Final Essay

Katya Slepian

100244412

Final Essay

I remember, sometime in the spring of my grade 11 year, signing up for my grade 12 classes. I saw a class called Social Justice. I debated signing up – it seemed interesting – but ultimately decided against it since none of my fiends seemed interested. I remember feeling a bit regretful that I had let the chance pass, but I soon forgot about it.

And then, last spring, as I was planning out my years at Kwantlen, I once again saw a class called “Social Justice” on th course sign up sheet. Even though, from what I heard, that class ended up being a complete failure, I still wanted to try this one.

And now, at the tail end of this semester, I’m glad I did.

Not all the concepts we talked about in this class were new to me. Cultural relativism in particular was something I had heard about in a communications class during my first year at Kwantlen. However, when we discussed it then, it did not strike me as anything special. I read about it, memorized it for the exam, and then promptly forgot about it.

When I heard about it again this time around, I had the same initial reaction. However, as we watched the video about the court in Rwanda, and during the discussion afterwards, I got what I had missed the first time around. It finally got through to me that even though the way the Rwandans were doing it was no the way it was done here, and quite possibly would not even work here, it worked for them. In their close-knit community, still trying to heal from the ravages of all the fighting, it provided them with what they needed most – healing. Our justice system here is impersonal; that it considered one of it’s strengths. However, the personal nature of their outdoor court was one of its strengths. They were deciding on the punishment for those who had committed murder. There was no way to undo the crimes these people had committed, but just the fact that both parties – both the offenders and the victims – were involved made it a little bit easier for the victims. Even when they did not get the results they wanted, they could see that the whole community was trying to help.

Another thing that struck me during this semester was just how easy it is to make a difference in the life of another person even when that person is on the other side of the planet. It’s easy to see how donating a can of food to the food bank helps a person here at home, but it’s much harder to see how raising money here can help someone on the other side of the world. However, having fundraised over $800 for kids in Africa, I can see how even little things here at home can help those in need abroad. It’s insane to me that a pub night can do so much good, and help so many kids get the education that they need to break the vicious cycle of poverty. It helps to have a face for who your helping – I sponsor a child through World Vision, and the occasional letters make me feel like I’m actually doing something. Knowing that our money was specifically funding a child going to school and the school supplies that they’d need made it seem achivable. It made it seem like we were really making a difference. The most important thing I’ll take away from this class is that the tiniest action here at home can have enormous effects far abroad. The praxis component of this course was the most useful and will have the most far-reaching concequences.

It brings to mind a quote by Margaret Mead that I saw in a music video when I was a kid. “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Issues in Social Justice Journal Entry #4 – Chapter 4 Driving Discontinuance and Quality of Life among Older Drivers by Frank Tridico et al. (Affective)

Most, if not almost all, of what I read in this chapter had been previously unknown to me. I personally rarely have access to a car, and over the past few years of commuting daily to either work or school via public transport have perhaps made me unaware of the freedom a car can bring, and as such the lack of prison that driving discontinuance can bring. Compared to public transport, a car offers incredible amounts of freedom. All one needs in that cases is a car with gas and one is ready to go wherever they may wish. There is no schedule to adhere to, there is not frustration when a bus fails to adhere to that schedule. The only frustration is traffic, and that is something those who use public transport must endure as well. Another thing that I did not realize is how hard it must be to lose the freedom of driving a car, rather than never having the freedom in the first place. At least in the latter case, you do not know what you’re missing. In the former, one is all too aware.

Issues in Social Justice Journal Entry #3 – Chapter 3 Human Trafficking by Frank Tridico et al. (Affective)

Unfortunately, reading the chapter on human trafficking confirmed my suspisions on how widespread this practice still is, although it is often pushed under the rug and ignored. It makes me wonder where people’s priorities are, as the USA alone spends billion hundreds of billions of dollars yearly on its military. I remember doing a project in grade eight about sweatshops. It opened my eyes to how exploitive businesses that relied on for everything from clothing to school supplies were and it has made me a more conscious consumer. Even today, six years on, I still remember this project, and even when I do buy clothing that I am fairly sure was produced by an exploited worker, I am at least conscious of that choice, and to attempt to make better ones when I can. I feel like there was a period in time when society cared about sweatshops, if not necessarily the more brutal forms of human trafficking, and large corporations – Starbucks and Nike come to mind – jumped on the “fair trade bandwagon.” Starbucks seems to still be on that bandwagon, but I’m not so sure about many other brands that so earnestly committed to paying their workers fare wages back then. It makes me wonder how people can feel so far removed from each other, when in reality all that separates them is the accident of birth.

Issues in Social Justice Journal Entry #2 – Chapter 2 Sexuality and Identity by Frank Tridico et al. (Affective)

Reading this chapter has made me realize how little I know about the struggles homosexual individuals face just to enjoy the same quality of life as do heterosexuals, even in modern, developed and supposedly tolerant places like North America. It makes me extremely grateful to live in a place where gay marriage is legal, so everyone, regardless of sexuality, can enjoy the same rights. However, while reading the part about how “gay sounding” people were blocked from becoming tenants, it occurred to me that even though on the official level, gays and lesbians have the same rights as heterosexuals,  a lot of discrimination still most likely exists, just unofficially. I have always thought that if you change policy on the government level, then people’s thoughts and opinions on the subject will change automatically, even if it does take a little time. Now however, I realize that if change is to come, it must be actively brought to be or else society will be sitting and waiting for it to happen for a long, long time to come.

Issues in Social Justice Journal Entry #1 – Chapter 1 Religion and Homosexuality by Frank Tridico et al. (Affective)

Reading this chapter opened my eyes to some of the difficulties faced by gay individuals in places less tolerant than the Canadian west. Here in Metro Vancouver we are fortunate in that while there are homophobic individuals and groups as well as religious groups that hold extreme and intolerant views, they are few and far between. I grew up in Richmond, and other than a few jokes in the beginning years of high school, have never really heard much in the way of gay slurs. Near the end of high school, a few students in my grade came out. However, unlike what one often hears happens in less tolerant places, there was no big fuss raised, and there was no real bullying. A few jokes where made, I’m sure, but those students retained the same places in the student social hierarchy that they’d always occupied.

It also makes me realize how destructive a force religion can be, even when it is not used to justify outright violence, as one so often hears about happening in the Middle East. It is incredibly sad to see that there are people even here in North America, so close to sheltered little Richmond, that read their holy book and come away from it having learned to hate rather than love. It makes me realize just how destructive a force religion can be when it switches from personal faith to outright zealotry.

300 Word Essay

My life has been influenced in many different ways by a multitude of people. One of the ways is the history of my family. My parents were born, and lived most of their lives in, Soviet Russia. Unfavourable conditions there, including a lack of opportunities and the threat of my brother being drafted into a cruel and inhumane army, drove my family to escape and try to find a better life elsewhere.

The Soviet Union was a difficult place to get out of, and there were not many choices as to where to go. My family is historically Jewish on both sides, and due to this and because it was fairly close to the Soviet Union, my family moved to Israel, where I was then born. My family stayed in Israel for four years before moving to Canada where we have lived ever since.

The fact that my family came from an oppressive communist regime has shaped many of the views I hold. It has made me believe that extremes rarely end well, and that as Shakespeare says, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Living in Richmond, a highly multicultural city, has made me more accepting of other cultures, something which is essential in the “global village” we live in today.

My place in society is determined by many things. I am an immigrant, a religious minority, middle class, female and Caucasian. While none of those things are truly “good” or “bad,” they vary in the way they affect my social standing. Arguably, Caucasian and middle class could be considered to affect it in a positive way, while being an immigrant, female and a religious minority could be said to affect it negatively.

Due to the way the factors of history (my family’s immigration), biography (life in a multicultural city and country), social standing (Caucasian, middle class, religious minority, immigrant, female) have intersected and influenced each other, my life has turned out to be quite different than could be supposed if only one factor was considered.