Prof kick-started Session 2 by listing down the different aspects of Global Dominance. As he mentioned, dominance can both be direct and indirect; some aspects include social, cultural and military dominance. We addressed the question as to why companies/societies could develop and become dominant players in their relevant markets as well.
We also talked about how development could be positive and negative, and while human development involved maximising one's potential, it is also important that we practice sustainable development as well to help conserve our environment.
I felt that the reading about colonialism proved to be an eye opener to me as I always had a positive take on colonialism and never knew about the harsh realities that existed all along. It is indeed a tragedy that many lost their lives and there is now a big question mark regarding the native culture that could have been passed down if not for colonialism. Some might argue that this led to societies being more civilised and advanced. However, as the writer writes, these countries had already "achieved high levels of cultural and economic development". The rise of colonialism, to me, was a tragedy as not only were many lives lost, it also led to the lost of heritage and social identity of the people.
Another take away point I have would be the discussion about rising stars, dominant players and falling stars. A rising star would be an organisation that is keen to look at the needs of the future as well as not staying inside its comfort zone. This will lead to it becoming a dominant player and if it becomes idle and complacent for too long, this might lead to the demise of the organisation. It is beneficial to know that this analogy can be applied to almost any organisation/ country! We talked about China and India becoming dominant players and taking the place of the Westerners who are in turn become falling stars in the current global economic situation. We also applied this to football teams in the Premier League but I believe that one's judgement could somehow be skewed in this case especially if he/she is a die-hard supporter of a certain football club. :)
This session also included presentations from my classmates and I must say that they have set the bar high. It was informative and it highlighted specific cases whereby I could identify global dominance / human development in real life scenarios today.
I hoped that we could have discussed more in-depth about technology and human development and relate them to different countries so that I could have a better understanding of how much technology can affect the development of a human. I also wanted to explore the negative impacts of human development (if there are any more), besides the degradation of our Earth's natural resources.
I would rate this lesson a 7/10.
Happy Holidays!
Lenard
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