Week 2

As a recap of last week’s lesson, there was a brief mention of the cause of the Dark Ages – the Plague of Justinian, which contributed to the Black Death that sent the Eastern Roman Empire into a state of pandemonium and unrest – which ironically also led to the Renaissance. It was through the acquiring of knowledge of newer drugs and vaccines as well as innovation that made the cultural movement from the Late Middle Ages to the modern era possible.

Moving on, the technicality of global dominance in the forms of military, social, cultural, economic, and industrial was discussed. To be a dominant player (rising star), it is imperative to exhibit characteristics such as optimism to learn from others, openness to other people’s perspective and to have a keen interest to invest in new ideas.

What caught my attention was the reading regarding “Innovation to the Reset World” by Vijay Govindarajan. His main takeaway message was the need to harness innovation, the key that allowed the recovery from the Black Friday crisis. It is important to “selectively forget the past” while dealing with legacy and existing infrastructure and “create the future”- forward looking projects that will improve the bottom line a decade down the road. Clearly, we should be forward looking, learn from our past mistakes and move on. In this article, he highlights that “the best time to prepare for expansion is during a recession”.

The second article was about human development indicators (HDI) that measure the development of countries. This includes factors such as standard of living, life expectancy, literacy rates and GDP. However, what stuck out was “happyness”. Is this a relevant factor of a country? Evidently so! How can a society thrive if it is fraught with unrest and turmoil?

What perturbed me the most was the video outlining the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

1)      Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger- 1.2 billion people live on $1 a day or less.

2)      Achieve universal primary education- 121 million children are out of school; 65 million girls, 56 million boys.

3)      Promote gender equality and empower women- About 575 million women are illiterate worldwide.

4)      Reduce child mortality- 11 million children aged 5 and below die from preventable diseases annually.

5)      Improve maternal health- 1 in every 16 African women die during as a result of pregnancy.

6)      Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases- almost 42 million people live with HIV/AIDS; 92% are in developing countries.

7)      Ensure environmental sustainability- Almost 1billion people live in squalor and over 2 billion people live without proper sanitation.

8)      Develop a global partnership for development

This shows the huge disparity present in the world today despite our development we have thus far. This is definitely a cause of concern but I believe that it is only after political differences are resolved and diplomatic partnerships forged can we then steer in the correct path to achieve the abovementioned goals by the year 2015.

Hans Rosling’s graphical representation of how countries change over 2 centuries is also an eye-opener. The concept of how independent colonies progress during the Industrial Revolution, overcome obstacles such as the Great Depression is simply fascinating. The West is slowly losing their dominance to the rest of the world. Through the ages, the huge historical disparity between the Western countries and their less developed counterparts is increasingly dwindling. The trend, as shown, is indicating that we are becoming an entirely new converging world. With trade, green technology and peace, it is possible for the world to be moulded into a more equalised place to live in.

Overall, I would like to give this week’s lesson an 8.5/10. Perhaps the concept of the rise of civilization could be further discussed in class? Relating to Vijay Govindarajan once more, it is important to look at the rise and fall of our predecessors so that we will not commit the same mistakes.