Session 2B

PART TWO: TECH & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

#3. Human Development Millennium Goals

Poverty & hunger	Target: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the number of people living on less than $1 per day.
Education	Target: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Gender equality	Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015
Child Mortality	Target: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
Health	Target: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality rate.
Combat disease	Target: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/Aids Target: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
Environment	Target 1: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Target 2: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Target 3: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers.
Global Partnership	Target 1: Address the special needs of the least developed countries, landlocked countries and small island developing states. Target 2: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Target 3: Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt. Target 4: In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth. Target 5: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries. Target 6: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.

It is apparent that technology is the answer to many of the targets above. The capabilities it has granted us with enable us to extend a helping hand to those in need. However, this brings us back to the issue raised in Session 1- Should the richer countries help the poorer ones?

There are a few issues:

1.     Moral obligation.

2.     Potential economic gain from helping them- e.g. developing countries could be a profitable market in the future

3.     Politics
However,

4.     A big one: the opportunity cost of aiding them- at the expense of one’s own economy, especially in trying economic times.

Bill Gates is probably one of those who believe in helping out the poor. The co-Chairperson of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he emphasized the need to help out poorer countries even during trying times.

Bill Gates and his Wife, Melinda, the two chairpersons of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Taken from http://www.eschoolnews.com

"The success we've had in meeting the needs of the poorest are easily lost," he said.

"Otherwise, we will come out of the economic downturn in a world that is even more unequal, with greater inequities in health and education, and fewer opportunities for people to improve their lives."

Further Points for Discussion: Which do you think are the most important goals? Which are more urgent, and which are more long-term? How are the goals inter-related?

#4. Let’s talk about LIFE

After taking a look Millennium Development Goals(above), we then broke into a discussion on what life means to us. It was quite interesting to hear the answers from my classmates, and I weighed their responses against my views to test and refine my personal views. Here are some points:

- Happiness as a goal in life

Happiness constitutes many things- including meaningful relationships, satisfaction with one’s achievements and some may say material wealth.

I, however, felt that happiness can be fleeting and is very dependent on the actual outcome of events. What if I don’t become rich? What if I fail at everything I’ve tried? I feel that perhaps joy is more important. It exudes from within and is much less dependent on external circumstances. It is an attitude of optimism and a commitment to finding beauty in the simplest things. It can be infectious too, and spreads joy to your loved ones, which will in turn reinforce your own. This may all sound very idealistic but I believe that it is important to develop resilient joy as it is something that will affect one’s enjoyment of life and also determine how far one goes in life.

Sometimes I feel that creativity is linked to joy. In creativity, you have an open mind. You see the possibilities. In joy, you are optimistic about things. Appreciation sometimes requires creativity. Creativity, like joy, I feel, is a choice.

- Material fulfillment as a platform for happiness

How modern busy-ness and focus on productivity/$$$ may sometimes cause us to lose track of what matters the most. How the most luxurious house is just a concrete emptiness without a nice family inside to fill it with warmth. As Ken from Toy Story 3 once said (to Barbie), “I have everything, except someone to share it with!”

Screenshot from ToyStory 3 taken from the site http://www.filmschoolrejects.com.

Rating: 6.5/10 because we didn’t have enough time for though-provoking discussion! I guess it is because we had many individual presentations to watch!