How May Singapore's Meritocracy Evolve?.
While meritocracy has been trumpeted as a cornerstone of the Singapore's rise from Third World to First, its internal contradiction has reared its ugly head in recent years. As identified by Dr. Kenneth Paul Tan, the 'winners and losers' result of meritocracy widens income inequality and results in social stratification where an exclusive elite class perpetuates itself at the top through opportunity hoarding. It is difficult to dispute that meritocracy's principle of non-discrimination may precisely be unfair because it denies recognition of what may be "unfair advantages from the very beginning"1, such as unequal wealth and social status. This renders equal opportunity "a naive expectation that can no longer advance beyond mere platitude"2. Further, the social ill of elitism is evident, capped by various controversies such as a British expatriate's diatribe on public transport commuters as "poor" and the public outrage over a top junior college student's elitist blog post. Despite the increasing discourse over meritocracy's failings, this author agrees with Lydia Lim that the challenge to meritocracy is not on its continued relevance in Singapore.3 Nevertheless, a seismic shift in approach towards meritocracy appears imperative.
Change in Mindset Towards One's Success.
This author believes that it starts with a change in mindset towards one's success in a meritocratic society. A system driven by meritocracy implies that the end result, be it success or failure, is deserved. In 2013, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong expressed his hope for a 'compassionate meritocracy' where the successful should understand their responsibility to help the less fortunate who may not have had access to the same opportunities. This author lends Mr. Robin Chan's argument that we should recognize that luck, be it in terms of wealth, social status or opportunity, plays a big part in success.
Wallace's theory of evolution is remarkably similar to Darwin's. ... The bulk of his work, though, was done in the Malay Archipelago, a group of islands in Southeast Asia that includes Singapore, Lombok, Borneo, and Bali, among many others. ... This support was quite necessary considering how controversial evolution was....
Driving this change is the continuous evolution of the information and communication technology. ... The use of information and communication technologies has become a central activity at home in Singapore. ... Singapore was the second country in Southeast Asia to offer public Internet access in July 1994 (Ang 2000, p. 104). In a report by IDA Singapore (Ng 2003), there were about 65% of households in Singapore had a personal computer in 2002, an increase of 20% compared to ten years ago. 52% of the households have access to Internet services, 32% have Cable TV and a majority of 85% of ho...
1 Executive Summary In the last decade, the financial services industry in Singapore has revolutionized. ... We also decided to focus on two occupations, the insurance agent and the stockbroker, based on the Singapore context. 2 Insurance Agent 2.1 Introduction Over the last decade, the nature and the requirements of work of insurance agents have undergone many transitions. ... The evolution of technology has not "replaced" the insurance agents job, instead it has facilitated the agents' competency in their job. ...
The aim of this paper is to investigate the FDI phenomenon and its evolution across time, as well as across borders. ... Moreover the demand of its economy for agricultural products and raw materials led to the evolution of the international economy. ...
People in Singapore tend to working hard and value material very much whereas people in Greece are pursuing easier and more relaxed lifestyle (Menipaz, E and Menipaz, A, 2012). ... Nowadays, IKEA is planning to enter India, its experiences in China will help a lot, since to some extent India is quite similar to China in terms of customer preferences and economic environment, and both of them are all developing countries with a extremely large population. 4.0 Conclusion and Recommendation With the dramatic evolution of globalization, more and more local enterprises are becoming multinational c...
People in Singapore tend to working hard and value material very much whereas people in Greece are pursuing easier and more relaxed lifestyle (Menipaz, E and Menipaz, A, 2012). ... Nowadays, IKEA is planning to enter India, its experiences in China will help a lot, since to some extent India is quite similar to China in terms of customer preferences and economic environment, and both of them are all developing countries with a extremely large population. 4.0 Conclusion and Recommendation With the dramatic evolution of globalization, more and more local enterprises are becoming multinational c...
Overseas Han Chinese consisting of large Chinese communities which have established themselves in most of the countries of South-East Asia (Indo-Chinese peninsula, Indonesia, and the Philippines), Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, etc. ... The Han population and the area they occupy Han populations in East Asia outside of the People's Republic of China (1986) estimates) Countries/areas Population Taiwan 19,400,000 Hong Kong 5,600,000 Macao 300,000 Singapore 1,800,000 Thailand 11,000,000 Malaysia 6,400,000 Indonesia 5,100,000 Vietnam 1,500,000 Total 51,200,000 ...
The fine dine restaurants are growing at an annual rate of 5% which is expected to register a market growth of 15-17% by 2017.Most of the players focus on affluent segments which operates at an average spend per person per visit (APC) of more than INR300 per person. 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 EXPECTED GROWTH RATE MARKET SIZE IN inr CRS RESTUARANT CATEGORIES Overview of Indian Restuarant Industry Figure 1.1: Overview of Indian Restaurant Industry The study reveals that Indians on an average eat less than 6 times a month, which is 40 times in case of country like Singapor...
Over the years Starbucks has acquired brands Tazo Tea, Seattle Coffee Company, Ethos Water, Coffee Equipment Company, Tevana, Evolution Fresh and La Boulange. ... Strategic Evolution Starbucks was founded in 1971 by Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin, and Zev Siegl and opened in Seattle's Pike Place Market as a roaster and retailer of whole bean and ground coffee, tea and spices (Starbucks, 2014). ... In 1996 the first store was opened outside of the United States in Japan and Singapore and the total number of stores reaches 1,015 (Starbucks, 2014). ... Evolution Fresh is acquired as well as ...