Teen poet wins 2nd global prize

Amanda Chong's piece on starving kids wins top British award; she clinched Commonwealth essay prize last year

MOST of us have heard this meal-time mantra: 'Finish your food. Children are starving in Africa.' But Amanda Chong, 16, not only finished her food, she also wrote an award-winning poem about the hungry children as well.

She is one of 15 winners and the only one from Asia to win this year's Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, Britain's most prestigious poetry prize for young writers between the ages of 11 and 17.

The winners were chosen from almost 6,000 entries worldwide.

'The awards ceremony was great because I got to meet the other winners from different parts of the world and many of them like the same poets as I do,' said Amanda, of the Oct 9 event in London.

Winning international awards is not new to the Secondary 4 student of Raffles Girls' School.
Last year, she won the annual Commonwealth Essay Competition with a short story: What The Modern Woman Wants. It focused on the conflict in values between an old woman and her independent-minded daughter.

Her poem, How To Watch A Child Die, is about 'our apathy towards global problems, and the strange ability of people in developed countries (like ours), to dismiss these issues after a cursory glance', she told The Sunday Times.

Poet George Szirtes, one of the two judges in this year's competition, said Amanda's poem was picked because 'it seemed to us a passionate, yet controlled, precise and impressively mature work.' He added: 'A point of view, however sympathetic, does not constitute a poem. Language does, and here, we felt, language, music, intelligence and feeling had come together most productively.'

The poem was partially inspired by pictures of hungry children in Africa as well as a school trip to Britain and France, where Amanda learnt about the Industrial Revolution.

'There was a strong sense of apathy during the Industrial Revolution towards child labour and that sort of apathy remains till today,' she said.

Human rights, fair trade and the environment are among Amanda's pet causes. Her interest in world issues and her love for reading and writing were nurtured at a young age by her lawyer father. 'My dad would tell us stories. He would also summarise world events for us so we knew what was going on,' said the second of four children.

'I started writing fantasy stories at age six, before I could even spell properly,' she added. Her favourite authors and poets include Victor Hugo, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

Her mother, housewife Alison Chong, 44, admits some of her daughter's poetry are, on the first reading, Greek to her. 'If I ask her what she means, she rolls her eyes,' said Mrs Chong.

Her English and literature teacher, Miss Ng Siew Luan, 30, said: 'She's very socially aware and her simple style belies a deeper message that is able to strike at the heart of her readers.'

As for her future, Amanda wants to read law at Oxford or Cambridge University in England. 'I want to work with an international organisation like the United Nations. Hopefully, through policy-making, I can help make a difference.'



HOW TO WATCH A CHILD DIE
- By Amanda Chong

Avert your gaze from his eyes,
even if they plead for you to be drawn to their depths.
Instead focus on his sallow complexion the sun crawling on his aged skin,
the colour of the well-trodden carpet in your living room;
the spot where your son once threw his football boots
and you missed bleachingfor the past few years.

Do not try to guess his age
or say he is older than he looks as you study his brittle bones,
too-large headand the empty basket of his ribcage.
Think instead of the sound they may make when his body is thrown into a ditch;
the sound of rain whipping through branches, the crackling of a creek before thaw
or your antique vase crashing into smithereens from its place on the mantelpiece.

Turn away from the blank faces of your own children
and make no associations.
Pretend you do not notice how your teenager leaves her food uneaten on her plate.
(Convince yourself you are not an escapist) After all,
this skeletal child is merely a marionette in a macabre fairytale.

Now, ignore the queasy feeling in your stomach
as you get up to dish out the dessert.
Resolve to write to the authorities to complain
for showing such disturbing footage during dinner.
Be blind to the broken birds of the child's hands as they reach out pleading to be held,
the rolling whites of his eyes, the bruised animals of his lips, parting, as he takes his last...

Turn off the television set.
Children should not know that (in some very remote parts of the world)
they may die before their mothers.

Melissa Sim
The Sunday Times @ The Straits Times Interactive, 30 October 2005

Keystone Symposia - World's top scientists meeting here

ONE of the world's most prestigious scientific meetings has landed on Singapore shores, the first time it is being held outside the United States.

LEADING LIGHTS: Experts, such as Dr Irving Weissman and Dr Suzanne Cory, are here for the prestigious Keystone Symposia, held for the first time outside the US.

Starting today, the five-day Keystone Symposia features international big names in stem cell and cancer research. About 500 scientists and doctors from the US, Europe and Asia are here to exchange ideas and network with the best in the field.

With experts such as Dr Irving Weissman, director of the Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and Dr Suzanne Cory, director of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, it had scientists the world over scrambling to attend. In fact, organisers had to turn down about 200 hopefuls.

The goal of the meeting is to explore the links between stem cell biology, ageing and cancer.
Stem cells can reproduce indefinitely and can potentially turn into very different tissues.

Interestingly, cancer cells have been found to resemble stem cells, with their indefinite growth and very primitive appearance. But while stem cells are highly organised and controlled, their cancerous counterparts are chaotic and in total disarray. So the idea is that if researchers can learn to control the inner workings of stem cells, they could in turn reverse the process in cancer cells and devise better treatments for cancer.

That the prestigious conference is being held here is a sign that Singapore - with its focus on both cancer and stem cell research - has achieved a significant level of international recognition.
Keystone Symposia CEO James Aiken said: 'Singapore has distinguished itself as an international biomedical hub.'

Some of the biggest corporate names and individual stars in biomedical science are here, he said, and high quality scientific manpower is complemented by state-of-the-art research facilities, good funding and a strong regulatory infrastructure.

Explaining the decision to move the conference here, he added: 'This steadfast commitment and international appeal makes Singapore an obvious choice.'

The executive director of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and one of the meeting's co-organisers, Professor Edison Liu, said: 'Having the meeting here means a lot on the international scale; it means that we have arrived at a certain level of credibility.'

Progress in the field is still incremental, he cautioned, and it would still be years before stem cells would be used to treat cancer in the clinical setting.

The conference, apart from being a melting pot of ideas, would also be a good chance to highlight Singaporean science to the international community, he added.

One of the speakers who will highlight work being done here is Dr Lena Motoda, who is doing her PhD at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. Her research involves studying the relationship between leukaemia and stem cells.

Dr Ng Huck Hui of GIS will describe his work on mapping the control network of the master switches that maintain stem cell characteristics.

All in all, a good showing for Singapore.

On the international front are people like Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, a leader in the area of telomeres - the structures at the ends of chromosomes, and telomerase - an enzyme which prevents chromosomal fraying. Telomerases are essential for stem cell function and also important in maintaining the cancer state.

A professor at the University of California, San Francisco, her latest work has uncovered new findings about how telomerase is giving cancer cells stem-cell-like properties, and how this could lead to better targets in the fight against cancer.

Chang Ai-Lien
The Straits Times Interactive, 25 October 2005

Singapore team produces early alert cancer test

Breakthrough kit warns of disease years before tumour appears

A RESEARCH team here has developed a new, accurate cancer test kit, which can give warning signs of the disease years before the first physical signs appear by detecting minute chemical changes in a patient's DNA.

The Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) team, which counts top-notch Japanese cancer researcher Professor Yoshiaki Ito as its adviser, has been working with electronics giant Hitachi on the joint project since April last year.Hitachi is working with the team to take the kit to the marketplace, to grab a slice of the growing cancer diagnostics market, valued at S$110 million this year and which is projected to rise to S$185 million by 2008.

Their kit works by looking at minute changes in the chemical letters, A T C and G, that make up DNA. In some cancers, C - which refers to the chemical cytosine - undergoes a chemical change that alters its molecular structure.

Scientists are not quite sure why this happens, but believe lifestyle and environmental factors could trigger it.

Normally, DNA is fairly resilient: genes control and regulate the expression of proteins and the body is able to suppress the dangerous genetic changes which can lead to cancer. But, in some cancer cases, when cytosine undergoes the specific chemical change - methylation - the controller genes lose the ability to produce the correct proteins to prevent tumours.

Lead researcher Masafumi Inoue explained: 'Think of it as shutting down your body's innate surveillance system.'

'There is no more controlling influence. It is not only one gene, but several genes which are silenced when this change occurs.'

Gastric cancer, for one, is heavily correlated with DNA methylation, he said. And the molecular changes happen years before any physical symptoms appear.

The conventional method of screening for DNA methylation is laborious, examines only few genes at a time, and can be inaccurate. So, together with Hitachi, the IMCB team has devised a test kit which examines multiple areas, or targets, at one go.

The breakthrough test kit is not the only reason to cheer for IMCB. Its head, cancer research trailblazer Sir David Lane, has won a prestigious international award. The Sergio Lombroso prize, awarded once every two years, went to the scientist known worldwide for his role in discovering the p53 gene three decades ago.

Another leading cancer scientist here, Professor Axel Ullrich, who heads Singapore's Onco Genome Laboratory, has also been lauded. He has been given the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business European BioBusiness Leadership Award, for developing cutting-edge therapies for diabetes and breast cancer.

Natalie Soh
The Straits Times Interactive, 17 October 2005

Why the casino will always win

Casinos exist to make profits, they do so from patrons who place bets on various games that are offered. Yet many casino patrons are relatively uninformed about the games they are playing.

When you go to a cinema, you know how much you pay for your entertainment. When you go to a casino, you do not know how much you will win or lose - it will depend on the spin of a wheel, the turn of a card.

But you should expect to lose, and you should know how much to expect to lose, because this information is available through a quantity known as the house margin or house edge.

Every bet made at the casino has a house margin. Suppose the house margin for a particular bet is 2 per cent. This means that if you place this bet many times, you will lose about 2 per cent of the total amount of money you wagered.

For a more concrete example, suppose a friend offers you the following $1 bet on the toss of a coin. If the coin lands on heads you lose your $1. If the coin lands on tails you get back your original $1 wager and receive $0.50 profit. Assuming the coin is fair, so that both heads and tails are equally likely, the house margin for this bet is 25 per cent. If you play this game 100 times, your total wager is $100, and you can anticipate losing about $25. The actual amount you lose may be greater or less than $25 depending on how the coin falls.

Suppose now that your friend offers you a different bet: You still lose if the coin lands heads, but if the coin lands on tails you now get a profit of $0.98. The house margin for this bet is 1 per cent. If you play this game 100 times, you can anticipate losing about $1, though again the actual amount you lose may be greater or less than $1. If you are lucky you may see a profit, but this becomes less likely the more you play.

The two bets outlined lead to the observation that, in percentage terms, you can anticipate paying less money at the casino if you place bets with lower house margins. Lower house margins are to your advantage; they will cost you less because you can anticipate a higher proportion of your total wager being returned. For the same level of entertainment, a lower house margin provides a better deal for patrons.

Let's consider the house margins for roulette, Sic Bo (Tai Sai), baccarat, craps and blackjack.


Roulette

THE roulette wheels typically used in Europe and Australia have 37 slots or pockets. A ball is spun into the wheel and comes to rest in one of the slots. Bets can be placed based on the outcome of the spin. We assume here that the roulette wheel is fair and the ball is equally likely to land in any of the 37 slots.

The wheel has 18 red slots and 18 black slots. The remaining slot, denoted by the numeral 0, is typically coloured green. Consider betting $1 on the outcome that the ball lands in a red slot. If this occurs, your bet wins, and the casino pays you even money, which means that you get $2; your $1 wager and $1 profit. On the other hand, if the ball lands in a black or green slot, you lose your $1 wager. The green slot gives the casino the advantage, because the ball will more likely land in one of the 19 black/green slots than in one of the 18 red slots. This gives the casino a house margin of 2.70 per cent. If you make this bet 100 times, you can expect the cost of playing to be $2.70, though the actual amount that you lose may be greater or less than $2.70.

The money that the casino pays out on winning roulette bets is calculated so that whatever bet you make, the house margin is always 2.70 per cent. If you spend a long time at the roulette table, expect it to cost you 2.70 per cent of the total amount of money you wager. An American roulette wheel has an additional slot denoted by 00. This additional slot favours the casino; the house margin for American roulette is 5.26 per cent.


Sic Bo

Sic Bo is a dice game which is also known by the names 'Tai Sai' or 'Big and Small'. Different bets can be placed based on the values obtained by three dice. Unlike roulette, different bets give different house margins. The bet known as 'Big' wins if the sum of the three dice is 11 or greater, with the exception that the bet loses if the three dice all show the same number. The exception gives the casino the advantage. For a winning bet on 'Big' the casino pays you even money. Without the exception, losing or winning the bet would be equally likely. With the exception, a loss is more likely than a win. The house margin for the bet 'Big' is 2.78 per cent.

The bet known as 'Small' is a bet on the sum of the three dice being 10 or less, again with the exception that the bet loses if the three dice all show the same number. The house margin is again 2.78 per cent.

Another possibility is to place a bet on all three dice being equal to six. On average this will happen only once in every 216 occasions. For a $1 wager, a winning bet on this very unlikely event means that the casino gives you $180 profit, resulting in an unfavourable house margin of 16.20 per cent. Some casinos give you only $150 profit, which results in a hugely unfavourable house margin of 30.09 per cent.

The house margins of 2.78 and 16.20 per cent are typically the lowest and highest house margins of all bets that can be made at the game of Sic Bo. This means that if you spend a long time playing Sic Bo, expect it to cost you between 2.78 and 16.20 per cent of the total amount of money you wager, with the precise percentage depending on the type of bets that you make.


Baccarat

Baccarat is a card game where the 'player' plays against the 'banker'. Neither the player nor banker makes any decision that influences the outcome of the game, which is completely determined by the order of the cards.

There are three outcomes: a player win, a banker win or a tie. A version of the game known as mini-baccarat has the same rules, payouts and house margins. The only difference is that mini-baccarat is typically faster, and therefore more bets are made in any given period.

You may bet on the banker to win the card game. If the player then wins the card game, you lose the bet. If there is a tie the wager is returned to you. Similarly, if you make a bet on the player, the bet loses if the banker wins, and the wager is returned if there is a tie. A $1 winning bet on the player pays even money and therefore gives you a $1 profit, whereas a $1 winning bet on the banker typically gives you a $0.95 profit. Usually the game is played with eight decks of cards, in which case the house margins immediately after a card shuffle are 1.06 per cent for betting on the banker and 1.24 per cent for betting on the player. You may also be able to bet on a tie, but this bet is unfavourable and is best avoided.

In a series of games the house margins may be slightly different, but these values are an accurate approximation, assuming that you do not keep track of the cards that have been dealt in previous rounds of play.

A skilled player may use this information to decrease the house margins, but only by small amounts.

Some casinos also offer a variation of the game where a winning $1 bet on the banker pays a $1 profit unless the banker's winning hand has a value of six, in which case you get a $0.50 profit. Under this variation, the house margin for betting on the banker increases to 1.46 per cent.


Craps

Craps is a dice game where each round consists of rolling two dice one or more times. The dice are rolled by casino patrons, and the value of the roll is the sum of the two dice. There are numerous possible bets that can be placed, and they have different house margins. I will consider one popular bet which is synonymous with the game of craps.

The first roll in each round is known as the come out roll. If the come out roll is 7 or 11, the bet wins. If the come out roll is 2, 3 or 12, the bet loses. If any other number is rolled, this number is known as the point. The two dice are then rolled until either the point or a seven is rolled; in the former case the bet wins, while in the latter case the bet loses. A winning bet pays even money. The casino again gets the advantage because a loss is more likely than a win. The house margin for this bet is 1.41 per cent.

Assumptions
A question that is often asked is whether the house margins for these games can be altered. The calculation of the house margins are based on mathematical results that cannot be challenged.

However, the calculations are also based on assumptions about the game and these assumptions can be challenged. For example, in Sic Bo, one assumption is that all three dice are fair, so that each of the six numbers on each die are equally likely to appear. If the dice were unfair, then the house margin would not be as given here. It seems reasonable to assume that the dice in Sic Bo are fair.

Suppose that you play one of the four games described above and you accept that the assumptions on which these house margins are based are reasonable. The assumptions include fair die rolls, well-shuffled cards and fair roulette wheels. These house margins are then fixed. Whatever choices you make, you cannot change these house margins and you cannot make any decisions which will affect them.

However, there are casino games for which you can affect the house margins. One of the most popular is blackjack.

Blackjack is very different to any of the games above, because you have to make decisions during the game, and the decisions you make can affect whether you win or lose. To analyse such games, we need to know in advance what the player intends to do. Suppose that before the game begins, the player decides on exactly what decisions he or she will make under any given circumstances. This set of decisions is known as the player strategy. Once the player strategy is known, the house margin can be approximated.

Assuming that the player does not keep track of the cards that have been dealt in previous rounds, the strategy that achieves the minimum house margin is known as the Basic Strategy. The game of blackjack has many different variations in the rules implemented by different casinos, and the Basic Strategy depends on the exact rules that are implemented. Moreover, the different rules mean that different house margins can be obtained at different casinos.

For most casinos, the house margins that can be obtained under the Basic Strategy are between 0.4 and 0.6 per cent. But these house margins can only be obtained if the player makes no errors in playing the Basic Strategy. In practice, errors may be made and the house margins will then be larger.

While the house margin gives you valuable information about the bet you are making, it does not tell you everything. For example, placing 100 $1 bets on red at a roulette table is not the same as placing 10 $10 bets on red, and yet in both cases we have the same house margin, at 2.70 per cent, and the total wager is the same.

For both of these scenarios, you expect to lose 2.70 per cent of $100, or $2.70, though the amount you actually lose may be greater or less than $2.70.

The difference lies in the statistical concept of variation. For 100 $1 bets, the amount you actually lose will typically be closer to $2.70 than for 10 $10 bets because there is less variation, and therefore less risk involved.

The house margins tell you how much money you can expect to lose.

It is easy to forget that casino house margins are percentages, and this has an important consequence: The more money you gamble, the more money you can expect to lose.

Alec Stephenson
for The Straits Times Interactive, 17 October 2005

The writer is an assistant professor of statistics at the National University of Singapore.

Nurturing science, Singapore-style

When some of the world's top scientists and policy-makers met in Kyoto recently, they gave Singapore high marks for creating a science-friendly environment that makes cutting-edge research possible.

TIRED and battle-weary, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi no doubt felt butterflies in his stomach as the final votes of the country's snap elections were counted out on Sept 11. Yet, poised as he was on the precipice of his career, he chose to spend those critical hours in the company of Nobel laureates, top scientists, policy-makers and opinion leaders from all over the world.

They were there for the second annual Science and Technology in Society forum at the invitation of Japan's former science and technology minister Koji Omi, a member of its House of Representatives.

Held in Kyoto, the forum has been called the scientific equivalent of Davos, the think-tank session of world leaders held annually in Switzerland.

The goal was to discuss the challenges facing mankind, and to explore the proper application of science and technology to address them. The aim - to ensure the survival of the human race.

'These issues have a global reach and cannot be solved by a single country,' Mr Koizumi told the 500-strong audience of scientists and policy-makers from over 60 countries. His words resonated with many.

Singapore a model
WHILE there was consensus on the key problems - such as the need for renewable energy sources, common international rules for bioethics, universal access to education and a global system for intellectual property rights - agreement on the best solutions was more elusive.

The concern was whether governments would be able to execute such large-scale plans. Would there be political will, scientific leadership and societal acceptance of the costs?

This was when another observation became progressively apparent: tiny Singapore was becoming a model for how science can provide solutions for problems confronting society.

Genome Institute of Singapore head Edison Liu told The Sunday Times: 'I truly believe that science and technology, if managed carefully, are the only solution to the problems of human expansion in the world.

'And Singapore is an example of how to do this, both for developing and developed countries.'
Professor Liu, an American, was director of the Division of Clinical Sciences at the US National Cancer Institute before he joined Singapore's biomedical efforts.

Take the example of infectious diseases that recognise no borders. While many countries are still grappling with how to combat the bird flu outbreaks threatening to turn into the next flu pandemic, Singapore already has detailed action plans in place, ranging from stockpiling drugs to being on standby to cull all fowl here.

It is also a regional leader in bird flu research, with companies and research institutes working to produce effective vaccines and diagnostic kits, to shore up defences against the disease.

Prof Liu was part of a Singapore contingent which included Professor John Wong, vice-president of research and life sciences at the National University of Singapore, Japanese-born cancer specialist Yoshiaki Ito of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, and Singapore's biomedical sciences architect Philip Yeo.

No doubt, scientific efforts here are very young, and only time will tell if they will bear fruit. But the foundations - fair, transparent regulations, solid research infrastructure and an increasing pool of human talent - are being laid.

Delegates from larger nations noted the Singaporean signature of speed and efficiency with which it has addressed some of the problems being discussed. For example, the Republic was highlighted for its science-friendly stem cell regulations.

Embryonic stem cells show such promise because they can transform into any cell that an ailing body needs, and could potentially cure a host of debilitating diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and cancer.

Emerging contenders
SINGAPORE and South Korea were touted as emerging contenders in such research, gaining a foothold in an area where traditional leaders such as the United States have fallen behind because of prohibitive restrictions.

Some openly marvelled at how life sciences had emerged with a flourish over the last few years.

'I believe biotechnology in Singapore is the centre of such research in Asia,' said Mr Omi, the forum's organiser. 'I have been very impressed with all that has been done.'

Mr Omi acted on his compliments: he recruited Mr Yeo to be a founding member of the forum, and was the championing force in Japan behind Singapore's most ambitious research tie-up yet - an extensive agreement between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and Japanese scientific giant Riken, with possible collaborations to develop anti-cancer drugs and cultivate screening methods and rapid diagnosis for infectious diseases.

Mr Yeo, A*Star's chairman, was a prominent figure at the Kyoto event. And at a plenary session he chaired, he was characteristically forthright when he declared that the most important assets were human.

'The key limiting factor to continued economic growth for all modern nations will be the availability of highly educated and trained science and technology human capital,' he said.

Finding the right human talent has been his preoccupation, and as bright young Singaporeans are being trained, the foreign stars of the scientific community here have made all the difference.

There is a reason why the same names currently representing science here are heard again and again. They have made it internationally, and they are now trying to help Singapore pull ahead.

Professor Yoshiyuki Sakaki, director of Riken's Genomic Sciences Centre, said that Singapore was brought to his attention when Prof Ito, one of Japan's top cancer researchers, moved here from the University of Kyoto with his research team three years ago. 'That was when a lot of us first recognised what was going on in Singapore,' he said.

He continued with the accolades by highlighting an ambitious initiative started 'under the great leadership' of Prof Liu last year, which has brought together hundreds of Asian scientists to paint a detailed genetic picture of Asia.

They hope that this collective effort to map out the genetic variations between races can form the basis for future studies seeking to understand why some people are more prone to diseases.
The Asian-centric nature of this initiative is novel. This project 'is going well, and it is a great model of how Asian scientists can collaborate', said Prof Sakaki.

There are also increasing signs that the Republic is gaining clout in this global scientific brotherhood. The Genome Institute of Singapore, for example, has already garnered more than $9 million in funding from international sources, including the US National Institutes of Health - well-known for its rigorous funding criteria.

Mr Yeo described one key strategy in attracting and retaining such talent: through 'the investment in physical infrastructure and establishing a total environment that is conducive to intellectual pursuits, and that is attractive and appealing'.

He has led the creation of the Biopolis, the $500 million complex in Buona Vista for biomedical research. Then there is the future Fusionpolis in Ayer Rajah, the multi-million-dollar complex that will house infocommunications and media research. Each was designed to encourage interdisciplinary and integrated research.

Indeed, he has done so much for local science and technology efforts that one scientist, on spotting him at the forum, jokingly referred to him as the 'secret leader of Singapore'.

And despite occasional controversies, the record is impressive. According to last year's National R&D Survey, there are 765 companies involved in research and development in Singapore, and more than $15 billion in revenue was reported from sales of their products or licensing of new technologies last year.

Output doubles
BIOMEDICAL manufacturing output has also doubled in just four years so that the 2005 target of $12 billion was surpassed last year, a year ahead of schedule.

Employment in biomedical manufacturing and R&D is booming, with 9,000 people employed in the industry last year, a figure which the Economic Development Board hopes to grow to 15,000 by 2015.

About two in three researchers in A*Star's public institutions are foreigners.

Since 1991, the Government has committed $12 billion to science and technology, over three five-year plans. But recognising the importance of putting more resources into shaping the economy through R&D, it will commit that figure over the next five years alone.

The Kyoto forum was a good place for Singapore to assess the plans of other nations.

Said the ever-practical Mr Yeo: 'We are the youngest member compared to other countries, and we are here to learn from the senior people.'

Having said that, it was as likely that other countries also learnt from Singapore.

Chang Ai-Lien
Think, The Sunday Times @ The Straits Times Interactive, 9 October 2005