The Digital Movement said:

Blogout! ’09 aims to help make sense of the social media landscape in Singapore. It is an event to celebrate bloggers' independent voices, emergent forms of social, web technology, to create change for their organizations, communities and society. Featuring top speakers Jon Yongfook of Open Source Food, Joel Postman of Socialized PR and Melvin Yuan of Waggener Edstrom

Recommended by suyuen: "This is an event that will be especially beneficial to both corporates and individual bloggers who are looking to use social media as a means of financial gain and marketing. Thought it'd be especially useful now that we are in the times of economic turmoil. "

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Yawning Bread said:

Look at this screen shot from 9:36 pm, Thursday, 19 February 2009. When I saw it, I called Choo Zheng Xi of The Online Citizen immediately and he got exactly the same page, so that I have a witness. He took a screen shot too.

What about it? Look at the page title -– it says "General Election 2009". The contents though are from 2006. Ask yourself: Why would a page from 2006 carry a title that references 2009?

Recommended by at82: "Holding an election now can only mean two things: Either the People's Action Party wants to ride a "flight to safety" effect to sweep all opposition away, regaining a monopoly of parliamentary seats -- a most undemocratic motive, if you ask me -- or the government has no confidence at all that the economy will improve by 2011. The latter will mean a very long and painful recession."

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rocketraygun said:

I am an illustrator from Singapore with more than a decade of experience as a concept and storyboard artist, animator and infographics journalist.

Recommended by ramblinglibrarian: "I was blown away by this particular piece that rocketraygun calls "a sketch". If his sketches looked like that, then I'm gearing up to be blown away by his full-fledged illustrated works! :)"

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Soh Tiang Keng said:

Despite signs of revival since the 1980s, a gradual extinction of the Peranakan culture and lifestyle will probably take place in decades to come. The fast-dwindling Singaporeans, steeped in Peranakan culture and practices, are becoming an endangered species which may fade into oblivion within the next 120 years or so.

Recommended by misty_cloud: "An interesting read on the origins of Peranakans. After the telecast of the Little Nonya TV series on Mediacorp Channel 8, there is this mad craze for "anything Peranakan" - from Peranakan food, music and fashion to history and tourism. An influx of visitors to Malacca to see for themselves the Peranakan culture.

But as the article says, is this sustainable? What will happen after the craze dies off? Is a TV series enough to revive the interest in Peranakan culture and the willingness to preserve that for the future generations?

Just some food for thought."

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money said:

Government of Singapore Investment Corp, which has helped bail out troubled global financial institutions, suffered an investment loss of about 50 billion Singapore dollars (33 billion US) last year, sources told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday as reported at Singapore Yahoo. However Singapore-based spokeswoman Jennifer Lewis said today by phone: “GIC does not comment on speculative reports,”

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "GIC never transparent"

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Hongguan said:

Mdm,

A) The link to suggest that investing in equities and PE would generate continual stream of income is weak at best. Investment in equities is by and large a capital appreciation game. PE — as an income source?? Low liquidity, lumpy returns profile… there is definitely no steady income stream to speak off!

B) Now, to say that investing in equities was a bid to beat inflation (which is indeed GIC’s objective) is more reasonable. However, post Volcker (US inflation has been steadily low) and likewise global inflation post 1994 has been going down steadily. Here is a research report from RBS, re Global Inflation addressing this issue.

C) What’s more likely, is that the dive into Equity and PE heavy asset allocation was a result of managers at GIC following the successful formula set by David Swensen and the Yale Endowment Model. Unfortunately, this financial crisis has not spared him as well — read his defence here.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Astute observations on MOF's statements regarding their portfolio losses"

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APL (the wholly owned US subsidiary of Singapore's NOL) on Friday has agreed to pay more than US$26 million to settle claims of overcharging the US military for sending war supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "However, I haven't seen any reports on either the APL or NOL websites."

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USChinaGuy said:

Introduction to Singapore from a taxi driver

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "LOL"

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Financial Times said:

When an apparently deranged man in Singapore set fire to his parliamentary representative at a community event recently, a local website polled its readers to ask which of them deserved more sympathy. By a four-to-one margin, the readers voted for the assailant.

The episode appears to reflect an undercurrent of public discontent with the People’s Action party (PAP) government, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in power this year, as Singapore confronts its worst postwar recession, with the economy expected to contract by up to 5 per cent.
...
Terence Chong, of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, says: “Political order and economic stability may go hand in hand, but there is increasing awareness, even within the PAP, that that may no longer work.”

He points to a feeling that the PAP is “out of touch with the general suffering”.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Yeap the PAP is so out of touch, they might be on another planet (or JB). "

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Singaporean Tan Choon Wee has won the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008 contest with his entry titled, Fun Bathing.

The picture was taken in Bali, Indonesia. It's a river damn on the outskirts of a small village. Local villagers go there to wash their clothes and bath, but it's particularly popular with the local kids. This place is great for photography as the morning sunlight comes from behind the dam and always shines on the lower level of the fall first. This creates a good dark waterfall background, which contrasts well with the subject. It's a favourite place for shutter bugs. I needed a steady hand and high camera ISO because I had to step into shallow but rapidly moving river water below the dam, so I couldn't use my tripod. I had to shoot at five frames per second on my Nikon D200 in order to capture the fast action of the kids playing in the water.

In fact, I only captured a handful of perfect images from the hundred or so I shot.

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See the full list of winners here

groundnotes said:

[P]ublic service can still conjure up the romanticized idea of personal sacrifice, of public duty, of putting society above self. This ideal fires up notions of patriotism, of communal membership and love for the bigger things in life. But wait a minute. We can’t really use this anymore because we pay our ministers millions to enter public service and not to be corrupt. Bugger! What a waste of a perfectly good ideal. Well, if we can’t romanticize public service, let’s do the next best thing – glamorise it.

And so we have a PAP government spinning in a vicious circle - trying to be cool and glamorous while harping on public duty and service. A bit like a dog chasing its own tail.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "How much did MOE spend on those ads?"

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New York Times said:

Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government’s sovereign wealth fund, said Tuesday that the value of its investment portfolio fell by 31 percent of its total, or about $39 billion, from March to November last year.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Singaporeans who have spent their entire life voting for the PAP are now discovering, in effect, that they invested their life savings with Bernie Madoff."

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The Crusader said:

Today, thanks to the recession, expected to be the worst in 60 years, prices of crabs are coming down to earth.

Just over a month ago, I had a 600gm Sri Lankan chilly crab for $18 at a seafood eatery at the junction of River Valley Road and Zion Road. This is at least 30 per cent cheaper that what it used to cost. The going rate at an established restaurant is $3.80 per 100 gm of crabs. Add in the 10 per cent service charge and seven percent GST, the 600gm crab would have cost me at least $27.

With the full brunt of the global recession about to hit Singapore anytime soon, I expect more seafood restaurants to further cut prices to stay in business. So readers, if you know of more attractive and mouth-watering dining offers, do share them with us.

Recommended by misty_cloud: "600gm Sri Lankan chilly crab for $18 !!

I think this recession will hit the seafood restaurants real hard. They're squeezed between having higher costs from rising food prices and yet having to lower their retail prices to stimulate the waning demand for their delights. "

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Reuters reports

Not content with a $13.7 billion financial stimulus package, Singapore has unveiled a raft of economic recovery schemes with titles so perky they are almost "comical," the Straits Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Here are some of the schemes the government is backing: BOOST -- "Building on Opportunities to Strengthen Tourism," a $60 million plan to secure market demand in the tourism industry. It was announced by the Singapore Tourist Board in the face of an expected drop in tourist numbers to around 9 million this year.

BUILD -- "Business Upgrading Initiatives for Long-term Development," a $134 million fund to help small and medium-sized enterprises become more competitive through capability development.

PREP-UP -- "Preparing for the Upturn," a $67 million collection of training schemes which aims to help companies develop personnel in science and technology through funding programs such as on-the-job training for new graduates.

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Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan suggested Singaporeans could consider living in nursing homes in neighbouring Johor Baru.

It would be cheaper, yet be near enough to Singapore for family members to visit and for residents to return for medical care if necessary, he said.

He told Parliament yesterday that he recently visited a site in Johor Baru where a Singaporean investor was planning to build a 200-bed nursing home.

He asked the investor about the costs involved, and was stunned at how low they were.

He said: 'It is mind-boggling. The cost of land and construction cost is so low that my cost of putting up just a polyclinic (in Singapore) is probably more than his cost of putting up a 200-bed nursing home (in Johor Baru).

'The monthly cost of keeping a resident in a private nursing home in Singapore, you can stretch it easily to pay at least 2-1/2 months of nursing home care in Johor Baru.'

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The Sun Chair Critic said:

I'm sure this is one ranking that NUS or the government will never want people to know.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Talks volume about how singapore universities are overcharging us."

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shian said:

I got a call from the Navy HQ today. An admin staff wanted to hand-deliver a service medal, a coat-of-arms pin, a commemorative watch, and a certificate of appreciation that says… ‘In recognition of your contribution towards national defence through the faithful discharge of your National Service duties* for the security of our nation.’ When I met her at my neighbourhood subway station control, I smiled and asked ‘Wow! Thanks, but how come there’s personal delivery service?’

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Views of why many are uninterested in NS awards?"

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Asia Sentinel said:

Ho Ching, the wife of prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, is departing from stewardship of Temasek Holdings in good time for her successor to have to be the one in charge when the disastrous performance for 2008 and 2009 comes around.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "The guy who will take the blame for squandering all our CPF and reserves is foreign talent Chip Goodyear. I guess we now know what PAP meant when it promised us "more Goodyears"."

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Balderdash said:

A friend sent me a copy of the contract MOE made him/her sign. While some of the (presumably non-exhaustive list of) examples are pretty standard, 2 in particular stand out:

"Examples of Misconduct or Offences

8. Speaking disparagingly of the Government
14. Immoral behaviour"

The problems with the latter are not hard to see (e.g. definition, enforcement etc), so I will dwell on the former, which is eminently unenforceable, as presumably even going: "Aiyoh, Public Transport Council approved a public transport fare hike again! They just want to earn the bus companies profits" could get you a written reprimand, verbal or written warning or worse.

More worryingly, it is pointedly partisan.

Recommended by at82: "Why is MOE politicizing in our schools?"

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Christel Quek said:

This Valentine’s Day, it is time to reach out. While remembering our loved ones, let’s not forget to remember our furry friends in SPCA. Do come down for the exhibition and let your heart be moved by the stirring images these young and promising photographers have captured.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "A bunch of young photographers from a school-based, award-winning photography club will be holding a photo essay exhibition to highlight the lives of our furry friends in the SPCA. Do come down for the exhibition and let yourself be moved by the plight of these abandoned animals."

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