My Alterego...

In real life, I am not this enthusiastic about blogging about news. I like blogging about school and emo stuff. Haha. Random. xD

Therefore, you should got to http://atypixality.blogspot.com

Yeah...

China: The Coughing Dragon?

China: The Coughing Dragon?
“Money is the root of all evil.” China probably best exemplifies this corruption and slavery to pollution and food contamination, china has risked all those for money and an overheating economy.
It must be noted that slavery is rampant in many developing countries. But corruption and a penchant for sky-high profit margins exacerbate the situation. China aspires to be a first-world country. But judging by the current situation, she’s far from it. U.S. has hit back on China’s practices. Yet it cruel irony, it has been a culprit of Black slavery too. This shows that in some people’s pursuit for wealth, they are willing to disregard humanity, ethics, and the sanctity of life, which disgusts me to no end. It also shows how lucky I am, compared to those slaves in China.
We can compare slavery in China to maid abuse in Singapore, which many in Singapore are guilty. Low pay and long working hours are shared characteristics. However, what sets maid abuse from slavery is that maids have a shelter and reasonable amenities, bearing exceptional cases. Slaves have no rights and no pay.
And no escape.
So much for the grim realities of life.

I feel that the Chinese government has not done much to improve the dire circumstances. Whether it is reducing pollution or stopping corruption, it has failed miserably. What can it do? Firstly, increase the government pay. Like Singapore, increasing civil pay will reduce corruption, bribery and embezzlement. Is this not a more effective way than just meting out harsh fines and death by firing squad. Secondly, internal squabbling must stop to get things done. Red tape, a. It is a reasonable and feasible plan. Singapore is more than enough proof for this.
As detractors say, the only good things that come out from China is cheap goods. At the cost of quality and safety. I can understand (note: understand not empathize) the plight of these Chinese businessman. In the competitive Chinese market, businessmen who want to win construction bids, sell the cheapest cars have to buy slaves, no matter how cheap labour is. Slaves are free labour. Besides utilizing slaves, they sacrifice quality for price. For example, China cars like Geely failed European crash standards, attaining a measly 1-star out of a possible 5. We owe our cheap LCD TVs and cars to slaves.

Companies that want to have nary a chance of success are turning to slave workers who work long hours with little or no pay. However, this is little reason to buy slaves and thereby, violating the sanctity of human rights. In cruel irony, we owe our cheap household appliances and goods to slave workers. The $300 you just forked out for that coveted pair of shoes may just be the “cost” of a slave which helped make them, for that is the average price of a human life in the booming global slave trade.
I despise slave drivers, and I hope everyone does. It would be a moral disaster if you do not. Thus, I unabashedly say that slave drivers are no better than murderers. Their actions separate families, and effectively destroy the once-hopeful future of a child. This child may be an Einstein, but they have destroyed him. I also admit that I will misunderstand slave drivers because I am prejudiced against them. This prejudice arose because I have yet to relate with someone compassionate for slave drivers.

The next time you buy a “Made-in-China” product, you are not only risking your safety to save a few bucks, you are also releasing more carbon dioxide and inadvertently supporting slavery.
That being said, the world bust be an ardent supporter of slavery. Therefore, I urge you to think twice before buying that cheap China-made Essence of Chicken from the supermarket next time.

UNSW: The Aftermath

On May 24 this year, UNSWAsia shocked the academic world by announcing that is was leaving the Singapore education scene, barely three months after the first lessons had started. It was expected to have 15,000 students by 2020, but its first enrolment was only 148. It was a huge blow to Singapore’s ambitions of becoming a world-class education hub with UNSW the most prolific of the foreign institutions here. Clearly, it was a change of leadership which incited the closure, with someone with a nose for bottom line at is helm.

UNSWAsia’s spokesman argued that the school was unsustainable. Ironically, James Cook University and Insead started out with only 50 students and have tided through the early storm. From this, we know that behind every successful business is a plan of calculated risk. As the old adage goes, ”Nothing venture, nothing gained”.

This can be applied to our daily life. Firstly, if you want to be an entrepreneur, one must surely take calculated risks. We should not give up and close our business after three months in the red, but rather focus on one’s strengths and seek ways to improve equity. Secondly, in whatever we do, we should take the road least traveled by, for the grass may be greener there. Suppose you are a handphone manufacturer. Would you venture into Africa or Japan? Instincts say Japan but the opportunist will know that Africa has a larger market as Japan’s mobile penetration rate is too high.

It is reasonable that UNSWAsia should not close down so early. Success does not come by easily. Insead, a thriving business school bears testament to this. I write this as a student, and I can easily get into the shoes of the affected students-how they feel, etc. However, it might be noteworthy that in our fluctuating business world, the first sign of failure is probably the best time to exit, as seen by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, SARS and WTC.

However, the vice-chancellor of UNSW has had experience in the business and financial world, as a former CEO of John Fairfax Holdings, Australia’s media giant. I have neither but can understand the predicament UNSWAsia is in. With tens of millions of dollars in reserve, the whole UNSW will go down under (pun unintended) a huge pile of loans if UNSWAsia fails. I see it as a move to preserve the Sydney campus, to save UNSW. I am inclined to also believe that they are trying to preserve the prestige and legacy of UNSW, just like nothing beats studying Oxford/Cambridge in London.
Truly, I am quite annoyed that UNSWAsia should close down after just 3 months. Fortunately, it did not leave students in the lurch, unlike Froebel Academy, and arranged for scholarships for affected students. However, an academic institution is not-for-profit and lack of sustainability does not justify its closure. As much as I want to comment more, I am not an economist and will probably not see things as clearly from the economic perspective. Therefore, I might misunderstand their true intentions.
Hopefully, this incident will not affect Singapore’s status and dream to be the education hub of Asia.

Blog Response: Educational/Societal Issues

Corruption.

If you have been reading the local papers, you would have known that corruption is prevalent in developing countries like Philippines and Indonesia. It matters because Singapore is intimately linked with other countries, economically, socially and politically. Examples include our 'hinterland' Malaysia. Why does corruption exist? Greed, one of the seven deadly sins, is the main factor. Corruption can happen in any society, in any scale and this can affect me, you and society as a whole.

If you think our government is 'clean', I beseech you to think again. You would think that Singapore is a democracy, right? If you consider another perspective, corruption can indeed happen, albeit in a more subtle manner. For example, the dominant party in Singapore has been gerrymandering all these years, changing electoral boundaries to shape the results. The same governmental panel then decides who is eligible as a presidential candidate. There are probably legitimate reasons for their actions, but whatever the case, it shows the political apathy the people have. The consequence? Corruption left unchecked and out of control.

Corruption can be considered from several perspectives, especially in Indonesia. One, the people. People in corruption-tainted societies think that corruption is somewhat "good". Who would not like free cash just for putting up a party's flag outside your house? What about free Shirts, pens, hand phones, groceries? The people virtually do not need to spend a single cent on necessities during elections.
Two, the officials. These officials see vote-buying as nothing wrong, and these views are also supported by the people, if a survey by Newsweek is anything to go by. They count on vote-buying as "one of the methods to garner support", while the people's political apathy encourages this illicit act.

I somehow feel sorry for the officials. I do think that if they had the choice, they do not want to spend large sums of money each term to buy votes. Their actions are a result of intense political bickering. Newly-formed parties by businessmen with pockets lined with dirty money are a factor. These fly-by-night parties rise to power rapidly because of money. And to curb rallying support for opposition parties, the incumbent often engages in this type of money politics. The blame should not be put solely on parties though, society is also to blame. A lower-developing economy is more susceptible to corruption than a rich and prosperous one.

Although Singapore is relatively corruption-free compared to to the lelong style vote-buying in other countries, we must always be aware of societal issues. Singaporeans are a generally rational lot, and do not succumb easily to vote-buying unlike the political apathetic Indonesians. Nonetheless, it is worthy to note that corruption do exist in Singapore, in a subtle, warped democratic process. We, as Singaporeans, should vote wisely at every election, lest our every election becomes a political 'party'(pun unintended), run by money politics.

My Letter Got Published!!!

News Article 4: Educational/Societal Issues

MANILA, May 15 (Reuters) - Two teachers counting votes in the Philippines' violence-marred congressional elections were killed on Tuesday when armed men stormed a schoolhouse where the ballots were being tallied and set it on fire, police said.

The elections to the 275-member House of Representatives, half the 24-seat Senate and about 18,000 local government posts were held on Monday and counting was carried out overnight, in some places by candlelight.

Early exit polls showed the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was faring worse than expected in the Senate elections.

A poll by the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) showed the opposition leading in eight of the 12 Senate seats with the administration leading in two and independents in two. Opinion polls before the election had showed the opposition likely to take six seats and the administration four.

Other exit polls also showed the government faring poorly.

No exit polls for the House of Representatives were immediately available and official results will not be completed for at least a month. Arroyo's allies are expected to sweep the House and the local government elections.

About 125 people have been killed in campaign violence and during polling on Monday, although the body count is well below the 189 killed at the last election, in 2004.

Police said five gunmen stormed a schoolhouse where votes were being counted early on Tuesday, poured gasoline on ballot papers and set them on fire.

Two teachers who had taken refuge in a toilet were trapped by the flames and died, they said. The schoolhouse was in the town of Batangas, about 90 km (55 miles) south of Manila.

"The Philippines is at a crossroads as we wait for the proclamation of winners," Arroyo said in a statement after casting her ballot in the town of Lubao, north of Manila.

"There was intense rivalry during the campaign, but we should have a good heart, win or lose."

At least 75 percent of the country's 45 million voters cast their votes in Monday's election and an army of school teachers counted ballots manually overnight. In some parts of Manila, and on the southern island of Mindanao, power failures meant counting had to be done by candlelight.

The votes will be tallied at municipal, provincial and national levels over the next few weeks. Initial results for local posts could start trickling in on Thursday but for the senate, final results could take from three weeks to about a month.

News Article 4: Educational/Societal Issues

On Monday, May 14, millions of registered Filipino voters troop to various poll precincts across the Philippines to cast their ballots for favored candidates for national and local government posts.

At stake for this Philippine electoral contest are key positions in the upper and lower legislative houses, the governorships of the provinces, and mayoralties, as well as council chairs in the thousands of towns and cities of the archipelago.

As the country holds another so-called democratic process in selecting leaders, the majority of the Filipino masses are hoping that the outcome of the elections will pave the way for a better, corruption- and graft-free government that will truly serve the needs of an impoverished nation.

The Filipino nation hungers for real change and a better future for generations to come. Tired of toiling under one of the most futile and corrupt political systems in Asia, Filipinos are in desperate search for dedicated and selfless people who are not interested in lining their pockets with filthy lucre and are genuinely devoted to uplifting the Philippines from the centuries-old blight of poverty.

But as Philippine elections come, this May poll is no different from all the previous dirty and bloody electoral contests that have been the thorns that hinder the development and total reformation of the country. Held every three years, expensive Philippine elections, aside from being characteristically bloody, drain the coffers of the nation and leave most winning candidates with little choice but to dip into taxpayers' money in order to recoup their enormous expenses during the costly campaigning periods.

To cite just how eccentric and anomalous the current state of politics in the Philippines, it is now an open secret that this election is mainly the continuing battle between the camp of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration and the opposition supporters who are sympathetic to the ousted and jailed former president, Joseph Estrada.

In 2002, Estrada was thrown out of Malacanang Palace, the seat of the most powerful executive office in the Philippines, due to massive gambling allegations brought against him by his enemies in the Senate and Congress.

Catapulted to power by Estrada's ouster, President Arroyo, the second woman to lead the Philippines after Cory Aquino, lost no time in building her power base to ensure that she would not meet the same fate as Estrada.

Winning the 2004 presidential elections under the most questionable circumstances, Arroyo was threatened with impeachment due to evidence that she cheated then popular rival Fernando Poe.

The wily president saved her position by calling on the support of thousands of town and city mayors, who came to the palace to express their unwavering support of the beleaguered Arroyo.

Nowadays, most of the presidential efforts are geared toward political preservation, and not for the general welfare of the country. Last year, Arroyo and her allies in Congress launched a failed bid to change the political system of the Philippine from the presidential into a parliamentary government.

While proponents argue that a unicameral system is best for the country, most Filipinos view it is just another machination by Arroyo in order to extend her tenure in Malacanang and ensure that her political enemies are eased out of the corridors of power.

This election, then, is a make-or-break effort by the administration camp to eventually change the form of the Philippine government. The president is hoping that majority of her allies in the Unity Party will get most of the seats in the Philippine legislative councils. Once the Senate and Congress are filled with Arroyo supporters after May 14, Filipinos can expect that the controversial charter change will be finally pushed through.