Hi everyone! My entry this week would be based on the short clip above. It might be a little slow but I strongly encourage everyone to watch it. Short and sweet :)

The starting of the video shows a man whom wakes up everyday to head to work and was leading a mundane life until he met a woman whom was working in the building opposite the one he was working in. The video is a very good example of non-verbal communication. Throughout the video, the male lead does not communicate verbally with the female lead at all. Instead, they communicate by writing the information that they want the other party to receive on a piece of paper. Non verbal cues are an extremely influential source of meaning, and in this case, the two leads of the short film communicating non verbally made the short film even more interesting compared to if they were communicating verbally. The two leads also made use of objectics and oculesics. They made use of pieces of paper to transmit information to each other and also made use of eye contact. Because of all these factors, the video thus made me realise that non verbal communication is equally effective as verbal communication. At the end of the video when the two leads finally met at the junction of the traffic light, they were able to communicate verbally yet the female lead told the male lead to not speak. Instead, she took out a piece of paper which has a heart drawn on it and the words "Hi". Even when they had the chance to communicate verbally, they chose not to and this is because non verbal cues are as effective as verbal cues. By ending the film this way, it also did not disrupt the flow of the film as there was no verbal communication throughout the whole clip. 

In all, this video made me realise the importance of non verbal communcation and the impact of non verbal communication is equally, if not more, substantial as compared to verbal communcation.

Sex education in schools

This week's entry would be about MOE tightening the topics covered during sex education in schools. I believe that many of us has came across sexuality talks while in secondary schools. I remember sitting in the hall of my school, listening to a external instructor talk about abstaining from sex and the consequences of engaging in pre-marital sex. The article I am referring to can be found here.

The reason why MOE is doing this is because of the rise in teenagers contracting sexually transmitted diseases and a survey conducted by the Health Promotion Board showed that teens aged 14 to 19 are sexually active. Since 2000, the key message of the sexuality talks held in schools is to promote abstinence. However, the rise of teenagers contracting STIs and teenage pregnancies shows that promoting abstinence is not enough to counter the problem. MOE has thus decided that information on contraception should be included in sexuality talks. This has raised objections from certain individuals as they feel that promoting contraception is indirectly giving teenagers the idea that it is okay to experiment sexually, as long as they do not get themselves pregnant. Contents of the sexuality talk also includes homosexuality, and the message sent across to students on this would be that homosexual acts are against the law, even though the government has stated that homosexuals have their private space. 

The method that MOE is using is verbal communication. MOE hopes to achieve their aims, which is decreasing the number of teenagers contracting STIs and teenage pregnancies, through the sexuality talks held in school. However, this programme has started since 2000, and it has been proved that sexuality education alone is not enough to counter the problems faced by the society today. Non-verbal communication is also used in sexuality talks. I vividly remember watching this video of the abortion process while attending one of the sexuality talks held by my school. There was no communication, all I could see were extremely disturbing images of the abortion process. This shows me that verbal and non-verbal communication are equally important when one wants to transfer messages across to another. The impact of non-verbal communication may not necessarily be lesser compared to verbal communication. I also feel that the steps used by MOE to decrease the number of teenage pregnancies are very feasible. By introducing contraception, it would help to bring the number of teenage pregnancies down even though teenagers might feel that the act of pre-marital sex is condoned by everyone. However, I feel that talks on homosexuality is a very sensitive topic and although it should not be completely left out from the sexuality talks, the content of homosexuality should be given serious consideration. Homosexuality is not uncommon amongst teenagers these days and if miscommunication occurs between teenagers and MOE, there might be undesirable consequences. 

I also feel that sexuality education is a very important part of growing up. Some teenagers might want to experiment with things that they are not familiar with thus by having the right information within their reach, they would be able to differ right from wrong.

Secrecy over Mas Selamat's Capture

Hi everyone, welcome to my communications blog. This week, my entry would be regarding the secrecy over Mas Selamat's arrest. You may refer to the article here.

Mas Selamat, who has been on the run since last February after escaping from Whitley Road Detention Centre, has been caught by the Malaysia officials. Shortly after the arrest took place, the Malaysian officials informed Singapore but they requested that the matter be kept quiet for the time being. That being said, even Singapore's Cabinet ministers were not told about it until last Thursday. The reason why Singaporeans were not informed immediately of his captive was because the Prime Minister wanted to respect Malaysia's request. Also, they did not want to reveal the information of the informers. In my point of view, Singaporeans would be very anxious to follow up on the news because it had caused a big reaction when he escaped last year. By leaking the news to the public, it would definitely raise many questions and yet another reaction from the citizens. However, by keeping his arrest from the citizens, Singaporeans might feel that the Government have not been forthcoming and only informed at such a late date.

The reason why the news was revealed to the public was because some Singaporeans voiced their dismay over the news blackout on Mas Selamat's arrest by the Malaysia's authorities. Having said that, this tells me that the Government only choice to release the information about the capture of Mas Selamat because there was speculation over it. Would the government acknowledge that Mas Selamat was captured if there was no talk about it in the first place? That would remain as a controversy. I do agree that Singapore might have kept the news from the public as to respect Malaysia's decision, but to keeping the news from the public for a month is a little too long in my opinion. After releasing the news, more questions would definitely be raised as to why the information was kept from the citizens for so long. This is a miscommunication between then government and the citizens. If the government manages to clear up the issue of withholding information from the public for a certain period of time, the public's perception of the government would still remain the same and the trust would not waver.

However, I applaud Singapore's Internal Security Department (ISD) for following up this case since Mas Selamat went missing last February. The ISD never let their guard down and have been constantly working with the Special Branch to locate where Mas Selamat is. This shows that the officers were committed to their work and that they never gave up even though there were security lapses that enabled Mas Selamat to escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre.