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Zuraidah Ibrahim asks: Who’s got the work-life balance right?

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T PHOTOS: DESMOND FOO, REUTERS,

Peter Lim pays $720m for Valencia

ang Meng Meng

ur years after failing to buy glish Premier League giant Liverol, Singapore billionaire Peter m’s dream of owning a football ub finally came true yesterday hen he was named the new ownof Spanish side Valencia.

The former “remisier king”, who rns 61 on Wednesday, has edged 420 million euros (S$720 llion) in total, with 200 million ros to clear the La Liga club’s bts and 170 million euros to comete construction of a new stadim.

All 22 members of the Valencia undation committee, which conols 70 per cent of the club’s ares, voted in favour of selling eir shares to Mr Lim, making him e first Singaporean to own a top ropean football side.

“Peter Lim has completed the keover,” a Valencia spokesman d.

Mr Lim said in a statement: “I m very glad to have been selected

the winning bidder after a rigorous selection process. Fans of Valencia can finally see an end to months of uncertainty.

“Today’s voting, which overwhelmingly supported my bid, demonstrates a firm commitment from the stakeholders of the process, namely Bankia (Valencia’s creditor), Valencia, the Valencia Foundation and Instituto Valenciano de Finanzas (the public credit policy arm of the city of Valencia’s government).

“Under the process, the winner is the bidder with the best sporting, financial and social solutions. I’m pleased that we have won on these three criteria, and I would like to thank the Board of Trustees, the Valencia fans and the city for their strong support over the past few months.”

He will also spend 50 million euros for signings, of which 45 million euros were already splashed on two Benfica players – striker Rodrigo Moreno, 22, and midfielder Andre Gomes, 20.

The Portuguese side sold the two

players to a company called Meriton Capital, an investment vehicle owned by Mr Lim who is estimated to be worth US$2.05 billion (S$2.6 billion) by Forbes Singapore.

Moreno and Gomes are expected to be transferred to Valencia, which last won La Liga in 2004. Since then, only Barcelona and Real Madrid have won the league.

Yesterday’s news marked the

end of a saga that began last Decem ber when Mr Lim’s interest in th club was made public by Valenc president Amadeo Salvo who sa then: “Lim is very passionate abo football. He has made us a propos that will clear the debt owed by V lencia to Bankia, and will invest significant amount in the first tea immediately.

“It is one of the best two or thr biggest offers made for a club world football.”

Pioneers to get medical sub

rom September, hose 65 or older will ay less for visits to he doctor and dentist

lma Khalik nior Health Correspondent

ngapore’s oldest citizens will pay s when they visit the doctor or ntist from September.

Their Pioneer Generation card ll entitle them to significant subdies when they need treatment the common cold or chronic ailents, as well as selected dental atments and health screening.

Everyone 65 or older this year ll qualify, regardless of what they rn or where they live, and will get ese subsidies at 1,000 clinics

across Singapore.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong revealed last night that the subsidies, under the Government’s Community Health Assist Scheme (Chas), will be more generous for pioneers than for poor and middle-income families already receiving this help.

The scheme is referred to commonly by the colour of the cards held by those who qualify – blue for lower-income families with a per capita household income of up to $1,100 and orange for middle-income families with a per capita income of between $1,101 and $1,800.

Mr Gan said subsidies for the pioneers will be “better than orange and blue” and easy to use once their Pioneer Generation cards are activated on Sept 1. About 450,000 seniors will qualify.

For common illnesses like the cough and cold, a blue card holder gets a subsidy of $18.50 when he sees the doctor, and orange card holders get no subsidy. But a pioneer will get $28.50 per visit to the doctor.

Someone with a single chronic condition like diabetes gets a subsidy of $80 per visit and up to $320 per year with a blue card, and $50 per visit and up to $200 a year with the orange card. The pioneer will get $90 per visit, and up to $360 a year. Pioneers with multiple chronic illnesses can get up to $540 a year compared with $480 for those with the blue card and $300 for orange card-holders.

Mr Gan said a million people already suffer from diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol levels and stroke. “As the population ages, we will be faced with not only a grow-

ing number of patients with chro ic diseases but also patients wi more complex co-morbiditi which will in turn place a heavi demand for health-care services he said at the World Family Do tors’ Day dinner at Marina B Sands. “This shift in disease burde calls for a strong, comprehensi and integrated people-centred p mary care.”

Like those with the blue and o ange cards, pioneers who need sp cialist treatment will qualify to referred directly to a public hospit specialist at subsidised rates, wit out needing a polyclinic referral.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon announced last year that Sing pore’s pioneers would be reco nised for their contributions in th early days of nation-building. N all the benefits have been a nounced, but most are likely to

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ddressing tims from he police ker, more midating, ing atti.

pically inby stranxplaining tors often

ommuniwomen’s Tan, said accompa-

he middle rted rape in recent to 132 in

ould face omments esponses, is stance nishment

PHOTOS: SCREENGRAB FROM BBC

RESEARCHERS telling the BBC about the newly discovered dinosaur, a type of sauropod similar to the Argentinosaurus (illustrated on the right).

Above: Dr Diego Pol, who co-led the team that excavated the fossils, lying next to a thigh bone.

Left: A BBC film crew at the discovery site in Argentina.

Surpasses all previous ‘giants’ “Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on earth. Its length, from its head to the tip of its tail, was 40m. Standing with its neck up, it was about 20m high – equal to a seven-storey building.”

former wealth manager here, ve also popped up online – moston sites where users are encoured to post articles.

While the articles include his

Other articles focus on his contributions to charity organisations such as The Little Sisters Fund and Make-A-Wish Foundation Singapore.

belled as sponsored posts.

The Sunday Times also came across websites such as anton casey.org and antoncasey.net dedicated to listing his professional ex-

University’s Wee Kim Wee Scho of Communication and Inform tion suggested that the articl might be a way to “populate cybe space with positive stories” an

arged with throwing bicycle tyre from flat

PHOTOS: SHIN MIN

dam Mahani Abdullah (left) was hit by a bicycle tyre apparently thrown from a block of flats while walking below Block 1 Eunos Crescent (right).

He was charged in court yestery with committing a rash act.

The Sunday Times understands t the same teenager was arrestlast December after a brick

which was hurled from his flat at the same block injured a passer-by.

Police said there had been four reports of “killer litter” incidents at the block between June 22 and Dec

13 last year. Items thrown included bricks, a dumb bell and water dispenser.

Last month, a 13-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly throwing

two bricks from the 12th floor of a Housing Board block in Jalan Bukit Merah in March. No one was injured.

Yeo Sam Jo

Ravi Velloor Foreign Editor

PHOTO: AFP

Modi celebrating his landslide victory as he arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi yesterday. The P will be sworn into office in a massive public ceremony within the next two weeks.

arrives in Delhi o’s welcome

igious ritual alongside the rivernk.

Mr Modi is expected to retain s Varanasi seat, in part because it in Uttar Pradesh, the state that nds the largest number of MPs to rliament. Mr Modi’s campaign lped the BJP win a record 73 of e 80 seats from the state and it is open secret that he will now try wrest control of the state governent, currently run by the Samaadi Party.

The ruling Congress slumped to seats in the 543-seat Lower ouse of Parliament, from 206 in e previous House.

Never in its history has it had to ce such ignominy, and Prime nister Manmohan Singh wasted time in driving to the presidenl palace with the Cabinet’s resigtion. He has been asked to stay until Mr Modi is sworn into ofe in a massive public ceremony thin the next two weeks.

In a farewell speech to the tion, Dr Singh drew attention to s own humble origins, much like ose of the man who is succeeding

TWITTER DIPLOMACY Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took to social media yesterday to congratulate India’s newly elected leader Narendra Modi on his victory.

PM Lee wrote that he is “looking forward to working with the new Indian government to strengthen India-Singapore relations”.

Mr Modi responded quickly

him.

“I owe everything to this country, where I, an underprivileged child of the Partition of India, was empowered enough to rise and occupy high office,” he said. “It is both a debt that I will never be able to repay and a decoration.”

The reverberations of the Modi win were felt in the Hindi heartland state of Bihar.

to thank Mr Lee for his well wishes on Twitter.

“Singapore is a valued friend and I am sure we will make our ties stronger in the times to come,” he said.

Mr Modi’s party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, won India’s national elections by a landslide last Friday.

Charissa Yong

Yesterday, its chief minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) resigned, taking “moral responsibility” for the party’s poor performance. The party won just two of the 40 seats in Bihar, a sharp decline from the 20 it won in 2009. velloor@sph.com.sg gnirmala@sph.com.sg

On Friday, as India digested th Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslid victory in parliamentary polls, Co gress MP Shashi Tharoor sent short message of congratulations Mr Narendra Modi.

Within two hours he had a r sponse from the BJP’s prime min ter-designate. Congratulating M Tharoor in turn for his re-election a rare victory for the Congress Par he had pulverised – Mr Modi e pressed the hope that they wou be able to work together for th good of India.

Indians are hoping that the co ciliatory exchange with a Congre politician he had once attacked f having a “500 million rupee gi friend” will set the tone for the next five years during Challen which Mr Modi, 63, is mandated to gov- India’s ern the vast nation domina of more than 1.2 bildecade lion. For not only has he won unques- socialist tioned power – the Congre biggest mandate for always an Indian leader in 30 years – the elec- be left tion campaign has Mr Mod been the most heat- other h ed in recent memory and many have with a r been seared by the of bein barbed rhetoric he big mo unleashed.

While his attacks Inclusiv have centred on the therefo Congress-run gov- on man ernment and the Nehru-Gandhi family that dominated it, India’s 165 m lion Muslims, the biggest minori in this mostly Hindu nation, ha regarded Mr Modi with unease.

That is because early in his ter as Gujarat state chief, he failed prevent widespread rioting that le more Muslims than Hindus killed Last September, as the natio prepared for polls, populous Utt Pradesh state saw the worst riotin in a decade, displacing thousan of Muslims from their homes.

Other leaders – notably the la Rajiv Gandhi early in his days prime minister – have preside

Congress unlikely to be opposition leader

dia is coming to grips with the ale of a victory by Mr Narendra odi that has decimated the Coness so completely that it is unliketo get even the privilege of its minee in Parliament being led leader of the opposition.

With so many top Congress figes losing their seats last Friday, e party will now have to depend a clutch of just four MPs to keep voice alive in the House.

Former United Nations diploat Shashi Tharoor, Mr JyotiraditScindia from the erstwhile royal

This feeds into Singaporeans’ orries as many may end up wning a valuable house but not ving enough cash for retirement, id Professor Benedict Koh, ector of the Singapore Manageent University’s Centre for Silver curity.

In his address, Dr Tan said the overnment would develop more tions for Singaporeans to unlock eir home value in their retireent. Current options include the hanced Silver Housing Bonus, hich gives seniors a cash bonus hen they downsize their flat; and e Lease Buyback Scheme, which s elderly households sell part of e lease back to the Housing ard.

Earlier this year, National Develment Minister Khaw Boon Wan dicated that the Government was nsidering extending the lease yback to bigger flats and revisitg a reverse mortgage scheme.

to make them more attractive.

For example, the main drawback of reverse mortgage and lease buyback is the irreversibility, said R’ST Research director Ong Kah Seng.

ERA Realty key executive officer Eugene Lim and Nee Soon GRC MP Lee Bee Wah said seniors tend to prefer selling their bigger flats and moving to studio apartments with the lump sum they receive.

However, Dr Kang Soon Hock, head of the social science core at SIM University, said the low take-up rate should not be a deterrent to new monetising options.

“In fact, seniors should be provided with as many viable options as possible so that when the need arises, they will be able to tap any of these schemes for assistance.”

In his speech, Dr Tan also said the CPF savings and CPF Life annuity schemes would be improved.

Most observers agreed that CPF Life payouts should go up and be

for housing should decrease with age, while the portion for retirement and health care should rise, he suggested.

Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Liang Eng Hwa said he hears many requests on the ground for multiple uses of CPF, but this must be balanced against the need to save enough to meet the minimum sum. A higher minimum sum will allow seniors to have a bigger annuity payout later and cover themselves against longer life expectancy, he said.

On the other hand, people do feel the pinch when the minimum sum is raised, as it was this month, said Mr Singh.

“We have to relook the use of CPF... I think we can refine it and go back to the basics, focus on retirement savings.” andreao@sph.com.sg charyong@sph.com.sg

Retiree’s a medicatio by $10 ea

ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE

sidents sweat it out together

oa t it day.

ter for

hich mass

Social issues, he added, will d fine Singapore’s politics as the cou try approaches its 50th year of ind pendence next year.

“I am heartened that the Go ernment will focus more on peop on you and your family, as oppose to the constant drone on statisti of growth and physical develo ment,” wrote ESM Goh, who is al an MP for Marine Parade GRC. For Singapore to be an endea ing home, the yin and yang of d velopment must be in harmony, h added.

“The cold, hard efficiency of d velopment must be balanced b the warm, soft embrace of gover ment. This is the yin-yang model development which I believe is th right one to take us as individua and as a country into the future the former prime minister added Other politicians also chippe in yesterday with their thoughts o

walk and a hula hoop race.

Event organisers also included football, beach volleyball and basketball games in the hope of boosting residents’ interest in sport.

There will be 14 similar festivals running islandwide until the end of next month, featuring activities like mini table tennis and archery tag. Community sports clubs under the People’s Association, which are organising

the festivals, hope to attract people of varying sporting abilities and backgrounds.

Speaking after the workout, Dr Ng encouraged his residents to keep fit. He said: “I hope that we can be the kind of community that stays active and stays together, like how President Tony Tan envisioned in his address yesterday.”

Lee Jian Xuan

Every three months, Mr Ahmad J waher visits his polyclinic to bu asthma medication, without whic he has difficulty breathing.

The 66-year-old receives medic subsidies under the blue tier of th Community Health Assist Schem (Chas), which caters to those wi per capita household income of u to $1,100.

Mr Ahmad still ends up forkin out $100 for each batch of medic tion, so he welcomed yesterday news of further subsidies for pi neers like himself.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yon announced that from Sept 1, tho eligible for the Pioneer Generatio Package will get the highest sub dies under Chas.

So for a doctor’s visit for a sing chronic condition like asthma, se iors such as Mr Ahmad will get $90 subsidy instead of the curre $80 he receives under the blue tie The annual cap has also been i creased from $320 to $360.

“It’s good for us,” said the re ree. “A lot of my friends also ha health problems.”

Dr Chia Shi-Lu, who took ov as head of the Government Parli mentary Committee (GPC) f Health last Friday, lauded the ne subsidies, saying: “I have previou

Chas subsidies for

Chas Blu Eligibility criteria

oms if they are suspected to have e virus.

TTSH is one of the first places air vellers will be transferred to if ey are suspected to have Mers. It o has plans to increase facilities screening and admission “if and hen the number of suspected pants increases”, said a hospital okesman.

In the event of a confirmed Mers se here, contact tracing will be rried out by the Ministry of alth (MOH). Those identified ll be quarantined for 14 days, hich is how long the virus takes incubate.

While younger people were ore susceptible to the Sars virus, ers seems to target older people th chronic diseases. However, exrts say too little is known about e disease to come to firm concluns.

“It’s not that there’s not enough ork being done, but it takes time all this to be fully understood,” ectious disease expert Ng Oon k of TTSH said.

Laboratories in Singapore are le to effectively test for the disse. This means confirmed cases n be detected quickly.

“When Sars emerged in 2003, knew a lot less about the virus tially,” said Associate Professor njamin Ong, director of medical vices at MOH. At the time, he reled, suspected cases were identid based on symptoms such as fer.

“But because fever is relatively n-specific, it also meant that we ded up with a lot of noise that had to screen through.”

Whether precautionary meares are stepped up will depend on e Mers situation abroad, Prof ng added.

“The more we know, the more will be able to calibrate our reonses,” he said. “Stepping up es involve a fair bit of resources d a little bit of inconvenience for ople... so we have to make the deion carefully.”

linettel@sph.com.sg

blood samples from dromedary camels dating from

Gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhoea

1992 to 2010 found evidence of Mers.

Distribution of confirmed cases* of the virus by reporting country Country No. of cases

No. of deaths

Germany 2

1

Saudi Arab 520 163

The Netherlands

Middle East country Non-Middle East country

2

0

Britain 4

Cases outside the Middle East

3 France

19

2

Cases within the Middle East

United States

611

2

0

Deaths outside the Middle East

1 Italy

1

0

Tunisia

7

3

1

Greece

Deaths within the Middle East

1

184

0

Lebanon 1

0

Egypt

NOTE: *Since April 2012 and as of May 17, 2014

1

0

Sources: WHO, EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL ST GRAPHICS

A more effective killer than Melissa Sim US Correspondent in Washington A growing number of people are being affected by the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), but the international health authorities have yet to declare a worldwide emergency.

On the face of it, there appears valid reason for concern.

When compared to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), Mers is a far more effective killer.

So far, about a third of all Mers patients have died. For Sars, less than one-tenth succumbed.

There is currently no specific treatment for Mers, nor is there a vaccine. The best a person can do, experts say, is to seek medical advice early so doctors can address any complications such as pneumonia, should that develop.

Still, the health authorities ha resisted pressing the panic button “When all the countries we looked at... we don’t see any ev dence of community infectio sweeping through,” said Dr Ke Fukuda, assistant director-gener for Health Security at the Wor Health Organisation (WHO).

Using the example of the flu, h added: “Typically, when we see a influenza season, for example, w will see a sharp rise and many pe

Wink: Berlin eyes little green traffic girl Berlin – Wanted: Little green traffic light man with hat seeks little green traffic light woman – or girl – to join him as a Berlin icon.

He is a symbol that outlasted communism and the Cold War in Berlin, but he may be about to get a female friend if the Social Democratic Party (SPD) gets its way.

The red and green Ampelmann which indicate stop or go on pedestrian crossing lights is one of the enduring symbols of the German Democratic Republic, the former East Germany.

Ampelmann spread throughout the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, acquiring a cult status that reached far beyond the German capital’s limits.

PHOTO: AFP

moke billowing from a Taiwanese furniture factory in Binh Duong last Wednesday as anti-China protesters set more an a dozen factories on fire in Vietnam. More protests are planned today.

th foreign investors.

“The state does not want to reess public displays of patriotism, t they need them to be orderly, ey can’t afford chaos,” said Vietm specialist Jonathan London at e City University of Hong Kong a phone interview.

“The Vietnamese state, howevhas little experience with organnon-scripted politics. The counwas searching for a way to let e world know there was anger at hat the Vietnamese see as a blant challenge from China,” he d.

“Obviously the chaos that ened in some places was a disasous outcome, and a harmful delopment with respect to Vietm’s efforts to make a reasonably ong case to international public inion.”

The government says it has ar-

rested well over 800 people, and is blaming provocateurs who allegedly paid others to demonstrate. But more protests are planned today, presenting another challenge – though few expect a repeat of last Tuesday.

“This has been an embarrassment; it is unprecedented,” said Dr Net Le, a partner at the law firm LNT and Partners in Ho Chi Minh City.

“But things are now improving.

The Ministry of Public Security has already given a guarantee to protect foreign investors. If the government makes sure this is not repeated, investors will be comfortable.”

Still he warns that there may be more to the violent protests than the South China Sea issue.

“The government controls the trade unions, and says it represents

the working classes,” he said. “But they need to understand the workers.”

One Vietnamese analyst, who asked not to be named, warned that “masses” of Chinese workers brought in by big investors recently for some projects – like Taiwan’s Formosa steel plant in central Vietnam that saw a pitched battle between Chinese and Vietnamese workers – had raised some concerns.

Drawing a guarded comparison, he said: “We have no ill feelings towards Singapore investors. That is not always the case with Chinese investors.

“The government has to be conscious of public opinion. If you don’t allow society to de-stress, it becomes a pressure cooker. This is a wake-up call. But it is also a signal

statements five days after the incidents, officials said while more “patriotic” demonstrations were expected today in major cities, the authorities were well prepared and there would be no repeat of the violence that saw anti-China mobs run amok, attacking factories with perceived Chinese links.

Taiwanese companies bore the brunt of the violence with 180 damaged, the officials said at the press conference in Hanoi.

The Vietnamese governmen was working with the affected companies to calculate the losses and would compensate them, said Mr Do Nhat Hoang director of Vietnam’s Foreign Investment Agency.

Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang visited the VietnamSingapore Industrial Park (VSI just north of Ho Chi Minh Cit

that if elements of the governme are pro-China, it may not go dow well with the people.’’

At the Taiwanese factory in th industrial park, a few workers ha trickled back and begun to swee up the debris. The 32-year-old hea of the security unit, who did n want to be named, had a banda on one hand where it was injure

Mr Lawan Zanna is among em. He is still waiting for Aisha, s 18-year-old daughter.

“How can I sleep?” he asked. nger is gripping my body.”

He said that after the girls were ducted, he and other parents arched the nearby Sambisa forest their children, but came back mpty-handed, an article in the w York Times said.

The government’s failure to rese the girls has incensed Nigerians d people elsewhere.

Matters have worsened since Nirian President Goodluck Jonathcancelled a trip last Friday to the wn.

Angry parents said he showed respect for their emotions.

PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGEN

South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba holding a placard at an interfaith silent protest last Friday. The social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls has generated over a million tweets and sparked a global outcry

It would have been the first reported visit by the President to the area that has suffered increasingly deadly assaults by Boko Haram, the Associated Press said.

President Jonathan, a Christian from the south, has been accused of insensitivity to the plight of the mainly Muslim northerners.

Thousands have been killed over the years, and more than 1,500 civilians died this year alone.

“This is really sad to most of us because we all thought he would come, and we are all thinking that his coming would give us better hope for our children’s freedom,” said one of the parents, who had been told to gather at the burned-out remains of the school to welcome Mr Jonathan.

“But here we are being tossed up and down, people playing with our emotions,” he complained.

In Chibok, the face of Ms Asa Kwambura, the head teacher of th school from which the girls we kidnapped, was drawn and tired.

Sitting under a young mang tree alongside the charred remai of her school, she was surround by abandoned desks and burnt-o classrooms destroyed when Bok Haram militants stormed the se ondary school a month ago, loa ing the girls into lorries and drivin them away.

mit on fighting Boko Haram threat

At the half-day summit hosted Mr Hollande, Mr Jonathan will pressed to seek much closer coeration with neighbouring Camoon, Niger, Chad and Benin in e fight against Boko Haram.

The group, which is waging a adly campaign to create an Islamstate in north-eastern Nigeria, s achieved a new level of notoriesince it seized hundreds of hoolgirls a month ago.

Mr Hollande discussed the con-

ference and the hunt for the girls with US President Barack Obama in a phone call last Friday, the White House said.

Ms Wendy Sherman, a senior official at the US Department of State, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague were to attend the Paris talks. The meeting was also to review the preliminary work done by specialist teams sent by Britain, France and the US to help the Nigerian authorities in their efforts to lo-

cate the missing girls.

The United States is conducting manned surveillance flights and using a drone to help in the search, and Britain has offered a Sentinel reconnaissance aircraft.

France, which has military personnel, drones and Rafale fighter jets stationed in Niger, as well as troops in Mali and the Central African Republic, does not plan “direct intervention” in Nigeria for now, reports said.

Boko Haram gunmen, mea while, have killed a Chinese work and kidnapped 10 others in Cam eroon.

Militants stormed an encam ment used by Chinese road worke late last Friday in a region of nort ern Cameroon just across the bo der from the strongholds whe they sparked global outrage by a ducting more than 200 schoolgi last month.

“The Boko Haram militan

n. Vibram, while insisting it did wrong, also agreed to stop makg unsubstantiated claims.

The sole distributor of the shoes Singapore, Innovatez, told The nday Times that the settlement plies to only those who purased the shoes in the United ates.

Innovatez declined to reveal w many of the shoes – which st between $149 and $209 – have en sold since it started selling em in 2009.

It said it will “continue to posin Vibram FiveFingers as a viable tion for consumers who want to as close to barefoot as possible, well as for travellers who want a htweight and compact pair of oes”.

The lawsuit has also kicked off a sh debate over barefoot running, hich enjoyed a resurgence after rn To Run was published in 09. The book by American Chrispher McDougall was about a cern tribe of Native Americans who uld run long distances on thin ndals without getting injuries.

The jury is still out on barefoot nning, which involves the mide or front part of the foot striking e ground instead of the heel.

While some studies suggest it reces certain injuries, other studies y it increases stress in other parts.

The Vibram FiveFingers shoes cost between $149 and $209 a pair. Barefoot running involves the middle or front part o the heel. While some studies suggest it reduces certain injuries, other studies say it increases stress in other parts.

Before you blame the shoes...

“Ultimately it may not be... the product but the person wearing the product that is the cause of injuries.”

PERSONAL TRAINER HAFFIZ AMIN, who has been using Vibram FiveFingers for more than three years

Worried about long-term damage “If the pain doesn’t subside, I could decide to switch back to my normal running shoes.”

INVESTMENT ANALYST ASYRAF SALMAN, who bought a pair about a year ago, said his knees started hurting after he used the shoes

Mr Anthony Sum, founder of running group Team Fat Bird, which has more than 1,000 members, said many runners do not take the time to get used to running in minimalist shoes and continue

landing with their heels.

He added that his team’s trust in Vibram has not wavered. “We do not intend to get any refunds even if the lawsuit claims can be applied in Singapore,” the 51-year-old mar-

keting consultant said.

Said sports physiotherapist Gin Ng: “Currently the evidence f barefoot or minimalist (shoes) is a tually very sound, provided yo technique is spot on.”

Personal trainer Haffiz Ami 28, who has been using Vibra FiveFingers for more than thr years, added: “Ultimately it m not be... the product but the perso wearing the product that is th cause of injuries.”

Mr Haffiz, who also manag running site My Running Addi tion, uses the shoes as a tool strengthen his feet and improve h running form for short distances Ms Charine Tan, who climbe Mount Kinabalu and ran a 42k marathon in the shoes, said she convinced of their health benef

ental capacity challenges may t fully comprehend the quesns posed to them during a police erview,” she said.

“The trained volunteers provide e vulnerable persons a calming inence and emotional support, as ch settings can be overwhelming them.”

The pilot, which was carried out

will be a need to recruit more volunteers, said a spokesman for the Law Society.

The Bedok trial got more than 120 applications, with 60 chosen and trained by the Law Society’s pro bono services.

Training consultant Stephen Chee, one of the volunteers, was involved in six cases. The 60-year-old

break it down into simpler language so that he understood the charges in order to give an accurate statement.”

Volunteers are on call around the clock.

Administrative manager Shareen Banu, who has three children, was once called into a police station at 1am and returned home

unteering.

“I want to help ensure th things are done right for these vu nerable people, and I’m glad th the agencies are doing the rig thing by setting up this programm and making it available at all poli stations,” said Ms Banu.

There were 138 offenders wi mental disabilities placed on prob

Woman, three men held in two d

PHOTO: CENTRAL NARCOTICS BUREAU

at a housing block in Ang Mo Kio. 0 were seized in two operations.

Four people, including a 49-year-old woman, have been arrested for their suspected involvement in drug trafficking.

The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) also seized about 2.12kg of heroin, 216g of Ice and 480 Erimin-5 tablets, altogether worth more than $252,000.

CNB said yesterday that it had launched operations against two drug syndicates which were believed to have been distributing drugs in Singapore.

In the first operation, at about

6pm last Friday, CNB officers observed a meeting between a suspected drug trafficker and a drug runner at a housing block in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4. The runner, a woman, was arrested shortly after at Ang Mo Kio Street 61. Cash amounting to $8,200 was found on her.

Another group of officers also raided a flat in the housing block where the meeting took place. A 42-year-old male Singaporean was arrested.

Two bundles of heroin were found inside the rubbish collection

point on the ground floor of th suspected trafficker’s unit. The ma had allegedly thrown the bundl down the rubbish chute.

The drugs recovered were b lieved to be heroin weighing abo 950g, with a street value of near $100,000.

On the same day, at abo 6.25pm, another group of office arrested two men, aged 56 and 5 who had just alighted from a car the vicinity of Geylang Lorong 3 The officers found a bundle of her in weighing about 922g in the ce tre console box of the vehicle.

hief” to stop him.

“I’ve always wanted to do that deo even when I was in NS,” said r Robert. “My friends and I felt at NSFs (full-time national servmen) get a lot of unwanted attenn online. We wanted to tackle e issue head on.

“We don’t plan anything, so all e reactions are spontaneous. It’s ry exciting and affirming. I feel od going up to Singaporeans and ying to them, ‘What you did is hat we want to show people.’”

Strategic consultant Shitij Nigm, 23, and his friend, undergradue Darshna Dudhoria, 21, roam e streets and the heartland every ekend to photograph and interew people for their Facebook ge, Humans of Singapore.

With more than 19,000 “likes”, e project is a nod to the popular umans of New York page started an American photographer who out to capture 10,000 subjects the Big Apple.

The Singaporean version has atured people ranging from a nagenarian who still looks after s handicapped daughter even afhis son cut him off, to a domesabuse victim who is picking up e pieces of her life.

“The goal is to build empathy,” d Mr Nigam. “When we meet ople on the street or train, we en don’t realise they’re going rough so much in their lives. We pe that by sharing their stories, is will help Singaporeans know ore about other people.”

the main themes of this year’s StandUpFor.SG event.

The two-year-old movement held its fourth event on Vesak Day – a community picnic at which Singaporeans were invited to share their appreciation for one another.

This followed previous campaigns to encourage people to be gracious while using public transport and to thank bus drivers.

Organiser Wally Tham, 37, told The Sunday Times that his team of volunteers forked out about $10,000 to stage the event.

“You can’t have a sense of pride in the country, unless you acknowledge the good and bad,” he said.

“We appreciate both the good things we have and the hardships we’ve gone through. We hope others will do the same.”

Such civic initiatives arise usually because people “see an opportunity that they believe in, and feel a strong compelling need to act”, said a social media expert, Dr Michael Netzley, from the Singapore Management University.

“It could well be disagreement with the spiteful minority who are so outspoken on Singapore’s social media channels.”

Dr William Wan, general secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement, said that the trend shows how “younger people are taking ownership of kindness and graciousness”.

He expressed hopes that in the future, such efforts will reach a tipping point where “it is not cool to

Engineer Poh Jing Chieh (above, wearing green cap) and head of business de 21-year-old Ziyad Bagharib after he fell while posing as a beggar for the Hidd (below) giving medicated oil to national serviceman Sylvester Tan, who was p

be unkind”.

“We will then be exerting subtle pressure on everyone to be more respectful and considerate,” he said.

But while such initiatives may contribute to a more positive atmos-

phere, online “trolls” are not th types who frequent the pages s up by these projects, said Dr An Peng Hwa, director of the Sing pore Internet Research Centre Nanyang Technological Univer

SDP paper calls for educ Tham Yuen-C The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has called for a full revamp of Singapore’s education system in an alternative policy paper it released yesterday.

The paper, titled Educating For Creativity And Equality: An Agenda For Transformation, contained wide-ranging proposals in all stages of education from pre-school to university.

The party’s secretary-general Chee Soon Juan said at an event at Bras Basah Complex that the revamp is meant to realise the goal of having more creativity and equality, which will guarantee Singapore society’s survival and prosperity.

Speaking to about 40 people who turned up, he said the educa-

Top ITE students learn about

tion system now emphasi grades to the detriment of so development.

It also does not prepare s dents adequately for a kno ledge-based economy that quires creativity. With tuition a cessity these days, he added, th from poor families are also pen ised.

The alternatives proposed the SDP paper aim to solve th problems, he said.

Among its suggestions is tionalising pre-school educat so that all Singaporeans will able to afford early education.

Along the same lines, prim school pupils should get f meals so that poorer pupils w get the nourishment they need brain development.

Another suggestion is to sc

ngapore to Jakarta and Manila.

Air India has long been ranked hind SIA and private Indian carriJet Airways by seasoned travel-

of next month, Air India will be able to double its market share on the Singapore-New Delhi and Singapore-Mumbai routes.

the Star Alliance group, of which SIA is also a member, will allow the Indian carrier to offer even more attractive flights and options.

Eight carriers now fly betwee Singapore and 12 Indian cities, sa Changi Airport Group. These i clude budget carriers such as Air I

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Korean singer Henry of boy band Super Junior-M performing at the Singapore Entertainment Awards 2014’s Celebration Party yesterday before a 2,500-strong crowd. He was crowned Asia’s Rising Star.

Minister Yaacob Ib le, Micro week-long day.

Dr Yaa in the inf plore opp Ministry said yeste His fin mulate st Masterpla of next ye Dr Yaa ra, film an ual effects The m – mainly dia and i working a ea. He wi and medi views on Yeo Sam

Drunk man claiming to be t Yeo Sam Jo A man who claimed to be a terrorist was arrested along Orchard Road last night after failing to give police officers his details.

The man had been drinking Jack Daniels and Coke alone at Outdoors Cafe & Bar in Emerald Hill when he began behaving in a belligerent and violent manner towards staff and customers.

Bar manager Muhammed Ali Othman, 40, told The Sunday Times that he appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s.

“He became dead drunk and

suddenly spouted anti-Americ and anti-white people comment said Mr Muhammed Ali. “He claimed to be from the Mi dle East, and that he was a terrori He got agitated and started shou ing at other customers.”

When Mr Muhammed Ali an the other staff asked him to leav the man allegedly started assau ing them.

“He suddenly snapped and h me and the other guys. He w very violent, so we called the p lice.”

The police said they received call at 5.28pm and responded the incident. The man was tak

PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

Bryanna (centre) and her schoolmates from the Singapore American School walking along the rail corridor in Bukit Timah from Woodlands to Sentosa yesterday. They raised about $10,000 to build wells in Cambodia.

“My friends and I were touched by the topic and we wanted to raise awareness about it,” said Bryanna, who hopes to organise another walk next year.

Last May, the trio embarked on their first “Walk for Water” – a name Bryanna thought up which refers to the long distance some Cambodians walk to fetch

water – which was about 26km long and raised about $4,000.

This time, she e-mailed more sponsors and also promoted the walk to her friends and teachers at the Singapore American School, said her parents.

“She’s a little firecracker,” said Mrs Laura Entwistle, 46, who baked a choco-

late cake for the girls to enjoy at the finish line. “We’re so proud that she’s taken on something by herself and leading it. It’s really her project, we’re just here to support her.”

Sophie’s mother, Mrs Erika Wirt, 51, said: “If our girls want to do something, they’ll do it with or without us, so we might as well join in.”

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ey had no authority to do that d want all the ministers replaced.

Mr Suthep told yesterday’s meetg – held in Government House, here the prime minister normally orks but which he has commanered – that the mass rallies would rt tomorrow.

Ahead of that, he said he would eet state company officials and mpathetic retired civil servants to-

ing top civil servants on Thursday.

Thailand has not had a lower House of Parliament since December, when Ms Yingluck dissolved the House and called a general election.

Voting was disrupted by Mr Suthep’s supporters and the election was then declared void by the Constitutional Court. A proposed rerun on July 20 is looking increasingly unlikely.

many of them establishment figures with views close to Mr Suthep’s, is trying to break the impasse.

Last Friday, after a meeting of a limited group of senators, its newly elected Speaker said the Senate was prepared to choose an interim prime minister but members wanted to speak to political parties first.

They will meet the government tomorrow.

Mr Suthep wanted more immedi-

Suthep Thaugsuban greeting his supporters at a meeting yesterday.

ate action and is now putting pre sure on the Senate to hurry thin along. He has set numerous dea lines for the government to ste down in recent months and issu many ultimatums, to little effect.

However, his powers of disru tion remain. Acting Premier Niwa

s rally ar for ange

s than ordinary citizens is really r,” Ms Suu Kyi said.

“The main strength of the miliy forces is weapons. So I would e you to consider whether getg special opportunities because the power of arms is dignified or od for yourself.”

Parliamentary elections due to held next year are seen as a definve test of whether the military is lling to loosen its grip on power.

The country’s president is selectby the legislature, and Ms Suu i has declared her ambition to d the country.

Any change to the Charter eds the support of more than 75 r cent of the legislature, so at st some soldiers would have to te for the reforms.

Ms Suu Kyi spent 15 years under use arrest during military rule in yanmar, before she was freed folwing controversial elections in 10 that her party boycotted.

Since then, President Thein Sein s pushed through sweeping anges, including releasing other litical prisoners and welcoming s Suu Kyi and her party into Parment following landmark -elections in 2012.

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rvey she had done in 1989, only per cent admitted to cohabitan.

“Just two decades ago, remaing ‘pure before marriage’ was a sol norm that everyone in China ided by,” she said.

“Cohabitation no longer has the gative connotations it once had China,” said psychology rearcher Chen Binbin, one of the ademics behind the new study.

Couples now see cohabitation as natural step after a relationship ts serious, with or without a marge certificate.

But this wave of social liberalisan is still one with Chinese characistics, say observers.

Some 95 per cent of those who d lived together before marriage d they already were engaged or d a clear plan to get married.

“We would not move in for the ke of it like couples do in the est,” said Mr Yang. “I would only ggest it knowing that we were ading clearly towards marriage. e love each other and get along,

change in China. ning ‘pure before that everyone in China

my of Social Science, referring to a married respondents in Shanghai

In fact, it was only after he had proposed to his girlfriend early this year, and a wedding date had been set, that the couple told their parents that they were living together.

“I wouldn’t have dared to tell them before,” he said.

Another unique aspect of cohabitation here is that the man is expected to pay for everything, unlike couples in the West who often move in together to save money.

“I would never pay the rent,” said beautician Li Ru, 27, a Guangdong native.

She has been living with her 25-year-old hairdresser boyfriend for two years.

“The girl should never pay, it is not done that way here.”

Ms Li said her mother has accepted the arrangement and the fact that the couple will marry only next year.

“Even if she did not accept it, it wouldn’t have made a difference,” she added.

It is also easier for young couples these days to move in together because they live and work in the city, far away from their parents back in their hometown.

In the face of this trend, there are those who wring their hands over the damage that cohabitation can do to marriages and especially to the woman, if the relationship falls apart.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF LI

Beautician Li Ru, a Guangdong native, has been living with her 25-year-old hairdresser boyfriend for two years. A unique aspect of cohabitation in China that the man is expected to pay for everything.

Village officer Li Xuefei, 30, is dead set against cohabitation though she admits many of her friends are in such arrangements.

She and her businessman husband dated for seven years before they got married in 2010. She said they never thought of living together because it was inappropriate.

The couple have a two-year-old daughter.

“I hope I can pass on the right

values to her,” she said.

Professor Li, however, thin that cohabitation will leave le and less of a mark.

“As the numbers (of couples li ing together) rise for each succe sive generation, even if a ma wants a woman who is ‘pure’ that sense, he might not be able find one in China,” she said. rchang@sph.com.sg Additional reporting by Lina Miao

uted’ d on TV

“We are aware of the execution some 10 people associated with e Unhasu Orchestra,” two lawakers quoted Mr Nam as saying at closed-door parliamentary seson, according to Yonhap news ency.

The Asahi Shimbun said the rare ecution of state performers had en ordered to prevent rumours reading about the supposedly decent lifestyle of North Korean First dy Ri Sol Ju while she was an enrtainer.

North Korea angrily denied the ports, calling them an “unpardonle” crime.

The North’s state news agency CNA said the reports were the ork of “psychopaths” and “conontation maniacs” in the South orean government and media.

“This is an unpardonable, hideus provocation hurting the digniof the supreme leadership,” a KCA commentary said in September.

In an apparent attempt to prove e rumours untrue, North Korean dio in October aired a performnce by the orchestra.

FP

PHOTO: NORTH KOREA

North Korean singer Hyon Song Wol appeared on North Korean state TV last Friday, delivering a speech at a national art workers’ rally in Pyongyang. She was rumoured to have been executed last year over a sex tape scandal.

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e impact of the ageing populan and ethnic diversity.

“I am most excited to learn out the culture of Singapore,” e told The Sunday Times.

“It has such a diverse mix of culres – Chinese, Malay, Indian. I m looking at housing, so explorg the different cultures in relan to housing should be really inesting.”

The A$100 million (S$117 miln) five-year plan, launched last cember, aims to send thousands

South Wales. She has made the programme the centrepiece of her push for Australians to engage more closely with the region.

“Our country will benefit enormously from having young ambassadors from Australia who have an insight into the region that only comes from living and working and studying there,” she told the students, who are among the first cohort of participants, in Sydney.

“This (region) is where our future lies.”

and Omar Elkharouf, who are part of the cohort travelling to Asia this year under a government programme to give Australians insights into the region.

The Sydney University students are studying across various academic disciplines and will travel to Singapore from June 29 to July 12. They will spend the first week meeting experts from the Housing Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, as well as with students and academics from the National University of Singapore.

In the second week, they will be

Advances diseases r life expec

PHOTO: AFP

ood near Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport last Friday. The airport recently opened a new international terminal to handle r the football World Cup, which starts on June 12.

ged near Sao Paulo airport

local media.

“They looted fireworks and ignitthem and threw them at police. ere were no reports of injury but me vehicles were damaged,” a poe spokesman said.

She estimated the number of monstrators to be 50.

Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport s just opened a new internationterminal to handle the flood of eigners expected to arrive for the orld Cup, which starts on June .

split into five groups and condu field trips and meetings before pr paring a presentation to be deli ered before they return to Austral Other groups have also gone to Si gapore under the programme, i cluding a batch of fourth-year med cal students from James Cook Un versity.

Dr Thushara Dibley, from Sy ney University’s Sydney Southea

A series of protests have shaken Brazil ahead of the month-long tournament.

Brazil faced a major test of its security preparations last Thursday as 10,000 demonstrators angry at the huge cost of hosting the World Cup took to the streets in Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Rio and Sao Paulo.

In Sao Paulo, the country’s business hub, about 6,000 people staged several marches throughout the day, with some leading to clash-

es with police and acts of vandalism.

In the north-eastern city of Recife, a partial strike by military police was lifted after youths took advantage of the opportunity to loot stores and go on a rampage.

Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo assured reporters that demonstrations will decrease during the World Cup and the country will adopt a festive atmosphere.

AFP

Geneva – Average life expecta has risen globally to 73 years f girl born in 2012 and 68 for a following successes in fighting eases and child mortality, acco ing to the World Health Organ tion (WHO).

Big advances in the bat against infectious diseases such measles, malaria, tuberculosis polio have continued to ext life expectancy, although ot factors such as lifestyles are c straining longevity, the W said in its latest annual statis report.

The longest life expectancy birth is for baby girls in Japan 87 years, and boys in Iceland 81.2 years. Japan, Switzerland, gapore, Italy and Luxembo rank in the top 10 for both sex “There are major gains in expectancy in recent decades they continue,” said Dr Ties Bo ma, chief of statistics and infor tion systems at the WHO. The lowest life expectancy i sub-Saharan Africa, where n countries have expectancy of than 55 for babies of both sex Lifestyle changes leading heart problems and other disea are curbing life expectancy some cases.

“We’re seeing a health tra tion from success in infectious eases to more people dying,

PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

An injured woman getting help from nurses upon arrival at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi last Friday. The police say that two improvised explosive devices were detonated simultaneously.

Kenyan soldiers are still posted in southern Somalia as part of an African Union force supporting the country’s fragile internationally backed government.

Last September, an assault on Nairobi’s Westgate mall killed at least 67 people. Al-Shebab, a Somali militia affiliated with Al-Qaeda, took responsibility for the raid, saying it was in revenge for Kenya’s troop deployment.

At least three people died and 82 more were injured on May 4 when bombs detonated on two buses travelling outside Nairobi’s city centre.

A day earlier, twin explosions in the port city of Mombasa killed four people and injured at least 28.

“The United States condemns today’s despicable terrorist attacks,” said Ms Caitlin Hayden, a spokesman for the National Security Council, following the latest attacks.

Last Thursday and Friday, hundreds of British tourists were evacuated from beach resorts near Mombasa following new warnings of terror attacks from Britain’s Foreign Office.

Australia, France and the US also is-

sued similar warnings last week to avoid Mombasa and, in some cases, Nairobi.

The Kenyan government has expressed “disappointment” over the travel warnings, and has accused countries that are telling tourists to stay away of “unfriendly acts”.

Last month, Kenya confirmed that the number of foreign visitors slumped by 11 per cent last year, when the country was gripped by fears of election-related political violence.

A massive drop is again expected this year.

AFP, Bloomberg

longest warm spell this late in the year of seven days, according to Weatherzone “Typically we get about two fronts every week (at this time of year), which keep the heat away. But we’re likely to be going at least a week without one coming through,” Weatherzone’s Mr Brett Dutschke told Melbourne’s The Age newspaper.

It is bad news for farmers hoping for rains, said the newspaper.

A couple posing for their wedding photo in front of Sydney’s iconic Opera House last week. Along with much New South Wales is in the midst of an autumn heatwave that is setting records, with daily maximum temper

Serbia: Worst flooding in history Cloudy

Adela Barce Chen Colom

Showers

Obrenovac (Serbia) – Boats sailed through the streets of a Serbian town on a mission to rescue people trapped by rising waters as the worst floods ever recorded swept Serbia and Bosnia.

Some residents of Obrenovac, 30km south-west of the capital Belgrade, were stranded last Friday on the roofs of their homes, calling for help.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said all 25,000 citizens would have to be evacuated from the town which has been hit by rainfall since last Wednesday.

Obrenovac was almost entirely submerged after the River Kolubara, the eastern tributary of River Sava, burst its banks.

“Obrenovac slowly turns into sea. I saw five to six people drowning at a gas station, but I couldn’t help them,” recalled resident Petar Avramoviche, who escaped from the town.

In a sports centre in Belgrade, volunteers were busy distributing essentials to flood victims yesterday as trucks and buses brought more evacuees from Obrenovac.

Surges of high water were expected to reach the Sava and Danube over the weekend, threatening thousands more people and roads, meteorologists in Serbia said.

“This is a catastrophe. Nature has never been so cruel to us,” Serbian Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic said.

The rain was the heaviest to hit Serbia and neighbouring Bosnia since records began almost 120 years ago.

At least 14 people were reported to have died in the unfolding disaster last week.

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PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

A family being evacuated by boat in the town of Obrenovac, Serbia. All 25,000 of the town’s residents will have to be evacuated because of the floods caused by heavy rain.

Thousands have been evacuated from homes in the central and western areas of Serbia and in Bosnia.

Low clouds and fog were making rescue efforts difficult.

Around 135,000 households were without power across Serbia and the government has approved emergency electricity imports.

Another 65,000 were without electricity in Bosnia.

The deluge has made many hillsides unstable in the mountainous region.

Several people were injured when

houses were destroyed by a landslide on the edge of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

Villagers fled on foot along railway tracks with bags and babies in their arms.

Russian emergency teams with rescue boats arrived in Serbia last Friday and were heading for Obrenovac to help with the operation there.

Israel, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Luxembourg have pledged to send aid including expert teams, water pumps, helicopters and rescue boats.

Reuters, Xinhua

California: Man charged with starting fatal wildfire Los Angeles – A 57-year-old man was charged with starting one of the several fires tearing across southern California that has killed at least one person, local police said.

The man, identified as Alberto Serrato, was allegedly seen stoking the flames of a small fire in the town of Oceanside on Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty to arson charges on Friday, Lieutenant Val Saadat of the city’s police department said.

nine active fires that have seen thousands of people evacuated over the past three days.

According to a spokesman for the seaside town of Carlsbad, weekend weather conditions are favourable for controlling the fires, with higher humidity and winds at around 8kmh.

Carlsbad firefighters found a badly burnt body in a transient camp engulfed by raging wildfires late on Thursday, the only death to have been reported so far.

The fire in Carsbad is one of the

south-western US city of San Diego.

On Friday, the fire there had more than doubled in size overnight to more than 1,200ha.

California and other western US states are routinely hit with wildfires during the summer and fall, but blazes have occurred earlier in the year in recent times.

The latest fires coincide with an unseasonable mix of record triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and hot, dry Santa Ana winds blowing in from the desert.

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“Motorola isn’t as big of a competitor any more. When they decide to drop everything with Samsung, then we’ll be talking.”

PROFESSOR MICHAEL RISCH, Villanova University

PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

ogle and Apple’s agreement signals a de-escalation in hostilities between two companies, which have filed about 20 lawsuits against each other and mpete fiercely on many technology fronts.

“Motorola isn’t as big of a comitor any more. When they dee to drop everything with Samng, then we’ll be talking.”

Google inherited the cases en it bought Motorola Mobility 2012 for more than US$12 biln (S$15 billion) to obtain a trove about 17,000 patents and appliions. Google agreed in January sell the unit to Lenovo Group US$2.91 billion, but is keeping st of Motorola’s patents.

While the agreement settles difences between Apple and Googover Motorola Mobility, Apple reins embroiled in litigation with msung, the biggest maker of artphones powered by Google’s droid.

In a second trial that ended this onth, Apple won only US$120 llion from Samsung after seekUS$2 billion in damages. The y also found that Apple innged one Samsung patent, arding it US$158,000.

Google was not a defendant in the trial, but much of the case turned on its role. Samsung argued that Apple’s real target was Android and even called several Google engineers as witnesses to bolster its argument that it did not need to copy Apple’s technology.

Jurors took note when Apple presented evidence that showed Samsung had a confidential agreement for Google to pay some of the defence costs and liability for patents related to Android, as well as to have some control over the litigation.

Jury foreman Thomas Dunham, a retired IBM executive, suggested the revelation may have worked against the iPhone maker.

If Apple and Google “go head to head”, the courts will sort the truth out, he said. “If you feel Google is the cause behind this, as everyone has observed, don’t beat around the bush. A more direct approach is something to think about.”

Bloomberg

PHOTO: REUTERS

annual Landsgemeinde meeting in the eastern Swiss town of Glarus on n the past two years have focused on economic issues.

on ‘old sayings’

Jonathan Kwok

PHOTO: EDWARD TEO FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

niti. The brand communications and creative agency serves as a platform

ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

OKAY TO TAKE HALF-MEASURES

Mr Marvin Das took the unconventional path in his areer, having started out in he creative industry with his own firm at the age of 24.

See >>Pages 39&40

Goh Eng Yeow’s answer to any investor confronted with a dilemma over taking profit on his winning bet or cutting loss on a plunging stock is to sell half of it.

See >>Page 41

u have read? E-mail stinvest@sph.com.sg your feedback and suggestions.

This is supposed to be a month of heavy selling on stock markets.

There are still 10 trading sessions to go before the end of May but so far, at least, markets here and abroad have been spared any carnage.

The preoccupation with this month by many investors harks back, of course, to the old stock market adage: “Sell in May and go away.”

This simple rhyme advises investors to offload their shares at this time of year to avoid drastic falls.

Applied last year, this strategy would have helped an investor to avoid a major tumble, after the United States Federal Reserve on May 22 said it was looking to scale back its huge money-printing programme.

Thankfully, the Singapore market is down just 0.06 per cent this month so far – surely not drastic enough to lose sleep over.

There are in fact two interpretations of the saying “Sell in May

ed as the market is likely to he south.

Regardless, The Sunday Tim asks investment experts whet this saying should be given c dence – and also picks their bra about other market themes y should look out for in the next months.

Seasonal effects

“Sell in May and go away” is j one example of a supposedly s sonal pattern in the market. A other common belief is the “Jan ary effect”, the notion that sto tend to rise in January.

Experts say that you shou take such sayings with a pinch salt.

In recent years, the benchm Straits Times Index (STI) has deed dropped more often in M but this could have been due m to coincidence than any special fect.

“Based on our tracking of STI in the past 14 years, the was down nine times in Ma said Ms Carmen Lee, head OCBC Investment Research.

But there have also been ot months when the index was we Ms Lee noted that the STI w down 10 times in August, over past 14 years. “(Also), if you have sold in M of 2009, you would have lost a because the STI gained 21 per c

PHOTOS: REUT

ocks operating in the same space as Alibaba have been sold down. Facebook, Amazon and Google are down by between 15 per cent and 27 per cent since rlier this year, and social media firm Twitter has lost more than half its value since December.

Asian markets: Fear over China’s slowdown

orkers at a truck factory at Hefei in Anhui province. China’s growth will be driven less by investments in fixed assets d growth in loans, and more by the domestic consumption of both goods and services.

BS Bank.

“They were grossly overvalued d richly deserving to be sold wn,” he added in a Sunday mes article last week.

The broader US market is not in bble territory, argued Mr Lim.

“A significant correction – in the region of 10 per cent – is overdue.

But the US equities bull is likely to pick itself up and continue its climb after that.

“The US economy continues to grow. Indeed, it is expected to

record a faster pace of expansion than it did last year.”

Among US stock indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are near all-time highs, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has underperformed.

Asian markets, on the other han have been affected by concer over a slowdown in Chine growth, amid economic restructu ing on the mainland.

“The world will need to get use to China growing at a more mode ate pace,” said Mr Doyle from UO Asset Management.

China’s growth will be drive less by investments in fixed asse and growth in loans, and more b the domestic consumption of bo goods and services, he said.

“This transition will have signi cant investment implications f companies, industries and inve tors alike.”

OCBC’s Ms Lee noted that r cent weakness in Chinese data h led to concern for Asia and sellin pressure on Singapore equities, e pecially as more shares listed he derive a significant share of rev nues and earnings from China.

“Any slowdown will continue dictate local stock price actions she said.

But Ms Joanne Goh, region equities strategist at DBS, said th fears over a China slowdown an uncertainty over reforms “ha

mpending marell your shares

per cent.

Furthermore, one should not be unduly worried about daily or weekly market movements. In my presentation at The Sunday Times Invest Seminar 2014, I highlighted an article headlined “How to win at a winning game” by Teh Hooi Ling. It tells investors not to be sidetracked by short-term price gyrations as long as they are invested in a diversified basket of stocks that represent the real economy. In the event of a sudden downturn, avoid the herd instinct.

Don’t sell when everyone else is selling, for you will not get a fair value for your assets. On the contrary, look out for opportunistic buys for stocks and shares of fundamentally sound companies at depressed market conditions.

If you are unsure as to where the market is heading and want to stay invested, adopt a dollar cost averaging approach by setting aside a fixed sum every month to invest. Under this approach, you will acquire fewer shares when prices are high and

l market does views on the expert ar of the Taper at ntly that the

It Edemanding.

SUNDAY TIMES VEST SEMINAR

on May 10

Sign up at www.regonline.sg/sutinvest2014 before May 7

A screen displaying Twitter’s logo and share price as it started trading on th last year. Twitter shares have plummeted since the company’s Wall Street de sixth year and shows signs of tiredness, especially in the US tech sector.

more shares when they are low.

Deputy Money Editor, Dennis Chan Q: For Europe, is it a good time to invest now?

Should we be stock-specific or more broad-based – for example, mutual funds? What industries should we look at?

We remain positive on European equities as valuations

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uple of people in the office, we’re ppy’.”

The partners eventually went eir separate ways and Mr Das unded brand communications d creative agency Affiniti in 09, where he is now managing rtner.

The company handles branding d marketing projects for firms in rious sectors such as property d technology.

He sought out venture capitals to invest in the firm, which epresents my blood, sweat and ars”.

The 20-man outfit, with an ofe in Kuala Lumpur that employs other 10, boasts an annual turner that has grown 15 to 20 per nt in the past three years.

It has since become a platform invest in other businesses, such local technology firm ManyBits.

But Mr Das is no spendthrift.

His only “indulgence” was the 000 CDs amassed over the years, ong with 200 cassettes.

He sings in an indie rock band led Camra.

The band used to perform reguly in the local music scene, but ork has since taken up most of e members’ time.

“We’re such big music fans and I ew up with music all my life. I’d ve money to buy cassettes as a d, using all my pocket money. I nk it was $2 to $4 a day.

“My CDs take up all the wall ace in my room... I should sell em but I can’t.”

PHOTO: EDWARD TEO FOR THE SUNDAY TIM

Mr Marvin Das founded a brand communications and creative agency five years ago. He says his only indulgence is his collection of 5,000 CDs and 200 cassettes amassed over the years.

io to take advantage of this,” he d on May 8.

US Federal Reserve chief Janet llen said last Wednesday that here is no specific timeline” for sing rates from the current zero 0.25 per cent range.

In general, the interest rate typily shares an inverse relationship th the value of bonds as an instment. Bonds become less popu-

is largely US-led, despite the slow growth there in first-quarter gross domestic product at 0.1 per cent, far below economists’ expectations of 1.1 per cent.

“The US GDP numbers were lower than expected, but this is not surprising given the severe winter conditions. If you consider the government closure for two weeks of the last quarter of 2013, the sustained

To take advantage of this, Pictet recommends stocks that are “high quality cyclicals” in developed markets, such as the US, as opposed to emerging markets. Cyclical equities are stocks that follow the economy’s ups and downs closely.

The bank also stuck to its earlier call for investors to get out of gold.

In 2011, the yellow metal made up 7 per cent of the suggested portfo-

Mr Laxminarayan said “there no logic” in owning gold at th time as part of a portfolio.

“Gold is a hedge in high infl tion conditions, but not in norm inflation conditions where other a sets are working and have great earnings potential,” he added.

Consultancy Metals Focus r ported last Wednesday that go prices could sink to a four-year lo

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times when a company is unloved, for whatever reason, even though it enjoys good business fundamentals. This is reflected by its depressed share price.

It may take a long time before it is priced correctly, yet in the meantime, it can be frustrating and painful for investors who are right about the company at the wrong time.

One example is beverage giant Fraser & Neave, whose share price had traded for years at a so-called “conglomerate” discount to the value of all its various businesses when they were added up.

The shares finally received a boost nearly two years ago when it became the subject of a fierce takeover tussle that resulted in Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi taking control.

So for many investors, it may be the tallying of votes – what other people think of the stock – that matters a lot more than the weighing machine Mr Graham talked about.

There is another analogy for investors who take a much shorter view on their investments, one enunciated by another great investor, the British economist John Maynard Keynes.

He described investment as a beauty contest with a difference. To guess the winner, what is important is not to select who you believe to be the most beautiful contestant but to guess at how the judges will rate the various contestants.

Seen in that light, successful investing is really a lot more psychology than anything else, a process of coming to grips with your own emotions as well as others’.

My answer to any investor, who is confronted with a dilemma over taking profit on his winning bet or cutting loss on a

plunging stock, is to sell half of it.

Selling half of the investment will release the psychological logjam that comes from trying to decide whether to keep the investment or get rid of it completely. He can then analyse why he bought the stock in the first place, and whether to hold the remaining shares, sell them or buy more.

This ploy is especially useful to a trader who is facing losses on his bets. What should he do if he keeps losing money even though he believes he is right and that the market would see sense eventually?

When a stock falls substantially, the trader’s first reaction is denial, as he hopes to salvage the best of a bad situation, telling himself that it is only a short-term fall.

Then when it drops further, he may start calculating how much money he has lost. He may even hold the stock for a while longer, and then when it hits bottom, sell everything and swear never to invest in shares again.

But selling half of the investment first saves him from an even bigger loss if the price continues to plunge. But he will also be able to enjoy some of the investment’s upside if the price recovers.

Once a trader has crystallised his loss, the next step is to look ahead and not dwell on the past, wallowing in despair over how awful it must feel to throw such a huge wad of money down the drain.

Let’s face it, no matter how successful we are as investors, all of us have encountered disasters at one time or another. In

his latest newsletter to shareholders of his company, Berkshire Hathaway, investment legend Warren Buffett owned up to losing a whopping US$873 million ($1.1 billion) on the debts issued by a firm known as Energy Future Holdings.

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of tive – ere’s to te

Given its relatively small size d modest resources, being med Clan of the Year last year s quite a feat for Leong Khay.

Tucked in the middle of a row of o-storey, pre-war conservation ophouses along Cantonment ad, its premises include an activihall for members and a conferce room. Bigger events such as niversary dinners and other celeations are usually held at hotels.

The low-key association used to ganise just a few events in the st because its members were ageg. But recent years have seen it aching out to younger people, escially new citizens from China, d expanding its list of activities.

So who is its leader, Mr Ko Oon o?

His late father Ko Teck Siang and cle Ko Teck Kin were better own in the Chinese community. e brothers made their fortunes rubber plantations and property on after World War II. But the younger Mr Ko, 60, eldson of Teck Siang, has made his esence felt in the community in a ort span of three years and now ds three Hokkien clans concurntly.

In 2011, he was elected presint of the Koh Clan Association, those with the surnames Koh, or Gao. He took over at Leong ay later that year. Last month, was elected president of a third oup – the Chang Chow General sociation, which represents a disct in Fujian province.

“My late father and uncle were pular leaders in these three ns, and when I joined and got cted as leader, I could not say

personal attributes that are than to be unduly influenc

The fou word a heart o

Chua Mui Hoong Opinion Editor

PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

Of all the work Mr Ko Oon Joo has done – and he has done plenty – what he has enjoyed most is helping to provide education opportunities for the needy through bursaries. He says “education is the only way the poor can move up the social ladder and that is what my father used to tell me too”.

Role models “My late father and uncle were popular leaders in these three clans, and when I joined and got elected as leader, I could not say no... But my father, who died four years ago at 84, had the greatest influence on my decision to start serving the Chinese community, especially when my other five siblings are not doing so.”

MR KO OON JOO

A few months before his father

spending more time attending to community work than my own business now,” says Mr Ko, who is managing director of his investment company, Teck Lay Group.

It is clear that he is proud of the changes made at Leong Khay, the small clan that has been winning awards. Asked how he managed to achieve that, he says: “I told my members that in everything we do, we should do it with passion and sincerity.”

A recent membership drive he initiated attracted many people in their 40s and early 50s, bringing down the average age of members from the high 60s to the late 50s.

Membership has grown to 220 from 180 two years ago.

Of all the work he has done, what he has enjoyed most is helping to provide education opportunities for the needy through bursa-

‘Tis the season for love in polit it seems.

On Friday, President Tony Keng Yam opened the second sion of the 12th Parliament wi speech that startled folks like (whose job it is to track such st with its touchy-feely tone.

Singaporeans, he said, sho embrace one another as fellow zens working together to m this an endearing home. Y endearing.

And we should treat im grants and foreigners in our midst with gra- Winning ciousness and My own fellowship. Yes, that the fellowship. leaders ( Singaporeans form the wonks, n heart a n d are redo strength of the to win h nation, he said.

Watching Dr just min Tan deliver the wooed t address as it was generat broadcast live, I deliverin swear his serious demeanour bread-an softened and and won his v o i c e Today’s dipped at some give the of these words.

It w a s good job enough for my good sc colleague, Politi- want to cal Editor Lydia affirmed Lim, to liken that address to an invitation from a man to his wife to reFor new wedding and

eer drudgery. For them, the solun might be to change the nature the work, or quit. Experts such as gel Marsh note that some jobs by ture truly require you to put in a ge number of hours, such that e work rules your life.

In many cases, though, workace experts are increasingly callg on employers and employees t to look at work and life as being a binary, zero-sum relationship. me have called for a better ork-life blend as the more relent approach. But that makes it und horribly unclear where work ds and life begins.

Whichever way you cut it, one ing is clear: There is a need for rmony in our lives. And employshould support that because

finding such harmony probably makes us more productive workers over the long term.

Typically, the issue of work-life balance is especially salient to those raising young children or taking care of elderly parents. As Singapore's families shrink in size, there are fewer members of the extended family available to help. Employers cannot ignore this fact if they want workers to stay on the job. Arrangements such as flexi-work hours or job-sharing are gaining popularity and they should be welcomed by those who need them most.

Work-life balance is also acknowledged to be a key requirement for leaders of organisations. Countless business gurus dispense advice on cultivating happy, holistic lives

achers do too engage parents

e-play and case-study discusns.

Topics covered during the -hour course at the National Intute of Education include stratees to manage home-school relanships, involving parents in suprting their children’s learning, d building effective two-way mmunication.

This year, the ministry extended e course to all teachers, because ose who went through it found it eful.

how to deal with unpleasant situations that can arise too.

Knowing how to engage parents is no longer a “good to have” skill but a “must have”.

As a parent, I appreciate the efforts to keep me informed about what is happening with my child, aside from the twice-a-year parent-teacher meetings.

But I also think there’s a fine line between engaging parents sufficiently and overdoing it.

Some parents tell me teachers

that can actually make you a more rounded, smarter leader.

However, young graduates do not fall into either of these categories. Well before they are in leadership or parenthood, many want a balanced life that an older generation found too impertinent to ask for.

Those who grew up relishing their first pay cheques must be baffled at how young people can go on extended graduation trips or take time out before securing their first job. The older cohort assumed that the first few years of working life would be like bootcamp, an apprenticeship where one picked up experience and proved one’s reliability and diligence. It is difficult to identify with millennials who talk

teachers have started to consult me on everything

about the need for job satisfactio and the time to meet their frien regularly on weekday nights, l alone their sacrosanct weekends.

All of this determination to lea a full life even before finding one feet as a self-reliant adult is envi ble, I suppose. Sometimes I wish had had the gumption in my 20s say no when my boss waylaid m with yet another assignment as was about to leave for the day might have been marked down notch or two in my appraisal, b what the heck, maybe I might ha had more fun. I will never know.

In a way, the priority that th younger set places on work-life ba ance is a mark of our success as a s ciety. After all, we should be wo ried if we became a First World soc

from the timing of tests to teaching approaches

Denise Chong

S T I L L U S T R AT I O N : A D A M L E E

by video e friends only

n blessed with a large number awful film clips, to the extent t as a people we’ve become imne to them.

In the past, we’ve seen a comen do a rap video about Sars that med to have been penned by, d made for, the senile (“When u get home, take a bath quickly. su a bit, be safe not Sar-ry”). We ve beheld civil servants rapping connect with the young (only onnect with our sense of alarm d pity). But the Young PAP vidtook it to a new level.

Then recently, there surfaced a gapore Tourism Board commer, made and aired in the Philipes, that looked like someone d joined up bits of videotape nd in a jumble sale.

And these are just the ones I rember. There have been many re terrible commercials and blic service messages which ve been blocked from recall by mercy of ageing.

I was still trying to work out at made the PAP youth wing’s eo so discomfiting to watch en I read that it was not intendfor the public. It was made for ty insiders. Then it all clicked.

If you have ever been to a wedg dinner, you know what I an. There is now the obligatory uple’s video that starts playing ween the fish and the duck urses.

You know the one: The shots of ridiculous yet predictable panmime of the door pranks played the groom’s party; the scenicot couple photos, each one re gloriously sick-inducing n the last. Even worse is the

young neering

timulate their interest in the ect. They can often reveal a erent and interesting side of neering.

slideshow of moody wedding photos from “conceptual” photographers.

In some videos, the couple’s friends will appear. They will offer best wishes, looking as comfortable and relaxed on camera as captured political dissidents reading out confessions on television.

An alien coming to Earth would think that human couples start their lives together by testing the loyalty of friends and relatives with an ordeal by video. He who vomits is ejected from the circle of trust.

But because you are friends with the couple, the video is not meant to be judged on its merits as information or entertainment. It is neither. It is a piece of social theatre. The couple’s role is to be adorable, and your role is to find them adorable. You clap. You say nice things. No matter what. That is how it is with in-group films. No one outside the group will find them good for anything except mockery.

I, like everyone else, found the Young PAP reel an extremely uncomfortable watch, but think back to your last corporate team-building exercise, when each department was asked to submit a video.

Not cringing yet? Remember the one sent in by Finance where they wore silly hats and sang Don’t Stop Believing to demonstrate their passion for innovation in customer service? If you are still not cringing, you are part of the problem. Or you work in Finance.

But imagine what would happen if someone uploaded it on YouTube.

Already, there has been one con-

Antibiotic resistance: Many areas need tackling Last Sunday’s article (“Down with a cold? Forget antibiotics”) is certainly helpful and informative. However, some qualifications are needed.

sequence from this eagerness to attack works of expression. This year, there will not be a new National Day song, in part because in past years, the songs have generated online screams of fury. Once the Internet hate train leaves the station, it gathers speed and never stops.

Where will this fear of online criticism take us? No National Day Song this year, and maybe next year too. At this rate, by 2030, the National Day Parade should be performed by mimes. Then someone will complain about how quiet it all is, and a million others will chime in about how weird it is that we have no songs.

Terrible videos will never go away, no matter how much online hate is unleashed. It’s because people with the power to commission work underestimate how hard it is to make a good product. They think that because everyone now carries a good cameraphone, anyone can make a good video. Just point and press a button, then stick the file in a computer and click a few icons; how hard can it be?

It’s this sort of thinking that makes clients badger photographers, videographers, producers, graphic designers, screenwriters, musicians and actors to work for free or at a discount. What they do, the clients think, can’t be as hard as what accountants or plumbers do. These artsy types are just having fun at work, aren’t they?

If your accountant screwed up, would it live on the Internet forever? johnlui@sph.com.sg

Hope is the thing with drills an hammers.

I try not to get excited when see drilling and hammering goin on for weeks as retail spaces in m neighbourhood get renovated f new eateries and shops.

Shiny new furniture sitting i side, shiny proud faces of owne standing outside.

I try not to care because I ha seen so many shops there clo down within months of openin And the whole renovation cyc starts again.

Hope is the thing with feathe wrote poet Emily Dickinson. Ho is probably what helps som would-be entrepreneurs fly th coop, to escape from a salaried li into the tough one of setting u their own businesses, even as th risk of failure perches nearby li an ominous raven.

I wonder if quite a number people who hammer away at se ting up their own businesses a mentally cushioned by fail-fuell pep talks that go along the lines o “Fail fast! Fail early! Fail cheap That commonly heard advice f entrepreneurs asserting that bu nessmen shouldn’t be too fusse about messing up because it is be ter to find out quickly what’s n working and move on before costs them too much.

All that talk about wearing yo failures as battle scars and badges honour. Does fetishising failu help or hinder us?

Small-business failure rates va according to where the statisti come from, but they do yo-yo o the grimmer side. Here is a sam pling: From a statement from the Mi istry of Trade and Industry in rep to a parliamentary question a co ple of years ago on business failu rates among small and med um-sized enterprises: “What w know, for instance, is that in th United States, for 10 new busines es formed, about eight to nine bu nesses would cease operations the same year. Our comparab numbers are between seven an eight...”

The BBC reports that more tha 80 per cent of start-up business fail within the first five years.

Talk about running business on a wing and a prayer.

As I peer into another space the neighbourhood that is bein renovated for a new eatery, I spot vintage chalkboard with the nam of a cafe scrawled on it that do not match the one on the door

a good place now. “I know my mother is very proud of me. I was a bad boy but now I’ve become someone who brings joy not only to her but also a lot of oth

ang gives bad boy a good na

ed family.

Life has been hectic ever since. landed the leading role in anothJack Neo two-parter, The Lion en, and recently completed a star rn in the musical adaptation of h Boys To Men at Resorts World ntosa. In August, he will start ooting From Ah Boys To Frogen, Neo’s new movie about the val diving unit.

Making the transition from Ah ng to celebrity is something ang takes seriously. He turns up this interview in a sharp dark it from Suit Select, hair dyed a hionable ash grey.

But make no mistake, he is oud of his roots.

“I am who I am today because of here I came from and what I went rough,” he says.

The younger of two children, he rom a broken home. His parents vorced when he was a toddler; he d his brother were raised by their other, a coffeeshop assistantrned-office cleaner.

Fearless and rambunctious, the mer student of Montfort Primaand Secondary was often thrown t of class for being disruptive.

“I’d collect staples, twist them insharp masses and leave them on e chairs of classmates,” says ang, who was caned in public on ouple of occasions, once for gamng.

He joined a street gang when he s in his early teens, often stealg and getting involved in street awls.

He was 14 when he left school – fore finishing Secondary 2.

He found work at a car wash, rning $30 a day, enough to buy m a packet of cigarettes and three eals.

Eight months later, a friend ped him in to start a business sell-

PHOTO: RUNNING INTO THE SUN

Wang’s career hit another high note after he appeared in the musical adaptation of Ah Boys To Men, although he and co-star Tosh Zhang (below, left) desperately tried to wriggle out of that initially.

PHOTO: WANG WEILIANG

Wang (right) sported a bowl haircut to stand out as a host on the getai circuit, where his quick wit and gift of the gab served him well.

as a renovation contractor an used car salesman.

“I made a decent living. I cou earn between $1,000 and $1,50 for every car I sold, and I could ea ly sell six or more a month.”

But he was besieged by restles ness.

“I had no direction. I wanted do something meaningful, som thing which could not only fee me but sustain my interest, but didn’t know how to find it,” h says.

He was surprised when he fina ly found that life-changing sense belonging on the getai stage. “Th irony was, I was never interested getai before. I thought it was whe uncles and aunties sang.”

Trying to gain a foothold in th business was much harder than h imagined.

“There are 10 singers for eve getai show, eight of whom are f male. To be one of the two male you have to be very good. It’s real hard to compete against veterans the business. I sometimes struggl to make even $1,000 a month says Wang, who had by then given up his wild ways and friends.

On the recommendation of a friend, he found a regular gig performing at a gigolo bar in Orchard Road, where male hosts from countries such South Korea, China and Thailan entertained paying female guests He performed six nights a wee Patrons who liked the perform ers would buy garlands – each wi a monetary value – to show their a preciation

mes for their perceived effect on eir backyard or property values.

The difference is that China’s mby protests have often degenered into violence.

Since 2005, China’s Ministry of vironmental Protection has haned 927 “mass incidents”, of hich 72 were considered serious.

2011, there was a 120 per cent ke in major incidents compared th the year before.

The Hangzhou protest saw at st 10 civilians and 29 policemen ured.

A protest last month in Guangng’s Maoming city against a prosed chemical plant – which ould churn out paraxylene, a subnce needed to make fabrics and astic bottles – also turned violent, th cars torched and people lying oodied on the road.

The rising violence has sparked bate over whether the Nimby ndrome is doing more harm than od to the people, and the coun.

The Global Times said in an ediial last Monday that “China has obably become the most comfortle hotbed for Nimby, which eans the Chinese authorities ve to take urgent measures to rerse this dangerous tendency”. It ded that if the Nimby problem sn’t dealt with, it would “probay lead to complete social disorr”.

Riot police in Yuhang district after a night of riots west of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, last Sunday. Plans to build a w apparent victory for the protesters, who said they feared the plant would damage their health. At least 10 civilians and

Angered by treatment “China’s special police are usually deployed in counter-terrorism situations. By using them against protesters, the message is that the authorities view protesters as being equal to terrorists, which angered them.”

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST WU LIHONG, who blames the local authorities for calling in the Swat police to deal with protests

Those who have had enough are backing tougher action against violent Nimby protesters. Hangzhou police arrested 53 people over violent acts and seven for spreading rumours that fuelled the violence. In Guangdong, 18 people were detained.

Some question if Nimby protests work, given how some projects that were halted or suspended following such agitation were either moved elsewhere or quietly rolled out after the situation calmed down.

However, some say violence is often the only way to prevent infrastructure that could worsen environmental problems and it is unfair to blame the protesters alone when things get out of hand.

Wuhan-based environmental protection lawyer Zeng Xiangbin said local officials often ignore legal, peaceful appeals by residents, “knowing they would eventually use drastic measures to gain media attention”.

“The aim is to have an excuse to

arrest the ringleaders for inciting v olence. It takes time for the prote ers to regroup and, by then, th project could have quietly pr gressed,” he said.

Environmental activist W Lihong also blames the local a thorities for calling in the Swat p lice to deal with protests. “China special police are usually deploy in counter-terrorism situations. B using them against protesters, th message is that the authorities vie protesters as being equal to terro ists, which angered them,” he to The Sunday Times.

But are there ways to preve more violence?

The key lies in increasing pub trust in the data that local officia use to justify building sensiti projects and the locations, said an lyst Wang Yinan of the Develo ment Research Centre, a think-tan under China’s Cabinet.

He also told the 21st Centu

NG ]

ve on,

ntity

e As McDull.

The movie is about a good-nared piglet which strives to make mother proud by using the welve Bun-snatching Hands” ngfu technique to become top g in the sport. Mama pig, meanhile, writes to the president of the ternational Olympic Committee, ging it to adopt bun-snatching as official competitive event. “We ong Kongers love buns. Buns of sorts. Dear friend, it is important snatch buns,” mama pig urges.

Given its idiosyncrasy, it is little onder that the festival has a folwing among locals and tourists.

At midnight on May 6, more an 1,000 people turned up dete an incessant drizzle to watch e heated competition. There re 12 contestants – three of them omen – in high-tech sports gear d bearing sacks on their backs.

lain-hitting women who do a bri business in voodoo at an underpa at Causeway Bay for those wh wish to curse their enemies.

Much of this is thanks to sli planning by the government boost tourism, says Dr Chew. Th fallout is that certain aspects are d luted, as with the Bun Festival.

Scorpions and their venom have en used in traditional medicine thousands of years in China, Ina and Africa.

One of our projects now is to t one enzyme from a scorpion d a snake each against gastric canr. We’ve also done some prelimiry studies on using honeybee nom against the cancer.

Learning more about the venom n also help scientists to develop tter anti-venom or antidotes for ople who are bitten or stung. me of these venoms are very pont. A drop of sea snake venom n kill about seven adults.

Has your research resulted in y commercially available oducts?

one has made it to the market t. As an academician and b-based scientist, I can go to only rtain levels. Beyond that, more nding and clinical trials are need.

For my part, I have given the rearch to the NUS Industry Liaison fice and they have licensed it to mpanies.

So far, an analgesic or painkiller mpound has been licensed, hile two other compounds, one ti-inflammatory and the other ti-microbial, have been tested in imals and are awaiting further delopment.

Your team developed a new ay of extracting venom from orpions in the 1990s. How es it work?

the time, there were several ways collecting the venom. One was remove the venom glands but s killed the scorpion, and thounds were needed to get enough nom for research.

Another method involved puncing the gland with a sharp, hypormic needle to suck the venom t. But the trauma to the gland n seriously damage the scorpion, d again it resulted in very limited nom.

So we came up with a method at uses a restraining box and elec-

Professor P. Gopalakrishnakone holding a container of freeze-dried venom. He has preserved snakes and spiders in his scorpions and snakes in the lab to extract the venom needed. Now the researchers go to the zoo to get venom or buy

DEFINITIVE SERIES ON TOXINOLOGY IN THE WORKS A Singaporean is heading a massive worldwide project to produce the last word on toxinology, the study of animal, plant and microbial toxins.

Professor P. Gopalakrishnakone of the National University of Singapore will be editor-inchief of all 10 volumes of The Handbook On Toxinology, slated to be issued by American publishing firm Springer between this year and 2018. The series is intended as an authoritative reference resource for the field.

“It will present a complete overview of toxinology right from the basic concepts to new developments and applications

tric shocks. A group of scientists before us had used forceps and electric shocks to “milk” the scorpions, but their method was unsuitable for larger species.

We developed a box with a wooden base and a plastic case.

This trapped the scorpion but had an opening for the tail. We also adjusted the voltage of the shocks.

This allowed us to collect the venom and resulted in no permanent injuries to the scorpions.

Q: The Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States

in the field,” said Prof Gopal, who was chosen in 2011 to lead the project. It will have more than 350 authors for all 10 volumes.

The first two volumes are expected on shelves by the end of this year and will cover biological toxins, bioterrorism and clinical toxinology.

Future volumes will span topics such as scorpion and spider venom, microbial, marine and plant toxins and drug discovery from natural toxins.

Prof Gopal, who is in his 60s, is also chair of the Venom and Toxin Research Programme at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

He said he was honoured

changed the way your research programme worked. Why? When we started the programme in the 1980s we used to keep the spiders, scorpions and snakes in the laboratory, and we would extract the venom that we needed. We had dangerous snakes like sea snakes, cobras and rattle snakes.

But after 9/11, when safety and security were enhanced, we couldn’t keep these venomous animals in a campus with so many people, so we had to give them up. The zoo took some of them.

and humbled to be chosen for the job, which included selecting 35 section editors for the magnum opus.

“It is a monumental task but I hope it will become a ‘gold standard’ in toxinology as a major reference work,” he said.

It is not the first time he has led his peers. He was the president of the International Society of Toxinology between 2008 and 2012.

With more than three decades in the field under his belt, he has published more than 160 papers, presented his research at more than 350 conference presentations and published four books.

Feng Zengkun

Now if we need the venom w go to the zoo to extract it or we bu the venom freeze-dried from ove seas. We have also stockpiled ve om samples over the years.

Q: Scientists used to inject hors or sheep with venom, allow the to develop immunity and the bleed them and purify the bloo into anti-venom to treat peopl Has this changed?

Even now this is the standard tec nique, but it is being improved better technology allows scientis

IN BRIEF Synthetic materials that regenerate

Researchers have developed materials that not only heal, but also regenerate. The new materials fill in large cracks and holes by regrowing themselves.

“We have demonstrated repair of a non-living, synthetic materials system in a way that is reminiscent of repair-by-regrowth as seen in some living systems,” said Professor Jeffrey Moore of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s chemistry department.

PHOTO: SCOTT R. WHITE

A time-lapse sequence of a

ST FILE PHOTO

eph Schooling says his body is in a te of “shock” as he is still getting ed to different training methods.

He swam in the 200m freestyle rlier, but his time of 1:53.01 did t meet the Asian Games qualifyg time of 1:50.42.

Next on Schooling’s hit list is e 50m fly, 200m fly, 200m indidual medley, and 100m free.

The Bolles School (Florida) stunt told The Sunday Times: “I’m t grinding it out right now, and e main focus will be in Glasgow d Incheon.

“My preparations have been od. We’re trying different traing methods so my body’s in shock ht now. I should be good for my eets this summer.”

Compatriot Quah Ting Wen alswam at the Charlotte Grand x.

However, the 21-year-old’s rets in the 200m free (2:06.37) and 0m fly (1:02.70) did not make e Asian Games qualifying mark.

Singapore’s athletes have until g 1 to meet the SNOC selection teria.

siangyee@sph.com.sg

Michael Phelps, who retired after the 2012 Olympics, winning the 100m butterfly final at the Arena Grand Prix in Char

Phelps flies to first victory in c Charlotte – Michael Phelps was back in familiar waters and on top of the winner’s podium in his comeback to competitive swimming at the US Grand Prix in Charlotte on Friday.

Competing for just the second time since retiring after the 2012 London Olympics, Phelps ticked off all the important boxes he needed to.

In the morning heats, he tested his stamina by entering two lung-sapping events – the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly – then in the evening finals, he tested his speed by winning the latter.

He also qualified for the 200m freestyle final but scratched from the race after achieving his goal in

the heats – qualifying for this year’s US national championships, which double as the selection event for next year’s world championships in Russia.

His time in the 200m free was 1min 51.69sec, way below his best, but 0.2sec inside the US qualifying time.

His best times from previous years do not count for future meetings because they were set outside the qualifying window but Phelps has now qualified for the nationals in the 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle.

Phelps’ long-time coach Bob Bowman was pleased by what he saw on Friday. “I thought Michael’s 200 free was actually pretty good

dogs but eat-stroke

hen we were 33-7 or how we uggled down the stretch... that ans nothing. This is where we nted to be.”

Since starting the season 50-17, Pacers are just 14-14 in regular son and play-off games, mpting questions about their nsistency and ability to outduel mes and the Heat.

Las Vegas bookmakers have the at as 6-5 favourites to win this r’s NBA crown and the Pacers he long shots at 10-1.

“We like being the underdogs,” ers guard Lance Stephenson d. “We like when everybody is king about us and trying to ng us down... it just makes us onger.

The Pacers and Heat split four ular-season meetings, each wing twice at home.

While the Pacers have the best oting defence in the play-offs 0.5 per cent, they will be tested James, who is averaging 30

for the first one in a couple years,” he told reporters.

“Now we have a real picture where he is at. I think he could de nitely do better.”

Phelps is unlikely to swim th more gruelling 200m freestyle in i dividual events but he needs to e ter it at the nationals if he wants place on the 4x200m relay team.

“I thought technically he w pretty good,” said Bowman. “H was much better than he’s been training so far so he’s definitely im proving in that stroke and I thin as he goes along that will get a l better.”

The 100m butterfly is one of tw individual events that Phelps wo at three successive Olympics. And

New No. 1 to acquire S

PHOTO: REUTERS

Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (left) and Miami Heat forward LeBron James will play crucial roles. The teams tied 2-2 in the regular season.

Miami and Detroit met in 2005 and 2006 that the same two teams have met in the East finals in consecutive seasons.

“There’s not a whole lot in terms of Xs and Os that either of

down to the details, who is able to impose their will on the other, particularly on the defensive end. ” AFP Game 1: Indiana v Miami

Sydney – Adam Scott’s rise to gol world No. 1 is in sync with his goa to emulate the feats of his boyhoo idol Greg Norman.

The 33-year-old will overtake T ger Woods in next week’s rankin to become the world’s top golfer f the first time.

He will become the first Austra ian to claim the top spot in th rankings since “the Great Whi Shark” reigned for 331 weeks in th 1980s and 1990s.

Scott has often spoken about th inspirational effect Norman had o his formative golfing years an paid tribute to the two-time Maj winner after capturing the Maste at Augusta last year.

“Part of this is for him (Norma because he’s given me so muc time and inspiration and belief the Adelaide native said. “I drew o that a lot. I somehow managed stay in each shot when I needed t “He has devoted so much tim to myself and other young Austra ian players who came after him. I credibly generous.”

m of his own and the Scot held ve to go 2-1 in front.

Both players held serve in the xt two games and with the score 3-2 Murray raced to triple break int to break again and take a o-game lead after Nadal netted a urn from a powerful serve.

ATP Italian Masters: Final StarHub Ch203, 10pm WTA Italian Open: Final StarHub Ch201 & 76.25MHz, 7.30pm

Rafael Nadal returning the ball against Andy Murray during his come-from-be

g from Agassi’s service g

dre Agassi, 44, sits in during an English class for elementary school students during a tour of the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas. The ndergarten to Grade 12 (JC2 equivalent in Singapore), with each class having no more than 25 students. Other famous visitors include former US president Bil

d recorded 83 wins in 31/2 years.

News of his exploits reached the rs of Singapore-based trainer Sten Burridge, who invited the jockover in 2012.

After a quiet start, A’Isisuhairi ined a reputation last year when smashed Benny Woodworth’s -year mark of 56 wins en route to iming the title of champion apentice with 73 wins.

He is second in the apprentice nkings this year, and won the oup 2 Queen Elizabeth II Cup t month.

Said Burridge of his first apprene: “Harry is improving all the me. He’s a natural lightweight ckey, he rides with confidence,

TNP FILE PHOTO

A'Isisuhairi Kasim astride Wild Geese after winning the Queen Elizabeth II Cup last month. He will ride the same horse in tonight’s SIA Cup.

and it is just reward for the lad that he gets to compete in the SIA Cup. “Given the barrier he’s got (gate 2), I'm sure he will give it a good ride and do well.”

me.”

The last time his parents were in the stands, A’Isisuhairi finished third.

The odds may be against him topping that effort, but when he crosses the finish line of the 2,000m race, the man they all call Harry can celebrate with his family on the day he wrote his name in Singapore racing history. siangyee@sph.com.sg KrisFlyer International Sprint & SIA Cup StarHub Ch202, 7.15pm and MediaCorp CNA, 7.30pm

Christie Park, 38 Entrepreneur Height: 1.66m Weight: 55.5kg Exercise regimen: I exercise five times a week, doing group exercise classes at the gym like Bodypump, Bodycombat and circuit training. I also do my own core workouts on my own.

Diet: I always have a light breakfast consisting of fruit, bread and yogurt before my morning workouts. Lunch is usually healthy with pasta or rice with vegetable, chicken or meat. Dinner is with friends and family, so I indulge, having plenty of carbs and protein to replenish my energy expended during my workout earlier in the day. I have a weakness for fried food which I usually have twice a week.

IN BRIEF ST PHOTO: MATTHIAS HO

t, No. 2) pipped rivals Indonesia (No. 1) in the finals of the DBS Marina Regatta to finish with a silver medal.

gon boaters impress rivals

They had improved from third ace in the regatta’s first round.

“Starting off, we were a little bit rvy. We didn’t know how the vetans from international teams ould fare,” said Jerry Tan, 31.

“Heading into the next, we aped what we discussed. The result s there (they came second) and it ed our spirits for the finals.”

Their performance even imessed their regional rivals, with ai team manager Norrapatch Ta

meals a day and do not snack between meals. For lunch and dinner, I eat half the amount of rice or noodles to cut down on my carbohydrate intake. I also have a protein shake after my workouts and do not eat sugary foods or fast food.

tell who had won after crossing the red finishing buoy.

The women’s team were less than a second behind Thailand (1min 1.11sec) and winners, the Philippines (1min 0.88sec). As team captain Shanice Ng, 22, aptly put: “We were practically next to them!”

She added: “It feels pretty good, though we didn’t come in first.

This was one of the races where we’ve been close to them.”

South-east Asian Games.

“We tried to lengthen our strokes forward and exit faster,” explained Ng. “We also had a different way of sitting.”

“They had their best-ever set in terms of coordination and execution,” said coach Tan Wee Jin. Though the team face the more gruelling 500m races today – after an entire day of racing yesterday – their outlook remains positive.

Said Tan: “As long as they do to-

Bowler Cherie Tan second in Manila

Manila – Singapore bowler Cherie Tan finished second the 11th Euro-Med Storm International Masters Challenge yesterday.

The 26-year-old southpa beat South Korean Park Kyu Shin 241-226 in the step-ladder match two, but lost to top seed Sin Li Jane Malaysia 215-198 in the fin

United sign young Serbian goalie London – Managerless English Premier League football club Manchester United have agreed a deal

Rob Hughes

PHOTO: REUTERS

Eden Hazard wants to help his team win the EPL title and get to the Champions League final next season.

season, but Blues e better: Hazard

n trophies, to play games, to ore goals and to enjoy my time the pitch. As a player I want to ntinue working hard and enjoy aying as I have this year.

This season was an “almost” sean: Almost getting to the Champis League final, almost champis in the Premier League. I hope xt season will better and we can to the next level.

I came here for trophies and in y first season we won the Europa ague. This season we didn’t win y trophies but we were back comting in the Champions League, hich is the best club competition the world.

For a young player like me it is od to play for a club that can ake the Champions League mi-finals, because one of the reans I play football is for these big mes. Hopefully, next season we n go further, get to the final and n it.

Individually I am very happy beuse I can play in every game, I n be on the pitch and do what I e to do, which is play football.

Next season, with this team, I

think we can win the Premier League and maybe the Champions League. Winning trophies will make it a really good season for the whole of Chelsea Football Club.

I know I have to do better in training or on the pitch – I want to score more and help the team score more goals and next season I hope we can perform even better.

I try to play like I did when I was a young boy playing in my garden – sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not so good but I try to always make sure I give my best to help the team, even if I am not having the best game myself.

I think I’m not a complete player yet but I have the experience.

When you are young, sometimes you play one good game and then one bad game. This season I was able to be more consistent, which is a good thing for me.

I am still young and a lot of good players – legends like John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba – have won this trophy before me. I give thanks from my heart, because I am lucky to have great team-mates around me.

Chelsea FC magazine

BLUES PRINT

The latest edition of Chelsea magazine goes on sale tomorrow. You can download a digital version of the magazine to view on your tablet at www.chelseafc.com/mobile

It was a kind, well-meant, and n doubt professionally proper of Li erpool’s manager Brendan Rodge to come out in defence of his ca tain Steven Gerrard this weekend “I have no concerns whatev about Steven,” the manager said. think Steven will go away, an when he reflects on what has bee personally a brilliant season of foo ball, he has been very unfair pointed out in terms of his slip.

“It certainly wasn’t anywhe near the defining moment of o season.”

Oh, but it was.

First of all, it was not the sl that cost Liverpool a goal, and ul mately the game against Chelsea Anfield on April 27. It was wh caused Gerrard to go sprawling ground, allowing Demba Ba stride unchallenged about 40m score.

Gerrard lost his footing for a re son. He was unbalanced when h tried desperately to change dire tion after making an error of jud ment that will worry England, ne er mind Liverpool.

A short pass from Mamadou S kho, possibly mis-timed in that it a rived square-on rather than in fro of the skipper, should not ha troubled a player of Gerrard’s exp rience.

But either because he took h eye off the ball, or because he is n as natural or as a balanced a play as we think he is, he allowed th ball to roll beneath his right foo He then panicked, tried to retrie it, and slipped to the turf.

Why do I take issue with Rod ers? Because Gerrard is England captain too.

He is about to lead his count to Brazil, and in particular to Ma aus in the rainforest north whe heat and humidity will be excessively The he demanding.

Those conditions Liverpo sap the mind and Listenin body. Gerrard, who t u r n s 3 4 t h i s Gerrard month, will be up years, i against Andrea Pir- appare lo, whose 35th birthbleeds day is tomorrow.

Veterans are vital Liverpo in any circumstanc- done si es, especially these was rec two because they set the clu the template for the way that England academ and Italy will cope age of in the conditions.

Gerrard, with his huge, driving hunger is a warrior for club and country.

Pirlo, with his laid-back craft, his cunning ability to spin passes, makes the ball do his work.

PHOTO: REUT

spite the elation of a second EPL title in three years, Manchester City abandoned the idea of a legal challenge against the punitive Uefa sanctions.

of Abu Dhabi – signing top-qualiplayers such as Robinho, Mario lotelli, Yaya Toure and Sergio uero – among others – on huge nsfer fees amounting to a total £1 billion since 2008.

“The club’s expenditure on new ayers for the upcoming summer nsfer window, on top of income m players it might sell, will be mited to £49 million,” City said in tatement. “This will have no ma-

Avoiding uncertainties “In normal circumstances, the club would wish to pursue its case and present its position through every avenue of recourse. However, our decision to do so must be balanced against the practical realities for our fans, for our partners and in the interests of the commercial operations of the club.”

MANCHESTER CITY explain their decision to reach a settlement with Uefa’s club financial control body

terial impact on the club’s plann transfer activity.

“Our Champions League squa for the 2014-15 competition will limited to 21 players. In 2013-1 the club registered 23 players f the competition and used 21.

“The wage bill of the whole clu (playing and non-playing staff) f 2014-15 will need to remain at th same level as that of 2013-14 se son.”

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The short one-way street in the Tanjong Pagar area is buzzing with new bars and restaurants and more are set to open there.

REBECCA LYNNE TAN reports.

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Sky Hobbies owner Derrick Tan, 43, says he sells about 10 drone sets a month, twice what he sold three years ago. His sets, which cost between $100 and $1,500, are popular as drones get more user-friendly.

For example, models such as the DJI Phantom are “ready to fly out of the box”, he says, compared with earlier versions which required assembly.

At RCE Hobby, which sells DIY parts for drones, such as radio-controlled sets and motors, business has doubled in the past three years, says owner Chong Kim Joo, 50.

Rotor Hobby owner Lee Poo Kang, 64, brought in drone sets after seeing

consumers take to the activity at trade shows in China. He sells more than 10 sets a month, each costing between $50 and $1,400 – a 10 per cent rise since he started.

Flying a drone, says Mr Lee, is more stable compared with flying a model plane or helicopter. For example, a hobby drone has a rubber base which absorbs vibration and its multiple propellers land it upright.

Enthusiast Uday Hassan knows this well – having crashed his remote-controlled helicopter many times.

The 35-year-old, who runs his own gemstone business, started playing with a $85 drone and now owns another costing more than $1,000. Attaching a camera adds to

the thrill of viewing land by air, he says. “I get to be a pilot and gracefully hover over areas which I can explore, rather than just looking up from the ground.”

But the use of hobby drones with cameras has raised privacy concerns. There is no law now specifically targeting those who use drones.

As long as you are doing something in the privacy of your home, no one should be able to film without your consent, says lawyer George Hwang. Anyone who does so can be in potential breach of confidential information, he adds.

However, if a picture or video of you is taken from an adjoining property, it may not be against the law as there is no trespassing, says lawyer Hoh Chin Cha. There is no law which gives a person a right to privacy, he adds, unless an action leads to nuisance or trespass.

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He says: “It could be customers asking how much a camera costs or what accessories it comes with.

“I try to answer as promptly as possible.

If I don’t, the customer might buy from another shop.”

Adds the bachelor: “Checking e-mail eats into my personal life, but everyone does it nowadays.”

Mr Bjorn Shen, 32, never stops looking at his iPhone 4, even during meals, on his way to work, and when he is ill.

Says the head chef and owner of restaurant Artichoke: “Even before I’m awake, businesses are already asking me for quotations to hold events at my restaurant.”

Some requests are made on Mondays – his rest day – and give him two hours to provide a quotation.

“I try to accommodate,” he says. “After all, these potential clients work office hours. They need to hear from me before the end of their work day.

“Everyone is easily reachable nowadays,” he adds. “You can’t really ‘switch off’.”

Lawyer Luke Lee, 61, sends SMSes to his secretary after work – or on weekends – about once a month.

He says: “A client might ask about his case and I’ll ask my secretary to locate the client’s file in our office.

“Sometimes, I also give her a heads-up, like when someone is going to drop off an item at work the next day.”

Says his secretary Sharon Lee, 39: “After 18 years working here, I’m used to Mr Lee’s working style.

“Answering SMS messages outside work is inconvenient, but I don’t mind because

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(Above) Lawyer Luke Lee sends SMS messages to his secretary Sharon Lee after work or on weekends about once a month, while Ms Juliana Ang (left), senior vice-president and head of human resources at NTUC Income, says it is better to educate managers and employees about work-life integration than have a strict policy on replying work e-mail outside office hours.

it doesn’t happen often.

“My two sons, aged 10 and 12, sometimes joke that ‘even Mummy has homework’.”

The Singapore Human Resources Institute represents more than 3,000 human resource professionals here.

Says its president Erman Tan, 50: “Differ-

ent companies have different practices.

“While employers want staff to have good work-life harmony, they also want to stay competitive.”

Staff in sales and marketing positions, he notes, are more likely to receive e-mail after office hours. It is less so for administrative staff.

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ation families, physical affecthe children, but also to the

She says: “I believe this prepares them for future discussions on intimacy in a relationship.”

Quips her son Krysh, 10: “I’ve seen movies where the couples kiss on the lips anyway, so it’s okay.”

The children of Mr Ching Wei Hong, chairman of the Families for Life Council, say their parents’ open displays of affection for each other and for them have helped them be “cohesive” as a family.

Says his son Christian Ching, 17: “While most guys shy away from physical contact with their parents, I am not as awkward about it.”

For some families, the hugs and kisses that younger generations exchange with their children have warmed the older generations up to those practices.

Actor Chen, who likes to kiss his wife and two children on their lips, says the “ice has been melting” between him and his parents, who do not display physical affection. Over the last few years, his parents have been receptive to his hugs and even an occasional kiss on their foreheads.

Another person who reaches out to her parents is civil servant Kimberly Chia, 31. Together with her two sisters, they envelop their mother regularly in a group hug.

She says: “My mother is usually the one who puts an end to these hugs by saying, ‘It’s very suffocating’. I guess she is a little shy, but this is my way of letting her know I’m here for her.”

Corporate communications head Patricia Campbell, 46, has a different experience growing up. Her mother has been giving her good-night hugs and morning kisses for as long as she can remember. She says: “Until today, even though the roles are reversed and I help to change her diapers, she still gives me hugs.”

Her mother is frail and suffers from heart failure.

Ms Campbell showers the same type of affection on

PHOTOS: ONG WEE JIN, DES OLIVIER HENRY, CO

her 13-year-old daughter. On the other end of t trum from Ms Chia and Chen are a handful of Singaporeans, such as public relations associa Long, 24, who are not demonstrative.

Ms Long’s parents say they try to initiate h her, but she usually receives them awkwar always looks uncomfortable.

Her housewife mother Shirley Long, 58, attr

Mr Andy Lee, 40, and his wife, Madam Teo Meng Choo, 42 (both below), openly display affection for their sons (from left) Boon Kang, nine, Boon Yee, seven, and Boon Wee, 11, and daughter Boon Xin, five.

right), 21 – hold hands in front of their children to set an example of what a loving family should be like.

comfort them, hem in at bed-

to do it only der girl Faith, now that she’s

duties between my and daddy mummy and

anywhere close to our daughters for fear of infecting them.

So, for the first time in our children’s lives, neither their mother nor father could perform a mother or father role for them, for two to three days.

When we quarantined ourselves in an unoccupied apartment belonging to my in-laws and told Faith and Sarah over the phone that we could not be with them for a couple of days, I sensed some bewilderment in them. It was just a little sad.

reasonable.

With the gastroenteritis episode fresh in my mind, I might even attempt it when booking our next family holiday: Separate flights, separate bus transfers, separate... hotels?

At what point do we stop making back-up plans for back-up plans? In fact, there’s no stopping, if the worrying mindset overwhelms you.

Living life as a single person is hard and unpredictable enough, without having a young family in tow to

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items such as oyster or soya sauces and jars of pickled vegetables.

*Mid-level: family zone The mid-level cases are for “long and large” items like big bottles of water and large milk cartons or smaller bottles or cans of juice. *Lower-level: kid zone If the fridge had been available when my

tachable and can be placed directly on the table, making it even easier to store and serve, say, a chilled salad.

Timeless design

To access larger food items like lettuce heads and slabs of salmon, I open the refrigerator the normal way –– past the exterior ShowCase door to get to the InnerCase chamber.

Again, organisational sensibilities reign. Well-thought-out shelves and clear containers give enough room for yesterday’s casserole of pasta, bulky fruit and greens such as melons, peppers and leafy vegetables, and free-range whole chickens or packets of prawns for freezing.

Overall, with the neat interiors, I don’t mind my children’s friends helping themselves to snacks as they all say: “Wow, your fridge is so cool.”

My mission is now to convince my elderly mother to invest in this refrigerator. Banish the piles of fresh chilli, dried anchovies and Chinese sausage, each tied up in the original red plastic bags she bought them in –– and the resulting confusion.

All in, the RH9000 ShowCase Refrigerator keeps food fresher for longer and creates more space inside too.

Open the RH9000 ShowCase Refrigerator two ways – the outer door to grab frequently used or handy items such as sauces or snacks, and past that to get larger items.

Below: Appliance temperature readings show up on a sleek display above the ice and water dispenser.

TIPS: HOW

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Special Olympics athlete Salihin Sinai (on bicycle) with his family (from far left) father Sinai Alwee, stepbrother Nur Ariff Aman and stepmother Junaini Rawi.

partners with Special Olympics Singapore. Mr Salihin will be swimming and Mr Ariff, a student at Lasalle College of the Arts, will be running. They will be joined by a 16-year-old Special Olympics volunteer who will be cycling.

Mr Salihin’s father, a health assistant at a hospital, married his stepmother, housewife Junaini Rawi, in 2001, a year after his mother died of complications from diabetes.

Madam Junaini, 57, who has four children from her first marriage, says: “I told my sons that Salihin was in a special school but I didn’t want them to treat him differently. I told them to treat him as a normal person.”

Mr Salihin and Mr Ariff certainly seem to have the kind of relationship many brothers have. They go cycling together once or twice a week and Mr Ariff appreciates that they have got each other’s back.

He says: “We cycle on the road sometimes and we need to look out for each other. At times, I ride irresponsibly on the road so he keeps a lookout and watches my back and sometimes, it’s the other way

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Excessive sweating in 10-mo Parenting 101 My 10-month-old granddaughter is growing well and has a good appetite. But she perspires a lot, so much so that her whole crop of hair is soaked in perspiration.

This is especially so when she is sleeping. In

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Premium service is one of the perks of premium economy class, available on a number of airlines. Singapore Airlines will introduce it next year.

SunLife

Premium economy on seven airlines Airline

Price to New York City, USA starts from

Leg room (inches)

Air France

$3770.50 $2570.50; $8,442.50

38

19

ANA

$3,600 $1,050; $6,800

38

19.3

British Airways

$3,420 $2,319; $8,132

38

Cathay Pacific

$3,430 $1,678; $7,298 $2,500 $1,850; $7,050

Qantas JAL

EVA Air

Seat width (inches)

Seat type

Priority boarding

Other perks

Additional luggage, feather pillow, amenities kit

18.5

Standard

Amenities kit, business-class main course, additional luggage

38

19.5

Standard

Additional luggage, amenities kit, better main courses

38

19.5

Recliner with footrest

More mileage points, additional luggage, amenities kit

From Australia: $4,132 $1,956; $8,482

40

19.5

Recliner with footrest

Amenities kit, larger blanket

Offers Premium Economy but not to New York

42

19

Recliner

Wider alcohol selection, business-class blanket and pillow

Slippers, business-class desserts, sparkling wine

ECONOMY BUSINESS ST GRAPHICS

terrible when the person in front of you leans back. Not all the legroom in economy cabins is standardised either and within the same airline, planes can have different configurations.”

“Our bags were always within reach, not in the overhead compartment, which was nice.

I would definitely do it again – the flight was so much better.”

MS NICOLE HAN (left), an assistant manager at an education company, paid almost twice the economy fare to fly premium economy on Air France to Paris last year

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Recliner with footrest Recliner with footrest

facturing firm, flew in EVA Air’s premium economy class and said the difference was “very noticeable”.

He adds: “I’ve taken a lot of long-haul flights in economy class and it’s especially

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He cannot remember how much he paid for his flight to the United States but says it was roughly double the price of the economy-class ticket, which was on sale.

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an outfitter called Rudy’s (tel: +62-8180-365-2874), which provided us with a guide and porters to carry the tents, sleeping bags and food. You have to carry everything else in your own pack. Even though all of us work out regularly, the eight hours of hiking a day took its toll and we all had muscle cramps. The outdoor toilet and shower situation also take getting used to for those who aren’t regular outdoorsmen.

Best time to visit It is better to visit Mount Rinjani later in the year. We went in March and it was the rainy season, which made the trek pretty difficult. May to October is listed as the dry season and you’re probably going to get the best unobstructed views then as the cloud cover won’t be as dense.

modation, the attention to detail, the spa, the service, the food – the tuna melt on the room service menu was the best I’ve ever eaten – and the overall vibe was unforgettable. We’ll definitely be back.

It’s not cheap though. Our twobedroom villa which can accommodate four people cost about US$800 (S$1,002) a night. But we felt it was worth every cent.

Especially after the Rinjani hike and a few days in the Gili Islands, it was nice to wrap up our trip with a bit of pampering.

The hotel also offers luxury guided day hikes with porters and picnic basket lunches. Its on-site reef offers decent snorkelling.

Best place to stay If you’re looking for a world class luxury experience, my vote goes to the Oberoi in Lombok (Medana Beach, Tanjung, North Lombok, tel: +62-370-613-8444). The accom-

Best overnight trip Most of the nicer hotels in Lombok, including the Oberoi, are in the north-western part of the island. They are about a 10-minute longtail-boat ride from the Gili

BLACK BOOK

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John Langan and girlfriend Eva Soh, 25, above the crater at Mount Rinjani.

PHOTO: NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SYNDICATE

The Porte de Clignancourt flea market in Paris is great for souvenir hunting.

on American Dream Builders, the designcompetition reality show he hosts on NBC. “And I can’t think of a more personal, interesting way to do that,” he said, “than with the things you brought back from the places you were lucky enough to see.”

Recently he gave tips for finding those

Islands. Gili Trawangan is the most partyoriented of the three, while Gili Meno and Gili Air are a bit more low-key. We stayed at Gili Meno as we were looking for a place to unwind after the Rinjani trek. We checked into the Mahamaya (Turtle Point, West Gili Meno, West Nusa Tenggara, Lombok, tel: +62-888-715-5828), which is a very quaint yet modern boutique hotel with an amazing coral reef for snorkelling right in front. You can also see the best sunset on the island from here. We managed to see three rainbows during our two-night stay.

I’d recommend spending at least two nights on the Gili Islands. Most of the hotels are on the beach, where there are longtail boats you can rent for the day to take you island-hopping or snorkelling.

Favourite restaurant We really enjoyed Scallywags at Gili Air

kinds of souvenirs – textiles, pottery, furniture – that double as decor.

out about something great, cancel your itinerary.

How do you learn about markets?

Taxi drivers are the holy grail. I always ask taxi drivers – and hotel concierges – where they buy their pots and pans, where they sell their furniture, when that market is. No matter where you are – Sri Lanka, Rome, Mexico – there’s always a market where the local population takes their things.

I was in Naples, Italy, and we had this driver, Signore Palladino, who had been driving for 40 years. Everyone knew him.

He’d honk his horn, and the gates would open. A driver can really introduce you to things you would never have had access to.

But you don’t find that out unless you ask.

Recently, I did a buying trip to Peru for One Kings Lane and we had appointments with all sorts of artisans. But then the bus driver told us about this local artisan market in Cuzco where we found textiles, bowls, pottery, woven rugs, jewellery, everything we needed. So when you find

Any tips for bargaining?

There’s polite bargaining and impolite bargaining, and whether I’m at an antiques dealer or a neighbourhood market, it’s the same. You smile a lot, and you ask: “What’s the best price, and can you do better?” You have to respect where you are and that this person might have carried these rugs from miles away, and his effort is part of the price. If it doesn’t seem in keeping with the price three stalls down, then maybe they are trying to take advantage of you.

How do you know whether something is authentic?

You have to weigh the risk against the investment. If I spent US$30 (S$38) on a tablecloth that’s supposedly from the 19th century, and it’s from 1980, do I really care? As long as I think it’s beautiful, and it’s clearly hand-woven and dyed, then US$30 isn’t too bad.

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PHOTO: REUTERS

A snowboarder jumps at the Valle Nevado ski centre, which is about a 11/2-hour drive from Chilean capital Santiago.

Polar opposite On the other side of the Andes, Argentina has a number of well-established resorts. Anyone who has experienced Buenos Aires’ renowned nightlife will not be surprised to find that the apres-ski is much livelier this side of the border.

Despite their distance from the capital, these spots are popular with Argentines and can get busy. Years of financial crisis have taken their toll on infrastructure, with many lifts that have seen better days.

But top-notch destination Las Lenas (www. laslenas.com) is famed among snow aficionados for its dramatically steep terrain and breathtaking mountain backdrops.

Las Lenas, a five-hour drive from Mendoza, is served by a cluster of ski-in, ski-out resort hotels.

Get up early, while everyone else is recovering from the all-night parties, and you can almost have the slopes to yourself – as long as the lift operators are awake.

In the centre of Argentina’s wine region and replete with excellent vineyard-based hotels and restaurants, Mendoza itself is well worth some of your time.

Award-winning Francis Mallman 1884 is considered one of Latin America’s best places to dine (www.1884restaurante.com.ar).

Further south, Cerro Catedral is more accessible and less expensive than Las Lenas, with tree skiing (unusual in the Andes), and astonishing vistas over the national parks of the Argentine lake district.

Under the volcano Fancy skiing down an active volcano?

Nevados de Chillan (www.nevadosdechillan.com) is a resort on the slopes of smoking Volcan Chillan, about 500km south of Santiago. All that seismic activity has bubbled up into a chain of hot springs that you can bathe in after a hard day on the slopes.

Ski Arpa (www.skiarpa.com) is aimed at adventurous boarders and skiers who crave steep free riding on virgin powder. Far from the crowds and about 115km from Santiago, it uses snowcats rather than lifts.

Guides and reservations in advance are obligatory.

The world’s most southerly ski resort is Cerro Castor (www.cerrocastor.com) in Argentina, so far south that despite being only a few hundred metres above sea level, there is reliably enough snow to ski throughout the winter. It is found just outside the otherworldly Patagonian town of Ushuaia, a visitor attraction in its own right.

Dress warmly – next stop, Antarctica.

Reuters

Sunway Resort & Spa’s Club Executive Room (left) in Kuala Lumpur.

PHOTO: SUNWAY GROUP

transfer to any location, free entry to nightclub The Butter Factory for the four guests and a partner each and a movie night by the pool on Saturdays.

The package starts from $768. The first 30 bookings will enjoy a discounted rate of $698.

Additional rooms

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a stuffed toy doggy we named Patches and just study there.

On other occasions, J. or I might have been angry at someone or over something that happened. Alone on the roof, we would talk, have a good cry and even pray over it (I was a practising Christian then).

Somehow when we descended the stairladder to go back to our hectic school lives, things would always seem better.

One day, late in the afternoon when classes had ended, I had my first kiss there.

I remember J. and I ducking down beneath the parapet to do it, worried that people on the ground could see us.

It was ironic that the roof of the college was such a barren environment of grey concrete and zinc sheets for I spent so many magical hours there.

The best moments were when a group of us were together, gossiping about our teachers and classmates and ruminating about the future – applying for a scholarship and going to university, perhaps in a foreign land.

We looked forward to meeting someone that we could love and would love us back.

We wondered what it would be like to start work, get married and bring up children who would one day become new and improved versions of us.

As we talked, the sun would slowly set, igniting the HDB blocks of Bukit Batok in magnificent orange and yellow. Then, as it got dangerously dark, we would, one by one, climb down from the roof and go for dinner together at the nearby coffee shop.

I thought about those magical moments again when the story broke earlier this month of five teenagers caught vandalising the roof of a 23-storey HDB block in Toa Payoh.

As always, these incidents are accompanied by much angst: How they could have gone up there? What happened to all the security measures we are supposed to have in place?

hair artfully wind-swept but not so blustery as to make your French toast any less toasty.

At least that’s what I imagine, because so far I haven’t actually experienced it yet.

April’s deceptively sunny days proved too cold to stay outdoors for the length of a whole meal, leading to a series of hasty, shivering brunches as I attempted to gobble down my whipped cream waffles before they turned into ice cream waffles.

A few weeks ago, when the temperature reached 20 degrees and stayed there, I rallied a bunch of friends and called four restaurants before I finally found one with available outdoor tables.

I was so looking forward to the meal that I arrived, very uncharacteristically, 10 minutes early.

But the moment I reached the restaurant, I had a sinking feeling. The air was warm and clear, but there was a lot of it – what I had taken for an energetic breeze was starting to turn into a gusty wind.

I sat down anyway, putting my bag firmly on my jacket so the jacket wouldn’t blow away. The waiter put the menu directly into my hands, for much the same reason.

I ordered a glass of wine and when it arrived, I had to hold on to the stem so it wouldn’t slide off the table.

When my friends arrived, they were kind enough to insist on remaining out-

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“Yes, it’s a beautiful day to eat outdoors,” another friend chimed in. Next to us, an empty glass skidded off a table and shattered on the floor.

As hats flew off heads and salad leaves off plates, one by one, our fellow alfresco diners gave up the fight and moved indoors.

When a signboard next to us toppled with a loud crash, a waiter finally approached our table, by then the only one on the verandah still occupied.

“I’m sorry, could we ask you to move in?

It’s getting dangerous,” he said.

So, as it turns out, is clinging to the idea that brunch is better outdoors.

Weather is not the only porch-side peril: I’ve also had to shoo away greedy birds trying to munch on my food and opportunistic insects trying to munch on me.

One particularly tropical day last week, I settled in at a chic cafe for brioche on the balcony – only to retreat indoors after 10 minutes, when the chain-smoking diners right next to me started exhaling in my direction.

Perhaps alfresco dining is like wearing leather pants: a concept that seems effortlessly cool when you see other people do it but is actually surprisingly uncomfortable when you try it yourself.

Or maybe I just haven’t tried hard enough yet. This weekend, I’ve lined up plans not just for outdoor brunch but also

In appreciation of a

Akshita Nanda A long-held belief that I am invincible was tripped up last week when I injured my back while tying my shoelaces.

It is a shock to realise that a 35-year-old body is actually very different from one in its 20s.

Two doctors and multiple friends and relatives have told me not to berate myself over the indignity of this injury: lumbar strain sustained while sitting on a stool and putting on trainers before a weekend Zumba class. It is an action I have repeated at least a thousand times in my life and one I would never have considered harmful.

“It happens, it’s normal, you’ll just have to be more careful from now on,” I have been told, along with statistics that show at least three-fourths of the human population suffer similar back problems.

People have been generous with their

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BY TIM RICKARD

Laughs Gags

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Every Job 3 (Info-Ed) gendary Liu Bo PG) (Drama) arters (HD) (Episode (Drama) ore Today (HD)

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: PSA British Open

(Variety) 11.30 Frontline (HD) (Info-Ed) 12.00 AM Sunday Chinese Cinema: A Moment Of Romance 3 (PG) (Movie) 2.00 Ghostcatcher – Legend Of Beauty (Drama) 4.00 The Four Brothers Of Peking (PG) (Drama)

Channel U

10.00 AM Don’t Stop Me Now (Variety) 11.30 The Melting Pot (Infotainment) 12.30 PM Off The Path (Info-Ed) 1.00 Scrum! (PG) (Drama) 3.00 Ice Adonis (PG) (Drama) 5.00 He’s Beautiful (Drama) (PG) 6.30 Top Eats 100 (Infotainment) 7.00 Approaching Science (Info-Ed) 7.30 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards Presentation Ceremony (Variety) 11.00 News Tonight 11.30 Money Week (Current Affairs) 12.00 AM Million Singer (Variety) 1.30 Japan Eats (Infotainment) 2.00 Weekend Getaway (Infotainment) 2.30 Close

Channel NewsAsia

6.00 AM Secret Tribes 6.30 Thailand: The Great Divide 7.00 News Now 7.32 Correspondents’ Diary

10.00 News Now 10.32 Money Mind 11.00 News Now 11.33 Cooking For The Crown 12.00 PM News Now 12.32 SportsWorld Weekend 1.02 Japan Hour 2.00 News Now 2.33 Mission: Brasil 3.00 News Now 3.32 Correspondents’ Diary 4.00 News Now 4.33 Insight 5.00 News Now 5.32 SportsWorld Weekend 6.02 Cooking For The Crown 6.30 Mission: Brasil 7.00 Primetime Weekend 7.32 SIA International Cup & KrisFlyer International Sprint 2014 9.00 Primetime Weekend 9.30 SportsWorld Weekend 10.00 Singapore Tonight 10.30 On The Red Dot 11.00 World Tonight 11.30 Cooking For The Crown 12.00 AM News Pulse 12.30 Secret Tribes 1.00 Thailand: The Great Divide 1.30 Mission: Brasil 2.00 News Pulse 2.30 SIA International Cup & KrisFlyer International Sprint 2014 3.30 Amazing Asia 4.00 Singapore Tonight 4.30 Get Real 5.00 Cooking For The Crown 5.30 Mission: Brasil Programmes may be pre-empted due to breaking news

Vasantham

1.00 PM Indian Panorama:

Dharma Pathini (Movie) 7.00 Theriyatha Tamil Cinema (Variety) 8.00 Ha Ha Ha Sirippu (Info-Ed) 8.30 Tamil Seithi (News) 9.00 Cinema Express: Pachaikilli Muthucharam (PG) 12.00 AM Tamil Seithi (News) 12.30 Close

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7.00 AM Club M.A.G.I.C (Preschool) 8.00 LazyTown (Preschool) 9.00 Stuart Little: The Animated Series (Schoolkids) 9.30 The Adventures Of Tintin (PG) (Schoolkids) 10.00 Buddy Fight (Schoolkids) 10.30 Cardfight Vanguard (Schoolkids) 11.00 Little Battlers eXperience (Schoolkids) 11.30 Jackie Chan Adventures (Schoolkids) 12.00 PM Robotboy (Schoolkids) 12.30 Geronimo Stilton (Schoolkids) 1.00 The Ugly Duckling & Me (Schoolkids) 1.30 The Adventures Of Paddington Bear (Schoolkids) 2.00 Dirt Girl World (Schoolkids) 3.00 My Classmate Dad 2 (Drama) (Schoolkids) 4.00 Team Word (Info-Ed)

5.30 Wendy (Schoolkids) 6.00 Martha Speaks (Schoolkids) 6.30 Oscar’s Oasis (Schoolkids) 7.00 Pokemon: Black & White (Schoolkids) 7.30 ThunderCats (Schoolkids) 8.00 Mudpit (Schoolkids) 8.30 The S. League Show (Sports) 9.00 Doctor Who 7 (Drama) 10.00 FilmArt: The Message (Movie) 12.15 AM Close

ar

March 2

Suria

10.00 AM Selamat Pagi Putera Puteri (Children) 10.30 Chincilla (Children) 11.00 DNA 2 (Info-Ed) 11.30 Gemersik Kalbu (Drama) 12.30 PM Masterchef Selebriti Malaysia (Variety) 1.30 Villa Tepi Surau (Drama) 2.00 Adamaya (Drama) 3.00 Atuk PhD (Drama) 4.00 Safiyya 2 (Info-Ed) 5.00 Sehangat Asmara (Drama) 6.00 ABC Monsters (Children) 6.30 Delicatessen (Info-Ed) 7.00 Makan Angin Sepanyol (Info-Ed) 8.00 Berita (News) 8.30 Fear Factor Selebriti Malaysia (Variety) 9.30 Sehangat Asmara (Drama) 10.30 Tak Sayang Mulut (Drama) 11.00 Tiket Untuk Dua (Info-Ed) 11.30 Berita (HD) (News) 12.00 AM Close

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April 21

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May 22

can

June 22

mio TV Racquet Channel (Ch 211) 7.00 AM Table Tennis: GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour Spanish Open: Finals 9.30 Badminton: 2014 European Championships: Finals 1.30 PM Tennis: ATP 1000 Mutua Madrid Open: Finals 3.30 Badminton: Badminton Unlimited 4.00 Tennis: Roland Garros 2014 Preview 4.30 Badminton: Li-Ning Thomas & Uber Cup 2014: Groups, Session 2 (Live) 9.30 Badminton: Li-Ning Thomas & Uber Cup 2014: Groups, Session 3 (Live) 2.30 AM Tennis: WTA BMW Malaysia Open, Semi-finals

Football Channel (Ch 222) 6.30 AM Goal! Superstars: Team Of The Season 2013/14 7.00 Copa Libertadores 2014 QF 2 2nd Leg: Cruizero (Brazil) Vs San Lorenzo (Argentina) 9.00 Bundesliga 13/14: Season Preview 9.30 A-League 2013/14: Highlights 10.00 Major League Soccer 2014: Seattle Sounders Vs San Jose Earthquakes (Live) 12.00 PM Bundesliga 13/14: Matchweek Highlights 1.00 The Football Review Show 1.30 TBC 3.30 Copa Libertadores 2014 QF 4 1st Leg: Atletico Nacional Vs Defensor Sporting (Uruguay) 5.30 Copa Libertadores 2014: Highlights 6.00 Malaysia Super League 2014: Terengganu Vs LionsXII (S) 8.00 Bundesliga 13/14: Matchweek Highlights 9.00 Bundesliga 13/14: Season Review 9.30 Goal! Superstars: German Champions – Bayern Munich 10.00 International Friendly: Holland Vs Ecuador 1.00 AM Season Encore – Bundesliga 13/14: Bayern Munich Vs Monchengladbach 3.00 Major League Soccer

Li (HD) (Ch 265) 6.00 AM Cardio Burn And Sculpt With Tanja Djelevic 7.00 Jillian Michaels 7.30 The Firm 8.00 The Doctors 10.00 Cooks To Market 11.00 Tasty Road 12.00 PM Recipe Factory 12.30 Cupcake Wars 1.30 Sam Pynn: The Mix 2.30 Marriage Under Construction 3.00 Million Dollar Contractor 3.30 Sandcastles 4.00 A Bryk At A Time 4.30 Dukes Of Melrose 5.00 Insight 5.30 Most Intriguing Safari Destinations 6.00 Jason Down Under 6.30 Anna & Kristina’s Beauty Call 7.00 Monster Munchies 8.00 Sandcastles 8.30 A Bryk At A Time 9.00 Charly’s Cake Angels 9.30 Pure Japan 10.00 Chefs: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 11.00 The Doctors

KIX (HD) (Ch 309) 7.45 AM The Day 9.20 The Incredible Mr Goodwin 10.10 Bamma 2012 11.45 Fate 2.00 PM The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel 3.55 The Incredible Mr Goodwin 4.45 A Millionaire On The Run 6.40 The Incredible Mr Goodwin 7.30 Road FC 9.00 Enfusion 4 10.00 Top Gear Korea 5 11.15 The Doll Master

ONE (HD) (Ch 513) 6.00 AM Running Man 7.45 Goddess Of Marriage 12.45 PM The Inheritors 3.15 K-pop Star 3 4.45 K-pop Countdown (Inkigayo) 6.15 God’s Gift – 14 Days

4.00 K-pop Star 3 5.30 K-Hits

Video On Demand 1 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (HD) 2 Paranormal Activity – The Marked One (HD) 3 The Book Thief (HD) 4 Robocop (2014) (HD) 5 Sniper (Asian-Cine-Ekspres) 6 Kiss (R21) 7 De Dana Dan (Asian-Bollywood) 8 R… Rajkumar (Asian-Bollywood) Programmes available anytime you want

mio Stadium (HD) (Ch 102) 6.00 AM BPL: Classic Match: Arsenal Vs West Ham 12/13 8.00 BPL: Club Guides X2 8.30 BPL: Sunderland Vs Swansea 10.30 BPL: Netbusters 11.00 BPL: Goals of The Season 12.00 PM BPL: Classic Match 12.30 BPL: Review of The Season 13/14 2.30 BPL: Liverpool Vs Newcastle 4.30 BPL: Cardiff Vs Chelsea 6.30 BPL: Premier League World 7.00 BPL: Goals Of The Season 8.00 BPL: MOTW #39 10.00 BPL: Classic Match: Arsenal Vs West Ham 12/13 12.00 AM BPL: MOTW #38 2.00 BPL: Classic Match: West Bromwich Albion Vs Tottenham 02/03 4.00 BPL: Premier League Playlist 5.00 BPL: Classic Match: Aston Villa Vs Norwich 11/12

mio Sports (Ch 111) 7.30 AM FRL: French Ligue 13/14: Sochaux Vs Evian 9.30 FAC: FA Cup 13/14: Arsenal Vs Hull 12.00 PM CHL: Uefa Champions League 13/14: Preview 12.30 FRL: French Ligue 13/14 St Etienne Vs Ajaccio 2.30 FRL: French Ligue 13/14: Marseille Vs Guingamp 4.30 FAC: FA Cup 13/14: Arsenal Vs Hull 6.55 FAC: FA Cup 13/14: Highlights 7.25 WC: Fifa Official Film 1998

12.00 AM FRL: French Ligue 13/14 Sochaux Vs Evian 2.00 Ball: FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2012 2.38 ITA: Italian Serie A 13/14: AC Milan Vs Sassuolo (Live) 5.00 ELT: English League Two 13/14: Fleetwood Town Vs York City

Star Sports (Ch 115) 8.00 AM Baseball: MLB Regular Season 2014 (Live) 11.00 Motorcycle Racing: MotoGP World Championship 2014 – Qualifying 12.30 PM Auto Racing: FIA World Touring Car Championship 2014 – Highlights 1.00 Auto Racing: Planet Speed 2013/14 1.30 Extreme Sports: Rebel TV 21 2.00 Motorcycle Racing: eni FIM Superbike World Championship 2014 – Highlights 2.30 Soccer: Football Asia 2014/15 3.00 Soccer: AFC Champions League 2014 4.25 Soccer: Liga BBVA 2013/14 Matches 5.55 Soccer: Liga BBVA 2013/14 Matches (Live) 8.00 Soccer: Football Asia 2014/15 8.30 Soccer: Liga BBVA 2013/14 Matches 8.25 Soccer: Liga BBVA 2013/14 Matches 8.55 Soccer: Liga BBVA 2013/14 Matches (Live) 2.00 AM Soccer: Rise As One: The Impossible Dream 2.30 Soccer: Rise As One: World War Truce 2.55 Soccer: Liga BBVA 2013/14 Matches (Live) 5.00 Auto Racing: Le Tour Auto 2014 – Highlights 5.30 Golf: Sk Telecom Open – Day 4 Highlights

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Telecast details from MediaCorp and StarHub. For StarHub updates, go to www.starhub.com/cabletv or see Starhub teletext

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Arts Correspondent PHOTO: BLOOMSBURY

clash as a “Westernised” Pakistani university student returns home for the holidays.

Her third and fourth novels, Kartography (2002) and Broken Verses (2005), looked at other crucial episodes of Pakistan’s history.

Asked about the evolution in her writing style, the writer who is single says: “It was Hanif Kureishi, I think, who said a writer

becomes a new writer every 10 years. I’m interested in linked histories, in multiple narratives coming together.”

Her literary career was written for her, in a way. Her mother Muneeza is a literary journalist for Pakistani newspapers such as Dawn. Maternal grandmother Jahanara Habibullah’s memoir of her life in colonial

India was translated from Urdu to English

by Oxford University Press in 2004, while her great-aunt Attia Hosain had two novels published by UK publisher Chatto & Windus in the 1960s. Shamsie’s maternal great-grandmother Inam Habibullah also wrote her memoirs in Urdu.

This made for a “literary” atmosphere

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Who: Sraboni Sen, 47, Bengali music vocalist from India.

Sen is an acclaimed singer of the Rabindra Sangeet genre, a music style derived from Bengali poet and cultural icon Rabindranath Tagore’s songs.

The most commercially successful Rabindra Sangeet singer of her generation, she will perform at the concert, Rabindra Sangeet: Celebrating Tagore, at the Esplanade Recital Studio on Thursday at

7.30pm. Tickets are available at $15 from www. sistic.com.sg.

What book are you reading now?

I am very fond of Tagore’s works. It just so happens that his birthday was last Friday, so I am reading his Gitanjali, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

This collection of songs and poems was translated into English as Song Offerings.

I am also reading 2 States, a best-selling Englishlanguage novel published in 2009 by Indian author Chetan Bhagat. It’s a story of two friends from two different states in India who fall in love but their parents do not agree on the match. The story telling is wonderful and simple.

THEATRES ON THE BAY

What book would you save from a burning house?

I would save Gitabitan, which contains the songs of Tagore. It’s a book that gives me strength and confidence and a work that I am emotionally dependent on.

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore (1997 reprint, Scribner, $23.52), 2 States: The Story Of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat (2009, Rupa & Co, $20.20) are available at Books Kinokuniya.

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PHOTO: EDWARD TEO FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

Executive pastry chef Choo Eng Tat from Royal Plaza on Scotts preparing creme brulee. At far left is the safety wall towards which blowtorches are to be pointed at all times.

Searing steaks but not diners The Akashi Group’s chef-owner Mervin Goh, whose restaurants include Akashi and robatayaki restaurant Akanoya, both at Orchard Parade Hotel, says: “We use the blowtorch very minimally on sushi, including those topped with otoro, marbled beef and fatty salmon. The blowtorch is always turned away from anyone or anything within a certain distance before the flame is turned on. Once the flame is on, it is used for 10 to 15 seconds.”

At Hashida Sushi in Mandarin Gallery, all torching of ingredients is done in the kitchen.

Chef-owner Kenjiro Hashida says: “It is safer to do the torching in the kitchen instead of in front of diners sitting at the counter. You never know if the torch may not be working properly or if diners lean too close to watch what we are doing.

Similarly, we are also careful about not placing our knives too close to diners, in case they want to touch them.”

In bars, bartenders have to be extra cautious when using the blowtorch because they are surrounded by flammable alcohol.

Jekyll & Hyde’s head bartender Jeff Ho, 36, says: “We use the blowtorch to char ingredients or caramelise sugar as part of our cocktail preparation. It is used only behind the bar so that it is far away from guests.”

Some restaurants even torch food tableside, and they include casual seafood chain The Manhattan Fish Market, and TungLok Group’s Cajun-style seafood restaurant Dancing Crab at The Grandstand.

At The Manhattan Fish Market, staff torch the restaurant chain’s signature Manhattan Flaming Prawns by tableside.

One of the menu highlights at Dancing Crab is Flaming Moonshine Tiger Prawns, where live prawns are soaked in alcohol, cooked in a heated ceramic pot and heated to between 26 and 30 deg C before it is flambeed.

Mr Norman Hartono, its marketing and communications manager, says: “Only senior staff are allowed to flambe the prawns at tableside, and have to do so at least 1m away from any table or people. If someone comes too close, staff have to

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pause the cooking of the prawns until the ‘safety area’ is maintained again.

“We will not consider stopping our practice of cooking tableside as the cooking method of flambeing has been around for decades. With precautions observed, we are confident of carrying out the process safely.”

The Singapore Civil Defence Force says that apart from the Clifford case, it has had no recent reports of incidents involving what it calls “kitchen lighters”.

Although the tools are commonly known as kitchen blowtorches, the SCDF makes the distinction between blowtorches used in industrial settings for welding, cutting and sealing, and which can reach temperatures of up to 1,200 deg C, and these kitchen lighters.

A spokesman says: “In general, all open flame activities such as those used for cooking, heating and warming must be carried out in the kitchen area and not at other places such as dining areas, buffet counters and bar counters.

“However, there are permissible excep-

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AL BIRRA ARDUINI VIOLA NUMEROTRE What: A double-malt lager made with traditional German and American hops. It has a fruity aroma which is enhanced by the dry

BREWDOG HARDCORE IPA What: This strong beer, with a 9.2 per cent alcohol content, is bitter with a sweet finish.

32 VIA DEI BIRRAI ADMIRAL What: A full-bodied amber beer from Italy with caramelised and roasted malts. It is named after the bitter Admiral hop used in the beer.

OBOLON ZLATA PRAHA What: Brewed in Ukraine at the Obolon brewery, which was designed and built by Czech brew masters, this pilsner beer has a rich malty taste.

The Obolon

7, a conservation shophouse n real estate, says he has seen started dealing with properourhood 17 years ago. in the last two to three years develop. It used to be littered hanged.” real estate and property manania, which manages about ras Street, says her company any years to bring up the e street”. She has been workstreet since 2007. est to bring in a good profile s are rented out to food and t will not be a good thing s we do not want our tenants

ith restaurateurs, real-estate nagement companies found out $7 to $10 per square feet sf about two years ago. d Hill, and in the Club Street s, rentals can range between

re also reasonable. When an popular, rentals tend to be

ner of cocktail bar Jekyll & ely under-developed and we e felt we could help improve

ll says: “I think there is room e fact that the street is a little f the main area and being a

ice across the street when one of their compatriots runs out.

Feel like having a different style of cocktail or a particular spirit? Head to the other cocktail bar down the road.

Mr Lino Sauro, 44, chef-owner of Gattopardo, says: “We (the chefs) all knew each other from before. All of us offer a different type of cuisine and we cannot be happier to create an amazing and unique gastronomic corner in an already super saturated dining scene in Singapore.”

Brasserie Gavroche and Cafe Gavroche’s chef-owner Frederic Colin, 40, adds: “We recommend diners to other restaurants and to have drinks at the cocktail bars, we complement one another with the quality and variety of restaurants in Tras Street.”

Tras Street was named in 1898 after a Malaysian town, according to the National Library Board’s Infopedia.

Located on the fringe of Chinatown and away from the main thoroughfare of Tanjong Pagar Road, it was lined with homes and businesses in the early days.

While other parts of the historic neighbourhood flourished, Tras Street mostly remained quiet. Still, it seems notoriety has plagued the street throughout the years.

Thugs with parangs smashed a coffee shop in 1961, while in the mid-noughties, KTV hostesses were nabbed on suspicion of consuming drugs.

A semi-retired clothing business owner who declined to be named and who has owned “a couple of shophouses” in Tras Street since the early 1990s, says the street was a “sleepy” one. It housed mostly trading and commodity businesses.

The sleazy KTV bars started moving in in the late No. 60 Sushi Mitsuya No. 64 Fleur De Sel No. 66 Brasserie

No. 54 Buttero

No. 40 Conclave

Nos. 34 & 36 Gattopardo No. 38 BAM! No. 49 Jekyll & Hyde No. 57 Kko Kko Nara No. 61 My Private Chef No. 69 Cafe

Follow Rebecca Lynne Tan on Twitter @STrebeccatan

rltan@sph.com.sg

TRAS S TREET

ormed He says: “We could have a block party or a festival where each restaurant could serve its signature dish.

Each of the restaurants has something different and interesting to offer.”

But food and beverage operators here are quick to add that they may not be keen for the street to turn into the next Club Street, which is known for being lively and having a high volume of diners and drinkers.

They say the influx of too many food and beverage businesses would make the street too saturated, which could in turn take away the street’s charm and exclusivity.

Alexandre Lozachmeur, 34, chef-owner of Fleur De Sel, says “people bring people”, which has helped to improve the reputation of food and beverage outlets in the street.

He says: “The street has become a destination, and more people are beginning to talk about Tras Street but if the street becomes like Club Street, it might be a little too much.”

PAGAR R OAD NJONG

STREET SEAH ECK

What: The stylish Art Deco-inspired cock (above) offers a range of cocktails. Some new come include the Fruit Pastis cocktail ($2 anise-flavoured liqueur, lemon juice, fresh grap

HOUSE OF DANDY

What: The Sicilian seafood restaurant relo Tras Street at the beginning of February after it Hotel Fort Canning ended in December last y Dishes on its menu include the Calama strips of squid and orange wedges in a red pra with barley and tarragon; Polipo ($34), a charred octopus, Sicilian olives, sun dried t and celery root; and Bucatini Con Le Sarde ($ sic Sicilian noodle with fresh sardines.

Where: 34 and 36 Tras Street Open: Noon to 2.30pm (Monday to Friday), 6 10.30pm (Monday to Saturday), closed on Su Info: Call 6338-5498 or e-mail reservations@gattopardo.com.sg. Go to www.gattopardo.com.sg

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Ever So Posh Hand Cooked Parmesan, Asparagus & Truffle potato crisps, $5.90 for a 150g bag, from Marks & Spencer, 03-100 Marina Square, tel: 6837-0962, open: 10am to 9.30pm daily hsueh@sph.com.sg facebook.com/tanhsuehyun

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If the heat does not stop you from or shabu-shabu meal, the dressing as a dipping sauce.

Asamurasaki Spicy Sesame Dressin 250g bottle, from Huber’s Bu Dempsey Road, tel: 6737-1588, op 8pm (weekdays), 9.30am to 7pm (

Sweet and earthy chips

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The earthy flavour of beetroot is one which some people find hard to like, but I enjoy the root vegetable in many forms – juiced, roasted and fried into thin, crisp chips such as these from Australian brand Thomas Chipman.

The chips curl up when fried and their intense colour is striking.

What’s even better is that they taste great.

Natural sweetness tempers the earthy flavour of the beets, so even those who do not like them might change their minds.

They are a good alternative to potato chips too, as they need no extra flavouring apart from salt.

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Thomas Chipman Beetroot Chips, $5.70 for a 75g bag, from Cold Storage, B2-15/16 Plaza Singapura, tel: 6238-6761, open: 9am to 10.30pm daily

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Download the app for more restaurant reviews by Wong Ah Yoke

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PHOTOS: FULLERTON BAY HOTEL, WONG AH YOKE

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ahyoke@sph.com.sg Follow Wong Ah Yoke on Twitter @STahyoke SundayLife! paid for its meals at the eateries reviewed here.

and I paid an additional $2 for two plates of noodles.

The soya sauce chicken was excellent, with tender and juicy meat. The soya sauce flavour permeated Chinatown Complex, through, making it Block 335 Smith flavourful.

Street, 02-126 The char siew was tasty Open: 10.30am to with a little fat. Chomping about 7pm (Monday on the succulent meat to Friday), 8.30am to made the queueing worthabout 7pm (weekend and public holiday), while. closed on Wednesday The roast pork belly was Rating: not too bad, with just the right saltiness to it.

The char siew ribs looked a little too lean but I tried them with horfun ($3) anyway. The meat was tender enough but a little too dry for my liking. It also did not have the requisite burnt ends for the oomph I was looking for.

The prawn dumplings ($3 or $5) were delicious, although the soup they came in was unremarkable. The meat was firm and tasty, and there was a whole prawn in each dumpling too.

I cannot wait to go back this weekend, never mind that I would have to queue again.

HONGKONG SOYA SAUCE CHICKEN RICE & NOODLE

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Another thing which needs improving is the slow service. There are no mishaps on my first visit for dinner, but when I return for lunch, I am told the food will take 25 minutes to come. And when it does, the laksa noodles are not what my dining companion asks for.

That would have been easily overlooked, except it takes another 15 minutes for it to be replaced.

I’ll put these hiccups to opening jitters – which, nonetheless, need to be fixed quickly if the restaurant wants to avoid getting a reputation for poor service.

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The soup kambing ($19) has a rich broth which is spiced just right.

The laksa ($23) is rich with coconut milk but, for me, suffers from not having any cockles. It comes with prawns, fishcake, beancurd puffs and quail’s eggs.

I like the soup kambing ($19). It is as good as what I have had at hawker stalls, with a rich broth that is spiced just right.

There are some non-hawker dishes on the menu, including a rather good porchetta ($38 for single portion, $68 for half a pig), a suckling pig roasted Western style. The meat is tender and juicy, and the crackling suitably crisp, which makes it better than what you get at many Spanish eateries here.

There is one dish I will not order again, though. The wagyu rendang hanger steak ($28) is not simmered in spices like a good rendang should be. Instead, it is a piece of grilled beef slathered with rendang gravy, which is neither here nor there. I’d rather have either a plain old steak or a good old rendang.

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But going by the number of eager patrons in the line, the soya sauce chicken stall is an open secret anyway.

A plate of soya sauce chicken with big chunks of meat costs $2.50. I noticed many customers ordering the $3 plate, which comes with more chicken and gives even better value for money.

I ordered soya sauce chicken, char siew and roast pork belly for two. The big serving came up to only $7,

Tasting Notes: ! 2012 Nederburg The Anchorman Chenin Blanc This wine was named The Anchorman in honour of

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smoked and Szechuan. Heavily seasoned with peppercorn, the Szechuan salmon was tongue-numbingly spicy — a dish best reserved for the end.

The Western hot dishes are changed daily, offering great variety. Executive chef Kevin Thomson hails from the United Kingdom, accounting for the traditional British favourites on the buffet.

His signature “High Country” Pork Spare Ribs turned out to be fork-tender.

The chef also likes to throw in an unusual dish each day, and the surprise dish du jour was Veal Liver and Bacon Lardons with Onion and Sage.

At the local food station, chicken rice and hand-made noodles are on offer. Try the noodles in clear chicken or vegetable stock, or go for the laksa instead — all of which are prepared in front of you. The laksa gravy was robust and flavourful and won the approval of my dining companion.

Special mention must also be made of the fragrant Fish Curry, prepared with just

the right blend of spices.

Make room for a sweet ending. With Welsh chef John Evans helming the pastry section, the offerings included rich English fruitcake, Eton Mess (a sinfully creamy concoction with strawberries and chocolate) and the piece de resistance — Sticky Date Pudding. Moist and not cloyingly sweet, the pudding was one of the best I have ever tasted.

A delightfully light dessert was the Avocado Cheesecake, an unlikely combination that proved to be a winner.

Durian aficionados will be pleased to know that a selection of durian pastries (including a durian Eton Mess) is served during the weekend dinner buffets.

Marriott Cafe is located at Singapore Marriott Hotel, Level 1.

Tel: 6831-4605. Website: singaporemarriott.com/dining.

From now to June 8, 2014, Citibank Cardmembers enjoy 1-for-1 for buffet dinner from Sundays to Wednesdays.

Café Mosaic If you enjoy local food, the Café Mosaic’s buffet spread will more than satisfy your cravings.

One station includes a local noodle dish — featuring mee siam, mee rebus, laksa or lor mee.

At the same station is a sautéing corner with fresh local green vegetables. Veggies are sautéed on the spot with ginger and light soya sauce, sambal or oyster sauce, making for a healthy side dish.

Dishes are rotated every day at the hot food station, which features an assortment of Western and Asian delicacies.

Among the chef’s specialities are the Mini Beef Steak with Korean BBQ Sauce, and Fish Fillet with Garlic and Chye Po.

Café Mosaic offers a range of local dishes, including such as Mini Beef Steak with Korean BBQ sauce (ins

The latter is testimony to executive chef Lee Hwee Yaw’s creativity. The chye po (preserved turnip), a topping commonly found on chwee kueh, gives the battered fillet moistness and umami.

The chef’s penchant for improvisation also shows itself in the Sayur Lodeh, where slivers of jackfruit add sweetness to the dish and chunks of tempeh give it extra bite.

The Pork Rib with Lotus Root is chockful of healthy ingredients like red dates, longan and wolfberries. “It’s just like homemade soup,” said my dining companion.

Another winner was the OP Rib with red wine reduction and mustard. Marinated in Cajun spices, olive oil, mustard and peppercorn, the beef is cooked on very slow fire to allow the ingredients to soak in the juices.

One more highlight is the DIY station with Asian salads, which vary from gado gado to different types of rojak. In the cold station, there is soba with goma dressing, where the mix of sesame oil, seaweed and mayonnaise adds a delicate creaminess to the silky strands of noodles.

The seafood on ice includes black mussels and shark oysters. There is also a selection of crackers and fritters to snack

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