SINGAPORE – To gear Singaporeans up for careers in the burgeoning info-communications technology (ICT) sector, the Government, labour movement and professional bodies on Friday (Oct 21) unveiled additional support to jobseekers to match skills with jobs and…
Source link
New initiatives to boost skills of ICT professionals
Halal online marketplace launches in Singapore
SINGAPORE – An e-commerce site claiming to be the first in the world to focus on halal-certified products to serve the Muslim market was launched in Singapore on Friday (Oct 21).
The platform called AladdinStreet Singapore has close to 60 merchants, almost…
Source link
Pakistan's 'cat-eyed' tea seller sparks national debate on class, objectification – but man in question had no idea
ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani tea merchant with velvet eyes saw his life changed this week when his portrait spread around the Internet, sparking ardent debates on class, objectification, and the place of ethnic Pashtuns in society.
Mr Arshad Khan had no idea he had set the Internet alight from Pakistan to India and beyond: He has no phone, and cannot read.
“It was a real surprise,” the young “chai wala”, or tea seller, told AFP.
“I was aware that I am handsome but you can’t do anything when you are poor,” he said, adding that the image has “changed the way I think”.
In the candid photograph, snapped by a passing photographer and posted on Instagram, Mr Khan prepares Pakistan’s ubiquitous milk tea, his blue green eyes looking frankly into the camera.
It set social media users swooning, with the 18-year-old’s image shared tens of thousands of times since Oct 14.
By Tuesday, the Islamabad market where photographer Javeria Ali took the fateful shot was swarmed by dozens eager to gawk at the young worker.
But in a country where women have long fought for rights and rarely express their feelings publicly, that fervour soon morphed into an intense debate on what it meant to reduce a poor man to a beautiful object.
“We are more used to seeing this happen to women, it is still creepy whan it happens to a boy,” feminist columnist Bina Shah told AFP.
“Just because people are bored does not mean you can play with someone’s life.”
Columnist Maria Amir concluded that “reverse sexism is still a form of sexism” on the website of Pakistan’s biggest-selling English language newspaper, Dawn.
But she also echoed many in noting that the true “ick factor” was in social class rather than gender.
“The elite getting excited over a hot #ChaiWala reeks of class privilege and the objectification of working class men,” tweeted @nidkirm, who described herself as a sociologist based in Lahore.
And in a column in the Express Tribune Farahnaz Zahidi mocked the “surprise” that someone poor could be good-looking.
“(T)he upper tier bourgeois of Pakistan have come to believe that even looks and God-gifted attributes are co-dependent on money and affluence?” she wrote.
Indeed, in his first appearance on television, viewers laughed at Mr Khan’s awkward speech and the Western suit in which he appeared uncomfortable.
“No girl would agree to marry him,” wrote Twitter user @ItsMahah.
Even the colour of Mr Khan’s cool gaze provoked discomfort in some like columnist Amir, who wrote “apparently there is no expiry date on our colonial baggage”.
Light skin and eyes are the attribute of many Pashtuns, tribal inhabitants of north-west Pakistan and southern Afghanistan, romanticised as warriors by the British.
Others expressed concern about the risk of exploitation of a young man so little armed for success.
A local brand was quick to publish pictures of him, but Khan said he has not signed any modelling contract.
The third of 17 children, Mr Khan has never been to school. He said he hoped his newfound fame would allow him to “move forward”.
Vegetable seller Saeed Ahmed worked in the market alongside Mr Khan.
“His eyes were so beautiful that we used to make fun of him and call him ‘cat eyes’,” he told AFP.
“But we never even thought that he would one day become famous like this.”
Indian newspapers were the first to seize on the “Cinderella story”, bringing frivolity to recent tensions between the rival neighbours with tweets calling Mr Khan a “nuclear bomb”.
“I send a message of peace to my Indian fans,” Mr Khan said.
Good-looking gangster becomes an Internet sensation
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
Reuters, Facebook screengrabs
Read also: The story of the Pakistani blue-eyed tea-seller and what it says about us: Dawn columnist
Image:
Publication Date:
Friday, October 21, 2016 – 11:43
Keywords:
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Rotator Headline:
Pakistan's tea seller knows he's handsome but says 'you can't do anything when you're poor'
Rotator Image:
Story Type:
Others
Jetstar: $0^ Fares to Perth, Yangon, Penang & More till 11pm on 21 Oct 2016
JETSTAR: $0^ fares to Perth, Yangon, Penang & more till 11pm tonight (21 Oct)
Jetstar: $0^ Fares to Perth, Yangon, Penang & More till 11pm on 21 Oct 2016
You have till 11pm today (21 Oct) to book $0 fares to Perth, Yangon, Penang and more with Jetstar’s Friday Free Fare Frenzy promotion.
Cumberbatch on visiting comic store as 'Doctor Strange'
LOS ANGELES – Benedict Cumberbatch walks into a Manhattan comic book store in full superhero regalia, magic cloak billowing behind him, leafs through a few periodicals and asks the owner for a job.
It sounds like the start of a bad joke but this episode actually happened during the final days of filming of the upcoming “Doctor Strange,” the British actor revealed on Thursday.
The 14th film in Disney’s “Marvel Cinematic Universe” was about to wrap and the 40-year-old was running up Fifth Avenue toward the Empire State Building when he and director Scott Derrickson spotted the store and decided to go in.
“I didn’t have any money – I offered my services. I said if the film doesn’t work out I’ll come and stack the shelves,” joked Cumberbatch, who stars as the titular sorcerer in the movie, at a news conference in Beverly Hills.
332316
Photo GalleryTilda Swinton and Benedict Cumberbatch in Hong Kong for Doctor Strange
Source:
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
“It was a magic, magic moment – no pun intended. It was very special. And utterly, like a lot of things in this film, not searched for.” Derrickson recalled Cumberbatch suddenly spotting the store.
“He’s in full (costume) and I go, ‘We have to go in!’
And he goes ‘We should, shouldn’t we?'” the filmmaker recounted.
“I said, ‘I’ll film it, it’ll just be us.’ So I put my camera on and he introduced himself and said, ‘Hey, I’m about to go into this comic book store,’ and I followed him in, and the people in there couldn’t believe it – it was Doctor Strange! And he walked right up to the Doctor Strange comics.”
Filmed in Nepal, New York, London and Hong Kong, “Doctor Strange” tells the story of world-famous neurosurgeon Stephen Strange, whose life changes forever after a horrific car accident robs him of the use of his hands.
Failed by Western medicine, he travels to Kathmandu where he happens upon a healing centre which, it turns out, doubles as the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying reality.
The stellar cast includes Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen and Tilda Swinton, all of whom joined Cumberbatch at the news conference, as well as Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Michael Stuhlbarg.
Cumberbatch, who rose to global stardom playing the title role in the hit BBC television detective series “Sherlock,” did most of his own fight scenes.
The actor said he was “giddy, like a child at Halloween” when he first donned Strange’s magical Cloak of Levitation, prompting an old Marvel hand among the crew to observe “oh, you’re having a superhero moment, aren’t you?”
McAdams, who plays Strange’s love interest, emergency room surgeon Christine Palmer, revealed that her real-life mother Sandra was a nurse.
Although she threw herself briefly into medical research, observing a neurosurgeon, she admits she does not have her mother’s healthcare vocation.
“I was given an offer to go in an Evac helicopter and do a weekend, which I’m so sad I had to turn down because I’m a terrible flyer and I am really queasy about blood,” she said.
“I thought I would be more of a hindrance to that operation than a help so I declined that. But everything else was super-fascinating and, at a pinch, I could probably suture something up now.”
Swinton, who plays the Ancient One, a master of the mystical arts who trains Strange to become a powerful sorcerer, said working on a Marvel movie is “a bit like joining the circus.”
“You get invited to be the bearded lady or the painted gentleman or something and you may have a chance in the future to play with a clown or learn a bit of trapeze or work with the ponies,” she told reporters.
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, she said, was the “sorcerer supreme,” the “superfan of all superfans” and “the master of the big top.”
“Doctor Strange” will be released in the United States on November 4, a full 30 years after it officially went into pre-production – starting a process which was beset by numerous delays over the years, for all manner of reasons.
Advance tickets went on sale last week in the US, where it is expected to have the fall’s best opening, predicted at somewhere between US$55 (S$76) -US$75 (S$104.5) million.
If all goes to plan, Strange will be a big player in the next “Avengers” movie, Feige announced.
“We’re thinking it one step at a time. Benedict puts on the cloak once again early next year in ‘Infinity War,'” he said.
Image:
Publication Date:
Friday, October 21, 2016 – 11:16
Keywords:
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Story Type:
Others
21 local, international partners to drive innovation in Singapore's healthcare sector
The Centre of Healthcare Innovation Co-Learning Network is working on co-designing the upcoming National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Sengkang General Hospital, Woodlands Integrated Health Campus and other healthcare facilities.
Source link
In global iron ore, Singapore bosses China in setting prices
SINGAPORE – In the US$7 billion (S$9.8 billlion) a day global iron ore futures market, size doesn’t matter when it comes to clout. Contracts in Singapore have greater pricing power than those traded in China even though the volumes in the city-state are more…
Source link
S.H.E's Ella reportedly pregnant
Taiwanese pop star Ella Chen, who is married to Malaysian businessman Alvin Lai, is reportedly pregnant, according to Sin Chew Daily.
There was speculation that the 35-year-old artiste was pregnant after she rejected doing an alcohol advertisement recently.
Chen’s production company issued a statement saying that it has not received any news from Chen that she was expecting.
Some believe that Chen did not want to make any announcement yet because according to Chinese belief, the good news should only be shared after three months into the pregnancy, to prevent a miscarriage.
Chen, a member of the girl group S.H.E, married Lai in Malacca in 2012.
Ella Chen weds in lavish Malaysian wedding ceremony
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The Daily Chilli, The Star/ANN, Youtube, China Press, Sina Weibo, HIM International
Ella Chen from S.H.E says she trusts Malaysian husband completely
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The New Paper, HIM Music, HIM International, facebook, Let there be light, HIM International Music
Image:
Publication Date:
Friday, October 21, 2016 – 10:44
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Rotator Image:
Story Type:
Others
New rules set to protect students of private degree schools
SINGAPORE – Students taking external degree programmes from private schools will get more financial protection and gain greater insight into the employment prospects of private degree graduates under more stringent guidelines rolled out for the private…
Source link
Singapore/KL version of The Voice to air in 2017
SINGAPORE – Popular international singing contest The Voice, in which Singapore’s Nathan Hartono emerged second in a China version recently, will have a Singapore/Malaysia edition.
The televised contest that has established stars mentoring up-and-coming singers will air in both countries next year.
This was announced by mm2 Entertainment yesterday. The company is behind the hit army movie franchise Ah Boys To Men.
It acquired the rights to produce and broadcast The Voice from Talpa Global.
Melvin Ang, chief executive officer of mm2 Asia, mm2 Entertainment’s parent company, said: “Given the strong historical and cultural bond between the two countries, the Singapore/Malaysia version is a great way to extend this iconic format to this part of the world.
“Through the show, we’re also looking to unearth fresh acting and singing talents for our diverse range of movies and entertainment platforms.”
According to Talpa Global, The Voice, which first aired in the Netherlands in 2010, is shown in more than 180 countries with almost 70 local productions.
The 11th season of the American edition premiered last month, featuring singing stars Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys as coaches.
Details, including the mentors, for the Singapore/Malaysia edition have not been revealed.
The Voice Of China ran for four seasons under the same franchise but changed its format and name to Sing! China this year. Hartono came in second in Sing! China, where he was coached by Mandopop superstar Jay Chou.
Local singer Nathan Hartono wows Sing! China judges
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The Straits Times, The New Paper, YouTube screengrabs, HBO Asia, Music & Movement
This article was first published on October 20, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Image:
Publication Date:
Friday, October 21, 2016 – 10:01
Keywords:
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Story Type:
Others
