Tag: mother

Working Mum To Get $1 In Maintenance

A working mother who divorced her pilot husband has been awarded $1 in annual nominal maintenance after the Court of Appeal clarified a previous ruling, a decision which means she can apply for further maintenance in future if her circumstances change.

Last October, the High Court ruled that the couple’s $1.65 million matrimonial home should be divided 70:30 in favour of the wife, while a $1,500 monthly maintenance for their child should be borne equally by both parents.

However, the judge made no order as to her maintenance but made it clear that she had a legal right to apply for it in the future.

The woman, 42, a bank officer, appealed to the apex court against the whole judgment in July. It dismissed her case but explained that “no order” maintenance was not appropriate to reflect the judge’s ruling.

Instead it granted her nominal maintenance, which preserves her right to apply for maintenance in the future should the need arise.

“In order to preserve a wife’s right to apply for maintenance to the court in the future, an order for nominal maintenance is required,” wrote Judge of Appeal Andrew Phang, on behalf of the Court of Appeal in judgment grounds released this month. “What the judge was doing, in substance, was to equate the legal effect or result of an order for nominal maintenance with that for an order that there be no order on an application for maintenance. With respect, we disagree.”

The 43-year-old former Republic of Singapore Air Force pilot and the working mum, whose salary soared after she got her master’s degree, will share custody of their 11-year-old child despite the wife’s bid for sole custody.

The couple cannot be named for legal reasons. Their marriage broke down in 2010 after 12 years and she cited his unreasonable behaviour.

She was represented by lawyer Koh Tien Hua, while he was defended by Ms Sim Bock Eng.

In a commentary on the appeals court’s decision, two Singapore Management University law graduates have suggested that the award of $1 maintenance orders as the default position should be reviewed.

This should be considered “in an age when women are increasingly financially independent and spouses share familial responsibilities more equally”, Ms Beatrice Yeo and Ms Fiona Chew wrote in a commentary published in Singapore Law Watch last week. “Arguably, the award of $1 maintenance simply to preserve the wife’s future right to maintenance without further justification might also be said to be out of touch with the realities of today’s more gender-equal era.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

September 28, 2015
Religious Teacher Kills Divorcee Girlfriend Who Pestered Him To Marry

PETALING JAYA: A religious school teacher here allegedly stabbed and killed his girlfriend during a heated argument where she demanded that they get married.

The man was arrested at his home in Jalan Songket 4, Taman Bukit Bujang, several hours after the bloodied body of Nur Salina Nazir was discovered in her grey Proton Wira at about 9am on Wednesday.

The car was located outside Sekolah Rendah Agama Kuala Kubu Baru, where the suspect taught.

The victim, Nur Salina

Nur Salina, who has four children, was found in the drivers’ seat with seven stab wounds to her body.

She was discovered by passers-by who then alerted the authorities.

It is learnt that the incident took place when the argument escalated and the suspect whipped out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly.

Hulu Selangor OCPD Supt R. Supramaniam confirmed the incident and said the case was classified under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

“She was stabbed four times on her chest, twice on the ribs and once on the left arm.

“Her belongings are also missing. We are trying to find the weapon that was used,” he said.

Supramaniam said the suspect confessed to the stabbing.

Nur Salina left behind four children – three daughters and a son – aged between seven and 14.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

May 7, 2015
Mother Of Amos Yee Declares Him To Be Beyond Parental Control

A teenager who is in police custody for posting a video online that insulted Christianity and attacked Mr Lee Kuan Yew has been declared by his mother to be beyond her control.

A reliable source told The Straits Times Amos Yee’s mother has made a police report to that effect.

On Sunday, Amos, who will turn 17 this year, was arrested for a video he posted last Friday that allegedly celebrated the death of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister. The eight-minute-long video included remarks about Christianity that some people found insensitive.

In a statement yesterday, police said Amos will face charges in court today under Section 298 of the Penal Code for utterances against Christians with a “deliberate intent to wound religious feelings”. Other charges include circulating an obscene object and making threatening, abusive or insulting communication which is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Amos, a school leaver who blogged that he intended to pursue a career in film and YouTube videos, was largely slammed by netizens over the video, although some defended his right to his opinion.

More than 20 police reports have been lodged against him over the video as well as over obscene material posted on his blog on Sunday. Both the video and the blog post have since been removed.

The video, called Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!, had been viewed more than 600,000 times by Sunday.

Mr Lee died on March 23, aged 91.

Lawyer Chia Boon Teck, who was among those who made police reports, said: “Mr Lee spent his life helping Singaporeans to put food on the table and build roofs over our heads. Since we need not worry about food and shelter, we can indulge in contemplating our right to hurt others with our words in the name of freedom of speech.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

March 31, 2015
Dutch Mother Rescues Daughter From Islamic State

A mother defied official warnings to travel to the Syrian city of Raqqa to rescue her daughter from the clutches of Islamic State terrorists.

The woman, from Maastricht, named only as Monique was told that it was too dangerous to attempt the journey to free her daughter Aicha, 19.

“Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. This is what I think is right,” she told family and friends

After an appeal for help from her daughter, a Dutch convert to Islam, for help last month, the mother was told by police not to try and rescue her because it was too dangerous.

She was also warned that the “provision of assistance” to jihadists, such as her daughter, could be a criminal offence. She travelled from Turkey to Raqqa, the self styled capital of Islamic State, wearing a burka after arranging via Facebook a rescue rendezvous with he daughter.

The pair then escaped across the Syrian border back to Turkey where Aicha was arrested because she does not have a passport.

After converting to Islam aged 18, Aicha married Omar Yilmaz, a notorious Dutch jihadi, who is a former soldier, after seeing him interviewed on television.

“She wanted to go home, but could not leave Raqqa without help,” said the mother.

Dutch foreign ministry officials have intervened to bring the mother and daughter back from Turkey before the end of the week.

“It is quite remarkable that the mother managed to find and get her daughter,” Françoise Landerloo, the family’s lawyer told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

November 21, 2014
An inclusive society – LGBTQ & Straight

Bill B. – The American gay who wrote to The Real Singapore

I was quite horrified to read this open letter to TRS from two tourists who were recently in Singapore for a holiday. I was horrified for two reasons: first, over their terrible experience in Singapore, and second, that they’d choose TRS to air unhappiness over a very serious issue. I’ll only be discussing the first reason here (there is subtext, in case you are wondering).

I was quite shocked to learn that there are still Singaporeans who think it’s okay to publicly and openly discriminate against a minority group. I know this isn’t surprising to many out there, but I’ve been extremely sheltered for most of my life — I went to a convent school and the culture was incredibly inclusive. In fact, almost all my friends are from different races/religions/sexual orientations. Festive celebrations in my home might as well be a successful and happy initiative for a racial harmony campaign.

So, to learn that a mother would openly (and clearly, loud enough for the two men to hear) tell her son to avert his eyes because being gay is abnormal seems just horrendous to me. Please note that the operative words here are “openly” and “loud enough”.

There is a world of difference between keeping opinions and beliefs that might hurt others to yourself and blatantly airing them for the world to see

I get it: we all have (and are entitled) to our own opinions. I dislike corn, peas, pork and a multitude of other harmless items. I also have less harmless opinions about this country, Singaporeans, various ethnic groups, and so on. But I know these opinions might end up causing more dissension than peace, so I am careful what I say and to whom (those who know me will know that I am not so good on volume control, so I am extra careful at times).

Openly airing our beliefs, especially if it may be hateful towards certain groups in society is not, and will never be, helpful. There is nothing to gain; nothing to achieve. The mother may have been caught unaware by her child’s curiosity in that moment, but the way she chose to handle the situation — trying to pass on sensitive values and beliefs loudly and in public – reflected a lack of wisdom and social awareness.

Be aware of what values we pass on to our children, when and where it happens

We’ve established that we’re all entitled to our own opinions. We were also raised with certain beliefs that we’ve assumed as our own. However, we should be mindful of the situation in which we attempt to convey these sensitive values and beliefs to the younger generations.

We should always do so with an awareness that the child will have to grow up (live and function) in a society where each individual has a different set of values and beliefs. In other words, we should teach them inclusion instead of exclusion.

We should do so behind closed doors (especially religious values that may be sensitive to a changing society), not with the intention of “hiding” our opinions, but simply being mindful that these values and beliefs we’ve cultivated may be hurtful to other members of society… and we don’t want our children, who might not have social awareness at a young age, slipping up and saying something harmful.

What that mother did publicly — covering her son’s eyes and telling him that the couple was “abnormal” — could have been done in a different way. I can’t fault the mother for her personal beliefs, but I can fault how she had expressed it, and the way she attempted to pass it on to a future generation.

Let me elaborate.

Alisa Chopard

I am Christian. I grew up in a Christian family, which had a strong belief in the heterosexual family unit, according to the Bible. However, my parents never instilled hate along with the values and beliefs they passed on to me, instead, they made sure I understood humility. This was to ensure that I would be able to recognize fellow sinners and feel compassion before hate. In doing so, they passed on bigger and more important values of love. This also meant that in the face of a society with varying values and beliefs, I would not judge, instead, I’d attempt to understand first.

I would like to add that the children we mold today will grow up to be teenagers and adults of tomorrow, some of whom would think that it is perfectly okay to scream “f*cking faggots” to strangers and teach their children loudly and in public that being gay is “abnormal”.

The cycle continues. It’s time we break it.

Source: http://alisawrites.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/an-inclusive-society/

March 5, 2014