ZACHARY JOHN shares some unusual news from around the world.
Serious Lego
When I was a child, Lego meant hours of building fun for me — and many plastic pieces to be put away after that. Now, a man in Vietnam, Hoang Dang, has created a studio that looks like many children’s dream. With what looks like millions of Lego pieces crammed into drawers stacked floor to ceiling on all four walls of his workshop, Mr Hoang recreates Vietnamese scenes in intricate detail. One scene made up of 5,000 pieces can take Mr Hoang up to five months to complete. “I often spend a whole evening to look for just that one brick,” Mr Hoang told Reuters. While Mr Hoang hopes to contribute to the growth of the serious-Lego community in Vietnam, he mainly uses Lego as a means to rest and relax. “Building Lego helps us to recharge our creative energy after working on long and tiring projects,” he said.
Hoang Dang and his Lego workshop at home. (The cat is real.) [Photo: Hoang Dang Facebook.]
A water-tight case
Taiwan is in the midst of its worst drought in over 50 years. With no seasonal typhoons and unusually little rain, more than one million households and businesses are on water rationing programmes. For one Taiwanese man, however, the drought has brought fantastic news. More than a year ago, the man — identified by Taiwan News only as Mr Chen — was paddle boarding in the famous Sun Moon Lake. He accidentally dropped his then brand-new iPhone 11 into the water. The phone was in a water-tight case. However, the lake was too deep for Mr Chen to recover the phone. With the drought, the Sun Moon Lake has now dried into an arid mud puddle. Mr Chen’s iPhone 11 was found! Though the case was encrusted in mud, the phone survived. Mr Chen posted on Facebook that after charging it, his phone was as good as new.
No classmates, just tombstones
A cemetery in Bolivia. [Photo: Matthew Straubmuller.]
As a place with both tests and bullies, school can be a very scary place for some kids. Imagine, though, if you had to go to a cemetery instead. For Neydi Alanoca, a primary school student in Bolivia, going to school does mean going to a cemetery. With classes still online, Neydi has no choice but to follow her mother to work at a local cemetery. There, Neydi can use the free wifi and her mother’s handphone to take part in virtual classes. “Because of the situation we are in, I have to bring her to work,” Neydi’s mother, Jeanete Alanoca, told Reuters. On the bright side, at least her new “classmates” are very quiet and do not disturb her.
Singing low
For many musicians, life is a series of highs and lows. However, for Canadian singer Joy Chapman, it is all about getting lower and lower. Last month, Ms Chapman was awarded the Guinness World Record for performing the lowest note recorded by a female singer. She tried many times but ran into technical difficulties. Ms Chapman finally managed to perform a C1 note, at 33.57Hz, while singing into a microphone connected to specialised sound technology. C1 is the first “C” note on a piano — the one on the extreme left-hand side of a keyboard. The lowest audible frequency is 20Hz, and the experience of that would be more like a vibration than a sound. Ms Chapman’s world record performance, which is on YouTube, sounded like thunder rumbling. As a sound enthusiast, I found Ms Chapman’s “singing” interesting, if not pleasant.
Intruder cleans up
It was past midnight when Yana Syndor was woken up by a sound in her house. “I heard it over my meditation music, ‘Boom, boom, boom’,” Ms Syndor told KOVR-TV. She frantically texted her friends that someone was in her house, and they told her to call the police. Quietly, Ms Syndor dialled 911 before hiding in her closet with her daughter. The police arrived and broke Ms Syndor’s door down, only to find the “intruder” rolling around her living room. It was the Syndor family’s robot vacuum cleaner. An embarrassed Ms Syndor told KOVR-TV her son had put it on without her knowing. “We hadn’t used this vacuum in almost two years,” she said. At least this intruder cleans up after itself.
VOCAB BUILDER
audible(say “o-di-bel”; adjective) = able to be heard.
drought(say “draut”; noun) = a long time with very little or no rain.
Singing low
Watch Joy Chapman set the world record for singing the lowest note.
Brazil has one of the world’s highest numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, no thanks to their president. ANNABELLE LIANG reports.
When the number of COVID-19 cases started rising last year, many countries including Singapore went into lockdown. Their leaders took the virus seriously. They wore face masks and asked the public to do the same.
In most countries, schools conducted lessons online so that students could stay safe at home. People did not go to their workplaces unless it was necessary. Places where large groups gathered, such as cinemas, were closed. These countries have mostly had fewer cases since. They are now vaccinating their populations, and opening their borders to more visitors.
However, things are getting worse in Brazil. The country has over 14 million infections and around 400,000 deaths. One reason why the numbers are so large is that Brazil is a huge country. With more than 200 million people living there, its population is almost 40 times the size of Singapore.
However, experts say that Brazil should not have been so badly hit. They blame the president, Jair Bolsonaro, for letting things get out of control.
Mr Bolsonaro has refused to put Brazil under lockdown. He said the virus was “just a little flu” and told businesses to stay open. He has also broken official guidelines asking people to stay a distance away from others in public.
Mr Bolsonaro has attended anti-lockdown rallies. At one rally, he grasped the hands of people next to him and raised them up to the cheering crowd. Later on, he posed for pictures with the crowd and lifted children in the air. Such stunts went against the health authorities’ instructions that people should keep a safe distance from one another. At another event, Mr Bolsonaro did push-ups with men in military outfits. “Above all, (people) want freedom. They want democracy, they want respect,” he said in a video that was posted online.
Leaders like Mr Bolsonaro are known as “populists” — more interested in being popular by being entertaining and telling supporters things that make them happy in the short term, instead of actually solving problems.
Unwise leadership
Mr Bolsonaro’s actions were unwise. People need leaders like him for guidance on how to respond to the virus. Because of the way he was acting, many went on with life as usual. It appeared as though the virus was not dangerous. This was far from the truth.
The virus spread. Hospitals were packed with the sick and dying who needed help. “It’s not a flu. It’s the worst thing we have ever faced in our professional lives,” Jacques Sztajnbok said in an interview with CNN. Dr Sztajnbok works at the intensive care unit at the Emilio Ribas Infectious Disease Institute in Sao Paulo. Even as he treats patients, he worries about his own health.
Many hospitals have had to turn patients away. They are running out of beds, oxygen supplies, and medication. This has taken a toll on staff.
“It creates a great sense of guilt among healthcare workers,” said Rita Prieb, a psychologist at the Clinical Hospital of Porto Alegre. “They think, ‘I chose one and left behind the other.’”
“Only people who have seen it know,” Diego Vieira told The Washington Post newspaper. “The patient dies… begging for air, looking at you with desperation in search of help. But, if I don’t have oxygen, how can I help?” Dr Vieira’s clinic in the state of Ceara had run out of resources. He had to choose between sending a young man or an elderly woman for treatment at the hospital.
“And then, imagine spending 24 hours on a shift, only to leave the hospital and see people on the streets — drinking, talking, getting together in big groups, as if nothing is happening,” Dr Vieira added.
The road ahead
It is a difficult road ahead for Brazil. President Bolsonaro is still against a lockdown. He fears that it would affect the economy. But, not having one has arguably made things worse. More people are lining up in the slums, or favelas, for food handouts every day.
In the Heliopolis favela, households receive a bowl of pasta with meat, a portion of rice, two packets of biscuits and a carton of milk. This is usually their only meal.
“The vast majority of people who live in the favelas work in the informal economy, as cleaners in homes or helping to bake cakes,” said Marcivan Barreto, who manages handouts in the favela and other areas. “So, when businesses close or houses stop using them, they feel the impact.”
There are small glimmers of hope. Some Brazilian states have imposed lockdowns of their own without Mr Bolsonaro’s support. The country has also begun to vaccinate the elderly. However, Brazil is now dealing with a new variant of the virus as well. Vaccines may be less effective against this new variant.
“The new P1 variant is much more transmissible, and very probably it is also much more aggressive. And, it is contaminating a lot of young people,” said Margareth Dalcolmo, a pneumologistand researcher at the Fiocruz Institute.
VOCAB BUILDER
psychologist(say “sai-ko-lo-jist”; noun) = someone who studies the human mind, emotions, and behaviour.
pneumologist(say “new-mo-lo-gist”; noun) = a specialist in diseases affecting our breathing.
A decoration on a vase from 410 BC shows Pelops riding off with the princess Hippodamia after winning a chariot race. One legend says that Pelops celebrated his triumph by hosting an athletics event that started the ancient Olympic games.
Japan hopes to beat the COVID-19 pandemic and go ahead with the Tokyo Olympics in July. OMAR CHAUDHURI looks back at the history of this global event.
The modern Olympic Games started in 1896, but it was the Greeks in ancient times who came up with the idea of a competition across multiple sports. There are two competing myths of how the ancient games began.
One is about King Oeomaus who challenged any man to ride away with his daughter, Hippodamia, on a chariot without getting killed by King Oeomaus himself. Many failed, but a man named Pelops managed to sabotage the axle on the king’s chariot. He rode away with the daughter whilst the king’s chariot collapsed. Pelops hosted a wedding celebration that included athletic games. Some regard this occasion to be the first Olympics.
The other story concerns Heracles, son of Zeus. A Greek goddess named Hera forced Heracles into killing his children. To redeem his honour, he served King Eurystheus, who ordered him to do twelve tasks for him. After completing the tasks, Heracles supposedly organised the Olympic games to celebrate his fifth labour, in which he had to clean horse stalls. In holding this event, he was thanking Zeus for helping him to complete the task. Both these stories are set in Olympia.
Although the exact date is disputed, it is set around 776 BC. There were only men at the games. The athletes competed in the nude; the beauty of their nakedness reflected the inner harmony and balance of their body and mind. These events brought together athletes from Africa, Spain, and Greece.
The opening ceremony of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Greece.
Modern Olympics
The modern Olympics began in 1896. The whole idea of reviving the Greek tradition was sparked by the discovery of Olympia, the ancient Olympic home.
Many people became interested in the ancient city, and the games that went on there. One of them was Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator. On 23 June 1894, he proposed a radical idea to start the modern Olympics. Soon an official organisation, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was formed, leading to the staging of the first modern Olympics in Athens two years later. Over 300 athletes from 14 nations competed in this grand event.
The summer Olympics has continued every four years — except for breaks for world wars — ever since.
Olympic symbols
The Olympics is not just a sporting event but signifies a deeper and broader meaning to the world. Three things symbolise the Olympics: the five rings, the motto, and the torch. The five interlacing rings represent the five continents — Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. They show the universality and unity of the Olympics and the meeting of athletes from across the world.
The motto in Latin is Citius, Altius, Fortius, which means swifter, higher, stronger. It encourages all athletes to give their best and strive for personal excellence.
The torch is lit in the ancient city of Olympia, in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera. The only way the torch can be lit is by the sun’s rays. It is then passed in a relay fashion to Athens, and then to its destination, the host city. The flame is only extinguished at the end of the games.
Traditions
There are common traditions and events that the modern Olympics have with the ancient Olympics. The marathon is inspired by the long journey of a Greek soldier in 490 BC and was introduced in the modern Olympics. However, running was a common tradition across both eras. In the first ancient Olympics, there was a foot race lasting about 200 yards, and now we have all kinds of running events.
The pentathlon existed in both the modern and ancient games, but is very different in its structure today. In ancient times, the events were discus, jumping, javelin, running, and wrestling. In the modern games, the events are pistol shooting, epee fencing, swimming, riding, and cross-country running.
The similarities are not just in the sport. The modern Olympics has elaborate opening and closing ceremonies. The ancient Olympics had many ceremonies throughout the competition. Since the ancient Olympics was done in honour of Zeus, one of the main ceremonies in the ancient games was to swear in front of Zeus’ statue that the athletes would compete in the games fairly.
There is no money at stake in the Olympics, just pride for representing one’s nation. The games are not about beating your opponent, it is about competing together. One hundred and twenty-five years on from when the Olympics was born — and one year later than planned — it arrives in Tokyo for the second time, making it only the third city to host the Olympics multiple times. From a mere 14 countries in 1896, to over 200 nations in 2021, the Olympics is the jewel in the crown of all sporting events.
VOCAB BUILDER
sabotage(say “se-bo-taj”; verb) = destroy or damage something to gain an advantage over one’s competitor.
pentathlon(say “pen-teth-lon”; noun) = an athletic event with five different sports for each competitor.
Screws made of silk protein (left) could one day replace metal parts. The picture on the right shows x-ray images of screws being used to repair bones. [Photo: Gabriel Perrone.]
We think of silk as something really soft, yet scientists say it could be used to screw bones together. SHAMEEN IDICULLA reports.
Silk does not just make beautiful clothes. Experiments have proven that it can also help fix broken bones. This discovery could change the way doctors do their work.
Normally, surgeons use metal plates and screws to hold together bone fragments till a fracture heals. This has many disadvantages. For one, metal plates are hard and stiff, which can damage the much-softer bones. They can also cause infections and delay healing sometimes. And, once the bones are joined back together, doctors often have to perform a second surgery to remove these metal devices from the human body.
Medical engineers have found that silk protein can be folded to produce a tough material that can replace metal.
Silk may be better
“Silk materials are extremely robust,” says Dr David Kaplan, who heads one of the teams. While it is tough enough to hold bone pieces together, it is also lighter and more flexible than metal. Therefore, there is less chance of it causing damage to bones.
Doctors can also track better how the injury is healing. Metal plates and screws are visible on x-rays and tend to block the doctor from seeing certain sections of the fracture. Silk, on the other hand, is not picked up on x-rays, and will thus give the doctor a clearer view.
Another advantage is that silk can dissolve over time without harming the body. Thus, silk screws and plates will slowly disappear on their own once their jobs are done, without doctors having to perform a second surgery to remove them.
Dr Kaplan adds that different medicines can also be integrated into these silk devices so as to prevent infection and aid in the regrowth of bones.
A silk moth (left). Silk cocoons (right) are the pupa stage of this creature’s metamorphosis. The cocoons are spun out of fine silk fibre by silkworms, which are the caterpillar or larva stage. [Photo: Ash Bowie, KWZ.]
Research continues
To test their theory out, the scientists created 28 special screws from silk fibres and fixed them on the hind legs of six rats. The screws stayed for four to eight weeks, which was long enough time for bones to mend. Afterward, the silk screws began to dissolve. Just as the scientists hoped they would. The next step would be to test the screws out on larger animals and then on humans.
“The future is very exciting,” says Dr Kaplan. “We envision a whole set of orthopaedic devices for repair based on this — from plates and screws to almost any kind of device you can think of where you don’t want hardware left in the body.”
VOCAB BUILDER
Disadvantages (say ‘dis-ad-van-te-jes’; noun) = conditions that cause problems.
orthopaedic(say ‘or-tho-pe-dik”; adjective) = a branch of medicine dealing with bones or muscles.
THE SILK CRAZE Silk was one of the main reasons for trade between China and Europe 2,000 years ago. When Europeans found out about the silk cloth produced in China, they fell in love with this soft and shiny material. It was much more attractive than the rough wool they were used to.
Merchants of the Han Dynasty in China sold huge quantities of silk to the Romans. They transported their goods over land, through the deserts of Central Asia, usually on the backs of camels. These trade routes came to be known as “the Silk Road”.
The Silk Road was heavily used from about 200 BCE to 1450 CE. It wasn’t just used for Chinese silk. Traders also transported olive oil and wine from Italy; Chinese gold, silver, iron, and porcelain; Indian cotton; Arabian incense, spices, and tortoiseshells; and East African ivory.
However, perhaps the most interesting thing that was traded was ideas. The Silk Road allowed religions like Buddhism and Islam to spread peacefully across Asia.
Activity
Jumbled words
Put the letters in the right order to figure out the real words. Hint: You can find them all in the article.
Market day at Okere Mom-Kok. [Photo: Ojok Okello Facebook.]
SUMI THOMAS reports on how a dying village in Uganda has been given new life.
During a civil war in the 1980s, a remote little village called Okere Mom-Kok was almost completely destroyed. The villagers who remained had to travel long distances to buy food and other supplies. The children’s school was far away. There were no hospitals or clinics nearby either.
Things are different now. From the front door of his house in that village, Ojok Okello watches children play and learn at a kindergarten. There is much hustle and bustle in the market and other public spaces in Okere Mom-Kok. A newly-revived kickboxing team puts up shows for the community. In the evening, the place is alive with people gathering to watch football on a big screen and to enjoy other social activities.
These changes are mainly the result of Mr Okello’s ambitious projects in the village. At first, he paid for the projects with his own money. “I think what I’m doing here is radical,” he told The Guardian.
Amina Yasin is an expert in city planning. She observes that Okere is unique and successful because it is intentionally being developed with the whole community in mind.
Mr Okello had left the village as a baby when his father was killed in the civil war. Years later, when he was in his 20s, he returned to visit his relatives. He was deeply troubled by the helplessness and poverty he saw.
Some years later, in 2018, he visited the village again. He asked the locals about their problems and what they needed. Then, he started working on projects to help the villagers meet their needs. He collectively calls the projects “Okere City”.
Ojok Okello [Photo: Ojok Okello Facebook.]
Education for all
One of Mr Okello’s first projects was a kindergarten. Mr Okello used his savings to build a small kindergarten on a plot of land that his relatives offered.
Parents pay half of the school fees in cash. They pay the remaining fees in maize, sugar, beans, and other farm produce. Foreign donors sponsor some of the children’s schooling.
Recently, Mr Okello also built a school. Lessons started at Okere City Primary School in April 2021 with five pupils and two teachers. They formed the Primary 4 class as directed by their government.
The adults too wanted to learn to read and write. So, Mr Okello started programmes for adults where they learn life skills and technical skills. Mr Okello and the community feel that education is the most important weapon in the fight against poverty.
Better healthcare
Three people died of malaria in just three months in Okere Mom-Kok. This prompted Mr Okello to open a clinic. This too was run with the whole community in mind. Residents could pay their medical bills in instalments. Besides treating common illnesses, the clinic also provides counselling and health education, just like clinics in the cities.
Thanks to its new facilities, Okere Mom-Kok is becoming a magnet that draws people from nearby villages. Mr Okello’s work has achieved better living standards for many within a short time.
“In the past we used to trek long distances to get medical services, but that is no more,” Govile Ogwang, who lives in a nearby village, said.
Another health issue Mr Okello and his team addressed was waterborne diseases. Villagers used to get water from wells. These wells were open and unprotected, and dried up during prolonged dry seasons. Now, villagers have clean water from a borehole, thanks again to Mr Okello. This helps to reduce cholera outbreaks, which are common in the region.
What does Black Panther’s vibranium have to do with shea butter from Mr Okello’s village? Read the story to find out. [Photo: Marvel, Ojok Okello Facebook.]
Power of shea butter
Isaac Newton discovered gravity when he observed an apple fall from its tree. Mr Okello’s next inspiration came while he was seated under a shea tree. The villagers had told him that they needed a way to make money.
“I thought about [Marvel’s] Wakanda and Black Panther — they had vibranium. This shea tree could be our vibranium,” Mr Okello told The Guardian. Together with the villagers, he experimented with processing shea nuts and turning them into butter for cooking and cosmetics.
The whole village now smells of shea butter. And, Okere Shea Butter is distributed to shops in 10 Ugandan cities. This project has also been good for the endangered shea trees. Now, they are protected, regrown, and conserved.
Growing trust
It took time for the people of Okere Mom-Kok to believe in Mr Okello. They had looked on him as a foreigner at first. Yet, Mr Okello kept talking to them and taking their feedback. They saw how he helped them get what they needed. He now has their trust and support.
Mr Okello continues to engage the residents in transforming their village. “I want us to be responsible for shaping the destiny and the future of the project,” he said.
VOCAB BUILDER
instalments(say “in-stal-mentz”; noun) = payment in parts, spread over a period of time.
borehole(say “bor-hoel”; noun) = a deep and narrow hole made in the ground to get water or oil.
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A wolf at Yellowstone National Park. DaoZhen thinks reintroducing animals back into the wild must be done thoughtfully. [Photo: Mike Van Dalen.]
Rewilding is a double-edged sword
From: DaoZhen, Pri 6, Telok Kurau Primary
I read the article on rewilding in the February 2021 issue of What’s Up, and I agree that rewilding, like many things in life, is a double-edged sword. Rewilding has significant potential to increase biodiversity and create self-sustainable environments. Rewilding aims to do this by reintroducing lost animal species to natural environments. The results of rewilding can only be satisfactory if you reintroduce into the wild the correct number of the certain species. One example of this would be the case of Yellowstone National Park. Before the wolves were reintroduced, the drastic increase of the number of elks and coyotes also proved to create big problems. Too many or too few of a species will both pose a danger to the existing environment.
However, reintroducing species has its dangers. For example, animals transported from other countries might have diseases, which if released into the wild, would have terrible consequences. Animals which are bred by humans from young might also not have the ability to survive in the wild on their own. In addition, during the period of the species’ absence, the environment might have changed to make up for the species’ absence. If the species is reintroduced after that happens, the reintroduction may have a negative impact.
I think rewilding must be done with extreme care, lest it makes matters worse. In my opinion, we humans should not take unnecessary risks by introducing into environments species which the environments have not been exposed to before, just because we think it would help make things better. If we do this, we might create a new invasive species.
On the contrary, if everything is done perfectly, an entire ecosystem could be saved. In conclusion, rewilding is an amazing thing. But it must be done with extreme caution to prevent disastrous results. Rewilding should be done with proper studies and research, with the help or advice from experts.
If I had superpowers
From: Zoell, Pri 5, Qihua Primary
If I had superpowers, I would rewind the clock and go back to year 2019. That was the year when COVID-19 struck many countries and it made 2020 a year that everyone around the world could not forget. COVID-19 is the one of the scariest diseases. It is more infectious than SARS. It kills and causes many people to be sick. Worst of all, it separates many families.
I used to be a daily commuter, travelling from Johor Bahru to Singapore for school. Due to COVID-19, I could not attend school physically for a period of time and had to go through live-recorded lessons from where I stayed. However, I eventually made the choice to stay in Singapore so that my learning would not be affected too much. As a result, I have to be painfully separated from my family for more than 300 days and counting. During this period, when we cannot see each other in person, we can only resort to video calls.
Therefore, if I had superpowers, I would turn back time to stop the further spreading of this disease around the world. I wish we could go back to the past when everything was normal and fine. Most importantly, I wish I could be with my family just like old times.
What’s Up replies: Zoell, one year is a very long time to be away from your family. Since none of us can turn the clock back, let’s hope time flies! Do write to us again to share the good news when you are reunited with your family.
People protesting in Myanmar. Soe La Wun Khine worries for her relatives who live there. [Photo: MgHla (aka) Htin Linn Aye.]
Worried about relatives in Myanmar
From: La Wun, Pri 6, Changkat Primary
I read the article “People of Myanmar want the army to give their country back” (March 2021). And honestly, I felt enraged.
I was born in Myanmar and I lived there until I was one year old. We moved to Singapore since my father worked as an engineer here, and my mother decided that it was best for my whole family to live here for our education. I am very grateful that I do not live in Myanmar, especially with everything that is happening at the moment.
I am utterly worried for the rest of my family who live in Myanmar — my cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Every day, I fear for their lives and hope that they are okay. It is also a bit hard to contact them because of the internet connection issues. But, I try my best to contact them every day.The fact that the military is also injuring and killing people, including children, really upsets me. The children did nothing wrong! But, at the same time, I am proud of the people protesting. I hope that the military will back down and everything in Myanmar will be back to normal soon.
What’s Up replies: La Wun, we are so glad that you and your immediate family are safe in Singapore. What is happening in Myanmar is indeed very worrying. Many of us here feel very sad about the violence there. We join you in hoping that peace and harmony will return soon.
We did it together!
From: Vijayan, Pri 6, Woodlands Ring Primary
Life during the pandemic is totally unusual. “Work from home”, “online lessons” and, not to forget, “zoom” are now common words that we hear very frequently these days. However, the best part of it is, despite all these challenges, we all managed to stay united as one nation. We wear masks and maintain social distancing, even up to now. We do this not just to protect ourselves but also our loved ones and our fellow Singaporeans. This shows our care and social responsibility. Right now, the number of COVID cases is very few. It is all because of us. We should all feel proud that we did it together. In the words of Ryunosuke Satoro, “Individually we are a drop, together we are an ocean.”
Don’t be shy. Share your ideas!
From: Xin En, Pri 5, Punggol Primary
For people who think that they cannot contribute to society because of their status or living environment, they should feel that they can after reading the article “Humble teacher shares his big prize with others” (March 2021).
It is inspiring to know that Mr Ranjitsinh Disale, a primary school teacher teaching in one of India’s rural villages, has come up with electronic learning resources to help his students learn better. These resources not only help his students, but also students from all over India. This is a great inspiration for people of all ages.
Everyone plays a part in making the world a better place. For those who want to contribute to society but are afraid to do so, it would be great to tell them that they should bravely share their ideas. They need not be affected by what others say. The world is so advanced now because of the millions of ideas that people shared courageously.
Just be brave and share your ideas. After all, you never know if your idea could impact the whole world.
More recess time, please
From: Peiyao, Pri 6, Nan Chiau Primary
Recess is the time of the day that most students really look forward to. It is a time when students can replenish their energy and relax. But, do students have enough time to even finish a meal during recess?
According to experts, eating too fast on a regular basis is unhealthy for the body. However, school recess is only 25 mins long. Students have to queue for food, wash their hands, and return their plates. All these activities would take at least 10 mins. Students are also advised to go to the toilet and refill their bottles during recess so as to minimise movement during classes. That will take up another 5 mins. Along with measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, students also have to wipe down tables during recess.
Due to the lack of time, students now have no choice but to gobble down their food as fast as they can. Doing so can lead to some health issues. What can we do to solve this problem then? End school at a later time so that students can have a longer recess? It will take time to implement this. But, if it is the only way for students to be able to eat their meals properly, then why not?
Climate change is a big deal
From: Saki, Pri 6, Haig Girls’
Some people may think that climate change is not much of a big deal and that our generation would not be affected by it. At first, I also felt the same way. I had thought that since I was just a child, even if I tried to make a change, it would not mean much. But, as I grew older, I started to understand how grave the situation of climate change was.
Climate change is slowly but surely, killing our Earth. This is the only planet we can live on and yet, some of our actions are harming the Earth. If we all work together and do our part, we can save the environment. I realised that I should never underestimate the power of one. We can just do a few simple actions such as turning off the light when we are not using it or taking shorter showers. If everyone does so, it would make a great difference.
I think that talking about conservation is easy but taking the first step requires much more. I think that it would be even better if “resource defence” is one of Singapore’s pillars of Total Defence. It would raise more awareness on the importance of saving the environment and our Earth. After all, this is our only Earth.
VOCAB BUILDER
commuter(say “ko-miu-ter”; noun) = someone who regularly travels between home and school or work.
underestimate(say “an-deres-ti-mayt”; verb) = to think that something is less than it really is.
double-edged(say “da-bel ej’d”; adjective) = having two possible outcomes, one negative and one positive.
Danka Bartekova was an Olympic medalist in the sport of skeet shooting. [Photo: Danka Bartekova Facebook]
The Olympics brings together the best athletes on earth. OMAR CHAUDHURI asks what lessons we can gather from them.
“I was preparing for it for two years. After the competition, I felt huge satisfaction because the work paid off. I remember millions of messages and emails that I got that day. It was a great experience, and the ceremony, when I got the medal — nothing is like that.”
Danka Bartekova said these words, speaking to the Olympic.org website. She won a bronze medal in a little-known event called “skeet shooting” at the London 2012 Games. Even though she is not famous because of her achievement, she is very proud of how she got there.
This is because Bartekova knows it is not easy being an Olympian. There are many things we can learn from athletes like her. Even though their success is at one of the biggest events in the world, we can take inspiration from their attitude. You can even apply it to some of the things you do, like taking an exam, or singing in a concert.
Lesson 1: Hard work is necessary
The athlete who has won the most Olympic medals in history is Michael Phelps. Clearly, this does not happen overnight. Phelps’ training programme is famous for how difficult it is. At his peak, Phelps swam 80,000 metres per week. In total, he would train for around six hours per day, six days per week. He uses underwater headphones so he doesn’t get bored and to remain focused.
Phelps can also eat more than most of us. Most men will eat around 2,500 calories per day. When training, Phelps eats up to 12,000 calories! This is because he needs lots of energy to keep up with all that swimming.
Phelps knows that while talent is important, all his competitors will be training hard to catch up with him. Just as he wants to be the best swimmer he can be, you might want to be the best actor, dancer or writer. This will always require hard work.
Mo Farah after his 2012 Olympics triumph. [Photo: Al King]
Lesson 2: Sacrifice is hard
Winning an Olympic medal is a fantastic feeling, but it also requires some hardship. Athletes need to train for long hours and are often away from their families.
For example, the British long-distance runner Mo Farah trains in Kenya, which means he does not see his young children for months. In 2014, he told reporters, “My kids have grown so much in the last few months. In the back of my head, I’m thinking, ‘They might not recognise you’. I wish I could just sit in my house and do stuff with them, but I wouldn’t have achieved what I have. I guess it takes sacrifice to be a champion.”
Farah’s sacrifices have been worth it. He won two gold medals at the London 2012 Games and is considered to be one of the greatest long-distance runners in history. Although we rarely need to make such painful sacrifices, the ones we do make can be helpful. You may have, at some time, needed to stay at home to study for an exam, rather than seeing friends, for example.
Lesson 3: Listen to good advice
“Following good advice has been crucial to my success,” Chris Hoy told the Mail Online in 2010. “There will always be people with a negative attitude saying, ‘He’ll never make it’. It is hugely important to listen to people with experience, but it can be detrimental to listen to those who don’t believe in you like you believe in yourself.”
Hoy clearly avoided bad advice throughout his career. No cyclist has won more medals than Hoy. Even though he was very talented, he recognised that there were people with more experience than himself. These people could tell him stories of how they handled different situations. Hoy could learn from these stories, and maybe even avoid the mistakes these people made.
Like Hoy, we also need to be careful to choose whom we listen to. We need to decide if the person is trying to help us or not.
Lesson 4: Take advantage of luck
For all the hard work an athlete puts in, he or she always needs a bit of luck. In 2008, Singapore’s Feng Tianwei needed to beat South Korea’s Park Miyoung to take her country to the women’s team table tennis final. At 7-7 in the fourth game, Park had a fantastic opportunity to win the point. If she did, she would put Feng under a lot of pressure. However, she missed a simple smash. A few minutes later, Feng reached the 11 points she needed to win the match.
On most days, Park would have won that point, no matter what Feng did. However, Feng got a bit of luck. As a result, Singapore were soon guaranteed of their first Olympic medal in 48 years. We all know when we’ve gotten some good luck — the key is making sure we take advantage of it.
At first glance, Olympians seem nothing like you or me. However, when we look closer, we can see that their approach to winning medals can teach us many lessons about how we can approach our own day-to-day lives.
An innovative chef thinks edible grains in the sea could be good for both humans and our planet. SHEERE NG reports.
Chef Angel Leon does not go to the market to buy seafood for his Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain. Instead, he makes cheese from sea snails and butter from planktons, both of which he harvests from the sea.Mr Leon does not like to serve seafood that people already know. He is famous for using ingredients that his customers have never tasted before. His latest discovery, however, may be more than a novelty.
The tiny, dark-coloured grains that he found at the base of an eelgrass — a plant that grows in shallow seawater — could be a way to feed humans without depleting precious resources.
Mr Leon read up on the plant and found that the grains had actually been the diet of an indigenous people in Mexico. He then sent the grains for a lab test. It showed that they were good for the heart and more nutritious than rice.
This was very good news because eelgrass does not need land and freshwater to grow — the two scarce resources required for most farming.
Good for Earth
Growing food plants and farming animals use up lots of freshwater. The demand for freshwater keeps growing. Yet, only one percent of all water on Earth is freshwater. Eelgrass, on the other hand, grows in seawater and our planet has plenty of that.
This also means that eelgrass does not take up land. It can grow in coastal waters around the world. This frees up precious land for other uses. More importantly, growing a lot of eelgrass for food will not harm Earth.
In contrast, farming to produce more and more food has affected the natural balance of biodiversity. To produce more fruits and vegetables, many farmers use pesticides and fertilisers that end up polluting rivers and ruining the soil. We catch fishes before they can reproduce themselves, causing many species to face extinction. Raising more cattle for beef adds to global warming because each cow burps and farts up to 120kg of greenhouse gas a year!
Growing eelgrass would cause none of these problems. It may even help to reverse them. Seagrass meadows are known to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen faster than rainforests do. This means that if eelgrass is grown for food, it will slow global warming at the same time.
Eelgrass is also home to small fishes such as the seahorse. Eelgrass growing close together help to slow down the movement of water and that provides a safe shelter for these little creatures. It is also food for animals like dugongs and green turtles.
Scientists knew about these benefits long ago, but few knew that eelgrass contains edible grains. Mr Leon’s discovery has helped to create more interest in this plant and its importance to the environment.
Future of food
Mr Leon is not stopping there. He has been creating tasty recipes using eelgrass seeds. He found that the grains taste like brown rice and is a little bit salty at the end. They also absorb flavours well, so he cooked them in a soup stock to soak up its rich taste. The result is something like the Spanish paella. He has even ground them into flour to make bread and pasta.
Chef Angel Leon. [Photo: panthalassa vimeo.]
Besides trying to convince the world to eat eelgrass as a grain, the chef is also finding a way to cultivate it. He has successfully grown it in small amounts and is now working to increase that number many times more.
Only when we grow eelgrass in large-enough quantities will it feed enough people to have a positive effect on the climate. The quantity of eelgrass around the world today is not yet enough to achieve this.
Mr Leon is persistent because he believes that we should eat food that is not only nutritious and tasty but also maintains the planet’s ecosystems. “We’ve opened a window,” he told The Guardian. “I believe it’s a new way to feed ourselves.”
VOCAB BUILDER
novelty(say “no-vel-tee”; noun) = something new and unusual.
paella(say “pah-yeh-yah”; noun) = a Spanish rice dish cooked with meat, seafood, and vegetables.
Real Madrid of Spain (left) is one of the clubs whose owners want to create a Super League. The fans, like these Liverpool supporters at a pre-pandemic match (right), thought it was a bad idea. [Photo: James Offer.]
OMAR CHAUDHURI looks at why plans for a European Super League angered so many football fans.
Football fans love to watch the best players competing for the biggest teams. It is why millions of people tune in to watch important Premier League, Champions League, or World Cup matches. So, when 12 of Europe’s most famous clubs announced last month they were going to start a new “Super League”, they thought their fans would be happy.
The Super League would mean that Manchester United would play Juventus, or Liverpool play Barcelona, much more often than they do today. The owners of these clubs thought that this was what their fans wanted. It turned out that not only were fans of other clubs angry, but fans of these clubs were very unhappy too.
The clubs were arrogant
In football, clubs do not normally get to decide which competitions they play in. All that matters is their results. If they play well, they get to play in top competitions like the Champions League. If they play badly, they are relegated to lower divisions.
However, for the Super League, the 12 clubs decided that they were the best in the world and started a new competition. This was seen as a very arrogant move because it was very clear that these were not the 12 best teams. Arsenal were one of the 12 clubs but were only 9th in the Premier League when the news was announced. They had just drawn with Fulham, one of the worst teams in the league. Italian club Milan last played in the Champions League in 2014 and had not won the Serie A in ten years. The decision to launch the Super League was like the makers of a movie giving themselves an Oscar, instead of letting the judges decide.
Not only did the clubs decide that they get to play in this new competition, but they also agreed that they cannot be relegated from the Super League, no matter how bad their results. Clubs that were not part of the permanent membership could however be relegated, even if they finished above one of the 12 clubs in the league table. Football fans could not accept that one club would be punished for good results, and another rewarded for bad results. For many, this is the opposite of what sport should be — free and fair competition, with everyone treated equally.
The clubs were greedy
The owners of the clubs believed that by playing in the Super League, almost all the football fans worldwide would watch this league. It would also probably mean that fewer fans would watch the other leagues, like La Liga. Even though Real Madrid would play in both the Super League and La Liga, fans may not take La Liga seriously. The Super League would therefore make the clubs in it very rich, and the clubs outside of it very poor. The Super League clubs said that they would give some of their money to clubs not in the competition, but certainly not all of it.
Even fans of the Super League clubs — who like seeing their teams buy some of the world’s best players for a lot of money — thought this was morally wrong. Many football clubs have been in existence for over 100 years and have their own supporters. There is so much money in football, fans feel that this should be shared around. Some fans of the Super League clubs even said that they would not watch their team in this new competition. This meant that the club owners’ predictions about the fans might be wrong.
The clubs did not care about history
By building a new competition to replace the Champions League, the clubs threatened to move away from competitions that have a lot of history. This history means a lot to the fans of the clubs. Real Madrid fans care a lot about the fact that they have won the most Champions League titles. Liverpool and Manchester United fans have a strong rivalry because they are the two most successful teams in the English league. A new competition would not have these memories, and would therefore mean less to the supporters.
The fans were also keen to let the owners know that they are only “custodians” of the club. This means that there were other owners before them, and there will be other owners after them, but the club will always be there. They were unhappy that the current owners were using the history of their clubs — history that was created a long time before they bought the team — to create more money for themselves.
The fans are everything
Football fans are known to get angry about many things, including referees, rival teams, and at their manager. But usually, this is only from one team’s fans. The Super League united almost all supporters. Through social media and protests at the clubs’ stadiums, they let their clubs know that they were unhappy.
Very soon after the announcement of the league, clubs started pulling out. The plans for the Super League are therefore paused, for now. The most important lesson for the clubs? They realise that without the support of their fans, they are nothing.
VOCAB BUILDER
arrogant(say “e-re-gent”; adjective) = full of self-importance.
relegated(say “re-lee-gay-ted”; verb) = pushed down to a lower position.
custodians(say “kas-to-dienz”; noun) = people who protect or take good care of something.
Marine mammals often do not do well in captivity. SHAMEEN IDICULLA reports.
The dolphins we see performing at shows may look like they are smiling and having fun. “But they are not,” states Singapore’s animal rights group ACRES. “Their mouth is just shaped in a way that we humans misinterpret as a smile…Visitors to marine aquariums often fail to see that the dolphins there had to have been ripped from their natural ocean environments, snatched away from their family and pod mates, held in nets, carried in trucks, hoisted into planes and flown for hours.”
This was probably the case for more than 20 bottlenose dolphins currently at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). They were brought here from the Solomon Islands to be a part of the Dolphin Island attraction. Today, visitors can choose from various programmes to meet and interact with these animals. RWS hopes that such activities will give people “a deeper understanding of marine life”. It says it is giving its dolphins the best possible care.
However, not everyone agrees that these marine mammals are fine. Critics argue that dolphins treated this way are often left traumatised. They are intelligent creatures who, like humans, feel emotions. They are sad to be separated from their families. They get bored when confined to small tanks. They get stressed when they have to constantly interact with human beings. They can become weak and ill, and often do not survive for long.
Four dolphins bought by Resorts World Sentosa have already died. A video uploaded to social media in December 2019 showed a captive dolphin repeatedly banging its head against the wall of its tank. Hence, several animal rights groups have been campaigning for the dolphins to be released back into the wild.
“In a world where so much that is wild and free has already been lost to us, we must leave these beautiful animals free to swim as they will and must,” said dolphin-activist Mr Ric O’Barry. “They do us no harm and wish us none, and we should let them alone.”
