Of "Asian Reggae"

Lordy.

Kong Hee takes the stand and appall us further with their so called justifications for Project Crossover.

Here, we help our readers save time and bring them straight to the eye-rolling points. If you would like to read the full article, read on below.

1. They enlisted the help of hip hop artiste, Wyclef Jean to help Sun Ho create Asian reggae.
Oh yes. Get the help of a Haitian to make better Asian Reggae. Btw, our ears fail us. What the heck is Asian reggae?

2. Sun Ho's career would have helped open doors in the US... to the non-Christians.
It appears there are not enough non-Christians in Singapore for City Harvest to well, harvest.

3. Hits on Youtube.
To Kong Hee, each time the China Wine video is clicked, it is a hit. Doesn't matter that we are put off by it.

4. "Hips don't lie worked for Shakira", says Kong Con Hee.
Sacrilegious! The last we looked, Sun Ho bears no resemblance at all to Shakira. Ho's voice can lie. Shakira has an IQ of 140. Think Project Crossover... let's not even go there.

We refuse to be harvest by City Harvest.
#werefusetobeharvestbycityharvest 

dayum we should patent this hashtag

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Sun Ho was uncomfortable with Asian reggae style: Kong

 

Kong said he scrutinised budget for her debut English album

NEO CHAI CHIN
chaichin@mediacorp.com.sg
PUBLISHED: 2:23 PM, AUGUST 12, 2014

SINGAPORE — Latino reggae worked well for Colombian songstress Shakira in her hit song, Hips Don’t Lie, but singer Ho Yeow Sun was not sure that reggae music was her style, City Harvest Church co-founder Kong Hee told the court this morning (Aug 12).

Well known songwriter and performer Wyclef Jean had been roped in to produce Ms Ho’s debut English album in 2006, and wanted it to feature Asian reggae music. But Kong, who is facing charges of criminal breach of trust, said his wife Ho felt reggae music was not her style and was uncomfortable, despite the hits her single China Wine — featuring Wyclef — was getting on YouTube.

By Feb 2008, Wyclef wanted to re-record Ms Ho’s upcoming album. But things did not work out and both sides parted ways later that year and the album was never released.

Breaking into the US market would have opened doors for the church’s Crossover Project to reach out to non-Christians, Kong said.

He said he always scrutinised the budget for the album and, where possible, would independently work through assumptions made by American music producer Justin Herz in his profit and loss projections.

Source: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sun-ho-was-uncomfortable-asian-reggae-style-chc-leader-kong

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Of stealing the good name of others

If the length of the article puts you off, the only line to read to get you put off entirely is this, "If you use the name of the stall, then you're in trouble, but if you don't use the name and just use the street, it's free for all," says Select Group's executive director, Jack Tan.

The group is behind "Singapore Food Street", a foodcourt of sorts at the third level of the transit hall in Terminal 3, Changi Airport. What the group has done is to name stalls after "streets or areas well-known for particular dishes but have no connection to the original brands".

Changi Airport Group's spokesman Robin Goh, in his attempt to right the wrong, said that while some of the stalls may have direct association with the original brands, and others have indirect links in varying degrees, for instance through former chefs or employees, "the operator's naming of the remaining stalls after certain locations may have given the wrong impression that they are directly connected to popular stalls at these locations".

A world's first airport has officially allowed stalls of tourist traps to root themselves in the transit area. How charming! Already, the standard of hawker food is dropping and the numbers of hawkers have reduced as admittedly, it is a tough job. Then comes some fancy cooperation who thinks nothing of associating their sparkly new stall in a posh location with theirs. It tells people that we don't have to work hard. Nope. No need to be a good cook. Just name drop.

"I used to work for the XX stall at the Old Airport Road. Oh you have never seen me before? No lah what I mean is sometimes I help out there. My sister-in-law's cousin's ex-girlfriend's nephew's best friend work there so I know the recipe" Rip off the good work of others and make it their own while charging more. No wonder people still thinking Singapore is in China.

Therefore, the next time the train breakdown (don't need a crystal ball to prophesize, it will happen), we march up to the control room and tell the SMRT staff, "Don't play plah ah, we know Ahmad, Muthu and Lup Cheong."

Oh yes. If people ask, our Ah Kong is LKY.

#sneakybastards.

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Changi Airport's hawker stalls: Not so famous after all

PUBLISHED ON AUG 1, 2014 10:24 PM
BY REBECCA LYNNE TAN

The week-old food street at Changi Airport, which was touted as offering 13 popular hawker stalls from different corners of the island, is not what it has been made out to be.

The Straits Times has found that of the 13 stalls at the 10,800 sq-ft Singapore Food Street in Terminal 3's transit area, seven bear no direct links to the original famous stalls. Some are new start-ups while others are named after streets or areas well-known for particular dishes but have no connection to the original brands.

For instance, Jalan Tua Kong Minced Pork Noodles at the airport food street is not an offshoot of the famed 132 Meepok in Marine Terrace, which was located in Jalan Tua Kong in the 1990s. It is also not related to Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim Mee Pok Kway Teow Mee in Bedok Road. Instead, it is run by Mr Tan Dee Hond, 33, who told The Straits Times that he had worked at the Lau Lim stall for about two years in the mid-90s.

The owners of two popular char kway teow stalls at Old Airport Road, Dong Ji and Lao Fu Zi, said they did not open the Old Airport Road Fried Kway Teow & Carrot Cake stall at Terminal 3.

Nor is Mr Elvis Tan, 54, who owns East Coast BBQ Seafood at East Coast Lagoon Food Village, behind the airport's new East Coast Lagoon BBQ Seafood stall.

As for the airport's Tiong Bahru Meng Kee Roast Duck, there is no such stall in Tiong Bahru hawker centre. The owner of the airport's Tiong Bahru Meng Kee Roast Duck Mr Wen Yee Thim, 40, said he named the stall after his older brother, and included Tiong Bahru in the name because he learnt his roast meat preparation skills at a stall in Tiong Bahru in the mid 1990s.

When asked if naming the stalls after a street or an area that is famed for a particular dish was a misrepresentation, Select Group's executive director Jack Tan, 45, said: "If you use the name of the stall, then you're in trouble, but if you don't use the name and just use the street, it's free for all."

He added: "I think there was a miscommunication because there really are some famous hawkers there but maybe not 100 per cent. We just want to associate the street name with our product and our concept of it being a food street."

He added: "We can't use specific names because they may be trademarked or registered, that's why we use street names." The airport hawker stall called Changi Village Nasi Lemak is run by someone who once worked at one of Changi Village hawker centre's two famous nasi lemak stalls, Mizzy's Corner and International Muslim Food Nasi Lemak.

When asked which stall in Changi Village she had worked for, Mr Tan said: "I don't know which stall, because she didn't mention which stall, but I think it is one of the quite famous ones. I trusted her by doing the food tasting."

Only three of the stalls in the food street - Odeon Beef Noodles, Sin Ming Road Rong Cheng Bak Kut Teh, and Kampong Cafe - are directly linked to the original stalls.

Changi Airport Group's spokesman Robin Goh said that while some of the stalls may have direct association with the original brands, and others have indirect links in varying degrees, for instance through former chefs or employees, "the operator's naming of the remaining stalls after certain locations may have given the wrong impression that they are directly connected to popular stalls at these locations".

He said that the airport would be working with Select to rename stalls that do not have direct association with the original hawker brands.

Engineer Kelvin Sng, 25, who dined at the food street last week, was taken aback when a staff at the food stall he was ordering from told him that its name was "borrowed" and that it was "not original". But he said the roast meat rice he had was "good and satisfying".

It is a common practice for hawkers to capitalise on the name of a well-known, location-specific type of food such as Katong laksa and Jalan Kayu roti prata. Mr Boo Geok Beng, 63, owner of Kampong Carrot Cake in Tiong Bahru, said: "It is common for people to use the Tiong Bahru name because of the popularity of the hawker centre."

But the prevalence of the practice does not make it right, said Mr K.F. Seetoh, 50, street food advocate and founder of street food guide Makansutra.

He said: "The new stall will be living off someone else's reputation, someone else's good will. You cannot register a street name and there is no law against it, but it is not right."

rltan@sph.com.sg

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