Humans as a Resource
This topic may come as a shocker to some, but humans are definitely a resource on this planet, and more importantly they need to be managed properly (like any other resource) to be able to reach their full potential. Much like other resources, humans are fought over, and even some of the methods for this are like fighting over other resources, but there are also other ways that humans are fought over, and this is because humans are intelligent beings that (for the most part) can determine their own future. Businessdictionary.com defines human resource as "the resource that resides in the knowledge, skills, and motivation of people. Human resource is the least mobile of the four factors of production, and (under right conditions) it improves with age and experience, as no other resource can do. It is therefore regarded as the scarcest and most crucial productive resource that creates the largest and longest lasting advantage for any organization.". Value human life, for it provides many advantages in the future if nurtured properly.
-J. Buffin |
Brain Drain
Humans are a resource, and because of this they are fought over in a variety of ways with a myriad of methods to each. One of these methods is called "Brain Drain", and it is when a specific group of people (generally the highly educated) is encouraged to come to a new country to pursue a better career and a better life. Highly competitive programs are offered to students from other countries and only the best and the brightest are allowed to enter these programs, which refines the people down to only those that the country wants to accept through their borders. Once these people have completed their degrees the general idea is that they want to stay and continue their life in the "better country". According to the U.S. Energy Department's Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the National Science Foundation "62% of foreigners holding temporary visas who earned Ph.D.s in science and engineering at U.S. universities in 2002 were still in the U.S. in 2007". This is a very successful method of gathering the human resource, and it's happening all over the world. Read about it happening in Canada here, or read more about it happening in the United States here. Brain drain is a process run by the most cunning, to take the most advanced in scientific and mathematical fields to better the countries that are already strong, and inherently to weaken the ones they are taking from. It is survival of the smartest, and the scales seem to be quite uneven, but that's how things are in our world.
-J. Buffin
-J. Buffin
Athletes as a Resource
Similarly to the international movement of professionals mentioned in the "Brain Drain" section above, athletes can be used as a resource as well. Many cases of athletes emigrating are to escape the unstable political, economic or social issues of their home countries. Their talent in their specific sport makes them an alluring candidate for the receiving country. According to globalvisas.com Ireland is losing 250 athletes a month to emigration due to their economic instability. Although this form of Athletic Brain Drain is not as prominent an issue as the standard Brain Drain, cases of countries lobbying athletes to emigrate to their country is a reality.
-D.Tyrie
Education as an investment
Humans are a resource that need to be invested in to have value, and the most significant investment is education. Education is what helps grow societies, and shapes the world around us, so what is the best way to provide an education? North American countries seem to believe that it revolves around standardized testing, privatizing schools, creating rewards for "good" teachers, and discipline for 'bad" teachers. All of these things seem to not be working, and possibly inhibiting the full potential of the most valued resource on the planet. To look at the methods that do work, it seems to make sense to go to the world leaders in education, which after many global evaluations, is undoubtedly Finland. Finland averages top test scores in math, science, and reading according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), but the methods for achieving this are significantly different from other nations that test highly (e.g. South Korea and Singapore) that use long, difficult school hours, and drown their students in homework from a young age. Finland cuts it's school hours in half, provides a 50-minute recess, little homework, and no standardized testing. This might seem like a dream for students from around the world, but what's more exciting is that these methods seem to be working. The success of this method cannot simply be taken from these points, there is a lot more that goes on to make this process successful, for example, teachers must complete a Master's Degree before they are allowed to teach, and the job position is considered prestigious. Did we forget to mention that education is free from pre-K to Ph.D? Finland has only a few private schools, and even those are publicly funded, none of which are allowed to charge tuition. One of the last things that makes the schooling so much more effective is the methods of management in the schools themselves; principals are expected to deal with issues that arise with teachers, and they do. All of this put together has created a new age of education that other nations will hopefully learn from. The changes that need to be made are not as simple as implementing small changes in a lot of places, it involves changing the way that a country views education. I believe changing views on education is the key for a future where humans thrive. Don't just take our opinion though, read about what Stanford thinks on the topic here, or get the Finnish view here.
-J. Buffin
Humans are a resource that need to be invested in to have value, and the most significant investment is education. Education is what helps grow societies, and shapes the world around us, so what is the best way to provide an education? North American countries seem to believe that it revolves around standardized testing, privatizing schools, creating rewards for "good" teachers, and discipline for 'bad" teachers. All of these things seem to not be working, and possibly inhibiting the full potential of the most valued resource on the planet. To look at the methods that do work, it seems to make sense to go to the world leaders in education, which after many global evaluations, is undoubtedly Finland. Finland averages top test scores in math, science, and reading according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), but the methods for achieving this are significantly different from other nations that test highly (e.g. South Korea and Singapore) that use long, difficult school hours, and drown their students in homework from a young age. Finland cuts it's school hours in half, provides a 50-minute recess, little homework, and no standardized testing. This might seem like a dream for students from around the world, but what's more exciting is that these methods seem to be working. The success of this method cannot simply be taken from these points, there is a lot more that goes on to make this process successful, for example, teachers must complete a Master's Degree before they are allowed to teach, and the job position is considered prestigious. Did we forget to mention that education is free from pre-K to Ph.D? Finland has only a few private schools, and even those are publicly funded, none of which are allowed to charge tuition. One of the last things that makes the schooling so much more effective is the methods of management in the schools themselves; principals are expected to deal with issues that arise with teachers, and they do. All of this put together has created a new age of education that other nations will hopefully learn from. The changes that need to be made are not as simple as implementing small changes in a lot of places, it involves changing the way that a country views education. I believe changing views on education is the key for a future where humans thrive. Don't just take our opinion though, read about what Stanford thinks on the topic here, or get the Finnish view here.
-J. Buffin
Relevant comic? I think so. Great work by Zen Pencils, as always, check out more awesome and inspiring comics here.
Labour
Human labour is by far the oldest and simplest profession. Simply put, human labour is using the energy humans make to direct use, to accomplish tasks that would be too difficult or to expensive to be done with technology. Human labour is mostly used in the primary industry. In developing nations it is extremely common for children to pick up these simple jobs, just so their families can survive. In parts of Africa and Asia children as young as 5 can enter into work spaces such as mines (like in the video below), farms and sweatshops for next to no pay. Most of these children will never get to go to school, due to their time at work. Organizations such as the International Labour Organization try to monitor this to give children the best opportunities they can. Although child labour is certainly a major issue, people of all ages can get stuck in low paying labour jobs. Again, this is most prevalent in developing countries where higher level schooling is not at option. Labour is not as much as an issue in developed nations, but it is almost encouraged by them. Citizens of developed countries blindly follow low pricing which indirectly supports things like low paying sweat shops. This is almost a Catch 22, the capitalist society that has got economic giants, like the USA, where they are today is almost dependent on the cheap goods we can only get from abusing workers in other countries. The video below is made by Human Rights Watch and is about children being forced to work in gold mines in Tanzania to support their families.
If you wish to research the issue further, here are some related articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joan-kelley-weisshaar-walker/child-labour-canada_b_3511715.html
http://www.irinnews.org/report/90770/zimbabwe-mining-industry-attracts-child-labour-as-economy
-D.Tyrie
If you wish to research the issue further, here are some related articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joan-kelley-weisshaar-walker/child-labour-canada_b_3511715.html
http://www.irinnews.org/report/90770/zimbabwe-mining-industry-attracts-child-labour-as-economy
-D.Tyrie
Immigration
Immigration is the receiving of humans from other states or countries. In this case, immigration is similar to trade seeing as its the global movement of humans. The map to the left displays the number of international immigrants received by different countries (taken from World Mapper). Since developed countries such as Canada receive such massive numbers of immigrants each year, processes had to be set in place to limit the number of less helpful candidates. This process is similar to any job application and are set in place to make Canada (or any given country) the highest success rate, just like a company. These processes are similar to refining a natural resource. The Canadian application process can be found here.
There are many reasons for people to immigrate. These include more forceful reasons such as political or military unrest or natural disasters. More prominently, at least for this case, is for the opportunity it brings. Canada has many entrepreneurship programs and has high trade with the massive demographic that is the USA. This is a major incentive for business people even in developed nations to immigrate to Canada.
There are many reasons for people to immigrate. These include more forceful reasons such as political or military unrest or natural disasters. More prominently, at least for this case, is for the opportunity it brings. Canada has many entrepreneurship programs and has high trade with the massive demographic that is the USA. This is a major incentive for business people even in developed nations to immigrate to Canada.
Meet the Authors
J. Buffin and D. Tyrie
We are two high school students at Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute, currently in grade 12 in the MaST program. We have been interested in the world's issues and challenges for a long time, and enjoy writing about it. This page takes a different view of the word resource, and is a collection of our thoughts on a peculiar topic. We hope that you enjoy it, and would appreciate any feedback.
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