Critical Reflection on ES1102

There are a few things that I have realised by the end of this module. Firstly, it is not embedded in my genes to be eloquent in English. Secondly, and more importantly, that inadequacy does not matter as long as I am willing to learn and improve myself. But letting myself to be thrown into the fire was hard. The learning journey throughout this course was arduous for me. I had, and is still having, a hard time trying to construct proper sentence structures and find the right words to use. Ironically during the course, we had to provide feedbacks for our peers' writings, which made me question my qualification to do so. But it was a good exercise because we became more conscious of our mistakes and we learned something new from others.

Apart from the opportunity to learn from our peers, the course itself has offered a systematic learning framework where we learned the science of writing. I was being introduced to grammar forms which I did not knew existed before. Upon learning them, it has made my writings more structured and readable.

Despite the things that I have learned, I am still far from being a good writer. I still find myself struggling to come up with a quality essay draft within a short period of time. I am particularly concern about this since that will be the kind of situation that we will be facing in the final exam. Perhaps the best ways to improve myself before the exam is to practice writing on paper more and to read more journals and reviews. These will allow me to mentally prepare myself.

Of course, my English learning journey does not end after the finals. I will make the conscious effort to keep improving because after all, it is really not about the genes.

Reflection on Presentation

I find the presentation exercise useful and relevant, as it is a platform for me to practice and enhance my public speaking skills. It is especially meaningful because the modules offered in my major do not provide sufficient presentation opportunities.

While I support the proposal of including this element into the course in the next semester, I feel that it would be best to revise the module outline. It would be more beneficial for the presentation exercise to be scheduled in the middle of the semester instead of at the end. The reason being, students would more likely be willing to attend classes in the middle of the semester whereby there would be less assignment deadlines for other modules. This would allow the presenters to pitch their ideas to a large group of people.

I am certain that the inclusion of the presentation exercise will be beneficial to students who are taking this module in the future.

Essay Final Draft

Collective efforts from firms, government and citizens will reduce income inequality in Singapore in the long run.

In his TED talk, Goldin (2009) mentions that ‘the glory of globalization could also be its downfall’. According to him, among the problems that follow globalization is growing inequality among the population. This issue is not unfamiliar in Singapore. Despite having enjoyed positive real economic growth since 2009[1], the income gap between the higher and lower strata has remain steadily wide[2]. Nevertheless, the government has been implementing measures and policies to curb this problem. Among those that are being actively employed are subsidies on consumption products such as utilities, public transportation and education. In fact, the Department of Statistics Singapore (February, 2014) reported that the Gini coefficient in 2013 decreased from 0.463 to 0.412 after accounting for government transfers and taxes, which include provision for these subsidies. However, such provisions are not economically and socially sustainable in varying degrees and some may even worsen the income distribution gap in the long run.

The GST Voucher scheme, which was introduced in 2012, is a point to illustrate. Through this annual scheme, the lower-and middle-income earners are entitled to a certain amount of cash reimbursement for payable goods and services tax as well as a one-time subsidy for their utility bills (Government of Singapore, 2014). The purpose of this scheme is to support their daily expenses. But such benefits fall short of generating long-term benefits for the society and individuals. There are indeed other schemes as well, such as the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme (Central Provident Fund Board, 2013) and Post-Secondary Education Scheme (Ministry of Education Singapore, 2014), which potentially generate more positive spill over in the long run by encouraging workers and students to enhance their skills and employability. All these schemes have common characteristics. Although they are beneficial for the low-income earners, they are formulated based on an unstable fiscal framework of redistribution of wealth. This means the transfer of money, in the form of tax payment, from higher earners to the less wealthy. This social fallacy is detrimental to the well being of the society in the long run because the high-income earners would receive diminishing incentives to produce more goods. It favours the low-income earners over the former.

In the effort to alleviate the prevalent issue of income inequality, instead of putting heavy reliance on wealth distribution, the responsibility to narrow the income gap has to be jointly shared among three parties: private firms, the government and the low-income earners.

In order to remain relevant, local private firms need to break away from the traditional business model that focuses solely on making profits. Being socially involved is now one of the keys to business growth. This idea stems from the term ‘connected capitalism’. Coined by Isdell, former chairman and CEO of The Coca Cola Company, it has now become a global effort by firms to re-orient capitalism into a mechanism not only for profit, but also for social good (Isdell & Beasley, 2012). Translating this in Singapore’s perspective, the local technological based start-ups can help workers to keep up with technological advances by providing basic interactive programming tutorials online for free. This is a method endorsed by Code.org (2014), a social organization that aims to provide the opportunity for every student to learn computer programming. For the local firms, they can still generate profits through other sources of revenue such as offering intermediate programming classes. By integrating this social cause to the business model, the national technological literacy will eventually see great improvements. The current workforce will be able to better match the growing demand for higher skilled workforce thereby improving the real wage.

The government is the key supporter in this tripartite social framework. Besides providing schemes to assist the low-income earners, incentives such as the Productivity and Innovation Credit are also rewarded to firms that provide training accredited by Singapore Workforce Development Agency to their employees (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, 2007). It is essential for the government to place more investment on schemes that encourage the lower-income earners to attend skill-upgrading courses while limiting schemes that only have short-term beneficial outcomes such as the GST Voucher Scheme. Not only is this system a well-regarded justification for the redistribution of wealth, it is a strategy that will alleviate income disparity in the long run.

The ultimate source of responsibility has to come from the low-income earners and their willingness to improve. Instead of heavily depending on the government for subsidies on necessities, low-skilled workers need to be open to changes and equip themselves with the skills and knowledge that are relevant in today’s workforce. Their attitude towards acquisition of such valuable assets determines the state of their income.

In conclusion, sustainable inclusive growth of low-income earners requires the collective efforts of the three parties. This framework of interdependency may not be as easy to achieve because there are immediate sacrifices. Businesses have to allocate resources for the social good. Individuals have to spend the time off work to enrol in classes. The government requires sufficient revenue to issue the subsidies. But if everyone involved believes in the common goal of building a better community, the long-run trade-off is worthwhile. Moving forward, Singapore will be able to build a more sustainable economy that will benefit all the three parties by mitigating income disparity.

(Word count: 878 words)

References

Central Provident Fund Board. (2013, December 18). Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) Scheme. Retrieved March 08, 2014 from http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/Members/Gen-Info/WIS/WIS_Scheme.htm

Code.org (2014). Educator resources. Retrieved March 08, 2014 from http://code.org/educate

Department of Statistics Singapore. (2014, February 20). [Graph illustrates the real economic growth of Singapore from 1999-2013]. Retrieved March 08, 2014 from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/statistics/visualising_data/chart/Real_Economic_Growth.html

Department of Statistics Singapore. (2014, February).  Key Household Income Trends, 2013, 12. Retrieved from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/Publications/publications_and_papers/household_income_and_expenditure/pp-s20.pdf

Goldin, I. (2009, July). Navigating our global future [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future

Government of Singapore. (2014). GST Voucher Overview. Retrieved March 08, 2014 from http://www.gstvoucher.gov.sg/overview.html

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. (2007). For Companies > Productivity and Innovation Credit. Retrieved March 08, 2014 from http://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/picredit.aspx

Isdell, N., & Beasley, D. (2012, October 16). Inside Coca-Cola: A CEO’s Life Story of Building the World’s Most Popular Brand. London, UK: St. Martin’s Press.

Ministry of Education Singapore. (2014). Post-Secondary Education (PSE) Scheme. Retrieved March 08, 2014 from http://www.moe.gov.sg/initiatives/post-secondary-education-account/

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[1] The total annual economic growth in Singapore in 2009 was -0.5% while the succeeding years up to 2013 have seen positive growth rates (Department of Statistics Singapore, February 20, 2014).

[2] The Gini coefficient of the country was generally 0.40 to 0.49 between 2003 and 2013. It is equal to zero in the case of total income equality and to one in the case of total inequality (Department of Statistics Singapore, February, 2014).

Essay Draft 2

Collective efforts from private firms, the government and low-income earners will alleviate income inequality in Singapore in the long run.

In his TED talk, Goldin (2009) mentions that ‘the glory of globalization could also be its downfall’. According to him, among the problems that entail this progress is growing inequality among the population. This issue is not unfamiliar in Singapore. Despite having enjoyed positive real economic growth since 2009[1], the income gap between the higher and lower strata has been steadily immense[2]. Nevertheless, the government has been implementing measures and policies to curb this problem. Among those that are being actively employed are subsidies on consumption products such as utilities, public transportation and education. In fact, the Department of Statistics Singapore (February, 2014) reported that the Gini coefficient in 2013 decreased from 0.463 to 0.412 after accounting for government transfers and taxes, which include provision for these subsidies. However, such provisions are not economically and socially sustainable in varying degrees and some may even worsen the income distribution gap in the long run.

The GST Voucher scheme, which was introduced in 2012, is a point to illustrate. Through this annual scheme, the lower-and middle-income earners are entitled to a certain amount of cash reimbursement for payable goods and services tax as well as a one-time subsidy for their utility bills. The purpose of this scheme is to support their daily expenses. But such benefits fall short of generating long-term benefits for the society and individuals. There are indeed other schemes as well, such as the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme and Post-Secondary Education Scheme, which potentially generate more positive spill over in the long run by encouraging workers and students to enhance their skills and employability. All these schemes have common characteristics; although they are beneficial for the low-income earners, they are formulated based on an unstable fiscal framework of redistribution of wealth – the transfer of money, in the form of tax payment, from higher earners to the less wealthy. This social fallacy is detrimental to the well being of the society in the long run.

In the effort to alleviate the prevalent issue of income inequality, instead of putting heavy reliance on wealth distribution, the responsibility to narrow the income gap has to be jointly shared among three parties; private firms, the government and the low-income earners.

In order to remain relevant, local private firms need to break away from the traditional business model that focuses solely on making profits. Being socially involved is now one of the keys to business growth. This idea stems from the term ‘connected capitalism’. Coined by Isdell, former chairman and CEO of The Coca Cola Company, it has now become a global effort by firms to re-orient capitalism into a mechanism not only for profit, but also for social good. Translating this in Singapore’s perspective, the local technological based start-ups can help workers to keep up with technological advances by providing basic interactive programming tutorials online for free. This is a method endorsed by Code.org, a social organization that aims to provide the opportunity for every student to learn computer programming. For the local firms, they can still generate profits through other sources of revenue such as offering intermediate programming classes. By integrating this social cause to the business model, the national technological literacy will eventually see great improvements. The current workforce will be able to better match the growing demand for higher skilled workforce thereby improving the real wage.

The government is the key support in this tripartite social framework. Besides providing schemes to assist the low-income earners, incentives such as the Productivity and Innovation Credit are also rewarded to firms that provide training accredited by Singapore Workforce Development Agency to their employees. It is essential for the government to place more investment on schemes that encourage the lower-income earners to attend skill-upgrading courses while limiting schemes that only have short-term beneficial outcomes such as the GST Voucher Scheme. Not only is this system a well-regarded justification for the redistribution of wealth, it is a strategy that will alleviate income disparity in the long run.

The ultimate source of responsibility has to come from the low-income earners and their willingness to improve. Instead of heavily depending on the government for subsidies on necessities, low-skilled workers need to be open to changes and equip themselves with the skills and knowledge that are relevant in today’s workforce. Their attitude towards acquisition of such valuable assets determines the state of their income.

In conclusion, sustainable inclusive growth of low-income earners requires the collective efforts of the three parties. This framework of interdependency may not be as easy to achieve because there are immediate sacrifices. Businesses have to allocate resources for the social good. Individuals have to spend the time off work to enrol in classes. The government requires sufficient revenue to issue the subsidies. But if everyone involved believes in the common goal of building a better community, the long-run trade-off is worthwhile. Moving forward, Singapore will be able to build a more sustainable economy that will benefit all the three parties by mitigating income disparity.

(Word count: 832 words)

References

Department of Statistics Singapore. (2014, February 20). [Graph illustrates the real economic growth of Singapore from 1999-2013]. Retrieved March 08, 2014 from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/statistics/visualising_data/chart/Real_Economic_Growth.html

Department of Statistics Singapore. (2014, February).  Key Household Income Trends, 2013, 12. Retrieved from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/Publications/publications_and_papers/household_income_and_expenditure/pp-s20.pdf

Goldin, I. (2009, July). Navigating our global future [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future

Isdell, N., & Beasley, D. (2012, October 16). Inside Coca-Cola: A CEO’s Life Story of Building the World’s Most Popular Brand. London, UK: St. Martin’s Press.

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[1] The total annual economic growth in Singapore in 2009 was -0.5% while the succeeding years up to 2013 have seen positive growth rates (Department of Statistics Singapore, February 20, 2014).

[2] The Gini coefficient of the country was generally 0.40 to 0.49 between 2003 and 2013. It is equal to zero in the case of total income equality and to one in the case of total inequality (Department of Statistics Singapore, February, 2014).

Reader's Response Final Draft

In his article, ‘Globalization of Culture Through the Media’, Kraidy (2002) discusses the common viewpoints about the influence of mass media on cultural transformation. According to him, throughout its history, the focus of the debate has gradually shifted from the impact of the biased influence of international media flow among countries to the role of commercialization on culture. Although no consensus has been reached among researchers as to the degree and implications of media influence, Kraidy concludes that widely regarded theories of international communication do not disregard the effect media has on changing cultures.

While the debate about cultural transformation and transnational media flow has been ongoing, I agree with Kraidy’s opinion that there is a gray area between the power of multinational corporations and nation-states. In his article, he explains that although the focus of the subject has shifted to these corporations, the role of governments cannot be disregarded. For example, the proliferation of K-pop culture – a subsidiary of the South Korean media industry – has become a global phenomenon in recent years. Kim (2011), in his article, elaborates on the extensive role of the Korean government in promoting Korean broadcasting industry globally. The Korean Tourism Board is also jumping in on the bandwagon by publicizing the filming locations of well-known Korean dramas as tourist spots. Among them is Namiseom Island, where the show Winter Sonata was filmed. The globalization of Korean’s popular culture is largely nation-state driven. It proves that the government is still a powerful influence and a possible focus point when reviewing communication theories.

Although my illustration of Korea ascertains that nation-states still exist as contributors of media globalization, I certainly do not disagree with the prevalent view in conceptualising theories away from ‘cultural imperialism’. In some cases, the present manifestation of globalization by multinational media companies has outweighed nation-states. Facebook is a fitting example of private companies that are not directly controlled by government bodies. It is an independent organisation that has a global footprint and is a suitable case study for present-day media globalization.

In conclusion, the nation-state cannot be detached from the present study of globalization through media. Progressing forward, I feel that it is still a relevant component and would provide a more comprehensive view of the issue.

(Word count: 376)

References

Kim, M. (2011). The Role of the Government in Cultural Industry: Some Observations From Korea’s Experience. Retrieved from http://www.mediacom.keio.ac.jp/publication/pdf2011/10KIM.pdf

Korea Tourism Organization (n.d.). Korean TV Drama; Winter Sonata. Retrieved from http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto

Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization of Culture Through the Media. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc/

Reader's Response First Draft

In his article, ‘Globalization of Culture Through the Media’, Kraidy (2002) discusses the common viewpoints about the influence of mass media on cultural transformation. According to him, throughout its history, the focus of the debate has gradually shifted from the impact of bias influence of international media flow among countries to the role of commercialization on cultural imperialism. Although no consensus has been reached among researchers as to the degree and implications of media influence, Kraidy concludes that widely regarded theories of international communication does not disregard the effect media has on changing cultures.

While the debate about cultural transformation and transnational media flow has been ongoing, I agree with Kraidy’s opinion that there is a gray area between the power of multinational corporations and nation-states. In his article, he explains that although the focus of the subject has shifted to these corporations, the role of governments cannot be disregarded. For example, the proliferation of K-pop culture – a subsidiary of the South Korean media industry - is making a global phenomenon in recent years. Kim (2011), in the article ‘The Role of the Government in Cultural Industry: Some Observations From Korea’s Experience’, elaborates on the extensive role of the Korean government in promoting Korean broadcasting industry globally. The Korean Tourism Board is also jumping in on the bandwagon by publicizing the filming locations of well-known Korean dramas as tourist spots. Among them is Namiseom Island where the show Winter Sonata was filmed. The globalization of Korean’s culture is undisputedly largely nation-state driven. It proves that the government is still a powerful influence and a possible focus point when reviewing communication theories.

Although my illustration of Korea ascertains that nation-states still exist as contributors of media globalization, I certainly do not disagree with the general prevalent view in conceptualising theories away from ‘cultural imperialism’. In some cases, the presence of multinational media companies has outweighed nation-states. Facebook is a befitting analogy of private companies that are not directly controlled by government bodies. It is an independent organisation that has a global footprint and is a suitable case study for present-day media globalization.

Thus in conclusion, the nation-state cannot be detached from the present study of globalization through media. Progressing forward, I feel that it is still a relevant component and would provide a more comprehensive view of the issue.

(Word count: 388)

References & bibliographies:

1.     Kim, M. (2011). The Role of the Government in Cultural Industry: Some Observations From Korea’s Experience. Keio Communication Review. (No. 33)

2.     Korea Tourism Organization (n.d.). Korean TV Drama; Winter Sonata. Retrieved from http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto

3.     Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization of Culture Through the Media. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc/

A summary of 'Globalisation of Culture Through the Media' (Kraidy, 2002)

In his article, ‘Globalization of Culture Through the Media’, Kraidy (2002) discusses the common viewpoints about the influence of mass media on cultural transformation. According to him, throughout its history, the focus of the debate has gradually shifted from the impact of bias influence of international media flow among countries to the role of commercialization on cultural imperialism. Although no consensus has been reached among researchers as to the degree and implications of media influence, Kraidy concludes that widely regarded theories of international communication certainly does not disregard the effect of media on changing cultures.

(Word count: 94)


Reference:

 Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization of Culture Through the Media. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc/

An event that has shaped my life

The library for some people is a sanctuary from the real world. It is also a knowledge bank that never runs out. I used to frequent my school library back when I had just entered secondary school because I was so fascinated by the collection of books on planets as well as to catch up on humorous anecdotes of Garfield’s life.

But one fine day, The Librarian called me over to her reception desk. I can still vividly recall the wrath that was painted all over her face as I approached with heavy steps. Afterwards, she requested to check my library account only to find out that I had overdue fines. I was so confused because the fines were related to books that I was quite certain I did not borrow. My confusion soon aggravated into vexation as we started quarreling. Expectedly, The Librarian had it her way.

From that day on, I had been avoiding The Librarian and the library altogether. It was tragic because consequently during my succeeding adolescent years I did not manage to cultivate reading as a hobby. Although the incident might have seemed minute, I felt that it was somehow an influence of disproportionate magnitude towards my attitude on reading thereafter.

But things are different now. I am glad that I have begun to read more often again ever since the days in the army when time was really abundant.

(Word count: 235)

My English language learning journey

Let me tell you about my hatred love for English.

English has always been a bane of my academic career. When I was in high school, it was never my desirable subject. As a matter of fact, I scored poorly for English for the leaving examination. During that point of my academic journey, it was the decisive factor that steered me towards an admission to a polytechnic course over Junior College. Alas, being prudent – and sensible – my apprehension about the General Paper subject in Junior College deterred me from taking the latter option. Fortunately I did not regret about this crucial decision because I certainly had a pleasant student life in polytechnic.

But! To my utter dismay, I was required to sign up for ES1102 in NUS as a supplementary module (read: bane of my academic career). Although I do not have as much love interest in English as Ernest Hemingway might have had, I am taking it in stride and embracing the learning experience. Furthermore, having a good command of the language will definitely facilitate me in future report writings and presentations for other modules. So, I hope to do my best to get the best out of this module.


(Word count: 201)