Category - Issue 169: April 2020

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

Activity

AFRICA

ASIA

Cambodia: Mekong dams halted

Cambodia has stopped plans to build two dams at the Mekong River (below) for the next 10 years. The government is turning to coal, natural gas, and solar energy to meet its electricity needs. Cambodia will also import electricity from neighbouring Laos. Researchers have warned that dams will harm fisheries and farming that depend on the river.

China: Better air quality

There was a huge improvement in air quality over major Chinese cities during the months of January and February. This was when China was under lock-down to contain the coronavirus threat. The drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions, which are released by industrial activities and vehicles, was especially dramatic. Scientist Marshall Burke believes that these two months of cleaner air may have saved thousands of lives. Does this mean pandemics are good for health? “No,” he told CNN. “Instead, it means that the way our economies operate absent pandemics has massive hidden health costs, and it takes a pandemic to help see that.”

North Korea: More missiles

North Korea has fired more ballistic missiles into the sea. There were four projectile launches in March. “This kind of military action is extremely inappropriate, particularly at a time when the entire world is undergoing difficulties of the coronavirus outbreak,” the South Korean military told Bloomberg.

EUROPE

Denmark: LEGO bricks go green

Toymaker LEGO has promised that its iconic plastic bricks will be fully sustainable by 2030. It hopes to develop a “greener” material to make its bricks. Bricks made with the new material will be as strong, colourful, and easy to assemble as the original bricks, the toymaker says. In fact, it hopes that LEGO enthusiasts will not know that the new bricks are any different from the old. “We don’t want you to notice it,” a LEGO spokesperson told CNA. LEGO has been working hard to become a more sustainable business, as people increasingly choose to buy more environmentally-friendly products.

ZACHARY JOHN tells us more about their important and difficult mission.

As a scientist, getting to work is not always easy. Some scientists have to ride snowmobiles, specialist boats that can crack ice, and ski-fitted planes to reach their laboratory. A team of more than 40 scientists braved a journey across thousands of kilometers of the world’s iciest continent, Antarctica. Their mission was to set up the base of a five-year expedition studying Thwaites Glacier — a glacier the size of Britain — in Western Antarctica. Some scientists call it the “Doomsday Glacier” because they believe the glacier will explain how climate change affects polar ice.

The expedition is part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC), a USD$50m (about S$71 million) project funded by the US, UK, Germany, Korea, and Sweden. The project is the largest, and most thorough, study of Antarctica ever attempted.

Herculean effort

In order to land in Antarctica, planes were fitted with giant skis that enabled them to touch down on snow or ice. The scientists had to bring tonnes of equipment with them, as well as camping gear, food, and supplies. It took more than a dozen flights to get the teams and their equipment from McMurdo — the biggest US research station in Antarctica — to their staging site, halfway across Antarctica.

Smaller planes then ferried a small team ahead of the rest of the group. This team had to go first in order to build a half-way point for the planes to refuel. Britney Schmidt, one of the researchers on the journey, shared details of the journey in a blog post on the ITGC website. She described how the team that went ahead of the rest were “heroes”, braving storms to build runways and set up camp so that the rest of the team could arrive.

Meanwhile, the British Antarctic Survey was conducting a mission of their own, aiming to meet the rest of the scientists at Thwaites Glacier. Instead of flying over the ice, they started their journey by sea — using boats that were sturdy enough to crack ice. The team then dragged hundreds of tonnes of cargo and fuel across Antarctica using specialist snowmobiles. These snowmobiles were built to endure the iciest of icy conditions. The terrain was so unforgiving that the highest speed the team managed to reach on their journey was 16km/h.

When the teams finally united at Thwaites Glacier, they immediately began work on the actual mission — studying the glacier. The team had to collect ice to melt and boil, so they could blast boiling water at the glacier to drill a 30cm wide hole (below).

This hole allowed their Icefin robotic submarine (above) through the half mile of ice between the top of the glacier and the ocean water below it. The Icefin team managed to capture the first images ever seen of where the ice at the bottom of Thwaites Glacier meets the warmer ocean water. These images confirmed how and why the glacier was melting at an accelerating rate.

Thwaites Glacier affects us all

Warm ocean water melts the glacier where the ice meets the ocean floor. This causes more of the “underbelly” of the glacier to be exposed to warm ocean water, making the glacier “recede” from the ocean floor, further exposing the glacier to ocean water. This vicious cycle accelerates the rate at which the glacier melts.

Changes in temperature and melting sea ice affect how the Earth’s atmosphere and ocean interact with each other. As a result, there are changes to the Earth’s climate and weather. Scientists predict that if Thwaites Glacier melts away completely, violent arctic storms could increase by up to ten times around the world.

The Earth’s polar ice caps help to reflect sunlight away from Earth, reducing the amount of heat absorbed into the Earth. Melting ice caps means smaller reflective surfaces, less sunlight reflected, and higher temperatures on Earth — causing a vicious cycle of higher temperatures, further melting, and rising sea levels.

Chunks of Antarctica melt and break away from the continent, forming massive icebergs. These icebergs float away, gradually melting and releasing cold fresh water. This leads to changes in ocean currents, even very far away from Antarctica. Icebergs also affect ocean life, by releasing millions of years of trapped nutrients. One glacier melting in Antarctica might seem like a far-away problem, but melting polar ice affects us all. The ice in Antarctica is millions of years old, holding 90% of the Earth’s fresh water. If Thwaites Glacier alone were to melt completely, the sea level would rise half a meter. This would cause serious flooding in coastal areas.

VOCAB BUILDER

accelerating (say “ek-se-le-ray-ting”; verb) = increasing in rate, speeding up.

polar (say “po-lar”; adjective) = relating to the North or South Pole.

sturdy (say “ster-dee”; adjective) = strong.

thorough (say “tha-reh”; adjective) = in-depth and complete.

Archie struggles with a mysterious bundle. It weighs him down and makes him slow, tired, and angry. When he tries to leave the bundle behind, it squeals like a piglet and chases after him until it is back in his arms.

Archie is tired of carrying the heavy bundle around. One day, he chances upon a gate on the way home from school. Crossing over the gate, he finds himself in a magical kingdom with talking animals. The first animal he meets is Three Toes, an enormous black rhino.

Three Toes is friendly. “What’s this?” he asks Archie, when he sees the bundle Archie is carrying. Archie explains that he has no idea what is in the bundle, although it belongs to him. Three Toes, being a very curious animal, pokes his head into the rough cloth bag. Out rolls a pair of dice.

Archie looks at the dice in surprise, then frowns. Three Toes sees that the dice makes Archie unhappy. “Why is that?” Three Toes asks.

Archie does not want to tell Three Toes at first, but the rhino looks like he would understand. So, Archie tells Three Toes his unhappy story. “The dice reminds me of quiet play,” Archie says. “And, I always get into trouble for not playing nicely.”

Archie tells Three Toes that he hates losing at games. When the games don’t go his way, he gets angry. “I go into a dark rage and shout a lot. Sometimes, I hit things or even people.”

Archie is not proud of this. His friends no longer want to play games with him because of his outbursts. Archie feels lonely sometimes when he sees the other kids having fun without him.

“The thing is,” Archie says, “I hate it when the rage comes over me. But, it’s like a fire that wells up from my belly and I cannot stop it. I just want to win so badly.”

Three Toes is sympathetic. “You remind me of me,” he snorts. “Or a young me, at any rate.” It turns out that Three Toes had the same problem with losing. “Nobody likes losing. Winning makes us feel powerful,” Three Toes says.

“I guess power is bad if it gets me into so much trouble,” says Archie gloomily.

“Power is great!” Three Toes says. “You just need to learn a new kind of power.”

Archie stares at the rhino, all ears.

“I call it quiet power, and it works for me every time,” the rhino says.

What is the Three Toes talking about? Can this new power really help Archie? Read Archie’s Cloud by Vittoria D’Alessio and Zoë Richardson to find out.

— Reviewed by NG SOCK LING

Contest

Archie gets angry a lot. He gets angry when he does not win at games. Once, while playing a board game with his friend, he got so mad that he threw the play set right across the room. The flying pieces hit his little sister and scared his friend. Archie also gets angry when his mother forgets to pack food for him to share with his class on class party day. He is so angry and embarrassed that he refuses to join the class party. He yells and hits the classroom wall.  Archie is unable to control the rage that wells up in him whenever things don’t go his way. He needs help. What would you do in those situations? Write Archie a note of advice.

1. Email your note to ourcontest@whatsup.sg.

2. Include your full name, class, and school in your email.

3. Contest deadline: 1 May 2020. You could win a copy of Archie’s Cloud!

LANGUAGE CAN HEAL

Words used badly can hurt. Used well, they can heal. One person who knows all about this is Winston Tay, a professional counsellor. To do his work well, he has to choose his words carefully so that he can use language for healing. We asked Mr Tay about his journey with the English language. You can read our interview with him at our “MORE” website. But, don’t forget to come back here to finish reading the April issue!