Vaccines help nations exit pandemic faster

The messenger RNA (mRNA) shots developed by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna are better at stopping people from becoming contagious, helping reduce onward transmission.

Other vaccines, while effective in preventing acute illness or death from Covid-19, appear not to have this extra perk to the same degree.

So get vaccinated, will ya?

We can't shut our borders for a long time or we will end up having our lives without a livelihood.

Interview with PM Lee Hsien Loong at the inaugural Global Forum on Economic Recovery, hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce on 19 May 2021

We are a small open country, we have to deal with it as things go along, and we cannot afford to seal our borders off. Other bigger countries can, to a very great extent. For Singapore, you need food, fuel, people moving in and out, even during COVID-19. You have to do it to the extent that you can, while keeping ourselves safe with all the precautions, (such as) testing, contact tracing apps, protocols to make sure that people come in through proper procedures and are vetted, and so on. Not without risk, but unavoidable.

To open up completely again and have free travel, it is a long way off. Even travel bubbles – countries talk about it, but that needs confidence on both sides and we only want to bubble with countries which are safer than us. That means it is not easy to make a match.

- PM Lee on free air travel

Firstly, that you cannot afford to slacken. Each time you think you have got the COVID-19 situation under control, and you know how to respond to it, it pops up in a new direction. It can be a mutant, it can be a new avenue which you did not spot, but you cannot afford to slacken, and you must always think beyond what you imagine is likely to happen.

- PM Lee on the pandemic

Interview with PM Lee Hsien Loong at the inaugural Global Forum on Economic Recovery, hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce on 19 May 2021.

You need workers to do the installation.

Singapore General Hospital has decided to enhance the ventilation in their B2 and C class wards (which are currently spot-cooled with opened windows and oscillating fans) by installing air extractors. These will remove stale and humid air from the wards, keeping everyone safe.

Here's a learning point for everyone.

You need workers to do the installation. If you are shorthanded, the installation will either take a very long time to do, or not be done at all.

Now, I am just using this installation job to illustrate to you - the netizens - the impact on companies deprived of workers. Eventually, the impact will reach you. Your BTO, the hospital still under construction, your renovation work, that urgent repair.

So when you shout 'projects can wait' on social media, you haven't understood the full impact.

Every day, every week, every month, migrant workers who have finished their contract go home because they are homesick, they are worried about their families.

With a daily arrival of an average 1200 a day at Changi Airport and this figure includes returning Singaporeans and PRs, the number of workers allowed to enter barely replaces those who have gone back.

These workers are not just in the CMP sector. They are also in essential services such as PUB, checking on the quality of water every day etc.

The impact is not limited to companies when they have to shut down. Eventually, you will be the ones suffering a degradation of services.

Photo credit: Singapore General Hospital Facebook

The Delhi Chief Minister has no competence to speak on behalf of India.

 

PSP making an anonymous donation and then claim support from the mosque for their outreach?

Simply deceptive. What does Tan Cheng Bock have to say?

Making an anonymous donation and then claim support from the mosque for their outreach? The mosque has every reason to feel used.

After being exposed by the mosque, PSP quietly removed the name of the mosque from their post.

[We were surprised to find out that subsequently the donation was publicized by a political party, and the impression was given that the mosque had knowingly accepted the donation. That is incorrect.

Our mosque does not participate in any political activities. Nor have we knowingly accepted donations from political parties. We are committed to our role in serving congregants well through our religious and social development programmes.

- Darul Makmur Mosque Management Board]

Desmond Lee tells Jamus Lim and Leong Mun Wai to read the ITM

One excuse often heard from the Opposition is that not enough information is made available to them. Yet, whatever information that is available in the public realm, they don't even bother to read.

National Development Minister Desmond Lee encouraged WP Jamus Lim and PSP Leong Mun Wai to read the Industry Transformation Map for the construction sector to better acquaint themselves with the progress and development in digitalizing the sector.

Jamus has no response to being asked to read to find out more.

Leong Mun Wai's response was that he has no time to read. So many pages of materials coming out of Parliament every day. Where got time to read?

Is there too much information? Too little information? Too little time?

Leaders set the tone for the party and their supporters.

Leaders set the tone for the party and their supporters.

WP whipped up a xenophobic frenzy in 2011. This was despite the fact that back in 2010, then Finance Minister Tharman had already announced in his budget speech that the inflow of foreign workers would be tightened through a series of measures, beginning with the phased in gradual increase in levies over several years, and followed by reduced quota and etc.

The measures were phased in over several years to give businesses time to adjust and to automate. That didn't stop the WP from making political capital gain through xenophobia.

Indeed, when asked if they would ride on xenophobia for election campaigning, the answer Sylvia Lim gave was not 'no' but that they would not push it to the point where it become 'uncontrollable'. One must be a superwoman to think that there is a button where you can just pull the plug when you think xenophobia is reaching the point of being uncontrollable.

Hate is bred. It does not happen overnight. It is bred over time through constant efforts - on social media especially where many anti-establishment hate groups have sprouted up to spread their hate and extend their influence with falsehoods and misinformation, and many memes.

WP Pritam Singh responded to Minister Shanmugam's speech in Parliament saying that WP stands against racism, 'no ifs, no buts'.

Let's hope that he meant what he said and he said what he meant, and that the party, their proxies in the alternative, and their supporters will no
w move away from xenophobia and racism.