Local veteran actress Huang Biren celebrated her birthday last Tuesday (March 7) and made three wishes.

Her first wish is to stay healthy, the second wish is to continue receiving good scripts.

The last wish – to land a role in a movie – was especially important, since it was something she had not done despite being in the showbiz for over three decades, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

During a press conference for the Ladies Club website last Wednesday (Mar 8), the gleaming actress told reporters:

“I have been celebrating the entire month of March, which involves a lot of food and drinks!”

There are many March babies in her family – the actress’ birthday falls on March 8, while her daughter and son were born on March 6 and March 10 respectively.

As a result, Huang’s family has been celebrating non-stop recently.

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2015-06-24 17:32:32

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Zoe Tay & Huang Biren: Rivals on camera, great friends in real life

Source: The New Paper, The Straits Times, Lianhe Wanbao, Zoe Tay’s Instagram

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When reporters asked her about her birthday wishes, she said:

“The first is to remain healthy, second to receive good scripts and lastly to act in a movie.”

However, the star insisted that the movie script should impress her:

“I don’t wish to be in a movie just for the sake of being in one. It must also have a good script and role.”

She added: “I have no particular desire to act as any specific character, but I do hope the roles I get hold surprises of their own.”

Recounting her performances over the years, Huang said that she immersed herself in each role which represented a new challenge to her.

“I wish to continually outdo myself. That is why every time i receive a new role, I would improvise upon it. There are actually many different ways to act,” the actress said.

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2014-10-15 14:36:25

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Actress Huang Biren is back on TV

Source: The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao

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VIENNA – Vienna, Austria’s grand capital on the Danube river, has topped consulting firm Mercer’s list of cities offering the highest quality of life for the eighth year in a row, while Baghdad is again considered the worst place to live.

The survey of 231 cities helps companies and organisations determine compensation and hardship allowances for international staff. It uses dozens of criteria such as political stability, health care, education, crime, recreation and transport.

Global centres London, Paris, Tokyo and New York City did not even make the top 30, lagging behind most big German, Scandinavian, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian cities.

Singapore was the highest ranked Asian city, at 25 while 29th-placed San Francisco was the United States’ highest entry.

Top of the list in Africa was South Africa’s Durban at 87.

Vienna’s 1.8 million inhabitants benefit from the city’s cafe culture and museums, theatres and operas.

Rents and public transport costs in the city, whose architecture is marked by its past as the centre of the Habsburg empire, are cheap compared with other western capitals.

Switzerland’s Zurich, New Zealand’s Auckland, Germany’s Munich and Canada’s Vancouver followed Vienna in the top five of most pleasant cities to live in.

Baghdad was again ranked lowest in the world.

Waves of sectarian violence have swept through the Iraqi capital since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Six years into Syria’s bloody war, Damascus was ranked seventh from bottom, with Bangui in the Central African Republic, Yemeni capital Sanaa, Haiti’s Port-au-Prince, Sudan’s Khartoum and Chad’s N’Djamena filling out the end of the list.

The turmoil at private clinic operator Healthway Medical Corp (HMC) is coming to a head.

Not only has the Singapore Exchange directed HMC to go back to shareholders to get their approval before drawing down on a controversial loan, the firm’s clinics also appear to be falling into disarray.

Checks by The Straits Times showed that no doctors turned up for work at seven of its family clinics yesterday.

Read also: Doctors are puzzled by dead patient with an active brain

According to the clinics’ receptionists, this was due to certain anchor doctors falling ill and no locum doctors could be found to take their places.

At Healthway’s Holland Drive clinic, a receptionist said over the phone that no doctor would be on duty this week, until the anchor doctor comes back next Tuesday.

The Holland Avenue branch is closed till tomorrow evening, with both regular doctors on medical leave.

Read also: Doctor, 66, charged with raping and molesting female patient, 23

A woman who picked up the phone for its Serangoon clinic said it would be open till midnight, but there was no doctor and they could not find a relief doctor.

HMC, which is in a liquidity crunch after losing millions of dollars in questionable loans to two entities, announced over the weekend that it had not paid the salaries of its doctors and senior management for February, amounting to $3.9 million.

Asked if it was unusual for seven of its almost 50 family clinics to be out of doctors on the same day, HMC said: “We have and manage over 120 full-time doctors… Locums are in short supply due to the school holidays.

“On the other hand, our specialist and dentist clinics were relatively crowded today.”

This article was first published on Mar 14, 2017.
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Property firms scrambled to close large residential property deals on Friday, after a sudden government announcement on the stamp duty rate, effective Saturday.

It was meant to bring the rate applying to the transfer of shares in property-owning companies in line with the rate applied to regular property deals.

The Straits Times understands at least three such deals were completed at the eleventh hour on Friday. First, a consortium led by Mr Ben Yeo, former managing director of engineering and property group Guthrie GTS, reportedly purchased 28 units at TwentyOne Anguilla Park for around $160 million.

Second, in a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Friday, Sing Holdings said it had sold its 100 per cent stake in Sing Holdings (Robin). The buyer, a Singapore entity not related to the firm, paid $72.7 million for 29 units at the Robin Residences condo.

Read also: Surprise tweaks in property cooling measures seen signalling further unwinding

Third, over 80 units changed hands through a transfer of shares at The Line @ Tanjong Rhu for an undisclosed price.

Developers and buyers were scrambling to avoid the newly introduced additional conveyance duty (ACD).

For buyers, on top of the 0.2 per cent share duty tax, they must pay ACD comprising 1 per cent to 3 per cent on the value of underlying residential properties and a flat 15 per cent on the value of those assets.

Sellers who are significant owners disposing of their equity stake within three years of acquisition will have to pay a flat 12 per cent levy.

The Government was moving to align rates imposed on direct purchase of residential properties and the transfer of shares in property-owning companies.

Read also: Singapore eases property curbs slightly as economy struggles

A direct purchase of residential property attracts buyer’s stamp duty of 3 per cent and depending on the buyer’s citizenship, up to 15 per cent additional buyer’s stamp duty.

In contrast, acquiring the shares of a holding company that owns the property incurred a share duty tax of 0.2 per cent of the firm’s net asset value, prior to the introduction of the ACD.

In response to a media query, a Finance Ministry spokesman said: “As the ACD came into effect on Saturday, it applies only to transactions on and after (that day). We do not comment on tax obligations of individual taxpayers for confidentiality reasons.”

Read also: Government to plug loophole in residential property stamp duty

Mr Ian Loh, executive director and head of investment and capital markets at Knight Frank, brokered the Sing Holdings deal. He said the parties had begun viewings last year, and had been discussing pricing over the last two months.

“The sudden announcement helped speed things up. Unless you have been in discussions, it is virtually impossible to seal a deal in less than a day,” he said.

Several lawyers told The Straits Times they fielded more calls than they could handle, and were hammering out agreements in five to six hours – a process of negotiation that would usually take weeks.

Mr Kenneth Szeto, a partner at Colin Ng and Partners, said that after Saturday, “it is unlikely developers will still find it worthwhile to engage in the transfer of shares, as the total transaction cost is likely to exceed the potential qualifying certificate penalties”.

This article was first published on Mar 14, 2017.
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Her first foster child was an eight-month-old girl with special needs who had to be tube-fed. The baby would pull out the tube at least once a day.

The foster parent would lose sleep every night checking on the infant and cleaning up when she vomited, which was often.

But Madam Hazel Sim, 34, never regretted becoming a foster parent because it gave her life more meaning.

She has fostered three children under the fostering scheme of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) which has helped more than 5,500 children.

Madam Sim and her husband, Mr Jackson Lai, 37, have tried in vain to have their own children.

She said: “All we wanted to do was to help people. If there are parents who have children but are unable to take care of them, why shouldn’t we do it?”

The former nurse said her first foster child took a lot of work.

Read also: Parents welcome changes to direct school admission

Madam Sim would panic when the infant pulled out her tube and take her to the hospital to have it reinserted until she learnt to do it herself.

She would also use her own money to take the child to a private doctor. Only visits to government hospitals and polyclinics are covered by the scheme.

She was heartbroken when the child went back to her biological parents after two years.

Madam Sim is now caring for a four-month-old girl and a two-year-old boy.

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2014-07-17 11:24:57

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Foster parents, unconditional love

Source: The New Paper, The Straits Times

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She said: “Compared with the previous one, this girl throws a lot of tantrums. With every child, it’s a whole new journey trying to figure out how to care for them.”

Madam Sim left nursing to become a saleswoman to have a more flexible schedule, and is open to fostering more children.

She said: “It is satisfying watching them learn how to walk and talk. I look forward to their every milestone.”

Ms Audrie Siew, director of MSF’s Children in Care Service, said: “A child who knows he or she is safe and loved can go on to heal and grow into healthy adulthood.

“We welcome more members of the public to come forward to find out more about fostering, and hopefully become foster parents and extend a helping hand to children in need.”

Foster kid hopes to become foster parent

When she was seven, she was told she was going on an “outing” to an auntie’s house and would stay there for a night.

That night became 12 years, and the woman turned out to be her foster mother.

Amanda (not her real name), now 19, had been placed in foster care because her mother and father, who later died, were ill.

When she was younger and her friends spoke about their happy families, she would be upset.

Read also: More inclusive housing policies needed for single parents: Aware

She said: “Why couldn’t I be like everyone else and stay with my mother? I was nervous and scared that I wouldn’t fit into the (foster) family.”

She recalled an incident in primary school when her biological mother was warded in intensive care.

Her Primary School Leaving Examination was just days away, and she was distraught.

“I told my foster mother I had to go home to take care of my mother.”

REASSURANCE

Her foster mother, who has two children of her own, reassured her.

“She told me to just focus on my exams, and not to worry about anything else. She said my mother would recover, and even if she didn’t, she would take good care of me and ensure that I have a home,” Amanda said.

Now studying in a polytechnic to be a nurse, she hopes to become a foster parent one day.

Amanda still lives with her foster family and visits her biological mother at her home occasionally.

Read also: Don’t deliver kids’ forgotten items, school tells parents

“My foster mother didn’t have to offer up her place and take care of me for 12 years,” she said.

“But she made that choice, and because of her kindness, I am happy and well-fed. I was able to go overseas and go on cycling trips.

“In the future, I would like to give back to society and shower other children with the love and care they require.”

About MSF’s Fostering Scheme

The Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) Fostering Scheme will have its 61st birthday this year.

Children below 18 in need of a safe, stable and nurturing home are placed in alternative care arrangement.

The scheme has 420 foster parents and 430 foster children. By 2020, MSF hopes to have 500 foster parents caring for about 600 children.

A foster parent must be at least 25 years old, must have at least attained secondary school education and a minimum monthly household income of $2,000.Applicants and their family members must go through an interview. Home visits will also be conducted to ensure safety features are in place.

Approved foster parents undergo training before a suitable foster child is assigned. The entire application process takes about two to three months.

Every foster child is given a monthly allowance of $936, or $1,114 for a child with special needs.

Medical fees for foster children are covered, and MSF also funds each foster child for one enrichment course per year.

This article was first published on Mar 14, 2017.
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SINGAPORE – Commuters on Tower Transit’s bus service might be in for another surprise on Monday (March 13), besides the three doors, two staircases and USB charging ports in one of its double-deck buses plying the service 143 route – Singlish signs.

And these signs have attracted both praise and concern among some commuters.

The three-door bus is part of a trial by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to evaluate the suitability of such a bus design on Singapore’s roads. Tower Transit operates the 143 service route and is behind the initiative for the signs.

The collection of signs on the bus feature phrases such as “Here got priority seats!”, “Here cannot go in!” and “Here can charge phone!”. These lines are followed by text in standard English.

Shipping manager Kong Mun Kit, 68, said the signs had piqued his interest, adding that they were good in “getting people’s attention”.

“Singlish is a common language used in Singapore. People will take a longer look at the signs,” he added.

However, Mr Rey Serrano, a 34-year-old design engineer, felt that the signs did not do Singaporeans any favours.

“Tourists who do not know Singlish might misunderstand the sign and leave with a bad impression of Singaporeans’ standard of English,” he said.

Tower Transit Singapore’s group communications director Glenn Lim said the signs are located strategically around the bus, such as near the doors and reserved seats, to help commuters “use the services provided on the bus better”.

He added that the company did not want the signs to be “run of the mill” and “only the headlines are in Singlish, to grab the passenger’s attention, so they will read what is beneath”.

For clarity, the signs are all accompanied by short explanations in standard English.

There is also a “You know anot?” sign that briefly introduces the design of the bus. The vehicle is 0.8m longer than the average bus and can carry up to 139 passengers.

Mr Lim said the notices will help familiarise passengers with the key features of the bus, such as the additional staircase and USB charging ports.

Noting that the signs include text in standard English, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Communications and Information, said that the signs should be taken “with a sense of humour” and that “we should…give some leeway for advertising”.

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2016-09-13 18:11:41

Photo Gallery

Singlish words in the Oxford dictionary

Source: The Straits Times, Lianhe Wanbao, The Business Times, The New Paper, pixabay

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This article was first published on March 13, 2017.
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