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Have we become a template nation, one so reliant on templates that we suspend our sense of judgement, common sense and initiative?
Templates are generally patterns or models serving as a guide to what to do in specified scenarios. They help provide for a consistent approach in similar situations. But they are, ultimately, mechanical patterns or models. They do not obviate the need for dynamic thinking and adaptation depending on the situation at hand. As always, context matters.
This tendency of template reliance brings to mind the incident earlier this year when Singapore's drug enforcement agency, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), reported that it had under-reported the number of drug abusers between 2008 and 2010.
The error in the statistical computation of drug abuser arrest statistics had occurred when the CNB moved to a new IT system. The revised figures showed that the number of drug abusers arrested for the period 2008 to 2010 was in fact on an upward, not downward, trend.
The under-reporting was not insignificant: Almost 24 per cent in 2008, 28 per cent in 2009, 37 per cent in 2010. Given the figures, one wonders how CNB officers could not have noticed that the figures generated by their IT system did not gel with the operational realities of more arrests being made and more drug abusers.
Transport is and will remain a hot-button issue in Singapore. The high cost of car ownership, concerns over the affordability and reliability of public transport, and the increased incidence and severity of congestions on our road network are familiar gripes.
- http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111219-0000021/Have-we-become-a-template-nation?
Templates are generally patterns or models serving as a guide to what to do in specified scenarios. They help provide for a consistent approach in similar situations. But they are, ultimately, mechanical patterns or models. They do not obviate the need for dynamic thinking and adaptation depending on the situation at hand. As always, context matters.
This tendency of template reliance brings to mind the incident earlier this year when Singapore's drug enforcement agency, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), reported that it had under-reported the number of drug abusers between 2008 and 2010.
The error in the statistical computation of drug abuser arrest statistics had occurred when the CNB moved to a new IT system. The revised figures showed that the number of drug abusers arrested for the period 2008 to 2010 was in fact on an upward, not downward, trend.
The under-reporting was not insignificant: Almost 24 per cent in 2008, 28 per cent in 2009, 37 per cent in 2010. Given the figures, one wonders how CNB officers could not have noticed that the figures generated by their IT system did not gel with the operational realities of more arrests being made and more drug abusers.
Transport is and will remain a hot-button issue in Singapore. The high cost of car ownership, concerns over the affordability and reliability of public transport, and the increased incidence and severity of congestions on our road network are familiar gripes.
- http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111219-0000021/Have-we-become-a-template-nation?
