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FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE GENERAL PAPER PRELIMINARY EXAMS 2008 BEST ESSAYS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Year2 IP4 GP Teaching Team would like to thank a the writers for agreeing to share their essays and b the team of teachers who put the compilation together NOTE These essays are not meant to be model essays for rote learning Use them intelligently 10 October 2008 1 FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY NJC GP Prelims 2008 Best Essays Q3 Is history merely the story told by the winners Some people in their attempt to simplify the concept of history have actually come up with a new two syllable name for it History is his story story of the past formularised and told by Him the winner The very fact that this phrase actually sounds like the word history itself may come as an amusing coincidence at first glance However upon further examination of the history of mankind itself we realise there are some elements of relevance and truth in this renaming History bears minimal resemblance to story books in literature in so far as it does contain fictional and romanticised details and indeed in some cases especially in the distant past history was solely told by the winners However history is much more than that It is at its core an attempt by mankind to map human behavioural and developmental patterns In today s globalised and increasingly democratised world it is for most parts fair not favouring either the winning or losing side It must also be noted that a large portion of history is dedicated to examining events in which there is no winner To liken the retelling of history to an account given in a story book a work of fiction is to suggest that history too contains fictitious elements and is at best an illustration of a fragmented romanticised largely unreal truth There is certainly a level of relevance in this argument Let us be honest who could have come back from the Stone Age and told historians how life was back then Indeed when one examines the history of pre historic Man tens of millions of years ago it is just an educated guess by a group of scholars on what the past could have been like Like all kinds of speculations this one too contains bias and the human innate tendency to view the past as a better and simpler time than it really was certainly tends to inflate the good parts and paint an overly rosy picture However one must acknowledge the extensive effort made by modern historians to rely on empirical findings by anthropologists and palaeontologists to formulate a story of the past that is closest to the truth Furthermore modern attempts at writing history are not individual but are often collective ones that involve a group of historians thus reducing the risk of bias and oversight The second premise put forth by the question that history is told by the winners is to some very limited extent accurate especially when we look at how history was told in the feudalistic monarchic past of mankind In the times of Egyptian Roman and more recently Chinese Empires history was equivalent to the history of warfare when kings and emperors sought to expand their territories and conquer new lands The prevalence of one kingdom and one leader in these battles over territories was often tantamount to the annihilation of the other giving the winners the sole right to brag about their victory and how it had been achieved Chinese emperors have been known to burn all artefacts and works of art that told the glorious achievements of the previous rulers and oversee the writing of a whole new range of history books that elevate the victorious to the rank alongside the Gods One must remember that in these totalitarian regimes the King possessed the ultimate power to dictate how history was written and understandably that history conveniently forgot about the existence of the losers and just focused on the winners Moreover even after the victorious King had passed away stories told about him by the society that reaped benefits from his conquests often contained factual distortions in a bid to honour the name of their leader For example King Ramses II of Egypt was ambushed during his passing of the Sinai desert and lost his life in a dishonourable way Yet until the late 1980s historical stories told about him did not display this part clearly because the historians of that time chose to forget this about the victorious King 2 FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY However such pseudo historical accounts of the past that are solely determined by and therefore clearly in favour of the winners hardly exist in this modern time The globalised and relatively open society we live in today allows for easy access to national archives and debate over versions of history across national boundaries thus limiting factual distortions by the ruling governments In addition the existence of photography and video cameras has negated the possibility of atrocities committed by the victorious being simply ignored History as it is taught in schools in most democratic countries nowadays is by and large a universally accepted version of what the past was like Take for example the Cold War After the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 the US under George H W Bush claimed victory If Bush were the ruler of one homogenised globe his announcement might have been put down in history textbooks as the official truth But thankfully he was not Historians like John Lewis Gaddis then accessed the Soviet archives and their enduring works now presented everyone a balanced version of history that reveals not the US as the winner but simply the Soviet Union as the loser who gave up the war in 1991 Moreover as countries now take special interest in verifying other countries versions of history bias is minimised as clearly seem in the recent outcry over the failure of Japanese history textbooks to address atrocities committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing China during World War Two Clearly the losers have a say in how history is written for unlike in the far past they are certainly not wiped out but alive thriving and demanding that their defeat be portrayed in the fairest possible way Some might say that in modern authoritarian regimes such as Burma or Vietnam surely the official histories contain a plethora of biases and half truths This is true but the versions of history propagated by these regimes are not official by globally accepted standards but are nationally influenced The fact that the world outside of these regimes is able to grab hold of a fairer version of history reaffirms the fact that history as told in our modern time is by no means merely a vehicle of propaganda by the victorious party Moreover the availability of different historical accounts from the West albeit limited in these countries has started to fuel protests demanding the governments to re evaluate national history textbooks We thus have reasons to believe that the global population will one day all have access to fair and objective accounts of history One assumption made by the question which I find most flawed is that historical accounts all contain a winner suggesting that history is nothing more than the study of warfare This is most inaccurate History is at its core the study of human behavioural and developmental patterns to prevent the reoccurrence of past tragedies and more often than not it does not tell the tale of any victorious country The study of Cold War history as mentioned above clearly is not about any winner whatsoever but rather is a stern warning of the dangers of leaving the fate of the world and its billions of citizens in the hands of two expansionistic superpowers It fuels citizen activism and encourages people worldwide to exercise active citizenship and keep their leaders in check The history of disasters like the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant explosion and genocidal events in Darfur or Rwanda is not about the winners for there is none Rather it activates global awareness of the need for international intervention in authoritarian regimes ruled by genocidal and greedy rulers History also maps the scientific achievements and failures of mankind History to put simply offers us a closer largely unbiased glimpse into how the human race has been evolving To say that history is merely the story told by the winners is to over generalise one of the most complex and fascinating concepts of mankind Such understanding of the concept of history is a mere fragment of the truth for history is about much more than the documentation of battles and conflicts where there are clear winners Modern history is a 3 FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY largely objective and educated attempt to study why and how human beings behave the way they do and this sometimes has nothing to do with winning or losing By Michelle Nguyen Bich Ngoc 05IP02 Marker s Comments An insightful answer You could perhaps have dealt with the value of history more thoroughly 4 FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY NJC GP 2008 Prelims Best Essays Q6 The best way to alleviate poverty in developing nations is for richer countries to invest heavily in them Discuss this view As economies around the world continue to integrate in terms of ideas investments and labour the group of people opposing this trend of globalisation also continues to grow in number as is evident in the numerous protests that are staged every time the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund have meetings A significant majority of this group of opponents opposes the concept of foreign investments from richer countries in developing countries claiming that such investments enslave and exploit local people rather than freeing them from the cycle of poverty However proponents of globalisation chose to differ claiming that such increased foreign investments have provided employment for and improved the lives of millions of people in developing countries I believe that while such investment may be beneficial to some extent it definitely cannot be named as the best way to free the people in developing nations from the shackles of poverty In fact local governments should take the initiative to develop their own industries rather than depend solely upon foreign investment because the eventual success of foreign investment in reducing poverty levels is determined by factors such as the rate of economic growth of a country the social outlook of its people and the efficiency of its government The rate of economic growth of a country is an important factor that determines whether foreign investment could be successful in reducing poverty levels in developing countries Developing nations such as India and China have attracted large amounts of foreign investments from richer countries These foreign investments for example the call centres of major American companies located in India have provided employment for thousands of Indians many of whom were initially living below the poverty level With a stable income from these outsourced jobs a large proportion of the poor in India have been brought above the poverty level and poverty levels in India have decreased from 63 in 1990 to 31 in 2001 However the reason why foreign investments were successful in India is because of the high growth rates of its domestic sectors which encouraged foreign investments This is in contrast to the effects of foreign investment in developing African countries such as Sierra Leone where the exploitation of the workers by foreign multinational companies led to strikes and lockouts which worsened the unemployment problem and led to increased poverty levels The reason for this was because the domestic economy of Sierra Leone had not experienced significant growth which in turn allowed foreign investments to exploit these workers by giving them low wages and making them work overtime since these workers could not switch to other jobs in domestic industries Thus although foreign investment might be successful in some countries its success eventually depends upon the growth of the domestic economy which can only be driven by an efficient and pragmatic local government Thus the local government should take the initiative to develop the economy first before inviting foreign investments so as to reduce poverty levels Another factor that determines the success of foreign investment in developing countries is the mindset of the local people Quite often those developing countries happen to be those that recently achieved independence from foreign powers and hence the people of these countries tend to have a sense of pride in their newfound freedom This pride is tainted when these people have to work in foreign firms located in their own country While these firms may provide employment and help the people escape from poverty their presence often creates unrest among local people whom feel that they have once again been enslaved by 5 FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY foreign powers These people believe that their own country is equally capable of producing successful local firms and millionaires and this national pride compounded by exploitation of workers by foreign firms leads to revolts against foreign firms Thus it would be a better alternative for local governments to groom and develop local industries first before inviting foreign investments A fine example would be the case of Singapore s industrialisation programme in the 1960s which struck a balance between foreign investment and developing local industries While Singapore encouraged foreign investments such as Hewlett Packard to set up production plants here the government also developed successful nationalised industries such as Singapore Airlines which is a renowned airline in the world today as well as groomed local entrepreneurs such as Sim Wong Hoo Sim is the chief executive officer of the firm Creative Technologies which often appears in newspapers for the keen competition it provides to Apple Macintosh in the sale of MP3 players Thus for foreign investment to be successful it should be preceded or accompanied by a simultaneous development of local industries so that people s nationalist pride does not become a hindrance to economic development to reduce poverty levels Another important factor which determines how much foreign investment will help reduce poverty levels in developing countries is the efficiency of the local government and its ability to regulate the influx of foreign firms so as to prevent local firms from shutting down Very often foreign firms that invest in developing countries are large and can accrue economies of scale cost savings due to their large size As a result these foreign firms capture local markets and are able to sell consumer goods at lower prices to customers As a result local firms lose their businesses and are forced to shut down This is exemplified in the case of the entry of Wal Mart the popular American supermarket chain into New Delhi which led to the shutdown of large numbers of local provision stores As a result although some people were employed by Wal Mart there were many more who lost their employment due to such closures as a result of which they fell back into the poverty cycle since they lost their means of earning their daily bread This led to a slight increase in local poverty levels which then called for protectionist measures to be adopted Thus it is vital for the government to strike a balance between allowing foreign investment and ensuring the survival of local industries if they want to reduce poverty levels This approach has been taken by the Indian government in industries such as the automotive industry where foreign firms have been made to collaborate and work together with local firms For example Renault Motors tied up with the Indian firm Mahindra Motors This ensures that no one in the industry will be unemployed and at the same time increases employment which will then lead to decreased poverty levels In conclusion while foreign investment might help in reducing poverty levels in developing countries it cannot be termed as the best way to do so since it can only be successful if it is accompanied by a growth of local industries Thus it would be more important for the local government to first invest in education in its country as was done in India by the introduction of the Indian Institute of Technology and Management as well as to develop local industries such as tourism as was done in Indonesia by capitalising on Bali s cultural delights This local growth together with the foreign investments which it will attract will be more effective in reducing poverty levels in developing nations than either of them working alone By Mehul Mangalvedhekar 07S01 6 FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY Marker s Comments Very clear and detailed delivery of key ideas Excellent evaluation supported by in depth and current knowledge of the topic Strong examples and well organised presentation Hardly any language errors and very confident in expression Must adhere to the 800 word limit by being more concise and selective in details put down A praise worthy response 7 FOR USE IN NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE ONLY NJC GP 2008 Prelims Best Essays Q6 The best way to alleviate poverty in developing nations is for richer countries to invest heavily in them Discuss this view Poverty is a real impediment to not just the global economy but the overall welfare of millions of people It refers to a lack of material resources ranging from money to education and healthcare necessary for basic human sustenance and well being Countries all over the world thus make the alleviation of poverty one of their top priorities this holds especially true for developing nations that have yet to see a marked improvement in the material and non material aspects of their economies The idea of richer countries investing heavily in developing nations is certainly a sound one if these investments are appropri