Christmas shoppers in Orchard Road were treated to a surprise yesterday evening as a 15-strong amateur choir of foreign domestic workers got off a bus and began carolling on the pavement.

The flash mob, organised by the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (Fast), featured carols like When A Child Is Born and Feliz Navidad, a Latin American Christmas song.

One of the choristers, Masyitoh, an Indonesian who goes by one name, is a Muslim whose parents support her carolling.

The 37-year-old, who has worked here for 18 years, said: “I joined because I love music and I want to learn singing. My parents supported me… They said it’s about the singing, not religion.”

The choir, formed only in October, was conducted by Ms Iris Koh, music and programme director of Singapore-based edutainment provider Candle Academy.

“I feel grateful to the domestic workers in Singapore, so I volunteered to train them,” said Ms Koh.

It took her a month of three-hour sessions every Sunday to get them to listen to one another and sing in tune, as they had little or no singing experience.

“I feel a sense of achievement,” said Ms Koh.

“And a little nervous… This is one of the first real flash mobs I have done!”

They started outside a crowded Tang Plaza at about 5pm, with a single voice leading off and progressively more voices joining in alongside a guitar and tambourine.

Curious passers-by stopped to listen, while some took photos and videos.

The group then moved on to Lucky Plaza, the Paragon and Ngee Ann City.

Fast executive director William Chew said: “The idea is to bring the joy out to the public… The girls also appreciate the potpourri of cultures in Singapore and embrace it through events like this.”

linyc@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on December 19, 2016.
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Little India is noisy, crowded and not all that organised – which is exactly the way it should be, say locals, tourists and heritage experts alike.

They took issue with a recent Forum letter in The Straits Times, which compared Little India unfavourably with Chinatown and called on the authorities to give the historic cultural enclave a makeover.

The letter, written by Mr Roy Goh Hin Soon, had said: “Little India is not as organised as Chinatown. Most of the shops in the small lanes feature businesses that have no relevance to tourism at all, such as shops selling automobile spare parts, and food caterers.

“More can be done to spice up the area to attract more visitors, such as having food and beverage outlets with reasonable standards, and outdoor performances.”

But Dr Chua Ai Lin, president of the Singapore Heritage Society, said “organised” is not always the best approach and while Chinatown is geared towards tourists, it is authentic heritage that gives visitors a meaningful experience.

“Heritage derives its value from what is important to locals,” she said.

In fact, tourists increasingly want to explore places the way they are, said Ms Lena Loo, who organises heritage tours to Chinatown, Kampong Glam and Little India.

The shops – including food caterers and those selling car spare parts – are there because that is how people have always been trading, and the area not being specially made- up for touristsis exactly its appeal, she added.

“In general, (tourists) love Little India. They like the authentic feel of Little India. It’s not a manicured experience for them,” said Ms Loo.

A search on travel website TripAdvisor turned up mostly praise for the area. Most reviewers from countries such as Thailand and the United States highlighted Little India’s colourful sights, aromatic smells and cleanliness despite the crowds.

Some, however, said they prefer Chinatown as they found Little India confusing to navigate.

Chinatown underwent a massive overhaul in 1998, when the Government restored dilapidated shophouses and new types of businesses moved in. Street hawkers were later brought back to sell their specialities in Smith Street. The makeover received mixed feedback. While some lauded it for being modern, others said it lost its “soul”.

The other ethnic anclave, Kampong Glam, also underwent a makeover in 2012 to a lesser degree. It is now a popular hangout for hipsters.

By contrast, Little India, where Indians used to trade cattle, has been left mostly untouched and is patronised by locals for spices, vegetables, cuisine and clothes, and foreign workers for food and services like cash remittance.

One key complaint of Mr Goh’s was that visitors are forced to squeeze and walk along the five- foot way in Serangoon Road.

In response, shopkeepers said while the pathways are narrow, the cluttered pavements have a purpose.

At the Thandapani grocery store in Dunlop Street, the pavement was partially blocked by gunny sacks holding spices and ingredients like cumin, dried chilli and lentils. Another rack carried onions and ikan bilis.

Ms Saraswathy Ramasamy Thever, 52, who has been a cashier at the shop for 22 years, said these items attract tourists into the shop almost every day.

“They may not be thinking of coming into the shop, but when they see the spices or smell the incense sticks outside, they come in, they enquire, and they buy.”

Mr G. A. Abdul Kader, 58, a store manager at a grocery shop in Upper Dickson Road, said Little India has its shortcomings, but these do not seem to affect tourists.

“They love to take photos of women clad in saris, and they are curious about how Indians go about doing everyday things. If you’re making thosai or grinding spices, they will stand and watch,” said Mr Kader, who has been working there for 30 years.

However, he said he supports Mr Goh’s idea of having regular live cultural shows featuring Indian clothes, song and dance. Currently, these are held just during festivities.

He also said a food street in Campbell Lane will also attract more to the area without changing its identity.

The Singapore Tourism Board and the Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association did not reply to queries by press time.

Ms Stella Eswari, 33, a civil servant who works in Little India, said she sees a healthy number of tourists in the area. As a Singaporean, it is also her go-to place for everything Indian.

“The way the shops are right now captures the essence of Little India. It’s not gimmicky. You get what you see,” she said.

jalmsab@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Dec 19, 2016.
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For Chong Hui Min, 17, collecting her N-level results today is a sign of how far she has come.

Diagnosed with bone cancer last year, she put her N levels on hold then, enduring six cycles of chemotherapy and an operation to replace her affected left knee with a metal implant.

This year, with her cancer in remission, she repeated Sec 4 in Junyuan Secondary School.

Her brush with cancer has made her determined to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor.

Said Hui Min: “I know with the knowledge I have, I can save lives.”

In fact, even when she was undergoing chemotherapy in July last year, she pushed herself to attend the Parkway East Medical High School programme, which gives students hands-on experience in a hospital setting over three Saturdays.

Before her cancer was diagnosed, she was in the Girls’ Brigade. Every day, she would walk the 2km distance between her home and school in Tampines.

One day at the end of 2014, a near-fall made her aware of a lingering pain in her left knee. Over half a year, she saw six doctors, who told her it was probably an inflammation or a ligament tear and prescribed painkillers, which were but a temporary relief.

“The pain was so alarming that I would wake up in the middle of the night because of it,” she said.

She finally saw a specialist in April last year who did a magnetic resonance imaging test and diagnosed Hui Min with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.

While the Singapore cancer registry does not keep a log of osteosarcoma cases, Adjunct Associate Professor Richard Quek, deputy head and senior consultant at the division of medical oncology at National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS)- who treated Hui Min- estimates there are 10 to 15 new cases a year among Singaporeans and Singapore residents.

Hui Min’s first reaction was of disbelief. “I was thinking, are you sure? How could I have cancer when I am, like, 15?”

She initially hoped to sit the N levels last year with the rest of her cohort but later accepted that the treatment took too much of a toll on her.

In August last year, just three days before her 16th birthday, she underwent an operation to remove the cancerous bone and replace it with a 34cm metal implant.

“It was really, really painful. It felt like my leg got langgar by a lorry,” she said of the post-operative pain, using the Malay term for getting hit by a vehicle. Months of physiotherapy followed, where she learnt to walk again.

Assoc Prof Quek described Hui Min as “very positive” and “keen to help other patients”.

She was among 23 recipients of this year’s SingHealth Inspirational Patient award. Next year, she will support Relay For Life, a fundraising event by the Singapore Cancer Society(see box).

She has been trying to get back to her routine, albeit with changes. She takes the bus rather than walk to school and carries a lighter bag to reduce the strain on her leg.

She has to compensate for a shorter attention span, occasional hearing loss and difficulty making out similar-sounding words- a possible side effect of chemotherapy.

Now, “every day is a gift” to her.

She goes for regular check-ups every four months. She said: “Every time when I do scans and they tell me I am cleared, I just earned another four months.”

This article was first published on Dec 19, 2016.
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Singapore – After two weeks of voting, the Chinese character “变”（change）was the readers’ choice for this year’s Lianhe Zaobao’s “Character of the Year”.

The word “变” (change) sums up the year of events in 2016. Taiwan welcomed its first female President this year; South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach its first female President; Theresa May was named United Kingdom’s Prime Minister following Brexit and businessman Donald Trump marched into the White House to become the next President of the United States. Many were surprised by the change of events around the world.

Mr Goh Sin Teck, Editor of Lianhe Zaobao, said: “Singapore won its first gold medal at the Olympics this year, bringing joy to many; while political leadership renewal and the lacklustre economic performance brought concerns. Yet the word “变”　（change）was leading from the start of readers’ poll, demonstrating readers’ greater attention to world events.

“Singapore certainly has had its fair share of changes this year, bringing to mind constitution amendments to the Elected Presidency scheme and the appearance of two new public transport providers. As we usher in 2017, political and economic changes in Singapore and beyond are imminent. These bring both fear and expectation.”

Read also: Chinese word in Lee Kuan Yew’s name picked as character of the year

Lianhe Zaobao, the Chinese flagship newspaper of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), has been organising Character of the Year voting since 2011. For the sixth year running, readers were invited to participate in the annual poll by choosing a Chinese character that they feel would best summarise the major local and international news events of the year.

This year, the editorial team of Lianhe Zaobao, together with a panel of 10 members from the academia, business, sports and cultural sector among others, short-listed 10 Chinese characters for the poll. The 10 Chinese characters are: female (女)、talent (才)、warm (热)、smart (智)、change (变)、terror (恐)、Net (网)、worries (忧)、election (选) and topsy-turvy (颠).

During the voting period from December 1 to 14, Lianhe Zaobao featured each Chinese character in a full page report for 10 consecutive days. Each article centred on the major local and international events which embodied the particular character.

Readers voted through Zaobao.sg, SMS, email, mail or at Lianhe Zaobao’s outreach events. Overseas voters indicated their choice of “Character of the Year” mainly through Zaobao.com.

An accident on the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) on Monday (Dec 19) morning left one dead and three others injured.

Two contributors sent videos of the incident to citizen journalism website Stomp.

According to an eye-witness, the accident that left a trail of destruction on the expressway was caused by a driver of a Mercedes who allegedly drove 120km against the flow of traffic.

In the videos, a severely damaged silver-coloured car can be seen next to a wall of the AYE. The car’s bonnet was completely smashed.

A few metres away, there was a fallen motorcycle beside a stationary car surrounded by debris. A woman was lying in front of the motorcycle. She looked to be conscious, and was being tended to by a man.

The video then shows a flipped car on the road shoulder. Debris was strewn all over the vehicle as other motorists rushed to check on what had happened.

Further along the expressway, Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) personnel can be seen attending to a black-coloured car that was also involved in the accident.

A fourth car also had its bonnet severely damaged following the carnage on the expressway. Walls behind the vehicle were also destroyed.

The SCDF said that it was alerted to the accident at about 8.05am.

“One fire engine, one Red Rhino, two fire bikes, one support vehicle and four ambulances were dispatched,” an SCDF spokesperson said.

“A male Chinese was found trapped in the driver’s seat of a car and he was extricated by SCDF using hydralic rescue tools. He was pronounced dead by paramedics,” the spokesperson revealed.

“Three persons were conveyed to NUH and the hospital was alerted to be on standby to receive them,” he added.

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Life is tough for ex-offenders. And it is worse for those who are also stateless.

Their plight has not been highlighted much but over the years, voluntary welfare organisations have been helping them with their challenges.

Among their biggest problems is the difficulty in buying or renting a Housing Board flat. This means that they may not be able to leave “toxic environments” even as they try to start anew.

Ain (not her real name), 47, who was in jail five times for drug offences, sleeps overnight at the building where she works as a cleaner if her brother turns violent.

“It will be a long time before I can move out,” she said.

Figures on the number of stateless ex-offenders are not available and VWOs helping former inmates said they do not often see such cases. But those who have said that stateless ex-offenders are a vulnerable group.

“If the ex-offenders have a home and good family support, it’s not so bad,” said Ms Ang Poh Wah, president of the Women in Recovery Association (Wira), which helps women recovering from drug abuse.

Those who do not have such support, as well as the privileges that citizens enjoy, may find themselves frustrated and alone, she added.

This is why groups like Wira help them in writing appeals for identification and travel documents.

The last available statistics on stateless individuals showed that as of end January, there were 1,411 in Singapore. As of August, 82 per cent of stateless individuals here have become permanent residents (PRs).

Stateless people in Singapore include PRs who have lost their foreign citizenship, kids born to foreign nationals who are not recognised in their home countries, and those born in pre-independence Singapore who have been unable to prove their country of birth.

Interviews with stateless ex-offenders here found that they face multiple roadblocks in rebuilding their lives.

Ain started taking heroin at age 16 after seeing her father and brother do so. Addiction strained their relationships.

When she needed her brother’s documents to apply for citizenship, as she had lost her birth certificate, he did not help.

Unlike Ain, who was given up as a baby, he grew up as a citizen.

“Slowly, I found a job and I’m trying my best to apply for citizenship,” said the mother of two, who has steered clear of drugs for nine years.

For Mr Keith Loh, 36, a driver, a sense of alienation in his youth led him to crime and drugs.

Born out of wedlock to a Singaporean father and PR mother, he is a stateless PR. While his grandmother took him many times to the immigration department as a child, they were “denied application”, he said.

“I expected that when I completed national service, I would get a pink IC,” he said, but it did not happen. Not long after, he got into bad company and was caught selling illegal VCDs.

Unable to retain a job, he went in and out of jail four times.

In his final stint, he took his O levels in Tanah Merah Prison School in 2013, determined to start over.

“There was resentment over my citizenship in the past, but I’ve got over it,” he said.

Two years after his release in 2014, he worries about his job prospects.

“Up till now, when I go for interviews, people ask, ‘Where are you from?’ Their impression is, ‘Are you Malaysian?'” said Mr Loh.

“But I have been living here all my life. I haven’t even been to Malaysia.”

He has since applied for a Certificate of Identity, which needs to be renewed after a year to travel abroad.

He also needs a visa to pass through other countries – a process he has to take time off from work to do.

“If I have to travel for a job on short notice, it will be quite difficult,” he said.

Read Also: Business owners aim to give ex-offenders a fresh start

More ex-offenders staying out of jail

This article was first published on December 19, 2016.
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