Mr Yoshimasa Higashihara, an assistant human resources manager, swopped his work desk in Tokyo for a view of the sprawling Singapore city skyline for one day last year. Working out of a cafe near Raffles Place, the Japan Airlines (JAL) employee prepared documents for an upcoming corporate event back home. JAL is one of Japan's first companies to endorse the concept of "workation", which combines work and holiday. The idea goes one step further than "telework" or working from home. It allows employees equipped with laptops or smartphones and an Internet connection to work anywhere from a beach resort to a mountain hut - so long as the work gets done. "Workation" is slowly catching on in overworked and insular Japan as firms try to encourage employees to leave their desks behind. Mr Higashihara, who is in his 30s, told The Sunday Times that he visited Singapore for six days last year, a stretch that included one working day, bookended by a string of national holidays. "I wanted to stay … [Read more...] about Work threatens vacation plans? Try a workation
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Cold War approach against China won’t work today
The Shangri-La Dialogue is a highly esteemed forum that has been tremendously valuable in bringing the world's top brass to convene upon our small island state but I have to agree that it has assumed a somewhat sycophantic role for Washington (The US and its Shangri-La myths, June 22). The participants, however, are given a voice and should not give up trying to signal to the United States the difference of China's nature from that of the US, and that of the Soviet Union. It is evident that the US has projected its own image on China, and that in turn, has fed its own fear of China further, as seen in its labelling of the latter as a "revisionist power" and a "strategic US rival". There are, of course, justifications for the US to view China as a competitor; China has gained from strength to strength economically, militarily, technologically, and even diplomatically. Nonetheless, it is counterproductive for the US to view its game with China as one of zero sum. The US should look at … [Read more...] about Cold War approach against China won’t work today
Govt to launch work-life harmony dialogues to help young parents
As a young couple, one of the biggest struggles Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and his wife faced was learning to achieve work-life harmony. To help find solutions for young parents who face similar problems today, he said, the Government will soon be launching a series of dialogues, to be helmed by Manpower Minister Josephine Teo. This is on top of measures such as introducing paternity leave in 2013, which gives fathers more time with their children, Mr Heng said. From 2017, paid paternity leave was doubled to two weeks. He spoke yesterday at a Father's Day celebration jointly organised by the Centre for Fathering, Dads for Life and Mediacorp. It was at OCBC Square at the Singapore Sports Hub. "One of the greatest struggles of (having) a family is learning how to balance work, and spending time with your children. "My wife and I struggled with that a lot when we were working," said Mr Heng. "It is great that we had neighbours, family and friends who helped us look after our … [Read more...] about Govt to launch work-life harmony dialogues to help young parents
Remote island beach plastics point to greater waste problem
PARIS (AFP) - The world may be seriously underestimating the amount of plastic waste along its coastlines, researchers said on Thursday (May 16) as they unveiled findings showing hundreds of millions of plastic fragments on a remote Indian Ocean archipelago. A team of experts travelled to the Cocos Islands, a group of 27 small atolls 2,100 kilometres west of Australia and found an estimated 414 million pieces of plastic. In all, the plastic fragments would weigh around 238 tonnes, the team said. Images taken from the survey show white sand beaches blanketed with plastic waste. But according to lead study author Jennifer Lavers, the fragments on the surface of Cocos Island beaches - and beaches around the world - may just be the tip of the iceberg. "I've been working on remote islands as a marine biologist for 15 years or so and all of them have at least some debris, so I've come to expect it," she told AFP. "One of the big surprises was that when I was digging down in the sediment to … [Read more...] about Remote island beach plastics point to greater waste problem
Ambulance fast lane? We already know why it won’t work
We already know, however, that the police have all the laws they need – the problem is they don’t enforce them, causing needless deaths. Require that all emergency vehicles have dashboard cameras, turned on together with the siren. Any motorist refusing to give way within, say, three cars’ length of the emergency vehicle would be fined automatically. And not a slap-on-the-wrist Bt500, but 10 times that amount plus suspension of the vehicle owner’s/driver’s licence for a month on the first violation. A second violation would call forth a Bt10,000 fine and permanent licence suspension. Photographic evidence of the violation would be mailed to the offender, as is done now with other moving violation tickets. Vehicles whose owners leave tickets unpaid for 30 days would be subject to immediate seizure until payment plus interest at the maximum allowed by law. For the first month only, to educate the driving public, we could suspend the penalties and just … [Read more...] about Ambulance fast lane? We already know why it won’t work