STAR BLOGGERS

Is Temasek Review credible?

Like last week’s Toto results, it is impossible to predict if an anonymous blog will be credible. Miscreants and hotheads do exist out there to sow discord and spout untruths. But on the flipside, some anonymous blogs can be a revelation. So, how do we judge Temasek Review, an anonymous Singaporean blog set up with the intention of offering “independent, balanced and unbiased coverage on socio-political affairs in Singapore?” Here’s how to start: Avoid dismissing anonymous blogs immediately, simply because they can add much value to public debate. Take for instance Colby Buzzell, a former US soldier who operated an anonymous blog offering first-hand accounts of the Iraqi War. For him, staying anonymous is a matter of necessity, not preference. Similar cases are common even before the Internet era: Former US President Richard Nixon was brought down during the Watergate Scandal because of a secret informer nicknamed Deep Throat, later revealed to be FBI Associate Director Mark Felt.

So, let’s judge a blog by its content. I will give Temasek Review praise where it is due: It prospers because it capitalises well on the anger and dissatisfaction felt by a segment of Singaporeans towards the government. Its articles on foreign talent, rising prices, and human rights draw significant viewership and heated debate, and it appears to be earning some income off advertisements. On the other hand, Temasek Review is anything but “unbiased”, despite its lofty claims. It is an echo chamber where Singaporeans feed off one another’s rage, where insults are hurled at those who offer differing opinions. Too often, emotions prevail over rational debate.

As a media consumer, I detest its brand of character smearing. On Temasek Review’s long hit list includes: Jack Lin, a leader of the YPAP, Ng Wan Ching, a journalist at a local paper, and most recently Braema Mathi, an activist. The website’s attack on Jack Lin comes across as particularly vicious and immature: The insinuation that the YPAP leader is gay is besides the point and even drew flak from its own readers. So much for taking a higher moral ground than the mainstream media, which it declares to be an ideological opponent. But here’s an encouragement: I do read Temasek Review every once in a while because it produces the occasional gem. But for it to be taken seriously by the wider public, it must change its approach.

Terence Lee is a final-year Communication Studies undergraduate at NTU and his interests range from religion and mass media to politics and environmentalism. He blogs at http://irreligiously.blogspot.com.

The “Ulu Pandan bear” – bedek or not?
 

So everyone is asking, ‘bedek’ or not?

Well, first the species – this looks like the black bear, without the distinctive hump of the grizzly. It appears to be too large to be the Malayan Sun Bear which stands at up to 1.5 metres. It is heartening that people have mentioned this Southeast Asian native species as a candidate though.

Singapore has a long history of non-native species, enough for Frederick Nutter Chasen of the Raffles Library and Museum to comment as early as 1925 that it “…must be remembered that very large numbers of mammals are imported into Singapore each year for trade purposes. Individuals very frequently escape and are just as often captured or shot and brought to the Museum with the laconic statement that they were obtained in Singapore”.

So local naturalists have learnt to be cautious. Several are sharing the news clip on Facebook but without comment – reserving judgement since the photos and video are unclear. So no one is sure thus far.

The police and ACRES are on the case and have apparently taken into account the onset of Halloween, celebrated increasingly in Singapore as yet another chance to dress up, party and eat chocolate. With the emphasis on dress up. A check with costumed stores drew a blank. Assuming they are not in on the caper as well although you would think the thought of having the police comb Ulu Pandan woods would induce a confession.

Are authentic costumes available? Well, Animatronic has a decent black bear costume, and Burt the Black Bear travels to various locations so perhaps he’s here to promote something.

 
According to STOMP, Wilson Tay says, “My son took this video on his handphone, and after many views we realised it could quite simply be a bear! After it caught sight of us and started heading our way, it made sense to drive off without hesitation.” That is a sensible strategy but the clinical nature of the video clip has many thinking twice. The cynical almost immediately dismissed it in no uncertain terms as a hoax. After all, assuming the quotes were not edited out of context, the audio on the track does not, *ahem*, bear out the quote. Here is a close-up of that video below, looped a few times so you can observe and decide for yourself:

 
I thought the manner and appearance of the ‘bear’s face when it looks at the eye-witnesses and then turns away was odd; the poor quality video was too concisely edited; they uploaded it to STOMP but do not report calling the police and the voice-over saying “Singapore, got bear one, ah” is too well placed and contradicts the statement in STOMP which says, “after many views we realised it could quite simply be a bear”. Ditto the second phrase. And the absence of faecal samples, claw marks and the like in the vicinity (according to ACRES).

Meanwhile, while we ponder, the ‘bear’ has gone onto twitter to taunt us, purportedly after a lady dropped her phone and ran off, screaming. Follow the bear, who isn’t resorting to puns so far, @UluPandanBear!

 N. Sivasothi a.k.a. Otterman is a biologist who enjoys communicating science and has been using blogs since 2003 http://blog.sivasothi.com .

The shocking suicide of a college student whose sex life was broadcast over the Web illustrates yet again the Internet’s alarming potential as a means of tormenting others and raises questions whether young people in the age of Twitter and Facebook can even distinguish public from private.

Cruel gossip and vengeful acts once confined to the schoolyard or the dorm can now make their way around the world instantly via the Internet, along with photos and live video.

“It’s just a matter of when the next suicide’s going to hit, when the next attack’s going to hit,” said Parry Aftab, a New Jersey lawyer who runs the website WiredSafety.

Last week, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after his roommate and another classmate allegedly used a webcam to secretly broadcast his dorm room sexual encounters with another man. The two classmates have been charged with invasion of privacy, with the most serious charges carrying up to five years in prison.

The suicide of Clementi, a shy, gifted 18-year-old violinist, shocked and disturbed gay rights activists and others on campus.

“Had he been in bed with a woman, this would not have happened,” said Rutgers student Lauren Felton, 21, of Warren, N.J. “He wouldn’t have been outed via an online broadcast, and his privacy would have been respected and he might still have his life.”

The Associated Press found at least 12 cases in the U.S. since 2003 in which children and young adults between 11 and 18 killed themselves after falling victim to some form of “cyberbullying” — teasing, harassing or intimidating with pictures or words distributed online or via text message.

In probably the best-known case, 13-year-old Megan Meier of Daddenne Prairie, Mo., hanged herself in 2006 after she received messages on MySpace — supposedly from a teenage boy — cruelly dumping her. An adult neighbor was later found guilty of taking part in the hoax, but the conviction was overturned.

Earlier this year, 17-year-old Alexis Pilkington of West Islip, N.Y., who had landed a college soccer scholarship, killed herself after receiving a stream of nasty messages.

Gregory Jantz, founder of A Place of Hope, a Seattle mental health care center, said young people who use the Internet to spread something damaging about others often don’t realize how hurtful it can be because many of them have grown up in a world that has blurred the line between public and private.

“Our kids are in a different zone now,” Jantz said.

Aftab said young people who would never bully someone face to face do it online in part because of the often-false sense of anonymity that the Internet provides.

“They’ll also jump on because they don’t want to be the next target,” Aftab said.

In Clementi’s case, prosecutors said that his roommate, Dharun Ravi of Plainsboro, N.J., and Molly Wei of Princeton, N.J., both 18-year-old freshmen, transmitted a live image of Clementi having sex on Sept. 19 and that Ravi tried to webcast a second encounter on Sept. 21, the day before Clementi’s suicide. Lawyers for Ravi and Wei did not return calls.

Luanne Peterpaul, vice chairwoman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality and a former New Jersey prosecutor, said authorities might be able to pursue the case as a hate crime under state law if they are able to establish that the defendants acted because they believed Clementi was gay.

Ravi posted a message on his now-closed Twitter account on Sept. 19: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”

Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan said in a statement: “We will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident, and, if so, we will bring appropriate charges.”

A lawyer for Clementi’s family did not respond to requests for comment on whether Clementi had come out to friends and family about his sexual orientation. He also said the family had no comment.

The mourning continued at Rutgers; in Ridgewood, the suburban New Jersey town where Clementi grew up and attended high school; and across New Jersey.

Clementi’s violin teacher for the past five years could not believe he had taken his own life.

“He was a very genuine and, I guess, you could call it a shy person,” said Khullip Jeung, 33, who teaches out of his home in Fort Lee. “But when he played the violin, it was different. He had a strong voice. He knew what he wanted to say. And he spoke through his violin. And I think that is the real Tyler that I knew.”

Childhood friend Mary Alcaro, who played in a summer music academy with him, said Clementi had been destined for greatness.

“I’ve never heard anyone make a violin sing the way he did,” she said in an e-mail.

Even Gov. Chris Christie had something to say.

“As the father of a 17-year-old, I can’t imagine what those parents are feeling today,” he said. “Those people who led him to that bridge are going to have to bear that responsibility for the rest of their lives.”

Students at West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School, from which Ravi and Wei graduated, remembered them as nice people who were not in any way homophobic.

Ravi had gay friends, said Derek Yan, 16, a junior. Yan said he chatted online with Ravi about what college life was like, and Ravi “said he was lucky to have a good roommate. He said his roomate was cool.”

The author is Gilbert Goh and he is the Founder of DontCyberbully.com, an educational support site. He runs this multi-disciplinary active site so as to provide solace to cyber sufferers.

John is 25 and recently graduated from the local varsity.  Just fresh out of school, getting a job quickly is the order of the day.

Like so many young Singaporeans, aspirations naturally accompany the launch of one’s career and the newly found earning power.  If the Singapore Dream is still judged by the attainment of the materialistic benchmark of 5 ‘Cs’, then we should not be surprised that the motivation to flash an American Express card, drive a BMW, reside in Sentosa Cove, tee-off at Singapore Island Country Club and have a handsome savings account in a private bank will be the things that dreams are made of.

For a young adult, is this increasingly out of reach and may also be too backbreaking to achieve?  The media and in particular, the Internet have combined to bombard the new job seekers with visions of high life and images of glitzy living.  If you look around the swanky offices in Raffles Place, drinking a $6 frappuccino daily, surfing on an iPad or totting around a Louis Vuitton bag may seem to be more of a necessity than luxury in this era.  Whether one has the ability to fuel the lifestyle or seek debt to underwrite it is always the worrying question.  Perhaps this come as no surprise that the recent report from DP Credit Bureau showed up that younger Singaporeans are increasingly defaulting on their debts and facing pressure to effectively manage the credit they are given. 

And consumption-related debt may not be the only liabilities shouldered by the young people in their 20s.  The increasingly out-of-reach real estate prices translate into bigger mortgages with higher repayment costs but on the other hand, wages have not matched the astronomic rise in property prices.

So is the case with university loans.  Soaring tuition fees and the gradual reduction subsidies mean that students may be graduating with tens of thousands in loans before they even kick off their careers.

And if you add the costs of getting hitched or starting a family into the equation, the numbers can get quite mind boggling!  Wedding photo-shoots in Australia, banquet dinner at a 5-star hotel, honeymoon in an African safari park.

Before a set of loans gets repaid, more are being chalked up.  It all adds up.

Can the ‘neo-generation’ cope anymore?  Or would the feeble economy and the spectre of another global financial crisis turn them into a ‘ninja generation’ instead?  No income, no job and no assets.  The dream is out of reach and it is time to face reality.

Lincoln Teo is the General Manager of DP Credit Bureau and feels passionately about all things related to credit.

Personally, I’m not a risk taker. I’m a saver and a hoarder, garang guni if you’d say so. Some of my friends are making money from buying shares, but I wouldn’t follow blindly yet too lazy to get educated. I park my funds in 1 life insurance, 1 fixed deposit 1 reit (something like a share but it gives quarterly dividends=cash) and 2 savings accounts. Very simple, nothing complicated. I’m not sure if it covers me completely though.
I discipline myself to save at least half of what I earn, and then dip into this savings when I reward myself with something expensive. With money, comes power. On average, a Singaporean owns 5 credit cards. The highest age group that defaults on credit card payments is the 21-29 year olds. Certainly a high roller by then, interests snow balling.
Credit cards are Evil.

How else can we then spend within our limits, purchase online (very important for Gen X who are not old enough for debit/ credit cards), and sign signatures (act rich) for purchases like our parents do?
DBS Visa prepaid Card. designed and issued exclusively because of the YOG, these cards can be pre-loaded up to $500 and can be used for retail, online, overseas or locally. Wherever Visa card is accepted, it also doubles as an Ez-link card. The easiest way to get them is at Singpost. You can activate and top up at one stop.

It’s much easier (and faster) to pick up or purchase a furry ‘child’ than produce a human one, which may go towards explaining the statistics of dog licences overcoming the number of child births in Singapore. But other statistics also show that (unfortunately for the furries) it’s also much easier to neglect, abuse and discard them.

Both my dogs came from the SPCA. Being a volunteer there and having grown up with dogs I thought I had some idea what was involved and that any life I gave them would be better than living in a cage. I realise now that that was like believing I was prepared to be a parent because I went through childhood. But things have changed.

In the old days the dogs lived outside and ate leftovers-they might come indoors (downstairs only) for special occasions and running around the garden was considered enough exercise for them.

Today, Princess Peach (maltese-toy poodle cross) and Hermione (Chihuahua) get walked twice and sometimes three times a day (to reinforce their ‘pack identity’-something like team bonding, I think). They get their doggie tingkat meals (salt free, additive free, calibrated to their size and breed) five days a week and on weekends I cook for them: beef, pork, lamb (though I prefer not to eat dead animals myself), pasta or rice and vegetables. Once a week they go to doggie daycare where they learn to socialise with other dogs and get obedience and swimming lessons.

Thanks to them, I’ve been walking more, spending more time outdoors, getting to know more of Singapore (parks, park connectors, dog friendly cafes along Robertson Quay and Guillemard Road) and meeting other dog owners and their pets. And yes, I’ve been learning responsibility. I’m conditioning them to get used to the people that they will stay with when I’m out of Singapore and my will makes provision for them should anything happen to me.

I think the biggest difference between children and pets is that children grow up and become independent; with pets you go from looking after a child to looking after a geriatric grandparent. All their lives you are responsible for all their needs… and in response you receive unconditional companionship, loyalty, obedience-and what I would call love.

Ovidia Yu is a writer and she is fervent about the things she loves in life and those include Princess Peach and Hermione.

Gone are the days when children have the time to play freely without any worries. As much of their time is spent on the countless number of tuition or enrichment classes, they simply have too much educational and physical training going on for them. All this while, I have heard children complaining frequently, “Life should be more meaningful than just scoring distinctions and top grades in the exams!”

 Gone are the days where elderly parents can rely on their children to take care of them. Due to work commitment, physical and financial constraints, grandparents realized the need to re-define the meaning of grand-parenting. Elderly parents change themselves to be helpful members of the family by helping to ferry their grandchildren to school and classes. Sometimes, they even have to baby-sit the human kids for the entire day.

 Nowadays, pets are no longer considered as mere pets that eat scraps off our table. Instead, they are now recognized as immediate family members as well. Twinkle and Poco are my FURKIDS as I fondly address them! They are given the best quality of life that I deem as fit. In terms of nutrition and healthcare, they are definitely given the best that I may be able to provide for. My hubby and I belong to this generation of new-age parents of FURKIDS.

 Although both my FURKIDS go to ‘school’ at K9 Kulture, the level of stress is definitely not in equation terms to the PSLE. There are definitely no concerns about sitting down with my FURKIDS to do homework, tests, and exams! Both dogs look forward to go to K9 to meet their friends where they get to run, swim, eat and play. How fun is that?! Twinkle and Poco even got to have their own birthday parties. At times, we would even organize play-dates for them too!

 My hubby and I aim to live our lives to the fullest and in the process, enjoy our fruits of labour with our dogs. In return, they have always given us 200% of unconditional love because we mean the entire world to them.

 We are one big FAMILY! 

 Carol Chew is a client of K9 Kulture, a local dog daycare centre and she seeks joy in her two pooches!

As an owner of a new online pet shop, I do realize that Singaporeans prefer to have dogs then have children. Having come across numerous dog owners who are willing to spend large amount of money on their dogs for the grooming, food, housing and clothing, this is a prevalent phenomenon. As the owner of “Xiao Bai”, I understand the trend for Singaporeans have with regards to dog ownership.

Personally, I would prefer dogs to children because of the commitment level. Dogs are good companion as they are always there for you. You do not have to put in the same amount of work and attention as a human child requires, so as to receive a dog’s loyalty. Due to work and other commitments, many people, especially animal lovers, these days prefer to have 3 or more dogs then to have children. Dogs allow more flexibility for people’s scheduling as they can be left alone for long periods without fear of them getting into trouble.

The cost of maintaining a dog may vary from a minimum of $500 to as high as $5000, depending on the breed of the dog. I have clients who are willing to keep more than one dog and spend thousands of dollars purchasing the puppies. Not only that, the amount of money and time owners willing to spend on their fur kids can be way beyond imagination. Majority of the owners now are actually willing to spend hundreds of dollars to pamper their dogs, sending their dogs for grooming and spa, providing them with best food and treats. Some would even dress their dogs up with fanciful clothes, hair clips, shoes and leashes. Singaporeans also no longer feed their pets with food scraps. Prices of the premium range of dog food can go as high as $160 for a packet of 15kg food. There are even specially customized leashes with Swarovski crystals.

The market for dogs will grow constantly as suppliers come up with more dog food brands. As we are speaking, new pet shops are opening up in all areas of Singapore. In an effort to catch on with the pet fervor in Singapore, my organization is set to provide pet owners with an even better range of products and services. The dog craze is set to stay and their lives could only get better.

Wendi Quak is the Managing Director for Pets Empire Marketing International and she shares a strong passion for all the pets in her life.