6/10 Discussion cancelled

Dear all,

I got a sun stroke this Saturday and still have terrible headache right now. I am afraid that I have to cancel tonight's discussion. Sorry for all inconvenience.

TINA

6/10 Men who do women's work

In Chinese society, men are considered to opt for jobs such as construction work, knowledge-intensive work (doctors, professors, CEO). On the other hand, women are considered to be the right persons to take care of children (child babysitter), students (teachers), and patients (nurses). However, nowadays, this situation is undergoing a change. In job markets, there are more and more men looking for jobs that are traditionally preferred by women and on the other hand women choosing men's jobs. In today's discussion, we are going to discuss this change. It is great if you can read all three articles listed below. If you are short of time, please read one of the following article. 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/05/men-who-do-womens-work
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/business/increasingly-men-seek-success-in-jobs-dominated-by-women.html
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/pink-collar-jobs-that-attract-the-most-men/


Questions:

1. Do your parents have same expectations to your brothers and sisters? (Any differences in their expectations influenced by gender?)

2. What did your parents and friends in your generation think of gender differences? Did they choose their interests or jobs depending on their gender?

3. What do you think of male nurses, female construction workers, male nursery teachers, etc? Do you think male nurses can do well like female nurses, etc?

4. In job markets, men sometimes get more salary and get promoted easily than their female counterparts. In your opinions, is it possible to reach gender equity when more men do women's work and more women do more men's work?

5 ?

Musical Education

I am looking for a digital piano recently, and thinking about musical education for my daughters.

It seems learning music has so many benefits for kids. 

What would be your opinion?

http://musiced.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/pinst.htm

1. This article provides five positive reasons about the benefit of playing musical instrument, do you agree with the reasons for musical education?

2. Do you play any musical instrument? Do you agree with the idea that learning music can mold one’s personality in positive way?

3. what is your attitude toward kids learning music? Should it be demanding or just for fun?

4. How much time and cost do you spend yearly on music, such as concert, CD, instrument, etc?

I am thinking about ways to arouse my daughters' interest and curiosity about piano playing.

Here are some ways I may use:

watch video about musicians playing piano

listen to music of piano playing frequently 

play it by myself for demonstration

Any recommandation?

"Justice" on the Internet

A drunk driver ,Master Yeh (葉少爺) killed three people and ruined two families in the early May. Suddenly, every news channel, newspaper, and website was full of the critique and discussion and webizens started to human flesh search (人肉搜索) this person, his friends and his family. Also, you could find a group of facebook users (more than 80 thousands likes) created a webpage to condemn him.  With the prevalence of the Internet, similar scenarios have happened for countless times, such as celebrity scandals and injustice social events. A group of people spontaneously gathered on the Internet to judge a person, debate a topic, discuss rumors, condemn, or defend points of view, usually disappearing before long. We call them “Internet mob” or call this behavior " Internet vigilantism." I think this phenomenon is worthy to discuss.

Reading Material:

1. 8 awesome cases of Internet vigilantism

2. Internet mobs

Discussion Question:

1. Do you think Internet mob bring more positive effects or negative effects to the society?
2. Did you condemn someone that you don’t even know in the real world on the Internet? What triggered you to do so? How was your feeling?
3. I believe that you must familiar with this famous saying from a Bible story. “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” <<John 8:7>>                                                                                                         Some people believe being a Internet mob to condemn bad guys is a way to uphold justice; while others consider it is a lynching. The line between them is vague. What is your opinion on this issue?
4. The anger can be amplified as ripple effect through the message transfer. Under anonymous circumstance, the irrational behaviors of Internet mobs erupt easily. Do you think the freedom of speech on the Internet should be regulated?

4/29 Hero deserves a second chance?

Wang Chien-Ming was regarded by Taiwanese people as a national hero especially his achievements in baseball field. We were all proud to see his success abroad and proud to say he is a Taiwanese baseball player to our overseas business partners and friends. However, after he revealed his affair in USA with a girl, we know that he is just a normal man with fears, desire and other sensations. His hero image was broken into pieces in my mind and  I wonder shall I still support him? Fans on the websites have two completely different views toward his infidelity. Some people support no matter what he has done but some people like me have doubts on his personal behaviours.

Please read the article provided in the following link.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2012/04/25/338980/MLB's-Wang.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1236435/Why-men-forgive-wifes-affair--theyd-expect-YOU-forgive-them.html

Questions:

1. As a normal person, do you think Wang's wrongdoing deserves forgiveness? As a national hero, do you think Wang's wrongdoing deserves forgiveness?

2. When Tiger's sexual scandal broken out, he was chased by a crowd of media workers and news about his scandals appeared on the news for quite a while. On the contrary, Wang's news about his affair with a girl only appeared on the media for less than 3 days. What do you think of this phenomena?

3. Wang's wife chose to forgive Wang (at least the news reported that she chose to forgive him). For female members, if your partner betrays you will you choose to forgive him and why? For male members, if your wife betrays you what will you react to her infidelity?

4. Do you think we as a human being can forgive and "forget"?

5. ?

Fuel Prices Hike

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/04/17/2003530504
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/04/19/2003530716

In the past few weeks, fuel prices hike causes some commodity goods to rise their prices. It seems to be a sign of inflation. Today we are going to discuss the impact of energy price rise to our daily life.


(1) Does oil and electricity price hike have any obvious influence on your life? What is your reaction to this wave of inflation?

(2) Do you think it is reasonable for government to adjust the fuel prices with large percentage increase?

(3) Do you have any share points to save energy and living cost? Or do you have any good way to explore additional income?

(4) From the article, a scholar said the fuel prices hike will cut the GDP growth by 0.22 percentage points. However, GDP cannot truely reflect life quality of most people. Where is the apple of our economic growth?

The Wang Family in Shilin District

Protest fails to stop eviction, demolition
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taipei/2012/03/29/336119/Protest-fails.htm

TVBS news
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOa5SZYD8OE&feature=related


Today let's share our opinion to Urban Redevelopment Project from the conflict happened to the Wang family in Shilin District.

1. To your own opinion, who's the beneficial side in the Wang family case?

2. How do you think about Urban Redevelopment Project?

3. If where you are living now was included into a Urban Redevelopment Project, what's your reaction?

4. What do you think the procedure should go if the whole Wang family case started over?