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  • Singapore Needs ‘Deeper, More Personal Multiracial Compact’

    Singapore Needs ‘Deeper, More Personal Multiracial Compact’

    Building a multiracial compact is never-ending, as Singapore can never be satisfied with what it has achieved, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who called for a “deeper, more personal multiracialism” here.

    At a dialogue yesterday with youth, he observed that peaceful accommodation was possible in British and French societies when it came to the first-generation immigrants despite cultural and religious differences.

    Interestingly, he said, it was the second generation that grew up in both countries who felt alienated and were vulnerable to outside influences.

    “(So) however little we’ve achieved, it can tumble down quickly. Building a multiracial compact is a never-ending game, not just because of what we’re like as a people, but because of what’s happening around the world,” he said.

    Noting that ethical and religious consciousness is rising, leading to global conflict, he added that Singapore must put even more effort into deepening its multiracial compact now.

    “We start from young, with friendships, interactions, being in the same netball team, the same hockey team, meeting three or four times a week, being on Facebook together, being on WhatsApp together, growing up as Singaporeans together. It has to be a deeper, more personal multiracialism,” he stressed.

    Mr Tharman was speaking after some race-related questions from students. One had observed that the older generation still harboured “racial sentiments”, and worried that it might cause a divide like the one in the United States.

    Another participant felt that what the President of Singapore does — his actions — rather than his race is the main factor in how people related to the office. He suggested that more be done to allow Singaporeans to know what the President is doing.

    To that, Senior Minister of State and MP (Jurong GRC) Desmond Lee, who was part of the panel, said that, in the first place, the candidate must meet certain criteria and have a lengthy background in the private or public sector. They should be able to explain how they can carry out the roles of the President, he noted.

    As for the issue of race, he said: “When you say race doesn’t matter, we want to be there, we want to work constantly towards being truly multiracial, multicultural Singapore (but) I think we all accept that race still is a factor.”

    The race issue had surfaced recently, with impending changes to the Elected Presidency that would ensure minorities get elected as President from time to time.

     

    Source: TODAY Online

     

  • Uber Suspends Driver Who Bragged About Drinking

    Uber Suspends Driver Who Bragged About Drinking

    Ms Nicole Lee was hanging out at Clarke Quay into the early hours of a recent Sunday when she decided to book an Uber ride to her home in Clementi.

    The journey took just 30 minutes but it was a “horrifying” ride, said the trade publications editor.

    Soon after getting into the car, the Uber driver bragged that he had been out drinking before he picked her up at 4.12am.

    Despite repeated requests by Ms Lee, 23, to be let out of his car, he insisted on going ahead with the trip. He kept offering to take her to a house party, and also asked her out to supper.

    He later asked for her phone number and would not let her out of the car at her destination until she complied.

    Private-hire car service Uber confirmed with The Sunday Times last Monday that the driver – who it has not named – has been suspended and investigations are ongoing.

    This month, Uber also suspended another driver, apparently over a passenger complaint that he had allowed someone else to ferry passengers using his account. Uber said it could not reveal details of either case, due to privacy policies between drivers and passengers.

    Mr Leigh Wong, Uber’s head of communications for Singapore and Malaysia, said: “Our standard operating procedure in these instances is to wait-list the driver’s account, then pending an investigation, to address any issues accordingly.”

    Ms Lee, however, wants to know how the driver will be dealt with, and if he will be “blacklisted”.

    Recounting the events of that morning, Ms Lee said she continued with the ride as she thought the driver – who looked to be in his 20s – was just showing off about his drinking habits and he also appeared to be able to drive well.

    But she said her fears that he may have had too much to drink were revived when they approached a police roadblock near Ngee Ann Polytechnic at about 4.30am. “He panicked and told me – ‘I cannot take the (breathalyser) test’. At the roadblock, he told the police that he was an Uber driver and was taking me home. They let him pass,” she said.

    Ms Lee said he later asked for her phone number and refused to let her out of the car unless she complied. “At that point, I was quite eager to go home, so I gave it to him,” she said, adding that she wanted to elicit a “confession” from him later that he had been drinking.

    In a WhatsApp conversation Ms Lee showed to The Sunday Times, the driver replied “200 for 2 towers or one bottle of Chivas”, when she asked him about his drinking.

    The Sunday Times tried but could not contact the driver. In the Uber app, drivers and passengers are known to each other only by their account names, which may not be their real names.

    When asked by The Sunday Times, Uber did not say how many drivers it has suspended.

    Grab, the other major player in the ride-hailing industry here, assured commuters that terminations made up a “very small percentage of the total number of Grab drivers”.

    “We investigate all complaints or reports of errant drivers, and then carefully consider, against our promulgated code of conduct, the best action to take… Errant drivers will be penalised with actions ranging from warnings to suspension,” said Mr Lim Kell Jay, head of Grab Singapore.

    Ms Lee said she will still use Uber. “Because it’s cheap, I’m still taking Uber. But now I stay off Uber past midnight and will take a taxi, since it’s properly licensed,” she added.

     

    Source: The Straits Times

  • Concrete Structure Outside Tampines HDB Unit Gives Way

    Concrete Structure Outside Tampines HDB Unit Gives Way

    A concrete structure that gave way outside a four-storey HDB block along Tampines Street 23 has been removed, after close to seven hours. No one was hurt as a result of the incident that happened on Sunday morning (Sep 25).

    The structure serves as a sun shield for a unit on the fourth storey of Block 201E. According to Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC Cheng Li Hui, an engineer and safety officer have assessed the situation.

    Tampines Town Council, which is the building owner of the HDB block, was directed by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) to engage a professional engineer to advise on the necessary measures to remove the dislodged sun breaker, as well as to carry out a detailed investigation and recommend permanent rectification works.

    The professional engineer engaged by Tampines Town Council has inspected and assessed that the structural integrity of the main building is not affected by the incident, said BCA.

    A sun breaker on the third floor was also damaged during the fall but Ms Cheng said the structure will “unlikely” be removed on Sunday as it may not be safe to do so. “It’s still quite attached, so we will be building a proper platform and we will be looking at removing it over the next week,” she said.

    BCA also said that as an added safety precaution, the professional engineer is also required to inspect all the other HDB blocks in the area with similar architectural facade.

    Meanwhile, a statement from HDB said that the sun breaker is “non-structural in nature and will not affect the building’s structural integrity”.

    “HDB engineers have inspected the block and ascertained that the building is structurally safe. There were no injuries,” the emailed response added. “Our engineers are investigating the cause of the incident.”

    According to an eyewitness who spoke with Channel NewsAsia, the sun breaker fell at around 10am. “I heard sounds of glass shattering,” she said.

    The owner of the affected unit, Mr Choo Keat Thin, said an HDB officer has been called to check the internal structure of his flat.

    “I was watching TV, and I heard a ‘boom’ sound,” said Mr Choo. “So I came to the window to take a look and I saw the beam fell. I thought this beam will cause danger to the public downstairs, so I call 999.

    “It’s a shock to realise that such a big part of the external block … to just collapse and, luckily it did not roll over and hit the bottom or the flat below.”

    While HDB and town council officers waited for the arrival of a crane to remove the structure, HDB and town council officers used some cables and a net to hold up the sun breaker. The area was cordoned off, with police at the scene.

     

    Source: ChannelNewsAsia

  • NASA To Reveal ‘Surprising’ Activity On Jupiter’s Moon

    NASA To Reveal ‘Surprising’ Activity On Jupiter’s Moon

    There’s something going on beneath the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. But what?

    NASA teased a “surprising” announcement for Monday (Sept 26), based on Hubble Space Telescope images of the celestial body, which many experts believe could contain a subsurface ocean, even possibly some form of life.

    The US space agency has already proclaimed that Europa has “strong evidence for an ocean of liquid water beneath its crust and which could host conditions favourable for life”.

    At Monday’s announcement, “astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean”, it said in a statement.

    The announcement will be made at a news conference at 2pm (local time) Monday featuring Dr Paul Hertz, NASA’s director of astrophysics, and Dr William Sparks, an astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

    NASA announced last year that it intends to send a robotic spacecraft, equipped with a suite of scientific instruments, to circle Europa in the 2020s.

    In 2012, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope “observed water vapour above the south polar region of Europa,” suggesting water plumes may be erupting from the moon, the space agency said.

    If those plumes are confirmed, and if they are found to originate from a subsurface ocean, scientists hope the spacecraft could study their chemical makeup, revealing characteristics of the water without having to drill through ice.

    Jupiter, nicknamed the king of the solar system, is surrounded by more than 50 moons.

    Last year, data from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed that Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, has an underground ocean that contains more water than Earth’s, broadening the hunt for places in the solar system where life might be able to exist.

    In the case of Ganymede, aurorae — displays of light in the atmosphere — glimpsed by the Hubble Space Telescope allowed scientists to confirm the long-suspected subsurface saltwater there.

    Because aurorae are controlled by a moon or planet’s magnetic field, observing changes in their behaviour can lead to better understanding of what exists under the surface.

    The solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter is the fifth from the Sun.

    NASA’s US$1.1 billion (S$1.5 billion) Juno spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around the planet in July on a 20-month mission to learn more about how the gas giant formed, and to probe the origins of the solar system.

     

    Source: TODAY Online

  • Man, 25, Arrested In Connection To Unnatural Death Of 61-Year-Old In Bishan Flat

    Man, 25, Arrested In Connection To Unnatural Death Of 61-Year-Old In Bishan Flat

    A 61-year-old man was found dead in the living room of his Bishan Housing Board flat on Saturday (Sept 24).

    A 25-year-old man, believed to be his son, has been arrested in connection to the unnatural death case.

    Police said they were alerted at about 8.20pm to the unit at Block 152B Bishan Street 11.

    It is understood that at least one neighbour reported about noise on the fifth storey. It is believed that things were being thrown around.

    The older man was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene at about 9pm. No visible injuries were seen on him.

    When The Straits Times arrived on the scene, police had cordoned off the corridor on the fifth storey.

    Some police officers were seen leaving the scene with evidence at about 12.30am on Sunday (Sept 25).

    A neighbour, who lives on the fourth story and wanted to be known as Ms Yaya, 33, said: “It’s normal to hear quarrelling upstairs in the last few days. It happens during the evening and lasts for only a few minutes.”

    About 15 relatives, including the deceased’s wife, were seen at the void deck of the block at about 1am. She later broke down, as relatives hugged her.

    The 25-year-old man is her younger son, according to a relative who declined to be named.  Investigations are ongoing.

     

    Source: The Straits Times

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