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local perspectives

ALS Throws Cold Water on Fundraising IdeasBy Joni Avram

Thanks a lot, ALS Association. Because of you and your Ice Bucket Challenge, millions of organisations around the world are rethinking their approach to fundraising. The tried and true methods—like appeal letters, gala events, and silent auctions—have lost their lustre in the face of your ridiculously simple, outrageously inexpensive, and wildly successful viral rampage. Your success makes these traditional approaches as outdated and quaint as a cup of instant coffee.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy for your success. As your revenues soar, we jealously watch from

the sidelines and wonder how we can duplicate your success. You and all your drenched devotees have unleashed a new kind of philanthropic order. And commentators of every stripe are doing their best to dissect it.

But hold on to your ice cube trays. Is there really anything new here?

See ALS on Page 10

By Michelle Han and James Lee epoch tImes staffs

“ Do you know that Nokia is almost 150 years old? ... [Back] then [they] were a lumbering company! When

they chop trees, they transport the lumber by floating it across the river.

Nokia is a river in Finland, that’s why the company is called Nokia – until one fine day the son told his dad that they can’t chop trees forever and that they had to change. That was how they became a phone company,” Mr Ong Tze Boon ends the story with a smile. At 46, Mr Ong is the Group

Executive Chairman of ONG&ONG – a prestigious design company with close to 900 employees in 11 offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, the US and India, and a revenue of over $58 million in 2012.

See Designers on Page 14

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

This Is SingaporeViolin Virtuoso Tang Tee Khoon 4

local

BUSINESS & PROPERTY

Sebana Cove ResortSebana Cove Launches The Fairway 12

PRoPERTY

Millions of organisations around the world are rethinking their approach to fundraising.

The Designers of Tomorrow

Exploring the future of design as a tool for problem solving

ross KINNaIrd/Getty ImaGes

Justin R. of Eng-land and Brandt S. of US take the Ice Bucket Challenge before The Bar-clays in Paramus, N.J., on Aug 19.

In the future, customers want the experience, not just a beautiful chair. We gear for the future and design is just a means to an end.Ong Tze Boon Group Executive Chairman of ONG&ONG

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

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OUR sTORY

Turning Scarves and Pocket Squares into Wearable Art 24

Hatter Street Bakehouse & Cafe 32

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It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.Walt Disney (1901–1966), American entrepreneur and filmmaker

a magical water lantern display showcasing the treasure Voyages of Cheng Ho at Singapore’s largest lantern carnival, gardens by the Bay, Sept 5, 2014.

2 sEpTEmbEr 19 – ocTobEr 2, 2014

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epoch times singapore

‘Gradual Democracy’ Is None Other Than Subterfuge

Epoch TimEs advErTisEmEnT sEpTEmbEr 19 – ocTobEr 2, 2014 3

By Li YenEpoch Times Staff

“Each day, I find new impetus to work at my craft. Each day, I make a new resolution to work at my craft. It is fresh each day,” says violin virtuoso Tang Tee Khoon, the second-ever recipient of Italy 1750 J.B. Guadagnini violin – an instrument of prominent historical significance, which was loaned to her by the National Arts Council (NAC).

“This Guadagnini is really instrumental in allowing me to express without limitations,” says Tang.

Trained under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein in the New England Conservatory in Boston and David Takeno from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the graceful 30-year-old made her first concerto debut with the National University of Singapore at age 12.

Since then, she has graced the stage with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Arts Festival Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others, and has toured the globe to perform in countries like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Australia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“She demonstrated both the utmost virtuosity and sweetness of tone,” states a review by Ronald D. Greenwood for Tang’s performance with the Auburn Symphony in 2004.

Out of the numerous recitals she has done, playing for the late Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong was a fascinating experience.

“Everything was new to me – meeting the President, playing with older musicians – I was ready for it (it didn’t faze me), but I still came at it from a child’s perspective,” shares Tang.

Debuting at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in New York after winning the East and West International Artists Auditions in 2004 was another breakthrough in her musical career.

Tang is also the prize winner at various music competitions such as the Irving Klein International Competition USA, Kingsville Competitions Texas and Kocian International Violin Competition Czech Republic.

Her countless accolades, from the MBF Myra Hess Award in UK, Martin Musical Scholarship, London Symphony Orchestra String Scheme Award, Singapore Shell- NAC Arts Scholarship, Lee Foundation grant to the Tan Kah Kee Postgraduate scholarship, bear testimony to her

prodigious talent.Despite the recognitions she has won,

Tang has not forgotten the less privileged.She and violinist Midori travelled to

Indonesia, hoping to educate the poorer children with western classical music through their performances.

“We often speak with them after we are finished with the music, and by being there for them, they know they are not forgotten, and instead gain hope to continue living and looking forward to a brighter future,” Tang conveys.

On September 24 and 28, Tang will be performing alluring melodies by Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Brahms with cellist Matthew Huber and pianist Sam Haywood at the Esplanade Recital Studio, in a recital entitled ‘Love and Friendship – Mendelssohn, the Schumanns and Brahms’.

“I respect Sam Haywood and Matthew Huber very much, in that they are musicians, whose characteristics I really like, and [whom] I think deserve to be heard in Singapore,” she adds.

You have performed in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Australia Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Does travelling change your perspective in music and life?Travelling has allowed me to see and experience many different cultures, lifestyles, and ideologies. It has given me the observation that although there are many differences, there are fundamental basic truths that do not separate us, but that instead apply to each human being.

One can get there by reading; it doesn’t necessarily have to be obtained by travelling.

You made your first concerto appearance with the NUS Symphony Orchestra at age 12, and have performed private performances for the late Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong. Tell us about those experiences.I was a child and reacted as a child would – with curiosity, and fascination.

Everything was new to me – meeting the President, playing with older musicians – I was ready for it (it didn’t faze me), but I still came at it from a child’s perspective.

In 2008, you travelled to Japan and Indonesia and performed with violinist Midori, aiming to acquaint children and the communities in Indonesia with western classical music. Tell us more about this project, and the motivation behind it.This programme aims to connect

underprivileged communities in South-East Asia with western classical music. We visit orphanages, schools, homes for the elderly and many other underprivileged communities, to play music for them, and to give them hope.

We often speak with them after we are finished with the music, and by being there for them, they know they are not forgotten, and instead gain hope to continue living and looking forward to a brighter future.

How do you get your mind prepared right before a performance? Understanding why you are going onstage is the only key to preparing oneself before stepping onstage. That puts everything in true perspective, and grounds you in what is truth.

Is cultivating an appreciation for the classical music important? Cultivating an appreciation for classical music is cultivating an appreciation and liking for the culture of Western Europe of that time. The lifestyle and affect of the people in Europe, who could enjoy

and have classical music playing in their homes at that time, is one of stature and poise.

Listening is the most effective way to [cultivate] a love for classical music. Through listening, one can gain three-dimensionally information about the culture, much quicker and much more than just reading.

Are there any musicians, and especially violinists, whom you admire and why? If you could collaborate with any artists “living or dead”, whom would you choose and why?At different points, I admire different musicians. Usually, they coincide with my fascination for certain characters at that point.

At the moment, I am liking very much the regal characteristic of Alfred Brendel. It makes me smile.

I would love to collaborate with him – although he’s just retired from the stage.

What are some of the preferred music pieces you like to play, and why?

this is singapore

Violin Virtuoso Tang Tee Khoonall Photos Courtesy of tang tee khoon

Violinist Tang Tee Khoon counts Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven as her go-to composers.

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES www.TheepochTimes.com

4 september 19 – OctOber 2, 2014

Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven are my go-to composers. I think they are refreshing, and have a healthy dose of optimism in their sounds.

Every talented violinist needs a worthy instrument. You are the recipient of a 1750 J.B. Guadagnini violin through the NAC’s Violin Loan Scheme. How does it feel to receive the rare instrument, and what does it mean to you?This instrument allows me to express without limit. Its potential is so wide and deep, especially now that it is paired with a bow I absolutely love for its warmth, depth and silkiness.

This Guadagnini is really instrumental in allowing me to express without limitations.

Tell us more about your Love and Friendship concert this coming September 24 at the Esplanade Recital Studio. How does it feel like working with cellist Matthew Huber and pianist Sam Haywood?I respect Sam Haywood and Matthew Huber very much, in that they are musicians, whose characteristics I really like, and [whom] I think deserve to be heard in Singapore.

Other than violin, do you have other hobbies?I like fashion very much. I also like interior design and garden design. On days when I have a day off, I like wandering through small stores, designing and putting looks together, and acquiring new pieces for the home. And when I’m in London, a walk through one of the parks is one of my

favourite go-to activity on an off day.

What is your typical day like?A typical day comprises being up from 6 a.m. Reading, a short walk, writing, stretching, slow practice, some Mozart, Bach, Schubert or Beethoven, and then pieces for the immediate upcoming engagement, correspondences, meetings with concert organisers, sponsors, and people from various organisations.

Violinist Tang Tee Khoon, cellist Matthew Huber and pianist Sam Haywood will be staging a concert entitled ‘Love and Friendship’ at the Esplanade Recital Studio on September 24 and 28. The concert on September 28 is only for children.

To book a ticket for the concert, visit http://preview.sistic .com.sg/preview/events/love0914

For more information about Tang Tee Khoon, visit http://teekhoontang.com

NEWS & PERSPECTIVESEpoch TimEs sEpTEmbEr 19 – ocTobEr 2, 2014 5

Tang is the second-ever recipient of a 1750 Guadagnini violin through the NAC’s Violin Loan Scheme.

(R) The upcoming ‘Love and Friendship’ concert is supported

by the National Arts Council, Park-royal on Beach Road, A.r.t.s Fund,

and National Youth Council.

“She demonstrated both the utmost virtuosity and sweetness of tone.”

Violinist Tang Tee Khoon’s autograph to Epoch Times.

THIS IS SINGAPOREThis Is Singapore is a fortnightly feature that delves into the life of an inspiring and talented indi-vidual in Singapore. Read all our interviews here: http://bit.do/thisissingapore

Each day, I find new impetus to work at my craft. Each day, I make a new resolution to work at my craft. It is fresh each day. Tang Tee Khoon

and successfully becomes a member of the European Union, their dreams of statehood will soon be fulfilled.

“When the ‘yes’ vote became a majority, then they were willing to start a dialogue,” says Conxita Molins, who runs a sausage store in Barcelona. “I hope we can be like them and get to vote and vote ‘yes’ so we can win.”

But back in Edinburgh, university student Dani Cetra — a Catalan who hails from Barcelona — is studying the similarities between Scotland and Catalonia.

Back home, he says, the British prime minister is admired.

“David Cameron is seen as a hero in Catalonia,” he says. “He’s seen as a true democrat, as someone who, when [faced with] the demand for a referendum on independence, was reasonable and accommodating about this demand. And this is seen in contrast to the attitude of (the) Spanish prime minister.”

However Scotland votes on September 18, it will prove an experiment in democracy watched carefully around the world.

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES6 SEPTEMBER 19 – OCTOBER 2, 2014 EPOCh TiMES

Scottish Secession Bid Stokes Global Interest By Henry RidgwellVOA News

EDINBURGH—The people of Scotland are preparing to vote on whether to become independent and break away from the rest of Britain in a referendum watched carefully by many countries.

Some see it as a risky experiment while others hope a successful vote for independence might energise their own separatist demands.

Foreign immigrants to Scotland have a front row seat for the vote. In the peaceful surrounds of Mayfield Salisbury Church in Edinburgh, for example, Chak Por Cheung distributes a monthly newsletter for the Chinese Evangelical Church.

Born in Hong Kong, Cheung moved to Scotland as a student in the 1970s and has since developed a strong sense of national identity with his adopted homeland.

“So when we talk to people and they say, ‘Edinburgh, England,’ we always quickly correct them and say, ‘No, Edinburgh, Scotland!’” he says.

In part, it is that strong identity

that drives some Scots’ desire for independence from London.

Similarly, Hong Kong is seeing protests demanding greater autonomy from Beijing. The demonstrators want universal suffrage to choose their next leader in 2017 — a wish the Chinese government has rejected. But Cheung says there are limits to the analogy.

“All the world has their eyes on it and [I think] the Chinese government will look at it very carefully,” he said. “But I don’t think this will draw the same analogy as the Hong Kong situation, because Hong Kong was a British colony and before that it belonged to China.”

In the shadow of Edinburgh’s majestic castle, Jass Singh — from Punjab in India — has helped his family run a convenience store for the last four years.

He says there is much interest in India in the potential break-up of the former colonial ruler.

“People are watching what’s going on, asking is Scotland going to be separate from England?” he says. “In India since 1949, Pakistan has been separated from India, and that was a big loss I think. Still they

are watching. The main thing is the English government did that, too, so they have been watching for that reason.”

In the Catalonia region of northeast Spain, interest in the Scottish referendum goes beyond casual curiosity: Protesters took to the streets last Thursday to demand independence from Madrid.

Catalans are planning to hold their own referendum in November, which the Spanish government has refused to recognise.

Many Catalans believe that if an independent Scotland prospers

Scottish independence information leaflets are placed on a table on Aug 25, 2014, in Glasgow, Scotland.

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty iMAGes Peter MAcdiArMid/Getty iMAGes

Labour party MP Jim Murphy addresses a crowd during his “100 streets in 100 days” tour to promote the case for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept 2, 2014.

ANdy BuchANAN/AfP/Getty iMAGes

Some see it as a risky experiment while others hope a successful vote for independence might energise their own separatist demands.

Yes and No campaign placards adorn lamp posts on Sept 16, 2014, in Glasgow, Scotland.

NEWS & PERSPECTIVESEpoch TimEs sEpTEmBER 19 – ocToBER 2, 2014 7

By Manuela ArteEpoch Times Staff

BUENOS AIRES—According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), many countries in Latin America are afflicted by problems when it comes to doing business. Corruption, taxes, and the lack of skilled labour are some examples.

With reference to Argentina, in order to negotiate, one must overcome two major hurdles: inflation and regulations on foreign exchange. According to the Global Competitiveness Report issued by WEF on September 4, these are followed by two other problems: access to finance and corruption.

To a lesser extent, there are other factors involved when keeping up the projects, such as rates and property taxes, the country’s instability, bureaucracy, and restrictive work rules.

In comparison, the situation is different in Spain. Its biggest challenge nowadays is access to finance. Other minor issues

are restrictive work rules, bureaucracy, and real estate taxes. The country is no stranger to corruption, lack of innovation, and regulatory fees, the report states.

However, when speaking about negotiating in Spain, WEF notes there are no crime issues, no conflicts in the regulations on foreign exchange, no health problems, nor government instability or inadequate infrastructure.

In the case of Mexico, the high-level corruption is the biggest obstacle for their businesses, followed by four other obstacles: taxes, bureaucracy, crime, and access to finance.

Doing business in Chile is less risky compared to other countries in South America, thereby leading the ranking of competitiveness. But according to WEF’s report, the country faces challenges regarding labour standards, inadequate education of the workforce, and bureaucracy.

The main issues when negotiating in Colombia are corruption and inadequate infrastructure.

To a lesser degree, bureaucracy, taxes, crime, income taxes, and access to finance are also challenges.

Regarding Peru, the main difficulty is bureaucracy, followed by corruption, and restrictive work rules. Crime, inflation, and lack of ethics also affect business deals.

One of the factors that blocks most businesses in the Dominican Republic, is the lack of stability in the country and in the government, WEF states in its report. Furthermore, this country faces issues such as lack of funding, foreign exchange regulations, and corruption.

Restrictions on labour regulations, and bureaucracy are the main challenges in Uruguay, followed by education of workforce, infrastructure, and access to finance.

In Venezuela it mainly gets complicated when dealing with foreign exchange regulations. Other major factors are restrictive labour regulations, inflation, instability, bureaucracy, corruption, and crime.

Challenges for Negotiators in Spanish Speaking Countries

Many countries in Latin America are afflicted by problems when it comes to doing business. Corruption, taxes, and the lack of skilled labour are some examples.World Economic Forum (WEF)

Businessmen face many challenges when negotiating in Spain and Latin America.

iSTock/GETTy imaGES

NEWS & PERSPECTIVESEpoch TimEs sEpTEmBER 19 – ocToBER 2, 2014 9

By Matthew RobertsonEpoch Times Staff

Traditional Chinese medicine says that the tooth is the strongest bone in the human body. But in the case of Gao Zhisheng, the renowned Chinese rights lawyer, even the strongest bone could not resist the immense pressure and punishment inflicted by the secret police of the Chinese Communist Party.

Gao had 28 good teeth when he entered prison five years ago—now, 12 are loose, 6 of which, the front teeth, can be easily pulled out by hand. They jangle in his mouth, and hurt. He now consumes painkillers throughout the day to dull the pain, according to his wife, Geng He, who spoke at the National Press Club on Sept 9.

She had come to Washington for the eighth time to call on the US government to do something about the plight of her husband, one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers.

Gao Zhisheng was praised by the Ministry of Justice as one of China’s best lawyers over a decade ago, but his persistence in taking up sensitive political cases, including most prominently the systematic torture of practitioners of Falun Gong, made him a target of official persecution beginning in 2004.

He was released from five years of captivity on Aug 7 but is devastated, physically and mentally, from the experience.

Now Geng He is pushing for the US government to publicly raise the issue with Chinese authorities at the highest levels and ensure that her husband is able to reunite with the family.

“The situation will only change if top US leaders speak out. But I’ve found that President Obama has never publicly expressed concern about Gao Zhisheng’s case,” Geng said.

His wife and two young children live in California, where they escaped to in 2009, fleeing China through Thailand.

Geng, with translator Sherry Zhang and lawyer Jared Genser, will be meeting with the US State Department, White House, and Congressional officials while in Washington, to tell them what has happened to Gao for the last five years and ask them to help secure his release.

Five Years of DarknessFive years of solitary confinement in a

small room with no sunlight, no human contact, and a diet of rice, water, and cabbage have destroyed Gao Zhisheng’s health.

He was put under round-the-clock surveillance, and the guards that monitored him were under strict instructions not to say a word.

“Having no access to the outside world, held in a dark cell without sunlight 365 days a year, 24/7, I don’t think any of us

can begin to imagine the suffering,” said Jared Genser, who acts as a pro bono lawyer for Gao and Gao’s wife, Geng He.

Gao also lost around 50 pounds (23 kilograms) while he was in detention.

Perhaps the most well-known account of Gao’s torture took place in July 2007, when he was kidnapped by security officials and tortured for around 50 days, including having his genitals pierced by toothpicks and holding burning cigarettes near his eyes.

But Geng said that she recently found that from April 2010 to December 2011—just before he was thrown in Shaya Prison for three years—Gao was detained in the basement of a secret military base, and tortured worse and more cruelly than in 2007, she said. The details of this episode are not yet known.

Another Chinese human rights hero, Chen Guangcheng, was present at the press conference. The blind human rights lawyer was successfully rescued from China in May 2012.

“I think that America and other countries definitely have enough power to resolve this issue,” Chen said in an interview with Epoch Times. “I hope activists in China also go to visit Gao Zhisheng, just like they came to visit me. That will expose the multi-faceted evilness of the Communist Party to the world.”

He also remarked: “The treatment of Gao Zhisheng is a classic, clear case that shows to the world the evilness of the Chinese Communist Party.”

US Assistance?Genser, the lawyer, said that the US

government ought to take an interest in Gao’s case on basic humanitarian grounds, and out of a sense of responsibility for US values, and because Gao’s wife is a political refugee in this country.

“My hope is that with greater and more intense public pressure, other governments, human rights groups, the media, will shine a bright light on what’s happened to Gao… and enable the family suffering to come to an end.”

“The United States has a unique responsibility to Gao and his family to help enable a humanitarian reunification,” Genser said.

Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said that the abuse of Gao reflects wider issues about the rule of law in China that are in the

Wife of Tormented Chinese Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Seeks US Help

interest of the United States to seek to resolve or reform.

“We see that the work of people like Gao Zhisheng is fundamentally consistent with

what the United States says it wants in terms of change inside China, to make for a strong bilateral relationship.”

Geng He, wife of disappeared Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (seen on a poster at rear), on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan 18, 2011. On Sept 9, 2014, Geng He appeared at the National Press Club to appeal for US help for her husband, who was brutalised during five years of imprisonment in China.

AP Photo/ChArles DhArAPAk

The situation will only change if top US leaders speak out.Geng He, wife of lawyer Gao Zhisheng

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES8 SEPTEMBER 19 – OCTOBER 2, 2014 EPOCh TiMES

Southern China Struggles to Control Dengue Fever, Record Number of Cases Reported

CEO of Large Real Estate Firm in China Disappears With Investors’ MoneyBy NTD Television

The CEO of a large real estate firm in China disappeared with a large sum of money, leaving defrauded victims in 16 provinces and 50 cities. People who sought help from local governments were beaten and arrested by the police.

Xing Lin Real Estate was established in October 2009 with more than 1,000 branches nationwide. Its CEO, Wu Binglin, recently absconded.

Since Sept 2, Xing Lin’s branches in Inner Mongolia, including Hohhot and Baotou, were found vacant. More than 200 home buyers are said to have been victimised in this region; some allegedly lost more than one million yuan.

Xing Lin branches in the cities of Xi’an, Yinchuan, Baoji, and Chifeng reported similar situations.

In Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, more than 300 victims with 30 million yuan (S$6.2 million) in losses are said to be involved in two of its stores. One victim said the company had stopped contacting him since he made a down payment in mid-July.

Former Shaanxi TV reporter Ma Xiaoming told NTD he witnessed several hundred angry victims petitioning the provincial government for help.

“There were 200 to 300 people all wearing the same white shirts with

printed slogans such as: ‘Xing Lin Return the Money’ and ‘Xing Lin Fraud’.”

In Shenyang City, the capital of northeastern China’s Liaoning Province, a total of 136 Xing Lin branches were closed. Victims there include home buyers as well as more than 1,000 employees who have not received their wages for two months.

Mr Song, a Chinese real estate agent,

told NTD that Xing Lin in Shenyang has defrauded several hundred people of tens of millions of yuan (10 million yuan equals S$2.1 million).

“Their boss is a fraud who specialised in financing,” Mr Song said. “He tricked both buyers and sellers into allowing him to supervise the money. In fact, the supervision should not be done by the agent, but the state and the Real Estate

Board.”Xing Lin has many other subsidiaries

throughout China under different names, such as Heng Tai in Kaifeng City and Lin Tai in Harbin City. Wu Binglin is the legal representative for all of them. They are now all closed without prior notice.

The nationwide shutdown of Xing Lin has resulted in thousands of buyers losing billions of yuan. But many municipal public security offices refused to file cases for victims. Anxious victims had to take to the streets to demand that the government protect their interests. Victims being beaten and arrested by the public security forces were reported in Tangshan, Baotou, Zhangjiakou, Jilin, Changchun, Kaifeng City and other places.

Allegations of breach of contract were made against Xing Lin’s branch in Ningxia more than a year ago by Legal Daily. Victims of the Shenyang branch began to protest in front of its offices on Aug 11 this year.

Zhang Zanning, a Law Professor of Southeast University, told NTD that the Chinese government should be blamed for all this, as it is the root of this mercenary attitude. Zhang commented that since the Communist regime started its rule more than 60 years ago, the Chinese people’s morality and beliefs have been totally ruined.

Xing Lin Real Estate CEO Wu Binglin recently disappeared with large sums of money, leaving thousands of victims in 16 provinces and 50 cities worrying about their investments, in a screenshot from NTD Television.

Epoch TimEs

By Lu ChenEpoch Times Staff

The number of dengue fever cases in southern China’s Guangdong Province reached 1,783 as of Sept 11, according to the latest report from Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. This exceeds the total annual number of cases for any previous year in the province.

90 percent of the dengue fever cases were in Guangzhou City, capital of Guangdong, and 32 of the cases are severe, an earlier report says. No deaths have been reported.

The peak period of dengue fever is normally in September and October, but the peak period this year has come early, said Zhang Yonghui, director of the Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, to Guangdong’s Southern Metropolis Daily.

Zhang indicated that while the number of dengue fever cases in previous years normally totals around 1,000, it has already reached over 1,000 by the beginning of September this year. It is likely to be related to the high moisture and temperature this summer, which were favourable to the breeding of mosquitos, Zhang said.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by one of five types of dengue viruses. It causes severe flu-like symptoms and can be fatal in severe cases. The symptoms of dengue fever usually include high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, joint and muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, and a rash. No specific vaccine or medication to prevent or treat dengue fever has been found.

Guangdong government has ordered actions to actively eliminate mosquitoes and clean stagnant water to prevent further outbreaks.

Across from mainland China, Taiwan also has a severe outbreak of dengue fever this year with the number of cases reaching 1,694 by Sept 8, the highest number in 11 years, according to the Centres for Disease Control in Taiwan. 1,555 cases are from Taiwan citizens, and

the other cases involve individuals from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, mainland China and more.

Japan has also reported 97 cases of dengue fever as of last Wednesday, according to the Japan Times.

A workman sprays pesticide in Tokyo, Japan, on Aug 28, 2014. The number of dengue fever cases has reached 1,783 in southern China’s G u a n g d o n g Province as of Sept 11, exceeding the total annual number for previous years.

chris mcGraTh/GETTy imaGEs

Tens of thousands of residents marched on the street during the annual pro-democracy protest on July 1, 2014 in Hong Kong.

Anthony KwAn/Getty ImAGes

NEWS & PERSPECTIVES10 september 19 – october 2, 2014 epoch times

ALS continued from Page 1

At its core, the Ice Bucket Chal-lenge is a pure form of peer-to-peer fundraising. Nothing new there. Countless organisations have used similar tactics. Think of the old jail-and-bail technique, where well-to-do community leaders would have to “fundraise” themselves out of jail by calling a host of friends. More recently, Movember has generated simi-lar support by having men raise money and awareness for prostate cancer by growing facial hair (and turning November into the ugliest month of the year). For decades, charity events have been champi-oned by well-known community leaders who tap their friends to

buy tables, dress up, and come out in support.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is noth-ing new, but what is new is who is being engaged. It’s no longer the older folks with big wallets who are fundraising targets. Now, nearly anyone with a pulse is a potential donor. And the key to attracting them is easier—and seemingly dif-ferent—than it used to be.

Sure, there are people who criti-cise the challenge for its perceived lack of substance or connection to the cause. But the numbers speak for themselves.

Based on my armchair analysis, here are the main points that make the Ice Bucket Challenge worth remembering: It’s quick and easy.

There’s no big commitment re-quired. Is it possible that the less you ask of participants, the more likely you are to engage more of them? It’s fun.

Yes, it’s oddly enjoyable to watch someone get doused with ice wa-ter. And for those who want to up the ante, the challenge brings out the creative side of everyone from Patrick Stewart to Bill Gates. Anyone can do it.

It’s open to almost all incomes, ages, and walks of life and no spe-cial skill or equipment is required. Plus, the campaign originated with average folks, not the asso-ciation. The grassroots origin only adds to the appeal—and makes it devilishly hard to duplicate.

As organisations seek to attract a new base of donors, they should re-member these important lessons. Donors want to be engaged, but they don’t always want to do it in hotel banquet rooms eating chick-en and bidding on spa packages.

So, thanks ALS, for pouring cold water on some of our outdated fundraising methods. Thanks for inspiring us to consider something new, fun, easy, and inclusive. And thanks for reminding us that the best ideas might come from out-side of our organisations.

Thanks. A lot.

Joni Avram  helps donors, busi-nesses, and nonprofit enterprises gain credibility, build influence, and grow support through effective

marketing and engagement strate-gies. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.

By Frank Lee

On Aug 31, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) in China voted on the method for selecting Hong Kong’s next Chief Executive in 2017. They ruled that the city-state will be granted universal suffrage, but the candidates must be selected by a Beijing-controlled nominat-ing committee and the number will be limited to two or three.

Since the July 1, 2003 rally to oppose the legislation of Article 23, the proposed anti-subversion law, the people of Hong Kong have staged annual protests in their quest for democracy and universal suffrage, demanding the right to elect their Chief Ex-ecutive and the Legislative Coun-cil.  However, Beijing always has some excuse not to accede. 

By now, it should be apparent to the Hong Kong people that a

‘gradual democracy’ as touted by the communist regime is none other than subterfuge.

‘Old Bag of Tricks’ Fails in Hong Kong

Beijing is never short of narra-tives when it comes to glorifying justifications to deny people the right to vote. The usual parallel they draw is that if the economy is not developed or wealthy, it is not ready for democracy. 

But counterexamples abound: poor African nations like Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia with an average GDP of below USD2,000 offered democracy to their peo-ple. Ironically, rich nations like Saudi Arabia, which runs a mon-archy, is authoritarian.

Liberty, namely the freedom of speech, assembly and publi-cation, is a form of “non-action” rights.  What are non-action rights? It is about not seeking ac-

tions of government, nor about actively pursuing actions of gov-ernment. Rather, it resembles fi-nancial assets, where not incur-ring any expense is the best way to retain one’s financial assets. Along the same line, liberty in-herently exists when the govern-ment does not arrest people and suppress freedom of speech and assembly.

A country’s economic wealth has no bearing on liberty. From the American War of Independ-ence in 1776 to the First Amend-ment in 1789, the Americans achieved sovereignty from their British masters and established a constitution that guaranteed the American people freedom to re-ligion, speech, press, and peace-ful assembly.  Then, the Ameri-can economy was nowhere near China’s economy today nor when China fell under communist rule in 1949.

Is population size a factor to consider when democracy is con-cerned? Well, China is the world’s most populous country at over 1.3 billion. But India with its popula-tion of over 1.2 billion has had 14 elections so far.  In fact, elections resemble a mammoth festival in India, during which the Indians decide the fate of the largest de-mocracy in the world. 

If it is about the quality of the electorate, then China has been holding village-level elections since 1989. People in China’s 950,000 villages generally live on low wages and low levels of edu-cation.  It is absurd that elections are held in poor areas of China even as Beijing touts its ‘economic wealth’ argument against nation-al elections.

Hong Kong – with population figures way below that of Beijing’s and Shanghai’s but with a GDP close to USD40,000 (way above

global standards) and an educa-tion system ranked third in the world in 2012 – has all the right cards for democracy.

And Beijing is aware that its regular narratives fade into obliv-ion when it comes to Hong Kong.

Democracy Can Happen Over-night

The quest for democratic free-dom may sometimes be long and arduous, but it can succeed.  For the head of state, however, the route may be quite different. If he so desires, a democratic decree may happen overnight.

A case in point is Taiwan in the late eighties. In September 1986, a group of non-partisan candidates were running for a grassroots election when someone made an impromptu remark to form a political party, which shocked everyone.

Taiwan was then under martial

ALS Throws Cold Water on Outdated Fundraising Ideas JAred C. tIlton/Getty ImAGes

Brian Vickers, driver of the #55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, participates in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in Brooklyn, Michigan.

‘Gradual Democracy’ Is None Other Than Subterfuge

crossing the cuLture guLF

An authoritarian regime will not relinquish its leash on people on its own volition, if people do not fight for it.

NEWS & PERSPECTIVESEpoch TimEs

Thousands of Chinese people are quitting the Chinese Communist Party and its af-filiate organisations every day through a special website established by The Epoch Times. Others are quitting by calling an international hotline, posting statements

on public walls and poles, or writing on banknotes.

Read the full “Nine Commentaries” book, as well as recent statements from Chi-nese people who have quit the Party, at www.theepochtimes.com

QuITTINg ThE ChINESE COmmuNIST PaRTywww.NineCommentaries.com

as of September 16, 2014.

177,473,668people have renounced the CCP

sEpTEmbEr 19 – ocTobEr 2, 2014 11

NINE COMMENTARIES

Marx’s base-superstructure theory postulates that society begins with the necessary economic activities to provide for its needs. These modes of production form the base upon which a range of social phenomena such as political and legal institutions, moralities, ideologies and religions arise, forming a superstructure. The superstructure legitimizes the base while the base shapes the superstructure. As production forces improve and evolve, prevailing social organization becomes inefficient, resulting in class struggle and a transformation of the superstructure of the society.

It was famously said that Communist regimes turned mass crime into a full blown system of government. Each of them has received its just verdict in history – all but the Communist Party of China which has persisted to this day.

The “Nine Commentaries” is an award winning editorial series that offers a vivid and perceptive account of the CCP from its inception to the present. By unmasking its perversion, Nine Commentaries seek to recall the Chinese people and the world from the slumber of ignorance and inaction.

Thus far, the series first published in November 2004 has led more than 170 million Chinese to renounce the CCP and its affiliations, trailblazing a massive yet peaceful movement for China’s transformation and change.

The stories behind the bloody history of CCP were tragic and rarely known. Under its rule, 60 to 80 million Chinese people were killed, leaving behind broken families. Ideologically, CCP killed to upset the social structures and production relations. The killings soon became a powerful political tool for CCP to maintain absolute leadership.The capitalists were systematically killed or driven to suicide as part of the economic reformation. During the Five Anti Campaign in 1952, all capitalists must pay taxes that had been “evaded” since the 1800s. Many capitalists could not pay and resorted to suicide.At that time, there was a CCP policy that the capitalists would be assumed to have fled if their bodies were missing, and their tax liabilities would be passed to their family. As

such, many capitalists jumped from tall buildings, leaving behind corpses as proof of their death. It was said that people avoided walking near tall buildings in Shanghai at that time for fear of being crushed by jumping capitalists.Every night, Chen Yi, then mayor of Shanghai, would ask leisurely while sipping tea in sofa, “How many paratroopers are there today?”, an euphemism which actually meant, “How many businessmen jumped to commit suicide?”

Commentary 7: On the Chinese Communist Party’s History of Killing

Read more of this ground-breaking editorial series at:

http://goo.gl/yQ2Jox

law and politicking is a violation of the law punishable by incar-ceration. Despite that, they went ahead to form a political party and prepared themselves for the worst.

President Chiang Ching-kuo deliberated on this for seven days and officially declared on October 5 that “the times have changed; the tides have changed; we have to change too”.  Taiwan lifted martial law and restored rights to

freedom of political association. This proves the point that when the head of state sees the need to change, change can happen over-night.

It is possible for a democratic system to be perfected over time, or equivalently when the power of the people accumulates over time. This is a natural progression and a gradual transition.

But the switch from an authori-tarian system to a democratic one

is immediate. It is an option that is unilateral. It is absurd to have dif-fering levels of democracy within an authoritarian state.

That is why the “one country, two systems” framework is decep-tive, and the so-called ‘gradual de-mocracy’ is subterfuge.

‘Gradual Democracy’ a Façade for Delay

Beijing’s serial rejections of universal suffrage for the peo-

ple of hong Kong should spark a revelation by now: Don’t place false hopes on Beijing’s so-called ‘gradual democracy’. an authori-tarian regime will not relinquish its leash on people on its own volition, if people do not fight for it. The rights of the people of hong Kong rest in the hands of those who stand up for it.

Likewise, the rights of the peo-ple of China rest on their awak-ening.

Frank Lee is a Chinese immigrant. During his stay in Singapore, Frank experiences a great contrast between the social and cultural conditions of Singapore and those of China. He finds this contrast fascinating and illuminating, and has graciously volunteered to share his reflections with The Epoch Times. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.

Social Institutions and Phenomenon

Art, Family, Culture, Religion, Philosophy, Law, Media, Politics, Science, Education, Morality, Ideology

Tools, Machines, Factories, Land, Raw Materials

Social Outcast, Wage Earners, Executives, Small Scale Merchants, Businessmen and

Entrepreneurs, Private Property, Capital, Commodities

Means of Production

Relations of Production

Base

Superstructure

Maintains and Legitimizes Shapes

Epoch Times Staff

The Fairway, one of ten exclusive lifestyle precincts under the Sebana Cove Resort Township by Cypress Potential Sdn Bhd, will launch Phase 1A of its development this coming October.

The launch will feature limited units of the Golf and Garden facing villas, situated in the heart of the prestigious 1,200 acre resort township, hugging the 18-hole Championship golf course.

Phase 1A of The Fairway will boast land area of 8,000 to 11,000 sq ft and a built-up area of 3662 to 4400 sq ft. Comprising four-bedrooms and a trio-capacity car porch, some of the units are designed with lifestyle pavilion, while others can accommodate a private garden or swimming pool.

The Fairway’s spacious plot of land is highlighted by the developer as one of the unique features of this luxurious residence. According to Cypress Potential, a subsidiary of Malaysian developer IJM Land Bhd, the essence of The Fairway lies in its low density development and serene environment – which provides exclusive boutique living for discerning residents.

Scheduled for completion in two years, the development embodies Sebana Cove Resort’s sui generis theme of “Marine, Golf & Nature”. The villas will nestle among lush tropical greenery and offer panoramic and picturesque views of rolling hills, lakes, as well as manicured lawns and fairways sculpted out of natural forests.

Their interior likewise adopts modern and green architecture: large windows to maximise natural light, rainwater harvesting system, roof insulation for heat reduction, and a double-volume

ceiling that enhances the feeling of space.

Cypress Potential adds that The Fairway villas will be equipped with security features such as 24-hour patrolling, perimeter fencing as well as emergency buttons in the kitchen and master bedroom for added security and peace of mind for all residents.

Sebana Cove Resort The Sebana Cove Resort is

an upcoming Creative Resort Township development situated at the south-eastern tip of Johor – about an hour’s drive from the JB CIQ, 70 minutes from the Second Link and a 30-min ferry ride from Changi Point.

The 1,200-acre resort started piquing the interest of investors and industry observers when Cypress Potential first unveiled its low-density blueprint (approx. 5 units per acre) under the “Marine, Golf & Nature” theme.

Bordering the 15,000 acre Santi Forest Reserve and the Sebina River, the resort will feature 10 scenery-inspired residential projects, a private Marina, and a championship golf course (18-hole, par 72) amidst the lush tropical rainforest.

Till date, the resort’s initial launch of 48 marina-themed cluster apartments have been fully sold, largely to Singaporeans and foreign buyers.

The 60.5 acres private Marina – with a dedicated customs and immigration checkpoint for yachters and boaters – offers 100 walk-on berths for yachts and boats of up to 80m in length, with options for larger vessels, said Cypress Potential.

This waterfront development has a comprehensive range of club facilities tailored to both boaters and non-boaters. Its Marina clubhouse includes a leisure

pool and children’s pool with hydro slide, indoor and outdoor gymnasiums, a restaurant, and function rooms for private and corporate events. Other facilities include a sauna, children’s playground and tennis, and badminton and basketball courts.

Township development for Sebana Cove Resort will also include commercial projects such as a 5-star hotel within the Marina development, international and public schools, a shopping village, and a proposed medical centre.

“For this integrated development, residents can access and enjoy the hotel, marina, golf course, and clubhouse facilities within one township,” said Mr Roger Lee, General Manager from Cypress Potential.

He added that the Sebana Cove Resort is estimated to fetch some RM4.8 billion (S$1.9 billion) in gross development value (GDV).

Economic and Population Boom

Sebana Cove Resort is situated in the Pengerang district, the Eastern Gateway of Johor where the upcoming Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) is fast taking place with the construction of Petronas RAPID in full swing.

The Malaysian Federal Government’s announcement to boost the country’s Oil & Gas industry, through its Economic Transformation Programme, has brought strings of local and foreign investments into the PIPC, expected to reach RM170 billion (S$66 billion) in investment.

Petronas RAPID itself will have RM87 billion (S$34 billion) of investment and is expected to set into motion an explosive growth in the employment market in Pengerang, adding an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 employees

into the workforce upon PIPC’s completion in 2019.

According to analysts, it will likewise result in a population boom in the region and spark demands for both residential and commercial infrastructures. Ms Teo Lee Ean, a senior sales & marketing manager, believes that property and rental demands, in particular, will surge as developments of the PIPC gets underway – making the Sebana Cove Resort Township a hot spot in Pengerang in terms of dwelling and commercial activities.

Transportation infrastructure for the upcoming PIPC is expected to get a major makeover, with the RM2 billion (S$782 million) proposal to widen and improve

the region’s road network. A car-ferry service is also expected to be operational from 2016, transporting passengers and their vehicles directly between Singapore’s Changi Point and the Tanjung Belungkor Ferry Terminal.

“Sebana Cove Resort will cater to the residential and lifestyle needs of working professionals, higher management and expatriates here,” she said.

She further opined that “a typical bungalow in Nusajaya (in western Johor) will cost between RM4 million (S$1.6 million) and RM5 million (S$2 million) – roughly two to three times what a similar bungalow in Sebana Cove Resort can offer”.

Sebana Cove Resort Launches The Fairway (Phase 1A)

Sebana Cove’s Clubhouse and Marina

BUSINESS & PROPERTY www.TheepochTimes.com

12 September 19 – OctOber 2, 2014

ALL PHOTOS COurTeSy Of SebAnA COve reSOrT

advertiSementepOch timeS September 19 – OctOber 2, 2014 13

1986Office shifted from

Goldhill Plaza to SLF Building

1972Partnership established to

form ONG&ONG Architects & Town Planners

The Quincy Hotel, ONG&ONG’s first 360° design project. It picked up multiple awards for architecture and design.

1971Started design and planning

philosophies on business and design, he shifted seamlessly between Man-darin and English, expressing his ideas with engaging stories.

Dressed smartly in a verti-cal striped shirt and a navy blue blaz-er, Mr Ong is articulate, self-assured, opinionated and utterly confident.

But for all his flair, Mr Ong is a moderate man. During the inter-view, he did not dwell on his success or personal deeds, preferring to dis-cuss ideas. He was also careful not to embellish or exaggerate his achieve-ments.

He is, after all, intimately cognisant of the fact that nothing in a business is permanent but change.

Business PhilosophiesMr Ong inherited the firm from

his  mother, the late Mrs Ong Siew May, and his father, the late Mr  Ong Teng Cheong – Singa-pore’s first elected president. Both of them  were diagnosed with cancer and  passed  away respectively in 1999 and 2002.

When his mother passed away, he was only 31. A greenhorn in the business, taking over a firm of 62 employees with monthly expenses of around $350,000 was a stressful experience – but it was these experi-ences that shaped his business vision.

“Everyone has a plan to create a business, but nobody plans to exit the business. For me, the big ques-tion is, how do I pass down my busi-ness when it is time for me to go?

“The first generation passed away from cancer; I didn’t know what to do and the stress was all mine because there was no plan of suc-cession for the company. There was only a boss and a business, that’s it. My job is to change it to a company,” Mr Ong explains.

The far-sighted leader continues: “My mission is to make the busi-ness corporate, and the first step is to make it grow. The company might even get listed. Ownership changes, but the company carries on.”

For Mr Ong, a truly great company is one that has the ability to be a self-sustaining entity, which can survive and prosper despite the passing of its people.

“The company must change its mindset. Not every project is about me. I have to promote the others

In the Epoch Times’ two-hour conversation with Mr Ong in his cozy and mellow office,

where he shared in length his

Designers continued from Page 1

BUSINESS & PROPERTY14 september 19 – october 2, 2014 epoch times

[and fill] the market with many ca-pable leaders. If something happens to me, the company can still go on.”

The chairman also seems wary of family-run business dynasties.

“I am trying to prepare the com-pany, so that it can prosper even without the Ongs. Only then can we pass the baton. The successor does not need to have the surname Ong.”

Philosophy of DesignA similar degree of realism and

vision underlies Mr Ong’s philoso-phy of design. Beyond his honours and master’s degrees in architecture from prestigious US universities, he also embarked on an Advanced Management Development Pro-gramme in Real Estate at the Har-vard Graduate School of Design for senior executives and accomplished entrepreneurs.

For Mr Ong, design is not about the subjectivity and relativism of art, but all about the utility of problem-solv-ing and meeting customers’ needs. In line with this end, ONG&ONG initiated the 360° solution strategy in 2003, a pioneering design con-cept that designs the totality of user experience beyond the visual appre-ciation of any particular object. Mr Ong, with his flair for story-telling,

timeline 1975ONG&ONG Architects

incorporated

PhOTOS COurTeSy OF ONG&ONG

1992ONG&ONG Architects

Pte Ltd incorporated

Featured projects

Quincy HotelQuincy hotel at 22 Mount elizabeth was ONG&ONG’s first 360° design project. headed by Mr Ong Tze Boon in 2008, ONG&ONG managed all its design elements from the building’s architecture, interior design, landscape design, environmental branding design, project management, graphic design to designing the Quincy logo, napkins and utensils.

Completed in 2009, Quincy is a remarkable work of contemporary architecture and urban landscape. Framed with anodised aluminium and shimmering tempered glass, the hotel façade is glamourous and sophisticated.

The shimmering modular windows create an impression that the rooms are stacked on top of one another, while the bold and colourful furniture against the white walls and grey cement gives off a whimsical vibe.

The garden landscape consists of a timber deck and an ‘L’ shaped pool, while plants such as bamboo form a tranquil environment amidst the playful design elements.

• ïHA+D Award for Hotel Architecture• ïSIA Architectural Design Award• ïAsia Pacific Property Award in associa-tion with Bloomberg Television• ïFIABCI Prix d’Excellence (Runner-up)

AwArds

Audi Centre SingaporeAnother project led by Mr Ong Tze Boon,

the Audi Centre at 281 Alexandra Road is Audi’s new 8-storey flagship store in Singapore.

The largest Audi showroom in Southeast Asia has a honeycomb-shaped facade formed by aluminium with hexagonal cut-outs, creating a futuristic exterior.

Opened in December 2012, the Audi Centre’s full-height glass windows for its lower floors make the building look as if it is floating off the ground.

• ïMIPIM Asia Award, Gold• ïAsia Pacific Property Award, Best Retail Architecture Singapore

AwArds

The Designers of TomorrowExploring the future of design as

a tool for problem solving

start asking yourself as a CEO, where is this going? Where is the market going? What do the customers want for tomor-row?

“At the end of the day, business is problem-solving for people.”

Mr Ong does not linger around ideals and the only constant in his vocabulary is “change”. Perhaps, it might just be this potent combination of realism and foresight that has made him the suc-cessful man he is today. 

Wanting to govern well their states, they first harmonised their own clans. Wanting to harmonise their own clan, they first cultivated themselves. Wanting to cultivate themselves, they first corrected their minds.‘The Great Learning’,  Confucius (551–479 BC)

BUSINESS & PROPERTYEpoch TimEs sEpTEmbEr 19 – ocTobEr 2, 2014 15

vividly illustrates this idea:“Have you been to Botanic Gar-

dens? There are chairs in there made of metal, but they are bolted to the ground. When you look at the chair, what do you think? Everyone talks about design, whether it is pretty, whether it is green or blue. In reality, there is no better colour; it is all up to taste. 

“But there is another, less known dimension of design. If this chair is bolted to the ground, I am actu-ally telling the people – please don’t move my chair and just sit here. Not only that, I am also telling people to sit like this. After you sit, you natu-rally look forward. Therefore, by putting the bolt, I am telling people where to sit, how to sit and where to look.

“Maybe I will even put a pond and some ducks in front of the chair. So after a stroll, you can sit down and look at the pond and the ducks. So beautiful! I must also make the chair comfortable, and control the sun-light and electric light.

“This is how you design an experi-ence, and this is what we do.”

To design an experience is not an easy task. It requires the control and mastery of multiple fields and the ability to weave them together into a

single experience, like different engi-neers working together to create “the posh experience” of a Porsche.

Mr Ong emphasises that the future of design is one where customers rely on designers’ knowledge and experi-ence of what customers want for to-morrow.

“We gear up for the future and de-sign is just a means to an end. That’s all.”

Doing Things RightBeyond design, it was very appar-

ent during the interview that Mr Ong is guided by strong principles. He recites a phrase from ‘The Great Learning’ by Confucius when asked about the values his late parents had instilled in him.

“Wanting to govern well their states, they first harmonised their own clans. Wanting to harmonise their own clan, they first cultivated themselves. Wanting to cultivate themselves, they first corrected their minds.” 

“The basic value is if you want to do (something), do it well. Don’t (be) corrupt,” he explains.

Mr Ong also believes in doing things right and aiming for excel-lence in everything we do. He  ad-vises  young entrepreneurs,  “If peo-

ple do business just for money, then I think – there’s no right or wrong, I am not criticising – but for me, it is not about making money, it is about doing it right.”

“Because when you do it right, mon-ey will follow. If you aim for excellence, these things will come. Money is just a result sheet. We don’t study because we want A (grades). People who score well are often those who enjoy the sub-ject. So I tell people, just do what you do well, and the money will find us. So money is not the goal, the goal is to get it right.”

“Get what right? If I am in the restau-rant business, I must cook well. If I am in the design business, I must design well,” he adds.

Concluding ThoughtsMr Ong is a pioneer and a  man of

the future, but it would be hasty to label him a visionary. For all his in-novations and dreams, Mr Ong is in essence realistic about his business and design. His business philosophy is one of succession and survival. His design philosophy ultimately comes down to anticipating and meeting the market’s changing needs and demands.

As he says in the interview, “It is about answering the customer’s needs. And when you get there, you must

2003Interior design

capability added

2005ONG&ONG’s 360° Solution

developed

Vietnam office established

2007• Name changed to ONG&ONG Pte Ltd• CP Architects International integrated

2008• ADT and AT-ii integrated• Project Innovations established• Environmental branding capability added

2011• Amalgamation of SCE with Rankine&Hill• KD Architects, dlq design and SCA design integrated• Lighting and experience design capabilities added• All Singapore entities moved to SLF Building

2012O+ merchandise launched for 40th anniversary

2010• SCE Consultants (Pte) Ltd and TSP• Architects & Planners Pte Ltd integrated• Fire consultancy capability added

2014• Immortal the Design

Station integrated• Brand and digital

engagement capability added

1997First URA Architectural

Heritage Award for Chijmes

2004Landscape design capability added

2006Rankine & Hill (S) Pte

Ltd integrated

(L) Mr Ong Tze Boon. (B) A group meeting at ONG & ONG staff cafeteria.

FRED FAN/EPOCH TIMES

FRED FAN/EPOCH TIMES

To design an experience is not an easy task. It requires the control and mastery of multiple fields and the ability to weave them together into a single experience.

China, Malaysia and India offices established

US office established as

SILVER+ONG, Inc

Mongolia, Indonesia and UAE offices established

reached a point that there was a problem with the fuel system where there was not enough gas to build up enough pressure to fire the engine.”

Sending Back Science AgainISEE-3 flew by the moon about

13,000 to 14,000 kilometres away on August 10.

“We did not really change its course all that much,” Cowing admitted, but added, “The difference is it is now sending back science to us.”

Solar cells kept the satellite working, an amazing feat after nearly half a century. ISEE-3 proved that its simple design worked, Cowing says. The data

is free and available online to anyone who wants to take a scientific journey with the rebooted probe.

The satellite will not be this close to Earth again until 2029.

Artist conception of ISEE-3 in space.

ISEE-3 REboot PRojEct

By Rosanne SkirbleVOA News

For the first time, NASA, the US space agency, has handed over the reins of one of its spacecraft to a group of ordinary people. The International Sun Earth Explorer 3 was launched in 1978 to study space weather and collect data on the streams of particles flowing from the sun. Those particles, also known as solar wind, can damage satellites, interrupt radio signals and knock out electric systems that power our homes.

ISEE-3 had a great run. In the early 1980s, it was the first spacecraft to fly through the tail of a comet, and a few years later, through a second one - the famed Haley’s comet. Retired in 1997, NASA set the satellite to fly by the moon in August 2014.

1970s-Era ProbeThe 1970s-era probe was largely

forgotten until its return date approached. In early April, just four months before ISEE-3’s expected flyby, NASA engineer Keith Cowing organised a team to try to take command of the craft and set it on a path nearer to earth. With the go-ahead from NASA and funds gathered from a crowdsourcing website, the Reboot Project was born.

Working out of a defunct McDonalds restaurant at NASA Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, California, Cowing never doubted the project would succeed. Every few years, a radio telescope would make contact. “We knew it was alive,” Cowing said. “If we could hear it, that meant that it had electricity, which meant its solar

Citizen Scientists Command NASA Satellite

The International Sun Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) is launched on August 12, 1978, a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency.

NASA

cells were working and it had two transmitters. [Those are] two of the most important things. You have power and you could talk to the spacecraft.”

Establishing Contact and Command

But ISEE-3 had no computer on board. So the Reboot Project set out to engineer a 21st century fix, says Cowing.

“We looked through storage units to get documents that people had saved for 30 years,” he said. “We found the commands and we found people who could write software to recreate the hardware that had been thrown out – and it was a mystery in reverse, going back in time and resurrecting data. We call it techno-archaeology.”

The team built a new transmitter and installed it on the world’s largest radio telescope, at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. They made contact on May 29.

“And it answered back. That was an accomplishment,” said Cowing. “And everything worked on the spacecraft, except the propulsion system that would have put the craft into a new orbit. At first we actually got the engines to fire to spin the spacecraft up a little bit, which everybody thought was impossible, but eventually we

The Reboot Project was born with the go-ahead from NASA and funds from a crowdsourcing website.

Attendees at ISEE-3 flyby at McMoons wave goodbye to ISEE-3 up in the sky.

REboot PRojEct

Reboot team at NASA Ames “McMoons” control room gives a “thumbs up” once gaining control of the decommissioned satellite.

ISEE-3 REboot PRojEct

techNology & ScieNce www.TheepochTimes.com

16 September 19 – OctOber 2, 2014

4 Things You Should Know About Gene Patents

technology & science

By Rodney ScottUniversity of Newcastle

The Federal court’s decision that gene patenting is permitted in Australia will have ramifications for all gene patents, even though the case involved only one gene associated with breast cancer.

A gene patent means only the patent-holder has the right to undertake research and development involving that gene. These patents generally last for 20 years.

The full bench of the Federal court heard the appeal against a ruling that private companies could patent genes in August 2013, after a Federal court justice dismissed a challenge to the patent for a breast cancer gene, BRcA1, in February.

A landmark ruling by the Us supreme court in June 2012 declared that naturally occurring DnA sequences were ineligible for patents in a case that involved the same breast cancer gene, and the same patent holder.

The BRCA1 and BRCA2 Controversy

it has been nearly 20 years since Myriad genetics patented two genes associated with a significantly increased risk of developing breast cancer. Known as BRcA1 and BRcA2, the genes are also associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer.

When functional, BRcA1 and BRcA2 produce tumour suppressor proteins that help

repair damaged DnA. But when they are altered, the protein is either not made or does not function correctly, leaving DnA damage unrepaired. The cells may then develop additional genetic alterations that can lead to cancer.

Breast cancer affects approximately one in 10 women at some time in their lives, although not all cases result from these genetic mutations. studies have estimated that the frequency of BRcA1 and BRcA2 changes in the community is approximately one in 500.

identifying these gene carriers is an important step in reducing disease in the community and preventing transmission to subsequent generations. indeed, any measure that can reduce breast cancer figures and help women avoid an incurable disease is something any reasonable society would aim for.

The BRcA1 and BRcA2 patents have generated significant controversy because Myriad has effectively monopolised the market for screening these genes to identify the alterations, or mutations, that render them non-functional.

Four Things You Should Knowhere are four things you

should know about gene patents that will provide some context for understanding the Federal court decision.

1. Genetic patents hinder, or don’t foster, innovation.

The argument that gene

patents foster innovation is often used to defend gene patenting, but it is actually addressing the wrong question.

When considering gene patenting, we need to ask whether a gene is an invention, which is grounds for granting a patent, or a discovery. isolating the actual gene itself is a discovery and, as such, should not be the focus of patent attention.

surely only the process of how information is obtained from a gene can be the subject of a patent, and then only if it is new. Developing new ways to interrogate a gene sequence can and should be patented as this leads to commercial drive and (hopefully) re-investment in new resources to improve testing strategies.

2. Patents have traditionally been granted for isolated genes rather than for any kind of innovation.

Until recently, patent offices viewed the isolation of genes as enough to declare the gene more than just a product of nature and a discovery.

in the United states, patents are also granted on a first-to-invent

basis. This contributed to the gene patent rush as the human genome project gathered pace in the 1990s and gene discoveries became almost a weekly event. There are now an estimated 4,000 gene patents in the United states.

The Us supreme court ruling against gene patents hinged on a decision that isolating a human gene or part of a human gene is not an act of invention, reversing the traditional patent office practice. The decision allows for synthetically produced DnA sequences to be patented.

3. Gene patents for tests create monopolies that lead to high prices.

commercial genetic testing has been a contentious issue and few companies undertake testing for single gene disorders. But companies engaged in commercial genetic testing have tended to ensure they are the sole provider of such tests.

This gives them a monopoly and they can set whatever price they like for the test. This is clearly not a desirable outcome for society because it means we fail to protect vulnerable people, who fear they have an illness, from exploitation.

4. Monopolies lead to a lack of quality assurance.

of particular concern is a monopoly’s inability to orchestrate a quality assurance programme because this would require samples to be sent to third parties for verification.

not only does it prevent monitoring of whether internal processes are producing the correct result, but it also disallows people from seeking a second opinion.

The decision of the high court of Australia to uphold its previous decision now puts Australia out of step with the Us supreme court and raises the question of just how much knowledge it has on matters it does not routinely deal with.

But what it means for Australia is probably very little; the current patent held by Myriad genetics will expire within a relatively short period of time.

Rodney Scott does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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Epoch TimEs sEpTEmbEr 19 – ocTobEr 2, 2014 17

Is isolating a human gene an act of invention that warrants a patent?

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE18 SEPTEMBER 19 – ocToBER 2, 2014 EPoch TiMES

By April Holloway www.ancient-origins.net

The universe is full of mysteries that challenge our current knowl-edge. In “Beyond Science”, Epoch Times collects stories about these strange phenomena to stimulate the imagination and open up pre-viously undreamed of possibili-ties. Are they true? You decide.

Amid the once-tranquil village of Sanxingdui, in a quiet part of Sichuan province in China, a remarkable discovery took place which immediately attracted international attention and has since rewritten the history of Chinese civilisation. Two giant sacrificial pits were unearthed containing thousands of gold, bronze, jade, ivory and pottery artefacts that were so unusual and unlike anything previously found in China that archaeologists realised they had just opened the door to an ancient culture dating back 3,000 to 5,000 years.

In the spring of 1929, a farmer was digging a well when he dis-covered a large stash of jade rel-ics. This was the first clue that eventually led to the discovery of a mysterious ancient kingdom. Generations of Chinese archaeol-ogists searched the area without success until 1986, when workers accidentally found the pits con-taining thousands of artefacts that had been broken, burned, and then carefully buried.

The discovery of the artefacts opened up a world of intrigue. The objects found in the sacrifi-cial pits included animal-faced sculptures and masks with drag-on ears, open mouths and grin-ning teeth; human-like heads with gold foil masks; decora-tive animals including dragons, snakes, and birds; a giant wand, a sacrificial altar, a 4-metre-tall (13-foot-tall) bronze tree; axes, tablets, rings, knives, and hun-dreds of other unique items. Among the collection was also the world’s largest and best pre-served bronze upright human figure, measuring 2.62 metres (8 feet).

However, by far the most strik-ing findings were dozens of large bronze masks and heads repre-

sented with angular human features, exaggerated almond-shaped eyes, straight noses, square faces, and huge ears, fea-tures which do not reflect those of Asian people.

The artefacts were radiocar-bon dated to 12th-11th centuries BC. They had been created us-ing remarkably advanced bronze casting technology, which was acquired by adding lead to a combination of copper and tin, creating a stronger substance that could create substantially larger and heavier objects, such as the life-size human statue and the 4-metre-tall (13-foot-tall) tree.

Some of the masks were enor-mous in size – one measures an incredible 1.32 metres (1.33 feet) in width and 0.72 metres (2.36 feet) in height, the largest bronze mask ever found. The three larg-est masks have the most super-natural features of all the Sanx-ingdui artefacts, with animal-like ears, monstrously protruding pupils, or an additional ornate trunk.

Researchers were astonished to find an artistic style that was completely unknown in the his-tory of Chinese art, whose base-line had been the history and artefacts of the Yellow River civilisation(s).

The spectacular discovery at Sanxingdui in 1986 turned Si-chuan into a focal point in the

study of ancient China. The an-cient artefacts found in the two pits date to the time of the Shang dynasty, in the late second mil-lennium BC, when the primary civilised society was flourish-ing in the Yellow River valley, in north China, thousands of miles from Sichuan.

No similar find has been made anywhere else, and there are no inscriptions at the Sanxingdui site to shed light on its culture, which was apparently a distinc-tive Bronze Age civilisation, un-recorded in historical texts and previously unknown. The dis-covery contributed to a funda-mental shift from the traditional understanding of a single centre of civilisation in north China to the recognition of the existence of multiple regional traditions, of which Sichuan was clearly one of the most distinct.

The culture that produced these artefacts is now known as the Sanxingdui Culture, and archaeologists are identifying it with the ancient kingdom of Shu, linking the artefacts found at the site to its early legendary kings. References to a Shu king-dom that can be reliably dated to such an early period in Chinese historical records are scant (it is mentioned in Shiji and Shujing as an ally of the Zhou who defeated the Shang), but accounts of the legendary kings of Shu may be

found in local annals.

The EnigmaAccording to the Chronicles

of Huayang compiled in the Jin Dynasty (265–420 AD), the Shu kingdom was founded by Can-cong. Cancong was described as having protruding eyes, a feature that is found in the figures of Sanxingdui. Other rulers men-tioned in Chronicles of Huay-ang include Boguan, Yufu, and Duyu. Many of the objects are fish and bird-shaped, and these have been suggested to be totems of Boguan and Yufu (the name Yufu actually means fish cormo-rant).

A metropolis of its time, cov-ering about three square kilo-metres (1.8 square miles), Sanx-ingdui had highly developed agriculture, including winemak-ing ability, ceramic technology and sacrificial tools, and mining was commonplace. According to archaeological findings, the set-tlement at Sanxingdui was aban-doned suddenly around 1,000 BC. For reasons that are still un-known, the prime of Sanxingdui Culture came to an abrupt end.

The sacrificial pits are believed to have been sites for the ancient Shu people to offer sacrifice to Heaven, Earth, mountains, riv-ers, and other natural gods. The human-like figures, bronze ani-mal-faced masks with protrud-

ing eyes and flat bronze animal-faced masks may be natural gods worshipped by the Shu people.

“Judging from the numer-ous bronze human images and funerary objects, the ancient Sanxingdui kingdom had unified and ruled the people through primordial religion. They wor-shipped nature, totems and their ancestors. The ancient Shu king-dom probably often held grand sacrificial activities to attract tribes with different religious be-liefs to come from far and near to worship,” said Ao Tianzhao from the Sanxingdui Museum, who has been studying the Sanx-ingdui culture for half a century. He believes the large number of bronze artefacts at Sanxingdui indicates that this site used to be a Mecca for pilgrims.

Since the discovery, these ar-tefacts have received a great amount of international interest and attention. They have been exhibited at world-renowned museums such as The British Museum, Taipei’s National Pal-ace Museum, National Gallery of Art (Washington), Guggenheim Museum (New York), Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney) and Lausanne Olympic Museum (Switzerland).

A selection of the artefacts are now making their way to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, where the exhibition, ‘China’s Lost Civilisation: the Mystery of Sanxingdui’, will be featured from October 19, 2014 to March 15, 2015.

The discovery of Sanxingdui shocked the world, but the histo-ry of the artefacts remains a mys-tery. Only the contents of two solitary pits reflect the imme-morial and brilliant civilisation of the Shu – no other artefacts like them have ever been found since. There are no historical re-cords and no ancient texts that speak of them, leaving experts asking what the purpose of the objects was, where the culture came from, and where they went after burying their most precious treasures.

The Sanxingdui civilisation is a unique page in China’s long his-tory, and for now, it remains an enigma.

The Ancient Artefacts of Sanxingdui That Have Rewritten Chinese History

BEYOND SCIENCE

Bronze Mask with Protruding Eyes, found in Sanxingdui, Sichuan province, China.

MoMo via WikiMedia CoMMons shutterstoCk

A 3,000-year-old bronze statue found in the village of Sanxingdui, China.

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCEEpoch TimEs sEpTEmBER 19 – ocToBER 2, 2014 19

The Persistent Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle of the EastBy Wade ShepardVagabond Journey Travel

Ships sink in the waters at Laoye Temple. Lots of them. A phenomenon that has been happening since ancient times, thousands of fishing boats, cargo transporters, and military vessels have been lost. Many go down with no apparent cause at all; they are just sucked down into the abyss below.

This area on the east flank of Poyang Lake in China’s Jiangxi province is thus known as the “waters of death”, “devil horns”, and the “Bermuda Triangle of the East”. Some say that the ships are sunk by abnormal wind patterns; others say that it is because of whirlpools; some say its magnetic fields cause lightning strikes, while others reach more ominous or mysterious conclusions. Whatever the case, these are some of the most treacherous waters in the world.

Laoye Temple sits before a 24 km channel of water which connects Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, with the Ganjiang River’s exit point. It sits between 28.22 – 29.45 degrees N latitude, roughly the same as that of the Bermuda Triangle in the Caribbean. To travel from the Yangtze River to the Pearl River Delta by inland waterways, you have to go through Poyang Lake. To get through Poyang Lake, you must go through this channel, which tapers down from a width of 15 km to 3 km directly in front of the temple – which is the only way to get through here. These notorious waters have been a major transport route since the days of China’s ancient porcelain trade.

On April 16, 1945, a Japanese transport ship called the Kobe Maru was ferrying more than 200 troops through the Laoye Temple waters on a calm and sunny day. Its hold was full of plunder — antiques, paintings, gold, silver, and pearls. Suddenly the weather turned foul, and a huge tide rose up, breaking the ship into pieces and sucking it down into the depths of the lake. As soon as the ship was gone, the weather cleared, the winds ceased, and the sun again shone as if nothing had happened. The Japanese navy immediately sent a rescue team

under the command of Colonel Tomohisa. The lake was only 30 metres deep at that time of year, and seven divers went down looking for the lost ship and its treasure. The Colonel was the only man to return – and he became a very changed man. Reports state that he was thereafter unresponsive, suffered severe memory lost, and was subsequently diagnosed as insane.

In the summer of 1946, after the Japanese had been expelled from China and the war was over, the Nationalist government of China invited the accomplished American diver and salvage expert, Edward Boer (or Bolton, depending on the source), out to Poyang to find the remains of the Kobe Maru. Treasure ships may be lost but they are rarely forgotten. The spoils were sitting just 30 metres below the lake’s surface, and by all accounts should have been easy picking. But after months of diving and the loss of two divers, the search revealed nothing. Boer (Bolton) himself declined to speak about what had transpired until he published the account in the United Nations Environment News 40 years later. He said that during a dive, his team was assailed by a dazzling bright light and a high-pitched screeching sound coming from the water’s depths. The lake, he claimed, felt as though it was shaking, and he was pulled into a vortex. He momentarily went dizzy and lost consciousness, but was soon startled awake upon striking a reef. He hung on helplessly and watched as a gyrating bright light on the lake bottom sucked in the other divers. They were never seen again.

In a thirty-year period between the early 1960s and the late 1980s, over 200 ships have gone down in the Laoye Temple waters, leading to the deaths of 1,600 people and leaving just 30 survivors — all of whom are said to have subsequently lost their minds.

In the late 1970s, the people of this region built three dams in Poyang Lake. The one they built near Laoye Temple was 2,000 feet (610 metres) long, 160 feet (40 metres) wide, and towered nearly 50 feet (15 metres) above the water’s surface. It disappeared one night without a sound or trace.

In the 1980s, the PLA’s navy sent out an expedition to Laoye Temple to see what they could find. They came back empty-handed. Unsatisfied with this outcome, Captain Shen Dahai chose to make one final dive. He did not return. Reports state that his body was found the following day in Changba Shan Lake, which is 15 km away from and apparently not connected to the waters he dove into.

On August 3, 1985, thirteen cargo ships, including one that weighed 2,000 tons, were crossing through the Laoye Temple waters. A flash storm struck, and all the boats went

down, one after the other. Recovery teams were unable to find even a scrap.

Boats still go down in the Laoye Temple waters. The abbot of Laoye Temple tells a story of a calm and sunny day on March 5, 2010 when a 1,000-ton boat sank right off the shore. Nobody has discovered the cause.

“I remember one day in the winter of 2001,” a local sailor named Wang Fangren told the Epoch Times, “we were in the middle of the lake. At first everything looked fine, but suddenly the weather changed abruptly. The wave was so strong that our ship was unable

Laoye Temple

Vagabond Journey TraVel

Vagabond Journey TraVel

A ship anchored at Laoye Temple

to move closer to the edge of the lake. Then suddenly one of the sand-carrying ships sunk.”

“There isn’t a single year that has passed without a shipwreck, and efforts to salvage the wreckage have all failed,” said a local villager.

There is also a legend. In 1368, Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang fought a major and decisive battle against his Han rival, Chen Youliang. In terms of the amount of combatants, it may have been one of the

largest naval battles in history. At the onset, Zhu was losing. He needed to cross the lake, but was caught on the opposite side of the Han blockade. Suddenly, a great turtle surfaced and ferried him to the other side on its back. Zhu went on to become the undisputed emperor, and the first thing he did was build Laoye Temple as a memorial of the event. There is a statue of a turtle at the entrance to the temple, and some people say that it is the spirit of the turtle that helped Zhu sink the ships.

Others, however, claim that it is the ghosts of the sailors who died in that ancient battle.

By Dave McGarvieThe Open University

The Bárðarbunga (or Bardar-bunga) volcano has erupted, evoking memories of the 2010 Icelandic ash cloud that caused chaos across European and North American air routes. Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist at The Open University who has been in Iceland studying the latest erup-tion, explains what’s going on.

What Has Been Happening?The ice-covered Bárðarbunga

volcano has a magma chamber beneath it, and measurements indicate that magma from this chamber has been escaping into a vertical underground crack which has migrated some 40 km north-east away from the cham-ber. We call this a dyke intru-sion. Escape of magma from the chamber has removed support from the chamber roof which has collapsed to trigger the larg-est earthquakes in the area. At the far north-east tip of the dyke intrusion, it managed to find a route to the surface on August 29 to produce a small eruption at the Holuhraun lava field that lasted only a few hours.

After a pause, a larger erup-tion started in the same place on August 31. Both of these erup-tions occurred along an ancient fissure that had erupted in 1797, so it looks like the magma in the

new dyke intrusion met the old and cold 1797 dyke intrusion and followed this easy pathway to the surface. Had this not happened, the new dyke intrusion might have kept moving to the north-east.

What Is the Situation Right Now?

In early September, a vigor-ous eruption took place along a crack – about 1.5 km long – from which lava was fountaining. This is called a fissure eruption and these are common in Iceland. The lava fountains reached up to 70m high, and on collaps-ing, they coalesced to form lava flows that streamed away from

the erupting fissure that covered an area of 10.8 square kilometres. An eruption plume of steam and volcanic gases reached 6km into the atmosphere, but there was no ash.

The good news for Iceland is that despite Bárðarbunga being covered with ice, both eruptions took place in the an ice-free area, which means that no ice is being melted and therefore there is no danger from flooding.

And the good news for interna-tional air travel is that small fis-sure eruptions like these produce lots of lava but little or no ash, so any airspace closure is only local.

(Ed: As of September 11, the Holuhraun eruption has been

emitting volcanic gases such as sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulphide, which smell of rotten eggs, according to Wall Street Journal.)

Is This a Dangerous Eruption?Not really. Near the eruption

and downwind, there will be a hazard from gases escaping from the eruption if they are in high enough concentrations – mostly sulphur dioxide and possibly also some fluorine and chlorine. Sci-entists working in certain areas have to wear gas masks. Staying away from the strike of the erupt-ing fissure is also a good idea in case it becomes longer.

At present, there are no plans to allow anyone else apart from Icelandic scientists into the area.

(Ed: Unusually high concentra-tions of volcanic gases have been detected as far away as Finland, says a Sept 11 Wall Street Journal article. Iceland’s health authori-ties urge locals near the volcano to stay inside due to significant levels of sulphur in the air.)

What Happens Next?One big uncertainty is whether

new magma is entering the sys-tem or not, and if so how much, and where, and at what rate. For example, if more magma is en-tering the system than is being erupted, then the dyke intrusion may start moving again or an eruption may happen elsewhere such as under the Bárðarbunga

volcano itself, or the dyke intru-sion may surface under the near-by glacier. Both of these would involve much melting of ice and would trigger floods (as magma can melt up to 14 times its own volume of ice).

Another uncertainty is that we do not yet know whether this is an isolated event or whether it is the start of a prolonged epi-sode involving multiple events of seismic unrest and magma movement. If it is the latter, then we have some idea of what to ex-pect as there was a well-studied episode between 1975-84 at a vol-cano called Krafla in north Ice-land. During this episode, there were 21 events of seismic unrest, some of which were accompa-nied by dyke intrusions moving out from the magma chamber, a few of which broke to the surface and formed eruptions just like the present Holuhraun eruption.

We also do not know whether the drainage of magma from the chamber beneath the Bárðarbun-ga volcano is going to trigger an eruption there. There is a lot of ice at this volcano because it con-tains a crater, or caldera, some 10km in diameter that is about 700m deep and filled with ice – so even a modest eruption here would generate a lot of meltwater.

What Is the Best-Case Scenario?That the dyke intrusion stalls in

the crust and cools, and the erup-tion at its tip ceases.

tEcHNOlOGy & ScIENcE20 SEPTEMBER 19 – OCTOBER 2, 2014 EPOCh TiMES

aP PhOTO/EggErT JOhannEssOn

A plume of smoke rises from the lava eruption on Holuhraun, northwest of the Dyngjujoekull glacier in Iceland, on Sept 1, 2014. Lava fountains danced along a lengthy volcanic fissure near Iceland’s subglacial Bardarbunga volcano the day before, prompting authorities to raise the aviation warning code to the highest level. The warning was lowered 12 hours later as it was clear that no volcanic ash was detected.

aP PhOTO/EggErT JOhannEssOn

All You Need to Know About Iceland’s Volcanic Eruption

A close-up of lava from an eruption on Holuhraun, northwest of the Dyngjujoekull glacier in Iceland, on Sept 1, 2014.

technology & scienceEpoch TimEs sEpTEmBER 19 – ocToBER 2, 2014 21

What Is the Worst-Case Sce-nario?

Unfortunately there is more than one. The first is that an erup-tion might start at the Bárðar-bunga volcano itself, and there is a remote possibility that this could be a large explosive erup-tion producing an ash cloud. For-tunately, because of the ash cloud produced during the grímsvötn eruption of 2011, we have a fair idea of what this might look like and how best to minimise dis-ruption to air travel. A reassur-ing fact is that lessons learned and changes made as a result of the eyjafjallajökull 2010 eruption meant that despite erupting twice as much ash, disruption due to the grímsvötn 2011 ash cloud was much less.

The second is that the dyke in-trusion continues to the north-east and triggers an eruption at the Askja volcano. Askja last erupted in 1961, but its most notorious eruption was in 1875 when an explosive rhyolite erup-tion produced an ash cloud that spread over northern europe. Rhyolite is a “sticky” magma type that fragments more easily into ash, hence it has a higher poten-tial to produce ash clouds that cause disruption to air travel.

however, we are unlikely to have a repeat of the 1875 erup-tion because there is probably not much rhyolite magma left, plus there is now a deep crater lake covering the 1875 eruption site. There remains the possibility that some ash could be produced if a dyke intrusion mixed with the remaining rhyolite magma and triggered an explosive eruption.

Have Lessons Been Learned?The Bárðarbunga volcano did

not get to be the second largest mountain in iceland by sitting around doing nothing for cen-turies, so an eruption was inevi-table, and recent signs of unrest were building towards this erup-tion. But as we have so little high-quality data from past eruptions to inform what might happen in the future, it is necessary to ob-serve and gather high-quality data to learn what we can as fast as we can. This is what icelandic scientists are excellent at doing.

i am aware that there is a lot of anxiety because the disruption caused by the eyjafjallajökull 2010 eruption is still fresh in eve-ryone’s minds. however, even if we had an exact repeat of this eruption tomorrow, only a frac-tion of the flights would be can-celled.

The decision makers have learned and moved on.

The Art of Zhen, Shan, Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance) International Exhibition is an extraordinarily moving, intimate and inspiring exhibition which features realistic oil paintings and Chinese watercolours. The paintings detail an unique insight into the spiritual discipline of Falun Dafa and give accounts to an outer human rights tragedy.

The depicted artwork by Chen Xiaoping is entitled “In Harmony”. This painting depicts a young woman doing the fifth exercise of Falun Gong. The clear water and blue sky reflect her tranquility and give a feeling of her union with heaven while she meditates.

Advertorial sponsored by en.falunart.org

真 善 忍 真 善 忍 Zhen Shan Ren Zhen Shan Ren

Art Exhibition Art Exhibition Art Exhibition

Scientists Look to Ancient Knowledge for Seasonal ForecastingBy April Holloway

An Australian scientist is working to collate ancient methods of weather prediction in the Pacific, saying that the study could help improve contemporary forecasting tools, record important cultural knowledge that might otherwise be lost, and help bridge the gap between ancient wisdom and modern science.

Roan Plotz, who is a tradi-tional ecological knowledge scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, is working with Pacific me-teorological services to col-late traditional weather and climate knowledge, verifying the information and using it to make seasonal forecasts more useful to Pacific island communities.

“What we are trying to do is to be able to integrate the two systems in terms of the indigenous knowledge or traditional knowledge with an actual scientific statistical forecast. We need to under-stand how relevant or how true that is.”

traditional methods for predicting weather include

observing animals, plants and atmospheric conditions. For example, in parts of the Pacific, it is believed that there is a strong correlation between the amount of fruit-ing and how much rainfall there will be the next season. “This has been shown to be true,” said Mr Plotz. The re-search aims to monitor tradi-tional indicators to see how well they correlate with ac-tual weather patterns.

“Many communities favour traditional ways—such as reading signs of nature, ani-mals and plants—over scien-tific ways, partly due to lack of exposure to modern fore-casting tools,” said Mr Plotz. “it’s much more relevant if we can tell people for a fact that monitoring a certain tree, or plant, or animal allows you to forecast as accurately as modern forecasting tools.”

After assessing traditional indicators, it is hoped that the Pacific Met services will

Cows huddling together under a fallen tree. It is believed that a storm or rain is on its way when cows huddle together.

ShuTTERSToCk

TuI DE Roy/MInDEn PICTuRES/GETTy IMAGES

Birds, like the albatross, can be greatly affected by changes in the weather. So can they predict when the next storm will hit?

be better placed to inform their lo-cal communities about what they should monitor so they are better prepared for weather and climatic change.