Singapore PM: Dream to become reality as city-state wins bid for 2010 Youth Olympics
By DERRICK HO,
Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, February 22
SINGAPORE

Thousands of Singaporeans cheered and waved the national flag Thursday after their city-state won the right to host the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, and the Prime Minister called the result a "dream that will become reality".

"It's a great honor and privilege for all of us, for Singapore and every Singaporean," Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a gathering of officials and more than 5,000 students from 90 schools decked in the national color red, on a large field in downtown Singapore.

"We dared to dream, we worked hard to pursue our dream despite the odds, and now the dream will become a reality."

Under a shower of confetti, dozens of students dressed in the Olympic colors danced on the steps of the City Hall following the IOC's announcement that was made in Switzerland and seen in Singapore via a live broadcast on two large screens.

"For the first time, the Olympics name will be in Southeast Asia, and in Singapore," Lee said. "We will be the focus of a new era of sports development for Singapore, for Southeast Asia and for the Olympic movement."

Following the IOC's announcement, the crowd erupted in cheers as students leapt for joy and pumped their fists in the air.

"I felt ecstasy. There was sheer happiness. So much hard work has been put into this and it has paid off," said Jamie Coates, 15, a British-born Singaporean sports school student who was dressed in a white and gold Greek robe, marking the origin of the Olympics.

In a postal ballot of IOC members, Singapore received 53 votes against 44 for rival candidate city Moscow.

The Southeast Asian city-state, unlikely ever to host a full-scale Olympic Games due to size restrictions, has already begun construction of a venue that will be used as an Olympic Village for the 2010 Youth Games.

The 5,000-bed university residence, costing US$423 million (?287 million) and located within 30 minutes of all sports venues, will be completed in February 2010.

February 17 2008

Anti-porn drive: 19 netted at Aussie airports
Occasional arrests also made at other airports worldwide; SIA suspends pilot
By Karamjit Kaur, Aviation Correspondent

THE crackdown on porn at Australian airports which resulted in the arrest of a Singapore Airlines pilot on Saturday, has netted 19 people since January last year.
Two others - another Singaporean and a Malaysian Airlines pilot - were also arrested in the last one week.

The crackdown appears to be confined to Australia, although arrests have been made from time to time elsewhere.

On Tuesday, for example, Italian police arrested a 55-year-old university professor after he stepped off a plane from Bangkok at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport. The arrest was part of a country-wide crackdown on child pornography.

In Dubai last November, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) deejay was arrested for allegedly carrying pornographic DVDs into the country.

The Australian action appears to be a concerted effort aimed at stopping the smuggling of pornography into the country via Adelaide, according to a statement on the country's Customs website.

The website quoted Australian Customs national manager of investigations, Mr Richard Janeczko, as saying the department was seeing an increase in interceptions of objectionable pornography at the border.

Meanwhile, the SIA pilot at the centre of the porn storm, Captain Ng Kok Yauw, has arrived back in Singapore.

Contacted by The Straits Times yesterday evening, Capt Ng, 41, who has been flying with the airline for about 15 years, said: 'I am not in a good position to talk right now.'

The father of two, who has been described as a 'nice chap' and 'a regular family man' by colleagues, has been suspended by the airline pending investigations.

He was charged by Australian authorities on Monday and fined A$12,000 (S$15,241).

He pleaded guilty and paid the fine. Australian Customs Service, which arrested Capt Ng, said he was not charged with carrying child pornography, but provided no further details.

It is not a crime to bring pornographic material into Australia, according to a spokesman for the Australian Customs.

However, it becomes an offence when the materials are 'objectionable' or 'abhorrent', which includes child pornography.

The spokesman said the agency has seen an increase in the number of passengers and aircrew caught with pornography, but she did not have any statistics.

She said all travellers - whether passengers or airline crew - are subject to the same checks.

Captain P. James, president of the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore, said: 'This is something that we can all learn from.

'We will not dispute that an offence has been committed but there is also no disputing that the man has already been punished for his offence.'

Capt Ng will not be flying until SIA completes its investigations, spokesman Stephen Forshaw said.

karam@sph.com.sg
 

Feb 14, 2008  

Household incomes up but rich-poor gap widens 

By Bryan Lee, Economics Correspondent 

THANKS to a booming economy and rising salaries, the average family in Singapore saw its household income rise by 9.6 per cent last year, the biggest increase in at least a decade.

But the rich again got richer in 2007. Higher-income households generally enjoyed bigger pay hikes than lower-income ones, widening the income gap between the rich and poor.

Data published yesterday by the Department of Statistics (DOS) showed that average monthly household income from work last year rose to $6,280, up from $5,730 the previous year.

Much of this was due to strong economic growth and a tight labour market, which drove up just about all salaries last year.

The data comes on the heels of a set of rosy numbers for Singapore's workers. The unemployment rate is at a 10-year low, while average bonuses paid out are at their highest since 1990.

Even after accounting for inflation, income still grew 7.4 per cent, beating a previous high of 6.2 per cent in 2001 at the height of the dot.com boom.

Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin said: 'It's very encouraging that workers are finally seeing big gains from the economic boom of the past few years.

'The earlier part of the recovery from Sars in 2003 had benefited companies more, with wage gains being relatively modest in previous years.'

But yesterday's figures from the DOS also showed that the wages boom was clearly skewed in favour of richer families.

Income per family member in the top 10 per cent income bracket surged 11.1 per cent.

This is compared to 3.3 per cent for the lowest 10 per cent income bracket.

The result is that the Gini coefficient, a widely used measure of income inequality in a country, has gone up to 0.485 from 0.472 - one of the biggest increases in the past seven years.

The DOS acknowledged this yesterday, saying that it reflected 'higher wage increases for skilled and knowledge workers'.

Economists agreed, positing that the unusually large jump could be due to more top global business executives relocating here.

But they also noted yesterday that a widening income gap is to be expected in a globalised economy. This is because low-skilled workers may not have as much bargaining power even in a tight labour market as companies can easily turn to cheaper foreign labour.

This means the Government will have to help poorer families more as the spoils of globalisation are not equally distributed, they added.

Indeed, economists said that with economic conditions turning south, more help should be announced at tomorrow's Budget statement as lower-income, lower-skilled workers may be more vulnerable.

Said DBS Bank economist Irvin Seah: 'I would not be surprised to see many measures at this Budget to alleviate the lower-income families from the escalating costs of living.'

In this vein, the DOS noted yesterday that Government benefits targeting the lower-income, such as the Goods and Services Tax offset package offered at last year's Budget, helped to narrow the income gap.

If those were taken into account, the Gini coefficient would come down to 0.46, it said.

bryanlee@sph.com.sg

Punjabi women being lured into prostitution overseas

Jan 14 2008


Chandigarh - Punjab may be moving ahead with legislation to stop travel agents from cheating youth with the lure of foreign pastures, but such touts are now baiting young girls into the multibillion immigration racket.

The revelation that girls and young women are being targeted has come after some of them were rescued from foreign shores this month. The tragedy for these cheated women was that not only were they not taken to the promised destinations for lucrative jobs, but were also being forced into prostitution in other countries.

'This is an alarming development and the centre and state governments should take action immediately. Our daughters from Punjab are being forced into prostitution in other countries,' former federal minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia told IANS.

His Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) has been spearheading the campaign against unscrupulous travel and immigration agents in Punjab.

LBP activists rescued four Punjab girls from Singapore and other countries where they were stuck after being duped by immigration agents and were being forced into prostitution. The LBP had to seek the help of the Indian high commission in Singapore to get the girls freed.

Presenting four such girls before the media, Ramoowalia said some of the girls were sent to jail on false cases like theft to pressurize them to join the prostitution industry in other countries.

Veerpal Kaur of Dhurkot village in Jalandhar district talked about the harrowing time she faced in Singapore in the last few months.

'I was promised a lucrative job. Initially things went off well but later the agent in Singapore started threatening me that if I did not join the flesh trade, I would languish in jail for years. They even got me implicated in a theft case and I had to spend some time in jail. I refused to join the prostitution ring but there are other Indian girls who were not so lucky,' Kaur said.

She had paid over Rs.50,000 to an immigration agent to reach Singapore.

Her ageing parents said they had committed a folly by sending their daughter abroad and would not do it again. 'We want strong punishment against the travel agent,' her father said.

With the demand for trained nurses, chefs, hostesses, nannies and other such services on the rise in Western and other countries, women are the new targets for unscrupulous travel and immigration agents in Punjab.

Kanchan from Chamkaur Sahib in Ropar district and Manpreet Kaur from Patiala, both of whom were also duped by travel agents, said they had paid Rs.160,000 and Rs.195,000 respectively to a Chandigarh-based travel agent to go abroad earlier this year.

Mandeep Kaur from Faridkot district said she had paid Rs.500,000 to a travel agent in Delhi to go abroad.

Every year, thousands of youth from Punjab end up languishing in the jails of countries in Africa, Asia and Europe after being duped by immigration agents. Some 283 South Asians, including 170 Indians, mostly from Punjab, had lost their lives in the Malta boat tragedy on Christmas night in 1996 after their ferry capsized in the sea off the coast of Malta.

Ramoowalia said the LBP was trying its best to check the activities of immigration and travel agents who wanted to cheat innocent youth from Punjab in the name of sending them abroad.

'We have got some of them arrested. We have also been able to force some agents to refund nearly Rs.1.8 million to people who were cheated by them,' he added.

The LBP has also initiated a campaign to help those women in Punjab who have been cheated in marriage by NRI grooms. Typically, these grooms come to Punjab and marry here but never take their wives with them.

'There are over 15,000 such cases of fraud NRI marriages where women have been duped,' Ramoowalia pointed out.

Prostitution behind the veil in Iran

January 14, 2007

Minna and Fariba are neighbors and good friends. They support one another. Both have to live under the pervasive curtailment of women's rights and the double standards of today's Iranian society. They make a living walking the streets looking for men. They have a choice between leaving their small children at home alone or bringing them along when they have sex with men.

The film is a sympathetic portrait of the two women, exploring their day-to-day life and the workings of prostitution in a country that bans it and prosecutes adulterers, sometimes with the penalty of capital punishment.

Many of the clients find a way to buy sex and still comply with Muslim law: they marry the women in what is called 'Sighe', a temporary marriage sanctioned in Shia Islam. Sighe can last from two hours up to 99 years. Both Minna and Fariba enter into Sighe with clients, and Fariba is in a Sighe marriage with a neighbor, Habib, that lasts six months. Giving his perspective on temporary marriage, Habib says that Sighe is a way to help poor women, it is an act of mercy in the name of Allah.

The film follows the two women for more than a year. It describes their middle-class backgrounds and their submission to treacherous men and drugs. We see how Fariba manages to quit drugs and prostitution, only to find herself temporarily married to a man who will not let her leave the house.

The film is narrated by the director, Nahid Persson, who fled Iran 20 years ago. Her commentary adds her perspective and contextual information to the film's events. An element of the film is the difficulties faced by a female director shooting a film. Filming prostitution in the street was hard and dangerous, as is evident in the film. The director has to submit to the same restraints as the film's two women in a ludicrously patriarchal society marked by religious restrictions, oppression of women, and social decline. The story of Minna and Fariba mirrors the greater story of Iranian society.

It may sound in odds when one talks about pandemic presence of prostitution in Iran, especially in major cities like Tehran, considering strict Islamic laws ruling the country. But it is pervasive and occasionally, if you have your eyes open, you may spot a "pick up" on busy streets.

Dubai: Luxury lures women into sexual slavery

By Glen Carey
January 10 2008

Fei Fei, a 22-year-old from China's Guangdong province, has a souvenir of her eight months in Dubai: burns on her back and arms from cigarette butts crushed against her skin when she refused to work as a prostitute.

She eventually submitted when a criminal gang threatened to send nude photos of her to family members. That indignity, she said, would have been worse than selling her body.

"They take pictures of me naked in shower," Fei Fei said in broken English as she pulled up her shirt to reveal the dark red circular marks. Soon afterward, she adopted the English name "Lucy," and sold sex in Dubai bars for 500 dirhams (USD $130) a trick to claw back her freedom.

Fei Fei's story symbolizes the dark side of Dubai, better known for its skyscrapers, sail-shaped hotel and man-made islands built in the shape of palm trees. The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is the second-largest member, is on a US State Department watch-list for failing to take "meaningful steps" to end trafficking of women for prostitution and other workers trapped in conditions of slavery.

There are an estimated 10,000 victims of human trafficking in Dubai, according to the department's 2007 report. UAE officials say the figure overestimates the problem and that they have begun to take action, passing the first anti -trafficking law in the Middle East.

Flush With Cash

Dubai has transformed itself from a trading village to the Persian Gulf's financial and tourist hub with lower taxes and a more vibrant nightlife than other Gulf states. Bars heave with men drinking $10 beers and women in short skirts.

That's attracted rich Saudis, US oil workers flush with cash after stints in Iraq, and bankers who are paid as much as 40 percent more than those in London or New York.

Affluence has increased the demand for laborers and housemaids, and the development of laws to protect them from exploitation hasn't kept pace, the International Labor Organization said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Women from Asia and Africa often sign contracts to work as maids, waitresses, hairdressers and secretaries, only to have employers confiscate their passports and force them to work as prostitutes, the US report said. Others work excessive hours under the threat of mental, physical or sexual abuse until they can pay off recruitment costs.

"Once they are there, they find that their contract is not valid," said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission. "They get stranded."

Fear of Rape

Anne Valdez, 25, from Quezon City near Manila, lasted four months as a housemaid before she ran away.

Valdez said she traveled to the UAE because wages were higher there than at home. She was brought over by a UAE- based labor agency after signing a contract to work for $200 a month. Her employers paid Valdez $160 and made her work 19 hours a day.

"I couldn't leave the house the whole time," Valdez said in a Dubai coffee shop. "I even couldn't call my family. I was scared I would be raped."

Valdez considers herself lucky. She spent 10 months hiding with relatives, avoiding police and working part-time jobs at hotels to help support herself. She said supervisors often made sexual advances, though they never assaulted her or forced her into prostitution.

Valdez returned to the Philippines with no job and no savings to support her 1-year-old son, after taking advantage of a government amnesty that allowed illegal workers to leave.

Making an Effort

Worldwide, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, the State Department said. Kuwait and Qatar are ranked on the same watch-list for cases of involuntary servitude, not sexual exploitation as in the UAE Saudi Arabia is on a worse tier ranking than the UAE

In July, the UAE formed a committee of senior officials to combat human trafficking, and it has opened a shelter for abused women. In the past year it has closed 40 hotels and clubs that allowed prostitution, said Anwar Gargash, minister of state for Federal National Council Affairs in Dubai.

"We are committed to tackling this problem on several levels through the rigorous prosecution of criminals, preventative measures and, most importantly, protection of victims of this crime," Gargash said.

Any crackdown on such crimes comes too late for Emily Ivy from Edo State in southern Nigeria.

The 22-year-old was forced into prostitution by her step-sister, who lured her to Dubai with the promise of a job in a beauty salon. She was told to pay $15,000 to get her identification back and continues to work the bars to send money to her widowed mother.

"I came to work in a beauty parlor for my sister," Ivy said. "Three months later, I was told to go to the bars to sell my body. I don't want to do it anymore. I am tired."

She has applied for a job as an air stewardess.

Fei Fei's journey to Dubai also ended badly. Once she had plans to study English at a language school in the city, but after paying her pimp 6,000 dirhams (USD $1,600) a month, she managed to save enough money to return to China.

"I want to change my job," she said before departing.