e pur si muove

UK PM Gordon Brown has recently announced that McDonald’s, along with several large corporations, have been given approval to certify some internal employee training courses as equivalent to ‘A’-level standard. Suddenly, a McJob isn’t really a McJob anymore. Technically speaking, they aren’t A-levels per se, but are vocational certificates which at the highest level (Level 3) will be ‘nationally recognized’ as being equivalent to A levels. Interestingly, some of these certification courses were attended by such luminaries as Andrew Card, Dubya’s former chief-of-staff at the White House and Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com.

Skeptics like Philip Hensher of The Independent immediately draw the (reasonable) conclusion that it is ridiculous to envisage comparing how a McDonald’s trainee would have equivalent mathematical skills of a A-level maths student. Maybe the UK A level standards have diverged somewhat from the Singapore A levels, but given how so many Singaporean JCs (and other equivalent institutions preparing students for A levels or an equivalent certification) appear to do little more than systematically inflict exercises from ten-year-series books upon their students, is that really that much different (stylistically, if perhaps not content-wise) from training people how to flip that perfect burger, that standards-compliant serving of french fries?

Maybe Singapore should be trying to get McDonald’s to set up a JC or JC-equivalent in Singapore. McDonald’s market capitalization must surely indicate how successful they are at molding dot.com CEOs and senior government officials - an outcome that surely Singapore’s principals can emulate to boost their schools’ passing rates, number of straight-’A’ students and luminary alumni.

References

1. BBC News, McDonald’s ‘A-level’ is launched, 2008-01-27.
2. Philip Hensher, The Independent, Don’t let McDonald’s dish out burger bar A-levels, 2008-01-29.
3. Colin Brown, The Independent, Teachers furious at plans for ‘McDonald’s diplomas’, 2008-01-29.

This news comes via Kungfuzi, whose alma mater, Dartmouth College joins the short list of US universities and colleges that offer need-blind admission to international students. In summary, need-blind admission means that your ability to pay tuition will not affect your chances of getting accepted. Full details are available on Dartmouth’s website.

Now, more than ever, is a great time to consider studying abroad if you are a Singaporean, especially in the United States. There are now quite a few schools and organizations on a long list that offer all sorts of incentives.

If you know someone who’s interested in studying abroad, please tell them that there are alternatives to government scholarships that offer free money to study.

The complete list of US universities offering need-blind admissions to international students (AFAIK) can be found as usual on the Incomplete Guide to Financial Aid for Singaporeans, or under the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

I read on tomorrow.sg that Google is thinking of setting up the world’s largest data center in Malaysia, Vietnam or India. While such a facility would doubtless represent a great boon to the local economy and a prestige boost for the host country, I am personally quite concerned with the privacy aspects of such a move.

A data center in a country with poor or nonexistent laws protecting the privacy of private data seems to be asking for trouble. The largest legal gray area - which to my knowledge remains unresolved - is whether or not the data moving through the data center (and data in transit from other aspects of Google’s operations) are subject to local laws, and hence to local law enforcement. Can the Malaysian government subpoena one’s emails and demand passwords to email accounts? What if your Google Reader is subscribed to a website that is perfectly legal where you live, but happens to be illegal in Vietnam? What if your Google Base contains detailed instructions on how to butcher cows, content that is offensive to many Indians? What if Google sets up shop in Singapore, and a prominent politician, bureaucrat or businessperson takes umbrage at what he/she considers ‘defamatory material’ posted on Blogspot?

These are not idle speculations. Google has already shown its readiness to comply with local authorities: Google’s search engine in China famously censors sensitive topics such as democracy. Yahoo has allowed Chinese authorities access to journalist Shi Tao (师涛)’s email account, facilitating their case for throwing him into jail. And that’s not including security breaches, with Second Life’s boo-boo and the UK Revenue and Customs Office’s privacy Chernobyl merely being two recent examples. Not that Malaysia, Vietnam or India would be unusually vulnerable to such security incidents, but setting up the world’s largest data center facility most certainly would.

Not to encourage paranoia, but not all data are equally valuable. Photos of your Ah Ma’s 98th birthday may not be of too much concern (barring risqué or incriminating photos) privacy-wise, but other data such as credit card and bank accounts numbers strictly off-limits. I certainly don’t want a third-party government gathering enough data to query my credit card statements, and I think most people wouldn’t either. It’s not so much about exposing incriminating evidence, but rather a basic human expectation of decency.

Tellervo and Oliver Kalleinen, the Finnish artists who came up with the idea for Complaints Choir series (and previously featured on this blog here for Helsinki, now also available for Chicago, amongst others), have now brought their Singapore project to fruition, only to cancel all its public performances due to pressure from the Singapore authorities.

Thanks a lot, Singapore, for proving again that you have no sense of humor whatsoever.

More information on SG Daily.

Lyrics reposted under the fold (the popups on the Complaints Choir website are rather annoying).

Read the rest of this entry »