CLAUD

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Bristow, Durkheim, Harvey and some thoughts from Claudia

I finally understand why Pol Pot decided to mass murder the educated population of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Educated thought and questioning is...how to put it...contagious.

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I'm taking some modules and done some readings that really made me see this world in a different way. You know those times our parents tell us to work hard. Our government keeps telling us to be competitive. Have you ever wondered what this "competition" means? It's kind of depressing isn't it? We're studying, working and spending for the benefit of this Economy.

However, we never doubted the existence of the economy and this concept of Competition. Singapore must be more competitive. Singaporeans must keep their skills up-to-date...we've heard the story so many times.

From Bristow, it may seem that the flaw in this debate is simply that the countries do not out-compete each other macro-economically, but rather, it is the firms that compete against each other. Think about it, America is more competitive than Singapore right? Does that mean that the Macdonalds there make their burgers than Singaporeans?

How much of Singapore is really SingaporeAN? So perhaps the competition is about drawing investments into Singapore. Then perhaps the competition should be the country being able to promote "firms serving local and national markets and not just international ones, or by the development of community or social enterprises which meet broader social and environmental as well as economic objectives."

The question is: Is Singapore an Economy or a Country?

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Yet, it never occurred to us that life is more than just the economy.

We have moved from the ancient period where Man sacrifice virgins to appease some invisible Gods to Man sacrificing time with loved ones to appease some invisible Economy - and the GDP for that matter.

The potential problem of using GDP as the sole indicator to measure economic progress and development and as what Ms Aminah said, "Standard of Living is made of what? (Que last row: )Economic and Non-Economic Factors..."

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Last saturday, I was walking to the Khatib stadium to meet Vann for my morning jog. Then there was this hard-core Liverpool fan who hanged the Liverpool flag and crest: the whole she-bang. It kind of reminded me of Durkheim's argument that civic religion may one day take over monotheism (which is subject to debate of course). I'm sure the guy who hung the Liverpool flag must have kept it there for the rest of the year, even National Day.

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After graduating from JC, I realised how much I still do not know about Geography. Although I have a long-standing interest in Geology, which would not fade, I also have a strong interest in economic geography and economic development. Knowing what I know now, I feel that whatever we learnt in JC was skimming the surface and that there's a much more complex and interesting world out there. I always thought that Marx was synonymous with the Communism we know today associated with N. Korea etc. However, Marx was a revolutionary thinker who went into the deeps of the structure of Capitalism. It makes you think about how the US politicians are glorifying Capitalism and saying that "it's the only system, that has proven by far, to be more effective and efficient at managing our markets." With this recent financial capitalist meltdown, I wonder how true that is.

Fellow Geog students would share this:

Harvey agrees with Marx that Capitalism will reach a bottle neck when capitalists will provide too much supply than demand, prices fall and then unemployment rises...the downward spiral to the end of capitalism and revolution.

However, the end may not be so if capitalists are able to seek new spaces to expand into new markets - where goods can be sold there instead of home markets and production can be shifted to cheaper locations - the spatial fix.

Sounds globalisationally familar anyone?

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This is a start of a larger view of the world and that we're really small as compared to the systems we have set up of ourselves. I often wonder that if that supranationality of our systems, the World Bank, The Economy, Depression, Mass Unemployment, Globalisation is a macro-projection of mankind's internal systems within ourselves. It's kind of hard to grapple with the enormity of the systems we've set up of ourselves. However, fundamentally, I feel that we are larger than ourselves. From the way we describe the Economy as a huge net that encompasses all things, we overlook the individuals - you and me - that actually contribute to it. This crisis is an outlier.

Perhaps it just proves that maybe humankind is not as rational as we would like ourselves to be.

09:58