Wikileaks vs Singi-blockade

In characteristic fashion nothing of the uproar felt in other countries over the WikiLeaks revelations has surfaced in Singapore.

Nor has there been condemnation over what Singapore leaders and officials said of their neighbours, particularly of Malaysia and the wrath it caused to Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Though nobody has come forth to lend credence to the bombshell revelations, the disclosures over the weekend are now the grist to the republic’s chattering classes.

For neutral observers the “calm” in Singapore is yet another instance of a tightly controlled media which disallowed discussions.

For those wanting to hear and know more about all that has been revealed, their quests are best served reading foreign papers about what is happening in their own country! It may look ridiculous but is true nonetheless.

Yet there is everything to suggest that in Singapore all the gaggling of the press and spewing of the “venom” abroad, particularly those concerning Anwar, are taken in the best interests of maintaining peace.

In fact, this has always been the driving credo of Singapore authorities as in the case of former Israeli president Chaim Herzog who caused a furore when he visited Singapore in 1986.

(Malaysian politicians vehemently objected to Herzog's visit and urged the government to break off diplomatic ties with Singapore for hosting Herzog. The uproar was mostly happening across the causeway.)

Adversarial press

But as always is the case, press freedom is not what it actually means in the city-state.

Even way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Singapore former prime minister Goh Chok Tong inveighed against the adversarial (foreign) press, telling his parliamentary colleagues that “if the offshore press meddles in our affairs, we will confront them”.

Hence, when the infamous whistle-blower WikiLeads dropped its bombshell revelations in the name of crusading journalism, it is not all uncharacteristic that Singapore felt none of the fury that swept the United States and elsewhere.

For as long as the press in the city-state remains under the vice-like grip of the authorities, none of what is happening outside its borders will ever be given wide coverage.

Yet for all the rancour created by references to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and of the incendiary remarks directed at Anwar, it is hard to see how bilateral relations can be adversely affected.

After all, Singapore and Malaysia have endured far worse “skirmishes” than the WikiLeaks furore. And they have even survived the cable leaks storm because what is more imporant, as pointed out by the Republic’s Foreign Minister George Yeo, is the national interests of both countries than some revelations based on hearsay.

Sure, there is plenty of commercial and strategic interests working for both nations. The republic ranks as the largest investor in Malaysia, mainly in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor.

And both nations mirror one another in almost all cultural and religious aspects that it is almost hard to see why some leaked cables would cause to unravel all the work that had been done over the years.

In fact, if one were to look at the steady stream of visitors from Singapore to Malaysia, it is “business as usual”. This has always been the standard response whenever hiccups break out between both countries.

WikiLeaks should have done “better” if had it wanted a diplomatic rupture.

By Maxwell Coopers

Li Hong Yan 李洪艳 drowned in Sentosa Cove

PRC woman in Sentosa Cove death was paid $800 to have sex
December 28th, 2010 | Author: Your Correspondent

The 24 year old PRC woman Li Hongyan, whose naked body was found lying in a pool at Sentosa this year March was paid $800 to have sex and spent the night with businessman Adrian Chua.

The sensational case made the headlines this year. A Coroner’s Inquiry this morning ruled out foul play in her death.

It was revealed in court that Ms Li met 39 year old Adrian Chua at a Havelock Road nightclub and agreed to have sex with him for $800.

Mr Chua testified in court that he did not use ‘force’ on Ms Li when they were having sex at his Sentosa Cove home and was notified of her death by two Sentosa rangers.

It is not known if Ms Li is a Singapore PR, a student on student pass or a tourist on social visit pass.

The beautiful Li HongYan...

The unlucky Adrian Chua....

The haunted house at Sentosa Cove....
------------------------------------------
By Rachel Chan - Dec 29, 2010
AS THE verdict on his daughter's death was read out yesterday at a Coroner's Inquiry at the Subordinate Courts, Mr Li Kui You, 58, could only lay his head on the table.

The soya-bean farmer, who arrived in Singapore with two relatives on Christmas night, was too despondent to raise his head when State Coroner Victor Yeo ruled that there was no foul play and that Ms Li Hong Yan's death was an accident. Evidence from police investigations showed that Ms Li, 24, whose naked body was found submerged in a Sentosa Cove bungalow pool in March, did not take her own life.

Mr Yeo concluded that the freelance KTV hostess drowned accidentally as she swam in the pre-dawn hours of March 24 this year.

Wearing a dark blue Mao jacket, Mr Li looked tired and sombre. He broke down when answering journalists' questions about his daughter.

Prior to Ms Li's death, her family and relatives had been under the impression that she had come to Singapore to be a hairdresser, for which she received training in China.

"She was such a sweet girl who never lost her temper. She got along with everyone," said Madam Fang Shu Hui, 57, who accompanied Mr Li to court yesterday. Madam Fang is the mother-in-law of Ms Li's elder sister.

Ms Li arrived from Heilongjiang province in China last year and was employed as an assistant supervisor at an Indian eatery in Jalan Besar. Meanwhile, she moonlighted as a KTV hostess at a nightclub in Outram Road.

She quit her supervisor job in early March to become a full-time hostess.

It was at the nightclub that she hooked up with Mr Adrian Chua, 39, chief executive realty-investment firm Roundhill Capital. He affectionately called her "Wawa", or "doll" in Mandarin and had taken her to his multi-million-dollar home in Sentosa Cove at least twice previously, each time paying her $800 for an evening's companionship.

On March 24, they had sex and at about 7am, Mr Chua's 26-year-old maid, Myanmar national Aye Aye Tun, found Ms Li floating face down in his pool. Yesterday, Mr Chua and his maid came forward for the first time to talk about the events that transpired prior to the discovery of Ms Li's body.

Mr Chua said he had sex with Ms Li, after which he fell asleep at around 4am.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed images of Ms Li unlocking the sliding doors leading to the pool at 3.48am. She was alone and fully clothed.

Mr Yeo said: "I am of the view that, at the pool-deck area, she removed her clothes so as not to get them wet." There was no CCTV camera installed in the outdoor area.

Mr Yeo surmised that Ms Li, who could not swim, had difficulty keeping her head above water after stepping into the pool. He added that she could also have slipped on the steps leading into the pool as it was dark.

Ms Li is 1.54m tall and the pool's maximum depth is 1.5m. The lights inside and around the pool were not switched on. As Mr Chua had previously taken her to the pool deck to chat and smoke, Mr Yeo said Ms Li probably went there again to smoke, adding that Ms Aye Aye Tun found Mr Chua's cigarettes and lighter with Ms Li's clothes before making her grisly discovery.

Mr Chua said he was woken up by two Sentosa Cove security personnel at 8am. "I was shocked to hear that a naked woman was found drowned in my pool," he said.

He has since sold the Sentosa property. He appeared calm yesterday as he took the stand, looking steadily at Mr Li and his relatives when Mr Yeo asked them if they had any questions for him. Mr Li could only shake his head and bury his face in his folded arms, saying in Mandarin that he was confused.

He was similarly dazed when two members of the public handed him about $500 in cash.

His eyes moist with tears, Mr Li could only utter: "Thank you."

Bangkok Kid wrote:
THE n-a-k-e-d body of a young Chinese woman was found drowned in a lap pool of a bungalow in an exclusive residential estate in Sentosa Cove on Wednesday morning.

The body of Ms Li Hong Yan, 24, was found by a maid who was cleaning the three-storey house along Ocean Drive at about 8.30am.

Paramedics pronounced her dead at about 9.30am.

Ms Li is believed to have spent the night at the house with its owner, after they met at a party.

While little is known about how she drowned, police said that there was no indication of injuries on her body.

Police have classified the case as an unnatural death.

On the evening of the accident, Li Hong Yan who is in Singapore to work in an Indian restaurant, had been moonlighting in a KTV night club. The night club Li Hong Yan was working in is one of the many KTV clubs found along Havelock Road, which catered to well-to-do businessmen with their bevy of pretty KTV hostesses girls. Li Hong Yan had allegedly met a customer, Adrian Chua, at the night club. After they finished their partying night, Adrian Chua had brought her home to his brand new multi-million dollar Sentosa Cove bungalow.

The next day, Li Hong Yan was found naked and drowned in the swimming pool within the luxurious and ultra-expensive Sentosa Cove bungalow. The Singapore police is currently still investigating the case and the owner, Adrian Chua, has not spoken to the media.

There are many online speculations as to why Li Hong Yan was not wearing anything when they found her in the pool in Sentosa. Some netizens thought that there were some hidden conspiracies, but a Channel News Asia forumer, ISylvia shared these more logical thoughts:

This is how I see it. First of all, when the girls are booked at any KTV, they are only wearing their working clothes. So this girl went with this rich Adrain guy to his house clad in this manner as expected. After they made love, usually the booked girl ended up in a half-wet towel or without any clothes when she is in bed. Surely you don’t expect her to pull out her pyjamas or nightie from her tiny handbag. Since wearing a half-wet towel to bed is not a very good idea and will give the girl hong-sip or rheumatism etc, and moreover it’s hard to fall asleep half-wet, she is likely to be naked sleeping. As have been previously mentioned, the man is likely to fall asleep first due to his alcohol intoxication and exhaustion. The poor girl who found herself lying on an unfamiliar bed with a snoring man is most probably trying to fall in sleep in vain. So she decided to get up to do something instead of enduring this situation for hours and hours. And that was why she was walking naked all over this house.

The house where Ms Li Hong Yan died belongs to Mr Adrian Chua Boon Chye.

Mr Adrian Chua Boon Chye, 39, is the founder and chief executive officer of Roundhill Capital, a real estate investment advisory firm, registered here under his residential address.

He is unmarried and is said to have lived at the three-storey house along Ocean Drive for over a year. Calls made to both his home and mobile phone yesterday went unanswered.

Ms Li Hong Yan had arrived in Singapore on Nov 10 last year and started working the following month as a catering supervisor at a restaurant and catering business in Tuas.

Paramedics pronounced her dead over an hour later. She is believed to have spent the night at the house with its owner, Mr Adrian Chua Boon Chye, after they met at a party on Tuesday evening.
--------------------------------------------
A DAY OF DROWNINGS.....
SINGAPORE - There were three cases of drownings yesterday, one of which happened at the exclusive Sentosa Cove development.

The other two were at Kranji Reservoir and at a canal near Block 137, Potong Pasir Ave 3, although the body of the third victim had not been found at press time.

In the Sentosa Cove drowning, a naked Chinese woman was found dead in the pool of a bungalow on Ocean Drive that belongs to Mr Adrian Chua Boon Chye.

A police spokesman said they received a call at 8.05am yesterday about a woman found at a residential unit.

She was in her mid-20s and local Chinese newspapers have reported that she and Mr Chua, 39, had met in a nightspot the night before.

They described her as having long hair and attractive, and him as the chief executive officer and founder of a property investment firm.

She had apparently gone home with him and the last time he saw her alive was when they retired for the night. It is believed that his maid found her floating in the pool and alerted a neighbour, who had been walking her dog. There were no reported injuries on the victim's body.

She was pronounced dead at 9.35am and police have classified the case as one of unnatural death.

Just over two hours later, the police received a call that Mr Yap Kok Wooi was found facedown in Kranji Reservoir.

The security guard, who was about 55 years old and worked for Royal Security was stationed at an industrial building at Sungei Kadut Street 3. He was found fully clothed near Car Park B.

At 5pm, the police got another call about someone falling into the canal at Potong Pasir Avenue 3, next to St Andrew's Junior College.

Four family members had been playing ball when it fell into the canal. One of them, Mr Hasif Hamid, was trying to pick the ball up when he fell in. His sister saw him fall. Divers SCDF and the Naval Diving Unit were still trying to locate him last night.

Mr Hasif, 20, was believed to be a student with the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore.

The police are investigating the cases.

Vote Buying Begins....$50million

Expect more goodies coming your way my fellow Singaporeans...

This is only the start!!!

****************************************************************

SINGAPORE: About 800,000 Singaporean HDB households can expect to receive about S$50m worth of Utilities-Save (U-Save) rebates in January 2011.

The payout is part of the S$80m of U-Save rebates which the government will give out in 2011.

The second tranche of S$30 million of rebates will be paid out in July 2011.

A Singaporean household may receive up to S$190 worth of U-Save rebates in 2011, depending on HDB flat type.

Those living in 1-room and 2-room HDB flats, for example, will get U-Save rebates which will offset approximately 20% of their annual utility bills on average.

The U-Save rebates are part of the S$4 billion GST Offset Package to help Singaporeans, especially low and middle-income households, cope with the higher cost of living.

These rebates can be used to offset utility charges directly. The amount of rebates will be reflected in the utility bills for January and July 2011 for all eligible households.

- CNA/ir

Ministers Holding 8 Directorships - legalised corruption

Most Singaporeans are against their MPs holding directorships in multiple companies and want them to serve their constituencies full time.

The age-old issue surfaced again after a NUS economics professor wrote a scathing letter to TODAY questioning the committment of some MPs who held multiple directorships.

Former PAP MPs John Chen and Wang Kai Yuen (photo) reportedly held 8 and 11 directorships while ’serving’ as MPs at the same time. When asked about his ‘extra-curricular activities’ by the media, John retorted:

“Do you want me to work for free?”

Though John Chen is no longer a PAP MP, the issue certainly still resonates among Singaporeans with nearly 100 comments posted so far on TR Facebook.

Irene Ho wrote:

“People who want to be MP shouldn’t be in it for the money. If they want to make big money, they shouldn’t be an MP or Minister.”

Ramesh felt some Singapore MPs are too ‘materialistic’:

“MP’s… here in Singapore are really well taken care of ( probably the best in the world) and I wonder why SOME are still after the dosh…as for me I clearly don’t like the fact that a public leader has an BIG attitude of ” getting money” instead of service and helping people – that is a worry!”

Zailani opined they are paid too much:

“‎14k for spending 3 hours at meet the people sessions once a week? And sometimes not turning up at all? Scandalous! And ‘Meet-the-People” is actually a misnomer as I only get to see the PAP volunteers to explain my problems and not the MP personally.”

Bhaskaran Kunju concurred:

“The point is they are not doing anything that extraordinary. If they are doing anything at all. An MP’s main task is to be the voice of the people he or she represents, but most of these chaps don’t even attend their mee…t-the-people sessions. of course there are exceptions, like ho peng kee who actually shows up at every session and walks around listening in to as many people as he can. But most others you do not even know of their existence. And even if you do get a chance to meet them, nothing fruitful ever comes out of it. It’s just an exercise in futility.”

When the Malaysian opposition captured the states of Selangor and Penang in the 2008 election, they made it compulsory for state officials to reveal their salaries, perks and assets owned online.

Perhaps the candidates in the coming general election should reveal the number of directorships they intend to continue holding after they are elected or ‘ushered’ into parliament to the public to enable Singaporeans to make an informed decision if they are able to serve them dutifully and faithfully.

A netizen Kojakbt is compiling a list of PAP MPs holding directorships in public-listed companies. Please post whatever information you have here.

Misplaced Patriotism by the Singapore Waterpolo Team

The trunks sported by Singapore's water polo team at the Asian Games are causing red faces back home, with many embarrassed by their design. Singapore government reprimanded its national men's water polo team for wearing swim trunks that feature an "inappropriate" likeness of the nation's flag. The government deemed the banana hammocks "inappropriate," and some of its citizens found them "disgusting," "nauseating," and "disgraceful." The trunks, which were designed by members of the men's team, debuted by the team while competing in the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, show the flag's white crescent moon jutting up from the groin area with five stars to the side on a red background. Basically a curved phallus with five stars on speedos.

But Asian Games rules stipulate that a team's uniform cannot be changed in the middle of the tournament. "Unfortunately the team did not seek our advice on the use of the crescent moon and stars when they designed their swim trunks," the Information Ministry said in a statement last week. "We would have told them that their design is inappropriate as we want elements of the flag to be treated with dignity." The ministry, which normally evaluates the use of the flag on uniforms on a case-by-case basis, declined to specify which part of the design was objectionable. The team apologized and said it would retire the trunks after the Asian Games.

Singapore the next Las Vegas?

"CLSA estimates gaming revenues will hit US$6.5B (S$8.4B) next year
matching Las Vegas and rise to about US$8.5B" - Straits Times, 28 Dec 2010.

When I visited the Singapore museum a few months ago, I read this
interesting story. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles left the administration of
Singapore to his deputy, William Farquhar giving him strict instructions on
how to develop the island. When he came back 4 years later, he was
horrified. Farquhar had taken the easy way to economic development by
allowing vices such as gambling dens to spring up to fill govt coffers.
Raffles upset at the economic short cuts taken by his deputy[Read the story
here] sacked him a few years later.
.
I will keep posting about the casinos because I feel strongly that the harm
it brings will far exceed any benefits. The govt enjoys the tax revenue it
collects from this casinos while churches, temples and social workers are
left to help the the broken families. The problem with the casinos is the
same as cigarettes. When cigarettes were introduced many years ago, its
cancer-causing properties were not known. If cigarettes are invented today,
the authorities would have banned them outright. By the time scientists were
sure that cigarettes cause cancer, millions were already addicted, companies
selling them were rich, powerful and influential and millions of people
dependent on the tobacco industry for jobs.....it becomes difficult to shut
them down. Once the casinos are here, they take up a large amount of
resources that could have been used for productive healthy economic
activities. As the govt becomes dependent on the tax revenue, regulating the
industrial becomes harder due to conflicts of interests - much of the social
wreckage it simply passes to churches & social workers. The NCPG (National
Council on Problem Gambling) has an annual budget of $2.5M[Link] vs the
hundreds of millions the govt collect as tax revenue from this activity vs
the hundreds of millions the casinos spend to entice gamblers to grow its
business.

It has been almost 200 years since Raffles gave strict instructions to his
deputy Farquhar not to allow gambling dens in Singapore. Instinctively, he
knew that the harm caused by gambling will outweigh the short term economic
benefits. When the PAP govt wanted to legalise casino gambling, they sold
the idea by telling us we can easily exclude family members if we find out
they have a problem. Today, families with problem gamblers faced plenty of
red tape[Link] [Link] including the need to get the problem gambler to agree
to the exclusion. We were also told that the main intention of having the
casinos is to create jobs for Singaporeans - but Singapore is not short of
jobs that is why we have hundreds of thousands of foreign workers here. The
actual problem we have is structural unemployment and shortage of good
quality jobs - judging from complaints from Singapore workers at the
casinos, the casino solves neither of these[Link].

"My brother called the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) helpline
and left his contact details. When no reply came, I called a week later,
only to be informed that there were more than 300 applications still waiting
to be processed and a counsellor had to be assigned to each case.

We were told that only one place, the Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre,
processed all applications and the NCPG would start considering a ban only
after it had received a lengthy report of some 24 to 27 pages from the
centre.

What's more, the hearing to determine the ban would involve the addicted
gambler as well as the family members to argue their case.

When I sought clarification, such as the need to seek the addicted gambler's
approval in applying for the exclusion, the reply was that those were the
rules."

- Casino Exclusion : Family Frustrated by Red Tape[Link]

The PAP govt was just thinking like William Farquhar 200 years ago when they
allowed those casinos to be built - short term economic gains and tax
revenues. Ordinary Singaporeans pay the price for the casinos as social
costs mount.

Dr. Joseph Ong's Sex Tape - Founder Of Temasek Review

Politics in Singapore just got a little more interesting! Recently, Dr. Joseph Ong Chor Teck was exposed by The New Paper as the founder of and the man behind a local political website by the name of Temasek Review (TR) and the now defunct Wayang Party blog. The New Paper playfully called him"Doctor who?" because his identity was a mystery for so long. Shockingly, the man behind the controversial websites was discovered to be a medical doctor to the surprise of everyone. His political websites became notorious because of their shape criticism of the Singaporean Government, it's allegations against many people and political groups, threats to sue opponents in Singapore and other hard tactics. Temasek Review is one of the most popular socio-political websites in Singapore is access by at least 20,000 readers daily. And now there is a sex video circulating on the Internet allegedly of Dr. Joseph Ong Chor Teck with a prostitute.

Dr. Joseph Ong's websites have made him a long list of enemies in a very short period of time. Unbranded Bread n Butter compiled a short-list of people and groups that were attacked by websites now linked to the doctor:

1) Workers’ Party – the Wayang Party Blog owes its origins to mysterious “wayang party” fliers outside the WP 50th anniversary dinner. The press did an email interview with the site, only for the owner to deny involvement. Perhaps the Malay boys he had paid to put up the fliers will now have a name to go with his face.

2) SPH – TR has accused SPH and its blogger Geoffrey Pereira for grabbing contents of his site and initiating a DOS attack on it.

3) Remy Choo – Wayang Party informant exposes TOC then editor Remy Choo’s links to the PAP and begins inserting Trojan horses into the group

4) Kent Ridge Common – TR co-ops KRC writer Kelvin Teo and attempts to steal its intellectual property.

5) Teo Ho Pin – Wayang Party harasses Northwest CDC and alleges that staff there received 8 months bonuses

6) Foyce Le Xuan – TR ‘writer’ claims possession of sex tape between Foyce and Jack Neo.

7) YPAP – TR launches personal attacks against YPAP member Jack Lin and reveals his homosexual inclinations. TR also persistently attack YPAP leader Sinha Shekhar and attempts to get HDB to investigate him for illegal renting of HDB flat.

And since his name was made public as the man behind Temasek Review, the investment company Temasek Holdings has delivered a letter to Dr. Joseph Ong Chor Teck, asking him to drop the name "Temasek Review" from his website. The investment house's annual performance review has been called Temasek Review since 2004 and electronic versions are posted on it's website. This year's edition is called Temasek Report 2010 but Temasek Holdings said that the socio-political news site's that changed it's name from 'The Wayang Party' to 'The Temasek Review' in 2009 appeared to have been done so 'capitalizing on the goodwill and reputation' of the name. Temasek Holdings has challenged Dr. Ong to 'live up' to the website's claims of valuing 'transparency, accountability and responsibility' and 'do the responsible thing to change the name of the website'. Legal action might be taken against Dr Joseph Ong on this matter.

But Dr. Ong has other things to think about now other than angry letters and lawsuits. People have been trying to dig up everything on him since the reports revealing the true identity of the anonymous writer of TR as Dr Joseph Ong. You would think a man with so many enemies would be more careful and avoid being in the situation to get recorded on a hidden spy cam. Or is this video a self-taped sex video he made himself because no one knew who he was before The New Paper ran the revealing story? One thing is for sure, we will never know who is really behind this leaked sex video. The funny thing is a TR 'writer' once claimed possession of sex tape between Foyce Le Xuan and Jack Neo. But the only sex tape in the possession of TR must be of it's founder. The hidden cam sex tape of Dr. Joseph Ong first came to the attention of GutterUncensored.com last week when we received an email from a confidential source. Here is a potion of that email:

I have a sex scandal tape from Singapore that I thought you might find titillatingly worthy of a site like yours. I trust you will keep my email confidential.:)

Sometime in 2007, a local blog called the Wayang Party Club (wayangparty.com) was created to harass local opposition party Workers’ Party. “Wayang” here is linked to a malay traditional performance art of shadow puppet theater termed “wayang kulit”.

The mysterious owner of this famous Singapore blog then changed this site to Temasek Review (temasekreview.com) I think sometime in 2009. What is interesting about this guy is that he went by many names and harassed many people ranging from opposition political parties, politicians, rival social political blogs and community leaders.

Now the fun part. Last weekend, a local tabloid paper ran a front page story to expose the identity of the owner of the site, a local practicing doctor by the name Joseph Ong Chor Teck. He was caught distributing posters calling for the resignation of a poltician. With this revelation, the local internet community has gone wild trying to surface more information on this doctor.

So far what is known is that he has graduated from prestigious schools (Raffles Juinor College and National University) and practices at a private clinic (Healthway Medical Clinic). Pictures of him are also appearing showing him at events that Temasek Review had covered. Needless to say, his style of concocting local scandals and spreading of lies is catching up with him in a big way. Some examples I can think of now is him spreading rumours of a opposition politician’s mistress, claims of having his site DOSed by a local press firm, and countless exclusive exposes involving various prominent persons.

A few good resources for you to catch the flavour of it all (under the category “Temasek Review vs TNP”): http://singaporedaily.net/2010/10/11/daily-sg-11-oct-2010/.

You can also see http://josephongchorteck.wordpress.com.

Now the Juicy part……

Being an accomplished purveyor of adult AV and amateur porn, I am proud and freaking excited to say that I believe I have uncovered a self-taped sex video of Dr Joseph Ong!

I didn’t believe it at first but careful inspection of images of him only validate my finding. I have compiled a fancy collage of his pictures against stills of the video and you can see for yourself......

I will see if I can dig out more videos of his. I think I’ve seen his naked butt more than once. :)

The link to the video is here*******************************************

It has been a while since we had a good scandal from Singapore…… have fun!

Okay, sounds interesting. But how you may ask how was the journalists able to obtain his identity. Well, according to his own Temasek Review site:

TR Exclusive: Police leaked confidential information to The New Paper journalist

October 7th, 2010 | Author: Editorial

A formal complaint has been lodged with Mr Benny Lim, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs against the Singapore Police Force for allegedly leaking confidential information obtained during a police investigation, to a journalist from The New paper.

The complainant, Mr Joseph Ong was called up last year by Ang Mo Kio Police Division for investigation into a minor offence case. No further action was taken against him and he was given a conditional warning by the Head Investigation of Ang Mo Kio Police Division, DSP Chris Voo Hong Ping.

In his email addressed to the Permanently Secretary, Ong wrote that he was approached by a journalist from The New Paper in his office today who wanted to interview him on his one year-old case, which he refused.

Obviously perturbed by his refusal, the journalist, Ng Wan Cheng (Hp no: 9823 0493) claims that even without his input, she will still continue to write her story and publish it anyway because she had done all the necessary fact finding on his case and merely wanted to hear his side of the story.

To prove her point, she went on to reveal details which Ong had ONLY provided to the Investigating Officer who took his statement last year.

A shocked Mr Joseph Ong then called the Investigating Officer and Head Investigation of Ang Mo Kio Police Division who replied and confirm that “information provided to the police during an investigation is strictly confidential and may not be communicated to outside parties not privy to the investigation.” This was concurred by a lawyer friend he subsequently contacted.

When contacted by Temasek Review in a follow-up email interview, Mr Joseph Ong remarked that: “I am perturbed that such supposedly confidential information was leaked to the press which will surely erode public confidence in the Singapore Police Force. “

When asked if he will consider legal action against the parties responsible, he said: “I will need to consult my lawyer further before deciding on the course of action (to take) but I will not rule that out.”

Editor’s note: Email was sent to Mr Benny Lim and copied to Attorney-General Chambers, Police Public Relations Branch, Ang Mo Kio Police Division, Chairman of SPH and Temasek Review.

Yeah, he actually post publicly the reporter's phone number in on his website. LOL... And basically indirectly confirm the story in The New Paper by saying the "police leaked confidential information." The New Paper report "Dr Ong of Healthway Medical Clinic had informed police that he founded the TR site." So yeah, TR confirm the story form The New Paper by posting the above article. So I cannot wait for the article on Temasek Review about Dr Joseph Ong's spy cam sex tape. Doubtfully the "minor offence case" the Police Division were investigating had to do with the sex video or of him frequenting prostitutes because prostitution is legal in Singapore. And to be honest, fucking prostitutes is like the national pastime of the awesome city-state that is Singapore.

http://www.zshare.net/download/81723138120012ca/

http://www.badongo.com/vid/1754592/1

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Temasek Holdings wants Temasek Review website to change its name
SINGAPORE: Investment firm Temasek Holdings said it wanted alternative political news website "Temasek Review" to change its name.

Previously known as The Wayang Party, the website is reported to have changed its name to "Temasek Review" in 2009.

But investment firm Temasek Holdings said it had also been using "Temasek Review" for its annual performance review reports since 2004.

This was according to Temasek Holding's senior managing director and head of Strategic Relation Goh Yong Siang.

In a letter addressed to a Dr Joseph Ong Chor Teck, who is believed to be the website's founder, Temasek Holdings said it had no qualms about the website's mission.

But it added it appeared the website had been capitalising on the goodwill and reputation of investment firm Temasek Holding's name.

A lawyer who spoke to Channel NewsAsia said a lot would depend on if and when both parties acquired trade mark rights in the name "Temasek Review".

The lawyer, who requested anonymity, said: "Although Temasek Holdings (TH) used the name 'Temasek Review' for its annual performance reports since 2004, it did not register this name as a trade mark until November 9, 2009.

"In other words, between 2004 and November 9, 2009, TH has common law rights in the name "Temasek Review" but it is only with effect from November 9, 2009 that it acquired trade mark rights in the name 'Temasek Review'.

"The Wayang Party changed its name to 'Temasek Review' in 2009. The question is whether it changed its name before or after November 9, 2009."

The lawyer added: "If Wayang Party changed its name before November 9, 2009, TH would have to proceed on a claim for passing off.

"In other words, TH has to prove to the court that it has a reputation in the name 'Temasek Review'; that (website) Temasek Review has misrepresented to the public that its on-line publication originated from or is associated with TH; and as a result of the misrepresentation, TH has suffered damages".

In relation to registering a company with the name "Temasek" in it, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority Singapore (ACRA), in its website, advised that the following is not allowed:

1. Undesirable names
2. Names which are identical to a sole-proprietorship / partnership name or to that of any other company, corporation, limited liability partnership or limited partnership
3. Names which are identical to a name being reserved under the Business Registration Act, the Companies Act, the Limited Liability Partnerships Act or Limited Partnerships Act
4. Names which the Minister has directed the Registrar not to accept for registration, eg Temasek

-CNA/wk

Mrs Lee Kuan Yew passed away peacefully

Mrs Lee Kuan Yew dies at 89
Posted by Kirsten on October 2, 2010 119 Comments

Madam Kwa Geok Choo, wife of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and mother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, passed away in her home at 5:40pm on Saturday. She was 89 years old.

The Prime Minister’s office has released a statement saying that the wake for Mrs Lee Kuan Yew will be held at Sri Temasek, official residence of the Prime Minister at the Istana grounds, on Monday and Tuesday (October 4 – 5).

Those who wish to pay their last respects will be able to do so from 10am to 5pm on those two days.

A private funeral will take place on Wednesday October 6 at Mandai Crematorium.

The family has requested that no obituaries, flowers or wreaths be sent. All donations made will go to the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) Health Research Endowment Fund.

Min sum for medsave UP 22%

AleXX
What this MRA increase means is that for example, if a CPF account holder
has $150,500 in his Ordinary and Special accounts but zero in his medisave
account, he can only withdraw $24,600 (20 per cent withdrawal rule from 1
January, 2011 on current Minimum Sum (MS) of $123,000), at age 55,
regardless of any MS property pledge.

At the current rate of annual increase in the MS and MRA totalling $11,000 a
year (MS $6,000 plus MRA $5,000), when the MS withdrawal rule is phased out
to zero in 2013, those who have less than $183,500 (current $150,500 plus
$11,000 times 3 years), may not be able to withdraw anything at all at 55.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

In the near future, even if you have $200K in your supposedly CPF account,
you will never get the chance to kiss your money when you turn 55.

Remember to vote for all your money to be locked up in your CPF which many
think has no cash at all. Ho Jinx may have a very clear picture of where
those citizens' monies were. All converted to L$ (Lee dollars?)

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Man fined for sex act in toilet

SINGAPORE: A 47-year-old unemployed man was fined S$3,000 on Tuesday for performing fellatio on another man in a public toilet in Citylink Mall.

Tan Eng Hong was spotted peeking at another man in an adjacent cubicle through the gap below the partition walls on March 9 this year, the court heard.

When police arrived and summoned both men out, Tan was seen wearing only his shirt and tried to throw a condom into the toilet bowl, the court heard.

The other man, Chin Chee Shyong, 40, was busy getting dressed.

Chin had already been fined S$3,000 last month.

In mitigation, defence lawyer M Ravi said his client was very remorseful of his actions and has since sought help at a homosexual counselling centre that assists gays and addresses their social and psychological issues.

He urged District Judge Sarjit Singh to impose a fine on Tan as he had taken "positive steps to not repeat these acts in the public arena".

For performing an obscene act in a public place to the annoyance of others, Tan could have been jailed for up to three months, fined, or both.

The Forgotten Tongue

Cerelia Lim

Should the use of dialects be encouraged once more?

This question was the focus of the Dialect Forum: The Forgotten Tongue hosted by the People’s Youth Association Movement at Toa Payoh Central Community Club on 27th June.

“I will say that dialects made my life colorful, but beyond that, in the area of work in the professional life, it was mandarin that made the difference,” summed up Mrs Josephine Teo, MP for Bishan- Toa Payoh GRC.

Mrs Teo, who speaks Hakka, Cantonese and Hokkien, is also the GPC chairman for education. She was present as one of the panelists at the forum.

Having studied in Dunman High, a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school, Mrs Teo had a good grounding in mandarin. This stood her in good stead when she accepted a posting to work on the Suzhou Industrial Park Project. Although she spoke Hakka at home, she mastered English and mandarin at school. Cantonese was learnt from accompanying her grandmother to the market. And, as her family owed a shoe shop in Geylang, she learnt how to speak Hokkien and a smattering of Malay.

In the early days of Singapore, the majority of the Chinese community spoke their native dialects. Mandarin was rarely used and English only utilized for official businesses as we were a British colony then.

In 1979, in a bid to simplify the language environment and improve communication amongst the different dialect groups within the Chinese community, the Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

The present Chinese community of today is mostly bilingual in English and mandarin. Amongst the Generation X and Y, dialects are a tongue unknown to them, a language of their grandparents’ era.

However, has the gradual phasing out of our dialects erased more than just a local lingo?

Mr Danny Yeo (Yang Jun Wei), a panelist and also a Chinese studies lecturer with Ngee Ann Polytechnic, told participants that in many of his drama performances at Chinatown, he often finds himself using dialects, instead of mandarin to engage the audience. He mentioned that his ability to speak Cantonese opened up doors and unlocked the obstacles between the audience and himself.

Medical doctor, Mr Yong Tong, who is also the chairman of the Chinese association (Youth Wing), recounted that learning English and Chinese at the first language level allowed him to do his Executive MBA in Chinese but it was dialect that allowed him to communicate with his patients in the hospitals.

Another participant of the forum, Ms Xuan Na, a Human Resources practitioner who studied in Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, questioned if our pursuit of the bilingualism policy is at the expense of dialects.

In defense of the policy, Mrs Teo replied that as a parent if her children are able to master English and mandarin well, she would have no problems if they wanted to learn dialects as well. However, she reiterated that we should not have the belief that being able to speak a variety of languages is better than being able to speak well in a lesser number of languages.

“Must it be assumed from the Speak Mandarin Campaign and the educational policies that the advocation of dialects come at the expense of English and mandarin?” Sherman, a Nanyang Technological University undergraduate.

Elaborating further, he said that dialects have a role in society and their role is in our cultural identity. He also asked if there was a need to believe that learning of dialects will compromise learning standards of other languages and proposed that we appreciate our rich linguistics mix.

In response, Mr Yeo said that he is an advocate of promoting mandarin and protecting dialects. He feels that we need to look at the language abilities of the youths today and compare it to the youths 10, 20 years ago. He said that if the language capabilities of the youths have decreased over the years, then a review of the language policy should be conducted.

However, he also added that besides education, there are other ways of learning dialects such as watching popular Hongkong Cantonese dramas on cable.

Ms Jillian Tiong, a Fuzhou native who has lived in Singapore from more than 20 years, concurs and said that learning dialects is not a difficult thing.

“I learnt my dialects from speaking with children. If you really want to learn, it is not impossible.”

When Wet Market Becomes NTUC - the poor suffers

Report by Tng Ying Hui / Photos by Wallace Woon

BARELY six months into the job, Mr and Mrs Teo, like many others stallholders in Sembawang wet market, were told by their landowner to move out in a month’s time.

With three mouths to feed –two children, one in polytechnic and the other doing ‘O’ levels and an elderly in the old folk’s home, the couple’s monthly income of about $500 provides just three meals a day.

Since they could not obtain bank loans, borrowing money to set up the stall was the only way out. Their business was just picking up pace when the initial decision to be evicted came.

“We didn’t sleep well for three days when we first received the news”, says Mr and Mrs Teo, who declined to be named.

“If our stall closes, we won’t get to eat.”

While relief came from the recent overturning of the decision by HDB to replace Sembawang wet market with a NTUC Fairprice supermarket on 11 October (see here), stall owners in other wet markets are not so lucky.

Health Minister and MP for Sembawang GRC Khaw Boon Wan has publicly reassured residents of his efforts to retain the wet market environment. But Sheng Siong supermarket will still be replacing six other wet markets all over Singapore while air-conditioning some (see here).

HDB has allowed the lease to be extended for three more years, but there is no telling if the averted disaster might strike with a vengeance once the lease ends.

While the stallholders could continue operating for now, one question remains. A fishmonger in Sembawang wet market asked: ” Is [closing the wet market] the right thing to do?”

The Online Citizen asked a spokesman from HDB about which supermarket will be replacing Sembawang wet market, but he evaded answering the question by insisting that they were “still evaluating” then. It was, however, revealed in The Straits Times that the vendor was in fact NTUC Fairprice.

Nonetheless, HDB did tell the Sembawang stall owners that their decision to allow NTUC Fairprice to take over was partly due to “problems with its appearance”, says a fishmonger in Sembawang, who do not wish to be named.

This “appearance problem” , however, is an important feature of heartlanders’ lives, one which everyone identifies with. The camaraderie that the stall owners and residents share can never be found in a supermarket despite its pleasant look.

Yes, the eventual verdict for Sembawang wet market seemed to have mitigate worries for many, but Singapore is still stuck in a quagmire of financial uncertainty and stall owners in other wet market is facing this malapropos eviction.

(Photo: A closed wet market shows none of the life it displays in the day.)

Mr Khaw did spare a thought for the residents, saying that their “interests will be preserved and protected.” But what about the stall owners?

“I am the sole breadwinner, so are many of the others,” said the 55-year-old father of three who wanted to be known only as Mr Sherll in another interview with the Straits Times.

“This is the disadvantage of being in a private market. Suddenly it’s sold off, and where do I go?”

This question seemed to be neglected by the landowner who claimed that she knew of Sembawang’s potential takeover by NTUC Fairprice two years ago. Yet, she continued to lease out these stalls without notifying the stall owners of the possibility of an impending eviction. Her decision has caused backlash from the stall owners.

A Filipino stallholder who moved in barely two months ago, called the land owner a “cheater” whose friendliness is just a facade as “she just wants money.” The land owner till date has yet to return this stall owner her contract. Some other stallholders share similar sentiments, feeling disappointed in her.

HDB had abided by the rules as the termination only came after the contract with the landowner had ended. But a caveat in the contract gleans starkly when the problem of eviction came — it is renewed monthly, such that to terminate the lease, there needs to be only one month notice.

The stallholders received a letter stating the termination only on 18 September.

“This one month notice is too short a time!”, says Mrs Teo

It is necessary to upgrade wet markets to improve hygiene, but to wipe it out from the face of Singapore portends means that we would lose something dear to our hearts, raising a generation further adrift from their roots.

The haggling for prices, the fishy smell, the jostling with people in the crowd, the slippery floor littered with rotten vegetables, all constitute what a wet market is, but above all these, a wet market is the heart of a heartland, irreplaceable and timeless.

If the wet market disappears, memories of it would erode with time, and an “air-conditioned nation”, as Cherian George’s book title reflects, would unfortunately materialize.

Singapore's suicide rate highest in 50 years

In 2009, a total of 401 confirmed suicides were recorded. 267 of them were male, while the remaining 134 were female.

The suicide rate increased from 8.76 per 100,000 residents in 2008 to 9.35 in 2009.

These figures were revealed in a press release by Samaritans of Singapore (SOS), a confidential hotline for people in crisis.

Young men in the age group of 20-29 were found to be at high risk of suicide. Those who called in to the SOS hotline talked about difficulties and anxieties in coping with life's stressors.

Youths were also another high risk group. Such callers were concerned about their studies, family and relationship problems, as well as crisis and identity-related issues.

On 8 September, SOS will hold a workshop on suicide prevent among young people, conducted by Professor Graham Martin who is the national advisor on suicide prevention to the Australian government. Prof Martin is also the keynote speaker for a conference on suicide prevention on 9 September.

SOS handles an average of 3,330 calls per month, or 110 calls per day. The 24-hour hotline (1800-221-4444) is manned by trained volunteers. Ms Christine Wong, the Executive Director of SOS, said that the organisation's ability to help those in need is limited by the number of volunteers.

Those who are interested in volunteering with SOS may e-mail to pv@samaritans.org.sg. Those who wish to know more about the upcoming workshop and conference may visit http://samaritansofsingapore.blogspot.com for more information.

DBS posts $302m Q2 loss

Paying for past mistakes and abuses, the poor Indian FT CEO is placed there to be made scapegoat for some honest mistakes made by our selected genetically bred scholars.
------------------------------------
By Harsha Jethnani
DBS posted an unexpected $300 million loss in the second quarter after it took a $1.02 billion goodwill charge on its Hong Kong business. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO

DBS Bank, South-east Asia's biggest banking group, on Friday reported second-quarter losses of $302 million owing to a goodwill impairment charge of $1.02 billion for DBS Hong Kong.

The group had recorded $552 million in profits in the second quarter of last year.

Excluding the one-off impairment, earnings in the free months ending June were a healthy record-breaking $718 million.

The writedown is a legacy from 2001 when DBS took over Dao Heng bank in an expensive US$5.8 billion deal (S$7.9 billion).

DBS said there have been 'noticable and persistent strains' in wholesale funding markets, which is forcing banks to adjust their funding strategies.

Liquidity pressures and persistent strains in wholesale funding markets have increased the likelihood of interest margin compression for DBS Hong Kong. In conducting its six-monthly fair value test and adjusting earnings projections for 2010 to 2014 according to these pressing market conditions, the bank decided it was appropriate to take an impairment charge.

The charges will have no affect on operating performance or expansion plans, said DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta. He said at a results briefing on Friday that he does not anticipate further goodwill impairment charges.

Net interest income was four per cent down to $1.067 billion while net interest margin was down to 1.84 per cent from 2.01 per cent. More than half of the decline - six basis points - was due to a shift in the securities portfolio to higher-quality issues with lower yields, DBS said. Deposit costs were also higher due to competition for US dollar and Hong Kong dollar funding.

Non-interest income registered a positive 16 per cent growth to $748 million. The non-performing loans ratio fell to 2.3 per cent from 2.8 per cent and loans expanded nine per cent from demand by regional corporates and from draw-downs on housing loans in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Mr Gupta said on Friday that he was pleased with the quarter's results but added that it was unlikely for the momentum to continue to the second half of the year. Globally, economic growth rates are expected to slow down in the latter part of the year, he added. The chief executive also does not expect to see double-digit growth in loans.

Another 100k Foreign Talents Needed in Next Few Months : PM Lee

He is informing us that he will increase the number of foreign talents. His growth at all cost theory is coming back. The disapproval signal is clear but he choose to ignore because he knew that he will definately win the election.

He is not concerned about people, many office workers like me are now working 10 over hours for an 8hrs salary. Some even work 7 days a week because there is just too much work, as this monster drive his productivity programs into our lives. There is no life in Singapore anymore. This is absolutely because of him.
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Towkay wrote:
Singaporeans who believe that the government will regulate the import of cheap foreign workers have absolutely no idea how Singapore works.

Let me, the Towkay give you the basics:

1. Profiting Elites and Towkays is the only priority.

2. Cheaper foreign workers can do the job, so why hire Singaporeans? Why? Why? Why? Nobody has given me a good answer to this because they know there is no reason to hire more expensive Singaporeans.

3. Singaporeans only matter when we need you to work for free i.e. free security quards (NSmen), free volunteers for YOG, etc. Again refer to point 1, we earn more if we can get Singaporeans to work for free.
--------------------------------------------
15% economic growth does not benefit me at all.

I am a civil servant, and my pay will not rise by 10% because of the boom. I don't expect 5 months bonus or even a GDP-related bonus. That's strictly reserved for the top of the top, the best of the best, and not for mere mortals like us.

Cost of living is increasing. The cost of food in our office canteen has increased by 20%. Rent is up, so is cost of food.

Big freaking deal about having the best economic growth when none of us get to share in it.

I also hate it when Filipinoes (or Burmese or PRC or M'sian) become HR personnel. Instead of hiring Singaporeans or the best candidate for the job, they almost always end up hiring the best Filipino for the job.
----------------------------------------------
The best thing for the PAP about all this is that the opposition still remains weak and divided, with 50% walkovers by PAP at the next elections still a high possibility, let alone forming forming the next govt.

And somehow they can always managed to make 60% or more happy, whatever the circumstance.

And the minority who are not happy do not dare to openly protest, except through blogs.

And don't forget, those who criticise PAP strongly on the Internet may not necessarily be unhappy, but do for the fun of it. Just like the massive crowds at past opposition rallies compared to PAP ones doesn't mean they support the oppositions as the final results had shown and which is what really mattered.

HDB Flats - Still Affordable

Would be interesting to hear from Mah Bow Tan regarding the latest increases in HDB prices. Are they still affordable?

The prices of HDB rose by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter (April - June) of this year. This rise is also mirrored in private properties which rose more than 5% in each of the last 2 quarters of this year - that is a whopping rise of more than 10% in 6 months. There are many negatives associate with the increase in property prices. Property prices rising much faster than income means that ordinary Singaporeans have to take up more debt for housing. The price rise also worsens the effect Singapore's income gap which is already the highest among developed countries - middle and lower income families have to purchase smaller homes and are unable to upgrade while wealthier Singaporeans more than 1 property can enjoy the wealth effect of higher prices by selling at these lofty prices.

Things are not going to get better with another 100,000 extra foreign workers that PM Lee said will be here in the coming months. They too will need housing and that will worsen the situation. In the recent BTO for Ponggol Waterway Terraces, the number of applicants was 18 times the units on offer. We have a very hot market set to get hotter in the coming months unless HDB does something to meet the demand. One can argue whether we are in a bubble or not. Bubbles are obvious only on hindsight. However, price rise that is so much faster than income growth means that the debt burden for ordinary Singaporeans buying homes has increased rapidly in the past few quarters. For an economy that depends on workers to be faster, better and cheaper, rising debt burdens and increase in cost of living will undermine their ability to save, cause their living standard and quality of life to fall and lower their ability to start a family and have children. The govt is asking workers to be cheaper while it does little to arrest the risning cost of housing.

Last week NMP Viswa Sadasivan urged the govt not to focus solely on GDP growth and use other economic indicators that measure the general well being of the ordinary Singaporean. I would go even further than that by saying that the high GDP growth is negatively correlated with improvement in quality of life for a large segment of the population. For many Singaporeans, the GDP growth in recent years simply translate to increase cost of living without the correspondng rise in wages. It has to do with the way the PAP govt generate such high growth by importing foreign labor. When the economy grows, you see headlines like the on today's Straits Times "Resale HDB Prices hit new highs" but you won't see headlines like "Wages of Singaporeans go up by 5% last quarter". ...as property prices, transport costs, utility rates, conservancy charges rise to negate any economic benefit of growth.

Casino Levy Returned to Community - Minister Lied

With over $200 million collected so, and all given to the ToteBoard, one wonder why the NKF and the other charity organisations are still struggling to raise money, desperately canvassing for donation publicly and on TV Charity shows. It simply has got to be some big white lie by these Pap Ministers. None of them (including the custodian of the reserves - the President) even know how much reserves there are in the govt coffers.
------------------------------------------------------
Casino fee given back to public
By Rachel Chang

THE money collected by the two casinos in entrance fees from Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs) is already being recycled back to the community.

This is being done via the Tote Board which is given all the money collected.

It then hands them out as grants to community projects, said Second Minister for Finance Lim Hwee Hua at a dialogue with Bukit Gombak residents.

Mrs Lim, who is also Second Minister for Transport, did not specify the types of projects that gained from the collection.

The Tote Board website, however, states that it donates to six areas: arts and culture, education, social services, health, community development and sports.

'So if we have more money coming through, in other words more money will be available for all these different projects,' said Mrs Lim. 'That's one consequence of it.'

Male Version of Ris Low - found

Hu Hanxiong...

Meet "the male version of Ris Low". That's what some netizens on file-sharing site YouTube and citizen journalism site Stomp are calling this Singaporean.

He's Hu Hanxiong, Mr Singapore World 2010.

The 25-year-old events organiser is being slammed online for his poor English in a self-introduction video for the Mr World finals held on March 27 in Incheon, Korea.

The video was first uploaded on the pageant's website, but has since found its way to YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 8,000 times, and Stomp, where it received more than 5,000 hits.

Low, you'll remember, was crowned Miss Singapore World last year but had to relinquish her crown after it was discovered that she had been convicted of credit card fraud.

She was flamed for her bad English and for using nonsensical words like "boomz".

Netizens who compared Hu to Low were particularly caustic about his poor pronunciation.

Hu began his video by saying: "Harrow everybody, I'm Hanxiong, twenty-fise years of age..."

Other boo-boos include pronouncing basketball as "buttsketball", and saying "I love any sports that leads me to a healthy lifespou..."and "warming hospitality".

Netizens also jeered at how often Hu blinked his eyes in the video, with one claiming he blinked more than 65 times in the 30-second clip.

When The New Paper contacted Hu over the phone at work, he called the video "tragic".

He had first seen the clip when he was competing in Korea and wished he could record it again.

He is aware of the brickbats on YouTube.

Sounding light-hearted throughout the interview, he added: "While I was waiting for my turn to film the video clip, I had prepared in my head what I was going to say.

"I wanted to talk about how I prepared for the competition, and how much I loved Korea.

"But when I sat down to do the video, the producers (from the UK) told me that I only needed to give my name, age, where I was from and my hobbies."

He confessed that he got nervous and tongue-tied.

It was hard to fill up those 30 seconds, he said. Hu, who was unplaced in the finals, also didn't want to do a second take like some of the other pageant contestants allegedly did.

"The producers had spent the whole day filming and they weren't in a very good mood. I wanted to make Singapore proud by going for just one take.

"I didn't want them to think that Singaporeans can't speak proper English," he admitted.

When asked about the excessive blinking in the video that netizens complained about, he explained that there were several strong spotlights shining on him during filming, which made his eyes very dry.

He admitted that he was initially upset by the harsh comments,but he has learnt to take things lightly.

"Everyone has their point of view and I can still accept their criticism," he said.

"They don't know me and I can't tell every one of them that I'm not that bad in real life."

During the interview, even though Hu's English was occasionally ungrammatical , he spoke confidently and conveyed his thoughts well enough.

Hu said he barely spoke English in school and was more fluent in Mandarin.

On being called Mr Ris Low, Hu said he thought it was funny, especially because they are friends. They met when she took part in Miss Singapore World last year

Kerin Peh Finally Did It

They say if you don't succeed the first time, you must keep trying until you succeed. Kerin seemed to have this dogged determination to do just that, but in her case, her strength lies in wanting to end her life. There is really no competition to talk about here. She finally won her right to kill herself on Monday night. I strongly believe this has nothing to do with the Argentinians getting bashed by the Germans or the Spanish win over Paraguay.

At least she has a more valid reason to kill herself than those young punks who leapt off the balcony of FoxConn's Iphone City.

Ms Kerin Peh, 27, is believed to have jumped from the block where her family lives at Hougang Ave 8. Paramedics who arrived at the scene around 2am, pronounced her dead.

The widow of bridegroom Vernon Leong, who mysteriously fell to his death from the Hilton Hotel on the night of his wedding last November, died early Monday.

Last December, she also tried to take her life by slashing her wrists at the home of her parents-in-law in Balam Road.

Friends of the couple said then that Ms Peh had been an emotional wreck after her husband's death, and family and friends had had to keep close watch over her.

With the monthly MRT suicide quota rising, and those who gas or smoke themselves to death, one wonders what kind of help are the PAP members doing to help, besides talking about it in Parliament and interviews.

What have the PAP done to repair shattered lives, besides helping to shatter lives with their fines, prison terms, long queues, packed trains, costly homes and cars, and money-sucking technologies?
---------------------------------------------

Miss Kerin Peh, 27, the widow of the groom who fell from Singapore’s Hilton Hotel a few hours after their wedding dinner in Nov 2009 has been admitted to the A&E department of Tan Tock Seng Hospital on yesterday morning. She was found with cuts to both her wrists and the Police has classified the case as attempted suicide.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force and the paramedics who arrived at Kerin Peh’s parents-in-law’s home found her unconscious on a bed with some unidentified pills beside her.
-----------------------------------------------
Widow falls to her death
She had been an emotional wreck since her husband’s death and had slashed her wrists soon after the incident

By Kimberly Spykerman & Ted Chen

THE widow of a man who mysteriously fell to his death from the Hilton Singapore hotel on his wedding night last November was herself found dead yesterday.

Ms Kerin Peh, 28, fell from the sixth floor of a 12-storey HDB block opposite her family home in Hougang Avenue 8 around 2am.

A member of the public called for help after seeing her bleeding, motionless body lying face-down at the bottom of the block.

Paramedics pronounced her dead 15 minutes later.

Ms Peh had been an emotional wreck ever since her husband’s body was found in the driveway of the Orchard Road hotel on Nov 4, just hours after their wedding banquet.

She tried to take her own life a month after the incident by slashing her wrists in a bedroom of the Balam Road flat belonging to her parents-in-law.

Unidentified pills were found beside her, and she was rushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Since then, her family has kept a sort of ’suicide watch’ on her.

What happened to her husband, computer peripherals salesman Vernon Leong, 31, remains a mystery, and his case is due to appear before the coroner’s court, but no date has been given.

The couple had a suite on the 10th floor of the hotel. After the dinner, they adjourned to the room with a few friends where they had more drinks and continued the celebration.

Friends contacted later said the mood that night was merry.

After everyone had left, Ms Peh took a shower. But after she emerged from the bathroom, she discovered that her husband was not in the room and raised the alarm.

Security cameras showed Mr Leong leaving the room clad in shorts and a T-shirt at about 3am and rushing barefoot through the hotel’s second floor.

Minutes later, he was dead, having fallen from a height and landing on the hotel’s driveway.

No other details have emerged.

Yesterday, neighbours told The Straits Times they had heard loud crying coming from the family’s home around 1am. Not long after, Ms Peh’s barefoot body, clad in pyjamas, was discovered.

Ms Peh had moved back to live with her mother and elder sister earlier this year.

A 72-year-old neighbour said Ms Peh’s mother had watched over her carefully, especially after she expressed a wish to kill herself.

His domestic helper said she had seen Ms Peh with her sister the day before her death, and she ‘looked happy’.

Ms Peh’s body arrived home at around 4pm yesterday.

Family members tearfully declined to be interviewed, after saying Buddhist prayers for her.

About 60 people attended the wake in the evening. When asked if they knew anything about Ms Peh’s state of mind, they declined to comment.

Counsellors told The Straits Times that families need to seek help if a relative has shown signs of being capable of hurting him or herself.

Watching over the person all the time can also be ‘difficult and draining’ on family members, said the executive director of Samaritans of Singapore, Ms Christine Wong.

One option is to admit them to hospital to get the help they need, she said.

‘But this can be a difficult process for the individual as well as the family members, who then will not be able to see and be there for their loved ones at all times.’

Police have classified the case as unnatural death, and are investigating.
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Suicide
I remember one colleague mentioned that when a person chooses to end his life, he is already not himself. Because for one conscious mind to take the very first step to kill own self will take a great deal of "courage" and determination.

Recently, 2 suicidal news caught my attention. The news were on the Korean star and Ms Kerin Peh (I will call her the Bride). I realised how tough times can be, to cause such distress to human beings like us who are educated and "were taught how to handle things in life". Some of us learnt vicariously, while others have to go through the harder way, i.e. personal experience.

Saw some comments about the news about The Bride who took her life just yesterday. Some were sympathetic while others criticised and preached how precious life is. I am not here to judge but I think one has to go through a great deal of trauma to understand. For me, I took a sympathetic stand. Really felt sorry for her having to go through the pain and yet not able to "recover" from the heartache.

As for the Korean actor, it was said that the stress and guilt in juggling his career and his ill dad pushed him to choose this path. He said life was hard.

Indeed, life was very difficult for the 2 cases. Depression is a trap. To get out, you have to be willing to leave a part of you and free the rest of yourself. Some are lucky enough to pull themselves away while others need others to give them a thug. Of course, there are also some who "choose" to fall deeper and deeper.

What we have learnt in schools is somewhat "fairytale" and usually good things happen in life. We were taught the moral values and good behaviours. We were taught how to handle academic topics, how to solve problems in Maths, in Science. Real life experience is hard to teach, no doubt. Still, with the increasing pace and expectation of the society nowadays, the issues on handling extreme emotions cannot be undermined.Groom caught on CCTV minutes before death
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» New groom falls to death just hours after wedding

THE bridegroom who died hours after his wedding dinner was caught on three of Hilton Singapore's surveillance cameras.

Footage revealed that Mr Vernon Leong, 31, headed towards the fire escape staircase on the 10th floor - the same floor his wedding suite was on - at around 3am.

He was wearing a T-shirt and shorts when he left the room. He was also barefooted and empty-handed.

The bridegroom was next seen on the second floor of the hotel approximately eight minutes later. He appeared to be in a rush and was scrambling.

Shops line the second floor and there are no windows or openings. It is not clear where he went or what he did after this.

At around 3.16am, the third time he was seen on camera was when his body was already on the driveway. He was dead by the time paramedics arrived.

During investigations, police found the door of the fire escape exit on the 5th level open. They are not ruling out the possibility of Mr Leong exiting at this floor before he went down to level two.

CCTV footage also revealed that he was never at the roof-top garden on the 24th floor. Before the videos were viewed, this was the most likely place where he could have fallen from.

His wife, Ms Peh, 34, had initially thought that her husband had gone there to smoke.

Authorities are still unsure as to which floor the bridegroom fell from and mystery surrounds the circumstances of his death.

According to Shin Min Daily, the body was found facing upwards.

Police have classified the case as unnatural death and the management of Hilton Singapore has also issued a press statement, extending their condolences to Mr Leong's family and that they are cooperating with the authorities in the investigation.

Genting Singapore to divest its UK Operations

Shares of Genting Malaysia Bhd fell as much as 10 per cent today over concerns that its proposed acquisition of casino operations in the UK from its Singapore affiliate was too risky.

Genting shares dropped 28 sen, the most in nine years, to hit a low of RM2.46 before recovering to RM2.62 as at 12.15pm. OSK Research has also cut its fair value for Genting shares from RM3.15 to RM2.55 and downgraded the stock from “Buy” to “Sell”.

Malaysia's sole casino operator had proposed to acquire the casino operations in UK (Genting UK) from its affiliate company Genting Singapore Plc for about RM1.7 billion. It had also separately proposed to develop a video lottery facility at the Aqueduct “racino” which combines racing with casinos.

OSK Research said in a report today that it felt the acquisition and development cost was not compensated by meaningful earnings growth prospects. It also said that there was inherent risk of future “value destructive related party transactions” and as a consequence is attaching no value to the group’s net cash balance.

“We view these developments negatively as the relatively high acquisition and development cost is not compensated by meaningful earnings accretion to the group despite Genting UK casinos’ long established operating track record,” said OSK Research.

It said that it was “cautious” on the medium-term viability of the US racino project pending more details on the development expenditure of the Genting bid.

It also noted that the winning bidder has to pay an upfront US$300 million (RM971 million) in non-refundable payment, which could be deemed a licensing fee.

“As such, we think that the cost of development could easily exceed RM1 billion,” said OSK. Genting said in a statement yesterday that the proposed acquisition of Genting UK complemented its long-term international expansion plans. The acquisition however will have to be approved by Bank Negara and the British Gambling Commission.
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S.African businessman gets 7 months' jail for cheating at RWS casino
SINGAPORE : A 33-year-old South African businessman has been sentenced to seven months' jail for cheating at the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino.

Sibongile Arthur Mgxashe had committed the offences at two different roulette tables on different days.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gay Hui Yi told District Judge Thian Yee Sze that he first entered the casino at around 10:41pm on May 20 this year.

Mgxashe went to one of the roulette tables and placed his bet after the winning result was declared. As a result, he received cash chips amounting to S$7,000.

Mgxashe received another S$7,000 in cash chips the next day by using a similar method to cheat at another roulette table. However, he was soon detained by security as he was walking out of the casino.

Mgxashe originally faces six charges in total but four of them were taken into consideration. He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years' jail and fined for each cheating charge.