Wednesday December 14, 2005
What is ‘profiling’?
By FADZILAH AMIN
The word “profiling” has been used in the press a fair bit recently, especially in connection with some aspects of police work.
What does this word mean and what is implied when it is said that police will be, or will not be, profiling so-and-so? – Colette Hassan, Petaling Jaya
The word “profiling” in general means “the act of collecting useful information about someone or something so that you can give a description of them or it”. (OALD) This can produce, for example, profiles of companies or of customers for a particular kind of merchandise.
However, the term as used in the press lately in connection with police work is only one type of “profiling”, i.e. “racial profiling”, which our police have denied using.
The American Civil Liberties Union defines “racial profiling” as “... any police or private security practice in which a person is treated as a suspect because of his or her race, ethnicity, nationality or religion”. Thus, race, ethnicity, nationality or religion (or a combination of two or more of these) is used instead of evidence of criminal behaviour, as a basis for suspecting someone of having broken the law.
‘College’ and ‘university’
1. What are the differences between “college” and “university” and who are eligible for these?
2. What is the meaning of “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”?
3. In a magazine, I saw this sentence: “Olympia’s approach is strategic, which explains the steady progress being made.” Is it correct?
4. What are the similarities between “has” and “have”?
5. “I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Now, I have turned over a new leaf.” What do the underlined phrases mean? – Rosalind
1. A university is an institution for advanced learning and research, which gives degrees at different levels, e.g. bachelor’s degrees (BA, BSc etc), Master’s degrees (MA, MSc, MBA, etc) and doctoral degrees (PhD, DSc, DLitt, etc).
Universities normally specify what qualifications they want from their prospective applicants. In Malaysia and Britain, these are usually STPM, A-levels, or qualifications equivalent to them. Other countries may expect applicants to have passed other examinations.
There are different kinds of colleges. They are generally institutions for further or higher or specialised professional education. Thus we have teachers’ training colleges, colleges of music, colleges of art, etc.
Each college usually stipulates who are eligible to apply for places in it. Such colleges usually give certificates or diplomas to those who have successfully completed their courses.
There are also colleges that are parts of universities. For example, Oxford and Cambridge Universities have colleges within them, but the degrees awarded are the degrees of the respective universities. In the United States, I believe, there are Liberal Arts Colleges that grant first degrees.
Some institutions that provide Sixth Form education, and some residential secondary schools are also called colleges.
2. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. These were the words spoken by Neil Armstrong, the first man to have walked on the moon, as he stepped off the Apollo Lunar Module on July 21, 1969.
What he meant was that it was literally a small step he was taking as a man, stepping down from the module onto the surface of the moon. But its significance for mankind in general was great. Mankind has at last done what had only been dreamt of, i.e. reached the moon, and this was “a giant leap” in terms of achievement.
3. What I can see of the original sentence seems all right to me.
4. “Has” and “have” are different forms of the verb “have”. “Have” is the base form of the verb, and also the plural form of its simple present tense, while “has” is the singular form of its simple present tense.
5. These sentences contain idiomatic expressions and the meaning of each of them is contained in the whole expression, not just individual words:
(a) To be “born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” means to be born into a rich family.
(b) To “turn over a new leaf” means to behave better or work harder.
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