The Straits Times Blogs - ST's Home Ground

The different faces of Aids

2009-11-20T22:00:00Z

Lee Siew Hua wonders how the discrimination against Aids can be eradicated.

WE DON'T know it, but men and women with HIV live anonymously among us.

They look normal, perhaps are active in sports, raise children. They may be anyone: a colleague or friend - even the grandmother waiting for the lift, really. But they are walking walls of silence because Singapore society has not yet learned to live with them.

The stigma of HIV is explored poignantly in 10 photo essays created by patients, volunteers and caregivers. Hosted by the non-profit organisation Action for Aids, the photo exhibition will run till Nov 29 at VivoCity.

The silence of patients, very sadly, feeds public ignorance and fear. This fear invariably feeds more silence, with patients pulling an ever tighter shroud of secrecy around their lives for protection. Should they speak up then?

Medical social worker Ho Lai Peng from Tan Tock Seng Hospital says: “The price is too high for them to pay.”

Photo source: Chalen Tan

Until society or culture shifts to accommodate the marginalised sufferer, it is may be too painful to speak up. Even with cancer - a common illness - some patients are initially silent about their condition. Family members of cancer patients, fearing contamination, have been known to keep separate utensils for use at home.

Both cancer and HIV/Aids are chronic life-threatening conditions. While there is also deep anxiety about cancer, the fear factor is conquered partly because of the hefty resources and human sympathy focused on cancer here and globally.

In Singapore, only two people have openly declared their HIV status. The late Paddy Chew went public in 1998. Mr Andy Low broke his silence this year.

Ms Ho, who has worked with patients for 14 years, has seen many of her patients live long and fruitful lives. The pity is that these good lives are covered up. She adds: “The discrimination is very painful because they have to continually lie and cover up.”

Some feel guilty that they cannot be honest about their condition with a good employer, she says.

Some forms of discrimination are obvious. People with Aids may lose their jobs, and no specific legislation redresses this discrimination.

Subtle discrimination exists as well - even at home. A patient’s family may have accepted his or her condition. Then when an argument breaks out, a family member may lash out that the patient deserves his misery.

Volunteers from Action for Aids chime in with similar stories and views. Says Mr Dan Tam, who visits HIV patients in the Communicable Disease Centre: “They are like anyone else who is warded in hospital, just that they are relatively more lonely and isolated. I feel upset when someone tells me that people with Aids deserve the worst. HIV/Aids could happen to anyone.'

Photo source: Dan Tam

Photographer Tan Ngiap Heng, who helped seed the idea for the Aids photo show at VivoCity, says: “I hope that people who see the images will also see the humanity of the people living with HIV and be more accepting of these people.”

Apart from stigma, photos in the exhibition also highlight the vulnerability of HIV-positive mums and their young children. Other photos focus on the journeys some patients make to buy cheaper generic medicine in Thailand. And several pictures are infused with fun, hope and a sense of normalcy.

Meanwhile, the silence is still immense after years of public education and outreach. It will take all players - the state, civil society and patients themselves - to end the silence, the secrets and the unjustifiable stigma.

An open country like Singapore can surely focus new compassion and purpose on an illness that has been with us a long time.

Just talking about Aids is very powerful - for Singapore society as much as for people with Aids.

Photo source: Norman A.

Energy's the topic of the week

2009-11-20T12:10:00Z

Jessica Cheam is impressed by the enthusiasm at Singapore International Energy Week.

BARELY recovering from hosting the Apec 2009 summit last week, Singapore played host to a lesser-known but equally interesting conference this week — the Singapore International Energy Week.

The annual conference, in its second year, saw bigwigs from the energy industry such as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Yergin descend on the city-state to exchange ideas and engage in debates on energy issues.

If I could sum up one theme that spoke for the entire week of events, it would be this: innovation.

Dr Yergin, chairman of the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and author of a prize-winning book on the history of the oil industry aptly noted that while the 20th century was the century of oil, the 21st century will be the century of energy innovation.

"This intense push for innovation is drive by two powerful forces - the quest for clean energy and the need to provide energy for economic growth," he said.

"The reality is nowhere more vivid than in Asia, the centre of economic growth," he observed.

That spirit of change is truly in the air. While moderating a panel discussion on the second day of the Energy Week at a dialogue organised by the Energy Studies Institute (ESI) and Royal Dutch Shell, I found the speakers, and members of the audience, often going back to the theme of renewables.

Principal fellow at the ESI, Dr Michael Quah, gave a rousing presentation on how the world must transit to one that runs on renewable energy - there is no other option.

While it took billions of years for the earth to create finite, fossil energy, we are using it up at an extremely unsustainable rate.

But while we would all like to convert to renewable energy, it is still unavailable on a massive scale and this is likely to be fully achieved only in the medium to long term, perhaps in 50 years, he said.

In the meantime, countries must grasp low-hanging fruits such as energy efficiency to make their economies leaner, while pumping research and development money to bring clean energy to the masses, said the panel members.

There are also some "transition" fuels that we could use while on the journey towards renewables, such as natural gas and its different forms (which are less polluting than crude oil) which could be tapped on.

This is something energy firms like Shell are innovating in, says Shell executive vice president Tan Chong Meng, who spoke on how we need to move from simply talking about our energy challenges, to actually acting on solutions that exist today.

This is achieved by maximising oil recovery, broadening the energy mix and reducing the carbon intensity of fossil fuels through technologies such as carbon, capture and storage (CCS), he suggested.

As part of the Singapore International Energy Week, the Clean Energy Expo Asia opened on Wednesday, and Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) announced an interesting test-bedding project to power one of Singapore's well-loved island, Pulau Ubin, completely with renewable energy.

The initiatives came fast and furious after this: EMA also launched a smart grid pilot project to be implemented at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Jalan Bahar Cleantech Park to make our grids more intelligent.

Singapore's solar energy research institute opened its doors and will invest $130 million into the industry in the next five years. Electric vehicles will arrive by next year so we can collect data and learn how to implement them on a wider scale.

So even as the week of activities have come to an end, the issues that were discussed and initiatives put in place will have an impact that will last well into the next year.

And it is an exciting period of time. It seems like the energy landscape is on the cusp of a green revolution, and Singapore has done well to position itself right in the middle of this rapidly-evolving sector.

As EMA's chief executive Lawrence Wong aptly puts it: If Singapore makes the right move, it will provide the platform for new products and services, spur energy innovations, and completely transform the shape of the energy industry in future.

Saying goodbye in peace

2009-11-13T22:00:00Z

Tan Hui Yee looks at funerals held at void decks.

THE business of void deck funerals is a peculiar one, at least for those new to Singapore.
Malaysian-born Singaporean Frankie Chiuh, 50, remembers what it was like, witnessing his first such funeral beneath his apartment block 17 years ago.
“I felt uneasy as it was just below our homes. In Malaysia, you usually hold funerals in parlours, or - if you live in a house - in your compound.”
But like any other Singaporean, he has grown used to the idea that the free space beneath apartment blocks here can accommodate a whole range of activities, funeral rites being just one of them.
Familiarity though, does not take away the friction that can occur when neighbours compete to use void decks, or insist that one party has no right to it.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong most recently related how a Chinese family was adamant about holding a funeral at a void deck when a Malay family had already booked the place for a wedding.
Funeral director Ang Ziqian, 28, has his own story to tell. One particular void deck funeral attracted a visit from the police every two hours, because a family living nearby kept complaining it was too noisy.
Each time, the police went away after ascertaining that that was not so.
Later, the puzzle was solved: A child from the family had fallen ill after accidentally kicking over an oil lamp placed on the floor during the previous void deck funeral. This made the family very wary of such events.
But this is an extreme case, says Mr Ang, who runs Ang Chin Moh Casket, one of Singapore’s oldest funeral planning companies.
“Most of time, if neighbour A holds a wake, neighbour B, C, and D will attend the wake.”
Besides, he says, funeral directors work according to a set of unwritten rules.
The first is simple - all religious services at the wake end by 11pm.
Next, if they are unsure if the void deck has been booked for some other activity, they will choose another venue if they see that furniture has been placed there in preparation for a wedding.
If two wakes are held at the same location, funeral directors will stagger the time each procession leaves, to reduce congestion.
The problem arises mostly on weekends, when town councils are closed and the deceased’s family has no way of checking if void decks have been booked for any event.
Currently, the family simply goes ahead with the funeral and only pays for the use of the void deck on the next working day. This practice, though, leaves a lot to chance and opens the door to disputes.
Mr Ang suggests that town councils put void deck bookings online, so that residents can do the check themselves even if the town council is closed. To help residents who are not web savvy, it can also make known the telephone number of the estates officer in charge of each batch of flats.
Yet technology can only help so much. People have to play their part.
How disputes are resolved, he says, still boils down to the attitude of each resident involved.

Read the Saturday Special report here.

SPH reiterates 'We didn't do it'

2009-11-13T01:47:00Z

Geoffrey Pereira says TR's reactions to blog may have generated traffic but were not coherent.

When Temasek Review (TR) published its article last week accusing SPH of trying to cripple its web server, I felt strongly that it should not be ignored as just another piece of the usual nonsense hurled at the company, often from the cover of anonymity.

I advocated that we respond to the serious allegations made in the article, 'SPH IP address caught “grabbing” content from Temasek Review server' .
(http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/02/sph-and-recent-ddos-attack-on-temasek-review/)

No one coerced me to write it. I hope that answers some comments made on and about my blog, published last week, on Nov 6:
http://blogs.straitstimes.com/2009/11/6/attack-on-temasek-review-site-not-sph

TR reacted profusely, to say the least. It has published no fewer than 7 articles on the topic, when I counted yesterday (Nov12) . All but one – a letter – were belligerent in tone and designed to ridicule me and my company.

Among the points these tried to make:
- TR never accused SPH of having a go at its server;
- I got the timing of the alleged attack wrong;
- my explanation, involving spoofing in Denial-of -Service (DOS) attacks, was wrong.

The articles also tried to shift focus away from a DOS attack to SPH’s alleged “grabbing” of TR content.

There were some humorous detours, such as in ‘25 SPH employees “caught” surfing Temasek Review in 3 days’, published on Nov 7.
(http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/07/25-sph-employees-caught-surfing-temasek-review-in-3-days/ )

This spoke about how journalists – from both SPH and Today – were visiting TR to “fish for news to write with most of them lacking the basic courtesy to even acknowledge their source of information”.

But the funniest was this: “Despite our sometimes fierce rhetoric against SPH journalists, we have really nothing against them personally. In fact, we are very sympathetic of the situation they are in: they are paid pittance and made to work long hours.”

It went on to add: “When our media company is finally incorporated next year, we will give our full-time journalists a better deal. SPH journalists are more than welcomed to join us.”

Wow.

Also interesting was the letter sent to SPH’s CEO, and published in TR on Nov 8.
( http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/08/temasek-review-writes-to-sph-ceo-alan-chan-to-seek-further-clarifications/ )

In it was a surprise statement, referring to TR's original article:

“Our correspondent who drafted the article was not familiar with IT matters. We apologize if our article has caused some misunderstanding and we have already clarified the matter in subsequent articles.

"We have never intended to implicate SPH with the DDOS attack on our server which had occurred a day earlier and we are sorry for any distress caused.”

Wow (again). They pelt me with rotten tomatoes and roast me, deny that they made accusations against SPH. At the same time, they say sorry to my CEO for hurling accusations.

Well, SPH does not reply to letters from unidentified parties (even if they have e-mail addresses), so TR – whose editor has no name, no face – should not hope for one from my CEO.

On Nov 10 yet another article from TR:
( http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/10/sph-journalist-geoffrey-pereira-got-boomzed-on-his-blog/comment-page-1/ )

This was a compilation of anonymous comments, mostly poking fun at my original blog, and which TR filed under “Top News”. It was back to pelting and roasting.

The summary of all this is, in a space of just under a week, TR has gone on overdrive to increase traffic to its site.

It has said so many things – including denying, then accepting, that it had accused SPH of trying to cripple its server – almost in the same breath. Wayang would be an apt term to describe it.

I will be unequivocal and reiterate what I said in my earlier blog: SPH made checks spanning a period that extended to before and after the alleged attack .

Our checks found that neither SPH as a company, nor any employee as an individual, launched a DOS attack on TR's web server. There was also no attempt to "grab" TR material in a way that could overload its server.

Food for thought

2009-11-11T09:56:00Z

Loh Keng Fatt comes up with an idea to end the lunch-time seating crush.

COMPANIES in Singapore should really stagger their lunch hours. The way it is now, you have to jostle the masses during peak-time lunch hours at HDB coffeeshops.

Chances are, all the seats will be taken, people will be milling around waiting for a space to open up, and you will feel frustrated, especially if you have driven to the place for a bite.

But if the coffeeshop is next to an HDB block with a void deck, I wonder why that space can’t be utilised to contain the overflowing crowd.

In Chai Chee, I have actually seen enterprising hawkers in a busy kopitiam put up tables and chairs in the void deck of an HDB block facing the eatery.

Five or six tables were provided and they made for a happy gathering point for the lunchtime crowd. The tables were quickly cleared after the human traffic thinned.

But, in recent months, I have not seen the tables there. Maybe someone complained to the town council that the void deck was being used for unauthorised purposes?

Perhaps the hawkers were warned not to repeat their space-invader action?

I know residents in the block probably did not like the din created by the chattering lunch-time crowd.

They may also have been concerned about the issue of hygiene, from floors splattered with food stains and sauce to how quickly the leftover food and plates and utensils were cleared.

These are valid concerns and no one wants his immediate environment to be tarnished.

But in space-jammed Singapore, there is also the need to maximise the usage of space and allow community needs to prevail over personal ones, if they make sense.

People needing to eat lunch surely qualifies as a necessity.

Eating in a coffeeshop is a popular option. So, what if hawkers could be allowed to "borrow" the void-deck for a fixed duration, say from noon to 2pm?

What if they hire cleaners or staff to ensure that the space used is kept spotless after each usage and that rubbish is removed as quickly as possible?

What if only a portion of the void deck was used, and that this space was far away from the lobby and lift areas?

What if the town council actually levied a charge on the hawkers and that money in return went towards reducing the monthly service and conservancy charges of residents?

These issues could well be food for thought the next time you are desperately hunting for a lunch-time seat lunch in a coffeeshop.

What do you think of this idea? Leave your comments below.

Attack on Temasek Review: Not SPH

2009-11-06T03:40:00Z

Geoffrey Pereira explains an accusation based on IP address is mistaken; there was no malicious activity on SPH's part.

A COUPLE of days ago, a blog that focuses on Singapore politics carried a posting which accused Singapore Press Holdings of trying to cripple its web server.

Temasek Review (TR) posted its article, "SPH IP address caught 'grabbing' Temasek Review server" on Nov 2.

It started by defining a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack - essentially as when a server is bombarded with requests so as to overload and cripple it.

It then went on to say that its monitoring had shown that during a recent period, there was a flurry of network requests coming from an SPH IP address.

Put this together and it is no less than an accusation that SPH had launched an Internet attack on TR. Many of its own readers, too, saw it as such, though TR tried to deny it in the discussion that followed on the site.

The article ended by fishing out the Computer Misuse Act and warning SPH to not continue its "intrusions" to undermine its site. Or else, it said, it would escalate the matter.

You can read the article in full, here (and if SPH is not being accused of a DOS attack, why associate it with this URL title?):
http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/02/sph-and-recent-ddos-attack-on-temasek-review/

Well, the truth is no warning was needed; but perhaps a little more understanding of the Internet by TR.

For, as at least one TR reader pointed out in the discussion the followed on the site, IP addresses by themselves do not prove anything. In fact IP spoofing is a common tactic used in a DOS attack and with information available readily (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address_spoofing) TR should have known that SPH is as easy prey as anyone.

In any case, given the serious allegation made, SPH made checks with its Network Intrusion Protection Services (NIPS) vendor, a reputable multi-national company. We wanted to find out if anyone within the organisation did, indeed, have a go at TR.

Our NIPS vendor found that there was no unusually heavy access to TR during the period of the alleged attack on its site. SPH logs also determined that no one from the company tried to access material from 2008, as claimed by TR.

TR changed the time of the alleged attack (we have print-outs too!! ) some time after the article was first published; but I won't jump up and down the way some bloggers do when an SPH website changes a headline. I'll just put it down to corrections made by TR to improve accuracy.

Nevertheless, data made available to me covered a 3-day period starting before and ending after the alleged attack. It showed that about 25 SPH employees – including yours truly, a regular reader – visited TR; but we did not create the kind of flurry of Net activity that would slow a server down, much less precipitate a DOS.

In fact, from midnight on Nov 1 to about 6 am, (covering a period of the alleged attack) no one from SPH accessed the TR site.

Our NIPS vendor's technical staff member, who checked 7 days worth of data and found no DOS activity originating from SPH concluded: "My opinion of the situation is Temasek Review released the article with very little research into what happened on its server."

It is an expert opinion; but if opinions don't count, here are the facts: Contrary to TRs allegations, neither did anyone in SPH try to "grab" TR material in a way that would load its server; nor did any SPH staffer launch any attack on the server.

A sense of nostalgia

2009-11-05T22:41:00Z

Reme Ahmad walks down memory lane and says goodbye to an old friend.

SOME 20 years ago, there was a shop called Sembawang Music Centre at the now-demolished Sembawang Shopping Centre that I frequented.

I was living in Yishun then, and it was the nearest shopping centre for Yishuners. I cannot use the word "mall" to describe the place because that would sound perhaps too "modern" and "upmarket".

You see, Yishun's Northpoint mall with its supermarket, fast food restaurants and trendy shops had not yet been built, and Sembawang Shopping Centre was just a neighbourhood stopping point with more shops than the Yishun town centre.

At that time, music albums were sold as round vinyl records and the more popular spool-tapes. The Walkman and albums on CDs would come later.

There was no Internet (at least not in the way we know it now), and so one had to buy a full-album produced by Elton John or Abba or Lobo even if there were only a few songs that were actually worth listening to.

Or if one wanted to buy a mix of songs, we had to wait for a "Best of" album or those "Hits" compilations by Warner or EMI.

I later moved to Bishan and then lived in Kuala Lumpur for a dozen years. I forgot about Sembawang Music Centre.

But over the years, that small single music shop in Sembawang grew and grew. It had 26 shops at its zenith.

That itself was perhaps a reflection of how Singapore as a country, also grew and grew. And how Singaporeans also rode the economic crest.

And yes, I did visit several of Sembawang Music Centre's branches over the years whenever I came down to Singapore.

But it was not to buy music albums. They had by then begun selling film VCDs and later DVDs.

By then Mustafa's came along, and also dozens of other shops competing with Sembawang Music Centre selling movies.

And worse, I think, was the Internet that empowered people to download their favourite songs directly — legally or not. There is no need anymore to wait for a “Best of” or a “Hits” complations

There is, really, no need to visit a CD shop anymore for most people.

So it was with some nostalgia that I read about the closure of Sembawang Music Centre, last weekend.

I sighed to myself; "How far we all have gone in life."

So, with some sadness, I went to Plaza Singapura on Tuesday — it was only my second visit to this mall in about 12 years!

I went up to the third floor where Sembawang Music Centre is located; at least until it too closes down in a few weeks time.

What an irony I thought: The shop is closing down because there is not enough business, but it was packed with people because all items are up for sale — for up to 75 per cent discount.

But no, I did not buy a music CD. I bought four movies, all a few years old, on VCDs (DVDs are too pricey for me) for $14.90.

Silly me, but as I stepped out of the shop after paying up, I couldn't help wonder about the fragility of life itself.

Goodbye my old friend, Sembawang Music Centre. Thank you for the music and the movies.

Happy (Singapore) Halloween

2009-11-03T11:07:00Z

Nicholas Yong, born on Halloween, gets an extra-special birthday party.

THIS seems terribly tragic but for someone born on Halloween, I actually attended a Halloween gathering for the first time this year.

To be fair, the festival was never a big thing when I was growing up in the 1980s. As far as I can tell, it's only really grown in popularity in recent years.

Luckily my first time turned out to be a highly memorable one, full of vivid sights that will live long in the memory.

I was at the centre of the action at the bridge leading from Riverside Point to the clubs and bars of Clarke Quay, amid hundreds of revellers dressed as everything from devils and ninjas to geisha girls and Scooby Doo.

Singaporeans come out to play for Halloween.
PHOTO: Nicholas Yong

An enterprising stallholder was selling hairbands with glowing horns to those who did not come in costume, but many did not need it.

In a carnival atmosphere reminiscent of Mardi Gras, the night was full of little spontaneous outbursts that livened up the whole atmosphere.

Like the surreal sight of Watchmen's Rorschach calling out to X-Men's Wolverine: "Logan! Come on over for a picture, it’s a superheroes gathering!"

'Wolverine' gets up close with a she-devil. PHOTO: Nicholas Yong

Watchmen's Rorschach isn't scared of H1N1.
PHOTO: Nicholas Yong

Or the Roman who got his toga pulled up by his friend, only to reveal that he was wearing nothing underneath, to moans and cheers from onlookers.

Just below the bridge, partygoers admired one another's costumes and sportingly posed for photos with one another that were guaranteed to find their way onto Facebook the next day. A man dressed as a soft drink even caused a small commotion when numerous individuals ran after him for a picture.

Many came dressed to party, and had clearly put in effort into their costumes.

"Eh, I even did research," said one dressed as a parking attendant, who proudly showed off his big hat and small slingbag with an equally small umbrella hanging from it. He looked so convincing that I almost thought he was going to issue me a summons, even though I hadn't driven there.

Perhaps the anonymity provided by the costumes – a Scream mask here, a ninja hood there – and the haze of alcohol were what ensured a no-holds-barred party.

Nevertheless, even those without masks contributed to the carnival.

A Michael Jackson circa 1985, treated the crowd to an impressive dance display, before slinking away into the night like his very own one-man flash mob.

Standing in a corner, three Brits dressed as old women with mightily impressive fake breasts cackled away in character.

Cackling 'ladies' at Clarke Quay's Halloween celebrations.
PHOTO: Nicholas Yong

Then came my favourite moment of the night: four revellers in iconic costume who sparked a spontaneous cry of "Ghostbusters!", to the tune of the famous song.

Who you gonna call? PHOTO: Nicholas Yong

And of course, the night would not have been complete without the debilitating effects of booze.

My friend, who was in surgical scrubs, arrived at Clarke Quay so sloshed that he actually looked like he was in need of medical attention himself. "I cannot take it, I have to go home already," he moaned after about an hour.

I might have sympathised, but I was too distracted by some Japanese schoolgirls.

Hope all of you had a rocking Halloween.

A simple solution

2009-10-27T06:45:00Z

Loh Keng Fatt has some ideas to help reduce road rage in Singapore.

YOU play "good driver" and observe all the rules. On the expressway, you filter left early to follow the stream of cars exiting on the slip road. Or you do the same on the extreme right of a road to access a ramp, or slip road, to a highway.

During peak periods however, this eats up time, the line of cars in front of you can be quite long, and that's when the nasty Singaporean driver shows up.

There you are, nursing your car slowly forward, when a small gap opens in front of you and suddenly a car swerves forcefully into your path.

He is, of course, the infamous queue-jumper — and not necessarily piloting some fancy set of wheels.

You mutter curses, and stare daggers at the offender, willing him or her to check the rear-view mirror to meet your blazing eyes.

Most times, the other driver does not.

I think many motorists are confronted by such brazen, irresponsible actions every day.

But you don't have to put up with such nonsense; you don't have to feel like you need to bash them up (of course, you shouldn't), or even sound your horn in angry frustration.

I've got a simple solution:

Could some sort of barrier in the form of poles be placed along the dotted lines separating two roads; starting at some distance from the exit or entrance point?

Some may say that this would be unsightly. Perhaps. Others may call it dangerous.

But it would only be dangerous if you were speeding and trying to cut in at the last possible moment.

Still, you would have to agree that something has to be done to curb Singapore’s reckless drivers.

It is also dangerous to other motorists who must be on "super alert" to avoid hitting the intruders.

I have learnt to keep a very sharp vigil for anyone who is inclined to cut in.

I actually keep to the extreme edge of the road to give them less space to muscle in. If I am filtering left, I keep my car hugging the extreme right side of my lane, and vice versa.

Drivers should never allow a yawning gap to open in front of them, to let some time-pinching driver sneak in.

Perhaps, if everyone did that, we wouldn't need to install barriers to ward off the queue-cheaters?

Are our ideas risky investments?

2009-10-16T22:15:00Z

Cassandra Chew asks why few companies offer funding for innovative ideas.

GOOD ideas inspire me. Over the past year, I've particularly enjoyed interviews and meetings with entrepreneurs and innovators.

These self-starters inevitably have an infectious enthusiasm and stubborn optimism, borne probably from the knowledge that they’ve a great solution that no one else has.

In fact, innovators seem to have a solution for everything.

As I write this, researchers in Singapore are finding ways to make buildings more eco-friendly, to recycle all sorts of waste, and to come up with new foods and flavours with better nutrition.

For their part, the authorities are pouring more resources to make these innovations available to the public. This process, in geek speech, is known as tech transfer.

All five Singapore polytechnics have, in one way or another, established their own tech transfer offices, and last year, even formed a network to centralise resources.

The hope, says Mr Walter Lee, head of the Technology Transfer Network (TTN) secretariat, is that Singapore can become a regional tech transfer hub, much like American cities San Diego and Boston.

But the road ahead is long, admits Mr Lee, who reckons it may take Singapore up to 15 years to reach this goal.

What's sorely lacking is funding from venture capitalists and business angels to commercialise these innovations.

It is Mr Lee's hope that the Exploit Technologies Innovation and Enterprise Week this week will draw keen investors game enough to take risks on local innovations.

"Singapore is quite financially endowed, but a lot of money is in real estate, food and beverage and hotels," he says.

"The goal is to get a culture of investing in innovations started, and slowly by word of mouth, more and more people will join in."

A number of networks such as the Angel Investment Initiative, and the Business Angel Network (South East Asia) have come up to help this culture along.

But the reason for the slow uptake, it seems, boils down to the risk of utter and complete loss should the product fail, much like an investment in a start-up.

The one question that is crying out to be asked as Singapore pushes hard towards a knowledge-based economy is this: Are Singaporean ideas risky investments?

What do you think?

My answer to that is, if it inspires you, it’s probably worth a shot. After all, you’ll never know until you try, right?

E-mail you answer to Cassandra Chew or leave a comment below. Read more about this idea in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.

Life can be (more than) a ball

2009-10-14T22:18:00Z

Loh Keng Fatt says people are too concerned about watching football.

WHAT did you do last weekend? What are you planning for this Saturday and Sunday? What about next weekend?

Chances are, quite a number of people were — or will be — tuning in to football matches, even if they may not be top-drawer clashes.

Has the game become a fixture in many people's choice of weekend relaxation?

Have wives and girlfriends become soccer widows as a result?

Are fathers doing things with their children only outside football-on-TV hours?

I ask all this because I detect a growing hard core group of addicted followers.

If not, why would so many folks be super upset when it was announced that there would be a change of EPL broadcast provider, from StarHub to SingTel?

Sure, the issues they raised, from the propect of paying more to subscribe to two content providers to the incompatibility of set-top boxes were legitimate.

But the scale of the furore is such that one might be tempted to think that the fans were in danger of being denied a very basic service or need, like cheap medical care or the right to send their kid to any primary school.

It was not that long ago that Singaporeans had only one game to watch a week on television. And the luck of the programming draw meant that lousy teams were featured as often as the good ones.

Now, there are a lot more live matches to watch — not all interesting, I must say — and many people seem to be making time and space to catch as many as possible.

They ignore the fact that there are other, more worthwhile, things in life to pursue too, be it a hobby or taking the family out more often for a movie or dinner.

Certainly, I have no great desire to watch all the games. What I prefer is the option to pay only for the match I want to watch.

This will be the big game, the critical showdown, and it won’t be Arsenal vs Wigan or Liverpool vs Hull.

But I want to be there for Man U vs Liverpool.

Or Chelsea vs Man City.

If the telco can come up with a pay-for-view option, I will sign up in a jiffy. I don’t need to subscribe for a whole season’s worth of games.

Sure, life can be a ball — but not all of it should be experienced from watching the action on a field.

Being united

2009-10-13T09:34:00Z

Ronald Kow remembers when television united Singaporeans.

LIKE any other football fan hooked on the Uefa Champions League and the Barclays Premier League (BPL), I too am having to take a hard look at whether I should give up my StarHub subscription, switch to Singtel's mio TV or have both.

So the logical thing to do was to look at what SingTel had to offer besides the football.

I have not arrived at a decision. There is no hurry as StarHub will still telecast BPL matches until the end of the season in May 2010. As for the Champions League, the matches are shown at such ungodly hours — and it gets worse in a few more weeks with kickoff times an hour later — that I am not enough of a football fanatic to sacrifice sleep and get annoyed when my favourite team loses.

What I am going to say here has nothing to do with the Champions League or the BPL. Rather, while looking at the various packages on mio TV, I noticed one thing similar with both pay-TV providers: Channels are grouped like racial segregation.

StarHub revised my plan some time ago. I was on the Ultimate Pack, which gave me most of the channels. I was told that the plan would be revised to let me keep the channels it thinks I would want to watch, take away those it thinks I am not likely to watch anyway and give me a few more. The revised plan would cost about the same, after throwing in a discount to match the previous price plan.

In the exact words (more or less) of the StarHub representative: "You get all your current Chinese channels, we add one more Chinese movie channel, and we take away all the Indian and Malay channels." Even the Japanese and French were not spared because I also lost NHK and TV5 Monde Asie.

Checking up on Singtel's mio TV price plans, I could not help noticing that the main packages were named SuperSaver English Pack, SuperSaver Chinese Pack and SuperSaver Indian Pack.

It made me imagine the day the $110 TV licence fee we pay annually to watch "free" channels is revised such that Chinese Singaporeans pay a certain amount for Channel 8 and Channel U, Malay Singaporeans are charged a different amount for Suria and Indian Singaporeans have their rate for Vasantham.

I remember in 1963 when television made its debut in Singapore and there was only one channel. All Singaporeans were united in watching programmes in all languages.

Chinese viewers got to enjoy Bollywood movies and sandiwara, while the Malays and Indians joined in the fun to watch the Chinese movies.

Those old enough would remember sitting or standing in front of the TV set from Majulah Singapura in the early evening to Majulah Singapura around midnight when transmission ended. In between, we were all united in enjoying whatever show was on, in any language.

One show even gave all of us a chance to learn each other's languages. That was the programme to promote the national language, Malay. Every word or phrase was translated into English, Chinese and Tamil — the other three official languages.

For instance, if our mother tongue was Chinese, this national language lesson would teach us what a certain word or phrase was in Malay or Tamil.

Then we started getting more channels, including Malaysian TV, and family members at home and fellow constituents at the community centre would quarrel over who got to watch what.

These days, one thing that might unite viewers regardless or race, language or religion is sports, especially football.

But, again, I am seeing a link between the distant past, when we had just one channel and very few homes had a TV set, and the present day in which many homes have a few TV sets each but may not have Champions League and BPL channels.

When very few homes had a TV set, the privileged ones would invite neighbours into their homes to watch some shows. For free, of course.

These days, though, some people might instead think of charging others to watch football and other sports on their pay-TV.

Watch out, Big Brother's watching

2009-10-08T10:46:00Z

Hazlin Hassan on bad S'porean drivers in M'sia and a system meant to stop them.

IN KUALA LUMPUR

A NEW system to be implemented here soon could see more Singaporeans paying fines for traffic offences.

Rightly or wrongly, Singaporeans have the unfortunate image of being notorious drivers while on Malaysian roads.

During the long weekend of the Hari Raya celebrations last month, Malaysians took to the roads, to head back to their kampungs and for mini-breaks.

And so did many Singaporeans.

Whether you were on the highway heading north to Penang, or south towards Malacca, one could not help but notice the many Singapore-registered cars alongside the Malaysian ones.

While the sight of Singaporean cars in the country could only mean that Singaporeans were helping in some way to boost the Malaysian economy, not all Malaysians were happy with their presence.

A few complained angrily in the blogosphere, saying that the Singaporean drivers drove like demons, went over the speed limit, tailgated dangerously, and parked at their whims and fancies. This seems to be a perennial problem, and not just exclusive to the Hari Raya period.

Many Malaysians see Singaporeans as driving badly every time they cross the Causeway.

One public relations executive complained on his Facebook account during Hari Raya: "Whenever Singaporeans enter Malaysia, they drive like mad, don't respect our traffic laws at all, especially on the North South Expressway (NSE). Shame on you!" he added.

A fund manager who drove from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca over the Hari Raya holidays said he saw Singapore-registered cars using the emergency lanes on the NSE to avoid the crawl. In Malacca, he saw them parked illegally, taking up an entire lane, while Singaporeans tucked into local specialty "satay celup" at a nearby restaurant.

One Singaporean who works here even admitted to me that he'd driven his car here last week with an expired road tax.

Some say Singaporeans drive badly here because they are unable to do so at home, due to strict enforcement.

Indeed it is hard to enforce traffic rules here, mainly due to a shortage of resources. Even Malaysians tend to flout traffic laws as they think they can get away with it. Drivers who park illegally, speed and sometimes even run a red light are common here. And that's just the cars. The motorcycles are even worse, with cyclists going the wrong way down a street, making illegal turns, not having working lights at night or even donning a helmet.

In any case, some Malaysians feel it is time to act tougher on errant Singaporean drivers. But it is not easy to enforce fines once they cross the Causeway back into the republic.

A traffic police officer who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said that the Malaysian authorities were unable to post summonses to Singaporean addresses. "We haven't got authorisation to obtain the addresses of Singaporean offenders," he told The Straits Times.

At one time, there was a police unit in the Malaysian High Commission in Singapore, for Singaporeans to pay their summonses. But it only managed to last for one month. Singaporeans demanded photographic evidence of their offences but at the same time, did not want to go through the hassle of requesting and paying for the photos.

Still, Singaporeans who are determined to pay their summonses, can go to any police station in Johor and check their records, he said. And offenders who re-enter the country will be screened and stopped at Customs if they have any outstanding summonses.

But the system is evidently not perfect.

An estimated four out of 10 offenders from Singapore actually bother to pay their fines, he said.

But thanks to a new system, Singaporeans may not have to wait until a return trip to Malaysia, to be slapped with a summons.

"We are now starting to implement a new system, the Automated Enforcement System, that uses CCTV on the highways. So if you violate any laws, you can't escape," said the traffic cop.

With the CCTV, it will be easier to catch errant drivers, whether they are locals or foreigners. The cameras will zoom in on your registration number. And while a decision on the method of issuing summonses hasn't been finalised yet, fines will either be issued on-the-spot or on the way out of the country.

According to reports, the unmanned cameras will be located at at least 800 spots around the country.

The system, which is estimated to cost more than RM300 million (S$123 million) can detect drivers who beat traffic lights, overtake on the left or across double lines, tailgate, drive on the emergency lanes and even overload. At present, police use laser digital cameras which have to be manually operated. The drawback is that they cannot be used when it rains. And if three vehicles are speeding at the same time, the device can only capture one vehicle.

The AES has apparently already been used in the US, Britain and Australia.

But most Singaporeans probably need not worry, as they are generally civic-minded, and use seatbelts, said the officer.

"It's just that when they come here, they tend to drive a bit fast because the NSE is 966 kilometres long. In Singapore, they can't go that far on their highways."

Plenty self-belief, zero media savvy

2009-10-07T13:00:00Z

Melissa Pang describes her impressions of the controversial Ris Low.

THERE were more requests for pictures when Ris Low visited the newsroom yesterday than when Formula One driver Kazuki Nakajima received when he dropped by The Straits Times last month.

That's how "boomz" the former Miss Singapore World has become.

Work came to a temporary standstill as kaypohs emerged from their cubicles to sneak a glimpse of the dethroned beauty queen, who was here Tuesday night for an exclusive Razor TV interview.

Ris Low arrives at the Razor TV newsroom. With her is presenter Cheong Poh Kwan.
--- ALL ST PHOTOS BY TERENCE TAN

In it, the 19-year-old answers questions on every controversy that has dogged her since she first came under the negative glare of publicity.

And Ris still remained every bit as controversial.

The video featured the same shocking candidness (swiping stolen credit cards gave her a "thrill"), incoherence (she celebrated her one-month anniversary with her boyfriend by going on their first date -- HUH?), misuse of words ("sponsorers" and "evidences"), and bipolar versions of stories (first claiming she was single, then changing her tune by the end of the interview).

Ris's poise never wavered, and she kept her posture ramrod straight throughout the interview.

This time, however, instead of laughing and feeling disbelief at her foot-in-mouth comments, I walked away with the impression that Ris is simply naive - almost to a fault. She does not seem to realise the repercussions from her words and actions, and she seems oblivious to the negativity surrounding her - whether from a real lack of concern or awareness, it is hard to tell. At times, she even came across as enjoying her infamy.

If she sought to improve her situation with the interview, it sowed little benefit.

To be fair though, there were some redeeming qualities to the MDIS student.

When asked how she felt about all the criticism levelled against her so far, she said they did not bother her much as she had "very high self-confidence". This self-confidence was mentioned again in reply to what she thought was most beautiful about her. It could have been a scripted inner-beauty type answer, but she said it so fiercely and with so much conviction, no one can doubt the amount of self-belief this girl has. To me, it revealed a sort of strength in character not found in many.

Ris tries to explain what "boomz" really means.

Off-air, Ris came across as sweet and rather pleasant, greeting everyone politely and sincerely, even apologising for making everyone wait despite being early. Her smile never left her face and she carried herself with plenty of confidence. Hints of what the judges might have liked about her showed through.

Furthermore, at the end of the interview, Ris patiently obliged everyone's requests for photos despite a looming 10pm curfew. She showed no sign of annoyance and even gamely agreed to sign "Boomz" on a colleague's Speak Good English Movement T-shirt. Before leaving the studio, she gave a slight bow and thanked everyone for their support.

Everyone wanted a picture with Ris.

Signing "Boomz" on a colleague's Speak Good English T-Shirt.

Said Ris when I asked if she felt victimised by the reports and criticisms: "Victimise me all you want. It has only made me stronger."

The brickbats may yet come flying her way again, but even if sticks and stones may break her bones, words certainly don't seem to hurt this girl.

Straitstimes.com editor Joanne Lee discusses why Ris is still a news story.

National pride is at stake

2009-10-07T07:10:00Z

Loh Keng Fatt says pageants should drop 'Singapore' from their names.

MISS Singapore World. Miss Singapore Universe.

They must be the top two beauty contests in Singapore for anyone aiming to sashay on and land a bigger prize on the global stage.

It is a nice quest to aim for but it's not linked only to the dreams of starry-eyed, pretty girls.

Nor does it concern only the pageant franchise-holder which stands to score bragging rights if its girl wins the grand finale.

The country's good name is also co-opted into this mission — even though the contests are not:
a. national projects,
b. backed by any major homegrown organisation,
c. and have almost zero involvement from members of the public on the selection process.

The plain fact is, if such contests are privately organised, and mostly devoid of publicity and heck-care from the public, should the winner's sash deserve to carry the Singapore name in the title?

After all, the contests are run by franchise-holders which see them as one way to generate money.

There is nothing wrong with this business model, of course, except that its end-result involves the image of Singapore.

They are sending someone abroad to fly our flag. Not just any flag but the Singapore flag.

The winner is called Miss Singapore World or Miss Singapore Universe, not Miss Lion City or Miss Sunny Island.

Who are the judges in these contests? What are the contestants judged on?

How much help does the winner get, in terms of snaring a decent budget for clothes and deportment classes, to put up a good fight abroad?

National pride is at stake.

We know of some countries which do spend quite a bit to back up their finalists.

No wonder then that the perception among many people in Singapore is that the calibre of contestants has dropped because many would-be participants are not sure what they are getting into.

So until the contests receive a big shot in the arm, in terms of financial support or backing by, say, the Singapore Tourism Board, and there is a way perhaps for the public to help choose the winner, a la Singapore Idol, we should take out the Singapore name from the beauty titles.

Read Joanne Lee's blog on why Ris Low's story is still news: Why Ris is still a news story

Read Nicholas Yong's blogs on the on-going saga of former Miss Singapore World, Ris Low:
What does 'boomz' really mean?
To boomz or not to boomz...

Read more about Ris Low: Ris has a boyfriend