i just made my way home from my grandma's place in the west.
and something struck me on the bus ride back.
as the bus slowly made its way through the different estates,
the composition of passengers quickly changed, and the contrast was somewhat alarmingly.
geographers usually talk about the rural-urban fringe, about the rural-urban divide in many metropolitan cities.
however, these theories usually apply to huge metropolitan centres.
never did i actually expect to see such a divide here in singapore.
only then did i realise the imbalances, which still exist even in a relatively wealthy, and small urban society of singapore.
now, factor in GIC's failed investment of usd 580 million, and you start to wonder if the money should have been more well spent elsewhere.

I am reading Joseph Stiglitz's 'Globalization and its discontents'
and the cover runs a comment by Will Hutton from Guardian,
which reads: 'a massively important political as well as economic document... we should listen to him urgently'.

i agree wholeheartedly to this statement,
the book really reveals the massive faults in the IMF, and upon reading, it hits you right smack in the face,
causing you to want to pick up a placard and riot in washington in front of that ironically clean and spartan like building.

but upon deeper contemplation, this anger, and global patriotism changes to a deep sense of resignation.
riots have been conducted, the poor and impoverished have been documented, and books, have been written.
yet, at the end of the day, power still remains in this elusive community.
in fact the IMF chairman must and is always a european.

therefore, what is the use of reading this book?
unless those in power really do something about it, and risk the political backlash,
the status quo will remain for some time to come.
pretty much a depressing, dictatorial circumstance.
it is just so sad, how things in this world are just so unfair.