My Geography World

Everst Base Camp Trek

2011-12-15T13:38:00.003+08:00

Mount Everest

Namche Bazaar from the east

Namche Bazaar from the west

But there isn't enough water

2011-11-02T18:49:00.001+08:00

THE world's population reached seven billion this week. The day, Monday, was marked with becoming happiness in countries that symbolically ushered in seven-billionth births. But it is the business of the United Nations Population Fund to inject realism into a statistical milestone few earthlings care about. It warns against over-consumption of resources: This was true before the fifth billion was crossed a generation ago. More optimistically, it says the crowded world could have thriving cities and productive labour that will grow economies, given the right planning and investment.

That is demanding a high threshold of proof. As 43 per cent of the seven billion are aged under 25, education and training obviously will make the difference between hope and despair.

It would have been nice if some of the increase of the past generation had been home-produced, in Singapore, for one. Or in Japan and South Korea. But what has been overlooked in the numbers lark is that falling fertility rates of the past half century - from six births per 1,000 to 2.5 - could see slower population growth than the addition of a billion every dozen years. It is possible the end-century number would be several billion short of 14-15 billion, at current rates of increase. Whatever the profile, competition for resources is the one constant that governments and the UN have to be watchful about. It is not food production. The world can feed itself. Such shortages that occur are mainly the result of questionable political choices and the machinations of food multinationals and futures markets. It is not about oil: Alternatives can be found or new industrial processes will emerge.

It is about water. Rivers cannot be transported to arid lands. 'Owners' of rich river sources and basins (China and Turkey are examples) will face increasing conflict with downstream nations as demand rises.

The World Resources Institute, a United States think-tank, calculates that water use will rise by 50 per cent in developing nations by 2025. Two representations highlight the challenges. The first: Only 2.5 per cent of the Earth's water is fresh, with two-thirds of that frozen. How soon can it be when oceans of salty water can be mined cheaply?

The second: It requires 100 litres of water to grow 1kg of potatoes, but to produce 1kg of beef takes 13,000 litres. There is scant chance of a change in eating habits when the middle-class multitudes of China and India are taking to meat-eating with gusto.

But if industry and governments would be as imaginative in seeking solutions as scientists are graphic in posing the challenge, Earth may not feel so overcrowded.

Not all inequality is created equal

2011-11-02T18:45:00.001+08:00

While protesters and the media aim their anger at top earners, the fact that those with college degrees earn 75 per cent more than the average high school graduate is largely ignored. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Income gap a problem but bigger issue is divide between grads and non-grads

By David Brooks

WE LIVE in a polarising society, so perhaps it's inevitable that our experience of inequality should be polarised, too. In the first place, there is what you might call Blue Inequality. This is the kind experienced in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Houston and the District of Columbia. In these places, you see the top 1 per cent of earners zooming upwards, amassing more income and wealth. The economists Jon Bakija, Adam Cole and Bradley Heim have done the most authoritative research on who these top 1 per cent are.

Roughly 31 per cent started or manage non-financial businesses. About 16 per cent are doctors, 14 per cent are in finance, 8 per cent are lawyers, 5 per cent are engineers and about 2 per cent are in sports, entertainment or the media.

If you live in or around these big cities, you see stores and entire neighbourhoods catering to the top 1 per cent. You see a shift in social norms. Up until 1970 or so, a chief executive would have been embarrassed to take home more than US$20 million (S$25 million). But now there is no shame, and top compensation zooms upwards.

You also see the superstar effect that economists have noticed in the income data. Within each profession, the top performers are now paid much better than the merely good or average performers.

If you live in these big cities, you see people similar to yourself, who may have gone to the same college, who are earning much more while benefiting from low tax rates, wielding disproportionate political power, gaining in prestige and contributing seemingly little to the social good. That is the experience of Blue Inequality.

Then there is what you might call Red Inequality. This is the kind experienced in Scranton, Des Moines, Naperville, Macon, Fresno, and almost everywhere else. In these places, the crucial inequality is not between the top 1 per cent and the bottom 99 per cent. It's between those with a college degree and those without. Over the past several decades, the economic benefits of education have steadily risen. In 1979, the average college graduate made 38 per cent more than the average high school graduate, according to the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke. Now the average college graduate makes more than 75 per cent more.

Moreover, college graduates have become good at passing down advantages to their children. If you are born with parents who are college graduates, your odds of getting through college are excellent. If you are born to high school grads, your odds are terrible.

In fact, the income differentials understate the chasm between college and high school grads. In the 1970s, high school and college grads had very similar family structures. Today, college grads are much more likely to get married, they are much less likely to get divorced and they are much, much less likely to have a child out of wedlock.

Today, college grads are much less likely to smoke than high school grads, they are less likely to be obese, they are more likely to be active in their communities, they have much more social trust, they speak many more words to their children at home.

Some research suggests that college grads have much bigger friendship networks than high school grads. The social divide is even starker than the income divide.

These two forms of inequality exist in modern America. They are related but different. Over the past few months, attention has shifted almost exclusively to Blue Inequality.

That's because the protesters and media people who cover them tend to live in or near the big cities, where the top 1 per cent is so evident. That's because the liberal arts majors like to express their disdain for the shallow business and finance majors who make all the money. That's because it is easier to talk about the inequality of stock options than it is to talk about inequalities of family structure, child-rearing patterns and educational attainment. That's because many people are wedded to the notion that our problems are caused by an oppressive privileged class that perpetually keeps its boot stomped on the neck of the common man.

But the fact is that Red Inequality is much more important. The zooming wealth of the top 1 per cent is a problem, but it's not nearly as big a problem as the tens of millions of Americans who have dropped out of high school or college. It's not nearly as big a problem as the 40 per cent of children who are born out of wedlock. It's not nearly as big a problem as the nation's stagnant human capital, its stagnant social mobility and the disorganised social fabric for the bottom 50 per cent.

If your ultimate goal is to reduce inequality, then you should be furious at the doctors, bankers and CEOs. If your goal is to expand opportunity, then you have a much bigger and different agenda.

NEW YORK TIMES

Jagdish Bhagwati: Does Redistributing Income Reduce Poverty?

2011-11-02T18:36:00.001+08:00

The writer Jagdish Bhagwati suggests that the poor need greater access to education in order to increase their economic opportunities and social mobility -- PHOTO: AP

NEW YORK - Many on the left are suspicious of the idea that economic growth helps to reduce poverty in developing countries. They argue that growth-oriented policies seek to increase gross national product, not to ameliorate poverty, and that redistribution is the key to poverty reduction. These assertions, however, are not borne out by the evidence.

Since the 1950's, developmental economists have understood that growth in GNP is not synonymous with increased welfare. But, even prior to independence, India's leaders saw growth as essential for reducing poverty and increasing social welfare. In economic terms, growth was an instrument, not a target - the means by which the true targets, like poverty reduction and the social advancement of the masses, would be achieved.

A quarter-century ago, I pointed out the two distinct ways in which economic growth would have this effect. First, growth would pull the poor into gainful employment, thereby helping to lift them out of poverty. Higher incomes would enable them to increase their personal spending on education and health (as seems to have been happening in India during its recent period of accelerated growth).

Second, growth increases state revenues, which means that the government can potentially spend more on health and education for the poor. Of course, a country does not necessarily spend more on such items simply because it has increased revenue, and, even if it does, the programs it chooses to fund may not be effective.

In almost willful ignorance of the fact that the growth-centered model has proved itself time and again, skeptics advocate an alternative 'redistributive' developmental model, which they believe will have a greater impact on reducing poverty. Critics of the growth model argue that it is imperative to redistribute income and wealth as soon as possible. They claim that the Indian state of Kerala and the country of Bangladesh are examples where redistribution, rather than growth, has led to better outcomes for the poor than in the rest of India.

Yet, as Columbia University economist Arvind Panagariya's recent work shows, Kerala's social statistics were better than those in the rest of the country even before it instituted its current redistributive model. Moreover, Kerala has profited immensely from remittances sent home by its emigre workers in the Middle East, a factor unrelated to its redistributive policy. As for Bangladesh, the United Nations' Human Development Index, admittedly a problematic source, ranks it below India.

In impoverished countries where the poor exceed the rich by a huge margin, redistribution would increase the consumption of the poor only minimally - by, say, a chapati a day - and the increase would not be sustainable in a context of low income and high population growth. In short, for most developing countries, growth is the principal strategy for inclusive development - that is, development that consciously includes the marginal and poorest members of a society.

But the political sustainability of the growth-first model requires both symbolic and material efforts. While growth does benefit the poor, the rich often benefit disproportionately. So, to keep the poor committed to the system as their economic aspirations are aroused, the wealthy would be well advised to indulge less in conspicuous consumption.

At the same time - and more importantly - the poor need greater access to education in order to increase their economic opportunities and social mobility.

'Less excess and more access' must become the principle that guides development policy.

Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University and Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Co-Chair with President Tarja Halonen of Finland of the UNCTAD Eminent Persons Group on Developing Countries in the World Economy.

Spread of fast food weighs heavy in India

2011-08-29T12:34:00.003+08:00

Proliferation of global chains changing habits and worrying both doctors and parents

NEW DELHI: Shivam Kumar, an eighth grade student, likes nothing better than a McChicken burger from McDonald's. Sometimes, he doesn't even ask his parents to get one, but just picks up the phone and orders home delivery.

'He goes out with friends and they end up eating at some fast-food restaurant. At home, too, some days we just end up ordering in,' said his mother Rita, an education consultant.

On average, Shivam eats at McDonald's at least three times a week - and that is not counting Domino's Pizza or Pizza Hut at least once a week as well.

The 13-year-old's eating habits are emblematic of those of many middle-class Indians.

In the last decade or so, international fast-food chains such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza, KFC and Subway have increasingly entered the market, and flooded it with menus tailored to the local palate.

Tired of the usual burgers and pizza? In India, you can get a chicken tikka pizza, paneer (cottage cheese) tikka sandwich, or a McAloo (potato) burger.

US chains such as Applebee's and Johnny Rockets are also keen to get a bite of India's lucrative US$13billion (S$16billion) fast-food sector, which is growing at 28 per cent every year.

According to research firm Euromonitor, Indians spent US$400 million at fast-food restaurants in 2009.

The fast-food invasion worries doctors and parents, who feel that the influx of junk food, coupled with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle among children, is increasing the risk of health problems like obesity and diabetes.

While this is a global trend, India is still well behind other countries.

Just 16 per cent of its population are overweight or obese, a lot less than the 29 per cent in China and 50per cent in Russia and Brazil, according to a 2010 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report.

But Indians are genetically prone to storing more body fat per kilo than, say, Europeans, research has consistently shown, which puts obese Indians at greater risk of getting diabetes - already a leading disease here.

Home-cooked food in India is generally not fatty, although those in the country's south are more exposed as they eat more rice and rice-based dishes. But the changing diets are adding to the kilos, say experts.

Recent studies show that 17per cent to 20per cent of India's children between the ages of nine and 18 are overweight or obese - above the national average - while their average weight has risen by 5kg in the last two decades.

'The increase in childhood obesity has been due to unhealthy eating habits, coupled with sedentary lifestyle,' said Dr Anoop Misra, a director at the Diabetes Foundation (India).

'Obesity in India is increasing at an alarming rate.'

A study conducted by the foundation last year found that children aged between nine and 18 regarded eating fast food as 'fashionable'.

McDonald's, for instance, has been reeling the customers in with affordable burgers - anything from 30 rupees (80 Singapore cents) - and reliable home-delivery services, and the chain's restaurants, with their central locations and modern decor, are popular hangouts.

When the foundation surveyed 1,800 children, it found that a third of them ate fried food at least two to three times a week, while 45 per cent ate chips just as frequently.

Fast-food chains, however, defend their menus and say they offer healthy options too.

Domino's stocks wheat thin-crust pizzas, local chain Nirula has low-fat ice cream, and Subway has 97per cent fat-free sandwiches.

McDonald's, too, stresses that its localised menu - which is free of pork and beef - has vegetarian options such as Paneer Wrap and McAloo Tikki burger.

'We have a whole range of vegetarian products in India,' said Mr Amit Jatia, the vice-chairman of Hardcastle Restaurants, the franchisee of the famous double arches.

'On the breakfast side, we have a whole range of healthy options. Our milkshakes have just 2to 3 per cent fat.

'If you go to a McDonald's, you should be able to find nutritional leaflets placed near the counter.'

Mr Jatia also pointed out that traditional food is sometimes no better.

'We have samosa, idli and dosa, where a lot of ghee goes into it,' he said. 'We are not saying you must eat McDonald's food every day. Our point of view is have a balanced lifestyle and eat everything in moderation.'

Not everyone is convinced by the 'healthy options' argument, however.

Many point out that the lure of fast food has even gone into the schools.

Many schools have tied up with fast-food chains to serve burgers, pizzas and fried snacks like pakoras (deep-fried vegetable fritters) in their canteens.

This prompted the Uday Foundation, which deals with children's issues, to file a petition calling for a ban on the sale of junk food and carbonated drinks both in and within a 500m radius of educational institutions.

Doing so 'will make our kids feel better, grow better and learn better and it will improve the nutritional quality of school meals', the non-governmental group said in a statement last year.

The federal government has also urged states to consider such a ban.

But junk food is just one part of the problem, said experts. The other half is an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

With many Indians moving to high-rise apartments and with a shortage of playgrounds in the city, children are spending more time than ever in front of television sets and computers, they noted.

In a recent study, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India found that children spend some 35 hours watching television every week.

More than half (55 per cent) said they prefer this to playing outside with friends.

gnirmala@sph.com.sg

2011-08-20T22:12:00.000+08:00

4E2 Thursday Mock Test on River

2011-08-16T21:00:00.001+08:00

4E2,
Please click the link for inserts in my previous post and study Photograph B and C for Question 4(a) (i) and (ii) on rivers. You'll be tested only on rivers.

2011-08-12T11:47:00.002+08:00

4E2,
please click here, to look at the figure for your mock exam on Tuesday. Only need to look at the first figure, which are photograph A and B that show two different coasts.

Girl Effect

2011-08-12T10:20:00.001+08:00

Content's Page for File Check

2011-06-29T10:00:00.001+08:00

Anti-logging activist murdered in Amazon

2011-06-01T17:39:00.007+08:00

I remember when I taught some of you about the conservation of the rainforests and illegal loggers actually killed some of the environmentalists as they obstruct their activities. Many were surprised that such a thing could happen. José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, also known by his nickname of "Ze Claudio" in Brazil, a anti-logging activist was recently killed on 24 May because of his strong objection to the illegal logging carried out at the Amazon forest. Click here and here to read more. It's a very sad day for Amazon and Amazon is crying ...

When money is not the key to happiness

2011-05-29T18:17:00.001+08:00

May 24, 2011

MEMO FROM BEIJING

Study finds relatively poor Shijiazhuang is China's happiest city

By Grace Ng, China Correspondent

Women forming the word 'happy' at a Guangzhou bikini contest in southern Guangdong province earlier this month. The Chinese Communist Party leadership is on a drive to make citizens happy as it strives to keep social stability by showing it cares about their well-being. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE people of Shijiazhuang, capital of northern Hebei province and an industrial hub, have reason to cheer.

This month, the city with a population of about 11 million was named China's happiest city.

It beat more than 290 Chinese cities to the title in an annual competitiveness study by a government think-tank.

The news was greeted with both shock and envy - that this relatively poor city could grab such a coveted position and score major political points with the top leadership, whose new campaign is to make people happy.

This was the first time that the closely watched annual survey included a 'happiness index', as the Chinese Communist Party strives to maintain social stability by showing that it cares about the people's well-being.

Linyi in Shandong province and Yangzhou in Jiangsu province were placed second and third. Beijing squeezed into the top 10 at No. 9.

What the survey showed, like several other studies before it, is that becoming the world's second largest economy has not made the vast majority of China's 1.3 billion population happier.

Last month, China was ranked 92nd out of 124 countries in a Gallup poll in which people evaluated their own well-being. In March, 94 per cent of 1,350 people surveyed by the state media said they were 'unhappy' or felt only 'so-so'.

The latest study, which came amid fresh reports of record inflation and rising housing prices, showed that the richest mainland cities were also among the unhappiest.

Shanghai, for instance, was ranked the second most competitive city after Hong Kong, but came in a dismal 205th in the 'happiness index'.

The Pearl of the Orient scored high in terms of economic strength and also boasted the largest number of billionaires in China. But the city's residents railed against its air pollution, traffic and stress levels - some of the happiness indicators.

In contrast, Shijiazhuang fell five places to 46th in competitiveness terms.

But its people, whose average income level is less than half of that in Shanghai, scored high in contentment.

Not bad for a place whose most recent claim to fame was as the epicentre of the 2008 tainted milk crisis that sickened some 300,000 people.

As the headquarters of dairy giant Sanlu Group, found to have produced melamine-laced milk, the city became a hotbed of controversy regarding corrupt officials and food safety - two of the top causes of mass discontent often cited in nationwide polls.

Not surprisingly, Shijiazhuang these days is flooded with local media, officials and tourists all seeking its secret to happiness.

Some local residents interviewed cited security - Shijiazhuang is the base for military troops whose task is to defend nearby Beijing, the national capital.

Others attributed it to the rising standard of living as average local incomes rose 10 per cent last year.

But one Shijiazhuang native, who moved to Beijing two years ago in search of a better life - and has yet to find it, offered another explanation.

'I don't think life is that great here. It's just that people in Shijiazhuang, despite their problems, feel less unhappy than those people in the big cities who have more to be unhappy about,' said Ms Zhang Shangxia, 22, who works in a hair salon and sends money back to her family in Shijiazhuang.

Having seen property prices skyrocket and experienced stress at work and horrid jams in Beijing, Ms Zhang admits she is tempted to go home where 'there are fewer factors that could drive one into depression'.

However, she added: 'In the coming years, when Shijiazhuang becomes a much bigger, richer industrial city, the same problems may appear too.'

Indeed, Chinese people's feelings of happiness may be based more on their expectations of a better life than their actual environment.

'Chinese people like to compare themselves with others, so those in richer cities will feel more discontent,' said psychology scholar Feng Lei.

For now, at least, Shijiazhuang can bask in the limelight of being a model city for China's future development, much like Chinese coastal cities that were lauded in the 1980s for their rapid reform and prosperity.

Not to be outdone, Chongqing and Guangdong have unveiled their own five-year economic blueprints which outline strategies to raise happiness levels.

The moves are in line with the national five-year economic masterplan, which lowers the economic growth target to 7 per cent and aims for more social equity.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who unveiled this plan in March, said at the time: 'Everything we do is aimed at letting people live more happily and with more dignity.'

He also said provincial officials' performance should be based not just on economic results, but on how they improve welfare services such as health and education.

But many people are not holding their breath about the success of this official happiness campaign.

'This competition to be China's happiest city benefits only the officials who make up the results, not the people,' said one netizen on a popular forum, kdnet.net.

'It's good that the government advocates improving people's well-being, but it's just too difficult,' said Beijing-based hotel manager Guan Ming, 40.

'The old mindset of putting public interest first is gone. Now it's just power and money (driving things). If this does not change, society will not improve, and people's happiness will not rise.'

graceng@sph.com.sg

Additional reporting by Lina Miao

Job-seekers willing but unqualified

2011-05-29T18:08:00.004+08:00

May 29, 2011

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT IN INDONESIA

Growing pool of young people lacking in skills and education

By Zubaidah Nazeer, Indonesia Correspondent

An ILO report said job openings for the young had not improved since the 1990s. They are typically low-paying or may be temporary. -- PHOTO: AFP

Jakarta: Diploma holder Yuni Sugrondo has jumped from one contract job to another in the last three years.
Her stints as administrative assistant paid up to 1.5 million rupiah (S$220) a month, just enough to buy food and contribute to her family's expenses for their house.
The 24-year-old, who studied management at a private institute in Jakarta, has not been able to find a permanent job. Employers tell her she lacks specific skills for the jobs in human resources that she really wants.
'That is why I want to take a course in human resources so I can get into that industry. But first I need to earn enough to save money,' she said.

Ms Yuni is among a growing number of Indonesians aged between 15 and 24 who have yet to benefit from Indonesia's economic boom, analysts say. The problem is that many of these young people lack the education and skills to land well-paying jobs.
According to the World Bank, the Indonesian workforce lags far behind regional ones in education - only 27.1 per cent have secondary education and above, compared with higher levels in other countries in the region. The figures are from 2007.
And even those with degrees may not have the skills employers are looking for, recruiters say.
Last year, Indonesia's economy grew by 6.2 per cent, creating 3.9 million jobs. The National Statistics Agency said unemployment shrank to 6.8 per cent of the labour force, from 7.4 per cent a year earlier.
But in a sobering report last month, the International Labour Organisation pointed out that the youth unemployment rate in Indonesia was 22.9 per cent in 2009.
'This was significantly higher than the regional 13.9 per cent for South-east Asia and the Pacific, and the world average of 12.8 per cent,' said economist Kazutoshi Chatani, who prepared the report.
The report also noted that job openings for young people had not improved since the 1990s. They are typically low-paying and sometimes temporary, such as drivers and office assistants.
As a result, real wage growth has 'stagnated or even decreased in some sectors', it said.
Already, university graduates face keen competition for decent work. The situation is even bleaker for the less skilled.
This is because Indonesia's service sector - which includes trade, communications, transport and construction and requires better-skilled workers - has expanded while the labour-intensive manufacturing sector has slowed down.
The income gap between graduates and non-graduates continues to widen, analysts said.
The general manager of online recruitment firm JobsDB in Indonesia, Mr Chandra Ming, cited the information technology (IT) industry as an example. Of the 200,000 vacant positions, only about 40 per cent are filled, because workers lack the qualifications.
'For every IT job advertised, we get around 80 to 120 CVs monthly,' he said.
Often, the hiring firm is looking for degree or diploma holders, but many candidates are high-school graduates, he added.
The World Bank warned in March that Indonesia needed to invest in education if it was to move into higher-value industries.
Mr Ming called for a revamp of the education system.
'Maybe the government can renew the existing curriculum, to further specify and offer specialised subjects so as not to be too general,' he said. 'Also, private parties can provide other relevant training.'
Meanwhile, opposition politician Sadar Subagyo told the Kompas newspaper that spending on education needed to increase from about 4 per cent of government spending to 20 per cent.
For now, job-seekers like Ms Yuni have no choice but to take whatever jobs come their way.
She said: 'I cannot afford to remain unemployed as I've to help support my four siblings. I am thinking of doing part-time sales work while looking for a better job.'
zubaidah@sph.com.sg

Be happy! It's not all about economic growth

2011-05-25T21:46:00.001+08:00

OECD launches 'happiness index' to better measure quality of life

PARIS: Perhaps a country's success is not just a matter of economic growth after all.

The tacit acknowledgement came from no less than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which yesterday launched a so-called 'happiness index' to better measure the quality of life.

Deviating from its focus on hard economic figures - such as gross domestic product - for the first time in 50 years, it announced its 'better life initiative', which measures more qualitative factors such as general satisfaction, security and work-life balance.

The new index marks a significant change for the OECD, which for half a century has been known for its orthodox approach to economics and its promotion of structural reforms to boost GDP growth. Consisting of 34 member nations, the economic organisation was founded in 1961 with an aim to stimulate economic progress and world trade.

Yesterday, it said it was time to move beyond GDP when measuring the success of societies.

'This index encapsulates the OECD at 50, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and understanding in a pioneering and innovative manner,' said OECD secretary- general Angel Gurria.

'People around the world have wanted to go beyond GDP for some time. This index is designed for them. It has extraordinary potential to help us deliver better policies for better lives.'

The new index not only has 11 indicators that go beyond hard economic numbers, but is also meant to be flexible: Users can assign different weights to the indicators according to their own preferences.

This means that people in the OECD's 34 member states can compare their countries according to criteria which they think are important.

A Financial Times report noted that altering the weights of the 11 indicators could change significantly the rankings of the OECD's member countries in a league table of success.

Luxembourg, it noted, scores on GDP per capita, but drops down the list significantly if equal weight is given to other indicators. Mexico, on the other hand, scores poorly due to its relatively low level of development, but has a 'happy' population.

The OECD, which launched the new index to mark its 50th anniversary, hopes it will represent a better way of presenting comparative data that it already collects, as well as redefine what 'progress' and 'well-being' means in this century.

Its initiative also comes in the wake of concerns expressed in many countries that national accounts and GDP figures are inadequate, and follows efforts by several nations to measure happiness.

Critics have long held that using GDP to summarise a country's total economic output measures only quantitative change while ignoring qualitative improvements.

The index is the first concrete result of a report by former Nobel economics prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, as well as the result of efforts by the OECD to come up with ways of calculating a well-being index to complement the GDP and other indicators.

Much of the OECD's work, however, will still focus on GDP and efforts to boost prosperity through structural reforms, the FT reported, noting that money was still needed to provide access to good education, health care and housing.

The newspaper cited the organisation as saying: 'While money may not buy happiness, it is an important means to achieving higher living standards and thus greater well-being.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Taking the pulse

IT WAS Bhutan that started it all, with its famous Gross National Happiness which measured the country's progress and well-being in terms of happiness rather than in dollars and cents.

Coined in 1972, the index eschewed Gross Domestic Product and other economic numbers for more intangible indicators such as psychological well-being, culture and health.

Few people took it seriously until several countries in recent years started to embrace the wisdom of measuring success similarly. Fans note that 'happynomics' can help guide governments in policymaking.

Last year, Britain said it will introduce a 'happiness index' to gauge its populace's psychological and environmental well-being, and could thus become the first Western country to officially monitor general happiness.

France and Canada are reportedly considering similar initiatives, while China this year included a happiness index in its annual competitiveness study of the country's cities.

Bhutan's index has nine indicators to reflect the components of happiness: ecology, psychological well-being, health, education, culture, living standards, time use, community vitality and good governance.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's 'better life initiative' - launched yesterday - has 11: housing, incomes, employment, social relationships, education, the environment, the administration of institutions, health, general satisfaction, security and the balance between work and family.

SA 1 Results

2011-05-16T14:31:00.002+08:00

Osama bin Laden dead

2011-05-02T13:37:00.000+08:00

"Justice has been done," President Obama says in a televised speech to the nation. Bin Laden, mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks and Al Qaeda leader, was killed by a CIA-led team at a compound inside Pakistan

Illegal logging, mining and forest fires cost Indonesia $45b

2011-04-30T10:02:00.002+08:00

An aerial shot taken last year shows a massive oil palm plantation (left) beside shrinking natural forest cover in Central Kalimantan. Reports of the stripping of forests come even as lawmakers remain deadlocked over how to preserve them. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

JAKARTA: Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry said illegal logging, land clearance, forest fires and mining have devastated Kalimantan and cost the country an estimated 311.4 trillion rupiah (S$44.5 billion).

A forestry official was quoted on The Jakarta Globe website yesterday as saying that 1,236 mining firms and 537 oil palm plantation companies were operating illegally in Central, East and West Kalimantan.

These provinces are located in the Indonesian half of Borneo.

Reports of the stripping of forests come even as Jakarta lawmakers continue to be deadlocked over how to preserve them.

Mr Raffles Panjaitan, director of forest investigation and protection at the ministry, said companies had caused losses put at 158.5 trillion rupiah in Central Kalimantan, 31.5 trillion rupiah in East Kalimantan and 121.4 trillion rupiah in West Kalimantan.

He said the figures for the number of companies were supplied by district heads and governors.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hassan said the names of the companies, which include a number of large operations with thousands of hectares of concessions, were not being released yet.

They are still under investigation by the ministry and a task force that is working to reduce corruption in Indonesia, he was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Globe.

A key aspect of the investigation zooms in on alleged abuses by the authorities in the issue of licences.

Apart from the alleged rampant abuse, the stripping of Kalimantan's forests is worrying on another front.

Lawmakers in Jakarta continue to bicker into a fourth month over a moratorium on cutting down trees.

Bureaucratic inefficiencies have also been added to the issue, with two drafts of the moratorium being shoved around by different ministries.

The moratorium was part of a deal with Norway which pledged US$1 billion (S$1.2 billion) last year to help Indonesia reduce carbon emissions.

In return for the funds, Jakarta agreed to stop issuing new concessions to forest areas for two years and cut carbon emissions by 26 per cent by 2020, or by 41 per cent with international support.

But the plans have become bogged down in politics, with parties remaining deadlocked over several points in the moratorium. These include the definition of what constitutes forest area and peatland, and whether the new task force would be given authority over forest management.

To complicate matters, the task force members also sought input from civil society groups, researchers, scientists and private sector players such as investors.

Some environmentalists have dismissed the current debate as meaningless. A Greenpeace report claimed both drafts still leave 45 million ha of natural forest and peatland unprotected - an area almost twice the size of Britain.

Tamil Tigers, govt troops 'both guilty of war crimes'

2011-04-30T09:58:00.003+08:00

Tens of thousands died in last days of civil war in Sri Lanka: UN report

A file picture (above) supplied by the pro-rebel organisation www.WarWithoutWitness.com shows what it says are injured Tamil civilians at a makeshift hospital inside the 'no fire zone' in northern Sri Lanka. The photo was taken in May 2009. A UN report says both sides may have been guilty of war crimes in the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka two years ago. -- PHOTOS: REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations report has painted a barbarous picture of the final days of the civil war in Sri Lanka two years ago, saying that both sides in the conflict may have been guilty of war crimes.

The government 'systematically shelled' hospitals in the front lines, and 'systematically deprived people in the conflict zone of humanitarian aid, in the form of food and medical supplies, particularly surgical supplies, adding to their suffering', the report said.

The separatist Tamil Tigers, on the other hand, refused civilians permission to leave areas under their control, 'using them as hostages', conscripted civilians, including children as young as 14 years old, and forced civilians to perform labour. The rebels also shot dead civilians trying to escape the conflict zone and fired artillery from near the civilians, provoking retaliatory fire, the report said.

'Tens of thousands lost their lives from January to May 2009, many of whom died anonymously in the carnage of the final few days,' said the report prepared by a three-member panel led by former Indonesian attorney-general Marzuki Darsman.

'Most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling,' it added.

The UN panel, which gathered evidence for 10 months, urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to proceed to establish 'an independent international mechanism' to investigate the war's final stages.

But Mr Ban said he lacked the authority to personally order a probe into the mass killings of the civilians.

'In regard to the recommendation that he establish an international investigation mechanism, the secretary-general is advised that this will require host country (Sri Lankan) consent or a decision from member states through an appropriate intergovernmental forum,' Mr Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

In other words, without the consent of the Sri Lankan government or a decision by the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council or other international body, Mr Ban will not move to set up a formal investigation into the civilian deaths.

Sri Lanka had asked the UN not to publish its findings, saying the report could damage reconciliation efforts on the island.

The government in Colombo has consistently denied allegations that it targeted civilians, and has rejected the report's findings as biased and fraudulent. Publication of the UN report was repeatedly delayed as the government urged the secretary-general not to publish its findings.

The UN experts said there were 'credible allegations, which if proven indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international rights law was committed both by the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity'.

The report criticised UN officials for not pressing the Sri Lankan government hard enough to exercise restraint and for not going public with high casualty figures which, it said, would have put more pressure on the government.

The UN panel urged the Sri Lankan government to issue a formal and public recognition of its role in responsibility for the extensive civilian casualties in the final stages of the conflict.

The panel also recommended that the government should respond to the serious allegations 'by initiating an effective accountability process beginning with genuine investigations' which would meet international standards.

Mr Ban urged Sri Lanka to pursue its own 'genuine investigations'.

But UN officials concede that Colombo would never consent to such an investigation.

Sri Lanka is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which means the Hague-based court would require a referral by the UN Security Council to investigate any possible war crimes there.

Veto powers Russia and China, as well as India, are among the council members opposed to formal Security Council involvement in the case of Sri Lanka, diplomats told Reuters.

The council has only referred two previous situations to the ICC: the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, and Libya's violent crackdown against anti-government rebels.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

North 'running out of food soon'

2011-04-30T09:57:00.001+08:00

WASHINGTON: Parts of North Korea are expected to run out of food in less than two months, even if foreign donors agree to provide aid, a United States relief group said.

The US and South Korea have reacted cautiously to reports of dire food shortages in the North, with some officials suspecting that the isolated communist state is exaggerating the problem to win assistance.

But Samaritan's Purse, one of five US groups that visited North Korea in February, said on Wednesday that a harsh winter has reduced crop yield by up to half.

Mr Ken Isaacs, the group's vice-president for programmes and government relations, said the groups want to provide 160,000 to 175,000 tonnes of food to North Korea, but it would be impossible to arrange shipments in time. 'If a green light was given today, that food probably isn't going to be in North Korea for about three months,' he said.

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans died in a famine in the 1990s. But North Korea, which prides itself on its philosophy of self-reliance, abruptly kicked out US aid groups in 2009.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Half of China's population live in the cities

2011-04-30T09:52:00.002+08:00

Number of 'floating' migrants up by 83%

By Ho Ai Li, China Correspondent

A migrant worker having his lunch at a construction site in Hefei, Anhui province. There are 665 million people living in China's urban areas, reflecting the former agricultural country's rapid transformation. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING: One in two Chinese people now lives in a city, the country's latest census released yesterday revealed. It also showed population growth has slowed and the population is ageing.

There has been a substantial increase in China's 'floating' population as well - people living away from their hometowns for at least six months - in the decade that ended last year.

The findings indicated that there are daunting policy-making tasks ahead for China, and could spur calls for its tough family planning policies to be relaxed.

China remained the world's most populous nation with 1.34 billion people, according to the census. Its population increased by 73.9 million - equal to the population of Turkey, or California, Texas and Ohio combined - over the 10 years, a slower rate than in previous decades.

Almost half - 665 million people - now live in urban areas, underlining the former agricultural nation's rapid transformation.

'This is mainly a result of rapid economic development and the transformation of our country's rural labour force,' said commissioner Ma Jiantang of the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday.

In particular, the developed coastal regions saw their populations increase. Prosperous Guangdong has leapfrogged rural Henan and Shandong to become China's most populous province.

The number of floating 'migrants' surged 82.9 per cent to 221.4 million.

The latest snapshot of China's demographic structure highlighted several challenges faced by Beijing.

The sharp growth in the number of migrants, for one thing, has put increased pressure on cities to provide social services for the newcomers and intensified calls for an end to discrimination against them.

China's hukou, or national household registration system, ties people to the place where they were born and bundles social services with residence status. Migrants do not enjoy the same services as residents.

Yesterday's census results also showed that those 65 years and older now make up a larger share of the populace at 8.9 per cent; those under 15 account for 16.6 per cent, a drop of 6.3 percentage points.

In recent years, many have urged Beijing to relax its infamous one-child policy and allow urban couples to have two children to pre-empt problems from a greying population.

But Mr Ma yesterday credited that policy with helping to keep China's population in check. Its annual population growth rate has slowed to 0.57 per cent from 2000 to last year, from 1.07 per cent in the previous decade.

On Tuesday, two days before the census results were released, Chinese President Hu Jintao said at a meeting with senior leaders that the current family planning policy should stay and low birth rates should be maintained.

Scholars invited to speak at the meeting also opposed any change to the policy, according to Peking University demographer Li Yongping.

Others, though, noted that Mr Hu had stressed the need for research and the complexity of China's population issues.

He also highlighted the continued gender imbalance among newborns in China - the latest census figures put the ratio of baby girls to boys at 100:118.6, up from 100:116.9 in 2000.

Many Chinese still prefer boys, and some choose to abort girls, Professor Li noted.

'Parents don't think about whether giving birth to a boy will lead to social problems. Their sons may not be able to get wives,' he said.

hoaili@sph.com.sg

The sharp growth in the number of migrants has put increased pressure on cities to provide social services for newcomers and intensified calls for the end of discrimination against them.

Food price rises in Asia threatening growth

2011-04-30T09:47:00.007+08:00

A woman looking at price tags of vegetables at a supermarket in Seoul yesterday. South Korea is one of several Asian countries where food price inflation has already risen by double digit figures. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

MANILA: Sharp rises in food prices are threatening economic growth in Asia and could push millions more into extreme poverty, the Asian Development Bank said in a report released yesterday.

Food prices in Asia have increased an average of about 10 per cent so far this year, which the bank calculated could force an additional 64 million people in Asia below the poverty income threshold of US$1.25 (S$1.50) per person a day, if prices remain at current levels.

If food prices go up by more than 30 per cent over the year, then the poverty number will swell by 193 million.

There are currently about 903 million Asian people living in poverty, out of a total population of 3.3 billion.

'Whenever we say that Asia's growth rate is booming and Asia is a new global growth centre, people misunderstand the point,' said Professor Changyong Rhee, the chief economist of the bank, which is financed by governments and helps fund infrastructure projects around the region, among other activities.

'Asia is home to two-thirds of the world's poor. There is still a long way to go,' the South Korean added.

Asia is both a major contributor to global inflation and vulnerable to its effects.

Growth in China and India is blamed for pushing up prices of many commodities. Yet Asia's population density and uneven income distribution make people in the region especially susceptible to spikes in food prices, Prof Rhee said.

Poor are worst hit by rising food prices

The poor in Asia are much harder hit by rising food prices as they typically spend about two-thirds of their income on food, much higher than in developed countries.

Poor countries that are net food importers are the most vulnerable to the increases, Prof Rhee said, citing Bangladesh, the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka as examples.

A bigger concern is that local food prices for certain staples are rising faster than global prices. For example, between June last year and February, global rice prices increased by 16.8 per cent. However, domestic rice prices went up by 21.4 per cent in Bangladesh, 21.6 per cent in Indonesia, and 36.7 per cent in Vietnam.

A continued rise in prices for food and fuel could leave the region's consumers with less disposable income to spend on electronics, clothing and other products.

Inflation could also lead central banks to further raise interest rates.

Taken together, these factors could slow down economic growth of Asian nations, with Singapore projected to suffer the highest gross domestic product (GDP) drop by as much as 1.5 percentage points this year, based on the bank's estimation of 10 Asian countries.

If the trend continues, Singapore's GDP would drop by 0.8 percentage points next year.

The average dip in GDP across Asian countries is estimated to be around 0.6 percentage points.

Food price inflation has already risen by double-digit figures in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

The rapid increases in the cost of food are a serious setback for the region, which has rebounded rapidly from the global economic crisis.

Much depends on whether global food prices continue to climb.

Last month, food prices dropped for the first time in eight months, although experts said this could be a slight pause before prices shoot up again.

On Monday, Barclays Capital, a securities firm, reported that food prices in Vietnam, one of the countries in the region that have been hit worst by inflation, rose 24 per cent this month over the past 12 months, the fastest pace in more than two years.

But Ms Prakriti Sofat, the analyst at Barclays who wrote the report, predicted that prices in Vietnam, especially of rice, would fall in the coming months as farmers who had been hoping for even higher prices sell off their stocks before the arrival of a new harvest.

'We believe rice prices should taper off as the spring harvest begins in May,' Ms Sofat said.

Prof Rhee also expects a moderation in food prices later this year, but he fears it could lull governments into inaction. 'It's time for us to talk about long-term investments in food to make sure this problem is not recurring,' he said.

The report stated: 'New farming techniques and crop varieties need to be developed and transferred to farmers to adapt to farming conditions that have increasingly become even more challenging, especially in the face of dwindling resources (such as agricultural land and water) and the adverse effects of climate change.'

NEW YORK TIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

16.8%

Increase in global rice prices between June last year and February.

21.4%

Increase in domestic rice prices in Bangladesh.

21.6%

Increase in domestic rice prices in Indonesia.

36.7%

Increase in domestic rice prices in Vietnam.

Impact on Singapore: What the report says

SINGAPORE will be the hardest hit among 10 Asian nations, if food and fuel prices continue to soar, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank.

The report projects that the Republic's gross domestic product (GDP) could dip by as much as 1.5 percentage points if global food prices and oil prices both rise by 30 per cent throughout the whole of the year.

And if the 30 per cent rise persists through to next year, Singapore's GDP will go down another 0.8 percentage point, it predicted.

Singapore is highly vulnerable to inflation because the country must import almost all of its food and fuel.

The Republic's Trade and Industry Ministry's figures show that Singapore's economy grew by 14.5 per cent last year and it grew by another 8.5 per cent in the first three months of this year.

Malaysia's worsening brain drain

2011-04-30T09:43:00.003+08:00

World Bank report says loss hinders goal to be high-income economy

By Leslie Lopez, Senior Regional Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR: There are common threads that connect Mr Tang Kok Yew, chief executive of Affinity Capital, with Mr Richard Ong of RRJ Capital and Mr Cheah Cheng Hye of Value Partners.

All are stars in Asia's financial marketplace. All are Malaysian-born. And all left the country long ago.

The three represent one of the more serious problems facing the Malaysian economy: an accelerating brain drain.

'Malaysia needs talent to meet its goal of becoming a high-income economy. But the problem is that talent is leaving,' said Mr Philip Schellekens, World Bank senior economist and chief author of its latest report on Malaysia released yesterday.

Many analysts blame Malaysia's decades-old race-based policies, which eschew competition and discriminate in favour of its politically dominant ethnic Malay community, for the serious haemorrhaging of home-grown talent.

To be sure, brain drain is a global phenomenon and it is not necessarily bad, economists argue.

Places like Singapore and Hong Kong suffer from large outflows of citizens. But this is compensated by larger inflows of skilled workers seeking well-paid jobs and a safe and comfortable environment.

Countries which connect effectively with a diaspora spread across many others can also boost trade links and attract much-needed foreign direct investment.

The talent leaving Malaysia is also being replaced, but by inflows of largely unskilled workers.

The World Bank's report offers a very disturbing picture of the brain drain. Consider these statistics:

One million out of the country's 27 million citizens live abroad, and at least a third of them are considered part of the brain drain, described in the report as the emigration of highly skilled individuals.

While this number is not necessarily large in itself, the problem is considered serious when compared with other countries. One in 10 Malaysians left the country in 2000, double the world average.

Malaysia's skilled expatriate community fell by 25 per cent between 2004 and last year, largely due to the sharp drop in the Japanese community as Japanese companies relocated to other countries.

By contrast, 60 per cent of all immigrants in Malaysia have primary-level education or less. Of its roughly 2.4 million immigrants, about 1.4 million are Indonesian-born, making the Indonesia-Malaysia corridor one of the largest migration strips in the world.

Malaysia acknowledges that it has a problem. Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration recently established Talent Corp, a state firm taking the lead to entice Malaysian-born experts in various fields to take up jobs at home.

Among the incentives offered is a flat income tax of 15 per cent for five years, compared with the nearly 30 per cent rate that Malaysia's highest-paid individuals pay in annual income tax.

'Talent Corp and the tax incentives are good. But targeted approaches like this aren't very successful,' said Mr Schellekens. Malaysia needs to come up with policies that help raise productivity and wages while reducing the push factors of migration, he added.

The World Bank report states that Singapore is the main magnet for skilled migrants from Malaysia, accounting for roughly 40 per cent of all those who left in 2000, a marked increase from 19 per cent a decade earlier.

The report also states that Singapore last year hosted 57 per cent of the Malaysian diaspora and 54 per cent of the brain drain. Malaysian-born residents make up 47 per cent of the overseas skilled talent in Singapore, according to the report.

Another interesting facet is that Malaysia's brain drain is concentrated in just a few places, with Singapore, Australia and the United States accounting for 80 per cent of the recipient nations.

The wave of Malaysians leaving for greener pastures abroad is likely to intensify. And financial big wigs like Mr Ong make unlikely role models.

The former Goldman Sachs banker has lived in the US, Singapore and Beijing. He currently lives in Hong Kong where he manages a US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion) fund. At this point, he said, coming back is not on his mind.

ljlopez@sph.com.sg

A wealth of knowledge in the humanities

2011-04-21T20:56:00.002+08:00

Apr 21, 2011

By Tony Golsby-Smith

HOW many people in your organisation are innovative thinkers who can help with your thorniest strategy problems? How many have a keen understanding of customer needs? How many understand what it takes to be assured employees are engaged at work?

If the answer is 'not many', welcome to the club. Business leaders around the world have told me that they despair of finding people who can help them solve wicked problems - or even get their heads around them. It's not that firms don't have smart people working with them. There are plenty of MBAs and even PhDs in economics, chemistry or computer science in the corporate ranks. Intellectual wattage is not lacking. It's the right intellectual wattage that's hard to find. They simply don't have enough people with the right backgrounds.

This is because our educational systems focus on teaching science and business students to control, predict, verify, guarantee and test data. They do not teach them how to navigate 'what if' questions or unknown futures.

As Mr Amos Shapira, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cellcom, the leading cellphone provider in Israel, put it: 'The knowledge I use as CEO can be acquired in two weeks... The main thing a student needs to be taught is how to study and analyse things (including) history and philosophy.'

People trained in the humanities who study Shakespeare's works or Cezanne's paintings, say, have learnt to play with big concepts, and to apply new ways of thinking to difficult problems that can't be analysed in conventional ways. Here are just a few things that the liberal arts crowd can help you with:

Complexity and ambiguity: Too many companies lack the scope of understanding to stop problems before they start, because their people are too focused on immediate tasks or buried under so much data they can't see warning signs. The BP oil disaster, the manufacturing problems at Johnson&Johnson and Genzyme and many others might have been avoided if they had learnt to identify ambiguous threats.

Any great work of art - whether literary, philosophical, psychological or visual - challenges a humanist to be curious, to ask open-ended questions, to see the big picture. This kind of thinking is just what you need if you are facing a murky future or dealing with tricky, incipient problems.

Innovation: If you want out-of-the-box thinking, you need to free up people's inherent creativity. Humanists are trained to be creative and are uniquely adapted to leading creative teams.

A case in point: Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who openly acknowledges how studying the beautiful art of calligraphy led him to design the interface of the Macintosh computer.

Communication and presentation: Liberal arts graduates are well-trained in writing and presenting, making them natural fits for marketing, training and research. A focus on writing - which you need for degrees in history, literature, philosophy and rhetoric - helps people develop persuasive arguments; and a background in performance - such as theatre or music - gives people great presentation skills. And an understanding of history is indispensable to understand the broader competitive arena and global markets.

Customer and employee satisfaction: The ability to 'get under the skin' of customers and employees to discover their real needs and concerns demands something other than surveys, which yield superficial information. Instead, you need keen powers of observation and psychology - the stuff of poets and novelists.

What else? A person who has studied a foreign language or literature can run your overseas offices, or help with your global strategy by providing local insight or business analysis. Philosophers can help you with ethics. Historians can help you understand the past while giving you a picture of the future. (Just ask Procter & Gamble's A.G. Lafley, who once planned to be a professor in medieval and Renaissance history.)

If you want another good reason to hire from the humanities, consider this: Consulting firms such as McKinsey and Bain like to hire them for all the reasons I've described above. You can hire liberal arts graduates yourself, or you can pay through the nose for a big consulting firm to hire them to do the thinking for you.

The writer is the founder and CEO of Second Road, a business design and transformation firm headquartered in Sydney, Australia. This article appeared first in the March 31 issue of Harvard Business Review.

In case you're still not convinced why Humanities is important to you.

Top JI operative in custody in Pakistan

2011-04-03T22:35:00.003+08:00

Mar 31, 2011

Indonesian terrorist Umar Patek involved in 2002 Bali bombing

By Lynn Lee, Indonesia Bureau Chief

JAKARTA: Pakistan yesterday confirmed that it had arrested top Indonesian terrorist Umar Patek. The confirmation came shortly after the Indonesian police said they would dispatch a team to Pakistan to confirm the arrest.

'Yes, it is confirmed we have arrested him, he is in Pakistan and he is being interrogated,' a Pakistani security official told Agence France- Presse (AFP).

But there was no word on when or where exactly he was nabbed.

Pakistani security officials, quoted by the Associated Press (AP), said he was caught after a tip-off from the US Central Intelligence Agency.

'The CIA tipped us off that he might be travelling here,' one official said, but he stressed that it was a 'solely Pakistani operation'.

Another official said Patek was being questioned by Pakistani agents, but that he would 'eventually' be handed over to the Indonesians. 'It is our policy to send them back to their country of origin,' he said.

The CIA would presumably like to have access to Patek, AP said, but the Pakistani officer said this would happen only with the written consent of Indonesia.

News reports late on Tuesday night said 40-year-old Patek - a field commander in the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 202 people - had been captured along with members of a local militant group.

A skilled explosives expert, Patek was a senior leader in the now-splintered Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network. He escaped Indonesia some time in 2003, fleeing to Mindanao in the southern Philippines with electronics and bomb-making expert Dulmatin, who was killed in a police raid on the outskirts of Jakarta a year ago.

Dulmatin's death led police to believe Patek was also in the country, although efforts to sniff him out yielded little.

Speaking to reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a conference in Bali, police chief detective Ito Sumardi said police had received news of Patek's capture 'a few days ago'.

The Jakarta Post also quoted him as saying it was likely Patek had been in Indonesia and left Jakarta on a fake passport, with strong indications he had passed through Bangkok en route to Pakistan. However, the country's top counter-terrorism official, Mr Ansyaad Mbai, struck a more cautious note about reports of Patek's capture. He said Indonesian intelligence officials would have to carefully verify the identity of the man who had been captured.

But AFP quoted him as saying: 'We're not surprised if he's in Pakistan as these terrorists move from country to country.'

Analysts yesterday highlighted the importance of Patek's reported arrest, saying he had the potential to rally extremists and lead attacks.

Military officials in the Philippines also hailed reports of his capture as a victory in the regional battle against terrorism.

International Crisis Group analyst Sidney Jones said Patek could provide crucial information on extremist groups in the Philippines and their contact with other groups in South-east Asia and South Asia.

'It depends on whether he stopped in Indonesia and what kind of contacts he made. If it turns out that he went to Pakistan to open channels for training for South-east Asian groups... or was acting as a broker between these groups and the Taleban and Al-Qaeda, then that would be significant,' she said.

lynnlee@sph.com.sg

Uncertainty over fate of rice fields

2011-04-03T22:17:00.003+08:00

Mar 27, 2011

A sofa is part of the debris left in a rice field in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture. The field was flooded by the tsunami which followed the March 11 earthquake. -- PHOTO: AP

Sendai (Japan) - The rice paddies on the outskirts of this tsunami-hit city are ankle-deep in a black, salty sludge. Crumpled cars and uprooted trees lie scattered across them.

His house destroyed, rice farmer Shinichi Shibasaki lives on a square of blue tarp on the top floor of a farming cooperative office with others like him. He has one set of soiled clothes. But all he can think about is getting back to work.

'If we start washing the soil out now, we can start growing our rice seedlings at the end of April at a different location, and plant them here a month later,' the 59-year-old said.

That may prove overly optimistic but agriculture experts say a quick recovery is possible, maybe within a year.

A key factor will be how long it takes for the salt to wash out from the fields, some still flooded with seawater. There are no official estimates yet of how much farmland was affected. A rough calculation based on last year's harvest in tsunami-hit towns indicates that, at most, 8 per cent of Japan's 1.6 million ha of rice farms has been hit, affecting about 4 per cent of total production.

A greater concern may be manpower. 'I'm worried that a lot of these elderly farmers are just going to leave their fields and not come back,' said Mr Masao Takahashi, an official in the Miyagi office of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, a politically powerful national network of farming groups.

In Natori, 60-year-old rice farmer Kikuo Endo points to a shed full of ruined farm equipment, which he estimates was worth 10 million yen (S$155,000). 'People shouldn't give up but I don't think I will farm again.'

Healthier hawker fare at no extra cost

2011-04-03T22:12:00.002+08:00

Apr 3, 2011

Wholegrain noodles, brown rice among options at all hawker centres in three years

By Poon Chian Hui

In three years' time, you will be able to choose healthier versions of local dishes like char kway teow made with wholegrain noodles at all hawker centres in Singapore - and at no extra cost.

The Health Promotion Board (HPB) unveiled these plans yesterday at the launch of its new Healthier Hawker Programme, which aims to stem the rising obesity rates here. The latest National Health Survey last year showed that one in 10 Singaporeans is obese.

Explaining the move, HPB chief executive Ang Hak Seng said more Singaporeans are eating out, with seven in 10 consuming more than the daily recommended calorie intake. Of these, about 15 per cent eat at least twice the recommended daily amount, he added.

An average adult should consume about 2,000 calories a day.

The number of people who eat at hawker centres, food courts and coffee shops at least four times a week has also risen from 49 per cent in 2004 to 60 per cent last year, preliminary results from the HPB's new National Nutrition Survey showed.

'We tell people to eat healthier food. But if they go to the hawker centre, there's no healthy food. That's the issue,' said Mr Ang at Yuhua Hawker Centre, which became the first in Singapore to offer healthier choices.

Nearly all of the 53 stalls there now provide options like brown rice and wholegrain noodles besides regular white rice and noodles. The dishes are cooked using a mix of palm and soya bean oil that contains 25 per cent less saturated fat than pure palm oil, which is commonly used by hawkers.

Customers can refer to signs put up at each stall which give the calorie counts of dishes - both the regular ones and the healthier versions.

Mr Ang said the HPB sent chefs to 'experiment' with hawkers on how to incorporate healthier ingredients into their dishes. This is because cooking times can vary. Wholegrain noodles, for instance, take longer to cook, he said.

Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education Grace Fu acknowledged that hawkers may resist making the switch to healthier ingredients as such products cost more.

But under the programme, they will be linked to wholesalers willing to sell such ingredients at prices comparable to the regular versions.

'Hawkers can join this programme without worrying about higher costs,' she said.

Chairman of Yuhua Hawkers' Association Karney Ngai admitted many hawkers were initially hesitant about the initiative. Pointing out the use of brown rice as a key issue, she said: 'They were worried that people cannot adapt to eating brown rice all of a sudden.'

To ease them in, she said hawkers will first add small amounts of brown rice for those who ask for these healthier versions, such as mixing 30 per cent brown rice with white rice, before gradually increasing the proportion.

Madam Lea Choon Ngoh, 56, who was spotted having bak kut teh with white rice, said she was unaware that a brown rice option was available.

'But since they have it, I guess I wouldn't mind giving it a try next time,' said Madam Lea, who eats at the hawker centre up to twice a week.

Yesterday's launch also included 51 food manufacturers, supermarkets, restaurants, caterers and food courts pledging to cut 25 billion calories from the food supply chain by 2013.

Nestle Singapore, for instance, will reduce portion sizes of its food products, said its managing director Valerio Nannini. The company plans to roll out single-finger Kit Kat bars later this year.

chpoon@sph.com.sg

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan Part II

2011-03-14T21:43:00.002+08:00

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

2011-03-13T14:39:00.002+08:00

More heat than light at US hearing on radical Muslims Organisers accused of going on a witch hunt

2011-03-13T14:32:00.004+08:00

Mar 12, 2011

By Chua Chin Hon, US Bureau Chief

Mr Peter King, who convened the hearing, said Americans cannot live in denial, referring to recent terror attempts by radicalised American Muslims.

WASHINGTON: A controversial hearing on the radicalisation of American Muslims has produced sharply divergent views as United States lawmakers clashed on a heated issue drawing increasing attention as the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks neared.

Republican lawmaker Peter King, who convened Thursday's hearing as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and his supporters said their intention was to 'inform, not inflame'.

'(We) cannot live in denial which is what some would have us do,' Mr King said in reference to a recent spate of home-grown terror attempts by radicalised American Muslims.

Critics and many in the American Muslim community, however, were concerned that Muslims were being singled out unfairly by a public inquiry that could devolve into a witch hunt.

A letter signed by 55 lawmakers opposed to the hearing said: 'If you wish to examine violent extremism, we ask that you do so by examining violence motivated by extremist beliefs in all its forms. Singling out one religious group and blaming the actions of individuals on an entire community is not only unfair, it is unwise, and it will not make our country any safer.'

Controversy raged for weeks before the hearing opened to a packed house, as critics tried to get Mr King to cancel the event or change the scope of the topic - The Extent Of Radicalisation In The American Muslim Community And That Community's Response.

The persistent Mr King refused to back down, and in fact announced at the end of the hearing that the next such event, likely to be held in a few months' time, would focus on how American Muslims are being radicalised in the prisons.

While the tone and some of the rhetoric at Thursday's hearing was pointed and emotional at times, it was overall an uneventful affair.

The only truly dramatic moment came when Democratic lawmaker Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, choked up repeatedly while reading a prepared statement criticising the hearing and praising the bravery of American Muslims like Mohammad Salman Hamdani, who lost his life while trying to save other Sept 11 victims.

'Some people spread false rumours and speculated that he was in league with the attackers only because he was Muslim. It was only when his remains were identified that these lies were fully exposed,' Mr Ellison said between sobs.

'His life should not be defined as a member of an ethnic group or a member of a religion, but as an American who gave everything for his fellow citizens.'

He also refuted recent allegations by Mr King that the American Muslim community has been uncooperative with law enforcement agencies.

He cited a report from the Muslim Public Affairs Council that showed American Muslims had in fact provided information that helped foil seven of the last 11 domestic terror plots, and 40 per cent of all plots since the Sept 11 attacks.

The 41/2-hour hearing also heard from moderate activists in the American Muslim community, as well as a businessman whose son Carlos had allegedly been convinced by religious radicals to carry out a deadly shooting at a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in 2009.

'Carlos was captured by people best described as hunters. He was manipulated and lied to,' said the businessman, Mr Melvin Bledsoe. 'Here in America today, there are people with radical Islamic political views who are organising with one goal in mind: to convert our citizens and to turn them against the non-believers.'

Some lawmakers questioned whether these witnesses were qualified to make such sweeping statements about domestic terrorism, and asked why law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation were not represented at the hearing.

Democratic lawmaker Jackie Speier, who characterised the hearing as 'skewed' and 'grossly incomplete', said: 'While I think these anecdotes are interesting, I don't believe these are the experts.'

The only law enforcement officer who spoke at the hearing was Mr Leroy Baca, a sheriff from Los Angeles who has experience working with the Muslim community and helped set up a Muslim Community Affairs unit in 2007.

In a sign of how contentious the subject could quickly become, one lawmaker asked Mr Baca pointedly if he felt he was being manipulated by organisations like Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was labelled a 'terrorist organisation', and an 'unindicted co-conspirator' at yesterday's hearing.

The sheriff retorted by saying the US should charge and prosecute CAIR in court if law agencies indeed had proof of the alleged terrorist links.

As the exchanges in the room wore on, the unease among American Muslims queueing outside was palpable.

Ms Sadia Ali Aden, 42, a writer and activist, told The Straits Times: 'The community is already feeling under siege. With this sort of hearing, it only creates more fear and potential hate crimes against the community.'

chinhon@sph.com.sg

40% of Americans link Islam to violence: poll

2011-03-12T22:24:00.002+08:00

A Pew poll says that four in 10 Americans believe that Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions. -- ST FILE PHOTO

WASHINGTON - FOUR in 10 Americans believe Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions, up sharply from March 2002, six months after the September 11 attacks, according to a new Pew poll.

The figure is lower than July 2004, when a post-9/11 high of 46 per cent of respondents said the Muslim faith is more likely than others to foment attacks, but it marks a significant rise from the 25 per cent recorded in March 2002 and 35 per cent from just seven months ago.

In the latest national poll conducted February 22 to March 1 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 42 per cent of respondents said Islam does not encourage violence more than other ideologies, down from 51 per cent in March 2002.

Parsing its own findings, the center reported that Tea Party conservatives and conservative Republicans were most likely to link Islam to violence, with 67 per cent and 66 per cent respectively, while just 29 per cent of liberal Democrats were.

Six in 10 white evangelical Protestants were likely to do the same, while 'by nearly two to one (56 per cent to 30 per cent), the religiously unaffiliated say that the Islamic religion does not encourage violence more than others,' Pew said.

The survey results were released ahead of controversial congressional hearings held on Thursday in Washington on homegrown Muslim terrorism. The independent, non-partisan Pew interviewed 1,504 adults by telephone in the United States for its poll, which did not report a margin of error. -- AFP

2011-03-08T20:55:00.002+08:00

Mar 8, 2011

AUSSIE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

Lessons from Singapore's fair, not welfare, approach

By Noel Pearson

AFTER 10 years looking to North America and Britain for reform inspiration in the fight against poverty, I have come to the conclusion we are looking in the wrong places. There is a country in our own region from which we have more to learn: Singapore.

When we began our crusade in Cape York Peninsula, we were in part inspired by the reforms in the United States under President Bill Clinton when Congress enacted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996. Conditionality in welfare and strong work obligation requirements were obvious lessons from the US experience.

We also looked to Prime Minister Tony Blair's less conclusive attempts in Britain, where the rhetoric of social inclusion was resonant but little concrete reform ensued. In Australia, Ms Julia Gillard is an enthusiast of such New Labour concepts and as deputy prime minister established a Social Inclusion Board soon after Labor came to power in 2007.

The problem with Australian policymakers and leaders looking to the US and Britain for solutions to problems of poverty and social misery among disadvantaged people is there is scant evidence of success.

The Clinton reforms reduced welfare rolls at a time of high employment and a buoyant economy, but the US is hardly a paragon of poverty elimination and mobilisation of the lowest classes. The same goes for Britain.

Why are we looking to these countries for policy solutions when the story of decades past shows they are struggling with the same problems without making much of a fist of them?

Yet when you look at the story of Singapore since 1965, when it gained independence, you see a society whose success in achieving the broad-based uplifting of its people is unparalleled. Income levels and rates of home ownership in Singapore speak of a people rising out of the Third World and into the First.

It is probably hard to think of a less analogous situation to remote and undeveloped Cape York Peninsula than that of the modern city-state of Singapore, peopled by an enterprising population of Chinese, Indians and Malays exploiting the special blessings of their geography, but I contend the policy lessons are germane.

Before I identify those lessons, let me outline the Singapore story.

In his fascinating memoirs, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew says he and his fellow leaders aimed to create for their country 'a fair society, not a welfare society'. Mr Lee recognised from the beginning the form of welfare provisioning the advanced Western nations were implementing would produce problems, and his country explicitly pursued a different philosophy and a different path.

He writes: 'Watching the ever-increasing costs of the welfare state in Britain and Sweden, we decided to avoid this debilitating system. We noted by the 1970s that when governments undertook primary responsibility for the basic duties of the head of a family, the drive in people weakened.

'Welfare undermined self-reliance. People did not have to work for their families' well-being. The handout became a way of life. The downward spiral was relentless as motivation and productivity went down. People lost the drive to achieve because they paid too much in taxes. They became dependent on the state for their basic needs.'

The great difference between the Singaporean approach and that of the welfare states of the Western world was, as Mr Lee writes: 'We chose to redistribute wealth by asset-enhancement, not by subsidies for consumption.'

There is in fact a great deal of redistribution in Singapore: it is just that it is strictly aimed at the asset and wealth development capabilities of its citizens.

Central to the entire approach is the compulsory savings system of the country's Central Provident Fund (CPF). The leaders of Singapore built around the CPF an array of individual and family solutions for home ownership, retirement funds and health-care co-payment insurance funds. They mandated family-based solutions to welfare while subsidising those things that enhanced the earning and asset accumulation capacities of individuals.

By mandating a universal approach to compulsory savings and home ownership, Singapore included everyone in society. The denizens of the shanties were not left to their own devices. They, too, were obliged and supported into apartment ownership.

Mr Lee writes of the transition phase, when families used to living in shanties first moved into apartments, taking their ducks and chickens with them. Singapore did not lock a certain section of society out of the development pathway; it developed the support structures to allow a broad-based mobility.

The following lessons can be drawn from what is sometimes called a Confucian approach to development.

First, Singaporeans upheld the primacy of individual and family self-interest to climb to a better life. Mr Lee writes: 'I work on the basis that all men and women first work for themselves and their families, and only then will they share a portion of it with the less fortunate.'

Australians may find Mr Lee's philosophical starting point here a bit disturbing, but a proper self-reflection on our mundane motivations should disabuse all of us of our moral recoil. In our cups, we are similarly motivated.

Second, they established strong supports to guide individuals and families to climb to greater prosperity. Our metaphor of the staircase of opportunity that individuals climb in pursuit of their own interests is supplemented by a set of railings. The railings represent a support system that requires everyone to make provision for a full range of fundamental needs, including the need to save and get into home ownership.

Third, Singaporeans aimed to put everyone on the development path and did not want an underclass to develop. The most astounding thing is how the former union lawyer turned founding father of modern Singapore maintained such a hard-nosed commitment to an egalitarian society based on market capitalism rather than socialism.

Fourth, they redistributed money to promote wealth and asset development, not consumption. The lesson here is subsidising consumption is fatal. By doing so you neutralise the most important incentive to strive and work.

Finally, they maintained a paternalistic approach to social order and responsibility.

It is this last feature that dominates the Western caricature of Singapore and obscures a proper appreciation of its achievement and, more importantly, how they did it in countries such as Australia. Mr Lee's paternalism is sourced in Confucius rather than Mao. Singapore is a story of paternalism, not authoritarianism.

Singapore's national success writes large the principle articulated by American welfare reform theorist Lawrence Meade: 'He who would be free must first be bound.'

In other words, for Singapore to free itself from poverty, the people first had to bind themselves to certain disciplines.

I will not persuade those who think Singaporeans' journey out of the mud of Third World poverty into the advantages of the First World should have been accompanied by the perfect freedoms and licences enjoyed by their Western contemporaries. Cosmopolitan liberals forget the freedoms they enjoy are the outcome of a struggle for development in previous times.

Conceding that Singapore-style paternalism is not feasible in a liberal country such as Australia, it is nevertheless imperative that we consider the applicability of a developmental paradigm to the problems endured by those parts of Australia where inter-generational disadvantage is entrenched.

Discrete indigenous communities are obvious, but so are postcodes where white and immigrant underclasses predominate. The context could not be more dissimilar but the reform principles underpinning Singapore's path out of poverty are universal.

Singapore went through stages of development over 50 years, and they were led by patriots who cared about the place and its people: the sacrifices, the thrift, the hard work and the determination were part of a national undertaking.

Western nations such as Australia that are developmentally mature nevertheless have people and places that suffer from unacceptable and unnecessary levels of stagnation and poverty.

These require a people- and place-based developmental approach. Can we conceive ways of tackling these postcodes of disadvantage by mobilising the patriots of these places to embark on the road to development?

The writer is director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. This is an edited extract from his 2011 Sir Robert Menzies Lecture delivered in Melbourne last week, as published in The Australian newspaper on Saturday.

Singapore's national success writes large the principle articulated by American welfare reform theorist Lawrence Meade: 'He who would be free must first be bound.' In other words, for Singapore to free itself from poverty, the people first had to bind themselves to certain disciplines.

Failing the World's Lungs

2011-03-06T19:09:00.000+08:00

Rubric for 5A2 and 5A3 on Natural Vegetation

2011-02-28T09:40:00.002+08:00

c) For a named tropical rainforest area you have studied, describe the way in which afforestation and reforestation can be encouraged.

How effective is this as a method of protecting the forest. [8]

Level 1 (0-3 marks)
Describe briefly what reafforestation is but no detail. No place reference given or very general e.g Indonesia. No supported effectiveness, or ultra simple, e.g ‘it worked’, ‘it was effective’.

Level 2 (4-6 marks)
Some description of reafforestation and how it works. Place reference given by little detail. E.g Kalimantan in Indonesia. Brief statements of effectiveness, e.g ‘ reafforestation has helped to restore some of the forest’.

Level 3 (7 – 8 marks)
Detail description of how reafforestation work.Place reference given fairly specific, e.g East Kalimantan. Clear statement of degree of effectiveness, e.g ‘in 2000, up to 90 0000 km2 of forest were replanted.’

Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view.

2011-02-15T16:10:00.008+08:00

Development is one of my favourite Geography topics because this topic allows me to understand why different countries struggle to improve and how as a world we can work towards a better future.

Check out this website, Rosling has made statistics so much more interesting and alive. The best thing is this is a freeware that you can download and learn more. What are you waiting? ;)

4E2: Descriptors for Development Question

2011-02-10T11:18:00.000+08:00

Describe with examples, strategies intended to reduce uneven development between developed countries and less developed countries. How effective have these strategies been?
[8]
Level 1 (0-3 marks)
Describe briefly what the international organisations do to help. No clear link how the work helps to improve the standard of living. No clear examples given or mere mentions of countries. No evaluation of the success of the work done.

Level 2 (4-6 marks)
Examples given and description of the work done and link to how it helps to improve standard of living. Some extent of evaluation of the success of the work done.

Level 3 (7 – 8 marks)
Detailed examples of countries that were helped by international organisations. Names of international organisations given and their work described in details. Link how the work done help to improve the standard of living. Detail evaluation of the success of the strategies used.

Over 90% of Singaporeans happy with quality of life

2011-02-03T17:58:00.003+08:00

Feb 1, 2011

But many surveyed express concern over cost of living

By Rachel Chang

SINGAPOREANS have higher levels of confidence in the country's future and economy, but a new survey found them concerned about issues such as affordability of public housing and employment opportunities for the elderly and needy.

Commissioned by Reach, the Government's feedback arm, the survey last year saw more than 90 per cent of the 2,013 respondents express satisfaction with their overall quality of life, compared to 2009.

When asked if they were satisfied with the way Singapore was being run, 96 per cent of respondents, who were aged 17 and above, said 'yes'.

A high percentage were also satisfied with the Government's economic policies, the quality of the public service, their living environment and issues such as the education system.

But the survey also found that a larger proportion of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with aspects of public transport and housing compared to a year earlier.

The questions put to respondents during face-to-face interviews conducted from October to November last year ranged from whether the Government was succeeding in promoting neighbourliness to its handling of foreign relations.

The highest level of dissatisfaction was registered with government attempts to keep the cost of living affordable: 66 per cent of respondents flagged this as an area of concern.

Inflation has spiked in recent months, with the consumer price index shooting up 4.6 per cent in December last year compared to a year ago.

While almost all respondents were happy with efforts to encourage use of public transport, 63 per cent were satisfied with the affordability of public transport - a six percentage point drop from those who expressed satisfaction in 2009.

And in the area of managing road congestion through car ownership control, 35 per cent were not satisfied - a 10 percentage point rise from the previous year.

MP Lim Wee Kiak, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee on Transport, said there was no panacea for congestion caused by the substantial growth of cars in the past five years.

'For now, we probably have to endure the situation while waiting for the new infrastructure to come up,' he said, citing the new Circle and Downtown MRT lines, and the North-South Expressway.

He suggested looking at how to ease peak-hour traffic on certain roads, for instance, by staggering the start times of schools or factories clustered in one area.

On housing, 76 per cent felt that the supply of flats was adequate. But just over half did not think housing was being kept affordable for most.

Reach chairman Amy Khor noted that the survey was done before the latest round of property cooling measures, which were announced last month.

'Anticipating the challenges that they face in today's economic climate, the Government is also zeroing in on low-income households to ensure they can cope with the rising cost of living and to bridge the income gap,' she said.

As for employment, respondents were most dissatisfied with the provision of job opportunities for elderly workers. Only 46 per cent were satisfied, a 17 percentage point drop from a year earlier.

Labour MP Heng Chee How found this surprising as the employment rate for those aged 55 to 64 actually rose to 59 per cent last year, after staying put at 57.2 per cent over the previous two years.

'The facts show that our efforts to improve employment among older workers are actually producing fruit,' he said.

rchang@sph.com.sg

China's Annual Reunion Rush Begins

2011-01-23T18:39:00.004+08:00

THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2011

Travellers waiting at Changsha Railway Station in Hunan province yesterday. The world's largest annual movement of people officially began yesterday in China, as hundreds of millions of migrant workers in the cities head back to their rural hometowns for Chinese New Year. -- PHOTO: XINHUA

BEIJING: The world's largest annual movement of people officially began yesterday, when millions of Chinese started on their long march home in time for the yearly reunion dinner with their families.

About 710 million travellers - or about half of China's 1.3 billion people - are expected to crowd the trains, planes, buses and roads over 40 days starting yesterday, as the nation celebrates Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 3 this year.

In all, a staggering 2.85 billion separate trips will be made, up 11.6 per cent from last year, according to the government.

The annual rush home for the new year - called chunyun - is a unique feature of Chinese society, said Railways Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping. Chinese New Year, or the spring festival, has been celebrated for more than 5,000 years in China, he added: 'No matter how far we have gone or how far we have to travel, this is the time for us to go home to spend a happy, peaceful and auspicious festival with our close ones.'

He said that China's annual reunion crush is as much a result of its huge population, inadequate transport facilities, and uneven economic development, as it is a result of the strong sway of Chinese tradition. The Americans, he noted, do not have as much of a problem heading home for thanksgiving as there are fewer of them and their transport infrastructure is more developed, he told The Straits Times.

The United States is more evenly developed than China, where big gaps in development between the cities and countryside have forced huge numbers of rural workers to move from poorer western areas to the prosperous coastal areas.

China's 230 million rural migrant workers make up a large chunk of the crowds going home for the spring festival, especially from first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, whose strong economies attract many workers.

Combined with the millions of university students going home on winter vacation, every chunyun puts the country's transport system through its most severe test each year. It makes for overnight queues, overcrowded trains and overheated tempers - all common scenes at this time of year.

At the Beijing South Railway Station yesterday, a man upset about not getting a ticket ended up in a shouting match with a ticket seller for a few minutes, before he was pulled away by security guards.

'Have you bought your ticket?' was the common greeting around the ticketing area, as people shuffled anxiously in numerous lines.

Mr Wang Yongqing, 39, a hawker selling sundry items in Beijing, was all smiles after he snagged a ticket for a 16-hour train ride back to his native Heilongjiang province in the north-east.

'You have to buy early, or you won't be able to get a ticket,' he said, having queued overnight for his annual trip home to see his wife and son.

The railway authorities have promised more trains, ticket booths and staff to cope with the record 230 million train trips that are expected to be made. At the Beijing South station, for instance, tea ladies could be seen standing by with thermos flasks offering hot drinks, and student helpers held signboards urging passengers to queue up.

But the Railways Ministry, which had previously promised to meet demand for spring festival travel by last year, has now conceded that it will only be able to do so in 2015. Ministry spokesman Wang said that while transport capacity needs to be increased, closing the gap in China's development would be more effective in the long run. 'When our backward areas become developed and the gap closes between city and countryside, the movement of people will no longer result in the seasonal phenomenon that is chunyun,' he said.

Fertility figures hit all-time low

2011-01-19T22:39:00.000+08:00

Shortage of babies a key hurdle to achieving a sustainable population

By Li Xueying, Political Correspondent

SINGAPORE'S baby shortfall worsened last year when the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) sank to a historic low of 1.16.

That is down from 1.22 in 2009, and way below the replacement level of 2.1.

Speaking at an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) conference yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng identified the low TFR, which is a preliminary estimate, as the key hurdle to Singapore achieving a 'sustainable population'.

Such a population, he said, has a strong citizen core, a stable ethnic mix, enough manpower for economic growth, and mitigates the impact of ageing.

TFR measures the average number of children that a woman would bear in her lifetime, in this case, a woman resident in Singapore.

On the uphill task of persuading Singapore residents to have more children, Mr Wong said: 'The going is hard, but we have not given up. We will continue to support couples' decisions to get married and have children, and create a pro-family environment.'

The veteran minister, who now heads the National Population and Talent Division, said that to be realistic, Singapore also has to accept that boosting fertility will take time.

'For the foreseeable future, we will need to tap on immigration to augment our population, to support economic growth and to mitigate the impact of ageing,' he added.

Last year also saw the effect of the Government's tightened immigration framework of late 2009, designed to better manage the inflow and quality of new immigrants.

It granted only 29,265 new permanent residence passes last year, half of the 59,460 it granted in 2009.

But the number of new citizens held steady at 18,758 last year, just shy of the 19,928 in 2009, because Singapore attracted migrants 'of good quality', Mr Wong said.

On the need to balance staying open to foreigners and addressing the concerns of its citizen core, he said: 'Ultimately, it is about navigating a path that allows us to grow as a global city, yet remain a distinctive and endearing home.'

The preliminary estimate of a TFR of 1.16 for last year places Singapore below Japan and South Korea, which have estimated TFRs of 1.2 and 1.22 respectively.

Taiwan now has the lowest TFR in the world at 0.91.

The latest drop in Singapore's TFR comes after almost 30 years of government incentives to get Singaporeans in the mood for love - and babies.

In particular, the last decade has seen it redouble its efforts, by introducing the Baby Bonus and longer, paid maternity leave, among other things.

But some population experts think that last year's dip might be a blip and could be reversed this year.

Two factors could explain last year's new low of 1.16.

The first was the recession of 2009, which put a damper on family planning.

Said Dr Yap Mui Teng of the IPS: 'People were feeling a lot of uncertainty. We were talking about how it was the worst recession since the Depression.'

The second factor was the Chinese zodiac year of the Tiger falling last year. It is believed by some to be an unlucky year for having children.

With the economy having rebounded strongly and the more auspicious years of the Rabbit and Dragon coming up, the TFR is likely to stabilise - or even rise this year

'2010 was a boom year and I wouldn't be surprised if the TFR sees a bit of pickup in 2011,' said Dr Gavin Jones, a population specialist at the Asia Research Institute (ARI).

Dr Leong Chan Hoong of IPS said the TFR could also have been pulled down by successive waves of new PRs since 2005, who have fewer children than citizens.

Young Singaporeans interviewed said they were reluctant to have children because of the 'very high' financial cost of raising children in Singapore.

Take lawyer Tania Chin, 26, who plans to marry soon but has no intention of having children as yet.

'It's a question of opportunity cost, and I can't afford the downtime from my career,' she said. 'Furthermore, speaking from my own experience as an only child, children are really expensive.'

Dr Jones said one option is for the Government to increase its child allowance, but the increase would have to be 'by quite a lot for it to have much impact on fertility'.

Sociologist Jean Yeung, also of ARI, said another reason for the low TFR could be Singapore's patriarchal family system and policies.

'It will be useful for men to become more active and engaged as a co-parent rather than just a helper to the mother,' she said.

xueying@sph.com.sg

Photograph A for 5A2 and 5A3 'O' level questions

2011-01-18T13:41:00.000+08:00

Photo for your holiday assignment, 4E2!

2011-01-04T18:57:00.000+08:00

Kinley Dorji's definition of Gross National Happiness

2010-12-25T11:04:00.000+08:00

Country with the highest GNH index

2010-12-20T18:53:00.001+08:00

A spectacular view of the Eastern Himalayan mountain range from Dochula.

Our camp site at Bumdrak Monastery.

View from Naksel Hotel overlooking the 2nd highest mountain Jhomolhari.

Drum Dance at Trongsa Monastery.

Quality of life gets better and better in Asia

2010-11-10T18:07:00.001+08:00

Nov 6, 2010

Study puts 5 Asian nations among top 10 most improved ones

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations report ranking countries according to their citizens' quality of life has found that Asia has made the biggest strides in recent decades.

Nations which have risen most in the rankings of the Human Development Index include 'growth miracles' such as China, which has climbed eight places in the last five years to 89th.

East Asia and the Pacific had the strongest performance of any region over the past 40 years - twice the average worldwide progress, according to the latest rankings.

The annual study, which compared 169 countries between 2005 and this year, placed five Asian nations in the top-10 list of countries showing the most improvement.

These were China (No. 2), Nepal (No. 3), Indonesia (No. 4), Laos (No. 6) and South Korea (No. 8).

The report aims to give a broader assessment of quality of life than just income - by including health, education, gender equality and political freedom - and lead writer Jeni Klugman said most of the world has seen 'dramatic progress' since 1970.

China, the second highest index achiever since 1970, has been successful mainly because of income rather than health or education, the report said. Its per capita income has increased 21-fold over four decades, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty. Yet its school enrolment has dropped since 1970 and life expectancy has not improved as much as that in other nations.

India demonstrated more modest progress, increasing its ranking by one notch to 119th.

Singapore also improved its ranking by one place to 27th, which makes it the highest ranked South-east Asian country, ahead of Brunei (37th) and Malaysia (57th).

The report noted that Singapore has made progress since 2005. Life expectancy at birth has increased by one year to 80.7 years, average schooling years almost by one year to 8.8 and gross national income per capita by around 8per cent to US$48,893 (S$62,870).

On a global scale, average life expectancy rose from 59 to 70 years, primary school enrolment grew from 55 to 70per cent, and per capita incomes doubled to more than US$10,000. Poor nations have made particular progress.

Despite the 'growth surges' in the Asia-Pacific region, the report said it is becoming ever more difficult to break into the rich club of nations.

Norway - with its 81.0 years of life expectancy and average annual income of US$58,810 - has now topped the list for all but two years since 2001.

In stark contrast, Zimbabwe - which came bottom - has a life expectancy of just 47 years and per capita income of US$176.

'The divide between developed and developing countries persists: A small subset of countries has remained at the top of the world income distribution and only a handful of countries that started out poor have joined that high income group,' the report concluded.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Moving up

The top 10 countries which showed the most improvement between 2005 and this year are:

1. Oman

2. China

3. Nepal

4. Indonesia

5. Saudi Arabia

6. Laos

7. Tunisia

8. South Korea

9. Algeria

10. Morocco

All The Best to 5N1 and 5N2

2010-10-24T18:02:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

You've come so far. Give your best at the 'O' level and see you next year with your good results! My last nuggets of help for your Geography and Social Studies.

Inserts for Revision Papers

2010-10-08T09:54:00.002+08:00

(b) Photograph A and B, which show waves approaching two different beaches.

Photograph A for Question 3(a) (i)

Photograph B and C for Question 4(a) (i) and (ii)

Photography A and B for Question 1 (b)

Photograhps C and D for Question 2 (a) (i) and (ii)

Rivers in Trouble

2010-09-26T10:36:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the sixth annual World Rivers Day, with events scheduled all around the world to clean up rivers and highlight threats to them. The Straits Times looks at the top 10 endangered rivers.

Target: Welfare

2010-09-13T22:51:00.001+08:00

British minister's plan to revamp system running into fierce opposition

By Jonathan Eyal, Europe Correspondent

LONDON: Mr Iain Duncan Smith, the minister in charge of Britain's pensions and social security payments, is a man in a hurry.

Although he got his job only a few months ago, he has already threatened to resign twice, angered by opposition from colleagues to plans for a radical overhaul of Britain's welfare system.

Mr Duncan Smith appears to have won this skirmish: His reform proposals will be unveiled next month, and they will affect all British government handouts, from allowances to the disabled to child welfare and pension payments.

But the bigger battle with the millions of ordinary Britons who rely on welfare support and the armies of bureaucrats who run the schemes is only beginning. And it's guaranteed to be bloody.

The size and complexity of Britain's welfare structure remains mind-boggling. Overall, it spends around &pound192 billion (S$397 billion) a year on welfare.

The Department for Work and Pensions - Mr Duncan Smith's empire - administers 27 different types of benefits; other British ministries and local authorities operate a similar number of schemes yet again.

One of the reasons the system is so complex is that, although most of Britain's welfare and social security benefits were introduced between the 1940s and 1960s, some have their roots well in the Depression years after World War I.

Politicians did not help either. Since inventing new welfare benefits is a vote-winner, successive governments added fresh layers of entitlements.

There is also the familiar problem of every welfare state: regardless of how fast a country's economy grows, some people will always be poor, because poverty is ultimately a relative concept.

So, a welfare system meant to 'eradicate the scourge of poverty' - as its inventors claimed - keeps growing despite the fact that, by definition, it can never achieve this objective.

What is more, the system is wasteful and open to fraud, stifles any sense of personal responsibility and creates a national culture of dependency on the state.

Most examples of waste stem from the curious British obsession with distributing some payments to all citizens, regardless of actual needs.

This is the case with benefits paid to any family with children under the age of 16, assistance with paying winter fuel bills, or the provision of free public transport for anyone aged over 60. Since the number of individual payments is huge, the amounts tend to be small. So, perversely, those who need the money most don't get the right assistance, while those who don't need often forget that they are being paid.

Fraud is also inevitable in a welfare structure which regularly distributes payments to no less than 15 per cent of the working population, in addition to those retired or disabled. False claimants run little risk of being caught, partly because this requires serious investigations, but also because of the sheer volume of work: 19 million payments are processed by the Department of Work and Pensions each year. According to current estimates, &pound5.2 billion worth of these claims are fraudulent.

And then, there is the so-called 'benefits trap', which is probably the biggest failure of the concept. Because many of those who draw jobless benefits are badly educated, their only hope of employment is in poorly paid jobs. But the salaries on offer in such positions can be lower than the social security benefits. Unsurprisingly, most of these people choose to stay at home, watching daytime television.

Either way, a system which was designed to help those who are temporarily without work ends up creating a class of permanently unemployed.

Yet reform is easier said than done.

One option is to withdraw unemployment support only gradually; this could encourage people to accept low-paid positions, in the knowledge that they would still be entitled to some government money. But that's very expensive, and a nightmare to administer.

A second approach would be to introduce 'means tests' for universal benefits; only those who are too poor or needy would get government support. The snag here is that the introduction of tests is political dynamite.

And then, there is always the option of reducing welfare payments altogether. The Conservative-led government has already tightened housing benefit payments, and told lone parents that they must seek work once their youngest child starts school.

Faced with the biggest crisis in government finances in decades, Mr Duncan Smith has opted for streamlining the entire welfare structure into just a number of major schemes, while waging 'war' against fraudsters.

But the Treasury, which holds all the purse strings, is opposing the plans. The reason for this curious twist: paradoxically, because the system is dysfunctional, it's also so complicated that it deters some from claiming what they are due.

Non-governmental organisations estimate that up to &pound16 billion of benefits which could be disbursed never leave the state coffers. So, a newly streamlined welfare project which makes entitlements easier to understand could leave taxpayers with a heftier bill because more people may be encouraged to claim.

For the moment, there is a compromise: Mr Duncan Smith was given &pound2.5 billion in extra funds, on the condition that his department will start producing &pound10 billion worth of savings by 2014.

It will be a tall order. And Mr Duncan Smith is still careful to skirt around one fundamental issue: whether the welfare system should be a social enabler by helping people to help themselves, or whether it should continue with just administering pain-killers to the country's social ills.

That, as always, remains a matter left to future generations to decide.

jonathan.eyal@gmail.com

The size and complexity of Britain's welfare structure remains mind-boggling. Overall, it spends around &pound192 billion (S$397 billion) a year on welfare.

'Disabled' man showed off fancy dance moves

2010-09-12T16:30:00.000+08:00

Sep 11, 2010

LONDON: Terence Read is the sort of person who should inspire admiration. The 61-year-old is a picture of perfect health: At a recent dance competition in Manchester, he twirled his partner on the dance floor in a routine that included the Charleston and jitterbug.

Unfortunately for him, a secret agent from Britain's Department for Work and Pensions was also present.

And for good reason: According to government records, Read can barely walk and has claimed about &pound20,000 (S$41,400) in disability benefits over the past decade.

So the dance contest ended up badly: Read was arrested and sentenced to 12 months of unpaid community service.

According to official government figures, welfare fraud costs the British taxpayer about &pound5.2 billion a year.

The biggest obstacle to fighting fraud is the fact that Britons do not have to carry identity cards; verifying their claims or even their names and residences can be difficult.

But British commercial organisations can collect plenty of personal data about people.

The country's credit agencies - used by banks and credit card companies to assess the standing and honesty of potential borrowers - hold every detail about a person's spending patterns, as well as the property he owns or rents.

So the government has now tied up with these agencies, which will be paid a percentage of any fraudulent claim they manage to uncover.

The government has also resorted to more original methods to detect fraud.

Kim Stokes, who claimed &pound15,000 in social security benefits as a single mother of two young children, forgot this tiny detail when she posted on Facebook pictures of herself with her 'hubby', with whom she claimed to be 'very much in love'.

Unfortunately for her, government inspectors also have Facebook accounts and noted her profile.

Nobody pretends that such measures will eliminate fraud, although the government hopes the amount of publicity given to these cases will deter future transgressors.

But the public remains furious about a different problem with welfare abuse: that of public housing.

Under Britain's laws, the local authorities are obliged to provide a roof for anyone who is homeless in their area, even if the person is a foreigner applying for asylum. Hundreds of thousands of such claims are made each year and the local authorities often end up housing them in hotels or expensive commercially rented properties.

The claimants carry no responsibility: The more children they have, the greater the property they are entitled to.

And, to make matters worse, some of those who get public housing subsequently sublet their property to others, and make a profit.

A National Fraud Initiative - a data-matching operation run by the government - is now designed to catch such cheats.

But the results remain insignificant: only 75 fraudsters were caught in the last three years.

JONATHAN EYAL

Spending cuts around Europe

A protester's sign reads: 'Grandpa, grandma at work, young people unemployed, no thanks'. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE

BRITONS are not the only ones feeling the pain in Europe. In Dublin, Athens, Madrid and Paris, it is the era of smaller government, with public sectors being pruned and welfare spending reduced. Here is a brief look at the experience of four other European countries.

IRELAND

The first to take the bitter medicine. The Emerald Isle has been called the poster boy for deficit cutting, as it has pruned spending, benefits and salaries with remarkably little resistance from its unions or people.

Its budget deficit has come down from 14.3 per cent last year to 11 per cent this year, but at a huge cost. Public sector salaries have fallen by 13 per cent. The economy has contracted.

Unemployment is now at 13.7 per cent, prices and rents are falling, and the country is experiencing brutal deflation.

GREECE

The government has been much more rigorous in slashing spending than many had thought possible. Officials from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union have been full of praise.

Civil servants have seen salaries fall and perks disappear, but unemployment is rising sharply. Households and businesses remain deeply pessimistic. Few believe that, despite all the hardship, the country can avoid defaulting down the road. Others believe the cuts have gone too far.

SPAIN

Public sector wages have been cut and infrastructure projects postponed or abandoned. The country is cutting spending when unemployment among young people is at 41.5 per cent.

Some say that reducing demand, with so many out of work, flies in the face of conventional wisdom. There are signs that the Spanish government is wobbling over the extent of its austerity package. It recently announced an extra €500 million (S$852 million) for infrastructure projects next year.

FRANCE
This week, its reforms faced a stiff test on the streets, with unions protesting against the plan to raise the retirement age to 62. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the changes are non-negotiable.

But governments have buckled before in the country, in the face of street protests. The problem this time round is that investors will be watching for weak nerves.
A concession on pension reform could indicate that the government lacks the will to enforce the €40 billion austerity package.

BBC NEWS SERVICE

Reflection on movie 'Hotel Rwanda'

2010-09-09T09:47:00.000+08:00

I think it was an excellent movie as it touched my heart deeply. This movie describes the killings and genocides that happened in Rwanda very well. I could not believe that it actually happened in Rwanda. I think what moves some of the Hutus to do the mass killings was the media that kept on “brainwashing” them to wipe out the Tutsis. The media was cunning to drive the Hutus mad and enraged by broadcasting the message through radios. The media’s target was mostly to the uneducated people who could be easily enraged by their emotions. If they were educated enough (like the hotel manager, Paul, who saved a lot of Hutus and Tutsis), they would not go around in a killing spree and let their emotions control them. That is why it is important for us to understand the cause of this horrible event and to acknowledge it.

Nadia.L.Soh, 3EA

Because of the film that has been shown to me, I had a further understanding of the effects of internal conflict in countries. The effects were dreadful and innocent people were killed, wounded and psychologically tramatised because of the violence. I also learnt that even if we have sound thinking, we would still turn violent and resort to mass killings. We only need something or someone to trigger it and in the case of Rwanda, it only took one man, the media (radio broadcast) to trigger the Hutus to go on a killing spree.

It was really sad that innocent people were involved and even children were horrendously killed. I hope that whatever happened to Rwanda will not happen ever again, be it on Rwanda on other parts of the world.

To avoid this kind of conflicts, I think we should learn to be tolerant towards others and try to understand each other without letting our emotions take over our sound minds.

Rayzelyn N.Zamora, 3EA

After watching this movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’, I realized it is really important to promote harmony among different races. Misunderstanding between people may lead to very big unhappiness and even deep hatred. The hatred overwhelmed certain people and they will start to use violence. Many innocent people will be involved.

Soo Jie Yi, 3EA

I think civil war is mainly influenced by media. The media gives such information to create huge misunderstanding between two parties. As people are brainwashed by the media, they resort to violence to express their feelings of anger, envy and hatred towards another group of people.

Jhenesis Ann E. Serrano, 3EA

The North and South Korea Divide

2010-08-25T10:08:00.000+08:00

Food supplies most at risk in Afghanistan

2010-08-21T09:59:00.000+08:00

Aug 20, 2010

Index tags poor nations with conflicts as highly vulnerable

PARIS: Afghanistan and nine African countries top the world rankings for food insecurity, while North America and Western Europe, especially Scandinavia, have the surest food supplies, according to a survey of 163 economies published yesterday.

The Food Security Risk Index 2010 is compiled by a British risk analysis firm, Maplecroft, on the basis of 12 factors drawn up in collaboration with the United Nations' World Food Programme.

The criteria include rates of malnutrition, cereal production and imports, gross domestic product per capita, risk of extreme weather events, quality of agricultural and distribution infrastructure, conflict, and government effectiveness.

The poorest nations and those with conflicts have the greatest difficulties in ensuring their population has access to sufficient food, Maplecroft said.

Afghanistan was judged to be at the highest risk despite the billions of dollars of aid pumped into development projects since the 2001 United States-led invasion that overthrew the Taleban.

'The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan impacts infrastructure readiness, and the capability for distribution of supplies is greatly reduced,' Ms Fiona Place, an environmental analyst with Maplecroft, said.

'It's the impact on the road networks and the telecommunications infrastructure.'

Of the 50 nations most at risk, 36 were from sub-Saharan Africa and grappling with poor harvests and failing transport networks.

Among countries that were rated at 'high risk' or with unreliable supplies were Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and the Philippines, while countries deemed at 'medium' risk included China.

'Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa which are dependent on food imports are going to be all the more vulnerable,' Ms Alyson Warhurst, head of Maplecroft, said.

Maplecroft attributed climate change to the leap in wheat prices this year and warned of harsh consequences for vulnerable nations.

Russia's worst drought in half a century prompted the country on Aug 5 to ban grain exports. Cereal production in Canada has been hit by flooding, while extreme temperatures in Ukraine and Kazakhstan have lowered cereal output, according to Maplecroft.

Ms Warhurst said the Russian export ban would add pressure on China to supply more food to world markets at a time when its domestic wheat and meat consumption were rising.

Maplecroft said it hoped the index could help in directing food aid or to guide investments in food production.

The most favourably placed countries with a low risk were the developed economies of North America and Western Europe, with Finland the most food-secure, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Some European nations, including Italy, Greece and Portugal, had a medium risk.

Those nations 'don't produce enough of their own food supply, so they're dependent on importing', Ms Warhurst said. 'Basically, they're going to have to pay more for their imports.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

1. What are the factors used as consideration to determine a country's food security?

2. Why do poor countries have difficulty in accessing food?

3. Which region has the worst food security problem and why?

4. What do you think about Singapore's food security? Explain why.

Made in Defu Lane. Sold in UK's Selfridges

2010-08-11T00:11:00.000+08:00

Aug 6, 2010

More and more local food companies are now exporting their products

By Jessica Lim & Fiona Low

Local company Chye Choon - which manufactures the Peacock brand of bee hoon - supplies its noodles to 15 countries around the world. China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia are the biggest importers of made-in-Singapore food products. -- ST PHOTOS: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK

IT ALL started with a cold call to a Hong Kong supermarket four years ago.

But what may have been an unsophisticated plan to sell its bee hoon overseas has worked wonders for Chye Choon Foods. From mainly supplying to Singapore hawkers and markets, the home-grown company - which makes the Peacock brand of dried bee hoon - now exports the rice vermicelli to 15 countries, including Russia and Lebanon.

'It was the only way to grow,' said Chye Choon owner Jimmy Soh of his leap of faith to venture abroad.

'Singapore is a small market and there is a lot of opportunity overseas.'

It is a view shared by a growing number of local food manufacturers.

Smaller companies are now joining the big boys such as Yeo Hiap Seng and Prima Food in contributing to the growth of Singapore-manufactured food exports.

Made-in-Singapore food products - from condiments and dried food to frozen fishballs and rendang premixes - hit a record $3.5 billion last year, an increase of nearly $1 billion since 2005, with China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia the biggest importers.

And while this makes up only a small proportion of the $200 billion worth of products exported from Singapore last year - including more expensive items which are only partially made in Singapore, like electronic parts - the rate at which the numbers are growing is encouraging.

The Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association (SFMA) - which has 286 members - predicts exports to hit the $4 billion mark this year. Said SFMA president Wong Mong Hong: 'Our members are very excited to break into new markets. There is a sense of pride when they see their brands on shelves overseas, and of course it means more sales.'

The steady growth of exports can be put down to three reasons, say experts: the increasing number of local manufacturers, companies' willingness to expand overseas, and more foreign demand for local products.

There are now 781 local manufacturers, of which half are pushing their products overseas. This is higher than in 2005 when there were 677 companies, of which 300 exported.

A stagnant local market - which has hovered around the $2.5 billion mark since 2004 - has also forced firms to venture overseas. Overseas demand for Singapore products has gone up too, said International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, which promotes the overseas growth of Singapore-based businesses.

'There is a growing acceptance of ethnic cuisine and demand for greater food variety in developed countries,' said Mr Daniel Seah, director of IE Singapore's food division. He added that 'the distinctive flavour of Singapore food' in local products is also a big reason for the success of such products overseas, with items like Prima's laksa paste popular in Russia and canned chrysanthemum tea highly sought after in Switzerland.

The government statutory board has also given local companies a leg-up in recent years. In October last year, IE Singapore arranged for 11 local companies - including Chye Choon Foods - to display products at the famous Selfridges Food Hall in Oxford Street, London, for a week.

Currently, more than 20 local brands are on the shelves of 15 Jusco supermarkets in Guangdong, China, as part of a month-long campaign that also stops in Beijing and Shanghai.

The SFMA started organising similar programmes in 2006. It now organises eight to 12 overseas trade shows yearly for companies to showcase products.

And while big players like Yeo Hiap Seng, which exports to over 60 countries, have been a presence overseas for over 30 years, newcomer Tai Hua Food Industries is closing the gap. The Jalan Besut firm makes about 5,000 tonnes of soya sauce a year and now supplies it to 40 countries, up from half that number five years ago.

For Defu Lane-based Chye Choon Foods, the Selfridges stint led to a permanent spot on the store's shelves. The company now devotes about 15 per cent of the 20 tonnes of bee hoon it makes daily to overseas markets.

Chye Choon's owner Mr Soh, whose products are also sold at the upmarket Whole Foods Market chain in the United States, hopes to double his exports in the next five years. He said: 'Traders overseas are also very open to import our stuff because Singapore is synonymous with quality.'

Experts say the growth spells good news. It not only enhances the Singapore brand but may also lead to lower cost of food for the Singapore market in the long run, said Singapore Polytechnic retail management senior lecturer Sarah Lim.

'As local companies grow, money will be ploughed back to improve the production and quality of goods here,' she said. 'As they grow, these companies will reap economies of scale which will mean cheaper products for locals in the long run.'

limjess@sph.com.sg

fionalow@sph.com.sg

Inserts for 5N Geo Questions

2010-07-30T14:01:00.001+08:00

Income per capita

Fig. 5

Percentage access to safe water

Fig. 6

Notes on Conflict in Sri Lanka

2010-07-30T13:44:00.001+08:00

These are some beautiful notes made by 3EA. Left to right: Jarah, Delyshya, Farhan Rashid. Weili, Jieyi, Nadia. Jeremy, Natalia and Rayselyn.

Coastal study at ECP

2010-07-17T23:26:00.000+08:00

Ms Yee giving the pupils briefing before the field study.

Ms Tan explaining about the marine life that live on rocks.

Ms Tan explaining about the different types of shore plants found at ECP.

We saw a small version of the river formation after the heavy rain. Did you see the mini water fall?

The geographers who went on the field trip, 3EA.

The geographers we went on the field trip, 3EA and 3N1.

Today Ms Yee and I brought the 3EA and 3N1 to do coastal study at East Coast Park. It was unfortunate that it rained so heavily and I was trapped in a jam for 30 minutes. I saw 4 cars stalled along the way and I was praying so hard, please don't let it happen to me. Luckily I made it to school and by then most of the pupils were there.

After waiting for an hour hoping that rain will stop, which it didn't, we trudged forward to do our field study in the rain with umbrellas. Not the most glamourous thing to do but definitely a sign of our resilience.

I'm so grateful that Ms Tan came along. She's such a good resource person for plants. I learnt so much from her about the different types of seaweed, marine or shore plants to their adaptations to the environment. I saw Pong Pong, Sea Almond, Figus etc.

Despite the bad weather, we had fun! Looking forward to more field trips! ;)

±2℃(正負2度C)

2010-07-08T22:07:00.000+08:00

You can watch the rest of the video via Youtube. It's about time we do something or perish together. We must control the temperature within 2 Degrees Celsius. What do you suggest?

The Meatrix

2010-07-05T22:57:00.000+08:00

S'poreans face lowered risk of dying young

2010-06-25T22:03:00.000+08:00

ST Jun 25, 2010

Study says mortality rate is down sharply from 1970; average life expectancy is 81

By Victoria Vaughan

SINGAPOREANS are among the least likely in the world to die early, and the country's mortality rate has gone down by a significant margin compared with that 40 years ago, according to a study reported in top medical journal The Lancet.

Today, Singaporeans can expect to live to an average age of 81, which is a 15-year increase from 1970, when the average life expectancy was 66.

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) said this improvement was due to people here having improved nutrition. It also cited other factors such as advancements in health care, control of infectious diseases and the promotion of healthy living.

Singapore also greatly lowered its mortality rates in some of the main killers here - heart disease, cancer, stroke and accidents or violence.

The study, conducted by the University of Washington and Harvard University in the United States, looked at how the risk of dying young, among those between the ages of 15 and 60 years old, has changed over the past 40 years.

It studied a total of 187 countries. Worldwide death rates for men dropped by 19 per cent and 34 per cent for women from 1970 to this year.

Singapore is ranked the 16th-best nation for men's mortality rate, while it came in 14th for women's. These rankings were a marked improvement from a similar study in 1970 which placed Singapore 72nd and 62nd, respectively.

Japan and South Korea were the only Asian countries to be ranked higher than Singapore.

Iceland's men and Cyprus' women had the lowest risk of early death. On the other end of the scale, people living in African nations Swaziland and Zambia were most at risk of dying young.

Although Singapore has moved up the rankings, MOH said it was important not to be complacent. 'Singapore needs to continue with its effort to combat the associated risk factors of cancer and heart disease as these lifestyle diseases are the main cause of early deaths among adults between 15 and 60 years of age in Singapore today,' said its spokesman.

Three in five deaths here are due to cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Dr Paul Chiam, a consultant cardiologist at the National Heart Centre, said that as Singapore has become more industrialised, the causes of death in the younger population from infectious disease and accidents have declined. But Western diets, sedentary and stressful lifestyles, and smoking have contributed to heart disease becoming one of the leading causes of death here, he added.

Dr Chiam said that public education on leading a healthy lifestyle, and encouragement to go for screenings to detect high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, were important in combating death from heart disease.

But a less positive effect of a reduction in early death among adults is the burgeoning older population in Singapore.

There are now about eight young people to every elderly person, compared with 10 to one in 1999.

Sociology associate professor Paulin Straughan of the National University of Singapore (NUS) said that Singapore must focus on caring for this ageing population.

'When you have increasing life expectancy and a consistently low total fertility rate, the old-age dependency ratio is not very favourable.

'With the increase of singles and of single-child families, we have to be prepared to deal with an ageing population where the social support from the family is going to be very stressed,' said Prof Straughan, adding that retirement communities and residential care would need to be relooked.

'We need to have the infrastructure for Singaporeans to grow old gracefully and be prepared that many will do so on their own, without family or a spouse.'

She added it was important to note that although many people are living longer, they often have health issues.

Singapore's health-care system needs to have the capacity to cope with long-term disability and palliative care which will be expensive, she said.

Professor Chia Keen Seng, head of the department of epidemiology and public health at NUS, said the key challenge was to prevent disease as the population ages.

'We're going very well at delivering health care... but I think there is a lot that can be done in prevention.'

vvaughan@sph.com.sg

1. What were some of the reasons cited for Singaporeans facing lower risk of dying young?

2. What were some of the challenges Singapore face with improvement in life expectancy?

Tony

2010-06-17T22:26:00.001+08:00