Two dead, four injured in car crash on ECP

Two dead, four injured in car crash on ECP
Published on May 2, 2014 8:04 AM

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The mangled remains of the white Volkswagen that crashed on East Coast Parkway yesterday. — PHOTO: LIANHE WANBAO

By Grace Chua

A car crash at dawn yesterday left four people injured and two dead, including the director of a local magazine publishing group.

Mr Jamie Ho, 33, a director of Magazines Integrated, or m(int), was driving a white Volkswagen with five passengers in it when it crashed into a guardrail and a tree at the Marine Vista exit of the East Coast Parkway.

The car struck the guardrail with enough force to tear up chunks of concrete anchoring it down, and ended up crushed and mangled on a grassy divider at the expressway exit.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it received a call about the accident at 7.34am, and sent a fire engine, a Red Rhino emergency vehicle, three ambulances and two other support vehicles to the scene.

Rescuers found Mr Ho and a 29-year-old woman trapped in the front of the car, and another passenger pinned in the back, while three other passengers had already exited the vehicle.

The SCDF pronounced the pair in front dead at the scene, and sent the other four people to Changi General Hospital.

Among the survivors were a 24-year-old woman with a hip fracture, a 26-year-old woman with multiple injuries, a 25-year-old man with chest injuries, and a 29-year-old woman with abrasions on her face and hands.

Mr Ho, a keen angler, was associate publisher of quarterly fishermen’s magazine Hooked, which is published by m(int).

According to the company’s website, his expertise was in interactive media, mobile broadcasts and events marketing of cyber-gaming competitions.

It is unclear how the accident occurred, but the car is believed to have skidded because it rained yesterday morning, reported Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao.

Here is the video of the car crash:

Crystal Jade chief on ‘marrying off’ company

Crystal Jade chief on ‘marrying off’ company

He cried when telling staff about the sale to LVMH’s private equity arm
Published on May 3, 2014 1:16 AM

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Crystal Jade Culinary Concepts chief executive Ip Yiu Tung with L Capital Asia managing director Christina Teo. The 65-year-old Mr Ip, who has one daughter, says it is very difficult to find a successor. L Capital Asia will be acquiring over 90 per cent of the restaurant group.

By Rebecca Lynne Tan
Food Correspondent

CRYSTAL Jade Culinary Concepts’ head honcho Ip Yiu Tung treats the well-known Chinese restaurant group he built like one of his children.

And just talking about its impending sale next week to L Capital Asia, French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s private equity arm, makes him emotional.

“I am handing over the company to another father,” he said with a quiver in his voice when asked about the sale, in an exclusive interview with The Straits Times at Crystal Jade Golden Palace at Paragon Shopping Centre yesterday.

L Capital Asia will be acquiring over 90 per cent of the restaurant group, which has an annual revenue of close of $250 million. The deal took about three years to materialise.

“I feel sad,” he added. “I actually cried when I announced it to my people on Tuesday.”

The chief executive, 65, who is also the group chairman and managing director, had to stop to compose himself after the first sentence in an announcement of the sale to 100 key staff members. The usually collected, reserved and matter-of-fact chief then cried, but left the private room at Crystal Jade Golden Palace before he could see their reactions.

On the decision to “marry off” the company, he said: “It is very difficult to find a successor. At the age of 65, even if I keep the business, I can keep it only for another three to five years, that’s all. After the age of 70, will I still have the strength? Already, it is quite tough.”

The Hong Konger, who is now a Singapore permanent resident, usually spends his weekends in Hong Kong, where he lives with his wife and only daughter, then begins travelling on Mondays to the group’s restaurants and offices in other parts of Asia.

The group comprises 120 restaurants, from high-end, fine-dining concepts to ones offering casual Chinese cuisine, in 10 countries from China to India, and 21 cities. It has 47 restaurants here.

Globally, it employs about 4,500 full-time staff.

Crystal Jade has seven shareholders. Some will retain a stake in the business while others will cash out.

Mr Ip has sold all his shares, he said.

The company started out as a single restaurant in the now-demolished Cairnhill Hotel in 1991. Mr Ip invested HK$10 million (about S$2 million at the time) the following year to keep the ailing restaurant afloat, then took on the role of overseeing the strategic direction for the company.

On why he thinks L Capital Asia is a good fit, he said: “Our strength is in providing good quality food and service, but we lack brand building, and good relationships with landlords around the world.”

The fund’s parent company, he said, is more in tune with the landscape of international business than Crystal Jade, and can “add value” to the group in terms of branding.

L Capital Asia’s managing director Christina Teo, 40, said: “Crystal Jade is a household brand with a very strong DNA.”

The fund has already identified a chief operating officer or chief executive for Crystal Jade, Mr Ip said. He will stay on as its interim chief executive for a year, then remain as an adviser and brand ambassador to the company.

The sale did not come about because the group is in debt, he said, adding that it is not leveraged or over-committed. It generates enough money to expand organically and has “a lot of cash, just sitting there”.

He plans to divide his new found time into three parts: one part for Crystal Jade, another for his family and the last part for helping the under-privileged in China.

He said: “I am not greedy. I don’t need more money to make me happy. I was already happy. I need a meaningful life, not just money.”

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean –
the one who has flung herself
out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out
of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and
forth instead of up and down –
who is gazing around with her
enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and
thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open,
and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down
in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how
to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~ Mary Oliver

Paul Oakenfold – Toca Me (Benjani Remix)

Paul Oakenfold: “Toca Me was a massive record for me in the late 90’s – as I know it was for a lot of my peers at the time. It was one of those tracks that you could play in any situation and the place would go off. When the idea came up of doing the Trance Mission covers album this was one of the first titles I immediately knew I wanted to cover. There have been some great remixes of the original Fragma version over the years so I knew I had to make something different and so I went for a style and direction that many are currently referring to new school trance.”

The Invitation – Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Feelings like Clouds

“Whatever arises in our mind—whether it’s a thought, an emotion, a sensation, or a perception—is the arising of coemergent wisdom. It is the radiation of the mind’s emptiness and clarity. Every arising is a temporary arising—one thought comes and goes, then another thought comes and goes.

All our thoughts and emotions just appear and disappear.

This is very important, because we usually grasp at whatever occurs. For instance, when sadness arises, we hold on to this feeling and think, “I am so sad, I am so depressed.” But from the Mahamudra point of view, what has happened?

A feeling has arisen in the mind, like a cloud. Like a cloud, it appears and then it disappears, and that’s all there is to it. This time it is sadness arising, the next time it may be happiness, the next time it may be anger, and later it may be kindness. All sorts of things arise, like wildflowers in a spring meadow. All sorts of flowers grow; all sorts of thoughts and emotions arise. They are all okay; they’re nothing special.

When we understand what our thoughts and feelings are, and we experience them in this way, we are able to let them come and let them go.”

~ Confusion Arises as Wisdom: Gampopa’s Heart Advice on the Path of Mahamudra by Ringu Tulku

Quote of the Week

“He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect for more than he can give. Don’t analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist, but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you.”

~ Bob Marley

Leadership needed to halt grave error

Leadership needed to halt grave error
CHEW KHENG CHUAN

FOR a long time, Bukit Brown had been hidden from public view, awareness and scrutiny.

But, now, it has been identified as a 2014 World Monuments Watch site, about to be irreversibly damaged by the construction of an entirely avoidable eight-lane expressway.

This will forever alter its unique nature, and destroy not just a huge swathe of nature, but also 4,000 graves in its path. Even as I write, the bulldozers are about to rumble. The point of no return is nigh. I am a great admirer of Singapore’s civil servants. They are highly competent, incorruptible, and think hard on solving Singapore’s problems. They got us to where we are today. But in the case of Bukit Brown, they have fallen short.

An intervention is needed. The political masters should act now to halt a grave error.

The plan to drive the highway through Bukit Brown was to solve traffic congestion. The new highway would let motorists bypass Lornie Road and connect them more directly to Pan-Island Expressway. All that was needed: A straight line through a closed-down cemetery called Bukit Brown.

The highway is just the start. The plan is to remove the entirety of Bukit Brown and contiguous cemeteries – all 162ha – and to use this prime location to house up to 50,000 new homes in 15-20 years’ time.

But Bukit Brown is the largest Chinese cemetery outside China, with more than 200,000 immigrant members of the Chinese diaspora buried there.

There are reburials of older graves that date back to 1833, just 14 years after the founding of modern Singapore. And this is the burial ground for most of the pioneers of Singapore, whose names identify the roads of this country – such as Joo Chiat, Keong Siak, Kheam Hock, Eng Neo, Ong Sam Leong, and my great-grandfather, Boon Lay.

The removal of Bukit Brown will serve Singapore’s needs of managing traffic congestion, and provide space to house the growing population.

Yet, the benefits are too little; the costs are too high.

Buried at Bukit Brown are the earliest generations of immigrants who built this society, the towkays and the coolies, and the wide swathe of society in between.

Bukit Brown is not just a cemetery for the dead, it is a unique ethnographic museum for the living.

Hokkiens, Teochews, Cantonese, Hakka – Chinese of all dialects are buried here, with the names of their descendants on the tombstones, looked after by the Jade Girl and the Golden Boy, accompanied by carved stone lions, phoenixes, tigers’ paws. Guarded by turbaned Sikh guards and angels. Recorded with different calendar systems – Qing, Confucian, Republican and Gregorian.

Rich layers of history and ethnography in the material culture of the graves of Bukit Brown have only recently been discovered, documented and expounded by researchers from the architectural faculty of the National University of Singapore.

It might be thought that once they have been documented they can be destroyed. But if this was right, then one might argue that once Stonehenge has been filmed and recorded, why not build a Tesco and a parking lot on its site?

Consider further, the cost to the habitat. Here is home to fauna that includes the endangered Sunda Pangolin, monitor lizards, as well as several butterfly species, some uncommon. Thirteen threatened bird species – 23 per cent of the nationally threatened bird species – four rare resident bird species and 15 uncommon resident bird species reside at Bukit Brown.

Its size and its contiguity to the Central Catchment Area of MacRitchie and Peirce reservoirs form a critical mass that influences the rainfall, the micro-climate of the district and the climate of the island.

Take away the natural sponge – the verdant flora and soils of Bukit Brown – and rainfall may possibly be channelled to flood Orchard Road!

If planners in the Ministry of National Development, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Land Transport Authority and Singapore Land Authority cannot understand this because they have a more immediate micro-perspective, then it is up to the political leadership to step in now to take corrective action.

A political leader has now got to step up to the plate, step into the breach and switch off the engines of destruction that will obliterate our heritage.

Call it off. Save the day.

The decision to build that highway, or those 50,000 houses, can still be made in the future – 30 or 50 years from now. But to proceed is to perform an irreversible act of destruction.

How should Bukit Brown be preserved? As a new, transformed national heritage park.

It will be a place of sanctuary, sanctity, sacred burials, cultural and historical heritage, education, research into our origins and identity as a nation.

It will be a unique tourist attraction, a park that caters to the recreational needs of citizens and visitors.

There are alternatives to a better traffic flow on Lornie Road. There are alternatives to space for 50,000 more homes.

What does it take to see that Bukit Brown needs to be saved and not destroyed?

Political vision; intelligence; and clarity that will be transformative for Singapore. A single bold decision. Leadership.

The writer is chairman of The Substation and a consultant fundraiser. This article first appeared in The Business Times Weekend.

小虎队 – 红蜻蜓

The Little Tigers were a Taiwanese boy band formed in 1988. The band consisted of Alec Su, Nicky Wu and Julian Chen. The group’s popularity was unprecedented; the Little Tigers attracted fans from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and amongst Chinese communities around the world.

Their success led to the recognition, popularity and creation of Taiwanese idol boy bands and other pop acts. After a brief hiatus, the group disbanded in 1995. The three members went on to pursue solo careers.