Socratic Seminar Reflection (My 1st One)

Last Friday, 19 Feb 2010, we had a mock socratic seminar. That week, I was part of the audience and only voiced my view once (I did not know what to say). I had to take notes of what other people were saying during their discussions to write this reflection.

Opening Question
The opening question was "Do you think the government or the citizens should create national identity? How and why

Summary of key ideas
1) The people should be the ones creating national identity as they would live it out as they create it.
My opinion on this statement: I agree with this statement. If the government forced a national identity on us, we would either act it out reluctantly or just ignore it totally.

2) Language does not define Singaporean. It is the attitude.
My opinion on this statement: I agree to a certain extent. It is not what we speak [Singlish, English and Mother Tongue -- Chinese (Mandarin)/Malay/Tamil] that defines our national identity. It is how we treat things and how we do things that define US (notice this isn't United States, it is just 'us' in capitalized form to emphasize) Singaporean. However, to a certain extent, the language does affect our national identity as when people hear Singlish, they think of Singapore

3) Some foreign talents are not enthusiastic about the country.
My opinion on this statement: I agree totally. The panelist gave an example taken from an article that during the grand Beijing Olympics 2008, the flag-bearer of our country was holding it so lowly that it almost touched the ground when other flag-bearers of other countries were waving it in pride. Apparently, the flag-bearer was a foreign talent.

4) The government wants Singapore to be a clean and green city. The government is only showing the good part of the country.
My opinion on this statement: I agree. The purpose of being a clean and green city is, other than saving the environment and having "national identity", it is also to let foreigners see the good side of Singapore. The government is just showing the good side of the country, Singapore Zoological Gardens, Night Safari, Sentosa, the new Integrated Resort and many more. However, as the panelists brought up, the foreigners are unaware of red light districts. The foreigners also does not know there are actually vagabonds in this country.

Conclusion
Actually, during the discussion, we sort of went off the tracks and the panelists did not link the point they were talking about to the main topic discussed, "What it means to be Singaporean?". However, the teacher supervising us helped us a little but it still was not ideal. The teacher said that we were all lucky that that was a mock one, and if that was an actual one, all the panelists would have got a zero. (I forgot what exactly she said).