1st Entry for TOK: What should we do about China's internment camps? - Writing Wednesday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
For one of our Theory of Knowledge lessons (Philosophy in other words), we have to write a 250-500 word essay every 2 weeks to consolidate our knowledge and add to our Theory of Knowledge journals. It can be about a current affair, a piece of artwork, media, or a personal story that links to our aspects of knowledge (perspective, culture etc). It's not the most interesting thing to do in the world to be honest but I decided to therefore write something interesting that I could get a lot out of. It's not the best entry for a TOK journal as it doesn't fill all the necessary requirements but I wanted to share it on here because I thought that the message was important. I hope you enjoy reading it and find it interesting!❤️
A current affair that has been of particular concern to me recently is the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in China and what we as a foreign country have decided to do in response to this. I was concerned to find that so many Muslims in China have been victims of abuse and mistreatment in the detention camps that have recently been exposed on the news but I was also concerned about what Britain was doing in response to this as it seems as though we’re still not doing enough. However, the real question is, what can you do to help? How much influence can you have over a country that has different rules and values to yours?
Around one million Uyghur Muslims in Northwest China are being incarcerated against their will in what is claimed to be “internment camps,” where it is said that they are being “cleansed” of their extremist beliefs. However, through video and satellite evidence, it has become apparent that president Xi Jinping’s communist government isn’t revealing the real truths of the situation as these camps seem to be growing at an alarming rate. When women are torn away from their families and their homes to be sterilised, cameras are watching the inmates’ every turn, Muslims are brainwashed to fit Chinese communist ideals, and escapees of these internment camps are severely punished, it seems hardly appropriate to use the euphemism of an educational detention centre to describe what is close to a labour or concentration camp.
This brings me back to what we often learn about in our own history lessons; the absolute travesty of the Holocaust that exposed the many horrors of humankind. When armies of the Allied forces found 6 million Jews and other minority groups in an appalling state after the war, many people, having not seen this sort of violence before, were shocked by their own ignorance and how they let this abusive system slip through their fingers. Now, it seems to me that history is repeating itself. It seems to me that Britain is holding onto China to keep businesses and foreign trade alive so that our own country doesn’t fall apart.
However, one must bring this all back to perspective and how difficult it is to balance culture. It’s difficult for a democratic government to maintain a stable relationship with a country that abides by the cultural standard of a dictatorship. Whilst I feel we’re going against our own cultural values by letting the abuse in China happen for the sake of international economy, innocent people (workers of our country) could be affected if rash, unthought decisions are made as China is still a very secretive country and we do not know the full context of the situation. Therefore, when considering culture and perspective, I respect that it’s a complicated situation. All I can do is abide by my own cultural standards and speak up, sign petitions, and do the little things to hopefully help the bigger cause.
BBC News
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XOX, Juliette 😊
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