NSmen get movie treats from Shaw

Channel NewsAsia, 3 Oct 2013

To recognise the contributions of National Servicemen (NSmen), Shaw cinemas will offer members of SAFRA National Service Association exclusive movie deals from October 16.

SAFRA members will enjoy special discounts on movie tickets throughout the week at all seven Shaw cinemas islandwide.

They can also buy a pair of movie tickets at half the price during weekends and discounted popcorn combo.

NSmen who frequent the movies can save even more by joining MovieMax, SAFRA's micro club for movie lovers.

MovieMax members are entitled to even higher discounts on movie tickets all week round, including special rates on 3D movies for the very first time, at four Shaw cinemas - Shaw Theatres Balestier, Shaw Theatres Bugis, Shaw Theatres JCube and Shaw Theatres Lot One.

Second Defence Minister and President of SAFRA Chan Chun Sing officiated the launch of the three-year partnership at Shaw Theatres Lido on Thursday evening, along with the Executive Vice President of Shaw Organisation Mark Shaw.

Mr Chan said the backbone of Singapore's security continues to be a strong and capable Singapore Armed Forces which depends very much on our NSmen.

He said: "As a society, we want to do as much as we can for our NSmen as they shoulder the sacred task of keeping us safe and secure. There is one part that we can do much more and that is to bring in the community to better support our NSmen."

Three historic buildings in Queenstown to be conserved

By Melody Zaccheus, The Straits Times, 4 Oct 2013

QUEENSTOWN library, a former wet market at Commonwealth Avenue and Alexandra Hospital will be gazetted for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in its upcoming Master Plan.

The news was cheered by civic group My Community, which had lobbied for the conservation of these buildings in a paper submitted to the URA in July. The authority said it had also been looking at these sites.

Their status was announced by Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin at the URA's Architectural Heritage Awards presentation ceremony yesterday evening.

"All three buildings are important representations of what conservation can do to reinforce a community's identity and preserve its 'flavour' for past, present and future residents," said Mr Tan.

The buildings are both historically and architecturally significant, said the URA. The former wet market, for instance, is the only one left that was built by the Singapore Improvement Trust. It features design elements like a honeycomb screen wall suitable for the tropics.

Alexandra Hospital was selected for its "stripped-down hybrid of modern and classical styles" and historical significance - it was built by the British Armed Forces in 1938.

Their inclusion brings the number of conserved buildings in Queenstown to six. The others are Princess House, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament and Archipelago Brewery Company.

Teachers held in high regard by parents

Four in five people would encourage their children to join profession: Survey

By Pearl Lee, The Straits Times, 4 Oct 2013

FOUR in five people in Singapore would encourage their children to become a teacher, according to a global online survey which set out to see how well the profession is respected in 21 countries.

The survey by the Varkey Gems Foundation, which released the findings yesterday, also found that teachers here were the best paid.

Singapore placed seventh out of the 21 countries in the survey's global teacher status index after scoring 46.3 out of 100, which meant that teachers here are more respected than their counterparts in Finland and the United Kingdom.

And the country which values its teachers the most? China, which scored a full 100 points.

Singapore also came in third for how much confidence it had in the education system. Finland was first and Switzerland, second.

The online study surveyed 1,000 respondents aged between 16 and 64 in each of the 21 countries, which included South Korea, Germany and Egypt.

The countries, which were chosen based on their scores in certain global mathematics and science tests, included those which did well, such as Finland, South Korea and Singapore, and those at the other end of the scale, such as Brazil, Italy and Spain.

One of the questions asked in the survey was to compare the teaching profession to other jobs, such as doctors, lawyers and librarians.

Just like in Finland, those surveyed in Singapore said they saw teachers at the same level as social workers.

China was the only country where those surveyed felt that a teacher shared a doctor's status.

Three in four respondents from China also said that teachers had the respect of students, putting it top of the list. For Singapore, it was about 45 per cent, placing it third.

'Johor Beng' takes on the Middle East

Tocco Studios' Vincent Lai tells Susan Long why he chose the Arab route and how he is trying to improve financial literacy worldwide and influence how banks communicate with clients.

The Straits Times, 4 Oct 2013

HE WAS a teen gang member who beat people up for sport. He once spent a night in jail for car racing. And on weekends, he downed Ecstasy pills for kicks.

When he arrived in Singapore from Malacca at the age of 19, Mr Vincent Lai couldn't string together a sentence in English. When he couldn't pay his rent and was evicted, he slept for weeks in a corner of the computer room at Singapore Management University (SMU), where he was studying.

But through it all, curled up in his sleeping bag, Mr Lai clung on to his Singapore Dream. When the conservative banking industry here spurned his youth and would not bet on his start-up's touch screen prototype, he headed to the Middle East to earn his stripes.

At 28, he is now the CEO of Tocco Studios, a five-year-old multi-touch solution business. In Singapore, its interactive touch screens sell financial products at United Overseas Bank, beam directory services at the National Research Foundation and link up the unemployed with jobs at Singapore's Community Development Councils.

Tocco, which means touch in Italian, employs 10 people in a 1,400 sq ft office in Yishun. It has another eight-man office in Oman, where it has snagged the sultanate's leading financial services provider, BankMuscat, as a client. Tocco is fast making inroads into the Gulf states, especially with banks in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Why choose the difficult Middle East to launch from?

Because it's difficult, says Mr Lai. Difficult markets favour the young and brave with time on their side.

"People like to use this phrase 'blue ocean', which means nobody wants to go. People not willing to do. I do. They don't dare to do, I do and I get the rewards," he says with boyish candour in functional English.

Though fuelled by dreams, his move is grounded in pragmatism. It is the only route for a young business like his to break into the risk-averse banking industry that demands a track record.

"To go from nobody to somebody, that is a big step," he says. "If you want people to buy a banking solution, you'd better be in that space first. Then people will start to take notice and we can start to sell to more banks worldwide."

Let's not monkey around with wildlife plan

Wild boars in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. Monkeys breaking into Bukit Timah homes. As development encroaches on nature areas, more cases of human-animal conflict will arise. Culling cannot be the solution. What's needed is a proper long-term plan to manage wildlife.

By Feng Zengkun, The Straits Times, 3 Oct 2013

A RATHER sensational poster made in Singapore went viral online recently. It depicted a sad-looking monkey and a caption: "Every time you complain, a monkey dies somewhere."

It's exaggerated, but that poster is an allusion to the view that when it comes to conflict between human and animal, it's always the poor beast that loses out.

It also stems from a fear that Singapore's animal welfare authorities such as the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) and National Parks Board (NParks), which manages parks, are too quick to use culling to manage animals.

That's not quite a fair view.

What is fair to say, though, is that incidents of human-animal conflict are on the rise, and will continue to increase as Singapore becomes more densely populated. Development encroaches into wildlife habitats, and the disrupted wildlife encroaches into residential areas and enters homes.

That's a recipe for conflict.

Rather than being quick to cull, or sticking with piecemeal reactions to individual incidents, Singapore needs a more holistic wildlife management plan. In the same way that the country needs a long-term infrastructure plan for transport or housing, it needs to develop a long-term plan for managing wildlife that balances animal welfare with public safety concerns. But to do this, it needs to do two things better: study more options other than culling to manage animals, and collect better data on Singapore's wildlife.

Health-care group Parkway lists prices of 30 procedures

Doctor's fee to be separated from rest of bill; details on 4 hospitals' websites

By Poon Chian Hui, The Straits Times, 3 Oct 2013

PRIVATE health-care group Parkway Pantai has released a price list of 30 common procedures at its hospitals based on patients' medical bills in the past year, in a move that could guard against overcharging and help patients make more informed decisions.

Taking a step further than the Health Ministry's posting online of price information for mainly public hospitals, Parkway will also list the doctor's fee separately from the rest of the bill.

For instance, the median bill for cataract surgery at Mount Elizabeth Hospital is $4,610, of which $3,210 goes to the doctor. The remaining $1,400 goes to items such as the hospital stay, operating theatre fees and medical supplies used.

The list of 30 includes surgical procedures such as breast lump removal and tonsillectomy, and diagnostic or screening tests like colonoscopy and angiograms.

Parkway Pantai is Singapore's largest private health-care operator with four hospitals - Mount Elizabeth, Mount Elizabeth Novena, Gleneagles and Parkway East.

Currently, no other private hospital in Singapore publishes a breakdown of fees voluntarily, said Dr Lim Suet Wun, executive vice-president of Parkway Hospitals.

"Patients want peace of mind when they seek medical attention. We are addressing this by being more transparent with the estimated total costs, including doctor's fees," he told The Straits Times.

The move comes three years after surgeon Susan Lim, from Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, first faced disciplinary action for overcharging a Bruneian patient, who was billed about $25 million for seven months of treatment.

All four hospitals will carry the information on their websites.

Figures will be reviewed and updated from time to time, and also gradually expanded to include more procedures, said Parkway.

It also said the data is not intended to be price recommendations, which would contravene fair competition laws here.

Gym move named after Tay

S'porean teenager's feat is believed to be the first from South-east Asia

By May Chen, The Straits Times, 3 Oct 2013

LOCAL gymnast Terry Tay has joined an exclusive club that includes some of the sport's greats such as Li Ning and Kurt Thomas, following a move that was named after him yesterday.

The 19-year-old earned the certification from the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), the sport's governing body, after successfully performing it on Monday at the ongoing World Championships in Belgium.

He is believed to be the first male artistic gymnast from South-east Asia to accomplish that feat.



Performed on the still rings, the "Tay" - the name awarded by the FIG - has a high difficulty level of E (increases from A to F) and a description which those unacquainted with gymnastics would find hard to comprehend.

Its creator, however, needs just one word to describe it.

"Power," said the Year 3 Nanyang Polytechnic student, referring to how much strength the move demands of a gymnast.

"It involves precise technical execution, great amount of strength and grace."

Original elements are named after gymnasts when an athlete becomes the first to successfully execute them at either the world championships or Olympics.

The "Li Ning" on the still rings and the "Thomas Flair" on the pommel horse, for example, are some of the sport's more fabled moves.

But while others might have spent months creating and perfecting a new skill, Tay's was an impromptu creation the Singapore team came up with only after arriving in Antwerp, where the meet is held.

MOM on church's court bid: Employment laws apply to all

By Toh Yong, The Straits Times, 3 Oct 2013

THE Government breached the rules of natural justice and acted unfairly, one of Singapore's mega-churches claimed yesterday as it sought a legal review to quash a decision involving a sacked employee.

The claim earned a response from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) - that employment laws must apply to all regardless of religion.

It added in a statement to The Straits Times: "Our laws are applied to safeguard employees' rights... and not to undermine religious beliefs nor to restrict the practices of religious organisations."

In documents filed with the High Court yesterday, Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) charged that it was not allowed to explain its actions before the Acting Minister for Manpower ordered it to compensate one of its workers.

It added in the 11-page court document that "none of the plaintiff's senior leaders or management, nor the chief operating officer, was called upon to give a statement to the MOM or participate in any way in the MOM's inquiry". The minister also acted unconstitutionally, FCBC said.

The matter revolves around an FCBC administrative staff member being dismissed a year ago without compensation, after she committed adultery and became pregnant.

The Employment Act protects an expectant mother from her fourth month of pregnancy. The church member, who was then about seven months pregnant, complained to MOM.

In August, Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin decided that she was dismissed "without sufficient cause" within six months of her delivery date. He ordered FCBC to pay the woman $7,647 in salary and maternity benefits.

Under the law, the minister can order an employer to pay maternity benefits, and those who refuse can be fined up to $10,000 and jailed up to a year.

The MOM stressed yesterday its role was to protect employees' rights in their workplaces.

The lack of compensation for the woman, it added, deprived her of her statutory benefits, as the law provides.

MOM looking into fatal crane collapse accident on 30 September 2013

Snapped wires may have caused crane tragedy

'Still too early' to say what happened; excavator's weight was within limits

By Janice Heng And Maryam Mokhtar, The Straits Times, 2 Oct 2013

SNAPPED wires may have led to Monday's National Art Gallery crane accident which killed two workers, said Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin.

Calling it a "serious incident" after a visit to the construction site along St Andrew's Road yesterday, he added that it was still too early to say what actually happened.

It appears that there had been "nothing unusual" with the operation of the crane, and the weight of the excavator it had been lifting was well within limits.

"So the next step really is to determine what exactly happened - is it technical in nature, is it a systemic problem - so that lessons can be learnt, rectifications can be made," explained Mr Tan. "Not just here, but whether there are lessons for the industry as well."

The Manpower Ministry has ordered work at the site to be stopped for its investigations.

Project director Hideki Izumi, who works for the main contractor Takenaka-Singapore Piling Joint Venture, said the worksite's tower cranes, which were leased from Waheguru, were inspected monthly even though the industry norm is once every three months.

The crane, the boom of which collapsed at the Coleman Street site on Monday morning, was last inspected on Sept 19.

Its concrete counterweights fell too, crashing through scaffolding and killing a worker. Another died after being hit by the crane's hook assembly.

The bodies of Thai national Somkhot Chanyut, 50, who worked for Yong Nam Engineering, and Takenaka Corporation employee Ronju Ahmed, a 30-year-old from Bangladesh, will be flown back today.

Mr Tan sent his condolences to the families of the dead, and wished the two Bangladeshis and two Chinese nationals who were injured a speedy recovery.

Special school students will get more help: PM Lee

More of them will be able to make transition from school to workplace

By Andrea Ong, The Straits Times, 2 Oct 2013

SPECIAL education students will get more help, as part of the Government's drive to build a fair and inclusive society and help every child achieve his potential.

Making this pledge yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the State was studying how to expand vocational education, and to help more of such students make the transition from school to the workplace.

"In other words, set things up so that from the SPED (special education) school environment - controlled, orderly, managed - we can prepare you gradually to be ready to work in an open environment," he said.

Now, about a quarter of the 5,000 SPED students graduate with recognised vocational certification and find regular jobs.

PM Lee, who was speaking at the 10th anniversary of special education school Pathlight, also touched on other previously announced moves for the sector.

Each of the 20 SPED schools will be twinned with a mainstream one to promote interaction, while teachers can benefit from scholarships for a master's in special education and professional learning teams.

The Government has also poured more resources into special education in recent years.

State spending per capita for such schools is substantially more than that for mainstream ones. SPED students also benefit from support, such as Edusave contributions, that their mainstream counterparts get.

But beyond the school system, Singapore must also build a fair and just society which respects and treats everyone with dignity, especially those with disabilities, Mr Lee said.

This was why Singapore ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in August. SG Enable, a one-stop agency for persons with disabilities, is one way the State is supporting these citizens.

But it cannot be about only the Government. Three groups - families, the public, and the private and people sectors - also have crucial roles to play, said Mr Lee.

Families give emotional and financial support, while the public must embrace those with disabilities. The people and private sector can provide training and work attachments, or make donations.

He held up Pathlight as an example of how the combination of government support and community activism, along with a shared desire to deliver the best results, is the "correct way forward for special education".

New one-stop centre to help workers

$70m e2i building can offer training, job advice to 10,000 people a month

By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 2 Oct 2013

WORKERS have a new one-stop centre where they can get career advice and training.

The $70 million Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) building, a five-minute shuttle bus ride from Jurong East MRT station, opened yesterday.

The seven-storey building has the capacity to handle more than 10,000 people a month attending career counselling sessions, job fairs, training courses and skills assessment tests.

Facilities include a career services centre, training rooms and event halls for job fairs.

e2i chief executive Gilbert Tan said yesterday that the aim of housing different career services under one roof is to make the job application process easier.



The institute's previous premises at Redhill mainly provided job referral services for about 1,000 workers a month.

Job seekers would get career advice there but had to go elsewhere for training courses and tests conducted by external providers.

Mr Tan explained that at times, workers had to wait a few weeks to take skills assessment tests because the test sessions were full.

"By holding the tests in our building, we take over the scheduling and can make sure that the wait is shorter," said Mr Tan.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the two-week Employability Fair which started yesterday at e2i's new building. About 4,000 jobs in sectors such as health care and marine are on offer.

Job seekers at the fair said that they like e2i's building, given its convenient location and the different career services it offers.

S'pore world No.3 for human capital

WEF index sees it follow Switzerland and Finland in making most of workers

By Fiona Chan, The` Straits Times, 2 Oct 2013

A NEW index that measures a country's ability to make the most of its workers has ranked Singapore as the third most successful in the world and the best in Asia.

The Human Capital Index, developed by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), put Singapore just behind Switzerland and Finland in maximising the long-term potential of its labour force.

Of the 122 countries assessed, Japan was the only other Asian country to make it to the top 20 - in 15th place. The United States was one spot behind.

Not far below were Malaysia and South Korea, in 22nd and 23rd places respectively, while China - the top-ranking BRIC nation - came in at 43rd.

The WEF, a non-profit global organisation that aims to improve the state of the world, awarded Singapore high scores in three of the index's four criteria: the quality of the workforce and employment, education, and the working environment.

However, it fared less well in the last category: the physical and mental well-being of its workers.

This was mainly due to "the burden of disease in the country" - Singaporeans under the age of 60 suffer more deaths from non-communicable diseases than many other countries - which takes a toll on workers and businesses, the WEF said.

Workers here also reported high levels of stress, according to the index. As a result, Singapore ranked 13th in the "health and wellness" category.

In contrast, Singapore was awarded second place in the "workforce and employment" category.

It was recognised for its high labour force participation rate - the proportion of people able to be actively involved in the workforce - as well as the quality of skills and experience gained by its workers.

In particular, Singapore was seen as the second most successful country in the world at attracting talent, losing only to Switzerland.

The WEF also lauded Singapore's "exceptionally strong" quality of education and the "high level of tertiary education among the adult population", which landed the country third place in the education category.

Special mention was given to the quality of maths and science education here, which was deemed best in the world.

On top of that, Singapore scored well in terms of its infrastructure, legal framework and other elements that create a conducive environment for the development of a talented workforce. It came in fifth in this "enabling environment" category.