Earth Day Reflection

What did you do for the Earth on Earth Day? Taking stock of my small actions on how I try to make the earth a better place.

I:

make it a point to switch off all the lights, fans and computer when I'm not using to conserve energy;

bring my own environmental bags to market on Sunday and say "no" to plastic bags (not always successful but still making an effort);

save papers by printing on both sides, squeeze as much information on one page to prevent spilling to the next page; use recycle papers

collect rainwater (as I stay on first floor) to water plants or wash the walkway;

don't use the heater when I'm bathing except on rainy days;

always wipe my pots dry before I cook or boil water to conserve energy used to evaporate the water;

use a mug for brushing my teeth instead of letting the water run;

educate my pupils on the importance of being environmental.

There is room for improvement. Hope I can do more for the earth.

When big is bad

Red and Blue

Dear CCSS pupils,

Taking feedback from one pupil that he's too lazy to read the articles, I've tried to make reading the blog a little easier. I wonder whether those who have been faithfully reading my blog realise that some words appear in red while others are in blue. Now I'll explain the function of the different colours. If I cut and paste a newspaper article, the original text will be in black. I highlight those in RED that are directly related to what we learn in Geography or Social Studies. The ones in BLUE are my personal opinions. So... if you're one of those who are too lazy to read and still come to my blog (very encouraging), you can choose to read the red and blue text. Of course I applause those who persevere to read all. One of these days I must find a way to reward those who read my blog regularly. Maybe I should give them stars for
- care: care about world affairs,
- commitment: committed to read and update oneself to learn better.
Do you have any suggestion on how I can reward those who read my blog regularly? ;-)

Hellish two-hour death ride for 54

April 11, 2008

Only 67 of 121 Myanmar illegals survive journey in a sealed container
BANGKOK - IT WAS standing room only for 121 men and women packed into an airtight seafood container truck just 6m long and 2.2m wide.
The illegal migrants, fleeing low wages back home in Myanmar, had paid smugglers 5,000 baht (S$210) each to take them to jobs in the Thai resorts of Phuket and Phang Nga.
But, only 30 minutes into their journey, things went horribly wrong.
Gasping for air, the workers started screaming and pounding on the container walls. The driver turned on the air-conditioning, but only briefly.
An hour later, the screaming and banging stopped.
When the truck driver stopped to check, what he found made him flee.

Fifty-four people, 37 of them women, had suffocated and died. Another 67 were so deyhydrated and out of air that 20 had to be hospitalised.
'I thought everyone was going to die,' said a 30-year- old survivor now in police custody. 'I thought I was going to die. If the truck had driven for 30 minutes more, I would have died for sure.'
One female survivor told Thai television: 'No matter how many times we hit the container, the driver did not pay any attention.'
TV footage showed police lifting bodies out of the truck in Ranong province.
The dead - many wearing little more than T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops - were laid out on the floor at a storage facility of a local charity.
The truck driver was nowhere to be found.
'We believe this must be part of a smuggling racket which has to be tracked down,' said Ranong Police Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai. 'The large number of illegals represents a very brazen act.'
More than a million people from Myanmar are estimated to be working illegally in Thai factories and restaurants, at petrol pumps and as domestic helpers or crew on fishing trawlers.
They have continued to stream out since the unrest in August, when protests that included Buddhist monks snowballed into anti-government demonstrations.

Many have fled Myanmar by walking across the border with Thailand although it is littered with landmines.
Others have attempted a long sea trip, usually made on flimsy boats without adequate supplies.
Still more turn to smugglers to take them across.
The results are often grim.
In January, seven illegal migrants were found dead, apparently having drowned in a Thai lake while making the illegal crossing.
Last December, at least 22 died when their boat sank.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

It's sad to read a tragedy like this. The heartless driver killed the 67 Myanmar people because of his disregard for human lives. There are so many teaching points from this article related to the topic on development. First, when the country is poorly governed (weak leadership), the people suffer because of unemployment or low pay and also political instabiliy (war and conflict). In search of better life, the people will move out to other places legally or illegally. The legal migration will be called "brain drain". The illegal one is called the "refugee" problem. This also reinforces what I told you in class about why international cooperation is important. The DCs will try to help the LDCs if not when the people start moving out as refugees to the their countries, it'll pose other social problems to them. Of course, it's every country' s duty to help one another to improve the standard of living in the world but we'll not forget that there is political motive too.

Don't you think we are blessed to be in Singapore? Can you see the work of good governance?

Yes, S'poreans are living longer

3 February 2008
By Keith Lin

BY HIS own estimation, 50-year-old Chua Seng Kee has always expected to live till the age of 70.
'That's if nothing goes wrong,' the security officer hastens to add.
So he was pleasantly surprised when The Straits Times told him that having made it to 50, he stands a good chance of crossing the 80-year mark.
New life expectancy data from the Department of Statistics say Mr Chua can expect to live for another 29.5 years.
'I've always wondered what it's like to be a great-grandpa,' said the father of a 13-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy with a laugh. 'Maybe I'll get the chance to find out!'
Singapore's life expectancy for men and women of older ages have also improved. For Mr Chua, that means his 75-year-old mother is looking at another dozen years.
Said Mr Chua, whose mother is supported financially by his elder brother: 'She has devoted so much time to taking care of my children, so I hope they get a chance to look after her when she grows old.'
The life expectancy of Singaporeans has changed over the decades. Babies born in 1963 could expect to live to age 63, according to the Department of Statistics. But today, the latest figures available indicate that life expectancy is 78 years for boys and 82.8 years for girls.
This compares favourably with other developed countries in Asia and beyond.
For instance, boys born in South Korea today can expect to live to age 75, and girls to around 82, while in the United States the current life expectancy is 75.2 for baby boys and 80.4 for girls.
Living longer is not all plain sailing, and that is something Mr Chua appreciates.
He earns around $1,700 a month and intends soldiering on in his current job until he is 70 if all goes well.
The slim-built man dismisses the notion that full-time work in later years is a back-breaking prospect.
'I think I can still take it, because I get to exercise almost every day at work,' said Mr Chua, who patrols the Enterprise Hub industrial park at Toh Guan Road East daily on a bicycle.
To cope with the additional living and medical expenses that will come with living longer, he is prepared to scrap dreams of seeing places like South Korea and Japan for vacations. South-east Asian destinations will do.
He welcomes the new CPF Life scheme and wants to take up a plan that will start offering payouts at age 70 so he can continue having a steady income stream even when he stops working regularly.
'As long as I continue to spend my money wisely and not splurge on unnecessary items, I'll be fine,' he said.

klin@sph.com.sg

For the Sec 3s, we just finished the topic on ageing population. Read this article and ask yourself why ageing population is a concern for the nation. How soon do you need to start planning for retirement? How much is enough for your retirement? Are you healthy enough to enjoy your retirement?

POPULATION DRY SEASONS

Karamojans wait in line during a food distribution, one of the driest and least developed areas in this east African country and also one with a lack of infrastructure and basic services. Scientists on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned last September that the effects of global warming are already being felt in Africa. Africans are expected to face a severe lack of food and drinkable water by the end of the century.
-- PHOTO: AFP /Walter Astrada

Price "rice"

REPLENISHED: Staff at the same NTUC outlet at Toa Payoh Hub restocking shelves with rice. Rice sales continue to be brisk despite government assurances that there is an ample stockpile of the grain. -- ST PHOTOS: LIM SIN THAI, BRYAN VAN DER BEEK

Is your mother one of those who stock up rice? There is a mad rush to buy rice in view that there will be a shortage. However, the Singapore government assured that there will be enough rice for Singaporeans.

THAI SUPPLIES SECURE Singapore is a small importer and buys mainly higher grades of Thai rice not subject to export curbs. 'As long as we can pay the market price, we will be able to get supplies,' said Mr Iswaran.

Food is about affordability. Therefore there is variation in food consumption because of different purchasing power of countries.

A potent mix of growing populations and economies; a switch from food to biofuel crops; droughts and diseases; and a lack of new technology in crop yields, have hit the poor hardest.


BASIC NEED: The Philippines, the world's biggest buyer of rice, has been hardest hit in Asia, by its rocketing price. -- AFP


FACTORS CAUSING PRICE SPIKES
EXPERTS pinpoint a host of reasons for the food crisis, besides speculation and hoarding:

BOOM IN DEMAND
Rising affluence in India and China has increased demand.
'China's population is proportionately much larger than the countries that industrialised in earlier periods and is almost double that of the current G-7 nations combined,' the Australian central bank said last year.
The Chinese, whose rise began in earnest in 2001, ate just 20kg of meat per capita in 1985. They now eat 50kg a year. Each kilogram of beef takes about 7kg of grain to produce, which means land that could be used to grow food for humans is being diverted to growing animal feed.

BIOFUEL TROUBLE
As the West seeks to tackle the risk of global warming, a race towards greener fuels is compounding the world's food woes. The US has a mandate to produce nine billion gallons of ethanol, made from corn, this year and 10 billion gallons in 2009.
'Turning food into fuel for cars is a major mistake on many fronts,' said Ms Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute. It has led to higher food prices in the US and in developing countries 'where it's escalated as far as people rioting in the streets', she said.
Similarly, palm oil is at record prices because of demand to use it for biofuel, hurting low-income families in Indonesia and Malaysia, where it is a staple.

UNFAVOURABLE WEATHER
Erratic weather, perhaps due to climate change in grain-producing countries has played havoc with crops.
A severe 10-year drought in major wheat exporter Australia lit a fire under the wheat market.
Harvests have been affected by drought and heatwaves in South Asia, Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, the UN's World Food Programme said in November last year.

RISING OIL PRICES
Record oil prices have boosted the cost of fertiliser and freight for bulk commodities. Stung by the high transportation costs, food makers have passed some of the high crop prices to consumers.
The oil price spike has also turned up the pressure for countries to switch to biofuels, which the FAO says will drive up the cost of corn, sugar and soya beans.

CURB ON EXPORTS
A number of governments, including Egypt, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Thailand, India and China, have imposed restrictions to limit grain exports and keep more of their food at home and guarantee domestic supply.
The Vietnam Food Association has asked its members to stop signing new rice export contracts. Malaysia plans to import rice from other South-east Asian nations to build reserves.
The Philippines is buying the grain from an emergency regional stockpile and taking additional supplies from the US.

NOT ENOUGH INVESTMENT
The farm sector has failed to invest enough in production over the past five years. With the US credit squeeze getting worse by the day, securing borrowings has become harder for farmers in the world's biggest grain exporter.
Also, grain elevators - companies that buy from farmers and remarket to processors - are seeing losses because they have committed to provide grains to processors at much lower prices.

DISEASED CROPS
Vietnam's farm sector faces the prospect of a return of the deadly crop disease which affected its crop yield badly last year. A viral disease called tungro and infestations of the brown plant-hopper insect in its fields have also led to global supplies being drained.
Scientists are also worried about the spread of a wheat-killing fungus, known as Ug99, from Africa to Pakistan and India.
The spread of the deadly virus, against which an effective fungicide does not exist, threatens the vital Asian Bread Basket, including the Punjab region.

Sec 3 SS SEQ on "Population"

Dear 3EA and 3EB,

This is the SS question you need to do.

To what extent is having family support effective in coping with an ageing population in Singapore? Explain your answer. [12]

L1 Writes on the ageing population without focus. (1-2m)
L2 Describes family support without linking to ageing population. (2-3m)
L3 Explains having family support will be effective in coping with an ageing population in Singapore. (4-6m)
L4 Explains the given factor AND two other factors.
Award 7m for explaining the given factor and another factor. 8m for an additional factor and additional mark for further details up to a max of 10m. (7-10m)
L5 Arrives at a balanced conclusion/ Explicit consideration of “to what extent” the factors ensure are effective in coping with an ageing population. (11-12m)

My Environsax bag

Hey, I'm so happy that I finally found my ideal environmental bag and it's so cheap, only $10. You can get it from a local online shop too. I was searching for a long while for a bag of this design. The story goes that one day I was out shopping with my friend and we went to the supermarket to buy some stuff. After we bought our stuff, she suddenly fished out an environmental bag from her tiny handbag to put all her items in. She said "no" to plastic bag. I was very inspired by her and decided to get one myself but I searched for a long while and couldn't find the design I want. I want it to be a sling bag and not a hand-carry version. The bag is equivalent to the size of two supermarket plastic bags.

The bag can be folded into a small pouch. When you need to use it, just open up. It's so cool to be environmental. No more plastic bag!