Happy 2010! New year; new beginnings.
First, an update on our foundation: the SIF has a new vision. After 19 years of nurturing active global citizens we’ve determined – together with our stakeholders – that it’s time to update our vision to meet new challenges and to match the passion with which we carry out our work.
12–21 March
Esplanade Theatre
Immerse your senses in a world of music in this year’s Mosaic Music Festival, which includes the Chucho Valdes Quintet from Cuba, Karsh Kale & MIDIval Punditz from India, Singapore’s very own B-Quartet and many more acts from the United States, United Kingdom, Argentina, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan.
6–7 March
F1 Pit Building
Grab your bike and have some great family fun at the second OCBC Cycle Singapore. This time around, the biggest cycling event in Singapore will take place across the weekend to give cyclists of all levels a chance to take to the roads. Kids and toddlers get to pedal their own dedicated races along Marina Bay on Saturday. This will be followed the next day by a 20km community ride, 40km Challenge, 50km Super Challenge and the Criterium event for competitive riders.
www.ocbc.cyclesingapore.com.sg
4 March–10 April
DBS Arts Centre
The Singapore Repertory Theatre’s The Little Company is back with the adventures of the lovable Bear and Chicken. This time, Bear and Chicken’s fear of going to a new school leads them to join the circus instead. But their dreams of becoming a clown, acrobat and lion tamer don’t turn out as they expect. This charming tale of discovery illustrates that not all lessons in life are learnt in a classroom and how fears can be blown out of proportion.
www.sistic.com.sg
4–7 March
Esplanade Theatre
After its sold-out run in 2009, Singapore’s undisputed queen of comedy Kumar returns with Stripped Bare & Standing Up – a no holds barred show in which he exposes the naked truth of what it means to be a drag queen. Nothing is sacred as Kumar takes on the subjects of race, language and religion – from his crush on a teacher, wearing his first dress, buying his first pair of size-11 Manolo Blahnik stilettos or his army stint. Be prepared for a rollicking session with Singapore’s loudest, proudest diva.
www.sistic.com.sg
3–19 March
Alliance Française Theatre
Ollie and the Slurge is a modern-day fable about bullying, the environment and standing up for one’s beliefs. Young Ollie is bullied in school for his appearance and his ideas on caring for the environment. Ollie’s father is bullied by his boss because times are hard. The boss is bullied by his wife because she wants more money. How do they change this? With original live music and wonderful live-action puppets, Ollie and the Slurge is a fun family musical with a conscience.
Hone your inner triathlete in this multi-level race designed to suit every level of fitness and skill. This unique race series comprises an aquathlon and duathlon leading up to a triathlon event on 2 May. Open to anyone aged eight years old and above, the three-race series welcomes beginners, athletes and professionals and promises friendly and healthy fun for everyone.
28 February: Aquathlon
14 March : Duathlon
2 May : Triathlon
www.singaporesprintseries.com
19–20 February
Esplanade Theatre
The classic tale of war between the sexes takes on an urban spin in this modern comedic retelling of the love-hate relationship. As the male and female protagonists engage in a ‘war’ on the battlefield of love, who will succumb? Directed by eminent Hong Kong director Edward Lam, this play also features Taiwanese idol Ariel Lin, multi-faceted Taiwanese actor David Wang, and renowned Hong Kong music producer Denise Ho. Performed in Mandarin with English subtitles.
www.esplanade.com
Shocked by reports of bakeries and cake shops throwing out good bread by the truckload at the end of the business day, Austrian-born Christine and her husband Henry Laimer began Food from the Heart, channelling unsold bread to various needy institutions. BY REDZMAN RAHMAT
Across bakeries and cafés in Singapore, cakes, bread buns and pastries live a brief life as tempting treats, but at the end of the day, when the ovens cool and the cash registers are emptied, much of this food makes its way into bins.
In 2003, Food From The Heart entered the scene to stop the waste. Started as a bread distribution programme with a small team of some 300 volunteers, the programme has grown its volunteer base tenfold.
Driven by Christine’s passion and Henry’s background in logistics, Food from the Heart today serves more than 120 welfare homes and distributes about 16,000kg of bread a month. Volunteers are in charge of collecting unsold bread from bakeries and hotels each day and and distributing the food. (more…)
19–20 February
F1 Pit Building
This year’s Chingay will showcase a dazzling vision of Asia with the theme, The Soaring City. ‘Flying horses’ will kickstart the festivities and the first ever
firecracker dragon display will join traditional dragon and lion dances, while well-loved tales such as Butterfly Lover, Puteri Gunung Ledang and Indralogam will be weaved into the parade for a rich multi-ethnic festival.
26–28 February
Iluma Shopping Centre
From 3D animation and videography to photography, the showcase from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s fresh batch of Multimedia & Animation diploma graduates has it all. Discover what the young new media creatives have to offer at this wide-ranging display of student potential.
www.ict.np.edu.sg/showdown2010
6–7 February
Changi Exhibition Centre
Asia’s largest aerospace and defence exhibition, the Singapore Airshow, is back and ready to entertain when the six-day trade show opens to the public for a weekend. Apart from the latest in fighter jets, the Singapore Airshow will unveil – for the first time – the Green Pavilion, which will showcase groundbreaking ideas in aviation that tackle the challenges of climate change. Aviation enthusiasts and novices alike will be enthralled by masterful aerial acrobatics, fairground attractions, food, shopping and carnival fun. Located at the sprawling purpose-built Changi Exhibition Centre, visitors can also get a panoramic view of Singapore’s eastern seaboard.
www.singaporeairshow.com
www.sistic.com.sg
30 January
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Taiwanese pop princess A*Mei presents a darker and edgier side in her first world tour named after her Puyuma name, Gulilai Amit. Be prepared for a visual and aural feast as she entertains with crowd favourites such as Released, Sisters, Bad Boy and more.
29 January–3 February
Esplanade Theatre
Dubbed by The New York Times as the “world’s most popular opera” and regarded as the culmination of Giacomo Puccini’s compositional maturity, La Bohème features some of Italian opera’s favourite arias.
The Singapore Lyric Opera’s take on the passionate love affair between Mimi and Rodolfo comprises an Asian cast of opera greats such as Nancy Yuen, Kota Murakami, Simon Kyung Lee and Martin Ng. Performed in Italian with English and Mandarin subtitles.
21–24 January
Esplanade Theatre
Who says ballet is for girls? Men in Tutus is a hilarious all-male comedy ballet by New York’s Les Ballets Grandiva that combines classical ballet and contemporary dance with tongue-in-cheek humour. Prissy? Prim? Hardly. This performance is a rollicking take of male foibles, mishaps and hissy fits.
14 January
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Formed in 1987 and now well established with their own subversive punk-rock flavour, American rock trio Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals) and the Tre Cool (drums, percussion) will perform in Singapore for the first time.
The Grammy Award-winning band, widely credited to have revived mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States, has won three Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album for its ‘rock opera’ American Idiot and Record of the Year for Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
13–24 January
Various venues
Back for the sixth time, the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival takes on a provocative edge as it explores the relationship between Art and The Law. Organised and curated by The Necessary Stage, the Festival will push the boundaries of culture, lives and society. Festival highlights include _______Can Change, by The Necessary Stage – a play that touches on race, religion and sex – as well as Our Own B612, by Taiwanese pop duo katncandix2. Photographer Phillip Toledano will also present the Asian premiere of America the Gift Shop, an installation project that asks: if American foreign policy had a gift shop, what would it sell? Also premiering are these groundbreaking works: an installation piece by Burmese artist Htein Lin and a contemporary dance-theatre production by Debris Company from Slovakia.
For 18 years, the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) has held the mission of sharing ideas, skills and experiences to uplift lives and create greater understanding between Singaporeans and world communities. A new vision, ‘Making friends for a better world’ – announced at the SIF annual appreciation dinner on 27 October 2009 – underscores this commitment to the spirit of connectedness and doing good. (more…)
He’s not one himself, yet he’s fascinated by the Peranakans. Meet Yoshi Yanase, a Japanese who loves everything about the Nyonya culture. BY SHERALYN TAY
Yoshi Yanase has had an interesting life. The 32-year-old left his hometown of Gifu in central Japan for Utah in the United States when he was 15 for a one-and-a-half year study exchange programme, and then went on to do his degree in Melbourne, Australia. Yoshi worked a variety of jobs during his studies and after he graduated – including a marketing stint at a casino – to support his family back in Japan. “I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t like to stay in one place for a long time,” said the affable and animated young man. “That is, until I came to Singapore. Something about this place really drew me in.” (more…)
With Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew acknowledging shortcomings in the bilingual language policy – often seen as the cornerstone of the education system here – the Pandora’s box on the language policy has been opened – where will language education go from here? BY HAZZEL TAN
For Wayne Chan, learning Chinese was like being thrown into the deep end of a pool. Coming from an English-speaking family, Wayne “felt like an alien” in class. His inability to master the language also meant that he was often picked on by classmates. “[They] would tell the Chinese teacher that I had done something wrong when I hadn’t,” recalled the 31-year-old. “I would end up standing outside the classroom or at the principal’s office because I could not understand what they had said in Mandarin and thus had no way of defending myself.”
Getting by in class meant long hours of tuition, memorising Chinese words and filling in countless assessment books. Wayne came to resent and dread Chinese so much that he opted out of the Special stream when entering secondary school (where Chinese is taught as a first language) even though he qualified for it. (more…)
There’s something familiar and old worldly about Mulligatawny soup – literally ‘pepper water’ in Tamil – an English version of a traditional curry that packs a substantial punch.
Director General of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
A former environmental lawyer who co-authored the leading American text on environmental law, James Leape has been working in the area of conservation for at least three decades. He was in Singapore on 14 October 2009 as the 21st SIF Distinguished Visitor ahead of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Mr Leape gave a public lecture, Good COP, Bad COP – the Compelling Case for a Good Global Climate Deal while in Singapore. Here are some of his views on climate change issues.
The lack of adoption of green energy is a market problem. One classic failure of the market is that it does not consider the cost or impact associated with the use of fossil fuels on the climate.
Problems include subsidies of fossil fuels or the lack of buy-back energy schemes that allow someone with solar panels to sell excess energy back to the grid, so they don’t reap the benefits. (more…)
A trip to Pulau Ubin (‘Granite Island’ in Malay) is just 15-minutes on bumboat from Changi Point Ferry Terminal, but it takes you back much further – think Singapore circa 1960. Rich in wildlife and greenery, the island is a laid-back haven for simple pleasures and has a quaint, faded beauty of times gone by. BY JOAQUIN TEO
On the front porch of the sky-blue two-storey house, the old man stood arms akimbo, glancing into the horizon, lost in thought. Overhead, two Oriental Pied Hornbills flew past, breaking the serenity with piercing cackles. The old man looked up, then turned his attention to a black mongrel that had lumbered past the rusty gates and flopped down beside a weather-beaten wooden stool. Mr Lim Chu Di, village headman, squatted by the dog and stroked its back. “These animals are all my friends. All my life I’ve been playing with them – dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, pigs,” he said. (more…)
During a four-month stint from August to December 2009 as a Singapore International Foundation (SIF) in-field English language teacher in Vientiane, Laos, Christine Chong didn’t just impart her love for the English language, but also saw the creative ways in which others learnt to use and love it too. BY SHERALYN TAY
Christine (far left) with some of her students at the SEA Games Village in Laos
As her students used terms like “flag bearer” and “mascots” to describe the opening ceremony of the 2009 SEA Games to her, English teacher Christine Chong swelled with pride. After all, it marked the great strides her students had made. “[Initially], my driver (who is also my student) would look frazzled, start scratching his head and mumbling to himself non-stop in Lao whenever he had problems understanding me,” Christine shared. So one can imagine her joy when – just months later – her students were able to express themselves so well. Her driver was even able to read and understand every word in her thank-you card to him.
There’re more places to get your retail fix than Orchard Road. Discover local flavour, colour and weird bric-a-brac at these alternative shopping spots. BY DONOVAN WONG
An odd pairing – laser dics, music CDs and old shoes
The best time to visit is on a Saturday afternoon. Shoppers, gawkers and traders stroll serenely through a grid of haphazardly arranged street stalls with their gaze pinned to the ground seeking out the tarpaulin gallery. Old shoes, faulty gizmos, knock-off sunnies, scratched CDs, vinyls and laser discs, nets, drills and other bizarre bits and pieces. But it’s not all junk. A plastic case displays a tangle of Buddhist amulets while dog-eared books bake quietly in the heat of the day. Youngsters sporting the best in flea-market chic can also be found sifting through racks of used clothes.
Since the 1930s, the flea market at Sungei Road has had the infamy of being know as ‘Thieves Market” for selling a varied assortment of second-hand goods – not all gainfully acquired. Today, the little street makes a great lazy-day outing. (more…)
A global survey conducted over three years by Gallup has revealed that Singapore is a top immigration destination. Gallup used a Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI) to assess the immigration desirability of countries.
The PNMI is calculated by subtracting the estimated number of adults who wish to leave a country permanently from the estimated number who wish to immigrate to the country.
According to the study, if Singapore were to take in all adults who wish to settle in the Republic, the adult population of 3.6 million would jump to 13 million. Singapore topped the chart with the highest PNMI value of 260 per cent, followed by Saudi Arabia (180 per cent), New Zealand (175 per cent), Canada (170 per cent) and Australia (145 per cent). (more…)
“We have kept the HDB residents in place, so we are sharing the growth of the city with the people who are of that class who built the city. We could have maximised the value by selling it off, and then a condo would have been built. But we didn’t do that.”
- Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on the launch of the Pinnacle@Duxton, a 50-storey high public housing project in the city. (more…)
Building and Construction Authority
Showing that it can be done, the Building and Construction Authority launched Southeast Asia’s first zero energy building, dubbed the ZEB. The three-storey retrofitted building along Braddell Road houses classrooms, offices and a resource centre. Some 1,500 square metres of solar panels – larger than an Olympic-sized pool when combined – will help to power the building, which also features innovations for eco-friendly ventilation and lighting. Using renewable energy, the ZEB will generate as much energy as it uses, working out to a net energy consumption of zero and saving $84,000 a year in energy costs.
Strip away the generous production budgets and marketing from mainstream hits such as Money No Enough or The Eye – and what you’ll discover is a quirkier and more surprising side of the Singapore filmmaking scene. BY REDZMAN RAHMAT
Eschewing convention, independent filmmakers – many on a shoestring budget – expose a side of life you wouldn’t normally see in cinemas. Content to exist at the periphery of the popularity sphere, independent works are seldom made for commercial value, but simply because their creators have something to say. And going by the range of works – from award-winning documentaries by Tan Pin Pin (Invisible City and Singapore GaGa) and cult hit Tak Giu (Hokkien for ‘kick ball’), an indie film about local soccer culture, to the productions from students and enthusiasts that populate YouTube – it appears that local indie filmmakers indeed have a lot on their mind. (more…)
With just months to go till 14 August when the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) comes to Singapore, a flurry of Games-related activities has added to the excitement. For one, 120 young sport presenters – aged between 13 and 29 – have been assigned to competition venues as announcers.
Also unveiled were the names of the Games mascots, Lyo the lion and Merly the merlion, who represent the values of excellence, respect and friendship. Lyo, whose name is short for ‘Lion of the Youth Olympics’, is fun-loving and symbolises the boundless energy of youths, while Merly the merlion (‘mer’ for the sea and ‘ly’ for liveliness and youthfulness) is a passionate advocate of environment protection.
Apart from the fanfare over the presenters and mascots, anticipation also surrounded the launch of an international medal design competition which ran from November to December last year. The creator of the winning design will win a ticket to Singapore and to the Games.
The public can vote online for their favourite medal design at www.medaldesigncompetition.com by 22 January.
In an era of chain stores and online transaction, some small independent bookstores have tapped into a niche demographic seeking not just books but intimacy, nostalgia and a sense of belonging. Employing cult concepts, low-key marketing tactics and lots of passion, here’s how these indie stores stand up to the big boys. BY Hazzel Tan
Hole-in-the-wall bookstores are making their mark – albeit a quiet one. With BooksActually at Club Street (ed note: It has since relocated to No. 9, Yong Siak Street) considered a pioneer of sorts among these little independent bookstores, there is now a plethora of such specialised shops whose unusual marketing strategies position them as earnest underdogs in an arena of mainstream giants. (more…)
Singapore tax regime in the white
A tax pact with France has taken Singapore into the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s ‘white’ list of countries that comply with new international standards on the sharing of information for tax purposes. France joins a list of 13 countries with which the Republic holds agreements for the avoidance of double taxation.
(more…)
Exemplifying the three thrusts of the new SIF vision are three projects, among which is the long-running Singapore Internationale grant scheme. The nine-year-old scheme has supported more than 100 Singaporeans and actively works to promote sharing of ideas among local and international artists to spur creativity and cross-cultural sharing.
To achieve the goal of working with communities for sustained development, the SIF also recently supported a mobile library in Hanoi to address the challenges of education in Vietnam. More than 36 per cent of the 86 million-strong Vietnamese population are under 15 years old, but schools, teachers, books and other educational resources are hard to come by, especially for those living in rural areas. The mobile library will bring books, computers, storytelling and games to villages in Hanoi to help improve the well-being of communities and uplift the lives of their children.
Finally, showcasing Singapore in all its colour is the newly launched Singapore Kopitiam (www.singaporekopitiam.sg), a website that explores the culture, society and people of Singapore.
The 20th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings concluded their run in Singapore with a strong anti-protectionist stance and a promise to maintain stimulus measures until recovery is sustained, an outcome lauded by economists and academics as significant for the global economy. (more…)
Even as the Singapore economy moves slowly out of the recession, confidence in the property sector soared as both private and public home prices picked up.
According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), private home prices rose 15.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the second, marking the sharpest turnaround after four straight quarters of decline.
Non-landed private homes in the city fringe – the category that saw the highest increase – rose 18.5 per cent and private home prices in the prime districts rose by 15.2 per cent. All other private home prices climbed 16.1 per cent.
HDB resale prices marked a jump of 3.6 per cent in the third quarter as the number of resale transactions hit a five-year high of 11,649. More foreign buyers are also streaming back into the market, accounting for 22.7 per cent of private home sales in the third quarter, higher than the 19.7 per cent average since the start of 2000.
