Singapore as a location for blockbuster movies

Posted on May 1, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Lights, camera, action – in S’pore’, 25 April 2013, ST Forum

(Matthew Varughese): THE Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is constantly striving to come up with creative ways to promote Singapore as a tourist destination…A lot of resources have been spent on advertising and organising events such as the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix. Perhaps it is time for the STB to consider another form of marketing that targets an international audience and creates a lasting legacy – that is, entice big-name international film studios to use Singapore as a location for blockbuster movies.

In this way, the STB can achieve its target of showcasing Singapore to the world and marketing it as a vibrant place to visit. Already, Indian film studios have shot movies in Singapore, and some Korean and Japanese bands have used our landmarks for location shoots in their music videos.

The next step would be to get leading Hollywood studios to shoot on location in Singapore. Our country has already been referenced in a number of films and, as a global city with multiple attractions and an iconic skyline, there should be little difficulty in incorporating a Singapore sequence into a modern blockbuster.

Regional cities such as Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong have already made their mark in Hollywood, and it could be time for Singapore to take to the silver screen. Movies in the James Bond and Godfather series have become staples that will be watched and re-watched for generations to come. Should Singapore be featured in such a film in future, the effects of marketing and publicity would endure for far longer than any print, radio or television advertising campaign.

Singapore’s skyline will never match the scale and pomp of China or Dubai, where you have impressive monoliths like the Burj Khalifa as a phallic set-piece for Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol. Hong Kong gets to be featured in Batman and was among the first Asian countries to headline the globetrotting James Bond franchise (You Only Live Twice, 1967). Even Petronas Towers in KL has been immortalised in the spy-caper Entrapment starring ex-James Bond himself Sean Connery. The last time someone attempted to pull off an action flick in our high-rise metropolitian setting was in the Hong Kong film 2000AD, which starred heartthrob Aaron Kwok and local actors like the now obscure James Lye and Phyllis Quek, though the HK superstar served more as product placement for RSAF in the trailer than a skyscraper-crawling daredevil.

Meanwhile, we await Hollywood magnates to take notice of the only candidate to star a blockbuster so far, the Marina Bay Sands. Fast and Furious star and rapper Ludacris gave us a boost by soaking in the Infinity Pool during the F1 season and tweeting about it in 2011, though since then we haven’t heard from Tom Cruise, James Bond or even the guys from the Hangover (with its sequel shot in hot and sultry Bangkok). We have, however, been featured in a Japanese porn film. MBS, chicken rice and all.

Even Julia Roberts’ character in Eat Pray Love would rather head to Bali for some spiritual me-time. So, if our buildings aren’t glitzy or gigantic enough and we’ve lost out on that Oriental lustre and LUST to fellow ASEAN nations, where does that leave us? Bollywood and its song-and-dance with national icon backdrops I suppose. Interestingly, the first ever Indian move to be shot here was titled ‘Singapore’ (1960), and featured Haw Par Villa in its prime. The ‘strange garden’ exists till this day, though more of a curiosity than a tourist attraction that it once was.

Screen Shot 2013-05-01 at 10.07.39 AM

There was hope in the late 60s/early 70′s. Homegrown action starlet Marrie Lee (real name Doris Young) was featured in several foreign films including the iconic, Quentin Tarantino-endorsed, CLEOPATRA WONG, which had our campy heroine kicking butt in Chinese Garden (Trivia: Cleopatra also starred a dashing BRIAN RICHMOND, now veteran DJ with Gold 90 FM). Then America took notice with the softcore thriller Wit’s End, aka The GI EXECUTIONER (1971), which featured ‘sultry Singapore’ and sleazy sex in the Raffles Hotel. One version of the trailer started with an old local smoking an OPIUM PIPE. Singapore would have been perfect for the Hangover movies then. I’m surprised even master of the C-grade action movie Steven Seagal gave us a miss.

Screen Shot 2013-05-01 at 10.18.10 AM

Then the Government happened. Local martial arts film The Ring of Fury(1973), featuring real-life kungfu master Peter Chong, was BANNED for its ‘portrayal of crime’ and depictions of gangsterism. Still, that didn’t stop Saint Jack (1978) from being filmed here, another American flick banking on what was left of our sleazy exoticism in Bugis Street. That means two American films in a decade, both with one thing in common. Barenaked BOOBIES. And nothing from Hollywood thereafter except for totally misleading references like the Singapore of Pirates of the Caribbean, a low-life haven that crosses evil Chinese temple with Old World kampong chic. Even our attempts to market the country through local film without foreign money have been stifled for being too seditious or racist for our own good. Jet Li, martial arts superstar and erstwhile Singaporean, has done absolutely NOTHING for our flagging entertainment industry. US chart-topping Singaporean diva-pastor Sun Ho would also rather sing about China than Singapore Wine.

‘Singapore’ has since been featured a 80′s MASK cartoon episode, the occasional foodie documentary with Anthony Bourdian and an Australian mini-series about the Japanese Occupation called Tanamera: The Lion of Singapore. Which ALSO FEATURES BOOBIES. Need I mention Sex: The Annabel Chong Story? Forget Batman, James Bond or Amitabh Bachchan. STB, you should know what to do to make Singapore more ‘Shiok’ now. How about an erotic courtroom drama about an underage prostitute and a high-flying politician, eh?

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Filed under: 2013, Advertisements, Casino/gambling, Film, Local actors, Sex, Tourists | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Foreign student, 13, arrested for MBS bomb threat

Posted on January 1, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Boy arrested over threat to blow up MBS’, 1 Jan 2013, article in CNA

Police have arrested a 13-year-old boy who threatened to plant bombs in Marina Bay Sands. The boy had posted the threat on his Facebook page last Saturday. The boy cannot be named as he is a minor.

Police said the case is classified as a Breach of Prohibition Against False Threats of Terrorist Acts. If convicted, he could be fined up to S$100,000 and jailed up to 5 years.

Police investigations are ongoing.

What a way to start the New Year. The name of the culprit was withheld, but it’s likely to be a certain ‘Aditya Bhatia’, an Indian studying in the Global Indian International School according to his Facebook page (1 Jan 2013, ST). This is his ominous Facebook threat in its full uncensored glory.

Singapore: A piece of piece of shit

God knows what Singapore or MBS has done to incur the wrath of a destructive 13 year old, though you can’t exactly discount this rant as ‘mischief’ either, considering how kids these days could pick up bomb-building tips easily from Youtube. Maybe he thought the building was so ugly it had to be demolished. I doubt the US or Canadian immigration would accept him now that he’s getting a criminal record for terrorist behaviour, but I’m sure some Taliban scouts are interested. Spitting everywhere is a surefire way of getting caught, but Aditya Bomberman’s probably too preoccupied with angry thoughts of exploding things or too young to know what DNA is. Incidentally, on the same day this piece of news was reported, a crude bomb was uncovered in Delhi near the home of one of the suspects who brutally gang-raped a woman on a bus. For all we know Aditya (also from New Delhi according to FB) may have already been a amateur bomb-maker back home when other boys are spinning  tops or playing jump rope with the girls. Kids.

In 2010, another student posted his pyromaniac fantasy of ‘bombing all the top schools in Singapore’.  ‘John’ also made a public request to ‘learn terroism’. Totally unacceptable. Everyone knows that the first rule of being a terrorist is being able to SPELL terrorism correctly.

Other kids just wish for Playstations, dude.

That same year, another teen posted a checklist of things that he ‘wants’ to do, like being a hired killer and bombing a secondary school and police station. Whatever happened to cooler stuff like hacking into government websites or getting a motorcycle licence? Both boys got arrested for their posts for merely ‘wishing’ to carry out violent activities, not to mention plot big, big revenge like Aditya here. Maybe these guys are all friends on FB, with their own page called ‘We Da Bomb!’ or something. Such bloody fantasies of annihilating everything in their path is not restricted to little menaces to society though; In 2011, an upset job candidate threatened to bomb Parliament, the police force and a prison, earning himself 9 months in the slammer. He didn’t even have the balls of a 13 year old to make the threat under his own name.

People do secretly want to inflict dramatic violence on others or public property occasionally, but where do the police draw the line? Would you get charged only if you mention the specific word ‘bomb’? What if instead of ‘planting bombs’ all over MBS, I mention something physically impossible like say, summon a series of lightning strikes to rip the Skypark off the top of MBS like Zeus, or cast an infernal zombie curse on its inhabitants? How do the authorities distinguish between a legitimate security threat and the black magic ravings of a lunatic? What if Aditya had said: ‘GONNA STEAL A RIFLE FROM ARMY CAMP AND SHOOT EVERYONE IN ORCHARD ROAD’? How serious should one view such a threat? Is the SAF going to ever sound the alarm and deploy troops to barricade every single armory in Singapore to prevent a 13 year old from going on a shooting spree? What is he, Magneto Jr?

 

Filed under: 2011, 2013, Casino/gambling, Foul language, Kids, Police officers, Public works, Violence | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

MBS like a space-age surfboard

Posted on December 4, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘The world’s ugliest hotels’, 3 Dec 2012, article in Relax, asiaone.

British newspaper The Telegraph has named the world’s top 20 ugliest hotels and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands (MBS) has found its way into the list. It ranked the 55-storey hotel at No. 5 and said that the views from the hotel’s observation deck may be awesome, but not the other way round when others look at it.

“It resembles some kind of space-age surfboard,” said the report.

There were five Asian hotel properties in the list, including North Korea’s 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel, which recently announced that it will open next year, more than 20 years after its exterior was completed.

Some readers found it hard to believe that the integrated resort – which has been widely hailed an architectural marvel – was in the list. Reacting to the list, one netizen a local online forum said he did not care much for the exterior of the buildings, as long as the hotel delivered good customer service and room interiors are nice.

MBS also happens to be the world’s most expensive surfboard, costing $7.3 billion to build, not to mention a megaproject plagued by delays. Other reviewers of the three-pillared design were less scathing; some referred to the Skypark as ‘Noah’s Ark’. Budget Travel ranked it among the 11 new hotel ‘wonders’, with its ‘cruise ship’ forever suspended in mid-air. Fengshui masters were divided on the design, some reminded of ‘a scholar’s hat‘, while others see death in its trio of ‘ancestral tablets’. Sci-fi fans would describe it as an alien starcraft nestled on top of three buildings, or a gangly tripod invader like a Star Wars Imperial Walker. The most interesting description in my opinion is that MBS resembles a wicket in CRICKET.

Stumped

Stumped

I wouldn’t be picky enough to describe MBS as an eyesore, but it does look awkward and appears to be more a smug demonstration of equilibrium in physics than anything remotely Buck Rogers or epic Gladiator. But here are some fun facts about a building that was once touted as a NATIONAL ICON: The headpiece that is the Skypark weighs 7000 tonnes, is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall and you could even land 4 Jumbo Jets on it. MBS is also the site of a Japanese porno film shoot. If they had the chance they would even shoot a Godzilla movie here, except that Godzilla would be ‘hanging ten’ on our iconic ‘surfboard’ instead of bashing our Airforce down with it.

The brainchild of MBS himself Moshe Safdie drew inspiration not from War of the Worlds or the Bible, but rather from the Roman Cardo Maximus, which sounds like a muscle group involved in aerobic exercise, or the name of a potbellied centurion in the Asterix comic books. The same architect is currently heading the ‘Bishan Residential Development’ project, which from artist’s impression images looks like a clash of Greek island living and something you could build in a handheld 8-bit Tetris game.

Bishan of the Future

Santorini meets Tetris

The Esplanade has its critics as well, but the ‘Durian’ has somehow grown on us. MBS is likely to remain lost in its ‘ugly’ ambiguity, either mocked as an incomplete traffic project (broken flyover), an alien-ship berth or an apparatus used in a sport nobody here ever plays. Perhaps we’d be more forgiving if it weren’t housing a casino.

Filed under: 2012, Architecture, Casino/gambling | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Jewel of Pangaea most expensive cocktail in Asia

Posted on September 15, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Local club unveils Asia’s most expensive drink’, 15 Sept 2012, article by Nicholas Yeo, Today online.

Local club Pangaea and luxury jeweller Mouawad unveiled Asia’s most expensive cocktail at an exclusive showcase at Marina Bay Sands on Friday evening. The drink, dubbed “The Jewel of Pangaea“, costs S$32,000 a glass, and is targeted at a rarefied clientele that enjoys the art of cocktail mixing.

The Jewel of Pangaea is mixed by award-winning master mixologist Mr Ethan Leslie Leong, who has over 18 years of experience in the industry and is reknown for his work as director of bar operations at the Maison Ikkoku cocktail bar on Kandahar Street. The cocktail is infused with gold-flecked Hennessey brandy, a hickory smoke-infused sugar cube, 1985 vintage Krug champagne and garnished with a Mouawad Triple X 1-carat diamond.

…At the event, Leong prepared the drink for the first time and presented it to Ms Sabrina Ault, owner and creative director of Pangaea. She said, “The Jewel of Pangaea is not just a drink, it’s an experience – the spirit of Pangaea in a glass.”

The ‘spirit’ of MBS elite club Pangaea is of course the appreciation of the finer things in life in the most obscenely exorbitant manner possible. Opened in 2010, this exclusive lounge is not ashamed to admit their preference for ‘the well-travelled and discerning set, celebrities, CREATIVE types, models and, of course, the rich and famous’ as their clientele. In their mission statement, not only do they aim to be the most ‘thrilling’ ultra lounge in the world, they also cater to those who only ask for the very best, meaning if you ‘drive a Ferrari’ or ‘fly a private jet’. For a brand that makes reference to a prehistoric super-continent, the appeal of Pangaea is anything but Stone Age, though someone like me who wouldn’t meet their criteria of an ideal customer  may be barred from entering for resembling too closely a Flintstone. I suspect Pangaea is not so much about the element of ‘jetsetting’ than it describing the age of some of the stuff they put into cocktails to justify the ridiculous prices.

One could make any beverage cost 30k by ‘garnishing’ it with expensive jewellery, even if precious stones add no flavour whatsoever to a cocktail. You could surprise your spouse on your wedding anniversary with a diamond ring tucked within the mint leaves of her Mojito and declare that it was the most expensive drink on the menu, provided she doesn’t choke on it first.  Gold flakes used to be something people adorn their clothes , hair or love letters. If you’re a Pangaea regular however, you eat precious metal just for the sake of eating it, not that it’s tasty or nutritious, but because you could afford it. I bet Pangaea’s toilet rolls are lined with cashmere from albino mountain goats and you wash your hands or flush with ‘sparkling’ water imported from the Alps. Even the complimentary nuts may be seasoned with the finest Baltic Sea Salt money can buy, and perhaps served in an oyster shell complete with mother-of-pearl. What’s missing is just the stack of dollar bills for you to light your vintage cigars with.

A ‘mixologist’ is a fancy term for an ‘accomplished bartender’, where you create your own award-winning drinks instead of sticking to a bar menu. It’s like how an ‘illusionist’ is more celebrated than a parlour-trick magician. Take away the accessories from the Jewel and you’re left with a sweetened champagne-brandy mix, nevermind that something as simple as a flaming sugar cube is described as if it were Peking duck. Of course, you can’t leave any simple ingredient unnamed without some history and scarcity behind it. A Mint leaf has to be ‘Louisville grown’, and your ice must be sourced from a 10,000 year old glacier (FACT!). Your blackcurrants must come from the FOREST, your honey from WILDFLOWERS, and somewhere in that ‘infusion’ must be an extract of some BARK. No wonder you have names like Pangaea; the ingredients are stuff our foraging cavemen ancestors used to pick too.

‘Jewel’ also appears to be inspired by the 35,000-pound  ‘Flawless’ drink served at uber-rich club Movida in 2007, which contains gold leaf, Cristal Rose champagne, Louis XII cognac and a white diamond ring at the bottom. No it’s not an ‘experience’ in a glass, it’s a rich-man’s aquarium in a glass. If I wanted a diamond ring I’ll go to a jewellery shop, rather than via the round-about way of getting my hands on it only after poisoning my liver with spirits named after dead French emperors and swallowing gold at a snobs’ party where you can’t tell if someone has a genuine ‘stiff upper lip’ or one injected with collagen. But then again, time is what rich people have in spades anyway.

Jewellery-drinks are stupefyingly crass and an insult to beverage artisans who believe that the ‘finest ingredients’ don’t necessarily have to come from halfway around the world, or from the ground remains of some famous rapper’s gold dentures. The Jewel makes the Singapore Sling look like raspberry flavoured throat gargle in comparison, and although the price of it shouts ‘high-end’, it’s hard not to label this concoction as flashy and shallow, like a Playboy mansion party or a gaudy Las Vegas casino. You don’t need to be a mixologist to create something vulgar (but less costly) right in your kitchen: Get some brandy and champagne leftover from last year’s Xmas hamper, sprinkle in gula melaka, young coconut juice (YOUNG, mind you) and finish off by dropping your mother’s engagement ring into the bottom. Instant atas-ness achieved. Incidentally, there’s a luxury cocktail called ‘The Red Ruby’, which contains pomegranate liqueur, cognac, vodka, champagne and, you guessed it, an ACTUAL RUBY. I prefer mine with coconut milk, sago and chestnuts wrapped in gelatin.

Filed under: 2012, Casino/gambling, Clubs, Local food | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Locals visiting casinos is just an urban legend

Posted on July 30, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘IRs here have not created more gambling addicts:CRA’, 30 July 2011, article by Ng Jung Yng in Today

The presence of the Integrated Resorts (IRs) here has not caused a spike in the number of gambling addicts, said Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) chairman Richard Magnus yesterday, citing a study done by the Institute of Mental Health. Speaking at a question and answer session at the 23rd Singapore Law Review Annual Lecture, Mr Magnus said that the study concluded that gambling addiction numbers before and after the establishment of the IRs remained the same.

What the IRs did, though, was provide “just another avenue for gambling”, said Mr Magnus. He added: “The thinking is that some of these gamblers moved away from the traditional gambling areas and move into casinos.”

…On the call for greater transparency with regard to the number of Singaporeans entering the casinos, Mr Lau (Peet Meng, CRA Chief Executive) agreed that this could be looked into. “It is … probably one of the aspects of the (Casino Control) Act (that) we need to look at more carefully, which is the legality of the information and how the information shared can be used,” he said.

But Mr Magnus reiterated: “I can perhaps give you the assurance that the local urban legend that quite a number of our locals or PRs frequent the casinos … is just a legend.”

‘Legality of the information’? It’s a simple statistic, Mr Magnus. The number of locals visiting casinos can be obtained by counting the number of paid levies, nobody’s asking for the IDENTITY of the people gambling. If the likes of the CRA is reluctant to reveal such information, you will have the casino pundits themselves telling all kinds of stories, like how 3% of Singaporeans have visited the casino. According to the MCYS’s response to MP Terry Lee’s request for a levy breakdown, the answer was ‘about 70 million as of 10 May 2010′ (RWS opened in Feb 2010, MBS April 2010), an astounding figure, even if you consider repeat visitors.

What is so scary about curious Singaporeans or hardcore gamblers visiting our own IRs that it must be labelled an ‘urban legend’? Urban legends are usually dark, gruesomely implausible tales like eating monkey brains, or HIV positive women going around sticking infected needles into men at Zouk, not Singaporeans lurking in casinos and contributing a quick 70 million in levies while at it.  If the very thought of locals patronising the IRs is so horrifying why bother imposing a 30% limit on locals and why not just ban us from entering totally? And what is the CRA doing making a statement that seems to be defending the impact of the casinos on our gambling addicts? Could it be because without the casinos, there would be no, gulp, CRA jobs to speak of? It is regrettable that instead of looking at the broader picture, of how gambling is affecting us on a whole, a respected statutory institution like CRA is telling us ‘Hey, it’s not our fault gamblers are jumping off buildings, look at 4D and the EPL’. Fine, after all they are just the CASINO regulatory authority, not the GAMBLING regulatory authority. Which leaves it to the professionals treating the disease to make a stand (See below, Don’t take gamblers’ SOS lightly, 30 July 2011, ST Forum)

(Dr Tan Hwee Sim, Dr Thomas Lee Kae Meng): BASED on our clinical experience in treating problem gamblers, we think it is a grave misconception to believe that ‘while the gamblers may sound desperate, they actually pose a low suicide risk and are more impulsive than anything else’, as Wednesday’s article (‘Help I’m in debt’) noted, quoting counsellors and suicide experts.

Elevated rates of suicide attempts among problem gamblers are well established. For example, a 2002 study on treatment-seeking pathological gamblers reported that 49 per cent had a history of suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts. In a more recent local study published in the Singapore Medical Journal this year, 17.2 per cent of help-seeking gamblers had a history of suicide attempts.

The risk of suicide among gamblers is exacerbated by the high levels of impulsiveness, as well as depression and other substance abuse, which are often reported in association with gambling disorders.

We have managed many cases of people suffering from gambling disorders who have attempted suicide or have had serious suicidal thoughts.

Could the CRA and these doctors be looking at the same study but focusing on different outcomes? Neither of them really addressed the important question: ‘Has the introduction of IRs led to an increase in suicides or suicidal behaviour in gambling addicts’? Not an easy question to answer, obviously, but let’s look at what the study actually reported (Are the demographics and clinical features of pathological gamblers seeking treatment in Singapore changing? SMJ, 2011):

Soccer betting is tops

Cohort 1 consists of the first 150 gamblers who sought treatment from IMH since the launch of its national addiction management service (NAMS) over a period of 4 years, while Cohort 2 consisted of the last 150 patients from 2006 to 2008 (2 years). A few problems here, firstly, ”suicide attempts’ but not ‘suicidal behaviour or thoughts’ were considered as a variable in assessing patient co-morbidities, and this only takes into account addicts SEEKING HELP, omitting an unknown number of addicts out there keeping mum about their condition. But more importantly, the casinos only opened 2 YEARS LATER in 2010.

So, if Mr Magnus was referring to this IMH study, it would be misleading to conclude that ‘gambling addiction numbers before and after the establishment of the IRs remained the same’, when the IRs weren’t even in existence when this study was conducted. What does ‘gambling addiction numbers’ mean anyway? ‘Remained the same’ itself is a bold claim. In scientific parlance it’s preferable to use ‘no statistically significant change’, especially in  scientific papers published by IMH clinicians, and making a statement like that is just prompting skeptics to ask more hard questions.  If anything, this study does imply that soccer betting is on the rise, but I doubt anyone is looking into this, probably because you can’t do anything about it short of banning all television, radio and internet broadcasting of football matches and putting Singapore Pools out of commission. But someone needs to call out Richard Magnus and ask exactly what study he was referring to to support his claim, as I couldn’t find the said publication online myself.

So much for the academics giving much insight, what do politicians have to say about this then? Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State, expressed concern about the ‘social effects’, citing the boom in ‘moneylenders offering quick cash/loans’ (Grace Fu voices concern over effects of casinos, 29 July 2011, Today). MP Charles Chong was also a ‘little bit concerned’ if MBS were to expand its business. Nothing much on suicides either, or impact on immediate families, something that is often neglected when dealing with not just gamblers, but ANY addict. Concern is not good enough, PAP. You are the People’s Action Party, not the People’s Concerned Party, and someone needs to put his foot down on the tail of the Road Runner that is the IRs and get some basic data out, before we’re hit by an unsuspecting wave of addiction morbidity and suicides if the industry and the regulatory authority both insist on whitewashing their statistics.

The most telling data in my opinion, in light of all this fudging round, is from this table below from the Samaritans of Singapore, where one sees a clear jump in ‘loan shark’ and ‘gambling’ problems between April 2010 and March 2011. It’s not yet a ‘statistic’ because nobody wants to apply scientific rigor to this data. But here is what I would like to know: Number of people who need help for problems directly or indirectly related to the IRs. It’s not that hard to probe callers for this sort of information, and they may even divulge it willingly. I believe part of the answer may lie with the Samaritans, and the likes of MCYS and NCPG should look into this if they are genuinely ‘concerned’ about Singaporeans.

Filed under: 2011, Bureaucrats, Casino/gambling, Politicians | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

MBS needs its 30% local gamblers

Posted on June 12, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘MBS does a balancing act with local gamblers’, 11 June 2011, article by Grace Leong, Business Times

The Singapore government has told Las Vegas Sands to ensure that not more than 30 per cent of all visitors to its casino at Marina Bay Sands are Singaporean, a top company executive revealed.

‘We are basically told that as long as only about 30 per cent of the people coming in are Singaporean, then it shouldn’t be a problem. If the amount of Singaporean attendance gets much higher than that, there may be some cause for concern,’ Michael Leven, Las Vegas Sands president and chief operating officer, said.

That 30 per cent figure isn’t published, he said in an interview last week with Inside Asian Gaming. ‘That’s what our numbers have been, roughly 30 per cent Singaporean. That doesn’t seem to cause any problem.’

To this day, only about 3 per cent of Singapore’s population has ever played in a casino, he said.

But a spokesman with the Ministry of Community Development did not confirm the 30 per cent cap, saying only that ‘the IR operators have been told very clearly that the casinos are tourist products and they are not to target the domestic market’.

…’You’re always going to have in the casino business some people who overplay. That’s part of the business, but the great majority of people can control themselves and I don’t think we’re creating more poverty in Singapore because of our presence. But if that were to happen, the government would have every right and every reason to come in and try to restrict play.’

But he said that Sands needed local gamblers in order to support its investment in integrated resorts. ‘We have to have some local play in order to be consistent when we don’t have conventions and we don’t have tourists. Otherwise, you’ve got an awful lot of overhead sitting there not generating any revenue.’

Let’s assume that the average number of daily visitors to MBS casino, according to this ChannelNewsAsia article in 2010, has been hovering around 25,000. 30% of 25,000 is about 8250 Singaporeans daily. According to the Singapore census for 2010, our Singapore residents number around 3.7 million, which is a conservative take on what one means by ‘Singapore population’. Which means 3%, or 111,000 Singaporeans have visited a casino at least once. ONLY 111,000 Singaporeans, as Mr Leven nicely puts it.

Let’s try to put this figure in perspective.  There are as many local casino visitors as there are voters in Bishan Toa Payoh GRC (111,677).  There are almost thrice as many casino visitors as there are doctors and nurses combined in 2010 (37,872) (Singapore in Figures 2011), or the total number of babies born in 2010 (37,967). There are more casino visitors in less than 2 years than the total number of visits to the Singapore Phiatelic Museum in 10 years. (107,400) (Yearbook of Statistics 2010).

The point is, how do we know when it has become a ‘problem’? And how do we know that this ‘problem’ isn’t already happening? Can someone please define what this problem is? On what moral grounds do we have luring foreigners here and then shifting the burden of their habit, perpetuated through our casinos, back onto their own countries? By all means, protect our own citizens, but our sense of social responsibility shouldn’t be constrained within our home boundaries. In fact, a recent surge of scams from foreign fraudsters among other crimes, soliciting included, is exacting costs on our police force. It is also foolish to assume that 1) Tourists are all clean, gullible, rich and can afford to lose, and 2) If they get into trouble they’ll pack up, go home crying to their own people and leave us alone. The fact that the two casinos were in a sneaky free shuttle bus bid for heartland gamblers last year is proof enough that they can’t survive just on tourist traffic, and the fact that our government is pussyfooting on a ban on locals entirely just means that even they know this to be true as well.

Filed under: 2011, Casino/gambling, Fun and games, Tourists | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

MBS becoming Singapore’s national icon

Posted on April 20, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From’ Do we really want a casino as our icon?’ 20 April 2011, Voices, Today

(Tong Jee Cheng): IT is disappointing that the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort is fast becoming an iconic representation of Singapore. We see it in the background in local television dramas, we see it in tourist leaflets. It seems to appear often as backdrops in the various advertising media.

The first I heard of such sentiment was at a talk held at the National Museum – the speaker, whose name I cannot recall, was a local historical researcher. And in another local newspaper, a retired architect and urban theorist echoed this sentiment and said he would rather that the Botanic Gardens be the iconic landmark for Singapore.

Which other country in the world has a casino as its most famous icon?

I don’t think any country has a park as its icon either. Besides, the Botanical Gardens isn’t exactly postcard-pretty or instantly recognizable from the inside. Whether natural or man-made, one of the main criteria of a national icon, other than its uniqueness, scale, history and architecture, is that it must be well adored, even revered to myth-like proportions, by its people and not just manufactured for tourists. The MBS not only fails in that most basic aspect, but also lacks any kind of meaningful history, regardless of its function as a casino or a spiritual temple housing homeless orphans. There’s nothing teeming or rich about it, no stories to tell other than appalling service standards, and serves to draw only a certain kind of tourist; the rich ones.

Perhaps our Singaporean identity is simply this; that we have nothing special to commemorate as a nation or decorate our bills with besides the faces of dead presidents, we have no national costume, no national dish, we don’t have a decent tagline in our tourism posters, and we can’t decide on what monument to officiate as a national treasure without proceeding to tear it down to make way for something glitzier. We seem to have forgotten why we’re called ‘The Lion City’, and other than a spouting lion-fish to remind us, it seems that as a country we’ve developed a collective amnesia of what’s worth conserving, epitomising the Dubai-esque ‘futurepolis’ and every archaeologist’s nightmare in sci-fi lore. Some may argue that we’re just too small a nation to have many candidates to choose from, but even 8.5 sq mile island nation Nauru has an icon in the form of a champion boxer named DJ Maaki, not to mention what’s inside 0.2 square miles of Vatican City.

Not that we haven’t tried looking for one. Singapore’s elusive icon could have been a person, a plant, or even an orang utan, as suggested from a past list of potential national icons as follows:

Animals:  Ah Meng (Why Ah Meng is a national icon, 24 June 2006, Today), Sunbird (This sunbird fits image, 31 May 1986, ST)

Flowers: Vanda Miss Joachim

Statues: Merlion

Buildings: National Stadium, National Library at Stamford, Raffles Hotel, Changi Airport, Esplanade, Zoo, Parliament House

Language: Singlish (Beng is cool, Singlish a Signal, 20 March 2006, Today)

People: MM Lee

Sadly there’s nothing that triggers swelling pride from the slim pickings above, with traditional icons like the Merlion being exploited as part of a hotel installation, and the Raffles Hotel’s Singapore Sling being compared to cough syrup. If we idolise politicians we risk being branded as the North Korea of South East Asia, and advocates of Singlish will realise that we share bits and pieces of it with our Malaysian neighbours. Even if the MBS were granted the dubious honour of being representative of the Singaporean identity, history tells us that it’ll go the way of the National Stadium or Vanda Miss Joachim sooner or later. Ultimately, whats the point of a national icon even if we had one, when our people itself, a mishmash of migrants with their hearts and roots elsewhere, are unlikely to stay long enough, develop a community around it, and tell stories about it to their children in the end? But for now, the question Singaporeans should ask themselves is this; 100 years from now, what’s the one thing we want to see still exist, to grace the pages of National Geographic, appear on the History Channel, to be the first item on every tourist’s itinerary, or printed on our 50 dollar notes? Looking at the list above, my bets are on the Merlion, kitschy today but the icon most likely to really go the distance while megaliths like the MBS  fade forgotten into the shade of an inevitable ever- ascending skyline.

Filed under: 1980s, 2000s, 2011, Architecture, Campaigns/Elections, Casino/gambling, Changi airport, Merlion, Tourists | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Flower dome looks like a shipwreck

Posted on April 13, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘游客吓一跳　滨海南花穹乍看像沉船’, 13 April 2011, article in omy.sg (SM Daily)

…读者李小姐告诉《新明日报》，她日前全家到滨海堤坝游玩，从海面上望向滨海湾方向，结果看到一个很像“沉船”的物件。李小姐后来得知，那其实是国家公园局滨海南花园项目冷室之一的“花穹”（Flower Dome）。

…李小姐表示，若从新加坡摩天观景轮的方向望去，就能看到花穹的整体设计，非常美观，就像一波波的浪潮，但从滨海堤坝望去，由于建筑互相遮挡，看起来就像一艘“沉没一半的船”。“花穹傍水而建，形状看起来却像‘沉船’，未免有些不吉利。”

…风水师慧戒说：“水为财，花穹傍水而立，寓为’近（进）财’，是很好的象征。李小姐觉得看起来像’沉船’，我倒觉得更似一条冒出水面的鲸鱼，有’抓水’的寓意，更有’收揽财气’之感。”

Google translated, the above becomes:

Miss Lee told readers, “Shin Min Daily News,” she has the whole family to play Marina Barrage, Marina Bay from the sea, look to the direction of the results to see a lot like “wreck” of the object. Miss Li was later informed that it is the National Park Service Marina South Gardens project, one of the cold room “Flower Dome” (Flower Dome).

Miss Lee said, from the direction of the Singapore Flyer looked, you can see the dome of the overall design of the flower, very beautiful, like the waves of the wave, but looked Marina Barrage, the building block each other, see it is like a “half of the ship sinking.” Flower Dome Bangshui built, the shape looks like a ‘wreck’ was somewhat unlucky.”

Hui feng shui master ring, said: “Water for the money, spend Bangshui standing dome, and combine for the ‘near (Import) Treasury’, is a good symbol. Miss Lee that looks like a ‘wreck’, I would feel more like a emitting surface of the whales, but the ‘catch water’ meaning, more ‘close embrace financial gas’ feeling. “

An unintentional tribute to the Japanese tsunami

This is an extreme example of ‘half glass empty’ people seeing disaster where there isn’t everywhere they go, whether it’s in design of the Flower Dome, or a chicken dish on the business class flight menu. The flip side of feng shui is how such catastrophic imagery is exploited by mere amateurs to portend unnecessary doom when the ancient art/science itself was probably developed at a time when modern ships as we know it hadn’t even existed, meaning that such calls for inauspicious design is simply people corrupting elegant geometry or animal imagery with finale scenes from a Titanic movie, like how people would see a skull and crossbones on a sand dune on Mars, or look at a skyscraper and complain about how it almost looks like a train run aground and erect without even whipping out a compass to check the direction it’s facing.   Still, looking at the ‘shipwreck’ design of the Flower dome and the lotus bloom of the Art Science Musuem, regardless of feng shui or ‘financial gas’, one does wonder if the MBS people hadn’t gotten the two attractions mixed up instead.

Filed under: 2011, Architecture, Casino/gambling, Superstitions | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

MM Lee is Singapore’s coolest icon

Posted on February 13, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Red Hot and Cool’, 13 Feb 2011, article by Ng Kai Ling in Sunday Times

..Most recently, CNNGo, a lifestyle and travel companion to CNN, ranked Singaporeans ahead of the siesta-loving Spainiards and the dreadlocks-donning Jamaicans as the second-coolest people in the world. At No 1 were the samba-dancing Brazilians.

…(Tay Kheng Soon, architect): It (Marina Bay Sands, no. 3 coolest icon in Singapore) is one of the finer buildings of Singapore. My regret is that it is a  strong design and because of that, unfortunately, it is the de facto icon of Singapore. Which self-respecting nation wants to have a casino as its icon?

…(Jamilah Abdul Rashid): The lovely beautiful smiles on elderly folks’ faces when you walk past them are cool, and pushing and shoving in crowded places is so uncool

…(Steph Kim): Singaporeans spend way too much time studying. That’s so uncool.

Ranked behind ‘Can’t Think of one’ at second place of Coolest Icon In Singapore is MM, which essentially makes him  by default the coolest icon in Singapore. The problem with such polls, other than the fact that by sheer chance that only uncool Singaporeans partake in them,  is that there is no placeholder for the definition of cool, which ends up with people mistaking other more appropriate adjectives like ‘safe’, ‘smart’, ‘funny’, ‘blunt’, and ‘nice’ for ‘cool’. It could also mean that Singaporeans are so cooped up in what the media feeds them everyday that the only important person they could think of other than the very dead Sir Stamford Raffles is our very own MM. Or perhaps they were just trying to be funny.

The list is also  hopelessly vague. For example, there’s nothing ‘cool’ about a good transport system, but sneaking in to spray paint graffiti on a MRT train undeniably is. Safety isn’t cool, but rock climbing and Universal Studios’ Battlestar Galactica is. Gurmit Singh of PCK fame may be ranked cool, but drunk-driving Christopher Lee is the one gracing ‘cool’ fashion magazines. An old man’s smile isn’t cool, but if he also races in his pasttime instead of doing taiji or gardening, he is. ‘Shopping’ per se isn’t cool at all, but ‘shopping’ for components to build your own computer is. ‘Studying’ isn’t cool, but ‘studying the history of social media tools ‘ is. ‘Coolness’ then, has and always will be defined by a certain level of mischief, risk-taking and trailblazing. MM Lee may be a pioneer, but compare him to the likes of Steve Jobs, or Barrack Obama and you have an idea of what’s missing. The fact that you can’t pinpoint what that is just proves how ambiguous and fuzzy the definition of ‘cool’ is.

Secondly, there’s only cool personalities or activities. An author, a book, a movie, robot-designing, skydiving, elephant-training can all be cool, but not something as massively diverse as a country, because then it becomes meaningless when there’s nothing specific to a nation’s activity, or style that allows one to form any kind of rational blanket description whatsoever. The entire process of only selecting bits and pieces of seemingly ‘cool’ elements and missing the whole picture is itself flawed. Even the ‘uncool’ list, though easier to construct, looks ridiculous. Our ‘weather’ is uncool? Seriously, this whole survey is either full of deceitful puns or tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, which really isn’t very  helpful, or cool, at all. It’s only fair to say that we, like all countries, have our share of cool and uncool. Even the country that invented cool (USA) is the same one that came up with cheesy soap operas, charismatic churches, Starbucks and the Scary movie franchise.

So allow me to give my take on what’s really cool, and uncool, about Singapore/Singaporeans, in no particular order.

Cool

  1. Ye Olde Railway Station at Tanjong Pagar
  2. Battlestar Galactica
  3. Mr Brown/Mr Miyagi
  4. 881
  5. Park Connectors

SO Uncool

  1. Camwhore blogs
  2. Chope-ing seats with tissue paper
  3. Backpacks on the train
  4. Flipped up collars on polo T shirts with sunglasses
  5. Going to a local football match wearing Manchester United jerseys

 

Filed under: 2011, Architecture, Casino/gambling, Fun and games, Local actors, Local food, MRT, Politicians, Shopping malls, Weather | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Merlion should be moved

Posted on October 30, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Merlion losing out’, 30 Oct 2010, My Point, ST Forum

(Jaren Chan): The Merlion has been one of the must-stop attractions in Singapore, with tourists flocking to the spot to secure that iconic picture of our country. However, with the completion of Marina Bay Sands integrated resort, the towering complex simply dwarfs the Merlion and has become the new backdrop for that souvenir picture. Perhaps the authorities could consider shifting the Merlion to a location near the Helix bridge and the floating platform. From there, the skyline can be captured with the Merlion in the foreground.

Why stop at the Merlion? How about moving the Sir Stamford Raffles Statue as well, or blowing him up to a Statue Of Liberty sized colossus straddling the Bay area, so that tourists have somthing to gawk at other than waving at other tourists in Singapore Flyer capsules? In this age of social media, nobody even buys postcards anymore, and even if people do, given the dwindling nature of the industry, it’s better for them really to sell separate scenic postcards than relocate the statue just to complete the MBS postcard look out of the aesthetic whim of one complainant. Moving the Merlion is not so easy as plucking it out of its current seat and screwing it into a ready made hole by the Helix Bridge.  I say leave our statues where they are and move them only in a noble bid to emulate the  epic grandiosity that is Rio De Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, as hinted in this 19 November 1985 letter below ‘Show Raffles as he came to shore’, ST Forum. Of course, till this date, nobody’s done anything to elevate the status of the poor Merlion to the mythical demigod that it deserves to be, knowing that in Singapore the only things that get built bigger are BTO flats like Pinnacle at Duxton and casinos, not statues whose only purpose is to instill the useless, non profitable emotions of reverence and nostalgia, or have people trample all over them for that matter.

 

 

 

Filed under: 1980s, 2010, Casino/gambling, Merlion, Tourists | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

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