I have put up a new blog relating to Joo Chiat. Do check it out at:
http://joochiattoday.wordpress.com.
Recent articles include a meeting with Philip Chew, great grandson of Chew Joo Chiat, the philanthropist whom the place was named after.
Will be updating the site with new content approximately once a week. Do suggest issues I can cover as well.
After breakfast with Philip Chew at Marine Terrace Market
This article appeared in TODAY, 23 May 2011, page 18.
Footnote: I had proposed something similiar during my GE2011 campaign for Joo Chiat. I will be happy to link interested private home residents in Joo Chiat and in the eastern side of Singapore with arts group I am familiar with for paid wall mural services to their homes.
Visiting Bhutan is quite an experience. This landlocked country high up in Himalayas has been a mystery to me for a long time. I have heard of it being the happiest place of earth and the king being concerned about the happiness of his subjects that he designed a Gross National Happiness (GNH) index while other countries are preoccupied with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP).
I finally made the trip there from 13-18 March 2011 with a team of educators, ex-educators and education practitioners on an education exchange with the Armed Forces Special School. We did two workshops for school leaders and preschool teachers in Thimphu, followed by visits to a village school in Punakha and a private school in Thimphu. We toured famous places in Bhutan such as the Tiger’s Nest and partake in the Paro Tsechu spring celebrations, where we met and spoke with the King by chance. And by chance, I met members of both Singapore families living permanently in Bhutan (I was told only 2 Singaporean women are currently married and living in Bhutan). It was a tiring and action-packed 5 days.
A few things struck me about Bhutan:
1. The challenging geographical terrains of winding mountain roads, occasional landslides during summer monsoon rains and rolling valleys. The country is mostly agricultural in nature and the kingdom is committed to maintaining at least 60% of its land in its natural state. The love for and protection of the environment is a big thing in Bhutan, and one of the core four pillars of its Gross National Happiness philosophy.
2. The peace and genuine happiness of people here, despite the relative lack of monetary wealth. Happinesss is a function of contentment, not of absolute wealth. There’s relative peace all around with low crime rate. Actually, Bhutan is not as backwards as I had in mind, as I had been to remote villages in Cambodia, Sumatra and West Kalimantan (Indonesia), where conditions are much worse.
3. People speak English well. English is taught in school as the main language. Even at the village school, we took a look at essays written by grade 7 students and the standard of the language is good. This augurs well for the country, as its people will be able to plug into the world through English.
4. The quaint buildings and clothing styles of the people are from centuries ago, but Bhutan is undergoing change that is hitting just about every country in the world. They get access to Internet and international television. A visit to a local pub with our tour guide drove home the point. The modern Bhutanese songs have strong western and Bollywood influence. Many young Bhutanese love to hang out in pubs, dancing and listening to live music.
5. The people have strong respect for the king (see my other blog posting), respect and interest in the political process (see other blog posting) and for one another.
6. Strong influence from India. India supports Bhutan in its army, in infrastructure development and in business. This is inevitable given that India is neighbour with Bhutan and both see each other as a good way to keep China in check, especially after neighbouring Tibet became part of China. It is wonderful then to see that despite being so far away, Singapore too has started to make its presence felt in Bhutan by supporting actively in education and community projects.
7. Many people are deeply religious in this strongly Buddhist country. It’s Buddhism is the same as that of Tibet. Its unique culture and beliefs have been transmitted down for centuries.
8. Bhutanese are deeply loyal and connected with their country. While many Bhutanese now study and work abroad, they aim to be back to Bhutan rather than migrate permanently. In today’s highly open and mobile world, such deep attachment to country and culture is something many places including Singapore need to learn from Bhutan.
Fifth King visiting the Paro Tsechu festival on 17 March 2011 and greeting his people - by YJJ
After a recent visit to Bhutan , I am totally impressed by their kings. They serve as good examples to all monarchs and political leaders on how to rule with love for their country.
The former and fourth king of Bhutan , H.M. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck felt monarchy is not the best form of government because a king is chosen by birth and not by merit. Despite being well loved by his people, he crafted into the Constitution to allow the parliament to remove a monarch by a vote of no confidence to protect his people from having to serve under a bad king. He established the process for a democratically elected government and handed powers to the parliament. He established that no king shall not serve beyond age 65 to prevent a bad king from serving too long. He promoted the concept of Gross National Happiness as the basis for Bhutan ‘s socioeconomic development, which is about collective happiness rather than individual.
In 2008, at age 56, he abdicated in favour of his son, H.M. King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. The fifth King is now popularly called by his people as the People’s King for his active involvement in promoting education and welfare for the people. He travels frequently to the countryside for long periods, sometimes by foot and living amongst his people to understand their needs. When Bhutan was hit by a massive earthquake in 2009, the King went quickly to the affected sites supervising rescue and rebuilding works.
Today, we have sad cases of rulers in Libya , Bahrain and elsewhere desparately protecting their rule by using violence against their own people. We have rulers who go through great efforts to create systems to attempt to entrench their dynasty in perpetuity. We have leaders who believe they must use authority to bully people into submission. If we have more leaders like the kings of Bhutan , we will have more peace in the world. The Bhutan kings should be the winners for the Nobel Peace Prize as an example of how to rule with peace and love.
Published in TODAY Voices Jul 6, 2010 (following is original unedited article)
Those who have seen the recent MRT grafitti seemed to agree on one thing – that it was done artistically. Even the MRT staff thought it was an advertisement and hence did not report it. And it was done in the dark of the night!
While the breach of security certainly cannot be tolerated, I feel our drab MRT trains and other spaces and public objects around us can have more colours. We want to be a liveable city rich in arts and creativity. SMRT can help to make Singapore more colourful by inviting people to submit their intention to paint the exterior of MRT cabins with their proposed designs. Organise this like a competition and have the designs changed once every few months. This will allow controlled expressions of our creativity.
SingPost attempted a rather unfortunate expression of their creativity in January this year by spray painting on six postboxes that backfired. However, I applaud their effort. Their subsequent attempt was more tasteful. I now have a pleasant looking postbox near my house along Marine Parade Road with nice artwork on it.
Getting our postboxes, MRT trains and even public spaces on streets decorated in a controlled manner will add to a more vibrant city life. I am sure there will be aspiring artists who are eager to add to their portfolio and will apply for these street art projects. Street art is gaining popularity in some cities such as London, Berlin and San Francisco. Why not in Singapore too?
Yee Jenn Jong
Sent to TODAY, February 1, 2010
I read with sadness the passing away of Mr Tan Eng Yoon. I am impressed to hear the testimonies of great athletes like C. Kunalan, Mani Jegathesan and others about how they were motivated to train and perform because of him (TODAY, Sports 39, 1 Feb 2010) These athletes have achieved greatness for Singapore at a time when sports does not pay and athletes have to hold full time jobs.
On the other hand, I am frustrated like most Singaporeans about the lack of success in athletes over the past two decades. There has been enough debate over this after the last SEA Games. Motivating athletes to perform is more than just dangling monetary incentives and throwing KPIs at them. While such things are important, Singapore needs nurturing people like Mr Tan who can inspire the best out of athletes to restore the good old days of athletics. Nowadays, we read of law suits and threatened law suits between athletes and associations, failed submission of training plans and other accusations. I wonder if today’s athletes can testify if they have the inspiring figure like Mr Tan Eng Yoon guiding and leading them.
Mr Yee Jenn Jong
ON AUG 10, on the way to lunch at the food centre across the World Trade Centre, I saw a sports car smashed badly on its left side.
A policeman was directing traffic. Also directing traffic further down the road was another policeman. He was standing near an ambulance van, which had smashed into the sports car.
My first thought was that everything was under control as the police had arrived and perhaps administered first-aid. Then I saw a man re clined on the driver’s seat of the sports car.
From a distance, I could not gauge his condition but assumed that he was not removed from the car perhaps because some bones were broken and he could not be moved. Later, a colleague who was at the site of the accident told me that he heard the policeman said that the accident victim had stopped breathing.
The driver had been moved out and the passenger moved to the driver’s seat. It was only after at least 15 minutes from the time of the accident that the ambulance arrived. No medic could have helped the driver by that time.
There are some questions to be asked. Are our uniformed professionals trained in basic first-aid?
If the two policemen at the accident scene were, why did they not move the victim out of the car to provide resuscitation?
Were there others in the lunch-time crowd who could have administered first-aid? I was surprised that the victim, who was reported later to have died immediately after the accident, was not moved out of the car and tended to.
We only have a few minutes to revive a person. If our uniformed personnel are not trained in first-aid, then I would call for a training programme.
It will be beneficial too if there is a national campaign to teach first-aid and life resuscitation methods to all our citizens.
YEE JENN JONG
————— reply —————–
ST Forum Aug 19, 1994
MR YEE JENN JONG‘S letter “Conduct national drive to teach life resuscitation” (ST, Aug 15) has highlighted an important need: Improving the community’s awareness of the importance of knowing first aid and life support measures so individuals can look after themselves, help others manage minor injuries without panicking and offer help to those involved in accidents.
The Singapore Red Cross Society recognizes this need and has set up a Centre for Life Support Training with the sponsorship of Singapore Pools. Its role is to educate the community on the need to learn life support measures and to offer training programmes, general and specialised, to the community to help train instructors for community groups. Towards this end, we have conducted courses for the public, uniformed groups, foreign maids, nursery school teachers, care givers, air stewardesses and factory workers.
Together with similar minded groups in the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, Civil Defence, St John’s Ambulance, National Safety Council we are quietly working towards a programme to serve a need that Mr Yee has so cogently pointed out.
DR YEO KHEE QUAN Chairman Singapore Red Cross Society
A feature on me by Straits Times regarding how we tied up with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to commercialise their software into a successful business.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20080425-61862.html
THE death and injuries caused by the crane that smashed into the upper deck of a bus along Chai Chee Road (“One killed as bus, lorry collide in Bedok”, July 17-18) is tragic. I was driving past and saw the wreckage.
I wonder how a crane arm can smash into a bus that had already overtaken it on a lane meant for vehicle passage. It looks suspiciously like someone’s negligence or poor understanding of crane operations.
It brought to my mind another dangerous incident I encountered last month while on a family day trip to Sentosa organised by my university alumni.
The bus arrived late and the driver did not know how to turn on the air-conditioning (he only managed to figure it out midway through the journey).
He asked if anyone knew how to get to Sentosa. The driver spoke only Mandarin, with a mainland Chinese accent. He said he has only just started driving bus.
Once on Sentosa, while he was going around a sloped bend, the bus stalled. He could not control the clutch. We had to direct cars behind the bus to move away as it slid several times and got dangerously close
to hitting them. Finally a passenger showed him how to handle the clutch and he moved off.
We alighted at a bus stop that was on a slope. The driver again tried for five minutes before he could finally move off.
There were many people at the bus stop and I told them to move away just in case.
I have never seen such poor handling of a bus. There had been some 50 people on board, including young children.
In our haste to fill positions with foreign workers, companies must ensure they are properly trained, especially when handling vehicles and equipment. I hope all companies take such matters seriously to avoid
tragedies from happening.
Yee Jenn Jong
The Straits Times | Tue, May 4 2010
I BOUGHT a one-month return ticket for my maid for her home leave to Palembang on Lion Air on April 17, transiting at Jakarta.
But when I called her that night, I was shocked to find out that the airline’s counter staff in Jakarta would not let her fly to Palembang, saying her employer had paid for her ticket only to Jakarta, when it was clearly stated on the e-ticket that she was to take the 2.25pm connection flight.
My maid said she showed the ticket to the counter staff but they said “no” and made her pay another one million rupiah ($150) for a one-way ticket from Jakarta to Palembang. It was a lot of money for an internal flight, but she paid as there was no other way.
When buying the ticket, I was told at Lion Air’s Singapore office that it could not process a check-in all the way, but was given the assurance that the airline’s Jakarta staff would take care of transit arrangements for my maid.
The confusion could have been avoided easily if Lion Air had allowed boarding passes for the connection flight to be issued at the airport of origin (in this case Singapore).
Now I dread to think of her return trip a month from now.
I hope Lion Air will do more to ensure that its processes do not inconvenience passengers.
Yee Jenn Jong
