The Rising Star and Falling Star

The rising star is optimistic, eager to learn, full of hunger for growth and success.

The falling star is dimming. Pessimistic, rejecting new ideas and believing in its already established power, thinking itself untouchable and infallible.

Two extremes, two worlds apart. These completely opposite mindsets are precisely what lead to countries being worlds apart.

It was interesting to see this brought up in class as we often fail to consider something as simple as mindset to be a factor leading to disparities between communities, blaming it on issues like lack of opportunities and little resources.  As I brought up in my previous entry, what really separates the haves from the have nots? Could it be something as simple as a difference in attitude, the vision of a rising star versus the short-sightedness of a falling star?

A perfect example discussed was China in the past, a strong powerful nation many years ago. They later closed themselves to the rest of the world as they thought they had no more to learn from others. China paid a hefty price for their rejection of new ideas, and experienced the decline that brought them far below the status of the western powers. Fast forward to present day, they are now rapidly progressing with their rising star attitude. The Chinese have made their mark all over the world, as a country hungry for knowledge, extremely hardworking and full of drive, traits which have accelerated China’s growth.

As evident, the right vision is of utmost importance in determining the direction of an organisation or country. The right vision could take a rising star to become a dominant player in the industry, and the wrong vision could take a dominant player to become another fallen star. The openness to new ideas, technologies and knowledge, is something so simple and powerful, yet sadly, so easily forgotten by many. The reminder of the value of the rising star attitude was truly a precious takeaway from this lesson that I hope my fellow classmates too will always hold close to their hearts.

But what happens then after a country has attained a high level of development and become a dominant player in the world?

The growing divide between the rich and poor is almost painful to consider. When Prof showed us the video on the millennium development goals, it was really saddening to realise how far we still are from achieving our targets by 2015. Although it is a significant step just to have these goals to work towards, the sad truth is that many organisations and countries will always consider first how to further improve their situations, before looking back to extend a helping hand to those still so much further behind. I thought perhaps more should have said on these issues in class, to remind us to remain committed to the millennium development goals as we, as future stewards of our world, can make positive impacts in this direction.

One of the presentations by my classmate, Eugene, was on an article by Bill Gates about what can be done to help the developing countries. One of his points was to encourage companies to set up business developments in developing countries to create employment for the people. The suggestions raised in his article left me with the impression that many of the developing countries would be getting the shorter end of the stick in such a situation, and their progress eventually hampered by the limitations of the low paying jobs offered to them. The setting up of such businesses in developing countries is often just a disguise for such companies to exploit the developing countries for their benefit, and the help developing countries receive is simply a by-product of these actions, regarded with little importance by these businesses. It truly disgusts me that people can find it not against their conscience to behave as such.

So what does it then mean to be “developed”, the “dominant player” in the world? This status carries with it so much value and power, as well as the heavy burden of responsibility.

While the world often measures this using technical standards like the Human Development Index, I believe the meaning of being “developed” goes much further than that. To me, it means a country growing in a truly positive way, together. Apart from positive growth in the sectors of finance, healthcare and education, it also means the country’s people growing and maturing, becoming open hearted and open minded, socially graceful and gracious, and selfless in offering help to others who have yet to reach their level.

Idealistic it may sound, to me that is the true meaning of “being developed”. Despite how far we have come, there still remains a much longer way to go to attain this truly respectable status. Contemplating the meaning of development opened my eyes to the many problems in the world I have been ignorant of, another cherished takeaway from this lesson. A 9 for this interesting and thought provoking session, and I’m really looking forward to the next lesson of more discussion and interesting issues.

Shift happens

Indeed it does. Technology is all around us, a prevalent force in our everyday lives that existing without it would be near impossible for many.

For me however, I have always tried to resist excessive change wherever convenient, subscribing to the belief that ‘why fix it if it’s not broken’. Though favouring pen and paper records over iphone notes and, of course, real books with their crisp familiar pages over their lifeless digitalised ebook copies did not bring me anywhere close to Luddite-level, I was still, admittedly, pretty bad for modern standards.

The short video Prof showed us in class, “Shift happens” really brought to attention the sheer rapidness of the changes in technology every day. The magnitude of this exponential increase leaves us only one option, to do what is humanely possible to keep up with these changes, or risk being left too far behind to ever be rescued. To remain stationary would be to become obsolete, useless and of little value to society. It really helped me put into perspective the rate of change happening around us, that, clichéd as it may be, change is truly the only constant.

Despite the need to embrace change, my personal belief is that we should also remember to keep track of the implications of these changes, to ensure that we are not progressing at a rate too fast for us to handle. There have been too many examples of the dangers of technology in the wrong hands, as Prof mentioned briefly on the case of the invention of gunpowder by the Chinese. Perhaps it would have been good to discuss more of these issues in class on the first lesson, to allow us to leave the first session with a reminder to keep in these technological advancements in check.

Another interesting video Prof showed us today, “Guns, Germs and Steel”, about Jared Diamond in Papua New Guinea, highlighted a question posed by a Papua New Guinean to Diamond: why you white men have so much cargo, and we New Guineans have so little?

Many ideas were raised during the class discussion by my classmates, relating to geographical differences and lack of exposure to technology, among some. I thought perhaps it could be something as simple as a difference in mindset, the desire for improvement and advancement versus a simple contentment with the little they had, a different focus and direction the society took. Perhaps one of the factors contributing to their delayed development was simply the fact that they thought the little they had was enough to get by, and there was no great need to change that.

What separates the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots’? A simple difference in attitudes of both communities at the beginning perhaps? No spark to ignite the fire of desire for improvement and change? It is definitely important to first love and accept technological changes in our lives and to welcome it before we can harness its power to better our lives, a valuable point and takeaway from this lesson I cannot disagree with.

Shift happens, a shift in mindset indeed. Perhaps in the course of these weeks I would grow to love and appreciate technology more. A 7 for a promising start to the course!