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The Rohingya Crisis (Citations are submitted with assignment)

To fully examine and comprehend the inhumanities taking place in Myanmar, we must first understand the situation. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority of around 1 million people that live in Asia’s Myanmar/Burma. Myanmar is a country dominated by those of the Buddhist religion, with an estimated 88% of the population practicing Buddhism.

The government of Myanmar has had a history of discriminatory behaviour towards the Muslims of the country, and has even declared them illegal immigrants. Since the end of British Colonization in the country, Rohingya people have been the target of murder, rape and abuse by Myanmar military. This extremist behaviour has turned into what can be considered an ethnic cleansing, with over a million Rohingya people scattered around the globe as refugees.

The situation has become increasingly worse with reported mass killings and entire villages being engulfed in flames. Yet despite these acts against humanity, it seems the world has taken little to no notice. This includes the concerns about the lack of coverage being seen in regard to those of the Rohingya population and their brutal situation. Minister U Aung Hla Tun says, “Unfortunately the Myanmar media, both state and local, are not capable enough of making the international community understand the situation on the ground inside the country. It is not because of lack of media freedom but it is because of their lack of experience and professional skills,” in regard to the lack of international media coverage of Myanmar.

Overall, the brutalities that are taking place in Myanmar deserve to be spoken of worldwide in order to see positive changes for refugees and the country itself, to hopefully create an impact towards peace for the Rohingya people.

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I think this piece has done its job in being informative while also stating my personal opinion that this topic deserves more recognition. I had a peer edit this piece to help me learn the structure of editorials and fix basic writing mistakes. I believe this piece achieves the purpose of an editorial- and that is to make someone think. I think I have made a solid editorial piece about an issue I feel strongly about while taking a unique turn in talking of the lack of media attention it gets and why that is an underlying problem, in my own opinion. Though I used my own opinions, I also supported them with fact, making this piece non-fiction.

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It is understandable that people have their own thoughts, opinions and feelings that contribute to who they are and how they view others. But the real question is, does your personal opinion have the right to trump another’s rights as a human?

You may do what you want, say what you please and love who you love. And you must think, of course I do. Yet you may have taken that right away from someone else. We must let people love who they love and pray to who they wish. We must allow people to want to live in this world. A world where they don’t need to meet a status quo and don’t have to fit or conform.

We should want to live in a world of pure happiness. Pure unity. Or else, what’s the point of the human race?

And so I ask of you, remember that being human is enough to initiate unity. We need to be a species where we work together. Not a species where we divide over seemingly petty opinions like what church someone goes to in their spare time.

Unity should be the ultimate goal, and us humans with opinions and thoughts, we are the only ones who can make it happen. So think to yourself, do I want to be among the people who have divided the human race, or do I want to be someone who is capable of simple acceptance.

-Unity is the ultimate goal-

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I believe my speech has done its job in really relaying a message in which I feel passionate about. My goal was to write a speech that could change someones mind or open their eyes to the power of unity, while also acknowledging the lack of unity in the world today. For this piece I had a peer editor to fix minor spelling and grammatical errors. I think that this piece fits the speech format as I can hear it being read out loud in my head and believe it has the ability to truly mean something to someone else.

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My Views on Discrimination in Modern Society: Personal Essay

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My Views on Discrimination in Modern Society: Personal Essay

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Discrimination is an issue that I feel very strongly about that is clearly visible in modern society and has shaped who I am and what I am passionate about as I grow older. As the world leaves many opportunities for inequity through systematic discrimination and the ubiquity of personal biases among Canadians, I have always found myself trying to fully comprehend discrimination and its presence in society, and have developed a personal hatred for judgment.

I believe that growing up in the multi-racial and multi-religious city of Edmonton has shaped me into a more accepting person that can stray away from unaccepting stigmas that are often found in westernized societies. Edmonton has a very high immigration rate that creates diversity in all communities. My closest friends and neighbors growing up were kind and hard driven people who deserved to be treated as equals, and most of the time were not due to falsified ideas of white supremacy. Canada is also considered a safe space for refugees and immigrants, yet many people have fictional ideas of the wrong in society created by immigrants. Some say they steal jobs while others say they overpopulate. This is very untrue as the Canadian population is dangerously low on a competing global scale and small businesses owned by immigrant’s steady economy. Now, living in Angus, a small town of Caucasian dominance, I am distinctly aware of the ignorance between right and wrong towards diversity.

Many people in my community use disrespectful language toward those of a different race and create unwelcoming communities for LGBTQ members. I believe that this inability to recognize discriminative behavior comes from lack of knowledge. I have heard many names and profanities thrown around, nonchalantly, that represent a group of people negatively. These words may seem harmless to the speaker, yet can be extremely insulting to someone else. This prejudice is born in a community that tolerates inequality because of its ignorance through lack of familiarity with the subject. This type of behavior makes me angry, simply because of its obvious resolution. The resolution is to treat everyone equally and not to focus on someone’s characteristics, but instead the way in which they treat others. Equality is a simple concept that should be taught in every community, including my own.

Canada is known as the country of ‘freedom’, and to me, this means a country where people feel safe and equal. A country where people are excluded, persecuted, and shamed because of who they are, what they believe in or where they come from is not a country of absolute freedom. Awareness is the key to success regarding this particular cause, one in which everyone can contribute. People can learn the meaning of the words they use and understand that the way others live their lives should not create a bias opinion in themselves. Skin colour does not change someone's morals, nor does the religious celebrations they partake in or the person they have decided to love. You are simply a bystander in someone else's life, and have no right to disrespect because of an opinion. In my lifetime I hope to face reality and make a change by participating in human rights movement.

Overall, my personal beliefs and morals that have come to me through witnessing countless acts of discrimination have shaped me into a person who cares strongly for equality. Through the discrimination I've witnessed to the love I have found for unity and my ability to make a change, I have found a passion for creating equality and helping to eliminate discrimination.

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I believe this particular piece does a good job in achieving its purpose. I think the purpose of this piece was to showcase who I am. I did this by displaying my own personal beliefs and morals, as well as providing reasoning as to why I am who I am. For this piece, I re-read it several times in order to create something I am truly proud of. As this piece means so much to me and who I am as a person, I tried to ensure it was done to the best of my ability. This piece was intended to be a personal essay and I think I have accomplished this format by talking of myself, but talking of other experiences and viewpoints as well in an essay style format.