Arrows

So, I'm finally finding the time to blog again. This comes as no surprise, since I'm stuck in front of my laptop typing report after report after report (I've got like a dozen reports to submit this semester). Eventually anybody will get bored. So, I thought I'd spend some time arrowing some not-so-innocent bystanders :)

First off, we have some education minister somewhere who wants to make history a compulsory subject to pass in order to move on with life. Well, if the history that they are teaching is sound and true and full of facts and nothing but facts, I would actually support the idea, simply because a lot can be learnt from history. From the politics behind the two world wars, the economics behind the industrial revolution, the strategy behind the greatest battles in history, the psychology behind terrorism, and so on, one can see the true colours of humanity and learn from their mistakes. However, if what they're teaching is just political preaching, then who cares whether u pass or fail history. It's his story (dia mia pasal in bm). By the way, I came across this article which highlight the great Malaccan empire as taught in our history, or lack thereof. (http://www.malaysia-today.net/archives/archives-2010/35605-demise-of-malacca-addendum) Check it out if you are just as curious :)

Here is an insight as to what will happen to my homeland if nothing changes and people in power remain the same. Going on the current trajectory, I expect the brain drain to continue or even escalate, if history becomes compulsory. Brain drain will mean that the amount of high income professionals and the like will be stagnant or possibly dwindle over the years as the economy shifts back to low tech and labour intensive relative to similar developing nations. This will mean that GDP will probably not increase and this will be even worse when we run out of petroleum. With corruption still at large, we expect a significant portion of national income to go the the "minority" and hence lesser available income to spend on useless projects like the future 2nd tallest building. This will mean even less money will be available for subsidy to the people, thus inflation waiting to happen. Since most people's income is not expected to rise by much, more and more will move into the lower income group (not poor yet as defined by the government). At this point, the descriptions sound utterly similar to that of some third world countries where the rich get richer and poor get poorer. And the 80-20 rule where 80% of the nations riches belong to 20% of the population might skew toward 90-10 rule or maybe even 95-5 rule, depending on the number of "minority".

Next up, we have an outgoing president of a university which has dropped considerably in rankings. Needless to say, the mythical figure behind all my university woes will receive an arrow from me :) Even though some of it are caused by other people in his team, the arrow still goes to him because, simply, it's his team. One policy worth mentioning is the elimination of small class tutorials. while other world class universities are trying to increase teacher to student ratio, he's trying his best to increase student to teacher ratio. He must be patting his back now that one lecturer can tend to 500 students at once, it's simple economics. Another is probably the promotion of monotonic lifestyle of students, grooming a new generation of robots. While this might not be true for some majors, the majority of the student body, namely engineers, definitely experience this. The requirement to stay on campus is to be active in only ONE club or activity, and no credit whatsoever goes to those who are all rounded and participate in many clubs. In fact, with this ridiculous rule, most students only participate in one club and strangle each other for the top posts, which yield the most points. What a way to get students prepared for the rat race ahead.  By the way, just check out what's in store when the new president comes in: (http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/11/12/ntu-campus-revamp-includes-pub-cinema/)

Well, I can go on for another few paragraphs but I'd better stop here, lest I get in trouble for voicing my opinion. Back to typing reports nobody reads :|