From Texas, USA : Thank you, Singapore

GUESS WHO WATCHES OVER U.S. CITIZENS

We are Houston-area residents who were affected by Hurricane Rita recently. Fortunately we were spared the hurricane's wrath.

We received a phone call on Sunday morning from the Singapore Embassy in Washington DC checking on our welfare, and we are so grateful that we felt we had to let Singaporeans know what an awesome government they have.

Our relatives in Singapore had contacted the embassy for assistance when we lost contact during the mass evacuation. And while we remain safe, we now feel even more secure knowing that another capable government is watching out for us.

Mike & Phyllis Toombs, Texas, USA
STForum, The Straits Times Interactive, 29 September 2005

S'pore moves up to 6th spot in WEF ranking

It climbs up a rung in competitiveness table, thanks to top-notch economic governance

SINGAPORE'S top-notch economic management has propelled the Republic one place higher to sixth spot in a closely watched ranking of global competitiveness conducted by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).

Finland, which grabbed the top position from the United States two years ago, was No. 1 in the world again this year.

The US was No. 2 again, followed by Sweden and Denmark. Among Asian markets, only Taiwan did better than Singapore, coming in at No. 5. And one of Singapore's long-standing economic rivals, Hong Kong, slumped seven spots to 28th this year.

Singapore got a big lift this year from scoring No. 1 in the macroeconomic environment index rank, which looks at the way the overall economy and its institutions are run.

The WEF compiled the rankings based on hard data and a survey of nearly 11,000 business leaders in 117 economies.

Singapore came in tenth in the macroeconomic stability sub-index, but was No. 1 in terms of minimising government waste. In terms of its country credit rating, Singapore came in at No. 15.
The Republic scored highly in terms of the way its public institutions are run, coming in at fourth place. On the issue of the reliability of legal contracts and the legal system generally, it took fifth spot. In terms of a corruption-free environment, Singapore was third in the world, while in the area of technology, it did also well at No. 10.

A parallel business competitiveness index found Singapore to be in the fifth place, up from tenth position last year.

'The Nordic countries have consolidated their position at the top of the league,' said the WEF's chief economist, Mr Augusto Lopez-Claros. 'The main reason is these countries enjoy very good management. They do not have fiscal problems like France, Germany or Italy,' he told reporters. Faced with an ageing population, Nordic countries are reforming now in order to maintain their welfare systems, he said.

In Asia, after Taiwan and Singapore, the next Asian economy was Japan, which dropped three rungs to 12th position. This reflected Japan's relatively poor macroeconomic performance, particularly in terms of its management of public finances, said the WEF.

'Taiwan and Singapore are economies that, through sustained good policies over the past few decades, have lifted their citizens from poverty, joining the ranks of the most prosperous and competitive economies in the world,' the think-tank noted.

Meanwhile, China dropped three ranks to 49th place, while India moved up five places to 50th position.

Narendra Aggarwal
The Straits Times Interactive, 29 September 2005

Team Singapore sails into top 4

SINGAPORE sailors have caught up with the leaders after a poor start in a round-the-world yacht race.

THE GREAT SINGAPORE SAIL: On a high now after catching up with the leading yachts, the Singapore clipper crew takes a breather while doing last-minute checks at Cascais in Portugal yesterday before sailing for Salvador in Brazil on the second leg of the 10-month race.

Forty-eight hours after setting sail from Liverpool, England, they were trailing last.

But five days later, when the first leg of the race ended in Portugal, they had left six other teams behind to come in fourth.

Team member David Beevers said: 'The whole team is on a real high. We had a really bad start because when we hit the Irish Sea, more than half the team became sea-sick.'

They had never been at sea for more than two days at a stretch before the race, he added. He was speaking to The Straits Times from Portugal yesterday, just hours before he was due to set off again.

The Clipper 05-06 race will take competitors 50,000km around the world with stops in South Africa, Australia, China, Japan and Singapore.

Mr Beevers, a 45-year-old Singapore permanent resident, quit his job as the senior director of business operations at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre and paid $94,000 to join the race.

'The voyage from Liverpool to Portugal took us seven days,' he said.
It was seven days with no showers - just baby wipes - food out of tins, and no more than six hours of sleep at a stretch.

Mr Beevers, who used to race boats professionally about 25 years ago, said that sharing a small space with up to 18 people is also not easy. 'It's very stressful and we all have our moods, and ups and downs.'

Singapore has a team of 38 crew members, some of whom will be replacing others during the 10-month race.

Karamjit Kaur
The Straits Times Interactive, 29 September 2005

Singaporean hon fellow of IEE

NTU don is 1st S'porean to gain engineering society honours. NANYANG Technological University deputy president Er Meng Hwa is the first Singaporean to be made an honorary fellow of the renowned Institution of Electrical Engineers.


He follows in the footsteps of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell in becoming a fellow of the London-based institution, Europe's largest professional engineering society.

Only one or two honorary fellowships are awarded each year.

Professor Er, 49, was chosen for his work in engineering research and education. He contributed to the growth of the school as dean of NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from 1996 to May this year. The number of academic staff at the school has increased from about 100 in 1996 to 270, making it one of the largest worldwide. Under Prof Er's watch, the number of PhD and master's students grew from about 100 to 700.

Prof Er has been at NTU for about 20 years, and published more than 240 papers in international journals and conferences.

He is on the boards of organisations such as DSO National Laboratories and SP PowerGrid. IEE president John O'Reilly said he helped strengthen NTU's 'research expertise in a number of leading-edge technology areas'. He has also helped develop NTU's research facilities and forged ties with leading international partners.

Prof Er received his award at a ceremony in London yesterday.

Even though engineering is becoming less popular among students here, he said it 'will continue to provide the core technology for many innovations and inventions, including life sciences'.

HO AI LI
The Straits Times Interactive, 15 September 2005

Seawater fit for drinking now a reality

PM hails milestone in history of S'pore's water supply' . Water from the sea that is safe to drink and affordable.

OPENING TOAST: In tune with the celebratory mood, fireworks lit up the sky over Tuas as Mr Lee completed a tour of the plant with (from left) PUB chairman Tan Gee Paw, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim and Hyflux's Ms Lum. The bottles have labels saying "Desal H2O". -- Photo by TERENCE TAN

That is now a reality, and in record time too, with yesterday's opening of the first plant in Singapore to turn seawater into drinking water.

Before some 600 guests, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong turned on the tap at the desalination plant in Tuas, one of the world's largest. Built by homegrown water-treatment firm Hyflux, it was finished just 20 months after construction began in January last year, and three months ahead of schedule. Its opening is a milestone in the history of Singapore's water supply, Mr Lee said.

Over the next few days, the purified seawater will flow to homes and businesses in the west after it is mixed with water from reservoirs. The $200-million plant can meet up to 10 per cent of Singapore's daily water needs. Its energy-efficient design allows it to supply desalinated water at one of the cheapest rates in the world: 78 cents per cubic metre, about half the cost elsewhere.

Desalination is the fourth national tap in Singapore's plan to ensure it does not become too reliant on any one source for water. The other three taps are local reservoirs, water from Johor and NEWater. With all four national taps flowing, Mr Lee said Singapore will have a 'diversified, reliable and cost-effective supply of water'.

He also announced an investment of S$1.5 billion over the next two years to further develop water infrastructure through projects such as the Marina Bay reservoir and NEWater factories. A smiling Mr Lee led dozens of MPs in a toast as they held aloft small bottles labelled 'Desal H2O'. It was reminiscent of scenes from three years ago, when Singapore also took a giant stride towards self-sufficency in water supply with the launch of NEWater.

Earlier, Mr Lee spoke of how far Singapore had come in tackling its water challenge. He put it down to the determination and ingenuity of its people. All Singaporeans did their part over the years to conserve and make the most of water resources.

'We must continue to work together to secure our future water needs. For Singapore, water will always be a strategic resource, and not just an economic commodity,' he said. But this vulnerability also became a strength, as the water industry grew into a dynamic part of the economy.

Hyflux, which started out as a small-scale water treatment company, has built its capabilities through research and development (R&D) and is now expanding overseas. Others, such as Keppel Engineering, SembCorp and Aromatrix Technologies, have also grown, he said. And international water firms are setting up here, to partner the Public Utilities Board in pilot R&D projects and to test new technology.

'As our water industry grows, it will not only benefit our economy and provide jobs for Singaporeans, but also give us a more robust and resilient water supply.'

Despite rising oil prices, Hyflux chief executive Olivia Lum is confident of supplying desalinated water at the same price for the next three years. This is because the firm hedged or insured itself against fuel-price hikes.

Potong Pasir opposition MP Chiam See Tong said it was good for Singapore to be less dependent on Malaysia for water: 'It will help the relationship. Both sides would be more amenable to speaking rationally rather than playing politics.'

Lydia Lim
lydia@sph.com.sg
Senior Political Correspondent
The Straits Times Interactive, 14 September 2005

Thanks for hurricane aid

AS AN American living in Singapore I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for Singapore's quick and generous response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Your unselfish assistance, whether it be during last year's tsunami that was close to your shores or Katrina on the other side of the world, is commendable.

Dr Thomas Chandler
STForum, The Straits Times Interactive, 13 September 2005

Singapore becoming wellspring of water expertise

Locally gained knowledge being used to develop overseas projects.

DEEP in the recesses of a nondescript building on Singapore's Havelock Road, engineers William Yong and Alastair McNeil are hard at work designing two state-of-the-art water treatment plants. Nothing remarkable about that - except that the plants will be built not here, or even in Asia, but in the American states of Texas and Illinois.

SOPHISTICATED APPROACH : "With so many projects in Singapore that have made use of sophisticated technology, we are clearly in a position to export our expertise." MR WILLIAM YONG, local director of engineering firm Black & Veatch, with the design for the Panther Creek plant in Texas, which will be built in the US under direction from the office in Singapore. -- Photo by MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN


For years, while Singapore built its vast network of water pipelines and treatment plants, it imported expertise. Now expertise developed here is being applied to overseas projects. Buoyed by easy access to capital, a rapidly growing regional market and a Government eager to try out new technologies, Singapore is fast becoming a centre for excellence in the water industry.

Mr Yong is the local director of United States engineering firm Black & Veatch. The firm has already implemented numerous water projects in Singapore, and he says he is not surprised his company landed the US municipal contracts. 'With so many projects in Singapore that have made use of sophisticated technology, we are clearly in a position to export our expertise,' said Mr Yong.

One of the US projects, for instance, involves treating water using membranes, considered a superior technology to conventional filtration methods. 'While membrane technology is only becoming popular elsewhere now, Singapore has been using it for years,' said Mr Yong.

Black & Veatch is by no means the only firm exporting its locally acquired expertise. CH2M Hill, another American engineering firm, was chosen to help design Singapore's Deep Tunnel Sewerage System. Now it has sent project engineers from Singapore to help build a similar system in Seattle and Minnesota. The company is also aiming to capture more tunnelling and water treatment projects in Australia, Hong Kong and the US, said its director Tan Ngo Chiaw.

Local company Hyflux is another major player. Its subsidiary SingSpring just completed a desalination plant at Tuas, the largest of its kind in the world, making drinkable water out of sea water. The plant, which will be officially opened tomorrow, was designed by Black & Veatch.

Hyflux is now building other water treatment plants in China and Dubai.

Indeed, the mood in Singapore's water industry can perhaps best be described as buoyant. Membership of the Singapore Water Association has gone from 36 to 81 since its inception last December. The association provides a platform for industry players to network and share ideas and technologies.

The timing of this boom is perfect, coinciding as it does with looming threats of a global water crisis, rampant desertification and water pollution. The United Nations says 1.1 billion people - or about one in every six people worldwide - already have insufficient drinking water. And the number is likely to deteriorate to one in four by 2050.

Small wonder then that the Economic Development Board is trying to develop the industry into a key revenue spinner by helping local players spread their wings overseas and enticing foreign companies to relocate.

Siemens Water Technologies has already been convinced. It is in the process of transferring much of its technological and manufacturing expertise from the United States and Germany to Singapore. 'Asia is after all the fastest growing market in water technologies,' said the company's vice-president Jagannath Rao. 'So rather than conduct business here through our offices half a world away, we thought it made better sense to set up shop here.'

Radha Basu
radhab@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times Interactive, 12 September 2005

World's largest seawater desalination plant opens tomorrow in Tuas, Singapore

SINGAPORE'S COME A LONG WAY.

SINGAPORE'S growing clout as a water technology centre is reflected in two milestones this week: the opening of a large international conference on water technologies today, and the official opening of the world's largest seawater desalination plant at Tuas tomorrow.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim is due to open the prestigious International Desalination Association World Congress this morning. More than 600 delegates are in town for the event, which is being held in Singapore for the first time in its 20-year history.

An exhibition of new desalination technologies and projects, being held in conjunction with the conference, was opened by the Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources Koo Tsai Kee last night. Fifty-eight foreign and local companies are taking part.

The Tuas desalination plant will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong tomorrow.

Radha Basu
radhab@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times Interactive, 12 September 2005

HURRICANE KATRINA : S'pore copters help to dam broken levees

SINGAPORE'S Chinook helicopters are winding up a week-long relief mission in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans even as American police and army troops prepare to evacuate remaining residents by force.

PLUGGING THE GAPS: A Singapore helicopter drops sandbags to fill the breach in a damaged levee in New Orleans, one of its final vital tasks in a week-long mission. -- AP

Four Chinooks and 45 air force personnel who fly and maintain the helicopters will soon return to their training base in neighbouring Texas after the successful mission in the hurricane-ravaged city, said the Ministry of Defence last night.

Before leaving New Orleans, the Chinooks joined helicopters from the United States military and US Coast Guard for one last critical task - damming up the broken flood barriers, called levees, in New Orleans.

The helicopters are from an RSAF training detachment, codenamed Peace Prairie, which trains alongside the Texas Army National Guard. It was set up in 1995 to train RSAF personnel to fly, operate and maintain the air force's most powerful transport helicopters in the town of Grand Prairie, in neighbouring Texas.

In New Orleans, US police and army troops stepped up pressure on holdout residents to obey a mandatory evacuation order. Officials said the time was nearing for police to exercise their authority to compel people to abandon their homes.

'It will be a forceable evacuation - not that we will use force, but it will be mandatory,' said Chief Deputy Sheriff Anthony Fernandez.

Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Rodrigues, 41, the Peace Prairie detachment commander who led Singapore's hurricane relief mission, said yesterday that the RSAF Chinooks had carried a total of 226 tonnes of cargo - mostly sand to shore up broken levees - during the week-long mission. They also airlifted relief supplies, such as food, fresh water and medicine.

Each Chinook can carry three giant sandbags, weighing more than nine tonnes, using three cargo hooks on its belly. A flight engineer and aircrew specialist stand at the open rear cargo camp of the Chinook to guide the pilot over the levee breach as the helicopter hovers low over the murky water.

'It's not a precision operation. We try to drop the sand bags between the two broken ends and dump more and more sand until the sand is above the water level,' said Lt-Col Rodrigues. Once enough sand is dumped into the breach, US Army engineers use machinery such as bulldozers to seal the opening with more sand.

Lt-Col Rodrigues, a pilot for 22 years, said Chinooks operate like aerial cranes. A trip from the sand bag preparation site to the broken levees takes just 10 minutes and Chinooks make multiple trips from dawn to dusk each day, he said. At the start of their mission, the RSAF Chinooks airlifted more than 620 residents from the city.

Major Kevin Wee Kim Aun, 33, an RSAF officer involved in the operation, said: 'The high points of this humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operation must certainly be the looks of relief and appreciation on the faces of the evacuees when we flew them from the flooded areas to temporary living quarters set up by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US Army.'

David Boey
dboey@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times Interactive, 10 September 2005

The Moral Home for the Aged Sick - where the aged sick get more than just nursing care

In the seventh part of our weekly series on charities here, The Straits Times looks at the Moral Home for the Aged Sick, which has been tirelessly providing nursing care to needy elderly citizens since 1986.


HELPING HAND: Madam Chan, 83, who was partially paralysed by a stroke six years ago, is one of 33 residents whose stay at the home is paid for. -- PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM

MADAM Chan Sock Chiang has helped others all her life, but she now needs a lot of care herself. Six years ago, the confinement maid suffered a stroke which left the right side of her body paralysed. She couldn't walk, or even go to the toilet on her own. Madam Chan, now 83, was then living in a one-room rental flat in Ang Mo Kio with her unmarried son, who worked as an odd-job labourer and could not care for her full time.

But then a relative took her to the Moral Home for the Aged Sick, and Madam Chan was finally able to get all the help she needed.

'I was so handicapped, I couldn't even move my right arm. Luckily the home tolong (helped in Malay) me,' she said of the home, one of the welfare projects run by the inter-religious Chee Hoon Kog Moral Promotion Society.

She is one of 115 residents at the home, which was first set up in a refurbished community centre in 1986, catering to only 26 residents before moving into its current premises in Jalan Bilal, off Bedok Road, in 1994.
Now, it can take in up to 120 residents as well as five day-care patients.

Thirty-three residents, including Madam Chan, do not pay for their stay - the Government contributes $260 a month while the home subsidises the rest. It also gives each of them $20 a month as pocket money.

The others pay between $500 and $1,100 monthly, with the home offsetting part of the fees for about half of them.

The residents - most of them above 75 years of age and suffering from illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure or dementia - are looked after by nurses and attend daily physiotherapy sessions.

For recreation, they play games such as mahjong and bingo, or just watch television. Wednesdays are special - they get to watch action movies such as Hong Kong martial arts flick Once Upon A Time In China.

On some days, they get to go out, chaperoned by volunteers, who also organise activities such as singing performances or simple games.

The home needs about $1 million a year for operating expenses - which it gets through government subsidies, fees and donations from individuals and organisations, such as the United Workers of the Electronics and Electrical Industries, an employees' union.

Some people walk in to give 'a couple of hundred dollars' or food such as cakes or buns, while others donate red packets from their wedding dinners, said society chairman Lee Kim Siang.

'We are very particular in our spending. We don't gasak (do it without thinking). We give good quality service but we cut down on wastage,' said Mr Lee, who also chairs the Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society, which runs social services.

The home's main expenses are the wages paid to staff, food, medicine and items like adult diapers. While the home can do with donations of equipment such as oxygen tubes, Mr Lee does not foresee any need to start active fund-raising soon - in fact, it has never felt the need to do so.

'Singaporeans are very kind. If you're doing a good job, people will see.'

Ho Ai Li
hoaili@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times Interactive. 10 September 2005

Charity facts
Name: Moral Home for the Aged Sick

What it does: Help the elderly who are wheelchair-bound and have illnesses such as stroke or high blood pressure.

Money it needs each year: About $1 million

How it raises funds: It does not hold fund-raising activities but gets government subsidies, fees from residents, and donations from individuals and organisations

Office premises: 1 Jalan Bilal, off Bedok Road

How much it has in reserves: Nothing. The Chee Hoon Kog Moral Promotion Society gives it $100,000 each month for operating expenses. The society spends about $4.35 million a year running 15 welfare and community services and has reserves of about $6 million.

Staff: 43 nursing and administrative

Volunteers: About 40 active ones

Is it online? Yes, at www.chkmps.org.sg

Why you should donate: It provides nursing care and meals for the aged sick, many of whom cannot afford such care

Who to contact if you want to help: Call the home on 6441-0619/6442-2268 or e-mail lilian@chkmps.org.sg

If a giant typhoon were to hit S'pore...

AN AMERICAN'S VIEW

Bruce Sterling, an American science fiction writer, was in Singapore recently. He is best known as a creator of the 'cyberpunk' genre which has plots revolving around computers, artificial intelligence, usually coupled with some breakdown in social order.

He blogged these observations about Singapore:

'NOW that I'm out of Singapore, I reckon it's safe to allege that Singapore has tidy, authoritarian, city-state machine politics. Presumably, I won't get sued for libel for saying this. I mean, it's the truth. Singapore is a very foreign place. Being a Texan, I try not to judge people's political behaviour by any abstract standards. For me, it's all about the neighbours - and Singapore's neighbours are Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. I don't see a lot of oppressed Singaporean dissidents rushing off to the relative freedom of Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. On the contrary, people in Malaysia and Indonesia are amazed by any polity that doesn't run on bribes.

For me, the unsettling aspect of Singapore isn't their repression, which is subtle and always nicely dressed in legalisms.

No, the weird part is the public exhortations, the regime's Taoist PR campaign. They've got some kind of genuine Techno-Confucian Mandate of Heaven thing going on. It's being carried out by really bright, eager, workaholic city apparatchiks who are keenly rehearsed.

If Singapore had just been hit by a giant typhoon, the regime wouldn't be snivelling and making excuses about the hunger and looting. Eco-catastrophe and martial law would surely put the Singapore power-elite really on top of their game. They wouldn't spin their 'clean-up effort'.

They would assign resources, put trained people on the job and actually clean up. Because they are not just a spin machine. They possess competence.

Competence doesn't seem like a big deal until you are forced to realise that your own government has none.'

The Straits Times Interactive, 8 September 2005

HURRICANE KATRINA : Singapore copters now ferry supplies

WASHINGTON - THE Singapore Chinook helicopters helping in the relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have turned from airlifting stranded victims to ferrying supplies to flood stricken areas.

Speaking from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) detachment at Fort Polk, Louisiana, Major Ignacius Lee, the deputy commander of the Mindef team, said the evacuation mission had been completed on Sunday.

They had been picking up victims from the New Orleans Superdome and the convention centre and taking them to the city's International Airport since Thursday. Yesterday, the Chinooks began ferrying Zodiac aluminium boats to the flood stricken area.

Said Major Lee yesterday morning: 'Since Sunday evening most of the refugees have been evacuated. So this morning we are flying in the Zodiac boats to the Chalmette area of New Orleans. They are rescue boats with outrigger motors.'

The boats, similar to those used by US Navy Seals, will be employed to search for victims of the hurricane yet to be rescued. They will also be used to collect any bodies found.

Once their mission was completed, Major Lee said the SAF contingent would continue working on ad hoc relief missions with the Texas Army National Guard in their base at Grand Prairie, Texas.

'We are used to working together,' he said.

The SAF contingent is expected to be involved in the Katrina relief mission for three weeks. 'We have been working every day since we deployed here on Thursday. We work the whole daylight hours,' said Major Lee.

Roger Mitton
US Bureau Chief, The Straits Times Interactive, 6 September 2005

HURRICANE KATRINA : Singapore copters help in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - THE United States has had offers for help from more than 70 countries around the world. And they are all being put to good use, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. No offer will be refused.

'We have used Canadian airlift.

'Singaporean helicopters were in the area and have helped with people.'

Singapore is sending a fourth Chinook helicopter from its Peace Prairie detachment in Grand Prairie, Texas, to assist in the Hurricane Katrina relief operations.

Ms Rice told reporters during a tour of the hurricane-hit sites on Sunday: 'We have offers from France and those supplies will be taken up.'

Countries giving aid ranged from longtime American friends such as Japan, Germany, Canada, France and Britain as well as Cuban President Fidel Castro, who is willing to donate doctors and medicine.

Indonesia, still coping with the aftermath of the Dec 26 tsunami, has offered to send 40 doctors to help survivors, state media said.

Afghanistan has offered US$100,000 (S$167,000) in aid while Bangladesh said it would donate US$1 million in aid. -- REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

from The Straits Times Interactive, 6 September 2005