We thank Dr Rebecca Chan for her letter (Fathers have important role to play in parenting, Aug 26).

Indeed, a father's role and presence is crucial in shaping his children's psycho-social development or well-being. 안전놀이터

Children look to fathers for comfort and assurance whenever they feel insecure or uncertain.

When a father is more involved with his children from a young age, the children usually take a keener interest in learning in school.

Taking on an active fathering role also means being the supportive half to your spouse. Parenthood is an exciting, meaningful and fulfilling journey when both the mother and father work together as a team.

Each plays a different but complementary role in educating and nurturing the children. The mutual support given to each other will also ensure neither one of the parents is burnt out.

Community partners like the Centre for Fathering, with its "Dads for Life" movement, and Families for Life Council have been pivotal in promoting the importance of fatherhood, especially in helping to change some of the workplace policies that help new fathers be more involved at home or support their spouse. The Centre for Fathering also launched the "Mums for Life" initiative earlier this year to help mums support and encourage dads towards active parenting.

Apart from the national initiatives and movements, fathers can also find helpful online resources, ranging from tips to support their spouse emotionally and physically during pregnancy, to interactive videos teaching dads how to bond with their newborn or build good parent-child relationships.

The Baby Bonus Parenting Resources portal (www.babybonus.msf.gov.sg) provides a wide range of information for new parents with young children up to six years old, with topics tailored to different stages of their parenting journey.

FairPrice and McDonald's must be applauded for taking the initiative to reduce single-use plastic items (Plastic bag fee at some FairPrice outlets, Sept 5).

But there needs to be a far larger and more concerted effort if we are to seriously make inroads in our journey towards zero waste.

First, there should be less packaging for products. Neighbourhood provision shops, markets and specialised retailers like Unpackt already sell unpacked products like grains, meat and even detergent, allowing consumers to bring their own reusable containers.

The Government should incentivise other retailers to sell unpackaged consumables at more touchpoints in neighbourhoods.

Second, when packaging is unavoidable, then only recyclable packaging, like cardboard cartons, should be allowed.

Third, have communal composting bins conveniently located in every community to recycle food waste. These could support communal edible gardens, which could boost Singapore's food security.

Fourth, the rate of contamination is much higher for commingled recycling, so segregated recycling bins should be provided for every block instead of commingled bins. 인터넷바카라

To address the need to dispose of trash down rubbish chutes in a contained manner, only biodegradable trash bags should be used, and these should not be available for free. This would hopefully push more people to be more zealous in their recycling and composting, diverting such waste away from the landfill.

Finally, trash disposal should be charged on a per-use basis. Here, Singapore can tap technology.

Run a pilot test of smart communal chutes. To open the chute, one would have to scan one's NRIC or a QR code using one's phone at the chute. Each scan allows a registered household to dispose of one bag. Additional bags would require additional scans. The scans would than be charged on a monthly basis.

Banning or charging nominal amounts for single-use plastics is commendable. But there is still a long uphill climb ahead of us.

Forum contributor Juliana Foo believes that e-sports should not be accepted as a medal sport at the SEA Games (E-sports is not a sport by definition, Sept 6).

Ms Foo argues that e-sports poses no physical challenges. This is a hasty generalisation. As the e-sports scene has grown more competitive, athletes are adopting training regimens from traditional sports as these have been shown to improve their reflexes or to help them gain a competitive edge. 바카라사이트주소

Furthermore, many actual sporting organisations now have an e-sports arm in various games.

For example, big football clubs such as Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have sponsored e-sports teams in games like Rocket League and Dota 2, respectively. These clubs go so far as to call their sponsored e-sports players athletes as well.

Ms Foo assumes that a gamer just "sits and moves his fingers and eyes 12 hours a day, eating normal meals and not using his other muscles".

What she fails to recognise is that these e-sports athletes are honing physical traits that allow them to excel in the e-sports arena. This allows them to gain a strategic and skill advantage over their peers.

This is no different from Ms Foo's view of a traditional sport, where athletes "test their limits to achieve the best physical form".

Arguably, the bodies of e-sports athletes do not meet traditional notions of fitness.

This is again no different from traditional sports. Ms Foo should take a look at sumo wrestlers, pot-bellied pitchers in baseball or basketball player Nikola Jokic. One does not necessarily need to have an athletic body to excel in his sport.

Ms Foo's statement that it is unfair to label e-sports as sports, on the basis that "it is not a physical sport and should not be in the SEA Games or similar events like the Olympics", boggles the mind when you consider mind sports like chess and bridge. These two sports do not require physical exertion, yet both have been featured in past editions of the SEA Games and are recognised by the International Olympic Committee as sports.

Ms Foo is severely misinformed about the e-sports scene in general. 바카라사이트

Over the years, the scene has gained legitimacy as a proper and professional arena where players train hard as individuals or as a team and compete for prizes.

Much like how traditional sports started out as pastimes, e-sports is now seeing that same progression into professionalisation.

What does it say about Singapore when visitors do not hear the local accent in public announcements, interactive displays in museums and automated phone responses?

As these are all pre-recorded 인터넷카지노 voice messages, surely there are capable Singaporeans out there who can lend their voices to such services?

This year is Singapore's bicentenary and its 54th year of independence. Singapore is globally renowned for its education system, port, airport, banking system, housing and, most importantly, its competent and hard-working people.

One of its spoken languages is English, and top journalism and broadcaster positions are held by Singaporeans.

With a good number of them in such fields, I feel they can represent Singapore when it comes to public announcements and other pre-recorded messages.

I am not saying we should shun foreign voices per se. I simply believe it is time for our Singaporean voice to be the dominant one for announcements in public buildings and museums, as well as in telephone services.

Otherwise, visitors and even Singaporeans will be left wondering where Singaporeans' English ability and diction fall short.

I second Mr Chen Jiaxi's opinion that suicide is more than a mental health issue and that it should not be the sole jurisdiction of medical and mental health professionals (Suicide more than just a mental health issue, Aug 16).

The suicide rate of 8.36 per 100,000 Singapore residents last year is the highest since 2012,[1] and should spark much soul-searching about the efficacy of suicide prevention efforts in Singapore. 카지노사이트주소

In the heart-wrenching story of Ms Elaine Lek's tragic loss of her 17-year-old son Zen (Breaking the silence on suicide, Feb 24), it is worth noting that he took his life after being put on the potent anti-depressant Lexapro, having been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and mild depression.

Ms Lek's story is consistent with a systematic review by independent pharmaceutical watchdog Nordic Cochrane Centre that found that anti-depressants doubled the occurrence of events associated with violence and suicide[2]. The US Food and Drug Administration has, since last year, acknowledged that anti-depressants increased the risk of suicidality[3].The pharmaceutical industry has been downplaying the harms and claiming efficacy of drugs that do the exact opposite.

UN special rapporteur Dainius Puras also denounced the biomedical model in a report written this year. It is the biomedical model, through the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, that[4] has been responsible for the rampant prescription of anti-depressants to treat even the slightest feeling of sadness and anxiety.

Is this happening in Singapore? [5]Rather than heed these new warnings, psychiatrists in Singapore have doubled down on the biomedical model.

Our youth and most vulnerable need real help in the form of social workers and aid to resolve the social roots of suicide, such as bullying and financial duress, as well as help from competent psychotherapists well educated on the harms that biomedical intervention will bring.