Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ISSN 1793-9283
This Journal is a publication of the University Scholars Programme (USP), National University of Singapore. EDITORIAL BOARD Faculty Editor Daniel PS Goh, Assistant Professor, Sociology, NUS Chief Editor Goh Huishan Editors Jeanne Tai Sreemanee Raaj Dorajoo Ho Kim Cheong Bernard Koh Charmaine Low Chong Cui Ying All Correspondence should be directed to: The Editor, PRISM: USP Undergraduate Journal University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore BLK ADM, Level 6 10 Kent Ridge Crescent Singapore 119260 Copyright 2010 University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, and only as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the Publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licencing Agency. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside of these terms should be directed to the publishers at the above-mentioned address.
Table of Contents
Editors Foreword
From Ulysses to the Merlion: Hypertextuality and a Singaporean Canon Christine Chong Contractualism on Saving the Greater Number Lim Chong Ming Kollywood and the Indian Tamil Diaspora Kumuthan Maderya The Little Green Dot Alexius Yeo Per Guan Varieties of Capitalism: Locating Singapores State-led Model Lim Aik The Political Economy of Food: A Perspective on the Strategies Employed by Asian Countries to Enhance National Food Security Tan Wenqi Counterterrorism via Community Engagement: The Long and Short of It Seah Ru Han Public Sector Funding of Scholarships in Singapore: An Economic Analysis of the Recruitment of Public Sector Talents Ho Kim Cheong; Lee Yern Fai; Thomas Zhuo Dianyun A Pilot-Test: Masked Priming Number-word Judgment Test for Chinese-English-Malay Trilinguals Ruth Ng Lu De Solid-Phase Microextraction of Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: A Comparative Study of Four Commercial Fibres and an In-house Prepared Device Clara Mou Huiting The Etiology of Metabolic Syndrome, Its Progression to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and the Alleviating Effects of Exercise Kishan Kumar Singh Call for papers
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RISM: USP Undergraduate Journal is back for its third run. The editorial team once again presents a wide array of scholarly pursuits from a spectrum of disciplinesfrom the humanities to the social sciences, and for the first time in PRISM history, the natural sciences. In this issue, PRISM continues its tradition of celebrating diverse undergraduate research in NUS by bringing together papers with different objects of inquiry and methodologies in knowledge construction and evaluation. Critically, the two threads of knowledge constructionbuilding knowledge through a certain lens by using particular methodologiesas well as knowledge evaluationevaluating current understandings of the realitymake up what is known as research in academia. It is precisely this that PRISM looks to showcase: examples of undergraduate research. The pivotal role of knowledge evaluation is addressed in three papers by Lim Aik, Kishan Kumar Singh and Seah Ruhan. By reviewing extant literature on political economy and the metabolic syndrome respectively, Lim attempts to place Singapore within Peter Hall and David Soskices varieties of capitalism approach while Kishan suggests approaches to combat insulin resistance and consequently Type 2 Diabetes. This positions their research against the current academic grain in their fields. On the other hand, Seah approaches knowledge evaluation by adopting a comparative analysis of counterterrorist programmes in the United Kingdom and Singapore, thus challenging the increasingly popular community-based approaches towards counterterrorism. Indeed, a common thread following such different topics is the diverse, and at times converging, research methods undertaken by each writer in knowledge construction. In the arena of natural sciences, Clara Mou uses experimentation to determine if an in-house prepared plunger-in-needle extraction device is a plausible and less costly alternative to commercial fibres used in the microextraction of Carcinogenic Hydrocarbons. Similarly, experimentation is adopted in a social sciences paper, as Ruth Ng employs laboratory experiments to test how far understanding the meaning of a number word in a translation depends on word form overlap between translation equivalents in trilinguals. Three papers written by Christine Chong, Kumuthan Maderya and Alexius Yeo adopt the qualitative method to explore the issue of identity creation. Chong traces developing meanings ascribed to the Merlion through a body of Merlion poetry, and attempts to locate political contestation within it. Kumuthan, looking at a very different text form, questions if diasporic films can exist as conduit for a Tamil diasporic identity. Yeo, on the other hand, investigates how trees, something more commonplace and tangible, take part in the creation of lieux de memoire or sites of memory in Singapore. The generation of predictive hypotheses and models, which is vital to theory construction, is exemplified in the papers by Tan Wenqi and Ho Kim Cheong et al. Tan creates a matrix to locate types of players in the international politics of food while Ho et al. use a regression model to question if the public or private sector should be funding university scholarships for Singaporeans. These papers demonstrate the researchers ability to create predictive and falsifiable models. Finally, we have a piece of philosophical inquiry which constructs and evaluates knowledge in a non-empirical manner by Lim Chong Ming. In his paper, Lim discusses the extent to which Thomas Scanlons account of contractualism can be reconciled with the problem of moral aggregation. PRISM continues to present a perspective on academic knowledge that is framed and produced by NUS undergraduates who explore the spectrum of methods to construct and evaluate knowledge. Our inclusive and interdisciplinary approach towards research reifies our belief that undergraduates are not only producers, but also arbiters, of research.
Jeanne Tai Jing Yi, USP and History Jeanne majored in history and graduated from NUS and USP in July 2010. As an undergraduate, she did not develop a specific research area, preferring to poke her fingers in many intellectual pies. She has worked on an eclectic mix of subjects, including a critique of a pseudo-historical theatre production about Japanese prostitutes (published in the last issue of PRISM) and a study of a little-known sporting festival in colonial Singapore that endured for over a century. Combining an interest in gender, colonial society and textual analysis, Jeannes honours thesis studied a collection of colonial policy papers which addressed the sex trade in interwar Singapore. Jeanne hopes that PRISM will continue to encourage and reward undergraduates who adopt an open and fearless attitude toward research, and who tread areas which may not yield conclusive answers but will spark plenty of questions. Jeanne continues to pursue her love for writing and the occasional quirky subject as a journalist with SPH Magazines.
Ho Kim Cheong, USP and Economics Kim Cheong is a fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Economics and Liberal Arts under the NUSWaseda Double Degree Program. He has interests in microeconomics, particularly industrial organisation, competition economics and marketing. He enjoys reading marketing and strategy articles, and immersing in Japanese culture and language. In his opinion, research means more than just analysing a single piece of work in depth, nor is it plucking information from various sources to form an essay. While he does acknowledge that secondary research is important, more weightage should be given to primary research wherever possible. Idea generation, giving rise to the research, is just as important.
Bernard Koh Beng Huat, USP and English Literature Bernard is a third-year undergraduate majoring in English Literature. He advocates peer learning which he believes characterises USP and his involvement in the programme. Besides editing PRISM - which selects and publishes thoughtful and edifying research by undergraduates - he is also a writing assistant with the USP Writing Centre, which offers one-on-one conferences conducted by and for students. His interests include film (in particular, the work of Wong Kar-wai), and colonial and postcolonial writing.
Charmaine Low Hui Shan, USP and Computing Charmaine is a third-year undergraduate at the School of Computing, majoring in Communications and New Media. She is interested in making things functional and beautiful. Before she became a computing geek XD, she used to read a lot - so much so that she could read while walking or while on the bus (though not always) - and brought a book everywhere she went. Now, through English tuition for kids big and small, she tries to spark a love for reading and teach them to write coherently and clearly. She hopes to write and illustrate her own childrens picture book in the future.
Chong Cui Ying, USP and Economics Cui Ying is a third-year undergraduate majoring in Economics and minoring in English Language. Her current research interest include behavioural economics and economic policy-making processes. Cui Ying hopes that PRISM will continue to showcase the many undergraduate research talents from various academic disciplines within NUS in the years to come.
with the tensions and interrelations between the poems that will provide a breadth and depth of commentary on the notion of national identity, what it means to be Singaporean and the relationship between images/art/ poetry and politics. Not only does the notion of an anthology encourage us to read the Merlion poems in relation to one another as a collection, the poems themselves have close textual relations to one another. These relations are defined as intertextuality, textual links between two texts. In the case of the Merlion poetry however, there are evidently more than two texts; there are at least 40 poems that have as their subject the same motif. If intertextuality refers to textual links between two texts, hypertextuality marks a field of literary works the generic essence of which lies in their relation to previous works (Allen 2000: 108) and requires more than two texts to create a group of works. In his work Palimpsests (1997), Grard Genette identifies numerous literary techniques in which writers can transform a hypotext (the earlier text) into a hypertext (the derived text) such that readers read or remember the hypotext through the hypertext. I argue that it is through the literary transformations identified by Genette and through the hypertexts literary contestation with the hypotext, that political contestation happens. Working from the first Thumboo poem, I will show how the subsequent poems employ the various techniques identified by Genette to subvert the earlier poems, slowly shedding Classical, Elizabethan and Romantic references for more playful postmodernist tones. Not only does this development mirror the literary history of the Western tradition of literature, it similarly replaces more traditional notions of nationality with increasingly modern and postmodern ideas. This transition reflects not only more diversity and development in Singaporean poetry but also an increased daring in expressing suspicion of the status quoboth sociopolitical and literary.
How has an improbable creation come to take on the hopes and aspirations of a nascent nation? This book, with poems by nearly 40 poets, zeroes in on the Merlion and what it ultimately says about Singapore and Singaporeans. Blurb from Reflecting On The Merlion: An Anthology of Poems (2009)
he blurb from the anthology of Merlion poems, published in 2009, asks how the Merlion, a nifty Singapore Tourism Board symbol thought up in 1964 by a certain Mr. Fraser Brunner (Thumboo and Yeow 2009: 10), created for tourists by a non-local, managed to develop into something so intricately linked with the national identity of Singapore and a motif so greatly commented on by local poets. This is a question worth asking indeed. The blurb then suggests that it is this book, and not any individual poem, which might provide an answer on what Singapore and Singaporeans mean. Indeed, to base a nations sense of identity on an image constructed for global more than local consumption seems problematic, yet an entire anthology has emerged based on this already shaky foundation. The blurb recognises that just as it is not the Merlion itself that can give us a genuine sense of national identity, any one particular Merlion poem also fails to deliver a satisfactory understanding of Singapores hopes and aspirations or an adequate commentary on Singapore and Singaporeans. Instead, it is only through dialogue between opinions, the contestation of ideas and the multiplicity of voices that one can get a thorough sense of what national identity is. It is precisely the book, an anthology, that presents us
The Western Hypertextual Eastern Hypotext: Edwin Thumboos Ulysses by the Merlion
Edwin Thumboo, the poet of the first Merlion poem Ulysses to the Merlion (1979), is one of the editors of the anthology Reflecting on the Merlion. His poem is positioned before and separate from the division of Section One and Section Two in the Contents page, signifying that poem as the pioneer and suggesting its position as the hypotext to all the other subsequent poems. While Thumboos poem is indeed the hypotextual Merlion poem, Ulysses to the Merlion is, in fact, a hypertext of the Ulysses motif in the English literary tradition.
Unequal laws unto a savage race. (Tennyson 1833: ll.3 4, emphases mine)
Also, Thumboos materialistic four-part version of They make, they serve,/ They buy, they sell (Thumboo 1979: ll.27 28) has a similar rhythm to Tennysons Romantic vision To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield (Tennyson 1833: l.70). In both poems, the extent of Ulysses travelling and his dual experience of enjoyment and suffering are emphasised through the repetition of travel: Tennysons I cannot rest from travel; I will drink/ Life to the lees.
From Hypotextual to Hypertextual: The Merlion Speaks in Lees The Merlion to Ulysses
Lee Tzu Pheng parodies Thumboos paratextual dedication for Maurice Baker with on the latters visit in Edwin Thumboos Ulysses by the Merlion, setting up her poems occasion as similar to and as a response to Thumboos poem. By doing so, she intentionally ties the reading of her poem to Thumboos, using paratextuality to signify that Thumboos poem is a major source of signification for Lees poem. Using a similar form of the dramatic monologue, Lees The Merlion to Ulysses (1997) is instead spoken by the Merlion to Ulysses, now silent. The shift of the speaking subject from Ulysses to the Merlion is called to the readers attention by the switch in the positions of their names in the title of the poems; instead of privileging Ulysses, the Western literary tradition and its Romantic ideals, Lee silences Ulysses and animates the Merlion, privileging the Merlion, the PAP and its pragmatic ideas. This giving speech to, or animating a previously minor character in a hypotext, is what Genette refers to as transmotivisation (Genette 1997: 330). Transmotivisation takes place through a closer scrutiny of the previously enigmatic motives, opinions and thoughts of the minor character to inform and deepen our understanding of the hypotext, or at least provide an alternative interpretation of the hypotext. When Lee gives Thumboos previously silent Merlion a motive, she privileges the agendas, opinions and thoughts of the Merlion as worth examining; the response of the Merlion to Ulysses is of value and important. It is through this animation of the Merlion that the Merlion is constructed as the hypertextual figure in its own right, displacing Ulysses as the main hypertextual character. By setting up the Merlion as the structural opposite of Ulysses through transmotivisation, Lee fashions an active response, a voice that allows the Merlion to assert itself against Ulysses, and by extension the Western literary tradition, the Western gaze and the values it represents. Indeed, Lees Merlion is almost aggressive in its attitude towards Thumboos Ulysses. Unlike the homage that Thumboo pays to Tennyson when he echoes his language, textual allusion to Thumboos poem in Lees reflects instead the suspicious attitude of her Merlion to Thumboos Ulysses. In The Merlion to Ulysses, the vocabulary of the Merlion makes it clear that its rhetoric is that of the ruling party of Singapore, the Peoples Action Party. Privileging pragmatism, meritocracy and discipline over Western decadence, Lees Merlion echoes Thumboos valorising word many, in Ulysses having sailed many waters (Thumboo 1979: l.1), and subverts it to contain a negative connotation of inefficiency and
Our establishes the two figures as sharing a mythical dimension but also establishes them as equally complex and problematic. This transmotivisation of the Merlion rejects the simplistic approach to the Merlion by imbuing it with a personality and character that is hard to pin down. The Merlion proudly declares at the end that it is the scion of a wealthy race and wears the silver armour of my moneyed people (Lee 1997: ll.33 34). Here, Lee takes the shine evoked in Thumboos poem to be associated with material shine and success only. While Thumboos vision of Singaporeans has elements of Romantic idealism: They hold the bright, the beautiful. Good ancestral dreams Within new visions. So shining, urgent. (Thumboo 1979: ll.37 40) Lees Merlion associates bright and shining with pragmatism, silver, armour and money. The Merlion in Lees poem takes on the voice,
Christine Chong was a USP student and is currently continuing her studies as a Graduate Research Scholar in English Literature at NUS.
contractualism. Rescue Case: There are three persons trapped on two different islands. On one island is trapped one person, A, and on the other island, two, B and C. Jill is the captain of a rescue boat, but her boat is in a position such that the two islands are equidistant from her in opposite directions. There will soon be a giant wave which will drown all the unsaved persons, and she has time to go to only one of the two islands.5 All three persons have the same complaint their impending death. Towards which island should Jill steer the boat? It seems intuitive that she ought to steer it towards the island where there are two people, B and C and this is a conclusion that Scanlon wishes to establish as well. But what would the reason for saving B and C be, if any? Do we save the two simply because they are more? If it were so, then one of the central tenets the notion of justifiability to persons of Scanlons contractualism would be violated: Justifiability to Each Person: The justifiability of a moral principle depends only on various individuals reasons for objecting to that principle and alternatives to it.6 We have, at the outset, seen the primacy of justifiability to persons in Scanlons entire project. So, if we cannot explain why Jill should save the greater number (or why it is wrong for her not to save the greater number) using Scanlons formulation, then it seems as if it does not have the explanatory force it purports to have. Yet, given the need for justifiability to each individual, how can the contractualist make the claim that Jill should save B and C instead of A? It seems clear that it is not possible for him to say that Jill should save the two because the weight of the two complaints outweigh that of one, as that justification violates the notion of taking only individuals reasons. It is a violation because the principle of Justifiability to Each Person, as formulated by Scanlon, only allows for the reasons of each individual to be weighed against another, and combining complaints or reasons is not allowed.7 Now that the preliminaries have been established, let us formulate the problem of aggregation. Aggregation Problem: How do we allow for someone to save the greater number without aggregating the strength of their reasons or complaints? In relation to this Aggregation Problem, Scanlons view is that we need to formulate a principle that permits us to save the greater number without aggregating the strength of reasons or complaints of the individuals. Let us consider the alternatives. A principle that dictates we ought to save the smaller group, in situations like the Rescue Case, is just
canlons account of contractualism2 makes the claim that it is able to allow for the distinctions between what is morally right and wrong, and still account for the full force of our judgments between right and wrong. Essentially, he purports to have a theory that is good, and which fits our moral intuitions. He claims that when we say that an action is wrong, what we mean is that we could not justify [that action] to others on grounds [we] could expect them to accept.3 The implication of this is that there is already a notion of the other person (presumably a victim, or at least a non-beneficiary) involved in our account of what is wrong. This formulation has the benefit of grounding our notion of duties in the human, instead of talking about them as abstract ideas. Scanlon believes that this characterisation describes wrongness in a way that provides plausible answers4 to the question of what kind of reasoning we are going through, when we are thinking about right and wrong. In this essay, I discuss whether Scanlons contractualism is able to deal with the problem of interpersonal aggregation, formulated below, without sacrificing what it takes to be one of its core tenets that of justifiability to persons. I will consider in detail several strong charges that have been fielded against contractualisms response to the problem of aggregation. Through the discussion, I hope to establish that, contrary to what Scanlon believes, contractualism seems to have no clear way out of the problem of aggregation, as the problem it eventually runs into is one of language.
Critique of Scanlon
However, I do not think that the Tie Breaker Argument works. This is because it rests on an assumption that is challengeable which is that competing reasons for individuals are able to be balanced against each other. What is this sense of balancing, and how exactly is it to be done? According to Michael Otsuka,11 the Tie Breaker Argument does not work against the charge of aggregation, because the balancing in it still involves an implicit aggregation of the complaints of B and C. Let us consider this argument. Scanlon claims that in the Tie Breaker, a second reason of [one] ... can balance the first of the same kind. Otsukas contention is that the balancing is loaded with what Scanlon himself rejects aggregation.12 He asks us to imagine a scenario where the complaints of A and B are put on a balancing scale. As complaints are put on the left, and Bs are put on the right. Scanlon thinks that because the complaints of B are equal in kind to that of A (wanting to be saved from death), they are balanced. And Cs complaints then come in to the picture to break this tie. Otsuka argues that the only way Cs complaints can do so is if Cs complaints are added to the right of the balancing scale, which then tips the scale to the right. Otsuka argues that this is tantamount to considering Cs complaints in combination13 with Bs; otherwise, Cs complaints would not have the power to break the tie. Aggregation of complaints has been committed implicitly by Scanlon, and the principle of Justifiability to Each Person is violated. As such, contractualism appeals to the sort of claims that it purports to exclude; in Otsukas words, Scanlon is
Alternative solutions
Allowing the complaints of each individual to compete at the same level, we see that it is problematic to claim that we ought to save the greater number, It now seems that the idea of a lottery is perhaps plausible. An ostensibly simple solution comes to mind that is, a coin toss. However, while tossing a coin allows all the claims to compete at the same level, it is not immune to problems. While tossing a coin gives each of the two groups an equal chance of being saved, the members of the larger group can reasonably reject a principle dictating that in scenarios like the Rescue Case, all that is required to determine which direction the rescue boat should take is a simple coin toss. Their objection will be that the procedure of tossing a coin shows neither enough respect nor consideration for each of the members in the larger group. This is especially so when there is a much larger number of people in the larger group, as in the Large Rescue Case: There are people trapped on two different islands. On one island is trapped one person, and on the other, one thousand people. Jill is the captain of a rescue boat, but her boat is in a position such that the two islands are equidistant from her in opposite directions. There will soon be a giant wave which will drown all the unsaved persons, and she has time to go to only one of the two islands.19 In this scenario, it does seem absurd for the rescuer to toss a coin to decide where to go. An individual in the larger group can object to a principle that allows for a decision to be made via tossing a coin, on the account of the fact that the one thousand people are treated as making a claim that is as strong as that made by one person. At this point, one can bring in the notion of a Weighted lottery: If one had to choose between saving group A, containing four people, and group B, containing five, then one should use a procedure that has a four-ninths chance of favouring A and a five-ninths chance of favouring B.20 This gives every persons life a positive weight; each persons life affects the procedure and result in the same, equal way. This way, the problem of aggregation and that of claims competing at different levels have been avoided. The procedure of using the weighted lottery respects the claims of each individual
A larger problem
However, it does not mean that we have reason to simply throw the notion of relevance between numbers out of the window. In the Rejecting Transitivity case presented above, I believe that when we are faced with (iv), we still intuitively would go for rescuing the 1,500 lives. How might we explain this? Consider the three options: accepting both the Transitivity and Continuity Assumptions, and rejecting one of the two alternatively. I believe that it may not be quite so absurd to accept the Transitivity Assumption while rejecting the Continuity Assumption. While what this means is that we have to set an arbitrary threshold to determine when numbers stop being relevant to each other as per my example about numbers below 10 I do not believe it is as serious a problem as rejecting Transitivity. How, then, can we resolve the charge that the idea of relevance, which seems to be our only hope in avoiding the problem of aggregation in the Rescue Case, is problematic? I suggest that we might find a solution in comparing what we are facing now (the problem of having to find a threshold) with the Sorites Paradoxes.37 Let us consider one such paradox: Sorites Paradox (Heap): 1 grain of wheat does not make a heap. If 1 grain of wheat does not make a heap, then 2
Conclusion
So what have we come to? First I considered Otsukas critique of Scanlon on balancing and competing claims and reasons, and Kumars response to that. Arguing that Kumars response has its problems, I suggested that the problem of competing reasons could find resolution via a decisional procedure like a lottery. But we realised that the procedure of the Weighted Lottery, though fair, is problematic as it could run us into situations in which we say that the right thing to do is to save the lesser number.
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Lim Chong Ming is a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, majoring in Philosophy.
culture of consumption. Culture of consumption is a phrase used to describe any society in which the acquisition of material goods is viewed as a major defining feature of daily life (Gordon 2001: 392393). Yet, it is a consumerist modernity that the Tamil Diaspora family in Jeans is comfortable with, as is established in the films exposition, situated in the characters suburbia homes and luxury cars. The culture of consumption, conspicuous and replete throughout the text, thus fashions a focal point of analysis for the shifting modes of representing the Tamil Diaspora by Indias Tamil cinema. The iconicity of Jeans lay as much in its immense commercial success, with the chart-busting music by Oscar-winning composer A. R. Rahman and aesthetic extravagance, as in its enunciation of difference in the portrayals of overseas Tamil communities. This is in comparison to other preceding films that showcase the Tamil Diaspora, such as the equally iconic Ninaithaalae Inikkum (Sweet Memories, dir. K. Balachander 1979). Ninaithaalae Inikkum is a campy musical comedy set in Singapore and follows the travails of a rock band on tour from Tamil Nadu. The film registers on celluloid the imagined cultural distance between the indigenous Tamil and his foreign other of similar ethno-linguistic stock. The main narrative thrust of the film follows the rock bands lead singer Chandru and lead guitarist Deepak (played by then rising stars and now Tamil screen legends Kamalhaasan and Rajinikanth respectively) in their efforts to find an elusive Singaporean Tamil girl Sonia (played by yesteryear actress Jeyapradha) whom Chandru is in love with. Similarly, the musical romance Jeans centers on the struggle of American Tamil Vishwanathan to unite with his Indian Tamil lover Madhumita (played by Miss World Winner 1994 and international film star Aishwarya Rai) against parental opposition from Nacheeappan who insists that his sons marry sisters or another pair of twin girls These otherwise banal plot descriptions should not obfuscate the fact that both films are rich polysemic texts that open up new vistas in understanding the Tamil Diaspora on film. Thus, the question arises: has there been any discernible change in the depictions of the Diaspora by Tamil cinema from Ninaithaalae Inikkum to Jeans? If so, how is this change evident and what inspired it? It is clear that contrary to the principle characters in Jeans, who are secure in their selfhood as overseas Tamils and who have successfully negotiated their ethnic identity with the entrenched culture of consumption in their adopted homeland, the protagonists of Ninaithaalae Inikkum appear ill at ease. As such, it is this papers argument that there has been a significant recoding in the representation of overseas Tamil identity from the idiomatic local/foreign dichotomies to a more cosmopolitan outlook that constitutes the contemporary Tamil Diaspora, while at once subsuming the regional
he decision to send the blockbuster Tamil film Jeans (dir. S. Shankar 1998) to the 1999 Academy Awards as an entry under the Best Foreign Film category can be read as a conscious effort by Indias intellectual and cultural elite to showcase to the world a new cosmopolitan and globalized image that is concomitant with its rising opulence. The films foregrounding of the lives of overseas Tamils, specifically those living in the United States of America (U.S.), as part of the collective vicarious experience of the local audience in India calls for critical attention. Jeans became synonymous for hitherto unseen levels of gloss and extravagance in its American setting and song visualizations, highlighting elements of grandeur and spectacle. These elements converge with the carnivalesque in the most peculiar fashion in the first song of the film: Columbus Columbus! Here the main protagonists, a pair of Non-Residential Indian (NRI) twins, Vishwanathan and Ramamoorthy (both played by actor Prasanth) celebrate their weekend getaway partying on the beach together with their father Nacheeappan (played by veteran actor Nasser). Essentially a pastiche of MTV music videos and Baywatch, the song includes such components as a summer setting on the beach, bikini-clad models prancing in the background and racecars driving around as the family sings for Christopher Columbus to find new lands for them to party in on weekends. The peculiarity of the music video ColumbusColumbus! lies in its mise-enscne. The entire song segment is interspersed with the random and unnecessary destruction of mobile phones, laptops, televisions and cars to underscore the celebrating familys holiday mood, which stems from their running a fine dining Indian restaurant in Los Angeles. These consumerist products are markers of modernity and their destruction reveals a society of superabundance that euphorically celebrates the
Essentially Indian
In both Ninaithaalae Inikkum and Jeans, the culture of consumption is a metonymical signifier for the pervasive free-market capitalism evident in seemingly ubiquitous neon-lit advertising signboards, theme parks, casinos, skyscrapers and giant shopping complexes. It is in their assimilation into this culture that establishes the Nacheeappan familys cosmopolitanism. In contrast, Chandru and Deepak find the foreign locale strangely alien and within days of arriving in Singapore, a Chinese merchant gathering a mob threatens to beat them up if they do not buy a vase (Deepak is actually gesticulating to them for directions). In this comic scene, Deepak ends up buying a 6-foot tall vase which he struggles to carry through the streets of Singapore. Compared to the NRIs in Jeans, the visiting Indians in Ninaithaalae Inikkum find the uninhabitable new world of East Asia dangerous and threatening.
En-Gendering Change
Though Ninaithaalae Inikkum avoids overt discussion of the vernacular Tamil identity, it still valorizes the Tamil homeland as the site where ethnic identity is reaffirmed and stabilized. This is achieved through situating the marriage (the basic component of family, community, and identity formation) and the reunion of the estranged couple, Chandru and Sonia, back home in Tamil Nadu. Despite its proclamations of being Dedicated to the Youth and posturing the protagonists in the film as rock-stars in the mould of The Rolling Stones and Queen, Ninaithaalae Inikkum remains incongruently conservative in its gender relations. In Tamil cinemas imagination, the diasporic Tamil woman, whose attire and speech marks her as modern, automatically becomes an arrogant, loose and sexualized object to be rescued
Palatable Cosmopolitanism
The trope of consumption used in this essay to establish the binaries of local/foreign or parochial/ cosmopolitan is manifest literally in the changing transnational nature of cuisine. In Ninaithaalae Inikkum, Tamil cuisine has a localized identity pegged to the geographical entity of Tamil Nadu. This interpretation stems from Chandrus sardonic remark to his Mother upon his return home, that just as his Mother will prepare freshly made dosa at home, he had freshly prepared on the spot- crabs, frogs and snakes to eat in Singapore, to which his Mother reacts in disgust. These contrasting tastes in food between the home cuisine and the strange cuisines of the foreign locale prevent assimilation and the foreign is maintained at a distance. In contrast, in Jeans, Indian or Tamil cuisine takes on a transnational nature in being available even in foreign locales besides just India or Tamil Nadu. This is evident when the heroines family is stopped from coming into the U.S. because they had brought containers of preserved pickles, mangoes and lemons; since foreign foods cannot be brought into the U.S., they have to be thrown away. However, when Vishwanathan first bumps into Madhumita and her family in the films exposition at the airport, he reassures them that they can find all of these preserved goods and other authentic Indian cuisines in his family restaurant. One can observe that the retention of Indian cuisine in the Tamil Diaspora stems from a feeling of loss of the familiar, which necessitated the need to remember, learn and practice cooking the food
Coming Home
Through attempting to find common thematic space between Ninaithaalae Inikkum and Jeans, this essay has adopted a synchronic approach to the changing cinematic portrayals of the NRI through the semiotics of the culture of consumption. An apt conclusion to this paper is to reiterate how much Tamil cinema has evolved since its engagement with the overseas communities of Indias Tamil Diaspora. In their recent films Sivaji (Dir S. Shankar 2007) and Dasavathaaram (Ten Incarnations, Dir. K. S. Ravikumar 2008), Kollywood legends Rajinikanth and Kamalhaasan took on roles in which the NRI is a software systems architect and a biotechnologist respectively. More importantly, in both films, the NRI returns from America to save his native India from destruction. In a sense, it would not be incorrect to say that Chandru and Deepak have internalized the collective drift in Weltanschauung from parochial sojourners to cosmopolitans at home in both India
Endnotes
1 I would like to thank Dr. Rajesh Rai and Associate Professor Gyanesh Kudaisya for their feedback and ideas on an earlier draft of this research paper which was submitted as part of the coursework for the South Asian studies module: Exile, Indenture, IT: Global South Asians. I am also thankful to Eugene Chew, Indran Paramasivam and Amitha Pagolu for their detailed and thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The term Kollywood is a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam and Hollywood, just as Bollywood is a portmanteau of the names Bombay and Hollywood. Kodambakkam is the centre of the Tamil film industry in the city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), Tamil Nadu, India, where major film studios like A.V.M. Studios, L.V. Prasad Studios, and Vijaya Vauhini Studios can be found. 2 In using the term Ethnoscape, Appadurai refers to the landscape of persons who constitute the shifting world in which we live: tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guestworkers, and other moving groups and persons [that] constitute an essential feature of the world. Similarly, the term Mediascape, refers to the image-centered, narrativebased accounts of strips of reality, and what they offer to
Filmography
Pudhiya Paravai. Dir. Dada Mirasi. Prod. Sivaji Productions. Perf. Sivaji Ganesan, Saroja Devi, Sowcar Janaki, M.R.Radha. (1964). Aayirathil Oruvan. Dir. B.R. Panthulu. Prod. Padmini Pictures. Perf. M.G.Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa, M.N.Nambiar. (1965). Sivantha Mann. Dir. C.V.Sridhar. Prod. Chitraalayaa. Perf. Sivaji Ganesan, M.N.Nambiar, Kaanchana. (1969). Ullagum Sutrum Valibhan. Dir. M.G.Ramachandran. Prod. Emgeeyar Pictures. Perf. M.G.Ramachandran, M.N.Nambiar, S.A.Ashokan, Latha, Manjula. (1973). Priya. Dir. S.P.Muthuraman. Prod. S.P.Tamilarasi. Perf. Rajinikanth, Ambareesh, Sridevi. (1978). Varuvan Vadivelan. Dir. K.Sankar. Prod. Subbu Productions. Perf. Jaiganesh, Latha. (1978). Ninaithaalae Inikkum. Dir. K.Balachander. Prod.
Kumuthan Maderya graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2009, with a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in History. While an undergraduate, he was a keen student of the interdisciplinary field of film and history as well as Indian film studies. His Honors Thesis entitled: Rage Against the State: Historicizing the Angry Young Man in Tamil Cinema has been published on the film journal, Jumpcut: A Review of Contemporary Media (2010). He presently teaches International History at Anglo-Chinese Junior College.
USP Undergraduate Journal | 30 What should the next phase of Singapores greening be if we consider how trees offer a means of fixing peoples memories in space?
Alexius Yeo Per Guan
As Joseph Kupfer explains, With the loss of place, with placelessness, we are deprived of the aesthetic experiences particular places provide (2007: 38). How can we expect Singaporeans to feel attached to the nations space, or even develop intimate-grounding memories in Singapore, if we create neighbourhood landscapes that remain indistinguishable from one another? Dictated by the need to create economic opportunities and implemented top-down and efficiently by the government, policies concerning spaces in Singapore have made them livable but not lovable, orderly but not memorable. For example, as urban planners cleared traditional landscapes during the 1960s to 1980s to make room for glass-covered skyscrapers that scream buzzwords like modern, advanced and cosmopolitan, the situated memories of Singaporeans began disappearing as well. By the 1980s, urban planners were beginning to realize that these new landscapes were making tourist experiences bland, boring and predictable. Singaporeans themselves were becoming disinterested in their own environment. Through the years, however, new trends in thought are calling for more concerted efforts to respect memories by incorporating them in the creation of meaningful and valuable places. A critical inquiry into Singapores architectural preservation would make a challenging research topic on its own. The focus of this paper, though, is on how Singapores National Parks Board (NParks) took up the same challenge posed to the field of architecture, and applied it to trees. By initiating the Heritage Trees Scheme, NParks signaled a conceptual shift away from merely valuing trees for their visual and economic gains, and progressed towards incorporating understanding about memory and identity in the art of landscaping. The scheme opens up new possibilities in the way urban planners can use trees to create meaningful landscapes that enhance the quality of living in Singapore and beyond its shores. By drawing from Pierra Noras conceptual understanding of memory and the formation of lieux de memoire (sites of memory), I argue that, like architecture, trees can also powerfully fix peoples memories into spaces. Through the analysis of Singapores Tree Planting Day Scheme, The Heritage Trees Scheme and the Plant-A-Tree Programme, this paper traces the development towards the use of trees as sites of memory. Adding a new perspective to the literature about trees, people, landscapes, and their inter-connectedness and interdependence, this paper also responds to Belinda Yuens call for the need to rethink how Singapores park landscapes can continue to reflect the needs, loves and imaginings of its users (Yuen 1996: 969). The hope is that this paper will debate the possibility of trees constituting personal landscapes that can assist the states nationbuilding efforts. In fine, this paper addresses the radical question of whether trees, with their ability
memory is by nature multiple and yet specific; collective, plural, and yet individual. History, on the other hand, belongs to everyone and to no one, whence its claim to universal authority.(Pierre Nora 1989: 9) Trees prompt us into remembering, they are repositories of personal, social and cultural memory.(Paul Rae 2008)
friend once said that it is impossible to both forgive and forget. While forgiving is a personal choice, forgetting a painful experience may seem impossible because of the limited control we have over our memories. Thus far, the science of psychoanalysis has spearheaded the quest to understand human memory and how it shapes our lives. Jonathan K. Foster, a senior research fellow in cognitive neuroscience, conducted a simple experiment to explain why we remember some things and forget others. He asked participants to recall and draw as many features of a coin as they could. The results revealed that many people failed to recall specific engravings on the coin, but easily remembered characteristics such as colour and size. Foster explains that it is precisely because information like colour and size are critical for determining the value of the coin for its use, it is most easily remembered and recalled. From this experiment, we learn how the human brain retains and retrieves information that is most relevant, salient and meaningful to our survival (Foster 2009: 3). Furthermore, the storage and retrieval of informationour memorieshelp define who we are as individuals and imbue our present with meaning and purpose (Helstrup et al. 2007). Put simply, our sense of self and our memories are caught in an ongoing interrelationship of mutual creation and utilization. Throughout our lives, we learn to collect and treasure our memories because they give value to our existence by anchoring our individuality in an ever-changing world. On the scale of the nation-state, Singapore too has begun learning how to appreciate the role that memory plays in the formation of a meaningful national identity. Critics have argued that Singapores economically driven and repetitive approach to urban planning promotes the feeling of placelessness among the residents of Singapore (Ooi 2004, Yuen 1996).
Lieux de memoire originate with the sense that there is no spontaneous memory We buttress our identities upon such bastions, but if what they defended were not threatened, there would be no need to build them. Conversely, if the memories that they enclosed were to be set free they would be useless. (Nora 1989: 12) Lieux de memoire are therefore special hybrid
Varieties of Capitalism
Alexius Yeo Per Guan is a Geography and University Scholars Programme student from the graduating class of 2010. He spent two years in the National University of Singapore and two years in the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill under the Joint Degree Programme, and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts 2nd Class Honours (Upper). This is a revised version of a paper he wrote for an Independent Study Module under the supervision of Dr. Barbara Ryan.
between firms, labor and capital relations, and institutional determinants of behavior to explain capitalist market economies, leaving little room to explore the role of the state. Secondly, and possibly related to the above, is the difficulty with which VoC proponents have tried to examine the economies of countries such as France, Italy and Spain. VoC situates national economies along a spectrum ranging from more liberal forms of the market economy to coordinated models which feature non-market elements in their economy, and many countries (including Singapore) continue to resist the efforts of VoC scholars to compartmentalize them according to this logic. A last charge that has often been laid against the existing VoC body of literature is that it is imbued with a large degree of Euro-centrism, drawing primarily upon empirical examples from Continental, Central and Eastern Europe. There are relatively fewer works on non-European examples, and while this is not a problem in itself, useful insights can be drawn from the developmental trajectories of Asian economies, particularly the successful adoption of the capitalist free market in the Tiger Economies Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore. Numerous scholars have already written works on the former three economies, and this paper shall contribute to the discussion by examining the relatively neglected Singaporean capitalist economy. That being said, it is important for us not to deem the above three concerns as inherent flaws of VoC but to recognize that Hall and Soskices VoC framework is not an ossified structure of received wisdom it is simply a coherent set of ideas meant to reinvigorate debate on the academic analysis of national economies. The absence of the state is more a matter of heuristic emphasis and not strictly an intrinsic deficiency in the framework.1 The paper will begin by briefly summarizing the fundamental ideas of VoC in order to establish a common understanding of its implications and nuances, while the second section will attempt to expand the current VoC framework to better accommodate the role of the state and state politics. Following that, we will make use of the economic structure of Singapore as a case study to test the VoC approach empirically against an Asian model of a relatively successful market economy. The last part concludes by arguing for a return of politics to VoC discourse in order to render it applicable to the stateled models of the market economy that is prevalent in Asia.
Corporate Governance
The Singapore Code of Corporate Governance was adopted on 4 April 2001 to provide guidance to private firms in the area of corporate governance. For example, it outlines provisions for the clear separation of roles between the chief executive officer and the chairman of the board of directors, in addition to the empowerment of the board of directors in all matters of consequence outside of the day-to-day running of the firm (which remains the purview of the management). The Code specifically recommends that committees be formed to handle remuneration issues, nomination of top executives and auditing, with such Country Finland Sweden Norway Denmark
Trade union density, 2007 (%) Nordic CMEs 70.3 70.8 53.7 69.1 LMEs 31.7 29.4 28.0 11.6 Others 18.3 33.3 7.8 18.7
Ireland Canada United Kingdom United States Japan Italy France SINGAPORE
Table 1. Net union densities of selected OECD countries (in contrast with Singapore). Source: OECD Employment Outlook database, http://www.oecd.org/document/34/0,3343,en_2649_33927_40917154_1_1_1_1,00.html#union
100
54 54 40 21
Neptune Orient Lines 66 Real Estate Mapletree Investments 100 Infrastructure, Industrial & Engineering Singapore Technologies 50 Engineering Energy & Resources Senoko Power 100 Financial Services NIB Bank 63 DBS Group Holdings 28
100 19 4
Table 2. Selected Major Investments of Temasek Holdings (% Core Interest as at 31/03/2008) Source: Temasek Holdings website, http://www.temasekholdings.com.sg/our_portfolio_portfolio_highlights_major_investments.htm
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Lim Aik graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of NUS in 2010. He majored in political science, and was enrolled in the University Scholars Programme. This paper is based on the Varieties of Capitalism theoretical framework he learned while on exchange at the University of Bristol, UK, and written for an Independent Study Module under Dr Kathleen Margaret Nicholls in NUS.
The Political Economy Of Food: A Perspective On The Strategies Employed By Asian Countries To Enhance National Food Security
The international politics of food is akin to a game of chess with each country having unique liberties and constraints. In the face of growing food insecurity, what would help us predict how each will strategise its moves?
Tan Wenqi
to reinvent the incentives and disincentives at every nexus of the global food supply chain to create supply regularity and stabilise escalating domestic food prices were keen, almost frantic. However, existing concepts, which tend to be catch-all definitions too centred either on capturing the social-security dimension at the individual level, or on concerns about global food supplies at the international market level, do not help us understand why states act the way they do. What is needed is a definition or model that assesses food security at the national level; that, in particular, identifies the rationales that undergird policy-makers strategic calculus and corollary policy responses. To anchor the broad dynamics of governments food strategies in a succinct and accessible discussion, I developed an original matrix to profile countries food security challenges based on their present trade statuses and supply-and-demand potentials. The matrix allows an estimation of the degree of food insecurity in a particular country and its corollary policy impetuses. I argue that within each profile, the degree of policy manoeuvres that a country has is highly dependent on the type of institutional, financial and social resources that the government possesses. In particular, the degree of affluence strongly shapes a countrys policy options given a set level of food insecurity. Having arrived at a model that captures the key determinants of food politics, I then generalise the model to the political economy of rice in Asia and account for several Asian governments efforts in securing self-sufficiency in affordable rice.
ood security as a concept originated somewhen between 1973 and 1974,1 as policy-makers struggled to deal with an unprecedented series of global poor grain harvest in the early 1970s.2 At the 1974 World Food Summit, food security was defined as the availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices.3 In the aftermath of the global food crisis, the focus shifted to issues of famine and hunger, with food security reconceptualised in the UNFAO report of 1983 as ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to the basic food they need.4. The influential 1986 World Bank report Poverty and Hunger then homed public attention onto the fact that there must not only be food, but there must be enough food for an active, healthy life at all times for all people, thereby foregrounding the issue of protein-energy malnutrition.5 In the 1990s, food security further incorporated concerns about food safety, nutritional balance, and even socially or culturally determined food preferences.6 The growing list implies that the concept had shed its original simplicity and impetus. Food security was no longer a basic goal, but an intermediating set of actions that contributes to an active and healthy life.7 But as the focus of literature on food security veers towards social welfare, investigation into the states role in combating national food insecurities was neglected. This lapse in the literature is critical. In 2008, Asian governments executed a myriad of policy interventions, from introducing producer credits, consumer subsidies, and tariffs/quotas to making massive land purchases. The states attempts
Second World War, the Thai government began to make its presence felt in the domestic rice trade by imposing the rice premium (an export duty) on rice designated for foreign shores. The benefits were tremendous higher government revenue and lower domestic rice prices, but at the cost of depressed farmharvest prices.32 The overall effect was an income transfer from farmers to the government and to urban consumers.33 Low farm prices for paddy, coupled with an extraordinarily high price for fertiliser, left Thai farmers in a very unfavourable position relative to farmers in neighbouring countries.34 The lackadaisical attitude of the Thai government in promoting rice production stemmed from two reasons. The first is the uncertainty of the export market which made it dangerous to over-stimulate production. If the international market failed to absorb the additional output, the excess would send prices crashing in the domestic market. The second is the lack of incentive to protect a sector that is basically already self-sustaining and revenue-generating without government assistance. Despite being environed by hostile policies, Thai farmers maintained a reasonably stable level of rice exports owing to an expansion of dry-season production. Conditions also improved in the mid-1970s, as the state took measures to provide farmers more incentives: there was a reduction of the rice premium to bolster prices and efforts were taken to lower fertiliser prices. However, it is widely acknowledged that such measures were chiefly responses to concerns about issues of equity and growing peasant unrest, rather than rational attempts
Figure A
Figure B extension systems, are long term and shift production functions.37 This emphasis is characteristic of the generally short-term outlook that has been endemic to the national agricultural policy since independence. Beginning in 1973-1974, the Philippine government supported a subsidised credit and fertiliser program Masagana 99, which combined low interest and non-collateral credit with recommended production practices. Fertilisers were heavily subsidised in those two years. Although it appeared that the irrigation development was possibly the single most important factor accounting for sustained growth in Philippine rice production through the 1970s, the governments official position had been that the Masagana 99 program is the primary factor associated with rice self-sufficiency.38 This claim is made despite evidence that Philippine rice production continued to increase even as there was reduced coverage of the Masagana program from 1976 onwards, and when fertiliser prices were relatively high throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is also useful to bear in mind that the much-lauded Masagana 99 program was in effect launched spontaneously in 1973, following two disastrous crop years in which Philippine rice production fell by nearly one-fifth.39 The insistence on the success of a short-term strategy and the tendency towards implementing crash production programs only in periods of serious shortage give an idea of the Philippine governments policy inclination and horizon in rice production. For a relatively poor country, the Philippine government has long been consumer-biased and eager to maintain low and stable prices for urban consumers. It is therefore unlikely that the government will be able to maintain high producer prices in the long term. Such conflict of interest in policy goals, coupled with historical emphasis on short term solutions, is perhaps telling of the illusoriness of the long-cherished rice self-sufficiency goal, and indicative of the likelihood of the Philippines fate as a food Aspirant.
Figure C
and Cambodia.43 By year end, South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics announced plans to buy a 99-year lease on a million hectares in Madagascar which aims to grow five million tonnes of corn per annum by 2023, relying largely on South African workforce. 44 The production would be mainly earmarked for South Korea, which wants to reduce its dependence on grain imports. This venture amounted to around USD$6 billion over 25 years and is by far the largest of its kind in the world.45 While Daewoos corporate deal appears to be purely commercial, it nevertheless also reflects a food security imperative backed by the Korean government. Overall, such a strategy offers a quick solution by instantly increasing the supply of food to a wealthy nation. However, as the land is located in the territory of another state, this leaves the producing state with much political leverage. Obsolescent bargain may set in as home countries can arbitrarily increase the price of food supply to boost national revenues, subject companies to creeping expropriation, nationalise production or burden the corporation with crippling taxes. In the short run, demand might be inelastic especially so if there is a general world food shortage. In addition, countries which are selling lands may face domestic politics that introduces a huge amount of vagaries over supplies and price stability.46 Besides the problems posed to the investing
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Tan Wen Qi is fifth-year student majoring in Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Science. Under the Masters of Science in Management programme in NUS School of Business, she is currently pursuing her second degree in management studies. She is also enrolled in the University Scholars Programme. This article is a revised version of a paper that she had written for her Honours Thesis with Dr Lin Kun-Chin.
the UK and prospered in its liberal environment. Hence, institutional oversight in the crafting of CE programmes can lead to potentially-disastrous omissions in homeland security by failing to stop the recruitment of more terrorists within their national soil. CE programmes inability to deliver a proper antiterror response is further compounded when one adopts a levels of analysis lens. Under the levels of analysis method of study, a problem is inspected from three perspectives: the international level, the community level and the individual level. Whilst CE programmes are primarily a second tier strategy, it does not operate independently of the other tiers. This is where problems arise that can reduce the effectiveness of CE programmes. For one, decisions made in foreign policy-making can result in unintended illeffects on community engagement efforts. On one hand, the government extends a velvet hand to its Muslim citizens and promises understanding and tolerance for the ummah (community); on the other, the UKs alliance with the United States (US) in military campaigns against Middle Eastern countries with a large Muslim population projects the image of an iron-fisted and intolerant warmonger. Such perceptions, even if untrue, were fuelled by media reports of soldiers brutality on the local Muslim population. This has developed an enduring negative typecast of the British government. For another, there are insufficient responses to the rising trend of self-radicalization within CE programmes. As these programmes are carried out by groups that operate on existing community platforms, there is a high propensity to leave out individuals who are on the periphery of society. These groups who live at the fringes of the community are the groups at risk of lapsing into extremism. These factors have made the Muslim minorities more vulnerable and receptive to extremist ideologies that are able to play upon their insecurities, thus perpetuating the terrorist threat. In this essay, I argue that CE programmes in Britain and Singapore are unable to avert the threat of terrorism as they have neglected counterterrorism in the short run in their attempts to prevent radicalization in the long run. This is compounded by two further issues. For one, while CE programmes promote integration within the community, this is not reciprocated by foreign policies that hint intolerance. Furthermore, such programmes do not tackle self-radicalization effectively so far. As a result, CE programmes risk becoming an over-rated panacea to terrorism unless the above-mentioned issues are rectified.
he September 11th World Trade Centre attacks marked a new phase in counterterrorism studies. As the War on Terror falters on in Afghanistan and Iraq, the threat of radical Islamic terrorism remains. Such are the dire circumstances that have led to policy innovations. In recent years, some countries have seen success through newer and softer counterterrorism methods, as opposed to pre-emptive invasions. Since the implementation of community engagement (CE) programmes1 in 2006, both Singapore and the United Kingdom (UK) have not had any major terrorist attacks on their national soil.2 By focusing on establishing closer ties across different groups within communities, CE programmes challenge radical ideologies and address the grievances of its members to eliminate the recruitment of homegrown terrorists. The successes that CE programmes have brought about have inspired other countries to do the same.3 Unfortunately, it takes time and trust to create a harmonious society. While there has been a substantial increase in grassroots activities under such programmes, fostering bonds in the long run alone does not help to solve the causes of extremism in the immediate term. First, despite the introduction of CE programmes, Muslim minorities continued to be under-represented. Second, programmes to improve the lives of these groups have backfired and resulted in further segregation. Third, despite the UKs supposed tough stance against radicals, extremists have continued to implant themselves in
Revealing Divisions?
In Britain, the propensity to recognize the Muslim voice and identity under PREVENT has counterproductive consequences. What has been lauded as affirmative action for an aggrieved minority has unfortunately stereotyped the Muslim community as monolithic and violent, as outlined by Samuel Huntington.44 As if the medias blinding limelight on unstable Muslim-dominant states in the Middle East were not enough to reinforce the stereotype of Islam as a bellicose religion with bloody borders, the UK governments efforts to recognize diversity in its community via PREVENT has further stereotyped the British Muslim community. For instance, the British government invested 100 million for translation services in 2006 to make the UK a more conducive place to stay for migrants.45 This runs contrary to the social integration ideals of PREVENT as minorities would have less incentive to take up English. As a result, the standards of English amongst Asiandominant schools in Britain declined. The unfortunate end of the slippery slope is the creation of segregated ethnic enclaves: a local middle school which pandered increasingly to migrants was eventually renamed from Drummond to Iqra School.46 This has fuelled the perception of Asian migrants as a threat; the fact that they are predominantly Muslims furthers the stereotype of an expansionist Other that threatens the Anglo-Saxon British way of life. Consequently, the Muslim migrant in the UK is more likely to become a rejected outcast of his or her community. Without any vested interest or identification with the neighbourhood, the radical extremists who promise acceptance in exchange for piety become a much more palatable, even acceptable, group. There are fears amongst British think-tanks that should this phenomenon persist, the resultant reverse discrimination in the UK would trigger even more social unrest and provoke even more Muslim extremists into a militant defence of their religious way of life.47 This perception of institutional bias against Muslims amongst the masses would lead the Muslim migrants to misconstrue even the best of intentions delivered under a CE programme, resulting in further polarizations between the state and its Muslim society.48
Recommendations
For one, the standard of debate about the Muslim community needs improvement. Ramakrishna pointed out that most terrorists would not deign to engage moderate Ustazah (Islamic intellectuals) as the latter are deigned as munafiq (hypocrites). Therefore, existing identified good radicals should be judiciously recruited to engage bad radicals.58 This allows for debates to be brought to the fore in living rooms or chat rooms instead of public denials of extremism. This can flush the extremists out into the open and raise the publics awareness about this issue. Admittedly, this can open up a whole can of worms. Governments turn away from this strategy in fear of a public relations nightmare if the co-opted extremist Ustazah fail to gain an upper moral hand. However, there have been success cases: Indonesia, despite the failure of its CE programmes, has successfully promoted a co-opted JI leader, Nasir Abbas, in its strategy of creeping de-radicalization.59 This has hampered JIs recruitment efforts, as a former respected leader publicly engages the issues of the extremists and denounces them. Both the CEP and PREVENT will benefit if they can recruit the likes of Mas Selamat bin Kastari or Omar Bakri Mohammed. Ultimately, the key is not to sweep extremism aside, but rather cognitively immunize these extremists from sliding down a slippery slope into violent radicalization, by letting current extremists be aware of the harm an extremist ideology is capable of and thus diverting them from pursuing a militant practice of their faith.60 Of course, moderate Muslim intellectuals should
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Seah Ru Han is a Political Science and USP graduate from the Class of 2010 and served as a Writing Assistant. This ISM was inspired by an internship with the Ministry of Home Affairs, and meticulously guided by Dr. Terence Lee. It was made possible with the generous support from friends and peers. The writer would like to apologize to fellow occupants of Chatterbox for taking up too much space in the student lounge with the books referenced in the service of this essay.
Public Sector Funding of Scholarships in Singapore: An Economic Analysis Of The Recruitment Of Public Sector Talents
The awarding of scholarships by the public sector in Singapore has been increasing in recent years. Is the awarding of overseas scholarships as beneficial as the awarding of local scholarships? And should the public or private sector take up the role of the awarding of scholarships?
Ho Kim Cheong, Lee Yern Fai, Thomas Zhuo Dianyun
and ministries annually to introduce the array of both local and overseas scholarships to aspiring PreUniversity students who hope to gain a step ahead of their peers in terms of future career prospects. After all, a scholar could look forward to a high paying job with potentially quick career advancements. Schools have also made it easier for students to access information on overseas education and scholarship organizations. Top-tier Junior Colleges like Raffles Junior College and Hwa Chong Institution hold annual scholarship fairs, engaging scholarship boards to come and introduce their organizations while exposing the students to the ever expanding range of scholarships.2,3 Application processes have also been made easier. Online portals like brightsparks4 provide a one-stop career information and scholarship application platform for students. More than 280 scholarships are available on the website and students can easily submit their scholarship applications to many scholarship organizations using a standardized application form provided by brightsparks. With the huge proliferation of scholarships by the public sector, one cannot help but wonder if such schemes are effective in getting the best talents to steer Singapores future. These scholarship schemes administered by the public sector are fully funded out of taxpayers money and thus it is paramount to consider if such investments are well spent. A quick check at the Public Service Commission (PSC) Scholarships5,6 website reveals that the scholarship board has sent fifty-nine out of seventy-three scholarship recipients in 2008 and forty-three out of fifty-two in 2007 (about 80% of recipients for both years) to renowned overseas institutions in the United States and in the United Kingdom.7 Such overseas studies involve huge expenditures of public funds, and one may wonder if these expenditures can be considered worthwhile, especially when it seems that the government is investing a lot more in overseas scholars than in their local counterparts. Also, the recent revelation in July 2008 of former A*Star Chairman Mr. Philip Yeos preference for poorer families when it comes to awarding scholarships also puts a spotlight on whether the household income level of scholarship recipients8 can influence the level of benefits an organization is able to receive from its scholars. The answers to these wide ranging questions are debatable, but through the empirical study on public sector scholars opinions on their scholarships, we hope to shed some light on the relationships between the level of benefits gained by the organization and several independent variables such as the amount of public funds invested in the scholars (Cost) and the household income levels of the scholars (I). Based on the analysis of the collected data, findings which affect the benefits gained by the organization were made and these modify our regression model. Limitations in the research methodology will also be discussed. Even though this study focuses on
uman talent is often regarded as one of Singapores main pillars of economic growth. The government has spent a huge amount of effort in attracting foreign talent to sink their roots in Singapore, as well as in mitigating the brain drain from Singapore citizens moving overseas. Even as it tries to actively promote Singapore as a favourable destination to overseas expatriates, the government has not forgotten to select and groom talented young Singapore citizens to hold leadership positions in future. In fact, since the 1990s, both the public and private sectors have been engaging the Pre-University students (i.e. Junior College and Polytechnic students), awarding scholarships to top individuals who excel in academic and non-academic activities. However, it is only in recent years that efforts, especially those by the public sector, have been intensified. The public sector has provided a range of scholarships aimed at attracting local talents from eighteen-years-old. Scholarships amounting up to $500,0001 are used to provide scholars with an overseas or local education, alongside typical bonds of four to six years. The objective of using scholarships as a tool is perhaps aligned with the old adage of the early bird catches the worm, with the public sector securing the best of Pre-University students right after they have graduated so that they can be groomed to fill important positions in the future. It is interesting to note how scholarship boards have been eager, and perhaps even aggressive in attracting talents. Scholarship fairs have been jointly organized by statutory boards
Methodology
Definition For the purpose of this paper, we shall define the net benefits of sponsoring the scholar for the public organization in terms of the number of years the scholar intends to serve beyond his or her bond requirements (denoted as Y). The reason for not including bond requirements is that the scholarship bond states the minimum number of years the scholar has to serve in the organization, which is equated to the cost of sponsoring the scholars education. Thus, the net benefits gained by the company will be calculated by the extra number of years the scholar intends to stay with the organization as shown in Figure 1. An assumption that we have made in our study is that scholars will serve at least the minimum bond requirements as stipulated in their scholarship contracts. There will be no scholars who will be breaking their bond and therefore, Y 0.
Figure 1: Determination of Y, the dependent variable Note: A scholar with high preferences for other organizations still has to serve the minimum bond requirements (4 years; Y=0), albeit at a lower utility curve U1, while a scholar who has a strong preference to serve the scholarship organization will serve (4 +Y) numbers of years at a higher utility U2. Homothetic preferences, where utility is assumed to increase in constant proportions for the consumption of two goods, are assumed for the individual.
We were eager to find out if the amount of investment in a scholar, be it for local or overseas education, can affect the number of years the scholar intends to stay in the organization. The cost (total amount spent on the scholars) includes the tuition fees, maintenance allowances, sponsorships for overseas exchanges and other miscellaneous fees. The fact that many public sector boards choose to send their scholars overseas seems to allude to a point that overseas scholars will contribute significantly more to the organization upon their graduation. Is it really true that the more you spend on one, the more loyal one is to the organization, (i.e. positive1) or could it be the contrary? (2) Household income level (I) It is also interesting to investigate if recipients coming from poorer family backgrounds are more inclined to serve longer in their scholarship organization (and therefore generate higher Y). In addition, one could examine if what Mr. Philip Yeo had pointed out, the case that those from less comfortable homes [are] more likely to stay [on] the course [in the organization],9 is true. On the other hand, could it be that people who come from poorer family backgrounds may aim to seek even greener pastures (by leaving their scholarship organizations after they have completed their bond) due to their hunger for more success (i.e. negative 2)? (3) Perceptions by scholars regarding their scholarships signalling ability (S) Signalling in the job market is first proposed by A. Michael Spence10 and further research on dynamic information flows and contract theories has also been spawned by economists such as George A. Akerlof and Bernard Salani. In the original model, Spence suggests that the level of education obtained can be used by workers to signal their ability to employers so that employers will offer a higher wage for those with higher education.
W=3y, is necessary. A comparison for the three types of workers is shown in Figure 4.
For the same wage rate, W=y, y3<y2<y1 due to the different steepness of the utility functions. In order to make the high ability workers stay at the organization for as long as the low ability workers (number of years = y1), a higher wage rate of W=2y must be offered to them. In the case of the scholars, an even higher wage rate of W=3y has to be offered to make them stay in the scholarship-awarding organization. Hence, for a scholar with a steeper utility, ceteris paribus, we postulate that the number of years he or she chooses to remain in the scholarship organization will be shorter, if he or he is given a wage of W=y instead
Figure 2: Utility curves for low ability workers U1 and high ability workers U2
Figure 3: A separating equilibrium where workers of both abilities aim to maximize their utilities, resulting in differing levels of education attained and different wages
Figure 4: Comparison of utility functions of a low ability worker (U1), high ability worker (U2) and scholars (U3)
Regression results
Initial regression model (Table 1) Y = 0 + 1 (Cost) + 2 I + 3 S + u --- (E1) As mentioned earlier, the regression equation E1 was devised to investigate the relationship between Y and the variables of interest (Cost, I, S). Compiling the responses from the 137 scholars surveyed, a regression was done using EViews and the results in Table 1 were obtained. The regression results were insignificant, with the coefficients of the three independent variables being close to 0, and none of them significantly different from 0 at the 5% level. Adjusted R-squared was also a low value at -0.001083. An F test was also done to determine the case of H0: 1= 2=0 against the alternative hypothesis H1: at least 1 or 2 0, and the test statistic was not significant at 5% level too, thus supporting the regression results that Cost, I and S do not predict Y well. From our adapted model of signalling, however, we believe signalling to be a factor that affects Y (for the same wage, higher signalling would mean a lower Y), so the probable reason for the insignificant coefficient for S here is that we have omitted relevant variables from equation E1. Revised regression models Table 1 Variable C COST I S
R-squared 0.021 F-statistic Adjusted R-squared -0.001083 Prob(F-statistic) S.E. of regression 3.554963 [Note: C is the constant term 0 in the equation] * indicates that the result is significant at 10% significant level ** indicates that the result is significant at 5% significant level
R-squared 0.411857 F-statistic Adjusted R-squared 0.394035 Prob(F-statistic) S.E. of regression 2.76582 [Note: C is the constant term 0 in the equation] * indicates that the result is significant at 10% significant level ** indicates that the result is significant at 5% significant level scholarship programme is beneficial in aiding his or her development of better organizational and management skills), a scholar is willing to stay an additional 1.752 years beyond the bond requirements, ceteris paribus. S For each unit increment on our scale of 1 to 7 (i.e. the more strongly the scholar feels that his or her scholarship reflects his or her capabilities to prospective employers other than the scholarship organization), a scholar will decrease Y by 0.5079, ceteris paribus. D1 In our survey, we asked the scholars to select from several options the main reason they took up the scholarship, including reasons such as passion for the job, high prestige and peer pressure. From Table 2, we see that a scholar who indicated passion as his or her top reason for taking up the scholarship will serve an additional 1.707 years beyond the bond requirements, ceteris paribus. D5 Overseas scholars on the average choose to serve 1.765 less years beyond the bond requirements as compared to their local counterparts, ceteris paribus. As a counterpart to E2, equation E3 was devised: Y = 0 +1A + 2S +3D3 + 4D5 + u --- (E3) where D3 = Dummy variable of value 1 if the scholar indicated monetary allowances or full education subsidy as the top reason for taking up the scholarship; 0 otherwise. The nature of the dummy variables D1 and D3
means that they are mutually exclusive; a scholar cannot choose both passion and monetary allowances as his or her top reason for taking up the scholarship. Table 3 shows the regression results from equation E3. Similar to the results from E2, each of the four independent variables was again significantly different from 0 at the 5% level. The respective coefficients for A, S and D5 were also similar to that in E2. What was notable, however, is that the adjusted R-squared value of 0.4222 is higher than the 0.3940 in E1, suggesting that D3 is slightly better than D1 at predicting Y. On average, a scholar who indicated monetary allowances or full education subsidy as his or her top reason for taking up the scholarship will decrease the number of years served beyond the bond requirements by 2.132, ceteris paribus. Adding Cost and Income to the revised models With the relative successes of E2 and E3, more regressions were processed to test if the seeminglyirrelevant variables of Cost and I could turn out useful when applied to the revised models. The results are shown in Table 4. Unfortunately, in each of the equations F1 to G3, coefficients for Cost and I were near 0 and were not significantly different from 0 at the 5% level. In fact, the introduction of Cost to the equations had an especially adverse effect on D5, as it was not significantly different from 0 at the 5% level in models F1, F3 and G3. These findings affirm the conclusion from equation E1s regression results that cost and income do not have any effect on Y.
R-squared 0.439181 F-statistic Adjusted R-squared 0.422186 Prob(F-statistic) S.E. of regression 2.700809 [Note: C is the constant term 0 in the equation] * indicates that the result is significant at 10% significant level ** indicates that the result is significant at 5% significant level Table 4 F1 -0.000998 (0.00314) -0.055772 1.75089* (0.223167) -0.516729* (0.203546) 1.713598* (0.514718) (0.069343) 1.74389* (0.222905) -0.516429* (0.201508) 1.815606* (0.530628) F2 F3 -0.000926 (0.003146) -0.055179 (0.069615) 1.742738*
Cost I A S D1 D3 D5
G1 0.000606 (0.003078)
G2
(0.223721) (0.225591) (0.225473) -0.524516* -0.517686* -0.536175* (0.204072) 1.820241* (0.53272) -2.140774* -2.200995* (0.511242) -1.639996* (0.492289) 3.331768 2.705565 0.42015 (0.196444) (0.194034)
-1.509882 (0.943419)
[Note: Values in parentheses indicate the standard error of the estimated coefficient * denotes coefficients which are significantly different from 0 at the 5% level
The analysis thus far has suggested that the funding of overseas scholars is not as favourable as the
Figure 5: Comparison of TPB and TSB of an individual local and overseas public scholar (individual perspective)
Figure 6: Comparison of MPB and MSB of local, overseas public scholarships (Market Perspective)
Figure 7: Comparison of D1 and D3 private sector scholars scholar. The MCs of local and overseas scholarships are horizontal lines in Figure 6 due to the assumption that every local scholarship is of the same value and this applies to the overseas scholarships too. This is a fair assumption as seen from the survey; the local scholarships values tend to be at $65,351 and the overseas scholarships at $321,509. Although the issuing of overseas scholarships has been justified by the TPB and TSB analysis on the average individual local and overseas scholar, the high cost of the scholarship has resulted in less overseas scholarships being awarded. This can be observed in Figure 6 as even after incorporating the external benefits to the society, the number of local scholarships Q*(LC) still outnumbers the number of overseas scholarships Q*(OVS). Private sector scholarships It is easy to estimate the MSB of the local and overseas scholars when the analysis was on public sector scholarships as it can be safely assumed that a scholar would most probably be contributing to the economy during his or her working life. However, this analysis cannot be applied to private scholarships. Private scholarships are funded by the companys profits and thus private sector scholarship boards are only concerned with the private benefits of awarding scholarships (i.e. the number of years a scholar will stay with the organization). As it would be hard to project how long a scholar is going to work with the awarding organization, the MPB will be complex to ascertain when analyzing private sector scholarships. From the regression, D1 (passion) has a positive coefficient while D3 (monetary) has a negative coefficient. In this case, private sector scholarship boards should target candidates who have strong passion for the vocation, admire the organizations goals and visions and fit into the organizations culture. Although it is hard to ascertain the passion of a potential scholar and to differentiate the scholars motives in getting the scholarships, the chances of obtaining suitable candidates can be largely improved through a more rigorous interview process and perhaps even granting an internship to potential applicants before awarding the scholarships. This will ensure that the scholar himself or herself makes a well-informed choice and reduces the private sector scholarship boards risks. Nonetheless, the risks faced by a private sector scholarship board are high. As observed in our regression and shown in Figure 7, a D3 scholar would probably not serve in the organization for as long as a D1 scholar. In our theoretical figure, this sponsoring company would probably be making a small gain, regardless of sponsoring a D1 or D3 local scholar. However, the sponsoring company would still likely be making a large loss for a D1 or D3 overseas scholar as shown in Figure 7 as the total amount of funds invested in the overseas scholar is a lot more than a local scholar. Moreover, as explained earlier, the break-even point for private firms is only slightly higher than LCbond this can explain why private firms are much more willing to sponsor local scholars. Bond years for private local scholarships are typically set the same as their public counterparts, so it might seem that the private firms are making a loss. However, they might place value in the offering of scholarships as a form of social and community service or for reputation
Limitations
There are other ways of assessing the benefits associated with sponsoring the scholars, such as the amount of revenue or business the scholar has brought to the organization. However, such methods of determining the benefits are difficult and therefore sidelined. Another limitation of this study is that the survey measures only the intention but not the actual behaviour of the scholars. They have not served their bond and may not have real exposure to the work in the scholarship organization and thus may give an inaccurate response as to how willing they are and the actual number of years they will stay in the organization. Nevertheless, the scholars would have done research before taking up the scholarship to see if it suited their interests, or perhaps even have served an internship with the organization, and thus their responses still provides a reasonable estimate.
Conclusion
In this paper, it is found that the value of the scholarships would not have an effect on the number of extra years the scholar will continue to stay in the sponsoring organization after fulfilling their bond. Therefore, it appears that overseas scholarships should
2. What type of scholarship are you currently under? Note:i. Public Scholarship refers to scholarships awarded by the public sector, which includes government (PSC and Ministries) and statutory boards (Eg. MAS, EDB, PUB, etc.). ii. Private Scholarship refers to scholarships awarded by private companies in Singapore (Eg. SIA, Keppel, SGX, Natsteel, Singapore Power, etc.). Public - Local Scholarship (With Bond) Public - Overseas Scholarship (With Bond) Private - Local Scholarship (With Bond) Private - Overseas Scholarship (With Bond) Bond Free Scholarship
4. How many years of bond are you required to serve for the scholarship? 0 Year (For Bond Free Scholarship Holders) 1 Year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years 6 years 7 Years 8 Years >8 Years
3. What is the approximate monetary value (in SGD) of your scholarship? Note: Value includes tuition fees, allowances, reimbursements, accomodation, grants for student exchanges, etc. < 10K
(Strongly agree)
(Strongly Disagree)
8. On a scale of 1 to 7: with 1 being the weakest signal and 7 being the strongest signal, how strongly do you think your scholarship reflects your capabilities to prospective employers (apart from your scholarship organization)? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(Strongly agree)
(Strongly Disagree)
9. Suppose you have just completed your scholarship bond, and another organisation offers you 1.5 times your current salary for a job of similar scope to your current one. Will you take up the offer? Yes No
6. What are the top 3 reasons, ranked in order of importance, why you took up the scholarship? i. Monetary allowances are given and/or education is fully subsidised ii. High level of prestige ii. Assured employment with the organization and good salary upon graduation iv. Possibility of more career opportunities and quicker advancement v. Passion is in line with the objectives of the scholarship organisation vi. Peer pressure vii. Recommendation of the scholarship by family members and teachers viii. Others 7. How far do you agree that your scholarship
3 4 5
10 11 12 13 14
Kim Cheong is a senior student majoring in Economics and Liberal Arts under the NUS Waseda Double Degree Program. He has interests in microeconomics, particularly industrial organisation, competition economics and strategy. He enjoys reading on marketing and immersing in Japanese culture and language. Yern Fai is a senior student majoring in Economics. He has a range of interests in microeconomics, philosophy, and trading. Dianyun is a senior student majoring in Economics. He has interests in financial and health economics, especially the sustainability of social security systems. He enjoys reading on personal finance and ancient philosophy. This paper was co-authored by them in submission for the Public Finance Module under the Department of Economics.
15 16
the same time. Since number words develop their strong L2 form-to-meaning mapping earlier than other words (which have more diffused meanings), there is easier semantic activation (de Groot and Poot 1997). Hence, number words are a unique case where well-confined meanings completely overlap across languages(Duyck and Brysbaert 2008). Thus, it would be interesting to conduct a pilot test to examine priming effects across number words which have very similar translation equivalents. This investigates the relationship between semantic mediation and lexical form overlap. This paper aims to investigate if the degree of semantic activation, depending on lexical form overlap between translation equivalents as argued by Duyck and Brysbaert, still holds true for number judgment tasks with Chinese-English-Malay trilinguals. To test this hypothesis, I conducted a pilot test. A small group of trilinguals were chosen for this study to expand current trilingual research in the Singaporean context. Masked priming, of number words in the three languages and the Arabic digits, will be carried out before a target Arabic digit is displayed on the screen. Masked priming is a process where a word is flashed very quickly before the target such that only the brain but not the eye can capture it. Hence, the prime would be deemed as virtually invisible to the subjects. Since information about the prime never reaches consciousness, any observed priming effects cannot be a result of any conscious appreciation of the relationship between the prime and the target stimulus, but instead be attributed to the subconsciousness of how the brain stores information about the prime and target. Subjects will be required to judge if the number shown is bigger or smaller than 5. Thus, according to the suggestion made by Duyck and Brysbaert (2008), the following hypothesis for this pilot study is proposed as such:
here has been much research done on bilingualism in investigating how semantics the meaning of wordsis accessed for second language words. An important question is whether translation from a second language (L2) to the native language (L1) is semantically mediated, where the meaning of the word is first identified and then produced in the other language, or whether it occurs through word associations at the lexical level (where words are remembered to be equivalents without having to access meaning). The revised hierarchical model of bilingualism assumes that L2 words primarily access semantics through their L1 translation equivalent (Kroll and Stewart 1994). In addition, recent research has shown that number-word translation also implies semantic access in both L1 and L2, suggesting strong L2 lexico-semantic mappings for number words (Duyck and Brysbaert 2004). It is thus shown that a semantic effect of number magnitude, where accessing time to a target is faster for words that are preceded by related context in meaning, in both directions of translation existed. Yet, semantic access in two number-word translation experiments with Dutch-English-German trilinguals yielded a semantic magnitude effect only in the backward translation (translation of words from L2 to L1) and not in the forward translation (from L1 to L2) (Duyck and Brysbaert 2004). Thus, Duyck and Brysbaert later argued against a dual route model of word translation and proposed that the degree of semantic activation in translation depends on lexical form overlap between translation equivalents. This suggests that translation process for number words can be both semantically mediated and accessed through word association at
Hypothesis:
Reaction time for exact translation equivalents (e.g. The digit 2 would prime digit 2 since both are exactly the same) would be the fastest in comparison to number words translation equivalents (e.g. English number word one priming Arabic digit1). If proven, this hypothesis would suggest that translation process can occur through word association (having lexical form overlaps) as well as being semantically mediated at the same time. This means that the hypothesis predicts that when we see 5, we think of 5 faster than five, , lima and its numerical meaning of having a quantity of five.
Methodology
Data Collection Chinese-English-Malay trilinguals were first invited to fill in a language background questionnaire form for pre-screening. Only participants that were at least functional in all three languages were invited to do the actual experiment. Functional in this case refers to a self-rating of 4 and above out of a scale of 7 (1: very poor, 7: native-like) in the four language aspects: reading, writing, speaking and listening. 18 selected subjects completed the experiment. Language Background Summary of Subjects All 18 subjects were Malaysians and they were functional Chinese-English-Malay trilinguals between the age of 20 and 24. Years of residence in Singapore was an average of 5 years while that in Malaysia was 17.5 years. Out of the 18 subjects, seven were simultaneous bilinguals where Chinese and English were both acquired at the same time through formal and informal acquisition while Malay was acquired at a later age. Nine had only Chinese as their native language and the remaining two either had English as their only native language, or acquired it together with Malay. The overall dominant language for these subjects is Chinese, as 50% of the subjects name Chinese their only native language, and five out of seven simultaneous bilinguals ranked their proficiency in Chinese higher than that in English. The language in which the subjects were generally least proficient is Malay, as 13 out of 18 subjects acquired it as their third language and ranked their proficiency in it lower than that in Chinese or in English. Testing A number judgment test was carried out and participants were asked to enter Yes if the number displayed on the screen was greater than 5, and No if the number was smaller than 5. A range of digital numbers from 1 to 9 (excluding 5) was presented Chinese RT (ms) Diff. 455 461 +6 426 446 +20 English RT (ms) Diff 463 479 +16 432 444 +12
File A B
Discussion
The results from this study showed that a strong priming effect was observed only in the condition where digital related priming was observed. There were no significant results given for the other conditions. Hence a possible conclusion is that there is no semantic priming effect for number words. Interestingly, this result is in conflict with current literature views which propose that number words should indicate high semantic access. Upon deeper investigation, this conflict may be attributed to task differences: a translation task requires both production and comprehension whereas a number judgment task only requires comprehension. Therefore, since this pilot test is based on number judgment task, the fact that no semantic priming was observed suggests that semantic access may only occur when production is required. This also gave a new insight into where the digital representations of numbers may be stored in our brain vis--vis language representations of numbers. It is suggested that language representation of numbers may be stored in very different places from the digital representation of numbers since no correlation has been found between the two. The probable disassociation between number and language is further supported by a study done by Thioux et al. (2005) which found that no significant interaction between
Conclusion
Firstly, this study has given new insights into how trilingual number word comprehension works. This pilot test suggests that number processing may not need to evoke semantic access if the task does not require it. Since this study focused only on number judgment tasks which relied on comprehension and not production, the lack of significant semantic priming effects observed suggests that semantic mediation may not necessarily be required in this case. Secondly, this pilot study showed that repeated priming still has the strongest priming effect for this specific group of English-Malay-Chinese trilinguals since the exact same word is repeated hence maximum priming is expected. Differences in reaction time among the different languages also point to the relative language proficiency of the subjects. Thus, this pilot study supports and possibly extends the already established claims about bilinguals to also include trilinguals. Lastly, number processes are not primed by language words but numbers do prime number processes (as acknowledged earlier that comprehension tasks do not require semantic access). This suggests that number and language may not necessarily be relatedthere may be a disassociation of the two domains in our brain. However, from this pilot test, it is acknowledged that a relation may be possible through a common semantic pool which is not captured in this study. Other studies have also found that activation areas of the two are different. Thus, the most interesting observation for this study is that semantic access may not necessarily have to take place before number processing can happen. Currently, this pilot test only works in one direction and it is unknown if the results would be the same if Arabic digits were used to prime number words. According to the proposed hypothesis of this paper, it is speculated
Ruth Ng is a fourth-year English Language major. This paper was written for an Independent Study Module (ISM) as part of her University Scholars Programme (USP) Advanced curriculum. Ruth is intrigued by how different languages can be stored in ones brain and how the different levels of proficiency can affect language outcome.
Solid-Phase Microextraction of Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: A Comparative Study of Four Commercial Fibres and an In-house Prepared Device
Currently available commercial fibers used for microextraction of carcinogenic hydrocarbons are fragile and costly. Is an in-house prepared plunger-in-needle extraction device a worthy alternative?
Clara Mou Huiting
PAHs are ubiquitous environmental contaminants. These compounds are originally from a variety of sources including incomplete combustion of organic material, oil spills, industrial processes and other anthropogenic sources.2,3 Their carcinogenic and genotoxic potential has attracted most attention. A number of PAHs have shown carcinogenicity in experimental animals and genotoxicity and mutagenicity in vitro and in vivo.4 Two classes of PAHs can be distinguished - the 2 and 3-ringed and 4 to 6-ringed PAHs. The 2-and 3-ringed PAHs have a significant acute toxicity and the high-molecular-mass PAHs are potentially highly carcinogenic and mutagenic. Hence EPA has promulgated 16 unsubstituted PAHs in their list of 129 priority pollutants. However, only Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fibre is commonly used for the analysis of these 16 PAHs. In this project, the comparison and validation of the solidphase microextraction (SPME) and plunger-in-needle procedures for the determination of eight promulgated PAHs in water samples were carried out. Figure 1 shows the structures of the 8 PAHs studied. Several analytical procedures have been developed for PAHs water, soil, air and food matrices analyses. Common methods for extraction of PAHs include liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) using non-polar solvents or solid-phase extraction (SPE).5 LLE, though useful, is a tedious technique that requires copious amount of solvents. Even though SPE method is less time-consuming, it still requires the use of toxic solvents for the elution step.6 Usually, the affinity of compounds in the samples towards the coating determines the amount extracted into the polymeric phase. They are then thermally desorbed directly in the gas chromatographic injector. A very successful new approach to sample preparation is SPME developed
ater pollution caused by organic compounds has caused increasing and worldwide concern. Among such compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have received considerable attention because of their documented carcinogenicity in experimental animals.1 These compounds are potentially toxic and hence their presence should be carefully monitored both in water for human consumption and environmental water.
Figure 1: Structures of the eight PAH studied, including both the two or three-ringed and four to sixringed PAHs
Figure 2: Structure and synthesis of thiadiazole-fused indolocarbazole-based molecules used for coating of plunger via electropolymerization15
Aim of Project
The aim of the project is to compare the TIC polymer-coated plunger-in-needle extraction with commercial fibres for SPME of PAHs.
All fibres were conditioned in the hot injector section of Gas Chromatograph for 0.5 hours and at 220C. To eliminate particulate interference in real water samples, water samples were filtered through a 0.22m glass microfibre filter paper (Whatman, England). The samples were stored in 100ml aluminium-wrapped glass bottles and refrigerated at 4C until analysis. Water samples were collected from Ulu Pandan Canal in Singapore. Gas Chromatography-Flame Detector (GC-FID) Conditions Ionisation
Experimental Procedure
Chemicals and Materials PAHs (99% purity) were purchased from Supelco (Bellefonte, PA, USA). Stock solution of 1000mg/L containing 10mg of each PAH was prepared. The 8 PAHs used are as follows: Napthalene (Nap), Acenaphthene (AcPt), Acenaphthylene (Ace), Fluorene (Flu), Phenanthrene (Phe), Anthracene (Ant), Fluoranthene (Flt) and Pyrene (Py). These standards were stored at 4C and were used for the preparation of working standard solutions. A working standard of 1mg/L was prepared. Ultrapure water was obtained from ELGA Purelab Option-Q (High Wycombe, UK). Methanol was obtained from Tedia (Fairfield, USA). The SPME holders for manual use were obtained from Supelco. Four kinds of different fibres, 100m PDMS, 65m PDMS/DVB, 85m PA and 50/30m PDMS/DVB/CAR were also obtained from Supelco.
GC-FID analysis was done using a HewlettPackard (Agilent) 6890N Series GC system with a split-splitless injection port and a flame ionization detection (FID) system. The carrier gas was helium at a flow-rate of 1.8ml/min. The detector flow-rates were 450ml/min for air, 40ml/min for hydrogen and 45ml/ min for helium (makeup gas). The Gas Chromatograph was operated in the splitless mode. The splitless time was 0.5 minutes. The injector was maintained at 220C for all fibres. The temperature of detector was maintained at 280C. A 30m RTX-5 (5% diphenyl 95% diphenylpolysiloxane) stainless steel capillary column (0.32mm I.D., 0.25m film thickness, Restek U.S., Bellfonte, PA, USA) was used for separating the PAHs. The column was held at 40C for 1 minute
Figure 5: Effect of extraction time on 100g/L PAH extraction efficiency by TIC plunger A (performed in triplicates)
Figure 6: Extraction efficiency of PAHs obtained by SPME and HS-SPME at 60C using TIC plunger A. The extraction time was 45 minutes
Figure 7: Extraction efficiency of 100g/L PAHs by TIC polymer-coatedplunger A at different desorption temperatures peak areas of the analytes prior to extraction from ultrapure water spiked with the same concentration of PAHs. The enrichment factor for each PAH was given by the ratio of the peak area after extraction to the peak area before extraction. The concentration of spiked PAHs in this evaluation was 100 g/L. Table 1 summarizes enrichment factors of the PAHs. TIC polymer-coated plunger provided low extraction efficiencies and low enrichment factors of 4.99 to 16.9 times. PDMS, 85m PA, 65m PDMS/DVB, and 50/30m PDMS/DVB/CAR) were compared with the TIC polymer-coated plunger for efficiently determining PAHs from the aqueous phase. The extraction time was 45 minutes. PAHs with different chemical characteristics showed different extraction behaviours (Figure 8). Due to the different physicochemical properties, PAHs display different sorption behaviours in the polymeric organic phases as well as in the environmental media. Although PA 85m and PDMS 100m were recommended as the most appropriate fibre coatings for the study of PAH in various matrices3,17,18, some new complex-polymer SPME fibres, such as PDMS/ DVB 65m and PDMS/DVB/CAR 50/30m, have been developed and shown to have the highest Peak Area before Extraction 0.060 0.080 0.070 0.116 0.161 0.140 0331 0.377 Enrichment Factor 4.99 10.2 9.01 12.2 12.3 14.5 16.9 16.0
Fibre selection Four commercially available SPME fibres (100m PAHs Nap AcPt Ace Flu Phe Ant Flt Py Peak Area after Extraction 0.299 0.814 0.631 1.412 1.980 2.024 5.590 6.039
Figure 8: The comparison of extraction efficiency of 8 PAHs between 4 different SPME fibres and the TIC polymer-coatedplunger. Aqueous solution (100g/L) was extracted in an extraction time of 45 minutes at room temperature under magnetic stirring. affinities for the selected PAHs, as shown in Figure 8. This indicates that the extraction efficiency of fibre for PAHs depends on the relative polarity of coating polymer and fused-benzene rings. The relatively polar fibres (PA, PDMS/DVB and PDMS/DVB/CAR) were shown to have higher affinities for low-ring PAHs, which were consistent with the results observed in the literature.3 As expected, there is also a trend that high molecular weight PAHs were increasingly partitioned into more non-polar coating fibres (PDMS). In our study, among all fibres, the PDMS/ DVB/CAR fibre proved to be the most effective for the extraction of PAHs, since the fibre coating is composed of two adsorbents, DVB (a porous solid) and Carboxen (a porous carbon). This increases the available surface area for extraction and enhances the extraction efficiency of analytes. Carboxen and DVB microspheres are immobilized onto the fibre using PDMS. Its effectiveness may also be due to the interaction of PAHs with the phenyl group of PDMS/DVB/CAR coating. With this coating that is specifically designed for volatile compounds,19 the interaction is practically determined by adsorption on the synthetic materials. The porous carbon adsorbent (Carboxen) is likely to contribute towards the efficient extraction of PAHs. The novel TIC polymer-coated plungers showed poor extraction results in this study. This may be attributed to the polymers slight polarity and hence it is not effective in extracting the non-polar PAHs. However, there is a trend suggesting that high molecular weight PAHs are increasingly partitioned into the polymer and this is probably due to better -stacking abilities with the polymer.15 Even so, the extraction capabilities were poor and may be attributed to the following 5 reasons: 1. Since SPME is an equilibrium extraction method, the time taken to equilibrate determines the maximum amount of analyte that can be extracted by the polymer-coated plunger which controls the sensitivity of the method. 2. The effect of volatility of PAHs and HS-SPME could have played contributory roles. 3. Uncontrolled coating thickness of TIC polymer on plunger 4. Friction from injection needle resulting in wearing out of polymer coating 5. High %R.S.D showing that results are not reproducible
Table 2: % R.S.D for DI-SPME and HS-SPME for extraction using TIC polymer-coatedplunger A Linearity range (g/L) 20 - 100.00 20 - 100.00 20 - 100.00 20 - 100.00 20 - 100.00 20 - 100.00 20 - 100.00 20 - 100.00 Correlation Coefficient (r) 0.9907 0.9919 0.9909 0.9927 0.9992 0.9988 0.9966 0.9957 R.S.D (%,n=5) 3.22 2.60 2.49 3.64 5.01 5.44 4.63 4.83 LOD (S/N =3) (g/L) 0.510 0.480 0.630 0.390 1.215 2.100 2.925 2.995 LOQ (S/N = 10) (g/L) 1.70 1.60 2.10 1.30 4.05 7.00 9.75 9.85
Table 3: Linearity, limits of detection and quantitation and repeatability of PDMS/DVB/CAR fibre greatly and in an unacceptable range (Table 2). This suggests that the coating was not properly prepared and hence the method is not precise and consequently irreproducible.
Figure 9: Plan and magnified photographs of the sites where water samples were obtained Source : Sungei Ulu Pandan Water Quality Monitoring doing quintuplicate (n=5) analyses of ultrapure water spiked with 80g/L of PAH mixture. The %R.S.Ds were in the range of 2.49 to 5.44%, which should be satisfactory for determining the PAHs in water matrix. The chromatogram of an extract using PDMS/DVB/ CAR fibre from real sample is shown in Figure 10. Peaks appearing in chromatogram were also confirmed and summarized in Table 4. It can be seen that only Nap, Flu and Py were found in the upstream canal water (P1, Figure 9) and additional flu was found as well in the downstream canal water (P2, Figure 9). Anthropogenic activities could be the source of emission of PAHs into the canal. Some sources of Py include incomplete combustion process such as occurring in exhaust from motor vehicles and emissions from cigarette smoke (from the nearby residential estate, which has many drains leading
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2.707 2.993 3.119 11.011 13.006 9.570 14.379 14.495 2.185 6.390 6.870 16.138 7.977 17.423 4.033 17.970
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Figure 10: GC-FID chromatogram of an extract using PDMS/DVB/CAR SPME from real sample taken at Ulu Pandan Canal upstream (P1)
Notation
Below LOD
Table 4: Concentrations of PAHs extracted from Ulu Pandan Canal after analysis using 50/30m PDMS/ DVB/CAR Relative Recovery (%) Nap AcPt Ace Flu Phe Ant Flt Py 106.9 108.2 108.5 106.9 103.5 103.5 102.0 99.90 R.S.D (%, n=3) 4.0 10.3 9.8 4.9 7.2 10.1 8.9 8.0
Table 5: Relative recoveries and % R.S.D for canal water analysis (performed in triplicates, spiked at a concentration of 40 g/L) to the canal). Flu is prevalent in sprawl and urban areas due to road runoff and human waste.20 Lastly, Nap, the most commonly detected PAH, is a natural constituent of coal tar (approximately 11%) and it is present in gasoline and diesel fuels.21-24 Concentrations of PAHs extracted from various canal water samples using 50/30m PDMS/DVB/CAR are given in Table 4. Based on Table 4, the data may not be representative of the real concentration of canal water due to the limited number of analyses performed. Therefore, it is recommended that more analyses should be conducted to make a conclusive study. Nevertheless, these results prove that this SPME fibre and method can be implemented for real sample analysis. spiked canal samples. Prior to analysis, all the samples were filtered with 0.22m of glass microfibre filter before extraction was performed. The results from spiked real water samples were then compared with those obtained from a spiked ultrapure water of the same concentration. The canal water samples were spiked at a concentration of 40g/L to evaluate the relative recoveries of this extraction technique (Figure 11). Extraction recoveries for the analytes are shown in the following table. The relative recoveries and %R.S.D obtained were observed to be good; 99.9 -108.5% and 4.0 - 10.3% respectively. The relative recoveries showed that the canal water sample matrix had little effect on this technique and hence the matrix is a suitable method for the analysis of complex water samples. An example of the GC-FID chromatogram of an extract using PDMS/DVB/CAR fibre from spiked canal water at 40g/L of PAHs is shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11: GC-FID chromatogram of an extract using PDMS/DVB/CAR-SPME from spiked canal water at 40g/L of PAHs
Conclusion
In this study, the commercial fibres proved to be more efficient than the TIC polymer-coatedplungers. With this plunger-in-needle extraction technique, fragility is less of a concern due to the practical aspects of a stable steel needle and plunger compared to those of a fragile commercial fibre. However, results showed that due to the inconsistent coating and friction between the plunger and needle, this method is not yet able to provide reproducible and reliable results. The idea of an in-house preparation of such a device is attractive, however, and should be further explored with more suitable coatings. The PDMS/DVB/CAR fibre, which is less explored in PAH extractions, proved to be the fibre with best extraction efficiency, reliable for analysis and quantifying the amount of PAHs in water. The combination of SPME with GC-FID exhibits good linear response and reproducibility over a given concentration range and is able to give low detection limits. Also, determination of PAHs in water matrix using PDMS/DVB/CAR fibre by the direct-SPME with GC-FID system has been described. Matrix effects were observed when analyzing various samples. Some PAHs were detected in the real samples analyzed with this fibre. This developed procedure demonstrated its suitability for the analysis of PAHs in real samples. Results from suitability tests indicate the proposed method is a simple, rapid and convenient for isolation of PAHs from complicated water matrix before GC-
FID determination.
Limitations
One of the limitations for the TIC polymercoated plunger is its inconsistent coating of polymer on plunger which resulted in poor precision and reproducibility. Friction between the coated plunger and needle also resulted in the wearing out of polymer and poor reproducibility of results. Therefore, the TIC polymer coating procedure requires further exploration and improvement to increase its extraction efficiency. Another limitation is the lack of time to further optimize parameters such as ionic strength, stirring rate, extraction and desorption times and temperatures to achieve the best extraction efficiency for TIC polymer-coated plunger.
Future developments
A more extensive investigation regarding the optimization of the TIC polymer coating geometries, thermal treatments, number of cyclic voltammetry cycles as well as other target compounds is the subject of future work. More studies can also be done on optimizing experimental conditions for TIC polymercoated plunger-in-needle extraction.
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Endnotes
1 2 3 Manoli, E. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in natural waters: sources, occurrence and analysis TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 18, 417-428 (1999). Doong, R. A. & Lee, C. Y. Determination of organochlorine pesticide residues in foods using solid-phase extraction clean-up cartridges. Analyst 124, 1287-1289 (1999). Doong, R., Chang, S. & Sun, Y. Solid-phase microextraction and headspace solid-phase microextraction for the determination of high molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water and soil samples. J Chromatogr Sci 38, 528-534 (2000). Potter, D. W. Rapid determination of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls in water using solid-phase microextraction and GC/MS. Environmental Science and Technology 28, 298-305 (1994). Magdic, S. & Pawliszyn, J. B. Analysis of organochlorine pesticides using solid-phase microextraction. J Chromatogr A 723, 111-122 (1996). Barnabas, I. J. Determination of phenols by solid-phase microextraction. Journal of chromatographic analysis 705, 305 (1995). Pawliszwyn, J. Solid Phase Microextraction, Theory and Practice. chapters 3, 4 and 6 (Wiley-VCH, 1997). Zhang, Z., Pawliszyn, J. Headspace solid-phase microextraction Analytical Chemistry 65, 1843-1852 (1993). Zhang, Z., Yang, M.J., Pawliszyn, J. Solid-phase microextraction. Analytical Chemistry 66, 843A-855A (1994). King, A. J., Readman, J.W., Zhou, J.L. Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water by solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Analytica Chimica Acta 523, 259-267 (2004). Havenga, W. J. & Rohwer, E. R. Chemical characterization and screening of hydrocarbon pollution in industrial soils by headspace solid-phase microextraction. J Chromatogr A 848, 279-295 (1999). Popp, P., Bauer, C., Hauser, B., Keil, P., Wennrich, L. Extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organochloride compounds from water: A comparison between solid-phase microextraction and stir bar sorptive extraction Journal of Separation Science 26, 961-967 (2003). Cam, D., Gagni, S., Lombardi, N. & Punin, M. O. Solidphase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental solid matrices. J Chromatogr Sci 42, 329-335 (2004). Martin, D. & Ruiz, J. Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in solid matrixes by solid-phase microextraction coupled to a direct extraction device. Talanta 71, 751-757 (2007). Balaji, G., Shim, W. L., Parameswaran, M. & Valiyaveettil,
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Clara Mou is a fourth-year undergraduate at NUS majoring in Chemistry. She is also enrolled in the University Scholars Programme and interned at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the summer of 2010. This research paper was written for an Independent Study Module supervised by Prof. Lee Hian Kee.
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The Etiology Of Metabolic Syndrome, Its Progression To Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus And The Alleviating Effects Of Exercise
The metabolic syndrome is one of the most widespread conditions of our time, yet much of it remains to be elucidated. What then are some of the diagnostic features of this syndrome, the possible causes and ways to help mitigate its effects?
Kishan Kumar Singh
MS has been described as one of the most prevalent disorders of mankind this new millennium.1 A conservative estimate made in the United States. alone approximated that by 2010 some 50-75 million adults will suffer from MS.1 Because the criteria for MS essential for diagnosis have not been agreed upon internationally, it is difficult to define its worldwide prevalence. However, an estimate might be derived from considering Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) as one of the features of MS. In 1997, 124 million persons worldwide were estimated to suffer from diabetes, 97% with T2D. By 2010, these numbers will bloom to 221 million, with greatest increase in Asia and Africa.1 These figures only consider one of the features of MS. If we consider other features, Hansen expects the worldwide prevalence of MS to reach nearly half a billion.1 Despite the staggering statistics, MS is also most likely to be designated as one of the more preventable disorders of man, provided the right tools are available.1 As a result, proper understanding of the disease pathophysiology is vital for combating this syndrome. This paper will discuss the etiology of MS, focusing mainly on IR and hyperinsulinemia, and its progression to T2D. The effects exercise hasveon glucose uptake will be explored as a form of prevention and control of MS and T2D. Towards the end, this paper also briefly discusses pharmacological approaches to combat IR, control and possibly even delay the onset of T2D.
INSULIN RECEPTOR
Pharmacological Approaches
While exercise does remain the best option in combating IR and delaying the onset and controlling T2D, anti-diabetic drugs are available to treat these conditions and even delay the onset of T2D. Two of the more common oral anti-diabetic drugs already available include rosiglitazone and metformin. Rosiglitazone belongs to the thiazolidinedione (TZD) class of anti-diabetic drugs. This class of drugs act as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR) agonists. These receptors, found on adipose tissues, skeletal muscles and in the liver, in turn control the transcription of insulin-responsive genes involved in the control of glucose metabolism and transport. Animal models have shown that rosiglitazone increases sensitivity to insulin action in the adipose tissues, skeletal muscles and liver. Together with this decrease in insulin resistance, rosiglitazone inhibits hepatic gluconeogenesis, which also contributes to alleviating hyperglycemia. These pharmacological studies have also shown an increase in insulindependent glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT 4) translocation, no doubt due to the increase in insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, the pharmacokinetics of rosiglitazone is not drastically affected by age, gender and even race, increasing its accessibility.33 However, rosiglitazone has been associated with over 300 deaths from heart attacks and heart failures. As a result, its ability to do more good than harm has been fiercely debated. Even though it is still administered, the US FDA is still researching its effects.33 Another commonly used drug in the treatment of both T2D and IR is metformin. Like rosiglitazone, it lowers the rate of liver gluconeogenesis, decreasing the concentration of blood glucose levels. It does this by preventing the uptake of lactate by the liver, which is used for glucose production in gluconeogenesis. Because of this, metformin may lead to an accumulation of lactate, especially if kidney function is impaired. This in turn leads to lactic acidosis, a condition where the blood pH levels are low and there is a high concentration of lactate in the blood. If untreated, this serious condition may eventually lead to coma and death.34 Unlike rosiglitazone however, the mode of action of this drug involves the activation of the adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase
Conclusion
MS has become one of the major public-health challenges worldwide. There is a growing need to understand the etiology of this syndrome in hope of finding a way to combat MS. Unfortunately, MS does not seem to have one causal factor but is in fact made up of a variety of features, including obesity, IR and hyperinsulinemia. The need to understand MS is further exemplified by its use as a diagnostic tool, allowing for preventive measures to be undertaken as quickly as possible. This lowers the possibility of getting CVDs and T2D. The best course of action for those suffering from MS and IGT/T2D is exercise as it has been proven useful in improving insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in skeletal muscle cells. Despite its 50-year history and progression, there is still a lot to be done with MS and the treatment of its various symptoms. With new evidence indicating genetics as the main cause of MS, it is necessary that treatment methods consider both genetic and environmental causes to obtain the best results.
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Kishan Kumar Singh is a fourth-year student majoring in Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, NUS. He is also enrolled in the University Scholars Programme. He wrote this paper for an Independent Study Module with A/P Fabian Lim Chin Leong.