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Making ours an uplifting society: Tharman Shanmugaratnam
One that uplifts everyone through opportunities in life, uplifts the low-paid, and uplifts the spirit
By Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Published The Straits Times, 16 Jan 2021
Covid-19, like an X-ray beamed into societies all over the world, has exposed many fractures. It has also widened them, as the pandemic and economic crisis hit those already disadvantaged the hardest.
Governments with the capacity and finances have been able to soften these unequal blows. However, as we now rebuild, we must do more than recover from this crisis. We must tackle the longer-term, more embedded challenges that will outlast Covid-19.
Many advanced nations have seen decades-long stagnation in standards of living for the majority. What's equally troubling has been the loss of relative social mobility: where you end up in life relative to others depends on where you start, and especially on how poor or well-off your parents are. As a result, faith in meritocracy, or in how people can advance in life through education and better jobs, is also on the wane.
These trends have weakened the sense of togetherness in many societies. Where there was once a strong sense of "we", there is now "them versus us". In some places, "them versus us" is not only about the rich or highly educated versus the rest. It also taps into racial or religious antipathies, which then have a life of their own. We have to recognise these changes happening around the world, and prevent them from taking root in Singapore.
We must do the utmost to make ours an uplifting society - one that uplifts everyone through opportunities in life, one that uplifts the poor and vulnerable, and one that uplifts the spirit.
Keeping society fluid
It requires a strong sense of collective mission, and continuous refreshing of strategies. But we should keep two issues foremost in mind. First, to achieve relative social mobility, with people being able to move up in life and exchange places with others, we must also have absolute mobility, where everyone can see things getting better. We must have that escalator that takes everyone up. It helps everyone accept that no one's place on the escalator is fixed, and others may catch up from below or move ahead of them. It also supports a sense of solidarity, because people can see that life is not a zero-sum game, and are willing to have more done to help those in greater need. As many societies are seeing, once that escalator is broken, everything begins to fray, and people turn resentful.
Second, to tackle inequality on any lasting basis, we must address unequal opportunities, above all, and not just unequal outcomes. Surveys around the world show that most people accept some inequality of outcomes, if it reflects differences in effort, ability or entrepreneurial contributions. But the inequality of opportunities is a different matter. It is the bad cholesterol in the system. We have to be especially concerned about unequal opportunities early in life, as they have a way of ingraining advantages and disadvantages that last through life.
However, we do need to temper unequal outcomes as well - and in particular, avoid people getting trapped in a permanent underclass. When parents have weak and unpredictable incomes, their children tend to have a less secure upbringing, and can easily fall behind and lower their own aspirations. In other words, outcomes in one generation shape opportunities for the next.
Labels: Commentary, Coronavirus, Education, Govt Action, Help the Needy, Income Inequality, Manpower, Meritocracy, Minimum Wage, Progressive Wage Model, Singapore, Singapore Perspectives, Social Equity, Tharman
COVID-19 vaccinations for seniors in Singapore will begin in late-January 2021
8 vaccination centres will be set up by the end of February as Singapore ramps up vaccine roll-out
More than 6,200 people in Singapore have received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine so far
Letters will be progressively sent to seniors to invite them to book an appointment for their vaccination
By Yuen Sin, The Straits Times, 14 Jan 2021
Singapore's vaccination programme is kicking into high gear, as it expands its scope and increases its pace, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday.
Eight vaccination centres will be set up by the end of February, including two centres at Changi Airport Terminal 4 and Raffles City Convention Centre that are already operational, as well as two more at the former Hong Kah Secondary School and Woodlands Galaxy Community Club, which will begin running next week.
Another four centres will be ready next month, and more centres will be progressively opened as Singapore expands its vaccination programme, added Mr Gan, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19.
Shots will also be given at polyclinics and general practitioner clinics, as well as at healthcare institutions.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital yesterday, Mr Gan said the pace of vaccination is being ramped up from this week, with close to 2,800 vaccinated on Tuesday alone.
More than 6,200 people here have received their first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine so far, and this figure is expected to rise substantially in the coming weeks.
"We are planning to continue to expand the scope of vaccination and to increase the pace of vaccination eventually to cover the whole population in Singapore," he said.
Mr Gan and task force co-chair, Education Minister Lawrence Wong, also received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday.
Mr Wong also announced that the elderly will start receiving their Covid-19 vaccinations from this month. The Government had previously announced that seniors aged 70 and above would start getting jabs from next month.
Letters will be sent out to inform the elderly of when they can make bookings for their vaccinations.
Since Singapore kicked off its vaccination drive on Dec 30, vaccines have been administered to healthcare workers in public and private healthcare institutions.
Front-line workers, including those at airports and sea ports, as well as swabbers and workers in community care facilities, are also being vaccinated.
Letters will be progressively issued to other Singapore residents when their turn to be vaccinated comes. Mr Wong said this expansion of the vaccination programme will be timed together with the arrival of vaccine shipments.
Mr Gan urged Singapore residents to go for the vaccination when they are offered one, stressing that it will collectively provide protection against the coronavirus to the whole population if a high vaccination rate is achieved.
"This, in turn, will allow us to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic more quickly. It will allow our economy to recover faster, it will also allow us to resume our community activities faster," he said.
If all goes to plan, Singapore will have enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone by the third quarter of this year.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - the only one approved here to date - requires two injections, given 21 days apart. Singapore is expecting more vaccine deliveries in the next few months, including from American biotechnology firm Moderna and China's Sinovac.
The Sinovac vaccine has yet to be approved, said Mr Gan. The Moderna vaccine, which has a similar efficacy rate as Pfizer's, is under review, Mr Wong said.
Labels: Ageing, Coronavirus, COVID-19 Vaccine, Govt Action, Health, Population, Singapore, Transport, Video
In silencing President Donald Trump, Twitter and Facebook show where power lies
The muzzling of a president by Twitter and Facebook will stoke free-speech debate and deepen conservatives' grievance over Silicon Valley's political bias
By Kevin Roose, Published The Straits Times, 11 Jan 2021
In the end, two billionaires from California did what legions of politicians, prosecutors and power brokers had tried and failed to do for years: They pulled the plug on President Donald Trump.
Twitter's decision to permanently suspend Mr Trump's account on Friday "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", after a decision a day earlier by Facebook to ban the President at least to the end of his term, was a watershed moment in the history of social media.
Both companies had spent years defending Mr Trump's continued presence on their platforms, only to change course days before the end of his presidency.
Why these companies' chief executives - Mr Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mr Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook - decided to act now is no mystery. They have been under pressure for years to hold Mr Trump accountable, and that pressure intensified enormously this past week, as everyone from Ms Michelle Obama to the companies' own employees called for a permanent ban in the wake of Wednesday's deadly Capitol riot.
These companies, corporate autocracies masquerading as mini-democracies, often portray their moderation decisions as the results of a kind of formulaic due process, as if "don't incite an insurrectionist mob" had been in the community guidelines all along.
But high-stakes calls like these typically come down to gut decisions made under extreme duress. In this case, Mr Dorsey and Mr Zuckerberg considered the evidence, consulted their teams, weighed the trade-offs and risks of inaction - including the threat of a worker revolt that could damage their ability to attract top talent - and decided that they'd seen enough.
Journalists and historians will spend years unpacking the improvisational nature of these bans, and scrutinising why they arrived just as Mr Trump was losing his power and Democrats were poised to take control of Congress and the White House.
The bans have also turned up the heat on a free-speech debate that has been simmering for years. On Friday night, pro-Trump Republicans raged, claiming Twitter's move was an example of Silicon Valley's tyrannical speech controls.
THE SHAPERS OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE
And while many liberals cheered Twitter's decision as an overdue and appropriate step to prevent more violence, some also cringed at the thought of so much control resting in so few hands. "We understand the desire to permanently suspend him now," Ms Kate Ruane, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in a statement on Friday. "But it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions - especially when political realities make those decisions easier."
Above all, Mr Trump's muzzling provides a clarifying lesson in where power resides in our digital society - not just in the precedent of law or the checks and balances of government, but in the ability to deny access to the platforms that shape our public discourse.
Mr Dorsey's and Mr Zuckerberg's names have never appeared on a ballot. But they have a kind of authority that no elected official on earth can claim.
Labels: Commentary, Fake News, Human Rights, Irony, Law & Order, Outside World, Politics, Social Media, Terrorism, Trade-Offs, Trust, Video
PM Lee Hsien Loong receives COVID-19 vaccine on 8 January 2021 as Singapore starts nationwide vaccination drive
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong receives first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, urges others to follow
PM Lee is the first Cabinet member to be vaccinated
By Joyce Teo, The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2021
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong rolled up his sleeve for the Covid-19 vaccine injection yesterday, as the nationwide vaccination effort to combat the coronavirus swung into high gear.
A left-hander, PM Lee was administered the shot in his right arm by nurse Fatimah Mohd Shah, and experienced no side effects despite a 30-minute precautionary wait.
"It is painless, it is effective and it is important," he told reporters at Singapore General Hospital (SGH), where he received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the only one to be approved here so far.
"I hope that Singaporeans will take it up as we roll it out."
The Health Ministry's director of medical services Kenneth Mak, as well as 88 healthcare staff, also received their shots yesterday, as the vaccination drive for healthcare workers and front-line staff gets under way.
The vaccine is free and will be rolled out progressively, with most people here able to get vaccinated by the end of the year.
The elderly, those at greater risk of severe disease and those in jobs or settings with a high risk of super-spreading events will be able to receive the Covid-19 jabs from next month.
Widespread vaccinations will be critical in ending the pandemic and allowing life to become more normal around the world.
While Covid-19 numbers in Singapore remain low, they have been inching up as measures were relaxed since phase three of reopening started on Dec 28.
Imported cases, in particular, have been on the rise, as more people are allowed into the country.
There were eight new cases in the community in the past week, and 10 the week before.
Yesterday, 8 Jan, there were 23 new coronavirus cases, taking Singapore's total to 58,836.
As the pandemic continues to rage around the world, countries are urgently rolling out Covid-19 vaccinations, with Britain the first to start a mass vaccination drive with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Dec 8.
Singapore had launched a small-scale vaccination exercise on 40 staff at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases on Dec 30 to test the roll-out process.
PM Lee will be taking his second dose of the vaccine in three weeks.
"We have got ample vaccines coming in, we ordered them early. We have enough for everybody in Singapore, all the residents, all the citizens and even the non-citizens who are staying here," he said yesterday.
He added: "It will make us safer, and it will make you and your loved ones safer too. So, please take it when you get it."
Senior staff nurse Fatimah, 41, a veteran of almost 20 years at SGH, learnt the night before that she was going to be the one administering PM Lee's injection.
She was "a bit nervous", but said she felt honoured, her smile shining through her mask in the wefie that PM Lee took with her later.
PM Lee, who posted photos of his experience on Facebook, wrote: "In the gentle and capable hands of Senior Staff Nurse Fatimah. I barely felt the needle!"
Ms Chang Yan Jun, 25, a radiographer in SGH's emergency department, also got vaccinated yesterday. "At first, I was a bit nervous, but then, after taking the vaccine, I feel like actually, it is (okay). I don't have any (discomfort)," she said.
The vaccine was also rolled out to the staff at other public healthcare institutions such as Changi General Hospital and Sengkang General Hospital yesterday.
Staff at private healthcare group Parkway Pantai and Mount Alvernia and Farrer Park hospitals will get their shots starting today.
The Government has said that more vaccines are set to arrive soon, including those by American biotechnology firm Moderna and China's Sinovac.
Labels: Coronavirus, COVID-19 Vaccine, Health, Lee Hsien Loong, Population, Singapore, Video
More frequent tests, additional requirements likely for those who do not take COVID-19 vaccine: Lawrence Wong
By Ang Hwee Min, Channel NewsAsia, 8 Jan 2021
Individuals who choose not to take the COVID-19 vaccine may need to go through "more frequent testing", said Minister for Education Lawrence Wong on Thursday (Jan 7).
In an interview on CNA's Talking Point, the co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force spoke of "tangible benefits" for those who choose to get vaccine shots.
"It may well be, if the data validates all the hypotheses, that transmission risk can be significantly reduced. It may well be that travellers coming back need not serve SHN (stay-home notice) or will serve a shorter SHN. So those will be the benefits of getting a vaccination besides the fact that you are protecting yourself and your loved ones," he added.
"There will be these tangible benefits and those who choose not to be vaccinated, well, then you have to live with more frequent tests, you have to live with quarantine, you have to live with all of these other additional requirements."
EARLY BETS TO SECURE VACCINES
Mr Wong also explained why the vaccine made by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac was picked as one of the three vaccines to be used in Singapore.
The vaccine is 78 per cent effective in protecting against the coronavirus, according to the results of a study announced on Thursday by Brazilian state health officials. More than 12,000 health workers in Brazil participated in the study.
The Government convened an expert panel to look at making early purchases of vaccines "as early as April", Mr Wong said.
"We have to make early bets in order for Singapore to be near the front of the queue for vaccines. And that's what is happening today."
At the time, there was no clinical data or "full-fledged information" available from any vaccine company, said Mr Wong.
With only "very early stage clinical information" available, the committee and experts narrowed down the selections to 35 vaccine candidates. They eventually decided on the three vaccines - Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac - based on safety and effectiveness based on the preliminary data that was available then, he added.
"And that's the three that we have made advanced purchases for, with the aim of building a diversified portfolio of vaccines that will be safe and effective for use in Singapore," said Mr Wong.
When asked by Talking Point host Steve Chia if this approach by Singapore could be characterised as "hedging (its) chances", Mr Wong replied: "Very much so."
According to the Economic Development Board (EDB), the vaccine panel made its first advance purchase agreement with Moderna in June, securing it with a downpayment. In August, it bought the Sinovac vaccine and was in advance talks with Pfizer-BioNTech.
Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) eventually approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine first. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in a televised address on Dec 15, 2020 that the first shipment would arrive by the end of December, with other vaccines expected in the coming months.
The first doses of the vaccines were rolled out to staff at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on Dec 30, 2020.
The panel intends to continue to see whether it can make further purchases to add to the vaccine portfolio, said Mr Wong.
"That's our overall approach. It's not to make a single bet, we know that we've made some early bets, some may turn out positive as I think Pfizer has now been authorised, Moderna looks like it's going to be, it has been approved in America," he added.
"We are looking at the data, we will await that data full data from Sinovac and then the process will continue for other vaccine candidates."
The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines use the new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, while Sinovac is a traditional inactivated virus vaccine.
mRNA vaccines teach our cells to make a protein that triggers an immune response inside our bodies, said director of communicable diseases at the Ministry of Health (MOH) Associate Professor Vernon Lee. This is different from traditional vaccines that put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies.
"This is basically the key - the actual mRNA degrades very quickly in the body, so body temperature will only remain for about 48 hours. And thereafter, there's no additional component of the vaccine that remains in the individual," added Assoc Prof Lee, who was also speaking on Talking Point.
Although the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only one approved so far, as additional vaccines come onboard, there will be some vaccines that can or cannot be used in certain subpopulations, he added.
For example, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine cannot be used in people who have severe allergic reactions or a history of anaphylaxis, said Assoc Prof Lee. For now, children under 16, pregnant women and individuals who are severely immunocompromised are also excluded from using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
"Other vaccines might be able to be used in different populations. So we need to wait for more information, and it is which vaccine is more ... applicable or relevant to that particular population if it's offered, we will encourage people to get that vaccine," he added.
The third guest on Talking Point, Associate Professor Benjamin Ong, senior vice president (Health Education & Resources) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), said the data for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is "most complete", and experts are "confident enough" to recommend its use in Singapore's setting.
Labels: Coronavirus, COVID-19 Vaccine, Govt Action, Health, Interview, Population, Question & Answer, Safety, Singapore, Trade-Offs, Video
Matched Retirement Savings Scheme: 440,000 CPF members eligible for new scheme with government matching retirement account top-ups
Govt will match cash top-ups of up to $600 a year in their CPF Retirement Account for 5 years from 2021 to 2025
By Sue-Ann Tan, The Straits Times, 7 Jan 2021
Thousands of people are set to get matching sums of up to $600 a year to top up their Central Provident Fund (CPF) Retirement Account, under a new scheme which kicks off this year.
The move to help more older CPF members attain the Basic Retirement Sum and provide them with retirement adequacy comes through the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, which will benefit some 440,000 people. They account for about 53 per cent of CPF members aged between 55 and 70, said the CPF Board yesterday.
The scheme allows anyone, including family members, employers or members of the community, to make top-ups to a person's Retirement Account. Each dollar of cash top-up will be matched by the Government for the next five years, capped at $600 per year.
Top-ups can be made on the CPF website or mobile app. They also do not have to be made in a lump sum. This means that those who make small and regular top-ups throughout the year using Giro can receive the matching grant.
CPF Board chief executive Augustin Lee said: "About half of CPF members turning 55 today have yet to attain the Basic Retirement Sum. This matching grant by the Government will encourage them to save more with CPF.
"There's no better savings interest rate than what CPF pays now. We hope their loved ones and the wider community can also pitch in. Even small amounts saved consistently can go a long way in securing CPF members' retirement needs."
Those who are eligible for the scheme must be between 55 and 70 years old, and have less than the Basic Retirement Sum of $93,000 this year in their Retirement Account.
Other criteria include average monthly income, annual value of their residence, and property ownership.
Eligible members will be notified by the CPF Board this month. They can also check their eligibility on the CPF website.
Ms Selena Ling, OCBC Bank's head of treasury research and strategy, said: "Retirement adequacy concerns are increasingly pertinent for an ageing population like Singapore's... While current inflationary pressures are mild due to the pandemic, nevertheless, inflation levels are expected to return to positive territory this year and Singaporeans are also living longer."
Associate Professor Lawrence Loh from the National University of Singapore Business School added: "The matching incentive will help develop a habit of augmenting the retirement funds early in the CPF contributor's life."
The CPF Board is also partnering grassroots leaders to encourage the community to build up the retirement savings of the vulnerable.
Donors from Bukit Timah pitched in to help 100 residents, with the first batch of top-ups made yesterday.
Labels: Ageing, Budget 2020, Community, CPF, Govt Action, Population, Retirement Adequacy, Singapore, Video
TraceTogether data will be used with utmost restraint, say ministers Balakrishnan and Shanmugam in Parliament
Police will access TraceTogether data to help investigate only very serious crimes, Parliament told
COVID-19 contact tracing programme to be stood down when pandemic ends
By Tham Yuen-C, Senior Political Correspondent, The Straits Times, 6 Jan 2021
The data collected by TraceTogether will be used with utmost restraint, two ministers said yesterday, as they underscored the importance of maintaining trust in the contact tracing system to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Even though the police have the powers to access the data for criminal investigations, they will do so only for very serious offences, such as murder, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam told Parliament.
Also, the police can obtain the data only directly from the person's phone or the TraceTogether token, Dr Balakrishnan said.
Their remarks come after Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan affirmed, in response to a parliamentary question, that TraceTogether data is not precluded from provisions under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) that allow the police to access data needed in criminal investigations.
This had sparked criticism, with some pointing to remarks made in June by Dr Balakrishnan, who oversees the Smart Nation drive, that TraceTogether data would be used "purely for contact tracing, period". "Frankly, I had not thought of the CPC, when I spoke earlier," he admitted yesterday.
He added that he was mindful of the trust reposed in the Government, adding that the cooperation of Singaporeans and their willingness to use TraceTogether have been key to Singapore's fight against Covid-19.
"The reason I asked Speaker's permission to make this clarification is precisely because of this. If there's disquiet, if there's uncertainty, we must answer it, and I must answer it openly, transparently," he said.
Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh said it was important to clarify the issue, noting it had caused consternation. He and Workers' Party MP Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) also said TraceTogether should be widely adopted in the interest of public health.
Citing that 78 per cent of people here have chosen to download the TraceTogether app or collect the token, Dr Balakrishnan said the Government was conscious of the need to protect the personal privacy of these users, and had built it into the design of the program.
He assured Singaporeans that the app collects only Bluetooth proximity data and not GPS location data, and said: "The TraceTogether app and the token were not designed to allow any government agency to track the user."
But TraceTogether data is not exempt from the provisions under Section 20 of the CPC, said Dr Balakrishnan, noting that it would not be reasonable to say that certain classes of data should be "out of reach of the police", especially if they could potentially give leads on, say, terrorism activities and save lives. He disclosed that TraceTogether data had been used in a murder case.
If data is not used in such instances, it would not sit well with Singaporeans at large, added Mr Shanmugam. He also said that the police would delete the data if it was no longer needed for use in court or for trial purposes.
Dr Balakrishnan also said that when the pandemic is over, the TraceTogether programme would be stood down, and much of the data would be deleted.
He said the Ministry of Health may retain epidemiological data, but that it should be stripped of identifying details.
He added: "We do not take the trust of Singaporeans lightly. We cannot prevail in the battle against Covid-19 if Singaporeans did not trust the public health authorities, and the Government of Singapore...
"I want to again assure Singaporeans that your confidence is not misplaced. We will protect your privacy."
Labels: Coronavirus, Cyber Security, Govt Action, Health, Human Rights, Irony, Law & Order, Parliament, Population, Singapore, Smart Nation, Social Media, Trade-Offs, Trust, Video
COVID-19 Vaccinations a key focus for Singapore this year: Health Minister Gan Kim Yong in Ministerial statement on 4 Jan 2021
All who take COVID-19 jabs will get physical vaccination card, cannot choose which vaccine to take
Singapore to offer financial support to those who suffer serious side effects from COVID-19 vaccines
More COVID-19 vaccines to arrive in Singapore soon, including those by Moderna, Sinovac
By Audrey Tan and Linette Lai, The Straits Times, 5 Jan 2021
The national effort to vaccinate the population will require considerable resources and will be one of Singapore's key focus areas this year, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong as he fleshed out the country's vaccination strategy yesterday.
"Vaccinations will be a key enabler allowing us to return to normalcy," he told Parliament yesterday. He said this is a new line of defence that Singapore must put in place while the global situation remains volatile, and it involves a massive logistical exercise.
"We have secured enough vaccines for the whole population. Every vaccine approved for use will meet all our safety and efficacy requirements," he said.
Sharing some details of the programme, Mr Gan said people will need to make a booking before visiting vaccination centres for the Covid-19 shot, and will not get to choose the vaccine they want.
Vaccinated individuals will get a physical card, but can also check their vaccination status online.
Following the first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine last month, Mr Gan said, more vaccines are expected to arrive here in the next few months, including those by United States firm Moderna and China's Sinovac.
"If all goes according to schedule, we will have enough vaccines for everyone by the third quarter of this year," said the minister.
Healthcare workers and other Covid-19 front-line staff will be first in line for the vaccine, followed by the elderly, those at greater risk of severe disease, and those in jobs or settings where risk of a super-spreading event is high, including migrant workers. Vaccinations will then be progressively broadened to include other Singaporeans and long-term residents.
Mr Gan urged people to get vaccinated, though vaccination is voluntary. "This will not only protect yourself, but also indirectly protect others who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons. This collective protection will be more effective the more people are vaccinated."
To ensure vaccine access, Mr Gan said Covid-19 vaccination will be free for all Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-term residents - about 5.7 million people.
He urged people not to dawdle: "The best time to vaccinate is now. If people wait until an outbreak has happened to get themselves vaccinated, it will be too late, both to protect themselves and to prevent the outbreak in the first place."
He stressed that the Health Sciences Authority will allow a Covid-19 vaccine to be used only if it is assessed to be sufficiently efficacious and safe for use, and only if the benefits are assessed to outweigh the risks of any potential adverse effects from the vaccination.
To further give people peace of mind, the Health Ministry will also introduce a vaccine injury financial assistance programme to provide support for people who suffer serious side effects related to Covid-19 vaccines administered here.
In response to 14 MPs who raised questions on Singapore's vaccination strategy, Mr Gan and Education Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force on Covid-19, said that vaccination is not a silver bullet for tackling the pandemic.
For example, while the Government may consider relaxing some rules for those vaccinated - such as doing away with testing before events or changing quarantine rules for returning travellers - existing rules will still apply until more data is available, said Mr Wong.
"So until we understand the effects of the vaccine, I think we will not be able to make any changes to our measures, be it domestic or travel measures," he said.
Labels: Coronavirus, COVID-19 Vaccine, Govt Action, Health, Law & Order, Parliament, Question & Answer, Safety, Singapore, Trade-Offs, Transport, Video
Singapore's Parliament begins live-stream of sittings for the first time on 4 January 2021
By Justin Ong, The Straits Times, 5 Jan 2021
Parliamentary proceedings were live-streamed to the public for the first time yesterday.
In a statement, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) announced that live streaming would begin with yesterday's sitting, which started at 1.30pm.
It will be available to members of the public via MCI's YouTube channel, in both the original language and English-translated versions.
The public can also access parliamentary proceedings via video clips of all speeches and exchanges, which are recorded and uploaded online within hours of each sitting.
They can also choose to read the Hansard - a written record of all parliamentary proceedings - online, or attend sittings in person.
During the sitting, Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson) asked how the Government could mitigate concerns about the potential impact of live streaming on the quality and tone of debates.
Responding, Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said: "Ultimately, the responsibility rests with all members of this House, present and future, who must continue to uphold high standards of conduct and decorum as we engage in the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate."
Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) asked if sign language would be available in the live stream.
Mr Iswaran said that while there were no such provisions at this point, the YouTube streams would have auto-captioning to make them more accessible for the hearing-impaired.
The Government had, in September last year, first agreed in principle to live-stream the proceedings.
Mr Iswaran said then that the Government had so far been reluctant to implement live streaming due to both practical and policy reasons, including the risk of MPs playing to the gallery instead of seriously debating national issues.
But he acknowledged that global trends have made online streaming commonplace, with legislatures in other countries also live-streaming proceedings. The Government would thus study how to implement live streaming, in the spirit of engaging with Singaporeans, he added.
His announcement came months after previous Leader of the House Grace Fu had said no to calls from former Nominated MP Anthea Ong and Workers' Party MP Leon Perera for Parliament proceedings to be live-streamed.
Mr Perera had also raised the matter back in 2017, with then Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Chee Hong Tat saying in response that there was low demand for a live feed of parliamentary proceedings.
Labels: Coronavirus, Govt Action, Parliament, Politics, Singapore, Video
Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail project terminated; Malaysia has to compensate Singapore for costs incurred
They fail to agree on Malaysia's proposed changes; both countries commit to maintaining ties
The twice-delayed high-speed rail (HSR) project between Singapore and Malaysia will no longer go ahead, after both countries were unable to reach an agreement on changes proposed by Malaysia.
The termination of the agreement was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, yesterday, and came amid recent rumours that Malaysia had decided to build the line alone.
Negotiations hit an impasse after Malaysia proposed changes due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In their joint statement, the prime ministers, who had spoken via videoconference on Dec 2, said: "Both governments had conducted several discussions with regard to these changes and had not been able to reach an agreement. Therefore, the HSR agreement had lapsed on Dec 31."
Malaysian Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mustapa Mohamed said yesterday that his government had wanted to bring forward the construction phase and also proposed a new project structure which would have provided more financing options.
He added that Malaysia will honour its obligations and both countries will initiate the necessary procedures to determine the amount of compensation.
PM Lee and Mr Muhyiddin also said: "Both countries remain committed to maintain good bilateral relations, and cooperate closely in various fields, including strengthening the connectivity between the two countries."
The writing was on the wall after Malaysian news reports in recent months suggested that the Malaysian Cabinet was planning to continue on its own and end the line in Johor instead of Jurong.
Yesterday's statements did not detail the compensation amount that Malaysia has to pay Singapore.
Singapore's Transport Ministry said that as Malaysia allowed the agreement to lapse, it will have to compensate Singapore for costs already incurred.
Based on earlier estimates, Singapore had already spent more than $250 million for design, manpower and land acquisitions by the end of May 2018, then Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament in July that year.
He also said Singapore would continue to incur costs - over $6 million each month in June and July, and at least $40 million from August to the end of 2018.
When Singapore agreed to Malaysia's request for a suspension in August that year, more costs were incurred to compensate contractors for breaking contracts, and to fill back sites already excavated, for instance. Malaysia had agreed to reimburse Singapore $15 million for these abortive costs.
The 350km rail line, which Malaysia mooted and both sides agreed to build in 2013, was to have run from Bandar Malaysia in downtown Kuala Lumpur to Jurong East.
It would have had seven stations, and would have cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, one of the busiest air routes.
The trip would have taken 90 minutes on the HSR, compared with over four hours by car and about five hours end to end by air.
Singapore commenced work on the project, appointing a firm to design infrastructure and calling an international joint tender with Malaysia for an assets company, after both countries signed a legally-binding bilateral agreement in December 2016.
The project was put on hold following a change in the Malaysian government in May 2018. The two-year suspension was set to expire in May last year and extended for a second and final time till Dec 31.
The latest development has come under criticism by some in Malaysia, among them former prime minister Najib Razak, who said yesterday that a domestic line was not economically viable.
Meanwhile, observers do not expect a significant impact on bilateral ties, saying that the joint statement indicates a mutual agreement was reached on the termination.
Labels: Coronavirus, Corruption, Economics, Foreign Policy, High Speed Rail KL-SG, Lee Hsien Loong, Parliament, Politics, Question & Answer, Singapore, Tourism, Transport
Singapore should meet 2021 with confidence and hope, says PM Lee Hsien Loong in New Year message
There is light at end of tunnel, he says, urging Singaporeans not to falter in final stretch of fight
By Hariz Baharudin, The Straits Times, 1 Jan 2021
Singapore should meet the new year with renewed confidence and hope after getting through an "exceptionally testing" 2020, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In his traditional New Year message yesterday, PM Lee said the country had faced an unprecedented crisis, and stabilised its Covid-19 situation through enormous effort and sacrifice.
"We have achieved our primary objective to protect lives and keep our people safe," he said, noting that what stood out in Singapore's Covid-19 response is the trust that Singaporeans have in the system and one another.
The country entered phase three of its reopening on Monday and began vaccinating its healthcare workers against Covid-19 two days later.
"We can now see light at the end of the tunnel," said PM Lee, adding that Singapore's economy is beginning to see signs of stabilisation as well after entering its most severe downturn since independence.
But it will still take some time before enough people are vaccinated to prevent another major uncontrolled outbreak, he noted. In the meantime, people have to remain disciplined and continue practising precautionary measures.
"Now is not yet the time to celebrate," the Prime Minister cautioned. "That time will come. Meanwhile, I ask for your support to keep up our efforts and not to falter in this final stretch."
On the economic front, PM Lee said employment has picked up, and multinational companies are making significant new investments in Singapore.
A Manpower Ministry market report last month showed that employment rose among residents to near pre-Covid-19 levels in the third quarter of last year.
He said the economic recovery will, however, be uneven, and activity is likely to remain below pre-coronavirus levels for some time.
To prevent massive job losses and business failures, the Government passed five Budgets, totalling nearly $100 billion, and drew heavily on past reserves to fund various support schemes, he noted. He also held up the work of employers and unions to keep Singaporeans employed.
While Covid-19 deepened fault lines and tensions in many countries, Singapore has thankfully avoided major divisions among its people and the loss of trust that took place elsewhere, said PM Lee.
Trust in the Singapore system remains high, and Singaporeans have complied with Covid-19 rules because the Government has been open and upfront about the facts, he added.
In the 2020 General Election, Singaporeans renewed their mandate for the People's Action Party (PAP) government because they were confident it could see them through the crisis and take the country forward, PM Lee said. The PAP was returned to power at the July 10 election with 61.2 per cent of the vote.
"My team and I will strive to continue deserving your trust, to keep on strengthening our social compact, to sustain the promise of Singapore as a fair and just society, and to help you achieve your hopes and dreams," he said.
"We are determined to give every Singaporean equal opportunity to do well, to prepare you to take advantage of opportunities in a different world, and to help you deal with life's inevitable setbacks."
He noted that while how the post-pandemic world will look is uncertain, Singapore must emerge strengthened by the shared experience of the crisis.
Whether Singapore manages to become a more vibrant economy and resilient society will depend on its people, he added.
And just as how Singapore has come together to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, it must do likewise to rebuild stronger and face any new and unexpected hurdles that lie ahead, he said.
"In the months and years ahead, we will face new and unexpected hurdles. Things may happen that force us to change our plans. But as long as we stay together as one Singapore, I am confident we will blaze a path forward."
Labels: Coronavirus, COVID-19 Vaccine, Economics, Govt Action, Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore, Trust, Video
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TraceTogether data will be used with utmost restra...
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Singapore should meet 2021 with confidence and hop...


text:
Pulido is a Spanish  surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Alan Pulido, Mexican footballer
Alfonso Pulido (born 1957), American Major League Baseball player
Ángel Pulido (1852–1932), Spanish physician, publicist and Liberal politician
Armando Pulido (born 1989), Mexican footballer
Bonifacio López Pulido (1774–1827), Spanish priest of the Roman Catholic Church
Brian Pulido (born 1961) creator, writer and producer of comic books and films
Bobby Pulido (born 1971), American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor
Bonifaci López y Pulido (1774–1827), Bishop of Urgell and Co-Prince of Andorra
Carlos Pulido (born 1971), Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
Cristian Pulido (born 1991), Colombian footballer
Daniela Pulido (born 2000), Mexican football defender
Héctor Pulido (1942–2022), Mexican football midfielder
Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido (born 1970), Mexican architect
Guillermo Tell Villegas Pulido (1854–1949), Venezuelan lawyer, writer, journalist, and politician
Javier Pulido (born 1970), Spanish comic book artist
John Pulido (born 1981), Colombian footballer
Jorge Pulido (born 1991), Spanish footballer
Magdalena Pulido, Spanish film editor
Maki Pulido, Filipino television journalist
Manuel Farrona-Pulido (born 1993), German football midfielder
Marcos Pulido (born 1995), Mexican Olympic canoeist
Maria Claudia Pulido, Colombian human rights lawyer
María Dolores Pulido (born 1974), Spanish long-distance runner
Mariano Pulido (1956–2013), Spanish football player
Mercedes Pulido (1938–2016), Venezuelan politician, diplomat and social psychologist
Miguel A. Pulido (born 1956), American politician and businessman
Miguel Ángel Arellano Pulido (born 1952), Mexican politician
Natalia Pulido (born 1969), Spanish swimmer
Óscar Pulido (1906–1974), Mexican actor
Pedro Puig Pulido (born 1932), Spanish chess master
Pamela Pulido (born 1987), Mexican writer and screenwriter
Rachel Pulido (born 1967), American television writer
Rita Pulido (born 1945), Spanish swimmer
Roberto Pulido (born 1950), American musician
Rubén Pulido (born 1979), Spanish football player
Valeria Pulido (born 1990), Mexican tennis player
William Pulido (born 1965), Colombian racing cyclist

Spanish-language surnames

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Ag Growth International supplied a range of equipment for COFCO's port terminal in the Mykolayiv region of Ukraine.
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA – Ag Growth International, Inc. (AGI) reported record trade sales and adjusted earnings for the three and six months ended June 30.
The company attributed the results to continued momentum in international sales, a robust Canadian commercial markets and strong portable grain handling sales in the U.S.
Adjusted earnings for the quarter were C$49 million, up from C$40 million in the same time period a year earlier. For the six-month period, adjusted earnings were C$80 million, up from C$66 million a year ago.
Excluding acquisitions, international sales increased 44% compared to the prior year, easily surpassing record highs due to continued strength in EMEA and higher sales in Brazil.
Commercial activity in the Canadian fertilizer and grain segments remains very high due to the evolution of fertilizer distribution and expansion of the Canadian grain handling infrastructure.
In the U.S., prospects of another large crop and pent up demand have resulted in recovering sales of portable grain handling equipment.
Crop conditions in North America are generally very positive and recent reports from both the USDA and Statistics Canada are supportive of market expectations of a large North American crop, particularly in the U.S. Demand for portable grain handling equipment in the U.S. remains very high due to underinvestment in recent years and the expectation of a favorable harvest in 2018.
Order backlogs in the U.S. for both portable grain handling equipment and grain storage systems remain strong.
Management anticipates that strong Commercial sales in North America in the second half of 2018 will result from robust demand in Canada for fertilizer and grain systems, offset by lower year-over-year activity in the U.S.
In addition, management expects results to benefit from the recent acquisitions of CMC, Junge and Danmare.
AGI's Commercial backlog in North America is substantially higher than the prior year. International sales momentum is expected to continue in the second half due to a very strong backlog with particular strength in EMEA and South America.
The recent addition of Sabe in France is also expected to contribute to strong international results. Overall, management anticipates sales and EBITDA related to Commercial equipment in 2018 will be higher than the prior year.
On balance, management anticipates trade sales and adjusted EBITDA in the second half of fiscal 2018 will increase compared to 2017.


text:
Cowboys News: Dallas signs two former Packers, adds 10 players to practice squad
Find out all of the latest Dallas Cowboys news and transactions!
By Cole Patterson@colelpatterson Sep 4, 2017, 4:00am CDT
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The deadline to cut down to 53-man rosters ended yesterday. As expected, there was a lot of action across the NFL from teams trading bubble players to franchises making unexpected moves to get down to 53 players on the roster. With that said, there was a lot of Dallas Cowboys news over the weekend.
Dallas Cowboys practice squad signings & rumors tracker - OCC, Blogging The Boys
BTB's OCC has everyone up to date on the latest Dallas Cowboys practice squad signings and all of the latest rumors. And if you missed yesterday's action, this post offers a blow-by-blow account of what happened yesterday.
Cowboys' 53-man roster remains in flux with flurry of moves - Todd Archer, ESPN
Todd Archer breaks down the Cowboys' moves and where the roster stands today.
Rosters should never be perceived as 'final' in the NFL, which the Dallas Cowboys proved Sunday with four roster moves Sunday.
They picked up defensive tackle Brian Price off waivers and cut defensive tackle Cedric Thornton. They traded for linebacker Jayrone Elliott from the Green Bay Packers and cut linebacker Mark Nzeocha. On Saturday, they traded for cornerback Bene Benwikere.
The massaging of a roster never really ends, especially on the weekend before the season starts.
With that in mind, here is an up-to-the-minute look at the Cowboys' 53-man roster, while acknowledging so much could change in the next few days, from Ezekiel Elliott's suspension to the move of Rico Gathers to injured reserve to the return of quarterback Kellen Moore
Roster Moves: Cowboys trade for LB Jayrone Elliott, DT Cedric Thornton released, DT Lewis Neal to practice squad - RJ Ochoa, Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys made a surprise move on Sunday. The team traded a seventh-round pick for Green Bay Packers OLB Jayrone Elliott.
NFL 53-man rosters were "official" on Saturday at 3pm CT, but that does not at all mean that teams were done tinkering with them. The Cowboys have already made a few moves, including a trade on Saturday.
We're at Sunday afternoon and you can double up that number of trades, because the Cowboys have pulled off another, this time for Green Bay Packers linebacker Jayrone Elliott.
Per Todd Archer, the Cowboys sent a conditional seventh-round pick in 2018 to Green Bay in exchange for Elliott's services. Jayrone becomes another Elliott on the Dallas Cowboys roster, and his presence could be an indicator that the Cowboys plan to move Anthony Hitchens to injured reserve. Even if they don't move Hitchens, the Cowboys needed linebacker depth while he's out.
Unfortunately, though, the Cowboys were forced to move on from Cedric Thornton just two years removed from signing the defensive tackle to a four-year, $17 million deal. This gave the Cowboys room to add the Packers linebacker.
Cedric Thornton was released by the Cowboys
Shortly after claiming former Packers DT Brian Price, the Cowboys answered the question as to who's roster spot he would be taking. They have officially released Cedric Thornton.
It was just an offseason ago that Dallas signed Thornton to a four-year $17M deal in free agency after his exit from Philadelphia. Thornton was hardly ever impressive during his first season in Dallas, and as a result that was ultimately his last.
The Cowboys are also bringing back former LSU defensive tackle Lewis Neal, but to the practice squad.
Lewis Neal is headed to the practice squad
A popular pet cat around BTB was the undersized defensive tackle product out of LSU, Lewis Neal. While it was tough to see him let go by the Cowboys, given his smaller frame it was somewhat understandable.
In a matter of about an hour the Cowboys have made a lot of interesting moves at defensive tackle. Brian Price is in, Cedric Thornton is out, and Lewis Neal is a project worth working on that is now on the practice squad.
Neal seems pleased to be remaining with the organization, though:
Still with Dem Boyz! #Blessed
— Lewis Neal (@ImBallinNeal18) September 3, 2017
Packers trade OLB Jayrone Elliott to Cowboys, per report - Evan "Tex" Western, ACME Packing Company
Packers blog ACME Packing Company notes that Elliott was a "key component" of the Packers' special teams unit and "flashed occasionally" on the defensive side of the ball.
Elliott has been in and out of the lineup over the past two weeks with back spasms, and has never quite broken out as a pass-rusher on defense. He has, however, been a key component of the Packers' special teams over his three years with the team, and has flashed occasionally during his limited playing time on defense.
Elliott was a restricted free agent this offseason, but was not tendered. However, he returned to the Packers on a one-year contract this season worth just over $1.5 million with a $350,000 signing bonus. The Packers will carry that bonus on their salary cap as dead money this season.
Cowboys claim one player off of waivers: DT Brian Price from Green Bay - Brandon George, SportsDay
Elliott was not the only former Packer to make his way onto the Cowboys roster, however. The team claimed Green Bay defensive tackle Brian Price off of waivers on Sunday morning. The former UTSA defender heads back to the Lone Star State.
The Dallas Cowboys claimed one player off waivers Sunday after NFL teams made their final cuts Saturday down to 53.
The Cowboys claimed defensive tackle Brian Price from Green Bay. He played his college football down the road at UT-San Antonio.
At 6-3, 318, Price is primarily a run-stopper up front. He went undrafted in 2016 and appeared in only one game for the Packers last season. He spent most of last season on Green Bay's practice squad.
Source: Cowboys trade for Green Bay LB Jayrone Elliott, release Mark Nzeocha - Brandon George, SportsDay
While the Cowboys addressed some of their linebacker concerns by trading for Elliott, the Cowboys decided to move on from Mark Nzeocha.
The Cowboys gave up a 2018 seventh-round conditional draft pick to acquire Elliott, the source said, and will add him to their 53-man roster. The Cowboys released veteran linebacker Mark Nzeocha, a source said, to make room for the addition of Elliott. Nzeocha was mostly a special teams contributor in his two seasons with the Cowboys in 2015 and 2016.
The Cowboys needed depth at linebacker with Anthony Hitchens out eight weeks with a tibial plateau fracture in his right knee and Jaylon Smith still limited on his snap count as he recovers from his major left knee injury that kept him out all of his rookie season.
Practice Squad Update: Cowboys bringing TE Blake Jarwin back - RJ Ochoa, Blogging The Boys
More roster news! This time on the practice squad. The 'Boys are bringing back Blake Jarwin.
This is a move that's good for the Cowboys. They've got Jason Witten on gold jacket/veteran status, Rico Gathers who could be headed for IR, and two tight ends who had season-ending injuries a year ago in James Hanna and Geoff Swaim.
Depth is always great, and depth is what the Cowboys now have at this position group.
Ex-Cowboy J.J. Wilcox on the move again as Tampa Bay trades safety to Pittsburgh - SportsDay
As Dallas made their decision to revamp its secondary, J.J. Wilcox signed with the Buccaneers. However, he won't be playing the 2017 season in Tampa.
Six short months after signing a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, safety J.J. Wilcox was traded on Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In return, Tampa Bay acquired a sixth-round draft pick in next year's draft, but also sent a seventh-round pick in the 2019 draft along with Wilcox to the Steelers.
Texans awarded wide receiver Andy Jones off waivers from Cowboys - Aaron Wilson, Houston Chronicle
More former Dallas Cowboys news: Andy Jones battled with Noah Brown and Lance Lenoir for the potential sixth receiver spot on the roster. However, Brown got the nod, leaving both Jones and Lenoir off of a 53-man squad. The Texans claimed Jones off of waivers on Sunday. Good luck, Andy!
Jones is a 6-1, 214-pound speedster who's run the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds and had a 41 1/2 vertical leap and a 6.97 three-cone drill coming out of Jacksonville University.
He spent time with the Cowboys on their practice squad. Jones knows all three wide receiver spots.
At the University of Florida Pro Day, Jones had a 10-7 broad jump. He caught 144 passes for 2,120 yards and 17 touchdowns for his career.
There is some serious Cowboys lineage tied to the Bene Benwikere trade - RJ Ochoa, Blogging The Boys
On Saturday, the Dallas Cowboys made an interesting move to improve their secondary. Dallas traded for former Carolina Panthers DB Bene Benwikere. RJ writes on the lineage between Benwikere and America's Team:
Obviously the Cowboys like what they've seen of Benwikere since he entered the NFL in 2014, but there's likely more to this story than their evaluation of him on tape. Dallas, like many other NFL teams, has trusted sources that it goes to when they have questions about particular players or position groups.
One football mind out there that's been a resource to them before is current University of Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre. For those unaware, MacIntyre served under Bill Parcells in Dallas from 2003-2006 as the team's defensive backs coach.
MacIntyre's first head coaching gig came in December of 2009 from San Jose State. Part of MacIntyre's first recruiting class in preparation of the 2010 season was none other than than new Cowboys cornerback Bene Benwikere (where Benwikere also played with Keith Smith).
The Cowboys privately prefer Chaz Green as starting LG; can he stay healthy enough to claim spot? - Barry Horn, SportsDay
Chaz Green was once seen as a player with high potential in the eyes of Cowboys fans. But, unfortunate injuries have plagued the lineman's career. Nonetheless, Horn writes that the coaching staff is still high on him.
Once upon a time, Green was penciled in to replace the retired Doug Free at right tackle this season. In what will be his third year, Green was to bookend the line opposite Smith, considered one of the NFL's premier left tackles.
However, the inevitable happened before he played a single preseason game. Green's body wouldn't cooperate. First it was missed practices due to physical ailments during organized team activities. Then a shoulder injury cost him valuable time in training camp. Soon after his shoulder was diagnoses as healed, a leg injury hit.
Because of this, the Cowboys moved La'el Collins to the outside and let Green battle former first-round selection Jonathan Cooper for the left guard job. Although Cooper has impressed while Green still battles injuries, the staff may actually prefer the latter.
The Cowboys privately would prefer that Green win the job. They consider him one of their top 5 offensive linemen when healthy and it would be good to have one of their own former high draft choices produce. As executive vice president and directory of player personnel Stephen Jones has often declared, the Cowboys expect third-round picks to make their way into the starting lineup by their second season, third at the latest.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dani Pedrosa maintained a narrow advantage over Jorge Lorenzo as day two of the Sepang pre-season test came to a close. The pair were as closely matched as they had been yesterday but Pedrosa claimed the honours for the second day running after trumping Lorenzo's morning flyer.
The Repsol Honda team continued to focus on electronics with Pedrosa also working out the best way to distribute the extra 3kg the bikes must carry under the 2013 rules and the Spaniard got down to a 2:00.549 before rain arrived an hour before the scheduled finish. Lorenzo, whose experiment with new and old components continued, was just 0.019s adrift with the impressive Marc Marquez just a quarter of a second back in third. The top four mirrored that of day one with Valentino Rossi sending another message of intent with the fourth fastest time.
Cal Crutchlow found half a second on his Tuesday best to take fifth ahead of Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista but the significant strides were being taken further back. Crutchlow's Tech 3 teammate Bradley Smith was a full 1.5s quicker than he had been on day one, jumping four places to eighth while Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso went a little way to calming Ducati's fears by gaining 1.2s each to break into the top ten.
Ben Spies was another rapid improver after overcoming the injury problem that curtailed his opening day, cutting two seconds of his previous best while Andrea Iannone also took a step forward in the other Pramac Ducati to overtake the Aspar CRTs who spent today testing a new chassis and swingarm.
Another man who could feel very satisfied with his day's work was Michael Laverty who clocked a 2:05.417, enough for 23rd overall and quicker than Pau Bird teammate Yonny Hernandez who complained of a lack of rear grip on his ART.


The winners of the 2008 Lieutenant-Governor's Dialogue Award were announced on June 10, 2008 at a ceremony in Bathurst. The recipients of the annual honour were: Bathurst High School Student Council, Conseil des étudiants École secondaire Népisiguit, Brian Murphy, and the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.
According to DNB's executive director, Carole Fournier, recipients are selected by a five-member jury.
Left to right: Mr. Ken MacLeod (New Brunswick Youth Orchestra), Ms. Josée Poitras (École secondaire Népisiguit), the Hon. Herménégilde Chiasson, Lieutenant-Governor Province of New Brunswick, Mrs. Odette Snow, Co-Chair of Dialogue New Brunswick, Ms. Alison Carroll (Bathurst High School), Mr. Brian Murphy (individual) and Mrs. Carole Fournier, Executive Director of Dialogue New Brunswick.
The student councils of Bathurst High School and École secondaire Népisiguit in Bathurst have worked together in the planning and presentation of numerous projects over the last decade or more. The two institutions have fostered and maintained a strong partnership in the spirit of cooperation and mutual support. Their success is proof that language does not at all have to be a barrier to making new friendships.
Students from the two schools have joined forces in organizing the annual Bay Breakfast event to raise funds for school activities. Young people from the schools have also cooperated on projects including a community walk to commemorate the shootings at the Polytechnique and street cleanup days in Bathurst.
These members of New Brunswick's youth are clearly aware of the importance of maintaining healthy relations between anglophones and francophones and of the positive effects of this in terms of greater understanding between the province's linguistic communities.
Brian Murphy, Member of Parliament for Moncton-Riverview Dieppe, has invested enormous stocks of personal energy over the years in bringing New Brunswick's two major linguistic communities closer together.
As the mayor of Moncton in the late 1990s and early part of the current decade, he was instrumental in having his community declared, in 2002, Canada's first officially bilingual city. During his tenure, he expanded cultural and social opportunities for both French and English-speaking citizens – efforts that included playing host to the francophone world during the sommet de la francophonie in 1999.
Mr. Murphy – who has been a frequent post-graduate French Immersion student at Université de Moncton, and agencies in Jonquiere, Quebec, and Quebec City – has been the New Brunswick President of the Canadian Unity Council (CUC). He remains an active champion of Moncton's Alliance Française.
The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra (NBYO) is a symphony orchestra featuring highly talented musicians between the ages of 12 and 22. Anglophone and francophone teachers hold auditions for the orchestra in their respective languages throughout the province to reach as many musicians as possible.
Also in keeping with recognition of the province's two linguistic communities, the orchestra introduces its musicians in both official languages. Volunteer parents and committee members ensure that all releases and other communications, from e-mail to the annual orchestra guides, are made available in both official languages.
The NBYO is made up of young anglophone and francophone men and women from urban and rural regions in all four corners of New Brunswick. The mission of the NBYO is to help its highly talented members to build their musical skills and develop through both learning and orchestral music performance.
The NBYO has been successful in conveying to members its principles of dialogue, values that have extended beyond Canada's borders. During a recent trip to Beijing, some young people served as interpreters. With their capacity to adapt to the new realities of growing globalization, organizations such as the NBYO demonstrate the promise of the future.


text:
.class public Lcom/htc/sunny/SBaseAdapter;
.super Ljava/lang/Object;
.source "SBaseAdapter.java"

# instance fields
.field private final mDataSetObservable:Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

# direct methods
.method public constructor <init>()V
    .locals 1

    .prologue
    .line 25
    invoke-direct/range {p0 .. p0}, Ljava/lang/Object;-><init>()V

    .line 26
    new-instance v0, Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

    invoke-direct {v0}, Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;-><init>()V

    iput-object v0, p0, Lcom/htc/sunny/SBaseAdapter;->mDataSetObservable:Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

    return-void
.end method

# virtual methods
.method public notifyDataSetChanged()V
    .locals 1

    .prologue
    .line 53
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/htc/sunny/SBaseAdapter;->mDataSetObservable:Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

    invoke-virtual {v0}, Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;->notifyChanged()V

    .line 54
    return-void
.end method

.method public notifyDataSetInvalidated()V
    .locals 1

    .prologue
    .line 69
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/htc/sunny/SBaseAdapter;->mDataSetObservable:Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

    invoke-virtual {v0}, Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;->notifyInvalidated()V

    .line 70
    return-void
.end method

.method public notifyUpdateItem(I)V
    .locals 1
    .parameter "index"

    .prologue
    .line 61
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/htc/sunny/SBaseAdapter;->mDataSetObservable:Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

    invoke-virtual {v0, p1}, Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;->notifyChanged(I)V

    .line 62
    return-void
.end method

.method public registerDataSetObserver(Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObserver;)V
    .locals 1
    .parameter "observer"

    .prologue
    .line 33
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/htc/sunny/SBaseAdapter;->mDataSetObservable:Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

    invoke-virtual {v0, p1}, Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;->registerObserver(Ljava/lang/Object;)V

    .line 34
    return-void
.end method

.method public unregisterDataSetObserver(Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObserver;)V
    .locals 1
    .parameter "observer"

    .prologue
    .line 41
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/htc/sunny/SBaseAdapter;->mDataSetObservable:Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;

    invoke-virtual {v0, p1}, Lcom/htc/sunny/SDataSetObservable;->unregisterObserver(Ljava/lang/Object;)V

    .line 42
    return-void
.end method

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Camberley Dental Clinic
Our practice aims to provide the highest quality dental care in a relaxed, friendly environment.
New Patient? Get in Touch!
Monday 9:00 – 17:00
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GU15 3LN
Please feel free to call us at 01276 63854, or complete the form below and one of our team members will be in touch.
If you are requesting an appointment, we will contact you shortly with confirmation.
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text:
Quando a Polícia Chegar
Posted on May 24, 2021 May 25, 2021 by lyricalbrazil
Lyrics from "Quando a polícia chegar" by João da Baiana (c. 1915), recorded by Cristina Buarque and Clementina de Jesús (1981)
Se é de mim, podem falar / If it's about me, let them talk
Meu amor não tem dinheiro / My love doesn't have money
Não vai roubar pra me dar (bis) / He won't steal to give to me (bis)
Quando a policia vier e souber / When the police come and find out
Quem paga casa pra homem é a mulher (bis) / It's the woman who bankrolls (that) man [*literally, pays for his home] (bis)
No tempo que ele podia / Back when he was able
Me tratava muito bem / He treated me well
Hoje está desempregado / These days he's unemployed
Não me dá porque não tem (bis)/ He doesn't provide because he can't (bis)
Quem paga casa pra homem é a mulher (bis) / It's the woman who bankrolls (that) man (bis)
Não vai roubar pra me dar (bis) / He won't steal to give to me
Quando eu estava mal de vida / When I was down and out
Ele foi meu camarada / He was there for me
Hoje dou casa e comida / Today I provide room and board
Dinheiro e roupa lavada (bis)/ Money and fresh laundered clothes… (bis)
João da Baiana and Clementina de Jesús, photo by Walter Firmo, late 1960s.
In early twentieth-century Rio, around the time this song was first recorded, working-class women indeed had a great degree of economic independence and autonomy, and situations such as the one depicted here were common — another side of the malandro way of life (described in this post) so central to early samba.
The gender imbalance was nearly 60 men for 40 women in late nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Rio. The city's population exploded after abolition in 1888, with an influx of freedmen from rural areas and young European immigrants, mostly poor Portuguese men, all of whom competed for the same jobs. Women of the working class and working poor were generally able to bring in a stable income through activities linked to their domestic life: they washed clothes, cooked, ironed and starched, sold sweets and snacks. And because of the gender imbalance among Rio's poorer classes, they also enjoyed a relative degree of freedom in choosing romantic partners. This stirred conflict since men of the working class and working poor couldn't live up to societal ideals of masculinity. They often couldn't provide for women, and certainly couldn't claim them as property. And they fought over the scarce women within their social circles.
Appropriately, the narrator calling the shots in this song is a woman. She appears to deflect the criticism of her busybody neighbors ("When the police come and find out…" is met with "let them talk") with a generous defense of her companion's character. He's not a layabout; the problem presumably is an exclusionary society that's left him disadvantaged and unemployed.
A version of these verses may have emerged at the famous days-long parties at Tia Ciata's, or Tia Perciliana's — João da Baiana's mother's home in the Saúde neighborhood of Rio. Indeed the song is emblematic of the history of samba itself. That history is generally told as a celebration of pioneering men like João da Baiana (João Machedo Guedes, 1887-1974), an incredibly talented percussionist known for popularizing the pandeiro and prato e faca, or plate-and-knife, in samba, and Donga (Ernesto dos Santos, 1889-1974). This is in part because those men lived long enough to tell their story when more people began to care about the history of samba, in the 1960s. The testimonials they recorded for the Museu de Imagem e Som, founded in 1965, quickly became the official history. But women were always the ones holding the scene together: they hosted the huge parties, cooked for masses, and, crucially, recalled the old popular verses they'd heard from their often enslaved parents and grandparents in places like rural Bahia and Minas Gerais. (João da Baiana's parents, the children of slaves, were from Bahia, and he was the only of twelve siblings to be born in Rio.) Those verses supplied ample source material and inspiration for the samba repertoire, where they float around to this day.
In a recent interview with Pedro Paulo Malta for Instituto Moreira Salles, Christina Buarque chose the song as one of ten favorites to celebrate on the occasion of her 70th birthday. She recalled hearing Clementina de Jesús perform the song at TV Record's Bienal do Samba context in 1968. It stuck in her head, and she recorded the samba with Clementina in 1981.
Posted in Christina Buarque, Clementina de Jesús, João da BaianaTagged Clementina de Jesús, Cristina Buarque, Donga, João da Baiana, Lyrics in English, lyrics translated, quando a polícia chegar, Samba, samba history, tradução, translate lyrics, translation
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Universal Orlando last week announced Diagon Alley, an expansion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opened in 2010.
Coming on the heels of the new Transformers ride, the expansion will no doubt be a success. But if the students in my college writing classes are any indication, then the Harry Potter phenomenon is beginning to wane.
When I began teaching freshman composition in 2008, my students had grown up with Harry. Born in the early 1990s, they were children when Harry left for Hogwarts in the series' first installment and in high school when he finally defeated Voldemort. In a very real sense, these students grew up alongside Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Knowing that composition classes tend not to be student favorites, I leveraged students' interest in the series. For several consecutive semesters, every student who came into my class had read at least four of the novels. Most had read all seven.
Beginning with books they already knew, I taught these 19-year-old students to express their own views, to engage with the opinions of others (even if they disagreed), to consider arguments from scholars in different disciplines and to support their claims with evidence.
Just as important as students' interest, for my purposes, was the fact that experts in a variety of fields had written about the books. This breadth of interest is what made the Harry Potter fad into a phenomenon, something different from other popular children's book series.
Literary critics, religious pundits, marketing firms — everyone was interested in Harry. I assigned readings about intellectual property law, and we discussed how author J.K. Rowling was sued by another writer for trademark infringement and how she defended her own copyright.
I assigned readings about psychoanalysis, and we discussed a psychologist's use of Harry Potter to encourage children to participate more actively in group-therapy sessions. Most of my students had no particular interest in literature for its own sake, but they were able to connect Rowling's books to something they were interested in — be it business, law, therapy or sociology.
For these students, Harry Potter was a bridge to academic writing and intellectual rigor.
Lately, though, the excitement hasn't been there. Now that the book series has finished and the films are all released, students are less invested in Harry Potter. It's not that they haven't read the books — most have. And it's not that they don't enjoy them — they do. But the emotional investment that made the Harry Potter phenomenon special has disappeared.
In 2000, Rowling's books had been topping The New York Times bestseller list, and in response the Times relegated children's books to a separate list. Literary critic Harold Bloom saw the books' popularity as a symptom of a nationwide "dumbing down," and asked why anyone would read something that didn't enrich their mind, spirit or personality?
I've given Bloom's column to dozens of students. In 2008, the response was outrage: students felt their minds, spirits, and personalities had been enriched. Who was Harold Bloom to tell them otherwise? They wouldn't abandon their attachment to the books, and were willing to defend their enjoyment. They were even willing to write about it.
Now, though, the response is apathy. Students see the Harry Potter series as just kids' books: fun to read, and that's it. These students haven't gone to book-release parties, or written fan fiction, or had Wizard-themed birthday parties. They are quite ready to abandon their attachment to Rowling's books, unwilling to follow that attachment into new arenas.
But once, Harry Potter was something special, something that could connect childhood reading to adult critical thinking. That time has passed.
Patrick C. Fleming is a visiting assistant professor of English at Rollins College, where he teaches courses in British literature and children's literature.


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High Point police build Christmas float set to go around city Saturday
HIGH POINT, N.C. — High Point police built a Christmas float that is set to go around town on Saturday.
The float will be in the following locations:
Macedonia Park at 9 a.m.
Allen Jay Recreation Center at 9:30 a.m.
Brockett Park at 10 a.m.
Armstrong Park at 10:30 a.m.
Triangle Park at 11 a.m.
High Point Athletic Complex at 11:30 a.m.
Morehead Recreation Center at 12 p.m.


Members check the church weekly to water flowers, refill candles as needed and make sure altar linens are kept clean. Members usually serve about 2 weekends each year. Contact Donna Farrell for more information.


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Disney Becomes First Studio to Gross $10 Billion at Global Box Office in One Year
It's official. Disney has become the first studio in history to pass the $10 billion mark in global box office sales. According to Variety, the studio earned $3.28 billion domestically and $6.7 billion internationally as of Sunday, totaling to $9.997 billion. That number is expected to officially cross $10 billion within the day.
Of course, Disney didn't do this all on their own. Their lucrative subsidiary animation studio Pixar has been in the picture for over a decade. But add in their acquisition of Marvel and Lucasfilm, and Disney has got itself an empire. Between billion-dollar blockbusters Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King alone, Disney shattered its own previous record of $7.6 billion back in July. And none of these numbers take into account titles that technically fall under Disney after the Disney-Fox merger that occurred back in March, like Ford v Ferrari or Dark Phoenix. In case you're wondering, those titles would have pushed Disney's numbers to $11.9 billion.
This announcement comes even before the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which premieres December 20th. And unless a meteor strikes Earth and renders us all completely immobile, Skywalker is going to have a monstrously successful box office run. It might even become the seventh Disney film this year to gross a billion dollars, following Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Captain Marvel, and soon-to-be Frozen 2 (at $920 million as of yesterday).
If 2019 has taught us anything, it's that this is The Mouse's world, and we're all just living in it.
Gallery — Every Disney Remake Ranked from Worst to Best
Source: Disney Becomes First Studio to Gross $10 Billion at Global Box Office in One Year
Filed Under: Aladdin, Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Disney, Frozen 2, Marvel, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the lion king, Toy Story 4
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Psałterz Melisandy – bogato iluminowany manuskrypt z XII wieku, zawierający łaciński psałterz. Wykonany został około 1135 roku w skryptorium Bazyliki Grobu Świętego dla królowej jerozolimskiej Melisandy. Stanowi jeden z najbardziej reprezentatywnych przykładów sztuki krzyżowców. Obecnie znajduje się w zbiorach British Library (sygnatura Egerton MS 1139).

Spisana na pergaminie księga ma wymiary 215×145 mm (z oprawą 220×145 mm) i liczy 218 kart. Pierwsze 12 kart manuskryptu zajmują 24 iluminacje z przedstawieniem scen nowotestamentowych, których wykonawca podpisał się na zakończeniu cyklu jako Basilius. Karty 13-19 zajmuje kalendarz z wizerunkami znaków zodiaku. Ilustracje zdobiące psałterz utrzymane są zasadniczo w stylu romańskim, silnie widoczny jest jednak wpływ malarstwa bizantyjskiego. Karty 23-177 zawierają psałterz ze zdobnymi inicjałami, w których krzyżują się motywy zdobnicze zachodnie i islamskie. Zamykające księgę karty 177-218 zawierają różnorakie modlitwy do świętych, zdobione portretami świętych wzorowanymi na stylu Basiliusa. Okładziny księgi zostały wykonane z kości słoniowej z dodatkiem turkusu. Przedstawiono na nich sceny z życia Dawida oraz Psychomachii Prudencjusza.

Dzieje Psałterza są nieznane, w nieustalonych okolicznościach trafił on do La Grande Chartreuse, gdzie znajdował się na początku XIX wieku. Około 1840 roku trafił w ręce Ambroise Comarmonda, dyrektora Musée des beaux-arts w Lyonie, a następnie do bibliofila Guiglielmo Libri, który odsprzedał go antykwariuszom Payne'owi i Fossowi. W listopadzie 1845 roku manuskrypt zakupiła Biblioteka Brytyjska.

Przypisy

Bibliografia

Manuskrypty z XII wieku
Melisandy
Manuskrypty Wulgaty
Biblioteka Brytyjska


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Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski refers to issues of the Empire from 1989, illustrating the long process of amending the city's mining ordinance. The mining ordinance is back under discussion after a proposal written by five businessmen. (Alex McCarthy | Juneau Empire)
Assembly wants time to consider changing mining ordinance
Sunday, April 30, 2017 10:48pm
Making changes to the City and Borough of Juneau's mining ordinance would take a long time and a great deal of effort to do, and the city is looking into it.
Monday's CBJ Committee of the Whole meeting devolved into a history lesson, with Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski leading the class. She displayed a hefty collection of old press clippings from 1989, the last time the mining ordinance was amended, pointing out that undertaking this project would be difficult.
"I'm just bringing this up to illustrate that it's gonna be a heavy lift, I think, to do this," Gladziszewski said.
The conversation of amending the ordinance originated from a proposal from five businessmen who approached the Assembly members recently to discuss eliminating parts of the mining ordinance to make it easier for investors to open a mine in Juneau or to reopen the Alaska-Juneau Mine.
Even though the meeting wasn't open for public comment, more than 30 people showed up, many of them wearing stickers that said, "Don't take us backwards — Keep our public process more precious than gold." None of the five men who proposed the changes to the ordinance — Frank Bergstrom, Jim Clark, Bill Corbus, Neil MacKinnon and Sam Smith — were in attendance.
After about 45 minutes of discussion, the Assembly agreed to not advance the proposal to the Planning Commission, which would be the next step. Instead, Mayor Ken Koelsch and City Manager Rorie Watt will meet over the next month or so and consider a plan to evaluate the possibility of amending the ordinance.
The Assembly members discussed putting together a committee to look into the ordinance and the benefits and costs of mining in Juneau. Deputy Mayor Jerry Nankervis mentioned a committee of seven or nine members, including a mix of Assembly members, commissioners and knowledgeable members of the public.
This would be the second committee in the past decade to look into resuming mining in Juneau. A seven-member AJ Mine Advisory Committee released a study in 2011 that stated that the feasibility of reopening the mine depends on the size of the mine.
Gladziszewski was on that committee, and reiterated that it was a long, arduous process. Assembly member Jesse Kiehl also warned that if the Assembly moves too quickly with a decision this large, it will compromise the public's trust in the Assembly.
"This radical a rewrite, I think needs a much bigger discussion," Kiehl said. "I'm afraid that something this big, straight to the tech team, is gonna look like stacking the deck, and that will ensure bitter fights forever and probably never getting the mine open."
Assembly member Beth Weldon, a proponent of exploring the possibility of bringing more mining to Juneau, employed an economic argument. She talked about the multitude of high-paying jobs at the Kensington and Greens Creek mines, and initially proposed that the Assembly send the proposal to the Planning Commission.
That proposal changed as the meeting went along and she eventually agreed that Koelsch and Watt should look into the best way to proceed. Nankervis pointed out that the next Committee of the Whole meeting on May 22 is already fairly full, so the mining issue will likely be brought up at the next Committee of the Whole meeting, scheduled for June 12.
Gladziszewski said she'd prefer the Assembly go through this process slowly to make sure that it considers all possibilities and produces a solution that is built to last.
"I think that given that this issue is so contentious and so important for our town," Gladziszewski said, "that the community deserves a process that is durable and it is, I would hope, unanimous."
Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com or 523-2271.
In this June 2010 photo, employees of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development watch mining students in the Entry Level Underground Mining Training program learn how to hand drill in the AJ Mine. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire file)
If Senate agrees, new House bill would make voting easier
String of alarm-clock earthquakes awakens northern Southeast and the Yukon


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László Sólymos
Deputy Prime Minister; Minister of Environment of the Slovak Republic
László Sólymos born in Bratislava on 16 November 1968. Sólymos is a Slovak politician for the Most- Híd Party and holds an engineering degree from the Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Bratislava.
Prior to his political career, he worked as an entrepreneur. Sólymos was first elected to parliament in 2010 and was appointed as a Member of the Committee of the National Council of the Slovak Republic for Economics until 2012. In the elections that followed, he was elected to the National Council of the Slovak Republic, where he served as a Member of Committee of the National Council of the Slovak Republic for Culture and Media. In the year 2016, he was appointed as a Minister of Environment of the Slovak Republic.


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Jamil Rostami (born 1971 in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, Iran) is a Kurdish film director.

In 2002 he made his first short film titled The Trouble of Being a Boy in Kurdish, which was screened in 24 domestic and international Festivals and was awarded several prizes.

He made his first feature-length film, Requiem of Snow, in 2005. Fariborz Lachini, one of the most famous Iranian film music composers, made the music of the film. The photography of the film was done by Morteza Poursamadi, a celebrated Iranian photographer. The movie was awarded prestigious Crystal Simorgh for the best director in Asia and Middle East Films section of the International Fajr Film Festival. A joint production of Iran and Iraq, Requiem of Snow was the first film to represent Iraq in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars.

His latest film, Jani Gal, is a Kurdish language drama, about Kurdish separatists in the 1940s and 1950 trying to create a Kurdish state from parts of Iran and Iraq. This film was also selected to represent Iraq in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars.

References
 Iranian film selected as Iraqi representative in the Oscars

External links
Biography

Iranian film directors
Kurdish film directors
Iranian Kurdish people
People from Sanandaj
1971 births
Living people


MILAN — According to a new research report by the market research and strategy consulting firm, Global Market Insights, Inc, the Intelligent Vending Machine Market is set to hit US$30 Billion by 2024. The intelligent vending machines market is experiencing high growth due to a rise in the development of the energy-efficient solutions by manufacturers that will help companies to reduce their carbon footprint.
Players operating in intelligent vending machines market are developing eco-friendly and recycling vending machines to provide sustainable technologies for reducing the environmental impacts.
Some of the major players, including Coca-Cola, are developing smart vending machines that are integrated with these recycling technologies. Moreover, countries including India, China, the UK, and the U.S. have adopted initiatives and policies for reducing the plastic usage. Such regulations are encouraging the development of sustainable vending machines.
Beverage dispensing machines are witnessing a high demand in the intelligent vending machines market and are anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 16% over the forecast timespan due to the increasing consumption of several types of beverages including cold drinks, alcohol, juices, and energy drinks. Some of the major countries that have a high consumption rate of the soft drinks include the U.S., Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. However, the U.S. is among the top countries considering alcohol consumption rates. Retail outlets in these countries are involved in automating their outlets by incorporating vending solutions. They are utilizing these automated technologies to serve different types of beverages to their customers, thereby enhancing the shopping experience. Such factors are expected to drive the intelligent vending machine market growth.
In the intelligent vending machines market, the retail sector accounted for over 15% of the industry in 2017 and is experiencing high adoption due to the increasing transformation of these outlets to the mechanized stores. Retail store owners are incorporating such advanced technologies to provide sophisticated solutions to their customers, which will save the time that they spend in queues.
Intelligent vending machiness help customers in gaining information about the features, pricing, and offers & discounts associated with these products. This helps in accelerating the shopping process with a detailed product overview and various payment options. The incorporation of such smart solutions in stores is driving the sales and profitability of the retail businesses, thereby accelerating the market demand.
Increasing applications of smart dispensing solutions at public transport hubs such as airports, railways stations, and bus stands are predicted to accelerate the intelligent vending machines market. The adoption of food & beverage-dispensing equipment in these places is growing rapidly.
These transportation hubs are engaged in transforming their manual operational techniques to automated technologies. For instance, the Indian Railways is investing heavily in automation. In June 2018, it installed automatic food vending machines in the Coimbatore-Bengaluru UDAY Express. These machines are operated using a tablet. Moreover, they are planning to install such systems in several other trains in the future, accelerating intelligent vending machines market.
The Europe intelligent vending machines market is rapidly growing owing to the rising adoption of smart technologies for serving customers in several application areas. These machines are allowing customers to change their mode of payment to cashless transactions. Countries including Sweden, Germany, France, the UK, and Italy are developing various initiatives and programs to digitize the payment process.
Sweden is a leading country to adopt stringent guidelines for transforming itself into a cashless economy. For instance, in 2013, some of the major banks including Nordea Bank, SEB, and Swedbank refused to hand over physical currency to its customers in over 75% of their branches in the country. Such digital currency initiatives are encouraging the market players to develop advanced solutions that will support cashless payments.
Major companies participating in the intelligent vending machines market include American Vending Machines, Automated Merchandising Systems, Azkoyen Vending Systems, Bianchi Industry SpA, Bulk Vending Systems, Continental Vending, Evoka Group, Crane Merchandising Systems, Inc, Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., and Sanden Holdings Corporation, among others.
These players are competing in the intelligent vending machines market by integrating advanced technologies in their product offerings, which include mobile & internet connectivity, NFC-based payments, and others. Royal Vendors, Inc., a designer & manufacturer of beverage vending machines is offering remanufacturing services to its clients to allow the efficient use of technologies, improve the operating period, and reduce electronic wastes. The growing adoption of these sustainable technologies in several industrial segments will propel the market.


Sundays were made for leisurely lunches, and River Cottage is no exception. Our Sunday events are a family affair, set against the breathtaking backdrop of River Cottage HQ. Relax, explore your famous surroundings and enjoy a delicious lunch, fresh from the River Cottage kitchen.
This is a relaxed dining experience, you will be seated on one of two long trestle tables alongside your dining companions. There are no menus*, your chef will explain what is being served and a little bit about where the food came from and how it has been prepared. All you need to do is sit back and soak up the atmosphere.
We welcome children of all ages to our Sundays at River Cottage, with £15 tickets for under-12s. Please purchase an adults ticket for children aged 12 and over.
Are you coming with a group of 10 or more? Did you know we offer private dining packages?
*We will endeavour to allow for any dietary requirements you may have, just make sure you let us know when booking.
You'll be met at the top of the hill at 12.00 and transported to River Cottage HQ by tractor and trailer.
We'll greet you with seasonal drinks and you will have the chance to explore our idyllic surroundings.
As you settle in, your chef will introduce the menu and tell you more about our philosophy, the food's provenance and how the dishes have been prepared.
You'll be treated to three courses of fantastic local and seasonal produce, planned on the day to showcase the freshest and the best. We happily cater for any dietary requirements, which you'll be asked to provide when booking.
After lunch you'll unwind with coffee and petits fours (if you still have room), before being whisked back up the hill by our tractor and trailer.
Please note: Hugh will not be attending this event.
Oxford Sandy pork chump cooked over coals, cider glazed belly & crackling. Pork fat roasties, honey and mustard parsnips, braised chard and carrots cooked in hay.
Add an extra person for ?
We recommend purchasing with this event.
This dining event is run from River Cottage HQ on the Dorset/Devon borders. Full address details of HQ will be provided once you have booked.
Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult. We put these guidelines in place for the safety, comfort and enjoyment of all our guests.
Please note we cater for all but the most severe allergies and intolerances, however, as ingredients that include allergens are used in other recipes in our kitchens, we cannot guarantee against contamination. If you would like to know the steps we take to minimise cross-contamination in our kitchens, please call one of the team between 9-5, Monday to Friday, and we will be happy to assist.