Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Negarakuku

A quick announcement that tomorrow, Thursday, August 23, we will be having a Socratic Circle discussion on Namewee's music video. But this only applies to Tutorial 2 because Tutorial 1 will be having a presentation on NEP by Michelle.

All are welcome to Michelle's talk so please do come if you can.

And if you are interested to attend Tutorial 2's Socratic Circle, then please do join us in the reading room because the usual room, PG 005 is just too unbearably cold for normal Homo Sapiens.

I will be bringing the English translation of the lyrics for Negarakuku but I suggest that everyone please go check out the music video and see the images too. You can access it on YouTube! at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczMNH0dbEQ

You can also read Namewee's apology and explanation on his blog at http://namewee.blogspot.com/

See you all tomorrow and you can also contribute your thoughts to this blog on the issue if you like but perhaps just wait a while until after tomorrow--if not, pecah stim lah.

Thanks peeps.

3 comments:

amy2kyo said...

Ala, too bad we can't have the Socratic Circle discussion. That would be great to talk about negarakuku (sounds so so so so wrong). Sigh.

Potong stim lah.. not pecah stim.. Haha :D No offence ya Dr. Carmen :D

Carmen N said...

Ooops! Potong stim izzit? Why so long I have been saying pecah stim but no-one corrected me!!! Thanks twin star! :-)

By the way, here are a few websites I managed to locate about people who changed or mocked the national anthem of their country:

Australian National Anthem:
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:21IId4XzjxIJ:incsub.org/blog/2004/a-new-australian-national-anthem+national+anthems+%2B+satire&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=14

Indian play making fun of the national anthem:
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:a0NKqeAY2OkJ:www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2005/03/18/stories/2005031802400300.htm+national+anthems+%2B+satire&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=28

German National Anthem:
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:sCzm9YBk2PUJ:www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/global_law/german-cases/cases_bverg.shtml%3F07mar1990_2+national+anthems+%2B+satire&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=34

The links above are for you to look through carefully because I only had time for a cursory glance. No time lah.. have to go to CT class in a few minutes!

I've really tried to look for mockery of the US Anthem but no luck so far. At least, most of the complaints have to do with singing it off key or out of tune or in another language, but not disparaging it as such.

So... KJ, you may be right!!

Carmen N said...

As for US flag burning by Americans themselves, please check out these sites:

http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:i9eu0zzQP38J:caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl%3Fcourt%3DUS%26vol%3D491%26invol%3D397+US+flag+burning+by+Americans&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2

A snippet from that site:
"During the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, respondent Johnson participated in a political demonstration to protest the policies of the Reagan administration and some Dallas-based corporations. After a march through the city streets, Johnson burned an American flag while protesters chanted. No one was physically injured or threatened with injury, although several witnesses were seriously offended by the flag burning. Johnson was convicted of desecration of a venerated object in violation of a Texas statute, and a State Court of Appeals affirmed. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, holding that the State, consistent with the First Amendment, could not punish Johnson for burning the flag in these circumstances. The court first found that Johnson's burning of the flag was expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. The court concluded that the State could not criminally sanction flag desecration in order to preserve the flag as a symbol of national unity. It also held that the statute did not meet the State's goal of preventing breaches of the peace, since it was not drawn narrowly enough to encompass only those flag burnings that would likely result in a serious disturbance, and since the flag burning in this case did not threaten such a reaction. Further, it stressed that another Texas statute prohibited breaches of the peace and could be used to prevent disturbances without punishing this flag desecration."

That's the most famous case that I know of, which I also studied when I took a class in the US called "Censorship in America", which was taught by a fabulous law professor.

A really reliable site for a lot more info about flag burning, history and philosophical debates, please check out:
http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/flag.htm

And because a lot of Americans are fierce defenders of free speech, you also get websites like this:
http://www.esquilax.com/flag/

Of course, don't take my word for it... do your own research on google and then draw your own conclusions about flag burning... and this is only the tip of the iceberg because I haven't even done research on flag burning in other countries.

Those of you who are goyang kaki takde assignment now... please do some checking and enlighten the rest of us.