Year 4 Reflective Blog

    One business strategy I was stunned by was planned obsolescence, which is a technique that is certainly not sustainable, yet too common in contemporary society. The product is planned and designed by the manufacturers to have a limit so that consumers would come back. For example, Japanese houses are said to last around 30 years; however, it usually takes 30 years to pay back the mortgage of the property. Houses are designed to deliberately deteriorate so that people would keep buying new houses. The same goes with terminator seeds which I was completely unaware of. The DNA of the seeds is tinkered so that only one plant grows and is terminated. This strategy procedure creates a cycle so that consumers would have to come back for more. From these examples, I was able to learn how the efficiency of marketing concentrates on profit rather than the quality of products. Although businesses need their profits in order to grow, it made me wonder whether these houses are worth buying. Or if any house is worth buying if they are made to deteriorate over the years and deceive consumers. Most importantly, such facts are not disclosed to the public, and is difficult to determine where specifically these actions are taking place. 

    Concealed information also exists in the food industry. Shiroi Koibito, the famous Hokkaido chocolate cookies production went through a scandal that I have never heard of.  In 2007, the company was suspended due to falsification of expiration dates. Apparently, it had been going on for 15 years and reported that the expiration dates were extended for more than 2 months. I was baffled by the fact that such scandals occurred in Japan, and most of my classmates thought the same. Just like my first time finding out about these scandals, my parents were surprised, maybe also a little unconvinced, when I started talking about these issues at home. The trust that the Japanese media has gained over the years, is impressive, yet also deceiving in a way. Up until this lesson, we mainly looked at media manipulation in the United States, and other foreign countries but the scandals of Shiroi Koibito, Meat Hope, and other Japanese productions certainly opened my eyes. In addition, dairy products and meat are consumed by the majority of people, and to think that such large companies could cause an outbreak is unbelievable. Although these incidents all occurred in the early 2000s, it is peculiar how no one knows about this. There were several articles in Japanese reporting these incidents. Yet, it was strenuous to find news channels delineating such events. 

    Toxic chemicals permeating through the air, consumed by animals and humans are a primary factor of cancer. A hugely destructive chemical named Agent orange was used after WW2 when the French tried to control Vietnam. This was used to destroy the forestry and jungles in Vietnam so that the U.S. military could drop the bombs. Eventually, the chemicals sunk into the ground and affected the water, which caused birth defects for 40 years. Even the American soldiers who were in the vicinity, for a maximum of 3 years were affected by this chemical. Vietnamese people have been exposed for 50-60 years and around 3 million people were affected. 50,000 Americans were paid 280 million dollars compensation from the government, but the 3 million Vietnamese locals were paid nothing. This evidence clearly shows the lack of responsibility and care for the victims. Unfortunately, I have learned that this applies to corporations in contemporary society as well. Corporations that push hazardous chemicals into the environment do not take responsibility, which is an example of externalities. I found it interesting how I did not know a single thing before, and Mr. Patersons' classes have truly inspired me to look at media, corporations, and relationships in a critical way. The most important lesson I have learned over this course is that being "knowledgeable" does not necessarily mean keeping up with recent news or having an opinion on world issues. Being "knowledgable" is to be able to see through the manipulation and lies.