Book review and reflection "The damage done : twelve years of hell in a Bangkok prison" by Warren Fellow

"The Damage Done: Twelve Years Of Hell In A Bangkok Prison": A true story about hell on earth and how a man can get through it and survive.

In 1978, the author of the book Warren Fellows was sentenced to life imprisonment at the disreputable Bangkwang prison, in Thailand. Fellows was caught red handed when smuggling a large amount of heroin from Thailand to Australia. The only way to avoid the death penalty was to plead guilty and accept a lifetime in prison.

The book starts by giving exhaustive background on the main character, his friends and his loved ones and how he betrayed them. He continuously seemed for thrills and adrenaline rushes, which lead him deep into the dark path of drugs.

Bangkwang prison’s nickname is "Big Tiger" because there is no mercy left for anyone in this prison. The book describes in detail how all prisoners undergo both physical and mental abuse from the guards on daily basis. The only food given to the prisoners was rice, and the rumors are that the guards let it sit until maggots started growing before they served it to the prisoners. 

Fellows is not looking for forgiveness in this book nor is he looking for pity. He only wants the world to know that such a place exists. A place where such brutal abuse is a part of daily life, abuse you do not even wish for your worse enemy. The words “human rights” have never been inside the walls of Big Tiger.

This book gives a perspective on life from an angle, in which most of us cannot even imagine.

To have the newest phone or some other material thing seems inconsequentially when people only last a couple of days in the Big Tiger before they commit suicide. Since they realize this is a place not seen by any God or higher power, this is all darkness, pitch black darkness. 

You realize that having your health, not wake up nor go to bed hungry and have our loved ones close is worth everything. Take care of ourselves; the ones that are important to us and seize the day, every day! You cannot live in the past and not in the future; you can only live now, today!

Use the time you have to fulfill your dreams and also enjoy the little things in life. Do not forget to tell your loved ones what they mean to you.

When Fellows at one point was standing up to his nose in feces, I imagine that he would like to have changed many things in life. But at that point he could only focus on surviving and hoping to see another day.

Over and over, it is described how people’s good could have saved others from certain death. Never look away and realize that the person you see could be you in a not distance future.

Maha El Khalil

Are driods taking our jobs?

The increase in usage of technology in production or value creation whether it’s producing products or services is affecting our lives. Some studies show that these robots, algorithms or digital tools are taking over jobs that previously required humans. These tools ability to make the job is improving and in some cases are perfect. Corporate profits are higher than they ’ve ever been, but these businesses are not hiring at the same ratio. The need of hiring human labour in the future will decrease. We are heading to a society that will be very productive but will not need as many human workers.

Andrew McAfee claims that the most important human development is technology. This technology has caused stabilisation in prices, elimination of waste and improved life quality. In the future, technology will have a more significant role. It will be freeing our time and giving us the opportunity to do other things such as reducing poverty and misery around the world and living more lightly around the planet.

Mr McAfee’s positive vision of the future is very inspiring. However, I do believe that people at the bottom of the pyramid will not benefit from these innovations. The massive increase of profits will only benefit corporate shareholders.  Improved technology will lead to higher consumption of natural resources, and we will run out of these resources sooner than expected.  Higher unemployment will also lead to lower consumption that in return will make it more difficult for the economy to grow, and a recession will be expected.  We are currently facing a slow growth in economy thanks to governmental stimulants of the market. These stimulants had a more positive impact on corporate profits than employment; a major factor could be the use of and the investment in technology rather than investing in human labour. If not everyone in economical terms can benefit from the improved technology; we will see a world with a huge gap between rich and poor people and an increase in conflicts.  A reallocation of resources and change in taxation of corporate profits might be an effective tool to reduce the gape in a society where the technology has taken over.

Ted: Are driods taking our jobs?

Maha El Khalil

Online reflektion 1 The Year of the Paywall

As the mainstream media is getting more prevalent the media giants are struggling to keep their profits and readers loyal. More free media is now available online and the ”free generation” born in the late 80´s and early 90´s does not like to pay for media because it is available for free online. This is very similar to what happened to the music industry and movie industry, when music or movies are available for free online, why buy? Creating services cheap is a solution for the music industry (i.e Spotify) and the movie industry has Netflix. 

This behavior the ”free generation” has when it comes to pay for products also made a dent in the newspaper publishers’ wallets. Also when advertisers have flocked to cheaper websites like Google and Facebook starting a Paywall service is a smart idea to learn and teach the consumers that news is not free. They need to change the consumer’s behavior in order to survive in today’s touch and competitive mainstream media. But if they charge too much it will probably scare off subscribers and I think that is what happened to The San Francisco Chronicles online service. 

Business Week: The Year of Paywall

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Hi everyone,

My name is Maha this blogg is intended to be used for my Business English course.