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RED DOT 2023: Of Spy Balloons, ChatGPT, Colonial Bungalows & Seeing RED…

Posted on July 9, 2023July 9, 2023 by uncleflipsprata

The signs are ominous; a tightening in global monetary policies filtering through to the real economy, a high interest rate environment exerting a drag on the financial sector in the coming quarters, the reconfiguration of supply chains amid US-China trade friction, a broadening downturn in the global electronics industry, waning demand due to inflation….

We are staring down the barrel of what looks to be a economic downturn with one finger on the trigger. Even before that trigger is pulled, the arms race had already begun in the Russia-Ukraine war. The US of A is reinforcing Ukraine with Air Defence systems and Abrams tanks, Britain is doing their bit with long-range cruise missiles, the Germans are chipping in with their Leopard tanks, the Canadians have exhibited their generosity in supplying 200 armoured personnel carriers while the light tanks and armoured vehicles from France will come in handy at some point. Firepower alone won’t win this war but guarding against Russia’s expansion plans has made joining an alliance a necessity as Finland officially becomes NATO’s 31st member.

The arms race is not solely confined to the conflict in Europe…Taiwan is set to buy arms from the US with China’s assertiveness growing day by day while Australia sealed a nuclear-powered submarine deal under the AUKUS (US-UK-Australia) security pact to ward off China in the Indo-pacific. We hope China will not come to blows with Taiwan when push comes to shove but the infighting has started in Sudan when it’s the military versus the paramilitary forces while airstrikes by the Myanmar army in the country’s rebel-held regions have claimed innocent lives including children. Scores are dead in the countries’ military-led senseless bloodshed and two other countries (#Turkey #Syria) are bracing for more in the aftermath of a 7.8 earthquake on the Richter scale.

The scale of the earthquake was earth shattering but a Yeti Airlines plane was brought down to earth resulting in Nepal’s deadliest air crash in three decades. The cause of the crash is still being investigated but an arrest warrant premised on the evidence of war crimes has already been issued by the International Criminal Court for Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader will not be brought to justice in the near term but billionaire Donald Trump became the first former President in American history to be charged with criminal offences after he was indicted for hush money payments made to a porn star (#StormyDaniels) in an attempt to buy her silence over an alleged affair.

Apparently skeletons were found in Trump’s closet but classified top secret documents were also found by the FBI at Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. Those classified documents were not the only boo-boo for the octogenarian but 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard took things to the next level after he posted highly classified documents* on social media platforms (#PentagonLeaks). The guardsman has since been arrested and charged but law enforcement officers themselves ran afoul of the law after Tyre Nichols’s death in the wake of his beating at a traffic stop by the police. Police brutality is not the only deep seated problem plaguing Biden’s administration, this year’s mass shootings averaging more than one per day, continually contribute to the trigger-happy phenomenon in the country.

*These documents included those from the US Dept of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

The ills of America have been laid bare for all to see but the actions of Tibet’s Dalai Lama sickens all to the core after he kissed a boy on the lips and asked him to suck his tongue. The tip of the tongue is indeed a sensitive area but Tibet still remains a sensitive issue for China till this day. The autonomous region is not only closely monitored by China but President Xi Jinping is also keeping a close watch on his rivals by way of his spy balloons and even a secret Chinese police station operating right in downtown New York. China’s surveillance efforts are now a cause for concern because these spy balloons have also been spotted in the skies of Latin America and even in Canadian airspace. The said balloon is 60 metres in height (almost the same height as Australia’s Sydney Opera House at 65 metres) and carried a whopping payload of almost a ton (900 kilograms).

That is indeed some serious and heavy duty “weather balloon” (as what China claims) but it is with a heavy heart that Jacintha Arden announced her shock resignation, citing she doesn’t have enough left in the tank anymore. Chris Hipkins has since stepped into the hot seat in New Zealand but even he will be wary of the pitfalls and dangers of the job after an attack on Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a rally thankfully did not go as planned.

The ex-New Zealand Prime Minister had been a beacon for progressive politicians around the world and an inspiration for women but it is speculated that the torrent of abuse, criticism and threats levelled at her and her family on a daily basis drove her to quit. Others are quitting for different reasons altogether as Taiwan Premier Su Tseng Chang resigned along with his cabinet after his party (#DemocraticProgressiveParty) came up short at last November’s local polls while Vietnam’s President Nguyen Xuan Phuc stepped down amid a corruption probe.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc probably will exchange notes with Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Muhyiddin after he too was charged with corruption and money laundering while former Pakistan PM Imran Khan was charged with terrorism. The fate of the two former leaders hangs in the balance but that has not deterred the offsprings of the elite from entering politics. Paetongtarn Sinawatra (daughter of former Thailand PM Thaksin Sinawatra) rode on the crest of newfound optimism and the birth of her child in the midst of political hustlings to challenge Prayuth for the PM post while Jokowi’s two sons are likely to contest in Indonesia’s 2024 elections.

Procreation does wonders for prolonging your political legacy but China’s population has shrinked for the very first time since the 1960s. A declining birthrate is something unheard of and a first for the PRC but the first child for parents is always a life-changing experience. We are certain hotel heiress Paris Hilton and Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco will cherish that moment of being inducted into motherhood while actress Hilary Swank cannot contain her double happiness at her newborn twins. As they start their journey of parenthood, the trio of mothers will be accompanied by expectant mothers actress Lindsay Lohan, S.H.E ‘s Selina Jen and tennis star Naomi Osaka while Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe and Taiwanese popstar Eric Chou (周兴哲) will join the ranks of first-time fathers in time to come. The two first-time fathers are not married yet but Song Joong-ki (#DescendantsOfTheSun) is not wasting any time after he married his pregnant British girlfriend (#KatyLouiseSaunders) to quash the rumour mill.

We are happy for the first-time parents and age is certainly not an issue after Robert De Niro became a father again (the 7th time) at age 79 while 83-year-old Al Pacino is on course to welcome his fourth child with 29-year-old girlfriend Noor Alfallah. The Hollywood veterans already have multiple children from previous marriages and relationships but it is not a contest afterall with actor Henry Golding (#CrazyRichAsians) and his wife waiting to welcome their second child while baby no.2 is on the way after Rihanna unveiled her baby bump at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Births are celebrated regardless of the first-born or the nth child and congratulations are in order after Hong Kong celebrity couple Kenneth Ma (马国明) and Roxanne Tong (汤洛雯) announced their engagement while lead actress Millie Bobby Brown (#StrangerThings) got engaged to Jake Bongiovi (AKA rockstar Jon Bon Jovi’s son). Meanwhile, the stars were also aligned for K-pop idol Lee Seung-gi and actress Lee Da-in as they tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Seoul while the wedding bells rang for US gymnastics star Simone Biles and NFL player Jonathan Owens.

The Korean newly-weds got hitched in a fairytale wedding held in a five-star hotel but a shotgun marriage between UBS and Credit Suisse had to be engineered by the Swiss authorities quickly to stem the banking turmoil after the latter ran aground. In fact, the rout first started after the collapse of small to mid-sized banks in the US (#SiliconValleyBank #FirstRepublicBank #SignatureBank), seeding pervasive fear into global banking systems. It’s not just the banks that are in trouble, Samsung Electronics plans to cut chip output after posting a worse-than-expected 96% plunge in their first quarter operating profit (its slimmest profit since the 2009 global financial crisis) while mattress maker Serta Simmons filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, conglomerate Adani Group is not faring any better after it came under siege from Hinderberg Research with massive short-selling of its shares amidst allegations of accounting fraud.

We are unsure if Adani did pad their accounting books with unexplained profits but tech firms continue where they left off at the tail-end of 2022…shedding their excesses. Employees from the tech sector are looking anxiously over their shoulders not because Tiktok is now banned on some government devices (#UK #France #Australia #Canada) including the state of Montana in USA, but the popularity of AI chatbot ChatGPT has raised concerns of workers being replaced by AI. In fact, other than opening Pandora’s box, ChatGPT is able to code, compose emails, write essays, answer questions, explain complex topics, and assist you with tasks, pretty much your personal secretary and confidante.

The possibilities of ChatGPT are endless but the pitfalls (scams, fake identities, etc) of this generative AI technology from OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) is still being looked into. While ChatGPT has made inroads into our daily life, Japanese video game company SEGA has made a move for Rovio (the company behind the popular game “Angry Birds”) in a deal worth US$775 million. That acquisition deal is probably child’s play (pardon the pun) in comparison to the upcoming US$21 billion merger of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), bringing wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA) under one roof in the US.

We are looking forward to wrestlers taking on fighters under the new WWE-UFC deal but MMA fighter Victoria Lee’s (sister of Angela Lee) death at 18 sparked an outpouring of grief in the MMA world and immense shock to her family. Her cause of death was not disclosed to the public but former Italian footballer Gianluca Valli unfortunately succumbed to pancreatic cancer.

The prolific striker died of natural causes while a natural disaster claimed ex-Chelsea winger Christian Atsu’s life after his body was found under rubble in the aftermath of the Turkey quake. The world of football mourned not just for Vialli and Atsu but also for Tunisian player Nizar Issaoui who accidentally took his own life after setting himself on fire as a protest against “police injustice” while Belgian goalkeeper Arne Espeel collapsed and died after saving a penalty. The custodian wasn’t the only one killed in action, Irish rally driver Craig Breen was killed instantly after a fence post penetrated his car’s side window in a crash during a test drive.

Sports can indeed kill and NFL player Damar Hamlin almost became another casualty after collapsing mid-game due to a cardiac arrest. Hamlin was lucky to escape the Jaws of death but it was unfortunate for former sprint champ Usain Bolt who lost US$12 million, the bulk of his retirement and life-savings to an investment scam. The fastest man on Earth could be faulted for not doing due diligence before parting with his nest egg but even current athletes themselves cannot be spared from their recent transgressions. Brazilian and former Barcelona soccer star Dani Alves is currently remanded on sexual assault charges while tennis player Nick Kyrgios pleaded guilty to assaulting a former girlfriend.

It’s evident the said athletes can’t keep their hands to themselves but sports officials or bodies have also been found to be complicit in wrongdoings or crime after former US snowboarders sued their formal coach, the US Ski & Snowboard federation (USSS) and the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) for covering up alleged sexual abuse. Elsewhere FC Barcelona has been charged with corruption over referee payments to influence match results while Italian football clubs (#Roma #Lazio #Salernitana) were raided by the tax authorities over financial irregularities in transfer dealings.

We can’t expect football clubs to live up to lofty standards but the players themselves have been bearing the brunt of the fans’ frustration/anger after World Cup winner Lionel Messi was booed and jeered by his club’s (#ParisStGermain) supporters. To add insult to injury in the literal sense, Mexican referee Fernando Hernandez was handed a 12-match ban for kneeling a player in the groin during a league match. It’s unbecoming when match officials take matters in their own hands or rather their own knee but we were left aghast after football fans attacked Sevilla FC’s Marko Dmitrovic on the pitch while a man was charged with assault for kicking Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale at the North London derby.

Both Sevilla and Arsenal have set the record straight that violence and physical assault on their players will not be tolerated but Dutch runner Femke Bol set a new world women’s indoor 400m record, clocking 49.26 seconds which broke the old mark set 41 years ago. Meanwhile, Sweden’s Armand Duplantis raised the bar, in fact raising his own bar after breaking his own pole vault world record with 6.22 metres.

Bol and Duplantis weren’t the only ones setting new highs, Beyonce now holds the all-time record for most Grammy wins (current total count at 32) after she took home four Grammy awards this year. The collection of Grammy statuettes at the iconic singer’s home will require some housekeeping but decluttering specialist Marie Kondo has apparently given up on tidying after the birth of her third child while the sanitization of Roald Dahl’s books by its publisher has generated controversy on censorship*. Marie Kondo will no longer be sparking any joy because she is done and dusted with decluttering but Sammi Cheng was clearly overjoyed that her hard work in 20 years’ of showbiz has paid off after she won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards. The Cantopop singer is finally acknowledged for her acting chops but American musician Pharell Williams added another feather to his cap after Louis Vuitton picked him to head its menswear designs while Arnold Schwarzenegger was appointed by Netflix as its Chief Action Officer. Netflix might be reinventing the wheel in creating the post for the former governor of California but Pat Sajak will be spinning the wheel for the very last time in 2024 after announcing his impending retirement from hosting Wheel of Fortune.

*The way Puffin books try to erase Dahl’s meanness towards minorities generated controversy which led readers/fans to debating on whether the modified books are now a bastardized version of his original works. Words deemed offensive such as “fat” and “ugly” were removed, gender-neutral terms were also included in the books while some passages not written by the author have also been added.

Beyonce and Sammi Cheng were not the only deserved winners at awards ceremonies, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Kuan were Everything Everywhere All At Once as they topped the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor category at the Oscars. In fact, Hollywood couldn’t have written a better script for the two winners….From starting her acting career in Hong Kong to being the first Asian Bond girl (#TomorrowNeverDies) to a wuxia pugilist (#CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon) to a matriarch fighting in the multiverse, the former Miss Malaysia from her hometown in Ipoh has come a long way since becoming the first Asian woman to land the Best Actress Oscar. For Ke Huy Quan, he was gradually forgotten as the little sidekick “Short Round” of Harrison Ford in 1984’s Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom and almost gave up his Hollywood career after finding little opportunities for Asian actors. After he receded into the underbelly of Tinseltown as a stunt choreographer and assistant director in a 20-year hiatus, the smell of victory is all the more sweeter for the former Vietnamese child refugee.

The off-kilter sci-fi action movie about a stressed out laundromat owner, her increasingly distant family and a tax agent across the multiverse certainly made a splash at the Academy Awards with 7 wins while Brendan Fraser showed he wasn’t a fish out of water snagging Best Actor (#TheWhale) despite his nine-year absence from major roles due to injuries sustained in his earlier films. Thankfully, this year’s event was remembered for the right reasons after Will Smith made an ass of himself last year. In fact, an ass (yes, a donkey) did grace the awards ceremony and it wasn’t All Quiet on the Western Front as the german war film took home four Academy Awards (Best Cinematography,Best International Feature Film, Best Production Design and Best Original Score) while South Indian box-office sensation RRR bagged Best Original Song (#Naatu Naatu), becoming the first Indian movie to win an Oscar.

A star-studded event would have been an understatement due to the fact that Steven Spielberg was in attendance because he made a movie about Steven Spielberg (#Fabelmans) while Colin Farell and his Irish lads co-actors in The Banshees of Innisherin were spoiling for a fight with 9 nominations. Both the legendary director and the Irish contingent left the venue empty-handed but the consolation was Elvis (#AustinButler) was in the building that night.

Elvis’s legacy lives to this very day and his songs remain a cultural touchstone but his only child Lisa Marie Presley died of a cardiac arrest just two days after attending the 80th Golden Globe Awards. Elvis’s daughter was not the only one that departed without warning, Masterchef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo left without a word at the age of 46 while Star Wars and Harry Potter actor Paul Grant reportedly collapsed outside King’s Cross Station and was subsequently pronounced dead. For others, it was simply a matter of their time has come:

1. US actor Tom Sizemore (#SavingPrivateRyan #BlackHawkDown) dies at 61 from a brain aneurysm

2. Annie Wersching, star of Star Trek: Picard dies of cancer at 45

3. American actress Lisa Loring, who played the child character Wednesday Addams in the original The Addams Family television series in the 1960s dies at 64 (stroke)

4. Controversial talkshow host Jerry Springer dies at 79 (pancreatic cancer)

5. Richard Belzer, the brainy, cynical and no-nonsense detective on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit dies aged 78 (respiratory complications)

6. Actor Lance Reddick who played a steely Baltimore police lieutenant in hit TV show The Wire and as the Continental Hotel concierge in the John Wick movie series dies at 60 (heart disease)

7. 1980s pop icon TIna Turner passed away at 83 in her home in Switzerland after a long battle with illness

The abovementioned stars have been laid to rest but others were probably driven to their graves after actress Jung Chae-yul and K-pop star Moonbin, a boyband member of Astro, were found dead in their homes due to suspected suicide. Both the starlet and the band member were only in their mid-20s as at the time of death but we must also remember to pay homage to the octogenarians such as celebrated perfume and fashion designer Paco Rabanne (88) and veteran Hong Kong actor Richard Ng (吴耀汉) (83). Richard Ng is a household name in Hong Kong but every household from Macau to Mainland China were gripped by the grisly murder of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi after her headless body was found dismembered at a village house in the suburbs of Tai Po.

A meat cleaver and an electric saw at the crime scene could probably explain why Abby Choi’s remains (some of them cooked) were placed in pots found at the house, but sticks and stones can also proverbially and literally break your bones after Jeremy Renner (aka Hawkeye in Marvel’s cinematic universe) broke 30 of them throughout his body in a snow plough accident while American talk show host Jay Leno suffered from two broken ribs, two broken kneecaps and a snapped collarbone after a motorcycle accident. It’s a long road to recovery for Renner and Leno but the road ahead for US Die Hard action star Bruce Willis is an uncertain one after he was diagnosed with dementia. Dementia is irreversible and sometimes termed as a silent killer but it will probably be die hard with a vengeance after Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty announced that her breast cancer has spread to her brain while Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill’s stage-three blood cancer will mean he will have to undergo chemotherapy for the rest of his life.

It is hard to accept that Detective John McClane (Die Hard) and Dr Alan Grant (Jurassic Park) are stricken with debilitating illnesses and it is even harder to come to terms with the demise of Creative Technology’s founder Sim Wong Hoo. The billionaire entrepreneur put Singapore on the world map with his company’s SoundBlaster soundcards and was remembered for going head-to-head against Steve Job’s ipod in the early days of the MP3 player battle. Creative Technologies became the first Singaporean company to list on Nasdaq in 1992 at the peak of its success but Singaporean climber Shrinivas Sainis Dattatraya went missing after reaching the peak of Everest. It is a forgone conclusion that Mr Shrinivas never made it back home from the treacherous descent while local actor Timothy Nga was called home to be with his maker at the age of 49.

It is with heartache that we acknowledge the 3 mens’ achievements and contributions but Singapore’s very own paralympian and neuroscientist William Tan proved that he is not limited by his disability after he set a record in becoming the first person to complete 7 marathons across 7 continents in 7 days on a wheelchair. Dr Tan wasn’t the only one flying the flag high, Shanti Pereira was in scintillating form smashing and rewriting a number of national records enroute to becoming the first Singaporean to win both the 100m and 200m events in the same edition of the SEA games in May. We hope it’s the first of many “first(s)” for our track & field star and it’s not too shabby either for our women’s tchoukball team as they made history by becoming World No.1 after overtaking powerhouses Taiwan while Anjana Vasan* is the first Singaporean to win Best Supporting Actress at Britain’s Oliver awards (aka the Oscars of London theatre)

*The London-based actress has been winning recognition for her work, and earned a BAFTA (British Academy of Film & Television Arts) nomination in “We Are Lady Parts” and also a bit part in the final season of hit series “Killing Eve” where she played an assassin in training.

We are proud of our athletes’ achievements but the fly in the ointment was when Silat star Sheik Ferdous was fined $8,000 and disqualified from driving for 4 years for drink driving while former Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim faces charges of molestation and sexual offences. On a positive note, perhaps we can take heart that Anjana Vasant might inspire our thespians to do a Michelle Yeoh in the near future but another exodus has seemingly started at the local broadcaster. The disillusioned Ian Fang lamenting on the lack of opportunities and the disenchantment of Yahui on where her acting career is heading has seen the pair leave the coop. Meanwhile Xiang Yun let the cat out of the bag on her son’s (Chen Xi) exit from showbiz at the Star Awards while Zhen Geping disclosed he had already resigned from the TV station last year to pursue other interests.

The door at Mediacorp will always be left ajar in the event that the said artistes long for a return but former Lions captain Shahril Ishak has decided to hang up his boots for good after a illustrious football career. Life after competitive football will be different for Shahril but a new lease in life in showbiz is probably what Celest Chong and Fiona Xie are after since returning from abroad. Actress Celest Chong has deliberated on starting from where she left off in 2012 while Fiona Xie is trying to make a comeback with those sultry “come-hither” looks lately.

The two actresses left the local showbiz scene on amicable terms back then but the fallout in live-streaming commerce firm Mdada has descended into acrimony. Business partners Addy Lee and Pornsak have left Michelle Chia in the lurch to steer the ship alone but the show has only just started with Addy challenging Pornsak to take him on in the courtroom after the latter hinted at misappropriation of funds and governance issues within the company as his reasons for leaving. We are not sure if someone at Mdada did put his/her hand in the cookie jar but a police probe is already underway at migrant rights group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) over allegations of misappropriation while a police report was made against the Silat Federation’s finance director over alleged pay irregularities.

It’s not just charities (HOME) and registered societies (Silat Federation) with weak corporate governance, even government-backed entities like SPH Media has admitted to falsifying circulation numbers (circulation numbers found to be inflated 10-12%) while the SportsSG and Dow Jones partnership apparently pulled the wool over our eyes after used sports shoes were found to be exported to Indonesia for sale instead of being recycled into materials to help build running tracks or fitness corners. There was an outcry over the SPH Media imbroglio and the SportsSG-Dow Jones partnership deception but outrage and umbrage was reserved for the 6 former unidentified executives of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) who escaped with stern warnings over the corruption case in Brazil. Guilt could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt to prosecute them and the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) will hope to do better with Seatrium (formerly Sembcorp Marine) for alleged graft offences that took place in Brazil yet again.

Samba is synonymous with Brazil just like how corruption is as corporeal as the make-up of Seatrium, unsurprisingly a merger of Sembcorp Marine and Keppel O&M earlier this year. The devil is in the details for Seatrium but two other mergers followed thereafter; Strides Taxi and Premier Taxis combining to form the island’s second-largest taxi operator while Transitlink and EZ-link will join hands in 2024 to ensure a seamless experience simplifying ticketing services for commuters.

In the wake of Seatrium’s woes, we can only conclude its all hands on deck for the officers dealing with white collar crime while the gamble for Terence Cao and Henry Thia did not pay off after they were investigated for appearing in videos that promote gambling. In fact, the police are having their hands full after detaining a 12-year-old boy who took a 5-hour joyride on a bus for more than 100 km while two teenage boys were arrested for stealing two gold chains worth about $23,000 from a jewellery store in Chinatown. Admittedly, the phase of adolescence is usually a confusing one for boys after one was arrested for humping a cat in Bukit Panjang.

The said teenager’s preferred sexual partner should be the least of our worries because a self-radicalised 18-year-old student was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). It’s easy to blame the teacher for this wayward youth but shockingly a teacher also became the first MOE teacher and civil servant to be detained under ISA too. The daring student, Muhammad Irfan had plans to attack an army camp and had intended to recruit a suicide bomber. In fact, he had also planted a flag based on that of an Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group on Coney Island and even bought a knife from a convenience store to stake his claim. Irfan’s claim of making Coney Island his own caliphate, which he named the Islamic State of Singhafura is laughable yet disturbing at the same time.

The authorities did assess that the radicalized youth was an imminent threat but an immediate threat was detected after a makcik was held hostage at knifepoint in Yishun. Thankfully, the perpetrator was swiftly subdued and the calm Malay lady did not sustain any injuries. Speaking of makcik, there used to be a famous one that lived in Yishun until she was selected to be the country’s first female President. She is lucky that she has moved out because a flat in the said neighbourhood was caked in mud in the aftermath of a burst pipe.

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Madam Halimah has decided not to contest in this year’s Elected Presidency, paving the way for Tharman Shanmugaratnam or George Goh to safeguard the reserves. Safeguarding the reserves is an onerous duty but safeguarding your customers’ information is equally vital after data breaches at jewellery chain Goldheart and luxury retailer Cortina Watches. While the country’s first female President is hoping to make a graceful exit in her remaining days on the job, her former Cabinet colleague Sim Ann disrupted an intimate live performance with her grand entrance to the annoyance of the audience and performer alike. Sim Ann’s innocuous but inconsiderate act did not sit well with the artiste singer-songwriter Bernice Lee and the attendees at the event while ex-Singaporean and lawyer-turned-comedian Jocelyn Chia’s insensitive MH370 jokes did not “land well” with the Malaysian folks either.

Madam Halimah is set to become a full-time mahcik (Retirement) when her term ends but Tin Pei Ling has taken up a full-time role at Grab on top of her MP duties, accompanied by a public outcry on a conflict of interest in her new role. It goes without saying that the politician for her Macpherson ward will not be personally delivering food right to your doorstep but China’s Luckin Coffee is hoping to become your preferred brew with outlets in Marina Square and Ngee Ann City. Meanwhile Japan’s famed donut chain Mister Donut has attracted long queues since their opening while famous Korean fried chicken chain BHC is hoping to be finger-licking good in its first foray into this island. Singaporeans are spoilt for choice when it comes to food and the Makan Index 2.0 developed by the Institute of Policy Studies can help you discern the price increases in food and drinks over 829 food establishments in 26 of the most populous heartlands.

Apart from eating to our hearts’ content, we also need food for the soul, sadly there is one less place to satisfy that after Library@Esplanade closed in June. It’s a jeer from the library goers on the art-themed library’s closure and a cheer from the comic aficionados for National Library Board (NLB)’s first pop-up manga library at City Square Mall. We are unsure whether NLB’s move will bring additional footfall to the mall but the mall with the indoor skating rink (#J-cube) in Jurong is set to make way for a 40-storey residential development. J-cube is not the only landmark to make way in the country’s ever-renewing landscape, 180 years of horse-racing will go down memory lane after news broke on the return of the land which the Singapore Turf Club (STC) sits on in Kranji. STC’s closure would leave a void in the country’s equestrian sports but a gaping hole was left in the building after an explosion at Audi service centre in Ubi.

Second Minister for Finance and National Development Indranee Rajah announced at a press conference that it was not an easy decision to close STC and that the land area about the size of 200 football fields and larger than the whole of Gardens by the Bay will be redeveloped for housing and other uses. Shock, sadness and anger were the gamut of emotions the employees of STC had to go through after the emergency townhall meeting convened to disclose the news of STC’s fate. The lack of engagement and consultation from the authorities on the matter made the relevant stakeholders see red but you could literally see RED albeit briefly, in the country’s short-lived red-light district at Tampines Greenvine estate. Having an estate bathed in bold colours is indeed a bold move for the Housing & Development Board but the latest round of cooling measures (#ABSD) imposed on the property market have dampened the spirits of prospective property buyers.

If you are unable to own a property in SIngapore, you can probably rent one, specifically colonial bungalows in the Rideout Road. Thanks to an anonymous whistleblower, this year, units 26 and 31 Rideout Road are undoubtedly the two hottest properties in the wake of the one in Oxley Road. The combined land area of both properties is equivalent to about 29 Olympic-size swimming pools or 8 and a half football fields or almost the size of the Istana. The maths for the metric conversion and comparison is mind-boggling and in land-scarce Singapore, that would be roughly 1,300 4-room BTO units. We seem to have a conundrum because while our individual public housing units have gotten smaller and dearer through the years, the Cabinet Ministers’ abode got way bigger, even to a jaw-dropping extent.

Naturally, tongues are wagging and the inquisition or rather the recent parliamentary sitting in July threw up more questions than answers. The Ministers in question were exonerated first by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), an internal review conducted by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and the parliamentary session on 3rd July. In the aftermath, the Rideout Road episode still reeked of impropriety and instances of conflict of interests while there was not a satisfactory conclusion to why colonial bungalows sitting on acres of space are tenanted to the Cabinet Ministers at a rental rate not favourable to the statutory board (SLA).

A stay at one of these black-and-white bungalows is not your typical Airbnb-stay and luxuriating in opulence would not be complete without a dip in a built-to-order swimming pool present at 26 Rideout Road. The need to construct a swimming pool at a rented property and maintaining it at your own expense is beyond anyone’s comprehension and volunteering to maintain the land when SLA gives you additional land is probably an added bonus. The swimming pool was not the only amenity and hot topic in 26 Rideout Road, in fact, there was also the much talked-about car porch. We can’t argue that a car porch is not a necessity but you can do without one if you can skilfully park your car right into the pool (#HillsideCondominium).

The rent at the said properties would cost an arm and a leg but holding Ronaldo’s arm and chaperoning him like a prized possession, as Wong Li-Lin learnt is priceless. In essence, Ronaldo was the ex-actress’s “baby” for that event held at Botanic Gardens but two babies that did not qualify for this year’s enhanced Baby Bonus belong to actresses Jayley Woo and Sheila Sim. Raising a kid can be a bane or boon but for local blogger Xiaxue, she will go from mom to single-mom after announcing her split from her husband of 13 years. Co-parenting a kid with a former spouse is challenging enough but parents do go to great lengths for their kid(s) after Mark and Beatrice Richmond moved to Orlando so that their son can pursue his golf career. It’s still too early to gauge whether their son will be a sporting success but 7-year-old Tan Xi En has surpassed her peers in becoming the youngest Chinese-language tutor on this island. The gift and passion Xi En has for the mother tongue is admirable and lets hope her lessons will be interesting with playtime included.

@mustsharenews
Someone said she was just practising her man-to-man marking 👀⚽️ #mustsharenews #sgnews #singapore #tiktoksg #ronaldo
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All in all, I hope you glean something from the lessons proffered by the events in the first half of this year and in the meantime, may the best man win in the upcoming Presidential Elections.

E.N.D

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RED DOT 2022: A Farewell Letter to 2022

Posted on December 31, 2022 by uncleflipsprata

Dear 2022,

I am writing to you to express my frustration and disappointment as the year comes to a close. I thought the pandemic has taught countries to help one another but we have become more divided than ever. President Putin is going for the jugular after mobilizing some of his citizens to fight his war while at the same time annexing some regions of Ukraine with discredited referendums conducted by its occupational government. Meanwhile, the counter-offensive is well under way as Ukraine reclaimed Kherson and Kharkiv but its citizens are in for a long and hard winter as the enemy rained drones and missiles on the country’s power and telecommunications infrastructure.

Elsewhere on the Korean peninsula, The North is amping up the hostility towards the South with repeated missile tests and a squadron of 180 warplanes in one instance while the United States and China locked horns over Taiwan after visits by US Congress members including Speaker of the House Nancy Peloisi. Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has angered China and interestingly an intruder armed with a hammer visited her husband (Paul Pelosi) at their residences with bone-shattering consequences. Being home alone might not be the safest option afterall but doing the hustle at a political rally is no different either after Pakistan’s ex-President Imran Khan was shot in the leg in a failed assassination attempt. The ex-cricket star has metaphorically dodged a bullet for the attempt on his life even though he was shot but Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ran out of luck after he was gunned down while campaigning in the streets of Nara City, Nara Prefecture.

Abe was not the only ex-leader that parted with us, the last leader of the Soviet Union (#MikhailGorbachev) who helped end the Cold War and also won a Nobel Peace Prize (1990) was denied a state funeral while the longest-serving monarch in British history (#QueenElizabethII) and China’s ex-president Jiang Zemin were given a fitting send-off in the grandest possible manner. We will miss saying “God Save The Queen” but even divine intervention couldn’t save Liz Truss’s short tenure following a series of policy missteps and U-turns that plunged the UK’s economy into turmoil. She lasted a mere 45 days on 10 Downing Street after replacing Boris Johnson and her fellow Conservative Party mate Rishi Sunak is now handed what could be a potential poisoned chalice. We wish 42-year-old Rishi Sunak good luck on becoming the UK’s youngest Prime Minister but 67-year-old Jair Bolsonaro’s reign came to an end after the latest electoral defeat in Brazil.

Brazil’s outgoing President is a well-known detractor of climate change but even he must be convinced that we are only one freak weather event away from a doomsday scenario after witnessing a raft of natural disasters. From the monsoon rains that have pounded and submerged a third of Pakistan, effectively displacing one in seven Pakistanis to the floods that have inundated Australia, there is no escape. Turning a blind eye to Mother Nature’s retaliation is equally complicit as a heatwave and drought affected multiple provinces including Sichuan in China in the middle of the year.

For climate change, the blame lies squarely on mankind but who will shoulder the responsibility for the series of tragic events in Asia? There was the Indonesian football match turned into a fatal stampede, a bloodbath at one of Thailand’s childcare centre after a former policeman went on a shooting rampage, an air raid by the junta on a concert in Myanmar, a suspension bridge that gave way in India turning the Machchhu River into a sea of cadavers and the horrifying body count in Itaweon’s Halloween crush. South Korea’s police force has been thrown under the spotlight for its inadequate safety measures to avert the tragedy while there was the outrage that sparked an unrest after an Iranian girl (#MahsaAmini) died under the custody of the country’s morality just because she was not wearing her hijab properly.

While the bodies piled up at the morgues in Asia, walking corpses will no longer be a concern because after 12 years, 11 seasons and 177 episodes (#TheWalkingDead), the apocalypse is finally over. TV viewers can heave a sigh of relief as the world is rid of zombies but K-drama has proudly “arrived” after Squid Game became the first foreign language drama to win top honors at the Emmy Awards. The dystopian survival series might have left us craving for more with a second season in the works but we were left gasping for breath as Kate Bush had us running up the hill in a deal with God (#StrangerThings4)* while the introduction of Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna under multiple layers and hours of make-up has resurrected his acting career. The villain of Netflix’s original series had us squirming in our seats but a lack of seats to form a simple majority had resulted in a hung parliament after Malaysia’s 15th General Election.

*Kate Bush earned millions in royalties after her 1985 song “Running Up That Hill (in a deal with God)” was featured in Stranger Things (Season 4). After the latest installment of Netflix’s original series was aired, the song reportedly surged to the top of music charts globally and became the most streamed song on Spotify worldwide. Bush also now holds the record of being the oldest female artiste to score a number one hit in Britain. One interesting fact is she doesn’t own a smartphone.

It was at the eleventh hour that Anwar got his wish after a coalition was cobbled together at the Sultan’s behest but the lesson learnt was that Barisan Nasional was given a rude awakening while Mahathir lost his seat in a first election defeat in 53 years and the resulting forfeiture of his electoral deposit. It is almost impossible for the once revered politician to mount another political comeback but the future still has plenty to offer for the male finalists at this year’s US Open. Beaten finalist Casper Ruud can thump his chest proudly after reaching two Grand Slam finals (US Open, French Open) in a calendar year and he can take heart that he is the first Norwegian man to reach the US Open final. For Ruud, his day as a Grand Slam tournament winner will come but it can’t come soon enough for the new US Open champion after 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man to be crowned world No.1 in tennis (breaking the mark set by then 20-year-old Australian Lleyton Hewitt in 2001).

Ruud and Alcaraz weren’t the only ones that shared a defining moment and tournament, Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur became the first Arab and first African woman to reach a Grand Slam final (two in fact) after her exploits at Wimbledon and the US Open. Blazing the trail of glory also for women is Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who became the first South American woman to claim the all-around title at the World Gymnastics Championships, cementing her status as the sport’s newest megastar. Ons Jabeur and Andrade are apparently in a rich vein of form but Lewis Hamiliton has failed to win a single race in this season’s F1 championship. The Briton is searching for answers and not leaving Mercedes anytime soon but Cristiano Ronaldo’s second stint at Manchester United spiraled to an acrimonious end after his no-holds barred televised interview by Piers Morgan.

In that sensational interview, he claimed the owners (#Glazers) cared about money more than the club, expressed dismay at the club’s lack of ambition, criticized his coach for disrespecting him, dissed some of his former teammates (#GaryNeville #WayneRooney) and gave a damning assessment of the club’s training facilities. To conclude, he felt betrayed by the club. There is so much drama on and off the field for the multi hyphenate that they are enough to pen a movie script but a movie is the last thing you expect fellow football megastar Zlatan Ibrahimovic to feature in after his silver screen debut in Asterix and Obelix while Roma FC’s “The Special One“ Jose Mourinho makes an appearance in British rapper Stormzy’s MTV.

The world’s most followed (half a billion Instagram followers) football superstar is looking for a new employer but Sebastián Vettel has bowed out from team Aston Martin and Formula One racing altogether to focus on his family. It is family first and foremost for Vettel now and you can understand why Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin (#CrashLandingonYou) have started their family after welcoming their first child while actress Rebel Wilson (#PitchPerfect) is hoping her baby girl delivered via a surrogate will help hone her maternal instinct. It is a baptism of fire for the new parents but even seasoned parents are ending their matrimonial union after singer Gary Chaw announced his divorce from his fashion blogger wife of 14 years while it is unlucky thirteen for NFL star Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

As with most divorces, parting after a long relationship which you have invested and dedicated a large part of your life to can take an emotional toll on you. For Roger Federer, his relationship with tennis was a rewarding one as he bade a teary farewell while Serena Williams can look back on her long and illustrious tennis career with no regrets. Vettel, Federer and Serena have called time on their competitive sporting careers but Lionel Messi most certainly put the cherry on top of his after winning the World Cup with Argentina. Beaten finalist France came back from the dead not once but twice in that nerve-wracking and epic finale for football’s finest quadrennial showpiece but it is adieu to the stage for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of The Opera, Broadway’s longest running show for 35 years. The masked musical genius will no longer haunt the opera house but the motley crew of Big Bird, Elmo, The Count, Oscar The Grouch, Ernie and friends brought a whole new vibe to Broadway, becoming the first major stage musical based on the TV show (#SesameStreet) in New York.

It will be a kaleidoscope of shapes, colours, numbers, alphabets, songs and dance as Jim Henson’s puppets enthrall the audience but Jordan Chan and Julian Cheung took centre stage in an episode of Call Me By Fire by shaving their heads in real time during their performance. It is metaphorically a close shave for both singers but British-American author Salman Rushdie* was not so lucky after he was stabbed on stage while it is lifelong paralysis for Hong Kong boyband Mirror’s dancer Lee Kai Yin after a 500kg LED screen crashed onto him during a concert. Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand after the attack but Hong Kong veteran actor Eric Tsang has set tongues wagging after he planted a birthday kiss on a nubile 26-year-old Malaysian model. That kiss might not have any ramifications on both their respective careers but Kanye West has kissed his collaboration deals goodbye after brands like Adidas, Balenciaga and GAP ended their partnership with him over his anti-semantic outbursts of late.

*Salman Rushdie has been subjected to several assassination attempts and death threats. He is known for his controversial book “The Satanic Verses” which extremists cite as motivation to carry out killings and bombings, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s leader, had issued a fatwa calling for his death.

@hawkers_united_melvin
Have to watch the whole video and judge for yourself. Eric Tsang and Malaysian model Lebara. To me, I found HK media write till too exaggerate as he force on her. #foryoupage #fyp #kaypohawker #melvinchew #tiktoknews #hkmedia #hongkong #tiktokhongkong #tiktokmalaysia #erictsang #lebara #fullvideo #tiktokhotnews #hotnews2022
♬ original sound – Melvin Chew – Melvin Chew

Mirror’s Lee Kai Yin can never walk again and US singer Roberta Flack (known for singing the song “Killing Me Softly”) is unable to sing again after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. It’s a blow that Flack’s vocal cords will eventually atrophy and it is equally daunting as actress Christina Applegate battles multiple sclerosis. Meanwhile, her heart will still go on after Celine Dion revealed she has a rare neurological disorder (Stiff Person Syndrome) while Duran Duran’s former long time guitarist Andy Taylor was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. It is telling that health is probably wealth and F.R.I.E.N.D.S star Matthew Perry experienced it first hand after he overcame a gastrointestinal perforation which caused his colon to burst during his drug abuse days. In Perry’s memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing”, he candidly recalled he had fallen into a coma which lasted 2 weeks and he came perilously close to death.

Matthew Perry is glad that he has turned his life around but life will never be the same again after the loss of our mobsters (#JamesCaan #TheGodfather #TonySirico #Sopranos) on the silver screen and primetime television, the wizard (#RobbieColtrane #HarryPotter) at Hogswart, groundbreaking Japanese designer Issey Miyake, two-time Emmy-winning actress Kirstie Alley (star of Cheers and Look Who’s Talking) and who can forget Angela Lansbury, known for her role as a writer-detective in “Murder, She Wrote” television series.

Angela Lansbury wrote an unforgettable chapter in her acting career with that role but there will be no further chapters from Hong Kong prolific writer Ni Kuang* (倪聪), best known for his Wisely (卫斯理) sci-fi novels after his passing. The sci-fi genre is not everyone’s cup of tea but you must have had some inkling of 73-year old Olivia Newton-John, the musical star who found enduring fame for the leading role in the film Grease. In Grease, we are reminded of that head bopping tune (#YouAreTheOneIWant) in her duet with John Travolta and taking it a notch higher, you will be very familiar with rock ‘N’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis’s Great Balls of Fire featured in Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick while Grammy-winning rapper Coolio’s Gangsta Paradise was used in 1995’s Dangerous Minds.

*Ni Kuang also wrote over 300 screenplays predominantly in the martial arts and wuxia genre including The One-Armed Swordsman and Bruce Lee hits Fist of Fury and The Big Boss. He was also the father-in-law of actress Vivian Chow.

For Olivia, Jerry and Coolio, we will mourn their deaths in the same way British American rock band Fleetwood Mac lost singer-songwriter Christine McVie. For Anne Heche, her family decided to pull the plug on her after she was declared brain dead due to a fiery car accident. The actress and ex-girlfriend of Ellen Degeneres also suffered inhalation injury and burns from the accident but nothing could prepare us for 34-year-old singer Aaron Carter (brother of Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter), taken from us too soon after he was found dead in a tub.

There is speculation that Aaron Carter’s demise was caused by a drug overdose but the drug companies will be slugging it out in the courtroom after Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNtech over mRNA vaccine technology. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there in the pharmaceutical industry but Johnson & Johnson is probably doing the sensible thing as they will stop selling talc-based baby powder worldwide in 2023 after years of lawsuits from consumers who claim their talc products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos.

In fact, Johnson & Johnson has been named 2022 Fortune World’s Most Admired Company and ranked #1 on the Pharmaceutical Industry List. That is a ringing endorsement for the firm founded in 1886 but Twitter is grappling with the whims and fancies of Elon Musk after he fired the entire board and top level executives since taking over the tech firm. Unsurprisingly, tech firms (#Facebook #Amazon #SEA Garena #Microsoft #Shopify #Grab) hit by the slowing macroeconomic environment have started issuing the pink slips while it did not take long for another cryptocurrency exchange (#FTX), the world’s second largest one to be exact, to file for bankruptcy.

The collapse of FTX reverberated around the world, in part because Temasek Holdings had to write down its US$275 million investment in the embattled firm. That is probably pocket change to the sovereign wealth fund but the $32 million lost to the notorious luxury goods scam couple is a bitter pill to swallow for the victims. Pi Jiapeng and his Thai wife Panuk Siriwipa’s claim to fame was having an Interpol red notice filed against them while they were on the run whereas businessman Kwek Kee Seng is on FBI’s wanted list with a US$5 million bounty on his head for transporting fuel to North Korea. Meanwhile, Nelson Loh, the businessman behind the 2020 bid for Newcastle United football club was not on any list but the law eventually caught up with him after he was apprehended in China while on the run for the past two years (#forgery). It seems evading detection and capture are highly sought-after skills nowadays and the government has wasted no time in going all out to woo extraordinary global talent with the introduction of the ONE (Overseas Networks & Expertise) pass.

The said offenders/perpetrators will need competent lawyers to reduce their sentences or stop an extradition but rogue lawyers have surfaced again after Reform Party member Charles Yeo absconded while another one on the run for the past 15 years could not escape the long arm of the law. Charles Yeo claimed he jumped bail to avoid political persecution but there is hardly any extenuating circumstances after lawyer and MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Christopher De Souza was found guilty of professional misconduct.

The member of parliament wasn’t the only one that erred, a trio of national swimmers (#JosephSchooling #AmandaLim #TeongTzenWei) could not resist the allure of cannabis while Mediacorp actor Edwin Goh was banned from driving for 3 years and fined $6,500 for his first drink-driving offence. For the conscripted sportsman, all his NS privileges are now revoked and to add insult to injury, a supervised urine test regime is mandatory for the next 6 months. From the highs of Olympic glory to undesired trips to the Central Narcotics Bureau, Joseph Schooling serves as an inspirational tale and a cautionary one at the same time.

The country’s Olympic gold medallist confessed he gave in to a moment of weakness in consuming a banned substance but there is nothing weak about 29-year-old powerlifter Farhanna Farid who broke a world record after lifting 201kg at the inaugural South-east Asian Cup in the Under-52kg category or Li Ling Yung-Hryniewiecki in becoming the first Singaporean to swim across the English Channel. Li’s feat of endurance across 34 km in the water (completed in 12 hours and 54 minutes) proves that the ladies are going the distance and seizing the moment because Nathania Ong is the first Singaporean to play Eponine in Les Miserables on the West End while Mediacorp actress Hong Huifang (#Ajiooma) took a stab at the Golden Horse award after she was nominated in the Best Actress category. Not to be outdone, local actor Christopher Lee scored his third win in taking home the Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series at Taiwan’s 57th Golden Bell Awards.

Starring as the female lead in a movie and earning a Golden Horse nomination at the same time is indeed double happiness for Hong Huifang but it is probably tears of happiness for the patriotic crybaby (#AzuanTan) spotted at this year’s National Day Parade that subsequently went viral. While the floodgates opened for Azuan Tan on 9th August, it was a hard landing for one of the Red Lions at the nation’s birthday celebrations. We salute Third Warrant Officer Jeffrey Heng who did his best in windy conditions and any parachute landings next year will have to be done at the Padang as the floating platform will make way for the NS Square.

In fact, there will be added significance for the Red Lions next year as the Padang was gazetted as the country’s 75th national monument on this year’s National Day. Its rare to gazette an open grassy space equivalent to 6 football fields as a monument and it is even rarer for Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to collaborate with an American pop singer (#CharliePuth) and a Chinese K-pop idol (#JacksonWang) to promote the island. To experience Singapore better, Charlie Puth visited places like Joo Chiat and Marina Bay while Jackson Wang explored Pasir Ris and Chinatown. That could probably explain why Billie Eilish checked out Haji Lane after her sold-out concert here but I tell you, the way to a man’s or rather a tourist’s heart is food.

Notwithstanding the famed French-Japanese cafe chain Cafe Kitsune opening their first outlet at Capitol Singapore, STB’s marketing spiel should include ex-Mediacorp artiste Thomas Ong selling mouth-watering $12 wanton noodles or the jaw-dropping $91 for 2 plates of stir-fried kailan at a Chinese restaurant in Vivo City. Thanks but no thanks, I will probably opt for more affordable options at the newly opened hawker centres in the estates of Punggol (#OnePunggol), Bukit Panjang (#SenjaHawkerCentre), Sembawang (#BukitCanberraHawkerCentre) or Queenstown (#MargaretDriveHawkerCentre). If all else fails, I will make do with the much talked about rice topped with bean sprouts at $3.50 in the vicinity of Bukit Timah. For dessert, scream your way through to an ice-cream at the nearest McDonald’s outlet and wash down all that food down your stomach with mandopop star JJ Lin’s Miracle coffee at Marina Bay Sands.

JJ Lin has provided Singaporeans with their caffeine fix but the housing authorities were caught in a fix after a landslide occurred at a construction site for BTO flats in Clementi. There will be some delay to that BTO project but we are more worried about the Ang Mo Kio BTO units (#CentralWeave) hitting a sale-high price of $877,000, edging closer to the million dollar mark for a BTO unit. Affordable public housing is a pressing concern for the populace and will remain so despite a slew of property cooling measures introduced to ensure resale flats are affordable for buyers. A million dollar BTO flat is closer to reality now than a pipe dream and that is why the actual cost of new BTO flats was a bone of contention in recent Parliament debates. We acknowledge that untying the Gordian knot of fulfilling public housing demand here is an uphill task but purchased BTO units left unoccupied for years and “blank canvas” units put up for sale could be a sign buyers-turned-sellers are flouting the MOP (Minimum Occupation Period) requirements and taking advantage of the situation.

On the unique aspects of HDB flats, we are reminded that a minister did make a quirky comment in 2016 that “You need a very small space to have sex”, but take heed one that will cost an arm and leg, including a few organs will deter or delay procreation. For singer and Project SUPERSTAR alumnus Derrick Hoh, procreation is done and dusted after he became a dad while Jayley Woo is getting married with a baby on the way. Meanwhile the race to the altar is underway for Hong Lin and Nick Teo after they announced their engagement while the wait is over for Joshua Tan and model-influencer Zoen Tay after a 5-year long distance relationship. The Ah Boyz To Men actor got to kiss his bride at a wedding dinner held at Raffles Hotel while Rebecca Lim had a near perfect wedding at a maxed out venue (#Ritz-Carlton Millenia) for 600 guests. Shorn of the pomp and pageantry of swanky hotels, an intimate church ceremony sufficed as Felicia Chin and Jeffrey Xu were pronounced husband and wife.

The said couples have made their union legally binding but it is no longer illegal for sex between men after Section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalize gay sex was repealed. After the Bill was passed, the LGBT community are having their day in the sun but a local film (#LookAtMe) that featured a pastor and his stance on homosexuality was banned from screening in Singapore for denigrating a religious community and the potential to cause social division. That movie starring Pam Oei, Adrian Pang and Janice Koh did not make the cut but Aloysius Pang’s final on-screen work “The Antique Shop” finally made its way to the cinemas almost 3 years after his passing. We are reminded of his tragic training incident till this day and we can’t help but feel sorry for the first firefighter who lost his life while carrying out his duty.

I am pretty sure Aloysius Pang’s movie will not bomb at our local box office but two bomb threats; one made to Evergreen Secondary School and another made onboard a Singapore Airlines SQ33 flight briefly caught our attention. We still agree SIA is a great way to fly but we hope our avian friends will cherish their last days at Jurong Bird Park ahead of an impending move to Mandai Wildlife Reserve. The aviary in the west wasn’t the only landmark to go, it was good while it lasted for OG’s Orchard Point outlet after an 18-year run while the Jurong East library will make way for residential development and relocate to the Jurong East Integrated Transport Hub. There is alot going on in the Jurong area with Jurong East mall JCube set to make way for housing development but worryingly enough, there are no takers for the planned Jurong Lake District integrated tourism development after a tender seeking proposals.

No one is interested in the Jurong Lake District now because high interest rates are driving Singaporeans to form long queues at our local banks. In fact, interest rates are not the only thing going northwards, postage and delivery rates courtesy of SingPost and school bus fares are set to rise in 2023. We will need to fork out more in the coming new year with 8% GST and the spirit of giving this Christmas came early for commuters when the fare hike took effect from 26th December.

So 2022, I thank you for the eventful year and I hope that your successor 2023 will help us navigate the oncoming recession and the GST hike.

Yours sincerely,

A Concerned Singaporean

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RED DOT 2022: Of War, Inflation, Road Rage & a Prime Minister-in-Waiting

Posted on July 24, 2022July 24, 2022 by uncleflipsprata

From the depths of despair to the heights of ecstasy, the shackles were off as countries dismantled thickets of pandemic restrictions or measures at bewildering speeds even as Covid-19 hinted us that the next outbreak is not far away. Like a hot knife through butter, Sweden had declared the pandemic is over while Denmark is the first EU country to scrap all Covid-19 restrictions. Yet, China is erring on the side of caution by choosing not to live with the virus (#ZeroCovidPolicy). We can barely catch our breath from the curveballs thrown by the coronavirus before Mother Nature went into full rebellion mode again. The emergence of Monkeypox and acute severe hepatitis worldwide among healthy young children is a reminder that we can’t sleep with our eyes closed, not just yet.

Our ordeal with pathogens continues but the leaders of the world are fighting their own personal battles or facing their own demons. Emmanuel Macron breathed a little easier after winning a second term albeit with a lower winning margin against the far-right while German chancellor Olaf Scholz and his new government are seeing a dip in approval ratings since taking office at the start of the year. Elsewhere, there will be a new office bearer at 10 Downing Street after Boris Johnson tendered his resignation. The Conservative Party MP’s hand was forced after his party members resigned en masse in the tumultuous months leading up to him vacating his post as Prime Minister. Boris may have the dubious honour of being the first British leader to be fined for breaking the law (#partygate) but gun control laws in the US of A need to be tightened in the wake of a series of mass shootings. President Joe Biden appears to have lost the plot and control over his country’s gun control measures as there have already been over 300 mass shootings in the past six months alone. Americans are left wondering how many more need to die before drastic action is taken.

Paradoxically, the Yankees may consider taking up arms to declare war on the gun-toting lunatics and gun lobby groups that have run amok in their country but the first shots of war were actually fired by Russia as it invaded Ukraine. Vladimir Putin initiated the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II, unsettling the world in the process. The path to hell is indeed paved with good intentions because according to Putin, he wants to denazify (Yes, its a real word meaning to remove Nazi influence) Ukraine.

Amid the initial shock and outrage, the world gradually got acquainted with Ukraine because we were petrified at the constant shelling of Kharkiv and Odessa, terrified by the besieged city of Mariupol and mortified at the atrocities and genocide in Bucha (bodies of civilians strewn on the streets, many belived to have been executed at close range by Russian troops). Putin (#WarCriminal) may have gone on the offense but a President (#VolodymyrZelenskyy) decked in green army fatigues has turned up the charm offensive by addressing the world and appealing for aid on a daily basis.

An exodus was inevitable but Ukrainians have remained resolute and resilient mainly by relying on their own countrymen to defend against the proponents of war. There is the motley crew of MMA fighters and boxers (Yaroslav Amosov, Vasiliy Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usky, Wladimir Klitschko) and even the mayor of the capital (#Kyiv #VitaliKlitschko) is taking the fight to the Russians. These true patriots are not alone in this protracted battle because former professional tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky and Alexandr Dolgopolov took up arms while popular Ukrainian pop-rock band Antilia swapped their musical instruments for weapons in answering the call of the country.

Even as Ukraine dug deep to withstand the Russian onslaught, the responses from other parts of the world have been forthcoming. From culture to commerce and sports to travel, Russia has been turned into a pariah, made to feel unwanted and unwelcomed at every juncture. Russia hasn’t exactly reeled from the coordinated sanctions and worldwide condemnation but two Nordic nations (#Finland #Sweden) were spooked into joining NATO after maintaining neutrality for decades while the EU is leaving the door opened for Ukraine and Moldova.

Even as the theatre of war was playing in Ukraine, the propensity for aggression is not far off in Asia as a Saudi oil facility was attacked by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group while North Korea’s umpteenth missile launch (31 missile tests so far this year) with a nuclear test on the horizon has South Korea on the tenterhooks. As tensions rise again on the Korean peninsula, Moon Jae In will heave a sigh of relief because South Koreans will look to their newly elected President Yoon Suk-yeol for answers. Elsewhere, Australians answered the call of the Labor Party as they opted for Anthony Albanese to replace Scott Morrison. Yet, the answer is clear as daylight as there is no competition for John Lee’s candidacy in running The Pearl of The East. Expectedly, he has taken over the hot seat uncontested from Carrie Lam.

China’s iron grip on Hong Kong’s political framework is disconcerting but there is nothing like re-establishing a dynasty as the Marcos exited from exile. After being sworn in as Philippines’s 17th President, Bongbong Marcos has promised a new era under his rule and we hope the plundering and pillaging of the nation’s coffers under the former Marcos rule does not return. The son of controversial Ferdinand Marcos is looking to make a fresh start but the legacy of Mahathir still lives after he handed the reins of his political party to his youngest son. The nonagenarian’s move to ensure political longevity is not unexpected but Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence motion in Parliament, the country’s first leader to lose his post this way. There is hope for Pakistan but 2,769 kilometres away, Sri Lanka is in a mutinous mood as its worst economic crisis led to grave food and medicine shortages, fuel insecurity and power outages. Evidently, the blame lies squarely on President Rajapaksa’s shoulders as economic mismanagement is the sole cause of the country’s high debt and alarmingly low level of foreign reserves.

Sri Lanka has effectively returned to the Stone Age as citizens resort to cooking with firewood and their plight is further exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, pushing fuel and energy prices higher while rising fertiliser and transport costs are filtering through to compound record global food prices. It is not just Sri Lanka…the headwinds are imminent as the world is in the teeth of an inflationary surge coupled with slowing economic growth, geopolitical tensions, interest rates hikes*, surging prices of raw materials and disrupted global supply chains. Even as the world struggles to come to terms with a looming recession, companies are going big or scraping the bottom of the barrel in a bid to turn the tide.

*The US has launched its most aggressive interest rate hike since 1994.

Microsoft is set to buy Activision Blizzard (the creators of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft), one of US’ biggest gaming publishers in a US$68.7 billion deal while Disney+ is offering a low-cost version of its streaming service with ads to grow that revenue pie. Meanwhile, the world’s dominant streaming service (#Netflix) reported its first subscriber loss after more than a decade while cosmetic giant Revlon has filed for bankruptcy. Elsewhere, Tesla’s billionaire CEO (#ElonMusk) is having second thoughts on buying Twitter while the free fall in crypto has started after fearful investors bail out in the wake of the Terra/Luna stablecoin crash, resulting in a bloodbath in the crypto ecosystem*.

*Bitcoin has slumped by more than 70 per cent since hitting US$69,000 in November last year and is now trading at just above US$20,000

Netflix’s first reported subscriber loss in a decade might be a minor setback but Rafael Nadal probably eats setbacks for breakfast as he rallied from two sets down to beat Dani Medvedev 3-2 in the Australian Open final, claiming a record 21st Grand Slam title. Other than the Spaniard’s incredible comeback, an unvaccinated and deported Serb (#NovakDjokovic) hogged the headlines before the competition even began. We may empathize with Djokovic’s stance in staying unvaccinated but there is certainly no leeway after Alexander Zverev was expelled from the Mexican Open for violently hitting the chair umpire’s stand repeatedly with his racquet following his loss in a doubles event. Zeverev is afterall a hot-headed young bloke but it is hard to swallow the fact that former tennis legend Boris Becker was jailed two and a half years (for hiding US$2.6m worth of assets and loans to avoid paying debts) over his bankruptcy charges.

Enough of men in tennis behaving badly, it was a local lass that wrote a new chapter when Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian to win on home soil after 44 years (#AustralianOpen). Elsewhere, Iga Swiatek’s blend of power, poise and precision helped her sweep aside American teenage finalist Coco Gauff to claim her second French Open title. While Swiatek continued her ascent in women’s tennis, Barty shocked the sporting world shortly after her Australian Open win by announcing her retirement from tennis at the age of 25. Barty is not alone, US Olympic figure-skating star Alysa Liu also announced her retirement at the age of 16 while golf’s former child prodigy Michelle Wie (and once hailed as the Tiger Woods of women’s golf) will be putting away her golf clubs at 32. Meanwhile, the end was in sight as United States sprint star Justin Gatlin decided to cross the finish line to mark the end of his storied athletics career.

Barty and Alysa must have felt they reached their peak but others are just getting started…India emerged victorious for the first time at the Thomas Cup (#Badminton), Tothenham Hotspur’s Heung-Min Son is the first Asian to win the Premier League Golden Boot (23 goals, all scored from open play) while Zhou Guanyu becomes the first Chinese Formula One driver after making his debut for Alfa Romeo. It is indeed inspiring that Asians have risen to take centre stage and it is certainly encouraging that the United States women’s national football team reached parity with their male counterparts after governing body US Soccer agreed to equal pay for both genders.

The US is leading the way in a step forward for equality but there was disquiet on whether athletes at the Winter Olympics started on equal footing after Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva* was embroiled in a doping scandal*. Needless to say, the harrowing experience left a distressed Kamila fumbling in her performances thereafter. Kamila wasn’t the only one that faltered, US-born figure skater Zhu Yi (representing China) had a debut to forget after falling and crying during her routines which resulted in a last place finish. It was perhaps a sobering introduction of how merciless life as China’s representative can be after Chinese citizens slammed and criticised her performances.

*Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old prima ballerina on blades tested positive for banned heart drug trimetazidine and was provisionally suspended only for the Russian Anti Doping Agency (RUSDA) to later lift it. The suspension was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) which allowed Kamila to compete despite appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Skating Union (ISU).

The disdain in China for Zhu Yi was appalling and it is puzzling in comparison to the adulation received by American-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu (also representing China) who expectedly snapped up the golds. Both ladies represented the same country with starkly contrasting reception but Nathan Chan (with a Bejing-borned mum) heeded the call of Team USA and dethroned his arch rival Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan. A sub-par Yuzuru failed to win a single medal at the Winter Games and for the competitive figure skater, a reminder that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. Regardless of winning and losing, Australia cricket legend Shane Warne will be remembered as the country mourned his passing.

Shane Warne wasn’t the only legend sorely missed, it was adieu to pioneering Italian fashion designer Nino Cerruti and iconic French designer Thierry Mugler while it was a tragic end for country singer Naomi Judd (mother of actress Ashley Judd) after she pulled the trigger on herself (#Suicide). We won’t be able to see Naomi Judd perform live again (scheduled for another concert tour before her death) and similarly we won’t be able to hear from The Wanted singer Tom Parker (33), Meatloaf (74) and Traci Braxton (50) (sister of singer Tony Braxton) . In the same vein, we will reminisce the times drummer Taylor Hawkins (50) spent as a Foo Fighter or Andrew Fletcher (60) behind that keyboard as a founding member of British electronic band Depeche Mode.

By now, we are a crying heap after the demise of beloved TV icon Betty White (Golden Girls), Sidney Poitier (the first black actor to win a best actor Oscar and also break down Hollywood’s racial barriers), actor Ray Liotta, comedian and former America’s Funniest Home Videos host Bob Saget*, Oscar winning actor William Hurt and one gone too soon, French actor Gaspard Ulliel (37) (#Moonknight #HannibalRising) who died in a ski accident. The deaths have dimmed Hollywood somewhat and condolences have also poured in for K-drama Snowdrop actress Kim Mi Soo (29), Thai actor Beam Papangkorn (25) (#TheStranded #Water Boyy) who died in his sleep, Thai actress Nida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong (37) who drowned in the Chao Phraya river, Doraemon co-creator Motoo Abiko (pen name Fujiko A Fujio) and Hong Kong veteran actor Kenneth Tsang (曾江) who passed away while in quarantine.

*Bob Saget played Danny Tanner on the sitcom Full House and was also the narrator on the comedy series How I Met Your Mother. He is also remembered for being the original host of America’s Funniest Home Video.

“Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it”, according to popular Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. And when life gives you lemons, make babies rather than lemonade as Taiwanese model-actress Lin Chiling welcomes her first child with Japanese actor-singer Akira while Nick Jonas and Priyanka chose to do it via a surrogate. The elation does not stop there because K-drama stars Park Shin-hye and Choi Tae-joon are now proud parents of a baby boy while Rihanna is ready to swap her fashion flair and bling bling for diapers and milk bottles.

The aforementioned stars have embarked on the long and arduous journey of parenthood but others are heading in opposite directions after Angelababy and Huang Xiaoming filed for divorce while Colombian pop star Shakira and Spanish footballer Gerard Pique confirmed they are splitting up after a 12-year relationship. Others like Barbie Hsu are taking the plunge again by diving headlong into another marriage with South Korean musician DJ Koo just 5 months after her divorce with businessman Wang Xiaofei.

DJ Koo wasn’t the only South Korean who snag a bride, Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin (#CrashLandingOnYou) are now officially husband and wife after a whirlwind romance. The wedding bells will also ring for singer-actress Jang Na Ra after she announced her nuptials while Andy Lee from K-pop’s first generation boy band Shinhwa is set to tie the knot with television host Lee Eun-joo. Meanwhile, marriage is on the cards for British actor Tom Hiddleston (#ZaweAshton) while a low key wedding in Las Vegas will do just fine for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Elsewhere, Rebel Wilson (#PitchPerfect) has chosen to say it out loud by coming out of the closet after unveiling Ramona Agrumar as her girlfriend.

The jury is still out whether it will be a happily ever after for Ben Affleck and J.Lo but the sexual assault charges filed against Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey is certainly damning. Movie studios/TV productions are shunning Kevin Spacey like the plague but this year’s most talked about movie at the Oscars was oddly 1997’s “GI Jane”. In guest presenter Chris Rock’s own words, it was the greatest night on television after Will Smith smacked the s*** out of him. American stand-up comedian Dave Chapelle will have you know violence is never the answer after he too was tackled and assailed by an audience member on stage.

It’s debatable whether Will Smith deserves his Oscar win after assaulting someone but there is no denying Troy Kotsur after he became the first deaf male performer to win an Oscar for the movie “CODA”. For a movie (which also won Best Picture) where almost two-thirds of it is in sign language, the film certainly has something to say about the deaf community while highlighting the gap between them and the hearing world. Suffice to say, it has articulated its message fairly well and that has not fallen on deaf ears (pardon the pun). Interestingly, CODA is a four-letter acronym which stands for “Child of Deaf Adults” but a web-based five-letter word game (#WORDLE)* which was started by its creator as a time filler, took the world by storm. A wordsmith you may be, SCRABBLE it is not, yet many were attracted by the concept of using six tries to guess a five-letter word daily.

*WORDLE was acquired by The New York Times from its creator Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, for a price in the low seven figures.

In winning the Best Supporting Actor award, Troy Kotsur has shown he wasn’t hampered by his disability but Ramsay Hunt syndrome has briefly left half of Justin Bieber’s face paralysed while aphasia has robbed Bruce Willis’s ability to speak or communicate properly, leading him to step away from acting. Bruce Willis’s acting career is seemingly over while Korean boyband BTS have finally applied the brakes to go on a break, ironically to work on their solo projects. Contrastingly at 60, with a ripped body and washboard abs, the sky is probably the limit for Tom Cruise as he returns as Maverick to do dogfights in a movie replete with nostalgia (#TopGun:Maverick).

Bruce Willis and Justin Bieber weren’t the only ones afflicted with illnesses, Member of Parliament Baey Yam Keng is on the mend after being diagnosed with stage one nose cancer. He might need to take a backseat from his MP duties for now but his fellow colleague Lawrence Wong has stepped up to the plate and is firmly entrenched in the driver’s seat after he was chosen by his peers to lead the country for the foreseeable future.

We hope the Prime Minister-in-waiting fastens his seatbelt because the country has careened into a divisive world where might is right (#UkraineRussia #ChinaTaiwan) coupled with the threat of global warming and ever evolving pathogens. Thankfully Lawrence Wong isn’t driving a Bentley because we witnessed first hand the total disregard a driver has for the safety and well-being of security personnel at Red Swastika School. We are not sure whether the Bentley incident qualifies as road rage but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned after a female driver tried to stop a car from moving off. We don’t know whether she was throwing a tantrum but a license plate was certainly thrown in for good measure.

That advancing Bentley might have become a murder weapon but something untoward did happen to the 11-year-old twins with special needs of Greenwich Crescent after their murderer led the police on a wild goose chase. Thankfully, the chase is over after inroads were made in the investigation of a missing person cold case (#FeliciaTeo #1997) based on the discovery of new evidence. Be it disposing of a corpse or homicide as shown in both cases, it is still a matter of life and death as digital birth and death certificates will be issued from now onwards in place of physical copies.

The Bentley incident has highlighted that going to schools can be a stressful event for parents and security personnel alike but the good news is mid-year examinations will be scrapped for all primary and secondary school students by next year. That is indeed something London’s Imperial College student Maximillan Zeng (a product of our education system) would approve of as he believes cramming isn’t learning. The “Human Atlas” and a possible polymath wowed the world with his geographic knowledge and led his university to victory at the British television quiz show “University Challenge”.

Doing away with mid-year examinations is a step in the right direction for our education system but there are differing views on the plan of getting all schools on board cashless payment schemes by 2025. In truth, examinations are not the be all and end all but we are left wondering whether the trainee lawyers who cheated in their bar examinations are qualified for the legal profession and we certainly find the notion of time-stamped education qualifications suggested by an MP bemusing.

The trainee lawyers are not the only ones that cheated, anti-vaccine group Healing The Divide co-founder Iris Koh and general practitioner Jipson Quah were hoping to game the system by conspiring to cheat and submit falsified vaccination records to the Ministry of Health. We hope there are enough qualified lawyers left as Pritam Singh & Co will need them after their case was referred to the Public Prosecutor for further action. Regrettably, a litigious response may not yield the desired results after the nation’s fastest marathoner (#SohRuiYong) lost his second defamation suit against former ex-Singapore Athletics (SA) vice-president and executive director Malik Aljunied.

To his credit, Soh Rui Yong did extend the olive branch (#Sorry) in an attempt to mend fences with the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) but his abrasive nature and adversarial ties with sporting bodies hangs like a millstone around his neck. He should know better that for two warring parties at odds with each other, a dialogue should go both ways. Comparatively, Joseph Schooling is faring slightly better in starting a national conversation on the effects of National Service on athletes. Our Olympic gold medallist could probably look to Fandi Ahmad for inspiration because our local soccer legend did complete his National Service commitments and managed to be the first Singaporean footballer to play professionally in Europe. In fact, Fandi has just launched his second biography and maybe Lions stalwart Baihakki Khaizan could follow in his idol’s footsteps after he decided to call it a day.

Fandi probably found his second wind for that biography but 67-year-old Catholic nun Linda Sim proved that old is gold literally after she became Singapore’s first World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship gold medalist. Not to be outdone, Singapore’s Tiktok dancing sensation Uncle Raymond (aka Raymond Lin) has pockets of fans joining his dance routines at various locations islandwide and that infectious energy has rubbed off on the likes of the health minister, frontline healthcare workers, SCDF’s emergency responders and conscripts. In earnest, Raymond Lin expressed that he isn’t doing this for fame but rather for the simple fact that he prefers exercising outdoors rather than at home. It is admirable Linda Sim and Uncle Raymond stay fit as a fiddle even in their twilight years while Encik Leong (a SAF Senior Warrant Officer and a brief Tiktok sensation during the Army Open house) stays active by doing a regime of 10km runs, 5 sets of Tabata and 1,000 crunches daily.

@ongyekung
Getting some morning exercise with healthcare workers, led by Uncle Raymond! As I always say, it need not be difficult to stay healthy. Thanks for meeting. Be happy. #HealthierSG
♬ 百年孤寂 – 184 諺

@mustsharenews
@raymondl88 bringing good vibes to SCDF🕺 #singapore #mustsharenews #tiktoksg
♬ original sound – MustShareNews – MustShareNews

@raymondl88
Army open house. Let’s move. Thanks for the inviting of Army Be happy #aoh #singapore #raymondl88
♬ 百年孤寂 – 184 諺

@jeraldjustinjk
Reply to @southeastasiabizpost super down to earth, energetic and extremely friendly! 💪🏻🫡
♬ original sound – JK – JK

Uncle Raymond is taking his newfound fame in his stride but fame is only fleeting for busker Jeff Ng after his obnoxious behavior was outed by peers in the industry, patrons at venues where he used to perform and even service staff. The delusional self-proclaimed “国宝” (national treasure) has had to eat humble pie after the barrage of accusations levelled at him, ranging from self-entitlement to a questionable work ethic or rather the lack of it. It may be abit of a stretch to label Jeff Ng an overnight success but Brandon Wong (黄炯耀)* is undoubtedly the epitome of “hard work + perseverance = success” after finally winning his first Star Awards trophy (#Top10MostPopularMaleArtiste) at this year’s Star Awards. It goes without saying we can fully comprehend that pent up frustration in his teary but heartfelt award acceptance speech after toiling for 27 years in obscurity.

*Brandon Wong (黄炯耀) was from the same batch of contestants alongside Christopher Lee (李铭顺) and Phyllis Quek (郭妃丽) in Star Search 1995.

Due recognition is long overdue for Brandon Wong (黄炯耀) but Felicia Chin has decided enough is enough as she leaves Mediacorp for a faith-based ministry after almost two decades. We sincerely hope Brandon Wong can scale new heights in his acting career and we are equally proud that local director Anthony Chen is set to direct a film (#Amazon #SecretDaughter) starring Priyanka Chopra and Sienna Miller. Let’s just say the stars are indeed aligned for Anthony Chen but the lights went out at Cathay Cineplex permanently. The first air-conditioned cinema in the country managed to outlast the Japanese Occupation during World War 2 but ironically could not ensure its viability in this modern day. In fact, the signs were ominous at the start of the year after fellow competitor Filmgarde went down to just one after closing two of its other branches (#Bugis+ #CenturySquare).

The closure of a few cineplexes may herald a restructuring within the cinema industry but $40 million coffeeshops (#Tampines #Yishun) and million dollar pigeon holes (#TiongBahru #PasirRis #Woodlands #Yishun #MarineParade) are increasingly becoming commonplace in our heartlands. We are deeply concerned whether prospective landlords flushed with cold hard cash are destabilising our neighbourhood or defacing the social compact but all that money cannot buy a peace of mind when your false ceilings collapse with increasing regularity. The said sellers of the establishments and abodes no doubt are laughing their way to the bank, but a resident of a ground floor unit in Pasir Ris is banking on his takeaway coffee business (aptly named “Ground Floor Coffee”) to give boutique cafes a run for their money. A cafe that serves takeaways from a ground floor HDB unit is no monkey business compared to the 14 metre-tall golden monkey perched on the Lazada One office building in Bras Basah while marrying off your daughter is serious business judging from the S$2 million worth of betrothal gifts for billionaire heiress Kim Lim’s “Guo Da Li” (过大礼).

Be it sky high sale/resale prices or a hair’s breadth escape from unreliable false ceilings, waterfront living could be the solution to our living nightmare after HDB announced the upcoming waterfront BTO projects to be built on the Keppel Club site (#GreaterSouthernWaterfront). I don’t know about you but the closest an average Singaporean can experience waterfront living is probably a stroll along the newly opened Changi Bay Park Connector with the sea as a backdrop or experience first hand the sea of nouveau arts enthusiasts milling around the island’s newly anointed arts hub at a shipping port (#TanjongPagarDistripark #SingaporeArtMuseum).

All that moolah vested into eating places, properties, pre-wedding gifts and a museum has probably turned the city state into a fertile ground for scammers to germinate, masquerading as banks, telcos, supermarkets, postal services, courier companies, tax authorities, job agents, China officials and even celebrities. Losing your life savings to these scammers is a traumatic and painful experience and lets pray that our savings are in a safe haven after DBS bought the consumer banking business of Citigroup in Taiwan while UOB has struck a deal to acquire Citigroup’s consumer banking franchise in four South-East Asian markets (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam) for $5 billion.

We hope the banking deals are sound business decisions because the return of the Sports Hub’s ownership and management to the government is a sign that the PPP (public-private partnership) model was a failure. Admittedly, the Sports Hub should be in good hands now that it is under the government’s purview but it’s proving quite a handful for the police as the knives are out literally. From your kitchen cleaver to a Samurai sword to razor blades and to bread knives, you name it, we have it… the assortment of weapons law enforcement officers had to deal with this year was flabbergasting. Consequently, the police have responded in kind, shots have indeed been fired and ammunition was expended.

The sharp objects wielded by the assailants have certainly blunted our senses and that is probably why we cannot make sense of the maddening and disgruntled horde that queued in vain hoping to get first dibs to the Omega-Swatch collab (#Moonswatch). As expected, tempers frayed, people fainted, threats were made to sales staff and police were eventually called into action at affected Swatch outlets islandwide. The Moonswatch was not the only event drawing the crowds, throngs of people flocked to the beaches of Changi and Pasir Ris in a bid to spot the blue glow of bioluminescent waves.

The Moonswatch episode reminded us that ugly Singaporeans still exist in large swathes which explains why I am not surprised that a man did not pay for his Irish duck after he claimed the duck is not Irish (#Duckland #TungLokGroup). We are unable to ascertain the said duck’s origin but we are pretty sure a couple on a first date did not go Dutch after leaving a Korean barbecue restaurant without settling their almost $270 bill.

A roasted duck with questionable nationality and unpaid dinner bills should be the least of our worries because a wild boar that knocked a woman out cold in Yishun has ruffled our feathers. Animal lovers are riled up over the authority’s decision to kill the captured wild boar but Singaporeans by and large are crying foul and fowl after Malaysia’s chicken export ban. The lesson learnt is we shouldn’t count our chickens before they hatch but it’s good news for women between 21 and 35 years of age because regardless of their marital status, they will be allowed to freeze their eggs from 2023 onwards after a change in legislation.

Whether the chicken or egg came first, the party in white has taken the first notable step in trying to win back the hearts of voters in Sengkang GRC by introducing 3 new candidates. In fact, the PAP and Workers’ Party are leaving no stone unturned as they sent representatives (#HenryKwek #JamusLin) to attend this year’s Pink Dot event for the very first time. While Henry and Jamus have started laying the groundwork for GE2025, the investigation into former GE2020 candidate Ivan Lim has confirmed that he was not involved in any of Keppel O & M’s controversial projects that were tainted by corruption. Nonetheless the forgone conclusion is that he was a douchebag in the past. As with all douchebags, we are keeping our fingers crossed that Ivan does not get fielded ever again and we pray that it is the last we will ever hear of Jeff Ng. Distractions aside, all eyes are now on Lawrence Wong as he takes the country on the next lap (#ForwardSingapore). We are hoping “Forward Singapore” is not another one of those grandiose initiatives bloated with motherhood statements but an exercise in futility at best. So, over to you Lawrence. Good luck (He will probably need lots of it).

======== E.N.D ========

Picture Credits:

https://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097

RED DOT 2021: Of Variants, Squid Game, Pa-Jiam-Buay & A Pack of Lies

Posted on December 30, 2021December 31, 2021 by uncleflipsprata

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It is not quite the Avengers: Endgame but the second year of Covid-19 continues to put us in a time-loop. Lockdowns, checked. Quarantine, checked. Recurring waves of infections, checked. The ebb and flow of mortality rates, checked. Once again, the invisible enemy threatens to bring the world to another juddering halt. Add to that, the coronavirus unfortunately has extended its welcome to its ever-evolving variants.

We got acquainted with Delta, said “Hi” to Lamda, braced ourselves for the vaccine-resistant “Mu”, stared in disbelief at a variant (#DeltaPlus) of an existing variant (#Delta) and now despite the paucity of information, we must get up to speed with the most infectious Omicron variant. Vaccination is the only way forward while we wait for the advances of medical science to stop this pandemic. The world tried to function properly as borders reopened, travellers gallivant around the globe, spectators fill stadiums in football-mad Britain, sporting events resumed with caution (#Olympics #Euro2020), shoppers thronged the streets of Champs-Elysees and Jeff Bezos just made another million as we speak.

The founder and former CEO of Amazon made history when he performed the world’s first unpiloted suborbital flight (#BlueOrigin) with an all-civilian crew*. It is a healthy and probably wealthy competition as his billionaire counterpart, entrepreneur Richard Branson reached space onboard his Virgin Galactic rocket plane just 9 days earlier. Space tourism is closer to reality now than science fiction as marked by Neil Armstrong’s famous words, “That is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

It could cost a seven-figure sum to propel yourself beyond the Earth’s stratosphere as a space tourist while mere mortals like us can only sell a kidney to buy the 13th iteration of the iPhone or become the unsuspecting beta tester for the newly launched 11th version of Windows. Yet, hardware and software upgrades pale in comparison to what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is creating, a metaverse. The social media giant is building a metaverse** that will blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds, converging both worlds. His vision of the metaverse is the next generation of the internet whereby a virtual environment will allow people to be present with each other in digital spaces.

*Jeff Bezos launched himself into space together with his brother (Mark Bezos, a private equity executive), pioneering woman aviator Wally Funk and a recent high school graduate Oliver Daemen. As such, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen have become the oldest and youngest people to reach space respectively.

**The idea of a metaverse is that it will create new online spaces in which people’s interactions can be more multi-dimensional. Instead of viewing digital content, users can immerse themselves in the content. A good example happened in September where millions of people watched Aria Grande perform virtually in Fortnite.

Zuckerberg’s strategy to ensconce us in his digital realm is questionable but questions are being asked of the US government on the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban after the withdrawal of US troops. In fact, much will be asked on how a two decade painstaking effort in propping up the Afghan military with billions of US taxpayers’ dollars went to waste in a matter of days. The future and direction of Afghanistan remains uncertain but voters have answered the call for political certainty as Canada and Europe went to the polls.

The changing of the guard took place where the revival of the centre-left parties continued as Germany’s Angela Merkel made way for Olaf Scholz while Norway’s left-wing opposition Labour Party unseated the country’s conservative centre-right coalition. It went the other way for the Czech Republic after two opposition alliances (comprising centre-right and liberal opposition groups) ended the reign of populist oligarch and billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s centrist ANO party. Justin Trudeau had no problems with the opposition but he failed to gain an absolute majority in Canada even with his election victory while Naftali Bennett became the new Israeli Prime Minister displacing long-serving Netanyahu in a narrow confidence vote (60 to Netanyahu’s 59) in parliament.

The respective leaders and governments have been installed for the said countries but political continuity is in doubt after Haiti President Jovenel Moise was assassinated by a group of mercenaries while a military-led coup happened in Sudan. Elsewhere, Tunisia was plunged into a political and economic crisis after President Kais Saied sacked the Prime Minister and seized power.

It is apparent President Kais Saied was unwilling to share power but power can also be a cursed commodity as Muhyiddin Yassin lasted just 17 months as Prime Minister while Yoshida Suga’s tenure was cut short by his declining popularity. The ex-Malaysian premier lost his majority in parliament while Suga lost the plot in Japan’s battle against Covid-19. The wheels of democracy turned as Ismail Sabri and Fumio Kishida took their respective leadership places while Hong Kong ‘s pro-democracy movement withered after Apple Daily, the pro-democracy newspaper, was forced to close. The authorities duly froze its assets and arrested some of its staff under the National Security Law.

It is not just Hong Kong that is under siege, China’s domestic oppression and cultural crackdown soon followed as it banned effeminate boy bands, reality talent shows and took action on “fan club/celebrity cult” culture. It can only get more draconian as a limit is imposed on how long minors can play their computer/mobile games (3 hours per week) while a hammer blow struck the education industry after for-profit tutoring was banned.

For now, the plight of the Uighurs seems to be the least of our worries as China’s insistence on its territorial rights and increasing forays into the South China Sea threatens the region’s stability. The troubled waters has elicited a collective response (#QUAD #AUKUS) to curb China’s growing assertiveness as Tsai Ing Wen disclosed the existence of US troops stationed in Taiwan while Australia is set to roll out its first nuclear-powered submarine fleet in a partnership with the US. The South China Sea may now resemble a chessboard with the pieces making their moves but an exchange of pawns has already taken place involving Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou (facing extradition) and two detained Canadians (Michael Sparvor and Michael Kovrig).

Canada’s move to sacrifice Meng Wanzhou is no Queen’s gambit but the US Open female champion (#EmmaRaducanu) held court with the Duchess of Cambridge (you know her as Kate Middleton) at the National Tennis Centre in London. The exuberance of youth was on display after 18-year-old British teen Emma Raducanu* who is half-Romanian and half-Chinese, became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament. Not to be outdone, Ashleigh Barty beat Karolina Pliskova to win Wimbledon, becoming the first Australian woman to win the singles title in four decades while Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA title after 50 years. Elsewhere, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen also claimed his first in the concluding and nail-biting race of the season to become the first Dutch driver to win the Formula One World Championship.

*Emma Raducanu is also the youngest Grand Slam champion in 17 years, the youngest US Open winner since 17-year-old Serena Williams in 1999 and Britain’s first women’s Grand Slam singles champion since Virgina Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.

Lewis Hamiliton’s stranglehold on the F1 grand prix may have been broken but Manny Pacqiao has left his beloved sport to go into politics after two decades and in what seem like an eternity, Lionel Messi finally departed from his boyhood club (#Barcelona) after 21 years. Meanwhile it was a surprise and sweet homecoming for Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United while Newcastle United found a suitor after the takeover by a consortium (#PIF #PCPCapitalPartners #R&B Sports & Media) backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

*Manny Pacqaio’s announcement on his retirement from boxing capped a phenomenal two-decade career (62 wins, 8 losses, 2 draws, 12 world titles) that swept him from being an odd job labourer to a superstar boxer.

Messi and Ronaldo have defined a sporting generation and are known as the G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time) but the chlorine-laced pools in Tokyo have also produced royalties of calibre. American Caleb Dressel was crowned the swim king after winning 5 gold medals while Australia’s Emma McKeon is the undisputed swim queen of the Olympics and for her country after clinching 4 gold and 3 bronze medals. Those are not the pair’s first medals nor will it be their last but it was definitely a first of many for some countries…Japanese mixed doubles pair Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito stunned China to win the host country’s first Olympic gold in table tennis, Hidilyn Diaz (#Weightlifting) did likewise sending the Philippines into euphoria and Flora Duffy’s victory in the women’s triathlon was a moment to savor for Bermuda (with a population of 70,000), giving the country the distinction of being the smallest nation to achieve such a feat.

The stories at the Olympics continued to unfold with triumph over adversity and a few surprises…Heart attack survivor Shane Braspennincx managed to clinch gold (#Keirin) while Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs is the man to beat in the 100 metres after breaking Usain Bolt’s 13-year hold on the blue riband event. We may have taken a shine to the inspirational and uplifting stories of these athletes but we must also acknowledge the toll the Tokyo games has taken on its participants. 7-time Olympic medallist Kohei Uchimura’s distinguished Olympic career came to a shocking end on the opening day of the gymnastics competition when he suffered a crash landing and failed to qualify for the horizontal bar final. We can take comfort that Kohei tried his best but Simone Biles’s Olympic journey ended before it had barely begun after she withdrew from the individual, team and all-round events. The most bemedalled American gymnast of our time caved amid mental health concerns but she wasn’t the only one. Naomi Osaka had the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony but was visibly a pale shadow of herself after exiting the tennis event in the 3rd round.

The vulnerability of Biles and Naomi belied their successful and storied sporting careers and the frailty of a sportsman was telling after Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed during the delayed Euro 2020 match against Finland. Eriksen wasn’t the only one sent to the ground, an infamous spectator holding a cardboard sign sent a large section of the peloton tumbling at Tour De France; the worst crash the competition has ever witnessed. Thankfully, Eriksen is now okay and despite his absence, Denmark had a respectable Euro outing (reached the semi-finals). The same cannot be said of the spectator who was eventually and justly arrested by the French police.

That perpetrator who caused the Tour De France pile up was given a fine of 1,200 euros. For more serious offences, you do the crime, you do the time as Smallville actress Allison Mack and former K-pop star Seungri (#BigBang) will be incarcerated for 3 years for their roles in a sex cult and prostitution ring respectively. Similarly, if found guilty after rape allegations surfaced, Kris Wu will find it hard to avoid jail time after being arrested in China while the police are investigating what went wrong on a movie set after Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Haiyna Hutchins with a prop gun.

Safety measures were called into question following the tragedy and a return to our childhood games and dicing with death could prove equally fatal (#SquidGame). The participants of the games had some sadistic fun as they carved out shapes on a Dalgona candy, prance around on a glass bridge while others simply lost their marbles. The highlight of the series had to be contestants racing to the stop-start rhythm of Red Light, Green Light but the ramifications of choosing the Red pill over the Blue pill will once again be explored in The Matrix Resurrections (Neo chose the red pill in the very first Matrix film back in 1999). Keanu Reeves may relish reprising that iconic sci-fi role which had him dodging bullets in slow-mo but it is definitely Daniel Craig’s final outing as Agent 007 (#NoTimeToDie) while Captain Kirk (#StarTrek) aka actor William Shatner is the very first actor to go into space, for real this time.

We will miss Daniel Craig’s sensitive James Bond laden with all that emotional baggage but we were given a chance to reminisce this year as the cast of F.R.I.E.N.D.S reunited for one last hurrah and we can’t get enough of the funny foursome of Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes and Cosmo Kramer (#Seinfeld) in a show literally about nothing, now available on Netflix after 22 years. It is comforting to see the thespians get their act together and what a Voyage Abba has taken to come together to release their new album after breaking up 40 years ago. Abba may have survived the test of time but K-pop girl group Solia had the distinction of having the shortest lifespan disbanding 5 days after their launch. Meanwhile, we wish Hong Kong actor Louis Koo the very best of luck for his newly formed four-member K-pop girl group (#Skyle).

Fans will undoubtedly be grooving to Abba’s Dancing Queen to celebrate their return but Hollywood is exclaiming Mama Mia !! as Jennifer Lopez rekindled the romance with Ben Affleck (#Bennifer) after they were spotted on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival. Others are heading for splitsville after both actress Barbie Hsu (aka 徐熙媛, 大S) and singer Wang Leehom filed for divorce from their partners despite years of marriage. Ben and Jennifer are technically back together again but other couples have taken a further step in solidifying their commitment. US socialite Paris Hilton is finally settling down with businessman Carter Reum after 3 previous engagements, former Spice Girl Emma Bunton exchanged vows with British singer-turned-chef Jade Jones while the judging pair (#GwenStefani #BlakeShelton) on The Voice tied the knot in a private ceremony in Oklahoma.

No one objects to heterosexual relationships but Kristen Stewart (#Twilight) is professing her love after confirming her engagement to girlfriend Dylan Meyer. Don’t get me wrong, diversity is embraced in the entertainment industry and exclusivity no longer thrives as Marvel’s cinematic universe took a chance on a predominantly Asian cast in Shangchi and The Legend of Ten Rings while The Eternals featured a same-sex couple with a child. Raising a child is a different ball game but that has not deterred Megan Markle from giving birth to her second child named Lilibet Lili Diana.

The name Lilibet Lili Diana honors two women of particular importance to Prince Harry; Lilibet in a nod to Queen Elizabeth (The queen’s nickname) and Diana as a tribute to Harry’s late mother Princess Diana. That name might be a mouthful but these other names in the obituaries will be remembered for some time to come:

-James Michael Tyler <1962 – 2021> more popularly known as Gunther in F.R.I.E.N.D.S

-Charles Watt <1941 – 2021> Rolling Stones drummer

-Terence Wilson (aka Astro as stage name) <1957 – 2021> former vocalist and founding member of reggae group UB40

-Sarah Harding <1981 – 2021> Girls Aloud singer

-Dilip Kumar <1922 – 2021> Bollywood icon

-Richard Donner* <1930 – 2021> Director (#LethalWeapon #Superman <1978> #TalesFromThe Crypt #TwilightZone)

-Sonny Chiba <1939 – 2021> Japanese action star and martial artist

*Richard Donner directed the landmark superhero film Superman (1978) starring Christopher Reeve in the title role that propelled him to stardom. Donner’s film-making career that spanned 50 years is most notable for reinvigorating the buddy cop genre with the Lethal Weapon series. He also had a hand in producing some episodes for television series such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E, The Twilight Zone and Tales From The Crypt.

It is fitting that we remember the departed stars who paid their dues while on the road to success but China’s embattled property developer Evergrande could be due for a default as it reels under the weight of a US$305 billion debt pile amid a worsening liquidity crisis in the property market. The property giant is struggling to pay its creditors and investors alike but Universal Music Group, the company behind singers such as Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift is raising cash on its stock market debut (#EuronextAmsterdam) as it maintains a foothold in the music industry alongside Warner and Sony Music. There is intense competition in the music industry but Amazon (now the 2nd largest streaming company after Netflix) is set to buy Hollywood studio MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) for a whopping $8.45 billion as the streaming war heats up while Netflix is expanding beyond its realm of films and shows into gaming. Both the e-commerce giant and the streaming pioneer have made acquisitions as part of their expansion but Adidas has decided to ditch Reebok after failing to turn the brand around.

*MGM has a library of 4,000 titles and 17,000 hours of TV programming – ranging from Gone With The Wind and The Hobbits to TV hits such as The Handmaid’s Tales – that has collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmy Awards.

It’s a new low for Reebok but oil prices broke a record high after reaching US$80 per barrel for the first time in 3 years while the demand for natural gas and coal have scaled multi-year peaks. The broad-based rebound in energy demand came about as countries emerged from the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unfortunately, that huge appetite for burning fossil fuels has brought the calamitous effects of climate change to our very doorstep this year. There was the heat dome in North America and parts of Canada as it scorched the lands while wildfires continued consuming the forest in Siberia better known for its frigid winters. Elsewhere, deadly floods inundated German towns, Japan is left to pick the remains of a landslide and torrential downpours dumped nearly a year’s worth of rain in the Henan province in just 3 days, most notably flooding their subway stations and trains. It was no wonder that Greta Thunberg slammed the delegates at this year’s UN climate change conference (#COP26).

Climate change is a perennial challenge for small nation states like Singapore but top national marathoner Soh Rui Yong issued another challenge by throwing down the gauntlet to whoever can run 2.4km in under 7 minutes. In fact, Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen might be keen to take up that challenge after they were enlisted for National Service while Jack Neo was busy looking for their female counterparts for his next movie venture (#AhGirlsGoArmy) featuring female conscripts.

MINDEF might have effectively ended the pair’s Olympic dreams after their dismal Tokyo outing but this Olympics wasn’t just about their regression alone…There was Yu Mengyu’s swansong, Frieda Lim as the nation’s first female diver at the Olympics (#Diving), Yip Pin Xiu’s dominance with a reminder that all athletes should be treated and rewarded equally and the discovery of a marathon swimmer (#ChantalLiew) in our midst. All these athletes have given their all for the country and Goh Choon Huat has added a feather in his cap after becoming the first Singaporen road cyclist to compete in Europe when he made his debut for professional outfit Team BikeExhange in Spain while national cyclist Chelsie Tan became the first Singaporean to secure a professional contract in Europe.

Mr Soh might have dangled a $700 carrot for the winners of his 2.4km challenge but he is raising money on another front (#Crowdfund) to pay for damages ($180,000) after losing a defamation suit against fellow runner Ashley Liew. Other than the feud between the two competitive runners, suing each other could probably be misunderstood as our national pastime after the sons of former President Ong Teng Cheong did likewise while ex-PSP member Kala Manickam has taken legal action against her former political party for wrongful dismissal.

PSP may have one less cadre member but our pandas from China welcomed a new addition to their family in the month of August. The birth of a cub signifies a new chapter in the duo’s lives and a rebranding of Wildlife Reserves Singapore got underway with the renaming of the River Safari (#RiverWonders) and Jurong Bird Park (#BirdParadise). You might get enthralled by the River Wonders and Bird Paradise but the zoo still has plenty to offer from the two male Rothschild giraffes from India to Asiatic lions infected with Covid-19.

Yet wildlife in Singapore is not just confined to the zoo, a peacock got in the face of a toddler’s bloody face literally, the otter family has bitten more than they can chew and a Mandarin duck has made Hougang its home after being spotted twice in a matter of months. It’s a rarity to spot the ave but you will have a better chance of salvaging 2 historical shipwrecks with artefacts found in Singapore’s territorial waters near Pedro Branca or locate rotting corpses of desolated elderly folks at the Singpost Centre or HDB flats.

Panda Kai Kai and Jia Jia are now proud parents and the good news is their offspring need not take the dreaded PSLE examination in time to come, a concern for every parent of school-going children in this outcome-obsessed country. True to its nature, this year’s PSLE mathematics question had stumped many students and expectedly invited a flurry of complaints from concerned parents. The infamous question took a life of its own after it trended briefly on social media. Despite past assurances from Ministers that every school is a good school, be it Raffles Institution (Nominated MP Leong Mun Wai) or the now defunct Monk’s Hill Secondary (Manpower Minister Tan See Leng), the former was deemed a lousy one and its alumni illiterate. That offending offhand remark was uttered by Vivian in Parliament, no less a Minister himself and he has since made his peace with PSP’s Mr Leong.

Vivian Balakrishnan probably had an axe to grind with Leong Mun Wai but a real axe was shockingly used to kill a Secondary 1 student in cold blood at River Valley High School. Homicide at a school is a first for Singapore and suicide was foremost on a female student’s mind after she climbed over a platform screen door and walked along the tracks at Yio Chu Kang MRT station. We may never fully comprehend what drove these students to their insane acts and Coulrophobia (phobia of clowns) could possibly be one of the causes. Thankfully, the clowns (#SpeechAcademyAsia) do not loiter around our neighbourhood schools anymore but a tertiary institute has run into a brick wall of sorts; Yale-NUS College will cease to exist after a merger announcement, characterizing a surprise marriage that lead to an eventual divorce.

The move by the education authorities was speculated as a clamp down on the liberal student movement notably inspired by the civil liberties of Western democracies. Socio-political website Theonlinecitizen possibly suffered the same fate after it did not yield to IMDA’s demands to disclose its foreign donors while a law against foreign interference (FICA) was passed in Parliament to address “serious” threats to national security and sovereignty.

We disagree with the passing of FICA in parliament because the biggest threats to national security actually come from within as boomers fight and squabble, baring their fists and knuckles or the naivety displayed in consuming Ivermectin to cure Covid-19 based on advice given by your church group members. Unfortunately as in so often the case, the one that can hurt you the most is the one closest to you. Liar liar, Raeesah Khan’s pants was on fire after she admitted to her tall tales in parliament. As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire for the story she concocted but an enclosed filtered and air-conditioned smoking cabin is being piloted at Clementi.

Due to Raeesah’s determination to perpetuate her lies, we were subsequently introduced to the inner workings of the Committee of Privileges (COP) and I must say it is indeed a privilege to wakeboard at the pond in the War Memorial Park. The disgraced pathological liar has since resigned but the damage has been done to the Workers’ Party.

I believe Sengkang GRC is still in good hands under Jamus & Co despite a crack in the facade at Rivervale Mall but I cannot say the same for other housing estates… There was the knee-deep flood in Bukit Timah, the fireball from the manhole at Bukit Batok, the basketball ball hoop that claimed a boy’s life (#Bedok) and the world came crashing down after a 40-metre long block of concrete collapsed from 4 storeys high at an industrial building (#JTC #BedokIndustrialPark).

Rest assured our buildings are safe because even a 47-year-old building like Golden Mile Complex will be preserved. The 16-storey building with 718 strata-titled units is up for collective sale again at the reserve price of $800 million but the first BTO project (#Rochor) launched under the Prime Location Public Housing Scheme (PLH) will try to prevent property flippers from gaining a near-future windfall with a subsidy claw-back and a 10-year MOP (Minimum Occupation Period). Despite the enhanced regulations, these BTO projects are still selling like hotcakes and potential home owners are praying there won’t be any delays after Greatearth, the troubled main contractor for multiple BTO projects, went belly up.

Greatearth is not the only known entity to fold, online luxury marketplace Reebonz is in the process of liquidation under the weight of S$65 million in liabilities while skyrocketing energy (natural gas) prices and a failure to hedge against such volatility have forced some independent electricity retailers (#i-Switch #Ohm #BestElectricity #UGS #SilverCloudEnergy) to leave the competition. Those that are still competing have turned to Japan after plastic manufacturer Omni-Plus System became the first Singapore company to list in Tokyo while others returned in a new form as an online retailer. (#Naiise). Naiise may have gone the digital route but a digital alarm has gone off after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) ordered crypto exchange operator Binance to stop providing payment services to Singapore residents. DBS was equally spooked after experiencing its longest online service disruption, living up to its motto of “Live More, Bank Less”.

DBS customers were evidently livid with the service outage but they will be glad to know they can use their Singpass to buy booze from vending machines (#Cellarbration) to drown their sorrows. In fact, you can now get your regular alcohol fix as SCS Dairy Singapore’s new Butterscotch Butter is available in Sheng Siong, Prime and Redmart supermarkets. All that wine is going to come in handy when you complement it with an entree of McDonald’s BTS meal or Ben Yeo’s collaboration with McDonald’s for their take on a Hainanese Chicken Burger. If you have room for more at tea time, famed Los Angeles sandwich chain Eggslut is a great choice while Singapore Idol alumni Olinda Cho’s fruit tart at $32 a pop or Fann Wong’s Mao Shan Wang Gula Melaka tart can complete your dessert selection. Celebrities going into F&B is nothing new but foul-mouthed entertainer Wang Lei is hoping you do not critique food served at his new restaurant in Chinatown while opposition party leader Chee Soon Juan is serving up more than just politics at his newly opened cafe (#Orange&Teal) at Rochester Mall.

It is encouraging that the celebrities have taken the plunge but cautionary tales in the F&B sector are still relevant in this Covid-19 climate after Chinatown Food Street closed for good. More importantly, lessons can be learned in animal cruelty and decency after House of Seafood customers took their crabs or rather their meal for a walk while hitting below the belt for Ishiro with its negative reviews smear campaign on its rivals (#Mentai-ya #TheSocialOutcast) is going to prove costly after they demanded compensation. I guess all is fair in food (not love in this case) and war, and joining in the fray is Hong Kong’s Kee Wah Bakery as it opens its first Singapore store at Ion Orchard while western foodfare Botak Jones has returned to its roots, back to its original owners.

I am glad about the plethora of food choices but we are left with no option as vaccination is almost a prerequisite now for your daily activities. Our country’s vaccination drive went into overdrive with the deployment of mobile vaccination teams and publicity vans while getai veterans have been roped in to literally sing the same tune (#PaJiamBuay). Throw in the freebies from the ART kits to your oximeters and the populace is generally equipped for the next pandemic gameplan. If one feel that those freebies are still not enough, you could be scheduled for RRT (Rostered Routine Testing) while the need to decant the infected ones from the general population is evident in the CTF (Covid-19 Treatment Facility) and CCF (Community Care Facility).

Truth be told, Singaporeans would prefer a zombie apocalypse over the byzantine health protocols and the myriad of acronyms (RRT, CTF, CCF) proffered by the Ministry of Health (MOH). I tell you, acronyms aside, we should be minding our P’s and Q’s after NOC‘s (Night Owl Cinematics) CEO Sylvia Chan was called out for verbal abuse on her staff, bullying her employees, fostering a toxic workplace culture and accused by her ex-husband of misappropriating company funds in a series of social media leaks. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) are currently looking into the NOC allegations but female ex-employees of BooksActually have been made to feel uncomfortable after the expose on the bookstore’s co-founder’s misconduct and manipulation (Ex: making romantic advances to some of them even when he was already married to his then employee Renee Ting and sidelining them when met with rejection).

Kenny Leck’s inappropriate advances to his female employees is frowned upon by the literary community but advances of a sexual nature particularly to minors will not go unpunished after ex-Power 98FM deejay and Youtuber Dee Kosh was charged with offering cash to boys below 18 for sexual services amid other offences. That was one demented deejay but we will sorely miss the calming voice of Chris Ho on radio after he died of stomach cancer. The former singer and club DJ has left an indelible mark in the local music scene while local rapper Sheikh Haikel hopes to leave a similar imprint as he bows out from the music industry. Meanwhile Tay Ping Hui has acted in his first Malay drama series while the drama continues after Chantelle Ng disclosed she had to be hospitalized for a week after being badly beaten by her father (Huang Yiliang) when she was 11.

It is clear Huang Yiliang is found wanting as a fatherly figure but artiste Kimberly Chia (#Noontalk) will try to do one better in being a dutiful wife and doting mum after unveiling her baby bump. The Noontalk artiste isn’t the only one settling down, former Mediacorp actress Sora Ma has officially tied the knot, Rebecca Lim unveiled her fiance, Desmond Tan married his university sweetheart and James Seah has set a wedding date with influencer Nicole Chang Min for January. It is a joy to behold for the said artistes and their respective partners but the sleeping giant (#KAWS #Float@MarinaBay) that was issued an interim injunction was indeed a sight to behold.

As we countdown to the very last day of another eventful year, the inbound Omicron wave hangs like the Sword of Damocles over our heads. If there is one takeaway from 2021, it is to never trust an anecdote, if possible, bring a lie to the grave and remember not to reserve any judgement on that. I wish you a Happy New Year.

======== E.N.D ========

Picture Credits:

https://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097

RED DOT 2021: Of Badges, Umbrage, Mediacorp & a Leadership Crisis

Posted on July 3, 2021July 4, 2021 by uncleflipsprata

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I know, it was a forgettable 2020. We are trying hard to banish the ghosts of 2020 and hopefully put annus horribilis behind us. The bad news is the world is not out of the woods yet; some countries flitted in and out of Covid-19 emergency measures, lockdowns and recurring waves of surging infections while the shape-shifting pathogen (#Covid-19) has mutated into the more deadly South African (B.1.351), British (B.1.1.7) and infectious Indian (B.1.617) variants. The good news is inoculations are ongoing and vaccination certification/passport is well underway. In fact, premature celebrations were welcomed in every way from the travel bubble between Taiwan and Palau that started on 1st April (Not an April Fool’s) to the English city of Liverpool hosting an outdoor music festival for around 5,000 fully vaccinated attendees. Heck, even America has allowed its vaccinated citizens to go without a mask when outdoors.

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Do spare a thought for Biden because he is trying to look the part and sound the part of a President that is effecting change. Change is certainly on the horizon as the US ushered in a new administration with some unprecedented moves. The obnoxious Donald Trump who overstayed his welcome finally left the White House but not before fomenting and inciting an insurrection (via social media) which led to the storming of the US Capitol building. Twitter and Facebook responded promptly by pulling the plug on him and he will live with the infamy of becoming the first US President to be impeached twice.

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But let bygones be bygones as Biden, the oldest person to be sworn in as US president promised an era of stability and equality, regardless of race, religion or gender under his watch. It was a tall order but the talk was walked as Kamala Harris became America’s first female Vice-President and also the first with Asian descent while Janet Yellen* came to the fore in being the first woman to head the US Treasury. Kamala’s ascent and Yellen’s appointment were lavished with praise and met with a chorus of approval but who can forget the young lady who stole the show with mere words at Biden’s inauguration…Amanda Gorman’s** soul-stirring and thought-provoking poem (#TheHillWeClimb) captured the nation’s conscience and empathy in the same breath.

*Prior to her appointment under the Biden administration, Janet Yellen was also the first woman to head the Federal Reserve.

**Amanda Gorman is the youngest poet to deliver a poem at an inauguration and also the first African American to do so.

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Amanda’s very words certainly did not ring hollow because George Floyd will not die in vain now that his murderer (#DerekChauvin) has been brought to justice. Black lives do matter but Anti-Asian sentiment reared its ugly head after a handful of Asian-American women were gunned down (#Atlanta), stabbed (San Francisco) or bullied and beaten (#Manhattan) into retaliation (#SanFrancisco). Yet, female Asians are stamping their mark on the global stage and making their presence felt.

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In a nod to Asia, Chloe Zhao became the first Asian woman to win Best Director (#Nomadland) while 73-year-old Youn Yuh-jung showed that you are never too old to act after becoming the first South Korean woman to win an acting award (#BestSupportingActress #Minari) at the Oscars. It is not just Asian women that have been put under the spotlight, this year, women in general are putting their best foot forward. For starters, 8-year-old Fatima Naseem (Pakistan) made all the right moves after she broke another Guiness World Record in martial arts (most full contact elbow strikes in one minute using alternate elbows). It will be a mistake to label females as the weaker sex because men have fallen flat on their faces (#TikTok Challenge) after it was proven that women have a different centre of gravity from their male counterparts. Literally, the ladies have upset the balance in our gender-biased society and it comes as no surprise that women are ruling the roost in music this year.

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It was a historic and triumphant night at the 2021 Grammys after a range of female artists took home the top awards**. Beyonce led the way in becoming the most awarded artist of all time (29 times) and topping the cherry, together with daughter (Blue Ivy Carter) to win Best Music Video. The likes of other female solo artists received their dues while plus-sized rapper Megan Thee Stallion showed big can be beautiful in snagging Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance. To sum it up, even the immensely popular K-pop band (BTS) (yes, they were nominated) had to make way for Lady Gaga and Aria Grande after the pair took home Best Duo/Group Performance. The winning female nominees had a field day at the Grammys but Ngozi OkonjoIweala (an economist and former finance minister of Nigeria) has upped the ante by becoming the first woman and the first African to head the Word Trade Organization (WTO)

**Grammy Awards 2021 winners in most major categories:

Lady Gaga and Aria Grande – Best Duo/Group Performance

Megan Thee Stallion – Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance

Beyonce and Blue Ivy Carter (her daughter) – Best Music Video

Tiffany Haddish – Best Comedy Album

The all-female band “The Highwomen” – Best Country Song

Miranda Lambert – Best Country Album

Ledisi – Best R&B Performance

Brittany Howard – Best Rock Song

Dua Lipa – Best Pop Vocal Album

Billie Eilish – Record of The Year, Best Song Written for Visual Media

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We are hopeful Miss Ngozi will get countries to wheel and deal again during this pandemic but a blockage and chokage at the Suez Canal temporarily brought world trade to a screeching halt. Some ships had to be rerouted for that brief inconvenient period but the seabed tragically proved to be the death bed for the passengers of Flight 182 (Sriwijaya Air) and the submarine crew of KRI Nanggala 402. Be it the sea, land or air, there was no escape from the jaws of death. It was a double whammy for Taiwan after it was rocked by the collision of 2 fighter jets in mid-air during a training exercise and its transport authority was jolted by the worst train accident in seven decades (49 dead). India fared no better after a glacier burst (#ClimateChange) killed more than 200 people after the deluge swept away roads, bridges and even 2 hydroelectric power projects.

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It was a period of mourning for the respective countries affected by the tragedies and the death of democracy was unavoidable after the Tatmadaw detained Aung San Suu Kyi and several elected political office holders. A state of emergency was declared in Burma but Malaysia has been there and done that since January. It could be due to the worsening Covid-19 situation but speculation was rife that the Prime Minister was preventing another power grab by his rivals in the country’s fractured political landscape. Mudyiddeen’s premiership looks increasingly untenable after his relations with UMNO hit rock bottom but North Korea has already severed diplomatic ties with Malaysia over the extradition of its citizen to the US. Let us be reminded that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is still an omnipresent threat but the animosity between Israel and Palestine continues as both sides pound each other with missiles and rockets after the flashpoint in Jerusalem.

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Kim Jong Un won’t be speaking to Mudyidden for the moment but a dialogue (Anchorage, Alaska) was still held between two warring superpowers. America’s hostility with China is predicated on acrimony within multiple fronts including accusations levelled at China on how it has eroded Hong Kong’s autonomy, undercut Taiwan’s democracy and human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet. An uneasy truce exists for now as both countries agree to disagree but there was certainly no leeway after Biden’s administration announced sanctions and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in response to Russia’s meddling in the 2020 presidential election. On the other hand, Russia has more pressing issues like amassing a large number of troops on Ukraine’s eastern flank or deciding how to deal with its most influential and vociferous critic (#AlexeiNavalny*) that went on a brief hunger strike.

*Alexei Navalny is a lawyer and opposition leader who has millions of Russian followers on social media. He is best known for spending months recovering in Berlin from a near-fatal nerve agent attack (allegedly done by Russian agents). After recovering, he voluntarily flew back to Russia and was immediately arrested and detained upon landing. He was sentenced to jail for violating the terms of a 2014 sentence for fraud.

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Navalny’s expose and insistence on corruption by Putin’s team pitted him as David going up against the proverbial Goliath and yet a familiar scene was playing out on Wall Street after many David-s (the novice investors) were mobilised by social media (#Reddit) and the Robin Hood app in taking on the short sellers and hedge funds in the stock market (#GameStop). It proved to be a bruising encounter for the giants as short sellers lost billions of dollars against the defence mounted by the amateurish mob with the pitchforks. Stopping a giant is no easy feat but Chinese regulators have apparently reined in 11 tech titans (including Tencent, Bytedance, Didi Chuxing, JD.com and Pinduoduo) on the back of Alibaba’s record 18.2 billion yuan (S$3.7 billion) fine for violating antitrust laws due to their monopolistic practices.

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The buying frenzy may have fizzled out on Wall Street with the Feds keeping a close watch but that has not deterred Dr Martens from listing on the London Stock Exchange or Grab avoiding the scrutiny of an IPO via a SPAC (a Special Purpose Acquisition Company done in partnership with Altimeter Capital Management). The need for growth is evident as others (#Birkenstock)* have sold themselves to the highest bidder (#L.Catterton) in a bid to expand in China and India or make their intention known by entering the cosmetic and beauty business (#Zara). Yet there is only a thin fine line that separates ambition from avarice after the collapse of family office Archegos (#BillHwang) left some institutional lenders (#Credit Suisse #Nomura #GoldmanSach) haemorrhaging to the tune of billions**. Heavy trading losses had taken a toll on Archegos while electronics giant LG is not wasting anymore time after it decided to wind down its loss-making handset business unit.

*Birkenstock, the 250-year-old brand, has agreed to sell a majority stake to L.Catterton, a private equity firm backed by LVMH.

**Global banks are looking at losing more than $6 billion after Archegos failed to meet margin calls on heavily leveraged stock bets.

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It is basically game over for Archegos and LG’s mobile division but an unopened Super Mario game in pristine condition was sold for a record-breaking $600,000, the most ever spent on a sealed console game. Actually that is child’s play when compared to the digital collage (#First5,000Days*) by American artist Beeple that went under the hammer for a record US$69.3 million at a Christie’s auction. US$69 million could have been used to save the world or help the needy but philanthropic couple Bill and Melinda have dismantled the Gates protecting almost 3 decades of their marriage, raising questions on what would happen to the renowned Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

*The “First 5,000 Days” artwork is a non-fungible token (NFT) that is in a JPG file format. NFTs are shaking up the art world and they are built using the same kind of programming as cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies can be traded or exchanged but not so for NFTs (hence the name “non-fungible”). The artwork exists only digitally and it broke the record for the most money paid for digital art. It was bought by an entrepreneur and chief financier of crypto-fund Metapurse (#VigneshSundaresan) currently residing in Singapore.

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The divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates proves that marriage is not a bed of roses but it could probably be the 7-year-itch that spelled the end of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s 7 year-marriage. Others (#Hyun-Bin #Son ye-jin) are taking a chance on love after they crash-landed and dallied on both sides of the Korean border. For some, it will be a big ask now that former child star Macaulay Culkin (#HomeAlone) is a proud parent to a baby boy with his actress wife Brenda Song while Henry Golding (#CrazyRichAsian) could possibly be a crazy rich dad to his newborn. The Home Alone star named his son “Dakota” in honour of his late sister but the image of the late Christopher Plummer (91) singing “Edelweiss” as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music will forever reside in the recesses of our minds. Elsewhere, talk show legend Larry King* will be sorely missed on primetime television while the deaths of veterans Ng Man-Tat and Liu Kai Chi has cast a pall on Hong Kong’s film industry. Meanwhile, Halleyu is coming to terms with the demise of actress Song Yun Jung and rapper Iron (Jung Hun-cheol) while a drug overdose sent rapper DMX on his way to heaven.

*It is estimated that Larry King has done over 50,000 interviews on radio and television in his lifetime and he is known for his non-confrontational style in his interviews with celebrities and newsmakers. He won an Emmy award for lifetime achievement in 2011.

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The 5-time Billboard chart topper previously was acquitted of rape charges but the “Me Too” movement has not let up in pace this year. The police have charged French film actor Gerard Depardiau with sexual assault while the courts will decide whether there is a case after Game of Thrones star Esme Bianco sued singer Marilyn Manson for alleged rape and abuse. For others, the allegations have been flying in after American actor Armie Hamer was accused of rape while designer Alexander Wang is willing to face the music for the alleged sexual misconduct.

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It is going to take time to establish the veracity of those sexual allegations but the gloves are off after Prince Harry and Megan Markle dropped a bombshell in a no holds barred televised interview with Oprah Winfrey. Stunning revelations and salacious details ensued which included Megan contemplating self-harm and suicide at one juncture while the breaking point for Prince Harry came after his family expressed concerns about how dark his unborn child’s skin would be and the reluctance to confer a royal title for the child (#RoyalRacism). The royal family may have some soul searching to do but a period of grief followed after the loss of their patriarch figure (#PrincePhilip). Ties that bind are indeed complicated and apparently blood is not thicker than water after vocal powerhouse Mariah Carey was sued by her siblings for defamation.

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There is definitely bad blood between the high-octaved diva and her siblings but it is probably a chip off his father’s block as Mick Schumacher (that famous surname) made his debut (#TeamHaas) on the F1 circuit. Similarly, martial arts runs in the blood and it is all in the famil-lee now as 16-year-old Victoria Lee made her debut in MMA’s One Championship mirroring the career paths of her popular sister Angela and brother Christian*. While the fledglings are still finding their way or making their mark in their respective domain, Tampa Bay’s 43-year-old quarterback Tom Brady won his 7th Superbowl crown in February and there is no stopping Novak Djokovic after he clinched two consecutive Grand Slams (Australian Open and French Open). The Serb is on a roll but unseeded Czech Barbora Krejcikova** staked her place in tennis folklore after winning the singles and doubles (together with Katerina Siniakova) at the French Open.

*All 3 siblings Angela Lee, Christian Lee and Victoria Lee are now plying their trade in MMA’s One Championship.

**Barbora Krejcikova became the first player to win both the women’s singles and doubles title at Roland Garros since Mary Pierce completed the feat in 2000.

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Djokovic is at the top of his game but Nadal (back injury) and Federer (two knee surgeries in 2020) are listening to their slowing and worn out bodies as they spend more time on the sidelines while Tiger Woods will need a rethink of his golfing career altogether after a horrific car crash. Golf without Tiger Woods is unthinkable and it is equally unimaginable for the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled with growing calls amid pandemic concerns. The biggest event in this year’s sporting calendar is mired in one imbroglio after another with the resignation of the Tokyo Olympics chief (#YoshiroMori) after his controversial sexist remarks and Creative head Hiroshi Sakai following in Mori’s footsteps after making a derogatory comment about a plus-sized Japanese female entertainer (#NaomiWatanabe).

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Those incidents left the organizing committee hanging their heads in shame but Japanese athletes held their heads high as Naomi Osaka* is still going strong after clinching the Australian Open coming on the back of last year’s US Open victory while Hideki Matsuyama became the first Japanese player to win a men’s golf Major with his victory at the US Masters. That might lit the flame for the burning ambition of Japan’s Olympics contingent and new ground could be broken as Laurel Hubbard** is poised to become the first transgender to compete at the Olympics, providing a lightning rod for debate and discussion.

*Naomi Osaka continued her fine run after winning every Grand Slam final she has been in.

** The 43-year-old Laurel Hubbard was born male but transitioned to female in her 30s.

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Hubbard’s gender will be a bone of contention at the quadrennial competition but there is no question on the wrongdoings of athletes past their prime. Former Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs was charged with assaulting two women while former Olympic silver medalist Scott Miller (#Swimming #Atlanta1996) will soon be in the docks for running a drug syndicate. The transgressions of Giggs and Miller are unforgivable and the conduct of Europe’s elite football clubs that flirted with the idea of a breakaway league only to beat an eventual hasty retreat is equally damning.

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The problem with the breakaway European Super League was that it did not have a natural leader spearheading its cause, the same problem afflicting our nation after PM-in-waiting Heng Swee Kiat threw in the towel even before entering the ring. Admittedly, we are in a leadership succession crisis and it didn’t help that the twice-delayed high speed rail (HSR) between Singapore and Malaysia was terminated after both countries failed to reach an agreement. That project would have been an engineering marvel across both countries but engineering student Derek Cheong proved that he isn’t a flash in the pan after cooking up a storm to win the second season of Masterchef Singapore.

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Mystery still surrounds DPM Heng’s withdrawal but there is no doubt that the lady running our sovereign fund (#Temasek) is stepping down in October (#retirement) after naming her successor (#DilhanPillay). Meanwhile another fellow Singaporean took up the hot seat after Chew Shou Zi was named CEO of popular Chinese video app TikTok. It is apparent Singaporean leaders are highly sought after and Mr Heng’s move does not augur well for the country or assuage our fears.

With regards to his decision, we could be missing the forest for the trees because it might actually be part of the East Coast Plan…but some plans have already gone awry after the Kranji woodland was mistakenly cleared while the Clementi forest’s fate seems to have been decided despite the concerns of nature lovers. Even the best laid plans have come to nought after DPM Heng announced he will also relinquish his Finance Minister role. Another round of musical chairs soon followed with his fellow Ministers swapping portfolios or taking up new appointments. That could explain why some (#LGBT) protested outside the MOE building or maybe because they were unhappy that Chan Chun Sing took the helm of the Ministry of Education after the cabinet reshuffle.

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In fact, the newly appointed Education Minister will be overseeing a new alliance between NAFA and Lasalle that will form Singapore’s first full-fledged university of the arts. The ex-Chief of Army usually wears his military stint like some badge of honour but the country’s first female naval officer demands one when confronted for not wearing a mask. Those radicals had their few hours of fame or infamy but being radicalized is a more pressing concern after a 16-year-old student became the youngest person to be detained under Internal Security Act (ISA) for plotting attacks on two mosques and the worshippers in them while a 20-year-old National Serviceman was similarly detained for planning to kill Jews at a synagogue.

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The Deputy Prime Minister explained he was making way for the next leader with a longer runway in order to guide Singapore through the next set of challenges and I gathered Mediacorp took that literally because a constellation of local stars strutted their stuff on the airport runway (#StarAwards2021). The biggest talking point was not about Felicia Chin missing out on the Top 10 Popular Artiste award but why the attendees were not wearing any masks despite the country’s strict Covid-19 measures. The stars apparently had their own son stories to tell after Julie Tan divulged that she resorted to self-harm while Elvin Ng was purportedly a victim of bullying and a bully himself after Dasmond Koh’s veiled retort (#AngelLin #Noontalk). The actual bigger bullies were former partners in crime Jaime Teo and Daniel Ong after they were fined for underpaying 7 of their former employees by almost $100,000 at Twelve Cupcakes.

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In fact, Mediacorp’s past and present artistes have been busy turning up at the State Courts more frequently than their sprawling premises at One-North. Terence Cao was fined for breaching Covid-19 measures, Gurmit Singh was fined and issued a temporary driving ban for speeding and it is definitely not Shane Pow’s first brush with the law after being charged for his second drink driving offence. Jail time is expected for Shane and he was expectedly fired from his job. In truth, the exodus at Mediacorp had already started, Pornsak (armed with his new TCM qualifications) and Joel Choo have decided to seek greener pastures while Thomas Ong left showbiz for good. Others who have left long ago are serving up crossover dishes with other hawkers on TV (#LiNanxing) or selling pastries and cakes at their newly opened patissiere (#JeanetteAw).

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It will be some time before profits start to roll in for Jeanette’s new business venture but the losses have been insurmountable for some after the shutters came down on Music Dreamer Cafe (爱琴海) and Abercombie & Fitch. Others did not play it nice after some creditors failed to recover their monies from Naiise while the Ministry of Food (MOF) was winded up after failing to pay debts of $200,000. MOF is one of many restaurants bearing the brunt of Covid-19, the pandemic has also claimed Cantonese-style fish soup shop Swee Kee Eating House (more than 80 years) and Indonesian cuisine restaurant Rice Table (24 years) as its victims while it is the end of the road for F&B portal “Hungrygowhere”. It is not just the F&B industry reeling from Covid-19, the cat-fronted karaoke joint (#Manekineko) was the next to go with no relief in sight. Rest assured our feline friends are still around because a handful of “Cat-ricatures” (#paw-verbs) have invaded the Malay Heritage Centre.

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“Paw-verbs” was a meaningful showcase marrying arts and Malay literary culture but a place (#TheSubstation*) where many budding artists were once nurtured will be closing for good in July. There was an uproar over The Substation’s decision to cease operations but another roar unleashed by the Football Association of Singapore (#UnleashTheRoar #WorldCup2034) is once again met with arched eyebrows and derision. FAS President Lim Kia Tong is training Singapore’s sights on the 2034 World Cup but a group of Ngee Ann Polytechnic students have apparently hit their target…their bodily fluids (#urine) have successfully landed on the backs and even the hair of some of their peers in supposedly a “bonding” event.

*The National Arts Council reiterated that The Substation cannot occupy the building at 45 Armenian Street in its full capacity and that the premises will be shared with other arts groups once renovations are completed.

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I am telling you, the thing we should be turning our backs on is not urine but the blatant racism and sexism on display this year. The gong was literally sounded on these issues…there was the needless physical violence, the war of words between an interracial couple and a senior educator, the racial slurs hurled at an Indian family in Pasir Ris park, the lady gone cuckoo in the train, an online poll sexualising female religious teachers and even the Law Minister weighing in on such issues. Race and religion are indeed sensitive topics in our multi-racial society and the dialogue to allow nurses to don the tudung is in the right direction. The racists and sexists may have turned up in full force but it is the Covid-19 clusters that have returned with a vengeance (#TTSH #ChangiAirport #TuitionCentre #Schools). There were cases of reinfection even when you are vaccinated while the rest of the island was almost brought back to default Circuit Breaker settings (#HeightenedAlert).

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This more infectious Delta variant of Covid-19 cancelled the World Economic Forum and Shangri-la Dialogue in quick succession while another heavy blow was dealt to Formula One Singapore for the second consecutive year. Under Heightened Alert, the term “deep cleaning” is giving spring cleaning a new spin while the closure of some shopping malls and eateries left us yearning for our bubble tea fix. The consolation is you can now queue for your Covid-19 test just like how you queue for bubble tea right under the convenience of your own or neighbouring HDB block (#Hougang #Sengkang #BukitMerah #PasirRis). The Ministerial Taskforce Force (MTF) had urged the public to stay and work at home as far as possible and they are probably right because other than the virus, you could get killed by a fallen tree (#Marsiling), get charred beyond recognition resulting from a car crash (#TanjongPagar #Speeding #Aviva) and think twice about doing school activities involving heights (#SAFRAYishun #ACS[Independent]).

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With all that mishaps and freak accidents, staying indoors is probably the safest thing to do during this period. The ladies would nod their heads in unison because their pulses race and imagination run when you engage some hunks from a renovation company (#Vehs.com) to clean your home. That eye candy is welcome relief but guys would strongly disagree because a leisurely shopping trip at Decathlon’s flagship store could leave you in a near nose-breaking ordeal and all because of a golf ball.Those hunks may have cleaned your humble abode shirtless but Miss Universe Singapore’s outfit (#StopAsianHate #BernardetteBelleOng) at the pageant held in Florida is nothing to be scoffed at and finally something we Singaporeans are proud of.

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That was certainly an awe-inspiring message we could wear on our sleeves but inspiration clearly took a wrong turn after our national song “Count on Me, Singapore” was bastardized in India. It did not help that another compatriot (#JoeyMendoza) laid claim to the song adding insult to injury. Hugh Harrison (the song’s composer) and our authorities (#MCCY) chose to take the high road, which eventually led Mr Mendoza to withdraw his claim. In hindsight, we should have sued Mr Mendoza but it would have been futile because blogger Leong Sze Hian demonstrated that crowdfunding ($262K) and paying damages in full is possible despite losing a libel suit against PM Lee.

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It is incredible that Mr Leong managed to raise the funds in a matter of weeks but many investors have lost their hard-earned money after investing in cryptocurrency via trading platform Torque*. The investors are claiming millions in losses but that is spare change compared to the US$1.1 billion that Envy Global Trading has cheated its customers (including experienced financial investors, lawyers and institutions) in a bogus nickel trading scheme, possibly Singapore’s largest fraud case to date. The investment scams highlighted that there is no better time to save for a rainy day but safeguarding our data and privacy is equally important. The data leak of more than half a million of Singapore Airlines customers serves to prove why telco Singtel was easy meat for hackers while the inadequacies of our cyber defence surfaced after the data breach of 30,000 clients using e2i’s services and 62,000 emails from the public/business/customers to local security firm Certis were deem to have been accessed by crooks.

*More than 100 police reports have been made against Torque and its 33-year-old founder Bernard Ong.

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Our approach to cyber security is slipshod at best and maybe a rethink and a rejig of these quasi-government owned organizations is on the cards. Keppel Corp (the world’s largest offshore rig builder) is exiting the oil-rig business to focus on clean energy while the likes of Capitaland and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will undergo major restructuring to hive off their unprofitable business units. It is inevitable that SPH‘s loss-making newspaper unit is falling into the government’s hands and ire was raised in some quarters on compromised journalistic integrity. There was outrage and umbrage, and then there was the former army general falling for a journalist’s bait (a leading question), hook, line and sinker.

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We are unsure whether ex-MP Khaw Boon Wan can revive SPH’s media business after the restructuring but the Zouk Group is set to bring hawker dishes to their Las Vegas integrated resort. Zouk is venturing into uncharted territories with their hawker dishes but NTUC is raising the bar after it opened its first outlet (#NTUCXtra-MarineParade) which features a spice-mixing counter, a cocktail bar and a dine-in spot. It is surreal that we can enjoy a dine-in experience at NTUC but those ubiquitous free NTUC plastic bags may soon be a thing of the past. I believe many of you will enjoy your first NTUC dine-in experience but I am now heading to the nearest hawker centre to support our hawkers. Do note that dragging your lazy ass and returning those trays after you finish your meals is a must from now onwards. As we brace for the next 6 months, let us do our civic duty, mask-up, remain socially distanced, take umbrage and always remember to request for a badge when in doubt.

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===========================

Picture Credits:

http://www.straitstimes.com/

http://www.stomp.com.sg/

https://www.goodyfeed.com

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore

http://www.cnn.com/

http://www.reuters.com/

http://www.cnbc.com/

http://www.bbc.com/

=====================================

RED DOT 2020: The One With a General Election and a Pandemic

Posted on December 31, 2020July 3, 2021 by uncleflipsprata

Right after Singapore emerged from the circuit breaker, we were thrust into a General Election with the relevant political parties inundating us with their sales pitch and marketing spiel. There was the ruling party asking you to consider our lives, our jobs, our future while WP was urging you to make your vote count. PSP went a different route reminding voters they deserved better and SDP dangled a Q&A (#4Yes1No) as a carrot to entice the electorate. Then there was RP with their pledge to you, SPP calling for a better tomorrow and Red Dot United imploring you to explore a new direction. The campaigning took a different turn this time as rallies shifted to online platforms while the parties’ political broadcasts were beamed from the comfort of our living rooms. An election conducted amid the pandemic called for extraordinary measures and that included time bands for voting and even an extension to the polling duration for the very first time.

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As with all elections, the demagogue, mudsling and character assassinations were par for course. Along the way, the retirement of the old guards (Khaw Boon Wan, Goh Chok Tong, Lee Bee Wah, Charles Chong, Low Thia Khiang, Png Eng Huat, Chen Show Mao) made way for the new faces…There were the usual suspects; the ex-military man and regular bloke from the Civil Service (Desmond Tan, former People’s Association Head), Ng Ling Ling with the furore over her embellished credentials, the talent poached from the private sector (Edward Chia, co-founder of Timbre) and SPP’s Jose Raymond hoping to emulate Chiam See Tong.

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With the players and chess pieces in place, the electoral battleground played out one strategic move after another. There was the much derided East Coast plan with DPM Heng Swee Kiat jettisoning Tampines GRC for East Coast GRC in a last minute Nomination Day tactical manoeuvre. There was also the classic smear campaign with a police report filed for Raeesah Khan’s seditious comments and reciprocally for DPM Heng’s remarks on Singapore not ready for a non-Chinese PM at a NTU forum.

No blood was shed but no quarter was given either after Tan Cheng Bock made his debut as an opposition party leader as he took the fight to a Iswaran-led PAP team in West Coast GRC. It was probably a fight too close to call while Chee Soon Juan had to play second fiddle to Murali in Bukit Batok yet again. Elsewhere, Tin Pei Ling stood her ground and held her own at MacPherson SMC while Emeritus Goh handed the baton to Tan Chuan Jin at Marine Parade GRC. Tan Cheng Bock and Chee Soon Juan might be formidable political adversaries but we literally salute Singapore’s first female brigadier-general (#GanSiowHuang) who won a Single Member Constituency(SMC) as an election newbie.

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That was a promising victory for PAP but it was the Workers’ Party that hog the headlines as Nicole Seah returned to politics with renewed vigour only to fall short at the last hurdle while Jamus Lim dazzled with his debate speeches and warmed the cockles of our hearts as he carried his team to an unexpected win in Seng Kang GRC. The party also managed to retain Aljunied GRC against the backdrop of the AHTC lawsuit and thankfully kept the overtures of Victor Lye and Co at bay. Yet the one that stole the plaudits was arguably Pritam Singh who was designated as the Leader of the Opposition and a resulting pay rise which he will set aside for his constituents.

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Forget the cardboard cutouts or cookie clutter politicians from PAP and the animated opposition party members. This election might be remembered for the varying personalities that stood out… We were floored by Charles Yeo (Reform Party)’s smattering Mandarin after he stood in for his Mandarin-speaking cadre who got cold feet but we were surprisingly awed by the gumption and fearlessness of the gungho independent candidate (#CheangPengWah) in going solo against all odds. The best or rather the worst is saved for the last in the vitriol directed at the obnoxious Ivan Lim who broke new ground after he became the most infamous candidate despite not being fielded. Charles Yeo might be the poster boy for the Reform Party but Ivan Lim’s notoriety positioned a target board on the ruling party’s back.

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The biggest takeaway from the aftermath of GE2020 was that voters wanted more alternate voices in the Parliament while the biggest regret however was not Goh Meng Seng’s last hurrah or Desmond Lim (Singapore Democratic Alliance)’s swansong but the much hyped and anticipated showdown that did not materialize. The younger brother (#LeeHsienYang) with royal lineage was prompted to come out of his shell and take a dig at his sibling but eventually took a ringside seat to cheer alongside the opposition instead of throwing his hat into the ring (#LeeVSLee).

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The Workers’ Party will need another 5 years to make further inroads into the PAP-dominated Parliament but time has apparently run out for Hyflux which went into judicial management after more than a year of debt moratorium. Similarly, the mainstays in our retail, F&B and leisure sectors fell like sand flies caught in a sandstorm… Topshop exited our local scene after 20 years while a familiar chain peddling sporting goods(#Sportslink) for 37 years bites the dust. Our sweet tooth will also miss the cakes and desserts from Bakerzin (22 years) while the Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant stopped spinning for good after 43 years of churning out dimsum dishes. Perhaps the liquidation of Robinsons (since 1858) serves as a cautionary tale that no amount of heritage can save a department store against the onslaught of a changing retail landscape. The likes of an indoor playground (#Superpark) and a local tourist attraction (#Kidzania) have also fallen victim to the pandemic while Teo Heng KTV is banking on a sliver of hope and the easing of restrictions as it struggles to stay afloat.

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With so many closures and the damage done, the retrenchments came in hard and fast… Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) started the ball rolling with a mass retrenchment exercise while others in the aviation sector (#SIA #BoeingAsiaPacificAviationServices #Pratt & Whitney) followed suit. Singapore Press Holdings and Suntec Singapore joined the queue and surprisingly, some like Eagle Services Asia Pte Ltd (a joint venture partner of SIA Engineering) even required some form of intervention by the government-led union (#NTUC)*. Its actually hard to sympathize with the employers because of the growing number of workplace/employment discrimination cases while department store Tangs committed a cardinal sin after it instructed a sales promoter to remove her hijab to project a more professional image.

*In a rare display of defiance, NTUC and a few other aviation industry unions were actually advocating or supportive of a strike at Eagle Services Asia Pte Ltd if proper retrenchment conditions were not met by the company.

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Even as firms trim their excesses, others are pivoting to new areas of growth as beauty & wellness firm Mary Chia Holdings bought Monsoon Hairdressing from celebrity hairstylist Addy Lee while Zouk has ventured into Las Vegas’s casino strip and at the same time turned its dance halls into a spin studio-cum-cinema club in light of the battered nightlife industry. Others have taken the plunge with plane maker Airbus’s $38 million campus and Zoom’s upcoming research centre while the likes of China’s Tencent and TikTok’s owner Bytedance are shifting their regional hubs here.

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Airbus’s commitment to the republic is commendable but other industries are experiencing a shakeup of sorts with the issuance of the digital bank licenses (#Grab-Singtel #SEA #AntFinancial #GreenlandConsortium). The new digital entrants will no doubt reinvigorate the banking sector and give the traditional local banks a run for their money, but the rebirth of an industry is keenly watched with bated breath as car-making* returns to Singapore with the construction of the very first electric car manufacturing facility (#Hyundai).

*The last time Singapore had a car assembly plant was in the early 1940s. The new futuristic smart plant in Jurong will produce about 30,000 electric vehicles after its completion by 2022.

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Consolidation is also in the works with Cathay and Golden Village reportedly in merger talks and a marriage of convenience for Grab and Gojek in Southeast Asia nearing fruition. Contrastingly, expansion is well underway as Shakeshack opened more outlets while Jumbo Group is adding Kok Kee Wanton Noodle to their portfolio for $2.1 million. F&B seems to be thriving and even weak consumer sentiment has not deterred popular Hong Kong bakery Hang Heung from opening its first overseas outlet at Ion Orchard. I have not tried their signature Chinese pastries but a ceiling fan collapsing on diners at a Tampines coffeeshop may have already ruined our appetite.

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Don’t worry, the sky has not fallen but the world did came crashing down for a few commodity traders (#Zenrock #Agritrade #Hontop #HinLeongTrading) that resorted to fraud and forgery in hope of saving themselves. It’s not just the fraudsters we have to be wary of, the subterfuge that the Bellagraph Nova Group (BN)* engaged in has certainly raised more eyebrows than Mark Lee’s Golden Horse nomination (#Movie:Number 1). The motormouth comedian with acerbic wit gave a bravura performance as a drag in the film but went home empty-handed. However, there was no denying Singapore costume designer Azni Samdin (#BestMakeup&CostumeDesign #Number1) and lawyer Tan Boon Wah (#BestOriginalFilmSong #”YourNameEngravedHerein”) after they landed the coveted statuettes.

*The Bellagraph Nova Group (BN) is owned by the Loh cousins (Terence Loh and Nelson Loh) together with Evangeline Shen. Controversies surround the firm and its companies related to the owners (Axington Inc, Novena Global Healthcare group, Loh Bros Foundation, etc). These range from doctored photos showing former President Barack Obama to untrue claims (Loh Bros Foundation claiming SGX Regulation CEO Tan Boon Gin is one of its director and the Loh’s Dorr Group Private Jet Chartering claiming it has 10,000 private jets available for clients) to a speculated audacious bid for English Premier League club Newcastle United. In addition, 2 entities (Novena Global Healthcare and Novena Life Sciences) under the Novena Healthcare Group have not filed any annual returns since 2016 and 2018 respectively since inception leading to a current investigation by ACRA.

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We will be keeping a keen eye on the cousins behind Bellagraph Nova Group (BN) but the person of interest at the moment is none other than the son of an ex-Prime Minister. Goh Jin Hian (son of former PM Goh Chok Tong) has been sued for alleged breach of director duties and is currently investigated by the CAD for false trading and market rigging offences (#NewSilkrouteGroup). The outcome for junior Goh’s case is still pending but punishment (#suspension) has already been meted out for Lee Suet Fern’s misconduct in the handling of her late father-in-law’s last will.

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The legal eagle associated with the Lee family may have been disciplined but the flurry of defamation suits brought on by our sports fraternity, bloggers and politicians are second to none… The courtroom drama between Leong Sze Hian (Lim Tean) and PM Lee (Davinder Singh) served as a curtain raiser while Terry Xu (theonlinecitizen) similarly faces an uphill legal battle against the same plaintiff. Leong Sze Hian and Terry Xu can claim a moral victory even if they lose their cases but blogger and motorcycle enthusiast Vaune Phan has been vindicated after being awarded $60,000 in damages for her libel suit. Interestingly, the counterclaim filed by Singapore Taekwondo Federation against its ex secretary-general’s (#WongLiangMing) defamation suit is a showcase of an eye for an eye in our local sports scene. Thankfully, an olive branch was extended as national athlete Soh Rui Yong mended fences with Singapore Athletics after dropping his suit against them.

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While the lawyers representing the respective parties were having their day in court, one case (Liews vs Parti Liyani) effectively held the whole nation spellbound. It was a duel between the privileged and the disadvantaged, the prosecutor versus the persecuted and some shocking revelations. From the onset, there were a litany of issues surrounding the case with shoddy police investigation procedures, prosecutorial misconduct and even perjury. Coupled with the differing views of the State Court and High Court judges, it duly prompted our law Minister to elucidate the specifics of the case in Parliament to the questioning horde.

*Sidenote: The biggest misconception about this case is that the maid Parti is innocent. Unfortunately, she is not. She did steal some items from the Liews. But the Liews were not any better, possibly either out of spite or revenge, they falsely alleged that some items found in Parti’s possession were also stolen from them (which she did not, and it also explains Karl Liew’s perjury).

The first time the case went on trial at the State Court, the presiding judge ruled in favour of the prosecution partly due to Parti’s ever-changing and inconsistent testimony and statements furnished to the police and in court. Parti appealed and the case went to the High Court, the High Court judge ruled in Parti’s favour due to the botched police investigation (the break in the custodial chain of evidence), possible prosecutorial misconduct (the “working” DVD player that Parti supposedly stole which was actually faulty in the first place) and of course perjury from the prosecution’s witness (a piece of woman’s clothing Karl Liew alleged the maid stole and saying he likes to crossdress when asked why the clothing belonged to him.)

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Liyani was not the only one on the wrong side of the law, there is the lawyer (Lim Tean) who failed to turn up for an investigation, the ex-Mediacorp artiste (Huang Yiliang) hauled to court for assaulting a foreign worker and the ex-Lion (Imran Sahib) convicted of molestation offences. The former actor and local footballer may have acted out of character in the spur of the moment but we will never know what drove parents to kill their kids or abandon their infant in the dumpster. For others, the disregard for the law was striking after a safe-distancing officer was stabbed while an NEA enforcement officer was slashed by an assailant armed with a sickle.

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For some, the question of running afoul of the law remains after Youtuber/deejay Dee Kosh was investigated for alleged sexual harassment of underaged boys. Dee Kosh’s defence was that while his actions were inappropriate, they were short of incriminating. Amos Yee on the other hand landed himself in hot soup after his predilection for teenage girls led to his arrest on sexual grooming charges in the US. Honestly, we don’t need to look far to spot a miscreant as not one, but three (Prof Jeremy Fernando, Prof Zheng Yongnian and Prof Theodore G Hopf) surfaced from NUS for sexual misconduct. It was inexcusable behaviour from these 3 academics but there were also doubts raised on a lecherous personal fitness trainer’s professional conduct while supervising his client at one of our local gyms (#ApeiroPerformance #Cherylfit_sg)

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I am not heading to a gym anytime soon but a trip to Siloso Beach with limited slots will certainly require a reservation. In fact, a reservation is also needed for a meal at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant (#Noma) in Denmark headed by our very own local lad (#KennethFoong #HeadChef). Flying to Denmark now is out of the question but a cruise to nowhere could be the next best alternative even if it means a false-positive Covid-19 test result. I guess nowhere may be better than anywhere as the air travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong is shelved due to another record wave of Covid-19 infections.

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The pandemic may have decimated the airline industry but SIA has pull out all stops with a literal sellout…it might not be a great way to fly for now but it was another way to dine as the airliner’s A-380 lunches were sold out in half an hour on its launch. For those resisting cabin fever, you can always hump a dinosaur along the newly opened Changi Jurassic Mile, play laser tag at the revamped Singapore Discovery Centre or start a potential cluster at Seoul Garden, Footlocker, Gemma Steakhouse and Mandarin Orchard Hotel.

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There is certainly no lack of leisure activities from frolicking in the pool with your dog (#Mutts&Mittens #Kovan) to enriching your cinematic experience with a fallen ventilation duct (#GoldenVillage). In fact, I am very sure the $100 SingapoRediscovers vouchers will come in handy but the downer is camping or “glamping” at Jewel@Changi will set you back by a few hundred dollars. Otherwise you can get chummy with the increasing number of wild boars that have been active of late (#PasirRis #PulauUbin #GrabFood) or feed a hornbill at your neighbourhood eatery (#LoyangWayFoodVillage).

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In fact, getting up close and personal with nature and wildlife is the perfect bonding opportunity particularly for parents and their kids, so it’s a pity to see The Animal Resort in Seletar West Farmway close after 20 years. For first time fathers like Huang Jin Lun (#OneMillionStar) and Maxi Lim (#AhBoysToMen), that will mean one less place to visit with their kids. For Kelvin Tan (Chen Weilian) (#ProjectSUPERSTAR), having a kid is not too far off with the news of his engagement, but for the self-proclaimed Prophet with 5 “spiritual” wives and soon-to-be single parent Joshua Ang (#INotStupid), that could be a new phase of their lives.

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The fake Prophet was handed a new lease of life with his 5 wives but some celebrities had already jumped the gun with birthdays or wedding banquets that breached safe-distancing measures even before Phase 3 officially began. Maybe they were being overzealous but Singaporeans are already comfortably ensconced in Phase 3 as bigger groups are allowed for social gatherings. Our path to a new normal post-Covid has been boosted by a battery of tests (#Antigen #PCR #SalivaTestKit), the enhanced tracing capability (#TraceTogetherToken) and some free mask distribution exercises to boot. With the control measures in place, we are preparing to host quarantine-free business travellers in dedicated facilities (#Connect@Changi) as a test bed for the World Economic Forum (WEF) to be held here next year.

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Singapore has successfully transitioned to Phase 3 but some countries are still stuck in time, no different from where they were 9 months ago. The US and Europe are enveloped in a new wave of coronavirus outbreaks as the UK and France went into a second lockdown while Germany, Greece and Austria have tightened their Covid-19 restrictions. Elsewhere, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia are trying to combat the resurgence and spike in infected cases while it is a futile attempt for others as India, Russia and Turkey are unable to stop the inevitable. There is no magic bullet to eradicate the virus but hope is on the horizon as the race to the vaccine (USA: Pfizer+BioNTech and Moderna, UK: AstraZeneca+Oxford University, China: Sinovac, Russia: Sputnik V) heats up.

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Covid-19 has made our lives a living hell and more were added to the body count with the massive blast in Beirut (#Lebanon). The footage of that explosion was mind-blowing and probably worth more than a thousand words but France was left speechless after a teacher was decapitated in broad daylight for using a caricature of the Prophet in his teachings. No one and nowhere is safe…even for opposition member Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who had to seek refuge in Lithuania due to the rigged election in Belarus. While Svetlana can only hope to seek redress from the European Union, the former Soviet Union states of Azerbaijan and Armenia went into a truce after they agreed to a Russia-brokered peace deal, ending 6 weeks of military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh that has killed more than 1,200 and left thousands displaced*.

*The conflict was fuelled by a bitter territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, a large mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan, populated by mostly Armenians.

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Peace may prevail for now in eastern Europe but India and China were having a go at each other as they turned up the racket at the Himalayan border. The two populous countries are still in a ceasefire agreement but the enmity between China and Australia went up a notch on social media platforms. It is no Sun Tzu’s Art of War (孫子兵法) but China took warfare to a whole new front, having provoked and confronted Australia with a single damning and incendiary tweet*. Scott Morrison was obviously livid and promptly initiated a slew of retaliatory measures, none as serious as closing down a Chinese consulate in Houston over spying accusations.

*The picture in the tweet shows an Aussie soldier holding a blade to an Afghan child’s throat with accusations of murder and violence.

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It is uncertain whether Aussie troops did commit atrocities in Afghanistan but the deaths of African Americans (#GeorgeFloyd #Breonna Taylor) and the shooting of Jacob Blake pushed America to the brink, prompting various sporting bodies (#NBA #MLS #NHL #MLB) and athletes (#NaomiOsaka #LewisHamilton) to stand in solidarity* with the victims of police brutality. Black Lives may matter (#BlackLivesMatter) now after Americans were repulsed by the divisive nation that Trump fuelled, the xenophobia that he embraced and the pandemic that he bungled. The saviour arrived in the form of Joe Biden after he won the election. The winning margin is clear, 306 versus 232 state-by-state electoral votes. America may no longer be great again, but a return to normalcy under a new administration cannot be understated.

*The National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and other sports associations suspended or paused their games/leagues momentarily in protest against George Floyd’s death and Jacob Blake’s shooting. Naomi Osaka also withdrew from the WTA’s Cincinnati Masters while Lewis Hamilton and some fellow racers took the knee at the races they competed in.

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Biden’s inauguration isn’t until January next year but he can stand shoulder to shoulder with his female counterparts in Asia after Jacinda Arden notched a historic election win for her Labour Party while Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party secured an absolute majority in Myanmar for another term. The two female leaders coasted to victory with nary a hitch but for Japan, the transfer of power came out of the blue after Shinzo Abe shockingly made way for Yoshihide Suga due to ill health. Abe may have unwillingly drawn the curtains on his political career but it was a fitting and final farewell for former Taiwan president Lee Teng Hui (李登輝)* who passed away at the age of 97.

*During his 12 years in office, Lee Teng Hui moved Taiwan towards a free democracy, ending the state of emergency the Kuomintang had imposed in case of conflict with China. He amended the Constitution to allow for direct election of the President, Vice-President and legislative seats thereby replacing the unelected Parliament under his predecessor Chiang Ching-kuo.

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Arden, Suu Kyi and Suga are busy planning ahead for their country but Malaysia’s protracted power struggle still hangs like an albatross around the country’s neck. There is the Prime Minister (#Muhyiddin) perched precariously with a razor-thin majority, the megalomaniac (#Mahathir) hell-bent on making a comeback with his new political party (#Pejuang) and Anwar hoodwinking us he has the majority. More political drama ensued with UMNO’s threat of pulling out of the current ruling coalition, a disgraced ex-Prime Minister (#Najib) sentenced to 12 years jail and the ex-Finance Minister (#LimGuanEng) arrested and charged with corruption.

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Malaysia’s political landscape is now in limbo but dissenters were out in full force as Indonesians revolted against divisive legal reforms while masses protested against Prayut and the overarching monarchy. Elsewhere, the crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong had started with the arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai (#AppleDaily) and the disqualification of 4 “unpatriotic” legislators. Meanwhile, activist Joshua Wong, the prominent face of the country’s democracy movement was jailed for 13 months for taking part in last year’s protest.

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The people in Hong Kong are not the only ones showing their disdain and derision for China, Jack Ma single-handedly derailed in what was to be the world’s biggest (US$37 billion) IPO (Ant Financial) after he infuriated the country’s financial watchdogs and banks with his blunt remarks. The retired billionaire must be thankful that his company, while unable to list, is still standing. The same cannot be said for payment giant Wirecard which was brought down by financial fraud ($2 billion missing from its accounts) and 118-year-old US department store JC Penny averting total liquidation after it sold its retail arm. Understandably, shoppers tightening their purse strings and the reduced inflow of tourists to a trickle are the new norm after Covid-19 eviscerated air travel. Consequently, it is a year of red ink for airlines (#CathayPacific #Garuda #SIA #Qantas #ThaiAirways) as they seek bailouts and continue shedding jobs and assets. Elsewhere, there isn’t much pleasure to derive from leisure after the demise of Bintan Lagoon and world famous circus troupe Cirque Du Soleil filing for bankruptcy.

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The pandemic may have curtailed our wants and indulgences but there is still a silver lining amid all the doom and gloom. Nike is surprisingly still in the black with booming online sales while the tech giants (#Zoom #Facebook #Apple #Amazon) and major computer manufacturers (#HP #Dell) are doing a roaring trade accelerated by the necessity of remote working. If we are going by the numbers, it is unthinkable because Apple became the first US company to hit US$2 trillion in market value (elevating Tim Cook to a billionaire) while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the first person in the world to reach a net worth of over US$200 billion. Elon Musk sought to play catch-up in becoming the Earth’s second richest person after Tesla’s dizzying ascent (US$500 billion valuation) in part boosted by its soaring share prices.

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The head honchos at these start-ups are rich beyond their wildest dreams but it was an absolute nightmare for Ellen Degeneres after 36 of her former employees from her eponymous talkshow* alleged a toxic workplace environment that was oblivious to racial insensitivity, bullying and sexual misconduct. It might categorically be a bad day at the office for Ellen but other celebrities are having it worse because Simon Cowell broke his back after falling off his electric bike while Will Smith lost some of his front teeth in a freak golfing mishap. It may take some time before we can hear Simon’s harsh critique on reality show contestants but the all-English album** by K-pop boyband BTS is proving to be an earworm after it reached No.1 on the US billboard chart.

*Ellen Degeneres has since issued an apology to the viewers and present/former staff who were affected. Ironically, Ellen always end her show with her trademark slogan “Be kind to one another”. Three producers have since left the show after an internal investigation by Warner Bros.

**BTS’s first all-English single ”Dynamite” notched 33.9 million US streams and 300,000 sales in its first week. They are also the first Korean act to reach No.1 on the US billboard chart.

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BTS is currently at the pinnacle of success but the Oscar-nominated breakout star (Ellen Page, now known as Elliot Page) from the 2007 coming-of-age film “Juno” is at the crossroads after revealing her or rather, his deepest secret (#transgender). While one actress has emerged from her/his shell, another (#NicolaPeltz) has dived headlong into a matrimonial union with Brooklyn Beckham (son of David Beckham). Our heartiest congratulations to dad David Beckham but also commiseration for Taiwanese singer Stella Chang after she shocked the Chinese entertainment world by announcing the end of 15 years of marriage to banker Sung Hsueh-jen.

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Stella is S$75 million (alimony) better off after the divorce while the sole consolation for Kit Harington (you know him better as Jon Snow, #GameofThrones) in losing the iron throne is taking on an additional responsibility known as fatherhood. Joining the Game of Thrones heartthrob will be Hong Kong actor Raymond Lam, Supermodel Gigi Hadid, Rapper Nicky Minaj, Singer Ed Sheeran, American singer-songwriter Katy Perry and Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as they became first-time parents after welcoming their bundle of joy.

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The proud parents will be eagerly awaiting their offspring to take their first baby steps but Liverpool ended their 30-year wait by winning that elusive premiership title. The Reds from Anfield steamrolled their opponents along the way to the summit of English football but 19-year-old Polish teenager Iga Swiatek* made history in winning the French Open after she crushed Sofia Kenin in the finals. The Polish Grand Slam winner may have rewrote the record books but 21-year-old Chris Nikic** wrote himself into the Guinness World of Records after he became the first Down Syndrome athlete to complete a triathlon (3.86km swim, 180km bike ride, 42km full marathon) in its entirety.

*Iga Swiatek is the first Grand Slam winner from Poland and also the youngest woman to win the French Open since Monica Seles in 1992. She is also the lowest ranked champion at Roland Garros and also became the first woman not to drop a single set throughout the tournament since Justin Henin (2007).

**Chris Nikic completed the whole course of the triathlon in about 17 hours which earned him a place in the Guinness World of Records and thousands of social media followers/admirers who were inspired by his determination in tackling one of sport’s toughest challenges.

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It’s not far fetched to say setting and breaking records are the perks that come along with the job, just ask Kazuyoshi Miura who became the oldest player to play in a J-league first division match at the age of 53 or Lewis Hamiliton surpassing Michael Schumacher for most number of wins in Formula 1 history with his 92nd win* in October’s Portuguese Grand Prix or Rafael Nadal winning the French Open to equal Roger Federer’s 20th Grand Slam title record. Its evident the Spaniard (Nadal) is going head to head with the Swiss (Federer) but LA Lakers** did Kobe Bryant proud by winning a record-tying 17th NBA championship (their first since 2010), sealing the best-of-seven series 4-2 over the Miami Heats.

*After powering to victory in the Portuguese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton is now Formula One’s record all-time race winner, surpassing Michael Schumacher.

**The last time LA Lakers won the NBA championship was in 2010, that championship winning team as you guessed it, was led by Kobe Bryant himself.

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The LA Lakers tasted a sacred victory but winning will have to take a backseat now for MMA fighter Angela Lee after she confirmed her pregnancy. For others, winning turned into a legacy after China’s badminton great Lin Dan and MMA lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov* announced their retirement. Retirement is probably the last thing on Luca Corberi’s mind but the disgraced karter had to withdraw from the sport after he threw a bumper at his rival during a race. Luca probably did it out of jealousy or frustration but Djokovic had no excuse for hitting a lineswoman with the tennis ball at the US Open resulting in his immediate disqualification.

*Khabib Nurmagomedov remains undefeated in his professional MMA career. He decided to retire after he made a promise to his mother that he would not enter the ring again without his father (who passed away due to Covid-19). His father had been coaching him since the age of 3.

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A moment of madness from the Serb reminded us that even sporting greats are flawed and football legend Diego Maradona was no different. He will not just be remembered for his talent (Goal of the Century) and deceit (“Hand of God”) in the 1986 World Cup against England but also a life littered with controversies (shooting a group of journalists with an air rifle) and a lifestyle fuelled by drug addiction and alcoholism. We will remember Maradona for the right and wrong reasons just the same but the spate of suicides* in Japan’s and South Korea’s entertainment scene have highlighted the impact that societal pressures, criticism and cyberbullying can have on an individual. The ugly truth of an unforgiving and critical society led these actors/actresses to end their own lives while it was unfortunate that Taiwanese singer-host Alien Huang aka 小鬼 (cardiovascular complications) and Hong Kong actor Savio Tsang (cancer) died of natural causes.

*Actor Haruma Miura (30), reality series Terrace House star Hana Kimura (22), actress Sei Shina (36), actress Yuko Takeuchi (40), actor Takashi Fujiki (80) and actor Akira Kubodera (43) all died due to suspected suicide. All of them were established actors/actresses in Japan’s showbiz scene. South Korean actress Oh In-hye (36) also died in an apparent suicide.

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Maradona’s Goal of The Century

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We are very much in grief because the second half of 2020 has taken many of our stars and luminaries, it has already robbed us of actress Kelly Preston (aka wife of John Travolta, #BreastCancer) and Glee actress Naya Rivera (#Drown). Similarly, rock music may never be the same again without revered guitarist Eddie Van Halen (#ThroatCancer, rock band #VanHalen) while tributes poured in for the man (Kenzo Takada) who brought Japanese fashion to the world with his Kenzo brand. Meanwhile American television will miss its iconic talk show host (Regis Philbin) while acclaimed spy novelist John Le Carre is fondly remembered for bringing grit and realism to a genre popularized by Ian Fleming (the guy who wrote James Bond novels).

Ian Fleming may have immortalized 007 but Sean Connery personified him. Evidently, the martini was shaken, not stirred as Sean Connery went from James Bond to James Gone and even former bond girl, Diana Rigg (#OnHerMajesty’sService) was not spared. There won’t be a gaping hole in the 007 franchise but Wakanda will have big shoes to fill after the demise of Chadwick Boseman (#ColonCancer). To sum up 2020, maybe all good things do come to an end…just like 70 years of IKEA’s print catalogue.

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Admittedly, 2020 has been a wretched year that had us cussing and swearing that four-lettered expletive because the pandemic hit the pause button for the world and pretty much everything else. We won’t know what is in store for 2021 but another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go. So make the best of this test and don’t ask why. It’s not a question but a lesson learned in time. It’s something unpredictable but in the end it’s right, I hope you have the time of your life.

You may have now realised the words in italics in the preceding paragraph are from the first verse of Green Day’s song (“Good Riddance – Time of Your Life”). I will leave you here with the song’s original music video and the Seinfeld finale version (both equally enjoyable). Stay safe and safely distanced, I wish you a Happy New Year.

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life): Original

Picture Credits:

https://mustsharenews.com

Red Dot 2020: The One With COVID-19

Posted on June 28, 2020June 28, 2020 by uncleflipsprata

We were delivered a rude awakening at the start of 2020 after the assassination (#DroneStrike) of Iran’s General Solemi. In probably the best illustration that two wrongs don’t make a right, Iran, blinded by its animosity towards the Yankees (USA) retaliated and mistakenly shot down a Ukraine plane. It is not just these two warring countries alone, the price war between two duelling oil producing nations (#Saudi Arabia #Russia) led to a stock market rout plunging market indices to levels last seen in 2008. There were no victors in this senseless wrangle, only collateral damage resulting in a downward spiral of depressed oil prices. Similarly, it was a pyrrhic victory after the US entered into a Phase 1 trade deal with China amid a protracted trade war while the divorce is now complete as Britain officially left the EU on 31st January.

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Meanwhile, the failure to impeach a sitting President (#Trump) has left the Democrats clutching at straws while the 4th election in the past 13 months resulted in a power-sharing agreement between Israel’s Netanyahu and Benny Gantz*. The reigning Israeli Prime Minister is still holding on to power but holding on to the past meant very little to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as they ditched the pomp and pageantry of their royal roles to begin a new chapter of their lives. Conversely, ceding power was never an option as Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen secured a second presidential term with a landslide victory against Kaohsiung mayor Han Guo-yu. The contrast couldn’t be more clear as the Taiwan electorate made a resounding statement and stood up to China while a National Security Law is set to further muffle or shut out the dissenting voices in Hong Kong.

*The long-serving Benjamin Netanyahu (already indicted for corruption charges) will serve as Israel’s prime minister for 18 months after which Benny Gantz will take over.

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Tsai Ing-wen must be thanking the opportune time of Hong Kong’s anti-China demonstrations and sentiment that inadvertently aided her presidential campaign but others had only themselves to blame after the emergence of a backdoor government. In fact, the incumbents themselves were the architects of their own downfall after Mahathir yielded to a fractured coalition and resigned, triggering a succession of betrayals and party-hopping. Pakatan Harapan caved and crumbled in a matter of days, ultimately blindsided by one of their own allies (#Muhyiddin). Malaysians were caught off guard by the turn of events but the Thais are still reeling from the shock at the country’s first mass shooting incident after a gun-toting soldier went amok (#Terminal21mall #29dead).

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The shootout tragedy was a bolt from the blue but the bombshell dropped by Dutch beauty Youtuber Nikkie De Jager stunned many after she (or rather he) was forced to “come out” to admit she is a transgender in a bid to pre-empt a scandal. The dynamics may have now changed for Nikkie’s fiance but love is still celebrated as Taiwanese boyband member (#Fahrenheit) Calvin Chen tied the knot with actress Joanne Tseng.

*Nikkie De Jager who has worked with Jessie J and Lady Gaga before, revealed in an emotional Youtube video she was blackmailed by people who wanted to leak her story and she “coming out” was to pre-empt that.

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As the proverb goes: “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander”. Never mind Nikkie De Jager’s gender bender because Japanese popstar Ayumi Hamasaki and South Korean actress Choi Ji-woo (#WinterSonata) who are in their forties, are carrying out motherly duties after becoming first-time mums. Joining the hustle of infant care are the fastest man on Earth (#UsainBolt) and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk as changing diapers will be their next significant fatherhood milestone. For some, motherhood may be deferred after Gillian Chung (one half of cantopop girl group Twins) separated from her philandering aesthetics doctor husband (#Michael Lai) while Grace Chow took the initiative in terminating a 9-year relationship with Show Luo (罗志祥) due to his womanizing ways (#LindaChien).

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Unfaithful partners usually spell the end of relationships but Billie Eilish couldn’t have asked for a better collaborative partner (her brother) as she bested veterans Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran to win numerous Grammy awards for her debut album (#WhenWeAllFallAsleep, WhereDoWeGo?)*. In addition, former first lady Michelle Obama also had plenty to say after she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for her audiobook book “Becoming”. Billie and Michelle had cause for celebration at the Grammys but Bong Joon Ho (South Korea) was elated after Parasite** was feted at this year’s Oscars with the notable accolade of being the first foreign non-English language film to win the Oscar’s Best Picture award.

*Billie Eilish crafted and recorded the songs on her Grammy award-winning album with her producer brother in a bedroom in their parents’ house in Los Angeles. She won 4 Grammys in total: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year.

**Parasite won a total of 4 Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay). The film is well-received by audiences both in his home country and abroad. Throughout the years, you might have unknowingly watched some of Bong Joon Ho’s stellar works including his critically acclaimed crime film “Memories of Murder” (2003) and commercial success monster hit movie “The Host” (2006).

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Parasite was already earning rave reviews prior to its Oscars win but a drama series (#CrashLandingOnYou) garnering considerable interest, crash landed on our TV screens. That series drew parallels between North and South Korea in reel life and with reunification in limbo in real life, but a reunion of sorts is on the cards as the cast of F.R.I.E.N.D.S are set to return on a HBO Max special. Deep down, we just can’t get enough of Phoebe Buffet (#LisaKudrow) strumming and singing “Smelly Cat” in Central Perk Cafe.

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Central Perk Cafe will help jog those pleasant primetime television memories but we should also take time to pay homage to some icons of yesteryear… Actor Kirk Douglas had a illustrious acting career and lived a fulfilling life beyond 100 years, country music legend Kenny Rogers sold over 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime and singer-songwriter Little Richard was one of the crossover black artiste to reach audiences of all races that help bridge the racial divide with his music back in those topsy-turvy times. Yet nothing could prepare us for NBA legend Kobe Bryant‘s tragic sudden demise as many worship in the shrine that Los Angeles built for him. In the East, Bollywood lost its luminaries Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan while Taiwan ballroom dancing queen Serena Liu did not survive a heart valve replacement surgery.

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The celebrity dancer died while waiting for a heart transplant but the prancing horse (#Ferrari) certainly had a change of heart after announcing a parting of ways with Sebastian Vettel. This literally set the wheels in motion for Charles Leclerc to be the face of Ferrari’s future with Carlos Sainz being recruited from Renault as Vettel’s replacement. Vettel has not left motor racing yet but Maria Sharapova reluctantly brought an end to her tennis career with her announced retirement. However, it is evident retired sporting heroes cannot stay out of action for long after former professional footballer Ronaldino was arrested and detained in Paraguay for using a fake passport.

*Ronaldino was arrested in March along with his brother and business manager for attempting to enter Paraguay with fake travel documents. They spent almost one month in a maximum-security prison before being released and placed into house arrest by Paraguayan authorities.

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Ronaldino’s brief incarceration was probably the nadir of his life but 20-year-old Armand Duplantis* was literally on top of the world after he pole vaulted to world record-breaking heights not once but twice (6.17metres, 6.18metres) as he became the sport’s rising star. Inspiration abound, underdog and lowest-ranked sumo wrestler Tokushoryu** stunned sumo’s second-highest rank champion (Takakeisho) to win the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo. Taking a leaf from the same book, American Sofia Kenin who has never been past the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament before, clinched the Australia Open.

* Armand Duplantis set a new pole vaulting world record of 6.17 metres in Poland, he broke his own record again (6.18 metres) one week later in Glasgow, Scotland.

**Tokushoryu is the lowest-ranked sumo wrestler to win a top division sumo title since March 2000.

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The victors in sports revel in their triumphs and success stories but we all know misery loves company after the world received a belated Christmas gift from 2019… No one heeded that forewarning from Wuhan last December and 6 months on, we are confronted with the carnage of a alphanumeric coded (#COVID-19) black swan event. COVID-19 has completely changed our way of life for the foreseeable future, one that is devoid of friendly handshakes, hugs and kisses while lockdown, quarantine, travel restrictions, social-distancing and contact-tracing became the new norm.

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The coronavirus, an unforgiving assassin, kills its victims selectively, primarily the aged and the ones with pre-existing conditions. Yet, COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate as it got acquainted with the likes of royalty (#PrinceCharles), politicians (#BorisJohnson), celebrities (#TomHanks #Rita Wilson #IdrisElba), music artistes (#Madonna) and even famed athletes (#Kevin Durant<NBA> #TeamMcLaren<F1> #Daniele Rugani<ItalianSerieA> #MikelArteta<PremierLeague>).

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This pandemic that has spread to every continent except Antarctica has thrown a spanner in the works in almost every sector. It has initiated worldwide lockdowns, cancelled or deferred sporting (#TokyoOlympics #Euro2020 #Wimbledon* #BostonMarathon**) and entertainment events (#CannesFilmFestival), grounded global airline fleets and even created floating petri dishes for the virus in the form of cruise ships (#DiamondPrincess #Westerdam).

*Wimbledon was cancelled for the first time since World War II.

**The Boston Marathon was cancelled for the first time in its 124-year history. It has been held annually since 1897 even amid the two World Wars and fierce weather conditions including snow and rainstorms.

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The effects of COVID-19 clearly reverberated around the world as supply chains were disrupted while companies folded (#Espirit Asia), lurched into bankruptcy(#NeimanMarcus #Aldo) or tried hard to stave off insolvency (#GNC). Elsewhere, employees were being retrenched, furloughed or forced to take pay cuts. It further sparked panic buying and briefly elevated the standing of a roll of toilet paper as it was worth more than a barrel of oil. That probably explains why petroleum giant Shell was forced to cut its dividends for the first time since World War II but more importantly, the US Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to zero*. Thankfully, professional footballers manage to see the lighter side of things as they answered the call of the toilet roll challenge on social media, not the queue-forming ones at supermarkets.

*The previous time the US Federal Reserve reduced the interest rate to zero was back in 2008 during the subprime mortgage financial crisis.

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Humour could be the best medicine during this pandemic but others are fighting the coronavirus in their own way. Lady Gaga rallied an ensemble of A-list music stars (from the comfort of their living rooms) to raise funds for coronavirus relief efforts* while Cantopop legend Sam Hui’s first ever livestream concert attracted 2.5 million viewers. Not to be outdone, Mandopop’s biggest and brightest** came together to honour and raise funds for frontline medical workers where the main highlight of the event was JJ Lin and Jay Chou performing a song together. The best was probably saved for the last as Aaron Kwok served up a spectacle of sizzling dances moves and deft choreography while still impressing us with that ribbed and taunt body of his.

*The 6-hour concert led by Lady Gaga, was hosted by 3 of the biggest late night television show hosts in the US (Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon) and featured performances by TaylorSwift, Elton John, SamSmith, John Legend, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Stevie Wonder, Adam Lambert, Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney, David Beckham. The event managed to raise US$127 million.

**The star-studded line up included Andy Lau, Jam Hsiao, Stefanie Sun, Karen Mok, Gigi Leung, Fish Leong, Angela Chang and many more.

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I am glad the international stars banded together during this crisis and lifted our spirits momentarily. We Singaporeans reacted to COVID-19 in our own special way….No, I am not talking about the ovation (#ClapForSG #30March #SGUnited) we gave to our frontline workers or the nationwide karaoke session (#SingTogetherSG #25April #”Home”) we held for our healthcare professionals and migrant workers. I am referring to how we cultivated a fetish for colourful stickers and a forte in identifying clusters (#YongThaiHang #SAFRA Jurong #Dormitories). The nation developed an obsession with temperature-taking and we were besotted with legally binding acronyms like LOA, SHO and QO (#LeaveOfAbsence #StayHomeNotice #QuarantineOrder). Next, sanitizers became a treasured commodity and face masks acted as the first line of defence. We even contemplated playing tic-tac-toe in the lift (#SocialDistancing) and in other instances, we were defined by the digits on our identification cards when entering wet markets.

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Things took a turn for the worse when we went into a colour-coded state of emergency (#DorsconORANGE). Foreign workers were housed in chalets, hotels and even cruise ships while we were scrambling to find alternate accomodation for some workers from Malaysia affected by their government’s Movement Control Order (MCO). It is a crisis that has forced us to take unprecedented measures by dipping into the reserves thrice in a matter of months (Care & Support Package, Solidarity Budget, Fortitude Budget). That initial panic unleashed an island of hypochondriacs, scalpers on online merchandise platforms, raiders at supermarkets and hoarders bragging about their stockpiles on social media. We were even branded “xia suay” (disgraceful) by a Minister but we took it all in our stride.

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Subsequently, we had to call in an electrician (#CircuitBreaker #7thApril) that confined us mainly to our living quarters. Living like a recluse meant no mingling, no dining in, no shopping, no meeting of our friends or even our loved ones, no schooling (#home-based learning-HBL) and working from home (#WFH). For some, it meant a causeway bereft of traffic and muted celebrations for Hari Raya Aidilfitri, for others, events like the NATAS Travel Fair, Sundown Marathon, IT Show and Singapore F1 Grand Prix were cancelled in quick succession.

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We may have our hands full with COVID-19 but we also have one eye on the coming General Election. Yet, our present utmost concern is actually the importance of public hygiene and cleanliness. We have to thank the spate of spitting incidents and pranks started by our idling youths and troubled denizens (#RhumbiaLRT #Bugis #KFC). The SGClean campaign was launched in February probably to drive home the message of clean and preen. A Member of Parliament (#LilyNeo) started the ball rolling by cleaning tables at a hawker centre with a sash no less while Masagos and Heng Swee Kiat had the honours of certifying the stalls. And you know the authorities are not taking any chances when an ex-contractor decked in yellow boots with a penchant for digging his nose was prodded out of retirement to urge us to use our brains and exercise some common sense.

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From a Cambridge mathematician* turned electrician to Phua Chu Kang moonlighting as a hygiene ambassador and to politicians wiping tables at hawker centres…this pandemic has clearly unearthed many hidden talents. Others have carve out an alternate career in E-getai (#OngYeKung #CheeHongTat #Iswaran) while Sun Xueling dabbled in Wing Chun in a bid to get you to stay active. The cabinet ministers might be rookies in getai but veteran getai artiste Wang Lei has demonstrated that you can teach an old dog new tricks after successfully selling fish on social media peppered with his lowbrow humour, profanities and insults. For those who have not found their calling yet, fret not, there is the National Jobs Council headed by Tharman to assist you.

*PM Lee graduated from University of Cambridge with first-class honours in Mathematics in 1974.

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Frankly, jobs are in scarcity now but a botched job involving the wrong body being cremated due to a dreadful mix-up has left everyone aghast (#HarmonyFuneralCare). That blunder might prove costly after the affected family members initiated legal action against the said funeral company but another lawyer herself has also erred after being found guilty of misconduct in handling her father-in-law’s last will (#LeeSuetFern #Oxleyhouse). That house in Oxley Road has been the bone of contention since 2017 and the issue hasn’t been resolved since. There is a silver lining though after radio station Gold 90.5FM repented and relented in letting a listener claim his winnings after singer Tony Hadley was engaged to clear the air on the pronunciation of his name

*Tony Hadley is a former band member of the pop group Spandau Ballet.

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Honestly, we don’t care whether it is pronounced Hate-ley or Hat-ley but the very name of Hyflux has reportedly gone down the drain after its directors (former and present) came under a criminal investigation by the CAD, MAS and ACRA. The beleaguered water management firm’s problems continue still without a saviour. Hyflux is fast becoming a sinking ship and its fortunes have contrasted with once high-flying Singapore Airlines (SIA) where a rescue package (US$13 billion) was put together to bail the airliner out. Admittedly, SIA has fallen on hard times, so too the opposition after MP Low Thia Khiang took a tumble at home. The Aljunied GRC MP is not going anywhere soon but the horses have already bolted after one was seen galloping along Eng Neo Avenue. A runaway horse is a rare sight in Singapore but the return of a fugitive (#Extradition #DavidRoach) who robbed a bank 4 years ago with a piece of paper filled us with a palpable sense of relief.

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The successful extradition of the bank robber was a long time in coming but time wait for no gent or lady as the alumni of Project SUPERSTAR (Season 1) rang the wedding bells (#Derrick Hoh #Kelly Poon). It is marital bliss for the ex-contestants while it was jubilation for 7-year-old Simone Lim in becoming Singapore’s youngest E-sport champion after she won the Pokemon Oceania International Championship Junior Division in Melbourne. This formidable kid is flying the country’s flag despite not reaching her peak , but our flag did reach a peak after it was beamed onto Switzerland’s Matterhorn in a show of solidarity.

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The Swiss alps usually form the backdrop for those picturesque overseas vacations but our travel plans have to be put on hold for now. I trust our travel restrictions because we have SafeEntry and in the event of an imported infected case, we can always do TraceTogether. We are trying hard to keep out COVID-19 and we can probably do without the lawlessness of sovereign imports witnessed at Shunfu Mart. Sovereigns are not the one that has infiltrated this country, foreign influences and funding were alleged to be a part of an opposition party(#PSP) which has since been rattled by a few resignations (#RaviPhilemon #MichelleLee) and even expulsions (#DanielTeo #JanChan).

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Despite their woes, I have no worries for the opposition parties because another one has just popped up (#RedDotUnited). There will be no dearth in party-hoppers and allegiance-switching as GE2020 is upon us. In fact, the Parliament has been dissolved, the gauntlet has been thrown, the stage has been set…All eyes will be trained on the electoral arena and it will have our undivided attention. Interestingly, it will be a new battleground for the incumbent and opposition parties in this post-COVID-19 world as no physical rallies will be allowed. Meanwhile, I am off to my neighbourhood kopitiam to relive that dine-in experience curtailed by the circuit breaker…one thing I am very sure of is that I won’t be ordering the Bak Ku Teh that rewards you with a jail sentence.

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~ E-N-D ~

Picture Credits:

Red Dot 2019: The Year of Thunberg, PMDs and Ailing Retail

Posted on December 31, 2019 by uncleflipsprata

Global Events

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

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The most impactful and astounding words uttered by TIME magazine person of the year. With that, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg became the voice for climate change echoing a perilous warning that reminded us what is at stake for future generations. The warning signs couldn’t be more dire as the ice has left Iceland (#Okjokull)* while the lungs (#AmazonForest #Brazil) of Mother Earth burned like the forges of hell. Increasingly erratic weather patterns have become prevalent from the destructive wildfires in USA and Australia to floods in Japan to the snow-less warm winter in Moscow.

*Iceland marked its first ever loss of the Okjokull glacier to climate change.

Thunberg’s effort for dissent against the countries/parties responsible for global warming is admirable but dissenting factions elsewhere have laid bare their frustrations. The Middle East witnessed the shocking body count for the uprising in Iraq (300 dead and counting) while scores have rebelled in Lebanon. In Europe, the Catalans are still engineering a breakaway from Spain even as the separatist movement leaders face incarceration. South America is faring no better as President Sebastian Pinera faced the wrath of Chileans while Bolivia’s Evo Morales has stepped down after the populace revolted. The ugly scenes around the world in recent months are threaded through the same needle: protesters angry at ruling elites and the effects of globalization.

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Changes, whether in leadership or political landscape are underway for the above mentioned countries, particularly so for Finland which has elected the world’s youngest Prime Minister (#SannaMarin #Age34). However some things stay the same… The two superpowers (#USA #China) of the world have been slapping each other silly with punitive levies on each other’s imports in a tit-for-tat fashion, North Korea have resumed conducting missile tests while distancing themselves from a peace deal and another Daesh leader (#Baghdadi) has been taken down in hydra-headed terrorist group ISIS. Unsurprisingly, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still the same ginger-haired bloke except that he steered the Tories to a resounding victory at the election, breaking the 3-year political gridlock for Brexit.

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We could be forgiven for thinking climate change is the least of our worries because bad actors (Iran & Turkey) have emerged. With the resumption of its nuclear ambitions (no thanks to Trump for pulling out of a nuclear deal), Iran is on the warpath against Europe and USA as it attacked oil tankers in the Straits of Hormuz, shot down a US drone patrolling the area, seized a British tanker (#StenaImpero) and purportedly used drones to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities (#SaudiAramco). Meanwhile, the incursion by Turkish military against the Kurds in neighboring Syria has raised the alarm in the Middle East*.

*Turkey in the guise of repatriating refugees, has invaded a portion of Syria after the US withdrew its troops (#Kurds #ISIS).

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Donald Trump may be blamed for the emergence of these bad actors but he has other problems on the home front. The third US President to get impeached (#Ukraine #JoeBiden) has already gotten his re-election campaign underway. He will also have to contend with pressing gun control issues after the deadly shootings in El Paso (#Texas #Walmart) and Ohio (#Dayton). Interestingly, he still found time to spar with Thunberg on twitter and had the temerity to infuriate Denmark with his outright interest in buying Greenland.

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Greenland is off-limits to the billionaire President for now but luxury conglomerate LVMH is set to buy the purveyor of blue-boxed trinkets (#Tiffany & Co) for $22 billion*. Others had their ambition for cryptocurrency (#Facebook #Libra) derailed by the increasing financial regulatory hurdles and the withdrawal of its backers. Elsewhere, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic became the first space exploration/tourism firm to do an IPO while Gojek is venturing into the streaming business (#GoPlay) in Indonesia. Yet, the first salvo of the streaming war have already been fired with the launch of Apple TV+ and Disney+**, followed hot on their heels by HBO Max (2020) and Britbox (Britain’s BBC and 3 other smaller TV channels in a joint deal to take on Netflix in their home turf).

*LVMH already has Christian Dior, Bulgari, Sephora, Hublot and Dom Perignon as its prized acquisitions.

**Disney+ already attracted 10 million subscribers in its first full day of operation while HBO Go took about 4 years to reach 10 million subscribers since it started in 2015.

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For some, the war had ended even before the battle had begun with the bankruptcy filing of Forever 21 and baby product retailer Mothercare. Even the world’s oldest travel firm (#ThomasCook #178years) waved the white flag and went belly up leaving 600,000 tourists stranded. Others like co-working giant WeWork needed a bailout from its largest shareholder (#Softbank) to stay afloat after a jettisoned IPO*** and an ousted CEO (#AdamNeumann). For me, the most interesting business deal in 2019 is where the East meets the West literally…Pardon the pun, I am proposing a toast to French spirits maker Pernod Ricard which is building China’s first foreign-owned malt whisky distillery at the foot of the fabled Mount Emei (Er Mei Shan) in China’s Sichuan province (yes, the renown hallowed home of wuxia-martial arts legends).

***Investors and the media have raised concerns about the company’s burgeoning losses, profit realization and a questionable business model (taking long-term leases and renting them out to customers for shorter periods). To sum it up, they felt the company wouldn’t be profitable for years.

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We certainly can’t ignore Asia’s growing influence but Asia is struggling to come to terms with a new reality…Malaysia is rocked by a gay-sex scandal (#Azmin #Anwar #PartiKeadilanRakyat) and in-fighting in its political arena while the disillusionment of Pakatan Harapan’s post-election performance was telling at the ballot box*. Elsewhere, The Pearl of the East, 东方明珠 aka Hong Kong (and some now say an instrument for the West) is plunged into strife and chaos as citizens protested en masse on an extradition bill and universal suffrage, demanded Carrie Lam’s resignation and the outcry over police brutality issues.

*Pakatan Harapan has lost four out of nine by-elections since their victory at the 2018 General Election.

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The call for freedom was also sounded in the restive Papua region as riots broke out in the Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a controversial U.N.-backed referendum in 1969, fuelling further unrest. While Papua still pined for independence from Indonesia, India has revoked the special autonomy status of Kashmir, escalating tensions with its neighbour Pakistan. The two nuclear-powered countries remained loggerheads over that disputed region while bilateral ties between Japan and South Korea sank to a new low over a Supreme Court ruling* mete out in October 2018.

*Tokyo tightened export controls against Korea after the Supreme Court in Seoul ruled in 2018 that Japanese firms compensate Korean victims of forced labour (“comfort women” forced to work in war time brothels) during Japan’s colonial rule. Tokyo argues all reparation issues were settled under a 1965 accord (a $500 million payout) that normalised South Korea-Japan relations. South Korea retaliated by threatening to withdraw from a intelligence-sharing pact (#Gsomia) with Japan.

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It may be a case of lovers’ tiff between the neighboring countries but for others, their relationship is way beyond repair…it was splitsville for on-off couple Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth after just 8 months of marriage while the fairytale romance was short-lived as Song Joong Kyi filed for divorce from his onscreen lover (#SongJiHyo). In the same vein, Malaysian love ballad queen Fish Leong ended 9 years of marriage on the back of her businessman husband’s infidelity.

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The marriage of the aforementioned stars didn’t work out but others are taking a chance on love. Taiwanese supermodel Lin Chi-ling fulfilled her mother’s wishes by settling down with Japanese boyband member Akira while singer Rainie Yang confirmed her marriage to singer-songwriter Li Ronghao. Meanwhile, their western counterpart Chris Pratt announced his nuptials with Katherine Schwarzenegger (yes, the daughter with that famous surname).

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Arnie’s daughter might have stolen the headlines but the Austrian-American himself returned in his iconic role and reunited with former co-star Linda Hamilton (#SarahConnor #Terminator:Dark Fate) 28 years after Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Not to be outdone, Sylvester Stallone went from first blood to last blood as war veteran and one man fighting machine John Rambo (#First Blood [1982] #Rambo: Last Blood [2019]). It goes to show age is no barrier as Vanna White hosted Wheel of Fortune for the first time in 37 years after host Pat Sajak had to go for surgery while Bear Gryll welcomed Narendra Modi on Man vs Wild

*Both Schwarzenegger and Stallone are aged 72 and 73 respectively

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It’s not just laconic movie stars that have returned, Taiwan boyband 5566 (now a 3-member outfit) staged a comeback to enthrall their fans while a Spice Girls reunion concert tour sans Posh Spice aka Victoria Beckham evoked the joy of yesteryear female camaraderie. Those bands brought back sweet memories but Sulli, Goo Ha-Ra and Cha In-Ha will forever live in their fans’ memory as K-pop was roiled by their demise (#Cyberbullying #Depression).

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Asian celebrities were certainly having a hard time evident from the jabs/stabs Simon Yam received in China, the reality show that took Godfrey Gao’s life and the kick that singer Na Ying landed on one of her fans. That fan probably wanted to get up close and personal with The Voice of China judge but opera singer Placido Domingues (one of the 3 tenors besides Pavarotti and Carreras) definitely got too close for comfort after he was accused by his colleagues/surbordinates of sexual assault and inappropriate behaviour. (#MeToo)*.

*The famed opera singer has been accused by 20 women of forcibly kissing or fondling them in incidents dating back to 1980. He has since stepped down as the general director of Los Angeles Opera, effectively ending his US career.

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It was probably guilt that forced the tenor to resign but Israel Folau is adamant that he did nothing wrong after he was sacked by Rugby Australia for making online homophobic comments. Folau may have cast rugby in the wrong light but thankfully the sport redeemed itself after the Spring Boks (#SouthAfrica) won the rugby world cup. South Africa’s triumph is a testament to sheer hard work and determination but it was a stunning finale to the basketball season when Toronto Raptors (#Canada) broke the stranglehold of Golden State Warriors by becoming the first team outside of America to win the NBA finals.

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The Raptors broke new ground with a sacred victory as sports heralded its many “first” this year…Ashleigh Barty* became the first Australian woman to win the French Open not since Margaret Court in 1973 while fellow competitor Simona Halep became the first Romanian player to win the Wimbledon tournament. Let us not dismiss the men…I am of course not talking about footballer Neymar who made a cameo on Netflix series Money Heist. I am referring to men like Egan Bernal who became the first Colombian to win Tour De France, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge who became the first man to complete a marathon distance in under 2 hours and Senator Manny Pacquiao who became the world’s oldest welterweight champion after defeating Keith Thurman.

*Ashley Barty returned to playing tennis after a two-year hiatus to take up professional cricket

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The future of sports looks promising because the youth in revolt are not shy on talent or ambition. There was adroit 19-year-old tennis teen sensation Bianca Andrescuu beating Serena Williams to win the US Open* while a sprightly Simone Biles broke the record by becoming the gymnast to win the most number of world medals (25). There is also the emergence of Coco Gauff in becoming the youngest player to win a WTA singles title (#2019LinzOpen) and she promptly announced her arrival in tennis folklore by defeating Venus Williams in the opening round of Wimbledon. Did I mention she is only just 15 years of age?!

*it is deja vu for Serena Williams as she fell at the final hurdle against Naomi Osaka at last year’s (2018) US Open final.

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These athletes of steely determination are serious about their sport, but let’s also acknowledge those who have invested and dedicated their lives in doing what they love…It was probably heartbreak for Lee Chong Wei in announcing his retirement as his body could no longer cope with the demands of badminton on top of his nose cancer treatment and it was heartache as Maxim Dadashev dies after his superlightweight bout with Puerto Rico’s Subriel Matias. Further sorrow was heaped when Formula Two driver Anthoine Hubert was killed after the crash at Belgian Grand Prix.

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Local Events

It is not just Greta Thunberg leading the way to do more for climate change, our leader answered the clarion call by unveiling a $100 billion plan to protect the country against rising sea levels (#NDPRally2019). Businesses are also doing their bit for the environment as 270 F&B outlets said NO to straws while NTUC Fairprice conducted trials at some outlets to deter plastic bag usage. Even homegrown singers like Stefanie Sun are looking to buy a eco-friendly car. It is encouraging to see Singapore do its bit for a green-er Earth but an immediate problem apparently lies in the ailing retail scene.

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It is not because of the Huawei $54 phone fiasco that infuriated many and involve the riot police or the toddler killed by a fallen mirror (#Jewel@Changi #UrbanRevivo). Shoppers are staying away from the shopping belt after the deadly fall at Ngee Ann City and the bloody homicide at Orchard Tower. It seems local retail is struggling in the throes of death evident not from debt collectors turning up in traditional funeral garb but from the spate of brick-and-mortar store closures…MPH closed its last two outlets in Singapore, anchor tenant Metro has deserted Centrepoint and Home-Fix badly in a fix of its own has pulled the shutters down on all its retail stores as it went into judicial management. Meanwhile, DFS is ready to end its tour of duty at Changi Airport next June after almost four decades while Hong Kong cosmetics retailer SaSa is heading for the exit in 2020 after 20-odd years.

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Maybe the retail sector can take some inspiration from F&B as fastfood outlets constantly reinvent themselves. McDonald’s peddled curry sauce in bottles and some well sought after pyjamas while KFC’s staff uniforms gets a designer spin (#ThomasWee). Even Old Chang Kee is doling out variety with their Hainanese chicken rice and Black Friday themed offerings in their flour puff. New entrants have also added some buzz from Taiwan’s Wu Pao Chun bakery to eggs from Ukraine in diversifying our food source.

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Diversifying our food sources is a strategic move but consolidation is going at full throttle as Breadtalk is set to buy foodcourt operator Food Junction. Elsewhere, a redeveloped mall (#FunanMall) and the country’s first shipping container hotel in One-North will give a booster shot to the tourism industry but others like the Merlion statue in Sentosa is unable to stand the test of time after it was torn down for redevelopment. Meanwhile, Dyson is entrenching itself in Singapore after it decided to relocate its HQ to St James Power Station while Hyflux finally secured a lifeline from UAE’s Utico after protracted negotiations.

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Salvation prevailed for Hyflux’s retail investors but not so for others beyond redemption…There was the legal practitioner who absconded with his client’s monies (#JLCAdvisors #Allied Tech #$33million) and then there was the thumbdrive inventor (#Trek2000 #HennTan)* charged together with 3 others for white collar crimes. Meanwhile, a beverage giant (#Pokka) is suing its ex-CEO Alain Ong (aka Mediacorp artiste Vivian Lai’s husband) for anti-competitive practices against the company.

*Henn Tan created and patented the now-ubiquitous thumb drive, or USB flash drive, in 2000 – a move that made the floppy disk obsolete. His company, Trek 2000 International, which started out as a small electronic parts trading firm in Geylang, listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in 2000. Henn Tan is charged together with 3 others with multiple offences involving falsification of accounts, cheating external auditors, forgery and disclosure breaches under Singapore’s securities laws.

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Vivian Lai’s spouse is in abit of a tight spot now but the top spot definitely went to a Malaysian in this year’s Star Search. Teoh Ze Tong won the talent competition which returned after a 9-year break. His compatriot Yeo Yann Yann (also a Malaysian) won Best Leading Actress at the Golden Horse Award (dubbed as the Oscars of the East) in local filmmaker Anthony Chen’s Wet Seasons. It is no secret we embrace foreign talent wholeheartedly, look, even the appointment of Japanese coach Tatsuma Yoshida has reinvigorated the Lions with some encouraging results.

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Even with foreign talents, we have not rested our laurels in developing our local lads…the proof is in the pudding with the Quahs’ dominance in the pool at the SEA games, Lim Anqi setting records in free diving and Joseph Schooling still winning some medals even with his stocky build. The only downer so far is the Paraolympian (#TheresaGoh) hanging up her goggles for good.

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Theresa Goh may have left the sporting arena but a famous ex-pastor has re-entered society after serving his sentence. The transformation in the follicle sense, is striking as Kong Hee went from black to white. White may be the colour of repentance but brown is certainly the colour of controversy this year with hints of racial undertones (#Brown-faced #NETS). That offending advertisement and the subsequent video by Preetips and Nair riled some in the community and elicited a response from the authorities. The brown-faced controversy highlighted 2 wrongs don’t make a right and our leader certainly erred by rubbing Vietnam and Cambodia the wrong way in the same instance with a singular Facebook post.

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I tell you, it is quite a feat to offend 2 countries simultaneously on social media and it is also equally challenging attending to condominium residents in this country. Everyone witnessed how verbally abusive and condescending Ramesh was to a hapless security guard doing his job (#EightRiversuites). I hope Ramesh has repented and I urged him to dismount from his high horse and embrace the colourful life of heartland communal living instead. I am not joking because horses has literally galloped into the heartlands* this year (#Yishun #AnimalTherapy) while mynahs are being hanged on laundry poles (#Yishun).

*“Wednesdays with Horses” was launched with the aim of helping people with special needs open up more and, through interactions with the horses, develop more confidence. The programme is held at a sheltered basketball court next to Block 311 Yishun Ring Road for four hours and is Singapore’s first horse therapy programme to be conducted within a Housing Board estate.

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Both the horsing and birding coincidentally occurred in the vicinity of Yishun, yes, that cursed neighbourhood…It is not just Yishun, concrete jungle Singapore has no shortage of urban legends/myths judging from the toddler cooked in a pot (#ChinSwee), the stark naked abang airing his family jewels in the confines of a car (#BukitBatok), the PSLE results slip held to a ransom and the PMD that has claimed its first casualty (Bedok).

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Despite all that, I am still a heartlander at heart and I am overjoyed that the scourge on footpaths has been banned (#PMD), the best piece of news in 2019 by far. I am already looking forward to next year where coding will be taught in mainstream schools and satellite-based ERP IU will be installed progressively. I wish you readers a Happy New Year.

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