NEW YORK – Music and film producer Russell Simmons faced new accusations of sexual misconduct from nine woman in incidents dating back to 1983, including four who alleged that he raped them, according to separate reports in two US newspapers.
Simmons, one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the hip-hop world, said last month that he was stepping down from his production and fashion businesses after a screenwriter said he sexually assaulted her in 1991. He has denied the incident and said that he remembered it differently than the accuser did.
The 60-year-old co-founder of Def Jam Records in an email statement on Thursday (Dec 14) denied the accusations from the nine women reported on Wednesday by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
“These horrific accusations have shocked me to my core and all of my relations have been consensual,” Simmons said in the statement.
The current allegations, the statement added, “range from the patently untrue to the frivolous and hurtful. The presumption of innocent until proven guilty must not be replaced by ‘Guilty by Accusation.'”
Reuters could not independently confirm any of the allegations against Simmons, who also founded the fashion lines Phat Farm and Tantris, and co-produced films and TV shows including The Nutty Professor and Def Comedy Jam.
The allegations of rape reported by the New York Times were between 1988 and 1995 from a music journalist, a singer he managed and a former executive producer at Def Jam Records.
The new allegations reported by the Los Angeles Times dated back to 1983 for one from a member of an all-female hip-hop group who claimed Simmons raped her and included another from a massage therapist who said he exposed himself and asked her to touch him.
In an Instagram post on Thursday, Simmons used the hashtag #NotMe, in contrast with the #MeToo hashtag used by millions of women on social media to share their stories of sexual abuse.
“Today, I begin to properly defend myself,” Simmons wrote.”My intention is not to diminish the #MeToo movement in anyway, but instead hold my accusers accountable. #NotMe.”
In his statement responding to the accusations, Simmons said he had already apologised for “instances of thoughtlessness” in his consensual relationships.
“What I will not accept is responsibility for what I have not done,” the statement said.
“I will relentlessly fight against any untruthful character assassination that paints me as a man of violence.”
Indonesian illusionist The Sacred Riana may look creepy and ghostly, but this awkward persona of hers has won the hearts of judges and fans, propelling her to become the winner of reality TV show Asia’s Got Talent Season 2.
The Sacred Riana beat eight other acts from around Asia to win the grand prize of US$100,000 (S$134,670) on Thursday night (Dec 14). The results are based on public votes.
With her long black hair and twitching head, The Sacred Riana – whose real name is Marie Antoinette Riana Graharani – has become the most anticipated act of the season.
Her spine-chilling magic tricks during the auditions, semi-finals and grand finals episodes have won the hearts of not just judges Jay Park, David Foster and Anggun, but also netizens across the world.
Videos of her magic performances on stage have garnered over 70 million views on Facebook and YouTube.
Photo: AXN
At the grand finals telecast on Dec 7, The Sacred Riana conjured up zombie-like peformers from a small box on stage, while suddenly appearing behind Anggun.
During the finals, judge Jay Park said: “You’re very unique. I was very entertained and frightened at the same time. Great job.”
Judge David Foster said: “Riana has become the one that everyone wants to see, everyone wants to watch. She has become the most anticipated act of all the acts that we’ve seen.”
The Sacred Riana was up against other popular acts such as DM-X Comvalenos from the Philippines, Mongolian digital dance artist Canion Shijirbat, and Indonesian harpist and singer Angela July, among others.
According to her manager Bow Vernon, The Sacred Riana apparently stays in her silent awkward character all the time. Vernon also told The Straits Times that she is over 100 years old.
It looks like The Sacred Riana may soon be scaring her way across the region with her performances and we can’t wait to watch her live.
THE SEVENTH global English Proficiency Index for 2017 released by English First (EF), an international English Second Language (ESL) education company, ranked Dutch people as having the best English skills in the world out of 80 countries included in the study.
Singapore is no stranger to being the best at things and it turns out the English language is no exception. Its citizens are by far the most proficient at English in Asia if the Index is anything to go by.
While Northern European countries dominated the top five spots, with the Netherlands followed by Sweden, Denmark, and Norway – fifth place was the Little Red Dot, for whom English is one of four official languages along with Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.
Along with Finland, Luxembourg and South Africa these countries were placed in the “very high” English proficiency category by EF.
The Index was based upon test data from more than one million students completing three versions of the EF Standard English Test in 2016.
Along with only Saudi Arabia and Panama, Singapore and Thailand showed “significant gains” from the previous year’s Index.
Asia’s English proficiency: Blue indicates High, Green indicates Moderate, Yellow indicates Low and Red indicates Very Low. Source: English First
Asia was a mixed bag for English proficiency, with Malaysia and the Philippines ranked 13th and 15th, respectively, above Portugal, Hungary and the Czech Republic – reflecting their “high” proficiency.
India (27), Hong Kong (29), South Korea (30) and Vietnam (34) were all ranked “moderate” among the likes of Greece, Spain and Italy.
The large Asian states of China (36), Japan (37) and Indonesia (39) all had “low” proficiency, while Chinese-speaking Taiwan (40) and Macau (42) along with Thailand (53) were even lower down the pecking order.
Laos was ranked very last at 80, just below Iraq, Libya and Cambodia.
The study found that overall worldwide, women’s English proficiency is higher than men’s.
“Women in most countries are more educated than men, more likely to complete general-track secondary school rather than vocational-track, and more likely to attend university,” said EF.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, young people had better English-language skills than older people, and English proficiency correlates strongly with economic and social indicators.
The Middle East was the region with the lowest English proficiency on the planet.
SINGAPORE: In the wake of the MRT tunnel flooding between Bishan and Braddell stations in early October, Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan announced last week that a standing committee will be formed to regularly look into flood prevention for MRT tunnels.
This committee, jointly led by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA), will meet twice a year and submit an annual review of flood prevention measures to the Minister for Transport.
While it is still early days and further details on the PUB-LTA Standing Committee have yet to be fleshed out, my view is we must be careful not to make the response to set up a committee to deal with a national issue a default solution to any huge problem Singapore faces.
THE PROLIFERATION OF BUREAUCRACY
Management guru C Northcote Parkinson coined Parkinsonʼs Law which posits that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. In his book of the same name, he had a chapter devoted to “comitologyˮ ̶ the study of how committees, task forces and government agencies are created but eventually become irrelevant.
Parkinson was concerned with not just the proliferation of bureaucracy, but more importantly how futile an exercise it often is.
The Singapore Government has a penchant for forming high-level, high-signature committees as a first response to crises. Indeed, it has not just been committees but permanent agencies created to tackle emerging public policy problems.
For example, the Municipal Services Office was set up to deal with cross-cutting municipal issues that span many agencies, famously illustrated in the fishball stick story told in the Prime Minister’s 2014 National Day Rally speech. The Pioneer Generation Office was set up to help communicate the value of the Pioneer Generation Package and other schemes our Pioneers could access.
For the most part, such committees and agencies have delivered tangible results.
Within the economic domain, we have also seen the 1986 Economic Committee, the 2001 Economic Review Committee and 2009’s Economic Strategies Committee make concrete and effective policy recommendations in the wake of the 1985 recession, the Asian Financial Crisis and the 2009 Global Financial Crisis respectively.
But it remains to be seen whether the responses from the latest Committee on the Future Economy will be able to power the Singapore economy and chart out its new frontiers.
The trouble also is that setting up the LTA-PUB Standing Committee so specifically to address tunnel flooding speaks to a reactionary and retrospective mindset. It seems to suggest the bias towards fighting the previous crisis, instead of preparing for the next likely one.
Congestion outside Bishan MRT station on the day of the MRT flooding incident as commuters find other ways to get to their destination. (Photo: Calvin Hui)
There is the risk of the “if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nailˮ syndrome at work here. Having a committee so focused on tunnel floods potentially blinds agencies to other causes of MRT disruptions and delays.
Furthermore, it reveals how organisations are drawn to tackling only the extraordinary crisis.
The imagery of the October tunnel flood may have led to a sense of urgency in preventing the recurrence of such a visibly embarrassing incident. But on balance of probability and given recent history, MRT trains will likely be plagued by more mundane problems, such as the 30-minute delay arising from signaling, track faults or doors that will not close properly.
Such mundane problems call for an ongoing fix that we have become less adept at compared to the high-profile solution that takes the form of a sweeping reform or a newly established bureaucratic structure.
These days, we seem to be better at building things and standing up committees whereas the challenge lies in maintaining the transport systems we already have.
A WICKED PROBLEM
There has been some criticism that the resources of public agencies are being directed to ensuring that the operating of our MRT trains are not stymied by floods and the like, whereas the problem should be resolved by SMRT, a private train operator.
In this instance, I think it is actually right that the LTA-PUB Standing Committee look at the wicked problem of tunnel floods.
A wicked problem by definition is an issue that goes beyond the ability of any single organisation to solve on their own, and it is fortunate Singapore is able to marshal whole-of-government resources quickly to tackle such problems plaguing Singaporeans.
My criticism is that a more holistic and prospective approach should have been adopted rather than one so narrowly focused. This latest committee looks at tunnel floods, which is now a “known unknownˮ, a risk we are now aware of.
What is potentially more useful would be to develop and institutionalise a forward-looking, horizon-scanning capability to imagine and pre-empt risks that are “unknown unknownsˮ.
SCDF officers working to clear water in the flooded Bishan-Braddell MRT tunnel on Oct 7. (Photo: SCDF)
Letʼs also bear in mind that this serious incident of flooding was caused by a localised failure, a seemingly small cause.
Indeed, a key characteristic of a wicked problem is that a small cause can have a massive effect. And the proximate cause of the flooding was small: A pump, or more accurately the failure to inspect and maintain the pump.
Consequently, it seems all the good work that the committee can do, and all the systems that are put in place, can similarly be undone by micro failures – cultural and process failures – that occur on the train operatorsʼ end.
The effectiveness of this top-down structural solution, to say nothing of the committeeʼs KPI of preventing floods, is unfortunately contingent on fundamental mindset and cultural changes down in the trenches – or tunnels in this case.
Finally, there is clearly a symbolic aspect to this. The forming of the committee signals to the public that this issue is being taken seriously.
But the setting up of a committee cannot be the be-all and end-all; Effective results must be produced.
There is also the risk the public may suffer from task force/committee/engagement fatigue, and that if the state of our MRT system does not improve, a more cynical response about Singapore’s MRT system and public transport may grow.
Parkinson, who was also a naval historian during the decline of the British Empire post-World War II, had a front row seat to observe how the British colonial office expanded even as Britain’s overseas empire shrank.
He explained this phenomenon in terms of two laws. One, a bureaucrat wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals. And two, bureaucrats make work for each other.
Beyond the immediacy of tunnel flood prevention, the broader point here is Singaporeʼs standard response to emerging problems cannot be the reflexive expansion of bureaucracy because the efficacy of bureaucratic solutions will plateau due to bloat and lock jam.
The recent MRT tunnel flooding incident and the delays and disruptions on the MRT Singaporeans are slowly getting used to are timely opportunities to rethink our long-standing, near-exclusive preference for dealing with national-level problems by responding with tangible, high-profile solutions, in this case, the penchant for setting up such committees.
Adrian W J Kuah is a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
SINGAPORE: After a week’s delay, what’s being billed as the biggest carnival in Singapore is ready to open at Marina Bay on Friday (Dec 15).
Located at the Promontory and Bayfront event space, the Prudential Marina Bay Carnival looks set to have something for everyone – from spinning thrill-seekers around at speeds of nearly 100kmh, to the million or so plush toys to be won at the carnival games.
Admission to the carnival is free, but rides and games cost between S$4 and S$14.
THRILL-SEEKERS
For the bravest of the brave, there is the Mach 5, towering 55m above ground, spinning riders upside-down and backwards in the air and hitting speeds of 96kmh in under eight seconds.
Definitely not for the faint-hearted – and in hindsight, probably the ride that should be kept for the last if you want to enjoy the carnival’s full experience.
For a slightly tamer ride, there are the Euro Coaster and Pirate Ship.
Das Fun Schiff (Pirate Ship). (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
Euro Coaster. (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
There is also the Jungle River – similar to a log flume – as well as the Star Flyer, which sends riders sailing through the air 35m above the ground while enjoying a panoramic view of Singapore’s skyline.
The Star Flyer at the Promontory@Marina Bay. (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
CHILDREN OF ALL AGES
Kids will also be spoilt for choice, with a Dumbo Ride, a merry-go-round, Shark Coaster and bumper cars.
Gallopers (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
Train Ride. (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
FOOD AND GAMES GALORE
This month, there will be more than 25 food options at the carnival, including burgers, cocktails, pasta, drinks and cookies.
A range of food offerings available at the Marina Bay Carnival, including pasta and nachos. (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
With 25 games available – including bowling, ring-tossing and plate-breaking – there is no shortage of ways for carnival-goers to get their hands on the one million plush toys available.
About 1 million plush toys to be won at the Marina Bay Carnival. (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
Up to 25 game stalls available at the Marina Bay Carnival. (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
It took some effort and more than a few tries … but this reporter too, managed to get her hands on a prize – eventually!
Win a giant unicorn at the Marina Bay Carnival. (Photo: Elizabeth Khor)
The Prudential Marina Bay Carnival is open daily from 4pm to 11pm until Apr 1, 2018, except on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, when it opens at 3pm to 2am the following morning.
SINGAPORE: Police arrested 11 women during raids on Tuesday (Dec 12) targeting unlicensed massage establishments at Jalan Bukit Merah, Tanjong Pagar and South Bridge Road.
In a news release on Thursday, police said they nabbed the 11 women, aged between 28 and 40, for offences under the Women’s Charter and Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.
Eleven women aged between 28 and 40 were arrested for offences under the Women’s Charter and Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. (Photo: Singapore Police Force)
Action will also be taken against four massage establishments for offences under the Massage Establishments Act, police said.
SINGAPORE: Local football icon Fandi Ahmad will be the head coach of the Young Lions with immediate effect, as the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced a slew of personnel changes on Thursday (Dec 14).
Fandi will now be in charge of preparing the Young Lions for the 2018 Asian Games as well as the 2019 SEA Games. The 55-year-old will also lead the team in next year’s S-League season, as part of their preparations for the regional competitions.
He will be assisted by former national team captain Nazri Nasir.
Fandi takes over from veteran coach Vincent Subramaniam, who led the Young Lions to a bottom place finish in the 2017 S-League season.
The junior side picked up just one win and three draws in 24 matches to finish last in the nine-team standings. Subramaniam was given the role in July on a short-term contract until the end of the season in December.
Prior to this latest appointment, Fandi was head coach of the national Under-20 team.
TARDY TO LEAVE IN MARCH
The FAS also announced that head coach for the National Youth Team, Richard Tardy, will be released early from his contract by mutual agreement. The Frenchman, who led Singapore to a poor showing in this year’s SEA Games, will leave FAS on Mar 31, 2018.
FAS said Tardy’s early release is a result of “a strategic shift in the delivery of the FAS’ youth development plans and for the preparation of the 2019 SEA Games”.
Singapore U-23 coach Richard Tardy and his staff on the sidelines. (Photo: Natasha Razak)
In addition, contracts for the national Under-18 staff coach Christophe Chaintreuil and Under-15 staff coach Sofiyan Hamid will be ending on Dec 31. FAS said it is already looking for replacements and an announcement will be made in due course.
S-League director of operations Kok Wai Leong will also be leaving his position following the end of his re-employment contract, FAS said. Kok has been part of the S-League management team for the past six seasons since he joined FAS in April 2012.
Commenting on the changes, FAS president Lim Kia Tong said: “We thank Richard, Christophe and Sofiyan for their contributions to our youth set-up throughout their time here and wish them well as they pursue new opportunities.
“In particular, we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to Richard for sharing his expertise with us and guiding the youth teams in the past two years.”
Lim also wished Kok “all the best” in his future endeavours.
“He has been a big part of Singapore football and we are grateful for the years of service he has dedicated to the football fraternity,” said Lim.
At least three women say that they were raped by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who recently left his business empire following abuse allegations, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The 60-year-old hip-hop legend denied the rape accusations — which date back to 1988 — and voiced support for the growing movement of women speaking out against abusive men.
Simmons announced on November 30 that he was stepping down from his business roles after two women accused him of assault, which he also denied.
But The New York Times article described an alleged pattern of behaviour by the enormously influential Def Jam Recordings co-founder, who was accused of preying on women entering the industry.
Tina Baker, a singer who has performed back-up for Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, said Simmons was her manager when he invited her to his apartment in 1990 or 1991.
She told the newspaper that he pinned her down as raped her. The Times said the account was confirmed by four people close to her including her ex-husband and therapist.
“I didn’t have sex with a man for almost nine years” afterward, Baker told the newspaper. “I went into a cocoon.”
Simmons said he never had sex with Baker. He said in a statement: “I vehemently deny all these allegations.”
“I have accepted that I can and should get dirt on my sleeves if it means witnessing the birth of a new consciousness about women,” he said.
Unlike many in the brash world of hip-hop, Simmons in recent years has developed a clean, spiritual image as he promotes yoga and veganism.
But the newspaper also reported an incident in 2014 in which a woman said Simmons touched her inappropriately after encountering him in a Miami hotel.
Simmons and fellow producer Rick Rubin helped bring hip-hop to wide US audiences in the 1980s when they founded Def Jam, a label that signed major acts such as the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and later Public Enemy.
An otter pup taking a nap at Pasir Ris Park. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
In fact, Jayaprakash Bojan told Channel NewsAsia that the latter are his favourite subjects here.
“I’ve been photographing the Pasir Ris family for a year and a half now. I live in Pasir Ris Link and the park is one of my favourite places. When I’m not travelling, I go there three to four times a week, and there are a few spots they show up very regularly. Typically, in the mornings, they’d come and roll on the grass,” said the 41-year-old photographer from Tamil Nadu, India.
Jayaprakash Bojan’s photo of the Pasir Ris family encountering Singaporean joggers won first prize at a photography contest in India. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
He has even won an award for one of his otter photos – a scene depicting an encounter between the animals and morning joggers had previously won first prize at a contest in India.
“There were these uncles who were taking photos with their handphones and the otters were curious and even walked closer to them,” Bojan recalled.
A buffy fish owl (or Malay fish owl) in Singapore. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
“I used that photograph to tell the story of how wildlife can still coexist with humans in an urban place like Singapore. It’s got really limited wildlife but it’s just amazing to see how people here are very appreciative of what is there, preserving and taking care of them.”
ENCOUNTERING ‘COOPER’ IN THE WILD
At the heart of Bojan’s love for photography is animal conservation. His award-winning photo of the male orangutan – fondly nicknamed “Cooper” by his wife for its copper-tinted fur – is part of an ongoing project of photographing endangered primates all around the world.
Mr Bojan’s winning photograph was of a male orangutan crossing a river in Borneo. (Photo: Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan)
Another of his photographs – of an African cheetah – also made it to the National Geographic finals, but Bojan said he was glad it was the orangutan image that won.
“I’m happy to just put the spotlight on the orangutans – they deserve it more than me winning the award,” he said, recalling the shock he felt at the sight that greeted him at the beginning of his trip to Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan in August.
A cheetah in Africa, which was also a finalist at Nat Geo’s photography contest. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
“When you fly down from Jakarta, all you see around are palm oil farms – probably 60 to 70 per cent of the habitat of the orangutans have been destroyed by palm oil cultivation. I was impacted by the loss of habitat,” he said, adding that he plans to donate part of his prize money – US$7,500 (S$10,000) – to orangutan conservation.
As for the real story behind the prize-winning shot, Bojan knew he was on to something special when he was told by one of the local rangers that there were occasional sightings of orangutans crossing the Sekonyer River.
Jayaprakash Bojan with an orangutan that was rescued from a palm oil farm and released into the wild in Indonesia. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
“Historically, there are very few documented evidence of orangutans in the river, because they hate water and some parts of the river have crocodiles. So we took the risk,” said Bojan.
It was only on the second day of living on a boat when he and his companions finally spotted the great ape.
Red-shanked langurs in Vietnam. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
“I decided to jump into the river and hid behind a tree. It happened that the orangutan saw me and kind of hid behind another tree trunk in the river. So I just stood still – and after a few seconds, the orangutan came out to see if I was still there. I took a sequence of around 25 pictures. It was an exciting, thrilling moment for me,” he said.
FROM SINGAPORE ZOO TO INDOCHINA
And there have been many such moments for Bojan, who had simply been a hobbyist until his move to Singapore a couple of years ago to follow his wife, who works in the banking industry.
Grey herons in Singapore. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
After working in the corporate sector in India for 18 years, he decided to quit his job to pursue his passion for travel and photography as a freelance wildlife photographer.
In the past 11 months, he has been to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia – primarily to focus on his endangered primates project, which he hopes to publish as a photobook by the end of next year.
A golden-cheeked gibbon from Vietnam. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
His passion for endangered primates began thanks to a visit to the Singapore Zoo upon moving here two years ago – and seeing the orangutans, gibbons and red langur.
“It’s honestly one of the best zoos I’ve seen. The design is so beautiful you don’t feel you’re in a zoo. Something was triggered and I thought should go and find all these primates and photograph them in the wild.”
A pied hornbill in Singapore. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
He added: “In Indochina alone there are about 25 rare monkey or primate species that are highly endangered. For some of them, there are only about 40 to 50 alive. So far, I’ve only captured around nine species because they’re really hard to spot, especially since I’m trying to photograph them in the wild.”
A leopard in India. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
And there’s more on his plate. In February, he’ll be in Japan to shoot their famous snow monkeys. The month after that, it’s off to the Himalayas in the hopes of spotting the elusive snow leopards.
“That’s going to be a really tough one. It’s maybe 10,000 feet about sea level and very low on oxygen. But we have a good team there,” he said.
A mudskipper in a Singapore mangrove. (Photo: Jayaprakash Bojan)
And is his wife okay with his constant travelling? “She’s a huge nature lover. In fact whenever she has time she travels with me. But it’s not easy to be away from home weeks at a time. Obviously, you need a supportive wife,” he said with a laugh.
