Johnny, your hope is here:
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Photo from Lee Hsien Loong's Facebook page shows him harvesting lady's fingers at a community garden on 1 Nov.
Speaking at his constituency Ang Mo Kio GRC and Sengkang West’s annual Tree Planting Day yesterday (1 Nov), PM Lee said the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint will be unveiled next week. It will outline Singapore’s environmental priorities and guide its sustainable development until 2030.
“Next week, we will unveil our new Sustainable Singapore Blueprint – the vision, how to make Singapore clean and green for many years to come. It’s a plan which all Singaporeans will be part of, it’s a way to create a home we can all be proud of,” he said.
He said that the government wants to make the whole of the Singapore environment sustainable, friendly to people, also “able to be friendly to the environment as a whole”.
A review of the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint began late last year, and Mr Lee had said then that it will be updated with new initiatives like building more environmentally-friendly hawker centres and reducing Singapore’s carbon emissions.
He also urged Ang Mo Kio residents to do their part for the environment.
They ought to be more conscious about recycling what they use and conserving energy, from using less air-conditioning to turning off the lights and even broadband when not at home, he said.
“In Singapore, we have a small place. When you have rubbish, we have to take it somewhere, we can incinerate it, there’s still the ash. The ash has to go somewhere. We send it to Pulau Semakau,” he said. “But the island is only so big. If there’s too much rubbish and all the ash goes to Semakau and it fills up, then Pulau Semakau will become Bukit Semakau, and we’ll have a mountain of ash made in Singapore. I think no need – better we make less ash, it’s better for all of us.”
Mr Lee added the Ang Mo Kio town council is also working with HDB to identify suitable blocks to install solar panels.
Dr Koh Poh Koon, who is now fast becoming the “godson of Ang Mo Kio”, was seen tagging along with PM Lee’s entourage yesterday (‘Dr Koh Poh Koon no longer ‘Son of Punggol’?‘).
Dr Koh was the losing PAP candidate for the Punggol East by-election last year. He told the media that he has officially relinquished his post of Chairman of the PAP Punggol East Branch. He said, “I came at the invitation of Mr Seng Han Thong (Ang Mo Kio GRC MP), but obviously this is a big GRC so there could be many areas that we could participate and help in.”
Unemployment rate for young degree holders at 7.4%?
Meanwhile, NCMP Yee Jenn Jong has spotted that in the recent Govt Labour Force Survey report of 2013, it stated that the unemployment rate for degree holders below the age of 30 is 7.4%.
This figure is rather high considering the fact that many of the states in America have an unemployment rate below 7% [Link]. At 7.4%, it will be comparable to states in America with high unemployment rate like in California (7.3%), where the state is flooded with many illegal immigrants.
Mr Yee will be asking the government in Parliament tomorrow (3 Nov) [Link]:
(a) what are the reasons behind this relatively high unemployment rate; and
(b) whether the government is taking any measures to address this issue
Back in Ang Mo Kio yesterday, Mr Lee managed to plant a Happiness Tree (Garcinia subelliptica). In all, nine trees were planted by MPs and grassroots members there.
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