January just can’t catch a break, can it? Even after the Winter of Singapore 2018, not to mention an entire week of oddities, we’re still knee-deep in wild news—keep up.
Once again, Singapore proved it’s just completely inept at naming
Remember when Sengkang’s Compass Point made its rounds in national news for its no-brainer naming saga? If you do, you might have experienced deja vu when the Ministry of Education announced on Jan 11 the new names of the merged junior colleges. Rather than go wild with the endless possibilities, the final decision ended up combining the full names of both colleges, with the older school’s name taking precedence. So that means we now have Anderson Serangoon JC, Yishun Innova JC, Tampines Meridian JC, and Jurong Pioneer JC. Really; by now, we shouldn’t even be surprised.
A design fail in Jurong West had us all baffled
Photo credit: Our Singapore Facebook
Local Facebook page Our Singapore threw the island into a frenzy, when they posted a viral photo of a sheltered linkway that didn’t line up with the pedestrian crossing beside it. Who does it shelter? And just when the rain in Singapore was at its worst? The mystery has since been cleared up thanks to investigation from The Straits Times, which revealed that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) initially had plans to build the shelter first, then move the pedestrian crossing underneath it. The crossing is now in the correct place, but frankly the whole debacle just sounds like LTA hastily covering its ass.
Singapore doesn’t deserve animals
In this episode of We Can’t Have Nice Things, animal mistreatment illustrated that Singaporeans just can’t seem to handle the care of other species. From the seizing of six live tarantulas “stored” in plastic containers, to the discovery of 11 abandoned bunnies and nine neglected cats in a Boon Lay flat, it’s obvious that monsters walk amongst us. Without further ado, we kindly invite you to get out.
Across the island, tiles were popped, not bottles
While locals lived large and celebrated the cold weather, flat owners living in neighborhoods from Woodlands to Sengkang dealt with disastrous dislodged tiles. While popping tiles isn’t a new phenomenon, a spike in cases coincided with the cold spell, leaving many to point fingers at the sub-24 degree temperatures. According to basic physics, extreme changes in temperature can cause thermal expansion (and contraction) of tiles within their surface—and hence the erratic popping.
Falling trees, everywhere
Freak weather just doesn’t seem to sit well with our side of the Equator. The week of stormy downpours cleanly uprooted massive trees, causing nature’s debris to rain over nearby HDB flats, topple lampposts, smash cars, and even impale a car windscreen. Miraculously, no one was hurt.
The Ministry of Finance officially caved to influencer marketing
It’s 2018, and we get closer to the apocalypse everyday. In the most recent development of influencer marketing shenanigans, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) was reported to have paid over 50 social media personalities to promote the upcoming Budget 2018. Now, it’s one thing for a brand to choose to advertise their product via an “influencer”; but having the government conflate awareness and youth outreach with lazy marketing is downright worrying. Commodifying civilian awareness about national news benefits no one—not the viewers mindlessly ‘liking’ the post, who likely won’t glean much information from vapid captions; and certainly not the influencers pretending to know what they’re talking about. Which leads us to one question—now that something as pertinent as the national budget is on the table, what else is fair game?
