Up until two weeks ago, Miss Patricia Poo harboured no anxiety over Runninghour 2016, the only event in Singapore where participants race alongside runners with special needs.

The 27-year-old visually impaired receptionist, who has taken part in more than 15 races, developed the jitters only when told that her running guide was Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu.

“I got a bit nervous, I didn’t know what to expect,” she said after finding out that the minister would run blindfolded for 500m, and then guide her with a hand-held tether for 500m at the race held at Angsana Green in East Coast Park yesterday morning.

She need not have worried.

“There was no difference between being guided by Ms Fu or my other running guides, and I trust her too,” said Ms Poo, who completed the rest of her 5km run with another sighted guide, Ms Geraldine A Susay.

“The run was very good – the terrain was very flat, there were no turns and the road was easy to run.”

The youngest of three children of a chauffeur and a pastry maker, she joined Runninghour – a cooperative that promotes the integration of people with special needs through sport, mainly running – three years ago.

She loved it, started training with the club regularly and began taking part in races of between 5km and 10km.

Events that she has taken part in include the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run, StanChart Marathon and, most recently, the Spartan Race Singapore, an obstacle racing series.

“Running makes me happy. When I run, all my worries melt away,” said Ms Poo, who is also a committee member at Runninghour, handling membership and events.

Completely blind in her right eye with partial sight in her left, she was born with congenital sclerocornea.

She had two cornea transplants – one at 10 months old, the other when she was four – but both were unsuccessful. She developed glaucoma in her teens and is now a patient at the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC).

Despite her disabilities, she has a sunny disposition and a perky personality.

“I will probably feel sad if one day I go completely blind. Then again, maybe something could happen and things could change,” said Ms Poo, who completed her secondary education at Bedok South Secondary and has a National ITE Certificate in service skills.

For the past four years, she has been working as a receptionist at the Sengkang Family Services Centre, where she answers phone calls and does administrative work on the computer using a screen-reading software called Window-Eyes.

Except for the fact that she needs a bit of help, Ms Poo said she feels no different from other people.

Besides running, she loves rollercoasters and has set her sights on learning how to bowl next.

Dr David Goh, her eye doctor at the SNEC, was so impressed by her irrepressible optimism that he nominated her for the Singapore Health Inspirational Patient & Caregiver Awards in April this year.

“Patricia faces her struggles – such as medication side effects, surgery and the possibility of total blindness – with exceptional bravery and a positive outlook. It must not only take great courage but also a free-spirited love and appreciation of her other senses to make the most of her condition,” he said.

Yesterday, she completed her race in less than an hour.

“I don’t really care about time. The whole point is to go out there and do it.”

kimhoh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 11, 2016.
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In Singapore, it is illegal to buy cigarettes if you are under 18 years old.

But that has not stopped many youngsters from trying to get an illegal puff of smoke.

Shopkeepers The New Paper spoke to say they have seen it all when it comes to the tricks and tactics that underage youngstersuse to snag a pack.

Mr Richard Toh, 47, who runs Teck Huat Toh Kee provision shop in Block 20, Lorong 7 Toa Payoh, has had teenagers show him a photograph of their identity cards (ICs) taken on their mobile phone when he asked for proof of their age.

“I suspect that the ICs have been digitally altered (to change their birthdates),” said Mr Toh.

He has also come across customers who conveniently “forgot” to bring their ICs with them.

In such cases, he would refuse to sell cigarettes to them. Even when the teens get upset, he ignores them.

He is also strict when it comes to students in uniform who try to buy cigarettes from his shop.

According to the law, customers have to present their ICs upon request.

Shopkeepers say that customers sometimes become angry and verbally abusive when they are refused cigarettes.

A 24-year-old cashier at a sundries kiosk in Bishan, who wanted to be only known as Ms Na, has had disgruntled students hurling expletives at her on multiple occasions.

EMBARRASSING

The kiosk has a constant flow of customers, including uniform-clad students from neighbouring secondary schools.

“It can be a little embarrassing (when they hurl vulgarities at me) because these kids are quite young,” Ms Na said.

She added that she sticks to her guns and will ignore the rants.

“Sometimes, a group of students will send a more mature-looking person to buy cigarettes for them.

“But it’s easy to spot them because often, the friends will be standing nearby so I would already be suspicious,” said Ms Na.

Another common trick is students who “disguise” themselves.

Madam Tan, a 45-year-old employee at a coffee shop in Block 284, Bishan Street 22, said: “Some of them would wear T-shirts, but keep their school pants on.”

Recently, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) revoked the tobacco licence of Song Hui Kiosk in Block 562, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, after its ground surveillance caught the retailer selling cigarettes to a 14-year-old in school uniform.

HSA also warned five other retail outlets that sold tobacco products to minors for the first time by suspending their licences for six months.

Committing the offence a second time could lead to their licences being revoked and a fine of up to $10,000.

A check on the HSA website shows that since 2006, 126 retail outlets have been suspended or had their licences revoked.

Shopkeeper Mohamed Basheer, 71, has encountered his fair share of rude underage customers.

But the grandfather of three and the owner of New Aleef Provisions in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, remains forgiving.

“Children are children and it’s our job to educate them,” he said.

TNP ILLUSTRATIONS: LEE HUP KHENG

This article was first published on July 11, 2016.
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As a primary school pupil in the 1960s, Er Meng Hwa spent many of his days helping his father at their fresh-fish stall near the Singapore River.

The ability to gut fish and pick out the choicest cuts at the market is probably not one of the talents you would associate with a professor of engineering, but being a fishmonger gave him the kind of hands-on learning one can’t get in school.

And that eventually led Professor Er, 60, vice-president of international affairs at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), to engineering innovations that have transformed people’s lives.

Today, he stands alongside Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and other luminaries honoured in a London exhibition of the greatest engineers the world has ever seen.

He is the only Singaporean among 126 people who was honoured in a recently launched exhibition of the world’s most influential engineers at the new London headquarters of Britain’s Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Last year, he was also awarded a medal of excellence by The Institution of Engineers, Singapore, and The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in the United States, for major contributions to research and education while holding key appointments at NTU.

In his younger days, he enjoyed helping his mother in the kitchen, happily analysing such culinary considerations as how much salt to add and how to mix the salt evenly in the food.

“It’s a bit like engineering – you can experiment on the temperature, the duration, and sometimes you can overcook things.”

At school, however, Prof Er did not always do well. It was only at Tuan Mong High School that he experienced a turning point from a “naughty” kid to a diligent one after getting a bad report card. He later became head prefect.

Subsequently, his stint in the Singapore Armed Forces helped set a direction for his career.

As a signals officer, he gained an appreciation of both the theory and practical challenges of operating signal sets in the field, and it reinforced his belief that engineering was a good choice for him. He went on to study engineering at the National University of Singapore.

His skills in solving real-world engineering problems were further honed at Hewlett-Packard, where, as an engineer in charge of production lines, he was given the freedom to make decisions on the ground to improve efficiency.

“We were given the full responsibility even to redesign the circuits if necessary,” he said.

By the time Prof Er found himself at the University of Newcastle Australia for his doctoral research in 1982, engineering was but second nature to him.

He developed a novel computer program that helped submarines filter out surrounding noise in order to quickly and accurately identify target objects, such as enemy subs, in any direction.

Part of his work was patented in 1986, a year after he received his doctorate. The techniques he developed have wide applications today, such as reducing interference in the modern communications systems that keep society humming.

But his initial approach to the problem did not end well. After almost four months of hard work with computer simulations and data analysis, it finally dawned on him that it was not going to work.

“I decided to just throw it away,” he said, and to tackle the problem with a different mathematical formulation.

He also signed up for a course on an engineering topic called functional analysis, but found himself utterly lost in the jumble of mathematical equations on the blackboard.

When he realised it was because he lacked prior knowledge of something called geometric analysis, he bought the textbook and caught up with the class, eventually scoring a distinction in the exam.

After he joined the faculty at NTU, Prof Er took pains to ensure that his students have a solid foundation in the fundamental principles of engineering, which he said is important for breaking new ground. Otherwise the students “try to jump straight in without understanding the basics”.

But being a good engineer goes beyond just being good at engineering.

Prof Er, who won singing competitions in school and has designed the logos for some of NTU’s schools and research institutions, said: “It deals with not just machines but also people and society. We really need creative talent to come into the engineering profession.

“Even in writing a computer program, you need a certain elegance. It’s not just a matter of writing the code but how to make the code run efficiently and be free of bugs.”

linyc@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 11, 2016.
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He is a retiree who loves hiking and has been going for weekend hikes at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for the past 15 years.

And even though the nature reserve was closed to the public in 2014 for restoration works, the 77-year-old, who wanted to be known as Mr Li X R, has continued to go there every weekend.

Together with his brother, they trespass into the closed-off areas of the reserve to get their weekly dose of exercise.

However, their illegal treks came to an end in April when they were caught by a park ranger and given a verbal warning.

Mr Li told The New Paper: “The repair works at the reserve were taking too long, and there did not seem to be any changes going on, so we decided to go back to climbing the dirt trails.

“I would see about six other hikers every time I go to the dirt trails to hike.”

In a statement to The New Paper, National Parks Board (NParks) director of conservation Wong Tuan Wah said that since December last year, 63 hikers have received Notices of Offence for trespassing into restricted areas in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Mr Wong said: “Venturing into restricted areas put hikers in danger as the trails are currently undergoing repairs.

“NParks is aware of hikers who access restricted portions of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and has been taking an active education approach to advise them not to trespass into cordoned areas.”

Mr Wong urged hikers to use alternative options such as the MacRitchie trails and said that the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve will be re-opened at the end of this year.

NParks has also put up more signs and has stationed staff to remind the public to keep to designated trails in the nature reserve.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve was closed in September 2014, before the main route to the summit was partially re-opened last year, with public access allowed on weekends.

CHALLENGING

However, Mr Li pointed out that the main road was much easier to hike on, unlike the closed-off dirt trails.

“The dirt trails are challenging and it feels like I am exerting myself and really exercising when I hike on it.

“There isn’t any other place in Singapore that gives a similar challenge,” said Mr Li.

Although some hikers have turned to the restricted areas to get their hiking fix, a few have also opted for the mountain biking trail at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve instead, creating hazards for cyclists as they compete for space on the trails.

Student and avid cyclist Mun Yong Liang said he spots about five non-cyclists on the mountain bike trail during his weekly rides.

The 22-year-old added: “It is a big problem due to the safety risks posed.

“We (the biking community) hope that it will get better when the hiking trails re-open, but I am not optimistic unless there is enforcement.”

twtoh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 11, 2016.
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He had not lived with his family for over a decade, and for more than a year, he had lost touch with them.

Lately, he had made plans to reconnect with them.

But tragically, this was not to be.

On Saturday morning, the bloodied body of Mr Goh Eng Thiam, 52, a coffee shop helper, was found on the road after a fight at Lorong 23 Geylang.

He leaves behind his ex-wife, a son and two daughters.

Yesterday, his elder daughter, Ms Goh Wen Xi, 30, an administrator, told The New Paper that for the past year, Mr Goh had been ashamed to meet the family as he was not financially stable.

“My uncle told us that my father was afraid we would not acknowledge him,” she said.

“He wanted to earn enough money and be financially stable before reuniting with us.”

She added that just days before her father’s death, she had wanted to look for him. But before she could do so, he had died.

She said: “We all still love my father, even though we were estranged. He left us too soon, before we could be properly reunited.”

Mr Goh divorced Madam Leow Hoon Eng, 56, more than 10 years ago.

But he stayed close to the family and would visit his children often.

His son, Mr Joron Goh, 19, a student, said his father’s last words to him more than a year ago were to look after the family.

“He told me to be nice to my mother and to take care of the family,” he said.

“That is my last memory of him.”

Fatal fight in Geylang

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Stomp, The New Paper, Shin Min Daily News

Mr Goh’s other daughter, Ms Goh Wen Qi, 26, a telemarketer, said her father was a brave and soft-hearted man.

She also described him as a “loving father” who doted on his children.

“Since we were young, he has always protected us, and we never had to be afraid when we were with him,” she said.

“He might have seemed hot-tempered to others, but he was so gentle to me.

“Not once has he ever raised his voice or hit me and he would always do his best to give us what we want.”

She said that Mr Goh’s friend had once owed him money, but he ended up doing more than just writing off the debt.

“He went to the friend’s home, wanting to collect the money, but saw that his friend was facing financial difficulties because of an elderly mother,” she said.

“Instead of demanding the money, he gave more money to him for his ailing mother.”

The younger Ms Goh was seen crying at the scene where her father’s body had been found on Saturday morning.

She and her siblings had rushed there when they heard the news.

A police spokesman said they received a call on Saturday at about 8am and found the body shortly after.

Several weapons, including a long wooden stick and short knife, were found at the scene.

NO ARRESTS

No one has been arrested and the police are still investigating the unnatural death.

The younger Ms Goh refuted reports that her father had been involved in the fight over a debt.

She said: “He is not the kind of person who would accept or take money from others and he would never borrow money.”

She said the family was still upset that the attacker has not been arrested.

“Let us know who the man who killed my father is, show us his face,” she said.

“He is a danger to the public. We hope he is caught soon and that justice will be served.”

davidsun@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 11, 2016.
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