No Hour of Power

GO GREEN

Turn off your lights every day of the year to make a difference

Richard Hartung, xtra@mediacorp.com.sg

EARTH Hour in Singapore last month energised thousands of people to take action and do their part to reduce the perils of global warming. But despite the mass participation, focusing on turning off the lights for just one hour may actually have been counterproductive. If Earth Hour made it seem like only a single hour of change is all that’s needed, it may also have sent a message that the other 8,759 hours of the year aren’t really so important.

The publicity for Earth Hour certainly did encourage action. Television commercials, signs at bus stops, advertisements, postcards and newspaper reports pushed people to do their part. The “60” logo — symbolising 60 minutes of darkness — seemed ubiquitous. Broadcasters picked up on the buzz, so listeners constantly heard about the need to turn off their lights. Many conversations the week before Earth Hour touched on “what will you be doing for Earth Hour?”

Hundreds of corporations and thousands of individuals chose to turn off the power for that one hour. Some schools and companies even turned off their lights for the entire weekend. At 8.30pm on March 28, lights were switched off in buildings around town, and thousands turned up for a celebration at Esplanade Park.

The actual impact, though, turned out to be limited. Power usage during the period dropped by less than 0.1 per cent, according to some estimates, though that figure could be higher if one counts the electricity not consumed for the entire weekend. While a walk around the CBD showed the lights were off in some buildings, lights remained on in so many restaurants, flats and offices it was a little hard to tell it was Earth Hour.

After all the hoopla, at 9.31pm, it was all over. And it’s when the lights came back on that the ideal behind Earth Hour started to show its cracks.

It was time to turn the lights back on for the rest of the next year. Unless participants understood that they need to do what they did during Earth Hour all year long, they could well feel they’ve already done their part for the entire year. And scheduling the hour conveniently on a weekend may have sent out the signal that all we need to do is lay off the lights once a year at a convenient time.

Earth Hour risks becoming a short-term annual fad rather than the first step of a longer-term solution to reduce global warming.

Not a fun run

It’s sort of like your doctor telling you to start exercising by signing up for a 10km charity fun run, then neglecting to say that you need to practice beforehand and continue afterwards. Running just once a year isn’t enough. Only by starting to exercise before the event and continuing to exercise afterwards are you likely to stay healthy. Similarly, only with continued efforts to reduce energy usage is the earth likely to become healthy again.

As conservation advocates like Nobel Laureate Al Gore have said, saving the planet requires changes to your daily routine. Every day!

More than 2,500 scientists gathered in Copenhagen in early March called for “sustained and effective mitigation” to avoid “dangerous climate change”. Saving the world is about reducing power usage and sustained action all year long.

Earth Hour organisers might contend, of course, that the event was a small but important step. As Carine Seror of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in response to one inquiry: “The larger objective of the Earth Hour campaign just might help us make a start” on saving the earth, and the event highlighted “a growing momentum all over the world to make change a reality”.

More than focusing on just the one hour, however, the clear message needs to be that continual action throughout the year is critical for reducing climate change. One solution could be to promote Earth Hour as a start and then show what to do every day — even after Earth Hour is over — to make a difference. Another could be publicising lessons like the Nature Conservancy’s “What You Can Do”, which shows what we can do every day — not for just one hour, but all year long — to make a real difference.

While money and resources to promote change are understandably scarce, re-examining the premise behind Earth Hour and using the event to promote long-term change could make sure that the actual message gets across.

Just like a 10km run, Earth Hour has the benefit of prompting some people to do something. To make a real difference, though, the message that change needs to happen throughout the year needs to sink in. While the intent of Earth Hour is good, it’s only a start, and the message should be that we all need to take action every hour of every day to save our planet.

WEEKEND XTRA

From WEEKEND TODAY, Voices – 18, 19-April-2009

Secret memos reveal ‘torture’

CIA INTERROGATIONS

But Obama says CIA officers won’t be charged for rough tactics used

WASHINGTON — United States President Barack Obama on Thursday blew the lid on harsh CIA terror interrogation techniques approved by ex-President George W Bush, including simulated drowning and sleep deprivation, that critics amounted to torture.

But despite releasing four partially blacked-out memos detailing the tactics, Mr Obama said operatives who carried out the interrogations would not be prosecuted, saying they acted on orders and were defending their country.

“This is a time for reflection, not retribution,” he said.

At the same time, Mr Obama’s attorney-general offered the operatives legal help if anyone else takes them to court over the harsh interrogation methods that were approved by the Bush administration.

The Bush administration memos describe the tough interrogation methods used against 28 Al Qaeda terror suspects.

The memos authorised keeping detainees naked, in painful standing positions and in cold cells for long periods of time. Other techniques included sleep deprivation, depriving them of solid food and slapping them.

In releasing the documents, the most comprehensive accounting yet of interrogation methods that were among the Bush administration’s most closely guarded secrets, Mr Obama said he wanted to move beyond “a dark and painful chapter in our history”.

“At a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.” he said.

On the other side, human rights advocates argued that Mr Obama should not have assured the CIA that officers who conducted interrogations would not be prosecuted if they used methods authorised by Bush lawyers in the memos.

“Government officials broke very serious laws: For there to be no consequences not only calls our system of justice into question, it leaves the gate open for this to happen again,” said The Centre for Constitutional Rights.

The memos produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel were released to meet a court-approved deadline in a lawsuit against the government in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union.

AGENCIES

From WEEKEND TODAY, World – 18, 19-Apirl-2009

Longer checklist for NEA

FOOD OUTLET HYGIENE

Teo Xuanwei, xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sg

AS THE dust settles on the worst case yet of mass food poisoning here, the gatekeeper of public health and hygiene in Singapore has vowed to act more vigilantly and firmly, to enforce higher hygiene standards.

Specifically, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will tighten its grip on committees managing temporary markets — intervening directly to correct lapses, when necessary, as opposed to playing an advisory role previously.

To dispel possible confusion in the stall-grading scheme, changes to processes will be “implemented straight away” — with decals to be issued immediately after assessments, for example.

While stressing that the existing grading scheme has “served us well for many years” and is set to stay, NEA director-general for public health Khoo Seow Poh said on Friday that linking rental rates to a stall’s grade — as mooted in a recent Today commentary — was an option to consider carefully. It could, he noted, be logistically difficult for private operators of food-premises.

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Measures ahead

• Decals to be issued immediately after grading assessment
• NEA will intervene to correct lapses, e.g. order a shut-down for cleaning
• Management committees must meet strict requirements (e.g. pest control arrangements) before temporary markets can be built

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Hygiene and cleanliness standards in food outlets have improved over the years, said Mr Khoo, and food poisoning cases here have been relatively rare — and never as serious as the April 6 Geylang Serai Temporary Market Indian rojak debacle that claimed two lives and caused over 150 to fall ill.

Nevertheless, he noted that no matter what grade a stall has, it just takes “one or two chaps to be careless” to lead to disaster. “One incident is one too many, so we will continue to do our best,” Mr Khoo promised.

Going forward, NEA will intervene in management committees if they are unable to clean up their act.

For instance, it will order operations to cease so that the temporary market can get a thorough scrub-down, or bring in its own pest control team if the committee fails to keep vermin infestation under control. Before construction begins on temporary markets, the agency will also “set down strict requirements upfront”.

The management committees will have to state clearly the market’s cleaning regimes and pest control arrangements, among other things.

Hawkers receiving their grade decals long after assessment will also be a thing of the past. NEA officers will issue temporary decals instantly after grading; a permanent one will follow later.

Stallholders will also have to hand over their old decals and enforcement officers going on rounds will ensure displayed decals match those in their records.

This change springs from the discovery that some Geylang Serai hawkers had received their updated decals only four months after their last evaluation in December.

Refresher courses on food and personal hygiene will also be held for hawkers, said Mr Khoo. And as the public also plays an important role in maintaining hygiene standards, NEA will step up education efforts.

From WEEKEND TODAY, News – 18, 19-April-2009

What if it had been rush hour?

Again, something leaning towards a call to the leaders of this government sector...

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COMMUTER SAFETY
Letter from Raymund Koh Joo Guan

I REFER to the report about the serious accident between a tour bus and an SBS Transit double-decker bus along Selegie Road on Tuesday at around 10am (“Bus-ted”, April 15).

The entire front left portion of the tour bus was mangled beyond recognition, showing the amount of damage an accident causes at speeds of around just 60kmh.

Every day, during peak hours, public buses are packed to the point where passengers are standing on the buses’ front steps. The safety of commuters, especially those squashed at the front, is at stake. With the added weight of an overcrowded bus, the distance needed to break would definitely be more.

Should an accident similar to the Selegie Road one have involved a public bus packed to the brim, hitting another vehicle from behind, the passengers on the steps and around the left wheel arch area would likely be killed or badly injured. Those standing anywhere on the bus would likely be affected by whiplash.

Can the Land Transport Authority or the Public Transport Council address this issue? Why should bus commuters be put in jeopardy daily? Isn’t there a limit as to how many standing passengers a bus can safely carry? Can’t the public bus operators put more buses on the road to prevent overcrowding?

As a First World nation, to ensure the safety of all commuters, everyone should be seated and no one forced to stand. Why does our first-class public transport system allow for a bus crammed full of passengers?

From TODAY, Voices – Friday, 17-April-2009

Singapore's shame

I think this goes also to the leadership issue... responsibility and accountability...

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Letter from Lucia Maes

HAVING once lived in Singapore, I’m disappointed at how the authorities have reacted to the Geylang Serai food poisoning cases that culminated in a couple of deaths and a miscarriage.

Although it was stallholder Sheik Allaudin’s poor food preparation practices that led to the tragedy, the food poisoning was really just the tip of the iceberg. What it had actually unearthed was the negligence of the governing authorities. The food grading decals were distributed only four months after the grades were revised. And Mr Sheik’s poor food preparation skills merely uncovered the chronic problem of the presence of rats.

The views on Singapore held by the international community may be similar to how they view China — as unhygienic and unreliable.

From TODAY, Voices – Friday, 17-April-2009

Ships must employ armed bodyguards

Letter from Roland Mah Kah Eng

I REFER to “Sailors to carry weapons?” (April 14). I am a certified public accountant and the auditor for more than 10 shipping companies and my clients in the industry tell me there is no use arming the crew with water hoses because the Somali pirates will only laugh at you.

The only way to ensure a ship’s safety is to have a proper bodyguard system. A trained bodyguard with automatic firearms knows when, how and what to shoot. However, these armed bodyguards are very expensive and may cost at least $1,500 a day.

The industry must also spread the news that every commercial ship sailing the Somali coastline and Indian Ocean has an armed bodyguard who has a permit to use firearms and will not hesitate to shoot.

I believe every ship should have an armed bodyguard, and nobody else should be armed. This will stop the Somali pirates because they are no match for trained gunfighters. Look at airlines — following 911, every plane now has a member of its crew trained in the use of firearms to deter any would-be hijacker. The shipping industry could take a leaf from their book.

From TODAY, Voices – Friday, 17-April-2009

Piracy: The new warfare

NEWS COMMENT
Robert Fox

The world’s navies have far superior weaponry, but the pirates off Somalia have the advantage of stealth and surprise. AFP

CAPTAIN Richard Phillips and the crew members of the Maersk Alabama are on their way home to a heroes’ reception following their liberation from Somali pirates on Easter Sunday. Capt Phillips gave himself up as a hostage to get the crew released. In turn, he was rescued by Navy Seal snipers from the destroyer USS Bainbridge who shot three pirates dead under cover of darkness.

The use of lethal force had been sanctioned by President Barack Obama, who thinks the problem of piracy is likely to grow. The decisive action by the United States Navy, however, seems to have had little deterrent effect — three freighters and two Egyptian coasters have been grabbed in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin since Capt Phillips was liberated.

In all, some 12 ships and 230 crew members are being held hostage by pirates. Said one pirate: “From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill (the hostages).”

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said: “We will be spending a lot of time over the next few weeks trying to figure out what in the world to do about this problem.” Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin is about the only growth industry in a region of shattered nations and economies. Because it is one of few moneyspinners, it is attracting some of the best brains.

The pirates seem to know how to foil some of the best navies currently operating in the area. The joint patrols by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and individual nations, including Russia and China, have had some effect, but the pirates have responded by raising their game. They now work hundreds of miles out in the ocean where they operate from mother ships, using wooden skiffs for reconnaissance patrols. The boats are made of wood and do not show up on radar.

In this, they show one of the key elements of “asymmetric tactics” in warfare. They are operating below the “threshold of sophistication” of the best-equipped military forces. They work outside the scope of modern weapons systems.

Navies of the world, including the US Navy and the Royal Navy, have to change their operational thinking to solve the piracy problem. The big navies will need to build many, many fast patrol ships to cover vulnerable choke points such as the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and even parts of the Mediterranean.

Britain’s new First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope said he saw piracy as part of the burgeoning threat from organized crime entities that now can operate outside formal states. They are acquiring access to new technologies, including remotely-triggered mines and crewless remote-controlled submarines and suicide boats. The navies of Nato and the EU must be prepared to meet this, he says.

Current orthodoxy sees piracy as a product or symptom of failed or rogue states. The inference from President Obama’s statements is that the world must fix the problem at its source — by fixing Somalia’s anarchy.

Strategist Robert D Kaplan argues in the New York Times: “Somalia is a failed state and has the longest coastline in mainland Africa, so piracy flourishes nearby. The 20th-century French historian Fernand Braudel called piracy a ‘secondary form of war’, that, like insurgencies on land, tends to increase in the lulls between conflicts among great states or empires.”

This seems to miss the mark. The insurgencies, pirate and crime conflicts are the wars of our times. It’s the states and empires that have changed, and with them the notions of military power and the standards and effectiveness of international law. The pirates, insurgents and Mafiosi run their own parallel power systems enforced by the bullet and bomb. While life is cheap inside these communities, the entities seem to be pretty durable.

That is why the pirates of Somalia — or the South China Sea and, perhaps in the future, the Mediterranean — are a real, living threat. They are something our security strategies should be aimed at, rather than the hypothetical new cold wars with which governments seem currently preoccupied.
The Guardian

From TODAY, World – Friday, 17-April-2009

United we can

FIGHTING CRIME
S’pore, M’sia, Brunei should tackle online threat together, says Shanmugam

SINGAPORE’S capabilities to deal with the legal challenges posed by new media platforms will need the help of its neighbours — and vice-versa.

Just as legal frontiers expand when countries become more inter-connected, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei “cannot afford to look only within our geographic or jurisdictional boundaries” to deal with criminal groups operating online, Law Minister K Shanmugam said at a meeting of the Attorney-General’s Chambers of the three countries.

Generally, criminal laws do not have extra-territorial reach, and the Internet allows criminal syndicates to operate without the need to step foot in the country where the offence is committed, he noted.

This, and the challenge of “keeping public discourse rational and honest”, will require greater cooperation between the three countries.

Mr Shanmugam suggested establishing common legal concepts, structures for cooperation and a stronger relationship between law enforcement agencies.

“Only then will we be able to effectively regulate what our children see and read on the internet, and also combat criminal syndicates seeking refuge in other countries,” he said.

Another area the three neighbours should look at is the “progressive liberalisation” of the legal sector, in order to enlarge local markets and to serve the region better.

Singapore recently awarded licenses to six international law firms to practise in almost all areas of Singapore law, and Mr Shanmugam said: “As we went through the process, we realised that essentially, some of the fears were unfounded and it was a good way to go.”

Meanwhile, the Republic welcomed yesterday a new centre for dispute resolution at the Singapore Management University’s School of Law.

SMU said the centre will enhance research and teaching capabilities in commercial transactions as well as emerging areas such as World Trade Organisation dispute settlement, international peace negotiations, Islamic arbitration and civilian conflict management.

From TODAY, News – Friday, 17-April-2009

Before we collaborate...

Hasnita A Majid in Vietnam
hasnita@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE will assess a country’s ability to absorb the transfer of ideas and knowledge before deciding whether to collaborate on joint projects. And if a country is not serious about knowledge transfer, the Republic will be reluctant to work with it, as it will be a fruitless effort.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew made this point while speaking to Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet during a courtesy call yesterday.

But Mr Lee is confident that Vietnam’s leadership wants to make a breakthrough in the new economy, evidenced by the success of the first two Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park projects in south Vietnam. With the support given by President Triet and his government, the joint venture has been a success and is now expanding to north Vietnam, said Mr Lee, who believes the new projects in Bac Ninh and Hai Phong will make similar progress as the ones in Ho Chi Minh City.

President Triet said the industrial park projects are symbols of good friendship between the two countries. He is also pleased with the progress made in the area of education collaboration.
CHANNEL NEWSASIA

From TODAY, News – Friday, 17-April-2009

Three more in the dock for hiring ‘phantom workers’

Ong Dai Lin
dailin@mediacorp.com.sg

FROM serving coffee, they now face the prospect of serving jail time for employing “phantom” workers.

Three coffeeshop operators were charged yesterday with falsely declaring the number of local workers on their payrolls so as to inflate their foreign worker entitlement.

Soh Seng Thiam, manager of Jurong Café, which operates two coffeeshops at Jurong East Street and Tampines, has been slapped with 14 charges, while Pam Yoon Chung and Ho Chin Lai, directors of two different food courts in Bukit Batok, face 15 and 26 charges respectively.

The trio are the latest to be hauled to court as the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) continues to tighten the screw on errant employers. Three have already been convicted since March 27, with each receiving a custodial sentence ranging from six to 16 months.

Yesterday, another was handed a 12-month jail term by a district court. Soo Eng Yong, the sole proprietor of Superb Plastics Manufacturing, had made false statements to the Controller of Work Passes in the work permit application forms of seven foreign employees last year.

Investigations revealed that Superb Plastics did not have any business operations and the factories it listed were empty. Soo also never had any jobs for these foreign workers and they were left to fend for themselves.

Said Mr Aw Kum Cheong, divisional director of the Foreign Manpower Management Division: “MOM will continue to pursue such cases aggressively to stamp out the practice. Employers should note the severe penalties handed down by the courts, and recognise that it is not worth the risk of getting involved in such scams.”

From TODAY, News – Friday, 17-April-2009

First underground oil facility

Work on Singapore’s first underground oil storage facility (picture) is finally underway after an eight-month delay.

Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) has appointed Hyundai Engineering, which has similar construction experience in Taiwan and Korea, to build the first phase of tunnels and caves under Jurong Island. Work on the $890-million project is expected to start by year-end, with the first two caves ready by 2013.

Two shafts 45 storeys high, which took workers two years to complete, are the main access points to a yet-to-be-constructed 8km network of tunnels.

The tunnels will connect five massive oil storage caverns — big enough to store 1.47 million cubic metres of liquid hydrocarbons like crude oil, or 580 Olympic-sized pools’ worth.

JTC said the cavern has been strategically constructed under the seabed on Jurong Island to be near potential customers already storing similar products above ground.

Phase 1 is also expected to save some 60 hectares of surface land which can be used for other higher value-added activities. Phase 2 could add a further 1.3 million cubic metres of storage space.

Storing strategic items like oil and ammunition underground has been a growing trend in Asia since the increased security risks post-911. JTC has studied similar projects in Norway, France, Japan and Korea.
Channel NewsAsia

From TODAY, News – Friday, 17-April-2009

Cuts are in the air

AIRLINE WOES

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) and Cathay Pacific Airways may soon have to go down the path that Qantas took earlier this week when the Aussie carrier slashed its profit forecast and announced 1,750 job cuts, say analysts.

“All airlines in Asia will have to make similar tough decisions,” said Mr Jim Eckes, managing director of industry adviser Indoswiss Aviation. “With traffic falling so rapidly, it’s going to be difficult for many airlines to make a profit.”

Traffic for Asia-Pacific carriers sank almost 13 per cent in February, the steepest decline since June, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

Qantas is examining measures, such as passengers tagging their own bags or checking in via mobile phone, to further cut costs.

“If your top line has fallen off the cliff, then you have to adjust your costs,” said Mr Christopher Wong, a fund manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia in Singapore. “Whether it’s cutting headcount or reducing working hours, that’s the only thing airlines can adjust.”

Already, SIA — which gets 40 per cent of its revenue from premium travel — is removing 17 per cent of its fleet starting April, slashing work days and freezing management wages and negotiating with pilots to take unpaid leave.

Cathay has also offered staff unpaid leave, curbed capacity growth and delayed a new cargo terminal in the city after posting a loss of HK$7.9 billion ($1.5 billion) in the second half. Its chairman Christopher Pratt last month said the aviation industry was in a “crisis”.

Mr Eckes said Asia Pacific airlines might be the hardest hit by the crisis because of their dependence on premium travellers. Filling up the coach-class seats won’t be enough to compensate for lack of premium travellers.

“Business demand has dropped sharply since August and that’s hurting profits,” said Makoto Murayama, an analyst Nomura Securities in Tokyo. “Things are going to get worse.”

Premium travel dropped the most in Asia in January, falling 23 per cent within the region, and 25 per cent on routes across the Pacific, according to Iata. BLOOMBERG

From TODAY, Business - Thursday, 16-April-2009

Possible Singapores, beyond Lee Kuan Yew

Channel NewsAsia - Tuesday, April 21

SINGAPORE: A People’s Action Party (PAP) split by internal schisms. Future leaders bereft of the "huge political legitimacy" that could be gained from endorsement by the man with unmatched moral and historical authority. These are some of the leadership fates that could befall a post—Lee Kuan Yew Singapore, as hotelier Ho Kwon Ping sees it.

And such "imponderable" scenarios could help explain why a "system of elders" is now taking shape in the political landscape.

"Perhaps it is to restrain factionalism, arbitrate disagreements, groom and assess future leaders, that the positions of senior minister and minister mentor have been institutionalised," said Mr Ho, who feels the PAP’s "extraordinary cohesion" over five decades has owed much to "the forceful personality of Lee Kuan Yew".

Mr Ho, who is also MediaCorp chairman, was speaking on Monday alongside Professor Kishore Mahbubani at a seminar organised by Nanyang Technological University’s Asian Journalism Fellowship programme. The topic? "Singapore Beyond Lee Kuan Yew: Institutionalising the Singapore Way".

Of this future, Prof Mahbubani, who Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, would not rule out a "significant reversal" of Mr Lee’s legacy, or the rise of a stronger Opposition usurping the one dominant party system — though he gave each scenario only a "one—sixth probability".

While a "smooth and seamless transition" was a two—thirds likelihood, Prof Mahbubani harked back to the words of former Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee, after the PAP’s long monopoly of parliament was broken in 1981. "As (Dr Goh) has wisely told us, failure happens when we fail to consider the possibility of failure."

So, for instance in the unlikely event of a strong opposition arising, would Mr Lee’s legacy be weakened? In fact, the "sharper political debates" arising could make Singaporeans more aware of the "precious political legacy they have enjoyed", said Prof Mahbabuni.

On the other hand, as has happened in South Korea and Taiwan, it could also lead to the old legacies being quickly lost and forgotten by the new generation. "I am frequently shocked when I meet younger Singaporeans who have never heard of Dr Goh," he said.

Both speakers were not alone in expressing uncertainty over how Singapore’s future, sans Mr Lee, would play out. During the Q&A session, which was off—the—record, the audience raised concerns such as how the country would be deprived of its most astute and influential critic — and whether Mr Lee’s legacy, or indeed Singapore, could unravel.

While Mr Lee’s retirement would "create a huge political vacuum", Prof Mahbubani believes Singapore has "done a lot" to protect his legacy, such as instilling a deep culture of meritocracy and incorruptibility.

And Mr Ho had no doubts Singaporeans could "muddle their way through", even if the PAP’s leadership renewal "fails to deliver what it has done for the past 50 years".

Mr Lee’s greatest legacy, he said, "is that the Singapore which he so passionately shaped will outlive not only him, but even his own party, should that ever come to pass".

The reason: In his single most critical imperative — nation building — Mr Lee has largely succeeded, said Mr Ho, who has found young Singaporeans to own a strong sense of involvement and ownership in the country, contrary to stereotype.

"Equally contrary to some people’s wishful thinking, there is not likely to be dramatic, broad—brush social or political liberalisation," said Mr Ho. "This is not a pent up society waiting for the demise of the strongman in order to overturn highly unpopular laws."

Rather, the government has the support of the politically—vital heartland in its pragmatic, incremental approach to change, even as it responds to tomorrow’s generation, he said.

— TODAY/so

From Yahoo! News – Tuesday, 21-April-2009
The original article is here.

Faster and cheaper

CIRCLE LINE

Fares same as for North-East Line, when five stations open on May 28

Leong Wee Keat

weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

WHEN the first five stations of the Circle Line swing into operation two days early on May 28, you would shave as much as two-fifths off the time it takes to travel from Buangkok to Toa Payoh Hub, or 15 per cent off the fare.

That’s because the journey using the new MRT line would be both 7 minutes quicker and cost 26 cents less than on the current train lines. And the Circle Line trip will take 18 minutes less than the direct bus Service 159, though the fare would be 14 cents more.

Overall, with the links that the new line will provide, more than 31,000 adult train trips per week would see fare reductions of between 5 and 77 cents. Commuters will also see travel time cut by as much as 27 minutes, depending on their origin and destination stations, said the Public Transport Council (PTC) yesterday.

Train fares on the new Circle Line will be the same as on the North-East Line (NEL), when service begins at Marymount, Bishan, Lorong Chuan, Serangoon and Bartley stations. Currently, a ride on the NEL costs 5 to 25 cents more than on the North-South and East-West lines.

Announcing this, the PTC noted that the projected unit operating cost of the Circle Line is at least 2.5 times that of the North-South and East-West lines, and similar to that of the NEL. Indeed, the Circle Line “is expected to operate at a loss in its initial years”, observed the council.

On the five-station stretch, automated three-car trains — which can hold about 930 passengers each — will run every 3 to 4 minutes during the peak periods, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

Boost for bus connectivity?

Residents can take comfort in the authorities’ assurance that no basic bus route will be changed with the opening of the Circle Line stretch. When the NEL opened in 2003, at least 20 services were stopped or re-routed.

And the good news, for those not within walking distance of the new stations: The LTA said a few private operators have expressed interest in providing bus services to some of the stations.

Cheery Bus Transport Service has applied to run a premium bus service linking Sin Ming Estate to Marymount MRT Station. The PTC is processing the application.

Bus Hub has also shown interest in running a service between Serangoon Gardens and Serangoon MRT.

The operator has conducted a market study and is still exploring the possibility, said director V Anilan. Some factors he is mulling over: Market size, bus schedules and fares. “I’m careful about going in,” Mr Anilan told Today. “We don’t want to enter a service but close the route in less than a year.”

As for the Circle Line operator, when asked about the projected initial operating losses, SMRT Trains vice-president Vincent Tan said: “As the next four stages of the Circle Line complete and open progressively, we expect ridership to grow ... We expect Circle Line to be accretive when the entire line opens.”

By then, it is expected that about 10 to 15 per cent of trips currently made on the most heavily-loaded sections of the MRT network would have moved over to the Circle Line.

From TODAY, News– Friday, 17-April-2009

‘What about the lack of hygiene?’

Letter from M Lukshumayeh

MR SHEIK Allaudin Mohideen has had his licence suspended and will be charged in court. With that, an individual has been held accountable for the food poisoning outbreak at Geylang Serai. What about the rat infestation and the lack of hygiene and cleanliness?

Should not the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the market’s management committee (MC) be held accountable? Surely it must be obvious that if NEA or the MC had undertaken their duties diligently, such a tragedy might not have happened?

It has always been said that not only must justice be done, it must also be seen to be done. In this instance, it makes one wonder if there is true accountability.

From TODAY, Voices – Thursday, 16-April-2009

Something extra is brewing at Han’s

EXPANSION PLANS

It aims to open two new outlets and invest in training and upgrading equipment

 

Valarie Tan, valarie@mediacorp.com.sg

Han’s managing director Han Choon Fook hopes to raise the standard further. Wee Teck Hian

 

DESPITE the recession, something’s brewing at Han’s Cafe and Cake House.

The 28-year-old chain is investing over $900,000 to expand its operations. This includes new gourmet coffee machines for its 21 outlets across Singapore.

Mr Han Choon Fook, Han’s managing director, said: “We’re hoping that if we can raise the standard further, we can one day make gourmet coffee a strong beverage in Han’s.”

It already sells about 3 million cuppas each year.

The chain said the recession has not significantly affected business so far, but its management warned turnover could fall by about 5-to-10 per cent should the economic situation worsens.

In the meantime, it is tapping on government subsidies to seize new opportunities, including upgrading staff skills.

It is taking advantage of subsidies from the Workforce Development Authority and SPRING Singapore to engage consultants for in-house customer service training for some 300 frontline staff.

Its courses, conducted in two phases, will cost the firm about $300,000. Training started even before the recession kicked in late last year.

“We know that in the competitive market we have got to raise our standards,” said Mr Han.

To maintain staff morale, the company plans to pass on to its workers money it receives under the Jobs Credit Scheme.

Under this scheme, the Government is providing cash grants to employers to help them preserve jobs by subsidising their manpower costs.

Employers are receiving a 12 per cent cash grant on the first $2,500 of each month’s wages for each employee on their CPF payroll. Few firms have been passing this on.

Han’s business is growing organically with plans to open two new outlets by May, each costing about $250,000. A new outlet in Buona Vista will open by the end of April and another in Jurong in May.

Its main challenge right now is finding young, qualified Singaporeans to fill frontline and operations positions. Even though half of its current 360-strong workforce are from overseas, Han’s hopes the government can be more flexible to allow them to hire more in the future.

Han’s annual turnover grew 16 per cent last year to $28 million.

It is no stranger to recessions, having survived the Sars crisis in 2003 when it saw turnover fall by about 10 per cent.

Looking into the future, it is working on new concepts to reach out to a younger market to cater to younger people’s food and drink tastes.

It is also not ruling out expanding into overseas markets, like China and Vietnam. Han’s has sent officers to franchising exhibitions to further explore the idea.

CHANNEL NEWSASIA

From TODAY, Enterprise – Wednesday, 15-April-2009

The age of might is on the wane

NEWS COMMENT

Western societies no longer have an appetite for sacrifice.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

 

FOR the family of Mr Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama, his rescue by special forces was the best possible Easter present. For Americans, it was an exhilarating display of American power and for President Barack Obama, it was a gratifying demonstration that he is not the wimpy pacifist the Republicans called him.

But to a detached observer, this gung-ho adventure in the Indian Ocean is the rule-proving exception. What we have recently seen far more often is what a New York Times headline on the piracy story said last Thursday: “US power has limit”. We are dealing, that is to say, with one of the most important discoveries of our time: The impotence of great might.

Today there is only one hyperpower. The US is, on the face of it, mightier than any other imperial power in history. And imperial is the word: It has been more than 50 years since Reinhold Niebuhr, the great American moral philosopher wrote about the new age of American empire, “however frantically we deny it”.

American military spending is very much greater than 10 countries combined, friend or foe. Even now, 20 years after the Soviet Union began to crumble, the US air force and navy hold an immense number of nuclear warheads, armed and ready to launch — but where? With all that might, the military operations in western Asia have turned out to be far more difficult than Washington originally envisaged. By autumn, it will be eight years since US forces entered Afghanistan, and it has been six since the invasion of Iraq. Even six years is longer than the combined length of American participation in the first and second world wars.

Although the Afghan campaign was originally more justifiable than Iraq , it now looks less winnable. Even in Iraq, the vaunted success of the “surge” may prove deceptive if it persuades the Americans that they can win a permanent military victory there.

This is not as new as we might think. Go back to the heyday of the Cold War. The US and the Soviet Union each held a nuclear arsenal that could annihilate the other, or for that matter the whole world. They seemed mightier by far than any other military and imperial powers in history, surely capable of defeating any enemy. But what happened? The Americans were humiliated in Vietnam by a peasant army, and the Russians were humiliated in Afghanistan by another. Two ferocious lions might be ready to fight each other to the death, but could not deal with swarms of gnats.

There are few more startling illustrations of this impotence of might than the pirates, or the country they come from. A hundred years ago, any one of half a dozen imperial powers could have conquered Somalia in a matter of weeks with a couple of gunboats and a few battalions.

Today Somalia has been a collapsed state for nearly 20 years, in lawless confusion that no outside power can or will subdue. It harbours bands of men in light craft armed with rifles who can seize 50,000-tonne tankers flying the flags of western states. And there is almost nothing anyone can do, despite Sunday’s escapade.

Since 1993 and the bloody “Black Hawk down” fiasco in Mogadishu, the Americans have steered well clear of Somalia. They could nuke it flat, but that does not quite meet the case. And that episode is instructive. The Americans were horrified by the loss of 18 of their men, but at least 1,000 Somalis were killed at the same time. Likewise, the Americans have been perturbed by the loss of more than 4,000 of their forces in Iraq, as they were dismayed by nearly 60,000 US dead in Vietnam.

Nothing is more frightening to us than suicide bombing. It is indeed repugnant, but it also proves what the Roman philosopher Seneca said long ago: “The man who is not afraid to die will always be your master.” That applies, above all, to prosperous, modern western societies, which no longer have any appetite for sacrifice and suffering. Is it any wonder we are mighty but weak at once?

THE GUARDIAN

From TODAY, World– Wednesday, 15-April-2009

More take a stand on piracy

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

But IP rights owners face challenges during recession

 

Alicia Wong, alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

 

MORE people are going for the real deal but more are also not deterred from buying pirated products or downloading material from dubious sources.

The second biennial Intellectual Property (IP) Perception Survey, commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), found that 45.8 per cent of respondents bought original products because of advertising and promotional efforts against piracy and illegal file-sharing. This is significantly higher than the 40 per cent in 2006, when the last survey was held.

On the flip side, 29 per cent — up sharply from 20 per cent in 2006 — disagreed when asked if they had bought original products because of the anti-piracy campaign. This meant there were fewer neutrals.

The survey — which polled 1,011 Singaporeans above 15 years old between October and January — did not ask them directly if they had bought pirated products or downloaded illegally on the Internet because it was thought respondents would not answer truthfully to this question.

Still, “more people taking a stand show an understanding of the issue,” IPOS director Yuen Kum Cheong said. Choosing to emphasise the positive, he added: “The good news is that more are buying original goods.”

The survey also found that nine out of 10 understand the importance of protecting IP rights and are aware that infringing them could have legal consequences.

However, that awareness does not correspond strongly with their purchase decision. Only 66 per cent said the promotional efforts made them want to buy original products.

And only 57.8 per cent agreed that “buying pirated goods is a form of theft”, up slightly from 55 per cent two years ago.

With Singapore mired in its worst-ever recession and consumers tightening their purse strings, will efforts to stop piracy be hampered? “This would be a very challenging time for IP rights owners,” acknowledged IPOS director-general Liew Woon Yin.

“But we will... reach out to say that in these trying times, it is more important to buy the original because (otherwise) what we will be seeing is a loss of jobs.”

IPOS will continue working with schools and industry partners to communicate the negative impact of IP rights infringement beyond just legal consequence, the agency said.

From TODAY, News – Wednesday, 15-April-2009

Savers spend, spenders save

BUSINESS COMMENT

Policies that encourage such rebalancing will help world economy

Stephen Roach

 

DEBATE rages over the endgame For the Great Recession. The broad consensus among policymakers and business leaders is that the world economy is in the midst of its worst decline since the 1930s Depression. There is a presumption that another depression is a distinct possibility if immediate steps are not taken to contain the downward spiral.

This debate misses the point — and dangerously so. Monetary and fiscal authorities have made it quite clear that they are prepared to do everything in their power to avoid such an outcome. I suspect they will ultimately get their way. Yet there is a serious risk to this policy strategy. By fixating on the anti-depression drill, the authorities are failing to address the root cause of the current crisis and recession — the lethal unwinding of unsustainable global imbalances.

Unfortunately, the myopia of the political cycle pre-ordains such a policy response. A resumption of economic growth is all that ever seems to matter for poll-driven politicians. Tough problems are always deferred with a vacuous promise to tackle them in due course. Then that due course always is pushed out further and further in time.

This is the mindset that got us into this mess. The United States’ current account deficit, one of the most glaring manifestations of an economy built on quicksand, did not emerge out of thin air. It was the outgrowth of an unprecedented shortfall of domestic saving. Saving itself was depressed by the illusions of an asset-dependent American economy and a willingness of consumers to live well beyond their means through extracting equity from over-valued homes.

The denial was global in scope. Export-led economies were delighted to draw support from bubble-dependent American consumers. And now, that house of cards has collapsed.

The Depression Foil might well end up recreating this madness. Once again, the US is leading the charge. The Fed wants to get credit flowing again to still over-extended American consumers, Congress wants to stop the bleeding in the housing market, and the White House wants consumers to start spending again.

Put it together and it all smacks of a dangerous sense of deja vu — promoting a false recovery by kick-starting over-extended American consumers to borrow once again by leveraging their major asset.

The Depression Foil blinds policymakers and politicians to the imperatives of global rebalancing. This crisis and the wrenching recession it has spawned are all about a destabilising shift in the mix of global saving and aggregate demand.

That mix needs to be redressed. The excess spenders in the US need to save and the excess savers in the rest of the world, especially in Asia, need to spend. Policies that encourage such rebalancing will put the world economy on a more stable and sustainable path and go a long way in avoiding another crisis like this.

Yet, the Depression Foil makes it exceedingly difficult for an unbalanced world to get its act together. The recently concluded G20 summit was notable for its failure to address this critical challenge. Policymakers and politicians need to move beyond their depression fixation and aim at achieving a better balance in the global economy before it is too late.

The writer is the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia. This is an abridged version of a commentary that first appeared on Bloomberg yesterday.

From TODAY, Business – Tuesday, 14-April-2009

SINGAPORE ROUNDUP

3,000 jobs at ION Orchard
Due to open in under four months, ION Orchard is launching a recruitment exercise for over 3,000 positions. Mall manager Orchard Turn Developments is interviewing candidates for various positions. What's available: Frontline customer service and technical jobs, and retail positions with the likes of Burberry, Club 21, Sephora, Starbucks Coffee, Zara and others.

The drive is in collaboration with the Workforce Development Agency and the NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). Recruits will undergo training which could include etiquette training, grooming and interpersonal skills.

Chief executive of e2i Ang Hin Kee urged jobseekers "to adopt a positive attitude towards service, and be willing to work shifts and weekends". Visit www.e2i.com.sg or call 6474 3777. Registration closes April 24.


$287k for workers' welfare
Oil giant Shell has donated $287,000 to two welfare organisations for workers, the Lighthouse Club Singapore (LHC) and the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home).

Together with 24 of its contractors, Shell pooled $187,000 for LHC's programmes for construction workers who fall victim to workplace accidents, as well as to their families. Its $100,000 donation to Home will go to social integration services and humanitarian assistance, among others, for abused and neglected foreign workers.


438 HDB units up for sale
The Housing and Development Board has put 438 flats on the market for its half-yearly sale. The units comprise 10 three-room flats, 313 four-room flats, 80 five-room flats and 35 executive flats located in 23 towns and estates, mostly in Sengkang, Yishun, Jurong West and Punggol.

Interested buyers may submit their applications at www.hdb.gov.sg until April 20. Queue position of applicants will be released from May 13.

Those who apply after the application period will be given a queue position, on a first-come-first-served basis, after the earlier applications. Any flats unselected will remain open for booking on a walk-in basis.


From TODAY, News - Tuesday, 14-April-2009