home 쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 2009 PAGE B2

rence Kim and Ryan Chioh, who have

CDCs urged to come up with new programmes to help

jobless residents from this month.
Mr Kim, 27, managing director of Eben-
ezer NDT Services, is starting an appren-
ticeship programme in his company, which

press on with
provides inspection services for the marine
and construction industries. Called the
Fishing Rod Programme, it will cost him
around $330,000 to train about 50 people.
Mr Chioh, 39, managing director of
Far East Flora.com, is offering a scholar-

help schemes
Figures reassuring but we
should still be ready for
difficult times: DPM Teo
BY SUE-ANN CHIA
SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
THE economy has improved, but it does
not mean Singapore is out of the woods,
said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee
Hean yesterday.
Tough times are still ahead, he
cautioned, urging community develop-
ment councils (CDCs) to press on with
programmes to help needy residents get
financial aid and jobs.
While the second quarter growth fig-
ures are “reassuringly good results”, he
said: “We cannot assume that with one
quarter of growth, the recession is over.
“We should still be ready for difficult
times...The CDC still needs to remain
ready for residents who will still be in
need.”
The economy surged 20.4 per cent in
the second quarter, prompting the Gov-
ernment to revise its 2009 growth fore-
cast upwards. The economy is expected
to shrink by 4 to 6 per cent instead of the
The new district councillors of North East CDC: (clockwise from left) Mr Ryan Chioh, Ms Nanz
Chong, Mr Lawrence Kim and Ms Annabelle Teo. ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
6 to 9 per cent decline predicted in April.
Mr Teo’s word of caution was made at
the appointment ceremony of the North
East CDC’s district councillors.
He also set the CDC two challenges:
쐽 One, to extend its work in reaching out
to the needy, as some may still be
unaware of the help schemes available to
them. “These residents are usually the
ones who resign themselves to fate
behind their own closed doors, only to be
discovered during a block visit or when a
grassroots volunteer manages to draw
them out of their shell,” he noted.
쐽 Two, draw on the experience and exper-
tise of its network of councillors and
volunteers to benefit the community.
Among the 70 district councillors who
received their certificate of appointment
yesterday, 31 are new faces such as entre-
preneur-cum-motivational speaker Nanz
Chong, 40, and undergraduate Annabelle
Teo, 23, the youngest in the group.
They also include businessmen Law-
ship for residents to attend training and
get jobs in the green industry, such as
horticulture and landscaping.
“We’ll sponsor whoever has a genuine
interest and the right attitude to learn,”
said Mr Chioh, who has set aside $10,000
this year for the “Bloom Scholarship”.
Such measures, said Mayor of North
East District Teo Ser Luck yesterday, will
help fill the gaps in the current line-up of
programmes to help jobless residents.
Mr Teo, like DPM Teo, believes the
CDC has to ensure that its services stay
effective and efficient in helping the
needy to cope with the economic crisis.
While the number seeking employ-
ment and financial aid in May and last
month has dipped 20 per cent, he is not
sure if the improvement can be sustained.
“Are we really recovering? I’m not too
sure. We are seeing some small signs, but
it’s going to be a very long process.”
sueann@sph.com.sg

Expect hazy conditions over next few months

BY LIAW WY-CIN
EXPECT more grey skies and stuffy condi-
tions as a mixture of scrub fires in Indone-
sia and El Nino’s impending weather shift
brings more haze to Singapore.
These conditions will continue over
the next few months, predict weather ex-
perts.
Last weekend, moderate haze descend-
ed upon many parts of Singapore as
weather monitoring satellites picked up
an increase in the number of hot spots in
Sumatra, said weather expert Koh Tieh
Yong from the school of physical and
mathematical sciences at Nanyang Tech-
nological University (NTU).
More farmers and logging companies
on the Indonesian island, west of Singa-
pore, are setting fires to clear forests.
And winds from the current south-west
monsoon are blowing the smoke towards
the Republic.
According to data from the National
Environment Agency’s (NEA) website,
the number of hot spots fluctuated over
the past 30 days. There were as many as
280 spotted early this month, up from al-
most zero near the end of last month. But
this dropped to about 20 last week.
The overall 24-hour Pollutant Stand-
ards Index reading, which measures air
quality, was 50 last Friday, 40 on Satur-
day and 45 on Sunday. Readings from one
to 50 are considered good.
This change in conditions may also be
due to the development of the El Nino
weather pattern, which warms the Pacific
Ocean causing dry weather in our region,
said Dr Lim Hock Beng, programme direc-
tor of NTU’s Intelligent Systems Centre,
which sets up mini weather stations in
schools as one of its tasks.
The last time land-clearing fires in In-
donesia coincided with El Nino was in
2006, bringing a warmer and longer dry
season.
“Whether we will see haze or not in
Singapore depends on a particular day’s
precise wind direction,” said Dr Koh.
The NEA spokesman said winds over
the next few days are expected to blow
from the south-east or south and Singa-
pore is unlikely to be affected by as much
haze.

October opening
for Serangoon
Gardens dorm
BY MELISSA SIM
THE controversial workers’
dormitory at Serangoon Gar-
dens has been given the green
light to open in October.
An update on the Aljunied
GRC website said that Maxi
Consultancy has been ap-
pointed the dormitory opera-
tor and will start retrofitting
the former technical school
from next month.
A letter addressed to the ar-
ea’s residents stated that
work will be carried out be-
tween 8am and 10pm, seven
days a week. But the dorm op-
erator has given the assur-
ance that work after 7pm will
be relatively quiet.
More than a 1,000 resi-
dents signed a petition
against the dorm last year
when they got wind of the
Government’s plan to build it
in the neighbourhood.
The petition was handed
to National Development Min-
ister Mah Bow Tan last Sep-
tember.
The key concerns resi-
dents raised included in-
creased traffic congestion, se-
curity and safety, as well as
competition for the use of
common facilities such as
parks and bus stops.
Wanting to ease the resi-
dents’ worries, changes were
later made to the develop-
ment plans.
These include: limiting ac-
cess to the dormitory via one
gate and a new access road,
hiring security guards to pa-
trol the site as well as push-
ing back the site boundary to
create a buffer between the
dorm and the housing estate.
Maxi will provide a range
of facilities, such as a mini-
mart and canteen, to mini-
mise the need for the workers
to access amenities outside
the dormitory.
The operator also plans to
provide shuttle buses to trans-
port the workers to MRT sta-
tions during weekends and
public holidays.
The capacity of the dormi-
tory remains at 600 for the
first year, and any increase in
capacity beyond this, after
the first year, is subject to the
approval of the Ministry of
National Development.
The dormitory will cater
to both male and female occu-
pants from the manufactur-
ing and services sectors only.
The letter said that many
of the workers living in the
dormitory will probably come
from the hospitality and
health-care sectors and they
may include Chinese nation-
als, Malaysians and Filipinos.
All-in-one
computers
SALES of desktop computers may be
dipping, but the silver lining is the re-
cent range of all-in-one computers,
whose sales have been increasing in
the past year.
The draw of these space-saving de-
vices is that the computer processor,
speakers and other components are
housed behind the LCD screen, mak-
ing them easy to set up and move
around the house.
Some even come with a touch
screen, something not found in tradi-
tional desktop computers. And with
prices ranging from $799 to over
$3,000, there is a set-up for every con-
sumer.
Home theatre fans can also look to
the high-end HP model, which comes
with a Blu-ray player, built-in TV tun-
er and 25.5-inch screen,without worry-
ing about space issues for the individu-
al devices.
For fans of US TV shows, SingTel’s
mioTV has been showing episodes of
Prison Break and Eli Stone ahead of
their US broadcast. The on-demand
TV service has also dropped pricing
for its range of US TV shows.
And if you have not jumped on the
iPhone bandwagon, Apple’s latest
iPhone 3GS device is reviewed.
Read more in Digital Life today.