Bbi 3420 Critical Reading and Thinking

BBI 3420 CRITICAL READING AND THINKING ASSIGNMENT 2 (20 %)

A critical analysis of an article

http://thestar.com.my/columnists/ Instructions:

i. Select an article or an editorial from any of the local English newspaper (e.g. The Star, New Straits Times). Indicate the source and date of publication of the material. Suggestion: the articles in http://thestar.com.my/columnists/ usually will be good for this assignment ii. Determine the main point or central message of the article iii. List the points\arguments\ the author uses to support the thesis or make his main point. iv. Evaluate the author's presentation. In other words, how well did the author make his/her point or support the thesis of the paper. You may also want to criticize the facts or lack of facts, the organization, the tone, the author's credibility.

The following questions might help you in analysing your text:

 Who wrote the article? What do you know about the author?  Is the article straight news reporting, a commentary on some event or situation, an editorial? Is it just the facts or a discussion of something that has happened?  Does the author appear objective? What kind of language does the author use? Is it emotional? Has he used ambiguous terms in the text?  Are the facts correct, clear? Do they "seem" accurate? Is the information complete? Does it appear that some important facts are omitted?  Does the writer appear to know his/her subject matter? As you read the article, do you "feel" that something is missing? Is the writer logical? Does he/she present support for his/her argument?  Is there a clear thesis? Is it adequately supported with facts and data? Are inferences made?  Is there any assumptions made by the author? v. On a separate page/paper, draw a graphic organizer that depicts the organization of points in the article. Using the graphic organizer you should show how the material is organized, for example according to:

A. Chronological order B. Comparison/contrast C. Definition D. Cause/effect E. Problem/solution, F. others

Format: Analysis should be typed. Try to limit your analysis to no more than 1500 words. Your graphic organizer may be written instead of word-processed. Attach the selected article together with your analysis. Failure to do that would result in deduction of marks. UNSUITABLE ARTICLES

Travel tips for Myanmar

The horse cart seems popular with tourists. It costs just US$20 (RM64) to have a cart and driver for a full day of temple- and pagoda-hopping.

> Burma got its name from European colonialists due to the large number of Bamar people. There are an estimated 135 ethnic communities in the country. “Myanmar”, though, is the preferred moniker for the country.

> A visa is required for visiting Myanmar. For more information, you can contact the Myanmar Embassy in Jalan Ampang Hilir, Kuala Lumpur (03-4251 5595/4455/6355).

> Exchange US dollars for kyat in Myanmar. Crisp notes printed after 2006 are favoured. Credit cards are not widely accepted. Pack your wallet with both kyat and dollars.

> Myanmar has a tropical monsoon climate. It is hot from March-May, rainy from June-October and cold from November- February. Bagan, however, is in the rain shadow and gets a maximum 51cm of rain per year. This year, little rain has fallen. Farmers are in dire straits because they can’t farm their land and have to resort to odd jobs to feed their families.

> In the wet season, wear slippers and bring an umbrella.

> As with any holy place, you have to dress modestly (i.e no sleeveless tops or shorts). Men and women here wear longyi (sarong), an influence from India, paired with a top akin to a samfu (women) or collared shirt (men), an influence from China. Shoes and socks have to be left at the doorstep before entering a temple or pagoda.

> Cuisine-wise, meats are commonly turned into mild curries (Indian) and vegetables are stir-fried (Chinese). Thai food is popular as well. Recommended eateries: Sabai@DMZ Thai Restaurant in Yangon, Sunset Garden Restaurant and Green Elephant Restaurant in Bagan and Hanthawadi Restaurant in Bago.

> For luxury accommodation, there’s the five-star Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake Yangon (chatrium.com) or Amazing Bagan Resort with swimming pool and an 18-hole golf course (bagangolfresort.net).

> Diversions: shopping for precious stones, local batik and souvenirs in Bogyoke Market, Yangon; watching cheroots being rolled in Bago; in Bagan, strolling through Nyaung U market, seeing how engraved lacquerware is produced and learning how to detect the cardboard fakes; also taking a boat down the Ayeyarwady to observe life on the banks (Ayeyar Jetty, RM8 per person) and seeing the countryside in a horse cart (RM61 per day) or on bike (RM11 per day). Birdwatching and other ecotourism activities are also popular in the Mandalay region. – Sonja Mustaffa Saturday November 3, 2012

14 items under price control By ZUHRIN AZAM AHMAD [email protected]

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 14 essential items, ranging from mutton to dhal, have been put under the price control scheme for the Deepavali festival.

The scheme will begin on Thursday and end on Nov 17.

The maximum prices of items in the list have been set.

“Enforcement personnel and price surveying officers will be stationed at shopping hotspots, such as morning and public markets, to monitor the prices,” said Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He added that the maximum price of chicken and chicken eggs were only applicable to the peninsula.

“Traders must put a pink price tag on these items to differentiate them from others.

“Those who do not display the pink tag can be fined up to RM10,000 or face a compound of up to RM5,000,” he said here yesterday.

The items are live chicken, standard chicken, super chicken and local mutton. Others include imported bone-in lamb, imported boneless lamb, imported bone-in lamb leg, grade A, B and C chicken eggs, tomatoes, Indian shallots and China potatoes as well as Australian dhal.

Under the scheme, the maximum price of a live chicken is RM5.90 per kilo, standard chicken (RM7), super chicken (RM7.80), local mutton (RM35), imported bone-in lamb (RM19.50), imported boneless lamb (RM23) and imported bone-in lamb leg (RM24).

The maximum prices of a Grade A, B and C chicken egg have been set at 35 sen, 34 sen and 33 sen, respectively.

The ceiling price of tomatoes has been set at RM4 per kilo, Indian shallots (RM5.50), China potatoes (RM3) and Australian dhal (RM3.50).

Under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, those found to be selling the price-controlled items at a higher price could be fined up to RM100,000 or jailed up to three years, or both, or face a compound of up to RM50,000. Martin Jacques' latest views on China By BUNN NAGARA [email protected]

An author shares his views on the growing clout of the world’s second largest economy. AUTHOR and academic Dr Martin Jacques released an updated and expanded second edition of his widely acclaimed book, When China Rules The World: The End Of The Western World And The Birth Of A New Global Order, earlier this year. During a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur when he attended an Asian Centre for Media Studies event, Jacques (pic) spoke to The Star about his book and its approach to the subject. Some excerpts: How is the second edition different from the first? Time. Because China is growing so quickly, China time is fast. There’s been a lot of updating throughout the second edition. When I wrote the first edition, the 2008 (US-centred) financial crisis had just happened. The last chapter is about the crisis, which was little commented on before. The second edition looks at the beginnings of a Chinese economic world order. How far is the second edition a response to critics of the first? I don’t think what I’ve done is a response to the critics. The inaccuracies in the first edition were very few, and I’ve certainly responded to those. There was a bit of a jump in the argument between the rise of China and its relations with other countries. Here I look at not just China-US relations, but the rise of developing countries generally, of which China is a part. I use the phrase “rule the world” as a metaphor. I’ve learned a lot from meetings and discussions. There was never much in the first edition I wanted to change. The structure of the book is basically the same. Do you see China’s rise as continuing into the future? Yes, definitely. Along the lines of the book, without any doubt whatsoever. How might a new China-centred tributary system emerge in East Asia? There are echoes of a tributary system. The most obvious return to that is the rise of China. East Asian economies today are much more China-centric. There’s the fact we’re now moving to a new China-centric system. China is probably the most important market for countries in the region, for trade and investment, with its high-speed rail links, and so on. Getting on with China will be absolutely crucial for countries in this region. Can economic dominance translate into clout in other spheres? If China is economically dominant, that gives it a great deal of influence over other countries. The draw of China will be that much greater. China will be a huge cultural presence in the region. Lots of people in this region will study in Chinese universities. Beijing will be a tremendous draw. You can see that in the flight patterns of Malaysia Airlines, for example. Previously, Malaysians travelled to Britain, not so much to other East Asian countries; it would be interesting to see the changes. The attraction of Shanghai will be that of a big city like New York. People are attracted to power. We’ll be much more familiar with Chinese governance and institutions. From being a mystery, they’ll be familiar; we were used to the United States before, but much more with China (in future). What of Greater China, the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan? All the ties will get stronger. Hong Kong will remain very much as now, I don’t expect it to change. It will become increasingly integrated (with the mainland) and Sinicised, and (still) in many senses not very Chinese. I would expect Taiwan to move ever closer to China. Taipei feels it has nowhere to go except closer to China. There are already a large number of Taiwanese working in China. There has been growing economic integration. Over the next 20 years, Taiwan will probably accept Chinese sovereignty. It will come because it is absolutely the logical step. What of the prospects of China’s collapse, as some predict? There are gradations on the scale. China isn’t going to sail into the sunset without problems. But what I’m extremely sceptical about are predictions about the problems leading to economic meltdown and Armageddon. Some day China may see a multi-party system, although unlikely. China may be more open, but it will still be very much Chinese. A collapse is not impossible, but extremely unlikely. Can China’s economic power translate into cultural influence? It will take a long time. China is still a poor country. Rich countries don’t aspire to be like a poor country; economic power is the basis (of cultural influence). The Beijing Olympics is an example: China was unable to stage it 10 years before. Since the rest of the world is not familiar with Chinese culture, the process of feeling comfortable with China culturally and politically will take a long time. Because Chinese culture is so different from Western culture, it will take a century for the West to be familiar with it. I’m sceptical that it won’t happen. How is China’s rise regarded by India? India has a big problem with China, as it has a very strong view of China. India is a long, long way behind (in growth). Indians are traumatised by China; their relationship with China is erratic, fickle and fearful. Because of the border wars, China looms very large in the Indian imagination. The issue doesn’t disturb the Chinese, but for Indians it’s an issue. India is so far behind that the thought of overtaking China (economically) is the talk of fantasists in dreamland. India needs to learn as much as possible from China and pursue a strong relationship with it. It needs a clear strategy in dealing with China. India should stop this petty rivalry. At the moment there’s not much of that happening. What of China’s relations with South-East Asia? In historical terms for this region, 100 years (since the end of China’s dynastic rule in 1912) is not such a long time. There is a familiarity with China in this region that is not found in other parts of the world. This marks out relations with China as different here. Countries in this region relate with China in a multifarious process. Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar are dealing (economically) with China mostly through Chinese provinces closest to them. It’s a situation most nation states don’t allow in their regions. But Chinese provinces close to these countries will deal more with them in future. As for relations with the United States? It will take the US at least 10, maybe 20 years from now to treat China as an equal. It will happen in a series of baby steps here and there, for example by treating China as a partner in the region, rather than as a problem like now. But it won’t happen within 10 years. In certain circumstances it may happen quicker, such as a (Western) financial crisis, or it would take longer. And Europe? There’s been poor coverage of China in the rest of the world, mainly from ignorance. Coverage tends to be Eurocentric. Soviet reforms under Gorbachev with glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) were well received in Western Europe. But the Soviet system could not be reformed. China’s communist revolution had better historical roots than the Soviet’s. What remains of the ‘Washington Consensus’ (ie, US-style economic doctrine)? It’s dead. In the developing world, China is the main show. Why look at America? China is actively doing (the alternative): there are general lessons in its emphasis on infrastructure, the importance of the state, of political stability, and so on. Will there be a third edition? I probably won’t do a third edition. It was hard work with the (second edition), being governed by the framework of the existing book. I’d probably work on something fresh. More on the lines of “understanding China,” so that people can understand the conceptual thinking. POSSIBLE ARTICLE Read without prejudice By AKSHITA NANDA (Tuesday 30 October 2012)

READING between the lines is hard when a book pokes at soft spots in one’s identity. According to recent news reports, Sikh elders in India are mulling over whether to ban J.K. Rowling’s latest novel, her first for adults, The Casual Vacancy, because it has racial slurs within. The objectionable lines are uttered in the context of a bully tormenting his victim: A teenage character nicknamed Fats taunts classmate Sukhvinder Kaur by calling her “mustachioed, yet large-mammaried” or “a hairy man- woman”, driving her to self-harm. When I read the book, it was clear to me that the author did not endorse the bully’s views and was instead making a point about the real-life racism that minority groups in Britain endure. However, it appears that several complaints have been made about the “provocative language” to India’s Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, which manages Sikh places of worship. A spokesman added that religious elders are now reading the book. If it is deemed derogatory to the Sikh faith, they will demand that the book be banned in India and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Sikh, “would be urged to take up the matter with the UK government to initiate action against the author”. Coincidentally, the day this news story appeared in newspapers over here was the day I began reading Joseph Anton, British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie’s recently released memoir. Rushdie is a celebrated fantasist, whose whimsical speculative fiction book Midnight’s Children won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1981. However, he is better known for the controversial 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, which the then spiritual leader of Iran called “blasphemous”. The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offered a bounty for the writer’s death and Rushdie had to spend 10 years of his life in hiding. The fatwa, or edict, calling for his death has yet to be cancelled. I have never read The Satanic Verses, given the ban on its import in India and Singapore, so my only understanding of its content comes from the periphery and now from Rushdie’s writing in Joseph Anton. The author, avowedly atheist although he grew up in a Muslim household, thought of The Satanic Verses as the “least political” of his books. He writes that it was a book that allowed him to address questions about his own existence and non-faith in a deity. So perhaps readers got him wrong? Perhaps they did not? Who can decide without reading the book and then engaging in rational discussion? In 2004, a group of right-wing Hindus attacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in my hometown Pune in India because of the support it gave American scholar James Laine. Laine wrote a book, Shivaji, about the 17th- century Maratha warrior and king Shivaji and how this Hindu hero’s legacy is perceived today. The book reported jokes hinting that Shivaji’s mother might have had an affair, resulting in such an outcry that his book was banned in India until two years ago. Even today, discussion of the book tends to spark angry reactions. Books are banned because the authorities fear extreme reactions from those who would be angered by the text and because they fear how the text may be misused. Looking at the cases above, perhaps there are some books and ideas too sensitive to access and discuss today. But then let us also make the case for banning Lolita (1955), in which writer Vladimir Nabokov makes a paedophile memorable, or banning Beatrice And Virgil (2010), in which Yann Martel features a Nazi torturer in a somewhat sympathetic light, in spite of all his crimes. Shall we cut off access to any book that makes readers uncomfortable? Even if it is a book that depicts the world fearlessly? Even if the author’s intent is to mirror real-life issues for readers to address, not to admire? How far then will censure or censorship go for those books that appear to be in complete opposition to our viewpoints, that deliberately set out to shake the foundations of those tenets we consider fundamental to our identities? We exist in an ever-shrinking world, and we come from so many different – even opposing – beliefs and faiths that we are bound to rub one another in the wrong way at some point. Rather than limiting access to controversial ideas, a task impossible in this Internet age, we need to create a safe place where we can talk about the things that bother us and listen without lashing out in anger, whether or not such a reaction is deserved. Recently, a Sikh girl in Britain who has been subjected to similar taunts as Rowling’s character spoke in favour of the book. Aspiring medical student Balpreet Kaur wrote in The Guardian newspaper: “Rowling’s character sheds light on a reality that the Sikh nation is still struggling to fully understand, acknowledge and accept: a reality of bullying, and superficial impressions.” Like Rowling’s character, Balpreet had her photograph posted online on a social-media site with taunting comments about her gender and facial hair. In an act of incredible compassion and intelligence, she reacted not with complaints to the authorities or mobilising an army of vengeful vandals but by responding directly to the bully on social news website Reddit. She explained her religious beliefs and said she accepted her body as it is. Here is where the story enters the realm of the miraculous: her tormentor apologised. “It was an incredibly rude, judgemental, and ignorant thing to post,” he wrote in the comment thread. Conflict, engagement, explanation and finally, acceptance. This is the sort of narrative thread I love. This is the sort of narrative I hope we can keep reading and writing in real life, rather than simply closing the book. – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network > Literary journalist Akshita Nanda writes the Culture Vulture column in the Singapore Straits Times.