Local News

Singapore activist cum journalist Kirsten Han was awarded an Honorable Mention in the World Justice Project's Anthony Lewis Prize for her exemplary reporting on law issues. The WJP is an independent organisation that recognises people who transform the world through journalism, defends against injustices and supports the need for an accountable government.

Han was among six journalists who were named for their outstanding reporting. The others are: Diego Cupolo of Turkey, Christian Davies of Poland, Alice Driver of Mexico, Emily Dugan of the UK and Emily Feng of China. The biggest winners of WJP's Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism went to Mexico's Animal Politico for their investigative journalism series. 

Congratulations to Han, who is currently an editor-in-chief at New Naratif. She often voices out on matters concerning Singaporeans, specifically human rights issues. 

What will our 151 media say to this?

IHiS Senior Manager Mr Ernest Tan is in charge of the cyber security of infrastructure at his company. Mr Ernest Tan told the Committee of Inquiry (COI) "I thought to myself: 'If I report the matter, what do I get?' If I report the matter, I will simply get more people chasing me for more updates. If they are chasing me for more updates, I need to be able to get more information to provide them." 

In a message to an internal chat group, Mr Tan also said "Once we escalate to management, there will be no day, no night." He also claimed to have been very stressed due to his mother being hospitalized on the same day. By then, he was aware that attempts had already been made to access 100,000 patient records.

Mr Tan also claimed that he was too busy "isolating, containing and defending", one of the reasons he used when asked why he did not alert the management. 

Is this the kind of people we want working on safeguarding our personal data? How can such negligence be allowed? 

A man have been conveyed to hospital after he suffered injuries when he tripped on an escalator at Bishan MRT station. Video and photos of the incident showed the man lying in a pool of blood at the top of the escalator.

The video showed the man, who seemed to be in his 50s, lying motionless, with a pool of blood forming around his forehead. A woman was seen trying to revivie hin, while an SMRT staff was directing human traffic on the upwards escalator away from the man. An eyewitness said that the man was lying motionless with his eyes closed, and lots of blood was flowing from his forehead. 

SCDF confirmed that they received a call for help at 8:18pm, and a man was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. However, his injuries were not disclosed.

Starhub has just announced that it will be ceasing its provision of cable services from 1st July 2019 onwards. They also announced that they will provide assistance for their existing customers using the cable services to port to fibre networks.

The assistance will include things like offering a range of promotions, which have not been announced yet, and complimentary installation and activation for their fibre services. This come just a month after Starhub announced that 300 of its 2,500 full time employee will be axed, in a move they described as restructuring amidst fierce competition in the market. 

The question that should be asked now would be, is StarHub a company in trouble? 

Li Ruifang, a 3rd generation hawker university graduate who left her office job to sell run a branch of the famous Whampoa Prawn Mee to ensure the family recipe doesn't die lashed out on a Facebook post on people who complain that her bowl of $4 prawn mee is too expensive. She mentioned that the costs of utilities as well as conservancy charges are rising. 

Do you think what she said is true? Should we all stop complaining about the rising cost of food at our hawkers? You can read her full post below:

"Rant of the day:

You know what irks me??
Edited so as not to offend smokers only ??(Max Yeo) People who smokes, drinks, willing to splurge on cars, holidays and complain that my $4 prawn noodles is expensive.

C’mon, we have to wake up early to prepare this bowl of prawn noodles with prawns and pork ONLY ?

And to the social enterprise who want us hawkers to sell cheap, why should we think of the less fortunate? Isn’t it the government who are supposed to help them?

I have a family to feed.
I have to pay 5 employees ( including myself) 
I’m not here to do charity.

Don’t get me wrong, I still collect $3 from those cleaners. I still give out free noodles for a man who’s on wheelchair and ask for free food. 
But it’s not feasible for us to sell cheap to help these people right? How about us?

Food cost are rising.
Water/electrical bills are rising.
Conservancy charges has increased from $150 to $210 over this 4 years that I’m at Tekka.

So my point is, please appreciate hawkers more. 
Please don’t take advantages of us.
Take what you can finish and prevent wastage.

Thank you."

A foreigner by the name of Lonen Bellamy posted on Facebook group Complaint Singapore asking “Is Singapore a Chinese country?” The post gathered a number of comments overnight. One of the comments by Kevin Heng went viral. In the comment he said "“If Singapore still with malaysia we won’t even be recognizable on the map. Thank LKY and Chinese leaders if not we would become some resort tourism spot in Malaysia nobody wants to go. So yes, this is a Chinese country.”

Is this why so many foreigners mistake us for being a part of China? What do you guys think? Are we a Chinese country?