Saturday November 18, 8:17 PM
Changi Village hawkers, merchants and hotel take part in emergency preparedness drill
Fortunately, it was only a mock exercise - part of an emergency preparedness drill organised by the Civil Defence and Changi Village Community Emergency Response Team, and SCDF officers arrived within minutes to attend to the situation.
"It's not possible in the fight against terrorism to say that we have reached the optimal point, because the terrorists keep improving and changing their modalities, their methods, and we have to keep up, so it's a never ending issue," said Prof S Jayakumar, Co-ordinating National Security Minister.
While readiness is key in fighting terrorism, Prof Jayakumar said the community plays a vital role in ensuring business continuity in the event of an emergency.
"We have to look at ways to restore the confidence in this particular precinct because the whole idea of why people are attracted to Changi Village is because it is tranquil and peaceful, so something like happening, we have to immediately establish that it is back to normalcy," said Arthur King, Director, Hotal Operations, Changi Village Hotel.
13 community partners, including the Changi Village Hotel, and Hawker and Merchant Association, were activated.
"We have trained 2 of our staff, 1 is a priest and 1 is a temple clerk, so they will be able to handle any initial crisis. They will inform all the community members to come down and they will organise the first-aid and then they will reassure the people. We have amongst ourselves, some lawyers, some social workers, some doctors and all that. We will tap on these expertise," said V M karmegam, Vice-President,
As the hawkers here are too busy attending to their stalls to go down to the Civil Defence Public Education Centre, in October, SCDF officers came here to conduct training for some 40 members from the hawker and merchant association.
They were taught life-saving skills such as basic first-aid, CPR, fire-fighting as well as how to deal with threats such as bomb blasts and chemical incidents. - CNA /dt
| By Tom Geoghegan BBC News |
If you thought "rock, paper, scissors" was a game for kids, think again. The world championships were held last weekend in Toronto and were won by a Briton.
I've never played a world champion at anything, let alone that rare species, a British one.
Bob Cooper has now joined the elite ranks of the England rugby team, Joe Calzaghe, Beth Tweddle and Scotland's stone-skimming team.
The sales manager, 28, from north London, may have conquered the world at rock, paper, scissors - but has he met his match at the BBC?
Round one is mine but only through illegal means - I was unaware that paper has to be made with a horizontally flat hand. Whoops.
But my luck runs out and he wins the next two with ease. Well, he's not world champ for nothing and he seems to read my "throws" with certainty.
So how did he achieve it, last week in Toronto, defeating a field of more than 500 contestants and an American in the final?
"Hard work, training and lots of research into tactics, body language and basic psychology," he says.
His sunglasses helped him to the top prize, he believes.
"It's similar to poker when you're out there bluffing, putting out the right or wrong signals. The eyes give away a lot so the shades are a definite benefit."
Bluffing is called "priming" and enables a player to either fake a move or provoke the opponent into a wrong move, he says.
Sport or hobby?
Cooper spent one or two hours each day training for the event, playing friends and colleagues or studying tactics.
His passion developed from being a game he played as a child, then as a means to settle arguments, then into a sport.
"It is. In how many hobbies do you compete against national champions from Australia, America and Norway? A hobby doesn't involve national pride.
"I was representing the UK, I introduced myself as being from the UK and I was proud to do so."
Cooper's victory is captured on YouTube and shouts of "UK, UK" are clearly heard from the audience, which was estimated to be about 300.
So at a time when England's footballers and rugby players are struggling, and the cricket team is facing a daunting task Down Under, could rock, paper, scissors be a source of national pride?
"Hopefully I could get nominated for Sports Personality of the Year, or we could begin a campaign to reopen nominations," says Cooper.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/6159658.stm
Published: 2006/11/18 01:52:51 GMT
© BBC MMVI
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