Published!

My final year paper was published by Taylor's Business Review earlier this year and I was truly elated! The topic was 'Declining Poverty Rate and Widening Income Gap in Indonesia and Brazil'. Basically, the paper talked about how the income gap levels in Indonesia and Brazil are affected by several globalisation factors such as technology, increasing social contact and tourism. The paper was edited by my lecturer, who's listed as the co-author. 

The reason why I chose Indonesia and Brazil and my countries were simply because in Indonesia, the level of income inequality is shown to be increasing in recent years, whereas Brazil, a country that used to have one of the highest income inequality in the world, has shown much success in decreasing its poverty gap. 

If you're interested in reading more about it, click here

Hope that you'll enjoy reading the paper! :)

Nara and Kyoto Snapshots

On our way of Kyoto, we stopped by a temple and a shrine with wonderful structures. It was then that I learned the difference between a temple and a shrine, in which the former is affiliated to Buddhism while the latter is Shinto, as explained by our tour guide.

The first stop was Todaiji temple. There was a Sakura tree outside of the temple, that was my first close-up view of the unique flower. 

The temple is an antique wooden structure that houses a giant Buddha statue inside. The effort put into the preservation of the site was truly amazing.

There were also many deers roaming outside of the temple as well. Although they were super cute, to be honest, they freaked me out.

The shrine that we visited next was called the Kasuga-Taisha shrine. The mostly red-coloured shrine had a completely different vibe than the temple that we went to.

Temple or shrine hopping in Japan can truly be a unique experience. They are just simply beautiful!