Globalization and Development

Here's an interesting world bank report for you to read as supplement to globalization and its effect on poverty. You can see this as the relationship between globalization and development. There's going to be increasing inequality throughout the countries around the world. The income inequality is also going to be wider within countries like the USA and Singapore.

World Bank Report on Globalization and Poverty:
http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/documents/povertyglobalization.pdf

Songs about Globalization

Citizen of the Planet by Alanis Morisette

Quite a powerful song in terms of style, in rock and roll fashion. The visual, for those who know what is editing, is done quite stylistically too, disembodied parts of people as well as the lack of a human figure to empathise with, shows how 'alienating' and 'placeless' globalization can be. Aptly named "Citizen of the planet". No mentioned of countries at all.



Lyrics:

I start up in the North
I grow from special seed
I sprinkle in with sensibility
From French and Hungarian snow
I linger in the sprouting until my engine’s full

Then I move across the sea
To European bliss
To language of poets
As I cut the cord of home
I Kiss my mother’s mother
Look to the horizon

Wide eyed, new ground humbled by my new surroundings

I am a citizen of the planet
My president is Kwan Yin
My frontier is on na airplane
My prisons: homes for rehabilitating

Then I fly back to my nest,
I fly back with my nuclear
But everithing is different

So I wait, My yearn for home is broadened,
Patriotism expanded
by callings from beyond

So I Pack my things nothing precious all things sacred
I am a citizen of the planet
My laws are all of attraction
My punishiments are consequences
Separating from source the original sin

I am a citizen of the planet
Democracy’s kids are sovereign
Where the teachers are the sages
And pedestals fill with every parent

And so, next few years are blurry,
the next decade’s a flurry of
amells and tastes unknown

Threads sewn straight through this fabric
through fields of every color
one culture to another

I come alive and I get giddy I am taken and globally naturalized

I am a citizen of the planet
From simple roots through high vision
I am guarded by the angels
My body guides the direction I go in

I am a citizen of the planet
My favorite pastime edge stretching
Besotten with human condition
These ideals are borne from my deepest within 

Taken from:
http://www.elyricsworld.com/citizen_of_the_planet_lyrics_alanis_morissette.html

Akvo.org

Dear students,

This is a new and very interesting development in humanitarian projects in water and sanitation where ideas on improving water supplies and sanitation systems are widely available and open to all via opensource to everyone out there.

This website is especially useful for your module project - which you ought to start on by now; you have about only a month left to submission.







http://www.akvo.org/

Gallery of Data Visualization: Best and Worse

Dear students,

Check out this website on data representation.

Gallery of Data Visualization The Best and Worst of Statistical Graphics
http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/

This is something that cuts across Geography and many inter-related sciences and math.

The message here is - your graphic should represent the data you want to explore and elaborate on.

How will a young Singaporean respond to this?

It looks like the speaker here is very optimistic that we in Singapore have gotten some things right, especially at the scale of a city-state.

How will GE1102 students respond to this? Leave your comments.

This video was contributed by Brendan.