What Lie Is It Today?

When i open the newspapers, i am thinking “what are they going to lie about today?”. Newspapers are filled with lies of what they want you to believe in. They are funded by advertisers who want you to purchase their products. They will announce: 20% sale island wide! (When in fact they raised their prices 20% island wide so you will believe you are paying less for a good deal).

The downside of studying marketing in depth is that i don’t really believe in what advertisements say, especially when the label says “100% natural goodness”. Well, everything is 100% natural as it comes from the soil including chemicals right? The term “natural” is ambiguous.

The most terrifying sort of marketing is subliminal messages, little messages that you don’t notice. They can totally mindscrew the whole population into believing that they have they are good for you. A good example is Macdonalds sponsoring Olympics and branding their cups with different types of sports. Its a subliminal message trying to tell you eating lots of burgers will make you sporty too!

Sadly, we don’t have a “thinking population”, most of them follow what they see on without questioning. Thankfully, the ministry of education has realized they had churned out a vegetable generation and decided they should look into ways into allowing questioning in school (should that be the case in the first place?!)

Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said yesterday in a speech at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

At the end of the day, he said, education in Singapore needs to ‘nurture each child to believe in himself and be self-sufficient, to care for his fellow man, and to be able to contribute to the larger society around him’.

What he is trying to say we currently have a bunch of insecure, pampered, selfish and narrow minded bunch of students who don’t give a dam about contributing to society but achieving the best grades in school and top positions in working life at the expense of everything else.

Makes alot of sense to me, majority of the people in my generation don’t really care what happens to “the society”, it does not matter to them, what matters is the fast cars, girls and brooze.

I am sure these people will leave Singapore anytime given the opportunity.

More brain drain hurray!

Melbourne - The Most Livable City in the World

Lessons we can learn:

1) Reclaim our streets from cars
2) People need open spaces to enjoy and appreciate the city
3) Bicycle lanes will reduce the traffic on roads, it is eco friendly and a convenient way of commuting.
4) Vehicles causes stress and pollution to the people living in the city, steps should be taken for alternative modes of transportation such as shared buses, walking, cycling and maybe the skies should be utilized as well with aviation cars? (lol!)

I enjoy walking around the city, particularly City Hall in Singapore. There are many landmarks in the central area for us to appreciate the history and architectural of the buildings. However, the vast number of cars destroys the breath taking views into a industrialized warehouse. Setting up more ERP granties will not solve the problem of traffic, increasing the frequency of buses and mrt routes will improve commuting. Steps should be taken into expanding public transport routes.

The national environmental council has taken a great step in connecting our parks together to make cycling on the shorelines enjoyable. They should look into developing cycling lanes in the city to facilitate the usage of bicycles as a environmental friendly form of transportation.

Singapore Education is Stressful? Korea is Worse.

Many parents would complain that education in Singapore is stressful for their kids. There is streaming, PSLE, O levels, A levels and limited university places for those who qualify. The situation in Korea is a different playing field altogether, parents are willing to spend one third of their earnings on their child’s education.

The main reason is that the main instruction of teaching in schools is in Korean, in the ever changing globalisation of the world’s economy, English is a very important tool for communication. Parents would spend hundreds each month for their children to attend English classes on top of tuition and supplementary lessons.

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Tools of A System

A machinery moves in an automated system. It runs like a clock, in fact, it is trying to beat the clock to produce faster and faster. Churning out goods at a rapid rate to meet the demand from the suppliers.

The employees working in an Multi National Corporation (MNC) are just tools of a machinery system. They are delegated specific functions in their respective departments. They work around the clock, the employees in the USA are working in the day while the employees in India work while they are asleep. Everything is part of a big automated system that ensures profitability of the stock holders.

Everyone is becoming part of the system, each one of us contribute to a bigger objective. Tall buildings dominate the landscape while workers scurry like ants on the ground level. CEOs play golf while entertaining prospective clients. Money is the bottomline. If it brings in profits, we will start production of the goods and services to the masses.

We are just dispensable tools of a system. You can be fired and replaced anytime. Unless, unless… you decide to control the system and stop running in the race like everyone else.

Averal Lim is a Business Undergraduate who examines the consequences of economy on the people that traps them in an invisible race for a “greater being”.

Theory is Unreal.

The essential notion is that the relationship between theory and its users must always be open to evaluation and reinterpretation through the process of research whether “real world” or in the “classroom”

However, this seems too obvious, almost banal. After all most students of business have a notion that theory is unreal or suspect – almost by definition. The problem is that to move beyond simple assessments that theory, such as Porter’s diamond, the product life cycle or the Boston Consulting Group matrix, are right or wrong requires more detailed accounts of how these ideas are used by the academy that takes primary responsibility for them. Thus, accounts need to focus on the pragmatic employment of theory to develop effective and workable solutions for specific contexts. This might encourage a more reflective, pragmatic and critical appreciation among students of management education concerning the potential of theory.

Extracted from Some Academic Source written by 3 Professors

Maybe i should write this for my thesis.

“Management theories hold true for rats. You can theorize rat behavior as they are very predictable creatures. The theories don’t hold true for humans. Humans are unpredictable creatures, they bite when least unexpected.”

LOL i wonder what the aussie lecturers will think when they read it.