DREAMING

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong 29 April 2009 I am neither a doctor nor a virus researcher. However I do know there are quite a number of strains of influenza virus other than the current scare Influenza A subtype H1N1 virus. Basically there are three types of influenza viruses: A, B, and C. There are many more subtypes and strains under the three main types. Some of the influenza can rise to pandemic portions but many are just common variants of the common flu. Influenza type A viruses can infect people, birds, pigs, horses, seals, whales, and other animals, but wild birds are the natural hosts for these viruses. Influenza type A viruses are divided into subtypes based on two proteins on the surface of the virus. Influenza B viruses are normally found only in humans. Unlike influenza A viruses, these viruses are not classified according to subtype. Although influenza type B viruses can cause human epidemics, they have not caused pandemics. Influenza type C viruses cause mild ill...

Yes, this country’s too congested. People are suffocating. In trains, buses, hospitals, shopping centres, schools, swimming pools, libraries, work place, there are crowds everywhere. Very soon, the public resources of this country will not be able to support all its citizens, and non-citizens’ needs. The increasing penetrative lifestyle of this city-state is affecting the health and mental state of being. With more than 6000 people cramped into single square kilometre area, Singapore has one of the world's highest population densities. In comparison, London had a population density of only 4,700 people living in each square kilometre on average. England's population density is more than treble the European’s average of 117 people per sq km. Yet Singapore’s population density is far higher than that of London. Public amenities are on the verge of breakdown. Take our very own world-class public transportation for example. Our comrades working in the transportation sector are perh...

Primary School in 2009 2nd January 2009 was the start of a new school term. I took a day’s leave to ferry my son to Primary One on that day. Eager and excited we arrived in school with in full swing. We were early. We were greeted with glum looks. The tired faces shown by the teachers are visible to all. Perhaps it is the norm. Perhaps they need to display’sternness’ to young impressionable minds. Perhaps to ensure the new students will not ride roughshod over them in time to come To strike fear in their hearts - this is almost military school. Is this regimental style going to work? Fear, Intimidation, control is the order of the day? This is supposed to be a primary school, for goodness sake! There’s a thin fine line between being fear and respect. How can a 7-year-old primary one child tell the difference? Maybe the teachers are trained to be stone-faced. Or maybe they are wary of being ‘too-friendly’ to newbies. Maybe it’s taught where when they are in teachers’ trai...

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong It was a fine but rather windy morning on 6 January 2009. As usual, I took SBS Bus 198 to my work place. The bus came and it was very crowded as usual. I managed to squeeze my way up to the bus and stood near the bus entrance. Being packed and super crowded, I just thinking to myself that if there 's an accident, I'll be the first to be hit since I am standing at the doorway. At the bus stop at Jurong East Regional library, many passengers got off. I tried to move in towards the rear of the bus. The bus started to move off after the passengers alighted. The next moment, I saw a car cutting into the designated bus lane! The bus swerved aside quickly! ‘Whew, what a close call!’ I thought to myself. But I had rejoiced too early! As the bus turned sharply to avoid hitting the car, it inadvertently rammed head-on into sideboard of the car! This incident presages the intricate relationship between passenger safety, service interval and fully pack...

My family and I are members of the Singapore Science Centre for about 2 years. Over the years, I have seen the Singapore Science Centre's membership growing leaps and bounds. I noticed that they have introduced multiple categories of membership schemes including Science Explorer, Cosmic Adventurer and Individual. In addition, they have also opened up the membership scheme to Domestic Helpers as well. However, memberships are tiered generally towards 2 Adults with 2 or 3 children. This often results in misconception to the general public that the membership fees are exceptionally high, hence affecting the membership sign-up rates. With economic times not so rosy nowadays, I foresee more single parent family bringing with them their only child to the Science Centre. This category of members might not be able to afford the high membership fees that caters to 2 Adults, 2/3 children. I beseech you to consider a new membership category catering to 1 Parent with 1 Child, whom I am sure, ...

The increasing penetrative lifestyle of this city-state is affecting the health and mental state of being. Singapore has one of the world's highest population densities, in terms of people per square kilometers. In comparison, London had a population density of only 4,700 people living in each square kilometre on average. England's population density is more than treble the European’s average of 117 people per sq km. Yet Singapore’s population density is far higher than that of London. 1 Macau 20,824 person per km 2 Monaco 16,486 people per km 3 Hong Kong 6,571 people per km 4 Singapore 5,539 people per km 5 Gibraltar 4,486 people per km … 18 Korea, South 477 people per km 19 Netherlands 466 people per km … 74 China 133 people per km 75 Moldova 133 people per km … 172 United States 33 people per km Statistically, it is indeed amazing we can squeeze 6000 people into a square-kilometre area. To cluster that many people in a tiny piece of land is definitely nothing short of claust...

I had a few unpleasant experiences at the library@esplanade . Many a time upon checking the online catalogue, it says the “Items Not Available for Loan”. Some of these books are published in year 2005. Some audio-visual (AV) items are produced in year 2004. Yet to this very day, they are not available to general public for borrowing. How strange! Another incident that irks me more is when the search catalogue displays the AV material was “For Restricted Use, please Enquire at Service Counter.” After enquiring at the counter, I was told that such items are only made available to ‘practitioners’ in the artistic fields, or to ‘students from the arts schools’. To add salt to wound, I was told such viewing could only be done within the library’s premises! I find this a great discrimination. All library users should have equal rights of borrowing. As long as you are a member of the public library, no one shall be rejected from borrowing library items. I had joined the public library as Premi...