Is It A Singaporean Problem Whereby They Do Not Help People In Distress?

On a bright Sunday morning, Orchard Road shoppers were given a rude awakening that interrupted their normal enjoyable shopping routine. They witness a horrendous traffic accident whereby a SBS Bus knocked down an old lady. The old lady was pinned under the bus bleeding profusely. Onlookers flock to the scene of the accident like bees but nobody did anything to help the poor old lady pinned under the bus. As the day went by, the police and civil defence force came and rescued the old lady. As of the faith of the old lady, I do not know.

As I read the about the accident in the newspaper, I asked myself why the onlookers did not help the old lady. Were they afraid? Or is it about the complexities about how humans interact with each other in a cosmopolitan society like Singapore?

I think most of you must have read how other people, besides Singaporeans, have helped people on the streets. Singaporeans have been accused of not being helpful, however, after reflecting on the accident, I have come to realise that there is a much more deeper cause to why some people would help and others would not. It does quite not matter how one is brought up even though it still has a part to play. There are four factors that explain whether one would help someone who is in distress. They are strangeness, space, fear & objectification. It is not confined to Singaporeans only, other people of various races, religion, citizenship and culture can be affected.

Strangeness

It is natural to help someone that we know. When we do not know someone, we have a tendency to be more cautious about interacting with that person. A conflict resides in us about how he/ she or society would view us when we interact with the person. Therefore, we rationalise the consequences of interacting with that person. We rationalise whether it would be beneficial or detrimental to interact with the person. We also tend to see how other people interact with the person and we will try to discern the right and proper way to interact with the person.

The old lady was a stranger to the onlookers. They had their reservation in helping her. They could have rationalised the pros and cons of helping the old lady. As nobody helped her, other onlookers could have discerned that it is a common norm not to help when such an incident happens thus preventing them from helping the old lady. However, if others were to help the old lady, the other onlookers would follow suit.

Fear

Fear prevents someone from doing certain things that he or she wants to do. People sometimes fear how others would think of them if they did something. They also fear of getting to involve in a certain situation. They fear they may cause more harm than good to the person in distress. When people face situations that are strange to them, they are faced with the unknown. Fear grips them because all of a sudden they are not in their comfort zone. I will elaborate more about it in spaces.

Therefore, the onlookers may not have helped the old lady due to the fear of how others would look upon them. They fear that their actions may go against the norm of that particular society if they help the old lady. Adding to the strangeness factor, they also fear that if they go against society, they may not be accepted into it (please note that I am stating this as a hypo - technical situation). Just imagine, if there is a campaign to persuade people to help others in distress in public, there might be a possible situation where more and more people would start to help people who are distress in public.

They also fear that they would have to get more involved in the accident. For example, in being an eye-witness.
They may not feel that they have the necessarily skills in helping the old lady. They are afraid that their help would result in more harm than good.

Space

Humans have their own comfort and private spaces. Once these spaces are invaded or changed, they would become disoriented or frightened. If you are a stranger in a city, you most likely would want to go somewhere that is familiar to you or find some situation that would make you feel comfortable. For example, eating at Burger King, meeting people you know or people whom you know that will help you assimilate you into the city.

Therefore for the regular Orchard Road shoppers their normal comfort space of shopping was interrupted with the onset of the incident. Suddenly, they were faced with a situation they may not have experienced before. Fear as I mentioned before grips them. Therefore, they will find in a situation which will keep them safe and that is just doing nothing and look. They will find this activity safe because that would be the activity that other onlookers would be doing. Therefore, it becomes a norm. As they say, monkey see monkey do.

They also fear of implicating themselves in the accident because it impeaches on their personal space, especially if they are not able to identify themselves as being eye-witnesses.

Objectification

Objectification is something we cannot run away from. We always set objectives in our lives. It gives us a sense of direction in how to lead our lives. We weigh the pro and cons of our objectives to see whether it is beneficial or non-beneficial to carry out the objective.

Therefore, applying the situation to the accident, people may rationalise whether it is worth helping the old lady. They may rationalise whether their help would benefit the old lady. They may rationalise that it would better that the “experts” rescue the old lady (which may be too late at times). Therefore, you may see that some would help while others just watch and stare.

I deliberately left out how the onlookers’ upbringing and values will affect them in their decision in helping the old lady. This was done because I want to show that it is not only a Singaporean problem but it can also affect others around the world. Therefore, whether you are an American, African or English, everyone also may have the tendency of not helping the old lady. This tendency of not helping others in distress is due to the factors of strangeness, fear, space and objectification. With the inculcation of good values, may be the effect of the four factors would be diminish but not entirely extinguished.

Monday

Monday is here
Monday will become Tuesday at 12.00am
Monday is a bright and shiny day
Monday is where we face the blues
On the contrary, facing the blues overcomes our misery
Like the women who sing the blues in the fields that they plough

As Monday goes by, we plough or devour of life at work
Beneficiary to some, unbeneficial to others
Yet, we still continue working in this mindless and cruel world
Which has no sympathy on our souls
Money is the only thing we work for but what is the use if it
only brings us misery and ends our lives in turmoil

Is Monday all that bad
No it would not be because we still have our love ones
Monday is a day which we should all pledge to the ones we love “ I love you”
For only they can give us a sense of living and give us a meaning to life

Do not hate Mondays
It can be a good day
Your faith has already been written, whether good or bad
It is already pre-destined

Monday, Monday
As long as I wish you would go away as fast as possible
I do not want you to because despite all the misery I face, Monday is the only day
Where I know there is a beginning to life

The Consequences of Objectification

Dating agencies in Singapore are set up to help single Singaporeans to find their right partner in life. It also has a dual aim. It is also set up to help Singaporeans socialize. The government has always been worried that as Singaporean progress in their career, Singaporeans will become career minded and they may put marriage on hold. This would lead to declining birth rates. Dating agencies are therefore tasked to help increase the marital rate of Singaporeans. This essay focus on how dating agencies may default in their task accorded to them by the government with emphasis on the theories of Alfred Shultz, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann.

Dating agencies are set up to help single Singaporeans find their life partner. This will help increase the marital rate of Singaporeans. These agencies create social functions like, movie gatherings, wine appreciation courses, sports activities and dinner gatherings cum speed dating activities, for Singaporeans to meet and interact with one another. Social courses are also conducted to teach Singaporeans how to socialise (Singaporeans are nowadays to occupied in their advancement of their career that they have forgotten the essence of dating).

As the achievement to meet KPI settings are just as common as our drive to meet our career achievements, dating agencies would have to meet the government’s KPI target in trying to get Singaporeans to marry.

The purpose of getting Singaporeans to marry and reproduce becomes objectified. The difficulties of Singaporeans interacting with one another ( one of the reasons why Singaporeans cannot find partners ) are ignored.

This also objectifies dating agencies purposes in getting Singaporeans to marry. In trying to meet the KPI set by the government, dating agencies may in-turn lose sight in their purpose of socialising Singaporeans. In this instance, I am not saying that dating agencies will overlook the processes of socialisation. The socialisation process becomes impersonal, only to meet the dating agencies objective.

I shall now explain how this social phenomenon comes about by using the theories of Alfred Shultz, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann.

People interact with each other because they have a shared meaning in life. I know what you know and you know what I know. This is also called intersubjectivity. It is this shared meaning that helps us understand one another. It also helps us to typify a person (stereotyping). Typification of people helps us to “bracket” out of our personality in order to interact with others. “Bracket” here means that we isolate our own characteristic in order to meet the characteristics of the person we are interacting. For example, I might be a successful banker but when I go NTUC to shop, I try to adopt the characteristics of a typical shopper in order to get along with other shoppers.

We are able to typify someone because according the Alfred Shultz, we have a “stockpile of Knowledge”, that we accumulated throughout our life experiences, to help us understand the people that we interact with.

At this juncture, I do know that some of you might disagree to what is being written but I appeal to you to reserve judgement and just read what is written. This essay is not to counter argue the theories of the above mentioned.

Another example is when dating agents meet their clients; they have to adopt the characteristics of their clients so that the process of their interaction would not be impersonal. Dating agents can study their clients profile in order to learn how to adapt to their clients behaviour.

Dating agencies are formed by people who share the same goals of setting up a dating agency to help singles in Singapore to find their life partners. Their shared aims of setting up the agency are their common sense knowledge of one another. Together with the common sense knowledge that they share, combined with the roles and process they develop in the running of the agency, a social institution (dating agency) is formed.

We create roles and habits in our daily life. For example, brushing our teeth and carrying out duties as a dating consultant. These roles and habits are internalized. They become part of our lives and they are taken for granted until someone comes along and question us. For example, there may be a long procedure in processing an employee’s transport claim. The officer in – charge carries out his or her role as a claiming officer and apply these procedures dutifully every day. As this process is repeated every day, it becomes a habit and eventually becomes a norm. These procedures will be taken for granted until someone questions about the procedures.

Therefore procedures are created and carried out for a dating consultant to follow in dealing with his or her clients and for the daily operations of the dating agency. These procedures in time will become the norm for the dating agency. It may also become the vision and mission statements of the dating agency.

All activity is subject to habitualization as repeated action is inevitably become routinized. Action performed repeatedly brings about a stable background.

When the procedures of running a dating agency and the roles carried out by the dating consultant become a habit, objectification might take place. This happens when a dating agency loses focus of it’s goals and is only concern of meeting the KPI set by the government and earning profits. It becomes divorce from the social experiences of those who institutionalized the procedures or originated the procedures that are now regulated.

Interaction between the dating consultants and their clients becomes impersonal. Of course, the dating consultants cannot make it seem that their interaction is impersonal and that the only objective is for the dating consultants to set up dates for their clients and what happens after the date will be the client’s problem. However, in most cases, dating agencies care about their clients’ welfare. They do follow up to see whether their clients did meet their successful partners during the dates that were set up. Dating agencies can carry out these procedures in two ways. One is that they do it because they really care for their clients; the other is for their profit margin. The latter in most cases are detrimental to dating agencies because as humans, we have feelings and indirect impersonality behaviours can be detected. Clients would eventually lose trust in the dating agency that they go to.

The purpose of getting Singaporeans to marry and reproduce more becomes objectified when the government sets KPI for dating agencies to meet. Dating agency also face difficulties in pairing up partners when clients set objectives for them. If these objectives are not met, clients lose interest. Social gatherings planned for singles to meet may also end up in failure if their clients’ objectives are not met.

If the government and clients is target centric, then they may overlook the actual root problem on why they cannot meet their life partner. For example, the reason why singles cannot find partners is because they do not have the necessary skills to socialise. Dating agencies actually help in this area but setting up courses on how to obtain socialisation skills but if clients still remain objective, then these courses would not be beneficial to them.

In summary we are creatures of habit. Every habit we adopt becomes routinize. This is depicted in our roles that we carry out in our daily life. For example, our roles as a dad, banker, fireman and accountant. These roles that are rountinize will become institutionzed. It will become a norm and eventually be regulated. For example, people call Federal Express as FedEX regularly. Soon this became a norm in society and Federal Express change their name to FedEX.
We are able to typify someone because the stockpile of Knowledge”, that we accumulated throughout our life experiences, help us understand the people that we interact with. Typifying a person (stereotyping) helps us to “bracket” out of our personality in order to interact with others. “Bracket” here means that we isolate our own characteristic in order to meet the characteristics of the person we are interacting.

Institutions like dating agencies will eventually objectify their procedures and roles. However, objectification of their roles and procedures may not be a bad thing if dating agencies do not lose side of their main purpose and in still social responsibility in their organisation. Other factors like KPI set by the government may force dating agency to objectify their procedures. If meeting KPI is the only primarily objective set, then the government is not actually tackling the root cause on why some singles cannot find partners no matter how many social gathers or dates they attend to. Clients may also not see the root cause of their problems if their only concern is for dating agencies is to meet their objectives.

On this note, I still hope dating agencies will keep on striving in their mission to get singles paired up. As they say, no pain no gain.

The difficulty of meeting the Singaporean Standard and why people are jaded in their jobs

This essay focuses on the Singaporean Standard, why it has to be met, the consequences if they do not meet the standard and why Singaporeans become jaded in their jobs.

Singapore is a society whereby an individual needs to be monetary sound in order to live a comfortable life. Due to globalization and its economic growth, we now are able to dine and shop at many restaurants and fashion boutiques. There are now many restaurants and fashion boutiques that cater to the upper middle class and above in Singapore. The number of Singaporeans who have the purchasing power to dine or shop at these restaurants and fashion boutiques are increasing. Therefore, it is common to see Singaporeans forming long queues at these restaurants or swarming to these fashion boutiques. It is also now common to see luxury cars cruising down our forever packed roads. Given the rosy picture on how Singaporeans live their lives these days, it would be safe to say that most Singaporeans now live a comfortable life.

As the number of Singaporeans that are now living comfortable luxurious lives increase, a standard way of living in Singapore has been formulated. For those who are not able to meet these standards, they are left out; thus creating an anomie for those that cannot meet the standard.

To have the standard of living that has been imposed on us, we have to work and earn a certain level of remuneration. An employee must aspect to earn around S$3000 or more and obtain promotion 2 to 3 years every time in order to meet a high standard of living, if not he or she would feel isolated from society.

Singaporeans have to work every day work from Mondays to Fridays or on Saturdays and Sundays in order to survive. Prices in Singapore for houses, car, books and other merchandisers will keep on rising. Young graduates who start working after their graduation will began to obtain loans like housing and car loans in order to meet up society’s standard of living. Therefore, they become slaves to car loans, marriage loans, housing loans and other financial loans. A good handful of Singaporeans are in debt for the rest of their lives. If you are “born” an elite in Singapore, you are lucky. If not, you are “born” unlucky.

In this world there will always be some who will not be able to live a comfortable life because they are not able to earn high salaries. The reasons for not being able to earn high salaries are as follows :-

• Do not have the right qualifications and skills
• By pass for promotion ( stuck in the same job for many years without promotion )
• In the wrong job. No vacancies to transfer to another department for better job prospects
• Long wait to be transferred to another department
• Are not good enough in their supervisors eyes
• Stuck in their careers with no prospect of promotion
• Do not know how to find another job

What happens to those that are facing these problems? They may become jaded and lose interest in their lives. They may feel a great sense of emptiness. They may just live from day to day. They are left feeling indifferent and dehumanize. They may feel trapped in this Singaporean pressure cooker society. They will lose their ambition to improve themselves in their jobs; they will lose interest in setting and achieving goals for themselves and will begin to lose interest in other things in life. They will have no mood to look for another a mate because they would not have the financial capability to get married. They may begin to feel trapped in their jobs, may not be able to find a way to get a new job and may not have the motivation to change their life.

There have not been any reports on Singaporeans adopting these kinds of behaviors but there have been such reports in China. Therefore if this social phenomenon is happening in China, what is there to say that it is not happening in Singapore or other parts of the world. This social phenomenon can be found among doctors, bank employees, teachers, journalists, traffic policemen and taxi drivers. The following are quotes by some China citizens that are facing this social phenomenon. It is taken from a newspaper article published by the Straits Times called Rise Of The “ Plasticine’ generation on Monday, September 13 2010.

• Kevin Tu 31, property agent, wakes up at 8 am each day. Drags himself to work, puts in 9 hours in front of the computer and with his clients. Then he goes home to his one-bedroom apartment in the South side of Beijing to stare at the TV shows alone. A go-getting executive in a multi- national company just a few years ago, just lives “one day at a time”. “Everything just feels very bland,” he said. “I have no ambition, no real goal in life and I just don’t feel interested in anything anymore, even in hobbies I used to have. Now that I feel stuck in my career, I am in no mood to look for a mate. Maybe this numbness is just a phase or maybe life will just be this bland for me and I’ll just have to accept that this is it”
  
  
• Advertising executive Wang Win 29 had this to say : “ I feel very trapped in my job boring job of six years, but I keep thinking I have to find first find someone to marry, then move on in my career, so I keep trying. I feel stuck in life and I feel confused, trapped but I can’t find the motivation to do something about it. I want to change my life but I don’t know the way out.”
  

An outspoken sociology professor Zhou Xiaozheng of Renmin University in Beijing said that most Chinese become slaves when they buy a car or a house; thus becoming house slaves or car slaves. This is because they will be paying back the loans they purchased to buy the house or the car or both. Now transpose this situation to our situation in Singapore and you will see the big picture. To meet the Singapore Standard, one has to buy a car or a nice house. They end up repaying the loans they purchased to buy these items for a very long time. If one cannot buy a house or car, they do not really meet the “Singaporean Standard”. Furthermore, more young Singaporeans are used to being driven around, so what more if they find themselves not being able to buy a car.

He also said that young Chinese feel suppressed by pressure in many fronts. Once they graduate, they have to fight to find a job, male enough money to buy a house amid the soaring property prices and when they do that they are in debt for a very long time. Isn’t this also happening in Singapore as well? They have to meet the Singaporean Standard if not they feel like they are losers.

Some sociologists have written about why people become jaded if they cannot obtain what they want in life or become jaded in their jobs. They are Talcott Parsons, Karl Marx and Max Webber.

Talcott Parsons created the AGIL system to explain how systems ( political, law, business and family ) can work together to form social equlibrium in society. I will use it to explain the consequences if the Singaporean Standard is not met.

The AGIL System: Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration & Latent Pattern Maintenance

The explanations of how these five factors can explain the social phenomenon addressed at hand.

Adaptation : This is based on the physical or material environment. It looks at how individuals adapt to its physical environment.

If Singaporeans are able to adapt their lives and meet the expectations of the “Singapore Standard”, then they will be able to live comfortable lives. However, if they can’t due to the inability of obtaining good purchasing power, then they may face difficulty living in Singapore especially with meeting up with the Jones. They may start to lose any ambitions they have in life. They will lose the motivation to improve. They may just accept the fact that it is their destiny not to live a good life and die as a single men or women. In other words, they would just become walking zombies. However, they may still hope that there will be a better future for them.

Goal Attainment : Ability of individual or groups to identify and pursue goals. The individual’s need to achieve his or her goals to live comfortably in Singapore.

If Singaporeans are able to achieve their goals of obtaining good jobs, getting fast promotion and earning high paying salaries, they will be able to have good purchasing power and indulge in the various “luxuries” that Singapore has to offer. If they can’t, then they will left out. They may start to feel jealous and have resentment towards others who can live a “good life” in Singapore. They will lose the motivation to improve. They may just accept the fact that it is their destiny not to live a good life and die as a single men or women. In other words, they would just become walking zombies. However, they may still hope that there will be a better future for them.

Integration : the need to coordinate, adapt and regulate relationships among individuals and groups within the economy or country in order for the system to function.

In order for Singaporeans to properly integrate themselves in Singapore, they have the meet the “Singaporean Standard”. Of course, Singaporeans can still integrate with one another even though they do not meet the “Singaporean Standard” However, they may be in constant struggle with themselves in trying to think of ways to obtain the “Singaporean Standard”, however not all Singaporeans would feel this way. It all depends on their character. A sense of anomie will be felt in some Singaporeans if they cannot meet the “Singaporean Standard” in society. They may resort to crime to obtain the luxuries they want. Some may just accept the fact that it is their destiny not to live a good life.

Latent pattern maintenance : to maintain that individuals are motivated to fulfill their roles as clerks, bankers, cashiers and managers. Rewards are given for them to motivate them in their jobs.

Rewards are given to those that perform well. However, some employees may not be given these rewards because of favoritism. Rewards like salary increment are given to those that work hard and prove that they are efficient in their work. Due to office politics, some efficient workers may not be given the promotion or the just rewards they duly deserve. They will start to lose interest in their job. They will lose the motivation to improve themselves in their jobs. They will shun away from society because due to not receiving the salary increases they may not able to indulge in the comfortable lifestyle that most Singaporeans do. They may eventually live and die as a hermit.

Employees follow proper work procedures in their job everyday. Day in day out, nine to five, they follow the same work procedures. As mention before, some of them endure their “boring & torturous” job because what they earn may be barely enough for them to survive. The work that they do will become repetitious. They may perform their job just like a robot. Eventually they will become bored and alienated from their work. For example, a cashier cashing in the goods that customers purchase at a supermarket. The process of cashing in the goods never change. The cashier internalizes the process. The tools that she uses to cash in the goods and herself become one. She becomes alienated from her work. Companies may form unions to persuade their workers that their work life is normal when it is actually detrimental to their well-being and there is no need for self development. A false consciousness is formed among the workers. They will start to lose interest in their job if they are not promoted. They will lose the motivation to improve themselves in their jobs. They will be left feeling indifferent and dehumanize. They will feel trapped in this pressure cooker. They will lose their interest to improve themselves and will start to lose interest in life. They will start to avoid their friends because they may not have the financial capabilities to indulge in the “good” life that their friends do. Karl Marx called this alienation.

Max Webber looked at the bureaucratic rules that organizations have to explain why some employees are not happy with their work and thus may lose interest in their jobs. In every organization there are rules to follow. As a result, in every organization there is office politics. Some employees may not be given the promotion or salary increment that they deserve even though they are efficient in their work. Supervisors may show favoritism to some employees. What happen to those find who themselves in such situations? They will portray the same kind of behavior I have mentioned in the above paragraph when they are alienated from their work. Max Webber calls it the “iron cage” syndrome. The rules and regulations that govern the way employees work also make them feel like they are in an iron cage. Some employees may feel this constrictive effect. They may not be able to find ways to make their work more interesting and effective. If they do, their supervisors may not like it. This is especially so for employees whose supervisors go by the book.

Singapore will continue to grow and prosper. Cost will keep on rising. Income gaps will widen. All these are inevitable in a thriving capitalistic country. Singaporeans have to realize that in order to survive they have to find ways to help them live. Life is unfair. You cannot have everything in life. If you want to have a prospering country, then you have to face the facts that these social consequences will happen. For those facing difficulties, they have to sit back and think of ways to help them survive. It is not impossible. I believe that those that really sit back, think and act on what they must do to survive in a society in Singapore can succeed in whatever they plan to do. Singapore is a nice country to live in and I believe that most of us are happy to make Singapore our home despite the troubles we face in life. Life is what you make out of it. I have written why people feel jaded in their jobs, why the “Singaporean Standard” has to be met, its consequences if it is not met and why some cannot meet its standards. Read it carefully and see in which areas you can improve your life. With this note, I wish you all the best in life and your future endeavors.

Plasticine

Wary I wake up
The sky ever so bright
The sun shines with much ferocity
A new dawn begins
but darkness only shines upon me
The darkness I feel
Is the feeling of being a plasticine man

Oh Plasticine Man, Oh Plasticine Man
For who I am
For what pleasure do I accept you in my life
The pleasure of being plasticine?
For I only know the plasticine wall of pain that surrounds me
Like a bear hug, ever ready to render a man breathless
As plasticine as I am, I still have to put on a smile and face the world

As my work makes me a plasticine man
The joy of building plasticine castles in the air makes me happy
As I know that it is the only way to prevent me from becoming a cement man
Oh my Oh my
I shrudder with fear as my air diminishes with each coming day
Will I ever break out of the iron cage I am in

With not much less to breath
Help!! Help!!! I shout with much desperation
Oh how plasticine I have become
Even my shouts cannot be heard
Oh when will my plasticine life be over
For I know I cannot carry on living this way
The pain is to hard to bear
Oh plasticine! Oh plasticine!
Go away! Never to return back
As thou needs to smile and laugh again

How Has Contemporary Sociologists Followed In The Footsteps Of Classical Sociologists

Social fact is an entity that exits on its own. It has its own characteristics. It is separate from our social actions yet it constraint us in our behaviour and thinking. It may seem as part of our social actions but in reality it is not. Let me explain.

As a law abiding citizen, I do not steal or jaywalk because it is illegal to do so. As a family man, I know how to fulfil my family obligations and customs. These family obligations and customs are what that has been taught to me throughout my life. The laws and the customs I abide to are the social facts. These laws and customs will still be around when I am dead and gone. It has a life on its own. Therefore a social fact considered is an entity that has an existence of its own, independent of its individual manifestations.

Eventhough social facts have their own existence; they also control our behaviour and thinking. For example, if the law says that is illegal to smoke in a certain facility, I have to control myself and not smoke in that area. If I do so, I have to face the penalty. Therefore, a social fact whether fixed or not is capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint. Since it affects our behaviour and thinking, it can only exist in society, either in a political society, religious denominations, political and literary schools. If there is no society there is no social fact. It is not like the organic or physical phenomena that can exist without a society.

There is another type of social fact called social currents. They force us to act in a certain way that we on our own would not act. Let’s take peer pressure as an example. An individual may not indulge in smoking but if he or she joins a group and if it is a norm in that group to smoke, he or she may take up smoking because it’s the group social norm. The act committed was due to the peer pressure he or she relented to.

Since social facts affects our lives, therefore there is a cause and effect relationship with our social well – being. These causal relationships can be studied by using quantitative methods. Emile Durkheim said that society is a system and is made up of various parts that function together. The theory that society is a system and it is made up of various parts that function together was known as structural functionalism. Durkheim was one of the leading pioneers that developed the theory of structural functionalism. Another contemporary sociologists, like Durkheim, who was interested in finding how social order was possible used Durkheim’s theory of structural functionalism to develop his theories. His name was Talcott Parsons.

Society is made up various systems. They are the political system, legal system, family structures and marriage dyads. He concluded that social facts have an existenance of their own that transcends these systems. In order to study social facts one needs to collect data to study these facts. It is better to study the social facts that affect society than to study people’s behaviour ( at which interpretivist prefer ).

He used the collection of data ( suicide rates ) to study about suicide. He studied how well society was integrated and he based his findings on the rate of suicide one society has. He claim that if a society had high suicide rates, then the society had low social cohesion and was not very well integrated. The opposite was also true for him. He claimed that there Protestants tended to commit suicide more than Catholics because they hand a lower social cohesion then the Catholics.
The study of society by using empirical data was adopted by positivists. They foresaw, especially August Comte, that sociology could be studied in the same way as psychical science subject. By studying empirical data, universal laws that are applicable to all societies could be discovered

Weber took a different approach in the study of society. He theorized that society could be studied by observing people behaviour thus creating an interpretive understanding of human behaviour. As people’s behaviour is unpredictable, it would be very difficult to study patterns of people behaviours by using empirical data. Unlike Durkheim who studied the objectivity of social facts, Weber studied the meaning of people’s behaviour and actions. Durkheim argued that human behaviour and actions were shaped by society however Weber argued that people’s behaviour and action were shaped by the human interaction with other fellow human beings. Weber’s theories were instrumental in the development of phenomenology, symbolic interactionism and dramaturgical theory. One important contemporary sociologist that followed closely to Weber’s theories and also was the one that developed the theory of dramaturgical was Erving Goffman. The next few paragraphs will be on the two contemporary sociologists who based their work on Durkheim’s and Weber’s theories respectively; they are Talcott Parsons and Erving Goffman.

Like Durkheim, Talcott Parsons was also interested in how social disintegration effected society. He also believed that society worked as a system. He believed that society was made up of three systems; cultural systems, personality system and social system.

The cultural system looks at individual beliefs and values. It is concerned about how these beliefs and values shapes one individual life. Example of beliefs and values are religious beliefs, language, ethical values, national values and family values. It also looks at how individuals internalize these beliefs in their lives, use them to interact and socialize in society and maintain social control.

The personality looks at individuals’ attitudes, needs, motivation and self interest. How they obtain what they want and the behaviour they portray.

The social system looks at role interaction. It can be made up of two people, a community, a team or an organisation. It looks at how individuals interact with one another with emphasis being drawn towards the social values and beliefs that they adhere to.

There is however another system called behavioural organisms. This actually look at the behaviour of individuals in a certain situation. It encompasses all the other three systems.
Based on these systems, Talcott developed a set of concepts called the pattern variables which later was transcended to the AGIL System.

The pattern variables are made up of five pattern variables that individuals internalize and assist them to integrate into society. These five pattern variables have to work in accordance with each other for the achievement of social equilibrium. However, these five pattern variables also know as the social action theory is actually a grand theory because individuals do not always behave the way they should. This will be explained in Erving Goffman’s theory of dramaturgy.
The five pattern variables were divided into five dichotomies of factors that will explain individuals’ behaviour in a tradition (Gemeinschaft) and a modern society (Gesellschaft).

In a traditional society the factors are : Affectivity, collectively – orientation, universal, achievement & specificity

In a modern society the factors are : Affectivity – Neutrality, Self-Orientation, particularism, ascription & diffuseness

Affectivity

This action shows how people show their emotions. For example, when a child cries when he/she falls down.

Collectively – orientation

This action is based on decisions made by individuals that would affect their needs, motivation, and attitudes in a group. For example, a manager may resign on his own accord due to bad publicity on a certain issue that is affecting the company he or she is working for.

Universal

This action is based on general laws and moral values. For example, criminals are sentenced according to the laws set up by the court.

Achievement

This action is based on performance. For example, fulfilling all the requirements to graduate in UniSIM

Specificity

This action is based on individual roles and how these roles affects individuals in their socialization process with other people. . For example, a clerk’s role, banker’s role and cashier’s role.

Affectivity – Neutrality

This action is based on individuals being neutral in their emotions in certain situations. For example, board members of a company are not supposed to show any emotions when making decisions.

Self-Orientation

This action is based on individual needs, motivation and attitudes. For example, a student deciding what to study base on his or her own interest.

Particularism

This action is based on relationship of individuals in a given situation. Looks at how one would respond to another. For example, a friend defending friend accused of theft no matter whether he or she committed the offense.

Ascription

This action is based on an individual race, sex and age. For example, an individual not being able to buy cigarettes because he or she is underage.

Diffuseness

This is based on open guidelines of action. For example, a teacher and a student developing an intimate relationship even though theY have to respect the student and teacher role they are in.

This pattern variables were then transcended to four factors that Parson’s named as AGIL.

The explanation of AGIL are as follows :

AGIL

Adaptation : This is based on the physical or material environment. It looks at how individuals adapt to its physical environment. For example, the body adapts to heat by perspiring thereby cooling itself down.

The economy fulfils the requirement of adaptation. For example, one country may be producing rice therefore this country exports rice to another country in exchange for the refining of their oil because the other country specialises in oil refining.

Goal Attainment

Ability of individual or groups to identify and pursue goals. The system’s need to mobilize its resources and energies to attain system goals and to establish priorities among them. This system is essentially a problem for political institutions.

Integration

The need to coordinate, adapt and regulate relationships among individuals and groups within the economy or country inorder for the system to function.

Latent pattern maintenance

To maintain that individuals are motivated to fulfil their roles as clerks, bankers, cashiers and managers. Rewards are given for them to motivate them in their jobs.

All these factors need to work together for social equilibrium to take place. However, as I mention before, these factors are actually a grand theory because individuals do not always behaviour the way they should. We now look at why people behave differently. Max Webber defined dramaturgy as the art of dramatic composition and theatrical representations. On this note Erving Goffman looks at human behaviour in a theoretical setting. Individuals are known as actors and actresses. Individuals have different roles to play in society; therefore they are always wearing different hats. They act accordingly to the environment they are in. They adhere to the norms, values, antiquate and social behaviour that are approved in the group they are in. In doing so, their actions can be superficial. Goffman explored individual identity, group relations, the impact of the environment and movement and interactive meaning of life.

He looked at how items like insignia of office ranks would affect one’s behaviour. Other items were the clothes people wore, their age / sex / race, racial characteristics, facial expressions and body gestures. For example, a soldier in an army holding a rank of captain may portray a more authorative behaviour when he is in his camp where else when he is with friends at a pub he may be more friendlier.

An individual’s behaviour is shaped by the audiences ( people ) who surround him or her. An individual may perform an action no matter whether he has faith or lack of faith in it. For example, a doctor administers a “placebo” medicine to a patient even though the doctor knows the full impotency of the medicine. This is just to please his/her patient’s desire for more extensive medical treatment.

In human behaviour there is the front stage and the back stage. The front stage will most likely be the kind of behaviour an individual or group is required to portray. The back stage will be a more “truthful” kind of behaviour an individual or group will portray.

For example, Team members may present themselves in a behaviour that is approved by their other teammates and colleagues in a workgroup presentation. They will speak and act accordingly to what is required in the presentation. This is an example of a front stage behaviour.

After the meeting, since there is no more requirements for them to behave a certain way they had to in the meeting, they will let their guard down and behave a manner more natural to them. They may also start to show their frustration or voice their disagreement on matters they do not agree. This is an example of a back stage behaviour.

This theory is not far the most perfect theory. There are still other factors to look at. For example, Conflict. A team member may become angry and display inappropriate behaviour in the meeting room if he or she do not agree on what is being presented.

Therefore, there are various ways in studying society. The two most common methods adopted by contemporary sociologist are the positivist and interpretivist methods. The former is by using empirical data to study social facts and the latter is to the study the meaning of social behaviour. Contemporary sociologist like Talcott Parsons and Erving Goffman built their theories on the foundation of Emile Durkheim and Max Webber works. As time has progressed, there are now more than just these two ways of studying society and many more theories on how society function have been written. However, the foundation theories that classical sociologists like Emile Durkheim and Max Webber wrote will always be a basis where most sociologists will study from.

Extra Paternity Leave For Men

Women have four months maternity leave and men are able to apply three days of paternity leave. No extra paternity leave was given to men because according to PM Lee Hsien Loong there was feedback by women that they prefer the extra month of leave ( previously it was three months) to be given to them rather than their spouse. Maybe women think that they would do a better job in looking after their children. Who knows? However, is this enough? Will it benefit mothers if extra paternity leave is given to their husbands? Before we can pursue this issue, we have to examine various reasons why women or men may or may not like extra paternity leave be given to men. I have divided them into seven categories.

First Category : Women who enjoy four months of maternity leave and do not mind staying at home to look after their children

These women are happy to have this incentive. It gives them more time to look after their children. They believe that a woman should be the one’s looking after their children.

They would not worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected. This is true if they work in civil service agencies or statutory boards as these companies will comply to the government’s directive. However, if they work for a private company, there are higher chances that they may worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected as some of these companies do not like their employees to go on long leave. There are however labour laws in Singapore to protect women who are wrongly dismissed because they are pregnant.

They may not see the need for their husbands to take any extra paternity leave to look after their children.

They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them. If women worry about these issues affecting them, there is also a very high chance that they may worry that these same issues will affect their husbands as well. Company pay women less because they have maternity leave. What is there to prevent them from doing the same thing to men if they are given extra paternity leave. Therefore, it would be better for them to apply maternity leave because men’s salaries are usually higher then women’s salary. Even if their husbands salary is less then theirs, they would still prefer to apply for maternity leave just so to prevent their husbands from getting a cut in their salary as these would cause family problems because their family income will be affected.

Second Category : Women who thinks that looking after their children are their duty and they would do it better than their men

These women prefer that they look after their children themselves.

They may want the independence in looking after their children.

They may not trust their husbands in looking after their children.

They may have the thinking that a woman’s role is to look after their children and that they are the best one’s for their job.

They may not see why men should be given extra paternity leave. They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them.

Third Category : Women who prefer that men have extra paternity leave so that they can go back to work earlier and their men may stay home to look after their children

These women may believe in the equality of women and men.
They may prefer that their men stay home to look after their children. Men in Sweden has no qualms in staying at home to look after their children while their wives go out and work.

They would prefer to go back to work as to improve their work performance. They may be afraid that too long a break may affect their chances of getting a job promotion and some may fear of job lost ( losing of job applies to private companies ).

They tend to lead the household and make household decisions. However, there is a chance that they may not trust their men to look after their children so the second category may apply to them also.

Fourth Category : Women who may not like their maternity leave to be shared with their husbands. For example, two months of maternity leave for her and the other two months for him

These women are the ones that really treasure their four months of maternity leave. They would prefer that the extra month of leave (previously they could only apply for 3 months of maternity leave) be given to them rather to their spouses.
They may be looking for a break from work.

They may think that they are in better position in looking after their own children.

They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them.

They may not see the need for men to have extra paternity leave because they may believe that it is a woman’s job to look after the children ( due to way they have been brought up as a women to know what the duties of a wife should be ).

Fifth Category : Men who may not want to have extra paternity leave

These men may think that looking after children is a woman’s job.

These men think that they are the one’s that must provide the financial stability for the family. Therefore they must work. If they do not work or take too much leave, their job performance will be affected and have less chance for job promotion. If they bring in less cash, the financial stability of the family will be affected more so if both spouses are not high income earners.

They may argue with their wives that there is no need to take extra paternity leave especially if they have a maid helping to look after their children. They may use the excuse of the chances of their job performances being affected if they apply for extra paternity leave as well.

Wives may argue back that they need more help or that they want to go back to work earlier but in a patriarchal society like Singapore, women are viewed as those that should stay home and bring up the children. In – laws ( husband side ) may interfere in the argument in telling wives that it is their duty to stay home to look after their children. Wives may feel guilty and not to want to cause any unhappiness. They may argue for awhile and feel angry but they will give in eventually.

Sixth Category : Men who like to have extra paternity leave and do not mind taking care of their children while their wives go out and work

These men believe that women and men should have equal rights. Most of these men are foreign men but there is still a handful of Singaporean men who are willing to stay home to look after their children. Therefore being house husbands. Why is this so? Well, Singapore is a patriarchal society therefore women are viewed as the one’s that should stay home and look after their children, therefore they should have maternity leave. These values have been inculcated in Singaporean Women from a very early age. The men are taught to be the head of the household and be in charge of household decisions. Even though children are now taught to share household duties, boys have more chances in escaping from doing household duties by making excuses like they have homework to do or that their favourite television program is about to begin. Girls may not have the same opportunities as boys.

Foreign men on the other hand are taught to share household duties from young. They are taught about equality between a woman and a man. Of course there are still exceptions to the cause however foreign men are more willing to look after their children and will mostly be the ones in favour of extra paternity leave. Men in Sweden have no qualms in being household husbands.

In a company in Singapore that I know of, their Australian Marketing Director and their Irish Chief Technology Officer each brought their respective babies to the office time to time to look after and nurse them because their wives do not have time to look after them. Their wives are just as capable as them yet they had no qualms in looking after their children. I wish to see the day that Singaporean men will do that. If extra paternity leave is given to both foreign and local men, then these men can take leave to stay home to look after their children.

Seventh Category : How would companies feel if men are given extra paternity leave? Is it going to affect their profits? Would they revise their salary paying scheme?

Companies may not favour extra paternity leave being given to men. They will complain that it will affect their bottom line. Furthermore companies may revise their salary scheme; cutting men’s salary for those men who opt to apply for extra paternity leave. Companies already pay women less because of their maternity leave scheme. If men are also given the extra paternity leave, they will feel justified in paying men less. If men bring in less income, this may affect their family financial stability especially if both spouses are not high income earners.

Companies have claimed that it would be more costly to allow men to take more that a month off work than it would be to allow women to do so because there is a bigger pool of men in the work force. Statistics have shown that 57% of the 1.9 million people in the resident workforce of Singaporeans and Permanent residents are men. Men hold higher salaries and senior positions than women. Men earn an average of S$4,335 per month where else women earn on the average of S$3,148 per month. The impact of men taking extra paternity leave is greater.

However, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. The government is still looking into how to give men extra paternity leave.

How could this initiative be implemented?

Surveys can be conducted to examine Singaporeans attitudes and views on whether men should have extra paternity leave. We need to survey a rather large sample of men and women so that we can cover the various categories of women and men I have indicated in this essay. Having a large sample will represent the voice of the majority.

As mention earlier, one of the reasons why the government did not give men extra paternity leave because due to feedback, women preferred to have the extra month leave rather then letting their spouse have it. A survey could be conducted on why they prefer to have it and see whether their mindset could be changed.

For this initiative to be implemented there must be a good number of supports by women and men. If there is minority support for the initiative, then it would be difficult to implement the initiative. The mindsets and attitudes of Singaporeans need to be changed also. It would not be easy because in an Asian society like Singapore, women are socially obligated to be the household guardians and caretakers of the children. Men are obligated to be the head of the household and to provide the financial means for the family. I am not saying it is wrong to believe in these values but we should be more flexible and try to help the women of our society in any way we can. After all they are the one who have to suffer during child birth so the most we can do is to make their life easier and happy. Road shows and public education could be conducted to educated Singaporeans about the benefits of extra paternity leave for men. A lot of work has to be done but the good news is that the government is still open to the idea of giving paternity leave to men. I hope in the future this initiative would be implemented.

Are health inequalities socially or individually constructed?

Health inequalities are prevalent in societies as there is no society in the world that strives on equilibrium. Sociological theories, taken from a functionalist, conflict and Interpretative point of view, state that inequalities exist throughout society. They just differ on how inequalities exist in society and the role they play in society.

Durkheim stated that health inequalities do exist in society, However these inequalities will weaken the solidarity of a society. In order for a society to perform, there must be unity and cohesion. People would create changes in society so as to eradicate the inequalities that exist in society in order for society to perform properly.

Marx, however, challenged that eventhough changes can be made , it would be to the beneficiary of the upper class than the lower class. In order words, the capitalist would benefit more than the working class. Those in the upper class would benefit more in obtaining health benefits. For example, they can visit hospitals that have better facilities and doctors. Some working class workers can’t even enjoy these benefits as their income may be too low for them to pay to enjoy the benefits. Some companies may not want to give their workers health welfare incentives as they are afraid that it may affect their profit margin.

Weber found inequalities to exist in the form of people’s prestige, power and income Those with different prestige, power and income form different status groups and lifestyles. These various form of social groups and lifestyle that they form were also a way for them to have more social mobility and a way climb the corporate ladder. They excluded other groups that did not have the same social status as them. People with different prestige, power and income varied in their ways of obtaining health benefits. Those in the upper class could reap most of the health benefits that their country has to offer, however the lower class could not obtain the same benefits as the upper class. It is towards the theories of Marx and Weber that I will show how health inequalities are constructed.

Health inequalities affect us as individuals and as a society. Individuals make up a society and society consist of individuals. It is difficult to separate both of them as they influence each other. Health inequalities caused by individuals are due to their personal choice , health behaviour, health beliefs, their socio – economic status and skeptism in the health system.

There have been changes in which the kind diseases that were prevalent in the early 19th century to the 20th century. From acute diseases like Measles to chronic diseases like heart disease , cancer and stroke. Individuals are now more responsible for their own health. There are enough literature to teach people how to look after themselves. The internet is flooded with medical advice, some are genuine and others not. Therefore, when people fall sick , they are sometimes blame for bringing the sickness onto themselves.

Some individuals choose a healthy living and some choose an unhealthy living. There are various factors that influence the health lifestyle of these individuals. The social factors are age, gender, race, ethnicity, the social environment, material wealth and access to health care.
People from different ages view life differently. The elderly prefer to eat food that are nutritious and are more careful with their food. They prefer to live healthily as they are old. However, the kind of food they obtain also depends whether they have the economic means to obtain them or whether the area that they are staying provide such kind of food . Some elderly people might be poor and can’t afford to obtain good value food. Some cannot due to lack of financial support from their government. Distance in obtaining good value food maybe a factor as they will not be able to obtain the food if they do not have any transport. The elderly are more prone to chronic illnesses, if the elderly from low income groups do not have financial assistance in order to obtain medical care, they might suffer from these illness for the rest of their life until death. For those in the upper class, they have a better life. They are able to access the health care system that their country provides and live a longer life than those that find it a difficulty to access the health care system. There are, however, elderly people whether they are in the upper or lower class strata, who prefer to eat unhealthy. They adopt a fatalistic point of view as since they are old, there is great uncertainty in their life.

Young adults may adopt a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle. Their choice depends on their income, prestige, power and environmental factors. Those with high income may indulge in healthy living. They are able to join health membership club, access the best medical care, enjoy good health ( less chance to suffer from chronic diseases that those on the lower income strata ), eat healthily and able to take part in more sports ( depending whether the sport is high risk or low risk as there are more chances in injuries occurring in the latter than the former ). Those in the lower income strata will most likely adopt an unhealthy living. They will indulge in smoking, drug use, violence , eat unhealthily and participate less in exercise. As their income is low, they might not be able to access proper medical care as the cost maybe too high, in the case of United States. They may be living in the areas that are violent prone, therefore they may get involve in fights and either get injured or killed. Death rates are higher in these areas. As they are poor, they may not be able to obtain nutritious food. They have a higher rate of lung cancer due to smoking.

It does not mean that only those in the lower class would smoke. The upper class young adults also smoke. Smoking can be considered as having a high status, especially smoking cigar. They may still suffer form lung cancer. There are reports that there is a high rate of people with high income suffering from lung cancer. However, They may create a social group that will have in common certain kind of eating habits, sports preferences, music preferences and literature preferences. This people can create what Bourdieu’s call it, social capital within their group. These groups can exclude those from the lower class in joining their circle, prevent them from improving their socio-economic status and also prevent them from accessing health care. For example, in US, as medical costs increases and new medical innovations are created only those with high income can buy medical insurance , use the medication innovations and access good health benefits. The lower class may not be able to purchase medical insurance and therefore may not be obtain medical care or may be forced to visit low cost medical doctors which may not have the necessary means to cure their illness.

Health inequalities also exist with gender, male or female. Women from the middle class eat much more health food, drink less, smoke less, indulge in less dangerous activities and visit the doctor more often. For example, women in Britain prefer to eat more nutritious food, those with more fibre and low cholesterol as compared to working class women who would eat food with high cholesterol level and vegetable. Women greater use of the heath care system could be due to their gender socialization. For example, they are permitted to cry, be more caring and show more weariness. Males on the other had are told not to cry and to be brave. They are trained to bear more hard ships. Therefore their use sage of the health care system. Depending on how severity of their illness, male or females do visit the doctor when they have to. However, there are other factors that prevent them from visiting the doctor. For example, the cost and benefit of seeing one, whether they have enough income to visit a doctor, transportation, whether their company provide them with heath welfare schemes and whether they will get paid if they are on sick leave.

Males tend to indulge in more risky activities than women. This is due to their upbringing. They tend to indulge in smoking , violence and tend to commit suicide ( due to work stress, social isolation and lack of social support ) more than women. Therefore their rates of death or being injured are higher than women. There is a saying that actually more women attempt suicide but men are more likely to succeed.

Depending on what kind of job a men is doing, he can suffer from different diseases. If he is indulging in manual or unskilled labour, like mining job, he may suffer from chemical poisoning from inhaling to much carbon. If their jobs are stressful, they drink more or smoke more and eat more “junk food”. These creates high rates of lung cancer and liver cancer in men. However, those who have high paid jobs also suffer from stress and because they earn a high income, they are able to smoke more and drink more. This creates a high rate of lung cancer or liver cancer in affluent societies. There is always the counter argument that people with high income can cope better with stress and are able to participate in activities to relax more, it is however untrue.

Men in high paid jobs also may suffer from back pain due to uncomfortable chairs and wrong sitting positions. Women can also suffer from the same thing. However as there are more women secretaries, they may suffer more from eye – problems and headaches due to long viewing hours of the video display unit .

Men also suffer from heart diseases and stress due to unemployment. As they are brought up to be the breadwinner of the household, they have a huge responsibility in looking after their families. Those with high education maybe able to find another job faster than those with lower education. Those who are out of job for a long time may resort to robbery, more so if he comes from a poor family.

Women are prone to mental illnesses. This is due to the social isolation they suffer from doing house work and the “ double shift” Double shift means that they are full time or part-time workers and after work return home to do house work. They are less prone to cardio vascular diseases because it seems the oestrogen protects them from it. Those in professional positions may have more flexible time and therefore are able to cope better. They suffer less stress. They have more time in visiting the doctor if they are sick. Part time workers are also able to visit the doctor as they have more time on their hands. Women are taken less seriously by doctors than men, Doctors prefer to treat men as their illness are more treatable. Women’s problems tend to be much more difficult as it is most likely a psychiatric problem. They are also more emotional so a doctor must be more tactful when diagnosing an illness for a women. Reproductive and women’s sexual health are sensitive matters at which women prefer female doctors to handle.

New environments can create stress for some people. The level of stress that people cope depends whether they are able to access medical care, various techniques of relaxing ( like indulging in sports activities ) and social support. Usually those with higher income and education are able to cope.

Social support is important in helping people cope with stress. If you have somebody to communicate with and give you love and moral support, you will suffer less stress. However this social support may be only catered to the upper class people and the lower class people may lose out. There may even be a fee charged to join social support organizations. However there are now few organizations, like churches, which create mission groups to go to the poorest parts of the world like Africa to help out in supplying food, clothing and other essential needs. Work places, schools and community centres should have social support groups that cater to all classes in order to make the people feel wanted and valued.

Different people with different race face different health inequalities. The largest health disparities in US are between the blacks and whites. Life expectancy at birth for white was 77.6 years, 71.9 for blacks health inequalities increases due to risk factors that blacks face, like smoking, diet and exercise. It is said that white men exercise more than blacks. One possible reason could be that whites have a higher income than the blacks and therefore are able to access to more exercise facilities like gymnasiums.

Mortality rates for Blacks are higher than whites in countries like UK as they live in poverish areas of the UK. They also smoke more, indulge in drug use and are involve in violent activities. Blacks also have lower health knowledge as they have lower education. For those that are poor, they may not have enough income to place their kids to school. Furthermore, schools may practice racial segregation and may differ in their curriculum between the whites and blacks. Blacks may not have less access to medical books, medical magazines and the internet for medical knowledge.

Black women end up with low paid jobs due to low education. Therefore they most likely are going have poor housing, low socio-economic status, poverty and ill-health. They may also suffer from culture shock if they have just migrated to another country. With lack of social support, they may not be able to cope with the stress they suffer from the culture shock.
The Health sector labels different people from different countries as having bringing in diseases like Rickets and Tuberculosis. This is true for Asians. Therefore in Britain, Asian patients are treated and scanned for these diseases even though they go and see a doctor because they are having a flu. White people do not get scanned for the disease even though they might have gone to an Asian country.

Some people from different cultures have different health beliefs. Doctors may not approve some of these health beliefs especially when it is according to faith and tradition. Health professionals need to be informed about minority cultures and to acknowledge that they may have special needs to be met. They have different culture beliefs. If this criteria is not met, doctors would not be able to treat the patient correctly. There would be a communication problem. They may mistreat the patient or just push the patient around, passing the patient to the next doctor. For example, a patient from Hmong goes and see a doctor for stomach pain, he or she may think that her stomach problem is due to the imbalance of the universe. If the doctor does not know this, how is he going to treat the patient correctly?

Government policies like the one-child policy in China can cause health inequalities between the rich and the poor. The rich are able to go against the one-child policy and pay the find for having more than one child. The poor cannot. Furthermore, ladies have to scan to check the fetus of the baby and if it is girl, those from poor families usually abort their child as there is a strong emphasis on having sons.

The media can also create health inequalities between women, especially those from the upper and lower class. There are techniques to look healthy and beautiful, for example, breast augmentation ,liposuction and spa treatments. They are very expensive. Only those whose income are quite high enough can afford, those with low income cannot go for these treatments. However treatments are well know to cause side effects to health , for example breast cancer.

Individuals may be able to make decisions on their health lifestyle. They may choose a healthy or an unhealthy lifestyle. Their social factors, environment, age, gender and health beliefs influence their decision. Therefore health decisions cannot be sole made on individually decisions only. Inevitably there would be health inequalities when health decisions are made because socio-economic factors and social factors are in play. Therefore health inequalities cannot also be individually constructed. Different people with different race and ethnicity face different health inequalities. It depends on their socio-economic status. Social support is needed to help migrants cope with cultural shock and stress. Governments must help the lower income group rise out from the poverty belt in order for them to enjoy better health care. They would be able to buy medical insurance also. The ratio of blacks in the US not having medical insurance is rather high. There are signs that the rate of the white is also on the increase. Doctors must know their patients culture in order to treat them, if not there would be a communication barrier. Therefore there is a lot work to reduce health inequalities in the world but it is not impossible.

Woman’s Human Capital

Human capital is defined in the area of research on how one is able to attain educational opportunities in order to increase their value in society. It is based on the notion that humans are individuals that make rational choice on how much education they obtain to increase their labor status position and their salaries. There are constraints in obtaining these values. The constraints are based on gender, ethnicity, race, age, urban/rural and government polices on health, education and access to work opportunities. In this essay, I will focus on how women obtain this human capital in order to increase their value in society, the consequences of increasing their status, the constraints they face with and on how the government can help to reduce the obstacles.

The ideology for women is that their place in society is to take care of the household, serve their husbands and childbearing and taking care of their children. Husbands were to be the breadwinner of the household and women were to be dependent on their husbands for monetary means. Therefore education was not seen as an important factor in women’s life. In India, sons were given first preference in educational attainment than daughters. They were seen as being more valuable than girls.

As societies progresses, attitudes have changed, women are now able to access more educational opportunities hence it is has brought forth the increase of women in the labor force. It can be argued that education is only one of the main factors that increased women’s role in the labor force. Due to industrialization, it was important for woman to participate in the labor force as it increased the income of their household. It also increased their bargaining power in the household as there have been studies that the younger and more educated women do less housework but that does not mean that men have been doing more housework. Across the board, household duties is still a woman’s job.

There are more equal opportunities of women in obtaining education. However, there was once a time where there were obstacles placed that made it difficult for women to obtain equal education with their male peers. They were segregated from different activities from their male peers. For example, they were not able to take part in the sports and share the same equipment with their male peers. Teachers gave more preference to boys than girls. Women were encouraged to do soft subjects like home economics and literature. Eventually the US government issued the Title IX to give women equal opportunities in education attainment with their male peers.

It has shown that education for woman has brought an increase in economic growth. It has increased the empowerment of women and thus led to the increase of women’s contribution to the political arena. It has shown that women are more likely to vote if their education levels were higher.

Even though there are equal opportunities in education attainment for women, they still tend to take up more business, arts and humanities subjects. Hard subjects like Engineering is still mainly a male dominated subject even though there has been an increase in women taking up the subject. Governments should persuade more women to take subjects like engineering so that they can contribute more to the labor force. Women’s value would also increase and be on par with their male counterparts. Women’s income will be increased as salaries for jobs like engineering are higher than jobs like teaching. Subsequently it will be a way to close the income gap.

Equal opportunities in education for women maybe more prevalent in developed countries, however the minority in developing and also in developed countries may be discriminated by their race and ethnicity and gender in education attainment.

Parents attitudes towards girls in education attainment are also important in increasing the human capital of their daughters. In some countries, like India, boys are given more opportunities to be educated than girls because they are viewed as being more valuable. Girls are married off earlier. As a result they will always be trapped in poverty as their education level will be low and if they go into the labour force, they will only be able to access low paying jobs. Together with their dependence on their husband, they will forever be in poverty.

Therefore parents must give their children, whether boys or girls, equal opportunities in education as to increase their status and hence providing to economic growth. Boys are also seen as those to bring in the dowry into their families on marriage. In poor countries, girls are seen as more useful at home than boys. Therefore, more boys are sent away to be educated. Girls are used in work in the fields like paddy fields. They do not have the time to go to schools.

Governments must persuade these parents to change their mindset by giving them incentives like monetary compensation and to show the benefits of educating their daughters. For example, if their daughters become educated, they can provide their families with a higher income. Hence pulling them out of poverty.

Governments can play it’s part in providing transportation to those who can’t attend school because they are staying far from the schools or build schools around where they stay if it is feasibility. Subsidies or free education can be provided to those that are unable to pay for an education. Accessibility one of the problem why some children do not attend school. This problem is more prominent in agriculture countries where most children are working in the fields. These countries also suffer from high rates of poverty.

Attitudes, tradition and culture must also be changed as some societies view education for women a threat to men’s superiority. There are views that if a girl is overly educated then it will be difficult for them to find a husband. Men prefer marrying a women with a lower status than him so that he can still be in control.

However, these ideas are changing as society advances. Governments must set up policies to debunk these fear of men marry some one of a higher status and vise versa. It is easier said than done. Men in Singapore are more likely to marry a women with their same status or lower. Minister of Mentor Lee Kuan Yew once said in order to produce intelligent babies, graduate women should marry graduate men. It created an up roar among the women in Singapore. Only with education and joining groups like Aware can women fight for such absurd suggestions.

With more education, women are able to obtain high paying jobs however their income level is still lower than their male counterparts. One reason is that the idea of women not staying as long as their male counterpart in the labor force still prevails. They are seen as those to stop working earlier in order to tend to household and child bearing duties. Another reason is that men in the work force tend to protect their job by preventing women to be promoted.

Therefore there are not many females in high decision making positions which is male dominated. The government should encourage officers to place more women in high decision making positions. When women are able to contribute in decision making, they can provide a better working environment for their fellow female work mates. More ideas can also flow in instead of ideas being male driven. The status of women also increases. Governments should also increase the incomes of the female labor force. This is to reduce the wage gap between men and women. This will encourage more women to work. More flexible benefits are needed to help cope women with their work and household duties without losing out the race with their male counterparts for career advancement. For example, if women find it difficult with looking after their children and working, provisions could be made for them to work at home. It could be on a case to case basis . Mobility for women to find jobs also increases. They will have more independence and also be more financial independent to go to other countries to work.

Upon obtaining higher human capital and education, women now plan their careers instead of finding jobs. They are willing to be entrepreneurs. They are more willing to be self – employed. The rate of women running their own business has increased to 35% of all businesses run in US. They are now more empowered and independent. They have also surpassed their male counterparts in terms of education attainment. Where once women were entering in tradition business sectors like retail and service sectors, they are now venturing into non traditional businesses like construction, technology, transportation, public utilities, business consulting and other types of services. Self – employment is another way to change careers for some women who feel discriminated against their male counterparts.

There are some women with low education who migrate to countries like Singapore, Indonesia, HongKong, Japan, US and Australia to work as maids. They also contribute to the economy of the country they work in. Policies are needed to protect these women. They should be given educational opportunities to upgrade themselves. Their salaries should also be increased so that their value as maids can be increased. With more purchasing power, they can contribute to the countries economy. These will also increase their status as women. Government should also protect these women from exploitation. With all said, sadly there are not many policies to protect these women as their work is seen as domestic work. Domestic work is regarded as unpaid work. For example, women are not able to join unions in some countries therefore they are more exposed to exploitation by their employers. The governments running the countries from where they come should provide educational opportunities for them also. With higher education, these maids can fight for their rights that will prevent them from being exploited. Unfortunately, educational and job opportunities are not readily able for them therefore they need to migrate in order to look for jobs.

As women increase their status, education level and become financial independent. They are able to have more say in decision making in household duties. Household duties are shared more equally. They would be not subordinated by their husbands. However, men still do not increase their share in the household duties. Women still view men as the breadwinner.

In the health arena, educated women would gain information about illnesses and would know how to seek proper treatment. They can also fight for their rights if they are being mistreated. There is a tendency for doctors to treat women’s illness as less serious than men. Doctors tend to attribute women’s illness to mental illnesses. Doctor’s may mistreat women by inserting pressure among them to go for unnecessary caesarean operations in order to give birth. They claim that since they are professionals in the medical field, they have the right of say of women’s health. In some countries women are placed in jail due to drinking when they are pregnant. They are accused for endangering their unborn child’s life. Surprisingly, the unborn child is regarded as a separate entity and the mother is just a temporary host. These are the several injustices against women. Educated women with the right information will be able to fight for these injustices. It is very important for governments to provide these information to women. However, some of these injustices are brought upon by the governments themselves so sometimes there is very little women can do. They do have other avenues like joining lobby groups to fight these injustices. Women will also be able to make decisions to become pregnant or not. With the availability of information on various methods of contraception, they can have more control over their bodies especially their reproductive system. The pill was one of the greatest invention for women in the 60’s.

Education has also increased the rate of female doctors in the medical field. However, some obstacles that they face were quotas place on them. These quotas have since been abolished after fighting for their rights. Singapore is one country that once placed quotas on female doctors. There has also been an increase of women joining the nursing profession. Governments have created schemes to promote the nursing professions. For example providing courses for women to attend professional qualifications as nurses. In Singapore, there are diploma courses for nursing and SIM have recently introduced a degree course for nursing. All these courses would increase women value and participation in the health field. They would not be so easily subordinated by doctors whom claim that they have a higher authority over nurses.
Higher education would also encourage women to vote. It was reported President Bill Clinton victory was the result of more women voting for him. Women tend to vote for Democrats. Democrats take women issues more seriously than the Republicans. Women with higher education would be able to take up political offices. However, more men are in political jobs than women. There are more male ministers then women ministers. In Singapore, all the cabinet ministers are men. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong mentioned that if there was a woman who had the qualifications and caliber to be a cabinet minister, he would appoint her. At the current, no action has been carried put to recruit a women minister into the cabinet. Is it all talk but no action? It is left to be seen.
Even if women take up political posts, they are given posts that look after family affairs.
Governments must not stop encouraging women to joint the political arena. They can appoint them higher post. For example, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State for the United States of America.

Increasing women’s education is very important and it is something governments must take seriously. Women are also human. They can also provide to economic growth. They are also beneficial to political groups because educated women will vote. They will vote for whoever they think will address women issues seriously. With higher education, women have better job opportunities in fields like business, technology, construction, transportation, medical, and political. They will able to venture in the fields dominated by men. However, they may still feel discriminated as men like to protect their status from women. Sadly it is sometimes that families with traditional cultures and attitudes that prevent women from being educated. This can impede women from increasing their status and from being more financial stable. As a result they may forever be dependent on their husbands of monetary means, dealing them with the faith of forever being in poverty. More can be done to increase women status and value in society. I hope governments would not stop from encouraging women to upgrade themselves. As the saying goes, unless you are six feet underground, you can never stop learning.

How To Build An Effective Team

In our everyday way of life, we have to consistently make decisions in our life that will effect they way we live, walk, talk and eat. Some times we have to make critical decisions that would effect a certain entity. For example, sometimes we have to decide whether to close down a certain food outlet in order to save cost and how are we going to compensate the workers who are going to be retrenched. Another example is whether a certain plot will be the best possible place to build our office.

We make decisions either independently and together as a group. It all depends on the situation. For the sake of this essay, I will concentrate on how an effective can be build in order to make good effective decisions.

You cannot build a great team without good team members. There is a saying “ You can lose with them but you cannot win without them.” In building an effective team, you also can improve yourself. You will be able to add value to your team. In a team it takes one to know one, show one and grow. Team players can be found or they can be natured to be effective players and have leadership qualities. Both approaches are possible.
I will touching on what is need for team members to be effective in a team. I hope will find this essay enjoyable to read and come back to it if you need any references so lets begin our journey!!!!!

Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape

- Michael McGriff

Let’s take a moment to reflect on this quote. Don’t you think it makes a lot of sense. Take a rubber band for example, it is flexible and it is very difficult to bent it out of shape but it can form a lot of shapes. The same thing goes for an effective flexible team. If the team is flexible it can adapt to changes make changes more easily. If there was rigidity, team players would find it difficult to adapt and makes changes. If team members are flexible and adaptable, they are teachable. They will be able to learn new things, try out new ideas and change with the time.

They have to be emotionally secure also so that they will not be afraid to change. They will be able to evaluate a new situation or change their responsibilities based on its merit. They will be able to accept addition members into to the team instead of being rigid or suspicious whenever a new member is added to the team.

Flexibilty aids in the creativeness of its members. They will able to create new ideas. They will be willing to try them out. By being able to have new ideas may also help a team get out of trouble during difficult times for example when a company is failing because of recession.

The team members have to be service minded. If they focus only on themselves they will likely make decisions that will be to their benefit and not to others

All your strength is in union,
All you danger is in discord

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Collaboration is mulitiplication

- John C. Maxwell

Great challenges require great teamwork, collaboration is needed. Each team member must bring something to the table that adds value to the relationship and synergy to the team.

To become an effective collaborative team few area have to be examined. Team members havfoe to work together and not compete with each other. However the most common scenario is that team members happen to compete with each other because they have goals, hopes and dreams to achieve but if members can complete one another then than they can function as a unit and not hurt each other. It will be productive for the whole team. Tasks can get moving faster instead of moving slowly because of each member trying to compete with another member.

Team members must be supportive and not suspicious of one another. They must learn to trust each other and complete each other. If team members are always working out for themselves and are suspicious of each other then they have to change their mind set in order to be effective.

Team members have to concentrate on the team and not on themselves only. They have to make decisions that will involve the team members. If the team works together, remarkable things will be able to be achieved. Working together helps to harness every bodies skills and one very important thinking that all team members must have is to think win win. King Soloman of ancient Israel observed “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Usually when you collaborate with others, you win, they win and the team wins. – taken from “The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player by John C. Maxwell.”


An effective team had to be committed. If and only if they team is committed, they can move mountains. Just reflect on the quote below :-

Ordinary people with commitment can make an extraordinary impact on the their world.

- John C. Maxwell

Team members must have commitment. It helps when there are obstacles. Commitment will guide the team through difficult times. You need not have to be talented to have commitment or to be committed. Commitment is a choice. Team members have a choice whether to be committed or not. If the team members are able to work together and be committed to a common cause ; then it is possible to accomplish anything.

Team members must base their commitment on solid life values. For example, if team members have loyalty as their value, they will stay loyal. Team members will not abandon each other during troubled times.

Team members must commit themselves to long term achievement. Sometimes achievement do not come at once. They may come in small quantities. Committing to long term relationships is good for personal growth. Relationship building, financial investment or professional success.

Think like a wise man
But communicate in the language of people
- William Butler Yeats

Team members have to communicate with each other and they must do effectively if good results are expected. Team members cannot isolate themselves. If they do, there will be problems. Team members must know each other. For example, when we took a trip to Sentosa and worked together as a team. We discovered each others strength posses and weaknesses and a bond was formed. When team members know each other, goals and methods, the more they will understand and care about the team. Team members must be able to stay connected with their teammates. They must make sure that they are able to contact each other easily.

With communication, team members can discover if there are any problems or conflicts in the team. Some leadership Gurus like John C Maxwell states that these problems must be solved within 24 hours, if not the situation will fester. Sometimes there might be tension between team members. If there is tension then special attention is needed to solve the problem.


Communication between team members can become blurred at times. It is because sometimes team members have different backgrounds and interpret things differently. It is very important to keep the communicated information simple and there may also be a need to write in down in order for team members to understand.

Open communication fosters trusts. Trust increases ownership and ownership increases participation. Having hidden agendas, communicating via a third party and sugarcoating bad news will hurt the team relationship.

People usually remember how well you do a job and not how fast you accomplish it. Quality is very important. In order to produce quality results, one of the most important factor that team members must have is competency. If they don’t have sent them for training.

If team members are competent and possess the other factors that I have stated before then they will committed to excellence. They will never settle for average. They would not perform mediocre work. They will focus their energy and effort on what they do well, giving all they have got. They pay attention to details. They don’t take small issues or things for granted. Even small jobs are important to them. They perform with consistency and give their best all the time.

It is very important that the right jobs are delegated to the right members. Team members must pay attention to implementation and must come together to discuss how to improve on the tasks that the team is undertaking.ved

My next area of focus will be on dependability. I will start off with a quote from John C Maxwell.

Dependability is more that ability alone
- John C Maxwell

A successful and effective must always depend on each other. They cannot work as if they are in their own world. In life we cannot exist alone. Somehow we are always dependable on somebody. On a team, members who can be depended on are an asset. Those that cannot be depended are liabilities.
Team members must trust each others motives. If one of the team members continually puts himself or herself and his or her agenda ahead of what’s best for the team, he or she has proven himself or herself to be undependable.
Team members must be responsible for what they do. They must have the ability to take on responsibility. If a person is irresponsible we cannot depend on that person. Effective members must be able to use initiatives. They must use it to male good judgment.


There must also be consistency in a dependable team. To be effective, team members must have discipline. Being discipline is doing what you really do not want to do so that you can do what you really want to do. For example, you may not be a good dancer but your desire is to become one so you keep on practicing despite of the difficulties. Eventually you will become a good dancer.

In a team aspect, for example, if the team is not very good in defense but if they keep on practicing and correcting their mistakes, eventually their defense will become good. An effective must develop discipline thinking. They must think correctly and challenge themselves mentally. This will help the team in whatever the team endeavour’s to do. They must be able to control their emotions and must not lose their temper when they face difficulties. They also take action. There cannot be a situation where there is talk but no action. If you want milk, you must go and purchase it, you cannot wait for the milk to come to you.

To be an effective team, there must also be a leader who can imspire a team to do their best. The leader must believe in his team members as they can tell whether the leader believes in them or not.

Team members can also help each other. They can understand what their team members value. They listen to discover what their team members talk about and watch what they can spend their money on. That kind of knowledge, along with desire to relate to their fellow team members creates a strong connection between team members.

In this way, we help to develop each other in areas like gifts, talent and uniqueness. This on the whole will benefit the team. Team leaders must work to make themselves better, not only because it benefits the personally but because it helps the team to work together on his shooting skills so that one of his team members passes the ball to him he is able to score. He not only develops himself but helps the team to win.

Team members must be enthusiastic in their tasks if they are not, they will not give their best to their team. A team with enthusiasm takes responsibility for their own enthusiasm. They remain positive, upbeat and passionate on what they are doing. To be enthusiastic, you need to start acting that way. If you wait for the right time to be enthusiastic, you may never become enthusiastic.

Team members have to believe in what they are doing. This help to sparkle the fire of enthusiasm inside them and once that starts, all you need is to keep feeding the flames. Enthusiasm can be contagious, he or she can spread that enthusiasm to other members. When the whole team becomes enthusiastic, the possibilities for the team are endless.


A team with enthusiasm is willing to sacrifice their time in order to accomplish a task. For example, building floats for our national day parade. It takes a lot of men hours to build and decorate the floats but in the end the team takes pride in the completed float and is very happy to see their float being paraded before a huge crowd. They are willing to come back to build more floats.

For a team to be successful. It needs intentional people who are able to remain focus and productive, people who make every action count. Team members need a strong sense of purpose. For example, publishing educational books for the young. Team members must have a goal and it can be to publish three thousand educational books in three months.

Team members must learn how to say no. They cannot try and do everything. Sometimes there are tasks that are not relevant to the goals set. They must know how to say no to these kind of tasks. They must stay focus on their goals.

An effective team knows where the team is going. They know their mission well. They will develop enthusiasm and a burning desire to fulfill their mission. This kind of desire is indispensable.

An effective team will always follow their leader. Of course the leader himself or herself must lead the team correctly. There must be trust between the leader and his or her members.

For the team to be effective, it has to be prepared. The team need to be determine where they are heading. They have to examine the conditions that will be heading their way and determine what price they have to pay to get there.

Therefore to conclude, a team must have a strong relationship, commitment, trust, enthusiasm, respect, communicate well, be mission oriented and finally enjoy what they are doing.