Age of Conan: Patch 1.05

Winds of change are blowing through Hyboria.

Since its successful launch in May 2008, Age of Conan has been hemorrhaging subscribers over technical bugs, game imbalances and the lack of content. FunCom has put herculean efforts towards salvaging their game, going as far as to change the game director 5 months into the launch. The upcoming patch 1.05 would be the biggest overhaul so far.

During development, FunCom focused on solving the technical issues of their combo based combat, and had little resources left to work on the game mechanics. The mechanics were quite outdated, rushed and many parts of it did not work at launch. With the technical issues resolved, FunCom finally put their head towards the game mechanics, and it will be a complete rework. The current system of working out combat is based on multiple calculations. A roll to see if an attack hits, one to see if the target evades and another to see if it was a critical hit. This multiple rolls system is a legacy of pen, paper and dice gaming, where splitting up an attack into multiple parts makes it easier for players to work out modifiers, leading to less charts.

However on a computer, you can do away with multiple rolls and put the statistical chances into a single roll. Making this change might not appear to be a massive step but it demonstrates FunCom’s willingness to overhaul a weak system. This change means that anything that affects combat results need to be revamped: all items and character stats. A bold undertaking a year into a game.

There would no longer be different invulnerabilities, evade chances and mitigation, the whole system is being streamlined to a single armour rating for physical damage, and a protection rating for magic. They also removed fractions for whole numbers, armour in Age of Conan currently feature silly stats like 0.03% invulnerability. The bolt-on system of Heroic stats to deal with elite mobs has also been integrated into the system.

Age of Conan began with a philosophy that items should not make a big influence in the combat result, a combo-led combat system should favour player skill. They have had to accept that a large part of the attraction of MMORPG is having goals that encourage players to log on in order to achieve them, and the most obvious goal is to get better items. Currently, items influence about 25% of the character’s statistics, but FunCom would be moving it up to 50%. This decision has its supporters and detractors and is perhaps one of the more controversial of the upcoming changes.

Another interesting change is that stamina and mana costs of skills and spells would be increased. Currently players can pretty much use most of their skills repeatedly without worrying about running out of stamina and mana. With the change, a new game dynamic comes into play, that of containing a player by constantly depriving her of stamina or mana, at least two classes currently have mana burning skills that previously had minimal impact. Players have to manage their pace to maintain damage while their stamina and mana pool is under stress.

Long duration buffs are one of the things that boggle my mind about the decisions made by game designers. Buffs that do not contradict with other buffs or have a negative effect: in other words, no-brainer buffs, should be passive effects rather than long duration buffs. Also, why give a buff with a 1 hour duration a 20 second casting cooldown? It adds nothing to gameplay nor challenge the players in any way. FunCom will finally change several long duration buffs into short instant-cast tactical buffs, so caster classes have an added role of battle field tactical buffing. This is in line with the action oriented playing style of melee combat, and healing in Age of Conan.

The changes are currently on the test server and many players are there figuring out what the implications would be for their favourite classes. No doubt it would go through many changes and fixes before its introduction to the live servers. Perhaps FunCom is targeting May 2009, Age of Conan’s first birthday to bring the final piece of much needed change to the game to finally justify its AAA rating.

Ahmadinejad’s UN Speech

Every news company is talking about the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech accusing Israel of racism during the United Nations World Conference Against Racism. Most of them did not fail to mention Ahmadinejad’s previous speech in 2005 about wanting to “wipe Israel off the map”, which itself is contentious, and focused mainly on the walkout of this or that country’s delegates.

It took me a while to find the full speech and at the tabloid Anorak, of all places. I have reproduced it here.

Governments must be encouraged and supported in their fights at eradicating this barbaric racism. Efforts must be made to put an end to Zionism…

Those in authority at the time set off two world wars [were] killing hundred of millions of people and causing mass destruction.

Those who won [the Second World War], considered that the world was with them [and] set up laws that were oppressive and trampling.

The Security Council set up after World War II, let’s analyze it. The veto vote – is that equality? Is that justice? Is that equality amongst human beings? Or rather is it arrogance and humiliation? The Security Council must be the most important body for decision-making in order to promote peace. If a law is based on force, how can we secure peace and justice? The seeking of power and arrogance means racism, injustice and occupation.

As was the case after World War II, armies occupied other territories and people were transferred from territories. In reality, under the pretext of compensating for the evil done in the name of xenophobia, they in fact set up the most violent xenophobes, in Palestine.

The Security Council made it possible for that illegitimate government to be set up. For 60 years, this government was supported by the world. Many Western countries say they are fighting racism; but in fact support it with occupation, bombings and crimes such as those committed in Gaza. These countries support the criminals…

Lets disregard our views about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran for the moment. And try to take a step back from any position that we hold on the Israel-Palestinian issue and look at this. This speech was obviously designed for an Iranian audience, since Ahmadinejad is coming up for elections soon, and is also Middle-East centric, which is just another replacement for the usual Western centric world view.

I am quite sure the world truly sympathized with the Jews after World War 2. And they earned the respect of many neutrals with their David versus Goliath spirit during the 1967 and 1973 wars. And just to prove that the pen is mightier than the sword, they have over the years, adopted two terms that set their struggle different from anyone else’s. Instead of genocide, which happens to everyone else, they have “The Holocaust”. Instead of racial or religious discrimination that everyone else suffers, they suffer “anti-semitism”.

Discrimination is about difference, and the Jews insisted on the use of different terms as a tool to highlight their very different type of discrimination. But are they so very different from other oppressed people? Do you suffer differently if you were the victim of genocide as opposed to the victim of “The Holocaust”? Do you suffer differently if you were the victim of racial or religious discrimination as opposed to the victim of “anti-semitism”? By the use of both terms exclusively, they have set themselves apart from the rest of the world. They have exclusivfied their suffering.

Israel is probably the embodiment of why we need to seperate religion and race from the state. The identity of the Jewish people, as a race, as a religion, is intertwine with that of Israel as a state. Simply put, if you have a soverign issue with the state of Israel, it automatically drags race and religion into the issue. If you have a problem with the Judaism religion, it automatically drags the survival of the Jewish state into the problem. In other words, by sowing the seeds of words, Israel will alway win the war of words. And again Israel has set itself apart from the rest of the other hundred over nations in the world. Just as all other nations around the world is asking their own citizens to embrace multi-culturalism, and asking other nations to become secular states, many nations are allowing Israel to have a state based around a racial and religious identity.

As the world shifts slowly from a Western-centric point of view, and sense of history, the power of words like “The Holocaust” and “anti-semitism” would gradually weaken. The uproar at the UN World Conference Against Racism, the boycotts, and the tone and slant of many news articles shows that many still see it from this Western viewpoint. Well, if the UN World Conference Against Racism was held as a barometer about the state of racism in the world today, they got a very clear picture. A clear line was drawn between which nations took offence, and which nations were ambivalent.

The end of the Hawker Centres?

Today’s Sunday Times feature article is about food hygiene, once again taking its aim at hawker food. While I largely agree with the content of the article, I am not comfortable with the tone, nor am I convinced of the motivation.

It would not be the first time that I have a suspicion that the Straits Times is pushing an agenda. Either that, or they are sensationalizing an issue in the guise of news reporting. Are the people in the Straits Times living in some ivory tower and do not partake in hawker food? Are they too good for plain ol hawker fare? Are they preparing the ground to abolish hawker centres?

Perhaps hawkers in Singapore do need to be jolted into taking hygiene seriously. I do sincerely believe that hygiene habits of hawkers can be improved, and in many cases must be improved. Especially with regards to handling money. But attempting to scare the populous just does not seem to be the way to do it.

I am sure I will not be alone when I say that food courts have downgraded the quality of food in Singapore. The high rent leads to the stalls being franchises or chains that are run by lowly paid employees. Food court management also charge exorbitant fees for clearing and cleaning plates. I have never actually been recommended to any food court stall because of the quality of its food. At best, the people bringing me there would embarrassing say “this one is ok.”

Hawker centres are one of the good things about living in Singapore. They represent good tasty food at affordable prices. Go to many parts of the world and you would find that the most affordable meal would be at a fast food restaurant. Sure hawker food may or may not be healthier than fast food, but its a local taste. Not to mention that it is a cornerstone of the community.

I know of people who are embarrassed by hawker centres, they are the same people who are embarrassed to be Singaporean. I know that there is a new breed of health hypochondriacs who subscribe to one specialty diet or other. And I hope this latest onslaught by the Straits Times is not masking a clash of cultures. Give me my lardy char kway teow, or give me death (as a result of lardy char kway teow).

C is for Cookie…

…Its good enough for me. Cookie Cookie Cookie starts with C.

The Geylang Serai Rojak food poisoning case’s spotlight now shining on the National Environment Agency (NEA), for two reasons. Firstly, they decided not to be in-charged of the hygiene at temporary markets and hawker centres. Secondly, nearly all the food stalls in the four temporary markets have got a C grading. For many, a downgrade from the B grading of their permanent markets. If a hawker was hygiene conscious, he would be regardless of where he works.

The first one must puzzle everyone, we would assume that NEA’s function in the normal markets would simply transfer to the temporary ones. But someone must have thought it was a good idea not to, since its temporary nature, and the usual siting of it over grass patches, means that it would be more work keeping the place clean. People’s Opinion 1 NEA 0.

The next issue is the alphabet soup of grading the hawker stalls. Lets look at the psychology of the A, B,C, D grading. We are used to it in our educational life. For everyone who is not some high flying scholar types, which is to say normal average human beings, a C grade is a pretty decent result, it is a pass. Even NEA classifies C as Average. What is wrong with average? The media seems to be painting C as a fail grade that leads to food poisoning and death.

But C is good enough for your average person, and will remain so. No one would boycott C graded stalls, because it is average and most of the stalls one frequents would be C. These are hawker stalls, not gourmet restaurants. We are paying S$3, not S$30. We have grown up eating unhygienic hawker good, we are fine. C is fine.

In the decades in which this system has been in place, it has absolutely failed to financially reward hawkers who have A and B grading, and hence is not a disincentive for hawkers who are C graded. The assumption is that hawkers with an A or B grading has either invested the time and/or the money to have better hygiene in their stalls. And if the eating public would not give them a financial compensation for their efforts, then the powers that be should. Someone has suggested on the ST Forums that those with an A or B grade should get lower rent. Perhaps that is not a bad idea. Perhaps NEA can give them a cash incentive for helping to keep the Environment clean. Of course, its not going to happen because everyone thinks it is someone else’s responsibility. At any rate, I would give the A,B,C,D food stall labeling system an F.

Rachael Yamagata in Singapore

Rachael Yamagata put up a solid 2 hour show at the Esplanade earlier this evening, and won us over yet again with her personality and her talent. Its the half America-Japanese crooner’s second visit to Singapore and the Esplanade and this time she played tracks mostly from her latest album Elephants…Teeth sinking into Heart.

Most of the predominantly female crowd would have loved to hear more from her first album, but I am sure that, like myself, they enjoyed the evening thoroughly and felt that it was well worth the ticket price.

She apologised for her voice because she caught a cold on her 25 hour flight to Singapore, but she had nothing to apologise for, her energetic performance more than made up for any shortcomings in her cold affected voice. Switching between the piano, acoustic and electric guitar, she showed her multiple talents, but still looked most comfortable behind the ivory. Her banter warmed our hearts and made the 1000 people at a concert hall feel like a 100 people in a lounge. She sang Duet with both male and female parts and showed not just her sense of humour but also that she thoroughly enjoys making and playing music.

She was supported by a talented band who put up a near flawless band. Her cellist awed me and made me wonder why more bands do not have one  on their lineup. While an unfamiliar sight in a rock/pop band, it was a perfect match for the lounge style music of Rachael Yamagata. The lead guitarist is very comfortable with his craft and the drummer put up a tight performance. Overshadowed by the rest of the musicians, the bassist supported with beautiful backing vocals.

The opening act, Jack and Rai (pronounced Ray), was competent and enjoyable. It is good to watch local pop performers that are just a little left field but not self indulgent enough to be inassessible. I hope they will have more opportunities to play to such a receptive crowd such as tonight’s.

The Esplanade Concert Hall’s acoustic kicks the butt of other live music venues in Singapore such as the hollow Indoor Stadium, and the outdoors Fort Canning Park. I hope more pop and rock acts will perform at the Esplanade. Circus seats in the extreme left and right of the stage are wonderful for such concerts.

I chanced upon Rachael Yamagata by Happenstance. Browsing through Tower Records (when they still existed) one day and saw it at the listening booth. As I listen to Aimee Mann, Lisa Loeb and Sarah Mclachlan, I gave her CD a spin and bought it immediately. Her albums share my cd drawer with Opeth and Franz Ferdinand.

Rachael Yamagata is my quiet time music. If you have the hobby of scuba diving like I do, you might also have the chance of being on a boat moored in a remote island in the middle of nowhere, where only the stars and the moon lit the world. Not something a city boy like myself gets very often. But for the last three years, I have found such a night on my dive trips and have put on her first album Happenstance.

Part of the appeal of her music to me, is that it reminds me of heartache. In a way, its in my collection of self flaggelation music (metaphorically, I am too old to be Emo). Watching her performing the same songs live, with the energy of a stage performance, and at quite a close proximity thanks to my friend’s savvy seating choice, has demystified her music a little for me. In its place, is a more solid idea of Rachael Yamagata the person, and her very real personality.

I look forward to listening to her music in the dead of night again, and hope to hear more new material, and perhaps watch her live yet again in a good venue like the Esplanade.

We get what we deserve

It has been over a week since the case of food poisoning at a Rojak store in Geylang Serai that has led to 152 people being warded in hospital and led to three deaths, two adults and an unborn child that was miscarriaged.

I was generally ambivalent to this news, considering it just very bad luck, until someone wrote in the Straits Times Forums today that it should not be happening in Singapore.

I have been fortunate not to have been affected by unhygienic food preparation methods when I have been overseas. I have shared a meal with a friend in Malaysia, where I turned out fine, and he had a whole night’s worth of the runs. I survived northern India, while my traveling mate, a doctor, suffered the Delhi Belly.

I am a firm believer in “la sap jia, la sap dua” literally translated from Hokkien as “eat dirty, grow dirty”, which kinda means that you gotta expose yourself to germs and bacteria to build an immunity. I stifled a laugh when my fruit juice store lady collected money and gave me change in her gloved hand which she used to handle the fruits.

We read about it in the news from the U.S.A. of salmonella and E.coli killing people. We are fully aware that hygiene is not the only factor in food safety, as demonstrated by the San Lu melamine tainted milk situation in China. We even experienced it ourselves in the recent past with the Prima Deli case.

But apparently salmonella and E.coli are a different kettle of fish altogether. And with the rush now for cheaper food because of a tougher economic landscape, food safety should not be compromised.

Singaporeans have a perculiarity. They have absolute faith in their government. This will not happen in Singapore because there are too many checks and balances. Well, it has happened, twice. Tainted foods will never reach our shores, they will be checked. Guess what, you do not see AVA hiring thousands of people to check food, do you?

Where was the NEA? Why did they not prevent this? is the refrain now, since a hawker’s son wrote to the ST Forum to complain that hawkers were not as closely watched as they used to be. Perhaps the NEA is busy checking for duty unpaid cigarettes, in which case, whoever rerouted the manpower from guarding food safety to being the Singapore Custom’s sniffer dog should bear some responsibility.

Rule with an iron fist, and you rebel. Turn my back, and you are up to mischief. People get what they deserve.

“O” level grads make S$6000

Do you want to make S$6000 a month photocopying paper and making coffee? All you need is an “O” level certificate! It is true! It is happening. But if you are not likely to ever get such a deal again.

In a certain national university in Singapore, and I am sure in many other large organisations, there are these lab technicians and administrative assistants who are making in the neighbourhood of S$6000 a month doing simple jobs. And they have done it so long, and been there as long as the living memory of any of the other staff that they seem like fixtures in the campus. Adored for their familiarity, a kind grandmother, a doting grandfather. They are unionized salaried staff in their 40s to 60s. With low education, but they had the old deal.

The old deal was simple. You start work when you are young, you are overworked and underpaid. You put up with that because you know that you will be getting paid more while getting less work as your years pile on. The same deal that people have had for decades.

Then the old deal was broken. Companies ended up with public listings and many share holders, and they had to justify costs. Gone were the iron ricebowls, no more job security. A hence, the young refused to be overworked and underpaid, since they see no future of being overpaid and underworked. The older folk who benefited from the old deal, were also the ones rich enough to be share holders.

We are still reeling from this transition, apparently there are still workers out there with the old deal. We read a lot about older workers being retrenched first. Of course they would be, if a manager looked at their pay and their workload, they would try to retrench people with the old deal first too. That is not to say that they will be meeting the higher pay expectations of young workers. This leads to the young wondering why they want to work so hard? There is no end-game in sight.

Then the government decided to allow en bloc sales of old private housing estates, primarily to encourage run down estates to be rebuild, also to meet the growing need for private housing among the young. But the en bloc sales, besides making speculators multi-millionaires, ended up giving even more money to retirees. Now there are retiree millionaires out there buying HDB flats for close to S$800,000. This further marginalizes the young people wanting to own homes, private or otherwise.

Young people have gotten a realization, not just through reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but from what they see around them. Property is the only game in town. Wages have inflated maybe 100% in the last 30 years but property prices have inflated 1000% to 3000%. You can work your knuckles to the bone to make $2000 or you can be a multi-millionaire property speculator.

By allowing the older workers and citizens to make more money for the same amount of work, and to become ultra-rich because of a simple decision in their early years, erodes the work ethics of the young people. The massive layoffs of the current economic crisis is hurting Singapore more than some of its neighbours because a large proportion of our population is involved in the financial sector, or has dipped into the property sector. Both sources of get rich quick jobs during the good times.

If you are the child of a middle income parent and have grown up in a big 5-room HDB flat, condominium or a landed property, there is a very high chance that, regardless of how hard you work, you would never be able to own a bigger house than your parents. That means in one way, you are not able to give your children a better life than your parents did.

The government wonders about why young people do not have more children. Perhaps if they were not so stressed out by housing and job woes, and felt that they can give their children a better life than their parents gave them, that they might just be able to have happy homes with laughing children.

Bonus is a five letter word

This intriguing article caught my eye today. This got my spider sense tingling and I cannot help but read between the lines.

Lim Boon Heng is a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, are these then the views of the Prime Minister’s Office? Are Singaporean Ministers, the highest paid ministers in the world, the best people to be articulating these views, in these times? This is a complete opposite view of Barrack Obama. Sure, Obama is trying to score political points at home, but these are sensitive and uncertain times. Is Singapore articulating a dissenting view from the position held by the current U.S. President?

Could he be preparing the ground for an announcement of some sort from our shores? Staving off possible outbursts locally? Singaporeans made themselves heard when they realised T.T. Durai had golden faucets.

The bonuses were paid after the companies got the government bailout money, and it happened after several embarrassing cases where some of these companies organised extravagent holidays and functions with bailout money. If I gave you a dollar and you spent it wastefully, am I right to perceive that you sent my money wastefully?

Are bonuses to bankers who have made gross negligence and lost the savings of millions of people deserving of a bonus? Are big bonuses in line with the current economic situation? Should we be showing bankers getting big bonuses kindness? Or should we instead of showing the victims of their gross negligence kindness?

The spin doctors worked overtime to associate AIG bonuses with the Singapore Kindness Movement. I have walked pass their office a few times in the MICA building. Just a simple door near the reception area. I imagine a handful of sanguine people sitting in there with a permanent half smile on their face. The arbiters of Singaporean Kindness. Did they see this coming?

It seems like the same kind of insensitivity to the sentiment of the public is demonstrated here, as it was when AIG decided to pay out the huge bonuses.

Making my way through Ho Chi Minh City

While I was only planning to write about the food places, I learned a few things that perhaps a new traveller to Ho Chi Minh City might like to know. So here are some tips for the new traveller.

Taxis

Apparently there are dodgy taxis and taxi companies out there. So my hosts recommend a few companies. Mai Linh, Vinasun, Vinataxi and Sasco. Some of these companies are co-owned by our very own Comfort-Delgro. Beware of the black taxis or if the meter is not at the top of the dashboard. Taxis start at about S$1.20 and a usual 30min ride goes to about S$8, so its quite alright.

Hotel

The hotel I stayed at was called Mai Hotel, situated in the heart of District 1 on Thi Sach street, a few units down from the famouse Apocalypse Now club.

It was brand spanking new, like a month old. The towels we got were never washed before, you know the feeling. It was a nice two star hotel with a 32″ LCD TV, a small fridge and a hair dryer. The double room with a hot shower is US$60 a night, and the single room with a bath tub is US$40 a night. There was a 20% discount for its launch. Breakfast is minimal but decent. So if you are traveling there soon, I recommend this new place. Hotels are sprouting out all the time, so it is always a good idea to choose the newer places.

Mai Hotel 4A-4B Thi Sach St, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1 (84-8) 38241695

www.maihotel.com.vn     info@maihotel.com.vn

Scalp Massage

There are many hair salons in HCMC that offers shampoo services and scalp massage. Most of them have beautiful staff wearing sexy dresses. They may do a passable job of giving you a shampoo, but they will inevitably ask you if you want to “massage baby”, or perhaps go even further. Some will tout with explicit business cards.

But if you are really after a good scalp and face massage and is not interested in any extra services, go to this place called Kim Hair Salon. It is owned by a male hairdresser with long pony-tailed white hair and moustache. I cannot attest to his cutting skills but his staff have got angelic hands. It is a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

A full one hour scalp and face massage and wash costs 100,000 dong. You should give the lady a 50,000 dong tip because thats where the bulk of their wages come from. It is very good value for the price.

Kim Hair Salon 52 Le Thanh Ton, District 1

Money Changer

Do not change too much Vietnamese Dong in Singapore, the rates are not favourable. The best place to change money is at Ben Thanh market in District 1. There is a jewelry shop that gives the best S$ to Dong rates. On the western side of Ben Thanh market, across the road, facing the central corridor of Ben Thanh market is this jewellery shop called Ha Tam. The sign is large, red and neonlit. The gold is visible from a distance. No, there are no signs stating that it is a money changer, but many Singaporeans living in HCMC change their money there.

I would also like to write down some casual and unsubstantiated observations I made about HCMC, just to share with everyone.

Tourism

While Ho Chi Minh City is the main tourist entry points into the country, the city, by and large, has not given itself over to tourism. HCMC remains a city for the Vietnamese, compared to some cities in S.E. Asia and even around the world.

Places like the Ton That Dam street market caters specifically to locals, and at least half of Ben Thanh market is targeted at locals. Toursist places such as museums, bars and hotels are sandwiched with street hawkers, and men playing chess on the floor.

Perhaps this ability to resist being overwelmed by tourism is a result of the large population of Vietnamese in HCMC and perhaps by the fact that, in the history of Vietnam, they have witnessed the coming and going of many nations and cultures.

Modernity

Since 1986, Vietnam has decided to engage themselves with the rest of the world. They have also engaged with modernity, but at their own terms. I do not use the term “embracing modernity” because, as history has shown, one can never tell who is embracing and who is embraced when wrestling with modernity.

HCMC ditched the bicycle for the moped and scooters. WiFi and the internet is not hard to find, neither are DVD players and LCD TVs. Most cities eventually evolve past the moped to cars, and eventually the traffic condition would force them to build some form of subway network. HCMC seems content to do things their way. The government’s condition on MacDonald’s to use Vietnamese beef for an operating license in the country is case in point. I’ll take Highland Coffee over Starbucks.

Having said that, HCMC is still very much in transition, more buildings are coming down to be replaced by modern ones, even if the architecture remains the same, the purpose change. By 2011, about a half dozen sky scrapers would, for the first time in history, stab into the HCMC skyline. What that would do to the life, vibrancy, and real estate prices of the city would be interesting to watch. The International Monetary Fund reckons Vietnam is still growing at 4.75% even in this global economic downturn.

Preserving History

It must have taken much foresight and a demonstration of the power Ho Chi Minh held over his troops that he decided and was able to enforce that the now Reunification Hall be untouched and left in the state that it was when it fell to the North Vietnamese army in 1975. I am not sure if there are many other such examples left in the world.

The same goes with the General Post Office. It remains a functioning post office even today, resisting the District 1 property prices that have skyrocketed around it. Having worked briefly in the Fullerton Building while it was under the IRAS, I cannot help but bemoan the fact that Singapore has not done the same, and left the Fullerton Building to be gutted by the Far East Organisation. As the Vietnamese have demonstrated, history can be preserved in spite of the rising pressures for development, it just needs the political will, and noone does political will quite like a Communist government can.

Communism

It is barely visible in HCMC. Besides the green uniforms of the Airport customs officers, you would barely see any signs of your archetypal communist regime here. The police wear a blue uniform in line with much of the world, and there are no military to be seen. Tourist areas have green uniformed Tourist Police, which supposedly, one should “tip” if one ever requires their assistance.

Propaganda posters only line the outsides of government and military buildings and everywhere else is either modernity in a way that will not look out of place in Singapore, or the sprawling local lifestyle that would be familiar with any one who has lived and traveled in S.E. Asia. Perhaps it is because Saigon was the last bastion resisting the Communists to the end, but more likely the shape and style of the government in Hanoi is vastly different from that in Moscow, Beijing and Pyong Yang.

They opened up to the world half a decade before Beijing did, and while they have not rocketed to modernity quite like many parts of China has, they have adapted their local ways to a market driven economy.

Touting

As compared to some other tourism driven cities in Asia, and even around the world, I found surprisingly little touting in HCMC. There is the usual wave of “would you like a taxi”, but by and large, everyone took no for an answer. I have only been accosted by one single motorcycle tour guide, but as a shrewd traveler, I asked for his number and sent him on his way.

Only in the blatantly touristified Ben Thanh Market was the touting noticable. Even there, it is much tamer than in its equivalent in Bangkok. The one exception seems to be the women selling T-shirts. They physically grab my arm and shoulder asking if I want to buy them. This is in stark contrast to the general female behaviour one expects in Asia.

Price

Ho Chi Minh City is not cheap. Sure you can get your 15,000 dong pho by the roadsides, but its not uncommon for Chinese owned restaurants to charge 40,000 dong. Cafe rates are just 20% cheaper than in Singapore, although alcohol is easily 50%-66% cheaper.

Chlorine can increase the Risk of Cancer

I got a brochure with this in the mail yesterday. And as you can see, it is typographically done to make an impact. “Chlorine Can Increase the Risk of Cancer”. The brochure is for water filtration systems. It got me wondering whether the chlorine in our water is something we should be worried about, and who can we trust? Is this yet another case of scaremongering?

The Public Utilities Board of Singapore, our water supply has stated in its opening page a very vague statement.

Safe To Drink From Tap

Due to sound watershed management, effective water treatment processes and continued investments in R&D, Singaporeans have been enjoying good quality water for the last four decades. Singapore’s tap water is well within the World Health Orgnisation drinking water guidelines, and is suitable for drinking without any further filtration.

“Without any further filtration” is the point there. What is the PUB’s stand on companies that sell water filters if they claim their water is “suitable” for drinking. I cannot find the methods in which they treat our water, nor is there any data on how much chlorine is in our water. Apparently our water is within the WHO guidelines, but WHO also states the increase of cancer risks with chlorinated water. Of course there are better ways to filter water, but at what monetary costs and how much would it change our lifestyles?

The interesting article from the Daily Mail in the UK states that the chlorine’s increased risk of cancer is not just in drinking water but in bath water, which pretty much renders the filters useless unless you buy one for every single tap in your house. Article here.

Or is it as one of the comments in the Daily Mail article has said, that it is a trade off, we need to bear a slight increased risk of cancer to prevent a higher risk of infections.

Public health is a matter of trade-offs. Is the number of people who will develop bladder cancer as a result of chlorinated water larger or smaller than the amount who would be killed by the microorganisms the chlorine keeps out? There is a lot of information in this article about the percent *increase* in bladder cancer – it fails to mention that the actual *rate* of bladder cancer in the population as a whole is around 2/10 of a percent. Compare that to the 1/3 infant mortality rate in less chlorinated times due directly to water-borne illnesses like diptheria.

- Thomas, York, 28/1/2007 17:43

The reason why cancer is such a big health problem these days is very likely the fact that we have conquered infections to a large degree. In the past infections killed off much more people, and at a much younger age than they do now. So we lived long enough to get cancer. When and if we do eventually conquer cancer, we would live long enough to get something else. Someone has done a statistical analysis that even if humans were to gain immortality, through medical science, the average age would be about 500, just by the chance of meeting a fatal accident.

I sent PUB an email asking about this. They finally replied with this.

Thank you for your feedback of 3 April 09.

We  have  received  similar  feedback  earlier  on  this  product  and have
requested the company to substantiate its claims. Please also note that PUB
does  not  regulate point-of-use water treatment or filtering devices.  PUB
potable  water  meets  the  World  Health Organisation (WHO) Guidelines for
Drinking  Water  Quality.   It  is  safe  for  life-long consumption and is
suitable  for all domestic purposes.  PUB water also exceeds other drinking
water  standards  or  guidelines  in  developed countries like the European
Union and USEPA Drinking Water Standards.

The  WHO  Drinking  Water  Guidelines are developed based on extensive long
term  scientific  studies  by  teams  of eminent scientists specialising in
their  particular  fields,  and  reviewed regularly by teams of independent
water  quality  and health experts and toxicologists, down the decades.  In
establishing  the  safe  values in drinking water which cover more than one
hundred  physical,  chemical and bacteriological parameters including toxic
compounds,  daily  intake  from other sources such as food and air are also
taken  into  consideration  and  factored  in.  What this means is that the
water  is  safe for drinking and other domestic uses if the water meets the
WHO Drinking Water Guidelines.

PUB  has  in  place an extensive and comprehensive water quality monitoring
programme.   Over  80,000  tests are conducted in one month alone, based on
290  parameters,  surpassing  the  96 specified by the USEPA and the 113 by
WHO.  Everyday, representative water samples are also taken from customers’
taps  at  different  locations  throughout the island and tests are done to
ensure  that  our water supply is of good quality and meets WHO guidelines.
The  quality  of  the  water  is also independently checked by the Director
General (Public Health), National Environment Agency (NEA).

PUB  would  like  to  assure  everyone  that  PUB water more than meets WHO
guidelines and is safe for life-long consumption.  There is no need for any
point-of-use  water  treatment  or  filtering  devices to further treat the
water for drinking or other domestic uses.

Although  the  use of point-of-use water treatment and filtering devices is
the  customer’s choice, customers must not be coerced into buying and using
such  devices  through  misleading  advertisements/demonstrations and false
claims  that  claim PUB’s water is unsafe for drinking.  PUB will act if an
equipment  vendor falsely claims that PUB’s water is unsafe for drinking in
order to promote the sale of his equipment.

For  info,  the  Agri-Food  and  Veterinary  Authority  of  Singapore (AVA)
regulates  POU  devices  to ensure that the quality of the water from these
devices  meets  WHO  Guidelines  and  is  fit and safe for consumption, and
requires  traders  to  ensure  that  their devices meet these requirements.
Traders are required to show proof that the water produced from the systems
is  safe  for  consumption  and  meets drinking water standards as and when
requested  by  AVA.   The  details  of  the officer in charge at AVA are as
follows:

Dr Wong Kwok Onn
Head
Survey & Safety Review Branch
Food Control Division
Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA)
Tel: 63251213
Email: wong_kwok_onn@ava.gov.sg