My Reflections from Fast Food Nation 222 – 288 – QTPC Assignment XXVII

(1) Quotation

“During the 1980s, the sale of fast food in Japan more than doubled; the rate of obesity among children soon doubled too. Today about one-third of all Japanese men in their thirties – members of the nation’s first generation raised Happy Meals and “Bi-gu Ma-kus” are overweight.” Pg 242-243 Fast Food Nation

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(2) Talking Point

Would you blame the United States for allowing fast food to become such a profitable and uncontrolled part of the American culture? Explain your reasoning. Coupled with that, would you think that globalization has started to “kill” people in a much more literal sense than it used to before fast food was around? Explain your reasoning

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(3) Connection

In 2006, the global fast food market grew by 4.8% and reached a value of 102.4 billion and a volume of 80.3 billion transactions. In India alone the fast food industry is growing by 40% a year. McDonald’s is located in 120 countries and on 6 continents and operates over 31,000 restaurants worldwide. On January 31, 1990 McDonald’s opened a restaurant in Moscow, and broke opening day records for customers served. The Moscow restaurant is the busiest in the world. The largest McDonald’s in the world is located in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. There are numerous other fast food restaurants located all over the world. Burger King has more than 11,100 restaurants in more than 65 countries. KFC is located in 25 countries. Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with approximately 31,129 restaurants in 90 countries as of May 2009, the first non-US location opening in December 1984 in Bahrain. Pizza Hut is located in 97 countries, with 100 locations in China. Taco Bell has 278 restaurants located in 12 countries besides the United States.

In the past few years, fast food has rapidly made its way into our everyday lives, that is, Asian everyday life. Singapore has a short history of less than 50 years and it has been littered with fast food in this short span of existence. To date, schools are actively setting up the Trim and Fit (TAF) Club program to help students lose weight.

But I asked my question, is the problem with the students? Or with the suppliers? I feel that the government should not just place emphasis on the education policies and put money in fixing the obesity problem in Singapore, but rather fix the problem at the root, limiting the influx of such unhealthy foods into the nation, free market economy or not.

My Reflections from Fast Food Nation 168 – 222 – QTPC Assignment XXVI

(1) Quotation

“Many workers would not eat anything at their restaurants unless they’d made it themselves. A Taco Bell employee said that food dropped on the floor was often picked up and served. An Arby’s employee told me that one kitchen worker never washed his hands at work after doing engine repairs on his car. And several employees at the same McDonald’s restaurant in Colorado Springs independently provided details about a cockroach infestation in the milk-shake machine and about armies of mice that urinated and defecated on hamburger rolls left out to thaw in the kitchen every night.” Pg 222 Fast Food Nation

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(2) Talking Point

What do you think are the motivating factors as to why people would allow food to go unchecked? If you argue efficiency of the chain is at stake then how about the health of the customers? What about the long-term ramifications should health authorities close down the establishment?

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(3) Connection

In Singapore, as much as we are afraid of the fast food chains, we have a bigger problem in our society: Hawker Centers. A hawker centre or food centre is the name given to open-air complexes in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore housing many stalls that sell a variety of inexpensive food. They are typically found near public housing estates or transport hubs (such as bus interchanges or train stations). Hawker centers sprung up in urban areas following the rapid urbanization in the 1950s and 1960s. In many cases, they were built partly to address the problem of unhygienic food preparation by unlicensed street hawkers. More recently, they have become less ubiquitous due to growing affluence in the urban populations of Malaysia and Singapore. Particularly in Singapore, they are increasingly being replaced by food courts, which are indoors, air-conditioned versions of hawker centers located in shopping malls and other commercial venues. In the 1950s and 1960s, hawker centers were considered to be a venue for the less affluent. They had a reputation for unhygienic food, partly due to the frequent appearance of stray domestic pets and pests. Many hawker centers were poorly managed by their operators, often lacking running water and proper facilities for cleaning. More recently, hygiene standards have improved, with pressure from the local authorities. This includes the implementation of licensing requirements, where a sufficient standard of hygiene is required for the stall to operate, and rewarding exceptionally good hygiene. Upgrading or reconstruction of hawker centers was initiated in the late 1990s in Singapore. At the same time, hawker centers were renamed food centers. Three government bodies own the hawker centers in Singapore, namely the National Environment Agency (NEA) under the parent Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR), Housing and Development Board (HDB) and JTC Corporation. NEA, in turn, manages all the centers.

Again, cockroaches and rats are a common sight at unhygienic food centers. The peculiar thing is that most of our good food can be found in hawker centers, just as you get tasty fries at McDonalds.

Gets you thinking about what you eat eh?

End note: Various sources taken from Wikipedia and edited.

So there was the prison experiment…

Now, the Marshmellow Test. This is really interesting =)

My Reflections from Fast Food Nation 91 – 166 – QTPC Assignment XXV

Quotation

“Near the freezer was a laboratory where women in white coats analyzed French fries day and night, measuring their sugar content, their starch content, their color. During the fall, Lamb Weston added sugar to the fries; in the spring it leached sugar out of them; the goal was to maintain uniform taste and appearance throughout the year.” Fast Food Nation pg 131

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Talking Point

Between Brave New World and the processes highlighted above, why has homogeneity been so important to humans? Is diversity not encouraged or embraced? Why do you think that homogeneity is held with such high regard and why do we always aspire to created uniformity?

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Connection

As I was reading the text I could not help but remember the scene from Brave New World in which test tubes of “babies” were “made” to be specific groups of humans in the future. It would seem that this idea of uniformity echoes throughout history. From Brave New World, to Hitler’s pure race, to what we do in our everyday lives nowadays, we seek uniformity.

This connection is hard to make and seems forced but it really got me thinking as to what other things will become uniform in the next 20 years. 20 years ago, cellphones were not a norm. Now, they are almost a necessity.

Humans seem to be working in the general direction of a uniformed race, or equality for all and I consider this a bane to society. Anyone else who is defined as “odd” stands to lose out in terms of social status opportunities. Why? Must we be so harsh on them?

Eventually we will realize that diversity is at the heart of most innovative solutions and learning to accept one another and our differences should be put foremost or at least ahead of unifying everyone.

My Reflections from Fast Food Nation 1 – 88 – QTPC Assignment XXIV

(1) Quotation

 

“Although some students at Harrison work at fast food restaurants to help their families, most of the kids take jobs after school in order to have a car… Car payments and insurance easily come to $300 a month. As more and more kids work to get their own wheels, fewer participate in after-school sports and activities. They stay at their jobs late into the night, neglect their homework, and come to school exhausted.” – Fast Food Nation pg 79

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(2) Talking Point

 

In the current social and economic climate of the 21st century, what role does the government play in educating the youths of the nation when it comes to the importance of education? Should the government introduce measures to ensure companies have an education program for students under the age of 21? Why and why not? Discuss your point.

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(3) Connection

 

My dad works in a polytechnic, an institute of higher learning, the vocational school equivalent to a University, where academics thrive above trade skills. In Singapore, polytechnics generally rank below Junior College level in terms of academic rigor, but much higher than them in trade skills. Usually, one will go to a polytechnic if one wishes to work directly after polytechnic tertiary education as the polytechnic will issue one a diploma upon completion of the course.  Some of us then choose to attend University, but we are the minority (top 5% and Certificate of Merit holders, else we are denied entry).

In an environment where actual skills are valued higher than paper qualification, students are usually unmotivated and want nothing more than for the school to give them their diploma and send them off into the working world. In a climate like that, it is not uncommon for students to work long hours after school just to own the latest cell phones (not so much cars, as Singapore imposes heavy taxes on cars making them impossible for students to own, an average car costs at least 40k and the price of a McDonald’s meal is the same as in the US).  Hence my dad tends to see a many number of students who fall asleep in class, fail to come for lectures and labs and eventually fail to meet the requirements to pass the course. Yet they do not seem to worry about the fact that they are wasting their time in an institute bent on equipping them with the skills to assist them in working life.

Needless to say, homework is often not even attempted, let alone completed and after school activities are of little or no importance to students in polytechnics.

I feel that the government should step in and enforce some form of law that will make education of youths under 21 (students) mandatory. What is the use if the polytechnics try so hard to teach these young adults and yet companies are luring them away with money and overtime pay? There will be no end to this form of labor as it is cheap and youths are at their prime, willing to sacrifice hours just to earn the minimum wage (which is more than enough to live luxurious lives given the fact that their parents are paying for education and lodging).

My Reflections from Nickel and Dimed 193 – End – QTPC Assignment XXIII

Quotation

 

“What surprised and offended me most about the low-wage workplace (and yes, here all my middle-class privilege is on full display) was the extent to which one is required to surrender one’s basic civil rights and – what boils down to the same thing – self-respect.” Nickel and Dimed pg 208

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Talking Point

 

Many or most of you have been through minimum wage/low paying jobs. Do you think that there should at least be one instance in a person’s life that he/she goes through the “minimum wage treatment”? If you think so, for how long and to what extent? If you do not think so, why not?

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Connection

 

My life has always been above average. My family is middle-classed and hence my allowance is the usual amount everyone gets in a day. There are times I long for certain books or electronic gadgets (I am quite the techie) that other wealthier children have but I get by by being contented. During my tertiary education, I made some money out of buying and selling cell phones and guitars as collector’s items. That was it though, a normal life. How much worse could it get?

 

As my painful story of me being given a desk job during my days in the Armed Forces surfaces again, I would like to highlight the fact that I was paid the lowest any military personnel could be paid. Was I overqualified? Perhaps. I never really did like my job being so menial, but I was not complaining. The pay was enough to get by and it was training for me. However, the part I could not take was the fact that I had lost almost all my rights in the military. Like Barbara, your superiors could search you or anything that belonged to you at any given point in time. Nothing really belonged to you in the forces, not even your life. You are commanded to go everywhere, at the bidding of your superiors and that in itself is more than enough to prove that you are just a disposable entity.

 

Having served 2 years of my life away (and having another 10 years of liability upon my return) I cannot help but feel that we were cheated of 2 years of our short lives. Yes, argue that a small country needs to be self reliant and needs to have an army of their own but think about what these men could be doing for the country if you had given them a 2 year headstart. I have recently been thinking of the fact (after reading the book) that going through army is a good way of showing us “boys” to learn how tough life is in the working world, where you lose your rights and you get only what you really need to survive (the minimum wage).

 

That said, I still feel 2 years is too long and I would probably be contented if they change it to say a year. If resentment for this plan still remains at that point in time (which I am sure will still be, no one will ever really be contented) there is at least a point of argument that one year is still a bridgeable gap, compared to a two year distancing from civilization.

Outsider Paper (Rough Draft)

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My Reflections from Nickel and Dimed 121-191 – QTPC Assignment XXII

Quotation

 

“For sheer grandeur, scale, and intimidating value, I doubt if any corporate orientation exceeds that of Wal-Mart. I have been told the process will take 8 hours… I find there are ten new hires besides myself, mostly young and Caucasian, and by a team of three, headed by Roberta, to do the ‘orientating’.” Nickel and Dimed pg 143

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Talking Point

 

How much regimentation is too much regimentation? Is there a limit to the amount of discipline or systematic processes that should be in a commercial organization? How would you run a company that you expected maximum output as well as treating your employees with the best welfare as possible?

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Connection

 

In the Singapore Armed Forces, we hold dear to what we call the SAF 7 core values. They are as follows: Loyalty to Country, Leadership, Discipline, Professionalism, Fighting Spirit, Ethics and Care for Soldiers.

 

From the very first day when we were enlisted, this was drilled into us in quite the same ways as the style in my quotation.

 

The question that got me thinking was that is it really necessary to impart all this knowledge to your employees in a place such as Wal-Mart, where errors more often than not are not fatal? The answer came to me during reflection when I was comparing the army to Wal-Mart. The only thing these two “companies” had in common was that they were large scale organizations that wanted to cut down the middle management as much as possible and so cut costs (or be efficient, streamlining the job workflow).

 

Digging deeper, I feel that companies need to instill these values to each and everyone one of their employees should they want overall success of the workforce within the unit. Why do I say so? Everyone needs to have a common goal and set of work ethics that they follow if they are all going to be synergetic in their approach in building the company and preparing it to face the challenges of tomorrow. This can definitely only be done by making sure that the company’s philosophy and values are inculcated from day one and reinforced every now and then so as to ensure that its employees keep going with the goal in mind.

 

My conclusion, after all not believing in regimentation for almost all of my life, is that it is a necessary evil, for the greater good. Painful as it may be, humans by nature rebel and the only way to keep them in line is by rules, and regulations.

The Outsider Paper: Peer Review

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Here’s a little bit of Singapore for you