Driving Globalisation on the slow lane

Globalisation has started to lose its momentum as European Union and the U.S. are putting on the brakes to retard its driving force. Failed attempt of China National Offshore Oil Corp in acquisition of US based company, Unocal, uproar over Dubai-based organisation running US port, and troublesome planned merger of German energy giant E.ON and Spain’s Endesa, shows that even the world most globalised nations are fettered by economic nationalism.

Segregated world has no long term winner. The Europeans have reaped considerable benefits from single European market, which was implemented in 1993, while foreign investment in world market has contributed spectacular amount to its GDP. However, recent wave of protest appealing greater protection from the government in the face of global competition has, by and large, impeded progress of further economic integration. Perhaps, “Asia will be the biggest loser, finding its route into league of multinationals dull of obstacles”, but Europeans and Americans will end up the permanent losers.

Asia is the most populated continent which is rich in human resources, as well as natural resources. The prospect of future economic power of Asia is unconceivable, especially as the world see China and India emerging as the world’s fastest growing economy. Should EU and the US close its market, they isolate themselves from the world’s biggest market.

Science and Technology vs Professional Ethics

The path that scientists and doctors tread is not an easy one. They have to overcome difficulties and uncertainties in their careers. Firstly, a scientist has to follow the hint of natural phenomenon and discover a scientific theory from it while a doctor has to deal with bacteria, viruses and cells, killing them or manipulating them. Yet, apart from lack of capital and experimental materials, their voracious passion to discover and to explore is under the constraint of ethics.

What would you have done if you were in the shoes of a doctor who is asked to help a 65 year old woman or to help a comatose/severely deformed person die? This situation will undoubtedly place most people on the horns of dilemma. I probably will defy the decision for a simple reason: Let her or his life decided by fate. The approach is out of fatalism, rather than pragmatism. However, in the face of controversy of ethics, it seems more pragmatic to "give the patients' fate to the God".

Then what would you have done if you had worked with a scientist who breached professional ethics? As for this question, my response will depend on to what scale his action has broken professional ethics. Cloning has long deemed as an unethical activity by many ethical groups. But the argument succumbs to the prospect that human embryos are curative for terminal illness such as cancer.

In view of the repercussions of scientific research, scientists are expected to bear with some social responsibilities. For example, research done by a bio-chemical scientist should be transparent. Should an incident like leaking of poisonous chemical occurs, people are able to respond quickly.

New technology enables us to improve on nature. Scientists should be encouraged to go in pursuit of their goals while keeping to ethical and social responsibilities. This can be done with transparency in scientific research. As mentioned above, transparency allows public to monitor how far has the scientist gone in his field and give necessary curb before things get awry.

Do you find it difficult to look for academic information on Google?

Citation Analysis, one type of bibliometric, is not a new concept. But, with the advancement of powerful computing industry, it has become a useful tool for web users. Thanks to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, who developed PageRank based on the principal of Citation Analysis.

PageRank(PR) algorithm (computing method or a command to computer ) assigns every single webpage a point. The point is earned if the webpage is linked to by other webpages with high PR. Google later will place the webpage with the highest PR on top of its search list. Thus, internet surfers will be able to access to your website easily should it be linked by many other popular websites.

In order to gain popularity, the most practical way is to pay famous websites like Yahoo, Google, and Lycos for an advertisement link. That is why you are most likely to be diverted to wood-processing companies' website when you enter "blurdwood" in the hopes of getting to know what it is, due to the fact that no non-profit academic webmaster is going to spend huge sum of money to advertise his websites.

Therefore, most students are only able to access to information from some internet library financed by big companies like Wikipedia. Yet, many useful learning materials on the internet are not discovered unless students know how to manipulate search options or they bother to take time to find the information they want from 1000 pages long search result list.

Apart from blaming Google and students, perhaps teachers should educate their students about the searching skill when assigning them with some tasks to do research. Otherwise, once promising internet learning will , instead, become a stumbling block to learning process due to the misleading information, rather than an aid for self directed learning.

Reference: ST article titled "Brain drained by Google?"