Ethics - Case Study Reflection

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/malaysian-couple-to-hang/1024102.html

Who is to blame for the death of the maid?

Ever since I could remember, I've been raised in a family where maids are part of the norm. However, they are not family exactly. Some of my maids had cleaned, fed, raised and taught me things just like any other mother could do, or even better.

Most of my maids were rather young, ranging from barely legal to 30. All these while, I treated them almost like my closest companion while I'm at home but my family had never treated our maids as family. They were always seen as a second class of people and despite my bond with some of them, that perspective sometimes influences me into thinking of them as lesser, hence I find the term of them being "modern-day slaves" rather apt.

I would assume that being a maid is not the first pick of a career option for most people hence most of these maids look as though there is no other choice of earning wages besides being maids. It is the last resort. With the mentality that maids are at our mercy of earning a living, I can easily imagine how some people can become twisted with the image of "owning" them as maids are full time helpers, ranging from a period of months to even years. These helpers live with us, yet we do not fully accept them into our lives, being shadows in the background.

Hence with these workers at the mercy of the agency and employer, the role and responsibility lays upon the latter two as the worker can be manipulated and mistreated when there aren't obvious enforcement of law and regulation towards the maids' safety and when the maids are gullible and at desperation, they will fall into the manipulation.

The maids would not be at wrong even if they are gullible as I believe that people would have the conscience to treat another being with respect and care and only those who choose to ignore them, will mistreat their maids, further concreting the responsibility of the employers ( if they are capable of employing the maid, I'm assuming they have means of making money which also means that they are fairly educated).

Reflecting on personal ethics - What does your response reveal about your notion of ethical decisions?

The story could be turned around where the maid could be a schemingly, manipulative person who takes advantage of an employer's empathy e.g. stealing money, lying.

But as employers and agency managers, the responsibility is high as they are in charge of the welfare of the maid. I think I may be bias towards the fault being of the employer and the maid agency as I feel like those in power should not use their power to manipulate others. The maids often being the less powerful one, should be protected.

Our ethical notion is constantly influenced by our society and as mentioned in sociocultural psychology, culture pretty much shapes us. However, we need to be active members of society that constantly reflects on the world we live in to make better and more ethical choices in life. The practice of ethics is simply not black and white and one must strive to read between the lines and learn what it means to be ethical or not based on knowledge and experience. That being said, theory always look better on paper and we can only try on our part to widen our perspectives to understand ethics better or let the rest of the world determine what kind of world we live in.

Introduction to Language as a WOK

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3. Use the last slide to write at least 2 generalisations about language - you can write more if you want to flex your conceptual thinking muscles!

A generalisation is a statement that is true across time and context. It is stated in the present as it should always be true, not just in one situation or at a particular time. If I choose the concepts LANGUAGE and LEARNING, I can produce the following generalisation: "Language allows us to discuss, explore and reflect on our learning." As you can see, this is true across all time and in all contexts. (Even if people don't do it, they still could if they chose to.)

After our discussion on "what is language?" on Monday,  I pondered on my things. However, not before I thought on my own definition of "language" itself. I started out almost black and white with just a:

"Language is a mean of communicating through speech and writing"

Later on, I improvised and wrote:

"Language is a mean of communication through ubiquity commonality."

What made me change my idea? Well simply because there was so much debating going on that all these influx of ideas and debate from my peers simply made it clear- language is not JUST that.

Our discussions developed from language being ALL forms of communication as language also include body language and sign language hence we chucked that idea. We further refined language to as a mean of communication only by humans that is expressed through verbal and written form as humans do not only communicate like animals for survival means, but we also develop artistic expressions through speech and writing.

We assume that at the moment, animals have yet to develop these creative expressions through language as we humans do hence language is still limited to humans at the moment.

Generalizations

1. The more languages you speak, the more people you can communicate with.
2. Language limits the way you think.

Reflection on "The Theory of Knowledge Journal"

Confounded to the rules of everyday dreariness, we become the de facto dictators in our routines.

The everyday blandness of the conventional hence numbs the astute eye for reflection.

 Just a sense of deeper awakening towards the minuscule details; we let it slip through our fingers. But sometimes, the brain can only process so much at once and for people like me, I feel like my clarity is shrouded when time simply presses you to a routine and we become so oblivious to things that aren't in our field of focus.

The details enrich our lives incredibly and when you see it, you will realize the immense amount of life that constantly pass by you and just how much time you've let slip by. The more you observe, the bigger the image grows.

As an example, I often ponder on the characteristics of people. I would ask, why is she/he the way they are? What would have caused this? What does their body language tell me? Without them noticing you gawking like a freak, you'll learn so much more about others and eventually yourself by just observing the world around you as some vague saying goes, you get to see how green your grass is only when you've seen the grass on the other side or something.

I just try to make time whenever I can to observe the smallest details because there really is so much to an every day occurrence then we realize.