Intro
The topic of the lesson is on Technology, Society and Global Dominance. We looked at how technological edge, social, military, economical and cultural factors can affect a nation's global dominance.
In addition we discussed about Technology and Human Development. We explored the different kinds of development such as technological, cultural (the arts), human talent development (education and productivity) and more. We focused more about sustainable development, green technology to achieve sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals.
We also have a few students to present their readings on the above topics, which led to more interesting discussions.
Eurocentric History
Much of history are shaped by the Europeans and told from a European perspective. We hear about the great achievements on Greece and Rome, while little was said about the ancient Indian and Chinese empires that are even more superior in some areas of technology. It is only recently that we are hearing more about achievements of other ancient cultures to offer a more balanced view of the world.
In modern history, it is more so apparent. The winners of the wars are the ones that wrote history. The article "The Colonial Holocaust and its Legacy : Colonialism and its Contemporary Legacy in the Establishment of Western Civil Society" by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is a very interesting article. (http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq7.html#2) It offers an intelligent and more balanced account of what actually happened during and after the colonial era.
In Singapore's history textbooks, students are taught that the colonial powers are a force of good, helping to bring technology, law and governance to the colonies. The British gave Singapore proper legal structure and infrastructure. Though student are taught that the colonial masters did rob their colonies of resources in the other resource rich colonies. However, this article highlights that the European powers did even more damage then just that. Economies of many colonies were destoryed and manipulated to what the colonial powers needed.
This article highlights the covered part of colonial history and make us rethink if the colonial powers were beneficial at all to their colonies.
US Hegemony
With China rising in the world stage voicing their stand more than before, is the US hegemony being challenged? Will China seek hegemony?
Currently the US and China are very closely interdependent. China produce cheap goods and export a lot to the US allowing it to continue to grow at a minimum 8% annually. The US in turn have grown used to enjoy cheap goods from China. In order to this to continue, China has been buying US dollars and Treasuries to in effect subsidise the US consumers. This win-win, has led some to dub both as Chimerica. China has now become the main creditor of the US, to ensure stability back in China.
Will China one day pull the plug on the US and challenge the US hegemony? Will the world see major conflict between China and US? Will current trade tension lead to war? The last time when such a relationship exist, between the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany, led to World War I.
On a positive note, China is partipating actively in the current international framework. Continued integration and respect for international rules may prove to prevent World War III.
Rise of Great Powers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thVt4u5GnPY
This a 12-part documentary that I watched on History Channel a couple of years back. Do look at the other parts. It is a very interesting documentary that offers a balanced view of rise of nations, not merely eurocentric view. It covers the different factors that enable nation to be come dominant from Portugal before the Americas was found to the US dominance after World War II.
Unfortunately, I cannotfind the English version, only managed to find the original chinese version from CCTV in youtube. If you have the link to the English do let me know then we can share for the benefit of a wider audience.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRx12QUv54
This emotional videos seeks to reach out to people to get more private organisation and grassroots leaders to garner more momentum and take actions to help to achieve these Millennium goals:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Rate
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
These are recognised to be the basic human living standards for all humans.
Though the deadline of 2015 will not see these goals being met, at least there is a recognition and commitment but all the nations. There is even a movement in the US now to get its high net worth individuals to give at least 50% of their wealth charity, following the lead of Warren Buffet and the Gates family. Society should not depend too heavily on the government. Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) can fill the gap, where members of the society contribute back to the society. This community spirit is very apparent in the early years of Singapore's development with people like Tan Tock Seng, Lee Kong Chian and Lien Ying Chow. These are examples on the rich helping the less fortunate and giving back to society. Bring more awareness to such a cause will encourage wealthier people to contribute to achieving the MDGs.
Presentation
A few of the our classmates gave presentations on the topics being discussed based on their readings. One presentation stood out by Cherrin. Her presentation was delivered well and the information brought across clearly. There were discussions on each of the presentations.
One was "is it necessary for developed countries to share their knowledge and know-how with the developing countries". Whether developed countries have the moral imperative to do so is debatable. However, from an economic perspective, developed countries have an enlightened self-interest to help developing countries to develop as that would create new markets for their higher value products. The developing countries wil also tend to give back in return. For example, China has built a lot of goodwill with the African nations to aid to them. African nations are then more willing to welcome Chinese companies.
Conclusion
Overall I rate this lesson as 6 out of ten. Due to some presentations taking too much time, there were little time for discussion on the issues presented. The presentation by Cherrin also made an impact to the rest of the class that this was the standard we should look to.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Lesson 1 cont'd
Rating for Lesson 1
I would give an 8 out of 10. Interesting lesson and it is the first lesson of the year. There are many things to do though which I expect will be helpful for our learning. But I think may be a bit troublesome to have so many platforms to discuss things such as the blog, facebook page and the SMUVista forum.
I would give an 8 out of 10. Interesting lesson and it is the first lesson of the year. There are many things to do though which I expect will be helpful for our learning. But I think may be a bit troublesome to have so many platforms to discuss things such as the blog, facebook page and the SMUVista forum.
Lesson 1
Intro
We have a pleasant introduction which was helpful to get to know each other. Most mods so far do not have this. This intro was too to help us interact better as a class and allow easier sharing during the individual oral presentation.
We also got to know Dr. Shahi, who is a delightful person with a wealth of experience to share. I hope we can learn more about how organisations keep up with tech changes and how we can build business in the upcoming industries.
In addition to the different areas of technology that we will be exploring as outlined. I am interested to explore more on how we can start green tech companies. I have always wonder what it takes in terms of resources, especially the people and finance to start a company dealing with green energy and such. Where do we look for engineers who we can work with. It seems insurmountable to start up a company like Hyflux yet if we recall Hyflux was only recently started.
In the following parts I would like to cover some reflections on the lesson.
Shift Happens (video 1)
I bet that his video aroused the interest of most in the class. It shows how much progress mankind have made since the the 'train' and 'internet'. It encouraged the class to think how limitless the future is.
Having recently watched Sci-fi Science by Dr. Michio Kaku, who is favourite scientist (the other is of course Dr. Sheldon Cooper), we have already many of the foundation technologies that can be used to do things like a starship and space travel. Thankfully, he assured us the robots will not be able take over mankind anytime soon with most having the capability of a cockroach.
Germs, Guns and Steel (video Out of Eden)
We watched the 1st video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnmT-Y_rGQ) of the series which a very interesting question was posed by Yali: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”
We had a discussion which was initially framed as "Are white people more superior, thus they have more things?" Not discussing whether material things are important in life, we can all agree that the answer is "No". The fact that Yali asked that question, we can infer that those people have the impression that white people seems superior.
During the colonial times, the oppression by the Europeans imposed the believe that they are more superior than the natives. Though as evident by our hardworking forefathers, this proved to be false. Individuals from Lee Kong Chian and Tan Kah Kee to even the samsui women. All have no less ingenuity and resourcefulness than the Europeans. With trade and communication, where ideas can be shared, society can learn, improve and generate new ideas as well. Where a population can share ideas, the society can breakdown false beliefs. Therefore resulting in the rejection of the colonial powers in the early 20th century.
Then why do societies such as the native Papua New Guineans as shown on the video still seem to believe that white people are superior? One of the reasons is natural resources. Natural resources can help a society to develop through the use of the resources to create tools and technology and generate wealth.
Second is having a open society. This will enable the society to share ideas and to trade for resources that they do not have. A testament to being open to share ideas and trade is Singapore. Lacking natural resources, this enabled Singapore to develop into a world class nation. An example to prove that the second ingredient is vital is the Ming Dynasty China. The Ming Dynasty was the world superpower of the 15th century, the ships that Admiral Zheng He used were far more advanced than those of the Europeans. Open to trade and new ideas, these contacts with the Western World allowed the Ming Dynasty to develop technologies such as rockets.
The Ming Dynasty example bring us to the next reason that is politics. In the late 15th century, politics caused China turn inwards in the face of threats from overseas to try to keep control over the populous. With the poor governance and little new ideas, the Ming Dynasty started to decline. Similarly, to societies such as the native Papua New Guineans, there is a very strong government to lead the society, as they are grouped around small tribes. Resources are not consolidated and its best minds are not gathered together to share and generate new ideas, thus it is very difficult for them to reach developed status.
In my opinion, these three reasons chiefly helps to explain why some countries are developed while some are not over the past 10, 000 years since civilisation started.
Miscellaneous Discussion
We have some other miscellaneous discussion. I would like to comment on some of them as I did not have the opportunity to do so during the lesson.
Change Management vs Change Leadership
There were some discussion on the difference between management and leadership. In my opinion management is 'doing things right' while leadership is 'doing the right things'. 'Doing the right things' means that a leader directs the organisation to the right direction. 'Doing things right' means that a management finds solutions to move the organisation along towards the direction set by the leader. I hope this is helpful the make the discussion clearer.
Creativity, Invention and Innovation
Dr Shahi threw a question on which of the following processes comes first followed by which processes. The class had a lively discussion. I liked this part of the lesson, seeing how the class participates actively bouncing their thoughts, not fearing difference in opinion. I hope that we can have more of such sessions in future.
We have a pleasant introduction which was helpful to get to know each other. Most mods so far do not have this. This intro was too to help us interact better as a class and allow easier sharing during the individual oral presentation.
We also got to know Dr. Shahi, who is a delightful person with a wealth of experience to share. I hope we can learn more about how organisations keep up with tech changes and how we can build business in the upcoming industries.
In addition to the different areas of technology that we will be exploring as outlined. I am interested to explore more on how we can start green tech companies. I have always wonder what it takes in terms of resources, especially the people and finance to start a company dealing with green energy and such. Where do we look for engineers who we can work with. It seems insurmountable to start up a company like Hyflux yet if we recall Hyflux was only recently started.
In the following parts I would like to cover some reflections on the lesson.
Shift Happens (video 1)
I bet that his video aroused the interest of most in the class. It shows how much progress mankind have made since the the 'train' and 'internet'. It encouraged the class to think how limitless the future is.
Having recently watched Sci-fi Science by Dr. Michio Kaku, who is favourite scientist (the other is of course Dr. Sheldon Cooper), we have already many of the foundation technologies that can be used to do things like a starship and space travel. Thankfully, he assured us the robots will not be able take over mankind anytime soon with most having the capability of a cockroach.
Germs, Guns and Steel (video Out of Eden)
We watched the 1st video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnmT-Y_rGQ) of the series which a very interesting question was posed by Yali: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”
We had a discussion which was initially framed as "Are white people more superior, thus they have more things?" Not discussing whether material things are important in life, we can all agree that the answer is "No". The fact that Yali asked that question, we can infer that those people have the impression that white people seems superior.
During the colonial times, the oppression by the Europeans imposed the believe that they are more superior than the natives. Though as evident by our hardworking forefathers, this proved to be false. Individuals from Lee Kong Chian and Tan Kah Kee to even the samsui women. All have no less ingenuity and resourcefulness than the Europeans. With trade and communication, where ideas can be shared, society can learn, improve and generate new ideas as well. Where a population can share ideas, the society can breakdown false beliefs. Therefore resulting in the rejection of the colonial powers in the early 20th century.
Then why do societies such as the native Papua New Guineans as shown on the video still seem to believe that white people are superior? One of the reasons is natural resources. Natural resources can help a society to develop through the use of the resources to create tools and technology and generate wealth.
Second is having a open society. This will enable the society to share ideas and to trade for resources that they do not have. A testament to being open to share ideas and trade is Singapore. Lacking natural resources, this enabled Singapore to develop into a world class nation. An example to prove that the second ingredient is vital is the Ming Dynasty China. The Ming Dynasty was the world superpower of the 15th century, the ships that Admiral Zheng He used were far more advanced than those of the Europeans. Open to trade and new ideas, these contacts with the Western World allowed the Ming Dynasty to develop technologies such as rockets.
The Ming Dynasty example bring us to the next reason that is politics. In the late 15th century, politics caused China turn inwards in the face of threats from overseas to try to keep control over the populous. With the poor governance and little new ideas, the Ming Dynasty started to decline. Similarly, to societies such as the native Papua New Guineans, there is a very strong government to lead the society, as they are grouped around small tribes. Resources are not consolidated and its best minds are not gathered together to share and generate new ideas, thus it is very difficult for them to reach developed status.
In my opinion, these three reasons chiefly helps to explain why some countries are developed while some are not over the past 10, 000 years since civilisation started.
Miscellaneous Discussion
We have some other miscellaneous discussion. I would like to comment on some of them as I did not have the opportunity to do so during the lesson.
Change Management vs Change Leadership
There were some discussion on the difference between management and leadership. In my opinion management is 'doing things right' while leadership is 'doing the right things'. 'Doing the right things' means that a leader directs the organisation to the right direction. 'Doing things right' means that a management finds solutions to move the organisation along towards the direction set by the leader. I hope this is helpful the make the discussion clearer.
Creativity, Invention and Innovation
Dr Shahi threw a question on which of the following processes comes first followed by which processes. The class had a lively discussion. I liked this part of the lesson, seeing how the class participates actively bouncing their thoughts, not fearing difference in opinion. I hope that we can have more of such sessions in future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)