Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Why we need to educate the people

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Why we need to educate the people

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like the evil spirits at the dawn of day." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Pierre S. du Pont de Nemours, 24 April 1816

Contributed by Ho Cheow Seng

9 comments:

Unknown said...: "Why we need to educate the people

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like the evil spirits at the dawn of day." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Pierre S. du Pont de Nemours, 24 April 1816 "

New Education brings about new forms of tyranny and oppressions. Year 2008.

Validation? Ask the Investors with the latest product termed Mini-BONDS.; December 03, 2008 11:04 AM
Anonymous said...: Wayang,
there wasn't any education, was there? The investors didn't know whether they were bonds or bombs. The result is body parts strewn all over the place.; December 03, 2008 1:11 PM
Skyhocs007 said...: People need to be educated about good values such as right and wrong, good and bad, responsibilities of an individual in the various roles he assumes as a member of a community, i.e. as head of the family, as a son/daughter, as a corporate leader, as a trade-union leader, as a citizen, as a member of the establishment and a whole host of other things. So educating people to know about values in these various aspects should precede investing these people with "freedom" and "individual rights". The commonweal comes before self-interest so that progress for a People as a Nation proceeds down the right path. Do remember that one's freedom and individual rights must not intrude upon that of others. If it did, then we would be better off without them as a Community.

Ho Cheow Seng; December 03, 2008 7:24 PM
Unknown said...: "Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wayang,
there wasn't any education, was there? The investors didn't know whether they were bonds or bombs. The result is body parts strewn all over the place.

1:11 PM"

i think perhaps you could have misunderstood my point

the initial statement made was in 1816, but i feel its incomplete, it fail to highlight on the very fundamental sensibility that never changed for 200 years

my statement deliberate with the Year 2008 was trying to say for every piece of information taught, new or age old, it could be warped for goodwill or for malicious intentions. maybe the more educated one is, the more he or she is trained how to warp

education solves PART of the problem, it CANT solve everything

Human Nature remains, as MacBeth and Shakespeare scripted.

We are no more 'civilized' than we were, 200 yrs ago, who know, theres a good chance we might still stay this way another 200 yrs down the road. I was quoting the term BOND in bold because its a concept thats been around for a while, but still theres trickery to it isnt it

So my point is, are "...tyranny and oppressions of body and mind vanish like the evil spirits at the dawn of day" ??; December 03, 2008 7:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Do we need to educate people ?
There are three categories.
1. The customer : Yes, so that they will not easily fall into prey. After the people are educated, could we ensure that they will not be cheated ?? No -
Recently, there is a report about the 22 carat gold, the 916. The authority found out that it is not really made up of 91.6% of gold. I am sure there are lot of people got cheated.
The milk scandal in China. Even though the people are educated, they will not be able to detect unless the authority investigate. It is beyond the commoner to verify.
Unfortunately, The LB saga has been unfold for so long and the authority is taking their sweet time to WATCH!!

2. The producer/manufacturer/CEO's.
This consist mainly moral education, advising them not to be greedy and fall into prey of cheating. This is difficult because of conflict of interest.

3. The authority. They should be taught to act without prejudice - Ta Yee Miak Ching (justice prevail relation). A small chief should be penalised and the big bully like FI should be doubly punished because they - che fa fan fa (Know the law and broken the law.

If the group three personnel are properly educated and keep to their task, cheating could be greatly minimised; December 03, 2008 9:53 PM
Unknown said...: "If the group three personnel are properly educated and keep to their task, cheating could be greatly minimised"

Why is there the concern that we always have to assume that the group three personnel are NOT properly educated and NOT keeping to their task. is that necessary so that we can keep the 'normal' logic train going on and on and on

Shouldnt there be greater concerns when we do turn that assumption around and says, what if the group three personnel ARE properly educated and ARE keeping to their task

isnt that much more frightful, but nono we are keeping in our comfort zone aint we; December 03, 2008 11:55 PM
Anonymous said...: We must educate the consumers to be aware of those cheats out there. To this end this blog has done well.
It has exposed the insurance agents and the RMs' modus operandi to rip off the consumers.I believe the consumers are more aware of the financial products and the salesmen who push them.
However the consumers must take actions against these black listed people and their products.Only then can we say that they have been educated.
MAS need to be educated too. The regulator is unaware of the suffering of the consumers. It seems their plans run counter to the interest of the consumers.They fail to referee and enforce the rules as regulator resulting in much anguish of aggrieved victims of RMs and insurance agents.
If we can have these measures in place consumers' confidence will be boosted and the current debacle averted.; December 04, 2008 11:18 AM
Skyhocs007 said...: Wow!!! The host of this blog-site must be more than happy to see that what started a thought, then an idea, and then an intention has now lead to that very process evolving which we call EDUCATION.

Socrates never really taught. He would make a statement or ask questions and his students or followers would begin to respond. As a result soon an exchange of ideas spontaneously was in full swing.

And out of this process people began to realize that one's view was not the ONLY view and begin to appreciate learning how to think 'roundly' and think through an issue before giving a tentative answer.

It is for this that we value a general education for fostering in people the art or science of critical, analytical and or creative thinking.

zhaoshen/cheowseng; December 04, 2008 11:36 PM
Anonymous said...: skyhocs007,
our consumers don't have an enquiring mind. They are ignorant and bochap.They trust their insurance agents or RMs to "advise"
them on any thing. Only when disasters strike the mind then goes to work. It is too late but may not be too late for the future.
This is true, isn't it?; December 07, 2008 9:46 AM