Term 2 Reflective Journal 5

Reflective Journal 5: Reflect on SES. You may want to consider the curriculum, the learning process, the assessment, difficulties you faced, how you overcame them, and how might SES be applicable in time to come.

This module, in the course of one semester, has shaped me for who I am, and what I will become.

Since primary school, I had excelled in Maths competitions, and since that was what I took pride in most, I came to “accept” that I was interested in this area, and placed all my attention on this. As a result, I turned away from other subjects and neglected the eagerness to find out more about them. This continued into secondary school, till the various Humanities subjects changed my perspective of things.

In terms of content, SES has exposed me to a wide range of issues including that of China and America, and also other events like the Enlightenment and French Revolution. It was nevertheless an arduous process at first by having to spend time and effort in reading through numerous articles, and extracting out the relevant information.

However, later on, I saw how closely related the topics discussed regarding China and America were to the local context, and I could draw connections and relate to them. The most significant tutorial for me was the analysis of the cultures in both countries, and from my viewpoint, they are currently vastly dissimilar. By comparing them to Singapore, I thought of the flaws of the education system here, and how these eventually lead to certain societal problems. For instance, in the previous post, the fear of failure is evident in the local context, and this leads to less risk-takers, essentially less entrepreneurs and innovators to spearhead social and economic growth.

In addition, by understanding the culture, history, society and economy of both countries, I am able to make informed choices of where to pursue further studies and work and live in, if not in the local context. Of course, this is many years later, and no one can be sure of the future, but with the knowledge from SES, I can build upon what I have learned and explore these issues even after the module ends.

From how I view SES, at the end of the module, it would lay the foundation and framework for us. It is, however, up to us to source for materials, build up and strengthen the foundation and subsequent “levels”, and ultimately for us to fully realise and apply the relevant concepts to the multi-cultural, globalised world we live in today. All these may sound far-fetched, but we can no longer deny the presence and influence China and America have on the rest of the world in the 21^st century.

The tutorials, in general, are rather comprehensive and are easy to understand by focusing on specific case studies and questions (in the term presentations and discussions in class). The compulsory readings, however, are mainly articles, research papers and interviews from prominent individuals and organisations, and I feel that this should not be the case. They can also include biased, non-factual opinions of the issue at hand; for example, when discussing about Mao Zedong and his policies, we could have read about him in the perspectives of those who fully supported him and those who completely opposed him. This would prove more thought-provoking in discussions, and allows us to challenge these opinions, making lessons more fruitful.

On the other hand, the various assessments for SES has been beneficial in developing various skills of mine, including that of research, articulation and writing. For instance, for my term presentation in class, I understood from feedback that my points were convoluted and incoherent. Upon reflection, I also realised that some of my examples were force-fitted, and this led me to rethink my points and reorganise them. Thus, the plus point of the term presentation is that it serves as a “peer-marking” platform, and ensures that the term paper submitted contains less logical fallacies and more coherence.

As for the research paper, even though I have only conducted preliminary research, I can tell that the question I chose [“whether China can overtake America as world’s leading economic power”] encompasses a wide range of factors, including that of political, cultural, social, economical and historical. However, I felt that it best represented what we have been studying the whole semester, and it forces me to rethink and reflect upon the content covered during those tutorials, and so I decided to take up the challenge and write the research paper to the best of my ability and knowledge.

To end off, SES has also provided me with the opportunities to learn about and reflect upon subject matters that I would never have touched in my years in secondary school. I have reconnected with what I had always been interested in (but failed to put aside some of my time to study them), and it has made my secondary school life more meaningful and enjoyable.

Word count: 798 words

Term 2 Reflective Journal 4

Reflective Journal 4: Reflect on the societal problems faced by China and America. (Hint: you must definitely explain your responses to these societal problems. How can they be resolved? Who should be responsible for resolving these issues?)

No model of government and society is perfect; both China and America face numerous societal challenges and I shall be presenting my views on a few issues.

Today, China has the world’s second largest GDP, of which 35% comes from exports[1]. This is a problem as it is highly dependent on external countries; China’s economic growth this year has been forecasted to halve due to the Eurozone crisis[2]. Thus, China has to rely less on exports and more on domestic consumption. Premier Wen has said that “domestic demand is a crucial and necessary choice for a big country to achieve sustainable economic growth.”[3]

In my opinion, to increase domestic consumption, China has to increase the number of private companies, which account for 70% of economic profits[4]. Private company start-ups also promote the creation of jobs, narrowing the wealth gap, as 93% of China’s companies are private, employing 92% of the nation's workers[4].

In order to do so, more capital has to be invested in private companies, not state-owned enterprises. In fact, loans to small and medium-sized enterprises comprise only 4% of the total made by three of the country’s largest banks[4]. This problem is significant, as the cost to start a company is high, and capital is also required to compete in the global economy, yet the government is not supporting them by providing the necessary capital. In Singapore, the government is highly supportive of start-ups, with incentives in various fields, including funding $40 million to the med-tech industry last year.[5] With these incentives, there were 34000 start-ups in 2007[6].

Next, the society has to be more tolerant of company failures[7]. This is important as experiments which end up in failure provide valuable experience to learn from, as the company learns to be resilient and can better understand what their consumers want. After repeated experimenting (and failing), they are able to come up with successful and innovative products. For example, after Apple's failure of the Macintosh in 1989, it had remained unwavered and eventually pushed out various successful products like the MacBook and iPhone.

To me, I related this back to education. In Singapore and China, examination grades are very important for students as they hugely affect their careers in the future. Tuition centres earn so much money precisely because we have taken grades to be so important. However, are grades that important in which people who fail in exams “fail” in life as well? No, failures provide experience that allows children to learn from their mistakes and rectify them, and also allow them to discover their own strengths and weaknesses. This is important for success in life, as we need to learn how to overcome failures and make the best out of it when the time comes. Shouldn’t the education system prepare us for the future? In that case, why is it so unwilling to accept failures?

In summary, to solve this economic problem, China has to increase the number of private companies by increasing capital investment, and being more accepting of experimentation and failures, which is also applicable to education.

For America, one of its problems is the degradation of moral standards. Various studies which have observed this trend, but there is one I would like to point out that was published in New York Times[8]. In this study, 2/3 of 230 young adults across America could not answer questions about a moral dilemma, and most did not think of drink-driving and cheating in schools and on partners as wrong and evil. Instead, most said that moral choices are based on the individual’s taste, while most others also said that “I would do what I thought made me happy”. The implications of this are obvious – increased crime rates and divorce rates, among many others.

This is a problem that has to be solved due to the extreme emphasis placed on moral individualism, but who should take the responsibility, and has the means to resolve it? My answer is everyone: the individual has to make the effort to see how moral standards are important and change his attitude, parents should regain more authority over their children in order to inculcate certain values and not let them go astray, the community has to be more critical of such poor moral standards, and at the same time foster an environment that promotes them, while the government can implement policies to introduce character education in schools.

Nevertheless, the process will be a arduous one, but America can resolve this issue if its citizens are willing to change their perspectives of moral standards and individualism.

In conclusion, to resolve the issues above, multiple parties have to work hand-in-hand, and be more willing to change their beliefs towards an issue. It is only then that changes will be made and problems can be solved.

800 words.

References:

1: Koopman, R., & Wang, Z. (Date unknown). How Much of China’s Exports is Really Made in China? United States International Trade Commission. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTRANETTRADE/Resources/Internal-Training/287823-1256848879189/6526508-1283456658475/7370147-1308070299728/7997263-1308070314933/PAPER_10_Koopman_Wang.pdf (28/3/2012)

2: Inman, P. (19 March 2012). IMF calls on China to improve domestic consumption. theguardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/mar/19/imf-calls-china-domestic-consumption (28/3/2012)

3: People’s Daily Online. (14 September 2011). Premier Wen stresses domestic demand to drive economic growth. People’s Daily Online. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90883/7595346.html (28/3/2012)

4: The Economist. (10 March 2011). Entrepreneurship in China: Let a Million Flowers Bloom. The Economist. http://www.economist.com/node/18330120 (28/3/2012)

5: Channel NewsAsia. (31 May 2011). S$40 million to encourage more med-tech start-ups. channelnewsasia.com. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1132303/1/.html (28/3/2012)

6: Oh, B. P. (30 January 2010). Going all out to help SMEs make that giant leap. The Business Times. http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/SME+Central/Story/A1Story20100128-195022.html (28/3/2012)

7: Smale, W. (29 January 2012). What Drives US Entrepreneurship? BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16742137 (28/3/2012)

8: Brooks, D. (12 September 2011). If It Feels Right… The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/opinion/if-it-feels-right.html (28/3/2012)

Term 1 Reflective Journal 3

Reflective Journal 3: We have discussed and debated on the Chinese and America perceptions of self. Reflect on the impact of these beliefs in your life.

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China and America are the two superpowers of the modern world. Singapore, a multi-cultural society, has fused many of the beliefs from these two nations, which have definitely impacted how I view the world around me.

Firstly, China places more emphasis on modesty, while America places higher value on self-promotion. Modesty is deeply rooted within Confucianism teachings, and has manifested in the behaviour of the Chinese today. For example, when a person is invited to perform, he will say that he will “xian chou”, meaning that he will be incompetent, even though this might not be the case. Today, when I hear people use this term, I find it very strange that they will say that. Why should we demean and lower our abilities if we really do possess them? I feel that we should be proud of our achievements, and by praising oneself, one is able to take pride in what he does, and serves as a morale boost. However, boasting should not be done to the extent where we look down on others. In Singapore, we value the Chinese values of modesty, which I feel can be incorporated with America’s beliefs of self-promotion.

Next, the Chinese, as compared to the Americans, place more emphasis on societal needs as above individual needs. I feel that society and individual needs have to be balanced, but there is an extent to which the latter should come before the former. According to Max-Neef classification of fundamental human needs[1], the only section which I feel can be compromised is the part on freedom, which relates back to individual rights. An examples of how freedom has been limited is censorship, which are present in every country today. In Singapore, censorship is present in print media and the Internet, among many others. It mainly targets racial, political, sexual and religious issues, which are essential to censor to maintain harmony in the nation. Personally, I do not feel restricted with the censorship here: if notions which deviate from the accepted norm are allowed to be expressed publicly, it could possibly garner supporters who disrupt the social and political stability of the nation. In this aspect, I feel that society needs should come before individual needs as it directly affects the individual needs of other people, which according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs[2], belongs to the second level of “safety” and security.

Lastly, the perception of respect between China and America is also different. As mentioned in my previous post, the Chinese strongly believe in respect to elders, while the Americans focus more on mutual respect. Foremost, there is a significant distinction between filial piety and respect. While respect is defined as deference to someone or something, filial piety narrows down to showing respect to one’s parents and ancestors. This is important as we are showing gratitude for what our parents have done for us. However, isn’t it obligatory to show a certain degree of appreciation to people who have helped us and guided us in our lives?

The Chinese believe in having an inherent obligation in respecting one’s elders, while the Americans don’t. In fact, respect to seniors is not only inherent in the Chinese culture. In Japan schools, juniors have to bow to seniors when they meet them along the corridor, and they will use formal speech instead of informal speech when conversing with them, as conveyed to me by my Japanese teacher. Though this might go against the values that have been inculcated into me since young, after prolonged thought and reflection, I start to feel that this argument is fundamentally flawed. For instance, if we meet a stranger who is older than us on the street, do we thus have an immediate social and moral obligation to show respect to that person? I prefer the American view of respect, where respect has to be earned, and is not a moral obligation. Even though this is so, “respect” is still a very broad and vague term. When I say that respect has to be earned, it does not mean that we ignore basic courtesies and individual rights like interrupting others when they speak, but rather how we should modify our behaviour and attitudes towards a person when we start to admire him and his contributions. Our culture has been largely influenced by traditional Confucian values, which is not the only “correct” philosophy we have in our modern world. We should start to question the reasons and objectives for these values, and how relevant they are to our modern society.

In conclusion, the consciousness of self plays an important role in the societal and economical culture of a country. As a Singaporean, I feel that we all ought to reflect upon how this has impacted our values, and we should make meaning of our existence.

800 words.

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1 http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/background/maxneef.htm

2 http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/conation/maslow.html

Term 1 Reflective Journal 2

Reflective Journal 2: Reflect on the working culture and management style in Google and Lenovo.

(You may choose to explore how far their working cultures and management styles reflect their respective societies, share your personal experiences and opinions on your preference of working culture and management style, etc)

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Google made US$ 29.3b in 2010 and its website is one of the most visited worldwide. On the other hand, Lenovo made US$ 21.6b in 2011, and is the world's second largest PC maker. Despite these two multinational companies holding key positions in the IT industry, their working culture and management styles are vastly different, and I believe this to be partially due to the country they operate the company from.

Google gives its employees autonomy, and is concerned with their welfare. It uses extrinsic motivation to hopefully spark off intrinsic motivation within its employees, which the company is heavily dependent on. In my opinion, this management style brings out the best in its employees, as it encourages motivation and freedom of speech and will.

In school, Oral Participation attempts to motivate students to speak up more in class by expressing constructive questions and starting meaningful discussions. An aim of this system is to provide the student with multiple POVs in addressing an issue, while developing his passion in learning. This is similar to Google's approach in embracing candour and dissent, which I feel has played an important role in its success. Its employees are comfortable in sharing ideas and opinions with each other, which allows for them to build upon each others' ideas, and create a product that combines the individual skills of every employee. After all, two brains are better than one. Google employees also feel more motivated to work and pursue their interests in the 20% work time allocated to them.

Lenovo, though, is an organised institution where there is a laoban who gives orders to his employees, and they are expected to follow his orders without raising questions. The disadvantage of this system is that it discourages employees to propose ideas to their superiors, which might stifle their creativity and result in a lack of motivation. However, the advantage is that it is extremely effective, as there is only one person calling the shots. In my opinion, such a company will not be able to sustain good performance in the global market consistently, as creative and innovative products are what sell in the modern day.

In the American society, citizens are more open in voicing their opinions on issues, and are given more freedom in certain areas in comparison to China's society. This freedom covers a wide spectrum of rules and practices, but one simple example would be school uniforms, in which most American schools only have a dress code, while Chinese schools have a fixed set of school uniform. This simple practice might seem insignificant, but this inculcates the value of obedience into students from a young age, which will affect their future work ethos.

Another example would be the freedom of speech in America, where citizens can openly criticise the government and advocate unconventional ideas. China, though, has been recognised as one of the top countries to have the strictest censorship on its people. The government blocks anti-government websites, and prevents its citizens from coming into contact with undesirable ideas which could create anti-government sentiment among its people by banning certain forms of media like Facebook and Youtube. Political activists like Ai Weiwei have also been arrested by the government. The government instils among its citizens a sense of hierarchy, where it encourages its citizens to follow orders and not oppose the government.

One other difference between the two societies is how each culture views values differently. Take respect as an example. In America (based on articles including the two below), there is no strong emphasis on showing respect to a senior because one feels inferior and that it is an expected behaviour. America rather, emphasises more on mutual respect between people, regardless of their social status. However, in China, respect to elders is taught from a very young age, and Confucian teachings strongly emphasise respect towards parents, teachers and seniors. Thus, it is not surprising that the two companies have very different working cultures.

I would prefer Lenovo’s management style, since its culture is closely associated to Singapore’s. As a student, I have been used to following the teachers’ instructions. The school curriculum has stifled creativity in many areas with its over-emphasis on academic grades. However, I would not like to work in a company where employees do not voice their opinions and ideas over issues. I believe that in encouraging dissent and candour, the employees can provide alternative suggestions that can truly benefit the company. This freedom of speech might be seen as an impediment of efficiency in Lenovo, but rather I feel that this instead promotes it, along with the necessary traits a company needs to survive in today’s economy, like innovation.

In conclusion, I prefer the structure and hierarchy of Lenovo, while combined with the openness and forthrightness of Google.

800 words.

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Resources:

Farid, Sana. "Respect." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: July 2005 <http://www.beyondintractability.org/bi-essay/respect/>.

Pant, Rajiv. “Respect and the American Way.“ Web Site of Rajiv Pant. Posted: October 15, 2003 <http://www.rajiv.com/blog/2003/10/15/respect/>.

Term 1 Reflective Journal 1

1. You have attended the first tutorial of Socio-Economic Studies. Reflect on the elective and your expectations.
Hint: You might want to consider the syllabus, the mode of assessment, lessons, (possible apprehension), etc.

For me, I was never particularly interested in politics, economics or social issues outside of Singapore. Our CSC teacher, Mdm Liu, made the point that Singaporeans, in general, are less concerned with issues concerning countries outside Singapore, with the possible exception of Malaysia.

Why is this so?

At the time, I did not think much. However, after pondering, I reflected upon my behaviour and attitude. Are our fellow Singaporeans and I only concerned with issues that directly affect our livelihoods? Well, I’d have to say to a certain extent. It is understandable to be anxious over local affairs, but I am sure that we are aware of external affairs as well. After all, there are programmes and measures put into place to ensure that Singaporeans are kept well informed: education programmes in schools, the media in the form of newspapers (online and paper), and news programmes. I also do not think it is the lack of the ability to comprehend and express an opinion on an issue, but rather it is the absence of motivation to voice an opinion, which brings me to my next point.

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My next point is regarding the syllabus of SES.

For me, the most relevant part of the syllabus is how it can help increase my CQ-Drive, the motivation to learn more about other cultures. I did not rank myself quite high in this area because I am only interested in some cultures, many of which are directly relevant to me in my daily life. I hope that SES will “spark interest” in me.

I was also astonished that one could plan out a whole course just to study the socio-economic differences between China and America for 2 semesters. Later, I noticed that we were studying specific case studies to enhance our understanding of the topic, which makes it more appealing as we would not be overwhelmed with loads of information to remember or understand, but rather pick up skills from examples.

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As for the assessment of SES, I feel that it is definitely challenging. We have to be more confident in speaking up, and do much more research on our own. Despite this, I am willing to learn from this experience as this is a topic which I will gain much useful information and skills from.

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For the first tutorial, we discussed about Cultural Intelligence, and how four different modes of a Cultural Quotient (CQ) can be used to measure one's ability to adapt to different cultures, and work in a multi-cultural society. We learned about CQ from the examples provided by our classmates, and understood a little about how some cultures might be similar or different in some aspects to others.

When I went to China during the holidays for leisure and competition, I visited seven major cities, which had large differences in cuisine, language, attitudes and ways of living. The bus driver specifically told us not to point directly at objects, as it could be disrespectful to the ethnic group living in that particular area. I never knew that this single action could insult a whole group of people. Having experienced this, I would definitely learn more about the culture when I visit a foreign place in the future.

There was another point Mdm Liu mentioned during her sharing: a group of boys visited China and spoke loudly in public in Singlish. When asked by the guide why they were not speaking in Chinese instead, one student replied that he was proud to be a Singaporean and he loved Singlish. This behaviour and attitude is uncalled for, as it reflects how something one should take pride in can become a tool for being arrogant. In addition, during our English lesson the next day, Mrs Ng, in teaching about the history of English, taught us how the language was once used as a means to differentiate socio-economic classes. In the first incident, Singlish was used as an instrument to divide and segregate the Singaporean boys from the Chinese. From these two incidents, I understood the importance of CQ-Action.

There is another example I can provide. During our IH lesson today, Miss Tan gave us a handout about nations without states. One example was the Tibetans, and how China is continuing to destroy its culture. I had visited and stayed in Shangri-La during the trip, and the Tibetans live there. The bus driver, who was a Mainlander, told us that despite being kind-hearted on the outside, the Tibetans hated the Chinese, for atrocities committed against them. I have no idea about the truth of the statement made, but there is one thing I am sure of. The Chinese government had downright destroyed the Tibetan’s culture, and this is an example of cultural insensitivity, which led to the deaths of over a million people.

Word count: 799 words.