SINGAPORE - Tan Tiong Cheng will step down as executive chairman of Knight Frank Singapore on March 31 next year.
However, this will not mark the end of his career with the property consulting group, where he has been for the past 35 years. Mr Tan, 66, will assume a newly created role of president - Knight Frank Asia Pacific, helping the head, Kevin Coppel, to propel the group's business across the region.
At the same time, Mr Tan will be an adviser to Knight Frank Singapore.
Danny Yeo, 63, will become chairman of Knight Frank Singapore on April 1 next year in addition to continuing in the current job of group managing director of the local office.
From the same date, Mr Tan will work part-time, which will leave him with time to pursue personal interests. He is currently an independent director of three companies - Heeton Holdings, The Straits Trading Company and UOL Group.
"I will also have more time for reading, listening to music, and travelling. I can visit my daughter and grandson in the States more often," he said.
Mr Tan stressed that his continuing to serve Knight Frank on a part-time basis will not be "just for the sake of working".
"It must have some positive impact on others."
The company has more than 600 employees in its Singapore office; in addition, it has a pool of over 700 associates, who are property brokers remunerated on a commission basis only.
Knight Frank Singapore is 55 per cent owned by Cheong Hock Chye & Co, which in turn is fully owned by AF Global, a joint venture of Aspial Corporation and Fragrance Group.
The other 45 per cent is held by Knight Frank Asia Pacific, which in turn is owned 25 per cent by Knight Frank Singapore and 75 per cent by Knight Frank UK.
The Asia-Pacific operations cover Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and South Korea.
"We are looking to expand our presence to other places such as the Philippines and Myanmar," said Mr Tan.
Mr Tan obtained a diploma in urban valuation from Auckland University in 1972 under a Colombo Plan scholarship. Upon his return to Singapore, he joined the property tax division of the Inland Revenue Department as a property valuer.
He was seconded to the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1978 to help with valuation and land acquisition matters.
In 1980, he joined Cheong Hock Chye & Co as a director of valuation. In 1983, the firm merged with Knight Frank and was renamed to Knight Frank Cheong Hock Chye & Baillieu.
Two years later, Mr Tan was made deputy managing director when he was in his mid-thirties, before becoming managing director in 1987.
In 1996, the firm changed its name to Knight Frank Singapore. In 2009, Mr Tan became executive chairman and Mr Yeo, the group managing director.
Mr Yeo, the incoming chairman, said his priority will be on succession planning. "The goal is to develop a core team of leaders who will take ownership of the company's direction."
"We are very conscious of the changing market environment and development of technology. What we're doing is to identify which are disruptive technologies and which are the enablers - and then harness the enablers to improve our operational efficiency and stay relevant in the evolving marketplace.
"My goal is to transform Knight Frank from being 'good' to being 'great'," he said.
Records filed with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority showed that Knight Frank Pte Ltd - the entity for the Singapore operations - saw its revenue decline to S$61.4 million in the latest financial year ended March 31, 2016, from S$67.2 million in the preceding year. Over the same period, net profit fell to S$2.8 million from S$4.1 million.
In the past, Knight Frank Singapore has overcome tough times through its practice of "common misery", of not retrenching staff but instead introducing pay cuts - which were later restored - with bigger reductions for the senior staff and none for the most junior employees. The last time this was done was in 2008.
Mr Tan said the most important lesson learnt over the years is: "You must stay focused and fulfil your promise. At the end of the day, you must be trusted. Trust is a pre-requisite for being professional. It is also key to success."
He also has some words of encouragement for those undergoing tough times. "In life, there are always ups and downs. The important thing is: do not give up. If you stay focused, at the end of the day, the bad times will pass.
"But if you're a pessimist, it will take you a longer time to recover."
Looking back at his more than three decades at Knight Frank, Mr Tan said: "I have been very blessed with an interesting and exciting worklife - seeing the ups and downs of the property cycle and bouncing back each time.
"To me, property is a fun business. A lot of people are interested in real estate in Singapore and we get to know a lot of interesting people along the way. It's been quite a fulfilling and rewarding career for me, much more than I could have asked for. It came from all the great colleagues who believed in me, journeyed with me and clients who trusted us - many of whom are now our friends.
"I am very happy because Knight Frank Singapore is in safe hands." kalpana@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on NOVEMBER 04, 2016.
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To rent three units to run his workshops at Sin Ming Industrial Estate, Mr Mike Keh now pays $6,000 a month per unit.
From early next year, he may have to pay $8,800 per unit at the new Sin Ming AutoCity.
It follows a move to relocate tenants of Blocks 11 to 21, 27 and 34 in the estate to the high-rise industrial building. The relocation was announced in 2010, under the Housing Board's Industrial Redevelopment Programme which aims to make better use of land.
In all, 154 tenants will be relocated to the new Sin Ming AutoCity.
Mr Keh's units are at blocks 19 and 21. He said although rents at the new building are cheaper on higher floors, his workshops serve heavy vehicles and have to be located on the ground floor.
Mr Bernard Sim, who runs BVO Automotive at Block 15, said higher rents will add further pressure to an industry that has been facing slow demand.
"It would be good if the authorities could do something to help the small and medium-sized firms at this point in time," he added .
Singapore Motor Workshop Association president Francis Lim said that the HDB has been in regular dialogues with tenants, but agreed that cost pressures are a grave concern in the current market.
He noted, however, that the replacement units are larger.
In response to queries, the HDB said that existing units have a typical floor area of 123 sq m.
In contrast, the new motor workshop units come in two types: one which ranges from 216 sq m to 225 sq m, and another which ranges from 320 sq m to 345 sq m. The new heavy vehicle workshop units range from 251 sq m to 279 sq m.
Mr Keh acknowledged that the new units he will be renting at Sin Ming AutoCity are larger at 265 sq m, compared with the units he rents now which are around 185 sq m.
It is not the first time Sin Ming Industrial Estate tenants have had to move. In earlier batches of the programme, tenants were relocated to Shimei East Kitchen and Sin Ming Autocare. The eight-storey Sin Ming AutoCity complex now sits on part of the vacated site from those previous moves.
The 2.1ha complex will have a canteen, 14 heavy vehicle workshops, 117 motor workshops and 30 spray-painting units.
Tenants selected their replacement units in April last year and will receive their keys starting from mid-January next year.
Once tenancy of the replacement unit starts, they have three months to vacate their old premises.
Most motor workshops there do plan to take up the replacement units, said Mr Lim. "Those which leave are the ones (whose owners) were looking to retire or have no successor."
One high-profile tenant that has moved out is not a workshop, but popular restaurant New Ubin Seafood.
It closed its Sin Ming premises on Oct 30 and reopened yesterday in the west instead, in the Lam Soon Industrial Building canteen at 63 Hillview Avenue.
Asked about plans for the newly vacated land, the HDB did not give details but said that based on the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Master Plan 2014, the site vacated by Blocks 11 to 21 and 27 is zoned for residential use.
Block 34 is on land zoned for "Business 1" use, which includes light industry and warehouse use.
This article was first published on Nov 04, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - De Beers, the world's leading diamond company, is testing a new service of selling third-party polished diamonds to other businesses through its online auction platform.
The service is being launched from Singapore, where De Beers' Auctions Sales business has been based since 2013 to allow the group to be closer to its customers in India and the Asia-Pacific, said executive vice-president of auction sales Neil Ventura in an interview with The Business Times.
De Beers, the single largest producer of rough diamonds by value in the world with a 30 per cent market share, traditionally sells only rough diamonds that it mines and produces.
Some 90 per cent of these are sold through selling events to authorised bulk buyers known as sightholders, while the rest are sold to small and medium-sized companies via online auction.
In June this year, in response to customer feedback, it started the service of selling rough diamonds produced by others on its online auction platform.
Due to customer demand, the group will from Thursday also extend the service to polished diamonds over five carats or of fancy colour, said Mr Ventura.
Diamonds sold on the platform will have to be accompanied with evidence documenting their manufacturing history and showing that they come from rough diamonds which have the Kimberley Process certification.
"This pilot is really a result of our dialogues with our customers," he said. "What we're offering here is a new route to market."
De Beers customers currently sell their polished diamonds through traditional bilateral negotiations, their own networks of downstream customers, and existing online platforms, according to Mr Ventura.
What De Beers offers through the new service is exposure to a very large global customer base, he said. "We can do it in a way that differentiates the sellers - because they will be adhering to these higher standards - and provides assurances to the buyers across the world who will be bidding."
De Beers' Auction Sales unit is based in Singapore; of the unit's total headcount of 34, 19 are based in the Republic. Since moving here in 2013, the group has sold US$1.3 billion worth, or 5.5 million carats, of rough diamonds through the country.
Under the auction sales channel, rough diamonds across a variety of different grades - from very high end industrial quality - are brought to Singapore where they are evaluated and sorted into batches carrying similar characteristics.
These are then taken on roadshows for viewing by potential customers in cities such as London and Antwerp, who will eventually bid for the stones in an online auction on a specific date.
With over half of De Beers sales being made in the Asia-Pacific, the move by the Auction Sales unit to Singapore is part of a long-term positioning of the group, Mr Ventura told BT.
The country is attractive for being safe and secure, and the "great availability" of talent, he added. "Singapore just really ticked all our boxes."
sandrea@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on NOVEMBER 04, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - A Land parcel in Margaret Drive that is big enough for 275 homes has been triggered for sale after a developer committed to bid at least S$185.76 million for it.
This is a Reserve List site under the government land sales (GLS) programme that can be released for sale only when the minimum price committed by a developer is acceptable to the government.
Based on the maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 22,195 square metres, this minimum price translates to S$777.54 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said on Thursday that it had accepted the application to put up the site for sale by public tender, which will be launched in about one to two weeks.
The tender period for the 0.48 hectare land parcel will be about four weeks.
Property consultants expect to see strong interest from developers given the site's location and its palatable size. But their projections vary widely from five bids to 13 bids, with the winning bid likely to be in the region of S$800-912 psf ppr based on BT's poll.
The 99-year leasehold site is nestled within an established residential enclave near the Commonwealth MRT station.
It is close to the Ayer Rajah Expressway, with nearby retail and dining options at the Dempsey Cluster, Queensway Shopping Centre, Ikea Alexandra and Alexandra Central.
There are also public amenities and schools in close proximity.
Lee Nai Jia, head of research for South-east Asia at Edmund Tie & Company, noted that the Commonwealth area is popular, given that it is a few stops to the CBD and is also near the Buona Vista area, which is a strong rental catchment area. New home prices in Commonwealth now range from S$1,400 to S$1,900 psf.
"Looking at the technical conditions of the tender, the proposed site faces several restrictions as they have to check for noise level from the neighbouring churches," he said.
"Additionally, the site is close to MRT track and there needs to be a minimum 35m setback (from front wall). The developer may have less room to manoeuvre in terms of design. The bidder who wins is also likely to incorporate cycling amenities as they get GFA exemptions for the cycling facilities."
SLP International executive director Nicholas Mak noted that the site was among the more attractive ones in the GLS Reserve List due to its location near the popular East-West MRT line and the plot's relatively small and manageable size.
By comparing the trigger bid pricing of S$777.54 psf ppr for this site with the land price of S$871 psf ppr that Hao Yuan Investment paid last year for a 1.05ha parcel in Queenstown where it is launching Queens Peak, the trigger bid is "high but not ridiculously high", Mr Mak said.
"This developer that triggered this tender may be using the same tactics as the developer who triggered the tender of the Central Boulevard white site, which is to trigger the tender at a fairly high price to discourage other developers to bid."
R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng noted that developers are generally running low in land inventory, and are thirsty to replenish landbank, in part to demonstrate that they have longer-term corporate growth strategies as land development is their bread and butter activity.
lynkhoo@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on NOVEMBER 04, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - More than 1,400 companies have started projects under a government scheme that helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be leaner on labour and more productive in their use of other resources as well.
The year-old Lean Enterprise Development (LED) Scheme has helped SMEs like restaurant chain The Soup Spoon to automate and cut workers at its outlets by 25 per cent.
At manufacturing firm Onn Wah Tech, automation has cut down the number of workers for a pin-insertion process from four to one. Also, the process is now two times faster.
The number of companies that have gone leaner and their achievements were highlighted by Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say yesterday when he gave an update on the scheme launched in October last year as a two-year pilot project.
He was speaking to more than 600 employers at a symposium, at which about a dozen organisations shared their success stories. LED provides one-stop support for SMEs - which form the bulk of firms and employ about 70 per cent of the 3.7 million workers here - that need money for upgrading.
It also gives them the room to employ foreigners as an interim measure while they raise the quality of jobs or train Singaporeans for new and improved jobs.
But fewer than half of the 1,400 companies needed to use this provision while implementing their projects, Minister of State for Manpower Teo Ser Luck told reporters at the symposium.
The need for such foreigners for a project is reviewed yearly and their numbers can be renewed for up to three years. But whether other companies can apply for these extra workers after the two-year pilot period will be decided later, he said.
In the economic slowdown coupled with the tepid labour market, Mr Teo said firms need to hasten restructuring.
"There's a lot that companies can do in different ways to keep their manpower lean through automation, through process redesign, job redesign. We're hoping that we can introduce many other different schemes to help them," he added, without elaborating.
The symposium was organised by the LED task force - the National Trades Union Congress and government agencies - and the Singapore Manufacturing Federation.
Mr Lim, in his speech, spoke of the urgency of getting SMEs to transform.
The local workforce may stagnate in the next decade, amid an ageing population and a low birth rate, he said. "With foreign manpower growing much slower too, our challenge is to ensure this sharp drop in our total workforce growth will not become the bottleneck in the future growth of our economy and SMEs."
In helping the SMEs, the task force found four types of firms.
These include the unaware and the unwilling to change, the willing who do not know how, and those who can band together to implement larger-scale projects for the whole industry.
The Soup Spoon's managing director Andrew Chan sees his goal to move up the food chain - from selling food in Singapore to manufacturing food to sell overseas - resulting in better-quality jobs. "We can move from lower-skill assembly jobs to more roles in sales, research and development, food technology, logistics supervision and quality assurance," he said.
"There is also more scope for training, exposure and advancement for the staff."
Two Beneficiaries
THE SOUP SPOON
After opening 28 outlets here, the restaurant chain wants to expand abroad. But it needs to keep its soups fresh. It turned to Spring Singapore for funds.
A high-pressure processing machine it bought lengthens the shelf life of its products from two weeks to three months.
The firm also cut down its number of workers by digitising services such as ordering and payment at outlets.
To fill the gap while it sent staff for training, it turned to the LED Scheme's transitional foreign manpower allowance to hire six workers.
CONTAINER DEPOT ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE
Funds from Spring Singapore and Workforce Singapore helped to introduce an Electronic Container Trucking System that links drivers and trucks with depots, ports and warehouses.
Drivers no longer need to get out of their cabins to register and pick up order documents.
The system also meshes with the existing Container Management System, cutting queueing time by 30 per cent. Drivers can also make an extra trip or two each day.
joseow@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on November 04, 2016.
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From a booming reggae performance to a quiet disco, from daredevil tightrope-walking stunts to wow-inducing bubble shows - these are some of the diverse highlights of the Singapore River Festival happening tonight and tomorrow.
The annual event aims to set the three quays along the Singapore River - Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay - abuzz with performances and activities .
At Clarke Quay, French tightrope-walking duo of Underclouds Cie will walk a line suspended between the riverside promenade just outside hotel Swissotel Merchant Court and the foot of Read Bridge.
Along the riverside by the entrance of Clarke Quay Central, bubble expert Caroline Cornelius- Jones, or CJ the Bubble Girl, will weave air balls into various shapes and sizes.
Over at Robertson Quay, catch the local film anthology 7 Letters at an outdoor screening tomorrow evening at the quayside. Hammocks will be hung and popcorn and candy floss will be sold.
Around the area, there will be silent disco parties, where festivalgoers put on headphones playing music; and fitness workshops, such as kids' yoga and barre classes.
The Boat Quay area will host a mini festival called Circular Spectacular, with most of the activities taking place in Circular Road, which will be closed to traffic tomorrow afternoon and evening.
In the line-up are live music performances, art installations and a barter market.
Look out for music collective Lion Steppaz Sound's impressive 2.7m-tall homemade sound system as it blares out groovy reggae beats.
In addition, artist Samantha "Sticker Lady" Lo will stencil a 170m-long "My Grandfather Road" on the road.
Most activities in the Singapore River Festival, staged to the tune of more than half a million dollars, are free, but some require online registration. Organised by Singapore River One, the place manager for the precinct, the festival attracted more than 100,000 visitors last year despite the haze.
This time, the organisers have condensed the activities into two days, unlike the last edition's three.
Ms Michelle Koh, Singapore River One's executive director, says: "The intensity remains the same, but we wanted to pack it in so visitors just hop from one event to another within the day."
Once Singapore's centre of trade and commerce, the 3.2km-long Singapore River continues to be "a source of life", but in different ways, says Mr Stan Lee, executive director of experiential marketing agency Muse Inc, the creative producers behind the festival.
"We want to remind visitors of the connections we all have to the river, whether we go to the quays to hang out with friends or family, or treat the places as after-work venues," he says.
Two lovers will dance on a tightrope over the Singapore River tonight. They will inch towards one another on a 50m-long synthetic tightrope suspended 6m in the air. As they meet in the middle, a passionate dance is ignited as one pushes and climbs over the other.
This is Crossings, the highlight act of this year's Singapore River Festival and the first time a tightrope has been set up over the river.
Taking place tonight and tomorrow evening, the aerial spectacle is by French performance group Underclouds Cie, comprising real-life couple Mathieu Hibon and Chloe Moura.
The tightrope is extended from the riverside promenade outside Swissotel Merchant Court to the foot of Read Bridge, closer to the entrance of Clarke Quay.
Inspired by the festival's theme of River Connections, the duo have created an original piece inspired by the bonds they have built as a couple.
VIEW IT / CROSSINGS BY UNDERCLOUDS CIE
WHERE: Read Bridge, between Clarke Quay and Clarke Quay Central
Through a French translator, Hibon, 37, tells The Straits Times that a lot of trust is needed to execute death-defying feats on a tightrope. "We have to be one as this is a matter of survival," he says.
The adoration the couple share is palpable. "It was love at first sight," says a blushing Moura, 31. They have a nine-month-old daughter, but are not married.
"We have to first find a priest who will marry us on the tightrope," says Hibon with a laugh.
Photo: The Straits Times
They met 10 years ago and is each experienced in different mediums. Hibon is a self-taught tightrope walker while Moura is a wire acrobat who picked up her skills at French circus school Academie Fratellini.
The pair started Underclouds Cie in 2011 and focus on balancing acts in the air. Their last major performance together was Funambus in Europe, where they walked on a tightrope attached to a moving bus.
This is the first time Underclouds Cie is performing in South-east Asia. They have travelled to various parts of Europe, including Spain and Poland, as well as Uzbekistan.
On the rope, they are obliged to "be in the present" and not dwell on the past or wonder about the future, says Moura.
Hibon concurs, adding that this is particularly poignant nowadays as the world is moving "so quickly". "The rope teaches us to think only about the present."
Hear reggae boom from a homemade 500kg sound system
Dissatisfied with the sound quality in most local nightspots when it comes to reggae beats, three deejays decided to build their own reggae sound system.
After a year of planning and research followed by months of construction, Araya Yuichiro (better known as Yooh The Vibration), Darren Tan (Darren Dubwise) and Ken Ito (Selecta Ken) created a mammoth 500kg, 2.7m-tall tower of six speakers built into wooden boxes and topped with two amplifiers.
The system was completed in May last year and has been the booming centrepiece at parties since. It will make a stop at street carnival Circular Spectacular, which is part of the Singapore River Festival, on Saturday evening in Circular Road. The DJ trio will play two sets at 6.15 and 9pm. There is no cover charge.
Music pounds through the beast of a speaker so hard - the sound is especially rich and heavy - that it reverberates through the entire space and even to the space next door.
VIEW IT / CIRCULAR SPECTACULAR - LION STEPPAZ SOUND
A grinning Yuichiro, 36, tells The Straits Times: "We have had complaints before that it was too loud.
"Now we make sure the place we set up at has no residents nearby."
The group, who call themselves Lion Steppaz Sound, have played in bars such as The Training Shed and The Great Escape in Golden Mile Tower. They focus on reggae - from roots reggae to dancehall to dubstep - as they enjoy the genre.
Tan, 35, is Singaporean, while Yuichiro and Ito, 35, are Japanese. The group have two new Japanese members who joined this year - deejay Shingo Sakano, 32, and Toshikazu Miyanagi, also 32, who handles public relations.
Yuichiro and Ito note that the reggae culture is huge in Japan and they hope to grow it in Singapore as it is still a very niche interest here.
It takes about an hour for the group to set up the system, alongside a PA mixer and turntables.
While transporting the giant speakers might be backbreaking, the group have no plans to find a permanent home for their homemade system, says Tan.
"We don't want to be stuck in one place. Instead, we want to bring the party to the people."
Claiming 'My Grandfather Road' for a day
Artist Samantha Lo, better known as "Sticker Lady", is resuscitating her infamous installation using the Singlish slogan "My Grandfather Road" and this time, it is legal.
As part of street carnival Circular Spectacular, she will stencil the words on a 170m-long stretch of Circular Road using chalk paint. The carnival will take place tomorrow and is one of the programmes under this year's Singapore River Festival.
Four years ago, she had also stencilled "My Grandfather Road" on several roads, as well as stuck tongue-in-cheek stickers with slogans such as "Press Once Can Already" on traffic light buttons. She was eventually sentenced to 240 hours of community service.
Given her history, using the phrase "My Grandfather Road" is like "saying hi to an old friend", says Lo, who is single.
The words were apt for the festival too. "Since they will be closing the street, we could actually claim it back and for just one day, it is our collective grandfathers' road."
Compared with her original 2.1m-long stencil, this will be bigger and is, in fact, her largest artpiece so far.
She says her run-in with the authorities and the resulting publicity have opened many doors for her and she has even come to embrace the alias Sticker Lady, which she used to hate.
Now she is a full-time artist with a range of extra-curricular activities. Last year, she founded collaborative platform Indigoism. One of the events that it organises is The Barter Market, a social initiative where attendees barter goods and services with vendors without money. The seventh edition will be held at Circular Spectacular and features a tarot card reader, a barber and illustrators.
Art-wise, she is also going places. She staged her first solo exhibition in August last year at The Substation Gallery, showcasing artworks sparked by the outpouring of emotions after Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's death.
A second exhibition, called Greetings From Singapore, will take place in January at One East Asia gallery, featuring photographs of her past works along with some new ones.
Lo, 30, will also launch her first book at the event, comprising postcards depicting her artworks.
As for her piece tomorrow, she hopes the public "will smile and see the humour in it".
"I want them to take away the feeling that we are all the same and public spaces are ours."
The bubbleologist who calls bubbles divas
Photo: The Straits Times
Ms Caroline Cornelius-Jones blows bubbles for a living. "I'm a bubbleologist," she says with a straight face, before adding: "The word isn't in the dictionary yet, though."
But she can certainly create magic with bubbles. Whether they are big bubbles stretching 10 to 15m long, small bubbles, bubbles within bigger bubbles or a cluster of bubbles that looks like a dragon, the pint-sized Singapore permanent resident will blow them up. She can envelope a person - child or adult - within a bubble too.
The Briton is the "CJ" behind CJ Bubble Productions - the firm to contact if you want to watch a bubble show or attend a bubble workshop - and her stage alias is CJ the Bubble Girl.
Ms Cornelius-Jones, who is attached and declines to reveal her age, will perform at two free outdoor bubble shows as part of the Singapore River Festival's Riverfront Carnival.
VIEW IT / RIVERFRONT CARNIVAL - BUBBLE SPECTACULAR
Catch her at the open area of Clarke Quay Central, next to the Singapore River, tomorrow evening.
Her skills have landed her in the Singapore Book of Records twice. In 2010, she enclosed eight people in a bubble before breaking that record last year with 15 people.
Her obsession with these "living sculptures", as she calls them, was ignited after she watched the bubble antics of a busker in the early noughties. She headed straight to toy store Toys "R" Us to buy a bubble kit and tried it out herself. But she could not reproduce the tricks she saw.
She then trawled the Internet for recipes to make bubbles, but none proved successful.
"I realised the ingredients found here were different from the ones in the West and Europe, so I had to experiment and make my own bubble solution."
Photo: The Straits Times
After many months of trial and error and 18 recipes, she succeeded in concocting a suitable bubble solution.
"People think it's just bubbles, but there is a lot of science behind it," says the interior design graduate.
Ask what the ingredients are and she whispers that they are a "secret". However, she relents and reveals that the two main ingredients are glycerin and dishwashing liquid, specifically the Joy or Fairy brands produced by Procter & Gamble. She sells bubble kits in various sizes - prices start at $5 - through her company website.
Armed with the right bubble solution, she then had to master creating bubbles in various weather and environmental conditions.
"Bubbles hate air-conditioning and love humidity. And you have to work with the wind and sun when outdoors too," she says.
During the outdoor photo shoot for this interview, she moved to a spot that was less windy and hot - to prevent the bubbles from popping too fast.
"Bubbles can be such divas, but they bring me a lot of joy," she quips.
Her favourite part of the job is the reaction from the audience - particularly the adults'.
"They have forgotten how to be a kid, then they see a bubble and go 'wow'. They see a cube-shaped one and go 'oh my god' and, suddenly, they believe in magic again."
Take a walking or bike tour
Did you know there was once a filthy public toilet in the middle of a roundabout in Clarke Quay?
Near Jiak Kim Street, where nightspot Zouk stands, there were once squalid houses on stilts that stood over the Singapore River.
Glean these colourful tidbits about life around the Singapore River from two history tours led by licensed guide Leonard Loo, 57.
The former finance manager set up tour agency Yafi, which cheekily stands for You Asked For It, in 2014 and has primarily been conducting customised private tours.
The two tours are being launched for the Singapore River Festival and will be available at a discount - the Colonial Era Bike About will be conducted twice a day and cost $60 (compared with the normal rate of $80); and the Twilight Singapore River Tour will run three times a day and cost $15 (compared with the normal rate of $30).
The Colonial Era Bike About is a 31/2-hour, 10km journey that starts at Clarke Quay and goes through Boat Quay, the Civic District, Beach Road and Robertson Quay. There will be pit stops at three parks - Fort Canning, Esplanade Park and Empress Place. Foldable bikes will be provided.
Mr Loo's commentary includes the historical and economic significance of the Singapore River, as well as fun facts he gathered from his memories or stories told to him.
The public toilet in the middle of a roundabout is where the fountain square in Clarke Quay now stands.
Mr Loo says: "It was so filthy that women would rather turn blue controlling their bladders than use it."
The area was rejuvenated in the 1980s when Clarke Quay was turned into a recreation and entertainment venue.
Mr Loo knows of the houses on stilts near Jiak Kim Street because he had been inside one as a child. "My great-grandfather's house was once there and I used to visit him."
The houses were torn down in the late 1970s to make way for the clean-up of the Singapore River.
The twilight walking tour around the Singapore River begins at 5pm and offers a glimpse of how the area transforms once the sun sets. Unlike the bicycle tour which covers more ground beyond the precinct, this 11/2-hour, 1km tour hones in on the three quays.
Mr Loo prefers to keep the tour groups small and will take up to eight people for each bike tour. For the walking tour, the optimal size is 20, but if demand is strong, he will enlist the help of other guides and accept up to 30 participants.
He says he wants to "show off Singapore" in his unique, personalised way.
"The facts are all there, but it's how the stories are presented."
This article was first published on Nov 04, 2016.
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<p>From a booming reggae performance to a quiet disco, from daredevil tightrope-walking stunts to wow-inducing bubble shows - these are some of the diverse highlights of the Singapore River Festival happening tonight and tomorrow.</p>
SINGAPORE - Often lauded as a paragon of the modern global city, Singapore has experienced rapid transformation over the years. Yet, amid this, it has sought to conserve many of its historic buildings. Examples include recent Architectural Heritage Award winners Sultan Mosque, Church of Saints Peter and Paul, and 72 Club Street, as well as the Capitol Theatre, Capitol Building and Stamford House complex. In most cases, the conservation of heritage buildings has involved extensive restoration and refurbishment through the use of advanced techniques, with some restored buildings subsequently re-appropriated and adapted for new uses.
Heritage conservation, whether in terms of individual buildings or earmarked districts, has served multiple purposes for Singapore's socio-economic needs and urban redevelopment aspirations.
First, by conserving buildings of historical significance, important elements of Singapore's national identity and history are preserved. Second, the rejuvenation and adaptation of conserved sites has yielded vibrant locations for recreation, retail activity and tourism.
Heritage conservation has, in other words, brought about both social and economic benefits.
While the success and authenticity of preservation of identity and history remain rightfully and hotly debated, there is no doubt that heritage conservation, particularly of architecture, provides a significant contribution to a city's storehouse of visual and collective memory.
However, there is a need to look beyond conserving physical buildings and sites to focus on the conservation of social activities and practices associated with these historical sites.
PRESERVING A BUILDING'S 'ESSENCE'
Buildings do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, a building is enmeshed with the milieu from which it springs - such as the time of its construction to the relationship with its environs, and the lives it shelters and gives space to; all of which sustain its existence.
Despite the emergence of urban malls, businesses in Kreta Ayer and Katong shophouses have fought to persevere as the purveyors of traditional food and craft. These, of course, have slowly dwindled with changes in Singapore's radically shifting retail and cultural scene.
As the modernisation of Singapore's urban landscape continues apace, there is a need to conserve not just buildings but the crafts and practices that take place within them as well.
Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) defines traditional craftsmanship as the "tangible manifestation of intangible cultural heritage". Indeed, Unesco advocates the preservation of the skills and knowledge of craftsmen, not simply craft products.
While existing efforts at urban conservation have tended to focus on the conservation of tangible cultural heritage - physical buildings - there is a corresponding need to place greater emphasis on the conservation of intangible cultural heritage such as traditional crafts, practices, food and clothing.
These include the social practices and rituals that shape the everyday life of a community. For instance, craftsmen make the lion heads that are donned by lion dance troupes - itself a dwindling art form - as a celebration of prosperity and good fortune in homes and businesses, particularly during Chinese New Year.
Similarly, the exquisite craft of Peranakan sarong kebaya "sulam" embroidery is at risk of becoming obscure. Indeed, the demand for these unique trades has fallen with the times.
FOCUSING ON THE EVERYDAY
There is therefore a deeper social reality beneath the physical veneer of what constitutes a heritage building. This is a reality that manifests itself in the traditional crafts and practices that animate the everyday lives of the inhabitants of a physical space.
Without taking into account the social practices, crafts and memories that permeate physical spaces, urban conservation runs the risk of creating "Potemkin villages" (places with a showy facade) that do not capture the diverse and rich social heritage of a physical landscape.
Examples abound of restored heritage buildings becoming converted into air-conditioned malls and filled with big-brand retailers.
Rather, conservation efforts need to address both the tangible and intangible aspects of heritage.
This, in turn, requires a closer understanding of what French philosopher Michel de Certeau terms the "practice of everyday life". He argues that it is in their everyday practices that users of public spaces re-appropriate these spaces to make them their own.
In a similar way, it is in the everyday lived experience and social interactions between traditional craftsman and community that richly shape the way a building or space is used and remembered.
There is therefore a need to conserve both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. While the conservation of tangible buildings and spaces has been relatively successful in Singapore, there needs to be more effort at conserving the crafts and relationships that underpin heritage buildings and products. Policymakers and urban planners will need to develop a keener sense of the "everyday" that makes up Singapore's intangible cultural heritage. A more holistic understanding of heritage conservation can ensure that both the form and essence of Singapore are preserved and handed down to future generations.
stopinion@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on November 04, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - 15 pet bird shops here have been found to be non-compliant with some of Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA)'s licensing conditions.
AVA said it conducted unannounced inspections at 27 pet bird shops in September and October.
13 pet bird shops failed to house birds in good condition. Dried faecal matter was found in the cages of these shops, which is indicative that the cages have not been cleaned for a long time.
AVA's inspections follows a report by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), suggesting that some bird shops in Singapore breach conditions governing the welfare of the animals.
According to ACRES, 13 pet bird shops had displayed sick birds. AVA said that it will issue fines to 4 of these shops and has instructed the licensees to isolate the sick birds and send them for veterinary treatment.
ACRES also identified 655 online listings selling birds, of which 273 listings are related to birds protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) has seven days to respond to the Housing Board on whether it will appoint a third party to recover improper past payments it has made.
Observers interviewed said the town council faces an uphill task in getting its money back, adding that a more detailed forensic audit may be necessary.
They were commenting on the options available to the Government, following a statement by the Ministry of National Development (MND) and a letter sent by the HDB to AHTC yesterday.
In it, the HDB said: "It is clear that town council monies have been wrongfully paid, in substantial amounts that run into millions... It is imperative that immediate steps be taken to recover the improper payments, including, where necessary, the commencement of legal proceedings."
It added: "As the improper payments may give rise to personal claims against existing town councillors, a suitable third party should have charge and conduct of these proceedings, on the town council's behalf."
Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan said the town council would have to determine the extent of questionable transactions in order to recover any money paid erroneously.
But this would be difficult, he said, given its lack of discipline in record-keeping and financial operations highlighted in independent accountant KPMG's report.
KPMG, citing AHTC's spotty track record in this area, had said it could not conclude if the payments identified as improper, totalling about $6.9 million, are "exhaustive and on the complete quantum of improper payments that ought to be recovered".
Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants president Gerard Ee suggested that a possible next step would be to conduct a detailed forensic audit to analyse all the transactions to see if any were "seriously questionable".
But even if this was established, there is no guarantee that the parties paid erroneously would cooperate, added Mr Ee.
The KPMG report established that some of the improper payments were made to AHTC's then managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS).
AHTC and FMSS are currently in arbitration over a financial dispute emerging from the lapses at the town council.
Mr Ee said that if FMSS refuses to pay back any sum deemed to be improper or excessive, AHTC may have to take FMSS to court and "building a case for such claims is not easy".
Prof Tan said that even if monies cannot be legally recovered, the town councillors could be taken to task for potential breach of statutory and fiduciary duties.
In its letter to the town council, the HDB had also said: "The town councillors were under a duty not to improperly use or apply the public funds entrusted to them. They had a personal and collective responsibility for improper payments enabled or permitted by such a system."
The HDB added that AHTC could "potentially look to the town councillors for recovery of losses or costs-savings arising from any breaches of fiduciary duties".
The KPMG report had raised the possibility of criminal conduct if the improper payments were made intentionally, like criminal breach of trust under the Penal Code. Legal and town council governance experts, however, said the task of establishing such intent could be onerous.
"They might have been very careless in not observing certain rules, but were they being intentional?" said real estate don Yu Shi-Ming of the National University of Singapore.
Prof Tan also cautioned that it was crucial to "not get ahead of ourselves by presuming the town councillors to be guilty".
"Ultimately, it could boil down to a question of competence," he said.
The observers also pointed out that the current Town Councils Act does not give the Ministry of National Development the powers to obtain information on finances or relevant documents from town councils, let alone impose penalties on offenders.
MND has proposed changes to the Act and had asked for public feedback last month.
Prof Tan said that since public monies are involved, there will be the expectation for the Government to take a more "interventionist role".
He added: "The MND statement suggests that it's going to be a long road ahead for all concerned, especially for AHTC."
How KPMG report came about
The statement the Ministry of National Development issued yesterday was prompted by findings of improper payments by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council.
Independent auditor KPMG, appointed by AHTC following a court order, found that the improper payments the town council made between 2011 and last year amounted to at least $6.9 million.
KPMG had been tasked to determine if any past payments made by AHTC were improper and should be recovered, as part of a review into the town council's books following lapses uncovered by the Auditor-General's Office in a special audit.These events came after the AHTC's own auditors declined to give an opinion about its financial performance and accounts four years in a row, indicating insufficient information.
In a report, released by AHTC on Tuesday, KPMG highlighted "pervasive control failures" in governance at the town council that had exposed $23 million of public funds to risks of improper use.
The sum was paid to AHTC's managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), and had been approved by six of the town council's key officers who were also shareholders of FMSS. KPMG found 748 transactions in which the six people had "effectively certified or approved payments to themselves".
Of the $23 million, more than $1.5 million has been determined by KPMG to be improper payments, including overpayments, payments for work or services without proof that they were performed, or payments in breach of the law or the town council's policies.
Separately, the accountant found AHTC had made another $5.4 million of improper payments through awarding tenders to higher-priced contractors and overpaying a town councillor, among other things.
AHTC, responding to KPMG, had disagreed that most of the payments were improper.
KPMG also said it was "outside our mandate to conclude whether any offence has or has not been committed", but added it had flagged instances where facts and circumstances observed could "potentially give rise to an offence"."We are advised that the issues identified... may give rise to personal claims against the town councillors or disclose the commission of criminality," it said.
KPMG also said the "lack of discipline in financial operations and record-keeping" at AHTC meant it could not "conclude whether the improper payments identified... are exhaustive".
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
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<p>The Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) has seven days to respond to the Housing Board on whether it will appoint a third party to recover improper past payments it has made.</p>
SINGAPORE - The operator of the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will be the first to run a rail service under a contract similar to the model recently introduced for buses.
The successful bidder will operate the new line for a fixed sum over a fixed period, while the Government collects fare revenue, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said yesterday. This is identical to the bus contracting model, which was rolled out just last year.
The first ridership contract for TEL will be for a period of nine years, with a possible extension of two. Only the existing rail operators, SMRT Trains and SBS Transit, which are familiar with the local operating context, will be invited to participate in the tender in the first quarter of next year, said LTA.
Although the industry is transitioning to the new rail financing framework (NRFF), LTA has chosen to initially depart from that model in the case of the TEL. Under NRFF, the State takes over the ownership of all fixed and operating assets, while the operators maintain and run the lines, pay a licence charge and earn revenues.
LTA has decided to make an exception in the case of TEL, which it described as the "most complex rail project to date". It said the line, set to be completed by 2024, is being built along with "multiple other projects", such as an interchange with the future Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System on its northern end, and new connections to Changi Airport on its east.
It added that the line will open in five stages over several years from 2019, and projection of ridership in the initial years will be "much more uncertain and challenging than earlier train lines". Given these risks, a tender under the NRFF might result in bids that are "unfavourable to the Government", said LTA.
After the first licence for TEL expires, ridership figures would have stabilised, and LTA will "revert to the NRFF for subsequent tenders".
SMRT Trains managing director Lee Ling Wee said the firm "welcomes LTA's decision to call for a limited tender to operate the new TEL".
SBS Transit spokesman Tammy Tan said "we will assess the tender as we do all competitive bids".
SIM University economist Walter Theseira said: "The past model of having for-profit private operators responsible for fare-based profit and loss worked well to concentrate the operators' minds on efficiency. Unfortunately, too much concentration on efficiency, coupled with tight margins due to fare regulation, led to compromises.
"Today's public transport model has swung decisively in the direction of focusing on reliability and quality - but will efficiency be compromised?"
He said this was possible as the Government will now assume revenue risk for the line - the first time it is doing so for a rail contract.
"Commuters will benefit from today's renewed emphasis on quality, but taxpayers may yet pay the cost for this," he noted.
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
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<p>The operator of the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will be the first to run a rail service under a contract similar to the model recently introduced for buses.</p>
SINGAPORE - A new Uber-like service set to launch next year aims to get children to carpool to school by having parents who are driving their children pick up others along the way.
But a school transport association yesterday raised concerns over whether the Schoolber service - which started taking registrations from parents last month - was legitimate and covered by insurance.
Schoolber works by matching children in the same school living up to 2km from one another. One of them will have a parent who drives and is willing to ferry the others.
Parents negotiate a fee between themselves to help cover costs such as petrol and may also take turns to drive. Schoolber recommends a fee of between $70 and $150 a month, depending on the distance and whether the rides are one- or two-way.
The car pool allows children to leave home later than if they take a school bus, which makes more stops. Bus fares vary, but range from about $80 to as much as $300.
Mr Wong Ann Lin, executive council chairman of the Singapore School Transport Association (SSTA), said it welcomed the competition, but raised some concerns.
Suggesting that Schoolber could be a "pirate" taxi service, Mr Wong said at a press conference: "If they (parents) are willing to help (one another) voluntarily, then that is good... If they are collecting a fare, (then) it's different."
Mr Wong also questioned if parents should allow other parents to drive their children. He said school bus drivers are vocationally trained and go through background checks.
But when asked if SSTA's concern stemmed also from the competition from a service like Schoolber's, Mr Wong declined to comment on its impact on the industry. The SSTA has about 1,200 members, from self-employed bus operators to owners of transport firms. They run a combined fleet of 3,500.
Schoolber's co-founder, Madam Charlemagne Lim, 44, said about 4,000 parents have put in their requests, and it has enlisted 500 parent-drivers to date.
She defended Schoolber against the SSTA's concerns, saying it adheres to carpooling laws as parents do only two pooled trips a day - what is legally permissible - and collects a fee only to cover costs.
To put in a one-way trip request, parents have to pay $30 for a year. For two-way, it is $60. If a match is unsuccessful , this will be refunded.
Madam Lim, a mother of three who started Schoolber with her husband, said: "The parent is driving his own kids in the car, so he also has to ensure their safety."
Insurance lawyer Lim Hui Ying said carpooling laws exempt drivers from the need to have vocational licences, but while this legalises such transport arrangements, insurance coverage is another matter.
Ms Lim, a partner at Withers KhattarWong, added: "Whether or not there is insurance coverage is entirely determined by what is covered in the policy."
Schoolber's Madam Lim, however, said no commercial insurance is required as the service is a carpooling arrangement.
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
<p>A new Uber-like service set to launch next year aims to get children to carpool to school by having parents who are driving their children pick up others along the way.</p>
In a move that fully includes special needs children in the education system, those with moderate to severe conditions will need to attend publicly-funded schools from 2019, just like all other children in Singapore.
The move to extend the Compulsory Education (CE) Act will take effect from the Primary 1 cohort just over two years from now - affecting those who turn seven then.
With the change, they will have to attend one of the 20 government-funded special education (Sped) schools, unless they obtain approval to be exempted. Primary 1 registration will begin in 2018.
Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng, in announcing the new policy yesterday, called it "an important milestone in Singapore's continuing drive towards national inclusiveness". "This is a reaffirmation that every child matters, regardless of his or her learning challenges."
The policy change comes nearly five years after it was recommended by a government-appointed panel, and the wait was to ensure Sped schools here had enough resources to support every special needs child.
Every cohort sees about 1,770 such children. Around 75 per cent have mild conditions such as dyslexia, which means they already come under the CE Act, and have to attend mainstream schools.
There are currently 18,000 students with mild special educational needs in mainstream schools.
The other quarter with more serious conditions such as autism, which number around 440 every year, do not have to go to school. But nearly all do so. Currently, 5,500 children with moderate and severe needs are in Sped schools.
Every year sees about 40 children who do not enrol, likely because of severe medical conditions, or whose parents prefer to homeschool them or send them to private schools. From 2019, this group will have to go through the public system, unless they can explain why they should not.
The CE Act, passed in 2000, requires all Singaporean children to complete six years of primary education in national schools before they turn 15. Parents can be fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed up to a year otherwise.
But Minister of State for Education Janil Puthucheary said: "CE doesn't mean we're going to force everybody to do one thing. We're just going to do more in terms of including as many kids as possible into the education space." He will chair a panel appointed by the Education Ministry to look into how best to put the policy into practice.
Asked why the policy is being changed only now, he said the Government had to be "confident" of being able to cater to every special needs child. And this has become possible "because of the good work... that has happened in the Sped sector". From 2002 to 2012, 13 Sped schools were constructed and five others refurbished. There are now 1,000 Sped teachers, up by about 6 per cent since 2012.
Every one of the 20 Sped schools is run by a voluntary welfare organisation (VWO), and the VWOs have long been pushing for CE to be extended to special needs children.
MP Denise Phua, who is on the boards of the Pathlight School and Eden School for autistic children, said: "It ensures that every child has access to education opportunities, education being an important passport to a better life."
In a Facebook post yesterday, Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin called the change a huge step in making Singapore more inclusive and said it would "open up opportunities for continual learning, and employment" for special needs children.
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
<p>In a move that fully includes special needs children in the education system, those with moderate to severe conditions will need to attend publicly-funded schools from 2019, just like all other children in Singapore.</p>
SINGAPORE - Nine-year-old Jarene Hong, who studies at a special education (Sped) school, has a rare condition that affects her face and throat muscles.
Called Moebius Syndrome, the condition makes her unable to swallow and she has to be fed through a tube in her stomach. It does not affect her intelligence, but her speech is unclear.
Her mother Sally Kwek had enrolled her in a mainstream primary school a few years ago, but that lasted only six months.
Staff there were supportive, said Ms Kwek, but she withdrew her daughter after she was asked to hire a shadow teacher to offer Jarene more support. That would have cost her $2,500 to $5,000 a month, which she could not afford.
For the last two years, Jarene has been studying at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore School.
School days last up to five hours daily, and she takes English and maths lessons in a class of just six children. In a mainstream school, school days are longer and a class usually has 30 to 40 children.
"With the small class size and every teacher being well trained in teaching special needs children, there isn't a need for shadow teachers at the Sped school," Ms Kwek said.
"Jarene is now in a school where her teachers believe in her, accept her differences and are committed to bringing out the best in her.
"In this environment, she picks up life skills such as self-discipline and responsibility, and learns what is socially appropriate."
She also noted that the school instils a lot of self-worth in the children, teaching them to be resilient.
Ms Kwek, 40, is the founding editor of SpecialSeeds.sg, an online magazine for families with special needs children. She hopes more can be done to support such families financially.
She pays $20 a month for school fees and $200 for a feeding tube that lasts eight months, among other things, but said other families have it tougher as she need not pay for medication or wheelchairs.
In a survey commissioned by Lien Foundation this year, 43 per cent of 830 parents with special needs children aged nine and below said they did not receive enough financial help from the Government, and close to six in 10 of those with a monthly household income of $7,000 to $9,900 felt this way.
"There are financial aid schemes for the needy, but the sandwich class is most affected," said Ms Kwek. "Compulsory education should come with better funding support for whatever it takes - including assistive devices and shadow teachers."
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - No special needs child will be denied an education because of a lack of finances.
This was the assurance the Ministry of Education (MOE) gave yesterday, highlighting how parents have different avenues for help, from voluntary welfare organisations to government aid schemes. It also pointed out how, on average, it spends 2½ times more on a special needs child than a mainstream student in supporting their education.
Yesterday's announcement that children with moderate to severe special needs must attend publicly funded special education (Sped) schools from 2019 was welcomed by the sector.
But parents had also been hoping that the long-awaited move would see the Government absorbing more of the costs involved in schooling a special needs child. These range from transporting a child needing a wheelchair to school, to other needs such as speech and occupational therapy.
Singaporean children in mainstream schools pay up to $13 a month in fees. The fees are similar for those enrolled in more than half of the 20 Sped schools. But in some cases involving more severe conditions, the fees can climb to as much as $350 - although needy families can apply for this to be waived.
Dr Victor Tay, president of the Association for Persons with Special Needs, said that raising a special needs child can leave families financially strapped.
"There are cases where one parent has to stay at home to take care of the child, and the family's earning power drops," he said, adding that more subsidies for them could be helpful.
Housewife Juliah Kasiman, 35, takes her son, who has cerebral palsy, to a hospital for speech and occupational therapy every three months. "It costs about $90 each time, after government subsidies, and it'd be good if this could be further subsidised. Caring for special needs children is not cheap."
Some parents also called for the subsidies to be extended to private education. Housewife Goh Pin Pin, 43, said her eight-year-old son, who has global developmental delay, enjoyed his time at a mainstream kindergarten, so she enrolled him in Victory Life Christian School, which caters to both special needs and mainstream children. It costs $600 a month.
"If education in private schools can be subsidised too, in cases where parents show that private schooling is the best option for the child, that'd be great," she added.
Experts in the disability sector recognised the significance of the policy change as a key step towards inclusiveness.
Ms Anita Fam, who was on the expert panel which recommended in 2012 that special needs children be included in the Compulsory Education Act by this year, called it an "important breakthrough".
Dr Kenneth Poon, from the National Institute of Education's early childhood and special needs education academic group, said it recognises that "every child should have access to education, including those with special needs".
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - She is a regular at the 7-Eleven store in Killiney Road because her 10-year-old son, who has Williams syndrome, has been attending speech therapy lessons nearby for more than five years.
And the store employees are aware of the boy's special needs.
But on Tuesday, Madam Elaine Chan's encounter with a female customer who objected to her son's behaviour in the store turned nasty.
The 44-year-old, who works in a bank, said that despite her telling the woman that her son is a child with special needs, the woman verbally abused her, calling her useless for giving birth to him, and called him a b******.
Williams syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that causes learning disabilities and developmental delays in children. Those with the syndrome, however, tend to be sociable, friendly and endearing.
The single mother told The New Paper: "My son loves fans and whenever he sees one, he wants to play with the buttons on it.
"The counter staff at 7-Eleven are very patient. They are fine with my son going into the room behind the counter to let him touch the buttons on the fan."
But at 8.45pm on Tuesday, the female customer told Madam Chan off for letting her son enter the room.
"I thought she was an off-duty employee, which would sort of give her the right to scold my son," said Madam Chan.
"I told her he's a special needs child and usually people would understand. But she replied, 'All the more you have to control your son.'"
When Madam Chan tried to explain about her son and his special needs, the woman raised her voice and became even more aggressive.
Madam Chan then realised the woman was not a 7-Eleven employee and decided to film her with her smartphone in the hope that it would make her leave. But the woman continued scolding her and called her son a b******.
In the video, the woman, seen to be wearing a straw hat and covering her face with a piece of cloth, yelled at Madam Chan in Mandarin: "You are useless. Why must you give birth to a special needs child?"
She then hit Madam Chan's hand with her handbag, causing Madam Chan to drop her phone.
"My (11-year-old) daughter started crying because she thought the woman had hurt me, so I went to comfort her," said Madam Chan.
The loud noises also scared her son and he covered his ears with his hands.
After the woman left the store, a police officer walked in and Madam Chan told the officer about the incident. The officer went to look for the woman, but was unable to find her.
Madam Chan subsequently shared her 37-second video of the incident on a WhatsApp group for parents whose children have Williams syndrome.
Her friend Janet Yeo, who was in the group, later posted the clip on Facebook.
She told TNP: "I was upset that Elaine had to go through this.
"As a parent of a Williams syndrome child myself, I feel sad when my child gets disapproving stares from strangers.
"Labelling them 'useless and a 'b******' is way too much. So I shared the video on Facebook to create awareness and to seek the public's understanding for special needs children and their parents."
Madam Chan said: "I was shocked that someone would use such profanity. This is the first time something like this has happened to me.
"At most, people would give me disapproving stares because my son may be doing things that are unusual.
"But when I explain that Ian is a special needs child, they would understand."
She said she had seen many negative comments online about the woman, but she did not approve of such comments.
UPSET
"I was upset because she was ignorant and made my daughter cry, but I think we shouldn't judge her," said Madam Chan.
"Instead, we should highlight the people who are caring and compassionate towards special needs children because there are a lot of them around."
Dr Carol Balhetchet, senior director for youth services at the Singapore Children's Society, said strangers should respect the mother of a child with special needs.
"I think all she wanted to do was make a statement about what was wrong (the boy's action of going to the room behind the counter), but instead she spiralled into anger and attacked both the mother and her child, which was disrespectful," she said.
"What she used to label the child is appalling and insensitive. It was uncalled for."
Dr Balhetchet said that in such cases, people should respect the mother and the child with special needs.
"Leave the mother to deal with the child," she advised.
"Give them space, and be more sensitive and supportive, and maybe advise the mother to be a bit more careful if their child is running around as they may hurt themselves."
Worker who indulges boy: Kids are kids
Photo: The New Paper
It was the first time such an incident has happened to Madam Elaine Chan. But she has also encountered many caring and compassionate people.
One such person is Mr Joe Liew, 45, who works at Rice Roll And Porridge, a coffee shop two doors away from the 7-Eleven at Killiney Road which Madam Chan and her son frequent.
Her son, 10, who has Williams syndrome, has a tendency to touch the buttons on fans and it annoys most shop owners, she said.
But Mr Liew is one of the rare few who are kind enough to let her son have his way, to Madam Chan's gratitude.
And Mr Liew is not even aware that the boy has special needs.
He told The New Paper in Mandarin: "No matter what, we cannot scold someone else's kids or their parents like that. It hurts their dignity.
Imagine how the kids would feel?"
AFFECTED
Mr Liew said what affected him the most was the woman insulting Madam Chan's parental skills.
"If I were the parent, I would be very sad because how you raise your child is a personal thing," he said.
Mr Liew, who has worked at the coffee shop for about five months, said he lets the boy play with the fan buttons because "kids are kids".
"I'm the youngest at home, so I have no younger siblings to play with. I'm always more than happy to play with and be nice to children," he said.
Kids with Williams syndrome very sociable
The Williams syndrome is a genetic condition that affects many parts of the body.
It is characterised by medical problems, including cardiovascular disease, developmental delays and learning disabilities. These often occur alongside striking verbal abilities, highly social personalities and an affinity for music.
The syndrome affects one in 10,000 people worldwide, and occurs equally in both males and females, and in every culture.
Unlike disorders that can make connecting with your child difficult, children with the Williams syndrome tend to be sociable, friendly and endearing.
But there are also major struggles - many babies have life-threatening cardiovascular problems. Children with the syndrome need costly and ongoing medical care and early interventions (such as speech or occupational therapy).
As they grow, they struggle with things like spatial relations, numbers and abstract reasoning, which can make daily tasks a challenge.
As adults, most people with the Williams syndrome need supportive housing to live to their fullest potential. Many contribute to their communities as volunteers or paid employees.
Source: Williams Syndrome Association
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - The "cardboard uncle" was lying on the road, bleeding, after he was hit by a taxi.
But all he wanted to know when passers-by rushed to his aid was: "Where is my trolley? Where is my trolley? I have two packets of biscuits inside."
The accident happened at the junction of Yishun Avenue 3 and Sembawang Road at about 2.30pm on Thursday.
The elderly man, later identified as Mr Wong Kum Chew, 63, was crossing the road at the junction with his trolley when the taxi, which was making a left turn, hit him, witnesses told Lianhe Wanbao.
One of the passers-by who rushed to help him, Ms Irene Lim, 36, a marketing director, told the Chinese evening daily that she saw the accident and rushed over.
She found Mr Wong lying on the road near his trolley loaded with cardboard, with cuts, grazes and blood all over his body.
"It was heartbreaking seeing him like that," she said.
An eyewitness told Wanbao that the impact of the crash knocked Mr Wong to the ground and sent him tumbling for about 2m.
"Thankfully there were many others who came together to take care of him. Hopefully, more or less, that would have lessened his pain," she said.
A Singapore Armed Forces officer, Lieutenant Colonel (Dr) Timothy Teoh, told Wanbao: "I was worried that (Mr Wong) had suffered a fracture. So I checked his injuries, his back and body to make sure nothing was fractured."
Staff from a McDonald's outlet nearby also brought water to clean his wounds, reported Wanbao.
A police spokesman told The New Paper they were alerted to the accident at about 2.40pm.
A 63-year-old male pedestrian was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
MEAGRE EARNINGS
Mr Wong later told Wanbao that he would collect cardboard pieces near his home every day. He earns about $6 to $7 a day.
The elderly man - who lives with his wife and son - would do so to help out his son, who is the family's sole breadwinner and earns about $1,000 a month.
"I take the opportunity, while I'm still fit, to walk about and collect cardboard to sell. It's not just helping my son, but I also stay healthy," he said.
Taxi reverses into woman collecting cardboard, and kills her
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The New Paper
Ms Lim, who remained by Mr Wong's side until the ambulance had left the scene, told TNP that she and her husband later pushed Mr Wong's trolley back to his home.
They took about 30 minutes.
"Even my husband, who is of a big build, was drenched in sweat by the time we were done," she said.
"The elderly Mr Wong has to do this every day. It must not be easy and we really respect him for his perseverance."
TNP understands no one has been arrested so far. Police are investigating the accident.
This article was first published on Nov 05, 2016.
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Elderly cardboard collectors in Singapore
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Operations at the logistics hub in the Toh Guan area of Jurong East expected to begin in two months
Amazon has signed a lease for nearly 100,000 square feet at Mapletree Logistics Hub - Toh Guan in the Jurong East area, sources have told BT.
This is expected to serve as a fulfilment centre for its e-commerce business as well as offices. Operations are expected to begin in two months.
Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT), the owner of the six-storey ramp-up warehouse facility, declined to comment when contacted by The Business Times.
The facility has about 656,600 sq ft net lettable area that was completed this year.
Photo: AFP
Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that Amazon, which does not currently offer local services in South-east Asia, is working to enter the region through a launch in Singapore. The plan is to launch selected services in Singapore within the first quarter of 2017, it added.
In the CBD, the tech giant occupies slightly more than 50,000 sq ft of offices in leased premises at Capital Square.
Its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), operates data centres here. Talk in the market is that AWS is planning to build its own data centre in the Jurong data centre park in the Sunview Way/Sunview Road locale. JTC is understood to have earmarked 10 plots of land for the dedicated data centre park. JTC awarded the first site to Telekomunikasi Indonesia International Pte Ltd in 2014. Its facility has been completed.
Photo: Reuters
As for AWS, word on the street is that it is looking at being allocated four plots in the park. JTC's spokeswoman declined to comment. AWS's spokeswoman in Singapore too declined to comment but added that the division has set up data centres in multiple locations here since 2010.
Demand for outsourcing of data centres was traditionally fuelled by financial institutions and other organisations needing to back up data for disaster recovery and business contingency planning purposes - in the aftermath of the 911 tragedy.
This source of demand, however, is now being dwarfed by cloud computing, which is experiencing exponential growth because of e-commerce, the Internet of Things, smart cities and big data, say market watchers.
Jack Ma, Photo: Reuters
Another e-commerce giant, Alibaba of China, is also expanding in Singapore in a big way. It has a 10.2 per cent stake in Singapore Post and recently received the Infocomm Media Development Authority's approval to raise this to 14.4 per cent.
In addition, Alibaba owns 34 per cent of SingPost's e-commerce logistics subsidiary, Quantium Solutions International. In April, Alibaba bought a controlling stake in Singapore-based e-commerce site Lazada for around US$1 billion.
Alibaba office in Hangzhou, China, Photo: Reuters
Alibaba is said to have even bigger ambitions in Singapore than Amazon. Talk in the market is that Alibaba and/or its co-founder Jack Ma in his private capacity are looking to invest in prime CBD office space in addition to scouting for warehousing facilities for the group's e-commerce operations in Singapore.
Market watchers have been speculating for some time now on whether Alibaba/Mr Ma would be keen on the white site in Central Boulevard with a mandatory office component being offered at a state tender that will close on Tuesday (Nov 8).
This article was first published on Nov 5, 2016.
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SINGAPORE - An ambulance was seen stuck in a field behind block 195 at Kim Keat Avenue at 12pm today (Nov 5).
It is the same field where an SMRT bendy bus was stuck for 10 hours in September.
A reader of citizen journalism website Stomp, who saw the incident, said that the tow truck was trying to pull the ambulance out of the field was stuck as well.
On Sept 29, an SMRT bus, which had tried to make a U-turn in the field after taking a wrong turn, had to be towed out of the soft earth.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they were alerted to the incident at around 10am this morning, requesting ambulance assistance for a case of a person injuring himself in a street football court adjacent to block 256 Kim Keat Avenue.
"A private ambulance operator with the SCDF was dispatched to attend to the case, which involved a male Chinese in his 20s, with a suspected dislocated left elbow," the SCDF said.
While making its way out of the field, the ambulance got stuck.
Another ambulance was immediately dispatched.
"The patient was conscious and alert when conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital," added the SCDF spokesperson.
Even as water-efficient devices helped Singaporeans cut water use by nearly 4.5 per cent over the last decade, a renewed call to do more has been made amid worries that water levels at Johor's Linggiu Reservoir, the country's main supply, are falling.
Singapore is also pushing ahead to its 2030 target of each person using 140 litres a day, down from the 151 litre-figure of last year.
Despite recent rains, the Linggiu Reservoir, from which Singapore draws more than half its water supply, is now just over a fifth full.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, speaking yesterday at an event to promote environmental awareness, highlighted the challenges that come with climate change.
"Droughts and water shortages are becoming more common," he said. "Linggiu Reservoir in Johor, which supplies water to Singapore, is very dry. Right now, (it is) less than one-quarter full, only 22 per cent. And that slightly improved because it rained last week."
While the country is already moving to increase water supply and making it more reliable, by building desalination plants for instance, there is still a role for all to play.
"Sustainability also depends on each one of us, how we live our daily lives and how we adjust our habits to be greener," PM Lee said.
Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli urged Singaporeans to save water by taking shorter showers and washing vehicles less frequently, for instance. Calling the 22 per cent figure worrying, he said water is a resource Singapore must keep a close eye on. Despite efforts to increase local water supply, conditions across the Causeway have a significant impact here.
"When there is a drought up north... it affects our total water supply. We must... ensure our water supply is weather resilient, and take steps to conserve water use."
There has been some progress in the latter. In 2006, each household used a monthly average of 18,300 litres of water. This fell to 17,600 litres last year, going by figures from national water agency PUB. This roughly works out to every person going from using 158 litres a day a decade ago, to 151 litres last year.
There are two reasons for this - the first of which is the adoption of increasingly water-efficient appliances, such as washing machines.
The second is that the save water message has filtered through to the public, said Professor Ng Wun Jern, executive director of the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University. But there is a need to continue with ongoing efforts in education and increasing water efficiency, he added.
Last month, the authorities called for proposals to develop smart meters which can tell users in near real time, for instance through a mobile application, how much water and electricity they are using. Since August, consumers have been able to compare their water and energy use with that of neighbours within a block as well as with the national average. This is to nudge heavier users to cut back on their usage.
Meanwhile, the Ministry for the Environment and Water Resources yesterday shared updates on the progress made under the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint. One achievement was how three out of five households were within a 10-minute walk of a train station by the end of last year - with a mark of 80 per cent set for 2030.
audreyt@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Nov 06, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
<p>Even as water-efficient devices helped Singaporeans cut water use by nearly 4.5 per cent over the last decade, a renewed call to do more has been made amid worries that water levels at Johor's Linggiu Reservoir, the country's main supply, are falling.</p>
The parting, nearly 30 years ago, was painful for Madam Luzviminda Baraquel and the two children she helped to raise in Singapore, and the recent reunion was just as emotional.
Between 1984 and 1988, the Filipina worked here as a maid for the Lim family and formed such a close bond that she became an extended member of the family.
But like many domestic workers, she had her own children back home and missed them. After five years, she went back to the Philippines and hoped to come here again one day.
She finally returned here with her own family in tow, to reunite with her former employer, Madam Catherine Foo, and daughter Jamie Lim, who is now 37.
"Auntie Luz", as Madam Baraquel was affectionately called, looked after Ms Lim when she was four years old, and her brother Julian, who was then one year old.
Old photo of Madam Luzviminda Baraquel, Madam Catherine Foo, Julian and Jamie Lim. Photo: Jamie Lim
There were smiles all round, but also poignant moments as Madam Baraquel, now 68, told of how she came here to work as a maid at the age of 34.
Speaking at Madam Foo's condominium unit in Upper Bukit Timah last Thursday, she told The Sunday Times the 300 pesos she earned a month as an elementary school teacher in the Philippines was not enough to support her three children. Her husband, a bus driver, did not have stable work.
So she made the difficult decision to leave her family for Singapore. She was employed by Mr Lim Pok Chin, founder of furniture company Scanteak, and his wife Madam Foo, who helped with the business, then named Hawaii Furnishing.
Madam Baraquel, who was homesick for the first few months, took care of the children.
The Lims, who then lived in a semi-detached house in Chai Chee, treated her like family. Ms Lim said: "She was strict with us and knew how to put us in our place."
Madam Foo, 61, said: "I gave her the authority to discipline them because I trusted her. If you love someone, you will not hit them."
The women bonded over their faith and Madam Baraquel was touched by her employer's generosity. She said: "Mrs Lim gave me a lot of good experiences and taught me a lot, like how to manage my money," she said.
The $300 a month she earned was equivalent to about 2,100 pesos then, most of which was sent back to her family along with 10kg boxes filled to the brim with goodies, including McDonald's Happy Meal toys gifted by Jamie and Julian.
After five years, she returned to Calapan city, her hometown.
"Julian cried a lot, we all cried. She was so much a part of our lives," said Ms Lim, whose brother was overseas during the reunion.
Three years after Madam Baraquel returned home, her husband died of lung cancer.
Although she lost touch with the Lims, she never forgot them and she reconnected with Jamie and Julian earlier this year through Facebook.
Madam Baraquel, who retired as a school principal, saved up for a trip here with her sister, daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. She has two other children.
She said of the reunion: "I was speechless. I didn't expect them to be so kind to me and my family."
She also met some new members of the Lim family - Ms Lim's one- year-old son and three-year-old daughter.
Ms Lim said: "My children are about the same age as Julian and I when Auntie Luz was with us."
Madam Baraquel's daughter, Charity, 40, finally got to meet the Singapore family that she had heard so much about as a child.
"I was six years old when my mother left and it was hard not having her around. I used to be jealous of Jamie and Julian, like any kid.
"But it was worth it. Her salary paid for my education and my brothers' too. And the Lims treated her like family."
Madam Foo said that she hopes their story will encourage closer relationships between employers and domestic helpers.
tiffanyt@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Nov 06, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
<p>The parting, nearly 30 years ago, was painful for Madam Luzviminda Baraquel and the two children she helped to raise in Singapore, and the recent reunion was just as emotional.</p>
