And so 2010 draws to a close.
2010 began when some of us joined the New Asia Republic (NAR) in its nascent state. What I found unique about NAR was the fact that many of us were from the same generation, and there was a great degree of understanding and empathy towards different views.
It also helps that a lot of us were from different professional backgrounds. Myself, from the pharmaceutical sciences, others from economics, and we also have a political science major and yadda yadda.
There wasn’t a time when I didn’t learn something new. When Ian Choo reported on the Bhutan Prime Minister’s talk, I could immediately see the similar context it has to health models.
What I particularly like about NAR is that it attempts to address fundamental questions that we may ask ourselves e.g. is Austrian economics relevant? Or is Nuclear Power viable and yadda.
It is always good to have such expository pieces, where we think of a concept and then challenge our pre-conditioned or pre-conceived notions of that concept. Sometimes, we have to ask ourselves such basic questions once in a while. Like what is classical economics and the failure or strengths of it.
In a school setting, many a time, we opt to play it safe by sticking to what we are taught. But really, we are constrained by time and more often than not, we only scratch the surface of a concept, rarely venturing into lower depths.
In a sense, my work at NAR can be rewarding. For instance, I was only taught the biopsychosocial model of health, but I wrote on the biopsychosicial-environmental-cultural model of health, which was in greater depth. I am sure such expository cum exploratory pieces are of great benefit to the other writers. For one, it goes to show that what we learn in our textbooks is merely scratching the surface.
There is definitely a strong educational element to it. Having spoken about 2010, what’s in store for 2011?
The future is uncertain. However, what is certain is that producing a work at NAR isn’t futile. The writer learns as much even as he is writing the piece. Thus, one thing can be assured is that the writers grow in terms of knowledge.
