Oral Presentations Round 2

Lesson 7 marked the second and the last round of Oral Presentations. For this lesson, the presentations were on: - Rajasthan & Aavaran - Aajeevika Bureau - An organisation dedicated to migrant workers' issues in Singapore - Indians in Singapore - focus on migration

The first presentation by Daphne and Chun Kit was a nice and comfortable history lesson on Rajasthan (I definitely learnt new things! Rajasthan has more history than the rest of the country put together, and Dr Kankana pointed out that there are many Gandhis in India). We also got to know about Aavaran and the art of block printing by the rural artisans.

Next was my presentation with Jia Jue on Aajeevika Bureau (it's weird to type about my own presentation in third person so I'll break the rule of formal report writing and write in first person here). To bring in some perspectives on preparing for presentations, it was definitely stressful trying to put together a lot of information of the organisation within a short ten-minute presentation but I think we illustrated a good range of what the Bureau does through pictures, and summarising their processes and practices.

Hui Yu and Neldrick presented on foreign workers in Singapore, a topic we're all familiar with. They focused their presentation on the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), which is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that is (surprisingly) fully supported by the government. The class delved into discussions of what NGOs and the government can do for migrant workers, and the limitations faced by each stakeholder.

To wrap up the presentations was Rachel, Yilun and Lei Zuo's presentation on Indians in Singapore, from the pre-colonial period until present time. It was great to see how as time progresses, there are many changes that can be seen, and comparisons that can be made. There was a robust discussion on the ideas of 'assimilation' and 'integration' to end off.

The oral presentations were fruitful and enriching. I believe we were all able to learn more from each other through an interactive manner (rather than having to do our own research online on every organisation and place in India). Learning about the organisations and concepts through our classmates' perspectives provides a fresh and alternative take on viewing these topics. From the enthusiasm of the discussions and presentations, I think it's safe to say we are all looking forward to working on our field projects and discovering even more when we are in India!