Thanks UEA for the experience!

Two things have kept me busy this week. Moving out from my current accommodation (as the tenure is going to be expired on 20^th June) and preparing some literature review for the dissertation prior consultation with my supervisor, Thomar Sikor, on the same day! Thomas is going to leave soon for his summer holiday so I have to get the major part of the dissertation done for his vetting. Thereafter, we will only communicate via email, no more face to face consultation not until one week before the dateline! That’s how things work here…one need to be independent, purely independent.

It’s getting quiet now here in the University. Most the undergraduates are going back home for the summer holiday. The bar that used to be havoc every single night with drunken students now seems to be lackluster. It goes the same to the Square and the Broads as well. I named these places as land “swimming pool” as you can see students lying around, kissing and sunbathing and having beers and get drunk and…now no more scenic views to watch..hehehe

This silence is a sign that I am going to end my University’s life soon. I have learnt a lot here in Norwich. Gaining experience not only as a student, but as well as being part of the local communities. Working as a Part time administrator in Primark (kira macam chief clerk punya standard dah...collecting cash from all the tills, preparing floats for the next day, preparing Balance Sheet, etc.:)) provides me with lots of avenue to mix around with the locals and to get to know their ways of thinking. It’s a good experience to work with the British, at least we know where we stand compared to them.

My conclusion is that we are at par with them or perhaps better! What makes them better than us because they have the system in place and owned all the best technology in the world. In term of productivity, they are way behind us. For instance, when I applied for a bank account with Natwest, they even lost my paperworks and I have to fill up the form again! If this incident were to happen in Maybank, I believe the staff would have been suspended from his/her job.

Now I started to agree with Solow theory on economic growth that once a country has reached certain point of development (steady states), their growth (GDP) will tend to reduce and this apply to developed countries like US and UK. Those country who have not reached their steady states will have faster growth rate and that’s explained the rising of the Asian Tiger economy.

Studying Development Economics give me a better pictures and appreciation on whats happening in the world of development and its strong links to economics. When I first joined the course, I even wanted to change my course to general Development Studies as I found it extremely difficult to cope with, in particular the subject on Econometrics!! (mind you, my first degree is not economics). However knowing that the Government is sending me here on a passport of Development Economics, so I have no choice.

Now Im grateful that I had made a wise choice, i.e., to continue struggling with the course despite all the challenges that I have to go through. Ya..as people say, good things are hard to get and Dev Econs definitely had made me a better person. Now I understand, why the State Secretary insisted me to go for this course!

I might not be the best economist, but now I understand why the country needs to do adjustment due to the current fuels hike. I now understand why the Government needs to cut off expenditure on certain mega projects that does not have direct impacts on the poor. And I understand why they cut the fuel subsidy and controlled for the interest rates as well as mechanism for foreign exchange. Before, I would understand all these based on logic, but now I understand all these based on logic plus the technical aspects. That’s the knowledge that I wanted to posses all this while and they are "embedded" in me now. Praise the Lord!

Thanks UEA, thanks Norwich, thanks to my family and friends and thanks to the State for giving me the chance to be a better person.