About Identity (III) about Women

The topic our group presented is on the Evolution of Identity of Singapore Women.

More shall appear in the Course Blog.
Some resources (media) that we used - series of songs identifed during the session are as followed. Indeed, it brings out the distinguishing difference (and progress) across the eras:

Songs:

1. Superwoman (1988) by Karyn White: Lyrics.
2. Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison: Lyrics.
3. I am Woman by Helen Reddy: Lyrics.

MP3 files of these sounds can be found at http://beemp3.com/

Mom's Song by Anita Renfroe


Dadsense by Anita Renfroe

Other references:

1. Socyberty. (5 April 2009).The Changing Role of Women in Society. Retrieved from http://socyberty.com/issues/the-changing-role-of-women-in-society/#ixzz12WWyjg1L
2. Marcia Reynolds. (27 June 2010). The Emerging Identity of Women. Retrieved from http://www.notjustthekitchen.com/money-finance/the-emerging-identity-of-women/
3. Jean Lee S.K. Kathleen Campbell & Audrey Chia. (1999). The 3 Paradoxes: Working Women in Singapore. Retrieved from http://www.postcolonialweb.org/singapore/gender/3paradoxes.html
4. EDB Singapore. (2 July 2009). The 1960s Singapore Economic Development Board. Retrieved from http://www.sedb.com/edb/sg/en_uk/index/about_edb/our_history/the_1960s.html
5. The Development of Education in Singapore since 1965
   Background paper prepared for the Asia Education Study Tour for African Policy Makers, June 18 – 30, 2006
6. Singapore’s female entrepreneurs – are they different? Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4, 2008

About Cultural Identity (II) Rojak

It's a very nice and close-to-the-heart analogy... literally, from the bowl of rojak... it reminds us the 'good taste' in the hands of a good chef - to bring the different 'foreign entities' together.

I like the simple approach.. where the different 'components' that make up the rojak... isn't it the same as the different nationalities that make up our nation?

However, it does not necessary mean that we could just mix any fruits together. Good taste only come about by the appropriate portion of paste and the chef who mix the paste with the fruits, and the finishing (sprinkle peanuts on the rojak)!

Put it across in a simplistic manner: The paste resembles the programmes that are to be implemented while the chef is really the 'implementor' of the programme - the outcomes depend largely how it's delivered.

So, don't take for granted the 'uniquely' made in Singapore rojak :)

About Cultural Identity (I) Diwali commercial - Petronas

This was shared by the Group 9 - to conclude the day of presentation (that lasted for 5 solid hours today. The topics revolved no other than topics on Identity & Multiculturalism.

This clip was an interesting one... which I think, it clearly illustrates what's going through in our youths' minds today. In fact, it touches on what another group talked about "Assimilation" vs "Multiculturalism" - what's happening today?

In the advertisement, the 4 young men actually 'adopted' what they considered as "hip". And that included creatively 'adopted' a new name "Andy" and "Sam". However, they were spotted by grandma who brought them back to reality!

Well, initially, I thought "Andy" would either run away or rudely replied his grandma to 'mind her own business'... haha... that's how I would stereotype those 'hip-hop' guys! Nevertheless, the storyline has proven me wrong! And grandma has no fear to correct "Sam"! (not anticipating any rude responses from him?), and she added "What a divine name!" hahaha....

There's hidden and deeper values to a seemingly entertaining advertisement.

About Relationships... a conversation...

{in the middle of a conversation...}

• ME: have a good breakfast... that helps :) er... not a too heavy one... else zzzzz monster will visit u
• ACE: my breakfast is coming later....
• ME: Have a cup of beverage that wakes u up :) into my 2nd cup of coffee this morning :)
• ACE: O_O i tot it's not too good to have so much coffee O_O
• ME: hehehe.... hm... proportional to age (I guess) hahaha.... it follows a linear graph hahahahhaahha
• ACE: hahaha.. linear graph O_O eeek i wonder if i still rmb the way to do it ==
• ME: oh... understanding what it means (esp the equation) helps :)
• ACE: hmm
• ME: hm.... y = mx + c. So, imagine the equation that represents number of cups of coffee we drink per day is.... y = 0.005 x where x is the age. oops! one could only drink a cup of coffee when reach the age of .... 200!!!! hahahaha..... oops! hope that's not confusing to you :)
• ACE: O_O ooh i think i understand
• Loh: hahah... Hm... maybe a more realistic equation would be y = 0.05 x (where y represents the number of cups of coffee) and x is the age
• ACE: we must make y = 1. Is it O_O
• ME: ah... then at what age, theoretically speaking when one is eligible for 1 cup of coffee
• ACE: according to the equation or...
• ME: .... (waiting for the "age') hehehe.....
• ACE: 20
• ME: :)
• ACE: ooh i see...
• ME: hahah... pretty easy hor
• ACE: hmm then while drawing the graph i know c is the y-intercept and m is the gradient.. but what is y and x?
• ME: x and y are any items that we want to create a relationship... ok... it sounds a bit vague. Use the earlier example, u notice we want to describe a relationship between age and no. of cups of coffee?
• ACE: yup
• Loh: so, we let y represents no. of cups and x represents age. So, to describe how x and y are related there are some 'facts' (that could be discovered through research). So, people realised that when one gets older, the number of cups of coffee also increases so it becomes y (no. of cups) = a description times x (age)
• ACE: hmm..
• Loh: the description is 'how fast'
• ACE: i see.
• ME: so, maybe research shows that it's 0.05 times the age then we describe it as y = 0.05 x
• ACE: so the relationship is the when y increases x also increases.
• ME: yes....
• GRACE: ooh
• Loh: remember the graph of y = 0.05x is moving upwards (from left to right of the graph paper) so, it's a positive relationship hm... we can also describe something else like...
• ACE: oh
• ME: amount of hair one has... as one ages.... ok... this case, we'll have something like from the age of 40 to 100 so guess how the graph would look like if y represents the amount of hair and x represents the age (age starting from 40) hahahah.....
• ACE: hm... what is m ?
• ME: :) of course, we are not talking about exceptional cases like those who shave their head.... hm... m is to describe how fast the hair drops... hahahhha.... or the rate that hair grows?
• ACE: ...... so i can replace it with any number?
• ME: 'cos as one gets older... the rate of hair growth also significantly reduced :) ah... u can place it with any number... then test out to see if it's logical
• ACE: hmm... y=20x ?
• ME: but before that, we'll have to ask ourselves... is the number going to increase or decrease as age increases
• ACE: ok
• ME: hm... so, if you look at y = 20x. it means as one grows older, the amount of hair would increase? (this is true when we look at... starting from baby to around the age of 40?)
• ACE: ok. So if we change 20 to -20?
• ME: good suggestion :) - implies getting lesser and lesser... however we can't have negative number of hair on the head. Hahahha..... the most we could go to is zero hair
• ACE: so decrease the number? oh
• ME: :) so... hm... here, the y-intercept might come in useful
• ACE: O_O then now what O_O
• ME: use what you have... maybe we can try something like y = -20x + 400. we add the y-intercept to make the relationship more realistic so, if one is 10 years old, does he have any hair?
• ACE: hmm yeah 200
• ME: :)
• ACE: oohhh
• ME: so, by the age of 40.... haha... nothing's left.
• ACE: yup
• ME: so it could be a special scenario whereby someone was struck with some sickness
  and the equation could be used to describe the hair loss... which is, y = -20x + 400 well... this is a very simplistic way of describing relationships
• ACE: i see thanks xD
• ME: in real world... more complex... that's why we move into quadratic equations, etc....
  :) Enjoy :)
• ACE: i see tyty! :D
  

Sent at 7:48 AM on Saturday