Author - cherian

Singapore is now going through what we call a “circuit breaker”. Have you thought about where this term comes from?

A circuit breaker is actually a device that automatically cuts off the flow of electricity in case of an overload. Your home has circuit breakers. They look like this (but don’t touch the switches!):

You may have experienced a blackout at home when too many appliances are turned on at the same time. Although the blackout is an inconvenience, it is result of a circuit breaker doing its job. It is stopping the overload from causing serious damage, especially a fire.

Similarly, the Covid-19 “circuit breaker” is inconvenient, but it is protecting Singapore from a dangerous rise in infections that would overload the health system. (Read our April story 01 to find out why.)

There are many other English terms that are metaphors from physics and other sciences. The crossword puzzle contains just a few.

Type your answers into the boxes. If your word turns green, it means you got it right. If it turns red, you need to try again: you can type over the previous word you entered.

Can’t see all the clues? Just point at the Across or Down list and scroll down to read the rest of the clues.

This educational video uses computer graphics to show how a dead body is mummified. As your parents or others at home may not like you watching it, please ask them first. When you click the image below, you will be taken to the Khan Academy educational website where you can watch the video.

To go back to the story, click here.

The global pandemic is not only a medical problem. It is also about money.

The Singapore government has promised almost $59.9 billion to help Singapore get through the Covid-19 crisis. That is a huge amount of money to spend in a short time.

Obviously, this is not just for buying masks. In fact, most of the money is not for fighting the disease itself. The Covid-19 pandemic is a health challenge that is causing an economic challenge.

The health challenge

Covid-19 is not the deadliest disease in the world. Ebola, for example, is far more dangerous. Cigarettes will probably kill more people this year than Covid-19.

The big problem with Covid-19 is that it spreads so easily from person to person. Every day, a large number of people are catching it. They, in turn, are spreading it to even more people. The world needs to slow down the spread of the disease. Otherwise, the number of people who fall sick at the same time will overwhelm hospitals.

Doctors and nurses know how to look after Covid-19 patients when there are enough hospital beds and medical equipment. But, medical professionals will struggle to cope if too many patients need treatment all at once. In countries where that has already happened, patients do not get the care they need. This is why it is so important to slow down the pandemic.

Experts agree that the best way to stop the virus from jumping from person to person is for people to avoid grouping together. Home-based learning — what you are doing now — is just one of the big changes that the world is going through. The stay-home, no-crowds rule is also causing a big strain on the economy.

The economic challenge

The “economy” (say “e-kon-uh-mi”) is the word we use to describe all the activity taking place between buyers and sellers. Economic (say “e-kuh-naw-mik”) activity happens when big companies construct buildings or ships, when a gymnastics coach trains a team, or when an aunty buys you a birthday present.

The economy is very important because all those different activities enable adults to earn money. In good years, the total amount of economic activity in a country increases. That is what adults mean by “economic growth”. It means more opportunities to find work or start businesses.

In bad times, the economy can shrink. This is called a recession. Experts suspect that the Covid-19 pandemic will cause a global recession. In Singapore, many kinds of economic activity have already been badly hit.

Many activities depend on the millions of visitors who come to Singapore for meetings and holidays every year. Visitors have stopped coming because of the controls on international travel. As a result, big hotels, event organisers, tour guides, private bus drivers, and many others in the travel and tourism business do not have enough work.

Although your lessons are now home-based, there are many kinds of work that must be done face-to-face. Such businesses are suffering because people are avoiding crowds. Coaches who need meet their teams on the court or field have to cancel training. Restaurants that were depending on crowds visiting their mall suddenly have too few customers.

Singapore also has thousands of companies that do business with other countries. For example, there are factories building high-tech parts for aeroplane makers overseas, and others making food products for export. These are badly affected because other countries’ economies are also being hit. 

How the government is helping

People in Singapore could be in big trouble if the government does not step in to help. “Our immediate priority is to save jobs, support our workers, and protect livelihoods,” said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat when he announced the government’s multi-billion-dollar plan.

It has made a long list of ways it will help. For example, since many businesses are not making enough money, the government will use some of the $59.9 billion to help them pay their workers. If the government does not do this, bosses might be forced to ask workers to go, leaving many people jobless.

Since there is not enough work for everyone, the government is also spending money to help people go for training courses during this period. Thus, when the economy improves, they will be well prepared for their next job. Singaporeans who require extra help will also receive money, especially to buy food and other daily needs.

Where the money comes from

You may be wondering how Singapore can afford to spend so much money. Every year, the government collects money from various sources, such as GST and other taxes that people and companies pay. In normal years, it does not spend more money than it expects to receive. But, this is not a normal year. The government will dip into Singapore’s savings, called the “reserves”, to help cover the $60 billion. Around $21 billion will come from the reserves.

The main reason why Singapore has so much savings is because previous generations were careful not to over-spend. By acting responsibly in the past, Singaporeans can now be generous when people really need help. “We will stand with our fellow Singaporeans, to look out and care for one another, at a time of fear and anxiety,” Mr Heng said.

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Crossword puzzle

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Not just doctors

Frontline medical staff play a big role, but they also need other things. To cope with large numbers of Covid-19 cases, the World Health Organization says countries must have all the following.

Staff

There must be enough doctors, nurses, paramedics, social workers, and others with the skills to help the sick and their families.

Space

Since there may not be enough room in existing hospitals, there must be a plan to convert hotels, community centres, and other suitable buildings into medical facilities.

Supplies

Patients need medicines. For those whose lungs are weak, there must be enough ventilators and other machines to help them breathe.

Systems

Good systems help ensure that the different teams work together smoothly. For example, supplies and staff must be sent to the spaces where they are most needed.

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VOCAB BUILDER

livelihoods (say “lyv-li-hoods”; noun) = ways of getting the things one needs to survive, such as working to earn money to buy food.

overwhelm (say “o-ver-wellm”; verb) = run over; be too much to handle.

NG SOCK LING looks at the different ways crops are produced around the world.

A high-tech farming system in Siberia, where leafy greens are grown in a greenhouse under controlled conditions. It yields 10 times as much crops as traditional farming and needs very little chemical pesticides. Could this be the answer to feeding the world’s population? [Photo: Luca Locatelli]

Seeding season in Kimba, South Australia. A conducive climate and modern farming methods like crop rotation, fertilisers, and weed and pest management produce good quality crops in abundance. South Australia exports some 5 million tonnes of grains to the rest of the world. These include barley, oats, and wheat. [Photo: Randall Cliff]

Mr Valero waters his crops with the help of a small solar-powered water pump. Mr Valero used to be a fisherman at Lake Poopó. However, the lake — the second largest in Bolivia — has dried up due an increasingly warm climate and the overuse of its water. Now, Mr Valero hopes farming will feed his family. [Photo: Marco Garofalo]

VOCAB BUILDER

greenhouse (say “green-haus”; noun) = a glass building for growing plants, where plants are protected from the cold weather.

repurposed (say “ri-per-pes’d”; verb) = adapted for a different use.

• All the photos are shortlisted entries for the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

How did luxury goods factories switch to making life-saving products within weeks? ZACHARY JOHN explains.

COVID-19 has changed life for people everywhere. People are adjusting to new norms like social distancing, routine temperature checks and washing our hands more regularly. Businesses around the world are facing big changes too. Some companies have been forced to close, while some are allowing employees to work from home.

A few companies around the world have taken their response to the virus in an unexpected direction. These companies repurposed their factories to manufacture goods or equipment that can help the fight against COVID-19. 

LVMH is the biggest luxury company in the world. It is a French multinational conglomerate that owns Louis Vuitton, Singaporean restaurant chain Crystal Jade, and many other high-end brands. Last month, when the French government warned that hospitals in Paris might face hand sanitiser shortages, LVMH converted their perfume production lines to produce hand sanitiser. These are the same factories that produce perfume for some of the world’s biggest names, such as Christian Dior, Guerlain, and Givenchy.

LVMH factories started producing hand sanitiser within just 72 hours of the French government’s call for help. In its first week of production, LVMH’s first-ever hand sanitiser factory produced 12 tonnes of it, which was donated to 39 hospitals in Paris. Another cosmetics company, L’Oreal, also started making hand sanitiser and donated millions of units to nursing homes and hospitals in France.

LVMH’s Secretary General, Marc-Antoine Jamet, told Bloomberg that the fast transition from perfume to pharmaceuticals was possible because hand sanitiser and perfume are chemically similar. He went as far as to say, “It’s nearly the same recipe sometimes.” Hand sanitiser is mostly made up of purified water, alcohol, and glycerine — the main components of perfume. Hand sanitiser also has a consistency similar to that of soap gels sold by some LVMH brands. This meant LVMH factories already had the necessary ingredients, the machines that pump and bottle gels, as well as the plastic bottles and caps used to contain hand sanitiser. This made switching from making perfume or soap to hand sanitiser a straightforward process.

New roles during crisis

In late January, while the Chinese government was scrambling to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, electric car manufacturer BYD decided to start making face masks and disinfectants. BYD’s President, Wang Chuanfu, created a task-force made up of 3,000 engineers to start work on producing face masks. In just two weeks, the task-force completed two months’ worth of work, which included designing and building 100 new mask production lines from scratch.

BYD’s newly designed machines each consist of more than 1,000 small parts, including gears, chains, and rollers. BYD’s huge manufacturing infrastructure meant they already had 90 percent of the parts needed to build the new mask production lines in-house. By the middle of March, BYD had become the world’s biggest manufacturer of masks, with a team of 100 staff working around the clock to produce five million masks per day. 

Meanwhile, in the US, car makers were forced to shut down their factories to protect their workers from COVID-19. The US is facing a nationwide shortage of ventilators in hospitals, which leaves many critically ill patients without access to life saving equipment. Automobile industry giants General Motors and Ford have started producing ventilators — devices that help people to breathe — to try and save more American lives.

General Motors cleared out an idle factory to make room for a new ventilator production line. They are designing it together with Ventec, a medical supplies company. Ventec already makes ventilators, producing 200 a month. It is estimated, however, that New York state alone requires about 30,000 new ventilators — so much more needs to be done. White House officials hope that with General Motors joining forces with Ventec, the combined resources of both companies will lead to an increase in production to at least 2,000 units a month by the end of April.

We sometimes think that progress in science and technology is just about faster internet, longer battery life or newer phones. Now we know that creative use of technology can achieve so much more. Car makers are easily making ventilators, perfume factories are producing medical-grade hand sanitiser, and electric car companies have become the biggest mask manufacturers in the world — in just a matter of weeks.

VOCAB BUILDER

conglomerate (say “kon-glo-me-rayt”; noun) = a large corporation

in-house (say “in-haus”; adjective) = within an organisation.

pharmaceuticals (say “far-me-siu-ti-kels”; noun) = medicinal drugs.

“Between the pages of a book

is a lovely place to be.”

— Unknown

Dear friend, Due to the current COVID situation, many of us would most likely be staying home more often. This may seem stifling to some, but it is not necessarily so. Books can help! They allow us to travel to places and explore lands beyond our imagination. We can experience adventure, mystery, and magic. We can meet unforgettable people, walk in their shoes, and even travel back and forth in time. We can do all this and more, while staying right where we are. So, let’s read a book today! — Linda Yew

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