SINGAPORE: Buses with rooftop gardens will begin plying Singapore’s roads, as part of an initiative to study possible energy and cost savings for bus operators.
The Garden on the Move initiative, which was launched on Sunday (May 5), will see 10 SBS Transit buses ply Singapore’s roads for at least three months. The routes include one through the Central Business District and another through Orchard Road.
Fares for these buses are the same as for regular buses.
As part of Asia’s first green-roofed bus initiative, 10 SBS Transit buses will be outfitted with a soilless roof system. (Photo: Facebook/Singapore Green Building Council)
Touted as Asia’s first green-roofed bus initiative, the buses are outfitted with a soilless roof system – instead of conventional soil, the plants are secured on a lightweight mat used for skyrise greenery, said GWS Living Art, Moove Media, National Parks Board (NParks), Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) and Temasek Foundation in a joint press release.
This makes it cleaner, easier to maintain and more economical than other conventional green roof systems, which are primarily soil-based, the release said.
The aim of the three-month study is to confirm that the green roof will lead to a drop in temperature within the interior of the buses, and a reduction in the fuel consumption used for air-conditioning, the release said.
Mr Oh Cheow Sheng, group director of NParks said: “This is a creative initiative that seeks to extend Singapore’s greening efforts, and which truly encapsulates the vision of a biophilic City in a Garden. We hope that this will spur others to explore other similarly innovative ways to green up Singapore.”
“Building upon the success of our Live.Work.Play.Green campaign in 2018 where we garnered massive support from the public on green buildings, this new initiative aims to once again drive green building awareness to the forefront of the public’s consciousness,” said Dr Ho Nyok Yong, president of the SGBC.
“We hope to sustain interest in green buildings by putting one of the most recognisable elements of a green building onto a very public platform.”
SINGAPORE: A new park will be developed to form a “green lung” in the upcoming Bidadari estate, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) announced on Sunday (May 5).
The 10-hectare Bidadari Park will feature a lake, a heritage walk, experiential trails and a play area for children.
In designing the park, the team drew inspiration from the fictional Hundred Acre Wood in the Winnie-the-Pooh children’s series, said HDB.
“The team behind the planning and design of the park saw the opportunity to retain the wooded and rustic nature of Bidadari and to create a unique park experience for visitors,” it added.
A map of the planned Bidadari Park. (Image: Housing and Development Board)
INTEGRATING DEVELOPMENT WITH NATURE
Apart from retaining of more than 350 mature trees in the area, the park will also be home to more than 2,000 new trees.
To increase the diversity of habitats and wildlife in the park, wetland and marsh habitats will be introduced.
Residents can explore trails spanning 6km or walk along an 80m-long boardwalk across the marshland.
“At strategic locations, observation decks, viewing sheds, and pavilions will serve as tranquil rest spots for visitors, offering different views of nature in a rustic and naturalised setting,” said HDB.
An artist’s impression of the Bidadari Park heritage walk. (Image: Housing and Development Board)
HDB noted that Bidadari is a natural sanctuary for wildlife, as it is connected to five nature ways, including Kallang Nature Way and Braddell Nature Way.
Suggestions from the Nature Society (Singapore) on how to enrich biodiversity were taken on board, said HDB.
For instance, a 19m-wide eco-link will be built between Bidadari Park and Hillock Park, to form a safe passage for visitors and wildlife across Bidadari Park Drive.
An artist’s impression of the new Alkaff Lake. (Image: Housing and Development Board)
HERITAGE WALK
To remind residents of the history of Bidadari, which was once home to the Alkaff Lake Garden built in 1929 by the Alkaff family, a 700m heritage walk will be introduced in the estate.
The tree-lined heritage walk will cut across the park and link Woodleigh MRT station to a new Memorial Garden, which will recount the history and stories of Bidadari’s past through a series of storyboards, said HDB.
The park will also include a playground called Adventure Playwoods, featuring a 5m-tall treehouse with slides and climbing nets.
A 5m-tall treehouse will be built around an existing Banyan tree. (Image: Housing and Development Board)
Bidadari Park is expected to be completed progressively by 2022.
The estate, when fully developed, will have about 10,000 housing units. The first batch of Built-to-Order flats in Bidadari was launched in 2015 and such flats remain in high demand.
The first flats are expected to be completed this year.
SINGAPORE: On Saturday (Apr 27), Nee Soon East, led by Member of Parliament Louis Ng, pledged to eliminate the use of plastic disposables from meetings and events over the next two years.
The community also announced a range of efforts to curb waste as part of its newly launched zero-waste masterplan, including innovative ways for residents to communicate with each other when they have excess food to give away through the use of Telegram.
Such local efforts to reduce waste ought to be commended. Unfortunately, recycling woes continue to plague Singapore in its designated year of climate change action.
Despite efforts to improve awareness, our overall recycling rate dipped slightly from 61 per cent in 2017 to 60 per cent in 2018, according to statistics from the National Environment Agency (NEA).
While the household recycling rate increased marginally from 21 per cent in 2017 to 22 per cent in 2018, these numbers need to show a significant improvement for Singapore to meet its 30 per cent recycling rate target by 2030.
Nee Soon East residents taking part in an activity at Nee Soon East’s Zero Waste event on Saturday (Apr 27). (Photo: Facebook/Our Earth Our Future – Nee Soon East)
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NATIONAL RECYCLING PROGRAMME?
This calls into question the effectiveness of the National Recycling Programme, which has seen recycling bags and bins given to residents in estates since 2001, and a blue recycling bin placed in every HDB block since 2014.
In 2018, 43,400 tonnes of recyclables were collected while 7.7 million tonnes of waste was generated.
This is lower than the total amount of recyclables collected in 2017 (44,400 tonnes) and 2016 (44,200 tonnes).
The national recycling effort collected just 2 per cent of the total amount of waste generated by households in 2016.
The informal recycling sector which consists of rag-and-bone men (or karang guni men) collected almost nine times more; close to 20 per cent of recyclables.
No doubt NEA’s efforts to fit new public housing developments and non-landed private residential developments with individual household chutes for recyclables from April 2018 onwards could make recycling more convenient.
NEA had also previously highlighted that the NRP was supposed to complement efforts by the informal recycling sector but there are synergies to be exploited if Singapore’s national efforts consider and strengthen the latter’s role.
CALL IN THE KARUNG GUNI
The karung guni’s high-touch approach ensures they reach most households. They collect all forms of recyclables and items that can be given a second lease of life, including electronics that can be sold to dealers, along with recyclable waste that will go to waste recycling companies.
Their knowledge about what cannot be recycled (such as plastic disposables) and what can be (for example, detergent bottles and objects marked with the recycling triangle that have been washed and dried) can help households separate their waste.
This can make a huge difference considering seven in 10 in Singapore do not know what plastics to recycle, according to the Singapore Environment Council.
A recycling bin filled to the brim. (Photo: Aqil Haziq Mahmud)
Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan, which aims to raise awareness of waste issues and the need to conserve resources, and is due to be released later this year, has got to factor in this group, which has been a crucial but a very much overlooked component of Singapore’s informal waste economy.
Public waste collectors (PWCs) like Veolia issue commingled recycling bins. This amplifies contamination rates especially if non-recyclable waste is commingled with recyclable waste.
A recent survey of 5,000 households by the Ministry of Environment & Water Resources (MEWR) and NEA indicated a significant proportion of respondents mistook items that should be disposed of, such as tissue paper, styrofoam and soiled paper food packaging, as recyclables.
Clearly more needs to be done to help Singaporeans identify items that should not be thrown into a recycling bin.
In contrast, the karung guni men’s expertise in the sorting of non-recyclables from recyclables is crucial in preventing cross contamination from taking root, which currently accounts for 40 per cent of contents in recycling bins not being recycled.
While they may not be the most tech-savvy group, they possess strong knowledge on the fundamentals of effective recycling and can be mobilised to educate residents, as well as to collect and deliver recyclables to recycling facilities.
They remain the earliest proponents of a recycling culture in Singapore, with Singaporeans truly accustomed to their audible loud horns and metallic push carts in many housing estates.
It would be useful to see how karung guni men can be enlisted to aid such community-driven recycling efforts, like Mr Ng’s, as employed ambassadors.
A rag-a-bone man on one of his newspaper collection rounds. (Photo: Aqil Haziq Mahmud)
HOW TO GET RECYCLING TO GO BIG
Their potential impact must not be underestimated.
Global statistics show that an informal waste collector collects about 49kg of recyclables each day, spending anywhere between 6 to 12 hours and clocking between 6 to 25 km on foot or bicycle on average. This works out to 12 tonnes per year of recyclables collected by each one.
An informal sector comprising of 5,000 individuals can easily collect 60,000 tonnes of recyclables annually, more than the amount collected under Singapore’s National Recycling Programme in each of the last two years.
In Karachi, the informal sector recycles 45 per cent of total waste generated. Closer to home in the Philippines city of Quezon, 31 per cent of total waste generated is recycled by the informal sector.
It is encouraging to know that corporates at home have begun to take the lead in engaging the informal sector in recycling efforts. Popular alcohol beverage brand Tiger Beer recently forged a partnership with them to encourage Singaporeans to recycle in the lead up to Chinese New Year.
The Recycle With Tiger campaign saw the brand’s staff go from door-to-door with a group of karang guni men to collect recyclables. While this marks a good start, such efforts could be scaled up to make a dent on the national recycling rate.
A recycling bin in Singapore (File photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
A DATABASE OF INFORMAL RECYCLERS
A database of informal recyclers in Singapore could be established. Data on informal sector waste management performance can aid with policy-making and advocacy where they provide some visibility over these informal systems and their effectiveness.
Brazil, the only nation that systematically captures and reports official statistical data on waste pickers, has information on over 229,000 waste collectors responsible for the high rates of recycling. Nearly 92 per cent of aluminium and 80 per cent of cardboard are recycled each year there.
Even before a formal database is established, given their recognised effectiveness, NEA could tie some credible ones up with PWCs to establish direct contracts for recyclables at a reasonable rate.
Mr Ng’s efforts to fast-track Nee Soon East’s efforts to take a step forward in saving the planet could consider a pilot.
Apart from ensuring a stable income for these recyclers, such efforts may potentially draw more to join this otherwise sunset sector that ought to be given a boost considering how much climate change action is needed.
In an increasing number of cities, informal waste collectors have been included in municipal planning around waste management. In countries such as Brazil, Colombia and India, informal waste collectors now bid for contracts within certain municipalities.
Surely Mr Ng’s Nee Soon East district could be a test-bed for others to observe.
Louis Ng at Nee Soon East event. (Photo: Facebook/OurEarthOurFutureNSE)
HOW TO BUILD A CIRCULAR ECONOMY
“Circular economy” has been a term gaining traction in Singapore’s push towards a zero-waste nation, since the setting up of a Circular Economy Taskforce at NUS which draws members from agencies such as A*STAR.
Informal waste collectors have a key role to play in this vision.
The Circular Economy Taskforce must actively engage this sector and define their role in the national effort to circularise our economy, on top of their focus on technology to do the job. Any consultation and focus group sessions should include them.
A concerted effort that recognises the informal recycling sector as a core pillar is required to realistically chart Singapore’s journey towards meeting its 2030 recycling rate targets and give it arms and legs to boost efforts.
It is about time that we appreciate and pay tribute to our unsung heroes in our national waste management system and climate change efforts.
Kavickumar Muruganathan is Deputy Director of Sustainability at HeveaConnect, a digital platform for the trade of sustainable natural rubber.
SINGAPORE: The biggest “unknown” challenge that Singapore will face in the future is the “nature of politics”, said recently appointed Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, in an interview with CNA and The Straits Times.
Mr Heng, in his first media interview in his new capacity, said that Singapore has had “very constructive politics” for the past 50 years and more, and this has helped keep society cohesive and united. It has been able to achieve consensus on a large number of short-term, as well as long-term issues, and that has allowed Singapore to make really good progress, he said.
“Now, will we continue on that journey? I think that depends, critically, on the nature of politics in Singapore,” he said, in response to a question on what “known unknown” challenges the country might have to prepare for.
“How are we able to mobilise all Singaporeans to take part in this process and, at the same time, to keep politics constructive, forward-looking … so we can tackle the many challenges, many interesting opportunities ahead.”
The Straits Times news editor Zakir Hussain and CNA Digital chief editor Jaime Ho interview DPM Heng Swee Keat at the National Press Centre. (Photo: Jeremy Long)
Mr Heng, whom many expect to be the country’s next Prime Minister, pointed out that he and his other fourth-generation (4G) leaders of the People’s Action Party (PAP) are prepared and working towards a “normative scenario” to keep politics in Singapore constructive and the country cohesive and united.
This comes against an international backdrop where fragmenting societies and political polarisation are becoming serious problem, he said. Mr Heng, who remains Finance Minister, recounted his trips to Davos, Switzerland, and more recently to the United States, where he had many discussions with leaders from various parts of society on the changing nature of societies, whether it is in Europe, US or Asia.
“(What) everyone is very alarmed by is the speed at which society is fragmenting into parts. So, many societies cannot have the political consensus to do the right thing,” he said. “And even more worrying is that many societies do not take painful measures which are necessary for the long term.
“Everyone promises that things will be easier, better and sometimes to the point of telling untruths. I think that is not the kind of politics we should have in Singapore.”
Instead, Singapore must be prepared to face realities, even if these are harsh.
“(We have) to face it squarely and say: ‘Well look, how do we go about resolving this, and how do we create a better life, despite these constraints, despite these problems’,” he said.
MAKING HARD DECISIONS
To this end, Mr Heng said the Government has already had to make hard decisions.
One example of this is how to take better care of Singapore’s seniors even as the population ages, the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out.
“We’re going to have a very significant challenge in dealing with an aging population … but the key is we must be able to set aside resources and plan ahead to build facilities to manage this.”
He said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong is spending significant time thinking about how to restructure healthcare schemes and to enable more seniors to age at home. In turn, this creates other issues to tackle, such as how existing housing programmes can accommodate this and how ministries like the Ministry of Social and Family Development and Ministry of Health will reconfigure community networks to care for the elderly, he elaborated.
These all require significant amounts of resources, Mr Heng said, also making reference to the Government’s decision to raise the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which was announced in 2018’s Budget.
Mr Heng most recently defended the decision to raise GST in Parliament in February this year, as Members of Parliament voiced their concerns and suggested the increase could be delayed.
MORE VOICES DOESN’T MEAN MORE POLITICAL PARTIES
Responding to a question on the desire among younger Singaporeans to have more alternative voices in Parliament and for there to be a bigger role for civil society to play going forward, Mr Heng said he “understands” why they may feel that way.
Young Singaporeans who are exposed to articles and magazines in the West think that there ought to be a certain brand of democracy and that democracy should have two political parties, and one party that has been in power for many years is “not a good thing”, he said.
However, he suggested that they look at the evidence and what is happening in the world today.
Mr Heng juxtaposed how as Singapore commemorates its Bicentennial in 2019, the United Kingdom itself is currently locked in “contentious debate” over the issue of Britain’s exit from the European Union.
“I spoke to so many of our colleagues from the UK and they are really quite dismayed at how the political process has turned out. If you look at the debates, the two-party system – actually it’s more than two parties now – the fragmentation is very serious,” he said.
For Singapore, Mr Heng said the question should be how to include the views of as many people as possible in the governance process. It is “not a given” that having an opposition party, or having multiple parties, will “result in the best outcome for our society”, he said.
“So the question is this: As our society becomes more diverse, as our people are better educated, better exposed all round the world, how do we harness the energies of everyone in a constructive way and to take Singapore forward? Rather than spend time scoring political points, debating for the sake of debating,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
“The world is moving really quickly and I think it’s important for us to understand the pace of change, the complexity of change, and for us to say: ‘Well, look, given these, how can you and I come together and agree to do X, Y or Z in order to take Singapore forward?’
“And it’s not just the leaders agreeing to do X, Y or Z, but it is that we have to mobilise our people at every level to say: ‘Yes we agree, we support this’ because at the end of it, that will give us a better life.’”
The full interview with DPM Heng Swee Keat will be broadcast tonight (Sunday, May 5) at 8.30pm on CNA.
SINGAPORE: As a food delivery rider, Ms Juni Syafiqa Jumat, who has cerebral palsy, has had her fair share of negative experiences with customers.
She recalled an incident more than 10 months ago, when she was working with Deliveroo, where a customer had refused to pick up his food as she had taken longer than his lunch hour to deliver it.
“My delivery was from Suntec City to Clarke Quay. So I must take MRT. By the time I reached the office, (I was late for) almost half an hour. So they said their lunch time has finished,” she said.
She shared that if she gets orders that are too far, she will not take the job. Due to the finite battery life in her wheelchair, she cannot travel for too long.
Juni Syafiqa Jumat has been working for GrabFood as a delivery rider for the past 10 months. (Photo: Cindy Co)
Her worry about delivery timing and customer satisfaction was common among riders with disabilities CNA interviewed.
“Customers want me to go fast to send the food to them, or sometimes when (it rains), there will be delays,” said foodpanda delivery rider Benjamin Lee, who lost his left leg six years ago.
He added that sometimes when he is late, “customers will keep calling”, even though he might be unable to pick up while he is riding.
Deliveroo rider Saire Adnan, who is an amputee, recounted similar experiences.
“Sometimes, when I (deliver) food, the customer will ask me to come faster. (When I say I have) a disability, sometimes the customer is okay, sometimes the customer is not okay,” he said.
He said that while most customers are understanding once they are aware of his disability, some would cancel the order if made to wait too long.
While he is generally happy with the level of protection Deliveroo offers to riders with disabilities, he hopes that the company can “give (him) extra time, especially when it’s raining”.
Saire Adnan has been delivering food for Deliveroo since early last year. (Photo: Cindy Co)
For the three food delivery companies that CNA reached out to, people with disabilities make up a small minority of the riders they employ.
Foodpanda employs about 60 riders with disabilities, or about 1 per cent of their fleet, while GrabFood employs about 20 riders with physical disabilities out of a fleet of 13,000. Deliveroo, which has 6,000 riders in total, said that it does not collect information on riders’ disabilities.
SAFETY CONCERNS
Customers of food delivery apps appear to be mostly concerned about the riders’ physical safety.
“I just worry that disabled delivery drivers get mistreated by those who order food because they were ignorant or unaware of their disability.
“I also worry if there is a higher probably of getting into accidents on the road,” said student Michelle Lai.
She said she has no problem with companies hiring riders with disabilities to deliver food as long as they can deliver food on time and in good condition, and are polite and friendly.
Mr Joshua Lim, 25, said he “would not be pleased at any late delivery”, but he would “give the rider the benefit of the doubt, disabled or otherwise”.
Disability associations also cited safety and accessibility as key difficulties facing such riders.
According to executive director Dr Marissa Lee Medjeral-Mills of the Disabled People’s Association (DPA), there had been an increase in the number of people with disabilities working in food delivery, although DPA was unable to provide an estimate on an exact number.
She attributes the popularity of food delivery jobs to the flexible working arrangements of these companies.
A Grabfood delivery rider (left) travels on the road in Singapore on Sep 24, 2018. (Photo: AFP)
Despite the benefits of having a flexible schedule for people with disabilities, Dr Medjeral-Mills noted several issues for food delivery companies who hire riders with disabilities.
“When we talk about needs of people with disabilities, we would like to know if in safety trainings provided by delivery operators, are delivery staff with disabilities taken into account?
“When planning emergency procedures for delivery staff, are accessibility features built into the app?” she said.
Foodpanda managing director Luc Andreani said that it conducts interviews with potential riders with disabilities to ensure that they will be able to carry out their tasks, and has a fleet manager keep in close contact with the rider during their initial shifts to make sure everything runs smoothly.
“We’ve implemented an additional onboarding process for our riders with disabilities, to ensure that they are aware of safety measures and precautions when they are on shift,” he added.
Each interview is personalised, said Mr Andreani, as the fleet manager would assess if the rider was able to carry out his key tasks, which includes navigating the mobile app and the rider’s ability to deliver food within a certain time frame.
Deliveroo said that it provides its own road safety education and conducts Safe Riding Programmes for all riders in conjunction with the Land Transport Authority.
In addition, GrabFood is looking into several new measures aimed at easing the burden on riders with disabilities, such as assigning riders to jobs with shorter distances and wheelchair-friendly locations, and to indicate their disability on the app for merchants and customers.
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
Local charity SPD, who works with people with disabilities to help integrate them into mainstream society, hopes that employers would be more understanding towards riders with disabilities.
Jobseekers with disabilities could face a lack of understanding by employers, who may also struggle with managing employees with disabilities when there is mismatch of expectations in terms of performance, said SPD CEO Abhimanyau Pal.
For this, both foodpanda and GrabFood have dedicated channels for riders with disabilities to reach out if they need help. This includes Telegram chats, phone hotlines, in-app help centres, and a dedicated rider website.
All three companies said that disabilities did not factor into whether they would partner up with a particular rider.
For Deliveroo, as long as the rider has the appropriate licence for their vehicle, and possesses a working smartphone, they would be open to working with the rider.
Similarly, GrabFood said that they do not see any significant differences in service quality standards between GrabFood riders with and without physical disabilities.
A spokesperson said that GrabFood would hire all riders as long as they pass a mandatory training process, which is usually done online.
Ultimately, for riders like Ms Syafiqa, it is the ability to work that is the most empowering for her.
“We are given equal opportunities to earn our own living, just like any other delivery-partner … I am thankful for a job that allows me to earn money while doing something that I like,” she said.
SINGAPORE: The new experience provided by Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport, which opened this month is nothing short of spectacular, especially compared to the usual fare offered to international travellers at JFK Airport of New York, London Heathrow, or Paris’ Charles de Gaulle.
I visited the 40m tall waterfall housed inside the vaulted glass-and-steel dome last Sunday (Apr 28) before my flight back to Switzerland. My Swiss friend gamely compared it to the Rhine Fall — the largest waterfall in Switzerland and in Europe — which, he learnt upon his immediate Googling on his iPhone, only amounted to 23m in height.
The “rain vortex” at Jewel Changi is in turn surrounded by a five-storey-tall “forest valley” of some 2,500 trees and 100,000 shrubs, all meticulously cultivated by a drip irrigation system, with controlled airflow simulating a high-humidity and temperate climate.
Unobtrusive speakers project calming ambient music not dissimilar to that of James Cameron’s Avatar, and security cameras are installed at every turn to ensure public safety.
So complete is our ability to bring nature, or the virtual sense of it, into our commercial habitat and bend it to our will.
NEW EXPERIENCES
People want new experiences – but they seem to be mainly experienced through their mobile phone lens.
High-speed Wi-Fi is ubiquitously available, and I saw more people enjoying the rainforest through their smartphones’ tiny screens than with their own eyes — either taking pictures and videos through them or posting their discoveries online.
Nothing counts as an experience until one documents and tells someone about it. And it’s not a worthy experience until many “likes” and “wows” and “loves” are received.
Social media has not only changed the way we experience technologies, it has changed the definition of life experience itself.
Whenever a new technology comes along, it blows us away like a magic trick. We add these to the periphery of our daily experience for harmless reasons.
(Photo: Unsplash/Gian Cescon)
But the most successful technologies always manage to seamlessly integrate themselves into our everyday routine. We might awake one morning to discover they have colonised the core of our daily life, and forget what life was like before.
BUILT BY A VERY SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE
One problem with the inventions coming from Silicon Valley is that they are built by people who share a peculiar feature. In the early days of Silicon Valley, software engineers generally came from the computer science and electrical engineering programmes at MIT, CalTech and Carnegie Mellon.
By the late 1970s, Berkeley and Stanford had joined the top tier. After 2000, programmers were coming from just about every university in America, including Harvard.
But programmers who have studied computer science and engineering still share a particular trait: Among the holders of bachelor’s degrees in computer science in 1995, only 28 per cent were female.
That figure would fall to 18 per cent in 2014, according to the National Science Foundation, even though women are 51 per cent of the US population, account for 85 per cent of consumer purchases, and control 60 per cent of all personal wealth.
African Americans are also woefully underrepresented in the sector. Black and Hispanic PhD candidates make up just 3 per cent and 1 per cent of the total, respectively. Except for the Indians and Chinese, the tech corridor of California remains the playing field of young white guys in hoodies and grey T-shirts.
No doubt, most communities shares some dominant traits — be it firefighters, librarians, fashion designers, or geologists.
Employees work inside an office in San Francisco, California January 7, 2014. (Photo: REUTERS/Stephen Lam)
People working closely often suffer similar setbacks and celebrate successes together. They wind up defining a set of shared experiences, which translate to a common lexicon, which results in a common set of ideas, behaviors, and goals.
A dominant trait becomes a problem when members of the community don’t recognise how that stereotype is impacting their work.
AN UNDUE EMPHASIS ON DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
For social media platforms and mobile technologies largely designed by “nerd gods building a better world,” there is an undue overemphasis on digital communication. And yet digital communication should be pass for no more than “low-bandwidth,” low-quality interaction, and cannot replace human exchanges.
Our human brain has evolved to process the flood of information generated by face-to-face interactions — body language, facial expressions, tone of voice — with subtle but voluminous analogue cues. Our brains come with powerful processing machinery to decode our intense sociality and to derive satisfaction from it.
So why wouldn’t we feel deprived and unfulfilled when Facebook comments and Instagram likes are clouding out real-time conversations over dinner tables or distract us from an inner dialogue with ourselves?
At the most fundamental level, we simply cannot expect an app dreamed up in a dorm room or among the water coolers of a start-up incubator to meaningfully replace the types of rich interaction to which humans slowly adapted over millennia.
It’s too much magical thinking to believe Facebook’s type of monotonic engagement can deliver a sense of high-quality leisure when it competes for our attention, taking it away from our multi-dimensional physical surroundings.
A HYPER-DISCONNECT
Two days before I left Singapore, I was having high tea at the Fullerton Hotel on a Thursday afternoon. Across my table was a family gathering where some grandparents were chatting.
The teenager at the table had his eyes glued to his smart phone, his ears plugged with AirPods. He was scrolling on Facebook, texting on WhatsApp, listening to Spotify while sitting at the Fullerton with his grandparents. He was neither here nor there.
The addictive properties of new technologies, of course, are not accidents. Facebook, Google, Snapchat and Reddit all contain carefully engineered design features that, to varying degrees, heck our minds in the “race to the bottom of the brain stem”.
The slot-machine action of swiping down to refresh a feed and the alarm-red notification badges are designed to satisfy Wall Street’s relentless demand for growth in user numbers and users’ time.
Is it any wonder that, when pressed by the stock market, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and IBM’s financial interests do not always align with what’s best for our individual interests, our communities, and our democratic process?
ATTENTION MERCHANTS
“The enemy of clear language is insincerity,” George Orwell once wrote. For too long, we have told ourselves that mobile devices help us connect.
What we now realise is that too many technology companies are merely attention merchants who hijack our leisure time, package it, and then resell it on an open exchange to the highest-bidding advertisers.
That’s how Google became the second most valuable company in the US, with a market capitalisation of over US$800 billion. That’s how Facebook now has over 2 billion users worldwide.
FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London, Britain January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
Calling them by their true name — attention merchants — is the first step to regaining our self-control.
And perhaps next time you’re at Jewel Changi Airport, put away your smartphone and take in the scenery with your loved ones instead.
Howard Yu is the author of LEAP: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied and LEGO professor of Management and Innovation at the IMD Business School in Switzerland and Singapore.
SINGAPORE: Australian couple Roger and Jennifer Valenta will probably never forget their 25th wedding anniversary holiday.
In Singapore for a week-long trip, they were relaxing by the pool at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa on Sunday (Apr 28) when Mr Valenta heard a scream for help coming from the other end of the pool.
“As soon as we heard the scream we ran towards the father,” he said.
The father of the seven-year-old child had found his son drowning in the pool and pulled him out.
“When we reached the young boy we noticed he was unconscious, he was blue in the face. Both the father and mother of the child were panicking,” Mr Valenta said.
That was when Mrs Valenta’s instinct as a paediatric nurse kicked in.
Noticing that the boy was not breathing, she pressed her finger on the boy’s neck, feeling for a pulse. Nothing.
She then checked to make sure his throat was clear of obstruction and instructed her husband to perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on him.
During the chaos, the couple called out to the boy’s parents and resort staff to call for an ambulance while they continued to perform CPR on the boy. The boy and his parents have not been named.
Mr Valenta’s chest compressions caused the boy to expel water and before the ambulance arrived, the boy’s pulse had returned and he started breathing.
Jennifer Valenta (left) and Roger Valenta (right) with 1st SCDF Division Commander, Colonel Lim Boon Hwee (Photo: Try Sutrisno Foo)
It was the first time Mr Valenta, 55, had to apply his first-aid knowledge on a person. Mr Valenta, who works in the construction sector, explained that first-aid training is important in his line of work.
Mrs Valenta, 52, who has been working in the healthcare sector for 30 years said that she has “dealt with near drownings before and it was so scary”.
“I wasn’t sure how long he’d been under the water for,” she said.
Community Lifesaver Award Recipient Roger Valenta pens a message of gratitude. (Photo: Try Sutrisno Foo)
For their heroic act, Mr and Mrs Valenta were awarded the Community Lifesaver Award by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) on Friday at the Sentosa Fire Station.
It was an unexpected but pleasant addition on their itinerary for the couple, who were flying home to Sydney on Friday night.
Presenting the awards to the couple, 1st SCDF Division Commander, Colonel Lim Boon Hwee said this incident shows how crucial it is for the community to be prepared to render first-aid.
He added that there are times when a person’s life can be saved before the paramedics arrive.
The SCDF encouraged those who are interested in playing a more active part in saving lives to register themselves as community first responders on SCDF’s myResponder app, which alerts its users to nearby emergency cases they can attend to.
SINGAPORE: From this year, graduates from local schools – including secondary schools, junior colleges and tertiary institutions – will receive digital certificates for the qualifications they obtain, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung announced on Friday (May 3).
This is part of a national-level initiative called OpenCerts, which was jointly developed by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), Government Technology Agency (GovTech), the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP).
OpenCerts is a blockchain-based platform that offers an “easy and reliable way” to issue and validate certificates that are tamper-resistant, according to a joint media release issued by SSG, GovTech and NP. This is the first time blockchain technology has been harnessed for use at the national level.
The change will benefit students graduating with N-, O- or A-Level certificates, those from the Institute of Technical Education, as well as those graduating from polytechnics, autonomous universities, LASALLE College of the Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and the National Institute of Early Childhood Development. Those graduating with Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) will also receive a digital certificate.
Students graduating from these schools will receive digital certificates which will each have a unique cryptographic proof embedded for secure verification. They will receive it via email, and it will also be automatically added to the Skills Passports of their individual MySkillsFuture accounts.
Plans are also in the pipeline to create digital certificates for those who have already graduated from the participating schools.
OpenCerts Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony on May 2, 2019. (Photo: Ngee Ann Polytechnic)
When students use these certificates for job applications or to apply for further studies at other institutions, employers or schools would be able to verify these digital certificates directly through the OpenCerts online platform, OpenCerts.io.
The change is expected to simplify and reduce administrative processes and physical paperwork for employers. Local schools will also save time and costs by not having to manually verify issued certificates from individuals.
A GOOD SOLUTION TO A REAL-WORLD PROBLEM
Speaking on Friday at Temasek Polytechnic’s graduation ceremony, Mr Ong described the initiative as a “tangible example” of the benefits of Singapore’s Smart Nation journey.
“With OpenCerts, we are harnessing the power of blockchain in a practical way,” he said. “It allows for any education institute to issue OpenCerts, and for anyone to quickly check the validity of a digital certificate.”
“This will in time make job application and hiring easier and smoother for both the applicant and the employer.”
As for students, Mr Ong noted that they would no longer need to “go through the hassle” of requesting for certified true copies of their certificates from their schools. Instead, they would be able to send potential employers their digital certificate together with the job application.
“Employers can immediately validate the digital diplomas received as genuine, because that is what blockchain offers – secure and immutable records,” he said.
“With OpenCerts, any unsavoury characters submitting forged certificates or degrees from Singapore institutions to try and get a job will be quickly found out and denied,” he added. “It is a good solution to a real-world problem.”
SOLVING A “PRODUCTIVITY ISSUE”
The project was first piloted last year by GovTech and NP, and the first batch of digital certificates was issued to NP’s graduating cohort last year.
Explaining why they embarked on the project, Director of NP’s Sandbox – Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office Patrice Choong said that issuing and verifying certificates was a “productivity issue” that they wanted to deal with.
On average, he said NP issues about 10,000 physical, certified-true copies of certificates every year, all of which have to be printed and stamped. They also receive about 2,000 verification requests from employers and other schools.
“This is manual work for us,” he said. “So this system removes two needs – the need for physical, certified-true copies, and the need for verification requests.”
At the Singapore University of Social Sciences, it can take at least three days to process a request for verification from start to finish, according to its registrar Agnes Kwang.
“This will really save us a lot of time,” she said. “It also helps us in the sense that we also need to recruit students and associates, so with this self-authentication, there will not be time wasted.”
She noted that the school currently has an online degree verification search portal, but will also come on board the national platform as it is “much more concerted and aligned”.
NP’s Mr Choong stressed that physical certificates will still be given out to students.
“After spending three years in a polytechnic, the students want to have a ceremony where they go on stage and receive the certificate,” he said. “That has cultural and psychological value to the person who studied, and also their parents.
“It is a significant moment in a student’s life, and we have to keep that.”
