Friday, February 22, 2013
Economy dives from 5.2% growth in 2011 to 1.3% last year 2012
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced today (22 Feb) that the Singapore economy grew by 1.3% in 2012.
For the 4th quarter in 2012, the Singapore economy grew by 1.5% on a year-on-year basis.
For the whole of 2012, Singapore’s GDP growth slowed to 1.3 per cent, from 5.2 per cent in 2011, mainly due to weakness in the externally-oriented sectors. The breakdown is as follows:
2012
1. Manufacturing 0.1% (previous year was 7.8% – electonics industry contracted)
2. Construction 8.2% (previous year was 6.3% – public and private building activities increased)
3. Service 1.2%
a. Business services sector 3.9% (strong performance in the real estate segment)
b. Wholesale & retail trade sector -0.7%
c. Finance & insurance sector 0.5%
d. Others 0.1%
Economic Outlook for 2013
The global macroeconomic conditions have stabilised in recent months against the backdrop of improved financial market conditions. Nevertheless, global economic growth is likely to remain subdued. In the US, while the housing market has shown signs of improvement, the strength of the economic recovery will be restrained by fiscal tightening. In the Eurozone, economic growth is expected to remain stagnant, weighed down by ongoing fiscal tightening, private sector deleveraging, as well as high unemployment rates.
In Asia, growth is likely to be moderate, supported by resilient domestic demand and modest growth in external demand. Against this macroeconomic backdrop, the outlook for the Singapore economy remains cautiously positive. MTI is maintaining its 2013 economic growth forecast at 1.0 to 3.0%.
While downside risks have receded, the global economic outlook is still clouded with uncertainties. In particular, concerns remain over the extent of the fiscal cutback with the budget sequester in the US, as well as the potential flare-up of the debt crisis in the Eurozone. Should any of these risks materialise, Singapore’s economic growth could come in lower than expected.
Land scarce Singapore looks underground for space squeeze solution as population bulges
Land scarce Singapore looks underground for space squeeze solution as population bulges
Associated Press
By Heather Tan, Associated Press | Associated Press
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Already one of the most densely populated countries in the world, tiny land scarce Singapore is projecting its population to swell by a third over the next two decades. To accommodate the influx, its planners envisage expanding upward, outward and downward.
The population target of 6.9 million people, an increase of 1.3 million from the present, is contentious in a country where rapid immigration has already strained services such as public transport and contributed to surging home prices and a widening wealth gap. It sparked a rare protest last week, with some 3,000 people gathering in a park that's the only approved area for demonstrations.
Singaporeans, whose forebears mostly hailed from southern China, fear their falling birth rates combined with the relentless immigration will reduce them to a minority in their own country. Adding a new dimension to their complaints is the idea that planners want underground living to leap off their drawing boards and become a solution to overcrowding.
State media is already championing the idea. In September, the Straits Times newspaper characterized underground living as the "next frontier" for Singapore. It said Singaporeans may one day "live, work and play below ground in vast, subterranean caverns that make today's underground malls look like home basements." The Building Construction Authority, which oversees a new agency responsible for surveying underground, said it could become reality by 2050.
The public's reaction has included derision and disbelief.
"Why pull me down," said Patricia Bian-Hing, a retired 87-year-old businesswoman. "The only time I will go underground peacefully to live will be in my coffin."
But experts are calling for an open mind about the possibility.
"Singaporeans are dismissing this prospect because it is new, not because it is unworkable or implausible," said Jeffrey Chan, an assistant professor of architecture at the National University of Singapore.
"Astronauts who live in space stations, despite the abundance of direct sunlight have to live in shade most of the time, and they are only debilitated from the lack of gravity, not light," he said. "Hence, I think if there are any biologically-imposed constraints, psychologically or real, these biological constraints can be overcome through new habits or technologically."
With about 675 square kilometers (261 square miles) of land, Singapore is only 3.5 times the size of Washington DC and has limited options for increasing its space. Land reclaimed from the sea already accounts for a fifth of its landmass and Singapore's appetite for imported sand for reclamation has caused tensions with neighboring countries concerned about coastal erosion. But its ruling People's Action Party, in power since 1959, sees a bigger population as crucial to its goal of transforming Singapore into what it calls a leading world city.
The government's new plans call for releasing land for housing and industry by closing golf courses and military training grounds and paving over some of the island's nature reserves. That along with reclamation will free some 5,200 hectares (52 square kilometers, 20 square miles) of land to help accommodate an additional 700,000 homes and new shops and factories over the next 20 years. The projected increase in available land lags far behind the planned population increase so projects to put industry and other activities underground are already advancing on several fronts despite the technical challenges and significantly higher costs of subterranean construction.
"Going underground is one option for Singapore as it frees up surface land," said David Tan, assistant chief executive officer of Jurong Town Corporation, Singapore's main development body.
The JTC is studying construction of an underground science complex beneath an existing science park that's used by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Projected to cost 50 percent more than a similar facility above ground, it would go down 30 storeys — 80 to 100 meters — and house laboratories, offices and a data center.
The corporation has already overseen construction of a massive underground oil bunker in rock caverns that freed up a surface area equivalent to six petrochemical plants. The island also saved 300 hectares of space by putting an ammunition bunker underground.
A possibility explored for several years is an underground extension of Singapore's Nangyang Technological University after a 1999 study by the government and the university found at least part of the area beneath the campus could be turned into rock caverns. Planners envisage four underground levels that could accommodate lecture theatres, cinemas, libraries, offices, laboratories and car parking.
"If we think about it, there are already underground spaces here in Singapore and throughout most major metropolitan regions," said Erik L'Heureux, an architecture professor NUS.
"We already have underground train stations and malls, and there are already many buildings here that take advantage of spaces below ground so the real questions are how much time will one spend underground, what goes on there, and how far down from natural light and fresh air."
For the Singapore for Singaporeans camp, the space squeeze has only highlighted the costs of the government's population and economic policies. Its efforts to attract high-skilled professionals in finance, science and other industries it wants Singapore to be known for has resulted in nature sanctuaries and cemeteries being overrun by golf courses and luxury condominiums.
"Ultimately it will be Singaporeans who will suffer," said Rachel Mun, a 33-year old sales assistant. "As it is, Singapore is already bursting with people and things we once depended on like transportation, have become exhausted because of the influx of commuters."
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Old Age and The Grieving Process
(Copyright: Thinkstock)
People often talk about a set pattern to bereavement, but Claudia Hammond examines whether the evidence shows that everybody shares the same experience.
“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death.” Joan Didion’s candid account of bereavement in The Year of Magical Thinking provides a powerful experience of what it is like to lose a loved one.
People often talk about the five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The five stages are taught across the world, have made appearances in TV’s The Simpsons and The Office, and the artist Damien Hirst created a series called DABDA, named after the acronym for the five stages. There is no set timeframe for passing through these stages, but they have become accepted as part of the normal pattern of grief.
The concept originates from work done in the 1960s by John Bowlby, the psychologist who became known for his work on attachment between babies and their parents, and Colin Murray-Parkes, who has written a huge amount on bereavement. Together, they identified four stages of grief from interviews with 22 widows: numbness, searching and yearning, depression and reorganisation. Then Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, famous for changing attitudes towards the treatment of the dying, carried out a series of interviews with terminally ill people, and devised the five stages we know of today to describe the experience of facing impending death – though didn’t test them in any systematic way. Their appeal was such that soon the same five stages were being used to describe other sets of emotional reactions, such as grief.
Noting its widespread use without any systematic evidence for such a set pattern, researchers from Yale University tested the five stages in the early 2000s. As lists of the five stages vary slightly from source to source they settled on examining disbelief, yearning, anger, depression and acceptance. For three years they collected data as part of the Yale Bereavement Study – in total 233 people were interviewed approximately six, eleven and nineteen months after a loved one (usually a spouse) had died. Those whose relatives had a violent death or who were suffering from what is known as a complicated grief reaction were excluded.
The resulting picture was more complex than the five stages would suggest. The researchers found that acceptance was the strongest emotion throughout, while disbelief was very low. The second strongest emotion throughout was yearning, and depression was more evident than anger at every stage. Also, emotions did not replace each other in some form of orderly sequence; the highest point of any of those emotions did follow the correct sequence, but a person in the third stage, for example, would still experience acceptance most strongly, not anger.
(Kluber and Ross Model/ 5 Stages Grief Model)
After six months the researchers found that all negative emotions were beginning to decline, but bear in mind that this doesn’t mean that people were somehow “over it”. It’s common to miss the deceased profoundly for years to come, but most people do cope. Also bear in mind that for ethical reasons the researchers could only begin the interviews a month after bereavement, so they had no picture of an initial month that could include conflicting emotions.
Time heals
A study published a few years later included the response to violent deaths too, but this time the bereaved were college students, and so the majority had lost more distant relatives than spouses. Again, the stages were not closely followed, although the researchers found that distress was higher earlier on and acceptance was higher later. But unlike the other study they didn’t follow people over time. The researchers had taken a snapshot in time, so they couldn’t tell whether any one individual was passing through the stages, just that those who were bereaved six months ago tended to differ from those bereaved a year ago.
Another study confirmed that older people do not respond in a set way. George Bonanno from Columbia University followed people before their bereavement, enrolling older couples in the study and then checking the local newspaper obituaries every day for any deaths. He found that 45% genuinely did not experience severe distress after the death of their spouse, nor did they are as time went on – 10% of the widows even showed improved mental health. People were resilient and were able to cope with the death of their spouse. Bonanno’s most recent research, published last year, confirms a lack of set pattern.
Whatever the evidence suggests, the five-stages-of-grief idea is certainly an appealing one, in the sense that it could give people hope that however bad they are feeling now, at least they will eventually move through the stages and feel better. But when I interviewed Ruth David Konigsberg, the author of The Truth About Grief, who has investigated the five stages, she told me it could also set up expectations amongst the grief-stricken that they should be feeling a particular way. “It’s reassuring for people who experience some of the emotions, but it’s stigmatising for those who don’t,” said Konigsberg. “You may feel you’re grieving incorrectly or there’s something wrong with you.”
But, as studies show, there is no “correct” or “incorrect” way to grieve: the same experience isn’t shared by everybody, nor should it be expected to. The loss is always there, but for most the grief changes over time. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to experience every stage or even that feelings will appear in that order. It might be reassuring to have a script, which shows you where you are heading next, but sadly real life experiences aren’t always as neat at the theories describing them. Life is messier than that.
If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
You can hear more Medical Myths on Health Check on the BBC World Service.
Disclaimer
All content within this column is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. The BBC is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of this site. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130219-are-there-five-stages-of-grief/2
Kübler-Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-04015-9
Kübler-Ross, E. (2005) On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss, Simon & Schuster Ltd, ISBN 0-7432-6344-8
People often talk about a set pattern to bereavement, but Claudia Hammond examines whether the evidence shows that everybody shares the same experience.
“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death.” Joan Didion’s candid account of bereavement in The Year of Magical Thinking provides a powerful experience of what it is like to lose a loved one.
People often talk about the five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The five stages are taught across the world, have made appearances in TV’s The Simpsons and The Office, and the artist Damien Hirst created a series called DABDA, named after the acronym for the five stages. There is no set timeframe for passing through these stages, but they have become accepted as part of the normal pattern of grief.
The concept originates from work done in the 1960s by John Bowlby, the psychologist who became known for his work on attachment between babies and their parents, and Colin Murray-Parkes, who has written a huge amount on bereavement. Together, they identified four stages of grief from interviews with 22 widows: numbness, searching and yearning, depression and reorganisation. Then Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, famous for changing attitudes towards the treatment of the dying, carried out a series of interviews with terminally ill people, and devised the five stages we know of today to describe the experience of facing impending death – though didn’t test them in any systematic way. Their appeal was such that soon the same five stages were being used to describe other sets of emotional reactions, such as grief.
Noting its widespread use without any systematic evidence for such a set pattern, researchers from Yale University tested the five stages in the early 2000s. As lists of the five stages vary slightly from source to source they settled on examining disbelief, yearning, anger, depression and acceptance. For three years they collected data as part of the Yale Bereavement Study – in total 233 people were interviewed approximately six, eleven and nineteen months after a loved one (usually a spouse) had died. Those whose relatives had a violent death or who were suffering from what is known as a complicated grief reaction were excluded.
The resulting picture was more complex than the five stages would suggest. The researchers found that acceptance was the strongest emotion throughout, while disbelief was very low. The second strongest emotion throughout was yearning, and depression was more evident than anger at every stage. Also, emotions did not replace each other in some form of orderly sequence; the highest point of any of those emotions did follow the correct sequence, but a person in the third stage, for example, would still experience acceptance most strongly, not anger.
(Kluber and Ross Model/ 5 Stages Grief Model)
After six months the researchers found that all negative emotions were beginning to decline, but bear in mind that this doesn’t mean that people were somehow “over it”. It’s common to miss the deceased profoundly for years to come, but most people do cope. Also bear in mind that for ethical reasons the researchers could only begin the interviews a month after bereavement, so they had no picture of an initial month that could include conflicting emotions.
Time heals
A study published a few years later included the response to violent deaths too, but this time the bereaved were college students, and so the majority had lost more distant relatives than spouses. Again, the stages were not closely followed, although the researchers found that distress was higher earlier on and acceptance was higher later. But unlike the other study they didn’t follow people over time. The researchers had taken a snapshot in time, so they couldn’t tell whether any one individual was passing through the stages, just that those who were bereaved six months ago tended to differ from those bereaved a year ago.
Another study confirmed that older people do not respond in a set way. George Bonanno from Columbia University followed people before their bereavement, enrolling older couples in the study and then checking the local newspaper obituaries every day for any deaths. He found that 45% genuinely did not experience severe distress after the death of their spouse, nor did they are as time went on – 10% of the widows even showed improved mental health. People were resilient and were able to cope with the death of their spouse. Bonanno’s most recent research, published last year, confirms a lack of set pattern.
Whatever the evidence suggests, the five-stages-of-grief idea is certainly an appealing one, in the sense that it could give people hope that however bad they are feeling now, at least they will eventually move through the stages and feel better. But when I interviewed Ruth David Konigsberg, the author of The Truth About Grief, who has investigated the five stages, she told me it could also set up expectations amongst the grief-stricken that they should be feeling a particular way. “It’s reassuring for people who experience some of the emotions, but it’s stigmatising for those who don’t,” said Konigsberg. “You may feel you’re grieving incorrectly or there’s something wrong with you.”
But, as studies show, there is no “correct” or “incorrect” way to grieve: the same experience isn’t shared by everybody, nor should it be expected to. The loss is always there, but for most the grief changes over time. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to experience every stage or even that feelings will appear in that order. It might be reassuring to have a script, which shows you where you are heading next, but sadly real life experiences aren’t always as neat at the theories describing them. Life is messier than that.
If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
You can hear more Medical Myths on Health Check on the BBC World Service.
Disclaimer
All content within this column is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. The BBC is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of this site. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130219-are-there-five-stages-of-grief/2
Kübler-Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-04015-9
Kübler-Ross, E. (2005) On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss, Simon & Schuster Ltd, ISBN 0-7432-6344-8
Friday, February 8, 2013
Hong Kong poor living in cages and cubicles
Hong Kong poor living in cages and cubicles
Hong Kong leader's policy vow highlights plight of poor living in cages, cubicles amid wealth
Associated PressBy Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer | Associated Press – Thu, Feb 7, 2013 5:06 PM SGT
HONG KONG (AP) -- For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage.
The 67-year-old former butcher pays 1,300 Hong Kong dollars ($167) a month for one of about a dozen wire mesh cages resembling rabbit hutches crammed into a dilapidated apartment in a gritty, working-class West Kowloon neighborhood.
The cages, stacked on top of each other, measure 1.5 square meters (16 square feet). To keep bedbugs away, Leung and his roommates put thin pads, bamboo mats, even old linoleum on their cages' wooden planks instead of mattresses.
"I've been bitten so much I'm used to it," said Leung, rolling up the sleeve of his oversized blue fleece jacket to reveal a red mark on his hand. "There's nothing you can do about it. I've got to live here. I've got to survive," he said as he let out a phlegmy cough.
Some 100,000 people in the former British colony live in what's known as inadequate housing, according to the Society for Community Organization, a social welfare group. The category also includes apartments subdivided into tiny cubicles or filled with coffin-sized wood and metal sleeping compartments as well as rooftop shacks. They're a grim counterpoint to the southern Chinese city's renowned material affluence.
Forced by skyrocketing housing prices to live in cramped, dirty and unsafe conditions, their plight also highlights one of the biggest headaches facing Hong Kong's unpopular Beijing-backed leader: growing public rage over the city's housing crisis.
Leung Chun-ying took office as Hong Kong's chief executive in July pledging to provide more affordable housing in a bid to cool the anger. Home prices rose 23 percent in the first 10 months of 2012 and have doubled since bottoming out in 2008 during the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said in a report last month. Rents have followed a similar trajectory.
The soaring costs are putting decent homes out of reach of a large portion of the population while stoking resentment of the government, which controls all land for development, and a coterie of wealthy property developers. Housing costs have been fuelled by easy credit thanks to ultralow interest rates that policymakers can't raise because the currency is pegged to the dollar. Money flooding in from mainland Chinese and foreign investors looking for higher returns has exacerbated the rise.
In his inaugural policy speech in January, the chief executive said the inability of the middle class to buy homes posed a threat to social stability and promised to make it a priority to tackle the housing shortage.
"Many families have to move into smaller or older flats, or even factory buildings," he said. "Cramped living space in cage homes, cubicle apartments and sub-divided flats has become the reluctant choice for tens of thousands of Hong Kong people," he said, as he unveiled plans to boost supply of public housing in the medium term from its current level of 15,000 apartments a year.
His comments mark a distinct shift from predecessor Donald Tsang, who ignored the problem. Legislators and activists, however, slammed Leung for a lack of measures to boost the supply in the short term. Some 210,000 people are on the waiting list for public housing, about double from 2006. About a third of Hong Kong's 7.1 million population lives in public rental flats. When apartments bought with government subsidies are included, the figure rises to nearly half.
Anger over housing prices is a common theme in increasingly frequent anti-government protests. Legislator Frederick Fung warns there will be more if the problem can't be solved. He compared the effect on the poor to a lab experiment.
"When we were in secondary school, we had some sort of experiment where we put many rats in a small box. They would bite each other," said Fung. "When living spaces are so congested, they would make people feel uneasy, desperate," and angry at the government, he said.
Leung, the cage dweller, had little faith that the government could do anything to change the situation of people like him.
"It's not whether I believe him or not, but they always talk this way. What hope is there?" said Leung, who has been living in cage homes since he stopped working at a market stall after losing part of a finger 20 years ago. He hasn't applied for public housing because he doesn't want to leave his roommates to live alone and expects to spend the rest of his life living in a cage.
His only income is HK$4,000 ($515) in government assistance each month. After paying his rent, he's left with $2,700 ($350), or about HK$90 ($11.60) a day.
"It's impossible for me to save," said Leung, who never married and has no children to lean on for support.
Leung and his roommates, all of them single, elderly men, wash their clothes in a bucket. The bathroom facilities consist of two toilet stalls, one of them adjoining a squat toilet that doubles as a shower stall. There is no kitchen, just a small room with a sink. The hallway walls have turned brown with dirt accumulated over the years.
While cage homes, which sprang up in the 1950s to cater mostly to single men coming in from mainland China, are becoming rarer, other types of substandard housing such as cubicle apartments are growing as more families are pushed into poverty. Nearly 1.19 million people were living in poverty in the first half of last year, up from 1.15 million in 2011, according to the Hong Kong Council Of Social Services. There's no official poverty line but it's generally defined as half of the city's median income.
Hong Kong poor living in cages and cubicles
Hong Kong leader's policy vow highlights plight of poor living in cages, cubicles amid wealth
Associated Press By Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer | Associated Press – Thu, Feb 7, 2013 5:06 PM SGT
Many poor residents have applied for public housing but face years of waiting. Nearly three-quarters of 500 low-income families questioned by Oxfam Hong Kong in a recent survey had been on the list for more than 4 years without being offered a flat.
Lee Tat-fong, is one of those waiting. The 63-year-old is hoping she and her two grandchildren can get out of the cubicle apartment they share in their Wan Chai neighborhood, but she has no idea how long it will take.
Lee, who suffers from diabetes and back problems, takes care of Amy, 9, and Steven, 13, because their father has disappeared and their mother — her daughter — can't get a permit to come to Hong Kong from mainland China. An uncle occasionally lends a hand.
The three live in a 50-square-foot room, one of seven created by subdividing an existing apartment. A bunk bed takes up half the space, a cabinet most of the rest, leaving barely enough room to stand up in. The room is jammed with their possessions: plastic bags filled with clothes, an electric fan, Amy's stuffed animals, cooking utensils.
"There's too little space here. We can barely breathe," said Lee, who shares the bottom bunk with her grandson.
They share the communal kitchen and two toilets with the other residents. Welfare pays their HK$3,500 monthly rent and the three get another HK$6,000 for living expenses but the money is never enough, especially with two growing children to feed. Lee said the two often wanted to have McDonalds because they were still hungry after dinner, which on a recent night was meager portions of rice, vegetables and meat.
The struggle to raise her two grandkids in such conditions was wearing her out.
"It's exhausting," she said. "Sometimes I get so pent up with anger, and I cry but no one sees because I hide away."
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-poor-living-cages-074040859.html
___
Hong Kong leader's policy vow highlights plight of poor living in cages, cubicles amid wealth
Associated PressBy Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer | Associated Press – Thu, Feb 7, 2013 5:06 PM SGT
HONG KONG (AP) -- For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage.
The 67-year-old former butcher pays 1,300 Hong Kong dollars ($167) a month for one of about a dozen wire mesh cages resembling rabbit hutches crammed into a dilapidated apartment in a gritty, working-class West Kowloon neighborhood.
The cages, stacked on top of each other, measure 1.5 square meters (16 square feet). To keep bedbugs away, Leung and his roommates put thin pads, bamboo mats, even old linoleum on their cages' wooden planks instead of mattresses.
"I've been bitten so much I'm used to it," said Leung, rolling up the sleeve of his oversized blue fleece jacket to reveal a red mark on his hand. "There's nothing you can do about it. I've got to live here. I've got to survive," he said as he let out a phlegmy cough.
Some 100,000 people in the former British colony live in what's known as inadequate housing, according to the Society for Community Organization, a social welfare group. The category also includes apartments subdivided into tiny cubicles or filled with coffin-sized wood and metal sleeping compartments as well as rooftop shacks. They're a grim counterpoint to the southern Chinese city's renowned material affluence.
Forced by skyrocketing housing prices to live in cramped, dirty and unsafe conditions, their plight also highlights one of the biggest headaches facing Hong Kong's unpopular Beijing-backed leader: growing public rage over the city's housing crisis.
Leung Chun-ying took office as Hong Kong's chief executive in July pledging to provide more affordable housing in a bid to cool the anger. Home prices rose 23 percent in the first 10 months of 2012 and have doubled since bottoming out in 2008 during the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said in a report last month. Rents have followed a similar trajectory.
The soaring costs are putting decent homes out of reach of a large portion of the population while stoking resentment of the government, which controls all land for development, and a coterie of wealthy property developers. Housing costs have been fuelled by easy credit thanks to ultralow interest rates that policymakers can't raise because the currency is pegged to the dollar. Money flooding in from mainland Chinese and foreign investors looking for higher returns has exacerbated the rise.
In his inaugural policy speech in January, the chief executive said the inability of the middle class to buy homes posed a threat to social stability and promised to make it a priority to tackle the housing shortage.
"Many families have to move into smaller or older flats, or even factory buildings," he said. "Cramped living space in cage homes, cubicle apartments and sub-divided flats has become the reluctant choice for tens of thousands of Hong Kong people," he said, as he unveiled plans to boost supply of public housing in the medium term from its current level of 15,000 apartments a year.
His comments mark a distinct shift from predecessor Donald Tsang, who ignored the problem. Legislators and activists, however, slammed Leung for a lack of measures to boost the supply in the short term. Some 210,000 people are on the waiting list for public housing, about double from 2006. About a third of Hong Kong's 7.1 million population lives in public rental flats. When apartments bought with government subsidies are included, the figure rises to nearly half.
Anger over housing prices is a common theme in increasingly frequent anti-government protests. Legislator Frederick Fung warns there will be more if the problem can't be solved. He compared the effect on the poor to a lab experiment.
"When we were in secondary school, we had some sort of experiment where we put many rats in a small box. They would bite each other," said Fung. "When living spaces are so congested, they would make people feel uneasy, desperate," and angry at the government, he said.
Leung, the cage dweller, had little faith that the government could do anything to change the situation of people like him.
"It's not whether I believe him or not, but they always talk this way. What hope is there?" said Leung, who has been living in cage homes since he stopped working at a market stall after losing part of a finger 20 years ago. He hasn't applied for public housing because he doesn't want to leave his roommates to live alone and expects to spend the rest of his life living in a cage.
His only income is HK$4,000 ($515) in government assistance each month. After paying his rent, he's left with $2,700 ($350), or about HK$90 ($11.60) a day.
"It's impossible for me to save," said Leung, who never married and has no children to lean on for support.
Leung and his roommates, all of them single, elderly men, wash their clothes in a bucket. The bathroom facilities consist of two toilet stalls, one of them adjoining a squat toilet that doubles as a shower stall. There is no kitchen, just a small room with a sink. The hallway walls have turned brown with dirt accumulated over the years.
While cage homes, which sprang up in the 1950s to cater mostly to single men coming in from mainland China, are becoming rarer, other types of substandard housing such as cubicle apartments are growing as more families are pushed into poverty. Nearly 1.19 million people were living in poverty in the first half of last year, up from 1.15 million in 2011, according to the Hong Kong Council Of Social Services. There's no official poverty line but it's generally defined as half of the city's median income.
Hong Kong poor living in cages and cubicles
Hong Kong leader's policy vow highlights plight of poor living in cages, cubicles amid wealth
Associated Press By Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer | Associated Press – Thu, Feb 7, 2013 5:06 PM SGT
Many poor residents have applied for public housing but face years of waiting. Nearly three-quarters of 500 low-income families questioned by Oxfam Hong Kong in a recent survey had been on the list for more than 4 years without being offered a flat.
Lee Tat-fong, is one of those waiting. The 63-year-old is hoping she and her two grandchildren can get out of the cubicle apartment they share in their Wan Chai neighborhood, but she has no idea how long it will take.
Lee, who suffers from diabetes and back problems, takes care of Amy, 9, and Steven, 13, because their father has disappeared and their mother — her daughter — can't get a permit to come to Hong Kong from mainland China. An uncle occasionally lends a hand.
The three live in a 50-square-foot room, one of seven created by subdividing an existing apartment. A bunk bed takes up half the space, a cabinet most of the rest, leaving barely enough room to stand up in. The room is jammed with their possessions: plastic bags filled with clothes, an electric fan, Amy's stuffed animals, cooking utensils.
"There's too little space here. We can barely breathe," said Lee, who shares the bottom bunk with her grandson.
They share the communal kitchen and two toilets with the other residents. Welfare pays their HK$3,500 monthly rent and the three get another HK$6,000 for living expenses but the money is never enough, especially with two growing children to feed. Lee said the two often wanted to have McDonalds because they were still hungry after dinner, which on a recent night was meager portions of rice, vegetables and meat.
The struggle to raise her two grandkids in such conditions was wearing her out.
"It's exhausting," she said. "Sometimes I get so pent up with anger, and I cry but no one sees because I hide away."
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-poor-living-cages-074040859.html
___
How positive thinking toppled Pinochet
How positive thinking toppled Pinochet
By Rebecca Thomas Arts and entertainment reporter, BBC News
Much has been documented on the rise and fall of Chile's brutal military dictator General Augusto Pinochet yet little on the men who brought about his demise. The Oscar-nominated foreign-language film, No, seeks to redress the balance.
The Spanish-speaking film, starring Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, is set in Chile in 1988, when a public referendum was called on Pinochet's 15-year coup-seized leadership.
The people were to be asked to vote Yes for a continuation of Pinochet's rule or No for him to go.
While the Yes campaigners go down a hackneyed route of vaunting Pinochet's great leadership and trashing the opposition, the No camp realise a radical new approach is needed. The people are scared and sceptical of a corrupt process and will take some persuading to even go to the polls.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
They couldn't find people from the Yes campaign, there was only one person who was known but he didn't want to talk - a victory has many generals but a defeat has none”
Gael Garcia Bernal
The answer is to hire advertising hotshot Rene Saavedra, who says they must harness the strategies of product advertising, namely the power of the positive message.
"Many people know how Pinochet got into power by overthrowing President Allende but very few know how he got out," says Bernal who plays Saavedra.
"Even I, who am from Latin America, didn't know about the campaign that went on. I didn't know how important publicity was to the movement and what actually went on.
"It was one of the most interesting things about the film and encouraged me to do it."
Unified front
Used to working on promotions for products such as fizzy drinks, Saavedra dismisses focusing on the atrocities of Pinochet's rule to take the sweet shop approach to the Nos' campaign: shiny imagery of rainbows and a beautiful future full of sun-soaked days of family fun.
"The film sees the birth of democracy in Chile through the eyes of a publicist," says Bernal.
"An archetypal publicist doesn't exist, but this character is fascinating because of his joyful attitude.
"He has a childish fascination with toys and things like his new microwave. These kind of things gave the character an interesting way to see the story."
The No camp, a group made up of 16 political parties, are unsurprisingly unconvinced. But they pull together behind Saavedra in a spirit of unity and camaraderie.
t's a dynamic that followed through into the cast, many of whom are the real-life members of the No campaign.
"There was the fraternal aspect to making the movie, which got me closer to the drama and to the freedom that that moment in history experienced," says Bernal.
As for the members of the Yes campaign, they made a point of making themselves elusive.
"All the protagonists from the campaign were very up for making the movie. Some acted as themselves and others play their antagonists," says Bernal.
"They couldn't find people from the Yes campaign. There was only one person who was known but he didn't want to talk. A victory has many generals but a defeat has none."
One of the original No team is Eugenio Garcia, on whom Bernal's character is based. Garcia, a smiling and gentle man, says he was taken aback when approached by Chilean director Pablo Larrain.
"It was a surprise for me as this happened 25 years ago and then I forgot, did my job and got on with my life," says Garcia.
"Now when I see the movie, it's very emotional. It's a very good interpretation of how we all felt at the time, our fears and anticipation. It makes me remember all the emotions. It's beautiful."
Underhand tactics
Meeting Garcia was a true honour and also valuable to understanding and playing Saavedra, say Bernal.
It all adds to the film's air of authenticity, which Larrain has taken pains to achieve through the use of an old U-matic camera to help blend news footage from the era with the acting scenes.
At heart, Saavedra is just a simple man of the people, deeply concerned for the young son who lives with him and longing to be reconciled with his estranged wife.
When the Yes campaign hit back with underhand tactics, Saavedra feels the threats on a deeply personal level, rather than as part and parcel of the dirty game of politics.
It sums up the other feeling pervading No: intimacy.
This, Bernal explains, is down to Larrain. No is the final part in Larrain's trilogy covering the Pinochet era. The first two films were Tony Manero and Post Mortem.
No signals a closure for the director, who was a child at the time of the events of the film and whose parents were Yes voters.
"It's a film that is very personal to Pablo. He was 12 when this happened," says Bernal. "It is, for him and other Chileans, a reconciliation, not just with society or the country, but with one's own history."
Ultimately, the No campaign is triumphant. An unexpected 97% of registered voters turn out at the polls. The No campaign wins almost 56% of the vote.
Pinochet stepped down in 1990 after losing democratic presidential and parliamentary elections. When he died in 2006, he was still to stand trial for human rights abuses, as ordered by the Chilean courts.
This "injustice" is just one of the many issues that make No relevant to today's audience, says the politically-minded Bernal. But would he ever turn his interest into a career?
"I am very interested in politics," says the actor, who is a big supporter of human rights group Amnesty International.
"But as for going into it seriously in a formal way, I can't see that happening. Then again how many politicians have said the same?"
No is released in the UK on Friday, 8 February 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21321833
By Rebecca Thomas Arts and entertainment reporter, BBC News
Much has been documented on the rise and fall of Chile's brutal military dictator General Augusto Pinochet yet little on the men who brought about his demise. The Oscar-nominated foreign-language film, No, seeks to redress the balance.
The Spanish-speaking film, starring Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, is set in Chile in 1988, when a public referendum was called on Pinochet's 15-year coup-seized leadership.
The people were to be asked to vote Yes for a continuation of Pinochet's rule or No for him to go.
While the Yes campaigners go down a hackneyed route of vaunting Pinochet's great leadership and trashing the opposition, the No camp realise a radical new approach is needed. The people are scared and sceptical of a corrupt process and will take some persuading to even go to the polls.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
They couldn't find people from the Yes campaign, there was only one person who was known but he didn't want to talk - a victory has many generals but a defeat has none”
Gael Garcia Bernal
The answer is to hire advertising hotshot Rene Saavedra, who says they must harness the strategies of product advertising, namely the power of the positive message.
"Many people know how Pinochet got into power by overthrowing President Allende but very few know how he got out," says Bernal who plays Saavedra.
"Even I, who am from Latin America, didn't know about the campaign that went on. I didn't know how important publicity was to the movement and what actually went on.
"It was one of the most interesting things about the film and encouraged me to do it."
Unified front
Used to working on promotions for products such as fizzy drinks, Saavedra dismisses focusing on the atrocities of Pinochet's rule to take the sweet shop approach to the Nos' campaign: shiny imagery of rainbows and a beautiful future full of sun-soaked days of family fun.
"The film sees the birth of democracy in Chile through the eyes of a publicist," says Bernal.
"An archetypal publicist doesn't exist, but this character is fascinating because of his joyful attitude.
"He has a childish fascination with toys and things like his new microwave. These kind of things gave the character an interesting way to see the story."
The No camp, a group made up of 16 political parties, are unsurprisingly unconvinced. But they pull together behind Saavedra in a spirit of unity and camaraderie.
t's a dynamic that followed through into the cast, many of whom are the real-life members of the No campaign.
"There was the fraternal aspect to making the movie, which got me closer to the drama and to the freedom that that moment in history experienced," says Bernal.
As for the members of the Yes campaign, they made a point of making themselves elusive.
"All the protagonists from the campaign were very up for making the movie. Some acted as themselves and others play their antagonists," says Bernal.
"They couldn't find people from the Yes campaign. There was only one person who was known but he didn't want to talk. A victory has many generals but a defeat has none."
One of the original No team is Eugenio Garcia, on whom Bernal's character is based. Garcia, a smiling and gentle man, says he was taken aback when approached by Chilean director Pablo Larrain.
"It was a surprise for me as this happened 25 years ago and then I forgot, did my job and got on with my life," says Garcia.
"Now when I see the movie, it's very emotional. It's a very good interpretation of how we all felt at the time, our fears and anticipation. It makes me remember all the emotions. It's beautiful."
Underhand tactics
Meeting Garcia was a true honour and also valuable to understanding and playing Saavedra, say Bernal.
It all adds to the film's air of authenticity, which Larrain has taken pains to achieve through the use of an old U-matic camera to help blend news footage from the era with the acting scenes.
At heart, Saavedra is just a simple man of the people, deeply concerned for the young son who lives with him and longing to be reconciled with his estranged wife.
When the Yes campaign hit back with underhand tactics, Saavedra feels the threats on a deeply personal level, rather than as part and parcel of the dirty game of politics.
It sums up the other feeling pervading No: intimacy.
This, Bernal explains, is down to Larrain. No is the final part in Larrain's trilogy covering the Pinochet era. The first two films were Tony Manero and Post Mortem.
No signals a closure for the director, who was a child at the time of the events of the film and whose parents were Yes voters.
"It's a film that is very personal to Pablo. He was 12 when this happened," says Bernal. "It is, for him and other Chileans, a reconciliation, not just with society or the country, but with one's own history."
Ultimately, the No campaign is triumphant. An unexpected 97% of registered voters turn out at the polls. The No campaign wins almost 56% of the vote.
Pinochet stepped down in 1990 after losing democratic presidential and parliamentary elections. When he died in 2006, he was still to stand trial for human rights abuses, as ordered by the Chilean courts.
This "injustice" is just one of the many issues that make No relevant to today's audience, says the politically-minded Bernal. But would he ever turn his interest into a career?
"I am very interested in politics," says the actor, who is a big supporter of human rights group Amnesty International.
"But as for going into it seriously in a formal way, I can't see that happening. Then again how many politicians have said the same?"
No is released in the UK on Friday, 8 February 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21321833
The Jury is Still Out on Baby Doc Duvalier, the Witchdoctor and former ruler of Haiti
7 February 2013
Jean-Claude Duvalier fails to attend Haiti rights trial
The former ruler of Haiti Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has failed to attend a hearing in Port-au-Prince on allegations of crimes against humanity.
His lawyer called it "careless" for the court to schedule the appeal audience on 7 February – the 27th anniversary of Mr Duvalier's flight into exile.
A judge agreed to postpone the former ruler's appearance to 21 February, and has not punished him for his absence.
This was the second time Mr Duvalier failed to appear at a court hearing.
Earlier, international human rights groups urged authorities not to drop the case against Mr Duvalier.
A number of activists, students and relatives of victims gathered outside the court, expecting the former ruler's appearance.
One of Mr Duvalier's lawyers says the case should be thrown out.
"Duvalier has been trialled in France, in Haiti and in Switzerland. He can't be trialled once again," Frizto Canton told AFP news agency.
However, Amnesty International and the Open Society Justice Initiative said Mr Duvalier "must not evade justice" for alleged crimes against humanity.
In January 2012, a court ruled that the alleged abuses had expired under Haiti's statute of limitations.
Mr Duvalier unexpectedly returned to Haiti in 2011 after 25 years in exile, prompting the Haitian authorities to open an investigation into crimes allegedly committed during his 1971-86 rule.
Embezzling, murder, torture
He denies all the accusations against him.
A judge decided that he should stand trial for embezzling public funds but ruled that the statute of limitations had run out on charges of murder, arbitrary arrest, torture and disappearances.
Alleged victims and their relatives have appealed against this ruling.
A first hearing was postponed when Mr Duvalier failed to appear in court on 31 January.
He was then ordered to attend Thursday's hearing, but was absent again.
International law requires that he should stand trial for alleged crimes against humanity, the Open Society Justice Initiative said.
Amnesty International has also argued that such crimes are not subject to a statute of limitations.
"With the case of Jean-Claude Duvalier, it is the whole credibility of the Haitian justice system which is at stake," Amnesty said.
Jean-Claude Duvalier was just 19 when he inherited the title of president-for-life from his father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who had ruled Haiti since 1957.
Like his father, he relied on a brutal militia known as the Tontons Macoutes to control the country.
In 1986 he was forced from power by a popular uprising and US diplomatic pressure, and went into exile in France.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Phoenix Park
Old Home Affairs HQ designated historic site
http://www.hometeam.sg/article.aspx?news_sid=20120906gL2pW0Pq07WU
30 August 12 | The Straits Times
by Lim yan liang
A KEY colonial-era building which once housed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was yesterday announced as the 91st historic site in Singapore by the National Heritage Board (NHB).
In addition, Phoenix Park, the 5.6ha area that encloses the historic edifice, was designated historic site 92. The site is located off Tanglin Road.
The building was the office of the Commissioner-General for South-east Asia, a nerve centre for British spies and the headquarters of Far East Command which once controlled 70,000 troops during the colonial era.
The central building, which is encircled by other blocks, housed the MHA and the Internal Security Department (ISD) between 1977 and 2001.
That year, MHA moved to the New Phoenix Park complex in Irrawaddy Road in the Novena area. ISD moved there the next year.
Speaking at the event yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Home and Foreign Affairs Masagos Zulkifli said that Phoenix Park, which was completed by the British in 1949, was where MHA formulated and implemented critical security policies for more than 25 years.
It was at this very building where our tough anti-drug laws were formulated to fight the drug scourge, he said.
It was also at Phoenix Park that former Home Affairs minister Wong Kan Seng, bringing together the various security agencies, created the concept of the Home Team in 1995, he added.
Mr Tan Boon Huat who, as deputy secretary of MHA between 1996 and 2002, helped implement the Home Team plan, said the early angst when the different services were first brought together is seldom remembered today.
The police were always part of Home Affairs, but Civil Defence originally came from the ambulance and fire services, which were linked to the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Social Affairs respectively, he said.
He added that the Central Narcotics Bureau, the immigration department and the national registry, which today are part of MHA, were all separate bodies then.
At the time, there was a lot of 'Am I being eaten up by the police?', he said.
One of his predecessors, Mr Lim Siam Kim, who was deputy secretary of MHA between 1981 and 1990, remembers clearly the morning of the Hotel New World collapse in 1986.
He was in a meeting with then Minister for Home Affairs S. Jayakumar, Minister of State (Home Affairs and National Development) Lee Boon Yang and the Commissioner of Police when the phone began ringing incessantly.
We were told of the seriousness of the Hotel New World collapse and we stopped the meeting there and then.
Those of us involved proceeded to the scene to do the rescue operation, said Mr Lim. It all happened in this building.
NHB director of education and outreach Thangamma Karthigesu said the two markers unveiled yesterday had a new layout that increased their visual prominence and included photos from the past.
All earlier markers will be overhauled with the new design in the next two years, she added.
Two more colonial-era MHA sites - the former Upper Barracks in Pearl's Hill Terrace and Lower Barracks in Eu Tong Sen Street - will have historical markers by November, said Ms Thangamman.
yanliang@sph.com.sg
1949: Phoenix Park is completed. Commissioner-General for SEA Malcolm MacDonald moves his office there.
1950: The inaugural Consultative Committee on Rice is formed at Phoenix Park, with representatives from 18 countries, to address the problem of food shortages in the region.
1951: Three Power talks between Br, USA and France are held over military problems in SEA and anti-communism efforts.
1955: Sir Robert Scott succeeds Malcolm MacDonald as Commissioner-General for SEA.
1959: The post of Commissioner-General is merged with the British Commissioner for Singapore, held by Lord Selkirk.
1963: The Far East Command, a British-led military force, is formed.
1966: British Defence Secretary Dennis Healey announces the pullout of Br troops from Singapore, at Phoenix Park.
1969: The BRitish High Commission moves in.
1971: Phoenix Park is handed over to the Sg government.
1976: The ISD moves in.
1977: The Minsitry of HOme Affairs and police HQ moves in.
1989: The police HQ moves out to Pearl's Hill, Upper Barracks.
2001: The Ministry of Home Affairs moves out to New Phoenix Park on Irrawaddy road.
2002: The IISD moves to New Phoenix Park.
2008: The place is put up for lease as office space.
2012: Phoenix is marked as a historic site.
Source: NHB.
http://www.hometeam.sg/article.aspx?news_sid=20120906gL2pW0Pq07WU
30 August 12 | The Straits Times
by Lim yan liang
A KEY colonial-era building which once housed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was yesterday announced as the 91st historic site in Singapore by the National Heritage Board (NHB).
In addition, Phoenix Park, the 5.6ha area that encloses the historic edifice, was designated historic site 92. The site is located off Tanglin Road.
The building was the office of the Commissioner-General for South-east Asia, a nerve centre for British spies and the headquarters of Far East Command which once controlled 70,000 troops during the colonial era.
The central building, which is encircled by other blocks, housed the MHA and the Internal Security Department (ISD) between 1977 and 2001.
That year, MHA moved to the New Phoenix Park complex in Irrawaddy Road in the Novena area. ISD moved there the next year.
Speaking at the event yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Home and Foreign Affairs Masagos Zulkifli said that Phoenix Park, which was completed by the British in 1949, was where MHA formulated and implemented critical security policies for more than 25 years.
It was at this very building where our tough anti-drug laws were formulated to fight the drug scourge, he said.
It was also at Phoenix Park that former Home Affairs minister Wong Kan Seng, bringing together the various security agencies, created the concept of the Home Team in 1995, he added.
Mr Tan Boon Huat who, as deputy secretary of MHA between 1996 and 2002, helped implement the Home Team plan, said the early angst when the different services were first brought together is seldom remembered today.
The police were always part of Home Affairs, but Civil Defence originally came from the ambulance and fire services, which were linked to the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Social Affairs respectively, he said.
He added that the Central Narcotics Bureau, the immigration department and the national registry, which today are part of MHA, were all separate bodies then.
At the time, there was a lot of 'Am I being eaten up by the police?', he said.
One of his predecessors, Mr Lim Siam Kim, who was deputy secretary of MHA between 1981 and 1990, remembers clearly the morning of the Hotel New World collapse in 1986.
He was in a meeting with then Minister for Home Affairs S. Jayakumar, Minister of State (Home Affairs and National Development) Lee Boon Yang and the Commissioner of Police when the phone began ringing incessantly.
We were told of the seriousness of the Hotel New World collapse and we stopped the meeting there and then.
Those of us involved proceeded to the scene to do the rescue operation, said Mr Lim. It all happened in this building.
NHB director of education and outreach Thangamma Karthigesu said the two markers unveiled yesterday had a new layout that increased their visual prominence and included photos from the past.
All earlier markers will be overhauled with the new design in the next two years, she added.
Two more colonial-era MHA sites - the former Upper Barracks in Pearl's Hill Terrace and Lower Barracks in Eu Tong Sen Street - will have historical markers by November, said Ms Thangamman.
yanliang@sph.com.sg
1949: Phoenix Park is completed. Commissioner-General for SEA Malcolm MacDonald moves his office there.
1950: The inaugural Consultative Committee on Rice is formed at Phoenix Park, with representatives from 18 countries, to address the problem of food shortages in the region.
1951: Three Power talks between Br, USA and France are held over military problems in SEA and anti-communism efforts.
1955: Sir Robert Scott succeeds Malcolm MacDonald as Commissioner-General for SEA.
1959: The post of Commissioner-General is merged with the British Commissioner for Singapore, held by Lord Selkirk.
1963: The Far East Command, a British-led military force, is formed.
1966: British Defence Secretary Dennis Healey announces the pullout of Br troops from Singapore, at Phoenix Park.
1969: The BRitish High Commission moves in.
1971: Phoenix Park is handed over to the Sg government.
1976: The ISD moves in.
1977: The Minsitry of HOme Affairs and police HQ moves in.
1989: The police HQ moves out to Pearl's Hill, Upper Barracks.
2001: The Ministry of Home Affairs moves out to New Phoenix Park on Irrawaddy road.
2002: The IISD moves to New Phoenix Park.
2008: The place is put up for lease as office space.
2012: Phoenix is marked as a historic site.
Source: NHB.
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