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

---------------------------------------------------------
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.