PM: Economic rebound for Singapore
THE bulk of Singapore’s economy should be able to bounce back this year following the heavy hits it took last year with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on February 12.
Such a rebound will however be uneven, and Lee cautioned that sectors like tourism, transport, aviation and construction will take longer to recover.
“We are expecting some rebound this year. Last year was minus five to six per cent. That was particularly also because we had a circuit breaker period, which had a big impact on activity,” he told reporters at Changi General Hospital after visiting workers in essential services on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
“This year, we expect to bounce back,” he added. “The Year of the Ox should be better than the Year of the Rat in terms of the economy.”
But the prime minister added that while Singapore is likely to perform better, it is not guaranteed that it can get to an economic level beyond where it was in 2019, before the pandemic hit.
The most recent official forecasts project the economy to expand by between four and six per cent this year, after shrinking by an unprecedented 5.8 per cent in 2020.
The country’s recovery will depend on its progress in getting its people vaccinated, as well as the vaccination progress of other countries, particularly the US and Europe, said Lee.
Once these countries make progress on their vaccinations, their economies will be able to open up again, allowing Singapore to get much closer to normal, he noted.
Singapore’s economy depends heavily
on international trade.
But various sectors will recover differently, and Lee pointed out that transport, tourism and aviation, all of which were ravaged by coronavirus-related disruptions and the drop in international travel, will take longer to get better.
He said the construction sector has specific difficulties as well, due to the need for migrant workers and safe management measures, and the Government will be addressing these concerns separately.
His Chinese New Year visits, organised by the labour movement, have been an annual tradition to thank workers for putting their duties ahead of festive celebrations.
On February 12 morning, Lee, together with his wife Ho Ching and transport minister Ong Ye Kung, as well as National Trades Union Congress president Mary Liew, secretary-general Ng Chee Meng and union leaders, met Singapore Airlines (SIA) cabin crew and pilots who were flying to London and Manila, as well as support staff on shift at the SIA Cabin Crew Control Centre.
He then went to Changi General Hospital, to offer festive wishes to healthcare workers including doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and ancillary staff, and present Lunar New Year gifts, including red packets and mandarin oranges.
BENT over a centuryold machine, Tunisia’s sole artisan pipe-maker Anis Bouchnak carves smoking pipes from native briarwood, a craft passed down by his grandfather and father.
“I am proud to be the only pipe-maker in Tunisia,” said the craftsman, his hands roughened from his trade.
“But frankly, I would have liked to have competition, because this would have motivated me to progress.”
The Bouchnak family workshop was established half a century ago in Tabarka, a northwestern tourist town nestled in verdant hills that plunge towards the Mediterranean.
In 1968, Anis’s grandfather Chedly Bouchnak travelled to Switzerland and brought back a rasp, a drill and other woodworking tools to transform briarwood into smoking pipes.
But French pipe-makers refused to teach him their craft.
Determined, Chedly spied through the window of a workshop in Saint-Claude – the French city considered the capital of briar pipes – to learn the secrets of their manufacture.
Over the years, Bouchnak pipes have gained a certain renown.
But 37-year-old Anis, who had been living in France since he was a child and worked in the restaurant business, never imagined he would take up the mantle.
Then in 2011, after the death of both his grandfather and father, he returned to Tunisia and decided to reopen the workshop.
‘Passing on the torch’
A Tunisian pipe collector “passed on to me the passion for this work and showed me the future prospects of this trade,” he said.
He learnt the ropes from a master pipemaker employed by his grandfather, who died last year.
Now, Bouchnak makes pipes in his own original style – while not sacrificing functionality.
He is the only producer in Tunisia, and among the rare few in the region, to continue to make the pipes by hand.
The mountainous Kroumirie area in northwestern Tunisia is known for its briar – harvested from the root of the Erica arborea shrub, native to the Mediterranean basin and long used in French pipe factories.
Connoisseurs appreciate briarwood for its heat tolerance and neutral smell, which allows the smoker to better savour the aromas of the tobacco.
Bouchnak said his early customers – academics, lawyers, doctors and politicians – had made way for a clientele of collectors and diplomats “looking for something original”.
“It’s a whole market that’s mine,” he said. “But it’s a burden to be the only pipe-maker, because I’m responsible for carrying on this craft and passing the torch on to someone else.”
Bouchnak has taken on two apprentices and said there was plenty of work.
“Everything I make is sold straightaway.”
Soul, spirit
While many Tunisian artisans have suffered from the collapse in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bouchnak said he continued to get orders by offering “something other than the camel, the palm tree and the carpet”.
He said he found inspiration in the tinroofed workshop in a courtyard of the family home.
“With all these old machines, I have the impression of going back in time and... of preserving the traditional way of making pipes, like my father and grandfather before me,” he said.
“For me, it’s a workshopcum-museum that has a soul.”
His work starts with choosing a piece of briar burl – the blocks cut from the shrub root structure – from a room whose floor is covered by the family treasure: burls that have been drying sometimes for 20 years.
“I have enough to last me another 10 years” making two pipes a day, Bouchnak said.
The burl must first be cut, then boiled for 12 hours before it is left to dry for four to 20 years, its quality improving with age.
The artisan then drills the wood and shapes it with rasps and files before sanding it down.
“I could work with new machinery, it would make my job easier,” Bouchnak said.
“But I prefer to continue to work by hand, because there is a satisfaction in doing something that comes from the spirit and thehands.”
ARGENTINA fly-half Benjamin Urdapilleta set a new individual points record for the Top 14 on February 13, scoring 33 in Castres’ 48-17 win over Montpellier.
Noa Nakaitaci scored a hattrick of tries for Lyon but ended up on the losing side against Racing 92 while former New Zealand sevens international Ben Lam scored his first try since December as Bordeaux-Begles hammered Stade Francais 44-6.
Urdapilleta scored a try in each half and kicked four out of five conversions and five penalties to eclipse the 32 points scored by Cedric Rosalen for Narbonne in 2006-2007 and Bayonne’s Benjamin Boyet in 2012-2013.
“For the record, I didn’t know,” he joked after the game. “I knew I had scored 10 points with my two tries, but penalties, conversions, I don’t keep count. Thirty-three points is good for confidence, but I’ll remember the victory above all else.
“In the warm-up, I missed a few penalty kicks, but on the first kick in the match, I had a good feeling, the second one was the same, I asked myself: ‘will I kick 100 per cent today?’ But I put the last one against the post, maybe I put a little pressure on myself.”
Filipo Nakosi, Rory Kockott and Bastien Guillemin also crossed for Castres who clocked up their eighth win of the season. Montpellier remain 12th in the table.
Two-time Rugby World Cup winner Victor Vito’s La Rochelle ended Toulon’s 21match unbeaten run at home with a 29-11 victory at Stade
Mayol. La Rochelle reclaimed second and moved back to within three points of top-ofthe table Toulouse.
Racing 92 are level on points with La Rochelle as Teddy Baubigny, former Ireland wing Simon Zebo and ex-France fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc scored tries in a 34-26 home win over Lyon.
The man of the match though, was undoubtedly the Fijianborn France centre Nakaitaci who crossed twice in the first half and again just after the hour.
Lam, who joined Bordeaux from the Hurricanes this season, crossed as did lock Cyril Cazeaux, winger Romain Buros and Kiwi fly-half Ben Botica, who also kicked 22 points.
The home team, without France Six Nations squad members Cameron Woki and Matthieu Jalibert, dominated the opening quarter and led 16-3 after Cazeaux crashed over.
Bordeaux-Begles led 22-6 at the break as Botica added two penalties after two Joris Segonds efforts for the visitors.
Ten minutes into the second half Botica crossed in style.
Then substitute Jean-Baptiste Dubie off-loaded to Lam who crashed over in the lefthand corner with less than 20 minutes to go. It was his fourth try this term.
Buros added a fourth try to rubber stamp the bonus point win.
On February 12, South Africa’s World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe added a seventh try for the campaign in Toulouse’s 31-9 win over Pau.
GUTSY Naomi Osaka saved two match points to outlast Garbine Muguruza in a tense comeback on February 14 and reach the Australian Open tennis quarter-finals.
The third seed was on the verge of elimination at 3-5, 15-40 on her serve in the third set before rattling off four points in a row.
She then twice broke the serve of the two-time Grand Slam winner Muguruza to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 55 minutes of gripping action on an empty Rod Laver Arena, devoid of fans for the second day because of coronavirus restrictions.
“I felt like I was intimidated because she was playing so well,” said Osaka, who hit 40 winners but made 36 unforced errors.
“On the stressful points, I had to play within myself.”
Japan’s Osaka will now have an all-Asian quarter-final against Taiwan veteran Hsieh Su-wei, who upset 19th seed Marketa Vondrousova
6-4, 6-2 in the fourth round.
“I’m not looking forward to it, they are always long, tough matches,” said Osaka who sports a 3-1 record over the 35-year-old, who earlier made history by becoming the oldest player to make a lasteight debut in the Open Era.
Osaka and Muguruza, last year’s Australian Open runner-up, have five Grand Slam titles between them but surprisingly had never met on court before.
Muguruza had been showing the form that saw her top-ranked in 2017 and she proved a formidable challenge for Osaka, widely deemed a title favourite at Melbourne Park.
A pumped-up Osaka went all out in an ultra-attacking start and took an early break as Muguruza lost serve for just the second time in the tournament.
But a series of unforced errors allowed the composed Spaniard, who nailed 86 per cent of her first serves, to level the score before she took a decisive break in the ninth game.
She again broke Osaka early in the opening game of the second with a superb lob winner.
But the 2019 Australian Open champion Osaka settled, broke back in the fourth game and slowly wore down Muguruza to level the match.
The see-saw contest continued in a tense decider with Osaka unable to convert a break point in the fourth game only to subsequently drop her serve and slam her racquet to the ground in frustration.
After saving the match points she clinched gritty victory with only a muted celebration on an almost silent Rod Laver Arena.
Fake crowd noise had intermittently blasted courtside during the match as organisers decided to enliven the atmosphere after fans were barred until at least February 18 due to Melbourne’s snap, fiveday lockdown.