Local News

A mother and son team tried to cheat insurers of about $3.7 million in insurance claims. 

They cooked up an extended story and even produced supporting documentations but they did not manage to cheat the insurers.

Singaporean, Abraham Rock, reported that his mother, Talat Farman, met with a traffic accident in Pakistan. He submitted a police report, medical reports, and even a death certificate.

What they did not have was a tomb.

Now, they face a maximum 10 year jail term as well as fine.

The family must have been having grandeur visions of the millionaire life. What they face is the reality of prison food and accommodation.

This is not just a typical complaint. A Singaporean man was disappointed with an insurance company for rejecting his claim. He had an unforeseen situation in which his 1-year-old daughter was in danger and was angry at his insurance company for turning a blind eye. 

The story goes like this: He woke up in the morning only to find that his baby daughter was not at home. After a while, he realised that his maid had unintentionally and unexpectedly brought the baby down to the car. When he went downstairs to find her, he found out that the baby had locked herself in, with the key, by accident and has been stuck in the motionless car for 30 minutes.

Worried that her life is in danger due to the lack of oxygen, he panicked and tried, to no avail, to get his daughter out of the car. The baby was clearly distressed and crying. 

His wife had called the SCDF almost immediately but the couple was still panicking over their daughter's safety. They eventually decided to smash the window to save their child before the SCDF or police arrived. 

They then sought a claim with their insurance company but was disappointed when they were turned down. According to the father, they were not unhappy because their claim was rejected but mostly because the company was very indifferent to their plight. 

Despite showing some compassion, the insurance company kept asking about the necessity of smashing the car window and why they did not wait for help to arrive. Here's their reply:

I have sought an appeal for your exceptional circumstances of the incident. We regret to inform you that our management has rejected this claim.

The rejection is based on the following, which can be found in your policy:

Under General exceptions:
“(8) Any accident, injury, loss or damage caused by you or your authorized driver’s wilful act, wilful negligence or collusion.”

Under General conditions:
“(3) Your duty to prevent loss or damage: You shall at all times take all reasonable steps to safeguard your car, your personal belongings and your ignition keys from loss or damage.”

The father was annoyed as given the severity of the situation, he thinks it is common sense to do whatever it takes to save their child. He said:

"Even SCDF commented that what I did was right and not wait for them to arrive as they would also require to smash the window in the end to save the kid too as we do not have a spare key."

Nevermind the claim, should the company have shown more sincerity and compassion to the desperate parent? Why are these values lost in our society today? 

Thank goodness the baby is now safe. It must have been a traumatising experience for both the child and her parents.

https://www.facebook.com/AvivaSingapore/posts/3170226963003462

Singapore Post has been under scrutiny lately for its screw ups. Given its lousier reputation, it should not have given out surveys to people and set the default scores of every question to 10 out of 10.

A sharp-eyed netizen was asked to complete a SingPost survey when he noticed it and found it funny. 

"One does not set your default survey score to 10 out of 10, unless you are Singapore Post.

Wonder why you set the default score to 10 instead of 5.

Your survey should start with a neutral score, not a report paper that pleases your management with anyhow 10 scores if I just pressed Submit."

SingPost has since replied that it will forward his feedback to the "relevant team." No reward if you bet that nothing will be done. 

From trivial matters like this to bigger issues that affect Singaporeans, this funny ownself-praise-ownself mindset sure is prevalent in Singapore. No point getting alarmed or surprised anymore!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10219307906152659&set=a.1156340352931&type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARByNwb1blOR6ehOMgNL9ksBkyKyRZOc0gL9m4ASvhR0wmgCgFQ7gVnXvGfTXrlBP0WIeWkEjm89pW1iOt2U4KxyIUufBnE3UoTyfTJ8mNQ9YfQWLoIY3-jSbWe9nfISCrJHaX0R9sMTyef4DrKRr7q_ijc23vuX-aJfl8XhHzrnDLpf1oh1OJ2R7TWiHFhir1xN1UzOTPJfdNKGwzhU6aM6cQM0BXNSM12kK75fuF0HJRznPkkEfJjTA57Tp5T3Ulpi1V3BKYe6m6npTmcrR7rZyg&__tn__=-RH-R

Reality is harsh. Singaporeans were treated to the cruel reality of culling pigeons, a current method that is used to "manage" their population in the country. 

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) recently posted a video showing how pigeons are culled in Hougang. The video shows the birds lying on the ground half-conscious while Town Council contractors sweep them up into dustpans and into trash bags. They are to weak to escape and have no place to run. 

ACRES is appalled by the way things are done in order to control the pigeon population. It intends to file a cruelty case to investigate how the Town Council handles animals. 

Apart from its complaint, it will raise questions pertaining to pigeon feeding, animal mishandling and more importantly, whether pigeon culling is actually effective in Singapore. If it is not that effective, shouldn't there be a better alternative that does not require the animal cruelty?

"This is not an isolated issue to Hougang, but an island-wide operation done in many areas following complaints about pigeon nuisance."

ACRES has also requested for Singaporeans to approach their Town Councils to seek justice for the poor animals. 

Sad times. It is one of the many other issues that the authorities today fail to handle properly. 

https://www.facebook.com/ACRESasia/videos/428734821233572/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBL8vEyCnovMFrNNer4Hyk-mlq6G0Cxp6mCVinXrT2dZt026JiGT3a4J2XqRTU0TevJkQMlO8v0Ol7pv8gSYMFuH0TliGjRHtuiyb8P7OZw_2c4UCujru6BjZaOfJH5u4fE7NybjxaxfqVijhRD5wYajv620o3E1uz6VJMlshTk8quaeMcDiTs8vjeaOHgHwiaE6PTWDFiSnz2NK4NsbSnsX8fuKnH29zUhzzTZ_SCNMvDTCUpxqVB8PTmIcpF8trVaVWFRxEPCpoMu2fmOcET5CRJPiEV9KHHRaEp_d15k7YhU7PdspVe-WHRHKPIpBoBJvj400hZj9FQZu0wpn2Wogq0&__tn__=-R

Facebook user Jem Wong posted a video showing a helpless dog going after a red car. The dog looked as if it was abandoned and it certainly looked pitiful. 

It constantly walked around the red car while it stopped at the traffic light. It did not loiter around any other vehicles nearby.

When the traffic light turned green, the driver drove off without once stopping to pick up the poor dog. The abandoned animal gave chase but could only run so fast.

There are no details as to where it happened at and it is uncertain if the driver was indeed the dog owner, but poor thing, having to live with being abandoned like that! 

The video is already making its rounds on the Internet. Hopefully some kind soul will pick it up and save it from meeting with an accident. 

This is more than irresponsible. This is irresponsible, heartless and inhumane. 

https://www.facebook.com/legitsingapore/videos/598395370627980/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARC1AglzlYlZ-KoVCgPcLd5BXKOZnxgJu2YFMkQpnixA1e_HH_q7uUnjpi1CjichC_3QbKbY1rr_9eo92gJP36Jja0FC6mrwU1q1aqZDD7A6hFDFIYuIcBzEYVLbw_ubTqqMUaNnlTjHw-eYbvkUlKCP5JNbJiBcBkAuzZOTwPW8ekzhmTh0UISDeswvj2b_f0gY05hdTtDsYgBgNMR1licBOmqs8domU52OXI4iOeDkS5g51IKmS0BViyrvpkj9X-HAbEYuutDmucEU77E5_nVQTnpC5gPARmQxfwiIj98q4wPsn-JZwUZgKFuGQKiFvKTwb-sfVFYReSuAQaWx3sSYURN2u0tIrBM&__tn__=-R

Thanos has snapped his fingers. The websites of Cathay Cineplexes and Golden Village have apparently been lagging or crashing due to overwhelming traffic. This is what happens when Singaporeans from all walks of life want to lay their hands on Marvel's Avengers: Endgame movie tickets. 

Siao siao.

Netizens have been reporting difficulties accessing their websites and purchasing tickets. Even when it does not lag, they automatically enter a neverending queue. Like this:

Those who want to buy tickets will now have to wait more than an hour. And when they successfully enter the website, they have to make the purchase within 10 minutes. Angry fans are now whacking movie theatres for allowing advanced ticket sales when they cannot even handle the traffic. 

Siao siao. 

That being said, people on the ground are not having it easy either. Snaking queues are forming outside box offices since before 9.30am. Some even complained that the box office did not open on time. 

How will the movie theatres respond to this? Will they be able to handle it properly? 

Hungry fans are angry fans. If they don't resolve this asap, it will well be their endgame.