world of my own

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood,
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

*loves *

the colour orange
the sky and the water (:

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Inflation looks set to reach 5% by next year. and then it will supposedly stabilized. its not just in singapore but its world wide inflation.

i understand that inflation is due to goods being priced at more than they are valued due to a high demand but limited supply.

This inevitable led me to thinking - is Malthus therefore correct?

About two centuries ago, Malthus postulated that resources (more referring to food supply then) increases arithmetically but population grows geometrically. He then came to a conclusion that population growth will eventually outstrip food supply. Malthus theory spawned a whole group of neo-malthusians who gave a similar idea.

Today, we see rising oil prices which look set to hit 100 per barrel. we see worldwide inflation. i wonder if part of it has got to do with the rising middle class in china demanding more commodities... does this inflation mean that resources are short in supply? Does it mean there is insufficient food for the 6.8 billion of us in this world. of course i don't think its as simple as that. it could be just that some of the resources remain unexploited/undiscovered. or that farmlands are not put to good use. but its still worrying.

Inflation will hit the lower income groups the hardest. Because the lower-income groups spend the bulk of their money on commodities. any increase in these prices will mean spending a greater proportion of their money on these goods. so then it begs the question... why not just let the more expensive higher end products increase but keep the necessities at the normal prices?

Since its worldwide inflation, i suppose it will hit many other poor in other countries. In Singapore at least the rich poor divide is not as bad as in other places but in some places where there is a distinct line between the haves and the have-nots, such a situation may spell trouble. poverty breeds despair, anger, all kinds of bad feelings and who knows what may happen when people get upset.

so when will the world population become too large for the earth's resources and man's capabilities to handle? i think it is an answer that we all wish to know but can only guess. I just hope that somehow we can churn out more goods so that the inflation can stop rising and can stabilize so that the lower-income people won't have such a hard time.

......................................

i confess that I didn't slowly savour Jane Eyre. I flipped through much of the last third of the book as I had to start geog. I like the language, the way the words are strung together. You don't find that kind of writing in modern day's books anymore... or perhaps I just have not encountered them.

Truth to be told, I rather like Wuthering Heights more. Jane Eyre seemed much too centered on the affiars between Jane and Mr Rochester. I think what i like best is that the characters are far from perfect. They each have all their flaws which make them most real.

after As i'll go read through the last 1/3 of the book slowly...

Labels: books

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joo spoke
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