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Stories of Journeys for International Holocaust Memorial Day

1/27/2014

Click for the HMD's Journeys project website

From the hmd.org.uk website:
For Holocaust Memorial Day 2014, we will learn of the multitude of Journeys that people were forced to undertake, in fear of what would be found at the end. We will do so at events that bring us together with our neighbours, that strengthen bonds of respect, and that enable us to pledge to take a step towards creating a safer, better future.

While the political crisis is ongoing in Thailand, this project asks people to think about their own journeys and empathise with those of others. Some in Thailand will be going back to their home towns to vote next week and some have been coming to Bangkok to protest. We hope that things will be peaceful in the coming week.

The value of remembering events like the Holocaust is to respect the humanity that we all share. At times when emotions run high and the dialogue becomes heated, respect and decency often disappear. It would be great to have some people from Thailand participate, click the picture to contribute to the HMD's Journeys project.

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Some Tips For Teaching History in Thailand

1/26/2014

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slavery-Chulalongkorn- Thailand- 100 baht- note- money

The back of most 100 baht bills shows King Chulalongkorn freeing the slaves in Thailand.

History can be a challenging subject to teach in Thailand for a number of reasons. The vocabulary is often about processes that are sometimes hard to make visual or translate for English language learners. Students can also find it difficult to relate to some of the material or understand its value.

Relate Ideas to What Students Know

Student centered teaching methods have been popular in Thailand for some time (even though many educators can't agree on what the term actually means.) It helps to use something familiar or interactive to engage the students on a topic. For example, when discussing slavery a teacher could show a 100 baht bill, something the students have seen many times. Asking the students' Thai Teacher what he/she is doing in class may also help you find material that the students already know.

Use Media

Some teachers may have a projector or smart board in their classroom which can help to make ideas more visual. Photographing and projecting the back of the 100 baht note will be much more visually compelling and show the image more clearly. Google Earth is free and also works well in teaching Geography, you can start from where your school is and enter the country that you are studying and the globe will spin to show you the location searched. Younger students enjoy pretending that they are 'flying' there. Video is also a great tool but unfortunately some of them are narrated to fast to be understood by English Language Learners. Many free video programs can be used to slow down videos to make them more understandable and YouTube has automatic voice captioning (which will make some mistakes that can be corrected when uploading videos.)

Use Humor

Horrible Histories is both a video series and a book series that students enjoy. There are lots of other ways to try and add humor to lessons whenever possible. Adding humor when the subject is appropriate helps to keep students interested and when the subject is too serious for humor the seriousness is emphasized by the absence of humor. Again, media and video editing are useful in using humor as funny history is easy to find. Below is an example cut from Monty Python's Life of Brian that was used in a PowerPoint to review Roman inventions in a unit. While showing the entire film would not be suitable, this short clip with text added for clarity and review helped students remember.

Make Interactive Displays

While not every school has a projector in the classroom, interactive displays can also be made from paper. Timelines can be hung up as a border around the room with the years that you will study written on them. Once a new event is discussed in class, students can pin it on the timeline making a visual display that they take part in. Maps can also be interactive as borders change and sometimes overlap in history. Kite paper readily available in Thailand is semi transparent which can be cut and tacked to a map marking a place, people or event and blue tack can also be used to move labels, pictures and borders around on a map.

Map display for a Grade Five US History class.

We will be adding more suggestions and resources as we find them. Please let us know if you have things that you would like to add or your own teaching tips to share!

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Bringin' Reason Back is Sadly Not Sexy

1/19/2014

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Hitler- Mustache- Thailand- Thai- Abisit- Thaksin- Nazi- Politics- Newspaper- Bias- Nazi chic

It was bound to happen again. Thursday, in an online 'survey' Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck overtook Adolf Hitler as "The World's Worst Leaders," former Thai PM Abisit was also listed at number thirteen. The survey was from the optins.com, an entertainment site that does not claim to be scientific or news based. This has been restated as a reputable source and disseminated into the political discussion. [Link to the Bangkok Post article at the end of this post.]

No, just no.

We are very opposed to these comparisons being made as they spread ignorance and signal the end of reasonable discussion. We are very pro-reasonable and believe that facts, empathy and understanding History are ways forward for all.

Godwin's Law has faded from popular use on the internet, but it was an informed idea that perhaps needs attention again. Godwin's Law is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1989 which has become an Internet adage. It states: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."[3][2] In other words, Godwin put forth the sarcastic observation that, given enough time, all online discussions—regardless of topic or scope—inevitably end up being about Hitler and the Nazis. Godwin's law is often cited in online discussions as a deterrent against the use of arguments in the widespread Reductio ad Hitlerum form. The rule does not make any statement about whether any particular reference or comparison to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that the likelihood of such a reference or comparison arising increases as the discussion progresses. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued[4] that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact. [Italicized text from Wikipedia.]

Flip references to Hitler and Nazis also diminish the understanding of the twelve million civilians that died, those that suffered under the Nazis and those that lost their lives on the Western Front during WWII. It is a lesson about the danger of considering any human any less than human and it is one that the World needs to know. Crimes against Humanity still continue today and knowledge is the best and first defense any society has to prevent them.

We are promoting reasonable, empathic discussion and education. Perhaps that isn't as sexy as memes that attract attention or impassioned speeches given to people that already agree. But reasonableness is sugarless, has no trans fats, gluten free and a good value too.

Bangkok Post article: Thaksin Worse than Hitler, Give Us a Break

Quick Review: Our Who is Not Hitler video

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A Quick Review About Us

1/15/2014

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Yesterday brought us a lot of new readers as Bangkok is in the news. We keep adding content and will continue, so it may be good to explain what it is that we do and dispel some myths as well.

What We Do:

Gather and create materials about History (specifically the Holocaust and human rights right now.) We want materials that are either friendly to people learning English or that are in Thai language. (The Ministry of Education in Thailand has stated that they do want to expand History learning about these issues in schools.)
We are trying to bring awareness of the issues of multiculturalism and the value of Humanities in Education. We try and make our campaigns accessible and culturally relevant.
We engage people in discussions in an empathic, reasonable and respectful way.
We advocate against the spread of hate speech. We ask large companies (like YouTube, Amazon) to not proliferate hate speech.

What We Don't Do:

We do not lobby for any changes in laws.
We do not advocate censorship. While we ask large companies not to not allow hate speech, we do not target small websites that are for an audience that wants to share hate speech.
We are not targeting small extremist groups that advocate for hate. We also feel that people should be able to browse popular websites and be free from hate speech and bullying.
We do not take sides on political issues outside of our mission and our mission and campaigns are focused and specific.

What Can You Do?

Share, like and follow online. Our social media sites are on the top right of the page.
In your daily life, respectfully discuss why using Hitler and Nazi metaphors and references are inappropriate and in the vast majority of issues.
Do you have something to share with us? Please do!

We are always looking for:

Thai language materials about History and the Holocaust- books to recommend, websites that are good teaching tools and lesson plans to share on the website
Photos of Nazi chic things you see in Thailand. If you can include where you saw it and as much detail as possible, we appreciate it.
Your thoughts, feedback and anything else you think we should know. We ♥ learning new things!

Our final thought for today:

ignorance- Thailand- Nazi- Pin- quote- responsible history education action- fuel- abundant

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Non-Partisan is Our Word of the Day, INDEFINITELY.

1/13/2014

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Bangkok=-Shutdown-Protest-Nazi-Swastika-Thailand-Bangkok-Thai-Siam-Shirt- sale- vendor

Shirts for sale at the Bangkok Shutdown rally, Siam, Bangkok. Thanks to Matt @Vanalli on Twitter for posting this.

If you are not in Thailand, you may not have read about the Bangkok Shutdown. If you're in Thailand, you are probably tired of reading about the Shutdown. In short, the Shutdown is a massive rally staged at key intersections in Bangkok protesting the current government.

Twitter has become a source of news (as well as rumor, bickering and innuendo) about the rallies as they are preventing people from reaching certain parts of the city by car and people here want breaking news about rallies that may be the site of violence. The US Embassy here has advised people to stock food and cash but thankfully there have been no signs of people hoarding food yet. Tensions are running high as people with differing political views feel passionate about them in times like these and many leaders of the protests have been angered by views expressed by foreigners. (Read: we're staying out of it and Thais that work with us are as well.)

The protesters have been called by many the 'educated elites' and many have called themselves this. Once again, we're not weighing in, just stating fact. While some vendors on the streets have been pushed out by the rallies, other vendors follow the protesters as they will need supplies while camping out on the streets. The photo above was posted on Twitter from the rally today. Photos from the rally are posted as traffic updates, news, in support of the rallies or as opposition to the rallies. The same photo may make one person feel inspired by the rallies and another angry, depending on the viewer's political leanings.

The incident that inspired us to start this website was the Hitler mural at Chulalongkorn University. It was shocking to see an elite university use the image and it showed a glaring lack of historical understanding. Some expatriates may say that Thais don't need to know about this, Thais are not interested or that there are more important things to do. Those people are not our audience and our big-picture guiding principle is that History is an important subject to understand for everyone.

It is times like these that show the importance of History education. While people have different cultures and different values systems, we are at heart fundamentally similar. Income disparity, power imbalances, religious and ideological conflicts play out in similar ways within societies. Anyone that wants to be politically active should be aware of History, in many instances knowing History is the closest thing that people have to a crystal ball. To predict the possible outcomes of an event, it makes sense to look closely at similar events in the course of history.

Thailand developed at a very rapid pace and at times looked at the West as a model on how to make progress. Thailand is an economic success in many ways and the nation became successful quite quickly. Parents want their children to have more than they have and education has been a way to gain wealth. Disciplines that are known to pay well are often in Business or Science and many Thais have been encouraged to study them. While it's sad to say that the Humanities are not a way to get rich quick, they add value to society and are essential. Just to add another disclaimer, it is not just Thailand that has progressed this way and a great deal of the West has neglected Humanities in more recent times as well.

Benz-Bangkok Shutdown- Thailand- Bangkok- Bourgeois- Thai- Thailand- VIP-traffic

Above is a photo posted on Twitter from one of the rally sites. The rallies block traffic, but made an exception in this case, and judging by the flags they seem to be participants and/or leaders.

Below is a playlist we created of videos relevant to times of political unrest; required knowledge for anyone that is looking to be politically active in our opinion.

So that we don't seem to stray into partisan-land, we're going to leave these thoughts here.

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Political Correctness

1/7/2014

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"I'm very much a humanist. I'm very much politically correct."
Sandra Bernhard

humanity-politically-correct-empathy-compassion-caring-defense- political-correctness-civility-insight-inclusiveness-rrespect-thoughtfulness-kindness-

Before starting, it is important to mention that RHEA is non-partisan, in Thai politics and in the politics of other nations (unless we're talking about Neo-Nazis, we're totally okay with weighing in about them.) We feel that people can disagree on some political matters and still stand together against bigotry. The disclaimer may be necessary as the term politically correct is often associated with right wing politics, we are just talking about this term specifically.

The term politically correct is often used to mock people or ideas that ask for inclusiveness. It has become so synonymous with hypersensitivity and censoring ideas and it is the go-to word for people feeling the consequences of saying something offensive. Calling something politically correct is often a way to complain about progress being made towards becoming a more inclusive society.

Part of this post has been inspired by the video below. While "Duck Dynasty" is not relevant enough to Thailand to even merit a comment, this discussion gets interesting. We made the word collage above that may be useful to fill in synonyms the next time someone accuses you of being 'PC.'

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Year 2013 In Review

1/2/2014

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RHEA- Education - Thai- Educators- Friends- Supporters- Thailand- Charity- Kickstarter- Nazi

We began in September of 2013, so it has been a short year for us here. In March of last year, the Seven Star shop in Terminal 21 Mall in Bangkok was the center of a controversy for selling Hitler designed items. July had two news stories of Nazi chic, one with a chicken themed restaurant and the other with Chulalongkorn University's banner featuring Hitler as a superhero. It was this series of incidents that inspired us to begin a foundation.

The political turmoil in Thailand at the end of this year has delayed a few things we have in progress, and we hope that things are resolved peacefully and quickly. Emotions are running high here and it's difficult for other issues to get attention with a larger issue looming. While we cannot get involved and take any position on the conflict, we hope that when it comes time to reflect people may see the value of Humanities education and discussion using reason and empathy.

2013 has still brought us a lot of support and viability. We now have over 300 individual followers on social media platforms and we had a record-breaking number of visitors to the website this month. We look forward to growing further and bringing more visibility to the issues and history.

Our Kickstarter did not get funded, but we will try again to have our film project funded. Although it was not funded, the campaign is responsible for much of the publicity we received last month. We will formulate a new plan and let you know about the progress. Thanks to those that did pledge money and shared our campaign!

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Stories of Journeys for International Holocaust Memorial Day

Some Tips For Teaching History in Thailand

Bringin' Reason Back is Sadly Not Sexy

A Quick Review About Us

Non-Partisan is Our Word of the Day, INDEFINITELY.

Political Correctness

Year 2013 In Review

There is only 'us'

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