I Was Young Then...

Rare gene mutation offers clues to Alzheimer's

2013-02-18T01:12:00.001-08:00

Posted: 16 November 2012

WASHINGTON: Scientists have found a rare genetic mutation that appears to triple the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease and provides important clues into how the so-far incurable disease operates.

Scientists from two independent teams stumbled on the same result, published in two studies Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine: a mutation in the TREM2 gene, which helps govern immune system responses, is three to four times more common among elderly patients with Alzheimer's than those without the diagnosis.

The hallmark of Alzheimer's disease is the accumulation of plaques and tangles in the brain tissue. In normal bodies, it seems the immune system's inflammatory molecules help clear that build-up before it becomes a problem.

The TREM2 gene functions to keep that inflammatory response in check, to stop the inflammatory molecules from harming healthy tissue.

But preliminary research indicates the mutation could send the TREM2 gene into overdrive, hindering the inflammatory molecules from doing their job at all.

"While the genetic mutation we found is extremely rare, its effect on the immune system is a strong indicator that this system may be a key player in the disease," said University College London's Rita Guerreiro, lead author of one of the two studies.

The mutation is found in fewer than one in 200 people, and in fewer than one in 50 Alzheimer's patients, which means the mutation alone is unlikely to be enough to cause the disease.

A combination of environmental and hereditary factors is believed to contribute to developing Alzheimer's.

However, researchers said identifying this gene and its possible role in Alzheimer's is a step in the right direction.

"This is an important step towards unravelling the hidden causes of this disease, so that we can develop treatments and interventions to end one of the 21st century's most significant health challenges," said Peter St. George-Hyslop, of the University of Toronto.

Another of the lead researchers, Kevin Morgan of the University of Nottingham, said "the risk associated with this new variant is the largest seen to date and heralds the start of a new era in (Alzheimer's disease) genetic research.

"At long last we are beginning to witness major breakthroughs that will hopefully result in therapeutic developments to help alleviate this devastating condition."

The scientists said that new drugs could potentially be developed to target the TREM2 gene and stop it from overly interfering in the inflammatory response.

One of the studies was done by an international research team based in Britain, Canada and the US, using a data bank of 25,000 people.

The other was done by researchers in Iceland, using data from 2,261 elderly Icelanders and then confirmed with population samples in the US, Norway, the Netherlands and Germany.

-AFP/fl

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Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Rare gene mutation offers clues to Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's may be detectable earlier than thought

2013-01-25T06:00:00.001-08:00

Another article on Alzheimer's...
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Posted: 06 November 2012

PARIS: Researchers said Tuesday they had seen the earliest-ever warning signs of Alzheimer's Disease -- among a high-risk group of 20-somethings -- in the ongoing quest for early detection and prevention.

A major problem in the search for a cure for this debilitating form of dementia is that symptoms appear years after irreversible brain decay has already set in.

For the study, a team of scientists from the United States and Colombia tested 18- to 26-year-old members of an extended Colombian family that share a common ancestor and a genetic predisposition to develop an inherited form of Alzheimer's.

One in three members of the clan carry a gene mutation that will lead to a rare form of the disease which hits people in their 40s, unlike the common variant which presents much later.

A brain scan comparison found that individuals who carry the errant gene have less grey matter in certain areas of the brain than those who don't, scientists wrote in The Lancet medical journal.

They also found that those with the mutation had higher levels in their cerebrospinal fluid of a protein called amyloid beta, implicated in the plaque build-ups found on the brains of Alzheimer's sufferers.

The findings "suggest that neurodegenerative changes occur more than 20 years before symptom onset and somewhat earlier than was suggested by findings from previous MRI studies," Nick Fox of the University College London's Dementia Research Centre said in a comment on the study.

Alzheimer's disease causes two-thirds of dementia cases -- attacking one in 200 people -- the rate is increasing as the world's population ages.

Trial participants, 20 with the fateful gene mutation and 24 without, were not told whether they had it or not. All had normal cognitive abilities at the time of the study.

"The findings... could ultimately lead to improved early detection and better clinical trials of preventative treatments," The Lancet said in a statement.

But the outcome also raises questions about scientists' understanding of how Alzheimer's progresses.

"These findings... raise new questions about the earliest brain changes involved in the predisposition to Alzheimer's and the extent to which they could be targeted by future prevention therapies," research leader Eric Reiman from the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Arizona said.

Scientists still do not know quite what to make of the plaques and tangles that German doctor Alois Alzheimer first spotted in the brain of a dementia patient who died in 1906.

They disagree on the respective roles of beta amyloid plaque build-ups and of a protein called tau which forms tangles inside the brain cells.

Most test therapies have targeted beta amyloids, but some now suggest it is actually tau killing the brain cells.

According to Fox, the new study questioned existing models of Alzheimer's Disease "on several fronts".

Among other things, "neurodegeneration would seem to be occurring in advance of evidence of plaque deposition", widely thought to cause the brain damage.

Fox said the results should be treated with caution as the trial sample was small and the outcome may not apply to the much more common sporadic, late-onset form of Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) projects the number of people with dementia will rise from 35.6 million in 2010 to 65.7 million by 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050.

-AFP/ac

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Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Alzheimer's may be detectable earlier than thought

Alzheimer's: French scientists focus on key target

2012-02-28T16:13:00.002-08:00

Day by day, science is finding help for the aged; what will it be when come my time?
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Posted: 25 January 2012

PARIS: French scientists said on Tuesday that lack of a key brain protein was linked to Alzheimer's, a finding that threw up a tempting target for drugs to fight the disease.

"What we've found is a weapon for controlling and modifying tau," said Etienne-Emile Baulieu of France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), referring to a culprit involved in Alzheimer's.

Building on earlier work, researchers delved into a Paris "brain bank," of organs donated for medical science, to compare levels of a protein called FKBP52 among brains of people who had died of dementia and those who had died of other causes.

Tiny slivers of brain were extracted and their chemicals analysed.

In the frontal cortex, "levels of FKBP52 were 75 percent lower among people who had died of Alzheimer's and other tau diseases, a dramatic fall," Baulieu told a press conference.

Baulieu said FKBP52 was the best target that had surfaced so far in the fight against Alzheimer's, a disease that is as cruel as it is baffling.

A rogue protein that later became named tau was first spotted in 1912 by Alois Alzheimer, the German neuropathologist who gave his name to this relentless degenerative disease of the brain.

When normal tau undergoes a process called hyperphosphorylation, it starts to assemble in microscopic tangles inside brain cells, killing them.

But another telltale sign of Alzheimer's is the accumulation of so-called amyloid plaques outside neurons, and their connection with tau, if any, remains unclear.

Discovered in 1992, FKBP52 is a protein that is found abundantly in the brain, where it has a workhorse role in folding and unfolding other proteins.

But it has also been revealed to bind to tau, which gives rise to the theory that lack of the protein helps tau to clump together.

Baulieu sounded a word of caution, saying the molecular cascade of events that cause tau tangles was still not fully clear.

But levels of FKBP52 could be used as a marker of susceptibility to Alzheimer's, and boosting them could provide a means of stalling progression of the disease.

"I think that in three or four years, we will have results that are sufficiently broad and robust to be able to use candidate drugs that we will have found, or that pharmaceutical companies can use and modify," he said.

"It may go a lot faster than people say."

In 2010, Alzheimer's Disease International, the umbrella body of national associations for the disease, estimated that the number of Alzheimer's sufferers will mushroom from 35.6 million people worldwide to 65.7 million by 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050.

The research appears in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

- AFP/al

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Alzheimer's: French scientists focus on key target

Elderly who eat better stay mentally sharp, says study

2012-01-12T22:41:00.001-08:00

And yes, there is still hope, even for the elderly...
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Posted: 29 December 2011

WASHINGTON: Elderly people with higher levels of certain vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids in their blood score better on mental acuity tests than those who eat junk food, a study released on Wednesday showed.

The study published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, also showed that eating better could help reduce the brain shrinkage commonly associated with Alzheimer's disease.

"This approach clearly shows the biological and neurological activity that's associated with actual nutrient levels, both good and bad," said Maret Traber, a principal investigator at the Linus Pauling Institute and study co-author.

Researchers at the institute at Oregon State University conducted the study, one of the first of its kind, along with scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

The study, carried out among 104 people at an average age of 87, specifically measured a wide range of blood nutrient levels instead of basing results on food questionnaires, which are less precise and less reliable.

"The vitamins and nutrients you get from eating a wide range of fruits, vegetables and fish can be measured in blood biomarkers," Traber said.

"I'm a firm believer these nutrients have strong potential to protect your brain and make it work better."

Researchers noted the positive effects of high levels of vitamins B, C, D and E, as well as the healthy oils most commonly found in fish, on mental quickness and brain size.

Those with a higher intake of trans-fats - commonly found in fried foods, fast foods and other less healthy diet options - did not perform as well on cognitive tests.

Researchers found that while age and education affected performance on the cognitive tests, nutrient status accounted for 17 percent of the variation in scores, and 37 percent of the differences in brain volume.

Of those who took part in the study, seven percent showed a vitamin B12 deficiency, and 25 percent did not have enough vitamin D in their systems.

Scientists tested 30 different nutrient biomarkers. In addition, 42 participants had MRI scans to measure their brain volume.

"These findings are based on average people eating average American diets," Traber said.

"If anyone right now is considering a New Year's resolution to improve their diet, this would certainly give them another reason to eat more fruits and vegetables."

Study co-author Gene Bowman of the Oregon Health and Science University added while results needed to be confirmed, "it is very exciting to think that people could potentially stop their brains from shrinking and keep them sharp by adjusting their diet."

- AFP/de

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Elderly who eat better stay mentally sharp, says study

British women to sue over French breast implants

2012-01-10T16:26:00.001-08:00

At first impression, I would say "I'm amused" with the title, but just the same, read on...
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Posted: 22 December 2011

LONDON: More than 250 British women are taking court action after more than half experienced ruptures in breast implants made by a French company at the centre of a cancer scare, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

The women are among up to 50,000 in Britain who have had implants that were manufactured by the now-bankrupt Poly Implant Prothese (PIP).

Health officials in France have said the government plans to recommend to 30,000 French women with PIP implants that they have them removed, after eight cases of cancer, mainly breast cancer, were reported.

A lawyer representing more than 250 women in Britain said legal proceedings would start next year, with the complainants making claims against the clinics which carried out the operations to insert the implants.

"Over half of these women have suffered ruptured implants and we are also representing other women who are worried by the reports of problems and worried that their implants could rupture eventually," lawyer Esyllt Hughes told AFP.

"We have issued some court proceedings and we expect them to begin in Cardiff next year."

Documents obtained by AFP on Wednesday showed that tens of thousands of women in more than 65 countries, mainly in South America and western Europe, received implants produced by PIP, which ceased trading last year.

European authorities sought on Wednesday to head off panic over the scare, saying there was no proof of a link to cancer.

France's health ministry, however, has said there was no "urgent health risk" from the implants and no "causal link" with cancer has yet been proved.

An expert report will be released in France on Friday saying whether the implants should be removed.

PIP was shut down and its products banned last year after it was revealed to have been using non-authorised silicone gel that caused abnormally high rupture rates of its implants.

Facing financial difficulties, the company, once the world's third-largest producer of silicone implants, replaced the medical-grade silicone in its implants with industrial-strength material.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Britain urged patients not to panic, although it said they may want to consult their surgeons.

"We did extensive genotoxic and chemical tests and we could find no evidence of any safety aspect associated with this filler," MHRA medical director Suzanne Ludgate told BBC radio.

"We have been working very closely with the professional bodies to look at the incidence of cancer associated with these breast implants and we've worked with the cancer registry and we can find no evidence for any association."

In Germany, authorities said it was not known how many German women had received the implants and no recall was planned for the moment.

"We are waiting for the decision from French authorities, with whom we are in close contact," a health ministry spokesman told AFP.

German authorities "had already in April warned women and doctors who used these products," he said.

In Spain the health ministry said it was not recommending the implants be removed but was urging women who had received the implants to have them checked for ruptures.

It also could not say how many Spanish women had received the implants.

The documents seen by AFP also showed eastern European countries including Bulgaria, Russia and Poland accounted for 10 percent of PIP's exports in 2009.

Prosecutors in Marseille, near the firm's home base of Seyne-sur-Mer, have received more than 2,000 complaints from French women who received the implants and have opened a criminal investigation into the firm.

Yves Haddad, a lawyer for 72-year-old PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas, told AFP his client was prepared to face prosecution and denied the implants could be linked with health problems.

"For the moment there is no evidence that the product can cause illness," the lawyer said.

- AFP/de

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Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
British women to sue over French breast implants

Strict diet could save brain from ageing

2012-01-04T19:39:00.001-08:00

How strictly should this strict diet be followed, so I save my brain when I am old?
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Posted: 20 December 2011

WASHINGTON: Eating less may keep the mind young, according to Italian scientists who reported on Monday they have discovered the molecular process by which a strict diet may save the brain from the ravages of age.

The research, published in the US journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on a study of mice that were fed a diet of about 70 percent of the food they normally consumed.

Scientists found that the calorie-restricted diet triggered a protein molecule, CREB1, that activates a host of genes linked to longevity and good brain function.

"Our hope is to find a way to activate CREB1, for example through new drugs, so to keep the brain young without the need of a strict diet," said lead author Giovambattista Pani, researcher at the Institute of General Pathology, Faculty of Medicine at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome.

Researchers have previously discovered that mice on diets show better cognitive abilities and memory, less aggression, and tend to avoid or delay Alzheimer's disease. But they have not known exactly why.

"CREB1 is known to regulate important brain functions as memory, learning and anxiety control, and its activity is reduced or physiologically compromised by ageing," said the study.

Mice that were genetically altered to lack CREB1 showed none of the same memory benefits if they were on a low-calorie diet as mice that had the molecule, and showed the same brain disabilities as mice that were overfed.

"Thus, our findings identify for the first time an important mediator of the effects of diet on the brain," Pani said.

"This discovery has important implications to develop future therapies to keep our brain young and prevent brain degeneration and the ageing process."

According to Marc Gordon, chief of neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, the findings could shed new light on why some people who are obese in middle age encounter cognitive problems later in life.

"Mid-life obesity has been associated with late-life dementia. However, the physiological basis for this association remains unclear," said Gordon, who was not part of the study.

"These investigators have studied the effects of limiting caloric intake in mice, and have identified a biochemical pathway that may mediate at least some of the brain's responses to dietary restriction."

- AFP/de

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Strict diet could save brain from ageing

'Rejuvenated' stemcells coaxed from centenarian

2011-11-29T01:02:00.001-08:00

The old still has use...
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Posted: 01 November 2011

PARIS: Scientists said Tuesday they had transformed age-worn cells in people over 90 -- including a centenarian -- into rejuvenated stemcells that were "indistinguishable" from those found in embryos.

The technical feat, reported in the peer-reviewed journal Genes & Development, opens a new path toward regenerative medicine, especially for the elderly, the researchers said.

"This is a new paradigm for cell rejuvenation," said Jean-Marc Lemaitre, a researcher at the Institute of Functional Genomics at the University of Montpellier and the main architect of the study.

"The age of cells is definitely not a barrier to reprogramming," he told AFP by phone.

That human embryonic stem cells (ESC) can potentially become any type of cell in the body has long held out the tantalizing promise of diseased organs or tissue being repaired or replaced with healthy, lab-grown cells.

But the leap from theory to practice has proven difficult, and fraught with ethical and moral concerns because any such procedure requires the destruction of a human embryo.

The discovery in 2007 that it is possible to coax certain adult cells back into their immature, pre-specialised state has fuelled renewed efforts to generate brand new muscle, heart or even brain cells, this time from raw material provided by the patient.

Experiments to date, however, have shown that the usual chemical recipe for generating these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) works less well or not at all with the elderly and very elderly -- precisely the cohort with the most to gain from regenerative therapies.

The barrier was cellular senescence, a natural process linked to ageing that can trigger cell death when certain mechanisms within the cell become too degraded to function properly.

Lemaitre and colleagues decided to alter the standard genetic starter kit used to generate adult stemcells by adding two new ingredients -- known as transcription factors -- called NANOG and LIN28.

Experiments with human subjects ranging in age from 74 to 101 showed that the new cocktail worked.

Several critical markers of ageing in cells were "reset", including the size of telomeres, the tiny protective caps found on the ends of chromosomes that wear down with age, the researchers reported.

Telomeres and telomerase, the enzyme that control them, are a key agent in longevity.

Every time a cell divides, the telomeres get worn down a little bit. The enzyme's job is to partially rebuild them. Eventually, when the telomeres are worn beyond repair, a cell dies.

Gene expression profiles, levels of oxidative stress, and the metabolism of the cell's energy-generating mitochondria were all likewise rejuvenated, according to the study.

"The age markers in the cell has been erased," said Lemaitre. "The iPSC stemcells we got can produce functional cells of all types with a capacity to proliferate and enhance longevity."

By reversing the age-altered physiology of the cells, he added, the new reprogramming technique "may constitute an optimal strategy for developing cell-based therapies for aged patients."

A large gap remains between this "proof-of-concept" study and therapeutic applications, the researchers cautioned.

And recent experiments with mice suggests that generating adult stemcells may yet face unexpected barriers.

Certain kinds of iPSC may be rejected by the immune system even if they are derived from the same organism, the experiments showed.

-AFP/vl

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Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
'Rejuvenated' stemcells coaxed from centenarian

Hip break boosts death risk by five: US study

2011-11-03T05:34:00.001-07:00

Posted: 27 September 2011

WASHINGTON: Women age 65 to 69 who break a hip face a five-times higher risk of dying within a year than their healthy counterparts, a bigger increase than in older women, said a US study on Monday.

Women 70 to 79 face double the risk of dying within a year if they break their hip compared to women who do not, and women 80 and older who break a hip face about the triple risk of dying, it said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"This study is a wake-up call that the first year after a hip fracture is a critical time for all elderly women, but especially for younger women, ages 65 to 69, who face a much higher death rate compared to their peers," said lead author Erin LeBlanc.

The International Osteoporosis Foundation has said there are about 1.6 million hip fractures per year, with 51 percent occurring in Europe and the Americas and most of the remainder in the Western Pacific region and Southeast Asia.

About half of all women over age 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis, according to the US-based National Osteoporosis Foundation.

The NIH-funded study was based on data from nearly 10,000 women in four US cities who enrolled from 1986 to 1988 in a research project to track osteoporotic bone fractures.

Over the course of 20 years, 1,116 of the women enrolled suffered hip fractures. Those women were matched by age to a comparison group of 4,464 women who did not break a hip.

"Among women who broke a hip, more than half of the short-term deaths occurred within three months after the fracture and nearly three-quarters occurred within six months," added the study.

Those figures suggest that the hip fracture itself plays a major role in the deterioration of a woman's health, according to co-author Teresa Hillier, senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.

"We also found women are at the highest risk of dying within the first three months after hip fracture, which leads us to hypothesize that hospitalization, surgery and immobility lead to other complications that ultimately result in their death."

The top three causes of death for all women in the study were heart disease, cancer and stroke.

-AFP/pn

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Hip break boosts death risk by five: US study

New transplant method for ageing cornea patients

2011-11-03T05:33:00.001-07:00

By Sara Grosse | Posted: 25 September 2011

SINGAPORE: Patients suffering from ageing corneas can benefit from a new form of corneal transplantation in Singapore.

Descemets Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) is an advanced keyhole form of transplant that claims to result in almost perfect vision.

For many years, 59-year-old Chok Teck Chow's eyesight has been deteriorating.

But now, the property agent said his vision has improved greatly, as he is able to read nearly the entire eye chart.

Chok is one of only three patients who underwent the DMEK surgery about a month ago to treat his ageing cornea.

"Vision improved very much. I can see quite clearly, it's almost perfect," said Chok.

Professor Donald Tan, Medical Director of the Singapore National Eye Centre, said "DMEK is a different procedure where we are just stripping off the membrane, we're just transplanting a membrane with cells. When we peel this membrane off, we got to get it into the eye and not damage it because the moment we touch the membrane with the cells, the cells die.

"So the surgical technique on how to un-scroll the membrane, un-wrinkle it, attach it to the cornea is where the skill comes in."

The Singapore National Eye Centre has also invented a new device, which is currently under patenting, to make the DMEK surgery easier.

As the device is currently under patenting, details can't be revealed.

When asked how the corneal transplant surgery compares to artificial cornea transplants such as the Boston K-Pro, the centre had some reservations.

The Singapore National Eye Centre sees some controversies regarding the long-term success rate of the Boston K-Pro surgery, saying it potentially has some high risk complications. It recommends that the procedure be used only in cases of multiple corneal graft failures.

The eye centre said the risk of graft rejection from a DMEK surgery is 0.7 per cent.

The new procedure is expected to be performed on more patients once the new device is launched next year.

- CNA /ls

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
New transplant method for ageing cornea patients

US: More men are getting plastic surgery

2011-04-14T00:17:00.001-07:00

Don't know whether this is normal or not, and I can't say whether it is necessary or not, but then again, this is the current generation.

Is this helping the men get the job they apply for?
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Posted: 21 March 2011

WASHINGTON: Facelifts are surging in popularity among American men as the country digs out of recession and the older set aims to compete with a younger, tech-savvy generation, a survey showed on Monday.

Data released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons showed cosmetic surgery procedures in men rose two per cent last year over 2009, including a 14 per cent rise in facelifts and a seven per cent hike in liposuction.

Those figures still lag behind the all-time peak in plastic surgery reached in 2007 just before the financial downturn.

But they do point to a new trend among men age 40-54, who had the majority of work done, for 48 per cent of the total procedures in the entire year, followed by people age 55 and over.

"More than ever, this generation of men are pretty nervous about the younger guys they are competing with," said Phillip Haeck, president of the ASPS.

"I have never seen this before - men who are out of work and looking for a job and really feeling like they need to do something to make themselves look younger to compete," he said.

The most popular surgery for men was nose reshaping, or rhinoplasty, with 63,585 such operations performed in 2010, said the ASPS. Next was eyelid surgery (31,476), followed by liposuction (23,899).

Breast reduction (18,280) and hair transplants (13,217) ranked fourth and fifth.

Haeck, who is based in Seattle, Washington, said he also sees lots of men who are gainfully employed at major Internet firms but fearful of losing their edge in a youth-driven field.

"A lot of my business is with people in the tech industry, from Microsoft to Google and everything else that is located here," he said.

"When you are the only 50-year-old working in a cubicle-sea full of 20-somethings who are tech-savvy and you had to learn it all... I see some guys with almost a chip on their shoulder about being the old guy in the office."

Other trends that boost the male desire for a nip and a tuck include the trend toward more casual dress, Haeck said.

"If you have a pudgy figure, you used to me able to cover it with a sportcoat or a suit," Haeck said.

"With this fashion trend toward business-casual, you have got to look nice in a dress shirt that is tucked in at the belt.

"Guys come in and say 'I have got to look good in these shirts and I go to the gym all the time but I can't lose this muffin top. These love handles drive me crazy.'"

The open-necked dress shirt is also a danger zone for some older men, he said.

"They have a neck waddle or a neck gobbler. Their face still looks somewhat youthful, maybe a little rugged, but they hate this wad of skin that hangs from their chin down to their chest," he said.

In addition to the 14 per cent rise in facelifts among men, who had 10,902 such procedures last year, some other unusual procedures saw big increases, such as a 62 per cent rise in calf augmentation and an 11 per cent rise in ear surgery.

"If you're a male and you have short hair and your ears really stick out, that (surgery) is getting them to be more aesthetically pleasing, almost like pinning back your ears," explained ASPS spokeswoman Lisa Arledge Powell.

Male procedures still hardly made a dent in the overall pool, with women making up 91 per cent of all cosmetic surgery procedures: men had 1.1 million cosmetic procedures, while women had 11.5 million last year.

The most popular cosmetic surgery procedure among women was breast augmentation (296,203 procedures in 2010).

Geographically, the youth-clinging desires of an ageing population were most prominent in the western part of the United States, including image-conscious California.

The next biggest consumers of cosmetic procedures were found in the southern central part of the United States, including Texas, and the southeast region including Florida.

"The generation of baby boomers are coming along and they are way more open to having a facelift than their dads ever were," said Haeck.

- AFP/de/fa

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
More US men getting plastic surgery, says study

Complaining: our way of life

2010-12-14T19:58:00.001-08:00

Cover via AmazonIs complaining an indicator of our graciousness and courtesy level? We're driving at that, you know!
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A complaint about complainers

by Tabitha Wang

Okay, I want to know who took American author Dan Buettner around when he visited Singapore. Whoever it was, the Singapore Tourism Board should hunt them and offer them a job.

They must have done one heck of a great job selling the Lion City to Buettner for him to conclude that it is the happiest place in Asia in his new book, Thrive, Finding Happiness The Blue Zones Way.

Yes, Singapore. Not even Bhutan, famously known for its Gross National Happiness index.

Buettner says Singapore has all it takes for happiness: Tolerance, status equality, security, trust, access to recreation and financial security.

He based his findings on interviews with Singaporeans from all walks of life - from Community Chest chairman Jennie Chua to housewife Noridah Yusoh.

I don't doubt that his interviewees told him they were happy. But are Singaporeans really happy people?

Just look at all those letters of complaint in the newspapers. Just take a peek at the posts in blogs and responses to online news. These are not exactly all sweetness and light, are they?

I remember once complimenting a store manager about how well her shop was run. She said: "Can you put it down in writing in our feedback slip?"

Apparently, if people were satisfied, they never bothered to fill the slip. But if something annoying were to happen, no matter how infinitely minor, you can be sure those feedback forms would be filled, even posted if necessary.

I think Singaporeans are never happy unless we have something to be unhappy about. Our slogan should be: We moan, therefore we bond.

Try asking a Singaporean: "So how's business/your children/your work/your family?"

The answer is invariably: "Okay lah, can be better."

Coffeeshop talk is never about how wonderful life is. It's always about how badly a chosen English Premiership team is doing, how much money one has lost playing 4D, how the "gahmen" should be doing this, that or the other ...

Nothing can make us happy. If property prices are low, we fret about going into negative equity and how we may never have enough money to retire on. If property price are high, we complain we can't buy a roof over our heads or can't afford that investment home.

If we have a job, we complain about how we're overworked and underpaid. But lose our jobs and we moan even louder.

We have security in the form of low crime rates but still whine that the police can do more. We have access to recreation but grumble that the facilities are not up to scratch.

Maybe it's because there's some superstitious Asian bit of us that never likes to admit how well things are going in case some malevolent spirits take notice and decide to cause mischief.

Or perhaps we, like Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, are worried about being too happy because, as he told Buettner: "Then I would be complacent, flabby, and walk into the sunset."

Looking at the blurb for Thrive in Amazon.com, though, I think I have found why Singapore is considered the happiest place in Asia.

It states: "According to Buettner's advisory team, the average person can control about 40 per cent of his or her individual happiness by optimising life choices. They fall into three categories that make up the way we live our lives: The food we eat, the way we exercise, and the social networks we foster."

So simple. It's food.

I'm not sure about the exercise and social network bit but we've always enjoyed our food. For sure, finding the ultimate char kway teow or chicken rice puts me in a good mood for days.

Maybe life's happiness can really be as simple as that.

Tabitha Wang will see you at the kopitiam. You can complain about anything all you like as long as you buy her a fluffy prata telur bawang.

Taken from TODAYONline.com, Voices; source article is below:
A complaint about complainers

Punctuality in place of friendly service?

2010-12-14T19:46:00.001-08:00

Image by Ex-Smith via FlickrThis is the reply from one reader.

Now, the thing to note here is that I have moved to a place where it is a very short distance from the train station. But the bus servicing our area goes on a loop. And it takes about 20-25mins coming out of our place.

And while the frequency is 5mins, there is nothing to compensate for the long travel time just to come out into the faster train service. Should I say, more predictable train service?

But that is nothing at all. I am frequently showing up late for work these couple of weeks, but my wife would tell me otherwise. Your own personal benefit of getting in late can't be the reason for the ignoring of the greater good's welfare.

Bus driver can't simply speed up and leave others waiting for their ride.

Train service can't simply not stop to make time for the train service turning about to ferry a full load of passengers.

And so, what's the solution to my problem? Just wake up earlier, and get a ride earlier. Sometimes the solution doesn't come from the government, but from the people.

Think so?
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Punctuality in place of friendly service?

Letter from Dawn Lee

I REFER to the commentary "Hold bus services to higher standards" (Dec 3).

Sometimes living in super-efficient Singapore can cause us to lose some perspective. Buses are subjected to traffic conditions, accidents and roadwork that all motorists have to deal with. You can stand at a bus stop with a watch and a clipboard and audit your bus arrival times all you want but what does that tell you? That the traffic situation was okay.

I have lived in cities where buses were on time and strict adherence to a schedule can actually compromise service standards. If you stress your drivers out by insisting they have to be on time no matter what, they will have less emotional capacity for kindness.

As for those schedules? Where I lived in Germany, there was only one service I could take to work. It left the interchange every 20 minutes at peak hour and every 40 minutes on weekends. I have many memories of being only 10 seconds late, running alongside the bus, waving frantically and yelling and being completely ignored as it zoomed away.

I have lived in Melbourne, where tram drivers have shut the doors in my face and gone off down the road. Schedules, you see.

I love the buses here at home. I do not even care if they are not on time. It is not like we have to wait more than 20 minutes for a bus anyway or that we do not have alternative routes and connections.

In a city like Singapore, where people are not naturally friendly, it is so nice to have bus drivers who look in the rear-view mirror and wait for that old lady or the schoolboy lumbering along with his heavy schoolbag.

My experience is that most drivers are polite, friendly and patient.

It was such a joy to come back to this.

Strike a balance and do not insist on strict punctuality at the expense of people skills and flexibility and judgement to respond in different sets of circumstances.

Taken from TODAYOnline.com; source article is below:
Punctuality in place of friendly service?

Hold bus services to higher standards

2010-12-14T19:31:00.001-08:00

I am putting up this article, since it is the basis of another noteworthy reply from a reader. Read this one first, then the other one next.
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Hold bus services to higher standards

Let's also employ more technology, set up high-level task force to effect real improvement

by Richard Hartung

Everything seems fine with the buses here, according to the Public Transport Council (PTC). SBS Transit "complied with all the standards," the PTC said in October, while SMRT has only "been fined for three failures" for late departures in the six months until May.

Tell that to commuters, though, and you may hear far different accounts as their stories come gushing out.

One commuter I know taking Service 75 during peak hours in mid-October, for example, waited for 20 minutes one day and then had two buses arrive together as soon as he reached the bus stop the next morning. It is an experience commonly echoed by many.

Another commuter I spoke to compares bus drivers' stop-and-go driving techniques to the rides hurtling people around at Universal Studios. More stories like these abound.

With over three million passenger-trips on buses every day, the impact of small delays or other problems is huge. Not unexpectedly, the Singapore Management University's 2010 Q2 Customer Satisfaction Index found that "customer satisfaction scores for both the Mass Rapid Transit Systems and the public buses sub-sectors have been declining since 2007".

So what can be done? Several steps could make commuting by bus better.

For one, Singapore could start using best practices. Research last year by Imperial College's Mark Trompet, for example, showed that New York set a standard where buses must arrive within three minutes after their scheduled arrival time and buses in Paris must arrive within two minutes. Where schedules in Singapore do exist, he said, buses are supposed to arrive within five minutes before or after their scheduled time.

That 10-minute window can cause dissatisfaction, or worse. As research by University of Arizona Professor Ryan Johnson mentions, a "bus-bunching phenomenon has frustrated passengers in cities around the world". Other research cited by Mr Trompet showed that bus arrival irregularity "discourages commuters' use of public transit".

If we're going to get people to ride the bus and like it, moving to the levels of New York or Paris could help. While the PTC does measure 11 standards, tracking others like "regularity" or "customer satisfaction" as is done in Sydney and setting higher targets such as arriving within three minutes of the scheduled time - rather than "at least 80 per cent of bus services to operate at headway (frequencies) of not more than 10 minutes during weekday (excluding public holidays) peak periods" - could lead to higher service levels.

THE TECH IS OUT THERE

Another step would be to leverage leading-edge technology fully. In the United States, University of California Professor Alex Bayen's research group is merging radar, lidar, detectors embedded in roads and video with input from GPS devices to "detect patterns and build a prediction engine".

One initiative in Sydney, according to the New South Wales Auditor-General, is a real time bus monitoring system that "can also provide traffic light priority for late running buses". While technology is used here, too, bus companies still have staff standing at bus stops monitoring bus arrivals with a watch and paper!

Steps like changing bus priority real-time, using better prediction models for scheduling and using technology to help enforce bus priority in bus lanes could result in higher service levels. While usage of some of this technology may already be in the pipeline here, employing more of it and communicating the results could also be beneficial.

Improving bus transport is important for reducing commute times, raising productivity and increasing usage of public transportation, among other reasons. Despite efforts to do better, Land Transport Authority data until 2008 showed that bus commuting times had remained static at about 42 minutes for a decade. Even though it turns out that SMRT is a member of the International Bus Benchmarking Group that shares global best bus practices, data still indicates that arrival times and other results lag best-in-class standards.

Actually solving the problems may take more focus than what has been the case so far. For example, the situation in Singapore may be serious enough to warrant an independent and high-level task force to develop and implement strategies that lead to real improvement. Setting and achieving higher standards as well as taking steps to leverage technology even better could also make a big difference. There are a multitude of other opportunities.

Public transport here has the potential to be world-class and improvements will benefit productivity as well as commuter satisfaction levels. The critical next step is to make the change happen.

The writer is a consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992.

Taken from TODAYOnline.com; source article is below:
Hold bus services to higher standards

Pesticides and dementia

2010-12-13T16:50:00.001-08:00

And hopefully this findings won't be easily forgotten...
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Working with pesticides linked to dementia

PARIS: Long-term exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, according to a study released Thursday.

Workers "directly exposed" to bug and weed killers while toiling in the prestigious vineyards of Bordeaux, France were five times more likely to score less well on a battery of neurological tests than those with minimal or no exposure, the study found.

As revealing, this high-exposure group was twice as likely to register a significantly sharp drop in a key test -- frequently used to diagnose dementia -- repeated four years after the initial examination.

The drop "is particularly striking in view of the short duration of follow up and the relatively young age of the participants," mostly in their late 40s or 50s, the authors said.

The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that chronic use of pesticides in agriculture boosts the risk of neurological disorders.

France has the highest use of insecticides and herbicides in Europe, and the fourth highest worldwide after the United States, Japan and Brazil.

More than 800,000 people in France are exposed in the agriculture sector, as were another 800,000 who are now retired.

Worldwide the number of labourers who work regularly with pesticides is counted in the tens, if not the hundreds, of millions.

In the Bordeaux study, led by Isabelle Baldi of The French Institute for Public Health, Epidemiology and Development, 614 workers were enrolled in 1997 and 1998 and re-evaluated four or five years later.

On both occasions they completed a detailed questionnaire on their work history, along with nine tests designed to measure memory and recall, language retrieval, verbal skills and reaction times.

The subjects were divided into four groups depending on their level of exposure to pesticides over the previous 20 years or longer, ranging from "directly exposed" to "not exposed".

"The mild impairment we observed raises the question of the potentially higher risks of injury in this exposed population, and also of the possible evolution toward neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or other dementias," the researchers concluded.

The same cohort is undergoing a third evaluation, 12 years after the baseline examination. Results will be published in 2012 or 2013.

"This time lag should enable us to better understand cognitive impairment and its evolution, and observe the first cases of Alzheimer's disease among a population close to 65 years of age," the researchers said in a companion briefing paper.

-AFP/ac

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:Working with pesticides linked to dementia

Hello, where is my privacy?

2010-11-15T00:49:00.001-08:00

I saw this article, and at times, this telemarketers come right at the time you need them... Honestly, that would be about 1/100. So most of the time, you don't need them, and they call you!
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BUDGET TAI TAI
Tabitha Wang

It’s scary how much telemarketers know about us

I am all alone at home. Suddenly the phone rings. The voice at the other end of the line is more frightening than the one talking to Drew Barrymore in Scream.

"Hello, can I take a minute of your time to tell you about this wonderful offer I have for a time-share/credit card/insurance policy/home loan?"

The first few times I was cold-called, I listened to their spiel then turned them down. The next few times, I answered politely: "No, thank you. I'm afraid I'm busy at the moment."

Then it became: "No, sorry." Then a curt "no". These days, I just hang up.

I wonder why they bother.

I've been a target of telemarketers ever since I started working (and appeared on their radar as someone with disposable income). But in the decade or so of getting their calls, I have agreed to sign up for only one thing - a credit card.

And that was only because I had already planned to do it and all the caller did was save me the hassle of filling up the form.

Usually, they're quite harmless, even those who claim I have won something but can claim my prize only when I sign up. But what concerns me are the ones who seem to know a lot about my habits.

I recently had one who offered me a store card for a certain mall because I shopped there a lot. How did the caller know that?

Has someone been secretly spying on me on my shopping expeditions?

Even more worrying was my colleague's experience. She had been maxing out her one credit card for a few months. Suddenly, she started getting calls offering her overdrafts at favourable rates. They were from different banks and insurance companies.

So how did they know about her debt? Her card was with a reputable bank, surely they couldn't have told anyone about her embarrassing secret?

These are legal touts.

I haven't even started on those scammers who call you about great investment opportunities usually involving exchange rates or money transfer to the banks of a certain country.

So I shed no tears when I read about how Hong Kong call centres and businesses cut staff recently because of new privacy protection guidelines.

About 200 direct marketing workers lost their jobs in the recent cull. There are an estimated 100,000 telemarketers in Hong Kong. The guidelines came into effect because of an uproar over the sale of personal data by Octopus a couple of months ago.

Octopus cards are like a combination of an ez-link card and a CashCard. You can use them for commuting, buying items and - this is what started it all - sign up with your name and contacts for points, which you can use to redeem rewards.

It later transpired that the company had been selling the data of about 2 million customers who had signed up for the scheme to merchants since 2002, earning it HK$57.9 million ($9.7 million).

Since then, there have been more scary revelations. The privacy commission is investigating complaints that three telecommunications operators had given customers' personal data to other companies.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has also said that some banks had sold customers' data to insurance firms (which might explain the calls my colleague had been receiving).

In a bid for understanding, Direct Marketing Association chairman Eugene Raitt told the South China Morning Post: "Consider also the tens or even hundreds of thousands of consumers who received benefits, including millions of dollars in insurance benefits they would not have received were it not for the marketing-partner relationships. Have they been harmed? We don't think so."

Harmed? Well, maybe not. But I feel a teensy bit unclean, a bit like knowing somebody has been rummaging in my underwear drawer.

I don't like to hear of people losing their jobs, though, so I have a suggestion: Employ them to man help lines.
So I don't have to wait an hour - constantly being reassured that "all our operators are busy at the moment. We will attend to you shortly" - only to get a heavily-accented voice at the other line barely speaking English.

Surely now that is one industry that won't need outsourcing.

Tabitha Wang can't talk right now but she will attend to you shortly. Your feedback is important to her.

From TODAY, Voices - Friday, 29-Oct-2010
Hello, where is my privacy?
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Showing signs of stress

2010-10-04T01:56:00.001-07:00

Image via WikipediaFor one, I myself will agree to some inconsistency in the MRT line: authorities do say that they have increased the frequency of trains, resulting in shorter waiting time: 5mins to 2/3mins. My experience indicates a repugnance: when the waiting time is short, say 2/3mins, train usually stop in the middle of the track from that station to the next. And even when the interval lengthens to 5/6mins, train still stops in the middle of the track.

Why?

1. Short interval means previous train haven't cleared out of the next station, so next train has to wait, unfortunately, in the middle of the track. In my experience, that will be at least 1 stop, to as many as 3 stops, resulting to about 3/4mins. Total: 3mins + 4mins = 7mins.

2. Long interval means a train has terminated at the next station, and is reverted to travel back. So to give time for the other train to make the switch, your train has to stop mid-track. give it 3mins, and your total time becomes 8mins (6mins + 3mins = 9mins).

Then you say, which one is the lesser evil?
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BUDGET TAI-TAI
Tabitha Wong

The public transport system needs to improve

Friends from Singapore always complain about how crowded Hong Kong is compared to back home. Put them in an MTR station during rush hour and they look like deer caught in the headlights as people jostle them left, right and centre.

Crowded? As I type now, I am looking over the sea to the mountains and there is no one in sight. In the town, only one stray dog has braved the afternoon heat to venture out.

Former Housing and Development Board and Urban Redevelopment Authority chief executive Liu Thai Ker recently said Singapore could easily support up to 7.5 million people.

He joked that, if needed, there were still the islands of Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong.

Well, he must certainly be joking.

Consider the figures: Hong Kong is already considered one of the most densely-populated areas in the world, with 7 million people squeezed into about 1,100 km of land. The population density as at the middle of last year was 6,480 persons per sq km.

Everyone talks about how crowded Hong Kong is but, believe it or not, there are more people fighting for elbow space in Singapore.

The Lion City, with a land area of 710.3 sq km, now has a population of 5.08 million. Last year's Government statistics show that Singapore has a population density of 7,022 people per sq km.

And already the transportation system is showing signs of strain.

The last time I was in Singapore, I noticed there were signs proudly displayed saying that the frequency of MRT trains during peak periods was 3.5 minutes.

Three-and-a-half minutes? That's three-and-a-half times less frequent than MTR trains in Hong Kong.

Here, trains arrive every minute during peak hour - you don't have to rush to squeeze into the doors because you know there's one coming soon. Sometimes, one train has to wait at one station because the one in front hasn't even had time to leave the other station.

The trains are longer too: Trains on the MTR Island Line all have eight compartments, compared to only six on MRT's East-West and North-South lines.

No wonder the MTR trains can move an average 3.7 million passengers daily.

Singapore's Land Transport Authority has stated that, by 2012, there will be 22 new trains plying the North-South and East-West line. So in two years' time, it announced, waiting time will be reduced to between 2 and 3 minutes, from the current 2.5 and 4.5 minutes.

Good news, but even so, that is still twice as slow as the MTR train system.

For Singapore to house up to 7.5 million comfortably, people must spread out - and maybe repopulate Pulau Ubin.
Not everyone can work from home. In order to get people to move out of the city centre, there has to be great public transport.

This is where Hong Kong is one up on Singapore. Not only does it have faster trains, it also has a wide-variety of public transport: Train, bus, taxi, tram, ferry, even helicopter.

My daily commute, for example, involves a bus, a ferry and a train. The greater variety of choices enables me to live far from the madding crowd but still get to work on time.

The ferries don't have to contend with rush-hour traffic so there's no need to make allowance for traffic jams or road repairs.

The MRT may be running to capacity but a lot more can be done to improve Singapore's transportation system.
River taxis may be a solution.

The Singapore River goes from the Central Business District up to River Valley, offering an alternative route for after-hours drinks.

The Kallang River has an even better course, from the CBD all the way to the heartlands of Toa Payoh, Bishan and Ang Mo Kio - almost duplicating the route of the frequently jammed CTE.

So if there were a river taxi service, people might be able to step off a pier at, say, Ang Mo Kio Ave 2, and get to their office in One Marina Boulevard without the stress of rush-hour traffic or overcrowded trains.

The boats will have to be fast and air-conditioned, of course. So those lovely designer suits do not get creased.

Tabitha Wang wonders if it will be possible to take a river taxi down Orchard Road during the monsoon season.

From TODAY, Voices - Friday, 17-Sep-2010:
Showing signs of stress
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Books, glorious books

2010-09-27T18:18:00.001-07:00

BUDGET TAI-TAI
Tabitha Wang

Hardcover or on an iPad, I devour them all — and I hope you do, too

This column almost didn’t get written. That’s because, despite my initial scepticism, I have become hooked on the Twilight series of teenage vampire novels.

I started on the first book on Sunday and, since then, have slept fewer than five hours a day, staying up late to finish all four books.

There are still 100 pages to go for Breaking Dawn, the last in the series, and I foresee I will be staying up till dawn to finish that up before work tomorrow.

As you’ve no doubt realised, I am a bookworm. I love the printed page and would even read the Yellow Pages if I had nothing else to peruse.

My mum started me reading from the age of three. Family lore has it that I amazed a bookstore assistant so much he kept throwing book after book at me to read until he exhausted his stock of children’s books.

Growing up, we didn’t have much money to buy books but there was always the library. I read anything I could lay my hands on — including my uncles’ silverfish- ridden spy novels (with naughty sex scenes that I didn’t understand then).

Now that I can afford to buy my own novels, there’s always one in my bag for those tedious waiting times. And heaven forbid if I forget one for my daily commute. Though it’s only a 20-minute train ride, I’d be bored out of my skull.

Thank goodness I married someone who is as much of a bookworm as I am, if not more so. Our flat is lined with bookshelves. We’re moving house and had to give our movers a list of things to pack. It read: One daybed, one mattress, 20 bookshelves and 100 boxes of books.

People have asked me: “How can you read so much?”

I ask in reply: “How can you not?”

I can’t understand people who say smugly: “I don’t read”, as if they’re too important for such childish pursuits. A guy once told me that on our first date. We never went on a second one.

It’s sad but I have noticed that many Singaporeans seem to have lost the joy of reading. Just walk into any of those expensively-decorated apartments and you’ll notice something: No books.

There may be a few magazines, possibly a coffee-table book or two, but where are those loved-till-the-spinefalls-off books? Can it be that Singaporeans are just too busy with the reality of earning a living to dream a little?

I was shocked when I met a teacher friend in Singapore who said: “I have no time to read.” And she taught English.

This cult of the unread is probably what is causing our dearth of creative talent. If you’ve never taken flights of fancy, how can you think outside the box?

A friend’s daughter, a bright, well-read seven-year-old, once ended her English composition with “Fancy that!” The unimaginative teacher crossed it out and wrote: “Irrelevant.”

The girl was being creative and applying what she had read in her beloved Rainbow Magic books but, instead of encouragement, she was told to go back to the same dull stuff as everyone else.

My friend was later told her daughter was “too imaginative” and “not following instructions” in her composition — the implication being she should not read anything but textbooks.

Is this how we want our children to grow up? With only the knowledge they can get from textbooks and nowhere else? With no encouragement as children, no wonder there are fewer adults reading.

Thankfully, devices like Kindle and the iPad and book series like Twilight and Harry Potter are getting people reading again. They may not be Shakespeare but it’s a start.

As my friend’s daughter would say: “Fancy that!”

Tabitha Wang can’t think of a witty one-liner here because she is dying to get back to Breaking Dawn.

From TODAY, Voices - Friday, 03-Sep-2010
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Afraid of rats, or the rat race?

2010-06-04T02:18:00.001-07:00

This is one column that I would always look forward to. Presents the other side of life, the other view, a different perception - and usually, the insight is quite different from the rest of us - a standout, for the uncommon truth and fact of life, in Singapore.

It could be true in other countries as well. So, read on...
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BUDGET TAI TAI

Encounters of the rodent kind

by Tabitha Wang

The emails from my Singaporean friends were incredulous: "Really ah? Hong Kong got rat in Central? As long as 30 centimetres?"

Apparently the story of a tourist being bitten by a rat in the middle of this modern metropolis had spread far and wide. For those wondering what I am talking about, a British tourist was bitten on her heel by a rat outside a shoe-repair shop in Pedder Street last week.

Pedder Street is right smack in the middle of Central, in the heart of Hong Kong's business district. Though nothing more than a small lane lined with shoe-repair and key-cutting stalls, it is surrounded by banks and high-fashion shops. The site of the grievous bodily harm offence, so to speak, is just outside the wrought-iron gates of high-end boutique Shanghai Tang.

It also happens to be the MTR exit that I take on my way to and from work. The day after the story came out, I was assailed by the smell of heavy-duty disinfectant and bleach the minute I turned into the lane. Usually, you can hardly see one road sweeper in the area but on that day, I counted five sanitary workers pushing out huge rubbish bins and scrubbing down the entire lane.

As the old joke goes, dog bites man is not news but man bites dog is. Besides, the Food and Hygiene Department says last year's rodent infestation rate in Central was a low 4.7 per cent compared to 12.3 per cent in districts such as Kwun Tong.

So why did the rat-bite story create such an uproar?

Mostly because it happened right smack in the most modern part of this modern city. But also because the rat picked the wrong person to test its incisors on - a tourist. If it had happened to a local, I doubt there would have been much hoo-ha. In a place where old tong laus (walk-ups) jostle for space with mirrored skyscrapers, you come to expect some close encounters of the rodent kind.

After all, look what happened to the rat in question. After the tourist cried and had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance, the shoe-repair stall owner simply stepped up to it and killed it with a broom. Without fuss.

At dai pai tongs (street stalls) in Central, I've seen locals lift their legs to let a rat scurry through without even pausing to lay their chopsticks down.

When my brother and sister-in-law were visiting, I took them to an upmarket burger joint in the area. As we were unwrapping our pork-chop burgers, a rat as big as a cat (no wonder the cats here don't dare to tackle them) scurried over our feet.

My sister-in-law screamed. The rest of the diners glanced down at the rat and then continued eating - and so did my sister-in-law after she calmed down.

Admittedly, coming from spanking clean Singapore where miniscule cockroaches cause major rubbish-chute fumigation, my equanimity has been hard-won. But I have learnt to take such unexpected meetings in my stride.

I've actually even come to accept that it is part of the charm of this city. In the same way that food eaten next to a drain always tastes better, cities that are a little grubby always seem to have more character.

That is why I can understand when some people tell me they think Singapore is soulless. It's because they, like me, secretly prefer a scruffy but enchanting ragamuffin who gets into scrapes over a well-behaved, over-polite child without a single spot on his outfit.

I like that the graffiti on walls are allowed to stay there for a bit instead of being whitewashed immediately. In fact, one graffiti artist, dubbed the King of Kowloon, has even had his manic scribblings dubbed works of art.

I like that I have to pick my way carefully through a wet market when I do visit one. It makes the whole experience more real.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe deep down inside, I think a lot of enjoyable things in life are a little messy. Trekking, paint-balling, going on a Jurassic Parks Rapid Adventure, eating chilli crabs ... and, of course, visiting Hong Kong.

But if you're still worried, then do what the locals do - wear boots.

Tabitha Wang is more afraid of the rat race than real rats.

From TODAY, Voices - Friday, 04-June-2010
Encounters of the rodent kind
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Oh, those stupid tourists

2010-05-21T02:34:00.001-07:00

A voice that is becoming louder as the column is gaining readership... no, I won't take away from the excitement of reading it first, so...

Read on!
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BUDGET TAI TAI

Oh, those stupid tourists

They think things in Bangkok are just as they are back home ...

by Tabitha Wang

It's 2pm on a weekday and I'm chatting online with an old schoolmate, M. Suddenly, a message pops up: "Got to go, more clashes expected near my office."

Having worked in Bangkok for over three years now, M, a Malaysian, is no stranger to political protests in the city.

In November 2008, when the Yellow Shirts laid siege to the Suvarnabhumi Airport, she still went to work every day. It wasn't so bad, she recalled, because the protesters largely left the city alone.

This has not been the case with the recent protests. The main skirmishes took part just two train stations from her office so, more often than not, she would get ready for work, only to be turned back because they had closed the station. She has to take the bus instead - no cabbie would enter the area.

A single woman alone in a foreign country is always vulnerable, even at the best of times. What more when the country is in the midst of a bloody power struggle.

It sounds commendable that her company is not giving in. But her boss, whom you would expect might protect her, has run off to Perth with his family to wait out the skirmishes. He has refused to return until Thailand has a stable government again - which could be years.

Yet, he has insisted that she travel into the centre of the city to open the office every day since the protests began.

No, there will be no increase in insurance coverage. When she asked for a helmet or bulletproof vest, he just laughed. He wouldn't even let her have the company car, insisting that she make her own way to work every day.

Her local colleagues have not stepped into the office since the Red Shirts set up their camp in mid-March. So she mans the office alone, staying away from the windows and making do with cup noodles for lunch.

When the government threatened to cut the water and power supply, she had to fill buckets of water in the toilet just in case.

M has been watching her back for more than two months and now, she is fed up. She just wants to go home.

It is emotionally exhausting. She hasn't had a good night's sleep for weeks. Every little sound sends her sitting bolt upright in bed, convinced that another round of gunfire has started.

She comforts herself by saying the protesters have dispersed - but understandably, she is still afraid, especially when she can see barricades burning from her bedroom window.

It is lonely. She doesn't speak Thai so has not befriended anyone in her apartment block. Thankfully, the Internet is still up, so she can stay connected with her friends and family back home.

But the last straw was not being able to shop and eat because the protests are being held in the city's main shopping area.

"What's the point of being in Bangkok and not shopping or eating?" she lamented. "I moved here, putting up with the traffic and chaos, for the cheap food and clothes."

"There must be some places," I replied, pointing out that some Singaporeans, despite the Government's travel advisory, were still pouring into the city in search of imitation watches and fake antiques.

"The stupid tourists, you mean," she noted darkly.

Ah yes, the stupid tourists. The idiots who hear "protests" and think "perfect for a holiday". The ones who go to trouble spots, thinking: "It's nothing to do with me because they're fighting each other."

They forget that bullets and Molotov cocktails don't check passports. A lot of people who have been killed or injured so far were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If anything happens, they scream at their government and demand that they be airlifted home/rescued from prison/given compensation.

Many Red Shirts thought they were invincible because they had amulets to protect them. But, according to M, many tourists from Asean countries, including Singapore, are acting that way too.

"Their amulet is their sheer stupidity. They think things in Bangkok are just as they are back home."

M is pretty gloomy about the future of Thailand. She's told her boss she's had enough and is leaving Bangkok. For good. Tomorrow, she's taking advantage of the recent clampdown to make a dash for the airport, and head back home.

Where she can shop again. She said: "I know everything is cheap in Bangkok but so is life. I'm not about to die for a 50-baht shirt."

Even Tabitha Wang is not tempted by the thought of a to-die-for 50-baht shirt.

Taken from TODAY, Voices - Friday, 21-May-2010
Oh, those stupid tourists
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Like Apollo's Failure to Launch?

2010-05-06T19:51:00.001-07:00

Cover via Amazon

At first glance on the title, I'm immediately reminded of space shuttles that, after all the preparation and hardships, the rigorous trainings and special suits - everything - it is a fiasco! Instead of applause and shouts of joy and congratulatory cries, what we hear is the opposite, all summed up in the words, "failure to launch."

Not to take out the excitement from the written article itself, do read on...

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Failure to launch

How do singles who live with their parents do it and mature at the same time?

by Tabitha Wang

My parents have come to Hong Kong for a fortnight. They've been here only two days and I've regressed by as many decades.

At this rate, I'd be babbling like a Teletubby by the weekend.

That is because, despite the fact that I haven't lived with them for 20-odd years, they still treat me as if I've never left home.

"Have you taken your cough mixture?"

"Are you going out with your hair wet like that?"

"Stop watching TV and eat your meal."

And that's only in the first hour they've been at my place.

I half-expect them to trot out curfew times and ask whom I've been going out with.

On the plus side, it means hot meals the moment I get home, not having to feed the cat before I go to work and putting the plates into the sink knowing that they will be washed by the next morning.

It's great having everyday decisions taken away from me - like what to have for dinner, whether to run the washing machine, when to go grocery shopping …

Leaving me free to make the important decisions - like what channel to watch on television.

"I could get used to this," I told my husband yesterday.

"I don't think it's healthy. Look how childish you have become," he said, drawing my attention to what I was wearing.

He was right. Without realising it, I had dressed in anticipation of the "what do you think you're wearing, young woman" question: A grotty big T-shirt instead of my usual skimpy nightgowns.

And mentally, I had gone back to my old ways of delegating responsibility to my parents. Somehow, being a kid again and settling the bills just didn't seem to go together.

Ah well, it's only for two weeks. Then I'd go back to being a lean, mean fully-functioning adult again.

This is just a hiatus.

But this started me thinking about my single friends who were still living with their parents and wonder how they do it without it stunting their maturity in some way or other.

Imagine being a high-flying boss whom everyone fears in the office, then going home to Mum telling you: "I've washed your underpants and packed your lunch in your favourite Hello Kitty container." Surely, that does cramp your style?

I once visited a 40-something single friend who lived with her parents.

Her Mum kept nagging her to get married but, at the same time, told her she had to be home by 10pm while her Dad vetoed her clothes if they were too revealing.

So my friend goes around in long-sleeved shirts and ankle-skimming skirts and without makeup all the time.

She could have done a lot more with herself if only she could get past the style dragons at the gate.

Many singles say they live with their parents not out of choice but necessity. They can't move out until they're 35 and can afford their own HDB flat.

Maybe they should be allowed out earlier. We make housing allowances for the elderly so why not the singles?

Some may say growing old is not a matter of choice but being single is. But really, when you're living at home with your parents, with a curfew (even unspoken), what chances do you have to go out, meet people and make your choice?

The number of singles in Singapore is increasing.

The census showed that more people aged 30 to 34 were single in 2008 (40.8 per cent for men and 29.4 per cent for women) compared to 1998 (33.3 per cent and 21.6 per cent).

The proportion of singles aged 45 to 49 also rose (13.6 per cent and 12.8 per cent in 2008 compared to 9.5 per cent and 12.5 per cent in 1998).

To cater to the rising numbers, maybe the HDB should convert flats in unpopular areas into studios and turn them into a singles block - much like a hostel for working singles instead of students.

At my university hostel, many hooked up - boosted by the huge concentration of singles in one place and the lack of parental supervision.

I think that magic formula could work in the singles block too.

As long as parents are banned from visiting.

Tabitha Wang gets her own back when her parents treat her like a child, by treating her husband like a baby.

Taken from TODAY, Voices - Budget Tai tai column; source article is below
Failure to Launch
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This family counted their blessings!

2010-04-27T22:17:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

I was fascinated as I read how this family made it through, or simply, pulling it through, the hard times in their life, even as the husband lost his job and had to stay home as what they call 'househusband' - a complete and opposite expectation from the local communities family structure, where the man works and the wife stays at home as the 'housewife.'

No, that isn't even the message that I wanted to point out here.

My point to make is that it doesn't matter anymore what others are saying, what your neighbours (especially if they can't help you) may think and say about the 'changes' that you apply in your family structure is irrelevant, so you can continue with your life - through the hard times.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the adjustment you make.

Perhaps, it is time to 'open up' the mind, instead of the mouth.

I say, they are still a respectable family, in that the husband and wife will do even the 'unusual' to raise their family - and still keep being respectable.

Read on.....

Adapting as a househusband

Letter from Zhang Lianguo

I REFER to "Count your blessings" (April 23) and would like to share my story as a househusband.

Similar to Budget Tai Tai's friend, Househusband (myself) was told by his boss that his services were no longer required by the company on an otherwise normal day in 2008.

All he received for his immediate release was two months' pay in lieu of notice.

After going through the "anger-denial-acceptance-frustration-calm-down" psychological process, Househusband decided to move on and start again despite being in his mid-40s.

Times are hard. It is tough for a middle-aged man to get back on the professional track.

Househusband cast his net wide to secure a job. However, he saw all his applications come to nothing.

As with many unsuccessful cases, he was categorised as either over-qualified or not experienced enough.

At a walk-in interview, he was told politely: "Sir, I am afraid this is a mis-match for the job which you are applying for."

Looking around the function hall teeming with young job-seekers with black hair prevailing over those with grey hair, Househusband left without questioning the rationale of the statement.

If not for a "Corporate Wife", Househusband would have probably been a taxi driver now. After weighing all factors, Househusband opted to be a househusband. (Actually there weren't many options left.)

Mine is a typical Singaporean family: Husband and wife were full time employees. The children attended school, while a foreign domestic helper (FDH) attended to the household chores.

With household reduced to a single income, the priority was to tighten daily expenses.

With a full time Househusband installed, the post of FDH seemed to be redundant. When the incumbent FDH left for home after her work permit expired, another was not hired.

My situation was a challenge to the family, as it totally "derailed" the traditions of the society we live in.

Well, as change becomes the norm in today's life, adapting is the way to go.

You might have noticed that even the taxman had rephrased the phrase "Dependent Wife" to "Dependent Spouse".

Taken from TODAY, Voices - Tuesday, 27-April-2010
Adapting as a househusband
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In a bad situation? Count your blessings!

2010-04-27T22:06:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

I am in a hard situation now. I was, many years ago. As what the author says, "count your blessings."

This can be true any stage of your life. I am in a hard situation, but there are those who cannot even call the sad plight they are in a 'situation.' And there are those who couldn't do anything despite their 'better situation'.

It is always our outlook in life that will change the situations, and turn our 'luck' around. I mean, with perseverance and patience, and determination (now this is very important), there will always be some ways and means to pull things through and make ends meet.

While this article was written primarily for Singaporeans, it certainly applies to any other of different nationality. In this essence, we are all the same.

I am in a hard situation. And this, too, will pass.

Read on...

Count your blessings

Times are hard, but Singaporeans shouldn't grumble

by Tabitha Wang

A friend recently lost his job. He had been working with the same firm for 20-odd years and had anticipated retiring from that company in a few years' time.

Instead, the bosses called him into a room, told him his work was unsatisfactory and fired him on the spot. All he had to show for almost all his working life was two months' pay in lieu of notice.

As an American working for a British company in Singapore, he found he was not protected by any country's law. He tried to sue for compensation but all the lawyers he consulted, whether in his home country or host country, told him he had no case.

To make matters worse, he and his family had to leave Singapore almost immediately because his employment pass had been cancelled by his firm.

His kids, who had lived in Singapore all their lives, had to leave their school mid-term while he and his wife scrambled to look for somewhere suitable to live.

The whole thing was a mess.

When I met him in Hong Kong, he looked like he had aged 10 years in a couple of months.

He was bitter, angry with everything in general.

I could well understand this unfocused rage - because I have had lots of it myself.

As you know, my husband too lost his job in Hong Kong. Since then, he has been applying assiduously for one position after another.

It's been soul destroying to see all his applications come to nothing. He was over-qualified, said some, not experienced enough, said others.

Mindful of advice to "just accept anything", he tried for jobs as shop assistants, only to be passed over for someone with more experience. Even driving a taxi is out of the question.

Unlike in Singapore, licences in Hong Kong are controlled by individuals. It costs HK$4 million ($706,000) for a licence for a taxi and HK$6.5 million for one to drive a minibus.

As we are in a foreign country, we can't look to anyone for help. Yes, there are times when I feel like lashing out at someone - anyone.

But apart from my husband's unfeeling ex-employers, who can I blame?

Since my earlier column on hardship allowances, I've been accused of being anti-expat. How can I be, seeing as I'm one myself?

I may be anti-fat cat bonuses but I have a lot of sympathy for expats struggling to make a living on local terms.

Especially when you have no one to rely upon but yourself. There is no "gahmen" to blame or call upon to get you out of your mess.

Our Minister Mentor once called Singaporeans "champion grumblers".

Well, Hong Kongers are too.

Get into a Hong Kong taxi and the driver is full of opinions about what the government should do. My local friends are always railing against this policy or other.

I told a colleague about my American friend's dilemma and she immediately said: "The Government should do something about it." It is exactly the same when I read some Singapore blogs, which start with "the Government should ... " followed by "dampen rising house prices/create more jobs for Singaporeans/stop closing down wet markets ... "

Maybe the Government should. But maybe we should stop seeing the Government as our parents, expecting them to shelter us from all harm all the time.

Banks collapse, economies fail, property prices balloon ... these things happen.

We can wait for the Government to come up with policies to shield us from the fallout. Or we can just hunker down and try to work things out ourselves.

Can't find a job? It's painful, but shouldn't you be concentrating your efforts in looking for one rather than writing blogs against foreign workers?

Can't afford that penthouse unit in Bishan but have a point-block flat in Bedok?

You still have a roof over your head. At least you have an HDB flat rather than squatter homes or wire mesh cages - yes, they still exist in Hong Kong.

So, if you have a job, a roof over your head and a full tummy, what more could you ask for?

Unless it's for the Geylang Lorong 9 beef kway teow shop to start franchising. Now, that would be a cause worth fighting for.

Tabitha Wang wonders which Government department she should complain to if volcanoes spoil her holiday.

Lifted from TODAY, Voices - Friday, 23-April-2010
Count your blessings
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Iowan ready for prom with gum wrapper dress

2010-04-19T23:42:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

What would be next? I mean, I've seen fashion dresses made of condoms (not used, hah!), and some other indigenous materials.

The younger, the bolder?!

Read this short article, then...

Iowan ready for prom with gum wrapper dress
Tuesday, 13-April-2010

GARNER, Iowa – An Iowa teen is all bubbly over her one-of-a-kind high school prom dress she made out of gum wrappers. Elizabeth Rasmuson made her dress — and matching vest for her date — out of blue and white wrappers from Wrigley's "5 gum."

The high school junior says she got the idea after hearing about someone making a dress out of duct tape.

She and her boyfriend began collecting gum wrappers last August. Rasmuson says she quit counting after 200.

Since the wrappers break easily, Rasmuson finished her dress with a vinyl top coat. — AP

Taken from GMANews.tv; source article is below:
Iowan ready for prom with gum wrapper dress

European airlines test skies, press to end ban

2010-04-19T23:07:00.001-07:00

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I am a bit late in following this news, and this is the easiest one I can grab to post in here. Hopefully, things are already clearing up... please God !

European airlines test skies, press to end ban
By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer

AMSTERDAM – Major airlines that sent test flights into European air space found no damage Sunday from the volcanic ash that has paralyzed aviation over the continent, raising pressure on governments to ease restrictions that have thrown global travel and commerce into chaos.

Is it safe to fly yet? Airline officials and some pilots say the passengerless test flights show that it is. Meteorologists warn that the skies over Europe remain unstable from an Icelandic volcano that continues to spew ash capable of knocking out jet engines.

European Union officials said air traffic could return to half its normal level on Monday if the dense cloud begins to dissipate. Germany allowed some flights to resume.

Eighty percent of European airspace remained closed for a devastating fourth day on Sunday, with only 4,000 of the normal 20,000-flight schedule in the air, said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations for Eurocontrol, which supports the air traffic control network across the European Union's 27 states.

"Today it has been, I would say, the worst situation so far," Flynn said.

The test flights highlighted a lack of consensus on when to reopen the skies. The microscopic but potentially menacing volcanic grit began closing airports from Ireland to Bulgaria on Thursday, stranding countless passengers and leaving cargo rotting in warehouses.

"It is clear that this is not sustainable. We cannot just wait until this ash cloud dissipates," EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told reporters at the European capital in Brussels.

KLM Royal Dutch airlines, the national German carrier Lufthansa, Air France and several regional airlines sent up test flights, probing altitudes where the cloud of ash has wafted over Europe since the volcano turned active on Wednesday. British Airways planned an evening flight over the Atlantic from Heathrow, one of Europe's busiest hubs.

None of the pilots reported problems, and the aircraft underwent detailed inspections for damage to the engines and frame.

"Not the slightest scratch was found" on any of the 10 empty long-haul planes Lufthansa flew Saturday to Frankfurt from Munich, spokesman Wolfgang Weber said. The planes flew at low altitude, between 3,000 and 8,000 meters (9800 and 26000 feet), under so-called visual flight rules, in which pilots don't have to rely on their instruments.

Steven Verhagen, vice president of the Dutch Airline Pilots Association, said he would not hesitate to fly an aircraft today carrying his own family.

"With the weather we are encountering now — clear blue skies and obviously no dense ash cloud to be seen, in our opinion there is absolutely no reason to worry about resuming flights," said Verhagen, a pilot of Boeing 737s for KLM. "We are asking the authorities to really have a good look at the situation, because 100 percent safety does not exist."

Civil aviation authorities in each country must decide whether to resume commercial traffic, but the 27-nation EU said if weather forecasts are correct it expected half its flights to operate normally on Monday. While it was still unclear how the dust would affect jet engines, the EU said it was encouraged by promising weather predictions, at least for the next 24 hours.

"Probably tomorrow one half of EU territory will be influenced. This means that half of the flights may be operating," said Diego Lopez Garrido, state secretary for EU affairs for Spain, which holds the rotating EU presidency. He did not provide details about which flights might resume.

France's transport minister, Dominique Bussereau, said there will be a meeting on Monday of European ministers affected by the crisis to coordinate efforts to reopen airspace.

Meteorologists warned that the situation above Europe was constantly changing because of varying winds and the continuing, irregular eruptions from the Icelandic volcano. That uncertainty is bumping up against Europe's need to resume flights.

"There is currently no consensus as to what consists an acceptable level of ash in the atmosphere," said Daniel Hoeltgen, a spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency. "This is what we are concerned about and this is what we want to bring about so that we can start operating aircraft again in Europe."

The ranks of stranded passengers, meanwhile, were growing, and many would be stuck for days even if restrictions were fully and immediately lifted.

Mike Parker, trying to return to London from Milan, had made it as far as Paris by Sunday. He stood in line for hours for a bus ticket, only to be told "there's nothing available, there's no trains, there's no planes, there's nothing."

"This is my third day and it looks like it might be another three days before I get back," Parker said.
Rognvaldur Olafsson, a spokesman with the Civil Protection Agency in Iceland, said Sunday the eruption is continuing and there are no signs that the ash cloud is thinning or dissipating.

"It's the same as before," he said. "We're watching it closely and monitoring it."

German air traffic control was the first on Sunday to loosen its ban on passenger flights, allowing some traffic from Frankfurt and airports in the north, but only for northern destinations. Eastward-bound flights were permitted from Berlin, Hannover, Erfurt and Leipzig. The Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation also began allowing some flights Saturday.

AccuWeather.com said the top of the ash plume had dropped to about 10,000 feet from 33,000 earlier in the week, putting it in the flight path of even low-flying aircraft. Shifts in the wind will increase the risk for the Netherlands and Germany on Tuesday and Wednesday, the forecaster said.

Ash and grit from volcanic eruptions can damage a plane in various ways. The abrasive ash can sandblast a jet's windshield, block fuel nozzles, contaminate the oil system and electronics and plug the tubes that sense air speed. The greatest danger is to the engines, where melted ash can then congeal on the blades and block the normal flow of air.

There are no recorded instances of fatal aircraft crashes involving volcanic ash, though several have suffered damage and some temporarily lost engine power.

Scientists say that because the volcano is situated below a glacial ice cap, magma is being cooled quickly, causing explosions and plumes of grit that can be catastrophic to plane engines.

"Normally, a volcano spews out ash to begin with and then it changes into lava, but here it continues to spew out ash, because of the glacier," said Reynir Bodvarsson, director of Swedish National Seismic Network.

Bodvarsson said the relative weakness of the eruption in Iceland also means the ash remains relatively close to the earth, while a stronger eruption would have catapulted the ash out of the atmosphere. -- AP

___
Associated Press writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Greg Katz in London, Angela Charlton in Paris, Toby Sterling and Mike Corder in Amsterdam, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, George Jahn in Vienna and Malin Rising in Stockholm contributed to this report.

From GMANews.tv; see the source article below:
European airlines test skies, press to end ban

Breathless in Hong Kong

2010-04-16T00:28:00.001-07:00

Budget Tai tai

Maybe Singapore has a part to play to improve air quality in this city

Every time I receive an email from Singaporeans saying they're coming to Hong Kong, it always ends with their top-most concern: "How is the air over there?"

I was tempted to say the air in Hong Kong is like the girl with the curl right in the middle of her forehead: When it is good, it is very, very good but when it is bad, it's horrid.

Trouble is, it's never very, very good or horrid. Just an in-the-middle mushy all-round blah.

People see photos of Central with smog wreathing the landmark IFC, Bank of China and HSBC buildings, and wonder how I can still survive here.

Singaporeans smugly point out that a recent survey conducted by consultancy firm ECA International named the island state the best expat capital of the world for its infrastructure, health care, air quality and low crime rates. The authors said deplorable air quality was a major problem in several cities, including Hong Kong.

Guess they hadn't taken the readings during the haze - because honestly, the air here doesn't smell as bad as the haze that hits Singapore. I remember having difficulties breathing and smelling smoke on my clothes during the haze.

The difference is, with the haze, the end is in sight. It clears when the winds change and everyone breathes freely again. Whereas the pollution in Hong Kong is pervasive and unrelenting. And toxic. When the winds stop blowing the smoke from the factories in the Pearl River Delta to the region, roadside pollution takes over.

A few weeks ago, the Air Pollution Index hit an all time high of 500 (healthy air should be below 50) because of a sandstorm in drought-stricken China.

People panicked and started talking about pollution warnings. The irony was that the sandstorm was nowhere as dangerous to our health as the everyday pollutants we were breathing in.

The Hedley Environmental Index compares real-time air quality data supplied by the Environmental Protection Department with the World Health Organisation's recommended limits on pollutants. According to the index, Hong Kong is affected mainly by local sources of pollution on 193.5 out of 365 days a year.

It estimates that last year, Hongkongers made 6.15 million trips to the doctor and paid HK$1.88 billion ($340 million) for pollutant-related health care while about 800 had been hospitalised for asthma.

When I first came to Hong Kong, I used to suffer from itchy eyes and a sore throat all the time. But what really worried me was the shortness of breath and the chest pains.

The doctor told me it was a mild case of asthma. As a regular jogger and swimmer in Singapore, I'd never had breathing problems before so I asked him: "Are you sure?"

"Yes, it's a common ailment in Hong Kong," was his answer.

Will it get better? Well, there are plenty of angry people here in Hong Kong. They're angry enough to set up websites and petitions to needle anyone they can and make their point.

Even hedge fund managers, who usually seem more interested in money than the environment, worry that pollution is frightening off the most talented traders and analysts.

Maybe a few more years of losing out to Singapore as the best expat city because of poor air quality will do the trick. After all, Hong Kong seems to think best when pockets and profits start hurting.

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Tabitha Wang hates the way her husband uses pollution as an excuse not to go jogging - 365 days a year.
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From TODAY, Voices - Friday, 09-April-2010; source article is here: Breathless in Hong Kong

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