Thinklog Wargafikir

Just watched a video on the transformation of Shenzen from an agricutural district to new technology centre, touted as China's Silicon Valley. It looks impressive. The video is  here However, I would like to raise a cautionary proposition though. China is an infant capitalist society, unbriddled one at that. It has just awoken from its socialist slumber. It is easy to paint rosy pictures when you have enough money. Elsewhere, the environmental, economic and social wreck caused by offshore Chinese money need to be understood before we rush into their 'friendly' embrace. Some people suggest China is the balancing power against US domination of world economy. Wrong, In fact the two can be allies against the world. For all the trade war and ict war we see between them, they both represent capitalism at their best and worst. Egalitarian society would have a hard time under either or both. The last 10 minutes of the documentary is interesting, particularly on the dark side...

There was an article i read recently, complaining about the sorry state of UK universities where staff are depressed and thinking of leaving. (Click https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/21/cut-throat-half-academics-stressed-thinking-leaving) So id like to propose the dismantling of the current academic authoritarian culture hankering after artificial ranking. Then I imagine the backlash from hardcore executives " so what would you suggest? Let it be free and easy? Well go back to incompetent modes low grade univ we were before?" or to quote one actual response "All hell break lose". To answer this I would like to refer the ending scene of "The Demolition Man". The film Demolition Man is about a state where crime was successfully curbed through technology that virtually it become a Utopian state, ideal, crime free, clean and seemingly happy citizen. But these come at a cost where dissenting voices and culture are curbed. Too much contr...

An interesting article here today. Among other, it says, "QS, a global education consultancy, commented last year that Malaysian universities continue to produce unproductive research with little industrial or real life use even if their ranks improved." Commentary: Reacting to the article above, we discussed ways and means for a  researcher to be better informed of the needs of industry and doing impactful research for society. My suggestions to fellow academicians. Open up. We tend to lock ourselves in our rooms, tweaking òur research for the next quality paper.  Instead, we need to put our fingers on the society's pulse. Browse social media, keep up with news and trend. Dont dismiss these as time wasting. Dont exclude entertainments and creative works, watch movies, read fictions, because these often reflect the psyche of the society. Dont rely on academic journals for the latest buzz in the industry. Attend seemingly irrelevant meetings with outsiders, for you n...

Generic KPI oriented performance is ruining Malaysian Higher Education (Original piece Written March 15, 2018). A thought on how academicians being reduced to paper churning authors and grants hoarders due to narrow Key Performance Indices (KPI): There was a man, who had three sons. He hoped all his sons grow up to be useful people. Once they reach adulthood, he said to them "Go out on a journey for a year and be a useful person". The first son immediately went off to the world and tried to be useful. The second son, hesitated and asked the father, "what do you mean to be useful? Can you be more specific?". The father said " Go and find 10,000 poor people". So he went off to find poor people who are in need. The Third son was still thinking, and said," I need to be more specific. How do you help poor people?". The father said, "If you have wealth, you can help poor people". "Ill do my best to find wealth" So off ...

Recently we read a posting of how people with talents are hindered from achieving their true potential in academia. ( https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/05/05/returning-home-to-work-ex-nasa-scientist-claims-sidelined-by-patronage-syst/1749791) We, educational entities should adopt a different management philosophy to that of security and  defence entities. While they insist on what cannot be done, our philosophy should focus more on what can possibly done. Our industry is dealing with liberating human mind. We educate people to invite possibilities, explore opportunities. Instead of busy putting up fences, we should at every opportunity creates opening. Also we should be less busy creating goal posts and shifting them. Today I read an fb posting by VC UMK (fb Noor Azizi ISmail) The para that attracts my attention is .. "  Being a leader we must be able to spot the right talents. They are different and unique but if given the right opportunity and support t...

photo: oneeighty.co.nz Often, technology startups have trouble scaling up to profitable business venture from pilot scale. Majority of Tech startup failed at this stage. This is the phase often dubbed  the valley of death phase due to the very high risk in the venture. In the US, this phase is bridged by bold venture capitalists who embraced the risks while prospecting very high potential returns. In Malaysia normally the funding in this phase are covered by grants from government instead of the venture capitalists. Unfortunately this come with  problems  that results in less than optimum outcome. The problem is that the grant and soft loan from government does not help in terms of business viability and vitality that venture capitalists would otherwise lend. They don’t necesarily come with the resources with business acumen and tenacity needed to be injected into the new startups. They are rather like cushions and crutches that does not really prepare the startups for th...

An email piece send to colleagues 12/6/2018 Renewable Natural raw materials for Manufacturing Consumer Products - Towards Industry 6.0 (There are already several people coined Industry 6.0) but with conflicting visions. I am more keen towards positioning it with the one that identify sustainability and renewable materials) Sustainable production and consumption often cites the cradle to cradle approach, that is the natural resources used for consumption will eventually be recycled back to be reproduced. However with most modern materials, the process of recycling or rebirth of raw materials often involved  activities that consume energy, produce emissions and impact environment. For example, to recycle plastic, there need to be collection, sorting, pre-treatment, melting, reconditioning and manufacturing. All these require energy consumption. To recycle steel would require almost as much energy as had we produced it freshly from excavated ores. The use of naturally...