China -- Panda or Dragon?

What follows below is a reproduction of a term paper I wrote for my "China's Foreign Policy" module.


“Let China sleep, for when she wakes the world will shake”. This observation or warning, widely attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, about China would appear to be most relevant in today’s context, in light of how China’s re-emergence as a major regional, if not international, power in the twenty-first century has been accompanied by increased concern, if not fear, in various countries around the world that China will become a belligerent hegemonic power.

This concern or fear about China’s increasing power and clout is, given their proximity to China, perhaps felt most acutely amongst its geographical neighbours, which will include but are not limited to: Japan, India, Korea, Taiwan and the countries in Southeast Asia.

However, is this apprehension of China’s increasing might by its neighbours justified?

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University rankings -- following the wrong star?

Today, it was reported by Channel Newsasia that, according to the latest Quacquarelli Symonds Asian University Rankings, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is ranked third amongst the leading universities in Asia.

Initially, being an undergraduate student at NUS (or at least until my commencement ceremony in July), I was understandably excited and proud about the news above.

However, that was before I looked at the website of the organisation/company which computed the rankings and briefly examined the methodology which the organisation used to compute the rankings.

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The Long Shadow of Ideology — An Examination of the Political Thinking Behind Singapore’s CPF Scheme

What follows below is a reproduction of a term paper I wrote for my "Politics of Social Policy" module.

Last year, in 2009, two new schemes were introduced by the Singapore government. One was the Central Provident Fund Lifelong Income Scheme For The Elderly (CPF Life) while the other was the Lease Buyback Scheme.

Officially, the reason stated for why the first scheme was introduced was that, in light of the increasing life expectancy of Singaporeans, a new scheme, in addition to the existing CPF scheme which only provided maximum twenty years of payouts, was necessary to provide lifelong income for the elderly in Singapore following their retirement.[1] As for the second scheme, it was touted as an additional option “to help low-income elderly households in 3-room and smaller flats to unlock part of their housing equity while continue living in their homes, and receive a lifelong income stream to supplement their retirement income”.[2]

However, while not discounting the validity of the officially stated reasons, this paper will argue that there exist also other unstated factors which motivated the Singapore government’s decision to introduce these two schemes.

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Puzzling letter in the ST Forum

No offence to anyone but can any of you all explain to me why this letter is worthy of publication in the ST Forum besides the fact that it was written by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong?

In contrast, I personally found this other letter more interesting.

WorldMUN 2011 in Singapore

In case you all are not aware, earlier this year, Singapore (specifically, a partnership between the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau) submitted a bid to host and organise World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) 2011.

And, yesterday, it was announced that Singapore has won the rights to host and organise WorldMUN 2011! Congratulations!

Although details have yet been finalised or released publicly, it is to my knowledge that the conference will be held from March 14th to March 18th next year at Suntec. An official website for the event, along with information brochures, will soon be released.

Meanwhile, if you all are interested, you all may refer to the WorldMUN 2010 website for more general information about WorldMUN or the WorldMUN 2011 in Singapore Bid Team's Facebook page.

This blog will hopefully be providing more updates about the conference when possible.

Update (13/5/2010, 1325h): WorldMUN 2011 Facebook event page

"The Story of Stuff"

"The Story of Stuff"