Sabtu, 17 Ogos 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Singapore and Malaysia cops show close ties in fight against crime
Lovesick wife gets jail for sneaking into Singapore
On the militaristic path again?

Singapore and Malaysia cops show close ties in fight against crime

Posted:

FOR decades, criminals on the run in Singapore have often tried to flee to Malaysia, believing there was safe refuge there.

For just as long, many of them have been hauled back to face the law – thanks to the close ties between the police forces of both countries.

The killer of eight-year-old Huang Na, the infamous triad leader One-Eyed Dragon, and most recently, Kovan murder suspect Iskandar Rahmat were all arrested across the Causeway.

"In many ways, we are brother police forces, if not twins," Singapore's Commissioner of Police Ng Joo Hee said. "Every time I meet (Malaysia's) Inspector-General of Police, I tell him, 'You are my best friend'."

That friendship stretches back to 1963, when the two forces were combined under the banner of the Royal Malaysian Police.

Even when the Singapore police went their own way following the country's independence in 1965, ties remained close.

Help was only a phone call away, said retired Singapore detective Lim Ah Soon.

Lim, 68, worked closely with his Malaysian counterparts during his 24 years with the Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) then Organised Crime unit and Secret Society Branch.

In 1981, he was tracking an armed robber who had escaped to Ipoh, and quickly rang the Malaysian police for help.

"As we could not bring firearms into Malaysia, we had to rely totally on the Malaysian police to assist us in the arrest," he recalled.

"We went to where the robber was hiding and helped to identify him before the Malaysian police made the arrest."

A Malaysian court later issued a warrant of extradition to bring the suspect back to Singapore.

"Accomplices would pick up the suspects when they reach Malaysia and escape to another country," said Lim.

The open channels of communication between both forces are crucial, said Commissioner Ng.

"Because every time something big happens, the guy is already over there when we find out who did it," he said.

Both forces were tight-lipped about the operational details of recent cases.

But a New Straits Times report last month on Iskandar's arrest said that he was put on a "stop list" issued by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) through Interpol.

All policemen in Johor were then alerted and briefed about the suspect's particulars and his vehicle.

The helping hand was extended both ways.

Malaysia's Federal CID director Comm Datuk Hadi Ho Abdullah told The Straits Times that the Singapore police have been helpful in many areas, including vehicle thefts.

"This year alone, through the intelligence from our Singaporean counterparts, we've recovered about 20 to 30 vehicles that were stolen," he said.

"There's a common objective that we have, to make sure criminals will not feel safe in any of (our) countries," he added. -The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

Lovesick wife gets jail for sneaking into Singapore

Posted:

A WOMAN who could not bear to be apart from her husband sneaked into Singapore illegally and visited him in jail.

Vietnamese national Nguyen Thi Mai Phuc paid nearly S$2,000 (RM5,100) to people smugglers, who hid her in a lorry and cargo container.

But the 27-year-old is now preparing to start a jail term of her own after being handed a one-year sentence.

Phuc was previously deported from Singapore in 2010 after overstaying her visa. Her husband then came here to work illegally.

The couple lost contact and Phuc decided to come and find him.

Once in Singapore, Phuc paid fortnightly visits to her husband, who had been jailed for one and a half years for immigration and customs offences.

But she was arrested in April this year at the Goldkist Beach Resort in East Coast Parkway.

She had pleaded guilty to the offence. -The Straits Times / Asia News Network

On the militaristic path again?

Posted:

Plans are afoot to revise Japan's postwar peace constitution to assert its right to declare war and rename the self-defence forces.

On Aug 6, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took part in a ceremony marking the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, an event which, combined with the following atomic bombing of Nagasaki, compelled Japan to surrender nine days later on Aug 15, ending the Second World War.

Also on the same day, Japan launched its largest warship since the war. The vessel was launched at Yokohama, where Commodore Mathew Perry came with his US Asiatic fleet in 1853 to open Japan to the West. The 250m-long Izumo looks like an aircraft carrier, though officially it is a destroyer.

Well, it's a flat-top super-destroyer that carries 14 helicopters with a flight deck where combat aircraft that can vertically take off and land can be accommodated. The new vessel shares the same name as the famed Japanese cruiser which played a pivotal part in the Shanghai War of 1937, withstanding repeated Chinese attacks.

In May, Abe offended China and South Korea by tacitly denying Japan's imperialist aggression toward its Asian neighbours. The Japanese leader stated that there is no established definition of invasion, either academically or internationally.

Around the same time, he posed for a photo in the cockpit of a military training jet fighter emblazoned with the number 731, the unit number of an infamous Imperial Army group that conducted lethal chemical and biological wartime experiments on Chinese civilians. Moreover, Abe has reportedly moved to permit the use of the rising sun banner, a symbol of horror to Asian victims of Japanese colonial aggression.

Plans are afoot to revise Japan's postwar peace constitution to assert its right to declare war and rename the self-defence forces as the national "defence forces", the dropping of "self-defence" implying the forces may be engaged in action other than genuine self-defence.

One consequence of these new developments is the serious concern China, South Korea and even the United States are showing for a possible return of militarism in an increasingly nationalistic Japan.

They fear that a militaristic Japan is likely to turn imperialistic and invade its Asian neighbours again.

But their fear is totally unnecessary. The Liberal Democrats may all become ultranationalists like Abe and his mentor, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, but that does not mean they will turn militaristic. Militarism isn't imperialism.

Japan turned militaristic after the Taisho democracy because of the rise of ultranationalism, which held Western democracy as the source of all evils during the Great Depression. In this period the military was viewed as the only stabilising power.

The militarists became imperialists after they were convinced that the West was purposely choking Japan's economic lebensraum in Asia.

Moreover, the Japanese militarists had an excellent role model in Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Times have changed. There isn't another Great Depression that may trigger the turning of the Japanese toward ultranationalism, no matter how hard the Liberal Democratic Party and populistic Toru Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Party may try.

The military isn't the stabilising power anymore. People have been taught not to blindly obey the powers that be. Besides, what Abe and his Liberal Democrats want is what a "normal state" enjoys under its "non-peace constitution".

All Abe and company are trying to achieve is to show that Japan is strong enough militarily to resist pressure, diplomatic or otherwise, from China and Uncle Sam in order to win more votes and continue ruling Japan.

Koizumi tried to do so, but failed before he had to step down as prime minister. There was a backlash. The Democratic Party of Japan saw its almost half-century rule of Japan end.

Abe defeated the Democrats last year. He is picking up where Koizumi left off. The Japanese leaders may be ultranationalists, but never will they turn militaristic and start the aggression of a renascent Japanese empire.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

The 'new' olinguito is already in peril
Britain to reopen embassy in Yemen on Sunday
Life in the rebel strongholds

The 'new' olinguito is already in peril

Posted:

WELCOME to the world, olinguito (pic), the first new carnivore to be discovered in the western hemisphere for 35 years. I just hope this isn't going to be a brief acquaintance. Sadly, given our track record, you might do well to beware Homo sapiens bearing binomials (in this case, Bassaricyon neblina, the latter being Spanish for "fog").

Once they've got you named, it can be a brief window between identification and disappearance, as 20th century discoveries such as the okapi (1901) and the coelacanth (1938), both now reduced to threatened status, found out.

Extinction can be a frighteningly speedy process, as the dodo, Steller's sea cow, the great auk and the passenger pigeon discovered. Being cute (the olinguito has been described as a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear) doesn't help either – just ask the giant panda.

Biologists decry our fixation on "charismatic megafaune", pointing out that for every cuddly polar bear, there are 10 insects of equal environmental importance and concern. Yet such is our anthropomorphic tendency to recreate the natural world in our own image; the arboreal olinguito surely owes part of its news value to its forward-facing, appealingly baby-like eyes.

It may be a cliche that what you observe you also destroy and, sadly, the olinguito's fellow creatures in obscurity have found it to be true. Take the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, a chimeric marsupial mash-up with the legs of a kangaroo, the stripes of a big cat and the head of a dog. It lived safe in its island fastness – until European settlers came along.

A letter from William Paterson, the lieutenant governor of Van Diemen's Land, written in 1805, reported an animal "of a truly singular and nouvel description ... of a species perfectly distinct from any of the animal creation hitherto known, and certainly the only powerful and terrific member of the carniverous (sic) and voracious tribe yet discovered on any part of New Holland or its adjacent islands".

Such a dramatic diagnosis – Paterson saw the thylacine as wolf-like in appearance and habits – sealed the beast's fate. Hunted for its apparent threat to the sheep industry (in fact, it wasn't a pack animal at all), by 1850 Reverend John West was reporting that "it is probable that in a very few years this animal, so highly interesting to the zoologist, will become extinct".

Meanwhile, across the Tasman Sea, the 4m high moas of New Zealand had long since been hunted to extinction by the Maori when they were identified in 1844 from fossil remains by Richard Owen, namer of the most famous of all extinct beasts, the dinosaur. Even now, New Zealand may be about to witness a new extinction, that of the tiny Maui's dolphin.

With barely one-quarter of the species in the world's oceans so far identified, many marine animals may be going extinct, even before we give them names. Last year, a mother and calf pair of whales stranded on New Zealand's Bay of Plenty were found to be rare spade-toothed beaked whales. Amazingly, no one has ever seen these deep-diving, cryptic animals alive.

The forest and the ocean may be the last resorts of the undiscovered, but imposing names on animals is a symptom of our supposed dominion – one that began with religious myth, continued in Enlightenment rationality and proceeded via exploration to exploitation. Catalogued, indexed, tagged and tracked, wild animals must be encompassed in our schemata.

The olinguito isn't new – it was there all along. Science may yet protect it but how long will it be before it ends up caged in a street market, or its body parts prized for their aphrodisiac qualities? Welcome olinguito. Now get back up that tree. — ©Guardian News & Media 2013

Britain to reopen embassy in Yemen on Sunday

Posted:

(Reuters) - The British Embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa will reopen on Sunday after being closed for 12 days because of security concerns.

"British Embassy #Yemen open as normal from Sunday 18 August. Apologies for the brief hiatus," British Ambassador Jane Marriott tweeted.

The Foreign Office said on August 6 it had withdrawn all staff from the embassy due to a high threat of kidnapping.

Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, is the base for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the most active branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden, and militants have launched attacks from there against the West.

Washington also evacuated diplomatic personnel from Yemen on August 6 because of a terrorism threat. France and Norway closed their embassies in Sanaa as well.

The move followed the unprecedented closure of U.S. diplomatic missions across the Middle East and North Africa in early August after a warning of a possible militant attack in the region. It reopened them a few days later except for the embassy in Sanaa.

(Reporting by Sandra Maler in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

Life in the rebel strongholds

Posted:

After more than two years of bloodshed the Syrian conflict is no closer to a resolution. The writer takes a personal journey into the troubled nation.

TO cross the border I had to climb a wall three times my height. It was the most frightening part of my trip into liberated Syria.

At Atmeh camp, just inside Syria on the Turkish border, where I had been giving storytelling workshops to displaced children, there is no passport control, only a gap in the barbed wire. On the day of our journey, though, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and PKK-linked Kurds were facing off nearby and the Turkish authorities blocked access as a result. This meant we had to go through the official border at Bab al-Hawa. Two of our party possessed Syrian passports, and were waved through. Two of us didn't, so were smuggled across by Kurdish teenagers.

Our winding path led through a red-soiled olive grove, far away from the border post, but then wound back towards it, and to the wall. I could see the backs of soldiers through the trees, smoking not patrolling.

There were no security cameras. The boys told me they had taken Chechens across this way. A whispered negotiation ensued. We soon haggled a price for their service. The next part was more difficult – they wanted us to scale the wall into what was obviously still the Turkish border post.

I climbed too fast for vertigo to strike, scissored my legs over the railings, dropped on to concrete, rolled, picked myself up, then endeavoured to walk across the neatly trimmed lawn with a nonchalant air. I strolled through the air-conditioned duty-free zone and rejoined my companions to wait for the bus through no-man's land. No private cars had been allowed there since a car bombing in February killed 13 people.

On the Syrian side a fighter from the Farouq Battalion glanced at the passports. Behind him, unthreatening men milled about with Kalashnikovs. They were of various militias, bearded and clean-shaven, wearing mix-and-match military, sports and farming gear. Behind them, a sixth-century Byzantine arch announced our passage into Syria, a land that possesses an unbroken archeological heritage, from Sumerian times to the present.

But this was Syria as I'd never seen it. Instead of Assad's blue-eyed visage, the Free Syrian flag was painted on a barrier. Revolutionary graffiti flourished at the roadside, from "Freedom forever" through "Zero hour approaches, O you dogs of Assad" to "Death to the enemies of God".

The triumphalism of the slogans was immediately crushed by the reality of the small but shocking Bab al-Hawa camp, tents of bright blue flammable plastic planted direct on concrete, a surface that burns in the sun and floods under the merest shower.

Two ambulances whizzed past towards Turkey, both caked in mud as camouflage from airstrikes.

At this point we expatriate Syrians were squeezed into a car with friends from Kafranbel, our destination, a rural town in the south of Idlib province that has become famous for the witty English-language slogans on show at its weekly demonstrations. Our driver was Ra'ed Fares of the town's Revolution Committee.

Surreal normality

At first the strangest sensation was the normality of the surroundings. A hot and breezy afternoon ran past the windows – stubbled wheat fields, rocky outcrops, smooth-topped tells. But the villages seemed much poorer here, some of their roads gnarled up by tanks. In one hamlet, the Jabhat al-Nusra logo was printed on the walls. Our secular hosts explained that the Islamist group, designated a terrorist organisation by the UK and US, had liberated this stretch of land.

We diverted to avoid al-Fu'aa, a Shia village still held by the regime, and drove on towards Taftanaz, where the scale of the damage wrought by shelling and aerial bombardment became terribly apparent. We passed streets of crumpled buildings, long banks of debris, shopfront shutters buckled by the vacuum bombs that suck in and ignite the air to create fireballs.

White paint on the walls warned: "Watch out – Taftanaz airfield ahead!" The airfield was liberated in January after two months of siege. The resistance lost many men here – the burnt and cratered fields around offer no cover whatsoever. Now ruined tanks and lopsided helicopters rest inside the perimeter, and Free Army militia sit guard at the entrance.

Next we drove into Saraqeb, a city of significant size, again notable for its war damage, and victim of a chemical attack in April. We stopped in the busy centre so one of us could vomit into roadside rubbish, while the others (one an uncovered woman) entered a cafe to eat haytalya, a local speciality. Jabhat al-Nusra runs a sharia court here. Its black flag flies atop the famous TV mast. Nevertheless, nobody looked twice at our friend's unveiled hair. Saraqeb felt not like the Taliban's Afghanistan but like Syria minus the regime: socially conservative but largely tolerant of difference.

The media image of the liberated areas suggests the regime has been replaced by heavy-handed militias. At least in Idlib province (Aleppo has suffered much more from thuggery, corruption and Islamist fanaticism, a fact much lamented by the activists and fighters I spoke to), it is not like that at all. No checkpoint stopped us. The men with guns were locals and were considered protectors, not oppressors.

Many men have fought. They fight for a while, then take time off to visit their families in the camps or to harvest the fields (those that haven't been burned). Most have no political aim other than defending themselves by ending the regime. Some are Islamists, usually moderate and democratic.

One such is Abu Abdullah who, before his leg injury, fought with the rebel group Liwa al-Islam in Douma in the Damascus suburbs. He shocked me with his statement: "We aren't fighting for freedom, but for Islam." But the follow-up was more reassuring. "Europe," he said, "is implementing Islam without being aware of it. It educates its people, it respects their rights, there's one law for all."

He doesn't fight for "freedom" because to him the word means people doing anything they like, regardless of the rights of others. His vision of an Islamic state is one compatible with democracy; it wouldn't enforce dress codes or ideological allegiances because (he quotes the Quran) "there is no compulsion in religion".

As for the foreign fighters, Abu Abdullah, like everybody I spoke to, views them with disdain. Syria has enough men, he told me. Syria needs weapons, not men. Foreigners only cause problems. They increase the sectarian element, as Assad and Iran want. They ruin the revolution's reputation. In any case, most of them aren't fighting but resting, waiting for "the next stage".

He muttered against the Turks who on the one hand collaborate with the Americans to hold back the heavy weapons that the FSA so desperately needs (this was certainly true until late June), yet on the other do nothing to stop the flow of foreign jihadists. "It's a plot so America can do to us what it did to Afghanistan." It wasn't difficult to sympathise with his conspiracy theory. I'd seen how easy it was to cross the border illegally.

Grassroots activists

After Saraqeb comes Ebla, an excavated city of the third millennium BC, and after Ebla the once beautiful town of Maarat al-Nu'man. Here the Crusaders resorted to cannibalism, and now Assad's forces engage in savage bombardment. Abutting the ongoing battle for control of the Hama-Aleppo motorway, many of Maarat's apartment blocks are sheared into ragged slices. Shelling resumed shortly after we passed back through the next day.

The town used to house one of Syria's finest museums, a collection of Byzantine mosaics in an Ottoman caravanserai. For months the museum stood between the regime and the resistance, and was looted and bombarded by both. Maarat was also once home to Abu Ala'a al-Ma'ari, the 11th-century atheist and poet, one of the most important of the classical tradition, whose statue was beheaded – to great popular outrage – by Salafist militiamen last February.

We slowed when we reached Kafranbel to note the walls almost everywhere cratered by bullets, a flattened mosque and the blasted remains of a secondary school that the regime had used as a barracks until its forces were expelled. Ra'ed pointed out two sites of mass slaughter and a list of martyrs engraved on a plinth at the central roundabout. Since the regime was driven out last August, a central stretch of wall has been painted in revolutionary murals, including one of a cartoon heart titled ReLOVEution.

Evening passed pleasantly, surreally, in the Revolution Committee building, on a terrace studded with potted plants overlooking olive trees and a jostle of fat-tailed sheep. There was a waxing midsummer moon, a cool breeze, and the usual Syrian night sounds: animated conversation, laughter, tunes from the oud, and a noise like thunder that was the regime launching missiles from Wadi Deif, 12km away. A safe distance. Kafranbel hadn't been bombed all month.

We ate apples and deliciously sweet plums. Manar Ankeer, an energetic young Syrian who refuses to join his family in the Gulf, runs a free bakery that feeds 40 villages. Without this aid (the bakery is funded by expatriate Syrians), some families would starve.

People are doing what they can. In the absence of government, it is not the militias, nor the opposition groups making up the Syrian National Coalition, but civil society that has stepped into the breach. Not many inside have even heard of the coalition, whose representatives spend their time in Istanbul hotels instead of with their people on the ground.

Much more relevant are grassroots activists, both locals and those who have escaped from regime-held Damascus. (One of our party had just left the capital, where everyone is off the streets by 8pm. Here people were out walking and playing in pool halls at one in the morning.)

I slept in the home of Hamood, another activist. One wall was raggedly punctured where a rocket had struck and the interior walls, still pitted by shrapnel, had been scrubbed back to the concrete after being blackened by fire. He showed me the damage, then his radishes and parsley, newly planted and vigorously flourishing.

The sight of a child's toy bike on a shelf in the kitchen made me sadder than the rocket damage. Hamood's wife, children and parents are in a camp inside Turkey. Next door a family of 10, displaced from a worse place, shared a doorless, windowless building with snakes and rats.

No going back

Before the area was liberated, the residents held their demonstrations in the fig orchards outside town. After the liberation, the post-Friday prayer gathering became a target for shelling.

So for Friday Ra'ed scheduled the protest for 11am, before prayers, and in a side street, so as not to draw a crowd. He was stopped later by a townsman angry that he'd missed the demonstration. "What's the point of attracting disaster?" Ra'ed asked. "At this stage, the most important aspect of the protest is the media aspect."

It's this canny media awareness that has made obscure Kafranbel one of the unlikely focal points of the revolution. Each week activists produce witty and topical slogans in English and Arabic. The first, in April 2011, declared: "Freedom emerged from under the fingernails of Dera'a's children." One threatened to "spank" Kim Jong-Un for his "childish attempt" to deflect attention from Syria. One that went viral offered condolences to the people of Boston after the bombing there, and reminded the world that such things happen in Syria every day.

And, referring to the sudden death of actor James Gandolfini: "We are so sorry that Tony Soprano is dead. We wish Assad, the Syrian mafia boss, had died instead".

Despite Kafranbel's sterling efforts, the larger media war has been lost. The Western narrative is that this is no longer a revolution but a civil war, a conflict with its roots not in Assad's repression but in the theological disputes of the ninth century. Since the regime and Hezbollah's joint conquest of al-Qusair in June, the Syrian people are struggling against the odds.

The regime probably will eventually fall. If it had fallen a year ago there might have been a happy ending. But by now more than a quarter of the population is displaced and far more have been traumatised. The social fabric is torn. If Syria remains one nation, it will be a nation of orphans and widows, of the maimed, the raped, the tormented. How does a country return from that?

We ate a quick lunch before Ra'ed drove us back north. We stopped in the town of Hass to talk to a pharmacist about leishmaniasis, a disease spread by sandflies that is now rampant in the country. Abu Farouq complained that he had syringes – treatment involves injections into the skin ulcers caused by the disease – but not the medicine to fill them.

Mercifully, Atmeh was open, which saved us from climbing that wall again. As we approached the camp through the olive groves, we asked Ra'ed a final, uncomfortable question. "If you'd known what would happen, would you have still joined the revolution?"

"No," he said, matter-of-fact. "The price was too high. Just in Kafranbel we've had 150 martyrs. As many as that are missing; they're probably dead too.

"But it's too late now. There's no going back. We have to finish what we started." — ©Guardian News & Media 2013

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business

Residential prices remain flattish
Challenge and opportunity for Asean
Singapore July exports dip

Residential prices remain flattish

Posted:

VARIOUS issues related to affordability and speculation continue to hog the overall residential market for the first half of this year. Coupled with the recently concluded 13th general election, the first half was "relatively sluggish", property research reports concluded.

In fact, prices have been "flattish over the past 12 months", one report concluded, due in part to the various cooling measures instituted by the Government.

The primary high-end condominium market appears to be performing better than the secondary market due to various incentives and attractive payment schemes and product offerings which come in smaller sizes in line with today's market trend.

In the prime areas of KL city centre (pic) and Mont'Kiara, prices and rentals remain generally flat due to the high supply and a weak leasing market, says Knight Frank.

In its research report for the first half, PPC International Sdn Bhd says it "believes that the residential market is experiencing a general slowdown."

This view, the report says, is supported by falling transactions. The total volume of transactions in the first quarter of this year dropped to 17,796 units compared to 23,790 units in the same period last year.

The existing residential property stock for the first half of this year is 4.67 million units. However, the new planned supply dropped to 31,677 units in the first quarter of this year from 32,472 for the same period last year.

"The drop in the total planned supply for Malaysia could be interpreted as a sign of developers exercising caution in launching new residential projects," the report says.

The slower momentum, however, is not evidenced in Johor, especially in Iskandar Malaysia.

"The average house price dropped from RM251,731 in the last quarter of 2012 to RM245,036 in the first quarter of 2013. Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Penang also experienced a decline in average house prices.

"However, there is no specific record on falling prices of any category of real estate. We believe, the drop in average house prices is largely brought about by higher volume of low to medium cost residential units sold.

"Against this environment, PPC believes that the residential market is experiencing a general slowdown," the report says. The demand for landed housing continues to be high, notwithstanding the fact the returns do not justify as investment properties, the report says.

Going forward, the interest is expected to hover around developments close to the ongoing MRT/LRT extensions.

Knight Frank says prices of condominiums in the secondary market in the suburban areas are expected to continue to perform well, supported by sustained local demand.

"Prices of well-located high-rise properties that are managed well continue to appreciate, closing the gap between primary and secondary prices," the Knight Frank report says, adding that yields continue to be compressed as price increments/high selling prices do not correspond with the lagging rental market.

In the primary market, there were a few high-rise residential property launches towards the end of the first half. Enquiries with developers by property consultants revealed good takeup rates of these developments.

Among the most prominent is Venus Assets' Four Seasons Places located within KL city centre, the first of its brands in South-East Asia.

"The popularity of global branded residences continues to be on the rise, setting a new definition to luxury living complete with hotel supported services," Knight Frank says.

The average selling price for Four Seasons Place is in the region of RM2,500 per sq ft with buyers comprising mainly Malaysians and foreigners from Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

More launches have been scheduled for the second half with a certain degree of "caution", taking the queue from overall global situation.

The PPC report says "house prices recorded by the National Property Information Centre indicate that the market is creeping into a consolidation phase."

"PPC does not foresee a definite impact on the demand from young professionals, given the shorter home loan repayment period and the pricing of residential market which is beyond their financial income bracket."

While foreigners will be attracted to predominantly Kuala Lumpur city centre, Penang and Iskandar Malaysia, local purchasers will be geared more towards purchasing township developments, especially landed homes, the PPC report says.

Moving forward, 2013 will also see developers acquiring land for medium-sized developments.

While the market generally is in a cautious mode, the outlook for residential market in urban locations is bullish, it says.

Challenge and opportunity for Asean

Posted:

AT the end of July, it was reported by China's CCTV that President Xi Jinping had said at a meeting of the country's Politburo that Beijing wished to put aside the territorial sea disputes with a number of neighbours, and to seek joint maritime development in disputed waters.

Of course, he also said China would not compromise or budge on its sovereign claims, which is not surprising. Even in China, politics is the art of the possible.

A lot has taken place, especially in the last couple of years; incidents at sea, assertion of rights and occupation of disputed islands, bitter verbal exchanges between some of the disputants. Nationalist emotion had been aroused. It is not easy to roll all that back without it being described as capitulation. So anyone proposing a time out will have to watch his back.

However, there does appear to be a diplomatic effort by China to move on peaceably. At the Asean plus summits in Brunei at the beginning of July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had stated the South China Sea disputes were not the entirety of Asean-China relations.

Not a new point by Beijing to be sure, but it has been followed up by Wang Yi in Bangkok at the 10th anniversary of Asean-China Strategic Partnership on Aug 2 with a proposal on how the South China Sea disputes could be addressed.

He proposed three simultaneous ways. First, an agreement is to be forged through consultation and negotiation between direct parties concerned. Second, the countries involved to continue to implement the Declaration on Conduct (DOC) of 2002 while "gradually" pushing forward consultations on the Code of Conduct (COC) – which is not a solution but to safeguard peace and stability in the region.

And finally, to search for ways of common exploitation not just, he said, for economic interest but to signal to other parts of the world that countries in the region are willing to solve their disputes cooperatively.

Although not quite a breakthrough, it is a positive development. China has blown hot and cold before. As with individuals in disputes, there will be memories of the other party's actions and utterances which will be dragged out. With China, its rather bellicose actions of the past two years have been scary for the Philippines and Vietnam and worrying to other regional states. Whether China had succumbed to uncontrolled domestic nationalist sentiment, had responded unsteadily to the US pivot to the region, or had acted recklessly in particular situations, are matters that should be put aside now, and if, China has taken the initiative to find a way out of a situation that was getting worse and worse.

We must not forget that China too has its grievances, such as the occupation of disputed islets and atolls that took place in the 1960s and 1970s, or of alleged aggressive action by Philippine or Vietnamese vessels. Of course the Chinese version is always disputed but, China feels, not those of its adversaries. In a row, this could go on and on.

The important thing is not to wait and see, the kind of diplomatic drift that often characterises Asean actions in the political-security sphere, but to test the China's apparent good intentions. The Asean-China "consultations" that will take place in Beijing at the end of August on the COC are obviously going to be an occasion to gauge it, but necessary, as it is the COC is not sufficient to ensure a more durable and stable situation in the South China Sea.

Diplomatic drift

It is not going to be a straight line. Already, almost in the same breath, the word from Beijing is for Asean not to expect too much from the COC consultations.

And every day, if South China Sea developments are followed closely, there are unfriendly, or at least not helpful activities, such as the boosting of naval capabilities, greater surveillance, engagement of outside powers and populist statements against the other recalcitrant party.

If there is diplomatic drift and the COC, first mentioned over 10 years ago, still remains in the works, a miscalculation or an incident from which there can be no retreat, can cause a conflagration which could get out of hand. Thus an opening such as China's recent initiative should be seized by Asean.

The trouble is Asean has made many utterances but has not got a clear policy on the South China Sea disputes beyond the COC which has become another of the Asean mantras, something with merit uttered again and again until it dulls the mind on how to move further forward.

With no policy, there cannot be a strategy on how to achieve a set of objectives. Now that China has come up with the outlines of a policy for the South China Sea, Asean has to meet and to strategise, not wait for another rigid set-piece summit.

It is not clear how far Asean foreign ministers discussed China's most recent overture at their meeting in Hua Hin last Wednesday as their statement after it still concentrated on the COC.

Another problem is Asean does not move fast enough. There is no machinery that not only has worked out a certain strategy but can also follow through expeditiously.

Asean Blueprint

The Asean Blueprint on the Political-Security community makes mention of the South China Sea disputes but only in general terms and does not provide for a mechanism to pursue the matter in real time, not just in response to initiatives such as China's just now, but also to do preparatory work on how to take the matter forward in the region's best interest. And, while Thailand is the coordinator of Asean-China relations, does its mandate include attending to the South China Sea situation, or is it just limited to organising meetings and events which all Asean countries do well enough?

The chair of Asean of course has a responsibility to steer the Asean ship in between the big meetings, but no clear accountability if it does not do so. Some are more active than others, as Indonesia was in 2011, and Cambodia in a different way last year. Brunei takes a gentler approach this year, which is quietly effective but not proactive enough. God knows what Myanmar is going to be like next year.

The Asean secretariat is purely administrative in nature, primarily an arranger of meetings, the number of which puts Asean neck and neck with the EU. Its budget is ridiculously small. And while there is better recognition of the Secretary-General in the Asean Charter, it does not give enough support for him to be able to act independently, even if just intellectually.

Of course it could be said it is up to the individual claimant states how they responded to Wang Yi's overture. There are some problems here. The Asean claimants also have overlapping claims against one another. Additionally, if there was no common Asean position, China could pick out one or other states as being recalcitrant, or play off one Asean state against another. This is realpolitik and there is no point tearing our hair out if it happens – especially if Asean is not prepared, has no common position, while screaming it has a central role.

Already, it is interesting to note the Chinese foreign minister has said the COC was disrupted by "some individual party's behaviour...China does not want to see that happen again." Clearly aimed at the Philippines, it implies the Philippines was in the wrong in the Scarborough Shoal stand-off last year; but it could also be construed as directed at Manila's greater defence engagement of the US and its referral of the issues surrounding the South China Sea disputes, particularly China's dine-dash line, to the International Law of the Sea Tribunal, which China bitterly opposes.

It is interesting, too, to note Wang Yi stressed solving disputes through negotiations on the basis of respecting historical facts and international law, the two being "equally" important, neither neglected. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), it is clearly stated historical claims cannot form the basis of sovereign right. While Asean states and China are signatories of the Unclos, what does Asean make of this Chinese position?

It is not an impossible position as there could be a regional compact on joint development which does not take a view on strict law, meaning the issue of sovereignty will never be solved, as the benefits of joint development are implanted in the regional genes. An agreement committing the cooperating states to clear obligations and a regional dispute settlement mechanism could under-pin such an arrangement.

The thing is there is no common Asean position on all these intricate matters and there will be a disjointed response to China's proposal on the way forward on the South China Sea disputes. Asean must have a mechanism, perhaps a high-level Standing Committee not subsumed by bureaucratic predisposition, which is alive to live issues affecting regional peace and security that gives practical meaning to having a common position, to wanting to play a central role. The Asean political-security pillar is not sufficiently envisaged even on paper, let alone constructed in practice.

Asean needs the kind of leadership as shown by its founding fathers to deal with the new regional geopolitical challenges, especially potential conflicts and their resolution. It cannot rest on the laurels of undoubted success in economic cooperation, and its greater future prospect through the Asean Economic Community, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or even the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

With threat to the peace, all this will be "value-at-risk."

Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid, chairman of Bank Muamalat, is visiting senior fellow at LSE Ideas (Centre for International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy.] He is the author of 9/11 and the Attack on Muslims.

Singapore July exports dip

Posted:

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports fell slightly in July, roughly in line with expectations, but some indicators continued to point to a recovery in the city-state’s manufacturing sector.

The wealthy South-East Asian city-state said shipments from locally-based manufacturers excluding oil products fell 0.7% month-on-month in July after seasonal adjustments, reversing from June's 3.3% gain.

But no-noil retained imports (NORI) of intermediate goods – a leading indicator of future exports – rose to S$5.2bil in July 2013 from S$5bil in the previous month after seasonal adjustments.

Singapore's total trade rose by 5.8% in July 2013, turning around from the 6.2% decrease in the previous month, trade agency International Enterprises Singapore said in a statement on Monday.

IE Singapore said earlier this week it expected exports to pick up modestly in coming months in tandem with the projected gradual recovery in global demand.

"The improvement in NORI bodes well in the medium to longer term for the productive capacity of the economy. In terms of total trade, the growth is part of the regional trend," said CIMB regional economist Song Seng Wun.

"All in all, it was a decent set of numbers reflecting a modest recovery on the tech side, plus a lift from shipyards and chemical facilities," he added.

Singapore on Monday raised its 2013 growth forecast to 2.5% to 3.5% from an earlier 1%-3%, citing a recovery in manufacturing and strength in services.

The economy grew by 2% in the first half of 2013. Domestic exports of electronics fell 7.6% in July from a year ago, hurt by sharp drops in the shipments of disk media products and personal computer parts. But the value of domestic electronics exports rose to S$4.86bil in July from S$4.47bil in June, according to the IE Singapore data.

Singapore does not provide seasonally-adjusted month-on-month percentage changes for exports by product category.

Domestic exports of pharmaceuticals, which tends to be very volatile from month to month, fell 32% in July from a year ago but this was partly offset by a 21.8% rise in petrochemicals.

Overall, Singapore's no-noil domestic exports declined 0.7% from a year ago, slower than June's year-on-year fall of 8.9%. Economists polled by Reuters had expected no-noil domestic exports to grow by a median 0.4% month-on-month but fall 3.2% from a year ago.

Singapore exports most of what it produces and the manufacturing sector accounts for about 20% of the city-state's gross domestic product.

According to Monday's second-quarter GDP data, Singapore's manufacturing sector grew by just 0.2% year-on-year.

But services including trade and transport and storage grew strongly, indicating the city-state was benefiting from the growth in regional trade.

For the whole of 2013, non-oil domestic exports would likely grow by between zero and 1%, lower than an earlier forecast of a 2%-4% expansion, IE Singapore said. – Reuters

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

Rip It Up

Posted:

FOR decades, professional-development prophets have preached the same simple gospel: Perception is projection.

In other words, if you want to improve your lot, then you need to change how you think. Force yourself to have positive thoughts and you will become happier. Visualise your desired self and you will enjoy boundless contentment. Think like a billionaire and you will emerge on the Forbes list of richest people in … well, wherever you're drowning in the syrup of your success.

The theory is elegantly simple; the practice so often tortuously flawed. Or so posits Prof Richard Wiseman.

Uniquely for a writer of this genre, Wiseman started his working life as a magician – therefore he's well qualified to be skeptical. His previous books have included The Luck Factor and 59 Seconds. And both possess the uncanny intuition and novelty approach that characterises Rip It Up.

Indeed, his latest book is so titled because Wiseman urges readers to tear up the book's pages as they read them: "The book is all about people changing their behaviour," he says. "To emphasise this key message I am inviting readers to do something that they probably have never done. Each time, readers will be changing their behaviour and so altering how they think and feel."

Visualisation is the big one in both the "lift-your-career" and "self-improvement games". Countless books encourage readers to relax and imagine their ideal selves – to see themselves in the leather seat in the Big Potato's office, or sipping a passion-fruit margarita as they feel the warm sand between their toes on some Hawaiian beach. But lo! – all the research suggests this approach does not deliver. Sorry to disappoint you. Actually, by pointing this out, Wiseman has perturbed your reviewer too.

In any event, why should this be so? Maybe those who fantasise about the enviable life are ill-equipped for setbacks, or become reluctant to put in the effort required to achieve their goal. Either way, the message is clear. Dream on; dream over.

Wiseman instead re-presents a concept first put forward over a century ago by psychologist William James. The author also backs up James' theory with some contemporary experiments.

The idea is that we have confused the horse with the cart – instead of investing time and money in self-help books which tell us how to change the very way we think, it's far easier to change the way we act in simple and subtle ways. In essence: faking it till you make it. Want to feel happier? Force yourself to smile and you will actually feel better. Want to be more confident? Stand in a confident pose and you will exude that aura of self-assuredness.

Back to that story Wiseman refers to, and elaborates on.

Working at Harvard University in the late 19th century, William James, brother of novelist Henry James, was seen as something of an oddball, often walking around campus sporting eccentric attire, and describing his theories using amusing prose ("as long as one poor cockroach feels the pangs of unrequited love, this world is not a moral world"). But he was no ineffectual nutter. First published in 1890, James' two-volume tome The Principles of Psychology was a huge hit in its day.

James hypothesised that the relationship between emotion and behaviour was a two-way street, and that behaviour can cause emotion. According to James, smiling can make you feel happy and frowning can make you feel sad. Or, to use James' favourite way of putting it: "You do not run from a bear because you are afraid of it, but rather become afraid of the bear because you run from it."

By acting as if you are a certain type of person, you become that person – the "As If" principle.

In time, James' revolutionary concept was forgotten and was replaced by lame and generally ineffective alternatives.

Now Wiseman has resurrected it. Take, for example, willpower. Motivated people tense their muscles as they get ready to leap into action. But really, can you boost your willpower by simply tensing your muscles? Studies led by Iris Hung from the National University of Singapore had volunteers visit a local eatery and asked them to try to avoid temptation and not buy sugary snacks. Some of the volunteers were asked to make their hand into a fist or contract their biceps, and thus act as if they were more motivated. Remarkably, this exercise made people far more likely to buy healthy food.

The same applies to confidence. Most books on increasing confidence encourage readers to focus on instances in their life when they have performed well or ask them to visualise themselves being more assertive. In contrast, the As If principle suggests that it would be much more effective to simply ask people to change their behaviour.

Singapore-based Mark Laudi, previously an anchorman for CNBC Asia Pacific and now a much sought-after speaker at regional seminars and conferences, concurs with Rip It Up's central thesis.

"The technique of imagining yourself more confident worked wonders for me in television. I was a stock-watcher and anchor at CNBC for seven years, and as is usually the case in live television, not everything always went to plan. In fact, things rarely went to plan.

"There were many moments of stress: a late breaking story, an interview guest who didn't arrive on time, or running out of time before the commercial break. The trick why viewers never would have spotted these moments is because I pretended to be confident at the most confidence-sapping times.

The author may have once been a magician, but it's hard to be skeptical about such a well-researched and provocative work.

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The Star Online: Nation

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The Star Online: Nation

Online love scam ring busted
Najib slams Opposition party for not practising democratic principles
A wide range of uses for multirotor aircraft

Online love scam ring busted

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: A syndicate that specialises in online love scams couldn't charm its way out when police raided an apartment in Bukit Mandarin, Cheras.

Police confiscated 10 bank cards, six passbooks believed to be from previous scams, and 1kg of methamphetamine stashed in one of the suspects' car.

Four notebook computers and six mobile phones were also recovered during the operation at 10.30am on Thursday.

Three Nigerian men, another from Lesotho and Malaysian women aged 29 to 32 were arrested.

Their modus operandi involves gaining the trust of females online, and then asking them to bank in money to a Malaysian woman's account in order to pay for the "tax" on a parcel that they claim has been detained by the Malaysian Customs.

The conmen would say the parcel contains lots of cash, and would then promise the girls a share of the cash as a reward.

Investigations into the syndicate began in April after a 21-year-old college student was duped of RM1,630.

She had reportedly befriended a British man named Richard Kickme on Facebook in January and fallen in love with the online Casanova.

"On April 19, one of the suspects contacted the victim, saying he was planning to visit her.

"He called her again the next day, claiming he had arrived but was held up at the airport for bringing in a parcel containing US$48,000 (RM135,000).

"He said he would give her some of the money if she banked in the amount, which she did the same day," said Cheras OCPD ACP Mohan Singh, adding that she lodged a police report after the man did not show up.

ACP Mohan said commercial crime officers were studying the bank cards and passbooks to help solve other similar cases.

Najib slams Opposition party for not practising democratic principles

Posted:

ALOR SETAR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has hit out at DAP for not practising democratic principles resulting in it having to hold fresh central executive committee (CEC) elections.

The Prime Minister said the party had been promoting itself as a champion of democracy yet it failed to implement it when it involved its own party elections.

"The question raised by the public is why a party that promoted itself as champion of democracy and anti-corruption, among others, failed to follow a rule that is clean from corruption?"

"What the Registrar of Societies (ROS) had directed them to do is correct and according to regulations," he told newsmen after launching the national Settlers Day celebration at Felda Sungai Tiang in Pendang near here yesterday.

Najib was commenting on DAP's move to hold fresh CEC elections after weeks of protest against the ROS' order.

He said Umno had always been transparent and had never prevented members from taking part in party elections.

"We have never received any objection about our elections. If ROS criticises us, we will correct it.

"In fact Umno was once banned by the court. We accepted the decision, corrected the mistakes and rebuilt the party," he said.

On Felda, Najib said the Government would need to find middle and long-term investments for Felda that could be used for new investment and re-investment purposes, as dividends and for social economic development for settlers.

"We have huge funds. So we need to be prudent in our spending to make Felda a success and at the same time give high dividends to settlers and benefits in social economic programmes to settlers and non-settlers," he said.

The Felda Integrity Plan that was also launched yesterday to help curb any wrongdoing and abuse of power in Felda.

Among those who attended the event were his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Felda chairman Tan Sri Isa Abdul Samad and Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.

A wide range of uses for multirotor aircraft

Posted:

Enthusiasts of radio-controlled model aircraft models driven by the fun and the "cool" factor are the main movers behind the emerging popularity of multirotor aircraft around the world.

But there are a wide range of uses for them in the professional arena.

Aerial photographers and videographers, and even movie makers, have found a low-cost method of practising their craft – one that allows them to fly much lower than commercial aircraft and without needing clearance from the Civil Aviation authorities.

More elaborate versions are used by the military and police in surveillance and search and rescue work while mapping companies in some developed countries use them to conduct low level aerial mapping, including street views.

Many are equipped with First Person View (FPV) systems, effectively putting the flyer in the cockpit of the aircraft.

FPV allows the flyer to remotely pilot his aircraft from a first person perspective via an onboard camera, fed wirelessly to video goggles or a video monitor.

The picture of the multirotor with Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong is one such system and shows the camera used to be a GoPro model, which is capable of High Definition broadcast quality images. It is equipped with a camera stabilisation system to reduce camera jitter during flight and has a pan-and-tilt platform which would allow the flyer to adjust the camera angles.

Should the video goggles have a built-in gyroscope, it would allow the camera on the aircraft to follow the turn of the flyer's head, as if he was a real pilot looking out the window of a real aircraft.

How far away could the person flying it have been?

The picture of the model shows a 2.4ghz receiver being used for the aircraft control system which would typically have a range of 3-5km based on line of sight.

But the range would ultimately be limited by the 5.8 ghz video transmission system. A circular polarised antenna is used, suggesting a range of at least 1km based on line of sight. Flight times are limited only by the size of the batteries and the maximum payload of the multirotor and could easily range from 5-30 minutes.

Depending on one's budget, the sky is really the limit with the available options.

GPS navigation and flight data, stabilisation systems, telemetry and autopilot devices are among them.

With suitable hardware and software, some versions can be programmed to take off and fly and land fully autonomously to waypoints selected on Google Earth Pro equipped notebook. Flight control hardware and software for the multirotors commonly originate from China, with the name DJI Innovations from Shenzhen among the most popular in the world.

Related story:

Spy copter found near Wee's home

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The Star Online: Metro: Central

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The Star Online: Metro: Central

Hundreds missing in Philippine ferry disaster

Posted:

CEBU, Philippines - Philippine rescuers searched Saturday for more than 200 people missing after a ferry collided with a cargo ship in thick darkness and sank almost instantly, with 26 already confirmed dead.

The St Thomas Aquinas ferry was carrying 870 passengers and crew when the accident occurred late on Friday night in calm waters near the port of Cebu, the Philippines' second biggest city, authorities said.

Coastguard and military vessels, as well as local fishermen on their own small boats hauled more than 600 people out of the water alive.

But by late Saturday morning, 215 people were still unaccounted for and 26 bodies had been retrieved, according to the coastguard, which warned the death toll would inevitably rise.
"It did not take long, about 10 minutes, before the ferry sank," Rear Admiral Luis Tuason, vice commandant of the coastguard, said on DZBB radio.

"The captain managed to declare abandon ship and they distributed life jackets but, because of the speed by which it went down, there is a big chance that there are people trapped inside."

One survivor, Maribel Manalo, 23, recounted to her brother the horror of suddenly being plunged into the cold water in darkness, and emerging from the chaos without her mother.

"She said there was a banging noise then the boat suddenly started sinking," the brother, Arvin Manalo, told AFP.

"They quickly strapped on life jackets and then jumped into the dark sea. She said they felt like they were pulled under. My sister said she pushed our mother up, but they got separated.

"My sister was rescued. My sister knows how to swim, but my mother does not."

He said their mother, 56, remained missing.
The accident occurred at 9:00 pm (1300 GMT) in the mouth of a narrow strait leading into the port between two and three kilometres (around one to two miles) from shore, authorities said.

Fifty-eight babies were among the passengers on board the ferry, according to the coastguard, and it was unclear how many of them survived.

Navy divers on a speed boat scoured the sea on Saturday morning amid orange life rafts that had already been mostly emptied, according to an AFP photographer on the scene.
However two lifeless bodies were seen on one raft.

Tuason said helicopters had also been deployed and specialist divers sent to search through the sunken vessel.

Local fisherman Mario Chavez told AFP he was one of the first people to reach passengers after the ferry sank in the 82-metre-deep (270-feet) channel.

"I plucked out 10 people from the sea last night. It was pitch black and I only had a small flashlight. They were bobbing in the water and screaming for help," he said.

"They told me there were many people still aboard when the ferry sank... they told me many were sleeping. There were screams, but I could not get to all of them. It was difficult to find them. I felt really bad."

Rachel Capuno, a security officer for the ferry's owners, told Cebu radio station DYSS the vessel was sailing into port when it collided with the cargo ship.

"The impact was very strong," she said.
The cargo ship, Sulpicio Express 7, which had 36 crew members on board, did not sink.

Tuason said it appeared one of the vessels had violated rules on which lanes they should use when travelling in and out of the port.

He said the captain of the Thomas Aquinas was among those rescued, and was being questioned.

The Thomas Aquinas was a "roll-on, roll-off" ferry, which allows vehicles to be driven aboard and is commonly used in the Philippines.

Ferries are one of the main modes of transport across the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, particularly for the millions of people too poor to fly.

But sea accidents are common, with poor safety standards, lax enforcement and overloading typically to blame.

The world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred near the capital, Manila, in 1987 when a ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 4,300 people.

In 2008, a huge ferry capsized during a typhoon off the central island of Sibuyan, leaving almost 800 dead. - AFP

Japanese cops probe blast at festival site

Posted:

TOKYO: Japanese police are investigating the cause of an explosion at a fireworks festival which left at least 59 people injured including some with serious burns when it ripped through the crowded site.

Witnesses recounted seeing victims, including children, screaming as they rolled on the ground to try to put out the flames, while the thousands who had gathered for the Thursday night festival fled in panic.

The explosion is believed to have erupted at one of hundreds of snack counters lining a nearby riverbank at the festival, which is held annually outside the ancient capital of Kyoto and attracts over 100,000 people.

Video footage showed the stalls, which had been selling drinks and food, going up in flames and sending smoke into the night sky, before a larger blast erupted.

Early accounts said it was caused by a gas cylinder, but Jiji Press news agency said police suspect the fire may have started when a vendor added gasoline to a running power generator.

Koichi Tanimura, head of the local chamber of commerce which organised the festival, apologised at a press conference yesterday.

"I believe the vendor should be held responsible, but we also have a moral responsibility," he said. "I would like to apologise to those who were injured." — AFP

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

Grandparents, grandkids help boost each other’s well-being

Posted:

A new study probes the lasting impact of healthy relations between grandparents and their grandchildren.

A STUDY announced this week finds that both grandparents and adult grandchildren play key roles in the mental well-being of both.

Researchers from Boston College in the US looked at 376 grandparents and 340 grandchildren, tracking their mental health from 1985 to 2004. Findings were presented August 12 at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in New York.

Results showed that grandparents and adult grandchildren who felt emotionally close to each other experienced fewer symptoms of depression.

The average grandparent in the study was born in 1917 and the average grandchild in 1963, making them 77 years old and 31 years old, respectively, at the midpoint of the study in 1994.

"We found that an emotionally close grandparent-adult grandchild relationship was associated with fewer symptoms of depression for both generations," said Sara Moorman, professor of sociology. "The greater emotional support grandparents and adult grandchildren received from one another, the better their psychological health."

In the study, participants responded to survey questions every few years about how often they helped each other, such as with housework or giving or receiving car rides, as well as how well they got along.

Among the subjects, grandparents who offered advice, paid for meals from time to time, and felt independent had fewer depressive symptoms, which suggests that a two-way supportive relationship is best.

"Most of us have been raised to believe that the way to show respect to older family members is to be solicitous and to take care of their every need," Moorman said. "But all people benefit from feeling needed, worthwhile, and independent. In other words, let granddad write you a check on your birthday, even if he's on Social Security and you've held a real job for years now." – AFP Relaxnews

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

Hundreds missing in Philippine ferry disaster
Japanese cops probe blast at festival site
Pakistan cops shoot gunman in standoff