Casinos, the Internet and the sex trade

Ms Kaelbel-Sheares  is looking forward to serving the rich and famous at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) as its director of Paiza (MBS’ club for premium players) and VIP (food and beverage).

She recounted  an incident when she was the director of butler service at Las Vegas Sands’ The Venetian and The Palazzo resorts, when a hotel guest wanted to throw a party with bar service and a deejay for 40 friends – within half an hour. In such places, money is no obstacle – and money is what everyone is there for.

Anyone who has ever been to Las Vegas understands that prostitution is part of the culture in “Sin City”. Anywhere big money, like what is found in Las Vegas, is involved, those looking to make a quick buck will flock to it. This is not limited to men but also to women. .

It is highly likely that major prostitution rings which feed off the casino entertainment industry will make use of the fact that Singapore is the most wired nation in the world – with broadband penetration rate hitting 99 percent here –  to set-up highly sophisticated but  shady businesses which will thrive here.

As far back as 2001, a saleswoman in Chinatown told Agence France Presse (AFP) that every weekend she sees “China-born girls, all dressed-up, going to the KTV lounge upstairs with old uncles in their 50s and 60s”. A China-born student allegedly told AFP in the same report that Singapore men are like passports to a better life.

In 2004, there were reports of women being involved in vice activities in an effort to financially support their children’s studies in Singapore schools, with dozens being arrested in police raids at massage parlours and foot reflexology centres.

Then in 2007, the evening Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao reportedthe story of online advertisements appearing on MediaCorp’s classifieds website,  mocca.com,  of female students masquerading as escorts to offer  sexual services.

One need not be diligently seeking to find Cecilia at Singapore Model Escort, who is touted as a “beauty with a brain (and) an undergraduate student”. Her  going rate is $1000 per hour.

The ease of anonymous advertising offered by the internet will  fuel the explosion of prostitution. Posting low or no- cost ads on services like sammyboyforum and Hi5, prostitutes no longer have to walk the dark, red-lighted, back alleys.

If The Ridge’s (a National University of Singapore Students’ Union publication) report on the liberal attitude of the undergraduates towards sex is taken into account, with the trend towards promiscuity and an unquenchable thirst for materialism, the student sex trade, facilitated via the internet, should come as no surprise.

Although some students resort to selling sex because of  their personal  debts, most young people are not poor. They just want money to buy things.

Casinos will always try to sexy-up their entertainment to ensure that the gambling dollars don’t walk out of their doors.  As for the party-tourist, he expects prostitution and sits in the casino bars all day looking for it.  They will also surf the net to find women who offer such services conveniently.

It’s all a simple economic equation, demand equals supply. Someone will find a way to provide what people want. Who cares if they are mere students.


Link: The Online Citizen

NCSS supports VWOs with supplementary funding

It's ok only if you're a PAP activist

Although activism can stem from any number of political or social orientations and can take a wide range of forms, it is usually used to describe an intentional action to bring about change in the spheres of economic justice, environmental well-being, social justice or political rights. The word is almost synonymously used with protest and dissent.

Which was why I was surprised to read that Mr Sitoh Yi Pin said, "Our activists will continue to fight", when responding to a question of what does he think about Member of Parliament Chiam See Tong, leaving Potong Pasir to contest in a Group Representation Constituency (GRC).

Never mind that Mr Sitoh did not actually answer the reporter’s questions – but since when did the People’s Action Party have real ‘activists”. I mean what is their protest or dissent for?

I thought the word ‘activist’ was another dirty word in Singapore. I remember sometime last year, when I was being interviewed by a newspaper and I asked to be identified as a social activist and the reporter showed her reluctance to include that in her report. She preferred if I identified myself as a community worker.

I guess it is ok to be an activist only if you are from the governing party.

I noticed that the PAP begins to throw around the word ‘activist’ around general elections time. For example, they wrote a tribute to their tireless and selfless activists after winning the 2006 general elections in the Aljunied GRC here.

Since the word has been thrown about by the PAP so much recently, is it an indication that the next General Elections is around the corner?

Rubbish? Look who's talking

It is not only the opposition candidates who “talk a lot of things, which is rubbish”, but the Peoples’ Action Party’s (PAP) candidates too are guilty of being facetious. Blogger Gayle Goh wrote on her blog, i-speak, after listening to PAP candidate, Ms Penny Low, in a Pasir Ris-Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC) rally: “She is one scary woman! She kept yelling at the crowd anti-SDA things, trying to rouse them into some sort of fervor. ‘SDA people in their trucks go round and round and round! No direction! Round and round…What can they do for you?!’, etc… I am very scared of her now…I kept imagining her chasing after her kids with her rattan cane.” (Source: Institute of Policy Studies.)

Another blog, Singapore Election Watch, wrote of a PAP candidate who spoke at a rally describing the opposition parties as terrorists; they come and strike every five years and disappear. “In fact they hung their posters in the middle of the night”, the candidate supposedly said.

Of course, these were not reported in the local mainstream media.

One landlord's woes

“I had no choice”, says Mr Muthu (not his real name), “I had to rent out my 3-room flat because I lost my job and could not pay even the minimum monthly payments to the bank”. He has got to pay the bank about $750 every month for the mortgage he still owes.

“I only have a room-rental agreement with my tenants”, says Mr Muthu. He says that if he makes a contractual agreement to rent out the whole flat, then he would have to pay higher 10% property tax (as compared to 4% for owner-occupied residences) which will eat into his real income from renting his flat.

Mr Muthu resorted to renting out his flat when the restaurant he was working at as an Assistant Manager decided to retrench him in May last year. He was unable to find another job which paid him close to his last earned salary while his wife who works as a sales assistant brings home less than a thousand dollars a month. The couple has to support three school-going children too.

Their circumstances led to Mr Muthu and his family to become part of the statistics of people sub-letting their HDB flats. Fortunately, his brother took them in. They now squeeze into a common room in his brother’s 5-room flat.

However, Mr Muthu laments, “In my brother’s house, my wife, children and I are second-class”. He pays his brother $600 as compensation, but claims that his brother often chides him and his children for running up the utilities costs. Tension among family members is quite evident. According to him, his children and his brother’s children (who used to be very close) do not even play together now.

“Now, we cannot even watch television together as a family. When there is no school and when we are not working, we go out and only come back home when it is time to sleep”, says Mr Muthu. What’s worse is, his brother has been threatening recently to put Mr Muthu’s family out due to a misunderstanding. “If that happens, I don’t know what I will do or where I will go”, he said.

Mr Muthu now works part-time as a security guard. He looks forward to the day he can go back to his own flat with his family. “If I can find a better paying job, I will go back. But I am almost 50 and the hospitality industry is looking for younger workers to be in management. I even tried the Integrated Resort but they were only recruiting housekeepers, waiters and cleaners. Looks like I have to live like this for some time”, grieves Mr Muthu.

Talking Point(s) with NMP Viswa Sadasivan

It seems that becoming an NMP is not an end-goal for Viswa Sadasivan and when asked about party politics, his response is an almost-flat ‘no’. He revealed that he has been asked, in general, to consider joining a political party in the past but has since realised that being a part of any political party requires one to be faithful to organisational directives that may conflict with his personal beliefs. This is something he is not prepared to do and thus, by virtue makes him unsuitable to be a political party member. Instead, he derives fulfillment from being true to the causes he believes in and staying bound by his personal conviction and conscience.

As for his thoughts on the NMP scheme itself, his opinion is that whilst it serves a function and purpose in the current socio-political climate, it should not be viewed as a permanent solution for Singapore. He suggests that the scheme could evolve into a selection-election hybrid or the selection process itself could adopt more transparency with clear criteria, on which candidates and selected NMPs alike could be assessed. But whatever the changes, his view is that at the end of the day, the scheme should be credible in the eyes of the people.

Read the rest of the article here: The Online Citizen

Singapore: A strange brew

Singapore has been listed alongside cities in America and Europe as one of the “top (ten) cities” to visit in 2010 by Lonely Planet – an internationally acclaimed travel guide.

The publication “The Best in Travel 2010″ is Lonely Planet’s fifth annual collection of best places to go and best things to do in the year ahead. Published this week”, it asks its readers to “ditch the image of Singapore as a dull, sterile Utopia – (to) scratch the surface and…discover a strange brew of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western cultures, a rich social stew that’s anything but boring”.

The Online Citizen asked Singapore Tourism Board (STB) how STB felt about Singapore being listed alongside other vibrant cities like Istanbul (Turkey), Vancouver (Canada), Charleston (USA) and Kyoto (Japan) and if this listing will help to bring in more visitors to Singapore.

Mr Chang Chee Pey, STB’s Director of Brand Management responded to TOC’s questions saying, “To be named one of the top ten cities to visit in 2010 by reputed travel guru Lonely Planet is telling of Singapore growing into a global city with a variety of world class tourism offerings. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) hopes this will encourage more potential visitors to come experience Singapore for themselves, especially in 2010, when Singapore will host mega events such as the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games and the FORUMLA ONE SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX, and celebrate the opening of integrated resorts Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay SandsTM.”

The cities in the Lonely Planet’s top ten besides Singapore are: Cuenca (Ecuador), Sarajevo (Bosnia & Hercegovina), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Kyoto (Japan), Lecce (Italy), Cork (Ireland), Vancouver (Canada), Istanbul (Turkey), and Charleston (USA).

If this listing will entice more tourists to visit Singapore, it will surely bring much cheer to the economy of Singapore, which is already showing signs of picking-up.