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. 

What do you guys think of when the word “WAR” came across to you? As for me, I will be thinking of the innocent life killed and tortured during the war. Basically not only the poor suffered, it is actually the whole nation and country suffered. I grew up in Singapore and history was part of the education curriculum, therefore I have quite an understanding of Singapore’s darkest moment, that is the “Japanese Occupation.” Singapore was under the Japanese occupation for 3 years, from 1942 to 1945. The people were living in fear during that period, as many do not know who were loyal who were traitors. Each of them have to place guards even to those who were close to them like their own blood related brother. Girls and women were afraid to walk on the streets alone as they can be approached by the Japanese soldiers and brought back to their camp to give them service. The females were forced fully to have sex with not only with one of them instead many of them. The males were captured too. Some were brought back to camps to be tortured while others were killed right away. The males were forced to do harsh labors and were fed with little food. Due to this, many of them became as this as skeleton. The anti-Japanese suspects were brought back for questions. This was when the Japanese tortured them using various cruel torture such as stuffing pencils into their ears, water treatment, burning and electric shock treatment, tearing the nails off from the fingers and toes, breaking fingers using sticks and there were more. These were done to get the location and names of anti-Japanese. In this websites (http://picasaweb.google.com/kusumi.jane/NankingMassacre1937#5181219770976881698) are some pictures taken during the war. Until today, I am still wondering how can people treat one another so cruelly when each of them are the same, all are human beings created by God and have families of their own. How does it feel when their own family members are being treated and killed brutally? I am sure it will be agonizing and may even cause trauma to many.

Reading Persepolis, reminded me of all of these. The torture suffered by Mohsen and other prisoners are definitely painful. The marks left on their bodies were really horrible. Those who suffered were not only the prisoners but also their family. One great example is Madam Yong Thim Fook who lost her husband during the Japanese Occupation in Singapore and to raised her six children alone by herself. Just like, Marjane Satrapi’s grandmother who had to raise her six sons on herself. Here is some short clips of Madam Yong Thim Fook :







I believe that we should be treated equally regardless of our race, language, religion or nationality. We should respect and appreciate one another because every war that we enter there will sure be cost be it life, food, necessities, economy and love. There will always be something precious that we lose. It is important that we learn our history and teach the young future generation not to repeat the mistakes done in the past and not to repeat these mistakes again. I also believe that this is also one of the reasons that Marjane Satrapi decided to write her story. Not only to tell story to others but also to create awareness around the world.

For more information on Prisoners of War during Japanese Occupation in Singapore go to : http://s1942.org.sg/s1942/dir_defence7.html

VS




Indra certainly did a great job with the presentation. It was really interesting and informative. Great Job Indra!! However, I feel that the book version Persepolis resembles manga, a Japanese comic and print cartoons. In manga, the graphics are vivid and detailed. Likewise, Persepolis graphics are well drawn and easily understood. I do have to disagree with Indra on his comment that Persepolis should not be categorized as graphic novel, but instead as anime. "A Graphic novel is a type of comic books, usually with a lengthy and complex storyline similar to those of novels and often aimed at mature audiences"(Graphic Novel) , and the book version of Persepolis fulfill this criteria completely. On the other hand, "anime is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world" (Anime). I suppose that the movie version of Persepolis can be considered as anime due to the fact that it is animation.

Hello,

Here I am in my English writing class and I am blogging. What a naughty student!? Well, that's not really the situation here, this blog is actually one of my assignment. So all of you are welcome to write and comment. ^^ Thank you.