The Bridge Builder

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide –
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pit-fall be,
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”

- Will Allen Dromgoole

Bridge building is a powerful metaphor, and tool, for social change. Seeing and making connections – whether among people or ideas – is a hallmark of bridge builders, whose lives are rooted in values and who dedicate their time and energy to causes larger than themselves.

For perhaps every societal breakthrough, there was some one who came before, who mentored others or offered the world a new idea.

Bridge builders, another example of how ordinary people change the world, bring out the best in others by connecting resources and talents to great and worthy causes, especially anticipating the needs of future generations. Bridge builders use the wisdom and experience they have gleaned for the benefit of others, even those whom they may never meet. Seek to encourage, to connect, to strategize, and to share a vision with those who will come after.

Link : http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/articles/the-bridge-builder.aspx

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So we have much to be proud of in our local musicians and music industry… – Mr Lawrence Wong

Lawrence Wong :

At the “Music Matters” conference yesterday, and was delighted to see great enthusiasm for local music.

The Singapore music scene is still relatively young. But it has come a long way. Over the years, we have built a strong base of established songwriters, lyricists, music arrangers, concert directors and producers, like Dick Lee, Liang Wern Fook, Jeremy Monteiro, Iskandar Ismail and Goh Kheng Long, just to name a few.

In Chinese music, we had the home-grown “xinyao” movement in the 1980s. This paved the way for the emergence of several successful Singapore artistes, such as Kit Chan, Tanya Chua, Stephanie Sun and JJ Lin.

In other regional and international markets, Singaporean musicians have also won acclaim. Singapore Idols Taufik Batisah and Hady Mirza are making their mark in the region. Shabir Tabare Alam, our first Vasantham Star winner, has established himself as an actor, music producer and recording artiste. And of course we are proud this year to have the first Singaporean, Arun Shenoy, to receive a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album. 

Singaporeans also perform many other important but sometimes not-so-visible roles in the music industry. For example, music veteran Mohamed Raffee has written many scores for theatre productions and movies. Likewise for composer Ricky Ho, who won the Best Original Film Score at the Golden Horse Awards in 2011. Many have heard of Taiwanese pop star A-Mei, but not many know that her crew is made up mostly of Singaporeans – from supporting singers, to band members and dancers!

Recently, the Singapore Music Society (SgMuso) brought Steve Lillywhite, a five-time Grammy Award winning record producer, to Singapore. At first, Steve was not sure whether he would find music talent here. But he met some of our young local bands like Sam Willows and later said that he was highly impressed by their music and creative talent. This is high praise indeed, coming from someone who has been credited on over 500 records, and worked with top bands like U2, The Killers, and The Rolling Stones. 

So we have much to be proud of in our local musicians and music industry. Let us continue to support our musicians, so that they can play more Singapore-made music, and take our music industry to even greater heights!

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Info for : MUSIC MATTERS LIVE WITH HP, 22-24 May 2013

Meanwhile, Back in Singapore…

source : A Journal Of Musical Things, Alan Cross

There’s something about this city-state that keeps drawing me back.  I’ve made the 26 hour flight three times in the last year.  It’s been mostly business, but there’s so much else going on here that I find it hard to leave.

They have the world’s best airline.  Changi Airport puts just about every other airport on the planet to shame.
It’s clean, safe and well-organized.
Taxis are stupidly cheap.
The Singapore dollar costs 80 cents Canadian.
There’s no sales tax.
Plus there, the food, the architecture, the culture, the go-go-go attitude.
 And now, music.

I’m here for the Music Matters Asia conference, a gathering of music and digital types from across Asia and from certain other pockets of the planet.

Watching the panels and hearing people speak (as well as talking to to people one-on-one during the breaks) provides a completely different perspective on the music biz from than the one I get at CMW, NXSW, the Worldwide Radio Summit or any of the half-dozen gatherings I attend in North America every year.  They just think differently here.

It’s gotta be the lack of proximity to the United States.  America tends to dominate any conversation in which its involved.  But here in Singapore, there are few Americans participating.  Talk is about China, Taiwan, Australia, Korea, Japan, India and Indonesia.  Each of these territories have their own attitudes towards the music business and without America in the room, it’s easy for them to communicate them.

Today was mostly about digital video and how it can be monetized.  Tomorrow, though, is a full day on music and radio.  This should be interesting.  There are also even showcases staged by delegations from Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Canada (Faber Drive is one of the acts who have made the trip.) as well as some homegrown talent from Singapore. I’m looking forward to hearing some very interesting new stuff.

One prediction from the state today:  watch out for Singapore, Korea and Finland to take a leadership role in all things wireless.  Broadband of all sorts is a major, major priority with their respective governents.  In fact, Internet access has been declared a basic human right in Finland.  Don’t you wish that were the case in Canada?

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Can we learn from the success of Singapore?

The tiny city-state has outperformed its neighbours because it has vision and discipline, precisely the things we lack in fractious, divided Thailand

Singapore is a city-state the size of Phuket. It has no natural resources, but since it gained independence from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore has become a leader on the global economic stage, thanks mainly to vision and adherence to policy. Singapore’s development philosophy is manifested in three giant investment projects that have taken shape over the past five years.

One is the US$3-billion Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex, which is now Royal Dutch Shell’s biggest petrochemical facility. Singapore attracted the investment with a series of preparations.

Upon realising that it could not depend solely on trade, Singapore created an artificial island, called Jurong, to support manufacturing activities. Shell and numerous other foreign corporations have plants there. The Economic Development Board worked out the best policies to attract foreign investment. It is the leading government agency responsible for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre and thus develop the economy. Other government agencies cooperated on the provision of land, labour, infrastructure and incentives for training. Singapore also promised to expand its underground storage facilities for chemicals and petrochemicals.

A similar approach was replicated when the country gave the go-ahead for a huge casino-and-leisure complex, Marina Bay Sands, which required an investment above $3 billion. The Las Vegas Sands was given a beautiful parcel on Marina Bay with views of the sea and downtown.

Even more complex planning was required to ensure the success of the $4-billion Marina Bay Financial Centre completed this year.

Land reclamation near the new downtown area started decades ago, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has come up with an exact plan for how the Marina Bay development should progress over the next five decades. Only minor changes can be made to the Master Plan after it is reviewed every 10 years.

As part of the overall plan, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and other government agencies are working on tax and other regulatory measures to lure international companies and talent. This is partly supported by low taxation for corporations and individuals.

About 30,000 people work in the two developments at Marina Bay, aside from indirect jobs in related industries. With a population of only 5.3 million and without natural resources, Singapore nevertheless sees a constant stream of revenue from financial services, tourism and exports in electronics manufacturing and machinery. Another big advantage is that Singapore now boasts one of the world’s largest seaports.

Despite its much longer history, Thailand’s per-capita income was only one-fifth of Singapore’s in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund. In part this can be attributed to the absence of a non-partisan vision for the future and the inability to adhere to a development policy that puts the nation first. While Singapore is now among the high-income nations, Thailand is still struggling to climb out of a middle-income morass.

If Thailand is ever to catch up with Singapore, a change in attitude is essential. Thai politicians and citizens must come to terms with their differences and set a course, as Singapore has done, based on a non-partisan vision – entirely for the sake of the nation. To achieve that, laws must be made clear and fair to all. If we can achieve that, we should not be swayed from the goal of matching Singapore’s success, come what may.

This must be done, and quickly, because the world moves fast and does not wait for laggards.

EDITORIAL, The Nation
Source Link : Can we learn from the success of Singapore?

 

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Unfortunate that Todd family chose to walk out on inquiry: Shanmugam


Rick Todd (2nd L) and his wife Mary (L) walk out of court in Singapore on May 21, 2013. (AFP/Roslan Rahman)

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Foreign Affairs and Law Minister, K Shanmugam, says it is unfortunate and regrettable that the Todd family have decided to walk out on the coroner’s inquiry into Shane Todd’s death.

American researcher Shane Todd was found hanged in his Chinatown apartment last June.

His parents believed he was murdered because of his work at the Singapore Institute of Microelectonics. Dr Todd’s family claimed that his death was related to a project between the institute and Chinese telecoms giant, Huawei Technologies.

The inquiry started on May 13, but on Wednesday Dr Todd’s family said they will not be participating in the rest of the inquiry, a day after their key witness – US medical examiner Dr Edward Adelstein – gave his testimony.

Speaking at a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday evening, Mr Shanmugam noted that the family had said last week that they were happy with the way the court inquiry was proceeding and that they liked the judge and liked how he was proceeding.

They had also said they had faith in the Singapore court system.

During the news conference, the minister noted that Dr Adelstein had changed his original testimony and confirmed that Dr Todd was not killed by garrotting.

The medical examiner had also gone on to speculate how Dr Todd could have been murdered, noted Mr Shanmugam.

Minister Shanmugam stressed that the objective of the inquiry is to establish the full facts surrounding the death of Dr Todd and the State is committed to presenting all evidence, including all relevant evidence which the Todd family wish to present.

Mr Shanmugam said: “It would have been useful if the family had continued (to participate in the inquiry). I will mention two facts which the family’s evidence would have been particularly useful.

  • “A key point, which had been made previously, was that the family had said that they found the external hard drive themselves in the apartment and they asserted that this hard drive had been processed by a third party after Dr Todd’s death and that hard drive contained important information which had been overlooked by the Singapore Police.
  • “Evidence has come out that that hard drive was something which the police had looked at and something the police handed over to the family in the presence of US Embassy officials.
  • “It would have been useful to hear the family’s side as to how they came to a different view of the facts. It’s unfortunate that they don’t take part. This particular assertion, which formed the key part of the conspiracy theory, cannot be tested.
  • “Second, by reference to Mr Luis, the family had said that neither they nor Dr Todd’s girlfriend knew Mr Montes. But Montes confirmed in his testimony today that he had actually met his parents in their hotel room along with some other close friends days after Dr Todd was found dead.
  • “Again this direct conflict of evidence could have been better looked at if the family had chosen to come to court to give their testimony.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Dr Todd’s family walked out of the hearing.

  • They were unhappy with what they claimed was a surprise appearance of a witness – Mr Luis Alejandro Andro Montes – who is said to have seen Dr Todd the day before he was found hanged.

The family added that they only received Mr Montes’ recorded statement on Tuesday morning, and had not been given sufficient time to prepare.

Senior State Counsel Tai Wei Shyong had told the court that he had – in his opening statement last Monday – said that the State intended to call Mr Montes as a witness and had been trying to make arrangements for him to attend the inquiry as he was not in Singapore.

- CNA/ir

Source : Unfortunate that Todd family chose to walk out on inquiry: Shanmugam

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Comments from the net :

  • We all face our trials and tribulations. Grief does not give one the Carte Blanche to make wild accusations against public officials doing their jobs. Mr Shanmuggam was diplomatic probably in his capacity as Foreign Affairs Minister.
  • Sad to say that the TRUTH is unbearable for them to accept. I m PROUD of our police investigators and judicial System.
  • Feel sorry for the Todd families as they are unable to accept the evidence they witnessed this week;…….. But Singaporeans cannot accept the politicking from the Todd families, including defaming our judicial system. Having follow the inquiries, we are indeed proud that our judicial system is top of the class. In any case, hope the Todd families will find closure moving forward.
  • We should sympathise with their loss. But at the same time, we should present all the evidence & not let baseless allegations go unchallenged. Indeed let the international court of public opinion run its course.
  • The Todd family showed utter disrespect and contempt for our judicial system. The govt has been too accommodating to them in my view. Also, the media is giving them undue publicity. This is one instance which I wish the govt could be firmer in tone rather than sounding sorry. Come on, their case collapsed as soon as it begun.
  • It is regrettable as the Todds’s view of events that transpired is different from the view presented by the Singapore Police Force. The only way to know the difference in views is for the Todds to present their views in court during the inquiry.
  •  Hoping that the Todds will be able to get professional help in grief counselling who will enable them to process their thoughts and work through their emotions when they return home.
  • This is their son’s inquiry, and they choose to walk out of it.

Life can be a lot better, if you start highlighting the good..

Singaporean says : 

The morning train crowds are getting a little out of hand – as compared to 5 years ago- I get that.

Standing at the platform this morning, I only managed to squeeze into the 3rd train. But instead of getting grumpy, I felt thankful. 

I give thanks to the minimal waiting time (1-1.5 mins intervals between trains, that adds up to no more than 5mins between 3 trains). I mean seriously, how much faster are Singaporeans expecting? This is a public transport – meaning it does not wait for you outside your door. So yes you have to wait.

I appreciate the hard work of the staff in red uniforms, ensuring that passangers already packed in the train will not be pushed further by eager passengers from the platform.

I thank fellow Singaporeans (most of them), for queuing and moving in an orderly manner. I’m happy to share that we, Singaporeans, are not as barbaric and out-of-control during peak hours as the social media has portrayed.

This turned out to be longer than intended. But I think it is necessary to share some positivity, to point out the good and changes that SMRT has been doing. There are enough people spamming the social media with their complaints and unfulfill-able expectations.

Life can be a lot better, if you start highlighting the good instead of the not-so-good.

Have a good day people 

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