Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Report On Day 001 Interactive Session...

Interactive session, Day 1 (26 August, 2008)- 9:15am to 10:20am

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Victor Louis Anthuvan














He spoke to us about the poverty in India and our status in the world and the ways to overcome this problem which can make India a develop nation and even about the inequality to women in the society which is strictly a great problem and should be stopped.


He explained about the black money and if this comes into account we are no more poor. He finally remarked it in our hands to make India a beautiful country by forgetting the caste system and leaving it behind.


Interactive session, Day 1 (26 August, 2008)- 2:15pm to 3:45pm

Keynote speaker: Mr. Pradeep Philip, I.G.P., Chennai on Social Justice















The function began with a welcome address by 3rd year, Shift II Natasha, and then kicked off with the screenings of five Public Service Announcements (PSAs). Next was a song composed by the students, followed by the campaign brief slide show. Next was a number of short speeches by college dignitaries: the Deputy Principal, the Vice Principal, and the President of Student Affairs. Roshan, Shift II 3rd year, gave the student speaker address.

Natasha then introduced the keynote speaker, Pradhip Phillip. Pradhip Philip mainly talked about his experience as a police officer and how his efforts to confront indifference began with the confrontation of death. He narrated two experiences, one almost drowning to death and another when he was injured, near fatally, in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He said one only knows the value of life when one is faced with its loss. To confront indifference is to require empathy, to see one’s self in another shoes, not sympathy per se. This requires us to confront the fact of creation and the miracle of creation. He then told about his efforts to reform the police in his Friends of Police program. This was introduced as an example of how complex problems are often, if not always, solvable by simple solutions. Friends of Police, he explained, was a necessary step for the change of society more generally. His “impacting the people” (his term for lecturing) was followed by a question and answer period. He explained the police procedures for admitting someone to the hospital: how it is a citizen’s duty to admit immediate care and the need for all to know about CPR; how certain hospitals are not registered/allowed to treat certain kinds of accidents, in particular legal-medical cases; and the procedures available for calling ambulances. A question was more specifically asked about the case of Naveen, the third year who died due to inability to admit in a number of hospitals and the unavailability of ambulances (as per Mr. Philip’s suggestions). Mr. Phillip explained the need for all citizens to know the types of hospitals where one can be admitted in the case of road accidents. He also fielded questions regarding the respect level and mode of interaction (often aggressive) of police officers towards otherwise polite citizens. He responded with the rate of such behavior as decreasing due to his FoP program, which he again encouraged all to join.

The session then ended with a memento presented to the keynote speaker and to the deputy principal. A music video created by the 3rd year Vis Comm. students, as well as a number of other PSAs (which were not screened in the first session).


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