guiding at city hall
hello! was down at city hall guiding a small group of friends today. its much easier to guide people that you know personally, because you can be more informal with them, joke around and stuff.. they'd also be more understanding when u cant explain everything about the artwork.one thing about being a guide.. i feel the need to know enough about the artworks before i feel that im fit enough to guide a group of people around. its become my responsibility to help them better understand whats going on, so that they can make the most of their time spent at the biennale. yea.. so because of this, i find myself reading up more about the artworks, and spending more time thinking about them, which is good :) the mini discussions that we sometimes have before school are really helpful too because we can clarify our doubts, listen to each others ideas and gain new perspectives.
oh yea, u know that video about the last thoughts of a suicide bomber? the artist was asking people from the western and islamic worlds questions, like what do you think are the thoughts of a suicide bomber? why are they doing this? in what situation would do such a thing? what is the difference between the western and islamic worlds? to me, it seems like people from both parties have quite similar responses.. the bomber thinks about his family, people who are close to him. he thinks about the 'good' that might come out of his action. people are also able to come up with realistic situations in which they can picture themselves becoming a suicide bomber. eg. if a loved one was kidnapped, if no one would listen to all the problems that you and your people were facing etc. so it seems like we would act the same way if we were put in a similar situation.
that makes me wonder why people, in normal situations, arent able to display greater tolerance and understanding towards the people who commit such crimes. yes true, their acts are horrific, are im against such actions, but besides condemning them and their people straight away, doesnt anyone objectively question what drives them to do such things? maybe someone needs to ask us the question directly before we ponder over it. quite sad rite..
hm, i remember last year there was some talk with some people who are involved with national security or sth, and we were having a discussion on terrorism and the steps we take to prevent such attacks in singapore. i asked, besides taking such preventive measures like heightening security etc, if there was a more effective way of combating terrorism. i was thinking about tacking the root of the problem, ie. what drives them to commit such acts, rather than preventing the subsequent actions that result from this root cause.
aiyo ok such a lengthy post. bet someone could summarise this into 1 para.
posted by yiwennie @ 9:44 PM
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