JAKARTA – A wax figure of President Joko Widodo is set to be exhibited at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong later this year.
The effigy of Mr Joko, better known as Jokowi, will be placed in the museum’s Historical and National Heroes section this summer, joining other world leaders, such as Indonesia’s first president Sukarno, Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, former US president Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Madame Tussauds Hong Kong general manager Jenny You said Mr Joko was friendly and patient during their sitting, which took place at the State Palace last year.
“He spent a great deal of discussion with our team to make sure his figure would be made to perfection,” she said in a press release. “We are confident that his appearance will greatly enhance visitors’ experience and cannot wait to bring the finished figure to our attraction by the second quarter of 2017.”
Previously, the museum’s sculpting team and artists came from the UK to meet Mr Joko in person and make exact measurements. According to reports, over 200 precise measurements and hundreds of reference photos were taken, while the waxing process in London took six months.
Mr Joko was chosen based on a survey conducted by the museum. The survey results showed that the president was perceived as a famous world leader that the public would like to see at the museum.
The fire that razed a waste management plant in Tuas yesterday was not the first one there. A smaller fire at Eco Special Waste Management five years ago required 25 employees to be evacuated safely.
Since that incident, the company had invested $70 million to upgrade its facilities with new machinery, said chief executive Rick Reidinger.
“But it didn’t prevent this, unfortunately,” he told The Straits Times around midday yesterday, as he gestured from a safe distance at the smoke coming from the firm’s treatment plant.
Soon after the fire was detected at around 6.15am, the 20 staff on the night shift at the 24-hour facility were evacuated safely. The fire was put out after four hours by 200 firefighters, one of whom suffered heat exhaustion and had to be taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.
Mr Reidinger said investigations into the cause of the fire are still ongoing, but the most important thing was that nobody was hurt.
“Obviously something went wrong, but we can’t pinpoint the root cause, or whether it was a human error or equipment malfunction until the authorities complete investigations,” said Mr Reidinger, who joined the company in 2010.
Referring to the past fire, he said: “That was a long time ago, completely different source, different outcome as well. It was a different facility. So we made a lot of investment and upgrading in fire safety and all that.”
Eyewitnesses recalled the thick smoke billowing in the sky, charred vegetation and the choking smell of burning chemicals.
Said driver Muhammad Firdaus, 29, who was travelling along Tuas South Avenue 3 at around 8am yesterday when he spotted the blaze: “It was like the scene of an apocalypse, there was nobody in sight. When I got off my truck to take a look, I was hit by the strong smell of burning chemicals and could hardly breathe.”
He added that he could feel the heat radiating from 500m away.
Mr Firdaus, who has worked in Tuas for four years, said the roads were unusually empty as most people had chosen to avoid the area due to the fire.
Another eyewitness, Mr Mohamad Danial, 28, was wrapping up the night shift at a nearby power station when a security guard alerted him to the fire.
“You could hear explosions every few seconds from the fire, I’m glad nobody was trapped inside,” said the technical officer, who added that it was the first time he had seen such a big blaze.
Eco Special Waste was founded in 1998 and is licensed by the National Environment Agency as a toxic industrial waste collector.
Mr Reidinger said it has about 500 clients and is currently talking to five or six competitors to see if they can take over Eco Special Waste’s work for the next few days.
He expects the plant to be out of service for at least a week, after which it can get the plant operating at 30 per cent capacity, and at 50 per cent capacity within a month.
kxinghui@sph.com.sg and tammei@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Feb 24, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
American band Guns N’ Roses, who will play their first show in Singapore at Changi Exhibition Centre tomorrow, no longer do hard-partying, it seems.
Among their requests while on tour – a full gym backstage so they can work out before their performances, said show promoter LAMC at a press event yesterday.
And while the band were notorious in the 1980s and 1990s for turning up late at shows, the gigs in the current tour have been relatively punctual.
The band’s long-time production manager, Mr Dale “Opie” Skjerseth, who has worked with the band since the 1990s, says they are aware that their livelihood depends on the concerts going smoothly.
“What’s changed is that we grow older, it’s more of a business, we all mature and we feel better.
“As we grow older, we want to be on time, we want to get it done, we know time is a factor for everyone.”
The band are scheduled to go on at 8pm and play a two-hour 45-minute show after opening acts Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown and Wolfmother.
Guns N’ Roses’ crew and entourage arrived in Singapore on Wednesday evening in a private plane that sports their iconic logo.
A fan of theirs, believed to be a worker at Changi Airport, took photographs of their Boeing 767 plane parked there and uploaded them on his Facebook page.
The Straits Times understands that the band’s core members – singer Axl Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan – are staying at Marina Bay Sands.
Rose, one of rock’s most prominent frontmen, is believed to be putting up in the hotel’s exclusive presidential suite, which includes a baby grand piano, according to its website.
On social media, local fans have uploaded selfies taken with McKagan at Marina Bay Sands.
The concert here is part of a successful global tour which reunites Rose, Slash and McKagan, key members from their classic 1980s and early 1990s line-up.
Mr Skjerseth says the three are getting along well: “The guys are playing well together and they’re enjoying their time together.”
According to LAMC, the concert is one of the biggest rock shows held in Singapore, with close to 50,000 tickets sold.
The only other concert to take place at the outdoor venue was a gig by American metal icons Metallica, which drew 40,000 in a 2013 show also organised by LAMC.
Mr Ross Knudson, co-owner of the company, would reveal only that the concert costs more than $1 million to stage.
The band, crew and entourage number 75 and 100 more workers have been hired to set up the stage and keep the show running smoothly.
Construction for the massive stage started on Feb 15, 10 days before the concert, and it is similar to those at the rest of the band’s gigs during the tour.
“Our show is the same for every fan around the world,” says Mr Skjerseth.
All carpark spaces, except for handicapped parking spaces, have been taken up and heavy traffic is expected at the venue on show day tomorrow.
There will be drop-off and pick-up points for taxis and other transport, but concertgoers are advised to buy tickets for shuttle buses, which will ferry them from Singapore Expo to Changi Exhibition Centre.
After the concert, the buses will go to five drop-off points – Singapore Expo, Bedok, Tampines, City Hall and Bugis.
dinohadi@sph.com.sg
BOOK IT / GUNS N’ ROSES – NOT IN THIS LIFETIME TOUR – LIVE IN SINGAPORE
WHERE: Changi Exhibition Centre, 9 Aviation Park Road
WHEN: Tomorrow, from 5pm
ADMISSION: Concert tickets from $199 and shuttle passes at $15 are available from Sistic INFO: Call 6348-5555 or go to www.sistic.com.sg
This article was first published on Feb 24, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Going into her race at the Queensland Athletics Championships yesterday, Dipna Lim-Prasad had many reasons to doubt herself.
Training has been erratic and felt unsatisfactory, she was going to be running into “insane” head wind at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre and more critically, she had not raced a hurdles event for close to two years.
The 400m hurdles event yesterday ended with the Singaporean cradling a gold medal, as well as a ticket to this year’s SEA Games.
Her time of 1min 1.21sec was just under the qualifying mark of 1:01.69, benchmarked against the bronze- winning time of the last Games.
It was a far cry from the 25-year-old’s national record of 59.24sec – also her last hurdles race – set on home soil when she strode to silver at the SEA Games in 2015.
She has been hampered with an ankle injury since and also came down with a respiratory tract infection early this month that led her to “full on panic”.
So as much as she had hoped for a better time, Lim-Prasad took heart that the main goal of her three-week sojourn in Australia – qualifying for the Aug 19-31 Kuala Lumpur Games – had been accomplished at the first of three meets.
She told The Straits Times from Brisbane: “Leading up to this race, even in training, I was shuffling through all my hurdles… just super inconsistent and not a good sign.
“Even in training, I was knocking down so many hurdles.”
Said her coach Luis Cunha: “The goal was for Dipna was to qualify – she did that, and she won the event too – but I definitely expect much more from her leading up to the SEA Games.”
The Portuguese took personal time off from his job as principal of ActiveSG’s Athletics Club to see his charge through her race.
Lim-Prasad is pencilled in for the 400m today.
She is also slated to participate at the Australian national championships at the end of next month.
The competitive athlete in her is already raising the bar for herself, but she is, for now, focusing on a creditable result.
She said: “I can already feel myself thinking about wanting to ‘smash’ the next race, but I’m just going to try to think about the realistic, the constructive and the positive.”
Lim-Prasad joins six other team-mates who have met the mark for the biennial Games, including defending champions Shanti Pereira (200m) and Zhang Guirong (shot put).
Singapore Athletics will field up to two athletes for each event, and their selection for the SEA Games is subject to approval by the Singapore National Olympic Council.
maychen@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on February 24, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
The cost of developing and operating Singapore’s water supply system has more than doubled in 15 years.
In 2000, it cost about $500 million to run the system, national water agency PUB said yesterday.
This included water treatment, reservoir operations, Newater production, desalination, used-water collection and treatment, and the maintenance of water pipelines.
By 2015, the cost had risen to $1.3 billion.
Citing the figures following media queries, the PUB said: “(The) water price needs to be raised to reflect rising costs.”
The price of water has been a hot topic since Monday, when Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in his Budget speech that water prices will be raised by 30 per cent to reflect the true costs of supplying water.
As Singapore becomes more built up, it has to use pipe-jacking, a more expensive method which involves assembling pipes into shafts and then pushing them into position with a hydraulic jack.
From 2000 to 2015, the PUB also invested $7 billion in water infrastructure, it said.
The agency expects to spend another $4 billion on such infrastructure from this year to 2021, to meet growing demand and boost the resilience of the water system, especially to face the challenges posed by climate change.
Currently, about 430 million gallons of water are used daily. Homes account for 45 per cent of demand and the non-domestic sector, the rest.
A Newater conservation tax, which will be 10 per cent of the Newater tariff, will be imposed on industrial users to encourage conservation from July 1.
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The Sungei Road flea market’s last day of operation is on July 10, but the hawkers are hoping for an alternative or temporary site.
Yesterday, Mr Koh Ah Koon, 76, president of the Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods, unfurled a banner in Sungei Road calling for the site to be conserved.
Speaking to The Straits Times later, Mr Koh said he was saddened but hopes an alternative site can be allocated. “We don’t need a permanent location and can move. We hope the Government can give us a temporary site so that our lifestyle and this aspect of local heritage can be retained.”
He said he has printed 10 banners and plans to collect signatures till July to support calls for the site to be “conserved” or retained. He had collected about 200 signatures as of yesterday evening.
In a multi-agency statement on Feb 14, the Government said the free hawking zone has to make way for future residential developments.
Mr Koh’s association, which represents about 70 of 200 vendors at the flea market, had previously proposed four alternative sites – next to Rochor River, at Kampong Bugis along Kallang River, behind Sim Lim Tower, and a roadside near Jalan Kubor Malay cemetery.
The authorities had said that the four sites had been zoned for parks and residential use under Master Plan 2014.
After the Government announcement, the association submitted a fresh appeal to extend the deadline until the year end. If that fails, it intends to secure a temporary site in Jalan Besar behind a hawker centre.
The Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods was established in 2012 after the Sungei Road Free Hawking Zone was reduced in size in 2011 to make way for the Downtown Line construction.
Mr Kalay V., 45, a businessman who signed the petition, said: “This (flea market) provides the elderly hawkers a legitimate source of income and can be seen as an engagement programme for seniors – not that different from those run by community centres.”
This article was first published on Feb 24, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
A big push to get healthier food served in schools is under way, and it will affect all students – from pre-schoolers to university undergraduates.
The intention is to get them to cultivate better eating habits from a young age, in the hope that these will stick as they grow up.
The push is part of the NurtureSG task force’s series of recommendations to get young people to adopt healthy lifestyles.
With the changes, all pre-schools will no longer be allowed to serve unhealthy options such as sugary drinks or deep-fried and preserved food. Instead, they must provide balanced meals, including fruit.
More schools will also come on board the Healthy Meals in Schools Programme, which is currently being adopted by 319 out of 359 schools from the primary level to junior college.
Under this scheme, canteen stall operators must serve healthier food – such as white rice mixed with brown rice, or wholemeal bread for sandwiches.
Meanwhile, the Health Promotion Board is working with institutes of higher learning – such as universities and polytechnics – to provide healthier food op- tions under the Healthier Dining Programme.
“At that age, you want to ensure that these young adults take personal responsibility (for their meals),” said Minister of State for Education Janil Puthucheary, who co-chaired the NurtureSG task force.
Madam Lim Siew Fern, who has two children – one in Primary 6 and the other in Secondary 3 – said that the implementation will be challenging.
The 43-year-old, who works as a purchaser, said that meals in her younger son’s school always come with a piece of fruit but not all pupils eat it, leading to wastage.
linettel@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Feb 24, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
<p>A big push to get healthier food served in schools is under way, and it will affect all students – from pre-schoolers to university undergraduates.</p>
Channel 8 actors of yesteryear are back on the small screen. The Straits Times finds out about their new characters and what they have been up to.
Tang Miaoling: Once a sweetheart, now a villain
For much of the 1990s, actress Tang Miaoling was a television sweetheart, often playing goody two shoes in Chinese dramas.
In her latest role, though, the 49-year-old is a villain – a gold-digging mother on upcoming Channel 8 series, The Lead. It is her first acting gig in more than a decade.
Tang, who started filming the drama in December, says: “The producer was looking for someone who looks kind on the surface, someone who you can’t tell is evil on the inside.”
She left Mediacorp (then known as the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation) in 1994 as she wanted a job with more regular hours. She once ran an interior design company and is now a part-time real estate agent.
The ageless beauty still exudes the demure demeanour that catapulted her to fame in the classic drama, Pretty Faces (1991), alongside Zoe Tay. She played the grounded friend to Tay’s wild child character, Bobo.
Tang spoke to The Straits Times last Friday, in between filming Season 2 of the heartland series, 118 (2017). It also stars Pan Lingling, who had convinced Tang that it would be fun to return to acting.
The two actresses have not had any scenes together since filming began last month. Tang shares scenes with Chew Chor Meng, who was her boyfriend in Mr Kiasu, the 2001 Channel 5 sitcom. In 118, Tang’s character runs a coffee stall and approaches Chew, Pan’s on-screen husband, to pick up coffee brewing skills.
“It is nice to see old friends on the set. The actors, the lighting guy, the sound man. We are like one big family,” says Tang, who was last seen in a cameo in Channel U drama, Be Somebody (2004).
Away from the limelight and when not working, she spends most of her time with friends and family. Her husband is in his 50s and works in the finance sector.
Her daughter, 18, and son, 14, are all “grown up”, she says. “They are independent. I used to send them to school and tuition classes. When I offer to send them now, they want to go on their own. That’s why I have time to act now.”
Peter Yu: Back on his feet after rough patch
Actor Peter Yu.Photo: Mediacorp
After more than a decade away from local television, former actor Peter Yu returned in a role inspired by a rocky patch in his life.
In last year’s Channel 8 blockbuster Hero, his character was once a popular actor whose life went downhill after he got into trouble and went through a divorce.
In real life, Yu, 48, who is best known for playing a rich man’s son in period series Tofu Street (1996), split up with host Quan Yi Fong in 2008 and subsequently racked up gambling debts.
Back on his feet now, he is happily married to a sales executive and they have two sons, aged four and six months.
A full-time cab driver, just like his Hero character eventually becomes, he takes on acting projects on the side.
He has made a cameo as a cheating husband in ongoing Channel 8 series Dream Coder and also stars in upcoming cable TV telemovie Zi Char (2017), which will air in August on Hub E City (StarHub TV Channel 111 and 825).
Cassandra See: More time for acting now her son is ‘all grown up’
Former actress Cassandra SeePhoto: U Weekly
Former actress Cassandra See was persuaded by her actress-pal Pan Lingling to join her in the long-form drama 118, making a cameo as the ex-wife of a reformed gangster played by Hong Kong actor Ha Yu.
See, 43, who was part of television’s gambling trilogy The Unbeatables (1993, 1996, 2002), will next appear in Channel 8 series The Lead as the owner of a canteen at a TV station.
The reason for her absence from local TV: She reportedly relocated to Hong Kong for six years because of her Korean-American husband’s work.
In a previous interview, she said she had more time to take on acting projects now that her 16-year-old son is “all grown up”.
Phyllis Quek: From ethereal fairy to possessive lover
Former Mediacorp artiste Phyllis Quek, 44, poses for a photo after a media conference for upcoming Channel 8 drama, Legal Eagles. Photo: Lianhe Wanbao
Local actress Phyllis Quek, 44, shares a passionate kiss with a younger man in her first acting project since her marriage in 2013.
She accepted the role of a possessive lover in Channel 8 drama Legal Eagles only after consulting her husband, Australian businessman David Cox, 54.
“He didn’t mind (the role or the scene) because he feels it is just acting and part of my job. I would not have taken the role if he had issues. It is about mutual respect,” says Quek.
Watching Quek transform into a ruthless cougar could come as a shock to viewers who remember her as the ethereal fairy in fantasy drama, The Legend Of The Eight Immortals (1998).
Far from being concerned about her image, she relishes the challenge.
“If you play a good person, you are who you are in real life. But to play a vicious person, you have to be more imaginative,” says Quek, who was last seen making a cameo appearance in the movie The Ultimate Winner (2011), actor Li Nanxing’s directorial debut.
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Photo Gallery
Fiona Xie dating 21-year-old rapper from local band
A year before, she starred in thriller movie Kidnapper (2010)
Away from the limelight, she has been busy baking and basking in marital bliss.
The lovey-dovey couple flew to Paris for a three-month pastrymaking course two years ago.
“I love eating pastries, so I wanted to learn for fun. My hubby has an interest, too. He also wanted to accompany me,” says Quek, who is based in Singapore with her husband, who has a daughter and a son from a previous marriage.
The lady of leisure dabbled in a beauty business previously, but has since withdrawn her investment.
She says: “My husband didn’t want me to work too hard. We wanted to spend time together.”
Acting still has a place in her heart, says Quek. “I have a love-hate relationship with acting.
“When you are filming, the long hours are strenuous. You have no time for a personal life, you long for rest. But when you are not filming, you miss acting.”
This article was first published on Feb 24 , 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Frontline officers in the Singapore Police Force (SPF) will soon be equipped with semi-automatic pistols – a change from the revolvers used now – giving them more powerful and accurate firearms to tackle heightened security threats.
While frontline officers are currently issued with a .38-calibre Taurus revolver and 10 rounds, pistols generally have a larger bullet holding capacity of up to 17 rounds on a standard magazine.
Revolvers and pistols are both handguns, but the former contains a revolving cylinder in which bullets are loaded, while the latter is fed by a magazine.
Sources say the police have been conducting trials of several pistol models for several months, and a new pistol will be put into use soon.
The Straits Times understands that a Central European 9mm pistol is among those field-tested here and is the front runner to be the new firearm for frontline officers.
In response to queries, an SPF spokesman said: “Given the heightened threat environment, the police have started to train and will equip officers in regular frontline units to use pistols.”
Adding that more details on implementation will be revealed later, he said the police regularly review their equipment and that pistols are already used by selected units.
ST understands that these include its Security Command, which ensures the safety and security of Cabinet ministers and visiting foreign dignitaries, as well as some units from the Special Operations Command, which was formed to unite the police’s elite tactical units.
But most officers are issued with a .38-calibre Taurus revolver, which plants a red dot on its target automatically. It reportedly replaced the Smith & Wesson .38 revolver in 2002.
The Taurus revolver comes with a five-chambered cylinder and a “speed loader” – which allows the user to reload all chambers quickly at the same time.
Former police officer Adrian Tok said it is a good move to make the change to pistols because of their bigger capacity for ammunition.
Now a risk manager working in the security industry, Mr Tok said a 9mm pistol – referring to the approximate internal diameter of the barrel – with a standard magazine has 17 rounds, compared with the 10 rounds that officers generally carry.
Mr Timothy Ngui, 38, a member of the Singapore Rifle Association (SRA) who works in IT security, said semi-automatic pistols are safer.
“Generally, if you drop a semi- automatic pistol, it has safety mechanisms that prevent it from going off by accident,” he said.
Pistols are also easier to use, he added, citing how with the different grip methods, users will find it easier to control recoil, increase stability and improve accuracy.
But retiree Kevin Leong, 66, a member of the SRA since the mid-1980s, said revolvers are “more reliable, mechanically speaking, and less likely to jam”.
“That is one of the main reasons that people continue using revolvers when pistols offer so much more capacity in terms of ammunition,” Mr Leong added.
Mr Tok said a revolver is “less subject to jamming” as it has fewer moving parts, but does not think the change will be an issue as officers can learn to overcome jamming or stoppages in pistols quickly.
“Times have changed, and the security threat has been changing. Such a change would help prepare the police force to deal with potential attacks in the future,” he added.
Differences between the two weapons
REVOLVER
• Revolving cylinder
• Five to six rounds of ammunition, depending on model
• Fewer moving parts
• Less likely to jam
SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOL
• Uses magazines to hold ammunition
• One bullet enters chamber at a time, no revolving
• Up to 17 rounds, depending on model
• More moving parts, such as a spring that feeds a bullet into the chamber
• Allows for more stability and accuracy
• Higher chance of malfunction
byseow@sph.com.sg and zaihan@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Feb 24, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
<p>Frontline officers in the Singapore Police Force (SPF) will soon be equipped with semi-automatic pistols – a change from the revolvers used now – giving them more powerful and accurate firearms to tackle heightened security threats.</p>
