Teen hacked in front of crowd at Downtown East

Nov 1, 2010

By Mavis Toh

This area of Downtown East was cordoned off by the police after Darren Ng Wei Jie, 19, was attacked by a group of youth. It is believed Darren?s attackers produced choppers and slashed him several times. According to witnesses, the bleeding teenager and his friends tried to escape by running towards a row of indoor restaurants (seen in background). -- PHOTOS: LIANHE WANBAO, SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

HALLOWEEN horror became real on Saturday night at Downtown East.
A 19-year-old youth repeatedly hacked by a group of youngsters in full view of a crowd died in hospital hours later. The violent attack and subsequent attempt by the youth and his friends to flee left a 500m-long trail of blood at the Pasir Ris resort and amusement park.
No one has been arrested and police have classified the case as murder.
Darren Ng Wei Jie was with two friends when they got into a 'staring incident' with a group of about 10 teenagers.
Witnesses The Straits Times spoke to said the encounter started with angry words, but this deteriorated into a brawl on the lawn just outside fast-food restaurant McDonald's.
It is believed Darren's attackers produced choppers and slashed him several times. The bleeding teenager and his friends tried to escape by running towards a row of indoor restaurants and shops called The Alley.
The Straits Times understands the two groups did not know each other and were not guests at the Downtown East resort.
A witness manning a pushcart stall, who declined to be named, said she saw five men - two holding choppers - chasing after Darren and his friends.
Another witness, the owner of a restaurant, said she did not pay much attention to the youths at first, thinking that they were just fooling around. It was when she saw the bleeding boy crash into a glass panel in his rush to get away that she knew something was amiss.
She said: 'He crashed into the glass and fell to the ground. That was when the group caught up and kept bashing him.
'Then I saw them use two choppers and hack him several times. Blood was gushing everywhere.'
The Straits Times understands that Darren suffered multiple cuts to his limbs, back and, most seriously, his abdomen.
The attackers fled towards a foodcourt in the direction of an open carpark near Pasir Ris Drive 3 and disappeared in the crowd taking shelter from the ongoing heavy downpour.
Darren's friend, who was cut in his upper lip, was afraid that their attackers would return. Thus he dragged Darren into The Alley. The pair staggered from Popeyes restaurant down a row of shops and up the stairs to Sakura International Buffet restaurant on the second floor, leaving a trail of blood.
Restaurant supervisor Iman Noor, 35, said Darren collapsed outside his premises, and that a medical student who was there tried putting pressure on Darren's wound, but could not stem the bleeding.
A Downtown East spokesman said they were alerted at about 6pm that someone had sustained a 'serious injury' in its premises.
Darren was pronounced dead at Changi General Hospital about five hours later.
The young man's parents and friends, who turned up at the mortuary yesterday morning, were distraught and declined to speak to reporters.
His father would only say between sobs: 'Let justice be done.'
Darren is believed to have been in his third year at Republic Polytechnic and also in its water-polo team.

Mum of ACS boy who was hit lodges police report

Mum of ACS boy who was hit lodges police report

A true winner is someone who is humble in victory and gracious in defeat.

3Feb Morning Sharing on Independance

Independence, as we have learned from previous day’s sharing is about “freedom”. It can be “personal”, affecting only you. However, “independence” could also apply to a group or community of people, even nations. Many people think that independence means “I have the freedom make the decision for Myself. It’s only Me, I and Myself.” – a very self-centered attitude. However, we shall see from the following story that one man’s selfless actions can determine the fate of a whole community of people.

All of us know who is Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew, without whom Singapore will be not be what she is today. Imagine what would have happened if we remained with Malaysia? – Racial tensions.

Have you heard of Winston Churchill? He was the Prime Minister of Britain or England at the time of the 2nd World War. What if he had not led the nation to resist the Germans and fought to save the independence of Britain? The outcome of 2nd World War may turn out differently and Singapore may still be under Japanese rule.

Today I will introduce you to this person called Gandhi. Do you know who he is?
There is not a single country in the whole world where the name of Gandhi is not known. Do you know why Gandhi became so famous? What did he stand for?
Gandhi dedicated his whole life to the service of his motherland India. He was an advocate of using non-violent means to resist or protest injustice, and lead India to independence from British rule. However, he paid the price for holding on to his what he believed in – he was imprisoned 4 times in 1922,1930,1933 and 1942, and spent a total of 7 years in jail. While imprisoned, he also undertook many public fasts to protest against injustice. There was even once he decided to fast unto death to fight for the rights of the oppressed class of citizens called the untouchables in the Indian society.

How did Gandhi develop his strong ideals for independence and justice?
It all began when he was only a young lawyer practicing in Africa.

At that time, all the power in Africa was also in the hands of the British people. They considered themselves superior, and treated the Indians and the natives in a most insulting manner. Gandhi represented a native businessman in a court case against a Britishman and won. However because of this, he ruffled the feathers of the British people. Wherever he went, he had to face insults and rudeness. At times, he was even physically assaulted. One day, when he was travelling in the first class compartment of a train, a Britishman boarded the compartment. On seeing Gandhi, the Britishman got furious. He called the Railway officer, and both ordered him to get out of the train. Since Gandhi had purchased a first class ticket, he refused to do so. However, they paid no heed to him. Gandhi refused to budge. Finally the police were summoned. They pushed him out of the compartment and threw his luggage out of the window. Gandhi had to spend the whole night on the platform. This was only one of the many humiliating experiences Gandhi had to face. He had wanted to return to India on the completion of his work in Africa, but the plight of the Indians there disturbed him greatly. For everywhere there was discrimination. There was one set of rules for the Indians and natives, and a different set for the British people. So he resolved to stay, and fight the unjust and inhuman laws that were imposed on them.

Today, as we listen to the example set by Gandhi, let us examine and reflect upon our own motives and actions in life.
Whenever we want to exert our rights to independence, are we doing it for the greater good of others, or does it come from a selfish motive?

For example, in class, we have the right to speak our mind. But in doing so, are we disrupting the class? In our private lives, we have the right to go out late and have fun with our friends. But are we making our parents and our friends’ parents worry excessively that we are hanging out with bad company?

Let us now bow our heads and be still as we reflect on today’s sharing. I will close this time with a word of prayer.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father,
As this day begins, we praise You and thank You for whatever this is in store for us. We trust in Your grace to help us endure the difficult and to rejoice in the blessings.

Teach us, Father, to use our rights to independence in a godly manner that is pleasing in Your sight.

Use us to touch each other’s lives with your gifts of love, joy and peace.

All these, we ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Students overseas: Don't worry about jobs when you return

by Saifulbahri Ismail

05:55 AM Jan 20, 2010 Today Newspaper

SINGAPORE - There is no need for Singaporeans studying overseas to be paranoid about their employment prospects when they return, said Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan.

At a forum here attended by about 300 Singaporeans studying in Australia, he addressed their concerns about the competition from local graduates for jobs here.

Case in point: IT graduate Terence Teo, 25, who returned to Singapore last month after studying in Brisbane, Australia for a year.

Though it is still early in his job search, he is worried: "I think employers in Singapore would prefer graduates from local universities ... They might not even look at my resume at all, knowing I'm an overseas graduate."

But Dr Balakrishnan assured the students that Singapore is a meritocratic society.

"We will select the best person for the job based on his or her ability, and performance and it doesn't depend upon your race, religion, gender, wealth, social class or where you happened to have studied in, whether it's in Australia or Singapore ... You will be judged on your own merits," he said.

He observed that many overseas graduates have returned and been offered opportunities because of the value employers saw in them.

But he also reminded the students to manage their expectations - they should not expect and demand success to be delivered to their doorsteps.

Last year, some 7,800 Singaporeans enrolled to study in Australia.

Porn, sexual abuse make for teen sex

by Alicia Wong

05:55 AM Jan 20, 2010, Today Newspaper

SINGAPORE - Contrary to popular belief, watching sex scenes on screen or listening to songs with sexual lyrics does not make teenagers here go out and have sex - at least, it's not a strong contributing factor.

Also not linked to premarital sex: How much factual knowledge one has about Aids or one's academic performance, a local study has found.

Rather, the strongest factor that seems to account for premarital sex in local male youth is pornography, and for young females it is a history of sexual abuse.

This is what researchers from the DSC Clinic, the National Healthcare Group, the National University of Singapore and the Singapore General Hospital found, after interviewing 500 sexually-active teenagers from the DSC clinic and 500 non-sexually active counterparts from a general practitioner clinic between 2006 and 2008.

This survey of teens aged 14 to 19 is the "first rigorous study" here on factors for premarital sex, said DSC's Head and Senior Consultant Tan Hiok Hee.

Among the sexually-active boys, about 95 per cent had watched pornography, compared to 79 per cent of those not sexually active.

And 22.5 per cent of sexually active girls had a history of sexual abuse, compared with 3 per cent of non-sexually active girls.

What's especially worrying: 43.6 per cent of the girls and 29.5 per cent of the boys said they did not intend to have sex - but were unable to control themselves, lacked skills to say no, or were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

"It's a real concern," said Singapore Children's Society director Carol Balhetchet of the findings.

"(Pornography) may promote aggressive sexual behaviour and violence to obtain what you want." And with sexually abused girls, "the language of love has been miscommunicated by someone they trust and respect".

So, what implications do the findings have for existing sex education programmes and approaches among Singapore's youth?

For one, the results point to the urgent need to identify the high-risk groups - such as sexually-abused girls - early on "for interventions on life skills and sex education", said researchers.

And beyond the obvious step of curbing access to porn - which Net-savvy teens are bound to find ways around, if they really want to view explicit material - parents and healthcare personnel need to talk openly with teens about sexuality, to "help (them) develop a more critical attitude towards pornography", said researchers.

Dr Balhetchet suggested counselling them on the dangers of what they are watching. But to what effect, when - as the study showed - knowing that Aids is incurable did not have any significant impact on teenagers' inclination to have sex?



TV characters deliver the message

That's where the facts-based approach of sexual education needs to be supplemented with more effective delivery.

The media, ironically, could be one answer. It has had little impact on teenagers' choice to have premarital sex, and this could be due to Singapore's ban on scenes of explicit sexual intercourse in public-access movies and TV shows, the study said.

But conversely, having characters with /Aids or sexually transmitted infections (STIs) portrayed in the media could help teenagers decide to say 'no'. Teens who heard of or watched such characters were about four times less likely to have premarital sex.

As such, researchers called for facts about HIV and STIs, together with life-skills education, to be "woven into television dramas to contextualise sexual risk, so teens can relate to it".

Said Dr Tan: "The advantage of story-telling is this additional ability to illustrate the ordeals a person has to go through and perhaps, this curbs teens' curiosity."

Dr Balhetchet believes further studies on secondary school students could improve sex education curriculum material. For instance, she feels it should focus on the "social and emotional components", beyond just the factual information.

For both genders, the study found that adolescents who had dropped out of school, drank alcohol, smoked and lived in low-cost housing were more like to have engaged in premarital sex.

Latest figures from the Ministry of Health showed the STI notification rate for those under the age of 20 had more than doubled - from 61 per 100,000 population in 2000, to 133 in 2008.

***
Seven in 10 sexually active teenagers had viewed pornography. Their main sources were:
- Internet (59 per cent)
- Videos (19 per cent)
- Mobile phones (14 per cent)
- Magazines (8.1 per cent)

Why boys had sex:
- Curiosity (58 per cent)
- Love (37.1 per cent)
- Unable to control themselves (21.2 per cent)

Why girls had sex:
- Love (49.2 per cent)
- Curiosity (38.6 per cent)
- Do not know how to say no (20.3 per cent)

Children Full of Life

In the award-winning documentary Children Full of Life, a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learn lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori. He instructs each to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in front of the class. By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of caring for their classmates.

Batam Combined UG Camp Reflections

It's humbling to know that extreme poverty exists at our doorstep. The very rich and the very poor are living next to each other, but in our pride and worldly pursuits building our own kingdoms, we can be blinded to the sufferings around us.

Ever considered the possibility that the more wealth we accumulate, the poorer we are in our spirit? The higher we climb in our social ladder, the lonelier and less satisfied we become? In contrast, you can see the genuine joy and gratitude in the faces of those who are materially poor - even if it's a simple gift of toiletries they are receiving.

On the contrary, isnt it true that we are often upset that the salary/performance bonus we receive is less than what we expected? Nothing wrong with wealth creation/accumulation, because wealth itself is a resource to improve ourselves and others. But the attitude towards handling wealth as a resource is what matters.

Remember: Godliness (together) with contentment is great gain!