That's why Singapore Day, held last Saturday (14 April) in New York this year, continues to be a hit. Here's ST's story (16 April), with a pic taken from AsiaOne:
5,000 gather in NY to enjoy a 'slice of home'
About 4,900 Singaporeans turned up in New York [Prospect Park, Brooklyn] on Saturday to "mingle and makan" at the fifth Singapore Day...
US-based Singaporeans, who made their way to the event by plane, car or bus, queued patiently [see! it can be done, so long as we're not in Singapore] for a chance to savour familiar hawker fare such as chicken rice and roti prata.
"This is macam like Disney World," said host Hossan Leong, referring to the long lines. Someone in the crowd shot back: "How can Mickey Mouse even compare to chicken rice?"
This is the second time the event has been held in New York, the venue foor the first Singapore Day in 2007. It was moved to Melbourne in 2008, London in 2009 and Shanghai last year.
[This year's event cost $4 million.] The organisers have spent more than $20 million to stage all the Singapore Day events with the aim of engaging [the] more than 190,000 Singaporeans who live abroad...
Mr Cheng Kong Sang of Toa Payoh Rojak [which is actually in Old Airport Road] said he felt honoured to be part of Singapore Day again after his first experience in 2009 in London. The 81-year-old, who served up to 1,500 plates of rojak... said he was very happy to travel halfway across the world to give Singaporeans a taste of his signature rojak.
Postgraduate student Crystal Neo, 26, said: "I really miss local food such as chicken rice and black pepper crab. Singapore Day reminds me of home, tucking into yummy hawker fare and hearing Singapore accents all around."
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We just love to play cat-and-mouse games with the traffic-summons "uncles" and "aunties". But now here comes the spoiler...
New measures to curb parking violations
(TODAY, 16 Apr)
A closed-circuit television (CCTV) trial is under way in two areas -- one of them being Marine Parade -- to catch errant motorists.
In addition, Land Transport Authority (LTA) enforcement officers are using cameras to take photos in case the offenders try to drive off before receiving their summonses...
Sharing the LTA initiatives to ease the woes of residents in private housing estates, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew reiterated that enforcement is a tricky issue, and some motorists have cried foul over the new methods.
He said: "By the time they [the officers] put two (summons tickets)... all (the other vehicles would be) gone already. So they take photos and then, after that, summon (the offenders).
"But then you get people complaining: 'I wasn't there, I never received a ticket, I wasn't properly warned'... (Some offenders) can get summonses on three or four consecutive days (and) they say: 'If you had put a ticket [under the wiper, on the windscreen, ie the time-honoured way], then the next day I wouldn't have done it'."
On the CCTV trial, Mr Lui noted that parking offences have gone down in the areas covered. "It's still early days yet, but the impact seems to be that people now realise that they're being watched on camera."
He said the LTA hands out about 300,000 tickets for parking offences annually. There are around 900,000 vehicles on the roads. [Do your sums! If each summons ticket is $50 (the minimum), what will 300,000 tickets yield??]
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Finally, this is a story to warm the cockles of your heart...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/world/europe/dorset-police-solve-mystery-of-invisible-manuscript.html
The New York Times gave a so-so headline to the story: "The case of a blind woman and her invisible manuscript".
But I thought the sub in the ST lift (16 April) of the NYT story did a great job with this headline:
In addition, Land Transport Authority (LTA) enforcement officers are using cameras to take photos in case the offenders try to drive off before receiving their summonses...
Sharing the LTA initiatives to ease the woes of residents in private housing estates, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew reiterated that enforcement is a tricky issue, and some motorists have cried foul over the new methods.
He said: "By the time they [the officers] put two (summons tickets)... all (the other vehicles would be) gone already. So they take photos and then, after that, summon (the offenders).
"But then you get people complaining: 'I wasn't there, I never received a ticket, I wasn't properly warned'... (Some offenders) can get summonses on three or four consecutive days (and) they say: 'If you had put a ticket [under the wiper, on the windscreen, ie the time-honoured way], then the next day I wouldn't have done it'."
On the CCTV trial, Mr Lui noted that parking offences have gone down in the areas covered. "It's still early days yet, but the impact seems to be that people now realise that they're being watched on camera."
He said the LTA hands out about 300,000 tickets for parking offences annually. There are around 900,000 vehicles on the roads. [Do your sums! If each summons ticket is $50 (the minimum), what will 300,000 tickets yield??]
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Finally, this is a story to warm the cockles of your heart...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/world/europe/dorset-police-solve-mystery-of-invisible-manuscript.html
The New York Times gave a so-so headline to the story: "The case of a blind woman and her invisible manuscript".
But I thought the sub in the ST lift (16 April) of the NYT story did a great job with this headline:
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