WEEK TWO... My First Lesson---> Technology, Society and Global dominance

Brief Overview

         I would say this is the most interesting and interactive module i had for the whole week because of the knowledge imparted to us by prof Shahi which make me totally immersed into and also the different ideas being brought up in class. In the lesson, we went through a discussion on the dimensions of global dominance social, cultural, economic, industrial and others. After which, we proceed to watch a video in regards to the issue of rising/falling stars and dominant player in the world. Many countries like China, Indonesia, The United States were being mentioned and discussed. There were several readings being given to us to read on and the idea of eurocentric was being brought on for discussion like how the different parts of the world were being governed under the European hegemony. The lesson moved on to individual presentation where my fellow classmates presented on topic regarding social networking, world military superiority, technology influence on the brain and the extremes opinion on human futures. A video on 'Milenium Development Goals' was shown and it introduced on the eight goals that countries aim to achieve  by 2015.


Interesting Ideas and Points To takeaway

       When talking about Euro-centric mindset, it ponders upon me if we are actually living in a world where we are being brain washed and subconsciously being propaganda since young by the western culture. Despite Singapore being a country belonging to the Asia continents and comprises of more than sixty percent of Chinese population, it still reminds an issue that some Chinese still are unable to communicate in chinese and having a hard time learning them. I find this very disturbing because it is like a tiger born and  losing its killer instinct to prey on other animals. Furthermore, it always seem that in different industry especially service line, people that speak english will tend to be treated and service with respect whereas those who spoke in mandarin willl be seen as less important. This is a shocking sight that i have witnessed amost for years. It is only in the modern life where China has started to open up their market to the world that i realize more chinese finding a need to comprehend the language as it opens a path for their survival in the future. However, they took a different stand when approaching learning of mandarin as they see it as a business tool rather than learning their own cultutre and the language that they should be proud of. The influence of western culture has been dominant that as the word 'western' has carried an emotional connotation which creates a superiority over the word eastern. Asians tend to feel inferior against the westerners. Things might change as China and India is rising up to power with the rapid industrialization in their own economies which is impacting the world.

       In the reading The Colonial Holocaust and its Legacy, this idea of  'Americans accordingly celebrate the advent of their nation every October on Columbus Day, since they still largely believe that their nation was formed not through conquest but through consent' made me thinking as throughout the years on latin America the original estimated indigneous population of America decrease from approximately 80 millions to a low 210,000. A massacre was conducted in the years Columbus set foot on the land with women and children were not spared. Despite the source being one sided, i sitll find this questionable as we can see throughout the years after world war two. Whenever someone was to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, there will be an uproar of protests from the asians like China and South Korea. In germany, people still moan over the jewish genocide conducted by Hitler that killed millions of Jews but why aren't people moaning over the death or massacre of millions of native Americans that were killed and tortured? I am sure this has to do with the education system being introduced as if not for that article i would not have known that such massacre actually existed in the history as we were not exposed to them even in history lessons. Living in this diplomatic environment where it promotes freedom of speech and the space for everyone to choose whatever thing they want, is this really the world that we are going to create or just an illusion where a world that has already been created for us to follow? The world transit from trading dating back to the silk road to the current trading in term of using currency. Everything is just revolving around the european mindset during their days of dominance, in spite of China having long history, it influenced on the world was not sensed.Like what prof Shahi had mentioned the Qing dynasty was very successful in controlling the whole of China and governance under Qing Shi Huang but due to his arrogance and not opening himself to more ideas. Eventually, it led to his downfall. Hence, i learned from this is that we can be very intelligent but there is no end to learning as different people are born differently and some share different views on the same issue. We absorb and critic on the sources that are presented to us and not blindly taking them that is how we can improve.

         In the lesson, the first presenter was discussing on the social networking using facebook, twitter, friendster and many more. Personally, i felt that social networking is a way people move away from the usual traditional way of making friends where they will exchange numbers after chatting for sometime but i am not for the idea. The fact is that people tend to put on a false front when they set up an account on facebook as they will put limited information of themselves online and who would actually describe themselves in detail like their bad habits on the website. In additon to that some people just want to show that they have more friends thus randomly adding people whom they might not know or never seen before. This results in many people not willing to go out there to make more friends as 'making friends' is just a click away. Furthermore, people treat the online platform as a place where they voice out everything and forgetting that it is always a platform that is transparent where anyone can trace it. Hence, this led them to political trouble like the recent YOG incident where the guy posted comment on the food and was being caught and punished. Employers nowadys also use the social network to filter out their potential employees like checking out on the person facebook to see how the person look like and wad is his or her past time. I find this very superficial as how can one base the talent or quality the person might possess on merely some online platform. However, i would not deny the fact that social networking can generate business opportunities for people to advertise their products online and also to promote values to others take for example the recent Japanese online game where gamer have to farm and harvest food that in return they will actually receive the real food. Th motive of this game was to promote japanese to eat more vegetable and also to help the agriculture sector.

Lesson Rating

      I would rate the lesson as 8/10 beacuse i truly enjoy the way the lesson is taught with many ideas being thrown into the clas for discussion and the use of videos to illustrate different opinions to the class. I will look forward to the next session with better preparation on the reading materials.

Week 1--Lesson 1( miss out the enjoying session)

   It actually took me quite a while before i started typing this blog because i totally was lost on how to start off. After hearing comments from my friends on how fun and exciting the class was in the first lessons in Prof Shahi, it is definitely regrettable that i could not be present as i only managed to get it on Wednesday afternoon.

Brief Overview:

          Nonetheless, i have read through the lecture slides being uploaded in smuvista and watched the YouTube on "Gun,Germs and steel" showing the journey of Jared Diamond. All these actually give me an idea of wad technology and world change(TWC) is about. Although TWC is an university core module in SMU, i would still take this up as a module because this is a topic that will intrigue people to think on and want to find out more about it as it happens around us everyday and everywhere we go.

          Technology has indeed constituted to many development and growth in this millennium as we witness town burgeon into city take for example Fuzhou in China which has now been considered one of the top 10 fast growing cities. In my own perspectives, i have always pondered over this question that is Can human live without technology in today context? Undeniably, humans are able to adopt to the environment with the aid of technology but can they survive without it? Everything has been made so easy for us. Traveling to another countries was never easy in the past, but now with just a phone call away we can book a flight ticket to the desired destination. From the lecture slides, i have seen different aspect of technology being focused on which are:

1. Information and Communications Technology
2. Life Science and Biobusiness- related technologies
3. Energy and Industrial Production Technologies
4. Emerging Technologies (including nanotechnology, robotics, other exciting technology areas)

        Despite not being able to attend the first class, i am sure i will enjoy the subsequent classes where i wil be able to expose to different sources of information, open discussion on exciting topics and equipping myself with ample knowledge on this topic to make critical and efficient decision.

Interesting Observations and Points:

       I can only discuss my observation from the video on Guns, Germs and steels due to the absence in class. However, the video is definitely very enriching knowledge and points to contemplate about. Thoughts were running through my head after watching the video. The part where the new Guinean question Diamond on why are the whites have more cargoes than them kept me wondering. Looking at the advanced technology that we are having like touch screen phones, machines, vehicles and many more, the new Guineans are still using traditional ways to live like harvesting using the tools they made. Men across the world has developed differently to adapt to their surrounding and Prof Diamond has stated that is the land or rather the geography of the areas that has caused such differences between people living in New Guinea and The United States.

     Despite the harsh condition that is posed in the earliest days, people were able to build structures that were strong and comfortable for both storage of their resources and accommodation. This definitely impressed me because they have limited amount of resources being presented to them but they can fully utilise them to their benefits. From this, it really shows me how impressive mankind can be when they seek for survival. The ability to overcome all odds to achieve what they want. However, this kind of determination and fighting spirit have become rare as younger generations are born into a world where everything is provided for. Things are progressing very fast now as more and more new gadgets are appearing in our world. Take for example the electronic industries where it is now moving towards the 3D platform where High Definition(HD) TV has just been introduced to the market. The changes from dial up to wireless network all around the world now


Key takeaway messages:

       I feel that no matter how far we have progressed throughout the centuries, we must not forget the human instinct of ability to adapt any environment that we faced. Bring that instinct out to make the world around us even better to live in, everyone is born in different areas of the world. However, we must not let those obstacle to stop us from living our lives to the fullest and to enjoy the things we do. Despite being born in an era where almost everything has been developed, it is not an excuse to sit back and enjoy a free ride on. There are definitely grounds waiting for us to make a breakthrough thus it is important that the instinct to continue to strive for the best is brought out to lead us forward.



I will absolutely look forward to my next lesson and learning more on how the world actually changes with the technology..