Fewer cars, fewer roads

Published on Sep 14, 2013

By Kishore Mahbubani, For The Straits Times, BY INVITATION

A FEW weeks ago, on Aug 28, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the famous speech given by Martin Luther King Jr entitled "I have a dream". He said: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."

The goal of his speech was to open the roads to advancement for his fellow black citizens. I too have a dream for my fellow Singaporeans. However, while the goal of his speech was to open the roads to advancement, my goal is to close the roads to advancement for my fellow citizens. The only difference between him and me is that while he was speaking metaphorically, I am speaking literally. We do not need many more physical roads or much more physical road space in Singapore.

Singaporeans in danger of extinction?

By Jessica Cheam , Environment Correspondent

Dr Hans Rosling -- PHOTO: JOSEPH NAIR FOR THE ST

Singaporeans are in danger of disappearing by 2100 if they continue not having enough babies.

Dr Hans Rosling made that prediction as he said Singapore has yet to feel the brunt of declining fertility and a rapidly ageing society.

If the babies do not come, this place will just fill up with old people, he said, tossing up the numbers that tell the story.

UN chief toasts Singapore's water strategy

He says know-how can be shared with other water-scarce countries

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon toasting PM Lee with a bottle of Newater at the Istana yesterday. He called it 'something far more valuable' than a glass of wine. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

By Phua Mei Pin & Ben Nadarajan

Singapore's Newater has found a champion in United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, who said that he would recommend the strategy of recycling waste water to other countries suffering from water scarcity.

After visiting the Newater complex in Changi on Friday, Mr Ban told The Straits Times in an interview: 'I was very much impressed by the idea - of recycling waste water to help people have access to safe drinking water.'

He added that 'such Singaporean experience and know-how... should be shared by many countries which have water scarcity problems'.

Everst Base Camp Trek

Mount Everest

Namche Bazaar from the east

Namche Bazaar from the west

But there isn't enough water

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

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.

Jagdish Bhagwati: Does Redistributing Income Reduce Poverty?

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.