Positivism

       

   Positivism is a philosophy of science based on the view that information derived from logical and mathematical treatments and reports of sensory experience is the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge, and that there is valid knowledge only in scientific knowledge. In other word, it states that any system that confines it self to the data of experience and excludes a priori or metaphysical speculations.  This philosophy is developed by Auguste Comte in the middle of 19^th century. Positivism is the most evolved stage of society in anthropological.

      According to Auguste Comte, society undergoes three different phase in its quest for the truth. These phases are the Theological, the Metaphysical and the Positive. The Theological Phase of man is based on whole-hearted belief in all things with reference to god. It dealt with the restrictions put in place by the religious organization at the time and the total acceptance of any “fact” placed forth for society to believe. 

       Meanwhile, The Metaphysical Phases of man states that the universal rights of man are the most important. It means when a man is born with certain rights, that should and cannot be taken away, that must be respected and central at its heart. The final phase, The Positive Phase states that individual rights are more important than the rule of any one person. This phase stated the idea that man can govern himself and it makes this final phase innately different from the rest. 

      The advantage of positivism is quantitative approach. Positivism itself relies on quantitative data that positivists believe is more reliable than qualitative research. Quantitative research is more “scientific” in its methods than qualitative research and thus more trustworthy. In research, quantitative data provides objective information that researchers can use to make scientific assumptions. Another advantage is structure which means positivism follows a well-defined structure during studies and discussions. Positivists believe that since there are set laws and rules followed, there will be minimum room for error. This structure also gives little room for variance and drastic variable changes, thus making the study more accurate when it comes to experiments and applications as it tries to follow specific rules using objective mathematical and scientific tools.

         Human behaviour is one kind of disadvantage of positivism because it believes that objective inferences and conclusions can be reached as long as the person doing the observation is objective and disregards her emotions. However, human behaviour naturally comes with emotional responses. Although positivism encourages researchers to disregards human emotion and behaviour, there is no guarantee that this will occur at all times during studies. Inflexibility also is a disadvantage of positivism. Some scholars believe that since positivists believe everything can be measured and calculated, they tend to be inflexible. Positivists see things as they are and tend to disregard unexplained phenomena. If a theory that says A only occurs when B and C combine, then B can never be A. This belief can eliminate lateral thinking, which is the process of finding answers by creatively and indirectly finding out ways to solve a problem.

        As a conclusion, positivism is also depicted as “the view that all true knowledge is scientific”, and that all things are ultimately measurable. This knowledge can then be used to affect the course of social change and improve the human condition. It has had relatively little influence on contemporary sociology, however, because it is argued that it encourages a misleading emphasis on superficial facts without any attention to underlying mechanisms that cannot be observed.

MH370

SATURDAY, 8 MARCH 2014

-          MH370 Departure From KLIA to Beijing China

-          The aircraft disappeared from the DCA’s radar at 1.30 am about 120 nautical miles east off Kota Baharu, Kelantan

-          A search and rescue operation (SAR) for the missing plane was launched at 5.30 am involving 15 Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) aircraft, including four Hercules C130, a CN 235, four EC 725 and two Augusta helicopters, and nine ships, namely six from the Royal Malaysian Navy and three from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).

-          MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya confirmed the disappearance of the aircraft at 7.30 am. The passengers were made up of 38 Malaysians, Chinese (153), Indonesians (12), Australians (7), French (three), Americans (three), New Zealanders (two), Ukrainians (two), Canadians (two), Russia (one), Italian (one), Taiwanese (one), Dutch (one), and Austrian (one).

-          Prime Minister Datuk Seri NajibTunRazak and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin visited family members of those on board the plane.

SUNDAY, 9 MARCH 2014

·         Malaysia received assistance from China, Thailand, Vietnam, the United States, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore for the sea and aerial search. The operation was beefed up by 34 aircraft and 40 ships.

·          Armed Forces chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin said the search area was extended from the South China Sea to the Straits of Melaka.

·         DCA director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman confirmed that two passengers boarded the aircraft with fake passports under the guise of an Italian and an Austrian who had reported that their passports had been stolen.

·         MMEA sent samples of an oil slick found in the South China Sea, some 100 nautical miles off Tok Bali, Kota Baharu, Kelantan to the Chemistry Department for analysis.

MONDAY, 10 MARCH 2014

§  Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government had accepted New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s offer of a P-3C Orion aircraft that specialises in maritime surveillance to be used in the search-and-rescue operation.

§   MMEA confirmed that an oil slick found off Tok Bali, Kota Baharu was bunker oil used by ships, not aircraft.

§   Meteorological Department National Weather Centre meteorological officer Khairul Najib Ibrahim said there were no noticeable changes in the weather over the area where the plane was reported missing.

WEDNESDAY, 12 MARCH 2014

ü  MH370 Aircraft Operations Expanded Search From 120 to 200 Nautical Miles Nautical Miles

THURSDAY, 13 MARCH 2014

 o   China Satellite Successfully Detects 3 Business Objects Found In Waters Still Standing MH370 Aircraft Delivered To Fail After Location About

FRIDAY, 14 MARCH 2014

-  A resource of the United States Report MH370 Aircraft Probably Are On The Indian Ocean

ISSUE OF MH370

       In a region often fraught with tensions over territory and shifting power, the sight of 13 countries co-operating for a common goal is rare and welcome. Yet questions over the use and sharing of information during the hunt for MH370 have revealed the continuing suspicions between them.

The extraordinary revelation that US investigators believe the plane could have flown for up to five hours emerged only via a Wall Street Journal article based on unnamed sources. In public, officials are saying little. How much they are disclosing to Malaysia– and to China, which had more than 200 passengers aboard the flight – is unclear.

      China is deeply suspicious of the US role in the region. Some wondered if the reports on the US findings, with their unnamed sources, were designed to allow the US to avoid explaining too much about its technical knowhow.

Others suggested it might be, rather, an issue of discretion: "There's no sense reminding everyone – especially China – how much better you are at this than everyone else," said James Manicom, a research fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Canada. "Better to be modest and constructive than turn up and remind everyone how overwhelming your technical and military advantages are."

       Elsewhere, patience appears to be fraying as the days go by. China, under pressure to show it can protect its citizens overseas, has repeatedly urged Malaysia "to report what they have … in an accurate and timely fashion".

       Malaysia has criticized China for releasing satellite images which it had not passed to Kuala Lumpur. Vietnam at one stage scaled back its search, complaining of insufficient information. Malaysia reportedly chided Vietnam for announcing possible discoveries of debris prematurely.

"We should be cheered by the intentions they have of working together [but] their ability to work together has been proved to be wanting," said Taylor Fravel of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – though a large part of the problem, he noted, "is that it seems the Malaysians internally are not talking very well to each other".

        As Malaysia sought to confirm whether radar sightings were, as it thought, of MH370, one obvious question was whether neighboring countries could help. But asked whether the plane had suddenly disappeared off the radar screen, or flown out of Malaysian radar range, the transport minister said the information was "too sensitive". It was not until Friday that he said Malaysia would share raw radar data with US investigators.

      "Given existing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region and strained communications between several key regional countries, it is hard to imagine meaningful co-operation or military transparency between them on information such as radar readings in the effort to locate the Malaysian Airlines flight," said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, director of the Asia-Pacific program at the Institute of Peace. Christopher Hughes, an expert on relations in the region at the London School of Economics, added: "This has been the problem since the end of the Cold War and really since the end of world war two … They have entrenched rivalries over so many issues – territorial, historical and so on – that it is almost impossible to get them to move toward any meaningful multilateral system.

              "They are so hung up on issues of sovereignty and non-intervention and suspicion of each other that it stops them working on the issues that really matter."

              The South China Sea – one of the main areas of the search – is at the heart of a complex six-party territorial row; "Malaysia was supposed to be the country getting along with China among the claimants in the South China Sea, but even that relationship has deteriorated [recently]," noted Manicom.

               Despite the frictions, analysts see positive signs: "What's remarkable is that Vietnam has allowed two Chinese electronic surveillance planes to fly through its airspace," said Fravel.

              "Actually, this is not a multinational search; each country has searched by themselves," added Hong Nong, a professor at China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies.

             "In my opinion, through this event, it will be good if every country could increase the possibility of co-operation in undisputed areas."

 

SOFT SKILLS

The  Soft  skills is a term related with a person's "EQ" (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the Soft skills somehow is the ability to communicate effectively with co-workers, employers, clients, customers,  friends  and  family members.

Soft skills is now recognized as key to making businesses more profitable and better places to work. Increasingly, companies aren't just assessing their current staff and future recruits on their  business    skills. They are now assessing them on a whole host of soft skill competencies around how well they relate and communicate to others.

Measuring these soft skills is no easy thing. But in the most progressive companies, managers are looking for people's ability to communicate clearly and openly, and to listen and respond empathetical. They also want them to have equally well-honed written skills so that their correspondence including emails doesn't undo all the good work their face-to-face communication creates.

Good soft skills also include the ability of people to balance the commercial needs of their company with the  individual  needs of their staff. Being flexible and able to adapt to the changing needs of an organization also qualify as soft skills, as do being able to collaborate with others and influence situations through lateral and more  creative  thinking. The ability to deal with differences, multiculturalism and diversity is needed more than ever. Very few companies are untouched by the ever-widening influence of other cultures and good soft skills facilitate better communication and people's ability to manage differences effectively.

Everyone already has some form of soft skills probably a lot more than others may realise.They just need to look at areas in their personal life where they get on with others, feel confident in the way they interact, can problem solve, are good at encouraging, can prove with the best of them. All these skills are soft and all of them are transferable to the workplace.