Chikungunya fever detected in Singapore, believed to be locally transmitted

Channel NewsAsia 17 Jan 08;

SINGAPORE: A new strain of viral disease called chikungunya, which is transmitted in the same way as dengue fever by aedes mosquitoes, has been detected in Singapore.

The Ministry of Health said the first case was reported on Monday.

Investigations revealed that the patient, a 27-year-old foreign national residing on Clive Street, had contracted it locally as the person has not travelled out of Singapore for several months.

All previous cases of chikungunya reported in Singapore were contracted overseas.

Following the report, the Health Ministry together with National Environment Agency (NEA)'s Environmental Health Institute have begun to screen persons living or working in the Clive Street area.

So far, investigations have found five other persons with chikungunya fever.

They have been sent to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) at Tan Tock Seng Hospital for further medical assessment and two have been admitted for isolation.

The Health Ministry is continuing with its screening of residents and workers in the Clive Street area for chikungunya fever.

NEA is also conducting intensive mosquito control operations in the area and will extend it to cover the Little India enclave over the next few days.

Residents and premises owners have been asked to check their premises daily to remove any stagnant water that may breed mosquitoes.

The Health Ministry said Chikungunya fever, like dengue fever, is a mosquito-borne disease and the best way to prevent chikungunya fever is to take precautionary measures to prevent mosquito breeding.

Persons infected with chikungunya fever should stay indoors to reduce the risk of further transmission of the virus.

The disease is characterised by sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, joint pain with or without swelling, and low back pain.

Some patients may develop a rash affecting their bodies and limbs.

Most symptoms last for three to ten days but joint pains may last for weeks to months.

Outbreaks have occurred in recent years in Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean islands.

The Health Ministry has requested residents or individuals who work in the affected area to provide relevant information to Health Ministry officers who are currently carrying out epidemiological investigations.

Those who have been in the Clive Street area recently and have developed a fever are advised to consult their doctors. - CNA/ac

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Norway says aims to go carbon neutral by 2030

John Acher and Camilla Bergsli, Reuters 17 Jan 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway, which last year set what it called the world's most ambitious target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, said on Thursday it aimed to go "carbon neutral" in 2030, which is 20 years earlier than its previous target.

The new target was set when the Labour-led coalition government reached agreement with three opposition parties to bring the goal forward from 2050.

The government said last year that Norway would aim to cut net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) to nil by 2050 by reducing emissions at home and investing abroad in environmental projects that will give Norway CO2 reduction credits.

The plan includes offsetting Norwegian emissions by spending around 3 billion crowns ($553.1 million) per year to combat deforestation in developing countries. Forests act as a sink for CO2, the main greenhouse gas blamed for causing global warming.

Under the Kyoto Protocol curbing greenhouse emissions, countries do not get credit for the effect of their own forests, but they can get credits by planting trees in developing lands.

"The parties now think it is realistic to assume reductions in Norwegian climate gas emissions of 15-17 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents by 2020 when forests are included," the government said in a statement.

Three million metric tons of that reduction would come from Norway's forests absorbing carbon, it said.

The initial target was to cut 13-16 million metric tons of CO2.

Achieving the target will require cutting Norway's total emissions by two-thirds domestically, the statement said.

Environmental groups said the deal was too vague, and Oil and Energy Minister Aaslaug Haga acknowledged: "We don't know how we will achieve the goals yet, and that is challenging."

A "significant sum" of money will be earmarked for investment in renewable energy, mass transport and measures to reduce emissions from the transport sector, while tax on diesel fuel will rise by 0.1 crowns ($0.018) per liter and on gasoline by 0.05 crowns, the government said.

"Both carrot and stick will be used to promote more environmentally friendly behavior and to reduce climate gas emissions," the centre-left coalition said.

Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen of the Socialist Left (SV) party said the policy would lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions both in Norway and abroad.

"The agreement gives Norway a far-sighted climate policy that can stand independently of shifting governments," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in the statement.

MOON LANDING

Stoltenberg, who heads the Labour Party, has said Norway's policy on cutting CO2 emissions is the world's most ambitious and he has likened the challenge of fighting climate change to a "moon landing" for the 21st century.

Norway, with a population of just 4.7 million, is the world's fifth-biggest exporter of oil and Western Europe's biggest exporter of natural gas.

Endowed with rivers and waterfalls, it gets almost all its own electricity from non-polluting hydroelectric stations. But the Nordic country aims to begin burning natural gas for power generation in the future to satisfy growing demand.

The government wants emissions from such power plants to be captured and buried, a technology still under development.

"The agreement implies technologies that are not known yet," Stoltenberg told a news conference.

The government said it would spend an extra 70 million crowns ($12.91 million) this year on research into renewable energy and carbon capture and storage this year, and funding for such research would rise to at least 600 million in 2010.

(Reporting by John Acher; editing by Anthony Barker)

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Jobs arise from ashes of Finland forestry industry

Terhi Kinnunen, Reuters 17 Jan 08;

KUUSANKOSKI, Finland (Reuters) - When Finland's UPM-Kymmene bowed to tough market conditions and shut its Voikkaa paper plant two years ago, Raimo Loytty readily swapped a 30-year career in the mill for a stone mason's chisel.

He and 677 co-workers were among the first victims of heavy layoffs by paper companies facing rising production costs, weak demand growth and overcapacity.

But Loytty turned what could have been a personal disaster into success, starting a stoneworks business with a colleague.

Nor is he alone. The inventiveness of many former forestry workers, along with a shift in Finland's once timber-dominated economy into new areas, has helped limit the economic fallout from the job cuts.

On the face of it, the numbers look bleak.

More than 8,000 forestry jobs have vanished in the past three years in Finland, the world's sixth-largest paper producer with 63,000 employed by the industry. More will go this year.

UPM launched the country's largest-ever layoff program in May 2006, with a planned 2,500 job cuts over three years, including Loytty's. In October 2007, rival Stora Enso said it would cut 1,100 Finnish positions.

A decision by neighbor Russia to raise wood export duties has made things tougher for forestry firms since some 20 percent of wood used in Finnish paper and pulp mills comes from Russia.

Stora Enso, which plans to close mills this year in the towns of Anjalankoski and Hamina in southeastern Finland and Kemijarvi in northern Finland, has threatened more closures if Russia raises duties as much as it now plans.

So far, though, the layoffs have had little visible effect on Finland's economy, which grew an estimated 4.4 percent in 2007, or on the overall job market, which created 50,000 new positions last year while unemployment fell.

COMMUNITY REINVENTION

The economy's health may be one reason why Loytty and many of his Voikkaa mill colleagues found new work just a year after the closure of one of Kuusankoski's largest employers sent shockwaves through the community.

Back then, residents were convinced the town might take years to recover from the blow.

They demanded the plant be sold to a buyer who would keep it open, while local voters turned away from then-governing Social Democrat party in March 2007 elections.

"People changed quite a lot, happy and joking guys became serious," said Jari Lukkari, 39, a former mechanic at the plant.

"I thought about studying or selling my house and moving somewhere else."

But Lukkari struck lucky, finding work "immediately" at industry maintenance company Enpower, where he now works with many of his former UPM co-workers, although the associated travel has complicated life for the single father.

Timo Mikkela, 44, said it took time to get past his anger.

"At first I was furious and did not want to do anything. But my thoughts changed during the summer and I started an industrial painting course in the autumn," he said.

The painter-to-be said while the career change will mean a drastic cut in income, losing his job at UPM gave his life needed structure as he swapped shift work for a day job.

"This has been an opportunity for me. I doubt I would have changed career otherwise."

Like its people, the town is reinventing itself.

Out of the 678 laid off in the Voikkaa closure, only about 160 are still out of work, 50 are in training programs and some 20, like Loytty, have started their own businesses.

"The employment situation in Kuusankoski has been rather good," said Marjukka Matikka of the regional employment office, adding that most who have found new work still live in the town.

The UPM facility has been re-named the Voikkaa Business Park and is home to 17 businesses, including the workshop of Loytty and his partner. More are set to move in.

In October, Swiss engineering group ABB said it would hire 40 people at a new component plant there due to start production during the first quarter of this year.

"We want to find new use for this industrial area," UPM's property manager Hannu Lahtinen said. "We want to take part in developing employment in Kuusankoski."

The town's jobless rate was 10.9 percent in November, up from a year-earlier 10.7 percent but a clear improvement from the 13.1 percent in December 2006 when UPM paid its last wages.

DOWNWARD TRACK

The reinvention in Kuusankoski mirrors a broader trend in Finland, where metals, machinery and electronics have overtaken wood and paper as the country's dominant exports.

The timber industry suffered a steep reversal since the golden 1990s, when prices were so high that media mogul Rupert Murdoch paid a 1995 visit to Helsinki to "beg for paper."

Seduced by the strong market, many European paper producers overexpanded, which has only fed the price decline since 2001.

"The companies started to build up capacity in the turn of the century encouraged by growing paper demand," said Evli Bank analyst Teemu Salonen.

According to research group RISI, paper prices fell some 19 percent in North American markets in 2001-2002. In Europe, prices dropped about 20 percent from 2001 until 2005.

Meanwhile, wood, energy and labor costs have risen, eating up savings reached through cost cuts.

However, as the forestry sector has contracted, other industries have stepped into the breach.

According to 2006 data, some 34 percent of Finland's exports were metal and machinery products, 25 percent electronics products and 20 percent forestry products.

Spurred on by Nokia, Finland's largest company and the world's biggest mobile handset maker, electronics has been on a particularly strong growth track since the 1990s.

Loytty said the economic transformation of Kuusankoski may yet prove precarious since many of his colleagues have found only temporary replacement jobs.

"A year from now will show what the situation really is like," he said.

(Reporting by Terhi Kinnunen; Editing by Eddie Evans)

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Is There A Better Way To Handle The Malaysian Flood Situation?

Ravindran Duraisamy, Bernama 17 Jan 08;

MENTAKAB, Jan 17 (Bernama) -- During the recent floods, Pahang was one of the worst affected states other than Kelantan, Terengganu and Johor.

Not only did the mighty Pahang river in Temerloh burst its banks in many places but so too did smaller rivers like the Semantan river near Mentakab, which joins with the Pahang river in Kuala Semantan.

It was a bitter experience for people in Mentakab and Temerloh, who last experienced such a calamity during the great flood of 1971, as old-timer and former Survey Department clerk, M. Duraisamy, 78, vividly recall.

Nonetheless the manner in which the situation was handled, left a negative impression on the minds of the flood victims and raised lingering doubts at preparations to tackle anticipated floods.



SITUATION NOT HANDLED PROPERLY?

Selamat Ahmad Kamal a retiree in Taman Sagumpas Mentakab related that he was one of the few lucky ones whose houses were left intact in the deluge, as the water only reached till his front porch. According to him, the water level of the December 2007 flood that inundated many homes in the vicinity was just about 8 feet (2.43metres) lower than that of the one in 1971.

Though happy that no untoward incident happened to him or his neighbours, Selamat is nevertheless disappointed at the manner in which the situation was handled by the authorities.

"As far as I am aware of, the authorities did not inform us of the rising waters and worst still, made no effort to enquire whether the neighbourhood of retired government servants needed any help. Luckily none of us were sick at the time or else we could not have made it through the knee high, and at certain places even up to the thigh, waters," said Selamat who has not seen such a major flood in Mentakab town since 1971.

While mindful of the fact that the authorities could have been engaged in more pressing situations in other parts of the town, he still feels that the relevant parties should have accorded top priority to flood relief operations.

"Its about time they buck up and be more professional in times of crisis. During a flood, they should check on the victims to see if any help is needed, and since communication lines are down, update them on the latest situation concerning the water level."

"They (Rela, the army or police) could have used boats to visit us and enquired if we needed help, especially when we could not even use our hand phones as there was no electricity to recharge our phone batteries," said an energetic Selamat.

When asked why he did not move out, he said that since his was a double-storey house, he decided to remain upstairs to guard his belongings.

Mentakab town was inundated from 12 to 16 December with many shops and even commercial banks along the busy Jalan Tun Abdul Razak under water, some up to 5 feet (1.52 metres) deep.

The Mentakab market has never been flooded ever since it was built, but this time, it was about 7 feet (2.13 metres ) deep in water.



EARLY WARNING IS CRITICAL

Another affected resident Krishnan Maries told Bernama that the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), being aware of the rainfall upstream in Bentong and Bukit Tinggi, should have been able to gauge the expected rise in the water level in the Semantan River in Mentakab over the next 2 to 3 days and warn residents accordingly.

Taharin Abdul Shukor of Kerdau also shared similar views, saying that the authorities have everything at their disposal, from satellites to state-of-the-art gadgets and meteorology experts who are able to predict when and where the waters will rise.

"For example if there is too much rainfall upstream in the Semantan or Pahang River then the rivers downstream in places like Kerdau, Temerloh, Mentakab, Lanchang and Batu 4 Jalan Karakwill will overflow its banks, thus residents there should be warned of the impending rise in the water level in the river. The people here should have been alerted of the possibility of a massive flood like the one experienced in December 2007, " added Taharin.

Meanwhile, a resident of Taman Mentakab Indah of Batu 4 Mentakab who only wanted to be known as Chelliah told Bernama that he did not expect the waters to rise so high.

He said that although the authorities had reinforced the embankment after it collapsed during a flash flood here in 2002, it still gave way and water gushed into the villages in the early hours of the morning. Many were caught unawares and some houses were submerged in almost 8 feet (2.43 metres) of water.



LOSS COULD BE MITIGATED IF ONLY HELP CAME SOONER

The authorities could have mitigated our losses if they had helped us move our belongings to higher grounds, said Chelliah who like most others, lost his refrigerator, washing machine, television, radio, stove and computers.

Chelliah's house is now bereft of possessions and his wife was sitting on the floor when the writer met them.

A resident of Taman Mentakab Indah who wanted to be known as Chudalandy told Bernama that he lost his future earnings in the music business because his entire PA system and computerised music sets worth RM50,000 was washed away when his single-storey low cost house was flooded almost till the ceiling.

When asked whether he had an insurance policy to cover his possessions, Chudalandy held his head down, indicating he had none.

A quick check with BH Insurance Pahang manager Wong Weng Keong revealed that although flood insurance is available to businesses and individuals, it might not be applicable to businesses and individuals in low lying areas.

The writer visited many affected places during the flood in the Temerloh district and found that despite the shortcomings, most of the aid reached the victims on time. Various government agencies played their role in aiding the flood victims and the police were at strategic locations to direct traffic and were seen putting up warning signs of floods.

Apart from individuals and Non Governmental Organisations (NGO), political parties had also helped to ease the burden of the victims by handing out basic necessities like food, cooking stoves, rice cookers, shoes and mattresses.

At least one corporate giant in Pahang also donated some household goods and food to the victims.

Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob who visited much of Pahang during the floods helped to ensure flood supplies were dispatched in time to the victims.



FUTURE EXPECTATIONS OF THE PEOPLE

Although much is now in the hands of the government and the relevant authorities like DID and the Public Works Department, the fact still remains as to how predictions of impending floods could be effectively disseminated to those affected, to ensure that their losses and sufferings would be minimised.

-- BERNAMA

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Fishermen Will Use New Ways to Avoid Snaring Endangered Seabirds

NOAA website 16 Jan 08;

Fishing fleets from more than 30 countries on the high seas of the Atlantic and Pacific will now use new ways to avoid accidentally snaring seabirds going after bait on long lines. The new protections are the focus of strong international measures, promoted by NOAA, that go into affect this year.

The measures will protect many albatross and seabird species that fly far from land and whose populations are declining faster than most birds around the world, in part due to their incidental catch in fishing long lines used to catch tuna, swordfish and other tuna-like fish.

“Some of the most vulnerable seabird populations travel entire oceans in search of food. Seabird conservation will require nations with longline fishing fleets to work together to adapt their fishing practices to avoid seabirds wherever they fish,” said Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., NOAA administrator and under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere.

In November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas adopted a requirement that the European Commission and 44 other nations use special gear and techniques to reduce the unintended catch of seabirds. The techniques include fishing at night when few birds are active, weighting fishing lines so the baited hooks sink out of reach of birds, and using devices to scare birds away from the fishing lines. These measures will govern fishing for tuna and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean.

In December, the European Commission and 24 fishing nations that make up the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission set technical specifications for the use of bird-scaring lines and other techniques that help fishermen avoid hooking seabirds by accident. Bird-scaring lines, also called tori lines, are streamers that hang from a line attached at the stern of a fishing vessel. They help prevent birds from reaching the bait when fishing lines are set in the ocean.

The negotiations in the Pacific were particularly significant for the United States because two of the three albatross species found in the North Pacific Ocean - the Laysan albatross and the black-footed albatross - breed on Hawaii. A third species affected by fishing lines — the short-tailed albatross — breeds in Japan and is found in U.S. waters. It is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and there are only about 2,200 short-tailed albatross alive today.

“The fate of these vulnerable seabirds is important to the United States and to our longline fishermen, who, under U.S. law, are already taking significant precautions to avoid seabird bycatch.” said Lautenbacher. “We are pleased that some of the same effective measures will now be adopted by fishermen from many other nations.”

Measures similar to those adopted by the two international organizations have proven to be effective in international waters off Antarctica. Since they were adopted by the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources in 1991, they have reduced the unintended catch of seabirds by a remarkable 90 percent. No albatrosses were unintentionally caught for the second consecutive year in 2007 in the regulated longline fisheries in these waters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

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Parts of China's Yangtze at lowest level in 140 years: report

Yahoo News 17 Jan 08;

A severe drought has left parts of China's famed Yangtze river suffering their lowest water levels in at least 140 years, state media reported Thursday.

The drought has made navigating the Yangtze a risky affair, with more than 40 ships running aground since October, according to the China Daily, which quoted officials rejecting any link with the Three Gorges Dam.

In Hankou, a major port city on the Yangtze, the water level has hit a low not seen since records began in 1866, the newspaper said.

"This year's dry season came a month earlier than usual and water levels fell sooner than expected," an unnamed official with the Yangtze river administration told the paper.

Spurred by the situation, the transportation ministry issued an emergency warning to remind cargo vessels to steer clear of shallow waters.

The paper said officials stored large amounts of water behind the massive Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze last month, causing the flow volume in the river to fall by 50 percent.

Still, it quoted the Yangtze River Water Resource Commission as saying the drought had nothing to do with the dam.

"The lack of rain is the major reason for the drying-up of the Yangtze," an unnamed official at the commission said.

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Delhi residents cough, wheeze as pollution soars

Tripti Lahiri Yahoo News 16 Jan 08;

A stay in India's capital often leads to a case of the notorious "Delhi belly," but as pollution rises, many visitors and residents are suffering from the Delhi itchy eye and hacking cough too.

Authorities blame the rise in pollution squarely on a jump in diesel cars, whose fumes are routinely cited in medical studies as a major health risk.

About a third of the nearly 1,000 new cars that hit the city's roads every day are diesel models, which are becoming popular because the fuel is cheaper than petrol.

But while there is a financial saving, it comes at a serious pollution and health cost, warn experts, who say New Delhi is rapidly losing the air quality gains made after switching its diesel bus fleet to compressed natural gas six years ago.

Pollution figures show a steady rise in diesel-linked pollution during the past five years, a period that saw the total number of cars in Delhi leap 50 percent to 1.6 million.

Anumita Roychoudhury, from New Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment, noted carbon monoxide levels were falling despite an increase in the number of petrol cars.

However, "for diesel cars, the increase in vehicle numbers and increase in nitrogen dioxide are strongly correlated," she said.

She pointed to "horrendously" high levels of lung-irritating soot linked to tailpipe diesel emissions, which environmentalists regard as one of the most toxic forms of air pollution.

Roychoudhury urged India to adopt ultra-clean car standards cutting diesel sulphur levels. "You need a technology leapfrog," she told AFP.

The planned launch of the world's smallest car, the Nano, by India's Tata Motors has further heightened concerns about increased congestion in the city even though it is only producing a petrol version.

The makers of the car, mean to retail for 100,000 rupees (2,500 dollars), insist its emissions are as low or lower than any two-wheeler on Indian roads and meet European standards.

That's only half the point, said Sunita Narain, who directs the Centre for Science and Environment, who got the Supreme Court to order the New Delhi bus system to shift to natural gas.

"I am not fighting the small car," she added. "I am simply asking for many more buses and bus lanes -- a complete change in mobility.

"The solution is not to ban the 100,000 rupee car," Narain urged, but "tax it like crazy until it (India) has a proper mass transit system."

Doctors, too, say they have seen the worrying effects of the rise in diesel car numbers.

Randeep Guleria, a chest specialist at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, the country's largest public hospital, said the high pollution level triggered asthma in people where the condition previously had been latent.

"We are seeing a lot of such patients, who did not have any problems when they were outside and when they move to Delhi they suddenly develop symptoms," he said.

One of Guleria's patients said her asthma symptoms improve during the six months she spends with a son in New Jersey, in the United States. But it is a different story when she comes back to the Indian capital.

"It has been really bad since I came back in November. I cough all night," said Madhu Puri, 59. "If I go to America or a foreign city I feel better."

A US environmental Protection Agency panel has called diesel fuel exhaust a "likely human carcinogen," linking it with lung cancer and asthma attacks.

Some studies show children are among the worst-affected by the dense haze that often shrouds the city, and doctors frequently tell parents to keep their children indoors when smog levels are particularly high.

Researchers believe particulates, or tiny particles of soot, interfere with the respiratory system because they are so small they can be breathed deeply into the lungs.

In a survey of almost 12,000 city schoolchildren late last year, 17 percent reported coughing, wheezing or breathlessness, compared to just eight percent of children in a rural area.

What researchers saw were the effects of "chronic exposure from living in Delhi," said Twisha Lahiri, of India's Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, who led the study.

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Best of our wild blogs: 17 Jan 08

Daily Green Action: 16 Jan 07
on the leaf monkey blog

Notes from seminar on Post-Bali UN Climate Change Conference: What Lies Ahead? on the AsiaIsGreen blog

Crown-of-thorns: a nasty star?
on the singapore celebrates the reefs blog

Save our Seahorses newsletter Jan 08
about the effort in Johor on the teamseagrass blog

Scratching an itch
a feat in midair on the bird ecology blog

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Singaporean wildlife encounters: who do we call?

When birds die mysteriously ...
... are our agencies ready to coordinate a course of action?
... which agency do we call during such incidents?

Today Online 17 Jan 08;
Letter from CHUA TEE LIAN
Letter from THOMAS LEE ZHI ZHI

THE report, "The eagles have landed" (Jan 15), may read like a light-hearted story, but there is a serious lesson to be learnt from this.

The National Environment Agency's (NEA) response shows that they do not understand Mr Chris Lau's concerns over the two white-bellied sea eagles which landed on the balcony of his Jalan Kayu home.

The issue here is not about animal welfare or the disposal of carcasses.

It is about our readiness if and when avian influenza hits us, which sadly, is non-existent judging from the responses Mr Lau was given and the attitude demonstrated by the various agencies.

When birds die mysteriously, a network alert system must be in place so that the relevant authorities in charge of wildlife and public health can communicate with one another whenever an agency receives an alert from a member of the public.

A coordinated action plan must immediately follow, which should include a quarantine of the area, checking the birds for infection and if necessary, testing those who may have been exposed, as prompt action is needed to curb the spread of any diseases.

Let's not forget the painful lessons from Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).

Although the authorities had acted swiftly, it was too late for some.

Without being too much of an alarmist, the question we have to ask ourselves is: Are we prepared for an avian influenza epidemic?

I REFER to the report about the eagles which landed in a house at Jalan Kayu (Jan 15).

I can sympathise with the resident who had called the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), the National Environment Agency (NEA), the Singapore Zoological Gardens and Jurong BirdPark.

The report also carried some advice from the AVA about which agency to call during such situations.

Singapore's civil service has been touted to be world-class and efficient, but is this really the case?

In a truly world-class system, the first agency approached would have coordinated action with the other relevant agencies.

Citizens need a quick and easy reference point on who to approach the next time another injured animal finds its way into our homes.

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My Johor: The simple life at Sungai Pulai

R. Sittamparam, New Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

THE Sungai Pulai estuary has always been the home and fishing grounds of the Orang Laut, an Orang Asli tribe who dwell along coastal areas in Johor. Although I am a Chinese, my family, dating back three generations, has lived with the Orang Laut sharing their trials and tribulations.

Our association started with my grandfather, Tang Tek Chai. He operated a junk at Kuala Redap, on the western bank of Sungai Pulai. He supplied mangrove logs to charcoal kilns, mainly in Singapore.

He was a wealthy merchant who had strong business links with Singapore. But he chose to live with the Orang Asli, hiring them to work on his huge wooden junk.

During the Japanese occupation, the Orang Asli suffered. They were hunted down and their women kidnapped and raped by Japanese soldiers.

My grandfather provided protection, giving them food and teaching them how to plant tapioca and other basic survival skills.

Many of the Orang Laut did not live on land, preferring to stay in their pau kajang, a covered dugout. They were skilled fishermen and expert swimmers who knew when and where to find the best fish, crabs and prawns.

My father, Tang Soon Teck, however, did not take up my grandfather’s trade.

Instead, he started a provision shop and traded with the Orang Asli, buying their daily catch.

When I was 12, I remembered seeing my grandfather’s large junk abandoned near the river.

It was in bad shape and I don’t know what happened to it afterwards as it went missing.

My father had many business dealings with Singapore. He had many friends and relatives in the republic, so when I reached schooling age, he sent me there to stay with a relative.

I studied at St Anthony’s School until Year Three. During a school break, I returned to the village and refused to go back to Singapore.

I was having such fun frolicking with the Orang Asli boys and girls my age at the village that I didn’t want to return.

Life at the village was enjoyable for children as we would swim in the rivers, catch fish and crabs or look for fruits in the jungle.

I lost interest in studying or learning about my father’s business and got attracted to an Orang Asli girl, Rom Anbot, whom I married when I was 16.

Getting married was very easy. All I had to do was give my 15-year-old bride’s parents RM1.15 and a set of clothes, and they allowed her to become my wife.

However, the marriage has not been officially registered. Even after 46 years, we have yet to do this.

Some government officials have urged me to register the marriage, something I intend to do soon.

I started my life as a fisherman then because my father had lost all his wealth after his business ventures in Singapore failed. He was even forced to sell his 40ha fruit orchard cheaply to cover his losses.

My five brothers, two sisters and I were left with hardly anything. We had to fend for ourselves.

One of my sisters and three of my brothers have since settled in Singapore.

My eldest brother, Keng Hiang, is also married to an Orang Asli and has remained in the village.

A younger brother, Keng Ngee, married a Chinese and is now taking care of our father’s provision shop.

In the 1970s, the government relocated us from Kuala Redap Orang Asli village to this spot, Kampung Simpang Arang. It got its name from a charcoal-making factory located beside the village.

Many Orang Asli families from our village have moved to Masai, Plentong and Ulu Tiram. Some have married outsiders, stay in towns and are doing well in life.

Of my five children, four sons are married to Orang Asli girls and have settled down here, earning a living as fishermen. Only my daughter is married to a Chinese.

As the fishermen’s head, I buy and sell the fish landed by the Orang Asli.

However, their catch has dwindled over the last decade because of the destruction to the environment. Mangrove forests are destroyed and rivers are silted because of land reclamation works for projects such as the Port of Tanjung Pelepas, the Second Link bridge and the power plant at the Sungai Pulai estuary.

Dugong were plentiful in the estuary before this and used to be a source of meat for the Orang Asli.

I have tasted dugong meat, but now, the Orang Asli are concerned about the conservation of the animal and the sea-horses found in the estuary.

In 2006, an Orang Asli caught a baby dugong in his net at Sungai Pulai. We kept it in the village pond for a while before it was released into the sea.

A new worry is the proposed industrial estate right in front of our traditional fishing grounds at the mouth of Sungai Boh and Sungai Karang.

Our fishing grounds are affected by an underwater pipe to supply water from Sungai Tiram Duku to the Tanjung Bin power plant.

I hope my grandchildren get a chance to enjoy the natural richness of the Sungai Pulai estuary which I have grown to love. I would not give up living in my village for anything in the world.

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Days of cheap tofu, tempeh are gone for Indonesians

Staples disappear off menus because of surging price of soya bean imports
Salim Osman, Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

JAKARTA - CUSTOMERS at Jakarta's food courts and roadside stalls have been missing some of their favourite dishes for several days now.

The popular tofu and tempeh (fermented beancurd), two staples made of soya beans, have disappeared from the menu as a result of the rising price of soya beans imported by Indonesia.

It has made business a little tougher for stall assistant Rini at a Plaza Indonesia food court who has had to explain the shortage to disappointed customers.

'All I could say is that we couldn't buy enough tofu and tempeh in the market to cook their favourite dishes,' she told The Straits Times.

Cheap and nutritious, tofu and tempeh are considered staples by Indonesian families who eat them with rice.

Surging prices of soya beans, which Indonesia imports, have made food products produced from the beans more expensive. This has discouraged food sellers from buying tofu and tempeh.

The shortage of such food staples in Indonesia reflects a global trend. Rising prices combined with booming demand for such basic commodities as soya beans and palm oil have resulted in shortages that threaten to inflate living costs.

In Indonesia, the soya bean price has more than doubled from 2,750 rupiah (42 Singapore cents) per kilogram a year ago to almost 8,000 rupiah now - inflating the cost of producing tofu and tempeh. The weaker rupiah and rising freight costs make the situation worse.

One tofu and tempeh producer, Mr Tukino, 54, said that his factory in south Jakarta had been closed for four days.

'I am not sure when I can open it because I can't get my supply of soya beans to make tofu and tempeh,' he said.

The rising prices have driven thousands of tofu and tempeh producers and vendors to go on strike in the Indonesian capital this week in protest.

On Monday, they rallied outside the Presidential Palace for a one-day protest, demanding that the government lower prices.

As Indonesia does not produce enough soya beans to meet domestic demand, it relies on imports, mainly from the US, for 70 per cent of its requirements. Four licensed importers bring in about 1.3 million tonnes of soya beans each year to help meet the country's demand of 2 million tonnes.

Indonesian farmers do not plant enough of the crop because of the relatively low price it fetches at the market.

Said Vice-President Jusuf Kalla yesterday: 'You earn only 3.5 million rupiah if you plant soya bean in one hectare. But you'll earn 8 million rupiah if you grow corn.'

The shortage has prompted the government to take steps to curb prices of staples, as other countries such as China have done.

After meeting his economic ministers late on Tuesday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the scrapping of import duties on soya beans in a bid to keep prices down.

The state procurement agency Bulog may also be assigned to import cheaper soya beans to help the local food industry.

'The government has asked us to seek a new source for soya bean imports,' said Bulog spokesman Mustafa Abubakar.

Separately, Agriculture Minister Anton Pariyantono said that Indonesia plans to reduce its dependence on imports by boosting domestic soya bean output to 900,000 tonnes this year. Last year, the country produced about 600,000 tonnes.

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Biofuels protectionism

Biofuels protectionism trumps climate concerns
Inae Riveras, Reuters 17 Jan 08;

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Despite world concerns about global warming and the impact of biofuel production on food prices, policy makers have done little to boost international trade of cheaper and more environmentally friendly fuels for consumers, experts said.

Import tariffs and trade barriers have prevented, for example, an increase in cane-based ethanol exports from Brazil, the world's most competitive producer of the biofuel. Shipments are actually expected to be lower in 2008 than last year.

In Europe, biodiesel producers have been hit by an increase in U.S. imports, which benefit from subsidies if they are blended with mineral diesel. To counterattack, the EU bloc may impose countervailing duties, industry leaders said.

The EU has also been affected by large volumes of Argentine biodiesel at cheap prices, which are encouraged by preferential taxes. The product is charged a 5 percent tariff by Argentina's government, while edible oil exports have a 30 percent duty.

"Some countries are trying to solve a world problem, which is global warming and climate change, just with national solutions," said the head of Brazil's Sugar Cane Industry Union (Unica), Marcos Jank, at the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit.

According to Unica, cane-based fuel has higher productivity than other feedstocks. Sugar cane yields seven liters of ethanol per hectare compared with three liters with corn.

Production costs are lower, and energy efficiency -- amount of energy used in the process versus energy resulting -- is five times higher with cane than with corn, Unica said.

Moreover, its impact on food prices is much more limited than the one caused by corn or wheat. Almost a third of the next U.S. crop may be turned into fuel, increasing upward pressure on food inflation.

But tariffs in some of the world's largest fuels markets like the U.S. and Europe will limit ethanol exports. Shipments from Brazil are to drop this year to 3.4 billion liters, down from 3.8 billion liters in 2007, Datagro consultants said.

GLOOM PERSPECTIVES

Unica argues its position is not self-promotional as cane-based ethanol could come also from Asia, Africa or South America. More than 100 countries -- most of them poor nations -- have natural conditions to grow cane.

"Europe is trying to subsidize their farmers to produce ethanol from beet and wheat instead of buying ethanol from abroad. The same happens in the U.S. Most of the ethanol there will come from corn, probably from biomass in the future, but not imported (ethanol)," Jank said.

"We believe that if these countries consider to import more from developing countries, the energy and environmental balance would be much better, and costs would be much lower."

But signals from these countries point to the opposite direction.

The chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Collin Peterson, said on Tuesday tax credits and tariffs on ethanol would have to be maintained to create the necessary conditions for the development of cellulosic ethanol.

"We are hoping that we won't have any changes in the tax or tariffs any time soon," he said.

Brazilian ethanol is charged with a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff to enter the U.S. market. This makes direct sales possible only on specific and uncommon occasions, depending on low prices in Brazil and high prices in the United States.

And perspectives remain negative as the U.S. passed in December its Energy Bill, which sets a target for biofuel use of 36 billion gallons -- none of them imported, in principle.

"They (U.S.) won't open their market. They will stick to its import tariff and create a quota, and then administrate this quota under geopolitical criteria," said the president of Brazil's Datagro consultants, Plinio Nastari.

Wallace Tyner, professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, said it would be necessary either alter the mandate or change the tariff for U.S. to meet its goal.

"Brazil and a lot of Central American countries have a capacity to expand pretty quickly their ethanol production if they get signals that there's a market for it," Tyner said.

(Additional reporting by Christine Stebbins in Chicago and Tom Doggett in Washington; Editing by Reese Ewing and Christian Wiessner)

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