States congresswoman Ileane Ros-lehtinen and singers Rihanna and P. Diddy have pledged to help support the arrest of Joseph Kony, TV and YouTube personalities such as Oprah Winfrey and Ryan Higa have pledged donations and spoken out to their millions of fans, and there are more than 1.7 millions likes on the official Invisible Children Facebook page. This all happened within THREE DAYS of the release of the film on YouTube. It would have (Continued on page 11)
10
A-Voice March 2012
Vote!
Photo © http://iowaindependent.com
been unimaginable just a decade ago. But we are part of the Internet generation, where borders and distance are meaningless, and that has made all the difference. Don’t Be an Armchair Critic To show your interest in the country’s affairs, get involved in political events and seminars! Our state representatives, ministers, and leaders hold forums and debates every once in a while, most of them open to the public. Why not sit down and listen to what they have to say, perhaps even offer your thoughts and opinions? For the more adventurous, you can intern for a Member of Parliament and witness firsthand his/her day-to-day work and responsibilities. Most important, when you reach the age of eligibility, register as early as possible and VOTE! Here’s a simple breakdown of how it all works: by voting, you officially make your opinion heard, and involve yourself in the national dialogue. Each of us is entitled to two votes, one at state level, and one at national level (except for voters from the Federal Territories like Kuala Lumpur, who only vote once: at the state level). At state level, voters vote representatives into the state legislative assembly.
A-Voice March 2012
The representatives are the Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri, better known as the ADUNs or YBs. They oversee all state affairs such as state laws and the allocation of state funds. The party that has the most representatives for a particular state will form the state government and their leader becomes the chief minister. At national level, voters elect the 222-member Dewan Rakyat—the house of representatives of the Malaysian Parliament. The party that has a majority of representatives makes up the federal government. Positions such as the prime minister and the ministers’ cabinet are all then decided by the federal government, the government chosen by you! Indirectly, you actually choose what’s going to happen to your country, to your children, to your tax ringgit and, well, basically everything. Every year, new policies, projects, developments and initiatives are implemented to improve Malaysians’ quality of life. Each party has their own vision and goals, so choose wisely! We spend so much time complaining about irrelevant policies, authoritarian laws and bureaucratic inefficiencies, but we don’t realise that nobody is to blame but us, because we are the ones who chose the government. I believe change is possible if we believe and persist, so Make Yourself Heard!
11
Dream On
WHAT’S IN A DREAM?
I
by Davinia Gunasagran
nception presented the world with intriguing (if far-fetched) theories on dreaming. The movie’s fundamental premise of a “dream within a dream” suggested that it was possible to be fully conscious while dreaming, and to implant the seeds of ideas in another’s mind through dream-sharing. These notions about dreams might sound like the stuff of well, dreams, but believe or not, there is a sliver of truth in them. external stimuli, especially when learning new things. That is why infants dream the most.
Photo © Kelly Xiao Ran
Lucid Dreaming But let’s return to Inception. Could it actually happen? What is most mind-boggling is that it is (gasp!) possible to be mentally aware in your dreams and to have full control over them. Most people experience it at least once in their lives: that fleeting, probably immensely awesome moment when you realize you’re in a dream. Psychologists call it lucid dreaming, which is basically being awake while dreaming. Research has proven that lucid dreaming is a form of dissociation, meaning one part of the brain is in the waking state while the other is in the dreaming state. Why do we dream? To comprehend dreaming, we need to understand its relationship with REM. Dreaming usually occurs during rapideye movement (REM) sleep, a state of sleep when brain activity is at its highest, and the eyes move continuously as if awake. It is easier to recall dreams after waking up from REM sleep, during which the dreams occurred. Studies have failed to come up with a conclusive reason on why we dream, but there are many different theories. The Freudian interpretation of dreams argues that they are a “safety valve” or a channel for subconscious desires and innermost feelings, that everything we dream is symbolic and connected to our daily lives. Freud’s mentee, Carl Jung, had a vastly different opinion: his theory hypothesises that dreaming is the connective bridge between the conscious and unconscious. A lesser-known psychologist, Calvin Hall, developed another theory: that dreams are merely thoughts transmogrified into visual concepts, completely dismissing Sigmund Freud’s elaborate mumbo-jumbo about dreams being symbols of repressed emotions and our deepest Bogeymanesque fears. So if your dreams are reminiscent of Lady Gaga’s music videos, fret not. Unfortunately, scientists are no closer to understanding the importance of dreams than their cause. Dreams are, however, thought to be linked to memory consolidation and
12
MOST PEOPLE EXPERIENCE IT AT LEAST ONCE IN THEIR LIVES: THAT FLEETING, PROBABLY IMMENSELY AWESOME MOMENT WHEN YOU REALIZE
YOU’RE IN A DREAM.
This peculiar variation of dreaming is also the basis of Inception, but the director imagined it on a fantastical scale, bending the truth to breaking point (sorry). There are quite a few myths in Inception with regards to dreaming, and the biggest one is that the only way to wake up from a dream is to die. In reality (no pun intended), if you are in a nightmare and a ninja is intent on beheading you, blinking a few times and convincing yourself of your dream state actually suffices. Science has also demolished the mythical possibility of sharing dreams (mutual dreaming). And the whole dream-in-a-dream theory? In reality, these are just dreamsin-sequence. In addition, Inception failed to highlight the elements of absurdity and surrealism found in most dreams. The dreamscape in Inception resembled a controlled, Bondstyle, action-oriented atmosphere, with none of the Alicein-Wonderland fluidity quintessential to a dream. This is because the unconscious (as per Freud) is disorganized, bizarre, emotionally affected and random. (Continued on page 13) A-Voice March 2012
Dream On
DID YOU KNOW? Humans spend an average of seven years of our lives dreaming!
As Einstein once declared,
“Creativity is the residue of time wasted.”
This is a dream-catcher.
Photo © forestgirlstock.deviantart.com
Lucid dreaming may be a fairly unexplored aspect of dreaming, but it is simple in essence: all you have to do is constantly pose yourself this question to determine if you are awake or sleeping: “Am I dreaming?” Stephen LaBerge, a Stanford graduate, carried out experiments to prove the existence of lucid dreaming by electronically monitoring lucid dreamers. When they were able to perform predetermined tasks such as moving their eyes in steady left-right patterns, lucid dreaming was no longer a hallucination or assumption. The extent of lucid dream control is constantly disputed, though the practitioners of this art claim that the possibilities are infinite.
Daydreaming On the other hand, daydreaming does not require the medium of sleep. Daydreaming occurs consciously, unlike nocturnal dreaming, which only takes place when a person is unconscious. While many a schoolboy has received a thump on the head for engaging in this activity, daydreaming has been proven to improve creativity and is in fact the brain’s more focused and goal-oriented state (show this NY Times article to your lecturers the next time they catch you with your eyes glazed over: p.ly/daydream). Many people renowned for their imagination and brilliance such as Albert Einstein, Beethoven and Da Vinci all had one thing in common: they daydreamed excessively about their area of study. In fact, there is a significant link between acute intelligence and avid daydreaming. So rest assured, serial daydreamers, your mind-wanderings are far from a misuse of time. Rather, they lead to innovation and problem-solving (though maybe not if you daydream in every math class)! Dreams remain an absolute enigma, a heady blend of scientific conflict and Hollywood fantasy. Who knows what infinite possibilities lie in the uncharted territories of our unconscious? Is the complete surrender to our subconscious desires the only way to figure them out? Maybe scientists will one day be able to explain all of this. Maybe they won’t. Until then, as I lie on my bed each night, waiting for sleep to come, I dream of the dreams I will dream.
A-Voice March 2012
13
College Affairs Photo © HELP A-Levels Multimedia & Information Team (MIT)
ORIENTATION DAY Khoo Ghee Ken
O
n a sunny morning, during orientation day for the January 2012 intake of HELP’s A-Levels programme, Mr Jahn Cheah, director of the A-Levels department, presented us with a challenge: if any of us could score 4As, he would guarantee a scholarship. He reassured us that HELP is the biggest and one of the best Edexcel A-Levels centres outside the UK, with 49 Edexcel World Awards (from 2004-2010), and all the resources necessary for us to achieve those coveted grades.
Any feelings of complacency were further banished when we were reminded of university applications on orientation day itself. Ms. Julie Leong, Manager of the A-Levels Department, introduced her team of administrators who handle the university and scholarship applications: Ms Michelle handles the UK; Ms Muna handles the US; Ms Grace handles Australia and New Zealand; Mr Kean handles Hong Kong and Singapore; Ms Hani handles the local universities; and Ms Christy handles Canada and other countries.
Ms Kana then took to the stage to provide some sage advice In a much-needed departure from the heavy academic stuff, on subject choices. Naturally, we were encouraged to select Mr Kalai and Mr Christopher from the Department of Stusubjects we were interested in, good at, or that were related dent Affairs discussed the Sports Scholarships that are ofto our intended courses. However, Ms Kana also introduced fered to outstanding athletes. They also informed us about to us the concept of “preferred MAPCU (an intervarsity sports subjects” (also called hard or competition) which HELP has traditional subjects). Wielding a won eight times. handbook published by the RusNext up were Ms Alison Fersell Group (a consortium of 20 nandez, the coordinator at CAelite universities in the UK), Ms REERsense, and Ms Chin, a coKana stressed the importance of ordinator at HELP’s Centre for selecting these preferred sub—Jahn Cheah, Psychological and Counselling jects in our A-Levels, especially if we intended to apply to topDirector, A-Levels Department Services. CAREERsense offers guidance and advice to students ranking universities. Examples regarding their career choice for a nominal fee. Ms Chin enof preferred subjects include the Sciences, Maths and Furcouraged us to engage with her should we need an outlet for ther Maths, Economics, History and Literature, while “soft” (or unpreferred) subjects include Accounting, Law and Ap- our emotions, as bottled-up frustrations would simply displied ICT. Ms Kana advised us to take four subjects, so that tract us from our studies. the fourth subject, while not compulsory, could be used as insurance should we do badly in one of the other three. The Finally, the A-Levels Student Council introduced themselves fourth subject can be a soft subject, as long as it is backed up before giving us newbie students a comprehensive tour of by three preferred ones. Referring to a graph, however, Ms HELP. The A-Levels Department staff then divided us into Kana proved to us that the safest combination is still the tra- groups based on our subject combinations and handed out ditional three Sciences + Maths regardless of our intended the timetables. They briefly explained the format of the timetables and clarified any last queries, before sending us on our university courses. merry way. I’ve been toiling ever since.
“
HELP has won 49 Edexcel World Awards.
14
A-Voice March 2012
Voice
THE LITTLE THINGS
P
eople say that some of the choices we make will affect the rest of our lives. Even minuscule things like what to have on your toast for breakfast could have a ripple effect. If you have an important meeting or interview in the day, I wouldn’t recommend having something gross like sardines and onions. But bigger choices like who you sit with at the start of the school year could determine the rest of the friends you make, and eventually influence your opinions and worldview. Have you ever stopped to wonder how and why your life turned out the way it did? It is these seemingly innocuous decisions that creep up behind us and change the course of our lives, without us even knowing it. But I’m given to pondering, so I tracked the path of my college life back to one momentous decision. January 2011. College had just begun. I had signed up to do Further Maths, simply because maths was one of my “strong” subjects in high school—and isn’t that all that matters ultimately at the end of A-Levels? Score the As, and get into the university of your dreams. That was my thinking anyway, until I went for a trial English Literature class. The subject had always intrigued me, but for some reason I never got around to taking it in high school. Jean-Luc Godard once said, “Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.” At eighteen years of age, I had not yet even begun to discover myself. Perhaps that is why the subject of Literature appealed to me so much. Some people say life is a series of pulls back and forth. A tension of opposites. Most of us live somewhere in the middle, constantly caught between two opposing forces. At that point I felt like a very frail rope in a very violent game of tug-of-war between what was expected of me versus what I wanted for myself. Put literally,
by Caitlin Chen
Did I make the right decision?
I was desperately tugging on one end while my parents and several sumo wrestlers heaved on the other. Okay, maybe not quite so literally. Sometimes when making a decision we feel obligated to prioritise the desires of others before our own. And sometimes when we decide not to do so, the other party thinks us selfish or stubborn. But is it really selfish to want our own happiness? Where does self-preservation cross the line into selfishness? When can you actually look the people who raised you in the eye and tell them that you know yourself better than they do? Or even if you don’t, that it is your life and your happiness on the line? Parents often say that they understand what we’re going through and how we feel, while waving their vast amounts of “life experience” in our faces. On the contrary, I think the generation gap has never been wider. Today’s youths are so greatly influenced by social media, which only came into existence during this decade—how can parents begin to imagine what it’s like being exposed to so much at such a tender, impressionable age? Isn’t it ironic that parents behave like dictators, yet expect their children to grow up to be independent, strong-minded individuals? As authoritarian figures in our lives, they expect us to be obedient, submissive children, constantly employing that age-old threat: “As long as you’re living under my roof, you obey my rules.” Going against your parents is like riding a bike uphill, against the wind, dragging the aforementioned sumo wrestlers behind you. But when you believe that what’s waiting for you on the other side is worth it, who can stop you? So reach the top of the hill I did. Did I make the right decision? Who can say?
Who can say?
The two subjects are as different as Shakespeare and Britney (even though their surnames kind of rhyme). One subject encourages linear, logical thinking; the other involves limitless roundabout interpretations. One consists of numerical, black and white answers, the other can include endless shades of grey. Over the many months of sleepless nights spent drafting 2000-word essays, occasionally it crossed my mind how different my life would have been had I taken the initial path. Do I regret it? The answer comes easily. Not at all. Not for a moment. This decision has had an immense ripple effect, and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. Literature has not only opened my mind to so many previously unimagined horizons, it has also allowed me to meet some of the most wonderful people I know. My Literature lecturers and classmates, and all the friends from last year’s (epic) production, are people who have changed my life before I even realised it. Through (sometimes overly emotional) discussions in class and the sharing of opinions and personal experiences, there is no wonder as to why it is these people to whom I feel closest. I’m starting to sound overly sappy, so I shall quote the words of another. When asked if he thought we would all still be friends in five years, Dinnish Raj summed up my sentiments perfectly: “Five years? I want to still be friends with y’all when I’m old!” I think the secret to making decisions is this: have no regrets. This decision of mine may come back to bite me in the behind one day: who knows? Mayhaps I’ll suffer horribly for it by the time ALevels ends. But at the end of it all, I think I’ll be able to look back and know I wouldn’t change a thing.
“In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life.” —Mumford and Sons, Awake My Soul A-Voice March 2012
15
College Affairs Photos © Kelly Xiao Ran
Kelly Xiao Ran
P
RESULTS DAY
icture results day in your head. Do you see a multitude of students milling around aimlessly trying to calm themselves? Do you hear nervous chatter or stoic silence? Do you imagine students counting down the minutes until the moment of truth, when they receive their paper of judgement? All that happened in the Lower Foyer of Main Block at HELP University on March 8th when the GCE A-Levels January 2012 results were released. At 2pm, the staff from the A-levels Department arrived with armloads of result slips. As students scrambled to be the first in line, long queues were formed. Amidst the jostling, the tension in the air was palpable. The students’ reactions ranged from pure paralysis to an eerie calm.
As they received the dreaded slips, some adamantly refused to even have a glimpse at their results as they hastily signed their names and skittered away, folded paper in hand; some stood and blinked furiously as they struggled to comprehend
the column of alphabets printed on the small slip—the culmination of six months of hard work. Moments later, shouts of sheer ecstasy rang out, breaking the silence. These, however, were accompanied by the inevitable sighs of dejection and regret. All around, faces wept tears of sadness or jubilation. But by far the most common reaction among the students was to whip out their cellphones and convey the results to their loved ones. When asked to comment about what happened on Results Day, Low Zhi Yang, who has a conditional offer to study medicine at University College London, told the A-Voice: “The outcome of some papers were unexpectedly good while some were unexpectedly bad.” Whether you were elated by your results, or disappointed... at the end of the day, keep Ms. Caroline’s immortal words in mind:
“THESE RESULTS DO NOT, IN ANY WAY, DEFINE WHO YOU ARE AS INDIVIDUALS. YOU DO.”
16
A-Voice March 2012
Student Spotlight Photo © Kelly Xiao Ran
D
o you remember the very first time you spent the night away from your parents’ house? If you were anything like most young kids, you would have felt an unfamiliar queasiness, as if your stomach were a ball of knots that just couldn’t be untangled. Imagine what moving abroad for the first time must be like. You are thrust into a strange, new location, full of people you don’t know, and food you can’t get used to—the culture shock must be immense. The A-Voice interviewed one of the many members of the South Korean community here at HELP, 17-year-old Oh Haeri to find out how she has adapted to life in Malaysia.
Living Abroad By Lim Chin Yang
Is there anything you’ve noticed about Malaysia that has stood out to you, being a student from South Korea? I found it quite shocking that in Malaysia, the LRT isn’t driven by actual people! In South Korea, the subways and trains are driven manually. That’s just one of the many things. I find it amazing that it is normal in Malaysia to see people from different races and religions mixing with each other. You don’t find that often in South Korea because our country isn’t as multiracial as Malaysia. Have you settled down comfortably here? I miss Korean food (especially kimchi!), the cool weather, and my friends and family very much. But despite the occasional bout of homesickness, I didn’t find much difficulty adapting to life here, because Malaysians are so hospitable and sociable. The little things that I found difficult to get used to at first, such as language barriers and spicy food, were resolved over time. In fact, I now love Malaysian food— nasi goreng in particular. When it comes to language, I speak English most of the time and have learnt Mandarin in Malaysia; so far, I’ve been able to interact with people well. I aim to master my English and Mandarin before I leave and perhaps even pick up some Malay. Are South Korean students and Malaysian students very different from each other? I can safely say that South Korean students place much more importance on the academic side of their education. It is compulsory for all Korean students to stay in school until 11 p.m. The only thing they do in school is study. But here, students are lucky enough to be able to pursue more extracurricular activities, and a much more open, outgoing population of students and lecturers. A-Voice March 2012
Academics aside, what do you think of the popularity of K-Pop and K-Drama in Malaysia? I am a huge fan of K-Pop and K-Drama—I watch K-Drama every day! K-Pop and K-Drama have become so popular in Malaysia that it’s now so much easier for me to relate to Malaysians. I have friends that are fans of the same artistes, bands, and actors. I really think Korean artistes should visit Malaysia more often, because there’s such a huge fan base here! Have you had a chance to visit any of the usual tourist hotspots? I have visited many of the islands such as Kuala Kangsar, Langkawi Island, Penang and Redang Island. Of all these places, Redang’s peaceful atmosphere and stunning natural beauty appeals to me the most. Though I have no fixed holiday plans at this point, I would like to climb Mount Kinabalu one day! Korea is steeped in heritage and culture, yet so vibrant with urban life. What’s the best place to visit in South Korea, for people who want to immerse themselves in the culture? I would suggest Jeju Island. Everything amazing about Korean culture, you can enjoy on Jeju Island. You can savour delectable Korean cuisine, marvel at the breathtaking scenery and above all, experience Korean culture firsthand. Could you share with us something that’s unique to your culture? In South Korea, when we talk to others we have specific names for elders and for those that are younger. For example, we call our elder sister, “unni” and elder brother, “oppa”.
17
University
L ondon C alling by Samantha Cheh
“A London degree is the passport to success,” was the opinion echoed by the four representatives from University College London (UCL), King’s College London (KCL), Imperial College London (ICL) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) who came to HELP University on the 28th of February to speak to the A-Levels students.
Here is a brief introduction to each university and a short how-to on applying to the UK. Imperial College London Imperial College specialises in the sciences—from the basic sciences like physics, biology and chemistry, to newer fields such as biomedical chemistry and nuclear engineering. To give you a sense of just how broad their scope of study in a particular field is, they offer ten kinds of engineering. Imperial students recently started a project called “Formula Zero” (modeled after the Formula One races) and engineered a carbon neutral car! Imperial has a fantastic track record when it comes to graduate work opportunities: 96% of graduates attain work within six months of leaving school. Some of their famous alumni include Alexander Fleming, a pioneer of biological discoveries and Brian May, a member of the rock band Queen!
Started in 1829 by King George IV, King’s offers a wide range of subjects, in 9 schools of study: the arts and humanities, nursing (fun fact: the King’s College of Nursing was founded by Florence Nightingale, the pioneer nurse of the 20th century!), dentistry, public policy, biomedical sciences and the social sciences. Aside from their campus in London, they also have campuses in California and Hong Kong. The speaker made it clear that King’s College was looking for students who are not only academically strong but also willing to give back to society. For instance, a group of students recently made a trip to the Philippines to teach the locals how to make jewellery to support themselves. Famous alumni include Sir Desmond Tutu, a vocal opponent of apartheid, the poet Thomas Hardy and writer, Virginia Woolf. London School of Economics and Politics In contrast to Imperial’s science focus, LSE specialises in the social sciences. The speaker called it “lively”, and said the university community was not for students who disliked noise and clamour. LSE, compared to the other universities, is small, numbering around 10,000 students, 4,000 of whom are undergraduates. LSE consistently ranks among the top in the world for research. Their specialties lie in not just economics and political science as their name suggests,
Photo © http://www.southafrica.to/transport/
They painted a picture of London that had some students squirming with excitement. Although it is a sprawling metropolis, a leading academic capital, and thought of as one of the world’s most expensive cities, London can be extremely cost effective, especially for students. Students, we were told, are given a 30% discount on public transportation and 10-15% off at all restaurants and clubs—all with a brief flash of a student ID card!
King’s College
(Continued on page 19) 18
A-Voice March 2012
University
but also in Law, Mathematics, History and Actuarial Science. As if that weren’t enough, their library holds over four million items! AirAsia CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and rockstar Mick Jagger are some of LSE’s more famous graduates. University College London
So how do you go about applying to study in the UK? The speakers advised candidates to first decide on a course, and then research the universities that interest them to find out the entry requirements (e.g. an Economics course in any of the four universities requires an A* in Mathematics and As in the other two/three subjects), additional entrance tests (certain universities require the BMAT and UKCAT for medical students, and/ or the LNAT for Law students), the
Unlike the US, most universities in the UK require students to apply through a system known as UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service). In the electronic form, you fill in your top five university choices—with the exception being medical students, who are advised to have four choices and leave the last slot for a medicine-related course such as pharmacy or biomedical research. Through the UCAS system, the universities that you apply to will have access to your forecast results and testimonials from your college lecturers. Also included in your UCAS is the dreaded personal statement. “A student’s personal statement should show academic focus and enthusiasm,” said Penny Zorbas of UCL. The entrance officer will want to see your passion for the subject as well as your motives for it. Include work experience, co-curricular activities, interests and reasons as to why you would be a great candidate.
Photo © http://disertationhelp.blogspot.com/to-London.php5
Ranked 7th in the world, UCL is described as a research-led, multi-faculty university. The university, founded in 1826, encourages inter-disciplinary study to mould well-rounded students that have interests in various fields of academia. Among their specialty subjects are the arts and humanities, life sciences and Mathematics. Like King’s, UCL encourages volunteerism among its students—a group of them recently went to Haiti to help in the wake of the destruction wrought by the 2010 earthquake. UCL boasts a low student to staff ratio (one lecturer to roughly 10 students) and offers intensive English courses for international students. Political activist Mahatma Gandhi, director extraordinaire (and allround superhero) Christopher Nolan and the members of rockband Coldplay are just some of the notable graduates of UCL.
course curriculum, the location of the university, and overall, whether the university suits them.
Even if it seems like an uphill battle now, when you want to shove your books off the table, picture the sunlight glistening on the Thames as you watch a play in Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre. Imagine the pulsating music at the Ministry of Sound, and the deep BONG BONG BONG of the Big Ben. The hard work will be worth it. Good luck!
Photos © http://highexpectationsasianfather.tumblr.com/
This is the “High Expectations Asian Father” meme! What’s a meme? Find out on page 24! A-Voice March 2012
19
Indulge Photos © Low Zhi Yang and Nikki Chee
HOW THEATRE LIBERATES SOCIETY
W
hen I invited my parents to the A-Levels Department’s dramatic production Life: The Mobius Strip, I told them to come with an open mind. Many of us involved in the play worried about our parents’ reactions to some of the more, shall we say, mature themes of the plays. Christopher Durang, the American playwright whose works we were performing, is famous for his dark humour—his plays commonly feature jibes at societal perceptions of sex, incest, mental illness, and gender identity. Naturally, we feared that our show would leave the audience cringing in discomfort, or worse, shaking their heads in disgust at the sheer inappropriateness of certain scenes—and themes—especially in a college production.
As expected, after opening night, the language was toned down, and some scenes were slashed. But despite the initial concerns about thematic boundaries, the production received standing ovations. Our production was the perfect example of how theatre can be used to question and challenge entrenched perceptions and stereotypes. But although the stage is a platform for dialogue, as we stretch the limits of creative expression, censorship is
Syahrain Johan
inevitable. A case in point: the ban on The Laramie Project (a production directed by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, highlighting the 1998 torture and murder of a homosexual boy named Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming) in numerous schools and colleges overseas. Back home in Malaysia, race, sex and LGBT rights are still considered too controversial for the stage, because open discussion of such issues might “incite anger” among certain groups. Yet Malaysian theatre continues to test the limits of these unwritten rules that limit free speech. Back in 2009, Adam the Musical was staged in The Actor’s Studio, Lot 10. It was directed by Joe Hasham OAM and written by Marc Beau de Silva—both prominent figures in local theatre—in collaboration with the Malaysian AIDS Foundation. The musical’s lyrics were in-your-face: “When it comes to protection, the hardest part is persuasion/ If they still say no, I’ll stroke their ego until they rise and say they need a jumbo size.” Adam dealt explicitly with the issues of sex, HIV/AIDS, religious conversion, and drug addiction, attempting to shatter the taboos surrounding them in order to bring attention to the need for sex education to be made available to the largely ignorant public and the growing population of young adults. It’s saddening: even in this day and age, efforts to provide sex education (safe sex, getting tested for STDs) are still hampered by conservatism. More recently, PARAH drew public interest due to its controversial elements of racial stereotyping and unity in the country. It was directed by the critically acclaimed Jo Kukathas and written by Alfian Sa’at, who was inspired by Yasmin Ahmad’s final movie, Talentime, and the controversy surrounding Abdullah Hussain’s novel, Interlok. Interlok was the subject of furious debate early last year after it was selected as compulsory reading in the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus. The novel was accused of blatant racism and insensitivity, mainly because of the liberal usage of the word “pariah” to label Indians of (Continued on page 21)
20
A-Voice March 2012
Indulge
“The truly crazy person never thinks he’s crazy.”
a lower caste who migrated by applying pressure beto Malaya in the early 20th hind the scenes, but it’s century. The play, originally harder to physically preentitled “PARIAH” (it was vent people from performperformed under that name ing something in a certain in Singapore) examines how way on a stage—that’s far a single word has the power too visible. The spontaneity to tear a society apart. It is and unpredictability of thea play about how naivety atre—where every single —’Dentity Crisis, performance is unique— and ignorance can be bliss, as four high school students one of the plays in Life: The Mobius Strip. makes the stage nearly imwho used to view society in possible to censor. purely black and white suddenly find their friendship challenged by multiple shades of grey, as a result of a single word My parents told me that Life: The Mobius Strip exceeded their in a Form Five KOMSAS (Komponen Sastera, or literature expectations, and that for a student production, it was beyond par. That’s because of the maturity with which everyone component) novel. involved approached the issues of identity, unconventional PARAH received rave reviews from critics and audiences gender roles, incest and psychosis. The society we live in is for its heartfelt acting, effective plot development, and, of moving towards a more open, liberal mindset: questioning, course, gutsy content. What does this tell us? It’s a testa- and no longer just accepting, what it is that makes us “us”, ment to the radical paradigm shift that Malaysian society is and how we want to define that in 21st century Malaysia. undergoing. We can now identify and acknowledge the fact that there are just some things very wrong about how things As an admirer of theatre (I am not yet worthy of the title work here; that there are issues that we Malaysians need to “theatre enthusiast”), it is heartwarming to see how much confront. There is now a possibility of actually talking about support theatre has gained in recent years. The question is, these issues, instead of just sweeping them under the carpet will the evolution of theatre be limited by social restrictions and political pressure? Just how far can theatre go to cultias if they did not exist. vate ideas and liberate opinions? There is no going back once Yet if PARAH had been a motion picture or a telemovie, a threshold has been breached—there is no end to what thethere’s a good chance that it wouldn’t have been aired in the atre can question, and explore. The development of theatre nation’s cinemas or on TV. The ability to discuss such issues in Malaysia will only be held back if its voice picks at an open so publicly is, and has been for the longest time, a privilege wound that is too raw...and if the forces that be finally realparticular to theatre. Today, traditional broadcast media is ize the explosive power that theatre holds. We hope that day inaccessible—the government can muzzle cinemas and TV never comes.
A-Voice March 2012
21
Indulge
CRANK IT UP!
F
Mohamed Amran bin Rahmat talks about music as more than a form of entertainment, and the underrated local music scene.
Photo © imagocommunity.com
rom gramophones to iPods, Beethoven to Fall Out Boy, music has shaped minds for generations—while its multitude of genres and styles has undergone an evolution of sorts. But its essence has remained the same. The role of music was never just to entertain, but also to bring a message to the masses. Even in the Middle Ages, when tales and legends were told in the form of music, it was not just for the sake of amusement, but also to tell tales of the world outside —to celebrate, to warn, and to educate. For many people, it was their connection to the world that lay beyond their reach.
While there are songs about current social issues (like The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony which was based on a legal controversy surrounding plagiarism charges, or Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell, which speaks out on environmental issues), it’s hard to tell how many people really listen to the lyrics. Jack Johnson, in his song The News, bemoans how newscasters don’t even shed a tear when broadcasting news about people who have died tragically. It made many people question how we look at the world, and consider how mass 22
Now if you’re reading this and you suddenly get the urge to listen to some of the music listed here, then why not start at home—by listening to similar local artists? I understand that many of us don’t even listen to local music. But have you ever stopped to think why? It’s a vicious cycle: most people only listen to what is hip and popular (read: mainstream), but artists only get popular with the support of the people. The bitter truth is that our local independent scene is stuck in this painful cycle; bands such as OAG and Butterfingers have been around for so long and yet have not gotten the recognition that they deserve. Like their international counterparts, some of them have written songs that highlight political issues. Meor is one of them; he busks at KL Sentral nearly every day. The title track of his album Dari Rakyat Untuk Rakyat is about the Internal Security Act (not about what it is exactly, but what the people think of it and how it’s affecting them): “Bukan duit yang kau cari, tapi sebagai alat pengedar bagi semua rakyat untuk berpikir dari sifat ‘katak bawah tempurung’’ This line speaks out against brainwashing the rakyat in an effort to keep us from thinking for ourselves, from looking at the bigger picture—essentially, making sure that our thoughts and ideas are not our own, but those of our political figures. Photo © iri5.com
Be it a local issue or a global problem, musicians of the past and present have highlighted it in their craft. In Chimes of Freedom, Bob Dylan lyrically expresses the feelings evoked while watching a lightning storm with a friend. At the height of worldwide outcry against the Vietnam War, Dylan’s song conveyed his hope that all the world’s people would rise up to demand peace and freedom. Pearl Jam, one of the pioneers of grunge, refused to make any music videos for a while, and promoted their music the old-fashioned way—through frequent tours and concerts (and as environmentalists, they planted trees to offset the carbon footprint of their concerts). It was their way of “sticking it to the man” and with their frontman, Eddie Vedder as their spokesperson, Pearl Jam used their music to promote wider social and political issues, from pro-choice sentiments to opposition to George W. Bush’s presidency.
media perpetuates a culture of apathy. Why does it seem like “all news” is “bad news”? But not everyone felt this way; others just brushed it off as a catchy tune, not realizing (or caring about) the message behind it. Sadly, we live in a society that idolizes music with lyrics that go, “Blah, blah, blah” (by Ke$ha, who—for some inexplicable reason—thinks the letter “s” can be replaced by a dollar sign) and no longer longs for music crafted with true lyrical artistry.
(Continued on page 23) A-Voice March 2012
Indulge Photo © wallpaperdj.com
Some of you who know me may have seen me wearing a T-shirt that says “Aku Bukan Azmyl Yunor”. Well, Azmyl Yunor is a local singer-songwriter who is also a lecturer at Sunway University. He sings from his experiences of his time overseas, and uses said experiences to highlight how the problems we suffer from in Malaysia are so different, yet so similar to those in other countries. In his song Coming Home, Yunor sings about how his expectations of life in foreign countries were shattered when he discovered that Malaysia was where he truly belonged. It is a song of patriotic significance, at a time when the young Malaysian diaspora is reluctant to come home. These people play the music they enjoy and write lyrics that actually mean something to them; they don’t follow trends just so that they can achieve stardom. This is true music, the true meaning and essence of what music really is—what it should be. It’s sad that a band that does not conform to society’s trends is also a band that doesn’t do well, when it really should be the other way round. These days, you can’t last ten minutes without hearing a song on the radio that’s full of cheesy, shallow lyrics about the same old fluff. Where has the power of creative expression gone? And more important: when will it come back? Is getting signed by a record label overseas the only way for local bands to get noticed? If Zee Avi (a former HELP A-Levels student) hadn’t been signed by a local label instead of Monotone, would she have gotten as big as she is now? I doubt it. But I bet there are a tons of local record companies who are now kicking themselves for not paying attention to the YouTube phenomenon. Recently, a friend and local artist, Jes Ebrahim, attended what was supposed to be a conference for local musicians to get to know each other, and to start a community for local music. The “conference” turned out to be a recruitment drive for a new record label, whose sole aim was to generate more profit. Is that what our local music really means to our country? A source of income? No, it shouldn’t be like that. We as the youth of this country are the only ones who can actually DO something. We’re the target audience—so what can we do? Well, obviously we should listen. One of the best ways to discover great local music is by exploring Last.fm or Soundcloud. It’s time for us to get inspired by our local musicians - these are people who share our experiences, people who we can actually relate to. They know what our humid, sticky political climate feels like. This is an opportunity to explore new ways of expressing who we are, and what makes us truly Malaysian. I can’t tell you who to listen to. What I like, you might hate. But hey, I think we can all agree that we need to crank up the volume on our local music scene.
A-Voice March 2012
23
Tech Attack Photos © knowyourmeme.com
E T IN
“M
E N R
S ek E M Qu
E antha M T Sam by
ee-mee? Mems? Meh-meh—sheep jokes?” The correct pronunciation of the word is “meem” (it rhymes with “beam”). The word “meme” originates from ancient Greek—a shortened form of the word “mimeme”, which means “something imitated”. An Internet meme, according to Wikipedia, is “an idea that is propagated through the World Wide Web”.
X ALL the Y! “X ALL the Y!” is a modifiable cartoon that makes a hyperbolic statement about performing an action (X) on something else (Y). X all the Y originates from the blog HyperboleandaHalf.blogspot.com in 2010, where artist and owner Allie Brosh posted doodles of her varying enthusiasm for carrying out daily tasks. The first ever X all the Y meme carried the statement “Clean ALL the things!”, but some notable derivatives include doodles of singer Adele (with the caption “Win ALL the Grammys!”) and zombies (“Eat ALL the brains!”). To suit the educational purposes of this article, we’ve decided to use this X ALL the Y meme:
Forever Alone Valentine’s Day, flowers and all, has come and gone, but for the singles it was “Forever Alone Day”. This particular meme features a face that many netizens have come to call Forever Alone Guy. Forever Alone Guy’s face looks rather like a lumpy potato, and the addition of various phrases expressing one’s eternal solitude in white all-caps Impact font makes for something to-be-madeviral all over the Internet. This meme supposedly popped up on popular forum 4chan.com in 2009, but only got a spot in the Internet Hall of Fame in 2010 with the launch of a website entirely dedicated to Forever Alone related comics, ForeverAloneComics.com. Examples: “Order two pizzas—one for me, one for tomorrow me.” “Call skype test call—no one picks up.” “‘Siri, will you be my friend?’—no reply.” I’m sure some of us can relate.
(Continued on page 25) 24
A-Voice March 2012
Tech Attack
Joseph Ducreux Joseph Ducreux was an eighteenth century artist known for his rather unconventional style of painting portraits. His eccentric self-portraits, however, are the very things that brought him to fame on the interwebs. “Archaic” reinterpretations of modern day rap lyrics were added on to his works in a series of photo macros, and Joseph Ducreux quickly rose to fame after 25 most popular Joseph Ducreux macros were blogged about on social website holytacos.com. His confident stance and fingerpointing do work well with rap-lyrics-made-old like: “Don’t be mislead by the ore that I have acquired, in the past i retained little wealth as compared to now—no matter where I travel, I remember the origin from which I hail!” [1] “Halt!—The hour of the hammer has begun!” [2] “Might I inquire as to the identity of the individual who has released the canines who were being held in captivity?” [3]
(For those who can’t figure these out, the titles of the songs these archaic rap lyrics belong to are disclosed at the end of the article!)
Socially Awkward Penguin Have you ever had to live through an almost painfully awkward social situation? You have? Once or twice? Everyday? If so, then the Socially Awkward Penguin meme is the meme you can relate to! I’m sure all of us have experienced this before, right? …Or not. FOREVER ALONE—whoops! Wrong meme! This Internet meme features a picture of an Adélie Penguin taken by nature photographer George F. Mobley. The original photo came from the National Geographic Channel website, but a kind netizen decided to make better use of this particular penguin’s mid-waddle stance and made it into a meme. In real life, these penguins are known to be overly-curious and pig-headed, traits that usually land them in trouble (which could be considered socially awkward?)
According to popular forum 4chan, the Rickrolling phenomenon started when a 4chan user linked his forum-mates to a “never-before-seen sneak preview” of video game Grand Theft Auto IV. Crazed gamer netizens were on the link like starving dogs, only to be promised a life of devotion, not highly sought-after pixelated game graphics. Since then, there have been some hilarious instances where Rickrolling has been utilized: for instance, on April Fool’s Day 2008, every single featured video on YouTube’s frontpage lead to Rick Astley’s boyish charm and crooning voice. Even the official US White House twitter account, @whitehouse tweeted a link to said entertaining video, disguised by a shortened link. A-Voice March 2012
These are just some of the many memes on the Internet that will tickle your funny-bone or boggle your mind. The freedom with which memes are copied and pasted, modified and imitated, and shared with the world is awesome. You can even create your own memes at sites like memegenerator.com With that, I leave you with this: * Archaic Rap Lyrics: [1] Jenny From the Block, by Jennifer Lopez. [2] Hammertime, by MC Hammer. [3] Who Let the Dogs Out, by The Baha Men.
Rickrolling Have you ever been misled by a link that says “Click here for cute baby animals!”, only to be lead to a YouTube page that plays the campy, almost obnoxious opening chords of Rick Astley’s 1987 debut single, Never Gonna Give You Up? If you have, you have been Rickrolled!
25
Indulge
Game On.
Dushanth Mahendran reviews three indie games you have to play before you die.
I
ndie music, indie movies, even indie books all have one thing in common: they’re not backed by big-time studios or publishers. Likewise, indie games are not published by Electronic Arts or the like. They’re not coded by huge departments of Mountain Dew-chugging programmers and graphics artists with massive budgets. In most cases, indie games are developed by a small team of friends, or possibly even by that single guy who lives down the street (the one who resembles the “Forever Alone” meme).
occurrences when an indie game becomes famous; even then, you’ll still find more players of The Sims 3 than people who have even heard of the indie game, let alone played it. Due to their obscurity, these games tend to be priced at a fifth of a normal game, and many are just plain free! Most of these undiscovered games aren’t bad. Heck, some of the greatest games are indie, since the people who develop them aren’t pressured by impossible deadlines, and can take their time to craft their brainchild(ren) lovingly.
These games hide in the shadows of more mainstream offerings, mostly ignored and never played. There are rare
Here are three indie games for the average, studious student, looking for a short break from studies.
Minecraft Developer: Mojang Genre: First-person, sandbox How to get this game? PC: Go to www.minecraft.net and buy the game for 19.95 Euros (RM 80.00) Android and iPhone: Get “Minecraft—Pocket Edition” from the Android Market and the App Store at 6.99 USD (RM 21.05)
sandbox games, where you can go anywhere and do anything as long as you’re in the game.
Remember what I told you about that one guy no one talks to? Who may be making indie games? Meet Markus “Notch” Persson, who created the most successful indie game to date: Minecraft. The man created this game from scratch, on his own, without any funding or help. The result? A game that has connected millions around the world, and brought in about 85 million dollars (that’s about 260 million ringgit) in the past two years! Photos © Dushanth Mahendran
26
What’s so special about Minecraft? There is only one aim in this sandbox game: to survive. But wait! What is a sandbox game? Imagine yourself as a kid in a sandbox. What are you going to do in that sandbox? Are you going to pick up some sand and throw it in someone’s face? Or are you going to bury your toy? Or pretend you’re in a desert? In a sandbox, you can do whatever you want, as long as you’re within the perimeter of the sandbox. The same principle applies to
With Minecraft, you’re placed in a world made entirely out of blocks and given nothing. You make the rules and decide what to do—there’s no voice or directional arrows telling you where to go or what to do. Typically, you go around collecting resources such as wood and stones, and build structures like a house to live in. At night, monsters appear, and you either run into your constructed house to wait for dawn, or use a crafting system to make a sword to defend yourself. Want more fun? Play online with friends or on a server full of players, and build structures together (or destroy someone else’s awesome buildings). Many public servers boast some really cool buildings, like an accurate copy of the Sydney Opera House and the entire USS Enterprise ship from the Star Trek franchise. You are limited only by your imagination and determination. Anyone can play this game—a hardcore gamer, a 9-year-old kid, an aged grandmother, or an office worker. The best part? Every experience is random, and unique. (Continued on page 27) A-Voice March 2012
Indulge
Solar 2 Developer: Murudai Genre: Action, sandbox Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 How to get this game: PC: Get the game on Steam (www.store.steampowered. com), for 10 USD (RM 30.00) Xbox 360: Buy the game in the Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points (RM 20.00)
Solar 2 is also a sandbox game. This time though, the setting is in space, where you begin as a lowly asteroid floating around aimlessly in, well, space. You move around and collide with other asteroids to merge with them, increasing your mass. Continue merging with asteroids, and you’ll grow into a full-sized planet. Force one of your moons to merge with asteroids, and you can create a second planet. When a planet collapses under its own gravity, a star is formed. Eventually, you’ll have complete solar systems. The objective of the game is to grow bigger and survive in this universe full of asteroids that can harm you, spaceships that are determined to destroy you, black holes that suck with no mercy, and so on. There isn’t an actual plot or direction, so you can roam the universe as you please, or set your sights on getting so huge that you become a black hole and suck everything in like a vacuum cleaner.
Dear Esther Developer: thechineseroom Genre: Visual Novel, Experimental Platform: PC How to get this game: PC: Go to Steam (www.store.steampowered.com) and get the game for 10 USD (RM 30.00) If you are not thrilled by the idea of taking a slow walk through amazing scenery, while listening to clips of someone’s ramblings (with ample forced-walking time to think over what he said), this is NOT the “game” for you. It will turn out to be one of the most boring things you’ve ever bought. There are no zombies, or monsters, or puzzles. There is just you on a deserted island with this voice, telling you his life story in the form of letters to Esther. Dear Esther is not a “game” in the traditional sense. You’re in a story, exploring it, aided by jumbled narration and clues from the scenery: words and diagrams painted in blue glowin-the-dark paint on walls and cliffsides; objects like bibles, paper boats and candles scattered on the ground. The fact you walk through it at your own pace and have the choice to look deeper into things you come across helps distinguish it from a movie. The lack of interactivity actually keeps you riveted to the emotional roller-coaster the story is. Most of the lines are randomized every time the game is reloaded, making each visit unique, while also revealing a little more of the story. So what is Dear Esther all about? Simply, it’s the perfect ghost story, without the horror of one. Don’t get what I mean? Try this “game” out yourself, and think about what you see and hear while playing it. However, be warned that the specs for Dear Esther’s graphics are pretty high, so a good graphics card is definitely required. Dear Esther is creepy.
It’s a very simple game, and can be very fun in short lengths—perfect for the student looking for a five minute break (just make sure you don’t lose track of time). Also, it plays quite well and looks pretty no matter how primitive your computer may be.
A-Voice March 2012
27
Tech Attack
Haaaaaave you met outh-East Asian Forensics, fourth form: I was giving a speech on glossophobia (more commonly known as stage fright), and I was extremely glossophobic at the time! You might have experienced the feeling before: the seven minutes of shakes and jitters that feel like an eternity, the unconscious tensing of the muscles in your fingers to stop them from shaking as you pretend to gesture with intelligence. Now, imagine eighteen such minutes, before a packed audience of philosophers, scientists and experts. Each of them is there with the same mission: to spread Ideas Worth Spreading. Yes, if this catchphrase sounds familiar, it’s because my friend is TED. TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a global set of conferences that bring together curious souls from all over the world. For four days, these people eat, sleep and breathe ideas. With 15 hours’ worth of eighteen-minute speeches to listen to, it’s not surprising that the attendees leave (to paraphrase author Amy Tan) “with minds that have been so opened that if they expand any further, they may go beyond the ozone layer!”
Photo © heartofgoldgirls.com
However, you need not take a 13-hour flight to Scotland or fork out thousands for a trip to California just to have your mind blown. It’s free! Each and every one of the 1100+ talks to date has been recorded and uploaded onto TED’s website (www.ted.com) where they can be downloaded, debated, and viciously circulated in the hopes of sparking even more world-changing ideas.
28
Although the name suggests otherwise, TEDtalks can range from dancing to astrophysics to economics. My personal favourites include 12-year-old Adora Svitak’s speech on what adults can learn from children. It’s highly inspirational for youngsters, and brings up the question: why does the term “childish” have such negative connotations? Also on my list is Sarah Kay’s thoughts on spoken word poetry. She starts off her 18 minutes with an original piece, “B” and ends it with “Hiroshima”, eliciting not one, but two standing ovations from the crowd.
There are also many talks on education: why are schools killing our creativity? How does Salman Khan’s Khan Academy encourage learning through the use of videos? Gain insight into the Barefoot College in India, which trains grandmothers to teach the community useful skills like building solar panels out of sticks to power their entire village, and perhaps be inspired to create your very own Barefoot College of Malaysia.
Photo © http://www.wired.com
Nicola Choon introduces us to the organisation that thrives on ideas.
Perhaps the best part about TED, though, is the fact that it works. In a society which takes the word “complicated” to mean “impossible”, logic dictates that these conferences shouldn’t be able to trigger the responses they have. Yet year after year, thousands of people flock to these conventions and go home eager to bridge the digital divide, zap malaria with a laser, hunt down multiverses and search for their inner Neanderthal, thanks to a handful of TEDtalks. The reason is simple: the speakers inspire. They offer mindblowing new perspectives that force us to rethink the way we teach math (Conrad Wolfram), make choices (jeans, Barry Schwartz) and view ordinary objects (spaghetti sauce, Malcolm Gladwell). But perhaps more important, we’re captivated by the lure of the unconventional, the extraordinary and the impossible. These speakers are planet-shakers. Their ideas scream to be heard by the world. TED provides a platform for this to happen. Go to TED.com, and get inspired.
Photo © James Duncan Davidson
TED? S
A-Voice March 2012
The Clubbing Life
SHAKE IT!
Callie Peh shows you 10 dance moves that will save your life. You enter the club with your friends on a Friday night. You’re having fun: talking and laughing away, until they mention that they are moving to the dance floor. UH-OH. Your stomach starts to churn and you excuse yourself to the toilet, motioning to your friends to go ahead without you. Truth is, well, (excuse my frankness) YOU CAN’T DANCE. You have told yourself millions of times to take up some form of dance but it never worked out or you thought you’d make a fool out of yourself. Fear not. Now there’s no need to rush for the loo. Here are 10 useful moves that will have you bopping to the beat in no time. Photos © Kelly Xiao Ran
1. Pluck the Mango, Put in the Basket Yes, it literally means your actions mimic plucking a mango from a tree. With hands up to your left, twist both your wrist like you are plucking a fruit. Do that twice.
6. Fly the Kite (As you are starting to realize, the names are very literal.) Bend your arms slightly in the position of flying a kite. Now move arms up and down as if pulling your string on the kite. Do these moves twice facing your left, then clap twice and turn right to repeat the motion.
Bring both hands down to waist level, on the right, palms opened and facing downwards like you’re petting a dog. Bounce.
7. Ghostbusters Hands are now at waist level. Follow the hand motions for Fly the Kite.
2. Chapati Have both your hands positioned like how you ride a bike. Now, move in forward and backward like moving a rolling pin. “Roll” twice. Clap twice. Repeat.
Start from your bottom left and move to your top right, then bring both hands up to your left and then to the bottom right (this is basically moving your hands in the shape of an X). Repeat.
3. Teh Tarik This is derived from the mamak’s teh tarikmaking (I kid). For this move, have your right hand above your head and your left hand down at waist level, both in a fist like you’re holding a cup.
8. The Disco Finger Point your finger (the second finger, mind you) and move it from left to right. Accompany this with thrusting your hips back and forth. Or just bouncing your knees is fine, if you’re not comfortable with moving those hips.
Now have one foot forward with the other behind. Put weight on your front foot then back foot. The motion is like a rocking chair, moving forwards and backwards.
9. Motorbike Your hands are positioned to “ride a bike”. Left leg is lifted up and backwards. Now kick your left leg while move your wrist up and down. This is mimicking riding a motorcycle, kicking the stand and accelerating the bike.
You complete it by turning 360 degrees while “rocking” back and forth and doing the hand action. 4. The Sway Kick your left foot front and back. Then have both feet on the ground, shoulder width apart. Bend your body forward with both hands behind, and swing your body from left to right once. Stand upright again and repeat.
Do this twice. Then clap twice, and repeat.
5. Pull the Blanket Stretch both hands to the left. Bring your arms towards your body while facing front. Curl up (like a foetal position) to the right.
10. Twist the Light Bulb, Pet the Dog This move has your left hand up, palm cupped like making a “U”. Twist your wrist while doing that. Doesn’t it remind you of screwing on a light bulb? Now put your right hand down, palm open and move it up and down, like you’re petting a dog. You could do all this while bouncing.
Now put this aside and head to the dance floor to shake that booty. Special thanks to Nipun Chhabra.
A-Voice March 2012
29
Indulge
Read: Bossypants
Tina Fey’s Hilarious Autobiography
I
’m not someone who reads autobiographies. If I am ever found in that section of the bookstore, it will be because it is a shortcut to the Fantasy section, or I am lost. But Bossypants is not just any autobiography. It’s written by Tina Fey, creator and star of the hit TV series 30 Rock, writer of the screenplay of Mean Girls, performer and first ever female head-writer on Saturday Night Live, and Sarah Palin doppelganger. If none of these accolades rings any bells, I shan’t object if you stop reading this review to go hunt wild boar. Tina Fey may not be the funniest woman on earth, but she has nonetheless led the charge in a world dominated by male comedians. In a world full of “being married sucks” and “women and their periods” jokes, she proved that women can be funny too, without having to resort to gender-based insults.
Book reviews by Rachel Chin
PS: Notice anything strange about the cover?
Bossypants is simply a brief insight into how Tina Fey became Tina Fey (hence the word “autobiography”). It isn’t a tell-all sort of memoir (no juicy scandals or drama, sorry). At times, the book seems more like a new platform for Tina Fey to tell more jokes and take a jab at her Internet hecklers than a reflection on her life. I don’t want to spoil the contents, but I will say this: Tina Fey’s sarcastic insults and comebacks are not for the intellectually challenged.
Tina Fey pulls no punches when it comes to her view of herself, merrily acknowledging her weaknesses and shortcomings with her signature selfdeprecating humour. However, if you’re looking for sad, dark insights into the life of Tina Fey and how being awesome isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, you might want to give this book a miss. Tina Fey is, all in the same book, empowering, witty, hilarious, perceptive, and clever enough to disguise truths behind sarcastic humour, which is what makes Bossypants such an enjoyable read. In fact, a better review might have been to dump all the best quotes right here and let them speak for themselves. Be honest, wouldn’t you read a book with chapters like “Peeing in a jar with boys”, “My honeymoon, or, a supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again either” and “There’s a drunk midget in my house”?
30
“
Photo © amazon.com
Her personality shines through her writing—you can almost hear her voice as she leads you through her awkward childhood growing up in suburban Philadelphia, her awkward hair days, her awkward boy-chasing days, her awkward prom, her theatre programme days with predominantly gay friends, to her days with Second City and Saturday Night Live, her successes with 30 Rock, and finally her home life. This might sound boring, but it isn’t. Not when it’s written by Tina Fey. Not only will you get her life story, you’ll also get to enjoy droll social commentaries on the evolution of the definition of beauty (vis-à-vis women, of course), Photoshop and other assorted anecdotes. If it still sounds boring (I may be doing something wrong), here’s a quote from the book: “When choosing sexual partners, remember: Talent is not sexually transmittable.”
WHEN CHOOSING SEXUAL PARTNERS, REMEMBER: TALENT IS NOT SEXUALLY TRANSMITTABLE. A-Voice March 2012
Indulge
Read: The Night Circus Photo © theliteraryplatform.com/2011/05/thenightcircus/
W
hen I was a little girl, I visited a night circus. I have absolutely no memory of the event, save that my aunt was given a lap dance by a clown (it’s not as exciting as it sounds, but that’s a story for another time). In any case, I’m pretty sure that the circus I went to wasn’t half as interesting as the one in Erin Morgenstern’s standalone novel. To sum up The Night Circus: boy meets girl, then meets hotter girl; there are two opposing schools of thought on magic; and one epic competition in a night circus with an unknown objective. Who will win the battle? Which supporting character will die next? (Yes, minor spoiler: people die and everything!) Be prepared to enter the circus of dreams, where nothing is as it seems—people walk in front of trains, and certain characters are...well, never who they seem.
Morgenstern’s world of magic and surrealism is irresistible, letting you in on all the little secrets and making you feel like a part of the Night Circus. There are no cauldrons or wandwaving—think Star Wars, but infinitely more powerful and mind-blowing. The Night Circus proves that the wonders of the human imagination are the true magic we wield. Though
A-Voice March 2012
Admittedly, it wasn’t love at first sight—the book had an interesting cover: a predominantly black and white colour scheme, with a single splash of red designed to attract attention, but I’d been stung by such graphic tricks before (*coughTwilightcough*). It was only upon my friend’s recommendation that I gave it a try, and to my delight it was as interesting as its cover. While it does not look like it, The Night Circus is long. I didn’t realize just how long the novel actually was until I got to page 100, when I noticed that I had 300 pages to go. But before you begin raising your eyebrows and flinching, know this: it really does not feel like a heavy read, and it’s full of unpredictable twists in all ways but one—honestly, everyone sees the romance coming. The characters are real and memorable; though it’s difficult to form an emotional attachment to any one in particular, due to the sheer number of them and the constantly shifting narrative point-of-view. The Rachel Scale:
Photo © http://rachelkiwi.blogspot.com
Morgenstern’s wonderful fantasy circus is described in stunning detail. She brings to life fire-breathing paper dragons, cloud mazes and ice-gardens without descending into purple prose. The language and style of writing are modern, even though the novel is set in the Victorian era—possibly to lend a Romantic charm to the novel (after all, you can’t hold and smell an email). Morgenstern also uses a unique but arresting narrative style, jumping from second-person (“You”) to third-person narrative (“They”) without warning.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say Morgenstern is a female Neil Gaiman, she comes close.
31
Indulge
Read:
H
ENDER’S GAME Photo © spinoff.com
ave you ever felt like the world is out to get you? Like no matter how much you try, something always seems to be ruining things for you and keeping you from being happy? Well, in Ender’s case, it’s actually true. In his world, there’s no such thing as paranoia. It’s just another word for longevity. Ender’s Game is set in a world that has been twice invaded by aliens called buggers, and Ender a.k.a. Andrew Wiggin is the boy whose job it is to save the world. How original! Kid Hero wakes up, saves the world, goes to school. Where have I read that plot before? But Ender’s Game is different because one, it was written in 1985; and two, how many Kid Heroes these days are 6 years old? He doesn’t really act or speak like a 6-year-old, though. And while this is to be expected of child geniuses, it still does shock you a little when said child genius beats a fellow kid to death. Oops, spoiler-alert. Interested now? The story is saturated with precocious little mites (the Wiggin children especially), and the maturity of their speech and perceptions got to a point where I had to occasionally remind myself of their ages. At the same time, you’ll find babyish insults like “turd face”, “slimy” and “fartheads” peppered around, as if the author sporadically remembered their youth. Most of the story takes place in the Battle School, where boy and girl geniuses (again, age six) are sent to be trained as military officers and tacticians until they are twelve, learning things like military history, strategy, and of course, trigonometry. This is one of the things I really enjoyed about Ender’s Game—the fact that Orson Scott Card shows you what leads up to becoming a hero, not some flaky story like, “oh, my parents were spies” or “I have demigod blood”. He brings a level of realism to the story, calmly showing you that learning how to be a leader is tough. It requires intense training, and sometimes it means you’ll have no friends. From the get-go, the person-in-charge makes it his life’s mission to mould Ender into a brilliant, unique and extremely precocious, but equally lonely and unhappy fighter; grooming him to become not just a fleet commander, but the best military tactician alive. If that means Ender is permanently emotionally damaged, then so be it. Ender’s Game is what I would call one of those timeless novels that you can read and reread whether you’re 18 or 80 because of how well-written it is. You could be an utter
32
“noob” at military tactics and politics, but the author handles these topics so delicately that you’d still be more than able to keep up and understand what’s going on. In my opinion, Ender’s Game is about everything but romance and fantasy. It’s a social commentary on the balance of power; it’s about forgiveness, loss, regret; it’s about pretty much anything worthwhile. If you don’t read it, it wouldn’t affect your life for better or worse, simply because you wouldn’t know what you’d be missing... Or you could catch the movie adaptation in 2013, assuming you don’t believe we’ll all be dead by then, plebeian. The Rachel Scale:
A-Voice March 2012
Indulge (not too much) Photo © a-personaldietitian.com
MONDAY:
Have a wholesome breakfast before college. I suggest two slices of whole grain bread with peanut butter and banana or strawberry slices. For drinks, a glass of warm milk and freshly squeezed fruit juice. Why is this important? Breakfast fuels you up for the day ahead and gives you an energy boost so you can concentrate in lectures. Make sure you start the day properly by eating right! Photo © pancious.com
TUESDAY:
Yogurt. Savor a cup of yogurt in between classes, preferably plain yogurt with no sugar or artificial flavouring. It fills up your stomach when you are feeling a little hungry and it is easy to eat! Yogurt is available at MyNews.com, the convenience store at HP Towers.
Photo © insystechno.com
THURSDAY:
5 Steps
What lift? WALK! Use the staircase to go to the labs at Block D and E instead of the lift. It’s only a couple of flights! At Wisma HELP, follow the advice of the posters near the lifts—use the stairs if are going up or down less than three floors. A little exercise goes a long way, and before you know it you will lose a few pounds one for each college day to (YAY!). guarantee a healthier body!
To Healthy Living by Yap Ee-Janne
WEDNESDAY:
Pack food from home. Instead of paying for expensive San Francisco beverages or unhealthy cold soft drinks, bring a thermos of hot coffee or milk to college! You’ll save money and enjoy customising your homemade drinks. If you can, pack and eat an apple or a packet of baby carrots. They are delicious snacks! Even better, they improve your digestion after lunch and give you a rosy complexion!
FRIDAY:
A-Voice March 2012
Photo © healthy-ambitions.com
Make healthier food choices! Instead of stuffing your poor stomach with maggi goreng or McDonalds, eat a Subway sandwich! Believe it or not, they’re the best choice on campus! You can choose your own bread (the ones with more grains are better) and load it with fresh vegetables for vitamins, fibre and minerals. If you want something more filling, you can add a few slices of chicken or ham. Go easy on the mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, and mustard etc. as they are fattening!
33
Numbers
WEIRD STUFF by Alezender Tan
T
he West calls it pragmatism. The East calls it tradition. Malaysians call it “You crazy ah?!” Irrespective of the label, these activities are frowned upon by societies everywhere.
But what if all laws and societal pressure were removed? What if there were no consequences and no judgment? Would we remain as “restrained” as we are now? Or would we finally let loose, and pursue our deepest, most repressed desires? To find out, the A-Voice devised this outlandish survey, which yielded some thought-provoking results. A. Take everything for free B. Drive at hundreds of kilometers per hour C. Go to an educational institute (e.g. school) D. Sleep all day E. Randomly hit people (wherever, whenever, however you want) F. Get BOLD tattoos on visible parts of your body G. Kiss a total stranger H. Be polygamous (have multiple partners) I. Walk around nude (wherever and whenever you want) J. Try out cannibalism (death by natural causes…I hope) Our status as consumers and students seems to play a large role in determining what we find acceptable. Many participants cited reasons such as race and nationality for Question A: “I’m Chinese” (Josh), “I’m Indian” (Rajveer) and “Cause we’re Malaysian like that” (Dinnish). If we were to survey a bunch of businessmen instead, I doubt that question A would have gotten a similarly high approval rating of 74%. Somehow, I get the feeling that Anillyy’s reasoning: “since
34
there are no consequences, it is not stealing” would not sit very well with them. The same goes for questions B, C, and D. We want to sleep all day (Question D) because we stress ourselves night after night on college assignments. When we wake up late the next day, we’re forced to put the pedal to the metal with (Question B). Consequently, having put ourselves at so much risk to get to an educational institute, we might as well get there and try to learn something anyway (leading to question C’s results). The law of causality is evident here: it’s the vicious cycle we call “tertiary education”. Question E was an enigma as approximately half of the participants misinterpreted the question to mean “randomly cuffing people they KNEW” instead of “randomly hitting people they DID NOT know”. Hence, reasons such as “I do it now :)” (Lollipop) appeared, explaining the rather balanced results. On the other hand, many participants gave practical reasons as to why questions after E were not their cup of tea: “It’s painful” (Collin) for question F; “GERMS!” (Chris) for question G; “Too much effort” (Kailash) for question H (surprisingly, more girls were in favour of this question compared to guys); “Cold and sunburn” (Strider) for question I; and “Because I cannot eat pork” (Hani) for question J. Oddly enough, similar practical concerns e.g. “high risk of crashing and dying” (from driving too fast) were not raised in response to the earlier questions. Right now, no one is absolutely free. The question is, are societal conventions limiting us? Or do we unconsciously make the decision ourselves to adhere to the “social order of humanity” that stops us from being who we truly are? A-Voice March 2012
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Photos © Kelly Xiao Ran
ORIENTATION DAY
...bet you didn’t know that the “A” in A-Voice stands for “awkward”.
Dearest students, Firstly, let me thank you for your courage—for embracing the spirit of the A-Voice, and working to make your voices heard, no matter what the cost. These past three issues of the A-Voice have marked a new era for student journalism at HELP: a brilliant new board, a fresh look, and a revitalized vision. I will admit that I had no idea what to expect when I agreed to take over the advisory of the A-Voice early last year, but I can tell you that one year later, I am so amazed by the work that you have done. What we have achieved has surpassed expectations so tremendously that I suspect we’re in a different solar system. None of this would have been possible without Han Rong and Anisha: thank you for your intelligence, your sensitive yet strong leadership, your kindness, your willingness to learn, and for all those meme-moments in the meeting room. Yu Li, Leannza, and Pamela: it’s been tremendous seeing what incredible things you are capable of. Really. To our writers, PR peeps, and everyone who lent a HELPing hand (sorry, I just had to)... you have worked so hard and so well—the A-Voice would be empty without you. To Sam and our layout team: you are our unsung heroes; thank you for making us look bright and shiny. All in all, I am so honoured to have watched all of you laugh, cry, learn, and grow this past year—and I cannot wait to see the amazing things that you accomplish in your extremely bright futures ahead. I am so excited for the year ahead with the incoming Editorial Team... but truthfully, I will miss you old farts so much. I am so proud of you. Y U SO AWESOME???
Photo © anti-oppressivebabyanimals.tumblr.com
Thank you. For everything. Lots of love,
M s. C ristabel < This is her real handwriting. We scanned it in so the world could see.
A-Voice March 2012
Thank you for using your voices to empower others.
make yourself heard.
36
A-Voice March 2012