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.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
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.
Monday, March 31, 2014
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
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/
[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).
Monday, March 10, 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.
[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).
Friday, March 7, 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/
Sunday, February 16, 2014
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/
Friday, February 14, 2014
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/
Reference:
Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization of Culture Through the Media. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc/
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