Friday, January 25, 2019

A Tribute to Aloysius

Friends and Family mourns his death. Click.
Credit: Straits Times Singapore Click

Actor Aloysius Pang dies from injuries suffered during SAF accident in New Zealand

Singaporean actor Aloysius Pang, 28, died on Jan 23 from injuries suffered while carrying out repair works inside a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer in New Zealand. PHOTO: FACEBOOK / ALOYSIUS 冯伟衷

PUBLISHED

11 HOURS AGO

UPDATED

3 HOURS AGO

Lim Min Zhang

Yip Wai Yee

SINGAPORE - Singaporean actor Aloysius Pang died on Wednesday night (Jan 23) from injuries suffered last Saturday while carrying out repair works inside a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer in New Zealand, said the Ministry of Defence (Mindef).

In a statement issued late on Wednesday night, Mindef said Corporal First Class (NS) Pang, 28, died at 8.45pm. The ministry also shed light on how the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) operationally ready national serviceman was injured.

Mindef said CFC (NS) Pang, an armament technician from the 268th Battalion Singapore Artillery, was carrying out repair works inside the Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer with two other SAF personnel last Saturday at the Waiouru Training Area in New Zealand.

“Unfortunately, CFC (NS) Pang sustained injuries when the gun barrel was lowered,” said the ministry.

The actor was evacuated to Waikato Hospital, a regional trauma centre in Hamilton, south of Auckland, where he underwent three operations in five days.

The medical team tending to him included Dr Teo Li Tserng, chief of trauma and acute care surgery at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, who was flown in to assist the New Zealand medical team.

Mindef said CFC (NS) Pang died despite attempts to repair damaged organs and being put on artificial life support.

An independent Committee of Inquiry will be convened to investigate the circumstances leading to the incident. A press conference, to be chaired by the Chief of Defence Force, will be held on Thursday (Jan 24) to present the preliminary findings.

The SAF will be making arrangements to bring CFC (NS) Pang’s body back to Singapore. “The Ministry of Defence and the SAF extend their deepest condolences to the family of CFC (NS) Pang and will continue to render assistance and support in their time of loss,” said Mindef.

His parents, as well as his two elder brothers, arrived in Hamilton earlier this week, accompanied by SAF family liaison officers.

A post that appeared to have been written by one of his brothers on behalf of the family went up on late Wednesday night on the actor’s Instagram account. The post said the last few days had been a difficult time for the family.

“Every news that were brought upon us since his last op was devastating with little signs of hope on his recovery,” it read. “We all broke down when the medical team spoke to us that his condition is worsening and we should be prepared for the worst.

"We’re going to lose a brother. And my parents are going to lose their precious son whom is only 28."

The post added: “Thus I seek everybody’s kind understanding that we are unable to comment further during these precarious time.”

Mediacorp actor Desmond Tan commented on the Instagram post: “Bro, you are an important chapter in all our lives. Nothing is wrong, just that you went ahead of us like you always do as a human and actor. We will see you in future.”

Several local artists, including Jayley Woo and Ya Hui, switched to black-and-white profile pictures on Instagram on Wednesday night.

In a heart-rending post, Woo wrote: "I’m not lucky enough to be your wife in this life. We must definitely get married in the next." Woo and Pang had never acknowledged their relationship in public but Woo said on Instagram after news of his death broke that they were waiting until they got married to go public.

Fellow actor Shane Pow wrote on his Instagram account: “It wasn’t enough being brothers with you this life. Let’s be brothers again next life. I love you my big brother.”

CFC (NS) Pang was taking part in an annual live-firing exercise called Thunder Warrior. He was on reservist duty.

He underwent abdominal surgery last Saturday evening, after the incident took place, and a planned follow-up operation was completed on Monday.

However, his condition worsened and he required additional surgery, which was completed on Tuesday just before midnight (Singapore time), said Mindef on Wednesday.

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, in an update on Facebook on Wednesday, said that his condition was very serious and he needed artificial support for his lungs, kidneys and heart.

The actor, who started acting at age nine, had been due to start shooting Channel 8 romantic drama My One In A Million next month after Chinese New Year.

Exercise Thunder Warrior has been conducted since 1997. This year's exercise takes place from Jan 5 to Feb 2, and involves more than 500 personnel from the 268th and 24th Battalions, Singapore Artillery.

Repair and maintenance work on the Howitzer, which entered service in 2003, is usually done in teams and supervised by a commander, said a former serviceman familiar with the platform. In combat, it is operated by a crew of four.

The Howitzer is no longer in production and is currently operated only by NS battalions, added the serviceman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Next-Gen Howitzer high-mobility weapon system, operated by a three-man crew, is envisaged to be introduced from 2020.

There had been two other incidents that led to deaths in the past year.

In April 2018, Corporal First Class Dave Lee Han Xuan, 19, from the 1st Guards Battalion, died close to two weeks after being admitted to Changi General Hospital for heatstroke.

In November 2018, Corporal First Class Liu Kai, 22, died after a Bionix vehicle reversed into the Land Rover he was in. An Army-wide safety timeout was declared after the incident at Jalan Murai Training Area.

Additional reporting by Vanessa Liu

Monday, May 16, 2016

Trio's journey to Moscow traces Silk Road

Trio's journey to Moscow traces Silk Road

Yamaguchi (far right) posing with their Russian friend Yuri. They were hiking in the mountains
of Svaneti, Georgia.PHOTO: COURTESY OF BOH ZE KAI

PUBLISHEDMAY 15, 2016, 5:00 AM SGT

S'POREANS HAVE VISITED 40 CITIES, PROVINCES IN OVER 10 COUNTRIES SO FAR ON BUSES, BOATS, HORSES

By Royanne Ng

Three for the road: Singaporeans Boh Ze Kai (left), Jeremy Ng (second from left) and Atsushi Yamaguchi (far right) posing with their Russian friend Yuri. They were hiking in the
mountains of Svaneti, Georgia.

Three for the road: Singaporeans Boh Ze Kai (left), Jeremy Ng (second from left) and
Atsushi.

Three Singaporeans completed their national service last December and decided to embark on a journey lasting some 170 days, partly following in the footsteps of ancient Silk Road traders.

Mr Boh Ze Kai, 20, and his friends, Mr Atsushi Yamaguchi and Mr Jeremy Ng, both 21, planned to travel from Singapore to China through South-east Asian countries, before crossing Central Asia to Iran and then cutting through Eastern Europe to final destination Moscow.

Their onward journey, which started on Jan 26, is to be made without any flights, but they will fly back to Singapore in June or July.

The trio had been on the road for three months when their journey hit a snag late last month.

They were stranded in Georgia, at the border of Europe and Asia, without their passports for 14 days until last Tuesday. Their passports had been kept by the consular office in Tbilisi to facilitate their application for Russian visas.

GUILELESS
They don't expect anything from you. They just want you to share life experiences with them, to know more about the world.

MR JEREMY NG, one of the three intrepid travellers, on the friendliness of most of the people they have met on their journey.

Mr Boh told The Sunday Times: "So with the delay in Georgia, we lost 15 days from our original plan. This was offset by eight days of prepared buffer time, but we still had to move seven days faster.

"We were planning to visit only Tbilisi in Georgia, but ended up seeing almost all of Georgia, including somewhat obscure mountain villages with great scenery in Svaneti."

The young men have so far visited over 40 provinces and cities in more than 10 countries, on modes of transport ranging from boats to horses. They now have to cut short their visits to other countries, likely skipping Transylvania in Romania.

The delay in Georgia was just one of the unexpected turns that they had to navigate so far.

Another was an intimidating encounter in Central Asia.

"We were crossing the Kazakhstan border into Uzbekistan when one of the guards approached me and accused me of being a terrorist, because I had a (body) piercing and dyed hair. He called another guard, who demanded presents or he would not let us pass," recounted Mr Boh.

They were allowed to enter after Mr Boh said he was Buddhist and gave a 100,000 Vietnamese dong (S$6) note to the guard.

The trip had been inspired by Mr Boh's interest in the Silk Road. He wanted to experience what it was like for people in the past to travel through the Silk Road.

The former Raffles Institution (RI) student gathered Mr Ng and Mr Yamaguchi, also from RI, and they planned what will be almost half a year of travel, with a budget of $8,000 for each person.

Unexpected delays aside, all three of them have been struck by how friendly most people they met were. Said Mr Ng: "They don't expect anything from you. They just want you to share life experiences with them, to know more about the world."

For example, they were on a train in China, surrounded by farmers and mounds of fertiliser, when a farmer began a conversation with them on Chinese land reform.

In Iran, they met an ice cream seller who insisted that they stay over at his house. When they politely declined and said they were moving on to Tabriz, he said, "My brother lives there. Go stay at his house; here's his phone number."

The trio have had to battle fatigue and endure 20-hour bus rides. They also faced obstacles such as bad weather, illness or trouble with the authorities.

"I had two major cases of diarrhoea, so the two others had to babysit me," said Mr Yamaguchi.

But they took care of one another and took on different roles.

Mr Boh, who speaks eight languages, including Russian and Turkish, said: "Jeremy is in charge of safety and insurance coverage, Atsushi handles fitness plans throughout the trip to keep us healthy and looking good in photos, while I work on pre-trip logistics like visas, and languages."

Despite the long trip, their families did not have objections.

"My dad was more concerned about how we funded our travels," said Mr Ng. "We decided to use money earned from NS."

Mr Boh's mother Yeo Sue Ann, 51, a housewife, said: "My primary concern was safety, so I asked (Ze Kai) to change some destinations. This is not his first time travelling, so I think he can manage. But I think I will be stressed if I don't hear from him for three days."

On the insights they have gained so far through their travels, Mr Yamaguchi said he was able to see various countries for himself, to see how different they are from the way they are portrayed in the media.

Mr Boh added: "Sometimes, we pity people because of what we think their society lacks. We think it would make them unhappy, but that does not translate into reality.

"Also, there is the cultural relativity of everything: What is acceptable or moral in one country might not be in another."

Now in Turkey, the trio are moving on to countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

An account of their journey can be read on exercise silkroad.wordpress.com, while photos of their trip can be viewed on Instagram @exercisesilkroad.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

What am I reading for?

Dear Gentlemen,

I have received queries on how to read articles meaningfully, learning collocation of words through phrases. Here's the reply I have given to a student who isn't sure about what to read for:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear XXX,

First of all, let me define what I mean by phrases. If you refer to the article "Moral Vigilante" in the HOT TOPIC Blog, you will notice that I have highlighted the phrases in blue.

Take a look at those words, what did you notice about what I have identified as phrases?

1) They are in a sentence.

2) They are the part of the sentence that contain the main verb and the preposition after (Phrasal verbs)

3) They could also be idiomatic phrases ie. phrases that contain specific words when put together, means something.

These phrases will help you be more sensitive with collocation (like what we did in cloze) as they tell you what words must be paired with what other words.

Usually every article in the newspaper would use these phrases (which I call the functional words). If you can't find, perhaps the article you have chosen is not detailed enough. Otherwise, you will be able to find these phrases everywhere.

Tell you what, I am going to pick out those phrases in another article in the HOT TOPIC "Sticky Issue". You see if you are getting the idea of what I mean by phrases.

You can also research on what phrasal verbs and idiomatic phrases are to know more.

https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/phrasal-verbs-list.htm

http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idioms_proverbs.html

Regards,

Miss Chia

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, you could also check out the reference websites if you have the same doubts as this student.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Very Sticky Issue: Are Lives or Political Interest more important?

Read and pen your thoughts about this issue in the Comments. Use PEEL to structure your opinion.

Why No One Wants The Rohingyas

MAY 15, 2015 2:39 PM ET

The spectacle of thousands of desperate Rohingya Muslim "boat people" being denied landfall in Southeast Asia has laid bare the region's religious and ethnic prejudices as well as its fears of being swamped by an influx of migrants.

'No Stomach' For Migrants

'A Horrible Mess'

An estimated 6,000 or more such migrants are stranded at sea in Southeast Asia. Most of the people on the overcrowded and unseaworthy boats are thought to belong to the 1.3 million-strong Rohingya minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Others are believed to be from Bangladesh.

Reuters reports that while nearly 800 migrants on one boat were brought ashore Friday in Indonesia, other boats crammed full of people were turned away.

Such refusals underline "the hardening of Southeast Asia governments' stance on the boatloads of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar," Reuters says. The Rohingya practice a blend of Sunni and Sufi Islam.

At best, the migrants have been received with resignation — at worst with contempt — even by the region's Muslim nations. As we've reported recently, many are victims of human traffickers.

The Thai and Malaysian navies have both turned away refugee boats in recent days. Indonesia has taken in some migrants but is now refusing to accept them.

Predominantly Buddhist Thailand has been battling an Islamist insurgency in its south for decades and has "no stomach" for bringing in more Muslims, says Lex Rieffel, a nonresident senior fellow and expert on Southeast Asia at the Brookings Institution.

In any case, the country has a long history of dealing with unwanted migrants fleeing conflict in Cambodia and has no desire to repeat that, Rieffel says.

"If they break the law and land in Thailand, how can we take care of them?" Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters Thursday. "Where will the budget come from? That money will need to come from Thai people's taxes, right?"

For Indonesia and Malaysia, both Muslim-majority countries, the issue is less clear-cut, Rieffel says, but they are also interested in avoiding the appearance that they are opening the gates.

"We will try to prevent them from entering our territory, otherwise it will create social issues," Reuters quotes Indonesia's military chief Gen. Moeldoko as telling reporters. "If we open up access, there will be an exodus here."

"What do you expect us to do?" Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jafaar was quoted by The Guardian as saying. "We have been very nice to the people who broke into our border. We have treated them humanely, but they cannot be flooding our shores like this."

Michael Buehler, a lecturer in comparative politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, points out that Indonesia has taken in several hundred Rohingya migrants in Aceh Province. Even so, Indonesia — like Thailand and Malaysia — also fears "an uncontrolled influx."

Australia, which has dealt with its own influx of economic migrants fleeing Indonesia, says it is providing millions of dollars in urgent humanitarian aid to help cope with the problem.

"There are no easy answers on any aspect of this horrible mess," Rieffel says.

The United States, for its part, has called on regional governments to work together to save lives, but State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke stresses: "This is a regional issue. It needs a regional solution in short order."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called his Thai counterpart Friday to urge Bangkok to give the refugees temporary shelter, according to the department.

The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, has implored the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, to do something. Rieffel says that's unlikely to happen.

Unlike the European Union's response to migrants fleeing the North African coast on boats across the Mediterranean, he says, "the reality is that ASEAN is not the U.S. or the European Union."

ASEAN is "not a regional body and it doesn't have a budget or a mechanism for dealing with this situation," Rieffel adds.

And some experts say that simply towing refugees back out to sea may be illegal under international maritime law.

"These boats carrying overcrowded refugees and migrants are typically rickety wooden trawlers and hardly seaworthy," Eric Paulson, executive director for the human rights group Lawyers for Liberty, tells Bloomberg. "Turning or towing these boats away is as good as signing their death warrant as the occupants are normally starving, dehydrated, sickly and in dire need of immediate assistance."

Lawrence B. Brennan, a professor of admiralty and international law at Fordham University, agrees. "Historically, maritime law has the concept of 'port of refuge' for ships and people in peril at sea. There is a long-standing tradition of providing aid and comfort to people who are in danger," he says.

But enforcement is "murky," says Brennan, a retired captain in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Corps. Jurisdiction is national, not international.

Then there's the issue of time: "The courts have time. Refugees don't," he says.

Read more:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32740637

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32718238

How are you nurturing your love of a subject?

Read and pen your thoughts about this issue in the Comments. Use PEEL to structure your opinion.

Calculated Moves

Published on May 17, 2015 4:28 PM

Parents of mathematics whizzes try to nurture a love of the subject in their children with games and puzzles

Primary 5 pupil Winston Yang (above) is taking weekly Math Olympiad training at a private
centre, after his parents discovered last year he has an aptitude for mathematics. --
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JOAN YANG

- See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/parenting/story/calculated-moves-20150517#4

Do we need Moral Vigilantes?

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Moral vigilantes subvert justice
PUBLISHED ON MAY 18, 2015 8:54 AM 4 1 0 0

THE three-week jail sentence handed down to Neo Gim Huah for slapping teenage blogger Amos Yee demonstrates the severity with which the Singapore courts view vigilantism.

It has to be curbed because of the pernicious nature of what drives vigilantes - believing they are acting in the public interest, they tend to go overboard. Neo said that he had taken offence at portions of a video posted online by Yee which he found disrespectful to Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. And he believed that it would be difficult for the criminal justice system to deal effectively with Yee because of his age. However, by taking the law into his hands, Neo challenged the authority of the very law which he felt ought to be upheld in the case of Yee. By punishing Neo for his excessiveness, the court has made it clear vigilante justice is a contradiction in terms.

There are good reasons for this implacable view. A fundamental principle of justice is that it cannot be meted out by an aggrieved party in a case but must be administered by an impartial entity which has no personal interest in the outcome. Otherwise, law would degenerate into vengeance, which would invite retaliation. That would ignite a cycle of violence which could lead ultimately to anarchy and undermine the very rationale of law as the basis of order.

A related reason is that the law exists to protect the weak from the transgressions of the strong. Vigilantism represents the opposite principle. Usually, it is the physically or socially more powerful who attack the weak. This is evident particularly when a group gangs up on a person or persons believed to have committed a wrong. Yet another reason for acting against vigilantism is its unconcern for consequences. Road or air rage as a way of settling scores, for example, endangers the safety of people unrelated to the dispute.

Vigilante acts in the digital world are often no less reprehensible than vigilantism in the physical world. The mob-driven shaming of individuals whose acts or views are deemed disagreeable, particularly the release of information that identifies their whereabouts in the real world, is a form of public lynching. While the victims might have initiated the spiral of vendetta through provocation, good netizenship requires respect for privacy and the law. Flaming targets online is a temptation that must be resisted at the personal level. When conduct is egregious, the full weight of anti-harassment laws should be applied.

Personal security and public order are intrinsic to the quality of life in Singapore. They have been achieved by adopting a non-negotiable approach to law. No matter what the provocation, real or imagined, vigilantism is never the answer. (Conclusion to the CLAIM)

See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/moral-vigilantes-subvert-justice-20150518#sthash.8n9zJQC5.dpuf

Words in blue: For Collocation : Phrases, phrasal verbs (Verbs and Prepositions)

Words in Red: Check on-line dictionary to learn vocab