Blog Posts by Jeanette Tan

Three environmental engineering students from Singapore have gone out of their way — beyond their classrooms — to make a difference in people’s lives.

During their month-long December holiday last year, Syahida Muhamad and Valencia Evelyn, final-year students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), flew to the hilly town of Kandy in Sri Lanka to help residents keep their water clean.

With a third teammate, third-year student Jocelyn Tay, 21, joining them earlier this year, the girls used their knowledge and skills to craft a year-long education and awareness programme to promote the protection of the iconic Kandy Lake.

They were back in Kandy over last week to oversee an exhibition that showcased the collective efforts of their partner school, the University of Peradeniya (UoP), as well as that of younger students at the Mahamaya Girls’ College, a school located near Kandy Lake.

Water from the lake feeds into the mid-canal of the Mahaweli River, Sri Lanka’s longest river, which

What does “being one of us” truly mean to Singaporeans?

Researchers at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) asked that question in a study involving 1,001 Singapore-born citizens and a further 1,000 foreign-born naturalised citizens.

In the course of their survey, each respondent was read a list of 30 “Singaporean” values, characteristics and attitudes, and asked to decide whether or not each factor was important to them in defining a Singaporean.

Views of the two groups diverged the widest when it came to whether or not the sons of new citizens have gone through National Service.

The study showed that 69 per cent of local-born citizens interviewed said it was a key factor that determines “Singaporean-ness”, while only 43 per cent of foreign-born citizens surveyed agreed.

Looking at naturalised citizens who have held pink identity cards for less than 10 years, the percentage drops further to 41 per cent, the largest diversion in agreement between local and foreign-born citizens.

Other

Less than a decade from now, students in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) could be graduating with bachelor degrees in environmental and earth sciences.

Speaking to reporters in Kandy, Sri Lanka last week, University president Bertil Andersson said he felt there is room for a dedicated school within NTU in those disciplines given the university’s expertise in the field.

Andersson noted that the university is already home to several of the world's top scientists, thanks to its Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), led by prominent geologist Kerry Sieh, as well as its more recently opened Centre of Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, which focuses on the study of micro-organisms in biofilms.

"Here we have the world's best scientists coming in NTU's two research excellence centres. And of course we want that to stay in Singapore," he explained. "So we want there to be a school of earth and environmental sciences in the same way as you would have (the courses) in Oxford, for

Hougang will not be “taken back” by the People’s Action Party (PAP), neither can it be bought over by offers of upgrading, says the Workers’ Party (WP)’s Png Eng Huat.

In a rousing speech at the tail end of a WP rally at an open field in Hougang on Saturday night, Png referred to voters in the three single member constituencies (SMCs) in the past that voted in opposition MPs — Anson, Potong Pasir and Hougang.

[IN PICTURES: See the highlights from the WP's first Hougang by-election rally here.]

He said, “This government has made Anson disappear, and has retaken Potong Pasir, (but it) will never retake Hougang!”

“I’ve met many of you during my house visits, and you have made known your stance which I can summarise in just five words — Hougang is not for sale!” he cried, to roaring cheers of “Workers’ Party!” from the crowd of about 15,000 which had turned up for the opening rally of the by-election campaign.

Png went on to laud the resilience of Hougang residents, who he said had sacrificed

The wife of the Ferrari driver involved in last Saturday’s fatal traffic accident in Bugis has apologised to families of the other victims.

In a post on popular Chinese microblogging site Weibo, 28-year-old He Tingting, wife of private investor Ma Chi, said her family will not ignore what had happened, and will “deal responsibly” with its consequences.

“We apologise to the families of the taxi driver and his female passenger who were killed by Ma Chi’s driving error,” she wrote in Mandarin, as quoted in Lianhe Wanbao on Friday evening.

He added that her family will “deal responsibly with whatever comes after”, and that she is waiting for the outcome of the police report on the accident.

52-year-old taxi driver Cheng Teck Hock, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The sole breadwinner leaves behind a wife and three school-going children.

Shigemi Ito, a 41-year-old Japanese woman, also died in hospital.

Another two people -- 26-year-old motorcyclist Muhammad Najib

The single-member constituency of Hougang is “extremely important” to the Workers’ Party (WP), says its representative candidate Png Eng Huat.

This, he says, is why the entire party machinery is rallying behind him in his campaign to win its residents over in the upcoming by-election, which will be held next Saturday.

At a neighbourhood lunchtime walkabout on Friday, Png was accompanied by the party’s bigwigs—WP chief Low Thia Khiang, chairman Sylvia Lim, their fellow Aljunied member of parliament (MP) Chen Show Mao and non-constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong tailed Png as he walked around a few coffee shops along Avenue 5 to meet residents eating there.

The size of the group walking with Png, further beefed by members and party volunteers, contrasted strongly with the appearance of his opponent in the by-election, People’s Action Party (PAP) candidate Desmond Choo, who walked around Hougang alone both on Thursday and Friday afternoon, apart from his team of campaign volunteers.

"I have the

(UPDATED 23 May at 1:35pm - adding comments from NTWU representative)

More pay but also more work.

That sums up the fresh controversy surrounding SMRT’s recent decision to raise its bus drivers’ salaries by about 35 per cent.
 
In a bid to attract more Singaporeans to the job, the transport operator last week announced it was raising the starting pay for new Singaporean bus drivers from $1,200 to $1,625 per month. Permanent Resident (PR) and Malaysian bus drivers will receive a basic salary of $1350, up from $1200.
 
After factoring in overtime, allowance and incentives, pay for Singaporean bus drivers can go up to $2,500 on average, up from between $1,600 and $2,000, said spokespersons for SMRT last week.
 
But it’s now emerged that as part of the pay raise, SMRT has changed the usual five-day work week to a six-day one.
 
As reported on Today newspaper, an SMRT spokesperson said the six-day work week was necessary to cope with increasing ridership and operation of buses. This has led to a

The jibes are coming thick and fast as by-election fever in Hougang heats up ahead of Polling Day on 26 May.

In her latest post on her personal blog in almost a year, Workers’ Party (WP) chairman Sylvia Lim declared Hougang residents are a “special” group of people.

Lim wrote, “What’s so special about Hougang? In summary, Hougang residents have shown that they will defend democracy in their own backyard, even if it costs them.”

She went on to recount an incident 15 years ago when she asked her then secretary, a Hougang resident, how it felt to have transport routes to her area cut after WP chief Low Thia Khiang first wrested control of the constituency.

“She told me something which I remember vividly to this day: ‘Never mind—if we have no train, we will take bus! If we have no bus, we can walk!’,” she wrote.

“Such is the resolve of her and thousands of her neighbours, who have withstood decades of discrimination to vote for WP and Mr Low Thia Khiang, election after election,” she added in