You think your dentist can only drill teeth ?

Dr Seow Onn Choong

My squash kaki had a problem. His wedding ring is now constricting his finger and restricting its blood flow. It had caused him to have a trigger finger problem. His doctor advised him to remove the ring but could not provide the resource.

It became his long time angst.

I told him to come down to my clinic as I knew the solution. Obviously he was very apprehensive about the procedure. In his mind he expects me to use a very special drilling tool that can also injure his finger. Worst of all is a special forceps for  extractions that can also accidentally pull out his finger. Who else can he trust?

Well you can see how a dentist removes a wedding ring.

This is the problem

A safety stainless  steel band is placed under the ring as a protective barrier

click on above to see video

A dental tool to prised the ring apart

Free at last.

Sometime ago another squash kaki had a splinter caught under his nail. The hospital told him he needed surgery  to remove the nail in order to reach the splinter. Fortunately he posted his problem in our chatgroup.

Once again the dental drill did the trick

 

 Russia's invasion of  Ukraine. Russia has just dug its own grave

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It is very obvious President Putin did not read this epic book or he chose to ignore its wisdom.

The age of large armies invading another country or repelling another large army ended with the end of the second world war. That was the last great war. Since then there have been many wars but they are just regional conflicts that almost always ended with humiliating defeat of the invading army.

USA was a very good example losing the Vietnam war, the invasion of Afghanistan and also their invasion of Iraq. Russia too had a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan but then their memory must have been very short or it was the Soviets that made that mistake.

USA has dug so many graves. These losses have drained  not all their resources but also their moral strength. Now it is Russia’s turn. I am sure years from now historians will write about this Russian tragedy.

As the early days of the war have highlighted, the Russian army methods are really archaic. News has shown that the soldiers were  not keen for war. They were easily attacked by Ukrainian forces. The pictures of the Russian army drawn out over 60 kilometers gives a good indication of how badly organized they are. They are like sitting ducks.

Ukraine . This is your moment of glory

Start a guerilla war now

 

Learn from the great battles that have defeated great armies

It is time for Ukrainians to rise and fight the Russians with the same tactics that Mao Tse Tung and Ho Chi Minh have so successfully use against large invading forces. Turn every Ukrainian man into a guerrilla and soon the tides of battle will turn. Ukrainians have local knowledge of the territory where the Russian  soldier is lost. Ukrainians are fighting for the survival of their motherland. The Russian soldier has no appetite to lose his life

Guerrilla troops should have no conception of defense or battle lines. They should attack orthodox Russian  troops from the front, the sides, and the rear. Guerrilla troops should always dictate the timing of conflicts with the enemy. They should be prepared to flee if need be.

One must avoid pitch battles unless you have the confidence to win.

Remember there is no need to face the tanks .It is easier to blow up the supply trucks and the soldiers manning them. When the Russian army is short of supplies their soldiers will throw down their weapons and surrender. Guerrilla troops should acquire supplies, ammunition, and weapons from the Russian after victories on the battlefield. Russia's military efforts do not have complete citizen and soldier support.“A primary feature of guerrilla operations is their dependence upon the people themselves to organize battalions and other units.” 

Turn every Ukrainian man into a guerilla

So Ukrainians Please don't lose heart. This is your greatest opportunity to teach the Russians a lesson that they will never forget. The Afghan people have shown the world, any people can bring down big bullies.

LONG LIVE UKRAINE

Keppel club is a part of Singapore history please don’t destroy it.

Keppel club is a part of Singapore history please don’t destroy it.

How many 116-year-old heritage establishments can Singapore boast of having?

A sense of history is what provides the links to hold together a people who came from four corners of the earth. Because our history is short and because what is worth preserving from the past are not all that plentiful, we should try to save what is worthwhile from the past from the vandalism of the speculator and the developer, from a government and a bureaucracy which believes that anything that cannot be translated into cold cash is not worth investing in.

 S. Rajaratnam, Minister for Culture (1959–1965)

Keppel Club, Singapore’s oldest golf and social club established in 1904, is as iconic as it is historic.

A “second home” to nearly 5,000 principal members, it has been bringing boundless joy to them and their family members for over a century.

Located at the doorstep of downtown Singapore, Keppel does a marvellous job of fusing the external environment with a wonderfully natural, challenging and well-designed golf course.

It is a rare one because of its natural topography, history and location. It is pity that it has only of lifespan of another 2 years before it becomes another residential or commercial development.

All the beautiful old trees, the monitor lizards, squirrels, woodpeckers, cockatoos, eagles and countless other guns and flora will soon disappear, all in the name of progress. The Club adopted the Berlayer Creek, a century-old salt water mangrove that gives life to a plethora of vegetation and bio-organism

Progress for Whom?

Once again the words of Rajaratnam is loss to the speculator and developer. To them having a golf club on this Bukit Chermin site is the least productive use of prime land in land-scarce Singapore.'

                               Overview of Keppel Club and the elevated highway

Greater Southern Waterfront Development

The whole area is slated for development into a huge mixed commercial and housing area fitting in at least 9000 units of houses. To pacify the public, HDB units will also be included. The aim is to allow people to work where they live. 

Do we really need another development?

We are in the worst pandemic the world has seen since for a century. Things are so bad that the government has to draw down from our reserves just to shore up the economy. Many business will disappear and so will be the losses in jobs. This is not the end yet as we still have no clue on how to stop the virus.

We also found out behind our prosperity and continuous growth we needed an ever growing pool of foreign workers. We did not took notice of them before. However they were crucial in our tearing down of old buildings, building new ones and finally maintaining them.

 Life will be very different once this pandemic is over. Tourism will be so badly hit for the next few years. As it is all travel related industries from airlines, hotels conference halls and shopping centers will be fighting for their survival. Even before this pandemic online shopping has already dealt shopping centers a dead blow.

Offices will not be spared too. The coming tsunami of retrenchments and job losses will see a much smaller workforce. The adaptation to telecommuting during the lockdown will accelerate a drastic drop in the need for future office space.

The world has come to a standstill. Demand will drop for many years to come as most existing properties will empty out. Disposable incomes will be significantly reduced and few will risk buying properties.

Bad fengshui for housing development at Keppel.

When we talk about good areas to live inadvertently we will point to Holland Bukit Timah, East coast, Thomson etc. Few will mention the area around Keppel Club. Historically this area has been shunned because of its topography.  This area is bounded by the hills that stretch from Mount Faber to Kent Ridge and the coastline. Only very narrow strip of land is available. There is only one road with a raised highway meant for containers traffic leading out of the area

To keep the eco system of the area as viable as possible any development will have to be set back from the sea front at a reasonable distance. So between the road and the setback area there is very little land available. That makes impossible to fit in the large areas needed for schools, food and market centres.

Another topographical feature makes construction daunting. The golf course has a narrow ridge running from one end to the other like the spine. It is good for golfing as it creates many challenges with its hilly terrain. For property developers this can be a nightmare. The ridge is too small to put enough structures but too much of soil to remove and truck away if it is to be flattened.

 Singaporeans seek to send their children to good schools as moving up the social ladder involves getting their children to such schools. This area is far from all the famous schools. They will rather sacrifice their own travel inconvenience to travel to work then their children spending hours on transport. As such there will be less demand from local families. Again it might be purchased for rental to foreigners.

                                          

 Land is scarce in Singapore so they say.

Our government has been very efficient in its efforts in acquiring land for development. However its track record in developing the land it has acquired needs much to be desired. Recently it acquired JCC and RCC, These two locations has been turned into wasted grassland where wild boars are rumoured to roam. All these courses were just redeveloped at great expense not too long ago, acquired at great expense now left to rot.

                          Jurong country club in its present state overgrown with weeds

Many other sites such as Turf city, Old Holland Road, Dover and Ghim Moh to name a few have been left vacant for far too long. In fact these are the residential areas that are really most sought after by the locals. These areas have been left vacant for more than 10 to 20 years. The Straits Times reports that the Urban Renewal Authority URA has earmarked the Turf City site of 140 hectares aka 196 soccer fields of land for residential use since 1993   Why don’t we develop all these sites without any need to tear down any more structures or communities?

                          Large tract of empty land at old Holland Road left empty for 20 years

Keppel Club as a community.

When we talk about golf clubs, the first thing that comes to mind it is a game for the rich. Keppel club has a long relationship with PSA and other GLCs. A fair proportion of its membership were actually staff of these corporations. Most members are just your run of the mill uncles, aunties and friends.

Some $14 million was spent refurbishing the golf course and clubhouse. More upgrading works were carried out in 1994. $22 million bought members a bowling centre, gymnasium, outdoor and indoor tennis courts, movie house and the Olympic-sized swimming pool.
In 2005, a Master Plan was presented to the members to further expand the facilities to take advantage of the sea view, with a sea fronting gymnasium and dancing/aerobic studio, a boardwalk offering alfresco dining, children's play area, video games arcade and roof top dining area. A new multi-storey car park was also built. As seen a lot of capital has been spend on the club.

There is no requirement that you must buy a property to enjoy all the facilities. Club membership fees is a far cry from property prices. All Singaporeans can partake in wonderful setting without costing an arm and a leg. Sports is good for health. In fact Keppel is one of the few golf clubs which many members walk on the course. The array of facilities allow many to pursuit both good physical and mental health. Few social clubs can provide such facilities, even fewer can sustain financially.

Golf is a game which is not strenuous yet thoroughly absorbing. It takes at 4 to 5 hours to finish the game and play in a group of four person. Time just flies by ever so quickly. After the game over drinks or meals it is the joy and laughter over each mistake or achievement.
Most of Keppel club members are over 60 and are retirees. With the club’s closure it will be a big loss to them.  Now they will have no “second home”. It is really a sad day.

                                      Happiness is having a drink with friends


 This Iconic club can a be mecca for golfers..
Few golf clubs in the world can boast of a 100 years history. If well publicised it would really become a golfing destination for golfers of the world.

All the stars are aligned and shining bright for Hong Kong

All the stars are lined up to save Hong Kong

Nobody could have thought 2020 can bring such profound changes to Hong Kong.

The violent protests that swept Hong Kong throughout 2019 has brought the city to its knees. The government seem unable do anything as waves of protestors appear every day. The western media was all out in full force recording the events and literally broadcasting it non -stop to all the TV screens of our homes. It was label as pro-democracy protests for the freedom of Hong Kong.

This was in the midst of the trade war started by USA. USA and all its allies were pressing the Hong Kong government to give way to the protesters. The Hong Kong police force surprisingly showed extreme restrain. However they were still accused of police brutality and castigated by the foreign press.

Covid 19 Pandemic

Then at the turn of the year a virus turn up in Wuhan. Suddenly a deadly pandemic has erupted and is now sweeping the world. Hong Kong also caught the bug but fortunately with the experience from handling SARs back in 2003 the government was much better prepared. The number of cases were very few and the number of deaths even lower in comparison to any country in the world. Suddenly the protests quiet down.

The pandemic had caused a lot of death in Wuhan. It was so sudden that within days the virus had spread very rapidly. The Chinese government took an unprecedented measure of locking down the whole province in which Wuhan was the capital just days before Chinese New Year. Eventually the whole country was closed and the annual movement of nearly 300 million Chinese returning home during the annual celebration curtailed.

Somehow China managed to keep the virus at bay whilst it was now spreading rapidly throughout the world ravaging Europe. USA through the bungling of its government did not realise it could also kill Americans. They were too slow to recognise the severity of the pandemic but also woefully unprepared. New York became the epicentre and nearly the whole of America was locked down. The American capitalist system first response was to flood the market with plenty of printed dollars. However American companies were quick to lay off workers to cut losses. 40 million Americans lost their jobs.

 The Chinese government gather enough boldness to convene their national meeting. I think it is like the Chinese saying “ the tiger is forced to jump over the wall to escape” Beyond the imagination of the Hong Kong protesters and their foreign supporters they announce a security bill which give the Hong Kong government the power to investigate and convict any person deemed affecting the security of Hong Kong and China. Suddenly the tables were turned on the protestors and their supporters. Prior to this bill, the left behind British style judicial system was a stumbling block and provided refuge to all the trouble makers.

Obviously USA and all its supporters cried foul. They not only promised to strip Hong Kong of any privileges granted, they will increased sanctions against China. To show the world how magnamous they were Taiwan offered to take in anyone who seeks political asylum. Good old Britain now wants to accept all those who had British passports but peculiarly previously not allow to reside and work in Britain. They went even further to accept all those who had the slightest chance of applying.

USA and its allies Australia, New Zealand Australia  all open their doors to Hong Kongers.

Wow, these act suddenly gave all those Hong Kong people who may be in trouble with the coming security law or those who have no confidence in Hong Kong’s future a chance to leave. Furthermore this also allows those who want to stay and become part of China a chance to do it without resorting to bloodshed.

The President of USA being the commander of the most powerful country in the world thinks it is his best opportunity and duty to lead the western world to bring China to his knees. He was stepping up the rhetoric.

Black Lives Matter 

Again a unique event totally unrelated to Hong Kong has to appear. On the streets of Miinneapolis a white police officer was shown to have use his knees and brute force to murder an African American. Even at the pleading of the bystanders to stop before the man was killed, his colleagues helped him to continue. This terrible act went viral. To make matters worse the police department did not initially charge or arrest them.

The African Americans had suffered tremendously throughout American history. Forcefully brought to America to be slaves, they never really got their freedom until as recent 1965.They have been subjected to segregation, lynching and many more forms of inhumane treatment. Till today the majority of them live in fear in their encounters with the police.

This was just spark on the tinderbox needed to set the explosion. Already these people were suffering from disproportionate death from the virus in addition to the massive unemployment. Large scale demonstration now erupted all over America. Suddenly the country was up in flames. Once again this scenes on shown non-stop on our TV screens.

To make things worse Donald Trump tweeted now the famous tweet

“When the looting starts the shooting starts”

China now can push forward its security bill. Those Hong Kong demonstrators can escape the punishment by migrating to Taiwan, Great Britain and the rest of its allies. The foreign supporters can quietly leave Hong Kong before it is too late. USA has too many fires on hand to douse and will have no more strength to shout at China.

Those who remain can now live in peace and rebuild Hong Kong.

So it looks like all the stars are aligned and shining bright for                                               Hong Kong

 

Dengue in Singapore, is there anything we can do to get rid of it.

Dengue in Singapore, is there anything we can do to get rid of it.

During this Covid 19 pandemic we are so engrossed by the daily happenings that we have forgotten about another viral enemy that has since caused significant damage over more than a decade.

The rainy season has just begun. With the Circuit Breaker in force there are no  foreign workers maintaining the environment. Thus we can expect a spike in Dengue cases.

Dengue Cases as reported by NEA 

It is important to note that the day-to-day numbers fluctuate, as they depend on the number of cases notified each day. Therefore, weekly numbers are a better reflection of actual trends.

Number of Reported Cases

05-May	06-May	07-May	08-May	09-May	10-May	11-May at 3pm
71	84	30	93	96	36	26

Number of Reported Cases by E-week (from Sun 0000hrs to Sat 2359hrs)

E-week 14 (29Mar-04Apr20)	E-week 15 (05-11Apr20)	E-week 16 (12-18Apr20)	E-week 17 (19-25Apr20)	E-week 18 (26Apr-02May20)	E-week 19 (03-09May20)	E-week 20 (10-11May20 at 3pm)
315	343	360	400	391	510	62

Cumulative No. of cases for 2020 (First 19 E-weeks): 7092

Singapore health officials report seeing 18 dengue-related fatalities in 2019, the most since 2007. To date, 13,853 dengue fever cases have been reported in Singapore, the 

most in three years and the numbers show an uptick in cases last week (309), up from 242 the week prior.

Dengue fever is typically a self-limited disease with a mortality rate of less than 1% when detected early and with access to proper medical care. When treated, severe dengue has a mortality rate of 2%-5%, but, when left untreated, the mortality rate is as high as 20%.

There is no specific treatment for dengue fever, or its more serious forms, dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. Treatment for dengue is supportive. In more severe cases, you may be hospitalised for aggressive emergency treatment, including fluid and electrolyte replacement, and/or blood transfusions. 

Dengue virus  is the cause of dengue fever. It is a mosquito-borne, single positive-stranded RNA virus of the family Flaviviridae; genus Flavivirus. Five serotypes of the virus have been found,all of which can cause the full spectrum of disease.

The mosquito is also the carrier for a host of other illness such as Zika virus and malaria.So in reality though we cannot see the virus, we can see its carrier. If we can get rid of mosquitoes then the problem will disappear.

Well it is easier said than done.. 

The government has already spent a lot of effort by mounting regular campaigns to encourage the population on how to eliminate the insect. There  is also a significant manpower deployed not only to trap or kill the mosquitoes but also educate the public on the methods. Offenders who continue to neglect their responsibilities and continue to breed mosquitoes are taken to task.

So with all the effort expended why are still facing such a problematic situation,

Basically there 2 methods we can use to control the mosquito population,

1. Kill the adult mosquito 
2. Prevent the ability of the mosquito to breed 

A lot of people like to spray insecticide to get rid of the mosquitoes.In larger compounds they machines to fog, This is the worst thing that can be done.

 This approach is not without its problems. Insecticides, as their name suggests, are designed to kill. They’re designed to kill insects specifically, but can also pose risks to humans, pets and other animals. Insecticides also don’t discriminate. If you have beneficial insects in your yard — like ladybugs, butterflies or honey bees — insecticides will generally harm them, too. Many homeowners feel uncomfortable treating their properties with chemicals.

How can we control the breeding of mosquitoes?

As we can see the insect has a period of life that it must live in water. During this phase it is most vulnerable. All it needs is just a collection of stagnant water to lay its eggs and the cycle is repeated.

It is the female mosquito that bites humans and in this process transmits the virus. To ensure the maximum success, the mosquito lays its eggs in a few places.

How can we take advantage of the situation?

The incubation period of the eggs can take from a few days to months. The eggs are too small to be seen thus this stage can be ignored.

The larvae stage is where we have the opportunity to attack this pest,

However this stage lasts for 5 days only.

                                                 

                                                   Traps by NEA

  

Homemade traps

Mosquito traps are easy to make. All you need is a small container. Add a few dead leaves to speed up the process. 

To ensure maximum success the female mosquito lays its eggs over a few areas. So place a few containers around your compound. 

                                   

As seen the container with the dead leaves attracts mosquitoes to lay their eggs

Things to do to get rid of mosquito infection in your neighbourhood

1.   Place a few mosquito traps around  your compound

2.   Check every 2 days

3.   If mosquito larvae are seen put in a few drops of soap or bleach

4.   Replace with fresh water and repeat checks

Analysing the results

If no larvae are found  Congratulations but keep checking

If larvae are found . it shows that your neighbourhood has mosquito infestations.

Share your findings with your neighbours or your district council 

Continue with the traps

As we can see it is very simple to make use of  traps to eliminate mosquito infestations in your neighbourhood. This will ensure you and your family will not catch the dengue virus.

This is the time Singapore needs you to do your duty.

Together we can bring down the cases of Dengue

Please send a message to  singaporemosquito@gmail.com if you have

1. Find mosquitoes in your compound just your postal code 
2. Want to share any other methods 

3.    Please remember to  close all the traps when you go on holiday

Thank You for participating