Local News

Rachel Chan first started a petition against Watain, which resulted in a big hooha and an eventual ban of the Watain concert. 

On 13 May 2019, she updated the petition, renaming it to "More extreme (death and black) metal bands scheduled to perform in Singapore". She copies the Wikipedia definitions of death metal and black metal which says:

According to Wikipedia, death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. The lyrical themes of death metal may invoke slasher film-stylized violence, religion (sometimes Satanism), occultism, Lovecraftian horror, etc.

Black metal (initially a synonym for 'Satanic metal') has often sparked controversy due to the actions and ideologies associated with the genre. Many artists express extreme anti-Christian and misanthropic views, advocating various forms of Satanism of ethnic paganism. In the 1990s, members of the scene were responsible for the spate of church burnings and murders.

She then included a list of metal bands coming to perform in Singapore:

7 June 2019 – PESTILENCE (HOL)

15 June 2019 – Metal United World Wide

5 July 2019 – CRYPTOPSY (CAN)

29 October 2019 – SOILWORK

The ban on Watain's concert received much backlash from the online community. Hopefully, this petition will not affect any decisions made by our Government. To many people, concerts like these are important as they help them express themselves more. 

Rachel Chan also adds on that people who are concerned over the concerts can email in to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and cc to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

There is currently no news on whether these concerts will be banned.

A 27 year old woman has pleaded guilty in court to assaulting her 2 year old son s badly that he suffrered from a fractured skull and serious brain injuries. The woman, a single mother with two other children from different fathers, was frustrated at the boy's slower development, and she would often flare up and hit him.

Unfortunately, on one fateful day, as she was bathing her three kids, the 2 year old was found to be playing with his own faeces in his diaper. Despite telling him to stop, the boy continued, which made the woman angry. She started slapping the boy, and when he did not stop, she slapped him so hard that he slipped and fell, and hit his head on the leg of a metal table. This caused the boy to cry, and when he did not stop crying, she began to panic. It was only 15 minutes after the incident that she decided to call for an ambulance, on the advice of her friends.

When the boy was warded, it was found he had many other bruises all over his body. The boy is currently still not recovered from his injuries. The woman is currently awaiting her sentencing

Yet another NUS male student, this time a 26 year old, was caught filming a female student in the NUS residence hall bathroom, and he has been arrested based on CCTV footage, which was placed after the Monica Baey saga.

The man was also allegd to have changed his clothes immediately after the filming incident, showing clear porve that he was trying to be undetected. Police confirmed that the man has been arrested, and they suspect him to be also involved in other similar cases. NUS also confirmed that the incident took place at their Raffles Hall bathroom. Both the man and his victim reside in the same hall. 

The university also said that the victim is being provided with dedicated support and assistance, possibly rolled out in the wake of Monica Baey's incident. Both the man and his victim was not named.

A Singaporean woman wrote about her traumatic experience of being doxxed when she was in Secondary School. 

In a Dayre post, she said that she had her photos and personal information circulated on Tumblr sites when she was still schooling. Someone had taken her CCA pictures and photoshopped them to make her chest look bigger. The posts were shared more than 300 times.

"I felt degraded and stripped of my dignity. I was helpless."

She was horrified when she came across it and started investigating it herself. Along the way, she received many messages from strangers who asked her for favours.

Once, she even confronted a stalker near her house despite feeling very afraid about what he could have done to her. She reported it to the police but did not find closure as the man escaped and they had lacked details to arrest him.

She confided her friend about it only to realise belatedly that he was the one behind it all. Traumatised, she asked why he would do something so awful to her and if he ever thought of apologising. 

It took much persuasion for him to remove all the posts and issue a public apology. Except he removed the latter just a day later. 

"Knowing the truth did little to comfort me. I was shaken. I was shocked. And most of all, I was hurt and confused that someone whom I trusted and regarded as a close friend was behind all of this."

Today, she is a stronger person because of her traumatic experience but she will never forget the hurt she had to go through. Having her personal life, her face, contact information and all that exposed on the Internet really caused her a lot of emotional stress. 

"Apart from the emotional stress, my health plummeted. I couldn’t eat and only slept after crying. I vomited a couple of times due to anxiety and felt depressed. I even visited my grandmother overseas to take my mind off things, but the incident didn’t entirely go away. I was still afraid each time I received a text or email notification. What kept me going was family and friends...

It was no way to live, really."

Now, she juts wants to raise awareness so that women everywhere can be brave enough to speak up for themselves. There will always be perverted men who go about harassment and doxxing, but it is not worth to let them ruin innocent lives. 

Stand up, fight, and protect yourselves. The world has changed and there are some things we must not stay silent about. Otherwise, we will truly let ourselves down.

Singapore's newly-passed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill (POFMA) has definitely caused a stir. It is not just among Singaporeans, but foreigners as well.

In a Facebook post yesterday, the Foreign Correspondents Association of Singapore aired its dissatsfaction towards the way Singapore wants to combat fake news and asked for the Government to reconsider enacting POFMA.

It expressed grave concerns that POFMA will stifle press freedom and result in excessive, unnecessary self-censorship. 

What's more, the Bill is too wide-ranging and does not consider the job of journalists at all. 

"We regularly file stories as situations develop and facts are still emerging. This can mean - as in the case of the Sri Lanka attacks - that we have to report contradictory accounts, with the caveat that the reports are unconfirmed. It is imperative that the independence and the integrity of our reporting is preserved and protected, and we are concerned this bill undermines that."

Furthermore, the FCA finds it unacceptable that POFMA allows Ministers to be arbiters of truth.

"Although it has been pointed out by the government that court appeals are permissible, the reality is that it is highly onerous and expensive to do this. It is unlikely that news organisations would have the resources to do this."

Pretty sure they are not taking into account the plight of all Singaporeans, much less freedom of speech or the like. And by the way, if Singaporeans' objection did not make a difference to the passing of the Bill, what makes them think a foreign committee will stand a chance?

https://www.facebook.com/FCASG.org/posts/2358487210882553?__tn__=H-R

The Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF) has been suspended as an affliate to Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and by Taekwondo's world governing body, World Taekwondo (WT).

SNOC noted that it had 'grave concerns in the governance and high-performance management of the STF'. These suspensions came shortly after STF sent a lawyer letter to national athlete, Ng Ming Wei, accusing him of defamation.

He was accused for defaming the STF through an interview in which he said:

‘I don’t know why my carding has not been approved. To be fair to all parties, I therefore can’t say it’s anyone’s fault in particular. All I know is that Sport Singapore decides on carding based on input from the STF and its players.’

STF claimed that Ng has made "false allegations" and "misleading statements" towards STF that has "defamed STF by targeting (their) integrity".

Local alternative news site Mothership Sg, also interviewed many athletes who were working with STF. These athletes mainly expressed their dissatisfaction with STF. Ng said that these suspensions are 

“a positive confirmation by World Taekwondo and SNOC that they are taking definitive action on these grave concerns”.

“I hope that this suspension will be followed up upon with further positive action designed specifically with the welfare and development of the players in mind,” Ng added.

We hope that that our national atheltes will be able to further excel in their sport with these changes. Wish them all the best in their upcoming games!