SINGAPORE: More than half of the food waste generated by Singapore households could have been avoided by not ordering, buying or cooking too much, a recent study found.
The amount of food waste measured in the study conducted by the National Environment Agency (NEA) between November 2016 to March 2017 was equal to throwing away a 2.5kg bag of rice every week, the agency said in a news release on Sunday (Dec 3).
The study involved collecting waste from 279 households over three days and sorting it to determine the amount of “avoidable” and “unavoidable” food waste including parts of food not intended for consumption such as bones and egg shells.
A total of 443 families were also interviewed to understand their food waste management habits.
About one in four households said they had leftovers after a meal at least half the time. A quarter said they often threw away spoilt or expired food, mostly because they had bought too much food and had food hidden at the back of the fridge.
Half of them acknowledged that they could have taken steps to avoid food waste generated from leftovers after a meal, food expiring or becoming spoilt, and throwing away blemished fruits and vegetables.
More than 50 per cent of the families interviewed also suggested that supermarkets pack food items into smaller portions and for eateries to offer different dish portion sizes.
FOOD WASTE HEAVIER THAN 3,500 MRT TRAINS
Food waste accounts for about half of the waste disposed by each Singapore household every day. Rice, noodles and bread are the most commonly wasted food items, according to the study.
Food waste in Singapore has increased by about 40 per cent over the last 10 years, with the amount last year being equivalent to the weight of more than 3,500 MRT trains, NEA said.
“At the current rate of waste disposal, we will require a new waste-to-energy plant to be built every seven to 10 years and a new landfill to be built every 35 years. This is not sustainable given Singapore’s land scarcity constraints,” it added.
The agency advised members of the public to buy, cook or order only what they need. Tips include making a shopping list to avoid impulse buys, asking for less rice or noodles based on one’s appetite, as well as using leftovers to cook the next meal.
They are also advised to store raw foods that are not consumed within three to four days in the refrigerator to minimise nutrition loss as well as bacteria spoilage due to Singapore’s warm temperature.
“Food waste is an important issue to tackle as part of our efforts to move Singapore towards our vision of a Zero Waste Nation,” said Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Health and Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources at a grassroots event on Sunday.
“If everyone does their part to reduce food waste, we also save on the resources needed to produce the food, as well as to dispose of it. This in turn reduces our carbon footprint,” she added.
SINGAPORE: The first baby conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in Singapore was Samuel Lee, born on May 19, 1983.
Then, IVF was not recognized as a public health service for which Medisave could be utilised.
This restriction was only lifted in recent years, with government co-funding additionally available for eligible couples since 2013, in light of more Singaporeans marrying later and after the technique demonstrated a reasonable, higher rate of success.
But there is still a cap on the age, number of cycles for which Medisave can be utilised and withdrawal limits.
Similar regulation or policy may apply to social egg freezing too but we do not foresee this happening in the near future, even though there are population related imperatives and as Singapore’s fertility rates remain low, particularly among well-educated, socio-economically advantaged sectors of society.
EGG FREEZING
The opportunity for young women to freeze their eggs to be used at some later date “when the time is right” has been promoted in some sectors, as a way to “freeze the biological clock” and provide “fertility insurance” if and when “nature fails”.
Currently, many countries allow egg freezing (also known as oocyte cryopreservation) for women who wish to try to preserve their fertility and future family-building opportunities before undergoing medical treatment, such as for cancer, that may impair their fertility.
A smaller, but still sizeable, number of countries permit egg freezing for reasons other than medical threats to a woman’s fertility.
Considerable international attention has focused on the practice since Apple and Facebook offered egg freezing as a welfare benefit for their female employees.
Companies like Apple and Facebook offer female employees the chance to freeze their eggs, a policy they say gives them the freedom to pursue family planning according to their own timeline. (Photo: AFP/Josh Edelson)
In Singapore, egg freezing is permitted only where there is a medical justification but surveys indicate that a sizeable proportion of young, well-educated Singaporean women would seriously consider doing so if the procedure is available to them and public support for permitting the procedure seems forthcoming.
A year ago, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC Cheng Li Hui had asked if the Health Ministry would consider allowing healthy women to freeze their eggs so as to improve their chance of having children later, seeing that more women are marrying and starting families at an older age.
It seems incumbent on the Government to consider all options for increasing the country’s fertility rate and to refrain from limiting citizens’ reproductive autonomy but this assumes that evidence supports the case for egg freezing.
NO RESEARCH TO SUPPORT EGG FREEZING
There is a paucity of information about egg freezing from countries where it is permitted and there is no research that shows egg freezing to be an effective and efficient solution for conceiving children.
Worldwide, relatively few infants have been born following egg freezing and long-term follow-up of these children remains “work in progress”.
Although the first live birth using a frozen egg was reported three decades ago, the number of births has been miniscule compared to those from traditional IVF using freshly extracted eggs.
The potential for egg freezing to increase total fertility rates on a national level may never be realised – since it would need to be practiced at unprecedentedly high levels for it to have significant impact.
In principle, access to social egg freezing in Singapore may enable a much larger number of women to exercise their reproductive autonomy, for a chance at being a mother someday, especially if they cannot find a suitable life partner to settle down with in their 30s.
Singaporean women are already exercising their reproductive autonomy by freezing their eggs abroad, although the high costs of this option ensure its availability only to the reasonably well-off.
Clinics in Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea have been reported to provide egg freezing services. (Photo: AFP/Mohd Rasfan)
However, this assumes that those clinics will have the necessary expertise to employ egg freezing efficiently.
Best practice and industry standards suggest that eggs should be frozen before a woman turns 34 and no fewer than eight to 10 eggs should be available for freezing.
But clinics worldwide offering social egg freezing do not always adhere to these good practice recommendations. Indeed, many foreign centres offering social egg freezing do not meet their industry’s own standards.
The other issue is the low chance of success – even the latest flash freezing processes, trumpeted by many overseas companies, reveal a success rate of no more than 30 per cent of eggs resulting in a live birth.
Yet, consumer reports and research studies provide strong evidence that clinics do not discuss the risks and failure rates, and over-emphasise the potential benefits. One can imagine why, for a procedure that costs US$10,000 for extraction and freezing, and around US$1,000 for storage each year.
Protecting the consumer may be the overriding concern – one cannot begin to imagine the emotional pain where failure takes on a deeper, personal meaning involving dashed expectations of parenthood.
Irresponsible marketing strategies that portray only the possible positive aspects of egg freezing but downplay or ignore the risks and success rates may work well on an audience looking for hope for a child.
There is an argument that given its relatively low success rates of pregnancy, the ready availability of social egg freezing may also be counter-productive, encouraging more women to delay motherhood. But where success rates among older women remain uncertain, motherhood may not just be delayed but missed out on entirely.
An overemphasis on the purported benefits of social egg freezing without giving an accurate picture of the uncertainty involved might set women up for disappointment instead. (Photo: AFP)
NATURAL INTERCOURSE STILL THE BEST WAY TO CONCEIVE
Despite considerable advances in reproductive technology, it remains the case that a woman’s best chance of getting pregnant is through natural intercourse at a young age.
We do not believe that fertility clinics should offer social egg freezing without a demonstrable track record of successful pregnancies using frozen eggs, most of which will have been used in donor programmes or where women have frozen their eggs prior to fertility-threatening medical treatment.
For all these reasons, it remains our view that allowing egg freezing in Singapore is premature.
Women contemplating social egg freezing should be fully informed of the risks, costs of the procedure and its relatively low success rates, so that they are protected.
We cannot stress enough the importance of educating those considering egg freezing emotionally and intellectually of the challenges ahead, and the need for them to receive counsel and guidance before they hand over their credit card.
On current evidence, making the procedure available in Singapore seems more of a gamble than is justified.
Lee Geok Ling is assistant professor at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Social Work. Eric D Blyth is professor emeritus at the University of Huddersfield’s School of Human and Health Sciences.
SINGAPORE: It’s a scenario that plays out time and time again: A family builds a successful business, only to fall out and feud over its fortunes.
In Singapore, such cases in the food and beverage industry that have made headlines include Hock Lam Street beef kway teow and Rochor tau huay, both of which have competing outlets owned by different siblings, each claiming to be the rightful successor.
It’s a potential pitfall that siblings Adrian, Valerie and Pathom Koh – fourth-generation owners of homegrown chain Xi De Li, Singapore’s biggest supplier of dough fritters – are well aware of.
To avoid it, they follow one simple rule: Never fight about money.
“Money is secondary. Family comes first. That’s what my father always says,” says Ms Valerie Koh, 37, in a mix of Mandarin and English. The middle child, she is the company’s managing director overseeing its operation and expansion.
The Koh siblings, (from left) Pathom, Valerie and Adrian, at a Xi De Li stall. (Photo: Ray Yeh)
BACKBREAKING ORIGINS
Their father, Mr Koh Cheng Sai – a spritely man in his early 60s – has been hawking youtiao (dough fritters in Chinese) since he dropped out of school as a teenager.
Work for him back then began in the wee hours. As his neighbours slept, he and his mother would make their way to Beo Crescent to set up their pushcart stall outside the market.
This was a backbreaking business passed down from his grandmother, a migrant from China who started the trade in the 1920s.
Just like she did, mother and son would spend hours every night making dough in the dim flickering light of the kerosene lamp – dough that had to be kneaded, left to rise and carved into the right size, all by hand.
Carving up the youtiao dough. (Photo: Ray Yeh)
Frying began at around 4am, shortly before the first customers of the day arrived. This is the step that separates the mediocre cook from the master.
To get the perfect fried dough sticks, some will say, there are many factors to consider – from the type and temperature of the oil used, to how long the stretched dough ought to be fried.
But ask Mr Koh the secret that makes his version of this breakfast staple famous, and he says with a throaty laugh: “There’s nothing special, lah. Everyone does it differently.”
Xi De Li youtiao. (Photo: Ray Yeh)
These days, Mr Koh can be found at his Clementi stall from 4am to mid-afternoon, six days a week.
He moved his youtiao outlet here in 1980, running it with his wife, Madam Ong Soo Cheng, whom he married in the mid-1970s, a few years before his mother passed away from cancer.
Mdm Ong remembers her mother-in-law’s final days well. Despite her frailty, the old lady refused to stop working – her mind was never far from the business that made her only a few dollars a day, but nonetheless provided for her family.
She had summoned Mdm Ong to her deathbed. “Promise me you’ll continue the business,” pleaded the old woman.
“And make sure he does it, too,” she added, tilting her head towards her grandson who was napping nearby.
Mdm Ong serving a customer at the Xi De Li Clementi stall. (Photo: Ray Yeh)
THE FOURTH GENERATION – AND EXPANSION
She would have been heartened to see him still carrying on the family legacy. Now 40, Mr Adrian Koh, an extroverted father of three, is the sales director of Xi De Li in charge of bringing in new customers.
Today, the family company is the biggest dough fritter supplier in Singapore. They also boast no less than 20 franchise outlets.
Such an achievement was previously unimaginable to Mr Koh who, like his father, had little interest in his studies as a young man. He started to learn the youtiao trade at around the age of 15 after dropping out of secondary school.
Factory-made frozen dough. The family company is the biggest dough fritter supplier in Singapore. (Photo: Ray Yeh)
By the time he completed national service, he was ready to run his own stall. The Tiong Bahru outlet that he set up 20 years ago is still there today, run by his wife.
Unlike her elder brother, Ms Valerie Koh’s journey to take on the family business took a little detour.
Like Adrian, she started helping out around the Clementi stall as a young teen. “When my school friends enjoyed the school holidays, we would be working at the stall,” she says.
Then for ten years, she worked at another dough fritter company – one owned by her uncle, Mdm Ong’s brother. Her time there taught her a great deal about running such a business.
But in 2006, her father was diagnosed with diabetes and required frequent trips to the hospital. He needed someone he could trust to oversee the family business – and so, Ms Koh, then 26, returned.
The Koh family makes it a point to have dinner together once a week. (Photo: Ray Yeh)
In the last decade, with the two older Koh siblings at the helm, Xi De Li has expanded multifold. Two factories were set up to make frozen dough snacks and pre-fried fritters for food stalls and restaurants.
“We cover about 70 per cent of the Singapore market,” Ms Koh says.
KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES
But up until three years, each dough snack was still painstakingly made by hand.
Demand for their products was growing but workers couldn’t keep up – so custom-made machines worth S$200,000 were brought in to automate a good part of the process.
It was an expensive exercise that paid off.
(Photo: Ray Yeh)
Owing to domain expertise like this, Xi De Li recently expanded beyond the shores of Singapore to Indonesia. And Ms Koh is eyeing other markets.
My goal is to expand to places like Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand.
One of the Kohs’ biggest challenges is to entice younger customers who prefer croissants to youtiao, and customers who are health-conscious.
For example, Shou Yi – their more upmarket stall in the Food Opera foodcourt at Ion – was a cash-bleeding venture at first.
Things turned around only when new items were introduced to complement the traditional snacks like the hum chim peng (salty dough fritters) and sesame balls. Bold additions such as Japanese sweet potato balls proved to be a hit with the Orchard crowd.
A selection of snacks from the stall at Food Opera foodcourt. (Photo: Ray Yeh)
Instances like this demonstrate the can-do attitude that the Koh siblings share. “What’s important is to take that next step and just try. Even if we fail, we learn a valuable lesson,” says Ms Koh.
Younger brother Pathom Koh, 29, who oversees the franchisees, believes the family’s secret to success can be summed up in two words: Give, and take.
While their parents have no plans to retire just yet, they take a decidedly hands-off approach to the running of the business, focussing only on their own Clementi stall which they see as a duty to their loyal customers.
Their only concern is the issue of succession. Among the next generation – it will be the fifth for the Koh family business – 15-year-old Koh Jun Ni has already begun to show interest in pastry-making.
Asked if she wants to join the youtiao business, she says matter-of-factly: “I will help if my parents want me to.”
Sisters Koh Jun Xuan, 12, and Koh Jun Ni, 15 – Xi De Li’s next generation of youtiao makers? (Photo: Ray Yeh)
SINGAPORE: A man was killed and two others were injured in an accident along Serangoon road on Saturday (Dec 2) evening.
Channel NewsAsia understands that the accident involved a lorry and a motorcycle.
Images and videos circulating online showed a stretch of the road near Race Course lane and Roberts lane cordoned off by police.
One person was killed in the accident involving a motorcycle and a lorry along Serangoon road following on Saturday (Dec 2) evening.
The Singapore Civil Defense Force (SCDF) said it received a call for assistance at approximately 7.50pm and immediately dispatched its resources to Serangoon road.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. while another two were taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), SCDF said, adding that the hospital was alerted to be on standby.
SINGAPORE: She moves quickly and with assurance around her tiny stall: Kneading the yellow dough, adding a sprinkle of flour before passing it through a noodle-making machine. Once, twice, until a clump of hand-made noodles lands on the counter.
It is a flurry of activity for Mdm Vivian Leong, who is hard at work at her ban mian stall tucked away in a coffee shop at Holland Close. She keeps a watchful eye on the handmade noodles as they are dunked in boiling water, waiting until they are cooked to just the right texture before transferring them to a bowl and adding a dash of sauce, made from her mother’s traditional Hakka recipe. A handful of braised mushrooms, minced meat, blanched vegetables and a poached egg – if requested – are tossed in, and another hungry customer is served.
Food bloggers have come and gone away satisfied. Laminated food reviews and photos of the 42-year-old Mdm Leong posing with variety show hosts line the front of her stall. Each bowl of handmade ban mian is lovingly made, says Mdm Leong with a smile, and customers can tell by how it tastes.
She is worlds apart from the person she says she used to be: Abandoned, depressed and on the brink of suicide.
And it was a plea from her daughter that brought her to her senses.
A bowl of Mdm Leong’s Hakka-style ban mian. (Photo: Diane Leow)
A DESPERATE PLEA
She still remembers the day her world turned upside down. It was Apr 1, 2012, and she was in the middle of cooking curry chicken when the phone rang.
It was her husband, calling from Shanghai where he was based, asking her for a divorce.
“I was completely taken by shock, and my mind was a blank,” she recalled. “I asked him why, and he said that our personalities were not a good fit for each other.
“I felt so misunderstood and wronged,” she added. “For so many years, I had tried my best to be a good wife to him … taking care of him, looking after our daughter and loving him the best that I could.
“I loved him so much, and I felt that the past few years of my life was all for nothing.”
She later found out that he had found another partner and wanted nothing more to do with Mdm Leong and her daughter Ivory, who was then seven years old.
Away from her family in Malaysia, Mdm Leong found herself alone and penniless, with a young daughter to take care of. “I really lost all hope, and felt that there was no more meaning to my life,” she said.
Three weeks later, she was standing on a chair at a window in her flat, looking at the ground below.
She remembers crying to her daughter, who was kneeling down begging her not to jump. And she also remembers the words her daughter said to her that eventually led her to turn her life around.
“Mummy, please don’t jump. If you jump, I will go down with you,” she recalled Ivory saying to her. “When I heard that, my heart was so painful, and I knelt down, hugging her and crying.”
“Mummy, don’t worry,” Ivory had said as she hugged her mother. “The ban mian you make is very good. If you open a stall, many people will come and eat.”
WORKING HER WAY UP
The very idea seemed absurd to Mdm Leong. How could she, a penniless single mother, open her own food stall?
“To me, it was impossible,” she said. “I had no savings and had never worked here (in Singapore) before. The skill I had was to cook for my friends and family.”
And indeed, it was a long, arduous journey for Mdm Leong. She started from the bottom, washing dishes at a coffee shop and worked her way up step by step: From cutting chilli and vegetables at the cooked food stall, she progressed to writing receipts, taking customers’ orders and recommending dishes. Finally, when she was ready, she was “promoted” to keeping the books.
Making noodles at her stall. (Photo: Lianne Chia)
“I was so heartened,” she said. “I managed to work my way up, and get experience. This, to me, was the foundation of this ban mian stall.”
She is also grateful for the kindness of a coffee shop owner she met.
“I think he saw how hard I was working at the cooked food stall, and he asked me to come to his coffee shop and take over an empty stall there,” she said. “I didn’t have to pay a deposit. Instead, I gave him S$50 a day from my earnings.”
In late 2015, two-and-a-half years after she contemplated suicide, Madam Leong Ban Mian officially opened for business.
PEACE IN HER HEART
Initially taking up just half a stall unit, the business has gone from strength to strength, thanks in no small part to Mdm Leong’s dedication and hard work. Today, she has expanded to take over the whole stall, and now offers yong tau foo and Thai food as well.
She was over the moon, she says, when her ban mian stall opened. But the daily grind is far from a walk in the park.
“Every morning, I am up at 6.30am to get my daughter ready for school. Then I have to open my stall. Make the noodles, prepare the chilli, cut the ingredients…all before my stall opens at 10.”
Her break time, taken in the mid-afternoon when the lunch-time crowds have tapered off, is spent taking care of her daughter and helping her with her homework, before heading back to her stall to serve the dinner crowd.
Serving up another piping hot bowl of ban mian. (Photo: Lianne Chia)
“Sometimes, I feel like my body really has no strength to continue, especially when I get sick,” she said. “When I really have no choice, I will close my stall for one or two days, quickly take some medication, see a doctor and hope that I can get well.”
She admits that at times, she also questions her choice. “Late at night, I sometimes ask myself. Why do I want to continue, especially when I only make enough to cover my expenses? What if my daughter wants to go to university, or if I want to buy a house?”
“But God tells me that my journey has not ended yet. And I feel peace in my heart.”
The past few months have also been particularly stressful for Ivory, who is entering secondary school next year. With her PSLE results, which have qualified her for the Normal (Academic) stream, she hopes to go to St Margaret’s Secondary School.
It is clear that Mdm Leong has high hopes for her daughter. And ultimately, when her hands are aching and her back is sore, that is what keeps her going.
“My daughter tells me, no mee hoon kueh, no life. No mee hoon kueh, no home, and no love,” she said with a chuckle. “And that, to me, is a miracle: God’s words, and my daughter’s encouragement. God guides me and shows me the way. I really thank God.”
SINGAPORE:Lim Teck Yin is suitably built to be an ambassador of Singapore sports. As CEO of Sport Singapore (SportSG), a statutory board set up to transform Singapore through sport, he embodies its spirit with his athletic physique.
He is tall and broad-shouldered and for this interview was wearing a fitted t-shirt that accentuated his robust chest and chiseled arms. A light tan, evidence of his love of outdoor sports, illuminated his skin.
At 55, he exercises regularly and has introduced a “dress-down every day” programme at SportSG. All employees can come to work in casual or sportswear and are encouraged to physically move every few hours.
Lim’s relationship with sport started long before he became CEO of SportSG.
“My father was very athletic. He played tennis and badminton and I used to follow him as a young kid,” he saod with a tinge of nostalgia.
In primary school, whether it was football, table tennis, badminton, tennis or field hockey, he played it.
He confessed he was never really good at any of them, but when an opportunity to play water polo came along, he signed up. “I loved swimming at quite a young age. Ang Peng Siong was in my cohort and he was my classmate, so I wasn’t about to win anything in swimming,” he said, with a hint of a smile in his voice.
“Water polo looked like a lot more fun than swimming laps anyway.”
He went on to represent Singapore in water polo, winning six consecutive South-East Asian (SEA) Games Gold Medals from 1985 to 1995, and an Asian Games Bronze Medal in 1986.
Lim Teck Yin representing Singapore in water polo at the 1989 SEA Games. (Photo: Michael Goh)
Beyond sports, his 30-year career in the Singapore Armed Forces shaped his ability to be both a team player and a leader.
As Brigadier-General he was involved in strategic planning, leading and managing units, operations and projects, and developing people – skills that he took with him to SportSG in 2011.
Today, he’s interested in making sports a way of life in Singapore. Winning medals was never a priority for him and “it shouldn’t be” he said. For him, it’s about having fun, and parents and schools must be able see this.
We started off by talking about a project he’s particularly proud of – the ActiveSG Football Academy. “It has made football very affordable and accessible to children. We now have 10 centres,” he said.
The sessions are conducted three times a week over a period of 10 weeks and cost S$130. Kids are coached by prominent names such as Alexander Duric.
FUNDING FOR FOOTBALL – MORE EFFICIENCIES NEEDED
This was the perfect opportunity to discuss the state of Singapore football. The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) recently announced plans to widen the pool of youth players at the school level and implement mandatory Under-23 quotas for six local S-League clubs.
“I know it’s a cliché, but Singapore football clearly needs to go back to basics – a strong focus on youth development. But there’s lag time between getting that right and delivering a strong national team. The FAS unfortunately is going to have to suffer the pain of this transitionary period.”
More recently, the impending funding cut for the 2018 S.League season is threatening to worsen football’s woes. It was announced earlier this year that SportSG will be the gatekeeper of annual subsidies and the budget for next year could be halved.
Lim didn’t want to go into detail about the amount, but I asked him to explain why a funding cut is necessary. Won’t this further cripple an already floundering S.League?
“We are not cutting funding because they weren’t performing. I think we did a deep-dive into how money was spent and we are convinced that we can do this at a lower level of funding.
“If I gave you a million dollars and you were not sharp enough with that million dollars, that could be less effective than someone who has half of that but is very clear what that money is going to be put into.”
He is convinced that more efficiencies can be made.
“We can streamline administration across the S.League headquarters and the club’s administration. There’s a lot of scope for synergies whether it’s in player development, coach development or opportunities to advance the standard of football.
“One of the ideas we have is to convince the S.League that we should share stadiums. There is a difference between maintaining 11 pitches versus upgrading and maintaining five.”
How that will go down with the clubs is a different matter. After all, shouldn’t teams play at a stadium located within their clubs’ community?
Also, since the S.League couldn’t do well with the existing level of funding, wouldn’t cutting it, even while introducing efficiencies, either keep the league performing at the current level, if not worse?
“That remains to be seen. I think more efficiencies will help,” he insisted.
Another concern over the years has been players’ contracts and salaries. Surely those things have to be improved in order to attract younger players to the field? Wouldn’t a cut in funding make contracts and salaries even worse?
But he pointed out that the ones who perform well earn good money.
“If you’re earning S$10,000, that’s not bad, right?”
But media reports say such cases are rare. A Channel NewsAsia report earlier this year found that average squad members earn less than S$3,000 a month, while players who regularly feature in the national team can pull in S$5,000 to S$8,000.
Lim feels this is fair. He became circumspect as he said this.
“I don’t want to run the risk of, in one statement, whitewashing everybody, but should a footballer who is not in the national team be publicly funded more than many of our national athletes in other sports? There needs to be a balance in terms of investment and accountability and to have a better perspective on the total amount of public funding that will be given to this.”
He also feels some players in the clubs lack a “professional high-performance mindset”.
“This is about how you live your life. How much you sleep and rest. How much you train. Both in the training that is organised and that you do on your own. How much do you study your sport and how much do you practise? Any athlete who wants to do well makes big sacrifices.”
Granted, the athlete has to prove his seriousness about the sport but if his income is far from satisfactory and he has to hold down another full-time job to support his family, how can he possibly make that commitment?
Lim Teck Yin supporting Team Singapore at the 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur. (Photo: Sport Singapore)
Lim admitted this is a problem. “It’s a chicken-and-egg problem. But if the clubs want to be able to offer bigger contracts, want to provide more assurance, more security, they will first have to ask themselves ‘Can I market this?’
“If you recognise that funding will flow to a certain level and beyond that level, you have to pay attention to your market proposition, you’re going to spend more time to get out to the community. You’re going to build relationships with businesses and help them understand why they should support you.”
He pointed out that the FAS council has recently been urging S.League teams to reach out to their communities.
SOME ATHLETES DON’T ACKNOWLEDGE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
This took us on to the issue of sports funding in general.
Just this year, the Government announced enhancements in the form of an injection of $50 million over five years into the High Performance Sports system and a new One Team Singapore matching grant.
But some athletes have taken to crowdfunding to support their needs, giving rise to questions from members of the public about the extent of Government funding.
He pointed out that Sports Excellence Scholarship (spexScholarship) holders generally don’t resort to alternatives like crowdfunding.
But does one have to reach those heights in order to be adequately funded? What about those who haven’t reached that level but have potential?
He explained the system continues to evolve to better identify athletic potential at a younger age, but he urged the need to contextualise statements about a lack of funding.
“A vocal few fail to acknowledge what is already being given. Very often, I wonder if I should come out on social media and declare the amount of money they are actually getting from Government.”
So why doesn’t he, for the sake of transparency, and let the public decide?
“I’d rather not,” he said.
“Because I think we position these athletes as role models and they are. I do understand what they perceive their struggles to be. I understand they perceive that a lot more can be done and to their credit, they are standing up to take action.”
Even though he did not go into specifics, just by saying he believes some athletes are understating Government support, some might say he has already cast aspersions on the fraternity.
I had my doubts about his statement and remarked that he was making a serious allegation.
He wa quick to say he believes “none of our athletes are conniving or malicious”.
“But in standing up to take action, they obviously know that they have to present a strategy that works, which is ‘I’m under-supported’.”
Putting aside the possibility that the athletes could be underplaying the amount of government support they are receiving, the fact remains that they feel under-supported.
Considering Singapore is an affluent nation with aspirations to be a sports hub and sporting city, shouldn’t more be given to athletes to show how serious the Government actually is?
He explained his position: “During conversations with athletes, sometimes we disagree on whether what more they would like funding for will make much of a difference. Sometimes, it’s because of a lack of planning on their part. Maybe something has just popped up and they want to do it, but it was not provisioned for when we planned funding.
“But sometimes I think it’s just rhetoric on their part.”
He feels the issue of funding has been misunderstood and pointed out that beyond funding in the form of cash, there are many other ways in which athletes are supported.
CEO of Sport Singapore Lim Teck Yin.
“There’s medical support and support in terms of sports science. Sports science has physiology, nutrition, psychology, strengthening and conditioning and even facility support. And all this is free for the athletes.”
However, he admitted there is room for improvement.
“One of the systemic challenges today is that the funding provided through the National Sports Associations (NSAs) might be presented on a reimbursement basis. That presents cash flow problems. We should urge the NSAs to just give them the money up front.”
COULD JOSEPH SCHOOLING HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED BETTER?
We naturally progress to discussing Singapore’s pride and joy, Joseph Schooling. A recurring question after Schooling’s Olympic medal win last year was why the Government hadn’t done more to contribute to his journey.
“He came onto the spexScholarship in 2013. There wasn’t a spexScholarship in 2012,” said Lim.
But couldn’t an athlete of Schooling’s calibre have been spotted earlier and more money be put into grooming him?
Lim considered the question for a moment.
“Let’s go back to the earlier system which could have caught Joseph Schooling. He wasn’t on the radar when it came to benchmark-able measurements against other athletes. The current system is much improved and we’re able to identify athletes much younger, even before they’ve won a SEA Games gold medal.”
But even the current system has its limitations.
“At what stage should we intervene with more money? I think we should always try to improve our competitive analytics and enhance the level of flexibility in any system. How much flexibility would we have to make bets and how much latitude do we want to give ourselves for failed bets as opposed to having much stronger success rates? This is a continuing conversation to have.”
I put it to him that as an affluent nation, surely more latitude can be exercised even if it means intervening later with more money.
IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY
This is when we finally got to what he considers the core of the issue.
“It’s a current weakness in our high performance mindset that this funding needs to be provided solely by the Government. The meaningfulness of the achievement of our national athletes will be enhanced only when the village gets behind them in substantive ways. When there’s an over-reliance on one party to do everything, the value of bringing people together is lost. We need to build something great together.
Lim Teck Yin with Quek Swee Kuan, CEO, Sentosa Development Corporation at the launch of this year’s GetActive! Singapore in Sentosa. (Photo: Sport Singapore)
“When we put Team Singapore out there at the SEA Games recently, at least one million eyeballs saw them compete online. If thinking about excellence, perseverance and the will to succeed as a small country resonates with your brand, let’s market this together.”
When I asked how successful this strategy has been in getting commercial entities to come forward, he said SportSG is “sharpening its sword” in this area.
But he enthusiastically spoke about the One Team Singapore Fund. At its launch earlier this year, it received S$500,000 from three donors.
THE POLITICS OF SPORTS
Earlier this year when public accusations and counter-accusations between members of the Singapore Athletics (SA) management committee made headlines and affected athletes’ performance, Lim stepped in to express his disappointment publicly, urging the association to put the needs of athletes first.
Today, he reiterated this and goes a step further. “Things continue to be at an impasse and I think they need a total and absolute leadership change,” he said categorically.
“If you don’t have a clear perspective of working in service of the sport, then you’re never going to succeed.”
The association’s squabbles led to marathoner Soh Rui Yong saying that he did not want to contribute 20 per cent of his $10,000 gold medal prize money to it. Under the Singapore National Olympic Council’s terms and conditions, it is mandatory to do so.
I wanted to know what Lim thinks of Soh’s stance on the issue. Why should an athlete have to make the contribution if he feels the association has not contributed to his success?
Lim said Soh’s feelings are “understandable”.
But while he recognises the deficits in the current SA management, in principle, he feels athletes should see the contribution as a “value statement”.
“Even if you feel the leadership of the day hasn’t supported you enough, you must remember the institution has walked a long journey with you over the years. You couldn’t have even qualified if there were no association. Today, they may not be doing a great job, but that doesn’t mean the institution is totally defunct. The institution of course always needs to make sure it uses the money to benefit the athletes.”
He also feels the national awards should not be seen as an entitlement.
“If you were contracted as a professional athlete in the sport industry, it’s a different contractual proposition. We shouldn’t mix up national high performance sport with the high performance sports business.”
Lim Teck Yin at this year’s Purple Parade with Team Singapore athletes. (Photo: Sport Singapore)
NATIONAL SERVICE AND SPORTS
A big part of Lim’s life was spent in the army and his ties to sports make our next discussion deeply personal for him – the question of National Service getting in the way of athletes’ careers.
“The very foundation of National Service has been equity. Nobody gets excused and this is something that I think needs to be held because there are people who actually say, ‘Why should this talented person be excused? Why should I put myself on the line for this person? Shouldn’t we all be doing this together?'”
Some consider representing Singapore on the international stage as an elite athlete as a form of National Service, but Lim disagreed.
“At the National Day Parade when we see what the SAF has become, what it’s able to achieve through the hard work of our national servicemen, I think there is a genuine sense of pride and whenever we’ve had a national project that required the army, air force or navy to step in, they’ve demonstrated what they can do and we feel very proud. It’s not the same as sports representation.
“If we better understand why NS is an imperative and accept it as a fact of being Singaporean, then let’s work around it. I played sports for 12 years while in the army. It’s inconvenient, but a balance can be found to do both.”
HIS DARKEST MOMENT
He spoke passionately about his career in the army, but when we start talking about the darkest moment of his military career, his passion turns into grief.
In July 1990, as an SAF company commander, he lost three soldiers during a training exercise.
“It is one thing to know that we put our lives on the line every day but a totally different thing to have to manage that loss.”
Even though investigations showed there was no negligence on his part, up until now, he feels a sense of guilt over what transpired that day.
“One of the soldiers we lost was actually not scheduled on that exercise. One of the other soldiers fell ill that day and I asked this soldier to join in. He could have avoided the whole thing if I hadn’t done that. But what can I do? We have to move on.”
He may not have fully recovered from this episode, but he is an optimist when it comes to most other aspects of his career and life.
Lim Teck Yin at the prize presentation ceremony of this year’s WTA Finals. (Photo: Sport Singapore)
“I WANT TO BE ABLE TO FADE AWAY”
As the conversation circled back to sports, I asked him how well he really thinks Singapore can do as a sporting nation.
“We’ve got a world champion swimmer, world champion junior sailors, world champion silat exponents, bowlers. We’ve got a young girl who just stunned everybody at fencing.
“I’m very clear in my mind that everything we do must have meaning to Singaporeans. If an Olympic gold medal does not make sense to the majority of Singaporeans, we will not pursue it. But in 2015, I was very encouraged to see two-thirds of TV viewers tuning in to the SEA games, so sports has meaning and our challenge is to continue to make it meaningful.”
Doing meaningful work is clearly important to him, but when asked about the legacy he wants to leave behind, he said, “I want to be able to fade away because it’s not about me. I’d like to be able to leave the scene but see more and more people carry on doing it. I don’t have to be there. This has never been about me.”
SINGAPORE: Technology has dramatically changed charitable giving.
Remember the Chope Food for the Needy movement in 2014, when people purchased hawker meals for beneficiaries in advance? Today, technology lets us do the same without the hassle of visiting an eatery and exchanging physical cash.
On the dining app BevEat for instance, people can buy a meal for charities and track when meals have been claimed via their smartphones.
With the rise of crowdfunding platforms, non-profit movements have cottoned onto cause marketing and are seeing the value in good storytelling.
The savvy ones now leverage popular digital and mobile channels, to go where their customers are. Just a few months ago, local soup kitchen Willing Hearts worked with Deliveroo to enable people to donate on the popular food delivery app – as easy as ordering pizza.
But among some quarters, there are concerns that these developments point to a worrying trend in charitable giving – one that panders to an increasingly demanding giver who wants the gift of charity to be easy and on-demand.
As part of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC)’s Futures of Giving 2025 research conducted earlier this year, one development we spotted in the social sector is the growing “retailisation” of giving as non-profits increasingly market directly to individuals. More charities are adopting the tactics of brand marketers, using influencer campaigns, social media marketing, and gamified charity drives.
With non-profits realising the need for more sophisticated business-to-consumer models, we are hearing of more givers behaving like picky customers. We have come across more accounts of givers expecting non-profit organisations (NPOs) to “serve” them by accommodating their schedules and making volunteer activities more “comfortable”.
This mindset extends to businesses as well, with 49 per cent of corporates expecting NPO partners to host well-organised corporate giving programmes, according to NVPC’s Corporate Giving Survey 2015.
Millennials are also changing the game with their aspirations to make a difference. But they may unwittingly place more pressure on non-profits. Raised on mobile phones, this generation expects giving to be convenient, for charities to be digitally-savvy and to partake in what they define as “meaningful” volunteer experiences.
As charities find themselves catering more to such demands, it raises questions: Is giving becoming more about self-gratification, instead of helping others? Should we be concerned?
END OF JUDGMENT
Make no mistake, we must always keep beneficiaries at the core of any charity. But fixating on whether givers today are more “selfish” – making charity worth less – misses the mark.
It is worth addressing whether this trend bears out among millennials upfront, because they bear the most flak for being self-absorbed and demanding. But we have found that the retailisation of giving is a phenomenon that cuts across age groups.
Saying that millennials are more self-centred in their giving is perhaps an unfair accusation. Studies suggest that this generation is highly value-driven, has a strong moral compass, and feels more accountable for many global issues.
What can be said is that unlike previous generations who viewed their personal and charitable lives as separate, millennials see the two as integrated – making their philanthropic and volunteering efforts very much a part of their individual identity.
In August, Phoebe Lim, 10, raised about S$14,000 from sambal chilli she made to gather funds for Tan Boon Teck, who suffers from Stage 3 colon cancer. (Photo: Cindy Tan)
They are more likely to seek “meaningful” jobs that align with their values. And when they share their volunteering efforts online for instance, it does not necessarily mean they are doing good out of vanity.
It is their way to advocate for causes they are passionate about, and to curate their identities in an age where traditional markers of identity are waning.
With millennials poised to form half the global workforce by 2020, we must not ignore their charitable motivations.
Broadly speaking, I think the “me first” attitude toward giving disturbs people because it challenges purist visions of what charity should be: That it should be done selflessly, without fanfare, for it to count.
The danger is that this thinking veers into moral superiority, and can lead us to divide the world into those who give well and those who give badly.
But have things ever been so clear-cut? Many acts of giving are deeply personal and self-interested, such as supporting cancer research because a family member was stricken by the disease, or volunteering as a way to expand your circle of friends.
Some argue that this is fine, as long as there is a net benefit to society. Giving need not be the total disavowal of self – you can uplift yourself as you uplift others with you.
The Mediacorp Radio team visiting one of the beneficiaries of their anniversary charity drive on Feb 6. (Photo: Alice Chia)
The other danger of holding a binary mindset is that we risk imposing high barriers for doing good, making it seem daunting and unrewarding – which should never be the case.
In NVPC’s ongoing conversations with individuals to find out why they do not give, we were struck by responses that said doing good was “very hard”. Some felt that charity required big time commitments, purity of intent and specialised skills which they lacked. If they wanted to volunteer, they felt they had to do it “properly”, or not at all.
Basically, doing nothing was better, because taking action was too difficult.
But inaction will have a bigger price. In today’s attention economy, we risk losing well-meaning individuals to other activities that demand their time – like shopping or gaming.
Why not harness this growing human need for instant gratification for good?
ADOPTING A JOURNEY MENTALITY
One counter-argument is that we should never blindly subscribe to the thinking that the “ends justify the means”. If a person gives for misguided reasons, he can do more harm than good.
This is absolutely true. But let us think of solutions instead of dismissing those who don’t do charity in accordance with our worldview.
Over 7,000 runners took part in the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run this year, part of the Yellow Ribbon Project that aims to raise public awareness of the difficulties and challenges facing ex-offenders and their families. (Photo: Mediacorp)
The problem with the old mindset is that we fixate on a person’s intent, without considering how intent can be influenced and re-shaped.
The constructive way forward lies in viewing individuals on a “giving journey”.
People start their philanthropic journeys at different points. Some start knowing exactly who and how they want to serve. Others stumble in by accident, out of peer pressure or sheer curiosity.
But through their experiences, they are changed. They learn about the cause, understand the gaps, and become a more involved giver. Taking a journey mindset towards charity and volunteerism moves the conversation away from motive, and accepts that individuals can grow and be transformed along the way.
This is not a revolutionary idea. Businesses use the idea of customer journeys to understand how individuals engage with a brand through multiple touchpoints. Regardless of how they come to know the brand, the important thing is to harness every interaction and convert people into becoming a loyal customer.
When applied to givers, the hows and whys of people’s giving become less material.
What is important is process: Nurturing a relationship with potential givers, engaging them in dialogue, and encouraging them to advance on their path.
This empowers all of us – leaders, teachers, friends and neighbours – to be change-agents: We can be stewards, guiding would-be givers further along.
Charities are also no longer cast in a passive role waiting for resources; they can intervene to influence volunteers and donors, and steer conversation on issues.
Performers from the Ain Society, a volunteer welfare organisation, play for the gathered media at a media conference for the President’s Star Charity 2014. (Photo: MediaCorp)
ONE SOLUTION: DIGITAL GIVING SOLUTIONS?
The challenge, of course, is that journeying with someone takes effort.
What complicates things is that people don’t start their journeys in any prescribed manner nowadays. They give in ways that make sense to them, on channels they like to use. This plurality is exciting but a challenge to manage, especially for small charities.
Technology has often been blamed for the state we are in. But having worked in tech companies for most of my career, I am optimistic that it can also provide solutions.
The rise of the digital platform economy is an instructive example. The value of platforms like Airbnb and Taobao is not in the goods they produce (and they don’t produce any), but in the infrastructures they create that can capture millions of messy, unpredictable interactions in a single eco-system. They connect the dots in ways that make sense, and empower people to share, trade and build things of value.
Can we adapt this solution to help charities manage the chaos?
Non-profits are already using social media platforms to self-mobilise and raise awareness for causes.
Interestingly, we also see some digital eco-systems geared toward giving. For instance, non-profit crowdfunding platforms and time-banking apps that let members exchange skills and experiences in return for time credit.
In the same vein, NVPC’s online giving portal, Giving.sg, empowers individuals and groups including businesses and schools to choose various ways to give back, be it volunteering, donating or fund-raising.
A screengrab of a campaign on Singaporean crowdfunding platform giving.sg.
Because all the activity is contained in one space, it is easier for non-profits to consolidate efforts, and track and measure their digital outreach to volunteers and donors. Crucially, they can use those insights to nudge people further along their giving journeys.
The hope is that such platforms grow, become more sophisticated, and become integrated with other popularly-used apps and sites, so they are more enmeshed in people’s lives.
Ultimately, this can give charities powerful tools to manage a more vocal and engaged public, who want to give – but in ways of their choosing.
SHARED NARRATIVES
Finally, as exciting as technology may be, it must be augmented with shared narratives in society – common causes that can bring people together.
If people cannot see a destination, their journey will be directionless. Which is why charities need to persist in what they have long done – articulating vision, and continually engaging the public on issues that demand social attention.
Government bodies and the media, can share information, so that the community is armed with knowledge on society’s needs, and can help create solutions – leveraging existing tools like digital platforms. The vision and the tools (technology) go hand-in-hand to enable action.
We waste time quibbling over whether giving is selfish or selfless, good or bad. People may never agree on the best way to give.
But they can agree on purpose. And will unite behind shared purpose.
So let us give them something to get behind.
Andy Sim is the Director of Digital Innovation at NVPC. Prior to joining NVPC, he spent 30 years in the corporate world in technology companies including Microsoft, Fujitsu and IBM.
DHAKA: Every year, about 600,000 people in Bangladesh suffer burn injuries, with the majority of them occurring at home.
As a result, hospital burn units are constantly overflowing with patients.
At the current Dhaka College and Hospital, for instance, the burn unit at the A&E department sees about 250 patients every day. Of these, only about 10 patients are able to be admitted due to space constraints.
To help doctors and nurses build capabilities in treating burn patients, healthcare professionals from Singapore General Hospital (SGH) have been working closely with hospitals in Bangladesh with the aim of improving survival outcomes.
The collaboration comes under a three-year Memorandum of Understanding signed in April this year between the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Singapore’s largest healthcare group SingHealth as well as Temasek Foundation International.
One of the top causes of burns in Bangladesh is due to open-fire cooking.
Afsana is one of many women who suffered burns as a result of their sarees catching fire when they use open-fire stoves.
Making matters worse, the 14-year-old has a history of epilepsy. She had a seizure near the stove at her house which caused her to suffer burns covering 24 per cent of her body.
Nasima tending to her 14-year-old daughter Afsana, who suffered burns while cooking near an open-fire cooking stove. (Photo: Vimita Mohandas)
Afsana’s mother Nasima, said: “She keeps telling me that she is in so much of pain that she wants to kill herself.”
Bangladesh’s State Minister for Health, Zahid Malik, spoke of the need to train its medical staff in order to offer better treatment.
“In order to treat a large number of patients, we don’t have adequate medical facilities in Bangladesh. Our Prime Minister also felt the need for an institute where we can not only treat our people but train our people,” he said.
“With this collaboration, we feel that our doctors and nurses will be trained with knowledge and experiences that will be world class.”
Burn patients waiting to be admitted to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. (Photo: Vimita Mohandas)
The multi-disciplinary team from Singapore General Hospital aims to train 300 specialists and 10 hospital leaders in areas such as reconstructive surgery, surgical wound management of massive burns and rehabilitation.
The training will be extended to another 900 nurses over three years.
SingHealth said a key focus of this project is to help the Bangladesh burn unit create a more systematic approach to their training and empower nurses and allied health workers to take on expanded roles.
“We have analysed from our Bangladeshi counterparts that their nursing as well as allied health professionals need to have a more systematic approach to training and empowering them are the key aims of the project,” said Dr Chong Si Hack, consultant at the plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery department at SGH.
“One of the key highlights of the projects are nurses leading and administering analgesia so that they can carry our large dressings in Bangladesh. This is particularly important given the high incidence of burns in Bangladesh,” he added.
“With the nurses being empowered and able to carry out a procedure such as dressing change, this will benefit more patients and lead to better outcome for the patients eventually.”
In addition, patients will soon benefit from the new 500-bed Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute which is expected to be ready by the end of next year.
