Ok, I might be late on this, but while going on a following frenzy on Twitter (while Plurk was down; sorry Twitter, I will respect you more from now onwards), I saw, guess what? “StarhubCares” on Twitter! They had been replying to questions from fellow Twits like myself on their issues and to a certain extend, doing some real-time troubleshooting of a smaller scale!

I am not sure if this is a Starhub initiative, but I say, “Well done, Starhub!” at least for one thing – making yourself available through one more channel. Well, at least the social media channel. We all hear about big companies jumping onto the bandwagon where their marketing is concern and where their bottom lines are the measure of the efficacy of the social media, but this, I tell you, is really what plugging themselves into the social media scene is all about – making yourself (or rather, the company) available through social media (networks) and engaging with the people in it not just for the sales and marketing, but for the support as well.

Heading this account is a particular Ian McKee (according to the bio) who is “(t)here to join the conversation and help with your StarHub questions”. An Internet search returns results that seemed to relate a certain Ian McKee, CEO and Chief Strategist for Volcanic, “a company that specialises in Identifying Influencers and crafting strategies to engage and activate them to launch word of mouth campaigns for clients such as Heineken, StarHub, Citibank, Discovery and Adobe”.

Of course, I’d think a CEO has more things to do than to sit in front of the Twitter page. In fact, the replies seem to be rather spontaneous to be him anway. Then again, it may just be a case of mis-identity.

If Starhub is going to sustain this in the long run, I think they will gather more supporters like myself who has been with Starhub for the longest time (since the days of Cyberway?). I will definitely be keeping an eye on this.

Yes, I am referring to DK – Darryl Kang of Blog2u.sg, i.e. @dk99 on plurk and blog.dk.sg (heh, free plug eh?)

Below is a conversation between DK and another friend. DK is apparently using our (his and mine) friendship to emotionally blackmail me. Well done, DK. Well done.

2/26/2009  1:34:46 AM  Friend: but then, she really feels like disappearing and cannot stand the cold shoulder… been bothering her a lot.
2/26/2009  1:36:28 AM  DK: good lah
2/26/2009  1:36:33 AM  DK: finally taking effect

“good la, finally taking effect”?

Thanks. I now know how you “treasure” our friendship. And to think that I used to like you. I must have been blind.

Asshole.

The moral of the story? When you decide to “teach your friends a lesson” (if you even consider them your friends anymore), you better pray that nothing leaks. DK, your integrity sucks and I look down on you!

Scum.

I gave you a chance to explain yourself, but you threw it away. Hope you are enjoying your dinner.

On the side, I guess this gives me a good closure. For those who knows me and/or knows what had been happening (and for those who really bothered to care), I guess this means that I will stop feeling bad about losing DK as a friend. Despite my various attempts to apologise, talk to him, create conversations and all, DK just treated me as a piece of glass – probably transparent and tempered. Replies to his plurk, asking him for supper also turned onto deaf ears.

And when I asked if we were still friends, he had the cheek to tell me that he doesn’t know how to reply that sms. Not to mention that I’d never forget what he told me when I apologised.

“It’s too late”

Turned out that he was trying to “teach me a lesson” (in pretty much his own words), “it’s time I learn” and whatever crap he can come up with (no offence to chillycraps). For a good 6 weeks or so I felt really bad. People on plurk could have probably seen that. Well, whatever his plan was, it nearly put me into total submission; until of course, I found out what he was doing. Thanks for the emotional roller coaster ride.

Like I said, some friends are worth keeping. Some friends… well, are probably just fiends worthy of exorcism.

And for posterity sake:

“It’s good that it’s taking effect”

“but it’s not time to see her yet”

“whenever she’s in depression, she needs to be taught a lesson”

“I don’t think it’s enough”

“she needs to be taught a lesson”

“good, it’s taking effect”

“I want her to be taught a lesson until she’s ready” (editor: huh?!)

DK, thanks for your words (or rather, sentences) of wisdom. But I think you just pwned yourself, asshole. And stop playing victim. You know what you have done.

A few days ago, I was honored to be invited by Derrick to the Lenovo blogger night (Thanks Derrick). It is a small and cozy event, in which 5 models of Lenovo laptops were being showcased.

Being an age old Thinkpad user since the Thinkpad 560 days, one lone model immediately caught my attention. It is the gigantic 17″ W700, which closely resembles the classic Thinkpad product line.

However, W700 and W700ds is not customized for the usual office-based business clientele who goes for lighter weight laptops. It is specially customized for the niche group of users who requires portability, uses intensive amount of graphics, and requires high computational power. This group of users commonly work as graphics & animation designers and virtual reality & three dimensional researchers.

The W700 and W700ds are powerful machines, whose performance are comparable to server machines, but with the additional feature of portability. The W700 contains 2 cores (Intel Core 2 Extreme processor X9100, 3.06GHz 1GHz 6MB), while the W700ds contains 4 cores (Intel Core 2 Quad Core Extreme processor QX9300, 2.53GHz 1GHz 12MB).

It also boast a top of the line NVIDIA GPU graphics card (NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 1GB), which allows programming using CUDA and is SLI frame rendering supported. For researchers in graphics, this GPU graphics card will feel like water to the fishes. It is their usual cutting-edge tools that they use day in and out.

Notable additional useful features include WACOM Digitizer, Pantone Color Sensor and 17″ wide inch which are useful to designers. Moreover, being a laptop, means that it is portable, and can be brought out for demonstration. Hmm, now I wonder if I will get my chance to lay my hands on a permanent one… Will my school be getting one? Hmm…

By Alice Cheong

Yeah, after a pretty long hiatus, I have returned. Well, not that I’ve really been away, but 2008 had been a really hectic year! 2009 will be an even more hectic year, but I’m trying to prioritize things so that there will be time for everything.

First of all, I’d like to wish all my blog readers a Happy New Year! This New Year’s eve had been a little different from previous years – where I usually find a good spot to capture the best of the countdown fire works. Instead, I had decided to RSVP to a corporate invitation to spend New Year’s Eve at Clarke Quay. This is probably the first New Year’s eve with almost nothing organized within my usual group of friends and bloggers – with some of them having found new halves to hang out with, while others suffered from PMS (both the male and female versions) which will result in very little turnout for any even – if organized at all.

I have also turned down an inaugural invitation to be part of a Bloggers’ Resident Program (BRP) cos’ Simply Jean is already currently writing for NHB’s yesterday.sg, which at most times, is easily quite demanding given the need to crack her brains for newer places to explore and more ancient things to write about. While there’s a risk that NHB’s programme will be canned anytime soon, moving on to another BRP might not always be the good solution, since it takes away attention from this blog.

2008 had been a good year as Simply Jean was nominated in 2 blog awards – Ping.sg’s and OMY.sg’s. Quite obviously, nothing was won but the campaigning period had been pretty interesting. However, with strong contenders like Sheylara.com, Rinaz.net and the likes, it’s a little difficult to come on par. Some might argue that blogging is not about winning awards, but well, some fun won’t kill, will it?

2008 is also the year that Simply Jean had been referenced several times in the Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao. 2 blog entries – particularly the one on Pedra Branca and another on Li Hongyi brought more eyeballs to this blog, however, nothing beats this. Ever. Then again, probably different “market”

So, what’s installed in 2009? Well, I guess that depends indirectly on how many of such events happen. Of course, this reminds of something that someone once asked me, “Isn’t Simply Jean an anti-establishment?”. Well, I am not sure what made people think this way,, but I’d think that Simply Jean is just a, quote-unquote, Kao Beh blog, according to someone who’s into the real political scene. In fact, this person was surprised that I even sang the national anthem!

So, what’s a good way to start the new year? Well, I’m not too sure, but for the first time, I tried the Starbucks Toffee Nut Frappacino but just short of getting their Espresso Passport. Fortunately, or unfortunately, today is the last day that the Toffee Nut Frappie will be served, but fret not! It will be back by this Christmas. Yes, the one in 2009. =S

Lastly, before I end this entry, I would be going for the Bloggers Calendar’s Launch which will be held latter at SMU’s Ice Cold B at 6:30pm. Yes, some of the bloggers joked about an autograph session, but… nay, it’s probably just another excuse to get together. And oh, if you have not/decided not to purchase the calendar, I think you can still download your copy here.

Meanwhile, have a good new year!

Simply Jean was invited to the bloggers’ event, but oh man, did I felt out of place or what? It was a glam event, with glam limousine rides… with an unglam me! Almost all the other female bloggers were dressed to the nines except me. In fact, Sabrina asked if I was going backpacking when she saw me at the Fairmont, where we were all waited to be picked up by the limo.

And when I mentioned limo, I wasn’t referring to the Limocabs by Comfort or other taxi companies. It was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG LIMO! So, we were all packed into the limousine and I didn’t want to take out my big fat camera at the lobby of the hotel because I thought it would be rather… uncool. Yes, I was already unglam – the last thing I want is to be uncool at the same time.

Well, the ride was great and we had gawking commuters at every junction. In fact, passerbys were flashing away with their compacts whenever the limo stopped for the traffic light. It was fun while the ride lasted but it was definitely unforgettable. =)

We arrived at the Scarlet Hotel shortly after, which didn’t seem too long when you are enjoying yourself in the limo. I met some familiar faces, including Pris, I.Z. Reloaded, and Willy, amongst the many familiar faces. Food was great even though it’s just local fare. It’s strange how local fare automatically tastes better whenever it’s served in a posh place. Then again, it can either be psychological or they just had better cooks.

The moment of indulging my senses finally came when Philips introduced their new LED TV (Ed: I think it’s called the Philips Flat TV with Perfect Pixel HD Engine and Ambilight Spectra 2… quite a mouthful). Yes, LED TV, not LCD TV. Well, it could jolly well be a technical term and be an LED LCD TV, but mine, did it blow my mind off. The colours were so vibrant, I felt I was inside the movie when they played Ironman on it. Black on the TV looked very dark and put the LCD TV next to it to shame. In addition, it came with ambient lights at the back of the TV that somehow seemed to enhance the TV experience. In fact, I am not even sure if “TV experience” is appropriate for it now because it does seem to have gone beyond that.

I would have loved to stay a little longer to appreciate the fine details of the Philips LED TV, but we were quickly broken up into groups where we got to be introduced to the many products of Philips. First stop was the BTM630 Micro Hi-Fi System… which I don’t really have any words for it. It apparently connects to Bluetooth devices using A2DP and is able to play music streamed from such devices. What was amazing (even though I know that it is possible technically) was the demonstration on using it as a replacement for your mobile phone’s loud speaker. I wasn’t quite sure where the microphone is, but communication was definitely possible via the audio system.  Now, everyone home can have a teleconferencing kit.

And oh, apparently it rips your CD music into your thumbdrive as well.

During this session, we were also introduced the Philips Advanced Acoustics In-ear Headphone (Ed: Model SHE9850, yeah, women rulez). What is special about it is that it reminds me of my ear-plugs – those that I squeeze into a tiny ball and pop it into my ear for it to expand and fill up the cavities. Well, not that you should be doing that to your ears, but the earphones Philips showed us was just that – a soft squeezable material replacing the standard foam/silicon rubber to give you effective passive noise cancellation.

I didn’t want to do the squeeze on the earphone and try it because I think I will look double unglam then. Yes, one shot of unglamness is enough for one day.

We were then ushered to the next room where the TV was on display again. This time, a Nintendo Wii was hooked to the television and we have Sabrina’s sister (sorry, what’s her name?) trying out Guitar Hero. Unfortunately, the mock guitar was almost non-responsive and there wasn’t so much spark from it. It would have been good if that worked, but well, at least we could still enjoy the TV while the rest tried it out.

Me? I am bad at fingering.

Following which, everyone was ushered to the ground floor where we waited in anticipation for the limo ride again. 

Tadah! The limo!

Ok, of course, this is not our limo… but the next one is. =)

Now, when the limo stopped, we got a fair bit of horning from the other cars because they were unable to overtake it. It really isn’t the limo’s fault because if you look carefully, there is another car parked indiscriminately on the other side of the road. Mind you, this was a double yellow lined road, which basically means the car isn’t supposed to be there. I have the photos with the car plate number in my albums, but I think… I’ll just be nice.

In the car, we tried out the headphones that were quite obviously made by Creative, Apple and Philips. Well, it’s actually a guess, because we were subjected to a blind test. Well, if the tester doesn’t know the brands of the players and the earphones, then it would be a double blind test, but that’s not the point here. The point is that I wasn’t able to figure out the quality of 2 of the earphones because while the same song is played, one of it was played too loudly. Well… I was hoping for a replay, but it was too late as the limo had gone 1 round and returned to the hotel.

It was a little hard to take photos in the car… cos’ for some reason, I forgot to bring the fat flash along for the fat camera. Oh well…

The last stop was for the hair products that Philips is carrying. I tried giving my hair some curls in the past, but it didn’t seem to work well. Philips now have a Curling Iron that has digital temperature control – which probably beats all my analogue ones hands down. The only pity was that… I did’n’t get to try it, but Sabrina did. Can you spot the curls in her hair? She looks sexier, doesn’t she? Heh heh…

All good things have to come to an end and while everyone else left for the Fairmont in the limo again, I stayed behind for another private event – the private listening of the new Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy! And oh, it was also I.Z. Reloaded’s birthday! Happy Belated Birthday again!

The Philips event was quite an eye-opener for me, especially on the earphones. I never thought that such a earphone could have been manufactured, but well, technology does advance pretty fast nowadays. Yeah, it might be a small thing, but if the sound is good, people will go heads over heels over it. Now… where is the sample set… =P

Xiaxue has made her stand – she is not going to apologise (although I thought she did retract her statements). In fact, she challenged Dawn, who is currently on holiday in Sydney, to sue her. Dawn’s lawyer commented that they will not be ruling out other options – including mediation and a meeting between both parties without using any points raised in such a meeting in court.

While I do not doubt that the spat is real, but I smell *ahem* publicity *cough* stunt… =P

Bloggers’ spat: Xiaxue refuses to say sorry

By Debbie Yong

BLOGGER Wendy Cheng – better known online as Xiaxue – is not going to apologise to fellow blogger Dawn Yang. She was supposed to do so by Tuesday, the deadline set in a letter sent to her last week by Ms Yang’s lawyer.

The letter referred to allegedly defamatory remarks made by Ms Cheng, in a blog entry dated June 30, about Ms Yang. Ms Cheng, 23, had written, among other things, about the other’s entertainment and endorsement deals.

She also baulked at being compared to Ms Yang, 23, in a June 25 report in Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao. The letter had asked for Ms Cheng to publicly apologise and propose a settlement for the damages caused to Ms Yang.

‘I am not going to apologise. If she wants to embarass herself she can go ahead and sue me’, Ms Cheng told The Straits Times on Tuesday.

She is presented by Keystone Law Corporation.

Ms Yang is in Sydney on a holiday and could not be reached for comments. Mr K Anparasan from KhattarWong, the firm representing her, confirmed that he has received Ms Cheng’s letter but said he has yet to discuss the next step with Ms Yang.

However, he added that they will not rule out other options besides going to court, such as mediation or a ‘without prejudice’ meeting between both parties to settle the dispute.

This means that points raised in the meeting will not be used adversely against them in court.

The bad blood between the two bloggers goes back to November 2006, when they were compared in an online ‘hottest bloggers’ ranking.

They have been making comments about each other on their blogs since.

Ms Cheng gets 50,000 hits daily on her blog while Ms Yang gets 30,000.

Source: Straits Times Interactive, http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_260309.html

Article extracted on 22nd July 2008

I had not really followed the happenings between Xiaxue (who is Wendy Cheng in real life) and Dawn Yang, but I did read a little about what happened. Apparently, Wendy had defamed Dawn in one of her many people-offending posts (perhaps she believes in being straight forward), which allegedly called bluffs on some of Dawn’s claims on the people she knew, amongst many other things. It was believed that there were also personal attacks on Dawn.

Striking back, Dawn engaged lawyers from Khattar Wong and filed a defamation suit against Wendy, demanding a public apology and a settlement of sorts. Wendy in return has hired her own lawyers and has until Tuesday to respond to the case. As this is going on, many people in the blogosphere are wondering if this is just a show.

So, if it is, how far should it go? If it isn’t, how far will it last before the public believes that it is for real? Personally, I think the line is drawn when either party brings it to the courts. You see, a lawyer’s letter is nothing yet until the case is brought into the courts. When this happen, the jurisdiction of the Singapore government (or for that matter, any government in most countries) is brought into place where the matter can be presented. Moreover, such details will be recorded in the courts officially and I think it’d be too high a price for either party to pay just to bring up their "entertainment value".

Moreover, either party runs the risk of being charged with contempt of court if the matter is not handled properly. That, becomes an offence so serious that it follows the affected persons for life. For entertainment, that is not worth it. Of course, if it really is an act, then the cost is obviously bore by the respective management agencies who will foot the bill (for the lawyers?) as "marketing costs".

Wendy had been a well-known blogger for about 7 years before Dawn broke into the scene some 3 to 4 years ago. These 2 were quickly reigned to be the queens in the Singapore blogosphere – both being involved in high profile TV shows and media coverage. Some might have thought that a recent slow-down in their profiles may have led to this defamation suit to be played out so as to put the names of Wendy aka Xiaxue and Dawn back on the lips of bloggers and blog readers.

As Stickgal aptly puts it:

Drawing copyrights of http://www.stickgal.blogspot.com. Go pop by her blog for more cute drawings! =)

Virtual catfight

Blogger Dawn Yang wants Xiaxue to apologise for defaming her; others see the spat as ‘entertainment’

By Debbie Yong

The bad blood between the two reigning queens of the local blogosphere has come to a boil.

Last Friday, blogger Wendy Cheng, who goes by the online moniker Xiaxue, received a letter from the lawyer of fellow blogger Dawn Yang.

It called on Ms Cheng to make a public apology for alleged defamatory remarks she made against Ms Yang, and to propose a settlement for damages.

‘We hope to seek an amicable resolution to the matter without going to court,’ lawyer K. Anparasan told The Sunday Times yesterday.

He is from Khattar Wong, the firm Ms Yang hired for the case.

Ms Cheng has hired a lawyer from Keystone Law Corporation but has declined to say what she will do next. She has until Tuesday to respond to the letter.

Ms Yang is currently on holiday in Sydney and could not be reached for comment.

The legal action stems from a blog entry that Ms Cheng, 23, made on June 30.

In a lengthy post, she wrote, among other things, about Ms Yang’s entertainment contracts and endorsement deals.

She also baulked at being compared to Ms Yang, 23, in a June 25 article in the Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.

Ms Cheng has since removed this entry from her blog, but screenshots of it can still be found on the Internet.

Her blog gets about 50,000 hits daily while Ms Yang’s gets 30,000.

Ms Cheng said yesterday that the day after she wrote the post, both bloggers’ managers spoke over the phone on the matter. Ms Cheng is signed up with an entertainment agency and Ms Yang with a modelling agency.

She said she was ’surprised and quite shocked’ to receive the lawyer’s letter.

The simmering discord between them can be traced back to November 2006. The two were compared in an online forum’s ‘hottest bloggers’ ranking, and have been making comments about each other on their blogs since.

Most of the other popular bloggers interviewed dismissed their spat as ‘entertainment’.

Mr Benjamin Lee, also known as Mr Miyagi, said the dispute ‘probably enhanced both parties’ site traffic and attention, which is what the blogging business is about’.

Polytechnic student Esther Chia, 18, who blogs as Ice Angel, concurred.

She was involved in a ‘flameball’ – or virtual mudslinging – with Ms Cheng last year over comments the latter made about her looks and dress sense. The episode boosted Ms Chia’s blog readership from 1,000 to 4,000 hits a day.

‘As long as she doesn’t criticise my character, I won’t be seriously offended,’ said Ms Chia.

Law undergraduate and co-editor of The Online Citizen website, Mr Choo Zheng Xi, said that defamation is an ‘occupational hazard’ for anyone blogging about society and popular culture.

He said that the tussle would at least remind other bloggers to be careful about any personal accusations they wish to make.

He also hoped that more bloggers will be ‘more focused on issues and less on people and personality’.

debyong@sph.com.sg

Source: Straits Times Interactive, http://www.straitstimes.com/News/Home/Story/STIStory_259485.html

Article extracted on 20th July 2008

We are not sure who nominated us for the Most Insightful Blog Ping.sg awards, but we’d like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. =) Simply Jean joined the Ping 1st Anniversary party last year after hearing about it in the forums and was a little blur on what ping.sg was all about. One year down the road, Simply Jean has made many friends which is made possible only through all the outings that were organized by members of the community. To even be entered for the Most Insightful Blog Ping awards  Ping awards is really a bonus. More over, to make it to the Ping.sg list just barely weeks after being nominated for the Most Insightful Blog OMY.SG awards made it a double joy. Most importantly, we would like to thank you, our reader, for your continuous support. =)

To vote for us, you’d have to be a registered Ping.sg member. =) To do so is really easy. You can either go to the Ping.sg web site and navigate through their simple "Register / Login" menu, or just simply follow the steps below:

1. Click here to register.
2. Go to the awards list here.
3. Click on the radio button next to Simply Jean (arrow #1)

   

4. Click on the Submit button (arrow #2), which will bring you to the bottom of the page where you click on the "Submit my nominations" button (arrow #3)

   

5. Ta-dah! You are done! Of course, you may also wish to vote for other bloggers in other categories. =) They are all so wonderful, it’s hard to recommend. =(

For the Most Insightful Blog, you may vote every 24 hours! So, do cast your votes today and I look forward to seeing you at the 2nd Anniversary celebrations! =) Heh heh… and if you are new to Ping.sg, do check out their forums for newbies! Friendly people are everywhere. ;P

Update: Oh, everyone can vote once daily until 4 weeks later. Please help to vote daily. =) The shortcut link is http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/finalists/?blogCat=insightful. Thank you!!! =)

I seriously doubt I have readers that will do this for Simply Jean, but Simply Jean had been nominated and is one of the Top 10 Finalist running for the most insightful blog award. We are quite bad at pulling for votes, but we do hope that you’d cast a vote for us. Moreover, we are quite paiseh at massaging everyone of our friends on MSN to ask them to vote for us. Soon, we might just get blocked on their MSN list. =(

Anyway, here’s the good news for you! As a voter, you’d have a chance to win travel packages to Bangkok, Vietnam and a luxurious resort accommodation package in Phuket.

1st prize: 3D/2N Bangkok travel package for two: with night stay in a Superior Double Room with breakfast for 2 persons at the Park Plaza Sukhumvit Bangkok.

2nd prize: 3D/2N Ho Chi Minh travel package for two: with night stay at the Metropole hotel with breakfast for two persons.

3rd prize: 3D/2N night stay in Deluxe Room with breakfast for 2 persons at the Aquamarine Resort & Villa Phuket.

Of course, all prizes are courtesy of Wotif.com and Jetstar Asia. =) Simply Jean is too poor to afford to pay for all these. =( If you’d like more information, more can be found here.

Anyway, voting is very simple. Do you see that "Most Insighful Blog Finalist" badge on the right? Well, it’s this one actually:

Well, if you click on it, a new window will pop up and you’d just have to click on the Simply Jean logo. Here, here’s the screenshot:

Yes, that’s the erm… logo. If you move your mouse over it, you will see this:

Ta-dah! If you would like to vote for Simply Jean, just click on the "Vote" button and you’d be brought to this page:

If you have registered at omy.sg previously, you may use your previous email and password. If you have not, you can just type in your email and a password that you’d like to use, and you’d see the following form popping out:

So, you just have to fill in your email, a password that you’d remember, your name, NRIC or Passport number, Birthdate and Contact. This is for you to win a prize in their lucky draw for voters! =)

After you have filled in your particulars, remember to click on the Simply Jean logo (arrow labeled "1"):

And you will see that your vote for the most insightful blog is Simply Jean – right at the bottom of the screen. But that’s not all yet, there’s still one final step. You have to click on the "Vote Now" button at the arrow labeled "2".

Ta-dah! You are done. You may also continue to vote for other blogs in other categories. I’d recommend Sheylara’s Blog in the Most Entertaining Blog category. If you have not read it, go pop by her blog. It’s really funny and guaranteed to put stitches in you. =P

Finally, thank you for voting for Simply Jean. I’m not sure what I can give you guys, but I’d do more insightful stuffs =P and uncovering more Pedra Branca bluffs. =)

There was this case, then came news of molesters and serial molesters being arrested, and now there’s another. Just barely a week after it was reported that a serial molester got nabbed, another case surfaced again. The molester admitted laying on top of his maid and kissing her all over her body. Before he could send her back to her country, he was nabbed by the police after the maid’s cousin tipped off the police; and mind you, he’s a secretary of the Punggol Angsana Resident’s Committee.

For that, he got 10 months’ jail and 3 strokes of the cane (*piak piak*).

This morning, there was also mention of the alleged molestation of a blogger that had been spreading in the Internet forums. In the discussion on air, many felt that the girl who was involved in the molestation was asking for it because she apparently sent too many signals – wrong or otherwise. While some were sympathetic with her, many flamed her, calling her names and painting numerous (almost countless) scenarios on what could have happened. Some even when to the extend of stating that she probably asked the guy along for the trip because she could have gotten discounted tickets since the latter was working in SIA. In addition, 1 commenter wondered if it was for the cheaper DFS stuffs that she could lay her hands on.

Reading the comments in the blog, one will realise that talk is indeed free. Whether it hurts someone else is not important. Indeed, many who left flaming comments signed off with pseudonyms that were ridiculous sounding. While there are many variants on the different scenarios, most of them revolve around the girl being cheap and slutty.

The New Paper also ran the story today, with pseudonyms, of course. However, it doesn’t need too much of detective work to figure out who the article was referring to. From that article, it was known that the guy involved was contacted by the papers and that he is currently seeking legal advise. If the guy decides to sue, the consequences may not be as colourful as some would have hoped for. From the circumstances surrounding it, he could sue for defamation and the onus will be on the girl to prove that the event did happen. Now, since it is not possible for her to do that, then there’s no case for her and she may be ordered to pay compensation to the guy. In addition, it seemed like neither the police in Singapore nor South Korea are taking up the complaint, which further proves to be a disadvantage to the girl.

Nonetheless, perhaps John is the real victim here, with his name plastered all over the place. A search on Google returned her post as the first entry. Even if her post is taken down, other copies of the same post may still remain on the Internet for a while. As someone mentioned in the blog:

Your story holds little water, and any reader should not judge the guy. Most of them don’t know you, most of them don’t know him. We thus can only read your story and say, we’re sorry for how you feel. Please, delete his name and apologise to him – face-to-face and publicly. You know it’s partly your fault that this whole thing happened, if it did. John should not be the only person to take the blame.

Indeed, perhaps she should apologise and get on with her life. At best, it’s probably… just an honest mistake.

THREE days after molesting his Indonesian maid, National Environment Agency supervisor Lee Song Koi cancelled her work permit and tried to send her home.

His wife took the 21-year-old domestic worker to the airport but the police, acting on a frantic call from the maid’s cousin, intercepted and stopped the maid from taking her flight home.

Lee, 46, also a secretary of the Punggol Angsana Residents’ Committee, was yesterday sentenced to 10 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane for molesting her.

He is appealing against the sentence and is out on $15,000 bail.

He admitted on Monday to lying on top of the maid and kissing her all over the body at his Hougang flat on July 7 last year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Elizabeth Lee Liang Mae said that the victim was sleeping in her room when Lee forced himself on her by kissing her face.

He lifted her T-shirt while the victim struggled and told him to stop.

Lee ignored her and continued molesting her.

Before leaving the room, he told her not to tell anyone.

Three days later, police received a 999 call and the Airport Police were alerted to look out for the maid whom they found together with Lee’s wife at Terminal 2.

Lee’s lawyers Subhas Anandan and Sunil Sudheesan said that the father of two made no excuse for his behaviour, and had shown remorse by compensating her $5,000.

That night, he came home drunk after a company dinner and dance and hugged the maid in the living room.

Half an hour later, he went into her bedroom to molest her.

He apologised later that morning, said Mr Anandan, adding that Lee had contributed to society for 10 years as a grassroots leader.

After meting out the sentence, District Judge Wong Choon Ning said the charges were serious ones.

‘As the employer, it is your responsibility to treat her well, and certainly not to commit these offences.’

Lee could have been jailed for up to three years, fined or caned, or received any two such punishments.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 18th June 2008