Live & Learn

It was World Sight Day on the 14th of October, a global event meant to draw attention on blindness and vision impairment. In a similar vein, The 2018 short film "In The Dark" followed the daily lives, hopes and dreams of the visually-impaired, who live and work amongst the hustle and bustle of Brickfields, KL. The film is being re-released for this week's Weekend Watch with FreedomFilmFest and we find out more about the film and the different themes it tackles from the co-directors of the piece, Low Watan and Low Choon Chyuan.

Image credit: In The Dark film.

Buku Jalanan Chow Kit (BJCK) is an NGO working to provide equal education opportunities, and a healthy growing environment to children in the Chow Kit area. They aim to help the kids escape the cycle of poverty in the Chow Kit area, and have set up a safe space and resource centre for the kids, which is also the venue for their community tuition initiatives and home-schooling programme for stateless/displaced children, who do not have access to public school. We find out more about the Buku Jalanan, and also about their latest project, Eyes That Speak, which taught students how to use old school film cameras to capture their surroundings and daily life in Chow Kit, and to allow them to visually share their experiences of living in the Chow Kit area. All the images have also been turned into a photo book, which is available to the public.

Image credit: Buku Jalanan Chow Kit

Malaysians (and people across the globe) have been living through the COVID-19 pandemic for the past 18 months. While this has made almost everybody’s life a living nightmare, the B40 community has been particularly vulnerable, as many have lost jobs, have been left no choice but to withdraw their EPFs early, children have dropped out of school and many have even died by suicide. On top of this, the government mentioned that around 500 000 M40 families have now slipped into B40. Budget 2022 will be tabled in Parliament on the 29th of October. How should the budget address issues concerning the B40 community?

Image credit: thestar.com.my 

With states in Malaysia rapidly moving up the phases of the recovery plan, it may seem like the COVID situation is improving. But how do we know how well the country, or individual states, are doing when it comes to bringing down cases and deaths? As we move forward, what are the numbers we need to look at, now that the Ministry of Health is providing more granular data? We catch up with Assistant Professor Dr Farhan Rusli, Public Health Medicine Specialist, International Islamic University Malaysia, to understand what the numbers reported in the COVIDNow website mean, and how they should guide our behaviours.

Image credit: Covidnow website

In 2004, Mainthan Arumugam was arrested and later convicted for the death of a man, who, years later found to be still alive? Bizarre? That's not the end of it. He remains on death row, with all his appeals having been thrown out by the courts, despite new evidence coming forth after his conviction and death sentence. It was World Day Against the Death Penalty on the 10th of October, and in conjunction with that, the Freedom Film Festival will be re-releasing the film titled Menunggu Masa (Waiting For Time), which highlights Mainthan and his family's heartbreaking story, and how a miscarriage of justice is just one of the reasons why the death penalty must be repealed. The lawyer/ filmmaking duo behind the documentary, Seira Sacha Abu Bakar and Sherrie Razak Dali, join us to share more.

Image credit: Freedom Film Network

The good news is, schools have reopened. But not every child is back in school yet, and blanket rules are still being applied to tackle the reopening of schools in Malaysia. In the final episode of our series, we first catch up with Joanna Menon Lim, the  Co-Founder of the Buka Sekolah Kami Campaign, for a progress report on the campaign, before revisiting all the other five episodes we've done in the series, which outlined the different impacts school closures have had on children. 

This series is done in collaboration with Buka Sekolah Kami! a coalition of teachers, parents, educational institutions, medical professionals and grassroots organizations, who believe that the cost of school closures greatly outweigh the benefits. They are advocating for policy makers to prioritize the reopening of schools on a national level, and the need for a decentralised solution, and an end to blanket policies. 

On the 8th of October, prominent journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This was an endorsement not just of journalism, but of journalism in a time where freedom of the press has come increasingly under threat. But what does this award actually mean and why should we care?

Ding Jo Ann of the Centre for Independent Journalism joins us to discuss.

Image credit: EPA-EFE

Several weeks ago, it was leaked that Facebook had known that Instagram was making body image issues worse for one in three teen girls. This was reported to be based on its internal research, and that the company had found that the app was harmful for teens, especially teen girls. We dive into how social media can be both empowering and harmful for teenagers, and in conjunction with International Day of the Girl Child yesterday, we will also take a closer focus on the impact of social media on teenage girls. Alia Lee, a teenager herself, joins us to share her insights, alongside clinical psychologist Shaleen Chrisanne.

Image credits: Shutterstock,com and Flickr.com

A couple of weeks ago on Beyond the Ballot Box, we discussed if race-based policies have a place in Malaysia. This was in light of the 12th Malaysia Plan, in which one part of it states that the Bumiputera shares or companies will only be offered and sold to fellow Bumiputera consortiums. If you’d like to give that a listen, click here. 

Now, continuing our discussion on the 12th MP and race-based policies, we’re going to be discussing if there’s enough emphasis placed on Sabah/Sarawak natives in the 12MP as well as what the T20 can do to help the B40.

Image credit: Shutterstock & theedgemarkets.com

 Schools have reopened this month, but how did the school closures - which disrupted learning for about 5 million children here in Malaysia - impact our most vulnerable children in particular? Why is getting them back into school a priority? On this, our penultimate episode of our series in collaboration with the folks from Buka Sekolah Kami!, we discuss not only how school closures have impacted the most vulnerable children, but now that schools have reopened, the steps needed in the long road ahead to fix the problems that have resulted from these prolonged school closures. Joining us this week are Azlina Kamal, an Education Specialist for UNICEF in Malaysia, and Chan Soon Seng, the CEO of Teach for Malaysia.

This series is done in collaboration with Buka Sekolah Kami! a coalition of teachers, parents, educational institutions, medical professionals and grassroots organizations, who believe that the cost of school closures greatly outweigh the benefits. They are advocating for policy makers to prioritize the reopening of schools on a national level, and the need for a decentralised solution, and an end to blanket policies. 

Image credit: Naufal Zaquan - Shutterstock