In the news
Friday, January 25, 2008
Hi. Going to do this quickly before I go off to do my work. Two things I noticed today in the newspapers, which I read this time purely after two GP quizzes that showed I wasn’t up to scratch.
Firstly, there is this article in the Straits Times today that Headlines, “Don’t compare Malaysia with Singapore, HK: Abdullah”. It highlights the PM making encouraging statements about the state of the country’s political efficiency, as benchmarked against others. In it, it mentions how the man in question said this, “They (Singapore and HK) are grapes… and we are apple. How can you compare grapes with an apple?”
He was saying this in reference to a “World Competitiveness Year Book compiled by a Swiss-based business school, which said Malaysia was ranked above the UK, Germany, Japan, and France in places with a population of over 20 million.”
This comes after he mentioned, “the government’s efficiency was rated sixth best in the world.” You may have guessed by now, but if you haven’t, Singapore and Hong Kong obviously fared better. Look at it this way. First he says he can’t compare to other smaller countries, and then he touts himself as beating all the other vast countries that have done worse.
For god’s sakes. Countries by right can never compare against each other. A benchmark is an average at best, and don’t feel sore just because others fare better. There are so many factors to consider, the geography, the history, the political stability, the social and economic environment, and a buffet spread of variables to take into account.
Take for example, how a study conducted some time ago compared how wired and connected certain countries were, relative to each other. Singapore fared one of the best in terms of world connectivity, but did very poorly when it came to Local networking related telephony. In contrast, The US did better in localized contexts, and fared one of the worst in terms of various forms of connection to other parts of the world. You see why? America is so vast, it may well afford to rely on local sources for many goods and services, while Singapore is obviously not the case, and requires itself to constantly keep up with the pace of global connectivity simply to survive. It is thus only natural to be better than the US in such fields.
Do we say precisely that, that we trump others with global connectivity, and fail to point out that actually, we lag behind in other fields? The very fact of the matter is, with different countries come entirely different methods, and therefore nations are never on an even footing. I think the country is pretty sad if their PM needs to point out the losers when they are one of the top, and yet say the ones at the top have it easier. After all, I can say they have it much easier than Mozambique, but are the Africans complaining? I thought not.
Another article in My Paper is about these two boys in a boys’ school being caught taking upskirt pictures of their teachers. Of course, the discussion isn’t about the picture taking (sorry, for some of those readers of this blog…=D) Its about this comment that the principal said regarding the matter. I will reproduce it for you because I am nice today, and that is very sweet of me. =D
…‘She added that she does not tell her teachers not to wear skirts because it sends the wrong impression that the teacher is at fault. She said, “This suggests that it’s their (the teacher’) dressing that provokes the boys to take the pictures and this is wrong.”’
Now, isn’t that right there food for thought? The concept sounds really familiar doesn’t it? shan’t say further, since any discerning reader can infer my allusion. Have a happy evening!
posted by joseph at 5:43 PM