With Covid-19 cases surpassing the 5,000 mark, and the government tightening measures and coming down hard with the imposition of fines and potentially even persecution for those found flouting the circuit breaker measures imposed on April 14, it is safe to assume that Singaporeans are all under quite a bit of scrutiny on all ends.
However, we have also seen quite a number of heart-warming stories in the context of this pandemic. One among many acts of kindness we witnessed during these difficult times was recently shared in a Facebook post by an individual who noticed an elderly man who seemed to be frantically searching for something on the ground.
Stranger offers his extra mask to uncle
Ke Weiliang is a young Singaporean who recently joined Grabfood as a deliveryman to supplement the income he lost in his previous employment avenues in the arts industry.
While waiting to pick up an order from a store at a shopping mall, he saw “an uncle profusely circling the floor” near the food stall. The old man did not have a face mask on.
A few packs of instant noodles, some cooking oil, a half-full bag of rice, and a bottle scraped nearly clean of chilli sauce – that was all on the kitchen shelves for a family of six living in a two-room rental flat.
That was a little over a week ago, on April 10. With only $200 left for his wife and four children over the next three weeks, Sam (not his real name), 37, has to stretch every dollar to make ends meet.
What little and unstable daily allowance he had from helping his mother as a school canteen vendor was gone when the Ministry of Education (MOE) closed all schools and instituted home-based learning for the circuit breaker period.
His next cash payout from the ComCare assistance scheme, typically $1,200 in cash for three months, is due on May 4, a day before the circuit breaker measures are lifted.
The Solidarity Payment of $600, which he and his wife received, has been of help for desperately needed supplies and groceries.
SINGAPORE: Throughout his encounter with the COVID-19 virus, the Bangladeshi migrant worker has been in touch with his family on a daily basis.
But as far as they are concerned, he was ill with a fever and is since recovering. The migrant worker, who asked for his name not to be used, has not gone into specifics for fear of worrying them further.
“Bangladesh also has cases of the virus now, so they are scared,” he told CNA. “It might cause tension for the family so I won’t want to tell them.
“If I tell them, they will cry … I don’t feel tension for myself, I feel tension for my family, my country … I think about my family, not about me, because I am safe in Singapore and the government here is helping to take care (of me).”
It came as a surprise to the migrant worker that he had caught the virus – he had after all taken precautions to ensure he wouldn’t contract COVID-19.
“My dormitory didn’t have cases (then) … but there were (some) in other dormitories,” said the migrant worker. “I thought that if I went outside and maybe if I suddenly got the virus: ‘How?’. So I didn’t want to go (out).”
Since the COVID-19 outbreak had begun, the only time the migrant worker left the compound other than for work was to buy groceries from a supermarket before the “circuit breaker” measures kicked in.
“I was working, then come back to my room, working, come back to my room, and then if I wanted to eat something, I would buy it from the shop (in the dormitory),” he explained. “For months, I didn’t go outside because what if I got the virus?”
So when the migrant worker started to feel feverish early last week, a growing concern built within him.
“I was feeling sick and I saw that my roommate was also feeling sick … I couldn’t sleep that night,” he said.
The next morning, he went to buy medication from the dormitory shop.
“I thought it could be the tension of not being able to sleep that night that caused my body to react like that,” he explained. “But the next day it was still like that, and I thought it’s better to check with the doctor.”
After taking his temperature, the doctor referred the migrant worker, who had a low-grade fever, to the hospital.
“My temperature was about 37.7 (degrees Celsius), so I had a fever but it wasn’t high,” he said. “I was a bit scared, but I was still thinking, maybe I am okay.”
‘THEY WERE VERY CARING’
After going through a number of checks including an x-ray, swab test and blood test at the hospital, it was a long and anxious wait for the migrant worker as he awaited test results.
“I waited for a long time, maybe seven to eight hours,” he recalled. “I was stressed: ‘When would the results come? What would happen?'”
Close to midnight, the migrant worker was told that he tested positive. He spent the next four nights in a hospital ward with several other Indian and Bangladeshi workers.
“I was scared at first, but slowly I started to be okay,” he said. “I saw that the doctors really took good care of us so after that I was okay … They were very caring.”
The migrant worker, who is a devout Muslim, spent most of his time in the hospital praying, as well as calling friends and family. “Many people called,” he said. “I wasn’t lonely.”
‘IT’S BETTER THAN MY ROOM’
The migrant worker then next transferred to the community isolation facility at Singapore Expo, where he is currently staying. Expo is being used as a community isolation facility for recovering COVID-19 patients.
“I had friends staying at the Expo. So I called one of them and asked what the Expo is like,” he explained. “He told me what the Expo was like and told me that it was okay to come here.”
A Community Isolation Facility for COVID-19 patients at The Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria.
So far, he is happy with how things are at this temporary home.
“It’s comfortable. Not difficult here – it’s better than my room (in the dormitory). No big problem,” he said. “Now that my family see that I am okay, they don’t worry, we are happy.”
Given that he was cautious with his interactions outside work, the migrant worker believes that he could have caught the virus at his workplace.
“There are so many companies at my workplace,” he explained. “There are so many sub-contractors …. The workers come from all places in Singapore.”
And while the migrant worker is generally upbeat, there is a fear among the community given the spread of the virus, he said.
“If you see men from another room in a dormitory go on an ambulance, how does that feel? Of course, they would be scared,” he said. “So many people are scared. My friends call me and they are scared. I tell them not to be scared and tell them … not to worry.”
The migrant worker believes that he will be able to return to work once he has fully recovered from the virus.
His contract has not ended, there are mouths to feed back at home and a bank loan which he took to pay a Bangladeshi agent in order to get to Singapore.
“Now I am okay, everything is okay,” he said. “God can give (the virus) but God can make me well.”
SINGAPORE: At the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) screening centre, one important part of the defence against the pandemic has been none other than ice cream.
Charmaine Manauis is hardly joking when she says that. She is the lead consultant in infectious diseases at Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s emergency department, which is in charge of the screening effort.
“Ice cream is important; it makes us happy. You see everyone — they have ice cream, they perk up,” the doctor said about her colleagues, and herself.
“Plus, it’s hot inside the personal protective equipment. So they love eating ice cream (in the pantry) during their break.”
She is certainly not kidding about feeling the heat under their yellow gowns, shower caps, gloves, goggles and N95 masks, which they wear throughout their seven- to 10-hour shifts, except during breaks.
In full personal protective equipment.
“When I remove my yellow gown, I’m usually drenched. It’s really hot,” she said. “When I remove (my mask), then I feel as if I can breathe again.”
That is how it has been for the staff running both the TTSH emergency department and the screening centre at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in the time of the coronavirus.
And it is not just emergency doctors who are seeing to the suspected Covid-19 cases.
While their department used to have about 20 doctors on shift at any time in the day, it has been a whole new ballgame since Chinese New Year.
Hundreds of doctors across different specialities in the hospital — from urology to ENT (ear, nose and throat) to plastic surgery — are being mobilised for training so they can carry out Covid-19 duties too.
Since Singapore’s first confirmed case on Jan 23, more than 400 doctors from the hospital have been rostered to work at the NCID screening centre across the road.
And the one co-ordinating their training is Manauis, the senior consultant leading the screening efforts — as CNA Insider finds out in an inside look at the front-line battle against Covid-19.
GETTING WIND OF THE VIRUS ON HOLIDAY
The 42-year-old as well as her boss — Adjunct Assistant Professor Ang Hou, head of the emergency department — were on holiday in December when they first heard of a mysterious disease in Wuhan.
“I said, ‘Hm, this might be something.’ So when I came back, the department had already started screening,” recounted Manauis. “We started screening for (travellers from) Wuhan on Jan 2.”
Dr Charmaine Manauis.
That was the day Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that it was monitoring the pneumonia outbreak closely, and sent a circular to medical practitioners here.
Whispers of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) started “floating around” TTSH. “We were SARS central back in 2003, so that’s never left the DNA of the department,” said Ang.
“You can’t help but relive memories that you’ve been through, especially when you know your colleagues and your friends had been affected very deeply.”
The possibility of a second coming did not surprise him, however. “We were always anticipating something like Covid-19 … We knew that it wouldn’t be a matter of if, but when,” he said.
“We knew that by the time it were to come from Wuhan to Singapore, it would’ve been … a significant outbreak in the world or at least in this part of the region.”
Dr Ang Hou.
The department started screening for the new coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2) in a “very small, dedicated space”.
But even “way before” Singapore’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition alert was raised to orange, the number of people coming every day “was growing to a scale that we had to move out of (that) physical space”, he added.
As the rest of the country wound down for Chinese New Year, furniture had to be moved in, and computers set up, for the NCID screening centre to be activated.
“It was a very busy Chinese New Year for a lot of people, not because we were going around celebrating but because we were preparing for the next phase in screening,” said Ang.
Computers had to be set up on trolleys for the screening centre to be activated.
By Jan 29, the screening centre was up and running round the clock.
FROM SCREENING CENTRE TO TENT
Those first few weeks of the centre’s operations were “really hectic” for Manauis.
“We were on call 24/7. Every Saturday, we’d train (staff). During the week, we’d look at protocols — we’d look at whether our processes were working well, whether we had to manage any choke points in the screening centre,” she recounted.
One of those choke points were the X-ray rooms. “If the screening centre was full, then there’d be a queue for X-rays. And so we’d need more efficiency, more radiographers,” she said.
Based on the travel history and the chest X-ray results, the doctors had to decide whether the patients had to be warded or could be discharged.
Patients must fill in a questionnaire at the screening centre.
For those who needed admission, those were uncertain times. They had many questions. “How long will I stay? What tests will they be doing for me upstairs? How about my family? Do they need to be admitted too?” cited Manauis.
The numbers coming for screening kept rising until the load “became quite difficult at one point”, said Ang.
That came about when the MOH changed the definition of a suspect case, following the transmission of the coronavirus at a health products shop visited by Chinese tourists.
“That led to a lot of patients being referred by their doctors for screening because they’d come into close and frequent contact with travellers from China,” said Ang.
“A lot of people in various industries came in, whether they were taxi drivers, tour bus drivers, people who worked in tourist attractions or hotels, airports and casinos. They were all flooding in.”
Inside the screening centre.
So, after consulting the ministry, TTSH proceeded to swab and discharge these patients, “to conserve beds for patients who were really ill and needed treatment”.
Then there was “a strange point in time”, when the number of people coming for screening and the cases confirmed as positive slowed down, even as the numbers were picking up in the rest of the world.
“We knew that the numbers would go up sooner or later,” said Ang.
“We knew that the screening centre might not be able to cope … so we made the decision together with the ministry to set up a tentage, to expand the number of places available.”
The tent outside the screening centre.
That ended up being the case. On March 23, the TTSH team screened the highest number of people until now: More than 520. “We call it the most terrible Monday,” said Manauis.
“The patients came in the afternoon and at night. And at night, we have less manpower. We had to open the tentage until 3am, with a lot of patients having to wait a little bit longer. So that was a struggle.”
MIGRANT WORKERS A NEW CHALLENGE
There are still hundreds of patients screened daily, although the challenge as of late is not the numbers but the space needed, as the spike has been among migrant workers, and the tentage outside the screening centre is “perennially full”.
“For these foreign workers, we need to wait for swab results before they can be discharged (if they test negative). So we need a bigger waiting area for them,” said Manauis.
“After that, they have to wait for transport also, to bring them back to their dorms. So they can wait for as long as, probably, 18 (to) 20 hours.”
WATCH: Inside a COVID-19 screening centre in Singapore (5:20)
While there are now Swab Isolation Facilities like the CherryLoft chalets — where the workers can be sent after their nose swabs — these facilities “are quite full” nowadays, she added. The workers are otherwise unable to self-isolate.
Every day, we’d have to ask whether there’s any vacancy, and then they still need to wait for an ambulance or dedicated transport.
While there is swabbing done at the dormitories now, some of the workers need to go to the screening centre depending on their symptoms.
If they complain of chest pain or have difficulty breathing, for example, then they need an X-ray, a blood test or an electrocardiogram.
As long as they are symptomatic or have had close contact with a positive case of Covid-19, they should be swabbed.
An MOH circular sent on Thursday has also updated the swabbing criteria for everyone. Anosmia — the loss of the sense of smell, either total or partial — is now one of the symptoms to look out for, cited Manauis.
“There were (research) papers that came out, and there were positive cases which presented only with anosmia,” she explained.
The other symptoms still include fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat and gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea or vomiting.
Since she started on TTSH’s clinical protocols and work instructions for Covid-19 screening and infection controls, Manauis has developed 61 versions for the staff to follow.
There is also a workflow for the foreign workers from dormitories, which is at version 17 now.
IN FOR THE LONG HAUL
She has also trained nine batches of doctors from various departments, with as many as 51 physicians in a batch.
They work a 10-day cycle as part of a group of more than 100 people, including nurses and other healthcare workers, running the screening centre.
Most of them, even senior specialists, are volunteers, and some have done more than one rotation, although each department is also supposed to contribute a certain amount of manpower
“Screening is very different from what they do every day. So it wasn’t a surprise that they were a little bit apprehensive. But they were very willing to help out,” said Manauis.
She is grateful for all the support. At one of the training sessions this month, she told the doctors: “We really need your help on the front line. On behalf of the emergency department, I thank you guys for volunteering.”
The thing is, her department is not only working at the screening centre, but also attending to the usual emergency cases. To do this, the staff have cancelled their leave and reduced their days off.
“You just have to do your work. I go day by day — whatever needs to be done, needs to be done,” she said with a shrug.
“Everyone’s made sacrifices, not only me or not only the doctors … But we do this willingly because we know that this is our job.”
The emergency cases are tended to in a different zone, although that does not mean the staff necessarily get to dispense with personal protective equipment. The forward screening triage nurses, for example, must wear the full equipment.
“Sometimes walk-in patients … are close contacts (of a Covid-19 case), so we have to protect our front-line staff,” said Manauis.
To protect the patients as well, one of the changes made is to ensure that they queue at least two metres apart. This, and many of the current arrangements in the emergency department, could be in place for some time.
“For those of us who’ve been here for a while, who’ve gone through other outbreaks, we know that, potentially, it’s going to be long-drawn,” said Ang.
“It could affect some of our own members — that the memories of Sars come back — and I think it might hit those a little bit harder.”
When asked on Friday about her team’s morale, Manauis, who has been with TTSH for 15 years, gave a cheerful reply.
“We’ll try our best to … help the nation, especially now that (the number) of positive cases has been increasing,” she said.
“We’re still okay. We still have ice cream, so we’re happy. I mean, you’ll need to try and pace yourself because we know that this is going to stay for a few more months.”
SINGAPORE – All work permit and S Pass holders in the construction industry will be on 14-day stay-home notices (SHN) from Monday (April 20) to prevent further transmission of the coronavirus at work sites, said the Manpower Ministry (MOM) on Saturday.
It will take effect on April 20 and end May 4. Dependant Pass holders of these workers are also to be on stay-home notice.
The new move is to ensure that there is no further interaction between workers and those outside their residential premises for two weeks, the ministry said in a statement.
The changes apply to the construction sector as the highest number of infected cases have come from this sector and work site transmissions have been a contributing factor.
“Contact tracing suggests that transmissions at common construction work sites may have contributed to the increase in numbers,” it said.
There are 284,300 work permit holders in the construction industry.
SINGAPORE – All McDonald’s branches in Singapore will be closed from 11am on Sunday (April 19) until May 4, after seven of its employees tested positive for Covid-19.
Announcing the move on Facebook Sunday morning, McDonald’s said that all restaurant operations will be suspended, including its delivery and takeaway services.
“As a preventative action in the fight against Covid-19, we’ve been advised by the Ministry of Health to suspend all restaurant operations, including McDelivery and Drive-Thru, until May 4,” said the post.
“We’ll be closing all restaurants today, 19 April at 11am and will take our last Drive-Thru and Delivery orders at 8am and 10.30am, respectively.”
SINGAPORE: Welcome to the world’s biggest leap in education.
Right now, 90 per cent of the world’s learners – more than 1.5 billion students – have been affected by school closures, according to OECD estimates.
In China, some 120 million Chinese students have been sitting in front of their televisions, learning through national broadcasts. Hong Kong students have been learning on digital apps since February.
In Lebanon, schools have been using online learning even for physical education, where students have been shooting and editing videos of their training and sports activities, learning digital skills as well as exercising.
Never before has there been a concerted global effort to digitise education.
A STEEP LEARNING CURVE FOR US ALL
Closer to home, my kids have been on home-based learning for two weeks now. Every day, I am flooded with emails from their teachers on the status of their homework submissions, reminders for them to participate in virtual hangouts, complete their video project on our dog, punctuality reminders and so on.
It is a steep learning curve for all of us, parents, students and educators. This truly is a historic moment in education.
We now are forced to break with decades of tradition but we also have the chance to reinvent what we want to learn and reimagine what education could be. Yet, how much of that are we doing?
So much of the world’s educational systems have been designed for the first Industrial Revolution era. Passive learning, linear thinking, early specialisation, one-size-fits-all teaching, for example – all geared towards building a work force adept at following instructions and being good at doing specific things.
While there has a lot of focus on going digital this home-based learning season, the bigger issue is that education needs to modernise and become more relevant. Digitalisation is both the solution and the challenge.
A kid spends time on a computer (Photo: Reuters)
In this, there are two main issues to reimagining education – how to teach, and what to teach.
CHANGE HOW WE TEACH
Starting with the “how”, many academic institutions are unprepared for this sudden transition to digital platforms and have scrambled to offer move their lectures online.
But while COVID-19 is challenging assumptions regarding engagement and building connections, these attempts at modernisation have merely offered the same outdated educational content and the same passive teaching methods, but now facing a webcam plonked in front of them.
We forget something else is needed in the equation to spark learning when a distance is placed between the teacher and student.
My 11-year-old and 13-year -old tell me many of their teachers are just coming online to dish out instructions, and then leave them to complete projects at their own pace.
“They say if you finish early, you can go and read a book. I don’t really feel motivated with all this free time. And also there is no flexibility to change the teaching because the timetable is set in the morning so everyone just has to stick with it,” the 11-year-old said.
My 13-year old grumbled: “The problem is that they aren’t very clear about their instructions, and they just say things once and then leave us alone to figure it out.”
Research in learning science tells us the human brain needs special care in digital environments to avoid the temptation of distractions and maximise the learning experience. Educators need training in how to teach differently on these platforms, when this old method of teaching by instructing, asking and reviewing is stifling engagement.
Part of the issue may be that video conferencing solutions are not necessarily the right tools to deliver learning, and come with their own challenges such as connection bandwidths, security and privacy.
With classes now put on hold till the end of April, many centres have turned to home-based learning, with lessons mostly delivered online.
Our education systems have done a good job making the jump onto digital platforms and must now focus on how to make digital learning count. So how about changing up teaching to nurture thinking rather than to dish out instructions?
FOCUS ON INTERACTING AND DRAWING RESPONSES, RATHER THAN INSTRUCTING
I had an opportunity to witness a lesson in progress at Minerva Project, a futuristic university headquartered in San Francisco regarded as a pioneer in the world of higher education recently.
The teachers working through a custom-based digital platform, acted much more as facilitators, provoking thought and stimulated discussion, while speaking for less than 15 per cent of the class time.
Lessons started with a “hook” at the beginning of a new learning topic —a visually stimulating image, an emotionally striking story or a thought-provoking question that caught attention, then students were placed in breakout rooms to work on short live projects.
Short quizzes and polls peppered each class, and students were called on constantly to give their opinions, summarise the arguments presented by their peers so far, play devil’s advocate, and even to step in for the teacher and moderate.
It was a refreshing and thoroughly modern experience. It succeeded also because investments were made in having faculty undergo months of training in the principles of learning science and online facilitation.
It might sound like a daunting task but such investments in shaping the minds of our digital natives across all learning ages will go a long way. For one, similar principles may be needed in engaging our younger learners as well, given their short attention span.
Teachers can screen share short videos, unexpected questions, riddles or puzzles at the start of the class to keep students guessing what the answers may be, to be revealed through the lesson.
Quizzes and live polls are useful in gauging if their young audience is following or if they are lost.
Students can be placed in twos or threes into breakout rooms and given clear instructions on the topic to discuss or problem to solve and work on their presentations to the class.
Student groups work at different paces so plan for flexibility and have supplementary materials for groups that may finish earlier.
As student groups present, engage the class by asking them to give a rating or even to indicate using one or two or three fingers what their rating is.
A big part of learning is also documenting or writing things down, so collaborative documents such as whiteboards or google docs can be shared and various students assigned the role of scribe at different points.
Learning can be broken up with short energiser exercises to relieve the monotony of sitting.
For younger age groups, parents will probably also have to step up, help support the teaching role and act as tech support, as students do not necessarily know how to stay attentive to courses not adapted to the digital medium.
Photo illustration of a child using a laptop (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Educators could also afford to brief parents on simple ways which they can aid students learn, since there is no running away from the part-time role mums and dads will have to play, while being careful not to overloading parents with a deluge of information for each child.
CHANGE WHAT WE TEACH
The second, and perhaps bigger issue, is what to teach. What will be relevant in our brave new world?
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of developing resilience to cope with the volatility and uncertainty of the future, from pandemics to climate change.
As parents now have a front-row seat into what their children are learning, many parents are now asking, why are my kids spending so much time learning things we ourselves have never used as adults – like quadratic equations, logarithms, the formation of an oxbow lake and iambic pentameter?
While some might argue these are foundational skillsets in logic and math, should we not devote the same amount of attention, if not more, to future-ready life skills like critical thinking, creativity and innovation, marketing and communications, financial literacy and resource allocation, coding, psychology and mindsets, entrepreneurship and so forth?
This may involve a strategic overhaul of curriculum so that we are not just adding more to our already weighty student workload, and a huge dose of imagination and creativity to weave some of these new Fourth Industrial Revolution competencies.
File photo of secondary school students in Singapore.
For instance, with the shuttering of science laboratories across universities, the Genetics Society of America suggest science students practise writing grant proposals instead, weaving in persuasion and marketing skills and financial budgeting skills, or use data visualisation tools to present statistics in a compelling new way.
FOCUS ON BRAIN HACKING
Another novel solution is Minerva’s approach of flipping the curriculum. Normally in most schools, the primary focus of teaching is the subject matter (e.g. Math or Geography). Teachers claim that in the learning of these subjects, students somehow also pick up secondary thinking skills and life competencies.
Minerva reverses the equation. Their first year is dedicated to just three foundational things – critical thinking, creative thinking and effective communication.
“It’s basically brain hacking” says Ben Nelson, Founder of Minerva Project, “We’re changing the way you perceive the world around you.”
Only after the first year of learning to think well, do students choose a major and take subject matter courses, but the principles of critical thinking, creative thinking and effective communication are embedded into every single subject matter class.
This radical approach requires all teachers to go through training to learn the foundational life skills and Fourth Industrial Revolution competencies so that they understand how to weave these into their subject matter classes.
You can imagine many educators are reluctant to embrace this big shift as it involves much unlearning and relearning, but yet is a vital part of what our youth need.
THE VALUABLE OPPORTUNITY COVID-19 PRESENTS
The word “crisis” means “to sift” and comes from ancient Greek times. It refers to a critical moment where we must decide and choose what is essential.
COVID-19 poses a valuable opportunity to remind ourselves that the bigger picture skills students need in this unpredictable world are meta-skills that they can apply to many different scenarios, for example, creative problem-solving, focus and perseverance, critical thinking, and above all, adaptability.
To parents who may be fretting about whether their children will catch up with the demands of the curriculum and can cross that end-year exam bar, consider that your children are now learning things that are far more important to their future.
As our youth watch this pandemic unfold, they are learning lessons about how interconnected we all are, and what globalisation really means.
They are learning how fragile our ecosystem is, the miracle of the human body and its various unbelievably intricate mechanisms.
Residents queue to receive free reusable masks distributed by the government at a community center, as stricter measures are announced to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore, April 5, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Edgar Su)
Could the issues COVID-19 throw up not offer a rich source of engagement for children to apply these skillsets to whether in subjects like Science, English or Social Studies?
THE ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CHANCE TO REIMAGINE EDUCATION
Parents too have an outsized role this home-based learning season outside of the digital classroom. As your children watch you adjust to working from home, they are learning from you how to navigate uncertainty and respond to life’s challenges.
Pretty much everything is a new learning experience for them. While they walk past cordoned-off playgrounds and closed swimming pools and empty movie theatres with aching hearts, they are recognising the value of human connection, and acknowledging there is a limit to how much fun they can have on screens alone.
Let us not squander the opportunity this crisis offers and rebuild our education systems thoughtfully and intentionally, celebrating resilience, creativity and adaptability as the cornerstones of what it means to be educated in this brave new world.
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Crystal Lim-Lange is the author of Deep Human– Practical Superskills for a Future of Success and the CEO of Forest Wolf, a leadership and resilience training consultancy.
SINGAPORE: From growing rice at sea to turning to microalgae as an alternative protein source – these are some of the ways Singapore could boost its homegrown food production in the future as it looks to improve its food security.
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a wake-up call for Singapore on the issue of food security, say experts.
“The crisis could be a timely reminder of how fragile food security can be,” said Professor William Chen, director of the Nanyang Technological University’s Food Science and Technology programme.
While there are other factors such as climate change which pose a threat to food security, these are relatively far off, he noted.
The coronavirus outbreak, as well as resulting lockdowns to stop its spread, has helped put a spotlight on the issue, said Prof Chen, who is also Michael Fam chair professor at NTU.
In March, Malaysia announced its movement control order, with measures including barring citizens from leaving and foreigners from entering the country. This sparked a round of panic buying in Singapore, with long queues of people at supermarkets stocking up on items such as eggs and meat.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong later announced that his Malaysian counterpart Muhyiddin Yassin had assured him that the flow of goods and cargo – including food supplies – between the two countries would continue despite the travel restrictions.
About 90 per cent of Singapore’s food currently comes from overseas.
Last month Singapore and six other countries – namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Myanmar and New Zealand – issued a joint ministerial statement highlighting a commitment to maintaining open supply chains amid the ongoing pandemic.
“One of the ways to go forward is to have more of these supply chain connectivity agreements,” said food security expert Paul Teng. However, Prof Teng – an adjunct senior fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies under the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies – said it was unclear how binding such agreements were.
During times of crisis, countries may understandably seek to protect their own interests, said Prof Chen.
“It would be very difficult to impose (on other countries) that you promised this and that,” he noted.
Prof Teng pointed to Vietnam’s move last month to suspend exports of rice to ensure its own national food security amid the COVID-19 outbreak – which it has since reversed – as well as other factors beyond the control of governments, such as the droughts in Thailand that had affected rice production there. Prof Chen also highlighted how governments may choose to keep supply chains open, as exports of food and other essential items are a significant source of revenue for these countries.
While only 10 per cent of Singapore’s food is produced locally, it aims to become less dependent on other countries over the course of the next decade.
Last year, the Singapore Food Agency announced plans to have 30 per cent of the country’s food produced locally by 2030. It aimsto achieve this in land-scarce Singapore by four means – harnessing technology, increasing the amount of space dedicated to farming, as well as supporting local agriculture and encouraging consumers to buy local produce.
And with the opening of an 18ha Agri-Food Innovation Park in Sungei Kadut next year – dedicated to high-tech farming as well as research and development in the sector – Singapore aims to stake its own claim in the S$5 trillion agri-tech industry.
Funan’s urban farm on level 7. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Even so, the price sensitivity of Singapore consumers means they tend to shy away from local produce, which is generally more expensive than imports from elsewhere in the region, Prof Teng noted.
“There are also some who believe that imported is better, particularly from countries like Japan, Australia or USA,” said Bjorn Low, co-founder and executive director of urban farming social enterprise Edible Garden City.
Prof Chen said his research in microalgae – an alternative protein food source – showed it could be done inexpensively and without sunlight.
Still, Mr Low noted there are other hurdles in urban farming in Singapore.
“One of the biggest challenges we face is a talent crunch. Not only is it difficult to hire Singaporeans to become farmers, it is also difficult to train our staff locally, as there are little to no accredited farming programmes,” he added, noting that there is also a lack of space and resources, with the resulting lack of economies of scale leading to higher costs.
“Thankfully, all of these issues are changing for the better, as the Government is extending more help to local farmers, and as people are becoming more aware of the quality of local produce, as well as the national and nutritional benefits of buying local.”
Technology could also expand the scope of what can be grown locally, said Prof Teng.
He pointed to British startup Agrisea, which claims to have developed a variety of rice that can be grown in the ocean, noting it is in early discussions to test it in Southeast Asia. “This could be a real game-changer,” he said. “We might see big circular platforms growing rice (in the sea) around Singapore.”
Even as Singapore moves to adopt tech to boost its local produce, Prof Teng – who himself ran a fish farm until two years ago – believes there is still a place for smaller, more conventional farming methods.
“It’s not proven to us yet – or to me anyway – that a few large farms can feed everybody,” he said.
Community gardens could serve this purpose of growing vegetables for residents, he noted, adding that the authorities could allow for excess vegetables from such gardens to be sold off.
While noting Edible Garden City uses agritech to overcome limitations such as space or climate – allowing it to grow kale and specialty Japanese vegetables like komatsuna in indoor climate controlled environments – there must be a balance with “natural farming methods”, Mr Low said.
“At Edible Garden City, we grow what we can outdoors using natural farming permaculture methods. This has the least impact on the environment and is the most sustainable way of farming, keeping our soil healthy and productive for future generations,” he said.
“Additionally, there’s also a wide variety of veggies that grow well in our climate, many of which are not only tasty but that are incredibly nutritious.”
File photo of a farm in Singapore. (Photo: AFP)
Prof Chen also noted that as part of food security, Singaporeans should reduce their level of consumption as well as the amount of food waste produced here. Any waste produced should be composted, he said.
He pointed to figures released by the National Environment Agency on Wednesday that showed that food waste made up 20 per cent – or 600,000 tonnes – of the three million tonnes of waste generated here last year.
Beyond that, he said there could be greater decentralisation of food production here, noting this would lighten the burden of ensuring food security on the Government.
While fish farming may be too difficult to do at a community level, there are other options, said Prof Chen.
“If we talk about community gardens, why not community chicken farms?” he asked, noting this could provide both poultry and eggs to residents.
SINGAPORE: On some days during the holy month of Ramadan, public relations officer Badrun Nisa Abdul Razak, 32, would usually head to her uncle’s place to break fast with about 30 members of her extended family.
Aunts, uncles and cousins with their spouses and children would gather over generous plates of bee hoon biryani, roti john and roti jala, catching up and taking turns to play with the young ones.
The elders would sit at the table and the rest would sit on the floor, sometimes playing games until the prayer call rings out to signal it is time to dig in.
“We’ve always been a close-knit family,” Ms Badrun told CNA. “My parents are very close to their siblings, and they’ve always emphasised the importance of fostering close relationships with our extended family members.”
These large gatherings, involving family members from about 15 different households, would take place three to four times during the month. Ms Badrun said they are a way for working adults to bond and spend more time with each other.
But with Singapore’s “circuit breaker” measures prohibiting large gatherings and meetings between family members from different households unless necessary, Ramadan this year – which runs from Apr 23 to May 23 – just won’t be the same.
Mosques, which hold more significance during a month when worship is extra important, have been closed until further notice. The annual bazaars and Geylang light-up, which add festive cheer ahead of Hari Raya Puasa, have been suspended too.
Devotees break fast on the first day of Ramadan at a mosque in Singapore. (File photo: Reuters/Edgar Su)
“It will be very different and a little sad,” Ms Badrun said of the upcoming Ramadan. “But you know, we need to be responsible citizens. So, we just make it work with these limitations.”
Ms Badrun’s family plans to gather over Zoom after breaking fast instead, although she said not being physically together changes things.
“We’ll all be in each others’ homes and connected via a webcam,” she said. “So, you can’t touch, take photos and be close to (each other).”
File photo of Muslim foreign workers in Singapore breaking fast during Ramadan.
Other Ramadan activities will also transition to virtual spaces. Mosques will shift the usual events online, while e-bazaars and Facebook marketplaces selling Hari Raya food and items have sprung up.
“With the disruption to traditionally observed communal activities of community gatherings and congregational tarawih prayers at the mosques, the community is encouraged to continue observing Ramadan meaningfully at home,” the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) said in a statement on Tuesday.
MOSQUES EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY
During Ramadan, the Al-Istighfar mosque in Pasir Ris can attract about 1,000 congregants each day, said its chairman Azman Mohd Ariffin, 57.
Congregants would break fast together, participate in the daily evening and supplementary tarawih prayers, and listen to religious lectures.
As with preparation for any big event, Mr Azman and his team started planning for these activities months earlier, since last September. They had gathered volunteers, sourced for caterers and reached out to imams.
But MUIS’ announcement on Mar 24 that it would close mosques until further notice to curb the spread of COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works.
“Initially, a few volunteers asked why mosques must close, but we explained to them that this was done in good faith,” Mr Azman said, stating that everybody was sad. “As a good practising Muslim, saving lives is more important.”
Congregants outside Pasir Ris’ Al-Istighfar mosque leave the area after being told of the closure. (Photo: Aqil Haziq Mahmud)
While Mr Azman said he looks forward to praying in congregation and meeting friends at the mosque during Ramadan, there are benefits of praying at home.
“Everyone is saying whatever it is, we should go to the mosque during Ramadan; it’s like a calling,” he added. “But on the flipside, there will be more time for me to spend with my family and focus on praying with my family.”
Mr Azman said his mosque would make lectures and prayer guides for Ramadan available online, while the needy would still get free meals for break fast delivered to their home with the usual safe distancing measures applied.
Safe distancing maintained between each individual during prayers at Al-Istighfar mosque on Mar 23. (Photo: Hanidah Amin)
Planning for this has been less hectic – they’re already engaging imams to pre-record prayer guides for airing on each day of Ramadan – but Mr Azman said it’s tougher to get things done virtually.
“The difficult part is we cannot meet to plan, so we use Zoom,” he said. “It’s a different set of challenges, but it’s good that we are forced to embrace technology.”
Technology also allows the mosque to reach out to groups of people it might have previously overlooked, Mr Azman said. This includes millennials and those who might have been too busy to visit the mosque during Ramadan.
“Usually we focus on those who go to the mosques,” he explained. “The plus point is there are now avenues to tap on those who can’t. They can still be part of the mosque fraternity.”
File photo of vendors selling Muslim food during the month of Ramadan outside the Sultan mosque in Singapore. (Photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP)
Nevertheless, Mr Azman hopes mosques could gradually re-open for the last two weeks of Ramadan. The circuit breaker measures are slated to end on May 4, but the Government has warned it could be extended if the virus is not controlled.
“There will be a lot of differences (this Ramadan), but it’s about how we will cope with the differences,” he added. “It’s a bonus if mosques re-open, if not we can pray at home and strengthen family bonds.”
BAZAARS GO ONLINE
For 29-year-old Alfi Muswaadi Appathi, an auditor at an aviation firm, this strengthening of bonds also involves an almost weekly trip with family and friends to the annual Ramadan bazaar in Geylang.
File photo of the Ramadan bazaar in Geylang. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
They would go last-minute shopping for Hari Raya essentials and outfits, try novelty snacks to break fast, and bask in the festive atmosphere of Hari Raya songs booming from every stall.
“It’s a nostalgic feeling,” he said, noting that he would still visit the bazaar despite knowing how crowded and stuffy it would be. “We have visited it since we were young, a habit cultivated over generations.”
Mr Alfi said he had just become a dad and was looking forward to visiting this year’s bazaar with his wife and son. But on Mar 18, the People’s Association said it would be cancelled to avoid large crowds during the pandemic.
“It is a sad reality,” he said. “Ramadan and Hari Raya will not be the same, but it is the safest move and I respect it. It is for the greater good of the nation.”
Delicacies from other countries have proven popular at the bazaar, such as traditional Lebanese food at a stall run by Tabbouleh Lebanese Gourmet Cafe and Restaurant. (Photo: Alif Amsyar)
Still, some organisers are trying to re-create bazaars online to keep the cheer going.
According to lifestyle portal Have Halal Will Travel, two online flea markets and an online bazaar will take place in April and May. The Bazaar Ramadhan Singapore 2020 Facebook group already has more than 35,000 members.
Mr Alfi said he might check these out and get Hari Raya food and outfits delivered instead. “Contactless delivery is a huge thing now,” he said.
While Mr Alfi acknowledged the restrictions will make this year’s Ramadan “quiet”, he is still looking forward to it and setting new religious goals.
“This just gives us Muslims more focus on our spiritual practices in Ramadan, bringing ourselves closer to our creator and the religion without all the entertainment and distractions,” he added.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 942 new coronavirus cases in Singapore today (April 18). Out of these, there are 22 cases in the community, 27 cases involving work permit holders residing outside dormitories and 893 cases of work permit holders residing in dormitories.
Of the new cases, 79 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.
Three new clusters have also been announced: Homestay Lodge which has 12 cases; CDPL Tuas Dormitory which has five cases and TTJ Design & Engineering Pte Ltd which has six cases.
There is one new case in the public healthcare sector: Case 5539 is a 28 year-old male Indian national who is employed as a housekeeper at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) but had not gone to work since onset of symptoms. He has no recent travel history to affected countries or regions.
He reported onset of symptoms on April 15, and subsequent test results confirmed Covid-19 infection on April 17. He is currently warded at SGH.
