Looking for Singapore Culture

Why are we so hungry for badges of identity?
Ravi Veloo, Today Online 5 Apr 08;

IS THERE a Singapore culture? Something unique and common to all of us in the way we act, speak, celebrate even what we eat?

Well, we know it's not the food.

Singapore can makan any paradise — no doubt about that. But we often get curried away and claim other people's foods as our own. I've heard us claim everything from chicken rice to roti prata as uniquely Singaporean. Which leads to things like columnist Hoo Ban Khee of the Malaysian English-language daily, The Star, taking the chilli out of us, making fun of a Singaporean show he caught on the Asian Food Channel, which featured fish-head curry.

"Surprise, surprise! Those Singaporeans claim they were the ones who came up with the delicacy," he wrote in Wednesday's edition of the paper, which claims a readership of 1 million.

"My first impulse was to quickly alert owners of my regular Indian and Chinese restaurants that specialise in fish-head curry to immediately patent the dish lest they be charged with infringing copyright," he added, thumb-in-cheek.

It seems that in his family, when anyone is abroad for too long, it is taboo to mention fish-head curry "lest it inflicts uncontrollable homesickness". Mr Hoo likes to use the word "lest" a lot.

Well, Sir Lest-a-lot, Singapore may not have invented fish-head curry, but neither did the Malaysians. Mr Hoo is guilty of the same "hoobris" when he says: "It is a genuine Malaysian dish not found in India, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or China."

But point taken, and not to make a meal out of it, we don't have our own food.

Culture? It's not the way we speak.

What people like to call Singlish, melding the words Singapore and English, is not much different from Manglish, the broken English that Malaysians speak. By the way, have you noticed how much we (and the Malaysians) sound like Mexicans?

We shorten the long vowels and lengthen the short vowels. Take any flight and hear the stewardess say: "Plis fasten your sitbelt".

It is fascinating that Singaporeans would want to claim the broken English we speak as a badge of honour anyway. Maybe that's a sign of how hungry we are for some badges of identity.

Now, I hope the champions of Singlish will lobby Contact Singapore to make all foreign talent speak Singlish to integrate them into Singapore society. This will make most of them indistinguishable from us and unemployable anywhere else in the world, so they will have to stay here.

Culture? It's not the way we look or dress. We all dress in someone else's garb — from shirts to sarongs. Several lame attempts to invent and promote a unique Singapore dress each lasted slightly longer than an MRT ride.

Some would say culture is made up of many elements, including artefacts, myths, legends, long-shared histories, rituals, rites, unique ceremonies, unique national beliefs and attitudes. Look, we don't have any of those, so don't rub it in!

Perhaps, what makes Singapore unique is our firm immigrant determination to maintain the cultures of our ancestors in the state we last knew it, literally a hundred years ago — or more.

One newspaper reported a couple from China declaring after a visit to Chinatown during Chinese New Year: "You are more Chinese than we are!" This kind of remark brings a beam of pride to Singaporeans of Chinese descent. Ditto with Singaporeans of Indian descent who delight in hearing visitors from India exclaim how Indian they are.

Often, taxi drivers ask me which country I'm from. I tell them I am Singaporean, but this seems unacceptable. They always seem to want to ask: "But where are you from originally?" I try to tell them originally I was from Kandang Kerbau.

But here's the thing: A lack of Singaporean-ness does not mean a lack of pride in Singapore. In a survey by the Institute of Policy Studies in 1999 about national pride, Singaporeans said they were very proud of their country, comparable in the level of their response to the United States and higher than that of Japan.

So, we are doing something right — even if we don't really have anything in common.

The writer runs a media consultancy.

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Formula One organisers: We did consider Earth Hour

Today Online 5 Apr 08;

Letter from Muhamad Rostam bin Umar
Director, Communications, Singapore Tourism Board
Jonathan Hallett
Media and Communications Director, Singapore GP

We refer to "Why were Formula One lights tested during Earth Hour?" (April 1) and thank Patrick Wong Fook Seng for his views.

With less than six months to the race date, Singapore is committed to ensuring that all systems are in place for the successful staging of the world's first F1 night race.

The lighting system is an integral part of the race infrastructure, not least because it will be used for the first time ever in an F1 race during the Singapore event from Sept 26 to 28.

It is especially important to continually assess the system on location since the safety of drivers, marshals and spectators depends on proven reliability.

In organising the lighting system demonstration, we had taken Earth Hour into consideration and thus planned for the lights to be turned on at 7.30pm. We had the lights switched off as soon as it was possible, at 8.15pm.

We could not have started the demonstration earlier as it would not have been dark enough for the consultants to fully evaluate the lighting system.

Alternative dates and times for the lighting demonstration were also considered, but due to various considerations including the availability of the venue for the lighting demonstration and the tight schedule of the lighting consultant, this was the best available time.

The outcome of the lighting set-up was better than we had anticipated. We have been able to collect important data over the last few days.

As a result, the lighting engineers advised that the lights will need to be switched on only from 7.30pm to 10pm from Thursday to Sunday this week.

These measures are taken to ensure that come race day, Singapore will present a safe and unique F1 race that all of Singapore can all be proud of.

Lights were switched off as soon as possible
Straits Times 5 Apr 08;

WE REFER to Tuesday's letter, 'F1 light-up makes mockery of Earth Hour' and thank Mr Kelvin Tan Kheng Liang for his views.

With less than six months to the race date, Singapore is committed to ensuring that all systems are in place for the successful staging of the world's first Formula One night race. The lighting system is an integral part of the race infrastructure, not least because it will be used for the first time ever in a Formula One race during the Singapore event from Sept 26 to 28.

It is especially important to assess the system on location continually since the safety of drivers, marshals and spectators depends on proven reliability.

In organising the lighting system demonstration, we had taken Earth Hour into consideration and planned for the lights to be turned on at 7.30pm. The lights were switched off as soon as it was possible, at 8.15pm. We could not have started the demonstration earlier as it would not have been dark enough for the consultants to fully evaluate the lighting system.

Alternative dates and times for the lighting demonstration were also considered, but this was the best available time, due to considerations including the availability of the venue and the lighting consultant's tight schedule.

The lights are set up for a week not only for public display as Mr Tan pointed out, but more importantly for the consultants to fine tune the system before installation around the circuit begins next month.

The outcome of the lighting set-up has been better than we first anticipated. We have been able to collect important data over the past few days. As a result, the lighting engineers have advised that the lights will only need to be switched on from 7.30pm to 10pm from Thursday until tomorrow. These measures are taken to ensure that come race day, Singapore will present a safe and unique Formula One race that all Singaporeans can be proud of.

Muhamad Rostam Umar
Director, Communications
Singapore Tourism Board

Jonathan Hallett
Media and Communications Director
Singapore GP

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Earth Hour: Making all aware of a disaster in slow motion

Straits Times 5 Apr 08;

To mark the first global Earth Hour, about 40 local companies and non-profit organisations dimmed or powered down from 8pm to 9pm last Saturday. Here during the event, Dr Chris Hails, director of international relations of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), switched off his hotel room lights, and walked the bright streets. Shobana Kesava spoke to him

What is the purpose of Earth Hour?

Earth Hour, in terms of absolute energy savings, is a pinprick, but in creating awareness, it's very powerful imagery. What it's doing is raising awareness in terms of our personal behaviour, our profligate use of energy and what we can get by with or get by without.

Do you notice a lot of energy wastage in day-to-day life?

Yes. In Singapore, people spend lots of money using energy, emitting CO2, to cool the room to the point where they want to put a sweater on. It's self-defeating - like trying to losing weight by eating chocolate bars.

Packaging infuriates me. It takes so much more space than the thing I really want. It's completely wasted.

Then there's plastic bags. I went to buy milk from the supermarket across the road from the hotel and the cashier was surprised that I wouldn't take the polythene bag for a carton of milk. The British government is phasing out polythene bags and they are going to charge everyone a surcharge in future for them. Those policies can sensitise people quickly to personal behaviour and reducing waste. Remember, it's just a bag but where does it come from? It comes from oil. Why are we using up a precious commodity for a bag and how much carbon is being put into the atmosphere?

What we are witnessing really is a disaster in slow motion, as we witness the loss of forest, the loss of fishstock and the accelerating impact of climate change.

Is the concern over climate change making your job easier?

Awareness is now really high. The willingness and ability to change is somewhat lower, but it's growing. And climate change is not something that is just going to go away. The challenge we have at the moment is how much can we limit the rise in temperature. We believe the world needs to stay below a two-degree rise in temperature in order to prevent a disaster in the long term, and that will be a real challenge. We really have to push ourselves out of the comfort zone to prevent that.

If we don't solve climate change, other things WWF takes on as a challenge will be affected. It's a little like a doctor treating a sick patient. You have to manage the underlying disease, as well as the symptoms. So we actually have to manage both, and this is the challenge.

We still have to worry about conservation of species, of forests, sustainable use of all kinds of other resources.

And in a sense, you could almost look at climate change as the symptom of a similar kind of disease: a disease of the increasing level of human activity, which has gone beyond what is sustainable.

WWF produces the Living Planet Report - this is our index of the planet's environment.

What we've found is that over the past 30 years, we've lost one-third of the natural health of the planet, while at the same time, the ecological footprint of human activity has gone up 21/2 times.

What needs to be done?

A key concern is to reduce energy use, but it's not going to happen overnight. Every week, China has a coal-fired power station added to its energy portfolio - this is the dirtiest way to produce energy and each one will last 40 years. So there are a lot of things we're stuck with already. What we'd like to see is coal phased out as soon as possible, oil phased out after that, and both replaced by increasing amounts of gas. From a carbon point of view, it's cleaner.

The last thing the world needs is more coal energy. Let's promote sustainable renewable resources, let's look at biofuels, biomass which can come in modest amounts, and have a role to play for a while.

Slowly but surely, coming onstream, will be carbon capture and storage, where you can actually take the carbon out of emissions and store it back in the ground. The technology is there, but making it available on a large scale will come only in 20 years' time.

We need government policies to favour sustainability, we need the commercial sector to be able to get financing to develop sustainable technologies, and we need a the public to demand them.

There is money to be made out of sustainability.

What we need to do is to cut taxes on sustainable technology and tax non-sustainable technologies a lot more.

Do you think Singapore is doing enough?

I think Singapore is doing pretty well, but it could do an awful lot more. Everyone could. Perhaps Singapore has inadvertently done well on some things because of the great public transport system and lower use of cars. The policies to lower vehicle use were made because the decision-makers of the day were very far-sighted, looked at other Asian capitals, looked at the traffic jams and the pollution and the mess vehicles made and said they weren't going to have that happen here.

No one was thinking of climate change when those policies were made 30 years ago, but they are extremely effective today.

Today, we have a system in Singapore that could be transplanted around the world that could greatly reduce vehicle emissions and the need for personal transport.

How can we promote best practices?

WWF invented something called the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in the early 1990s - and we invented a little logo - a little chop you could put on sustainably produced timber. In timber-

producing countries, we encouraged sustainable forest management and in timber-consuming countries, we promote the purchase and use of FSC certified timber. So if you managed your forests sustainably, you qualified for the chop on your timber, and consumers would prefer your timber to non-certified timber.

We've had considerable success and this is now an independent scheme no longer run by WWF. We've been able to do things like persuade the French government that on all government contracts, they are committed to only buying sustainably produced timber. WWF also developed a similar third-party certification scheme for fish called the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

Sustainably produced timber is slightly more expensive than unsustainably produced timber, but that could be fixed simply by import duties.

Governments can set a regulatory framework that stops us destroying the planet and creates opportunities for responsible business.

What are some of the things you do in your daily life to do your part for conservation?

I commute to work on a motorcycle, not in a car. I live in a place in Switzerland where public transport is very difficult, so a 125cc motorbike is my preferred form of transport.

I've cut down on my meat consumption and I buy only MSC fish. I heat my house to only 20 deg C, which most people wouldn't consider comfortable, and in the winter I wear an extra sweater.

I separate paper, plastic and glass, and take them to recycling centres in the village.

Within WWF, in the work environment, we have what we call an environmental monitoring system to monitor our environmental statistics. We calculate daily our electricity, heat and oil consumption, our paper use. We have systems inhouse to recycle waste batteries, cardboard, plastic and paper. We have a small committee at work who watch that and plot it and we push the charts all the time.

All WWF travel is offset and is carbon neutral. We reduce our travel as much as possible. Most of our offices have video conference facilities to link them for virtual meetings rather than physical ones.

Do you think the world's climate change woes can be turned around?

I wouldn't have worked for WWF for 20 years unless I was an optimist. We can do a lot and we can do it quickly if we want to.

That's the important thing. It's if we want to.

Sometimes, it has to be pushed on you. How many people have their first heart bypass before they start thinking of exercising and getting in shape? Sometimes, it has to hurt to bring about a change.

And I think it will. When squid - sotong - becomes a luxury commodity in Singapore, people will be thoroughly aware of everything we've been doing to the seas for the past century. I don't at all like to promulgate doom and gloom because we can fix a lot of things.

Species have been brought back from the brink of extinction. The mistakes that were made in the West 100 to 200 years ago do not have to be repeated today.

We have solutions that can now be put in place to benefit governments, business and individuals, and we want to see more action.

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U.N. body to slash ship fuel pollution by 2015

Stefano Ambrogi, Reuters 4 Apr 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's top maritime body agreed tough new limits on ship fuel pollutants at a week-long meeting that ended on Friday, an industry source said.

The United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) measures will sharply curb harmful sulphur emissions by 2015.

The ambitious targets, first reported by Reuters on Thursday, will likely cost the oil and ship industry billions of dollars to implement.

They are also set to raise the price of some fuels as the industry switches to cleaner-burning distillates, industry experts say.

A key part of the legislation, approved by the IMO, relates to the tightening of harmful sulphur dioxide emissions. The regulations will be formally adopted in the autumn.

The industry source said the U.N. agency had agreed to impose sulphur limits in special Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA) of 0.1 percent by 2015 from the current 1.5 percent.

The tightening is needed to slash sulphur emissions in coastal areas, which SECA aim to protect, where they have proven to be a major health hazard in heavily populated areas.

"The 0.1 figure for the SECA is very significant because we are fairly sure the number and range of SECA will be quite extensive in the future," said Simon Bennett, secretary at the International Chamber of Shipping.

Some two-thirds of the 50,000-strong world fleet's movements, that carry 90 percent of the world's traded goods, are in coastal areas.

There are currently only two SECA -- in the Baltic and North Sea. Experts say that will likely expand significantly to include coastlines in the European Union and North America, among others.

"The all important million-dollar question is how many SECAS will there actually will be?" Bennett said.

Experts say the regulations, a revision of existing marine pollution laws, broadly fall into two phases.

The first will see cleaner burning distillate fuels substituted for sulphur-high fuel oils in SECA by 2015, followed by a gradual lowering of all sulphur content in fuels by 2020-2025.

That means ships in the middle of the ocean will be able to burn fuels higher in sulphur content until 2020, when sulphur limits also fall heavily to 0.5 percent.

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Rice situation in Asia

Thailand pledges rice supplies, elsewhere protests loom
BloombergToday Online 5 Apr 08;

Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, pledged supplies to importers, while India vowed to crack down on hoarding as shortages drove prices to a record and threatened to trigger protests in Asia and Africa.

The nation "has enough rice for export to neighbouring countries" and may be able to deliver as much as 1.2 million tonnes a month, said Mr Prasert Gosalvitra, head of the rice division of the Farm Ministry. Thailand has shipped about 1.1 million tonnes a month since Oct, he said.

Rice, the staple food for about 3 billion people, has doubled in price in the past year in international commodity trading because of increased imports by the Philippines, the biggest buyer, and a drop in exports by China, India and Vietnam.

Record food prices have stoked inflation, contributing to riots in Ivory Coast and a crackdown on illicit exports in Pakistan.

"We expect a significant rise in prices, well above the long-term average, in the short to medium term," said Mr Les Gordon, president of the Rice Growers Association of Australia. Population growth, urban encroachment on land, and rising grain prices are contributing to the increase.

Commodity prices are posting their seventh year of gains. The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index of 26 raw materials more than tripled in the past six years as global demand led by China outpaced supplies of metals and crops.

Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said his government will punish those who hoard essential commodities. "We will not hesitate to use some of the legal provisions we have against hoarding," said Mr Nath, while visiting Singapore.

Mr Prasert from the Thai farm ministry said: "We're ready to help solve the global food crisis but we have to be sure our people are taken care of," he said from Bangkok. "It's not possible to ship 3 million tonnes a month. The maximum we can do is 1.2 million tonnes."

The Philippine government has pledged more money to increase rice supplies. State banks may lend as much as 20 billion pesos ($660 million) to the National Food Authority to buy rice, and to farmers to boost output, said Finance Secretary Gary Teves in Manila.

The Philippines has asked Japan to allow it to draw from grains pledged under the regional emergency reserve programme. "We'll take whatever they can give us," said Mr Jessup Navarro, administrator of the National Food Authority.

Manila in drive to boost farm output
President Arroyo announces multimillion-dollar investment projects for agriculture sector
Alastair McIndoe, Straits Times 5 Apr 08;

MANILA - PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo has rolled out a major investment drive to boost agriculture production, as the latest inflation data shows a stark rise in food prices, especially for rice.

With her administration grappling with soaring rice prices and tight global supply, she has vowed to make the staple commodity 'abundant, accessible and affordable'.

'We must work harder to grow what we need,' she said at a summit yesterday to revive an underfunded and inefficient sector.

She said the multimillion-dollar agriculture projects would include building more market- to-farm roads and irrigation systems, stepping up the use of high-yield seeds, and an additional 15 billion pesos (S$499 million) worth of cheap credit provided by state banks for farmers.

Some of the funding for these projects will be sourced from soft loans from foreign governments in development aid to the Philippines.

'In all these programmes, we must be transparent,' President Arroyo said.

The new measures follow a scramble to increase rice imports for buffer stocks ahead of the lean July-to-September supply months as prices rise and traditional suppliers, such as Vietnam, reduce their exports.

Government data released yesterday show rice prices shot up 10.9 per cent last month from the same period last year. In February, they rose 7.7 per, with the retail price of some rice varieties increasing by around 30 per cent over the past months.

The sharp increase in the price of rice - and food generally - on the consumer price index boosted March's annual inflation rate to a 21-month high of 6.4 per cent.

Earlier this week, troops were called in to distribute the National Food Authority's heavily subsidised rice in the Philippine capital.

But even as Filipinos grumble about the higher prices and activist groups lead some protests, there have been no reports of rice shortages in the public markets - or signs of social unrest over the situation.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, has threatened to charge traders who speculatively hoard rice with economic sabotage, which can carry a life jail sentence.

Analysts say the scramble for rice imports and now to boost farm production reflect an urgent need to modernise the farm economy.

'Food security has meant that for as long as there is food on the table, it doesn't matter whether it is home-grown or imported,' said political analyst Ramon Casiple.

'But the view of civil society groups has increasingly been that food security means self- sufficiency, especially for staple commodities.'

The Philippines buys about 10 cent of its annual rice requirement, making it one of the world's largest importers. It is pencilling in imports of up to 2.2 million tonnes this year.

Experts say achieving self-sufficiency is by no means an impossible goal, but would require sizable investments in the agriculture economy.

In Thailand, the world's leading rice exporter, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej yesterday insisted the country had enough for domestic consumption as he tried to ease panic buying caused by soaring prices.

Read more!

World's poor steaming over rising food prices

A potent mix of growing populations and economies; a switch from food to biofuel crops; droughts and diseases; and a lack of new technology in crop yields, have hit the poor hardest

Joanne Lee, Straits Times 5 Apr 08;

FEEDING the poor has been dubbed the 'forgotten Millennium Development Goal' by World Bank president Robert Zoellick.

And the hungry are raising a din, as rising food prices and the impact of knock-on inflationary effects on low-income families across the globe breed social unrest throughout the developing world.

With world inventories of staples like rice, wheat and corn at all-time lows, rising agricultural commodity prices are being passed on to consumers.

As surging oil prices overshadow efforts to tackle world hunger, Dr Zoellick outlined a 'New Deal for a Global Food Policy' with a suite of multi-

lateral trade initiatives last Wednesday, in the face of skyrocketing food prices.

Governments around the world have taken radical unilateral measures in recent weeks to control their countries' supplies of rice.

Egypt said last week it will ban all rice exports for six months. Cambodia has stopped all private-sector exports of rice. India and Vietnam also have imposed restrictions to protect domestic consumption.

Prices of staple grains - corn, wheat and rice - have also risen since 2005, under pressure from farmers who would rather plant crops for biofuels than for food; the lack of technological breakthroughs in crop yields; and drought and disease.

Corn gained 73 per cent in the past year, touching a record US$6.03 (S$8.34) a bushel in Chicago on Thursday. Soya beans are up 65 per cent in the past 12 months, reaching US$15.86 on March 3, the highest ever.

Wheat, meanwhile, rose to a record US$13.50 a bushel on Feb 27 - more than doubling in the past year.

The price of rice, however, has taken centre stage in the past fortnight.

This week, store shelves were wiped cleaned in Hong Kong and Singapore. Poorer Asian nations like the Philippines and Indonesia have seen demonstrations calling for a curb on rising prices.

The Philippines, the world's biggest buyer of rice, has been hardest hit in Asia. President Gloria Arroyo has been criticised by protesters for her handling of the food situation.

In the past week, investigators there have raided rice warehouses and arrested traders buying subsidised rice from the government to sell at a higher price.

The government has even threatened to charge rice hoarders with economic sabotage - a crime that carries a life sentence.

This latest wave of food insecurity was sparked last week when the Philippines appealed to Vietnam to help avoid a shortage by supplying it with 1.5 million tonnes of rice this year.

The news contributed to an overnight 30 per cent spike in Thai rice prices to US$760 a tonne - more than double the US$360 fetched less than three months ago.

Adding to the supply shortage, Indonesia said on Thursday it may join China, India, Vietnam and Egypt in curbing exports.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said such moves will worsen matters, cutting global exports of the grain by 3.5 per cent this year.

Over the past few months, food riots have broken out in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

In Egypt, where the price of bread is up 35 per cent and cooking oil up 26 per cent, at least seven people have died in fights in queues for subsidised bread.

The developed world has not been spared either. Bread prices have risen in the United States and Europe - with reports last week predicting baguette prices in France will rise between 5 and 7 per cent over the next few weeks.

Economists say the food shortage should not have come as a surprise.

The UN warned in February that 36 countries, including China, face food emergencies this year, as stockpiles of staples fell to 30-year lows.

The FAO previously released data showing a 23 per cent spike in food costs worldwide from 2006 to last year. Within a year, the prices of grains shot up 42 per cent, oils by 50 per cent and dairy products by 80 per cent.

Meanwhile, investment funds and other speculators have bet on commodity prices, accelerating the self-fulfilling cycle.

Ironically, it is the food producers - typically poorer countries dependent on cheap staples - that will suffer the most as domestic consumption is exported to richer countries that can afford the surging commodity prices. The food scarcity and resulting retail price climbs affect lower-income households more as they tend to spend a relatively larger proportion of their earnings on food.

The ingredients causing the sharp rises are many.

On the demand side of the equation, the World Bank predicts global requirements will double by 2030 on the back of a three billion spike in the world's population by 2050.

Data from the US Department of Agriculture shows that global rice inventories are currently enough to cover only 17 per cent of consumption - compared to 35 per cent eight years ago.

Nearly half of the world's 6.6 billion people depend on rice to survive, and it is a staple for more than 2.5 billion people in Asia. With growing populations and rising economic growth, the world is already eating more grain than is harvested.

With the standard of living soaring in high-growth countries like China and India, demand for non-staples like meat and dairy products is also rising. Apart from boosting their prices, costs of grain to feed cattle and livestock are also shooting up.

Supply of food, on the other hand, has fallen due to consecutive years of bad harvests and climbing agricultural production costs.

The additive that is overwhelming the calamitous mix, however, is biofuels.

As crude oil prices continue to hit record highs, developed economies like the US and European Union champion the switch to fossil fuel substitutes.

Dr M. Nasir Shamsudin, agricultural and resource economist at Universiti Putra Malaysia's Faculty of Environmental Studies, says this is what makes the current situation different from the past.

'In previous oil price shocks, the impact on agriculture was only to push up costs of production. Now, with more sustained interest generated in the biofuel issue, food is not just more expensive to produce. People are also facing decreasing food supplies.'

Vast tracts of farmland are reallocated to the cultivation of biofuels like sugar cane and corn - both used in ethanol production. Other staples diverted away from feeding man to machine include soya beans, palm oil and cassava.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) projects that the food-to-fuel phenomenon will be 'one of the main drivers' of food price hikes estimated at 20 to 50 per cent over the next eight years.

Highlighting the specific impact of biofuel demand on Asia's poor, it noted that for many countries in the region, food prices are a bigger inflationary concern than oil prices.

Summing up the report's call for more political will to address the food crisis, Dr Noeleen Heyzer, UN under-secretary-seneral and Escap executive secretary, says: 'It is simply unacceptable that at a time when the economic growth of Asia and the Pacific has surpassed all expectations, we are not doing all we can to improve the lives of more than 200 million people living in such poverty.'

'Let them eat cake': The worst food riots in history
Straits Times 5 Apr 08;

1789 FRANCE

One of the most dramatic episodes of the French Revolution. Rumours that the royals were hoarding grain led to a hungry Parisian mob of 7,000 knife-wielding fishmongers' wives surrounding the Palace of Versailles to protest against high bread prices. When told of the ruckus, Queen Marie Antoinette (right) is reputed to have said: 'Let them eat cake.'

1840s EUROPE

The Potato Riots were initially a mass Russian movement against serfdom in 1834. Peasants rebelled at the government's enforcement of potato cultivation. Unrest spread across the continent over the next 10 years and was made worse by crop failure, leading to the European revolutions of 1848.

1863 UNITED STATES

The Southern Bread Riots during the American Civil War were triggered by invading armies ravaging crops and slaughtering herds. Between 1861 and 1863, the price of wheat tripled while butter and milk costs quadrupled. Blaming the government and merchants, citizens in Atlanta and North Carolina attacked and destroyed stores and warehouses.

1905 CHILE

Called the Meat Riots or Red Week, this five-day looting spree saw about 250 killed in violence in the capital, Santiago. Meat prices soared after the government imposed special tariffs on cattle imports. What started as a peaceful demonstration by 40,000 outside the presidential palace rapidly escalated into an uncontrollable rampage.

1917 RUSSIA

The February Revolution, which led to the overthrow of the Russian monarchy, began with food strikes in St Petersburg. It saw 90,000 on strike against bread shortages. Food prices were so high, 95 per cent of workers could not afford to eat.

1918 JAPAN

The Rice Riots began in the small fishing village of Ouzu in Toyoma prefecture and widened into nationwide riots, armed clashes and police station bombings. In three months, an estimated two million people participated in more than 620 reported incidents, eventually leading to the resignation of the administration.

Read more!

Singapore's fast HFMD test kit a world's first

Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 5 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE is developing the world's first diagnostic kit for Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) that will help detect the virus in febrile children within 10 to 20 minutes.

This means that children with the highly contagious HFMD can be picked out and quarantined sooner, thus minimising the chances of their passing on the virus to their peers.

The rapid diagnostic kit is being developed jointly by Singapore-based Rockeby biomed and the National University of Singapore's (NUS') medical school with a $200,000 grant from the Economic Development Board.

Currently, the diagnosis of HFMD — a common childhood disease — is symptomatic, which means that children are being screened for the virus only when they show up with a rash with blisters on their palms and soles, and mouth ulcers.

The HFMD test kit, however, will be able to detect the virus in a child who has fever, since the NUS medical school's paediatric department has identified a marker in the viral protein that can be used in the kit.

"Fever can mean a lot of things in our climate and viral fever can have many causes," said Rockeby biomed's chief executive, Dr Tan Sze Wee. "Hopefully, this test will allow better diagnosis of HFMD."

Currently, there is an outbreak of HFMD in Singapore, with 702 cases reported last week, bringing the total number this year to 4,423 cases. Last year, Singapore registered a record of 20,005 cases.

Of the cases in the first 12 weeks of this year, 21 per cent of virus isolates tested positive for the deadly Enterovirus 71 (EV71) strain of the HFMD virus, which the test kit would target.

EV71 has been associated with serious complications. In 2000 and 2001, EV71 killed more than 70 children in Asia, including seven in Singapore.

The test kit may be available in hospitals and clinics in three to four years, said Dr Tan.

Project to develop HFMD test kit awarded S$200,000 by EDB
Channel NewsAsia 4 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE : A project to develop a diagnostic test kit for hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) has been awarded S$200,000 by the Economic Development Board, under the Medical Technology Proof-of-Concept scheme.

Rockeby biomed, a Singapore-based diagnostic group, will be working with the Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore on this project.

HFMD is an illness caused by intestinal viruses, two common strains being the Coxsackie virus and EV71.

EV71 - the more dangerous strain - can cause complications that can result in death. - CNA/ms

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South Korea culls thousands of chickens to fight bird flu outbreak

Channel NewsAsia 4 Apr 08;

SEOUL: South Korea has started culling thousands of chickens after an outbreak of bird flu was confirmed to be the deadly H5N1 strain, officials said on Friday.

To determine the origin of the virus, officials were taking blood samples from the chickens, migratory birds and foreign workers at the infected farm in Gimje, 260 kilometres (162 miles) south of Seoul.

Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong suspended imports of uncooked chicken from South Korea but exports of cooked birds will not be affected, the agriculture ministry said.

The ministry said 270,000 chickens at five farms, the affected one and four others within a 500 metre radius, will be culled and buried along with all eggs in the area.

"The culling of chickens is underway," Kim Chang-Seob, chief veterinary officer of the ministry, told AFP.

The ministry has also imposed restrictions on the movement of chickens and ducks within a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius.

Kim noted that all outbreaks in the past occurred in the winter months from November to March but the current case erupted in early spring.

This makes health authorities suspect the virus might have been transmitted either by migrating birds or foreign workers who recently came from Mongolia, Vietnam and China where avian flu outbreaks have been reported, he said.

"The infected farm hires 11 foreign workers who came from Mongolia, Vietnam and China...we are taking their blood samples," Kim said.

About 2,400 chickens out of about 150,000 birds on the farm died between Saturday and Tuesday. The owner began reporting the deaths to health authorities on Monday.

Authorities immediately sealed off the location and barred any shipment of chickens or eggs to and from the farm, as well as to 12 other nearby farms.

The last time a virulent strain was reported in South Korea was in March 2007.

South Korea reported seven cases of infection by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu between November 2006 and March last year, resulting in the temporary suspension of poultry exports to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere.

But last June the World Organisation for Animal Health classified the country free from the disease.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 230 people worldwide since late 2003. No South Koreans have contracted the disease.

Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people and spark a deadly global pandemic.- AFP/so

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Dead birds washing up at Great Salt Lake

Dan Bischoff, Associated Press Yahoo News 5 Apr 08;

Thousands of dead birds are washing up on the Great Salt Lake shore. "We've received a lot of calls — everybody's worried about avian influenza," said Leslie McFarlane, wildlife-disease coordinator at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

But the dead birds are free of bird flu.

Avian cholera killed more than 15,000 birds on the lake last fall, most of them eared grebes, a duck-like bird. The common bacteria can quickly spread through a bird population, McFarlane said.

The salt water preserved the birds, even though they've been dead for months.

"People are worried that it's a new die-off and it's not," McFarlane said. "We're really careful of monitoring our bird deaths."

The bacteria do not affect other people or animals, and the birds have been dead long enough that they no longer are carriers.

The DWR was aware of the deaths last fall.

"They died clear out in the middle of the lake and there was no way to access them to pick them up," McFarlane said. "Now they are just washing in and they don't pose any threat or anything."

The DWR won't be picking up the birds this spring, either. They could be anywhere on the lake, and there's not enough people to search for them, McFarlane said.

When temperatures rise and the birds hit the shoreline, they'll decompose in a day or two.

"People won't have to be stepping over them when they visit the lake," McFarlane said.

There are hundreds of thousands of birds that migrate through the area, she said, and the 15,000 or so deaths won't hurt the overall population.

If someone sees sick or newly dead birds on the shore or sandbars, they should contact the DWR as a precaution, McFarlane said.

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Australian minister defends kangaroo culls

Yahoo News 4 Apr 08;

Australian Agriculture Minister Tony Burke on Friday defended the culling of hundreds of kangaroos, saying hundreds of the animals would starve to death if numbers are not reduced.

"If they are not culled, there will be many more than 400 facing death from starvation," he told reporters during a trip to Japan.

Australian authorities said Monday that they had postponed the planned killing of 400 eastern grey kangaroos at a defence site after a public outcry at the proposal.

Burke said certain endangered species may face "a dire situation" if kangaroos numbers are not reduced.

Millions of kangaroos are slaughtered in the Australian wild every year on the basis that there are too many, with much of the meat being used for pet food.

Some wildlife protection groups have accused Australia of hypocrisy over its efforts to protect whales but not kangaroos.

But Burke brushed aside suggestions of double standards, citing "different circumstances."

Since taking over in December, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ramped up pressure on Japan over its whaling, sending a customs vessel to monitor the Antarctic hunt which is widely reviled by the Australian public.

Japan says whaling is legal and part of its culture. It uses a loophole in a global moratorium that allows killing the giant mammals for research.

Burke said he had "a frank exchange between friends" on the environment when he met his Japanese counterpart Masatoshi Wakabayashi late Thursday.

The two sides expressed their different views on whaling, with Burke reiterating Australia's opposition to commercial and scientific whaling, he said.

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Mojave tortoises moved for Army training

Yahoo News 5 Apr 08;

Scientists have begun moving the Mojave Desert's flagship species, the desert tortoise, to make room for tank training at the Army's Fort Irwin despite protests by some conservationists.

The controversial project, billed as the largest desert tortoise move in California history, involves transferring 770 endangered reptiles from Army land to a dozen public plots overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Fort Irwin has sought to expand its 643,000-acre training site into tortoise territory for two decades. The Army said it needs an extra 131,000 acres to accommodate faster tanks and longer-range weapons used each month to train some 4,000 troops.

Desert tortoises are the longest-living reptiles in the Southwest with a potential life span of 100 years and can weigh up to 15 pounds. Their population has been threatened in recent years by urbanization, disease and predators including the raven.

Weeks before the relocation, two conservation groups threatened to sue Fort Irwin. The Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors contend that the land set aside for the desert tortoises is too close to an interstate highway and is plagued with off-road vehicles and illegal dumping that would disturb the animals.

The groups served Fort Irwin with a 60-day notice of intent to sue and plan to file the lawsuit after the desert tortoises have been moved.

"There's still a lot of work that needs to be done to make the relocation site more habitable ... so the animals would survive better there," said Ileene Anderson, a staff biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Fort Irwin lawyers and federal wildlife officials determined the claims were unfounded and decided to go ahead with the $8.5 million project. The process began last weekend and will last two weeks. The tortoises, including about 67 babies, are being moved into habitats approved by the U.S. Geological Survey and other experts.

"The translocation of tortoises is a very complex process," Fort Irwin spokesman John Wagstaffe said in a recent interview. "You have to move them gently and make sure they don't get stressed during the move."

About a year before the transfer, biologists tagged desert tortoises living in the proposed training expansion area with radio transmitters and took blood tests to make sure they were healthy.

Scientists have a short window to relocate the animals, which recently awakened from winter hibernation and will return to their burrows in the summer.

Last weekend, a group equipped with receivers scanned the desert for signs of the tagged tortoises, placed them in plastic containers and hauled them to their new home. They were given water and released.

Scientists will continue to monitor the relocated tortoises for signs of stress.

Research studies show relocated tortoises typically spend the first year roaming. Over time, they settle down and survive as well as tortoises that stayed put, said Roy Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno, Nev.

"We're plopping them down in a new area that they're not familiar with so they spend the first year or so learning their surroundings and where the good burrow sites are," Averill-Murray said Thursday.

Averill-Murray helped plan the Fort Irwin project, but is not involved in the actual move.

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Germany drops plan for auto biofuel

Yahoo News 4 Apr 08;

Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Friday that Germany would scrap plans to develop auto biofuels because they were not appropriate for millions of vehicles.

"We will not do it," Gabriel told the television channel ARD.

The VDIK association of foreign automakers said that around 3.3 million vehicles were unable to use the mix of ethanol and traditional petrol that Berlin sought to impose. Gabriel had warned the project would be abandoned if more than one million vehicles could not use the fuel.

"Environmental policy will not be held responsible if millions of car owners have to pay more" for fuel, he said, adding: "All of us underestimated the problems."

The news dealt a blow to 'green fuels' which have been seen as a way to reduce global warming but which have also been criticised by some ecologists and the German automobile club.

The E10 project was supposed to ensure that 10 percent of petrol used by cars and light trucks in Germany was comprised of ethanol so as to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

But the new fuel was found to be more corrosive than traditional petrol and threatened to wear out certain engine parts too quickly, in particular in cars that were more than 15 years old.

Many drivers would have had to switch to more expensive Super-Plus petrol.

The decision is a setback however for the government which sought to go further than the European Union (EU) in setting standards for cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

Biofuels were billed as a key contributor to the effort.

"There is no need for Germany to go it alone," VDIK president Volker Lange said in a statement.

"All environmental protection strategy must be harmonised and applied on the European level."

E10 has also come under fire from environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which criticises the conditions under which colza and soja used in the fuel is grown.

The powerful German automobile club ADAC noted that E10 fuel would represent a surcharge for consumers.

Berlin has nonetheless not abandoned plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared with their 1990 level.

Dropping the E10 project means however that other sectors, in particular electricity production, will have to increase the share of its production from renewable sources to 30 percent from 27.5 percent, Gabriel said.

To meet EU auto emission targets of an average 120 grams per kilometre, the car industry "will also have to come up with other technical measures," he added.

"That will certainly please auto parts makers," the minister added.

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