Winning Singapore’s first Olympic gold. Breaking an Olympic record. 50.39 sec. Joseph Schooling’s historic win has sent shockwaves around the world.
Since his historic win in Rio on Aug 12, sportsmen and celebrities have shared their congratulations for this man who achieved a first for a Singapore athlete at the Olympics. The Straits Times takes a look at these people.
Decorated Olympian Michael Phelps, whom Joseph Schooling beat in his last individual race before retiring, was gracious in defeat, wishing him the best in his future endeavours.
Former football player Fandi Ahmad shared a video on Facebook lauding Schooling’s achievement.
After performing together for more than two decades, popular J-pop group SMAP announced on Sunday (Aug 14) that they will be going their separate ways at the end of this year.
The quintet, which consists of members Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Shingo Katori, plan to focus on their solo careers following the split.
The all-male pop group, who have continuously dominated the Japanese music scene, is one of the nation’s most popular and successful J-pop groups.
As they prepare for their bow out, here are seven things to know about the pop group sensation.
1. THE FIVE STARTED OUT AS BACKUP DANCERS
J-pop group SNAP (clockwise from bottom right) Shingo Katori, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kasanagi and Nakai Masahiro. Photo: Avex Trax
SMAP, which stands for “Sports Music Assemble People”, was formed in 1988 by Japanese talent leviathan Johnny & Associates.
The five members, who are now aged between 39 and 43, made their debuts on the Japanese entertainment scene when they were about 15 years old.
Before their rise to stardom, the members of the group were backup dancers for the then popular Japanese pop group, Hikaru Genji.
SMAP’s members were known as “Skate Boys” as they performed in roller skates in order to stand out from other emerging male idol groups at the time.
SMAP released their debut album in 1991.
They went on to release another 20 albums over the span of their 25-year career, garnering more than 35 million in overall record sales.
2. THEY ARE THE BIGGEST SUCCESS STORY OF TALENT AGENCY JOHNNY & ASSOCIATES
The pop group’s rise to stardom propelled Johnny Kitagawa’s talent agency, Johnny & Associates, to the top of the Japanese entertainment industry.
Set up in 1962, the agency takes in young teenage hopefuls and grooms them under a rigorous dancing and singing training regime. The junior members then begin their careers by first performing as backup dancers for senior members before the agency organises them into individual pop groups.
This assembly line style of grooming pop stars is the backbone of Johnny & Associates’ business model, and has successfully churned out numerous singing and dancing boy groups, with SMAP being its greatest achievement.
Kitagawa was the first to conceptualise and perfect this highly systematic and structured training method, which has since been adopted by many K-pop talent agencies, such as SM Entertainment.
The success of SMAP and Johnny Entertainment has given Kitagawa great clout in the Japanese entertainment industry.
His achievements have also been recognised on the international platform, with the Guinness World Records awarding him with three titles: the most No. 1 singles produced by an individual, the most concerts produced by an individual, and the most No. 1 acts produced by an individual.
3. THEIR MUSIC HAS A GLOBAL REACH
SMAP’s fame extends beyond Japan into South Korea and China.
The regional popularity of the boy band allowed them the opportunity to perform and meet prominent Chinese leaders, including then Premier Wen Jiabao.
At the performance, he remarked that SMAP could “bring seeds of China-Japan friendship that take deep root and blossom in China”.
A few months after the showcase, the boy group held a concert in Beijing that was attended by 40,000 people.
Their concert marked the first time a Japanese pop group had visited China in a decade.
As band member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi can speak fluent Korean, he has acted in various South Korean movies and television shows, and has thus been credited with bringing Japan closer to the hearts of South Korean fans.
4. SMAP WAS BORN ON A VARIETY SHOW
The variety television programme, called SMAP X SMAP, first aired in 1996, and was conceived as a showcase for the group. It has succeeded beyond its creators’ wildest dreams and, since its debut, has consistently garnered high ratings.
The show features the members doing comedy skits, sharing cooking tips, chatting with special guests and putting up performances.
Many local and international celebrities have been guests on the television programme, including Michael Jackson, David Beckham and Mariah Carey.
5. ALL FIVE MEMBERS ARE MULTI-TALENTED
Given that Johnny & Associations expects its idols to do more than sing and dance, it is no surprise that the members of SMAP have racked up varied resumes. Each member has appeared in films, soap operas, dramas, commercials and movies.
Masahiro Nakai, the group’s front man, has been the main newscaster for the Olympic Games for the Tokyo Broadcasting System for the last five summer and winter games.
The group’s youngest member, Shingo Katori, on the other hand, played a popular television character named Shingo Mama on a weekly variety show called Sata Suma.
Because of Shingo Mama’s popularity among children, Japan’s Education Ministry invited Katori, in the guise of Shingo Mama, to be the face of a nationwide campaign that promoted family communication from 2000 to 2001.
Arguably the most successful actor of the group is Takuya Kimura, who has starred in Japanese TV series which drew record-breaking ratings as well as international arthouse films such as Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 (2004) and Yoji Yamada’s Love And Honour ((2006).
6. THE GROUP WAS ORIGINALLY A SEXTET
When SMAP first debuted in 1988, they comprised six members: the existing five members as well as Katsuyuki Mori. The latter left the band in 1996 in order to pursue a career in motorcycle racing. Since then, the group has operated as a quintet.
J-pop group V6’s Masayuki Sakamoto and Tokio’s Taichi Kokubun were also members of SMAP before the group was officially launched by Johnny & Associates.
7. THE BREAK-UP RUMOURS HAVE BEEN CIRCULATING FOR A WHILE
Rumours that the landmark pop group was facing an imminent split first surfaced in January.
Many tabloids and fan blogs reported that the band members were trying to leave Johnny & Associates, which would effectively disband them for good.
It was reported that, apart from Kimura, the other four had planned to leave and follow their long-time manager Michi Iijima, who resigned from the company in January.
Iijima was believed to have fallen out with the founder’s sister and vice-president, Mary Kitagawa.
The furore over the rumours eventually prompted the group to make a public apology on their variety programme, SMAP X SMAP, to dispel the rumours and reassure fans that they were planning to stay together.
The Japanese public rejoiced at the news, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
He told a parliamentary committee: “It’s good that the group responded to the wishes of many fans and decided to continue (as it is).”
Sources: BBC, Japan Times, Spin, Billboard, Guinness World Records
This article was first published on August 15, 2016. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
RIO DE JANEIRO – Round-the-clock security will help prevent any “mousehole” incidents at the Rio Olympics after the sample-switching doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, a senior official said on Monday.
Anti-doping experts have raised their game after the uncovering of the Russian plot involving the sports ministry and secret police, where samples were routinely switched overnight using a hole in the laboratory wall.
Richard Budgett, the International Olympic Committee’s medical and scientific director, said procedures had been tightened since the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed the Russian conspiracy.
“At the time we had great expertise in place but when you have the director of a laboratory involved in that way that is a challenge,” Budgett told reporters.
“Clearly our experts have complete access to every part of the laboratory here and every part of the process. We have changed the way that samples flow in a laboratory – they come in and they’re immediately opened, compared to what happened in Sochi.”
A WADA report last month detailed an elaborate scheme where drug-contaminated samples were replaced after dark with clean urine kept in a clandestine “operations room” next door to the main laboratory, using the mouse hole.
Russia topped the medals table at Sochi. A similar system to avoid positive tests was in operation at Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory, including during the 2013 world athletics championships, the report said.
Russia has its smallest contingent in more than a century at the Rio Olympics after doping revelations triggered a string of suspensions, with its track and field team barred en masse.
Budgett said in Rio, samples go straight to the city’s anti-doping laboratory and are opened immediately, cutting the risk of tampering.
Security measures include a network of security cameras – including one pointing at the door of the freezer where samples are kept, which is guarded constantly.
An independent expert decides if a sample is flagged up as suspicious. The lab has a multi-national staff and four directors, and is also overseen by WADA observers.
“So the whole thing is very carefully patrolled and allied to that will be forensic examination of samples as well to make sure that there’s been no tampering,” Budgett said.
“We take it extremely seriously. We’ve been talking with WADA to ensure the integrity of those samples is maintained… They (athletes) need to have absolute confidence in the process and I think they should have and they will have,” he added.
Budgett also said there were no concerns about the Rio lab after its WADA accreditation was temporarily suspended in June, blaming a “mistake” in procedures which had since been rectified.
The facility had passed intensive tests and has already analysed more than 3,000 samples at the Rio Games, he said.
SRINAGAR – A paramilitary police commander was shot dead in Kashmir’s main city while seven suspected separatist militants were killed in gun battles on Monday (Aug 15) as violence flared in the disputed Himalayan region on Indian Independence Day.
The commander was critically injured in an ambush in Srinagar’s Nowhatta locality and later died in hospital while two militants were killed in a shootout which followed the attack, an officer of India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) told AFP.
“We have lost a commanding officer. Two militants were also killed in the ensuing gunfight,” said Mr Atul Karwal, the force’s inspector general in the region.
He said nine others were wounded after coming under fire during a patrol, including two local policemen who were in a critical condition at a hospital.
The officer could not immediately confirm the identities of the slain militants but said they were “non-locals”, usually a reference to Pakistani nationals.
Authorities have imposed a curfew in large parts of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state, since July 9 during an upsurge in violence sparked by the killing of a top militant commander called Burhan Wani in a gunfight with security forces.
More than 50 civilians have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands more injured in the region’s worst violence since 2010.
In a separate gunfight on Monday, five militants were killed near the Line of Control (LoC) – the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan – in the northern Uri sector, the area’s police chief said.
Mr Imtiyaz Hussain said the militants were spotted by guards after they sneaked over to the Indian side of the heavily militarised border.
Two Indian army officers including a commanding officer were also wounded and were evacuated to an army hospital in Srinagar.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in August 1947 but both claim the territory in full.
It is the epicentre of a separatist insurgency, with several rebel groups fighting Indian troops and police as they seek either independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Separatist groups traditionally order citizens to observe a shutdown on Independence Day to protest against Indian rule.
The state’s first woman chief minister Mehbooba Mufti called on India and Pakistan to make the LoC irrelevant to bring peace in the region.
“I appeal to both countries that this line dividing Kashmir should be made irrelevant,” Ms Mufti told a thinly attended gathering at a sports stadium in Srinagar.
She blamed the Indian leadership for the current crisis in Kashmir and appealed to protesting youths to return to their schools and colleges.
The main event at the fortified arena was marred by spectators booing the chief minister after the Indian flag fell to the ground as she tried to hoist it, prompting authorities to order a probe to determine if it was the result of an act of sabotage.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made no direct reference to the situation in Kashmir in his annual Independence Day speech but made a general appeal for an end to violence, adding that India “will never tolerate terrorism”.
Do Singaporeans really understand the role of the Elected President? Ahead of the Constitutional Commission’s recommendations upon its review of the scheme, Kevin Tan recaps the basics. Catch ‘Electing a President’, Aug 16, at 8pm.
The construction of the Maxwell MRT station, which kicked off early last year, has affected the business of Maxwell Food Centre, with at least 10 stalls closed down and their replacements finding it hard to stay afloat, Shin Min Daily News reported.
The main reason for the dwindled patronage at the food hub, located at the junction of Maxwell and South Bridge roads, is the closure of the carpark at neighbouring Erskine Road in March last year to make way for the MRT facility.
The carpark could accommodate more than 100 vehicles.
As most of the regular customers come in cars, the lack of parking space has made the place their less frequent choice to visit for dining, the Chinese evening daily pointed out.
The newspaper also noted that the centre’s main entrance facing South Bridge Road is sealed off to block the dust from the MRT works.
That means most customers have to take a longer way round to get to it, which further weakens its attraction.
Noticing that the stallholders were suffering some knocks in their business, the Government granted a 25 per cent rental rebate to the 103 stalls early this year.
However, many of the stallholders whom Shin Min spoke to on Sunday said the benefit could not make up for the fall in customers.
Some disclosed that in the past 18 months, about 10 stalls had closed.
And the people who took over could not sustain the business for long, with many pulling out within a month.
Some even wound up in a week, they noted, as business was bad.
Shin Min noticed that some of the stalls were vacant and apparently not taken up by anyone at the moment.
According to stallholder Ng Kok Hua, who represents the food centre, they have managed to persuade the Urban Redevelopment Authority, whose building stands next door, to agree to open its carparks on weekends and after 7pm on weekdays to their customers.
However, the 60-year-old seller of ngoh hiang, a sausage-like Chinese delicacy, sees the concessions as still inadequate.
“We hope the carparks can be opened even two hours earlier for our customers,” he said.
“We really need help to tide over the next five years. Our regular customers are our life line.”
The Maxwell MRT station, an underground stop on the Thomson-East Coast Line located around Kreta Ayer Heights and Chinatown’s Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, is scheduled to be completed in 2021.
Many local delicacies at the Maxwell Food Centre are famous for their special and traditional flavours, such as chicken rice and porridge.
To boost business, the food centre would install an electronic machine every Hungry Ghost Festival – which falls around this time every year – to allow customers to seek “lucky numbers” to try out their chances in Toto and 4-D lotteries.
“Our patrons at noon are mostly young people. This machine perhaps can help attract more of them here,” said Mr Ng.
For two more years, Singaporeans will enjoy lower costs in entrusting their health and finances to someone else if they lose their mental capacity.
The fee waiver for Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) applications, introduced in 2014, was yesterday extended until Aug 31, 2018.
Singaporeans will be able to file LPA Form 1 applications for free until this date, although they will still have to pay fees charged by professionals engaged to witness and certify the application, such as medical practitioners and lawyers.
The LPA is a legal document that allows a person aged at least 21 to appoint one or more people to take actions on his behalf if he loses the ability to make his own decisions, such as in dementia.
Applicants have two forms to choose from. Form 1 grants general powers and meets the needs of the vast majority of Singaporeans, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development, while Form 2 accommodates special requirements and customised powers. Fees are needed for Form 2, and permanent residents and foreigners.
Besides the fee waiver, the LPA application process has been simplified.
The Office of the Public Guardian, which administers the applications, has simplified the language and reduced the number of pages in the forms.
About 10,000 job seekers landed a job in the first half of this year after seeking help from career and training bodies of the Government and labour movement.
About 4,000 of them are professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) while 6,000 are rank and file workers, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said yesterday.
They found work through the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).
These workers make up two-thirds of the 15,000 job seekers that WDA and e2i helped through their career centres and the new Adapt and Grow support programmes, he told Parliament.
Mr Lim noted that improvements made to employment assistance schemes, such as the professional conversion and career support programmes, as well as the increased number of job fairs and career workshops run by the two agencies, helped the 10,000 find employment.
He gave the update to MP Foo Mee Har (West Coast GRC) who had asked about the effectiveness of support schemes in helping Singaporeans, particularly higher-skilled workers, get a job.
Layoffs are rising.
About 5,500 workers were let go in the second quarter of this year, almost 70 per cent more than in the same period last year.
Said Mr Lim: “The Government will continue to monitor the economic and labour market situation closely, and expand employment support to our workers proactively as we go through this period of not just cyclical uncertainty, but structural transition too.”
He also said the transformation of WDA into a new statutory board called Workforce Singapore (WSG) in the coming months will provide more help for more Singaporeans to manage career transitions throughout their lives.
“WSG will also support tripartite efforts to transform our industries and strengthen the Singaporean core in all major sectors.
“We believe this is the best way to position Singapore for growth and to create better jobs for our people,” he added.
Foreign students who deliberately default on their scholarship bond obligations will be banned from working or residing in Singapore, Parliamentary Secretary for Education Low Yen Ling said yesterday.
She also told Parliament that about 1 per cent of them have defaulted, and the Ministry of Education (MOE) is contacting another 4 per cent to check whether they can fulfil their bond obligations.
The remaining 95 per cent are serving their bond or have applied for deferment to pursue further studies, while a handful are unable to fulfil their obligations owing to reasons like illness, she added.
Those who show no intention of serving their bond will be made to pay liquidated damages.
“A few have started to pay back the monies and we will continue to chase the rest of defaulters for the scholarship monies,” she said.
“In the event that they do not pay the liquidated damages, they will not be able to come to Singapore to work or to stay.”
Ms Low was replying to Png Eng Huat (Hougang), who had asked, among other things, about the amount MOE had recovered from foreign students who are bond breakers, the number of them deemed non-contactable, the length of time taken to recover such scholarship monies and the amount written off.
The Auditor-General’s Office (AGO), in its latest annual report, found the ministry did not do enough to ensure these students were reminded of their obligations and paid the liquidated damages.
Ms Low said in the last few years, MOE has “progressively stepped up” measures to track and ensure scholars serve their bond.
These include working more closely with agencies, such as the Manpower Ministry and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, to track the employment status of these scholarship holders, as well as informing them of their obligations when they are given their scholarship and throughout their studies.
Ms Low also said, when replying to Cedric Foo (Pioneer), that her ministry’s top priority is to nurture Singaporean talent. Most of the undergraduate scholarships are given to Singaporeans, she added.
The AGO report also found inadequate controls to ensure outstanding student loans were promptly recovered. The loans are administered by banks but the money is from the MOE.
Unpaid loans of former students of National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University stood at around $228.04 million as at June 30 last year. Add on the loans of those from other institutes of higher learning and the total soars to $511.49 million.
But only 1.4 per cent of the sum is in default and deemed unrecoverable, Acting Education Minister (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung told the House yesterday.
It is not a high rate, he added, noting that corresponding figures are about 40 per cent in the United Kingdom and 10 per cent to 20 per cent in the United States.
“Write-off of loans is considered only as a last resort when the banks have exhausted all means and all efforts to recover them,” Mr Ong said in his reply to Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC).
He also said access to such student loans is “deliberately made easy to help as many students as possible”.
HONG KONG – A Hong Kong court’s order outlawing “ladies nights” on gounds of discrimination has drawn the ire of club and bar owners, who said the ban has slashed their business by as much as half and vowed to resume the practice.
The District Court ruled in April that the promotion of ladies’ nights – which usually offers cheaper admission and drinks to women only – was discriminatory against men.
The case was filed last year by the city’s Equal Opportunities Commission on behalf of a man who accused a disco club of breaching sex discrimination laws with its ladies’ night promotion.
The court also ordered the company to compensate the man.
The case sent a chill through night spots in the territory, with many cancelling their ladies’ nights, South China Morning Post reported on Monday. Business at some establishments have suffered as a result.
“Gentlemen used to spend between HK$500 (S$87) to HK$600 in one night, but now the amount has fallen to around HK$400,” Mr Max Wong, manager at J1 Club in Tsim Sha Tsui, was quoted by the Post as saying.
Some bars in the Central business and shopping district have seen business plunge by half, the report said, citing Mr Wing Chin, vice president at the Hong Kong Bar and Club Association.
“We must do something before a tide of closure emerges,” said Mr Chin, noting that business at clubs and bars was down 20 to 30 per cent in the first half of year, compared to a year ago, due to belt-tightening amid uncertain economic outlook.
“We will not cut the ladies’ nights just because of some unreasonable ruling,” said Mr Chin, adding it was a “basic practice” in the industry for decades.
He called on bar operators to resume the practice, shrugging off the risk of legal challenges.
“We will deal with the case if the practice incurred further legal actions,” he said.
The association has even highlighted clubs which continue to host ladies’ nights in its new app, BarMap. It has seven bars currently listed.
This article was first published on Aug 15, 2016. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
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