Some connectivity — 25 years late?

My heart leapt up when going over last Friday’s Straits Times (old newspapers miraculously came to hand earlier, thanks to my dropping by at nephew’s home on Saturday and grabbing what he’s discarded instead of waiting for him to deliver at his leisure)!

I refer to the makeover that’s been completed at the dinosaur of Singapore’s shopping malls –Plaza Singapura. (see article reproduced below).

It seemed like the answer to my complaint voiced here more than 30 months ago !

But alas, I rejoiced too soon.

It’s some connectivity, pardon my sarcasm!

Singapura Plaza was already connected to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. Ditto the Atrium. Be4 the makeover.

There’s no connection to Cathay Building or Park Mall — at least not according to the ST article. Or it’s silent on such new connections — if indeed there are links.

I shall confirm the non-existent links the next time I visit Plaza Singapura.

You would think G would have insisted on creating links to Cathay and Park Mall when approving the 80 extra shops. People need links, not more shops — of which there were/are already plenty in and around Plaza Singapura

 

The Straits Times www.straitstimes.com

Published on Dec 07, 2012

New lease of life at Plaza Singapura

Makeover adds more space, 80 new shops to draw young adults to 38-year-old mall

By melissa tan

PLAZA Singapura, down at the less glitzy end of Orchard Road, has a new lease of life now that renovation works are over.

After its 21-month makeover, costing $150 million, the 38-year-old mall is nearly the size of Ion Orchard with about 80 new shops, all linked to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station.

Its net lettable area has grown by about 25 per cent to 629,000 sq ft.

The previous block-like facade at Plaza Singapura has been revamped with a wave-inspired design. The mall front now stretches 170m along Orchard Road.

It has also been integrated with its neighbour, The Atrium@Orchard, which mall owner CapitaMall Trust bought from the Government in 2008.

A walkway now connects the first floor of Plaza Singapura with the MRT station via the mall’s new wing which is the retail podium of The Atrium@Orchard.

The new wing has about 80 shops, including several brands that are new to Singapore.

These new stores are aimed at young adults and professionals, managers, executives and businessmen, the mall said in a statement yesterday.

One of them is 1 Market by Chef Wan, a buffet restaurant launched jointly by the eponymous Malaysian chef and Food Junction Holdings.

Located on the fourth floor of Plaza Singapura’s new wing, it serves a smorgasbord of South-east Asian cuisines.

The 450-seater halal restaurant has been booked up for lunch and dinner until the end of this year, Food Junction managing director and chief executive David Lim said yesterday at a media briefing at the restaurant.

Other new shops include JRunway, a 3,600 sq ft store that is the first Japanese multi-label boutique in South-east Asia, and several other Japanese stores such as Japanese restaurant Tsukada Nojo and Hoshino, a coffee place by Japanese coffee chain Doutor Coffee.

In the old wing of Plaza Singapura, Cold Storage will be taking over the lower level of the space vacated by French hypermarket Carrefour when it moved out at the end of September, the mall’s management said.

Cold Storage’s 30,000 sq ft store is slightly smaller than the one at Great World City. It will begin operations in the first three months of next year.

The space Carrefour occupied on the ground floor of Plaza Singapura has yet to be taken over by a tenant.

melissat@sph.com.sg

Copyright © 2012 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Deadly dependence on FTs?

Yesterday some 102 SMRT bus drivers from China decided not to go to work. Read all about it here:
http://singaporedaily.net/2012/11/27/daily-sg-27-nov-2012/

My initial reaction: Thank goodness I seldom take buses. But on second thoughts, i drive and share the road all the time with SMRT buses.

With unhappy drivers in charge of as big a vehicle as a bus — especially the double-decker and the bendy varieties — and with so many lives in the hand of one person, is it wise for SMRT not to treat their human “software” like valuable porcelain?

(It’s the same analogy which ex-president SR Nathan said Mr Lee Kuan Yew used to describe the Straits Times when Nath was sent there to sort things out aeons ago).

Think also of other road users, especially pedestrains, cyclists and motor cyclists. What if a madly disgruntled SMRT driver/s loses/lose  ”it” and decide to take it out on the world — namely a narrow street in Singapore.

It would be a nightmare worse than Freddy Kruger’s Elm Street! (which incidentally gave me nightmares the first and only time I viewed it!)

Guess such a dastardly deed could be done by an insane bus driver of any nationality but when this isn’t home and there’s the added pressure of having to adjust to this not being home, then there’s a gr8er chance of a trajedy waiting to happen

Mayb one should be glad that the China-drivers showed their hand by not driving. If that made headline news around the world, think how much bigger headlines would have resulted if they drove and the resentment in their hearts went off like a Mumbai bomb!

Which is worse?

I first took notice of the name Richard Teo in the Straits Times obituary page because one of my many cousins has a son by the same name. Still, the similarity ends there. The late RT was a doctor whereas my cousin’s son makes his living as a “sourcer” for antiques and other decor bric a brac for the rich and famous.

Then the name of the late Dr RT came into view again. This time Face Book link of an ex-cousin’s husband gave me a glimpse of what the late doctor spoke about a la the last lecture of Randy Pausch.

As i was relaxing then in Kuala Lumpur, I didn’t really read thru the transcript.

But believe it or not, an email from a KL friend hit my inbox today with the full transcript and i couldn’t help but read it more closely since I am back in SG and have better access to the Internet.

Also, i can’t help noticing that the lament of the late Dr RT has gone viral, at least as reported by Yahoo.

I can understand why it’s so traumatic that someone in his prime should look askance at death. Even my mother at 87 going on 88 — with a host of health problems, sorry lah, I mean health challenges – doesn’t look on death as a welcome exit.

Indeed, I daresay no one, not even those who believe in Heaven, are wholly or even “half in love with easeful death” (as John Keats the Romantic poet once put it!) Otherwise, there would be no need for Lourdes and other miracles.

And i am familiar with the lament — now growing most common and loud in SG — that money and success don’t buy one happiness. This was the thrust of Dr RT’s lecture given near the end of his life. In fact, it’s the same message that I was raised on when as a kid in CHIJ I had chosen Scripture as one of my O level subjects.

That familiar “What doth it profit a man to own the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?” has been put into many new packagings in today’s SG, especially by the young clamouring for better life balance.

While I feel it is sad, very sad, for anyone to leave this wonderful life prematurely, I wonder whether it won’t be a lot sadder to leave it prematurely but penniless and an abject failure?

Or put another way: What doth it profit a man who owns not a grain of sand and yet suffers the loss of his own soul?

Oh! the contradictions!

As is my won’t, i go over old newspapers to catch up with whatever news or views I’ve not been able to trawl from the Internet. But I do so only when my dear newphew H drops what he’s gone thru and have no use for at my place — irregular and haphazard, the drops, I mean.

Still, all the news and views that aren’t on the Internet i can live without any real loss.

This explains why it’s only today that I am reading Mak Yuen Teen’s letter published in the Straits Times on Oct 4, highlighting Singapore’s high profile contradictory behaviour (see letter reprodcued below) which resonates immediately with me, as I had just been ruminating mentally again about the hypocrisy of our green movement.

That was triggered by a news item I saw on Mediacorp TV last week touting that retail outlets and supermarkets can now apply to be formally recognised for their efforts, under the Green Mark Scheme, spearheaded by the Building and Construction Authority.

Acting Manpower Minister and Senior Minister of State for National Development, Tan Chuan-Jin, said retail and supermarket outlets which operate with more energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration system can enjoy significantly savings, as the systems account for about half of their energy consumption.

This news would have been fine as a stand-alone. But when it was followed almost immediately by the news that Singapore’s first ice gallery will open on November 1 as a permanent feature at Snow City in Jurong?

Designed around the theme of dinosaurs, the ice sculptures will be fitted with coloured lights, waterfalls and even an ice slide. And to prevent the ice sculptures from melting, the temperature is set at minus 10 to 12 degrees Celsius

How much energy does it take to sustain a gallery of ice dinosaurs of 140kgs each ad infinitum when Singapore’s natural temperature is around 28 degrees Celsius? How much natural gas, oil, electricity and CO2 would be involved to keep this going?

And for crying out loud, there’s Ikea and Fairprice depriving me of my plastic bag or two when i shop!!

F1 reveals ethical dissonance

Thank you Ms Anna Quek, for so eloquently expressing the concerns about the Government’s decision to extend the hosting of the Formula One (F1) race for another five years (“S’pore GP: full disclosure please” last Saturday).

Singapore risks evolving into a country of contradictions.

We welcome casinos and try to teach values in our schools.

We host a clearly environmentally hostile race, while we make increasingly loud noises about sustainability.

We also claim great pride in our reputation for integrity.

Yet, integrity is about doing the right thing, even if it costs one personally.

It means having to make financial sacrifices in order to preserve and build a long-term repuation.

I am increasingly concerned that we are unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices because we cannot see beyond dollars and cents.

If we do not watch it, we may one day be called ethical pragmatist, which is an oxymoron.

Mak Yuen Teen

I truly <3 Hongkong's transport system

Now that everyone n his uncle are raving about China’s Special Administrative Region’s seamless connectivity treat for commuters – including the Straits Times which has begun rolling out magnum opus-like pieces about Hongkong’s transport system eg Sep 23 by xueying@sph.com is one (Pointers from HK’s public transport) — I feel i must trumpet that I’ve been singing that system’s praise (as compared to our abysmal one) since 2009!

Let me gather the links right here for friends and enemies who drop by this site to savour! Remember, I sang HK’s praise first

http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/govt-mr-lui-lta-just-dont-get-it/

http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/in-the-old-days-arguments-dont-fly-any-more/

http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/lta-gimme-seamless-travel-lah/

http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/eats-hk-luowu-macau/

http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/plenty-went-right-starting-with-transport/

PS: Our G is getting it right by asking — more effective to demand in this situation — that shopping mall owners better get their act together n build links between their premises and/or our MRT stations. That’s why Hongkong’s MTR works so well. Even if unlike HK, G and SMRT don’t normally own the properties on and around the MRT stations, but it’s NO excuse to say linkages can’t be made. Let Parliament start cracking the whip, I say!

Mrs Chong to blame?

According to an online Straits Times report on Aug 2, a former teacher from a top secondary school was charged in court with having sex with an underage boy, thus confirming a rumour that’s been swirling in cyberspace.

The woman, in her early 30s, allegedly had consensual sex with the boy on the first occasion sometime in January this year.

The prosecution successfully applied for a gag order.

The accused, who wasn’t represented, is likely to face more similar charges.

What’s the world — or more accurately, Singapore — coming to?

When I was growing up, our Government was quite clear what it didn’t want in the people it governed — a permissive society.

Yet in recent years in order to stay cool and connected with the rest of the world, we threw open our windows, doors and legs  too (some would add).

And no dear George Yeo — he of old Aljunied fame – it wasn’t a few flies that flew in. It was something a lot nastier.

Back in January 2011, I expressed in a post my worry and displeasure that the much-admired Ministry of Education ad featuring a lucious “Mrs Chong” — who gave an underprivileged kid TLC – to promote the teaching vocation was completely inappropriate and unwise.

I had concluded that post with this (to my mind) prophetic warning:

“Instead of inspiring more people to become teachers, I fear “Mrs Chong” with her full lips and eyes on the brink of tears might create new tragedies like that of Mrs X, whose name was with-held to protect the identity of her student.”

The case now be4 the courts convinces me anew the stupidity of that Mrs Chong ad. Even it has done no more than set one teacher and her charge in the whole of Singapore down the road to the wrong sort of education.

Omigawd, old ST not so disciplined leh…

It’s not a generalisation to say that most Singaporeans, local born and bred, English-educated and old enough to read would have, at minimum, a nodding acquaintance with the Straits Times which celebrates its 167th anniversary this month.

As a result of this, it won’t be a generalisation either to say that most of such Singaporeans would have a love-hate relationship with the ST, in particular those who, at one time or another, needed the paper to give them some print space via a write-p or two or three. And hadn’t been so obliged

Hence, even long be4 the Internet age, there would always be someone ready to gripe about the grande dame of a newspaper. These gripes have since increased in volume — as in loudness and amount with the advent of cyberspace.

Worse whenever the newspaper finds itself in something of an accuracy pickle Not surprising, when the Straits Times prides itself first and foremost as a newspaper of record, woo-hoo!

So not surprisingly, in recent weeks, it’s received something of a bashing for its less than stellar performance relating to the SMRT moving train with “unshut door” variety. Then the newspaper had to compound itself last Sunday with the gawd awful mess that apparently came from autospell-checks performed on autopilot.

No wonder an old hand with the newspaper — who left the group a few months ago — was gleefully dancing over her ex-employer’s graveyard of mistakes in this post. Still, who can blame her when even a total stranger (I assume) like Gigamole was similarly aghast and appalled by the Sunday Times spellcheck fiasco

Yet those with longer memories shouldn’t be in the least bit surprised that newspapers, even — or especially– the ST, can’t avoid making errors of judgement and/or fact.

What should be more surprising is that  bad mistakes at the newspaper weren’t always evenly dealt with — whatever the Bertha Harian blog may claim – a credible once-upon-a-time insider reminded me.

I vaguely remember that ghastly ”incident” though not all the internal follow-ups, probably because my secret pipeline to the ST newsroom ain’t always reliable. Or I plain forgot, cos well what happened there isn’t really my business!

Anyways, my informant’s memory refreshed by the latest round of errors said that contrary to what BH claims in its post, “not all journos suffer from having made mistakes.”

Referring to the first-ever book sale by the National Library several years ago, said informant gave me this account.

1)  Informant’s informant (II) was editing the book  sale story but the reporter who wrote the story didn’t “check-line” (ie indicating that the facts are accurate).

2) II couldn’t find anything in the ST’s files and couldn’t get hold of the writer or the National Libabry. (Those were the days be4 the the uibiquitous mobile and probably even be4 the pager).

3) II checked with the reporter’s supervisor whether the story could be held over for double confirmation the following day but the supervisor decided to let it through.

4) The stuff hit the ceiling the next day as the dates were incorrect and the whole of the ST newsroom had to rush down to the book sales venue bearing gifts for the hundreds who turned up, to placate them.

5) Although II’s own supervisor tried to pin the blame on II, II had all the internal email exchange with the reporter’s supervisor to back II’s position.

6) Still came year end, II didn’t get a service increment whereas the supervisor who had given the go-ahead for a story that hadn’t been double-confirmed was promoted.

Moral of the story? Journalists, unlike doctors, live with their mistakes. And some journalists live better with their mistakes than others.

End of story.