http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/media-literary-council-formed-bloggers-frown-move-111025765.html
After months of trying to cajole and persuade Internet practitioners to create a "ground-up" code of conduct (COC) for online discourse, the Government has taken a tentative step towards making this happen, even as bloggers continue to reject such a code.
The authorities will form a 21-member Media Literacy Council (MLC), headed by senior counsel Tan Cheng Han, on 1 August. The council members include academics, heads of various organisations, and one blogger. Mr Tan was also the deputy chairman of the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS) in 2007.
The MLC members will be appointed by the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (Mica), Dr Yaacob Ibrahim.
The council "will be supported by the resources from the Media Development Authority (MDA) in its role as secretariat to the council", the MLC says in a press release on Tuesday. The MDA's National Internet Advisory Committee and the Parents Advisory Group for the Internet will serve in a more advisory capacity.
"The MLC will… spearhead public education on media literacy and cyber wellness, and advise the government on the appropriate policy response to an increasingly complex and borderless world of media, technology, consumer expectations and participation," the council says. "The MLC hopes to raise the media literacy level of Singaporeans so that everyone can benefit even more from the Internet, and traditional and new media," Mr Tan explains.
The MLC will be participating in the Communications Literacy Seminar, a conference jointly organised by the MDA and the International Institute of Communications (IIC) on 5 October 2012; and the global initiative Safer Internet Day on 5 February 2013. "These events will serve to plug Singapore into the international network and conversation on media literacy as well as raise local awareness of issues that the world is already talking about," the MLC says.
When asked if it will also be looking into the creation of a COC, Mr Tan, who is also Law professor at the National University of Singapore, says it "could be one of the issues discussed by the Council as part of its wider remit." For the moment, however, he says the Council "does not have any specific plans or views on such a code at this time."
The council will begin discussions about its programmes and priorities at the first meeting expected sometime in August.
Asked about how different the MLC will be from AIMS, Mr Tan says, "AIMS was limited to new media while MLC is not. MLC's role is also not entirely advisory as it is intended that MLC will collaborate with others on as well as drive media literacy efforts."
"I am of the view that MLC should take into account what has been done in the past, including AIMS' recommendations though things can change, so past recommendations may not be as relevant today as they were previously."
Mr Tan says the "council is intended to include traditional media as well" as part of its remit.
The MLC has come at a time when the Government has raised concerns about online behaviour and discourse, especially with regards to race and religion matters, the emerging anti-foreigner sentiments, and cyber-bullying and harassment.
It has thus in recent times consulted with several parties, including bloggers, on how these concerns can be addressed. A COC, first mooted by the Mica minister in November last year, is seen by the authorities as one way to rein in "unacceptable" behaviour online. The minister was reported to have said that he "believes an Internet code of conduct is necessary and that the onus is on Internet users to define its contents, even as MICA will supervise and guide the process of developing such a code."
Bloggers react negatively
The suggestion, however, has drawn sharp criticism from online practitioners, especially bloggers, who have reacted negatively to the formation of the MLC and its intentions.
"I think the need to educate our young on cyber wellness is not in doubt," says Richard Wan, editor with TR Emeritus. "In this regard, MLC serving as a public education platform for the safe use of the Internet is admirable. However, it won't work if the MLC, in reviewing approaches to create a more participatory and responsible cyberspace culture, tries to get websites and blogs to adopt its recommended approaches."
Mr Ravi Philemon, former chief editor of The Online Citizen, questions the timing of the creation of the MLC. "The timing of the launch of this new council is suspicious," he says. It comes after bloggers "almost unanimously" rejected the Mica minister's call for a COC for the Internet.
It is a sentiment echoed by blogger and writer, Kirsten Han. "To me, this looks like something Mica has come up with after being rebuffed by bloggers about the proposal to develop a Code of Conduct," she says. A COC "is not necessary because the Internet can be inherently self-correcting, and we are never going to solve any problem by enforcing any 'code'. We need to look deeper than that."
Philemon is also puzzled by the possibility that a COC is going to be discussed through the MLC although, he says, a closed-door discussion organised by the Institute of Policy Studies some weeks was supposed to have put the matter to rest, given that consensus among bloggers were against such a code. "Now it seems that this new council will find collaborators to push the COC through despite what the general sentiment among bloggers may be."
The overall sentiment online is a lingering distrust of the intentions of the authorities, that there is more to just promoting "cyber wellness" than the authorities are leading on. "Yes, I do see this [MLC] as a Government attempt to stick a hand in where they previously have not had much success in controlling," Ms Han says. "I don't know if there will be any direct curb on free speech but it seems like yet another case of the Government trying to be the 'leader' or 'agenda setter' instead of allowing things to develop organically."
"The MLC will not curb online speech or even achieve any of its aims," says Belmont Lay, editor with New Nation. "This is because the Internet community thrives on being 'uncivilised' and spontaneous. We shouldn't tamper with its best qualities."
The MLC's goals, as Tan says in the MLC's press release, are to "raise the media literacy level of Singaporeans so that everyone can benefit even more from the Internet, and traditional and new media."
"In cyberspace and the real world where people are constantly interacting and sharing information, appropriate social norms and discernment are important," he added.
Cyber safety was also one of the goals of the AIMS initiative 4 years ago.
However, some like Ms Han question if media literacy is about cyber wellness and safety at all. "Although they're certainly not mutually exclusive, media literacy isn't actually about being safe or secure," she says. "It's not about 'appropriate social norms' (who even decides what these norms are?). It's about recognising how the media affect our lives, and therefore taking steps to think critically about the influence that it wields."
Council member, former Nominated Member of Parliament, Calvin Cheng, says that there are "many aspects of media literacy in general and the Internet in particular" and he hopes that "we can avoid politicising the MLC and its aims."
"Bullying, stalking, sexual grooming, exposure to pornography and violence are all dangers that our young have to face on the Internet," he says. "[We] could teach our child to stand up to the playground bully in real life, or take the matter up to a teacher, but how do we deal with anonymous bullying on the Internet that can reach out to so many more people at the click of a button?"
"Therefore in the absence of the ability to seek remedial measures, we need new life-skills to acquire preventive measures. And this I think is what the MLC needs to do, and this I think all internet practitioners should support regardless of political beliefs," he says.
Cheng also feels that the mainstream media "needs to really up their standards" and that they should "not instead dumb-down to the lowest common denominator with sensational reporting in order to win back readership."
"Unfortunately, we see some mainstream media providers doing this," Cheng says, "and this makes media literacy skills even more important. Media literacy needs to apply not only to consumers [but to] providers as well."
Still, the initial negative reaction of distrust and scepticism from bloggers remain and, according to Lee Kin Mun, better known as Mr Brown and also affectionately described as the Blog Father of the blogosphere, the "Internet community will very likely not even notice or care about [the MLC's] existence."
"If it makes the government happy to have some kind of advisory council (council sounds SO IMPORTANT!), hey, who are we to tell them not to set up one, right? We wish them all the best in trying to manage the giant ocean known as the Internet."
Andrew helms publichouse.sg as Editor-in-Chief. His writings have been reproduced in other publications, including the Australian Housing Journal in 2010. He was nominated by Yahoo! Singapore as one of Singapore's most influential media persons in 2011.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Singapore vows to create 'social safety nets'
Singapore will create a new culture ministry in a bid to "focus on building a cohesive and vibrant society" amid simmering discontent over immigration and income gaps, the prime minister said Tuesday.
Lee Hsien Loong restructured his cabinet and vowed to boost "social safety nets" as he announced in a statement the creation of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.
One of the new portfolio's tasks will be to promote "harmonious communal relations", said the statement, which comes as tensions mount between native-born Singaporeans and foreigners, mostly mainland Chinese.
More than 37 percent of the 5.2 million people living in Singapore are foreigners, many of whom have taken up citizenship and employment in the city-state in recent years.
The government has tightened visa and citizenship rules following complaints that jobs have been taken away from Singaporeans and a strain put on transport, health care and other public services.
As part of the cabinet reshuffle an existing ministry will now focus on social and family development.
"We need to strengthen our families and enhance our social safety nets to help those in need," Lee said.
The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) suffered its worst electoral performance in May 2011 when nearly 40 percent of Singaporeans voted for the opposition, after a heated campaign heavily influenced by social media.
The PAP managed to hold on to 81 of the 87 seats in parliament thanks to a controversial system of block voting, but it was shaken by an outpouring of scorn against the government via Facebook, Twitter and independent websites.
Lee did not give details on what social safety nets he intends to boost, but government critics have been demanding greater attention to the fate of low-income Singaporeans, especially the elderly.
Young couples have also complained about a lack of public housing and childcare facilities despite a government campaign for them to produce more babies in order to reverse the decline of the native-born population.
Acknowledging the newfound power of social media, Lee said in his statement that "we have to improve public communication and engagement, so as to reach out more effectively to our increasingly diverse society".
The 60-year-old leader posted a less formal announcement about the cabinet changes on his Facebook page, set up last April along with a Twitter account.
"Reshuffled the Cabinet today," he wrote.
"These changes will help us to serve Singaporeans better. I hope that all Singaporeans will give my team your full support, and work with us to build a better Singapore for all."
Lee is the son of Singapore's founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, 88, who retired from the cabinet after last year's polls to give way to younger ministers.
Moves 'not forward looking': analyst
Political analyst Bridget Welsh described the changes unveiled by the prime minister as his "attempt for renewal and regeneration, to brand his own leadership".
She expressed concern, however, that some of the new appointees "have not been seen to engage the electorate in dialogue on policy issues and as such they are seen to be the PAP of old rather than a more dynamic crop of leaders capable of managing Singapore's increasing diversity".
The associate professor of political science at the Singapore Management University also noted that a de-emphasis of sports and arts was "worrying for the holistic development of citizens".
Overall, she said the changes do not clearly show how his leadership is forward looking, with the exception of greater inclusion of women.
"While the rationale will be presented in the days ahead, signals of exclusion of areas of creativity, personal holistic development and more media interventions without a clear framework raise more questions that answers. The reforms do not clearly show how they will move Singapore forward," she said.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-vows-create-social-safety-nets-115421953.html
Lee Hsien Loong restructured his cabinet and vowed to boost "social safety nets" as he announced in a statement the creation of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.
One of the new portfolio's tasks will be to promote "harmonious communal relations", said the statement, which comes as tensions mount between native-born Singaporeans and foreigners, mostly mainland Chinese.
More than 37 percent of the 5.2 million people living in Singapore are foreigners, many of whom have taken up citizenship and employment in the city-state in recent years.
The government has tightened visa and citizenship rules following complaints that jobs have been taken away from Singaporeans and a strain put on transport, health care and other public services.
As part of the cabinet reshuffle an existing ministry will now focus on social and family development.
"We need to strengthen our families and enhance our social safety nets to help those in need," Lee said.
The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) suffered its worst electoral performance in May 2011 when nearly 40 percent of Singaporeans voted for the opposition, after a heated campaign heavily influenced by social media.
The PAP managed to hold on to 81 of the 87 seats in parliament thanks to a controversial system of block voting, but it was shaken by an outpouring of scorn against the government via Facebook, Twitter and independent websites.
Lee did not give details on what social safety nets he intends to boost, but government critics have been demanding greater attention to the fate of low-income Singaporeans, especially the elderly.
Young couples have also complained about a lack of public housing and childcare facilities despite a government campaign for them to produce more babies in order to reverse the decline of the native-born population.
Acknowledging the newfound power of social media, Lee said in his statement that "we have to improve public communication and engagement, so as to reach out more effectively to our increasingly diverse society".
The 60-year-old leader posted a less formal announcement about the cabinet changes on his Facebook page, set up last April along with a Twitter account.
"Reshuffled the Cabinet today," he wrote.
"These changes will help us to serve Singaporeans better. I hope that all Singaporeans will give my team your full support, and work with us to build a better Singapore for all."
Lee is the son of Singapore's founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, 88, who retired from the cabinet after last year's polls to give way to younger ministers.
Moves 'not forward looking': analyst
Political analyst Bridget Welsh described the changes unveiled by the prime minister as his "attempt for renewal and regeneration, to brand his own leadership".
She expressed concern, however, that some of the new appointees "have not been seen to engage the electorate in dialogue on policy issues and as such they are seen to be the PAP of old rather than a more dynamic crop of leaders capable of managing Singapore's increasing diversity".
The associate professor of political science at the Singapore Management University also noted that a de-emphasis of sports and arts was "worrying for the holistic development of citizens".
Overall, she said the changes do not clearly show how his leadership is forward looking, with the exception of greater inclusion of women.
"While the rationale will be presented in the days ahead, signals of exclusion of areas of creativity, personal holistic development and more media interventions without a clear framework raise more questions that answers. The reforms do not clearly show how they will move Singapore forward," she said.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-vows-create-social-safety-nets-115421953.html
End of ASEAN centrality?
by Yang Razali Kassim
04:45 AM Jul 10, 2012 (Today)
China has announced that China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to begin negotiations in November on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The proposed pact, when concluded, will create one of the world's biggest free trade areas as the three countries together account for 20 per cent of world GDP and 19 per cent of exports.
The goal of an East Asia FTA (EAFTA) has long been mired in historical mistrust amongst the three former enemies, notwithstanding their growing ties.
Their agreement to start formal talks for an FTA is a psychological breakthrough. Chinese analysts described it as a "milestone development".
How will this EAFTA affect South-east Asia and should ASEAN be concerned?
FURTHERING ASEAN'S INTEREST
From the viewpoint of ASEAN as the more established regional grouping, this development will help bring about East Asian integration and further ASEAN's interest.
The agreement by China, Japan and Korea to forge an East Asia FTA reflects the growing economic convergence of three major countries in an essentially tense region.
An FTA amongst the three economies will have a direct impact on ASEAN as they are major trading partners and already have bilateral free trade arrangements with ASEAN.
An East Asia FTA will therefore help realise ASEAN's vision of an East Asian Community. This vision has been carefully nurtured through the ASEAN+3 process which involved the three North-east Asian economies in ASEAN's annual summit meetings.
An important and often neglected aspect is ASEAN's role as enabler of this growing convergence in East Asia. In the late 1990s, there was a clear gulf between the three major economies in North-east Asia. In contrast, South-east Asia's economic convergence was gathering pace and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) being virtually realised.
ASEAN's economic convergence underpinned closer political ties and regional stability in South-east Asia.
Conversely, the lack of economic integration in North-east Asia was a potential hindrance to regional stability; a regional crisis there could spill over into South-east Asia.
It was ASEAN that created the opportunity for the three North-east Asian countries to meet among themselves to foster mutual confidence. ASEAN took the initiative of inviting the three countries to its annual summits since 1997.
The so-called ASEAN+3 summit allowed the ASEAN leaders to meet their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea together and separately. Over time, the gradual mingling of the North-east Asian leaders within the ASEAN framework encouraged them to meet among themselves.
TWO MAJOR SPIN-OFFS
Two major developments spun off from this. Firstly, China took everyone by surprise with an announcement at the ASEAN+1 summit in 2000 that it was prepared to have a free trade arrangement with ASEAN.
That offer also triggered a competitive push for freer trade with ASEAN from Japan, and then South Korea.
Secondly, having broken the ice, the three North-east Asian countries explored ways to forge closer economic integration amongst themselves.
By 2008, the three were comfortable enough to form their own forum - outside the ASEAN framework -sometimes referred to as the North-east Asian Trilateral Summit.
By 2011, they demonstrated their growing faith in regional integration with a Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat in Seoul. The choice of Seoul probably reflected the desire of China and Japan for a more neutral ground as the three countries gingerly moved forward as a fledgling economic grouping.
ASEAN will benefit from this growing economic convergence in North-east Asia. It fits into the ASEAN vision of a regional architecture for East Asia, and eventually the larger Asia Pacific.
EVOLVING VISION
This vision is evolving, with more than one route to its realisation. Within East Asia, there is firstly, the ASEAN+3 process towards an East Asian community. China prefers this, presumably because it would easily be the natural leader.
Secondly, there is the alternative route of the East Asia Summit (EAS) which Japan prefers because it involves the United States, its treaty ally, as well as Russia and they will therefore dilute China's dominance.
The EAS also includes India, Australia and New Zealand, which complete the chain of ASEAN's trading partners in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean.
Across the broader Asia Pacific, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is losing steam and could well be overtaken by the emerging free trade process called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the US leads.
China is reportedly concerned about the TPP whose potential rise is said to have prompted Beijing to quicken its push for an East Asian FTA with Japan and Korea.
Whether it is the EAFTA, EAS or the TPP route to the ASEAN vision of a regional architecture, one thing is clear: The free trade process that ASEAN began with its own FTA in the 1990s has triggered a proliferation of FTAs in a region that is widely touted as the centre of the new Asian century.
WHITHER ASEAN CENTRALITY?
While ASEAN can claim some satisfaction with being the facilitator of free trade areas and closer economic integration in East Asia, it also harbours some trepidation. There is the possibility of being sidelined by a larger and more powerful East Asia FTA.
That may mean the gradual erosion of "ASEAN centrality", the group's oft-repeated mantra. Such fears are not necessarily unfounded, but need it end this way?
To be sure, the road to an East Asia FTA may be long and winding, given the deep-seated intra-regional animosities. Like AFTA, the EAFTA could eventually emerge despite the obstacles.
However, North-east Asia's intra-regional baggages could prove more difficult to overcome. An East Asian FTA may still rely on a facilitating role by ASEAN, which means more room for ASEAN centrality.
Yang Razali Kassim is a Senior Fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, and a contributor to the Centre for Multilateralism Studies
by Yang Razali Kassim
04:45 AM Jul 10, 2012 (Today)
China has announced that China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to begin negotiations in November on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The proposed pact, when concluded, will create one of the world's biggest free trade areas as the three countries together account for 20 per cent of world GDP and 19 per cent of exports.
The goal of an East Asia FTA (EAFTA) has long been mired in historical mistrust amongst the three former enemies, notwithstanding their growing ties.
Their agreement to start formal talks for an FTA is a psychological breakthrough. Chinese analysts described it as a "milestone development".
How will this EAFTA affect South-east Asia and should ASEAN be concerned?
FURTHERING ASEAN'S INTEREST
From the viewpoint of ASEAN as the more established regional grouping, this development will help bring about East Asian integration and further ASEAN's interest.
The agreement by China, Japan and Korea to forge an East Asia FTA reflects the growing economic convergence of three major countries in an essentially tense region.
An FTA amongst the three economies will have a direct impact on ASEAN as they are major trading partners and already have bilateral free trade arrangements with ASEAN.
An East Asia FTA will therefore help realise ASEAN's vision of an East Asian Community. This vision has been carefully nurtured through the ASEAN+3 process which involved the three North-east Asian economies in ASEAN's annual summit meetings.
An important and often neglected aspect is ASEAN's role as enabler of this growing convergence in East Asia. In the late 1990s, there was a clear gulf between the three major economies in North-east Asia. In contrast, South-east Asia's economic convergence was gathering pace and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) being virtually realised.
ASEAN's economic convergence underpinned closer political ties and regional stability in South-east Asia.
Conversely, the lack of economic integration in North-east Asia was a potential hindrance to regional stability; a regional crisis there could spill over into South-east Asia.
It was ASEAN that created the opportunity for the three North-east Asian countries to meet among themselves to foster mutual confidence. ASEAN took the initiative of inviting the three countries to its annual summits since 1997.
The so-called ASEAN+3 summit allowed the ASEAN leaders to meet their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea together and separately. Over time, the gradual mingling of the North-east Asian leaders within the ASEAN framework encouraged them to meet among themselves.
TWO MAJOR SPIN-OFFS
Two major developments spun off from this. Firstly, China took everyone by surprise with an announcement at the ASEAN+1 summit in 2000 that it was prepared to have a free trade arrangement with ASEAN.
That offer also triggered a competitive push for freer trade with ASEAN from Japan, and then South Korea.
Secondly, having broken the ice, the three North-east Asian countries explored ways to forge closer economic integration amongst themselves.
By 2008, the three were comfortable enough to form their own forum - outside the ASEAN framework -sometimes referred to as the North-east Asian Trilateral Summit.
By 2011, they demonstrated their growing faith in regional integration with a Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat in Seoul. The choice of Seoul probably reflected the desire of China and Japan for a more neutral ground as the three countries gingerly moved forward as a fledgling economic grouping.
ASEAN will benefit from this growing economic convergence in North-east Asia. It fits into the ASEAN vision of a regional architecture for East Asia, and eventually the larger Asia Pacific.
EVOLVING VISION
This vision is evolving, with more than one route to its realisation. Within East Asia, there is firstly, the ASEAN+3 process towards an East Asian community. China prefers this, presumably because it would easily be the natural leader.
Secondly, there is the alternative route of the East Asia Summit (EAS) which Japan prefers because it involves the United States, its treaty ally, as well as Russia and they will therefore dilute China's dominance.
The EAS also includes India, Australia and New Zealand, which complete the chain of ASEAN's trading partners in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean.
Across the broader Asia Pacific, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is losing steam and could well be overtaken by the emerging free trade process called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the US leads.
China is reportedly concerned about the TPP whose potential rise is said to have prompted Beijing to quicken its push for an East Asian FTA with Japan and Korea.
Whether it is the EAFTA, EAS or the TPP route to the ASEAN vision of a regional architecture, one thing is clear: The free trade process that ASEAN began with its own FTA in the 1990s has triggered a proliferation of FTAs in a region that is widely touted as the centre of the new Asian century.
WHITHER ASEAN CENTRALITY?
While ASEAN can claim some satisfaction with being the facilitator of free trade areas and closer economic integration in East Asia, it also harbours some trepidation. There is the possibility of being sidelined by a larger and more powerful East Asia FTA.
That may mean the gradual erosion of "ASEAN centrality", the group's oft-repeated mantra. Such fears are not necessarily unfounded, but need it end this way?
To be sure, the road to an East Asia FTA may be long and winding, given the deep-seated intra-regional animosities. Like AFTA, the EAFTA could eventually emerge despite the obstacles.
However, North-east Asia's intra-regional baggages could prove more difficult to overcome. An East Asian FTA may still rely on a facilitating role by ASEAN, which means more room for ASEAN centrality.
Yang Razali Kassim is a Senior Fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, and a contributor to the Centre for Multilateralism Studies
People's Market (Lau Pasat)
Clarissa Oon, Straits Times, 22 July 2012
With its cream-coloured clock tower, octagonal curves and intricately crafted columns and arches, this grande dame of hawker centres is 118 years old, but has not experienced such sweeping changes as in the last four decades.
A feat of Victorian-era engineering, Lau Pa Sat - Old Market in Hokkien - was completed in 1894 at its present site at Raffles Quay, along Shenton Way.
Entirely prefabricated, the building is made up of more than 3,000 pieces of standardised cast iron which had been manufactured in Europe and shipped to Singapore in the early 1890s.
Were he still alive, architect and municipal engineer James MacRitchie, who also designed and gave his name to MacRitchie Reservoir, would have no trouble recognising the conserved exterior and internal skeleton of Lau Pa Sat, then also called Telok Ayer Market.
What would floor him would be its transformation from a rustic wet market close to the sea, to a food court dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers of a glittering financial district.
The metamorphosis began in 1973, when the Environment Ministry decided to turn it into a hawker centre. The poultry sellers with their cages of live squawking fowl - slaughtered on the spot for customers - and fishmongers with tanks of iridescent fish and baskets of twitching shrimp gave way to cooked food stalls.
Around the market, attap huts and shophouses packed with residents, sundry shops and makeshift food stalls were replaced gradually by office buildings.
The sea was once barely 400m away from the market and, during high tide, would cause floods around the market. But the land reclamation of the Telok Ayer Basin from the 1970s expanded the Central Business District and pushed Lau Pa Sat a world away from the seafront.
In the mid-1980s, a Mass Rapid Transit tunnel was laid under the building. To protect the gazetted national monument, its hawkers were moved out and the entire cast-iron framework dismantled. A few years later, the building was reassembled painstakingly, piece by piece.
After an early 1990s stab by private developer Scotts Holdings at turning Lau Pa Sat into a food hall and flea market - in the manner of London's Covent Garden - it is now a 24-hour food court run by food-court operator Kopitiam Group.
One of those with fond memories of the market before urban renewal left its mark is Mr Adrin Loi, 58, executive chairman of kaya-toast chain Ya Kun International.
In the early 1940s, Mr Loi's father began selling crispy toast - slathered with homemade egg-and-coconut jam - at a stall in Telok Ayer Basin, across the road from Lau Pa Sat.
After the market became a hawker centre, the elder Loi moved the family business there in the late 1970s. They stayed until 1985, when all the hawkers were relocated elsewhere due to the building's dismantling and reconstruction for MRT works.
Home for the Loi family of 10 in the 1950s and 1960s was in Cross Street, which faces one of Lau Pa Sat's eight entrances. They shared a cramped shophouse unit with five other families, where Hong Leong Building is now.
Mr Loi remembers, as a boy, playing badminton with friends in the compound around the market. Back then, Lau Pa Sat had a gate and a fence around it, which kept out some of the flood water.
Mr Loi and other boys also used to catch small ornamental fish in the drains at the back of the market, that had been discarded by fish sellers.
It was quite a rough-and-tumble neighbourhood in those days.
'There were a lot of gangsters in the Chinatown area and, occasionally, fights broke out in and outside the market. From our house, we could see people chasing one another with a knife,' he recalls.
By the 1950s, cooked food and drink stalls had popped up in and around the wet market, serving both workers and towkays who kept the many trading businesses and warehouses in Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar ticking round the clock.
Old-timers recall Lau Pa Sat as a hive of 24-hour activity.
In the daytime, housewives and domestic helpers would descend on the market, leaving in trishaws armed with bags of groceries. Businessmen would nurse their cups of black coffee and talk shop. At night, coolies and labourers would congregate after finishing the day's work.
Food critic Violet Oon, 63, saw the market in the 1960s as an unlikely 'millionaire's playground', and remembers eating 'really good Hokkien zi char' at Lau Pa Sat with one of her school friends from CHIJ and her friend's towkay father.
She recalls: 'His chauffeur would pick us up from school for lunch and we would have treats such as ngoh hiang and dark sauce Hokkien mee with fresh oysters, fresh crab meat and pee hee, or dried plaice.'
But Lau Pa Sat was also a working man's joint, says Kopitiam chairman Lim Bee Huat, 60. He started out at age nine as a drinks stall assistant at the then Esplanade Food Centre.
After knocking off at close to midnight, he would walk over to Lau Pa Sat and unwind over a five-cent cup of teh halia (ginger tea).
He recalls that the market in the 1960s 'was the meeting place for labourers looking for work. Coolies would gather in groups, waiting for stevedoring jobs to be distributed. They would then take the sampans to reach big ships docked just outside Telok Ayer Basin, and carry the goods back to land'.
Today, the food court he turned Lau Pa Sat into is more likely to serve Shenton Way office workers than millionaires or labourers, but its architecture remains more or less the same.
The building was gazetted as a national monument in 1973, which means its roof, facade and cast-iron structure cannot be altered. Any changes have to be approved by the Preservation of Monuments Board.
Back in the 19th century, the building was designed by MacRitchie with high ceilings, airwells and an absence of interior partitions to maximise air circulation.
Nonetheless, observers say Lau Pa Sat is more open and better ventilated today than before the 1990s. Apart from the addition of electric ceiling fans, timber louvres that used to cover the exterior walls have been removed.
The sides of Lau Pa Sat are now largely exposed, aside from tilted glass panels or cloth awnings to keep out rain.
The building's first major renovation in 1973 came as the Government felt a wet market was an incongruity in the emerging business district.
It was outfitted as a proper hawker centre with 144 stalls. Tables, stools, electrical fittings and a new mosaic floor were installed, as were sewers so waste water would not flow into open drains.
The taking apart and reconstruction of Lau Pa Sat from 1985 to 1989 was unprecedented for any building here.
Architect Lam Kin Chong, 58, who headed the Public Works Department team tasked by the then Singapore Tourist Promotion Board with the project, recalls: 'The building is one of a kind and I had to do a lot of research to figure out how to conserve it.'
Now deputy managing director of ST Architects and Engineers, he says that before the cast-iron structure was dismantled, each of its more than 3,000 parts had to be labelled, the number logged into a computer and then carefully stored. Broken parts had to be replicated.
In 1990, Scotts Holdings took over the reconstructed building with an ambitious $10-million plan to turn it into a festival market - a concept coming out of places such as Boston where old waterfront structures had been transformed into vibrant food and flea markets offering retail as well as live entertainment.
A 3,853 sq m pavilion with a mezzanine level was created inside Lau Pa Sat, housing a pub, four restaurants, 14 local and international food outlets, 41 retail stalls and 24 trolley carts.
However, the venture did not take off.
Scotts executive director Rafiq Jumabhoy conceded in a 1993 interview with Business Times that the concept felt 'artificial' when transplanted here. The company was torn apart by a family feud two years later.
The inside of Lau Pa Sat underwent further surgery after Kopitiam took over in 1995. An expansive food court was created by removing the mezzanine floor and increasing the number of seats to more than 2,000 and food stalls to 88. It reopened a year later after renovations costing more than $5 million.
The stalls as well as the ornate trusses and arches are now looking faded, but Kopitiam has plans to rejuvenate the building next year.
Architecture aside, a handful of hawkers have also weathered the test of time and plied their trade at the Old Market for nearly two decades.
One of them, kway chap seller Goh Soon Chwee, has run his stall since 1988 at the now-defunct Telok Ayer Transit Food Centre across the road, and then at Lau Pa Sat from 1997.
What has kept him moored to the historic neighbourhood? 'A lot of the customers know me and keep coming back. I don't have many years left in me to be braising pig intestines and pork belly over a hot stove, but I'd like to spend it here,' says the 62-year-old in Mandarin, with a big grin.
THROUGH THE YEARS
1894: The present Lau Pa Sat, then also known as Telok Ayer Market, was completed on reclaimed land at Raffles Quay. It was designed by British architect and municipal engineer James MacRitchie.
It replaced an earlier demolished wet market of the same name, also octagonal and built around 1824 at the western end of nearby Market Street. That was commissioned by Sir Stamford Raffles a few years after establishing Singapore as a British trading outpost.
1942-1945: The market survived the Japanese Occupation.
1973: Renovated at a cost of more than $650,000 to become a food centre. Gazetted as a national monument.
1985-1989: The building was dismantled to protect its Victorianera architecture while an MRT tunnel that ran beneath it was laid. Hawkers were moved to the nowdefunct Telok Ayer Transit Food Centre across the street. The more than 3,000 pieces that made up Lau Pa Sat's cast-iron structure were tagged, logged into a computer and stored. They were later reassembled for $6.8 million.
1990-1995: Developer Scotts Holdings won the tender for a 30-year lease of the building. Following renovations costing around $10 million, it became a Festival Market - a food hall-cum-flea market with live entertainment - in 1992. But the venture incurred losses and Scotts then sold the building to Kopitiam Investments, now known as the Kopitiam Group, for $8 million.
1996: Lau Pa Sat reopened as a 24-hour food court after more than $5 million in renovations.
Some notes
The ornate cast-iron columns and arches of Lau Pasat were manufactured in Europe and shipped to SIngapore in the early 1890s.
Clarissa Oon, Straits Times, 22 July 2012
With its cream-coloured clock tower, octagonal curves and intricately crafted columns and arches, this grande dame of hawker centres is 118 years old, but has not experienced such sweeping changes as in the last four decades.
A feat of Victorian-era engineering, Lau Pa Sat - Old Market in Hokkien - was completed in 1894 at its present site at Raffles Quay, along Shenton Way.
Entirely prefabricated, the building is made up of more than 3,000 pieces of standardised cast iron which had been manufactured in Europe and shipped to Singapore in the early 1890s.
Were he still alive, architect and municipal engineer James MacRitchie, who also designed and gave his name to MacRitchie Reservoir, would have no trouble recognising the conserved exterior and internal skeleton of Lau Pa Sat, then also called Telok Ayer Market.
What would floor him would be its transformation from a rustic wet market close to the sea, to a food court dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers of a glittering financial district.
The metamorphosis began in 1973, when the Environment Ministry decided to turn it into a hawker centre. The poultry sellers with their cages of live squawking fowl - slaughtered on the spot for customers - and fishmongers with tanks of iridescent fish and baskets of twitching shrimp gave way to cooked food stalls.
Around the market, attap huts and shophouses packed with residents, sundry shops and makeshift food stalls were replaced gradually by office buildings.
The sea was once barely 400m away from the market and, during high tide, would cause floods around the market. But the land reclamation of the Telok Ayer Basin from the 1970s expanded the Central Business District and pushed Lau Pa Sat a world away from the seafront.
In the mid-1980s, a Mass Rapid Transit tunnel was laid under the building. To protect the gazetted national monument, its hawkers were moved out and the entire cast-iron framework dismantled. A few years later, the building was reassembled painstakingly, piece by piece.
After an early 1990s stab by private developer Scotts Holdings at turning Lau Pa Sat into a food hall and flea market - in the manner of London's Covent Garden - it is now a 24-hour food court run by food-court operator Kopitiam Group.
One of those with fond memories of the market before urban renewal left its mark is Mr Adrin Loi, 58, executive chairman of kaya-toast chain Ya Kun International.
In the early 1940s, Mr Loi's father began selling crispy toast - slathered with homemade egg-and-coconut jam - at a stall in Telok Ayer Basin, across the road from Lau Pa Sat.
After the market became a hawker centre, the elder Loi moved the family business there in the late 1970s. They stayed until 1985, when all the hawkers were relocated elsewhere due to the building's dismantling and reconstruction for MRT works.
Home for the Loi family of 10 in the 1950s and 1960s was in Cross Street, which faces one of Lau Pa Sat's eight entrances. They shared a cramped shophouse unit with five other families, where Hong Leong Building is now.
Mr Loi remembers, as a boy, playing badminton with friends in the compound around the market. Back then, Lau Pa Sat had a gate and a fence around it, which kept out some of the flood water.
Mr Loi and other boys also used to catch small ornamental fish in the drains at the back of the market, that had been discarded by fish sellers.
It was quite a rough-and-tumble neighbourhood in those days.
'There were a lot of gangsters in the Chinatown area and, occasionally, fights broke out in and outside the market. From our house, we could see people chasing one another with a knife,' he recalls.
By the 1950s, cooked food and drink stalls had popped up in and around the wet market, serving both workers and towkays who kept the many trading businesses and warehouses in Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar ticking round the clock.
Old-timers recall Lau Pa Sat as a hive of 24-hour activity.
In the daytime, housewives and domestic helpers would descend on the market, leaving in trishaws armed with bags of groceries. Businessmen would nurse their cups of black coffee and talk shop. At night, coolies and labourers would congregate after finishing the day's work.
Food critic Violet Oon, 63, saw the market in the 1960s as an unlikely 'millionaire's playground', and remembers eating 'really good Hokkien zi char' at Lau Pa Sat with one of her school friends from CHIJ and her friend's towkay father.
She recalls: 'His chauffeur would pick us up from school for lunch and we would have treats such as ngoh hiang and dark sauce Hokkien mee with fresh oysters, fresh crab meat and pee hee, or dried plaice.'
But Lau Pa Sat was also a working man's joint, says Kopitiam chairman Lim Bee Huat, 60. He started out at age nine as a drinks stall assistant at the then Esplanade Food Centre.
After knocking off at close to midnight, he would walk over to Lau Pa Sat and unwind over a five-cent cup of teh halia (ginger tea).
He recalls that the market in the 1960s 'was the meeting place for labourers looking for work. Coolies would gather in groups, waiting for stevedoring jobs to be distributed. They would then take the sampans to reach big ships docked just outside Telok Ayer Basin, and carry the goods back to land'.
Today, the food court he turned Lau Pa Sat into is more likely to serve Shenton Way office workers than millionaires or labourers, but its architecture remains more or less the same.
The building was gazetted as a national monument in 1973, which means its roof, facade and cast-iron structure cannot be altered. Any changes have to be approved by the Preservation of Monuments Board.
Back in the 19th century, the building was designed by MacRitchie with high ceilings, airwells and an absence of interior partitions to maximise air circulation.
Nonetheless, observers say Lau Pa Sat is more open and better ventilated today than before the 1990s. Apart from the addition of electric ceiling fans, timber louvres that used to cover the exterior walls have been removed.
The sides of Lau Pa Sat are now largely exposed, aside from tilted glass panels or cloth awnings to keep out rain.
The building's first major renovation in 1973 came as the Government felt a wet market was an incongruity in the emerging business district.
It was outfitted as a proper hawker centre with 144 stalls. Tables, stools, electrical fittings and a new mosaic floor were installed, as were sewers so waste water would not flow into open drains.
The taking apart and reconstruction of Lau Pa Sat from 1985 to 1989 was unprecedented for any building here.
Architect Lam Kin Chong, 58, who headed the Public Works Department team tasked by the then Singapore Tourist Promotion Board with the project, recalls: 'The building is one of a kind and I had to do a lot of research to figure out how to conserve it.'
Now deputy managing director of ST Architects and Engineers, he says that before the cast-iron structure was dismantled, each of its more than 3,000 parts had to be labelled, the number logged into a computer and then carefully stored. Broken parts had to be replicated.
In 1990, Scotts Holdings took over the reconstructed building with an ambitious $10-million plan to turn it into a festival market - a concept coming out of places such as Boston where old waterfront structures had been transformed into vibrant food and flea markets offering retail as well as live entertainment.
A 3,853 sq m pavilion with a mezzanine level was created inside Lau Pa Sat, housing a pub, four restaurants, 14 local and international food outlets, 41 retail stalls and 24 trolley carts.
However, the venture did not take off.
Scotts executive director Rafiq Jumabhoy conceded in a 1993 interview with Business Times that the concept felt 'artificial' when transplanted here. The company was torn apart by a family feud two years later.
The inside of Lau Pa Sat underwent further surgery after Kopitiam took over in 1995. An expansive food court was created by removing the mezzanine floor and increasing the number of seats to more than 2,000 and food stalls to 88. It reopened a year later after renovations costing more than $5 million.
The stalls as well as the ornate trusses and arches are now looking faded, but Kopitiam has plans to rejuvenate the building next year.
Architecture aside, a handful of hawkers have also weathered the test of time and plied their trade at the Old Market for nearly two decades.
One of them, kway chap seller Goh Soon Chwee, has run his stall since 1988 at the now-defunct Telok Ayer Transit Food Centre across the road, and then at Lau Pa Sat from 1997.
What has kept him moored to the historic neighbourhood? 'A lot of the customers know me and keep coming back. I don't have many years left in me to be braising pig intestines and pork belly over a hot stove, but I'd like to spend it here,' says the 62-year-old in Mandarin, with a big grin.
THROUGH THE YEARS
1894: The present Lau Pa Sat, then also known as Telok Ayer Market, was completed on reclaimed land at Raffles Quay. It was designed by British architect and municipal engineer James MacRitchie.
It replaced an earlier demolished wet market of the same name, also octagonal and built around 1824 at the western end of nearby Market Street. That was commissioned by Sir Stamford Raffles a few years after establishing Singapore as a British trading outpost.
1942-1945: The market survived the Japanese Occupation.
1973: Renovated at a cost of more than $650,000 to become a food centre. Gazetted as a national monument.
1985-1989: The building was dismantled to protect its Victorianera architecture while an MRT tunnel that ran beneath it was laid. Hawkers were moved to the nowdefunct Telok Ayer Transit Food Centre across the street. The more than 3,000 pieces that made up Lau Pa Sat's cast-iron structure were tagged, logged into a computer and stored. They were later reassembled for $6.8 million.
1990-1995: Developer Scotts Holdings won the tender for a 30-year lease of the building. Following renovations costing around $10 million, it became a Festival Market - a food hall-cum-flea market with live entertainment - in 1992. But the venture incurred losses and Scotts then sold the building to Kopitiam Investments, now known as the Kopitiam Group, for $8 million.
1996: Lau Pa Sat reopened as a 24-hour food court after more than $5 million in renovations.
Some notes
The ornate cast-iron columns and arches of Lau Pasat were manufactured in Europe and shipped to SIngapore in the early 1890s.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Showcase Blog
Grade 7 showcase blog
Before I start, I want to tell you one quotation that is really nice.
“First, we make our habit then the habit makes us”
This was really nice quotation, so I decided to share it with you as soon as I can and there you go!
Don’t you think it is such a nice quotation?
So let’s get going on with my showcase.
This is my showcase, showing the work that I am proud of.
My goals after the student led conference was :
My goals
1. I want to get more organized with my homework, locker and diary.
2. I will participate in class discussion at least twice per class.
3. I will try my best on my presentation and the one that includes score (all the subjects).
I wanted to get more organized with my homework, locker and diary. I was able to organize my diary and homework, but I wasn’t able to organize my locker. I organized my diary by using different type of color pen. It was really clear to understand with different colors on my diary. Locker was really hard to organize, because my shelf wasn’t there to help organize. My shelf was broken and I couldn’t fix it. I had a really hard time organizing my locker without the shelf. Next year, I will try my best on organizing my locker. I hope I can keep on well-organizing my diary and homework.
I also wanted to participate in class discussion at least twice per class, but I couldn’t complete that goal. I knew really well that I had to participate a lot to class discussion. I also thought that I was really quite and I really wanted to participate in to class discussion, but I was kind of afraid that I am going to get it wrong. I think I will be able to participate in class discussion really well when I try it once. I think this is the part that I should work on with my best ability.
Another goal was to try my best on my presentation and the one that includes score for all the subjects. I really tried my best on this one and I think I have reached that goal. My weak subject was english and my score went up. I also tried my best on presentation, but if I get to have MacBook Pro next year, I will be able to work on my presentation more well. There was a lot of problem working on project using Apple Program, because I had window at home. But when I have my own apple computer next year, I will be able to spend more time on my projects.
This is one of my art work that I am proud of. This is the one that I printed with print with my design. I curved my design on softolium then we spread the paint out on the roller and we painted on the paper. I had such a hard time spreading the paint out, because if you don’t spread the paint out properly, you won’t be able to get a good paint. Overall, I really liked this project!
This is one of my art work as well. This was portrait painting. It was really interesting, because we were able to express our feelings into painting. This is me listening to music and traveling several countries. I had quite hard time painting the hair realistically, because it was really hard without really thin brushes. I really liked this project, though!
Break
Dorianne Laux
We put the puzzle together piece
by piece, loving how one curved
notch fits so sweetly with another.
A yellow smudge becomes
the brush of a broom, and two blue arms
fill in the last of the sky.
We patch together porch swings and autumn
trees, matching gold to gold. We hold
the eyes of deer in our palms, a pair
of brown shoes. We do this as the child
circles her room, impatient
with her blossoming, tired
of the neat house, the made bed,
the good food. We let her brood
as we shuffle through the pieces,
setting each one into place with a satisfied
tap, our backs turned for a few hours
to a world that is crumbling, a sky
that is falling, the pieces
we are required to return to.
This is my favorite poem that I used on drama project. It is such a nice poem and I decided to pick this poem out right after reading this poem.
This is the link to “What I learned in Hakuba”. We went 6th grade camp to Hakuba. I learned many things in Hakuba, so I expressed my feeling in to this one post.
This is a template that I drew for my blog. This is my blog post about this template. I drew 3 templates in total, but I chose this one and there is more details about this in my blog post.
6th grade has been really nice and interesting grade. It was my first time being in middle school and moving class to class. It was really cool at the start of the year and I learned how to get organized, because you can’t work well if you are not organized in middle school. I think I can do better in 7th grade, because I already experienced one year of middle school. I had a lot of fun and I did a lot of interesting works. I am looking forward to work more harder in 7th grade. I think trying best is the important than anything.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
My favorite quotation
2 Comments »
52
Linda Harrington
June 14, 2011 @ 8:52 am
Sophia,
I read your blog because I want to learn how to do it, too. I am a retired 1st grade teacher but I still enjoy learning new things.
I enjoyed your post, especially the quotes and poem. You set some great goals and I’m glad you’re are achieving them.
Try not to be afraid to participate in class discussions. Just jump in and start talking, but try to think about what you want to say in the process. Good job on your blog. I’ve learned a lot from you.
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Monday, July 2, 2012
Rise in sea levels can't be stopped
LONDON (Reuters) - Rising sea levels cannot be stopped over the next several hundred years, even if deep emissions cuts lower global average temperatures, but they can be slowed down, climate scientists said in a study on Sunday.
A lot of climate research shows that rising greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for increasing global average surface temperatures by about 0.17 degrees Celsius a decade from 1980-2010 and for a sea level rise of about 2.3mm a year from 2005-2010 as ice caps and glaciers melt.
Rising sea levels threaten about a tenth of the world's population who live in low-lying areas and islands which are at risk of flooding, including the Caribbean, Maldives and Asia-Pacific island groups.
More than 180 countries are negotiating a new global climate pact which will come into force by 2020 and force all nations to cut emissions to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius this century - a level scientists say is the minimum required to avert catastrophic effects.
But even if the most ambitious emissions cuts are made, it might not be enough to stop sea levels rising due to the thermal expansion of sea water, said scientists at the United States' National Centre for Atmospheric Research, U.S. research organisation Climate Central and Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research in Melbourne.
"Even with aggressive mitigation measures that limit global warming to less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial values by 2100, and with decreases of global temperature in the 22nd and 23rd centuries ... sea level continues to rise after 2100," they said in the journal Nature Climate Change.
This is because as warmer temperatures penetrate deep into the sea, the water warms and expands as the heat mixes through different ocean regions.
Even if global average temperatures fall and the surface layer of the sea cools, heat would still be mixed down into the deeper layers of the ocean, causing continued rises in sea levels.
If global average temperatures continue to rise, the melting of ice sheets and glaciers would only add to the problem.
The scientists calculated that if the deepest emissions cuts were made and global temperatures cooled to 0.83 degrees in 2100 - forecast based on the 1986-2005 average - and 0.55 degrees by 2300, the sea level rise due to thermal expansion would continue to increase - from 14.2cm in 2100 to 24.2cm in 2300.
If the weakest emissions cuts were made, temperatures could rise to 3.91 degrees Celsius in 2100 and the sea level rise could increase to 32.3cm, increasing to 139.4cm by 2300.
"Though sea-level rise cannot be stopped for at least the next several hundred years, with aggressive mitigation it can be slowed down, and this would buy time for adaptation measures to be adopted," the scientists added.
The study is available at www.nature.com/nclimate
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Pravin Char)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rise-sea-level-cant-stopped-scientists-174530543.html
A lot of climate research shows that rising greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for increasing global average surface temperatures by about 0.17 degrees Celsius a decade from 1980-2010 and for a sea level rise of about 2.3mm a year from 2005-2010 as ice caps and glaciers melt.
Rising sea levels threaten about a tenth of the world's population who live in low-lying areas and islands which are at risk of flooding, including the Caribbean, Maldives and Asia-Pacific island groups.
More than 180 countries are negotiating a new global climate pact which will come into force by 2020 and force all nations to cut emissions to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius this century - a level scientists say is the minimum required to avert catastrophic effects.
But even if the most ambitious emissions cuts are made, it might not be enough to stop sea levels rising due to the thermal expansion of sea water, said scientists at the United States' National Centre for Atmospheric Research, U.S. research organisation Climate Central and Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research in Melbourne.
"Even with aggressive mitigation measures that limit global warming to less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial values by 2100, and with decreases of global temperature in the 22nd and 23rd centuries ... sea level continues to rise after 2100," they said in the journal Nature Climate Change.
This is because as warmer temperatures penetrate deep into the sea, the water warms and expands as the heat mixes through different ocean regions.
Even if global average temperatures fall and the surface layer of the sea cools, heat would still be mixed down into the deeper layers of the ocean, causing continued rises in sea levels.
If global average temperatures continue to rise, the melting of ice sheets and glaciers would only add to the problem.
The scientists calculated that if the deepest emissions cuts were made and global temperatures cooled to 0.83 degrees in 2100 - forecast based on the 1986-2005 average - and 0.55 degrees by 2300, the sea level rise due to thermal expansion would continue to increase - from 14.2cm in 2100 to 24.2cm in 2300.
If the weakest emissions cuts were made, temperatures could rise to 3.91 degrees Celsius in 2100 and the sea level rise could increase to 32.3cm, increasing to 139.4cm by 2300.
"Though sea-level rise cannot be stopped for at least the next several hundred years, with aggressive mitigation it can be slowed down, and this would buy time for adaptation measures to be adopted," the scientists added.
The study is available at www.nature.com/nclimate
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Pravin Char)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rise-sea-level-cant-stopped-scientists-174530543.html
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