my Nipa Hut

Saturday, June 13, 2009

A new contender China launches green power revolution to catch up on West

05:55 AM Jun 11, 2009

A man rides a motorcycle past a wind turbine at a wind farm in Rudong, Jiangsu province, China. BLOOMBERG

BEIJING - China’s ambitious plans to utilise wind and solar energy represent a direct challenge to Europe’s claims of world leadership on cutting carbon emissions. China believes it can match Europe by 2020, producing a fifth of its energy needs from renewable sources, said Mr Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China’s national development and reform commission on Tuesday.

“Personally, I think we could reach the target of having renewables provide 20 per cent of total energy consumption,” he said. That matches the European goal and would represent a direct challenge to Europe’s claims to world leadership in the field, despite China’s relative poverty. Some experts have cast doubt on whether Britain will be able to reach 20 per cent.

Beijing seeks to achieve these goals by directing a significant share of China’s US$590-billion ($853-billion) economic stimulus package to low-carbon investment. Of that total, more than $30 billion will be spent directly on environmental projects and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Tourists walk near solar panels in Dongsha Island, also known as Pratas Island, Taiwan. BLOOMBERG

But the indirect green share in the stimulus, in the form of investment in carbon-efficient transport and electricity transmission systems, would be far larger. HSBC Global Research estimated the total green share could be over a third of the total package.

Mr Zhang said the government would also plough money into the expansion of solar heating systems. He said the country was already a world leader, with 130m square metres of solar heating arrays already installed, and was planning to invest more. The US goal for solar heating by 2020 is 200m square metres.

Mr Zhang said developing countries would have to pursue “a sustainable development path”, and said Beijing was open to the idea of limits on the carbon intensity of its economy (the emissions per unit of output). THE GUARDIAN

From TODAY, World – Thursday, 11-Jun-2009

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Singapore Polytechnic a Cet centre for infocomm sector

Image via CrunchBase

05:55 AM Jun 10, 2009

SINGAPORE Polytechnic has been appointed a Continuing Education Centre (Cet) for the Infocomm Sector, providing working infocomm professionals the chance to upgrade their skills under the National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF).

Eleven courses, covering areas like computer networking, web applications development, systems security, business process re-engineering and cellular networking, will be offered.

One ground breaking addition is the inclusion of Linux training, designed in collaboration with Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions. Thirty-one working professionals who completed the 17-week entry level course - accredited by the Workforce Development Agency - received their certificates yesterday. 938LIVE

From TODAY, News – Wednesday, 10-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Indonesia model's medical examination confirms abuse

Posted: 09 June 2009 2259 hrs

Manohara Odelia Pinot

JAKARTA: A medical examination of a teenage US-Indonesian model who claimed she was raped and tortured by her Malaysian prince husband, has confirmed she was physically abused, a forensic expert said on Tuesday.

Manohara Odelia Pinot, 17, last week told reporters she was treated like a sex slave after her marriage last year to Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of Malaysia's Kelantan state.

She escaped the prince's guards at a Singapore hotel and returned to her family in Indonesia with tales of abuse, rape and torture at the hands of the 31-year-old prince.

"There are slash wounds on many parts of her body, especially on her chest. Some are still fresh," forensic doctor Mun'im Idries told AFP.

"We are still examining her blood and urine samples because she said she had been given jabs," he said adding that he also found an injection mark on her back.

Manohara - a well-known socialite in Jakarta - claimed to have been cut with a razor and injected with drugs which made her vomit blood while being held under guard in her bedroom at the palace.

She said after the examination on Tuesday that the prince would have sexual intercourse after injecting her with an unidentified substance.

"I don't know what I had been given but I could not move. I could see, feel, hear and smell... my senses are still there but I couldn't move," she told TV One channel.

With the help of Singapore police, the former model escaped home to Jakarta while visiting her father-in-law, Sultan Ismail Petra Shah II who was being treated at a Singapore hospital.

"The medical examination has been completed and the result confirmed that there is physical abuse all over her body. Her story has proven to be true," one of her lawyers Farhat Abbas told AFP.

He said his client on Tuesday formally lodged a written report on the alleged abuse with the Indonesian police. Besides the prince, she had named six other people, including the sultan and his wife, as accomplices.

"We have received the report today," national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira told AFP.

"Indonesian police is not able to investigate the case as the alleged abuse took place in Malaysia which is out of our jurisdiction. But we will assist in reporting the case to Malaysian police," he added. - AFP/de

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Vancouver world's easiest city to live in, Harare worst: poll

Image via Wikipedia

Long before I came to Singapore, I first thought of migrating to Canada… this is one confirmation that to live there is better… well, at least, while they are settling the dual citizenship issue here in Singapore, I can go over to Vancouver. Who knows, they may not get past the discussion, and dual citizenship will just be a word-of-mouth discussion, never really pushing through and implemented… Canada, wait for me!

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Posted: 09 June 2009 0859 hrs

LONDON: Vancouver is the world's easiest city to live in while Harare is the toughest, a survey said Monday putting Europe and north America at the top while many African and Asian cities struggle behind.

Canadian and Australian cities hold six of the top 10 slots in the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability poll, which ranks cities on five factors: health-care, stability, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

"At the other end of the ranking, most of the poorest-performing locations are in Africa or Asia, where civil instability and poor infrastructure present significant challenges," said the survey's authors.

In ratings ranging from zero (intolerable) to 100 per cent (ideal), Vancouver scores 98 per cent, "benefiting from strong Canadian infrastructure," while Harare languishes on 37.5 "thanks to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe."

At the top end of the global easy-living scale, Vienna is in second place followed by Melbourne, Toronto, Perth, Calgary, Helsinki and Geneva, with Sydney and Zurich in joint ninth place.

The Japanese city of Osaka is just outside the top 10 on 13th place, and Tokyo is at joint 19th with Frankfurt.

European cities where life is generally not hard include Stockholm and Hamburg, Germany in 14th place, as well as Paris in 17th spot, Frankfurt in 19th, Copenhagen in 21st and Berlin in 22nd.

"With the exception of high scores in Australasia and some Asian centres, most of the better-scoring locations are based in the more developed regions of western Europe and North America," said the study.

A string of US cities fill the rankings from 30th to 50th position -- Washington DC in 35th place, Los Angeles in 48th -- followed by another smattering of European conurbations: London is in 51st spot, Rome 52nd while Athens has western Europe's lowest showing in 63rd spot, on 81.2 per cent.

Any city with a score above 80 per cent "will have few, if any, challenges to living standards," said the survey.

Lower down the orders come Moscow in 69th spot, Beijing in 76th, Johannesburg on joint 92nd with Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and Bangkok in 100th place.

The bottom rankings are occupied by a swathe of Asian and African cities: Manila in 108th, New Delhi in joint 114th spot with Cairo, Mumbai in 120th, Nairobi 122nd and Lusaka 126th.

Cities scoring below 50 per cent -- which "present daily challenges to living standards" according to the authors -- include Tehran in 129th place, Karachi, Pakistan in 135th and Lagos in 136th.

The bottom three are Algiers, Dhaka and Harare -- where President Robert Mugabe called Sunday for leaders to "make Africa a continent of opportunity for all its people," as Zimbabwe struggles to emerge from an economic meltdown.

- AFP/il

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Not your typical ‘greenie’

Image by B_brother via Flickr

52? A granny? You're never too old to hug a tree

Sarah Sum-Campbell

05:55 AM Jun 05, 2009

SIMON Tay would be proud of our new housekeeper. Just as his wife and child were instrumental in influencing the Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman to be a better environmentalist, Madam Lee is also going on a green drive to convince those in her social circle to save the earth, by first saving her household.

Mdm Lee does not fit into the typical profile of a greenie. She is 52, a Singaporean, a proud mother and grandmother, and quite illiterate.

Yet she was converted into a "greenie" in just about three hours. As our housekeeper, she is entrusted with food and household shopping. When asked explicitly to avoid buying any products made or produced in China, especially vegetables, she was keen to know the reasons.

We told her about experiments done by my group of friends which proved that vegetables from China could sit in the fridge for a month and still remain green, thereby proving the exorbitant amount of chemicals sprayed on to enable such abnormal sustainability. We also explained the consequences on the environment and on our health. She said that she was very convinced, and wondered why no one had ever told her all that.

She went on to enquire about the lack of bleach and certain brands of cleaning products, toys and clothes in our home. We told her about toxic paints used in China-made toys, lethal infant formula, and so on. The fact that she has little children at home helped strengthen her resolve to keep the diet and air at home healthy.

Saving the Earth is everyone's business. If we collectively boycott products which are harmful to our health and damage our environment, companies which make their livelihoods out of these cheap nasty goods will be forced to change their ways. With higher demand for pesticide-free/organic/green/environmentally-friendly products, their prices will drop, attracting more consumers.

So often it is the older generation of Singaporeans, especially those with little or no formal education, who control the purse strings of not just their households, but those of their children, too. Many look after their grandchildren, supervise foreign domestic workers, go marketing and prepare food at home, determine what household products to use, and which mode of transport/brand of car to utilise. Yet so often we dismiss them as being unable or unwilling to help save the Earth.

Perhaps we should be focusing our environmental education efforts on them, and not just the young and impressionable future generations.

From TODAY, Voices – Friday, 05-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

The great Internet divide

Image via Wikipedia

An area where parents should be fully aware of, especially if their kids are very active in the online world. Personal and private information can be easily given to unscrupulous users prowling the world wide web…

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SURFING THE NET

by Alicia Wong

05:55 AM Jun 05, 2009

THE extent by which parents underestimate their children's use of the Internet appears to have "increased significantly" over the years, noted chairman of the Internet and Media Advisory Committee Eugene Seow.

A 2001 poll by the now-disbanded Parents Advisory Group for the Internet had found youth spending 11.4 hours a week online, while parents estimated their usage at 8.6 hours.

But a local survey by Symantec revealed yesterday that teens spent nearly twice as much time online as their parents believed. They assume children only access the Internet at home, explained Symantec's consumer business lead of the Asia South Region, Mr Effendy Ibrahim.

The findings show "parents do not have quite a good handle in terms of where their kids are online", he noted, highlighting the dangers youth face, such as cyber-bullying and security threats.

But do parents need to know everything their children get up to online in order to protect them? Nearly four in 10 admitted to spying on their kids' online usage, while 46 per cent have installed parental control software.

WHAT PARENTS THINK

WHAT KIDS ARE REALLY DOING

61% claim to know what

their kid is looking at online

Increasingly accessing the Net at Internet

cafés, friend's place, via mobile phones

2% think their kids access

illegal/unlicensed materials

25% actually do access

illegal/unlicensed materials

98% don't know if their

kids access pornography

20% of teens do access pornography

74% aren't aware their

kids chat with strangers

48% chat with strangers

online more than once a week

90% are unaware if their kids

share personal details online

43% are careless with

their personal details online

Symantec survey conducted in April and Ma y of 397 adults and 35 teens aged 15 to 19

Parent can set rules for Internet usage even if they have limited knowledge of the Internet, said Mr Effendy, citing a free online tool (up until 2010) for parents by Symantec.

Director of Hougang Sheng Hong Family Service Centre (FSC) Sara Tan said: "(Youth need) space for secrecy ... They may not tell you everything, but it's important to open up the channels for communication."

Parents can join support groups, such as one at Hougang Sheng Hong FSC, to understand children's interest in the Web.

Youth can also register at a website that records the sites they surf and send it to a chosen "accountability person", said senior executive social worker Ong Ai Weig, from Fei Yue FSC.

But putting matters into perspective, she noted that while it is "very common" for youth to give personal information online and meet up with online pals, "the majority exercise discretion (and) are pretty street smart".

In her experience, out of 10 youth, only one or less would "get into serious problems".

From TODAY, News – Friday, 05-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

Malaysia royals: sex allegations 'private affair'

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

AFP - Thursday, June 4

Malaysia royals: sex allegations 'private affair'

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - Malaysian royals have described allegations by a teenage US-Indonesian model that she was raped and abused by her Malaysian prince husband as "a private affair" between the couple.

Manohara Odelia Pinot, 17, Monday told reporters she was treated like a sex slave after her marriage last year to Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of Kelantan state.

She escaped the prince's guards at a Singapore hotel and returned to her family in Indonesia with tales of abuse, rape and torture at the hands of the prince.

In its first comments on the matter, palace coordinator Abdul Halim Hamad said "the Kelantan palace authorities are watching and studying this issue and until now consider it as a private affair of a husband and wife that needs to be settled through the provisions of the law."

Abdul Halim in a statement Wednesday also said that all the remarks made by Mohamad Soberi Shafli, a friend of the prince, reflected his personal views only.

Soberi had said the ex-model was allowed to leave voluntarily and blamed her mother for influencing her to make up stories about the prince.

Her mother, Daisy Fajarina, said she would press charges against the 31-year-old prince, and accused the Malaysian and Indonesian governments for trying to cover up the alleged abuse.

"Manohara has suffered physical abuse. She's got several razor cuts on her chest," Fajarina told AFP on Monday.

The teenager -- whose fairy-tale wedding to a prince captured the imagination of Indonesia -- said she would be tortured if she did not appear to be happy when she attended social functions with Fakhry.

She said she secretly called Singaporean police and pleaded for help after the royal family took her to Singapore when they accompanied Fakhry's father, Sultan Ismail Petra Shah II, for medical treatment.

"The police told Fakhry that he would be held in jail if he did not let me go. No one could force me against my will in Singapore and I knew I had a chance to escape," she said.

Malaysia's royal rulers used to enjoy immunity from criminal and civil charges but the privilege was removed in 1993.

Manohara's lawyer, Yuri Darmas, said his client would have a medical examination to back up her allegations of abuse, adding that he intended to pursue criminal and civil lawsuits against the prince.

Manohara has already filed for divorce, her mother said.

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

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