SINGAPORE — While Filipina domestic helper Edna Degala worked in Singapore for the last 16 years looking after the children of her employers, her late parents and sister helped raise her daughter, now 21, back in the Philippines.
When Ms Degala, 41, watched the lives of other domestic workers play out on the big screen on Sunday (Oct 22), the familiar tale of those living apart from their children resonated.
The charity screening of The Helper at The Projector raised about S$6,000 for migrant workers’ advocacy group, the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home).
About one-third of about 240 attendees on Sunday were domestic workers while the rest were employers, some of whom had bought tickets for their helpers.
British filmmaker Joanna Bowers said she wanted to call attention to domestic helpers – a segment of society that often looks upon themselves as invisible – and remind them of their importance to households. Photo: Najeer Yusof/TODAY
Directed by British filmmaker Joanna Bowers and released earlier this year in Hong Kong, the documentary has garnered wide media coverage.
Speaking at the screening, Ms Bowers said she wanted to call attention to domestic helpers — a segment of society that often looks upon themselves as invisible — and remind them of their importance to households. When making the film, she had encountered women who were surprised someone wanted to delve into their lives.
The Helper features stories of women working in Hong Kong, such as that of a single mother living apart from her two sons in the Philippines, and a pregnant Indonesian woman wrongly accused of theft by her employers and who ended up sleeping on the beach after being booted out of their house.
Funds raised from the charity screening, organised by parenting portal HoneyKids Asia and marketing agency Hello Sister, will be channelled to Home’s shelter, which houses between 50 and 60 helpers in need. It costs about S$400 to S$500 monthly to house each person.
Ms Degala said she has had positive experiences with her employers over the years. Last year, she discovered she had a benign brain tumour after experiencing headaches and blurred vision.
She had to undergo surgery to remove the tumour, and her then-employers had assured her that they would take care of the medical bills, although insurance eventually covered it.
When she developed another benign tumour and had to undergo a second surgery and radiation, her present employers promised to cover the bills. “They’re very lovely. They let me rest, and they don’t force me to work when I’m tired,” she said.
Her Canadian employer also bought two tickets for her for the screening, urging her to enjoy it with a friend.
Other members of the audience included Mr Jeff Chuang, 29, who attended the screening with his Filipina helper Gretchen Bangayan, 28. “I wanted to show that I appreciate her, and what her community has been doing for Singapore society,” he said.
Two drivers were injured after a McLaren and taxi were involved in an accident along Yishun Avenue 1 today (Oct 22).
Stomp contributor Gary was passing by the scene of the accident and said that he saw two ambulances.
Stomp contributors Ah Boy, Chengying both alerted Stomp to photos of the aftermath that had been posted in Singapore Taxi Driver’s Facebook page.
Stomp contributor Hadi shared more photos and videos of the accident that were circulating online.
The photos showed that both vehicles badly damaged. The metal frames of the vehicles looked like they had been ripped away.
In response to Stomp media queries, a police spokesman said that they were alerted to the accident involving a taxi and a car along Yishun Avenue 1 towards Yishun Avenue 8 at 3.59am.
A 56-year-old male taxi driver and a 27-year-old car driver were conscious when taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
Police investigations are ongoing.
Accidents – Traffic
K-pop superstar BTS has been tapped as one of the most influential celebrities on social media by US Weekly.
On Friday, the US magazine published a list of the top 15 celebrities around the globe that are the most influential and active on social media. BTS landed at No. 14, becoming the only Asian act to make it to the star-studded list. US Weekly also introduced BTS’ recent achievements related to social media, which included how the group’s worldwide fan group contributed to BTS winning top social artist award at the Billboard Music Awards earlier this year by tweeting the hashtag #BTSBBMAS more than 300 million times, as well as topping Billboard’s Social 50 chart over 30 weeks in a row.
Other big-name stars on the list were Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and current and former US presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
Fresh off of making history with its latest EP “Love Yourself Seung Her,” BTS will release a new Japanese single album on Dec. 6, featuring an original Japanese track “Crystal Snow” along with translated versions of several “Love Yourself Seung Her” tracks, including “DNA” and “MIC Drop.”
BTS performed in Taiwan on Saturday and Sunday as part of the 2017 BTS Trilogy Episode III The Wings Tour.
The South Korean Embassy in the United Kingdom has issued a warning to Korean tourists and residents over the possibility of being the target of a hate crime after a Korean student was attacked in Brighton last weekend.
The 20-year-old victim was hit in his face in an unprovoked attack in downtown Brighton on Oct 15. Two British teenage boys, aged 16 and 17, were arrested Friday by the local police on suspicion of committing the crime. They allegedly threw a glass bottle at the victim, and when the victim asked why, one of the attackers reportedly said “because you are an Asian.”
In the precautionary statement issued on Friday, the South Korean embassy stated that “a case concerning our citizen was reported.”
In the statement the embassy also quoted official data showing the recent rise of hate crimes in England and Wales, issued from the UK’s Home Office on Tuesday. The data showed that hate crimes in England and Wales had risen by 29 per cent last year fueled by the Brexit vote and a recent surge in terror attacks.
Posting about the Brighton attack on Facebook, the victim’s friend Jo Min-su expressed gratitude to the Korean embassy for their help following the incident. Jo said in the Facebook post on Friday that the consuls visited the local police and the victim’s school to help facilitate the investigation. In the same post, Jo also thanked local citizens in Brighton for helping the investigation process and showing support for the victim.
A Just Giving page has been set up by a Brighton man to help the victim with dental costs for his broken teeth. The victim reportedly had a tooth broken and 10 others dislodged after being hit with a glass bottle in the attack. As of Sunday, the crowdfunding page has already raised more than £2,800. Anything raised after the original target of £1,000 will go towards an anti-racism charity, according to the description on the page.
North Korea may be mass producing biological weapons in a research lab that studies agricultural chemicals, Pyongyang Bio-Technical Institute, a US media outlet reported Saturday, citing an academic report.
Radio Free Asia cited a report released by Belfer Center of Harvard University’s Kennedy School in October, which says the communist state already has biological weapons and its industrial facilities are able to produce such weapons.
“It is likely that anthrax and small pox is already used as a biological weapon,” the report said. “North Korean soldiers are vaccinated against small pox, and so are US Army (personnel) stationed in South Korea — against small pox and anthrax.”
North Korea is thought to have 13 pathogens in possession including botulism, cholera and plague, the researchers said.
On means of delivery, the report said missiles, drones, airplanes, sprayers and human vectors are likely to be used. It also mentioned human agents as a plausible delivery method of the biological weapons, as the country has 200,000 special forces members.
The report added that the difficulty in verifying the rogue state’s capability partly arises from the dual-use of the equipment and facilities in creating the weapons.
“While nuclear programs can be monitored by the number of nuclear tests and the success of missile tests, weaponizing and cultivating pathogens can stay invisible behind closed doors,” the authors explained. “Moreover, equipment used for BW production are often dual-use for agriculture, making external monitoring and verification virtually impossible.”
Citing testimonies of defectors, it also wrote that the communist regime uses human subjects in testing biological and chemical weapons.
United Nation’s Security Council Resolution 1540 was passed in 2004 to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. It maintains the framework for assessment and conducting an annual review.
TOKYO – Tens of thousands of people across Japan were advised to evacuate, hundreds of flights were cancelled and train services were disrupted on Sunday as a typhoon roared towards the coast, bringing heavy rain and strong winds on a national election day.
Typhoon Lan, classified as an intense Category 4 storm by the Tropical Storm Risk monitoring site, was south of Japan and moving northeast at 40 kph on Sunday afternoon, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.
An agency official told a news conference that while Lan appeared to have weakened slightly from its peak, it was still a powerful storm that could pound parts of Japan with more than 80 mm (3 inches) of rain an hour. It may make landfall near Tokyo early on Monday.
“It will make landfall as a strong typhoon,” he said.
Wind gusts of up to 162 kph (100 mph) were possible across central and eastern Japan early on Monday, the JMA added.
The agency issued warnings for heavy rain and flooding on the Pacific side of Japan including the Tokyo metropolitan area, even though the typhoon is likely to be downgraded to Category 3 by Sunday evening, with the activity of a seasonal rain front intensified by the storm.
More than 70,000 households in various parts of Japan were advised to evacuate, with more than 5,000 ordered to do so, NHK public television said.
“I live alone and at night it’s scary, so I came here as early as I could,” one elderly woman told NHK at a evacuation centre in western Japan.
Several small landslides had occurred and rivers were rising dangerously close to the top of their banks in several parts of the country.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters he had called on the government to take steps as early as possible to minimise any threats to people’s lives.
More than 300 flights were cancelled and rail services were interrupted in southern and western parts of the country. By evening, wind and rain were intensifying in Tokyo.
Toyota Motor Corp said it was cancelling the first shift at all of its assembly plants around the nation.
The bad weather could hinder voter turnout in the general election, where Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) coalition is on track to roughly match the two-thirds “super majority” it held in parliament’s lower house before dissolution.
Authorities in Okinawa moved the voting date to Saturday for some remote islands as the storm neared.
SEOUL – Netizens are demanding that singer-actor Choi Si-won drop out of “Revolutionary Love,” a newly launched drama series in which Choi plays a lead role, following the death of a local businesswoman who died after being attacked by Choi’s family pet dog.
As of Sunday morning, the tvN drama’s online viewer board has been bombarded with comments claiming that Choi should take responsibility for the incident by quitting the series.
Some of the comments read, “Either drop Choi out of it, or stop filming the drama,” and “It’s insane of him to continue the drama amid the turmoil that involves a death.”
Earlier on Saturday, it was reported that a 53-year-old businesswoman surnamed Kim, who runs an upscale Korean cuisine restaurant Hanilkwan, died of sepsis on Oct 6 after getting bitten by a French bulldog owned by the Chois at an apartment in Apgujeong-dong, southern Seoul on Sept 30.
Although a family member of the deceased told media that they’ve forgiven the Choi family and don’t plan to take any legal action, the public is still berating them for not being cautious with their dog.
“Revolutionary Love,” which premiered on Oct. 13, marks Choi’s first acting project after he was discharged from his military service in August.
