Search the Community

I was fortunate to live in Japan quite frequently in previous jobs, at times during their typhoon seasons from late August to October. It is really depressing to see flood, houses collapse, trees uprooted, etc, etc, whenever a typhoon crossed the land. And these kind of things happen every year many times without fail, at times more than 10 in a year. Do you see its people demand their government to SOLVE the problems once and for all? No! Every time it happens, the people will simply come together to help each other out, be it volunteering to help those trapped in their houses, cook hot meals, in logistics, or whatever way possible. Really heart-warming to see these in actions on TV. And as the weather here becoming more erratic, floods seems to be here to stay in certain part of lower-lying areas. Should the government be blamed for every occurrences of these floods?. Now do pause a while to imagine a whole month of rain water coming down within 2 hours. Do you think it should qualify as an act of God? To me, it certainly is. And do you think the government is able to stop it? Not possible unless it can blow the clouds away. Trying to channel the water quickly to prevent localised flooding will need many big drains which is not possible in our limited land. And mind you, it has nothing to do with influx of FT! So should the government be blamed for this kind of AOG? If yes, then all governments that has typhoons, tornadoes, heat waves should be replaced yearly as they are paid well, but the disasters just keep on repeating every year, and they are not able to prevent the consequences like floods from happening again! Surely I believe the government is not sitting pretty doing nothing, the people in the relevant departments are surely burning alot of mid-nite oil to come up with countermeasures. But do be patient and understand that not everything should be blamed on government just because its cabinet is paid well. Do give them some time to think of a practical solution to alleviate the situation. It will be too much to expect no floods. Let us come together to help each other out, and make this place a better place to live. It will be nice to see our local TV reporting neighbors helping each other to clean up the neighborhoods and each others' houses. Maybe if they are to have more air-time for this kind of actions will be good to encourage the society to be more kind and helpful.

The practice of opening the hood at every fuel stop used to be routine. With an oil-soaked rag in hand, the worker reached over and pulled out the hot metal dipstick, and after a quick cleaning swipe, the dipstick was plunged back into its tube and pushed down into the sump of scalding oil. Withdrawn again, a tell-tale black film in the middle of the scored lines marked the oil level very accurately. Today, many late model vehicles are running sans oil dipstick. Electronic oil level senders have replaced the metal rod

NSman who died had not submitted medical certificate By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 02 October 2008 1702 hrs SINGAPORE: Investigations into the death of full-time National Serviceman Joe Foo Wei Rong found that he had been given medical leave two days before he died but he did not inform officials about it. The Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that a medical certificate dated September 28 was found in Private Foo's personal bunk cupboard after his death. The medical centre had no documentation of his medical certificate. Soldiers are required to submit certifications of their medical conditions at the centre. Private Foo had seen a doctor at the Singapore General Hospital on Sunday. He was supposed to rest from September 28 to 29 for "sprains and strains of the knee and leg", and to be given light duties for the subsequent four days. It is not known why Private Foo did not report his medical condition, but investigations are currently underway and a full report is expected in eight weeks. The former Singapore Polytechnic student died on Tuesday while doing chin-ups at Lim Chu Kang camp. Friends and relatives remember Private Foo as an athletic young man who enjoyed basketball, and his death came as a shock to many who turned up at his wake on Thursday. Private Foo is the third full-time National Serviceman to have died in camp this year. Recruit Andrew Cheah and Officer Cadet Clifton Lam suffered the same fate in June. All three were former students at polytechnics where physical activities are not compulsory, unlike junior colleges where exercise is part of the curriculum. Chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Foreign Affairs Indranee Rajah, who is also the MP of Tanjong Pagar GRC, said: "Obviously it needs to be studied more deeply and carefully, but to me, it does seem to me that before anybody goes in for NS, the preconditioning is important. "And as far as possible, from secondary school, all the way to the time they enter National Service for BMT (Basic Military Training), it's important that the levels of fitness should be maintained." The polytechnics that were contacted said they have many sporting activities in place for students. Singapore Polytechnic says an estimated 15 per cent of total student population take part in sports. Half of its 2007 graduating cohort sat for the National Physical Fitness Award tests, an increase from 35 per cent in the previous year. the blaming games has started since the parents of the deceased NSF blamed SAF for letting his son attending physical training even though there was a valid MC. SAF conducted investigation and found out that the deceased did not submit the MC to MO. So now everyone is going to find a black sheep. SAF and an MP seems to put the blame on polys for not being able to precondition male enlistees during poly terms...KNN ...might as well blame the deceased and parents for allowing the son to attend poly in the 1st place...or might as well blame the whole govt for setting up polys in the early days..... it is individual responsibility to condition own body and keep fit to maintain healthy...