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With consumers taking to social media to voice their praise or complaints, many organisations try their best to answer such feedback.
Adding humour to such responses brings a human touch to an otherwise faceless corporation.
But get the humour wrong, and you border on being unfunny, and even insensitive.
This seems to be the case in a recent exchange between a passenger, Candy Lim, and budget airline Scoot.
Candy posted a photo of her actual in-flight meal alongside the menu, which shows a much more appetising image of the food.
Candy lamented that the actual meal looked nothing like the photo, and that she had paid $18 for it.
Scoot responded by saying, “Hi Candy, we’re sorry that our food in person looks nothing like it did in picture. You know what they say…. #Selfies always look better.”
This response, however, did nothing to ease the situation, and actually made things worse.
The response annoyed most netizens, who said that the attempt at humour fell flat.
They also added that the complaint itself was not properly addressed in the response.
Others, however, took a different view of things.
They pointed out that budget airline meals were pre-packed, meaning the likelihood of it looking picture-perfect would be low.
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Why would you take someone else’s underwear, let alone do it right in front of a sign that warns of a CCTV camera?
That was the question that was on Stomp contributor Izad’s mind, after the CCTV camera outside his home recorded some truly bizarre footage at 4am on Friday (Feb 17).
The Stomp contributor noted that the camera was activated after the sensors picked up movement, and he realised someone was loitering outside.
“After a few seconds, this person started to touch my maid’s sports bra and her underwear,” said Izad.
“After which the person quickly took both items.
“But before going off the person stopped by our front door to look around in our shoe cabinet.
“Couldn’t be sure if it’s a she or he? But the face is very clear.”
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A Vietnamese man said on Sunday he believes his sister is one of the suspects arrested in Malaysia in connection with the murder of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong Nam was assaulted at Kuala Lumpur International Airport with what was thought to be a fast-acting poison. Malaysian police have said that among those arrested was a woman with a Vietnamese travel document.
Vietnamese authorities have said only that they are investigating and are in touch with Malaysia.
Read also: Malaysian police seeking four more N Koreans in Kim killing
Joseph Doan confirmed that his sister’s name was Doan Thi Huong and that she was born in 1988 in Nam Dinh province, southeast of the capital Hanoi. Those details are the same as those released by Malaysian police. “We only hear on the internet and everyone else hears on the internet but judging from the picture it looks like her. I can’t be a 100 per cent certain because we haven’t met her yet,” he said in Nam Dinh.
The rice farmer said his sister appeared to be the woman whose image was captured in a grainy airport CCTV image wearing a white shirt with the acronym ‘LOL’ on it. He said Vietnamese authorities had been in touch and had been supportive.
Doan said his sister had left home when she was 18 and only came home occasionally and without letting anyone know when she would be back. “Whenever she comes home I can only tell her to study and work hard,” he said.
South Korean and US officials have said Kim Jong Nam was assassinated by North Korean agents.
Read also: N Korean nabbed in Kim Jong Nam murder case is chemistry expert
Malaysian police said on Sunday that four North Korean suspects in the murder fled Malaysia on the day of the killing.
Malaysian police arrested a North Korean man on Friday in connection to the murder, while a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman have also been arrested. A Malaysian man is being detained to facilitate the investigation.
Malaysia’s investigation into the murder of the North Korean leader’s half-brother shows that the Pyongyang government was behind the assassination, South Korea said Sunday.
Malaysian police have arrested one North Korean suspect and are seeking four more North Koreans who left the country last Monday, the day Kim Jong-Nam was poisoned at Kuala Lumpur’s main airport.
“Based on various factors, our government is certain that the dead man is Kim Jong-Nam, and considering that the five suspects are North Korean nationals, we view that the North Korean government is behind the incident,” said Seoul’s unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee.
Jeong declined to provide further details, citing the continuing probe in Malaysia.
“As North Korea has been committing inhumane crimes and acts of terror, we are keeping a close eye on the latest incident with grave concern,” Jeong said.
Jong-Nam, the half-brother of leader Kim Jong-Un, died after an unidentified liquid was sprayed in his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Seoul says the attack was carried out by female agents on Pyongyang’s orders.
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SINGAPORE: Delete all personal information on computer – check. Reformat hard-drive – check. Send hard-drive to IT shop to clean it again – check.
After all those preventive steps, you would think that all your personal data including private pictures, bank and credit cards details would be wiped and safe from prying eyes.
Well, think again.
Channel NewsAsia documentary The Trash Trail investigated and discovered nude pictures, passport details and even blueprints from a marine engineering company on hard-drives that had been reformatted and declared ‘clean’, before being re-sold to consumers.
The documentary also surveyed 1,000 Singaporeans to find out what they did to their electronic devices such as computers and tablets before discarding them – and surprisingly, about 24 per cent of them did nothing, while 37 per cent only reformatted it once.
The episode airs on Monday, Feb 20, at 8pm (SG/HK).
To find out if one’s information is truly deleted from used hard-drives, Trash Trail producers bought nine used hard-drives from different shops at Sim Lim Square. All the shops said the hard-drives had been reformatted, with all information erased.
WATCH: The investigation (2:41)
One salesman said: “(Sometimes) the users’ computer is not able to start up, so they cannot clean it up. When we purchase it, we will use our software to clean it up, to make sure it’s empty before we sell it second-hand.”
The nine hard-drives were handed over to Associate Professor Biplab Sikdar from the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore to evaluate. He specialises in how data can be safely transferred, stored and accessed.
The results were shocking. Dr Sikdar found personal information on five of the hard drives, and three had compromising personal photos on them.
They included nude pictures of someone who had presumably gone for plastic surgery. “Personally, I was very shocked to find these kind of … embarrassing and compromising pictures,” he said. “If it went to the wrong person, they might easily blackmail you.”
He also found the passport details of a person with his date of birth, medical records and another person’s bank details – all of which could be used to steal someone’s identity.
And he retrieved sensitive corporate materials from two hard-drives which once belonged to a big offshore marine engineering firm.
“They make ships. And what surprised me was that I found blueprints for the ships here.
“I would have thought that an industry, when they’re disposing of their older laptops, they would be more careful in cleaning up their stuff,” he said, adding that the information could potentially be used for fraud or corporate espionage.
While Dr Sikdar verified that all the 9 hard-drives had been reformatted, he was able to use software that is easily found online to extract the information.
“Think of your disk like a library… When you delete or format your disk, what happens is that the catalogue is gone. But the books are still there,” he said.
There are several ways to completely destroy your data on a hard-drive, he said.
This includes degaussing the hard-drive with a powerful magnet at a computer centre to wipe them clean, using software to overwrite all the info, or smashing the hard-drive to bits.
CAN’T DELETE PERSONAL DATA ON E-COMMERCE SITES
But there is personal data floating around online that is even trickier or impossible to get rid of – particularly on e-commerce websites.
Many consumers typically provide their personal details such as phone numbers, credit card details and addresses when signing up at such websites. But deleting their accounts is not so simple.
Singapore online shopping site Ezbuy’s co-founder Wendy Liu said that it is not possible for consumers to completely delete their account. Deleting the app on one’s mobile device only gets rid of the app and some temporary data stored.
“But when you install it again, everything from your payment to your order history will still be there.
We have to make sure (these) are kept in our database safely for five years. It is a legal requirement,” she said.
Ms Liu assured Trash Trail that all the data is safeguarded in a database server which has limited access and is equipped with firewalls and encryption. Credit card information is usually stored with a third party.
With more organisations collecting personal data, the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) was enacted in Singapore in 2012 which regulates how one’s personal data can be collected, used, disclosed and maintained by organisations.
Christopher Chan, head of legal and government affairs at online grocer RedMart, said that under the PDPA, companies are allowed to keep their data on a consumer for legal purposes or account purposes for a certain number of years.
This is so that if there’s an investigation against the company or customers, or of financial fraud, they need to keep that information accessible so that they can report to the authorities.
He said: “So it doesn’t actually get deleted, but it gets held back with restricted access to it.
“It’s almost impossible to delete all your information online. There’s always going to be some remnant or trace of it.”
Watch more on The Trash Trail on Monday, Feb 20, 8pm (SG/HK).
It’s unlikely that any interview with Member of Parliament Tin Pei Ling would ignore her bumpy start in politics, when she became the target of both online and offline trolls.
I’m going to raise it during our lunch, but she beats me to it.
We’re at Hippo, a small, cosy zhi char restaurant in her constituency of MacPherson. Ms Tin orders for us soon after she arrives, and as she settles down, I ask if she eats here often.
Yes, she says, she’s been here a number of times, and the last time was because its har cheong gai – chicken wings with shrimp paste – was her “comfort food”.
Oh, I say, as in you ate a lot of it when you were pregnant? Her son was born in August 2015.
“No,” she replies. “Actually when I was under a lot of stress. Like in 2011.”
Ah, 2011. That was the year she was introduced as a People’s Action Party (PAP)candidate for the General Election. She was just 27.
For a variety of reasons, some Singaporeans took a dislike to her.
First, she was accused of contesting on the coat-tails of then Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who headed the Marine Parade GRC team she was placed in.
Then, a photo of her striking a cute pose with a Kate Spade box – the handbag inside was a birthday present from her husband – made social media rounds and was lampooned.
The fact that her husband is a senior civil servant also drew flak.
A video of her at a PAP event where she playfully stomped her foot and exclaimed “I don’t know what to say” was shared, mimicked and mocked.
She was unfavourably compared with the opposition National Solidarity Party’s Nicole Seah, then 24, who also contested Marine Parade GRC.
When the PAP won just 56.6 per cent of the votes for the GRC, Mr Goh cited the negative publicity surrounding Ms Tin as “a factor” in the results.
Down but not destroyed, she soldiered on.
As an MP, she worked hard in her ward, which comprises a fair number of rental units and elderly folk. In Parliament, she raised questions and made sensible speeches.
In 2012, she auctioned off the infamous Kate Spade bag at a charity event organised by women’s group Aware.
When the September 2015 General Election came round, MacPherson was hived off as a single seat and she had to go solo.
She faced two opponents and easily won 65.6 per cent of the votes. Marine Parade GRC got 64 per cent.
Somehow, she had turned her image around. She must have felt vindicated.
Ms Tin, now 33, assures me that she has moved on from that traumatic start.
But it’s clear some hurt lingers because several times during our lunch, she refers to that period, like when I ask if she is enjoying her second term.
“Ya,” she says. “I enjoy being with people. I think I can say that I draw energy from people around me.”
She continues: “There are some aunties who will hug me. It just feels very good and makes it feel like this is worthwhile. These are the very positive moments. Of course, definitely, compared with the first term…” She trails off.
Or when she says she is thankful that MacPherson residents have been supportive and “willing to see me differently”.
“Because of the opportunity that they have given me, I’ve been able to, I don’t know whether ‘transform’ is the right word, but change from the supposedly young-looking girl who was basically hit left, right, centre, in 2011 to who I am today. And so for that I am grateful.”
She adds that she has a great team behind her at MacPherson. “Despite all that was against me – or not in my favour, basically – they stuck with me and we have gone through thick and thin.”
I remark that she seems scarred by what happened. She says she has said before how 2011 was the darkest period of her life.
“Even though I would say I’ve overcome it, pretending that it never happened is also not quite realistic or quite possible,” she says.
“I certainly wouldn’t ever want to repeat what happened back then, and I don’t wish it on anyone either.”
On how she managed to move on, she says there was a point when she realised that if she overcame the nastiness she faced, it might encourage others with their own challenges.
“So there was also this additional dimension that was motivating me.” She adds: “There’s this song, if it doesn’t kill you, you will get stronger. So sometimes these pop songs help.” (She’s referring to Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger).
What also helped was putting the criticisms in perspective. Even though she felt wronged and hurt, she realised that what she suffered was “really just (loss of) face issue, pride, reputation”.
“All these things are intangible, right? I still have my family around me, whereas for other people whom I’ve met, they have real bread and butter issues, like losing a job and worries about how to feed the whole family.”
I broach how her son might one day Google her name and see the past comments about her online. She must have given some thought to this because she has a ready answer.
“I think there’s nothing to hide,” she says firmly. “It’s all public record. I did not do anything wrong, nothing immoral, so I think I will probably find a way to talk to him.”
HIPPO where we meet is at the foot of Block 72 Circuit Road and has a charming family feel to it. A blogger describes it as “the cheapest zhi char I’ve had in my life”.
I get there early and the friendly owner, Ms Helen Ren, shows me her collection of plants.
The restaurant is named after her son’s hippopotamus soft toy. One of her husband’s pencil drawings, of a plant, hangs on a wall, and he designed the shop sign too.
I tell her I’m having lunch with the MP. What does she like to eat? Ms Ren laughs and says in Mandarin: “You look at her, she’s so slim, but she likes fried stuff.”
True enough, har cheong gai is one of the things Ms Tin orders when she arrives, as well as fried pork chops.
Ms Tin is, as Ms Ren says, very slim. What strikes you are her eyes, which are wide and bright and framed by well-groomed brows. She speaks clearly and thoughtfully and is warm and friendly.
A middle-aged man who has finished lunch stops by to say hello. Grassroots leader? I ask when he leaves. Party activist, she says.
I wonder how older grassroots leaders take to her. “Thankfully they had no problems,” she says. “They’re very welcoming… in a way I’m like their daughter, or granddaughter in some instances.”
She adds: “Sometimes I like to touch them. Thankfully we are women, so can touch.” She laughs when she realises what she’s just said. “This may sound a bit wrong but, ya…” (She has no qualms hugging her residents, as photos on her Facebook page show.)
Her easy bond with older residents could stem in part from how she’s an only child who grew up in a household of adults.
Her father owned a coffee shop in Ghim Moh with several shareholders. He ran a drinks stall where she helped out at, while at Crescent Girls’ School and later Hwa Chong Junior College.
“Making coffee was what my dad was good at and he raised the family through this,” she says. Her mother is a housewife.
Her paternal grandmother, who died at the age of 100 last year, and an aunt lived with them in Queenstown. Her aunt, who had suffered brain damage after falling into a canal when she was little, has special needs.
Her father was involved in grassroots work. Because his English wasn’t strong, she would help him translate.
When she was in her second year at the National University of Singapore, she met minister Vivian Balakrishnan and volunteers from his Ulu Pandan ward at her father’s coffee shop.
He invited her to join them and the following week, she went to his Meet-the-People session to help out. That was the start of her grassroots career.
When she was in her third year, her father had a heart attack. She had to run the coffee shop and took a semester off for this.
Upgrading works were being done in the area and business was bad. “We dipped into savings… My mum would sometimes cry secretly. She tried to hide it but I knew. “
She gives an animated recitation of a typical day: “Wake up at five plus. Open the coffee shop by six. Heat up the stove, check cashier, everything is in order then do, do, do, do, do. Afternoon, if there’s class, I try to run to class while my mum takes over… then after that I come back, then to midnight, then close. Very tired. By the time I reach home… after shower, hit the bed, gone. Very tiring.”
That experience taught her the struggles of small businesses and students who juggle work and study.
After her father recovered, he decided to retire. By then, she was about to graduate with an honours degree in psychology and could help support the family.
She was a senior associate with Ernst & Young and left her job after she was elected to focus on parliamentary and community work.
She met her husband, Ng How Yue, 46, at a National Youth Forum. She was chairman of the forum and he was an adviser, and they got married in 2007.
He is permanent secretary in the Law Ministry and second permanent secretary at the Health Ministry.
She would like a second child, “but this kind of thing, sui yuan”, she says, referring to the Mandarin phrase for leaving it to fate.
Her days are filled mostly with MacPherson and parliamentary work. She has many plans for the ward and talks earnestly – and at length – about plans to rejuvenate the ward, help the elderly age actively in the community, and projects for younger residents.
Last year, she made the news when cases of Zika were found in her ward. She and her team swung into action, visiting homes and setting up a register of pregnant women there.
She had raised the Zika issue in Parliament before it was discovered in Singapore. When the first case happened, it was in Bukit Timah, a distance away.
“Then it happened in Aljunied Crescent, right? I was like wah lao,” she says. Thankfully, those mothers in her ward who have since given birth have had healthy babies.
We’re done with lunch and I ask where she’s off to next. She says she’s meeting a resident for coffee nearby. “He’s semi-retired so he has time to meet me. He has some issues and some feedback.”
Actually, I can think of more exciting things a young person could be doing on a Wednesday afternoon than to listen to a resident give feedback.
But it doesn’t seem a chore to her.
She walks off to her appointment, blue handbag in hand.
And, no, if you must know, it isn’t a Kate Spade, and neither is it branded.
HIPPO FAMILY RESTAURANT
Block 72 Circuit Road #01-13
Har cheong gai (chicken wings with shrimp paste): $6.50
Homemade beancurd with minced meat: $6.50
Sambal potato leaves: $5.50
Fried pork chop: $6.50
Rice: $1.20
Barley: $3.80
Total: $30
sumiko@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Feb 19, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
“Unstoppable” Angela Lee spent the past two years building her reputation in the mixed martial arts world, eventually forging her way to becoming the inaugural ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion.
Now, ten months removed from winning the belt, it is time for her to defend the gold. The unbeaten Lee will make her first title defense on Saturday Night, 11 March, when she meets undefeated Taiwanese challenger Jenny Huang at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
It will serve as the headlining bout of ONE: WARRIOR KINGDOM, and Lee aims to have a dominant performance.
In this interview, Lee talks about her upcoming opponent, as well as her passion for the martial arts, female empowerment in MMA, and handling the pressures of being a young champion.
After defeating Mei Yamaguchi at ONE: ASCENT TO POWER last May, you took a break from competition. But still, you remained active by training at Evolve MMA in Singapore. In what areas have you improved?
Angela Lee: I have been improving everywhere. It has really been a good period of upgrading my skills and gaining that confidence in the areas of striking, grappling, and the transitions in-between. So I am extremely excited to get back in that cage. I cannot wait.
Now that you have the title, you are not the hunter anymore — you are the hunted, and everyone is gunning for you. Does that add any pressure or stress?
Not so much pressure or stress, but like you said, I have a target on my back now that I have the belt, and everyone is gunning specifically for me. I think knowing that is going to keep me even more focused, and motivate me to train that much harder.
I’m going to be so much better and well-prepared, that when I do step into that cage to defend my title, I am going to show everyone I am on another level completely.
Your challengers have paid attention and watched your fights, and have no doubt gotten better acquainted with your skills. With that in mind, how important is it for you to evolve?
I think the most important thing for a fighter and a champion is to keep growing and evolving, and you have to be honest with yourself. You have to continue growing as a martial artist because the moment you stop, that is going to be your downfall.
I am still young, and I am so eager to learn and improve in all areas. I plan on being the champ for a while.
Martial arts has been central to your life. After all, you come from a family of martial artists. How has martial arts enriched your life from a values standpoint?
It has definitely made me the person I am today, no doubt about that. Being raised in a martial arts family — both my parents are martial art instructors — has definitely taught me fundamental values like discipline and respect, but also things like being honest with myself.
As a person and as a martial artist, whenever you are honest with yourself and critique yourself on what you did right or wrong, it helps you to grow that much quicker.
Let us talk about your upcoming title fight with Jenny Huang at ONE: WARRIOR KINGDOM. As the main event, the bout is advancing women’s MMA in Asia, and is a huge statement. How important is it in moving the sport forward as a whole?
This is going to be the second time ONE Championship is going to have a female fight headline a card, and it is truly an honor for me. Every time I step into that cage, I feel I am fighting for so much more. I am fighting not just for myself, but for my family, my fans, and for women across the world.
This fight is important because it is just another huge step in the direction women’s MMA is going here in Asia. It is great because it shows women here on this side of the world that they can do what they love, they can chase their dreams, and they can have a legitimately successful career in MMA if they want to.
Huang, like you, is undefeated, and was extremely impressive with her gogoplata submission win over April Osenio last December in Manila. Where does Angela Lee have the edge in this fight?
Jenny (Huang) has earned her way to title contention. You look at her record and she is undefeated, 5-0, and is coming off an impressive submission victory, so I think she has a lot of confidence coming into this fight. But I just see myself as a much better fighter in every single area of the game, and I am not saying that to be cocky, but I am very confident in my skills and what I bring to the table.
Every single one of my fights, I go in there extremely focused, and I am looking to finish the fight as soon as possible, so nothing is going to change with that mindset. I am going into this fight looking to make a statement — the same type of statement I made in my professional debut in ONE. I want to show the world who I am as a champion.
You are 20 years old and carry so much responsibility as a top draw in ONE. You constantly do press events, commit to every media appearance, and are always bombarded by fans at events, yet you handle everything so maturely and with grace. How do you manage that?
Thank you, I really appreciate that. I am just doing the best I can. I make the most of every day. I try to have a really positive and optimistic outlook on life, and I have a lot of gratitude for where I am at.
Also, my family is extremely close to me, and I confide in my mom and dad. They give me tips here and there on how I should answer questions on interviews or how I should say a couple of things better, so they really help me a lot with the PR side of things.
Surprisingly, I was not as good when I first started with ONE. But it takes a lot of practice, and I think I am getting the hang of it.
After beating cancer at the age of 12, Tan Yi Jun returned to school only to endure another form of torment: bullies who labelled him “cancer boy”.
While the name-calling and bald taunts persisted through secondary school, counselling provided by the Children’s Cancer Foundation (CCF) helped him to cope, said Mr Tan, now 20 and an interactive and digital media polytechnic student.
The voluntary welfare association yesterday celebrated its 25th anniversary by launching two new programmes to provide child cancer patients with support during treatment and beyond.
The programmes, a collaboration between CCF and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, will provide CCF beneficiaries with resources such as psychosocial support and nutritional care.
Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor made the announcement at Concorde Hotel, where a roving photo and art exhibition featuring the works of childhood cancer survivors and CCF stakeholders was also launched.
Mr Tan’s photograph of a drain in a cemetery is on display at the Together We Are Stronger exhibition, which will make stops at VivoCity, among other locations.
He was diagnosed with a rare mediastinal germ cell tumour, which grows in the chest, and underwent chemotherapy for six months followed by surgery to remove it.
“It was quite tough, I vomited almost every day during the treatment. During the operation, they had to cut open my ribcage, and my heart stopped twice,” he said.
While he is now healthy, Mr Tan regularly volunteers at CCF events, such as Hair for Hope, to encourage children who are suffering.
“I want to help make them feel happy and that they are not alone.”
Separately, the Singapore Cancer Society (SCS) yesterday ran Singapore’s inaugural Relay for Life, a 17-hour community event which hopes to convey the message that cancer patients are not alone.
Held for the first time in Singapore, the event at Bukit Gombak Stadium saw cancer survivors walking and running in the Survivors’ Lap to raise funds for SCS.
The event is expected to draw more than 7,000 participants by the time it ends today.
Mr P. J. Roberts, 43, who took part yesterday, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2013 and beat it.
He praised the event for focusing on both cancer patients and their caregivers. “It’s tough for the family. You’re affected by it and you’re dealing with it in your own way but they need support as well.”
tiffanyt@sph.com.sg and kcarolyn@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Feb 19, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
