Friday 15 November 2013

End of Semester Review ):

Just a short summary of the TWC journey. All goods things really have to come to an end.

So we started off with Yali's question to think about: "Why you whitemen have so much cargo, while we Papua New Guineans have so little?"
Why there was such inequality in the world. Throughout journey, I thought on what would be the answer to question. My personal thoughts follows below:

  • Countries with greater financial, military power tend to attain more resources and wealth for themselves. They have greater control over international trade, have greater influence in international organizations and are better able to combine the 4 Smarts together to constantly stay relevant and ahead.

  • One of the reasons why some countries are not as developed as others could be due to the leader or government. The leaders of developed countries tend to be those who prioritise the long-term growth and interests of the country over their own interests. These leaders have the foresight to what may happen, they have the vision to lead the country to greater heights (the Summit) and the drive to make a difference. In order to tackle the problems the nation is facing, these leaders will adapt to the change and not sticking to the past. On the other hand, developing countries tend to have weaker governments who are less-driven in terms of proposing change. The decisions they make, may at times be of self-interest. Instead of investing in the future, they focus on solving their current problems and using old ways.

  • Information communication technology can help economies and businesses function more efficiently by enabling greater connectivity and facilitating the transfer of knowledge. But over-dependence of ICT might lead to what will happen if the Internet is down?

  • The adoption of genetically modified food could be the key to solve the shortage of food supplies in developing countries and food security. Hence the use of technology is important

  • The use of renewable energy does not depend on the government. I feel it is a two way approach, firstly people's power- the people must show that they want a clean and green environment, they want to turn to renewable, they want a change. Secondly, from this the government will reciprocate and deliver policies that emphasise and encourage on sustainable and renewable energy. Though Singapore is still one of the big user of non renewable energy, I feel we are changing with the recent policies and initiatives of green buildings etc  initiated by the government due to the increased awareness of the people, and I feel if we want to change, we can be one of the top green countries in the world.

Overall, I feel all this inequality and change, is really a combination of the people and the
government(leader) and both parties' mindsets, such that, they worked hand in hand.
Hence to Yali's question, I think, other than geographical reason which is a minor problem,
because Singapore don't really benefit from this reason, what I feel that most importantly,
you must have a visionary leader who can adapt to change and the
people that can implement and execute combining with innovation and use of technology
and good foresight(forecasting), which then will bring great economic development and
hence great power.

But I still have one question, which is what if Technology fails us, are we going use
another technology to solve this failure which we have been doing so and in the end an
accumulation of more problems, one example is the processing of beef- processed beef
the use of those unwanted parts and process into beef patties etc, but after the mad-cow
disease issue, the producers developed a bleaching method to solve this to kill all bacteria
of the beef, but actually root of the problem is the poor living conditions of the cows and
feeding them corn to make them grow big. So this shows that technology can also
blindfold us on identifying the root of the problem.


Overall Ratings
I would rate TWC a 9/10. I felt that some of the points Prof covered are very useful which I can apply to on the management of people,  to myself of asking why not and always looking to future to stay ahead- importance using of technology and being innovative in various fields or rather throughout my life. Lastly, without my wonderful group mates whom I have endured late nights with and the Monday blues, this wouldn't have been a fun module. I really enjoyed this course!!!