More activities being (accidentally) banned in public spaces, remembering Lee Kuan Yew and Sonny Liew making the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists—read on for a quick round-up of the city’s burgeoning (and dying) trends.
Photo credit: Zexsen Xie, Habibah Agianda
Hot: Basketball
Not: Chess
The underrated sport of basketball took the spotlight over the weekend, as Wong Wei Long of the Singapore Slingers scored a last-minute tie-breaker which qualified the team for the Asean Basketball League finals in Kuala Lumpur this Saturday. In a laughable debacle, the wholesome game of chess was mistakenly banned from being played in common areas by the Marine Parade Town Council. Referring to the posters, which read “No playing of chess at common areas”, a spokesperson for the town council said, “We admit that it’s a mistake by our side. We do not actually ban chess in common areas. We just wanted to deter people from gathering and blocking the way,”
Photo credit: Sonny Liew, Jnzl’s Public Domain Photos
Hot: Lee Kuan Yew
Not: Roy Ngnerg
The death anniversary of Lee Kuan Yew is happening on Mar 23 and with it, a host of activities ranging from art installations to a tree-planting exercise will be running through the last quarter of March. It seems like the dust has finally settled for the Roy Ngnerg saga. The blogger, who was caught up in a defamation suit by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was ordered by the courts to pay $150,00 in damages to Mr Lee in monthly installments over 17 years.
Photo credit: Sonny Liew, screen capture from Channel News Asia
Hot: Sonny Liew
Not: National Arts Council
Graphic novelist Sonny Liew may be having the last laugh—the artist, who had an $8,000 grant withdrawn by the National Arts Council last year over “sensitive content” depicted in the novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, is still seeing a huge interest in his work. In a twist that could only be summed up as ironic, Liew’s exhibition at Mulan Gallery has sold over 32 (out of 40) original comic pages and paintings, and his book has recently made the Amazon and New York Times bestseller lists.
Photo credit: Tim Kopra, Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center
Hot: Singapore from space
Not: Return of the haze
NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, who is currently serving aboard the International Space Station, tweeted a stunning photo of Singapore from space at nearly 400m above Earth. Alas, his unblocked view of the city scape might be short-lived, as Indonesia experts have warned of a fire risk in several fire and haze-prone regions in Indonesia due to a drier March and April.
