NEA announced on its suspension notice that Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh @ Simpang Bedok would be shut down for 2 weeks after it committed various health violations, including preparing food on the floor.

The food outlet accumulated 14 demerit points over the past 12 months and failed to keep its premises clean. It was fined $1,000 and will be closed until 12th June 2017.

NEA requires Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh to pass the Basic Food Hygiene Course again before they can reopen for business.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The woman who slapped her maid and locked her up in her sister's Bukit Timah condominium have had her jail term increased from just two month to 24 weeks. She is the first employer to be convicted for wrongfully confining a maid in Singapore.

The jobless woman, Chua Siew Peng, 45, was living with her sister and her mother at the sister's Maplewoods Apartments when the offences occurred in 2012. On Oct 30, 2012, the maid employed by Chua, Ms Jonna Memeje Muegue, now 28, escaped the sixth floor apartment by climbing out of a window. She suffered a fractured feet when she landed on a roof one floor below. She had indicated that she cannot tolerate the abuse from the two sisters and the mother, whom she had been working for only 11 months.

The mother had already been given a sentence of 21 months probation for punching, and slamming the maid's head against the wall. The mother had also poured bleach on the maid, and offence to which Chua had also joined in. The sister, initially acquitted,, but is now facing a retrial. Chua had even appealed against her original sentence.

Quite rightly, all three should be convicted and jailed for their actions. Being rich does not excuse their vile behaviour against the maid, who was hired to help them in their housework. They need to be told in no uncertain terms that maids are humans too. The cheek of the woman to appeal against her sentence int he first place!

Serene Toh

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The recent articles carried by local papers on one English footballer who is interested in playing for Singapore has certainly caught my attention. This football player, Luke O'Nien qualifies for Singapore as his maternal grandfather is a Singaporean.

And his maternal grandfather is not only just a Singaporean, but he happens to be the brother of Lim Kim San,a former cabinet minister who is credited with helping to solve Singapore’s housing issues in the 1960s. Luke O'Nien is 22 years old, and his performances for Wycombe Wanderers, a League Two team in England have been so good, that some bigger clubs are watching him play. O'Nien has also indicated that it would be an honour for him to play international football for Singapore.

Now, if the FAS are currently looking at the foreign talents who can represent Singapore, having spent the minimum five years on Singapore soil, and is fast tracking them to become Singaporeans, why not call up this young man? He might not have been to Singapore, but he is as Singaporean as the foreign talents the FAS are trying to assimilate into the national team. If we are going back to the road of foreign talents, then here is one talented young man ready for Singapore.

Just look at the Philippines. They had no football culture, but they recruited foreigners with Philippines links. And now, they are much higher in football rankings as compared to Singapore. FAS, and coach Sundram, the media has done your work for you, by unearthing an eligible player for Singapore. Scout him, and call him up. Surely, he cannot be any worse than the pretenders now who call themselves national players?

Mohd Jumari

A.S.S. Contributor

Facebook complaint by Michelle Tew

IMPORTANT WARNING !!! ATTENTION TO ALL PARENTS WHO ALWAYS BRING THEIR CHILDREN TO BISHAN PARK !! We wanted to bring attention to all frequent goers to Bishan Park, especially parents who always bring their children there what happened to our daughter just yesterday evening, 28th May 2017, around 7.30pm on Sunday. This unfortunate unforseen incident deeply tramatized the whole family which can be totally avoided if we exercise enough safety and caution to children.

We brought our daughter and son in our usual trips to Bishan park after dinner to stretch our legs for a walk and scooter at the same time. Around 7.30pm yesterday evening on 28 May 2017, both my kiddos were scootering with their father going towards the direction of the famous MacDonald bridge in Bishan Park.

From the story I got from my girl, she was scootering along reaching the head of the bridge opposite to crossing over to McDonald when she noticed 3 young Indian boys just behind her playing with a fishing rod. She took a moment right at the head of the bridge to stop to look out for the brother and father where they were when she feel a hit right onto her right cheek. It was a metal sharp fishing hook smacked right into her cheek (as you can see very clearly in the photo) where we took at KK hospital A&E last night just before them surgeon operated for close to 30 mins to cut out the "we do not know how long U-Shape" fishing hook".

For those who fish, you will know that a fishing rod with hook comes with a heavy metal weight (you can see from the last photo) and a small ball right before the turning sharp point for the fishes caught to get stuck to engage and not loosen off. My daughter became the "fish" who got hooked on with the freaking sharp hook and weight smacked right onto her cheeks.

The 3 young boys, eldest around maybe 12-13 years old (wearing glasses), to the youngest seemed to be brothers, were hanging around Bishan Park opposite MacDonald (a high human traffic area) walking and playing with the fishing rod with a long string and metal hook. They were swinging the fishing string with the sharp metal hook and God knows it came right onto my daughter's face.

Me and her father, with a few help of passersby (there is a man and lady which we would like to thank them very much for shining their phone torchlights for us over her face as we attempted to bite off the nylon fishing string off her face to free her from the fishing rod, which me and my husband were shouting to the young boys not to pull hard as it will tear her face and skin off further.

My husband could not bite off the nylon string with his teeth and I managed to bite 2 strings off in the end. We then rushed my daughter straight to Mt Alvernia A&E which is nearest to us. The doctor on duty mentioned that if he performed on local anasthesia it will be too tramatised for her, but if to perform an open with sedation, they have no op theatre and bed to ward her too and also have to wait for many hours before it can happen. We took the advise of the kind nurse and rushed her to KK children hospital A&E instead. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW THE TERROR WE FEEL LOOKING AT OUR CHILD STANDING THERE WITH BLOOD WITH A HOOK ON HER FACE !!!

To conclude the long story, we were so focused on our daughter's well-being that we did not even have the chance or think of taking down any particulars of these 3 young indian boys whom we think are brothers roaming in Bishan Park on Sunday, 28 May 2017 around 7.30pm near the opposite end of MacDonald bridge when the incident occurred.

It will be good to find them or their parents to give them a real stern warning and the consequences that they cannot be playing around on the pedestrians pavement swinging a fishing road with such a dangerous sharp metal hook for GOD don't know why !!! I do not think they allowed fishing in Bishan Park at all though they are swampy water areas.

Any kind soul who happened to witness the incident, and knew the 3 young indian boys kindly PM me. For those who does not know kindly help to spread the word to warn the public of these young boys as they may be still around the same area doing the same thing !! We as parents will really appreciate a lot due to what happened to our daughter. To find them is not to punish them but at least to let them and their parents know how dangerous acts they are doing to harm the public safety at Bishan Park ! Thank you !

Facebook post by Eugene Thuraisingam

Single Mothers with no homes

They pay tax in the form of GST every time they buy something. They add to the coffers of the Temasek linked companies everytime they buy something or use a service. A portion of their wages too are contributed to the CPF funds which are in turn invested by our Government and kept in reserve. Their sons will serve National Service and their children will contribute to society.

Why are they discriminated against when it comes to housing?

Please do something to let your view be known in relation to this injustice. Please go to AWARE's Facebook site and sign the petition there online.

Please share this with your friends, if you care about justice and fairness.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMb4NJMBIvocdDGrkskq15poi6h3Y5...

Netizen Joanna Ong shared photos of small pack milo which she bought from NTUC for her little girl to drink. After taking a sip, her daughter complained that it was bitter and sour. To her shock, after cutting open the packet, she discovered what looked like white mouldy spots inside the packet milo. The expiry date for the milo was in 2018. Milo Singapore said they would investigate this batch of drinks.

Facebook complaint by Joanna Ong

"On Thursday I bought 4 packs of small pack milo from ntuc for Olivia. She took a pack to drink yesterday, and told me it tasted bitter and sour. I gave it a tried and it really tasted sour and disgusting, I decided to cut open the pack and this is what I found inside.

This is the first time we have encounter such issue with pack drink, and we really never expect it to be with milo. Be careful when you give your little one packaging drink.

Posted another photo with batch number and expiry date. MILO Singapore have contacted me yesterday, they will investigate the batch of milo."

<Credits: The Alternative View>

Chaos and massive overcrowding this morning due to signalling faults across MRT lines which SMRT has attributed to the testing of the new signalling system.

How convinced are you with LTA and SMRT's explanation?

Dear Editors,

There was a signaling fault this morning during rush hour and everybody were left stranded, so our dear grab and uber began to chop people by high surged fare. Check uber and grab app from Yishun to Marina Bay costs around $42! Oh my god!

Tried to call for Grabhitch and RYDE but nobody accepted my request either! I am already in a bad rush and these jokers are playing punk with me?

Now I have to take unpaid leave be use of all these, can grab and uber please stop your god damn surge and grab/RYDE , please for goodness sake, make your drivers accept job request, Cant they just help during such exigencies?

Perhaps next time we should all take grab and uber during surge when MRT disrupts and make SMRT reimburse the fare!

Upset Commuter
A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S. Editor

Yet another fire broke out this morning at a HDB flat. This time, the fire occurred at a seventh-floor unit at Block 619, Woodlands Drive 52. This forced about 15 residents to self-evacuate. SCDF said they were alerted to the fire at 7:30am today.

The fire reportedly involved contents in the flat's lving room, which was put out by the SCDF by water jets. No injuries have been reported.

This continues the worrying trend of a few notable fires having broke out in the past month alone, including the Jurong fire, the Changi Airport fire, and even vehicular fires.

Gary Lum

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S. Editor

I refer to the Straits Times article today, which carries the headline "Nearly half of Yale-NUS pioneer grads have job offers". You read it once, without putting any thoughts to it, it sounds nice. Then you realise that this means more than half of the Yale-NUS pioneer grads actually have no job offers.

I know the media wants to make this sound nice, and that liberal arts are gaining a foothold in Singapore, but if more than half still have not got job offers, then we are not there yet in acceptance of liberal arts graduates. Article did go on to say another one-fifth have received offers to pursue graduate studies. This means the number of graduates without any concrete future is still much more than other graduates. And the article says observers indicates that employers here believe in the value of a liberal arts education, though it is still viewed by many as a "minority" option.

If this is how employers value the liberal arts, then seriously, Singapore is not that ready yet.

Christine Chua

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S. Editor

LTA has cocked up again. An underpass, that is supposed to link the Bukit Panjang MRT station to surrounding HDB blocks, have been delayed in completion. The underpass was supposed to give residents fully sheltered access from their HDB blocks to the MRT station.

However, the underpass, which was originally scheduled to open together with Downtown Line 2 in December 2015, have now had its opening delayed to the end of this year. An LTA spokesman said that the construction took longer than planned "due to extensive underground utilities and difficult ground conditions, such as the presence of high rock levels". The hard rocks in the path of the construction meant that some blasting had to be carried out.

This is LTA cocking up. weren't they supposed to do ground checks before works started? And by doing the checks, won't they find the hard rocks present on the ground? The rocks did not become hard overnight that it now requires blasting. Now, this delay is actually taking two years, and only now LTA is announcing this.

Abel L

A.S.S. Contributor

A netizen shared photographs of her newly opened can of abalone... with some mouldy surprise in it.

According to the netizen, this can of abalone is meant to expire in 2019. She had just opened a previous can from the same batch of abalones with the same expiry date, but only this particular can had a mouldy abalone in it.

She has informed New Moon about the mould but would like to spread awareness to other netizens.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

There was a crane accident at a construction work site that happened at Bedok North on Saturday. A crawler crane toppled at the work site in Bedok North Avenue 1, leaving its operator with an ijured ankle.

According to MOM reports, the crane was being assembled when it lost balance and tilted to one side. MOM have stopped the use of cranes at the work site, while they carry out investigations. it was fortunate that the only injured person was the crane operator, although it was not specified how serious the ankle injury was.

Francis Tan

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S. Editor

In a continuing spate of fires afflicting Singapore lately, another one occurred at Woodlands, this time involving a vehicle in a carpark. A car caught fire in a multi-storey carpark at Block 505A, Woodlands Drive 14, at around 8am on Tuesday.

Three cleaners were seen helping in trying to put out the fire, which was believed to have started in the car's engine compartment. SCDF confirmed they received a call alerting them to the fire, and they took over from the cleaners when they arrived on the scene. No injuries were reported.

According to an eyewitness, a female driver of the car was seen trying to start the engine but managed to run out from the vehicle when she saw smoke coming out from the bonnet. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

H. Husin

A.S.S. Contributor

Upon reading yesterday's article about someone requesting a ban on heavy vehicles using the expressway I have a disappointing comment to make.

In Singapore, heavy vehicles are being discriminated by cars on the roads, often when we see cars not giving way to these heavy vehicles or in fact each other on the roads when others signal their intention. It is such a disappointment! I am a truck driver and I can feel this prejudice going on.

Comparing ourselves with other countries like Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, people ice way to each other without any reward or penalties for not doing so, it's disappointing that we need to force people by giving them penalties should they fail to do something.

As such, I am very sorry but to urge the authorities to penalise motorists who don't give way to each other heavily , especially heavy vehicles. This will definitely solve such problems and reduce the number of unnecessary accidents on the roads.

It's really a great disappointment to see such things happening around us, why can't we just give and take a bit?

Zacky
A.S.S. Contributor

On his second day as an Uber driver, Lee Wei Hui, 42, crashed his rental car into a 68 year old lady Madam Lee while she was crossing the road. Lee cut into the right lane to overtake but by the time he spotted the old lady, it was too late and he crashed into her.

The impact flung Madam Lee onto the car's windscreen before slumping to the ground with a crushed skull. She was bleeding from her nose and back of the head and passed away even though she was rushed to the nearby hospital.

Madam Lee's family refuses to forgive Uber driver Lee for the accident and shared that her son still misses her and would make coffee and fruits every morning for her.

As for the driver Mr Lee, he suffers from nightmares every night and wished that he was the one who died instead and is wrecked with guilt.

I refer to the article “CCS findings on pricy milk powder hardly address the issue of why prices” (theonlinecitizen, May 29).

As a case in point – has any government agency or government-linked company (GLC) ever been penalised in a big way by the Consumers’ Association of Singapore (CASE) or the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS), in the history of Singapore?

Why do you think that for example, the equivilent of CASE in the developed countries like the United Kingdom, are independent and devoid of government influence, like having politicians on the board or leadership staff at CASE historically?

Whilst we wait six months for the “milk powder” commission to come up with recommendations which may take another unknown period to implement – does it mean that consumers have to continue to pay high prices?

In the meantime, here are some immediate suggestions:-

Fairprice could introduce a much lower priced house brand, like what it has done for many goods.

This may force the current high prices to start coming down.

Ban sponsorships and subsidies that milk powder companies are giving to hospitals.

Impose a cap on the advertising and promotions component of milk power.

Allow online purchase and shipping of milk powder from other countries to Singapore.

Currently, there seems to be a restriction on the purchase and shipping to Singapore.

For example, one can buy much cheaper milk powder from Malaysia online, provided one has a Malaysian address (such as a friend’s address in Johor Bahru) for delivery.!

If the recent water price increase by at least 30 per cent happened in another country with a CASE that is independent – at the least – there would have been calls for detailed historical and projected revenues and costs, to justify the increase.

Leong Sze Hian
A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S. Editor

An MOM report on wage practices, which was released today, indicated that the number of employees who received a pay increase in 2016 has dropped, and total wage growth, which includes CPF contributions, have also fallen.

The report also said that profitable private firms also continued to fall, which partly explains why the wage growth has also dropped. All these figures, released by the MOM, shows that people are basically not getting the expected wage hikes that they had hoped for. And all during the same period, the government is having a spree of increasing every price it can. Water hikes, service and conservancy charges, car park hikes, transport hikes, you name it, the government would probably have announced an increase in the past year.

Why is this so? Prices are going up, but wages are not. How to survive if this carry on? Are we truly becoming a country of the elites, where only the rich can survive and live comfortably, while the rest of us slave the rest of our lives away, hoping to one day join in the ranks of the elites?

Amanda Chen

A.S.S. Contributor

Congratulations to Yishun residents! The famous sunglass auntie who splashes her neighbour's house with oil, urine, salt etc has been arrested by the police. The neighbour from hell, Mdm Tan, was caught at Yishun Central last Saturday.

Many residents have complained about her for the past 2 years. One of her neighbours even had to build a wall complete with cacti and durian shells to guard against her. Even then, she did not stop throwing random things at their houses, which caused the doors to rust and get damaged.

Mdm Tan was arrested under the Public Order and Nuisance Act and may be fined up to $1000.

No more wall around Yishun? Lol.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

A 45 year old mother have been jailed for six months for holding a chopper to a social worker's neck, as she was refused a planned visit with her newborn son, who was in foster care. The woman, Neo Mui Liang, gave birth to the baby boy in October last year, but the MSF placed the boy into foster care when he was just a month old, citing Neo who has “a long history of psychiatric disorders”, was assessed to be incapable of caring for her son.

She was instead granted supervised access to her young son for an hour a week. Court documents stated that on Feb 24, 2017, an MSF social worker called off the weekly visit citing concerns for the boy’s safety, after “receiving information” that Neo was “unstable” after a fight with her boyfriend. This made Neo upset, and she decided to confront the social worker, arming herself with a knife and a chopper.

She made her way to the Social Service Office (SSO) in Taman Jurong, where she held the knife to her own neck and demanded to see the social worker. An alarm was raised immediately by SSO staff, but the social worker decided to approach Neo to calm her down. Neo however, pressed the chopper to the social worker's neck, but she managed to escape and restrain Neo with the help of her colleagues.

Reports Neo has had a long history psychiatric disorders and had been treated by IMH since 1988. She also has a 16 year old daughter who is currently in the Singapore Girls' Home.

Paige Ong

A.S.S. Contributor