Since its independence, Singapore has been a symbol of organization and success, especially economically. These days, however, the big news around town is about the economic downturn of the Southeast Asian region. Singapore grew at 7.8% in 1997 - a tremendous amount considering that the goal of the United States is no more than 3% per year. In the past quarter (third quarter), the Singapore economy shrunk by 1.5%. If the fourth quarter also shrinks, it will be considered a recession. The 1.5% decrease was the first contraction in 13 years, again, a tremendous feat. Even the unemployment rate has crept up from only 2.3% to 4.5% in September and is expected to approach 7% in 1999. The recent economic collapse of many of the Southeast Asia nations has hurt Singapore for several reasons. As a major port, a tremendous amount of trade from countries like Indonesia and Malaysia come through Singapore. With the recent negative economic events in these countries, the ports of Singapore as well as investment in Singapore has been declining. A lot of the growth that Singapore has maintained has been attributed to the still strong U.S. economy. With the U.S. economy in larger question, the Singapore economy is under even more pressure.
The Singaporese are fighting back. They recently begun to reduce business costs in initiating wage restraints. They also cut the Central Provident Fund contributions. Next, they are trying the enhance the competitiveness of their exports. They are also encouraging their banks to merger and are making their financial-sector more liberal in order to attract more foreign investment. Additional funds are going to be used for infrastructure as well as for education. High-tech entrepreneurial businesses are also going to be given additional aid. Finally, there is a goal to prevent the restriction of the free flow of capital, goods, and services. Just recently, in November, Singapore took its first steps in merging its futures market with its stock exchange in order to make their markets more efficient. The country also hired several people to study their long-term competitiveness position. The educational goals remain to have one computer for every two students. Plans are expected to be released soon of a cut of at least 10% of the Central Provident Fund. The beauty of Singapore is that the cut is expected to be completely accepted with little more than a weep. In fact, the move is completely supported by most Singaporeans.
War can be as damaging to the human body as it is to the mind. In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, this idea that war causes psychological disorders is represented throughout the book through the main character, Paul Baumer. This book follows the lives of young soldiers in World War I. Together, these men create powerful bonds. They go through terrifying experiences that continue to strengthen their bonds, but also destroy their mental state. Through Paul’s eyes, Remarque shows the devastation that war has on the mind.
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war. After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.
On the 15th of February in 1942 one of the biggest defeats of the British Empire was accomplished by the Japanese, Singapore was surrendered. The Fall of Singapore was relatively destructive to the relationship between Britain and Australia. Australia relied on Britain holding Singapore as it was the last defence against the Japanese and it was feared that Japan would go on and invade Australia if it fell, Australia openly showed that they could not rely on the British for defence by becoming a strong ally with America and asking them to help with the feared Japanese invasion. Australia feared the threat of invasion constantly throughout the war, when Singapore fell the Australian government predicted a certain attack by the Japanese.
In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque reveals a dimmer sense of the cost of war. The main character in the book, German soldier, Paul Baumer, embodies the cost of war before he reaches his ultimate fate. The tactics and weapons used in World War 1 were more advanced compared to the past as a result of the industrial revolution. Germany was forced to fight a two-front war and this intensified the losses suffered by soldiers like Paul and the other men in the Second Company (Gomez 2016, German Strategy for a Two-Front War – Modern Weapons: War and the Industrial Revolution). Remarque’s observations that he shares with readers are not to World War 1 because it portrayed not only the physical but mental consequences of combat. Regardless of what era of war soldiers were involved in they were the ones who paid the price for facing so much death.
Warfare is a dreadful and horrifying experience that shows the violent side of humanity. War is the worst thing a human being can go through. The recruits suffer inevitable damage by the ordeals they encounter and the ruff experiences they take part in. War changes a person, from a nice boy into a stone-cold killing machine. Erich Maria Remarque, the expressive German author, shows the scenes of war in his novel All Quiet on the Western Front. In the novel, Paul Bäumer, the protagonist, journeys to war, like his fellow classmates from high school, and fights for his country. He watches slowly as each one of his friends die until he is the only one left. At the end, Paul dies on the front treating death as a friend; he is "glad the end has come" (296). Paul experiences the horror of war through the rough training, the murderous front, and the reoccurring flashbacks.
The physical effects of war overwhelm the naïve causing pain and suffering. Initially, war entangles the lives of youth, destroying the innocence that they experience as an aspect of their life. The girl “glid[ing] gracefully down the path” (1) and the boy “rid[ing] eagerly down the road” (9) have their enjoyable realities striped by the harshness of war. Likewise, war enters women’s lives creating turmoil. The woman who works “deftly in the fields” ( ) no longer is able to experience the offerings of life. The “wire cuts,” ( ) pushing her away from the normal flow of life. In addition, man undergoes tragic obstacles as a result of war. “A man walks nobly and alone” ( ) before the horrible effects of war set in on his life causing disruptions. War enters the life of man destroying the bond man shares with his beloved environment ( ).
From sunrise to sunset, day after day, war demolishes men, cities, and hope. War has an effect on soldiers like nothing else, and sticks with them for life. The damage to a generation of men on both sides of the war was inestimable. Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” by Alan Seeger, demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men, mentally and physically, in war through diction, repetition, and personification.
What is war really like all together? What makes war so horrifying? The horror of war is throughout All Quiet on the Western Front. For example Albert says the war has ruined them as young people and Paul agrees. “Albert expresses it: "The war has ruined us for everything." He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.” (Remarque, Chapter 5). The way the war has affected each soldier has changed them forever. The boys who were once school boys will never be the same.
While soldiers are often perceived as glorious heroes in romantic literature, this is not always true as the trauma of fighting in war has many detrimental side effects. In Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet On The Western Front, the story of a young German soldier is told as he adapts to the harsh life of a World War I soldier. Fighting along the Western Front, nineteen year old Paul Baumer and his comrades begin to experience some of the hardest things that war has to offer. Paul’s old self gradually begins to deteriorate as he is awakened to the harsh reality of World War 1, depriving him from his childhood, numbing all normal human emotions and distancing future, reducing the quality of his life.
World War II was a gruesome war which caused lots of deaths. But for Japan it was a chance for them to rise, gain power and recognition from the western countries that looked down on them. But because of this Australia has had to face Japan in numerous battles. These are the most important and significant ones for Australia.
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
In the 1980s and for most of the 1990s, the entire Asian marketplace was seen as nothing less than a miracle. Business was booming, and economies in the region enjoyed GDP growth rates nearing 10% per year—4 to 5 times the growth rate of the US economy at the time. It began in the ‘80s when foreign investment in Asian countries began to increase. Foreign investors lured by stable governments, the promise of high returns, and currencies that were tightly pegged to the US dollar began throwing money into the ASEAN-5 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand). Excitement in foreign investment like this can greatly help those foreign economies and therefore help the world economy. However, the extent and speed at which money was invested in these countries in the 1980s was far greater than anyone could have imagined. The already growing countries grew even more with the investment being supplied by outsiders. Until the crisis, Asia had attracted almost 50% of the total capital investment in developing nations in the world—almost $100 billion in 1996 alone. This foreign money financed power plants, skyscrapers, airports, and a quickly growing export economy. Workers’ wages rose and an entire middle class appeared with a taste for finer—usually imported—things. The per-capita income levels in Hong Kong and Singapore exceeded those of some industrial countries for a while. Moreover, for the 30 years leading up to the eventual fall of the Asian markets, personal income levels had risen fourfold in Malaysia, fivefold in Thailand, and an astonishing tenfold in Korea. This swelling of the Asian markets was felt all over the world as other countries’ exports to Asia rose in response. The U...
The health of the Singapore economy based on the analysis of its positive balance of payment is very favourable because it is shown in part (a) that Singapore economy is growing at a high rate and is assured of economic growth. Singapore has very few debts and these debts will not hinder further plans as the income generated will be more focused on research and development sector rather than repayment of debts. Additional, Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is high and this means that the production activities are also high and the people within
Since 1970s, Singapore has made economic adjustment, focusing more on capital and technological intensive enterprises according to Meng Choy (2012). There have been large amount of surplus capital and lacking of human resources in Singapore. As a result, making economic cooperation with China can be of great significance for keeping the rapid economic growth of Singapore. China has a large population and has an abundance of natural resources. The large amount of population leads to rich human resources. What’s more, there are a large number of oil reserves onshore and offshore. The vast domestic market and large market capacity have made China become a potential big market for the foreign investors. On the one hand, since the economic reform, the economy in China has shown unprecedented vigor. The stable political and economic environment provides a good investment opportunity for the foreign investors, which greatly attracts the businessmen in Singapore to make trade and investment in China. The confidence on investment in China has been built in the Singaporean. Hence, it is no doubt that China has become an ideal economic partnership of Singapore. On the other hand, China is lacking of funds and advanced technology in the economic construction. However, it possesses relatively cheap and abundant labor resources and cheap raw materials, rents and venues, which is an ideal place for Singapore’s merchandise exports and investment. That is, China is an ideal place for the plant investment and commodity output. In addition, due to the strong desire of both Chinese and Singapore government and business sector for cooperation, the economic complementary has greatly promoted the development of China and Singapore’s economic relationship in accordance with Yuanyuan (2013). China can learn
In Singapore, education is placed as one of the top priorities which can be inferred from its rank of 2nd out of the total expenditure of the government as compared to other ministries (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2011). Education possesses many roles in the perspective of different realms: the nation, the school, the teachers and the students. At different levels, different objectives are set. Over the years, we have seen several radical changes and transformations of our educational objectives according to the dynamics of the globalised world.