T H E P R O N T O

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FEBRUARY 2014

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The Pronto

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{CURRENT HAPPENINGS}ALL ABOUT CHINATOWN CNY BAZAAR 04

OH MY FLEA 08

{FEATURES}WHAT THE BOTANY 12

FOOTPRINTS ON MY HEART 16CONFESSION OF A SON WITH 4 PARENTS 20

{EDITORIALS}PAWS UP! 22

STICKER LADY 24

{MOVIE REVIEW}BLOODY KIDNAPPER 26

Photo via http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/1_singapore_f1_night_race_2012_city_skyline.jpgCover photo (front & back) via http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maxlvkjKYk1rba0k2o2_1280.jpg

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C U R R E N TH A P P E N I N G S

ALL ABOUT CHINATOWN CNY BAZAAR

>>>

Chinese New year or Lu-

nar New Year is around

the corner. As usual, some

festivities have kicked off

in Singapore to celebrate

this spring festival such as

Chingay Parade, street light-

up and the Singapore River

Hong Bao.

As the key focus of Chinese

New Year festivities in Singa-

pore, Chinatown is the most

suitable place for people to

soak up the festive atmo-

sphere and engross with the

colorful Chinese culture. It

combines new generation

with the old Chinese culture

together. Many exciting pro-

grams will also be carry out

at there to celebrate Chinese

New Year.

A festive street bazaar, an

annual highlight in China-

town for more than 20 years,

which contains more than

200 stalls will be held along

Pagoda Street, Smith Street,

Photo by: Chan Poh Fei

BY CHAN POH FEI

5An old man is playing erhu, a two-stringed Chinese fiddle.

Temple Street, Trengganu

Street and Sago Street within 20

days, from 10th January until

30th January. With gorgeous

lights and stunning decoration,

visitors can feel truly part of the

experience.

In this street market, visitors

can scour through a rich vari-

ety of wonderful items such as

traditional clothing, frankfurt-

er, melon seed, herbal tea, Jap-

anese mushrooms and waxed

meat. Besides, handmade Chi-

nese decoration and calligraphy

are also available in the bazaar

with reasonable price. The

bazaar offers a wide selection of

new and old collectibles which

enable new generation to enjoy

the moment of shopping with

their elders.

On the last day of this festive

street bazaar, many stall hold-

ers slash their price to clear

stock. For instance, the price of

jelly which made in Taiwan will

drop to $1 instead.

The bazaar usually becomes very crowded on the last day

as a lot of people often wait till the last day of the bazaar

to do their shopping. Some food and beverage stallholders

will stand at the middle of the path and give some sample

to let visitors try.

As night falls, all the lanterns representing horses and an-

cient coins will be lighted up. Whole Chinatown is awash in

red and gold. After visitors done New Year shopping, they

can watch the Nightly Stage Shows which just located at

outside of the street market.

Photo by: Chan Poh Fei

Photo by: Chan Poh Fei

However, some visitors response that

there is lack of the atmosphere of Chi-

nese New Year in Chinatown this year

as compared to last year. Some also said

that the decoration and New Year goods

that sold in this bazaar still remain the

same.

Puan Hui Juan, one of the stall owner of

the bazaar, supports the point of lacking

of Chinese New Year atmosphere. She

also mentioned: “the crowd is lesser then

last year, probably due to the economic

recession.”

Nonetheless, Levy Lim who owned a

cosmetics shop which located beside the

bazaar said that this street market has

brought a lot of customer and improved

her business.

<<<

7Photo by: Chan Poh Fei

>>>ITALIC & BOLD

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OH MY FLEA>>>

Boring weekend? Not sure where to go to?

hy not check out

some of the flea markets

that are open in town?

That’s exactly what I did

last weekend and I was so

fascinated by the differ-

ent types of flea markets

we have in Singapore!

From the trendy hangout

for teens at Scape flea in

Somerset to the treasure

filled Thieves market at

Sungei Road.

After visiting so many

flea markets, I was so

amazed with the different

things I could find but,

the one flea market that

left the deepest impres-

sion is the Chinese New

Year flea organised by

Public Garden that was

held at City Link on the

25th to the 26th of Janu-

ary 2014.

The products available at

this flea ranged from the

usual clothes and acces-

sories to dress yourself up

to fresh flowers and tradi-

tional Chinese couplets to

dress you home! From all

over the world and also

by local artists, the goods

sold are unique in their

own different ways!

While walking around

the flea, I was drawn

towards a booth by their

products. Brightly co-

loured tumblers and

stylish watches. It was

so hard for me to not

buy myself a tumbler or

a new watch! Exquisite

pieces from ITALIC &

BOLD were shipped in

from different countries,

Ms Elsie Teo told me that

all the pieces were fully

handpicked by her and

her partner.

C U R R E N T H A P P E N I N G S

W

BY TAN LI YAN

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>>>ITALIC & BOLDWeb store: www.italicandbold.com

“We like things that are crafted and we often go overseas and travel and we see good crafters

around the world so we thought we want to bring these products back to Singapore because if

you don’t travel there, you won’t get to see these things.”

Photo by: Tan Li Yan

>>> Cupplets

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After walking around

for a while I got hun-

gry and guess what I

found? Pastries!

From a café in Ngee

Ann Poly, Sam and

Ernest brought these

pretty pastries out to

the Public Garden flea

for the first time!

Featuring cupcakes,

cake and tarts, their

booth was simply the

one place you will have

to stop at to satisfy

your sweet tooth!

When asked about how

they felt about having a

booth at Public Gar-

den’s flea, Ernest told

me, “Each of the stores

here are not really mas-

sively commercialised

and they all have their

own individual artis-

anal style.”

It was so crowded at

the flea and one of the

shoppers, Zeke, told

me about what brought

him to the flea. “I love

visiting fleas because

the things they sell can

better help me express

myself.”

And another shop-

per, Yan Lin, said “I

found it interesting

that this flea sold food

and flowers because

the fleas I usually go

to only sell clothes

and accessories.”

With so many inter-

sting things available,

there’s no harm in

visiting one of the fleas

during the weekends if

you ever get too bored.

Photo by: Tan Li YanSam & Ernest, Representatives of Cupplets

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>>> CuppletsWeb store: www.cupplets.blogspot.sg

>>> Curious about the products available at the Public Garden fleas? Want to find out more

about the next Public Garden flea? Go to http://public-garden.com/

Photos by: Tan Li Yan

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What THE

BOTANY

F E A T U R E

Photo by: Ng Sam Yuan

BY NG SAM YUAN

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“It is a cooling afternoon. I

don’t want to stay at home, or

in my office and I have some

reading to do, so why not

stay in the garden where the

environment is so good,” said

a frequent visitor of the Sin-

gapore Botanic Gardens who

wish to remain anonymous.

The beautiful environment of

the garden is a great place for

families, friends and tourists

to visit. With many differ-

ent attractions and spots for

picnics within the big garden,

visitors can spend a whole

day filled with fun and ad-

venture there.

Among most visitors, the

area around Shaw Founda-

tion Symphony Stage is the

most popular. This stage is

used to host concerts and

performance from time to

time. Picnickers can listen to

the performance and enjoy

themselves at the same time

but even when there are no

performance, you can still

relax and enjoy the breeze at

the area.

An Irish tourist I inter-

viewed, Mr Samuel Cassidy

commented that this area is

really interesting and he even

stopped walking just to snap

a picture then sat down to

enjoy the scene at this area.

Mr Samuel Cassidy and Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage

Photo by: Ng Sam Yuan

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The Rainforest is also

another area tourist loves,

in it has about 314 species

of plants, and trees that are

as high as 50 metres.

“The Singapore Botanic

Garden is my first destina-

tion, I like the Rainforest

it’s a good representation

of what the rainforest is

like, and I was about to go

to the orchid garden, but

you got to pay for that so

I will give it a miss,” said

Australian tourist James

Grosse.

>>>The Rainforest>>>

>>>The Swan Lake>>>

Animal lovers can get to see swans in the Botanic Garden’s lake named Swan Lake.

Graceful white swans and turtles can be found at this lake. The lake is another popu-

lar area both locals and tourist hang around to read or admire the scenery. The place

can also be used to take wedding photos. If you are free I would definitely recom-

mend doing some reading here.

Photo by: Ng Sam Yuan

Photo via http://ngcyoungexplorer.com.sg/workshop/1

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Filled with beautiful and colorful

orchid this part of the garden show-

case pretty orchids. This place is

filled with blooming flowers which

can definitely cheer a person up. If

seeing isn’t enough one can always

purchase some orchids dipped in

gold from the souvenir shop to

bring home. to

Other than the Orchard Garden

which requires a ticket to enter, the

whole garden is free to roam and

enjoy. Head down to 1 Cluny Rd,

259569 or take a convenient MRT

ride to Botanic Garden (CC19) with

your family and I am sure you will

have no regrets.

National Orchid Garden >>>

ENTRANCE FEES Adult: $5.00Student/ Senior Citizen (60 years and above): $1.00Children (12 years and below): Free

Photos by: Ng Sam Yuan

Photo via http://ngcyoungexplorer.com.sg/workshop/1

F E A T U R E

>> FootPrints on My Heart Passion and compassion. Those were

all that drive her.

“One can get so attached

easily.”

Scouring cages and feeding hundreds of animals are in-

timidating tasks but animal lovers enjoy doing it every week.

From walking dogs to bathing puppies, spending time with

animals is all that matters to these furry lovers.

Goh Shu Wen, Hospitality and Tourism Management stu-

dent from Nanyang Polytechnic, has been an avid volunteer at

the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)

since 2012. She spends hours almost every weekend helping

out in the shelter, taking care of her animal friends there.

Currently, the SPCA has more than 30 regular volunteers,

including the enthusiastic 19-year-old Shu Wen, who help out

at its shelter in Mount Vernon. To her, it is a chance to spend

time with animals, as she cannot keep a pet at home.

Most young volunteers there have family members who

are not keen on pets or are not able to take on the full-time

commitment of having one. Therefore, SPCA is the place for

them to spend their time with animals.

“It’s okay if I don’t have a pet at home because there’re a lot of animals in SPCA waiting for me to help and spend time with”, she said.

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Photo via Goh Shu Wen’s instagram (@shuwenii)

BY SYAFIQAH SANUDIN

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Goh Shu Wen, 19Nanyang Polytechnic

Photo by: Syafiqah Sanudin

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Shu Wen used to have a Shih Tzu pup-

py when she was 11. However, it turned

out that her mum has allergies towards

animals’ fur and its over-playfulness left

unforgivable scratch marks on their home

furniture. Her mum then decided to give it

away after only six months.

She mentioned, “I got so upset when my

mum gave him away. Since then, I know I

can’t keep a pet at home anymore and so

the only choice I had was to help out at

the SPCA. I’ve always wanted to do volun-

teer work anyways!”

Shu Wen usually spends her time at the

shelter on Sundays taking the dogs for

walks in the morning, cleaning their cages,

bathing puppies, feed and play with them

till the shelter closes around 4pm. The

trainings she had went for made every-

thing a piece of cake.

>>>

“I’ve always wanted to volunteer anyways!”

Photo via Goh Shu Wen’s instagram (@shuwenii)

Photo via Goh Shu Wen

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DarbyTabby Cat

When asked about her most memora-

ble experience while volunteering, she

couldn’t help but to giggle before answer-

ing. It was when the dog cages needed

to be cleaned and the dogs have to be

brought out first. Within seconds, she

was taken aback when almost all the vol-

unteers started running around chasing

after the dogs because apparently, the dogs

rushed out of their cages before the volun-

teers could even leash them. She still finds

it hilarious!

Not only dogs, she takes care of cats too,

after which she got overly attached to a

handsome and loving tabby cat, Darby and

was upset when he got adopted. “Sad but

at the same time happy to see him go. One

can get so attached to animals easily,” was

her remark.

Passion and compassion. Those were all

that drive her to volunteer. She could see

herself still volunteering there ten years

from now.

“These animals need help and I think ev-

eryone should play a part to help them.”

“These animals need help and I think everyone should play a part to help

them.”

19 Photo via Goh Shu Wen

verb

Divorce

1. legally dissolve one’s mar-riage with (someone)“he divorced his first wife after 10 months”

2. separate or dissociate (some-thing) from something else“we knew how to divorce an issue from an indi-vidual”

3. distance or dissociate oneself from (something)“he wanted to divorce himself from all contact with the syndicate”

Read On For A Confession Like No Other →

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F E A T U R E

Confession Of A Son With Four Parents

“So during Chinese New Year, you would get more angbaos right?” That is the most common sen-tence heard by Collin Lim, a Marketing student of Nanyang Polytechnic.

At a very tender age of two, Collin’s parents filed for divorce and were separated that same year. His parents were one of the 3,004 cou-ples whose marriage fell short in 1996. They were only married for five years. His mother and his father remarried when he was six and thirteen respectively.

Growing up, the 20 year-old understood what the term ‘divorce’ really mean. It means having to manage

school, extra curriculums, friends, and two sides of the family. Even up till today, Collin still finds it difficult to juggle so many aspects in his life.

“Occasionally, I have to sacrifice study time or outings with friends for family time.” Collin admit-ted, his expression weary as he spoke. “It really seems

unfair sometimes. But I have learnt to accept how my parents are doing their best to maintain their rela-tionship with me.”

In order to spend equal amount of time with each of his parents, the avid soc-cer player moves from one parent’s house to another every weekend. However, this can prove to be a hassle occasionally.

“Once I had soccer training but I realized that I had left my training kit over at my mum’s place.” Collin shared. “I couldn’t have went back to my mum’s place to get my stuffs and head to training on time. It was too time consuming. No doubt that I had to give training a miss that day!”

The person, whom Collin feels found it harder to accept his parents’ divorce, is his older sister, Charmaine.

“She was six when my parents divorced. Be-ing the older child, she was the one making important decisions for the both of us. She took great care of me whenever our parents were busy with work.” Collin’s voice shook with emotion as he spoke of his sister.

“She made important decisions on her own to get to where she is today. I have so much respect for her.”

In fairytales, there are stories on how steppar-ents who would treat their stepchildren badly. Luckily for Collin, his stepparents treat him very well. He is especially close with his stepfather, who brought him to his first gym session.

Most children of divorced parents would feel neglected due to the divorce but in Collin’s case, he begs to differ.

“I feel more blessed having four parents, I re-ceived from love from my four parents.”

Surprisingly, Collin took his parents’ divorce very differently from a lot of children- he never once had the thought of wanting his parents to get back together. It even made him more deter-mine to not repeat his parents’ mistake.

“Honestly, I am very grateful that both of my parents found a new spouse after their divorce. What matters to me is that they have found love and happiness again.”

Photo By: Collin LimBy

Bren

da O

ng

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Paws Up!Need a companion? Well get a pet!

But what do you do when you realise that you can’t care for your new compan-ion?

Well seems like a signifi-cant amount of Singapor-eans might just be fretting over this issue.

Some people might learn to take up the responsibili-ty and look after their pets and some may choose the easy way out by running away or in this case, aban-don their pets.

Some people may argue to say that it’s not their fault that they can’t care for their pets but I can’t help but wonder how they can be so cold to be able to leave their pet and walk away.

A pet is like a friend and for some people their pet is their family. Ohana means family and family means that nobody gets left be-hind so why are people leaving their pets in dark alleyways and parks?

Nobody likes to be left behind and these poor

animals will definitely tell you the same if you could understand them.

What a large amount of people don’t understand is that these animals are not some toy that you can play with and throw away when you get bored. They have feelings like we do but they don’t have a voice to express their personal opinion.

Owning a pet is filled with lots of fun but it also comes with lots of sacrifices.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/abandoning-cats-is-just-plain-wrong.html

By Tan Li Yan

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E D I T O R I A L

*Fun Fact: Pet abandonment is also considered as pet abuse as you fail to provide your pet with sufficient food, water and shelter.

Personally, I feel that abandoning your pet is a very cruel and heartless thing to do so before you decide to get a pet, please think about these questions.

Do my housemates/ fam-ily agree with getting the

Do I have time to care for a pet?

Am I financially stable enough to afford a pet?

Do I really want a pet?

Will I be able to care for a

With so many abandoned pets around, the animal welfare groups have work cut out for them but there are still ways for animal lovers to give them a helping hand. Here’s what you can do to help these animals:

1. Contact any of the animal welfare organisations when you find a lost pet2. Donate to the animal wel-fare organisations3. Volunteer at the pet shel-ters4. Foster an animal if you have experience

It is wrong to abandon our pets as animals are our companions, friends and family. So let’s all put our “paws” together to help these poor animals and lend them our voices to stop pet abandonment!

A few common excuses people use when they abandon their pets:• “I don’t have time to look after my pet.”• “I can’t afford the medical fees of my pet.”• “My family/ housemates don’t like having a pet at home.”• “I realised can’t look after my pet.” Photo By: http://findingfido.ca/help-us-stop-puppy-mills/

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KT I C

A D Y

R

L

ES

• Writing, drawing, painting, marking or inscribing on any pub-lic property or private property any word, slogan, caricature, drawing, mark, symbol or other thing;

• Affixing, posting up or displaying on any public property or private property any poster, placard, advertisement, bill, notice, paper or other document; or

• Hanging, suspending, hoisting, affixing or displaying on or from any public property or private property any flag, bunting, standard, banner or the like with any word, slogan, caricature, drawing, mark, symbol or other thing; or

• Stealing, destroying or damaging any public property

According to the Vandal-ism Action (CHAPTER 341) in Singapore, without the written authority of an authorised in the case of public property, or without the written consent of the owner or occupier in the case of private property, the followings are forbid-den—

Photo By: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/sam-lo-aka-sticker-lady-only-thing-m-045040477.html

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E D I T O R I A L

IS pasting stickers consider as vandalism?

The Sticker Lady has caused tempests in Singapore. People who are against her ‘cre-ative’ action which is pasting the stickers in public, said that she should be arrested because of she does not respect the eth-ics of publicity and marketing.

However, her supporters re-spond that the people who arrest Samantha Lo, the Sticker Lady, does not know how to appreciate art.

Samantha Lo is a brave wom-en as she should know that she is challenging the vandal-ism law but she still insist to paste her art work.

I agree to her action because of she probably is the one and only who dare to challenge Singapore’s law. This has shown the weakness of Van-dalism Action which cannot difference between destructive actions and creative actions.

This is the reason Lo is getting charged. As you can see, it’s illegal even to paste an ad-vertisement for your lost cat on an HDB wall. I have seen many tuition posters and rent room advertisements plastered in various HDB flats and street lampposts, but I have yet to hear a tuition teacher or other people was convicted for vandalism.

So why just Samantha Lo was arrested?

Also, regardless of the way people has interpreted this case, the fact that she wa caught just because of pasting some stickers seems a bit too much.

Even though not everyone think that Lo’s work is pretty, but surely we all can have a

good laugh when we saw the stickers.

There are good people who posted on Facebook or Twitter, encourage other people to sign a petition to ask that she can be charged under the Miscelaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act, rather than vandalism.

However, netizens are not government. Even though they disagree about Samantha Lo’s penalties, besides collecting signature, they cannot do anything. The one who make the final decision is the people who are in charge.

If we want a creative society, the first thing we need to do is to appeal to government to change the law.Photos By: http://speaktoothtopower.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/if-sticker-lady-were-my-daughter-part-2-more-parents-and-kids-respond/

By Chan Poh Fei

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Bloody Kidnapper

Filled with action an emotional scenes in the movie, Kidnapper is Director Kelvin Tong’s first action thriller film.

Starring veteran actors Christopher Lee (Ah Huat), Phyllis Quek (Mrs Sun), Jack Lim (Ah Hu/ Kidnapper) and new child actors Jerald Tan (Wei Siang) and Regene Lim (Sng Kia Woo) this movie deeply portraits a parent love for their child. Ah Huat is a single par-ent who raised his son, Wei Siang single handedly and earned a living driv-ing a taxi. On Wei Siang’s birthday, Ah Huat was supposed to bring him out but had some problems along the way and Wei Siang went with his classmate instead.

At the arcade, Wei Siang got kidnapped. The kidnapper, Ah Hu demanded one million dollars in 36 hours but as Ah Huat don’t earn much, he have to find

ways to raise that amount during that short period of time.

So what is one of the reason that makes this film a good one? Of course the ac-

tors! The acting of Christopher Lee who played Ah Huat a taxi driver and Jack Lim who played Ah Hu the kidnapper were well dis-played.

Lee showed great emo-tions in the movie which made me able to read and feel pain, his tears felt genuine and real when he screamed.

Lim also did well in his facial expressions, the vibe he gave was really serious and scary throughout the whole movie and it felt as if an evil aura was emitting out of him.

Other than the veterans, child actors Jer-ald Tan and Regene Lim also played their role really well.

By Ng Sam Yuan

Photo By: http://bk.asia-city.com/movie-re-view/kidnapper

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R E V I E W

The movie, scenes and props were all set really well. Things such as blood, makeup looked realistic and the Backgrounds, lightings and moods were set in a dark, scary and gloomy style during the peak of the movie. I felt that it was good as it portraits fear and this is definitely a plus point for the movie.

This action thriller movie is filled with emotional scene such as Ah Huat crying due to the kidnapper torturing his son and “Bloody” scenes. This movie might not be suitable for people who are afraid of blood as there may scenes they might find gory. Although the plot was interesting, I felt that there were points and areas which could be further explained and developed so that the movie will sum up better.

Score:3.5/5.0

Photo By: http://www.taufulou.com/2010/05/25/

Overall I felt that the story was really unique and had a good Singaporean taste in it. I must say Director Kelvin Tong and his team did a pretty good job in this mov-ie, the actors, set and shots were really well chosen and planned. Thriller lovers should really give it the movie a try as it might be a thrilling experience for you.

Photo By: http://brian190.blogspot.sg/2010/05/kid-napper-kelvin-tong-film-my-review.html

Photo By: http://chomikuj.pl/rambox33/FILMY++-+2+0+1+0/Lektor/strona+-24

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