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MICA (P) 031/10/2011 A PublICAtIoN oF

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Friday November 25, 2011 www.todayonline.com we set you thinking

Three-way meeting disappoints, euro, stocks fall

STRASBOURG An inaugural meeting between newly-installed Italian Premier Mario Monti and the leaders of France and Germany failed to yield the desired outcome that the markets had hoped for: A consensus on a greater role for the European Central Bank (ECB) in solving Europes debt crisis. Instead, French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to temper his calls for the ECB to play a bigger role, while Gemeran Chancellor Angela Merkel also restated her resistance to the idea for common euro zone bonds as a way of calming the debt crisis. Said Ms Merkel: It would be completely the wrong signal to lose sight entirely now of these differing interest rates, because they are a pointer to where something still needs to be done and where we need to go further. Joint euro bonds would take us back to where we were before the crisis, she added. Ms Merkels comments sent European stocks tumbling for the sixth day, while the euro weakened. Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy pledged to press ahead with greater fiscal union among the euro zone members. Both leaders said they will propose, over the next few days, modifications to the European Union treaties to improve euro zone governance and ensure greater integration and convergence among the 17 countries of the currency bloc. No details were given but Mr Sarkozy said the proposed changes would be ready by the next EU leaders summit on Dec 9. Treaty changes are a notoriously laborious endeavour, requiring the agreement of all 27 EU nations, including non-euro countries such as Britain and Poland. Ms Merkel said the treaty changes would make clear that we must take steps towards a fiscal union, to express the conviction that we know policies must be more closely coordinated if you have a common, stable currency. It is political confidence in Europe that has been lost we can only win it back politically, Ms Merkel said. Before the meeting, France had been reluctant to resort to changes to EU treaties, while Germany had pushed for such changes, saying voluntary pledges by national governments are no longer enough to boost market confidence. >> CoNtINuEd oN PAGE 3

4,200 bto FlAtS lAuNCHEd

Hot NEWS 3

A fair bonus for civil servants

EStHER NG
estherng@mediacorp.com.sg

Hot NEWS 4

A PRoud dAy FoR tHESE PARENtS

CoMMENt&ANAlySIS
bEN blANd VIEtNAM uNdER ECoNoMIC StRAIN 18 ANdREW S REyNoldS EGyPtS dooMEd ElECtIoN 20 GRACE SEGRAN dANGERS oN tHE HoRIzoN FoR CHINA 21 NEW yoRk tIMES EdItoRIAl WHAt It MEANS to bE NEAR PooR IN AMERICA 22 doNt MISS NICHolAS d kRIStoF ARE WE 20 PAGE S oF T GEttING NICER? 24

PSlE RESultS

SINGAPORE Civil servants will get a 0.75 month bonus in addition to their annual 13th month payout at the end of next month, the Public Service Division (PSD) announced yesterday. This takes their variable payment for the year to 2.25 months plus S$250, including the mid-year payout in July. After an exceptional bonus last year in which civil servants received a total payout not seen since 1994 the labour movement and civil servants who spoke to Today felt the payout this time was fair, given the current economic climate. In a statement, the PSD noted the Governments growth estimate of about 5 per cent this year. But it added: Nevertheless, near-term growth could be affected by easing global demand and heightened economic and financial uncertainties especially due to the euro zone debt crisis and sluggish growth in the advanced economies. The Government is the largest single employer here, with about 76,000 civil servants on its payroll. On whether private companies will take the cue from the Civil Service when they pay their bonuses later, experts noted that the uneven performances of the various industries meant that it was difficult to generalise. The industries that have done relatively well this year were services, manufacturing, construction and pharmaceutical, they noted. Kelly Services Asia-Pacific senior vice-president Dhirendra Shantilal said: It depends

on the financial performance of individual companies, those that have done well would pay more, those which have not, will pay less. C o n c u r r i n g , Ad e c c o s South-east Asia regional director Lynne Ng added: Employers in making their decisions about bonuses and wages will also consider the economy going forward and how they expect the market and their organisation to perform. The Singapore National Employers Federation reiterated that bonuses would vary with the performance of not just the companies but the individual worker. The federation told Channel NewsAsia that Singapores economic growth in the fourth quarter could be around 3.5 per cent and this may dampen year-end bonus payments in the private sector. The year-end bonus for civil servants was decided after close consultation and negotiations between the PSD and representatives from the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the civil service unions, NTUC deputy secretarygeneral Heng Chee How said in a separate statement. Mr Heng, who is also Senior Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office, added: The payment rewards civil servants for their hard work and contributions while taking into account Singapores projected slower economic growth of around 5 per cent this year compared to last year, and the higher costs of living. Last years exceptional bonus payout for civil servants came on the back of a record 14.5 per cent economic growth. >> CoNtINuEd oN PAGE 3

today Friday November 25, 2011

hot nEWS
TOKYO Rating agency Standard and Poors (S&P) yesterday said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Nodas administration had not made progress in tackling the public debt burden, an indication it might be preparing to lower the nations sovereign grade. Japans finances are getting worse and worse every day, every second It may be right in saying that we are closer to a downgrade but the deterioration has been gradual so far, said S&P director of sovereign ratings Takahira Ogawa. Mr Ogawa said Japan needed a comprehensive approach to contain its debt burden, which the government has projected will exceed 1 quadrillion (S$16.9 trillion) in the year through March

S&P signals Japan downgrade on the horizon

as the nation pays for reconstruction. Japanese government bonds fell after Mr Ogawas remarks, sending 10-year yields to 0.995 per cent the highest in three weeks from the previous close of 0.965 per cent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.8 per cent to 8,165.18, its lowest close since March 2009. A reduction in S&Ps AA-rating would be a setback for Mr Noda, who took office in September and has pledged to both steady Japans finances and implement reconstruction after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. While Japan has enjoyed borrowing costs at global lows for its debt, the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday of a risk of a sudden spike in yields that could make the debt level unsustainable. S&P has had Japan on a negative outlook since April after it lowered the rating to AAin January. Moodys cut the rating by one notch to Aa3 on Aug 24. Fitch Ratings also has Japan at AA- with a negative outlook. Also yesterday, Japans government in its monthly report stuck to its assessment that the economy was slowly picking up, but said it remained vigilant about risks from a slowdown overseas, volatile markets and the impact from Thailands floods. Still, it cut its view on companies capital spending for the first time in six months, saying it was showing signs of weakness as corporate profits were falling. ageNcies

check-in counters of the portela international airport in lisbon were largely deserted yesterday due to a general strike. ap

on a day workers strike, Portugals credit rating lowered to junk status

LISBON Portugals credit rating was downgraded to junk status yesterday just as a general strike virtually shut down public services and mass transit systems. Fitch, one of the three leading credit rating agencies, blamed Portugals large fiscal imbalances, high indebtedness across all sectors, and adverse macroeconomic outlook for its decision to cut the countrys rating by one notch to BB+. That means Portugal is considered non-investment grade by Fitch and will likely mean it is even more difficult for the bailed-out country to return to bond markets. Like others in the euro zone, Portugal has embarked on a big austerity programme to make its debts sustainable. The governments tough medicine is proving unpopular and yesterdays general strike had a big turnout. Airlines cancelled hundreds of international flights, and the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro were mostly empty as tens of thousands of workers walked off the job. Commuters had to get to work without regular bus or train services. The Lisbon subway was shut, and the police said roads into the capital were more congested than normal. Few staff were working at government offices, local media reported. Many medical appointments, school classes and

A lot of people are angry. We want a big turnout to show (the government) that the policies we are witnessing are unacceptable.
leader of the general Workers Union Joao proenca
court hearings were cancelled. The 24-hour walkout was called by Portugals two largest trade union confederations, representing more than one

million mostly blue-collar workers. A lot of people are angry, said Mr Joao Proenca, leader of the General Workers Union. We want a big turnout to show (the government) that the policies we are witnessing are unacceptable. An unsustainable debt load and feeble economic growth over the past 10 years pushed Portugal towards bankruptcy earlier this year, forcing it to ask for a 78 billion (S$136 billion) international bailout. Fitch said the recession is making it more challenging for the government to achieve its deficit-reduction plan but noted that its commitment to the programme was strong. ap

A new problem for China: how to spend s$926 billion by January

SHANGHAI While governments in the West fret about their dire finances, Chinese bureaucrats are facing the opposite problem: How to spend as much as 4.5 trillion yuan (S$926 billion) before January. With Chinas financial year ending on Dec 31, government officials have just over six weeks to splurge their spare cash, or have their budgets for next year cut. As the season of tu ji, hua qian or spending frenzy gets under way, government officials have entered a gruelling round of marathon banquets and drinking sessions. In office hours, there is the challenge of inflating the cost of everything from computer equipment to travel expenses, with reports suggesting that government departments are paying three or four times the going rate for their purchases. You get criticised, not praised, for saving money, Mr Ye Qing, the deputy head of the Hubei provincial statistics bureau, told China Youth Daily. We do not allow budgets to roll over to the next year, so there is only a little time to spend. Mr Lu Guanglin, the official in charge of rolling out Guangzhous No 2 metro line, said he was blamed for spending parsimoniously. They wanted me to be more extravagant. They said if I was not spending money, I was an idiot, he told the China Youth Daily. With Chinas tax revenues growing rapidly, following a campaign to crack down on evasion, the challenge to spend it all only increases each year. The intensity of the spending becomes more and more astonishing, said Mr Ye. This year, the Ministry of Finance estimates that 3.5 trillion yuan will be spent this month and the next, almost a third of Chinas public spending budget. Mr Stephen Green, an economist at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, believes the sum could as high as 4.5 trillion yuan in the final three months of the year. Professor Wang Jingbo, from Chinas University of Political Science and Law, said the spending frenzy was a relatively recent trend. In the past, there was no rigid requirement to submit final annual accounts and they were not tied to the following years budget. In terms of policy, the new rules are stricter and an improvement. However, despite the lavish spending, many social projects are likely to go unfunded this year, Officials often do not feel much responsibility to spend the money well. They do not care and there is no effective way to enforce and supervise budgets more sensibly, said Mr Li Weiguang, an economist at Tianjin Finance university.
the daily telegraph

>> daNgers oN the horizoN For chiNa commeNt 21

today Friday November 25, 2011

hot nEWS
LONDON Womens pay in Britain will overtake that of mens within a decade if current trends in the labour market continue, new figures from the Government show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that the gender pay gap the difference between average salaries of men and women has fallen to under 10 per cent for the first time. Its figures show that women in full-time work are seeing their wages grow at more than twice the rate of men. If the growth continues at current levels, women could start to earn more than men in 2020, over 50 years ahead of some recent forecasts. The ONS said that earnings for a man in full-time employment, excluding over-time, stood at 13.11 (S$26.67) an hour in April this year, an increase of 0.8 per cent on the year before. Equivalent earnings for a woman were 11.91 an hour, an increase of 1.9 per cent on the year before. If womens hourly pay continues to grow at over double the rate of mens pay, women will start to earn more than men in nine years. On the current trajectory, a woman will earn 14.09 an hour in 2020, compared to 14.06 for a man. Economists and union leaders welcomed the shrinking gender gap, particularly as it suggests that equal wages will be reached at a far earlier

British women set to earn more than men

date than previously thought. A report last year published by the Chartered Management Institute suggested that it will be 2067 before womens take-home pay is equal to mens. Mr Howard Archer, chief British and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said that the figures show that things are moving in the right direction in closing the underlying pay gap between men and women. But he issued a note of caution, saying that much work remains to be done. The suspicion remains that achieving pay parity between the genders will be a long and tortuous process, he said.
the daily telegraph

4,200 new Bto flats launched

SINGAPORE The Housing and Development Board (HDB) yesterday launched 4,200 new flats in seven Build-To-Order (BTO) projects. The projects are in Bedok, Bukit Panjang, Hougang, Punggol and Yishun and come after the HDBs bumper crop of 8,200 new flats offered two months ago. This round, the new flats on offer range from studio and tworoom to five-room flats. According to the HDB, the selling price of the new flats is between S$75,000 for a studio unit at Fajar Spring and S$352,000 for a five-room unit at both Hougang Dew Court and Hougang Capeview, excluding Government grants. The applications close on Wednesday and at least 95 per cent of the flat supply excluding studio apartments will be set aside for first-timer households. The latest launch brings the total number of BTO flats offered this year to 25,200. The HDB said it will continue to offer another 25,000 BTO units next year, with the next BTO launch in January. That will see 3,890 new flats offered for sale in Choa Chu Kang, Punggol, Sengkang and Tampines.

hougang dew court. artists

impressioN courtesy hdb

A fair bonus for civil servants

>> coNtiNued From page 1 Amalgamated Union of Public Employees (AUPE) general secretary Ma Wei Cheng told Today that this years payout was fair and reasonable. Mr G Muthukumarasamy, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Public Daily Rated Workers, noted that it was better than nothing and advised its members to spend their bonuses wisely with the economy expected to slow next year. Mr Muthukumarasamy added that the year-end bonus would help lower-wage civil servants meet their daily needs. The National Wages Council (NWC) is due to unveil its wage guidelines early next year. Labour MP Ang Hin Kee said that it was premature to discuss what the NWC might recommend to help lower-wage civil servants. But he noted that measures such as re-training, skills upgrading and shorter work weeks were implemented in the 2008 financial crisis. Should a downturn strike, these initiatives will likely be implemented again, he added.

three-way meeting disappoints

>> coNtiNued From page 1 Ms Merkel insisted that the proposed changes would not deal with the European Central Bank, which she stressed was responsible for monetary, not fiscal, policy. In the treaty changes, we are dealing with the question of a fiscal union, a deeper political cooperation ... there will be proposals on this but they have nothing to do with the ECB, Ms Merkel said. Mr Sarkozy said the three leaders had agreed to meet again very soon in Rome at Mr Montis invitation to continue their three-way dialogue. Meanwhile, German business confidence unexpectedly rose for the first time in five months in November, defying Europes worsening debt crisis. The Munich-based Ifo institutes business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, increased to 106.6 from 106.4 last month. German unemployment remains near a two-decade low. German economist Andreas Rees said: Although downside risks ... remain, doomsday is not around the corner. A recession, and especially a deep and nasty one, is not in the pipeline.
ageNcies

today Friday November 25, 2011

hot nEWS
HONG KONG Thin, frail and slightly demented, 83-year-old Yuk Po approached social workers for help after learning that her daughter had invested her life savings in Lehman Brothers minibonds, the notorious financial instruments that went bust in late 2008. When the social workers made their checks, they confirmed the old woman was indeed penniless but not among the list of Lehman creditors in Hong Kong. Simply put, she had been cheated of around HK$500,000 (S$83,700) by her own daughter. Its up to her if she wants to cheat me. What can I do? I have to depend on her, Ms Yuk said with a blank stare in her small, sparsely-furnished rented government flat. Ms Yuks plight is far from uncommon. With Asias ageing population and the rising prevalence of dementia, fraud committed against the elderly often by family members and friends is growing, social workers say. Alzheimers disease is the most common form of dementia and affects 10 per cent of those over 70 and 30 per cent of those over 80. It robs people of their memory, thinking, judgment, language and behaviour, leaving them unable to manage their own affairs and vulnerable to abuse. We come across cases so often of children removing money from an old persons bank account and the old person complains to us, saying the son or daughter had removed their money, or borrowed their money and never returned it, said Mr Foo Wai-lok of the Association Against Elderly Abuse in Hong Kong. Such elderly abuse in Asia appears to be more keenly felt in developed societies such as Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

Rising dementia opens Asias elderly to abuse, fraud often by family

Mr David Dai, of the Hong Kong Alzheimers Disease Association, said: In developing countries ... they are more traditional and united and they look after their old. There are less medical interventions to keep people alive and they are less litigious. In Singapore, growing disputes and fraud involving assets of elderly people with Alzheimers disease became serious enough for Parliament to enact a Mental Capacity Act in 2008, much like the one Britain created in 2005. The Act created a new instrument called lasting power of attorney allowing people to appoint a deputy while they are still of sound mind said Mr Patrick Tan, a practising lawyer in Singapore at the forefront of a campaign to raise awareness of legal protection for the elderly. The problem will worsen with rising prevalence of dementia. Alzheimers Disease International estimated there were 35.6 million people living with dementia worldwide last year and that will increase to 65.7 million by 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050. Some argue for specific laws to protect the elderly, much like laws to protect children and animals from neglect, mental and physical abuse. This is critical because in Asia, people are reluctant to even acknowledge discord within the family, let alone report abuse of any kind. But Ms Anita Wong, elderly services director of the Hong Kong Chinese Womens Club, pointed out: Without a law now, the elderly may still make some noise and hope you will help them. But once there is a law ... their children risk going to jail. So old people would be even more afraid to complain. reuterS

A proud day for these parents

top student for this years PSle from rulang Primary School scores an aggregate of 283
Sumita SreedharaN aNd yu Pei FerN
sumitas@mediacorp.com.sg

top PSle student yasmin Ziqin mohamed yousoof from rulang Primary with parents mr and mrs yousoof and younger brother ishal.
Photo by erNeSt chua

97.4% oF StudeNtS move

oN to SecoNdary School

SINGAPORE One parent quit her high-flying banking job to coach her daughter for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). Another parent presumably with too much on her mind misplaced a mobile phone, leading to a mini-frenzy to get her daughter to school on time. Some parents also cut short their working trips to fly back home or took leave from work to be with their children as they collected their PSLE results yesterday. Yesterday was a day of reckoning not only for more than 45,000 Primary 6 students who took the PSLE this year but for their parents as well underlining the importance that parents here place on the PSLE, and education in general. And for many parents including Madam Pang Siew Chen, 45, their efforts were certainly not in vain. Mdm Pang had quit her banking job earlier this year to help her daughter Leia Teo Wen Hui prepare for the PSLE, including ferrying her between tuition classes. Leia, who is from Kong Hwa School, scored an aggregate of 278 and was among the top pupils in this years cohort. Said Mdm Pang: We place quite a high emphasis on their education. I think it was worth it because in Singapore, all the kids are so smart, but they really need parental guidance, particularly at this stage. This years top PSLE student is Yasmin Ziqin Mohamed Yousoof, from Rulang Primary School. Yasmin, who scored an aggregate of 283, is the first Indian girl to top the PSLE since 2006. Her mother, Mdm Carrie Tan, 41, told Today that the family had to drive back home

We place quite a high emphasis on their education. I think it was worth it because in Singapore, all the kids are so smart, but they really need parental guidance, particularly at this stage.
mother of a PSle candidate Pang Siew chen
midway to the school, to retrieve her mobile phone leading to a few anxious moments for her daughter. She was nervous that she would not make it on time but I told her we would do our best, said Mdm Tan. Yasmins father,

Mr Mohd Yousoof, 41, also played it cool. Education is important but it is not everything, the foreign exchange director said. Mdm Priya Rajeev, 39, a system analyst, said she lost sleep during the wait for the PSLE results. She and her husband took leave from work yesterday to accompany their daughter Sneha who was also among the top students at Rulang Primary to collect her results. But as the parents readily agree, it is the childs efforts that will ultimately make the difference. Snehas father, Mr Sanil Kumar Parammal, 42, said: She makes it a point to buy her own assessment books, even bringing her parents to Popular bookstore to shop for them ... Its very little effort from us its really her own self motivation.

A total of 45,261 students sat for the PSLE this year, with 97.4 per cent or 44,106 pupils doing well enough to move on to secondary school. this years top student, Yasmin Ziqin Mohamed Yousoof from Rulang Primary School, scored an aggregate of 283. She is also the top Indian pupil. the top Chinese pupil is hannah tan Jia hwee from Raffles Girls Primary School. natalia nadila Bte Muhamad n from St hildas Primary School and Bjorn Kaijun Betzler of Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) are the top Malay and Eurasian students respectively. of the students who passed the PSLE, 62.9 per cent are eligible for the Express course, 23.1 per cent are headed for the normal (Academic) and 11.4 per cent the normal (technical) stream. Four of the six full-time madrasahs have also met the minimum PSLE aggregate benchmark set by the Ministry of Education, under the Compulsory Education Act. In order for the madrasahs to admit new Primary 1 students, they are required to meet the benchmark at least twice in three years. this policy has been in effect since 2008, and this year marks the start of a new three-year cycle. however, the MoE said that the two madrasahs that did not make the cut Madrasah Al-Arabiah and Madrasah Aljunied will not be affected as they have ceased accepting new Primary 1 students. Secondary school posting results will be released on Dec 21.
yu Pei FerN

today Friday November 25, 2011

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hot nEWS

Chinese national recounts call out of the blue, pledge in blood and tattoo of lover
teo XuaNwei
xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sg

Murder accuseds tale of love and infidelity ...

vous from then on about once a week to go to coffee houses or parks, usually on Thursdays when her husband, Mr Feng Jinqiang, worked the night shift as a policeman. Their relationship remained platonic until Mdm Zhang asked him in March 2006 if he had fallen for her. Wang admitted that he indeed had feelings for her, and they became intimate a week later. Three months later, when Mdm Zhang finally disclosed her marriage to him, Wang said it saddened him. He tried to break up with her but she refused. Wang recounted that during one of their dates later, two men telephoned Mdm Zhang and asked her out. The incident caused him to suspect that she had some other men, Wang said. He again asked to end the relationship but Mdm Zhang pleaded with him, saying that she did not want to live if he were to leave her. As a pledge of her love for Wang, Mdm Zhang used her blood to write on a piece of paper: I love Wang Zhijian. I want to marry him. In return, Wang also wrote with his blood: I (will) love her until I (die). When their extra-marital affair came to light in November that year, Wang said Mdm Zhang chose to leave her husband. Two days later, Mdm Zhangs younger brother, her younger sister and her husband confronted Wang, beating him up and threatening to kill him but he managed to flee from them eventually. In April 2007, Wang was allowed to retire from his job as a storekeeper in a port on medical grounds, which entitled him to a monthly pension of 2,200 yuan (S$450) until he turned 60. Wang said he chose instead to take a 310,000 yuan loan from his company and let it deduct his monthly payments as repayment. Wang said he used the money to buy branded clothes for Mdm Zhang and took her for meals at highclass restaurants and hotels, spending 100,000 yuan after only over three months. In May 2007, Wang tattooed a portrait of Mdm Zhang and a rose on his back as a symbol of his love. Later that month, however, Mdm Zhangs ex-husband suffered a stroke. Wang claimed that he helped Mdm Zhang bring Mr Feng for treatment for more than 10 days. Mdm Zhang broke up with him twice after that, Wang said, but they always reconciled. In December that year, Jianyu was accepted into an English language school in

SINGAPORE Learning that she was a married woman whom he also suspected of seeing other men while they were dating did not snuff out his feelings for her. And even after Madam Zhang Mengs family beat him up and threatened to kill him after discovering their illicit affair, Wang Zhijian, a Chinese national, stuck with her. Wangs account of how his relationship with Mdm Zhang blossomed in China was heard on the third day of his trial for the murder of Mdm Zhang, 42, her daughter Feng Jianyu, 17, and their room-mate Madam Yang Jie, 36, on the night of Sept 18, 2008 at their Yishun flat. Wang is also accused of repeatedly slashing Mdm Yangs daughter, Li Meilin, now 18. She survived. Wang, 45, told investigators he met Mdm Zhang sometime in 1996 but that it was only eight years later that she called him out of the blue for a chat. In May or June 2005, she called him again and asked him out to a coffee house for a chat. This was when he revealed that he was recently divorced. Wang and Mdm Zhang would rendez-

wang tattooed a portrait of his ex-lover onto his back even after suspecting that she was seeing other men. From Court doCumeNts

Singapore and Wang kept in contact with Mdm Zhang over the phone. By then, he started thinking that she was trying to cheat his feelings. The court heard on Wednesday that Wang allegedly went on a rampage after he quarrelled with Mdm Zhang over her demands for a meal of crab. He had arrived in Singapore from Tianjin nine days before the day of the attacks.The trial resumes next Friday. If found guilty, Wang faces the death penalty.

today Friday November 25, 2011

today Friday November 25, 2011

hot nEWS

MF Global Spore liquidators take control of bulk of customer funds

SINGAPORE The provisional liquidators of brokerage MF Global Singapore have taken control of more than US$180 million (S$235.7 million) of customer funds out of a total of US$309 million maintained in financial institutions here and overseas, and are confident of making significant progress in recovering the balance. Mr Bob Yap, head of transactions and restructuring at KPMG Singapore, one of the provisional liquidators, said yesterday: We are pleased to update that significant progress is being made in the process of winding down the business of the company and collection of monies and assets of the company and its customers. Efforts in relation to the verification and reconciliation process continue around the clock, and we are focused on moving as quickly as possible to return funds back to the customers once such process is completed, he added. There is also a further US$177.9 million in MF Global Singapore customer money that is being held with third-party correspondent brokers, counterparties and clearing members, he said. However, customers may have to wait for some time before they can receive their funds. Mr Yap said: The provisional liquidators will only be in a position to release all customers monies and assets to the companys customers after the provisional liquidators have completed their review and reconciliation of the companys books and records, and all monies and assets in the name and control of the company have been returned to it. The above process will take some time and will depend very much on the position taken by the respective regulators in the relevant jurisdictions, correspondent brokers, clearing houses and/or administrators of the MF Global affiliates, as well as the speed at which requested pricing and other information are provided by the above third parties to the provisional liquidators. MF Global Singapores liquidators also said yesterday about US$15.3 million of segregated monies of its customers was maintained with affiliate MF Global Inc (MFGI) in the United States. The trustee of MFGI said earlier this week that there was an apparent shortfall in MFGIs segregated customer accounts which may exceed US$1.2 billion, more than double the previous estimate of about US$600 million. MF Globals administrators in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia had been hoping to sell the Asia-Pacific businesses as a single concern but the deal proved increasingly complex and they said earlier this week that couldnt achieve a sale. ageNcies

(At the SEA Games) we drew with Malaysia and played valiantly against Indonesia. I believe that the S-League is still a good production line for the national team. Our (senior) national players come from the league, and we made the third round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Fas chief Zainudin Nordin, commenting on the future of the s-league
today File Photo

We are doing the best we can

Football chief Zainudin tackles criticism of sea games showing, s-league
shamir osmaN
shamir@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE Football chief Zainudin Nordin had promised that by Nov 4, the details of what he called S-League version 2.0 would be released. He assured S-League clubs that by Nov 15, they would know which of their players or coaches would climb on the ship embarking on Singapores Malaysian football adventure in 2012. Both deadlines came and went, and still the Singapore football fraternity remain in the dark. In an interview with Today, Mr Zainudin reiterated that the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is doing as much as it can, as fast as it can. He also addressed criticisms on the national Under-23 sides showing at the recent SEA games, as well as the lack of overseas exposure for the national players. People can say whatever they want, we just have to do things as best as we can. The announcements will be coming out in the next few weeks ... of course before January, he said. The people who are concerned (players and coaches of the Singapore Lions), they all know who they are, and we will announce that soon. When quizzed if there is a gap between the plans made at FAS Jalan Besar headquarters and what actually gets done, he said: Yes (there is). It will always be a key part of our strategy ensuring that plans are properly implemented. We will learn along the way to make sure that those things become reality, and we will review along the way as much as we can. The FAS chief set a bold silver medal target for the national under-23 side at the recently concluded SEA Games. The team failed to even make the semi-finals. Mr Zainudin rejected suggestions that the S-League has stagnated and failed to produce players who can step up onto the

international stage. (At the Games) we drew with Malaysia and played valiantly against Indonesia. I believe that the S-League is still a good production line for the national team. Our (senior) national players come from the league, and we made the third round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers, he said. Malaysias under-23 side that defended the gold medal at the SEA Games in Indonesia have had several stints in Slovakia. Three players are on loan at top Slovakian club FC Vion Zlate Moravce. Two of them, Fadhli Shas and Irfan Fazail, turned in assured performances in Malaysias successful SEA Games campaign. While the FAS talked of plans to send players such as Hariss Harun and Khairul Amri on overseas stints, it has not panned out. But Mr Zainudin countered: We have to send players to the right place ... this is not an easy thing. Well do more if we can, if there are opportunities we will consider it. He then questioned if overseas stints were always the answer. (Malaysia) didnt beat us at all, they didnt get to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers. Malaysia went to Slovakia ... Indonesia sent their team to Uruguay for a year, but did they perform better than us? I dont think so, he said. The year 2012 will clearly be a year of change for Singapore football. National coach Radojko Avramovics contract runs out in December next year. The Serb, who has guided Singapore to two successive ASEAN championships and two successive spots in the third round of Asias World Cup qualifiers, came under criticism after the Lions first-round exit from last years AFF Suzuki Cup. After eight years at the helm, many feel it is time for a change. Mr Zainudin refused to be drawn into the future of Mr Avramovic. He would only say: We have not finished our review (of the Lions current World Cup qualifying campaign). When its completed, well see all the recommendations. We will look at anything that needs to be reviewed.

>> FuNdiNg a key hurdle to lioNs success voices 26

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YANGON The Myanmar Parliament has passed a Bill that allows citizens to protest peacefully, the latest in a series of reforms since a civilian government took power in March. The Bill will require demonstrators to inform the authorities about their assembly five days in advance, Upper House member Aye Maung of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party was quoted as saying by AFP. He said that protestors will be allowed to hold flags and party symbols but must avoid government buildings, schools, hospitals and embassies. The Bill needs to be signed by President Thein Sein to become law. The move comes four years after the Saffron Revolution, mass protests led by monks which were brutally put down by the military government. More than 30 people were killed, hundreds jailed while others were forced to escape as refugees to the United States. Myanmar has embarked on a series of reforms since the army nominally handed over power in March to civilians after the first elections in two decades. Its overtures have since included calls for peace with ethnic minority groups, some tolerance of criticism, an easing of media controls, the release of about 200 political prisoners and more communication with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,

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Myanmar Parliament passes Bill allowing peaceful protests

myanmar pro-democracy leader aung san suu Kyi speaking at a fair in yangon recently. ms suu Kyi has expressed her intention to run for Parliament in the coming by-elections. reuters

freed last year from 15 years of house arrest. In a landmark development, Ms Suu Kyi has expressed her intention to run for Parliament in coming by-elections, a decision that was expected after her party, National League for Democracy, decided last week to rejoin mainstream politics. In recognition of the promising reforms, South-east Asian leaders last week approved of Myanmar as chairman of the Association

of South-east Asian Nations in 2014, paving the way for a more influential role. Myanmar also won a powerful endorsement last Friday when US President Barack Obama announced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would visit the resource-rich country, the highest-ranking American to do so in more than 50 years. Washington has, however, said it wants to see more reforms before considering

lifting economic sanctions imposed in response to rights abuses by its former military leaders. Mr Kyaw Hsan, Myanmars Information and Culture Minister, told reporters last week that more reforms were in store. We are hoping for a more open country with a thriving democracy and one that is active in the local, regional and international arena.
ageNcies

najib lifts three security laws, may end ban on students in politics
KUALA LUMPUR Prime Minister Najib Razak received cheers in Malaysias Parliament yesterday as he moved to show the sincerity of his governments promise of reforms. Mr Najib lifted three security Acts the 1966 Emergency proclamation in Sarawak; the May 13, 1969 Emergency proclamation; and the 1977 Kelantan Emergency proclamation as Malaysia was not in any state of emergency and the Acts were no longer necessary. The repeal of the three proclamations is the second phase of Putrajayas Political Transformation Plan. The first phase, announced on Sept 15, saw the repeal of the Restricted Residences Act and Banishment Act. Mr Najib said the repeal of the proclamations was a brave step similar to those taken by previous federal governments to ensure peace and shows we are in a functioning democracy. The Prime Minister also made the surprise announcement that he plans to lift a ban on student participation in politics, which was greeted with loud cheers from the House and lawmakers banging on their tables in a show of support. At issue is the controversial Section 15 of the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA). Once amended, students above the age of 21 will no longer be barred from being active members of political parties. The government believes in the maturity and intelligence of our university students, he told the House. This decision is a result of the governments concern and understanding of the peoples aspirations, and how we have listened to their wishes. This is not merely cheap rhetoric or tales from merchants of dreams ... This is the result of political will and moral bravery. Mr Najib stressed, however, that politics would still be banned from university campuses under the amended law. The Prime Ministers good day in Parliament came a day after his new Peaceful Assembly Bill was tabled, with Opposition lawmakers and civil society groups claiming it would be more repressive than previous laws on public assembly. The new Bill will forbid street demonstrations such as the Bersih rally on July 9 this year. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that Opposition MPs will oppose the Bill during debates in the House. But Mr Najib rubbished accusations that the new Bill is repressive and instead declared it a revolutionary law and a giant leap towards improving individual freedom. He pointed out that the new legislation will curb police powers and punitive action against protestors will be reduced to only fines instead of jail sentences.
the malaysiaN iNsider

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REGISTER AT PERKS.MOCCA.COM
CANBERRA A healthy eight-month-old foetus was accidentally terminated in an Australian hospital after medical staff mistook him for his sick twin, the Herald Sun newspaper reported yesterday. The mother had decided to abort one of the twin boys on medical advice after learning he had a congenital heart defect. But on Tuesday, the wrong baby was

12

Aussie hospital aborts wrong 8-month-old twin

injected, terminating the healthy pregnancy. The mother then had an emergency caesarean section and the sick child was also terminated in a three-hour operation. The Royal Womens Hospital in Melbourne would not confirm details, but apologised for the distressing clinical accident and launched a full investigation. This is a terrible tragedy and the hospital is deeply sorry for the loss suffered by the patient and her family, the hospital said. A friend of the mother said that she was struggling to cope with the error. Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson had never heard of a mistake like it. It would have been complicated; however, that doesnt mean the greatest care shouldnt still be taken, she said. aP

perk up with great deals

Five modelling agencies may appeal against fines

SINGAPORE Five of the 10 modelling agencies fined this week by the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) for price-fixing are considering an appeal against the decision. Bees Work Casting, Diva Models, Impact Studio, Looque Models Singapore and Quest Model Management said in an email statement that they were disappointed with the decision of the CCS. Their coming together to form the Association of Modelling Industry Professionals (AMIP) in early 2005 was to uplift and upgrade the image and professionalism of the modelling industry, they said. The CCS had said in its ruling that the forming of the AMIP was part of the agencies attempt to fix prices. Our hope was that, through the AMIP, we would be able to collectively address and resolve the concerns and problems that beset the modelling industry and to provide a measure of discipline, regulation and professionalism to the industry, the five agencies said in a statement. In this regard, it is regrettable that whilst the actions of the AMIP had managed to bring local wages for models closer in-line with regional rates, this seems to have brought us into legal difficulty. The competition watchdog on Wednesday slapped 10 modelling agencies with fines ranging from S$3,000 to S$132,000. The five agencies said that they would be conferring with their legal counsel whether to appeal against the decision. T oday understands that the AMIP has been inactive since 2006.
eStHer NG

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nigeria, Indonesia have worlds highest deforestation rates

SINGAPORE Nigeria, Indonesia and North Korea have the worlds highest rates of deforestation while China and the United States, the top two greenhouse gas polluters, have the lowest, a global ranking released yesterday shows. Growing demand for food and biofuels, rising populations, poverty and corruption is driving deforestation in many developing countries, said risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft, which compiled an index for 180 countries. The company used the latest data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to calculate changes in the extent of overall forest cover and in primary and planted forests between 2005 and 2010. Those at the top are ranked extreme risk. Australia is ranked 10th and listed as high risk, while India, Vietnam and Spain are at the bottom, with low risk. Brazil is ranked No 8. Extreme-risk countries are losing plant and animal species that help provide benefits such as clean air from forests, watersheds for rivers and mangroves that protect coastlines, services that help underpin economies. Deforestation can also hamper efforts for a country to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions as forests play key role in mitigating global climate change through carbon sequestration, said Maplecroft analyst Arianna Granziera. Forests soak up and lock away large amounts of carbon dioxide, helping to act as a brake on climate change. Yet deforestation is disrupting this cycle and is responsible for at least 10 per cent of mankinds annual greenhouse gas pollution. The index comes days before the

CouNtries with the hiGhest deForestatioN rates

raNk CouNtry ratiNG

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Nigeria indonesia North korea bolivia papua New Guinea dr Congo Nicaragua brazil Cambodia australia

extreme extreme extreme extreme extreme extreme extreme extreme extreme high

start of major United Nations-led climate talks in South Africa in which delegates are expected to discuss ways to try to curb emissions from deforestation. Indonesia is losing about 1 million hectares of forest annually about 13 times the size of Singapore with palm oil expansion accounting for about 16 per cent of deforestation, Maplecroft said. In May, Jakarta began a two-year moratorium on issuing new licences to clear primary forests and peatlands and will conduct regular satellite surveillance to monitor the ban. Nigeria, ranked first in the index, lost just over 2 million hectares of forest annually between 2005 and 2010, driven by agricultural expansion, logging and infrastructure development. While China was the best performer because of aggressive protection laws and replanting schemes, it was driving deforestation in other countries, Ms Granziera said. Chinas demand for wood is fuelling increasing imports, much of which comes from the USA and Canada, she said. reuters

land cleared for a plantation in riau, indonesia. bloomberG

brazil risks loss oF Forest area equal to GermaNy, italy aNd austria

An area of forest equal to Germany, Italy and Austria combined could be lost forever if Brazils Senate approves new laws on land clearance to be voted on within days, conservationists warned on Wednesday. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has declined steadily since 2004, falling to 2.2 million hectares annually between 2005 and 2010, thanks to improved satellite monitoring and tougher enforcement. But green groups worry changes to national forest protection laws awaiting Senate approval could ease restrictions on

the amount of rainforest farmers can clear and open up vast swathes of the worlds biggest rainforest to uses such as cattle ranching and soy production. there have already been signs of a resurgence of logging in several areas. According to the World Wildlife Fund, Brazils efforts to position itself as a global environmental leader risk being severely damaged before it hosts the United nations Conference on Sustainable Development known as Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro in June next year. the daily teleGraph

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DISCOVERING THE
1

POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY
4

Brought to you by

1. The speakers sharing their photography tips and experiences of using Canon PowerShot cameras during the Q&A segment. 2. Mr Andrew Koh (right), Canon Singapores Senior Director and General Manager of Consumer Imaging and Information Products Division, congratulating Mr Gabriel Lim for winning the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS. 3. Resident photography instructor with Canon Singapore and Assistant Manager for Canon Imaging Academy Mr Jino Lee giving photography tips to a participant. 4. Participants waiting in line to register for the event. 5. An overview of the seminar held at Suntec City Malls Level 1 Entertainment Centre Atrium.

BACK for the fifth year, Canons Power In Your Hands compact camera seminar saw more than 300 people attending the event last weekend at Suntec City Malls Level 1 Entertainment Centre Atrium. Due to overwhelming response from previous years, Canon extended this years event by one day. Mr Andrew Koh, Senior Director and General Manager of Consumer Imaging and Information Products Division, Canon Singapore, said: The PowerShot series has the compact form factor, easy-to-use functions of an IXUS and the more advanced image-capturing features of an EOS. This seminar demonstrates the PowerShot cameras versatile capabilities and encourages users to make the most of them. On each of the two days, MediaCorp celebrities Nat Ho, Dasmond Koh and DJ Pei Fen took to the stage to share their travel photographs and experiences using the Canon PowerShot cameras, including the G12, S95, SX230 HS and SX40 HS. They also dished out

travel tips on how to use the cameras features to enhance their photos as well as overcome challenges when taking travel photographs. Participant Vanessa Wong found the seminar interesting as she loves travelling and taking photographs of her holidays. The travel pictures featured were inspiring. I was impressed by what the PowerShot compact cameras can achieve, said Ms Wong. In addition, professional photographers Jimmy Fok and Jino Lee shared their technical expertise on how to achieve better photo quality, the art of framing and composition, and shooting under low-light conditions. Participant Ms Lay, who has attended several Canon seminars before, felt that the tips were concise. I always learn new things each time, she said. Ms Lay also managed to get some extra tips from Jimmy Fok about using the slow flash sync function on her Canon S95. It allows you to take more details in the background and gives some sense of a better picture, she said. 11

The session ended with a question-andanswer session followed by a lucky draw for a Canon PowerShot SX230 HS. Mr Gabriel Lim, who was one of the two winners, was thrilled with his prize. He said: Some of the presenters talked about the different cameras features. Now that I have won the new camera, I cant wait to try it out. Mr Koh added: With 14x optical zoom, an embedded GPS unit and Canons latest High Sensitivity system, the PowerShot SX230 HS in particular is an ideal face for this roadshow as a powerful travel companion, providing users with maximum reach and retaining a high standard of image quality within a compact package. After having their fill of the delicious buffet dinner, the participants were divided into groups for the optional walk to the Helix Bridge. The mini expedition allowed them to shoot photos and enjoy the festive night lights of the beautiful Marina Bay area. For more information, visit www.canon.com.sg. NICOLETTE ONG 10

6. MediaCorp celebrities Nat Ho and DJ Pei Fen sharing their holiday pictures and dishing out travel photography tips. 7. Mr Jimmy Fok (left) offering guidance to a participant. 8. The Selphy shoot and print counter at the roadshow. 9. Seminar participants listening attentively to the speakers presentations and taking pictures of the pointers and photographs flashed on screen. 10.Pei Fen and the participants stroll along the Helix Bridge. 11.The five speakers with Canon Singapores Senior Director and General Manager of Consumer Imaging and Information Products Division Mr Andrew Koh (third from left) and Canon Singapores Assistant Director Consumer Imaging Products Marketing Division Mr Edwin Teoh (fourth from left).

today Friday November 25, 2011

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GET THE laTEsT nEws
TwiTTEr.com/ TodayonlinE LONDON Allowing children to be picky eaters could make them more prone to allergies later in life, scientists have warned. Three large studies are under way at Kings College London and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and Duke University in the United States, to determine the best way of protecting against harmful reactions to food. The old idea of telling mothers to avoid high-risk foods during pregnancy and while breastfeeding to protect their babies from potentially dangerous reactions is possibly achieving the reverse of our intentions,

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Children who are picky eaters develop allergies

Professor Gideon Lack of Kings College told the Nature journal. A 2008 study which Prof Lack co-authored suggested exactly the opposite, showing that Jewish children in Britain are 10 times more likely to have a peanut allergy than those living in Israel, who eat more foods containing peanuts. The following year, the UK Department of Health revised its guidelines on allergies to clarify that there is not enough evidence to prove a benefit of restricting the diet of either mother or child from pregnancy to infancy.
the daily telegraph

A spoon of honey a night keeps you fit to fight

LONDON Three of Britains Olympic canoeists have introduced an ultra-potent secret ingredient to their diet to boost their training: A spoonful of honey. Jon Schofield, Liam Heath and Rachel Cawthorn are testing the honey as part of their preparations for the London Games next year. The idea is that the honey could help fat burning and post-training recuperation as it fuels the bodys nightly repair and recovery processes. According to researchers, the body burns more fat during the first four hours of sleep than it does during any other activity, including exercise. But foods rich in fructose, such as honey and dried fruits, may prolong the process if eaten before bed. Schofield, 26, the European Champion and World Cup-winning sprint canoeist, said: Our training schedule is now in full swing and it will continue to gather momentum over the next few months. We are always keen to try any new physical or dietary technique to help us in this process, and a tablespoon of honey each day is hardly an additional chore. Nutritionist Clare Shepherd said: Honey is historically well-known for its many medicinal and unique healing properties. Research appears to suggest that it may also aid weight control, which even without extensive clinical trials, should certainly be considered an additional potential benefit of good quality honey. There is definitely little doubt that eating honey can be good for you, and that these athletes will only benefit from its use in their preparations for the 2012 Olympics. Natural honey also contains a wide variety of vitamins, and minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and zinc, antioxidants and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
the daily telegraph

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Comment&analysis
beN blaNd

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Vietnam under economic strain

deep-seated problems, overlooked by investors in boom years, have moved into focus while new ones arise
chooled in the arts of Marxist-Leninist political discipline, Vietnams communist rulers do not usually air their dirty linen in public. But, at a government forum on the countrys deepening economic crisis in Hanoi last month, tempers boiled over. When one former central bank governor attempted to blame the countrys woes on developed world governments captured by greedy financial institutions, he received a finger-wagging rebuke. Mr Tran Xuan Gia, a steely former Investment Minister, urged Vietnams leaders to look inward to understand why their country suffers from the highest inflation rate in Asia. He warned that the country was on the verge of a debt crisis and urged the government to reform and sell off inefficient stateowned companies as soon as possible. Just five years ago, Vietnam was the darling of foreign investors in search of the next hot emerging market after China, where Soviet-style stagnation had been transformed into an economic boom by a reforming Communist party. Manufacturers from United States chipmaker Intel to Canon, the Japanese electronics group, set up shop, enticed by the large, cheap labour force in a nation of nearly 90 million people. Dozens of South Korean and Taiwanese contract manufacturers, making everything from wooden furniture to garments, migrated from southern China, where wages are three times higher. By last year, Vietnam was the biggest source of footwear for Nike, the global sports brand. At the same time, with one of the fastest-growing middle classes in Asia, Vietnam attracted a growing number of international portfolio investors and consumer brands keen to profit from surging domestic demand in this increasingly status-conscious country. But the Bentleys, iPhones and Louis Vuitton bags on show in central Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, while a sign of the countrys remarkable economic success, also hint at deeper, structural imbalances. The governments focus on breakneck growth at the expense of economic stability has led to growing inequality, soaring inflation, a lack of confidence in the currency and fears of a banking crisis. Small PlaSterS, mUCH bleediNG Domestic overheating, coupled with the deterioration of the global economy, has forced many investors, foreign and Vietnamese, to revise their view of the countrys prospects. Deep-seated problems, such as corruption, poor education and infrastructure bottlenecks all often overlooked by

Factory workers leaving thang long industrial park at the end of their shift. High inflation has led to strikes this year and factories struggling to find workers. bloomberG

investors in the boom years have moved into sharp focus. And with inflation driving wages higher but labour skills not advancing as quickly, fresh questions are arising. Among them is whether Vietnams Communist party can force through painful reforms needed to ensure they avoid the middle-income trap ensnaring the likes of Malaysia and Thailand, whose economies are a source of cheap labour but not yet makers of higher-value products. To many analysts, Vietnam serves as a warning of the pitfalls facing the region, even as Europe and the US struggle with their own economic crises. The Asian Development Bank has warned that Asias rise is not preordained and that nations such as Vietnam, as well as China, will need to take tough political choices. The Vietnamese government is trying to use small plasters to stem a lot of bleeding, says one senior Asian diplomat in Hanoi. But in an increasingly competitive world, the risk is that investors just vote with their feet and go elsewhere. That would further deplete already modest state coffers and create a significant jobs shortfall in a country where the governments legitimacy derives from its ability to ensure employment for the fastexpanding workforce. A bigger question is whether authoritarian regimes can develop high-income economies while sustaining a political system that curtails public debate and fails to promote the establishment of the strong, independent institutions needed to combat corruption and wasteful state spending. The countrys potential as a leading Asian manufacturing hub and its pitfalls can be seen at Thang Long Industrial Park, built on paddy fields outside Hanoi by Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo and its Vietnamese state-owned partner. Opened in 2000, it quickly attracted Japanese companies keen to capitalise on cheap labour and develop an alternative production base to China, increasingly prone to rising wages and out-

breaks of nationalistic hostility. The industrial park was full by 2009, with 55,000 people working for 95 mostly Japanese companies: Assembling printers for Canon, refrigerators for Panasonic and the wing flaps for Boeing 737s. But persistently high inflation, today more than 20 per cent year-on-year, is taking its toll in Thang Long and other industrial zones across Vietnam. At least 10 of the manufacturers at the park have been hit by wildcat strikes this year, according to Mr Tomoyasu Shimizu, its general manager, as migrant workers struggle to survive on wages as low as 2 million dong (S$124) a month. Operating on slim margins, many factories are reluctant to boost wages and are struggling to find workers. On the sites notice board, Canon is offering inducements such as 5kg of free rice a month and cheap accommodation. This is in addition to monthly wages of 2.9 million dong and a twice-yearly pay rise. ForCed to CloSe Difficulties are in evidence across the country. A series of interest rate hikes, started this year as the government belatedly moved to get a grip on monetary policy, has delivered a hard blow to the economy. The key re-financing rate stands today at 15 per cent. Thousands of businesses have been forced to close, record numbers of strikes have broken out and bad debts have soared. Enquiries from new foreign investors have slowed dramatically, according to lawyers and consultants. Gross domestic product, which rose an average 8.1 per cent a year from 2003 to 2007, is forecast to slow to 6 per cent in the five-year period to next year, according to the World Bank. The grim global economic picture only adds to the problems of a country heavily dependent on the export of garments, shoes and commodities such as rice and coffee. But, as Mr Tran, the former minister, made clear, officials cannot simply export the blame. The dramatic inflation problem owes

much to a drive to breed a stable of industrial national champions that resulted in a large expansion in credit, much of it channelled to wasteful state-owned enterprises and favoured private businesses. In the past five years, total credit in the economy has doubled to 120 per cent of GDP. Rising prices have resulted, in effect, in inflation taxing of the population, says Mr Dominic Mellor of the ADB in Hanoi. Food prices rose 32 per cent in the 10 months to October. High inflation has also undermined confidence in the dong, which is pegged to the US dollar and has been regularly devalued in recent years to ease pressure on the governments limited foreign exchange reserves. The currencys weakness has driven a flight to gold and dollars. Purchases of gold by the Vietnamese are among the worlds highest per head. This has helped the Vietnamese to weather the recent storm, thanks to the long-term gold bull run, but puts further downward pressure on the dong. SloWed reFormS This has all appeared to overwhelm the government of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the countrys ruling cadre most of whom are alumni of Soviet-era institutions. Rather than pursuing further reforms, they have resorted to knee-jerk, backward-looking measures, including a crackdown on free speech, curbs on the import of luxury goods and restrictions on visas for foreign workers. The pace of reform has slowed, says Mr Ben Bingham, who recently left Vietnam after four years as the International Monetary Funds senior representative. The government has found the (economic) environment more difficult to manage (since joining the World Trade Organisation in 2007) than it imagined. Social discontent appears to be on the rise, with land protests becoming common in Hanoi, as hard-up farmers complain that they have been short-changed by officials selling their land to well-connected businesses on the cheap. Some Vietnamese officials have conceded to foreign diplomats that they are worried about an Arab Spring-type rising breaking out. Diplomats say this is likely to be little more than an attempt to justify a continuing crackdown on human rights. Corruption is a serious problem, though the benefits are shared more equally than in Arab dictatorships toppled this year. Graft and weak governance remain significant obstacles for investors, particularly since the American and British governments began strict enforcement of laws against bribing overseas officials. >> CoNtiNUed oN PaGe 20

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20

Vietnam under economic strain

>> CoNtiNued From Page 18 Navigating Vietnams complex, slow and often corrupt bureaucracy is a demanding task. Multinationals such as Indias Tata Steel and Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone producer, have seen their high-profile manufacturing investments in Vietnam delayed by red tape and political infighting. LitmuS teSt The litmus test for Vietnam will be whether the government can finally reform the wasteful state-owned enterprises that dominate the economy. The issue came to a head last year, with the near collapse of Vinashin, a heavily indebted state-owned shipbuilder. Ms Johanna Chua, an economist at Citigroup in Hong Kong, believes the government will disappoint investors on this front. Despite escalating talk of divestment (of state-owned enterprises) and restructuring, we think strong vested interests and a weak global market backdrop next year will likely slow reforms, she wrote in a recent note to clients. Mr Jonathan Pincus, who heads Harvard Universitys economics teaching programme in Ho Chi Minh City, believes that without urgently increasing the quality of education and infrastructure and cutting inefficient public spending Vietnam will find it impossible to become an East Asian tiger like South Korea or Taiwan rather than a flagging crony capitalist state. Vietnam is replicating the south-east Asian model of inward-looking conglomerates profiting from speculation and government favours like Thailand and Indonesia in the 1980s, he says. Mr Pincus believes the problems have become so entrenched that something big has to change if Vietnam is to live up to its huge potential. The government is running out of scope for improvising and some hard decisions will have to be made, he says. There will be political repercussions. But theyve done it before, doing things that are politically difficult because their backs are against the wall.
tHe FiNaNCiaL timeS Limited

egypts doomed election

the rules virtually guarantee the new Parliament wont reflect the peoples votes
aNdreW S reyNoLdS

Ben Bland is the FTs Vietnam correspondent.

gypt, the largest and most important country to overthrow its government during the Arab Spring, is careening towards a disastrous parliamentary election that begins on Nov 28 and could bring the country to the brink of civil war. As protesters fill Tahrir Square once again and violence spreads throughout Cairo, the military governments legitimacy is becoming even more tenuous. The announcement on Tuesday of a National Salvation Government may stem the violence for now but the coming vote will not lead to a stable democracy. The election is likely to fail, not because of vote-stealing or violence, but because the rules cobbled together by Egypts military leaders virtually guarantee that the Parliament elected will not reflect the votes of the Egyptian people. While advising civil society groups and political parties on election issues earlier this year in Cairo, I found that the voices of Egyptians who were at the forefront of the revolution were stifled during the secretive election-planning process. On countless occasions, political parties went to the ruling military council to object to drafts of the electoral law and were brushed off with piecemeal changes. Civic groups concerned about the representation of women and minorities were not even given a seat at the table. And the United Nations, which played a major role in assisting Tunisia with its election, was denied access to election planners in Cairo. The result is an election that will overrepresent the larger parties while shutting out smaller ones, marginalise Coptic Christians and progressives, and consign millions of Egyptians to voting for losers through an overly complicated process that combines proportional representation with majoritarianism and an antiquated quota system. One-third of the 498 seats in Parliament will be chosen from districts in which the winners must get a majority of the vote (in a run-off if necessary). In these districts, name recognition gives established power brokers local strongmen who held sway before the revolution the upper hand.

an egyptian soldier placing a barbed wire barricade near tahrir Square in Cairo yesterday. aP

Even if most of the elected candidates are not high-ranking apparatchiks of the old regime or remnants, as Egyptians call them many are likely to have been cogs in the corrupt machine that ruled Egypt for decades. Two-thirds of the seats will be contested in proportional representation districts, where voters select among party candidate lists and each party win seats in proportion to its share of votes. Unlike in Tunisia, which successfully used a simple across-the-board proportional system to include many voices in the countrys legislative assembly, Egypts multilayered system is likely to marginalise new progressive, secular and liberal groups that lack grassroots networks across the country. The sidelining of smaller Islamic and secular parties would damage citizens faith in the democratic process, and the exclusion of the minority Coptic Christians from significant representation in Parliament could be catastrophic. Copts are unlikely to vote for Islamic parties and, after Octobers violent street battles between Christian demonstrators and the military, they have lost faith in old liberal movements like the Wafd Party. They are instead coalescing around niche parties like the Justice Party and the Free Egyptians. But these groups are polling at less than 5 per cent not enough to win more than a handful of seats. And if Copts are shut out of Parliament, they are also likely to be absent from the committee which will draw up the new Egyptian constitution. The military has also retained an anachronistic quota, reserving at least half of the

new Parliament for workers and farmers, a rule that has been used to manipulate election results in Egypt since the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser. In practice, this means that the new progressive parties that are lucky enough to pick up a few seats may not be able to fill those seats with the young leaders who organised the Tahrir Square protests in February. Instead, many of the founders of those parties will be leapfrogged so workers or farmers who were required to be placed on the partys list can get into Parliament. The threat of electoral defeat has even made some liberals sympathetic to the militarys attempt to dominate the constitution-writing process. They are so fearful of Muslim Brotherhood dominance that they would rather have secular strongmen in control than democratically elected Islamists. It may be true that the military wants an impotent new Parliament, but when liberals resort to supporting the tools of dictators, the future is bleak. What Egypt desperately needs is an election and a resulting Parliament that are seen to be fair and inclusive. Under the rules the military has imposed, the chances of that happening are slim. If voters voices are not heard in their first post-revolutionary election, the crisis unleashed by democratic failure in Egypt will have consequences reaching far beyond the Arab world. tHe NeW yorK timeS Andrew S Reynolds is an associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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Dangers on the horizon for china

Grain, oil and finance present a triple threat, says Chinese economist david Li daokui
GraCe SeGraN

y all accounts, the Chinese economy is thriving. While America and Europe continue to struggle with debt and unemployment, China is moving from strength to strength. Still, Chinese economists and policymakers are looking ahead to see what problems China may be facing in the not-toodistant future and, more importantly, how to prevent or mitigate them. For a start, Professor David Li Daokui (picture), a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Peoples Bank of China and the director of the Center for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University, believes that China is heading into a major grain shortage. China already has a very limited amount of per capita arable land, he told INSEAD Knowledge. However, as China industrialises and urbanises, labour costs are rising quickly. These costs will be capitalised into the price of agricultural products such as grain. The Chinese consume grain in very large quantities not just whole grains but also as raw materials for the production of other food items. Together, these factors are leading to a perfect storm that will result in an increased demand for grain. The increase in demand for grain is a global problem, according to Prof Li. It would only take one bad crop to throw the world into a major food shortage. We can imagine that, with the frequency and severity of natural disasters in China as well as in other parts of the world, the overall global grain output will be decreased, which will pose a potentially grave threat to grain security, leading to worldwide food shortages and resulting in global inflation in food prices, he says. It is important for China to think carefully about its agricultural strategy. Prof Li recommends that the Chinese government takes measures to increase the scale of grain production by investing in agricultural technology. He also suggests that China invests in grain production overseas. He opines: This will not only work towards Chinas self-interest but will also contribute to helping to solve the wider global grain supply problem. oiL marKet FLUCtUatioNS Prof Li predicts that, like grain, there could be a global shortage of oil that could adversely affect Chinas development. However, he points out that oil and grain are different kinds of resources. The risks associated with oil and grain are different, as the geographical supply of oil is relatively concentrated, he says. Oil responds much more dramatically to changes in the global economy. The downturn in the European and American economies has depressed the price of oil. However, even a small economic recovery could cause an upward surge in oil prices. Since China is dependent on external oil supplies, a dramatic increase in oil prices

bLoomberG

could be devastating to the Chinese economy. In Prof Lis view, China must be prepared for these possible fluctuations by building a domestic supply of crude oil equivalent to three to six months of domestic consumption. China should also diversify risk factors by establishing long-term contracts with countries that supply oil and begin to rely on other energy sources. eXCeSS CaSH SUPPLy Over the past three decades, China has experienced a steady increase in its supply of money. It now has an overall money supply of US$10.5 trillion (S$13.7 trillion), which is higher than that of the United States and is equivalent to nearly double its gross domestic product. Prof Li explains that this excessive circulation of cash presents many risks for the Chinese economy. Without viable options to invest this money, asset price bubbles could develop and the prices of certain assets could climb. We saw this in the housing market bubble in the US ... When asset prices reached unsustainable levels, the bubble burst, causing a nationwide economic meltdown. Prof Li suggests that China shifts its monetary policy to reduce the amount of money circulating in the economy. He says: China should tighten its supervision on financial institutions to control systemic financial risks in this sector and prevent excessive price increases. China could also let excess capital flow out of the country, by allowing companies and individuals to convert their yuan into other currencies. Eventually, these measures should facilitate a two-way flow of capital, allowing China to regulate the flow of money into and out of the country. On the whole, the Chinese economy is in good health, Prof Li asserts. Still, it is vitally important not to underestimate the risks that, if left unchecked, could devastate China and undo years of economic progress. This article first appeared in the latest issue of INSEAD Knowledge. David Li Daokui, who received his doctorate in economics from Harvard University, is Mansfield Freeman Professor of Economics and part of a trio to replace Fan Gang as academic members to the Chinese central banks monetary policy committee.

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According to the Heritage Foundation, the typical poor household has roughly 14 of 30 amenities. In other words, how hard can things be if you have a refrigerator, air-conditioner, coffee maker, cellphone and other stuff? The rankings ignore the fact that many of these are requisites of modern life, and that things increasingly out of reach for the poor and near poor education, health care, child care, housing and utilities are the true determinants of a good, upwardly mobile life.
Job seekers line up at the entrance of a job expo in California earlier this year. one in three americans is currently said to be near poor. bloomberg

What it means to be near poor in america

hat is it like to be poor? Thankfully, most Americans do not know, at least not firsthand. And times are tough for the middle class. But everyone needs to recognise a chilling reality: One in three Americans 100 million people is either poor or perilously close to it. The Times Mr Jason DeParle, Mr Robert Gebeloff and Ms Sabrina Tavernise reported recently on Census data showing that 49.1 million Americans are below the poverty line in general, US$24,343 (S$31,770) for a family of four. An additional 51 million are in the next category, which they termed near poor with incomes less than 50 per cent above the poverty line. As for all of that inspirational, up-by-their-bootstrap talk you hear on the Republican campaign trail, more than half of the near poor in the new tally actually fell into that group from higher income levels as their resources were sapped by medical expenses, taxes, workrelated costs and other unavoidable outlays. The worst downturn since the Great Depression is only part of the problem. Before that, living standards were already being eroded by stagnating wages and tax and economic policies that favoured the wealthy. Asked about the new Census data, Mr Robert Rector, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told The Times that the emotionally charged terms poor or near poor clearly suggest to most people a level of material hardship that doesnt exist. Heritage has its own, very different ranking system, based on households amenities. According to that, the typical poor household has roughly 14 of 30 amenities. In other words, how hard can things be if you have a refrigerator, air-conditioner, coffee maker, cellphone and

other stuff? The rankings ignore the fact that many of these are requisites of modern life and that things increasingly out of reach for the poor and near poor education, health care, child care, housing and utilities are the true determinants of a good, upwardly mobile life. Government surveys analysed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicate that last year, just over half of the countrys nearly 17 million poor children lived in households that reported at least one of four major hardships: Hunger, overcrowding, failure to pay the rent or mortgage on time or failure to seek needed medical care. A good education is also increasingly out of reach. A study by Ms Martha Bailey, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, showed that the difference in college-graduation rates between the rich and poor has widened by more than 50 per cent since the 1990s. There is also a growing outof-sight-out-of-mind problem. A study, by Mr Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford, shows that Americans are increasingly living in areas that are either poor or affluent. The isolation of the prosperous, he said, threatens their support for public schools, parks, mass transit and other investments that benefit broader society. The poor do without, and the near poor, at best, live from pay cheque to pay cheque. Most Americans dont know what that is like, but unless the nation reverses direction, more are going to find out. the New york times
editorial

This is excerpted from an editorial, The Poor, the Near Poor and You, that ran in The New York Times.

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comment&analysis
that we are living in an unusually peaceful time may strike you as somewhere between hallucinatory and obscene. Still, even in a 20th century notorious for world war and genocide, only around 3 per cent of humans died from such man-made catastrophes. In contrast, a study of NativeAmerican skeletons from hunter-gatherer societies found that some 13 per cent had died of trauma. And in the 17th century, the Thirty Years War reduced Germanys population by as much as one-third. Wars make headlines, but there are fewer conflicts today, and they typically do not kill as many people. Many scholars have made that point, most notably Mr Joshua S Goldstein in his recent book Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide. Goldstein also argues that it is a myth that civilians are more likely to die in modern wars. Look also at homicide rates, which are now far lower than in previous centuries. The murder rate in Britain seems to have fallen by more than 90 per cent since the 14th century. Then there are the myriad forms of violence that were once the banal backdrop of daily life. One game in feudal Europe involved men competing to head-butt to death a cat that had been nailed alive to a post. One reason this was considered so entertaining: The possibility that it would claw out a competitors eye.

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are we getting nicer?

NicHolaS d KriStoF

t is pretty easy to conclude that the world is spinning down the toilet. So let me be contrary and offer a reason to be grateful this Thanksgiving. Despite the gloomy mood, the historical backdrop is stunning progress in human decency over recent centuries. War is declining, and humanity is becoming less violent, less racist and less sexist and this moral progress has accelerated in recent decades. To put it bluntly, we humans seem to be getting nicer. That is the central theme of an astonishingly good book just published by Mr Steven Pinker, a psychology professor at Harvard. It is called The Better Angels of Our Nature, and it is my bet to win the next Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Today we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species existence, Mr Pinker writes, and he describes this decline in violence as possibly the most important thing that has ever happened in human history. He acknowledges: In a century that began with 9/11, Iraq and Darfur, the claim

Think of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. One academic study found that modern childrens television programmes have 4.8 violent scenes per hour, compared with nursery rhymes with 52.2. The decline in brutality is true of other cultures as well. When I learned Chinese, I was startled to encounter ideographs like the one of a knife next to a nose: Pronounced yi, it means cutting off a nose as punishment. That is one Chinese character that students no longer study. Mr Pinkers book rang true to me partly because I often report on genocide and human rights abuses. I was aghast that Darfur did not prompt more of an international response from Western governments, but I was awed by the way American university students protested on behalf of a people who lived half a world away. That reflects a larger truth: There is global consensus today that slaughtering civilians is an outrage. Governments may still engage in mass atrocities, but now they hire lobbyists and public relations firms to sanitise the mess. In contrast, until modern times, genocide was simply a way of waging war. The Bible repeatedly describes God as masterminding genocide (thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth Deuteronomy 20:16), and European-Americans saw nothing offensive

about exterminating Native Americans. One of my heroes, former American President Theodore Roosevelt, later a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was unapologetic: I dont go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of 10 are, and I shouldnt like to inquire too closely in the case of the tenth. The pace of moral progress has accelerated in the last few decades. Mr Pinker notes that on issues such as civil rights, the role of women, equality for gays, beating of children and treatment of animals, the attitudes of conservatives have followed the trajectory of liberals, with the result that todays conservatives are more liberal than yesterdays liberals. The reasons for these advances are complex but may have to do with the rise of education, the decline of chauvinism and a growing willingness to put ourselves in the shoes (increasingly, even hooves) of others. Granted, the world still faces brutality and cruelty. That is what I write about the rest of the year! But let us pause for a moment to acknowledge remarkable progress and give thanks for the human capacity for compassion and moral growth.
tHe NeW yorK timeS

Nicholas D Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

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Voices
T oday
we set you thinking todayonline.com
Publisher Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Editor-At-Large Night Editor Digital Media Editor News Editor Voices Editor Foreign Editor Sports Editor Features Editor Special Projects Editor Chief Sub-Editor Senior Product Manager Patrick Yong Walter Fernandez Richard J Valladares Yvonne Lim Conrad Raj Razali Abdullah Edric Sng Loh Chee Kong Derrick A Paulo Trixia Carungcong Leonard Thomas Phin Wong Don Ong Bachan Singh Joni Ng

TODAY FRiDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2011

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have your say email your letters to voices@mediacorp.com.sg join the community www.todayonline.com/voices

VOiCES ONLiNE
No country can overhaul its entire national team within a few months. Now that the younger ones have proven their capabilities in our national colours, i am sure they will form the core of the Lions in the near future ... Who says the outlook for Singapore football is bleak? From Melvin Tan
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Funding a key hurdle to Lions success

George Quek
ny fan would be disappointed when his team is knocked out of the qualifying stages of the World Cup. But I also believe that a real football fan would examine the issue objectively and not simply call for the head coaches to be removed, as Mr Marcus Tan suggested in his letter Enough is enough, FAS should act drastically (Nov 18). Let us explore three issues: The state of Singapore football, relative to that of our closest rivals; our potential and goals in the next five years; and the challenges we are facing. In terms of current standards, the quality of our players is comparable to those of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Like Indonesia and Thailand, Singapore qualified for the third round of Asias World Cup qualifiers. Hence, how can some critics claim that our standard is below that of these countries? Since the launch last year of the Football Association of Singapores five-year plan, we have been moving in the right direction, toward becoming a top Asian team in the near future. For instance, FAS became the first Asian country to ink a Memorandum of Understanding with the Japan Football Association, a positive development for Singapore, especially in coaching, as JFA has seconded to FAS a top-quality, renowned youth coach in Takuma Koga. Under his charge, our national Under-16 team finished as runners-up in the Lion City Cup, losing the final to CR Flamengo only on penalties. The FAS should bring in more of such foreign coaches who could share their experience and expertise with our local coaches.

i SAY

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Fans have been disappointed by singapores performances in the World cup Asian qualifiers and the seA Games. What will it take for the Lions to succeed in the continent? A new head coach? More funding? Tune in to TalkBack on 938Live from 8.15am to 8.45am today. call us at 6691 1938 and share your views.

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TwiTTEr.com/ TodayonlinE

Among the many challenges facing Singapore football, and other sports in general, the trickiest has to be the lack of funds. Many fans are wondering why FAS did not bring in the likes of Zico and Jose Antonio Camacho to coach the Lions. The hard truth is that we lack the financial muscle to attract these coaches. Otherwise, why did FAS technical director Slobodan Pavkovic double as head coach of our South-east Asian Games team? Like other fans, I believe the technical director should focus on his core duties, which include youth development, and not lead a national age-group. However, I am unsure if FAS was able to afford hiring another coach just to lead the SEA Games team. In this regard, I urge genuine fans to do something more constructive instead of baying for the blood of our national coach. Why not establish a campaign to encourage and convince public-listed companies to support local football? According to its website, FAS annual income and, consequently, its expenditure fell from S$18.4 million in 2008 to S$15.9 million last year. How will our players gain the level of support needed to compete against teams such as Australia and Japan? The likes of Manchester City and Chelsea have demonstrated that funding is a key ingredient for success. Until our large corporations invest in local football, fans such as Mr Tan are barking up the wrong tree. George Quek, 35, has been supporting the Lions since 1990.

>> S-LEAGuE FOOTBALLERS NOT GOOD ENOuGH 64

WHERES THE uPDATE, POSB?

DEEPER ANALYSiS OF SuRVEY ON LOW-iNCOME FAMiLiES NEEDED

Two years ago, i asked Why no Tamil on PosB ATMs? (Nov 11, 2009) to serve this community, especially workers from india who do not have a basic understanding of english, which often results in unnecessary, long queues. May i ask our peoples bank for an update to PosB exploring its language options (Nov 16, 2009), or is it still in the exploration stage with its service provider as part of efforts to serve customers better? LETTER
FROM PAuL ANTONY FERNANDEz

i refer to the report Most lowincome families will not ask for help: Halimah (Nov 23). i have doubts over the survey showing that 60 per cent of these families preferred to be self-sufficient than to receive social assistance. Deeper analysis of the findings may be necessary. i know of families who have refused welfare assistance because of the trouble it takes to obtain the money. These families generally have low literacy levels and

voluminous paperwork during application, without adequate guidance, is a deterrent. our system also turns away needy old folks who have better-off children, the reason being that the latter have a duty to care for their parents. But several old folks are trapped when their children do not maintain them well and a nation must not shirk its obligation of caring for its elderly. LETTER FROM JiMMY HO
KWOK HOONG

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Voices
Letter from Lalitha Perera
THIS is to clarify the report Broadcast veteran Ananda Perera dies (Sept 30) on the cause of my beloved husbands demise. He was deemed to have died of pneumonia. In May, he underwent a second lobectomy due to a cancerous growth, this time on the left lung. Apparently, given the size of both lobectomies and other health factors, he suffered a mild heart attack and a stroke. In both cases, his cancer was at stage one. He pulled through only to have pneumonia set in. He was on a ventilator throughout his four-and-a-half month stay in intensive care at the Singapore General Hospital but believed he would come home and fought with amazing fortitude.

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A personal perspective on end-of-life care

But having two half lungs put him in jeopardy. His lungs became atrophied. Then came the second bout of what was diagnosed as pneumonia. This time, whatever infection it was seemed drug-resistant. Eventually, his blood pressure dropped and heart stopped. We are especially grateful to some of the doctors and nurses who showed care and even passion in helping my husband

(who was 72) during this traumatic time. However, I wish we had followed an alternative path of therapy rather than going to a hospital and all that entails. Unfortunately, for quite some time, my husband had been weaned on various medications, which resulted in a small pharmacy at home. It is vital to balance our lives, take charge by keeping our minds as free as possible from stress and try to maintain a happy, positive disposition.

suicides: Do more so those in need get help

Letter from Sivakkumaran Govindasamy
THE report Bedok Reservoir deaths reflect copycat behaviour: Balakrishnan (Nov 22) brings attention to a bigger issue: The cost of and accessibility to trained professionals for those facing mental problems. Stress levels in Singapore have increased. A 2010 survey by the Institute of Mental Health showed that one in 16 people have suffered from depression, the most common mental illness here, and it took an average of four years for a person to seek help for this. Clearly, there is a problem here. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Health must do more than have annual campaigns to destigmatise mental illness and raise awareness. They should be proactive in educating and identifying those at risk. One option could be to encourage our general practitioners, who are most likely the first resort for many mental health patients, to be equipped with the skills to identify and refer patients to specialists. After all, many people may be unaware that they have a mental problem and that they can go beyond GPs for professional help. In that regard, we should decentralise accessibility by having more trained counsellors and psychiatrists at our community hospitals and polyclinics. Anecdotal evidence suggests that we do not have enough of them, and I am curious to know what those numbers are (per capita) and how we compare to other developed cities. If there is a shortage, we should have a plan to rectify this. Finally, not many people may be aware that they can use Medisave for psychiatric help. I wonder, though, if the S$150 daily limit and S$5,000 annual limit is sufficient. Are there funding options for lower income groups, the elderly and recent residents, who, from anecdotal evidence, fall into the high risk category? It is easy to blame the media for over-reporting suicides. However, I would rather that we, as a society, openly discuss mental problems instead of brushing them under the carpet. We will never totally cut out suicides, but we could do more so that those in need get help as soon as possible. That is more likely to save lives than notice boards at reservoirs and responsible media coverage would.

KudoS to mHa For cLamPdowNS oN raciSt bLoGGiNG

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) should clip the wings of irresponsible bloggers, who should have their photos published to send a message that the internet is not a tool to stir up religious sentiments. While communities here have been very tolerant till now, this should not be taken for granted. some may argue for freedom of expression, but common sense should also prevail.

events around the world are testimony to the long-term consequences of irresponsible actions. i am glad that MHA is monitoring and investigating the three recent cases, as reported in MHA urges public not to inflame situation (Nov 23), and it should prosecute these bloggers. it has been proven many times that a soft approach will not work.
Letter From artHur Lim

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Singapore
New campaign to get coffeeshop patrons to be more considerate
SINGAPORE In a bid to improve the state of cleanliness at coffeeshop toilets, the Public Hygiene Council has launched a campaign hoping to make patrons care. It unveiled a set of new educational materials in the form of stickers and posters yesterday with the slogan: I Care, How About You?. According to public feedback and surveys done by the Restroom Association (Singapore), the state of cleanliness in coffeeshop toilets had been identified as one of the worst. After consulting coffeeshop owners, the council found that coffeeshop toilets were often choked while amenities such as toilet paper and soap dispensers were often vandalised. This is in addition to common problems that affect all toilets, such as improper flushing and dirtying of toilet seats. The educational materials were developed in collaboration with the National Environment Agency and the Restroom Association (Singapore) and will be rolled out at more than 1,300 coffeeshops in the coming months. Announcing the campaign at the Restroom Associations second LOO (Lets Observe Ourselves) Carnival & Awards ceremony at City Square Mall yesterday, the council added that it would be developing educational materials targeting toilets in other premises in future. At the ceremony, 16 awards were given out to recognise individuals and organisations who made efforts to uphold and improve restroom cleanliness standards. Winning the Happy Toilet of the Year award was Alexandra Hospital which has a pair of zoo toilets (one male and one female) fashioned after toilets at the Singapore Zoo. WayNe CHaN

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Do you care for clean toilets?

President tony tan goes gift shopping with members of the boys brigade for a Share-a-Gift box for various beneficiaries. PHoto by erNeSt CHua

Boys Brigade gift-giving centre moves to aMK Hub

SINGAPORE The Boys Brigade Share-a-Gift (BBSG) main gift box is moving out of Orchard Road to AMK Hub. For the first time in 24 years, we are moving the main gift box into the heartland this year, with the sole purpose of bringing the project closer to the hearts of Singaporeans, said Mr Lui Chong Chee, chairman of the BBSG 2011 organising committee. The project aims to bring cheer to more than 20,000 people with basic household item hampers containing 13 donated items, such as rice, cooking oil and diapers. From now until Dec 21, BBSG Gift boxes will be located at various NTUC FairPrice outlets. Donations for the project can also be made via over 650 AXS machines or through NTUC FairPrice Online. The BBSG also hopes to fulfil more than 8,000 Specific Wishes of the beneficiaries who have requested for simple things like a walking cane or a teddy bear. The BBSG Specific Wish Trees are located at NTUC FairPrice Xtra outlets at AMK HUB, Jurong Point and nex Mall. President Tony Tan, who was at the opening ceremony of BBSG 2011 yesterday, said: It is heartening to see the Share-a-Gift project continues to enjoy widespread support ... This testifies to our community spirit of caring and giving.

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todAy FridAy november 25, 2011

singapore
SINGAPORE A 52-year-old man who violently robbed 11 elderly people of nearly S$12,000 was sentenced yesterday to seven years of preventive detention. Lim Choon Gui was charged with 11 counts of snatch theft and robbery involving victims who were between 52 and 83 years old. The unemployed man committed the offences within a two-month period this year in various housing estate lifts. Investigations revealed that he followed his victims into the lifts, where he restrained or assaulted and robbed them. On various occasions, he forced his victims to squat down and face the floor, or pushed them towards the wall of the lift while pulling necklaces off their necks.

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Man sentenced for violently robbing 11 elderly people

The court heard that when one victim put up resistance, he kicked her in the stomach and punched her in the chest. In addition to stealing a gold necklace from each victim, he also made off with other valuables including jade pendants, handbags, bracelets and even an EZ-link card. He later sold the items and spent the proceeds on his daily expenses. Lim, who has previous drug convictions and was under supervision during the period of the offences, also failed to turn up for a urine test, an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations. He claimed that he was afraid of being arrested for his robbery offences.
AlvinA Soh

Former nsp chief not quitting politics for good

CArolyn Quek
carolynquek@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE Former National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary-general Goh Meng Seng is not closing the door just yet on the next General Election (GE). Instead, he is planning to devote the foreseeable future to strengthening Opposition policy formulation. The 41-year-old, who stepped down from the NSP in June to go into a partisan political sabbatical, gave these details yesterday on his blog and also in an interview with Today. On his blog, he said that he will let his NSP membership lapse by the end of this year, adding that he formally informed the partys president and secretarygeneral about this in September. However, unlike what some of his friends had thought, he is not quitting Opposition politics for good. There are other things which are equally important to contribute towards the political democratic development of Singapore other than joining a party. Some of these things need us to be non-partisan in order to be effective, he said on his blog. Speaking to Today, he further explained that the May GE had shown that Singaporeans

todAy File photo

wanted more alternative voices in Parliament but are still not comfortable with the idea of a change in government. One reason is (that) opposition parties really have not provided a more holistic policy platform to convince voters that if they are voted in, they are ready to take over and make certain changes in the policy, he said. He added that he was also in talks to collaborate with a third party but would not give further details. To naysayers who may criticise his joining and leaving of two Opposition parties he had contested as a Workers Party candidate in the 2006 GE Mr Goh said: Whichever party and whichever way you choose to work, I think as long as we are going in the same direction and contributing to the bigger picture of the political development for Singapore, I think its fine.

nuS, JtC Corp Set up induStriAl reSeArCh Centre

The national University of singapore (nUs) and JTC Corporation have set up a new joint research centre to promote innovative and sustainable industrial infrastructure solutions in singapore. an agreement was signed yesterday for the new nUsJTC industrial infrastructure innovation Centre (nUs-JTC i3 Centre). The centre will leverage nUs technological knowledge in areas such as built environment, environmental engineering and

real estate, with JTCs infrastructure and business experience. The chief executive officer of JTC Corporation, Mr Manohar Khiatani, said singapore is constantly being challenged to introduce sustainable solutions to optimise land use to support its industrial development and economic growth. The JTC-nUs partnership paves the way to keep pushing limits of possibilities, try new ideas and chart new frontiers with innovative real estate solutions. ChAnnel newSASiA

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singapore

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24 months probation for teen molester

SINGAPORE A 15-year-old student who was involved in several cases of outraging and insulting the modesty of girls in Bukit Batok was yesterday sentenced to 24 months probation. This includes a years probation in a boys home. The teenager, who turned up in court in his school uniform, committed the offences on girls aged between nine and 18 in various apartment lifts. The boy would rush into the lifts naked, where he then touched the buttocks of his victims or flashed them. He was arrested on July 6 at Lim Chu Kang. The boy is said to be writing a letter of apology to his victims. He has also been ordered by the court to carry out 100 hours of community service. His parents have to each post a bond of S$2,000 for him, ensure his good behaviour and supervise his usage of the computer.
ChaNNel Newsasia

Jetstar 1st budget airline to fly from spore to Beijing

SINGAPORE Budget airline Jetstar Airways yesterday began daily flights between Beijing and Singapore, becoming the first low-cost carrier to fly to the Chinese capital from Changi International Airport. Jetstar, a unit of Australias Qantas Airways, plans to add flights to two more Chinese cities for a total of 12 by the end of next year as part of an expansion plan to tap Chinas growing demand for travel, Jetstar Asia chief executive Chong Phit Lian said yesterday. Things are moving very quickly in China, she said. Its already the worlds third-largest outbound tourist market and moving up. The appetite for Chinese to visit Singapore and the region is growing. Jetstar will fly an Airbus A330 aircraft on the BeijingSingapore route, offering 303 seats in a business and economy class configuration. Passengers flying between Melbourne and the Chinese capital can also take a direct flight that will have a brief stopover in Singapore, the Australian carriers hub in the South-east Asian region. Jetstar is battling Malaysian rival AirAsia for the regions longhaul budget market and has 170 aircraft on order to add to its current fleet of 80 planes, Jetstar Australia and New Zealand chief executive David Hall said. The carrier has ordered 25 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and expects to use them to replace some of its A330s for long-haul flights, he said. The lighter

Jetstar will fly an Airbus A330 aircraft on the Beijing-Singapore route, offering 303 seats in a business and economy class configuration.
Boeing 787 will burn 20 per cent less fuel and features bigger windows and a wider body, he added. Asia is the worlds fastest growing aviation market and recent aircraft sales reflect that. Last week, Indonesias Lion Air announced that it has ordered 230 planes for US$21.7 billion (S$28.4 billion) from Boeing, the biggest order ever for the United States aircraft maker. Also yesterday, Changi Airport welcomed the arrival of Lao Airlines in a move that completed Singapores direct flight connections with all nine of its ASEAN neighbours. Lao Airlines will have thriceweekly services between Singapore and Vientiane, the capital of Laos. In its statement, Changi Airport said the number of passengers travelling between the two countries has grown steadily over the last five years. During this period, Singapore visitor arrivals into Laos grew about 8 per cent annually to about 6,100 in 2010, while the number of visitors from Laos increased by some 25 per cent every year to about 5,200 last year. ageNCies, with additioNal reportiNg by s ramesh

singapore Youth award to be category-free

SINGAPORE Nominations have opened for the Singapore Youth Award (SYA) 2012, which for the first time will be category-free. The National Youth Council said it is removing the categories this time to recognise youth who have demonstrated excellence in any professional discipline and who have displayed exemplary passion and commitment to their varied community causes and pursuits. The annual award is seen as the highest national accolade for young Singaporeans who have excelled in their fields. Mr Edward Alec DSilva, the SYA panel chairman, said with the removal of categories, he looks forward to extending the recognition to a wider mix of youth with diverse backgrounds and fields. In its 37 years, the awards have recognised 40 teams and 141 individuals for being inspiring young achievers. Last years recipients included film-maker Boo Junfeng, tenCube co-founder Darius Cheung and statistical geneticist, Associate Professor Teo Yik Ying. Nominations, which close on Jan 16, can be made at SYAs website, www.sya.sg.
ChaNNel Newsasia

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World
BEIJING Thousands of workers in southern China went on strike in the last week to demand higher pay and better treatment, disrupting work at companies including one that supplies equipment to IBM and Apple. In Shenzhen, 1,000 workers went on strike on Tuesday at a factory owned by a Taiwanese computer-parts maker after the company required staff to work overtime from 6pm to midnight, New York-based China Labor Watch said in a statement. A day earlier, workers at a Shenzhen factory owned by lingerie maker Top Form International went on strike over wages and unachievable production quotas, the group reported. Last week, 7,000 workers at a shoe factory went on strike in Dongguan, the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin reported. Companies have faced increasing demands for higher wages from workers in China as inflation remains high, income inequality grows and real estate prices soar. In September, several hundred work-

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Thousands of workers on strike in China

bloomberg

ers went on strike at a factory of lingerie maker Triumph International in the southern province of Hainan over a new employment incentive programme. Last year, workers at Guangdong-based suppliers to Japanese automakers went on strike demanding higher wages.

Beijing airport damage not due to design flaw

BEIJING One of the architects behind the busiest airport in Asia said yesterday that substandard materials or installation not design flaws are likely to be blamed for wind blowing parts of the roof off Beijings three-year-old Terminal 3. The airport is the result of a frenetic Chinese building boom that has produced numerous architectural marvels, though some of the iconic new projects have been hit by quality and safety problems. State media said passengers reported seeing bits of white and yellow roofing material blowing across runways and through parts of the US$2.8 billion (S$3.7 billion) terminal on Tuesday. In statements issued earlier this week, the airport said no one was hurt and operations were not affected. It was the second time in a year that winds damaged the airport. The Beijing airport handled nearly 74 million passengers last year, making it the second-busiest in the world after HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport. If the products provided by the suppliers were not up to their highest standards, or if the individual items were not installed properly, then this kind of thing could happen, said Mr Shao Weiping, an architect with one of the firms that collaborated on the structure. Terminal 3 was one of several high-profile projects commissioned in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The building was designed by Britains Norman Foster. The Hong Kong office of Foster & Partners did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Chinas multi-trillion dollar building boom has produced highspeed trains, smooth new superhighways, cruise terminals and airports. But many of the projects, built quickly to meet deadlines that often appear geared toward political grandstanding, have suffered quality and safety problems. aP

villagers use a bulldozer to evacuate during a flood in setiu, terengganu. aP

Floods worsen in Terengganu, Kelantan

KUALA LUMPUR The floods in northern Malaysia claimed their third victim on Wednesday night, as the number of residents evacuated more than doubled yesterday morning. The latest victim, 14-year-old Ali Amar, was discovered at about 10.30pm on Wednesday several metres from where he was reported missing in Pasir Mas, Kelantan. The other two victims also drowned on Tuesday in Kelantan, according to Bernama news agency. As of yesterday afternoon, a total of 3,500 residents of Terengganu and Kelantan were in evacuation centres, more than double the 1,712 evacuees from the night before. Terengganu is the worst hit state with nearly 2,700 evacuees as of yesterday afternoon, while roughly 800 have been displaced in neighbouring Kelantan. In Malacca, 80 relief centres are being readied as water levels in rivers are steadily rising, thanks to rains from the Northeast Monsoon.
ageNcies

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SEOUL North Korea yesterday threatened to turn Seouls Presidential Palace office into a sea of fire, stepping up its rhetoric one day after South Korea conducted largescale military drills near a front-line island attacked by North Korea last year. On Wednesday, South Korea mobilised aircraft, rocket launchers, artillery guns and naval boats for the first anniversary of the artillery attack on a military garrison and fishing community on Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. Two marines and two construction workers were killed in the attack, the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War. A similar sea of fire threatens to engulf Seouls Presidential Blue House if South Korean forces fire a single shot into North Korean territory, the Norths Peoples Army warned in a statement from Pyongyang. They should not forget the lesson

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North Korea threatens South with sea of fire

taught by the Yeonpyeong shelling last year, said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The North has issued similar threats over years at times of tension with South Korea. Pyongyang accuses Seoul of provoking last years attack, saying it struck after warning the South not to hold live-fire drills in the disputed waters. Since then, South Korea has spent millions of dollars beefing up its arsenal. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jung Seung Jo said his forces would crush the enemy if they strike again. But there have been some signs tensions are easing, with both sides seeking to discuss ways to resume nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks and allowing South Koreas religious and cultural figures to travel to North Korea. aP

Nurse Faces eight murder charges iN sydNey Fire

The nurse accused of starting a fire at a Sydney nursing home faces eight counts of murder. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that prosecutors yesterday added four murder counts against roger dean, who worked at the Quakers Hill

Nursing Home. Four elderly residents of the home died in the Nov 18 blaze, and five more have died since. dean again did not opt for bail and will stay incarcerated until the next hearing in February. aP

MArgArET rIvEr BlAzE

PhiliPPiNe court orders aquiNos kiN to give uP laNd

The Philippine Supreme Court has ordered vast sugarcane plantation lands owned by President Benigno Aquino IIIs relatives to be distributed to thousands of farmers under a government land reform programme. It said the 4,500-hectare Hacienda luisita in northern

Tarlac province should be turned over to 6,296 farm workers. The decision ends decades of dispute over a property that has become a symbol of inequality and the slow pace of Philippine land reform, said Mr ramon Casiple, an analyst at the Institute for Political and Economic reform. ageNcies

more than 20 homes were destroyed or damaged by wildfire in southwest australia after firemen lost control of a planned forest-burning operation. hundreds of people have been evacuated from around the margaret river region as more than 100 firefighters battled the blaze yesterday, assisted by aerial water bombers.
reuters

opposition MP takes Speakers job

CANBERRA Australias Parliament elected an opposition lawmaker as its new House of Representatives Speaker yesterday, an unprecedented move that actually strengthens Prime Minister Julia Gillards tenuous grip on power. The election of Mr Peter Slipper quickly followed the surprise resignation of Speaker Harry Jenkins, a member of Ms Gillards Labor Party. The change effectively gives the centreleft government, which nearly lost power in last years elections, an additional vote in the chamber on most legislation. Mr Slipper defied his Liberal Party by accepting the Speakers job, and said he will quit the party to become independent. Mr Slipper has been a divisive figure in the Liberal Party, which had already been considering dumping him in elections due in 2013. aP

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yemeN protesters reject immuNity deal For saleh aNd call For justice

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Yemen President Ali Abdullah Salehs agreement to step down failed to end the violence yesterday as security forces killed five protesters demanding that the ousted leader be put on trial for past crimes, ranging from corruption to bloodshed during the current uprising. Mr Saleh signed the powertransfer deal brokered by neigh-

bouring countries on Wednesday in the Saudi capital, riyadh. It officially transfers power to his VicePresident, Mr Abed rabbo Mansour Hadi, in exchange for immunity from prosecution. But many doubt that the deal marks the end of political life for Mr Saleh, who has proved to be a wily politician and suggested in

remarks after the signing ceremony that he could play a future political role in the country, along with his ruling party. The tens of thousands of protesters in Yemen, who have distanced themselves from the formal opposition movement, rejected the immunity clause for Mr Saleh and vowed to continue their protests. ap

protesters gather behind a barbed wire barricade, newly-erected by the egyptian army in front of the interior ministry, in cairo yesterday. ap

In Egypt, an apology and a refusal to step down

CAIRO Egyptian generals yesterday offered an unusual apology for the killings of protesters in Tahrir Square, the iconic landmark of the countrys revolution, but rejected the demonstrators demands for an immediate end to military rule. As violence around the square eased after five days of intense clashes, the military also insisted that parliamentary elections, scheduled for next Monday, would proceed as planned. We will not delay elections. This is the final word, General Mamdouh Shaheen, a member of the ruling military council told a news conference. Major-General Mukhtar El Mallah, another council member, told the news conference that the military would not relinquish power because to do so would be a betrayal of the trust placed in our hands by the people. Egyptians must focus on the elections, he said, not on street protests. Being in power is not a blessing. It is a curse. Its a very heavy responsibility, he added. On what had been the front line of the confrontation near the square, army troops in black helmets and visors replaced the police reviled by many protesters and a crane lowered cement barricades behind a line of coiled barbed wire to separate the protesters from the Interior Ministry building. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces presents its regrets and deep apologies for the deaths of martyrs from among Egypts loyal sons during the recent events in Tahrir Square, two generals said in a statement on a Facebook page. The council also offers its condolences to the families of the martyrs across Egypt. The message struck an apparently conciliatory tone as the ruling military commanders seek to defuse the crisis in time for the elections. But thousands of people remained in Tahrir Square, many demanding the ouster of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the de facto leader and a longtime colleague of the deposed former president, Hosni Mubarak. the New york times

maN aNgry about Food prices slaps iNdiaN miNister

A man slapped Indias Agriculture Minister in the face yesterday, apparently to draw attention to rising food prices and corruption. Mr Sharad Pawar was talking to reporters at a political function when the man attacked him. Television news reports said the man was shouting slogans about inflated food prices and graft. Footage showed the man brandishing a knife as he was dragged away by security officials and Mr Pawars aides. dont you know why I hit

him? The common man is distressed. Am I wrong? he shouted as he was being taken away. CNN-IBN TV reported that the man was detained by police. Mr Pawar was not seriously hurt. Such incidents have become increasingly common in India, where ministers and other officials have had shoes thrown at them and their offices ransacked by angry citizens. The incidents have usually been over political decisions, corruption, or real or perceived injustices. ap

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Harry Potter author tells of media siege

LONDON Harry Potter author J K Rowling and British actress Sienna Miller told an inquiry into British media practices yesterday how they and their families felt threatened by the media intrusion into their lives. Ms Miller, whose phone-hacking lawsuit against News Corporation helped trigger the demise of Mr Rupert Murdochs News of the World newspaper, said the stream of personal stories about her in the tabloids led her to accuse friends and family of leaking information to the media. In fact, her mobile phone voice mails and emails had been hacked. Ms Miller, 29, became a tabloid staple when she dated fellow actor Jude Law. She said she had even been spat at and abused by paparazzi seeking a good reaction shot. I felt like I was living in some sort of video game, she said. The star of Layer Cake and Alfie was one of the first celebrities to take the News of the World to court over illegal eavesdropping. In May, the newspaper agreed to pay her 100,000 (S$203,000) to settle claims. The newspapers parent company now faces dozens of lawsuits
author J K rowling has testified in court against News of the World for media abuse. aP

7 Amish arrested in hate crime haircutting attacks

MILLERSBURG (Ohio) The leader of a breakaway Amish group and six other men have been arrested in eastern Ohio in the United States on hate crime charges following attacks on Amish men and women that involved cutting their hair. Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry. The FBI said on Wednesday that several members of the group carried out the haircut attacks, and then took photos of the victims, over the last three months. One victim told the FBI that he would rather have been beaten black and blue than to suffer the disfigurement and humiliation of having his hair removed, according to court papers. The FBI also said that the leader, Sam Mullet (picture), allowed the beatings of those who disobeyed him, made

from alleged hacking victims. Ms Rowling, known for fiercely guarding her privacy, talked about her attempts to protect her children from the media. She said press coverage helped boost sales of the Harry Potter books but it later made it untenable to live in her house. It was like being under siege or being held hostage. It was impossible to go out, she said. Over the years she has engaged about 50 lawyers to deal with the press. Former Formula One boss Max Mosley, who successfully sued the News of the World over a 2008 story headlined Formula One boss has sick Nazi orgy with five hookers,

discussed the difficulty of squashing malicious stories in the Internet age. He has acknowledged the orgy, but argued that the story obtained with a hidden camera was an outrageous invasion of privacy. The Nazi allegation was damaging and completely untrue, he added. High-profile witnesses still to come include CNN celebrity interviewer Piers Morgan, who has denied using phone hacking while he was editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper. Witnesses have included celebrities like actor Hugh Grant and ordinary people pursued in times of grief, including the parents of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler. ageNcies

aP

some members sleep in a chicken coop and had sexual relations with married women to cleanse them. Mullet said last month that he did not order the haircutting but did not stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal was to send a message to local Amish that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community. aP

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MOSCOW Russia threatened on Wednesday to deploy missiles to target the United States missile shield in Europe if Washington fails to assuage Moscows concerns about its plans, a harsh warning that reflected deep cracks in US-Russian ties despite President Barack Obamas efforts to reset relations with the Kremlin. President Dmitry Medvedev said he still hopes for a deal with the US on missile defence but strongly accused Washington and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies of ignoring Russias worries. He said Russia will have to take military countermeasures if the US continues to build the shield without legal guarantees that it will not be aimed against Russia. He also warned that Moscow may opt out of

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russia may target US missile shield in Europe: Medvedev

the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) arms control deal with the US and halt other arms control talks. The US had agreed on a New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia last year to lower the number of nuclear warheads and long-range missiles and bombers on both sides. Later on Wednesday, the White House responded to Russias warnings by saying that US and NATO plans to deploy a European missile shield by 2020 remain on track. The US missile defence dispute has long tarnished ties between Moscow and Washington. The Obama administration has repeatedly said the shield is needed to fend off a potential threat from Iran, but Russia fears that it could erode the deterrent potential of its nuclear forces. ageNcies

French riot police clash with anti-nuke protesters

VALOGNES (France) French anti-nuclear activists scuffled with the police in Normandy on Wednesday as they tried to hold up a train transporting radioactive waste processed by nuclear producer Areva to a storage site in Germany. Several hundred protesters tried to occupy the train tracks near the town of Valognes in north-western France before being repelled by police in riot gear. The police said they had detained five people. Before the train eventually departed around mid-afternoon, the activists played a cat-andmouse game with police officers, who launched canisters of tear gas to disperse them before charging the crowd with batons. Protesters are pointing to the disaster at Japans Fukushima nuclear plant after a tsunami hit earlier this year as an urgent reason to abandon atomic power. In Germany, the police are preparing a big security operation to protect the nuclear waste shipment, as protests are expected, despite a decision to speed up the countrys exit from nuclear energy. ageNcies

Protesters holding a banner that reads, stop areva, you stink of nuclear, in a field in Lieusaint near valognes on Wednesday. reuters

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obama iN FiNe Form, eveN at turkey PardoN

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aP

Clearly enjoying himself, United States President Barack obama spared the lives of two turkeys on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and took a dig at the White House press corps. After pardoning the lucky turkeys liberty (picture) and Peace in the annual White House rite of passage, he quipped: Some of you

may know that recently Ive been taking a series of executive actions that dont require congressional approval. Well, heres another one. He then added that the two turkeys, in preparation to face the White House press corps, were given media training that included learning how to gobble without really saying anything. aP

Holiday travellers thronging Chicago oHare international airport yesterday ahead of the thanksgiving holiday period. reuters

Thanksgiving travel rush is under way across US

CHICAGO Undeterred by costlier petrol and airfare, millions of Americans set out on Wednesday to see friends and family in what is expected to be the nations busiest Thanksgiving weekend since the financial meltdown more than three years ago. Many people economised rather than stay home. We wouldnt think of missing it, said Mr Bill Curtis, a retiree from Los Angeles who was with his wife at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. Family is important and we love the holiday. So we cut corners other places so we can afford to travel. Heavy rain slowed down early travellers along the East Coast. Snow across parts of New England and upstate New York made for treacherous driving and thousands of power outages. And a mudslide covered train tracks in the Pacific North-west. Some drivers who tried to get an early start along the Pennsylvania Turnpike found themselves stopped by or stuck in a gooey, tar-like mess after a tanker truck leaked driveway sealant along nearly 64km of the highway. At least 150 vehicles were disabled on Tuesday night. But most of the country was expected to have clear weather. As afternoon traffic picked up, flight delays were reported in Boston, San Francisco, Newark, New Jersey, and New York. The average round-trip airfare for the top 40 United States routes is US$212 (S$277), up 20 per cent from last year. Tickets on most Amtrak oneway routes have climbed, and drivers are paying an average US$3.33 a gallon, or 16 per cent more than last year, according to travel tracker AAA. About 42.5 million people are expected to hit the road or take to the skies for Thanksgiving this year, according to AAA. That is the highest number since the start of the recession at the end of 2007. aP

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The sports shoe firm adidas is to sell its trainers for US$1 (S$1.30) a pair throughout rural India to capitalise on the countrys soaring population. The German sports giant believes the rise of Indias 1.1 billion population, which is expected to surpass China as the worlds largest in the next decade, is an opportunity to persuade aspirational Indian villagers to trade their plastic chappals or flip-flops for

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aDiDas aims To geT iNDiaN villagers To TraDe Flip-Flops For s$1.30 TraiNers

one of the worlds most iconic brands. The idea was inspired by Mr Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Grameen microfinance bank in Bangladesh. The sports shoe firm had originally planned to launch its venture there but switched to India after a pilot project lost money. The companys boss, Mr Herbert Hainer, blamed high import taxes and the firms lack of presence in Bangladesh for the failure.

The US$1 trainers will be the latest in a growing trend which increasingly sees the worlds poor as a potentially lucrative market. In the past few years mobile phone companies like Vodafone and Indias reliance have had great success selling cheap mobile phones to rickshaw-pullers and roadside hawkers throughout India while Tata launched the worlds cheapest car.
The Daily Telegraph

shes FakiNg iT ... To keep you arouND

Scientists have concluded that women fake orgasms because they are worried that their lover will be unfaithful, and that the more often a female fakes her sexual climax, the more successful she is in keeping her man. researchers in the United States found that 53.9 per cent of the women surveyed they were all heterosexual and in a committed relationship reported having pretended to reach orgasm with their current partner, and noted that women who perceived higher risk of partner infidelity were more likely to pretend orgasm. The study, published in The Archive of Sexual Behaviour, also showed women concerned about their man straying deploy a number of different tactics, including putting in more effort with clothing, following their mans movements and confronting potential rivals who looked his way.
The Daily Telegraph

Gold XMaS
a 2.4m Christmas tree, made with 12kg of gold, on show at a store in Tokyo. The store teamed up with flower arrangement artist shogo kariyazaki to dress up the tree with ribbons, hearts and orchids, also made of gold. The tree, not for sale, is worth 150 million (s$2.5 million) and will be on display till Christmas Day. ap

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BUSINESS
GET THE laTEsT nEws
TwiTTEr.com/ TodayonlinE
aveLyN Ng
avelynngsy@mediacorp.com.sg

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Maybank to expand workforce of new unit

SINGAPORE Maybank Group, Malaysias largest lender by assets, said yesterday it plans to expand the workforce of its newly acquired investment banking unit by 10 per cent per annum over the next five years. The move is in line with the lenders plan to turn the renamed Maybank Kim Eng into the premier investment banking service provider in ASEAN by 2015, the company said. It is going to be people; people will be the asset, said Mr Zafrul Aziz, the newly-appointed CEO of Maybank Kim Eng, which currently has about 3,000 employees. The group, which yesterday unveiled a new corporate identity for the securities and investment broking group it acquired for S$1.79 billion earlier this year, said it aims to have 40 per cent of pretax profit from international operations by 2015, up from 16.3 per cent currently. Elaborating on the plans for Maybank Kim Eng, Mr Aziz said the group plans to launch derivative products and futures and options broking in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand within the next two to three years. Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Indonesia will retain its corporate name Kim Eng for now as they await further regulatory approvals. Meanwhile, reports yesterday also said that Maybank Investment Bank and Kim Eng Holdings are open to buying the Singapore assets of MF Global Holdings. The reports, citing Kim Eng chairman and CEO Ronald Ooi, said Maybank and Kim Eng are open to an opportunistic acquisition if the price is right, he said. They decided against buying the Asia assets of MF Global, Mr Ooi was cited as saying.

Singapore Trade Minister urges closer relations with Malaysia firms

SINGAPORE In the climate of warming political relations between Singapore and Malaysia, companies in both countries should find opportunities to expand collaboration in manufacturing and services, Singapore Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang urged yesterday. For businesses in Singapore, I encourage you to continue to capitalise on the comparative advantages in each country by integrating business or manufacturing processes across the borders. In particular, the close proximity between Iskandar Malaysia and Singapore means that managing such integrated processes can be faster and easier, Mr Lim said at a crossborder business forum yesterday. According to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, Singapore was the fifth-largest investor in Malaysia for the first eight months of this year, contributing 1.9 billion ringgit (S$779.7 million) worth of manufacturing-related investments. B i l a te ra l t ra d e b et we e n Singapore and Malaysia grew by 3.8 per cent to S$92.6 billion in first 10 months of the year, making Malaysia Singapores largest trading partner. Mr Lim also highlighted steps taken by Malaysia to improve its business environment and liberalise its services sector to attract foreign investment. Indeed, foreign direct investment into Malaysia for the first half of this year was US$7 billion, slightly less than the US$9 billion recorded for the whole of last year. However, this is expected to slow next year because of the global economic uncertainties. What we are going to achieve in respect of FDIs in 2011 is certainly going to be higher than last year. As for next year, there is some expectation of a softening of global demand, said Malaysia Minister for International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed.
LyNda HoNg

CHestNut ave site gets 12 bids

geNtiNg groups Q3 proFit FaLLs 22%

The tender for a 99-year leasehold residential site in Chestnut Avenue received 12 bids at the close yesterday, with the top offer from SP Setia International (S) at S$180 million, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority data. The property services company is a Singapore-based unit of Malaysian developer SP Setia Bhd. The 201,278.6-sq-ft site, which is located in Bukit Panjang, has a maximum permissible gross floor area (GFA) of 422,688 sq ft. S P Setias top bid translates to S$426 per sq ft of GFA. The lowest bid of S$131 million, or S$312.6 per sq ft of GFA, came from TG Land and Master Contract Properties. The site was launched for tender on Sept 15.

Genting Bhd, which controls Asias second-largest casino company by market value, said third-quarter profit fell 22 per cent to 597.2 million ringgit (S$244.8 million), after booking a one-time gain during the same period a year earlier. Revenue climbed 32 per cent to 5.1 billion ringgit on increased takings at its core Singapore, Malaysia and UK casinos, the company said. The Kuala Lumpur-based group owns a 52-per-cent stake in Genting Singapore, which reported a 12 per cent gain in third-quarter profit to S$209.7

million on Nov 10. The unit, owner of one of Singapores two casinos, opened its Resorts World Sentosa theme park in February last year. Growth in regional tourism should continue to augur well for the leisure and hospitality business, Genting said. The premium players business in the region has seen significant growth as evidenced by recent reports in Singapore and Macau. However, slower global growth prospects are anticipated mainly due to weakening economic fundamentals.
bLoomberg

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marketbuzz
WINE AND DINE AT THE SHOPPES AT MARINA BAY SANDS
Whether you are on a date with your loved one, chilling out with your friends or taking your family out for a nice dinner, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands has a variety of dining options to choose from.
Hy California

Caffe B Spread across two floors, the restaurant and bar offers authentic Italian fine cuisine and spectacular views of the Marina Bay. There is also a private grill room for a truly exclusive dining experience. Choose from a variety of pizzas, gourmet antipasti and desserts! Carnivore Brazilian Churrascaria Meat lovers will delight in this restaurant that offers rotisseriecooked meats marinated according to traditional Brazilian recipes. Tuck into a selection of meats including lamb, fish and pork sausages. Also, visit the restaurants new Rio Tapas Lounge where you can enjoy delicious tapas and cocktails. HY California Hide Yamamotos newest restaurant boasts Japanese cuisine with a cool California twist. Original sushi creations and traditional recipes have been given a delicious new take. The cosy and intimate settings also make for a great place to relax with family and friends.

Java Detour Start your day with a delicious cuppa from Java Detour. The organic beans are hand roasted in mcro-batches to ensure the best flavours. Also serves pastries, organic teas, and pastas.

Kraze burgers

Caffe b

Kraze Burgers Enjoy burgers like never before at this restaurant that bakes its own buns. The burgers are delicately made by hand, which is why it takes at least 10 minutes to prepare each burger. Must-try items include the signature KB original, Vege & Bean and KS Burger. Pita Pan For healthier options, try the new vegetarian Mediterranean restaurant. Start your day with a hearty Shakshuka of poached eggs in a spicy sauce. At lunch, eat your heart out with the Mediterranean platter which offers all the rich near-Eastern flavours in one plate.

Yu Cuisine This modern and hip Chinese restaurant serves everything from seafood to dim sum. It even has a chic grill and champagne bar concept on the upper level of the restaurant. Signature dishes include Hong Kong Aberdeen chilli crab, butter cream king prawns and Peking duck. While youre dining at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, dont miss the Wonder Full light show and experience the orchestra of music, light and sound effects. For more information, visit www.MarinaBaySands.com/Shoppes.

TRADE ONLINE AND GET REWARDED Standard Chartered is rewarding customers for transferring their stocks to the bank via its Online Trading platform. Receive up to S$100 worth of shopping vouchers with every S$50,000 worth of stocks you transfer into your account. And with every new account opened, youll get S$100 worth of free trades. Since its launch in June, the Standard Chartered Banks Online Trading platform has been used by the emerging-affluent segment in Singapore and has seen a double-digit growth in active Online Banking customers. Promotion ends Dec 31. For more information on how to start trading online, visit www.standardchartered.com.sg/personalbanking/ investment/online-trading-tour/index.html. GLOBAL HOKKIEN SINGING COMPETITION Earlier this month, SingTel Mio TV held a Global Hokkien Singing Competition audition at the SingTel Comcentre Theatrette. More than 100 hopefuls turned up for the auditions with the youngest contestant just five years of age. In the end, three contestants were chosen 23-year-old Jayden Chew, 19-year-old Gary Lim and 16-year-old Katherine Tan. The trio will be representing Singapore in the grand finale held at Fujian, China in January. Contestants from all over the world will be battling it out for the top prize of RMB30,000 (S$6,013). This Sunday, catch the telecast of the Singapore auditions on mio TVs Jia Le Channel (Channel 88) at 10pm and on Jia Le on-demand (Channel 288) the following day. And starting from Dec 19, episodes of the grand finals will be telecast on mio TV Channel 88, 8pm almost daily. For more information, visit mio.singtel.com/miotv/ promotion_globalhokkiensingingcompetition.asp.

NESCAFE FRAPPE 100 HOURS MOVIE INDULGENCE 2011 The Nescafe Frappe 100 hours Movie Indulgence was held at nex Atrium level 1 from Nov 9 to Nov 13.The challenge? Be the last person standing in a 100-hour movie marathon and win S$10,000. Despite the gruelling challenge, Adam Bin Kamis (fifth from left), who has only one arm, emerged the grand winner with a record-breaking time of 92 hours and 49 minutes. Mr Kamis said: For me, its not about winning. My purpose in participating in this movie marathon is to prove that disabled doesnt mean unable. Thank you Nescafe Frappe 100 Hours Movie Indulgence 2011 for not disqualifying the disabled and giving me an opportunity to join this marathon. The S$10,000 will go in part to charity to help someone I know who is suffering from partial paralysis and blindness. It will also help with my hospital bills and loans as well as enable me to set up my own business. THE MODERN ART OF BODYSHAPING Want that sexy S-shape figure? With Triumphs new Shape Sensation, you can have curves in all the right places. The form-fitting bodywear collection of sleek and sensual shaping lingerie not only looks good but also feels good and comfortable as it smoothens lumps and bumps, and defines your curves for that S-shape silhouette. Whether you desire a more voluptuous cleavage, a slimmer torso, an enhanced waistline or lifted bum, the shapewear controls curves while it lifts and helps tone your body. Choose from a range of designs including lightweight, stretch-lace fabric, seamless styles and highperformance lycra beauty fabric.

today Friday November 25, 2011

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today Friday November 25, 2011

Business
BEIJING Growth in Chinas factory output is likely to fall slightly to between 12 and 13 per cent next year due to weakening global demand, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said yesterday. Annual industrial output in the worlds second-largest economy is expected to grow 14 per cent this year. Many economists believe that if Chinas

58

China factory growth likely to slow

factory output grows by between 11 and 13 per cent a year, it would be enough to avoid a hard landing and keep the economy growing at about 8 to 9 per cent. Fears that China may be set for a sharp slowdown flared again on Wednesday after HSBCs flash PMI survey showed the factory sector shrank the most in 32 months this month on signs of domestic economic

weakness. The results amplified concerns that the global economy may tip into recession. The industrial production growth rate will show some moderation next year, judging from the domestic and external environment, said senior MIIT official Huang Libin. The ministry expects Chinas economy to grow an annual 9.2 per cent this year, and the pace could slow modestly next year. Chinas economy grew 10.4 per cent last year. reuters

sti
thursday close
Name

Wednesday tuesday monday Friday

2,676.57 2,717.20 2,697.98 2,730.34

q p q q

1.50% 0.71% 1.19% 1.72%

top 5 by volume
vol price chaNge

2,677.15 (+0.02%) asia

haNg seNg 17,935.10 (+0.40%) Nikkei 8,165.18 (-1.80%) shaNghai 2,397.55 (+0.10%) australia 4,044.20 (-0.17%) mumbai 15,858.49 (+1.01%) malaysia 1,447.99 (+1.03%) seoul 1,795.06 (+0.67%)

goldenagr 112,774 Noble grp 93,227 Nexgenscom^ 71,554 psl hldg 52,539 hph trust us$ 51,142

s$0.670 p 1.52% s$1.090 p 0.46% s$0.012 p 33.3% s$0.465 p 2.20% s$0.595 q 1.66%

stock call
sgX sell | s$6.06
IIFL has downgraded Asias secondlargest listed bourse to sell from reduce and cut its target price to S$5.44 from S$6.12. Says: Gloomy outlook for global and Asian stock markets continues to weigh down on SGX securities turnover, and cuts SGXs net profit estimate by 7 per cent for fiscal 2012 and 2 per cent for 2013. Also lowers its average daily turnover forecast for SGXs securities business by 13 per cent to S$1.4 billion for next year.
From brokerage research aNd ageNcy reports disclaimer: readers should seek independent financial advice before making any investment decision. today cannot be held liable for any consequence arising from the use of this information.

HTC cuts Q4 revenue forecast

TAIPEI Taiwans HTC Corp, the worlds fourth-largest smartphone maker, warned it would see no revenue growth this quarter, a sharp slowdown after growth more than doubled in the first half. It had previously forecast Q4 revenue would grow between 20 and 30 per cent onyear to NT$125 billion (S$5.4 billion) and NT$135 billion. HTC has grown on the strength of the design of its handsets, based on Googles Android operating system. But it faces increasing competition from its top rival, South Koreas

Samsung, while the global economic downturn has hit sales in its two main markets, the United States and Europe. The revised guidance implies revenue will fall by 20 per cent to 25 per cent from the third quarter and HTC will ship two million fewer smartphones than expected, said Credit Suisse. HTC said it still has confidence in the smartphone market and expects growth momentum to resume in the first half of next year. It is also betting on revenue growth from China and other emerging markets, saying it will invest in these markets as much as it does in the US and Europe. Its shares fell by the 7 per cent maximum allowed in a day yesterday to NT$526, in a broader market that was up 0.8 per cent. ageNcies

today Friday November 25, 2011

59

ProPerty
CommeNtary
CoLiN taN
property@ mediacorp.com.sg

today Friday November 25, 2011

62

A decade on, reIts remain a mystery

t has been a decade since real estate investment trusts (REITs) made their appearance on the Singapore bourse, but it appears many investors are still grappling to understand this asset class. The REIT sector hit the headlines recently when K-REIT Asias plans to buy 87.5 per cent of Ocean Financial Centre (OFC) and raise S$976 million through a rights issue to fund part of the cost was approved despite howls of protest by minority shareholders. K-REIT Asia had earlier announced it would pay some S$1.57 billion to buy parent company Keppel Lands entire stake in the OFC office building. Keppel Land will book a net gain of about S$492.7 million from the sale. It would be fair to say that the controversy would not have erupted if the once optimistic market sentiment in the office sector had not suddenly turned cold. Dissenting shareholders had questioned the historic high price paid for the purchase

especially at a time when the economy is slowing down. The prime Grade A office building in Raffles Place has a tenure of 999 years and 850 years remaining on the lease. However, Keppel Land is selling its stake with only a 99-year lease. Excluding rental support from Keppel Land, the estimated sale price of OFC works out to S$2,380 per sq ft. Leaving aside the equally contentious issue of independence for the time being, it must be said that REIT managers have mostly had to acquire their properties on the higher side of valuations if only because it is the only way they can get the owners to sell it to them. A REIT can get a property on the cheap only when the owner is ignorant of its true market value or if it is a forced sale many investors still do not realise this. At the same time, the REIT manager can only justify the acquisition to shareholders if it is yield-accretive. Otherwise, the REIT is better off not doing anything. So, a spot of financial engineering is required to get it to be so. This will buy the REIT manager some time to get the asset to perform to expectations or for the market to turn around and justify the values. In a

rising market, this is not a problem. Otherwise, for the acquisition to be yield-accretive, the REIT will have to buy a property of lower quality or one with higher risk because such properties have higher yields. As more properties in Singapore are acquired by the REITs, there will be fewer available on the market. As such, the asking price by the remaining landlords can only get higher. Given more time, it will become clear, if it is not so now, that the current model is not sustainable in the long run. REITs are often presented as defensive plays as it relies on revenues generated from income-producing properties held in its portfolio. While it may be so in more mature economies, the situation is different in Singapore. In mature economies, a typical portfolio of properties in a REIT is a lot more stable. The leases are longer, which means the payout is much more consistent. In Singapore, most REITs are on the acquisition trail and their portfolios are always expanding. This may have to do with the existing reward structure the payoff is better with acquisitions than getting the existing assets to perform better. Is this what the

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) intended when it drew up the regulatory framework for REITs? There may be better justification for a hands-off approach in the early days when the industry was in its fledging stages and when the MAS needed to build up the industry. However, as the recent K-REIT Asia controversy has highlighted, it may be time for further regulation, especially in the areas of independence and avoidance of conflict of interests. Many times in the past, I had prodded journalists to look further into certain REIT issues but all have declined, citing a lack of understanding of the subject matter. Also, as pointed out by one reader, most REIT unitholders are not sophisticated enough to look after their own interests because of their lack of understanding. Even a representative of an institutional fund I spoke to immediately after the K-REIT controversy erupted showed a lack of understanding of the issues. They simply trust the management to do the right thing. Colin Tan is head of research and consultancy at Chesterton Suntec International.

Hawker centres and reIts: An inflation face-off?

taN CHiN KeoNG
property@ mediacorp.com.sg

CommeNtary

he Government has recently decided to restart a building programme for hawker centres an icon of local food culture that is often neglected as a property asset class. These mass market spaces house food stalls that serve up the true taste of Singapore. There are 112 hawker centres today, the last one having been built in 1985. After 26 years, the plan to build 10 new such establishments in the next decade is a welcome move. But this is not simply because of the growing trend of Singaporeans eating out. Some Government officials have argued that hawker centres could also help contain inflation. Consumer prices in Singapore have been on the rise since late 2009 and the inflation rate recorded last month was 5.4 per cent the fifth straight month that the reading has topped 5 per cent. With about 6,000 li-

censed hawkers selling cheap cooked food around housing estates today, there is a strong case for such an argument. Anecdotal evidence suggests that hawker stalls in mature housing estates such as Toa Payoh have held food prices steady for many years. A bowl of fish ball noodles at a stall I have been going to has cost a affordable S$2.50 for the last few years. This is likely because many hawker stalls enjoy rental subsidies from the Government. In Parliament early this year, then Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said about half of the 6,258 cooked food stalls in hawker centres had been subsidised. The subsidised rent for a hawker stall ranges between S$160 and S$320 a month, considerably less than the market range of S$275 to S$2,900, he said. With more hawker centres in the pipeline and assuming no changes in the Governments subsidy policy, stall owners rental costs are unlikely to see substantial increases. Thus, the construction of new hawker centres could very well lead to more affordable dining choices and contain inflation in Singapore.

Or could it? Another property asset class real estate investment trusts (REITS) could have the unintended opposite effect of boosting inflation in Singapore. A typical REIT owns one or a pool of properties out of which rental income is distributed as dividends to shareholders. Since the first REIT was introduced in Singapore in 2002, the sector has become an increasingly popular asset class among investors due to its taxefficient status and high dividend yields. There are now more than 20 listed REITs in Singapore owning a variety of properties they have built or acquired. Due to their focus on delivering superior shareholder returns as well as pressure from their investors and the analyst community Singapore REITs have generally been proactive and efficient in raising the rental rates of their investment properties whenever market conditions allow. For example, some of the retail REITs track their tenants sales turnover on a monthly basis and the REIT managers would thus know who can afford to pay higher rental rates when the tenancy contract comes up for renegotiation.

The growth of retail REITs has also resulted in a larger supply of shopping mall space being concentrated in the hands of a few large REITs. Naturally, these REITs have better bargaining power against their tenants during rental rate negotiations. One retail REIT, for example, was able to increase its rental rates by an estimated 25 per cent from 2003 to last year, significantly higher than the average 11 per cent increase in non-REIT suburban retail rental over the same period. In short, higher REIT dividends come at the expense of higher rental costs for the tenants. This in turn filters through to higher product prices and, ultimately, higher inflation. However, we cannot blame REITs for raising rents given the pressure they face from investors and analysts such as myself to deliver higher shareholder returns. Thus, the next time I pay a higher price for a shirt or a pair of shoes in a REIT-operated mall, I should compensate by dining at my usual hawker centre more frequently. Tan Chin Keong is an analyst at UBS Wealth Management Research.

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SportS
S-League footballers not good enough
Extreme 40 catamarans are capable of hitting high speeds even in moderate to light winds. PhOTO COuRTESY Th.MARTiNEz/SEA&CO.

COMMENTARY

Get set for world-class sailing at Marina Bay

SINGAPORE The waters off Marina Bay will host some of the worlds top sailors in the ninth and final stop of the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series, which will be held here from Dec 7 to 11. The event follows the staging of the series Asia exhibition event here two years ago. Ten professional teams will feature, including the likes of New Zealands Americas Cup skipper Dean Barker and twotime Olympic Tornado class gold medallists Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher of Austria. This years series have seen teams battling out at global stops such as Muscat, Qingdao, Istanbul, Boston, Crowes and Nice. After the penultimate leg in Almeria last month, Italys Luna Rossa hold a slender one point lead over Groupe Edmond de Rothschild of France (68 points), followed by Emirates Team New Zealand (60) and Switzerlands Alinghi (59). Launched in 2007, the series features state-of-the-art Extreme 40 catamarans that are capable of hitting speeds of up to 40 knots (75 kmh), with the teams competing in up to eight races a day. Each race goes for 10 to 15 minutes and is often fiercely contested as crews rely on coordination and technical skills to create an advantage from the identical boats. The Singapore leg will see the debut of Team Extreme which features a French crew, while Team TILT of Switzerland will be making only their second appearance following their maiden race in Almeria. Apart from the Extreme Sailing Series, 20 of the best professional and amateur windsurfers from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia will compete in the NeilPryde Racing Series. A Race Village will also be open to the public from Dec 9 to 11 with entertainment and childrens activities. PhiLiP GOh

FAS has failed to address two key targets and it has to make up for lost time
Most of the players who played for Singapore when they overcame Malaysia in the second round of the World Cup qualifiers in July, will not be around soon. Right now, many of the ones slated to take their place are not up to scratch. And one who could go on to become the countrys brightest star is stuck here.
for a deadly slide-rule pass and constantly demands the ball. Little wonder that Malaysias Under-23 team retained their gold medal. In 2008, Baddrol went for a two-week training stint with English Premiership giants Chelsea. Irfan is currently on loan to Slovakian side FC Vion Zlate Moravce. All this time, Hariss Harun, captain of the Courts Young Lions and the most promising footballer to emerge in Singapore in years, continues to try and improve here, in the S-League. It is a competition where SAFFC striker Fazrul Nawaz has scored 15 goals for his club this season. He is the Warriors highest local goal scorer. The 26-yearold played for the Lions against China recently at the Jalan Besar Stadium in a World Cup qualifier and was clearly out of his depth. Team-mate Shaiful Esah, 25, a left-back, owns one of the best left foots in the local game. He can swing in a vicious cross to send defenders into a panic. Yet few remember when he has managed that skill this year for the Lions. And he remains a poor defender. Home United striker Qiu Li is blessed with tremendous ability but he consistently struggles with his fitness and only displays flashes of his skill for Singapore, though he does well for his club in the S-League. They have all been playing in the S-League for a few years already and, in short, they have hardly improved. They have failed to make the step up at international level. The S-League is the production line of talent for the national team. It is the only seam the Singapore national coach can mine for gifted local footballers and, in the last few years, it has failed to produce. This season, the FAS introduced a rule where all S-League clubs have to run Centres of Excellence for under-16 and under18 footballers. They aim to extend it to the under-14s. It is a great move, but after so many missteps in other areas, the FAS must ensure the scheme is policed, and then thrives. Zainudin has masterminded Singapores return to Malaysian domestic football competitions next year and it is a bold move. I have said before that this could prove a masterstroke and grow the numbers on the terraces. If the FAS pulls out the stops to support the S-League clubs, the spillover effect will be felt domestically. Most of the players who played for Singapore when they overcame Malaysia in the second round of the World Cup qualifiers in July, will not be around soon. Right now, many of the ones slated to take their place are not up to scratch. And one who could go on to become the countrys brightest star is stuck here. Football is at the crossroads. It is time to act, FAS. That includes sending 21-year-old Hariss abroad. Leonard Thomas is sports editor at Today.

LEONARd ThOMAS

leonard@mediacorp.com.sg

ver the last few years, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has said, on more than one occasion, that it would send local players for trials or training stints with clubs in Europe, maybe even Japan. This has not come to pass. The FAS has also stated, under former president Ho Peng Kee and current chief Zainudin Nordin, that one of its main tasks was to increase fan turnout at S-League matches. Few continue to support the countrys only professional sports competition. The FAS has failed to improve the S-League and Singapore football is suffering. Most of the players in the Courts Young Lions team that feature every week in the S-League played in the recently-concluded SEA Games, and they were distinctly average. It was a shock to see how so few were comfortable on the ball. Imagination, a priceless commodity for any footballer, was missing. Pace, so crucial in the modern game, was pedestrian at best. On Monday night in the final, I watched Malaysias Baddrol Bakhtiar send a pinpoint 40m cross-field pass to a teammate, and it took my breath away. In the frenzied cauldron of the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, with the most important gold medal of the Games at stake, the 23-year-old captain was good enough, and cool enough, to execute the pass. His team-mate Mohd Irfan Fazali was even better on the ball on a mess of a pitch. A joy to watch with his magnetic control and impudence, at just 20, he already owns an unerring eye

@tdysports oN tWIttEr
sports sCorEs | ANALysIs | NEWs
today Friday November 25, 2011

65

India holds its breath

tendulkar edges closer to a magical mark as dravid completes his milestone
MUMBAI Sachin Tendulkar (picture) was on course for his 100th international century, while Rahul Dravid completed a milestone to lead Indias strong reply in the third and final test against the West Indies yesterday. The hosts, chasing an imposing first-innings total of 590 by the West Indies, were 281 for three at the close of the third day with Tendulkar (67) and VVS Laxman (32) at the crease. The 38-year-old Tendulkar, with 51 centuries in tests and 48 in one-dayers, needs one more to get to the coveted ton that has eluded him since he last made three figures in the 50-over World Cup in April. Playing in front of a 20,000 crowd at his home ground, the Wankhede Stadium, the master batsman hit five boundaries and a six as he added 57 for the fourth wicket with Laxman. We will have a full house with the little master on 67 but the big crowd might have some broken hearts tomorrow, smiling West Indies captain Darren Sammy said, at the close. This test match is really poised. We have someone who is about to cross a massive, special mark. Dravid (82) became the second player after Tendulkar to reach 13,000 runs in tests, and also brought up 1,000 runs in a year for the third time in his career as he made his 62nd half-century. He added 86 runs for the third wicket with Tendulkar before being clean bowled while attempting to cut part-time spinner Marlon Samuels. The 38-year old Dravid also put on 71 for the second wicket with Gautam Gambhir (55) after India lost Virender Sehwag (37) before the lunch break. Dravid went past the 13,000-mark with a sublime cover drive off Sammy one of his 11 boundaries. Gambhir hit eight boundaries before he edged to Baugh after trying to hook a high bouncer by paceman Ravi Rampaul. The left-handed opener was optimistic India could still make it a 3-0 series whitewash. We all know things change very quickly in India and especially on red soil once the ball starts turning, Gambhir said. We still feel there is a chance of winning the test match rather than just saving it. Earlier, India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin completed his second five-wicket haul in three tests as West Indies were finally bowled out in the morning. reuters

rory mcilroy (right) and Graeme mcdowell yesterday during the omega mission Hills World Cup. Getty imaGes

Aussies lead in Hainan, Irish duo play catch up

HAIKOU (China) Australia took the lead in the first round of the World Cup yesterday after shooting an 11-under 61, finishing two strokes ahead of tournament favourites Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell representing Ireland. Richard Green and Brendon Jones totalled seven birdies and an eagle on the par-72 Blackstone course at the Mission Hills golf resort on the South China island of Hainan. The pair finished in a share of third place in 2008 for Australia, which won the last of its four World Cup titles in 1989. We just combined perfectly. We never doubled up on birdies, and thats the key in this game, said Jones. You want to make a lot of birdies, but you dont want to make them on the same hole. That was what we did. Ireland made ground on the Australians on the back nine with McIlroy, ranked No 2 in the world and the reigning US Open champion, holing five birdies and an eagle. McDowell, the 2010 US Open winner, had two birdies. The format is two rounds each of foursomes and fourballs. Todays second round is foursomes with players hitting alternate shots. The strategy changes tomorrow and is a very difficult day that it will separate the field a little bit, McDowell said. Foursomes is probably the most difficult format of golf. Youve got to play a little less aggressively. This is a difficult golf course. Youre trying to keep your partner in position. Martin Liard and Stephen Gallacher of Scotland are tied for second with Ireland. Singapores Lam Chih Bing and Mardan Mamat are in 22nd place after a 4-under 68. aP

reuters

Kubicas manager blasts Renault over statement

LONDON Robert Kubicas manager has accused Renault of twisting the Formula 1 drivers words over his lack of fitness for the start of the 2012 season, and has indicated the Pole could join another team next year. Renault said on Wednesday that Kubica would miss the start of next season as he continues his recovery from a near-fatal rally accident in February. The statement quoted the driver as saying he was not yet certain to be ready for the first race in Australia on March 18, but manager Daniele Morelli is livid. I dont understand why Renault have changed Roberts words, he told Gazzetta dello Sport. It is not true that he wont be ready for 2012, he said he was not certain to be fit for the first tests in February. We are counting on him and hoping he will do it but in any case the delay will be a few months. Frenchman Romain Grosjean has emerged as the leading candidate to drive with Vitaly Petrov at the start of next year when Renault will be renamed Lotus. Kubica has been linked to Ferrari and Morelli said all options were open. Renault will take their decision regarding drivers, we will look for alternative solutions, he said, adding Kubicas contract was not a block to looking elsewhere. It doesnt extend into 2012, it finishes at the end of December. From Jan 1 we will be free to go in whichever direction.
reuters

today Friday November 25, 2011

sports

68

Blackburn confirm Keans contract

BLACKBURN Despite being second from bottom in the English Premiership, with only one win and seven points from their 12 games to date, Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean had his contract formalised yesterday by the clubs Indian owners. The club have confirmed a revision to Keans existing contract, but stopped short of admitting the under-fire boss was handed a pay rise. Speculation had been mounting that the clubs owners, Venkys, who run a poultry empire, were set to reward Kean with an improved deal. The club issued a brief statement last night that read: Following recent media specudidier drogbas (in blue) goal against bayer Leverkusen was not enough to turn Chelseas fortunes around. aP

lation Blackburn Rovers FC can confirm a revision to manager Steve Keans existing contract has now been completed. An agreement made in the summer has now been formalised. Contrary to some reports there is no change in the length of the contract. The club respects that all contracts are private and confidential and no further comment will be made. Kean has come under pressure from some sections of Blackburns supporters, with small demonstrations held before and after games, and even a private plane chartered to fly above Ewood Park pulling a banner reading Kean Out.
tHe daiLy teLeGraPH blackburn rovers manager Steve Kean is down but not out. Getty imaGeS

Chelsea floored at the death

villas-boas could lose job over inability to arrest slide of the blues
CHamPioNS LeaGue GrouP e

bayer Leverkusen 2 Chelsea 1 LONDON It is no secret Andre Villas-Boas was hired by Roman Abramovich to do what no previous Chelsea manager has managed to pull off win the Champions League. After Chelseas defeat to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday in Group E (yesterday morning, Singapore time), the London clubs hopes of qualifying for the last 16 hang by a thread, as does Villas-Boas job, surely. With the Germans already through, Chelsea need to beat Valencia at Stamford Bridge in a fortnight or post a goal-less draw to advance, while a score draw or defeat would see the Spaniards into the last 16. This was Chelseas fourth defeat in seven games in all competitions. After spending another fortune strengthening the squad and prising Villas-Boas away from Porto, this was not how it was meant to be for Abramovich. The Blues host Wolves in a Premiership clash on Saturday before facing Liverpool in a Carling Cup quarter-final tie at home on Tuesday. Villas-Boas acknowledged he had to fire up the confidence in his squad ahead of the two games, and said: Thats when they expect the manager to inspire them. Thats my job. Thats my task, to inspire these people and motivate these people to change our faith.

Its in our hands to qualify. Its a game at Stamford Bridge and we expect to do our job. Thats our responsibility and we dont want to let the fans down.
embattled Chelsea boss villas-boas rallies the troops
The responsibility is mine and its my task now to inspire and motivate them to take them to a win against Wolves and, certainly, a win against Liverpool in the Carling Cup. We have two games at home. We need to get the focus, concentration right. I have to inspire my players and motivate them, and we need our fans behind us in these critical moments. In a mediocre first half, former Germany captain and Chelsea star Michael Ballack marked his 100th appearance with what in the end turned into a commanding performance. Chelsea took a deserved lead early in the second-half when Didier Drogba turned well in the box to score with a low shot. However, the hosts, beaten finalists 10 seasons ago, forced their way back into the game and levelled with

a well-crafted goal by substitute Eren Derdiyok a minute after coming on. They then sent their fans wild when Chelsea fell asleep at a corner and Manuel Friedrich rose high to strike at the death. A beleaguered Villas-Boas later vowed to coax concentration and focus from his beleaguered players. Were in a negative spiral of results. The team want to get out of it desperately and the only thing we can do is work even harder to achieve that. This is a critical moment for our team and we will need the fans behind us, he said. I have to motivate them to get a win against Wolves (on Saturday) and then against Liverpool in the Carling Cup (on Tuesday). If the unthinkable occurs and Chelsea lose to Wolves and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, Abramovich may well feel he has no choice but to act, to try and save a season spiralling out of control. Even this early in the season, Villas-Boas is going to be under intense scrutiny. He is possibly even one loss away from the sack. aGeNCieS
otHer reSuLtS Group e valencia 7 racing Genk 0 Group F marseille 0 olympiakos 1 Group G Zenit St Petersburg 0 aPoeL Nicosia* 0 Shakhtar donetsk 0 Porto 2 Group H aC milan*2 barcelona*3 (* denotes qualified for the last 16)

Goal-line technology possible for next season

LONDON Football Association general secretary Alex Horne claimed yesterday goalline technology could be used in the Barclays Premier League as early as next season. Horne believes that ongoing tests into the accuracy of various goal-line systems could be completed and given FIFA approval in time for the start of the 2012-13 campaign. Its possible we could see (goal-line technology) in the Premier League as early as 2012-13, he told the BBC. Its easy to make mistakes and weve all seen examples where the referee and assistant referee cant see if a ball has crossed the line or not. We need to support them in decision-making. Nine systems are being tested by a FIFA-employed authority with a final decision on which system might be used due to be made by the games law-makers on the eve of next season in July. Horne admitted that the tight turnaround could prohibit the introduction next season. Whether there is enough time for the technology to be bought, paid for and put into any league or competition for next season, Im not sure. It would be really tight but it might be possible for next season, he said.
tHe daiLy teLeGraPH

today Friday November 25, 2011

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RECIPE: CROSSING CULTURES

Duck confit with dahl, bitter bean pickle and onion bhaji
Tim Ross-Watson gives two classic styles a 21st-century twist
THERE is something about a meeting of two cultures that Chef Tim Ross-Watson appreciates on a deeper level. After all, the 27-year-old chef exec of hip new Garden Of Eden on Neil Road is son to an Indian father and English mother. His featured If Pigs Could Fly dish, a duck confit presented to look like pork belly and served with dahl, does also reflect his mixed heritage rather well. Chef Tim recommends slow cooking the duck (in this case, sous vide for 48 hours) before deboning it and removing the skin. But fret not if your dream Sous Vide Supreme water oven is still a few bucks short of a reality, Tim said roasting the duck leg at 120 degrees Celsius for 8 hours using an ordinary oven before deboning will do just fine. To reheat, just place the duck in a Ziploc bag and warm up in warm water.
DON MENDOZA

Yellow pea dahl: 250g split yellow peas (soaked overnight in water); 1tsp coriander seeds; tsp white pepper corns; 1tsp cumin seeds; tsp fennel seeds; 1 star anis; cinnamon stick; 3 cloves; 4 onions diced small; 4 cloves of garlic; 15 curry leaves; 1 stick of lemon grass; 1 apples chopped; 200ml coconut milk; Salt to taste Method 1. Roast all the seeds in a dry frying pan until they start to crackle slightly. 2. Remove and pound them in a pestle and mortar to a fine powder. 3. Add 4 tablespoons of oil to a large saucepan and add the onions, garlic and ginger. Cook until soft. 4. Add the spice powder and cook until the powder starts to stick on the pan. 5. Add the coconut milk and stir to ensure nothing is sticking to the pan. 6. Add the rest of the ingredients and a little water and cook until the peas are soft. Bitter bean pickle: 200g tamarind paste; 100ml cider vinegar; 20g sugar; 3g salt; 200g bitter bean Method 1. Place in a pan the tamarind, cider vinegar, water, sugar and salt, and bring to the boil. 2. Blanch the beans in salted water for about 3-5 minutes.

3. Drop the beans in the tamarind pickle and allow to cool to room temperature. Keep in an air tight container in the fridge. 4. The pickle is best after 3 to 5 days. Onion bhaji: 3 onions sliced (any type of onion); 60g tapioca flour; 60g rice flour; tsp cumin powder; tsp ground ginger; 300ml soy milk Method 1. Break the sliced onions up in the soy milk. And leave to soak at room temperature for a good 2 hours. 2. Mix the flours and spices. 3. Drain the onions and mix with the flour mix to make a thick batter. 4. Fry drops of the onion mix in hot oil until golden brown. Remove and season with salt. Duck leg confit 2 duck legs; Salt Method 1. Salt the duck legs for 24 hours. 2. Rinse off and cook in a sous vide machine at 72C for 48 hours. 3. Debone and skin the meat. 4. Take the skin and put it on a tray. Press the meat on top of it and leave it overnight in the fridge. 5. Remove and reheat in the sous vide machine for 10 minutes at 45C. Blow-torch the skin for a crisp finish.

If Pigs Could Fly Duck confit with yellow pea dahl, bitter bean pickle, onion bhaji and mango puree Serves 2

Today Friday November 25, 2011

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Today Friday November 25, 2011

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Today Friday November 25, 2011

T9

wine & dine

FOOD REVIEWs

wine & dine

A Garden of delight
Finally, young British chef Tim Ross-Watson has his name in lights at his new Garden Of Eden
BRITISH chef Tim Ross-Watson has been in Singapore for over three years. Yet despite his impressive resume, which lists work at some of Englands finest establishments, he has pretty much languished during his time here. He had a stint as a chef instructor at Shermays Cooking School and later on as chef at the short-lived Garage in Riverside Point. Thats not to say he lacks talent or passion for his craft. Those whove met him outside of work were often regaled with the ideas, stories and even drawings of dishes he was toying with. Others were impressed by the artistry and finesse on his plates. Now, finally, Ross-Watson has a restaurant to call his own. The Garden Of Eden is an extremely personal project for the young chef, who lives on the top floor of the shophouse in which the restaurant and bar is situated. The space is clad mostly in black, with swirly, graffiti-esque murals adorning the walls, painted by his friend and fellow Brit, artist Mark Bajade. Ross-Watsons youth (he is 27) is acutely evident here. The space, though avant garde, is a little raw around the edges. Its not quite fine dining, yet a little too formal to be the brash, insouciant establishment that it sets out to be. The service staff are earnest yet strikingly inexperienced. When presenting plates to diners, one gets the sense that they are racking their brains for the words they learnt by heart. They stutter through the descriptions, taking short, sharp breaths as if to calm themselves and slow the words that are just falling rapidfire out of their mouths. (Incidentally, the restaurant doesnt impose a service charge.) Thankfully, the food here makes up for all that. Ross-Watson re-interprets his childhood favourites with playful modernity in dishes such as BLT (S$22). This take on the classic sandwich is really a salad, flecked with morsels of fresh and dehydrated tomatoes and bacon and dots of tomato sauce. All this is artfully arranged on the plate and bound with a bread-infused olive oil dressing that ties all the flavours together. Particularly outstanding was the foie gras mousse (S$29), piped onto the plate and served with dehydrated chicken skin, dates pickled in sherry and a tangy sherry gel. The myriad textures airy, creamy foie against the brittle chicken skin and piquant accents of flavour made for a satisfying plate. The Pork Plate (S$40) was also impressive, comprised of pig cooked three ways: Belly and jowl sous vide for
Photo by Jason Ho

Vietnamese gone upscale

At the new Annam, comforting homespun fare is served in a beautiful dining room and at ritzy prices
THE latest restaurant in Les Amis evergrowing stable is Annam, a high-end Vietnamese eatery that boasts all the right elements. Beautifully modelled after a colonial Vietnamese home, the restaurants painted tiles, marble-topped tables, bright pink lotus lamps and wooden furnishings transport diners to the country. The kitchen is helmed by Vietnamborn and now Dutch citizen chef Nguyen Quoc Nam. He first made his name in Singapore at the now defunct The Lighthouse in Fullerton Hotel before moving on to other impressive stints. Before returning to start Annam, chef Nam was the executive chef of Sukhothai Hotel in Bangkok. One could say that this is a homecoming of sorts for him. Not only has he returned to a city where he has many fans, but he is also cooking the food that he knows innately well. Like most other Vietnamese restaurants, this one serves the requisite pho and spring rolls. But this is a Les Amis outfit after all, and naturally, there is a host of other lesser-known Vietnamese dishes for diners to discover and, hopefully, delight in. One of the most memorable of these was banh xeo ($22), a sizzling fried

Photos by Jason Ho

pancake flecked with prawns, pork and bean sprouts. It wasnt so much sizzling as it was delightfully crisp with a wafer-like layer of batter. If you are as unfazed by tasty fried food as I am, you will find it incredibly hard to restrain yourself with this dish. I half expected the bo la lot (S$22) or beef wrapped in betel leaf to have the same sharp, acerbic flavours. As it turned out, cooked betel leaf is much like vine leaves they have a mellow, earthy flavour and, in this dish, harboured succulent slivers of tender beef. The nem cuon Hue (S$18) or fresh spring rolls Hue-style comes with a crunchy pickled shrimp on top, offering a textural contrast to the chewy rice paper skin and the fresh vegetables within. Certainly, while Annam positions itself as an upscale restaurant, much of the food feels like comforting homespun fare. It is the prices, really, that are posh.

A bowl of beef pho, for instance (which is only served at lunch), will set you back S$28. Sure, its a relatively large bowl of pho, but it is still an expensive one. It is clean tasting and calming as it is meant to be. Aside from the high prices, the only other marring quality of the restaurant is its acoustics. When the place fills up, as it often does at mealtimes, it is near impossible to hear your dining companions without shouting. But that can be easily rectified with some carpeting, which the restaurant says it plans to put in soon. ANNETTE TAN Annam Where: 1 Scotts Road, Shaw Centre #02-11 Singapore 228 208 Telephone: 6735 6656 Website: www.annam.com.sg Opening hours: Daily noon to 2pm, 6.30pm to 9.30pm, closed on Mondays

48 hours until meltingly tender; and shredded pork cooked with pickled cabbage to offer some acidity. When a waiter comes around at dessert with a bowl of liquid nitrogen, I begin to fear that he might freeze off a finger. But though they stumble verbally, the service staff is mercifully deft with the liquid gas. In goes a spoonful of chocolate cream, which is flash frozen and placed onto our plates. A touch of raspberry jelly, a few pop rocks to provide sizzle, and some coconut cream for richness, and you have Jelly And Ice Cream (S$15), though a version not quite like any youve had before. ANNETTE TAN Garden Of Eden Where: 148 Neil Road Telephone: 6222 2119 Opening hours: Daily 7pm until late, closed on Sundays & Mondays

Today Friday November 25, 2011

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Today Friday November 25, 2011

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entertainment
ViViD-ly excited to be here

entertainment
ryoga: Great music, great stage presence complete with great looks! Im thinking of what kind of costumes to wear for our performance already. Iv: My unique smile. We promise you will not be bored no matter who you look at! Ko-ki: Iv, you always claim your smile is unique, when it is my smile that is actually the unique one! It will be like a special reunion of pen-pals who have never met each other before. It is our first time meeting our fans in Singapore, and we will like our fans to feel the bands unity and rock to our live music with us. What are you expecting for this show? Shin: We are excited to be here. It is our first time in Singapore and we want to share our music with everyone. Im sure the audience will love us cause we love them! reno: Ill get audience members excited with my guitar! Who are your music inspirations? And why those people? Shin: Any band that is rock! I started out in rock. However,ViViD is about presenting a wide range of music genres. reno: Eric Clapton, I have been listening to him since I was young. I like Daita from Siam Shade. ryoga: LArc En Ciel, theyre music is so inspirational. The pioneer rock group from Japan. Iv: JanneDaArc, I simply love them! Ko-ki: UVERworld If you have free time, how do you relax? Shin: Go for onsens. Best thing in the world. reno: Eat my favourite is ramen. I also play my guitar everyday ryoga: Go shopping for clothes or accessories Ko-ki: Go for holiday. Where do you see ViViD in 10 years time? Shin: To become Japans national band! reno: Of course, to be at the top. I just want to stun our audience with great music and a spectacular performance and one day play the Tokyo Dome. ryoga: I want our music to be heard by everyone in Japan. And ViViD becomes a band known by everyone Iv: I want to play at more shows internationally and in Japan, starting from our show at Budokan on 1 July next year. Ko-ki: Yes, I want to play at the Tokyo Dome and go on a world tour! Id like us to be a band that brings about a revolution in the world. One that can be recognised worldwide. The Sundown Festival happens tomorrow at Marina Promenade (F1 Pit Building). Doors open at 5.30pm. Limited tickets at S$138 still available from Sistic.

NO FREE LIST (CS) Session times are subject to change

The J-rock band says they cant wait to see their fans at the Sundown Festival this weekend
THEY have very stylised music videos, they dress to kill not literally, you understand when theyre onstage, and they look like Japanese comic book heroes come to life. Yes, ViViD, one of Japans newest visual kei rock bands, arent afraid to go all the way to get their music heard. Formed in early 2009, the band incorporates various elements of dramatic theatrics, as well as their strong visual impact and showmanship to promote their brand of music, dubbed melodic mixture rock, or heavy rock

combined with pop and rap. Their mini album, The Vivid Color (2009) was a Top 40 hit in Japan and their singles, such as Take Off, Precious and Blue have been fan favourites. Set to perform at the Sundown Festival tomorrow, the ViViD members Shin (vocals), Reno (guitar), Royga (guitar), Iv (bass) and Ko-ki (drums) took time off to answer our questions.
ChrISTopher Toh

We promise you will not be bored no matter who you look at. Iv

The Idols idol

Sezairi Sezalis fanboy moment with Quincy Jones

What can Singapore expect from your show? Shin: Leave it all up to us, and we promise you will enjoy yourselves. reno: Awesome music and instrument skills and a super performance! I spent a lot of time perfecting my playing technique.

IT was an opportunity that a music-lover could only dream of. Sezairi Sezali got to meet Quincy Jones when the legendary musician was in town on Monday night. While he was here, Jones, the newly-appointed chairman of the Singapore-based Asia Academy of Music Arts & Sciences spoke to students at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia. He also enjoyed an impromptu MAY SeAh performance by Singapore pop stars (and former Singapore Idol winners) Taufik Batisah, Hady Mirza and, of course, Sezairi. Hes everyones idol, whether they know it or not, because hes the man behind everything that is right now, in my opinion, Sezairi enthused. Hes the man who made Thriller what it is and hes the man who influenced the greatest pop icon of our generation (Michael Jones Jackson). Behind the Sezairi Sezali with Quincy

scenes, hes also done a lot of stuff which I can really relate to because I do a lot of stuff like songwriting as well. Jones requested to hear the Idols sing an honour that Sezairi still cant quite take in and the 24-year-old performed Maroon 5s Sunday Morning. I forgot what he said, the current National Serviceman confessed. I was hyperventilating! It may come off like a joke or something but Im really not kidding. He said it was good stuff. I just said, Thank you so much for everything. I dont know what else you can say. I didnt want to go all fanboy on him.

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HAPPY FEET 2* (G) 11.40am HAPPY FEET 2* (G) 11.20am HAPPY FEET 2* (G) 12.00 HAPPY FEET 2* (G) 12.20 1.30 3.35 7.50 9.55pm 1.45 3.50 6.40 9.10pm 10.50am 12.55 3.00 5.05 2.05 4.10 6.40 8.45 9.25 2.25 4.30 6.35 8.40pm 11.00am 1.05 3.10 5.10 10.50am 12.55 3.00 5.05 PUSS IN BOOTS* HAPPY FEET 2 - 3D* (G) HAPPY FEET 2 - 3D* (G) 7.10 9.15 11.50pm 10.50pm 7.15 9.20pm 7.10 9.15 11.20pm HAPPY FEET 2 - 3D* (G) 11.50am 5.10 7.15pm 5.20pm 4.50pm PUSS IN BOOTS* 12.35 11.00am 1.05 3.10 5.15pm HAPPY FEET 2 - 3D* (G) PUSS IN BOOTS* 10.30am PUSS IN BOOTS* 12.20 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: PUSS IN BOOTS* 10.40am PUSS IN BOOTS* 12.10 BREAKING DAWN PART 2.45pm 2.50 4.55 7.00 9.05 11.10pm 2.55 5.00 7.20 9.25 11.30pm 2.40 4.45 6.50 8.55 11.00pm 12.45 3.00 5.15 7.20 9.25 1.25 2.40 3.20 4.45 5.50 PUSS IN BOOTS* 10.45am 1* 2.40 9.20 11.50pm 11.40pm 1.45am 6.50 7.45 8.55 9.40 11.00 12.50 2.55 5.00 6.45 7.05 PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* PUSS IN BOOTS* 11.10am PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* 11.40pm PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* HAPPY FEET 2* (G) 11.50am 9.10 11.15pm 11.20 1.05 1.15 3.00 11.25am 12.35 1.20 3.15pm 11.00am 1.05 3.10 5.15pm 11.00am 1.00 2.55 7.05pm 11.25am 1.20 3.15 7.35pm 1.15 2.00 3.20 4.30 6.45 PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* THE TWILIGHT SAGA: PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* 3.10 4.55 5.05 7.00 8.55 7.45 9.25 9.50 11.55pm THE TWILIGHT SAGA: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1* BREAKING DAWN PART 1* 12.10 2.05 4.00 6.05 8.00pm 11.00am 1.05 3.10 7.30pm 9.50 10.50 11.45pm 12.45 HAPPY FEET 2 - 3D* (G) BREAKING DAWN PART 1* BREAKING DAWN PART 1* 11.30am 2.00 4.30 7.00 10.45am 1.15 3.45 6.15 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: 1.40am 12.30 4.50 6.55pm THE TWILIGHT SAGA: 9.30pm 12.00am 11.15am 1.45 4.15 6.45 11.00am 1.30 4.00 7.20 6.40 8.45 9.30 11.15pm BREAKING DAWN PART 1* BREAKING DAWN PART 1* PUSS IN BOOTS* 10.35am 12.00 1.45am PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* 9.15 9.55 11.45pm 12.15am 8.45 11.15pm IMMORTALS* 12.30 2.50 12.30 2.25 2.35 4.20 6.15 11.00am 1.30 2.25 4.00 10.45am 1.15 3.45 6.15 5.05 7.20 9.35 11.15pm 10.55am 12.50 4.50 6.45pm IMMORTALS* 2.30 4.45 8.10 9.10 10.05 11.20pm IMMORTALS* 2.20 4.35 IMMORTALS* 12.30 2.45 7.00 9.15 11.30pm 1.45am 4.45 6.30 7.05 9.00 9.55 7.20 8.45 9.40 11.15pm 12.00am ALREADY FAMOUS*+ MAND THE TWILIGHT SAGA: 7.40 9.25 11.25pm 12.00am 5.05 7.20 9.35 11.50pm 11.30pm 12.15am 12.00am 11.50pm BISHAN JUNCTION 8 PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* BREAKING DAWN PART 1* IMMORTALS* 12.15 2.30 11.15am 1.35 3.30 5.25 IMMORTALS* 12.40 2.55 HAPPY FEET 2* (G) 11.30am 12.00 1.50 2.20 7.30 9.25 11.35pm 4.45 7.00 9.15 9.50 11.40pm 5.10 7.25 9.40 11.55pm 10.55am 1.00 3.05 5.10 4.10 4.20 4.40 6.30 7.15 7.20 9.25pm THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ALREADY FAMOUS*+ MAND IMMORTALS - 3D* 12.10am BREAKING DAWN PART 1* 7.30 8.50 9.40 11.10pm PUSS IN BOOTS* 11.50am 4.20pm 12.10am 10.30am 12.00 12.50 3.10 12.00 1.30 2.20am 2.45 4.50 7.15 9.20 11.25pm 4.30 5.25 5.30 6.50 7.50 PUSS IN BOOTS - 3D* IMMORTALS* 11.45am HAPPY FEET 2 12.15 3.00pm HAPPY FEET 2 11.00am 10.10pm 12.30am More movie choices and session 10.40am 12.55 3.00 5.05pm 2.00 4.15 9.20 9.35pm IMMORTALS* 10.45am PUSS IN BOOTS 10.30am 12.45 6.30 8.50pm THE TWILIGHT SAGA: times are available at all THE TWILIGHT SAGA: 12.00 2.15am 1.00 3.15 5.30 6.45 7.45 BREAKING DAWN PART 1 BREAKING DAWN PART 1* GV cinemas. Please log on to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 10.00 11.30pm 12.15am 11.00am 1.30 4.00 6.30 1.20 4.10 7.00 9.45pm IMMORTALS - 3D* 9.00pm 11.00am 1.45 4.30 7.15 10.15pm 1.00am www.gv.com.sg for full listings. IMMORTALS - 3D* 2.35 7.10 9.00 9.40 11.30pm 12.30am + 9.00pm 12.10am ALREADY FAMOUS* MAND IMMORTALS 3.30 10.00pm 12.40am IMMORTALS* 12.45 3.00 KAIJI 2: THE ULTIMATE 12.15am 2.40am IMMORTALS | M18 | Violence & Sexual Scene, THE TWILIGHT 5.15 7.30 9.45 11.50pm GAMBLER*+ JPN 11.50am ALREADY FAMOUS*+ MAND 11.05pm
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Today Friday November 25, 2011

T2

wine & dine

Dealing with the holiday stuff

Thanksgiving happens this weekend and Christmas is around the corner. Are you ready for all that feasting?
ASK Crazy Legs Conti, a professional eater, what he thinks of your average Thanksgiving feaster, and you can almost hear him choke. I call Thanksgiving amateur hour, said Conti, 40, who weighs 215 pounds (97.5kg) and is Americas reigning sweetcorn-eating champion. Not to disparage: I want them to enjoy it, I want them to enjoy their meal. But the truth is, I watch every morsel of food I put in my body year round. That may be rich coming from a man who recently devoured 115 shrimp wontons in 8 minutes at a competition in Singapore. (He lost.) But there is a kernel of truth in Contis pride in controlling his appetites. Many of us are, in fact, rookies around Thanksgiving, which is essentially a statesponsored, socially acceptable binge with predictable, almost universal results: Bloated bellies, wider waistlines and outgunned couches. So how can you avoid the agony of overeating while still enjoying the stuffing? Can you actually prepare for overindulgence, so that third helping doesnt lay you out flat? And what do you do when you inevitably eat too much? First, the bad news. While specialists say handling a big meal is easy for them (I can look at a turkey the way that a Terminator looks at something: I can scan it, Conti said), theres really no easy way for the rest of us to prepare our bodies for gluttony. Fasting the day before, for example, doesnt work. It might make room in your stomach, but it

Photo: Getty images

also increases your appetite to the point where gorging is all but inevitable. But can you train to get your gullet ready for the battle? Maybe, but you should have started long before. Lawrence R Kosinski, a committee chairman of the American Gastroenterological Association and a private practitioner in Chicago, said that if you really wanted to, you could stretch your stomachs capacity (normally about

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Indeed, Overeaters Anonymous often sees its attendance spike in January, as anxietyprovoking social situations push some members off the wagon.

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1.4 litres) by consistently overeating. But that would take a lot of food and time. You really cant do it over a couple of days, Kosinski said. That being said, there are ways to survive the intestinal onslaught, most of which, like any good disaster plan, involve preparation, containment of the damage and the strength to rebuild. Doctors, psychologists and experts in overeating all say that mental preparation is crucial to creating willpower, which can be hard to come by when you are suddenly staring down that perfect triple-layered chocolate-dipped cheesecake. With whip. Venues that are typically foodfree zones light up like pinball machines around the holidays, said Cynthia Bulik, a clinical psychologist and the director of the University of North Carolina Eating Disorders Program. Bulik says that as bad as the feeling of being overfull can be, the guilt over those trips to the pie table can last far longer. Its not just the pounds, she said. It is the self-pounding that people put themselves through for having that extra dessert or taking that second helping of stuffing. Indeed, Overeaters Anonymous often sees its meetings attendance spike in January, as anxiety-provoking food and social situations push some members off the wagon. Not surprisingly, members have developed a variety of tactics to fend off food, including a kind of fake-out

whereby one keeps an eager host at bay by constantly having full hands a diet soda in the left, a plate of nice lean veggies in the right. Other members suggested taking a tablespoon or so of everything, dodging trigger foods, practicing a polite no, thank you, attending extra meetings during the holidays or even bringing their sponsors to the feast. Then theres plain old lying. So you just say, Im full, or Ive already had some, said Naomi Lippel, the groups managing director. Or even Im allergic. Some people say they try to limit their indulgence by eating sensibly-sized pre-meal meals earlier in the day. This makes you less likely to gorge you are already full, after all but runs the risk of making you seem rude. (What do you mean youre not hungry?) Others rely on deception, keeping their plates just full enough to prevent eager hosts from piling on seconds. There are even a few people out there who practice something called moderation, though it doesnt sound like fun. Lippel also offered a sentimental option, saying that for some, the secret to not overdoing it is taking the focus off the food and making it about the people: The people they are with and the people that they love. Because thats what the holidays really are about. Aww. >> Continued on T4

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T4

wine & dine

Dealing with the holiday stuff
>> Continued from T2 Theres also more hard-nosed analysis. Conti, ever the pragmatist, said that what is in your glass is almost as important as whats on your plate. Beverage accompaniment is critical, he said. You dont want to go for things that are going to fill your stomach with carbonation. So if youre going to drink beer, in other words, make sure its flat. Not that drinking is a great idea anyway. Bulik and other doctors said that boozing (the beer before the meal, the wine during dinner and the eggnog any time) simply loosens up eating inhibitions, not to mention your opinions of your inlaws. But after youve eaten too much, and you will, what can you do? A little exercise will help: A walk, a game of table tennis, anything Wii. Consider this, however: When this reporter fed a potential, and kind of paltry, Thanksgiving meal into a calorie calculator, results suggested that a 69km walk would be needed to burn it off. (Thats Jurong to Pasir Ris. And back. And then some.) The good news, Kosinski said, is that most healthy people can actually manage a big meal, though how the human body handles such an onslaught is both impressive and slightly alarming. An average Thanksgiving feast, for example, can come in at anywhere from 3,500 to 4,500 calories, about twice the average days intake. And to deal with that surge, the body responds by sending about 20 per cent of the blood in your body to your stomach area. Its a huge assault on the GI tract, Dr Kosinski said. So people get tired. But not for long. Why? Well, in one of the small ironies of the intestines, the body responds to the torrent of food by producing insulin, which stimulates you guessed it your appetite. Its one reason that a turkey sandwich sounds so good after you wake up from your tryptophan nap. So as you are downing a plate of mashed potatoes as a palate cleanser between your two dessert courses, you might take solace in the knowledge that pretty much everyone overeats, even those whose figure is their future. Hilary Rhoda, a 24-year-old model for Estee Lauder, said she spends Thanksgiving in Maryland with her family, whose traditional dish is sauerkraut on mashed sweet potatoes. (Its a German thing.) Rhoda, who is partial to dark meat and pumpkin pie, says every year starts with nibbling in the kitchen and groaning on the couch. Every year I say to myself Im going to try to not overeat, that Im going to pace myself, she said. It never ends up working. Perhaps the most foolproof method of avoiding a turkey coma came from B J Raji, aka the Freezer, the large-and-incharge nose tackle for the Green Bay Packers. Raji, whose official weight is listed, politely, at 153kg, said that even he has to pace himself during Thanksgiving dinner, but that he never goes overboard with the roasted bird. How does he do it? Simple, he said: Im a ham man. THE NEW YORK TIMES

This rounds on ...

CelinaTan
Boozy conversations about what makes people smile

THEY say never mix business with pleasure, but for husband-and-wife team Kok and Celina of Celinas GastroBar at 51 Duxton Road, its a combination that actually works. They made the big switcheroo from their respective jobs in the IT/education and banking industries in favour of opening their very own gastrobar. Kok and I have been in our respective industries for more than 20 years and we were looking for something different to do, something we have a passion for and something we could do together, shared the 47-year-old mother of two. Weve always liked the bar scene ... But its not so easy to find a nice chill-out bar with atmosphere and still get good and tasty food. And since we love to cook, and to drink, a gastrobar seemed the natural choice. The couple, who first met in the National University of Singapore back in 1984, are very passionate about what they do, and extremely friendly with their customers. Celina even has fun manager as her official designation. All my banker friends laugh at me, but Im really the fun manager! I organise fun events for the bar, what! she quipped. GENEVIEVE LOH Whats your favourite poison? What we like to drink depends on our mood, who we are with and whether theres food to accompany our drink. I generally like to drink wines and sakes with some food and Kok will always have his whisky after a nice meal. I love cocktails while mingling. And champagne. Who doesnt like a chilled crisp champagne Gonet Blanc de Noir no matter what the circumstance.

sake vendor.We were sharing a lovely bottle of fresh sake-Usu-nigori. Its a slightly cloudy sake with some bubbles and fruit notes. It paired really well with the pate that Kok makes. (Its) very unconventional, but made so much sense. So together we continued to explore other less conventional sake and food pairings, and (the vendor) found some flavourful sakes to go with cheeses I selected. Just as the right sake can go well with non-Asian food, some wines can also pair well with the spicy Asian food. Whats the weirdest food and drink pairing youve come across? That would have to be sake and blue cheese. I was truly amazed how well it pairs. An original cocktail youre particularly proud of? Chi-Chis wine cocktail. This is a drink Kok designed for a nice Japanese customer who was looking for a chill-out bar she felt comfortable hanging out at. Four months into Singapore, she was missing a drink she used to have in Japan. She liked the cocktail so much we decided to name it after her. Since then, its become a very popular cocktail in our bar. We are now working on a white wine and elderflower version of this drink. Fill in the blanks: I drink Champagne when life is good; whisky to forget the bad times; and Chardonnay when contemplating new gastrobar events. Favourite drink after a hard days slog in the kitchen? Has to be chilled, refreshing and easily accessible ... For me it would be a chilled glass of unoaked Chardonnay, for Kok a nice very cold beer.

Have another Christmas cookie. After all, its only a tiny little cookie, right?

How did you come up with the idea to pair cheese and sake? It was actually while having drinks with our

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T 13

Cars
nEWSTrACK

Cars
CAr rEVIEW helmet roof and all but suffice it to say, Minis taken the visual volume and turned it up to 11. With underpinnings taken from the Mini Cabriolet reinforced for more speed and the familiar 1.6-litre turbocharged engine endemic to Cooper S Mini variants, its no mere show pony. Although its heavier than the hatchback, despite fewer seats and doors, the Coupe offers a condensed, more purposeful drive. Heavier steering and better high-speed manners means its good on both tight and wide paths, with the slightly hyperactive Mini handling character preserved too. What doesnt add to the experience is the noise, with tyre rumble and transmission whine that could become grating on long trips. The car comes with a choice of six-speed manual or automatic transmissions, the latter we tested here is starting to feel a little slow, too. The inside is pure Mini, with an idiosyncratic control scheme, theres enough space for two, though cargo room is at a premium. A small ski hatch connects to the 280-litre boot for some extra room. Rivals like the Peugeot RCZ and Volkswagen Scirocco offer more refinement and space, though arguably less visceral enjoyment. Minis aim at a highly emotional place, and this one packs lots of punch in a special, two-up package.
DErryn WonG

Goh Mia Chun

Mini Cooper S Coupe

Engine: 1,598cc i4 turbocharged, 184bhp & 260Nm Performance: 247kmh, 0-100kmh in 7.1 seconds, 6.7L/100km Price: S$173,800 with COE

Electric boost
If all electric vehicles were like Audis A1 e-tron range extender vehicle, we should be very happy
Daryl Lee in Hakone, Japan
features@mediacorp.com.sg

Around the world on two-wheels Want to know how to, or what its like to travel the world by motorcycle? Singaporean adventurer Goh Mia Chun did just that in 2008 and hell be presenting his story at *Scape on Nov 26, 4pm as part of the DBS Remix Inbranch Series events. Bike-care specialists Motul will also be dishing out tips on how to keep your ride clean. Goodie bags will be given to the first 30 attendees. Admission is free, but RSVP to dbsremix@ dbs.com to reserve a spot. Harley-Davidson supports Movember Harley-Davidson will, fittingly, be riding in support of the Singapore Cancer Society (SCS) and the global Movember movement, which aims to spread awareness about cancers that specifically affect men. A convoy ride will be held to the Movember Gala Party at Zouk on Nov 26. Tickets cost S$15 from the SCS. Celebrate 35 years of GTI Volkswagen is holding an anniversary party to commemorate 35 years of the hot hatch performance icon, the Golf GTI. The event will run on Nov 26 and 27 from 10am to 8pm and includes a showcase of GTIs, including the rare Mark 1, as well as the new model, the Golf GTI E35. VW will also have special prices on its cars and merchandise. Register at www.gti35.sg for early bird specials.

The littlest coupe

Minis first two-seater delivers more on-road thrills and out-there styling, but at a price
MINI is the sort of brand thats designed to evoke a response. What with the riot of stripes, cheques and other addons available to customers, Mini can be accused of some things, but boring doesnt come into it. While the regular Mini hatchback is hardly staid, the newest member of Minis fast-expanding family (see sidebar) aims to take the fun factor up another notch. The two-seat, two-door Mini Coupe is exactly what it sounds like: The German-owned British brands take on a small sports car. Its immediately recognisable, not in least because its remained nearly unchanged from concept form shown in Frankfurt in 2009, with low-slung style and a distinctively-chopped rear end. Well not presume everyone likes it what with the Darth Vader-esque

Minis expanding family

Mini has grown from being a one-model niche brand to one offering some truly usable alternatives to mainstream cars. Before the Coupe, the two models it released focused more heavily on providing space and practicality. The Clubman is a slightly larger version of the regular hatch, but with an extra small door on the right hand side and saloon-style rear doors, rather than a hatchback. The Countryman, Minis sport utility vehicle, was launched earlier this year and is its first model with five-door practicality.

WHILE the benefits of electric vehicles (EVs) are legion zero tailpipe emissions, silent running, punchy acceleration, etc they arent free from warts. The electricity itself has to come from somewhere clean, while EVs have to make compromises in terms of space to hold big, heavy batteries. But does it cast a shadow on all vehicles electric? Not if the Audi A1 e-tron has anything to say about it. On the surface, its pretty much business as usual: A 61bhp electric motor with an overboost function (102bhp, for short periods) powers the front wheels. When we tested it on a short, closed loop of Hakones wonderful driving roads, it handles as an EV should instant acceleration, no gears to mess with, and surprising speed all in a hushed silence. Well, nearly: We still could hear the muted thrum of what sounds like a portable petrol-powered generator coming from somewhere in the boot.

Hold on a minute, you say, isnt this supposed to be an EV whats with the petrol generator? Well, its an EV of a rather different breed, and it comes fitted with a range extender, basically a tiny 254cc petrol engine whose sole purpose is to top up the A1s batteries, not turn the wheels. Just how tiny is it? It fits in the space usually taken up by a spare wheel. This ace-in-the-hole gives the e-tron a theoretical range of 250km a whopping 200km over the rather paltry 50km it would travel on its bank of lithium-ion batteries alone. And its helpful when you dont have three hours to wait for them to charge. This also alleviates whats known in industry parlance as range anxiety (kind of like the feeling you get when your iPhone is low on juice and you need to make an urgent call). But greenies still shouldnt fret. Despite the addition of an internal combustion engine, Audi says it emits just 45g/km of carbon dioxide, or roughly half that of a Toyota Prius.

The A1 e-trons only spent a year in development, says e-tron product strategy manager Heiko Seegatz, so its still at a very early stage.Yet it certainly is a mouth-watering prospect a (near) zero emissions EV motoring minus the associated range panic along with almost uncompromised practicality and drivability. The A1 e-tron wont be the first e-tron (Audis term for its EVs) to be sold to the public. That distinction goes to the 313bhp R8 sports car-based EV due to be launched at the end of 2012 and with an A3 e-tron also in the pipeline. This is only the beginning with Seegatz saying any next-generation Audi could be an e-tron, engineered specifically with an eye towards electrification along with conventional power sources, thereby possibly eliminating the compromises usually associated with EVs. This segues very nicely with its plan to be the worlds largest manufacturer of premium EVs by 2020.

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things to do
oktos WHOA! Event Indulge in a weekend of family fun at oktos Weekend Hall of Awesomeness (WHOA!). Look forward to live shows, photo-taking sessions, obstacle courses and a DC superheroes exhibition. Rub shoulders with the stars of okto, such as the cast from Dream School and hosts from Knockout, Sheikh Haikel and Annabel Francis. Be the first to catch members of the all-new Mat Yoyo cast this Friday at 1.30pm and 4pm only at oktos WHOA! Present your copy of Today and get 15 per cent off tickets at all Sistic outlets.
Until Sunday, 11.30am to 8.30pm, The Max Pavilion, Singapore Expo. Tickets at S$10 each or S$30 for four from Sistic. www.xinmsn.com/oktowhoa

Ng Woon Lam: Watercolour and Oil Painting Exhibition Catch this solo exhibition of internationally-acclaimed artist Ng Woon Lams latest watercolour and oil paintings in a unique setting which shows how all five senses, not just sight, can be actively used in viewing art. Exhibits include a painting of Little India presented together with fragrant snacks

and spices, for instance. Ng is the first Singaporean to win a medal at the prestigious American Watercolour Society Annual International Show and currently teaches at the Nanyang Technological Universitys School of Art, Design and Media.
Today, 5.30pm to 7.30pm, tomorrow until Dec 2, 10am to 5.30pm daily, The Art Gallery, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. Free admission. www.ngwoonlam.com

tasting. Call 6735 4036 or email grace@CarrieKRocks.com to book tasting slots.

Twos Company: ShiLi and Adi Known for their impressive repertoire of chart toppers, jazz favourites, R&B tunes and rock classics, ShiLi and Adi have been charming the local music scene with their refreshing take on beloved covers, creative arrangements and medleys of popular numbers. Sit back, relax, and let the duo take you on a musical experience like no other.
Today, 7.30pm, 8.45pm and 10pm, Esplanade Outdoor Theatre. Free admission. www.esplanade.com

WSSA 2011 Asian Open Sport Stacking Championships Witness more than 200 individuals of all ages compete in this championship, where they will be aiming to complete pre-determined sport stacking sequences in the fastest time possible. In sport stacking, participants stack and unstack 12 specially designed cups at lightning speed. Cheer for the Singapore team as they compete against top-notch stackers from seven Asian countries including Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and China to set the inaugural WSSA Asian record.
Tomorrow, 9am to 6pm, Kensington Ballroom, Serangoon Gardens Country Club. Free admission.

UPCOMING Keepers A Showcase of Artisans Carrie K , Singaporean silversmith and jewellery designer, opens her atelier for the inaugural Keepers event a quarterly showcase of independent designers and artisans. Apart from Carrie K Jewellery, leather bags from Sul:Three and clothing by local designer YuMuMu will also be showcased. Guests can sample truffles prepared on the spot by Truffs and, for S$20, taste a range of champagnes from independent importer Lollapalooza.
Tomorrow, 2pm to 7pm, Carrie K Atelier, 136 Bukit Timah Road. Free admission, S$20 for champagne

Celebrate 2012 with Channel 5 Featuring Canadian pop-rock sensation These Kids Wear Crowns, Malaysian pop diva Siti Nurhaliza, Singapore Idols Sezairi Sezali and Sylvia Ratonel, as well as Sheikh Haikel and many more, this years countdown show promises to entertain with a greater variety of music than ever. Hosted by Gurmit Singh and Michelle Chia, usher in the New Year with a series of live performances followed by a spectacular fireworks display by the Bay. Then, take to the dance floor as DJ Thryce and DJ Vault spin your favourite beats to continue seven hours of non-stop partying.
Dec 31, 8pm to 3am, The Float@ Marina Bay. Tickets at S$25 from Sistic, 20 per cent discount for five or more tickets, 10 per cent off for students and NSFs, and 50 per cent off for children aged 12 and below and senior citizens. xinmsn.com/celebrate2012

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difficulTY raTing:

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how To plaY
The rules are easy. Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.
CopyrighT uCliCk

YesTerdaYs soluTion

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t 16 on mediacorp
10.00 Legend Of The Seeker II (Season Finale) MN Survivor XXIII: South Pacific (Encore) 1.00AM CSI IX 2.00 The Noose 2.30 India: A Love Story 3.30 Chase 4.00 The Dr Oz Show 5.00 The Martha Stewart Show VI

on mediacorp sinGapore radio awards (live)

Channel 5, 7.30pm
6.00AM Seriously Funny Kids 6.30 AM Live! 9.00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show IX 10.00 The Dr Oz Show 11.00 Americas Funniest Home Videos XX 11.30 Great Ideas From JML 1 2.30PM Parental Guidance 1.00 First Touch 2.00 The Two Of Us

CHANNEL
3.00 The Dr Oz Show 4.00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show IX 5.00 Video Zonkers 5.30 Unbeatable Banzuke 6.00 India: A Love Story 7.00 Americas Funniest Home Videos XXI 7.30 Singapore Radio Awards (Live) 9.30 News 5 Tonight

HUman planet (pG-Graphic Visuals)

okto, 9pm
This episode looks at the ingenious survival techniques used by people who live in rainforests, home to more species of plants and animals than any other habitat on Earth. The Matis of Brazil carve blowpipes to hunt monkeys in near total silence. Deep in the Congo forest, a man scales a giant tree and negotiates a swarm of bees to collect honey for his family.

CHANNEL
The Singapore Radio Awards honours our talents in radio with a total of 19 awards, including Most Popular Radio Personalities, Most Creative Radio Trailer, Best Radio Show, Best Newcomer and Most Stylish Radio Personality. Get set for a night of great entertainment and excitement in this first-ever television event, hosted by Justin Ang and Vernon A.
6.00AM 6.30 7.00 10.00 NOON 1 2.30PM 1.00 1.30 2.00 Dont Worry Be Happy 2 Battle Of The Best III Good Morning Singapore The Perfumed Arrow Trivia Trove 2 Destroyed In Seconds News 8 At One Of Rites And Rituals Secrets Of Soup 2.30 3.30 4.30 5.30 6.30 7.00 My Teacher, My Friend Golden Age Talentime 2011 Pay It Forward Mrs P.I. Singapore Today Kampong Ties (PG-Some Violence) 8.00 Buffet Buffet 2 8.30 Crimewatch 2011 9.00 A Song To Remember (PG) 10.00 News Tonight 10.30 Frontline 11.00 Golden Ferris Wheel (PG) MN On The Fringe 11 (PG-Some Violence) 1.00AM Immortal Love (Last Episode) 3.00 Invincible Warriors 4.00 Golden Ferris Wheel

paayUm pUli
Vasantham, 9pm

BarBie: princess cHarm scHool

okto, 6.30pm
Blair Willows, a 17-year-old commoner in the kingdom of Gardania, wins a lottery to attend a prestigious and magical school for princesses. She befriends fellow classmates Hadley and Isla, two inquisitive young princesses, but is tormented by the mean-spirited Princess Delancy, who resents Blairs natural poise and grace. When Hadley and Isla hear about a Princess Sophia who disappeared years before, they suspect that Blair might be the long-lost heir to the throne of Gardania. Whimsical and spritely, this animated fairy tale reminds us that anyone can be noble.
1 1.00AM 3.00PM 5.00 6.00 7.00 Home Shopping Daughters In Law 100% Entertainment When A Dog Loves A Cat The Great Queen Seon Deok

CHANNEL
8.00 Diamond Club 9.00 Ladies First 10.00 The Threshold Of A Persona (PG) 11.00 News Tonight 11.30 The Fugitive: Plan B 1 2.45AM 1.45 2.45 3.45 Paladins In Troubled Times Ladies First 100% Entertainment Close

9.00AM Sunshine Station 9.30 Little Princess

(prescHool) (prescHool)

10.00 LazyTown (prescHool) 10.30 Little Robots (prescHool) 11.00 Sunshine Station 11.30 City Of Friends NOON The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That! 1 2.30PM Hi-5 (prescHool) 1.00 Sunshine Station 1.30 Thomas & Friends 2.00 Mr Moon (prescHool)
(prescHool) (prescHool) (prescHool) (prescHool) (prescHool)

2.30 3.00 3.30 4.00 4.30 5.00 5.30 6.00 6.30 8.30 9.00

ON SINGTEL MIO TV

10.00 MN

Chuggington (prescHool) Art Factory Kids Rock Record Breakers Singapore Edition Sketch The Jungle Book Monster Allergy oktoLIVE! okto @ The Movies: Barbie: Princess Charm School Inside Life: Gobies (Rock Climbing Fish) Human Planet (PG-Graphic Visuals) Agatha Christies Marple Towards Zero Close

4.00PM 5.00 6.00 6.30 7.00 8.00 8.30 10.30 11.00 11.30 MN

Ku Milikmu Semanis Janji Khayalan II Periuk Malaysia, Belanga Brunei Bola Cinta Berita Tarikh Kematian Iris M.A.N. Berita Close

When his sister is killed by a smuggler, a mentally impaired man vows to deliver justice and joins a martial arts school. After training hard to become a master fighter, he takes on a new identity, Paayum Puli (Pouncing Tiger), and sets off for revenge. However, he meets a beautiful woman who puts a hitch in his plans.

ON STARHUB CABLE TV

maHaraja lawak meGa

Astro Ria (mio TV Ch 34), 10pm
Watch professional comedians from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore battle one another. Your Friday nights will never be the same again.

3.00PM 3.30 4.00 4.30 5.00

Anjaraipetti II Sathy Leelavathi Silanthi Jeeva Chinna Papa Periya Papa

5.30 6.00 6.30 7.30 8.00

Karka Tamil D For Dancer Chuttis Club Ha Ha Ha Sirippu Anandha Bhavan

8.30 Tamil Seithi 9.00 Vasantham Box Office: Paayum Puli MN Tamil Seithi 1 2.30AM Close

BakUman
6.00AM 6.30 7.00 9.00 9.38 10.00 10.33 11.00 11.33 NOON 1 2.32PM 1.02 1.32 2.00 2.33 3.00 3.32 4.00 Asian Home News AM Live! Early Edition AM Live! Asia Today World Watch World Today Expat Asia World Today Asian Home News World Today World Watch Insight Taxi To Asia Asia Today AM Live! Bite-size Asia Today Scene.City-Singapore Asia Today 4.33 5.00 5.32 6.02 6.32 7.00 8.02 9.00 9.31 10.00 10.31 11.00 11.31 MN 1 2.31AM 1.01 1.31 2.00 World Watch Asia Market Report Mind Your Money BlogTV.sg VI Super Science II Primetime Asia Being A Child Primetime News Get Rea! X Singapore Tonight Asia Business Tonight Asia Tonight Talking Point World Tonight Get Rea! X Singapore Tonight Asia Business Tonight Full Page Headlines

E City (StarHub TV Ch 825), 12am

From the same creative team behind popular manga Death Note, Bakuman tells the story of Moritaka, a high school student who aspires to become a famous manga artist. With the help of his love, Akito, who is a voice actress, he sets out to make his dream a reality.

Headlines

12.30pm, 1pm, 1.30pm, 3.30pm, 5.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pm, 8pm, 9.30pm, 10.30pm, 11.30pm, 12.30am, 1am, 1.30am
Headlines/spore Updates

9.30am, 11.30am, 2.30pm, 4.30pm

Headlines/ sinGapore market report

10.30am Programmes may be pre-empted due to breaking news

Homeland season 1
Season Pass (mio TV Ch 731), New Episode Every Tuesday, Anytime On Demand
An American soldier presumed killed in Iraq returns 10 years after he went missing. The relationship between Carrie and Brody becomes more complicated when they head to the countryside for the weekend; Mike and Jessica face the fallout of the truth about their relationship; and Saul catches Aileen on the run to Mexico.

red
HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601), 10pm
The peaceful life of Frank Moses, a former blackops CIA agent, is interrupted when an assassin shows up, intent on killing him. With his secret identity compromised and his love interest in danger, Frank reassembles his old team to stay alive and figure out who is out to get them.

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Today is published by MediaCorp Press Ltd, Caldecott Broadcast Centre, Annex Building, Level 1, Andrew Road, Singapore 299939 Tel: 6333 3888. Printed by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd, 57, Loyang Drive, Singapore 508968. Tel: 65432222