2022 GP EXAMPLES CONSOLIDATION

1. Politics
2. Sports
3. Media
4. Social/ Global Issues
5. Art and The Arts
6. Law and Order
7. Race and Religion
8. Science and Technology
9. Environment
10. Culture

POLITICS
1. Corrupt politicians, preoccupied with internal politics to stay in power, hence unable to fulfil duty of a
governor for its people
● Joko Widodo, Prabowo Subianto. Situation is dire across various domains – domestic economy, human
development, equality, social welfare and environment protection. Corrupt Subianto has sought to use judicial
structures to challenge the outcome of the recent elections.

2. Involvement of the population in the democratic process

● Election of US President Donald Trump after accusations of sexual misconduct and assault created a political
awakening where many women who were previously content with existing levels of representation in politics
and a tepid pace of progress recognized that more needs to be done. Hence, support skyrocketed for female
political figures like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

● Facilitated mass collaboration of students around the US following the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School
shooting. Countrywide, thousands of students marched out of their classrooms on a school day and rallied to
demand gun reform.

3. Weaknesses in political systems and processes, where there seems to be a focus on power dynamics instead of
citizen welfare
● Brexit, European Court of Justice ruled that it would be legal for the UK to unilaterally revoke Article 50 to cancel
Brexit. None of the political leaders can reach a consensus 🡪 immediately impact on the UK economy, with high
inflation rates and increase in annual cost for the average British household.

4. Governments making decisions on behalf of the people (positive)

● Educational policies in Finland are rooted in culture, values, trust in the government and the willingness to pay
taxes for the common good.

5. Positive examples of International Organisations (effective)

● UN, EU, NATO. Non-governmental: Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch, Greenpeace, WHO. World’s
most prominent issues (from World Vision, IPSOS) Covid-19, food insecurity, climate change, poverty,
social/gender inequality, war/international conflict, refugees
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
● The purpose of the organisation is that of a collective security to its member states. This
means that if a member state is threatened by an external country, a mutual defence will be
given in response.
WHO ● 2018, WHO African region contained 93% of the world’s malaria cases and 94% of malaria
deaths worldwide. Supports from the international community through donations and funding
estimated at US$2.7 billion.
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Greenpeace Expose global environmental problems and promote solutions towards a greener, more sustainable
future.

6. Negative examples of International Organisations (ineffective) due to political differences between

self-interested states, as well as funding for IOs being primarily from certain countries.
● Covid-19 pandemic, Trump administration threatened to freeze funding for the WHO, claiming the organization
has been unfairly biased towards China while handling the situation → detrimental, as the USA is a large
contributor to the WHO, contributing $893million from 2018-2019 alone.

7. IOs having limited effectiveness due to politics

● UN is born out of a desire to learn from the lessons of the past to avoid conflict, yet the UN is often limited in its
ability to come to a consensus on efforts to promote peace due to veto-wielding Security Council members
whose ideological conflicts are rooted in past conflict.

8. Laws and legislations put into place to ensure citizens’ PRIVACY

● China passed a personal data protection law, (PIPL – personal information protection law) to crack down on
unscrupulous data collection in the commercial sphere by putting legal restrictions on user data collection.
HOWEVER, this does not apply to the government’s ability to collect data on the Chinese, as it continues to keep
tabs on and police citizens’ behaviour, even on Weibo)

● European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes harsh penalties on firms that collect data
without following stringent conditions. In 2021, Amazon was fined USD $887 million for breaching these data
protection laws.

● SAF created their Cyber Security Task Force to protect the private data of citizens.

SPORTS
1. Using technology in sports to enhance play, improve winning rate in a professional context
● German Football Association teamed up with software company SAP to develop 2 new technologies that tapped
into the potential of Big Data analytics to identify strengths and weaknesses of opposing teams ahead of the
competition → leading to the win of the team.

MEDIA
1. Internet penetration rates
● Global internet users <4.7billion. Expansion of online media discourse, 500 million tweets/ day.
● TIME, once the US’ 2nd most circulated weekly draws a readership of 1.6mil compared to Khan Academy on YT
with a reach of 6.85 million subscribers → shift in TYPE and SCALE of education.
● Over 95 million photos shared on Instagram every day. 1.047 billion users as of 2021, >70% of US businesses own
Instagram accounts, Instagram helps 80% of users decide whether to buy a product or not. #ad hashtag usage
increased by 2x from 2020 to 2021.
● TIME, Scientific American quoted a ‘loneliness epidemic’ plaguing today’s social media addicted society.
● By 2030, more than 3.5 billion of the world’s population would have at least 1 social media account, as claimed
by FB Analytics in 2020.

2. Effective social media campaigns

● @safe.nus, @minorityvoices raise awareness on issues like casual racism, mental health problems, migrant
worker rights, sexual abuse INDEPENDENT of established institutions like MediaCorp or SPH, allowing for 2-way
interaction, significant in today’s democratic age.

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● (2-way communication) Although print version of National Geographic is in its decline, it holds one of the most
followed IG account, duly makes fruitful use of the platform to spur discussions on salient social issues e.g.
Gender Revolution → productive discussion on gender, added to a collective understanding of gender, informed
by opinions of people from different countries.

● Yulin Dog Festival in China. Angered by the inhumane treatment of dogs to be slaughtered for the festival, animal
activists took to social media like FB to petition for the festival to be cancelled, and in 2017, for the first time in
over a 100 hours, the Yulin Dog Festival was cancelled.

3. Slacktivism does not bring about tangible change

● Crisis Relief Singapore’s ad campaign featuring photos of suffering individuals surrounded by crowds giving them
a thumbs up. “Liking isn’t helping”, highlighting the futility of slacktivism.
● ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, study found that majority of the participants did not actually donate and participated
in it just because it was trendy (herd mentality). Many celebrities who participated in the challenge also did not
include any donation information in the video they posted.
● Tide Pod Challenge, ‘Devious licks’ challenge where netizens vandalize public property, leading to costs involved.

4. Social media campaign is successful

● #ClimateStrikes and inspiring photos of Greta Thunberg and striking youth in many more cities worldwide direct
global audiences towards the pressing issue of climate change’s effects to empower youths to take action.

5. Unregulated state/ independent PRESS

● Breitbart News Network was, at one point, a popular hyper conservative, alternative right news source in
America. Its publications featured extremely misogynistic and racist agenda that frequently denigrated women
who used contraceptives and miscast Muslims as rapists. Yet, they were allowed to continue due to the First
Amendment in America’s Constitution that protects freedom of speech, which by extension, allows such news
reporting to go unchecked.

● Partisan news reporting (Fox and CNN)

There was a vast difference in how gun violence was reported on in America between conservative networks like
Fox news and more liberal networks like CNN. Conservative Republican networks had a penchant of suggesting
that gun violence was a result of problems faced by individual mass shooter, while liberal networks more often
found faut with structural and systemic problems like the ease with which arms and ammunition could be
purchased. 🡪 stark division in viewpoints might have been in line with providing news consumers with a free
marketplace of ideas and providing a diversity of opinions on controversial issues, but the issue of
non-interference was a political clave and deep ideological divide in the nation without moderate,
middle-ground reporting.

● Biased nature of the press; ST reported Minister Josephine Teo’s argument in the Institute of Policy Studies
conference on how minimum wage could cause illegal unemployment, unemployment but omitted Tommy Koh’s
argument that minimum wage has worked in other countries such as Taiwan, HK, Taiwan 🡪 making it a 1 sided
discussion, could potentially misinform.

6. Regulated/ Highly-regulated PRESS

● CHINA
o North Korea and China; illegal to bring foreign press coverage/ news into the country – offence
punishable by law (overly-regulated). Great Firewall of China blocks over 18000 websites, specifically
targets seemingly seditious topics e.g. Tiananmen Square Massacre, even memes linking President Xi to
a cartoon bear. Even politically neutral information sites such as Google, FB are blocked. → potential
abuse of censorship

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 o CCP iron grip on new and traditional forms of media (extending from their official press, Weibo, even
South China Morning Post – owned by Alibaba, Jack Ma, pro-Chinese) means the Chinese public has little
access to authentic/ unbiased information at their disposal.

o In China, XJP has expressed concerns about the real power that social media has to spread information.
Hundreds of bloggers across the country have been detained and intimidation tactics have ramped up.
Microbloggers have been threatened with 3 years jail time for posting ‘false’ information that is viewed
at least 5000 times.

● Singapore’s mainstream media scene is restrictive, ranking 160th out of 180 countries in the Reporters without
Borders 2021 World Freedom Index, mostly due to POFMA Act in 2019.

● In SG, independent media outlets are vanishingly rare, restricted to New Naratif, The Online Citizen and few
others. They are also liable to be co-opted into state machinery such as Mothership, making it hard to seek
balanced views.

● Preetipls released a video of K Muthusamy, criticising the culturally insensitive use of brown face in an eNETS ad,
drawing public attention to the pervasiveness of casual racism in SG – the government then accused her of
crossing a line with the video, and inciting racial enmity.

● Twitter accounts of many activists involved in the farmer’s protests in India 2021 were banned under orders from
the government for allegedly spreading misinformation. The accounts generally had views critical of the ruling
Bharatiya Janata party.

7. Healthy balance of regulation and freedom

● POFMA; Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act which applies to traditional print media
and online media. Example of a healthy balance between regulation and FOS: First time POFMA was invoked
was in 2019 against a website claiming to be engaging in alternative news reporting 🡪 website required to
print a correction to be put alongside the original article, instead of a take-down notice such that readers
had the option to compare the 2 versions of truth and draw their own conclusions.

● Malaysia’s Anti Fake News Act jails those who create fake news with malicious intent for up to 6 years

8. Misinformation of the media (Fake news/ radicalization)

● In early 2021, mobs of MAGA supporters stormed the US Capitol to stop congress from certifying Biden as
president, causing 5 deaths. This can be directly attributed to a misinformation campaign by Trump to
discredit the results of the elections.

● SG Christian was detained for plans to attack the Assyafaah Mosque and Yusof Ishak Mosque after
consumption of ISIS propaganda videos, mistakenly interpreting their messages as representative of Islam.

● Russia created bots with the sole purpose of flooding social media sites with falsehoods that support its
national interests and narratives. This attempt to undermine American democracy worked – the Democratic
and Republican parties are now more polarised than ever, racial tensions are at an all time high and violence
at campaign rallies are unprecedented.

● Despite Singapore having a very high internet penetration rate of 90%, not enough has been done at a
systemic level. Unlike progressive countries like Finland or Denmark, which topped the Sofia Open Society
Institute 2021 Media Literacy Index, there are no formal lessons directed explicitly at teaching students to
deconstruct myths in the media

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9. PRESS abiding by some sort of code of ethics (held to HIGHER STANDARDS than modern alternatives)
● Joint effort by Australian telecom companies and internet providers in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch
massacre. They proactively blocked ~50 websites broadcasting the video of the mass murder, denying the
terrorist the chance to inspire additional acts of aggression, inhibiting viewers from imbibing insane
ideologies.

● Established news agencies like Associated Press, BBC, CNA, Reuters have maintained stellar reputations as
IMPARTIAL SOURCES of factually accurate and objective news.

10. Abuse of the FOE in general (online, offline, etc)/ FOE leading to negative consequences
● Rise in anti-Asian sentiment in the USA during the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump was unrepentant for labelling it the
‘Chinese virus’, influencing his supporters. → anti-Asian hate crimes in the US surged by an estimated 1200% in
2020, many of them violent in nature.

● To spread radical ideologies Christchurch mosque shooter made extensive use of social media to spread his racist
ideologies. He posted on a forum 4chan, calling others to take up arms against the detailed need to purge the
Muslims.

● French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo published controversial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
While the French press maintained its stance on free speech, it is questionable if the preservation of complete
FOS is justifiable when there is a wake of deaths and injuries, not only from the shootout in 2015 but also in a
series of related attacks from 7-9 Jan in Paris.

11. Media (new and traditional forms) being used as a 4th estate
● Russian press has reported that the Russian government is persecuting LGBTQ+ individuals in Chechen Russia by
beating them and incarcerated for their sexual orientation.

● (When domestic press falls prey to pressures by the government, international press band together to fulfil this
function) Vox has reported multiple times on China’s brutal crackdown on the Uyghur Muslim minority.

● TIME has reported that the Philippines’ President Duterte is unfairly sending out death squads to murder all and
any suspected drug addicts and drug smugglers. This happened when the Philippine press was pushing our
Duterte’s agenda and covering up the deaths.

● In Feb 2021, Myanmar’s military government ordered an internet blackout with the hopes of pre-empting the
‘Asian Spring of 2021’. However, much information is still exchanged by Burmese expatriates overseas, managing
to infiltrate the blackout imposed.

● Credible mainstream press like the BBC is uninhibited in its critique of the UK government and has even
conducted an investigative report in 2019 on alleged war crimes committed by the British Special Forces in
Afghanistan.

12. Social media is not accessible for all

● Struggling countries like Somalia and South Sudan which have connected less than 10% of the population to the
web, are compelled by circumstance to retain traditional forms of media for functions like advertising,
communication and news

● UK’s national Readership Survey, 80% of all adults read the newspaper in print form, while 13% read a
newspaper online

13. Media and gender inequality

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 ● (+) UK Advertising Standards Authority: has guidelines regarding gender stereotypes that ads must abide by or
risk being banned (as happening with Volkswagen and Philadelphia cream cheese) if they go overboard with
portraying women in passive roles.

● (+) Popular shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians and the enduring popularity of old fairy tales for
childrens and movies in cartoons → disempowering and reinforcing stereotypes of women’s weakness and the
need to rely on BEAUTY to get ahead

● Entertainment industry making noticeable efforts to move away from narrow gender stereotypes: Steven
Universe where almost every cartoon character is female. ‘Suits’ that feature females in top political or corporate
roles leading effectiveness, increasing number of female main characters in Disney cartoons such as Moana,
Brave who demonstrate courage and a spirit of adventure in the story line. All time classic of ‘Legally Blonde’ that
inspires females to take on traditionally nerdy endeavours WITHOUT COMPROMISING on their feminity.What

14. Social media being used as a tool to alleviate income inequality

● (LDCs) Dora Moono Nyambe, a TikToker that has used her account to build schools, hospitals for the children in
the village of Mapapa, Zambia in Africa. She educates these children not only on basic literacy in English, but also
on body autonomy where sexual assault towards children is highly prevalent. Plans to build a new hospital is
underway, and there is very high level of transparency between her and her supporters.

SOCIAL/ GLOBAL ISSUES

1. Incidents of the past continue to shape our present through RELATIONSHIPS
● Descendants of African slaves in the US and descendants of the Windrush generation in the UK have not been
able to cast off the legacy of slavery so easily – demand for reparations and concerns about how they are
perceived by white nationalists or those who hold on to historical narratives that prize; for instance Confederate
generals remain contentious issues.
● Nations which have been colonised in the past continue to grapple with the extent to which they should and
want to keep the positive aspects of the colonisers while casting others aside and developing their own identity.
E.g. movements like ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ in South Africa and even renaming cities and countries to cast off
colonisers’ names e.g. Mumbai, Sri Lanka, Myanmar

2. Nations’ past shaping current belief and values/ current systems and structures
● Nations born out of strife and struggle (Singapore, Israel) take much care to avoid vulnerability 🡪 heavy
investment in self-defence, national security, self reliance (education, forging international alliances). In
Singapore, Ethnic Integration Program, RHD

3. Past conflicts and power struggles between superpowers continue to have ongoing repercussions
● Cold War tensions are still alive and in the proxy war that the US and Russia are waging in Syria, with each side
supporting different sides in the civil war that align with their own interests and ideology, making consensus
seemingly impossible, particularly when the regional power Saudi Arabia has also gotten involved.

4. Inequality, discrimination
● Research has found that 50% of those who frown on homosexuality looked to religion primarily to ascertain
what’s right and wrong.

● Cheap labour in LDCs often come in the form of sweatshop workers enduring inhumane conditions/
child-trafficked workers in situations that resemble slavery. Well known fact that firms based in the global North
such as ASOS, Forever 21, NIKE, run such factories in the Global South (China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka)

● Vaccine hoarding, where 53% of the most effective vaccines have wound up in the hands of the richest countries,
which only comprises of 14% of the world’s population during the peak of Covid-19.

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● Diseases and plagues exemplify inequality, where the fallout has not been even, and the outbreak of various
diseases (SARS, MERS, Ebola, Covid-19) has hit some communities disproportionately. Switzerland has
4.7beds/1000 citizens, while India has 0.55/1000.

5. Equality, progress to alleviate inequality

● Singapore’s education ministry reports kids from low-income families are more likely to drop out or skip school,
leading to low educational outcomes that limit their job prospects. Studies have shown that an extra year of
schooling can increase a person’s salary by up to 10% later in life.

● (negative example) India has seen its graduate unemployment rate increase over the years, with as many as
27000 graduates applying for a public sector job with 1 vacancy.

● Scandinavian nations forging the change in equal parental leave for both men and women. In Finland, both
parents are paid close to 7 months of parental leave.

● MSF (Ministry of Social and Family Development) reach out to vulnerable groups in society.

● HOME (Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics), TWC2 (Transient Workers Count Too)

6. Celebrities/ Respectable people using their wealth for good (link to publicity → larger scale
● Man U Marcus Rashford campaigning and efforts to tackle child food poverty in the UK
● Elon Musk donating $5 million to Khan Academy to allow them to upscale their educational efforts to their 120
million viewers
● BTS inspiring their fans to engage in similar acts of kindness through their charitable efforts, as well as being
ambassadors of the UN.
● Oprah Winfrey → supporting the education of young women with her Leadership Academy Foundation in South
Africa

7. Exploitation of certain disadvantages groups

● Cultural exploitation of displaying the Kayan women as human tourist attractions in Thailand, especially since the
wearing of neck rings is increasingly purely for tourist appeal. These villages gloss over the reality that the Kayan
are Burmese refugees in Thailand, many of whom are denied citizenship, no access to healthcare and education,
unable to resettle outside of these tourist villages.

8. Evidence of the world’s most pressing issues

● Refugee Crisis According the UN data for refugees, global population of displaced persons surpassed 80 million in
mid-2020. There are ongoing refugee crises involving Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and other
turbulent nations means this figure is unlikely to taper off any time soon.
● War and international conflict Before Al-Qaeda’s rise to dominance, attacks were mostly committed within the
group’s country of origin. However, terrorism has now become a global problem, with deaths due to terrorism
increasing 6 fold from ~8000 in 2010 to ~>50000 in 2020.

9. GENDER INEQUALITY
● Lack of female representation in politics (note the currency of events)
o Change in impression towards female leaders in the past and now. When Hillary Clinton was 1st lady in
2000, she was referred to as ‘witch’ or ‘witch-like’ by the press for at least 50 times. Compared to now,
AOC (Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez), woman of colour from Puerto Rico 🡪 with Guardian describing her as
‘an interlocutor who always has the last word.’

● Gender equality is at odds with the patriarchal norms in Asian conservative societies like Japan and South Korea,
where progress to alleviate the disparity in labour participation and wages have been arduous.

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 ● Gender inequality in Sports. When Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hozzu won a gold medal and smashed records in
her event, TV commentator immediately cut to a shot of her husband and declared ‘there’s the man responsible’.

10. Improvement in gender inequality

● Education to improve gender inequality: Challenging gender norms through educaton
Malala Yousafzai defied the cultural expectation for girls to be docile and submissive. Protested patriarchal
norms, got shot by the Taliban for her trouble, succeeded in conniving many Pakistanis of the importance of
putting girls in school. Then president Asif Ali Zardari committed a $10 million donation to the Malala Fund on
behalf of the nation, and by 2018, female literacy rate had risen from 42% to 49% in 2007.

● Gender Inequality Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia have expanded especially rapidly over the past 2 decades. In
2001, they were issued ID cards, a recognition of their autonomy and personhood. Their roles in politics used to
be heavily restricted, but in 2013, the first 30 women were sworn into their consultative council. (idea of equality
inscribed in legal codes, that is being extended to more conservative, regressive and tradition-bound societies)

11. Social media campaigning

● Myanmar activists raising millions via Singapore to fight junta. The funds are usually raised from the 200,000
strong Myanmar community in Singapore and its wider overseas network, rather than Singaporeans themselves.
More than 520,000 people have been displaced across Myanmar by the growing crisis in the country, according
to the UN.

12. Political figures/ celebrities speaking up on social issues

● Political figure Justin Trudeau speaking up on systemic racism
Canada PM backed Sikh leader Jagmeet Singh for calling out racism when politician Alain Therrein refused to sign
the New Democratic Party’s motion on recognising systemic racism in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police →
sending out a very strong anti-racism message to the rest of the country.

LAW AND ORDER

1. Distinguishing between effectiveness of rehabilitative judicial systems vs punitive ones
● The United States has the highest number per capita of the population incarcerated whereas the Scandinavian
region enjoys one of the lowest numbers in the world. This is attributed to the latter judicial systems’ focus on
rehabilitation and reintegration of criminals upon release to the community.

2. Giving offenders a 2nd chance

● Prison School in the Singapore Prison Service’s education program → reduces the risk of re-offending and
increases employability upon release. E.g. Emelda Jumari who teaches English and Malay across N, O, A Levels.
Inmates range from 18-60y/o. Inmates go through a fast-paced, compressed curriculum to finish the syllabus in
approximately 9 months.

RACE AND RELIGION

1. Religion’s ability to connect people
● Pope Francis in Vatican City revered as the highest authority in the Roman Catholic world, when he visited South
Korea in 2014, almost 1 million South Koreans lined the streets to greet him and listen to his teachings.
● 2020 article of ‘My Faith is what is helping me get through this pandemic’ In Georgia, hundreds gathered around
a local hospital to pray for Covid-19 workers and frontline workers.

2. Conflict between Religion and Science-Tech

● Facing a crisis as the world’s most commonly consumed banana, the Cavendish banana is facing a wipeout due to
the tropical race 4 disease (panama disease). Although scientists have already produced a TR4 resistant
Cavendish banana using genetic modification, due to EU legislation regulating GM products, hence, humankind is
unable to benefit from such technologies. → hurts farmers from Colombia who exports these bananas too

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 ● Sarin gas; initially a new invention to kill pests to increase crop yield. Double edged sword that can be used for
evil – released near a hospital in Douma, Syria, causing dozens of innocent patients to die after being exposed to
the toxic nerve agent.

3. Religious Scriptures (that all preach the same values)

● As adduced by the Buddhist injunction ‘radiate boundless love toward the entire world’, Commandment of Jesus
to ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’, Jewish teaching from the Book of Mishnah that ‘the universe is built on
kindness’

ART AND THE ARTS

1. Art used to educate the public about ideals and values/ national unity
● National Museum of Singapore has 2 permanent exhibits with free admission: Modern Colony and Moving
Memories → acquired richly embroidered cheongsams, shoes to allow locals and tourists to discover how
affluent Straits-born and migrant Chinese fought to express their modern identities and challenges they faced in
working out their roles in Singapore’s colonial years.
● Moving Memories → 7 life-sized murals which seek to express the romance of places and moments in Singapore
(SG)
● “Crossing Cultures: New Acquisitions of the Asian Civilisations Museum” featured more than 150 works of art
from the national collection that were acquired/ donated. → provided visual splendour and engaged minds by
highlighting unusual artistic contacts between Asia, Europe and the Middle East (SG)

● Home – Kit Chan

2. Art may foment conflict

● Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial design, which drew controversy as many felt that it did not honour and
heroize the soldiers properly

3. Art being used to express alternative views on political issues/ controversial issues
● Ai Wei Wei: ‘An artist must be an activist’ → expresses intangible ideals in a tangible form for us to work
towards.
o ‘Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn’ → used to express dissent towards the Mao regime (communist regime).
o ‘Remembering’ → for the Chinese government to be accountable for their unethical use of cheap
building materials that led to the deaths of hundreds of primary school children when the building
collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake, when it could have been prevented.
o ‘Studying Perspectives – Tiananmen Square’ → picture of him pointing the middle finger at the Tian An
Men Square gate to criticise the government for varying issues, such as restriction on FOE etc. He was
arrested and questioned at length by the government, additionally the picture is banned on all Chinese
media platforms.

● Jean-Michel Basquiat’s –’Defacement’ is celebrated for its socially charged tone that decries the systemic racism
and police brutality that is all too common in America. Inspired by the death of Michel Stewart at the hands of
police brutality. Draws jarring similarities with the recent death of African American George Floyd who also
suffered the same fate in 2020.

● (The Arts) Childish Gambino’s This is America MV → portrayed violence against black people to a starling effect,
struck a chord in USA’s national consciousness after gaining traction with 800m views on YT, sparked a lively
debate on systemic institutionalised violence based on race.

4. Art being used to unify individuals

● Banksy’s ‘Game-changer’ where he depicts a young boy forgoing his traditional superhero toys such as Batman
and Spiderman to play with a nurse doll, which emphasises the importance and selflessness of frontline
healthcare workers during Covid-19.
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 5. Art is used as a tool for therapy/ has therapeutic effects that benefits individuals
● Beyond Social Services Singapore organised ‘Community Theatre Group’, where volunteers come from
underprivileged groups to put up themed performances on salient social issues, such as income inequality (living
in rental flats), family members feeling animosity towards each other, teen pregnancy 🡪 stories used came from
volunteers who experienced these situations first hand. E.g. The Block Party – celebrating the struggles that
everyone in rental flats have gone through, the suffering of those who live in poverty beyond just material issues.

6. Restriction/ Censorship of the Arts

● ‘To Singapore with Love’ by Tan Pin Pin 🡪 reflection of the disenchantment of citizens with the caution our
government treats alternative perspectives of our history. (banned the film for public viewing – MDA accepted
Yale-NUS College’s request to screen it for scholastic reasons)

● The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew – graphic novel that follows comic book artist Charlie Chan on
an unblinkered journey through SG’s post independence years, featuring LKY as a character. $8000 in funding by
NAC withdrawn as it covered politically sensitive themes such as showing LKY as a ruthless boss.

● And Tango makes 3!

● Charlie Hebdo’s attack in 2015 on the magazine’s office, due to controversial depictions of Prophet Mohammed
in the magazine’s cartoons.

7. Government spending on artwork for economic revenue, to enhance soft power through cultural
advancement
● Singapore Art Museum’s robust cycles of acquisition to curate numerous iconic works of contemporary
Southeast Asian art for its permanent collection to fuel the economy thorugh public spending and tourist dollars
● National Art’s Council statistics report for 2016, museum reports went up from 3 mil in 2014 to 3.8 in 2015.
● Direct contribution of artists is the American Ballet Theatre which is a regular recipient of grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts in America. It pulls its weight by performing for 450000 people a year, charging
$190/ticket.
● Hallyu Wave have seen the KPOP industry burgeon into a $5billion one, in 2019 BTS was made Honorary Tourism
Ambassadors, attesting to the money-making potential of the artists.
● South Korea’s attention to its cultural exports particularly in music and television is a modern development.
$4.9billion cultural budget happened in 2019, when it was the world’s 12th largest economy, and not in 1949
when it was in poverty.

8. Public Art in Singapore

● Public art to a degree, reflects culture and values. E.g. Henry Moore’s Large Reclining Figure at OCBC Centre; a
smaller version of his artwork was sold at the Christie’s website for more than $40million in 2016.

9. Lack of relevance of The Arts in PRAGMATIC Singapore

● $55m was set aside for the Arts and Culture Resilience Package in 2021, as compared to ~$90m set aside for the
F1 race in 2019 which generated $1.5b incremental tourism receipts.
● According to Straits Times, >70% of SOTA graduates have gone to pursue non-arts related university courses, and
eventually enter non-arts industries such as Business and Law.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Technology reducing inequality (social)/ alleviating world’s problems
● Gender Inequality Women in Sudan used smartphones to trade goods such as cosmetics, garments, traditional
Sudanese dresses from their homes → enabling them to work from home WITHOUT jeopardising social
expectations based on class, gender and religion.
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● Technology and Education
○ VR headsets to immerse students in environments that they cannot physically visit
○ Assessment tools: Speedgrader software enables online grading. Renaissance Accelerated Reader; with
built in readint quizzes that monitor comprehension and literacy skills

● Income Inequality and Education

○ Unprecedented potential to provide quality education and resources to many in poorer regions through
platforms like Khan Academy, MOOCs. → increasing trend of schools in India, Brazil, South America using
Khan Academy materials as a core element of how they educate their students. $5million donating from
Elon Musk to Khan Academy allows them to educate its 120million users all over the world.

○ PhET Global(Physics Education Technology – but the program has expanded to other disciplines in
STEM): PhET simulations create an open explanatory environment to engage students in scientific inquiry
and discovery. Engaged >2000 STEM teaches through train-the-trainer model to ensure quality and
consistent education for the students. Mission: To advance science and math literacy and education
worldwide through free interactive simulations.

○ Education in geographically challenging terrains and limited resource contexts:

BridgeIT project in Tanzania supports teaching by allowing teachers to request and deliver video content
entirely over local 2.5G/3G networks in classrooms.

● Income inequality in improving lives in rural areas (through improved CONNECTIVITY)

○ Peer to Peer networks (power of connectivity of the Internet), a new wave of social enterprises has risen
to allow small-scale farmers to connect with each other to solve problems, share ideas and spread
innovation. E.g. WeFarm; world’s largest farmer to farmer digital network → allows farmers to ask
questions in their OWN language on agriculture, uses machine learning to source the very best content
and knowledge from a network of over 660000 farmers.

○ Bank Genie: Fin-tech digital startup to enable banks to overcome prohibitive costs to set up physical
branches in remote locations and reach otherwise inaccessible communities.
Target audience was unbanked populations in West Africa and Central Asia.
Social implications of being unbanked: Lack of accessibility to banking facilities can make remote
populations more predisposed to financial precarity as they are more vulnerable to taking loans from
loansharks/ moneylenders with exorbitant interest rates → financially vulnerable to long-term debt.

● Food scarcity GM crops such as Golden Rice, expected to feed 300 million people in 143 countries and also help
children who suffer from Vitamin A deficiency.

● CEO of Kopernik is involved in a project to build a solar powered desalination plant in Indonesia to provide
potable water for coastal communities, and another project to produce organic fertilizer from palm waste 🡪 link
to potential benefits according SPERMS

2. Rise of technology exacerbating inequality (DIGITAL DIVIDE)

● Leading to increase in higher-paid workers in STEM, while displacing lower-skilled workers|
Many jobs in the technological field require highly specialized skills in fields such as data science and
cybersecurity which are highly remunerated. Push towards automation and adoption of AI displace many
mid-level workers (book-keeping, legal conveyancing), and low-skilled workers (cleaning, servers) 🡪 worsening
the income divide. E.g. 47% of total US employment is at risk due to automation.

● Digital literate vs illiterates When society is not sufficiently prepared or equipped to embrace its digitalization. To
get vaccinated, Indians have to register online and book a slot on the Co-WIN website (similar to
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 vaccinations.com) 🡪 while vaccine shortage has severely curtailed India’s vaccination campaign, the digital divide
has COMPOUNDED this problem

3. Conflict between rise of technology and privacy concerns/ cyber attacks

● Cambridge Analytica scandal where private psychological profiles of millions of FB users were improperly
obtained and leaked to Trump’s campaign in the US 2016 presidential elections → loss of trust in FB’s ability and
willingness to keep its users’ data safe.
● NordVPN, Surfshark, sizeable user base, with NordVPN having 14 million users alone.

● In 2020, SolarWinds, a major US information technology firm was the subject of a cyberattack, allegedly by
Russian hackers, even putting echelons of the US government, including the Dept. of Homeland Security and
Treasury Dept. at risk.

● LinkedIn saw 700 million of its users posted on the dark web in June 2021.
● 2018 SingHealth data breach, June 2018 hackers had stolen the personal information of 1.5 million patients,
including Lee Hsien Loong.

4. Scientific research
● Jonas Salk refused to patent his research on polio as he believed the knowledge rightfully belonged to
humankind. He never received any financial compensation for his discovery which is instrumental in so many
people living disability free today

5. Legislation needed in the realm of Science and Tech

● Unethical scientists exploiting people who are unaware of their right in the absence of restrictions Clinical trials,
usually in LDCs like India where a large proportion of citizens are relatively uneducated, laws on R&D lax, costs
lower → more vulnerable. In 10 years, 5000 people died during drug trials. Testing of a drug on pregnant women
to cure morning sickness, 14/3000 died due to side effects.

6. Conflict between Science/ Technology and Ethics

● Invention of goods that may conflict with ethics

○ Neuralink → by Elon Musk to improve brain capabilities, optimise brain function. Ethics: Equity issues;
unfair as it is only accessible to the rich, who can further their lead with such prohibitive technologies.
○ CRISPR and Designer Babies → goes against nature and natural selection, prohibitive.
○ Space colonisation; SpaceX has plans to colonise Mars by 2026.
○ Invention of harmful/ unethical goods: Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent MMR research, development of
weapons of war like mustard gas, chlorine and phosgene in WW1, despite treaties banning them etc.

● Formation of ethical codes/ laws:

○ The Nuremberg Code, created at the Nuremberg trials in response to the Nazi’s misadventures in human
experimentation outlined the ethical limits in research methods.

● Exploitation of the marginalised;

○ In the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, a number of Blacks in Alabama were unknowingly injected with the
virus and were deliberately withheld treatment so scientists could observe the full effects of the virus.

7. Science and Business

● Theranos
● The power of private funding in influencing the pace of research between research institutions; NASA and
SpaceX

ENVIRONMENT
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 1. Negative examples of certain environments being degraded
● Tourism puts enormous stress on local land use, may lead to soil erosion, increased pollution, natural habitat
loss, more pressure on endangered species. Maya Bay in Thailand and Boracay Island in Philippines, local
economies heavily reliant on tourism, all saw damaged coral reefs, etc → had to be closed to give environment
time to recover.

● Iceland, excessive influx of tourists → drastic, damaging changes to its capital. Reykjavik turning into tourist
ghetto, few locals lie there, long standing shops and businesses pushed out by tourist-oriented chains and hotels.

2. Positive examples of protection of environments

● Ecotourism
● Voluntourism → demand for meaningful tourist experiences lead to booming market for practices and
institutions that actually do harm. Privately run → no regulation, many cases where children are abducted from
families to satisfy the demand.

● Greta Thunberg, inspired students worldwide to embark on climate strikes, where they skipped school and
appealed to their respective political leaders demanding climate action. In the 2019 Global Week for Future, a
four million strong force of mostly school children assembled worldwide in demonstrations. Eventually, the
European Commission pledged a quarter of their budget for the coming decade to climate mitigation.

3. Corporations and countries’ wide scale pollution vs individual pollution

● 2017, The Guardian featured a study showing that ‘just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions’.
‘just 20 firms responsible for 1/3 of all global emissions’
● Carbon footprint of an average American resident is 16 tonnes, which seems significant, except when juxtaposed
against the 5.1 billion tonnes of energy-related caron emitted by the country, of 33.1billion of the world’s total.

4. Different countries have differing capabilities to tackle climate change

● Concerns with Saudi Arabia standing to be the most impacted by climate change, but also lose the most if they
shift from fossil fuels to more environmentally sustainable practices.

5. Negative examples of protection of environments

● Governments
President Trump cutting funding to research programmes in the EPA, including those studying clean/ green
energy to try to appease fossil fuel lobbyists funding the President’s re-election campaign.

CULTURE
1. Differing cultures/ propensity for attack due to cultural differences
● Some countries may be vulnerable to attack by others due to cultural differences. E.g. Yulin Dog Meat Festival
has been criticised mainly by Western animal rights activists for the inhumane treatment of dogs (with over 3
million signatures on Change.org petition), and it has led to campaigns to ban the event. However, in Western
regions of the world, e.g. seal hunting in Canada, bull-fighting in Spain. → may be a problem for the low income
sellers of dog meat.

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SINGAPORE EXAMPLES
Health
● Rare Disease Funds – provides for the 2000-3000 Singaporeans who have to bear hefty medical bills for their rare
disease (shows inclusivity)
● Suicide is the main cause of death among youths aged 10-29 in Singapore. Helpline = Samaritans of Singapore,
which is often criticised for having long wait times in call, and being extremely understaffed and inadequate.

Military
● Acquiring imported military weapons such as F-35s fighter jets, and home grown technology such as the SAR-21
and Terrex tank.

Politics
● Mdm Halimah Yacob becoming President and Head of State, female Members of Parliament have devoted
attentions towards issues of inequality. She sternly chastised and demanded an apology from local podcast group
Okletsgo for misogynistic comments made against women.
● MP He Ting Ru raised the Yale-NUS merger and dominate fracas in parliament, speaking up for marginalised
groups like migrant workers and students, also voiced concerns about how work traditionally done by women in
the domestic sphere is undervalued relative to economic work done by men, along with how women have been
disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
● 27/93 elected MPs are female, such as Grace Fu, Josephine Teo, Indranee Rajah → due to our conservatism, and
strongly believe in gender roles, hence little significance in the nations’s policymaking across
● PAP’s induction of Louis Ng, a wildlife protection advocate deeply respected by civil society activists

The Arts/ Art

● 9 day festival; Singapore Art Week, joint initiative by the NAC, Economic Development Board and Singapore
Tourism Board/
Religion
● 2020 Singapore Census found that an all time high 20% of Singaporeans no longer identified as part of any
religion

● In Singapore, Buddhism is the most followed religion at around 35%, while Christianity and Islam have around
20% and 15% respectively.

● Something Private – which engages Singaporean females in discussions about taboo topics like abusive
relationships and workplace sexual harassment → range of secular institutions and relationships are equally
viable sources of emotional and mental health

● Singapore Buddhist Lodge and Hindu Endowments Board are also known for donating rice to mosques across the
country during Ramadan, and it is common for different religious institutions to donate food items in their stores
to other charitable organizations for the benefit of all target beneficiaries in Singapore.

● Many anti-LGBT counter movements in Singapore are in fact spearheaded by Christian groups that invoke God’s
word to delegitimize the sexual identities of fellow citizens e.g. City Revival, Singaporeans Defending Marriage
and Family.

● Laws and regulation put into place to punish those who attempt to damage our social fabric
On 31st Jan 2010, 3 youths were arrested under the Sedition Act for allegedly posting racist comments against
Indians. Pastor Rony Tan of the Lighthouse Evangelism Church was featured in several clips on YT deriding the
Buddhist and Taoist faith, and was questioned by Internal Security Department, after which he posted an
apology.
● Ex Ngee Ann Poly lecturer charged with making racist comments and insensitive remarks on religion towards an
inter-racial couple → lost his job and may be jailed for 3 years.
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 ● Risk of radicalisation and spread of extremist ideologies
In Minister K Shanmugam’s speech given on Jan 2016, he cited concerns over radicalising factions who preach
that it is wrong for Muslims to recite the National Pledge or sing the National Anthem or serve the National
Service as it would contradict the Muslim faith. Few instances of radicalised citizens → indicative of potential
fracture

Crime and Punishment

1. Increase in gangsterism and slashing cases in Singapore.
2. Making justice accessible to all: Fundamental shift in the legal system. Fully government funded Public
Defender’s Office (PDO) by the Ministry of Law to be set up by the end of 2022. New office employ full-time
lawyers to represent more low income Singaporeans and PR in cases of non-capital crimes.
● CLAS (Criminal Legal Aid Scheme) that was established in 1985 by the Law Society and has volunteer lawyers as
their backbone, making them limited in their operations.
● Improved access to justice → enhances trust and confidence in the administration of criminal justice in
Singapore

Social Issues
1. Push for female equality: White Paper on Singapore’s Women Development. Included pushes in household chore
distribution, sharing caregiving load, gender equality in the workforce.
2. Promoting racial harmony: HDB buyback scheme shows the premium Singapore places on racial harmony. Ethnic
Integration Policy in HDB.

Ethics/ Morals/ Society’s Expectations

1. Cheating of 11 law school students in the Bar exam — given 6 months to 1 year delay to the admission to the Bar.
(‘Providing 2nd chances in an important pillar of the judicial process’)

Environment
1. Increasing number of youths are interested in thrift shops/ 2nd hand clothing, exacerbated by social media
trends in the West. e.g. Katong Square Lifestyle and Vintage Market, Lucky Plaza thrift stores

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