Public Housing Policy in Singapore - 507 Words

1 INTRODUCTION The Singapore public housing policy since its establishment has proved to provide shelter for the population and has contributed significantly to the economic, social and political development of Singapore. This policy has been the benchmark for the best public housing by other countries notably China and Hong Kong (Yang, 2010; Wong, 2011). The public housing policy implementation has been spearheaded by Housing and Development Board (HDB) to tackle post war economic problems such as rapid population growth, high unemployment rate and a critical shortage of sanitary housing (HDB, 2014). The policy was also aimed to mitigate social problems such as riots and strikes among the different ethnic groups (HDB, 2014). The success story of public housing policy implementation lies in the higher economic growth and social stability of Singapore. Economic growth saw 82% of the population live in 879,000 HDB flats located across 23 towns and estates with home ownership rate at 95% high (Department of Statistics, 2014). In terms of social stability, the policy implementation has freed Singapore from race riot since 1969 (Department of Statistics, 2014). However, rising issues and concerns of ageing population, income disparity and higher housing price have destabilized Singapore’s public housing policy (Population White Paper, 2013). In light of these challenges, new measures and directions have to be introduced by the Government to keep public housing policy relevantShow MoreRelatedThe Public Housing Authority Of Singapore1461 Words   |  6 PagesHDB, the public housing authority of Singapore, was established in 1960. The authority had grown rapidly in size and responsibilities-from initially meeting the basic shelter needs of 6% of the population to, in 2007, providing quality homes for 81% of a 3.7 million population. Due to land scarcity, its high-rise, high density living provided an effective solution to meeting housing needs for Singapore. HDB had a comprehensive building program, under which 984,000 apartments had been completed asRead MoreThe rapid rise of economies in Asia over the past few decades has been phenom enal. According to1200 Words   |  5 PagesThe rapid rise of economies in Asia over the past few decades has been phenomenal. According to (Steven, Jeffrey and Jong-Wha, 1997), Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia grew at an average of over 5.5% per year in per capita terms between 1965 and 1990. The mentioned 08 Asian countries are also known as the eight high-performing Asian economies (HPAEs). 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As the population grows, rising expectations from residents are creating new challenges for housing planning and provision (tcdc2Read MorePrivate Investments in Human Capital Growth in Asian Countries683 Words   |  3 PagesThis essay will be explaining that why macroeconomics stability is one of the key success factor that contributes to the tremendous economic growth in the last forty years of development in asian countries like singapore, hong kong and south korea. The objective of a government economic policy is to achieve stability. A volatile business cycle is not ideal to the economy as the rapid growth of an economy with high demand and inflation will lead to a recession as the long term inflationary growth willRead MoreSingle Parents in Singapore1164 Words   |  5 PagesSINGLE PARENTS IN SINGAPORE In 2006, the MCYS Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan highlighted four main trends among families in Singapore. 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To ensure macroeconomic stability, fiscal policy, which is the usage of government expenditures and taxes, and monetary policy, which is the changing of interest rates and quantity of money in the economy, and supply-side policies, that look into the strengthening the production capabilities of companies, have to be implemented by the government. To build long-term economic growth,Read MoreKey Characteristics Of The Housing Development Board Of Singapore1192 Words   |  5 PagesThe public housing authority, Housing Development Board (HBD) was a very important aspect to Singapore’s basic shelter needs. In 2007, basic shelter needs were used for 3.7 million of Singapore’s population. Singapore is considered a city-state in South East Asia where the government is heavily involved. As a non-profit organization, the local government is responsible for overseeing and administering certain decisions and responsibilities of Singapore’s public housing. The Housing Development BoardRead MoreEconomics - How a Shrinking Gdp Affects the Economy of Singapore1542 Words   |  7 Pagesarticle by Channel News Asia dated 13 July 2012, it was reported that Singapore s GDP contracted by 1.1% on a Quarter-on-Quarter seasonally-adjusted annualized basis, compared to the 9.4% expansion in the preceding quarter. The weakened growth momentum in Q2 was mainly due to a sequential contraction in the manufacturing sector. The sector declined by 6.0% reversing the 20.9% expansion in the preceding quarter. Annex A Singapore is an open economy with high trade to GDP ratio of 2.3 times (GDP 2011

Kings Speech Free Essays

Jordan Blume Blume 1 22/09/11 The Kings Speech Review Refurbished History The King’s Speech is a moving film which provides viewers with an auto- biographic view on King George VI’s reign to power. Set in the 1930’s, The King’s Speech accurately conveys a believable setting and experience through the acting and camera work. Every emotion portrayed by the characters can be witnessed and felt first hand. We will write a custom essay sample on Kings Speech or any similar topic only for you Order Now One can literally feel for the characters and perhaps even relate at some points. Berty’s stubborn and quick tempered personality make it difficult for him to succeed, until he meets Lionel, an elderly man who sees something in Berty, the potential for greatness. Lionel stands by Berty; helping and pushing him outside his comfort zone, trying to eliminate or at least control his speech impediment. The title of King George VI is Berty’s and with Lionel’s help, the two work to overcome the odds and live up to the standards that are king. The Kings Speech is deserving of all the awards it received because it is a great movie. The historical content is accurately portrayed through flawless acting, sensual music, and lessons that anyone can learn from and appreciate. The visual and emotional experience overwhelms viewers making this an enjoyable and award deserving movie. Blume 2 After watching The Kings Speech, one could say that it had an unexpected appeal to it; not something that you would normally like, but did for some reason. Its easily seen the time and energy that was put into the movie, as the scenes all flowed nicely, the music matched what was happening, and the emotions were felt beyond the screen. Even the camera work is well done and edited in a way which strengthens the overall finished product. â€Å"This is art, not just cinema. He doesn’t frame everyone in the middle or even just to one side or another, he uses the colors, the atmosphere, the sets, every detail on the walls and everything around them to bring the entire frame, and subsequently the entire film, to life with a stunning elegance. [Alex Billington] Tom Hooper, the director, was nominated for Best Director, and won rightfully so. He adequately transformed history into a present day master piece, while still accurately displaying past events truthfully and with great detail. Drama films tend to drag on, not keeping the attention of most for very long, this is not the case with The Kings Speech. The character Lionel, although not the main character, kept the movie going at a good pace with his witty humour, always sarcastic tone, and comforting personality. Berty’s character, on the other hand, rectified the same feelings only in a different manner. Berty is a negative character, while Lionel is more positive, and viewers can without doubt feel the struggle the future king has to go through. Anxiety, pressure, doubt, and giving up are all aspects which can be felt outside the screen. A good film is able to make the audience think and feel alongside the characters on the screen. The Kings Speech definitely does this through great acting, directing, and the obvious time and energy spent creating this masterpiece. Blume 3 The title that is King, is passed down from generation to generation, granted that its kept in the family. This is what happened in The Kings Speech, which is based off true events. Colin Firth plays the king, and all throughout the duration of the film we see him partaking in what seems to be a life or death struggle, with his stammer. He was born into a royal family, which didn’t help the situation at all, and thus is expected to fulfill his duty with speeches and public matters. â€Å"The highest of distinctions, is service to others. [King George VI] One will notice that after it is official Berty is to become king, the characters struggle seems to take an immense downward spiral, until meeting his speech therapist and future friend; Lionel. The kings stammer seems to have rooted from past events, which haunt him to the present day. This could perhaps hold true, as Berty becomes disoriented and defensive when being pushed outside his comfort zone. Nevertheless, Li onel does just this, allowing Berty to do things he never thought possible. Berty and Lionel share a unique bond; that which is different yet more recognizable, from the other characters in The Kings Speech. They meet early on, when characters are still being introduced, thanks to Berty’s wife; Elizabeth, who sought out help for her troubled husband. An unlicensed speech therapist, being Lionel, decides to take on the King’s problem after meeting with him. The two clash heads initially until things start to take a turn for the better. Berty has an impulse which tells him he cant do things, whilst Lionel is that voice that is pushing him and telling him that he can in fact overcome his mental block. â€Å"-who’s unconventional techniques helped the second in line Blume 4 o the British throne gain his ’voice‘. † [Gloria Goodale] Berty seems to think that he is unable to beat his flaw, damaging his ego more every time he fails. Prior to Lionel, his therapists seemed to only target the direct problem without going deeper to find out why the problem exists in the first place. In order to dig deeper, Lionel pushes Berty outside of his comfort zone which he carefully built up over the years, allowing Lionel deeper entry into the problems core. It takes a strong mind to deal with mental and psychological issues, and an even stronger mind to overcome those burdens. Berty, or rightfully; King George VI, beat the odds and overcame his underdog status by allowing his problem to be explored and treated by the right person. The Kings Speech is not only a movie, its an enjoyable experience for the eyes, ears, and mind. Through stunning and artistic camera work, to superfluous directing, this film is more then worthy of the awards it received; including best picture, best director, best actor and best original screenplay. Emotions can be felt outside the screen and within the viewers as they witness the cinematic masterpiece that is The Kings Speech. The director, screenplay writer, editors, and actors all deserve the awards they received for their marvellous and exorbitant performances. After taking into account all that has been noted, one must make the decision themselves; but over all, it cannot be argued that the Kings Speech is a movie that will go down in history. Works Cited Blume 5 Billington, Alex. Toronto Review: Tom Hooper’s Exceptional ‘The King’s Speech’. September 20. 2010. 20/09/2011 Brit Royals. Royal Family History. (King George VI) 20/09/2011 Goodale, Gloria. The Real Story Behind ‘The Kings Speech’. The Christian Science Monitor. February 16. 2011 19/09/2011 How to cite Kings Speech, Papers

Many depth cues are monocular. So why do we have two eyes free essay sample

Human beings perceive a three-dimensional world however the image projected to the retina is two dimensional in form (Howard 1995). A number of visual cues allow human beings to perceive depth in the world around them letting the brain to distinguish between objects that are close, and those that are far away. Binocular cues, such as stereopsis and convergence, afford depth information when both eyes are viewing a scene. Monocular cues on the other hand afford depth information when a scene is viewed with one eye. Since human beings have two eyes instead of one there must be an advantage to having two eyes. This essay will describe some binocular cues and their functions and secondly describe monocular cues and their functions. It will be argued that there is a definite advantage having binocular depth cues (Ciuffeda, 2002). Depth perception is important because it means that human beings can distinguish the distance between objects (Zijiang Teng ,2000). For example, people need to be able to perceive depth when they cross a road without being hit by an approaching car. Convergence is a binocular depth cue that allows people to perceive absolute depth (McFadden, 1994). For example, when a bowler in a game of cricket has to determine the distance between them and the batsman in a game of cricket, they would use convergence. Primary cues such as convergence relate to a physiological process of the visual system. When the eye is fixated at an object and that object is getting closer to the nose, both eyes would converge inwards. To evaluate whether convergence is an advantage for having two eyes because of this action an individual would be able to judge an object is coming closer to them. For instance a bee coming towards a person face, the person would be able to judge the actual distance of how close the bee is to them. However, a limitation of this cue is that it only estimates close distance and not far distance accurately. Retinal disparity is a binocular depth cue that occurs because the image viewed by the left and right eye is at slightly different angles due to their positioning 6. 6 cm apart from each other. The two images are fused together creating stereopsis. This allows the human being to perceive relative depth because the person only has a rough estimate of the difference from themselves and the object. When objects are at a crossed disparity they appear closer than the object being focused on whilst objects at uncrossed disparities appear further away than the object being focused on. When an object appears at crossed disparity the image seen by the right eye is moved to the left and left image that is viewed in the left eye is moved to the right. Objects at uncrossed disparity have the opposite effect, this is when both eyes are fixated on the nearby object and the object in the background has separate images In this case, the object that is viewed by the right eye is moved to the right and the object that is viewed by the left eye is moved to the left. In all, this gives a relative estimate of the distance of the object and the individual (Snowden, Thompson, Troscianko, 2012, page 201). This helps a person to estimate if an object is further away from them and then demonstrates the disparity of each eye is sending a different message and then overlap these images to be seen as one three dimensional image. This is another important advantage of having two eyes as both crossed and uncrossed disparity helps an individual to understand the relative distance between them and an object. The last depth cue that will be discussed is parallax. The appearances of different objects at different distances are perceived differently because both eyes project slightly differences of the object (Rogers Graham, 1979). For instance, when driving a car the nearby telephone poles go past faster than the trees in the distance. Not all depth cues require the use of both eyes. Monocular depth perception also provides cues to absolute and relative depth. An example of a monocular absolute depth cue is accommodation. When the object moves closer to the eye this leads to a feeling of strain in the eye, this indicates the depth of an object is coming closer. This is also a primary cue as it relates to the physiology of the visual system Mather, (2009) page 268. This is important on how the physiological system in a person body is a benefit for an individual to adapt in to the environment. This involves the lens of the eye changing shape in order to have a more accurate image of the retina. There are four monocular cues that relate to relative depth. Firstly, linear perspective occurs when small objects seem to project a far image on to the retina compared to those object that are nearer (Zelanski, Fisher, 1988). For instance, would be railway tracks; it seems the two parallel tracks are merging with each other at the distance. Secondly clarity, that the nearer the object is the more clearly it looks to an individual compared to something further away as it would look more blurry and unclear. Such as looking at a landscape, the mountains seem to be blurred while the near objects seem to look clear. This is important depth as it gives a relative indication of the distant to the person what is near and distant to them. Furthermore, this could also be without the need of the cue, if a person was to see a blurry picture, the person’s judgement of the picture would be it was taken from a distance far away. However, with this perception there is no actual depth information is provided, if the image is taken close or further away (tilt shift perception. ) However, a limitation of this depth cue is that it could cause driving in fog to be more dangerous because the driver might think it is far away from braking but we not really judging from the frog. Another depth cue is occlusion. This is when the object is blocking another object that objects is perceived to be nearer. This is important depth cue because an individual knows when some part of the object is not showing due to the overlap of the other object it is not displayed. For example when a person sees another friend move behind a table and would able only to see the front half of the body, the person would still assume the friend still had two legs due to prior experience. However, a limitation of this depth cue it does not provide how far the distance is from the person to the object. The final monocular depth cue that will discussed is relative size is another depth cue, if an object seems further away from the eye the image seems to be smaller, in this situation person would perceive the object as smaller than the object coming close as it would perceive it as bigger. One limitation of this cue is only useful when the person knows the actual size of the object. Finally, there is also monocular motion parallax, the perception of depth would be perceived differently if one eye was closed and whilst moving (Rogers Graham, 1979). For instance if a person is fixated on a finger with both eye and then shuts one eye and moved the depth of the finger would change. The benefit of having two eyes as opposed to one is not entirely clear. Firstly, with two eyes due to retinal disparity a person is able to detect better acuity of the depth of the object. This is because there is more depth information coming in compared to single eye. This can be demonstrated by holding a pencil length on its side of each hand, with one eye closed they would try and touch both pencils together; the person is more likely to miss. This suggests with both eyes open, this would give a better depth perception. Supporting this was a study from Melmoth and Grant (2006) they analysed the natural reaching and grasping of objects of monocular conditions (one eye sighted) and binocular condition (two eyes present. ) In this task participants had to reach and grasp list items of normal house hold objects under normal lighting conditions. The results demonstrated that participants with more binocular cues were more accurate and made fewer errors than monocular cues for reaching and holding the objects. They concluded due to binocular disparity, they have the depth information from both eyes; participants were more accurate with these motor movements compared to monocular. With two eyes a person has the advantage of a wider field of vision (Ogle, 1964); this would help the individual to adapt to the environment especially on practical tasks such as driving. A person with two eyes is better to identify an object in the dark by 40% better compared to one eye closed (Rodgers, 1983). This could be interpreted as an evolutionary advantage and necessary for survival. Furthermore, having two eyes compensates for having a blind spot. This disparity increases information for the brain to interpret the surroundings, therefore leading to better depth perception. For instance, a person perceiving with one eye had a situation that they could not be able to see clearly, for example due to dryness on one eye other eye can take over and see things more clearly. Lastly, a person with two eyes would have the advantage if one eye was damaged then would have a spare eye to able to use (Ciuffreda, 2002). Therefore, binocular cues are more of an advantage than monocular cues and this would be demonstrated in the task if a person was shooting a basketball. It is likely to be more accurate in the long run with two eyes open compared to one. Stereopsis allows a person to view three-dimensional films cinemas due to retinal disparity people get from both of their eyes. This is produced by getting two views in the same scene and by projecting this by special system in the audience glasses). This sends information to the right and left eye and the brain perceive (not sure diffuses is the right word here) them together giving the viewer a strong illusion of depth in and out of the screen (DeAngelis, 2000). This is important because having two eyes provides a person to see the world in 3D. However, people who have stereoblindness, caused by a strabismus can adapt to the environment perfectly due to the monocular depth cues. This perhaps suggests the use of binocular depth cues is not necessary and therefore two eyes are not better than one. Many artists use monocular cues to provide depth in their paintings. Furthermore, artists prefer looking at paintings with the use of only one eye due to better perceived depth as binocular vision could lead to cue conflict this would flatten the scene (Pirenne, 1970). This is because binocular vision sees all objects in similar depths whereas monocular vision shows a wide range of depths. To summarise, the essay began by describing binocular cues and how important these are for depth perception. Convergence is important for an individual to judge the absolute depth of an object in order to realise when it is closer to them. Retinal disparity is important to judge relative depth of objects when they are further or nearer to the person. On the other hand, there are many monocular cues to provide absolute (accommodation) and relative depth such as linear perspective. It was agreed in the end having binocular vision does have a greater advantage compared to monocular vision. This is because binocular vision provides wider vision field, this is an advantage when adapting to an environment, for instance driving a car. Furthermore, binocular vision would have greater advantage when identifying objects in the dark. Lastly the advantage for a person to have two eyes would be if one was eye was damaged they would have a spare eye to use. However, in some circumstances monocular vision could be seen as more beneficial over binocular vision. For instance, artists prefer to look at a painting with one eye compared to two eyes due to the cue conflict with binocular disparity. Overall both depth cues play an important role in allowing the person to perceive depth. Whilst binocular vision has a greater advantage one cannot ignore the importance of monocular cues as they are equally as important for a person to perceive depth perception.