SIMPLE HOLIDAYS, RICH MEMORIES, by Lee Wei Ling, Straits Times, Dec 13, 2009

Dec 13, 2009 , Starits Times

Simple holidays, rich memories

 Sun, sand and sea in Changi made for great school breaks during childhood

 By Lee Wei Ling

It is December now, and the rain is pouring like water gushing from a fire hydrant as I write this. For some strange reason, I like this kind of weather - perhaps because the time of the north-east monsoon coincided with the long holiday when I was in school.
Today, I tried to fix an appointment for a patient to see another specialist. Two out of the three specialists I tried to contact were holidaying overseas. This brought back memories of my own school holidays more than 40 years ago.

My childhood holidays were much humbler than what the children of my colleagues enjoy today. Most of my holidays were spent with my paternal grandmother. Before August 1965, my family would also spend a portion of the holidays on Fraser's Hill or Cameron Highlands in Peninsula Malaysia.

Indeed, we were on Cameron Highlands in the days before Separation. I remember my mother, my brothers and I driving back to Singapore in a hurry on Aug 8, 1965. My siblings and I discovered the reason only the next day.

After 1965, we would spend part of our school holidays at Changi Cottage or the chalets next door, bungalows by the sea that government officials - civil servants as well as elected officials - could use.

We did the usual things that children did on seaside holidays. I would rise early to watch the sun rise and meander along the beach. After breakfast, my brothers and I would build sandcastles, dig for clams and search for starfish and hermit crabs. When the tide was in, we tried our luck at fishing with hook and bait or swam in the sea. If it was raining, as it often did in December, we would read or play games indoors.

I remember playing a memory game using cards with the young Lee Chuen Neng, who was staying then with his father K.C. Lee and his family in a neighbouring chalet. More than 40 years later, we are still good friends; he is a cardiothoracic surgeon and head of the department of surgery at the National University Hospital, and I'm a neurologist and director of the National Neuroscience Institute.

These holidays were the rare occasions when my brothers and I had our father's company for the entire day. He would sometimes join us on the beach and swim with us. My mother would watch over us children whenever we went swimming. Without saying so, she was our lifeguard.

Every evening, my father would play golf at the nearby Changi golf course. We would walk with him, sometimes pulling his golf trolley. Sometimes, I would walk ahead to the next hole and roam in the thick vegetation nearby. Those trees and undergrowth were probably left there to increase the chances of a golfer losing his golf ball.

Among the bushes and trees, I would pretend that I was a soldier on a topographic march. I had a good sense of direction and never got lost, although I was often scratched or poked by sharp twigs and thorns. But that merely made the game more realistic, so I didn't mind.

Often, at least once a year while we were in Changi, my father would take us to Pulau Ubin. We would visit the Outward Bound School there. It was then rather under-developed by today's standards, but knowing no better, we enjoyed it, as we tried out the obstacle course.

I still have black-and-white photographs of my elder brother Hsien Loong climbing a net-like structure with parallel rows of horizontal ropes attached to parallel rows of vertical ropes. In the photograph, Loong had made it to the top, while I was trying very hard to catch up with him, as indicated by the determined expression on my face. My younger brother Hsien Yang was then too young to try the obstacle.

All three of us enjoyed our holidays in Changi and the quality time we had with our parents. I doubt we would have enjoyed ourselves more if our parents had flown us off to more exotic and expensive destinations overseas.

In the late 1970s, I remember one doctor friend deflating the ego of another doctor when the latter was boasting about his skiing holiday. My friend feigned ignorance and asked: 'Where did you go skiing? Off Coney Island (also known now as Pulau Serangoon)?' I chortled, for I shared my friend's attitude towards downhill skiing.

It is a chance for the rich to show off their ski costumes and stylish sunglasses. Equipment and ski lift passes are expensive, and skiing accidents are common. In the late 1970s, if you could afford to travel overseas to ski, you had to be very wealthy.

Now my younger doctors, with children in primary school, routinely fly their entire families to Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Europe, the United States or China during the year-end school holidays. A few with larger families may opt to drive up to Malaysia. But on the whole, the children of the upper- middle-class are growing up with expectations that expensive holidays overseas are the norm.

My readers can probably guess what I think of this trend. It is a waste of money to travel vast distances for a holiday when there are many interesting places near Singapore one could visit for both fun and education. It doesn't make sense for well-off Singaporean children to be more familiar with Vail or Aspen than with Borobudur or Angkor Wat.

But the festive season will be soon upon us and I don't want to sound like Scrooge. So I will end this trip down memory lane by wishing all my readers a happy year ahead - and by reminding them that misfortune can occur at any time and it is best not to get used to luxuries.

The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.

MORALS AND MORALE by Lee Wei Ling, Straits Times, 29 Nov, 2009

Straits Times , Nov 29, 2009

Morals and morale

Chinese class taught me values that I still live by today; English spelling gave me grief


By Lee Wei Ling

Recently, my father acknowledged that he made a mistake in deciding how Chinese should be taught in our schools.

I remember many years ago Mr Lim Kim San telling my father that if my brothers and I had not been able to cope with both Chinese and English, he would not have insisted that all ethnic Chinese students acquire an equal facility in both languages.

My first nine years of formal schooling were spent in Nanyang Girls' - five in its primary school (I had a double promotion) and four in its secondary. I had no difficulty learning Chinese and I did not object to tingxie or moxie.

In tingxie, the teacher would pronounce the words and the student would try to write them down. As far as I know, tingxie is still practised in our schools. Moxie requires one to write down an entire essay or poem from memory.

For every wrong character, one mark would be deducted; and for every wrong punctuation mark, half a mark. As many of the classical poems and essays exceeded 100 characters, one could end up with a negative score.

Those who know about moxie might be surprised to hear that I enjoyed memorising the classics, and I never got less than 90 marks for moxie. It was English spelling that I had problems with.

Since I had no difficulty with written Chinese, I blamed my problems with English spelling on the strange spelling rules of the language. It was only many years later that I discovered I was dyslexic in English. To this day, I sometimes cannot decide whether to use a 'd' or a 't', a 'v' or a 'z'. I have even more difficulty with vowels. Fortunately, my e-mail and word-processing programs have spell checkers.

I had two favourite places where I would memorise my Chinese text. One was a particular tree on the Istana grounds with branches suitable to sit and lean back on; the other was a ledge outside the Istana building where I could sit and lean against the wall.

Both locations gave me a good view of the Istana grounds - the trees, shrubs, grass and ponds. And when twilight blurred the view, I imagined I was looking down on a vast lake or gloomy landscape, as they were described in the poems I was memorising.

Of course, there was always the danger I might fall off the tree or ledge - a danger that served to keep me alert as I studied, and was more effective in doing so than caffeine.

I rather enjoyed memorising the Chinese classics. The exercise trained my mind, and in later years, when I had to remember many medical facts, I could do so without much difficulty. And over and above the mental training, I absorbed many moral values from the Chinese classics I memorised. Some of these values are so much a part of me now that I find it difficult not to live by them.

When Chinese-medium schools were phased out, the Chinese language curriculum changed. Chinese culture and moral values were no longer always reflected in the Chinese textbooks. I remember one of my nephews, now 21, protesting: 'What Chinese culture are we being taught when we read Hans Christian Andersen in Chinese?'

I agreed with him wholeheartedly. I am told that the textbooks have been changed since then. I can only hope they have been changed for the better.

I took two major Chinese examinations: Chinese as a first language in my Secondary 4 school-leaving examination in Nanyang Girls' High School; and then later, the GCE O-level Chinese as a second language paper when I was in pre-university at Raffles Institution (RI). I took the latter because all the others in my RI cohort had taken it in their O levels. I received distinctions in both instances.

Recently, while searching for my old certificates, I found an exercise book in which copies of my essays published in Chinese newspapers were neatly pasted.

I remember being paid for those essays. In those days, $10 was big money to me. It was my mother who had cut out the newspaper articles and neatly pasted them in an exercise book.

I reread these essays. Years of disuse of the Chinese language - except to speak to some of my patients - have greatly lowered my ability to write in Chinese. The change from the old Chinese script to the modern simplified one adds to my problem. I know I cannot write Chinese essays now of the same quality as the ones I wrote as a teenager.

I do not regret that my parents sent me to a Chinese-medium school up to Sec 4, nor do I consider all the time I spent memorising those classical essays and poems as wasted.

I learnt how to behave honourably like a junzi - a cultured, honourable person. Among all the subjects I studied in school, I slogged the hardest for Chinese, but that was time well spent.

However, I recognise that not everyone can cope with learning two languages at a high level - especially English and Chinese, which are such different languages. For many pupils from English-speaking homes, Chinese is more a foreign language than a mother tongue. Such pupils form a growing proportion of our Primary 1 cohort.

The everyday use of Chinese will also be transformed by the development of IT, which will make certain skills like writing less important.

Schools have to keep up with these trends and customise the teaching of the language to meet the needs of different groups of students.

Chinese should be taught in a way that students can understand, and for a purpose that they will find useful. They should also be tested in ways that are relevant to how they would use the language in real life.

In that way, we can ensure that as many Chinese Singaporeans as possible retain their interest in the language throughout their lives.

The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.

INDIA'S POPULATION TIME BOMB, OCT 22, 2009

Oct 22, 2009


India's population time bomb

By Ashwini Devare

MOOSAPETH (HYDERABAD): Fatigue and anxiety line Rajeshwari's face as she waits in the scorching heat, clutching her two-year-old son's hand.


Poor, illiterate and five months pregnant, 22-year-old Rajeshwari is among a dozen expectant women queuing up outside a community outreach clinic in Moosapeth, a low-income neighbourhood in Hyderabad, India's rapidly developing tech city. The women, who have been promised free medical check-ups, are waiting for a doctor from a local non-government organisation to arrive. Rajeshwari, who is expecting her second child, says she plans to have only two children.
That is good news in a country battling to curb its population growth. Andhra Pradesh, of which Hyderabad is the capital, is among a handful of states in India that has brought down its total fertility rate (TFR) to less than two, compared to the national average of 2.8.
It is states like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala that New Delhi is counting on to stem the rising tide of humanity that is threatening to erase the benefits of economic growth.
Ms Renu Kapoor, who runs the Hyderabad branch of the Family Planning Association of India, a non-government organisation, says she is seeing an increasing trend among women in Andhra Pradesh to have fewer children.
'We see the change in remote, rural areas as well. There is a lot more awareness. Even illiterate women who can barely sign their names don't want more than two children.'
India's family planning programme began impressively in 1952, when the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru launched the world's first National Family Planning Programme. More than half a century later, changes are taking place, albeit slowly.
India has reduced its average family size from six to three children over the last 40 years. Aggressive national campaigns with catchy slogans like Hum Do Hamare Do - Us Two, Our Two - have paid off. Yet, experts say it is still not enough to prevent population growth from placing a massive strain on resources like water, energy and food.
Over-population is often cited as the chief reason for India's social ills such as poverty and illiteracy. According to a UN Population Fund Report, India will be the most populous country in the world by the year 2050, with a projected 1.6 billion people. Other reports project 2035 as the year that India will overtake China in numbers.
Each year, India adds more people to the world's population than any other country - an estimated 20 million. Even assuming its TFR drops to 2.1 over the next two decades, India's population could reach two billion by the close of the 21st century.
'India's population growth can be compared to a fast moving express train, which has applied its brakes but cannot stop immediately because of its momentum,' says Mr A. R. Nanda, executive director of the Delhi-based Population Foundation of India.
'The population size will continue to grow for some time more because of the 'population momentum' factor.'
India's population conundrum is mired in centuries-old traditions, caste structures, cultural and religious beliefs. Traditionally, large families have been the norm, with children seen as old-age security, especially among the poor. India is predominantly a patriarchal society in which women, especially in rural areas, enjoy little freedom of choice over their own reproductive rights. The desire for sons is still deeply ingrained and female infanticide remains an alarming reality despite legislation prohibiting it.
The social problems are aggravated by other stumbling blocks. An absence of trained staff to administer birth control and the lack of access to contraceptives continue to hamper grassroots family planning initiatives. The demographic diversity further complicates the problem. The states with high TFR (3 or more) are the northern states that collectively make up over 40 per cent of the country's population and also have the lowest literacy levels in the country.
According to Mr Nanda, population control has to be looked at in the context of wider socio-economic development.
'One should have a mindset to look at population as a resource or an asset rather than liability or curse,' he says. 'There is no technical quick-fix solution. The answer does not lie in pushing sterilisations and chasing targets in the conventional mode. For population stabilisation, it is important to improve people's access, particularly women's access, to quality health care.'
A daunting challenge, given that nearly half of India's female population is illiterate and lives in poverty. The onus of contraception often falls on women and sterilisation remains the most common method. But because of health risks associated with unsterile operations, not to mention its finality, women tend to have more than two children before they go in for an operation.
Dr Gaurang Jani, a sociologist at Gujarat University, says social attitudes have not kept pace with technological changes, even in developed states like Gujarat.
'Electricity may be there, TV is there, tap water may be there in the village. But very little has changed for women. Women don't have the power to say no, girls are married off by their families before they turn 18. Sons are preferred even in the cities and among the educated.'
He points to the ban on sex education in schools by the governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra as a major setback for population control in the country.
But there is a bright spot. Out of India's soaring population, a shining statistic emerges: India's youth, often referred to as its 'demographic dividend'.
India is one of the youngest countries in the world, with approximately half its population less than 25 years old. Experts say India will enjoy this dividend at least until 2050, as young people continue to enter the labour market. India's middle-class youth - educated, tech-savvy, brand-conscious and eager to spend - continues to intoxicate global investors who eye this segment as a massive growth market.
Mr Rajeev Malik, head economist for India and Asean at Macquarie Capital Securities in Singapore, says: 'Rising population is a two-edged sword. India will have more mouths to feed, hence fixing agriculture has to be a top priority. Education and skill development are two effective ways. In their absence, the potential demographic dividend might turn into a demographic liability.'
The priority for India should be to educate its female population. Studies worldwide have shown educated women are likely to have fewer babies. Other developing countries have shown this to be the case.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country is a shining example. Today, nearly 80 per cent of Indonesian women are literate and their fertility rate has more than halved. In contrast, the World Bank puts female literacy in India at 48 per cent.
Educating women like Rajeshwari, empowering them about their reproductive rights, giving them better health care and enhancing their overall status in society are the means to the end of population control.
Long-term, India will have to recognise that a literate female population can also be a demographic dividend - and a powerful catalyst for change.

Article on Population: Feathering the stork's nest, Straits Times, 14 Oct 2009

Feathering the stork's nest

Straits Times 14 Oct 2009
TAIPEI: Taiwan's government has been offering various incentives to encourage couples to have more babies, amid growing concerns that a low fertility rate will lead to a severe manpower shortage that will hurt the island's economy.
With a total fertility rate (TFR) - or the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime - of 1.0, Taiwan has the lowest fertility rate in the world, said a report by the Washington-based non-profit organisation, Population Reference Bureau, in August.
In comparison, Hong Kong has a fertility rate of 1.1, South Korea 1.2 and Singapore 1.3, according to the bureau.
In 1998, there were 271,450 babies born in Taiwan. Last year, there were only 198,733 births.
If the drop in births continues, Taiwan's economic competitiveness will be affected, leading to a shortage in its workforce as well as a drop in tax revenue.
To help shore up the fertility rate, the Taiwan government announced a fresh slew of incentives last year.
These included increasing childcare subsidies for children below five years old, as well as possible housing subsidies for families with at least three children.
There will also be financial help for young married couples to buy an apartment.

Quality of childcare workers will also be beefed up.
Other measures include promoting flexible working hours and encouraging workplaces to provide childcare services.
Health-care subsidies will also be provided for children from middle and lower income families.
'The aim is to provide a conducive environment for families to have children,' said Mr Liu Pao-min, a section chief with the population statistics department of Taiwan's Interior Ministry.
As part of its overall population policy, the government also aims to attract skilled foreigners to its high-tech sector as well as to help foreign spouses married to Taiwanese settle in more easily, he added.
'Our short-term goal is to ensure that the situation does not deteriorate. The long-term hope is that fertility rates will rise,' said Mr Liu, adding that the goal is to increase TFR to 1.6 by 2015.
Previously, the government had also rolled out incentives like giving paid maternity leave of 56 days.
Unpaid parental leave of up to two years for companies with 30 employees was also offered, but few took it up because of fear of discrimination
Taiwanese have indicated that they want affordable childcare services and more public childcare centres.
They also want childcare subsidies until a child completes primary school education.
More family-friendly measures would also help, they said.
The declining fertility rate has already affected primary and secondary schools in Taiwan, said Mr Liu
There is currently an over-supply of school teachers with fewer students, he said.

Cloze Passage: Geothermal Energy

Geothermal electricity: The next hot thing?


By Michael Richardson, For The Straits Times

CLOZE PASSAGE

Text Type: Information Report

Grammar Focus: Subject Verb Agreement, Tenses, Prepositions

Straits Times 12 Oct 2009

Fill in the blanks Also, underline the correct word in the brackets.

ENVIRONMENTAL activists have an above-ground and a below-ground view of the world.

Helping words

Greenhouse proliferation energy activity harnessed warming pollution

Fire power plates development heat gas found fuel hotter surface

Temperature days earth

Energy sources 1. _______________ on or very close to the surface, such as wind, tidal, solar and hydro power, are good. These sources are renewable and do not emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas A. (warmed/ warmer/ warming) the planet.

However, energy sources found B. (in/on/under) the ground - such as coal, oil and natural gas, as well as uranium for nuclear power – C. (are/were/is) bad. Fossil fuels are major 2. _____________ gas emitters while nuclear power, though it D.(produced/produce/produces) almost no global 3. _____________ emissions, is still regarded by many environmentalists as too much of a safety and 4. ____________ risk.

But there is another form of underground energy that E.(get/got/gets) an environmental seal of approval: geothermal heat. What F. (come/came/comes) out of the ground with this form of energy are hot water and steam, and almost no 5. ___________.

Advocates point out that geothermal is the only form of renewable 6. ____________ that provides a near-constant supply of base- load electricity to commercial grids in the same way that plants G. (powering/power/powered) by coal, oil, gas and nuclear fuel do. Other types of renewable energy generate electricity intermittently, depending on the strength of the sun, wind, waves and tides.

South-east Asia is a world leader in exploiting the first wave of geothermal 7. __________, although it could do even more with the right incentives. Of some 10,000 MW of geothermal power installed around the world, nearly one-third is in the Philippines and Indonesia, the two largest generators of electricity using underground heat, after the United States.

This is only a tiny fraction of global electricity supply. But installed geothermal capacity is expected to reach 13,500 MW next year, with the number of countries producing power from underground heat rising to 46, from 21 a decade ago.

This power system is currently limited to areas where volcanic 8. ________ produces very hot underground water in reservoirs, which may be as large as 50 sq km and H. (could/ was/can) be tapped to drive steam turbines installed in power plants on the surface.

Among places with the richest volcanic resources are those on the so-called Ring of 9. ____________ that circles the Pacific. They include New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the west coasts of the US and Canada, Central America, and the west coast of South America.

The Ring of Fire is a zone where tectonic 10. ____________ collide to create the earthquakes and tsunamis so much in the news in recent 11. ______________. But these same forces also I. (create/ created/ have created) subterranean heat reservoirs that can easily be reached with current oil and 12. __________ drilling technology.

But volcanic geothermal power exploits less than 5 per cent of the very hot underground water resources that could be exploited worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. Advanced drilling technology in geologically stable parts of the world J. (has opened / is open / was opened) up a big underground 13. ____________ source for future power generation. This K. (had unleashed/ was unleashed/has unleashed) a wave of exploration and 14. ___________ activity in Australia, Europe, the US, China and India.

Known as Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) or 'hot rock' technology, it focuses on high heat-producing granite typically 15. ___________ between 3km and 5km below the 16. __________. In this zone, which draws heat from the molten core of the earth and the decay of radioactive elements in the crust, the 17. ___________ can reach 300 deg C. By some calculations, the heat energy content in the upper 10 km of the earth's crust is 50,000 times greater than the energy content of all known oil and gas resources.

Exploiting this power - by drilling down, fracturing the rock with water pumped in under high pressure and then drawing very hot water from the resultant reservoir up a separate well - poses major technical and financial challenges. Since 2006, two EGS projects in Europe, both near urban centres, L. (have been halted/ halted/ was halted) amid concerns that the underground rock fracturing had caused 18. __________ tremors. However, this appears to be a manageable problem.

Geoscience Australia, a government agency, calculates that extracting just 1 per cent of the energy from rocks 19. ____________ than 150 deg C (the minimum for generating electricity) and less than 5 km below the surface would yield about 26,000 times Australia's primary power usage in 2005.

A report last year commissioned by the Australian Geothermal Energy Association concluded that geothermal power could provide 2,200 MW of baseload capacity by 2020, about a third of the new generating capacity the country would likely need by then.

But this will require investment of at least A$12 billion (S$15 billion). The cost of geothermal electricity will also M. (have/ had/ has) to fall. The industry reckons this will happen as commercial-scale generation results in improved efficiency and climate change concerns impose added costs on fossil 20. ____________ power.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Answers

Fill in the blanks

1. harnessed 2. greenhouse 3. warning 4. proflieration 5. pollution

6. energy 7. power 8. activity 9. Fire 10. plates 11. days 12. gas

13. heat 14. development 15. found 16. surface 17. temperature

18. earth 19. hotter 20. fuel
Underline the correct word in the brackets.

A. warming B. under C. are D. produces E. gets F. comes

G. powered H. can I. create J. has opened K. has unleashed

L. have been halted M. have

Article: Geothermal Electricity: The next thing? Straits Times, 12 Oct 2009

Geothermal electricity: The next hot thing?


By Michael Richardson, For The Straits Times

Straits Times 12 Oct 2009

ENVIRONMENTAL activists have an above-ground and a below-ground view of the world.

Energy sources harnessed on or very close to the surface, such as wind, tidal, solar and hydro power, are good. These sources are renewable and do not emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas warming the planet.

However, energy sources found under the ground - such as coal, oil and natural gas, as well as uranium for nuclear power - are bad. Fossil fuels are major greenhouse gas emitters while nuclear power, though it produces almost no global warming emissions, is still regarded by many environmentalists as too much of a safety and proliferation risk.

But there is another form of underground energy that gets an environmental seal of approval: geothermal heat. What comes out of the ground with this form of energy are hot water and steam, and almost no pollution.

Advocates point out that geothermal is the only form of renewable energy that provides a near-constant supply of base- load electricity to commercial grids in the same way that plants powered by coal, oil, gas and nuclear fuel do. Other types of renewable energy generate electricity intermittently, depending on the strength of the sun, wind, waves and tides.

South-east Asia is a world leader in exploiting the first wave of geothermal power, although it could do even more with the right incentives. Of some 10,000 MW of geothermal power installed around the world, nearly one-third is in the Philippines and Indonesia, the two largest generators of electricity using underground heat, after the United States.

This is only a tiny fraction of global electricity supply. But installed geothermal capacity is expected to reach 13,500 MW next year, with the number of countries producing power from underground heat rising to 46, from 21 a decade ago.

This power system is currently limited to areas where volcanic activity produces very hot underground water in reservoirs, which may be as large as 50 sq km and can be tapped to drive steam turbines installed in power plants on the surface.

Among places with the richest volcanic resources are those on the so-called Ring of Fire that circles the Pacific. They include New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the west coasts of the US and Canada, Central America, and the west coast of South America.

The Ring of Fire is a zone where tectonic plates collide to create the earthquakes and tsunamis so much in the news in recent days. But these same forces also create subterranean heat reservoirs that can easily be reached with current oil and gas drilling technology.

But volcanic geothermal power exploits less than 5 per cent of the very hot underground water resources that could be exploited worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. Advanced drilling technology in geologically stable parts of the world has opened up a big underground heat source for future power generation. This has unleashed a wave of exploration and development activity in Australia, Europe, the US, China and India.

Known as Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) or 'hot rock' technology, it focuses on high heat-producing granite typically found between 3km and 5km below the surface. In this zone, which draws heat from the molten core of the earth and the decay of radioactive elements in the crust, the temperature can reach 300 deg C. By some calculations, the heat energy content in the upper 10 km of the earth's crust is 50,000 times greater than the energy content of all known oil and gas resources.

Exploiting this power - by drilling down, fracturing the rock with water pumped in under high pressure and then drawing very hot water from the resultant reservoir up a separate well - poses major technical and financial challenges. Since 2006, two EGS projects in Europe, both near urban centres, have been halted amid concerns that the underground rock fracturing had caused earth tremors. However, this appears to be a manageable problem.

Geoscience Australia, a government agency, calculates that extracting just 1 per cent of the energy from rocks hotter than 150 deg C (the minimum for generating electricity) and less than 5 km below the surface would yield about 26,000 times Australia's primary power usage in 2005.

A report last year commissioned by the Australian Geothermal Energy Association concluded that geothermal power could provide 2,200 MW of baseload capacity by 2020, about a third of the new generating capacity the country would likely need by then.

But this will require investment of at least A$12 billion (S$15 billion). The cost of geothermal electricity will also have to fall. The industry reckons this will happen as commercial-scale generation results in improved efficiency and climate change concerns impose added costs on fossil fuel power.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Cloze Passage: A Struggle To get Relief To The Villages. Straits Times, 6 Oct 2009

Focus:   Nouns, Verbs and Prepositions
Text-type:  News Report

PARIAMAN (WEST SUMATRA): Their village, Jumanak, bathed in layers of mud, is now a family burial 1. __________ for cousins Alias and Jefri.


'There are no medical supplies, no food, no drinks, no aid groups, no government officials - nothing.'

For four days, Jefri, 29, a motorcycle taxi rider, used his bare 2. __________ to try and claw3. __________ mounds of earth to search for his parents, two sisters, two brothers-in-law 4. ________ their two children - all trapped under a landslide triggered by the earthquake that 5. _________ last Wednesday evening.

He wept and waited for aid, but it came too 6. ________.

'They could have been saved if the 7. _________had come much 8. _________,' he said.

His cousin Alias, 40, managed to pull his parents from the 9. _________ alive. But his younger brother 10. __________ missing.

'The 11. ________ pace in rescue efforts is pushing up the death 12. ________,' said Alias.

They were 13. ___________ the hundreds mourning their loved ones in the five remote 14. _________ villages wiped out by the tremblor.

The authorities have said that three spots - Jumanak, Pulau Air and Lubuk Laweh - will be left as mass graves, as relief work turns 15. ________ rescue to getting aid to 16. ___________.

Officials said the five villages in the hilly Patamuan district of Padang Pariaman regency, some two hours' drive from the capital, Padang, had been 17. _________ in torrents of mud and 19. _________ shaken loose from hillsides by the 7.6-magnitude 20. __________.

The three villages that will be closed 21. __________ as grave sites will not be redeveloped in future, the head of West Sumatra Disaster Relief agency Adi Edwards told reporters over the weekend.

'We don't want 22. _______ generation to be the next victims...Rather than spending so much to 23. __________ dead bodies, the money is better spent to 25. _________ the survivors,' he said.

More than 600 have been reported buried 25. ________ in the landslides in these 26. ___________ mountain villages. The victims included 200 to 300 guests at a wedding party, apparently swept away by the landslide as they ran out of a restaurant.

Blocked roads have 27. _________ efforts by relief teams to reach these remote areas. It was only on Sunday that heavy excavators and basic supplies, including food, started to trickle into the 28. __________ villages in Patamuan where survivors were desperate for 29. ________.

Rescuers who scrambled to clear narrow roads of dirt, boulders and trees to reach the interior, however, found whole villages destroyed and survivors begging for food, water and shelter.

'The excavators are more to retrieve dead bodies than to look for survivors,' said Mr Muhammed Zen, 21, who was volunteering in Patamuan where at least 600 people had been killed.

The 30. ___________pace of transporting aid and rescue equipment sparked widespread complaints among locals who have yet to receive the promised supplies and who were helpless to reach victims trapped beneath the rubble.

Questions have also been raised about government efficiency when it comes to aid distribution. Metro TV yesterday reported that bottlenecks in transporting aid were causing supplies to pile 31. _________ in many local district offices.

Government officials, however, blamed the difficult 32. ________ and narrow, damaged village roads for the problems in transporting heavy equipment. Communication 33. _________ to villages were also been cut off, they said.

The coordinator for West Sumatra's disaster relief, Mr Abdul Gafar, also denied that relief supplies were piling up, explaining that district heads had yet to collect them for distribution.

It was not clear how many people have been displaced, but Indonesia's disaster agency said up to 20,000 buildings had been damaged in the quake.

Meanwhile, the relief efforts continued. Hordes of aid workers from various organisations came loaded with 34. _________ and other basic supplies for villages in the regency.

Singapore-based aid agency Mercy Relief was at Patamuan district and Limo Koto village to evacuate the injured and supply food and drinking water to quake 35. ____________.

Chief executive Hassan Ahmad told The Straits Times: 'We have two vehicles to evacuate the injured to the hospital because many of the villagers have difficulty getting transport.'

Freshly-cooked meals and drinking water will also be provided to refugees daily for the next one week, he said.

'No point sending them instant noodles because there is no drinking water,' he said.

salim@sph.com.sg

ANSWERS

1. ground 2. hands 3. through 4. and 5. struck 6, late 7. aid

8. earlier 9. mud 10. remained 11. slow 12. toll 13. among

14. mountain 15. from 16. survivors 17. engulfed 18. rock

19. quake 20. off 21. our 22. next 23. extricate 24. help

25. alive 26. remote 27. hampered 28. devastated

29. help 30. slow 31. up 32. terrain 33. links

34. food 35. refugees

Article: Life begins to stir again, 6 Oct 2009, Straits Times

Life begins to stir again in Padang


By Reme Ahmad, Assistant Foreign Editor

People in Padang were trying to get back on their feet yesterday, with a vegetable seller near the destroyed Padang market waiting for customers at her makeshift stall (left), and staff and volunteers at a quake-hit hospital retrieving anything which was still in usable condition, from chairs and computers, to towels. -- ST PHOTOS: DESMOND LIM, CAROLINE CHIA

Straits Times, 6 Oct 2009

PADANG (WEST SUMATRA): It was the fifth day after the earth raged and shook and swallowed people and places, but life, irrepressible life, stirred once again in this city yesterday.

Near busy road junctions, pushcart food vendors who scurried away last week, reappeared to jostle for space to peddle their steaming lontong, mee bakso and soto.

Lunch queues began forming, ATM machines started churning out much-needed cash and stalls at the main market reopened to a roaring trade.

The popular Lubok Idai nasi padang place - which was back in business on Saturday - served to packed crowds at meal times yesterday.

Near busy road junctions, pushcart food vendors who scurried away last week, reappeared to jostle for space to peddle their steaming lontong, mee bakso and soto.

'I am working again after helping neighbours whose houses were damaged. There are many more people on the streets compared to a few days ago and that is good,' said food vendor Abdul Salam, when I bought his lontong rice cakes.

A senior executive with Permata Bank came into town to help its staff of 31 people back on their feet after the trauma of a 7.6-magnitude quake that hit this West Sumatran capital.

'We have to raise staff morale because they are in shock,' Mr Zulfikar Amiruddin, the bank's head of industrial relations, told me when I met him at the bank.

A Pizza Hut restaurant opened on Sunday, and workers at the main Toyota showroom showed up for work.

Students also began trickling back to school yesterday.

Mr Amson Simbolon said the move, on a Monday, was deliberate. 'The government called for classes to resume as soon as possible so they can create some normalcy,' said the education officer for Unicef.

One of the students at a high school in East Padang, Tri Raswati, 17, said: 'The building is safe enough but we have no power, and water doesn't always come out of the tap.'

At another school, however, children were turned away, because of the danger of collapse of a nearby structure. Many public buildings collapsed in the quake, raising questions about construction standards in a quake-prone area.

Many locals, like Sribersihwati, 30, say they hope builders and the local government will recognise the mistakes made in the development of the city, which has boomed in recent years.

'There should be regulations and strong monitoring from the local government regarding the construction of buildings,' Ms Sribersihwati told AFP.

'The corruption problem is a concern. Why were there so many tall buildings that didn't bother with strong construction?' she said.

Officials have promised to enforce tougher building codes. West Sumatra's governor, Mr Gamawan Fauzi, said he would issue a new law to ensure all buildings are built to withstand a magnitude-8 quake.

For now though, residents in this city of 900,000 are coping with the tragedy that claimed nearly a thousand lives - and many more unaccounted for - and trying to return to normality.

Some, like car workshop owner Hasbullah, 37, have tried to put on a brave front. This was the price of living in a quake-prone zone, he seemed to say as he shrugged his shoulders and pointed out to me that Padangites feel a temblor under their feet every few months.

Most are small quakes, with the last big one in September 2007 when dozens died.

'Every time it happens, we run out of our houses for a few hours, maybe even camp out for a few days, and then we go back home to start over,' he said, with barely a trace of sadness.

Starting over is proving to be harder for many though.

Thousands of homes and offices in Padang still do not have electricity and water. Generator sets help provide power to many restaurants, hotels and homes.

�Work taking place everywhere to try and recover bodies from the rubble continued until mid-afternoon yesterday, the air in these parts a melange of death, decay and tears.

Madam Beti was one of those who sat for several days at the site of a collapsed hotel.

Her husband Mr Aswat, 39, was on the fourth floor of the collapsed Ambacang Hotel attending a fisheries seminar when the earthquake struck on Wednesday evening.

Each time a body was pulled out, she would rush up, pushing rescue workers aside to have a look.

'No, it was not him,' she told a female relative, the Sunday afternoon I was there, as she sat down again on a rock, wiping her eyes.

Yesterday, when they called off the search efforts, I walked past the hotel site. Madam Beti was not sitting on her rock.

Did she find her husband, I wondered.

Reflection: Changi Airport, Straits Times, 6 oct 2009

THREE months ago, Changi Airport slid from second to third spot in an annual ranking of airports throughout the world by research group Skytrax.
The news prompted a flurry of comments from readers who were convinced that Changi had lost its edge.
Then, last week, Changi Airport Group announced it had bagged five awards last month, including four 'Best Airport' titles.
Among the accolades: Readers of the British edition of Business Traveller magazine voted Singapore's airport No. 1 for the 22nd consecutive year.
Closer to home, the magazine's Asia-Pacific readership gave Changi Airport the title of 'Best Airport Duty-Free in the World' for the 12th time running.
Apart from a restructuring that turned the airport from a statutory board to a corporate entity, nothing much has changed in the last few months to explain how Changi, which slid from second to third spot in Skytrax's listing, took home the recent awards.
Should we even be paying attention to such rankings and surveys?



While they help airports gauge their performance levels, moving a notch or two either way does not make an airport better or worse - overnight.
Airport polls and surveys, which are conducted mainly by research houses and travel magazines, are a dime a dozen. Each has its own methodology, focus and target group.
In some cases, the surveys involve face-to-face interviews with travellers at airports. The norm, however, is for the survey organisers to collate online submission of feedback and answers to questionnaires.



The problem with the latter method is that there is little or no control over who the respondents are, which must surely affect the reliability of the findings.



Some surveys may boast a large pool of interviewees. But one could also argue that soliciting the views of a select group of well-travelled individuals would be a more fruitful exercise than talking to different passengers randomly.


Theoretically, there is also nothing to stop an airport from actively encouraging employees and travellers to submit feedback, either by handing out survey forms itself, or by providing the relevant links on its website.

The bottom line is that there is no perfect survey or ranking method. Thus, one should not read too much into the different findings, said Assistant Professor of Management Terence Fan, from the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at the Singapore Management University.


Ultimately, which airport is best depends on who you ask. For example, a good number of the passengers travelling through Changi Airport are in fact transit or connecting passengers. By contrast, South Korea's Incheon International Airport, which won top spot in the Skytrax survey, is the final destination for many of its customers.


Prof Fan said: 'This means that they would have different needs and expectations. Hence, it is difficult to see which airport is indeed better in a 'one-size-fits-all' manner.'

For time-pressed business executives, for example, good connectivity with minimum layover time is a big plus point when rating an airport. Flight times are important too. Early morning arrivals are preferred by business travellers because they have a full work day ahead of them.

That said - and while it is important to realise the limitations of such rankings so that one is not overly obsessed with them - they should not just be dismissed either.



When Changi Airport slipped in the Skytrax ratings, having lost out in several categories like washroom cleanliness and security processing, it went about setting things right.


It decided that all 1,000 cleaners at the airport would be sent for retraining and toilet cleanliness would be better monitored. The new system would take six to eight months to implement.


Dr Prem Shamdasani, associate professor of marketing and branding at the National University of Singapore, said that in addition to monitoring survey results, airports should also keep track of the frequency and nature of the complaints, incidents of service failure, and testimonials from passengers in various classes.
Changi Airport, which receives about 500 feedback responses a month, also surveys more than 2,000 passengers a month on matters like staff courtesy and airport efficiency.
In the end, such indicators - taken together with globally recognised awards and surveys - should give airports a good sense of where they stand when evaluating customer satisfaction and service standards, said the professor.


Trophies and plaques undoubtedly look good in the display cabinet. It is only natural to desire them. But let's not make winning or losing any particular award too big a deal - so long as Changi Airport remains among the top few.

And, more to the point, so long as it responds to any criticism, no matter how slight, by redoubling its efforts and correcting whatever blemishes it has, no matter how minor.


karam@sph.com.sg

Article: Padang an eerie, tangled mess. Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.

Padang an eerie, tangled mess


By Salim Osman, Indonesia Correspondent



Straits Times 1 Oct 2009

PADANG: The rain fell as if in mourning when I returned to this port city yesterday for the first time since the presidential elections in June.

Back then, the mood was ebullient as people and politicians plumped for democracy.

Now the journey from the Minangkabau airport proved eerie, sad and heart-rending.

Residents take pride in their Minangkabau heritage and that was reflected in the elegant peaked roofs of Padang's buildings.

Now, I found row upon row of those structures flattened, its contents a tangled mess of plank and concrete.

Plaza Andalas, a shopping mall, once the pride of Padang, lay in ruins. There were huge cracks and gaping holes where the quake had gouged huge chunks of concrete from its facade.

Taller buildings like the five-storey hotels, Ambacang and Mariani, lay with their floors crumpled like an accordion, trapping guests inside.

At least 80 people were reported missing from the Ambacang and many more from the Mariani were unaccounted for.

Government buildings and schools were also reduced to rubble.

There must have been students inside the buildings when the earth shook on Wednesday evening.

Parents milled about, some weeping.

But if such physical damage was hard to look at, the tales of human suffering were even harder to bear.

The scene at the local hospital, Rumahsakit Dr M DJamil, was chaotic.

Many patients were warded in makeshift tents pitched in the hospital grounds, near a block that had collapsed.

Relatives, volunteers, soldiers, moved about collecting names, offering aid.

Nearby, I saw more than a dozen bodies wrapped in canvas sheets outside the hospital mortuary, awaiting identification by relatives.

Haji Basir suffered severe injuries to his head and legs. From his hospital bed, all that the 84-year-old had to say was: 'We live in an area that is prone to quakes.'

Along a row of shophouses in Pecinan, the Chinatown of Padang, I spotted shopkeeper Leonardy, 56, and his two sons trying to move concrete slabs in the little that was left of his shophouse.

'I don't have much time,' he told me. 'My wife is trapped inside the building.'

When the earthquake struck on Wednesday, his wife, Theresia, 55, was trapped by a fallen cabinet.

The shophouse is next to a military post involved in rescue efforts, but Mr Leonardy said: 'I asked them to help rescue my wife but they appeared busy with other things.'

Another resident, Mr Basri, 47, was looking for his two sons and daughter who worked in a laundry store.

'When the quake happened, I rushed to the shop only to find that the building had collapsed,' he said.

As I watched him dig at the debris with his bare hands, he seemed resigned to their fate.

'It would be a miracle if my children got out of this place alive,' he said, as the rain pelted away.

Article: Quake Wrecks Sumatra City, Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.

JAKARTA: Buildings and homes collapsed like cards, trapping thousands of people under the rubble, when a powerful earthquake rocked West Sumatra province yesterday afternoon.

The initial death toll was put at 75, but Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in Jakarta last night that the number was certain to rise and the authorities were bracing themselves for the worst.

The 7.6-magnitude quake devastated the provincial capital of Padang, with a population of 900,000, and surrounding areas.

The tremors could be felt as far away as Singapore and Malaysia, where buildings swayed and sent people running onto the streets in fear.

The quake came just hours after another massive 8.0-magnitude temblor struck the Samoan islands in the Pacific Ocean, triggering tsunami waves of up to 7.5m, leaving at least 113 people dead.

In Padang, Indonesian media reported that buildings, including a major hospital and a well-known shopping mall, had collapsed and that fire had broken out in some of them.

'Houses and buildings have collapsed, causing thousands of people to be trapped inside in the rubble,' the Health Ministry's crisis centre head, Mr Rustam Pakaya, was quoted as saying.

The quake also knocked out power and telecommunication lines.

The province's main airport, the Minangkabau International Airport, was closed after the roof of one of the halls caved in, but one official was quoted as saying that it would be reopened this morning.

Indonesia's meteorological station said the quake struck 50km off the coast of Padang along the same fault line that triggered the December 2004 tsunami which killed more than 200,000 people in Aceh, North Sumatra, and thousands more across the Indian Ocean.

Witnesses told TVOne station that frightened residents in Padang and the neighbouring town of Pariaman ran out of homes and buildings when the quake hit just after 5pm local time.

'There was panic as people streamed out of their homes,' said a Madam Mariam. 'Many houses just collapsed and one building near my home was on fire.'

Reporter Agus Wahyudi said a two-storey building which housed a car showroom collapsed, trapping three salesmen under the rubble.

Not far away, Padang's main shopping mall was ablaze. The fire was believed to have started in the kitchen of one of several restaurants on the top floor, Mr Agus added.

On the streets, a massive traffic jam built up as motorists got stuck because the lights were not working.

A heavy downpour added to the woes of residents, who pitched tents in the open as they were afraid to return to their damaged homes.

In Pariaman, a former political analyst and Golkar politician, Mr Indra Piliang, said that almost all the houses in his hometown were reduced to rubble.

'Only my grandmother's house is still standing because it is made of wood,' he told the detik.com news portal.

Another resident, Ms Yuliarni, told TVOne that hundreds were trapped after many houses in the town were flattened.

Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie last night warned the authorities to be prepared for the worst, saying the damage could be as bad as that caused by a 2006 earthquake in the central Java city of Yogyakarta.

It left 5,000 dead, and damaged or destroyed 150,000 homes.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was yesterday on his way back home after attending the Group of 20 Summit in the United States.

Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009, The Padang Earthquake.

Cloze Passage: Tremors Shook Singapore, 1 Oct 2009.

TREMORS 1. __________ buildings in Singapore at about 6.15 pm on Wednesday, shortly after a powerful earthquake 2. _________ (strike)off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.


The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center 3. _______(issue) a tsunami alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand.

The Indonesian agency said the 4. _________(tremor) had a magnitude of 7.6. Its epicentre was just 5. __________ the coast of Sumatra.

The US Geological Survey put the 6. _________(strong) at 7.9.

The shaking could be 7. _________(feel) in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred kms away and in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

In Singapore, residents from Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Bukit Timah, Simei and Kembangan in the eastern part, reported tremors 8. __________(shake) their buildings.

A spokesman from National Environment Agency said it has received calls from 15 members of the public from Red Hill, Choa Chu Kang, Changi, Toa Payoh, the city area, Punggol, Sengkang, Sembawang and Pasir Ris who 9. __________(experience) the tremors.

Shahida Ariff, 32, from Simei, told the straitstimes.com: 'My sister felt her chair 10. ____________(sway) for a moment and my mom felt very dizzy. I felt a light vertigo too but thought nothing of it till my maid pointed out that the mirror was shaking. That scared me for a bit and I thought there must have been a quake somewhere.'

Ms Kee Ya Ting of Woodlands thought her flat was going to collapse.

'I was scared. I live on the 12th floor. I was sitting at my desk when the flat shook and I felt myself swaying from left to right. I thought my flat was going to collapse.'

Some people said the tremors lasted for two to three minutes.

Ms Lim Woan Ying, a consultant whose office is on the third floor of the Sime Darby building in Bukit Timah, said: 'We literally felt the earth move under our feet. The whole building shook for about a minute. We heard the glass panes 11. ________(rattle).

'We were all so surprised. I asked my colleague, 'I'm not feeling giddy right? The whole building shook?''

A resident who lives in The Trumps, a condominium in Kembangan, said she felt the entire 11th floor shaking.

The aftershocks were also felt somewhere in town.

Said newcastle on Straitstimes.com's discussion board: 'Over a minute's worth of shakes in the Killiney Road location. On the ninth floor, the earth really moved. Neighbours were really worried.'

Added altruist: 'I was at my 6th floor office in Ang Mo Kio and suddenly, the cubicles started to shake for a few seconds, stopped, and shook again. We all came down using the stairs.'

ANSWERS

1. shook 2. struck 3. issued 4. tremor 5. off 6. strength

7. felt 8. shaking 9. experienced 10. swaying 11. rattling

Article: Singapore Feels New Quake Tremors, Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.

S'pore feels new quake tremors


A second earthquake, less intense than Wednesday's, hits off southern Sumatra

Straits Times 1 Oct 2009 Earthquake in Padang

MORE tremors were felt in Singapore yesterday as a second major earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck off the coast of southern Sumatra.

The authorities received over 60 calls from the public, who reported feeling tremors in parts of the island, including Beach Road, Woodlands, Ang Mo Kio, Marine Parade and Jurong West, at 9.52am.

The second round of tremors felt here was much less intense than the tremors on Wednesday evening, and lasted for only a few seconds.

Police said inspections at 74 buildings yesterday evening showed no signs of structural cracks.

The checks are in addition to the 234 buildings inspected on Wednesday evening.

A senior executive engineer at the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Mr Stephen Mok, said more than 40 engineers had been deployed by the BCA to private residential homes, commercial buildings and schools island-wide since the first tremors were felt here, after a quake of 7.6 magnitude rocked the west Sumatra city of Padang.

Tremors were also felt in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor.

Experts said aftershocks were a common occurrence after a major quake but would have a minimal impact on Singapore.

Professor Kerry Sieh, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technological University, said more aftershocks could be expected over the next few days and even months, although anything below a magnitude of seven was not likely to have any major impact here.

Singaporean Norlailah Kadola, who has more than 20 relatives living in Padang, has been frantically calling, but has not been able to reach anyone.

The administrative clerk, 54, said: 'We keep calling but there's no response. The lines are cut off. If we can reach one, we will at least know what's happening.'

Indonesian Junaidi Muhamad Zen, 43, who works here as an engineer, managed to contact his family in Padang only after multiple tries. Only his sister's mother-in-law remains uncontactable so far.

'Most of them were at home. They ran out of the house then went back inside when the conditions were more stable,' said the Singapore permanent resident.

With the airport in Padang closed to commercial flights, Tiger Airways flights to and from Padang have been suspended until further notice.

Those affected included an Indonesian couple, who did not realise their flight had been cancelled until reaching Changi Airport yesterday morning.

Ms Ira, 36, said she wanted to be with her relatives in Padang even though they were all safe.

AMRESH GUNASINGHAM, TEH JOO LIN & CAROLYN QUEK

Survivors and Victims, Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009

Straits Times 1 Oct 2009, Earthquake in Padang


'I will heal, and work'

Ms Ike Desmayanti, also known as Desi, had to have a third of her right leg amputated so that she could be freed from the rubble.

Her face was also badly wounded, reported the Jakarta Globe yesterday.

The building in which her company, Suzuki Finance, was located had collapsed in the aftermath of the massive earthquake, trapping the 26-year-old data entry clerk.

Desi said she had tried to run after she felt the first tremors, but could not make it outside.

She was found at around 10pm on Wednesday night by a search and rescue team.

The team decided to amputate part of her leg so she could be taken to hospital.

'I just let them do it,' she said. 'I rely on God.'

She has maintained a positive outlook, despite her ordeal.

'I don't care about my leg any more, as long as I still have my life. And I don't want to be pessimistic about my future. I will heal and work again.'

Daughter under rubble

Her reddened eyes darting back and forth across the wreckage, Ms Andriani waited in front of the crumbled school in which her teenage daughter had been taking a class when disaster struck.

The 49-year-old mother stood crying as rescuers dug with their hands through rubble turned to mush by heavy rain in the devastated city of Padang.

'I've been waiting here since yesterday. I haven't been home yet and keep praying to God my daughter is alive,' she said.

The 14-year-old girl was one of dozens of children feared killed during classes at the school.

Metro TV showed heavy equipment breaking through layers of cement slabs in search of students. Shouts from inside the wreckage helped rescuers pull nine to safety, but the bodies of eight children were also retrieved.

Another mother, who identified herself only as Imelda, feared the worst for her daughter, aged 12.

'My daughter's face keeps appearing in my mind. I cannot sleep, I'm waiting here to see her again,' she told TVOne, tears rolling down her face.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Article: Padang Turns Into A City of Rubble, Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.

Padang turns into city of rubble


Numerous buildings collapse; bridges topple, power lines cut







A man carries an injured person in front of a collapsed university building during an evacuation after an earthquake hit Padang. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

PADANG: As night fell, Padang appeared to be a city in ruins and in shock.

Piles of rubble covered places where buildings had stood, fires were still burning and thousands of residents swarmed on the streets, afraid to return to what was left of their houses for fear of aftershocks. Massive traffic jams clogged up the roads, many of which had cracked.

It had taken just a moment to turn the the city of 900,000 people into a scene of devastation.

When the quake struck at 5.16pm, it took down numerous buildings, from houses and hotels to hospitals and malls, and toppled bridges across the city, pinning many under the rubble and starting fires.

Television reports expressed fear over the possibility of thousands of people trapped in collapsed buildings or buried under the rubble.

'For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half destroyed, others completely,' resident Adi told Indonesia's Metro Television.

'No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely.'

Said another resident: 'Hundreds of houses have been damaged along the road. There are some fires, bridges are cut and there is extreme panic here.'

Television footage showed flattened buildings, with at least one person trapped underneath, a foot sticking out from beneath the debris.

Thousands more were likely trapped when a major city hospital collapsed, said Mr Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Health Ministry's disaster centre.

Other buildings were destroyed by fires, including Plaza Andalas, one of the larger malls. 'The shops were ruined,' one resident Anton told VIVAnews.

Andalas University campus was also badly damaged. Malaysian medical student Murtaza Mohamad Mustaffa, 23, said all 330 students at the university were safe.

His own house had almost collapsed, he told The Straits Times, while about 15 of the students' houses had collapsed.

They were waiting in the campus grounds, many staying out in the open in the belief that it was safer, he said, adding: 'It's very dark, and it's raining now.'

Another student, second-year medical student Fashareena Nazir, 23, was woken up by the quake. Grabbing her belongings, she ran out of her rented house and walked 5km to seek shelter.

'There were rumbles and a loud noise, like a bang,' she said, recalling what she saw on the way: houses on fire, the ground caving in and some houses disappearing before her eyes.

Among the destroyed hotels was the three-star Hotel Ambacang, at which aircrew regularly stayed. A pilot told detiknews.com that several Lion Air crew members had gone missing.

Padang Industrial Technic Academy lecturer Erwinsyah Sipahutar said students rushed out of the campus when the quake broke most of the windows. 'We were shaken like matchsticks,' he told Tempo Interactive.

Although Padang lay at the epicentre of the quake, the damage extended far beyond the city. Many buildings collapsed in the resort town of Bukit Tinggi, 150km north-east of the city, TVone said.

The quake also triggered a landslide that cut off land transport to the provincial town of Padang Pandang, 70km north of Padang, where a steep, sloping riverbank collapsed, toppling houses and starting fires.

Vibrations could be felt up to North Sumatra and even to Pekanbaru, Riau.

As night fell, the city was plunged into darkness, the result of cut power lines. Damaged telecommunication lines also made it hard for officials to determine the extent of the damage and death toll.

The quake also caused widespread panic across the city, as residents, fearing a tsunami, fled to higher ground.

'The earthquake was very strong,' said resident Kasmiati. 'I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured,' she said before her cell phone went dead.

According to detiknews.com, scores of people who had descended onto the streets looked set to camp outside overnight, fearful of aftershocks.

Added resident Mr Adi: 'People are standing around, too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami.'

REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BERNAMA

Straits Times , 1 Oct 2009.

Article: Tremors Shook Singapore, Straits Times, 1 Oct, 2009

TREMORS shook buildings in Singapore at about 6.15 pm on Wednesday, shortly after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.




The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand.

The Indonesian agency said the tremor had a magnitude of 7.6. Its epicentre was just off the coast of Sumatra.

The US Geological Survey put the strength at 7.9.

The shaking could be felt in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred kms away and in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

In Singapore, residents from Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Bukit Timah, Simei and Kembangan in the eastern part, reported tremors shaking their buildings.

A spokesman from National Environment Agency said it has received calls from 15 members of the public from Red Hill, Choa Chu Kang, Changi, Toa Payoh, the city area, Punggol, Sengkang, Sembawang and Pasir Ris who experienced the tremors.

Shahida Ariff, 32, from Simei, told the straitstimes.com: 'My sister felt her chair swaying for a moment and my mom felt very dizzy. I felt a light vertigo too but thought nothing of it till my maid pointed out that the mirror was shaking. That scared me for a bit and I thought there must have been a quake somewhere.'

Ms Kee Ya Ting of Woodlands thought her flat was going to collapse.

'I was scared. I live on the 12th floor. I was sitting at my desk when the flat shook and I felt myself swaying from left to right. I thought my flat was going to collapse.'

Some people said the tremors lasted for two to three minutes.

Ms Lim Woan Ying, a consultant whose office is on the third floor of the Sime Darby building in Bukit Timah, said: 'We literally felt the earth move under our feet. The whole building shook for about a minute. We heard the glass panes rattling.

'We were all so surprised. I asked my colleague, 'I'm not feeling giddy right? The whole building shook?''

A resident who lives in The Trumps, a condominium in Kembangan, said she felt the entire 11th floor shaking.

The aftershocks were also felt somewhere in town.

Said newcastle on Straitstimes.com's discussion board: 'Over a minute's worth of shakes in the Killiney Road location. On the ninth floor, the earth really moved. Neighbours were really worried.'

Added altruist: 'I was at my 6th floor office in Ang Mo Kio and suddenly, the cubicles started to shake for a few seconds, stopped, and shook again. We all came down using the stairs.'

Cloze passage: Massive Tsunami killed 113, Straits Times, 2 Oct 2009.

APIA (WESTERN SAMOA): Towering tsunamis churned up by a huge


1. _______________slammed into the Samoan islands on Tuesday, killing at least 113 people as they 2. ____________ out entire villages and flattened tourist resorts.

Monster 3. ___________ that witnesses and officials said measured 3m to 7.5m in 4. ____________ pounded the remote Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa after an 8.0-magnitude undersea quake 5. ___________ in the early morning.

While the quake toppled buildings and 6. ____________ thousands fleeing to high ground as the tsunami 7. ____________, many others were hit by the walls of 8. ____________ that swept people and cars out to sea and destroyed 9. ___________ settlements.

Samoa, an island nation of 180,000 people, is located about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii. Neighbouring American Samoa is a US territory that is home to 65,000 people.

US President Barack Obama called the situation in American Samoa a 'major disaster' and vowed 'aggressive' action to 10. __________ survivors.

'I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major disaster for American Samoa, which will provide the tools necessary for a full, swift and aggressive response,' he said.

Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was 'shocked beyond belief'.

'So much has gone. So many people are gone,' he told the Australian news agency AAP.

The tsunamis swept 11. __________ the Pacific, battering Samoa, where hospital workers said at least 84 people had been killed, American Samoa, where 22 were felled, and Tonga, where at least seven 12. _____________ died.

As Australia, New Zealand and the United States led with immediate pledges of aid, scores more people were missing or feared 13. ___________in the chaos.

'Entire villages have been wiped out,' local journalist Jona Tuiletufuga said, adding that up to 70 villages had stood in the way of the waves in the worst-hit area and that each had housed from 300 to 800 people.

Nine members of one family were killed in the village of Lalomanu on the south-east of Samoa, a relative said.

'My family own the Taufua Beach Fales and we have confirmation that nine members of our family have 14. ____________, four of them children, and many more are missing,' the bereaved relative told Australia's public broadcaster. 'The tourists haven't been accounted for either.'

Amateur video footage showed villages that had been obliterated, homes reduced to metal and wood, and cars stuck in treetops, where they had been hurled by the force of the 15. _____________.

Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni said his tiny country's tourism hot spot had been 'devastated'.

The tsunami left residents and holidaymakers with little time to flee.

'We've heard most of the resorts are totally 16. ____________ on that side of the island. We've had a pretty grim picture painted of that coast,' said Mr Telefoni.

Australia said at least two of its citizens, including a six-year-old girl, were dead, while Seoul said two Koreans had also been killed. One person from New Zealand was also feared 17. ____________.

Apia, the capital of Samoa, was evacuated as officials scrambled to get thousands of residents to higher ground.

Officials in American Samoa, about 100km from Samoa, said the death toll of 22 was expected to climb.

In the capital of Pago Pago, the streets and fields were filled with ocean debris, mud, overturned cars and several boats as a massive cleanup effort continued into the night. Several buildings in the city were flattened.

The eastern part of the island was without power and water supplies after the devastating earthquake, which 18. __________ at 6.48am on Tuesday (1.48am yesterday Singapore time) at a depth of 18km, 195km south of Apia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami 19. __________ over a vast swathe of the Pacific, as far as Hawaii, which was later cancelled. The walls of moving water were so 20. ____________ that small tsunami waves were able to reach the shores of Japan thousands of kilometres away.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.



ANSWERS



1. earthquake 2. wiped 3. waves 4. height 5. struck

6. sent 7. approached 8. water 9. coastal 10. help

11. across 12. people 13. dead 14. perished

15. water 16. devastated 17. dead 18. struck

19. alert 20. powerful

Cloze Passage: Quake killed 1,100 UN, Straits Times 2 Oct 2009

PADANG (Indonesia) - ACROSS this coastal provincial capital, hardest hit by the latest earthquake to 1. ________________ Indonesia, mourners, survivors and 2. __________ workers alike clawed through the rubble.


Some, like Malina Utami, had already realized the worst. She was just looking for the shoes missing from her dead daughter's body, found in the 3. __________ of a four-story school that was 4. ___________ within seconds.

As the death 5. ___________ climbed on Thursday - to 1,100 by one UN estimate - others looked for 6. ____________, with thousands of people missing and feared 7. ____________ in the wreckage of shattered buildings.

When search efforts were suspended for the night, an eerie quiet 8. __________ over the city of 900,000.

'Let's not underestimate. Let's be prepared for the 9. __________,' President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta.

Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake started at sea and quickly rippled through Sumatra, the westernmost island 10. __________the Indonesian archipelago.

Government figures put the number of dead at 777, with at least 440 people 11. ______________ injured. John Holmes, the UN's humanitarian chief, set the death toll at 1,100, and the number was expected to 12. ________________.

President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, pledged to support earthquake recovery efforts there, as well as provide assistance to the South Pacific countries 13. ___________ Samoa and American Samoa, which were 14. _________ by a deadly tsunami on Tuesday.

Most of the confirmed deaths in Indonesia were reported in Padang, where more than 500 buildings were severely 15. _________ or flattened.

Where a mall once stood was a heap of concrete slabs layered like pancakes with iron rods jutting 16. ________. Police and army rescue teams used bulldozers, backhoes and electric drills to clear the 17. ___________ in intermittent rain, or climbed the hills of rubble to dislodge pieces of concrete with 18. _________ hands.

Relatives of the 19. _________ gathered outside ruined buildings, hoping to hear 20. ________ news. But mostly, the rescuers found bodies. -- REUTERS



ANSWERS
1. devastate 2. rescue 3. rubble 4. flattened 5. toll 6. survivors

7. trapped 8. fell 9. worst 10. in 11. seriously 12. grow

13. of 14. hit 15. damaged 16. out 17. wreckage 18. bare

19. missing 20. good

Article: The Treasures in the Baul, Readers' Digest, January 2009.

Readers’ Digest, January 2009


The Treasures in the Baul

Others may see them as trivial possessions, but to me they are emblems of an unforgettable love
by Josefina N. Dy-Liacco

Before I proceed, let me explain what a baul is. It is a wooden trunk made of two compartments where old folks store their clothes. The first compartment is a shallow one and stores underwear and other small things. The second compartment is deeper so it can hold bigger garments. Camphor balls keep away the rats and cockroaches.
My mother had a baul. It was her hope chest.
I was only 13 years old when Mama died. Father told me that after giving birth to my youngest brother the previous year, she had become very sickly. Yet she went on with the usual household chores. It was my role to see to my five siblings, whose ages ranged from one to ten years old. I saw to it that they were properly bathed, clothed and fed.
Not wanting to worry us, Mama carried on with her usual calm disposition, never faltering in her speech or in her steps. Still, we noticed her sudden loss of weight and paleness.
Being an optimist, Mama had strong faith in God. We would have our morning ''promenade,'' as she called it, praying the rosary as we went along. Our home - in Barangay Sagpon, Albany province, in central Philippines – was a stone's throw from the church, so after our walk, we would attend Mass.
During one of these walks Mama casually told me about her baul. She said it contained her burial dress and some treasures she was leaving for me. However, she explicitly told me that I should only open it in the event of her death. She handed me the key of the baul for safekeeping.
Her words didn't have much of an impact on me. Not having experienced death in our family, I thought that it was nothing to be reckoned with.
As days went by, Mama's health did not improve. Gradually she became weaker and weaker.
One day, I saw her sewing a brown dress by hand in spite of her condition. She was adept at sewing and needlework. It was from her that I learned all these things.

In spite of all the medications, her condition became worse. The doctor, who visited regularly, diagnosed lung infection. On her final day, a Thursday, she woke up in the middle of the night. We found her profusely sweating and struggling to breathe. But her mind was clear and lucid.

She called us one by one - my father, my brothers and sisters, my maternal and paternal grandparents and myself - to ask for forgiveness. She also told me that, being the eldest, I had to take care of my siblings and love them. She finally breathed her last breath after the priest gave her Holy Communion.

My father, who had never been away from Mama, was inconsolable in his grief. Immediately after she died, he seemed to be lost in time, not knowing what to do. God must have given me the strength and the courage to take action.

I went to my father and told him about Mama's burial dress in the baul. He broke into tears, for how long I cannot remember. He must have come to his senses at some point because he eventually started making preparations for the wake and the burial.

Obeying my mother's request, I took the key and hurried to the baul, which was kept in a storeroom. I was apprehensive; a feeling of mysterious expectancy overcame me. I wondered if a genie, like the one in Aladdin's lamp, would spring forth when the baul was opened.

As the key rattled in the lock, the lid lifted with a melodious ring. The room was filled with the scent of camphor, reminiscent of clothes stored for ages. There on top of the first compartment was Mama's burial dress. It was the brown dress I had seen her pain-stakingly sewing by hand.

I felt a tug in my heart. Mama must have imagined herself wearing it on her deathbed. Optimist that she was, she still had a premonition that death might come to her any time. So she prepared to face the Lord in proper attire.

Occupied with thoughts of the funeral, I quickly removed the dress and closed the baul without looking any further. After the burial, I could not contain my curiosity; I went back to the baul to see what else Mama had left for me.

There, underneath bed linens at the bottom of the second compartment, I found dozens of hankies - some embroidered by her own hands, others fancy ones - fans made of silk and paper, and bottles of perfumes. Were they the treasures that she had lovingly set aside for me?

That day marked the beginning of my fondness for all these things. I would rather lose a dress than lose a hanky. In my free time I embroider hankies. I collect fans. I make rag dolls, which I give to my grandchildren.
I am nearly 90 years old but my love for these things have never waned. To some they may seem trivial, very material things, but to me they are the symbols of Mama's love, mementos too sweet to forget for they bring poignant memories of a tender, loving mother. My mother is still with me when I daub her favourite scent, jasmine.

My memory fails me now, but there is a line in a song, which says, ''If you lost your mother, you lost the best of all.''

Article and Summary: Iraq's once mighty river drying up.Straits Times, July 15, 2009.

July 15, 2009 Straits Times 2009


Iraq's once mighty river drying up

Water misuse, drought and neighbours' dams causing Euphrates crisis

JUBAISH (IRAQ): Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat.

'Maaku mai!' they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. 'There is no water!'

The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq's neighbours Turkey and Syria, a two-year drought, and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.

The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilisation that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, left fishermen impoverished and depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.

The poor suffer more acutely, but all strata of society are feeling the effects: sheikhs, diplomats and even Members of Parliament who retreat to their farms after weeks in Baghdad.

Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned into baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams and fishing boats sit on dry land. Pumps that are meant to feed water treatment plants dangle pointlessly over brown puddles.

'The old men say it's the worst they remember,' said Mr Sayid Diyia, a 34-year-old fisherman in Hindiya, sitting in a riverside cafe full of his idle colleagues. 'I'm depending on God's blessings.'

The drought is widespread in Iraq. For two years, rainfall has been far below normal, leaving the reservoirs dry, and United States officials predict that wheat and barley output will be a little over half of what it was two years ago.

It is a crisis that threatens the roots of Iraq's identity, not only as the land between two rivers but also as a nation that was once the largest exporter of dates in the world, that once supplied German beer with barley, and that takes patriotic pride in its expensive Anbar rice.

Now Iraq is importing more and more grain.

Droughts are not rare in Iraq, though officials say they have been more frequent in recent years. But drought is only part of what is choking the Euphrates and its larger, healthier twin, the Tigris.

The most frequently cited culprits are the Turkish and Syrian governments. Iraq has plenty of water, but it is a downstream country.

There are at least seven dams on the Euphrates in Turkey and Syria, according to Iraqi water officials, and with no treaties or agreements, the Iraqi government is reduced to begging its neighbours for water.

With the Euphrates showing few signs of increasing health, bitterness over Iraq's water threatens to be a source of tension for months or even years to come between Iraq and its neighbours.

Many US, Turkish and even Iraqi officials, disregarding the accusations as election-year posturing, say the real problem lies in Iraq's own deplorable water management policies.

'There used to be water everywhere,' said Mr Abduredha Joda, 40, sitting in his reed hut on a dry, rocky plot of land outside Karbala.

Mr Joda fled to Baghdad when Saddam Hussein drained the great marshes of southern Iraq in retaliation for the 1991 Shi'ite uprising.

He moved to Karbala in 2004 to fish and raise water buffaloes in the lush wetlands there that remind him of his home. 'This year, it's just a desert,' he said.

Officials say nothing will improve if Iraq does not seriously address its own water policies and its history of flawed water management.

Leaky canals and wasteful irrigation practices squander the water, and poor drainage leaves fields so salty from evaporated water that women and children dredge huge white mounds from sitting pools of runoff.

The farmers, reed gatherers and buffalo herders keep working, but they say they cannot continue if the water stays like this.

'Next winter will be the final chance,' said Mr Hashem Hilead Shehi, a 73-year-old farmer who lives in a bone-dry village west of the marshes. 'If we are not able to plant, then all of the families will leave.'

NEW YORK TIMES


Summary Question
Read the newspaper report .
Summarise the causes and effects of the drying up of the Euphrates River.

Grammar Cloze: El Nino, Straits Times, July 11, 2009

Name__________________( ) Class _______ Date _______


Grammar Cloze Passage – EL NINO

STRAITS TIMES JULY 11, 2009

NEW YORK - WHAT meteorologists have suspected for weeks now is apparently official: El Nino 1. _______________(arrive).

WEAKER THAN NORMAL MONSOON IN INDIA

The main source of worry for commodity market players is India, where the weather cycle seems to have contributed to a weaker-than-normal monsoon rain season

2. ___________(consider) critical to the country's sprawling farm economy.





While rains 3. ____________(be+ now+ cover) all of India, its Meteorological Department said that as of July 1, the rains were running at 29 per cent below normal.

... more




The US government 4. ________________(warn) that that a dreaded El Nino weather pattern 5. _______________(develop), putting countries from Asia to North America on alert for meteorological havoc to crops, infrastructure, ports and mines.

The phenomenon, caused by a warming of the seas in the Pacific, 6. _____________(be+ already + bring) drought to Australia and 7. ___________(delay) monsoon to India. It's impact could be felt in Latin American and North America by the fall.

The Climate Prediction Centre, an office under the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, said in a monthly report on Thursday that the equatorial Pacific Ocean 8. ________________(be) 'transitioned ... to El Nino conditions.'

The trends favour a 'weak-to-moderate strength El Nino' into the northern hemisphere winter of 2009, 'with further strengthening possible thereafter'.

It was first noticed by Latin American anchovy fishermen in the 19th century and scientists say it tends to come in cycles of three to five years. The 1997/98 El Nino 9 _______________(kill) more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages.

This El Nino 10. ____________(strike) just as global economies are struggling to overcome the impact of the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in 1929.

An El Nino-spawned drought would 11. __________(pose) a major risk to wheat production in Australia, affect palm oil output in major producers Malaysia and Indonesia, and 12. _____________(hi) rice production in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer of the staple.

News over the past few days that this El Nino may be weak to moderate 13. ____________(lead ) to a sell-off in Malaysian palm oil futures, which 14. ____________(slide) to a three-month low on Tuesday. -- REUTERS



ANSWERS

1. has arrived 2. considered 3. have now recovered 4. has warned

5. is developing 6. has already bought 7. delayed 8. has

9. killed 10. is striking 11. pose 12. hit 13. led 14. slid