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Look Back at 2011: Animal Welfare
Dec. 31 | ~ By Gangasudhan ~ The animal welfare scene in Singapore has been burgeoning in the last few years, and there is little argument that 2011 especially has been a year of milestones for animal welfare – and advocacy as a whole. Hopping Mad...
A Response to Transport Minister on Public Transport System in Singapore
Jul. 20 | by: Yong SK/ On July 11, 2011, the two major Public Transport Operators (PTOs), SBS Transit and SMRT, submitted their proposals to the Public Transport Council (PTC) to raise fares, raising eyebrows among Singaporeans who have been unhappy with the service...
HOME’s Bridget Lew mentioned in Hillary Clinton’s speech
Jun. 28 | Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) founder and President Bridget Lew Tan was mentioned in a speech by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the release of the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP). In her speech, Clinton said: Our...
2010 In Review
Dec. 31 | Kirsten Han - After having studied overseas for the past three-and-a-half years, in 2010 I returned to Singapore and almost immediately began working with The Online Citizen. 2010 has been an eventful year, not just for TOC, but probably for Singapore...
Singapore’s ugly mangrove swamps
Dec. 30 | by Ron Yeo Shorebirds: Many migratory birds stop by Singapore’s mudflats to feed and rest before continuing their journey. Dark, smelly, dirty, muddy, scary, mosquito infested, illegal immigrant infested… Ask the usual Singaporeans what they think...
TOC Focus Week: Stories of Migrant Workers
Dec. 18 | by Joshua Chiang Today, Dec 18th, is International Migrants Day. Over at TOC, we have been doing our part raising pertinent issues regarding the less-than-ideal situations many migrant workers find themselves in. While we acknowledge that the liberal...
TOC focus week: Young Singaporeans reach out to migrant workers
Dec. 17 | From Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) Migrants rights group, Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) marked International Migrants Day, which falls on 18th December each year, with a celebratory high tea attended by 120 young migrant workers and their counterpart...
A lesson on autism
Dec. 15 | written by B L Swee, a parent whose child is diagnosed with ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) JY has been such a charming child. We were so taken by his good looks and funny behaviour that we never realised that something was very wrong with him. The...
The financial burden for families with autistic children (Part 1)
Dec. 1 | photo credit: Autism Children's Centre ASD refers to a spectrum of psychological conditions characterized by abnormalities in social interactions and communication, as well as severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. ASD...
TOC Focus Week: The Wright route to success
Dec. 1 | This is our sixth article in our Focus Week on people who, despite their disabilities and special needs, have overcome obstacles and challenges they faced. Deborah Choo Professional photographer Kenichi Wright works with top notch firms and deals with...
Suicide in the heartlands
May. 18 | An unidentified man in his fifties seemingly committed suicide by jumping out of his 7th floor flat in Choa Chu Kang this morning. Neighbours The Online Citizen (TOC) spoke to said that the man who lived with his mother (in her seventies) is unwell, unemployed...
The conservative renaissance – part 2
May. 17 | Ambiguous clauses and the problem of interpretation Far from providing clarity, the latest statement issued by the National Arts Council (NAC) has farther mystified the supposed guidelines that are adhered to in awarding grants, by throwing out a set...
The conservative renaissance – part 1
May. 17 | “And I think censorship takes many, many forms. It may not be as blatant as cutting your words but they certainly give you a rating, which severely limits your audience. And ratings prevent you from reaching out to a younger audience who may also need...
Government grossly under-budgeted for special needs education
May. 1 | Joe (not his real name), the father of a child with special needs first submitted this letter to Today for publication. Despite requesting Joe to edit the letter into a 300-word article, Today subsequently refused to publish it. Today refused to publish...
Singapore policies force some onto streets
Apr. 5 | Al Jazeera reports on the homelessness issue in Singapore. Singapore is a nation of homeowners, largely thanks to a comprehensive system of government subsidised housing. But despite the system’s overall success, the strict rules also mean that...
SPF should build strong community partnerships in cyberspace
Apr. 1 | By Ravi Philemon The Online Citizen (TOC) sent in the following opinion to The Straits Times (ST) Forum on 30 March 2010. At the time of putting this up on TOC, ST had not responded if they would put this up in their papers. So, we publish our opinion...
TOC Editorial: Sheng Shiong’s extortionate increase – a failure of political representation
Mar. 25 | By Ng E-Jay From next month, supermarket chain Sheng Siong will increase the stall rentals by a whooping 30% at five of the wet markets it purchased last year. The five wet markets are in Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok and Serangoon. The current monthly...
Breeding a subsidy mentality in housing
Mar. 19 | By Alex Au of Yawning Bread In late January 2010, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in announcing the increase in the Additional Housing Grant from the previous S$30,000 to S$40,000, said that with the increase, some 8,000 households annually would...
Don’t stand in the way of evolving social workers
Mar. 17 | By Sonia Suka Social Workers are evolving into “care coordinators”, according to the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sport, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan. By adding, “coordination then means you need to be able to communicate with all the...
Lonely out of the gravy train
Mar. 13 | By Khairulanwar Zaini Compassion remains scarce in Singapore. The status quo prevails for the government: public transport concessions will remain elusive for the almost 120 000 disabled people. Addressing the plight of the disabled was Workers’ Party...
Summoning hither the dolphins
Mar. 10 | By Hoe Jia Wen Animal activists have raised legal and welfare concerns about the impending transfer of 18 bottlenose dolphins to Marine Life Park Resorts World Sentosa. These wild dolphins, caught from the Solomon Islands, are currently being trained...
Bigotry of one – faith of another
Feb. 18 | Ravi Philemon Shravasti Dhammika writing in his blog on Pastor Rony Tan’s saga says that the government sanctioned inter-religious dialogues do not work because those that really need such dialogues, “the bigots, zealots, fundamentalists and the evangelicals,...
Aftermath of the Rony Tan incident: it has only just begun
Feb. 12 | By Alvin Phoon For most, the Rony Tan issue is resolved. Apologies have been made, hands have been shaken and people have been humbled. However, what this issue has successfully accomplished is to further expose the perils of religion in a multi-cultural,...
Not your ordinary chit-chat session
Feb. 10 | Terence Lee When the Internal Security Department (ISD) called up Pastor Rony Tan to talk about his callous comments on Buddhism, it was no ordinary chit-chat session. Pleasantries might have been exchanged and the obligatory coffee proffered, but this...
Malays in 2007: Renewed confidence amidst turbulence?
Dec. 29 | By Kamal Mamat Amidst the gloom of inflation and concerns over spiky social issues, one can sense that generally, 2007 has been a positive year for the Malay community. Of course, the rising costs of goods and services dent this sentiment.
TOC Open Thread: Multiculturalism, Indian style
Nov. 6 | TOC writer Kamal Mamat featured this on his personal blog here . Below is a video of Indian Idol contestant Meiyang Chang, third generation Indian citizen fluent in Hindi.
Beyond Tokenism- Malays, Integration and the SAF
Nov. 6 | By Kamal Mamat I would like to propose several hypotheses which I gathered after conducting a series of intense and scholarly empirical research on the levels of representation of the Malays in the SAF. Due to space constraints, I will only list down...
A brief encounter with a Chinese woman
Oct. 25 | By Eddie Choo This evening I had quite a conversation with an elderly day nurse. She’s from China and she was asking me for directions. I don’t know her name, never asked for it, for convenience lets just call her Xiaomin. I first noticed...
Playing an active part as Singaporeans
Sep. 15 | By Andrew Ong After casual exchanges with friends over some local socio-political issues, I have to say that generally, majority of us Singaporeans take a very passive if not an apathetic approach when it comes to Singapore socio-political issues. I...
TOC Youth activism perspective
Sep. 1 | By Jorina Chai My first foray into grassroots work was in September 2005. Bored with the run of the mill MOE-mandated community service activities organised by my school, I decided to get involved in something which would have a broader impact on the...
Nation Builders
Aug. 9 | As we celebrate National Day, lets not forget the ones who are struggling and who continue to struggle on a daily basis. Many thanks to Martyn See for taking the time and effort to lend a voice to the less-abled and needy – especially the elderly....
More than just money needed to help poor
Jul. 15 | This is TOC writer Leong Sze Hian’s letter to The New Paper which was published on the 14th of July, 2007. I refer to the article ‘Would you work 2 shifts over 14 hours for $4.90 an hour?’ (The New Paper, 6 Jul) and the recent launch of...
“Every citizen is a reporter”
Jul. 4 | This is an extract from the blog, DailyKos. Meet some of the citizen reporters of OhmyNews, a South Korean venture that in 2000 became the first online newspaper in the world to accept, edit, and publish articles from its readers. It was established...
Should homosexuals be allowed to teach?
Jun. 27 | At first glance, the answer to the question above is obvious. A teacher’s sexuality belongs to a private realm, and has no bearing on his ability to teach. There have been no known instances, for example, where one’s sexual orientation has impaired...
Homosexuality as a “disorder”: classification denies potential trainee teaching position
Jun. 26 | After a clarification from Alfian Sa’at, who writes for Trevvy, we have decided to only publish an excerpt of this article, as follows. You can view the full article here. “I watch Francis as he tries to describe how he feels about the turning...
$200 GST offset, but so much more to pay ad infinitum
Jun. 14 | This is a letter by TOC writer Leong Sze Hian to the Straits Times I REFER to StarHub’s announcement that it will increase cable TV subscriptions by between $4 for basic groups and $10 for sports content. This is an increase of 17 to 67 per cent....
Foreign Talent policy: of principle and practice
May. 25 | By Choo Zheng Xi The government’s defense of its foreign talent policy follows a familiar pattern. The government rolls out a policy and frames it within unobjectionable truisms that few can disagree with. In the foreign talent debate, the truisms are...
The Work Holiday Programme: an undergraduate’s concern
May. 25 | By Ned Stark Singapore’s open door policy rolls on. The government’s stated goal is to bring Singapore’s population up to the 6.5 million mark. Unless we drastically increase our birth statistics, it is clear that many of these 6.5 million residents...
The next step – “proactive blogging”?
May. 16 | By Benjamin Blogging is a medium of communication. Web logs were once little more than online diaries, for people to write about their daily lives. Now, even these personal blogs can gain international attention and recognition. Xiaxue is one. Other,...
Decriminalising homosexuality in Singapore
May. 3 | By Koh Jie Kai The purpose of this letter is to address two arguments which homophobes frequently make against decriminalising homosexuality in Singapore. Let’s take a typical example of a homophobic point of view, written by a Mr Jonathan Cheng...
Public assistance for the elderly – where the ethics lie.
Mar. 19 | “There will always be arguments on whether a sum we’ve decided is enough or not and as I’ve said yesterday, frankly one limiting factor must be the sum that we give through public assistance cannot be so generous as to erode the work...
LSIRC Discussion Forum 2007
Mar. 8 | By Remy Choo LSIRC DISCUSSION FORUM 2007 “OUR DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE” 10 MARCH 2007 (SATURDAY) VENUE: NUS FACULTY OF LAW, S-R 2-2 11 AM – 1 PM LSIRC (Law Students’ International Relations Committee) cordially invites...
The changing face of Singapore – integrating our people
Mar. 3 | According to the Department of Statistics (Ministry of Trade & Industry) Singapore’s total population in 2006 stands at 4,483,900. Resident population (S’pore citizens & S’pore PRs) is 3.6 million. The ethnic composition is: Chinese = 2,713,200...
The language of our forefathers – are we missing something?
Feb. 28 | By Zyberzitizen It’s been decades since we were urged to “Speak Mandarin” by the government, instead of speaking our dialects. I’ve never agreed with this policy. This is because I find our dialects fascinating and beautiful. But more than that,...
The construction of noise – Singapore de-constructed
Feb. 20 | Singapore is in upheaval – literally. I am sure that all of you have noticed it too – the many construction sites and construction activities going on around our little city-state. Building, re-building, knocking down, piling up, digging underground,...
Big Brother in cyberspace – anonymously
Feb. 7 | “He (Mr Brown) should come out from behind his pseudonym to defend his views openly.” - Press Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, K BHAVANI in a letter to TODAY newspaper July 3 2006 “The identity is not...
The poorest in our society
Feb. 2 | With the increasingly fast pace of life in Singapore, there perhaps is a tendency for us to forget those who are left behind, those who can’t run as fast as the rest of us – even if they want to. The government, to its credit, has set up various help...
Bloggers question Tochi’s execution
Jan. 27 | This is a summary of what some bloggers are saying about the execution of nigerian Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi. “Tochi was only 19 years old, with not much education. Was it safe to assume that he was familiar with the ways of the world, including the...
The heart of society
Jan. 13 | I’ve been hearing this question lately. From my mom, my friends, colleagues and even strangers whom I happen to meet. “What exactly are we striving for, working so hard for?” “Everything that we do or earn is just to pay our bills”, my mom said....
