Fans of Jay Chou were up in arms regarding the subpar quality of his latest concert in Singapore on 17 and 18 December.

Fans complained about Chou not singing his own songs and getting other guest singers to sing his songs, while others complained about the mediocre vocal quality of the performances.

A number of fans complained about the lightsticks that were distributed during the concert, highlighting how the lightsticks were dirty and peeling off, and that they didn’t work as they were running out of battery.

The organiser of the concert, G.H.Y Culture and Media, then issued a statement apologising for the lightsticks that didn’t meet the audience’s expectations.

Here is what they said

Dear Fans,

We thank you for the wonderful support during the Jay Chou Carnival Singapore Concert!

We hear your feedback regarding the complimentary lightsticks that were given out at the concert and we are sorry that these lightsticks did not come up to your expectations.

These lightsticks have not been recycled from the last concert in 2020 and “20” reflected in the Carnival emblem refers to Jay’s 20 over years of making music culminating in the Carnival themed concert world tour for his fans.

As this is also Jay’s first concert after nearly 3 years, there were repeated rehearsals involving the lightsticks and unfortunately, batteries in some of the lightsticks failed during the first show and we did our best to rectify in time for the second show. Fans can still keep these lightsticks by replacing its batteries.

We are sorry for the imperfections and strive to do better.

Netizens’ comments

Images source: @noonafans29 on Twitter and @shiningasia on Instagram

A 26-year-old former NUS student had illegally filmed himself engaging in intercourse with two women in separate incidents.

He pleaded guilty in October to 2 counts of voyeurism.

He was ordered on 19 December to undergo mandatory treatment for 18 months in lieu of him serving time in prison, after being diagnosed with an adjustment disorder.

The 26-year-old, who cannot be named due a gag order protecting the identities of the victims, was a student of NUS at the time of the offence and was staying at the campus before he got expelled in 2021.

The man had met both victims on the Tinder dating app and started talking to the first victim, an 18-year-old, in October 2020

She agreed to meet up to engage in intercourse in his room and midway through, the victim noticed his camera pointed at them and asked him if he was recording them.

He denied doing so and the victim then took the phone and placed it under a pillow.

Following that encounter, he asked her numerous time if he could record them having intercourse, to which she rejected his requests.

However, according to investigations, he had in fact recorded them engaging in intercourse.

He then met up with the 2nd victim, a 20-year-old on 15 November 2-2, and they agreed to have intercourse, where he then used his phone to film them in the act without her consent.

Billionaire Elon Musk, the head of social media site Twitter, asked his followers in a Twitter poll on 19 December, whether he should step down as head of Twitter.

The majority of Twitter users voted on his poll, expressing their desire for him to step down, what with the controversial changes that he has implemented on the site.

Several notable Twitter users have cited his decision to ban accounts that promote other platforms as a primary reason for wanting him to step down.

YouTuber MrBeast, for instance, cited Musk’s decision to restrict users from posting links to other social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, as his reason for voting yes.

Netizens’ comments

People voting yes do realize that Elon is still going to own Twitter, he’s just going to find someone to take on the day to day operations, but have say in everything, sooo your yes vote is meaningless.

You’ve made Twitter one hundred times better in less than two months, don’t stop now.

We can’t go back to how things were.. We need free speech! Just hire security for your son it’ll be alright. You can’t surrender because of the violent democrats.

MP Mariam Jaafar shared how a fire broke out at a Woodlands HDB building at Block 860, Woodlands Street 81.

She shared that the fire was put out by residents in the area, who were watching the World Cup final at Woodlands CC when they saw people running.

Being trained first responders, they helped to put out the fire and evacuate residents.

Here is what she said

There was a fire at Blk 806 at around 1:30am this morning.

Danial and his friends Hady, Shaddad and Shafiq, all of whom live in different parts of #mywoodlands, were watching the World Cup final at Woodlands CC when they saw people running out to Blk 806. Trained first responders, they and another resident of the block (also a trained first responder and a quite petite woman, but she carried the first hose, don’t mess) sprang to action and put the fire out using the fire hose before the fire truck came. The blaze was not small and the whole block had to be evacuated.

Had the Final not gone to penalties, we might already have been home in bed. As it happened, I was able to be with the affected residents quickly.

Truly grateful to Lt Col Jason and his Singapore Civil Defence Force team from Woodlands Fire Station, Singapore Police Force from Woodlands East NPC, Housing & Development Board, Sembawang Town Council EMSU and grassroots leaders who each played their roles so well and made sure the residents were taken care of.

Two residents were conveyed to the hospital for breathing difficulties, and a couple of families are staying with family and friends for the night, but everyone else was able to return to their flats by around 330am. We will continue to check in on and support them in the coming days.

I thank the residents and everyone involved for the community spirit displayed.

#mpowerwoodlands#MakeSembawangSpecial

MAN ARRESTED FOR AGGRAVATED OUTRAGE OF MODESTY

The Police have arrested a 25-year-old man for his suspected involvement in a case of aggravated outrage of modesty.

On 15 December 2022, at about 5.10pm, the Police received a report that a woman was allegedly molested by an unknown man at the vicinity of Block 545 Woodlands Drive 16. The man had also purportedly pointed a knife at the victim.

Through ground enquiries and with the aid of images from Police cameras and CCTVs, officers from Woodlands Police Division established the identity of the man and arrested him within four hours.

The man will be charged in court on 17 December 2022 with aggravated outrage of modesty, punishable under Section 354A(1) of the Penal Code 1871. The offence carries an imprisonment term of between two and 10 years, and caning.

The Police have zero tolerance towards offenders who threaten the safety of the community. Offenders will be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law. The Police would also like to urge members of the public to remain vigilant and to report the matter to the Police immediately, if they witnessed an incident of outrage of modesty, or are aware of someone being a victim of outrage of modesty.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
16 December 2022 @ 7:50 PM

Singapore President Halimah Yacob said in a Facebook post that she finds the recent spate of cases where children were raped at home by their male relatives, very disturbing and sickening.

She said that it is “our duty to protect our young and we must not fail them”, and added that “rapists should not be spared the cane just because they are fifty years old.”

Here is what she said

I find the recent spate of cases involving rapes of children in their own homes by their male relatives highly disturbing and sickening. We need to better protect our children from such predators. Severe punishments for convicted offenders are important but not sufficient by itself. We need to look at other ways to help our children and stop them from falling prey to such rapists. I worry that there could be many more unreported cases. I can’t even begin to imagine how much pain and damage these young victims had to suffer.

The reported cases follow a certain pattern.

The victims had been groomed by the predators who were either their fathers, stepfathers or other male relatives from a very young age so that they thought that the sickening acts committed against them, for years in some cases, were normal.

Quite a number of the victims only discovered that such acts were wrong when they attended education classes much later in school. The predators had preyed on their innocence to persuade the victims that the perversion was alright.

Some victims were reluctant to complain about the rapes for fear of breaking up the family or losing the main breadwinner. Others were threatened and intimidated into silence.

Imagine the terror and vulnerability of a child stuck in a home that’s supposed to be a sanctuary but became a living hell instead.

We have organisations that deal with domestic violence such as PAVE which are doing good work. I hope that together with the relevant government agencies they could look at ways to better protect our children in the home.

Also, rapists should not be spared the cane just because they are fifty years old. It’s ironic that they could escape from the pain caused by caning despite the lifetime of severe trauma and irreparable damage that they cruelly inflicted on their victims which will last a lifetime. In some cases, the rapes were committed earlier but reported only after the perpetrator reached fifty years old. It’s timely that we review this law.

It’s our duty to protect our young and we must not fail them.