Fruit machines hit kids with fresh fruits,seasonal items.

HERE is how to get children to eat fruit: Install vending machines.

Currently sited in about 20 schools, fruit vending machines are such a hit among students that the company behind them plans to bring the total number of participating schools to 60 by the end of this year.

Principals and the Health Promotion Board (HPB) say the appeal of machine-dispensed fruit lies in the attractive packaging it comes in.

For a dollar, students get diced and chilled fruit placed in a plastic cup which comes with a plastic fork.

The machines sell six types of fruit cups, including one with mixed fruit.

Seasonal fruits such as mangos and cherry tomatoes are offered when available.

HPB deputy director of youth health programme development Wong Mun Loke said such machines are a new way of getting the young to eat fruit: 'This new approach may pique their curiosity and create a greater interest in fruit consumption among the young.'

Homegrown company Geok Heng Enterprise first introduced the machines in late 2007 in industrial parks, schools and hospitals. It currently has 40 machines stationed all over Singapore.

Sales manager Irence Lim said that out of all the locations, the machines are especially popular in schools, where demand is so high that some schools require the machines to be re-stocked twice a day. Each machine can hold up to 180 cups at a time.

SAF dead doc in Melbourne scholarship bond clarifies.

The Late Dr Allan OOi Saga continues.A young Singaprean myterious death in far away Melboure , and the Ministry of Defence replies.Totally unedited due to the nature.

THE Defence Ministry has addressed for a second time issues raised by the family of Captain (Dr) Allan Ooi, who had gone absent without official leave for five months before being found dead in Melbourne, Australia, last month.

In a letter to the media on Tuesday, the ministry said it would have preferred to keep such exchanges private out of respect for Capt (Dr) Ooi and his family. However, it said an earlier letter by the family had raised 'several issues', and it was necessary to clarify them.

Among them, said Mindef spokesman Darius Lim, was the three-year bond Capt (Dr) Ooi had to serve after he was sent for a six-month stint in aviation medicine in London in January last year.

In a letter to the press last week, the family claimed that this bond was to be served on top of the Republic of Singapore Air Force medical officer's 12-year medicine scholarship bond - in effect, making it a three-year bond for a six-month course.

However, Colonel Lim said yesterday that this was untrue. He said the bonds were to be served concurrently, and this was explained to Capt (Dr) Ooi when he signed the contract in December 2007 before flying off to London. In fact, two of his family members signed the contract as his sureties.

Added Col Lim: 'Mindef also sent Capt (Dr) Ooi an e-mail to confirm this. He acknowledged receiving the mail.'

When the SAF scholarship holder returned from his London training stint last July, he had told his superior at the Aeromedical Centre that he was unhappy at work and wanted out of the SAF.

About a month later - on Aug 12, not in July, as his family had said - Capt (Dr) Ooi wrote to the Head of Manpower at Headquarters Medical Corps, expressing his intention to quit.

On Aug 20, the Head of Manpower replied, and explained how to apply for an early release.

But Capt (Dr) Ooi did not submit an application, said Col Lim. On Oct 3, the doctor's superior offered him the option of a 'posting to an appointment of his choice'.

Col Lim said the 27-year-old 'thanked his superior, and promised to respond in two weeks'. But he did not do so. Instead, on Oct 15, when the two weeks would have been up, he went Awol.

On March 3 this year, he was found dead underneath Melbourne's Westgate Bridge.

In a note he left behind, he said, among other things, that he was unhappy at work.

In its letter yesterday, Mindef noted that Capt (Dr) Ooi's family had asked for an inquiry into its policies and processes, 'on the premise that this would avert a similar tragedy'. Col Lim said a board of inquiry was convened last month, and it concluded that matters related to Capt (Dr) Ooi's service 'were managed appropriately'. He reiterated that SAF scholarship holders know they have 'a moral obligation' to serve out their bonds. This 'goes beyond the legal obligation to pay back the liquidated damages if the bond is broken'.

All SAF scholarship holders are expected to do their duty 'unless prevented from doing so because of extenuating circumstances, like medical reasons', he said. 'While Capt (Dr) Ooi was unhappy with his job and had wished to resign, he subsequently went Awol even though he had been told of other possible job options,' Col Lim concluded.

Contacted last night, the doctor's sister, Lynette, a lawyer working in Hong Kong, said the family has yet to meet Mindef officials to clarify the issues raised. Added the 24-year-old: 'We still hope that an independent inquiry will be set up to look into the matter.'

And it has been reported that an MP will queries in Parliement, the Ministry about the figures of successfull bond breakers regarding the case.

Wanted 152 children missing, reward for information by MOE.

The Ministry of Education is looking for 152 children who are now age 7 and missing from their classrooms. They are believed to be in the hand of their parents. Meanwhile it is general believed that the parents are armed with nothing in their heads and therefore even more dangerous. Due to the ramification for the future of Singapore and Singaporeans alike, it is important that these children be spotted and put into the classroom for their lifelong learning skills.Otherwise when they grow up, their become illiterate in the areas when education and literacy tops the 90 percentile. Or they become lowly and hourly paid cogs in the field of jobs in Singapore. All Singapore worth their oaths taking should immediately report to the MOE , any of the 152 children still missing. One of the signs is that at 8am and the children is still out of uniform and out of school, they could be the missing children. Rescuers are advised to proceed with cautions and ignored all request not to report to the authorities. These irresponsible parents can seek help at all channel to put their child into the school systems.A public service announcements.

THE Education Ministry (MOE) is looking for 152 children who should be in their Primary 1 classes by now, but instead have yet to register for school.

The families of the pupils cannot be contacted, a ministry spokesman said, explaining that there is a variety of reasons for this: They might have changed their addresses, are overseas or are otherwise unreachable.

The 'missing' pupils are among 1,483 children whose parents did not register them for Primary 1 last year, as required under the Compulsory Education Act (CE) enacted six years ago.

The 152 children who have yet to start Primary 1 this year do not include the 57 home-schoolers and 353 madrasah students who applied to be exempted from the Compulsory Education Act, which makes it a must for children born after Jan 1, 1996 to receive at least six years of education.

Parents who fail to register their children can be fined up to $5,000 per case or jailed for up to a year, or both. So far, no parent has been charged in court for not sending their child to school.

The number of children not registered for Primary 1 this year is 'comparable' to that from the year before, the MOE spokesman said.

Asked why the numbers had not fallen appreciably despite the law being in place for six years now, Ms Denise Phua, a Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC and a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, responded by calling for the law to be 'strictly enforced'.

'If there are children who should be in school and are not, the CE law and spirit must be strictly enforced. Errant families must be taken to task and social service support must be rendered where needed,' she said.

'Although the missing children amount to less than 1 per cent, every life matters, and no one should be left behind due to a lack of education.

'MOE should rigorously track down each case through government and grassroots organisations till we are convinced that each is accounted for.'

The Singapore Children's Society, which has been appointed by the ministry to counsel families whose children are not registered for school, said it has seen a slight decline in such cases.

Ms Sue Cheng, director of the society's research and outreach centre, attributes this to more parents being aware that it is an offence not to do so.

MOE said there was just one case referred to the society last year, compared to a high of 14 in 2004.

But Ms Cheng is seeing a new problem: Children who are registered for school but do not attend class regularly.

Between 2003 and last year, the ministry referred 37 cases of non-registration and 106 cases of irregular attendance to the society, she said.

In some cases, she added, the society's best efforts to help were fruitless.

She cited as an example a Primary 6 boy whose class attendance had been poor for a few years despite the school's efforts. His parents were separated and the boy lived with his mother, brother and grandmother.

His mother did not see the importance of education - her older son was a school dropout who was doing fine without an education, and she felt there was no need for the younger boy to hit the books.

Said Ms Cheng: 'She was not interested in working with our case worker and was passive throughout. The boy had no interest in school, and got abusive with our case worker.'

After months of trying, the society referred the case to the ministry for further action.

Anyone who knows of children who should be but are not attending primary school may e-mail MOE's Compulsory Education Unit at moe_ce@moe.edu.sg

Rats on suicide path in market in Geylang Serai

Rats as big as cat.
Writhing on the mats
Glue on tight, tails and all
Help says one
I am innocent, just passing by
I protest brutality,

On rats, call the spca,
or something ,get me out.
I need to move
into my home
under the streets of Singapore.

RATS were writhing on pieces of cardboard laid out between stalls at the Geylang Serai Temporary Market when pest controllers got there on Thursday morning.

Rows of them were stuck in the green glue, part of traps laid out the night before, in an effort to spring clean the temporary structure, now infamous for the Indian rojak stall which is the focal point of Singapore's worst outbreak of food poisoning.

By noon, pest controllers had cleared away 61 rats, said Mr Kwok Kim Poh, who oversees the day-to-day running of the market for its management committee.

He said the glue strips were laid out after cleaning stopped at 7pm on Wednesday along the stalls 'most popular with the rats', which included fresh vegetables and fruit stalls as well as food stalls like the Indian rojak unit.

Compared to past efforts to bait rats, this was a more effective method of trapping the rodents, he said.

Whether the rats have a role in the food poisoning that has affected at least 144 victims since last Friday and caused two deaths is uncertain.

Preliminary investigations traced the source to a bacteria which attacks raw or partially-cooked seafood, such as the prawn and cuttlefish items served in Indian rojak.

The rodent infestation appears to be concentrated in a wet market situated next to the hawker centre. The rats are said to have come from the sewers running under the temporary market.

Stallholders said that because the cleaners do not work after 7pm, plates with leftover food are left at the centre overnight - drawing the rats.

Direct contact with the rats or their urine and droppings can cause Weil's Disease. This starts with influenza-like symptoms and can end in kidney failure.

New face in Reform party, old name

MR KENNETH Jeyaretnam, the elder son of late opposition leader J.B. Jeyaretnam, has joined the opposition ranks and is not ruling out contesting the next general election.

Three weeks ago, he joined the Reform Party, which was set up by his father a few months before he died last September.

The 50-year-old hedge fund manager was co-opted into the party's 13-man central executive committee (CEC) a week later.

Mr Jeyaretnam confirmed to The Straits Times yesterday that he had joined the opposition party. 'The timing was right. My father founded the party, so this is one way to honour him and to continue his legacy,' he said.

The party was set up by the late Mr Jeyaretnam - better known as JBJ - after he was discharged from bankruptcy in 2007. It was registered last July.

But he died of heart failure two months later. He was 82.

There has been speculation on the opposition scene in recent months that the younger Jeyaretnam would be entering the fray. This was in the light of speeches he made at events organised by opposition parties in memory of his father.

Mr Jeyaretnam said he had recently thought about entering politics, after Reform Party CEC member James Teo invited him to join the party. He next met Mr Ng Teck Siong, the party chairman and his father's long-time ally, and made his decision.

Married with a 12-year-old son, Mr Jeyaretnam worked in London's financial sector for several years before he returned with his family to Singapore last April.

His brother Philip, 45, is a Senior Counsel and partner at Rodyk & Davidson, and a former president of the Law Society.

AWARE not aware of Unknown, now voted in

reported in the media, change at the AWARE group. My guess is that it is related to a pending general elections. The group would like challenge all items not on their mission statement.Just wait and see the coup on the groups.
SINGAPORE'S best-known women's group, the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), has seen a dramatic changing of the guard - which some members are describing as nothing short of a leadership grab.

When Aware held its annual general meeting on March 28, everyone expected the usual: No more than 30 or 40 members would turn up at its Dover Crescent centre, and a prepared slate of candidates would be voted into office easily. Instead, more than 100 people came, the majority of whom had joined Aware only in recent months.

And when the election of office bearers began, almost every position was challenged by new faces, who won by wide majorities.

In the end, nine out of 12 executive committee spots went to the newcomers.

One older member who won without a contest was Mrs Claire Nazar, a former corporate counsel nominated to be president by outgoing Aware chief Constance Singam.

But barely a week into her new term, and before making her first statement as president, Mrs Nazar quit suddenly this week.

She confirmed that she had resigned, but declined to say any more when reached by The Straits Times.

It is not known who will now become president.

Longtime members took two other positions: Chew I-Jin as assistant honorary treasurer and Caris Lim Chai Leng was elected a committee member.