Method #10 Blogger Support

Our last method was unconventional advertising against sexual harassment. Because, you see, all the advertisements on television and radios and newspapers ... what do they mean? They're just an indication that the world loves money.

On blogs, however, advertising goes to another level. Just read this interview I conducted with celebrity blogger Kenny Sia.

1. How effective do you think blogs can be when it comes to raising awareness?
Most blogs are personal in nature and as such they can connect to the audience at a more intimate level compared to other forms of media. Bloggers can leave a deep impression and that effectively helps raise awareness of important issues in life.

2. What are your blogging experiences on awareness campaigns?
I am an advocate of adopting a healthy and balanced lifestyle, and my blog entries generally reflect that. I feel happy when I find out many of my readers were participating in this year's Penang Marathon events because I did it last year in KL.

3. What is your say about safety on public transport?
Perhaps it is because I am a careful with myself, but I have yet to experience any untoward incidents from my experiences taking public transport in Malaysia. So yes, I feel that it is still quite satisfactory. :)

There you go. Blogs are actually very powerful things. Bloggers hold a strong grasp over readers. They influence them in more ways than one. Which is why blog advertising is the way to go if you want to raise awareness.

We want to know!

Why did we win grand prize? I know it might be the whole package, but what was our winning point? What was it that bowled the judges over? What was it that grabbed the judges by the shoulders, shook them hard and go, 'SRI LETHIA MUST WIN!!!'?

I should have stopped at 'bowled the judges over'.

We Bonded!

I realize that this project has brought the 7 of us closer together. Before this, we barely talked to each other(those who weren't in the same class) but during the 2 weeks, we've spent majority of our school hours together trying to come up with the perfect presentation to present AWAM, which we won. Three cheers for that! So as I was saying, we pretty much gotten to know each other better.
Like, our leader, Shieh Ying, does the things that, we mostly would not want to do.
May Zhee's good at multi tasking, and can put on a brave face even though she was sick on the day of the presentation.
Oh, we now know that Kathy is also known as Mary Yap(inner joke, haha).
Shin Tiong's favourite phrase is "uh oh!" and despite being the only guy in the group, he's the one that panics the most.
We also know that if you sit in the middle of Yi Wen's Estima, the part where you can pull up into a tiny table, yeah, if you sit there, you're bound to fall if I sit behind you. *evil laughs* Oh, she also has this really amazing voice which we used in our announcement.
Shor Kuan's just plain Shoe Kuan. She almost fell in the Estima. Oh, and she prefers drivers to drive under 50km per hour.
As for me, I..... Highly unlikely I'm going to write about myself right. Yeah, well, if you must know, I fit the description of a lower secondary girl. See the photo of us in the meeting room discussing and you'll have your answer. =)

Keep visiting if you want to be counted in, this blog! Get it? Counted in, count me in?
Ah, forget it.

The money

We received RM1500 as the grand prize winner. A lot of people have been asking what are we planning to do with the money.

Obviously, the money is not important. What's important is having fun, raising awareness, nurturing co-operation and-

WE ARE GOING TO BUY A HUGE MERRY GO ROUND AND PUT IT IN OUR SCHOOL AND THEN CHARGE PEOPLE TEN BUCKS FOR A RIDE.

Okay. That was just wishful thinking.

We are going to buy a yacht and name it Sri Lethia Loves Awam. Muahahahahahaha.

Sigh. More wishful thinking.

Well, to be honest, we're not sure yet! Haha! We might want to divide the money and then go our separate ways.

Hehe I know I'm supposed to post up our methods accompanied by photos/videos/songs but there are some technical difficulties so please bear with us.

Haha, Abby, I hope this post answers your question. We don't know what to do with the money yet!

[Edited] Photos of our victory! Grand! Prize! Winner!

Shieh Ying, Kim Fay and a quarter of me. This was before we knew we were going to erupt into happy bursts every five seconds.


Teacher, Kathy and Shor Kuan's hand. Still don't know yet.


Beginning of our euphoria on stage

Now...for the photo you CANNOT miss...
*drumroll*
*more drumroll*

Look at how happy our faces were!!!LOOK!!!!!!
From left: Kathy, Shor Kuan, Shieh Ying, May Zhee, some woman (DJ I think), Kim Fay

HAPPY HAPPY FACES!


You can practically see the glow on our faces!

Okay fine lar, that's only sweat. =P

The man on the left is my dad and the boy is my brother. They are our supporters. =D

Oh yes, we were interviewed by Seventeen Magazine and The Sun newspaper. We went back rather early, since we were all staying in Klang, so I hope if there were more media people, feel free to post a comment here or e-mail my teacher shara_78@lycos.com for interviews.

Haha. Yes. Grand prize winners are usually very thick faced.

But I say this from the bottom of my heart (really, truly, genuinely. Kim Fay would say from the bottom of our BUTT because she thinks that's more sincere). It was team effort! I swear! It was! We needed impact, creativity, practicality and so much more.

The team would like to thank...
Wong Kim Fay for her designs, her hand in the slideshows and presentation, her Dirty Little Secret idea (this is something you all CANNOT miss! Before you die, you must at least see this once!)
Wong Shieh Ying for being our beautiful model and "doing the things that nobody wants to do" (haha, there's a photo of her that you all CANNOT miss also)
Kathy Yap for the surveys, interviews and printing of stickers
Yeap Shor Kuan for her video camera and providing entertainment to the team
Tee Yi Wen for her transport, her part in doing some designs and the tissue box! Haha!
Ng Shin Tiong Technical stuff! And for bringing his laptop to school everyday despite how heavy and troublesome it is.

Oh! Me! How can I forget me!!!

May Zhee Blogging, report, slideshow, presentation, ideas

How come mine seems so boring -_- Okay nvm. My point is, team effort!

I'm going to add Kim Fay as a contributor here soon so we might need ways to indicate our posts. We could add [MZ] or [KF] before every post title...or we could change the color of our posts. What say you?

WE WON GRAND PRIZE FOR OUR SCHOOL’S AWAM PROJECT!!!

WE! Us! Sri Lethia! GRAND PRIZE! FIRST PLACE!!!!!

We screamed, we rushed forward to the stage, we screamed some more, we had our photos taken by people with large cameras, we screamed some more, we jumped around and WE SCREAMED SOME MORE!

I’ll post more about it day after day, but for now, I’ll roughly summarize ur methods to enhance safety transport.

1. Mirrors on Four Corners of the Bus/Train – Photoshopped mirrors into the bus.

2. Fake CCTV Cameras – Got the idea from Da Vinci Code where they said Museum Louvre uses fake CCTV cameras

3. Special announcements on trains and buses – Did a casual one with Manglish. (“Boys and girls, if you see anything hor, you must fast fast go report. Cannot keep it to yourself, you know”)

4. A sign which says No Sexual Harassment – We did one with the big red prohibited sign and we put a FINED ON THE SPOT RM1000, which was factually wrong, but haha, we won grand prize okay!

5. Frequent Patrolling on public transport – Make it into a paying job. Get volunteers.

6. More frequent bus and train stops to avoid a crowded environment, which creates more space for sexual harassment

7. Allocating seats – We received a lot of comments and so we showed the judges the comments

8. Never blame women – Psychological approach.

9. Seeing is believing – Posted our campaign items in ‘interesting’ places and we suggested doing tissue boxes for campaigning because you will see them on the road

10. Unconventional advertising method – Suggested using bloggers to spread the message. Featured interview with Kenny Sia!!!

Want to see videos, photos and the song we did? Stay tune to this blog! Don’t ever stop clicking!

OMG I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE WE WON!!!!!!!!!! I kept replaying the memory of the DJ saying our school name SRI LETHIA and how I felt at that moment! Honestly, unless you’ve won a grand prize in your life before, you won’t understand our euphoria!

I am going to redecorate this blog page. By redecorating I mean I am going to litter Grand Prize Winner all over the blog!!

And so the blog continues...

I almost forgot! Now that the presentation is over, I can reveal some of our ideas online now!

I have been waiting so long for this! I can't believe I forgot!

We had A LOT of fantastic ideas. And they're even more fantastic if you see the slideshow + videos we did for it.

So, don't click off just yet! Or are you saying *gasp* You don't want to see fantastic things?

Presentation

We presented our project to the judges today. Kim Fay and I were the presenters. Just my luck, I was down with fever (or so I think is fever, my dad seems to think it's stress and tension) and I felt so uncomfortable!

Just a few seconds before the presentation, I felt like throwing up and I had to carry a plastic bag with me for safety.

And I wasn't even nervous! That's the stupidest part! Maybe it's because I'm accustomed to public appearances but I really wasn't a bit nervous. Which is a lot more than what I can say for my team members! Haha!

But thank God the camaderie we had as a team manage to present itself to the judges as well.

So, that's about it. The project is over.

But regarding this blog....well, I'm not sure I totally want to end it. We will end this blog, project-wise. Meaning there wouldn't be anymore reports of our meetings and all. No more meetings already, report about what? But maybe it will live on to spread the message about sexual harassment and all.

But if it's the case, someone has to take over my blogging place. I don't think I can handle another blog. We'll just see how things go along.

Final day

Kim Fay demands that this blog thank her for advertising too! Haha! So here…

This blog would like to thank

Wong Kim Fay

Which gives me the idea. Have you spread the message about this blog on your blog or to your friends?

Comment here! And I will personally blog about thanking you. =) Lest you accuse me of being unappreciative. Hmmph.

Our presentation is tomorrow! It will be at Shah Hotel (or however you spell it) and our time slot is 11.30am. Kim Fay and I will be presenting, and at first we had some difficulties, but thank God for that. Better to have difficulties now, rather than on the day itself and then only go home and cry, right?

So yes, thank God.

What else can I say? The report has safely reached the hands of Abby, our presentation is 100% done, the team is very happy and confident.

After tomorrow, there won't be any need for this blog anymore, I think (unless AWAM finds it extremely fascinating and decides to pay me for blogging further. Heh.). But thanks for all the support! Thanks for all the comments! Thanks for all the hits!

Walk and Wheel Walk and Wheel Walk and Wheel Walk and Wheel Walk and Wheel!!!

Can you say the line above in one second?

No?

Then come join Awam's Walk and Wheel Campaign !

(Haha, the nonsense above is just to capture your attention)

Click on the link to know more. Psst, if you click on it, there's a video of Jackyln Victor singing for AWAM! (Or if it's not Jacklyn, it's a freaky Jacklyn look-a-like O.o) And she sings really, really well. It's kind of worth a click just to hear her melifluous voice.

Wow, if she's not Jacklyn Victor, she ought to be.

Anyway! Back to the project!

We finally COMPLETED the presentation!

Alright that's a lie. We've completed 95% of it. Now we're just adding things to enhance it. =) We are very particular about perfection. The report is done and we're going to submit it tomorrow. And no, my fingers didn't catch fire. Thank God, is all I can say.

Kim Fay and I are set to practise the presentation along with the rest of the team tomorrow! Haha, kind of excited about it actually. Of course lar! It's our blood, sweat and tears.

Or maybe just our sweat and tears.

This blog would like to thank

Author of Honk! If You Are Malaysian Lydia Teh


The Great Swifty, Malaysian writer filmaker

For helping me spread the message about this blog! Do buy Lydia Teh's best-selling book! I've read it, Kim Fay has read it and we both loved it. =) As for Swifty, you can do a lot of help by supporting his short films! They are always being shown in film festivals and stuff like that, so read his blog for more updates. =)

Support is vital for this project. Without them, no one probably would know about this blog.

Oh yeah, like that I would like to thank May Zhee too. Heh.

We have to send in the report by tomorrow and my fingers are typing at lightning speed I expect them to catch fire soon.

Photos of yesterday's activities + today's meeting

Interviewing KTM Station master


Interviewing students

Posting our project stickers in school compound

Thanks a lot, Lydia, who promoted this blog on her blog. Will blog more about this later. It deserves a special blog post. Boy are there many 'blog's in this sentence.

Today's Meeting

We are getting nearer and nearer to our presentation's date, hence we shared our opinions on how to not make the judges fall asleep.

Obviously if the judges fall asleep we're not going to get very good marks.

There are actually loads of other photos, but we decided not to post them on the blog and submit them to the judges as part of our reports.

So what you see on this blog is actually a summary of everything we did. We don't want to ruin the element of surprise for the judges. =) And then, of course, there's also the fact that we are afraid our ideas might leak.

I guess that's all for today. Thanks for the support! Keep it coming! This project's diet is support!

Slideshow COMPLETED! + Conducted interviews outside

The title says it all!

We visited Klang's KTM station and spoke to the station master. We also interviewed some students at the bus station, delving deeper into our subject.

Yes, one of our slideshows is finally completed. Poor Shin Tiong! He was down with dengue fever for the last two days (thank God it was only the first stage. Evil mosquitoes!), and he had to be hospitalized! And today he's back in school, lugging around his laptop just so Kim Fay and I can work on the slideshow.

YAAAAAAAY it's finally done!!!

Kicking their sorry butts

Me, and Kim Fay, working on the slideshow today in the computer lab.

Today's meeting was a brainstorming session. We had to crack open our brains with mental hammers and put forward creative yet practical suggestions.

Now, that was the hard part. Practical suggestions.

Anyone can sprout ideas from the tip of their tongues, but when it comes to practicality, how many of these ideas can actually be applied? For example, the problem with buses is that its shape deters the driver from seeing if anyone is being sexually harassed, especially if it's a crowded bus.

One of the solutions?

A miniature, round-shaped bus.

A miniature, round-shaped bus where everyone sits in the view of everyone. Sounds like a solution...in cartoons.

But if there's one incontrovertible thing, the round-shaped bus is a creative idea. Just minus the practicality. Hence, minus the mark. =( Which is not good at all.

So no, a round-shaped bus is not our solution.

I really hope to hear some of your ideas. It doesn't matter if it's boring and mediocre or just plain ridiculous, please do voice them out here! Every comment counts. =)

Need feedback!

I promoted this blog in Swifty's blog yesterday, and I said something that sounded very true (though at that time I thought I was only writing nonsense).

Anyway, back to sexual harassment. I just need a little help from you
guys. Do you think you can visit this blog and
leave a comment? I'm very worried that a potential sexual harasser will chance
upon that blog, look at the pathetic amount of support there and think to
himself, 'Muahahaha no one supports such campaigns I shall go harass more
people.' Though I doubt sexual harassers can talk in such coherent sentences.
They are usually sick idiots.

Now that I read it again, yeah! That is one of the reasons why you all should be supporting this AWAM project! I know everyone probably walks around with this unseen bubble speech above their heads saying, 'Aiya, who cares. It won't happen to me.' I know that because I too have that bubble speech of indifference.

But what you don't know is, if you don't start taking such matters seriously, potential sexual harass-ers will be able to see this bubble callout. Don't need me to elaborate on what will happen next right?

So give me some support! Comment! Just to wish us good luck (ya I know this is very buay paiseh but nvm) or say, 'I SUPPORT YOU.'

Unless you're from the opposing team. But even then if you want to support us, I won't mind. =P

Day Three: Slideshow almost completed

Team members and their attractive pencil cases in a meeting

Me and our slideshow plan written in paper.

Kim Fay and I have done everything in our power to make this slideshow a success.

We cut, we draw, we shout, we beg, we cry...and it's finally 70% done.

Shin Tiong is going to help us complete the final stage and if it doesn't turn out well, Kim Fay and I are going to cry. We really did spend a lot of time on it, you know! It's like our baby now!

Shieh Ying actually suggested that we hand it over, since our job only covers designing(KF) and writing (me) but it's our baby! You cannot expect us to part with our baby!

---

Just so we're clear, sexual harassment covers EVERYTHING and ANYTHING sexual that makes you uncomfortable. If someone tells you a lewd joke and you are displeased with that, and then you go confront him about it, yet he still continues bugging you with that then, WHAM, it's a sexual harassment case. You have every right to report him.

And then you can come to our blog and tell the world what a scum of the society he is. ;) Good luck.

Sexual harassment on public transport

The only thing worse than sexual harassment itself is probably not telling anyone about it. More so in the conservative Malaysian communities, where people are not so keen on attracting attention to themselves.

But don't you know that at the same time, that has cost you your rights? What do you do when a man on the bus takes a photo of what's under your skirt? Ignore him and pray he will go away?

NO!

Scream! Shout! Voice out! Put the sexual harasser to shame! Banish these foul creatures from the face of the earth! Which is precisely what this post asks from you.

To get the ball rolling, I’ll quote several experiences from celebrity blogger Xiaxue:

There was once i was on my way home from school. I was in my RV PE uniform and and i sat on the window seat of a very empty bus. This Bangala (not again!) came aboard and he decided, among the 30 other EMPTY seats, to sit beside me.

No, he didnt actually sit beside me. He sat ON my lap! He then pretended that the bus was shaking thus he "accidentally" sat on me, and slided down my lap so that he was actually sitting so close to me that my whole thigh were touching his whole thigh. Freaked out and shocked, i tried first to pull out my school skirt, which he sat on. When i was doing the pulling, HE GRABBED MY HAND!!!!

I "urgh!!" and moved seats to far far behind him. I WAS SUCH A WIMP!! I CANT FORGIVE MYSELF for letting him go scot free!! Later on he kept looking back at me.

The above is an example of cases that the writer herself experienced. The following is one she has witnessed.

Once, after work at ard 12am, me and 2 of my colleagues were travelling home on bus 97. We were sitting in the front row, top deck, talking and suddenly this lady came to us and asked if she could sit with my colleague. We asked why and she pointed to this Bangala (yawn, whats new?) 2 seats behind us and said the Bangala kept talking to her and just now, even touched her shoulder.

The Bangala moved 1 seat forward to directly behind my colleague and the lady (who now sat beside my colleague) and he was so atrocious! He put his arm through the grip on top of my colleague's seat so that she cannot lean back or her back would touch his arm.

We asked him to **** off and he claimed that he was the lady's friend.

I was damn stupid. I asked the lady, "Is he ur friend?"

My colleague smacked me on the head and said, "Obviously not right!"

The Bangala continued to mumble under his breath and my poor colleague could not lean back.

I went downstairs to tell the bus driver. I took my bag and pretended to alight.

The bus driver was SO heroic! All i did was to tell him,
"Uncle, upstairs got this guy keep disturbing us."


He stopped the engine, explained to the downstairs ppl abt the situation, stormed upstairs and pointed at the Bangala and told him in a thunderous voice,
"YOU! GO SIT BEHIND."


Bangala replied the same sentence meekly, "She my friend."
"GO SIT BEHIND OR I CALL POLICE!"


Bangala mumbled and moved 1 seat.
"TO THE BACK."


He finally moved far away and the lady kept saying thanks to me and I could sense a this natural high from helping ppl who appreciated it. =)

The one below is a seemingly paltry case that occurred in a train, but equally unethical, none the less.

On the MRT this guy on my right sat far too close to me. His butt crossed that line that indicates ur space. He is actually very skinny, so there was no excuse for doing that... He then promptly fell asleep and i tolerated this as i didnt want to give up my seat. A few stops later the person to the guy's right got up and i went to sit down on his seat. When he woke up 2 minutes later, imagine his surprise when he saw me on the wrong side of him! Too late to shift to the right now, hahaha...

We would like to hear from you! Please share with us stories (though it would be better if none of them existed in this world) like the above. Or it could be one you heard from your friend, anything at all. This is important because it serves to warn the other women of the way these filthy creatures work.

For example, my friend once told me about how people will throw eggs at your car’s windshield and how you shouldn’t stop the car to clean because these people will use this advantage to rob you. Totally unrelated to sexual harassment, I know, but just to let you know that if you speak out, people will know about it and they will grow aware.

No matter how small (ogling at your breasts, touch your hand) or how big (a guy masturbating near you, touching you with his genital), do not be afraid to post it here. We will not judge you, nor will we say that your stories disgust us, not appropriate etc. You can leave it anonymously or under a pseudonym.

NOTE: NONSENSE COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED.

Day Three: Slideshow progress

Our theme is Sexual Harassment on Public Transport. Our slogan is My Body Belongs To Me (otherwise who else it belongs to, right?).




Erroneous! The above should be 'What are we up to?' Sorry sorry sorry!



As the title suggests, we have already started working on our first slideshow. This blog will be revealed tomorrow night to the world! Exciting!

I need to clear something here. Some of you might think that using phrases like ‘he grabbed my breast’ or ‘masturbating in front of me’ a little too harsh/explicit. I also fear that the teachers might find them reprehensible, but before you unleash your liberal theories on us, hear us out.

We are using the phrase ‘breast’ and ‘masturbating’ not as something dirty, but as something immoral that is truly happening among us. If we choose to keep quiet about these just because we are too shy to say it out aloud, we are giving the molesters a chance to take advantage of our lack of knowledge. How old are we? Form Four and Form Five this year! There is only so long that you can pretend to be ignorant. One day we must all wake up and face the real world, which, whether you like it or not, is inundated with debaucheries.

If you’re too afraid to even talk about it, what would you do if you come face to face with a flasher?

I only learnt last year that there are actually people disgusting enough to look at you while touching their genitals in public. What would happen if I never found out about this misdemeanor and proceeded to go near that person?

It’s time to discard conservative mindsets for a while, and think about this as a step to curbing sexual harassment in public transport.

By the way, many thanks to Kim Fay the designer, Sheng Giap, Yvonne, U Zhing, Kathy, Suba and Puan Sellie the models. (You guys get to be models for a day hor!) This is only half of the project so there are still many more people to thank. ;)

Day Two : Talk big

It's hard to blog about our meetings because we want to keep track of our reports, yet we don't want our ideas to bocor like tangki air.

Yes, you better get used to our streak of kiasu-ness.

Anyway, we are currently in our 'Talk Big' stage. We sprouted spectacular ideas and somehow, all seven of the team members managed to agree on the same things without scratching, punching and/or tearing each other's hair. It's nothing short of a miracle, honestly.

By the way, Talk Big is good! Talk Big leads to big ambitions, leading to big effort to achieve big things!

I haven't advertise this blog on my own blog because I feel this blog is still inadequate. If I promote it now, readers will come, but then they will run away! Screaming! Better to introduce to the public when everything is done and pretty, right?

I need more things to put in this blog, so please be patient! And help me scour the web for things to put!


Credits to Stickgal.

This notes the first blog post of Sri Lethia team!

Today marks Day One of our AWAM School Community project competition and we've already endowed ourselves with a blog. See! We are conscientious and hardworking! I think that deserves a point. =D

We also deigned to take a photo of AWAM's file (which was given to us completely free! AWAM are such generous people!=D ) and upload it here. Another point for diligence and that compliment, perhaps? =D



Yes lar, I know the photo is a bit senget, but ... it's done on purpose! Yes, it's done on purpose! I just only thought of this lie remembered my intention! To make the photo look, um, creative, I deliberately took it in a senget angle. Pretty creative, don't you think? =D

(Creativity accounts for 30% of this competition.)

By counting the annoying smiley faces, I think we've already got about four points. Yay! Too bad they are imaginary points. =(

I will now mention the names of those who are involved in this project, as well as one of their good traits:
1. Lim May Zhee (me. Placed first on the list)
2. Wong Shieh Ying (sociable, friendly and pretty)
3. Ng Shin Tiong (can dance very well, good-looking)
4. Tee Yi Wen (has an IQ of 180. No, I'm not joking)
5. Kathy Yap (a very motherly figure)
6. Yeap Shor Kuan (can be fierce and scary when the need arises)
7. Wong Kim Fay (nice drawings and ideas)

Of course, not forgetting the most important member of all...

Mrs. S. Vijayan, teacher/supervisor. (Help students to score A in PMR Geography, including yours truly. Gets to have her name bolded in large fonts because I am quite worried she might kill me after seeing this blog)

We've got excellent rapport as a team, judging by how we can't stop praising each other. That means we have good team work. Don't need me to tell you what that means, right? *coughonemorepointcough*

Okay, frivolity aside, there is a reason we created this blog. The reason will be revealed tomorrow so for now just pretend you are filled with suspense.

Love,
May Zhee

P/S - If you're wondering why there aren't any visitors here yet, it is because I haven't advertised this blog! Once I advertise it, you bet readers will flock to this blog daily.

PP/S: Stop looking at me like that! I know currently the blog is very bare! But I am running short of time! I will complete it soon, okay?