The Straits Times forum is a popular place for people to address their woes or to present bouquets. Occasionally, there are letters which many will read and wondered why they got published in the first place. Some of these letters are complaints while others are there just to make a statement. This had always been an issue of contention simply because the Straits Times literally get hundreds of letters each day but only a handful are published. We are looking at 10 or slightly more than that.

A minor furore started when the following letter got published. You can see more stuffs here. It’s quite funny if you take it in the right note. =)

Thanks to our leaders’ great foresight, our Sovereign Wealth Funds have financial clout to shock and awe the world

FOR the past two months, ’shock and awe’ swept through the entire global financial market by our small country’s two Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF).

The financial world was ’shocked’ when a small country less than 1,000 sq km in size injected US$10 billion into Union Bank of Switzerland. ‘Awe’ came when similar injections were made for Merrill Lynch and Citigroup; no less than US$20 billion were committed in less than two months. It seems that there is no limit to the strength of our SWFs. The Strait Times subsequently published many articles relating to these funds and their activities.

It was a coincidence that ‘National Treasure’, a film about a group of treasure hunters looking for the mythical Lost City of Gold, was screened in cinemas at the same time when our SWFs made their investment. Wikipedia showed that Singapore’s GIC and Temasek Holdings hold two positions among the top seven global SWFs (worth more than US$100 billion each).

If Wikipedia’s estimates of more than US$400 billion combined assets are correct, it means each kilometre square of Singapore land is worth at least US$0.5 billion, making us the richest country in the world by SWF standards. There is nothing mythical about Singapore and we are definitely not lost, so is Singapore the modern day City of Gold?

Most will be too shocked to look beyond these figures, but many world leaders know Singapore is the only non-oil producing country on that list. Our pioneer leaders have fiercely guarded these foreign reserves since our independence. Opposition parties have many times called for the use of these funds and, for the past 40 years, there were many times that these funds had come in handy; the oil crisis in the 70s, the recession in the mid-80s, the financial crisis and economic slump after 1997. Every time when there was a crisis, Singapore’s leaders did not succumb to temptation of using the fund - they bit the bullet and pushed for internal changes. Every time Singapore became stronger, these funds grew.

Fortunately for us, we voted for the correct party to govern our country all these years and after many painful transformations, Singapore now has one of the most robust economies in the world and also is one of the richest nations in the world. Is National Treasure all about money? No, it is our pioneer leaders who had the foresight and determination to build wealth for the nation and make it stronger.

Syu Ying Kwok

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 24th January 2008

Eventually, someone was fined for feeding monkeys. This had been an apparent problem since years ago, when people first took fancy of monkeys and started feeding them. In fact, if you look into the history of Singapore, you’d have realised that people started feeding monkeys since then. However, nothing was done to curb this because everyone thought that the monkeys were cute and that they may even help in doing other things such as plucking the coconuts (for kampongs near the beaches) and bringing back the bananas (if they don’t finish them first).

Unconsciously, the feeding of the monkeys have gone on for years and till today, people are still doing so. While quite a handful have come to realise that feeding the monkeys are doing them no good, some others still ignore the apparent dangers and continue doing so. Despite all warnings, they fed the monkeys rain or shine. Some people have commented that if they don’t feed the monkeys, they have nothing else to feed. Moreover, feeding the strays in their neighbourhoods was something that would have been frowned upon and may lead to other repercussions.

To avoid getting into obvious trouble of feeding the neighbourhood strays, some of them have resorted to feeding the monkeys instead of just not feeding anything, which they thought would have been safe since everyone else was doing. After all, if there are already 10 people feeding the monkeys, having one additional feeder doesn’t really matter, doesn’t it? Well apparently not so.

Feeding the monkeys have resulted in complains from people staying in the neighbourhood because it is seemingly an anti-social act. While this may be seem to be the case, the monkeys may eventually invade the neighbourhood nearby and interfere in the daily lives of those living there and disrupting the peace. If the feeding of the monkeys continue, they may even start to breed there where the smaller monkeys will create more terror and wrecking havoc everywhere.

So, it’s really important to stop feeding the monkeys and let them return to where they come from. There might be some resistance from the monkeys in the beginning, but we should not give in out of pity. They belong to the trees and nature and that’s where they should go back to.

A MAN has been fined $4,000 for feeding monkeys in a nature reserve, the steepest fine ever handed out for the offence.

Panneerselvam Arunasalam, a cook, admitted on Tuesday that he had fed the animals bread in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve on Aug 5 last year.

A park ranger spotted the 46-year-old doling out food in the Mandai sanctuary, which is near Old Upper Thomson Road. The area is ringed with signs warning people against giving the animals food.

Pressing for a stiff sentence on Tuesday, National Parks Board prosecutor M. Maniam told the court that feeding monkeys endangers both the animals and humans.

‘It alters the monkeys’ natural behaviour adversely, as it makes them reliant on humans for food instead of foraging for food on their own in the forest,’ he said.

These monkeys tend to behave more aggressively towards humans, especially children, he added.

It also leads to an increase in the monkey population and brings the animals closer to roads in search of food.

Although park officials and the media have highlighted the the dangers of feeding monkeys, many people seem undeterred.

The feeding of monkeys is becoming more prevalent, Mr Maniam said. There were 157 cases last year, compared to 142 the year before.

Eighteen people were convicted over the two-year period. The rest paid $250 fines.

Panneerselvam could have been fined up to $50,000 and jailed for up to six months.

ELENA CHONG

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 23rd January 2008