Global Dominance & Human Development

My second TWC lesson for the sem(:


The first part of the lesson was on Technology and Global dominance. Global dominance with respect to social, cultural, military,  economic and so on. Global dominance- where one country of higher power controls the other. I felt that this was refreshing to me as global dominance never crossed my mind. The first reading for this topic which talked about the European dominance left a deep impression in me. It was written that, 'Their superior military technology endowed the invading Europeans with the material advantage over non-European populations, allowing them to impose highly exploitive trading terms, and often opening up opportunities for them to indulge in undisguised looting' and that 'The overall result was that enormous amounts of wealth from Asia, Africa and Latin America were transferred to Europe.' I felt really unjust for the people. They were doing fine before colonization and after the European dominated their countries, they suffered instead. It reminds me of how an adult bullies a child; just because he/she is much older and of higher power. 


Talking about colonization, the article also stated that colonization had the benevolent effect of the non-European countries and bringing them into the wake of civilization. I felt that colonization has both it's good and bad side. The good side of it is that it benefits the people who are in the under-developing countries. Giving them support economically and politically. However, the flip side of it could be like what the article stated, where the other countries were actually 'made-used' of. Where colonization actually made them worse off than before, where they ended up degenerating economically and politically in the face of western commerce. In addition, i feel that colonization can cause one country to be overly dependent on the other, resulting it to rather stay in it's comfortable shell than to stand independent and support itself. This made me pondered again, would countries actually favor colonization, share its resources purely to help you without expecting any gains from you? Could the reason for colonization be because they've seen something that's of worth in the country? Or the reason was just to dominate more countries to increase it's global power and spread their ideals?


Then, we went on to discuss about Technology and Human Development. To me, development means change, progressing to the next level or advancing. We learnt about human development in the aspect of life expectancy, literacy and education as well as GDP per capita. Then, it led on to the definition of happiness. I guess, each individual has his/her own definition of happiness. And it's hard to define what happiness is. For me, i feel that it's the community out there, your friends and family, as well as a stable job. Leading a simple life is all it takes(:


My deepest take away was from the video that was played was the statement, 'Our children deserves a chance, they're our future'. I agree totally to this statement. Children are the future pillars of the country and hence it's the countries' responsibility to nurture them and provide them with a conducive environment to grow up. What would happen to a country if there's no one to take over?


This week's quote was, "Change is inevitable and often necessary, the transition process can often be difficult/painful(for some)". Personally, i agree to this statement. Change is happening all the time. The competitiveness of today's society makes change inevitable. To keep up with the rest of the countries, economically especially, change is necessary. We have to keep changing to prevent ourselves from lagging behind. Even teachers in school tell us to change our studying method when we fare badly in exams, what more the countries and the world? Then again, the transition process can often be difficult and painful for some. I reckon that these might be the older people; the previous generation. I thought it was understandable for them to feel this way. As you grow older, the likely hood of you taking risk to try new things can be really low. In addition to that, people of the previous generation might have received little or no education, hence it's difficult to always get them to learn new skills to keep up with the society. Despite this, i still feel that change is inevitable to keep up with the pace of today's society!
“To improve is to change. To be perfect is to have changed a lot" Winston Churchill 
Hence, we should embrace change!(:


I would rate this week's lesson 8.5!(: I enjoyed this week's lesson as i thought that the topics discussed were really fresh to me and i also like the fact that we're always introduced a new quote every lesson!(:  

My first lesson of the week & semester(:

My first lesson in smu; TWC. It was quite an eye opener to me, i felt. Never really thought or knew much about technology and how it changes the world. Only technology related stuffs i knew about was handphones and the Internet. Never really put into thoughts on how it changes the world. I found it interesting to find out how much the world has actually changed over the years due to technology, looking at the timeline of civilization. 

The thing that left the deepest impression in me was actually from reading 3; the perspective on science and technology in the Middle East between the 7th century and today. I really enjoyed this 'article' because i never knew that the Middle east countries were actually a major centre of learning and it was actually the knowledge of the Muslims which allowed Europe to emerge into the Renaissance. The article ended off by saying that one factor which determines the ability to access new technology is public openness, which led me to the statement discussed during lesson; Technology is easy. People is hard. I agree with this statement due to some people who still holds the traditional mindset, who are rigid to changes.Trying to introduce technology into their lives would be a difficult task. So no matter how easy it is to embrace the changes of technology, it's difficult to get it across people as they will not be willing to listen and learn, especially people of the previous generation.

I thought that this lesson was interesting, however quite overwhelming as well, looking at all the presentations that we have to prepare. (But i guess that's uni haha XD) Still, i would rate a 7.5 for this class as i thought the topics and discussions brought up was engaging and not dry. I was able to pay attention throughout(: