Lesson 2: Dimensions of Global Dominance, Technology and Human Development

Part 1: Dimensions of Global Dominance

In class, there were many points discussed. Firstly, we discussed if China is the largest economy today since it has already overtaken Japan in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to be 2nd in the world. Indeed, China is growing at an alarming rate and many are speculating that in the near future, it will soon be on par, or even overtake the United States. However, I do not think that merely using the GDP is a good gauge for the development of a country. We have to recognize the other factors such as standard of living, health standards, literacy rate, and life expectancies of it's citizens in order to make a fair judgment. In my opinion, China is vastly improving in these areas and personally think that in the near future, China will indeed be on par with, or even overtake the United Stated to be the world's superpower.

The Second point discussed in class was about what we should all look at when we talk about a society or country being dominant. Prof then showed us a diagram of how a rising star has the characteristics of being open to new ideas, having a hunger to learn from others and is willing to invest in new ideas. On the contrary, a falling star has all the opposite characteristics. This diagram was thought-provoking. Take for example countries such as Singapore and China, where both countries were open to learn from countries all around the world and were willing to invest in new ideas. Hence, they got where they are today. If we were to analyze it carefully, this concept actually applies not only to countries or companies; it actually applies to us as a personal level as well! In order to grow and be successful as a person, we have to keep an open perspective, be receptive to new ideas and adapt to changes.

Thirdly, Prof wrote a statement on the whiteboard at the back of class today. It wrote: "Change is inevitable and often necessary, the transition process can often be difficult or painful for some." Indeed, no one can deny that change is inevitable, and very often for our own good! However, it is the process of going through the change that puts a toll on us. We can take ourselves for example. We have all changed from being a student from pre-tertiary education institutes, to a university undergraduate. It is only for the better good of our futures, however, it is the process that is difficult and painful. I reckon some of us, including myself, can already feel the pain. However, the main point is not about the pain, but rather how quickly we adapt and overcome the pain to emerge a better person. As a very famous saying goes: "NO PAIN, NO GAIN!"

We then had a presentation by Ellen, who posed the question of whether Americanization is necessarily evil. Personally, I feel that there are both pros and cons to Americanization. For example, their nature of being open to new ideas and their freedom of expression and speech allows their people to voice their views and bring about improvements to the society or policies that they deem incorrect. Hence, Americanization is definitely not necessarily evil. Also, another question posed was how cultural diversity can be promoted via technology. I guess the answer to that is simply by media. It is through media we learn about the different cultures of different races, and learn to respect them.

Part 2: Technology and Human Development

In the second part of lesson, we discussed the different dimensions of development, namely social, economic, industrial/technological, cultural, human, and sustainability. As mentioned earlier in my first point, the development of countries or society as a whole should not be looked at from a single development factor, but really to look at it as a whole. Examples of such factors are:

• Social development which mainly consists of the education, health care, and living standards.
• Economic development which mainly consists of the GDP or income per capita of the people in the country. However, I feel this might not be a good gauge. Take for an example a country such as Indonesia, where the rich only gets richer, while the poor gets poorer. Their GDP and income per capita may still rise, however, they are not really developing as a whole as it is basically only the rich that are growing in wealth!
• Industrial and technological development comes in very closely with sustainability. Important as it is to develop industrially, it is just as crucial that we are able to sustain it for the future generations to come.

We then also talked about the Millennium Development Goals. I felt that the goals were very closely related to globalization. It is only via globalization that we will enable us to fulfill the goals. Though lofty, I feel that they are attainable, it's only a matter of time. The rich around the world are already starting to play their part. Take for example the list of 40 billionaires who recently pledged to donate away half of their wealth. I find this applaudable and it lifts one's heart to read such news. 

We then had 3 more presentations from students, however I will only expand on one, which was presented from Nickolas. The key point I got was without agriculture, human development would not have taken place. Indeed, it is through the specialization and the splitting of responsibilities that allowed human development to take place. The example used by Nickolas was how the farmer would be in charge of farming while the specialist would come out with new ways and technology to make the farmer's life easier. Hence, more crops were harvested. After analyzing, we can see this happening in companies and major corporations throughout the world. Where responsibilities are split up so that more specialization could take place in order for the corporation to continue improving.

At the end of lesson, Prof concluded by asking us whether we are better able to answer Yali's question of why the white men had so much cargo while the New Guineans had so little. After the lesson, I felt that it is due to the westerners who were open to new ideas and were willing to invest and expand on them. This helped them build up their wealth. However I feel that this is just a part of the answer and more answers can be found in the following lessons to come!

I would rate this lesson an 8.5/10 as it was a real thought provoking lesson with questions being posed with ever presentation and I got the chance to learn from my fellow peers and caught a glimpse of their ideas and insights. It was a real enlightening session.

Once again, see all you guys next week in class! (:

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-