Dawn / China&Australia&Malaysia
Dawn is breaking as I type this post. Yet another struggle to get through the day. People think I get through the day without sleep easily. True, most times I do, but not each time. I don't depend on coffee to stay awake. Most times its simply because I have to, hence I stay up the whole night.
Does that mean I'm inefficient? Maybe, to an extent. I'm a night person and somehow always feel sluggish in the mornings. I definitely get more work done at night, when concentration levels are higher, with only the quiet night (cept for highway traffic that is) to keep me company. But when I work of course I revert to normal hours. I remember last year when I worked 8.30am-5.30pm on weekdays at Uptown. No problems reverting, but with regular yamcha sessions, the only thing which suffered was a slight lack of sleeping hours.
Talking about being efficient and all, I think about globalisation. And when we think about globalisation, I think about Malaysia, Australia and China. 3 countries which I'm closely connected to. Msia - where I'm born & where I grow up. Aus - where I am now. China - where my cultural roots are from, and which everyone is so very interested in right now.
China is a hot topic. In uni this semester, we've mentioned China so many times. I've read about the "rise of China" from different perspectives (economic, military etc). Its such a major issue for the Western world, now whenever I read news online, there's always a "China" issue. Coupla days ago, it was worries about China wishing to mine uranium in Australia (which holds 40% of world reserves). Implications and whether they'd be subjected to extra scrutiny, plus the concern that they'd abide by the agreement to not use uranium mined in Australia for weapon development purposes, BUT then that would leave their local uranium resources available for that purpose.
2 days ago, Monash uni was in the news, article about how they're networking and establishing contacts with Chinese universities. Read in somebody's blogpost that Monash is a mere middle tier uni (global ranking somewhere in the 200-300 quoting donno which survey), but I really think my uni's better than that. At least they have the foresight to look forward into the future. Besides attracting foreign students to Australia (trend is downwards actually) which they know can't continue inevitably, they're establishing research collaborations etc.
And today -- suddenly so many articles on China in the Age online. FTA between Australia and China - some concerns, an article describing China as "awakening giant", article on connecting with culture, emerging China's influence in East Asia..
All these includes issues previously discussed in INT: intellectual property rights, culture and way of doing business, competition for influence between the US and China in South East Asia / East Asia as a whole, issues of quality control, lack of resources as a limiting factor to China's growth. They're all thinking about how to deal with an emerging China/India, how to ensure domestic interests are protected..
And where does Malaysia fit in?
We're growing economically, thats a definite. But I keep looking at us as being left behind, while everyone's moving forward in the globalised era. Thats the reason why I blog less about situations in Malaysia (politics/social). Look at whats been the big issues these 2 years. Listen to what the people-in-charge have to say? Has anything been resolved? Are the really important measures prioritised? Issues such as economic measures in the face of the 2 rising Asian giants (China and India)?
Some of the issues I read about just make me go "???". AP is neverending issue, PM Badawi seems so quiet, don't really hear him speaking out about the country's direction (at least not while I'm here la), NEP concerns, "hugging in public", keris-waving actions etc.. other issues are trivial and meaningless. Hardly expected from any "thriving democratic country".
Why can't we focus on the issues that really matter? Bread and butter issues, corruption, inequality issues, corporate governance, transparency, social indicators of growth, public safety (robberies & rampant snatch thefts are too common to be on the news these days).. With GST set to be implemented in 2007, are we going to be prepared? Then, everything's gonna cost another 5%. Costs of living already high enough as it is.
Have we moved forward in recent years? Economically, yes. Socially -- No. Common courtesy is still sorely lacking. Public apathy is healthy and alive. One important issue for rakyat -- their security when walking on the street. That's definitely deteriorated. Is the poor still poor? Yes. Does the public care about general cleanliness (on the streets etc) - no. Am I still very extremely careful with my bags and wallet when I'm in PJ/KL - yes.
So many ppl I talk to these days can't be bothered about all these issues. Sometimes I think maybe I should too. But thats if we ignore globalisation's influence on our environment. Continued apathy will mean we're living in our own little world of self-denial, while the world continues to move forward.
To gain or lose from globalisation? You decide.
Does that mean I'm inefficient? Maybe, to an extent. I'm a night person and somehow always feel sluggish in the mornings. I definitely get more work done at night, when concentration levels are higher, with only the quiet night (cept for highway traffic that is) to keep me company. But when I work of course I revert to normal hours. I remember last year when I worked 8.30am-5.30pm on weekdays at Uptown. No problems reverting, but with regular yamcha sessions, the only thing which suffered was a slight lack of sleeping hours.
Talking about being efficient and all, I think about globalisation. And when we think about globalisation, I think about Malaysia, Australia and China. 3 countries which I'm closely connected to. Msia - where I'm born & where I grow up. Aus - where I am now. China - where my cultural roots are from, and which everyone is so very interested in right now.
China is a hot topic. In uni this semester, we've mentioned China so many times. I've read about the "rise of China" from different perspectives (economic, military etc). Its such a major issue for the Western world, now whenever I read news online, there's always a "China" issue. Coupla days ago, it was worries about China wishing to mine uranium in Australia (which holds 40% of world reserves). Implications and whether they'd be subjected to extra scrutiny, plus the concern that they'd abide by the agreement to not use uranium mined in Australia for weapon development purposes, BUT then that would leave their local uranium resources available for that purpose.
2 days ago, Monash uni was in the news, article about how they're networking and establishing contacts with Chinese universities. Read in somebody's blogpost that Monash is a mere middle tier uni (global ranking somewhere in the 200-300 quoting donno which survey), but I really think my uni's better than that. At least they have the foresight to look forward into the future. Besides attracting foreign students to Australia (trend is downwards actually) which they know can't continue inevitably, they're establishing research collaborations etc.
And today -- suddenly so many articles on China in the Age online. FTA between Australia and China - some concerns, an article describing China as "awakening giant", article on connecting with culture, emerging China's influence in East Asia..
All these includes issues previously discussed in INT: intellectual property rights, culture and way of doing business, competition for influence between the US and China in South East Asia / East Asia as a whole, issues of quality control, lack of resources as a limiting factor to China's growth. They're all thinking about how to deal with an emerging China/India, how to ensure domestic interests are protected..
And where does Malaysia fit in?
We're growing economically, thats a definite. But I keep looking at us as being left behind, while everyone's moving forward in the globalised era. Thats the reason why I blog less about situations in Malaysia (politics/social). Look at whats been the big issues these 2 years. Listen to what the people-in-charge have to say? Has anything been resolved? Are the really important measures prioritised? Issues such as economic measures in the face of the 2 rising Asian giants (China and India)?
Some of the issues I read about just make me go "???". AP is neverending issue, PM Badawi seems so quiet, don't really hear him speaking out about the country's direction (at least not while I'm here la), NEP concerns, "hugging in public", keris-waving actions etc.. other issues are trivial and meaningless. Hardly expected from any "thriving democratic country".
Why can't we focus on the issues that really matter? Bread and butter issues, corruption, inequality issues, corporate governance, transparency, social indicators of growth, public safety (robberies & rampant snatch thefts are too common to be on the news these days).. With GST set to be implemented in 2007, are we going to be prepared? Then, everything's gonna cost another 5%. Costs of living already high enough as it is.
Have we moved forward in recent years? Economically, yes. Socially -- No. Common courtesy is still sorely lacking. Public apathy is healthy and alive. One important issue for rakyat -- their security when walking on the street. That's definitely deteriorated. Is the poor still poor? Yes. Does the public care about general cleanliness (on the streets etc) - no. Am I still very extremely careful with my bags and wallet when I'm in PJ/KL - yes.
So many ppl I talk to these days can't be bothered about all these issues. Sometimes I think maybe I should too. But thats if we ignore globalisation's influence on our environment. Continued apathy will mean we're living in our own little world of self-denial, while the world continues to move forward.
To gain or lose from globalisation? You decide.
posted by xaverri at 5:23 am
3 Comments:
A lot of heavy stuff but interesting. I am a big supported of the Malaysian PM as there have been a lot of changes under him. The problem is that there are a lot of backward thinking people who refuse to change.
Its all stuff I've been encouraged to think about by one of my lecturers this semester. I believe in what he says, those who don't (or refuse to) change will definitely get left behind.
Interestingly, a Deutsche Bank research study recently indicated Malaysia and India are going to be the world's fastest growing economies in the next 15 years, overtaking China..
malaysia is moving forward, yes, but at a rather slow pace. when others are moving forward at a fast pace, it will seem as that, i.e. malaysia is lacking behind.
is it a bad or a good thing? only time can tell. some countries move up to fast and fall down fast as well. it all pretty much depends on the administration mainly.
but it's frustrating, when many things that can be resolve now, are being left to be done tomorrow.
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