Islander Issue 28 - Perception

ISLANDER ISSUE 28 PERCEPTION

Writers: Aileen Lee Ain lee Alex Kim Anette Cho Austin Ha Bonnie Hyun Jungwoo Won Kristie Yoon Ian Yoon Inbae Ahn Injoon So Jian Yeo Kevin Kim Leo Jo Melanie Kang Andy Cho Leo Jo Seungho Ham Stella Yeom Warrick Kwon Andrew Cheon Shona Park Cathy Kim Chloe Lee David Noh Eileen Kwak Minseo Cha Minju Kang Michael Hwangbo Elroy Hong Joanna Ryoo Kevin Kang Lewina Moon Benjamin Ko Kevin Lee Sean Park Ryan Kim Serena Hong Victoria Park Jane kim Emily Hwang Sophia Park Ssophie Choi Stellla Yeom Flynn Jung & Louie Kim

Staff: Raymond Maher Hanna Seo Scott Davies Grew Thomas Tannis Waugh Sharon Kennington Designers: Mr. Maher Apologies for the rushed nature of the layout, no pictures etc. Normal service shoulld be resumed with Issue 29 Relationships and Meaning.

Introduction Why do I hesitate on explaining things - is it because, as an expert, I know just how much I don’t know about things?

Others, who know less, go blundering into arguments and ideas they know little about and seem to get away with it. Have they read the Bluffer’s Guide to Economics?

Is it the confidence of youth?

Do I suffer the Dunning-Kruger effect?

How do I regard something, create a mental impression of abstract concepts I have encountered?

The Islander has been dealing with issues of perception since its inception but has now just devoted an issue to the topic. The writing contained in its pages represents some of the best that NLCS Jeju has to offer and we are incredibly grateful to the students for the articles and the twist of Someone has counted 188 perception the design team have cognitive biases and made an put on the writing, if they had infographic of them (https:// submitted it. We hope you will www.visualcapitalist.com/ev- find something in here to chalery-single-cognitive-bias/). To lenge your perceptions, make what extent do these influence you think, and consider how you our perception, our ability to relate to teh world, whether your become aware of something senses are telling you the truth or through our senses; our sight, not. touch, hearing, smell and taste? Do our senses always give us the right information?

Do we only pick up information that conforms with our preconceived notions?

My Unpopular Opinion: Why Trump wasn’t that much of a bad president

By Benjamin Ko, Year 12, Halla North Donald Trump, undoubtedly one of the most controversial presidents in the history of the United States. He is often criticised for his politically incorrect statements, his mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, for his threat to American democracy. Yes, those incidents might make him a bad human being, but was he a bad president for the United States of America? Some critics point out that he is responsible for ‘dividing the American people’. However Trump isn’t the one to blame for this division. Even though it might seem like it, Trump isn’t the cause; he is just a reflection of past policy makers, values, and practices. The mistakes that he made might look terrifying, but that shouldn’t undermine his achievements. Trump kept some of his promises during his time in office and, to a certain extent, did make ‘America Great Again’ in many areas.

Areas such as the economy, warfare, and care for the American people, Trump has succeeded just as well as previous presidents, if not better.

Trump brought peace to the world. Trump has proposed a peace plan to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Traditional experts fear that Trump’s policy will spark regional conflict. Instead, the area calmed down. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and most recently Morocco have established diplomatic relations with Israel. You can now fly direct from Tel Aviv beyond Saudi Arabia to Dubai.

Trump has also brought long-delayed justice to Iran’s General Kasem Soleimani, who has authored numerous acts of terror. The Iranian General was responsible for the retaliation of the civilian-filled aircraft. Once again, experts were concerned that killing Soleimani would have dire consequences. Instead, the Iranian regime stopped a cycle of retaliation after killing all 176 passengers and crew members by shooting down a civilian airliner at Tehran airport due to its own reckless mistake. Iranian authorities first lied about their responsibilities. When the truth was no longer concealed, not only did the anger of the Iranian people shake the regime, but it also portrayed Trump as a strong, and authoritative figure.

Additionally, he provided great assistance to Ukraine that was not provided by the Obama-Biden administration. He secured the overseas release of additional US citizens. He launched a cyber attack on Iran, approved large-scale arms sales to Taiwan, imposed visa restrictions on Chinese officials who suppress China’s Uighurs, and denied major concessions to North Korea. He has also persuaded NATO allies to cough up more money for their collective security. Allies have increased defense spending by $130 billion since 2016. And the White House reports almost twice as many allies are meeting their commitment to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense today than before Trump arrived. Finally, he stood with the people of Hong Kong. He warned China not to use violence to suppress pro-democracy protests and signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Hong Kong people marched with American flags and sang the national anthem in gratitude.

Economically, Trump delivered his promises to the forgotten ones of the United States. Unemployment achieved record lows; in 2019 the number of job openings outnumbered the unemployed workers to fill them by the widest gap ever; wages are rising, and low-wage workers are experiencing the fastest pay increases. Fifty-seven percent of Americans say they are better off financially since Trump took office. He also managed to reduce tax, which made the economy better. The 2017 tax bill failed to deliver an investment boom, but it did lighten the tax load of many high-income earners, as well as simplify their life.

Trump has definitely succeeded in caring for the Americans. He implemented tighter work requirements for food stamps. With unemployment at historic lows, there is no reason more people should not be earning their success through productive work. The rules apply only to able-bodied, childless adults. When the American citizens were required to work for public assistance, they not only help meet their material needs but also

help them achieve the dignity and pride that comes with being a contributing member of the community. Work was a blessing to them, not a punishment.

He had also implemented stricter vaping regulations. Vaping technology can help adult smokers quit, but it can also lure teenagers into addiction. In January 2020, Trump signed regulations restricting the use of fruit and mint flavorings in vaping cartridges. This was a clear sign that the U.S. government wanted to impose stricter health regulations on teenagers.

Believe it or not, Trump has severely cut down coal burning. Coal is the most environmentally dangerous of all fuels. In 2016, as a candidate, Trump vowed that the U.S. would soon burn more of it. Instead, U.S. coal consumption declined in every year of his presidency. In 2019, the U.S. burned 586 million tons of coal—a reduction of almost 50 percent from the 2007 peak, and a drop of almost 15 percent over 2018. This was not a result Trump wanted. A harder-working president might even have thwarted it. But in this one crucial respect, Trump’s legendary laziness has left the world a cleaner and greener place.

Lastly, Trump also speeded up generic drug approval. In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration approved 73 new generic medications. That figure rose year by year through the Trump administration, reaching 107 in 2019.

Pharmaceutical companies did heroic work in 2020 by bringing coronavirus vaccines to market fast, but predatory pricing has shadowed the industry for many years. Faster approval of generics is only a step toward a solution.

But a step it is, so kudos for that.

Yes, Trump might be the demon that many of you see him as; but he is a demon that gets stuff done. Despite his dark side, it is the case that Trump’s presidency brought many families happiness, and economic stability. This fact doesn’t change. It would be wrong for us to misjudge him, or degrade his successful policies, just because of his politically incorrect statements and failures.

Bibliography: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/opinion/fact-check-trump.html https://www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/the-things-trump-got-right/617424/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/26/best-things-trump-has-done/ https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-biggest-accomplishments-and-failures-heading-into-2020-2019-12#accomplishment-reshaping-the-federal-judiciary-1 https://www.ft.com/content/032b3101-9b8b-4566-ace4-67b86f42370b

The Priority?

By Kevin Lee, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Alex Kim, Year 12, Halla North Perspective is a particular attitude or manner people process regarding something. Perspectives play a vital role in exploring new ideas and confirming further information.

Hospitals in the UK began their first vaccination of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine developed by Pfizer-Biotech on February 8th. Many people want vaccination as soon as possible, but some people are worried about injecting vaccines into the body that they don’t want the shot.

Also, there are ongoing debates on who has the best claim on priority throwing light on different perspectives with regards to vaccine implementation.

How do we know if the vaccine is safe?

Safety tests are first conducted in the laboratory by testing and researching cells and animals, leading to clinical trials on humans. The basic principle of safety testing is to start small first and then move on to the next step if there is no significant safety concern.

What role does each test phase play?

If the laboratory’s safety test results are good, the researchers can begin to check whether the vaccine or treatment is effective. This requires clinical trials of a large number of volunteers. In the case of the Pfizer-Biotech vaccine, 40,000 people were clinically tested. Half of the participants are injected with an actual vaccine, and the other half with a fake vaccine. Until the results of the test are analyzed, neither participants nor researchers know who is vaccinated. This is to prevent possible bias if known in advance. All findings go through an independent verification process.

Although the Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials were conducted rapidly, none of these procedures were skipped.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was voluntarily discontinued to determine the cause of death after one of the thousands of participants died during the clinical trial. However, clinical trials resumed after it was confirmed that the cause of death had nothing to do with vaccines. Who approves the use of vaccines or treatments? Only when government regulators ensure the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, approval for the use of the vaccine will be lost.

Future predictions, so who are the priorities?

Chung Eun-Kyung, the head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made the remarks in a briefing on the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work report.

When asked about vaccination and the end of covid-19, Chung said, “I think the concept of forming and ending collective immunity (through vaccines) is a bit different. Termination is a term used to remove the virus itself from fashion and completely extinguish it.”

Director Chung added, “Even if vaccinated, there are many uncertainties such as how long the antibody duration due to the vaccine will be maintained, how much the vaccine effect will be achieved, and how the mutation virus will affect.”

“Because of this, even if vaccinations are as fast and safe as possible, quarantine measures, masks, and social distancing are necessary,” Director Chung said. “It is difficult to expect the timing of the end because of these points.”

The government also added their personal beliefs on the position on vaccination priorities.

Director Chung explained that it is necessary to implement vaccinations after fair procedures for essential personnel who currently have to go abroad for diplomacy, official duties, and economic activities.

“We also believe that vaccination is necessary for areas necessary to maintain the essential functions of the country,” he said. “For maintaining the medical service system, medical workers need to be vaccinated first.”

Also, Director Chung said, “We are also considering giving vaccinations to workers who need to maintain the national function, such as fire fighting, police and military units.”

With the South Korean government and their officials announcing such results, it clearly shows diverse perspectives involved in the issue.

The world we live in is made up of perceptions.

By Ryan Kim, Year 9, Noro Edited by Sungmoon Chung, Year 11, Sarah Can you believe what you see? Are the rays of light that reflect upon your lenses the truth? When we sense an object, the first of the five senses a normal person will use would be the eye. With our eyes, we scan what we want to, and come to a conclusion. Also, our human body naturally decides to check objects with our eyes, whatever other sensory system we used just prior. When you hear a sound or touch something unidentified, you will probably turn your head right away to check what it is. Then, with the most credible information, our vision, we make a conclusion based on our experiences. However, not all of that which comes into your vision may be true. Rather, the perceptions set in our brains may be controlling our vision. From the ancient times to the present days, artworks have been using different types of perceptions to trick us into thinking the way the artist intends us to.

Ideas such as optical illusions and different angles are some of the famous tricks artists have used. Between the cases where different tricks have been used, I have brought three different applications of perceptions in art that I want to introduce. They are the Ancient Greek Parthenon, The Impossible Triangle, and the Orange paradox.

The Parthenon he Parthenon is an Ancient Greek temple in Athens, the capital of Greece. The temple was made for the goddess Athena, who the people of Athens thought of as their patron. The temple was the center of religious activities that were held out in Athens, now one of the most recognised buildings of the ancient Greeks. However, the temple has an interesting story behind its stone pillars. Despite being built in 447BCE by Pericles, the building used a great knowledge of optical illusion and angles. Surprisingly, the cuboid-shaped temple does not have any straight lines. Instead, the temple is actually in the shape of a dome.

The structure of the Parthenon includes illusion not to make us confused, but to make the temple clearer from the bottom. When tall buildings are observed, the buildings look like they lean backwards from the direction you see them from, because the human vision is not in parallel with the vertical structure of architecture. Therefore, the temple chose to go with the curves. For example, the stone pillars of the temple are not straight, but protruded in the middle, creating an ovoid. This act is known as the entasis. Entasis is an architectural term which refers to the attempt to correct the illusion that makes normal structures seem weak and hollow. Therefore, the entasis used in the Parthenon indicates a straight shape to the human eyes, becoming more “natural”. It came as a surprise that such a large structure built a couple of millennia ago used the perceptions in the human vision to create more natural artworks, especially in such a perfect form.

Impossible Triangle Next, is the impossible triangle, also called the Penrose triangle after the people who popularised the shape calling it the “impossibility in its purest form”. I believe that the Penrose triangle is quite familiar to many people, as the world- famous illusion art. The interesting thing about this shape is that the shape, despite being studied for a long time, is not solved. Instead, people have made hypotheses as to why we observe the set of lines in different angles to be a shape that is so confusing. One famous hypothesis on the shape is this: “on the hypothesis that the mind is modular, a mental module is a kind of semi-independent department of the mind which deals with particular types of inputs”. This means that even if we recognise that the impossible triangle is a trick, the area indicating the shape to be a bunch of lines is out of our cognitive boundaries. I thought that this optical illusion is quite interesting, because the 3D sculpture of the triangle can have different views. The sculpture is only an impossible triangle at a certain point. On the other hand, the view from the side of the sculpture makes it look like three metal cuboids attached to each other in a strange shape. So, the fact that a set of metal bars at a certain angle creates a shape that can only be observed to be confusing, yet an irrefutable impossible triangle made the artwork special.

The Orange Paradox The last application of the human perceptions in art that I want to introduce is a problem. The Orange Paradox, or the Orange Problem, asks us where the orange in this picture is. The concept says that neither the paint nor the bright light that the picture reflects are actually “Orange”. The problem states that the picture as a physical object is actually colorless, but it’s the perception in our nervous system that indicates the colour to be orange.

Therefore, the paradox is that despite the fact that orange is right in front of us, nothing is actually orange. To continue on, the fact that our brains have to process what a shape is and its color means that whatever we “see” through our visual system is a creation by our mind. Therefore, actually, we cannot track anything that is true with our visual system, despite all that we see with our naked eyes. The question keeps asking us whether what we see is the truth, or the images that our own brains decided to believe in, and labels.

To sum up, there are various types of perceptions in the world. Artists have found, and will continue to find ways in which our own perceptions as human beings makes us confused like the impossible triangle, or make things smoother through the error in our perceptions, as the Parthenon does. On the other hand, some concepts on perceptions can defy our mental systems, like how the Orange Problem does.

Perceptual Illusion

By Sean Park, Year 9, Jeoji Edited by SM Chung, Year 11, Sarah As people grow up, they become more aware of their surroundings, their eyes are aware of identifying what they are watching. And, some objects or pictures can be made intending to trick the viewpoint, which can distort the senses of viewers, and are called illusions. Those that are intended to make the object to be seen differently by modifying what can be seen in our daily lives or other shapes and designs are called perceptual illusions as they cause misinterpretation of reality. For example, the rabbits and duck pictures. The picture where normally a duck is shown, but if we look in at a different angle, rabbits show up. These perceptual illusions were not formed a long time ago, the first optical illusion was made in the 19th century by German physicist, Hermann Helmoholtz.

Optical illusions can be divided into four different categories; ambiguous illusions, distorting illusions, paradox illusions, or fiction illusions. Ambiguous illusions are a type of perceptual illusion which includes pictures or objects that generally present the viewer with a choice of two interpretations. The duck rabbit illustration is an example.

Second, Munker illusions are the illusions which demonstrate the imperfect ways that our eyes perceive colours.

The popular example of munker illusions are confetti illusions which include some different cloloured circles with many other coloured lines that confuses us. These illusions are not confirmed to be great for your eyes when looked at with screens. So, if you don’t want to damage your eyes, you probably don’t want to stare at them for too long.

Third, Facial perceptual illusions. The facial perceptual illusions are illusions which include various details in one person’s face to make multiple viewpoints or making a person’s eyes and mouth upside down and the whole picture upside down as well but still making them look like a normal person. This is one of the famous illusions. In fact, facial illusions come from ideas of how close the details are that you are looking at. For example, if you look at the photo from far away, you can see the old man and woman’s face. But if you look at it from a closer view point, you can see a man playing guitar and a woman looking at it.

Next, the illusions which include an upside down picture with mouth and eyes staying the same, are illusions which you don’t get into commonly. For example, this is an upside down of Abraham Lincon’s photo. There is nothing special about it but if it is turned upside down, it is very different. The reason is that the brain which sees the people, recognizes eyes and mouth to see their emotions or personality. But the brain takes shortcuts which it doesn’t really care about other parts except for the mouth and eyes and these illusions can happen.

Perceptions about Euthanasia By:Serena Hong, Year 8, Noro Edited by: Joey Kang Euthuanasia is a practice of ending your life to relieve pain and suffering. As it is a heavy topic, there are lots of different perceptions about euthanasia. It is discussed worldwide and on the internet. Different countries have different laws about euthanasia. Some countries have banned euthanasia and in some the practise is legal. Then, is euthanasia a good or bad thing?

Euthanasia has lot of cases worldwide, which is the reason it keeps being debated. There was a case when the Supreme Court of the Netherlands passed judgement on euthanasia, and it was the first case of a doctor to be prosecuted since the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act. In September 2019, a Dutch nursing home doctor gave a patient with severe pain euthanisia but was acquitted of murder.

There are lots of cases worldwide related to euthanasia, and some have finished with the doctor getting cleared and some as the doctor getting far reaching consequences. As the topic of euthanasia is very complex it should be carefully decided. There are people who agrees with euthanasia and those who disagre. They have various reasons for both sides.

People against euthanasia use the following arguements: It would discourage the search for new medication and Florence Nightingale’s pledge. Florence Nightingale’s pledge and the idea of Euthanasia contrast. Part of the Florence Nightingale pledge is “and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug.” It says that she won’t give any harmful things to patients, and this contrasts with euthanasia, which is giving medication for the patient to end their lives. Although there are a few controversies about following the pledge todays, most medical schools apply the pledge. Also, religious people disagree because they say whether the person dies or not is God’s decision, not theirs.

Some people say countries should allow euthanasia for the reason that people in pain and long suffering would rather want to die than to suffer a lot. Their arguments are: human beings should have the right to decide how and when they die, and death is a private matter, which society cannot interfere with. They say that people have their own right to decide when they die and how they die, and euthanasia should also be based on the patient’s decisions and wishes.

If you want to know more on the topic you can consult (as I did) the following: https://nursing.vanderbilt.edu/news/florence-nightingale-pledge/ https://www.nursingcenter.com/journalarticle?Article_ID=858002&Journal_ID=54014&Issue_ID=857966 https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zynv87h/revision/3 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49660525 https://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2009/jul/01/euthanasia-assisted-suicide-uk https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/projects/human-rights-and-euthanasia

Then All Is Clear But Their eyes are Theirs,

By Victoria Park Year 7, Sarah And your eyes yours, Edited by Mr Davies Unique and independent, And ‘tis a fact all know, And a fact all deny – My heart is warm, Then is it a fact?

But cold.

My head is filled, For your eyes aren’t yours, But empty.

For your eyes are Theirs, My bones are strong, And what you see, But broken.

Cannot be any different From what They see, They looked at me, And this is a fact.

And They said, “Child, be not afraid, In fruitless attempts we try For all this shall pass.

To reclaim our lost eyes, Just follow my words And see the world And darkness shall vanish.”

As we truly see it, But every so often, So I followed their words, Everything collapses.

Their unspoken words, The words that were given When all comes crumbling down, Not from Their mouths, When all seems so hopeless, But from Their eyes, When smiling is difficult, From Their curious eyes.

‘Tis then that you see What you truly see, For Their eyes followed me And claim your eyes.

As a shadow would.

But every time I look, How we do try, Their eyes would avert, To have a warm heart, As if to say, “No, I wasn’t, To have a filled head, I wasn’t looking at you.”

To have strong bones!

To be what They see!

And when you are young, But no, this can’t be.

When you can’t read, And nor can you write, For a heart is warm, When all is weird and strange, When coldness is known, ‘Tis most easy not to sense A head is full, Their curious little eyes.

When emptiness is known, A bone is strong, Then the time soon comes, When weakness is known.

When you’re young no more, When the dear, dear blindfold And then, Will be ripped off by Them, Only then, And all will be clear, Can you see, For you’ll see the eyes.

Not like Them, But like You, With your eyes.

Why not organs?

By Andrew Cheon, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East Around the globe, people are allowed to legally sell blood, plasma, and bone marrow. So, why not organs?

Already, there are many people around the world who have volunteered to be an organ donor. They just click the box on the government form that asks if, once they die, they are willing to donate their organs to someone who is in need.

Why not? Lots of people need kidneys, livers, et cetera. Personally, when I am dead, I am sure I won’t need mine.

The world is suffering from a severe shortage of organ donors. Just in the case for the United States, according to the US Government Information on Organ Donation and Transplantation, more than 109,000 people are on the waiting list for organ donations. Not only is there an excess demand, but also taking care of those ill people is extravagantly expensive, consuming almost three percent of the federal budget.

So why not allow Americans, or anyone else, to sell an organ? People already legally sell blood, plasma, sperm, eggs, and bone marrow. Why not organs? People have free will. Not only do they have free will, but they also have two kidneys. We can live a full life with just one.

Allowing people to sell their organs, the waiting list for them would soon disappear. The market would suggest a price and this would incentivise people to sell or donate in sucha way as they can nominate the recipient.

Some might contend that poor people might be hurt, and that an organ market will lead to exploitation and unfair advantages for the rich and powerful. But these are the characteristics of the current illicit organ trade.

Only the rich and the powerful gain access to organs through bribery, and even worse, through abducting innocent people. All those problems will be resolved if organ markets are allowed, as they will ameliorate the problems regarding the shortage. Not only this, but poor people are just as capable of deciding what’s best for them as rich people.

Not only does the issue raise the question of free will and the evident benefit that legalizing organ sales have on those who are desperate for organ transplants, the prevailing black markets is another aspect to consider.

Whenever foolish governments ban things that many people demand, black markets are an inevitable consequence. Some people travel overseas and buy organs from crooked middlemen. Some make secret deals. The problem is that black markets are inequitable, and frustrate the objective sought by the government, which is to ban organ sales due to ethical issues. The prices would be much higher, and neither consumers nor ‘donors’ would be protected. The process would be much safer, and the prices would be much affordable, only when buying and selling were legalised.

Moreover, as with drug prohibition today and alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, pushing a market underground is the way to make it rife with violence and criminality. As it is also evident in the history that prohibition will lead to much more grave problems, there are no reasons to ban the sales of organs. Organs that could restore people to health and extend their lives are instead being buried and burned.

A Different Side to The Story

By Cathy Kim, Year 8, Jeoji Edited By Shona Hyun Park, Year 10, Noro and Mr. Davies We all read, huddled together, as the words in the newspaper announced what we were desperately longing to hear. We had won. All those hard years of waiting, wondering, and worrying had finally paid off. This new desired land was solely ours to take. Most of all, my brothers would come home again.

Cheers of victory echoed through our streets as people rushed out from their houses. Neighbours shared words of happiness and excitement, breaking the silence that captivated the apprehensive people of Imperial Japan. Masao, my brother, grinned at me as we heard the starting of the anthem, and we sang along.

“Kimigayo wa, Chiyo ni yachiyo ni, Sazare-ishi no, Iwao to narite, Koke no musu made.”

“Thousands of years of happy reign be thine; rule on, my lord, until what are pebbles now, by ages united to mighty rocks shall grow, whose venerable sides the moss doth line.”

Finally, after years of waiting, Jo-sun was ours.

When we sang the final words, we all stood up and bowed to the direction of the Imperial Japanese flag.

Outside, we heard the people saying their goodbyes and returning to their homes. Then the front door opened.

Flinging ourselves on our grandmother, we cried, “Sobo! Did you hear? We won!”

She chuckled as she wrestled herself out of our grasp.

“Hai watashi no aisuruhito, of course I did. The news was all around the country by the time work finished. Soon we will be able to get Haruto and Nippon back, maybe just in time for their 19th birthday.”

“Oh, Sobo, can we have Sushi and Udon for his birthday? You know he loves it”, I shouted, “Please?”

“Sakura, I know you are only saying that because you want to eat them.”

They knew me so well. I sheepishly grinned.

“But they are delicious - I know you guys like it too.”

“Sure, why not? Now is time for celebration,” came the concession.

“Oh, thank you, Sobo! I love you!”

Suddenly, the visage of my grandmother and Masao started to fade away. I screamed and grasped for them, but they were gone.

Sweating, I shot up from my bed, feeling the acute pain at the back of my neck. I groaned. Where was I? Abruptly, everything came back to me. Today was August 6, 1945. I was 40. Sobo was still alive but in a fragile condition, living in an elderly care home in Hiroshima. Masao was killed in action soon after he had enlisted in the army. The same went for my other brothers, Haruto and Nippon, who both died before becoming 19. Currently, I worked in a factory all day now to support Sobo. I stood up. My back was still aching and throbbing from all the work I conducted yesterday. I had taken a day off to visit Sobo. Downstairs was my neighbour, Sara, and her husband, Akai, crouching near the radio. I suddenly go to a flashback of the scene “Is something wrong?”

“Shizukani shite Sakura. They are saying something.”

“Today a parachute-borne atomic bomb released by enemy planes destroyed Hiroshima. We still have not learned the full extent of the damage. There are no survivors found yet.”

I felt numb. No survivors? Sobo?

“Hey, are you alright?”

How about Sobo? Was she dead?

“Sakura?”

Sobo? Was she alright? Was she … dead?

“Sakura, this is scaring me.”

It was all my fault. I should have kept Sobo with me.

“Sakura? Sakura?”

“Sorry, I just have to do something.”

Without pausing to hear their response, I hurried outside and seized a stranger by the arms.

“Have you heard about the bombing? Do you happen to know an elderly care home called Kamome no rōjin hōmu? In Hiroshima. Is it okay?”

“Not sure, but if it is in Hiroshima, I am certain that the building is destroyed.”

I staggered back.

“Oh.” As I uttered that single syllable, I felt the world crumble around me.

Thanking the stranger, who was staring bewildered at my retreating figure, I carried myself home, fell to the ground. First Masao, then Haruto and Nippon, now Sobo. How is it that everyone I love so dearly leaves me?

A few days later, Japan surrendered. I had everything before me, a future I desperately wanted with Sobo filled with laughter, but now I have nothing. No family to love, no country to be proud of, everything utterly vacant and hollow in my vision. Every foreign newspaper I read, jested the fate of Imperial Japan. They celebrated the fall of our country. The hatred was insufferable, I could barely process it. How could they despise us so much when they barely know us? I sighed. Across the waters, Jo-sun would be putting their flags out. However, on our side, there were talks of suicide, as surrendering was too shameful to comprehend as our reality. I felt like I was drowning inside as I lay down on my tattered bed.

Them and us; we are living in different worlds, different nationalities, perceiving things differently. Although the perception is not reality, some people do not realise, and will never realise, that there is always another side to the story. This is mine.

Glossary: Sobo: grandmother Hai watashi no aisuruhito: Yes my loved one Shizukani shite: Be quiet Kamome no rōjin hōmu: Seagull Elderly care home How a chef’s personality can change choices

By Chloe Lee, Year 9, Mulchat Edited by Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East Chef ’s sell food. They sell it with elaborate descriptions on the menu, with startling presentation, so customers can eat with their eyes, and also with the force of their personality. Chefs weave elaborate stories around their food to engage an emotional connection between a bag of rice and selling at a high price!

According to CatchOn, a Hong Kong-based strategic consultancy, a chef ’s personality plays a big role in how his food is received beyond the kitchen. When knowing the chef and interacting with him, diners have the potential to double the dish’s appeal in their eyes.

CatchOn did a survey on 48 diners by inviting them over to Serge et le Phoque, a restaurant in Hong Kong. The diners were of the impression that they were to partake in a taste test to help a chef refine a dish – in particular, a saffron risotto with liquorice and lime served in two versions.

The first version was prepared using rich, homemade chicken stock and was served alongside a card stating a list of ingredients. The second was made using bouillon powder and tap water. Before explaining the ingredients that went into the dish, the chef introduced that this second version was personal as it was inspired by his childhood memory of eating risotto for the first time made by his grandndmother from a little village in Italy.

When asked to rate which between the two which they liked better, 77% of participants said they preferred the latter despite the inferior ingredients used. They also consistently rated the second version higher in terms of perceived quality, taste, aesthetics, smell and portion size.

This shows that people’s perception of food may depend on who the food is served by, rather than on the quality.

Delusion of the mind

By David Noh, Year 11, Sarah Edited by Warrick Kwon, Year 10, Noro As inferred from the quote ‘we’re changing the world by technology’, the 21st century obtains a colossal amount of information from various sources. People tend to grow with different experiences, altering each personality accordingly. Undoubtedly, the process of perceiving or experiencing gets easier and faster as world trends have been changed. It has been an obligatory task for people to receive newly updated data. From public news to private conversations, information can be simply transferred, expanding individual perceptions. But why has information become such an integral part of humanity’s process of acquiring knowledge?

To understand this, one must recall the fundamental methodologies in which the intellectual progress occurred for the human race. The enlightenment thinker John Locke (1632–1704) held that the human mind is a blank slate at birth, ready to be written over by sensory experiences. Over the centuries, this idea of information flowing ‘inside from the outside’ has lost much of its appeal, with experiments making it clear that perception involves dozens of mechanisms, actively shaping stimuli rather than passively receiving them. As people ‘shaped’ their thoughts, each personality changed accordingly. Many studies indicate that people form unique perspectives as they get older. Then at some point, it stereotypically becomes fixed in one’s mind, confirming the whole view point. Although such beliefs can disseminate optimistic influence among society, it can pessimistically delude one’s mindㅡmaking their false beliefs unamendable.

Psychologically, people do delude themselves with the activation of ‘defense mechanisms’. The ‘defense mechanism’ is a system which is rooted from the people who try to justify the circumstances or to make right decisions in most situations. At this point, the human brain emits high levels of dopamineㅡthe neurotransmitter which makes us feel happy. This process leads to the delusion of mind, where one justifies their choice by deeming it to be the best decision available for them. Due to the significant influence of ‘mind delusion’, psychologists diagnosed this as a mental disease. Delusion is categorized in three parts: bizarre delusion, non-bizarre delusion and mood-congruent delusion.

A bizarre delusion is the mental disease that is expressed from the people who believe implausible ideas.

For example, diagnosed patients frantically believe being cloned by aliens or having their thoughts broadcast on TV. It is often caused by excessive attachment to TV or video games which can create the illusional things on one’s mind. Patients with bizarre delusions find difficulty being part of society as others neglect them. In contrast, non-bizarre delusion, though false, is at least technically possible. These delusions usually involve the misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences. Non-bizarre delusion simultaneously accompanies the obsession towards a particular subject. Although it is not truly happening, it is possible to occur in the real world theoretically.

Moreover, as inferred from the word ‘congruent’, mood congruent delusion occurs when the individual’s reactions or emotional state intervene in the conflict with a real situation. Patients get more vulnerable toward this psychotic feature when they experience emotionally depressing circumstances. Although the themes of delusions are clearly described in the operational diagnostic criteria for mood-congruent psychotic symptoms, the concept of mood congruence inevitably involves ambiguity. It was regarded as an incomprehensible mental state, since personal sentiment hugely influenced the mood congruent delusion. Statistically, mood congruent delusion is deeply linked to the 21st life style which involves instantaneous gratification and solitudenal feelings.

Psychologists are now exploring the field of delusions and supporting patients. However, social stigma around mental diseases hinder the development of psychological treatment. Thus, in order for more of these delusions to become unveiled, perceptions towards mental diseases must be altered into caring for these individuals rather than perceiving mental delusions as negative or petty outcomes of disorder.

Optical Illusions

By Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Minseo Cha Optical illusions, more appropriately known as visual illusions, involve visual deception. What people see doesn’t match the image generated inside the brain. When humans look at something, what they are really seeing is light, specifically light from a light source that bounces off whatever they are looking at and enters the eye. The light is then converted into electrical signals which the brain turns into images. For some illusions, it is extremely difficult for the brain to focus on everything in the view at once, so the brain takes shortcuts by simplifying what is seen, forming visual illusions in the brain. There are also illusions which the brain attempts to fill in details that don’t actually exist. There are three main types of optical illusions: literal, physiological, and cognitive illusion.

Literal optical illusions occur when our brain fills in gaps that don’t actually exist in the actual image, which creates an image in the brain that is different from the real image. The brain focusing on specific areas of the image results in our eye perceiving something that isn’t actually there. A famous example of literal optical illusion is the picture of an elephant that has feet and then feet without the elephant’s legs.

Unlike literal illusions which the brain fills missing parts of an image, physiological optical illusions are the result of excessive stimulation on the eyes and brain of bright light, tilt, size, colour, movement etc. The brain is confused by the various stimuli and takes time for it to understand the actual image, which causes people to perceive impossible pictures. Examples of physiological illusions include after images following bright lights–the excessive exposure of the eye to an image leads to the retinal photoreceptor cells to continue sending neural impulses to our brain even after stopping looking at the image.

Cognitive optical illusion is the most complex type of illusion out of the three illusions. Cognitive illusion often leads to unconscious inferences of images, and it assumes that the illusions generally arise from the interaction of a person with the world. Unlike other optical illusions, the inferences made are often actually not within the image itself, but rather result from the brain’s subconscious thoughts and how it links one object to another. The common four types of cognitive optical illusion are ambiguous illusions, distorting illusions, paradox illusions, and fiction illusions.

Other than these three types of illusions, there are countless other illusions that don’t fall into these three categories. For instance, a photographer David Morris captured an astonishing sight of a giant tanker floating above the water as he looked out to sea off Cornwall, UK in March 2021. This is an optical illusion named a superior mirage. Superior mirages occur in cold atmospheric conditions and are often seen in the Arctic. The illusion is due to temperature inversion–the refractive index of air depends on its temperature. The lower the air temperature, the higher the refractive index of air, making the ship appear in a higher position than its real position. This illusion can produce far-away objects at different altitudes; here a distant ship appears above the water, but in hot temperature objects below the horizon can become visible.

How do people have a perception of death?

By Elroy Hong, Year 8, Sarah Edited by Shona Hyun Park, Y10, Noro The view of death is bound to influence life, an indispensable and unavoidable conclusion to the course of life.

Consequently, our view of death is important in that it affects not only the subject of death but also our life.

If that’s the case, is death merely an emotional contribution of fear? Plato, a Western philosopher, thought the following on death: “Only when we die will we get the wisdom we desperately desire. We will be pure when we get away from the stupidity of the flesh, and we will know all the pure truths that are not contaminated.” Our body has a limit in which we are not able to get to the true truth and wisdom, due to being immersed in desire and temptation. Death is not the object of fear but the object of liberation and freedom. The necessary thing in our lives before death is to make efforts to live the rest of our lives more meaningfully by acknowledging the very existence of death that is with us constantly.

It is the embodiment of things that demise that is moderately undetectable. Lots of creatures die that we can’t see, insects and bugs passing on underground, dead cell structures, creatures dying in the timberland or in the ocean. We are now and then upset to see an enormous dead creature close to the expressway since we are not used to seeing these passages. Death and dying is a natural and unavoidable process that all living creatures will experience at some point in life, whether it is one’s own personal death or the death of a close friend or family member. When we hear of death for the first time, it makes us sad , even devastated, as it is the last and final step that person will take upon this very planet. If people lived an eternity on this planet, there would be lots of people on Earth. Earth is a small place where lots of people live together.

Death can make people learn. Currently, Covid-19 has been a massive problem, causing millions to die. By this death, we can learn a couple of things. As more people died from Covid-19, a political plan will exist. When the Chinese government was the first to find Covid-19, almost no other counties knew about it, but now, with the number of confirmed cases increasing, governments are changing their policies. In the past, merely a year ago, almost all of the people in the West didn’t wear masks due to the reason that wearing a mask would make them look like a criminal who harms society. After Covid-19 became a bigger problem, all of the people who viewed masks as a negative thing, changed their thoughts. Even though they thought masks made them look criminal, they are obligated to follow a new law making mask-wearing compulsory to aviod the potentially terminal consequences.

Death is not a very sad and scary thing that people need to get embarrassed about, some people’s perspective is different. Similar to my writing, the positive outweighs the negative. Of course, death is not a very light topic to discuss but death could make a big difference. As I said, death can change politics, therefore, it encourages people to think and learn about it. We can’t help it but one thing that is absolutely sure is that we can see death everywhere.

How do people perceive information nowadays?

By Joanna Ryoo, Year 10, Sarah Edited by Andrew Cheon, Year 12, Halla East How does technology influence our perception of the world? With their birth, babies gain perception of the world through what they see, hear and experience. Before the era of technology, people used to perceive information purely through their senses. However, such a process is heavily influenced by prevailing social media, especially for the younger generations. The input of experience and meaningful information results in decisions and actions. Perception enables us to develop an understanding of the world, people around us, and even ourselves. We perceive establishing relationships with people and learn who we are. Thus how we perceive the world and ourselves is highly significant in our lives.

Social media is where people are exposed to information and where they form their own opinions and perceptions. But is this truly our own opinion? Wonderful and meaningful systemic changes are happening around the world because of social media platforms. For example, they reunited lost family members and found organ donors. But people are naive about the flip side of the coin.

In the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, students learn to build the psychology of what persuades people into technology. Persuasive technology is a type of design technique used to modify someone’s behavior. It aims to make someone do a particular action. One example of this is photo tagging. If one receives a message saying one is tagged in a photo by a friend, it is natural for that person to click on the message and look at the photo.

It is not something that one can decide whether to ignore or not because it is a deep-seated human personality.

So Instead of making the message contain the photo, tech companies hide the photo to drag people in and grow activity.

Companies like Google or Facebook use scientific A/B testing of small feature changes. This is where they would conduct lots of little experiments with users. By running the experiments constantly, they developed the most effective way to manipulate users. Facebook conducted a massive scale experiment on “how do we use subliminal cues on Facebook pages to get more people to go vote in the midterm elections?” As a result of this experiment, they discovered that they were able to do that. This leads to the conclusion that social media affects real-world behaviors and emotions without ever triggering the user’s awareness.

Today’s technology, especially smartphones, has a huge impact on people’s development of the sense of self. On average, American teenagers spend 7 hours and 22 minutes on smartphones. As children are more and more exposed to social media it starts to dig deeper into the brain stem and take over the child’s sense of self-worth and identity. Their happiness and self-perception are formed and judged by other people’s reactions. A girl named Isla, in the documentary Social Dilemma, is an example of this. Her perception is altered by other people’s reactions. She becomes more and more dependent on social media and loses the power to live independently with her own thoughts. People post their stories and pictures about their lives on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. They curate their lives around this perceived sense of perfection because they get rewarded by hearts and likes. However, these are really short-term, fake and frail, popularity that leaves them with more vacuiousness and emptiness. People compare themselves to unrealistic images on social media which they believe they should look like. They compare their true image with a filtered or doctored image that is unattainable. This can lead to dissatisfaction with their appearance and their view of themselves.

Comparing themselves to others on social media may have become an unintentional habit people have picked up. However, it is negatively affecting their mental health. There has been a gigantic increase in depression and anxiety for American teenagers beginning right around the turn of the last decade. The number of teenage girls out of 100,000 in the USA who were admitted to the hospital because they harmed themselves was stable until around 2010 and then began to grow rapidly. There was a 62% increase in girls between the ages 15 to 19 and a 189% increase for girls aged 10 to 14. Similarly, there was an increase in suicide rates as well. For girls aged 15 to 19, there was a 70% increase compared to the first decade of the century and the preteen girls who had very low rates, to begin with, increased by 151%. This pattern points to social media because in 2009, social media became available on mobile.

Information is distorted and leads to public polarization on social issues. Social media can influence perceptions and twist them, forming certain attitudes, and motivating behavior. Platforms like Facebook give different customized information about a certain topic to each person. They use algorithms to analyze people’s behavior and feed them with similar information to reinforce their behavior and ideas. This means that people are simply operating on different sets of facts. Therefore, people are no longer able to consume information that contradicts the world view that they created. Each person has their own reality, and their own facts as people accept the reality of the world they are presented with. Since everyone in their news feed sounds just like them, people gain a false sense that everyone agrees with them. This makes it easier for them to be manipulated the same way people would be manipulated by a magician. People think that they are making their own perceptions, but they are not.

For example, on November 7, 2004, the hashtag pizzagate was created which was the idea that ordering a pizza meant ordering a trafficked person. As the group got bigger on Facebook,

Facebook’s recommendation engine started suggesting to regular users to join pizzagate groups. So if a user had indicated to Facebook’s algorithms in some way that they were willing to believe in conspiracy theories, Facebook’s recommendation engine would serve them Pizzagate groups. This eventually resulted in a man showing up with a gun deciding that he would liberate the children from the basement of a pizza place that did not actually have a basement. There is an MIT study that fake news on Twitter spreads 6 times faster than true news.

This leads to the conclusion that social media is a system that biases towards false information and changes what billions of people think and do.

People have to think about how companies in the tech industry work. There are all these services on the Internet that people think of as free. But they’re not. They are paid for by advertisers. They pay in exchange for showing their ads to users. The users are the products. their attention is the product being sold to advertisers. It’s the gradual, and undetectable change in their own behavior and perceptions that is the product. It is the only possible product there is for them to make money from. Changing what people do, how people think, and who they are.

As Jazayeri, a professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences says, “social media is here to stay and is a new reality we have to contend with. The question is, how do we find balance?” People need to be more prudent in using social media. Rather than letting social media control us, we have to control our usage of social media and find balance in the world of advanced technology.

How science and technology have changed comfort, convenience and safety

By Kevin Kang, Year 8, Noro Edited by Shona Hyun Park, Year 10, Noro As science helps human beings evolve and develop better technologies, science is indeed the most important part of our human society. The progress in science and technology is evident in the evolution of human beings.

As science and technology have developed, the quality of life for human beings has definitely increased. For example, people used to take lamplights whenever they were going outdoors in the dark. Today, people have no reason to light their lamplights since there are street lamps outside. These lamps functioned from the usage of gas, which required a person to light each night, but changed to LED bulbs, a highly luminous and cost-efficient method of brightening a dark evening.

The three main things that the evolution of science and technology made in our lives are safety, resource-saving, and convenience. Resources are saved to use in some other area, for example, I would have used paper and pen to write this piece of writing a long time ago, but now, we are using our computers, and data systems instead.

Scientists and inventors created thousands of safeguarding inventions that are protecting us even now. Therefore, our daily life also became more convenient. For instance, nowadays we have locks, so we are assured that we are safe inside our rooms or houses with door locks. Thus, we can keep our important objects safely within the locking system.

The development of science helped develop the medical system. As technology develops we can use robotics in the medical system. For example, robotic surgery has made significant progress and lots of hospitals are using robots for operations. Robotic surgery was first used in 1983, and the first surgical robot was called the ‘Arthrobot’.

Robotic surgery’s efficiency was better than the human operation. Robotic surgery can accomplish very delicate operations and, according to Dr.Anthony M.Gielow, the benefits of robotic surgery are smaller incisions, lower risk of infection, shorter hospital stays, less pain and/or blood loss, faster recovery times, minimised scarring and less reliance on narcotics during post operation periods.

As technology in the medical system developed significantly, the time used for getting medicine and receiving the prescription has also reduced. Another thing that science has developed is the production of medicine. A long time ago, people used to make medicine with many different plants that helped our bodies to heal and be healthier. But, now the medicines being produced in the factories are taking an important role. The Covid vaccine was developed very quickly by different groups of medical scientists worldwide.

Another important uprising due to technology is the Mass media. Nowadays, almost everyone is sending messages to their friends and sharing their photos using mass media. This is very different from the communication from a few decades ago. In that time, the people wrote letters. It was quite difficult to send messages to someone in a short time and the letters were delivered by someone else.

The development of technology and science generally made our lives convenient. Now we can live longer with a better medical system and in a safer world. People take this convenient world for granted and they are likely to think in this way in the future as well. In the past, people could not have imagined our current lifestyles and we think that the people’s lives in the past were indeed poorer. Additionally, we are reminded that our convenient lives could only have existed now with a lot of people’s sacrifices in the past, so let’s be optimistic and be thankful for the people who sacrificed for our convenience.

How do Babies Perceive the World

By Lewina Moon, Year 8, Mulchat Edited by Miss Seo, Mulchat Gap Neuroscientists are developing an ability to understand how the human brain is organized to recognize faces or scenes. But how? What are these networks and where are the regions of our brains they occupy? Or do babies develop their reactivity over time? Three-month-old babies do not talk very much. However, they have the skills to recognize two objects as being the same in different environments and lightning. Neuroscientists have tested 42 babies, based on how long infants lingered on the image to check if it’s similar or different, and they now know that babies will tend to look for longer at novel images. According to Japanese studies, they have a skill that recognizes the same object for being in different environments and lightning. So they are more likely to notice differences in images such as illumination.

According to Susanna Martinez Conde, a neuroscientist at the State University of New York, ‘this means that when babies are born they are highly responsive to all sorts of variation in the world, they have what is known as high-level discrimination.’ So, as we grow up, our discrimination skills became narrow and we are left with only a constrained range of differences we can appreciate. Additionally, Martinez Conde reported, the illusion of constancy is an evolutionary adaptation that enabled early humans to survive by allowing us to realize important objects despite changes in our physical environment.

In this article, I will explain differences in how babies perceive and understand the world around them. First of all, babies perceive the world with self-control. For example, they watched an adult demonstrating how to make several noise-making toys. Then, another adult came and shouted and scolded to make a big noise, angrily. After the demonstration, the babies were welcome to play with toys, but half of them were angry, like the second adult, and they turned away. Mostly, babies don’t hesitate with toys, but babies in the second group waited first, and then played with the toys.

Additionally, babies could sense the difference between their native language and foreign language. If they heard a foreign language, they sucked the pacifiers for a very long time. According to researcher Patricia Kuhl, “the vowel sounds in the mother’s speech are the loudest, and the fetus locks onto them.” Moreover, they’re tuned to each other’s emotions. For example, two pairs of babies, one 5 months old babies and the other 3.5 months old babies, sat in front of one monitor each. That monitor shows two baby facial expressions, smiling and frowning babies. Then the scientists recorded the audio. One is a happy baby and another one is a frowning baby. When they heard the happy audio, they looked at the happy baby and when they heard the sad and frowning baby audio, they turned to the frowning baby monitor screen.

Finally, babies have the ability to develop an impressive mastery of sign language for 6 months. The history of it started in the 1800s, and William Dwight Whitney, a professor linguist, remarked on the superior communication abilities of their children, while studying the deaf community. However, Whitney did not discover any further until it was rediscovered in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Dr. Joseph Garcia realized that the six months old children were communicating with their parents using sign language and when they were nine months old, they had substantial vocabularies. What surprised Dr. Garcia was that babies, now 12 months old, started to say a few words, and when they were two years old, they posess simple vocabularies. After that, Dr. Garcia started to teach signing to adults who are not deaf. In the 1990s, research findings improved a lot. Professor Linda Acredolo and her partner Professor Susan Goodwyn researched together at their university. They even won a series of NIH grants about BSL (Baby Sign Language). They continued conducting the first comprehensive baby sign language research and discovered a lot of benefits as a result: less frustration, a larger speaking vocabulary, and a twelve IQ point advantage. In the 2000s, PBS began running the Signing Time Series. BSL has also been winning prizes from professionals, an endorsement by the American Academy of Pediatricians. PBS helped over 2,000,000 babies in over 190 countries learn the baby language.

In summary, babies perceive the world differently from adults and this is demonstrated in results which are self-controlling, recognising the differences between their own and foreigners’ language, tuning in to each other’s emotions, and sign language development. Babies have the power to see and realize what they’re doing and thinking.

What is synesthetic condition and how can it change the way of perception?

By Michael Hwangbo, Year 12, Halla North Edited by Warrick Kwon Year 10, Noro When we think of the ways of perceiving, the first things that come to mind are the sensory organs. You perceive external stimuli through your sensory receptors including eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin. Your brain then processes the information and either can respond to the stimuli or could save it as a knowledge in your mind. The majority of humans have a similar extent of sensory perception. If others can sense something, there is a high possibility that you might sense it as well. But what if you have an extraordinarily specialized or developed sense organ? Can you dramatically sense better than others? Are there some people in the world with super senses?

Will the supersense only benefit you?

This article will be exploring two artists with distinct forms of synesthesia, and how such conditions affected their inspiration and ability to perform. Furthermore, I would like to make a personal evaluation of whether this extraordinary condition only benefits people or society.

You might all have heard of Pharrell Williams, a superstar musician. This gifted man has produced a number of masterpieces including HAPPY, FRONTIN’, and DROP IT LIKE ITS HOT using his unique sense. He has a perceptual phenomenon called ‘synesthesia’, in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary stimulation in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. For instance, a synesthetic person can visualize combinations of colours while listening to music or can visualize a shape when hearing a particular note or pitch. This particular type of synesthesia (sound to colour) is called chromesthesia. Pharrell Williams has a medical condition which, for him, translates auditory information or stimulus into a visual phenomena. Pharrell himself says: “There are seven basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. And those also correspond with musical notes…White, believe it or not, which gives you an octave is the blending of all the colors…

Colors are light in the electromagnetic spectrum. For every color, there is a sound, a vibration, a part of the human body, a number, a musical note…”

“What gives me meditation is the shower. When I get in the shower, because of something called sensory deprivation, when one of your senses is being blocked, it allows your mind to wander and be imaginative. So when I’m in the shower, the water blocks out the sound, so it makes me imagine things.”

Another well known person with synesthesia is Geoffrey Rush, an Australian actor born in 1951, participated in various masterpieces including Pirates of the Carribean series. Rush has two types of synesthesia; grapheme-colour and spatio temporal. Grapheme-colour is the most common form of synesthesia: slightly over 1 percent of the global population live with this condition. These people see individual letters of the alphabet and numbers (collectively referred to as graphemes) “shaded” or “tinged” with a color. While different individuals usually do not report the same colors for all letters and numbers, studies with large numbers of synesthetes find some commonalities across letters (e.g., A is likely to be red). Another type of synesthesia that Rush has, Spatio temporal, is also referred to as Spatial-sequence synesthesia (SSS). Those with spatial sequence synesthesia (SSS) tend to see numerical sequences as points in space. For instance, the number 1 might be further away and the number 2 might be closer. People with SSS may have superior memories; in one study, they were able to recall past events and memories far better and in far greater detail than those without the condition.

Other than the types of synesthesia introduced above, there are still 54 other forms including emotion to pain/smell/touch and smell to sound/tastes/touch etc. Research suggests that there is one person with the condition in 2000 people and that the majority of people with synesthesia are not aware of their condition initially.

This means that there is a mere chance that you or someone close to you has such a condition. If you feel like you are having some symptoms of synesthesia (involuntary perception shifts, sensory triggers that consistently and predictably cause interplay between senses), you would like to utilize the gift to develop yourself in various aspects either in the academic or field of art.

The anecdotes of the two artists mentioned above suggest that synesthetic conditions have given them support and inspiration. However, many people with such conditions suffer from general stereotypical views of them within the society. For instance, people might experience ridicule at the hands of their peers. Children without synesthesia will often find a synesthete’s descriptions of their experiences to be strange or threatening and react through shunning or criticism. Thus, it can be seen that the cost of having a unique way of perceiving things is that they need to live in societal prejudice on them, which could be highly stressful.

How society perceives rap music

By Minju Kang, Year 10, Jeoji Edited by Eileen Kwak, Year 12, Halla East The history of rap dates back to almost 2000 years ago. Back then, stories were told rhythmically over a simple drum sequence among the storytellers in the world, which later developed into a significant culture. This altered into unique versions for different ethnic groups. This initial form of rapping was modified by the African American communities after the 1960s, mainly in Bronx, New York City. Although it is unclear exactly when rap music was introduced to the world, it is undeniable that modern rap began as a genre along with the New York “DJs” sampling percussive beats based on disco, funk, and soul. The 1970s and 80s allowed DJs to thrive, including the rise to fame of the MCs. They initially formed record labels that expanded the potential of those artists to dominate the mainstream music scene, such as Billboard. The hip hop culture significantly transformed, and the 1980s became known as “the golden age” of hip hop. The genre of hip hop music became even more commercially successful, becoming the top-selling music genre by the late 1990s.

Rap music has become a crucial part of youth culture. However, a recent study by the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, California, suggests that teens who listen to rap and hip hop are more likely to go through underage drinking and show violent behaviour. This research was not ignored by the public. There are different perspectives of how people view the culture of hip hop, and most of them are created through the social images that rappers portray in our society. According to a poll published by the Pew Research Center in 2008, more than 70% of Americans perceived that rap had an overall negative impact on society. Indeed, some rap songs do glamorize destructive behaviour such as crime and abuse of illegal products. When rappers write lyrics about political issues, they often receive a flurry of backlash. In the album ‘Revival’, the American rapper Eminem strongly censured Donald Trump and was immediately reprimanded by many listeners including his fans. This caused many listeners never to listen to Eminem’s music again. This gave a negative impact on the culture itself because Eminem dealt with a controversial issue in his song, which offended the people who opposed his viewpoints. Not only through their music but their behaviour also harms the reputation of hip hop culture. Recently, the Spanish rapper Hasél has been sentenced to two years in jail and a fine of £26,000 for his lyrics and comments going beyond the limits of free speech and were instead expressions of “hatred and attacks on honour”. Such behaviours are inappropriate, which degrade the value of hip hop culture, along with the title of being a ‘rapper’.

Be that as it may, the reason why rappers make such music is quite simple. 21 Savage, an American rapper, has mentioned in his song ‘Nothin New’ that when he writes provocative lyrics, he is trying to “feed my family, ain’t being political”. Through this phrase, it can be suggested that the only way rappers generate high revenue is by producing provoking lyrics in their songs. 70% of the rappers come from impoverished backgrounds and intentionally include vulgar and explicit content in their music to grab attention. This shows that rappers are simply trying to do what they can to earn money, just like any other profession. Those unsavoury lyrics may contain violence and incitement, but some argue that this is a characteristic of ‘gangster rap’ among the lower genres of hip hop and this does not represent the characteristics of the entire hip hop genre. Referring back to what 21 Savage mentioned, acknowledging the fact that the song, which some view as rude and irreverent, maybe one’s way of producing revenue.

Though some songs do indeed glorify illegal activity that is found at alarmingly high rates in impoverished communities with low income, plenty of songs chastise these issues and critique the causes. Many songs that highlight and criticize issues in our society are disproportionately popular, which indicates that these messages are heard and noticed by the public. As hip hop music is becoming one of the most significant genres in the music industry nowadays, the dispute over how rap music influences listeners is rising as well. Whether it is unsuitable or not, rap music itself is enjoyable.

Public Risk Perception and Insights for Environmental Policymaking

By Minseo Cha, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Miss Hannah Seo, Mulchat Gap The social structure in the world continuously creates new environmental problems. Human intervention in nature has never reached as large a scale as it has now. Environmental problems that are obvious today include hazardous materials and wastes, global warming, the degradation of water resources, and the destruction of forests. Problems that arose as a result of human intervention in the natural environment have brought about risks that threaten life on Earth. In this regard, risk can be considered as a social structure that needs analysis, communication, and management. The main component of identifying and managing risks is risk perception, an idea that is most often used in the context of threats to the environment or health such as natural hazards.

Risk here is the likelihood of the undesired side effects of an action or an event associated with incidents that have undefined origins and signs. Risk perception refers to the adoption and evaluation of sensory perception and information about risks in an individual’s mind. Risk perception is important since it determines which hazards people care about and how they deal with them.

Unlike the point of view of science and technology, the perception of risks by non-experts is usually not objective. For experts, risk is equated with the expected average loss or damage per unit of time. However, non-experts perceive risks as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon. The public relies on what is called intuitive heuristics when presented with a large amount of information on a topic that is concerning and requires weighing up to reach a conclusion about relevant risks. Heuristics are quick, informal methods that the brain uses to generate an appropriate answer to a problem and allows us to make sense of a complex environment in a short amount of time. While they are sufficient for reaching an immediate approximation, they are often not rational, optimal, or perfect, resulting in bias.

For example, as a result of the availability bias, people are more likely to perceive an event as more probable if they can recall or imagine it easily. This means that an individual who experienced a flood is likely to see one as highly probable in the future. Likewise, personal experience is an important factor in the perception of the level of risk, and reminders of certain risks in the media can also have an impact. Another significant bias is that members of the public tend to overestimate the potential for exposure and extent of a hazard. This implies that even when the collected scientific evidence is in agreement that the dose or concentration of a substance is below the threshold of causing harm, the public may still assume that any exposure is harmful. Nuclear power, for instance, is seen as involuntary and uncontrollable by individuals and as having a high catastrophic level, leading non-experts to think that nuclear power possesses high risk. Risk is also perceived differently based on the historical, social and cultural content.

Extensive research on risk perception clarified people’s innate biases and how cultural, social and emotional factors shape public’s risk perception. There has also been an increasing awareness of the growing role environmental risk plays in people’s lives, highlighting the need for the government to tackle environmental risk perception. This leads us to question if public risk perception should be incorporated into the design and implementation of environmental policy.

It is debatable whether the public’s perception of risk should be taken into account by policymakers. In the past, it has been suggested that policies should be based on the best expert estimates even if the public’s view differs from the experts only as a result of biases, as any other actions may be costly or put lives at risk. However, risk management is different to risk calculation and is a process that requires value judgements of benefits and risks. Therefore, neither individuals, policymakers nor scientists have a greater right to assign such values than other members of society.

Although scientific risk assessments can provide the best estimates of the myriad environmental risks humanity faces, understanding the way the public perceives risk is key when determining if the risk is worth taking as a society. Hence, environmental risks should be analysed considering how people assess and react to them, and the identification of public perceptions of environmental risks should form the basis of an effective strategy for environmental risk management.

Alice in Wonderland, the Perception of Reality

By Shona Park, Year 10, Noro “I’m late, I’m late!” It is not usual to see a white rabbit with a pocket watch disappearing through what seems like an endless black hole that ends up to, well, who knows what or where? But what is more nonsensical is that a rabbit talks! Through the wondrous and most bizarre rabbit hole, landing in a land full of illogical creatures that grow and shorten in a matter of time, it seems like a mere fantasy. However, what if I told you that these fantasies can happen in real life? You suddenly sense that the objects around you shorten or tower over you as if you tried one of those ‘eat me’ cakes or magical mushrooms that caterpillars offer you. This all depends on perception, how you balance out dynamically between reality and mentality. Perception takes place in a field of dynamic forces trying to sustain the cognitive balance between the perciver’s personality, beliefs, and perception. What we perceive is the situation itself and we can define perception as a fair balance between reality and mentality. Yet, it is not sufficient to only consider mentality nor the reality as both ingredients in this balance must be weighed carefully. Or else we could end up with a syndrome known as the “Alice in Wonderland syndrome” (AIWS). The name of the symptoms seems very childlike and adventurous, however, this disease is considered something extremely serious which alters the way you see the world, as in changing your perception of the society around you.

AIWS is a rare neurological disorder characterized by distortions of visual perception which disorientate body image, the experience of time, and so on. People with this syndrome see things around them smaller or bigger than they are, feel their own body altering in size, or any of the syndrome’s numerous other symptoms.

AIWS includes heavy migraines, perturbation, and nausea as some of the initial signs of the possible syndrome.

However, from this syndrome, we can see that the perception does indeed go far beyond our prognosis. It may affect all sorts of body functions such as limb controlling and discoordination, frequent memory losses, lingering sensations, abnormal hearing, and emotional instability. However, this is just a minor case of initial body malfunctions resulting from the AIWS, and this all comes down to perception.

The frequent mention of the word perception summarizes the whole concept of AIWS. The distortions in visual perception can be broken into micropsia, macropsia, pelopsia, and teleopsia - objects appearing smaller, larger, closer, and farther from the original place and size. AIWS mostly messes with the vision of a person with a false, disoriented perception inserted in their brain. To put it into easier words, hallucinations and illusions are examples of the perplexed faulty visions caused by the abnormal perception. In one case a 17-year-old boy described his symptoms as: “quite suddenly objects appear small and distant or large and close. I feel as I am getting shorter and smaller, shrinking, and also the size of persons are not longer than my index finger. Sometimes I see the blind in the window or the television getting up and down, or my leg or arm is swinging. I may hear the voices of people quite loud and close or faint and far. Occasionally, I experience attacks of migrainous headache associated with eye redness, flashes of lights, and a feeling of giddiness. I am always conscious of the intangible changes in myself and my environment”. This indeed seems not like a wonderland in which Alice arrives due to her unsuppressed adventurous curiosity but rather an extremely unpleasant land.

The boy also comments upon the constant disturbances in his sound perception during the interview. This voice is a common one and often an experience that occurs within the patience as a form of paranoia. These disturbances encompass misinterpretation in amplifications of mundane sounds but go further as a person may be affected by the loss in the sense of time, a lack of partial perspective brought on by visual distortion.

Distorted sense of velocity is the direct result of reoriented perception in terms of the lack of time and space perspectives. Just to clarify precisely, one would be inching along ever so slowly in reality but you might be sprinting uncontrollably along a rapid-moving escalator. It seems monotonous but this is the very start of the discovery of the AIWS. Dr.Todd was the first to discover this disease. As he was working shifts in the Hospital at Menston in West Yorkshire he realized that some of his patients were experiencing severe migraines making them suffer an alteration of the sense of time, touch and perceptions of their own body. This led them to medical procedures and vast check-ups but the result was unexpected. None of the patients were suffering from brain tumors, damaged eyesight or mental illness that could be held accountable for these symptoms. They were all able to make a sensible judgment, accept the reality lucidly, being able to distinguish it from the hallucinations, but their perceptions were distorted. This was how the AIWS was brought to the world.

The reason this piece of writing was read in the first place would probably be the word that caught the most of your eyes, “Alice in Wonderland”. So other than the distorted perceptions how is this symptom came to be addressed by its name? The reason for that is because of Lewis Carroll. Other than the reason that Alice, the titular character who experiences multiple life thrilling events all involving micropsia, macropsia, pelopsia, and teleopsia and the descriptive details on the misshapen perception that are thoroughly narrated throughout the novel, is the very first of depicting the bodily distortions associated with the perception lenses gives significance, even naming this particular disease by its name. It has also been suggested that the author of the novel, Lewis Carroll has been suffering from a severe migraine which became his key motive and the true inspiration of his infamous book.

By now we can presume that the symptom is indeed troublesome in formulating our normal life. Imagine the curtains moving on their own and feeling like the bedframe is ten times smaller than you. It is not a pleasant sort of wonderland that even courageous people would favour exploring. So how can we get rid of this disease that likely seems horrifying to live with? Unfortunately, there hasn’t yet been a standardised treatment or cure for this syndrome. It is still left for us to explore this infinite rabbit hole that might lead us to something after all.

I Spy

By Warrick Kwon, Year 10, Noro Edited by Minseo Cha, Year 12, Halla East Nazi-occupied France was not a desirable place to live in.

The city was nothing close to the Paris that we know now, largely due to the fact that most of the features we imagine today, such as Parisiennes finishing their day with a glass of wine sitting in a terrace café along the Seine, were absent.

Yes, of course, the Seine still traversed the centre of the city. So the Arc de Triomphe, which still stood firm at the end of the Champs Élysées. However, the city once renowned for its freedom and beauty was now covered with ugly swastikas all around the corner and was ruled by dry, emotionless German soldiers and a powerless puppet of Nazi Germany, known to us as Vichy France.

As depressing as this may sound, it is perhaps this gloomy world which gave birth to the intellectual powerhouse of the twentieth century, the existentialists.

Although we may not be familiar with the details of their philosophies, for most of us we remember existentialists as skeptical, critical people who spent their days having heated discussions about society and the meaning of life. ‘Why do we live?’, ‘Is there a meaning to life?’ are some of the profound questions that existentialists asked.

Or maybe, if you are not familiar with this, you might remember them through the obscure, disturbing literature pieces of Albert Camus and Franz Kafka such as «L’Étranger» and the «Metamorphosis». However, despite popular belief that they were a group of angry men and women who had much to complain about the world they were living in, a closer look into the philosophy of these intellectuals reveals the fact that they had greater things in mind.

Existential Philosophy So what exactly did they believe in?

In principle, the existentialists believed that we create essence through existence.

In order to understand what this abstract sentence might mean, one must gain some context regarding the history of philosophical thought. Ever since the Cognitive Revolution ... one must differentiate the Cognitive Revolution from the Cognitive Revolution. The Cognitive Revolution was an intellectual movement which started during the 1950s as a response to modern consumerism and the fading of individuality. The Cognitive Revolution, however, originates 70,000 years ago where humans acquired the ability to become aware of the ‘self ’ - the lifelong challenge in which no philosopher was able to come up with a conclusive answer to was this reason of being: ‘Why am I existent in this universe, and what has necessitated my existence?’

To answer this question, the philosophers preceding the existentialists conveniently argued that their existence had an inherent meaning making this the essence of their life. Since they were heavily stressed about the essence of an individual’s existence, the people today have named them the essentialists. Prominent examples of these thinkers include the great Western philosophers of human history such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. However, this was where the two schools of thought dissented: existentialists did not believe in the existence of an inherent essence in life. Rather, they believed in the notion that a) nothing has necessitated your existence but you strive for purpose and meaning anyway, and b) that to find this hidden purpose is the ultimate project of each individual.

Known as an absurdist point of view to life, existentialists perceive the world that we live in to be an absolutely meaningless one. In other words, the world that we live in does not have an inherent meaning nor an ironclad social order which all individuals must unconditionally adhere to as they all are simply artificial constructs from those of the past. However, this does not mean that we might as well abandon everything that we believe in and declare that the lives that we struggle to survive every single day, are basically nothing. This would be highly unintuitive. Human beings are natural creatures that strive for meaning; hence why, even to this day, the world still relies on the paradigm of Essentialism that places some form of universal standard so that we could live our lives while not totally collapsing all together.

Rather, the world that we live in is a repeating cycle for the search of the subjective truth and finding the authentic direction to living life. Thus, each individual - not society or religion - is solely responsible for giving life meaning thereby living a passionate and sincere life. Hence, we can conclude that although existentialists may have looked like cold-hearted, rebellious troublemakers with weird eyes and mustaches, they were actually humanists whose affection towards humanity made them wholeheartedly contemplate over how people could live better, meaningful lives.

On the Relevance of Perception But then amidst this discussion of existentialist philosophy, where does perception come into play?

The unique role that perception plays in the task of finding meaning in life is that perception acts as a foundation for all of this mental process to occur.

In order to find meaning and one’s own purpose, one has to know what best lights up their passion. To do so, one has to know and gain insight about the surroundings of their life. Since perception is de facto how we think of our surroundings - e.g. what I think of a certain issue, how I delineate good and bad, etc - the formation of my authentic stance through perception is the crux of finding the answer to my life. Ergo, an existentialist would not only argue that perception exists, but they would argue that it plays a crucial role in discovering the project of our lives.

So far, we have looked at perceptions as a means to an end: regardless of whether ‘perception’ exists independently of itself, we need perception to achieve something.

But let’s look at perceptions as an end, i.e. let’s look at what perception itself is, if it were to exist.

In this section, I shall prove the existence of perception in two ways: a) I will first point to the absence of an unconditionally applicable truth which necessitates an alternative method of viewing reality: perception, and b) I will then deduce the existence of perception via the Cartesian method of metaphysical enquiry which primarily investigates the nature of perception and its cause of existence. Doing so, I shall allude to the essentialists’ claims previously in regards to the existence of truth and an objective standard towards evaluating the soundness of individual perception. Finally, to evaluate, I will conclude why existence, due to all these reasons, necessitates perception.

On the Accounts of Subjective Objectivity There is no truth.

As unintuitive and rebellious as this statement might sound to you, it was unsurprisingly one of the existentialists’ favourite arguments to make as they were generally skeptical of the existence of an objective, universal truth.

Rather, they saw society to be the product of a myriad of lenses which could

easily have been differently interpreted if it were for the occurrence of different events. Society was just a product of each individual based on the subjective experiences of reality they faced, i.e. as everyone’s world was inscribed inside their own bubble, the realms and the limits of individual experience was what defined one’s own society, not some objective, absolute set of axioms that answered every single question of that society. Thus, in a world where truth was non-existent, existentialists thought that all attempts to find an absolute truth via experience or reasoning were nothing close to such a telos; instead, these were practices that strove to find the subjective truth.

Yes, I have used the word truth after declaring that there is no truth.

However, the concept of a subjective truth is nowhere near to the idea of an absolute truth that most of us are familiar with. Subjective truths are logical propositions or arguments that are owned or appropriated by your authentic self so that it has some sort of meaning to you. This concept of awarding authentic meaning and significance in the course of discovering the truth is the crux of the concept, as this enables individuals to form their own viewpoint and opinion about an issue. To elaborate, when people try to find the subjective truth, not only is the practice just a matter of discovering objective facts, but the most important part is about how one relates oneself to these matters of fact and how one relates with others who share this conception and notion. Naturally, the choices we make whilst trying to relate ourselves and society to the truths that we have found, e.g. choices to decide which to and not to believe in, defines who you are and further explains how you view the world. This is because the choices one makes during the project of finding the truth is ultimately a sublimation of one’s commitment to a certain notion as they are “taking hold” onto one’s life by following their passion and reason of what they decide to believe in.

As unfamiliar this concept may sound, the idea of ideological support for a statement to be accepted as the truth is not a new concept. Anthropological intellectual progress has always been a struggle between the thesis and the anti-thesis: the thesis being pre-existing truth statements and the antithesis being the newly proposed discoveries. In the centre of this continuous struggle was the support of the people. For knowledge to exercise power and influence upon the belief systems of mankind, it must not be enclosed inside a dark room: this has hence been the case for the history of mankind. Something so distant, so nonsensical to the common mind, and so abstract that it is nearly impossible to construe is rarely considered to be the ironclad truth as they are oftentimes not accepted by the modern man, no matter how close it is to the actual truth. In essence, an existentialist would argue that society is composed solely of perceptions since there is no objective truth to things and the decisions to embrace these perceptions as the subjective truth define who you are and your macro-level perceptions towards the world as a whole.

On Substance and Being: The Existential Imperative It may not be entirely appropriate to refer to the philosophy of Descartes in an article that discusses existentialism, as existentialists were against everything that rationalists such as Descartes argued for. However, one idea that Descartes raised is crucial to answer the question of perception and subjectivity. Descartes argued that a substance would only be considered substance if its cause of existence is contained in the substance itself. In other words, a pen is a pen because the ultimate purpose that a pen fulfills: writing something, is the inherent nature of a pen, and what makes a pen a pen. The same standard applies to perception as well. Perception, what we previously concluded to exist, must contain the cause of its existence in the substance itself: the telos of perception must be expressed as part of its characteristics.

Here is where the question of subjectivity again comes into place. As previously discussed, given that the subjective world gave birth to perception, it is logical for such a product to be subjective as well. Simply put, if perception exists because there is no objective truth, it is wrong to say that there is an objectively right perception we should strive for as well. Such evaluation of others’ perceptions to be right or wrong is also a product of one’s perceptions just like Jean Paul Sartre concisely summarises it into: “There is no right or wrong.

Only our thoughts and perceptions make it so.” Thus, all perceptions must be equally credited and acknowledged in a world where the essence of perception lies on the idea that everything is subjective. This answers the question of cultural relativism and whether or not we should accredit these cultures due to the simple fact that they are different from us, again showing how the ‘perceptions’ of existentialists remain to resonate within our world to guide us through living a more meaningful and harmonious life.

Until now, we have examined the concept of perception through the perspectives of an existentialist. We have looked at perception as an apparatus to guide us find our teleological project as well as stepping back and looking at the meta: the innate existence of perception necessitated by the absence of truth up until the idea of accepting perception, acknowledging the existence of a myriad of different possible perceptions which can and must all be considered worthy of acceptance. Now the question is up to you: what will you do with your life? What meaning does it have, if it has any and what will you do to fulfill this purpose?

Perception is reality

By Aileen Lee, Year 12, Halla North Edited by Melanie Kang, Year 12, Halla East Each individual has their own perception of reality. The implication is that because each of us perceives the world through our own eyes, reality itself changes from person to person. While it’s true that everyone perceives reality differently, reality couldn’t care less about our perceptions. Reality does not change to adapt to our viewpoints; reality is what it is; reality is truth; reality is fact. What makes us see the world differently is our perception.

When it comes to advertisements, perception is reality. About 72% of people say that the reputation of a company or product can impact their decision to buy or not. Before buying, about 61% of consumers conduct some research online and 43% of those read online reviews and opinions. 4 out 5 consumers will reverse their decision based on reviews they read online. Advertising is an important way for a company or organization to get the word out about a product or service and grow a customer base, which usually translates to increased sales and higher profits. The psychology of advertising includes many different elements such as visual appeal and message, but one of the major factors to keep in mind while creating an advertisement is perception.

Without perception in advertising, businesses may find it harder to make their products appeal to consumers.

Advertising often works by appealing to consumer tastes, desires, fantasies and wants. The perception in advertising relates to a consumer’s impression of a particular product or service, which may be impressionable and more ephemeral, and may not be rooted in truth. Nonetheless, perception is still an important tool in advertising to make consumers feel like they can be a certain person, look a certain way or feel a certain feeling when using a specific product. For example, a beer commercial set on a sunny, tropical beach may make you feel that you can relax and unwind if you drink the beer. One major element of consumer perception related to advertising is exposure. Exposure consists of how often consumers are exposed to a product. Perception is often based on how “exposed” people are to the ads around them. For example, if you aren’t shopping for a home, you may not notice home ads on television, billboards and in magazines. On the other hand, if you are actively searching from home, you may “tune in” more when you see home directed ads. This affects whether the ad in question will grab your attention and allow the next step of perception to take place.

Do people really change their perception of reality due to the publicity that brands create through the adverts?

A soda commercial you saw on a bus stop, using a thin movie star drinking the product, may skew your perception of the brand and what you may look like after drinking it. Advertisers use various techniques to appeal to consumers. That includes testimonials, celebrity and influecer endorsements, fear, and the bandwagon effect for instance.

And they are all used to achieve the same goal - changing consumers’ perception. Content marketing, for instance, is the one that has enormous potential to influence an individual’s perception. These are made informative, relevant, and applicable to consumers’ specific needs. Once the adverts alters consumer opinion, even slightly, it means that the brand behind the advertisement has altered the perception of reality.

There are also some other ways you can go about altering your consumers’ perception of your product. You could appeal to base emotional perceptions of a particular product by incorporating symbols or story lines into your ads that touch on specific emotions. For example, if you own an instant pasta company, your ad may revolve around a mother cooking the pasta for her kids, which may encourage your customers to perceive that your product is as good as a home-cooked meal. Another way to alter consumer perception is by using the bandwagon approach, which involves making customers feel they are “missing out” on something, they are not part of the group, if they don’t use your product. Another type of advertising is informative. For the informative advert, it is important to keep up to date with correct and valid informative content for their customers so that consumers can view their company as a credible and reliable business. For instance, as health concerns became prevalent in the U.S., the Corn Refiners Association sponsored a campaign to show corn syrup in a positive light; people who encountered those advertisements may have shifted their perceptions of the health risks of high-fructose corn syrup after watching one of those advertisements.

However, adverts sometimes unintentionally give displeasure to people. The Italian ice-cream company ad, featuring a heavily pregnant nun enjoying a pot of Antonio Fedirici ice-cream with the strapline “immaculately conceived”, has stoked controversy. People were divided into two groups, those who are offended by this ad and those not. The offended have complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that the ad mocks the virgin birth of Jesus. While they demand punishment for advertising blasphemy, Matt O’Connor, creative director at the ice-cream company, argued that it is an “intelligent, challenging and iconoclastic piece of advertising”. He claimed that the ad just “tells a deeper story”, satirising the “horrific stories involving thousands of pregnant Irish women enslaved by the Catholic church in convents and who had their children taken away from them by nuns because they were seen as ‘moral degenerates’”.

Hence, perception has a heavy influence in advertising, thereby helping to effectively promote a company’s goods and services, and create a publicity of the brand. Still to this day, the most significant role of the advertisement is in changing viewers’ perception. Perception allows us to view the same world in different ways. Reality does not change to adapt to our viewpoints. Reality is truth, and what varies in our world is our perception.

Perception is reality.

How Inefficiency can Beat Efficiency

By Ain Lee, Year 11, Mulchat Edited by Aileen Lee, Year 12, Halla North The clock on the counter-facade of the Florence Cathedral runs anti-clockwise. Built in the 15th century, it registers the ‘hora italica’, the 24-hour system that associates the beginning of the day with the time of sunset.

This type of clock used to be convenient to determine how many hours were left in the day. There is no particular reason why the standard clock has come to run clockwise. Clocks that ran clockwise happened to outnumber the ones that ran counter-clockwise, and accordingly, people have become accustomed to using them.

‘Qwerty’ is the keyboard layout that is most widely used in the present day. ‘Dvorak’ is an alternative keyboard layout that is actually much easier and more convenient to use. Qwerty was designed so that the keys that people normally press in succession while typing are far apart from each other so that they would not jam. Dvorak was designed to increase typing speed and efficiency as an improved version of Qwerty. However, Dvorak is rarely used today since Qwerty has become the standard layout.

The common preference of Qwerty over Dvorak exemplifies the network effect, a phenomenon in which the value of a product or service depends on the number of buyers, sellers, and users.

The Macintosh computer model was considered to surpass the IBM computer in quality and design by many critics when it was first launched in the 1980s. However, sales soon dropped rapidly and the Macintosh started to fall behind in the market, eventually leading Steve Jobs to be forced out of Apple in 1984.

An important factor people consider when deciding which computer model to buy is whether people around them use that computer model. This may be because it is more convenient to ask those around them whenever they have problems with their computer. People are also able to trust the quality of the product if they have seen that their friends or family have been using them.

It is a common perception that ‘efficiency’ always wins, but examples of the network effect demonstrate that this is not true. People often choose to use inefficient products simply because other people are using them.

Logical fallacies

By Alex Kim, Year 12, Halla North Edited by Kevin Lee, Year 12, Halla East “I can either choose physics, maths and chemistry HL to become an engineer or I won’t be able to get a job and will slowly starve to death on the streets.”

This is one example of a kind of reasoning some people go through, in the case of NLCS Jeju students, this mostly happens during year 11 when making IB choices. Many students, therefore, choose to take subjects that they are not good at or do not enjoy for the sole purpose of becoming an engineer. Despite the fact that many people find this kind of reasoning to be valid, it is illogical in many ways, involving multiple logical fallacies.

The black and white fallacy, also known as the false dilemma or false dichotomy, is where you are seemingly provided with a choice where you can only choose one or the other when there are more choices that can be made. In the example above, the first part of the statement,

“I can either choose to become an engineer or I won’t be able to get a job” is an example of the black and white fallacy. This is untrue as the speaker disregards the many job choices one can have and concludes that he can choose to be an engineer or not. The real choice would be something more like, “I can either choose to become an engineer or a teacher or a doctor or a businessman or … or I won’t be able to get a job” The next fallacy shown in the statement above is the slippery slope fallacy where the speaker assumes that one event will lead to another and continue on to a major, usually negative, event. In this example, the speaker’s major event is “... starve to death on the streets.” This is certainly not true. In fact many people are jobless in modern society and do not necessarily starve to death on the streets. Of course, the chance of you starving to death on the streets will increase significantly if you do not have a job for long periods of time, but this does not necessarily lead to starvation.

“They’re losing their lives everywhere in the world, and maybe that’s a question you should ask China.

Don’t ask me, ask China that question, okay?”

Above is what the former US president Donald Trump said to a Chinese American reporter when she asked a question about the covid-19 crisis in the US. The question contained criticism against Trump in how he was dealing with covid-19 poorly and why he continued to brag about himself in front of the press. Donald Trump is famous for how logically flawed he is and how he continues to not answer questions.

Overall, the statement is using a strawman fallacy. This is a simple concept, where Donald Trump has basically twisted the words of the criticism posed by the reporter and used it against the reporter. By doing so, he is avoiding the question asked and is taking the heat off himself, attempting to put the reporter on the stand. The problem with this is a) that it is poorly done and had made the press anyway, and b) that it is misrepresenting the reporters argument which many see as perfectly reasonable.

The section of the answer, “They’re losing their lives everywhere in the world…” is an appeal to emotion.

The section of the statement itself is true, covid-19 is killing everywhere in the world, but it has nothing to do with the question by the reporter. When considering the question, Donald Trump would want to suggest that he is actually dealing with covid-19 legitimately and would back up his points with solid evidence or he would admit to his flawed policies and apologise. His answer does not fulfill either one of the two as he does not have any rational reasoning for any stance he is choosing to take.

Beware of using logical fallacies either yourself or when listening to someone else.

How do hallucinogens change our perception?

Written By Andy Cho, Year 8, Jeoji Edited by Alex Kim, Year 12, Halla North Hallucinogens can cause us to see, feel, and hear images, sounds and textures that do not exist in the real world.

It tricks us into thinking that certain things are happening when they are not. It does this by temporarily severing the neurological connection that the brain has with the spinal cord. This allows the hallucinogen to make images and sounds that are not real since the brain is only getting it’s information from the drug rather than the central nervous system. Until the hallucinogen fades out, the connection will not return and thus, the correct information from the central nervous system will be altered and sent to the brain.

First, more about the spinal cord. The spinal cord houses the central nervous system and transmits all of the sensory information that the brain uses, transmitting all of the brain’s orders. The spinal cord is protected by three layers of tissue: the Pia mater, the Arachnoid mater, and the Dura mater. It is also protected by thirty-three pieces

of vertebrae along with disks of cartilage that absorb force. This forms the spinal column, and the spinal cord runs along it. Hallucinogens interfere with the spinal cord so that the brain gets a different sensation than what is happening in the real world.

But how do hallucinogens affect the brain directly? Recently scientists have realized that hallucinogens may affect some chemicals in the brain, one being serotonin. Serotonin affects mood and consciousness. The way this affects these 2A receptors changes our perception of the world. Serotonin receptors show in many sensory parts of the brain like the cortex, which is where a lot of our sensory information is processed. Hallucinogens input signals of their own down these receptors which mingle with the mainstream of information and change how we see the world. For example, LSD causes us to see rainbows of colors that change how we see. The sky might have been originally blue but under the effects of LSD and other hallucinogens it could turn into other colors like red or green.

While hallucinogens affect various areas of the brain, its effects are localised to the pyramidal neurons in the 5th layer of the somatosensory cortex. Pyramidal neurons make up for 75% of the neurons in the cortex, and they look like pyramids. They are the primary output neurons of the cortex and mainly reside in the internal pyramidal layer of the cortex, or the fifth layer. Hallucinogens affect the fifth layer since that has a high level of activity and it affects the surrounding cortex and subcortical areas.

There are two types of hallucinogens. The first type is classic hallucinogens and the second is dissociative hallucinogens. Classic hallucinogens affect an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which affects mood, cognition, and perception. Some hallucinogens also affect the neurotransmitter serotonin, which regulates sleep, hunger, mood, body temperature, and more. These allow for classic hallucinogens to input incorrect information and feelings to the brain. The spinal cord cannot send correct information into the brain, and so people hallucinate and perceive their surroundings differently than normal. Long term effects can be persistent psychosis, which can cause effects such as paranoia or disorganized thinking. The hallucinogen taker could also have hallucinations later in life.

The second type of hallucinogens, dissociative hallucinogens, can have rather serious consequences in high doses. Short term effects include numbness and disorientation; short term effects with high doses, however, can include memory loss, seizures, psychotic symptoms, amnesia, and paralysis. Certain dissociative drugs can also be addictive, one example being phencyclidine. If someone keeps taking dissociative drugs they can experience long term effects that can ruin their life.

Can someone overdose on hallucinogens like other drugs? It depends on the hallucinogen. Overdoses are when someone takes enough of a specific drug in one go that they face serious adverse effects. An overdose is more likely with some dissociative hallucinogens. Overdosing on classic hallucinogens doesn’t tend to have life-threatening consequences but can result in very unpleasant experiences. On the other hand, a dissociative drug overdose may lead to seizures, comas, and death. Since hallucinogens can change a person’s mood and thoughts, both types are still dangerous. For example, someone overdosing on hallucinogens could find themselves having suicidal thoughts and acting on them.

However, can you be addicted to hallucinogens? Hallucinogen addiction is rare but still possible, and there are two types; physical addiction and psychological addiction. Physical addiction can make people more tolerant to certain hallucinogens. Tolerance leads to people needing more of the same drug to have the same high, sometimes leading to overdose. Withdrawal symptoms are also a sign of physical addiction, with a wide range of effects and duration that change per drug. The symptoms are physical and mental, including sweating, poor concentration, an increased appetite, muscle pain, depression, and increased blood pressure.

Psychological addiction takes place when someone feels the need to take a certain drug more every day. While physical addiction can manifest itself in the form of withdrawal symptoms, psychological addiction instead makes people feel it mentally. They want the drug, and want it more. It makes people go to extreme lengths to get the drugs. Psychological addiction may not affect the person’s body directly but it does make the chance for an overdose higher, while making them ignore everything but the drug they are addicted to.

Overall, hallucinogens manipulate the senses by affecting certain parts of the brain. This can lead to addiction and overdose, which is always horrible and can lead to death. As hallucinogens affect the senses they harm our bodies, making short-term and long-term effects appear. Don’t use hallucinogens. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/hallucinogens-dissociative-drugs/how-do-hallucinogens-lsd-psilocybin-peyote-dmt-ayahuasca-affect-brain-body Last accessed: 23rd February 2021 https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/hallucinogens Last accessed: 23rd February 2021 https://www.neurosurgery.pitt.edu/centers/neurosurgical-oncology/brain-and-brain-tumors/about Last accessed: 23rd February 2021 https://www.msdmanuals.com/en-kr/home/brain,-spinal-cord,-and-nerve-disorders/biology-of-the-nervous-system/spinal-cord#:~:text=The%20spinal%20cord%20is%20a,the%20rest%20of%20the%20body.

Last accessed: 23rd February 2021 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-hallucinogens-play-th/ Last accessed 9th March 2021 https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/cortical-cytoarchitecture Last accessed 9th March 2021 https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/hallucinogens/ Last accessed 16th March 2021 https://www.americasrehabcampuses.com/blog/what-happens-to-your-body-during-drug-withdrawal/ Last accessed 16th March 2021

Perception in Physics

By Annette Cho, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Aileen Lee, Year 12, Halla North Perception is like a universe in our heads. The universe of physical objects obeys the laws of physics, so physics provides guidance for designing and interpreting experiments. The most exciting experiments go beyond the guide but reach beyond acceptable science. Are the concepts of experimentation and perception driven by physics?

Physics sets limits on what is allowed as far as possible for a physical object; however, if the redemption turns out to be wrong, the guide-book may have to be rewritten. This was so for Galileo’s challenge to Aristotle’s physics of motion, including, it is said, dropping different weights from the leaning tower of Pisa and finding,

contrary to Aristotle’s guide-book, that they fell at the same rate though the weights were different. Galileo and Newton rewrote their guidebook on kinetic physics and proposed another physics that successfully took humans to the moon. But, not all surprises rewrite accepted science. In practice, this rarely happens. Marconi’s radio signal, transmitted across the Atlantic in 1901, seemed impossible with the physics of the time, as it became known that it was impossible to orbit the Earth because radio waves traveled in a straight line. But as a result, this incredible success did not break the law. It triggered the discovery by British physicist Oliver Heaviside reflecting an ionized layer in the atmosphere, which sent radio waves around the Earth while observing known laws to obtain a guidebook. The story of the ether was of course very different: waves traveling impossibly in nothing!

Sometimes described as the most basic law, the second law of thermodynamics puts the arrow of time into the Newtonian equation and makes the machine of perpetual motion impossible. So here is a legal law based on physical laws. Perhaps Einstein was the only patent investigator who did not see the Second Law as magic. Over the centuries, many laws have changed as physics withdrew from mystic notions and practices. For example, something like a law requiring witches with dangerous powers to cover and lock church fonts to prevent stealing holy water. This law was removed when the power of holy water was considered limited by the laws of physics.

This brings us back to the subject of the last two perceptual editorials, which concluded that cognitive phenomena could violate the laws of physics. So physics doesn’t seem to be a reliable guide to cognitive theory. The specific evidence considered was some well-known phenomenon of distortion illusions that appeared to violate Curie’s principle that asymmetry in symmetry cannot be systematically created. Most of the illusions, such as Marconi’s 1901 experiment, are amazing, but they don’t violate the book of rules because their explanations are within the allowed physics or physiology. Again, like Marconi’s 1901 experiment, they can expand their understanding by proposing new courses within accepted science. Most science certainly points out surprises and uses unexpected phenomena to see what’s going on within accepted rules or laws.

Physics is a generally useful and really indispensable guide, even if it suggests finding a new path when the path isn’t clear. Accepted science encourages new ideas, but sets limits on how strange this can be. However, cognitive concepts have gone beyond acceptable science, as are generally beyond physics. So, because psychologists were eager to make their science respectable, there was the charm of behaviorism that dominated American psychology for more than a decade. There is a conflict between the safety of following a respectable guidebook and the danger of jumping into a conceptual universe that never becomes a respectable science.

Galileo’s thoughts were of this kind of danger. The dominant Aristotle physics was useless because Galileo’s experiments on motion were outside or beyond the physics of the time. His ideas came back to respectable physics-based science when the guidebook of accepted ideas was rewritten to include them. The current drama of perceptual science is that cognitive phenomena seem very important, but they violate physics-based physiology. They demand a concept beyond an accepted guidebook to explain it. It’s dangerously magical, or somehow unscientific.

At least before the advent of computers, these concepts seemed magical. When physics-based machines began to compete with human cognitive tasks and beat us in chess, both machines and humans seemed to be enchanted by magic. We make computer science admirable at the magic of cognition, simply because computers are clearly based on physics, but the rules and laws work effectively with symbols, not physics. Of course, it’s not even the grammar rules of human language. It is as much to linguistics as computer science to make cognitive concepts respectable.

What should we find if it is true that cognitive illusions can violate the laws of physics, especially Curie’s principle? The prediction for AI is that even computer software that follows similar perceptual rules should be able to violate physics by creating asymmetry in symmetry.

Physics-based computers must be able to create the impossibility of physics because they operate according to the rules, not the laws of physics, and since the physiology-based brain performs every minute of every day for perception, especially when perception deviates from the physical. A world with cognitive fantasies. This means that cognitive machines, our own brains, and information technology exist on their own. Not limited or guided by space physics. Artists all know this.

How does virtual reality influence your perception?

by Austin Ha, Year 8, Sarah Edited by Bonnie Hyun, Year 12, Halla East There is a huge Virtual Reality boom going on around the world. You see VR everywhere; in youtube, your friend’s house or even in the classic arcade we’re used to. For example, I went into a busy street in Seoul and walked around for about 10 minutes. I saw about 8 places that are made for playing VR. It has become a huge field of business activity. Every famous technology company wants to have a big proportion of the VR field.

However, many people are concerned about the side effects of overusing VR. Sure, there are some side effects of VR such as nausea, headache and virtual fatigue but, here, we will take a look at the effects that VR plays on our perception of reality, including the positive effects. Let’s look at the commonly known ways that VR is being used and the effect it has on our perception of reality.

While VR is most commonly used for entertainment, it is also used to treat severe PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Because experiencing a dangerous situation in VR won’t affect the physical body at all, a feel-for-yourself method is being used (also known as exposure therapy). After the treatment, patients usually cure their PTSD if not, the trauma lessens. This is most famously known in the case of American soldiers and their cure after they had been on an expedition to Iraq or Afghanistan. The cure method was highly successful and people saw the opportunity in the future of other VR cure methods. As an example, VR provides a safe environment while treating anxiety, phobias and depression.

However, there is a big rumour going around that VR can cause brain damage. There is no scientific evidence that it can cause brain damage. However, the artificial environment created by VR does have some effect on our perception. Unlike reality, in the virtual world, the brain doesn’t create a mental map. However, in every environment, artificial or natural, the brain can orientate in this environment. Some factors that affect it are: smell, touch, taste and sight. VR can give or relieve stress, just like real life. If we do not perceive we are inside VR, we feel exactly the same in real-life. However, if we are certain that we in reality, VR experiences beforehand does not affect our experience.

Human relationships in VR are important as well. Just as before, it is important that we perceive that the avatar we’re meeting in the VR is a real human or not. It is nearly impossible to differentiate between humans and NPCs (non-player characters) created by VR. Therefore, VR creators use a sign to show whether the “thing” that the user is looking at is a human or an in-game source pre-created by the creator.

To sum up, the brain acts and functions in a bit of a different way when it is in virtual reality.. The brain is not damaged by VR and, indeed, VR can have some positive effects besides its application in the gaming industry.

Public Perception on Climate Change

By Bonnie Hyun, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Annette Cho, Year 12, Halla East South Korea conducted a survey on the Awareness of Environmental Problems in Korea named “Are you an Eco-people?” to check the perception of Korean consumers about the environment and look back on the numerous warnings that the Earth has sent to mankind.

When asked what to prioritize and what to give up between the economy and the environment in the past, the government, businesses and many people prioritized the economy. As a result, Korea has achieved remarkable economic growth, but the reality is that the environment is always on the back burner when setting policies.

However, as the times have changed in the 21st century and environmental issues people realize are continuously changing, public perception of them is also changing.

Then, what do people think about the environment on the occasion of World Environment Day? To begin with, the environmental consciousness of the people has increased significantly compared to the past and their minds seemed to be affected greatly as they encountered various environmental pollution problems through social media such as broadcasting and newspapers and social networking services (SNS). On top of that, as the government has come across various policy efforts to solve related problems, the idea of the environment is gradually changing.

Specifically, 72.4% of the people said they were “very interested in the overall environment” in 2018, with 7 out of 10 people showing high interest in the environment. It was part of a trend increasing from 51.4% in 2014 to 53.6% in 2015, 54.4% in 2016 and 54.4% in 2017.

On the other hand, fewer people are indifferent to the environment. It is a natural result compared to the gradual improvement in environmental awareness, but 0% of the respondents said they were “not interested at all” in 2018, which is significant. 1.5% of the respondents said they were not interested and 8.9% of the respondents combined, down 7.5%p from the previous year.

This public awareness of the environment can be seen in other statistics. According to a survey conducted by Greenpeace regarding the recent April 15 general elections, 7.7 out of 10 voters said they were willing to vote for candidates or political parties that offer pledges to cope with the climate crisis. In particular, 83.3% and 83.2% of voters in their 40s and 50s were high, but 76.8% in their 60s and older, 75.5% in their 30s, and 67.6% in their 10s, respectively. In other words, it is proving the people’s increasing environmental awareness is gradually increasing. What government wqill do with this is a matter for voters to keep pressing for.

How technology is helping blind people perceive the world

By Jungwoo Won, Year 10, Noro Edited by Stella Yeom, Year 12, Halla East Inability to see the world is a considerable hardship. It is currently estimated that there are more than 250 million people worldwide registered as visually impaired. There are various kinds of visual impairment that impedes patients from perceiving the world as others do. ‘Blurred vision’ causes both near and far to appear to be out of focus. Loss of central vision creates a blindspot and makes it difficult to read and recognize faces. Loss of peripheral vision is the inability to distinguish anything to one or both sides or anything directly above or below eye level. ‘Generalized haze’ causes the sensation of a film or glare that may extend over the entire viewing field. ‘Extreme light sensitivity’ exists when standard levels of illumination overwhelm the visual system, producing a washed out image or glare disability.

Those without any visual impairment aren’t always aware of the difficulties the visually challenged encounter everyday; difficulty in finding one’s way, balancing your body with some effort, and asking others for help to read texts. Since the early 1800s, when Charles Barbier invented a tangible language called ‘night-writing’, commonly called ‘braille’, the life of blind people has improved noticeably. However, braille is merely some protruded dots on a surface. The irony with this technology is that it is difficult for the blind to actually locate where their ‘navigation’ is. Although learning the braille code is relatively simple, it takes a while to train your fingers to sense the dots only by touch. In the United States, fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million people who are legally blind are braille readers.

Additionally, blind people face the problem of unemployment. Since there is a difference between the achievement of blind people and the full sighted, it is difficult for a blind person to land a job - even with stellar qualifications. Research shows that a blind person with an associate degree is statistically less likely to be employed than a sighted high school dropout.

Technologies are being developed by scientists designing a range of techniques to support blind people. Microsoft’s ‘Seeing AI’, an application coded to give help to people with low or no vision, enhances the world around the user with rich audio descriptions. This artificial intelligence has the ability to read a handwritten note or scan a barcode, then tell the user what the product is. If you point a camera in a particular direction, the application will tell how many people it can see and where they are in the image - center, bottom right and so on.

Another technology is ‘smart glasses’. Researchers at Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates are working on the development of a set of smart glasses that can use AI to read texts in front of a person. Moreover, it provides navigation information and can potentially identify faces. The glasses are connected to a smartphone through a processing unit, allowing the system to function without an internet connection. Ajman University announced that the reading accuracy rate is approximately 95%, even though smart glasses are in the early stages of development. Despite the sophisticated technology and accuracy of the device, engineers and scientists are still obliged to resolve some technical issues that would hinder it from functioning properly - for example, when sudden temperature changes cause foggy lenses the program’s ability to properly perceive and read is not ensured.

Furthermore, on rainy days, light would be refracted by the water drops on the lens’ surface, causing a distortion in the image. Preventing errors and making the technology easily accessible, are the two main challenges.

As bluetooth beacons are improving, they are recognized as an upcoming solution for blind people in finding their way. We think of lighthouses when we say beacon and, similar to the lighthouse locating a specific place in the sea for boats, bluetooth beacons act like highly precise, personalized guides for people with visual difficulties.

An example of this product are the bluetooth beacons used by the company Foresight Augmented Reality. While basic GPS technology can take users to a location, beacons mounted in a store, restaurant or public building can guide them to the entrance. They are small, wireless transmitters that use low-energy Bluetooth technology to send signals to other smart devices nearby. It makes location-based searching and interaction easier and more accurate. When the user enters the building other beacons installed can direct them to important facilities such as bathrooms. The technology itself has lots of applications and potential - some functions were available when the beacons were first introduced. An enormous advantage beacons have is that they are relatively inexpensive in comparison to other technologies, so businesses large and small can adopt the technology with very little risk.

Inventions are useful, but simple adjustments can also make the life of blind people more convenient. For example, some people claim that electric cars should have electric vehicle noise generators attached to prevent car accidents. Blind people have to rely on sound to detect any vehicles approaching them. Electric cars have been a problem since they almost make no sound. If a blind person isn’t aware that an electric car is coming, there is a higher risk of an accident. Another example is allowing guide dogs in all restaurants. Blind people are often accompanied by guide dogs which navigate their way, and some face difficulty in finding a restaurant to eat as several restaurants prohibit entry to people with dogs.

Without actually having visual impairment, it is difficult to fully empathise with people who have, yet we should always be aware of the challenges blind people face everyday and try to help their situation.

Mutation

By Kristie Youn, Year 11 Edited by Mr Davies, Halla North Warm February was just the thing he needed to end his horrible winter; he tried his best to enjoy the walk with his family in the soaked park, not dry enough to be enjoyed nor wet enough to be romantic. Broken leaves gave disgusting squelches as he walked on them, step by step along with his sister. His mother was going up ahead of the group, skipping down the road like she was a young girl in her teenage mood, clicking pictures with her camera. She smiled at them and clicked at the rest of the family, who waved reluctantly at her enthusiasm. He was really hoping his mother would soon ask them whether they wanted a hot cup of chocolate in a nearby cafe when his sister put a hand to his shoulder as his mother does. He smiled: finally, had his sister come up with a cunning plan to manipulate their mother into calling it a day early?

“Yes Sansa, I’ll help you convince mom into buying us hot cocoa.” He was looking at his sister’s face as he spoke, and he got confused as she frowned.

“Tommy, you didn’t have to tell it to me like that, I was just about to call it a day anyways.” Instead of his sister’s chipper agreement, it was his mother’s soft voice that he heard: his sister’s voice came from his front, where he thought he’d seen his mother skipping around.

“When did you two change your positions? It’s not funny, you know, trying to trick people in deep thoughts like that.” He could clearly recall his mother being the jumper and his sister the one next to him… Had he been so wrong? His perplexion was soon driven out of his head by Sansa’s nippy comment.

“We were in these positions since mom bought us the cotton candy, you idiot. Remember to pack your brain when we’re having a family walk next time.”

“I didn’t lose my brain, I’m just tired today. And maybe you’ll need your brain next time if you want to avoid my wrath!”

The siblings chased each other through the slimy park, only for them to fall on the ground, laughing.

Tommy sat on his seat in the class as he waited for his classroom tutor to enter the room: he would know her by her regularity in footsteps. ‘It’s almost ten past eight, she should be here soon or she’ll be late.’ Soon enough, his tutor walked into the classroom with her characteristic click of heels. They always sounded like a waltz, going One two three, One two three, Spin at the Table and Seat. This time, however, she had a different person with her. Tommy focused on his tutor as she began to introduce the newcomer.

“So everyone, this is Dean. He transferred to our school this year, and I hope you all get along with him, help him out. All right? Also, guys, I need you all to listen. Dean can’t talk very well, he has a personal problem with speaking. He has been very open about it, which is very brave of him. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t want any rude or bad business happening in the school, ok? I don’t think I’ll have to warn you about the rules and laws against such actions? Good. It only means he’ll need extra warmth in the first few welcoming weeks. Understood? I’ll be running, then. Jason, help him get to his first lesson, yes?”

There she went, like a light-footed Eastern wind of Spring. A muted student? His luck couldn’t get any worse.

He groaned internally, so as to not appear like he was discriminating-he definitely was not, it was a disgusting act to do so, he knew, he wasn’t sighing because of that: yet anyone would sympathize with him and his situation if they knew more.

Someone who was probably Jason, the captain, walked up to the kid, said some stuff to him, pointed at Tommy and went away with his friends. Great. Looked like Dean was taking math as his first period as well. He’ll have to lead him across the mass of this school and to do so, he’d probably have to hold onto him physically in order to not lose him. He braced himself and quickly started memorizing what his newly-found companion wore and had on himself. ‘Brownish hair, summer-tanned skin, about as tall as me, a plain black bag, same uniform in neat, un-reformed condition, same bloody shoe brand as about a hundred kids in this school… why is this guy so naturally plain? Soon his trance was disturbed by Dean waving to him.

He seemed to say hi, so Tommy decided it would be best to introduce himself.

“Hello, I’m Tommy. You’re Dean, yes? Welcome to school.”

“How was the school so far? That is… for the past ten minutes?”

He waved his hand dismissively, just nodding away as he did so. Tommy could almost hear him say, ‘well, it wasn’t bad. The schools are all the same, you know.’

“Yeah, I guess. People all feel the same, at least. Anyways, you have math first as well, yes? We’ll have to cross the River of Kids, so you’d better actually hold on to me to not get swept away.” Very smooth, Tommy. Nice transition to physical holding.

Dean’s eyes widened. That was not unexpected, at least.

“It might sound absurd now, but trust me, you’ll be thankful later when you get into the classroom on time.”

Tommy’s prayer of ‘pleeease help me so that excuse sounds at least somewhat realistic’ was soon answered with Dean’s confused yet amused nod.

“Just hold onto my bag handle when kids start storming out. We’re headed to the second floor.”

‘Lemon tart, he probably thinks I’m a weird outsider by now. Really hope not. Really hope I don’t forget his hair color or his shoe brand.’

Tommy heard the faint rumble of footsteps as the school geared up for the Morning Rush, as they called it. A person who was probably Dean held onto his bag, adding a heavy weight. ‘Here we go. Please, please, brown hair, common shoe brand, neat tie, looks new in general. Let’s not forget it.’

As kids all around the school rushed out, Tommy broke into a semi-run, dragging Dean along with him. Hundreds of students of all age and height jostled about, pushing along the line, desperate to reach their destination as soon as possible to escape this folly. He ignored some waves directed to him, passed through some of his classmates he recognised with a nod, and just rushed on across the school like Moses leading his men to the Promised Classroom of Mathematics. His laughter was silent yet the most animated one Tommy’s ever seen in his life.

He tumbled forward as they entered the classroom, clapping Tommy on the back. He wheezed to a stop next to Tommy, who had been standing there ever since, surprised by this newcomer’s excited fit. Dean nodded his head towards a table and Tommy sat down on his usual seat, Dean casually sitting next to him as if they were friends already. Unlike his usual preference, Tommy was glad he’d done that; he doesn’t have to worry about not being able to recognize him after the class is over if he’s right next to him. He also knew that by the next lesson Dean would’ve found himself a set of friends and not be a bother to him anymore. He could simply stick to his friends with glittery bags and features from that point on.

Mr Chamche, his math teacher, strolled into his classroom with his green suit as other students drippled in, two by three. He greeted everyone as usual, greeted Dean in particular and went on with his lesson.

After eighty minutes, he dismissed them with a curt nod, his signature coolness.

Tommy stood up as Mr Chamche packed away.

“It’s a short break now, 30 minutes. You can do whatever you want, honestly. I’ll give you a tour of the school if you want, but maybe you’d like to socialize more? In that case, go to the hall we rushed past just before and find Jason. I’ll be going, then. Have a nice day.”

Far from his expectations and hope, he was stopped short of doing just that. Dean, with an apologetic look, let go of Tommy’s bag and pointed to himself, then Tommy, multiple times. Tommy sighed and nodded. As it stood, his plan for a break in the library was obliterated now.

15 minutes later, Tommy was trying desperately to drag Dean here and there. They only had 10 or so minutes left, and he was only one floor done. Dean seemed to be inclined to try and join in on any conversation he overheard, which had taken lots of time. He kept darting around, which didn’t help in remembering who he was.

Dean had to apologise and make up stories of why in the world he would call a red-haired girl with long flowy hair, younger and smaller than him, a ‘Dean’. He had to run on that one. Dean laughed it off, thankfully.

The public library was quiet and uninteresting as usual. He half-ran towards the fiction, about to spend a million hours deciding on what to start reading. He slid down against the rows of shelves and just sat on the carpet floor: not a great plan, but it’ll do for now. He was engrossed in deciding between a blue-covered one and a black one when his only library companion Linda came along. His long-time neighbour who had been missing from the library for weeks was extremely happy to see her. She wore a hoodie today, a little unnatural of her, but she had always been the fashionable one between them, he couldn’t question her.

“Hey, how’s life been? Haven’t seen you in a while?”

Linda shrugged and shook her head. He laughed: typical Linda, being as cool and cynical as possible. ‘Minimum movement!’ she used to yell, ‘unnecessary moving is just a waste of your chemical energy!’ He used to taunt her for that.

“I’ve been doing my usual, just pondering between two appealing books.”

Linda nodded at that. It looked like she was up for a longish-small talk: if so...

“You know what, I have something to tell you. Sit down, it’ll be quite a story. See, there’s a new kid in my school called Dean. The thing is, he has some problem with speaking, I haven’t asked him about the topic yet. But you know my problem with new people and faces, the fact that he can’t talk makes it worse, you know?

I hope he drifts away from me as most people do, it’ll be better for everyone. I just don’t want to hurt him myself by saying it to his face, you know. See where I’m going now? I just hope he’s not a mute who can’t even...”

Tommy stopped mid-sentence. Linda had always had blonde hair. Now her hair was brown. Had she dyed it during the weeks? Maybe to match with her boyfriend? He knew her boyfriend had brown hair. Also, she was carrying a black bag. She loathed the colour, saying it was too ‘emo’ for her comfort. Has she gotten over her hate? Good for her if she did, yet…

Then it occurred to him.

“Linda?”

He was met with dead silence.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve mistaken you for someone I knew. I tend to do that when I’m engrossed in reading.

Please excuse my mistake.” Internally, he hit himself on the head. Will this person remember the bit he told them about how he could never actually read because he was too busy selecting the book? This was also a bad situation that happened more often to him than he would’ve liked to admit. Starting conversations with total strangers who look nothing like his friends. He once had an hour-long conversation with a particularly friendly stranger with a black skin tone from abroad about bread and food, while mistaking him to be one of his local classmates who had a white skin tone.

The stranger whom he mistook as Linda sat still, doing nothing. Tommy hoped they would leave soon, he was starting to feel uncomfortable with the tension around him. After deciding he would leave the place himself, he stood up to excuse himself; he was feeling sorry and awkward leaving a stranger, whom he mistook and started a conversation, alone; it’s a human thing, he guessed. He looked at the stranger, and the stranger wore a strange expression.

They were crying.

‘Oh no.’ One of Tommy’s worst fears was coming to life. Making a stranger cry because of his little problem!

The only worse thing that came below this was seriously mistaking his friends for a stranger or someone else.

‘I didn’t think they’d react this violently, I’ve seen some people get upset, but in those situations, they weren’t strangers whom I mistook, they had been one of my… friends.’

The question of “Excuse me, do I know you?” must’ve been the worst choice one could make in that situation.

It left Tommy with: one mystery to solve, one unknown friend to apologise to, one more worry to do and one more school day to fear.

For twenty-four hours, he was only vaguely wondering about who that person could’ve been. To tell the truth, he hadn’t given his best on the mystery, it was just one of those you only vaguely pondered on and never tried to solve. While he was having breakfast, however, the real panic came. At the back of his head, there was a voice going ‘you can just ignore the matter, maybe’, his anti-social gene doing splendid work. His voice kept appealing.

‘You know, you can afford to just lose a friend, it doesn’t matter.’ It does, it will make me feel bad. ‘Yes, but it’s better than just apologising about ‘not recognizing you’.’ ‘If you do, they’ll ask for an explanation and you’ll have to tell them about your problem with faces.’ That was a real problem now. It was going to make him infamous around the school. He was already known for being a quiet kid who befriended only the noisiest ones. He had a sound reason for that, and that he didn’t want people to know.

His family was only just getting used to him being like this. They didn’t hate him, they just had to get used to him. His own family was struggling to not feel depressed and neglected every time he had to correct the terms or names, he had to profoundly apologize when he had to and try his best to express his affection at normal times, could he take it on with school as his subject? He was sure the person would tell it to everyone if they found out since they’ll feel betrayed anyways. He won’t be able to rebuild a friendship with them, so why bother apologizing?

That was what half of his brain said.

He was stressing on the matter too hard, that by the time he went to school, he had a beating headache. He walked into the classroom to find a person sitting in the corner. That was Dean’s seat, so that must be Dean. The typical bag was there as well.

“Hello!”

He was met with a beating silence.

A cold feeling crept up his spine as if it was a foreshadowing a big event.

“Bad morning?” He tried again with a cheerful note. He was again met with silence.

As he was about to sit down, Dean responded by holding up a note.

‘Do I know you?’

The only thought Tommy could have was: ‘oh no.’

Dean did the dramatic 90 degrees turn. His face told everything his voice could not. Tommy was just so screwed up. He hated his life, he hated his luck, he hated his class, his school, chair, table… he hated that he was already graspling for a nice way to apologise. He hated the way that clicked inside his head, that Dean was now one of his few friends he had. He was only writing an introductory sentence in his head when Dean pulled forward another memo.

‘Is it because I’m mute?’

No, please. This was the worst‘I don’t write out my message normally, it feels like I’m belittling myself. But I don’t know how to say this without using either sign language or text.’

All Tommy could do was nod apologetically.

‘Is it because I’m mute?’

Tommy just shook his head violently. He couldn’t speak. How the tables have turned, now he was the one who couldn’t say anything. He just tried to think of something to say, desperate for anything. Dean shook the note to his face. Tommy was torn. It was clear he should apologise. He had to explain everything, from his little problem.

Looking at the clock, he noticed that the lesson would start anytime soon.

An article By Ian Yoon, Year 10, Noro Edited by Melanie Kang, Year 12, Halla East News media is a very important source of information for people throughout the world. There are some news media that are viewed as politically biased from the public and it applies for South Korea too. As the government changes, the newspapers get affected a lot and people also tend to read newspapers that they perceive as the favored one. Hence, in this article I will focus on the views of different media in S.Korea, the change in sales of newspapers over time, and how media comments affect the public perception as well.

To begin with, there are two opposing news media in South Korea that we consider one as a liberal media and one as a conservative media. The liberal media is called “JTBC”, and the main conservative media is called “TV CHOSUN”. I think most of the Korean people will remember the impeachment of President Park in 2017 and in fact, the first media to report the influence-peddling of the president was JTBC. At that time, the control of the media was extreme but they still managed to report this incident and from that point people started to view JTBC as a liberal media. Even after the impeachment they have supported the democrats and the government by publishing news that has titles that aren’t aggressive and the stories also supported the government. On the other hand, TV Chosun are famous for supporting the right-wing parties, for example when they were broadcasting President Park in their channel they described her appearance as “bright as 100 fluorescent lamps” which shows the bias of them. Eventually, people reading these two news channels have a clear perception and people who are opposing the news media refuse to read it just because of perception. These were the main perceptions on news media for Korea, however also in America, there are famous perceptions towards news media.

In America, the best known opposing news media are FOX news and CNN. People tend to have perceptions towards these media and we can easily notice that in the comments that are written on these news channels. Fox news usually supports the Republicans whereas CNN supports the Democrats. Because of these perceptions, ex-President Donald Trump actually refused to answer any questions that came from CNN and called them “fake news”. However, the public have criticized Trump for having prejudice and not being fair to some of the news media. These kinds of perceptions are commonly seen within our daily lives but these perceptions might make people think in a negative way about any other news media as well. Furthermore, it can also affect the sales of newspapers changed over time because of the perception towards news media.

To drive the point further, the actual sale for newspapers were dependent on what type of news media they were, in fact TV Chosun’s sales has increased 21% over the last year. This is because the government, which is from the democratic party, has done very poorly hence it made people support the conservative media “TV Chosun.”

Furthermore, the liberal media JTBC’s sales has been decreasing and other terrestrial channels such as MBC, KBS which are also considered as liberal have been selling less than TV Chosun following the poor performance of Moon government. Therefore, this result shows that the changes of government or the performances of the government affects the news media and people buy the newspapers from where they perceive the ideology they support.

To conclude, the most significant source of information in our society, the news, has various perceptions from the public as we can see from the examples of South Korea and U.S. The newspaper sales were also affected hugely depending on the government’s ideology since all the media has different perceptions and ideologies. Moreover, the comments on these media have made these perceptions even more clearly as well.

An article By Inbae Ahn, Year 8, Jeoji Edited by Melanie Kang, Year 12 When you play any sports you might not think too deeply about how you play, but if you look closely, there are innumerable perceptions. The main perceptions that are relevant are Anticipation in Sport, Attentional Focus, Attention–Performance Relationships, and Automaticity in Sport.

Anticipation in sports is the prediction of the opponent’s action quickly before that action is affected. For example, when you are playing football, you can predict where the ball will be kicked by the opponent’s direction of foot before they kick or you can anticipate based on where they are looking. If the person with the ball already knows that the opponent will use anticipation, you can fool them by pretending like they are going to kick left by dropping their right shoulder, but suddenly just kicking right. Thus, the anticipation can be used better if you are smarter than the opponent.

Attentional focus is focusing all the attention on motor skill. Motor skill is focusing on a certain muscle. It is the use of well learned moves of muscles. For example in boxing, if the player has attentional focus on the arm, the boxer will use his learned skill such as a well practiced punch. A real person who had attention focused is David Beckham, an English football player who kept practicing until he could get a perfect goal. He then scored the perfect goal spectacularly from his own half.

Attention–Performance Relationships is having the ability to think about how you might perform depending on the situation you face by overcoming the pressure to use your fine ability. People who have not developed this skill are said to choke under pressure, performing a lot more poorly than expected given their skill level. It is thought to occur across many diverse tasks. For example, choking under pressure can occur during sport competitions, exams, or public speaking. English football penalty takers are well known for choking, but choking is more apparent in individual sports such as golf, tennis, and darts. In golf, Greg Norman choked under pressure in 1996 at The Masters, Augusta. For overcoming choking, you can have lots of experience performing in front of many people.

Automaticity in sport is being able to accomplish the skills with very little information processing resources. This requires attention and working memory. When the skill is carried out in this form, the player is able to accomplish different tasks just using the information processing resources. Because of this technique, when a player has learned the main skill, he/she can adapt and vary their skills.

Many perceptions are being used in sports. Without those perceptions sports cannot be played well, which results in performance being less graceful. So if you have an interest and are willing to play better, use the perceptions mentioned before and think smart when you play it. If you just pay more attention and show interest in the perceptions, you can improve.

Website: Physiology and Research Reference http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/sports-psychology/perception-in-sport/ (Last accessed 3/22/2021)

Perception through the arts

By Injoon So, Year 10, Sarah Edited by: Seungho Ham, Year 12, Halla East You are creating a lie that you want everyone else to believe, that is creativity. To create a perfect lie, you need to manipulate others’ perceptions. To do so, the creator needs to create the perceptions others feel.

Perception is the ability to hear, see, or become aware of something through the senses. Creativity is the perfect mixture of what we have experienced and the imagination of what could happen. A simple idea can be the first step in creativity. However, a simple idea doesn’t always translate into creativity. To visualize the idea, you need to create the perceptibility you want your viewers to see in your idea. For instance, if you want to write a sad song, you need elements to create sadness in your music. Details are what allows the viewer to create the same perception as the creator in their minds. People have developed various methods to transmit perception to another.

Literature is creating a painting only using words. The author needs to be a precise painter and walk the reader through to create the same painting in the mind of the reader. In order to do so, you are creating a vivid perception that did not happen to the reader nor has been experienced by the reader. J. K. Rowling would be a great example. The creator of the Harry Potter series did not just tell a tale about wizards and magic, instead, she created an entirely new world that did not exist. Her greatest achievement was not coming up with the idea of the story but transforming the idea into a masterpiece that can only be painted by anyone who read her books. She inculcated a magical experience to millions of people. How did she do this? She focused on the smallest details to create the most vivid image of the world that she wanted to make. From character traits and character appearance to the creatures, the school buildings, the classes they take, and even on the hallways. Everything was carefully planned for the reader to visualize the scene. The wording is so precise and visual that it almost feels like Rowling is taking the readers on a campus tour of Hogwarts. You feel the coldness of the building built out of stone bricks. You feel the warmth from the grand dining room. You can taste the delicious food the students are eating. You can hear Hedwig the owl, soaring through the sky. The author is not only telling a story but she is giving us different perceptions to visualize the story in the reader’s head. By the end of the book, we doubt whether magic really exists or not. Actually, we want to believe there is platform 9 ¾ that takes us to Hogwarts.

Movies are another type of media in which a person can deliver one’s creativity and imagination through perception. Have you ever looked under your bed or felt afraid to look under your bed after watching a horror film? or cried during a sad film? or been shocked by an unexpected ending? Whether the film is based on a true story or not, if you said yes to any of these questions, it means you have experienced certain perceptions created by the movie makers. In a horror film, you know that every aspect is fake, you know it is created by the movie producers. Yet, it brings unbearable fear to us while we watch the movie. That’s not the end. Once the movie ends, it can bring one of the most vivid afterimages that will give you nightmares. Moviemakers achieve this by creating a strong visual perception that will be engraved into your memory and creating sound effects that will make your entire body cringe. some grotesque scenes will make a tingly sensation under your fingernails and some of you will squint and look away. The Saw series and the Grudge would be great examples of horror films leaving unforgettable afterimages. Most people would never have experienced such pain throughout their lifetime. However, people know how it feels when you get a paper cut or a small burn from touching something too hot. Based on this prior knowledge, and with the perception provided by the director, you imagine the pains that were described in the movie. In like manner, movies with great twists are blatantly lying to your face. You are being set up to be fooled by the movie. The producers kindly walk you through a path just to throw you into a trap and make you ask yourself what did just happen? The producers are knocking on all of our sensories with perceptions to make us believe what they are showing and telling the viewers. It doesn’t stop there.

Directors use perceptions to bring out different emotions from the audience; anger, sadness, happiness, jealousy, guilt and more. Korean movie director Bong Joon Ho is the master of this. He pours out his creativity and successfully lets the audience perceive what he wants them to perceive. In Parasites, you feel fear, suspense, anger, excitement, and in the end, you will even feel a sense of relief. Using perceptions, film directors are able to make their imagination come alive through the movie screens.

Music is everywhere. When you are on the way to work, walking down the street, dining at a restaurant, or when you are relaxing at a cafe with a cup of coffee, music is everywhere. In the form of music, perception is the tool to tell a story, paint a picture in one’s mind or leave a message. One song usually lasts for about four minutes and within this time: the tone, the tune, the words, the rhythm, everything is perception. Unlike books or movies, the artist doesn’t get thousands of pages or a chance to create a fancy visual aid. Yet, it does not mean music is less powerful than literature or movies. They are always in the range of reach. Artists inculcate creativity into their work. In the sequence of notes, it can turn into different genres like classical, pop, jazz, or death metal. Every piece has its own story and its own perceptions. The perception from the music can play an uncountable number of roles to the listener. Music can change our mood or magnify our emotions. For instance, if you are in a bad mood then you can put on exciting music to cheer yourself up. Sometimes you just want to cry in your bed not doing anything, you can put on a sad song that helps you to cry out your worries and cover up the sound of your sorrow. When you lose a lover or a close friend there are songs that tell a similar story and let you know you are not alone. Music can take you back in time. Music can bring back memories. Perception in music can create strong stimuli in the brain. These short sequences of notes are powerful.

Creativity is not about coming up with spontaneous ideas but rather, not turning off the little light bulb in your head when it lights up. Perception is the medium to connect the idea into its form and structure. Artists use specific techniques, not only to transform a non-existing world into a semi-real scenery but also to recall the audience’s emotions and past experiences. In order to translate the perceptions, the artists have to make the audience feel connected. The sense of connection could be understood as, for instance, a certain affection being understood by others, or certain domination being recreated in a way that the audience perceives it as if they were the protagonist. To achieve the level of perception, certain emotions need to be evoked and subsequently develop into a story. The story could be derived from one’s memory or be associated with an emotional trigger.

The psychological effect of perception is what makes it so coveted.

Dear diary…

By Jian Yeo, Year 7, Noro Edited by Mr.Davies “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired … the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Perception. It is said to be the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses. Black people’s perception. What will it be? What do black people see? How about Rosa Parks? What was her perception?

The world was disastrous; when looking around the street, the only things that could be seen were whites acting violently to the blacks and discriminating against them. Blacks were the mice and the whites were the cats. Just like that. Blacks never became the cats, or the predators of them.

When I was young, most of my life was filled with racial discrimination and, as a result, acitivism for racial equality was strong in our family. I was always teased for my skin colour and sometimes got severely beaten.

Later on, the blacks had to go to a segregated school, we didn’t have something like discrimination there; however, the school supplies were not that ‘classy’. There were literally no desks at all and it was much much smaller than the other schools.

At the age of eleven, I went to an industrial school; however, because of my sick grandmother and mother, I had to stop attending school and go back to home. From there, I didn’t have time to study… our house wasn’t that rich like the other kids, so getting money was the prime thing.

Then I started a job in a factory. I wasn’t given lots of money, but there was plenty to get food for our family. My life was disappearing like dust. Everyday, floating off into the sky, out to space.

Nevertheless, the real problem started now. That day, I was tired as it was a very busy day. I had worked tirelessly in my new job at the Montgomery department store and was pleading to go home. When I rode the bus, there were mostly blacks, so I was relieved. Just at the next bus stop, three white men boarded the bus, then the bus started to exponentially fill with the whites. Then, one man said to me to move out of the seat. But, I refused to do it. In the country, there was a rule saying blacks should always give their seat to the whites. I wasn’t able to understand this, why should we, the blacks, give up our seats for the whites. Mice shouldn’t always lose to the cats.

Mice are intelligent, they are quick and fast-thinkers. There should be a time when the mice beat the cats. They can’t just stand there doing nothing while the cats get most of the authority.

So, I replied again to the man, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” When saying this, I was thinking: ‘Yes Rosa! You did it!’. However, the situation didn’t appear as I thought. There was a huge disorder. People started to come up from their seats and shout about whether or not I should sit on the bus seat. After a few moments, some police officers came into the bus and arrested me. These absurd rules! These ludicrous rules! I just wanted to get rid of these farcical things! The reason why they arrested me was meaningless. I was not in the white-only seat as well, but why? “All I was doing was trying to get home from work.”

Perception of black people mostly includes race and inequality. People should stand up and help to make the perceptions of black people better. We should stop the whites from seeing the world smaller, but make them see it bigger.

Two perceptions of youth

By Kevin Kim, Year 8, Noro Edited by Kevin Lee, Year 12, Halla East Between 1900 and 1980, according to Our World in Data, the average French man grew by 9.7cm while the average Dutch man put on 11.7cm, and that’s even in their stocking feet! This remarkable achievement is down to having balanced food, frequently exercising and having enough sleep. During the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Our World in Data, the case fatality rate of Chinese 10-19 years old is 0.2% when the case fatality of Chinese 60-69 years old is 3.6% (The United Nations says 65+ is the age when one is ‘old’). Usain Bolt has broken the world record of 200 meters twice, in 2008 and 2009 and he has been part of three 4*100 meter teams that broke the world record. Young people are healthy, they can go higher, faster and stronger.

Some young people are unhealthy. Development of the Internet brought us convenience and knowledge, how ever it is harmful for young people to easily get addicted to these devices and media like Facebook, video games and movies. Spending too much time on a digital screen brings blurry vision, headache and poor posture. In America, average screen time for teenagers is 7 hours and 22 minutes everyday excluding homework. In addition, youth being unhealthy leads to obesity. In America, 13.7 million teenagers had obesity. Childhood obesity can cause dangerous events such as heart disease, diabetes and mental problems. We can say one’s obese when one’s over 20% of their average weight due to height and age. Young people are also unhealthy, they watch screens for a long time and they are fat.

Can hunger affect our perception?

Written by Leo Jo, Year 8, Jeoji Edited by Aileen Lee, Year 12, Halla North Renouned author of books about the human brain and body, Alice Robb, said “the way we perceive the world is often deeply linked to the bodies we move through our surroundings in.” Linking the fundamental message to this essay, can hunger affect your perception pessimistically, numerous scientists conclude their ideas by advising not to purchase foods when you are tortured by hunger.

Whenever you are hindered by hunger the common symptoms are that you will be caught out by stress, weakening of the immune system, delays in wound healing, causing pain, and disorientation plus normal stress. Subsequently, you will solve stress and reload vigor by eating stimulating food. Researchers found out in a grocery store the ratio between high and low calories were insane because everybody bought high - calories food. The perception would be altered from a daily planned food schedule from only wanting stimulating foods such as pizzas or spicy chicken. Nonetheless, if your tongue has an appetite for irritating food, there is extreme potential to keep eating, and it means your health won’t last long and spending all your money on food will make you bankrupt.

The second point is impact, caused by the time between their food schedule and the broken routine, it means everything falls apart. The scientists already found the truth, that if you ignore your hunger it will make you more likely to choose poorly at your next meal and physically rebel by making you focus only on eating and food. The main cause is that the brain only focuses on eating. It foreshadows that the brain system will be disorganized due to hunger, and keeps on track only functions to eat. Therefore, it interrupts the concept of the brain’s role to a disgusting food fighter.

Plan what and when you eat and ensure you go shopping for food when you are feeling full.

Sources: https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/your-sense-of-hunger-may-have-more-to-do-with-perception-than-biology https://www.dignity.dk/en/dignitys-work/health-team/torture-methods/deprivation-of-food/ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shop-hungry-idUSBRE9450TF20130506 https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-017-1296-6

Perception upon Conceptual Artwork: Comedian, Fountain, and Piss Christ Written By Melanie Kang, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Seungho Ham, Year 12, Halla East “No matter what form [the artwork] may finally have it must begin with an idea. It is the process of conception and realization with which the artist is concerned.”

This quote depicts Conceptual Art, a movement that prizes ideas over the formal or visual components of artworks. An ‘amalgam of various tendencies rather than a tightly cohesive movement’, Conceptualism took myriad forms, such as performances, happenings, and ephemera. From the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, conceptual artists produced works and writings that completely rejected standard ideas of art. Their prior claim stated that the ‘articulation of an artistic idea suffices as a work of art’, implying concerns such as aesthetics, expression, skill and marketability were all irrelevant and inadequate standards by which art was allegedly judged. Oversimplified, it might seem to many people that what counts as Conceptual art is not in fact regarded as “art” at all.

The piece Comedian is a 2019 artwork by an Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan and consists of a taped banana on the wall. Descriptions tend to carefully specify that it is fixed there with grey duct tape. Everyone stresses this somewhat bare technical fact as if to find physical evidence that it really is, after all, Art. Cattelan is an Italian artist and an ‘absurdist’. In the past, he replaced a toilet at the Guggenheim with a fully functioning gold one and called it America. Although anyone with basic motor skills can tape a banana to the wall, the Comedian is viewed as conceptual art, as “he brought a banana with him and made several models: first in resin, bronze, painted bronze and finally coming back to the initial idea of a real banana.” During his exhibition, David Datuna, a performance artist, peeled the artwork from the wall and simply ate it stating “conceptually, I ate the concept of the banana.” Instead of accusing him, Cattelan implied that ‘[Datuna] is a genius’ and that he is merely holding a mirror up to society and, in fact, considers himself more of an “art worker” than an artist. As his artworks were always the subject of controversial perception, Conceptual Art comprises and defines his artwork as Art. Fountain by Duchamp was one of the most notorious and provocative works submitted to the 1917 Society of Independent Artists. The work consisted of a sculpture of a urinal fountain, signed “R. Mutt”. The initial R stood for Richard, French slang for “moneybags”, whereas Mutt referred to JL Mott Ironworks, the New York-based company which manufactured the porcelain urinal. Marcel Duchamp was a profound artist, renowned for his ongoing preoccupation with the mechanisms of desire and human sexuality as well as surrealism. Famous for his numerous conceptual artworks, he once stated that Fountain was in fact, an elaborate ‘prank’ designed to poke fun at American avant-garde art. As the work was initially rejected by the Society as ‘immoral’, critics who championed the work disputed this claim, arguing that the object was invested with new symbolism when chosen for display. The fountain was what manufactured the grounds of work, testing the limits of what constitutes a work of art. Through this work Fountain, Duchamp is recognised as the father of Conceptual art. His rejection of a conventional artistic path led to one of the most influential artworks of the 20th century. Hence, the multi-perceptional range of Conceptual Art accepted the work to be.

The work Piss Christ is a 1987 photograph by the American artist and photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a small glass tank of the artist’s urine. The work generated a large amount of controversy based on assertions that it was blasphemous. Certain ethical constraints were placed in the form of censorship, hindering the exhibition of Serrano - who was receiving cast criticism from the Christian population.

Serrano himself said of the controversy: “I had no idea Piss Christ would get the attention it did since I meant neither blasphemy nor offence by it. I’ve been a Catholic all my life, so I am a follower of Christ.” Subsequently, he has explicitly rejected the assertion that he was motivated by blasphemy, saying instead that it was intended as a serious work of Christian art. He said, “What it symbolizes is the way Christ died: the blood came out of him but so did the urine and the excretion”, underlining his intentions of highlighting the hypocrisy of those who took advantage of Christ and religion, and that in fact, he attempted an “act of devotion”. Therefore, Piss Christ demonstrates that art is a discipline where the perception that prohibits its autonomy should be reduced to appreciate its unique methodology and to ensure that the production of a variety of knowledge would be esteemed.

“Every great artist gives birth to a new universe, in which the familiar things look the way they have never before looked to anyone.”

Perception of consumers and Big Data Processing Written By Seungho Ham, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Bonnie Hyun, Year 12, Halla East We are living in a swamp of actions that we do not recognize in our daily lives. We encounter, accept, and forget a great deal of information in a day. But the coincidentally packaged environment around you may not be just a coincidence. Lots of advertisements in email and promotions in SNS feed us shopping recommendations, and YouTube strangely has a deep perception of us. It’s not just a coincidence, it’s a product of elaborate corporate strategy. In this article, I will discuss the Big Data process, one of the key concepts of modern marketing, that make all these cases possible.

According to the New York Times, a middle-aged man visited a supermarket chain in the United States to protest because only products targeted at pregnant women were listed as recommended items in advertisements delivered to his daughter. The father thought that it was an insult to his unmarried daughter. The next day, however, he called the supermarket and apologized, since he found out that his daughter was, in fact, pregnant. Big Data processing allowed companies to know about his daughter’s pregnancy before he did.

Similar to the example, many firms are actively using Big Data processing in marketing. For example, several firms like Amazon and Starbucks have applied Big Data processing in lots of the services they run. In an interview with Jeff Bezos, he said that Amazon proactively applied Big Data processing marketing so they could interpret the data based on numerous categories such as age, watching videos, hobbies, incomes, and the region they live in. Additionally, Amazon updates the list of the recommended products for each individual every 10 minutes. These changes are based on financial data, such as the price of the same goods in other competitive sites and predicted rate of profit in more than 110 countries. These updates contribute to increasing profit by providing consumers a wide range of choices.

Starbucks uses Big Data Processing in a bit different way. In Seoul, there is a Starbucks store every 150m. Big Data Processing has contributed to the abundance of Starbucks in the market by providing deep analysis of the commercial district in Seoul. Starbucks’ report shows that when Starbucks produces a new shop, they consider information such as the location of other Starbucks outlets, the pattern of national transportation, regional and national demographics and this information is investigated through Big Data Processing. Big Data processing applied in making management decisions.

On the other hand, Big Data processing could be abused. For example, Facebook, the world’s largest SNS, had leaked personal information and used it for advertisements. According to revelations by whistleblowers on Facebook, more than 50 million personal details of Facebook users had been handed over to a British company called Cambridge Analytica. They used information in political manoeuvring around Brexit and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Campaign.

To avoid firms collecting the private information, many experts suggest the ‘Data Diet’, which suggests Internet users compress and analyze heavy databases. Many Internet users are being careless in managing their data.

Since many people are highly relyant on IT services, there are huge amounts of junk data and information cumulating in our devices and accounts. For example, the voices from our calls, Internet access history, pictures, downloaded files and even typed personal information.

To conclude, Big Data processing is a high-tech marketing tool that is available to consider information and sources at the same time by installing the latest technology. However, Big Data processing is also able to be abused to get personal information. Hence, further application of the Big Data processing should be under deep consideration to prevent social abuses.

Trauma - the science Written By Sophia Park, Year 9, Jeoji Edited by Seungho Ham, Year 12, Halla East People experience many events in life, some good, some bad. After gaining new experiences, people start to provide responses. One of the responses towards bad memories is traumas. Trauma is based on tragic, disturbing memories, and they tend to leave people unable to cope with their happiness and life. As trauma is something so major in life, they tend to change how people view the world.

According to the American Psychology Association, trauma means an emotional response to a terrible event.

These terrible events include being physically or emotionally threatened or harmed. Traumatic events tend to take over and make it a horrible experience in the past and the future as well. As traumatic events stay with people for a long time, it changes the way that they think of others, which leads to changing how they view themselves and the world.

Scientists aren’t sure yet how trauma affects how people view the world, it is still true that traumas strongly affect others and it makes them change the way they view things. For the current situation, scientists mainly believe that when people are strongly shocked or disturbed, a hormone called adrenaline gets released and this affects people being stuck into the same memory as their past intrudes on the person’s present and future. During this process mainly four parts of the brain get affected by traumas. These are the hippocampus, the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, and the brain system. Those who went through traumatic experiences tend to have a smaller hippocampus than others so they have difficulties in learning or remembering. Amygdala is associated with the negatively strong emotions like fear. The prefrontal cortex mainly affects how people analyze their work shift, mainly having to do with thinking and thoughts, as when people feel fear and are scared, their amygdala works which prevent them from making the prefrontal cortex work. If this goes on, then the brain does not normally work anymore and malfunctions. As the brain malfunctions, they are no longer able to think clearly and perceive information in the best way possible.

Traumas aren’t just a thing that comes and goes, they remain for quite some time or even for a lifetime. It is best that we don’t find stereotypes for those who have problems perceiving information due to their horrible experiences. What should we do about the people who have traumas related to society? As the traumas interfer with logical thinking, some may try to stay inside rather than meeting people outside. Society may view them as ‘hermit’ as they find it hard, especially if the trauma is based on a social experience. As they would feel socializing is their worst ever experience they will be afraid to meet new people. To respect what they are feeling and trying to encourage them will be the best solution.

Our perception of the blind Written by Sophie Choi, Year 7, Jeoji Edited by Seungho Ham, Year 12, Halla East We see a lot of blind people in real life including in movies, books, or even in streets passing by. We need to work on fixing people’s perceptions, both on sighted people and blind people.

What can be the perception of blind people towards sighted people? Because most blind people can see nothing or can only see lights turning off and on, they will not have many memories and will miss the times where they were not blind. For example, Damon Rose is a disability reporter working at BBC. He lost his sight when he was 31 years old, and can see some lights that are in front of him. “Actually it’s just changed to green...now it’s bright blue with flecks of yellow, and there’s some orange threatening to break through and cover the whole lot,” he says.

He also says that he misses those peaceful moments of near darkness, where he used to walk at night time, focusing on the streetlights ahead. From this example, we can recognise that not all blind people see totally nothing, and most people can see a little bit of light in front of them. Sighted people’s perception of the blind is that they can see absolutely nothing but this is not the case.

We can change some people’s perspectives toward blind people with positive role models. Like Damon Rose, who works in broadcasting, if more people know that blind people can still live a life that is precious for themselves and can have a job earning a living then sighted people’s perceptions should change for the better.

Now, what can be our perception of blind people? How can we change those prejudices we have in our minds?

Blindness is not a problem, but the way we think is the real problem. Some sighted people think that blind people have extra powers and abilities based on the blind Greek prophet Tiresias and the blind poet Homer. S0me people think that all blind people are good singers like Stevie Wonder. However, these perceptions are not true and only pigeonhole people.

In the UK labour market, only 27% of the visually impaired are in employment but 46% of those with general disabilities are in work and 73% of the able-bodied are in work. So blind people are discriminated against in employment. In the old days, they were employed in telephone exchanges but now that we use smartphones there is no need for this work to be carried out. If the general population did not feel awkward around blind people then they might stand a better chance of finding jobs. People think they need to walk on eggshells when in the company of visually impaired people. As blind people can’t see how they dress or how their hair is they come over as unkempt and uncoordinated so sighted people tend to avoid them. When talking to these people it is very difficult to read the non-verbal signals that most people are used to, such as maintaining eye contact. It can look as if a blind person is not concentrating because their eyes wander even though they are engaged in the conversation.

Also if there is a guide dog then this may be better at breaking the ice because it is easier to go up to someone and make a nice comment about their dog but hard to think of something to say about a person making their way with a white stick. When we see blind people in the street we tend to take a big detour around them which can psychologically give us the impression that blind people should be avoided.

Did you know that the poet John Milton was visually impaired? You may be reading his poetry in school without knowing this. Euler, the mathematician, was visually impaired from the age of 28. Horatio, the admiral, was blind in one eye and if he wanted to continue the battle he would use his blind eye to look at the flag signals coming from the other boat and say “carry on, I see no signals!” Louis Braille became blind when he stabbed himself in the eye by accident but went on to invent the means by which the blind can communicate. These pioneers go to show that blindness is not a disability that prevents you from doing a wide range of activities.

Looking at all these sources, I think that we still need to respect blind people.

What is Perception? https://www.verywellmind.com/perception-and-the-perceptual-process-2795839 https://courses.lumenlearning.com/msstate-waymaker-psychology/chapter/reading-what-is-perception/ Sources for Perception of blind people. https://www.tandfohthttps://familyconnect.org/blog/raising-a-child-who-is-blind-and/what-is-your-perception-of-blindness/tps://familyconnect.org/blog/raising-a-child-who -is-blind-and/what-is-your-perception-of-blhttps://familyconnect.org/blog/raising-a-child-who-is-blindand/what-is-your-perception-of-blindness/indness/nline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1034912980450403?journalCode=cijd20 https://chicagolighthouse.org/sandys-view/what-blind-people-see/ https://www.sightsavers.org/blogs/2015/01/changing-perceptions/ https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-ouch-31487662 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269659771_Social_attitudes_and_beliefs_of_sighted_people_towards_blindness_and_blind_persons

Perception and International Relations Written By Stella Yeom, Year 12, Halla East Edited by Alex Kim, Year 12, Halla North Image theory proposes a way to structure the study of perceptions in international relations. It argues three core aspects of the way a relationship is understood, in particular the way the interdependence of goals, relative power, and relative status, which combine to motivate the construction of images that facilitate action, is understood. In the ideal-typical cases, these images resemble stereotypes that allow people to act on the emotions evoked by their understanding of the relationship. The stereotypes do this by presenting a cognitive picture of the situation that includes features that people believe release them from the moral prohibitions that would otherwise pertain. These motivated stereotypical images then operate as mental models with schemata-like properties, filling in missing pieces of information and shaping the search for new information and the interpretation of what it means.

It is fundamental that people, including those on one’s own side of an issue, do not ordinarily react to an event or issue on the basis of the facts as might be empirically determined but on the basis of their images of the fact, on what they think or believe to have happened or to have been at stake. Thus, international relations evolve around interplay of images.

This ‘interplay of images’ can explain relations among states. As Boulding put it in a similar way, “It is always the image, not the truth that immediately determines behavior. We act according to the way the world appears to us, not necessarily according to the way it ‘is’.” Robert Jervis argues that the image of a state can be a major factor in determining whether, and how easily, the state can reach its goal. He argues that a desired image can often be of greater use than a significant increment of military and economic power. In this sense, the purpose of diplomacy of any state is to construct the desired image. And public diplomacy is image making within the target community.

By analyzing the image of state A in state B, it is possible to predict the behavior of state B towards state A. The main proposition of Image Theory is that “behavior depends on the image.” Images can be enemy image, ally image, dependent image, imperialist image, barbarian image and so on. For example, if a conquering state succeeds in changing its ‘imperialist image’ in the conquered realm to ‘spreader of civilization image’, then it does not need military force to exploit the colony any more. It means that conquering minds and hearts is more profitable than conquering lands and people. That is why every nation aspiring to have a respectable place in the world works on their image in foreign countries. In the words of Jervis, the image of a state is a major factor in determining other state’s policies toward it and states therefore have good reason to try to project their desired images.

During the Cold War the work of these kinds of institutions were called propaganda or psychological warfare.

Today, their works are called image making or perception management. With the development of technologies, Internet and Social Media, nations who control these means are more successful in creating positive images than those who are not able to develop their own technologies.

The central question of Image Theory is ‘what determines the image?’ Boulding argues that there is a message and image. When a message hits the image, it can remain unaffected, it can change in some regular and well-defined way that might be described as simple addition, or it can change revolutionarily. Message primarily means statements of decision makers, relations between leaders and elites of two countries, people to people relations.

In some cases, a state’s relations with the third part can give different messages to the perceiving part. In sum, message covers all activities of a state which can affect its image in the perceiving country. Diplomacy, public diplomacy, people to people relations are important tools in making a positive and desired image. Especially with the development of Internet networks, which can by-pass official sources of information, people to people relations gain greater importance. While until recently the stands of decision makers were important, now in the age of globalization the opinions of masses become more and more important. Robert Jervis counts decision-makers, bureaucracy, domestic politics, and the international environment as levels of analysis of perception.

In conclusion, perception in international relations can be the result of image theory.

Junior Islander Failure Jane Kim I came out of the changing room, tears still pouring down my face. I remember how I felt that I had failed, that I had somehow disappointed my swimming teacher and family. I remember cursing myself that I hadn’t held my breath longer, that I hadn’t tried harder.

Failure is something that happens all the time. At home, at school, at races. So did you ever feel that when you fail, you can’t get back up again? That you can’t stand up, to continue on. I’ve felt this feeling, quite a few times.

But how did I deal with this? How did I manage to get up and go on to succeed? Well, let me tell you how.

First, you need to know that the term ‘failing’ is not real. You don’t fail. You simply are two steps away from success. Now, what’s the difference? Well, the difference is that it’s simply not succeeding to win at a different time, and that the “two steps away” is so much more frustrating.

Just imagine this. You’re planning a school trip to New York. So you’ve sketched out the plan, booked the flight, learned the language, buy the technology, gather friends and memorize the whole city map. But then, when it comes to actually going… you can’t go because of the weather. See? Much more frustrating.

When you’re dealing with ‘failure’, you need to remember that it isn’t the end of the world. Don’t give up, fall into a slump or refuse to do anything. Think of positive things, and think to yourself, ‘This? This is me only two steps away from success. Only two! So next time, I can get so much closer.” It isn’t the end of the world, even if it seems to be. Remember that.

Finally, everybody fails. And when you look at someone who seems to never fail, remind yourself that failing this early in your life only makes you stronger for other more devastating failures that are sure to happen later in life.

Remind yourself that this is all making you stronger.

How can we solve inequality in South Africa?

Emily Hwang 6B When South Africa became a democracy, the world ex[ected that it would be the end of inequality. Inequality is when the money and wealth in a country is shared very unfairly. In South Africa, this meant the black people had the least and white people the most. However, the problem just changed; now inequality has increased within racial groups (instead of between them) - it seems that the new society that was created is actually a society that itself causes inequality. The gap between the rich and the poor is a big problem that needs to be solved.

For several years after it came to power, the ANC (African National Congress) government made development in reducing poverty and enhancing access to basic services. This was helped by years of proper economic growth but now it has slowed. The result, overall, is that South Africans are now more impoverished. Average of income - that is, the total contribution of the economy divided by the population - has fallen fairly steadily since 2010.

Unemployment has continued to rise over this period. The (opposition) Democratic Alliance leader, Mmusi Maimane, says that the gap between “economic insiders and outsiders” has increased. “There is no indication of it closing. We are a country split in two,” he says. And Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a minister in the South African presidency, says: “Inequality has remained stubbornly high.”

Firstly, for the solutions I think the most important thing is to stop money leaving the country in a way that is against the law. In developing countries, not enough money for hospitals, schools, sanitation, and help for the poorest citizens increases unfairness. One reason is rich people hiding from paying tax and other ways that money can be secretly taken out of the country. Following Global Financial Integrity, progressing countries like South Africa lost $6.6 trillion in this way from 2003 through 2012. What’s more, the problem is getting worse by 9.4 percent per year. That’s $6.6 trillion that could be spent on giving the poorest and most vulnerable help, increasing equality.

Moreover, in recent years, equality has fallen, because of the failure of progressive income taxes all over the world. This is when people who have more money have to pay a bigger % of tax than people who have less. After falling for much of the 20th century, inequality is worsening, even in rich countries these days. The top one percent is not only recording larger shares of national income, but the amount of tax they have to pay has fallen too!

How much should the highest income earners be taxed? This is an obvious question to be decided by the citizens of South Africa, and opinions differ. Case in point, economist Tony Addison suggests a top rate of 65 percent rate on the top 1 percent of incomes. Overall, this is likely not to be launched because of the wealthy people having power and more benefits to persuade the government.

An important point is that the governments should commence and impose a national living wage, and corporations should also prioritize a living wage for their workers and with the suppliers, consumers, and others with whom they do business. As human beings with basic needs, all workers should earn enough to support themselves and their families. Governments and corporations should be responsible for protecting the right to a living wage. This is not being done in much of the world, South Africa in particular.

If workers are able to get into groups, such as trade unions, to help each other, then the society usually becomes fairer and more equal. This has been seen in the history of Europe and elsewhere. Great inequality needs the workers to be weak and alone. Therefore, the right of workers to organize collectively for better pay and conditions is important. Where unions are strong, wages are higher and inequality is lower. South Africa should spend time making sure that workers should be able to form societies and groups to support each other without big companies stopping them.

Why can’t children vote?

DEBATE: Flynn Jung 6B & Louie Kim 6G Why can’t children vote? Voting is one of the most important and essential things to do in your life. It can choose your future, how other people are going to live, and how your country will work. Also,voting is one of the fairest things that you can do. It should be allowed for every human being. It doesn’t matter if your skin color is different to others, or if you look different to others or if your gender is different. However, the only people who can’t vote are children. In the United States, Election Day was officially November 3rd in 2020, but more Americans than average voted this time around in advance. Many presidential election news reports had children asking questions.

Why can’t children vote, why are there no female president, and lots of other political questions. Do children have no rights? Children should learn how voting is crucial and essential and can affect your lifestyle either positively or negatively. So today, I will tell you the reason why children should be allowed to vote.”

As shown above, every person has human rights meaning every human is equal and human rights cannot be taken away by anyone or anything. Every human gets human rights even if you don’t want and every human’s opinion should be respected. But why is children’s opinion not respected and admired? If People’s opinions are not respected, what’s the point of having human rights? Is it only said but not followed?

“16 year olds deal with peer pressure, gun violence, drugs, bullying and more. We’re mature enough to rise above all of that, and we do have a voice” by Ejjah Robinson 16, Washington,D.C. 16 year olds have much more things to get on with then adults. 16 year olds have much more complicated lives than you think they have. But why can’t they vote? There are very many reasons why childrens should vote. Thank you ________________________________ I disagree. Children should not vote. Children will cause many problems if they are voting. For example, some children might make the wrong decision. Even if they don’t, they might vote for the person they thought shouldn’t be president for fun.

This makes the vote unfair. For this reason, it is not appropriate for a child to be allowed to vote since the children are inexperienced in the actions of life, while these are the things about which adults speak and from which it reasons.

2300 years ago, Aristotle answered your question. “For knowledge comes to such people without profit, as it does to those who lack self-restraint; but to those who keep their desires in proportion and act in that way, knowing about these things would be of great benefit.”

Voting is a great responsibility. When a president is elected in a vote, he or she will be leading the country. This means that the president can make or get rid of some laws. Also, the president can choose whether his country will join a war or not and develop or worsen the economy of the country. The president can rule for 4~5 years.

If an elected president is not good for the economy or environment of the country, it is likely that most of the children voted for him or her.

Therefore, I strongly disagree that children should vote.

Voting is a great responsibility.