Reflect on the societal problems faced by China and America. (Hint: you must definitely explain your responses to these societal problems. How can they be resolved? Who should be responsible for resolving these issues?)
I feel that the pressing societal problem China currently faces is the self-centred mentality which most of their citizens possess. This is because this mentality would lead to other societal problems such as people not having compassion for one another. For example, not long ago, a Chinese toddler, Wang Yue, was run down by two vehicles, with nobody lending a helping hand to her, revealing the self-centred mentality of the Chinese who refused to help as they are afraid of getting implicated.
Upon reflecting, I feel that this problem may have been caused primarily by the competitive environment in China. China has the world’s largest population of 1.3 billion. With such a huge population, there is definitely limited schools and work for the people. This may have led to the highly competitive environment in China, where students compete with one another to get into top schools while adults fight for jobs. In such a competitive environment, everyone is everyone’s competitor and there is definitely no reason for a person to help their competitor who may overtake them and eliminate them from the “competition” any time. Being exposed to such an environment for a long period of time, the citizens are bound to turn self-centred.
Having understood this societal problem China faces, I am actually deterred to live in China as it would be extremely scary to see people only looking out for their own benefits and totally not care about the others. This is definitely not the life I would like to lead as I prefer an environment where people look out for each other’s benefits and aims to help each other so that everyone improves together, instead of having the mentality that if you help others, you may get overtaken.
I feel that everyone should play a part in resolving this problem; with the government thinking of ways to resolve the issue (possibly making amendments to the education system), while the citizens consciously reminding themselves of the importance of social harmony and also cooperating with the measures taken by the government.
America, which is on the other side of the world, also faces its own set of societal problems, with the one which I feel is most interesting being teenage violence in the aspect of school shootings in America. The reason why I find it interesting is because this problem seems to be caused by the Constitution which allows freedom for every individual. The fact that the teenagers in America are allowed to carry a gun, threatens the safety of the people around these teenagers who have yet to mature.
Though the true purpose of the firearms was to allow the citizens to protect themselves in times of danger, it seems that these firearms are being misused in the hands of some teenagers. In my opinion, the American government should not allow teenagers to carry them as the teenagers may not be mature enough to use them in the correct manner. Although this may be seen as infringing the rights of the teenagers in America, I feel that the American government should still go ahead with this suggestion as it would ensure more social order in the country.
Having understood this societal problem in America, I am also deterred to live in America because I would feel very insecure in the country as there is a possibility that I will be shot without even knowing why I was shot.
I feel that the parents and the school should be responsible for resolving this societal problem. The unacceptable behaviour of the teenagers in the society may have happened when they do not even know that they are wrong or are just acting on impulse. Therefore, it was important for the parents and the school to teach them the correct way of handling things and also teach them a set of correct moral values so as to reduce the happening of such incidents.
In my opinion, it is very unlikely that the American government will take away this aspect of
rights which the teenagers are entitled to, as this is said to be their country’s pride.
Therefore, to conclude, I feel that both America’s and China’s societal problems can possibly be tackled by implementing Confucius studies into the curriculum of the students which emphasises on social harmony and helping those in need. Social harmony promotes peaceful interaction among human dynamics and hopefully, this can lessen the happenings of teenage violence (school shooting) in America as the teenagers would be more concerned about the welfare of the people around them after the Confucius teachings are stressed in the country. Learning to care for those in need can encourage the Chinese to look beyond their own needs and recognise there are others who require help, thus alleviating the problem of self-centredness in China.
Word Count: 800
Dear Darrel,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your first point that China’s problem of people not willing to help others for fear of being implicated is a big problem. In China, “good people are not rewarded and bad people are not punished”, says Professor Tan Fang, who founded the “Good Chinese Man” website. For example, in 2007 an old woman accused a young man named Peng Yu of knocking her over after he had found her injured on the ground. He had sent her to hospital and paid her hospital admission charge, yet the court ruled that he should pay the woman’s medical bills. Their reasoning was: if he had not been responsible for her injuries he would not have taken her to hospital. As such, it is evident that morals are slowly being eroded as the society is filled with more apathetic people.
To solve this issue, Shenzhen introduced the country’s first Samaritan rules to free Good Samaritans from legal responsibility of the person they help, except in the case of gross negligence. Many have welcomed these rules, but there a few constraints of this rule, including how the Good Samaritan might get away with a huge mistake (eg. negligence) if the person helped is not able to provide any evidence. In Singapore, the issue of a good Samaritan law has been brought up, and the latest discussion of this issue was just last month. The government has said that we have no need for such a law in the immediate future, as there are no major liability concerns for those who help others in need. The incident of two joggers who rescued a man from attempting suicide at Bedok Reservoir earlier this year proves this point. Thus, I do agree that Singapore is a rather save and caring society to live in, as we have not been blinded by materialism to the extent where we neglect others in need.
As for your second issue regarding America, I disagree with your point that the problem of teenage violence, especially that of school shootings, arises due to the Constitution allowing freedom for every individual. Even though there are a few studies that support this view, there are also many others that challenge this viewpoint. As such, I do not think that this is a valid statement as it is very ambiguous. In addition, there has also been huge debate over whether “the right of the people” in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution are individual rights or collectivist rights, hugely affecting gun laws in America.
It is also notable that Americans have blamed the National Rifle Association (NRA) for influencing gun laws. For example, The National Opinion Research Center found in 2007 that 82% of those surveyed supported a ban on assault weapons. In fact, the Federal Assaults Weapon Ban served this purpose, but had expired in 2004 after ten years since it was signed, and has not been renewed since. People have pointed out that the American government is “increasingly beholden not to the wants of the majority but to minority special interest group that hijack the national discourse”, giving the NRA an example. As the name suggests, the association advocates the right of individuals to possess firearms. It has nearly 4.3 million members, and has huge political capacity to run campaigns for or against a political candidate. As a result, the US officials are afraid of this organisation and are unwilling to go against them, neglecting the wants of the American citizens to regulate the possession of firearms.
(Continued in 2nd comment due to character limit)
(Continued)
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion, I felt that you have pointed out issues that are indeed pressing to solve in both the Chinese and American societies, but I feel that you can modify the assumption you had made in the case of America.
Regards,
Ivan
References:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/1019/In-China-toddler-left-for-dead-sparks-heated-debate-about-society-s-moral-health
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051679/Yue-Yue-dead-Chinese-girl-Wang-Yue-2-run-bystanders-watch-dies.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/30/china-good-samaritan-rules-shenzhen
http://www.forbes.com/2011/01/24/barack-obama-china-hu-jintao-policy-leadership-managing-rein.html
http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2008/02/guns-rights-and-us-constitution
Hi Ivan,
DeleteThanks for your good insights! I will take them into consideration for my next reflective journal :)!
Dear Darrel,
ReplyDeleteIn your second paragraph, you state that “With such a huge population, there is definitely limited schools and work for the people. This may have led to the highly competitive environment in China” I feel that you can give some specific evidence to support this stand so that I can be more convinced. Also “Being exposed to such an environment for a long period of time, the citizens are bound to turn self-centred.” This statement seems like an assumption to me. Maybe giving some evidence might also convince me a little more. Overall for this paragraph, you made very good effort in explaining your point.
In your 4th paragraph, you stated “possibly making amendments to the education system”. Maybe, you can give some specific amendments you would like to implement.
I agree with you on the point that the American government should not allow teenagers to carry guns. You gave good evaluation and it is very logical to me. Hence, in my opinion, your suggestion is good.
For your conclusion, you stated “Confucius studies”. Maybe you can elaborate more on it as I do not really understand which part of Confucius studies you are talking about. Also, I agree with you on your conclusion as it gives a good ending to your journal to make it very nice to read as the ending is well wrapped up.
It is also interesting that you give your viewpoint on whether you would like to live in the 2 countries. I find that it brings joy and stirs up my interest to read your reflective journal. This is a good way of expressing yourself and also keeping the viewer interested. What a good technique!
Overall, I enjoyed reading your reflective journal and I hope my comments can help you improve.
Thanks
Regards,
John Loh (10)
3S1
Hi John,
DeleteI think you have not read my journal very thoroughly as the "amendment" I would like to make is presented in my last paragraph- confucius studies. Also, I explicitly said which part of confucius studies I would like to use to resolve the various societal problems, therefore I hope that you can look at the journal more thoroughly before giving your feedback :) Thanks!
Hi Darrel, good blog post, but there are some points you should take note of. In your second paragraph, you mentioned that with China having such a large population, there is definitely limited school and work for the people, thus the self-centred mindset. I do not exactly agree, there is a lack of education for the people probably because the rural population is neglected. However, this does not equate to China being unable to cope with its large population, it is just unable to reach out to those living in rural areas, do take note of that.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the implementation of Confucius teaching is a good and logical step forward. As you stated, it teaches one to learn to look beyond their own needs and recognise others who require help. But to me, this does not solve the problem of the people being self-centred. When the many bystanders saw Wang Yue being run down by two cars, did they not know that she needed immediate help? Obviously they recognise that she required help. It is important to know that recognising a problem and taking the steps to help is different, since recognising is mainly instincts while helping is volitional. I believe that another step has to be introduced to complement the Confucius teachings.
I admired you when you said that the American government should go ahead with taking away the usage of firearms for teenagers, but at the end, you said that it is unlikely the government would do so. If so, I think this point is a little redundant. But apart from that, you also mentioned that parents should teach their children the correct way of handling things and moral values to conduct themselves and I agree. But I am sure most parents would do so naturally. I do not feel that the issue is about the lack of inculcation of moral values, but rather the moral values the parents believe in. If parents themselves have the wrong moral values, what they pass to their children would be equally forlorn. As such, the government should not only target the education of children, but also parents who may have wrong values.
I am glad you specified Confucius teachings when you mentioned education, and you have done a good job on elaborating on it.
Cheers,
Jack Tan 3S109