Blog Posts by Ewen Boey

Pamela Yeo has no regrets leaving legal practice to run her social business. (Photo: Saught)Pamela Yeo, 24, gave up a promising legal career to run a social business but she has absolutely no regrets.
 
The bubbly, bespectacled law graduate from the National University of Singapore, who is a finalist for the Yahoo! Singapore 9 campaign, is among a new breed of young upstarts in Singapore who aim to do good for society by running a socially conscious business.
 
Together with two close friends, Adeline Heng and Ng Sook Zhen, Yeo co-founded online store, Saught, which fashions handcrafted products made from scrap metal and landmines found in war-ravaged nations.
 
Saught -- which means "peace" in old English -- was conceived in December 2010 after Ng went to Laos and saw how locals used war remnants from bombs to make table cutlery at home.
 
So, armed with a S$9,000 startup grant from NUS Enterprise, Yeo and her partners began their business to promote peace and sustainable development in post-conflict countries.

Vanna, an artisan from Saught's NGO partner. (Photo: Saught)
 
The three launched their online store in February this year. Their pilot

Primary One school registration will be open from 3 July to 31 August this year.

In a press release on Wednesday, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said all primary schools will be open for registration from 8am to 11am, and from 2:30pm to 4:30pm on weekdays during this period.

The MOE also reassured parents that the 2013 Primary One (P1) “cohort size for 2013 is comparable to that of 2012” and that “there will be sufficient school places for all eligible P1 students on a regional and nationwide basis”.

The ministry also gave Singapore citizens (SC) the assurance they will be given “absolute priority” over permanent residents (PR) for this year’s registration exercise, where balloting is necessary. It should be noted that SCs and PRs will continue to be eligible for the same registration phrases.

Six existing schools – Canossa Convent Primary School, CHIJ Primary (Toa Payoh), Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School, Nanyang Primary School, St. Anthony’s Primary School and St. Hilda’s Primary

More than 400 people gathered at Hong Lim Park's Speakers' Corner on Saturday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first arrests and detentions in Singapore of alleged Marxist conspirators.

Human rights non-governmental organisation MARUAH and Function 8, a citizen-led move to facilitate civic discussions, remembered those who had been arrested in "Operation Spectrum" between 1987 and 1988 for their alleged involvement in a "Marxist conspiracy" to topple the government.

The two groups also called for the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA), under which such detentions without trial have been made.

Playwright Alfian Sa'at and Singapore Democratic Party treasurer Vincent Wijeysingha, among others, aired their personal views on why they believe ISA is no longer applicable today.

"I think today's turnout was really invigorating, because I think hopefully people in Singapore are getting concerned on a lot of issues that matter to them, and are willing to stand and and speak up

COMMENT

The King Albert Park McDonald's was not only a place to gorge on calorie-heavy Big Macs and oily fries during my childhood.

It was also where I used to hang out with friends and check out girls during my school days (I'm sure former students from ACS, SJI, MGS, CHIJ Toa Payoh, Chinese High can also identify). And yes, I've even been there on not-so-romantic dates before.

These memories came rushing back to me when I read earlier this week that the building (more fondly known by its initials, KAP) would soon be closed, and with it all its tenants, including familiar long-time occupants McDonald's and Cold Storage, gone.
 
The news is even more devastating, since it comes merely a few weeks after another local icon and childhood favourite of mine, the East Coast Park McDonald's, shut down after 30 years in operations

I remember spending much of my childhood at McDonald's Place mugging during the horrid exam periods. When I think back, how I managed to concentrate in the midst of

Martin helped out at Spizza on one of his tasks in Singapore. (Photo: Martin Pasquier)

Can one survive in a different country on social media alone? The answer would be "yes", albeit with some difficulty according to Martin Pasquier, who spent a week in Singapore with just a smartphone, 10 items in his backpack and no cash.

The 28-year-old Frenchman was in Singapore in February on the social experiment, "Can man live on social media alone?" as part of Social Media Week, wherein he linked up with locals via Facebook and Twitter in order to get help with accommodation, food and transport. Singaporean Daphne Chui participated in the same experiment, depending on Londoners to help her get around England's capital city.

Even though Pasquier confessed that the experiment was very successful due to the warmth and generosity of Singaporeans, he was was cautious on whether another person in a real-life situation could easily get by in a foreign land with just the help of social media. After all, the Frenchman did have a one week head-start in getting help through publicity on

Yaw Shin Leong has remained silent ever since his expulsion from the Workers' Party. (Yahoo! photo)

Disgraced former Workers' Party (WP) member Yaw Shin Leong has maintained his silence over his expulsion from the party, and has remained uncontactable according to party chief Low Thia Khiang, reported The Sunday Times (ST).

Low, a long-time Hougang MP who left the ward to contest for Aljunied GRC in last year's election, told reporters that he had no idea where his former protege was, and that no contact has been made between Yaw and the party, wrote the same paper.

35-year-old Yaw has until this Friday to appeal against the decision to remove him from the party. The vacant Hougang seat will be decided either after an appeal is made, or after the deadline passes.

According to a Straits Times report last week, Yaw allegedly left Singapore on Wednesday before he was ousted from the party, and is reportedly planning to move overseas to a country not in Southeast Asia.

ST added that Low did not want to talk about other opposition party members who were interested in the Hougang seat as

A teen has been arrested over a blog hoax saying that an NSF had died of a gunshot wound. (Yahoo! photo)

A teen has been arrested after he posted a fake blog post on a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) serviceman who was apparently killed by a stray bullet.

In a Straits Times (ST) report, a police spokesperson said that the incident did not happen, and a 19-year-old blogger has been arrested for "transmitting a false or fabricated message".

On 27 January, a post emerged on a blog called Temasek Revealed that claimed a 19-year-old SAF serviceman had been killed after taking a stray bullet to his right eye in Sembawang, wrote the paper.

It added that there was also another blog post on the same website from the brother of the deceased, detailing the injury.

The posts eventually went viral on social networking site, Facebook (on the Temasek Review page). It also spread like wildfire over other blogs, forums and other social networking sites.

ST wrote that Mindef put an alert on its Facebook page the next day, confirming the hoax. The post has since been removed on Temasek Revealed.

Workers’ Party (WP) decision to expel member of parliament Yaw Shin Leong from the party has left a gaping hole in the Hougang constituency.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has declared he “will consider carefully” whether to hold a by-election. He reportedly said there’s no fixed time within which he must call a by-election, adding that “there are many other issues on the national agenda right now”.

Meanwhile other opposition members are reported to be eyeing the vacant single member constituency seat.

The New Paper has reported that former Singapore Democratic Party’s Tan Jee Say may be interested while the National Solidatarity Party may also be weighing its options.

Under the Constitution, the government shall call a by-election when an MP in a single-member constituency vacates his office, dies or resigns.

So how will you vote in the event of a by-election in Hougang?