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24-06-2013, 07:50 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
<div>Lesson 1: People desire precise real time information.
There is a great amount of confusion over the different indicators that NEA has provided over the past week. There is the 3 hourly average PSI reading, 24 hour average PSI reading, and the PM2.5 reading, along with all their associated health advisories. In a bid to obtain hourly readings, many people have resorted to constructing their own excel sheets and graphs (such as this), second guessing what exactly are the hourly inputs that NEA uses.
The ministers themselves did not help their own cause when Min(MEWR) Vivian Balakrishnan (VVB) held a press conference and said something to the effect of “we should not be fixated on the numbers”, and when Grace Fu said that the 24 hour PSI reading is a better gauge of the haze’s health impact. Bloggers like TheHeartTruths also disputed VVB’s message, saying that other countries published hourly readings. This prompted a clarification by MEWR.
The problem is that all this is unnecessary and confusing. While NEA and MEWR were concerned about getting the correct readings to gauge the impact on people’s health, many people were primarily concerned about getting the best precise real time reading to decide on their course of action for themselves and for their families. Should I still honor that appointment in the next one hour? Should I bring my mask? Should I go swimming? Is it OK to go to the neighbourhood wet market to shop in the morning? The government and the people were basically not talking to each other. One yelled “I want hourly readings to know what to do!” while another just stuck with “24hour readings are best measures of health impact.”
Lesson 2: Political leaders need to be leaders.
In times of crisis, groups look up to their leaders for precise “big” priorities and swift “big” action. Min(MEWR) VVB’s first press conference on Wednesday night at 2330hrs missed that opportunity. He said that “we will have to make adjustments to our daily routines.” You don’t really have to tell us that you know. In that press conference, NEA and MEWR also provided detailed health advisories. But health advisories are very crude announcements at best. What are the consequences if an individual doesn’t follow the “advice”? What about companies? What about outdoor workers?
The next day, PM Lee Hsien Loong (LHL) held a press conference in the afternoon. Although he mentioned that “My priority is to protect the health and safety of Singaporeans, especially vulnerable groups.” which is great, he further confused his message when he went on to say that “we must carry on with our daily lives” and that any response to stop work must be flexible and “calibrated”. This is confusing because it appears that the principles of “flexibility” and “carry on with our daily lives” over-rode the paramount priority of “health and safety of Singaporeans” (and not forgetting the foreign workers too).
So if protecting “the health and safety of Singaporeans” was his priority, what action did he implement? He set up a committee. >_
<div>Lesson 1: People desire precise real time information.
There is a great amount of confusion over the different indicators that NEA has provided over the past week. There is the 3 hourly average PSI reading, 24 hour average PSI reading, and the PM2.5 reading, along with all their associated health advisories. In a bid to obtain hourly readings, many people have resorted to constructing their own excel sheets and graphs (such as this), second guessing what exactly are the hourly inputs that NEA uses.
The ministers themselves did not help their own cause when Min(MEWR) Vivian Balakrishnan (VVB) held a press conference and said something to the effect of “we should not be fixated on the numbers”, and when Grace Fu said that the 24 hour PSI reading is a better gauge of the haze’s health impact. Bloggers like TheHeartTruths also disputed VVB’s message, saying that other countries published hourly readings. This prompted a clarification by MEWR.
The problem is that all this is unnecessary and confusing. While NEA and MEWR were concerned about getting the correct readings to gauge the impact on people’s health, many people were primarily concerned about getting the best precise real time reading to decide on their course of action for themselves and for their families. Should I still honor that appointment in the next one hour? Should I bring my mask? Should I go swimming? Is it OK to go to the neighbourhood wet market to shop in the morning? The government and the people were basically not talking to each other. One yelled “I want hourly readings to know what to do!” while another just stuck with “24hour readings are best measures of health impact.”
Lesson 2: Political leaders need to be leaders.
In times of crisis, groups look up to their leaders for precise “big” priorities and swift “big” action. Min(MEWR) VVB’s first press conference on Wednesday night at 2330hrs missed that opportunity. He said that “we will have to make adjustments to our daily routines.” You don’t really have to tell us that you know. In that press conference, NEA and MEWR also provided detailed health advisories. But health advisories are very crude announcements at best. What are the consequences if an individual doesn’t follow the “advice”? What about companies? What about outdoor workers?
The next day, PM Lee Hsien Loong (LHL) held a press conference in the afternoon. Although he mentioned that “My priority is to protect the health and safety of Singaporeans, especially vulnerable groups.” which is great, he further confused his message when he went on to say that “we must carry on with our daily lives” and that any response to stop work must be flexible and “calibrated”. This is confusing because it appears that the principles of “flexibility” and “carry on with our daily lives” over-rode the paramount priority of “health and safety of Singaporeans” (and not forgetting the foreign workers too).
So if protecting “the health and safety of Singaporeans” was his priority, what action did he implement? He set up a committee. >_