world of expression

During the war, there was a lot of sabotage going on. Marjane and her family suffered as they lost two members of their friends, Mohsen and Siamak sister. Both of them are believed to be killed by the deliverers of divine justice. (Satrapi 65 - 66). The similar situation occurred during Indonesia Riot in 1998. During that chaotic period, the Indonesia Chinese were the main target of the sabotage. Many Indonesian Chinese females were raped and killed, while the males were being kicked and tortured till their bodies were full bruises by the native people. Not only that, houses, shops, offices, cars or any property that were belonged to Indonesian Chinese were broken in, destroyed and burned. My family was one of the victim. Right on the night of my tenth birthday, at at around midnight, My parents, my maids and I were in deep sleep. Suddenly, "Prankk!!!". The big black window glass measuring four meters by two meters were broken into pieces. All of us were awoken by it. My parents hurried out to check out what happened. To their horror, there were about of ten to twenty people broke into our warehouse which is located on the first floor. I stayed in my parents locked room, all I could here was the noise of scattering glasses, murmur of people shouting, protesting and asking for money. I did not dare to get out of the room or turned on the lights. I peeped through the window and saw that at the opposite side of my house, the same thing was happening or maybe worst, cars and motorcycle was burned. Basically the sky the whole sky turned orange. My mother rushed back into the room get some cash and brought it out so as to distribute it to those people who broke into my warehouse. Luckily, my parents managed to persuade them to leave by giving them money. Other items such as type writer, digital weighing scale, and other inventories were taken away by them. However, the damaged caused by this incident is more than just property or physical damaged, it has actually left behind a scar in my memory. Until today, I still could remember very clearly how messy the warehouse was after being broken into by those people. Likewise, I also believe that Marjane's family especially Marjane's father could not forget how his best friend, Moshen, died tragically due to the sabotage.

In 1979, Marjane Satarapi and her friends were in a French non-religious school, where by the boys and the girls played together happily. Suddenly in 1980, the government decided that all bilingual schools must be closed down as they felt that they are symbols of capitalism. This was when the Cultural Revulution began where Marjane Satrapi found themselves wearing veil and separated from their friends. (Satrapi 4) I feel that this action is not necessary because by closing down bilingual school, they are actually limiting their children, their future generation and their future leaders to learn the best quality of education which allow them to be better survivor in the society. Take for instance, a company is hiring a new employee, and there are two interviewees, one with an ability to converse and write in only one language, while the other have the ability to converse and write in two different language, which one will the company choose to hire? Considering that all their qualifications are equally strong, I am sure that the company would prefer to hire the one with bilingual ability as it would be in their benefit to have someone who can communicate well with the company’s foreign clients. With today’s high competitive society, it is definitely important to be well equipped with variety of skills and knowledge so as to be able to survive. This was one of t he reasons why my parents are willing to spend extra amount of money, sending me to overseas to seek for a better quality of education and I really appreciate their efforts in bringing me up.

Another point that I disagree on is the separation from girls and boys in schools. I grew up in Singapore and there are boys schools and girls school only available. In fact some of them were the top and prestigious schools. Many people seemed to believe that by separating the boys and the girls, they will be able to perform better in term of their studies. It is really funny because the belief and the fact seem like answering to each other. However achievements of the mixed schools do not lose to the single gender schools, in fact they are at pretty much at the same level. I had friends who are students from both schools and I find that those from the mixed school are more mature and open than those from the single gender schools. This really questions me. Is it important to separate them? After all, we have to face and communicate with the members of them same sex and opposite sex every day in our life.

The presentation done by Jenny and Alison was really great. Thank you girls!! Both the books. "Persepolis" and "Pedro and Me" are indeed related with each other. Both characters, Marjane and Pedro are facing their own difficulties and hardships but yet both do not give up and persevere to the end. This definitely worth mentioning as these days, many young people tend not to appreciate and satisfied with what they already have. Not only that these two books also inspire others to respect one another. We as humans should not look down on other just because he/she is different in one way or another. We should instead help one another to be a better person that can bring greater benefit to the society. Judd Winick, the writer of "Pedro and Me" is a great mentor for me, despite of knowing that Pedro suffered from AIDS, he do not especially stay a distance from him, instead Judd tried his best to assist his friend as much as possible. I often see others give a weird or disgusted look to those who have disabilities. Not only that some times they also make fun of them. I feel that their action are too much, no one in the world is perfect thus we should help each other to fill up the gap/weakness that we have rather than laughing out loud and do nothing to it.