Two Kids Being Exploited in Singapore

Maybe I was wrong, but it looked like a scam in which innocent children got involved.

I saw these two girls performing gymnastics the very first night when I arrived in Singapore on Thursday. At that time, I thought their performance was really great, and tossed a few dollars into the basket right in front of their mini performing stage.

Then a couple of days passed, and I saw them again Saturday, around 7:00 in the evening on the same place, right in front to the Takashimaya on Orchard Road, where all major shopping malls and luxury brands are located.

I stopped to look at them again. These girls were really amazing. It seemed that they were totally boneless, so they could twist their limbs in a way that's totally impossible to the untrained.

I tossed a few dollars to them again.

When I returned from my dinner around 9:00 pm, I saw these girls still performing. Suddenly something struck me.

One of the performers looked no more than 9 years old, while the other is a few years older, but shouldn't be more than 12 years old. Aren't they supposed to be in school? What do they want to do with all the hard-earned money?

I tried to talk to the Chinese-looking guy, who sat behind the tiny performing area, and who was obviously the girls' boss.

He wouldn't want to answer my simple questions such as "Where are you from?" or "Where is the donation going to end up with?"

Instead, he directed me to look at their poster in the front.

It actually didn't say much on the poster, except that Mongolian kids are poor and need help blah blah blah. Plus a few photos of Mongolian kids.

There's no contact info, or any indication of their affiliation or where they donation will go to.

I tried to take a shot of the poster, but was immediately stopped by the guy.

Everything looked fishy. I'm wondering why or how they could obtain a license to perform in this tightly-controlled country.

The guy in red T-shirt chatted with another Chinese-looking guy. But when I tried to talk to him in Mandarin, he replied in English.

See the Paragon building in the background? That's one luxury shopping mall in Singapore.

See, this girl could be an Olympic champ on gymnastics.

I was forbidden to take a shot of this poster, but I still managed to do it from a distance, using my 200mm telescope lens on my Nikon D80.

The girls performed several hours a day. A guy and a woman sat behind. One big poster stood in front and sought sympathy for Mongolian kids. Quite a crowd gathered whenever the kids performed.

Killing Spree in Rasa Sentosa Resort

The night I was dining on the beach of Rasa Sentosa Resort in Singapore, I witnessed a never-die zombie who was killed many times, but still managed to stay alive and became the hero of at least two pretty young things.

The zombie came out in droves on the night fall to scare people on this man-made island. Fortunately, all of them were destroyed before they could do any harm. That's all except one.

This zombie, codenamed Mario, couldn't be killed with a sliver bullet and a cross.

He managed to survived the sword of a kung-fu master who made a big fame in "Kill Bill".

Even the Japanese Geisha wielding two razor-sharp long knifes couldn't draw the first drop of blood from the white-face living dead.

Emerging unscathed from all the deathly fighting, he immediately won the heart of a girl in her high school uniform.

And Julet, who lost faith in her darling Romeo, decides to elope with this clear winner.

But of course, that's simply a tale in a drama performed by my international colleagues here. Good for you guys.

(Photo credit: Mario)

The Legislative Election in Taiwan, Plus the Referendums

There are two issues for today's election. One is to select congressional members, who would do the job in the Legislature Yuan for the next three years. The other is to cast votes for two referendum questions.

I walked to the poll station in my district at 11:30 in the morning. Quite a few voters had turned up and formed a line.

The staff would first checked your identification before allowing you in. Once inside, there had two desks. One the first one, you would get your two ballots, one for selecting a legislator, one for selecting a preferred political party. Then you would proceed to the second desk, where you would get another two ballots for the referendums.

For the two referendum questions, one is sponsored by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on retrieving the KMT's "stolen assets", and another by the KMT on giving the legislature the power to investigate the president, the vice president, their family members and subordinates for corruption.

KMT has since beat a retreat from their own sponsored referendum, and placed major ads on newspapers and TV broadcast, asking voters to boycott all referendums.

When I stood in the line, I immediately realized that I knew what other voters were voting for whom. It was quite obvious. If a voter proceeded to the second desk and took the ballots for referendum, you could presume that he/she was for the DPP camp (Pan Green); if a voter refused to take the ballots on the second desk, whoops, the answer was quite obvious.

This is probably not too good if I want to keep my choice in secret.

A row broke out while I was there. An old woman, after casting her votes, came back in and argued that she didn't realize that she had to get the referendum ballots on the second desk.

The staff replied that it was too late. Once you walked out of the poll station, you can't come back in.

"But you didn't tell me that I should go to the second desk, " said the old woman at her late 50's.

"Of course not," said one of the staff, "we are not allowed to advice you on that. It's all your choice."

I thought this is a bit misleading. But the referendum itself had been the focus of the controversy in this year's election. I guess that's why the staff wouldn't want to encourage voters to get the ballots.




All the candidates representing my district were printed in a broadsheet, which was sent to me a couple of weeks ago.

The white notice is for Legislature while the pink one for referendum.

The arrow showed the way to the poll station.

Along the way, candidates' advertising could be seen for the last efforts.

You can't take pictures inside or anywhere outside within 30 meters. I took this in secret. Phones aren't allowed as well.

Watching Taipei 101's Fireworks From 8 Miles Away

Happy New Year.

I didn't want to go downtown on New Year's Eve as I really feared a huge turnout at the vicinity of Taipei 101, where the most expensive firework show in Taiwan, costing more than NT$20 million dollars (USD$625,000), would be displayed.

But I did want to see it, the all splendid fireworks exploded along the outer walls of the world's tallest building. Reports said it could be 101's last fireworks, because it won't keep title for next year.

I found a spot very close to my home in Tamsui (Danshui), less than 10 minutes by motorcycle. Up on the hill near Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taipei (北台灣科技大學), I could see Taipei 101 standing tall at the end of the horizon. Using my Garman GPS navigator, I was told that the building was 8 miles (14 kilometers) away in direct distance.

Yes, the fireworks looked tiny, but I took comfort that, at the end of the show, I would be home soon and stayed out of the 7-degree-Fahrenheit cold temperature.

PS. According the a statement released by Taipei MRT, the company served more than 1.93 million passengers on the last day of 2007, up from 1.57 million same time last year.