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The Cost Of Disposing Durian Husk During Durian Season

Durian season is in full swing and this year’s bumper crop means booming business for durian sellers. However, stall owners face hidden costs, as they have to fork out more cash to dispose of the durian husks.

Every day, workers at a stall in Geylang fill up four huge bins with durian husks. Each bin can accommodate about 120 kilogrammes of durian husks. Having extra bins during peak season means the stall pays about S$1,300 each month to have them disposed of – three times what it usually pays for waste collection.

There’s no way to avoid such costs, especially when most customers prefer to have their purchased durians opened and packed before they take the fruit home.

“We cannot force them to take the whole durian,” said the owner of Fruit Stop 1, Mr Teoh See Yong. “If they drive here, we suggest to them to take the whole durian home, rather than having the meat put in Styrofoam boxes.”

Typically, durian stalls are charged more for waste collection, based on the number and size of the bins needed.

It is a similar situation for one durian stall owner in Katong. He has been paying between S$600 and S$1,000 each month to get rid of the durian husks. During non-peak season, he would typically pay slightly more than S$100.

“If everybody takes durians with the husks, it will lower our costs,” said Mr Wong Yew Loon, the owner of stall 227 Katong Durian. “It will save our time, save our labour and save the price that it costs to get people to throw away the husks. It’s good to have everybody bring back the whole durian.”

SembWaste says it sees around 30 per cent more durian waste during the peak season of May to July, both from households and commercial stalls.

Member of Parliament Edwin Tong, who oversees part of Geylang, says there has been a noticeable increase in durian waste recently, particularly in the common bins near durian stalls.

However, he pointed out that, as the increase has not been overwhelming, the town council has been able to absorb it.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 13, 2015
Shakir Juanda Receives Singapore Youth Award For Efforts Promoting Silat

Five youths and one youth organisation received this year’s Singapore Youth Award at a presentation ceremony held at the Victoria Concert Hall on Jul 12.

Awarded by the National Youth Council, the accolade is the nation’s highest for youth. It recognises individuals and teams who have excelled in their fields and have made significant contributions to society.

SECOND CHANCES

The recipients include Josephus Tan, who chairs several community projects for the Law Society of Singapore, including one which offers legal advice to sex workers. The teenage rebel-turned-lawyer said it was not by chance that his life’s journey lay around the theme of second chances.

Then a delinquent son, his family gave him one such chance to study law. His sense of purpose renewed, he went on to use his knowledge for the benefit of society, clocking over 5,000 pro bono hours over six years.

“When you have something like that, a miracle, I think that it comes with a special mission, so what I do is no longer a job. I see it as a mission,” said Tan. “I never believe in luck so I never believe that I’m just very lucky. I think that now that I’m given this second chance, I should actually use my story to inspire the future generation, to pay it forward.

“Regardless of what you do, whether it’s in law, medicine, sports or the arts, whatever it is, if you can and you have the chance, you got to pass forward the message to future generations, so that we can continue to bond people. And when you bond people, that is when you actually forge a nation.

INSPIRING STUDENTS

Silat champion Muhammad Shakir Juanda said he would put his award to good use.

He was conferred the award for taking home a string of medals – including four SEA Games medals and the Silat World Championship gold medal in 2012 – and his work at schools to inspire students to achieve their dreams.

“After winning this award, it opens a wide variety of opportunities for me to help give back to the community,” said Shakir. “A lot of people have given me name cards and everything, saying ‘hey I have this kind of student, can you help them and give them motivational talks’.”

The other individual winners are artist and filmmaker Brian Gothong Tan, chemical engineer and community engagement activist Dr Chew Jia Wei, and musician Yang Ji Wei.

Yang fell in love with the Sheng while he was still in primary school and was so inspired by the sounds of the traditional Chinese wind instrument, that mastering it alone was not enough.

He has taken it as his personal mission to make sure the ancient instruments sound modern and not forgotten and is nurturing a new generation of young musicians eager to push the boundaries of Chinese classical music.

“Very few people learn to appreciate this music,” said Yang. “For me, I hope that I can spread this instrument by giving it a new lease of life.

“I hope, actually, one day to see my students or people that I’ve mentored before be able to carry on the legacy of the work that I do. That is my dream actually, so that the instruments will not be forgotten and continue to evolve and be relevant in today’s society.

The National University of Singapore’s Students Against Violation of the Earth (NUS SAVE) received the team award for its outstanding environmental conservation efforts.

The team worked with the university administration to roll out several environmental projects on campus, and has been represented in major events beyond the campus, including the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, as well as Earthwatch Study Trips to Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia and Churchill.

MAKING THE FULLEST OUT OF LIFE

Also recognised on Sunday was former award winner Lina Chong.

Despite her battles with ill health since age 17, the grassroots leader tirelessly devoted herself towards youth leadership and community development even after winning the award in 2009.

Tapping the opportunities provided to her when she was awarded the Singapore Youth Award in 2009, she went on to advocate for youth and represented their voices on platforms such as the 17th ASEAN Youth Day Meeting in 2011.

For her efforts, she was awarded several accolades, including the National Day Award Public Service Medal (PBM) in 2012. On Sunday she received the Medal of Commendation – awarded to former SYA recipients who have contributed to society for at least five years after they were conferred the award.

“Because of my medical conditions, if this is going to be the last day of my life, I will make the fullest out of it,” said Ms Chong.

“It’s really important to pay it forward, because the next generation of Singapore depends on all of you – the young people out there. Without you continuing to serve the community, without you coming forward to lead Singapore, our good work will actually go to waste.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 13, 2015
Section Of East Coast Park Beach Closed Due To ‘Oil Slick’

A section of East Coast Park beach was closed off to swimmers today (July 12) due to an “oil slick”, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said.

Twitter user Gurmit Singh (@gurms) first alerted TODAY to the incident. Mr Singh said that there was a “smell of petrol in the air”.

An NEA spokesman said it was notified at around 1.45pm of the oil slick. Officers who arrived later at the site found the area near the rock bund and shoreline of Area C3 East Coast Beach to be affected.

The oil patch measured approximately 10m by 5m, said the spokesman and a 100m stretch of the beach was temporarily closed to beach-goers as contractors commenced a clean-up of the affected area.

A Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) spokesman also said it had been informed of the sighting.

The MPA “did not receive any report of oil spill from ships”, the spokesman said.

When TODAY went down to the scene, a sign had already been put up warning beach-goers of “contaminated” waters.

Source: www.todayonline.com

July 13, 2015
Singapura: The Musical Shuts Down Abruptly

Less than a month after the $2.72 million Singapura: The Musical extended its run till July 19, the production has abruptly folded.

A staff member at the Capitol Theatre’s ticketing counter informed The Straits Times on Sunday that the musical had closed last week. Attempts to book tickets online at the musical’s website were also unsuccessful.

A Singaporean member of the crew who was involved with the production and asked not to be named said that his contract had been delayed and that he has not been paid.

Attempts to reach the musical’s press relations team for comment over the weekend were unsuccessful.

The story is developing and The Straits Times is contacting people involved in the production.

Rumours of financial trouble and dissent among the crew had plagued the blockbuster production,which features a predominantly Filipino cast, in the weeks leading up to its opening on May 19.

But in an e-mail sent in May to The Straits Times, composer and musical director Ed Gatchalian had dismissed these and said: “The musical is ready to go. There are nasty people spreading so many inaccuracies and even lies about us.”

Directed by American Greg Ganakas and written by Filipino playwright Joel Trinidad, the production debuted at the newly refurbished Capitol Theatre to mixed reviews. The Straits Times’ theatre reviewer Corrie Tan said that the play felt unfocused, lacked nuance and suffered from technical problems.

It was originally slated to run till June 7, but Gatchalian had announced an extension a fortnight ago, and said that there are discussions for Singapura to travel to other parts of the world such as Australia and the United States.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

July 13, 2015
Malay Single-Mother A Hero To Old Chinese Couple

Single mother Noriza A. Mansor gets only one day off a week from her job as a bedsheet promoter.

Most would use that day to rest, but she spends it looking after an old man she met by chance as he stood in a Toa Payoh supermarket soiled by his faeces.

Ms Noriza, 49, made headlines last October when she stepped forward to help Mr Tan Soy Yong, 76, who had soiled himself while buying groceries with his wife, who was in a wheelchair.

Others had recoiled from the old man and his stench. But Ms Noriza not only bought him new shorts but she even knelt to wipe the dried faeces off his legs – an act which moved a bystander to tears.

Since that day, she has made it a point to visit Mr Tan for at least six hours a week at his Potong Pasir three-room flat.

Mr Tan has lived there alone since the start of the year, when his wife, Madam Lee Bee Yian, also 76, was hospitalised for cancer.

During her visits, Ms Noriza cleans up Mr Tan, who cannot control his bowels, and washes his soiled laundry. She also mops the floor and tidies up the flat, while chatting brightly with him in a mix of Malay and Hokkien. Some days, she will accompany him to visit his wife in hospital. On other days, she will take him out in his wheelchair to the hawker centre to eat his favourite wonton noodles.

Said Ms Noriza: “I only wish I could see him more often. Sometimes if I finish work at 8pm, I will go to see him. But I don’t always have the time.”

She often works 12 hours a day, taking home around $2,000 a month. She has three sons and two daughters aged 11 to 26. Four of them still live with her.

Yet she has no qualms about making time for the old couple. “In my life, I am never tired,” she said.

Mr Tan told her he has a son and a daughter, but Ms Noriza said that, according to social workers, the couple have no children. She thinks they have a niece and a nephew living in Singapore, but has been unable to contact them.

Ms Noriza believes Mr Tan was sent into her life by God, as she lost her parents when she was 21.

Her father succumbed to cancer and her mother wasted away in depression eight months later.

She said she treats the couple as “my own father and mother”.

Mr Tan once asked her if she had a passport. “I said yes. He said when his wife is discharged, we can go on holiday together as a family.”

She smiled wistfully. “I know this kind of thing is very hard, with their conditions. But of course I told him we would. He’s so sweet.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

July 13, 2015