You feeling warm? It must be my big carbon footprint

30 June 2007, ST

By Paul Jacob, Deputy Political Editor

I AM not what a greenie would label an environmentally friendly product.

I do not read labels on fridges, air-conditioners or power-hungry equipment to see how efficient or green-friendly they are.

My smoking, choice of car and general disregard for use of public transport, car-pooling, walking or cycling no doubt contribute to my ever-widening personal carbon footprint.

That's the new phrase that is becoming popular these days: carbon footprint.

It's the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the energy we use, the transport we take, the waste we dispose of in a year.

It's our contribution, if you like, to why it's getting warmer around the world, and to why there are growing concerns about rising sea levels and the lot.

This is the stuff that environmentally concerned individuals and former United States vice-president-turned-global environmental icon Al Gore keep screaming at us to take notice of.

And you ignore the warnings at your own peril because uninformed and ignorant individuals could, over time, become no better than the herds of livestock which are already responsible for 18per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.

These are more than the emissions caused by transportation, according to a report earlier this year by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Which is also why there are growing calls for people to go vegetarian. That reduces the demand for meat and the need for herds of cattle and other livestock, and animal gas emissions will dissipate.

As the Christian Science Monitor reported earlier this year, citing environmental group EarthSave International's executive director, Mr Noam Mohr, changing people's diet can lower greenhouse gas emissions quicker than shifting away from fossil fuel burning technologies.

I'm as interested as the next guy in how climate change, global warming and the like will affect our future. But like the next guy, I've also waited for others to act first.

So it was instructive and fascinating when I caught a segment of a series called the Ethical Man on the BBC channel recently. It's fronted by journalist Justin Rowlatt, who spent a year trying to lead an environmentally friendly life.

I read later that it involved, among other things, giving up the family car, switching to cloth nappies for the babies, starting a compost heap, not flying when going on holiday, and sourcing food locally because imported products leave a significantly greater carbon trail as goods have to be transported over longer distances.

The family reduced their carbon footprint by some 20 per cent as a result.

The segment I caught had Mr Rowlatt in Mumbai, trying to convince a middle-income executive to become India's equivalent of the Ethical Man by, among other things, installing energy-saving light bulbs, giving up his car and using public transport.

Impossible, said the man. He couldn't afford to turn up at a client's office all dishevelled and sweat-stained after extracting himself from one of the city's cramped, overcrowded buses.

The programme contrasted the executive's lifestyle with a family of 11 living in the city's slum area: no air-conditioning or car, no television or major electrical appliances - and of course, a decidedly smaller carbon footprint.

There's that word again.

His determined crusade-like approach to convince someone in the teeming urban setting of Mumbai to take up the challenge didn't make a convert out of me.

But it piqued my interest enough to make me find out just how much of an accomplice I was in contributing to climate change through my carbon footprint.

A quick Google search and I was ready to be measured: type of home and number in the household; appliances and their rating; use of electricity; car, engine-type and annual mileage; use of alternative public transport; frequency of flying for business or vacations; recycling habits.

The upshot for my household of six: a total of nearly 40 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually - the significant bulk of which is from 'vehicle travel'.

It's quite a shocker when you consider what the Singapore average is: 8.38 tonnes.

I'm not about to become the Ethical Man here, but the results are, obviously, sobering - even though the breakdown on an individual basis for my household of six sits comfortably below the nation's average.

Still, it remains a sobering thought because you have to reckon that there are thousands upon thousands of other Singaporeans who may be disinterested or unaware of the impact that their lifestyle and choices have on the common space and environment that we are supposed to care and be considerate about.

Families and individuals will need to make their own calculations and determine what adjustments to make to their footprint.

The environment does not always feature high on priority lists because there's a slew of what we see as other and more immediate concerns.

We look out the window and see blue skies and greenery and think, well, it all looks fine, the Government's taking care of things, the other guy is doing his bit, schools are educating students on their role, and there are those environmental groups out there anyway working to save the earth.

Disinterested as I have been, I'd be very worried today if that is the attitude most of us have.

One way or another, we must have our own moment of realisation - whether it's prompted by coming across a TV programme by chance, or by not being given a plastic bag at the supermarket checkout counter.

We don't all have to spend a year being the Ethical Man, but we need to start thinking like him.

I've begun that process. It's also very clear that the chief culprit in my footprint is the use of the cars, which account for more than half the annual emissions.

I don't plan, like the Rowlatt family, to turn in the keys. But there obviously has to be some serious cutting back on the extent to which they are used - like for short trips to the 7-Eleven to, er, buy cigarettes - which is another 'emissions' issue I intend to do something about.

Yes, I'm starting small. But if you want to begin the journey too, start by getting a measure of your footprint. You can do so by going to www.bp.com and typing 'carbon footprint calculator' in its search feature.

Afterr 4 hour and 30 mins

Finally after wearing out my patience, the delivery man came at 4.30pm.

The LHK lightening serum which is supposed to be stored in the fridge was not that cold. And then there was this big box, in which the LHM lightening cream came in.

After signing the necessary handover documents, i pried open the LHK to inspect closer. The box and wrapping may not be that cold but at least the bottle and the content was cold enough for my satisfaction! Immediately, I stored the serum in the fridge.

The expiry date for the LHK serum is Mar 2009 and that for the LHK cream is Sept 2008.

CGH exchange policy is they they would replace the item or offer a refund - Money-Back Guarantee!

Exchange of unopened packs must be accompanied by a receipt within 7 days of purchase. However there will be no exchange for medicine, nutritional feeds, fridge items, stocking, brace supports, shoes and Homecare products.

---------------------------------

I am not exactly the most patient person to wait for delivery men. Most of time, when we actually schedule for delivery, SO would have to take leave or time off to wait for the delivery man. But this time,SO is busy and besides the products are small.

SO could just sit around and do nothing while waiting for delivery. To him, waiting is no suspense at all. To me, i can't wait for more than 30 mins. The suspense simply kill me off!

It is the same with queuing. I would NEVER queue in a line with more than 5 people. My limit for queuing? 30-45 mins. After that I just give up. If i have to queue, I am not that interested anymore.

Meanwhile, SO can queue for hours. Though most of the time, he would not queue for anything. Nothing is worth queuing to him.

So whenever there is queuing to be done, I would push my purchases and money to him and make him queue.

And where would i be in the mean time? Walking about.....Ha! Ha!

Where the hell are my face creams?

This morning, SO called me to inform me that Changi Pharmacy would be delivering my face creams today. The time they gave was 1 pm to 4 pm.

What's with all these delivery men? Why can't they narrow it down to the hour? Say 3pm to 4 pm?

4 hours is a long time to wait for a delivery man to come. What do they think we are doing? Sitting down to wait for them in the span of 4 hours?

Frankly, i dun open my door to any stranger who knock....so yeah....today is a rare occasion.

I have been waiting since 12 noon. Now it is coming to 4 pm and my skincare products are nowwhere in sight! It's like being held in suspense for 4 whole hours.

Those face creams must be kept in the fridge!

Did the delivery men got lost? Would my face creams turned out spoilt! If they had been out delivering since 1pm, would they take the precaution of storing it in some portable fridge?

I know surely this is not their first time delivery such light sensitive products! Hope they know what they are doing.

I am still waiting!......and waiting........

Family of birds

Most days I would bring my dog out for a walk. During one of the walk some months back, I came across these two small birds. Sparrows?

Anyway, they used to perch high up on the pipes during the night to sleep.

Recently, I noticed that the two birds have become the proud parents of three small babies birds. However, as the nest was not big enough for all five birds, the papa bird slept on another pipe across from the mother bird and her babies.

Papa bird by itself

Papa bird close up

Mother bird and her 3 babies

Mother bird close up

Words of Wisdom gleamed from the TV

I saw this in a dialog on TV. Found it meaningful enough to share it online.

What is life?

The clouds in the sky become rain.
Rain becomes water on land and flows into the sea.
After evaporation, the clouds are formed again.
This is a never ending cycle.

Water from the sky comes to earth and then returns to the sky.
It seems to be a journey in vain.
But in the process, it has breathed life into animals and cultivated the land.


All the troubles come from within us.
Moe than often or not, one's troubles are not caused by external forces,
but by incessant worry.
Happiness and worry last only for some years.

Humans tend to magnify problems,
but if we look beyond ourselves,
we are as small as grains of sand.
Small and unimportant.

Gatherings and partings are facts of life,
why do we bother over them?
If we really have affinity, we will meet again in the house of God.

Life is like a dream.
As long as you live it well,
why would its duration matter?
Real life and happiness begins in the afterlife.

Found in cyberspace: a resume you never knew you had

29 June 2007, ST

By Lynn Lee

WHEN his application to be a relief teacher was rejected recently by the Education Ministry, poet and playwright Alfian Sa'at turned to his blog to question the decision.

He posted his e-mail correspondence with a ministry spokesman, without naming him. He had asked the MOE to explain its decision, and it had replied but provided little clarity on the actual reasons.

The local Internet community went into overdrive speculating on the reasons Mr Alfian, who had been given 'provisional approval' by the ministry, had his application turned down eventually.

But no one seemed struck by what seemed to be a pertinent question in the episode: Should correspondence between an employer and employee, whether potential, current or former, be made public and subject to such debate?

Or is this the latest trend in Internet usage, where cyberspace has become a platform for the employee-employer relationship to play out?

But perhaps the question hardly mattered to netizens because nothing has become too personal to put online for the more than one billion users of the Internet.

There is a deluge of options on getting personal, in spaces such as social networking sites and blogs, where users list personal details and reveal their innermost thoughts.

Little is taboo. Relationship highs and lows, likes and dislikes, and work and the place where it happens all get airtime, and eyeballs.

According to online intelligence service Hitwise.com, 6.5 per cent of all Internet visits made by 25 million users in February were to the top 20 social networking sites. These include MySpace and Facebook.

Add to that the more than 70 million blogs out there, with 1.4 million entries updated daily.

There are a few positive instances of how the Net has been a benevolent broker in the employee-employer relationship.

Take the experience of American blogger and Web designer Adam Darowski, (http://www.darowski.com/tracesofinspiration/) who wrote about the trend of blogs becoming 'the new resume' in March.

'Blogging is the perfect way for a candidate to give an employer a more detailed sales pitch - to show he can 'talk the talk' (as opposed to just fill a resume with buzzwords),' he said.

It held true for him. Two months later in May, he wrote that his blog had scored him a new job. He posted a quote from his new boss, which spoke of how his blog posts had allowed the company to get a great first impression of him, which helped him stand out from other candidates.

Mr Darowski's posts, his boss added, revealed that he was self-motivated and could think beyond immediate problems, among other qualities.

In Singapore, well- read blogs have brought in advertising dollars for their owners. These include food blog Chubby Hubby (www.chubbyhubby.net) and the personal site of local blogger Wendy Cheng (www.xiaxue.blogspot.com).

But recent examples show a flipside to having an online persona.

CNN.com reported recently on how a photo in a 27-year-old American woman's MySpace account led to her university barring her from getting a degree in education, which she needed to become a full-fledged teacher.

The photo, captioned 'Drunken Pirate', showed her in a pirate's hat and drinking out of a plastic cup. It 'promoted underage drinking', said the university, which awarded her an English degree instead.

She is now suing the university.

Last June, The New York Times carried a piece on how more tech-savvy companies and bosses are using search engines like Google and Yahoo to conduct background checks on job applicants.

In one case, a consulting company boss went online to suss out an applicant from a top college.

At Facebook, the candidate described his interests as: smoking marijuana, shooting people and obsessive sex.

He did not nail the internship.

American university career counsellors are catching on to this phenomenon, and urging students to ensure that their online identities, set up in the spirit of fun, do not come back to haunt them.

Human resource consultants here say online checks on applicants have yet to gain popularity.

At most, companies send resumes to 'resume sleuths', who hit the paper trail to look up a candidate's job, education and credit history.

But it will be a matter of time before employers here too also turn to online profiling to check out current or potential employees.

A quick scan of the profiles and blogs of Singapore netizens shows employers will indeed find out a lot about them.

For instance, there are those who have no qualms dishing the dirt on their colleagues, albeit without names, while blurbing their company's website in the sidebar.

Others complain about their jobs and lives in their online profiles, with bad spelling and grammar to boot. Not stating where they work does little to help them stay anonymous.

Perhaps employers who do check up personal online profiles will view them with a pinch of salt. After all, some of what is said on personal profiles could be posturing; similarly, sensational comments on blogs could just be there to gain hits.

In the case of Mr Alfian's blog, future employers could possibly see his post as evidence that he has little respect for employer-employee confidentiality.

Or not. They might well appreciate his cogent, well-crafted request to MOE to justify its actions and welcome his persistence in seeking answers.

But whichever way you slice it, the onus still lies with netizens to protect their real-world reputations by asking themselves these questions: What do I want my online presence to say about me? Does my virtual identity portray me accurately?

This would be a good start to ensuring that the Net does not end up hosting a resume you never knew you had.

Farewell my friend

28 June 2007, ST

A collection of famous eulogies makes for moving and inspirational reading

By Loh Keng Fatt, booksforthesoul

THEY say the true test of a life well lived is what others say about you when you are dead.

Which is why author and magazine columnist Phyllis Theroux has compiled the eulogies made by the friends of famous people like Abraham Lincoln and Robert Kennedy in The Book Of Eulogies.

Her point is that life goes on and those who come after can draw inspiration and courage from the departed.

Here's an excerpt of a eulogy to author Mark Twain (real name Sam Clemens, 1835-1910) by Helen Keller (1880-1968), a deaf-blind author, activist and lecturer.

'He knew with keen and sure intuition many things about me and how it felt to be blind and not to keep up with the swift ones - things that others learnt slowly or not at all.

He never embarrassed me by saying how terrible it is not to see, or how dull life must be, lived always in the dark.

Once when someone exclaimed, 'God, how dull it must be for her, every day the same and every night the same as the day,' he said, 'You're damned wrong there, blindness is an exciting business, I tell you; if you don't believe it, get up some dark night on the wrong side of your bed when the house is on fire and try to find the door'.

He thought he was a cynic but his cynicism did not make him indifferent to the sight of cruelty, unkindness, meanness or pretentiousness. He would often say, 'Helen, the world is full of unseeing eyes, vacant, staring, soulless eyes'.

He would work himself into a frenzy over dull acquiescence to any evil that could be remedied. True, sometimes it seemed as if he let loose all the artillery of heaven against an intruding mouse, but even then, his resplendent vocabulary was a delight.

He often spoke tenderly of his wife and regretted that I had not known her. 'I am very lonely sometimes, when I sit by the fire after my guests have departed,' he used to say.

To one hampered and circumscribed as I am, it was a wonderful experience to have a friend like Mr Clemens. I recall many talks with him about human affairs. He never made me feel that my opinions were worthless, as so many people do.

He knew that we do not think with eyes and ears, and that our capacity for thought is not measured by five senses.

He kept me always in mind while he talked, and he treated me like a competent human being. That is why I loved him.

Perhaps my strongest impression of him was that of sorrow. There was about him the air of one who had suffered greatly.

Whenever I touched his face, his expression was sad, even when he was telling a funny story. He smiled, not with the mouth but with his mind - a gesture of the soul rather than of the face.

His voice was truly wonderful. To my touch, it was deep, resonant. He held the power of modulating it so as to suggest the most delicate shades of meaning, and he spoke so deliberately that I could get almost every word with my fingers on his lips.

Ah, how sweet and poignant the memory of his soft, slow speech playing over my listening fingers. His words seemed to take strange, lovely shapes on my hands.

His own hands were wonderfully mobile and changeable under the influence of emotion. It has been said that my life has treated me harshly and sometimes I have complained in my heart because so many pleasures of human experience have been withheld from me, but when I recollect the treasure of friendship that has been bestowed upon me, I withdraw all charges against life.

If much has been denied me, much, very much has been given me. So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

The Book Of Eulogies is available for loan from The National Library Board under the call number 920.02 BOO.

Books For The Soul is a weekly column that highlights books which move, comfort or inspire.

Smile, and you're in

28 June 2007, ST

There was a time you were not deemed cool if you did not know your Smileys

By Tan Shzr Ee, culturevulture

SMILEYS are a dangerous thing.

I'm talking about those itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny things made up of colons, brackets and other punctuation marks, which are tagged to the ends of phrases when words alone can't do the trick.

Some examples: :) tells someone you're happy, ;) is for when you want to wink at someone, and :S tells them you're annoyed. There's also :*( for when you're crying.

Don't belittle them as throwaway add-ons to badly constructed sentences. Smileys are potent things, and more insidious than you might imagine. I've been a target of Smiley attacks myself, inasmuch as I have also abused them to my own selfish ends.

Smileys began innocuously enough.

On Sept 18, 1982, computer scientist Scott Fahlman at the Carnegie Mellon University in the United States proposed :-) as a 'joke-marker' for signalling different types of text-based communications in a world new to e-mail messages and the Internet. At the time, there were so many messages sent on two-dimensional, monochromatic computer script that the messages to be taken less seriously had to be marked out, with a cue to begin laughing.

Three taps on the keyboard and a twist of the neck towards the left, and voila! - a proto-emoticon. The Smiley was born.

Fahlman's stroke of genius was immediately adopted around the world, as high-speed communication processes like e-mail messages and Internet messaging delivered information instantaneously.

But they ultimately could not convey non-text cues such as body language, tone of voice, or the subtle emotional innuendoes of good old snail-mail letter-writing.

In the early days, Smileys filled the gaps in information transfer by oiling the machinery of cold hard facts traversing bytes of green words flickering on bottomless black screens. At an age when the virtual world was only understood by specialists, Smileys were a godsend. They were a social skill - or indeed, social grace.

But they evolved into a world of their own.

I myself was a late initiate to this world, having been brought up in a classical Singaporean education that prized writing essays in a copperplate longhand and punctuating sentences with proper full-stops.

I don't think I even learnt how to type on a keyboard until I was in secondary school. By the time the first Smileys had made themselves known to me, they were already the stuff of younger generations. They were ultimately inconsequential fripperies; they were a kind of pretty, linguistic 'sticker' - like dotting your i's with hearts or swishing an obscenely large loop around your y's.

Teenagers who wanted to act cute tacked Smileys onto the ends of sentences as some kind of socio-verbal tinsel.

Smileys heralded the degeneration of the English language and the stereotypification of emotions expressed verbally.

The bad news for me, however, was that Smileys had also attained poseur value. If you didn't know your Smileys, you were out of the 'in' crowd, as most certainly was I.

But no matter, I told myself. I would research the world of Smileys. I would learn to engage in its mix-and-match semiotics of iconographic communication.

I discovered that there were power Smileys, and there were Smileys you didn't have to crick your neck to one side in order to understand, such as these Japanese Smileys: (^_^) and (*o*).

In fact, a recent study revealed that the differences between Japanese and American Smileys showed up how emotions tended to be read in terms of variations in expressions and movements of a person's eye in Japanese communities, as opposed to differing shapes of the mouth in American communities.

The budding anthropologist in me was intrigued: The culturally contextualised Smileys had arrived.

And so they had, indeed - but also in other evil ways, which I am sure you must have experienced yourself some time or other.

I am referring to those dreary, saccharine e-mail messages from Cousin X, who is obviously having the worst honeymoon of her life but persists in pretending how wonderful the stainless-steel hotel taps and nosebleed theatre tickets are, with her endless profusion of =) and ;D in every sentence.

Then there are the distant friends of friends who come begging for inconvenient favours (like camping out in your bedroom for three weeks), prefacing their thick-skinnedness with a mischievous (but essentially devious) :-p.

Finally, there are also those evil, two-faced colleagues who stab you in your front by hurling a nasty insult in your face, getting away with it all by simply using :) as a 'humanising' suffix.

I know these things about Smileys. I might have used one trick or two myself ;-}.

So you see, Smileys aren't just Smileys. They have to be interpreted in layers of meanings - of outright impudence wearing the camouflage of clueless enthusiasm; of malicious intent tenderised by a wry, ironic virtual grin.

Smileys are dangerous things. :->

Face creams bought online

I read from a beauty forum that www.mypharmacy.com.sg, the online pharmacy arm of the Changi General Hospital is offering discounts on some Therapeutic Dermatologic Formula (TDF) creams.

I had used TDF skincare products before and find that their AHA skincare products work for my face.

I am currently using their AHA Facial Wash For Oily & Acne Prone Skin which is Formulated with 4% glycolic acid, 0.5% chlorhexidine and aloe vera.


Besides that I am also using in certain nights, their AHA Oily & Acne Solution 8 which has 8% glycolic acid solution and is specially formulated for oily and acne prone skin. This comes in the form of water clear solution which is poured over a cotton pad and then wiped over the face.


Actually my personal preference is for that of their AHA Revitalizing Cream 8 which is suitable for dry to normal skin type, this silky cream contains 8 per cent glycolic acid. I have extremely oily skin but i prefer the cream based AHA rather than the solution cos cream sticks better and longer on the face.


Once a fortnight or so, I would applied the AHA Revitalizing Gel 15 whose formulation contains 15 per cent glycolic acid and is used to treat oily and thickened dead skin cells. My skin doctor did advised me to use this once a week or so cos the acid is too strong for normal daily usage. She did suggested that AHA 15 be used as a 15 min mask and then washed off. But then since i have never got any serious peeling or flaking, i just left the gel overnight.


Some weeks back, i got information that polyclinics are having a 25 % sale on TDF products. So, I went down to the nearest polyclinic and got myself the C Scape Serum 50ml + 30 ml. The usual price for the 50ml is $110. The 30 ml is bundled free and is worth about $65. And since there is the free 30ml promotion, there is no 25% discount for this product during the sale.

This C Scape Serum contains 10% Vitamin C, which is essential for the production of collagen and elastic tissue that keep the skin taunt, supple and healthy. It is also an anti-oxidant which neutralizes harmful free radicals, helps reduce fine lines, wrinkles due to sun-damage or skin aging and also lighten skin complexion. However, it must be kept in the fridge or the gel will oxidise and turn a dark color.


I also got a small tube of their Eye Refining Matrix, which is about 15ml and originally cost $69 and is now $45 plus after discount.


--------------------------------

Of all the products, i love the C scape the most. After a few days of using, my skin has become softer and fairer. The product has a watery consistency and has a citrusy smell.

--------------------------------

Anyway, after surfing for sometime on the mypharmacy website, i bought TDF High Potency Lightening Cream LHM 20g Buy 1 Get 1 Free. Price is $49.90 for 2 during the sale.

This cream works as an intensive skin lightening treatment with breakthrough formulation of Hydroquinone, Nethyl Gentisate and Kojic Acid, which deeply penetrates the skin, targeting and elimating stubborn dark spots and pigmentation. Blended with natural ingredients like Licorice Extract, it helps to provide anti-inflammatory effects and is an effective component for skin lightening.





I also bought the stronger version TDF High Potency Lightening Serum With LHK 30ml Buy 1 Get 1 Free. The cost is $68.14 for 2 during the sale. This has a strong combination of 4 per cent Lactic Acid, 4 per cent Hydroquinone and 3 per cent Kojic acid, this higher strength skin lightening product is recommended as a step-up for difficult pigmentation problems like age freckles spots and melasma.

This cream is also sensitive to light and needs to be stored in the fridge.





Total damage today is $118.04.

Frankly, they promise delivery within 2 days. And that they would call to arrange delivery schedule.

2 days...that would mean friday or saturday......Can't wait!

Anti-stalking Legislation

This article aims to highlight the absence of anti-stalking legislation in Singapore by outlining the stalking laws present in the UK.

A recent landmark ruling by the Singapore High Court allowed an injunction to be issued for the first time in a stalking case that had caused the victims emotional distress, not just physical harm.

The stalker had harassed his victims by way of e-mails, SMS texting, faxes, telephone calls and trespass. The indirect methods of stalking which were used have shed light on the inadequacies of Singapore legislation in dealing with not only the traditional forms of stalking, but also, in this day of continuing technological advancement, cyberstalking.

Stalking is not recognised as an offence in Singapore. It is merely an aspect of harassment, which is governed by s 13 of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act (Cap 184). The Act, however, only goes so far as to offer victims protection from any person that causes them harassment, distress or alarm by using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

Sections 13A and 13B of the Act state the following:

Section 13A
(1) Any person who in a public place or in a private place, with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress to another person -

(a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or
(b) displays any writing, sign or visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,

thereby causing that person or any other person harassment, alarm or distress, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000.

Section 13B
(1) Any person who in a public place or in a private place -

(a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or
(b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,

within the hearing or sight of any person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000.1

Other forms of legal redress under Singapore law involve pursuing a private summons or the application of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap 68), which addresses threats of harm and trespass.2

However, neither one of these laws specifically addresses the problem of stalking or deals with those that are engaged in stalking and cyberstalking activities.

As the Honourable Lee Seiu Kin asserted: 'it was not an offence to utter the same words over a mobile phone or other forms of modern communication'. He went on further to say that 'this legal loophole, needed to be addressed'.3

There is no clear definition of cyberstalking, however, for the purposes of this article, it is a term used for the act of sending malicious, abusive, threatening or obscene messages through the internet, via e-mail.

The advent of the internet has created numerous possibilities for cybercrime, an example of which is cyberstalking. In the case of Lim Siong Khee v Public Prosecutor [2001] 2 SLR 342, the accused gained access to the victim's e-mail account after correctly guessing her password.

He then circulated dishonourable e-mails about the victim to her friends and colleagues, as well as stalked her with the use of information that he had retrieved from reading her e-mails. The accused began also to harass a friend of the victim after discovering that she had encouraged the victim to file a police report against him. He was convicted under s 3(1) of the Computer Misuse Act (Cap 50A) and sentenced to five months' imprisonment.

This was the first case of a conviction on the basis of unauthorised access to an e-mail account.

Section 3(1) states:

Any person who knowingly causes a computer to perform any function for the purpose of securing access without authority to any program or data held in any computer shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or both and, in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or both.4

This Act accords some protection from electronic harassment, however, it is under the guise of gaining access to a person's e-mail account without their permission. Again there is no specific reference to the act of 'stalking'.

Although there are no statistics available on the prevalence of stalking, it is a social problem that requires specific and effective legal remedies.

A health study has shown that almost half the doctors and health workers at the Institute of Mental Health have been stalked by patients. The stalkers loiter around the institute, make unwanted approaches, unsolicited phone calls and send letters, e-mails and faxes that are not required. One of the doctors involved in the study asserted that there was little the police could do if a person found himself being stalked.5

Psychiatrists in Britain have defined stalking 'as persistent, unwanted intrusions or communications that induce fear, usually taking place over several weeks'.6


British Anti-stalking Law
In the UK, stalking was labelled by the media as the crime of the 90s. The National Anti-Stalking and Harassment Campaign reported that between January 1994 and November 1995, 7,000 victims of stalking called their helpline.7

The landmark case concerning stalking in Britain, was the Court of Appeal case of Burris v Azadani [1995] 1 WLR 1372. It was in this case that stalking was recognised as a civil tort, therefore, allowing injunctions to be issued to prevent it.

The victim in this case was represented by Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, who on recognising the inadequacies of the law in dealing with stalking, drafted the 'Stalkers Bill'. Although the Bill was not passed, it paved the way for the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

With respect to criminal law, it was in the cases of R v Burstow & R v Ireland [1997] 3 WLR 534, that the House of Lords decided that stalkers who cause psychological injury to their victims can be prosecuted for the criminal offences of causing actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm even where they have not physically attacked their victim.

In the case of Ireland, the defendant made repeated silent telephone calls to three women who suffered anxiety and depressive disorders as a result. He was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm contrary to s 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 ('OAPA') and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. In the case of Burstow, the defendant was convicted of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm contrary to s 20 of the OAPA. Burstow waged a campaign of harassment against Tracy Slant during which he made abusive telephone calls to her, watched her house, stole her clothing from her washing line and scattered condoms in her garden.8

Therefore, as is the situation in Singapore now, it became obvious that English law did not adequately deal with the issue of stalking. It was eventually due to a great deal of public and political concern about stalking that the government introduced the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which defined stalking in legal terms and made it a criminal offence.9

The Act creates two criminal offences as well as allows civil courts the authority to award damages and issue injunctions in harassment cases. The importance of the Act is, however, stated in s 1:

A person must not pursue a course of conduct

(a) which amounts to harassment of another, and
(b) which he knows or ought to know amounts to the harassment of the other.10

Section 3(1) and (2) of the Act which provides for civil remedy states:

(1) An actual or apprehended breach of s 1 may be the subject of a claim in civil proceedings by the person who is or may be the victim of the course of conduct in question.
(2) On such a claim, damages may be awarded for (among other things) any anxiety caused by the harassment and any financial loss resulting from the harassment.11

The Malicious Communications Act 1988, as amended by s 43 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, governs stalking by means of letters, telephone calls, the increasing problem of text and SMS messages being sent to mobile phones and e-mails through the internet.

As amended by s 43 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act, s 1 of the Malicious Communications Act now states the following:

(1) Any person who sends to another person

(a) a letter, electronic communication or article of any description which conveys;

(i) a letter which is indecent or grossly offensive
(ii) a threat or
(iii) information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender or

(b) any article or electronic communication which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,

is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated.

(2A) In this section 'electronic communication' includes

(a) any oral or other communication by means of a telecommunication system (within the meaning of the Telecommunications Act 1984 (cl 12)); and
(b) any communication (however sent) that is in electronic form.12

Section 43 of the Telecommunications Act treats the improper use of the public telecommunications system as an offence. The offence can be committed by a person who makes: (a) calls of a 'grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene, or menacing character'; or (b) persistent calls 'for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another'.13

Britain's main provider of telecommunications, British Telecom, in recognising the seriousness of malicious and nuisance calls, have set up a victims' 24-hour helpline.14

Additional support and guidance in the problem of stalking have also been produced in the form of a guide for the Metropolitan police, Stalking. An Investigator's Guide.

Conclusion
Unfortunately, the mental health study carried out in Singapore reflects the fact that the solution to the problem of stalking does not lie in anti-stalking legislation alone. In his article, 'Look Who's Stalking: Seeking a Solution to the Problem of Stalking', Michael J Allen states that 'the psychology of many stalkers may not be amenable to change and thus their behaviour may continue regardless of the punishment imposed on them'.

Singapore should, however, learn from Britain and move towards implementing police and telephone support systems in an attempt to advise victims of stalkers, while the issue of anti-stalking legislation is hopefully being addressed. In the absence of effective legal protection for victims, guidelines detailing precautions for safety must be made available.

Deepa Bhabutta

Endnotes
1 See Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act (Cap 184).
2 See Criminal Procedure Code (Cap 68) Sch A, Tabular Statements of Offences Under the Penal Code.
3 See The Straits Times, 19 October 2001.
4 See Computer Misuse Act 1993 (Cap 50A).
5 See The Straits Times, 15 October 2001.
6 See 'Inside the Mind of a Stalker', The Times, 28 January 2000.
7 See L Ellison & Y Akdeniz, 'Cyberstalking: The Regulation of Harassment On the Internet' [1998] Criminal Law Review, December Special Edition: Crime, Criminal Justice and the Internet; see also Home Office (1996), op cit.
8 See endnote 5 and R v Ireland & R v Burstow [1997] 3 WLR 534.
9 See www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/ acts.
10 See Neil Addison at www.harassment-law.co.uk/ stalk.htm.
11 See endnote 8.
12 See endnote 8.
13 See Michael

http://www.lawgazette.com.sg/2002-2/Feb02-feature2.htm

Aids and a friend

This morning, SO called me to inform me that a friend, AM suspected that he may have Aids. It seemed that AM's partner came out to him that he has been visiting bathhouses for a year and that he suspected that he may have contacted Aids and maybe even passed the virus to AM.

AM had sent a sms to SO earlier this morning......
I am very depressed...K came out to me that he has been visiting bathhouses for the nearly past 1 year....N he suspected he got Aids.....wat should i do...I had insomnia for the past 2 nites...


Gosh.....I am not exactly close to AM or K. They are both friends of SO. Friends for over 10 years?

In fact, I have spoken to AM probably twice at the most cos we dun have much to talk about. As for K, I think I have seen him a few times but never spoken directly to him.

What I remembered about K was he was a short, average looking boyish fella. He should be 30? and yet he looked just like a small size teenager....

SO said he would probably come back late as they needed to talk to him. They were simply bursting with sorrows and did not know who to speak to.

Meanwhile, after chatting with SO, i surfed the net for some information on Aids testing. I did know there is a anonymous testing center in Kelantan Lane. So i checked out the testing schedules and the Aids hotline and sms the info back to SO.

http://www.afa.org.sg/anonymous.asp

I did informed SO to tell them to stop speculating and just take the anonymous Aids test this very day. No point just wondering if K had contacted Aids. Better to know for sure, then they could make plans.

So SO took some early time off, and went to speak with AM and K.

It turned out the couple had been wandering the streets all day since yesterday, feeling depressed about their situation and not knowing what to do.

K had visited saunas and bathhouses twice a week on his off days for more than a year now. And each time he engaged in casual sex with strangers. As for whether he did used protection, he did claimed he did so.

Sigh....twice a week...that means 52 x 2 = 104 trips....and say each trip about 1-2 casual partners..... that means he has about 100-200 partners or so since then?

Sigh...and he said he did not know who gave him the virus.

Is the very few joyful moments of ecstasy and orgasm worth years of sickness and suffering? I suppose not. But then when one is writhing in the throes of lust and passion, getting an incurable disease is the last thing on the mind.

Well, the test results came out 20 mins after their visit to the clinic. AM was negative but K was tested positive for HIV. There were no tears. But this could be just a window phase period for AM. He could still have Aids, it's just that the HIV antibodies are not detected in his blood now. He need to come back for another testing 3 months later to confirm his HIV status.

K had suspected he had Aids for some time now and he even got an instant Aids test from those vending machine that is outside the bathhouses. It came out positive then. So more or less, he is resigned to the fact.

The clinic was crowded.....and the counsellors did not have time to counsel K immediately after his test, so they asked him to call back after 8pm when there are less patients. Then they would advise K on the next course of action.

This Aids news is a very loud personal awakening call to me. I have no friends who had Aids, so the virus itself is a very far fetched concept to me. Like I know the moon is there, I see the moon but i cannot touch the moon or visit the moon....type of concept.

What would K do with his life on from now? He is 29, works in the service industry where he needs to have some form of physical contact with customers and he needs to undergo an Aids test once or twice a year to get his working licence.

Would he tell his parents? Would they reject him and chase him out of his home? Or would they open their hearts to him?

What about medicine? The counsellors told him he probably should get his medicine from Thailand cos medicine here are costly.

Having Aids is like having a deadline looming over his head. Medication is able to prolong life...but for how long? There has been cases of people surviving 10-20 years after contacting HIV. But not every one survive that long.

Besides K probably has a high sex drive to visit bathhouses twice a week. What is he going to do for sex now? I suppose he could control his sexual urges for now, (who has the mood or urge after finding out he has a life threatening disease?).....but what about a few months/years down the road when he has become more accepting to his illness? Will he go down to saunas and bathhouses to "spread" the virus to unsuspecting "victims"?

Some people would. Cos they are angry that they got the virus from someone who may know they have the HIV virus and yet still deliberately engaged in casual sex. Will K also do likewise and "avenge" himself for the unjust act done unto him?

Who should he blame? Himself for visiting bathhouses so often? Or the guy who may know he has Aids and yet engaged in casual sex with him?

Frankly, i dun know. SO left after the results, leaving them wandering the streets in despair. They wanted to be alone, together, their future unknown. SO had done all he could for them.

Sigh....what i know is they probably can't sleep tonight or the next few nights, wondering what life and HIV have in store for their future.

John Clang: Colour of money

25 June 2007, ST

He may be colour blind, but that didn't stop Singaporean John Clang from becoming a rich and successful photographer in New York. In fact, it helped

By Michelle Tay

SINGAPOREAN photographer John Clang has a birth defect that is also his gift - he is colour blind.

He can't tell red from green, yet regularly produces photos of such uncommon beauty that they have propelled him to New York where he makes US$700,000 (S$1.08 million) to US$2.4 million a year taking pictures for clients like Godiva, Nike, IBM and Levi's.

His colour prints have a muted, slightly antique mood where the wash can sometimes look too blue or too magenta, and there is not much contrast between light and dark colours.

But it was this trait which caught the attention of the New York fashion scene when he moved there in 1999.

'Everyone liked my colour prints because they looked different, but I couldn't let anyone know I was colour blind,' he reveals at an interview at Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge in Takashimaya last Thursday.

He adds: 'I didn't want them to feel stupid because they kept saying they liked my colour, while I didn't even know what colour it was.'

The 34-year-old Bedok-born boy is arguably Singapore's hottest photographic export ever. But lest you think his success is accidental, Clang will have you know that colour per se does not make or break a picture.

'I use colour to evoke a mood that is basically very calm and it feels good. The tonality of my prints is always very accurate. That's why I'm extremely good with black and white pictures, which I did a lot of in my early days.'

Another hallmark is his fetish for capturing a person's back on film. 'It's like I'm a voyeur, looking at them without them knowing I'm looking,' says Clang, adding that, as a child, he tailed attractive girls home just to gain a peek into their daily lives as he was too shy to talk to them.

Simply put, his images are often simple, sometimes awkward and, like his series of transposed images currently on show at The Substation, make one pause and stare in wonderment.

It comes as no surprise then that he is represented by Art and Commerce - the dream agency for all photographers, he says - which also represents big names like Annie Leibowitz and Steven Meisel.

Says Theseus Chan, 45, founder of Work Advertising and Clang's collaborator on Werk, a fashion and graphic design magazine: 'What came through from the beginning was John's uncompromising quality and vision. His success is a by-product of his talent and unyielding character, which are a lot more appreciated in a place like New York.'

Boy from Bedok

CLANG is a classic rags-to-riches story.

Raised in an HDB flat in Bedok, he now owns three apartments in downtown Manhattan, totalling US$3.2 million.

The Soho loft in which he lives screams minimalist chic. His soon-to-be upstairs neighbour is American hip-hop superstar Kanye West.

So influential is Clang in the New York fashion and design scene that when West asked for advice on how to furnish his new apartment, their landlord reportedly recommended that West check out Clang's classy pad. Clang ordered him to sack his interior designer and hire one from London. And West did just that.

But for all his high-living lifestyle, in person Clang is a down-to-earth guy, hardly the reticent or eccentric diva some have made him out to be.

Dressed in a nondescript grey T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers, the 'New Yorker' looks more like he belongs in the gritty Bowery than on posh Madison Avenue.

Throughout the three-hour interview, he is easy-going, gentlemanly, flirtatious and forthcoming with stories.

With a still-distinct Singaporean accent, he tells you with childlike delight that he relies on his wife Elin so much that he never travels anywhere without her, lets her hold the purse strings and that he does not even know how to write a cheque.

He says 'bless you' when you sneeze, compliments you on your 'nice shoulders' and readily reveals that he takes on seven or eight commercial projects a year, earning US$100,000 to US$300,000 for each.

But one thing is for sure: He is cocky. He is not afraid to tell you how good he is at his craft and boasts that he once walked out on an editor of a Singapore arm of a foreign magazine because she disapproved of him shooting for a local fashion title.

He also takes credit for finding a wife for a close friend. In 2002, he photographed a pal, known as Beon, for Chinese fashion magazine Nu You.

'Beon is short, ugly and works as a cobbler,' says Clang, who hired Singaporean model Jessie Leong to pose opposite Beon as his girlfriend, making him look like 'a sexy stud'.

'I projected my own sexiness onto him, and showed how even an ugly man can be charming and make women want him. Not only has he since found a girlfriend, he also just got married last week to a Taiwanese university lecturer.'

Clang was born Ang Choon Leng. His father serves food at a hawker centre and his mother, now retired, worked in a restaurant as a waitress. His brother Joe, 32, is a primary school teacher. He got his moniker while serving national service, where his name badge read C L Ang.

People started to call him Clang and it stuck. It 'sounds German', he admits, and helped get him noticed in his early days in the Big Apple.

He knew he wanted to be a photographer when he was 15 and an above-average student in Anglican High School.

At 17, he enrolled in a fine art and photography course at Lasalle College of the Arts. To pay the monthly $350 fee, he worked as an odd-job assistant at a wedding studio.

'Sometimes, I would go without lunch for days. I saved the money to take my girlfriend out.'

Today, she is his wife. He met Elin, 34, when they were both in Anglican High and they married when they were 23. She works as his full-time print producer and they have no children.

Clang stayed only six months at Lasalle as he found it slow-going. He became a photographic assistant for Chua Soo Bin, a fine-art photographer who now owns an art gallery featuring contemporary Chinese artists. Later, he joined Willie Tang, whom he calls 'the most famous Singaporean photographer before me', at The Picture Farm.

In 1994, he set up his first studio, John Clang's Place, in King George's Avenue near Lavender Street and furnished it with furniture that people had discarded. He worked with a $2,000 second-hand Toyo 4.5 camera and a low-powered $200 Bowen 200D light.

His first break was a commercial shoot for Singapore Airlines and, after that, jobs poured in from fashion magazines and commercial clients.

But Clang, being embarrassed of his minimal resources, was reluctant to let anyone see his set: 'I had to mark the floor with lots of masking tape and shift the light around, double-exposing the film. If they still insisted on seeing the set, I would open all the windows to let the light in and say, 'This shoot doesn't require any additional light, we'll use the sunlight'.'

He admits that he wanted people to think he was wealthy: 'I did not come from a rich family. That was my insecurity and why I had to build a facade. When I made my first pile at 23, I rented a condo in Paterson Road in the heart of town. I wanted to be a part of that elite society and understand what it felt like to live rich, even though I was not.'

In building the impression that he was 'a great artist who needed to work alone in his space', he also gained a reputation for being a prima donna. And that, in the world of fashion and celebrity, makes one even more sought after.

As he puts it: 'I was the hot new young photographer who wouldn't let anyone near my studio.'

Cantopop fan

CLANG is certain he will never move back to Singapore as he thinks the photography scene here is too small for him.

'But I'll always be a Singaporean,' he says, adding the 'embarrassing' tidbit that his taste in music is 'horrible, worse than my (sense of) colour' because he listens only to Cantopop.

He calls his family, now living in a flat in Sembawang, often and stays with his in-laws in Toa Payoh whenever he and Elin come home.

Despite working with famous models such as Sophie Dahl and Anouck Lepere, and R&B group Destiny's Child, he remains completely unfazed by fame.

He may shoot beautiful pictures for a living but he much prefers to focus on his personal work.

Asked how he would like to be remembered, he replies: 'A great photographer. I understand fashion but I don't like being a fashion photographer because it's not me. I'm much more than that.'

He says he reached the peak of his success two years ago, and attributes this to a newfound maturity and understanding of his unique identity as a photographer - he calls this 'sensibility'.

He has also mellowed considerably, and is less idealistic than in his younger days. 'In the past, it was my way or the highway. Now, I'm more accommodating. If I can give you 200 per cent of what you want, I'll take the job because I know you'll be happy and I like to see a happy client.'

Truth be told, Clang is a study in contrasts. He is at once down to earth yet acutely aware of his millionaire status, flying first class whenever he travels.

He seems like an eager teenager but indulges in less-frenetic pastimes, like cooping up at home for a quiet Saturday night and collecting exquisite watches from F.P. Journe and Philippe Dufour.

But he is practical about retirement and takes his wealth in his stride. 'In 10 years, I might stop whatever I'm doing and be a full-time fine artist and that won't be lucrative,' he says.

And, of course, he is a smooth operator.

As we stand up to air-kiss goodbye, Clang tells me to turn around so he can see my back. I half-expect him to pick up a camera and shoot.

But he says simply: 'Nice.'

----------------------------------

Clang: A White Book is on show at The Substation, 45 Armenian Street till July 6. Series to look out for include Beijing NYC, 5 Minute Soul and NYC 64.

----------------------------------

'I can't do saucy images of women. The women in my images always look like my muses or my lovers. You feel like you can talk to them and you know for sure they will not disappoint you in bed, period'
On his weakness in photography. His ads for Godiva chocolate feature supermodel Sophie Dahl


'To photograph something beautiful is easy, but to photograph something that makes me understand more about myself and intrigues me emotionally is more important. Whether it intrigues others is not my priority'
On not responding to critics who pan his work because they don't understand it. His shoot for Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer is pictured above


'Back then, I hid a lot of things. But by being honest about things now, it gives the younger generation of photographers a perspective on what's going on in real life. By sharing this information, you can make your own judgment about what you want to do. My life is such, there's nothing to hide'
Clang on opening up to the public about his craft and life

Skorpion Skates : Put a sting in your step

24 June 2007, ST

Skorpion Skates are set to take off in S'pore - you can even use them on the beach

By Jennani Durai

GET used to the sight of these makeshift mini-carts - they could soon be everywhere.

Skorpion Skates look more like bulky buggies for the feet, but are getting big with teens because they are all-terrain and easy to balance on.

These red-and-black skates are flat, and strap on over shoes. Each has suspension springs on the back and four large tyre-like wheels - two on each side.

A pair costs $299, but since they made their debut two weeks ago at the Samsung Inline Skating Festival, teens have been renting the 50 pairs available at SkateSports in East Coast Park for $10 per hour.

The big draw: you can skate on the beach with them.

The Skorpion Multi-Terrain Skates were designed by father-and-son team Reg and Gary Reid of New Zealand.



They came up with the idea after observing that traditional inline-skaters and scooter-riders were restricted on where they could skate.

Aiming to create something that would move smoothly on a variety of surfaces, they developed a prototype in 2004 and launched their skates last year.

Since then, the skates have stirred up considerable excitement globally.

Planet On Wheels, the sole distributor of Skorpion Skates in the United States, dubbed them 'the next great thing in roller skating'.

In Europe, they are touted to become a new form of transportation as they are eco-friendly.

Fashion brands including Prada and Emporio Armani have placed custom orders for stocks.

They are available in two sizes - small and large - and can be adjusted to fit over any shoe size using a knob on the bottom, making them easy to share with friends.

But, for hygiene-conscious Singaporeans, they offer another benefit.

Unlike with regular inline skates, you can avoid the unpleasant experience of slipping your feet into a boot filled with someone else's grime.

'You can keep your own shoes on while using the Skorpion Skates,' said Mr Barry Hanson, managing director of SkateSports.

Yet it is their distinctive look that 'makes people curious', said Mr Hanson.

Here, Singaporeans are slowly picking them up - especially the young.

'Singaporeans are always looking for new and funky things,' he said, and youths in particular have been 'very positive' about them.

'Their first reaction usually is 'Wow! What is this?' '

After that, they discover their stability too.

'They are particularly suited to beginners because it is easy to balance on them right away,' Mr Hanson explained.

Holidaying students who have tried them have so far been impressed. During the weekend, groups of students were seen with them strapped to their feet and skating along the beach.

Muhd Nashri, a student at Fajar Secondary School, said he was drawn to them because they looked 'like little toy cars'.

The Secondary 4 student observed: 'They look like they would be easier to balance on.'

But some sceptics were less enthusiastic, and even for the interested, there is a learning curve.

Singapore Polytechnic student Lina Choo, 17, pointed out: 'They don't look very fun, but they look safe.'

Samantha Han, 21, was using the skates for the first time and said they were 'easy to stand up in, but moving around is hard'.

In fact, the weight of the skates made it a little difficult for Joanna Lai, 21, when she tried them for the first time.

'To switch feet, you have to really lift your legs a lot - otherwise the wheels won't leave the ground,' she said.

But Mr Hanson said skills will come with practice.

'Like inline skates, people will probably need lessons,' he said.

'But absolute beginners would find Skorpion Skates more stable than a bike or inline skates.'

But SkateSports staff say novices should find their footing on solid ground first before heading onto the beach, as skating on soft sand requires more force.

Currently, these skates are available only at SkateSports' East Coast store.

'We're testing public reaction for a couple of months to make sure it has a good following before expanding,' explained Mr Hanson.

But if the trends elsewhere are anything to go by, they might soon be on the feet of teenagers islandwide.

Copyright Act

Fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review

36. A fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or with an adaptation of a literary, dramatic or musical work, shall not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the work if it is for the purpose of criticism or review, whether of that work or of another work, and a sufficient acknowledgment of the work is made.

Copyright Act

Just how much do online friendships count?

25 June 2007, ST

Not all that much, some say. But the Net is an easy way to keep in touch

---------------------------------

Meeting face-to-face is best

USING the Internet to find friends is a double-edged sword. How effective it is depends on how it is used.

It helps me connect with my friends residing overseas, with tools such as e-mail and weblogs bridging the distance between us.

This is especially important as telephone calls are both costly and inconvenient if there is a big time difference.

But I would prefer to chat with my friends here over coffee. With no distance barrier, there is no excuse not to meet up.

For me, weblog updates and instant messaging can never replace the intimacy of face-to-face gatherings, nor transmit the tender subtleties of a smile or a hug.

Chew Zhi Wen, 20, will study law and economics at the National University of Singapore

---------------------------------

A tool for interaction

I MAY not have many friends on social networking site Friendster, but I do not view the number as a gauge of my popularity.

These numbers represent people whom I know personally. We share common interests, and the website is an avenue of congregation.

A simple search online shows me how they have changed and what they are up to currently.

But make no mistake, online or offline, real friends are those who stand by you in times of need, not those who just make up the numbers.

Ephraim Loy, 24, is a first-year social science student at the Singapore Management University

---------------------------------

Who exactly are you?

IF CREATING a friendship is attributable to the Internet, it has come at the cost of an identity dilution - where people hide behind usernames and conceal their imperfections.

Individualism is sacrificed for the sake of pleasing others such that it is nearly impossible to post a mediocre photograph of oneself without being derided.

Imagine having to hide who you are when communicating with people from the security of your room!

Perhaps years of lectures on Internet safety are so deeply entrenched in us that the tweaking of our identities online has become a habit. Even so, it still remains an irony for friendships to be forged on the basis of untruths.

Alicia Ng, 23, is a third-year accountancy student at the Singapore Management University

---------------------------------

Make better use of time

A RECENT survey conducted by the University of Southern California concluded that online friendships are as important as offline ones.

However, having thousands of 'online' friends may not be something to be proud of, unless this popularity accounts for something tangible in reality.

Rather than investing time on buttering up an online persona, youths should use the Internet to engage friends in ways that our parents never could.

Online, we can now expand our knowledge and participate in real-time debate - all while getting to know each other better.

Hopefully, teens addicted to online popularity will realise this and make better use of their youth.

Liana Tang, 22, is a honours-year biology student at the National University of Singapore

---------------------------------

Online games expand horizons

I BELIEVE that the best friendships are almost always forged through adversity, and as such, 'online' relationships are probably superficial.

However, online gaming presents a different proposition. You can find people from totally different backgrounds and cultures banding together, engaging each other in pursuit of a common goal.

Through my gaming experiences, I have got to know a French lawyer and soldiers stationed in Iraq. These are people I would never be able to meet within my social circle.

I have also learnt about their experiences in a different country - a priceless lesson if there was one.

Saw Lidong, 22, graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a Diploma in Mass Communication

---------------------------------

Tea and cakes, anyone?

WHILE many of us may prefer the traditional face-to-face meeting, the reality is that our lives can get so busy that it is impossible to meet.

Even if we find the time for a get-together, it is almost always a hassle accommodating everyone's equally busy schedule.

The solution: virtual meet-ups on the Internet.

It provides an avenue to maintain friendships, and is inexpensive and convenient. Most people will also have access to it in this day and age.

We can utilise various online tools to receive instant updates on each other's lives, all in our own time.

However, we should not regard this convenience as a perfect substitute. Nothing beats meeting over tea and cakes.

Anna Wong, 21, is a second-year psychology student at the National University of Singapore

Confessing a vice is the best advice

25 June 2007, ST

By Jessica Lim

ANYONE can relate to this: coming out to their parents about sex, alcohol or smoking.

In Singapore, we have an unspoken understanding - a policy of 'don't ask, don't tell'.

All of which means parents will consistently deny their children's vices, an exceptional talent honed over the years especially when it comes to the top three.

The alternative?

Any inquest into why you dragged yourself home - reeking of cigarette smoke and alcohol at three in the morning - is answered in another code. Project work, an inconsiderate neighbour smoking in the elevator or vigorous exercise to explain the flush.

In turn, parents respond by averting their eyes from the telltale hickey and nod.

As teens, we start by stepping up the game. We keep doors ajar when boyfriends come over, or don long-sleeved sweaters over halter tops when their parents are around.

But I vividly recall the day I broke that code.

When I was 17, I decided to tell the truth.

During an after-dinner conversation, my parents asked me what I had accomplished the night before at a supposed 'study-sleepover' with my girlfriends.

Biting my tongue, I stopped myself from regurgitating the few facts I knew about global warming and the lifespan of whales.

Instead, I blurted out that I had spent the night with a boy I had been seeing for the past year. We had not been doing project work.

And, since I was at it, I threw in other nuggets: I drank every weekend and lied about having to stay back after school all those times.

My dad left the table, and slammed the door behind him - hard.

A day later, everything went back to normal. Better than that, in fact. They even invited my then-boyfriend home for dinner.

I had broken the cycle of 'don't tell' by treating my parents as equals.

In turn, my parents were forced to confront the fact that their baby girl was no longer a child.

It was a paradigm shift in our relationship. Parents find it difficult to cut those apron strings because it means letting their child loose into a dangerous world of adults.

Youth, in turn, fear that revealing too much about their private lives would be like asking for a curfew.

But the longer the code exists, the more honesty is eroded.

Sure, no two parents react the same way.

And there is the fear that the initial storm might rage out of control or do irreparable damage.

But perhaps, a relationship free of deceit will at least be the better for it.

A good deal - of exploitation

24 June 2007, ST

By Mathew Pereira

ON A holiday in Bali with family and friends just over a week ago, our group did what many do when they are not on the beautiful white-sand beaches there - shop.

On one shopping trip I bought a leather travelling bag. Being a leather freak of sorts, a purchase like this would usually leave me on a high for a few days. Not this time, though.

There was nothing wrong with the tan-coloured bag. It was tough but supple and would just about clear the size limits for airline carry-on luggage.

I'd picked it up from one of hundreds of market stores in Ubud, in the central part of Bali. These stores sell handicraft ranging from wood carvings, pottery and silverware to straw bags, sarongs and leather goods.

Yes, there was nothing wrong with the bag - it was how much I paid for it that troubled me.

In Bali, bargaining is expected and is part of the fun of shopping.

The woman seller's asking price for the bag was $150.

Back here in Singapore, I would have considered $250 a steal. But this being Bali, I haggled and offered her the equivalent of $35. She turned it down, she counter-offered, and so did I and so on.

After about 20 minutes, we agreed on a price - $50.

In Singapore, I've paid that amount just for a plain piece of leather. This time, however, $50 was for everything - the labour that went into making the bag which would include, designing, cutting and stitching. I felt guilty.

Later, I had a chat with friends about where one should draw the line when bargaining. They took a business-like and uncompromising view, assuring me that no trader would sell anything to me at a loss.

But that argument reminded me of something a friend related to me several years ago during the Asian economic crisis.

Thailand was particularly hard hit. Many people were out on the streets selling everything they owned - even luxury cars - pasar malam-style for a fraction of the actual cost.

Yet opportunistic buyers exploited the situation by bargaining with these down-and-out Thais even further.

I don't think it was the case in Bali, but one can never know. Many of the itinerant hawkers and hotel and sales staff there said business had never really picked up since the two bomb blasts in Bali, one in 2002 which killed more than 200 people, and another in 2005 that killed more than 20 people.

What bothered me was that sometimes we were even quibbling over a mere $2 or $3 - the price of a bowl of noodles. Was it really worth haggling that much, I wondered.

But a friend countered that, while not a big deal to us, $2 or $3 is a significant amount to many in Bali and should not be given away freely. For instance, I was told that some of the staff at the place I was staying were paid only $5 a day.

I must admit I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to bargaining. I tend to cave in quite quickly. It is just not in my blood, though I won't go so far as to say it is not in my genes. My 15-year-old son can look a hawker straight in the eye, slash 30 per cent off the asking price and not even flinch.

However, he learnt that you can push it too far. He recently went to Bangkok for a rugby tour with his school team. While shopping, they had a field day bargaining - except at one stall.

My son turned around to walk away after a bout of protracted bargaining ended with the seller refusing to lower the price further for a T-shirt that my son was interested in. The woman seller then said to him: 'You don't buy the T-shirt, I'll kill you.' He bought it.

Perhaps she just got fed up with his hard haggling. Or perhaps, she simply needed the money. In which case, it was a useful lesson.

Sure, there are those in my group for whom bargaining is for fun and for whom a good price is like a major victory.

There really is no right or wrong to bargaining and the extent one wants to push it.

However, I keep thinking about my son's incident in Bangkok, and of course, my Bali bag.

I love a good buy, but I feel uneasy when I see how little some of these artisans, particularly those people who live in Ubud, are paid for their creativity, skills and hard work.

Looking at how they were dressed also told me how little they had.

And so I hope that the next time I bargain, I will be reasonable about it.

That may mean paying a few dollars more than if I had bargained real hard - for which some may call me a sucker.

But if it is only going to cost just a few bucks more and it makes the trader happy, so what. I can live with that label.

Go with the grain

24 June 2007, ST

Q IN SOME recipes for one-pot rice dishes, the washed, drained, uncooked rice is added to the rest of the ingredients in the pot. Yet in others, the uncooked rice has to be sauteed with the other ingredients in a pan before water is added. Why is this extra step required?


For instance, in both Chinese claypot rice and Japanese kamameshi, where the cooking rice is topped with ingredients, the rising steam from the rice cooks the items, and their released juices flow down into the rice - a perfect exchange.

When you cook rice this way, be sure to wash it several times to remove excess starch, which could otherwise make it too gummy.

Sauteing uncooked rice with oil and aromatics results in grains that are drier and less sticky; the frying cooks and firms the outer layer of starch in each grain, which slows down its absorption of liquid.

The most famous application of this technique is in Hainanese chicken rice, where the rice is washed, drained and left to dry out, then fried in chicken fat with ginger, garlic and other seasonings.

Some yam (taro) rice recipes also use this technique, and many Indian rice pilaus begin with the frying of rice with spices.

You don't need to fry the rice for very long, and certainly not until the grains brown, as some cookbooks tell you. Once they start to whiten, you can add the liquid. Letting the cooked rice stand uncovered for a few minutes before fluffing it with a fork will enhance its graininess, also.

Where to get your ramen fix?

24 June 2007, ST

Ramen Ten

Where: Two outlets: 01-22 Far East Plaza, Tel: 6238-7983; 01-06/07 Jubilee Entertainment Complex, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, Tel: 6552-7328

Open: 11.30am to 10pm daily

Slurpalicious: Teriyaki salmon dry, comprising dry ramen topped with spicy salmon, a special sauce, beansprouts, lettuce, cabbage and carrots, $9.90



Ajisen

Where: Ten outlets, including B1-18A Parkway Parade (Tel: 6345-4339) and 02-35 Plaza Singapore (Tel: 6837-0191)

Open: 11.30am to 10pm daily

Slurpalicious: Crayfish ramen topped with bamboo shoots, egg and spring onions, $10



Ramen Ramen

Where: The Rail Mall, 382 Upper Bukit Timah Road, Tel: 6763-9597

Open: Noon to 3pm, 6 to 10pm. Closed on Mondays

Slurpalicious: Sharksfin ramen topped with char siew, mushrooms and beansprouts, $28



Manpodo Ramen

Where: 01-16A The Atrium @ Orchard, Tel: 6238-6728

Open: Noon to 3pm, 6 to 8pm daily

Slurpalicious: Tonkotsu ramen with char siew, lava egg, beansprouts, seaweed and garlic chips, $12



Miharu

Where: 01-11 Gallery Hotel, 76 Robertson Quay, Tel: 6733-8464

Open: Noon to 3pm, 6 to 9pm. Closed on Wednesdays

Slurpalicious: Tokusen misou, which is ramen topped with char siew, stewed egg, corn, seaweed, bamboo shoots and onion, $12.50



Kado Man

Where: 01-21/22 Grand Plaza Hotel Shopping Arcade, 10 Coleman Street, Tel: 6339-4333

Open: 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6 to 11pm. Closed on Mondays

Slurpalicious: Hiyashi chuka, cold noodles in a special soy sauce gravy, topped with vegetables, $12.



Marutama Ra-men

Where: 03-90/91 The Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, Tel: 6534-8090

Open: 11.30am to 10pm daily

Slurpalicious: Marutama ramen, ramen in a rich chicken broth, topped with seaweed, spring onions, stewed egg and char siew, $12



Noodle House Ken

Where: 01-17/18 Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road, Tel: 6235-5540

Open: Noon to 2pm, 6pm to 2am. Closed on Sundays

Slurpalicious: Ramen topped with stewed eggs, seaweed, char siew and bamboo shoots, $12



Ichibantei

Where: Three outlets: 01-13, The Quayside, 60 Robertson Quay, Tel: 6733-3923 (Open weekdays 11am to 2.30pm, 6 to 10.30pm and weekends from 11am to 10.30pm);

B1-16 Hong Leong Building, Tel: 6221-7781 (Open weekdays 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6 to 10pm, Saturdays 11.30am to 2.30pm. Closed on Sundays);

and 01-32/33 China Square Central, Tel: 6557-0226 (Opens 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6 to 9.30pm. Closed on Sundays)

Slurpalicious: Tonkotsu ramen topped with char siew, stewed egg, bamboo shoots and garlic oil, $10.80



Kyo-Nichi Japanese Ramen

Where: 01-31 China Square Central, Tel: 6327-3919; 03-249 Marina Square, Tel: 6337-7017

Open: 11am to 10pm daily

Slurpalicious: Char siew ramen topped with char siew, vegetables and an egg, $12



Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant

Where: Three outlets: 01-01 Far East Square, Tel: 6438-0328 (Open weekdays 11.30am to 3pm and 6 to 10pm, Saturdays noon to 10.30pm and Sundays noon to 9pm),

B1-16/17 Tiong Bahru Plaza, Tel: 6273-0013 (Open 11.30am to 10pm daily),

B1-43/44 Suntec City Mall, Tel: 6238-6789 (Open weekdays 11.30am to 3pm, 6 to 10pm and weekends 11.30am to 10pm)

Slurpalicious: Deep fried chicken and ramen, topped with seaweed, bamboo shoots, garlic and corn, $9.30

Rah, rah, ramen

24 June 2007, ST

Ramen seems to be the rage with three new eateries opening and queues at some existing shops

By Brenda Goh

THREE new ramen shops have opened here in the past four months, adding to about 23 existing outlets here.

At one of them, Marutama Ra-Men at the new Central mall, long queues form every day. It serves at least 300 customers daily and the owners say they cannot cope.

Singaporeans, it seems, cannot get enough of this Japanese version of a Chinese dish comprising wheat noodles in a rich soup stock.

Mr Lim Wei Gien, 38, who owns Ramen Ramen at the Rail Mall in Upper Bukit Timah, opened Manpodo Ramen in Atrium@Orchard last week. He says he did so because customers wanted more authentic ramen in town.

Other new outlets include Ichibantei's third shop, which opened in China Square Central in April.

And the Beppu Menkan chain will open a fourth outlet, also in China Square Central, next month.

Existing outlets are not losing out. Most of the owners LifeStyle talked to say their outlets serve an average of 200 customers daily.

Ajisen, a chain of 10 ramen shops, sells 8,000 bowls of ramen a day.

The most popular kind of ramen here, most owners agree, is the tonkotsu ramen. It comes from the Japanese island of Kyushu, and has a collagen-rich, milky-white soup stock that is made by simmering pork bones for many hours.

In Japan, there is usually a layer of oil over the soup, which coats the noodles as they are pulled out of the soup.

Mr Michael Seng, 52, co-owner of Beppu Mekan with his brother Kevin, says: 'It's really yummy when it's oily and the noodles get very smooth. The layer of oil helps to keep the soup hot.'

But many of the shops here tweak their noodles to suit Singaporean tastebuds, cutting down on the salt and oil and making the stock more spicy, among other changes.

Mr Lim says that when he opened Ramen Ramen four years ago, the ramen he served was 'very oily, salty and had a lot of garlic in it'.

A cool reception from customers prompted him to cut down on the grease and salt.

Beppu's Mr Seng says he upped the spice quotient in his ramen by adding chilli paste and chilli powder to the soup.

He says: 'Singaporeans love spicy food, so we have five levels of spiciness. In Japan, the spiciness of the ramen only goes up to level two.'

Unlike ramen shops in Japan, which usually offer only gyoza or pork dumplings as a side dish, those in Singapore sell everything from fried soft-shell crabs to sashimi.

'This gives Singaporeans variety, which they like,' said Ramen Ten's operations manager, Mr Christopher Ho.

And there are even more radical tweaks.

Ramen Ten, which has two outlets, began offering dry noodles five years ago, in flavours like tom yam, and continued to call it ramen, even though the word is synonymous with noodles and soup.

Mr Ho, 38, says: 'Our ramen is like Singaporean meepok - it appeals to everyone.'

But some restaurants say they are sticking to the original recipes.

'Our tonkotsu ramen is our most popular dish and we tailor it to suit the Japanese,' says chef Chan Chee Hong, 33, from Ichibantei at The Quayside. About half its clientele is Japanese.

Kado Man at the Grand Plaza Hotel Shopping Arcade, where six in 10 customers are Japanese, does so too, as does Orchard Plaza's Noodle House Ken.

One of the latter's regular customers, Mr Louis Kee, 26, a chef, says that he prefers it this way.

He says: 'It's tastier. Since it's from Japan, we should keep it the way it is.'

For ramen-lovers like sales officer Jessie Tan, 29, a regular at Miharu in Gallery Hotel, the influx of new ramen eateries is good news.

She says: 'It's definitely a good thing for consumers, especially since it gives us more variety and choice.'

Heroes, warts and all

24 June 2007, ST

Heroes are all the more endearing to us when they show publicly that, like us, they are human, too

By Cheong Suk-Wai

WALKING to work the other day, I saw ahead of me a rag-and-bone man trying to steady a trolley loaded with what looked like a good 30kg of old newspapers.

His scrawny but sinewy arms were trembling something fierce from the effort, and I wondered why he was in that curious position and not getting on with the task of loading his truck.

Then, as I came up to him, I saw one of my neighbours talking to him - well, if you could call the wretched contortions of her stroke-skewed mouth talking.

She looked as if she was screaming in slow motion, even as her gnarled hands clawed the air, trying to get her point across.

I ambled to a halt, transfixed. So far as I could make out, what she was trying so hard to convey to him consisted of little more than how her mother was, and how she herself was doing these days.

But the man stood there, arms shaking and nodding his head now and then, with a desultory 'hmm' here and an 'ah' there for good measure, waiting for her to finish sentences that seemed to take her an eternity to form with her cruelly wrenched face.

A hero if ever I saw one, I thought, my heart full of joy as I watched my stroke-stricken neighbour beam beatifically before she dragged her twisted limbs towards the lift.

THAT rag-and-bone man got me thinking about the nature of heroism and whether our idea of what a hero is has changed these days.

The classic hero, as we well know, is strong-willed, passionate, egotistical, ruthless even in his single-mindedness to do the done thing.

He neither falters or falls back when obstructed, nor crumbles when faced with hopeless odds.

There are also the classic heroes of our imagination, often superhumans with names like Superman and Wonder Woman and who, for some reason, like sporting their underpants on the outside.

They, too, are fearless and fearsome in the face of evil - and, well, it does take some courage to bare your undies to all and sundry.

But these days, it seems that people's perceptions of what a hero should be have changed such that the heroes of today must show themselves to be all too human too, warts etc.

I take my cue on that from the cult hit series Heroes, which is currently airing on cable TV here.

It charts the journeys of 10 people who discover, in the prime of their life, that they are able to develop superpowers, including the ability to freeze and bend time, glide through walls and be utterly indestructible.

The catch is, they are soon framed for nuking New York City, and are thereafter outlawed because everyone else sees them as dangerous freaks.

There are scant special effects used in this show as its creators prefer to concentrate on a stirring idea: What if the ultra-strong people we admire are as flawed, and in some cases, mentally weaker than we are?

This fresh twist in the history of heroes is as empowering to the average Joe as it is telling of his mores today.

And the classic heroes of yore just don't cut it anymore with their reputation for perfection, which has become a rather one-note virtue in this age of multifacets, multitasks, multimodal, multinational and a myriad other 'multi's'.

Wanting to know that the strong people we admire can be weak beyond their control stems, I think, from this thing called the personal computer in the 1980s.

Gaining access to widespread sources of knowledge has since stoked a ravenous appetite among most people to expose life's many mysteries, the most compelling of which is arguably learning what makes people tick.

Take, for example, someone as perennially puzzling as the late Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales.

This Aug 31 marks 10 years since her life was snuffed out in a Paris road tunnel and, in the past seven days, she made the cover of Newsweek, which christened this season the 'summer of Diana', thanks largely to a slew of new literature and tributes to the woman who outgoing British Premier Tony Blair dubbed 'the people's princess'.

Now, I am not and never have been a fan of Diana, but I have to marvel at how someone who, by turns, has been characterised as a liar, bed-hopper and media whore is still being lionised as a 'saint'.

Why is that? I wondered, flipping through the issue of Newsweek a few days ago. Was it her sheer sex appeal? I rather doubt it, although she did have that in spades.

Rather, for all her flaws and foibles - and goodness knows she had a few - people remember most images of her lending an ear to an Aids patient, hugging an orphan cheerily, whooping it up on the dance floor or just seizing life with her two sons.

She simply wasn't anyone other than herself, and that, I believe, is a big reason she still lingers in our collective consciousness. Don't we all wish we could have embraced life as giddily and been ourselves as totally as she had?

And so the summer of Diana rages on.

Last Wednesday, I watched her eldest son, Prince William, tell NBC presenter Matt Lauer why he and his brother Harry had decided to hold a concert on July 1 in honour of her on what would have been her 46th birthday.

Prince William said: 'We want it to be a celebration of her life, instead of her death, as it usually is.'

A man after his mother's heart, if I ever saw one.

I FIND myself looking out for the rag-and-bone man again these days. But then I should not have to focus on only him, really.

If indeed today's heroes are loved as much for their weaknesses as they are for their strengths, then there are scores of quiet men and women around us who justly deserve to be hailed as heroes, seeing as they do what they need to do every day, consistently and constantly, just so the ambitious, passionate and ruthless among us can get ahead.

Have a kind word or pat on the back for them, won't you?