Session 1

This is the first time I am actually making a post on my OWN blog and I think it is a pretty cool experience even though the technical part has caused me some headache at the beginning.

After attending my first TWC lesson in SMU I finally gain some insights on the syllabus and what we are expected to learn through this lesson. Personally I feel that the skills and knowledge that we are going to acquire is going to be useful in the future.

There are two things I would like to share this week. Firstly, I would like to give my personal opinion regarding the discussion topic, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" Secondly I would like to share some of my take away after reading through Reading 3 (how domestication and agriculture lead to the rise of civilization).

During the lesson, Prof. Shahi played a video on Jared Diamond regarding his book “Guns, Germs and Steel”. After watching the video, Prof. Shahi post the question “why New Guinea are poorer than the other parts of the world?” Some people suggest that it is due to geographical location, climatic differences while others suggest that it may due to the contentment of New Guinean themselves. I agree with all these points but in my mind I was thinking maybe the true reason lies with us. I feel that one of the main reasons why New Guinean still living in their primitive ways is due to the lack of concern of the modern society. New Guinea is surrounded by forest so there is a natural obstacle to the people living there. Thus they may be cut off from the rest of the world all these years. However we are living in a modern society, it is much easier for us to get in contact with them. Hence if the world is more concerned about the development of New Guinea, volunteers will be sent to New Guinea to teach the natives knowledge and introduce modern technology to improve their standard of living. I believe with the help of the modern society, New Guinea will undergo a drastic change within a short period of change. The young generation of New Guinean may be able to get proper education and the older generation may be able to learn to operate simple machineries. I think this will be the only way for the New Guinean to improve their standard of living. Therefore in conclusion, I feel that we are also partly responsible for the current state of New Guinea.

After the lesson, I spent some time reading through the Reading materials on LMS. I find that reading 3 is interesting as it tells us how agriculture has lead to the rise of civilization. Agriculture is one of the most important factors that lead to the rise of civilization. The reason very simple, human needs food to survive! Without a stable food supply, our ancestors have to spend most of their time trying to get food through hunting or gathering. Without agriculture, food supply is limited and thus the population of human being remains small. Based on the reading, human population increased drastically after the development of agriculture. Moreover, the stable food supply enable human to focus their attending and energy on other areas which in turn greatly accelerated the pace of technological advancement. Population and technology is the key factor for the start of civilizations. Hence agriculture development is one of the most important factors that lead to the rise of the civilization.

Here are some of my thoughts and reflections. Hopefully you will find it useful. If there is anything you do not agree or you find it inaccurate please feel free to inform me. Looking forward to the next session.