The Chameleon Issue 5: Oman

THE CHAMELEON Edition 5

Muscat, OMAN

THE CHAMELEON | 1

Current Events Student Spotlight

In One Word

pages 6-7

pages 8-9

First Breath Underwater page 11

Host Country Student Spotlight

In One Word

pages 14-15

pages 16-17

First Breath Underwater

The Taboo subject

Cover by Vega Lopez Spain

Photo By Rowena Speed New Zealand

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Muscat Oman

pages 18-19

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THE CHAMELEON | 3

THE ARTS |

Oman

- Head of Editing

Lily-Wai Edwards and Justin Smith-Hoopes 4

THE CHAMELEON | 5

Every edition we decide upon one student that has been doing something out of the ordinary, and shine the spolight on them!

WRITER Justin Smith-Hoopes | USA

THE ARTS

Maxim Sindal has been creating a drama program for cohort one since he arrived at TGS. Three weeks into the first term in Botswana, he had already arranged a meeting with interested students. A year later, Max has finished planning the course and is leading his fellow students in the ways of theatre.

Max has been interested in drama since grade school, performing in numerous plays. Max has gained experience in acting and is now using his skills to teach other students. Throughout the term in China, Max planned out a drama curriculum drawing from his pre-existing knowledge and supplemental research.

Student Spotlight M AX I M SI NDAL L

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Photo By Isabelle Ricotta Malaysia/Italy

“My motivation is to let people have fun while learning about meaningful content. I initially got into drama in elementary school. The first few years were daunting, but as I continued acting, I became more confident. I started doing theatrical performances in my old high school, and I want to bring my passion for drama to TGS” - Maxim Sindal

to apply and practice the newly developed skills. The course consists of a series of different parts. Getting students comfortable and knowledgeable of the stage and their placing on it, developing physical presence, collaborating with fellow actors, creating audience-performer chemistry, improving on delivery methods, and much more.

In the first lesson, Max presented a powerpoint giving the students information on different parts of the stage, then had students play tic tac toe, saying the part of the stage that corresponded to where they were standing. Later in the lesson, Max explained the idea of freeze frames. Everyone freezes in a position, the participants attempting to create a story from their frozen bodies. Max gave multiple prompts, giving students opportunities to reflect and improve.

“An engaging and uplifting experience, a balanced mix of fun and seriousness.”

- Julia Gu. “It was energising and refreshing for someone who has missed drama since coming to TGS.” - Cullen S. “I always prefer watching dramas than acting them because I don’t think I have the potential, but Max and his talented lesson have completely flipped my perception” - Kien N.

By the end of the term, Max hopes that his students will be ready to perform a monologue at the showcase to apply their newfound speaking skills and knowledge of the stage. Max will continue his drama course, in the following terms, and continue working towards Mastery in theatre.

Max has created an interactive, involved program that both teaches the theory of drama, and gives students an opportunity THE CHAMELEON | 7

THE ARTS

Beginnings Of lasting families Created 15 years in Not yet understanding But almost forgetting Who we were becoming And what was upcoming Yet so far ahead Beginnings Loud as airplane engines Nearly out roaring the suspension Of this new direction That I came into with no intention Of out running time But it seems I did Because in no time these beginnings Became Noise Not as silent as deadly Slowly slipping into our minds As one would slowly slip into A onzie After 30+ hours of flight At 3 am With a lesser known friend Who would quickly become a godsend That could with one touch mend All of these split ends That were really just unknown Superpowers Noise Constant and unwavering In forms of awakening colors Screaming personalities And car horns As complex as finding infinity In a photograph And the noise still has not Subsided But not far traveling Because within the same continent

Silence As quiet as the aftermath Of an atomic bomb The storm before the calm The calm because of the nothingness Left behind in the silence Silence Kept for 70 years The noise absorbed by the history Of all the damn electricity In the only silent big city I have seen I never knew my love could be so loud for a place so quite silent Silence broken by the Alarm clock Sending shock waves through my body Resulting in the colonoscopy That our dear humanity Has been dying for For our vanity Has taken control of our sanity Resulting in the inhumanity Of our now second nature ability To laugh at the fatalities We are all but blind to Alarm clocks Now do not seem so alarming

By: Ryleigh Iverson | USA

In One Word Photo By Lorem Ipsumdolor Country 8

THE CHAMELEON | 9

THE ARTS

The first breath you take at the bottom of the ocean is a particularly strange moment. I’m not going to say it’s incredible and life-changing, or scary and nerve-racking - because the truth is it’s different for everyone. Personally, I wasn’t frozen in amazement, I struggled for my entire first dive before I even thought about trying to enjoy myself. But there is one thing I can say for that first diving experience, something everyone goes through, regardless of confidence and comfort. It is absolutely fascinating to find yourself captured in the weightlessness of water without having to focus on getting back to the surface. You start to give attention to your movements and practically learn how to walk again as you try to control your body. Scuba becomes a preview into the feeling of zero gravity while simultaneously immersing you in an ecosystem you see little of in day to day life. I highly recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest. Besides, there’s no other way to figure out if you love it.

First Breath

Underwater

By Cullen Sander | USA Photo By Ina Bicaj Kosovo 10

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Put a random picture in this page and write a short caption describing it. This is basically a filler page to make a full spread.

Photo By Lorem Ipsumdolor Country

- Head of Editing

Maxim Sindall

CURRENT EVENTS | 12

Oman

- Head of Editing

JuliaGwiozdzik THE CHAMELEON | 13

CURRENT EVENTS

Europe’s Article 13

By Maxim Sindall | Canada

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In the past month the EU has agreed on Article 13 and 11, which are pieces of internet regulation that are becoming increasingly controversial. The controversy has sprouted from the internet’s global nature. As the internet is connected worldwide, when a major legal authority creates internet regulation it is applied globally. Companies cannot just sector off a jurisdiction with the countries own regulations, as they would be essentially closing their service solely to that one country.

This would then restrict communication and interaction with other countries with different regulations. This would create borders, to our currently borderless internet. Therefore, when a powerful legal authority creates a set of regulations, it would need to be mandated globally by all companies.

media. Also they claim, it has threatened the existence of memes which are a strong part of internet culture. Mems are usually funny videos or photos that can talk about issues, history, or sometimes have absolutely no meaning.

Meme’s are in danger as the content usually found includes copyrighted photos, videos, and sounds.

The worry is that as companies adopt the policies, memes will have to be systematically taken down as they violate the directives stated. Currently, Article 13 & 11 still need to go through a series of steps where it will be further revised and potentially changed. For now, the direction of the new directive is still unknown and if passed could change the internet forever.

The articles that are being passed are focusing on copyright law, which hope to modernize copyright laws for the internet age. The regulation is putting more responsibility on the tech giant’s like Google, for the control of copyrighted material. Until now, The copyright holders have had the responsibility of enforcing their own copyright protection. This regulation would bring the responsibility to the platforms instead of the copyright holders. Critics on the regulation argue that it will cause fees for platforms sharing links to the

Reynolds, Matt. “What Is Article 13? The EU’s Divisive New Copyright Plan Explained.” Wired.co.uk. N. p., 2018. Web. 24 Nov. 2018.

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CURRENT EVENTS

The South China Sea is the world’s most disputed sea, holding 11 billion barrels of oil, 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 10% of the world’s fisheries and 30% of the global shipping trade. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and China all claim this territory, creating a bitter dispute. These claims are superseded by China who has claimed 90% of the South China Sea. The Chinese government argues that the sea is a historical part of China, restoring the claim in 1945 when the Japanese fell in World War 2. The power vacuum in the South China Sea gave China the opportunity to create the 9 dash line. The 9 dash line was made before the creation of The Law Of The Sea article, which entitled ownership of waters 200 miles off a country’s own coast. Therefore, China kept its pre existing claim as the Law of the Sea Article did not exist in 1945.

However this month, the climate has been slowly changing. On the 20th of November the President of China, Xi Jinping, and the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte met in Manila. It had been 13 years since a Chinese leader had visited the country, and this time it was for a deal made by both leaders concerning oil and gas exploration. Duterte pushed the deal on the basis that China was “already in possession” of the Sea,choosing to work with the

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country rather than create more tension in the region. . He later said “China is already there,” and that other countries like the US should realize that. In May, Philippine foreign secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters “Nobody can extract natural resources there on their own.

The president has declared that. If anyone gets the natural resources in the West Philippine Sea-South China Sea, he will go to war.” Time will tell if the new agreement will even out the frictions between the countries or create further problems.

“As Beijing And Manila Agree On Energy Deal, Filipino Backlash Begins.”

South China Morning Post.

N. p., 2018. Web. 24 Nov. 2018.

South China Sea Deal

By Maxim Sindall | Canada

THE CHAMELEON | 17

CURRENT EVENTS

There’s a group of people in my country that are raped and sexually assaulted at what is reported to be at least 25 times the rate as the rest of the population. It is widely thought to be a much higher number because of the widespread underreporting due to threats of violence if reported. However, this isn’t a secret. We all know about it. We as a society just don’t care. In fact, we care so little we make jokes and laugh about it. Jokes about these people being raped appear in all forms of our pop culture from Hollywood movies, to music, to stand up comedy, to

even the children’s cartoon the work is helping them Spongebob Squarepants. build skills so they can get a real job like us once they’ve You’re probably thinking deemed themselves worthis is the part of the story thy to integrate into our where things get better. society, even though we’ve They don’t. passed laws making sure they can’t.

A clause in my country’s constitution allows for this How did we get here? How group of people to be sub- did we as a society get to jected to slavery. We take the point where we’re so full advantage of this clau- desensitized to violence se. It’s not the chattel sla- that we don’t see these very that built my country people as humans but as a but that we now find unsi- punch line to a joke. A joke ghtly; it’s a much more pa- where they are raped and latable form. We pay them we think they deserve it. just enough so we don’t How did we get here? Bethave to feel guilty about ter yet, how do we get out? it. On average they make $3.45 a day. We tell them

How Did We Get Here?

By Matthew Cook | USA

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Editorial

This edition would not have been possible without the following people: Paula Marquina Gurrea Ava Ploekelman Graphics Team Harry Zwe Wai Yan Mak Atireklapwarodom Head of Editors Lily-Wai Edwards Justin Smith-Hoopes Maxim Sindall Photographers Kien Ngo Shamsia Daryabi Ina Bicaj

- Chief of Editing Ella Oudhof

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