Retreating into the mountains...

View Dharamsala & Amritsar in a larger map

Check out photos here.

Things to take note for Geography

1. Dissect the question. Underline the instructional word, 'describe', 'explain' or 'compare and contrast' etc.

2. Look at the mark allocation. One idea one mark. Develop the idea.

3. One idea one paragraph.

4. Use the figure, extract data as evidence to answer the question.

5. Don't overwrite. Don't give a summary of factors. Just go straight to the answer.

6. Use geographical keywords to explain concepts.

7. Learn to draw diagrams. Diagrams must be big enough for the marker. Not tiny ones.

8. Only last part of each question is (8m) and we mark according to LORMS. Remember to give a balanced view. For e.g, 'How effective...?". "How successful...?" Show both sides. Read question carefully.

9. Know where the various countries are located in the world map especially those countries that were mentioned in your textbook.

10. Please learn map-reading. My hunch is it will come out this 'O' level.

That's all. Will add on the list when I can think of some more. Good Luck!

Things to take note for Social Studies

Since Willson asked for some tips on the study of Geography, I thought I'll put up pointers for you to take note. Let me do for SS first.

SBQ

1. Take note of the title of the SBQ, this will give you a focus to what the key issue of the SBQ.

2. There are only a few skills you need to remember, inferential, comparison, reliability and utility.

3. Use back the instructional word, for e.g, if the question asks "How far does the source prove that...?" remember it's asking about proving, then don't write it's reliable, write it proves or does not prove to what extent.

4. When comes to comparison question, remember that there must be point of comparison. Are you comparing about the causes, consequences, impacts, etc? Don't just lift from source without the point of comparison.

5. When giving answer on purpose, remember the 3 things, provenance, target audience and intended outcome.

6. When comes to inferential, 2 inferences, support with evidence.

7. When comes to reliability question, cross-reference to check reliability. Take note of what issue you're cross-referencing to.

8. When comes to "How useful is the source as evidence...?", take note that a source can be not reliable yet still useful or may not be useless etc.

SEQ

1. Don't give long introduction. Short one to lead the marker to the issue will do.

2. Link back to question. Make sure you explain the factor that answers the question.

3. Make a stand, which factor is most important or significant.

4. Given factor MUST be well-explained. If you don't know given factor well, I suggest you do other question unless you don't have a choice.

Lastly, please manage your time well. Do not use more than 50 minutes per section.

All the best!

Keep marine ecosystems afloat: UN

Report says such 'blue carbon sinks' help mitigate climate change

Experts warn that if no action is taken to protect coastal ecosystems - like this mangrove sanctuary in Thailand - species, livelihoods and blue carbon sinks will be lost within decades. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

OCEANS, like forests, play a critical role in absorbing carbon dioxide to keep global warming at bay, and a new report has called for the preservation of marine ecosystems to offset climate change.

The Blue Carbon report, launched on Thursday by the United Nations, has found that up to a third of marine organisms such as mangroves, salt marsh plants and seagrasses that thrive in shallow coastal waters off India, and parts of South-east Asia and the Caribbean, have been lost since the 1940s.

'If more action is not taken to sustain these vital ecosystems, most may be lost within decades,' it noted.

Not only will species and livelihoods be lost, but a vital 'blue carbon sink' as well, said experts.

According to the UN report, marine ecosystems store up to 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year - roughly equivalent to half the yearly emissions of the entire global transport sector.

Much of the degradation has been caused by unsustainable fish farming practices, inadequate coastal development and waste management.

'We know that land use change is part of the climate change challenge,' said Dr Carlos Duarte, one of the report's chief scientists, who is from the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies in Spain.

'Perhaps less well known is that the global loss of what we could call our 'blue carbon sinks', are actually among the key components of the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations from all land use changes,' he pointed out.

The loss of such coastal ecosystems also has an economic impact as they supply half the world's demand for fish and protect against coastal erosion and tsunamis.

Coastal systems have an estimated economic worth of US$25 trillion (S$34.8 trillion) annually.

Policymakers converging in Copenhagen for the world climate summit in December are likely to agree on a plan to preserve forests in developing countries as part of a wider agreement aimed at cutting carbon emissions, said Mr Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme.

The role of other ecosystems should not be overlooked, he stressed.

'If the world is to decisively deal with climate change, every source of emissions and every option for reducing these should be scientifically evaluated and brought to the international community's attention.'

The report noted that curbing deforestation on land together with a restoration of marine ecosystems could reduce up to 25 per cent of the carbon emissions to keep concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere below 450 parts per million.

This was a benchmark identified in the 2007 report by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change to keep global warming below 2 deg C, to avoid the dangerous effects of climate change like severe weather patterns.

Preventing the further loss of coastal ecosystems alone can contribute to at least 10 per cent of the emission cuts needed.

Mr Patricio Bernal, assistant director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, said: 'Because the ocean has already absorbed 82 per cent of the total additional energy accumulated due to global warming, it is fair to say that the ocean has already spared us from dangerous climate change.

'But each day we are dumping 25 million tonnes of carbon into the ocean, turning it more acidic and hence posing a huge threat to organisms.'

amreshg@sph.com.sg

Marine ecosystems store up to 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year - roughly equivalent to half the yearly emissions of the entire global transport sector.

Squatters clog city's waterways

Plans to relocate them to provinces have failed; focus is now on resettling them in city

By Alastair McIndoe, Philippines Correspondent A resident wading near his flooded home in the town of Santa Cruz, Laguna province. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A WIDE canal running along the E. Rodriguez squatter settlement in Manila's Pasay district is so clogged with garbage that its fetid waters are carpeted with plastic bags, empty food cartons and rotting vegetables. Around 600 families are jammed into the warren of shanties there. Space is so precious that shacks on the edge of the embankment are precariously perched on stilts in the water. There are just a handful of toilets in E. Rodriguez. Solid human waste is thrown in plastic bags into the river; residents call them 'flying saucers'. 'The authorities tried many times to relocate them to areas outside Manila, but they don't want to move,' said Mr Bernard Pierquin, a Frenchman who has lived in this community for nearly 20 years and runs the Alouette Foundation education project for slum children. 'Nobody should be forced to live in these conditions, but they see even fewer job opportunities away from here.' As the clean-up continues in the wake of the devastating flooding caused by tropical storm Ketsana last month, squatter settlements such as E. Rodriguez are now a key issue in the debate on managing future floods, after garbage-choked drainage systems badly aggravated the disaster. Decades of unbridled urban development and population growth in Manila have forced the poor in this city of 14 million to settle on the margins. Today, the banks of waterways are congested with squatters living in flimsy housing, vulnerable to flooding and jeopardising flood-control defences. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), which oversees the 16 cities that make up the capital region, estimates that 70,000 families - some 350,000 people - live in these high-risk areas. That is about a seventh of Manila's total squatter population. Many moved here from impoverished rural areas where wages are well below the meagre earnings of tricycle-taxi drivers, factory workers and pavement vendors, typical jobs of the urban poor. The authorities have tried for years to move the squatters to relocation sites in nearby provinces. 'They have had very little success,' admitted MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando. He pointed out that relocated families complain of a lack of jobs in their new housing settlements - and often drift back to the capital looking for work. So the controversial policy is being dropped in favour of inner-city relocations in medium-rise housing for rent on unused government land. Social housing schemes have already been launched in the capital, although on a very modest basis. In particular, Taguig City's Family Townhomes Project, a no-frills, mid-rise scheme, has caught the attention of mayors looking for models for cheap mass housing. The new thinking on squatters is now the official policy of an inter-agency council on informal settlers set up by President Gloria Arroyo earlier this year. 'But it can't be done overnight,' said Mr Fernando, who chairs the group. Right now, cash incentives are being offered to flood victims living along waterways to settle in the provinces. Nobody is suggesting that the impact of squatters living along the capital's drainage systems was solely responsible for the severity of the flooding. Experts say the toll from 10 days of back-to-back storms that pummelled the northern Philippines - 773 dead and damage estimated at 23 billion pesos (S$692 million) - was linked to climate change and environmental factors as well as botched urban planning. But with the prospect of more frequent and more severe storms, calls are mounting for the authorities to make the resettlement of squatters living alongside Manila's waterways a priority. According to the Asian Development Bank, the capital region produces 6,000 tonnes of garbage daily, but only 70 per cent is collected and taken to landfills. The rest is thrown into waterways or dumped in open areas. For 60 families displaced by the flooding in a makeshift camp in Bagong Silang, part of a squatter area in Manila's Quezon City, moving into a government housing block such as Taguig's Family Townhomes Project would be heaven-sent. The residents now live in huts made of chipboard and rust-pocked sheets of corrugated iron on a muddy vacant lot. Incredibly, given the dire conditions, their shelters are clean and tidy inside. 'Of course, we want to be relocated, but not to the provinces; it is too difficult to find work there,' said Ms Evelyn Abines, who came with her family to the big city five years ago from a small town on the southern island of Mindanao. 'But we are open to any relocation in the city.' amcindoe@yahoo.com

1 in 6 people in the world goes hungry

UN report stresses need for countries to boost agriculture

NAIROBI: Parents in some of Africa's poorest countries are cutting back on school, clothes and basic medical care just to give their children a meal once a day, experts say.

Still, it is not enough. A record one billion people, or one in six people, are starving, and a new report says the number will increase if governments do not spend more on agriculture.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which issued the report to mark World Food Day yesterday, 30 countries now require emergency aid, including 20 in Africa.

The trend continues despite a goal set by world leaders nine years ago to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.

'It is actually a world emergency that calls for action from both developing and developed countries,' said Dr Otive Igbuzor, head of international campaigns for ActionAid International. 'We know a child dies every six seconds of malnutrition.'

Spiralling food prices have added to hardships, especially in the world's most desperate countries, where the poor can barely afford a single meal a day.

The inflated prices - which caused riots across the world last year - have stabilised, but remain comparatively high, especially in the developing world, said Dr Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO.

Ms Grainne Moloney of the Somalia Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit said that in the country, ravaged by violence and anarchy for almost two decades, the monthly expenditure for food and other basic needs for a family of six has risen 85 per cent in the past two years.

Ms Moloney, a nutrition expert for the Horn of Africa nation, said that on average, such a family spent US$171 (S$240) in September this year, compared with US$92 for the same amount of food and other needs in March 2007.

'Families are cutting out school, cutting out clothes. A lot of them are going for cheaper cereals,' she said, adding that despite these desperate measures, one in five children in Somalia is acutely malnourished.

Dr Igbuzor said the trend could be seen in impoverished countries across Africa.

The long-term trend is due largely to reduced aid and private investments earmarked for agriculture since the mid-1980s, the Rome-based FAO said in its State of Food Insecurity report for this year.

In 1980, 17 per cent of aid contributed by donor countries went to agriculture. That fell to 3.8 per cent by 2006, and only slightly improved in the past three years, Dr Diouf said.

'In the fight against hunger, the focus should be on increasing food production,' he said.

'It is common sense...that agriculture would be given the priority, but the opposite has happened.'

FAO economist David Dawe said the decline may have been caused by insufficient private investment in agriculture and competition for public funds from other aid fields, including emergency relief.

Governments and investors may also have chosen to put their money into other economic sectors because agriculture's share of the economy in some developing countries has dropped as people move to cities and find work in industry.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

We value your feedback.

Dear 4E and 5N,

While in your mid of study and you're taking a little break and surfing the net, can you help to do two surveys in the school's E-learning portal. We want to collect feedback from you so that we can use the data to improve next year's programme. Please go to

1. the E-learning portal and log in.

2. Click the tab on 'Survey'.

3. Do the survey for 'Needs analysis survey' and 'Core value survey for students'.

Thanks a lot! Your comments matter. :-)