1. Singaporeans love their dim sum and shopping sprees in Hong Kong, but with the weekend’s happenings, we may have to hold off on visits to the island for now. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests escalated over the weekend after police decided to use force against groups of student protesters, turning the situation into a riotous mess. Probably an unnecessary move, the police resorted to using tear gas and now, protesters fear the use of pepper spray. With about 36 people injured, the city has ground to a halt with major disruptions to transportation systems and businesses.
2. This weekend saw the second anniversary celebrations of arts enclave Gillman Barracks. As well as pop-up raves by After Dark and night markets, they’re launching DRIVE, a four month-long public art festival happening at the galleries. They’ve also announced four new restaurants for the area – including The Naked Finn’s fine-dining restaurant and two new cafes by the folks from Artistry.
3. A local Malay-language film Sayang Disayang has gained some major street cred. The Singapore Film Commission submitted Sanif Olek’s directorial debut as this year’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars (or Academy Awards). We recently did a story on the future of Singaporean cinema and got some pretty insightful comments from Olek. Read all about our cover story here.
4. There was another uproar this weekend, this time at Hong Lim Park. It’s a pointing game as to who started it first but there were two factions involved: protesters against the government’s CPF policies and a YMCA charity event. It seems like the parties were embroiled in a heated argument over the park’s use with activist Han Hui Hui clashing with some ministers at the charity event for special needs children. It’s still up in the air as to who had proper rights for the park’s use that day.
5. Seems like Singapore’s been quite a hot-bed for celebrity sightings. From Gordon Ramsay’s appearance at F1 to this weekend’s hoo-haa over Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart cavorting around town. They’ve been seen around a Keppel Bay condo Reflections filming their sci-fi romance flick Equals, slated for a 2015 release. With the WTA only a couple of weeks away, we wonder who else we can spot.
