http://www.stasiareport.com/the-big-story/asia-report/editorials/story/wasted-life-20121229

A Wasted Life

IN life, perhaps, the Indian woman gang-raped so brutally in New Delhi, may have one day travelled to Singapore on the credentials she was gathering - a diploma in physiotherapy.

Indeed, she may well have been employed in Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where paramedical staff are drawn from all parts of Asia.

It wasn't to be.

Sedated to prevent the pain from being felt by her damaged brain and tortured innards, a ventilator machine performing the work for her lungs, surrounded by her parents, two brothers and senior staff of the Indian High Commission, the 23-year-old, who cannot be named, died at 4.45am Singapore time on Saturday without opening her eyes on the island described by a former Indian Prime Minister as "nothing short of a miracle".

Nobody knows what made her get into that bus on the night of Dec 16. Maybe, in a massive city like New Delhi, where public transport is thin and trains and buses overcrowded, it was a relief to see a near-empty vehicle where a sly hand may not have squeezed her buttocks or an elbow deliberately brush against her breast.

The tragedy of that decision is being felt not just in India, but in Singapore and around the world.

At the Indian High Commission on Grange Road, walking distance to the hospital, lines of people began to form as the news spread, some just to huddle for silent comfort, others to sign a condolence book that had not yet been opened.

The dead woman flew home on Saturday afternoon in the comfort that her father, a lowly cargo hand in New Delhi airport, could never have afforded - a chartered flight that flew from India to fetch her back.

As happens too often in India, the official machinery that proved so woefully inadequate to protect her life was in abundance after her trauma and death. Thanks to the power of India's media, the passing has become a cathartic event, a bigger news event than the death last month in Mumbai of the firebrand Hindu nationalist Bal Thakeray.

In the Delhi hospital where she was initially treated, the queues to see even the junior-most doctor can be long. The Indian government, under pressure of public opinion, deployed the best specialists to treat her. When that wasn't enough, she was flown to Singapore with a blank cheque to the hospital, rooms at the Mandarin Orchard for her family and the force of Indian diplomacy at her service.

The Indian government is under fire from some doctors for its decision to send the battered girl here. Going by the torrent of questions on the issue faced by Indian High Commissioner TCA Raghavan yesterday, the sub-text is that New Delhi somehow passed the responsibility to Singapore.

That may be a trifle unfair to Dr Manmohan Singh, himself the father of three girls.

Six years ago, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber made her way into Sri Lankan army headquarters and detonated herself, killing 11 and critically wounding then-army chief Sarath Fonseka. Gen Fonseka was evacuated to Singapore where surgeons succeeded in patching him together and sent him home in a few months. Other desperate cases, from Myanmar generals to Bangladeshi leaders, have been flown here for treatment.

In the Indian woman's instance, she was simply too far gone for medical science to revive her.

Would her death go in vain?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for the emotions unleashed by her passing to be channelled into "a constructive course of action." That is easier said than done.

India's national capital recorded 635 rapes this year alone - a rape every 14 hours - and that is just the number that are reported.

In a culture fixated on the male child - May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons is the title of Elisabeth Bumiller's classic on the life of Indian women - when a third of Indian legislators have faced criminal charges, when aggressive behaviour towards women doesn't fetch in New Delhi the same outrage as it would, in say, Kolkata, reining in the predatory instincts of the northern Indian male will not be easy.

But the death of the young woman has changed the nature of the case from rape to culpable homicide, perhaps even murder. While upper courts will likely not allow the death penalty, which is only granted in "rarest of the rare" cases, prosecutors may well succeed in locking away for life the six men behind the crime.

In India, though, lifers tend to be eligible for parole after 14 years although, in recent cases, judges have imposed a minimum 30 years in rape-murder cases.

But, until the Delhi male turns indignant at the sight of a fellow man molesting a woman, and acts to stop him, the problem will not go away.

No police force in the world has the manpower to post marshals on every bus and train in the city.

velloor@sph.com.sg

Sent from my iPhone

http://www.stasiareport.com/the-big-story/asia-report/editorials/story/wasted-life-20121229

A Wasted Life

IN life, perhaps, the Indian woman gang-raped so brutally in New Delhi, may have one day travelled to Singapore on the credentials she was gathering - a diploma in physiotherapy.

Indeed, she may well have been employed in Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where paramedical staff are drawn from all parts of Asia.

It wasn't to be.

Sedated to prevent the pain from being felt by her damaged brain and tortured innards, a ventilator machine performing the work for her lungs, surrounded by her parents, two brothers and senior staff of the Indian High Commission, the 23-year-old, who cannot be named, died at 4.45am Singapore time on Saturday without opening her eyes on the island described by a former Indian Prime Minister as "nothing short of a miracle".

Nobody knows what made her get into that bus on the night of Dec 16. Maybe, in a massive city like New Delhi, where public transport is thin and trains and buses overcrowded, it was a relief to see a near-empty vehicle where a sly hand may not have squeezed her buttocks or an elbow deliberately brush against her breast.

The tragedy of that decision is being felt not just in India, but in Singapore and around the world.

At the Indian High Commission on Grange Road, walking distance to the hospital, lines of people began to form as the news spread, some just to huddle for silent comfort, others to sign a condolence book that had not yet been opened.

The dead woman flew home on Saturday afternoon in the comfort that her father, a lowly cargo hand in New Delhi airport, could never have afforded - a chartered flight that flew from India to fetch her back.

As happens too often in India, the official machinery that proved so woefully inadequate to protect her life was in abundance after her trauma and death. Thanks to the power of India's media, the passing has become a cathartic event, a bigger news event than the death last month in Mumbai of the firebrand Hindu nationalist Bal Thakeray.

In the Delhi hospital where she was initially treated, the queues to see even the junior-most doctor can be long. The Indian government, under pressure of public opinion, deployed the best specialists to treat her. When that wasn't enough, she was flown to Singapore with a blank cheque to the hospital, rooms at the Mandarin Orchard for her family and the force of Indian diplomacy at her service.

The Indian government is under fire from some doctors for its decision to send the battered girl here. Going by the torrent of questions on the issue faced by Indian High Commissioner TCA Raghavan yesterday, the sub-text is that New Delhi somehow passed the responsibility to Singapore.

That may be a trifle unfair to Dr Manmohan Singh, himself the father of three girls.

Six years ago, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber made her way into Sri Lankan army headquarters and detonated herself, killing 11 and critically wounding then-army chief Sarath Fonseka. Gen Fonseka was evacuated to Singapore where surgeons succeeded in patching him together and sent him home in a few months. Other desperate cases, from Myanmar generals to Bangladeshi leaders, have been flown here for treatment.

In the Indian woman's instance, she was simply too far gone for medical science to revive her.

Would her death go in vain?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for the emotions unleashed by her passing to be channelled into "a constructive course of action." That is easier said than done.

India's national capital recorded 635 rapes this year alone - a rape every 14 hours - and that is just the number that are reported.

In a culture fixated on the male child - May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons is the title of Elisabeth Bumiller's classic on the life of Indian women - when a third of Indian legislators have faced criminal charges, when aggressive behaviour towards women doesn't fetch in New Delhi the same outrage as it would, in say, Kolkata, reining in the predatory instincts of the northern Indian male will not be easy.

But the death of the young woman has changed the nature of the case from rape to culpable homicide, perhaps even murder. While upper courts will likely not allow the death penalty, which is only granted in "rarest of the rare" cases, prosecutors may well succeed in locking away for life the six men behind the crime.

In India, though, lifers tend to be eligible for parole after 14 years although, in recent cases, judges have imposed a minimum 30 years in rape-murder cases.

But, until the Delhi male turns indignant at the sight of a fellow man molesting a woman, and acts to stop him, the problem will not go away.

No police force in the world has the manpower to post marshals on every bus and train in the city.

velloor@sph.com.sg

Sent from my iPhone

Gunman had hundreds of rounds of ammo

Victims of last friday's massacre

US Shooting Rampages

The gunshots went 'on and on'

Nervous gunman a shy loner, reports say

Gunman kills 26 in US school massacre

http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/think/story/psle-not-good-guide-success-lifes-race-20121202

PSLE not a good guide to success in life's race

One of my father's mantras when I was a boy was to warn me that if I did not study hard, I might end up as a bus driver.

It did not really work. The thought of driving a big, shiny bus, roaming where you will without a care in the world, did not seem all that unappealing to my young mind.

Some years later, however, when I pronounced that I wanted to be an airplane pilot, my parents sighed in relief, I am told. They were glad that their attempts to spur their children on academically seemed to have paid off.

Going by the dramatic developments of the past week, with Singapore's first strike in decades led by some bus drivers over pay and living conditions, I suppose I should be thankful for their efforts.

Yet, when I cast my mind back to my primary school days, I seem to suffer selective amnesia. I simply cannot remember how I did in the Primary School Leaving Examination.

Amid the national kerfuffle over this precious number, I don't seem to know how I fared then. Try as I may to rack my brain, it just does not come. I have tried asking my parents. I have checked with my friends. But no luck.

A helpful colleague told me that perhaps the reason for this might be that I never was told the number.

Back in those days when I sat the Primary 6 exam, you simply picked a few secondary schools, took the tests, and waited to be told which school you were assigned to.

As I was from St Michael's Primary, I naturally chose St Joseph's Institution as my top choice, along with several others close to the flat in Toa Payoh where we lived.

I was not the most diligent of pupils at that age, and what I recall most about my time in primary school was the football games my friends and I enjoyed - before and after class, during recess and just about any other time we could find to kick a ball about the huge school field.

I got into SJI. So did most of my friends, although we were split up into different classes. Some went to 1A1, others 1A9.

It did not bother us too much, since we could still meet in school during the day, and make trips together to check out the new-found attractions around us in Bras Basah Road, if you see what I mean.

It all seems light years away when you contrast it with the situation today, when the PSLE has taken on such significance that no less than the Prime Minister has had to come out to urge parents not to view it as the be-all and end-all for their children.

How did this happen?

Ironically, part of the reason for this was an attempt by the authorities to ease exam stress for some of our secondary school students, by allowing them to skip the O-level examinations and go directly on to taking their A levels.

In one of those unintended policy outcomes, the upshot of this was to make a place on the so-called "through-train" in one of the better-regarded secondary schools highly sought after. Once you were on board, you were set up for the fast track to junior college, university, maybe a scholarship, a good job, and a blissful life ever after, or so many imagine.

Those who didn't saw doors shutting rapidly in their paths. Naturally, parents worried for their charges, and anxieties built up. Indeed, one parent declared to me recently, in all seriousness, that failure to make the cut at age 12 would mean her child's life would be "ruined forever". The going would just get tougher by the year in Singapore's relentless rat race, she insisted.

Calls to scrap or review the PSLE are therefore popular with many.

But the implications of doing so are not likely to be as well-received. Removing the PSLE will mean that the selection process for secondary school will become more opaque and less meritocratic. Competition for access to the most sought-after schools will begin earlier, perhaps going all the way to Primary 1, with parents striving to get their precious ones into a school of their choice, based on their past or present connections or contributions to the school.

Getting into a school of choice at age six would then be the ticket for a through-train to an affiliated secondary school, junior college and beyond.

You can almost see it coming: the murmuring on the ground that so and so got into a top school because of his surname or connections, the colour of his skin, or how big a cheque his father could write.

Even the less radical suggestion - that the PSLE be retained but with results presented as broad bands instead of being so finely calibrated, so that schools could take in a wider range of students - while inherently sensible, is not likely to come without side-effects, intended or otherwise.

While such an approach would make for a more inclusive environment in some top schools - something that most would hail - let us not pretend that places in these schools are unlimited. For every child taken in because of some non-academic attribute, another who has done better in his exams will have to be left out. His parents are not likely to be placated by lofty appeals to the wider good.

The Education Ministry's answer to this is to try to convince parents that every school in Singapore is a good school. Most dispassionate observers - including many foreign educators - might agree. Or at the very least, they would accept that we are making progress towards this ideal every year, given the way resources and efforts have not been spared to upgrade the school system over the years.

Be that as it may, even if all schools are good ones, some will always be better - or rather, more sought after - with many parents simply going by the wisdom of crowds. As with hawkers and properties - the longer the queue, the better it must be.

Without the PSLE or some such as leveller, lesser-known schools will struggle to shine against the more established brand names.

In its effort to avoid the kind of stress-inducing comparisons that are often made among schools, the Education Ministry decided, rather too abruptly and without enough preparing of the ground, to impose a news blackout on the top pupils in this year's PSLE.

Its intentions might have been good but the outcome was a bit of a farce. When school principals start telling 12-year-olds that their exam scores are a secret and a schoolboy declares he cannot disclose how he did because "the minister says cannot say", you sense that something has gone quite wrong. Even tuition centres, which used to trumpet how they helped improve students' performances, have grown coy for fear of incurring the wrath of the good folks in Buona Vista.

Clearly, as a society, we have gone overboard with this frenzy over exam scores.

Making these results something to be whispered about - or hunted down on the Internet - only reinforces in many people's minds how seriously this is to be taken. In my view, anxiety and ignorance are never helped by a blanket of darkness. Far better to shed more light.

So, while a review of the school examination and allocation system is necessary, I believe that all the tweaking in the world will not be sufficient if the authorities do not succeed in shifting public thinking on just what we are trying to do with the schooling of our young.

The Education Ministry is going to have to embark on a national conversation of sorts to engage parents, in addition to educating their children. Many suggestions have been made on how best to move forward, from tweaking admissions and scholarship criteria to celebrating those who succeed despite the odds and in unconventional ways.

But most of all, it will have to get more parents round to the idea that an exam score at 12 is not, and cannot possibly be, a good yardstick of your chances in life.

Indeed, like the marathon that some are running this morning, those who streak ahead to the first markers don't always end up crossing the finishing line. The race will go to those who have the stamina, discipline, perseverance and character to stay the course when the going gets tough.

That, to me, is what we should be teaching our kids, at home and in our schools. And we should begin by putting an end to the notion that his or her PSLE score is something worth keeping a secret, or crowing too much about, or perhaps even remembering.

warren@sph.com.sg

S'porean helps to find new unusual planet

Mr Jek using a telescope to look at the transit of Venus earlier this year in his backyard in San Francisco. Together with an oncologist from Arizona, he helped to discover PH1, which is about 5,000 light-years from Earth and is the first-known planet to be orbitally linked to four suns. -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF JEK KIAN JIN

By Leonard Lim

A CALIFORNIA-BASED Singaporean is one of two amateur astronomers credited with finding an extraordinary new planet that has four suns.

Former President's Scholar Jek Kian Jin, 53, along with an American, helped professionals from United States space agency Nasa and Yale University discover PH1, the first-known planet to be orbitally linked to four suns.

The other amateur is Mr Robert Gagliano, an oncologist based in Arizona.

Soon after PH1's discovery made the headlines at an annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Nevada a week ago, it was nicknamed Tatooine after the two-sunned planet of Star Wars fame.

The research that led to the ground-breaking find began in December 2010 when Mr Jek, an IT consultant who lives in San Francisco, joined the Planet Hunters group.

The project, which the planet is named after, enlists volunteers to analyse publicly available data from the US$600million (S$732million) Kepler telescope.

Speaking to The Straits Times over the phone yesterday, Mr Jek recalled how he spent hours studying graphs to hunt for telltale dips in brightness that indicate a planet moving past its sun.

It was a marriage of his passions for computers and the stars, and a way to escape waiting outdoors for a clear sky in a city where the temperature can dip into the single digits.

"More and more astronomy is done using computer software," said Mr Jek, who was involved in starting Singapore's first Internet server, which held government information services, in the early 1990s. "Previously, I always had to rely on telescopes and clear skies, but now I can make sense of computer data."

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), the new find is a circumbinary planet, or a planet that orbits two stars.

Only six other circumbinary planets are known to exist, and PH1 is orbited by two more distant stars, making it the first known quadruple sun system.

The planet is about 5,000 light-years from Earth, has a radius six times that of Earth and is slightly bigger than Neptune.

The discovery, Mr Jek said, shows the power of bringing together professionalastronomers, amateurs and computers.

"No matter how well the software is designed, it can still miss something," said the Cambridge University molecular biology graduate.

After he and Mr Gagliano, 68, detected the probable planet, their data was passed to astronomers at Nasa and Yale, who confirmed the find using a large telescope in Hawaii.

The whole process took more than a year as the planet's existence had to be verified three separate times for absolute certainty. Each time, the wait came to 138 days, the time it took for PH1 to complete a single orbit.

Mr Jek, whose father is Old Guard minister Jek Yeun Thong, picked up astronomy as a child after an uncle taught him how to probe the night sky. He loved the stars so much that he would have chosen astronomy as his profession, but, half in jest, he said "it was not something any respectable Singapore citizen would do".

"Everyone ends up as a doctor or engineer," he quipped.

He moved to the US in 1997 with his wife and three sons after completing his scholarship bond and working in the IT and multimedia fields. His eldest son, 18, is serving national service now.

limze@sph.com.sg

Have measures to protect female modesty on crowded trains

Have measures to protect female modesty I'm crowded trains

Make all jobs viable career choices for a balanced education system

THE underlying causes that make the Primary School Leaving Examination and other national examinations so demanding and stressful are outside the education system.

The over-emphasis on academic qualifications in the job market and in measuring success is one culprit. The other is the pay gap between white- and blue-collar jobs.

From employers to parents and children, we should change our attitude towards blue-collar or technical jobs, and the criteria used in measuring success and assessing contribution.

In Australia, engineering, construction and mining workers earn over A$100,000 (S$125,000) yearly, about 25 per cent more than government, banking, marketing and human resource workers on the average.

In Singapore, we have serious shortages of engineers and technicians. Pay correction is needed to attract our young to pursue these careers.

Such change may entail a certain redistribution of income, from white- to blue-collar workers. Are we prepared to intervene in the market and accept the resulting trade-offs?

We must decide whether we want these changes. In the bigger context, the decision will dictate how our nation's future would be shaped. Let us debate this in the national conversation.

If we decide to make these changes, then we should expand and upgrade our vocational schools and polytechnics, including upgrading some courses to higher diploma or degree level.

We should then raise the pay of the technically trained. In the long run, they should get as much as or even higher pay than the usual white-collar workers with a non-technical university degree.

With this change, the demand for technical training will surge, and the demand for junior college and university places will ease.

Jobs in music, the arts, design and other creative fields should also be included in the pay tweak, turning them into viable career choices for our young.

The academic paper chase will no longer be perceived as the only option then. Students can choose courses according to their interest and aptitude.

The education system will head for a more balanced development at all levels. Education will become more enjoyable; PSLE may become obsolete.

Instead of blaming the education system, why not ask ourselves: Shall we take the bulls by the horns, including the 'bull' in our mindset?

Ng Ya Ken

___

Above article taken verbatim from:

http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/make-all-jobs-viable-career-choices-balanced-education-system-20121009

10/9/2012 17:12:07

Amy Cheong saga: Was it an over-reaction?

http://www.singapolitics.sg/views/amy-cheong-saga-was-it-over-reaction

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Amy Cheong saga: Was it an over-reaction?

Posted on Oct 8, 2012 7:38 PMUpdated: Oct 8, 2012 7:38 PM

By Janice Heng

janiceh@sph.com.sg

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Ranting on Facebook on Sunday evening, sacked by Monday lunchtime. Such was the lot of Ms Amy Cheong, formerly assistant director of the National Trades Union Congress’s (NTUC) membership department.

On Oct 7, she made a Facebook post complaining about Malay weddings and making derogatory remarks about Malays.

It went viral that night, attracting fire on Twitter and Facebook – as well as the attention of NTUC, who said just past midnight that it was investigating the matter. By lunchtime on Monday, it had fired Ms Cheong.

Some netizens praised NTUC’s swift reaction. But others wondered if it - together with the fierce campaign against her mounted by Netizens – was an overreaction.

One view often offered in mitigation in such incidents is that the perpetrator thought it was private or was simply young and foolish.

This type of reasoning is starting to sound increasingly hollow with every new incident.

First, most people - even children - have learnt by now that nothing on the Internet is really private unless locked down (and even then, a ‘friend’ or ‘follower’ might well expose you).

Second, it rests on the false assumption that an employee’s personal social media use is not an employer’s business.

This may be the first time a worker in Singapore has lost their job over a Facebook post – publicly, at least. But such sackings are old news on the Internet, with numerous articles and blogs on the phenomenon.

Virgin Atlantic flight attendants have been sacked for insulting passengers; radio hosts for off-the-air ranting. Racist remarks got a British pub landlord fired last year(2011) – as they did a bartender in Chicago this April.

And there are inarguable ways in which a Facebook post could be a sackable offence – if it reveals confidential information, for instance. The mere fact that the post was on Facebook does not make it off-limits for censure.

But even if Ms Cheong had reason to know that what she was doing was wrong and likely not private, was NTUC right in firing her for one racist Facebook remark?

Surely – goes the argument – NTUC could have counselled Ms Cheong instead (which it did, before firing her). Ms Cheong could have been allowed to continue in her post, hopefully wiser and more tolerant for the experience.

It is hard to say whether NTUC ‘overreacted’ in terms of being fair to Ms Cheong, or giving her a second chance. But it is easy to see why it did what it did – and in purely instrumental terms, it was no overreaction.

First, NTUC’s “zero tolerance” stance for racism is perfectly understandable in Singapore, given the sensitivity with which racial issues are treated here. Anything less than sacking Ms Cheong might be interpreted as compromising the central national value of racial harmony.

Secondly, as a labour movement built on “inclusiveness” and meant to represent all workers, NTUC has an especial responsibility to take a firm stance against bigotry. An organisation which does not condemn prejudice against minorities may alienate them with its inaction.

Thirdly, under the glare of social media’s spotlights, employers might feel an understandable pressure to come down harshly on any misdemeanour – and to be seen to be doing so. If NTUC had not fired Ms Cheong, it would likely have received flak for that.

The consequences of NTUC’s move are a separate matter. In previous episodes of online racism, some have criticised heavy-handed moves such as police reports, arguing that it is more fruitful to let racism be defeated in open debate. Ms Cheong’s sacking might also give ammunition to the anti-political correctness brigade, who think that any reaction to racism is overreaction and that minorities are just ‘being too sensitive’.

Still, if nothing else, Ms Cheong’s fate should make keyboard racists think twice before spewing their bile online. Yes, this would let such quiet bigots go scot-free, sparing them from public scrutiny – but it also spares the targets of racism from having to hear the same, old, ugly comments. And that must surely be worth something.

Consider building retirement condos

THE young of today will be the old of tomorrow. The problem of facilities for the elderly will become more and more pressing, so we have to plan ahead ("Singapore 'not ready' for ageing society"; last Thursday).

Now, Singaporeans live longer, and are healthier as well. Many have only one child or no children at all, and many are single or widowed.

There are a large number of people who are past their retirement age, but still healthy and active. These people want to enjoy an independent lifestyle, but need a conducive environment to do so.

This is where retirement condominiums geared towards retirees come in. These can have social and medical amenities nearby to enable seniors to live an active life on their own.

But unlike large countries, where retirement condos are in abundance, in Singapore, because of the high price of land, such condos are non-existent, and likely to be unaffordable.

The Government can fill this gap by allocating land leased cheaplto private developers solely for this purpose.

George Wong (Dr)

http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/consider-building-retirement-condos-20121004
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Is it really possible to TLLM? (From forum)

Finally, at age 31, a degree in what he is passionate about

freeing schools from bands that bind

For some, neighbourhood schools are the best option

A GOOD school aims to nurture a child to his fullest potential, and inculcates character building and values ("Acid test of MOE's 'every school is a good school' statement" by Mr Patrick Tan; Sept 14).

In neighbourhood schools, there are students who are not as academically inclined but have different strengths, such as in entrepreneurship, sports, music or the arts. Teachers in neighbourhood schools are equally dedicated and work as hard as those in "branded" schools.

Schools such as Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong Institution and Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) admit students who are academically inclined, and the programmes they roll out stretch these students and prevent them from becoming bored and under-performing.

These schools should not admit students with "normal" grades as their programmes may not be appropriate for them.

Even within these "branded" schools, there is a disparity in intellectual prowess among the student population. The acute stress of the paper chase should not be blamed on the existence of such schools.

Ultimately, parents should know the strengths of their children and ensure that they have happy school lives, by not comparing them to other children, or pushing them to enter "branded" schools.

Many students from neighbourhood schools have gone on to pursue tertiary education, and some have become entrepreneurs, teachers, musicians and so on.

More importantly, we should ensure that our children grow up with life skills and values such as self-discipline, a love for learning, respect for others, honesty, perseverance, kindness, compassion and an ability to solve problems. These skills will stand them in good stead well into their adult lives.

Once these skills and values are internalised, children will be able to face life's challenges positively and grow up well-adjusted and happy.

Ng Wai Meng (Ms)

___

Taken verbatim from:

http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/some-neighbourhood-schools-are-the-best-option-20120924

Keep the Singapore dream alive

Soil movement at work sites 'difficult to predict'

Experts say damage to Watten Estate houses may have been unforeseeable

By Feng Zengkun

DAMAGE to the houses in the Bukit Timah Watten Estate due to underground soil movement from the Downtown Line construction may have been unforeseeable, four independent engineers told The Straits Times yesterday.

This is because the strength and properties of Singapore soil vary so much that it may be difficult to predict how it will shift or move in response to construction.

Site surveyors may also not be able to obtain enough soil samples in the country's built-up urban environment.

Still, one engineer has suggested that special sensors placed closer to the Downtown Line construction site nearest to the damaged houses could have provided an early warning that something was amiss.

At least 40 homes in the upscale neighbourhood in central Singapore sustained damage from shifting walls and floors that have cracked as a result of construction works on the upcoming Tan Kah Kee MRT station of the new Downtown Line.

Following complaints, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) checked the houses to ensure that they are structurally safe and started interim works to prop up car-porch roofs and help move gates that could no longer open.

Yesterday, the LTA said that it had investigated the soil in and around the train station and the tunnel construction zone, both before and during construction.

Soil samples were collected at 20m intervals along the perimeter of the station and tunnel.

These samples enabled the LTA to analyse the types of soil beneath the ground and use computer models to estimate the way the area would be affected by the construction work.

From this and other data, such as the types of buildings in the area, the LTA had concluded that only buildings within a 250m radius of the construction site were likely to be affected.

This included part of Hwa Chong Institution, but Watten Estate fell just outside this zone.

The LTA attributed the damage caused to the houses to water seepage after excavation works. The ground then adjusted, causing cracks in the buildings.

Asked for their views on the issue, four independent engineers said that there were no fixed guidelines for taking soil samples outside a construction zone.

But they added that, in their view, the LTA's pre-construction survey was "reasonable" and in accordance with industry practices.

"In every construction project, there is the possibility of unforeseen soil conditions. You can only take so many soil samples for each project, and the soil profile is seldom uniform," said Professor Leung Chun Fai, from the National University of Singapore's civil and environmental engineering department.

Mr Chong Kee Sen, vice-president of the Institution of Engineers, said: "The soil formation in Singapore is notorious for very high variation in terms of rock levels, strengths and properties."

Other engineers said the built-up nature of the neighbourhood may have limited the number of samples that could be taken.

Associate Professor Leong Eng Choon, from the Nanyang Technological University's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said: "In some cases, it's impossible to take a sample. You can't have a sample site in someone's property."

But he also noted that the monitoring instruments installed by the LTA could have raised a red flag for the agency.

The LTA said at a briefing on Tuesday that it had installed about 2,400 instruments within the 250m zone to monitor the effects of construction.

These included ground settlement markers - which measure soil movement - as well as vibration sensors.

Prof Leong said: "If the impact of the works spread that far away (to Watten Estate), then the impact nearer to the construction site would have been much higher.

"If the sensors near the site were correctly placed, working properly, and checked regularly, they would have provided early warning of the impact of the construction that would be felt farther away."

The LTA said on Tuesday that 28 "recharge wells" would be built by next month to prevent further damage to the houses.

These wells will pump water back into the underlying soil to replace the seepage caused by the construction works.

In the meantime, excavation work for the Tan Kah Kee station, at areas closest to the estate, has been stopped.

It will resume only when water has been pumped back into the area and the water level in the ground has been stabilised, the LTA said.

It added that this will not delay construction of this part of the Downtown Line, which is due to open in 2015.

zengkun@sph.com.sg

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Taken verbatim from:

http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/singapore/story/soil-movement-work-sites-difficult-predict-20120921