>> we will we will rock YOU. /}

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

the world is flat

The world is being flattened. I didn't start it and you can't stop it, except at a great cost to human development and your own future. But we can manage it, for better or for worse. If it is to be for better, not for worse, then you and your generation must not live in fear of either the terrorists or of tomorrow, of either al-Qaeda or of Infosys. You can fluorish in this flat world, but it does take the right imagination and the right motivation. While your lives have been powerfully shaped by 9/11, the world needs you to be forever the generation of 11/9 - the generation of strategic optimists, the generation with more dreams than memories, the generation that wakes up each morning and not only imagines that things can be done better but also acts on that imagination every day.

Finally finished reading THE WORLD IS FLAT: A Brief History of The Twenty First Century.

What can I say? It was great. Totally.

I think anyone, if you are serious about doing something in your life at all, if you are inspired about doing YOUR thing in this era, read it.

I should have read it earlier,
if I did,
I wouldn't have wasted my four years in Sec Sch;
if I did,
I would have a better idea of what I wanna do/ who I wanna be and have a clearer picture of the world.....

Feel so inspired and motivated lar!

HA, just the other day my cousin in Cheena was telling me about building China.

I'm like,
I believe that people with the capacity to be their best, with the potential to rise above the rest, should realise that they have an obligation to fulfill.

The obligation to their family, to their society, to this world, to the poor, to the disadvantaged.

Because if one man can go all out and be really successful,
he brings a thousand others with him.

There's this Harvard graduate who started Data Entry firms in Cambodia,
paying them some ~~$75 monthly, twice the minimum wage in that country.
And subsequently he expanded.
thecrimson is their work. Converting past Harvard publications and stuff to digitized format...

There's this airline who recruits mothers to work from home in Salt Lake City.
They get decently paid, and they get to look after their kids, they get to have a greater life with their family.

There are youngsters learning the American accents in Bangalore, India as part of their training to be call centre operators, to Americans looking for lose luggage/ seeking technical assistance, etc.

In Wal-Mart, once a good is purchased and a cashier scans it, information is sent instantly to the supplier's side to produce to replace that purchased good, so that the stores will never run out of stock. They even have weather forecasting systems, for instance, more alcohol would be produce if a typhoon or some sort is coming, because people tend to drink more.

Science has revolutionised the world we live in, set standards, changed the way we live and communicated.

Technology has empowered the individual, made knowledge easily accessible.

As China, India and Russia enter the world market,
I think the new possibilities are simply amazing and exciting.

Communism is dead, welcome to the free economy.

Anyways, back to my point just now,
yeah...

Tertiary education is the key to social mobility, it's your ticket to a world of opportunities.

Because some work can be outsourced,basic economics dictates work gets thrown where it is done best, at the lowest possible cost. It's like we have an inkling of that already, when we studied The Shift of Manufacturing Industries in E. Geog.

Intellectual people have the obligation to be educated to the best of their abilities. =Pp

So I see it as my personal responsibility to study really hard.

So that one day I'll return to China,
and use my expertise to help sharpen those claws.

To breed the perfect storm that will unleash an age of unpredecented glory for my home country,
to dish out countless job opportunities and grow the pie, so that everyone, as long as they are willing - are ABLE to partake in this economic growth and benefit from the goodness of a flattened world.

It takes more than raw ambition to ride the top of the waves in this era of glocalisation.

You need to adapt and adopt,
be open and flexible,
know your Science and Engineering well,
appreciate the value of IT and education,
have more imagination than memories.

Even if I don't exhibit all of that,

I wanna work towards all of those.
And I'll be the cream of the elite crop someday.

Not just at the top.

I look at where I grew up in,
I look at the world around me,
I look at my friends, my peers, my relatives, and everyone else.

And I tell myself that there's got to be more to life.

There's got to be more than average grades, average job.

That's got to be so much more than one can do, in collaboration with like-minded people.

To shape this world and influence it for the better.

So that every child can jump and skip around, speak fluently, think clearly, get educated, know what they want from life and go after it.
So that every worker get mininum wage, paid for his hard work and effort, able to constantly upgrade his skills to be lifetime-employable.

You know,
stuff like that.

And I'm sure I'll be able to see loads of great things in my lifetime.
And be part of it.

Already, the majority of University undergrads overseas are Chinese.
Already, the majority of people excelling in Science and Math are foreigners, in America.

Somehow I'm sure that all of these are good news for China.

Because Globalisation 3.0 means you can work from home and still be decently paid.

The bread follows the brain.

Video-conferencing, the Internet, fibre-optics, skype, etc. have enabled a seamless flow of information and exchange of ideas.

When a person orders a Dell computer online,
the order is processed and the different parts - From mouse to graphics card to motherboard...etc, are assembled in different parts of the world and brought together in the factory in, say, Malaysia. And then flown for delivery...

My mother and grandmother's been telling me forever about the benefits of living in Singapore and working here.

I could see where they are going at.

But I refuse to believe that I can't be as good in China as I would have accomplished here.

Although it appears quite self-contradictory to believe in Cheena and wanting to study in an overseas University all the same, the point is, I want to really expand my horizons, get a fresh new experience so that I will be really global-minded and multi-perspective.

From China (Eastern) to Singapore (intermediate) to UK/ US.

That's my vision for myself. ((=

I want to see how other people are doing their things, what they are doing right, how they could have done better, and bring all these back to China.

I want to let my grandparents and other relatives of the sort still farming, living in rural China, enjoy the comforts of modern technology and just shaking their leg in Hang Zhou, a picturesque place near to Urban Shang Hai.

My mom said those kids who lived on the same street with me,
some 19, 20s, are already married with kids.

While I haven't even actually know what the whole deal on love is about. =.=

Well, I think the issue is,
there's a difference between ending up doing something in life because that's the only option/ choosing it from a range of life options.

Hmmhmm, whatever larrr.

I think I am finally starting to see some light in what I really want to do in life,
with my brains.

You know, there are positive spillover effects associated with Education.

Google is started by two Stanford students.
And a whole new industry grew with them, companies like search engine optimisers sprang up. Countless job opportunities are created.

MIT graduates have founded 4000 companies, creating at least 1.1 million jobs worldwide and generating sales of $232 billion.

...

etc,

that's the thing about world-class universities.

True enough, everyone has the potential to be something big, every human is talented and accomplish great things.

But what differentiates those really prestigious instituitions and the rest is that they bring out the best in people, they provide you with the platform and freefom, they give you the space and time, and people trust you and believe in, to make their students succeed.

Whereas the rest are still worried abt getting promoted...( I shall not mention which sch... =X OOPS!)

They are out there thinking about how their students can change the community and stuff.

This world, this economy is such that,

people with the IQ get the knowledge-intensive jobs.

As long as you have the brains, ambition and determination, you're almost there, you're bound to be there.

Such high levels of globalisation, international collaboration, etc. are bringing people closer together than ever before, and it's quite daunting thinking about our multiple identities; as a worker, consumer, a shareholder, etc.

I wanna go to a WORLD CLS UNIVERSITY!!!

I don't want my intellect, my abilities, my dreams and aspirations to go to waste. ;) =Pp XD ((=

I'm sure some greater being don't give anyone brains, hardship, suffering, desperation, etc. for nothing.

We have to search within ourselves.
To bring out our personal best.
To move on and shine.

Within crisis, dificulty, lies opportunity.

Singapore wouldn't have grown so fast,
if the merger didn't dissolved and it did not have a backup plan, and all of a sudden it had only itself to depend on.

Singapore wouldn't have developed its economy exponentially,
if it had no natural resources, but the hard work and talent of its people to tap on; if its major competency, port business, was declining then.

Singapore would not have been as successful, it it didn't have a small home market, if it wasn't forced to seek outward for investments and trade.

This world needs more people who are serious about moving up the social ladder.

This world needs more people who are able to make the best use of scarce resources and maximise profits.

HMMMMMMMMMM

I WILL BE IN A WORLD-CLS UNIVERSITY.

I WILL SUCCEED,

AND BRING THE WHOLE OF CHINA WITH ME.

BWAHAHA!!!

---

We have a basic obligation to ourselves, and that is to be the best that we could be.

In fact it is an obligation to forces greater than ourselves.

Because if everyone does their best,
then the whole world would be in an optimum state. ((=

Everyone can be strong.
As long as you accept, establish and consolidate that faith in yourself.

People remain weak when they refuse to look inside of themselves, when they are deceived by themselves, into thinking that they cannot make it.

As long as we fail to recognise that, as long as we cling onto our emotions and fears because we feel intimidated by what lies ahead of us, we will never be able to move beyond the fog.

As long as we are afraid that we do not have what it takes,
you can say goodbye to tomorrow forever.

Once trapped in our past, we become disillusioned with the present, matters of utmost relevance. Once we lose grip of the current reality, we lose the ability to change and work our way towards our picture of the ideal future.

---

就

我還真應該去說教... =Pp

But I really don't like lecturing other people.

Because I think everyone should seek THAT* for themselves.
We should use our own brains and think for ourselves, reasonably and sensibly.

We should take personal responsibility for our own lives.

And quit blaming/ stressing over events external to us.

Since they are beyond our control,
just let it be.

And focus on being the person that you want to and is capable of be-ing.
Instead of letting fear/ trepidation/ etc. hinder you.

We cannot stop things from happening to us,
but we can change our PERSPECTIVES on them.
And we can MAKE things happen, the way we want them to.

Instead of letting some random events out of our control dictate us and our emotions...

You'll never be truly strong until you learn to look within yourself, motivate yourself, push yourself.

HMMMMMMMMMMM

Gotta go off to watch Dark Angel le larrrrrrrr~~~

JESSICA ALBA ROCKS lar.

DAMN nice daooooooooooooo the show

I LOVE MY LIFE

WOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;rock YOU.
~~8:46 PM~~