Friday, 06 February 2015Since 1990

Volume 23 Issue 08

Mr Kader Bin Ahmad, 62, a retiree, wakes up in time for his morning walk everyday – without the help of an alarm clock.

Instead, a brood of over 20 chickens have been the morning calls for Mr Kader and residents of block 453 for approxi-mately two years.

“Sometimes they crow as early as three or four in the morning. It may be a bit noisy, but I guess it’s like an alarm clock,” said Mr Kader.

Mr Lee T H, 76, retiree, does not throw away unwanted rice for the same reason. Come 7.30am and 7pm daily, he will feed it to the group of chickens loitering on the grass patch and some, roosting in trees adjacent to block 453.

“They’re beautiful. You can’t find them in other places easily,” said Mr Lee.

Known as the Red Junglefowl, this spe-cies of chicken can fly unlike domestic chickens, said Mr Subaraj Rajathurai, di-rector of Strix Wildlife Consultancy who has studied nature and animals in Singa-pore for more than 30 years.

This species flew from Malaysia to Pu-lau Ubin in the 80s. In the 90s, the pop-ulation spread to areas like Changi and Pasir Ris.

Mr Subaraj said that someone proba-bly released a Red Junglefowl in Sin Ming where it interbred with domestic chick-

2008, a book containing information about Singapore’s biodiversity.

Ms Choi Sook Yau, Senior Manager of NParks Pulau Ubin branch, said: “NParks is aware of Junglefowl sightings in differ-ent parts of Singapore. It is encouraging to witness the return of a species once feared extinct from mainland Singapore.”

Despite the increase in population, Ms Choi discourages the feeding of wild an-imals. In the case of the Red Junglefowl, they are wild chickens that can survive on their own by foraging for insects, fallen fruits and seeds.

“Feeding these wild birds can result in alteration of natural behaviour and leftover food can encourage the prolifera-tion of urban pests such as rodents,” said Ms Choi.

ens, thus producing hybrids and multi-plying quickly.

“The population of chickens here used to be over 40 chickens,” said Mr Kader. “Some people from the nearby condo complained, so on several occasions AVA came and used cages to catch some of the chickens away.”

Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) is the national authority that governs food, plants and animals is-sues in Singapore.

However, Ms Tina Daimler, 42, a do-mestic worker, said she has no issues with these chickens as they usually stay in the grassy areas and do not loiter or dirty the void decks.

The Red Junglefowl is listed as endan-gered in the Singapore Red Data Book in

Since the launch of Keat Hong’s ‘Care On Wheels’, the programme has been facing shortage of taxi drivers to send needy res-idents to medical appointments.

The programme was implemented to provide transport for Keat Hong residents with limited mobility, so that they are able to attend their medical appointments.

To date, 14 residents from all walks of life have volunteered for the programme and seven of them are taxi drivers. How-ever, the programme is still in need of more taxi drivers.

Mr Teo Poh Aun, a member of the Keat Hong Constituency who is in charge of the programme, said, “Take a stroke pa-tient for example. After he is discharged

from the hospital, he will have to attend therapy twice a week. That means there are a total of four hospital trips to be made – to and fro. That’s why we are tar-geting more taxi drivers.”

However, Mr Teo also said it is hard to convince taxi drivers to volunteer be-cause they need to earn a living.

Mr Heng Aik Meng, a non-volunteer-ing taxi driver said, in Mandarin, that it is hard for taxi drivers to fork out extra time. Not only do they have to pay for their dai-ly fuel expenses, they also have to pay for their car rental and earn their own keeps, which easily takes up more than 10 hours a day.

“It’s hard, it’s not like we don’t wish to help. But I do what I can, and there are other ways to practise charity. For exam-ple, donating food and goods at the end of the year to organisations instead,” said Mr Heng.

However, Mr Lim Chin Beng, one of the drivers who first volunteered for the programme, said, “It is manageable, we can still earn our living.

“Drivers think it’s hard because they are not sure how the programme works. But once we tell them how it is, they find it ok.”

According to Mr Lim, the drivers are split into two shifts. In the first shift, his colleague will send the residents to the hospital and he will take over as the sec-ond shift to send the residents home. This saves time, as drivers do not have to wait for them for long hours.

Mr Yahnum Supramaniam, a benefi-

eficiary of the programme, said that the drivers and volunteers are “all very friendly and helpful” and finds the overall programme “good”.

“We really appreciate the fact that we can do these kind of volunteering,” said Mr Lim.

‘Care On Wheels’ was implemented because the Keat Hong Constituency rec-ognised that “there is a group of people who need such services”, thus they decid-ed to implement a programme that is “di-rect and has more impact”, said Mr Teo.

“As long as there’s a demand, we will just keep the programme going. We don’t set ourselves a time frame. This is not a business,” he added.

Besides ‘Care On Wheels’, other pro-grammes such as ‘Wheelchair On Loan’ and ‘Kampung Kitchen’ are also imple-mented to help the elderly and needy Keat Hong residents.

People residing in the Northeast region no longer have to commute far to gain ac-cess to high-street brands such as H&M and Uniqlo.

Other popular brands, including Dan-ish jewellery company Pandora, cosmet-ic chain store Sephora, and sportswear brand Adidas, have opened new branch-es in Nex over the past three months.

Hannah Low, 18, resident of the Hou-gang area, said the arrival of brands such as Sephora and H&M in Nex have in-creased her visits to the mall.

“It is now more convenient for me as I no longer have to go to town to shop at these stores,” said Hannah.

Mrs Sarah Lim, senior lecturer of Sin-gapore Polytechnic Business School’s Marketing and Retail management, said that the influx of high-end brands in suburban malls such as Nex is a strategic move for brands to “expand their custom-er base” and “increase sales” by targeting consumers in residential areas.

“We opened up a branch here because of the crowd,” said Ms Jasmine Tan, store manager of Nex’s Pandora. “The sales are comparable with our performance at the west side malls. Our customers are very excited at Pandora’s opening at Nex, as it is nearer to home.”

Mr Lee feels that the chickens will “not be as fat” if he did not provide food for them.P

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By Heng Wan Yuan Verlynn “ It’s hard, it’s not like we don’t wish to help. But I do what I can,”

Heng Aik Meng

Friday, 06 February 2015Since 1990

Keeping up with the beat of the community

Chickens Thrive at Sin MingResidents of block 453 have been listening to the daily cock-a-doodle-do-ling from a brood of chickens in the morning

‘Care On Wheels’ Short of DriversKeat Hong ‘Care On Wheels’ pro-gramme faces difficulty recruiting more taxi drivers as volunteers

Shopping Made Easy for Northeast Residents

A worthy New YearPage 2 & 3

To a ‘Guide Dog Friendly Nation’

Page 4

Working out both body and mind

Page 4

By Low Wei XinBy Sally Mok

Gone are the days where youths have to adhere to strict traditional dress codes and shop at Chinatown for the Lunar New Year.

Online blogshops have always been in the craze, but brands such as Love, Boni-to, Zalora and The Blush Inc. have partic-ularly been riding on this wave and cap-italising on the lunar season by releasing thoughtfully crafted Lunar New Year col-lections, also available in physical pop-up stores now open in town.

For instance, Love, Bonito opened up their first ever pop-up showcase at 313@Somerset, just in time for the Lunar New Year, presenting the “best pieces” from their festive collection.

“Bright colours, rompers and midi skirts are definitely ‘in’ this season,” said Justie Choo, a staff employee working at Love, Bonito’s pop-up showcase. “Of course, lace and oriental cheongsam de-signs are popular every year.”

Ruth Soh, a fellow staff employee work-ing at Love, Bonito’s pop-up showcase, elaborated that despite the Chinese New Year theme, Love, Bonito makes their lu-nar collection very “wearable”.

“You can wear Love, Bonito pieces any-where, not only for Chinese New Year, but for other occasions as well,” she said.

Zalora, another popular online shop-ping site based in Singapore, is current-ly displaying their Chinese New Year collection on racks at their pop-up store in ION Orchard.

“This is Zalora’s second annually re-leased Chinese New Year collection, but the first ever available in a pop-up store,” said Vanessa Lim, a staff employee of Zalora. “This season, Zalora has many floral prints and lace designs. One of our bestsellers are these floral printed shorts.”

When asked if traditional cheongsams are available in their store, Vanessa says it is a dying trend.

“Youths nowadays think cheongsams are too old-fashioned, and so they want traditional clothes, but with a modern fu-sion,” she said.

As for The Blush Inc.’s store located in Plaza Singapura, it is fully decked out in their Lunar New Year collection, with red as the predominant colour. Unlike the previous two blogshops, The Blush Inc. has a wider range of cheongsam-styled dresses available. “We target not only the youths, but also the working adults,” said Lee Qi, a staff employee of The Blush Inc..

Love, Bonito has opened up a pop-up showcase at 313@Somerset from now until 28 Feb 2015 displaying pieces from their Chinese New Year collection. PHOTOS: SALLY MOK

Zalora’s Chinese New Year collection at ION. The Blush Inc. has many cheongsam-styled dresses for both youths and working adults.

Youths who take part in gambling activi-ties during the Lunar New Year are at risk of becoming a problem gambler.

2014 saw gambling as the top three reasons why people aged 30 and below, seek debt counselling at Credit Counsel-ling Singapore (CSS), a registered charity organisation that counsels consumers facing debt problems.

According to Ms Quek Shi Ping, assis-tant manager of Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), key periods where gambling is known to intensify are during events such as the Lunar New Year and soccer seasons.

“I always see people playing cards at the void deck during Chinese New Year. To them, it is a form of leisure,” said Mr Lim Cheng Boon, counsellor at CCS. “But something of leisure can become a habit and they may not be aware of it.”

That is the case for Sim Wei Xiang, 21, a youth who started gambling because he thought it was “fun”. It became a habit and he started to gamble every day and on every Lunar New Year. As of now, he has not experienced any form of serious trouble from gambling.

“I know where are my limits, so I won’t get addicted to gambling,” said Wei Xiang.

However, Eric (not his real name), 21, has not been as lucky.

After losing $50 to a gamble during the Lunar New Year, he bet twice the amount

By Heng Wan Yuan Verlynn

“draw the line”?In which Mr Lim said, youths have

to make sure it is within their means to spend this amount of money and that it is money that they “can part with, with-out consequences”.

In other words, they should set aside a budget for different uses and aspects of their life, such as leisure and entertain-ment, so that they do not overspend and use up all their money.

Mr Lim also said, youths have to learn to pay themselves first by advocating a percentage from their monthly earnings or allowances to save up for emergen-cies, instead of spending their “future money” on leisure and entertainment.

Ms Quek warned youths to set a time limit when participating in gambling ac-tivities during festive seasons and make sure that they do not “chase after losses”.

“Don’t get into the habit, and if you are already in the habit, seek help and resolve it early,” said Mr Lim.

by borrowing money from his friends. Eventually, he lost more than he gained and lost up to $1,000.

“I felt bad owing my friends mon-ey, that I decided to quit gambling after that,” said Eric.

By working and saving up, he managed to repay his debts within a month. How-ever, it took him several months before he could completely quit gambling by his own will.

Problem gamblers are individuals who are addicted to gambling and find it dif-ficult to stop. Besides having little to no control over themselves, they are con-stantly preoccupied by thoughts of gam-bling, said Ms Quek.

Although Eric and Weixiang are not problem gamblers, they are not entirely excluded from being one.

“As the saying goes, ‘Losing starts from winning’,” said Mr Lim. “After winning the first time, they will be hooked to it already and will want to bet again.”

A latest survey by the National Coun-cil on Problem Gambling (NCPG) showed that those aged 18 to 29 have a 60 per cent chance of being problem gamblers, the second highest age group prone to prob-lem gambling.

Max Koh, director of Thye Hua Kwan Problem Gambling Recovery Centre, said while there are programmes creat-ing awareness about gambling amongst youths, more could be done. The critical question to ask is, how do youths learn to

“I felt bad owing my friends money, that I decided to quit gambling after that.”

Inspired chefs use Bak Kwa as a key ingre-dient, creating whole new fusion dishes, such as Bak Kwa Mac & Cheese and Bak Kwa Cookies.

A The Pulse online survey of 50 people aged 18 to 27, showed that 73 per cent of respondents like to eat Bak Kwa, and nearly half are willing to try recipes fused with Bak Kwa.

“New Chinese New Year delicacy, no harm trying,” said Jin Sheng Seow, a you-

th who took part in the survey.

Bak Kwa Mac & CheeseCreated by the chef de cuisine of Pid-

gin Kitchen and Bar, Kenny Lim, the Bak Kwa Mac & Cheese dish consists of pork belly Bak Kwa bits, gooey melted cheese (gruyere and cheddar cheese), penne pasta and truffle oil.

This thick and savoury dish is bound to delight cheese lovers due to the harmo-nious union of the Bak Kwa bits and the creamy melted cheese.

Bak Kwa Mac & Cheese

Eric

“Youths also sometimes buy our cheongsam dresses, which are much sim-pler and modern in design. As for our Chi-nese New Year collection, floral designs and red colours are frequently used.”

Nicole Sim, 18, an avid online shopper, said her go-to shops for this Lunar New Year were Zalora, Zara and H&M.

“Buying clothes online are convenient, especially since I am cooped up with schoolwork,” she said. “However, pop-up stores have their benefits as well as it allows me to try the clothes on and see what looks good on me.”

However, the dish may be heavy and overpowering for some because of the combination of cheese and truffle oil.

Since the opening of Pidgin Kitchen and Bar, Bak Kwa Mac & Cheese has been one of the best selling food. “Almost ev-ery table has ordered the dish,” said Mr Lim, in Mandarin.

Mr Lim said that he was inspired during the Lunar New Year, where he was driving and holding a piece of Bak Kwa in his hand. Also a ‘mac n cheese’ lover,

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lover, he thought of how it will be like, in-corporating Bak Kwa into the pasta. After much experimentation, he created this version by himself.

Mr Lim’s love for Bak Kwa has resulted in him creating other fusion food involv-ing Bak Kwa, such as Bak Kwa ice cream and Bak Kwa rolls (called ‘firecrackers’ because of their shape).

Bak Kwa CookiesFounder-Baker of BerryGerryBakes,

Geraldine Wang, thought of baking Bak Kwa cookies when a friend suggested the idea to her while the Lunar New Year was nearing. She dismissed the idea at first, thinking that it would be “impossible”

By Beth Toh Sze Woon

Bak Kwa Cookies

Cost: $25 per containerWhere: #01-04 Thomson Village One, 9 Sin Ming Rd (Off Upper Thomson Road)

but later decided to try it out.BerryGerryBakes’ Bak Kwa cookies

are essentially Bak Kwa bits and sesame seeds mixed into buttery cookie batter and baked to perfection. There is also a spicy version, where chilli powder is add-ed to the mix. She was inspired when her customer told her that she “should make a spicy version”.

It is one of the best sellers at BerryGer-ryBakes, and is especially popular during the Lunar New Year. It took Ms Wang nu-

numerous tries in order to get the taste right, and she says that there is always room for improvement.

“You have to bake and see what works, you can’t have the mentality that every-thing must be right,” said Ms Wang.

The cookie is very fragrant, as the smell of a mixture of butter and Bak Kwa waft out once you open the container. You can taste both the Bak Kwa and butter in the cookie, mixing sweet and salty together in very small amounts. It is crunchy due to the cookie and chewy because of the Bak Kwa bits in the cookie.

It may be a little pricy, but Ms Wang is generous with the bits and pieces of Bak Kwa in the cookie.

Trenditional Apparel this Lunar New YearLunar New Year collections from blogshops like Love, Bonito now cater to both online and offline shoppers

The Lunar New Year calls for gambling among youths, which may lead to gambling problems in future

Local chefs give their take on “East meets West” by incorporating Bak Kwa with western food to create yummy Lunar New Year goodies.

GOAT XIBy Sally Mok

Losing Starts from Winning

Bak Kwa Fusion Food

FA CAIThe Pulse Friday, 06 February 2015 The Pulse Friday, 06 February 2015 2 3Chinese New Year Special Chinese New Year Special

Lace and floral prints are the top trends among youths for the Lunar New Year season.

One of Zalora bestseller’s: floral printed shorts.

Cost: $20 for an appetizer size, $25 as a main dish Where: Pidgin Kitchen and Bar, Blk 7 Dempsey Road

PHOTOS: SCREEN-WALLPAPERS,

WARRENSBURG, FREE IMAGES LIVE

Dog walks and blindfolded partici-pants were seen at the inaugural Run for Light 2015 held at Gardens by the Bay

Run for Light helped to raise awareness of guide dogs in public places, and in-troduced the first ever locally trained guide dog.

“Visually handicapped people in Sin-gapore need to go overseas for an extend-ed period of time in order to be trained and to train with their guide dogs. I’m glad that this will no longer be a barrier with the development of guide dog ca-pabilities locally,” said Mr Desmond Lee, Minister of State for National Develop-ment during his opening speech for Run for Light during Jan 17, 2015.

By localising such trainings, it is with an aim of being more sustainable in the long term as more mobility services can be provided with lesser costs, he said.

Mr Lee also personally attached a har-ness onto Julie, an 18 month old Labra-dor from Australia, the first dog to com-plete the guide dog training in Singapore.

The inaugural Run for Light collabo-rated with Guide Dogs Association of the Blind (GDAB), who planned to promote a ‘Guide Dog Friendly Nation’ through this sporting event.

Mr Lee added that guide dogs are spe-cially bred to retain their gentle temper-ament and there is a high standard of training involved to ensure the “excellent standard of work and behaviour”.

Ms Vanessa Loh, general manager of GDAB, said that stringent guide dog trainings usually see one-fourth of dogs dropping out.

“In countries like Japan and US, guide dogs are like the norm. However, it is not so in Singapore. It is legal for guide dogs to enter food and beverage establish-ments and public transport (buses and taxis) but it does not happen all the time, as there is not enough awareness and ac-ceptance,” said Ms Loh.

Run for Light started off with a Dog Walk before the official flag off, a short route for owners to walk their dog.

During the official run, the first wave of participants experienced how it is like being visually-challenged by being blind-folded as they held onto their partner’s hand who lead their way onto a designat-ed route and distance.

Participants who opted to be a part of the blindfold walk wore cute eye masks while holding onto their partner’s hand.

Student canoeists in the 2015 Singapore Canoe Marathon willed through long dis-tance with the added challenge of a por-tage segment, unlike their usual sprints.

Held on Sunday, Jan 18, the annual Singapore Canoe Marathon attracted 650 participants, including canoe teams from Junior Colleges and Polytechnics.

Mr Joseph Ang, an organiser of the event, said that the annual Canoe Mar-athon is a long distance race, which is different from other short races that ca-noeists usually take part in, being less competitive and intense. Therefore, the challenge is to complete the long dis-tance, instead of eyeing for a medal.

“I’ve learned a lot of things, especially determination and perseverance because it’s not easy to complete such a long dis-tance, so it’s like a mind game,” said Jamie Ng, who participated in the Open Wom-en K1 category. She completed the 14km course under the hot weather and came in the 8th place with a timing of 1 hour and 29 minutes.

Apart from paddling, there was a ‘por-tage’ segment, where participants had to paddle onto land, carry their boats and run a short distance before going back to the water and continue paddling.

Many participants were not used to the long distance, usually taking part in Ca-noe Sprints where they paddle over threedistances, 1,000m, 500m or 200m. With

the added portage, this race was a new experience for some of the students.

Chong Koi Kiat, champion of the Se-nior Men C1 category, said, “The portage was a challenge because we don’t practise it throughout the whole year, only during this period.” He completed the race with a timing of 1 hour and 53 minutes.

The event had many different catego-ries. Participants in both the C1 and K1 category had to paddle alone during the entire course, while participants in the C2 and K2 category paddled in teams of two. Based on the different categories, there were different distances, the longest be-ing 30km and the shortest being 14km.

“I’ve realised that most of it is about your mental strength, if you want to fin-ish this kind of race,” said Lim Jia Ren, who participated in the Senior Men K2 category with his partner, Muhammad Shaheed, as they finished their course in 12th place, with a timing of 2 hours and 52 minutes.

“Because we lack training, the boat was very unstable and our coordination was not there. So we were very slow,” he said.

When asked what makes a good ca-noeist, Chang Shu Yuet, coach for the ca-noe team from Serangoon Junior College (SRJC), said, “Persistence.

“The desire and hunger to keep trying despite constant and repeated failure. In a life of a canoeist, there will be a lot of setbacks, be it emotionally, psychologi-cally or physically, such as injuries or lack

motivation. The canoeist must be strong enough to break those barriers and to pick himself up after every time he falls,” said Chang.

Most participants felt that the biggest takeaway from this experience was de-veloping the perseverance and mental strength to press on, with that one ulti-mate goal in mind.

“We just want to finish the race, that is our main objective,” said Jia Ren.

Participants from the C2 category at the portage area. The race was held at Singapore Sports Hub at Kallang.

PHOTO: LOW WEI XIN

PHOTOS: HENG WAN YUAN VERLYNN

K1 participants paddling under the hot weather.

“It was harder than I thought it will be. You really have to trust your partner (during the blindfold walk),” said Chua Hong Yi, 23, student. “I definitely appre-ciated my eyesight more.”

A group of visually handicapped par tic-ipants, together with their guide dogs, lead the blindfold walk.

At the finishing point, participants helped to raise awareness of guide dogs in Singapore by signing a pledge here. Throughout the night, participants en-joyed live music, entertainment, activi-ties and food after the run.

30 per cent of the registration fee for Run for Light was donated to GDAB, rais-ing a total of $20,724.

According to GDAB, their plans for 2015 includes recruiting and educating Singapore’s first Guide Dog Mobility In-structor, as well as launching a ‘Guide Dog Friendly Nation’ campaign.

“ It is legal for guide dogs to enter food and bev-erage establishments and public transport (buses and taxis) but it does not happen all the time,”

Vanessa Loh

Canoeists worked both body and mind as they paddled their way through long distances in the 2015 Singapore Canoe Marathon

Just Keep Paddling

By Beth Toh Sze Woon

Guiding a Blind Cause

By Low Wei Xin

EditorSub-editor

ReporterDesigner

Consultant

Verlynn HengLow Wei XinBeth TohSally MokMs Foo Yueh Ping

The Pulse Friday, 06 February 2015 4 Sports