RAPE JOKES - NOT FUNNY NOW, NOT FUNNY EVER
1. Sexual harassment has been taking place in the schools for years, but only recently has it begun to get the attention it deserves. Some have called such attention as an overreaction to normal teenager behaviour who is going through puberty, but sexual harassment can inflict deep psychological damage on young people. Two recent incidents have made it clear to me that we must put our foot down and do something to stop it.
2. Sexual harassment is not an easy topic of discussion, let alone a joke. Derogatory sexual comments and rape jokes are very dangerous. When one person makes a comment that uses derogatory sexual language, others can use that comment and later repeat it to their friends. These friends will then absorb the comment and circulate the derogatory sexual language in their social circles, thinking that “it is okay” to laugh about it thus perpetuating a cycle that is difficult to break.
3. We are aware that the role of a teacher is to inspire, motivate, encourage and educate learners/students. A recent Malaysian student's tweet about her teacher who had joked and underplayed rape has gone viral. It was said that the teacher also made another sickening comment that “if boys get raped it doesn’t get reported because apparently boys would feel ‘good’ about it”. What’s more shocking is the fact that when the student lodged a report to her counselling teacher in school only to be told that it is “normal” for jokes like this to be made as boys feel alright and girls are often too sensitive and emotional. Instead of getting the justice she deserve, she was sent to the same counselling teacher for a “therapy” session.
4. We must put to an end of labelling rape jokes as “part of our culture.” Rape joke was never part of Malaysia’s culture and will never be. The modern society has belittled the voices of survivors, making conventional discussion very one-sided towards the perpetrators. Schools must take the responsibility for preserving an appropriate learning environment that rest primarily with school administrators. Listen to students when they speak up on any form of sexual harassment or approaches made by their teachers, peers, school personnel or any other members in the school. School staffs must never turn a deaf ear to students’ cries for help.
5. Thank you to the student who gathered every ounce of courage that is in her in making a very daring and bold decision of stepping out and speaking the truth whilst still handling her trauma/shock. Sexual harassment is not something young people need to learn to tolerate. Rather, it must be confronted and stopped so that schools can be a safe and positive space for children to learn. Ignoring the situation can often lead to a cycle of ongoing harassment and victimisation. Calling out on people who commit the “humour” of making a joke out of rape or any kind of violence need more efforts. Stern action must be taken to safeguard the safety of our students in school so that in future, actions like these will not be tolerated and it will be put to an end. We should make the elimination of sexual harassment or derogatory actions our top priority. I hope that the Ministry of Education will take action in engaging relevant authorities to make sure this horrendous practice ends.
AINIE HAZIQAH
EXCO Srikandi BERSATU Malaysia
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今早為Asian Medical Students Association Hong Kong (AMSAHK)的新一屆執行委員會就職典禮作致詞分享嘉賓,題目為「疫情中的健康不公平」。
感謝他們的熱情款待以及為整段致詞拍了影片。以下我附上致詞的英文原稿:
It's been my honor to be invited to give the closing remarks for the Inauguration Ceremony for the incoming executive committee of the Asian Medical Students' Association Hong Kong (AMSAHK) this morning. A video has been taken for the remarks I made regarding health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic (big thanks to the student who withstood the soreness of her arm for holding the camera up for 15 minutes straight), and here's the transcript of the main body of the speech that goes with this video:
//The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, continues to be rampant around the world since early 2020, resulting in more than 55 million cases and 1.3 million deaths worldwide as of today. (So no! It’s not a hoax for those conspiracy theorists out there!) A higher rate of incidence and deaths, as well as worse health-related quality of life have been widely observed in the socially disadvantaged groups, including people of lower socioeconomic position, older persons, migrants, ethnic minority and communities of color, etc. While epidemiologists and scientists around the world are dedicated in gathering scientific evidence on the specific causes and determinants of the health inequalities observed in different countries and regions, we can apply the Social Determinants of Health Conceptual Framework developed by the World Health Organization team led by the eminent Prof Sir Michael Marmot, world’s leading social epidemiologist, to understand and delineate these social determinants of health inequalities related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to this framework, social determinants of health can be largely categorized into two types – 1) the lower stream, intermediary determinants, and 2) the upper stream, structural and macro-environmental determinants. For the COVID-19 pandemic, we realized that the lower stream factors may include material circumstances, such as people’s living and working conditions. For instance, the nature of the occupations of these people of lower socioeconomic position tends to require them to travel outside to work, i.e., they cannot work from home, which is a luxury for people who can afford to do it. This lack of choice in the location of occupation may expose them to greater risk of infection through more transportation and interactions with strangers. We have also seen infection clusters among crowded places like elderly homes, public housing estates, and boarding houses for foreign domestic helpers. Moreover, these socially disadvantaged people tend to have lower financial and social capital – it can be observed that they were more likely to be deprived of personal protective equipment like face masks and hand sanitizers, especially during the earlier days of the pandemic. On the other hand, the upper stream, structural determinants of health may include policies related to public health, education, macroeconomics, social protection and welfare, as well as our governance… and last, but not least, our culture and values. If the socioeconomic and political contexts are not favorable to the socially disadvantaged, their health and well-being will be disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Therefore, if we, as a society, espouse to address and reduce the problem of health inequalities, social determinants of health cannot be overlooked in devising and designing any public health-related strategies, measures and policies.
Although a higher rate of incidence and deaths have been widely observed in the socially disadvantaged groups, especially in countries with severe COVID-19 outbreaks, this phenomenon seems to be less discussed and less covered by media in Hong Kong, where the disease incidence is relatively low when compared with other countries around the world. Before the resurgence of local cases in early July, local spread of COVID-19 was sporadic and most cases were imported. In the earlier days of the pandemic, most cases were primarily imported by travelers and return-students studying overseas, leading to a minor surge between mid-March and mid-April of 874 new cases. Most of these cases during Spring were people who could afford to travel and study abroad, and thus tended to be more well-off. Therefore, some would say the expected social gradient in health impact did not seem to exist in Hong Kong, but may I remind you that, it is only the case when we focus on COVID-19-specific incidence and mortality alone. But can we really deduce from this that COVID-19-related health inequality does not exist in Hong Kong? According to the Social Determinants of Health Framework mentioned earlier, the obvious answer is “No, of course not.” And here’s why…
In addition to the direct disease burden, the COVID-19 outbreak and its associated containment measures (such as economic lockdown, mandatory social distancing, and change of work arrangements) could have unequal wider socioeconomic impacts on the general population, especially in regions with pervasive existing social inequalities. Given the limited resources and capacity of the socioeconomically disadvantaged to respond to emergency and adverse events, their general health and well-being are likely to be unduly and inordinately affected by the abrupt changes in their daily economic and social conditions, like job loss and insecurity, brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak and the corresponding containment and mitigation measures of which the main purpose was supposedly disease prevention and health protection at the first place. As such, focusing only on COVID-19 incidence or mortality as the outcomes of concern to address health inequalities may leave out important aspects of life that contributes significantly to people’s health. Recently, my research team and I collaborated with Sir Michael Marmot in a Hong Kong study, and found that the poor people in Hong Kong fared worse in every aspects of life than their richer counterparts in terms of economic activity, personal protective equipment, personal hygiene practice, as well as well-being and health after the COVID-19 outbreak. We also found that part of the observed health inequality can be attributed to the pandemic and its related containment measures via people’s concerns over their own and their families’ livelihood and economic activity. In other words, health inequalities were contributed by the pandemic even in a city where incidence is relatively low through other social determinants of health that directly concerned the livelihood and economic activity of the people. So in this study, we confirmed that focusing only on the incident and death cases as the outcomes of concern to address health inequalities is like a story half-told, and would severely truncate and distort the reality.
Truth be told, health inequality does not only appear after the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, it is a pre-existing condition in countries and regions around the world, including Hong Kong. My research over the years have consistently shown that people in lower socioeconomic position tend to have worse physical and mental health status. Nevertheless, precisely because health inequality is nothing new, there are always voices in our society trying to dismiss the problem, arguing that it is only natural to have wealth inequality in any capitalistic society. However, in reckoning with health inequalities, we need to go beyond just figuring out the disparities or differences in health status between the poor and the rich, and we need to raise an ethically relevant question: are these inequalities, disparities and differences remediable? Can they be fixed? Can we do something about them? If they are remediable, and we can do something about them but we haven’t, then we’d say these inequalities are ultimately unjust and unfair. In other words, a society that prides itself in pursuing justice must, and I say must, strive to address and reduce these unfair health inequalities. Borrowing the words from famed sociologist Judith Butler, “the virus alone does not discriminate,” but “social and economic inequality will make sure that it does.” With COVID-19, we learn that it is not only the individuals who are sick, but our society. And it’s time we do something about it.
Thank you very much!//
Please join me in congratulating the incoming executive committee of AMSAHK and giving them the best wishes for their future endeavor!
Roger Chung, PhD
Assistant Professor, CUHK JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, @CUHK Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學 - CUHK
Associate Director, CUHK Institute of Health Equity
social justice education 在 李卓人 Lee Cheuk Yan Facebook 的最佳貼文
(支聯會2020年8月19日聲明 Statement by Hong Kong Alliance, 19 August 2020 )
強烈譴責教育局篡改歷史
抹掉軍隊「六四」屠殺真相
報載有關通識科教科書經「自願送審計劃」送交教育局審查後,出版商涉嫌配合當局的所謂「優化意見」政策,刻意「河蟹」起來,淡化、粉飾、扭曲,以至刪去「現代中國」單元中多個被視為敏感議題的教學資料,其中涉及「維權運動」和「六四事件」。
以齡記出版的《高中新世紀通識:現代中國》為例,原版列出「維權運動」的原因時,提及當局「認為維權運動造成社會動盪,因此我們大多以打壓的方式處理,例如拘禁維權人士、封鎖網上相關言論等…」,修訂後改為「維權運動可能造成社會動盪,民眾應以理性的方式和我們反映問題及表達不滿,例如通過國家信訪局網站作出申訴…」。 可是事實上,上訪者多遭遇截訪、關押甚至酷刑,受屈者即使循司法程序尋求公義,亦經常遭到有關當局的滋擾和逼迫,造成更大和更多的冤案,如此的修訂資料無疑是文過飾非,為當局的惡行塗脂抹粉。
該書在修訂「六四事件」資料時的手法同樣拙劣不堪。 原版提及觸發事件的「貪污問題」和「官倒現象」等起因,以及過程中的「軍隊清場」和「武力鎮壓」等解說如今完全被刪除,甚至「六四事件」字眼也被抹掉,修改為「造成民眾普遍不滿,更削弱政府管治效能,威脅中國社會穩定」云云,閃爍其詞,簡直完全抹煞事件始末的客觀和準確陳述。這樣的修訂手法不僅是偏向性混淆事實,更有意掩飾,不惜篡改真相,將血跡斑斑的「六四」屠殺慘劇,避重就輕的寫成維穩篇章,其政治意圖昭然若揭,卻是有違教育專業原則。
須知歷史教學是認識和探究的學習過程,有關教學材料的整理、編製和鋪陳須持平公正,盡量展示和引述正反兩方面資料,從而引導學生以多角度討論、思考和判斷。 歷史教學並不是政治宣傳,而歷史教材因此絕對不是以「政治正確」掛帥,經修改以凸顯黨國政策和正面形象。 極權國家慣常以操控的教育手段「修改」歷史,從而「捏塑」人民的歷史記憶,「箝制」人民的思想,以配合其管治策略。 香港人,特別是香港教育界,必須有所警覺。
為此,支聯會抗議教育局的審核教科書機制淪為政治審查工具,並強烈譴責掩飾真相的歷史教材修訂。 歷史絕對不容當權者肆意抹煞,支聯會當前運作的「六四紀念館」,以及籌建中的網上「六四記憶。人權博物館」,正是要好好保存有關的寶貴和真確歷史資料,讓史實和記憶傳承下去。
(Statement by Hong Kong Alliance, 19 August 2020)
Hong Kong Alliance strongly condemns the Education Bureau for distorting history
Stop erasing the truth of the Tiananmen Massacre
Media have reported that after Liberal Studies textbooks were sent to the Education Bureau for review through a ‘voluntary submission scheme’, publishers have cooperated with the so-called ‘optimization comments’ policy, downplaying, whitewashing, distorting, and even deleting many teaching materials deemed ‘sensitive’ in the Modern China unit, including the ‘human rights movement’ and ‘June 4 incident’.
For example, take ‘High School New Century Liberal Studies: Modern China’ published by Ling Kee. The original version says the authorities ‘believe the human rights movement has caused social unrest, so they mostly deal with it in repressive ways such as detaining human rights defenders, blocking relevant online comments, etc’. This was revised to ‘[the] human rights movement might cause social unrest. [The] public should report problems and express dissatisfaction with [the authorities] in a rational manner, for example, by making a complaint through the website of the National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration…’ However in reality, petitioners are often intercepted, imprisoned and even tortured. Even if the aggrieved seek justice through judicial procedures, they are often harassed and persecuted by the relevant authorities, resulting in more injustice. Such revised information is undoubtedly a whitewash to cover up the authorities' evil deeds.
Revisions of information pertaining to the ‘June 4th incident’ in the book are also problematic. While the original version gave ‘corruption’ and ‘official profiteering’ as triggers of mass protests in 1989 and made reference to ‘clearance by the army’ and ‘suppression by force’, this has all been deleted in the revision. Even the words ‘June 4th incident’ have been erased. Instead, the proests are described as having ‘caused public dissatisfaction, weakened governance effectiveness, and threatened the stability of Chinese society’, which is evasive and completely obliterates the objective and accurate account of the incident. Such revisions are not only biased, obscuring the facts, but they even try to conceal and distort the truth. The blood-stained tragedy of Tiananmen Massacre becomes a chapter on stability maintenance. The political intentions are obvious. They violate the principles of education.
It is important to note that history teaching is a learning process of recognition and inquiry. The collation, compilation and presentation of teaching materials should be balanced and fair, presenting and citing both pros and cons, so as to guide students to discuss, think and judge for themselves from multiple perspectives. History teaching is not political propaganda. History textbooks should therefore definitely not be modified to highlight party-state policy and improve its image. Totalitarian countries often use control over education as a means to ‘modify’ history, thereby molding people's historical memory and suppressing people's thinking in conformity with their governance strategy. Hong Kong people, especially the Hong Kong education sector, must be vigilant.
Therefore, Hong Kong Alliance protests that the Education Bureau’s textbook review mechanism has become a tool for political vetting, and strongly condemns revisions of history textbooks that conceal the truth. History must not be arbitrarily erased by those in power. The goals of the currently operating June 4 Museum and Online Tiananmen Massacre Memorial Museum under development by Hong Kong Alliance are precisely to preserve the relevant precious and true historical materials so that historical facts and memories can be preserved and passed on.
#教育局 #政治審查 #歷史 #六四真相 #六四屠殺 #通識科 #篡改歷史 #六四紀念館 #六四記憶人權博物館