Energy’s life changing

Over the years, numerous scientific inventions have been shaped by humans’ needs and activities and vice versa. The human thirst for knowledge has fuelled the discoveries of the different type of energies, leading to the creation of invention using these energies to increase humans’ efficiency and in certain cases, even completely replaced human labour. Throughout history, transportation, has shaped and been shaped by humans’ needs. The different types of engines used have changed throughout the years, changing the type of energies used to power those engines.

 

The first type of engine invented was the steam engine running on the energy produced by steam. With this, physical strength used to travel by feet was rendered unnecessary for steam engines were able to power steamboats to transport both people and commodities. Transportation or travelling was less tedious and can be done with a simple act of purchasing train tickets. However, the sheer size of the steam engines accounted for the huge size of the cars then, making it very expensive to own. The constant tending of the engine to ensure sufficient water to keep the engine running was another reason why trains was preferred over cars at that time. People rather spend the money (for train tickets) and time (to accommodate the trains’ schedule) for the comfort of a smooth ride to their destination. (since there were workers employed to keep check on the engines) To own a car then was expensive, extremely tiring to maintain (the constant stops to check on the engines) and troublesome. (the roads might be underdeveloped) This lead to the boom of trains as the most efficient transport and this efficiency could have affected spatial arrangement. Towns and areas of commerce might be built close to trains stations for ease of trade while villages and areas of living might be built further away from trains stations for fear of pollution. This will then lead to a distinct division of area between work and play.

 

Internal combustion energy is the next generation of engine produced to run on energy with petrol as its source. The combustion engine is easy to use and most importantly, it is small, leading to the production of smaller cars. This will then translate to more space driving on the road and more parking lots on the same amount of space. The small size of the combustion engine also meant it could be used to power almost anything, from car to sewing machines. It was easy to maintain, requiring a constant check on the petrol level of the engine. Especially since the assembly line for cars were made specialized and the cost were getting cheaper, cars powered by internal combustion engine suddenly became the next ‘big’ thing for everyone to own. The ease of travelling by cars attracted the same crowd if not more than the loyal passengers of the trains since people can decide when to drive to work instead of waiting in queue for the next train to arrive. This portability then led to the boom of cars. With expressways being built, it seems to be an extra incentive to own a car as destinations can be reached faster. And with a car, interactions between people have also changed. In the past, travelling by train, one travel by sharing the same public area (the train stations, the train platforms and the train carriages). Interactions were then done between passengers boarding the same train carriages. But with a car, interactions were done with other drivers along the same stretch of road. (signalling to overtake)

 

The discoveries of different types of energies have led to new creations changing our lives. These inventions powered by different types of energies have affected our spatial arrangement of lands, interactions between people and even our consumption patterns. (preferring cars over trains) The future seems so exciting as more types of energies are discovered. For now, I will patiently wait for a new rising source of energy that can be used to reduce the pollutions in our cities.

iPods – for better or for worse?

 There are numerous technology invented daily with the aim of ‘changing people’s lives’ like the Apple iPod. It is fast becoming one of the most distinctive technology icons of the 21^st century, shifting the world we live in into a world of ‘I’, centralizing on the individual’s wants as a consumer.

 

The accelerating popularity of iPods led to a surge in demands of development into the audio equipments as well. Apple also launched iPhone, the combination of both an iPod and a phone. SingTel, a local telecom provider in Singapore, has seen an overwhelming response from iPhones consumers. The response was so tremendous that SingTel has to request potential consumers to pre-order their iPhones online to avoid disappointment, the first of its kind, before collecting it. Even then, the pre-order has not stopped or helped in easing the jam-packed SingTel shops around the island with customers purchasing iPhones. It may be just another phone to another yet its overwhelming popularity surpasses almost all other phones. The rise of iPod also led to a change of direction in technology. Huge brands like Sony, which previously focused on selling television and digital cameras, also rode on the audio wave by launching walkerman phones (with audio equipments) as the next ‘big’ thing. Sony Ericsson, the phone brand under Sony, developed a range of phones catered solely to music lovers on the go, labelled under the ‘w’ series referring to ‘walkerman’. The latest phone, W980¹, even has its surface modelled after the sleek screen of an audio equipment, similar to an iPod. It can be seen the rise of iPods, pushed by the demand consumers, are seen as leading to even more developments of technology of audio-based products.

 

The increasing popularity of the iPods are producing the ‘I copycats’ as well catching onto this wave of consumers. For instance, there was the infamous advertisement in Singapore by Zoey Tay (a Singapore celebrity) who was quoted saying ‘I swallow’ for an advertisement selling beauty pills. ‘I swallow’ advertisement may have backfired and be mocked by numerous critics but ‘I swallow” has made such a lasting impression that it is remembered till this day. Another advertisement is by Dell, a company selling computers and laptops. Their advertisement was splashed in huge font claiming ‘I want’ to sell off their products, again riding on the ‘I’ wave brought by iPods in affecting the consumers’ preferences and to increase their sales.

 

Try throwing a stone in Singapore and chances are it might hit someone plugging into their iPods or an audio equipment. The iPod has led to the revolution of privatizing public areas², affecting how we are interacting with each other. In today’s fast-paced society, many felt powerless to control influences in their lives. Take a typical female Office Lady (OL) in Singapore. On the morning journey to work, she has to bear with the loud snores of commuters taking the same train as her to work. During work, her employer might yell at her for making minor errors. During lunchtime, she will most probably be blasted by the loud audio advertisements played in the shopping mall where she had her lunch. Her day will probably end with the same train journey home besides a wailing baby or the same bus trip as the inconsiderate teenager blasting music from his phone. She will probably realized she has no control over her audio environment as most other people do. The iPods will then serve as an audio avenue where people get to be in control of their audio surrounding by choosing what songs they want to listen whenever wherever. This is how public areas are privatized, at least audibly. With iPods, people are given the choice to choose to interact with others or to plug in their iPod and live in an audio bubble, audibly oblivious to their surroundings.

 

For better or for worse, the iPods are sure here to stay for the times being. Let’s just hope we’re not too late from becoming slaves to the notion of ‘iConsume’.

 

1.     http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/w980?cc=sg&lc=en

2.     Bull, Michael. 1952. Sound moves: iPod culture and urban experience. Routledge.

Death: Population and health

 

There are numerous issues related to the population and health from the SARS outbreak in 2003 to the death toll arising from SARS. These medical issues are so intensely and widely discussed yet there is not much focus on death apart from the death toll. Death is, as one might bluntly put it as one of the outcomes from being infected with an illness. The other outcome will then be recovery and like they say “another shot at life again”. Coming down with an illness is akin to a gamble, either one wins the bet and recover or lose the battle against the illness and may potentially end up dead. They are opposites too, life to death as in day to night. However, unlike the highly celebrated life, death is an event that is highly hushed up. To add on to the various mysteries, even rituals concerning death can also be linked to how an entire population can fall sick and how the health of citizens threatened. I will be focusing on one such rituals related to the religion of Zoroastrianism¹.

 

Zoroastrianism is a religion with a belief that humans upon their death, are judged by deities and has a ritual in place to adhere to this belief. The corpses of the decreased are placed in an area known as the Tower of Silence. There are 3 parts in the tower, each for a respective group, namely the men, women and children. These corpses are then stripped naked and laid to rest openly at the part of the tower they are categorized to, with only a single towel to cover their private parts. Vultures will circle the area and tear the flesh off the bodies, consuming them. This part of their rituals on how vultures consumes human flesh can be a potentially hotspot for diseases to spread. The corpses are exposed to harsh environmental conditions like heavy rain and strong sunlight and the humidity in the air. Such conditions can then allow the corpses to be suitable breeding grounds for diseases to grow or even mutate. Let’s take it as an imaginary case of a mutated disease. Some may even think that the spread of disease from animal to human or vice versa is quite impossible but mutations like the SARS virus are becoming an infamous reality in today’s world.

 

Upon consumption, the vultures might have unknowingly consumed this mutated disease as well. This mutated disease could potentially then infect the vultures. The vultures could in turn, transmitted the mutated disease over to a source readily available to other living organisms like water by drinking it. This can lead to the contamination of that water source and possibly infecting other living organisms drinking from that tainted source. In this way, the new mutated disease can spread easily among living organisms. These infected living organisms might even include domestic poultries that are breed for human consumption. Going down the food chains, living human beings might be infected as well by consuming these infected livestock. The mutated disease will then be transmitted to the human body and possibly infecting it as well.

Urbanization, spatial arrangement, can also affect how the mutated disease can be spread as well. Like SARS, the Index Case spreads the disease through close contact to the other residents staying on the same floor of the hotel as him. Subsequently, the spread went out of control and even infected people in Singapore and even Canada. The new mutated disease can too spread rapidly through the close and dense cities throughout the world. It can also lead to the meltdown of the world’s economy, affecting even more lives than the disease itself.

 

This is just a hypothesis that I have created and I do not mean any ill intent of speaking ill of any religion. For those I have offended, please accept my sincere apologises. What I am trying to say is that how people socialize could maybe lead to a major epidemic. The way people live can ultimately decide how new mutated diseases can strike us affecting the population’s health. The population’s health is too heavy a price for any countries in this capitalist world to pay.

 

1.     http://www.religionfacts.com/zoroastrianism/index.htm

 

urbanization

Urbanization can change lands physically, socially and economically. It refers to how space or land shape how cities are built. In this essay I will be focusing on Singapore, one of the few city-state in the world where almost everyone is living in the city.

 

Singapore is well known for being small, even referred as a ‘red dot’ on the world map. Every piece of land is precious and require careful city planning to maximize its usage. Since Singapore’s independence in 1965, urbanization has led to the creation of the first public housing scheme by the government. The Housing Development Board (HDB) drew up flats made to expand vertically to house numerous houses at the same time. Another advantage of Singapore is its ideal geographical location rarely faces any natural disasters making it suitable to expand flats vertically without worrying they will be destroyed. The tallest HDB flats in Singapore in 2004 was reported to be Pinnacle@Duxton comprising of seven 50-storeys blocks with a total of 1848 three-bedrooms apartments to be completed in 2010.¹ This can potentially save up space for other social institutions such as new schools and even hospitals. These flats also play an influential role in Singaporeans’ daily lives. Even the issue of drying clothes has been one of the various events affected by the outline of those flats. Sunlight cannot be seep into flats evenly on the different levels making it is hard to dry clothes indoor. Hence it has become a common sight to see bamboo poles lined with clothes balanced outside flats to be dried. This has since been a unique Singaporeans’ style of living amazing foreigners to see how we adapt to living in these high-rise flats. Interactions between neighbours of different races are also a common sights and I even get invited to spend Hari Raya (Muslim’s New Year) with my Muslim neighbours!

 

Recent advertisements are also spotted urging Singaporeans to pick up new skills to increase employment chances. The reasons behind Singapore’s shift of industrial sector from assembly lines to highly specialized areas are also linked to urbanization and human factors. These specialized factories are value-added such that commodities produced can be sold for a large amount of profits. This then maximizes the value of the lands used to build these factories. These specialized factories will require skilled workers to operate machineries and provide employment for Singapore’s small population of 4.84 million². They allowed Singaporeans to avoid employment problems against the cheap labour from India and China as these factories require lesser, but higher skilled workers. The decision for building specialized factories is also shaped by Singapore’s small population, favouring quality of workers over quantity of workers. Singapore is also well known for being efficient even in the areas of infrastructure. With limited land area, Singapore government highly encourages Singaporeans to take public transports than to own private vehicles. The building of expressways around the island is a clear example of efficiency at work as it increases the efficiency travelling or transporting goods and services takes. In addition, Electric Road Payment (ERP) is also built for the same purpose, to increase efficient usage of lands. It works by taxing vehicle owners for entering areas with high volume of vehicles at peak hours. In the long run, owners of private cars will avoid these road taxes by using other roads during peak hours to reach their destinations. The volume of cars entering these popular areas during peak hours will decrease, especially the Central Business District (CBD) where numerous headquarters of companies are located. It also aid in solving pollution and congestion problems.

 

Hence, it can be seen that the shaping of a city can affect the efficiency that lands are used. Crucial urban planning is necessary as the way lands are shaped can affect socio-economic relationships and even how people interact with one another. More importantly, with competent urban planning, lands can be shaped to meet the needs of the people.

 reference

1.      http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,63577,00.html

2.      http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/378563/1/.html

Identity of women

 

Identity can be established through various forms, namely nationality (Singaporean), on sex (female), the role we play in our family (daughter) or in society (student). Identity can be seen as the reflection of what society perceives of us in different situations taking on the form of a ‘label’ that binds us. However, ‘label’ can be subjective based on different locations with different social patterns and culture. In addition, identity is such a fluid concept that it can be interchangeable depending on the different point of views taken, especially when it comes to talking about women. Women are long seen as the other halves of men. However, the workload of today’s women is increasing partly due to society and even from their counterpart, the men. Let’s take an imaginary case of a girl of Chinese background in Singapore (Alexis).

 

When Alexis is young, she will be enrolled into a primary school. At the Primary school level, she will be taught the meritocracy system used by the education system of Singapore base on merit and academic abilities. She will compete against her peers with a “student” identity, listening attentively during lessons and scoring in tests to her best abilities. After which, she will continue with her “student” identity by heading for tuition or extra supplementary lessons for addition revision of schoolwork. (Just a note: A typical Singaporean student will receive tuition or extra supplementary lessons, regardless of her academic results and usually take place after school.) After which, she will go home to her family to play out the role of a “daughter” where she will then complete her homework from school, obey elders’ instructions obediently and maybe help her mother with a few household chores.

 

As Alexis mature into a “youth”, she will be more aware of fashion trends around her in school besides being a studious “student”. She might even be spotted with skinny jeans and gladiator shoes, some of the latest fashion trend currently and be labeled as the “in youth”. Perhaps she could be seen by her parents as a “rebellious youth”  on top of being a “daughter” who ‘treating her home like a hotel’ by spending far more time outside than at home. To Alexis then her parents could have become “naggy elderly”. She could probably take on the identity of someone’s “girlfriend” in a relationship in addition to being a “friend” to the same guy. Soon, she will be working as an “office lady” and presumably being married to her love and take on the role of a “wife” to her spouse. To her children she gave birth to, she will then assumes the role of being a “mother” to add on to her role as a “housewife”.

 

I must stress that Alexis is fictional and her multi identities are created with my reference of Singaporean youths and based on Chinese Singaporeans’ expectations. Alexis’s identity of being a “wife”, “mother”, “office lady” and “housewife” actually showcase the roles any same Chinese lady in Singapore society is expected to live up to in almost the same period of her life. What I am trying to say is that identities that are attached to us actually have their base in our social patterns and expectations. It will be seemingly impossible to break apart identity from the social patterns. Even Alexis’s age can be the base of her “old spinster” identity especially in Singapore, if she is single at the age of 29. Alexis can expect questions from close relatives on marriage where women are highly encouraged to get married and focus on producing the next generation. It is that to say culture and social patterns or norms decides on the identities we take up. Ultimately, we are all little speck of spots struggling with our different identities join together by our unique culture to form our ‘little red dot’.

Democracy ideal?

 

The advantages of using democracy as an ideology are numerous and include the freedom of expression, empowering individuals through the political vote and the right to choose their representatives who governs them. Democracy is then seen as liberating; reflecting the wants of the majority yet too became part of the reason, along with the communism ideology, for the cold war. The advantages of democracy have been so widely spread, with America as its lead, urging numerous nations to adopting it to ‘better’ run their respective governments. However, “democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried”¹ could this be true? Maybe comparisons between communism and democracy ideologies can provide a few clues.

 

Communism is an ideology where all resources are equally distributed among the people by the state. On the other hand, democracy is based on meritocracy where advancement is dependent on one’s merits and achievements. It may seem that democracy is less biased but take note because starting points of every individual are different. Take the Singapore education system for example. There are students whose backgrounds are better off allowing them to take extra lessons to aid in the understanding of lessons. This could lead them to achieving higher academic excellence than their peers. Singapore newspaper article has pointed out that more than half of the Singapore President Scholars were awarded to recipients who live in private estate. But less than 20% of the population of Singapore actually lived in private estate revealed the stark difference. Perhaps using meritocracy and ranking students based on their academic achievement solely is not such a fair system afterall. But if communism ideology were to be used to educate what can possibly be the outcome? Cuba, a communist country, can be a classic example where literacy rate is as high as 97%². However, the education received in Cuba are limited to areas that will aid in the country’s labour force like farming and mechanics. This is to say that the citizens may not get to choose freely the courses they will like to do but were limited to courses that will benefit the country’s economic needs in the long run.

 

The power control in both democracy and communism differ as well. In democracy, the citizens get to vote for their leaders who will form the government that decides on the country’s policies. The leaders will then be expected to perform during their term(s) if not the citizens can vote them out. Democracy then strive as a system for the people by the people. However, it is not spared from corruption and biasness. With so much power on hand, the government can implemented policies that benefit them instead of the people. If without regular checks on their powers, the leaders could end up misusing public funds. The government can also use the media as a powerful propaganda tool to ‘brainwash’ its citizens’ thinking. These events are actually quite extreme but they can actually still exist for the power of the government is too much for anyone or any group to hold onto for a long period of time. On the contrary, communism allowed the state to run and decides for everything. The state can be made of a single person or a group that make decisions without consulting its citizens. This will allow the state to take over the army and all businesses. Misuse of public funds can also happen as well and the state will be harder to overthrow as compared to the democracy system.

 

In conclusion, I think there is actually no perfect system used to govern people. Democracy and communism have their respective flaws and advantages but ultimately will depends on how wisely the system is used to govern the country. Afterall, it’s the people using the system to run the country rather than by commanded and controlled by the system blindly.

reference

1.     http://franklludwig.com/democracy.html (quote by Winston Churchill)

2.     http://www.cubacuban.com/culture/customs.shtml  

war

War has always surrounded the civilizations of humans, from the legendary Trojan War to the current Iraqi War. The Trojan War was commonly though to be sparked by the abduction of Helen while Saddam Hussein’s ‘terror regime’ over Iraqis was part of the reasons to start the Iraqi War. “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”1 showed how war could start with a small group of people and end with blood shed by thousands even up to millions. If war is so cruel, why is it able to rear its ugly head repetitively in human history?

“In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.”2 I do agree that war might not be a bad thing afterall but do not get me wrong. I am not saying that having people dying in war is good but like a coin that has 2 sides to it, there must be benefits from war to have it occur repetitively throughout the course of history. War, like mentioned during the lecture, gave rise to the lucrative weapons and defense industry. Defense industry was created as a part of preventive measures to protect the country in times of war. “In the financial year 2007, the security sector actually accounts for $13.58 billion or 33% of government expenditure.”3 reflecting the importance Singapore government (possible around the globe as well) placed on ensuring the safety of the country in times of danger. A rough estimate of army regulars alone in America is around 140 000 people.4 This figure actually excludes those who serve as reserves or even those in the manufacturing assembly lines of weapons. Besides, war serves its purpose as a violent outlet to solve conflicts. Only in the presence of conflicts and changes can society change and improve, for better or for worse. For without conflicts, there will be no disagreements and ultimately no war. But is there really a need to put in so much resource to protect ourselves against war? Can war ever be avoided?

Take the war against terrorism for example, Al-Qaida leaders and Osama Bin Laden have claimed responsibilities for the 911 attacks on World Trade Centres and the paragon in America. Osama had claimed that “he did (911) so because of injustices against the Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel and the United States”5. It seems like the 911 attacks could have been avoided. Surprisingly, the war against terrorism is not the first and neither will it be the last to be sparked off over issues that can be solved rationally. What I’m trying to say is there may be a social structure problem where people are unwilling to come together to solve issues and instead decided to let their people and weapons do the talking. There is also an imbalance of power distributed among countries. Countries like America have too much say in certain matters and states like Rwanda are too powerless to stop genocide that led to a war in their own land. Such an imbalance of power can give rise to issues of inequality and injustices that can end up sparking off another possible devastating war again.

Although war itself celebrates conflicts and changes in society but much too often the aftermaths of war is too much for any country to bear. The burden of bloodshed, destruction of lands, horror and mindless killings will be too much for any survivors to carry. Surprisingly, Osama was though to be a degree holder while Adolf Hitler was though to be knowledgeable. It seems like most people involved in starting wars are educated. “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war” I think. Afterall talking is cheap but war is costly.

 references:

 

1.     http://www.twincitiesvfp.org/quotes.htm (quote by Samuel Adams)

2.     http://www.allgreatquotes.com/war_quotes.shtml (quote by Orson Welles)

3.     http://www.mof.gov.sg/budget_2007/expenditure_overview/security_external_relations.html

4.     http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/bljobnumbers.htm

5.     http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/frontpage/seattle_pima1×220041030.pdf

6.     http://www.allgreatquotes.com/war_quotes.shtml (quote by Winston Churhill)

crime

Criminals are generally adults who commit violent acts, including murder. What if the lawbreaker is a 15 years old murderer? That is the case with Paula Cooper who killed 78 years old Ruth Pelke in 1985.¹ Using a donation drive as an excuse to enter Ruth’s house, Paula stabbed her to death. In the laws of many countries, a 15 year old is not legally able to drink alcohol beverages, drive or smoke. Yet, a 15 year old caught as a murderer? It is shocking but what is worse is that this trend of young killers is getting increasingly common. In the lecture, professor mentioned mafia as an example of highly organized criminals. Mafias are organisations seeking to be recognized, understood and respected, consisting of mainly adult members who commit crimes including killings without blinking. Surprisingly now children may also be equally capable of killing with malice intent as adults.

 

In the past, most laws state children under the legal age of either 18 or 21 are too young to be trial as adults. Instead they are trial under juvenile laws and released by the age of 21. It is precisely this loophole that gave them freedom to take lives so recklessly. They think “killing the person was even worth it … because they were only going to be in here, in jail, for a couple of years”. ² Human lives to them were insignificantly valued as the few years they spend in jail. Hence they kill; for thrill, for money, for escape against oppression and even to experience the adrenaline rush. The killing trend has shown such a tremendous increase that the British government may “recommends training nursery workers to target children as young as 3 years of age as potential criminals.”³ It may sound absurd but it speaks volume. Governments around the globe are getting concerned over youth lawbreakers. But could it be that our society is encouraging children to be murderers?

 

Take a look at Tom and Jerry, the cartoon show how Tom the cat undergoes violent acts like getting skinned to eat Jerry the mouse and the amount of violence shown is not censored. It is a typical source of children’s entertainment. In addition, children are also exposed to computer games like Dead or Alive where pretty ladies kill. Even comic books like Saikano talk about war and altering children’s bodies to become weapons of mass destruction. Kill bill, a movie showing women who kill for revenge. In today’s society where parents are educated, they would usually be both at work that differs from the Victorian ideal where women stay at home looking after the children. Now, a maid or babysitter would probably be hired but chances are they would probably only ensure they are fed and dressed properly. The computer, VCD players could probably be items busy parents buy as compensation for their children to make up for their lack of presence and time. However, children watching without guidance on Tom and Jerry, playing Dead or Alive quietly absorbing in the fight and gore thinking its alright to fight others who oppose their view. Similarly, nobody is around to correct this thinking and to show how damaging it can be to the victim’s family. Laws and regulations may soon pass out stating children involves in violent crime like murder could be trial as adult. But legal regulations alone can only help to deter potential murders to an extent. Educating youths about reckless killings may fail to totally curb off youths’ killings. But a combination of both may help as well as play as early detection to potential youth murderers. However, to totally eradicate this social problem, we may even have to overhaul the entire social system, to make time for our youths, to make time for the families’ institutions to stay together. After all, families are the first source of interaction and socialization for the younger generations. For now, only time can tell if we’re already too late to save the next generation from becoming murderers of cold blood.

 references:

1.     http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED7173FF931A357 53C1A961948260

2.     http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_n4_v94/ai_16805522

3.     http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44733

Lecture reflection on women and family

1.    

Women have long been seen as the “other halves” of men. Traditional roles of women, passed down from the Victorian era, are assigned to taking care of the family and nurturing the next generation. The man will be working as the sole breadwinner of the family. In reality, only the higher end of society can afford to play out these ‘ideal’ roles. In the less privileged part of society, the woman has to share the family burden and contribute to the family income by holding a job too. It adds another responsibilities that those women have to fulfill besides taking care of their families’ needs. This might be the earliest form of dual-income families and probably the start of struggle by women to juggle both work and family.

 

There is a saying that compares the workloads between women and men. It says, “men work from sun to sun, women’s work is never done.”¹ This might actually reflect how most women have slogged through the decades, supported by how little women were paid for their work. A research on the Internet shows that “nearly two out of five women work in jobs that pay low wages.”² However, this finding was published in the America’s monthly labour review in year 2000 and wages rate might have differ slightly now. But it is enough to highlight how little women’s work were valued or rather, how much they were exploited at work. This is a serious case of discrimination against women that could end up being a glass ceiling in society preventing capable women from climbing corporate ladders. The world on the whole (at least those parts whose cultures discourage women from playing major roles in the economy) will lose out on these talents. This will then not be beneficial to anyone.

 

In today’s globalised world, the nuclear family is no longer defined with a father, a mother and their children. Instead there is a gradual increase in the number of single parent families with either the father or the mother holding the reins. The traditional roles women played in the family can no longer be confined to a mere caretaker. Being a single mother, the woman will have to take up a ‘man’s responsibility’ of the family’s finances on top of taking care of the family. The roles played by both men and women have changed and so has society. But the question remains to be seen if women were given the same amount of rights as men. The world we live in has gradually recognize educating its next generations plays a crucial role to boost economy as well to ensure a ready supply of workers. This is especially true since globalisation has allowed us to be specialized skilled workers in the economy. Without education, it is hard to get even a blue-collar job. A report done by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation published in year 205 showed a graph clearly stating the differences in wages earned by men and women of the same educational level.³ The difference is the largest at $24300, around 40% of women’s earnings at “college plus” level. The difference is shocking to note as America is frequently linked to be one of the leading countries pushing for equalities between men and women.

 

It will remains to be seen if discriminations against women will truly be lifted and for women to be seen finally as equals to men. Nevertheless, the world is undergoing huge changes through globalisation and with healthy exchanges of ideas going around, equalities between women and men could finally be achieved sooner than we think. At least that is what I like to think it as.

     http://womenshistory.about.com/od/essentials/u/womens_history_issues_events.htm                                                                                                                                              

2.                                                                                                                                                        http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2000/09/art3full.pdf

3.                                                                                                                                                 http://eric.ed.gov:80/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/29/da/86.pdf page10

Lecture reflection at Work and Trade

Nowadays, work plays a significant role in the lives of people in the world excluding tribal villages, especially in developed countries like Singapore.  A typical blue-collar worker in Singapore reaches his workplace by 9am and work till 6pm around 1pm, they are allowed a lunch break. Sometimes they would clock in extra hours to manage their workload, known as over-time (OT). After work, he will reach home around 7pm or as late as 10pm if he did OT. By then its already time for bed before a day of work tomorrow. This is the typical generalized work-life blue-collar workers are facing. There are exceptions however depending on working conditions, environmental and personal conditions. Such a life revolves around work show how significant work is in our waking hours. However, this can lead to issues like alienation to face-to-face interactions and child labour problem.

 

In the lecture, it is mentioned alienation is a side effect of specialization of labour. I agree with Karl Marx’s finding that specialization can lead to a loss of skills. However, I think it can also lead to a loss of skill of interacting with people. Take the general example of a blue-collar worker in Singapore in the above context. Given his/her hectic workload, the amount of interactions (excluding interactions with his colleagues at work) with family and friends will be minimized. Especially in today cyber-era, interactions with friends and in extreme cases, even families are done using computer messengers. (This is said in mind with a poll done with a small group of bank tellers I have worked with before.) Gatherings have to be planned in advance and among those interviewed, a few chose to be absent for them. The reason citied is not due to hectic workload but however the lack of courage to interact with people face-to-face. They added they lost the skill of interacting efficiently with people first-hand. Even customers feedback they are awkward with body languages and how they portray themselves. But when chatting with them on the messenger, the impression given is full-of-live and bubbly, totally different in person. This caught me thinking, is capitalism alienating us from society where skill of interaction is gradually displaced? I must stress my area of research is only based on a small sample of the population, so the result might not be highly accurate.

 

Embracing capitalism will mean efficient production lines. Products are made within the shortest amount of time using the least amount of resources and manpower. Delicate areas like sewing of clothing are left with children helming the rein. I agree using children might be efficient but I believe strongly this will prove to be of a much higher price than if adults were employed in place of children. The children’s small and nimble finger s and fast reflexes proved to be useful and efficient. However, how could the young bodies endure the long hours of grueling work? In addition, the childhood of these children will only be linked with work and not play. Is it fair to deprive them of a childhood of play and laughter? The possible injuries that could be sustained from work are not even taken into consideration, not to mention the children are working without healthcare benefits. If adults were to take the children’s places, the children might be able to go to school to absorb knowledge and might have a chance of having a proper education. They could be taking up jobs that will pay more and even a chance to escape from poverty, the main reason that force them to work young in the first place.