Singapore Scout Association celebrating SG50

More than 2,500 scouts from 18 different countries gathered at the Sarimbun Scout Camp in Lim Chu Kang on last year (18 November 2015) morning to mark Singapore's 50th birthday at a celebration organised by the Singapore Scout Association (SSA). Sorry for posting the photo after one month later. 

I would like to thank Chief Tan for inviting me to be the opening singer for this meaningful event. Hope that everybody like my songs, especially our foreign friends from the other 17 countries.  

During the event, I also met Dr William Wan and Michelle Tay from Singapore Kindness Movement. Thank you for always promoting kindness and volunteerism too!

Sing three of my own composition at Singapore International Jamboree 2015. They have a big stage and happy to see so many scouts waving their flags during my performance, and they even come up to the stage!

Thank you Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean for the photo at International Scout Jamboree!

Why is Christmas so important for most people?

In many families it is the highlight of the year when everyone gathers around the elaborately decorated tree and the room is bathed in festive lighting; children’s eyes light up as they admire their gifts and you can simply forget about your everyday worries. Christmas and Advent time exercise an unmistakeable magical charm over people. As the days get shorter and colder and you can feel wintertime approaching, many people console themselves about the last few warm autumn days coming to an end by thinking about the upcoming Christmas.

But why is Christmas so important for most people, especially in the western world? Is it tradition, religion or are there other reasons?

Of course to start with Christmas is a Christian festival. The birth of Christ is celebrated by 2 billion Christians all over the world on 25th December.

But why was precisely this date laid down by the church? An exact date of birth is not mentioned for the Christ child in the bible. The date was probably defined at the end of December for various reasons. The solstice, the day from which the days get longer, has always been celebrated in almost all well-known cultures in the western world, be it Germanic, Celtic, Roman or Persian. The definition of the date might have resulted from this custom. Or even from the natural need of people to live off the hope of salvation through the Christian message of the birth of the Saviour, be it only from ice and snow during the cold and long winter when nothing thrives on the fields and pastures.

However, we must not forget that Christmas is not the most important festival in the church year from a purely Christian perspective. Although it marks the birth of Jesus, the most important festival is Easter, which solemnises the resurrection of the Son of God.

The fact that despite this Christmas is celebrated much more elaborately than Easter in so many families can certainly be explained by tradition. Particularly during the cold and dark season, people have a greater need to come closer together, retreat to their homes and simply enjoy a few quiet days with their family in a peaceful atmosphere with good food.

Even if this explains the date and reason for Christmas, many people still ask though, where do the many symbols that we encounter around Christmas time every year come from. Anyway, Merry Christmas to all my friends, fans, colleagues and sponsors, not forgetting my beloved family and everyone at Royal Entertainment and Project Awareness. 

Important for VWOs to organise themselves well: Tan Chuan-Jin

Saw the news on the Channel NewsAsia in regard to the "Important for VWOs to organise themselves well: Tan Chuan-Jin", which I personally agreed to what he had said in the interview video, click HERE. At Project Awareness, through our monthly distribution, weekly house visiting and follow-ups by our team and volunteers, we are still manageable and trying to improve our system further.

Project Awareness also worked closely with a couple of Senior Activity Centres and Family Service Centres in Singapore, as well as Social and Family Development (MSF) and Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM). I also constantly contribute my part to promote volunteerism and kindness through my public music performance, media interview and social media platform. 

In addition, Project Awareness also worked with a number of volunteer groups and corporate companies in serving our beneficiaries too. I hope to see more people, more volunteer groups and corporate companies stepping forward with your helping hand to build a more gracious Singapore together with us. 

Project Awareness Facebook: Click HERE.

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News from Channel NewsAsia: Voluntary welfare organisations need to organise themselves well, to ensure that volunteers can help in a more meaningful way and meet real needs, said Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin.

He said this on the sidelines of a visit to some rental flats in Chai Chee Road, which were being spruced up. Some of these residents faced a bed bug infestation, and volunteers helped to fumigate and clean the units.

"If you have a lot of volunteers who want to come in and help, but you're not organised well, it's going to be a poor experience and you could turn people off and you're not going to be very effective in your help," said Mr Tan.

He said one way this can be done is through longer-term corporate partnerships, which can lead to a win-win situation for both the beneficiaries, and the employees who are volunteering.

"The beauty of a long-term partnership is that the employees who are volunteering - we find that many people want to get more regularly involved. Because they get to know the people, and you're not just anonymously helping someone and then move on and have no idea what happens in their lives. You actually become interested in someone else's life, and I think that's when the real change happens," said Mr Tan.

Mr Tan also said with Singapore's ageing population, there is a need to ensure there are programmes in place to support the elderly, whether or not they fall into the low-income bracket.

"I'm actually quite concerned about those who are ageing in the private estates. Because isolation could sometimes even be more pronounced in those areas," he added.