SSC - History Of Medicine Results!
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the grades for the SSC History of Medicine assignment us hapless Phase 1A-ians handed in before the Christmas holidays were finally released. When this was announced on Tuesday by Dr Burton, the initial reaction of the inmat - I mean, students in Medical Lecture Theatre 1 were loud (and interspersed, crude) vocalizations of dismay/excitement, tachycardia, palpitations and mild hyperventilation. When we were sufficiently calmer, Dr Burton proceeded to announce that the results would be released at the Reception of the Medical School in the afternoon. Since we had lectures until 1pm, most of us decided to collect the results immediately after our lectures were done. However, in a brilliant stroke of tactical foresight, some of us (Rex, Lisa and myself) decided to sneak there in the interludes between the mind-numbingly boring, neurone-killing sessions the Medical School calls lectures in order to avoid the inevitable horde at the Reception come 1pm.
It is said that battle plans never survive first contact, and sadly, it proved to be all too true in our case as well. Instead of finding a wonderfully-deserted Reception, we discovered that quite a fair number of like-thinking people were there as well. So much for our notions of a queueless collection of results. We duly joined the queue and waited for the results to be released. And waited. And waited some more. When someone finally had the sense to speak to the receptionist, we discovered that the results would be released at 1pm. Argh! We went back and endured another lecture - but at the end of our day's lectures, the time was only 12.30pm. Suresh, Lisa, Rex, Jessica and I decided to wait until 1pm in order to collect our results. In the meantime, we just stood near the vending machines outside the MLT01 and made lame jokes about lame jokes (sad, but true).
When 1pm finally came, we immediately dashed off to the Reception again, where it was surprisingly deserted. I had expected a throng of nervous Phase 1A-ians to be crowding around the receptionist's desk, but contrary to my expectations, no one was there! What had transpired there? Was everyone there suddenly ingested by a medical-student-eating creature? Thoughts of Dr Peters came to mind, but they were dismissed instantly. Hahaha... We then approached the receptionist's desk with great trepidation...only to be told that the results would be released at 3pm. What a great waste of time. If only Dr Burton had been specific earlier then we wouldn't have to go to all the trouble of tearing up and down the stairs in an anxiety-fuelled spate of hyperactivity. Haha! We then left the Medical School and went back to our respective Halls and spent the rest of the day gnawing at our fingernails in a state of near-nervous-breakdown.
The night would have been uneventful if Jessica didn’t send me a message after dinner announcing her results. Apparently, in a true display of Singaporean
kiasu-ism (I bet Singaporeans are going to throttle me after reading this), she actually went back to the Medical School to collect her results! The thought crossed my mind as well, but the fact that I would have to throw on three layers of clothing, embark on a great journey fraught with perils such as freezing winds and the occasional pub and leave the comfortable warmth of my room put me off it. Jessica’s defense was that she couldn’t stand doing nothing knowing her results are out – I probably would have done the same thing a year or two ago…now, I’d probably say “What’s the rush? They aren’t going to go anywhere…”. I was rather relaxed about getting the results until she announced her “Good” to me over MSN – after that, they weighed much more heavily on my mind.
Our results are divided into 5 grades – Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Borderline and Unsatisfactory. The three pass grades are Excellent, Good and Satisfactory. Getting a Borderline or Unsatisfactory for Overall Competence is a Phase 1A-ian’s free ticket to an appointment with Dr Burton. I was hoping to get either Good or Satisfactory – to get an Excellent would be overtly optimistic of me considering the amount of effort I put into my SSC. The next day, I collected my results from the Reception – the receptionist took so long in searching for my Assessment Proforma that I thought my SSC was actually sent to the shredder by the evaluator since it was too crap to be considered a History of Medicine SSC. When she finally produced it, I breathed a sigh of relief that my SSC wasn’t actually reduced to thin ribbons of paper and consigned to the trash bin. And my results were – “Good”. Hahaha! I’m perfectly satisfied with that. Not the best, but my efforts didn’t warrant me getting the best grades anyway!
Well, after so long of being uncertain about my SSC’s grades, it’s one helluva relief to finally get them! One down, two to go. Wish me luck!
The Chinese New Year Is Coming!
This is going to be another first for me - celebrating Chinese New Year away thousands of miles away from home. All this while, my Chinese New Years have been celebrated without fail in the idyllic little town called Kota Tinggi, surrounded by my family. Come this year, however, I will be celebrating it in a not-so-idyllic city called Sheffield, located right in the English Midlands. No more tonnes of
bak kua that my family buys every time
. Gone are the litres of Shandy I drown myself in each year. There's not even the slightest sign of the pineapple tarts and
kuih kapit that I love so much. No more 120-decibel-karaoke by my relatives and the Chinese New Year songs blaring out perpetually from the idiot box - wait, I actually don't miss those all that much....hahaha! Worst of all is the fact that not a Mandarin orange is in sight!
Despite the fact that the absence of the usual Chinese New Year goodies has dealt a rather severe emotional blow to me (hahaha....try going a year without your favourite foodstuffs and you'll pretty much grasp my point!), the absence of my family is probably the factor that will make me feel it most come the 28th of this month. To be perfectly honest with you, I've never viewed the Chinese New Year as "family time". I've always seen it as just another holiday, albeit one spent with my relatives. I've even perceived of it as a chore of sorts since each year I usually end up lazing around, watching television and eating endlessly. It was only halfway through my flight back to the United Kingdom that the thought suddenly hit me - I wouldn't be seeing any of my relatives for at least another 6 months. How thick can I be? It took a flight halfway around the world to finally knock some sense into me!
Chinese New Year is the only time I actually get to spend with my grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins, whom I seldom see the rest of the year. Although it is definitely possible for me to visit them when I return to Malaysia for the summer vacations, not everyone will be around then. My relatives have their own lives to lead as well. My cousins will probably be away working and my uncles and aunties likely to be involved in their businesses. I've never realized the true significance of Chinese New Year - the scattered Yee family actually gathers in a single location for a couple of days! It's the only time of the year when I look around myself and can see the whole Yee family in the same dining room, eating and chatting away. It's also the only time of the year I actually get confused as to which title is used for a particular uncle or aunt - the complexity of the Mandarin titles for uncles and aunts of different degrees make it impossible for me to remember them completely!
However, inasmuch as I'm going to miss the good old times when Chinese New Year was celebrated back home, all is not lost. I've got a group of friends here as well, and we'll probably be celebrating the Chinese New Year together. The Chinese New Year will probably come and go before I even realize it - I have assignments, revision and the occasional party to fully occupy my time! My mum always used to comment that I never get homesick no matter how far away I am from home - well, Mum, you're absolutely right, this is about as close to homesickness as I get! Haha!
"Unconscious Bias" = Racism?
I was half-expecting a slow start to things upon my return to Sheffield - I could never have been further off the mark in my assumption. Barely a day after I unceremoniously dumped my luggage in my room, I was asked by a friend of mine to play the role of mediator in a relationship problem of a friend of hers. This friend of mine couldn't have chosen an individual less suited to the task than me. First of all, I am unfamiliar in the role of mediating - due to my fiery temper, I usually am one of the antagonists in arguments or fights (although I am working hard to contain my temper). Secondly, the aforementioned problem is a relationship problem. My principle on this kind of things is "I shall not interfere at all" - what goes on between two individuals is beyond my caring unless I am directly implicated in it. Finally, my communication skills aren't exactly excellent - I might even precipitate another misunderstanding and make things worse!
I was in the midst of explaining the points on "Why YC Should Not Mediate This Problem" to my friend when I noticed that she was extremely keen on getting me to help. Well, since she really wanted my help, I guess I couldn't just shout NO! and run off, could I? I then duly followed her to her friend's room and received my Mission Briefing. To respect the privacy of my friend's friends, no names shall be mentioned here nor the details of what transpired at the discussion. It's enough to say that at the end of the day, the problem was more or less resolved, but I have a nagging feeling that somehow one of the involved parties didn't wholly get the message that I was trying to get across. Ah, well. That's beyond my caring. However, the core issue that was brought up in our discussion was extremely interesting to me, since I had never thought about it before. The question was, "Does unconscious bias, us unknowingly acting on our preferences as to who we prefer to mix with, count as racism?".
To illustrate this problem, let's create a fictional person (A) and situation. A has been brought up in an environment where he interacts mostly with people who are of the same race as him. That said, he does not have a problem mixing with people of other races - he views them just the same as the people of his own race and does not treat them any differently when interacting with them. A is then brought to a different environment, where the dominant population is of a different race. After a while, A discovers that while he mixes with people of different races, his closest friends are still the people of his own race. Not only that, he discovers that he spends more time with people of his own race. However, he doesn't make any effort to actively choose the people he talks to nor pick his friends based on race - he interacts with everyone just the same. But, at the end of the day, he still "clicks" better with people of his race. He is perturbed by this fact - is he unwittingly exhibiting racist characteristics?
One might argue that since he is showing a discrimination that clearly demarcates the difference between races, A is clearly a racist. However, this bias isn't consciously acted upon by A. It isn't like he purposely chose to select his closest friends based on race or interact better with people of his own race. Some might say racism is "an active discrimination of race with the view that one's own is superior to the others" - since A isn't actively discriminating, then he isn't a racist. But those in the other camp might disagree. They might argue that racism may be in an unconscious form as well - some people are conditioned since birth via cultural influences or familial influences to perceive their race as superior or better, so their bias is ingrained into them and they exhibit an unconscious bias towards races as well. Then, the circumstances surrounding the bringing up of A would clearly skew the verdict into deciding that A is a racist, since he was brought up in an environment where he was mostly exposed to people of his own race.
But then again, A doesn't see his race as "superior" or "better" than others. Those saying that A isn't a racist might continue the argument by saying that he probably mixes better with people who are of the same race as him since they have more common ground - they have the same culture, possibly the same language if not mode of speech and preferences. He has no intention of discriminating between races. But, if it happens, it is only natural since we still retain some part of primal herd instinct in us - a remnant of ages past. We identify with people who are like us. The opposition to these statements would be the phrase, even if it is natural, that doesn't make it right. Us humans are born violent, irrational and with not the tiniest hint of manners. Only by proper upbringing are we transformed into who we are - the modern Human. So the fact that the unconscious racial bias is only natural doesn't make it right. It is still essentially racism. A should actively seek to change his actions.
Bringing the focus of the argument onto a linguistic level doesn't further elucidate matters. Both sides will present varying interpretations of the word "racism" and by doing this, the argument spirals into a vicious circle where there is no true solution. Ironic, isn't it? Language was invented to help us communicate better and to allow us to clearly define our actions, but when one attempts to use definitions of words to resolve an issue, sometimes it just dissolves into a mass of circular arguments. The very flexibility of language which allows us humans linguistic creativity by variable interpretations of words also denies us the usage of language to make an absolute definition of a word. For instance, what does "racism" really mean? Is it an active process, a passive one or does it even care whether it is any of the above two choices? Unconscious, as not realized or known as existing in oneself or occurring in the absence of conscious awareness or thought?
Psychoanalysis has never really been my cup of tea. Semantics, semantics and more semantics....BORING! However, I'd be happy if any of you would like to share your views on this matter and hopefully, shed some light regarding this issue. Thank goodness I didn't decide to read Law or Psychology - it's pretty clear I don't have much aptitude in these fields!
