Made In China

Category: Politics/Societal Issues
Source: Can Brand China Survive

It’s funny how civilisations rise and fall. In the 14^th century, China seemed well on its way to becoming a global power, while Europe was still in the throes of the Dark Ages. After an immense lapse of half a millennium in which Europe gained ascendancy, China is back on her feet and within a couple of decades running at a breakneck pace. In a few years China will overtake Germany as the world’s third largest economy, and soon after it will overtake Japan and be hot on the heels of the United States. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be a monumental showcase of China’s meteoric rise to become a new global superpower.

Recently however, the image of the Middle Kingdom has been smeared by a series of scandals regarding various Chinese products. With the Olympics just round the corner, it is a problem that the Chinese are anxious to clean up. To me however, these industrial embarrassments are but teething pains that all countries, even in the West, face during development. The industrial boom naturally leads to a shortfall in quality control since the private sector moves much faster than government regulation. What should be of main concern now is whether growth at such an uncontrollable pace is beneficial to China and the world at large.

China’s rate of industrialization is unparalleled, with towns turning into industrial parks in merely a year’s time. However, this rapid development in the context of Chinese industries’ poor energy efficiency has created an extremely polluted environment. Water and air pollution has caused 750,000 premature deaths annually, and air pollution indices across two-thirds of the country register high or extreme levels of pollution. Its carbon emissions are well under way to surpass that of the U.S, and with the ongoing environmental crisis, China is playing a negative part in efforts to ease the Earth’s burden.

China’s insatiable appetite for oil to sustain its development has also led her into Faustian pacts with a number of unsavory regimes. Her dealings with human rights abusers in oil-rich Sudan and Iran have come under heavy fire from around the globe. Even Steven Spielberg, the artistic director for Beijing 2008 has threatened to resign over the involvement of China in Sudan. With the highest death penalty rate in the world, China already has an abysmal record for human rights. Her dealings with such outcast regimes take an even greater toll on her image.

The rising status of China is a good thing in itself, especially for her one billion citizens. Yet as a rising superpower, China must temper her ambitions with a consideration for the inevitable impact her growth has on the rest of the world. Having stepped into the limelight on the global stage, China must also present herself as a responsible, civilised power with a greater concern for the welfare of human beings around the world.

(481 words)

The Global Retreat

Category: Environmental issues
Source: The Big Thaw

Ice on the run, seas on the rise. Global warming no longer exists just in theory, but it is happening right now. Floods, forest fires, rising temperatures get their air time on the news daily. We all know well what is causing it, and it is time we came face to face with it. Here, I shall not be harping on the causal factors, but about the human element in this global crisis.

The earth’s surface has undergone a major face-lift since man walked the earth. Billions of years of evolution have placed us at the top of the food chain. However, is the intelligence bestowed upon us too much for our own good? Animals roamed the earth for billions of years, yet what they seek day to day is simple survival. Man’s astonishing ability of survival has given him energy for another objective – the quest for knowledge and growth. For this quest, we have taken again and again from the Earth. We ripped out the rocky veins of the earth and transformed them into cold grey monstrosities of concrete and steel, replaced trees with towering skyscrapers and factories. However, these creations begotten from the earth now come with a price, moving us an inch closer to our own destruction.

The threat of global warming is unequivocal. The seas crawl closer with the passing of each day. Tuvalu, a group of beautiful South Pacific islands with a population of 12,000, is disappearing slowly under the waves. It is a chilling predicament we’re trapped in (despite the heat). The effects of global warming are becoming irreversible. We cannot simply recreate the glaciers or polar caps after they melt. Sometimes these thoughts leave me hopeless and clueless about what ought to be done. “It’s like watching the statue of liberty melt”. There is an ominous sense of inevitability about the problem.

Over the recent years, there has been much effort to raise the awareness of the situation, and people all over the world have answered the call. Awareness has definitely been raised, yet everyday we wake, we carry on with more or less the same kind of life. How many people actually take action? Live Earth was a classic example of our collective hypocrisy. It was a concert for the environment, yet after the concert, the amount of litter found speaks volumes about the true attitude of people, people who pay lip service to the green movement for that little feel-good factor. It is heartening to see Singapore’s efforts to aid the environmental crisis, but the kind of lifestyle we have been so used to is not something you would expect people to change overnight.

MM Lee once said that the greatest challenge for the new generation would be the challenge of the environment. Looking out to the sea, the idea of the world being drowned is hard to imagine, and it is not something I would ever like to see either.

(490 words)

Setting it Straight

Ugh I found out that the site I get my articles from clear the archives... I've changed the URL for this one, I hope the others won't expire any times soon. Anyways, here's the review:

Category: Societal Issues

Source: Former Methodist bishop calls for greater respect for homosexuals in Singapore

May 11, 2007, The Straits Times

The film Brokeback Mountain that projects the complex emotional, sexual, and romantic relationship between two men, won several Academy-Awards and was a box office success. Does this show anything about the society’s attitude towards homosexuals in this new age? There has been a question recently raised by MM Lee about the ban on gay sex, which has awoken the majority of Singaporeans that have kept mum about this issue.

In our multiracial and cultural society, I do not feel that Singapore, being a highly conservative society, is ready to accept such openness, evident from the aversion of this issue of gay rights that was present before the question was raised by MM. However, due to the increasingly thriving gay scene in Singapore, this problem can no longer be disregarded.

The question at hand is perhaps not the decriminalizing of gays, but the proliferation of the gay agenda in our society if homosexuality becomes accepted as it is observed in America and many European countries. The reality is, no one knows what people do sexually behind closed doors and the majority of the population can accept homosexuals as friends and colleagues. The problem is whether we can allow this to become part of our culture, and allow our next generation to think that it does not matter whether one is heterosexual or not.

There is no country or religion in the entire history that has advocated or encouraged homosexuality in any form, whether as a lifestyle or it being nature. While giving greater respect to gays as human beings is reasonable, accommodating gays in our conservative society will mean compromising the healthy social values and norms, or at least those that government has tried to sustain. This is a critical impediment that authorities will take into account, as it undermines the canons of the society and religions.

Personally, although I feel that homosexuality is not a natural course of things, homosexuals should still be given their basic human rights, assuming that it is not a matter of choice or inclination on their part, but that they are genetically orientated. People may not be willing to accept their behaviour or orientation, but they are part of the society after all, and I do not think that being born in this way makes them criminals, and we should not ostracise for being the way they are. However, condoning this sort of behaviour does not equate to advocating this kind of lifestyle, but instead it means that we should try and discourage and suppress homosexuality as a lifestyle, while keeping discrimination of gays at bay.

Ulitimately, I, or in fact we are not in a position to judge, as all of us might probably hold some prejudice against gays. Not having known any gays, I should not determine how they live life based on my generalized image of them, and place a final judgement of them, on whether they should be accepted as part of society, or whether they ought to be condemned.

(499 words)

Quantity or Quality?

Category: Educational issues

Source: Bilingual policy spawns many fluent in neither
From The Straits Times, Apr 30, 2007

---

“Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.” Language, indubitably, is the most powerful means of communication, and Singaporeans, with our culture of bilingualism, seem fortunate to have the advantage of at least two languages in our arsenal. Yet looking back at the past decade or so, despite the government’s efforts to promote language, the bilingual policy has seemingly backfired, and yielded many students incompetent in both languages.

In this fast paced world, Singapore has to stay relevant to ensure survival. Bilingualism will definitely give us an edge over others as we are able to connect to both eastern and western cultures, but that said, we can only do so effectively if we have a good grasp of both languages.

The article speaks of “sacrificing the sacred cow of bilingualism, in order to produce citizens who are actually competent in at least one language.” In my opinion, we should not sacrifice bilingualism to make ourselves better at one of the two. One reason is that given the current education system, we already have people who have become very proficient in English and Mandarin based on whichever they choose to focus on. The system itself should always allow people to choose what they prefer to excel in, and provide the resources for them to do so, rather than lay down a single track for all to follow. Such a choice, in turn, will depend on individuals’ cultural leanings and plans for the future. If one wished to work in fast-expanding China, then, we would only deny him opportunities to improve his Mandarin if we decided to pit everyone towards the sole pursuit of mastery in English.

Besides, not all schools are similar. Some schools such as Chinese High and Dunman High place a heavy emphasis on learning Mandarin, and produce many excellent Mandarin speakers. Some of the more English-oriented schools, on the other hand, produce top debaters who excel internationally. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that the educational system can implement across the board. Each school excels in its own way, and such variety should be encouraged. Ultimately, the most important factor in the learning of a language is perhaps the language they speak at home. The educational system cannot do that much in that respect; it is a matter of family choice and the culture which one belongs to.

Being the future leaders in a global environment, we students have to play our part by consciously working to improve our English and Mandarin. No matter how much resources the Government puts in to help students, they will go to waste if we do not make an effort to change – it takes two hands to clap. Living in a Mandarin-speaking family, I personally do not wish to see bilingualism end in Singapore. If we can master both languages, we will hold the keys to both the Eastern and Western worlds, and our lives will be richer and fuller than if we forsook the other.

(502 words)

Prestige Panic

Category: Education and teenage issues
Article: Ten-Year-Series Boom
From Straits Times 4/3/07

---

Perhaps this Ten-Year-Series does not really apply to us RI students as we’re not taking the O-Levels, however, we still face the same sort of insecurity that others will when it comes to tests. I shall not be touching so much about the assessment books, but whether degrees will guarantee success in life.

Firstly, the assessment book hunt phenomenon. Are people just afraid to lose, or are their parents pushing them too hard, or are they just pushing themselves too hard? Everyone is afraid of losing, not just Singaporeans. Naturally we wish to do well, no one likes failing every test, and will hence put pressure on ourselves. But it is impossible for me to imagine doing two hundred pages of extra practice, when I cannot even complete the 3 paged supplementary exercises that out math teacher have for us. Some parents see their kids' results as trophies testifying to how well—or how poorly—they have raised them. It’s more about them than their kids. However, do results really matter that much?

Let us look at some real life examples: Bill Gates, the richest man on earth. He was a school drop out, yet he has more wealth than anyone on earth. My dad was a university graduate, yet he doesn’t even have a tenth of his fortune. 3 out of 10 of the world’s richest people, were school dropouts. So what argument do we have for that? Luck, diligence? Perhaps to some extent yes, but it still proves the point that results is not key to one’s future, and a degree does not guarantee success.

This makes me question, why go to school then? Knowledge some will say, an ideal answer. Wrong, we go to school so that we can make a living later on in life. Without doubt, results do make a difference when one searches for a job, but it is their life skills that puts them into the company. Nobody will know if you failed a math test on 28^th February 2007 or if you got full marks for an English anecdote test. But people will see if you got half a page of the teacher’s testimony or four pages of it. I think that piece will reflect better on one’s true working ability.

There was an article I read about Four A’s a few years back, talking about how Singaporean students are getting brilliant results, and more and more are getting four distinctions as compared to last time where there were only a few. However, despite the good results, the author states that the students nowadays are not able to take care of themselves, much less surviving in society, and schools have to do something about it. Well although I thought the article was rather biased, it had much truth in it.

Are schools really giving the students an all-rounded education? Or is it there just in name? Is CLE there to truly create leaders, or is it just for the sake of MOE?

(500 words)

Stop the Bashing

Category: Political Issues

Article: Let's all Bash Singapore

From Straits Times 10/2/07

Singapore, the smallest country in ASEAN, but also one of the more successful and richer countries amongst its much larger counterparts, has been receiving much bombarding from its neighbours (than before) in the past few months. Dr. Mahathir, former ex-prime minister, rather notorious for his comments on Singapore, recently said on Thai national television that, ‘you'll get nowhere with them (Singapore) either being nice or being tough, they only think of themselves.' Now he has said it himself. We are not here to be pushed around by our neighbours just because of our size, and on being nice, I do not recall instances where they have treated us friendlily.

For the past 40 years or so, Singapore has stood firm on its foreign policy of making friends with all who wish us no harm and sparing no one who entertains the thought of harming us. Because we are smaller, yet richer and more successful of the region, we seem to have committed a fault of being what we are today, often becoming a political punching bag of the leaders in the region at ASEAN meetings. What they are trying to do is distract the people in their own country from the own issues present there by finding faults with Singapore and how we only think about ourselves. Some of the recent examples will be the Thailand telecommunications controversy about Singapore spying on them, and Indonesia bringing in the sand ban on Singapore as a sort of blackmail.

Being such close regional counterparts, I do not think that maintaining such ill relationships with each other does any good for both Singapore and the other countries. Being such a small country, we still depend much on resources on foreign countries, as we are not self-sustainable yet in necessities like water and food. Something such as a trade embargo on Singapore by ASEAN countries can effectively affect us in many ways such as economy. As for the other countries like Thailand, I do not feel that accusing us for what we have or have not done will help their situation in any way. What they should be doing, or perhaps we, is to work together to improve the whole economy and relationship of the whole region so that we can prosper together. Wanting Singapore to slow down so that our neighbours appear less poor should not be the way to go.

However, I do think that some self reflection on our part is needed as well. Has our attitude caused the strained ties with our neighbours as well?

Our economic achievements for the past 40 years have been evident and recognised. However I do not think that the coarse way we have carried ourselves in other countries has shown us fit to be from a developed country. Also, the “kiasu” behaviour does not aid the situation either. From the forums, someone has even commented that our social skills have gone backwards.

Bashing Singapore has not caused any progress, but will only cause the region to fall apart.

Ba da bing

Here you go, my English reading portfolio blog for the year. Let's give it a little introduction. Daily Dread, I actually meant for it to rhyme with daily bread but I'm not sure how many people noticed it. Although not really daily, more like twice a term, I kinda find this a chore, hence "dread". Nevertheless I sure hope Miss Kuang won't find it a chore or dread to read my entries or I'm gonna be in deep trouble......



Burger (Yi Wei)