All posts by Kieryn Mckemmish

Evaluation

Compare The Pair.

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Let’s compare the pair – Australia and Singapore.

  1. Singapore is geographically the smallest in the world; only spanning a minimal 42 km long and 23 km wide within a within a compact 716.1 km² (Martin & Ho, 2009). Australia is the world’s sixth largest country spanning a gigantic 7,692,024 km² and stretching a whopping 3860 kilometres from its most northerly point of Cape York to its most southerly point in Tasmania. and almost 4000 kilometres from it’s most western point Steep Point to it’s most eastern point of Cape Byron (Australian Travel Search, 1999).
  2. Singapore despite it’s size possesses a mammoth populous of approximately 5.3 million residents (Singapore Statistics, 2015). Australian on the other hand has a population of 23.8 million (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015).

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Evaluation

A new experience, a new skill.

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Leadership! Facilitation! What a pair of confusing, challenging and questionable topics. I have searched far an wide, through huge body’s of literature, and I could tell you that..

‘Leadership is the ability to guide others without force into a direction or decision that leaves them still feeling empowered and accomplished’ (Sessoms & Stevenson, 1981).

Or I could tell you that..

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Reflections

Bounded By Land, Bonded By Culture

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Singapore! Wow – what a proud and resilient country. It doesn’t take long to see the multiculturalism everywhere you look. Singaporean, Malayan, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and the list goes on.  I was quickly swept up into a whirlwind of new knowledge and relationships, particularly over such a short period of time. Simply by walking through a Hawkers Centre or a local market you can see everyone working together in sync. The importance of relationships with others cannot be overstated. Yet, I found myself wondering how is this possible? How is a society so culturally differing function and communicate so effectively? Then it hit me. There seems to be a tacit willingness to make it work. The first barrier they faced was language and because of this there seems to be a universal adoption of english for the majority of people. It allows relationships with others to firstly exist and secondly flourish. I know if this wasn’t the case I would have encountered many more issues as I travelled.

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Reflections

We may be small in size, but we are large in character

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The fact that Singapore stretches a tiny 42km across and 20km from top to bottom may appear like a limiting factor in terms of utilising the environment as a platform to build a stronger mentality, but you would be wrong! From what I have seen Singapore has high values in regards to developing a strong and resilient society. They understand the significance of developing self and how crucial the character traits are in directing the country into the future. However, in saying this you may wonder how they aim to achieve this? Surely it doesn’t just occur on it’s own?

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Reflections

A Day Of Facilitation, A Lifetime Of Learning.

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Facilitation can be a tricky concept to grasp, and even if you know the facts, it doesn’t take much to slip out of control! Singapore taught me some valuable lessons, and offered some out of the blue challenges along the day. Nevertheless, below I have outlined the three biggest challenges I faced, which isn’t necessary a negative, as it allowed me to develop and grow into a more competent leader from the experience.

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Reflections

A Step Ahead

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Singapore – The Concrete Jungle!

If you didn’t already know, you wouldn’t be able to guess on first look that Singapore is a newborn city only just reaching a milestone of 50 years of independence. And yet, in this time the country has exploded into a multicultural urban metropolis with population of 5.399 million within a compact 716.1 km² – a massive contrast to Australia! And, you might think that because of this density they would struggle to integrate the environment? That they might be concerned about developing and not withhold an importance for the environment? You would be wrong!

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Discoveries

What’s that? Frog got your tongue?

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You wouldn’t believe it if you saw it with your own eyes, but yes – me –  fussy eater king of the world has delved into the Singaporean culture and came out the other side a self proclaimed culinary master. Don’t believe me? How about a couple of jokes?

What goes ribbit ribbit? Not the frog that I ate!

Why couldn’t the lamb go ‘barrrrr’? Because I ate its tongue.

Sometimes you’ve gotta just raise that fork and swallow it down and the last few days has been no exception. Could not be more eager to continue this venture over the upcoming days so lets keep this short and sweet – much the the frog!

“Dear Singapore, come @ me bro”

– Kiza.

First impressions

BAM! Culture shock!

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Woah! Today was an eye opener! To  become immediately immersed within a culture I know so little about has been a exciting and fulfilling prospect. From eating at hawker-centres for breakfast, lunch and tea with nothing more then chump change – to – experiencing an almost futuristic transport system. I found it highly rewarding and insightful up-taking the tourist role in alternate setting away from home.

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