Say "NO" to discrimination
Monday, March 19, 2007

Final presentation for COMM101 – 4-6 minutes.. "About persuasion with story"

Why we tend to discriminate other people who we feel are not similar with us, especially in the terms “race”? Maybe it’s a very sensitive topic, but I feel that in corporate world, discrimination will give you disadvantage, especially in this globalized world.

When I was walking from SESS kopitiam to SIS, I heard a group of Singaporean talking about their CEO.
“Wah.. that Indian CEO is damn stingy la! Bla bla bla..”

I often heard about stereotyping, resulting to discrimination in SMU, especially when we are forming a group:
“I don’t want to group with Indonesian”
“No, no, no China people please!”
“No Indian!”

The question arisen is “Is it my fault to be Chinese, Indian, etc?”

My agenda for this presentation will be touching why we shouldn’t practice discrimination, why don’t we learn to appreciate the difference and make it as an advantage.

Maybe most of you are Chinese, and in Singapore, Chinese were not discriminated like in some countries where Chinese are minority. So, let me share you a story about a Chinese who feel discriminated.

Does anyone know about the “Quantum Leap” movie? For those who don’t, I’m using the characters, Sam and Al, for my story. Sam is a Chinese, and he is usually called A Sam. And Al is a “Ghost” who can be seen by Sam and can leap Sam to other dimensions

The story started when A Sam was in China around 1840 where big flood, civil war and famine made A Sam and his family suffer. Then, A Sam heard about “Gold mountain” away there and, he traveled there. The place is now known as California. Unfortunately, the ‘California’s gold rush’ ended and Sam had to work as a railway labor. He just earned 1.00 USD a day while the whites earned at least twice of his earning. But still, A Sam was happy because in China, it was his wage for 2 months.

The whites let the Chinese do the dangerous works such as bombing the mountain, and making the train tunnel. Many Chinese died because of landslide and extreme weather of Rocky Mountain. But, the Chinese population kept increasing and the white labors felt this threatened their jobs. And the whites also perceived Chinese people as greedy, As a result, many anti-Chinese acts were done such as discrimination, murder, and demonstration. Finally, the government enacted the exclusion act for Chinese in 1882.

Feel that this regulation couldn’t be tolerated, A Sam asked Al to leap him to another dimension. Unfortunately, Al somehow pressed the wrong button and A Sam was leaped to Canada. He was one of the labors sent from California to Canada to build railway connecting west and east Canada. The condition was similar when he was in California.

Same thing happened; the government enacted Head Tax which only affected the Chinese. Every Chinese who migrated to Canada had to pay $50. But it’s not effective. So the government increased it to $100, and finally to $500 at1904. From 1885-1923, The total Head Tax was 23 million Canadian dollar, which worth 1 billion dollar as 2006.

A Sam couldn’t take it anymore and wanted Al to leap him to other place. Now he’s in Indonesia where he lived peacefully with his family, had servants, driver and helicopter. But not until May 1998 riot when Chinese became a scapegoat, he asked Al to ‘leap’ him again to Niagara Falls and while drinking his coffee, he wondered.. “If I were not a Chinese..”

That’s a story of a Chinese. There are stories about Indian, American Indian, African American, or other races who were discriminated because they were minority in a particular place.

But now, you see US. Today’s US is the result of many people’s efforts in hundred years, not only white people, but also negro, chinese, American Indian and other races as well. And so does Singapore.

Imagine if Chinese didn’t migrate to Canada, the railway wouldn’t be built.
Imagine if Chinese didn’t migrate to Indonesia, there wouldn’t be Indofood, the instant noodle you usually eat.
Imagine if India didn’t migrate to Singapore, there wouldn’t be Mustafa Centre.

Chinese in Canada participated in a war with Japan. Many of them become soldier, paramedic, etc. Same things happen in Indonesia. The Chinese helped Indonesia to gain its independence from Japan.

We all share the common goal, to make our country toward a better future.

As SMU Students, we also share common goal to: to maximally develop ourselves, to flourish the name of SMU, to lead Singapore to a better future.

So why don’t in the new term, you form a group of consisting at least 4 nationalities? Or if you see a foreigner who doesn’t have a group, approach him and ask him to join your group.

Maybe some of you will think “Ah, just try once.” And then you realized that he’s really a slacker then you don’t want to group with foreigner again.

If he’s a slacker, or he couldn’t work well, it’s about him, and NOT about where he is from: Malaysia, China, England, France, etc.

Believe me, the experience is rewarding. And that’s why SMU adopts a cultural diverse society. In the future, when you become a great CEO of multinational company, you will remember when I was standing here, talking about why discrimination shouldn’t be practiced.

Comment donk.. presentasinya senin depan nihh.. tegang boo

Reference:

"Quantum Leap"

http://community.kompas.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.arsip&section=92&y=2006&m=6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_immigration_to_Canada

biar ga dianggap plagiarism haha =D

posted by edgar @ 9:26 PM,

7 Comments:

At 9:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

begh gila edgarrrr.... gahar!! sangar!! membakar!! hahaha... keren sih scriptnya... asal pas presentasiinnya bisa persuasive n lancar, gw yakin pasti keren. overall, tampang kriminal lu cukup mendukung kok gar... jarang2 kriminal bicara tentang anti-discrimination harharhar....

 
At 10:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hehe.. nice job gar.. just prepare for it and don't sweat, hehe..
btw, kenapa tiba2 presentasi soal ginian si? buat communication subject ya..
well, break a leg k.

 
At 1:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

gua setuju ama speech lu itu, edgar.

bener, we never asked to be born in the race that we are now.

sebenernya seh pas riot gua sempet mikir, gua ini chinese ato pribumi ga yah...setengah2 gini darahnya. tapi iya, we shd never judge a person by what he or she had not chosen to be.

 
At 3:26 PM, Blogger edgar said...

wahh terima kasih atas komennya.. ga nyangka pada tertarik haha..

topik yang kontroversial memang lebih menarik ya? hehe

thanks for the comment

anyway, gue modif dikit speechnya.

audiencenya bukan SMU students, tapi harus corporate world

 
At 6:07 PM, Blogger vanessa kusnandar said...

keren gar..!!!
berat bo!!!
udah lah tinggal latian aja..
tnang aja, lu yg presentasi mah pasti bagus!!
hahahahaha.
gud luck ya!!!

 
At 12:01 AM, Blogger ip said...

Wah gar, bingung gw mo komentar apa... Gw doain semoga sukses aja deh presentasinya. Btw, filenya yg ilang udah ketemu lum? Wakakakak

 
At 9:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

edgar..
btw artikel yg quantum leap, gw yang kasitau bukan ?
anyway its a great presentation folks :) how was the result and public opinion ?

 

Post a Comment

<< Home