Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are living in the US now. Picture: Instagram
A clear majority of Canadians feel their country does not have to pay for security for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, who have settled in British Columbia.
Seventy-seven percent of people surveyed by Nanos Research, for CTV, believe the Candian taxpayer does not have to pay for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex because they are not in Canada as representatives of the Queen.
Canada is a parliamentary monarchy and Queen Elizabeth II is the reigning head of state.
Only 19 percent of Canadians would not object to their country assuming a share of the security costs.
There has been no official announcement about the question of security for Prince Harry and Meghan, or who will cover the bill, now that they have officially left the royal family.
Canadian authorities have only indicated that discussions were taking place.
More than two-thirds of Canadians feel the privacy of the couple and their infant son will be better respected in Canada than it was in Britain.
But Harry and Meghan — who live in Victoria, on Vancouver Island — are taking no chances: last month they issued a legal warning to media over photographs of the duchess out walking her dogs with Archie, their son.
Their lawyers claimed the images were taken without Meghan’s consent, the BBC reported, and the couple were prepared to take legal action.
Perhaps more worrying for the couple in the long run is that only 32 percent of those surveyed were strongly in favor of maintaining links with the royal family and their country’s status as a constitutional monarchy. Twenty-eight percent said they were only somewhat supported that option.
And 35 percent would be more or less strongly in favor of abolishing links with the British monarchy.
The survey was conducted by telephone and online, with a sample of 1,003 Canadians and a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
China’s death toll from the coronavirus epidemic soared past 360 on Monday, with deepening global concern about the outbreak and governments closing their borders to people from China.
The fresh toll came a day after China imposed a lockdown on a major city far from the epicentre and the first fatality outside the country was reported in the Philippines.
Authorities in Hubei, the province at the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 56 new fatalities, with one reported in the southwestern megalopolis of Chongqing. That took the toll in China to 361, exceeding the 349 mainland fatalities from the 2002-3 SARS outbreak.
Struggling to contain the virus, authorities took action in the eastern city of Wenzhou on Sunday, closing roads and confining people to their homes.
Wenzhou is some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Wuhan, the metropolis at the heart of the health emergency.
Since emerging out of Wuhan late last year, the new coronavirus has infected more than 17,200 people across China and reached 24 nations.
The G7 countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — have all confirmed cases of the virus. They will discuss a joint response, Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn said on Sunday.
In Thailand, which has 19 confirmed cases, doctors said Sunday an elderly Chinese patient treated with a cocktail of flu and HIV drugs had shown dramatic improvement and tested negative for the virus 48 hours later.
Most of the infections overseas have been detected in people who travelled from Wuhan, an industrial hub of 11 million people, or surrounding areas of Hubei province.
The man who died in the Philippines was a 44-year-old from Wuhan, according to the World Health Organization, which has declared the epidemic a global health emergency.
China has embarked on unprecedented efforts to contain the virus, which is believed to have jumped to humans from a Wuhan animal market, and can be transmitted among people.
– Wenzhou lockdown –
China’s efforts have included extraordinary quarantines in Wuhan and surrounding cities, with all transport out banned, effectively sealing off more than 50 million people.
But 10 days after locking down Wuhan, authorities imposed similar draconian measures on Wenzhou, a coastal city of nine million people in Zhejiang province, part of the eastern industrial heartland that has powered China’s economic rise over recent decades.
Only one resident per household is allowed to go out every two days to buy necessities, and 46 highway toll stations have been closed, authorities announced.
The city had previously closed public places such as cinemas and museums, and suspended public transport.
Zhejiang has more than 660 confirmed infections, with several hundred of those in Wenzhou, according to the government.
This is the highest tally for any province in China after ground-zero Hubei.
– Closing borders –
The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Israel have banned foreign nationals from visiting if they have been in China recently, and they have also warned their own citizens against travelling there.
Mongolia, Russia and Nepal have closed their land borders.
The number of countries reporting infections rose to 24 after Britain, Russia and Sweden confirmed their first cases this weekend.
There were 2,829 new confirmed cases nationally on Monday, bringing the total infected to 17,205, health officials said.
With hospitals in Wuhan overwhelmed, China will open a military-led field hospital Monday that was built in just 10 days to treat people stricken by the virus.
And with the Chinese economy suffering, the central bank announced it would release 1.2 trillion yuan ($173 billion) on Monday to maintain liquidity in the banking system — the day markets re-open after the long holiday break.
– Holiday ending –
The emergence of the virus coincided with the Lunar New Year, when hundreds of millions travel across the country in planes, trains and buses for family reunions.
The holiday, which was scheduled to end on Friday, was extended by three days to give authorities more time to deal with the crisis.
With many due back at work on Monday, people were starting to return on planes and trains over the weekend, with almost everyone wearing face masks.
Customs authorities had ordered temperature checks at all exit-entry points in Beijing, according to state media.
Returning travellers were being checked and registered at residential compounds, while fever checks were in place in subway stations, offices and cafes.
One 22-year-old arriving at a Beijing train station from northeastern China said her family had urged her to delay her return.
“But I was worried it would affect my job,” she said.
Security guard Du Guiliang, 47, said he would be starting back at work in Beijing on Sunday, after returning from northeast Liaoning province.
“Many colleagues (from Hubei) couldn’t come back. Now, those who work the day shift at our company have to do the night shift as well,” he said.
Many businesses were to remain closed for at least another week, however, while some major cities — including Shanghai — had also extended the holiday.
YouTube screengrab/ Manpower Minister Josephine Teo in Parliament
Singapore — In Parliament on Monday (Jan 3), Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that having new citizens has had a “negligible” effect on the country’s rate of citizen unemployment.
Mrs Teo had been asked by Workers’ Party Non-Constituency MP Leon Perera about the extent to which people employed in Singapore who attain citizenship affect the unemployment rate for citizens on a yearly basis.
She said that can be answered based on the Labour Force Survey, which asks for the citizenship of the respondent when he or she answers the survey, but not necessarily when he or she became a citizen.
Therefore, straitstimes.com reports her as saying, breaking down the unemployment rate according to how long a person has been a citizen is not possible.
But adding new citizens does not alter the unemployment rate for citizens in any substantive way, she added.
Mrs Teo said: “Suppose the citizen unemployment rate is three per cent. This means, if there were only 100 citizens in the labour force, three of them are unemployed. Suppose one new citizen, who is employed, is added to the labour force.
“This translates to a one per cent growth in the citizen labour force. There are now 101 citizens in the labour force, but still only three who are unemployed.
“As a result, the citizen unemployment rate falls by 0.03 percentage points to 2.97 per cent. Compared to three per cent, the effect is mathematically very small.”
From 3.5 million citizens in Singapore, a portion significantly less than 1 per cent obtained citizenship within the last year. Some of these are working adults, the Manpower Minister said, and others are either too young to work, and others are already in the retirement stage.
Mrs Teo explained: “This means that the impact to the citizen labour force and unemployment rate is essentially negligible.”
With the slowing down of the economy last year, job security has been an issue important to many Singaporeans, especially Singaporean professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs).
Writing in The Diplomat, Ms Siow Yue Chia, a Senior Research Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said that the inflow of overseas skilled workers had been seen to take PMET jobs away from Singaporeans.
Given changes in technology as well as sluggish economic growth, she expected the issue of job protection for local PMETs to become more politicised.
So far, the Government has, firstly, encouraged local workers to train and re-train in order to attain the skills needed in current jobs. Secondly, it has announced that, due to an increase in foreign investments, new jobs are being created to address retrenchments. Third, it is making sure of fair recruitment practices as well as enforcing the Employment Pass requirements for skilled workers and professionals from other countries. /TISG
As part of measures to boost hygiene to prevent the spread of the Wuhan virus, a letter to the Forum section of todayonline.com has suggested that all non-automatic main doors of public toilets be replaced with automatic ones or removed.
The writer, Mr Tan Kok Tim, says that: “It is also opportune for the Government to pass a law and stipulate a schedule to remove all main doors of public toilets by the end of this year.” This will enable users to wash their hands and walk out of public toilets without having to touch door handles.
He adds that everyone should carry a bottle of hand sanitizer.
Mr Tan notes that the toilets at Changi Airport, for instance, are configured such that users can walk in and out without opening a door.
Many netizens are backing the suggestion. Others suggest installing hand sanitizer dispensers in every washroom because this will be cheaper than changing all doors to automatic ones.
Putrajaya — The novel coronavirus is spreading all over the world, but misinformation about the disease is affecting even more people online.
On Malaysian social media, posts have gone viral that claim the disease makes people “act like zombies”.
Netizens have compared those affected by the disease to the fictional walking dead, citing posts which depict people dropping dead in the streets allegedly due to the virus.
In a move to combat the viral misinformation, the Malaysian Ministry of Health shared on Twitter that such claims are false. It said that “it is not true that individuals affected by the virus behave like zombies” and that “patients can recover”.
Tiga fakta novel coronavirus 2019 yang perlu ditular.
1. Tidak benar dakwaan individu yang dijangkiti virus ini berkelakuan seperti ZOMBIE. ❌
2. Pesakit boleh SEMBUH. ✔️Rawatan simptom yg dialami pesakit. Jika demam, rawatan untuk baik demam.
According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, six people have been arrested for sharing misinformation about the coronavirus.
In the latest arrests, a 49-year-old man was detained last Wednesday for “uploading fake content” about the coronavirus on Facebook and a 28-year-old woman was held the following day for “improper use of network facilities“.
Malaysia has eight cases of people who have been infected with the Wuhan virus. All are Chinese nationals. /TISG
The wife of Singapore's Prime Minister, Ho Ching. (Photo by AXEL SCHMIDT / POOL / AFP)
Singapore—While the world grapples with a possible pandemic from the Wuhan coronavirus, Ho Ching, the CEO of government-owned Temasek Holdings and wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, presents two possible scenarios should a worldwide outbreak actually occur.
Madam Ho shared a link on her Facebook page to an article from The New York Times(NYT) from Sunday (Feb 2) entitled “Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say.”
The article talked about how researchers have become alarmed by the swift rise in Wuhan coronavirus cases, which has raised the possibility of a pandemic, many infectious disease experts say, even with travel bans put in place by a number of countries, including China itself.
Scientists say that the new virus spreads similar to how the flu does, instead of other viruses such as SARS, which moves more slowly.
Of the new virus, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in the United States says, “It’s very, very transmissible, and it almost certainly is going to be a pandemic. But will it be catastrophic? I don’t know.”
The NYT quotes Dr. Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as saying, “Even 1 percent mortality would mean 10,000 deaths in each million people.”
Madam Ho wrote that there are two scenarios concerning a possible pandemic.
One, that the pandemic is contained, but “with some difficulty,” she writes. “We can see a peak in 2-4 months, the former if we are lucky with no new epicenter clusters appearing in China or South East Asia. That means pandemic dies down in 4-6 months, as summer months warm up the weather.”
The other scenario is not nearly as optimistic. According to Madam Ho, the second possibility is “We cannot contain this, especially if there is an epicenter with weak medical support.”
However, even if the virus cannot be contained, compliance with quarantine and other containment measures will at least hinder the spread of the sickness, buying time for the development and production of successful treatments and vaccines.
Additionally, she writes, “Diagnostic kits can be improved for faster and simpler early 1st line screening, so as to reduce the load on accurate medical tests at hospitals.”
And a delay in the outbreak also gives authorities time to “review and put in place processes to handle massive outbreaks across the world, where community spread is not just in China, but everywhere.”
Since individuals in Wuhan, China, began showing symptoms of the new coronavirus in early December of last year, there are now at least 17,205 confirmed cases around the globe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO),which declared a public health emergency last week. The death toll from the virus is now at 360, surpassing the death toll from the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Singapore has 18 cases of Wuhan coronavirus patients, 16 of whom are from Wuhan and the other two, are Singaporean. The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Sunday (Feb 2), “All of them remain in stable condition, and most are improving.” -/TISG
Photo: screengrab from Youtube / Singapore Democratic Party
On Wednesday (Jan 29), the Young Democrats of the Singapore Democratic Party premiered another episode of their initiative called “Slack & Discuss Problems” on Youtube. The fourth episode so far, featured a discussion about an issue that is uniquely relevant to Singapore–majority privilege.
The host, Shawal Yeo, was joined by two others–Mariah Sidek, a psychology student, and Jolovan Wham, an activist and party member.
Ms. Sidek, who is of a minority race, spoke of an experience she had with majority privilege. She talked about her experiences at university and how, at school camps, most of the cheers and songs were in Chinese. “It did make me feel a bit left out,” she said.
Mr. Wham, on the other hand, who is from a majority race is aware of how certain actions of the majority can make those of the minority feel–unintentional as they may be. He gave speaking Mandarin in the presence of non-Mandarin-speaking friends as an example.
According to Ms. Sidek, one of the ways to help foster in a more inclusive atmosphere is for minorities to create openings for themselves in society by speaking up. At the same time, Mr. Wham said that people of the majority should do their part too. “It’s important [to] not just wait for the minority to speak up…we need to be able to be aware of people who don’t enjoy the same kind of benefits that we do,” he said.
Mr. Wham also shared that though he thinks the Government has put a lot of emphasis on multiculturalism and racial harmony, there are aspects of the Singaporean system that still reinforce the concept of racial privilege. He mentioned SAP schools as an example, saying, “[W]e are supposed to be a multi-racial society…I think people should be able to appreciate and learn and teach what they want, but we shouldn’t have the SAP school system where only one race comes together under one institution and they [see only] each other every day and they don’t meet people of other races. [T]hat reinforces a lot of racial hierarchies in Singapore,” he said.
With regard to reserved presidential elections, Ms. Sidek spoke about meritocracy, which is important in Singapore. “We always emphasize meritocracy, but reserving a seat for a certain race goes against that, and it is something that our country is built on–merit. So if someone says, ‘You can’t be president because you’re not Malay’ that would raise some kind of issue,” she said.
Ms. Sidek and Mr. Wham left the audience with a few words. Ms. Sidek shared an insight–that though everyone has a natural bias for or against something, what matters is the actions people follow through with. Mr. Wham, on the other hand, talked about activists, saying, “Activist is not a dirty word,” he said. “We activists are good citizens. We are not traitors to our country. We are actually a force for good.”
The episode is available on the Singapore Democratic Party’s Youtube channel. /TISG
Singapore – A customer at the popular Whampoa Drive Hawker Centre threw hot porridge at a female vendor because the egg was not fully cooked.
This happened on Saturday (Feb 1). The 66-year-old hawker, Madam Zhou Yu Ye, suffered second-degree burns.
Madam Zhou told the Shin Min Daily News that the man, who looked like he was in his 40s, got angry because of how she prepared the porridge.
The man, who did not specify that he wanted the egg fully cooked, started swearing when he checked his order.
“He was unhappy that the egg was not thoroughly cooked, and asked me, ‘How can babies eat raw eggs?’,” Madam Zhou said. “After that, he swore at me and belittled me by saying that I was just a worker.”
Madam Zhou prepared more porridge for the customer but he was still dissatisfied and continued to scold her.
The hawker then asked him: “What if I’m the boss of this stall?” At this moment, the man opened the packet of porridge and threw it at her.
Madam Zhou soon felt a burning sensation across her face and shoulders. She called the police and sought help from nearby customers.
“My face has two large blisters and my hands and shoulders have been burned,” said Madam Zhou. “The doctors said that I have second-degree burns on both areas which will definitely leave scars. The other injuries will take at least two years to heal,” she added.
The man’s mother, who asked not to be named, said later that her son had a bad temper. She tended to Madam Zhou’s injuries and took her somewhere nearby to help her change.
The woman and her son also apologised to Madam Zhou.
The woman said: “My son has always had a bad temper. He was definitely in the wrong. I have no objections if the other party wants to take action. I just hope this incident won’t blow up. If the other party requests medical compensation, I will consider paying any amount within my means.”
Championing for the rights of hawkers, the founder of Makansutra KF Seetoh took to social media and questioned NTUC Foodfare’s response when asked about the mandatory closure of their hawker centres over the Chinese New Year holidays.
Late last week, Mr Seetoh called out the Hawker Centre Unit of NTUC Foodfare Co-operative for issuing a mandate that the Old Airport Road Hawker Centre be closed on the first and second days of the Lunar New Year.
Sharing the circular distributed to the tenants of the hawker centre on social media, Seetoh asked in a Facebook post earlier today (Jan 29), “Insensitive. Why do you need to dictate and close the hawker centre for the holidays”.
In the circular, the Management Agent (MA) wrote that they were “pleased to inform” that the hawkers would not be required to submit the Tenant Request Form (TRF) for any price adjustments to the food they sell. However, they add that an increase “must not be more than 50 cents”.
To this, Mr Seetoh wrote: “do not dictate how much they should raise or not, their prices. It’s their market knowledge that would formulate their price changes. If your parent NTUC could arrange for them to get cheaper supplies, then you have a narrative, otherwise, stay out of their operation. The public will decide if they want to patronise them”.
In responding to TISG’s queries, NTUC Foodfare wrote that “none of the hawker centres under our management are required to close during the Chinese New Year (CNY) period. This year, a number of stalls continued to operate across our centres on the first two days of CNY. There is no change in CNY operations practice since we took over the management of the centres 2 years ago”.
They also added that their “memo to hawkers could have been worded more clearly”.
“It was meant to indicate that the management office would not be opened on CNY instead of the whole hawker centre. We apologise for the misunderstanding. We assure our hawkers that our teams at the centers are available to assist if they require clarification on matters relating to their operations”, they said.
Earlier today (Feb 3), Mr Seetoh posted NTUC Foodfare’s circular yet again and commented, “So..the note was crysatl (sic) clear, but this was FoodFare’s response. What’s yours? Mine first, – they need better empathy, PR and editors”.
In calling for netizens’ comments, many others agreed with Mr Seetoh, even saying that NTUC Foodfare should have just accepted their error and apologized instead of calling it a ‘misunderstanding’.
TISG wrote to NTUC Foodfare, who declined to comment.
Singapore—Law and Home Affairs minister K Shanmugam spoke to the press at Jewel Changi Airport on Sunday (Feb 2), fielding questions about the Singapore Government’s response to the current Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, which has affected 14,677 individuals and caused 305 deaths.
The number of countries and territories that have seen cases positive for the Wuhan coronavirus has reached 27. Several governments have imposed a ban on travellers who have recently come from China. Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province in central China where the virus originated, has been in lockdown since January 23.
On Friday (Jan 31), Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong announced that new travellers from any country who have recently been to China are temporarily disallowed from entering Singapore, whether as tourists or for transit.
Mr Shanmugam was asked by a member of the press concerning the travel ban in the light of a post on the Facebook page of 中国驻新加坡大使馆 Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Singapore that said, “Just hours after the WHO put forward its professional advice, certain country (sic) announced a blanket travel ban against China. Such an act to take advantage of other people’s difficulties is the last thing we need in state-to-state relations. China trusts that Pakistan and the rest of the international community will fully respect the important opinions of the WHO and continue to support China in containing the outbreak.”
On 31 January, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone call with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed that travel or trade restrictions against China are unnecessary.
Mr Shanmugam echoed the words of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, “We are confident that China will be able to deal decisively with this virus. Its resources are quite large. We should be very supportive of China, and help China. It’s the right thing to do.”
He then said, “From our own perspective, we introduced the travel restrictions in stages, based on medical evidence.
Each country is in a different situation. A bigger country is in a situation different from a smaller country. If you look at Singapore, 760 square kilometers, how long does it take to go from Tuas to Changi…? And it’s very dense in population. So spread can be very fast if we are not careful. And this virus, people who are affected by it may be asymptomatic for 14 days.
The spread in Singapore, with such intense density, can be quite substantial. I’m sure the Chinese government doesn’t want it. We don’t want it.
Our primary duty is to make sure Singaporeans are safe. And our quarantine facilities are limited, and our medical facilities can be easily stretched.
That’s why I say the situation Singapore is in is very different from other countries which are larger.
We have to look at our situation, our size, our resources, and based on that, based on the science, make the decision.
The restriction are not, strictly speaking, nationality-based, it is strictly speaking, geographical in the sense of if you’ve been in China, whoever you are, then the restrictions kick in.”
[ Confidence in China’s efforts against the coronavirus ]I was asked some questions about the travel restrictions on persons who have been to China in the past 14 days and also comments by the Chinese Embassy.I made the following points:1) We have every confidence that China will be able to deal with this situation decisively. It has the ability to bring its entire national resources and willpower, to focus and win the battle.2) It is important that all of us support China in its efforts for 2 reasons:a. It is the right thing to do in the spirit of humanityb. It is in our interest that China succeeds in its fight against this virusEnclosed is a video of my answer to the questions.
He went on to say that out of the people that were not given admission into Singapore on Saturday (Feb 1) only one-third had been from China, the rest were of other nationalities, including Americans, Indians, and others.
There are currently 18 cases of people positive for the Wuhan coronavirus in Singapore, with no new cases reported on Sunday, February 2 There are 240 people who have tested negative for the virus, and 43 who are still awaiting test results. -/TISG
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