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Conscription; the compulsory enlistment of citizens of a country into the Army.

Historically, compulsory conscription enhances patriotism by creating a common experience shared and cherished.

Some countries which practice conscription are:
Israel
Greece
Finland
Sweden
Switzerland
Singapore
South Korea

“In the workplace and on the road, you can spot those who have done national service pretty quickly. They’re the ones getting things done while their non-conscripted colleagues stand around idly puffing on ciggies. The arguments against obligatory tours of duty are strong bu the positives for society outweight the negatives.”

Excerpt from Monocle, Editor-in-Chief, Issue 27, Volume 3, October 2009

In his argument, a modern national service need not be focused on sending troops to the front-line but instead help train youths to prepare for  natural disasters, terror attacks, peacekeeping operations and community support. This in turn could help keep UK youths away from petty crime, racism and anti-social behaviour. With a large immigration community, conscription would increase interaction the 18-21 yr olds of these communities and hence creating a greater integration.

Despite the trend in Europe for professional armies, a recent report by the Finnish Parliament stated conscription was “the central pillar of the national defence.” Finland currently has more than 300,000 soldiers in its reserve army, as compared to Sweden’s new target figure of 50,000. (They are preparing to end conscription and maintain a purely professional fighting force)

Photo taken during my National Service days as an Officer Cadet (i'm on the bottom right)

Having completed National Service in Singapore as an officer, I feel the benefits of having such a system. Be it the different types of people I met (out of my usual circle), the interaction between races, classes and backgrounds or the type language we speak. This breaks down all barriers in a multi-racial society, where all races live in harmony. Also, most guys who have completed National Service (NS), except clerks, would agree that NS has made us more disciplined, physically fit, neat & tidy, positive about life and patriotic. It has also built as sense of comrade amongst the other young men you go through thick and thin with. These bonds and friendships are for life, with experiences never to be forgotten and yet applicable in the market place.

And of course in times of crisis – natural disaster, terrorist attack, foreign invasion or even standing up for a friend in a pub, you feel confidently equipped with the skills/mental ability to handle whatever comes your way.

The Singapore Water Reclamation Study (NEWater Study) was initiated in 1998 as a joint initiative between the Public Utilities Board (PUB) and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR). The primary objective of the joint initiative was to determine the suitability of using NEWater as a source of raw water to supplement Singapore’s water supply. NEWater is treated used water that has undergone stringent purification and treatment process using advanced dual-membrane (microfiltration and reverse osmosis) and ultraviolet technologies. NEWater could be mixed and blended with reservoir water and then undergo conventional water treatment to produce drinking water (a procedure known as Planned Indirect Potable Use or Planned IPU).

Planned IPU as a source of water supply is not new. It has been practised in several parts of the United States for more than 20 years. At Water Factory 21, Orange County Water District, Southern California, high quality water reclaimed from treated used water has been injected into ground water since 1976.. [more...]

Water reclamation is a growing trend in the U.S. and around the world. In the U.S., there are several other water reclamation projects that are now being planned or under construction. Two of them are at Gwinnett near Atlanta, Georgia and at Scottsdale near Phoenix, Arizona.

Bottled for consumption

In 2001, PUB embarked on a new initiatives to increase water supply from unconventional sources for non-potable use. The use of NEWater for wafer fabrication processes, non-potable applications in manufacturing processes as well as air-con cooling towers in commercial buildings would free large amount of potable water for other potable purposes.

The reuse of treated used water is not new. In countries with long river systems, upstream communities use the water and discharge the used water after treatment back into the river. Successive downstream communities then reuse the water several times, before the river finally flows into the sea. Until recently, the constraint to greater recycling was cost. This is falling rapidly. New technology is producing superior filters and membranes, and this is significantly reducing the cost of microfiltration and reverse osmosis. It has become economically attractive to recycle used water on a large scale.

NEWater is supplied mainly for non-potable industrial and commercial uses in wafer fabrication plants, electronics factories and power generation plants. It is also used in the air-conditioning cooling systems of commercial and institutional complexes. In addition, NEWater supplements Singapore’s potable water supply via IPU. In February 2003, PUB started pumping 2mgd of NEWater into reservoirs for indirect potable use. It aims to increase this progressively to 10mgd or an estimated 2.5% of total potable water consumption by 2011. [more...]

OPPORTUNITY

This technology could be transferred to the Global South where clean drinking water is in shortage. And as a developed country, Singapore could take leadership in bringing clean drinking water to these countries which at the same time benefits Singapore’s image and influence with this use of soft power.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_transfer
http://www.pub.gov.sg/newater/Pages/default.aspx
http://coolinsights.blogspot.com/2007/05/newaters-nice-and-neat.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWater

Up to 320,000 people in London are already exposed to nitrogen dioxide levels above EU limits, according to the government.

For a grey cityscape like London/Hong Kong, there is a huge lack in urban greenery and too much pollution. With exception of parks, there are not a lot of trees being grown along the streets. Hence the adoption of vertical gardens/green walls, would be add a dose of nature to these cities. In Hong Kong, pollution at street level was six times worse than in 2005, while the air above the city got much cleaner. Hence, proving that the factories in mainland China are not the root cause of pollution in Hong Kong.

Britain has been breaking EU air quality laws on particulate pollution for three years and in July the EU demanded a detailed plan of how it will comply. Air pollution in big cities is worsening as motorists switch from petrol to diesel to save fuel. Particulate pollution from diesel engines is linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and asthma. Air pollution causes an estimated 32,000 premature deaths a year in Britain and between 157,000 and 319,000 people in London are exposed to nitrogen dioxide levels above EU limits, the government says. [more...]

The Toyota Roof Garden. Photo: Business Week, Japan.

Plants/grass are required on on new flat roofs in Basel, Switzerland. “If we steal the ground for a building,” says International Green Roof Association director Wolfgang Ansel, “we can give it back to nature on the roof.” [more...]

Green walls are found most often in urban environments where the plants reduce overall temperatures of the building which in turn reduces energy consumption. The primary cause of heat build-up in cities is insolation, the absorption of solar radiation by roads and buildings in the city and the storage of this heat in the building material and its subsequent re-radiation. Plant surfaces however, as a result of transpiration, do not rise more than 4–5 °C above the ambient and are sometimes cooler.

Living walls may also be a means for water reuse. The plants may purify slightly polluted water (such as greywater) by absorbing the dissolved nutrients. Bacteria mineralize the organic components to make them available to the plants.

Living walls are particularly suitable for cities, as they allow good use of available vertical surface areas. They are also suitable in arid areas, as the circulating water on a vertical wall is less likely to evaporate than in horizontal gardens. [1]

In some German cities green roofs are now a legal requirement for flat-roofed buildings with coverage rising by over 13 million square metres a year.

Research by the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge has found that “a layer of vegetation can reduce heat loss from buildings, cutting the wind chill factor by 75% and heating demand by 25%.”

However, advantages go beyond the eco-friendly. Obviously there’s the visual impact and pleasure of beautifying buildings but it can also provide screening, reduce noise and even have a positive impact on peoples’ health.

With it’s benefits and adaptability, I see huge potential in adopting this vertical garden concept to cities around the world which suffers from bad air pollution and have little land space to build public parks or plant trees. An immediate building that comes to mind which could do with a vertical wall is the London College of Communication. Image below shows the exterior of the school building which was temporarily covered with imagery for an exhibition but has not since been removed.

Source:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_wall

References:
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/mainen.php (French vertical wall gardener)
http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f5/vertical-gardens-living-walls-53838.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/plant_recipes/vertical_garden.shtml
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/15-living-walls-vertical-gardens-sky-farms/1202
http://www.1-hydroponics.co.uk/vertical-garden.html
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/environment/air_quality/index.jsp
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/03/eveningnews/main5361333.shtml
http://greenroofs.wordpress.com

DAILY TALK’s motto

In Monrovia, Liberia, a local has taken the liberty to inform the needy about the latest news happenings around the world. His “newspaper”, Daily Talk, reaches thousands of Liberians every day. However, this ‘newspaper’ takes the shape of a large blackboard located alongside a busy road in the capital, where drivers and pedestrians slow down to have a read/update. Big stories do causes traffic jams, where on a big news day (Visit of US President George W Bush) car crashes reportedly happened.

Alfred Sirleaf, personally writes the day’s biggest stories on the blackboard. The big stories goon the “front page”, centre of the blackboard, where the headline is written in six-inch-high letters.

The need for this news system came about in 2000, in the midst of Liberia’s civil war where the media was being controlled by different warring factions. Thus provided very biased and often contradictory infomation to the man on the street. The ‘Daily Talk’ office was in fact destroyed twice during the civil war.

On days when the UN are in the headlines, he lets the reader know by putting out a blue helmet.

Sources:
Images and info >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/herwigphoto/445402311/
Monocle, Issue 27, Volume 3, October 2009

OPPORTUNITY:

Due to the low cost nature of this service, it has huge potential to be replicated around the poorer/rural regions in Africa where the people have limited or no access to news around the world. A special news network could be set up to support these independent news service.

To make it commercialized, a possible partnership with sponsors/government bodies could make it possible for this service to be automatically updated via internet feed to a large LCD monitor, which is then solar powered to make it self sufficient. And to reduce risk of damage/theft, it could be encased in a plexi glass.

Promession is a new ecological burial method invented by Swedish biologist, Wiigh Masak (pictured). She named it promession because, she said, it was the promise to return to the earth what emerged from the earth.

The process is based on three steps:

1. Reducing the body of the deceased to a fine powder, thereby allowing subsequent decomposition to be aerobic. This is achieved by submerging the body in liquid nitrogen, making the remains so brittle that they shatter into a powder as the result of slight vibrations. The powder is then dried, reducing the deceased remains to around 30% of their original body weight.
2. Removing and recycling metals within the powdered remains.
3. Shallow-burying the powder in a biodegradable casket.

The powder is buried approximately 20cm under the ground in a corn starch case and is absorbed into the soil between six and 18 months later. Several countries, Sweden, South Korea, Canada and Germany have expressed interest in the system.

With traditional methods of burial, people’s bodies either rot or are burned. Many people find promession more appealing and less frightening than cremation. It is a nice thing to imagine giving new life after your death – to a flower, for instance. It’s also important that we humans don’t destroy nature. Casket burial affects groundwater negatively and cremation creates problems with emissions.

Promession solves the problem of land shortages for graves as there are no remains left in the bround after 1.5 years after burial.

As cremations account for about 70 per cent of the 650,000 funerals in Britain every year, the negative environmental effect of mercury emissions from crematoria has become a cause for concern.

Sources:
Monocle, Issue 27, Volume 3, October 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promession

http://www.naturalwayburial.org.uk/page6.htm

OPPORTUNITY:

Land scarce countries/cities like Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York would benefit from this new ‘burial’ method

It is all about winning the hearts and minds of people.

There are many options/means for nations to have a foot in the door of rival Capitals. Be it the playground, an art gallery, involvment in the arts and cultures or launching your very own news channel (Iranian TV, Al Jazeera English). Government backed news channels as it seems, have been the fast track option of choice with developed countries (BBC, CNN).

As such, most countries these days prefer to assert their own international identity “with artists not armies”.

One good example of this would be Beijing’s Confucius Institute.

Confucius Institute, China
Founded in 2004 and takes Chinese culture worldwide to hungry sinophile students.
Programmes are primarily focused on language instruction but also include cultural events around major Chinese festivals and sponsorship of art performances. Currently it has 339 institutes in 83 countries, with 1,500 teachers sent from China plus several thousand local staff.

There are 92 institutes in 26 countries in Asia; 91 institutes in 11 countries in the Americas, 11 institutes in Austrailia and New Zealand, 122 institutes in 28 countries in Europe and 23 institutes in 16 countries in Africa. The network of institutes were designed to breed familiarity with China via language studies and cultural programmes to teach the world that China is not just about Tiananmen or Tibet.

Being the world’s third largest economy, China has an increasingly larger role to play in a global standing. It’s influence hence since increased many folds. However, China has a bad image problem as an authoritarian dictatorship run by the Communist Party.

:: INTERVIEW::

Wang Yongli
Deputy Director-General of the Confucius Institute in Bejing

Monocle: Why was the Confucius Institute set up in 2004?
… We want to learn with other countries very much. But there are still some foreign friends who don’t know us well, so we hope through cultural activities they will come to know and understand us…

Monocle: What is the Confucius Institute role?
China is like a giant that has suddenly appeared in civilised society and some foreign friends want to know about our culture and language. We began the institute so they can get to know us and we can communicate with each other. Chinese culture is the only one that has been non-stop for 5,000 years. As a part of world culture, we should help create a more harmonious world.

Source: Monocle, Issue 26, Volume 3, September 09

British Council
Set up in 1934

Rebecca Walton
Director of Arts, British Council

Monocle: How do you see the position of the arts in the British Council since taking up the directorship in 2008?
We’ve really been striving to pull it right back alongside the main purpose of the British Council, which is cultural relations. The arts are the most powerful tool you can have to build a dialogue discussion across boundaries. It was only very recently that I heard a member of the Foreign Office say for the for the first time that arts are now as important as sanctions in the toolbox.

Monocle: How important are diplomatic relations to the council?
We want people to become more inclinded towards the UK and more sensitive to the positive benefits of the UK in the world.

Source: Monocle, Issue 26, Volume 3, September 09

OPPORTUNITY

These soft approaches to “cultural imperialism” could be adopted by big and backward world power, Russia as it would highly benefit their old Soviet Union image/stigma.

According to the Young People’s Social Attitudes Survey, political interest among young people was low in 1994 and even lower in 1998 when only one in three teenagers aged 12 to 19 years old expressed an interest in politics. Although interest in politics has also decreased among adults, they reported more interest in politics than their younger counterparts. However, people in education were more likely to be interested in politics. Teenagers were also less likely than older adults to have formed an attachment to a particular political party. This attachment was crucially influenced by the political affiliation of their parents. [1]

[1] http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=5204

(Extracted from Monocle Issue 26, Volume 03, September 09)

Norway is re-engineering the way its citizens engage at the voting polls. During its parliamentary election in August and September, the ministry of local government and regional development is trialling a new look. Libraries, gyms and school halls in four municipalities – Kongsberg, Bomlo, Trondheim and Lenvik – are being transformed into slick polling stations thanks to a far-reaching industrial and graphic design package.

The revamp is by a trio of design groups – Blueroom Design Studio, Innovativoli Industridesign and Kadabra Produckt Design. The team were appointed to the project last year after winning a competition led by Norsk Form, a foundation set up to promote Norwegian design and architecture.

Rebranding the election system puts design at the very heart of the democratic process. A strong electoral identity is vital – it not only reinforces national values, it is a way to ensure fair and transparent voting.

Container deposit legislation are laws passed by city, state, provincial, or national governments that require that a deposit on carbonated, milk, water or alcoholic beverage containers be collected when the beverage is sold. When the container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or the original seller in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partially or completely refunded to the consumer.

Deposits that are not redeemed are often used by the governmental entity involved to fund environmental programs; sometimes they are used to cover the costs of processing returned containers. In the United States, these laws are also popularly called bottle bills after the Oregon Bottle Bill, the first container deposit legislation passed in the U.S.

Efforts to pass container deposit legislation in the 39 states that do not have them are often politically contentious. The U.S. beverage container industry — including both the bottlers of water, soda, beer, and the corporate owners of grocery stores, and convenience stores — often spends large amounts of money in the United States lobbying against the introduction of both new and amended beverage container deposit legislation.

Studies show that beverage container legislation has reduced total roadside litter by between 30% and 64% in the states with bottle bills.

Studies also show that the recycling rate for beverage containers is vastly increased with a bottle bill. The US beverage container recycling rate was 39.4% in 2001. States with bottle bills recycle approximately 78% while states lacking bottle bill legislation only recycle approximately 23%.

In some states, such as California, the unredeemed bottle deposit money is put into a fund which provides grants for curbside recycling programs, clean up, and other related causes. [1]

EUROPE

Container deposit legislation is widespread in Scandinavia. In some cases it replaced legislations which forbid the selling of some types of beverage containers, particularly aluminium beverage cans.

Norsk Resirk is the non-profit system founded 3 May 1999 and co-owned by various organisations in trade and industry that handles the depositing and recycling non-refillable plastic bottles and beverage cans in Norway. The Norwegian system works in such a way that the excise tax decreases as the returns increases, meaning that for example 90 per cent returns for cans translates into a 90 per cent discount on the excise tax. This again allows drink products to be sold at lower prices.

In 2005 93% of all recyclable bottles and 80% of all drink cans in Norway returned into the deposit and recycling system. That year also saw 280 million NOK in deposits being paid for the return of 194 million cans and 49 million bottles.

Deposits on drink containers have a long history in Norway, starting with deposits on beer bottles in 1902. The deposit back then was 0,06 NOK (3,30 NOK in 2006 currency value). This deposit arrangement was later expanded to include soft drink bottles.

Up until 1 January 2001 the Vinmonopolet government wine and spirits monopoly chain had deposits on products made by the company itself, this did not include imported products.

Today drink containers can be returned and deposits retrieved at over 9,000 establishments in Norway, and there are almost 3,000 reverse vending machines where drink containers can be exchanged for receipts that can be cashed in at the counter. Most reverse vending machines in Norway are manufactured by Tomra Systems ASA.

When you buy drinks in bottles or cans in Scandinavia, check for the recycling symbol on the container. It’ll guarantee that you get cash back: For example, in Denmark you get back up to DKK 3.00 and Sweden offers up to SEK 4.00. In Norway you receive NOK 2.50 for large bottles and cans.

You can find these recycling machines at most shops and gas stations. Insert your bottle or can, and when you’re done, the recycling machine prints you a slip. Take it to the shop’s cash register to get your cash. You don’t even have to buy anything there.

Recycling plastic bottles and beverage cans is very popular in Scandinavia. In Norway, a whopping 92% of all cans and 82% of plastic bottles are returned. And if there’s free cash involved, why not do it? [2]

OPPORTUNITY

Recycling is not very big in UK at the moment despite the availability of recycle bins and refuse chutes along the streets and neighbourhoods. It could be further improved by providing incentives for citizens who do recycle their bottles/cans and in turn receive some spare change. In addition to saving the earth, this would also greatly reduce the amount of litter in the streets as every bottle or can lying in the streets or bus are monetary opportunities for anyone. This might even be a form of income for the homeless too.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container-deposit_legislation
[2] http://goscandinavia.about.com/b/2008/05/22/getting-free-cash.htm