Day 1: 'Let the Blogging begin!'
'Reflection' is the word that keeps coming back to me when I think about the induction day yesterday. Alan talked a lot about reflection and how it is one of the key factors in this course to help us grow and improve as a profession and i am excited to get started and believe that it is really going to help me realise what i am capable of and where i will want to head in my future career.
I think it is clear to say that everyone who came to the Induction has come away with a clearer understanding of what will be expected of us during this degree course. As everyone had read about it and had a rough understanding but thanks to Paula and Alan we can now visualise where we will be heading.
Was lovely to meet everyone yesterday and hope to see you all again at the Course Day and any others who couldn't make it yesterday.
For those who couldn't make the induction one of the exercises that we had to do was to look through a newspaper and pick out an article, picture or piece of information that stood out to us and then explain why we feel this happened and what we thought about it and what we would do if we wanted to go further, the question was, 'where would you go next'.
The article that stood out for me was one by Kiran Randhawa, the headline being; 'British tourist killed by charging elephant as he took pictures' there was also a small picture of two Indian elephants. The reason that this stood out for me was because i saw the words, 'British tourist' and this immediately made me relate to the article as i have been lucky enough to have done a lot of travelling and my parents are often away exploring different parts of the world, so i had an emotional connection straight away. I then went on to read about how the tourist was taken out at night to see the elephants by two guards, against the forest department rules, therefore endangering the tourist. The two guards are in police custody and there are reports that the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Masinagudi and neighbouring villages lure tourists in with the promise of seeing animals. This made me think that we trust these people to keep us safe when we go on these 'once in a lifetime' holidays and if this is happening here it makes me think where else is it happening. ' Were the trips i've been on safe and legal?' this article makes me question this, it also makes me think are my family and others in safe hands when we go on these adventures? It also makes me question how far people are willing to go in order to make profit and increase tourism. Why was this allowed to happen, surely someone knew this was going on? Did someone want to stand up and say something but was scared too? Why were the tourists so close to the Elephants, where the guards not trained or prepared to act in these situations? It also makes me think did the guards try to help the tourist or did they just run away, seeing as they are alive and the tourist suffered a horrible death?
Where would i go next? I would use internet resources to see if there have been any other cases like this and what, if anything, is being done to stop this. I would also research into this particular Reserve and see what has been done in result to this terrible instant and see what happens with the two guards who are in police custody. I would also look up this same story and see what other papers and reporters are saying and see if the story is the same in each case.
After we all said goodbye yesterday i went into London and met with a friend, we then managed to get good price tickets to go and see 'Once' the Musical. It was really good, such amazing vocalists and musicians, all the members of the cast played an instrument so there was no separate band or orchestra. The harmonies where perfect and i would recommend this show to all of you and think i will download the soundtrack!
Looking forward to reading everyones blogs as we all get started with the Tasks and work our way through the Modules!
Good luck everyone :-)
Heather x
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Heather
ReplyDeleteYour blog is the first blog I have read, great start!!
The day was a good day and gave me a great insight to the course because before I was very confused about what it actually was.
Sorry for comment layout, my computer keeps messing up. Your elephant story intrigued me aswell because I normally hear about younger people dieing abroad from falling off balconies or from alcohol related tragedies but then I got thinking further into animals death related tragedies and I thought about the children in the UK that have been killed by their dogs. Dogs are their pets and are supposed to be friendly towards their owners but they do the opposite and have killed the babies. Elephants are obviously not really pets and are a lot bigger and do not have training to be friendly and tame so it does not surprise me that things like this happen. I have always wanted to do a safari but if you go to the zoo you know you are safe because between you and the animals are bars to protect you. Elephants live in the wild so if you want to get close to them you do so at your own risk!!
ReplyDeleteI hear what you are saying but i do believe there are lots of 'safe' safaris and normally the animals are not harmed or scared by tourists visiting, as it is done discretely and at safe distances, surely its better to see them in there naturally habitat than in a zoo? Also the comment about the Dogs, it is a tragic thing that occurs but it makes me question is the owners or the pet that is to blame or both?
ReplyDeleteI think your first blog is great and I haven't really got much to say on improvement. You said to me about naming my friend and you named Alan, I haven't read much on the ethical issues but I didn't know whether this would be the same because you could put my lecturer. You could also put up a link to your story if you could find one so that people could look for themselves. I do believe in that there are safe safaris aswell but going abroad is hard to tell when things are safe or not. A lot of the time the dogs that kill are killing breeds like the Rottweiler! Also did you hear about the man who went to Turkey and had to have his leg amputated because it broke it at a water park. I have been to Turkey myself and the water park I went to I thought was great but the if it was in England it would definitely not be open because health and safety would have shut them down!
ReplyDelete