The Falcon Times

Page 1

SHINE

Shave is the New Rave

FESTIVAL Is the arts scene in Singapore really dead after all?

Giving hope to cancer patients

HAPPENINGS PAGE 3

ARTS PAGE 8

PAGES 4&5

FALC N TIMES

A Quartery Publication by The Falcon Times

THE

SPECIAL

Vol. 1, Issue 1 MICA (p) 014/08/2015

Still Not Litter Free

Is the Sentosa Embraces Litter Free (S.E.L.F.) programme not effective enough? By Isabelle Liew

D

espite the Sentosa Embraces Litter employs less than 10 cleaners on the beach, Free programme, local beach-go- along with the usage of a beach-cleaning maers continue to litter and Sentosa chine. is still far from being litter-free. He went on to add that cleaners “cannot be The Sentosa Embraces Litter Free everywhere”, therefore it is important for em(S.E.L.F.) programme was initiated in Febru- ployees to be driven to keep the island clean. ary 2014, led by the Public Hygiene Council, He thinks that it is difficult to change peotogether with Singaple’s behaviour and pore Kindness Movemindset towards litI don’t really think that ment, Keep Singapore tering, even through Beautiful Movement, the initiative, and many people know as part of the Keep thinks that more about this, so they Singapore Clean could be done to reshould put in more Movement, and supduce littering, such as ported by the National continuous education awareness about this Environment Agency. through programmes programme This programme like S.E.L.F.. encourages employees Muhammad Jessica Lie of Sentosa to pick up Hafiz, 26, a local Student from NUS litter, rather than rebeach-goer, thinks lying on cleaners. Thus, a bi-monthly litter that the beaches on Sentosa are not clean as picking initiative where more than 100 Sen- he sees cigarette butts and cans littered on the tosa staff go to Palawan and Siloso beaches to sand. He attributed the litter to a lack of garpick up litter was put in place. However, there bage bins, which is also the reason he himself is still litter on the beach. litters. In fact, Chanel Lim, 20, an employee Sherrill Sim, 19, also says that the lack of of Sentosa for two and a half years, has not garbage bins is the reason she disposes cigaheard about the S.E.L.F. programme. Other rette butts indiscriminately. employees refused to comment. However, she thinks that Singaporeans do Mr Elvis Yip Yew Boon, Assistant Direc- not litter in general due to the fines imposed. tor of the Environmental Control Unit at Sen- “We get fined so a lot of people are scared to tosa, said in an email interview that Sentosa litter,” she says.

Bottles and pieces of food strewn across Sentosa’s Palawan beach.

PHOTO: ISABELLE LIEW

Leslie Low, 21, another local beach-goer, said the reason he litters on the beach is laziness. “I don’t think I care enough, and I don’t come to beaches often as well,” he says. He still thinks that Singapore is relatively clean, and that people do take the initiative to pick up litter. “I do see people who aren’t necessarily cleaners who are going around picking up stuff,” he adds. On Jul 15, students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) went to Palawan beach for some camp activities. One of the games in which they played involved throwing water bombs at each other,

resulting in broken plastic bags strewn across the sand. Although most of them made an effort to pick the litter up, a number of broken plastic bags were still left behind. Jessica Lie, 22, an NUS student, says that litter is inevitable even though they tried to clean up as much of their litter as possible. She does not know about the S.E.L.F. initiative. “I don’t really think that many people know about this, so they should put in more awareness about this programme.”

STories From The Past, An Optimistic Future Ahead

The Straits Times celebrates 170th anniversary and SG50 with exhibition: ‘Singapore STories: Then, Now, Tomorrow’. By Isabelle Liew

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eld at the ArtScience Museum, ‘Singapore STories’, which follows the history of The Straits Times, has gathered a crowd of more than 40,000 as of Aug 4. Launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Jul 15, the exhibition consists of six galleries showcasing stories and photographs from newspapers in the past. The exhibition was arranged following the sections of a newspaper: Business, Home, World, Sport, Life and Forum. The sections covers topics such as industrialisation, education, defence, health and alliances for survival and success. The Forum section of the exhibition features the #BuildSG2065 showcase where

there are interactive activities for visitors to imagine Singapore’s future. They are encouraged to post pictures with the hashtag on social media to stand a chance to win cash prizes. The first issue of The Straits Times, dated July 15, 1845, is also on display with a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius to preserve its quality. Among the visitors were many senior citizens, who visited to recount and reminisce about the past. Mr Joe Lee, 74, a visitor to the exhibition, felt that his favourite part of the exhibition was where they recounted the aftermath of the 1959 Tiong Bahru fire, where the government helped to build houses for the people affected.

“It gave me a sense of pride that the government did a very good job for their own people, and take care of their lives,” he says. Madam Serena Leong, 56, was at the exhibition to reminisce about stories that she has read over the last 50 years in The Straits Times. “Merger and separation, especially. Because it’s Lee Kuan Yew,” she adds. Like Madam Leong, another visitor, Mr Lawrence Yeo, also visited the exhibition because he has previously read a good deal of the articles that were on display. “I kind of refreshed my memories of the events that happened,” he says. He also found the interactive and virtual part of the exhibition interesting, where vis-

An innovative approach in showcasing the Business section of the exhibit. PHOTO: ISABELLE LIEW

itors could see what Singapore would be like in the future. The younger generation also visited the exhibition to learn more about Singapore’s history and to see what is in store for the future of Singapore. Varella Tan, 18, says, “I like the newspaper articles from back in the day, the yellow ones, because you don’t get to see those. It’s hard to get access to those.” The free exhibition will continue to run until Oct 4 at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.


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