AWARE EGM venue moved to EXPO, next to “Transformation Conference 2009? co-organized by COOS and 40 other Churches!!!

AWARE EGM venue moved to EXPO, next to “Transformation Conference 2009? co-organized by COOS and 40 other Churches!!!

We have received tip-off from a COOS member that the church is mobilizing its members to attend the “Transformation Conference 2009” on 2 May 2009, 9am to 6pm at the Singapore EXPO, right next to where the AWARE EGM is held!!

In a statement, Aware said it made the change because membership has been growing by the day. It did not say how many members there are now.

[Where do these new members come from? Will the new exco change the venue to accomodate supporters from the of the camp?]

Among the supporters of the new team are staff and members of the Church of Our Saviour, who have been encouraging people to join Aware and support the new team.

In a weekend sermon posted on its website, Pastor Derek Hong urged the women in his flock to ‘be engaged’ and support Ms Lau and ‘her sisters’ at Aware. He said: ‘It’s not a crusade against the people but there’s a line that God has drawn for us, and we don’t want our nation crossing that line.’

[OMG, Mr Hong, Singapore is not the nation of your God. What line God has drawn for you is your own business, it doesn't apply to non-believers, get it??]

Pastor Derek Hong “strongly encouraged” church members to attend the 2 day conference on 1st and 2nd May 2009 during a sermon at COOS last Saturday:

The event is “Love Singapore Network” which comprises of COOS and 40 other churches in Singapore!! There are emails circulating around urging members to attend the conference and to sign up for the AWARE membership.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that this change of venue is to “facilitate” participants of the Transformation Conference to “hop by” next door to vote at the EGM!

In the end, the leadership tussle within AWARE will be decided largely by new members who have no clue or love for the organization at all.

This is a number game. The majority wins, as simple as that.


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Josie Lau’s first official statement as AWARE President rings hollow to a unsympathetic audience

Josie Lau’s first official statement as AWARE President rings hollow to a unsympathetic audience

In her first official statement as AWARE President which was posted on its website (Source: AWARE), Ms Josie Lau made an impassioned plead to all Singaporeans to give her team an opportunity to serve the community.

Her conciliatory tone was in stark contrast to her demeanour during the press conference called by the new exco last week where she was in a combative mood.

“I am a woman seeking to serve other women in Singapore. Like you, I have struggles. I do not have all easy answers to the many hard questions that life throws up. No one does.” she wrote.

Josie promised to make a positive difference to the lives of AWARE members and society, one of which is to help the many distressed women affected by the current economic crisis.

I would really love to give Josie a chance to prove herself had not for the ugly turn of events occuring during her short stint as President which leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of everybody.

The sad truth is: Josie has lost the moral authority to lead AWARE. Even if she managed to cling onto her position as President in the coming EGM, it is nothing more than a hollow victory.

Had Josie and her new exco won the elections on their own merit in their individual capacities without involving their Church, nobody would have bade an eyelid.

The new AWARE under her leadership will be a pale shadow of its glorious past with the seeds of mistrust, suspicion and acrimony being sowed in the ranks of the fissured community.

The sexual minorities will probably shun AWARE altogether while non-Christians will remain sceptical of its agenda. AWARE can no longer claim to represent the interests of all women in Singapore.

I can understand that this must be a very difficult period for Josie and her family. She has been put under intense public scrutiny since the first day she became President. Her employer had come out publicly to denounce her for accepting the position.

She was constantly ridiculed and harangued by many in blogosphere. Death threats were sent to her family and to add salt to her wounds, the public at large had little sympathies for her judging from the lukewarm reaction so far.

It must be a traumatizing experience for her to be subjected to so many upheavals in one go. Why is she hanging on? Just for the chance to lead an organization which she joined only lately?

Much as I sympathize with her plight, I feel that Josie should relinquish the position of President before the EGM in the interest of all parties.

Josie’s position is untenable at present. It will be humilitating for her to be voted out of office. If she somehow manage to survive the vote of no confidence, she will be leading AWARE without the trust and support of a significant proportion of women it purported to help.

Either way, it is unfortunate that what should be a purely internal matter of AWARE is now turning out to be a free-for-all slug fest between the supporters of the old guards and new exco which the media will gleefully savour with delight.

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Singapore Employers Fire Record Number of Workers

Singapore Employers Fire Record Number of Workers

By Shamim Adam

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore employers fired a record number of workers last quarter as the nation’s deepest recession since independence in 1965 forced manufacturers to cut output.

The Southeast Asian nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 3.2 percent from a revised 2.5 percent in the previous quarter, the Ministry of Manpower said today. Employers retrenched 10,800 workers, and another 1,800 were released from their contracts early, bringing total job cuts to 12,600.

The worst global recession since World War II has battered trade-dependent Singapore, where the government says gross domestic product may shrink as much as 9 percent this year. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s efforts to prevent job losses by handing out cash haven’t stopped companies such as music- player maker Creative Technology Ltd. from firing workers.

“Falling external demand has severely affected the manufacturing sector,” the report said. Employment declined “as the economy continued to worsen.”

Singapore will make a “slow and gradual” climb out of the current recession, and the island’s economy won’t experience a “decisive rebound” this year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said yesterday.

The jobless rate was the highest in more than three years, and in line with the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of nine economists. The manufacturing industry lost 19,900 jobs, while service industries added 10,300 new positions last quarter, the report showed.

Construction companies hired 8,500 new workers, resulting in a total net job loss of 1,000 jobs in the first three months of 2009, the report said.

About 13,920 workers were retrenched last year in Singapore, the most since 2003, while another 2,970 people were released before their contracts ended, the most since 1998.

In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1998, about 30,000 workers were retrenched in Singapore, and some 26,000 people lost their jobs in the 2001 recession.

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AWARE: Get facts on sex ed right

April 29, 2009

AWARE SAGA

Get facts on sex ed right

Ministry hasn't received any complaints about Aware's programme

By Amelia Tan
		Mr Iswaran (left) explained that while teachers deliver the core curriculum for sexuality education, schools have the flexibility to engage external agencies - including Aware - to run additional programmes for their students. -- PHOTO: BUSINESS TIMES

GET your facts right on what is happening in Singapore schools when it comes to sex education, and do not base comments on 'innuendo or information received on the fly'.

This advice, for those who have criticised the sexuality programme run by the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) in some schools, was given by Senior Minister of State for Education S. Iswaran on Tuesday.

MOE: No complaints from parents, Dr Thio WE REFER to recent claims and comments about the sexuality education programme in schools by the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware). Sexuality education conducted in Ministry of Education (MOE) schools is premised on the importance of the family and respect for the values and beliefs of the different ethnic and religious communities on sexuality issues. The aim is to help students make responsible values-based choices on matters involving sexuality. Read the full letter from MOE here.

Speaking after an event celebrating Yishun Town Secondary School's new autonomous status on Tuesday, he urged the parties in the Aware dispute to engage in 'responsible commentary' on the subject of sexuality education, as this is an important part of the school programme.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) takes a deliberate and cautious approach in sex education, he said, and its guiding principle is that the family is the basic building block of society.

Its guidelines, he said, were drawn up to help students make 'values-based decisions on this whole issue of sexuality and in a manner which is sensitive to our multiracial, multi-religious environment, because clearly, there are different perspectives in our society'.

Mr Iswaran explained that while teachers deliver the core curriculum for sexuality education, schools have the flexibility to engage external agencies - including Aware - to run additional programmes for their students.

But these extra programmes must abide by MOE guidelines.

The Aware sexuality programme for schools has emerged as one of the core points of contention between the organisation's new and old guard.

Last week, in giving her take on why some members of the group decided to mount a leadership takeover, senior lawyer Thio Su Mien - who described herself as the 'feminist mentor' of the new guard - said the Aware programme encouraged lesbianism and homosexuality.

She said the programme taught young girls from the ages of 12 to 18 that it is okay to experiment with each other. She talked to some parents about this, and they were flabbergasted, she added.

This had galvanised the members of the new guard into action, she said. On Tuesday, however, Mr Iswaran countered this view. He said the ministry had not received any complaints about the programme, and has had no reason to intervene thus far.

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Swine flu: Boy may be Patient Zero

April 29, 2009

Swine flu outbreak

Boy may be Patient Zero

		The boy, who survived, could be the earliest known victim in Mexico of the never-before-seen virus, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said on Monday (left). -- PHOTO: REUTERS

MEXICO CITY - A FOUR-YEAR-OLD has emerged as a possible Patient Zero as Mexico, at the centre of a global swine flu epidemic, struggled to piece together its lethal march.

The boy, who survived, could be the earliest known victim in Mexico of the never-before-seen virus, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said on Monday. He could have contacted the virus even before Ms Maria Adela Gutierrez, 39, the first fatality of the swine flu confirmed by the Mexican government. Ms Gutierrez died on April 13 in the southern city of Oaxaca.

Tests show that the little boy contracted the disease at least two weeks earlier in neighbouring Veracruz state, where a community has been protesting against pollution from a large pig farm, Dr Cordova said. The boy's case provides an important clue of the strain's path.

He lived near a pig farm run by a US-Mexican company, Granjas Carroll, in the municipality of Perote. He contracted the disease on April 2, Dr Cordova said, and was part of a group of residents who came down with what at the time was labelled a particularly bad case of the flu in the area. Some people reported being sick even as early as February.

Local residents were convinced they were sickened by air and water contamination from pig waste. But a spokesman for Granjas Carroll said the company has found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine influenza in its swine herd or its employees.

Local health workers intervened early this month, sealing off a town in Perote and spraying to kill off flies. Local officials also claimed that the infection might have started with a migrant farmer who returned from work in the United States.

Only one sample from the group who was ill - that belonging to the boy - was preserved. It was only after US and Canadian epidemiologists discovered the true nature of the virus that Mexico submitted the sample for international testing, and discovered what he suffered from.

The boy has since recovered.

It is unknown how many more of the hundreds of people who fell sick around April 2 in Perote were also infected by the more virulent strain.

In another ominous disclosure, officials said Ms Gutierrez, the first confirmed fatality of the swine flu, worked as a door-to-door census-taker and might have had contact with scores of people before being hospitalised. But Oaxaca officials denied local news reports that said she had infected 20 people, plus her husband and children. -- LOS ANGELES TIMES, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Swine flu: S'pore raises flu alert level

April 29, 2009

Swine flu outbreak

S'pore raises flu alert level

Yellow alert in place as swine flu spreads to Europe and Middle East

By Bertha Henson, Associate Editor
		Gowned nurses prepare equipment at the dedicated assessment and decontamination room for Swine Flu at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), where suspected cases are isolated after being brought from the airport. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

SINGAPORE is ramping up measures to guard against swine flu, which has spread beyond the Americas to Europe and the Middle East and possibly Asia.

From Wednesday, thermal scanners, already deployed at Changi Airport, will be placed at the Harbourfront Centre and Tanah Merah ferry terminals. At other sea entry points, such as West Coast Pier and Changi Ferry Terminal, temperature checks will be done by thermometer.

VIDEO Hawkers hit due to swine flu (2:43) SINGAPORE TAKING NO CHANCES 'IT is like an act of God. It's like Sars. How long will it last? I don't know. But we're taking all the precautions. So far, nobody has been affected. I don't know how many of our people are doing business in Mexico, but if they come back, they will be quarantined. ... more

Hospitals, which already require front-line staff to don masks and gowns, will be taking further measures, such as rescheduling elective admissions, cutting down the number of visitors patients can receive, as well as recording their particulars to facilitate contact tracing. Schools will also carry out a temperature-taking exercise this week.

The flurry of activity comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) decided late on Monday night to raise pandemic alert levels from 3 to 4, two short of the maximum. This means that the virus is circulating among humans, and is capable of causing community-level outbreaks.

In Singapore, the Health Ministry (MOH) raised the alert level last night from green to yellow, on a five-colour alert system which rises from green to yellow, orange, red and the most serious, black. 'This is to better brace ourselves to handle situations where there may be isolated imported cases but no sustained local transmission,' it said in a statement.

The colour code is a guide for all parties on how to respond at different stages of a potential pandemic. Actions listed under the yellow strategy include twice-daily temperature checks on hospital staff and a ban on patient transfers between hospitals, except in emergencies.

Last night, National University Hospital staff were already in yellow mode: A thermal scanner is in place to screen visitors. Staff have also been told to stop visitors, except those accompanying children who are patients, from entering the Accident & Emergency department. 'It feels similar to the Sars days, when thorough checks were in place, but it's not that extreme yet where visitors are totally barred,' said a hospital administrative staff.

Here, 16 people have been referred to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) and one person was seen at the Singapore General Hospital, said MOH. So far, four have tested negative for influenza A. Preliminary test results can be obtained in a day, but confirmation of the swine flu H1N1 strain will take up to seven days.

On Tuesday, the Government Gazette showed that MOH has authorised seven people to exercise powers under the Infectious Diseases Act till July 31. These include being able to compel those suspected of having the virus to go through a blood test.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force has put out an urgent call for 'flu pandemic supplies' on the website the Government uses to call for tenders. It could not specify what these supplies were but it made clear that delivery time and shelf life were more important than price. The deadline is on Thursday.

Also last night, MOH gave the assurance that it has enough of the antiviral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, to treat Singaporeans should the need arise. 'Members of the public should thus avoid stockpiling of these antiviral drugs,' it added.

Additional reporting by Tan Wei Zhen

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US: Flu deaths inevitable

April 29, 2009

US: Flu deaths inevitable

		Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States or elsewhere. The CDC estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - US officials warned on Tuesday that swine-flu related deaths were likely in the United States as the disease that killed scores in Mexico continued to spread across the world and governments intensified steps to battle the outbreak.

The number of confirmed cases in the United States was raised to 64, but states and cities were reporting more suspected cases. In New York, the city's health commissioner said 'many hundreds' of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.

Developments on swine flu worldwide KEY developments on swine flu outbreaks, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organisation, and government officials: Deaths: 152, all in Mexico, 20 confirmed as swine flu and rest suspected. ... more Border controls won't work FOR all the government intervention, health officials around the world suggested the flu virus strain was spreading so fast that efforts to contain it might prove ineffective. 'Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work,' World Health Organisation spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the Sars epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy. ... more

President Barack Obama asked Congress for US$1.5 billion (S$2.24 billion) in emergency funds to fight the fast-spreading disease.

Canada reported 13 cases and urged people to avoid unnecessary travel to Mexico; Cuba banned flights to Mexico, where public life is being altered dramatically by illness.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office was investigating the recent deaths of two men for links to swine flu. So far, no deaths linked to the disease have been reported outside Mexico.

But Richard Besser, acting director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta: 'I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection.

That was echoed by US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. 'It is very likely that we will see more serious presentations of illness and some deaths as we go through this flu cycle,' she said.

Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States or elsewhere. The CDC estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States.

But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which humans may have no natural immunity.

Ms Napolitano suggested that closing the border with Mexico wouldn't stop the spread of the illness. She pointed out that the US does a great deal of trade with Mexico and 'that would be a very, very heavy cost for - as the epidemiologists tell us - would be marginal, if any, utility in terms of actually preventing the spread of the virus.' Mr Besser said the US has 64 confirmed cases across five states, with 45 in New York, one in Ohio, two in Kansas, six in Texas and 10 in California.

New York has the largest number of swine flu cases, with a heavy concentration at a Catholic school in Queens section of New York City, where students recently went on a spring break trip to Mexico.

There also were indications that the outbreak may have spread beyond the school, with two people hospitalised and officials closing a school for autistic kids down the street. Those two hospitalisations are in addition to the five hospitalizations announced by the CDC, including three in California and two in Texas.

'It is here and it is spreading,' New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said. 'We do not know whether it will continue to spread.'

The flu is believed to have killed more than 150 people in Mexico. Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, cracked down even further on public life, closing gyms, swimming pools and pool halls and ordering restaurants to limit service to takeout. Earlier, the city shut down schools, state-run theaters and other public places. -- AP

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