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Exactly one year ago, we were in the midst of one of the fiercest and most intensely fought out general elections in the history of our nation (post independance). There was much drama and passion; Grand and inspiring speeches by the likes of Vincent Vijeysinha; Rising chorus of anger amongst the voting public; Open display of disdain for PAP candidates (in a country that was often driven by fear of political reprisal, whether real or imagined). There were particular moments during the campaign period when we felt that public opinion may be swinging so wildly against the PAP that Aljunied, Holland-Bukit Timah and Bishan-Toa Payoh might fall. Marine Parade was not looking very safe for the PAP nor was East Coast. These are GRCs. In the past, GRCs were the safe zones for the PAP and the opposition struggled to make a dent. In 2011, the opposition parties contested nearly all the seats and gave to the electorate an important gift: the ability to vote in the general elections. For m...

Sadly, this article has nothing to do with the excellent Louis Malle film of the same name. Okay, so this is too interesting to not write a piece on. Also, the thing I’m correcting right now which yielded this little gem is so boring, and I’m so loaded on cold medicine, that I’m almost compelled to stop and do this. Plus, I haven’t posted anything of worth here since part one of the fabled articles series (which we will continue, of course, but I dare not touch the subject when my mind is so addled ;). Right then, I’ll skip all the fancy-schmancy screenshotting and just copy-paste this little monster:   The Ordinance specifies the criteria for determining whether an environmental damage occurred in a given case.   So, first of all, a bad article! And why is an here a bad article? Because environmental damage is uncountable. Specifically, damage is uncountable. The correction looks like this then:   The Ordinance specifies the criteria for determining whether environm...

On 25th March 2012, the Ministry of Education announced some changes to the Primary 1 registration exercise. Basically, there will be no changes to the current phases of registration. But, there would be differentiation between Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents where a particular phase is 'oversubscribed'. MOE's press release states this: "when balloting is necessary in a specific phase, SCs will be given absolute priority over PRs. SCs and PRs will continue to be eligible for the same phases, and all applicants will be admitted if the total number of applicants in any phase does not exceed the number of vacancies. However, if the number of applications exceeds the number of vacancies in a specific phase, SCs will be admitted first ahead of PRs, before home-school distance is considered." This is clearly intended to win political capital by pandering to the section of the electorate that is clearly unhappy with the huge influx of foreigners. There is ...

On 20th April 2012, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that Singapore will give a "bilateral loan of US$4 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as part of the broader international effort to provide the Fund with sufficient resources to tackle crisis and promote global economic and financial stability." Let me just state at the outset that I am not going to question the wisdom of such a move. I can see the need for the global community to rally together to hold steadfast against any future economic crisis. Some would question whether this is nothing more than an exercise in futility. In fact, in the United Kingdom (where the government has pledged 10 billion pounds), several ruling party MPs have started questioning the wisdom of providing such a backup to the IMF. Peter Bone (MP from the Conservative Party) said: "We might as well put £10billion in the nearest litter bin.” There is a sense in which this move is seen as money down the drain ...

There is a case that is presently in court over the question of whether the High Court can exercise judicial review over the decisions of the SGX. This is an interesting legal problem that has not been addressed yet in Singapore and I am hopeful that the Court would come to the conclusion that SGX is performing a 'public function' even though it is not a public body and hence it ought to be subject to judicial review. This is the outcome of a similar litigation in the UK involving the powers of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers. In the cases of R v Panel on Take-overs and Mergers, ex parte Datafin plc and another, the English Court of Appeal came to the conclusion that the Panel was performing a public function and therefore subject to judicial review by the courts. Sir John Donaldson MR made the following observation about the Panel: "It has no statutory, prerogative or common law powers and it is not in contractual relationship with the financial market or with thos...

Especially with poetry translating, proficiency in the target language is more important than proficiency in the original language. Indeed, you'll find translations being done by poets with no knowledge of the foreign language. In such situations poets Get help from native speakers Work solely by reading other translations and using their imagination. Christopher Logue, who's written acclaimed translations of Homer, worked in this way. The 2 exercises below can be used at workshops - give half the group one exercise and the other group the other, then compare results. Exercise 1 Here's the Commedia's first tercet, perhaps the most recited lines in western literature. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ché la diritta via era smarrita. Write a translation. Here are some notes to help you Form: Dante uses hendecasyllabic meter based on the magic number three, which represents the Trinity, and multiples of three. The rhyme scheme ...

Justice Philip Pillai has given his written reasons for the decision to grant leave for judicial review in the case of Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v AG. Having read the court's reasoning, what I can gather is that the judge has stated that he is satisfied that the 'low threshold' for granting leave has been crossed. Exactly why the Court is satisfied as such is not stated (or at least I can't find it. In his conclusion, the judge states: "Based on what was presented and submitted to me for the purposes of the leave application, without making any comment or decision on the merits or the substantive legal issues, I granted leave for a judicial review hearing as I was of the view that the very low threshold for leave has been met." I suspect that this might be a problem during the appeal. What was the judge's reason for coming to the 'view that the very low threshold for leave has been met? Paragraphs 1 to 3 of the decision set out the orders sought by A...

Ēostre or Ostara ( Northumbrian Old English : Ēostre; West Saxon Old English: Ēastre; Old High German : *Ôstara ) is a goddess in Germanic paganism who, by way of the Germanic month bearing her name (Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ; West Saxon: Ēastermōnaþ; Old High German: Ôstarmânoth), is the namesake of the festival of Easter . Ēostre is attested by Bede in his 8th-century work De temporum ratione , where Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent to the month of April) feasts were held in Eostre's honor among the pagan Anglo-Saxons , but had died out by the time of his writing.  Hello people. It's another holiday period for many around the world . I was going to try and be clever and research all the different denominations' equivalents of Easter, but time is in short supply here at the Article, so instead I copy-pasted a bit of the ol' Wiki page on the subject (above). Let me just say then, happy times to all, peace and goodwill, all that good stuff. Arti...

When Joel Lane was a student we briefly went to the same Cambridge poetry group, though I don't think we ever appeared in the same issue of the group's "Virtue without Terror" publication (I appeared in the same issue as Alain de Botton though). I don't remember much about those days, but I remember him being one of the group's stars. His "Love Letters on Whitewash" poem sparked off my "Flapping Tarpaulin" phase. It appeared in "Second Set: Nomads" (Pendulum Press, 1986), which included work by Jean Hanff Korelitz, now a novelist and Paul Muldoon's wife. In 1993 he won an Eric Gregory Award. I've seen his name in magazines and anthologies ever since. Most recently, Nine Arches Press launched their Hotwire series by publishing his "Do not Pass Go" pamphlet of short stories. My "By All Means" collection will be next in the series. That, plus the realisation that he, Tania Hershman (who I've previousl...