__________`` it has been a long time; * from past till now. ______* * " ________*`` ____

Friday, September 28, 2007

China Makes Inferior Products?

If you have been following the news for the past few days, or weeks, you might have realised the sometimes front page, sometimes small column article about China products being recalled.

As far as I can remember, there has always been a running joke about China making inferior products. My pen tip gets stuck? Oh the pen was made in China. A window breaks from a soccer ball? Oh window made in China, and thus cannot withstand such a "light" penalty kick. Which is kind off true, as our entire Hall now is made by South China Construction.

But now, the problem goes further than just a few broken pens. Recently, a (albeit faked) video of prepacked "paos" or steamed buns being manufactured in China surfaced. This video showed how the buns were made at a very low and economical cost, using cheaper flour, cheaper meat, cheaper packaging. But the absurd low cost came from replacing meat with liquefied then solidified cardboard. Thus the issue of inferior products from China resurfaced, appalling many, myself included.

What could be worse than or just as bad as cardboard paos, which are not mock ups, but real paos actually to be sold? I know it’s not very discerning of me to lump all the factories in China as "China" but the number of individual ones are too many for me to comprehend. Currently, the issue at hand would be the Mattel toys sold containing lead paint.

The effects of this were rather huge. Mattel recalled at least 18.5million toys, costing them billions, causing their share price to drop at least by 30 points. Poor quality control has been blamed on Mattel's side, while poor manufacturing has been blamed on China.

This lead paint could cause considerable brain damage to, perhaps, children, who ingest it. Perhaps when they playfully gnaw at it, or when they get addicted to licking toys. But the former is much more likely.

I would at this point, like to applaud the China and US government. Even though they might have their own economic interests at heart, they are still working towards the consumers benefit.

By recalling affected products, and calling for checks on all products made in China, the consumer watchdogs have helped us all maintain our safety. Not that I gnaw at Fisher Price toys of course.

But one side that everyone seems to have forgotten while pointing fingers and worrying for themselves, or their economy rather, is the humane side of things.

The owner of the factory that made the Mattel toys took his own life, disgraced and bankrupt. A minor careless mistake on his part, or by one of his workers, had caused worldwide panic, and his name, along with the companies utterly disgraced. He saw no foreseeable future and ended his life, a sad and beaten man.

His factory, closed down. The workers? Out of jobs.

Can they pay for their own livelihood? It's hard to earn enough money working at a factory. The meager salary is probably enough if you live alone. But with a family, that small amount of money barely covers the cost of food on the table.

530 words

Sources: Many different articles I have read on the paper

frm past till now at-
5:09 AM

The Singapore Grand Prix

Recently, the news has been abuzz with reports about having an F1 race here, and a few months ago, it was approved. Now, we not only sit and wonder how fast our government can do stuff when it wants to do, but also how we are supposed to have a race here.

This post isn't directly related to the article, but I'm about to speak about the F1 issue as a whole.

Firstly, let's see what are the motives behind the push for F1. Just briefly thinking through, I see the economy booming as being one of the first few benefits to arise from this issue. Hotels, restaurants and even shopping centers around the area of the race, or around Singapore as whole would increase at least 3 fold.

F1 is a sport with a very large fan base you know. There are people who follow the sport, as in they will attempt to watch every race, not from the comforts of their homes 20,000km away, but rather, at the track itself.

These people would undoubtedly spend loads of money here, paying for hotel fees, paying for Pastamania, paying for cheap t-shirts with "Singapore is a fine city" printed on it in big red bold letters. F1 would certainly be a big tourist attraction, drawing crowds, and drawing the money that follows the crowds.

Other places , such as Malaysia, would only have a puny little track event. We however, striving for the best must have a night race, which would make track races seem mundane and boring. Besides, night races are the in thing now. Movies like Tokyo Drift, or games like NFS: Carbon have certainly proven so. Bringing in F1 would make Singapore a fun city to be in, but making it a night race would make it even more fun and exciting, from a consumer's point of view.

Singapore seems to be trying really hard to get tourists to come over to Singapore. From the London, I mean Singapore Eye, to now, the Sepang, I mean Marina F1 Grand Prix. And the funny part about it is that most of the, let's call them gimmicks, have been recycled from other countries. We seem to be just taking what works for others and using it for ourselves. Have we no innovation?

Singapore hasn't really found its niche for the tourism market. I mean for like countries such as Taiwan or Cities like Shenzhen or Hong Kong, you go there to shop. For places like Tokyo, you go there to see the scenery. Ahem. But for Singapore, the only nice natural things we have are beaches and nature reserves, which are not even real and other South East Asian countries do have better than ours. Our shopping isn't great too. Things are not cheap here because they are likely to be imported from somewhere else. So Singapore is using these so called "tourist attractions" in order to increase the number of people flowing through the arrival gate.

But, I digress.

There are, however problems that seem to be in need of fixing if we are to have our F1 race here. The first of which would be convinience. Now obviously, if you are gonna have to use the road for F1 racing, having cars go at 250km/h, you wouldn't want to have a Honda Odessey hogging the road right? So the roads used for track would be closed off to the public.

And it's downtown. Now, don't say that it's gonna be a night race so there won't be any problems. It's bound to be closed off the whole day. Did you know that during National day, every road within 1km radius of the National Stadium was closed off 6 hours before the parade actually started? So, the area around Marina would have to be closed off, for security reasons as well as logistical reasons. When preparing for a race,you wouldn't want random people walking past right?

The Marina area has many office building, including the giant humongous Suntec City. And I'm not just talking about size. The revenue it generates boggles the mind. Having it being cut off Singapore would cost Singapore quite a bit.

And we all know how inconvinient it was for everyone during the World Bank period right?

The other issue would be that of the suitability of the roads. Singapore, being a green city, has trees all around. And these trees shed all the time, where a small gust of wind would blow the whole lot of dead leaves down.

The engine of an F1 car requires air for it to work well. Not leaves and other bits. Those are highly dangerous, and can cause the engine to combust if those leaves get sucked into the whirling vortex that is the air filter.

Lighting is not a big issue. Portable spotlights, those gigantic kinds could be easily erected during the time of the race.

Although sadly, I don't think F1 grand prix brings in any race queens. Much unlike Japan's drift races.

842 words

Sources: http://www.geocities.com/j9nieminen/cna.html

frm past till now at-
4:59 AM

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Homebound Hicks

David Hicks, the first inmate of Guantanamo Bay to face a United States military tribunal, was flown back to his hometown, Adelaide, in Australia to serve the remainder of his jail term there in a maximum security prison. He was a former outback cowboy and used to skin kangaroos for a living but was found guilty providing materials to assist al Qaeda’s terrorist plots and attending terrorist camps in Afghanistan. David Hicks would be kept in a cell similar to the one in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and would be allowed no or little interaction with other convicts. However, visits from family members would be allowed in an estimated weeks time but will still be monitored and no physical contact is allowed.

I feel that David Hicks deserved his sentence. Assisting and supporting terrorist movements are very serious crimes, as this would potentially put many innocent lives in critical danger. Terrorists are people who believe in a cause, yet they do not just support it like regular people but instead, use brutal violence and immoral ways to support their cause. In addition, they target innocent people to eliminate. For example, during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in United States, hundreds of innocent Americans and many others of different nationalities lost their lives. This is obviously, very harmful to everyone living on earth, as one will never know when a terrorist could strike and kill.

However, I do believe that whatever wrong a person has committed, he is still eligible for a second chance and as long as he understands his wrong doings and tries his best not to commit the same mistake again, he should be forgiven. Hence, I believe it is very important to David Hicks that tax payers of his homeland Australia are willing to bring him home, a procedure which costs about half a million dollars.

To conclude, I believe David Hicks deserved his sentence but after his release, I feel he should be given a second chance as it is not fair for us to judge one just on a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes just like David Hicks, though our mistakes are less severe, as long as Hicks is willing to change, he should be eligible for another chance to prove to everyone what good he can bring to the world.

388 words

Sources: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18761040/

frm past till now at-
4:41 AM

Carter vs Bush

39^th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, has blasted Britain’s support for United State’s war in Iraq, calling it a “major tragedy”. He judges Blair’s unwavering support for the war loyal yet blind. In addition, Carter calls Bush’s administration the “worst in history”. "One of the defenses of the Bush administration, in the American public and on a worldwide basis -- and it's not been successful in my opinion -- has been that, OK, we must be more correct in our actions than the world thinks because Great Britain is backing us.” Carter spoke out against the 2003 invasion during an interview with BBC radio. Thus, he believes that the Bush and Blair partnership has indeed strengthened the effort on the war and made opposition more vulnerable and less effective, prolonging the war and increasing the amount of tragedies because of the war. However, Amber Wilkinson, Republican National Committee spokeswomen, rebutted that Carter and his comments were not to be taken seriously as he also previously challenged Ronald Reagan’s strategy for the cold war.

After reading this article, I feel that Jimmy Carter’s comments on Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq were justified. Just looking at the effects of the war would tell anyone that. Firstly, the war costs a hefty sum of US$150 million a day. In addition, casualties have been numerous; the war has claimed 2,300 American lives and at least 17,000 other soldiers have been injured and that is just the impact to America.

Iraq, especially, is paying the price for this unjustified attack. The society has been in unrest as the whole foundation of the nation was blown up to pieces and had to be rebuilt all over again. Gun fights happen all over the city and morale in the country is at an all-time low. In addition, the innocent civilians have to live with dangerous conditions every single day, causing countless unjustified deaths.

Bush said on November 2005 that the threat of jihadist terrorism to the United States’ interest would have been far greater if not for the war and that war is reducing the global pool of terrorist. Yet, reports have shown that these assumptions have yet to be proven by any concrete evidence; even the White House has been unable to prove this.

Thus, I feel deep pity for the innocent people involved, be it the civilians of Iraq or the fighting soldiers of America and her allies and unless Bush provides a fair reason for this pre-emptive war, the war would be useless. However, I do believe that Carter’s comments are unprecedented as calling someone the worst president ever is as good as fighting.

To conclude, I strongly believe that Bush should look over his administration of the Iraq war and perhaps make it a more peaceful and stable form of assistance for Iraq.

477 words

Sources: http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/iraq_effect_1.html

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4:39 AM

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Indonesian Landslide kills at least 40

A landslide, triggered by heavy rains, has claimed at least 40 lives and scores are still yet to be found. Relief efforts have rushed to help the needy though telephone lines have been cut and thus hindering the process. As many roads have been cut off due to the disaster, heavy machinery to aid in rescue efforts have also been unable to reach the villages in need. As of 3^rd march 2007, at least 40 corpses have been recovered but there are about 29 more people believed to be stranded or buried under the huge mass of mud.

I feel extremely fortunate that I am able to live in a country such as Singapore as not only is it a flourishing nation, it is extremely safe from natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis just to name a few. For example, during the Tsunami tragedy, which hit several Asian countries, Singapore did not have to deal with the impact of the natural disaster as our neighbouring countries “shielded” the deadly waves from us.

I also sympathise the victims of the landslide. Due to the heavy rains not only occurring in Indonesia, but also in Singapore, the natural disaster was triggered and claimed many lives. Not only that, it also left many homeless, with no food, shelter, or water. Instant noodles, canned fish, cooking oil and emergency tents were all that was distributed to some villages.

It was reported in the article that seasonal downpours cause dozens of deadly landslides and floods every year in Indonesia, “a vast chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous regions or near fertile flood plains”. Last month, floods alone killed nearly 100 people and impacted huge sections of the nation.

Indonesia, being a nation prone to natural disasters, should, in my opinion, have a more efficient rescue and relief effort. Knowing that natural disasters are frequent in the country, I feel Indonesians should always be prepared, for example pack a bag with essential items like dry food, a radio and water so that they can flee with this bag upon knowing that a disaster is going to hit them. Weather stations should also be quicker to broadcast warnings and evacuation should be more efficient to lower the death toll of natural disasters.

I trust that if Indonesia and the people are more prepared for such events, the death toll would seriously decline.

402 words

Sources: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/03/indonesia.landslide.ap/index.html

frm past till now at-
5:56 AM

Poison Plot: Killing of a Spy

In a week when James Bond’s latest movie thriller hit the screens of London, reports surfaced about the poisoning of a spy, and not any spy, but former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko. The former Russian security officer reportedly met with a friend at a sushi bar and after that, contracted radiation poisoning. This incident has aroused much pandemonium such as the finding of radiation from polonium 210, the substance used to poison Litvinenko, on 2 British Airline aeroplanes. Current Russian premier Vladimir Putin has been linked to the assassination of the former KGB spy but has denied any claims that he was involved in the poisoning. One of Litvinenko’s last words were that Putin was “barbaric and ruthless” in attacking him.

On the 2^nd of March 2007, the poison plot reached a new climax as one of the Russian experts, Paul Joyal, involved in investigations of the death of Litvinenko was shot in the midsection once he got out of his car. This has been very suspicious as Joyal recently appeared on a television show “Dateline” and gave his views on the assassination. However, police are highly skeptical that this incident was anything other than street crime and had no link to the assassination.

I feel deep sympathy for Litvinenko and his family, as his assassination was brutal and cruel. Radiation poisoning from polonium 210 was a slow and painful way to die as the radiation would slowly cut “holes” in one’s organs, damaging them and making them unable to function. Hence, I sympathize Litvinenko as I realize the pain and torment he endured.

However, I do believe that this assassination was a conspiracy. Litvinenko, being a long-time and one of the most well known critic of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, blamed his sudden illness on Putin, and could possibly be correct although Putin thus far has denied all accusations and even agreed to assist in investigations in whatever way possible. Yet, I ask myself, if this was not a conspiracy, then how could Litvinenko have suffered such a tragedy? Obviously, there is no man that stupid to accidentally poison himself.

Nevertheless, there is a possibility that being such a strong critic of Putin, Litvinenko did poison himself, knowing that on his deathbed, accusing Putin of committing the heinous crime would make him a prime suspect and might even cause his fall from power.

To conclude, I hope that authorities find out the reason why Litvinenko was assassinated and assassin as soon as possible. Life is priceless, and taking one away in such a cruel and heartless way is certainly unforgivable, thus, the assassin deserves to be punished.

439 words

Sources: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17424538/#storyContinued

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4:58 AM