“The more the oppressed —the poor people— grasp the dominant syntax, the more they can articulate their voices and their speech in the struggle against injustice.” ~ Paulo Freire, 1996

As we lament for social-injustice again and again, only persistence and unyielding to tyrannical power will allow us to unleash self-consciousness, dig into issues logically, accept and dare to face our own desires truthfully, to bring about the ripple effect of changes in our society.

It’s been two long years since the end of 2019, when people around the world have had to face the new coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic which firstly took place at the largest wildlife market or Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. On January 12, 2020, the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand, announced the first case found outside China —a tourist from Wuhan. It became the beginning of the outbreak to spread across the country, affecting a wide range of people, particularly vulnerable populations with less social capital than others, such as the poor, informal laborers, migrant workers, homeless and disabled people. Limited access to treatment for the groups has reiterated social hiatus, public health inequality, and socio-political instability, under the Thai state’s ministration and visionless leader, with unjustified knowledge and notion.

“Conscientization” or the process of creating critical consciousness/awareness of an individual's social reality through reflection and action, in changing the reality we are pressed against from the government, bourgeoisie, patronage system, feudalism, and authoritarian dictatorship. The attempt to critically reflect and act upon social issues as Paulo Freire —a former Professor of History and Philosophy of Education in the University of Recife, in Brazil— referred to and called it “Praxis” is the cornerstone of empowering the oppressed, generating the process of reform. According to Paulo Freire, “We all acquire social myths which have a dominant tendency, and so learning is a critical process which depends upon uncovering real problems and actual needs.”

de-CONSCIENTIZATION deliberately probes and challenges through enquiring the conscious and unconscious mind of people in society. When it's time to battle with despair, even life and death, and the world’s one of humanity's biggest crises, how does our ‘mind’ supposedly different from other creatures critically function, query, inspect, reflect upon the root of problems, to generate structural change? How can collective awareness create a rebellion wave among the oppressed?