Local News

When a career fair is mentioned, especially if one is held in a school or university setting, one would expect that all students from that particular institution are welcome. This was apparently not so at a career fair held at NTU last month. According to sources, NTU held a career fair they named NTUtopia which was said to target students from scholar programmes or with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.75 out of 5.

And these selected students are sent an email where they are congratulated on being selected for the fair which clearly states that it is a by-invitation only event, where top employers can engage and possibly recruit the brightest final year students. According to sources, those selected elites were able to hand in their resumes to some choice positions in both the public and private sectors. Among participating government agencies were MOE, MND and IMDA, and those in the private sector includes DBS and OCBC. 

And this after the Minister for Education himself said that exams and assessments at the primary and secondary levels are putting too much unnecessary emphasis on grades, when students should focus on the joy of learning. But NTU never got the memo, the elite and exclusive fair says it all. Grades are still the most important thing to get the best jobs in Singapore. 

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) confirmed on their FB that they have managed to release a family of 2 wild boars and 3 pigets from a cage that was found off Sime Road on Sunday afternoon.

The trap was first spotted by a member of the public, who alerted ACRES about the trap. The trap was found by the side of a road that had vehicular traffic, near the Central Catchment Area. ACRES also said they believe that the cage was meant for wild boars, as it was quite big in size of about 1.2m by 1.8m, and had food bait such as corn. 

The family of wild boars were safely released back into the wild after ACRES ascertained that none of them suffered any injuries. The cage had also been removed. ACRES said they did not know who put the cage there, and investigations are ongoing. 

From January 1 next year, employers will not be allowed to hod on to their foreign domestic workers' (FDW) salary, even if their maids want them to. The MOM said that this new rule will help to protect both parties from monetary dispute.

MOM reported that they receive about 600 cases of salary disputes a year, most of it over the safekeeping of salary. That's almost two cases a day. About time that this rule is applied. After all, do you ask your employers to safekeep any part of your salary? Sounds ridiculous, right? So why should it be any different between employers and their maids? 

The maids are grown up adults after all, so whatever they do with their salary is for them to decide, not for employers to decide. After all, if employers are allowed to keep the maids salary, there might be cases of no proper accounting done, so the salary of the maid might not be exactly the figure they earned. After all, when it comes to employers and maids, the employers are always right.

A Singaporean family is angered by Scoot for not handling their request properly. They were stranded in Hokkaido after an earthquake and left without electricity and connectivity. During that period, their mother unfortunately passed away in Hokkaido. The family scrambled to settle the repatriation, insurance claims and had a difficult time dealing with foreign authorities. 

They approached Scoot in hopes of changing their flight so that they can have more time to settle matters. But in a rude shock, Scoot's staff were unprofessional and inappropriately cold in refusing their request for a 11 Sep flight.

"Coldly, we were informed, there was no available flight even though we were willing to pay and no assistance was rendered on compassionate grounds. The earliest flight was 15 Sep. Hotline told us to write in to the support portal - Ref.1809405009. I don’t blame the hotline team, they were not trained to manage such a personal crisis. We received standard reply a condolence note and ‘we could not accede with your request’ for a letter. Scoot was not prepared to write us a confirmation letter for the unavailable flight. We were not even asking for compensation then but a letter for insurance claim".

Now that the funeral is over, the family is demanding answers from Scoot for its lack of sensitivity and rude attitude. 

Even if they are ill-trained, is it so difficult to show some sympathy? Why is it so hard to make the effort and do someone a favour?

Credits to Jessie Leong

An Indian-bron yoga instructor, 26 year old Rakesh Kumar Prasad, is appealing against his 9 month jail sentence and $1,000 fine handed to him for molesting his 25 year old student at a Real Yoga studio in Tampines Grande.

The incident took place on April 2015, when Prasad was alleged to have molested the student by cupping and pinching her breast while she was under his tutelage. Prasad was also accused of trying to squeeze the victim's breast by slipping his hands under her sports bra. When the victim protested about his actions, Prasad allegedly smiled and suggested her breasts were small. 

He was found guilty on the back of CCTV images that showed the incident. But Prasad has the cheek to now appeal against his sentence. In his defense, his lawyers said the victim only made the claim against Prasad as she could not get a refund of the one year membership she had signed on for. The DDP has, however, asked for a higher sentence of 12 months jail and three strokes of the cane. The result of the hearing will be delivered on 12 October. 

Local Jazz pianist and composer Jeremy Monteiro was recently trolled by a "big name hotel". The hotel invited him and another artist for a gig but cancelled it at the last minute after everything was confirmed. 

They have no choice but to suck it up and pay for their hotel rooms and part of the flight despite not having anything left to do there. 

"Hotel tells me 'sorry' and let’s work together in future.

Well, no. It’s not going to happen. Just try. All you will get is a big fat 'Sorry and a No' from me.

Unless this hotel mitigates the situation to reduce the impact with some else other than a 'sorry'.

I am not naming names because I have some parallel dealings with this hotel with another organization I lead, but it’s amazing how people can just make moves that hurt people financially and just say, 'sorry' without any offer to make amends or mitigate the situation."

So easy, say sorry can already? Way to live up to their reputation!

Credits to Jeremy Monteiro