Technology: Impotent Institutions

Technology: Impotent Institutions

Few today will doubt the power and reach of the internet, and its sublime ability to so effective steer our social lives. For most of us in the contemporary society, computers and information technology has become so integrated in our lives that most of us simply cannot live life ‘normally’ without them. Internet, email, computers, laptops, cell phones, S.M.S, EZ link cards and the like have effectively changed the way we interact, what we value and who we value, even our own language proficiency.

Google Chrome has launch new software integrated into their browser which allows users to edit in real time together on an Excel or word document. This has the potential to eliminate email attachment bouncing. Combine this with live web video feeds; project work might take on a whole new meaning.

I could go on and on about the wonders and marvels of technology and how it has made my life so much better. But I rather talk about what it has taken away from us, how being connected together online has resulted in a feeling of being disconnected from each other offline.

Technological advances have resulted in more and more instances of the ‘medium becoming the message’. Before you jump the gun, let me explain what I mean, I m inspired by Marshall McLuhan version of ‘medium becoming the message’. A medium he says if effectively anything that is an extension of our physical selves. A hammer would be an extension of our arms, wheels, an extension of our feet and cell phones, an extension of our voice. Like all extension I might add, it brings about the notion that something is getting further from something else.

And according to McLuhan, a message is the "the change of scale or pace or pattern" is that a new invention or innovation "introduces into human affairs." Which means that, for example the invention of the cell phone would not bring about a message of convenience but instead the message would be perhaps “people no long being punctual” since they can say “you all go walk around first when I reach I call you”.

On the topic of rampant pornography being so easily available online, the obvious would be, pictures of women are easily available, objectifying women, degrading women etc. But according to McLuhan, that wouldn’t be good enough to be the message, the message I think would be, how a frequent ‘surfer’ of pornography will react or behave when real, living breathing women are around. Can he still remain confident or become shy and reserved. The business of online pornography is a huge multi-million dollar one, which means there are actually a lot of people engaging in this very unhealthy act. Does it have any links to rape, violence towards women, a feeling of powerlessness in men? I don’t have the facts, but I feel strongly that there is definitely a link. The medium has become the message.


Technological advancements are double edged swords, it take great skill and training to wield it safely and effectively as an individual. Currently, technology seeps into the everyday lives of people without them knowing of the darker side of it. We use and use, without knowing that it has the potential to become addictive, and like all addictions, destructive.

Societies have developed institutions to handle its day to day operation. But institutions like family and education took a very long time to develop. Technology has out paced society’s passively created institutions; it has for the large part rendered them no longer effective for the task they have been called in to perform. Family might have socialized its members that looking at naked people having sex is wrong, but what about Toon porn or hentai? Technology has made abortion cheaper and safer, but society’s institutions are still immature as it goes about handling this relatively new procedure and all its excess baggage.
What does it destroy? Like piped water in a village robbing the villagers of bonding time around the well, cell phones robbing people of the need to be punctual, facebook removing the need to ask an old friend ‘How are you?’, these ‘soft’ losses all attribute to the potential defraying of social fabric.

As McLuhan reminds us, "Control over change would seem to consist in moving not with it but ahead of it. Anticipation gives the power to deflect and control force.
And society’s institutions are not really to handle these ‘weeds’, and never will be as long as technology out paces the institutions

I am all for technological advancement, but I only wish that we all would use it wisely and responsibly.
Vernon

Urbanization: The Singapore Urban Plan, Winners and the Losers

Singapore is the only city state in the world; we are unique in almost every sense of the word and our politics reflect that.
One of the aspects of our great country which has won international acclaim is our housing and urban planning. Within 30 years, the percentage of the population living in government flats soared from 30% - 80%. Every household given electricity, clean running water and of course frequent waste disposal. Even the composition of ethnic groups in each block where engineered to reflect the national proportion.
This is a stark contrast from the 1950s where under almost non existent colonial rule; crime was rampant together with gang fights, tuberculoses and unemployment.
The motivation to mount a national public housing program was largely deteriorating physical living conditions, with their attendant social, psychological and health problems.
I believe that the Housing Development Board flats and various schemes also helped or forced many people to go out and get jobs in the then booming light industries. By instilling a monthly paying system, people are forced to go out and get regularly paying jobs, and by displacing the people from their land and splitting the then normal three tiered families, removed the tendency for the people to fall back or rely on their families. These factors together with others provided the drive for people to go out and work, the government though various polices, made the county inviting to MNCs and factories to come and set up shop here.

Modern facilities, electricity, clean running water, dropping crime rates and employment benefited everyone right?

One of aims of this urban project was not doubt to boost or kick start the economy, the targeted groups were the young, mobile and what has come to be know as nucleus families.

When the first few blocks of flats were built, they were two room flats, big enough for a ‘family’. What happened to the elderly, the handicapped dependents, and children of large families? Intergeneration or intra family relations could have stepped in to lend a hand, but the balloting/arbitrary and first come first serve system to allocating flats effectively killed this possibility by scattering every nucleus. During the first few years of HDB, a few elderly committed suicide because they couldn’t adept to high rise life.

What about the minorities, the now ‘broken up’ Malay families? Now located relatively further away from each other added burdens like difficulties in finding childcare due to their strict religious practices.

The Indian family, with the retrenched sole breadwinner having to under cut the selling price of his flat when he was downgrading because he could only sell his flat to another Indian family due to the Racial Integration Act?

These are a few examples of those who suffered and sacrificed for the greater progress of the rest of the nation. The narrowly defined formal rationality of economic advancement of the nation set forth by our leaders considered them collateral damage.
Let us hope, dream and believe that one day, we can see a Singapore where one man’s dream doesn’t have to come at other man’s loss.

Vernon

Health and Globalization: Singapore Polyclinics and Individuals

I live with my two grandparents, my grandfather is a veteran of a heart bypass and my grandmother suffers from the ‘side effects’ of diabetes like being sluggish for 10 years. My grandfather was a smoker for about 40 years and my grandmother use to be habitual sweet tooth. Everyone in my family, including my grandparents think that they would not have had the luxury of living so long if not for modern medicine, and the accessibility to it. There are times when I would accompany them to the polyclinic or Tan Tock Seng Hospital for various check ups and examinations, and I always notice the growing number of senior people in the waiting rooms. What is even more surprising is the imbalance of accompanying young people. I am not lying when I claim that EVERY time I accompany either of my grandparents for their checkups, I am the only person of my age group accompanying an elder. The very visible lack of young 20-50 year olds pushing their parents or grandparents around left a very lasting impression on me.

What has happened? Instead, maids and elderly couples dominate the pews in front of the polyclinic’s many consultation rooms. The demands of their children’s work and career left these senior people to navigate the polyclinics relatively alone or in husband wife combos. Matters are made worst when middle ages working adults have children and both aged parents to care for; the already cemented trend of shrinking family due to rising cost of living among other reasons; leaves the main players doing very heavy bench presses.

The cost of Singapore’s world class medical care is a significant factor in decision making. I remember, before my family decided to go ahead with my grandfather heart bypass, they were given an estimate of long much more time will it give my grandfather, this was due to the sheer cost of the operation, which was in tens of thousands, they needed to know the dollar/years exchange rate.

The government has many schemes in play with regards to healthcare in Singapore. I remember a phrase from an insurance ad which said “Will you be in awe of modern medicine or wish you can afford it?” or the aunty who pray for a quick (cheap) death else becoming a burden on her children. These concerns are all valid, not unfounded. The various schemes include Medisave, CPF, paying through their children’s Medisave etc. However, during the 1980, the government’s population policy reshaped the demographics of Singapore. A significant number of soon to be elders have less then 3 children to depend on. The education level and social position of these elders also acted as a barrier between them and schemes that can help them financially or socially. This led to a trend of fear arising from misunderstand or ignorance among the lower classes’ elderly. The fear of prolonged treatment, hospital stay and becoming a burden all serve to impede the nation’s goals of providing reasonable healthcare to all.

There are social services, volunteer and religious groups to come in and fill this gap. But, nothing and no one can replace the role of responsible children. The state can pass laws and craft schemes, groups can organize out reach programs and young children can collect money in tin cans, but nothing can be more effective then a child, taking time out from his job in today’s fast paced world to responsibly educate his parents on healthy lifestyles or pushing them around the polyclinic and watching for their queue numbers. Healthcare is a partnership between the individual and the state; each has a part to play and a role to fill.


Vernon

Religion : Kingdom of Heaven

Religion: The Kingdom of Heaven

WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST

I personally find this movie very good and unique especially how Bailian the protagonist ‘won’. He actually won by surrendering, this is rather unique in Hollywood movies.

The whole movie was centered on Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified and the ‘spiritual center of the word’. As this movie ‘happened’ during the Middle Ages, there is a very solid sense of class. There are the Lords, Priests, Soldiers and Peasants. In the movie, a solider gave way to a lord, even though the lord has someone with him who was under arrest, citing the reason of his birthright. A peasant can become a better fighter if he is knighted; the person effectively is the same, his social status merely changes and in the movie, this social change can also manifest itself into better fighting skills.

In the movie, the presence of religious forces permeates throughout, and the 3 main axis of which influences the movie greatly are flexible with these religious forces; the leper king, Saladin and Bailian. I personally feel that if they were all actually following the advices of their respective spiritual leaders, it would have resulted in a very boring movie. However, it is interesting to note that all of their respective spiritual leaders seem to ‘know’ what God is thinking. Another point it seems, that there are effectively two
Different Gods in the movie; one is the personal God, he who ‘keeps’ his follower within his gaze, protecting him, guiding him and can actually ‘leave’ the follower if the follower were to commit acts inciting His anger. I call this the Protective Best Friend God (who will still punch you and leave you if you were to have an affair with his wife). The other God I would like to call the General or Commander God. This God gives the Christian people solidarity, someone to fear, to lean on, to follow and acts as a source of strength. “No army fighting under the name of Jesus Christ can be defeated” said a priest in the movie.

The first part of the movie was driven by the PBF God, the reason Bailian wanted to go to Jerusalem was he wanted to cleanse himself and his dead wife’s sins (killing a priest and committing suicide respectively) citing that PDF God has left him because of them. As if he was seeking forgiveness through another ‘governing body’. In Jerusalem, the Muslims, Jews and Christians live together harmoniously thanks to a pact signed by their respective kings.
For example, provided the minorities pay their taxes to the ruling Christians, they are allowed to pray. Religious practice has become an incentive for paying taxes. The ruling instrument of taxation has long pierced religion in that region. The Muslims and Jews had to ‘buy’ the tolerance of the Christians. This is very interesting to note because one can see that economic gains (read “better quality of life) have a higher priority then religion. A fair number characters in the movie seems to quote from the will of God constantly, but the main influential characters seem to have more of an ‘accommodating’ attitude towards ‘Him’ during the later part of the movie.





The second part saw Commander God’s presence domination the flow of the storyline, the armies march under His banner to destroy His enemies with faith as their shield and His anger as their lance, they fear his wrath if they do not follow His orders (of course the priest spoke in His stead). When one of the barons commented that they might lose due to lack of water, a priest accused him of blasphemy. This level of fervor combined with hypernationalism creates a potent mix for the dynamite of war.
The flavor of religion is indeed very strong in this movie. It drives the characters to seek forgiveness, armies to war and the dying to death. However, this movie also hints that religion is open to interpretations, (refer to the scene where Bailian burns the bodies of dead soldiers before the ritual three days was up). The movie also hints that tolerance has to come at a price, and nothing truly comes for free, there is nothing effectively given for free in the whole movie (Bailian’s father had to die for him to become a hero, taxes for the right to pray, great death in exchange for the city, sex in exchange for a stay in the villa etc).


Vernon

Democracy: The Modified Democracy

“I am not interested in being politically correct.
I am interested in being correct.”
Lee Kuan Yew:
Interview with Fortune magazine, Aug 4, 1997
*MM Lew Kuan Yew who leads our great ‘democratic’ nation said the above. Would Plato, the original father of democracy, have said the same thing?





Democracy was conceived by the Greeks. The Greeks loved justice and laws so much they became a nation of philosophers and thinkers, passing numerous bills and enforcing those laws through their armies. But what is the original democracy? Is it simply freedom, justice or maybe “people’s rule”? There is no universally accepted definition of democracy today; in fact, if you go back and read Plato’s Republic you would not find his version around being practiced word for word today.

The old democracy was founded during a time of slaves and oppressed women. People had little rights and those rights were unknown to the uneducated masses. Humans have not solved the problems of War, Disease and Famine. The ideal that would become the bedrock of a Republic seemed surreal, like the light at the end of a dark tunnel. The world was different then. When people moved in large numbers, they where soldiers not displaced and mobile labor, back then it was easier to believe than disbelieve. People knew their roles and places in society and could almost always fall back on their land. The demographics and landscape has changed, so is it any surprise that the governing model also went through an overhaul?

The world we live in today is a globalized one. War, Disease and Famine are gone. Free trade and free enterprise have become the backbone of the world economy. It is my belief that any word accorded the favor of being prefixed by “free” has to be something good and beneficial for the majority of the human population. However in the name of maintaining this free trade and a robust economy to attract more enterprise, the Singapore government has impinged on a large number of our “freedoms”.

We have increasingly allowed others to define our freedoms for us: who we can sell our fully paid for and fully “owned” flat to, where and when we can drive, what kind of websites you can surf ( type in a undesirable URL and you get directed to http://www.mda.gov.sg ). We just listen and follow without any serious reaction. Global wealth has long ago torn the rule away from the people. Under the guise of maintaining our position as an economic power-house, so much has been taken away from the people to be kept in the coffers of the rich and powerful. In the name of money-making opportunities, we give up certain liberties. We have been indoctrinated by fear and progress MUST come at a cost of liberties. Slowly but surely we are sleepwalking into a level of state-surveillance that will never be reversed. In exchange for what we give up, we are provided a modicum of a good life, and a quiet life; the ultimate anesthetic for the brain (Today newspaper 7/7/2008 “A modern Authoritarianism”).

The democracies today no longer resemble the original principle of democracy envisioned by Plato. We are no longer concerned with the sufferings of the poor and how they are losing out, more often then not we now readily believe economic reasons over our supposedly innate moral compass. Our decisions are driven by personal gain and rarely ‘for our brothers’. The state is now a separate entity from the people. A very small group of elites now call the shots for a large number of people, and they live lives nothing like those of the majority, yet are able to claim that they understand what we are going though. I feel that we should not call ourselves a Democratic nation. I believe that the moment we change our stance to a Modified Democratic nation and specify what it is that we modified, more people around the world will better understand us. Because that is what we are, a Modified Republic running on a Modified Democratic System, in the free Globalized World which didn’t exist when the true Democracy was first born.

Vernon