Ex-Yaohan supermart staff reunite to mark SG50

May 31, 2015

By Andrea Ng


SINGAPORE - They were simple round buns with sesame sprinkled tops and filled with red bean paste. But they were so popular, they flew off oven trays before even reaching the shelves of one-time supermarket giant Yaohan.

Quarrels and snaking queues were commonplace in many of Yaohan's branches, where customers competed for the many bargains the Japanese chain offered, recalled former staff who yesterday got together - many of them for the first time after almost 20 years - to reminisce.

Opened in 1974 in Plaza Singapura, Yaohan was the first to introduce the one-stop shopping concept to Singapore. The first week alone saw nearly a million Singaporeans flock to its three floors in the newly opened mall. By 1983, it had five branches, including in Jurong and Bukit Timah. In 1997, its parent company in Japan went bust, and its last branch in Thomson closed.

Shangri-La Dialogue 2015 Keynote Address

End vicious cycle in South China Sea: PM

By Xue Jianyue 

May 30

SINGAPORE — Amid renewed tensions between the United States and China over reclaimed islands in the South China Sea, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday warned regional leaders that every Asian country stands to lose if regional security and stability are threatened.

Delivering the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Mr Lee set out what needs to be done to ensure a stable regional order, which requires consent and legitimacy in the international community and “cannot be maintained by just by superior force” in the long run. He also called on China and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) to conclude a Code of Conduct on the South China Sea “as soon as possible, so as to break the vicious cycle and not let the disputes sour the broader relationship”.

“If all parties adhere to international law... that is the best outcome,” he said. “On the other hand, if a physical clash occurs, which escalates into wider tension or conflict, either by design or more likely by accident, that would be very bad.”

KL's Alliance leaders take aim at S'pore PM over speech

May 31, 2015

 

This week in 1965 | A look back at the events that shaped Singapore 50 years ago 

By Ho Ai Li

 

JUNE 3, 1965


Leaders of Malaysia's ruling Alliance coalition levelled harsh words at Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in the Malaysian Parliament, as relations between the Singapore and Central governments look to have reached the point of no return.

A Singapore legacy comes full circle

May 30, 2015

The gripping tale of South-east Asia's first natural history museum and its new lease of life. 

By PETER NG KEE LIN 

For the Straits Times


OUROBOROS is the name of a mythological Greek snake - a snake that consumes its own tail. It is one of the oldest mystical concepts known to man, first observed in Egypt 1,600 years before Christ. A powerful symbol of the cyclical nature of time. About coming full circle, and then starting again.

Such are the strange and interesting life and times of Singapore's museum of natural history.

From roots that trace back to 1823, when Stamford Raffles himself mooted the idea of a Singapore Institution for natural history; then 1849, when two coins donated by the Temenggong of Johor were acquired by the colonial government and the idea of a museum was seeded; to the establishment of a legal body, the Raffles Museum, in 1878.

This entity is South-east Asia's first natural history museum. But the world is an unpredictable place - many dramatic events occurred. Between 1942 and 1945, Singapore experienced a war of unprecedented cruelty and violence when the Japanese occupied the territory. Through fortune, the museum survived.

Then in 1965, Singapore was suddenly no longer part of the Federation of Malaysia but an independent country. And in these traumatic times, as a young nation grappled for survival, the Raffles Museum became the National Museum of Singapore.

14 years of giving it a go for regional security

May 29, 2015

By William Choong 

For The Straits Times


NOT many observers of regional affairs will know that it was the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew who gave the much-needed push for the establishment of the Shangri-La Dialogue, the annual defence summit that will kick off its 14th edition tonight.

In 2001, Dr John Chipman, the director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), had a brainwave - compared to Europe, Asia did not have a defence forum which involved meetings of more than two defence ministers. So he sought the advice of Mr Lee. Mr Lee's curt answer: "Give it a go."

Fourteen years on, the Dialogue has come a long way. It also bears Mr Lee's imprimatur, given that the themes he espoused still resonate today.

Designer babies may soon be possible — but ethical questions abound

DAVID BISHOP

MAY 29, 2015

A team from China grabbed the headlines last month when it announced it had edited DNA in the nucleus of human embryos. Whatever the ethics of such research, the breakthrough raises the question of just how far we will take tampering with our genetic make-up?

The Chinese team’s work was done using a gene-editing technique called CRISPR (pronounced “crisper”) and the results were not spectacular – only four of the 86 eggs injected were successfully modified.

Nonetheless, Harvard Professor George Church believes that within five to seven years it will be possible to snip out and replace stretches of DNA to genetically engineer babies.

But should this kind of research be done at all? And as parents look to guarantee a better future for their children, what should we consider acceptable?

Driving Uber Mad

MAY 23, 2015

Maureen Dowd

WASHINGTON — ON a reporting expedition to Los Angeles recently, I realized I could stop renting cars.

I would never again have to brave the L.A. freeway behind the wheel. I would never have to obsess, like the characters in the “Saturday Night Live” skit, “The Californians,” about taking the 101 to the 110 and Canyon View Drive over to San Vincente to the 10, then switching over to the 405 North and getting dumped out onto Mulholland.

I had Uber.

Even in the land of movie stars, you could feel like a movie star when your Uber chauffeur rolled up. Standing in front of the Sunset Tower Hotel, I tapped my Uber app and saw five little cars swarming around my location. But, suddenly, they scattered in the opposite direction. I stood in the driveway, perplexed. Finally, a car pulled up, and the driver waved me in.

“Do you know why no one wanted to pick you up?” he asked. “Because you have a low rating.”

(Uber drivers see your rating once they accept the request and then can cancel.)

I was shocked. Blinded by the wondrous handiness of Uber, I had missed the fact that while I got to rate them, they got to rate me back.