Morning call, February 14 2016
GOOD morning!
How has your weekend been? For Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong it has been a packed two days in Silicon Valley, home to the world’s leading startups and largest tech corporations. In California, Mr Lee has met with the chief executives of Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Google, and SpaceX, as well as technology firms – Applied Materials, Qualcomm, and PayPal – which have a presence in Singapore. The prime minister, in his Facebook posts, wrote about the potential applicability of technologies from these companies to the Smart Nation initiative back home, while Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, making reference to a Sudoku solver code Mr Lee shared last year, described him as “one of the only world leaders who know how to code”.
On this weeklong working trip, the prime minister will attend a special Asean-US summit hosted by American President Barack Obama on Monday and Tuesday, also held in California.
And what are your plans for the rest of the weekend? It is – after all – Valentine’s Day, and Senior Minister of State Josephine Teo is urging young, single Singaporeans to be more proactive. Both ST and Zaobao reported the second-highest number of citizen marriages in 2015, and that inter-ethnic marriages and marriages in which the bride has the same or higher qualifications than the groom are more common now. Sparked by the figure of 23,805 marriages last year, Mrs. Teo then drew from her experiences and familial observations, sharing that “mutual respect” and “mutual support for each other’s aspirations in life” are some of the keys for a marriage to thrive.
And in the future, even beyond the weekends, individuals will be able to visit a new heritage gallery at Istana Park, which will display artefacts and a collection of state gifts. While the main three-storey Istana building – the President’s official residence – is open for five public holidays, the new museum located opposite the Istana’s main gate in Orchard Road will be open throughout the year. There is, however, no word yet on the completion dates.
While this renovation and construction endeavour is well-received, the building of a train tunnel under the MacRitchie nature reserve – the largest nature reserve in Singapore – has continued to raise concerns over the environmental impact. Besides ambiguity over the meaning and implications of “moderate” impact on the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, green groups are coming together to campaign the government, for the proposed train tunnel to go around, instead of through, the MacRitchie nature reserve.
Featured image by Chong Yew.
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