Citronella- and rose-scented geraniums are selling out in nurseries here.

As Singapore steps up its fight against the Zika virus, so-called mosquito-repelling plants have been flying off the shelves in nurseries here.

The bestsellers are the citronella-scented geranium (Pelargonium citrosum) and the rose-scented geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) – both dubbed “mosquito plants” as their scents are believed to ward off mosquitoes.

An order of 100 pots of the Pelargonium citrosum that World Farm sells arrived last week and was sold out within a few days. It usually takes the nursery in Bah Soon Pah Road a week to sell the same quantity.

A new order of 300 of these plants that arrived from Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, on Thursday was snapped up within two hours. At each of Far East Flora’s four retail outlets, a sign hangs on a stand listing seven plants: Pelargonium graveolens, lemon balm, rosemary, citronella, lavender, lemongrass and peppermint – all touted to have mosquito-repellent properties.

According to the nursery’s sales and marketing director Peter Cheok, the essential oils in these plants are common ingredients in mosquito-repelling sprays.

Far East Flora’s weekly order of about 40 to 60 of each of these plants has more than doubled on the back of “swift sales”, he says. Despite this, new batches that arrived earlier this week are running low in stock.

Such plants are also sold out or running low at Candy Floriculture in Thomson Road and Katong Flower Shop in New Upper Changi Road. New shipments have recently arrived or are on the way.

But how effective are these plants?

Botanist Shawn Lum says that while there is some evidence that selected plant essential oils and other compounds have insect-repellent properties, this does not necessarily mean that having the plants in one’s compound will repel mosquitoes.

Dr Lum, a senior lecturer from the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), says: “Some repellent compounds are only released when the leaves are crushed or burnt.”

Even then, their effect may not last long.

Fighting Zika: Which mosquito repellent to use

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The Straits Times, New Straits Times, Avon, Reuters, The Business Times, Ronnie Lim, Far East Flora

Organic farmer Alexius Yeo, 31, who grew a mosquito plant and six pots of lemongrass in the garden of his parents’ terrace house last year, found that when he crushed the leaves of the mosquito plant and lemongrass and rubbed them all over his skin, the mosquitoes stayed away longer.

The director of CarbonInQ, which runs nature-based education programmes, says: “But the smell went off and, after a while, the mosquitoes came back.”

Professor Jorgen Schlundt, a food safety expert from the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at NTU, says that, so far, there has been no scientific evidence that mosquito-repellent plants can bring about a significant drop in a person’s risk of getting Zika or dengue.

The former director at the World Health Organisation adds that in most urban areas of South-east Asia, the main breeding source of the Aedes mosquito, which spreads Zika and dengue, is containers storing water for household use.

Assistant Professor Miao Yansong from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences points out that the effectiveness of different types of herbs as a mosquito repellent can also vary between mosquito species.

What is the Zika virus?

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Reuters, The Straits Times, The New Paper, NEA

The experts say that the five-step Mozzie Wipeout by the National Environment Agency is a more effective way of reducing mosquito breeding.

Among the steps are removing water in plant pot plates and trays and loosening the hardened soil in plant pots where stagnant water can accumulate.

Dr Lum adds: “That said, there is no harm in growing ‘mosquito-repelling plants’ at home.”

Either way, some businesses are hoping to ride on the current demand.

Candy Floriculture plans to sell a chemical solution called PlantZom to customers at $30 a bottle.

Invented three years ago by two chemists from a home-grown chemical formulation company, it has been offered through a spraying service to hotels, condominiums and companies.

Mr Edwin Chan, 44, one of the chemists who invented it, claims that when sprayed on plants, the chemical develops an invisible web which traps and kills mosquitoes within six hours after they land on the plant.

PlantZom, he claims, lingers around longer – at least 14 days, unlike conventional insecticides which last only about three days. He says: “I am confident that it will sell well.”

leawee@sph.com.sg

Crush and repel

MOSQUITO PLANT (PELARGONIUM CITROSUM OR GRAVEOLENS)

Crushed leaves of the Pelargonium citrosum seem to offer short-term relief from mosquitoes. Some studies show that it has 30 to 40 per cent of the repelling power of Deet. Deet (N, N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide) is a synthetic chemical that has been shown to be effective in repelling mosquitoes. Another species of the same family, Pelargonium graveolens (above), is also sold here for its repellent properties. Place a few pots together or occasionally rub the leaves to trigger the release of essential oils. Before rubbing crushed leaves on your skin, test them on a small spot first. Essential oils may cause some people to break out in rashes.

Available at: World Farm ($5 to $6 a pot), Far East Flora ($8) and Candy Floriculture ($8)

BASIL (OCIMUM BASILICUM)

Basil plants are among the most pungent herbs. They are one of the few herbs which give off a scent without their leaves being crushed. For temporary protection in the garden, rub some leaves on your skin to release the essential oils.

Available at: World Farm ($5 a pot), Katong Flower Shop ($7 a pot) and Candy Floriculture ($8 a pot)

LEMON BALM (MELISSA OFFICINALIS)

Crushing the leaves of this herb and rubbing them on your skin supposedly provides a measure of protection against mosquito bites.

Available at: World Farm and Candy Floriculture (both $8 a pot)

Sources: BugOfff.com, National Gardening Association in the United States

Read also: Plants that repel mosquitoes

This article was first published on Sept 10, 2016.
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Yang’s lawyer says they show he treated widow well; DPP says they were taken on same day after he was sued.

To support his case that former tour guide Yang Yin had treated elderly widow Chung Kin Chun well, his lawyer submitted several photographs in court yesterday.

One shows Yang with Madam Chung and a trolley full of groceries at a supermarket.

Another shows the 42-year-old in T-shirt and shorts, trimming the toenails of the childless widow he said he called “grandma”.

Other photos show them eating char siew (barbecued pork) rice and him in the driver’s seat of a car with her next to him.

Yang, who pleaded guilty to misappropriating $1.1 million from the 89-year-old Madam Chung, maintained that he was her companion, and wanted to “fill a void in her life” when he moved in to live with her from 2009 to 2014.

The photographs were submitted to underscore the point that he took care of her and took her to places where she wanted to go.

The prosecution did not buy this.

Instead, it pointed to the time- stamp on the photos: All of them were taken on Aug 20, 2014 – after Madam Chung’s niece Hedy Mok sued him for unduly influencing her aunt into handing over her assets.

“I think the inference is quite clear,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani, who questioned the purpose of the pictures.

The prosecution asked that the Chinese national be sentenced to 10 to 12 years’ imprisonment for misappropriating a total of $1.1 million belonging to the elderly and “vulnerable” victim over two separate occasions- offences which call for a deterrent sentence.

Yang’s lawyer, Mr Irving Choh, however, asked for a sentence not exceeding three years. His client, he argued, was a first-time offender and the sole breadwinner of his family.

Moreover, Yang shared a “warm relationship” with the widow who was diagnosed with dementia in 2014. She was lonely and her relatives rarely visited her, the lawyer said.

The $1.1 million Yang took was to pay off his grandmother’s medical bills, said Mr Choh. “He does not want to deny that he did indeed take the $1.1 million… His actions were not for personal gain, but a misguided attempt to lift a financial burden which was taking a toll on his family.”

According to bank statements, Yang had around $1.1 million in his bank accounts – which was not part of the charges – but he did not abscond even though he had the chance to, said Mr Choh.

DPP Vaswani, however, pointed out that the accused did try to withdraw the money, but was unable to do so as it had been frozen under a court order.

He also highlighted that the $500,000 and $600,000 which Yang had misappropriated from the widow in 2010 and 2012 remained unaccounted for.

The accused had “intentionally fostered an environment of unquestioning trust with Madam Chung”, said the DPP. He capitalised on her age and lack of immediate familial support such that his actions were “free from the scrutiny of the eyes of outsiders”.

“We urge the court to impose sentences reflecting both the harm and culpability involved in the offences,” said DPP Vaswani.

“The lies and cover-ups pursued by the accused at length, years after the actual act of misappropriation was executed, demonstrate the depth of his commitment to deceit and fraud.”

Yang’s guilty plea should also be “given no weight”. He did so only after undergoing 21/2 days of cross- examination, during which he showed numerous inconsistencies.

By this stage, the accused was well aware of the evidence against him, said DPP Vaswani.

Mr Choh said his client changed his mind about pleading guilty due to pressure from his family.

In the dock yesterday, Yang looked solemn as the prosecution and defence gave their submissions. He shook his head at times and turned to look in Madam Chung’s direction when he was being led away by the police. Madam Mok, her aunt and other friends were present at the hearing.

Apart from criminal breach of trust charges, Yang had in May pleaded guilty to 120 other charges, mostly related to the falsification of receipts to make it appear that a business he set up was real.

The hearing for his criminal breach of trust charges will resume on Sept 21 for further submissions.

This article was first published on Sept 10, 2016.
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Move over, Snapchat.

Singapore kids are spending hours on a new app – one that is from a local company, no less.

Meet Bigo Live, a live video streaming app that has been in the top five of Apple’s app store here from July till last month.

Its appeal seems to lie in the fact that it is a combination of Periscope (Twitter’s video live-stream app), Snapchat (a multimedia messaging app), and Mukbang (an online broadcast where the host eats large quantities of food while interacting with the audience in exchange for money).

Power up Bigo Live on your smartphone, and you are invited into any number of bedrooms, classrooms, workspaces, or any place for that matter, where young people are streaming whatever they are doing at the time.

Other users of the app can watch them and interact with them, by commenting on what they are doing, asking them to do certain things, or even asking for their contact details.

In other words, it is voyeurism made easy – and legal – with the consent of the streamers.

But allowing strangers into their lives in this manner does have pitfalls. Several young streamers, especially teenage girls, have had unsavoury experiences.

Some of them, who look to be in their early teens, are brazenly asked by strangers to dance and show off their bodies.

When The New Paper used the Bigo Live app over the past few days, a number of streams by teenage girls invited comments by users asking them to “perform”.

For example, a young woman who was streaming with a close-up of her face willingly moved her smartphone to show her body in a camisole dress after a viewer asked to see it.

Other girls have borne the brunt of nasty comments, including racist jibes, about their bodies and abilities.

Bigo Live users whom TNP spoke to said they had seen such comments. Some of them have been targeted.

But derogatory comments are not the only kind of negative attention experienced by users.

Miss Joanna Chia, 17, who mostly sings or responds to comments by users when she streams, said the worst comment she received was: “You’re a slut, and you shouldn’t be on Bigo.”

She told TNP: “I don’t let myself get affected by it. I feel that no one has the right to judge a person, just like how you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Last week, a primary school pupil streaming on Bigo Live danced in her school uniform. Viewers commented on her skin colour and cast racist slurs at the child.

A few days later, an Indian foreign worker, who used the app to live-stream, also received abusive comments.

Read also: Live-streaming: Where does one draw the line?

Sexual grooming

Dr Lim Boon Leng, a psychiatrist at Gleneagles Hospital, said that the app could end up as a platform for the sexual grooming of minors – befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child to lower the child’s inhibitions with the aim of sexually abusing the child.

He said: “When users ask streamers to pose and praise them for it, they may be led on to show more and more, which can become dangerous, especially if the users ask to meet them in real life.”

Dr Lim said that teenagers are likely to be susceptible to such requests as they tend to be more impulsive.

“Teenagers are at that point in their life where they consider consequences much less than adults, and they think that they no longer need to seek permission from parents as they are no longer children.”

Dr Lim also suggested that the app could encourage narcissism.

He said young streamers could try to get likes, to see if people like them enough to get them gifts, and that the monetary rewards may entice young streamers.

“(In this app), you can get real-life gains. Though the amount may seem little for some, children may think it is a great sum,” he said.

Mr Daniel Koh, a psychologist at Insights Mind Centre, described such derogatory comments and racist remarks as “something that can be quite explosive”.

Because the app is live, a negative remark could trigger another negative remark.

“And this can get the passion rolling very fast, whereas on an app such as Facebook, it can take a while for people to comment,” he said.

Perhaps wary of the app being misused, Bigo Live flashes an advisory on every live-stream to warn users that they will be banned or have their accounts suspended if their stream “contains smoking, overtly sexual acts or illegal content”.

The advisory also says the app is reviewed 24 hours a day “to keep the community safe and open”.

Lawyer Ravinderpal Singh said the creators of the app may not be liable if its users break the law. The lawyer from Kalco Law compared it to a telephone line.

He said: “It is only a medium that is used for harassment. A phone line cannot be at fault when users harass on the line. So far, none of the social media platforms have been held liable for harassment that happened on the app.”

The app also has a mute function, which allows people to completely block specific users from sending them messages.

However, Mr Singh says that under the Protection from Harassment Act, users could be liable for harassing others on the app. Offenders can be fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed up to six months.

Read also: Teen accused of live-streaming rape of friend on video app

What is Bigo live?

Bigo Live is a live-streaming app available globally in Google Play and Apple app stores.

According to SimilarWeb, it held the top ranking in the Singapore App Store for five days until Pokemon Go took its spot on Aug 6. On the Google Play store, the app has more than 10 million downloads worldwide.

It takes a mere tap to start streaming live video. When users are streaming, they can receive rewards from other users, who buy “diamonds” to get stickers of items like flowers, a supercar or a ring to give to users they like. The diamonds (the app’s currency) are bought with real money.

Each item’s value will be added to the streamer’s “bean” count and when they reach 6,700 beans, they can cash out the beans for money – 210 beans equal US$1 (S$1.36).

Problem cashing out

However, Singapore users told The New Paper that when they tried to cash out their beans, a message said that only those with bank accounts in Thailand and Indonesia could do so.

Singaporean user Kereen Hong, 19, said she encountered this problem when she tried to cash out her 37,000 beans.

Bigo Live seems to be focusing on the South-east Asian market, with heavy promotion of social media personalities and Bigo “models” from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam on its official Facebook page.

TNP tried to contact Bigo Live through its e-mail, Facebook page and Twitter account, but did not receive a reply by press time.

We visited the company’s registered address in Suntec City, but the unit has been taken over by a real estate company.

We also went to the address listed on its website, on another floor in Suntec City, and it was empty. A concierge said the company had moved out earlier this week.

According to the LinkedIn profile of Jianqiang Hu, who is listed as a co-founder of Bigo Live, the company is “invested” by YY, inc, a tech company headquartered in Guangzhou, China.

A media expert, Mr Lars Voedisch, managing director of PRecious Communications, told TNP that live-streaming social media apps, such as Bigo Live and Periscope, will be a new trend.

“The current focus is on live broadcasting, but there is still a lot left unexplored with this new form of social media interaction… “It is definitely an app to watch.”

He said that Bigo Live’s popularity could be attributed to what today’s teenagers value: social validation.

“Their identities online matter as much as… their identities offline. So an app that allows them to not only show their talents and share their interests, but also allows them to gain fans and earn money would definitely seem attractive.”

This article was first published on Sept 10, 2016.
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He was reclusive and temperamental.

If anyone tried to talk to Singaporean man Mohamed Isa Omar, he would respond badly, said the housekeeping staff at the Batam hotel he had been staying in.

On Tuesday, the 67-year-old was found dead in the room at Lai Lai Mutiara Hotel.

The hotel employee, who did not want to be named, told The New Paper in Bahasa Indonesia: “He would dismiss us angrily if we tried to speak to him.”

Mr Isa checked in last December, according to Indonesia daily Batam Pos, and had paid cash upfront for the stay. A check on travel websites revealed that a room at the hotel costs $29 a night.

Barred

He barred people from entering his room, including housekeeping staff, for the entire duration.

He would go out only at night, preferring to stay in during the day, said employees.

According to various reports, a cleaner had sensed something amiss on Tuesday morning.

The employee TNP spoke to said a colleague had detected a foul smell emanating from the room and notified the hotel management.

Subsequently, the police were called in.

When the police entered his room on Tuesday morning, they found Mr Isa’s body.

Police Chief of Batu Ampar sector, Police Commissioner Mr Arwin,told TNP: “On Tuesday morning, the hotel receptionist told us that a man had not left his room for about two to three days.”

They sent a team of more than 10 men to Nagoya Square Complex, where the hotel is, he said.

Mr Isa’s door was locked from within and a spare key had to be used to enter it.

In his room, the police found medicine, clothes and a bag.

“We can confirm that Mr Mohamed Isa has been staying in the room for more than a year, but not when he started staying in Batam.”

Commissioner Police Memo Ardian told Batam Pos: “From external check, there are no signs of violence and the man had been suffering from heart disease.

“His body was decomposing when found. Currently, his body is at Bhayangkara Police Hospital and we are waiting for family members to claim him.”

This article was first published on September 10, 2016.
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