The Alchemist (1993)

“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.”

“That makes sense,” the alchemist answered. “Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”

“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”

“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and about the world.”

“You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?”

“Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.

“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.”

The boy continued to listen to his heart as they crossed the desert. He came to understand its dodges and tricks, and to accept it as it was. He lost his fear, and forgot about his need to go back to the oasis, because, one afternoon, his heart told him that it was happy. “Even though I complain sometimes,” it said, “it’s because I’m the heart of a person, and people’s hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

“Every second of the search is an encounter with God,” the boy told his heart. “When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I’ve known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I’ve discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve.”

So his heart was quiet for an entire afternoon. That night, the boy slept deeply, and, when he awoke, his heart began to tell him things that came from the Soul of the World. It said that all people who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said. Because a grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken millions of years to create it. “Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him,” his heart said. “We, people’s hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out indeed, to be threatening place.

“So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.”

“Why don’t people’s hearts tell them to continue to follow their dreams?” the boy asked the alchemist.

“Because that’s what makes a heart suffer most, and hearts don’t like to suffer.”

From then on, the boy understood his heart. He asked it, please, never to stop speaking to him. He asked that, when he wandered far from his dreams, his heart press him and sound the alarm. The boy swore that, every time he heard the alarm, he would heed its message.

That night, he told all of this to the alchemist. And the alchemist understood that the boy’s heart had returned to the Soul of the World.

“So, what should I do now?” the boy asked. Continue in the direction of the Pyramids,” said the alchemist. “And continue to pay heed to the omens. Your heart is still capable of showing you where the treasure is.”

“Is that the one thing I still needed to know?”

“No,” the alchemist answered. “What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one `dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’

“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”

The boy remembered an old proverb from his country. It said that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.

Echosmith – Cool Kids

She sees them walking in a straight line, that’s not really her style
They all got the same heartbeat, but hers is falling behind
Nothing in this world could ever bring them down
Yeah, they’re invincible and she’s just in the background

And she says

I wish that I could be like the cool kids cuz all the cool kids, they seem to fit in
I wish that I could be like the cool kids, like the cool kids

He sees them talking with a big smile, but they haven’t got a clue
Yeah, they’re living the good life, can’t see what he is going through
They’re driving fast cars, but they don’t know where they’re going
In the fast lane, living life without knowing

4 Singaporean hikers who went missing at Malaysia’s Gunung Angsi found

A hike into the jungles of Negeri Sembilan went frighftully awry for four Singaporeans who found themselves separated from their group and got lost for 10 hours in the Malaysian wilderness.

The four Singaporeans — all of whom are in their mid-20s — had joined about 35 other hikers at 8am for a trek up the 824 metres-high Gunung Angsi in Negeri Sembilan last Sunday morning when they lost their way during their descent, The New Paper reports.

During the return hike after reaching the summit of the mountain, the four friends broke away from the main group to descend through the more scenic Ulu Bendul waterfall trail, navigating their way around using white plastic markers tied to the trees.

They soon lost track of the markers after circumventing a large fallen tree and decided to call the park rangers for instructions when it started pouring. They followed the park ranger’s instructions to follow a river, and several hours later at 9pm they arrived at an oil palm plantation.

Exploring further down the plantation, they stumbled upon a hostel of an electronics factory and notified a security guard stationed there. The fire department was soon alerted and they were given a ride to the Ulu Bendul Recreation Park ranger office.

Reportedly, the local Fire and Rescue Department had been alerted about their disappearance earlier, and 29 officers were deployed to search for the missing hikers.

One of their friends drove all the way from Singapore to Negeri Sembilan to pick them up from the park, and they reached back home early yesterday morning around 3.30am.

‘I first met Subhas in jail’

Jail can break a man – but not this lawyer and his resolve to defend others

 By K.C. Vijayan Senior Law Correspondent

I first met Subhas Anandan about 40 years ago in the most unlikely of places – a hospital ward in Changi Prison.

Clad in prison-issue hospital clothes, he was seated calmly on a bed, and I was the prison officer rostered to the hospital wing and doing the rounds.

Singapore’s best-known criminal lawyer in recent times, Subhas was 67 when he died last Wednesday, less than two weeks after his birthday on Christmas Day.

But in 1976, he was a newly admitted detainee under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, which allows for detention without trial.

Suspected of being in a secret society, he was held at the Queenstown Remand Prison. But shortly afterwards, he was admitted to the hospital ward at Changi Prison for psychiatric observation.

We did not talk much since we were on opposite sides of the fence as it were.

But among other things, he did tell me how terrified he was and expressed disbelief at being locked up in a single cell in Queenstown prison.

He said he had slammed his fists against the wooden door ceaselessly, a possible symptom of the claustrophobia that triggered his transfer to Changi.

In less than a month, he was cleared medically and was taken back to Queenstown, where he stayed among more than 300 detainees.

He was generally well-respected by those in detention, who admired his position as a lawyer, and, having grown up with four siblings in the rough and tumble of a Sembawang kampung, he was able to relate to them.

He was freed after nine months, and placed on police supervision for a spell following a probe which saw a police inspector prosecuted but cleared by a court in 1977 for the alleged frame-up of Subhas.

It is said that jail can break a man. But in his case, it seemed only to strengthen his commitment to defend alleged thieves, rapists and murderers who could not afford access to lawyers, no matter how heinous their offences.

As he once said: “I understand their plight better.”

Examples abound.

Like the case of an alleged molester for whom he successfully obtained an acquittal.

The man’s mother approached him when he was working at Harry Elias Partnership and offered him $5,000 – all of her life’s savings.

He told her to keep the money as her gratitude was reward enough.

Or the case of vegetable packer Took Leng How, who killed eight-year-old Huang Na, a sensational case in 2004.

In an interview with this paper last November, Subhas recalled the day he took up the case for free after Took’s parents went to see him after taking an overnight bus from Penang.

“They really looked tired and they had no sleep. They said, ‘Please help our son.’ His grandmother was also there and she fell on my legs.

“I said, ‘I understand.’ They were completely broken during the trial.”

In the same interview, he was asked about a statue of a Hindu god placed in a glass frame behind his desk at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing, a firm he helped set up.

He said it was a gift from a client who could not afford to pay.

These anecdotes show not only how strongly he felt about defending people, which translated into his combative approach in court, but also his kindness and ability to look beyond the flaws of individuals, to the extent of persuading others to offer former convicts jobs.

Asked what Subhas had said about his own prison experience, Senior Counsel Harry Elias, who knew him for more than four decades, said: “He was angry but he said he promised his mother he would never harm the man who allegedly fixed him up.”

Legal consultant Vangat Ramayah, who also knew the man for more than 40 years, said growing up in a Sembawang kampung in the 1960s gave Subhas a certain philosophical outlook.

Not only did he face adversity, but he also lived in a close-knit community where the culture was for each person to look out for the other and overlook differences.

“Subhas’ approach was to live and let live, and he accepted people for what they were, warts, blemishes and all. This made him unique, and endearing to all,” he said.

But in court, there was a brashness about him, a seeming refusal to admit that the odds were against him.

Lawyer Mohandas Naidu said that Subhas never pretended to have the intellectual heft of others in the legal profession.

“He was direct, precise and pointed in his cross-examination of cases and showed ability to match the best, including senior counsel,” added Mr Naidu, a partner in the same firm in the years after Subhas’ release from prison.

My colleague Selina Lum, who covers the courts, remembers how the pragmatic Subhas always “went for the big picture, and did not quibble over small, small details in a case”.

He never gave up even when the cause was lost, as in the case of Anthony Ler, the man who manipulated a teenager into killing his wife. “Ler never ever admitted to murder of his wife to anybody,” he pointed out after his client was convicted and executed.

Some have suggested that his contributions to the pro bono landscape and the legal profession meant he deserved to have been made a senior counsel – a distinction introduced in 1997 to mark out those who “apart from having top-tier advocacy skills, professional integrity and being learned in the law, have a duty of leading and being an example to the rest of the Bar”.

It is believed that several years ago, he failed to get the referee he sought to mount an application for him to be appointed a senior counsel. After that, he dropped the idea.

It is not too late to honour him, and Subhas might well deserve to be made an honorary senior counsel posthumously.

Our first encounter in prison was not lost on him when our paths crossed again some 25 years later when I became a reporter.

I was one of many who tracked him on criminal cases and topical issues because of his willingness to share interesting nuggets to spice up a story chase or to provide a new perspective. Like how he once let on, after the conviction of a molester he had defended, that the culprit had failed a police lie detector test.

When we met last year after he returned from long medical leave, he autographed his book, The Best I Could, for me, writing: “Thanks for being a friend.”

Handing me the book, he said: “We go back a long way.”

The Padres – November 91

Tonight we see another face
Another broken gaze
By the light that barely burns on
She’s held by electric wire
Delivered a crying baby
A youth so what
You bring her home
Wherever she wants to
November 91
I thought it rained… forever… forever

Did you see her
She steal your heart by chance?
I like to know your crime
When you hear your heartbeat sleeping
Bit by bit good night
She floats across the dance hall
Towards that exit door
She’s wasting every moment
November 91
I thought it rained… forever… forever

End of CD era


Gramophone was famed for its huge selections of music as well as secondhand CD’s and DVD’s. –PHOTO: ST/CAROLINE CHIA


Local music retailer Gramophone, finally pulled down its shutters for the last time on Sept 18 2013. –PHOTO: ST/JASON QUAH

BY IGNATIUS LOW

It seems to be the season for saying goodbye.

Two weeks ago, we said goodbye to Nokia mobile phones after the Finnish telecoms giant sold the business to Microsoft.

This week, a different sort of player made its exit – one much closer to home but, for me at least, no less loved.

After struggling the past few years with huge changes to the music industry that have decimated its business, local music retailer Gramophone finally pulled down its shutters for the last time last Wednesday.
Continue reading “End of CD era” →

Tales of a taxi ‘Uncle’

ST manpower correspondent Toh Yong Chuan steps into the shoes of a Singapore taxi driver
From the surly to the genial, it is passengers who make or break your day. But the pressure sure piles up

DEC 1, 2014
BY TOH YONG CHUAN MANPOWER CORRESPONDENT

On my fourth day as a taxi driver, I drove for six hours at night with just one five-minute toilet break.

It was past midnight when I headed home and absent-mindedly got into the wrong lane at the junction of Bishan Road and Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1. The traffic lights turned green and I took off, almost hitting another taxi.

When I got home, my wife greeted me with a hug and said: “You have the taxi driver smell.”

“It is the smell of hard work,” I said. It was the odour of being cooped up for hours in stale air. I didn’t mention my near accident.
I have always been fascinated by cabbies. As a manpower reporter, I have interviewed numerous drivers, yet there remained so much I did not know about them. Topmost on my mind as I embarked on a two-week stint as a cabby were these questions: How hard is it to be a cabby? And how much can a cabby earn?

So my SMRT cab, a Toyota Prius with the registration number SHC4123S, became my second home for 10 to 12 hours a day. I split a typical day into two, plying the roads from 6.30am to 11am, and from 5pm until I was too tired to go on.

Every morning I would head first to Serangoon North or Ang Mo Kio housing estate, near my home. There are always passengers going to work from Housing Board estates.

After that, there was no telling where I would end up.

I thought I knew Singapore well, but my stint as a cabby took me to places I never knew existed. I picked up passengers from obscure spots like a sprawling offshore marine base in Loyang, and Punggol Seventeenth Avenue in an area that somehow doesn’t have Avenues One to Sixteen.

I discovered that Tampines housing estate is so huge it is sandwiched between Tampines Expressway and the Pan Island Expressway, and is accessible via no fewer than seven expressway entrances and exits. I found myself in Tampines almost every other day during my cab driving stint.

Lessons from passengers

On Day 1, my first passenger was a man in his 30s, dressed in a blue long-sleeved shirt and black trousers.

He got into my cab at 6.50am along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 9 and said: “Pandan Crescent, go by Upper Thomson, Lornie, Farrer, AYE.”

Those were the only words he uttered and he kept his eyes locked on his smartphone for the rest of the journey. He did not notice that in my excitement at picking up my first fare, I had forgotten to start the meter until about seven minutes into the trip. His fare was $23.73 and I must have saved him about $2.

He gave me a hint of what was to come – that most passengers prefer to be left alone.

The rest of that day took me to Changi Airport, Bedok, Pickering Street, Alexandra Road, Amoy Street and Upper Bukit Timah Road in the morning. That evening, I went to Serangoon Road, Mount Vernon Road, Yishun, Woodlands, Sembawang Road, Tampines, Bedok, Bishan and Paya Lebar.

All my passengers were people who flagged me on the street. I was not confident enough to respond to radio bookings, which would have needed me to reach the pick-up point within five, seven or nine minutes of a call. So I ended up cruising empty most of that day, with the longest stretch of over an hour in Woodlands.

My best passenger was a woman in her early 40s who got into my cab along Alexandra Road. I chatted with her and eventually revealed that I was driving the cab for charity. She handed me $12 for her fare of $11.18 when she reached her Amoy Street office and said: “Keep the change.”

The worst experience was after I picked up a woman at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in the evening. She wanted to go to a condominium in Jalan Mata Ayer, off Sembawang Road, which I was unfamiliar with. She was from Myanmar, and I misunderstood her directions, given in halting English. When I took a wrong turn, she let fly with a rebuke in Myanmarese. The taxi meter showed $9.44 but I said she could pay just $8. That pacified her a little.

My first day ended at midnight when I pulled into my regular Caltex petrol station in Lorong Chuan to refuel and wash the cab. My usual car washer Zainal did not recognise me until I waved at him – twice. “Times are bad huh? You started driving taxi part-time?” he asked.

I was too tired to explain. I had driven 246km and taken 14 people on 13 trips. My takings, after deducting petrol cost, taxi rental and $4 for washing the cab, came to just $29.66 for 12 hours’ work.

Thankfully, things got better over the following days. I kept to the same work routine except on weekends, when I drove from noon to midnight.

By the end of Day 2, I had fine-tuned my greetings to these:

“Good morning, Sir!”

“Good evening, Madam!”

“Heading to work, Sir?”

“Going shopping, Madam?”

“You’re going to work early, Sir!”

“Long day at work, Madam?”

If the passenger did not reply or uttered only a monosyllabic answer, I took it as my cue to be quiet and to just drive.

Passengers travelling in groups tend to ignore the cabby, talking among themselves as if you are not there. So I couldn’t help overhearing people complaining about the Government, and workers complaining about their bosses. A young couple having a tiff complained about each other all the way from Sembawang Shopping Centre to Toa Payoh Lorong 1. “I am breaking off with you,” yelled the woman as she stormed off.

There were some passengers who, literally, made me feel sick.

Like the young woman I picked up in Jurong East who coughed and sneezed all the way to Choa Chu Kang. When it came time for her to pay, I hesitated when she handed me the money. After she left, I sprayed the cab generously with the Lysol disinfectant I kept in the cab’s glove compartment.

Then there was the man who sounded like he was from China. Getting into my cab near Bugis Junction, he burped. And burped. And burped. It was obvious that he had just eaten “ma la huo guo”, or spicy steamboat, for dinner.

An elderly man who got into my cab in Coleman Lane, at the Grand Park City Hall hotel, wanted me to reverse about two car lengths back into Coleman Street to avoid going round the block so he would save 30 cents.

In Chinatown, a man heading for South Bridge Road told me to take a “short cut” through Temple Street from New Bridge Road. I did, only to find traffic at a standstill along Temple Street – and that was when he paid up and jumped out, leaving me stuck for 15 minutes.

I have to say something about people who eat in taxis. While drivers cannot stop people from eating in their cabs, most dislike it because of the smell and the mess left behind. Thankfully I met only one passenger who ate on the go. The young mother insisted on feeding her toddler biscuits despite my asking her not to eat in the cab.

“The boy is hungry,” she insisted.

They left such a mess that I had to spend 30 minutes and more than half their $8.30 fare to have the cab cleaned at a petrol station.

My most unpleasant ride of all was with a woman in her 50s who complained non-stop about my driving from Tagore Industrial Park to Yishun Avenue 3. Her beef was that I drove too slowly and braked too hard.

“You are a new driver and it is my bad luck getting into your cab,” she ranted. “I was planning to buy 4D but I will not, because it is bad luck meeting you.”

I just bit my tongue.

But my worst passengers were the ones I never met. They were the people who made taxi bookings, then failed to show up.

On a rainy Wednesday morning I was in Telok Blangah Way when I accepted a call booking for Delta Avenue, and headed there rightaway. It took five minutes and I passed more than five passengers trying to hail cabs in the rain. When I got to the pick-up point, the passenger was nowhere to be found.

It was one of three “no shows” I encountered during my stint. Taxi drivers are helpless when this happens.

Each day, however, I would meet at least one or two passengers who stood out by being pleasant, saying “please” or “thank you”, or making conversation that helped to make a lonely job less monotonous.

I took three British Airways pilots from Mandarin Hotel in Orchard Road to the Esplanade, where they were going to have supper at Makansutra Gluttons Bay. When we got there, they invited me to join them. “C’mon, take a break,” one of them said, and he meant it. I declined because I was just too tired.

A teacher and an architect who spoke with me long enough to learn I was a reporter on assignment and that all my earnings would go to charity paid me in $50 notes and told me to keep the change – which added up to $43.

A passenger I took from the Botanic Gardens to Battery Road sent SMRT an e-mail complimenting me, saying: “I feel that he really went the extra mile to provide a comfortable journey for all his customers and I am really impressed. Thank you, Uncle!”

It made my day.

As my days of being a cabby progressed, I found that my earnings were decent, if not very high.

The most I earned in a single day – after driving 12 hours and deducting what a cabby usually pays for taxi rental and fuel – was $141. It would mean a monthly income of more than $4,000 if every day was like that and I worked a full month. My typical daily takings were between $90 and $100, or about $3,000 a month, and even that would call for driving 10 to 12 hours a day, with no day off.

The median gross monthly income of Singaporeans and permanent residents in June this year, excluding employers’ CPF contributions, was $3,276.

My stint was too short for me to befriend other cabbies at coffeeshops, but I managed to pick up some secrets of the trade.

It’s easy to get passengers in the morning when people are heading to work from HDB estates.
To earn $3 more in the evening, go into the CBD and pick up passengers while the CBD surcharge applies from 5pm to midnight. Sorry, but people waiting just outside the CBD will have to just keep waiting. Even inside the CBD, cabs will be scarce just before the surcharge hours begin.
Heartland towns like Woodlands and Sembawang offer slim pickings in the evenings, because residents hardly go out then. But hospitals everywhere are good places to find passengers, especially after evening visiting hours.
Overall, demand for taxis far exceeds supply during the morning and evening peak hours, so a cabby who is disciplined about driving during these periods can earn a decent living.
There are downsides as well.

The long hours on the road affected my sleep, and most nights I slept barely six hours. By Day 3, I was resorting to taking two Panadols before hitting the road.

Backaches were a frequent bother, from sitting so long.

Cabbies need toilet breaks, and the most convenient stops are at petrol stations. I found that many do not have soap, and at a Geylang petrol station, the toilet has no door.

There are simply no convenient public toilets in the Orchard Road area for taxi drivers, but I discovered that the Ba’alwie Mosque off Dunearn Road lets cabbies use its toilet. I blessed the good people of the mosque when I needed to go desperately one night.

My cab-driving days ended on Day 11 of my stint. It wasn’t a good day for me.

Early that morning the 16-year-old schoolboy in my cab was late for school and begged me to drive faster. I relented, stepped on the gas and ran a red light at 6.47am. Instantly, there were two camera flashes and I knew I had been caught by the traffic light camera. That meant $200 gone in less than a second – my earnings from about 18 hours of work!

But that wasn’t why I stopped driving. The trouble had begun two days earlier, when I discovered I’d developed a haemorrhoid from nine days of sitting for hours. I learnt that haemorrhoids are a common ailment among cabbies, along with backaches and high blood pressure.

The pain had become unbearable, so I decided to end my cab-driving experiment three days earlier than planned.

A month later, the traffic summons arrived. I hoped the Traffic Police would be sympathetic, but my appeal drew a swift rejection and a chiding: “Make a conscious effort to comply with traffic rules and regulations which are made for your own safety and that of other road users.”

Looking back, I still wonder why even passengers much older than me called me “Uncle”. It seems that if you drive a taxi in Singapore, you’re everyone’s Uncle or Auntie.

I returned the cab to SMRT after clocking 2,739km, having earned $2,294.60 for charity and gaining a newfound respect for taxi drivers.

Alesso ft. Tove Lo – Heroes (We Could Be)

We go hideaway in daylight
We go undercover when under sun
Got a secret side in plain sight
Where the streets are empty
That’s where we run

Everyday people do
Everyday things but I
Can’t be one of them
I know you hear me now
We are a different kind
We can do anything

We could be heroes
We could be heroes
Me and you
We could be heroes
We could be heroes
Me and you
We could be

Anybody’s got the power
They don’t see it ‘cos they don’t understand
Spin around and round for hours
You and me we got the world in our hands

October 2009 Condo Directory – East Coast – D15 & D16 Prices

Singapore East Coast from Sands SkyPark

Condo Name Street PSF Tenure Year
11 Amber Road Amber Road S$700 F 2005
833 M B Residences Mountbatten Road N/A F 2012
9 @ Seraya Seraya Lane N/A F 2009
Aalto Meyer Road S$2,436 F 2012
Aldea Blanca Upper East Coast Road S$640 F 1970
Alpha Apartments Koon Seng Road S$531 F 2005
Amber Park Amber Gardens S$746 F 1986
Amber Point Amber Road S$929 F 2000
Amber Residences Amber Road S$1,070 F 2012
Amber Towers Amber Road S$852 L99 2000
Amberglades Amber Gardens S$888 F 2000
Amberville Marine Parade Road S$632 L99 2000
Anchor Gardens Upper East Coast Road S$524 F 2000
Apollo Gardens Sunbird Circle S$651 F 2000
Aquarine Gardens Upper East Coast Road S$678 F 2004
Aquarius By The Park Bedok Reservoir View S$608 L99 2002
Aquene Lorong Bandang S$849 F 2008
Arthur 118 Arthur Road S$929 F 2006
Arthur Mansions Arthur Road S$960 F 2000
Aspen Loft Joo Chiat Terrace S$681 F 2005
Axis @ Siglap East Coast Terrace S$883 F 2010
Balcon East Upper East Coast Road S$841 F 2012
Bayshore Park Bayshore Park S$755 L99 1986
Baywater Bedok Reservoir Road S$618 L99 2006
Bedok Court Bedok South Avenue 3 S$457 L99 1985
Bedok Park Limau Garden S$601 F 1970
Bedok Ria Bedok Ria Crescent S$790 F 1993
Bellezza @ Katong Ceylon Road S$662 F 2007
Bleu @ East Coast Upper East Coast Road S$740 F 2010
Blu Coral Condo Lor L Telok Kurau S$750 F 2011
Breeze By The East Upper East Coast Road S$806 F 2011
Butterworth 33 Butterworth Lane S$713 F 2006
Butterworth 8 Butterworth Lane S$797 F 2004
Butterworth View Butterworth Lane S$699 F 1999
Cadence Light Telok Kurau Road S$625 F 2007
Callidora Ville Lor N Telok Kurau S$724 F 2009
Camelot Tanjong Rhu Road S$1,172 L99 2001
Canary Park Jalan Simpang Bedok S$604 F 1992
Cantiz @ Rambai Rambai Road S$768 F 2011
Casa Aroma Chiku Road N/A F 2003
Casa Merah Tanah Merah Kechil Avenue S$772 L99 2010
Casa Meyfort Meyer Road S$648 F 1992
Casafina Bedok South Ave 1 S$566 L99 2000
Cascadale Upper Changi Road East S$533 F 1994
Casero @ Dunman Dunman Road S$895 F 2008
Casuarina Cove Tanjong Rhu Road S$659 L99 1996
Celestia Joo Chiat Terrace S$576 F 2010
Ceylon Crest Ceylon Road S$782 F 2005
Changi Court Upper Changi Road East S$680 F 1997
Changi Green Upper Changi Road East S$700 F 2001
Chapel Lodge Lorong Stangee S$804 F 1994
Chateau La Salle La Salle Street S$554 F 2012
Chelsea Lodge Tanjong Katong Road S$728 F 2000
Coastarina East Coast Road S$847 F 2006
Costa Del Sol Bayshore Road S$988 L99 2003
Costa Este Lorong K Telok Kurau S$749 F 2010
Costa Rhu Rhu Cross S$879 L99 1998
Cote D’Azur Marine Parade Road S$1,002 L99 2005
Country Park Condo Bedok Road S$733 F 2003
Crane Court Crane Road S$775 F 2004
Crescendo Park Jalan Tua Kong S$662 F 1996
Crystal Rhu Tanjong Rhu Road S$985 F 2000
D’Ecosia Still Road South S$580 F 2003
D’Fresco Joo Chiat Lane S$787 F 2011
D’Manor Tanah Merah Kechil Ave S$439 L99 2001
D’Marine Joo Chiat Road S$825 F 2005
D’Sunrise Joo Chiat Lane S$627 F 2006
D’Wilkinson Wilkinson Road S$877 F 2006
Dawn Ville Butterworth Lane S$705 F 1999
De Casalle Lor N Telok Kurau N/A F 1996
De Centurion Tanjong Rhu Road S$1,081 F 2010
Dunman Place Dunman Road S$796 F 2001
Dunman View Haig Road S$824 L99 2004
E-Space Lorong K Telok Kurau S$828 F 2008
East Bay Tay Lian Teck Road S$758 F 2012
East Coast Hill Sennett Avenue S$609 F 1977
East Coast Mansions East Coast Road S$683 F 1970
East Coast Residences Upper East Coast Road S$859 F 2010
East Elegance Joo Chiat Terrace S$664 F 2007
East Galleria Sea Avenue S$860 F 2008
East Grove East Coast Road S$619 F 1970
East Meadows Tanah Merah Kechil Rd S$681 L99 2001
East Palm Palm Road S$948 F 2004
East Signature Elliot Walk S$911 F 2005
East View Brooke Road S$808 F 1999
Eastern Lagoon I Upper East Coast Road S$735 F 1985
Eastern Lagoon II Upper East Coast Road S$942 F 1985
Eastwood Centre Eastwood Road S$575 L99 1998
Eastwood Green Eastwood Road S$563 L99 1999
Eastwood Park Eastwood Walk S$475 L99 1998
Eastwood Ville Eastwood Terrace S$422 L99 1998
Ebony Mansions Lorong M Telok Kurau S$690 F 1995
Eight @ East Coast Upper East Coast Road S$533 F 2009
Emerald East Tanjong Rhu Road S$1,139 F 1998
Emery Point Ipoh Lane S$718 F 2005
Emprado Suites Lorong N Telok Kurau S$895 F 2009
Equatorial Apartments Meyer Road S$954 F 1977
Espira Residence Lorong K Telok Kurau S$641 F 2010
Espira Spring Lorong G Telok Kuarau S$805 F 2010
Esterina Haig Avenue N/A F 2009
Estique Rose Lane S$997 F 2007
Excelsior Gardens Minaret Walk S$806 F 1991
Fairmount Condo Eastwood Road S$664 L99 2000
Fernwood Towers Fernwood Terrace S$817 F 1994
Finland Gardens East Coast Avenue S$619 F 1989
Fort Gardens Fort Road S$814 F 1993
Fortredale Tanjong Rhu Road S$678 F 1999
Fortune Jade Dunman Road S$814 F 2004
Frankel Estate Siglap Road S$919 F 1970
Fruition Mangis Road S$631 F 2009
Galaxy Towers Onan Road S$563 F 1989
Gallery 8 Pulasan Road S$641 F 2004
Goldearth Lodge Joo Chiat Place S$623 F 2002
Goldearth View Joo Chiat Place S$724 F 1970
Gracious Mansions Jalan Rendang S$632 F 1970
Grand Duchess at St Pat’s Saint Patrick’s Road S$958 F 2010
Grand Residence Lorong G Telok Kurau S$558 F 2008
Haig Court Haig Road S$840 F 2004
Haig Eleven Haig Avenue S$740 F 2006
Haig Gardens Ipoh Lane S$619 F 1980
Hawaii Tower Meyer Road S$971 F 1984
Heritage Residences Lorong L Telok Kurau S$623 F 2008
Homey Gardens Lorong M Telok Kurau S$702 F 2004
Idyllic East Upper East Coast Road S$795 F 2011
Idyllic Residences Lor M Telok Kurau S$587 F 2009
Imperial Heights Ipoh Lane S$1,150 F 2009
Ivory Ceylon Lane S$662 F 2012
JC Residence Joo Chiat Lane S$560 L99 2006
Katong Gardens Tembeling Road S$640 F 1984
Katong Omega Apt East Coast Road N/A F 1988
Katong Park Towers Arthur Road S$695 L99 1987
Kew Gate Limau Garden N/A L99 1997
Kew Green Kew Crescent S$422 L99 1998
Kew Residencia Kew Crescent S$405 L99 1997
Kew Vale Collection Kew Avenue S$633 L99 1997
King’s Mansion Amber Road S$873 F 1980
La Meyer Meyer Road S$960 F 1994
Lagoon View Marine Parade Road S$511 L99 1970
Laguna 88 Eastwood Road S$602 L99 2001
Laguna Green Jalan Hajijah S$693 L99 1999
Laguna Park Marine Parade Road S$757 L99 1993
Laguna Villas Upper East Coast Road N/A F 1993
Landbay Condo Jalan Hajijah S$767 F 1999
Le Conney Park (phrase 2) Lorong L Telok Kurau S$573 F 1997
Le Merritt Lorong M Telok Kurau S$803 F 2008
Legenda @ Joo Chiat Joo Chiat Lane S$605 L99 2004
Limau Villas Limau Terrace S$699 L99 1998
Livingston Mansions Lorong L Telok Kurau S$598 F 2002
Lucky Court Lucky Heights S$530 F 1990
Mabelle Lor M Telok Kurau S$785 F 2010
Malvern Springs Onan Road S$682 F 2004
Mandarin Gardens Siglap Road S$691 L99 1986
Marine Point Marine Parade Road S$545 F 1985
Martia 8 Martia Road S$568 F 2002
Martia Residence Martia Road S$508 F 2007
Maya Still Road S$693 F 2007
Meier Suites Margate Road N/A F 2014
Mera Terrace Seagull Walk S$669 F 1997
Meyer Park Meyer Road S$1,194 F 1985
Meyer Residence Meyer Place S$1,208 F 2009
Mia Place Arthur Road N/A F 1997
Mistral Park Jalan Angin Laut S$626 F 1995
Mountbatten Lodge Mouthbatten Road S$1,304 F 1998
Mountbatten Regency Mouthbatten Road S$745 F 2007
Mountbatten Suites Mountbatten Road S$725 F 2009
Naturalis Lor M Telok Kurau S$820 F 2011
Neptune Court Marine Vista S$581 L99 1975
Ocean Park East Coast Road S$845 F 1983
Odeon Katong Shop’ Com East Coast Road S$810 L99 1970
OLA Residences Mountbatten Road S$965 F 2012
One Amber Amber Gardens S$1,115 F 2010
One @ Pulasan Pulasan Road S$1,012 F 2009
One Fort Fort Road S$1,052 F 2005
One K Green Lane Green Lane S$624 F 2005
Opera Estate Carmen Street S$724 F 1980
Optima @ Tanah Merah New Upper Changi Road S$821 L99 2014
Ovada 8 Koon Seng Road S$609 F 2002
Palazzetto Tanjong Rhu Road S$917 F 2003
Palm Galleria Lor K Telok Kurau S$947 F 2010
Palm Loft Joo Chiat Terrace S$554 F 2008
Palm Oasis Lorong H Telok Kurau S$836 F 2009
Palm Vista Lorong G Telok Kurau S$739 F 2010
Palmwoods Upper Changi Road S$558 L99 2000
Paradise Palms Dunman Road S$833 F 2003
Parbury Hill Condo Parbury Avenue S$749 F 1998
Parc Seabreeze Joo Chiat Road S$1,269 F 2012
Park East Jalan Tua Kong S$710 F 1994
Parkshore Tanjong Rhu Road S$999 F 1995
Parkway Mansion Amber Road S$616 F 1982
Peach Garden Peach Garden S$886 F 1970
Pebble Bay Tanjong Rhu Road S$1,122 L99 1998
Picardy Gardens Jalan Pari Burong S$445 F 1975
Pine View Lorong K Telok Kurau S$564 F 1970
Pinehurst Condo Lorong L Telok Kurau S$638 F 1995
Poshgrove East East Coast Road S$860 F 2008
Prestige Residence Lorong G Telok Kurau S$867 F 2008
Rambutan Mansions Rambutan Road S$574 F 1994
Residence 118 Lorong L Telok Kurau S$715 F 2006
Residence 66 Telok Kurau Road S$700 F
Residences @ Limau Limau Grove S$585 F 2007
Residences @ Stangee Lor Stangee S$517 F 2010
Residences 81 Lorong G Telok Kurau N/A F 2010
Rich East Garden Upper East Coast Road S$565 F 1983
Ritz Regency Ipoh Lane S$820 F 2010
Rivage Margate Road S$984 F 2009
Riveredge Sampan Place S$862 L99 2008
Riviera Residences Riviera Drive S$847 F 2008
Rose Mansions Rose Lane S$664 F 2002
Rose Ville Rose Lane S$607 F 1995
Roxy Square Brooke Road N/A F 2000
Royale Mansions Pulasan Road S$620 F 1992
Saint Patrick’s Loft Saint Patrick’s Road S$759 F 2010
Sanctuary Green Tanjong Rhu Road S$829 L99 2003
Santa Fe Mansions Margate Road S$966 F 1998
Sea Avenue Residences Sea Avenue S$842 F 2006
Seaview Point Amber Road S$704 F 1994
Seraya Breeze Seraya Road S$664 F 2003
Seraya Ville Seraya Lane S$555 F 1992
Shu Jin Court Lorong K Telok Kurau S$559 F 1970
Siglap Court Siglap Road S$835 F 1970
Signature Crest Gray Lane S$680 F 2006
Signature Residence Green Lane S$846 F 2008
Singa Garden Mouthbatten Road S$655 F 1970
Spring @ Katong Ceylon Road S$647 F 2007
Spring @ Langsat Langsat Road N/A F 2013
Springvale East Coast Road S$662 F 1995
St Patrick’s Garden Saint Patrick’s Road S$664 F 1981
St Patrick’s Villa Saint Patrick’s Road S$548 F 1970
Stillingia Court Still Road S$996 F 1970
Stratford Court Bedok Ria Crescent S$559 L99 2000
Suites @ Amber Amber Road S$1,350 F 2011
Summer Gardens Upper Changi Road East S$380 L99 2004
Sunhaven Upper Changi Road S$673 F 2003
Sunny Palms Lorong G Telok Kurau S$370 F 2004
Sunshine Grandeur Lorong K Telok Kurau S$944 F 2008
Sunshine Mansions Joo Chiat Place S$596 F 2006
Sunshine Regency Rambai Road S$651 F 2007
Sunshine Residences Lorong K Telok Kurau N/A F 2006
Taipan Grand Marine Parade Road S$889 F 2005
Tanah Merah Green Jalan Tanah Rata S$719 F 2000
Tanamera Crest Pari Dedap Walk S$624 L99 2004
Tanjong Ria Condo Tanjong Rhu Road S$800 L99 1997
Telok Indah Lorong G Telok Kurau S$447 L99 1996
Telok Kurau Court Telok Kurau Road S$432 F 1970
The Adara Chapel Road S$626 F 2013
The Albracca Meyer Road S$565 F 1990
The Amarelle Lim Ah Woo Road S$800 F 2010
The Ambra Lor H Telok Kurau S$570 F 2012
The Ambrosia Lor N Telok Kurau S$835 F 2011
The Amery Lor K Telok Kuaru S$809 F 2012
The Aristo Amber Road S$1,074 F 2013
The Atria at Meyer Meyer Road S$1,003 F 1996
The Azzuro Lor H Telok Kurau S$589 F 2014
The Bale Lorong H Telok Kurau S$796 F 2008
The Baycourt Upper East Coast Road S$716 F 1994
The Bayshore Bayshore Road S$736 L99 1999
The Beacon Edge Tembeling Road S$670 F 2010
The Belvedere Meyer Road S$1,151 F 2008
The Carpmaelina Carpmael Road S$628 F 2005
The Clearwater Bedok Reservoir View S$682 L99 2002
The Daffodil Upper East Coast Road S$740 F 1999
The East Side Joo Chiat Road N/A F 2006
The Espira Lorong L Telok Kurau S$775 F 2010
The Esta Amber Gardens S$877 F 2009
The Geranium Mangis Road S$707 F 2007
The Glacier Joo Chiat Place S$508 F 2005
The Glenwood Regency Tanjong Rhu Road S$801 F 1985
The Hacienda Hacienda Grove S$650 F 1985
The Lucent Lor N Telok Kurau S$620 F 2012
The Makena Meyer Road S$1,124 F 1998
The Medley Lor G Telok Kurau S$898 F 2009
The Mint Residences Joo Chiat Terrace S$656 F 2008
The Montage Lorong M Telok Kurau S$788 F 2010
The Nclave Lorong N Telok Kurau S$766 F 2008
The Prominence Haig Road S$566 F 2006
The Sea View Amber Road S$1,294 F 2008
The Seafront on Meyer Meyer Road S$1,311 F 2011
The Silver Fir Butterworth Lane S$876 F 2012
The Sovereign Meyer Road S$1,401 F 1993
The Springfield Chempaka Kuning Link S$444 L99 1999
The Summit Upper East Coast Road S$708 F 1994
The Sunnidora Lor G Telok Kurau S$814 F 2006
The Sunny Legend Lorong H Telok Kurau S$715 F 2006
The Taipan Jalan Hajijah S$515 F 2003
The Tanamera Tanah Merah Kechil Rd S$593 L99 1994
The Treeline Lorong G Telok Kurau S$851 F 2008
The Tropic Gardens Upper East Coast Road S$573 F 1995
The Vermilion Lorong G Telok Kurau S$488 F 1970
The Verte Lorong H Telok Kurau S$613 F 2012
The Vesta Lorong K Telok Kurau S$699 F 2008
The View @ Meyer Meyer Road S$1,330 F 2010
The Waterside Tanjong Rhu Road S$1,100 F 1993
Tierra Vue Condo Saint Patrick’s Road S$995 F 2010
Tropicana Jalan Tiga Ratus S$514 L999 1994
Venezio Upper East Coast Road S$662 F 2006
Veranda Lor K Telok Kuaru S$632 F 2007
Versailles Hemmant Road S$580 F 2004
Versilia On Haig Ipoh Lane S$888 F 2012
Vertis Amber Gardens S$800 F 2009
Villa Marina Jalan Sempadan S$607 L99 1999
Villa Martia Martia Road S$745 F 2000
Villas La Vue Siglap View N/A F 2010
Vitra Tembeling Road S$774 F 2009
Water Place Tanjong Rhu Road S$1,063 L99 2004
Waterfront Waves Bedok Reservoir Road S$718 L99 2012
Whitfield Garden East Coast Terrace S$589 F 1970
Worthington Butterworth Lane S$826 F 2008
Yi Li Apartment Tay Lian Teck Road N/A F 1970
Zephyr Park Sea Breeze Avenue N/A F 1993

David Swenson

David Swenson tours internationally as one of the world’s leading Ashtanga Yoga teachers. He has written several books, including Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual, and produced a series of instructional yoga videos as well as a series of audiocassettes. We caught up with Swenson in Houston, Texas, where he lives.

Yoga Journal: How did you discover Ashtanga Yoga?

David Swenson: I ran away from home. I had just turned 16. I sent my parents a letter explaining that I loved them and knew they loved me, but I couldn’t live in Texas any longer. Long hair, yoga, and a vegetarian lifestyle didn’t offend anybody on the West Coast, so I rented a room and got a job flipping hamburgers in Encinitas, California. One day, a surfing buddy invited me to a yoga class where people were doing these incredible, intricate, fluid asanas. Though this yoga was so hard I couldn’t finish the first session, I loved it. And I have loved Ashtanga ever since.

YJ: You eventually went to India to study with Pattabhi Jois. What was that like?

DS: There were four students in Mysore when I arrived there in 1976. We met three times daily for intense asana and Pranayama classes. These were incredibly challenging, enthralling, and transforming. It was perhaps the most difficult thing I’d ever done except for coming back home.

YJ: Home to Texas?

DS: Yes. It was a hard landing. I had to figure out how to integrate my experience in India within the “real” world. Nobody was interested in yoga. By and by, I started feeling bitter. I wrote Pattabhi Jois a long letter asking “Hey, what about the eight limbs? What’s the meaning of life? Who is God? Why are we here? And when do I get samadhi?” I thought these were reasonable questions, yet when he didn’t reply, I began to search for the answers on my own.

I looked everywhere, including astrology, parapsychology, palmistry—you name it. Then I ran into some folks from the Krishna temple. They had answers. I shaved my head and became a Hare Krishna on April Fools’ Day, 1982. For the next five years, I lived as a celibate, gave up asanas, memorized the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit, and traveled the world giving lectures and raising money. Until one day, as I stood hawking the Gita on a street corner in Houston, my mom happened by. She saw that nobody was buying books from me, so she walked up and said, “Oh honey, no one will take one from you. Give me one.”

A Texas mother’s worst nightmare. But she showered me with unconditional love. When I got back to the temple, they chastised me for not raising enough money. I’d had enough. It was time to move on, so I quit.

YJ: And went back to yoga?

DS: I bought a suit and went into commerce. I felt completely disillusioned with spirituality. I became a hard-nosed businessman and a closet yogi. But this didn’t work for me. Within a few years I found myself deep in debt and very unhappy.

Fortunately, my life has a life of its own. I happened to be in Hawaii in 1989 when Pattabhi Jois came to teach on his American tour. I attended; he didn’t remember me. Ten years had passed. I looked completely different. But at one point in the workshop, Jois put his hands against my spine to adjust my back and called out, “Oh, David Swenson,” then burst into laughter, and started chanting “Hare Krishna, Hare Ram.”

He had recognized me from touch! And he seemed so happy to see me that I suddenly felt my whole journey come to an end. I was home again. I had found the answer to all my questions.

YJ: How so?

DS: Jois says, 99 percent practice, 1 percent theory. Yoga takes care of you if you stick with it. You start to sense what’s right and what’s wrong, and you follow a path of moral living and meditation because it feels right. The answers are in the practice, and the practice never judges you. It’s ready when you are.

YJ: In one sentence, what did you realize about the meaning of life?

DS: That there’s a big difference between doing yoga and simply making an asana out of yourself.

Kwek Leng Beng

Haute Living, 27 June 2007

Kwek Leng Beng is pure business.

He is known for being highly driven, and addicted to making deals. This billionaire magnate and international property developer has amassed a plethora of hotels that span the globe from London to New York to China, but Kwek’s real passion is making an indelible mark on his beloved city of Singapore’s dynamic, changing skyline.

Kwek, whose UK-based Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) Hotels Plc group once owned half of the prestigious Plaza hotel in New York, is taking his hotel know-how and developing the St. Regis Residences, Singapore, among other projects. As Singapore’s first hotel and residence property, St. Regis Residences will introduce world-class designs to this island nation, and set the country’s new luxury real estate benchmark.

Executive chairman of City Developments Limited (CDL), Southeast Asia’s second largest property developer with 20,000 homes and 100 developments in Singapore, and Executive Chairman of Hong Leong Group of companies (parent co to CDL), Kwek’s acumen as a businessman and entrepreneur is renowned worldwide. Chairman Kwek, having just returned from his first holiday in years-he doesn’t enjoy taking time off, claiming, “I love business more.”-outlines his vision for Singapore during an interview with Haute Living, a vision that rings with an enthusiasm that is nothing less than contagious. “We want to be a biotech city, the medicinal hub, a city of amazing integrated resorts with downsized casinos,” he exclaims. He gets excited when talking about Singapore’s rapidly changing landscape, which will position the city as the leading dynamic business and tourism hub in Asia.

Once dubbed ‘Kwek Land Bank’ for his group’s sizable land bank in Singapore, Kwek is the country’s second-richest man, ranked 185th on Forbes 2006 list of the wealthiest people wordwide, and stands to gain as Singapore lures the jet-set with private banking services and new tax laws. He heads up an empire worth more than US$20 billion, with a worldwide staff of 30,000. One of the most influential players in Singapore’s luxury real estate boom that has led to a massive investment by developers in residential, hotel, office, and real estate markets, Kwek has his hands full with the St. Regis, Sentosa Cove, and Marina Bay projects, and as an advisor to the new US$3.6 billion integrated resort being built in Singapore by Las Vegas Sands corporation, set to open in 2009.

Kwek’s twin investment strategy- hotels with a residential component-has been taken to a new level with the St. Regis Hotel & Residences. Situated close to famed shopping district of Orchard Road, Kwek says that he has tried to create an iconic design and a concept of luxury lifestyle living at the St. Regis. Kwek himself loves luxury. He says, “I enjoy the finer things in life; I enjoy a good lifestyle and sense of design. I have the Maybach and the Bentley, Aston Martins and Ferraris.” His main residence is a mansion on one-acre in the prime district of Singapore, but he may choose to live at the St. Regis, where he has already purchased two sky villas. He describes these residences as exclusive, limited edition, and world class. “The arrival of a branded development where residents can enjoy the extended privileges and services from the adjoining six-star St. Regis hotel is a first in Singapore, and very exciting,” Kwek says.

The 20-story St. Regis Hotel, with 299 guestrooms, is planned to open in 2007, while the residences are expected to be ready in 2008. CDL will develop the residences along with Hong Leong Holdings Ltd and TID Pte Ltd (a joint venture company with Mitsui Fudosan, a leading real estate company in Japan), managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. The estimated price-range for the 173 chic three- and four-bedroom residences start at around US$3.1 million, ranging in size from 1,500 to 4,000 square feet. Residents will have a private elevator lobby leading directly into their suites. Owners of the illustrious residences will also have access to the prestigious St. Regis Hotel’s Bespoke services, which includes personal butlers, chauffeurs, and flower arrangements. Those with truly deep pockets (a la Kwek) can opt for a sky villa, upper roof decks that will house bedrooms, a private pool, and steam room, coming in between 5,000 to 7,200 square feet each.

CDL has created some of the most extravagant show suites in Singapore for the property’s launch, designed to show off handpicked furnishings and fittings. Kwek says, “I have seen condos in New York and London, and without boasting, I can say that the standard of finishing at St. Regis is far better than I have seen elsewhere. We have the best imported marble, the best of everything… New York might have showrooms and a sales office where you can see the type of material that will be used, but in Singapore, potential buyers get to see the actual showroom apartments.

“At the end of the day, it has to be functional and beautiful.” Kwek brings this philosophy to several other high-end projects in the city, all in very strategic locations. He is building a sail-shaped skyscraper, called The Sail @ Marina Bay, part of the multi-billion dollar waterfront that will include the casino, a marina, and parks. Kwek explains, “I wanted a design of my own. I wanted a ship sailing out into the harbor in the form of a sculpture.” He created this twin-tower project with 1,111 luxury apartments, and managed to sell out within weeks of launch.

His iconic project, One Shenton, was launched in January 2007, and sold out in mere hours. Next to be launched? Quayside Isle, a marina-lifestyle project featuring waterfront homes on Sentosa Island, complete with W Hotel & Residences.

Singapore’s high-end market began taking off in late 2005, after steep declines from a property crash ten years ago. With a slew of new luxury projects, Kwek bullishly predicts a 10-20 percent rise in home prices next year. “Singapore is seeing a buying frenzy,” he says. “We are just at the start of an upward trend as the economy expands.” He also sees a lot more foreigners purchasing in Singapore. “In the old days, it would be about 20 percent, but with the St. Regis, foreigners are 65 percent. Because the population base in Singapore is small, the government has been promoting [the country] to foreign talent as a wonderful place to live and enjoy, and the people are listening.”

While other developers now race to launch new projects, Kwek understands that success depends on the design the developer can offer. “Buyers are very discerning,” he explains. “They understand if you want to sell your project at good prices, you have to do something more than what you have done in the past. A lot of that depends on creativity.”

Creativity is something that Kwek has brought to virtually every project he has gotten his hands on since he entered the real estate world at a very young age. Kwek is 53% owner of M&C, which currently owns 112 hotels and operates around a dozen. M&C’s origins come from the Hong Leong Group Singapore, an empire built from rubber plantations, cement, and property in the 1940′s and 1950′s by Kwek’s father, Kwek Hong Pong. Upon returning to Singapore from London with his law degree in 1963, young Kwek already had a knack of rising to the occasion. “At the age of 30, I took over a company called City Developments Limited, then a loss-making company,” recalled Kwek. Kwek was able to turn the business around, allowing the company-purchased for US$3 million in 1971-to become a favorite blue chip company in Singapore, with a capitalization of US$8.5 billion. “This deal was the start, combining my love for takeovers and property. It was very inspiring.”

He credits his father, whom he described as a tough master, for teaching him high standards. “When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I ran away to Malaysia, and he told someone to go and bring me back,” Kwek jokes. “His way of teaching was not actually explaining. He would ring at any time of the day and say ‘I want you to do this.’ Usually, I would not do it straight away, and within ten minutes, he would ring back and want to know how anything could be more important than what he asked me to do.”
Hiromichi Iwasa, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitsui Fudosan, has known Kwek and his family for years. He says, “The late Mr. Kwek passed on his legacy of being a far-sighted entrepreneur. Kwek looks after joint venture partners.”

From his father, Kwek learned the importance of following up quickly, how to be innovative, and how to get the best customer. He also credits Leslie Grossman, a man from New York, as being a mentor, along with his father. “Both have passed away,” says Kwek, “but I learned a lot from them, especially that you must be passionate about what you do. If you are passionate, you can push the envelope farther, and be better than others.” He sets high standards, and has a competitive streak that extends to his morning bouts on the tennis courts. But regardless of where he is, his focus is always on work. He explains, “I work ten hours a day, but sometimes, I am so interested in something that I can’t sleep. My wife understands what makes the difference between an outstanding person and an average person, and is very understanding.” His wife, Cecilia is qualified as a barrister. She offers Kwek design tips inspired by her travels to art museums and concert halls, and her trips to art auctions in Paris and Venice. Her main advice is to not be carried away by minimalist or overly modern designs. “I always tell him to respect the local aesthetic, lifestyle, and Feng Shui principals.” She best sums up Kwek when asked what he really is like: “Kwek will not take no for an answer. He discusses five different topics in five minutes, and has extraordinary vision.”

These sentiments are echoed by others who have had the pleasure of doing business with this real estate mastermind. Dolly Lenz, Vice Chairman for Douglas Elliman says, “During my many trips to Asia over the past 20 years I have had the opportunity to meet practically all the movers and shakers shaping the Asian landscape. None has impressed me more with his vision and drive than Kwek. He is truly a man on a mission. He is simply the savviest and most brilliant developer in the Far East.”

Kwek’s talent for identifying trends, and following his gut feeling in business dealings has earned him tremendous respect from others in the industry. “The first time I met Kwek, I flew to Singapore with an offer to buy The Plaza [hotel in New York],” says Mike Naftali, President and CEO of Elad Properties. “My first impression was that he was a very savvy businessman-extremely smart, and knows the business upside down. But he was also a person you could talk to, and try to negotiate with in good faith.” Naftali’s partial condo-conversion plans as a way to boost the hotel fortunes at The Plaza sat well with Kwek, and the deal was completed before Naftali flew back to New York. Currently, the two are involved in other projects together, including a high-end residential condo development in Singapore. “I see he really cares about details; he personally looks into every detail. What I admire about him most is that he’s very focused, very smart, and he is tough with the numbers-Tough in a good way.”

Another friend and co-investor, Dr. K.S. Lo, deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Great Eagle Holdings Ltd in Hong Kong, backs that view. “Kwek does not have the air of a big tycoon, even though he was then already one of the richest men in Asia. He’s very, very intelligent, but he would pretend he doesn’t know anything, and would keep asking questions, and playing devil’s advocate… Kwek drives a hard bargain while negotiating a deal, but he’s reasonable and he’s trustworthy. He always keeps his word.”

For the future, Kwek is keeping an eye on China, where M&C has been awarded its first hotel management contract, with the Millennium Hongqiao Hotel in Shanghai in the prime business district. This move comes years after M&C first moved into China. “We were the first to have gone to Beijing and developed a gated community with single-family homes in 1994. It was very profitable, but then we stopped.” Just last year, he purchased a hotel in Beijing, to be ready in 2008.

In Los Angeles, Kwek is considering creating condos at his Millennium Biltmore Hotel; In London, he is being courted by developers to do condos at five of his hotels. He is considering a hotel/residence project with a partner in Japan as well. Kwek also has a solid presence in Thailand, including a 600-unit residential project, and an additional hotel development in Bangkok as well as the largest shopping mall in Phuket.

His various projects have led him to travel the world, but Singapore is where he chooses to spend the majority of his time. Here, he settles in with his two sons. One son, age 26, just graduated from Wharton Business School, and is studying International Relations and Comparative Politics at Columbia. His other son worked at Credit Suisse, then at one of Kwek’s New York hotels. Now he is in China, trying to take a loss-making company recently acquired and turn a profit. Do we have yet another Kwek that will one day be changing the global landscape in such a dynamic way? One can only hope.

Koh Boon Hwee couldn’t kill a rabbit

That’s why he decided not to be a doctor and became a corporate head honcho instead

Straits Times Aug 10, 2014
Over a two-hour chat with Koh Boon Hwee, one learns three key things about the corporate titan.

One, he does not like to give up on what he has started.

Two, he does not look back.

Three, he believes education is the key to changing one’s life.

These attributes have helped him navigate through life more than just niftily.

Just look at his curriculum vitae. A respected investor who co-founded private equity firm Credence Partners, the 63-year-old has chaired some of the country’s biggest and most successful organisations including SingTel, Singapore Airlines and DBS Bank.

He serves on the board of several public and private companies, both locally and in the United States and Hong Kong. He also chairs the board of trustees of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and is credited for overseeing its growth into an internationally recognised research university.

“I’m just lucky,” he says, trying to downplay his achievements. Several good mentors and some astute decisions at critical junctures, he suggests, are responsible for who, what and where he is.

Breaking out into a hearty laugh, he adds: “You know, being lucky is better than being smart.”

Perhaps so but Mr Koh – who has a first-class honours degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA (Distinction) from Harvard Business School – also has one heck of a brain.

Almost sheepishly, the eldest of three children of a trader and a homemaker says: “Studies came very easily to me.” He breezed through his years at St Andrew’s and was Singapore’s top boy in the O-level and A-level examinations.

At St Andrew’s, he met Ms Lenn Mei Ling, a teacher who was to have a lasting influence on his life.

As one of the school’s brightest, he was sent to the pre-medicine stream for his A levels. A couple of months into his first year, he started having doubts if he was suited to be a doctor. “I hated the idea of gassing rabbits and guinea pigs; I just hated the idea of having to kill them,” he says. “So I thought to myself, if I have some difficulty with animals, I may have problems with humans.”

“Obviously, not because I’d have to gas them,” he adds with a chortle. “But if I was not successful in treating them, I might find that difficult to deal with.”

Engineering, he decided, was a good fallback except for one snag: mathematics – a requisite for engineering studies – was not part of the pre-med syllabus.

So he decided to do maths as a private candidate and approached Ms Lenn for help to catch up, even though she was not his teacher. It turned out that he did not need her help that much, but she became a respected mentor.

She died a few years later from leukaemia, in her early 30s.

“The problem with the world is that you have many people who profess to be a lot of things but don’t live according to what they profess to be. She was an exception,” he says. “The way she lived her life, the fortitude she showed, the faith that she had… I’ve not seen that in many people.”

Teachers like her were a reason why Mr Koh – who has sat on NTU’s board of trustees for more than 20 years – is such a strong champion of education. It is a social leveller and can help anyone make his way through the world as long as he is diligent.

Four years ago, he donated $2.5 million to NTU to help deserving students and honour teaching excellence. He has also given generously to his alma mater and other educational causes.

Earlier this year, Imperial College London conferred an honorary doctorate on him for his contributions to education in Singapore. “I believe the award is not because of my personal achievements, rather it is a reflection of the tremendous accomplishments of NTU – how it has gone from a teaching university in Singapore to being an internationally recognised research-intensive university in such a short time,” he says modestly.

It was shortly after sitting the A levels that he met another person who helped to shape his life. With nine months to kill before beginning his degree course in London, he found a job as a computer card puncher with consulting firm Arthur Young for $180 a month.

“But I found card punching very boring. After just two weeks, I was the department’s fastest and most accurate card puncher,” he recalls.

The precocious 17-year-old then approached the firm’s director William Schroeder one Friday evening and told him he wanted to be a programmer instead. “He asked me, ‘What do you know about programming?’ I said, ‘Nothing, but I can learn.'”

Mr Schroeder gave him three books on programming which he read from cover to cover over the weekend.

“On Monday morning, I went to Bill and told him I was ready to write programs,” recalls the skilled raconteur. His sceptical boss decided to test his claims and asked him to write a program calculating mortgage payments, and was stupefied when the young man did just that in a few hours.

“On the spot, he said, ‘Well, you are no longer in the card punching department, you are in the programming department and I’m doubling your pay.'”

Over the next couple of months, Mr Schroeder threw all sorts of programming challenges at the young man.

“One day, he asked me, ‘What would your parents say if you moved to Hong Kong to work for a few months?'”

It turned out that the programming tasks he had been doing were for Hong Kong’s first private housing project – the Mei Fu Sun Chuen – by oil giant Mobil. The 99-tower complex built between 1965 and 1978 was considered the largest private housing development in the world then, home to nearly 80,000 people.

The teenager was made leader of the project to handle computerised billing for the estate’s residents and put up in a suite at Hong Kong’s most expensive and exclusive hotel, The Peninsula.

“Bill introduced me to the head of Mobil who asked, ‘Are you sure this kid knows how to do anything?’ Bill’s response was, ‘I’m telling you, he’s the best.’ After that, I just couldn’t let the man down,” says Mr Koh, adding that Mr Schroeder taught him a lot about mentoring and spotting talent.

At Imperial, he did so well that he won a scholarship to complete his tertiary education. The British government also offered him a scholarship to do his PhD.

“My claim to fame was getting a computer to draw an ellipse with just the definition of the two focal points and the radius. In those days, everyone thought it was a big deal,” he says with a laugh.

But he had to return to Singapore for national service. And that was when his life took another turn.

While in the army, he developed an interest in the stock market. “I had no background in economics but every day, I’d read in the newspapers all these reports of stocks going up and down. Based on what I was reading, I put two and two together, the same thing as I’m doing now,” he says, adding that he and three of his army mates would pool their monthly allowance of $90 to play the market.

To better his understanding of business and economics, he decided he needed to learn how to read accounts. He took up a professional accounting course, completing four of five modules on his own. An engineering PhD no longer appealed to him; he applied for and got into Harvard to do his MBA instead.

Upon graduating, he was hired by Hewlett-Packard in 1977. He started as cash manager, got promoted to accounting manager, and after two years was posted to the multinational corporation’s cost accounting division in the United States. After seven years, he was made managing director of HP in Singapore.

Although sterling, his 14 years at the company had its fair share of bumps. In steering HP from a manufacturing company to a research and development one, he launched two projects, one to develop an oscilloscope and another a disk drive. Both projects bombed spectacularly and cost the company more than $1 million each.

But he did not get fired because his bosses encouraged risk-taking and did not punish failures. It is a philosophy he holds close to his heart, especially since he invests in many technological start-ups and steers NTU, which is very research-based.

By definition, he says, research is a little messy and results are not always immediately tangible.

“It’s not a good idea to pull a tree up by its roots every day to see if it’s healthy. I’d rather have my people try and fail because they would learn from it than not to try. If you don’t try, you are not pushing the envelope and will not make progress,” he says.

After HP, he continued making strides in the corporate world. He was executive chairman of the Wuthelam Group from 1991 to 2000, guided SingTel’s transformation from statutory board to telco giant in 1993, steered Singapore Airlines through a tumultuous time after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, and shepherded DBS through the financial crisis after the Lehman collapse in 2008.

Asked how he holds his own in the corporate jungle, Mr Koh, who is married to a former banker and has four children and one grandchild, says: “I don’t look back. Looking back takes a lot of negative energy. There are bound to be setbacks, ups and downs, betrayals. You just have to move along and move on.”

He believes he is lucky to love what he is doing.

“A lot of people in today’s world decide what they want to do based on what they think they are going to get compensated for. And some of them grow to love the job, which is fine. A lot of them don’t, and then they’re actually not very happy.

“I think that’s a tragedy. Life is too short for that sort of stuff.”

Background story

Mentor’s wise words

“One day, I jokingly asked Bill if I should give up the idea of university and continue working for Arthur Young. He looked at me and said: ‘You are fired. No matter how attractive it is, you have to go to college.’ He did not promise me a job after I completed my studies either. He said if I went back, people would say he favoured me. He told me it was important for me to see what was out there and learn to make it on my own. We became friends for life.”

MR KOH BOON HWEE on his mentor William Schroeder, who died a couple of years ago

Don’t try to keep up with the Joneses

“We shouldn’t get caught up with wanting to make sure that whatever we do in life, we want to have the approval and adulation of other people. There is always someone better. If you are famous, there is someone more famous, with a bigger Twitter following. If you are good-looking, there will be someone better-looking. You will never be happy. The important thing is to be happy with what you have. If you wake up every day measuring and comparing, life can’t be much fun.”

MR KOH on contentment

Cher Lloyd – Sirens

The music video for “Sirens” premiered on Lloyd’s Vevo account on 29th April 2014. In the video, Lloyd plays a woman whose husband has become involved in drugs, showing the effect that drug use can have on a family. While Lloyd’s character is seen caring for the couple’s young daughter, Police raid the house, arresting her partner. Lloyd then carries the evidence through the house and burns it in a barrel in the garden, soon returning to the house where she is greeted by her young daughter as they sit together on the floor. In the “Behind the Scenes” footage, Lloyd reveals that the story of the video is inspired by a similar event from her childhood, and that the young daughter in the video represents Lloyd herself at a younger age. In an interview after the premiere, Lloyd revealed that the story behind the video retells an event from her childhood in which her father was arrested when she was five years old.

Starkillers & Alex Kenji feat. Nadia Ali – Pressure (Alesso Remix)

“Pressure” is a song by Nadia Ali, Starkillers and Alex Kenji. It was released on February 15, 2011 by Spinnin’ Records. The song reached No. 16 on the Ultratip Chart in Wallonia, Belgium.

Ali described “Pressure” as ‘a fun song venting about the frustrations and expectations which come with being successful’. The song was left untouched until March 2010, when at the Winter Music Conference Ali introduced Terranova to Bacci, who was subsequently asked to collaborate with the two and co-produce the track creating the final version.

The Alesso remix of “Pressure” became a club and festival anthem during summer 2011 and was included in their sets by prominent DJs such as Armin van Buuren, Tiesto, Kaskade, Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia. The song was described by Kaskade as the “Tune of 2011”. The remix was also nominated for the Best Progressive Track at the 27th International Dance Music Awards at the Winter Music Conference.[

Empty yourself of everything

“Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish
and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness,
which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy
leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy,
the mind is open.
With an open mind,
you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted,
you will act wisely.
Being wise, you will
attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be
at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao
is eternal.
And though the body dies,
the Tao will never pass away.”

~ Lao Tsu-Tao te Ching