Following a photo of Singapore-Malaysia passport travel stamps “going back in time,” travellers were reminded to double-check when passing through customs.
“Time travel…go in Johor Bahru on July 2, but return to Singapore they chopped June 3,” said Facebook page Complaint Singapore member Jos Goh on Monday (July 11).
He attached a photo of a passport with the entry stamp indicating July 2, 2022, and the exit stamp over a month ago, on June 3, 2022.
Photo: FB screengrab/Complaint Singapore
“Lucky went in by Tuas side. Little delayed. He went into the office to see a supervisor. No issue,” added Mr Goh.
Those who frequently pass through the borders are advised to take extra caution.
“My experience with Malaysia custom officers is they don’t even chop. When I ask the officer why you didn’t chop, and he reply ‘oohhh, I forgot’…Hopefully, Malaysian authorities will look seriously on it,” said Facebook user Mann Ismail.
Netizen William Poh commented, “check before you leave a counter.” He recounted how a Johor Bahru customs officer forgot to return his sister’s passport a few weeks ago. “Luckily, I alerted before leaving immigration counters.”
“You count yourself lucky that the supervisor on duty is not corrupted. If not, you going to pay heavy ‘coffee’ money before you can get out of JB,” said Facebook user John Ng.
Please take a lot of time before leaving the counter. No harm checking to avoid unnecessary trouble, another concerned netizen added.
One Potre Na Sabtu pointed out that travellers should check even though they hear the “stamping sound.” /TISG
In a Facebook post on July 10, Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim proposed a solution that would help people on a fixed income who are affected the most by today’s high inflation rates.
“It seems fair for the government to make up for higher inflation faced, with temporarily higher CPF rates,” he wrote.
The Sengkang GRC MP explained that today’s higher prices are due to global events such as disruptions in food production because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, supply chain breakdowns due to lockdowns in China, as well as tight labour markets.
But he added that inflation would not be such a big deal as long as wages keep up with the increase in prices.
“Usually, labor markets are pretty good about doing so (especially when you kaopeh your boss for a raise because, well, inflation), after some time. Financial markets do a decent job too, as long as they’re allowed time to work,” he added.
But the MP, who is an Associate Professor in Economics at ESSEC Business School acknowledged that inflation is the toughest on those who have a fixed income.
“Without an adjustment, the real savings of retirees or assistance received for those on financial aid will permanently buy less than before. These folks need help now.”
He then proceeded to explain a possible solution.
“Thankfully, such an adjustment exists: it’s called the interest rate. Higher interest rates pass along the somewhat artificial price increases to you and I, and ensures that, if you’re a saver, you don’t inadvertently lose purchasing power.
Problem is, CPF rates—which are tied to local banks’ interest rates—haven’t adjusted upward. But in the meantime, costs are rising. It seems fair for the government to make up for higher inflation faced, with temporarily higher CPF rates.”
And while he wrote that such a move would be pricey in the short run, he also argued that “governments aren’t supposed to be saving money because they end up paying a reduced interest bill due to inflation. That would amount to a stealth tax.
Rather, they should increase CPF interest payouts to keep accountholders whole, at least temporarily. And when financial markets eventually price in this inflation premium into government debt, this will automatically be reflected in their (higher) borrowing costs.”
Furthermore, he added that such a scheme would be to everyone’s advantage.
“So as long as you’re a saver, you’ll benefit from higher returns, regardless of your wealth.
But for almost all of these folks, the higher rate will simply be an adjustment to the fact that everything has risen in price.
Put another way, this move seeks to restore everyone’s purchasing power, to what it was before the inflation surge.”
Assoc Prof Lim later added the following postscript”
The magic of this proposal is that it need not entail much fiscal outlay at all. Higher CPF rates can be funded by higher rates paid by Special Singapore Government Securities (SSGS), which is how the government pays CPF.
Then, if our sovereign wealth funds are doing their job, they would be investing in foreign bonds, which have been faster in pricing in this inflation premium.
They also invest for the long run, where returns will likewise do the same. They should earn back what they are giving out now. Even locking in HDB loan rates for borrowers could entail minimal costs.
The government just needs to issue all required debt for the future now, at current rates. They won’t be making money, but they shouldn’t, when things are so difficult for the people now.
A man and a woman seem to have disappeared after failing to deliver luxury bags and watches ordered and paid for by around 200 people.
As of last month, the couple could no longer be contacted by the people who had placed orders from them.
They appeared to have run off around $32 million, according to a July 10 report from Shin Min Daily News.
The Chinese daily featured a photo of the couple, who appear to be in their late 20s or early 30s.
They told their customers that they travelled to countries such as Switzerland in order to purchase the goods themselves, which is how they are able to sell them at a discount.
But netizens, responding to a story about the man and woman and their hapless customers, appear to blame the customers at least in part for asking for discounts on luxury goods and for trusting an unknown couple with large amounts of money.
However, with at least one customer, the couple reeled him in by making a good single order but then disappeared with a large amount of money that he paid them.
A Mr Huang told Shin Min Daily News thatin 2021, he paid the couple $26,000 for a Rolex, which took a month to deliver.
But since the watch was verified as authentic, he decided to trust the man and woman with a payment of $700,000 for six other Patek Philippe and Rolex watches.
He said that he felt the price the couple offered, which is around 10 per cent lower than the market price, made the offer “very worth it.” However, his second order was never delivered.
When he asked about his order two months after ordering, he was added to a Telegram group, only to discover later that it was made up of people who had ordered and paid for branded goods from the couple but never got them.
Mr Huang then filed a police report on July 1.
One young woman, who recently graduated from university, paid the couple over $40,000 for luxury purses.
She wanted to re-sell the bags to raise the money she needed to pay her tuition loans, but to date, her order has not been completed.
Another woman, Ms Zhang, who filed a report on July 2, helped a friend order a Rolex watch from the couple for $20,000 two months ago, but never received it.
The customers who have shared their stories with one another discovered that the couple has had different excuses for not making good on their orders. To one customer, the war in Ukraine was the reason for the delay. With another, the need to process customs tax was given as the reason, although the customer was told their order was already in Singapore.
However, efforts to contact the couple recently have failed.
A Tanjong Pagar store under the man’s name appears to have closed over the past week, and no one has seen them at their Holland Road lately.
Some netizens appear to place the blame, at least partially, on the customers.
Foremost, let us always keep in mind the Road Traffic Act (Chapter 276, Section 112). It clearly states that road traffic requires the cooperation of all road users for its smooth and efficient operation.
Lee Hsien Yang on HDB lease decay: “Singaporeans, are you better off today than you were two years ago?”
Photo: YouTube screengrab -Lee Hsien Yang
Asking if HDB leases can be more than just “depreciating assets worth zero”, Lee Hsien Yang wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday (Jul 10) that Singapore should look to study examples elsewhere.
Lee Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, asked if HDB leases have a “beyond zero” option.
Chee Soon Juan: Lee Kuan Yew was right; we need innovative & critical thinking to meet complex changes going forward
Photo: FB screengrab/cheesoonjuan
Opposition leader Chee Soon Juan attended the commencement at the National University of Singapore for his daughter’s graduation recently.
In a Facebook post on Saturday (July 9), he wrote that he agreed with founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who was quoted in the commencement programme notes, that innovative and critical thinking are needed in order to meet complex changes going forward.
Netizens call out NTU students auctioning off their hostel rooms for $900 while they live at home, even as international students struggle to find accommodations
Photo: Wikipedia screengrab
Some students at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have found an easy way to make extra money, auctioning off their own hall rooms while they live at home.
International students, meanwhile, have been having difficulties with finding accommodations.
Li Shengwu says there’s “substantial risk” he would be imprisoned should he return to SG: “It’s gutting to be unable to return home”
Photo: FB/Shengwu Li
Li Shengwu, the nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said on Monday (Jul 11) that he has reservations about returning to Singapore.
Mr Li wrote that it had been 5 years since he left Singapore “because of a political prosecution by the Singapore government. Friends often ask me if it’s safe to return”.
The victim, a teenager, is now seeking a stiffer sentence for the criminal after being raped by the stepdad, who received a seven-year prison sentence.
Rebekah Simpson criticised the sentencing, declaring that “Justice has not been done,” since she was indignant that the beast only received seven years in prison for the heinous atrocities he perpetrated starting when she was just ten years old!
Saying the man ruined her life, she bravely reported the man to the police last month. He was charged with abuse and two charges of rape.
This week, the stepdad, James Freeman was convicted of raping his stepdaughter. He watched court proceedings from his jail via a monitor as he was sentenced to serve seven years in jail.
But Rebekah, now 19, who waived her right to anonymity, says: “He should have been jailed for longer.”
She adds that his actions and abuses are like a life sentence he has given her, but he will be out in just seven years. Her arguments are that he could easily be back on the streets in a few years and get on with the rest of his life.
“It’s just not fair,” she says.
The sentencing is not good enough, she lashes, adding that she was told he will get a substantial sentence, but the seven years are not nearly large enough for his crimes.
“He deserves to go to prison but it should be for longer.”
“It’s not good enough. This man has ruined my life and ripped my family apart. He took my innocence away and left me with painful physical medical conditions as well as the trauma of the abuse.”
She also told the The Sun UK that she feels let down by justice.
Reports say the manipulative man wed Rebekah’s mom in 2014 and took her under his care because her mom was always in and out of hospitals.
He preyed on the vulnerable schoolgirl and sexually abused her before raping her at family homes in Aberdeen and Banff, Aberdeenshire.
A woman wrote a post on SG Whispers claiming to not only give her mother a monthly allowance but also pay for household bills and groceries, but her mother remains dissatisfied and tells others that her daughter gives only a small amount and refuses to let her mum retire.
The poster is aged 41 and is single. She writes that she earns $12,000 monthly.
‘Enough is enough’ — HDB resident complains about 2 dogs barking nonstop: “Can’t even have proper sleep”
Photo: Taken from Complaint Singapore and Canva.com
A Housing and Development Board (HDB) resident shared on social media how his neighbour’s dogs would bark incessantly, resulting in their lack of sleep.
Despite reporting the matter to his Town Council and the police, the resident said it was “no use.”
Singapore family need S$1.5M growth-stimulating drug for baby with dwarfism
Photo: FB screengrab/Amanda Tan
A family in Singapore is appealing to the public to help raise over a million dollars for a growth-stimulating drug for their nine-month-old son born with dwarfism.
One Amanda Tan took to Facebook on Saturday (July 9) to share their son Jayden’s rare genetic condition called achondroplasia or dwarfism, affecting his bone growth.
Jamus Lim reassures residents who expressed concern that no bids were made for managing agent for Sengkang
Photo: FB screengrab/ Sengkang GRC
While conducting house visits at 321C Anchorvale and 289B Compassvale this week, Jamus Lim met residents who had concerns after hearing that no bids had been placed for a Managing Agent last April.
Because of this, Sengkang Town Council is transitioning to direct management, it announced via a Facebook post on May 17.
SCDF: Public may face delayed ambulance response if 995 calls keep rising, dial 995 for urgent cases only, receives about 760 calls a day
Photo: FB screengrab/SCDF
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is urging the public to refrain from calling the 995 emergency hotline unless for urgent matters, as the agency receives about 760 calls daily.
If Emergency Medical Services (EMS) calls continue to climb, the public may experience delays in ambulance response, particularly for less critical medical incidents, said SCDF.
One woman’s hoarding problem has gotten so bad over the years that the rubbish she hoards is now occupying the property of her neighbours.
She has also taken to hanging bags of plastic bottles and cans on a tree in front of Block 135 Yishun Street 11, where she lives in a ground-floor unit.
Residents in the area say she has had this problem for more than a decade, and that not even her son’s pleas have succeeded in getting her to stop piling plastic items and cardboard boxes outside her unit.
A July 8 report in Shin Min Daily News showed a photo of the “rubbish tree” the woman, who is in her 80s, had “decorated.”
It showed large plastic bags filled with items hanging from the tree, and bags of rubbish can also be seen in the surrounding area.
The problem is no longer contained within the woman’s property but has also affected her neighbours. Because the corner unit on her floor is now empty, she has taken to piling boxes there as well, one neighbour told Shin Min Daily News.
The neighbour added that the woman’s hoarded items have reached her own unit and that she is concerned over mice making a home there.
And while the woman’s fellow residents have asked her to stop hoarding, the auntie has not complied.
Authorities have taken to checking up on the woman’s situation often, and removing the rubbish found there when needed.
Shin Min Daily News reported that Nee Soon Town Council is aware of the issue. The Town Council said it would collaborate with residents’ committees to help the residents affected by the woman’s hoarding.
The situation has also gotten to the point that the woman’s neighbours are now “used to it,” as one resident told the Chinese daily.
Efforts to clear up the hoarding have not met long-term success either, since the woman simply begins hoarding shortly after the items are taken away.
In 2020, the hallway outside the auntie’s flat was cleared at least five times, STOMP reported.
However, the problem has persisted.
The surroundings of the woman’s flat were most recently cleared on July 6.
Hoarding is a mental health condition.
“People with hoarding disorder have persistent difficulty getting rid of or parting with possessions due to a perceived need to save the items. Attempts to part with possessions create considerable distress and lead to decisions to save them,” says psychiatry.org. /TISG
Li Shengwu, the nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said on Monday (Jul 11) that he has reservations about returning to Singapore.
Mr Li wrote that it had been 5 years since he left Singapore “because of a political prosecution by the Singapore government. Friends often ask me if it’s safe to return”.
The assistant professor of economics at Harvard University, living in the United States added: “The court case is technically over. However, I assess that there’s a substantial risk that my uncle, the Prime Minister, would find an excuse to imprison me were I to return to Singapore. He likes to relitigate old disputes.
My uncle has a habit of suing his critics in Singapore courts”.
He explained that he now stayed in Cambridge, Massachusetts and had a green card.
“It’s gutting to be unable to return home, and to watch from afar as Singapore slides steadily further into authoritarianism”, he wrote.
The grandson of Lee Kuan Yew and son of Lee Hsien Yang was found guilty over a private Facebook post he made in 2017, where he shared a link to a New York Times editorial titled Censored In Singapore, with a description saying: “Keep in mind, of course, that the Singapore government is very litigious and has a pliant court system.”
He was ordered to pay the fine of S$15,000 within two weeks, or serve a week’s jail in default.
He was also ordered to pay about S$16,000 for costs and disbursements.
In Aug 2020, Mr Li announced that he will pay a S$15,000 fine for contempt of court, but said he does “not admit guilt”.
He wrote a day before the deadline to make payment that he had decided to pay the fine “in order to buy some peace and quiet”.
“Paying the fine avoids giving the Singapore Government an easy excuse to attack me and my family,” he wrote.
However, he added: “I do not admit guilt. I have never denied writing what I wrote, to my friends in a private Facebook post.” /TISG
Some students at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have found an easy way to make extra money, auctioning off their own hall rooms while they live at home.
International students, meanwhile, have been having difficulties with finding accommodations.
Many netizens have condemned the students, calling their actions “illegal” instead of viewing them as enterprising.
The hostel rooms are offered for rent in a Telegram chat group for students who have not found rooms on campus, The Straits Times reported on Monday (Jul 11).
ST, which saw some of the rooms listed on the chat group, said that some rooms are being offered for as much as $900 monthly, which is two times the amount the university charges for a single room with no air-conditioning or attached bathroom.
The highest amount, NTU charges is $635 a month, and this is for a single room that has air-conditioning and an attached bathroom.
The university has said that disciplinary action will be taken against students renting out their hall rooms, including eviction or being barred from the halls.
A spokesman for NTU told ST, “The hall rules state that residents should not sublet their rooms or allow another person to take over the room with or without monetary consideration.”
Netizens have not only called out the students but are also calling for the university to investigate the issue.
“By the way this is not entrepreneurial skills. This is an illegal means of making money,” wrote one commenter.
She wrote in another comment that “NTU needs to seriously look into this problem.”
Another commenter characterised it as “our social problem.”
A netizen said that the students renting out their rooms are “Start(ing) life on the wrong foot.”
However, other netizens said that this problem is actually an old one.
“It was already happening 10+ years back,” wrote one.
Similarly, Senior Ministers of State Dr Janil Puthucheary and Tan Kiat How wrote in separate Facebook posts on Sunday (July 10) to say that a photo of them has been altered to promote a product called “Sugar Friends Tea.”
“The advertisers had edited a photo from an MOU-signing ceremony,” wrote Dr Janil, who is the Senior Minister of State for Health, Communication and Information.
“As a practice, government officials do not endorse products. Stay alert and do not fall prey to such fake advertising,” he added.
Mr Tan, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information and National Development, wrote, “The photo asserts that MOH endorses certain products. This photo and claims are fake.”
Both Dr Janil and Mr Tan shared links in their posts to the original photo of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, which Dr Janil had shared on May 14.
The MOU had been sighed between SG Women-in-Tech and local polytechnics with the aim of supporting girls who are studying Information Technology to deepen their interest in the field through a Cross-Polytechnic Girls in Tech committee, he wrote then, adding that he hoped “more industry leaders will join in our movement to nurture young tech talents.”
In the photo, the two Senior Ministers are together with two women and one man, with copies of the signed MOU being held up.
In the doctored photo, however, those who had been holding the MOU appear to be holding boxes of the product.
The fake photo appeared in an advertisement on YouTube.
Dr Janil said that he learned of the doctored photo on Sunday (Jul 10), TODAY reported.
Furthermore, the YouTube ad claimed that “Sugar Friends Tea” was a product approved by the Ministry of Health and that it was able to cause a decrease in people’s blood sugar levels.
And while there are links included in the ad, Dr Janil told TODAY he was not able to access any of them, adding that the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is investigating the issue.
Earlier this year, the Health Minister wrote that “As a practice, MOH officials and political appointees do not endorse any medical products.”
Mr Ong said on April 26 that the MOH was working with Facebook in Singapore to remove the unauthorised and misleading posts.
“Please be careful and not fall prey to such fake advertising,” he urged. /TISG
