Opiviews's Weblog

Technology & Environment (Wk 14)

opiviews — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:22:27 +0000

In recent decade, there is an ongoing fervor on the usage of nuclear power to provide us with the energy we need. Some encourage while others oppose the idea after witnessing the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Although it can provide us with clearer and efficient energy, there are certain problems which still pose as great unknowns to us. Hence in my opinion, I feel that nuclear power is a sensitive topic and should be carefully considered before it is carried out.

Firstly, nuclear energy setup required great amount of funding and it acquisition may result in stratification amongst nations. “ A new 1000-megawatt nuclear plant costs $1.5 to $2.0 billion and takes at least five years to construct” (Nuclear Energy Now, 2007, Wiley Bicentennial Logo). Price at this amount, not many countries will be able to afford and those countries who can will be stratified from those who can’t. As developed countries such as France and Britain who can afford to construct such technologies are seen as being at the fro-font of social advancement. In a world where energy increasingly become more sacred, investors or MNC may consider locate their firms where energy is abundant for operations. Oil, a major source of energy, give OPEC nations political power on the world stage. Similarly, in the future, those who control energy source will commend great political power. Thus there will be competition amongst countries for nuclear energy acquisition and those governments who are too eager for it may start its construction at the expense of their people.

Secondly, despite the fact that nuclear power plants produce lesser waste than fuel burning, its waste can still be deadly if not disposed of properly. Unlike nuclear power, natural gas and fossil fuel do not produce radio active byproducts after combustion. Although these byproducts do contributed to air-borne health problems and greenhouse effects, their impact on the human population is not as detrimental as radioactive waste have on humans. Mankind has witnessed past nuclear related incidents in Chernobyl and Japan which resulted in severe deformation and even deaths in human. Worst still, the effects are longer lasting than expected. Those families who living several radar-range from the Chernobyl incidents site experienced severe health problems even after several generations.

In addition, what is the most controversial is the disposal site of nuclear energy waste. The disposal of nuclear energy waste has to be carefully handled to prevent it from being a hazard to humans. However, once the land is chosen to be a burial site for nuclear waste, it would be rendered useless due to infertility. United States has targeted the Yucca Mountains in Nevada to be disposal sites, but many opposed such moves as the lands’ nature would be forgo forever once decisions are confirmed. It would not be fair to those currently living in the area given the sentimental attachment the people would have towards the place. Hence the selection process would be another problem as consensus would be hard to achieve.

References:

Nuclear Energy Now, 2007, Wiley Bicentennial Logo, Alan M. Herbst & George W.Hopley

Technology (wk 13)

opiviews — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:23:13 +0000

Even since we corporate technology into our lives, we experienced unprecedented changes and conveniences. Society is never the same. Unlike yesterday, technology allowed us to connect with each other across continents without having to meet each other face to face, our traveling time has also reduced from months to hours. On the other hand, weapons of mass destruction continued to be constructed and refined by an ever increasing number of countries across the globe, some even at the expense of the people. This week, I would like to bring the attention to the internet, the marvelous creation of the 20^th century. As it increasingly becomes an important part of our life, its impact on society cannot be underestimated.

Formation of the internet has allowed us to connect and to exchange ideas and information across continents and oceans in split seconds. Instructions regarding work can be conducted without much delay as important pieces of news can be sent from anywhere anytime as long as there is internet connection. However, given the great influx of information and commentary exchanges, it is relatively hard to monitor what is being sent at a given time. Moreover, the fact that web posts and commentaries could be deleted and posted as desired made monitoring all the more difficult. In the process, it is very hard to keep track of the information exchange and the impact it has on both the recipient and the sender. Positive information exchange would aid in building social networking and learning process of the user while negative commentaries may have psychological impact on the user. The recently suicidal case of several Korean actors and actresses were investigated to be results of vicious commentary attack on the victims by the internet community. Technology is only a tool for us to pursuit our own interests and the freedom on the internet allows space for verbal bullying to take place without having to speak to the individual in person. In the case of one of the victims, actress Choi Jin-Sil(#1), she succumbed to depression under pressure by the overwhelming harsh criticism of the cyberspace community. This was not discovered until the death of several other actors and actresses. While technology has made information transaction faster, it has also made bullying easier and more effective than before through collective effort via cyberspace communities. At the same time, technology has also prevented negative gestures from being detected and prevented quickly thus making restrictive measures against internet bullying all the more challenging.

On the other hand, the internet has become an alternative and viable means for groups of people who want other to hear their voice. In some societies where civil participation in the process of nation building is controlled, internet served as an alternative and informal way for those people who want to convey their message across their society. Rising civilian journalism in forms of blogging and video recordings in many countries show the view of the respective nation from the citizens’ point of view. We are able to see the real side of a country other than from formal newspapers and new reports which only show us one perceptive of it. For an example, Malaysian political blogger, Raja Petra’s(#2) open discussion of politics and flaws in Malaysia’s political circle not only allowed others to join in his fight for more freedom of speech in Malaysia but also served as an civilian checkup on government’s activities through his scrutiny of the local political scene. At the same time, it also promotes open discussions on issues and encourage others to push for changes which will make Malaysia society a better one to live in. Opening up of such discussion forums online allows the average citizens a say and participation in something which they have a chance to take part in. More voices can be heard and interests represented. In a way, technology does allow the average individual a say in matters which they once do not have a chance to participant in. Thus in a way, technology does aid in advancement of society by maximizing the interests represented by the people, something which even governments of certain countries have yet to achieve.

Sources/References:

#1) source from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/technology/internet/13suicide.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin, New York Times, article: Korean Star’s Reignites Debate on Web Regulation, 12 Oct 2008

#2) source from http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62046072,00.htm , ZD Net Asia, Malaysia Blogger Raja Petra Detained, 12 Sep 2008

Population & Health(wk 12)

opiviews — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:42:55 +0000

Just as Sernau has mentioned in his book, “ the poor die young” while the relative more affluent faced the problem of aging population. Despite advancement in technology research, death rate in developing countries due to illness and diseases is higher as compared to developed nations. The speed of the society to recover from demises depend on the actions and the responses of the authorities. In addition, humanitarian efforts by supranational institutions are not always smooth sailing as corruption poses as a stumbling stone in the process.

Action and responses from the government is an important determinant of the welfare of the people, especially in time of natural disaster or crisis. Different level of response from the government would translate into different health consequences for the people and society. In Myanmar after cyclone Nargis, Burmese saw little action from the ruling military regime. The ruling junta did not take much immediate relief efforts and most of the hard hit areas were left in disdain. Initially, the junta’s actions might be comprehended by some as owing to the lack of resources to help those in need. Yet surprisingly, they refused and restricted foreign aids and relief efforts from international NGO organization. The regime finally succumbed to international pressure and opened its door partially to international aid organization. Unfortunately, death tolls mount to about 100 000# due to delay in humanitarian actions. Even till today, much homes of victims have yet to be constructed. Compare this situation to the Sichuan Earthquake, where immediate relief efforts are taken by the government, the Sichuan people are already on the road of recovery months after the mega natural disaster. Awareness was raised through the media by the Chinese government to seek humanitarian aid for the people. Whereas for the Myanmar ruling junta, they rather faced accelerating death tolls then to open the country to external aid or even internal humanitarian efforts.

Contrasting the two scenarios, welfare and lives of the population are on the stake of government actions. Sichuan people would definitely healed relatively faster, both psychologically and physically then the Burmese. The trust of the Chinese society towards the authority is increased as they are seen as being reliable and responsible for the society. On the other hand, Burmese are seen as being self reliant with strong community bonding, helping one another during the crisis as they realized that the ruling junta is unreliable.

Furthermore, efforts by supranational institutions are not always successful due to underlying factors such as corruption which steals the rightful medical care benefits from the people. In the after midst of Cyclone Nargis, the Myanmar ruling junta restricted visa durations and other visiting regulations of aid organizations. As a result or rather from request from the ruling elites themselves, provision goods are passed to local volunteers and businessmen to be distributed to hard reached areas instead. Yet, despite requests from supranational organization to take photos to prove the reception of goods by victims, many cyclone victims did not received the provisions which are especially prepared for them. For those who received, the goods are either outdated or spoilt. Evidence of emergence of a black market selling provision goods by some of the very businessmen who had promised NGOs immediate distribution of such goods posed great obstacle to the organization to deliver aid to the group who needed them the most. Most saddening was the news of the ruling juntas stocking up the provision goods for themselves, distributing their outdated locally produced stock piles instead. The entrenched corruption level exposed put the ruling elites themselves as a barrack to humanitarian efforts by the supranational institutions. Thus corruption and social immoral behaviors are stumbling stones to the health of the population in time of crisis.

References:
The TIME magazine, May 19 2008, pg 26-27
The Economist, May 24 2008, article: Asia: A modest opening; Myanmar after the cyclone, pg 86
Global Corruption Report 2006, Transparency International 2006, Pluto Press

Urbanisation(wk 11)

opiviews — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:35:45 +0000

With rapid industrialization , urbanization has become an ongoing fervor within major cities around the world. It has impacted our society conditions and cultures.

Urbanization has become a norm within capitals and cities around the global. Cities have become the power house of the nation and economic opportunities for the rest of the people. Many living in rural areas come to the cities to escape from harsh agriculture life. For these people, the city represents the their dream for a better life. However, not many succeed, some only come to find that it is worst than their original rural life. Farmers in rural China has moved to major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. However, many live in squatters and slums while making a living out of livestock. Other set up small businesses such as eateries and agriculture product sales. The more fortunate ones may experience business boom and live their dream lives but most have to struggle in order to survive. Increase in inter immigration in China has resulted in dense and overpopulated conditions in the cities. Popular shopping malls in Shanghai is so crowd that people rubbed shoulder to shoulder in order to move from one location to the other. Overpopulation has reduced the pleasantness of the city but this did not reduced the number of immigrants who flooded into the cities to find jobs each year. As a result, living space has shrunk as living conditions become denser. The only way out is to immigrant overseas or purchase spacious housing. However, these are only achievable for those who can afford them.

Urbanisation also brings in a great influx of culture into the city. It acts as a financial congregation center for the country. People from various part of the globe congregate in the city to accomplish business assignments. Some would stay, some just visit the place. In the process, they would bring along with them their own sets of cultural practices and tradition. This adds colour to the cultures of the city as various ethnic practices converge in one place. In Shanghai, one can find Singapore curry head and laksa restaurants along the streets. In addition, Mongolia milk tea and Sichuan spicy dishes are a crazy amongst the locals. More international food such as upscale cafés, Japanese sushi restaurants or Italian food outlets set up by expatriates can all be found within a few steps from each other. Thus the overall culture atmosphere becomes more diverse, this benefit

However, isolation from the local community may result in the setting up of ethnic enclaves which may sometimes give rise to social problems such as crimes. Due to income stratification between the rural immigrants and the locals, who are relatively more well off, feelings of isolation and disappointment is inevitable (many in the city are car owners and uptown restaurants are mostly patronized by locals who are served by rural immigrants). Thus in times of desperation, they seen it as being justified to steal from the relatively richer locals. This is made easy for the rural immigrants as squatter areas and high-rise apartment blocks are usually built side by side to each other, constantly reminding the immigrants that they are lower in the social income hierarchy. Unfortunately, many find it hard to assimilate into the local community due to local prejudices toward the immigrants. For an example, many perceived the immigrants to be mainly responsible to the high crime rate in the city even though not all are committed by the rural immigrants.( theft increase by 20-fold in Shanghai from 1981 to 1995 source from

References:

1) Urbanization and Social welfare in China, Aimin Chen, Gordon G.Liu and Kevin H.Zhang Ashgate Publishing , 2004

2) Space, the city and social theory. Fran Tonkiss, 2005, Polity Press

Aimin Chen, Gordon G.Liu and Kevin H.Zhang Ashgate Publishing , 2004)’s the locals who are able to experience the different things other than their own cultural practices. For locals in Shanghai, they will be able to learn more about the cultures of their fellow countrymen from northern or other parts of China, which differs to some great degree from theirs.

Identity and Politics(wk 10)

opiviews — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:28:59 +0000

Identity plays a significant role of defining who we are according to our religion, race and history. However, it does not ultimately determines who we really are. Yet in modern societies, we relied heavily upon identity in determining and anticipate how the ‘significant other’ will behave. As a result, identity factors such as religion and race become deciding factors in how others will get to be treated. In many cases, identity had been used as a tool to achieve certain social goals.

In popular saying; One’s terrorist may be another’s freedom fighter, in the case of the ongoing Palestinian and Israeli conflict, it is a conflict between two identities of which both strived to gain recognition and respect for their identity. In this on-going conflict, people of both nations tied religion to nationalism as part of their identity. Since land is equated to recognition and respect of one’s identity in this scenario, Palestinians strongly felt that the occupation of their by the Israelis is an infringement upon their identity. They are not given respected or recognition by the Israelis who viewed them as “proxy agents of the Arab states, rather as oppressed actors in their own rights” ( Jason Franks, 2006; 27, palgrave marcillan). In order to further reiterated this point, Israelis encourage their people to build settlements in the occupied territories of West Bank#. Clearly, the Israelis refused to acknowledge the Palestinians. Furthermore, considering the basis of being both humans, the Palestinians had lesser rights and privileges as compared to the Israelis (Job priorities are given to Jews rather than Palestinians). Israeli communities are more well off, organized and economically robust while the Palestinians are a deprived lot with little attention paid by the ruling Israeli government to their basic needs. Looking from air, the vast difference in living condition is staking across a wall. Identity has a great impact on society as it serves as a deciding factor on whether recognition and respect are to be given even though basic respect is expected by one towards another in the Geneva human rights accord. Thus in the case of the Palestinians, it is a struggle for their identity and recognition more than privileges and special rights. Giving consideration to this, terrorist acts in Israel is sometimes seen as justified and empathetic.

Identity in terms of religion in some instance does justified the lack of morality in actions by a group of people towards another even if they are of the same race. The recent saddening genocide in Darfur, Sudan is due to a “competing political claims over the national identity of Sudan” (Idris Amir, 2005; 44, palgrave marcillan) Given the history of Sudan, politic identity and racialism are main issues revolving around nation building since post colonial times. Sudan President, al-Bashir, wish to instill Islam as the state religion and to create a state identity, however, he did not give recognition and acknowledgement to the non-Arabs. The mass massacre of non muslims in Darfur today is an attempt by al-Bashir to unify and to conform the people of Darfur to his envisioned Arabic state. In his effort, the state support janjaweeds had resulted in 300 000# deaths and 2.5 million displaced people in Darfur. This crime against humanity is justified by al-Bashir in name of nation building and identity cleansing. Identity has the power to determine the survival of the Darfur people. In this instance, it is being used to command conformity amongst the non muslims of southern Sudan to the northern because the diverse cultures of the southern people is not being accepted.

# (Reference):
Source from: http://www.mideastweb.org/nutshell.htm, copyright 2003-2007 by MidEastWeb for Coexistence and Ami Isserof

source from http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/07/europe/EU-France-Sudan.php , The International Herald copyright 2008, article: France extremely worried about Darfur situation by The Associated Press, 7 Oct 2008

Democracy and Human Rights (Wk 9)

opiviews — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:52:18 +0000

After the end of Cold War, we see a the reign of democracy in many countries. Democracy, according to Sernau (2006) is a social contract between the government, where the government can be considered to be under the scrutiny of its people and where it is the people’s voice that is being heard. This system is becoming more and more popular as it is a more preferable option as compared to socialism and communism after the cold war era. Despite the success of this political model in many western countries, many nations are still trying to adjust their political systems to it. In the process, much obstacles are faced.

Democracy allowed the participation of all the people within a nation. However, not all democratic countries put democracy into complete practice. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe is elected repeatedly since 1988. He strived to achieve a one-party domination within a nation which called itself a republic. Sadly, there is no one powerful enough to oppose him even though its demographics and inflation rate of 11 million percent are the most daunting in the world. The denial of electoral win of opposition and oppression of opposition leaders such as Morgan Tsvangirai through violence shows democracy is not truly put to practice.Elections are conducted as rituals and the results are not recognized by the government. The voice of the people is actually unheard. To Zimbabawe people, the word democracy has little more than face value, actual process of integrating the nation into a democratic republic is hindered and stagnated by Robert Mugube who should hand over the legacy to suitable and capable successors.

Democracy entails fair competition between political candidates. When corruption sets in, election results do no reflect the true intentions of the people and the candidate elected may not be able to cater to the interests of the people. In India, pictures of government MPs offering wads of cashes to anyone who would vote for them in an attempt to pull polls for their respective political parties. According to Kuldip Nayar, a political analyst and former High Commissioner to Britain, votes can be obtained by unofficial way other than through appropriate voting procedures. Hence, we can say that not all of the votes speaks of the people’s voices. The votes were manipulated by some of the politicians to prolong their stay in the office so as to increase the duration for them to increase their personal gains. This corruptive practice runs counter to the actual aim of having elections and a democratic party system. Corruption ultimately prevent the people’s voices from being heard and their interests catered to.

Lastly, though it is tempting to void for democracy due to its attractive ideas of free speech, mass political participation and representation of various interest, not all countries are prepared for this political model. Masses must of informed and educated of their rights before they take great measures to rally for any particular causes. In a vastly diverse cultural country such as Indonesia, democracy has given rise to regular social unrest which greatly hurt to the country’s economy. East Timour rallied for independence while radical Muslims run counter with moderate ones. Each ethnic and religious groups want their interests to be respected and represented. Their vigorous spirit is especially so after decades of oppression by Suharto. Although more voices of the people can be heard, but the diversity floodgate which is released by democracy results in a lack of unity within the country. Steps should be taken to inform the public of the possible consequence of their actions so as to remind them of the responsibilities which they would shoulder as a result of their actions.

War (wk 7)

opiviews — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:12:10 +0000

War was always in existence, from time of ancient civilizations to modern day nation-states. Wars are fought for many reasons for which some are tangible, over resources and power, whereas others are fought over intangible things like ideology, pride and values. Yet today’s modern war, it is getting more and more difficult in differentiating the exact cause behind wars. The latest could be said of the armed offensive between Russia and Georgia. This short armed conflict attracted global attention, under this context, both countries would face implications which are unforeseen in previous wars.

What caught my attention the most was reason behind this armed offense between the two countries which held on for several weeks. According to an article by Russian foreign minister, they are fighting in name of honor, to protest their fellow countrymen who are dispersed in another country. However, according to western media sources such as the Economists, Times magazines and the International Herald Tribune, Russia’s involvement in this armed offensive was due to a revival of their expansionist idea to recover the lost Russia empire. Given her past territorial glories, Russia is anticipated to attempt to claim back some of her lands although no actions have yet taken despite mentioning of interests. The relationship between Moscow and the territories can be said to be very similar to the situation between Tibet and China. Yet interestingly, american media tends to portray her in an extremely negative light, condemning her tactics as expansionist in nature. From history, South Ossetian has always wanted to gain independence from Georgia since the start of the 20^th century. Sandwiched between Georgia and Russia, it holds strategic position to both countries. Involvement of both countries shown their respective vested interests in the country. Attempts by Georgia to assert their authority in South Ossetian maybe a respond to the reason of lack of territorial integrity which result in their application to join the NATO. While on the other hand, Russia’s involvement may be an act in defense of her fading authority over past territories, especially since she is no longer regard as a superpower after the dissolve of Soviet Union. Indeed, this is an example of current day warfare over intangibles such as global political status.

In addition, although war cannot be completely eliminated, both internally and externally, it has acquired an economic dimension which discourage many to engage in it. Economy has long replaced territories on many countries’ priority list. Russia’s involvement in South Ossetian and Georgia severely affected her economy as investors pulled out of the country in fear of further military advancement. This explained the world’s objection towards the Russian’s armed offense to it former territories, many fear than it may trigger more territorial disputes in other parts of the world, destroying potential investment areas. According to Sernau(2006), places with a MacDonald restaurants are highly unlikely to go to war due to economic reasons. Even terrorist groups required financial aid to support their cause, such cases like the Tamil Tigers and the JI Muslim extremist group which encourage donations and rely on commercial operations for funding. As a result, we have yet and may not be to a large scale counter-attacks on governments. Rather civilians are the ones who bore most of the brunt of terrorist or armed conflict in forms of suicide bombings and insurgent activities.

References:

1. source from http://rbth.rg.ru/articles/2008/09/01/310808_west.html, 1 Sep 2008, Article: Minister faults west in Georgia by Sergey Lavrov

2. source from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/world/europe/09georgia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2, article: Russia and Georgia clashed over separatist region, 8 Aug 2008, by Michael Schwirtz, Anne Barnard and C.J.Chivers

3. Times magazine, 25/8/08, pg 19, Article: Staring down the Russians by Zbigniew Brezezinski,

4. source from http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSN1753316520080917?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0 , article: UPDATE 1-Russian markets paying price for Georgia action-US, 17 Sep 2008, copyrights 2008 Reuters

Crime (wk 6)

opiviews — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 06:02:52 +0000

Crime has always been able to withstand the passing of time, from ancient empires to modern day society. Aims of criminals differ but they mainly strived to gain more materialistically through illegal means. Our inability to entirely wipe out crimes is due to social, cultural and political conditions that are a ever presence in any society.

Compared to organized crimes which involved mafias, drugs or money laundering, we are more susceptible to technology based crimes such as identity thefts and fauds. Data mining cookies can easily creep into our system as we are surfing the net and abstracted valuable information from us to be used for illegal purposes. In other cases, merely opening an unknown email will expose us to such threats. According to ( Gartner)research done in the United States, about 28 and a half people become victims to data mining#. Furthermore, it was (released by the Ponemon Institute in October 2006), found that information losses cost U. S. companies an average of $182 per compromised record, an increase of about 31% from 2005 ($138 per record). We succumbed more to information robbery as we exposed ourselves to the internet everyday. Moreover, what is so dangerous about data mining was the fact that the crime was committed by a anonymous person to use our personal information to gain monetary benefits without our rights or room for us to catch the culprit. Thus as compared to global organized crimes, we are more vulnerable to dangers lurking close to us. This is especially since globalization and the advancement of technology allowed flexibility and opportunity for the culprits to commit crimes.

Economic fact is one of the main motivation for many to be involved in crimes. Across various gangs and criminal organization, members are recruited from low income families. According to Peter.B.E.Hill, around 43% of the yakuza mafia in 1989 #came from single parent families, which had a lower income compared to families with two working parents. In 2000, Mexicans owned more than half of 15 to 20 international drug cartels#. Most Mexicans who joined in the illegal trade in hope of escaping poverty in their own country. Especially in a country which the government is not doing enough to care for the people’s welfare and in which criminals, gangs and drugs are rampant. There seemed few options left for the people, who either chose to smuggle illegally into America to find jobs or to join in the lucrative drug trade. Another similar case is poaching in Africa. Many Africans turned to poaching as a way of survival instead of gaining monetary benefits. To these impoverished people, the idea of illegalness of the trade no longer has any implication on them as they struggle to live. Over the world, much of the crimes are committed as people have little options to choose from in order to live a comfortable live. Hence, both education and welfare needed to be given to them in order to discourage unlawful acts.

References:
1) sourced from http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/publish/m_facts/Facts_and_Statistics.shtml by Identity Theft Resource Center, 30/4/07

2) The Japanese Mafia, Peter B.E.Hill, Oxford University Press, 2006

3) Organized Crime, Paul Lunde,Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2004

Women (wk 5)

opiviews — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:28:58 +0000

Today, we see the births in Singapore getting lower and lower. Declining birth rate is a problem for many developed countries like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. What has caused this to happen? Clear examination of the changing role of women in our society and the impact of these changes give me some clue behind the falling number of babies born each year.

More women are receiving higher education than before. Education not only inspires women, but also opened more opportunities to women in terms of career and choices. The 16% increase in number of professional and technical job hold by women over the last decade, from 13% of total work force in 1987 to about 29% in 1997(reference 1), proved the penetration of more higher educated women into sectors that are traditionally dominated by their male counterparts. Women now are better informed of their rights and options then before, hence many are inspired to experience and taste life instead of conforming to household too early. As a result, accompanying the rising literacy and higher education rate is inclining marriage age. Age of female at first marriage rose from 25.8 in 1996 to 27.2 in 2007(reference 2) as more and more Singaporean women give priority to their careers as marriage means an end to their pursuits of a rewarding career. Delay in marriage age means that the number of optimum years for child bearing is reduced, families may not be able to reproduce more if they desired later on. This is a result of the changing role of women in Singapore’s society as they moved away from traditional to work orientated.

Despite the provision of baby bonus scheme from the local government for working mums since 2004, local fertility rate did not increase by any significance. Singapore women are still very reluctant to have children, especially for those who already have had a child. Globalization meant higher competition between firms and in order to secure profit, employers refused to cut back on efficiency. This would pose a problem for working mums in Singapore who found their employers not compromising on their pregnancy leave, some even found their positions to be given to others after returning from their leave. According to Ms Cynthia Yap, after taking an extra month’s no pay leave, not only her employer did not give her any bonus, her portfolio was also given to another person. Ms Yap’s effect to give more attention to her child was not very well accepted by her employers (reference 3). Ms Yap was not the only one, many working mums were faced with the same counter-family policies problem in their companies.

Unfortunately, given the persistence price hike (highest inflation rate in 26 years), working parents cannot afforded to become full time mothers, especially if their husbands’ income is insufficient to support the whole family. Just as Sernau(2006) had mentioned, although the modern women is overburdened, she could not stop working. In case of Singapore, the economic context has locked women in work Our fertility rate fall from 1.69 in 1997 to 1.29 in 2007 even though total female labor participation rate remains around a little over 50% from the past 5 years. Now, despite the incentives, few would want to have more children especially since cost of rising a child is much higher than before.

Reference:

1.Year Book of Statistics Singapore, 2008, Singapore Department of Statistics

2.Year Book of Statistics Singapore, 2008, Singapore Department of Statistics

3.‘Today’ newspaper, 21 August 2008, Wednesday, article: “ Your Career Or Your Kids” , pg3

Work & Trade (wk 4)

opiviews — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:26:17 +0000

Work has evolved from subsistence farming to operating multiple machines and mounting paper work. Accompany the change are growing social and economical problems as too much emphasis is given to the economy. According to Ellen Frank, advisors of delegates dispatch for WTO assembly are mostly corporate representatives and the delegates themselves are usually drawn from the ranks of trade ministries and financial institution. With few presence of economic-social representatives in the international organization, workers’ interests is over-looked on a regular basis. Solutions to discussions are tailored more towards promoting economic growth with little attention paid to employees’ welfare. Thus MNCs can easily move their manufacturing plants from one country to another as there is little resistence, aside from the local government or workers’ union, meeting them as they pulled out from countries and leave many jobless. The lack of sufficient official internationally recognized barriers has given this tactic much room for growth.

With great capital and economic influence, giant corporations may be the very ones who are trapping developing countries in acute poverty. MNCs are the ones who are able to give millions in developing nations a livelihood. However, this also means that the governments in these countries may be dependant on foreign firms to feed their people. This dependence would translate into substain poverty for those who do not have the power to change their fate. As MNCs mainly used developing countries as hinterland for growing raw materials for their production, there is little room for industrialization development to take place. If this is the case, industries in these countries will find it difficult to advance to tertiary level. In case of Rwanda, majority of its people grow coffee beans to meet the world’s demand for gourmet coffee (eg. Starbucks and Coffee Bean). Yet there is little left for the farmers to upgrade themselves are middlemen, exporters and shippers cutting the farmers’ sale price to subsistence level.( Clark, 2007) The dependency theory would mean that many developing nations will very much be trapped in poverty for a long time.

On the social level, the governments in some nations are not doing enough to prevent social problems such as child labor. Regulations and restrictions are not strict enough. In addition, more public provision can be provided so that it will discourage families from sending their children to work. For example in India, children are sent to work to support their family. Even though there is restriction on the employers who employed the children, but there are no restrictions on the parents who send their children there. Public awareness on the working conditions of these children may not be sufficient so much so that the parents are not informed of the harsh conditions which their children are under.

Referece:
Elle Frank, The Dollar and Sense Collective, The World Trade Organization, March/April 2000, www.dollarandsense.org

Taylor Clark, Starbuked, 2008, Sceptre