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Where in the world can you find a country where people use out of production coins for donations, drive cars on walkways and has an organisation that reviews its own processes (and of course with a positive result)? Singapore!

StraitsTimes.com 160608
The one-cent puzzle
There are 600 million one-cent coins, amounting to $6 million, left in circulation, says the Singapore Mint. Jason Hau and Stephanie Song find out what’s happened to these little bronze coins
MOST shopkeepers reject them and the Singapore Mint no longer produces them, but Singaporeans, it seems, are still holding on to their one-cent coins.

The floral-series penny, which went into circulation in September 1987, was retired in April 2002 when it became clear that inflation had made it redundant.

Of the estimated seven billion of these coins minted in those 15 years, 600 million are still out there.

The Straits Times spoke to 50 people and found that 34 of them still had such coins lying about in their homes.

One of them, Madam Kay Thwetun, 36, saves them for her daughter.

The senior clinical project coordinator said: ‘My daughter likes to keep the coins in her bag whenever we go out. I have taught her to be charitable, so she will put some in charity boxes whenever we come across any.’

SET ASIDE AS SPARE CHANGE

‘They just sit in a box. We keep some money at home to pay the newspaper man or for when we order food. The change, which sometimes includes one-cent coins, goes in the box.’
Others keep them as collector’s items, storing them in jars, piggy banks and even plastic bags.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Foo Xiuqi, 21, said: ‘I collect currency, especially those that are rare and no longer in production. Who knows? They might become treasure in the future. I can then show them off to my future grandchildren.’

And then there are those who still hang on to these coins because they have not figured out what to do with them.

Postwoman Liew Peck Choo, 45, said she has around 50 of these coins ’somewhere in a corner’ of her home.

‘I don’t know what I can do with the coins. I can’t use them for shopping, because the shops don’t even accept them these days,’ she said.

A check with 30 retail shops downtown and in the suburbs found that only nine still accept them.

Shopkeepers are required by the Currency Act to accept them, but many do not do so because of the hassle of having to count them.

The Singapore Mint’s Teban Gardens Crescent office offers a coin-deposit service which puts the dollar amount into one’s bank account.

The service is free for the first 1,000 coins, but costs $3.70 for subsequent batches of 1,000.

The Singapore Mint also places coin-deposit machines at various community centres and town councils for several weeks at a time.

Local banks POSB and DBS also have coin-deposit machines at 27 of their outlets. They charge an even higher administration fee than the Singapore Mint - 0.75 cents per coin, although the fee is waived for children’s accounts.

The fees charged for depositing coins have turned some customers off; they say they would rather keep the coins than pay for the service.

‘Technically, we are paying them money for them to accept our money,’ quipped Madam Liew.

Undergraduate Asha Neelakandan, 22, agreed, saying that since cash-deposit machines do not charge a fee, she did not see why coin-deposit ones have to.

The Singapore Mint’s programme manager Priscilla Soh said the fee was to cover the labour costs of sorting out the coins and rolling them up in paper to be sent to the banks.

Charities are, however, exempted from the fee.

The Community Chest said 95 per cent of the $22,000 it collects in an average month are coins, with only around 2,600 one-cent coins among them.

National Council of Social Service chief executive Ang Bee Lian, referring to the $52 million the Community Chest aims to raise this year, said: ‘I hope Singaporeans will continue to give whatever they can to help the less fortunate in our society - even their one-cent and five-cent coins, as every cent counts towards that $52 million.’

Lol.. Look at the part in bold! Teaching a child to be charitable by keeping out of production and practically worthless one cent coins and use them for donations! That is a damn smart move eh, who knows one day the value of the out of production coins will raise expodentially, and charity organisations, with its vast vault of one cent coins, become superbly rich overnight.

StraitsTimes.com 160608
Should police cars be allowed on footpaths?
By Esther Tan
CROSSING PATHS: Police vehicles patrol footpaths for crime prevention purposes and to respond to emergencies faster. But some park users expressed concern about the safety of pedestrians and children at play. — ST PHOTO: ESTHER TAN
PARK-GOERS are territorial when it comes to footpaths. To them, it is their turf and in-line skaters and cyclists should keep off them.

But what about police cars?

Such vehicles have been patrolling along the East Coast Park footpaths and members of the public are questioning the need for it.

Private school tutor Y. Chong, who was having a picnic with his family when he saw a police car travelling along the footpath, said: ‘I was surprised…Cars shouldn’t be allowed there.’

The National Parks Board (NParks) said it allows police vehicles to patrol along the footpaths of certain parks for ‘public security’ purposes.

The police said its patrol cars travel along footpaths for crime prevention purposes as well as to respond to calls for police assistance.

However, there are guidelines by which police cars must abide in such cases.

Both the police and NParks said police vehicles on the footpath are required to switch on the blinker lights on top.

An NParks spokesman said they should keep to a speed limit of 15kmh - the same limit in many carparks or private residential areas.

Former police officers said they should travel at a ‘crawl’ if it was a normal patrol, but could speed up in an emergency.

Members of the public, though, were not convinced that police cars need to travel on footpaths to perform their duties.

Bank officer Jan Chiok, 26, who visits the park once a month for in-line skating, said: ‘It’s better not for any vehicles to be on the path as it’s meant for people only.’

Bank analyst Bryan Goh, 28, who frequents the park twice a month, pointed out that pedestrians on the footpath may be listening to music on their earphones and may not even be aware of an approaching vehicle.

A mother of three, Madam Tracy Lee, 46, said: ‘Children tend to be engaged in play at the park and they won’t notice things around them like a bicycle or a car.’

Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Law and Home Affairs Teo Ho Pin feels it is not advisable for vehicles to travel along footpaths, adding that such paths are not designed to take the weight of vehicles.

Most of the time, the police can gain access to the various parts of the park via the nearest carpark or secondary roads, said Dr Teo.

National Safety Council president Tan Jin Thong suggested that a motorcycle could be used for police patrols instead of a car.

Soon after terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari broke out of detention in February, police officers were seen patrolling several parks on bicycles.

Mr Tan said: ‘Motorcycles are smaller, easier to manoeuvre and can respond faster to emergencies or crime than a car.’

A case of lazy police. And look at how Tampines have to have a trial period for bicycles and pedestrians to share the same path. In contrast, police car can just drive all over the place all they want.

And finally, an organisation that reviews its own process..

StraitsTimes.com 160608
SAF review clears its safety procedures
They are being followed, but ideas from public will be evaluated
By Teh Joo Lin

DEFENCE Minister Teo Chee Hean said yesterday that procedures in physical and endurance training in the military were in place and being followed.

These procedures, which cover aspects such as safety, medical and training protocols, were the subject of a review that took place during a three-day halt to physically-demanding activities throughout the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

Mr Teo said: ‘The Singapore Armed Forces is satisfied the procedures are in place and are being followed.’

The Defence Ministry said in a statement, however, that the SAF would also assess the suggestions received from the public as part of its regular checks on the safety of its activities.

The unprecedented ‘time-out’ on physical and endurance training, called following the deaths of two servicemen during training last week, froze all obstacle courses, route marches or fitness tests for the entire force of 300,000 active personnel and national servicemen.

These activities resumed on Saturday at 7pm.

Military send-off for pilot
Second-Lieutenant Clifton Lam Jia Hao, 20, who died during jungle training in Brunei last Wednesday, receiving a full military send-off.

He was cremated yesterday at the Mandai Crematorium. Promoted and given his wings posthumously, he had dreamed of being a pilot since he was 13.

Read: Tearful farewell to friend, mate and kin
Speaking on the sidelines of an education bursary presentation in Pasir Ris, Mr Teo said the ‘time-out’ had been ‘very useful’.

Aside from giving time for the review, the cessation of activities raised awareness through the ranks of issues involved in physical and endurance activities and the precautions that were needed, he said.

These precautions include pre-exercise safety briefings, having medical personnel on standby and ‘water parades’, which are sessions in which servicemen chug down water to forestall dehydration.

The safety of servicemen has come under focus following the deaths of pilot trainee Officer Cadet Clifton Lam during a navigation exercise in Brunei’s jungles, and Recruit Andrew Cheah, who was on a 2km training walk on Pulau Tekong.

Calls have been made in the wake of the deaths for the SAF to conduct more rigorous medical screenings.

On this matter, Mr Teo said the protocols for medical screenings were developed in consultation with a panel of the best specialists here.

At the most recent review last September, the panel, which included senior cardiologists, evaluated the military’s cardiac screening process and found it stringent and in line with good clinical practice.

Mr Teo said: ‘We go by what they recommend to us as the best and most appropriate protocols for screening and we review them regularly.’

He said that preliminary inquiries into the two deaths have shown that procedures were in place and complied with, and that medical procedures and evacuation were prompt.

Coroner’s inquiries on the two deaths will be held in open court; two high-level inquiry panels have also been set up.

Asked whether today’s incoming servicemen were less fit than their predecessors, Mr Teo said: ‘My own sense, not based on any statistical evidence, is that our soldiers are fitter, but maybe less rugged.’

He urged pre-enlistees to ‘get themselves as fit as possible’ ahead of national service.

Asked about parents who send their children for medical screenings before enlistment, he said that it ‘certainly is a precaution they can take’, not just for national service, but also if their children play sports or if they thought them to be unwell.

He added: ‘Regardless of whether parents do that, when they are enlisted into the SAF, we’ll do a thorough medical screening using protocols recommended by the best specialists in Singapore.’

Please la, if you are really interested in doing a proper review, bring in external specialists that has no connection to yourself, and then ask them to do a proper review. Imagine I own a restaurant. People eat my food and fall sick come and complain. So I stop business 3 days and do my own review. Then after 3 days tell everyone, “After our intensive review by our own best specialist, our food is concluded to be safe to it.”

So there you have it. Singapore is a truly unique and fun place to be in.

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