Thoughts about the course

It's nearly reaching the end of the semester, which means that I am nearly finished learning Critical Literary for about 14 weeks. I have gained a lot of information about this course. It is a bit challenging, as I cannot fully understand the requirements of the assignment and so on. But after doing the assignment, tasks and also consultation from my lecturer, I think I can understand it little by little.

Nevertheless I still think that this is the most difficult subject to score if I don't have wide understanding about it. I guess i have learned a lot, but still the skills need to be polished more. As my lecturer, Ms Yaya always said that Critical Thinking requires a lot of reading and thinking. I admit that I am not a bookworm especially for the educational books or articles, but surely I will try to read more. I really want to improve my skills because I have discovered that reading enhancing my mind to think about what the topic is about. At least I can think something beyond of my limits.

I think it is a precious opportunity to have this course as one of the subjects for my diploma. I hope I can implement it in the future as soon as I have finish the diploma and thank you so much for the fun experience during the tutorial sessions.

Vaccination, is it good?

Health is a treasure. It is the most vital aspect in every human being. Each people in this world should take care of their health seriously to ensure a longer lifetime. Healthcare should always be started from home, which will be an essential part connected with parenting methods. Parents should be concerned about their children's health by making sure they take a suitable and accurate care for their body. Recently, there was an issue that occurred and created a huge impact to the community, which is vaccination. According to Cambridge Dictionary (n.d), vaccine is a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease. Vaccine is a must for everyone as a prevention from harmful diseases such as rubella, tetanus, measles, mumps and many more. But now, there exist a group of people that against vaccination and this group is known as anti-vaccine. They against vaccine because there are a few side effects happened after receiving vaccines and trusting unknown sources condemning that vaccine is harmful. So what are the points that might be their arguments?

The anti-vaccines often have their points that is often used by them. One of the points that will be given by them is that vaccine actually weakens their children’s immune system but parents do not know that it is not the number of shots that matters but actually the substance in them. Antigens are the bacterial components of a vaccine that bolster the immune system to build up antibodies and fight future infections. The total antigens in vaccines today are a fraction of what kids used to receive even when including combination vaccines meaning even they did not vaccinate their children; they will still receive the same substance in other medications.  In addition, sometimes parents read about false article written by physicists that believed thimerosal (ProCon.org, 2019), an organic mercury compound could be found in trace amounts in one flu vaccine for children and other vaccines for adults, is often linked to autism. This will make the parents anxious to have their children vaccinated as they might be scared that they will be autism but this type of event is extremely rare to happen. Last but not least is that they believe the rights of their children is exclusively for them. They have the control over what to do with their children and when they are influenced by videos or articles saying that vaccines are dangerous, they decided to not vaccinate their children. This type of parents is good because they are protective over their children, but they do not seek the truth of it first before deciding something.

Last but not least, vaccine is something beneficial which is the total opposite from what anti-vaccines keep on arguing. Children’s immune system is totally need to be boosted from the early stage, approximately since they are a baby. When vaccines are taken, the babies have a stronger immune system and the parents also do not have to worry about them getting diseases which is easily can be prevented by taking vaccines.

REFERENCES

     1. Pros & Cons - ProCon.org. Retrieved from https://vaccines.procon.org/

     2. VACCINE: meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved from

             https://dictionary.cambridge.org/amp/english/vaccine

Freedom of Speech; should be restricted or not?

It is never appropriate for our government to restrict freedom for speech

PREMISES

               

   Yes, freedom of speech should not be restricted because everyone has their own rights to speak out their opinion on anything. Freedom of speech itself is basically giving opinion about the country, so everyone would have their own chance to voice their thinking. “We are a nation of laws, some of which we don’t agree with, but supposedly protect us and benefit us. Freedom of speech is contained in the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment to the Constitution, so obviously it’s pretty important, and apparently more complicated than I thought”, (Mason,2018). This means that it is important for us as a citizen to criticize about the country because sometimes others would not realize the real issue or problem in the country.

     If the government restrict freedom of speech, it will create a huge gap between the ruler and the citizens. Both sides need each other in terms of support and help and a ruler supposed to voice out the citizens’ thought in order to achieve harmony state. If the ruler ignores his people’s opinion, then how he can communicate well with them? Timms (2016) stated that, “free speech is not only about your ability to speak but the ability to listen to others and allow other views to be heard. It is important for the government to take concern of the citizen’s well-being. The citizen’s contributions are everywhere in the aspects to make a country grow. If the citizens are unhappy, how a country can work as usual when the energy that comes from it are mostly from human.” The government need to make sure the citizens can voice out their words so it is not appropriate for the government to restrict the freedom for speech

COUNTER ARGUMENTS

     Government should always restrict the freedom of speech because if it is not restricted, it is a very dangerous thing and can bring to the country’s doom. Young people will discover profanity earlier than they should and it might influence their thinking with bad stuffs that are already happening such as extremists, homosexuals and more. It can also make countries to declare war on each other. If not a war, in the country itself there will be thousands of protests, riots and outbreaks that will come when the government does not restrict freedom of speech. It is inevitable that protests will rise but it is at least being governed by law instead of blindly being free from it. “With this newfound freedom, discussions and criticisms about race and religion, for better or worse, have become widespread online, and it is understandable that some may be uncomfortable about open discussions of such sensitive subjects. Others may feel defensive of their religious or racial identity, and upset that others are seemingly dismissive of what is an integral part of their person and identity”, Paulsen (2019) which clearly shows that freedom of speech brings harm effect to the society and also the country.

               

    The restriction of freedom of speech is a good way to protect the peacefulness of the country from being judged by its own citizens and prevent from being colonized by the invaders. Besides, most of the people are actually criticizing from what they saw without any strong evidence. If it has, the would point out emotionally and aggressively which will bring more consequences towards the country’s safety. Sometimes, there will be a group of people that intentionally create chaos and riots just to trigger society’s trust towards the government. It will not only divide the unity; the government also will be overthrown.

References

Mason, T. (2018, February 15). Freedom of Speech Restrictions. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Some-Freedom-of-Speech-Needs-Restrictions

Paulsen, E. (2019, January 6). Take freedom of speech seriously. The Star Online. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/01/06/take-freedom-of-speech-seriously-we-cannot-legislate-away-our-fundamental-problems-and-we-certainly/

Timms, J. (2016, April 13). Why is free speech important?. Retrieved from https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2016/04/free-speech-important/

Can money buy happiness?

Do you agree with the statement, ‘Money can buy happiness’? I agree with this statement as for me, money can bring happiness and enjoyment for everyone in this world. Even a child will smile and stop from tantrum if we give money to them but that is not the issue. The real one is can money truly bring happiness to a wealthy but childless couple when they can just pay RM40,00 for a baby from the black market? I assume that we must have our own judgement and probably we will object this kind of transaction. So let’s go and dig deeper about this.

Indeed, with money we can do anything and it can give happiness to people, according to Meade (2019), a recent study conducted by Yale University and the University of Cambridge found that it is probable to have a better happiness when we spend our money. For some rich people, they can do anything that they want as long as they have money but the only thing that they really need to spend money for is when they have no children. So they will think that paying a baby from black market is the best way to add a new family member in their life. It could brighten their home and cheer up their day. We might think that it is against the law of humanity but if we look at the bright side, it actually gives positive effect for the family. Imagine when a married couple without any children have at least a child to complete their small family, it will feel like a blessing for them and will not hesitate to give quarter of their savings for it. The baby’s family maybe a needy family and does not have financial sources, it will reduce their burden and may support their life.

In conclusion, the statement is somehow correct because some of us can share happiness with others when they have money. They can give more instead of spending money on something that not really necessary. According to Rampton (2018), "without higher levels of wealth, it can be difficult to rationalize putting money into things like this. When you have the opportunity, though, it will make you happier." Same goes to the baby situation, the parents got money to survive while brighten the couple’s life with the existence of the baby.





References 

Meade, B. (2019, April 23). Can Money Buy Happiness?. Retrieved from                  https://www.hermoney.com/save/banking/how-to-buy-happiness/

Rampton, J. (2018, March 2). Science Says Money Does Buy Happiness If You Spend It the Right Way. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/309814

Critical Literacy? My expectations toward the course :)

Seniors from past semesters experienced different moments. Some of them said it was fun, but some said they were unlucky. Same goes to Critical Literacy, which I have heard most of my seniors stated that it was one of the most challenging subject for this course. At first, I thought that Critical Literacy is about giving our own judgement and opinion freely but after been introduced, it is more than critical as we have to think logically but wisely. Last semester, I studied Introduction to Tertiary Learning, which was the first stage before this subject. It was not so difficult, if the students just follow what the lecturer asked them to do and they understand how to do it, they will pass it easily. When it comes to Critical Literacy, I expect that it would be just article reviews, completing proformas but with more details, higher usage of vocabulary. When it comes to Critical Literacy, it is quite challenging as I have to make sure that I am not being bias and keep talking about the article that was given only. 

This is just a beginning of a new thing for me, I really hope that I can adapt with the requirements of this subject so I can able to understand and think broadly about certain issues. I do not want to just pass this paper, but I want ensure that I can use this knowledge in my future, perhaps while I am working so it will not be wasted. Furthermore, I hope I can be as critical as I can be so I would not point out my opinion with the obvious reasons that is common and if I am able to critically think while doing it, I would be satisfied of all my hard work I have given for this subject.