Jakarta village residents go green and make money

The Jakarta Post 4 Apr 08;

Piles of garbage dumped by residents in a field near Kampung Toplang in Tegal Alur subdistrict, West Jakarta, used to be burned or left to rot, polluting the area and harming the kampung children who play in the field.

But last year, a group of unemployed men from the kampung built a bamboo hut on the field, where they make compost out of the organic waste and sort the nonorganic recyclable waste to be resold.

The men, who call themselves "Perkumpulan Hijau" (Green Club), have not only been reducing the waste piles in the area -- they have also been making at least Rp 1 million (US$109) a month from their kampung's waste.

One Green Club member, Abdul Radi, had only been interested in making some money at first but was later amazed they could turn more than 80 percent of the kampung's daily waste into useful compost and money.

"I started to think we could actually clear away piles of garbage throughout all Tegal Alur, and even throughout the whole city," he said.

A few months ago, Radi asked the Tegal Alur subdistrict chief to allow the Green Club to give simple training to residents in the area so they could do the same in their kampungs.

The chief did not give a positive response. Rather, he told the club to stop their activities because they were using other people's land.

"The chief didn't understand our point. We plan to keep on going, but it's not going to be easy spreading the message because people tend to listen to their leader," said the father of two.

Radi resolved to continue his club's campaign, planning to run in the next election for chief of the community unit.

"By becoming a leader, I can reach many more residents," he said.

The Green Club was pioneered by Berkah Gamulya and Jamaludin. The two, who are better known as Mul and Jamal, were concerned about the waste problem and wanted to help the poor people in the area.

They had been working together advocating on behalf of the city's poor at the Urban Poor Consortium in the early 2000s. They met again in late 2006, when Jamal was running a waste recycling business in Tegal Alur.

"Jamal told me about the situation in the kampung and together we started to build the kampung people's awareness of the waste problem," said Mul, a 29-year-old man from Dumai, Riau.

"We started by approaching those in the community with the most urgent problem, (that is) the need for money. We hung out with young unemployed men, and once in a while in our conversations, we raised the idea of making money from the garbage," said Jamal, who is in his 30s.

In early 2007, a dozen young men got interested in the idea and with Jamal and Mul built the bamboo hut, which they call Rumah Kompos (Compost House).

They make compost from the waste using the simplest and cheapest technique they could find on the Internet. They put chopped waste into piles and turn them upside down once every three days, turning the waste into compost in 45 days.

The club gives the compost to residents to use in their gardens, and they make money by selling the nonorganic waste, such as paper, glass and cans, to Jamal.

After several months Jamal and Mul handed the club over to the residents, who have gained confidence in asking local households to pre-sort their garbage and offering to buy the waste.

"The plan was for the residents to become self-sufficient in saving their environment. Now, we only give advice once in a while," said Mul.

He said his dream was to reduce waste as much as possible, especially in areas where poor people live, and free the city from piling garbage.

"There are many organizations and communities doing the same, on an even larger scale and using more sophisticated techniques than us," he said.

"Together we can all clean the city, it's not impossible."

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Best of our wild blogs: 6 Apr 08

Javan Myna chick release
from Bird Ecology Study Group blog

The Truth Makes Things Difficult, But Untruths Can Be Fatal
on the Hell Hath No Fury Like Nature Scorned blog

Recycling at Home through the National Recycling Programme
on the SG Recycle blog

Photographing nature at the magical hour
on the budak blog

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Why are we going back to coal?

This Governments antediluvian policy of backing a new coal-fired power station is absurd
Camilla Cavendish, Times Online 3 Apr 08;

Fashionable though it is to rail against plastic bags - our own Prime Minister recently penned a Daily Mail assault on this incarnate evil - the climate change battle will not be won by the phoney war on bags, light bulbs and bottled water.

It is energy supply that will determine how quickly Britain goes green. Rather than trying to herd millions of individual consumers into taking tiny steps, the Government could change energy supply with one stroke of the pen. But the pen seems to be doodling wildly at the margins of the page.

There are only two things that will determine whether the world can step back from climate change havoc. One is forests, which are disappearing at an alarming rate and which act as “sinks” for carbon dioxide. The other is coal. If we burn all the coal that is in the ground, and let its filthy emissions out into the atmosphere, we won't be feeling genteel guilt in 20 years' time, but raw fear.

So it is extraordinary that the Government is trying to rush through a new generation of coal-fired power stations. Coal produces almost three times as much carbon dioxide per unit of electricity as gas. The shift from coal to gas in the 1980s accounts for almost all the progress Britain has made on reducing emissions. But John Hutton, the Energy Minister, has been bending over backwards to help the energy company E.ON to build a new plant at Kingsnorth, Kent, which now has planning permission.

Memos leaked to Greenpeace show that Mr Hutton's servile officials have pretty much let E.ON write the contract for what will be the first coal plant for 24 years. The contract does not require that E.ON should make Kingsnorth Britain's first demonstration project for carbon capture and storage technology (CCS). Yet that would be the only possible justification for building it.

CCS offers the hope of dramatically reducing emissions from power stations, by extracting carbon dioxide from coal and pumping it underground. Given that the world is set to burn a great deal of coal in the next 20 years, half of it in India and China, it is vital to prove the technology as fast as possible.

The Government is running a competition to build a small CCS demonstration project to be in operation by 2014. If that worked, it could then be scaled up to Kingsnorth size. But Kingsnorth is due to open in 2012. All eight of the coal-fired power stations now in the pipeline would have to be retro-fitted with the technology, at vast expense to the taxpayer, after they had already started polluting. The rush should be to test CCS, not to build plants that could become white elephants.

That is the view of other countries: California will not allow new coal plants without CCS. Canada has ruled that all coal plants must have CCS by 2018, built at their own expense.

Britain's antediluvian coal rush is provoking furious rows in Whitehall. Hilary Benn's department is livid that it has responsibility for environment but not energy and that while it begs energy companies to insulate grannies' homes, Mr Hutton gladhands them through the planning system. Downing Street is increasingly irritated by the muddle.

Gordon Brown ignored an aggressive memo from Mr Hutton earlier this year, which urged him not to sign the EU target on renewables. When Mr Brown stood firm, Mr Hutton's junior minister Baroness Vadera unbelievably lobbied EU ministers to treat coal (with CCS) as a “renewable” energy. Even E.ON is so fed up with ministerial dither that it has now called for a delay while it discusses “capture readiness” - a meaningless fudge but one that suits both sides.

It seems odd that a Government that talks tough on climate change is trying to turn the clock back on coal. But then this is a Government that only two years ago created the UK Coal Forum, a government- sponsored lobby whose sole purpose is to campaign for coal. The issue has opened up a seam of sympathy for old mining constituencies.

But that is not the ostensible reason for Kingsnorth. Ministers talk, first, about keeping the lights on - an argument that would be more credible if there were not already 32 gigawatts of gas and wind power planned to fill an “energy gap” of between 14 and 22GW. Secondly, they worry that Britain is too reliant on Norway and Russia for gas. But most of our coal is also imported - from Russia. And if you were going to rely on anyone, Norway is a good bet.

Renewables offer self-sufficiency. But with Britain producing only 4.7 per cent of electricity from renewable power, compared with 13 per cent in Germany, 20 per cent in Denmark, 50 per cent in Sweden and 100 per cent in Norway (from hydro power), a bigger vision is urgently needed - along with a new national grid to back up intermittent renewable sources with conventional power.

What is at stake in the Kingsnorth decision is not just the immediate pollution that it would generate. It is Britain's credibility in the international debate. India and

China are impressed by action, not words. Mr Brown has to make it clear that conventional coal has no future.

A few weeks ago I met Professor C.S. Kiang, founder of the Beijing College of Environmental Sciences. “You've shifted the blame to us,” said this mild-mannered academic, “by shifting your manufacturing to us. We have to solve this together.” We can't blame the Chinese for building coal-fired power stations if we do the same. And no amount of bleating about plastic bags is going to make up for it.

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Tips to keep monthly power bill below $50

Straits Times 6 Apr 08;

I refer to the article, 'Power hikes: Low-income families to feel pinch most' (The Sunday Times, March30).

I live alone in a small walk-up apartment. I try to keep my combined power and refuse bill below $50 a month. My new target is below $60.

I do not believe in suffering, nor do I believe in using electricity in ways that do not actually add value or convenience to my life. Here are some of my energy-saving tips:

# Iron only essential items, and only where it is externally visible. For example, I do not iron shirt tails, the bottom 25per cent of a shirt. Also, almost my entire wardrobe is wash-and-wear.

And even though I have a dryer, I line-dry my clothes most of the time.

# There is no need to boil water for drinking. Singapore water is safe to drink from the tap.

If you need to boil water, just boil what you will use immediately. I use a microwave for this. As it does not heat anything else up, it should save money.

# Use a small table-top oven if you like to bake. A small oven is a money-saver and makes for a cooler kitchen too.

I used to bake in a full-size, built-in oven, which was expensive, generated too much heat and made the kitchen hot.

# Use desk or table lamps, so the light is focused where you need it. To avoid tripping over things at night, use low-wattage general lighting bulbs, from 1watt to 7watts.

# Although instant water heaters save the most money, I use a small storage water heater.

I switch it on no more than five minutes before I shower, and the water is warm enough for a quick wash. I make sure I heat up only the amount of water I intend to use.

I don't really do this, but you could also consider washing your clothes and yourself less often. I am sure 100 years ago, people washed much less.

# I like the air-conditioner but I seldom have it on the whole night. I usually switch it on for a little while to cool the room before I sleep. Because the environment is cooler at night, the room is usually still pleasantly cool in the morning.

But in the hot season, the air-con will have to be timed to come on again in the night.

Sleeping lightly clothed, and using a thin sheet of cloth instead of a blanket, can help keep one cool at night.

# I do not own a television set.

Melvin Chew

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Search for happiest person in Singapore narrows to 30

Chen Meiyue, Straits Times 6 Apr 08;

Singapore's happiest person is out there among us all, and by midweek, the search will have been narrowed down to three people.

It all started last month when the appropriately named businessman Philip Merry began his quest. By last Sunday, when nominations closed, he had received over 190 names. The list is now down to 30.

Singapore's Happiest Person will be introduced at a conference, New Science Of Happiness And Well-being, from April 16 to 17. Mr Merry is the chief executive officer and founder of Global Leadership Academy (GLA), the gathering's organiser. Topics will include how happiness affects health, education and work.

The Sunday Times got a peek into how the list was narrowed to the top 30. For starters, everyday acts of kindness done with a smile must come easily. 'They can't be happy one day, then down the next,' Mr Merry said.

Among the top 30 contenders are a jolly bus coordinator, a vivacious hospital worker and a sunny side-up technician.

The Sunday Times spoke to the trio on their secret 'happy recipe'.

A 'poor memory' helps, said bus coordinator Ho Choon Phak, 63, with a laugh. 'Erase all the unhappy things from your mind.'

He was nominated by human resource executive Priscilla Kumari, who is in her 40s. 'He can get grumpy people to smile,' she said. 'He goes the extra mile in service.' She has seen him getting a bus driver moving off to wait for a commuter coming from afar.

Senior technician Tay Bijun, 24, makes people laugh just by 'opening her mouth', said her colleague Lina Hee, 21, who nominated her.

But because Ms Tay is always upbeat, her colleagues did not know that within the past four months, both her parents have had to undergo operations. Ms Tay rationalises: 'The day will pass whether you're happy or not, so I'd rather be cheerful.'

As for patient transport assistant Stella Fernandez, singing songs and playing practical jokes keep her spirits up. The 43-year-old, who works at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, goes out of her way to make sure patients are comfortable and has earned praise from patients to supervisors.

Her biggest fan is her daughter Sharon Pereira, 20, who nominated her. The student declared: 'I think my mum is the happiest person I've ever known.'

All nominees and their nominators will get free entry to the conference. The $1,388 ticket price for each seat will be paid for by Mr Merry and his wife. 'There are a lot more happy people in Singapore than you think,' said Mr Merry.

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The price of a rhino's life? $100,000

BBC News 4 Apr 08;

Big game hunting hasn't died out with fears for endangered species, it's just moved to private game reserves. Louis Theroux went to South Africa to try to understand the thrill of paying to kill an animal.

Last year, having made documentaries on high-stakes gambling and extreme plastic surgery, I turned my journalistic sights on another controversial leisure industry: the world of big game hunting in South Africa. Hunting is, if anything, even more polarising than other subjects I've looked at.

Where the strangeness of gambling and plastic surgery lies in the element of self-sabotage - throwing your own money away, making yourself look weird - hunting gives another turn to the screw by putting another sentient creature in harm's way - specifically, that zebra or lion whose pelt would look so nice turned into a pouffe for the front room.

A lifelong city dweller, my ignorance about wildlife in general and hunting in particular was, at the outset, almost complete. For five or six years I was a vegetarian; I don't cook much meat at home and I still get a slightly weird "farmyard feeling" when I take sausages out of the packet and notice that they're all strung together.

As for big game hunting, my ideas - formed by old films and books - were basically that you'd spend weeks tramping through rough country for a glimpse of a kudu, unleash hell with your shotgun, then retire to the tent for six or seven gin-and-tonics. And I had a notion that nowadays most of the big animals were endangered and therefore off limits - no-one actually still went out bagging rhinos and lions, did they?

But almost any animal can be hunted - rhinos, lions, leopards, elephants, hippos, and many more - and far from being out in the "bundu", most of the hunting in South Africa takes place on privately owned game farms. The animals are behind fences.

Menu of game

They are wild in the sense that they may bite you; they are wild in the sense that they won't come when you whistle; but they are not wild in the "Born Free" sense. They all belong to someone.

You don't have to tramp around for a glimpse of a kudu because the farmer who owns all the kudu can drive you to the corner of his property where they're usually seen. Most safari outfitters offer a menu of game that clients can choose from. It's like shopping from a catalogue.

Looking down these lists is slightly surreal. Everything is on offer, including porcupine ($250 - is it possible people really hunt these?), warthog ($300), on through a multitude of indistinguishable deer-like species, up to the big ticket items: $8,000 for a hippo, $14,000 for a buffalo, between $25,000 and $35,000 for a male lion, and between $50,000 and $100,000 for a rhino.

It was all quite weird, but I became intrigued by the element of pretence in what was being offered - the outfitters were selling an old-fashioned idea of man-against-nature while secretly working the scenery in the wings. There was a whiff of theme park about the whole thing.

I also liked the paradoxical situation of the game farmers - that they keep their animals alive for years, leaving them feed in the dry season, piping in water - only to have tourists come in and whack their prize specimens from the back of a four-by-four. It was a bit like running a zoo where visitors could shoot the animals.

Discount packages

Not surprisingly, the industry has attracted its share of criticism, especially from the media. This made it tricky for us to get people to go on film. But after a lot of phone calls my team eventually won the trust of Riaan Vosloo, owner of Shingani Safaris, a company that operates in the north-west corner of the country, Limpopo Province.

Riaan is in many ways typical of South African professional hunters and outfitters. He grew up hunting wild game the old fashioned way - he told me in the old days he'd be pleased to shoot one or two animals in a four-month season. Now he offers discount packages where visiting tourists can bag four trophies in six days.

On one level, he probably regards the ersatz theme-park kind of hunting that he purveys to international clients as unchallenging and slightly pointless; at the same time he's proud of his ability to make sure every hunter, no matter his skill level, goes home with the trophies he's paid for. You might be morbidly obese and half-blind, you'll still get those record-breaking kudu horns - even if it means Riaan has to drive you up to the animal and point your gun in the right direction.

During our filming, Riaan had a large party of bow-hunters from Ohio staying at his lodge. These were a far cry from the colonial-era image I had of the great white hunter. They were regular middle-class and working-class folk, some of whom had never been outside America before. Used to hunting deer they could at times be a little ignorant about the more exotic game. A trucker called Anthony was asked by his South African guide if he wanted to take a shot at a "duiker" (a small horned antelope). "A tiger? I can't afford that!" he said. Another novice hunter told me, in a moment of confusion, that her husband had killed a "zudu".

Accidents happen

But the Ohioans were knowledgeable where it counted: they were accurate with their arrows and they took pains to make their kills clean.



Walking-and-stalking game with a bow and arrow is virtually impossible - you can't get close enough. So the bow hunters would sit in a blind most of the day, looking out on a watering hole, wait till their animal of choice came in for a drink, and then whack him.

Nor was it as absurdly easy as one might think. All the game farms I saw were a minimum of a couple of thousand acres; they feel like wilderness, at least when you're in the middle of them, even if they are actually fenced in. Some days, because of wind carrying their scent towards the animals, nothing turned up at the watering holes. It wasn't as though they were being led into the firing line on a leash - it might take several days to pop that waterbuck or that oryx. But the outcome was never really in doubt.

Naturally I'd been concerned about the nature of the deaths inflicted on the animals - how protracted and painful they might be. With a good shot through the heart or lungs, I was told, most animals will "bleed out" in a matter of seconds.

And because with bow-hunting there are no loud gun-shots, the experience is apparently less stressful - both for the unlucky prey and for the surrounding wildlife.

Natural predators

And yet, and yet. Accidents happen, shots go astray. Miss the vitals and you're looking at tracking an animal that might take hours or even days to catch up with and put out of its misery. Not a nice way to go.

Exactly why you might choose to take an animal's life for sport was a question I never completely got my head around - notwithstanding numerous approaches to the issue. Hunters talked about the challenge of pitting your wits against an animal in its natural habitat (well, kind of) and the rush of lining up a perfect shot.

It may be that we're natural predators, genetically programmed deep in our inherited neuro-circuits to dig killing things. Or perhaps it's a question of hunters being raised in a culture that desensitises them to the well-being of animals. Who knows? The thornier conundrum for a squeamish city-dweller like me is that the practice of keeping animals on game farms and allowing them to be hunted has helped to increase the stocks of exotic wildlife.

Simply put, hunters are paying for more and more exotic animals to be kept alive and healthy - which has to be a good thing. There are now more wild animals on private farms in South Africa than in the nature reserves.

In the end, for me, the most touching and revealing element in the story was the bond that grows between the game farmers and the animals they raise and allow to be killed.

Several of the game farmers seemed deeply ambivalent about the hunting that takes place on their properties and which pays their bills. Having got to know their animals, and grown fond of them, they actually don't like to see them get hurt. It's an axiom of the game farming world that farmers almost never hunt their own animals. On one or two occasions I was with game farmers whose animals had been injured but not killed, and they became visibly uneasy. It was oddly touching to see these grizzled South Africans grappling with their unease about the new incarnation of their sport and attempting, for the most part successfully, to stick to the script about giving clients the trophies they wanted.

In the end, there may be no satisfactory answer to the urge to hunt. But the more profound lesson may be one about the nature of empathy - that no-one wants to hurt a creature that he's got to know.

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No Singaporean will go hungry

Helping hand for needy
No Singaporean will go hungry
Straits Times 6 Apr 08;

That is the promise Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan, gave to all Singaporeans in view of rising food prices.

'There is no question of an inadequate supply of food...It's a matter of price,' he said yesterday. 'We recognise that for the foreseeable future, prices will be high or may rise even further, so we will have to provide targeted assistance to people in greatest need.'

He said the Government is discussing with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and cooperatives such as FairPrice, as well as private food retailers and distributors, on exploring schemes such as discount vouchers.

In the meantime, anyone needing help should contact his grassroots leader or call the ComCare helpline on 1800-222-0000. Dr Balakrishnan was speaking to reporters yesterday at the inaugural National Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle Workshop 2008.

Ministers say needy will receive help to cope with soaring rice prices
Channel NewsAsia 5 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Soaring global prices for rice have led to fears of shortages, but several ministers have spoken out to assure the public that the situation in Singapore is under control.

Some added that the needy will get necessary funding and help.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said: "Decisions on the distribution of these funds will be made on the ground and at a local level. We're also in discussion with NTUC, with cooperatives like FairPrice, some private organisations and private food retailers and distributors to explore various schemes such as discount vouchers to distribute to needy families."

Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said: "One of the reasons why we are explaining the situation to Singaporeans is to convince them that the supply is there and there's no need for panic.

"Singaporeans now eat a wide variety of foodstuff – rice, noodle, bread, so there are always other substitutes. We have a good stockpile situation. Our supply is stable."- CNA/so

ComCare sets aside S$1m to help the needy cope with inflation
Channel NewsAsia 6 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: At least S$1 million will be set aside from the ComCare Fund to help the needy cope with inflation, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon said on Sunday.

The ComCare Fund is also working with NTUC FairPrice to come up with schemes to help the lower-income group.

"As (the) chairman of ComCare, I have enough budget and am ready to supplement the effort... As long as (the) ComCare Endowment Fund is concerned, any scheme that comes out from NTUC, we are prepared to support," said Mrs Yu-Foo.

"The help is there, the resources (are) there, the thing now is... how to effectively reach out," she added.

ComCare has worked with FairPrice to give out food vouchers to the needy in the past, and Mrs Yu-Foo said needy Singaporeans can tap on the S$63.7 million ComCare Fund budgeted for this year.

Those who need help can call the ComCare helpline (1800-COMCARE) launched last year.

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) received about 8,600 calls over the last three months, and there has not been an increase in the number of calls asking for help due to higher food prices.

Mrs Yu-Foo said most calls received have been about unemployment and coping with family finances.

Food vouchers for staples such as rice will come in handy with the recent hike in the price of rice.

However, the frenzied buying seemed to have stabilised.

Some shoppers at a FairPrice outlet in Toa Payoh said they do not stock up on rice as they are confident that there is enough supply.

But some are still buying slightly more than usual.

"If they have enough stock, why (do) they increase the price of rice?" said a shopper.

FairPrice said although prices are up, with discounts given for its house brand, the overall increase is still less than 10 per cent, which is lower than the average 30-per-cent increase elsewhere. - CNA/ac

Million-dollar hand for the needy
ComCare to tackle fears of food price increase
Sheralyn Tay, Today Online 7 Apr 08;

As concerns mount over the availability and cost of rice and other staples, a scheme to help those in need cope with the rise in food prices will be finalised very soon.

This additional support, said Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, would amount to about $1 million.

She was reiterating what Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan had said on Saturday when he disclosed that the Government was in discussions with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), cooperatives such as FairPrice, private food retailers and distributors to come up with schemes to help the needy cope with rising food prices.

"As chairman of ComCare, I have enough budget and am ready to supplement the effort," said Mrs Yu-Foo who was speaking to the media yesterday on the sidelines of a community event. Assistance could be in the form of vouchers, similar to the one-off public transport vouchers given out last year to 100,000 low-income families amounting to $3 million.

She also gave the reassurance that there are sufficient resources and avenues available for those seeking assistance, be they social, educational or financial.

With the "generous" $200-million injection into the ComCare Endowment Fund at the recent Committee of Supply debate, an extra $16.1 million has been budgeted into this year's allocation, bringing it to $63.7 million.

"Last year, the economy grew quite well, so it was a happy situation. Not many people applied for help," she said. But she added that she expected more funds to be disbursed this year.

At the same time, Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs) will have an extra $6.25 million to allocate over and above last year's budget. Last year the CCC-ComCare fund helped about 8,000 needy families.

"So, don't worry, we have enough resources," said Mrs Yu-Foo, who also pointed out that there are many different assistance schemes available. Not including informal help from grassroots and privately-funded voluntary work organisations, there are 31 assistance schemes from the Government and statutory boards.

CCCs also have interim funds and food rations for those who need urgent help. But not all Singaporeans know where to seek help. Needy Singaporeans can turn to ComCare Call, which will direct them to the relevant agency.

Since it was launched in January, the 24-hour daily hotline at 1-800-222 0000 has fielded 8,600 calls and referred 3,000 callers to the CCCs and Family Service Centres.

$1m set aside to help needy with food costs
Straits Times 7 Apr 08;

Money comes from ComCare budget; NTUC and retailers will also contribute
THE first step in a joint effort to help needy Singaporeans cope with the rising cost of food items has come in the form of a kitty with at least $1 million in it.

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), the National Trades Union Congress and NTUC FairPrice, along with private food retailers and distributors, have formed a loose group to find ways to tackle the problem.

The money will come from MCYS' ComCare fund and details would come 'very soon', said Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Yu-Foo Yee Shoon.

'There is enough budget and we are ready to supplement the effort,' she said of the fund's $63.7 million budget.

ComCare is a fund Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong unveiled in January 2005 to help those left behind - the elderly, the poor and the jobless - as Singapore restructured its economy.

The Straits Times understands that others in the group will also contribute in cash or kind.

This effort follows an announcement last Thursday by Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran, who said his ministry was working with MCYS to explore ways of helping those worst-hit by the rising prices of household essentials like coffee, tea, canned drinks, condensed milk and sugar.

Two days ago, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan also said the Government would provide 'targeted assistance to people in greatest need'.

Mrs Yu-Foo, who was at a senior citizens' walkathon at Bishan Park yesterday, said that while Singaporeans could still afford rice, the general price increases added up and could upset their financial situation.

She said MCYS would take a multi-pronged approach to help them through this period: 'Don't worry. We have enough resources, especially for children. Children should not drop out of school because of financial problems.'

Anyone who needs help may call the ComCare helpline at 1800-222-0000.

ComCare received 8,600 calls from January to March, with 22 per cent asking for financial aid, 14 per cent for social assistance and 9 per cent, for employment.

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Rice situation in Singapore

What price, rice!
Straits Times 6 Apr 08;

The Sunday Times surveyed 100 eateries to find out which are raising prices, how those which aren't are coping with rising costs, and what theri plans are. Alex Lam reports
For many restaurants and food stalls, recent global spikes in rice prices come on top of other cost increases.

But a Sunday Times survey of 100 restaurants and hawker stalls across the island found that while 20 have increased their prices, the other 80 intend to absorb the price hike for now.

Most cited loyalty to regular customers, maintaining their brand name and staying competitive as their key reasons.

Rice-eaters have two other reasons to cheer - 96 of the 100 polled said they have not cut back on the amount of rice served, and 99 said they have not downgraded the quality of rice being used, at least for now.

Global rice prices have shot up by more than 30 per cent to more than $1,000 a tonne, and major producer countries have cut back on exports.

At home, NTUC FairPrice has increased the prices of its in-house rice brands by 10 to 15 per cent. The Government has repeatedly assured Singaporeans that the supply is adequate.

Meritus Mandarin's Chatterbox, famous for its Hainanese chicken rice, will keep the prices of its rice-based dishes unchanged.

Said Ms Cindy Lim, the hotel's assistant communications manager: 'We feel rice is a staple, so regardless of the price hike, there has been no change in our portions and prices.'

Its chicken rice remains at $21.50.

Crystal Jade Group's spokesman Daphne Chang said it will keep the prices and servings of rice and rice-based dishes unchanged for now.

The 20 eateries which have increased their prices blamed it on too many costs going up at the same time.

RiceTable Indonesian Restaurant Singapore, which has three branches, is one of them.

Director Kevin Sih said: 'Everything has increased, from gas to oil to food like fish and chicken. And the rising price of rice was the final straw. It was a decision that had to be taken.'

Its buffet lunch now costs $23.90, up from $19.90 two months ago.

The extent of increase varied but most fell within the range of 20 to 50 cents.

Some 37 restaurants and food stalls said that if no relief was in sight, they would up the prices of rice and rice-based dishes.

Another four would reduce the amount given and three would serve rice of lower quality. Twelve would retain the same pricing while the rest declined to comment.

The Big Bird Restaurant in Bukit Timah said it would rather raise prices of other goods.

'Rice is an important staple and we will not touch its price. If we are under pressure from rice price hikes, we will increase the prices of other dishes such as fish,' said manager Betty Chen.

The owners of two stalls in People's Park Complex selling chicken rice and economical rice respectively felt that raising prices will upset regular customers.

The rise in operating budgets is, however, not uniform across the board.

Boon Tong Kee Kway Chap and Duck Rice said its costs have gone up by up to 20 per cent while Hong Kong Jin Tian Roasted Rice and Noodles' increased by 5 per cent. The difference is largely because of different quantities of rice used.

Higher prices will hit those who usually ask for more rice.

Mr Hong Shao Chun, 39, a supervisor with Hyundai Engineering, said: 'I ask for extra rice quite often and additional rice used to cost 30 cents. Now it costs up to 70 cents at some places. If it rises to a dollar, I think I will forgo it.'

Victoria Junior College student Ian Tan, 16, was pragmatic about the current situation. He said: 'If rice becomes costly, I might turn to wheat-based noodles. But if even that rises, I guess we'll just have to live with it.'

Additional reporting by Aw Cheng Wei, Shuli Sudderudin, Chen Meiyue and Samantha Eng

Thailand to meet export target
Straits Times 6 Apr 08;

Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, can meet its 2008 export target of 8.75 million tonnes despite an expected drop in exports in the second quarter.

A Reuters report yesterday quoted exporters and traders as saying this.

The New Paper reported yesterday that experts are concerned that the price rise might be 'a further 40 per cent in coming months'.

Mr Jimmy Soh, managing director of rice importer Chye Choon Foods, said: 'The prices are increasing daily. For imports from the Philippines and Bangladesh, it's because of the bad harvests and weather conditions.'

Mr Chua Choon Hwa, director of rice importer Havelock International, noted that higher production costs for things like fertilisers, machinery and transport are also contributing to the escalating rice prices.

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5 things for ordinary Singaporeans to consider in tackling rising food prices

When everything under the sun costs more...
Globally, food prices are rising, stocks are falling, and the poor are feeling the pinch most. What to do? There's no fighting the market, but here are five things to consider.
Warren Fernandez, Straits Times 6 Apr 08;

A trip to the supermarket can be a bewildering experience these days.

A carton of milk used to cost $1.50. Then it crept up to $1.70, before leaping to $2.50 today. A bag of rice used to go for about $7. Today, it is over $10.

Toting up the weekly food bill is likely to induce the need for a fortifying cuppa. Except that the price of coffee has gone up too.

Indeed, just about every crop under the sun is trading at record price levels, with supplies for many at historic lows. On Friday, rice prices rose a further 10 per cent on world markets, making for a total rise of 50 per cent in just two weeks.

Little wonder then that the Economist magazine noted recently that its food-price index is higher than it has ever been since it was created in 1845.

Not surprisingly, rice rows, pasta protests and temper tantrums have flared up just about everywhere.

In Singapore, government leaders have been busy assuring the public and explaining how they are diversifying the country's sources of food to ensure continued supplies.

But diversification, while necessary, will only go so far given that the shortages are global and widespread and don't look like they are going to ease any time soon.

So what's to be done? Here are some thoughts:

Let the market do its worst

Politicians around the world have reached for some old chestnuts in the face of the current food shortages - price controls to prevent a spiral, and bans on exports to keep supplies up at home.

In Singapore, which imports just about every morsel it consumes and is a small price-taker, anyone who advocates this is, well, selling you a lemon. It just won't work.

Most economists agree that such measures, while politically expedient, are economically unsound. They send distorted signals to the market, discouraging farmers and suppliers from responding to meet the higher demand, at home and abroad.

Far better to let the market do its worst while targeting help at those who need it most.

Fears over Frankenstein

Popular opinion in the West has turned against genetically modified, or GM, foods. In Britain, the media has dubbed these Frankenstein foods, suggesting that they are untested products which might have unknown - or unknowable - effects.

Yet, this notion might be likened to empty rice bins, generating a great din, but containing much less substance.

Using the latest technology to boost crop yields has been practised for decades. It was precisely such bio-technological breakthroughs that enabled the green revolution in the 1960s and 1970s through enhanced crop yields.

Given that the world's population has grown from about one billion at the dawn of the 20th century to over 6.6 billion today and could hit nine billion by 2050, any serious attempt to tackle the looming food crisis will have to include technological innovation, properly researched and regulated, of course.

Cut waste

For all the panic over rising food prices, much continues to go to waste in Singapore. Just walk into any cafeteria, hawker centre or buffet hall and this will be plain.

Much waste also takes place in both government offices and private ones. So, what happened to the official Cut Waste panels?

Most people I know don't go to meetings to be fed. Few seem to touch the sandwiches or sweets that are routinely offered. Most seem to be thinking of the lunch they are heading off to or have come from, or the extra hours they will have to spend in the gym if they indulged.

Organisations would do better to keep their refreshments simple and donate the savings to those who need it more, such as children from poor families who struggle with hunger pangs at recess time.

Meeting rooms might carry signs on the door which read: 'Meeting in progress, proceeds to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund'.

Help those most in need

Regardless of all the efforts that are being taken to ensure food supplies, there is just no running away from the reality of higher prices.

Indeed, the governor of the Bank of England, Mr Mervyn King, put it starkly when he recently warned British consumers that higher energy and food prices will represent 'a genuine reduction in our standard of living'.

He urged people to accept 'that's not something that we can offset by just demanding higher wages, because all that will do is lead to another round of higher prices'.

The real rub, though, is that those who can least afford it are likely to bear the brunt of the impact. Given that spending on food tends to make up a larger proportion of household expenditure for the poor, rising food prices will hit them hard.

Like it or not, government officials and MPs will have to brace themselves to do more to help those most in need meet their most basic needs.

Others in society will have to play a part too. More creative community initiatives, like the one where busy professionals volunteered to collect bread from bakeries at the end of the day for the poor, will be needed.

Jiak kantang

For years as a child, I was referred to as the jiak kantang (Hokkien for potato-eating) kid by some classmates who assumed I was the son of potato-loving Caucasian parents, not quite realising that my rice-eating family and I lived in a Housing Board flat in Toa Payoh.

It did not bother me. For although I love rice as much as the next heartlander, I also rather enjoy potatoes in every form, from fries, to mash, to Swiss-style rosti.

Now, the humble tuber is getting its own back. The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato.

With the world's population expected to grow by an average of over 100 million a year for the next two decades, pressures on land and food supplies will mount.

The UN's answer: the potato.

'The potato produces more nutritious food more quickly, on less land, and in harsher climates than any other major crop,' it says, adding that it should be a big part of the strategy to meet the world's food needs.

Even Asia is taking to the tuber as the prices of rice and other staples rise. China is now the world's biggest potato producer; almost a third of all potatoes are harvested in China and India. Half of the world's potatoes are consumed in Asia.

How is that for diversifying food supplies?

Hungry? Want some fries?

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Environmentalists urge Latam bank to end biofuel loans

Michael Christie, Reuters 5 Apr 08;

MIAMI (Reuters) - Environmental groups urged the Inter-American Development Bank on Saturday to stop lending money to big companies piling into the booming ethanol business that some critics say is partly to blame for soaring food prices.

As riots over the cost of living broke out in impoverished Haiti, the IADB prepared to announce increased funding of ports, sugarcane mills and other biofuel ventures throughout Latin America, citing plant-based fuels as a crucial counterweight to climate change and rising energy prices.

"The bank's aggressive promotion of biofuels may be good for corporations, but it's a bad deal for farmers, indigenous people and the environment in Latin America," Kate Horner of Friends of the Earth-U.S., said at the bank's annual meeting in Miami.

World food prices have jumped due to what the U.N.'s World Food Program says is a mixture of high energy prices, which are boosting transportation costs, increased demand for food by developing countries, erratic weather and competition between biofuels and food for land and investment.

The cost of food is threatening millions of people with hunger and raising the risk of political instability.

Four people were killed when crowds ransacked and burned stores in the southwestern Haitian town of Les Cayes on Thursday night and looted food containers at a U.N. compound.

DIETARY SHIFT CITED

Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups say a U.S. law that aims to almost quintuple the amount of biofuel used in the United States by 2022 has led to a spike in production and investment in the Americas.

Some grains production in the United States has been diverted into ethanol and the United States is also importing large amounts of sugarcane ethanol from the world's biggest and most efficient producer, Brazil, despite steep tariffs.

Gregory Manuel, an adviser to the U.S. government on alternative energy, said biofuels were a marginal contributor to rising food prices.

"The No. 1 issue is the emerging market's dietary shift towards higher protein diets. That is the No. 1 issue," he said at the IADB meeting.

High fertilizer and transportation costs and "a crash in wheat stocks" due to a two-year drought in Australia are also to blame, Manuel said.

Environmentalists, however, say there is a measurable impact on food supply in places like Brazil.

Spurred by the possibility of a rich market for ethanol in the United States, investors -- many of them foreign -- have been buying tracts of land in Brazil, pushing up prices and driving away the small-scale family-based farms that supply up to 60 percent of the country's food, said Lucia Schild Ortiz of Friends of the Earth Brazil.

Doubts have also arisen about how environmentally friendly ethanol really is if it results in forests or savannah being cleared for sugarcane or palm oil and does nothing to reduce the world's dependency on the internal combustion engine.

"There was a time when the environmental movement took for granted that anything that came from a plant was good. So (ethanol) got lumped with renewables," said Horner.

Not any more.

CULTIVATING JATROPHA

IADB President Luis Alberto Moreno said he believes Latin America has a bright future in "green energy," or biofuels. The bank has around $3 billion in private-sector loan projects under consideration.

Critics say the vast majority do not promote rural development in Latin America but are aimed at supporting large exporters satisfying U.S. demands for energy.

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, organizations like the IADB are eager to promote projects that cultivate jatropha, a plant capable of surviving in the country's denuded wastelands and also of producing an oil in its nuts that can be used as fuel.

The projects would involve some irrigation.

"Why don't they use it to produce more food?" said Aldrin Calixte of the activist group Haiti Survie.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Xavier Briand)

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Nobel scientist warns on climate change: "almost irreversible consequences"

Tom Brown, Reuters 5 Apr 08;

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who rang the first alarm bells over the ozone hole issued a warming about climate change on Saturday, saying there could be "almost irreversible consequences" if the Earth warmed 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees F) above what it ought to be.

"Things are changing and there's no doubt that it's as a result of human activities," said Mario Molina, a Mexican who shared a Nobel prize in chemistry in 1995 for groundbreaking work on chlorofluorocarbon gases and their threat to the Earth's ozone layer.

"Long before we run out of oil, we will run out of atmosphere," he said.

Molina told a panel discussion on climate change at an annual Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Miami that the increasing intensity of hurricanes was among the worrisome changes that scientists had linked to a rapid global warming trend over the past 30 years.

Molina did not elaborate on specific effects so far from the Earth's temperature rise, which has been slightly less than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F) over the last century.

But he said certain "tipping points" would be reached if temperatures continue increasing, including unmanageable changes to the Earth's environment.

Molina later told Reuters there was considerable uncertainty about how much further warming the planet can sustain before it reaches critical levels.

"You keep changing the temperature gradually but then suddenly things change dramatically," he said.

"Trying to keep it (warming) below two degrees (Celsius) means we want to keep the change at most twice or three times what it has changed already. And that's because it's unrealistic to change it by less, because of what we have already done," Molina said.

"The idea to keep the temperature change not above 2.5 (degrees Celsius) is precisely to reduce the possibility of these tipping points happening," he added.

He said warming beyond that would pose "a risk that is not acceptable to society."

(Editing by Michael Christie and Peter Cooney)

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