Recent house visits have served to underline to Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Louis Chua (Sengkang GRC) that inflation is a concern for many Singaporeans, not just for low-income households.
Mr Chua wrote in a July 1 (Friday) Facebook post that he had visited mostly five-room and EA (Executive Apartment) units at Rivervale, the ward he represents, the night before.
An EA is a “plus-sized” flat with five rooms, which have additional space for a study or a maid’s room, and often include a balcony.
The MP wrote that one of the residents from these units was happy to have a chance to meet with him and his team directly, adding that they “were doing ok in general and didn’t see a need to look for us at our MPS (Meet the People Sessions).”
Mr Chua added, however, that even if they are better off than others, “nonetheless they still have some concerns, one of which is that they seem to belong to a ‘forgotten’ group of people, who don’t get much direct financial support.”
He then proceeded to share some stories of the residents from the units.
One woman, a former employee of the travel industry, lost her job but continued to upskill. She still appeared to count herself fortunate, since she was re-hired by a former boss, at much lower pay, while many of her former classmates are still unemployed.
They also met an older man, a hawker centre stall holder. He told the MP and his team that in spite of the rising price of food, especially cooking oil, “he’s trying his best to minimize price increases and chooses to earn less instead.”
“Above all, inflation and the rising cost of living remains a rising concern not just for the low income, but for many Singaporeans, even though not everyone may be particularly vocal about it,” the MP noted.
A report from Nomura Holdings last month said that food prices in Asia, especially in Singapore, South Korea and the Philippines, are expected to increase even more in the second half of 2022.
Food inflation in Singapore is expected to double to 8.2 percent in the year’s second half.
Noting the present high rate of inflation as well as the risk of recession, he told Nikkei Editor-in-Chief Tetsuya Iguchi that it was a necessary risk “because if you do not act against inflation that will become a very serious problem for the world.”
Julia Roberts is making a romantic comedy comeback this year. The actress will star in Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney, reuniting the duo who were last seen together in Ocean’s Eleven.
The movie sees Roberts and Clooney acting like a divorced couple who travel to Bali to stop their daughter’s wedding. The idea behind this is that she shouldn’t be making the same mistake they did as their daughter (played by Kaitlyn Dever) makes an impulsive decision to marry a man she met on vacation.
In order to stop the wedding, they reunite temporarily and travel together.
In an interview with the New York Times in April, Roberts spoke about her return to romantic comedy after such a long time.
“People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that’s gone by that I haven’t done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one. If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend’s Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it,” she said.
Roberts also said that the icing on the cake for her was Clooney’s involvement in the movie.
“I thought, ‘Well, disaster, because this only works if it’s George Clooney.’ Lo and behold, George felt it only worked with me. Somehow, we were both able to do it, and off we went,” said the Pretty Woman star.
The superstars have acted together in a number of other films including Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Money Monster, Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve.
Ticket to Paradise was co-written and directed by the same person who wrote and directed Mama Mia! Here We Go Again, Ol Parker.
In a January interview with Deadline, Clooney had nothing but praise for Parker.
“This guy named Ol Parker is a really wonderful writer and director, and he wrote us a script, and I haven’t done a romantic comedy really since One Fine Day. … I’ve done some sort of snarky ones, you know, and in this one Julia and I just get to be mean to each other in the funniest way.”
When he called Roberts after reading the script she had asked him if he was going to sign on and she replied, ‘Are you going to do it?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, if you do it.’ So, it was just one of those very lucky things,” he said.
Dever, who plays his daughter in the film described him as the nicest person in the world on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“He had the whole cast come one day. … We were on this beautiful boat and he fed us all this amazing food, then took us back to his house and cooked us all pizza.”
The film also stars Billie Lourd and Lucas Bravo. Ticket to Paradise will premiere on Oct 21.
Rina Arano, an adult movie actress was found dead by the Japanese police recently. She was found naked, tied to a tree in a remote forest located in Ibaraki, Japan. She went missing on June 5 and her parents decided to lodge a police report three days later.
The 23-year-old was last seen on CCTV at a train station in Ibaraki Prefecture. In the footage, Arano was seen getting off a train and heading towards a car with a man named Hiroyuki Sanpei.
According to reports, the two had been exchanging text messages before her death. Sanpei was arrested last week on suspicion of abducting and holding Arano hostage.
Police say that Sanpei had picked up the actress before they made their way to his villa in Hitachiota.
However, he has denied all allegations despite the fact that her mobile phone was found at this house.
Sanpei said that he did indeed pick her up but subsequently dropped her off at a nearby store. He said he did also handcuff her for a short time but with her consent. Sanpei claimed that he did not know where she went after he dropped her off.
The victim’s body had been dumped in a remote place, on a slope about six metres below a forest road near Sanpei’s villa. Her body had already been decaying but there were no external injuries on her person.
Police are still conducting investigations and Sanpei has not been charged to date.
The post-mortem revealed that Arano had a shattered hyoid bone, which is the neck bone that supports the tongue.
Arano who was a Tokyo native worked as a freelance nude model and is said to have charged about $1k for each shoot according to SheThePeople magazine. She grew her network through the use of sexually explicit movies and meetings with customers in their homes.
Photo: IG and TikTok screengrab/ryanxgo and kayakak
“I misunderstood Ryan’s meaning of being broke. So yep, I helped! Now I realised he’s doing way better than me still,” said Khoo Keat Hwee.
He donated S$1,000 to help former co-founder of Night Owl Cinematics Ryan Tan when he said he was “officially broke.”
Mr Khoo, the founder of Mentai-Ya Japanese Cuisine, came across Mr Tan’s Instagram stories on June 24, highlighting he had lost more than 90 per cent of his money.
“I lost 90 per cent of what I used to have, and each month I have to pay rental, salary, loans, bills and legal,” he said, adding that he was in an industry where clients don’t necessarily pay on time.
Mr Tan also shared screenshots of people helping him with donations, such as Mr Khoo, who posted a video on his TikTok account.
Mr Khoo admitted he didn’t know much about Mr Tan although he wanted to help. “Bro, lets jiayou and pick up from where we all fell. Let’s learn and grow from our pain and mistakes,” he wrote in the caption.
Netizens soon commented on his video, pointing out that Mr Tan was still living a “lavish lifestyle.”
“I have been supporting your store and end up you donate your hard earn money to him? Pls la. If he broke, (how can he) travel overseas?” asked another netizen.
“Please help the real broke ones. Your 1k can help many poor families instead of an influencer living in private housing,” wrote another netizen.
On June 30, Mr Khoo uploaded another TikTok video of a compilation of netizens’ comments and his comment on top.
He explained that his bank was empty “with a huge debt that would take more than 10 years to pay….yes, that is broke.”
“So seeing his (Mr Tan’s) story, I helped. Without knowing that he’s living in a private property and having a fully paid Range Rover that I can’t afford (laughing emoji).” He added, “The joke is on me.”
Mr Khoo also asked for any leads from the public regarding organisations he should donate to as “he always enjoyed helping.”
According to AsiaOne, he has already donated S$1,000 to Singapore Association for Mental Health and another S$1,000 to social activist Gilbert Goh.
It was reported that Mr Tan had returned the S$1,000 from Mr Khoo./TISG
The newly famous busker Jeff Ng was slapped with allegations online of his abusive behaviour after his ex-girlfriend of almost three years released a lengthy post of their past.
“Worst person (I’ve) ever met,” said a netizen who went by the name of Lena Ng, in a Facebook post on Friday (July 1), referring to Mr Ng.
“Always wanted to write this post but never had the strength nor courage to. It’s something I should’ve done long ago – to clear my name with some friends or acquaintances and also to face the truth myself,” wrote Ms Ng.
She alleged that her former partner was a professional at “love-bombing”, where the partner would “spam you to get your attention, saying everything you want to hear to make you fall for him.”
Ms Ng said he could be on a call with her between one to eight hours, and 95 per cent of the time, it’s him talking. “Have literally tried putting the phone down cause I was in a work lunch, and I pick my phone up and 30 mins later, he’s still going on without noticing I was away.”
She noted that once she was “hooked to him,” the tables turned, and the relationship changed into Mr Ng blaming her for everything bad that happened.
“And you will believe him when he says it’s your fault. You end up doing anything for more of the affection he once showed,” she explained.
It reached a point where Ms Ng would “literally tremble in fear of incurring his wrath” as she felt “compelled to obey like a dog.”
She shared how they had to pretend not to be on a date if someone Mr Ng didn’t want to find out they were together happened to meet them.
On cheating, Ms Ng said he was a “serial cheater” and did so three times, “like clockwork every year.”
He “even dared to do it right in front of my face and rationalised it,” said Ms Ng.
“When we first got together, he was going between three girls. Literally went out sleeping with someone else TEN YEARS OLDER than me in the morning and come home to me to do the same, with zero shame.”
Included in her posts were screenshots of past communication with Mr Ng, including multiple missed calls early in the morning.
She admitted feeling like she was walking on eggshells every day, suffering from panic attacks and getting triggered by “just a phone call or a text” from him.
Still, she revealed it was “impossible to get out of this cycle once you’re in it.”
When she tried ending the relationship, he would “beg and cry and kneel and swearing to god that he knows he’s wrong and will change for (her).” Things escalated to Mr Ng stalking her and threatening to end his life.
“I used to not understand people who can’t leave toxic relationships. Till I met this one. It’s so close to literally feeling your own free will, even your soul, being sucked from you slowly till one day it’s all in someone’s hands,” said Ms Ng, who felt “psychologically locked in chains.”
Even after breaking up, Ms Ng said he would continue to contact her. “For a long time after the whole thing, I was genuinely too damaged and helpless to function.”
A few hours after Ms Ng’s post, Mr Ng released a public apology on his Facebook account. “I was young and reckless in my 20s and I allowed my emotions to get the better of me,” he explained.
“I know this is not a reasonable excuse at all. I was wrong, and I am sincerely sorry.” He also extended an apology to Ms Ng.
Photo: FB screengrab/黄長俊 Jeff NgPhoto: FB screengrab/黄長俊 Jeff Ng
Facebook user John Lee also attached a screenshot on Mr Ng’s post regarding his “hot-tempered” nature.
It appears that Mr Ng argued with the organisers of one of his recent events. “Very bad attitude and don’t support him!” the original poster wrote.
Photo: FB screengrab/黄長俊 Jeff Ng
“Apparently, he still scolds patrons for ‘making noises’ during his sets,” wrote another netizen on Mr Ng.
Photo: FB screengrab/黄長俊 Jeff Ng
“I just hope you know talent or not has nothing to do with whether you will 红 or not. Talent can be cultivated and nurtured; everyone and anyone can have talent,” advised Facebook user Jaycelyn. “But if that attitude and character of yours don’t change, don’t expect anything. Maybe start by being more humble.” /TISG
Add this to the list of nightmare landlords: a woman who allegedly changed locks while a couple was in the middle of moving out—locking one in and forcing the other to stay outside her flat.
The woman was locked in her room at Block 351D Anchorvale Road for several hours while her boyfriend transferred their possessions to their new rental unit.
When he got back, he couldn’t get in, and neither could his girlfriend get out as the landlady refused to open the door, even after they had called the police, Shin Min Daily News reported.
A fight between the woman, Ms Hua; and the landlady even broke out after the landlady entered the woman’s room and reportedly scratched her arm and hit her head.
Ms Hua, 30, who claimed to have sustained a fractured arm from the fight, said she pulled the landlady’s hair as she fought back.
The tenant also called for help, which alarmed her neighbours, who started knocking on the door and even called Shin Min.
But the landlady claims she locked her tenant in because her key had been stolen.
Moreover, she alleged that thousands of dollars had been taken from her.
The couple had been staying at the landlady’s flat since April 15 but they were told by the landlady after two months that her relatives were coming and they needed to move out.
This was not a problem for Ms Hua and her boyfriend, Mr Zhang, 33, who were able to find another flat.
On June 30, however, the woman said she was packing her bags while Mr Zhang had brought some things to their new place.
At around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, when he returned, he discovered the new lock on the gate.
Ms Hua told Shin Min Daily News, “He couldn’t enter the house and I couldn’t leave.”
They then pleaded with the landlady, but she would not open the door.
This was when they called the police.
But the landlady still would not budge, leaving Ms Hua trapped in her room.
To her surprise, at around 7 pm the landlady entered her room and started a fight.
Mr Zhang then called the police again, and the landlady finally opened the door.
She alleged that money had been stolen from her, which the couple staunchly denied.
They added that they had naturally planned on returning the key to the landlady after having removed all of their belongings.
Unfortunately, complaints about the landlady can be found on Facebook, as other renters have told of similar experiences of troubles with her after being told to move out.
A WeChat group with at least 16 people with stories about the landlady also exists.
One particular former tenant, a 29-year-old food stall assistant, alleged that the landlady refused to return his deposit.
Photo: Taken from Google Maps, used for illustration purposes only
Following news of a buyer paying a record S$41,682,168 for a coffeeshop at Block 201 Tampines Street 21, it was revealed that the same company also snatched a nearby kopitiam for S$16.8 million.
The takeover resulted in all but one of the 11 stalls in the venue moving out.
8World reported earlier that the property was being purchased by G&G (21) Pte Ltd. Its company director, Kiong Tai Weng, also owns coffeeshop chain 7 Stars and supermarket chain U Stars.
He also purchased the popular Hong Kong Street Zhen Zi food court in Block 151 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 in 2014 for S$7.4 million.
The latest property purchase is located in Block 201D Tampines Street 21, with the deal closing in May this year, although negotiations began in November last year.
Inside the coffeeshop is Indian-Muslim family restaurant Saffrons, which has been in operation for the last eight years.
However, all the stalls operated by Saffrons will be leaving due to the takeover, leaving only one chicken rice stall.
Saffrons’ chief marketing officer told 8World that they decided not to renew their lease after hearing of the takeover.
They will remain in the venue until July 27, 2022, before the new owner officially takes over on August 1.
As for the chicken rice stall that planned to stay, the owner revealed his rental increased by S$3,000 after the change in ownership.
The owner thought this was reasonable as he was concerned about his workers. “If I close shop, what are they going to do?” he asked.
Still, he expressed being worried about further rental hikes after hearing that the nearby kopitiam’s rentals had doubled.
A hawker at the Block 201 coffeeshop revealed that in the 23 years of operations there, the previous landlord didn’t raise rentals significantly. However, the new owner announced that her rent would increase from S$6,000 to S$10,000, excluding other charges and miscellaneous fees.
Another hawker also confirmed that many stalls decided to close down due to the rental hike.
Commenting on the latest takeover, members from the online community noted that Tampines residents would end up paying more for their food at the kopitiams.
“Someone planning to corner the coffeeshop business around the estate, is it? Making it harder for residents around to complain of price since little or no choice,” said a netizen Gabe Seah.
“Time for the government to control such transactions from happening!” added Facebook user Alex Ng./TISG
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam covered a range of topics including the death penalty, LGBTQ+ issues, the possibility of a non-Chinese Prime Minister, and racism in a 23-minute interview with the BBC’s Stephen Sackur on HARDtalk, which was released on Wednesday (June 29).
At times the interview got heated, with the two men interrupting each other, especially during the conversation around the recent execution of NagaenthranDharmalingam, who gained international attention last year as he was said to have had an IQ of 69.
Mr Shanmugam made it abundantly clear that he has no doubts the death penalty is the right policy for drug trafficking, adding that it has been proven to be a deterrent against this offence and that it has saved lives.
“Capital punishment…it's a serious deterrent for would-be drug traffickers" says Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister
K Shanmugam says he doesn’t have “any doubts” about Singapore’s use of the death penalty despite controversyhttps://t.co/vCdYnprMfE
The minister also pointed out that the BBC concentrated last year on the case of one man, Nagaenthran, and not on the bigger picture of Southeast Asia’s sizable drug problem.
“To misquote a well-known quote, a single hanging of a drug trafficker is a tragedy; a million deaths from drug abuse is a statistic. That’s what this shows,” Mr Shanmugam said.
“The trafficker wants to make money. He… is damaging the lives of drug users, their families – damaged, often seriously destroyed.”
Mr Sackur said in the interview that Singapore has gained a reputation around the globe for its “draconian criminal code”. He asked the minister, ”Particularly when it comes to drugs, narcotics, and the bringing of drugs into Singapore – you have a mandatory death penalty for that particular crime. Do you have any doubts, at all, that that is the right policy?”
“I don’t have any doubts”, Mr Shanmugam answered directly.
”It’s imposed on drug traffickers, and it’s imposed because there’s clear evidence that it is a serious deterrent for would-be drug traffickers.”
The minister went on to talk about the non-persecution of peplum who engage in gay sex, in spite of Section 377A of the Penal Code, calling it a “messy compromise” since there are some who don’t want the law repealed.
He also did not deny the existence of racism in Singapore, and as for a non-ethnic Chinese Prime Minister, he said, “Let’s get real, race does matter in politics.”
Nevertheless, “a good… Malay or Indian candidate,” he said, “as long as the MPs have the confidence that he can lead them into GE and win the elections, I think it’s entirely possible. So I would not rule it out.”
The story of what happened to Zakir Hossain, the Bangladeshi worker whose work pass was not renewed, has reignited the usual storm on who are the foreigners living and working in Singapore.
Mr Hossain is regarded in some camps as someone who has worked hard in the jobs that Singaporeans were simply not willing to do. However, there is a group who think that Mr Hossain is an ungrateful SOB who had the audacity to complain about not wanting to live in a place where the Minister of Manpower was only willing to enter if he was in a hazmat suit.
So, given that the topic has ignited a few interesting views, I thought it might be worth asking ourselves who these chaps are. It’s a question that needs to be asked because as with passionate debates, both sides become so focused on the debate and their point of view, that they forget that what you’re talking about is a human being.
It’s easy to blame your problems on a group when you label them as “illegals” or “criminals,” especially when that group has less than you. However, when you fall into that trap, you lose something important – your basic humanity.
I look at the issue of “foreign labour,” from the sad reality of being a “loser” in the capitalist system. Didn’t get a foothold to build a corporate career in a field in which I would excel.
When I freelanced, I had a few lucky breaks but couldn’t quite build on them. So, at the age of 38, I ended up waiting tables so that I could pay basic bills, and you could say that I should have become the prime target for unscrupulous snake oil salesmen wanting political power (graduate member of the ethnic majority needing to take a subsistence job to survive).
I didn’t go down the dark path for a simple reason. When I became a “loser” in the economic system, I became a “winner” as a human being. My fellow waiters for Pinoys and the chefs were primarily Tamil chaps from India and Malaysia. These guys became my workmates and I got to know them as people who had things like families.
The guy from that period of my life that comes to mind is Rafey, the Pinoy chap who did all the “real” work at the Bistrot for seven years. He became invaluable to me.
I was the one that customers liked, but I could only be liked because Rafey did the work. Poor guy had only one problem – he was a bloke and when a little Minx got hired, he suddenly found himself surrounded by rumours that he had made attempts to molest her (which were not true) and he was eventually fired after seven years of loyal service.
Working in a restaurant was an eye-opener, and I remember there were people in Singapore who thought that Trump’s rhetoric toward Mexicans was great. For me, I couldn’t understand it because, in the Singapore context, it was like saying people like Rafey had “stolen” jobs from me and from my experiences with the guys – this line of thought, simply did not make sense. The guys, I worked with, saw an opportunity to earn a bit of money to give their families a better life.
The Pinoy and Indian chaps I worked with in the restaurant were just ordinary guys trying to make a living, just like me.
Then I went to work in the insolvency trade and saw that the “screwing” of the downtrodden wasn’t a textbook exercise. If anything, it was perfectly legal and, in many cases, encouraged. One of my early cases was a construction company which had 30 over workers who hadn’t been paid for over five months. As the Company had been liquidated, we had to fire them.
A few of the Tremeritus crowd get very upset with me for being “pro-Indian” and “anti-Chinese.” The truth is, I’m particularly pro or anti anybody but the fact remains, many of the people who have blessed me, have inevitably been Indian (and in many cases, Muslim). I’ve mentioned that I was lucky to be on the receiving end of guys in the IIT and IIM Alumni associations. However, you could say that what transpired between myself and the guys with corporate jobs was part of my “good” fortune.
My real blessing was dealing with the workers that I sacked and couldn’t help get the money that they had worked for but could not claim. These guys have every reason to hate me. I was the public face of the end of their livelihood. Every time they called me to ask for the money they were promised, I was the one with the story. I didn’t believe me half the time, yet they listened to my “excuses.”
I did encourage them to harass me. I did tell them they had the right to attend creditor meetings. I did extend loans from personal funds to a few. This last point, in particular, is “controversial,” in as much as I was violating professional rules of favouring creditors and as a colleague kept saying “You know you can’t trust Bangladeshi Workers,” (her judgement was based on working in a law firm that had to defend workers whom she believed were screwing insurance companies.)
It wasn’t easy. I got calls at the most inappropriate moments on a regular basis, I had to psychologically write off the pennies I was giving out. Thankfully, humanity won the day. When we finally paid the workers what was due to them, I got most of what I had lent out.
Here is a message from a Bangladeshi Worker I had lent some money during that period:
In another case, the guy actually called me up to tell me his wife had given birth to twins. I was officially the first person outside his family whom he told. Met him on the day that he was flying back to India, and he paid me most of what he owed, and I got dinner out of it.
It’s like this, these guys were trying to make a living. They were willing to clean our crap because it pays better than the professional jobs available back home. They’re willing to put up with a lot of crap so that they can get that opportunity to provide for their families (I still get texts from these guys asking if I can help find jobs in Singapore).
They are, what you would call, just acting out like how normal people would react in certain situations. They aren’t passive victims nor are they, active criminals. They are merely human beings trying to earn a living and if you look at the instances where they have “rebelled” and “complained” about, it’s inevitably been in situations where most of us would probably act in that particular way.
Think about it, in 2013, when they went to riot, they did so because the police seemed more interested in protecting the guy who killed their friend than in solving the problem. The latest instant, with Mr Hossain, is merely a case of a human being stating that he doesn’t think people should live in a place that causes disease (a fact which the minister in his hazmat suit confirmed).
The start of any policy towards our foreign workers should be based on remembering that they’re humans like us who were in a certain situation and will behave accordingly.
Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) expressed concerns over the “worryingly common” occurrence of scams carried out against senior citizens.
“With many seniors able to withdraw large amounts of money from the CPF accounts once they reach 55, this group may be a prime target for scammers,” he wrote in a Facebook post on July 1.
Because of this, Mr Giam recently asked a Parliamentary question on the issue.
The Aljunied MP asked if daily withdrawal limits or enhanced scrutiny is imposed by the CPF Board in the event of unusually large withdrawals of CPF funds to safeguard against scams.
Scammers who pretended to be from “China Interpol” said that the woman’s accounts would be frozen due to suspicion that she was part of a money-laundering scheme.
After the scammers offered to hold on to the money for her for safekeeping, the retiree withdrew $150,000 and placed it in an envelope the scammers sent her.
Following the instructions in a phone call from the man from “China Interpol,” she then put it between the front door and gate of her house.
Within a few minutes, while she was still on the phone with the man from “China Interpol,” the money was taken.
Mr Giam was given a written answer by Dr Tan See Leng, the Manpower Minister, which the WP MP published on his blog.
Dr Tan said that while the CPF Board takes a serious view towards protecting members against scams, it recognizes at the same time that members should not be “unnecessarily inconvenience(d)… for the vast majority of transactions that are legitimate.”
This is the reason no daily withdrawal limits or thresholds are in place.
He added, however, that payments are only paid to the bank account of a member after verification is made.
Dr Tan also listed the measures the CPF Board has implemented against illegitimate transactions, which include authentication of the person’s identity and notification via email.
He wrote that identity authentication is carried out “by verifying against the member’s identification card for face-to-face requests or through the use of Singpass two-factor authentication for online requests.”
And then, after these two steps, the CPF Board verifies the member’s bank account.
Dr Tan also underlined that “Citizen vigilance is imperative in the fight against scams” and urged members to take precautions against them when they receive unsolicited calls and desist from giving away their Singpass or internet banking credentials. /TISG
