Ezequiel Arias is an electronic music artist who currently lives in Córdoba, Argentina.

He was born in February 1991 in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche, on Río Negro province, a part of the Patagonian region.

Lola Emily Mary Young (born 4 January 2001) is a British singer and songwriter from London. She is best known for her 2024 song “Messy”, which was her first song to top the UK Singles Chart. 

Discussing the inspiration behind the viral song with Jimmy Fallon, Lola said: “It’s been speculated that it’s about my parents. It’s massively about some close family but it’s a combination. It’s more about myself, I am too messy. I’ve never held a broom in my life. Everything in my life is a mess so it’s a very fitting track.”

She then added: “I recently got diagnosed with severe ADHD. It’s been very hard but complex. It’s just about the complexities of how I feel about myself and, on top of that, narcissistic men unfortunately.”

16 July 2023

Arthur Sim, Straits Times

Since borders have reopened and people have returned to the office, many pandemic plant parents are offloading their pots in bulk to return to their busy lives of work and travel. 

Prices for once-coveted variegated plants have been falling due to an explosion of collectors-turned-online sellers who used the Covid-19 pandemic to propagate profitable species in their backyards or balconies.

Some commercial nurseries in Indonesia and Thailand have also caught on to the rising demand for plants such as aroids and started live-streaming plant auctions. 

Nurseries are also bringing in plants from overseas that have been propagated en masse, adding to downward price pressures. In particular, commercial nurseries in Thailand have reacted to the global demand by turning to tissue-culture techniques used in horticulture to mass propagate plants such as orchids.

Combined with the fall-off in interest in home-bound hobbies such as plant collecting as soon as travel restrictions lifted, the prices of exotic monsteras and aroids – once sold by the leaf at three- or four-digit prices – have taken a nosedive. 

For example, a small Monstera obliqua Peru with about six leaves that once fetched up to $5,000 in 2021, the height of Covid-19, now goes for $98.

A Philodendron Florida Beauty plant with three leaves, which would have cost $600 two years ago, now sells for under $100.

Some plants, like the Philodendron Golden Dragon Variegated, saw such heightened demand during the “Great Covid-19 Gardening Craze” that they were priced per leaf cutting, at up to $8,000 a leaf. The asking price has plummeted to $450 a leaf. 

The Epipremnum Marble Plant, prized for its white fenestrated leaves, used to command up to $800 a leaf. An entire pot is now priced at under $100 at Terrascapes nursery in Choa Chu Kang.

Terrascapes’ co-owner Sandy Soh, 48, who has been in the plant industry for more than 10 years, says people were not very interested in aroids before the pandemic. He recalls it was possible to buy the sought-after Philodendron billietiae Variegated plant – known for its long, ribbed leaves – for $750 a plant up till 2019. 

But after much of the world went into Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, the price surged to $3,000 to $4,000 a leaf. Terrascapes does not sell leaf cuttings, but Mr Soh says the current price is around $400 a leaf. 

He blames social media for the upswing in popularity – and proliferation – of houseplants during Covid-19. The aroid craze was fed by the trend of people posting pictures of collectible plants on social media platforms such as Instagram.

“Somehow, your Instagram feed will show you what plants are trending,” he notes. “These Instagrammers may love their plants, but they also love the fame from posting.” 

He, too, embraced social media and started selling plants online and making deliveries using Grab. But it was social media and online shopping that eventually played a part in the collapse of aroid prices.

“During Covid-19, many sellers started to pop up. Singaporeans are very entrepreneurial that way. They would buy plants and then sell cuttings. That inevitably crashed the market,” he says.

It was also easy to buy plants from nurseries overseas. Popular online sites include Chatuchak Market Plant on Facebook, which hails from Thailand; sindomall.com from Indonesia; and ecuagenera.com from Ecuador.

Like many others, Mr Soh started to propagate these popular plants, especially of the sought-after variegated variety. Variegated plants exhibit different colours or irregular patches or streaks. 

“Aroids are not very difficult to propagate,” he says.

So did many other Covid-19-wave gardeners, who bought at high prices and sold cuttings to try to offset costs. However, what many new collectors did not know was that a plant grown from a variegated leaf cutting could revert to being a wholly green plant. 

“These hobbyists were selling plants with no guarantee of variegation,” says Mr Soh.

Others sold cuttings with little chance of growing up.

Mr Normizan Kasimin, who got into plant collecting during the circuit breaker period, remembers he bought a planted leaf cutting of a Monstera adansonii Albo from online consumer marketplace Carousell for $70 in February 2022. It died within a week. 

The 41-year-old training specialist recounts that when he uprooted the dead plant, there were no roots. “When I contacted the seller, he said there was no refund,” he says.

Slow recovery

The impact of falling plant prices has hit nurseries hard. Businesses that The Straits Times spoke to estimate the average drop in revenue is between 20 and 50 per cent. 

Mr Ng Yong Sheng, 41, who started Nursery 0312 in Seletar seven years ago and is the founder of the Facebook group Singapore Urban Gardening, says business was so good during Covid-19 that it paid for his daughter’s medical treatment, which cost five figures. 

His daughter, who is nine years old, suffers from an autoimmune disease.

But everything went south once travel restrictions were lifted. 

“Initially, it was bad,” he says, noting that hobbyists who started collecting during the Covid-19 period started selling off their plants to go back to work, depressing prices further. 

Business has recovered in part, due to plant fair sales and events like the monthly Gardener’s Day Out at HortPark in Hyderabad Road, where workshops and bazaars attract hordes of hobbyist gardeners. 

“Now, business is down by just 20 per cent to 30 per cent,” he says. 

Some nurseries are hanging on and waiting it out.

Mr Ben Soh, 36, started his plant business, The Botanical Assembly, in Seletar in May 2021, as aroid fever was taking hold not just of Singapore but also the world over. 

To get his business going, he bought about 50 plants to propagate, known in the industry as mother plants. They included variegated plants such as the Philodendron Strawberry Shake and the Monstera adansonii Albo, costing between $100 to four figures each.

“For some of the plants, the initial investment has not been made back yet. The strategy is to propagate more, especially the trending plants, and to spread the cost out, such that it becomes more price-friendly to the mass market.”

Likewise, Mr Tevin Lee, 43, who has been in the industry for four years and is the founder of two-year-old plant nursery ArtureSG in Tagore Lane, says: “At the peak, around 2021, I was selling 100 plants a day.” 

Today, he says the market “is still hot, but the selling prices are lower”.

He is waiting for prices to drop further to attract a new breed of post-Covid-19 plant collectors. 

In particular, he is closely watching the trend of tissue culture – which allows the propagation of plants to be done quickly and in large numbers -– and its impact on the prices of plants like the Philodendron joepii Variegated, which has unusual paddle-shaped leaves and used to sell for about $2,000 a leaf at its peak. 

“I am waiting for the price to fall to $500,” he says.

A Philodendron joepii Variegated plantlet propagated from tissue culture currently sells for $400 to $500. When tissue culture becomes more accepted among aroid collectors, prices will likely fall further, he thinks. At the moment, a mature, 30cm-high plant costs about $9,000.

Rise of the clones

Many are avidly watching the implications of plant tissue culture. 

According to Dr Wilson Wong, curator and deputy director of Jurong Lake Gardens, under the National Parks Board, it is a method that involves growing plant cells, tissues or organs in a laboratory under controlled conditions. Instead of soil or potting mix, it uses sterile liquid or semi-solid growing media with added nutrients to support plant growth.

“As there has been higher demand for these variegated versions of aroids since the Covid-19 period, suppliers and growers have been propagating more of these plants using tissue culture. Hence, these versions of aroids will become more common in time to come,” he says.

Some common examples of variegated and non-variegated plants being propagated by tissue culture include the top-dollar Monstera deliciosa, Monstera adansonii and Philodendron billietiae, which have unique, sought-after leaf shapes. 

At Littlebotany nursery in Punggol, a small tissue-cultured Monstera adansonii Aurea sells for $28. Previously, a similar-sized plant would be priced between $800 and $1,200, says its owner Fendi Sani. Likened to Swiss cheese because of the fenestrated leaves, the starting price of a mature plant was about $4,000 in 2021.

Littlebotany started bringing in tissue-cultured plants from Thailand, including Dracaena trifasciata, or snake plants, as well as aroids in April 2019. 

Mr Fendi, 34, who started Littlebotany 4½ years ago, says: “Most of my customers love tissue-cultured plants as they get the joy of growing them from a wee, tiny baby. It also makes the hobby affordable.”

Mr Alvin Tan, 39, of Local Loco, an online plant retailer, has started to sell tissue-cultured aroids recently. Previously, they were available only in very few varieties and small quantities, but the range available in Thailand exploded early in 2023. 

He brought in several batches in sterile glass vials, selling them at plant fairs and online for between $90 and $200. The star draws are variegated ones.

He notes that tissue-cultured plantlets have to be treated with care, as they are grown in a sterile environment to ensure the highest chances of survival and reduce the possibility of infection.

He sells only plantlets that are stable and ready to be acclimatised by buyers. 

“Typically, this process involves de-flasking the plantlets with a pair of tweezers, removing the nutrient gel from their roots, and then potting them in a medium suitable for growing aroids. Thereafter, the plantlets will require higher humidity, so we recommend that they be kept in a humidity chamber before being slowly introduced to the outside environment,” he says.

He acknowledges that many feel that tissue-cultured plants are not “real” plants.

But, he counters: “Horticulture is also about science. And with this constantly changing demand for ornamental plants, it is inevitable that technology will be utilised to speed up growing processes, reduce mortality rates and pare down costs.”

A buyer’s market

While tissue-culture has lowered prices of rare, variegated plants, not all collectors are receptive to them.

“I may be biased or misinformed, but I do feel there is a difference,” says housewife Maggie Lim, 54, a gardener of over 15 years.

While she did spend a four-figure sum for a Homalomena rubescens Yellow Sapphire in early 2022, she has since moderated her budget to around $200. 

She is waiting for plant prices to drop further before adding new babies to her collection. On her wish list is a Philodendron billietiae Variegated, which she hopes to score for no more than $300 for a three-leaf rooted cutting. She also hopes to get a Homalomena Pink Diamond for below $200, a fraction of its Covid-19-period prices.

It is a buyer’s market now. She relates how she recently bought an Anthurium vittarifolium, which has striking, sword-like leaves, on Facebook for $60, after the price was slashed from $280 the previous month. The seller had to leave the country for work.

Another collector, Mr Jasment Wong, 50, has started to import different types of anthuriums from overseas sellers for better prices.

“Sometimes, I will import five plants and sell two to cover my costs. To import just one plant is not worth it,” says the design consultant. An Anthurium dressleri two-leaf seedling bought 1½ years ago cost him $2,000 including shipping and agent fees.

He has spent five-figure sums on plants, including $10,000 for a two-leaf Philodendron spiritus sancti plant, which has leaves shaped like an elongated heart. 

He has also started selling his anthurium seedlings at plant fairs from plants that he pollinated and germinated himself to create his own hybrids, and plans to register his favourites with the International Aroid Society. 

Accepting his losses, he says: “I will never recover the cost for my big plants.”

But other collectors have stepped back from collecting since going back to the office and getting on with life.

Lawyer Russel Low has been a collector for around 20 years, starting with rare ginger plants that he imported from the United States. His collection also includes bromeliads, succulents, cycads and rare trees like the Dracaena cinnabari, better known as the Dragon’s Blood Tree.  

He started collecting aroids in 2019. The 48-year-old recalls the excitement of bidding for plants on live streams hosted by online sellers. 

“It was all about having the fastest fingers and a lot of patience since some of these live streams can go on for hours,” he says.

Despite prices tumbling, he has stopped buying plants that were once on his wish list. 

“I am focusing on just growing what I have,” he says.

“The fire has definitely died down, and I know of quite a few people who have quit the hobby due to plant fatigue. For me, I am caught up with travelling for work or leisure, or catching up with my other interests,” adds the fitness enthusiast, who does callisthenics and high-intensity interval training about six times a week. He recently adopted a fourth rescue dog and has added two Japanese Bantam chickens to his coop.

He still tends to his plant collection, but spends only about two to three hours a week, compared with 10 to 12 hours during the Covid-19 period. 

He was recently quoted a four-figure price for a seedling of a rare tree he once hankered after. 

“In the end, I decided against getting it. It feels like the pre-Covid-19 days when anything more than $200 for a plant is considered expensive,” he says.

The Masarang Foundation was founded 20 years ago in 2001 by Dr Willie Smits.

For over thirty years Smits, has been working for the conservation of endangered primate species such as the orangutan. During this time he has expanded into related areas including sustainable agriculture, reforestation and forest monitoring.

Masarang’s mission is to find solutions for the most urgent global problems of our time: deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change, poverty and underdevelopment.

The activities of Masarang take place in Indonesia but they play a regional and global role. After all, the environmental problems in Indonesia have an impact on Singapore and on the entire planet. Ongoing deforestation is leading to massive carbon dioxide emissions with great consequences for climate change and the environment. Masarang is tackling these issues at their heart and works to find sustainable solutions which will work long-term.

Dr Willie Smits built a sugar factory in North Sulawesi with the support of the Indonesian Government. This factory is powered by residual steam from a geothermal (green) power plant, meaning that the energy used does not damage the environment. The factory collects the sap from the palms and turns it into a sugar with very special properties. Not only is the product eco-friendly and fair-trade, the sugar also has more flavour than white sugar and is much healthier. While sugar can easily lead to obesity and diabetes, the palm sugar does not. Part of this remarkable feat is caused by the slow absorption in the blood which prevents an unhealthy rise of blood sugar levels and enables energy to be gradually released. Also, the sugar contains anti-oxidants, amino acids and vitamins which have a positive effect on one’s health. Willie has been responsible for creating the process which is used to produce the sugar.

The Arenga tree is also an important environmental  conservation tool. The Masarang foundation provides a livelihood to aborigines who tap the palm sugar, helping them resist the option to sell forest land to corporations that bring about large scale deforestation.

The palm sugar is sold and marketed in Singapore by Straits Wholefoods. https://straitswholefoods.com

Masarang Arenga Forest Sugar is a delicious, USDA certified organic, low- glycemic sugar tapped from the Arenga Pinnata.

It is the healthiest choice of sweeteners that is mineral rich and has lower glycemic load than cane sugar and honey. It is versatile and can be used to replace cane sugar in recipes. It has a naturally creamy caramel taste and a heavenly aroma. 

Straits Wholefoods Organic Masarang Arenga Forest Sugar (300g)

The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface. It refers to the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, “hanging in the void”, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. From space, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide people become less important, and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this “pale blue dot” becomes both obvious and imperative. Third-party observers of these individuals may also report a noticeable difference in attitude. The term and concept were coined in 1987 by Frank White, who explored the theme in his book The Overview Effect — Space Exploration and Human Evolution.

Originally Posted by Rouge

I was ugly when I was a kid. My family struggled financially, so I was skinny as a beanpole and had thick glasses, bad hair and hand-me-downs that didn’t fit. I had no confidence, few friends and considered myself a social retard. Up till now, I’m still scarred by how the other kids teased me.

When I was 18 or 19, I blossomed. I started wearing contact lenses, light make-up, flattering clothes, heels. Suddenly, people started being nicer to me.

But life as an “attractive person” is not always a bed of roses:

– People may have a more positive impression of you in the beginning. But since they have higher expectations of you, they also become more critical of you if you fail any of these expectations. You’re twice as likely to be considered “stupid”, “superficial” or “arrogant” than someone they had a poorer initial impression of.

– I probably got hired in a couple of jobs thanks to looks, but I later paid the price for it when the (male) bosses tried to hit on me. Some male clients also tried to get cheeky with me. I couldn’t afford to offend these people and had to manage my relationships with them. All these created additional stress at work.

– I have the opposite problem with female bosses. They didn’t want to hire me. That’s the rule for working for a good looking woman- you can’t be more good looking than her. The office is her kingdom, she will not want any competition for male attention.

– Some female colleagues took convenient swipes at me for being a bimbo when they caught me making mistakes. Since this stereotype fitted, they got away with it a couple of times, especially with people in other departments who had not worked with me.

– Some women hate me. They hate me without allowing themselves to get to know me. Enough said.

– I’ve also had to manage my relationship with female friends very carefully. Gal pals are great for a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. But a few of them turned into absolute monsters when I dated a highly eligible guy. One tried to sow doubts into me by convincing me that the guy couldn’t be serious about me. Two tried to accidentally run into me to get an introduction to him when we were out on a date. I can’t tell you how how disappointed and hurt I felt. Despite the good times and bad times we’ve been through, they’d sell me out for a guy at the end of the day. These days, if I were to date anyone “hot”, I’d downplay how attractive/well off he is. I don’t have the stomach to subject all my friendships to such tests.

– My platonic friendships are often problematic. Maybe the guys didn’t befriend me because they were attracted to me. But some of them couldn’t maintain a friendship with me when they started liking me and I didn’t feel the same way back. The successful platonic friendships I’ve had are mostly with much older men who are happily married and totally crazy over their wives.

– I’ve received pressure from some of my boyfriends on maintaining my looks. One even messaged me to find out whether I’ve been going to the gym when he was away on a business trip. I’m sure they liked me for qualities other than my looks. But they were sold on an image of me and couldn’t accept it if this were to change.

After being on both sides of the fence, I can’t say whether it’s better to be attractive or not. Each side has its disadvantages. Maybe being average is best. You might not believe it, but you’re more likely to have more friends and better relationships this way than if you were to be more good looking.

Iconic club to close if it can’t secure 3-year lease
Published on Jun 18, 2014 6:13 AM
By Joyce Lim

Zouk may shut by year end

Iconic club to close if it can’t secure 3-year lease

Published on Jun 18, 2014 6:13 AM

 56.8K  4108  6  6 PRINT EMAIL

Zouk founder Lincoln Cheng, 67, says he will close the iconic nightspot for good by the end of the year if he does not get a three-year extension on the lease. He said he had no desire to retire, but that he also felt the need to be responsible to his staff, who have been asking him for his decision as to what to do with the club when the lease expires. — ST PHOTO: JOYCE LIM

By Joyce Lim

The founder of Zouk, Mr Lincoln Cheng, says he is tired of getting short lease extensions for the popular dance club’s Jiak Kim Street site.

If he does not get a three-year extension he is now requesting, he will close the 23-year-old iconic nightspot for good by the end of this year.

Mr Cheng, 67, revealed this to The Straits Times earlier this month, ending recent speculation as to what will eventually happen to the much-loved Singapore club.

Currently ranked No.7 in the world by DJ Mag, an influential UK music magazine, Zouk has become an internationally recognised name on the global club circuit.

Each week, the club’s five outlets – Wine Bar, Phuture, Velvet Underground-Dance and Velvet Underground-Lounge and the Zouk main dance hall – draw more than 10,000 revellers from Singapore, Asia and other parts of the world. It is the only club that has won the prestigious Best Nightspot Experience award from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) a record nine times.

Last year, financial audit firm Ernst & Young valued the home-grown brand and its business at $40 million.

When the club first opened in 1991, the land around it was largely vacant. But today, the club – which is situated within three recently conserved riverside warehouses – is dwarfed by neighbouring condominiums and hotels. It was no surprise, therefore, when questions about the fate of Zouk started making the rounds in 2012.

In the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) latest Master Plan, which governs Singapore’s development over the next 10 to 15 years, Zouk’s premises are within a larger site zoned for residential use, with commercial activity on the first floor.

The site has not yet been listed for sale under the Government Land Sales Programme.

It has been reported that its lease was extended till last June, when it first expired in 2012, and once more until June 30 this year.

Last month, the authorities gave a third extension – this time for only six months until the end of December.

A URA spokesman said: “The site was first leased to Zouk in 1990 for interim use as the surrounding area was not fully developed and there were no firm development plans for the site at that point in time. The lease was extended subsequently as there were still no firm plans to develop the site. Over time, the surrounding area has become an established residential precinct. As such, the use of the site by Zouk has become incompatible with the residential nature of the area.”

Mr Cheng said: “We can’t live with six months’ extension. It takes three years to set up a new club. We wanted the new Zouk to be ready when the old Zouk closes.”

Speaking candidly to The Straits Times, Mr Cheng, an avid music lover and art collector, said: “Zouk is like my baby. It is like losing my child, like losing a family member. I am still active. I have no desire to retire.”

But the entrepreneur said he also felt the need to be responsible to his staff, who have been asking him for his decision as to what to do with the club when the lease expires. “If no other options present themselves before the lease expiry, it will make it necessary for the club to bow out of the Singapore entertainment scene,” he said.

He added that Zouk will soon make the necessary preparations in the areas of hardware, administration and human resource for its closure. Mr Cheng plans to have a series of farewell parties and a final instalment of the 2014 ZoukOut festival to thank the club’s loyal fans.

The veteran entrepreneur said he had started a search for a new home for Zouk as early as 2010, and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) showed him four sites in Sentosa. “We didn’t like Sentosa because it is a one-way road out,” said Mr Cheng.

The “stunning-looking” building that housed the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station caught his eye. “But we were told by URA that piece of land is not available. It is too political still, so don’t even think about it,” he said.

An STB spokesman told The Straits Times that the board has been facilitating talks between Zouk and various organisations, including various commercial entities and fellow government agencies such as the Singapore Land Authority and the URA.

It said it wanted to help Zouk identify alternative locations beyond its current tenancy at Jiak Kim Street, but its spokesman declined to reveal details of the sites “due to business confidentiality”.

Meanwhile, Zouk’s head of business development and public relations, Miss Sofie Chandra, 31, told The Straits Times that the closure of Zouk Singapore will not affect its sister club in Kuala Lumpur. The 10-year-old Zouk KL, a seven-room nightspot currently located in Jalan Ampang, has found a new site, and it will be relocating to TREC, a new lifestyle and entertainment precinct in downtown Jalan Tun Razak next year.

When told of the news, celebrity presenter and Zouk regular Najip Ali said he was shocked.

“When Zouk opened, it was ahead of its time. In the 1990s, Zouk put a stamp on the kind of nightlife that didn’t exist.” It was where he learnt about music and deejays. “Zouk has been and is still an institution,” he said.

– See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/zouk-may-shut-year-end-20140618#sthash.GzBOcETu.dpuf

“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

NAVY Seal Instructor Reno Alberto (p103):

“This is high-risk training. And we define that as anywhere there is potential for serious injury or loss of life. Any of you see anything unsafe, or any situation where you may be in unnecessary danger, speak up immediately. We do not like mistakes, understand that?

Always remember your own accountability, to yourselves, your superiors, and your teammates. The chain of command is sacred. Use it. Keep your boat crew leaders and your class leaders informed of any digression from the normal. And stay with your swim buddy. I don’t care if you’re going to the head, you stay right with him. Understood?

Integrity, gentlemen. You don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Ever. You lose an item of gear, you put in a chit and report it. You do not take someone else’s gear. I won’t pretend that has not happened here in the past. Because it has. But those guys were instantly finished. Their feet never touched the ground. They were gone. That day. You will respect your classmate. And his gear. You do not take what is not yours. Understood?

Finally, reputation. And your reputation begins right here. And so does the reputation of Class 226. And that’s a reflection on me. It’s a responsibility I take very personally. Because reputation is everything. In life, and especially right here in Coronado. So stay focused. Keep your head right in the game. Put out a hundred percent at all times, because we’ll know if you don’t. And never, ever, leave your swim buddy. Any questions?”

p116:

One time during Indoc while we were out on night run, one of the instructors actually climbed up the outside of a building, came through an open window, and absolutely trashed a guy’s room, threw everything everywhere, emptied detergent over his bed gear. He went back out the way he’d come in, waited for everyone to return, and then tapped on the poor guy’s door and demanded a room inspection. The guy couldn’t work out whether to be furious or heartbroken, but he spent most of the night cleaning up and still had to be in the showers at 0430 with the rest of us.

I asked Reno about this weeks later, and he told me, “Marcus, the body can take damn near anything. It’s the mind that needs training. The question that guy was being asked involved mental strength. Can you handle such injustice? Can you cope with that kind of unfairness, that much of a setback? And still come back with your jaw set, still determined, swearing to God you will never quit? That’s what we’re looking for.”

Rescuers evacuate 5 Indonesians trapped by tigers
Fakhrurradzie Gade, The Associated Press, Banda Aceh | World | Mon, July 08 2013, 5:52 PM
World News

Rescuers on Monday reached five men trapped in trees by several Sumatran tigers for five days after the angry animals mauled a sixth man to death, police said.

First Lt. Surya Purba said three tamers managed to drive the tigers away before the men who were in weak condition were evacuated from trees in the protected Mount Leuser National Park in Tamiang, an Aceh district neighboring with North Sumatra province.

The men were looking for rare agarwood — used to make incense and perfume — and accidently caught a tiger cub in a trap they were using to catch deer for food, said district police chief Lt. Col. Dicky Sondani.

The incident caused five other tigers in the area to attack the men, Sondani said, citing reports from villagers who received mobile phone messages Thursday from the survivors. One of the men was mauled to death, while the five others managed to climb into trees.

The rescue team needed three days to reach the rugged area, said Sondani who was worried that the men could be weak and fall from the trees due to a lack of food.

“I received a report from rescuers that they have just evacuated the men after tamers managed to drive away the tigers,” Purba said. “They are all in weak condition.” He added they survived by drinking rain water.

The 28-year-old man who was mauled to death had managed to climb a tree, “but the branch broke, causing him to fall to the ground,” Purba said.

There were seven tigers wandering around the trees but four left before the rescuers arrived, he said.

The rescue team of soldiers, policemen and conservationists was sent after villagers failed to reach the men because of the tigers.

Besides Sumatran tigers, Leuser park is home to other protected animals, including orangutans, elephants, rhinos and leopards.

Sumatran tigers are the most critically endangered tiger subspecies. About 400 remain, down from 1,000 in the 1970s, because of forest destruction and poaching.

Agarwood is relatively rare and is highly valued for its dark aromatic resin, which is used in incense and perfumes.

“The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don’t help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don’t increase you will eventually decrease you.

Consider this: Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don’t follow anyone who’s not going anywhere.

With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it. Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl. But, if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights. “A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.”

The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.

Note: Be not mistaken. This is applicable to family as well as friends. Yes…do love, appreciate and be thankful for your family, for they will always be your family no matter what. Just know that they are human first and though they are family to you, they may be a friend to someone else and will fit somewhere in the criteria above.

“In Prosperity Our Friends Know Us. In Adversity We Know Our friends.”

~ Colin Powell

Now, barriers to elite circle is higher, says author who offers an insider look at taipans

ST Feb 03, 2013

A 1995 picture of the Suntec City board in a book by Mr Robert Wang (back row, third from left). The board included tycoons (front, from left) Chou Wen Hsien, Lee Shau Kee, Run Run Shaw, Frank Tsao, Li Ka Shing and Cheng Yu Tung. — PHOTO: ROBERT WANG

By Li Xueying, Hong Kong Correspondent In Hong Kong

Along-held belief in Asia’s bastion of capitalism – that “greed is good” – is fast crumbling, says a man who for much of his life abided by this axiom as he strove to get rich.

“Hong Kongers are resenting that attitude now,” says lawyer-turned-businessman Robert Wang, not least because they feel they no longer have the opportunities to become rich the way the present elite did.

He should know. After all, in the giddy, greedy days of the 1980s and 1990s, the 68-year-old rubbed shoulders with Hong Kong’s richest men.

“It’s more difficult to become a tycoon today,” observes Mr Wang, referring to the “clannish” networks, cartels and other formidable entry barriers in high-yield industries like property.

And as the income gap widens further, this sense of impotence is fuelling “greater dissatisfaction and social unrest”.

“The opportunities are not there any more,” Mr Wang said in a recent interview. “I feel sorry for my children, let alone my grandchildren.”

The golden era of the past is captured colourfully in Mr Wang’s autobiography published last year. As he wrote: “Nothing is impossible in capitalistic Hong Kong. The important thing is to get on track. Anyone can then be launched into the orbit of tycoons, me included.”

Mr Wang was five when his family fled Shanghai after the communist takeover and headed to Hong Kong, a British colony at the time. Decades later, he was part of the gilded circle – only to be kicked out unceremoniously later.

His book in English, Walking The Tycoons’ Rope, is an insider look at the cut-throat world of Hong Kong tycoons – known here as taipans – and Mr Wang’s interactions with them. It also describes his meetings with some Singapore leaders – Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Goh Keng Swee and then president Ong Teng Cheong.

There are colourful details of so-called Shanghai parties, where tycoons hook up with starlets, the mood swings of Asia’s richest man, the mercurial Li Ka Shing, snarky remarks feuding tycoons made about each other, as well as intimacies that powerful men shared.

For instance, Mr Wang recounts Mr Ong’s lament about the cancer that plagued both him and his wife – “we both live so simply and healthily it boggles my mind even to think about how we can both end up with cancer”.

Mr Wang also describes how he got on the inside track into elite circles in Hong Kong and Singapore.

In the run-up to Hong Kong’s 1997 handover, he petitioned MrLee to allow Hong Kong lawyers and entrepreneurs – all jittery about the city’s prospects under China’s rule – to have residential rights in Singapore.

Mr Wang recalls Mr Lee, who was not convinced that their fears would materialise, asking: “Why are you worried? What can be the consternation?”

But after a “gruelling” cross-examination lasting over an hour, MrLee agreed to the plan, telling MrWang: “I am willing to offer them (Hong Kongers) a bolt-hole. An unstable Hong Kong is not in our interests.”

In the end, Mr Lee was proven right – the handover went smoothly and most of those who signed up for the Singapore schemes remained in Hong Kong.

But having this option at the time, says Mr Wang, helped allay the fears of many who would have fled to faraway countries like Canada.

It also had the longer-term effect of “helping create an awareness of opportunities in Singapore among the Hong Kong tycoons”, many of whom thought that government-linked companies had a strong grip on the economy, making competition tough.

One immediate result was the creation of the Suntec group in 1985, whose 21 shareholders – among them property tycoons Li, Lee Shau Kee and Cheng Yu Tung, and entertainment mogul Run Run Shaw – invested in the building of Suntec City and its convention centre. Together, the shareholders held 40 per cent of Hong Kong’s market capitalisation.

Suntec City grew to a size not seen among Singapore malls at that point, attracting choice remarks from people such as Singapore businessman Ong Beng Seng, Mr Wang recalls in the book.

“When you have so much money, you just want to erect the biggest and tallest monument to immortalise yourself, as if it is going to be your last erection,” Mr Ong reportedly said.

As the spokesman and a director for Suntec, Mr Wang had a ringside seat to the rivalry between Mr Li Ka Shing and Mr Lee Shau Kee, both vying to be Hong Kong’s richest man.

“At times they were at each other’s throats,” Mr Wang wrote. “However, in business as in politics, there are no permanent enemies or friends. It depends on what serves the interest of the party at any given point.”

Mr Wang admitted he also sought to get rich by taking “the route all tycoons take to become who they are – you use OPM (other people’s money) to grow MOM (my own money)”.

But he overreached and got caught in the crossfire between the feuding tycoons, who would dispense with his services.

In Singapore, he offended banker Wee Cho Yaw over the sale of shares in a joint venture and also Old Guard leader Lim Kim San whose name was listed as a governor for a new club without his permission. The Singapore Hong Kong Club, Mr Wang had hoped, would be a platform for the two cities’ elites to meet, exchange ideas and perhaps invest together. Its launch was cancelled and Mr Wang left Singapore “in disgrace” for Hong Kong, where he continues today to tap his connections for business opportunities.

Looking back, Mr Wang muses over what was “a rich and exciting life” looking for and seizing opportunities, which he has captured in a book “for posterity”. The book, which has sold out its first print run of 3,000 copies, is now in its second edition.

But Mr Wang is worried that stagnating mobility and the widening income gap will make it difficult “to produce another Li Ka Shing”, who started out as a salesman.

In today’s Hong Kong, the rich can consolidate their wealth by simply “sitting back and collecting rent”. This sparks “great anger” from the masses, which then forces the government to distribute resources more fairly. Meanwhile, tycoons “fight to protect what they have”.

“It’s not a rosy picture,” says MrWang of the road ahead.

Daniel Boone (born Peter Green, 31 July 1942, Birmingham, England) is a British pop musician who became a one-hit wonder in the U.S. with the single “Beautiful Sunday” in 1972.

“Beautiful Sunday” remains the biggest selling single by an international artist on the Japanese Oricon chart (coming in 19th on the all-time singles sales list with almost 2 million copies sold) and it has also become a popular song among fans of Scottish football club Dundee United.

“She Drives Me Crazy” is a song recorded by the Fine Young Cannibals, included on their 1989 album The Raw and the Cooked. The song peaked at #5 as a single in the band’s native UK in January 1989 (it was released on New Year’s Day) before hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. on 15 April 1989. It appeared on The Raw and Cooked album the following month.

“It Must Have Been Love” is a power ballad written by Per Gessle and performed by the Swedish pop duo Roxette. The ballad became the duo’s 3rd #1 hit in the United States, and is one of their best-selling releases, leading the single to be certified gold in a number of countries.

The song, included on the soundtrack to the hugely popular film Pretty Woman, rivals “The Look”, “Joyride” and “Listen to Your Heart” as the song most closely associated with them. In 2005, Per Gessle received an award from BMI after the song’s four millionth radio play.

How to be useful in wartime: practical patriotism
The Times, 1914

We are receiving a constant stream of letters containing suggestions for personal conduct or useful action in the national emergency. We publish a selection below.

They vary, no doubt, in value. But they all reflect the intense interest and desire to help which animates the whole population, and they will, we hope, encourage the spirit of duty, unselfishness, restraint, and consideration for others which it behoves us all to cherish to the utmost.

“American people: This address to you is a reminder of the causes of 11 (September) and the wars and consequences that followed and the way to settle it once and for all. I mention in particular the families of those who were hurt in these events and who have recently called for opening an investigation to know its causes. This is a first and important step in the right direction among many other steps that have deliberately gone in the wrong direction over eight barren years that you have experienced.

“The entire American people should follow suit, as the delay in knowing those reasons has cost you a lot without any noteworthy benefit.

“If the White House administration, which is one of the two parties to the dispute, has made it clear to you in the past years that war was necessary to maintain your security, then wise persons should be eager to listen to the two parties to the dispute to know the truth, so listen to what I am going to say.

“At the beginning, I say that we have made it clear and stated so many times for over two decades that the cause of the quarrel with you is your support for your Israeli allies, who have occupied our land, Palestine. This position of yours, along with some other grievances, is what prompted us to carry out the 11 September events. Had you known the magnitude of our suffering as a result of the injustice of the Jews against us, with the support of your administrations for them, you would have known that both our nations are victims of the policies of the White House, which is in fact a hostage in the hands of pressure groups, especially major corporations and the Israeli lobby.

“One of the best persons to explain to you the causes of the events of the 11th is one of your citizens, a former veteran CIA agent, whose conscience awoke in his eighth decade and decided to tell the truth despite the threats, and to explain to you the message of the 11th. So he carried out some activities for this purpose in particular, including his book “Apology of a Hired Assassin.”

“As for explaining the suffering of our people in Palestine, Obama has recently acknowledged in his speech from Cairo the suffering of our kinfolk there, who are living under occupation and siege. Things will become clearer if you read what your former president, Carter, wrote about the racism of the Israelis against our kinfolk in Palestine, and also if you listened to his statement weeks ago during his visit to the destroyed and besieged Gaza Strip. He said in that statement that the people of Gaza are treated more as animals than human beings. For us God suffices, and He is the best disposer of affairs.

“We should have a lengthy pause at this point. Any person with an iota of mercy in his heart cannot but sympathize with those oppressed elderly, women, and children living under the deadly siege. Above that, the Zionists pound them with US-made incendiary phosphorous bombs. Life there is tragic beyond limits, to the point that children die b etween the arms of their parents and doctors due to the lack of food and medicine and the power outages. It is indeed a disgrace for world politicians who are content with that, and their loyalists, who are behaving as such with prior knowledge and premeditation, and under the influence of the Israeli lobby in America. The details of that are explained by two of your fellow citizens. They are John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their book “The Israel Lobby” in the United States.

“After reading the suggested books, you will know the truth and you will be severely shocked at the magnitude of deception that has been practiced against you. You will also know that those who make statements from inside the White House today and claim that your wars against us are necessary for your security are in fact working along the same line of Cheney and Bush, and propagating the former policies of intimidation to market the interests of the relevant major corporations, at the expense of your blood and economy. Those in fact are the ones who are imposing wars on you, not the mujahidin. We are just defending our right to liberate our land.

“If you thoroughly consider your situation, you will know that the White House is occupied by pressure groups. You should have made efforts to liberate it rather than fight to liberate Iraq, as Bush claimed. The White House leader, under such circumstances, and regardless of who he is, is like a train driver who cannot but travel on the railways designed by these pressure groups. Otherwise, his way would be blocked and he would fear that his destiny would be like that of former President Kennedy and his brother.

“In a nutshell, it is time to free yourselves from fear and intellectual terrorism being practiced against you by the neoconservatives and the Israeli lobby. You should put the file of your alliance with the Israelis on the table of discussion. You should ask yourselves the following question so that you can determine your position: Do you like the Israelis’ security, sons, and economy more than your security, blood, sons, money, jobs, houses, economy, and reputation? If you choose your security and stopping the wars — and this has been shown by opinion polls — then this requires that you act to stop those who are tampering with our security on your end. We are prepared to respond to this option on sound and fair foundations that have been mentioned before.

“Here is an important point that we should pay attention to with regard to war and stopping it. When Bush assumed power and appointed a defense secretary who had made the biggest contribution to killing more than two million persecuted villagers in Vietnam, sane people predicted that Bush was preparing for new massacres in his era. This was what took place in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Obama assumed power and kept the men of Cheney and Bush — namely, the senior officials in the Defense Department, like Gates, Mullen, and Petraeus — sane people knew that Obama is a weak person who will not be able to stop the war as he had promised and that he would procrastinate as much as possible. If he were to decide, then he would hand over command to the generals who oppose this aimless war, like the former commander of troops in Iraq, General Sanchez, and the commander of the Central Command who was forced by Bush to resign shortly before leaving the White House due to his opposition to the war. He appointed instead of him a person who would escalate the war. Under the cover of his readiness to cooperate with the Republicans, Obama made the biggest trick as he kept the most important and most dangerous secretary from Cheney’s men to continue the war. The days will show you that you have changed only faces in the White House. The bitter truth is that the neoconservatives are still a heavy burden on you.

“Once again, if you stop the war, then that is fine. If you choose not to stop the war, then we have no other option but to continue the war of attrition against you on all possible axes, just as we did with the Soviet Union for 10 years until it disintegrated, with the grace of God. Continue the war for as long as you wish. You are fighting a desperate, losing war that is in favor of others. There seems to be no end in sight for this war.

“Russian generals, who learned lessons from the battles in Afghanistan, had anticipated the result of the war before its start, but you do not like those who give you advice. This is a losing war, God willing, as it is funded by money that is borrowed based on exorbitant usury and is fought by soldiers whose morale is down and who commit suicide on a daily basis to escape from this war.

“This war was prescribed to you by two doctors, Cheney and Bush, as a cure for the 11 September events. However, the bitterness and losses caused by this war are worse than the bitterness of the events themselves. The accumulated debts incurred as a result of this war have almost done away with the US economy as a whole. It has been said that disease could be less evil than some medicines.

“Praise be to God, we are carrying our weapon on our shoulders and have been fighting the two poles of evil in the East and the West for 30 years. Throughout this period, we have not seen any cases of suicide among us despite the international pursuit against us. We praise God for this. This proves the soundness of our belief and the justice of our cause. God willing, we will continue our way to liberate our land. Our weapon is patience. We seek victory from God. We will not give up the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We hold on to Palestine more than we hold on to our souls. Continue the war as long as you wish, we will never bargain over it (Palestine).

“Endless war will not tire me
“For I am now fully grown and strong
“For this, my mother begot me (lines of poetry)
“Peace be upon those who follow guidance.”

~ Al-Qa’ida leader Usama Bin Ladin

How to make a woman happy…

It’s not difficult to make a woman happy, a man only needs to be:

1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate
44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

45. give her compliments regularly
46. love shopping
47. be honest
48. be very rich
49. not stress her out
50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:

51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS ALSO VERY IMPORTANT:

54. Never to forget:
* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes

HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY:

1. Show up naked or just wearing a cotton tee.
2. Bring beer.
3. Hand over the remote.
4. Discuss how to rank the following women on attractiveness, sexiness, as a lover: Jessica Alba, Megan Fox, Scarlett Johanssen.