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- current events - Painful geek humour on finite state machines for the Failblog, from Natural Language Processing:  STATEMENT FAIL - Minister of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Charles Chong, quoted in Today The latest MP-foot-in-the-mouth incident sees an MP ostensibly refer to certain sections of the general populace as (gasp!) lesser mortals, which has dredged up the dying Le Cordon Bleu affair once more. Actually, to give Mr. Chong the benefit of the doubt, the term might just have been a playful figure of speech. I could imagine that with a suitably self-depreciating smile, the statement would have sounded far more palatable than it does in black and white (which does not convey the tone); more than, say, "S$600000 a year is peanuts!" or "Please, get out of my elite uncaring face", which would be quite a stretch, in the class of accidentally messaging one's boss "I FARK U LAH" and trying to clear things up with "Sorry, that was a typo, I really meant THANK YOU". Another reason for my sympathy is that the original issue, in which Mr. Tan Yong Soon, a permanent secretary at the Environment and Water Resources Ministry, was lambasted for spending S$46000 on a five-day trip for his family to learn French cooking, is more or less a non-issue to me. His superior, Mr. Teo, going as far as to say that "...the article showed a lack of sensitivity and was ill-judged." in Parliament was I feel more a popular sop to restless public opinion than anything else. The original article itself is reproduced here, and nowhere does it note the cost of the programme, which therefore had to be dug up elsewhere. Personally, I didn't detect anything particularly noteworthy, other than a mention that his wife is a senior investment counsellor and his son is going to Brown, but that's clutching at straws. If the main thrust of public anger were directed towards the cost, I would say it is quite misguided. It was his money, after all, and the issue of whether high-level civil servants are overpaid (the civil servant part is important, as a businessman doing the deed could hardly be criticized) should rightly be treated separately, in that if they are overpaid, they are overpaid whether they splurge part of it on holidays or not. Indeed, during an economic boom, probably nothing would have come of this at all. As to whether it was insensitive to go on the (expensive) trip and write about his experiences (again, remember the cost was never stated) - I would say that it did not appear to be Mr. Tan's intention to rub others' faces in it. Realistically, would anyone here be better off had he saved the S$46000 instead? In fact, in general, spending during a recession is a positive thing for everyone! Interestingly, if he had spent the money locally, I would expect that the outcry would have been far less severe. Too bad he chose to make it an outflow of funds instead. DEVELOPMENT FAIL - Tautology by our Development Economics lecturer Several development theories were discussed this week for the module, beginning with the Harrod-Domar (a "growth model/theory") and Lewis ones, and then the Solow Neoclassical (or Exogenous) Growth Model (which if I didn't mishear, is a "productivity model/theory" - tricky!) The most captivating one to me was the International Dependence Approach, though, which essentially states that all the airy-fairy equations are for naught, and what happens in the real world is that wealthier countries maintain poorer ones in a submissive position through various extensions of their power (such as sending "expert" advisors, whom as the lecturer quipped, are only considered experts if they stay a short time, and nothing special if they become long-term residents), and deny them real independence and development through economic sanctions and military action. This can be thought of as a "sure, we can help, but it's most important that we end up ahead" mentality, where richer countries are willing to spread their largesse, as long as there's something in it for them (profits), and the majority of the production reverts to the foreign investors. Then again, is there any particular reason for countries to actively seek to raise other countries to their own level, i.e. give power away? Thus, poor countries are like indebted workers living in a company town, who are paid a pittance to start with (there's only one world economy), and have nowhere else to go (there's only one world), have to buy most of their stuff from the company shop which charges high prices, and somehow end up never being able to put any savings away after paying their bills. All above board, of course. And a good portion of their best and brightest will invariably be attracted to the bright lights of richer countries, resulting in a "brain drain". But is this all just an excuse, since every country existing now was once poor by today's standards, and there are a number who have more or less made it, despite all the points above (i.e. Singapore)? Perhaps. It is likely not the full picture, and the will of a nation (or at least its leaders) also plays a role, but as the text says, "...The relatively weak position of the poorest countries in the world economy is analogous to that of a 1500 meter race between a young athlete and an old man, in which the former is given a 1000 meter headstart." - the argument goes that when today's rich countries were developing, there were no far richer countries to exploit them. It follows that one might wonder why one studies Macroeconomics to master macroeconomics and not, say, Political Science (for a more detailed exposition, see Axel Leijonhufvud's 1973 paper on Life Among The Econ [suggested by roastbird], which observes that Development Economics is not looked highly upon by economists in other subfields: "...the low rank of the Devlops is due to the fact that this caste, in recent times, has not strictly enforced the taboos against association with the Polscis, Sociogs, and other tribes") Next: Birthday CNY
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