Forum: Consider paying local authors when their books are borrowed
I refer to the report 'TBR (To Be Read): Should Singapore authors be paid each time their books are borrowed from the library?' (June 21).
As a writer, I believe Singapore authors should receive compensation when their books are borrowed from public libraries. Writers take years to complete a book. Painstaking effort is required daily to produce high-quality works of literature that advance human knowledge, imagination and intellect.
Writers face a predicament. We want our work published and widely available, yet we often question whether the immense time and effort invested in producing a book can be justified financially. Monetary compensation through the Public Lending Right system will give authors validation for their hard work and support them in creating new works that will enrich and expand Singapore's published heritage.
I understand that there are difficulties in implementing such a system. However, I urge the authorities to give it serious consideration to ensure the long-term sustainability of our literary ecosystem.
K.B. Ryan Joshua Mahindapala
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Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Wildlife rescue group Acres hopes to send 30 endangered freshwater turtles back to Indonesia
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The thirty pig-nosed turtles under Acres' care are slated to be repatriated to Indonesia in January 2026. SINGAPORE - Wildlife rescue group Acres is looking to send 30 endangered pig-nosed turtles, seized from the wildlife trade in Singapore, back to Indonesia in January 2026, The Straits Times has learnt. The planned repatriation of these freshwater turtles, so named for their large, fleshy noses that resemble a pig's snout, will be one of the group's biggest and most ambitious yet, its CEO Kalaivanan Balakrishnan told ST. Acres, or the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, has repatriated more than 70 animals since it was formed in 2001. This includes sending 51 Indian star tortoises, considered vulnerable to extinction, back to India in 2018 , and two critically endangered giant Asian pond turtles to Malaysia in 2019 . But sending the pig-nosed turtles home will be far more costly, Mr Kalaivanan said. He expects the repatriation of these hefty turtles to cost at least $40,000 , for two flights and a boat ride. Each pig-nosed turtle weighs around four to six kilograms each. They are also fully aquatic , and have to be exposed to moisture throughout their journey home - making the commute expensive and complicated, he said. The cost of repatriating animals to Malaysia were much lower, Mr Kalaivanan said without citing figures. This is because the animals only had to be transported across the border, he added. Pig-nosed turtles are naturally found in Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea. They have a very restricted range, occupying only freshwater and estuarine habitats in the Northern Territory of Australia and New Guinea's southern lowlands . But they are often traded internationally as exotic pets, due to their unique appearance. It is illegal to keep pig-nosed turtles as pets in Singapore. Only two turtle species - the red-eared slider and the Malayan box turtle - can be legally sold as pets here. As the pig-nosed turtles are poached in large numbers for the pet trade and the consumption of its meat, its numbers in the wild have been in steady decline. In 2017, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - a global conservation organisation - upgraded the species' conservation status from vulnerable to endangered. This reflects the greater threat that human activity is posing to their numbers. Acres has s ince 2009 rescued its 30 pig-nosed turtles in batches. Some were surrendered by pet owners, while others were found in local water bodies including Kallang River and East Coast Park. They have since been housed in the organisation's wildlife rescue centre in Sungei Tengah, which is 0.5ha - roughly the size of half a football field. Due to the turtle's highly territorial nature, they are individually kept in small pool tubs with not much room to swim around. 'They are the only animals that I was not able to help in any way, because we didn't have enough space,' Mr Kalaivanan said. The pig-nosed turtles, which are not native to Singapore, should also not be released into water bodies here, as they may interact with and impact local ecosystems and turtle populations, said Mr Kannan Raja, the president of the Herpetological Society of Singapore. Mr Kalaivanan said that Acres has since the 2010s made multiple attempts to repatriate the turtles, although they were unsuccessful. But a new contact within the Indonesian government has made Acres' latest attempt its most optimistic yet, Mr Kalaivanan said. He added that the turtle's uplisting on the IUCN's Red List of threatened species from vulnerable to endangered could have made the case for their repatriation stronger. Many of Acres' successful repatriations were also for species considered endangered or critically endangered, he added. Acres' CEO Mr Kalaivanan Balakrishnan holds up a pig-nosed turtle housed at its premises in Sungei Tengah. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN But much is left to do before the turtles can possibly return home next January . This includes applying for import and export permits, purchasing transport cages, and assessing the animals' ability to swim, forage and survive in the wild, Mr Kalaivanan said . Pig-nosed turtles are listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), an intergovernmental treaty which Singapore is party to. This means that they can only be traded internationally with permits from exporting countries. Mr Kalaivanan added that the turtles' diet is also being modified to match what they eat in their natural habitat. They are currently transitioning from a captive diet made up of fruits, vegetables, dead prawn and fish, to a more naturalistic one that includes wild figs and other wild-type fruits. Mr Kalaivanan said repatriation efforts not only help the wild animals return to their natural habitat, but also frees up space at Acres' wildlife rescue centre to take more animals in. 'It's a continuous cycle, until people stop smuggling wildlife,' he said. Ms Xie Renhui , the National Parks Board's (NParks) director of wildlife trade, said the Board has a multi-pronged approach to guard against illegal wildlife trade. Its initiatives include actively enforcing laws, surveilling online and physical marketplaces and taking enforcement action. 'These efforts are aimed at protecting wildlife species, not just iconic species, and are crucial for the biodiversity in our region and beyond,' she said.
Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Straits Times
With a shovel and a dream, woman finds 2.3 carat diamond in Arkansas
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Of 366 diamonds registered so far in 2025, only 11 weighed more than a carat. NEW YORK - By the end of her trip, Ms Micherre Fox had almost made peace with the fact that she would leave Arkansas with nothing but bug bites and tattered hiking boots. For three weeks, Ms Fox, who lives in New York City, had been camping at Crater of Diamonds State Park and going out to dig for gems each day. She rose before dawn, paid the US$15 (S$19) entry fee, walked the half-mile to the fields with her battered tools, and dug, sifted and rinsed until her hands ached. She was on a mission: to find a diamond for her engagement ring. Wake, walk, work, hope. Repeat. On her last day there, she slept in and planned to search for an amethyst instead. 'I was coming to terms with the fact I was likely leaving without a diamond,' she said. But then, as she carried her fourth bucket of dirt to the water pool where diggers rinse their finds, she saw a glimmer in a spider web on the ground, nudging it with her boot. But what looked like glistening dew did not rub off. In fact, it was a shiny stone. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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Ms Micherre Fox holds a 2.3-carat uncut white diamond she dug up at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park. PHOTO: ARKANSAS STATE PARKS/NYTIMES Ms Annie Dye, a gemologist based in New York state, said that depending on the final cut, clarity, color and carat weight, the diamond could be worth anywhere from US$10,000 to US$50,000. The couple have yet to get it appraised, so its precise value remains unknown. Each year, about 160,000 people, on average, come to Crater of Diamonds State Park, about a 180km drive southwest from Little Rock, in hopes of digging up a diamond they can keep. Most days, diggers take their finds to the park's experts to learn what they found. The park has a 'finders, keepers' policy, making anything they dig up theirs to take home at no added cost. But often, it's one of three less-valuable rocks: smooth brown jasper; angular quartz; or soft and brittle calcite. Every so often, someone makes a historic find. Like, Mr Bobbie Oskarson, of Longmont, Colorado, who found a white, 8.52-carat diamond in June 2015. Ms Fox, who had just graduated with a master's degree in management from Fordham University in New York, had come for adventure and to find a jewelry piece she could dig from the ground herself. When she and her partner began to talk about marriage two years ago, she quickly realised she wanted to find a diamond rather than buy one. In addition to avoiding the exploitative diamond mining industry, this stone would represent the kind of work marriage would require, she felt, and show her commitment. 'There are countless things that will happen that you can't just solve with money,' she said, 'and in those moments, you need to be able to roll your sleeves up and show up every day and do really hard work to keep that thing going.' For her, 'this was an opportunity for me to symbolically commit to doing that work,' she added. There were setbacks. About a week in, she got bitten up by chiggers, which left her itching for weeks. Almost a week later, her hand shovel was stolen, forcing her to dig with her bare hands until her nails were worn down. Two days after that, the soles of her brown boots flapped, like old paint peeling from a wall, with each step. 'Socks were probably peeking out like two days after that,' Ms Fox said. Still, the field called. By midmorning of final day, after more than 12km of walking to a nearby town to treat herself to an iced latte, she reached the 37 acres of plowed brown fields. It was then that she came across what looked like a spider web beaded with dew in the dirt. With a hint of reluctance, she bent down, still carrying a heavy bucket, and picked up what she thought would turn out to be a mica stone. Small as a canine tooth, it caught the light differently. Oily, metallic. 'I kept telling myself, 'It's just glass with silver paint,'' she said. She clinched the stone in her fist, dirt still clinging to her hands. Around her, the field hummed with the quiet industry of strangers who did not yet know that a diamond had just left the ground. She began the walk to the gemologist's office. A three-minute stroll, she recalled, that felt closer to 30. She kept her pace slow. Trying to stay level and not get her hopes up. At the gemologist's desk, where most hopefuls learn in seconds they do not have a diamond, she placed the stone on the counter. Instead of a quick no, there was movement – staff members summoned, the stone carried to a back room. Eventually, they called her in: It was a white diamond, more than 2 carats. Ms Fox asked for a moment alone to share the experience with her boyfriend, Trevor Ballou, 37, before continuing to answer more questions from the state park's staff about the diamond. In a quiet room, the relief and exhaustion hit her at once, she said. After days of heat, hard soil and the constant weight of possible failure, she let the moment wash over her. The ache in her muscles, the grit in her hands and the improbable reward glinting in the light. She fell to a knee, her fist pressed into the ground, tears running down her face. 'I crumbled,' Ms Fox said. 'My head was bent to the ground and my eyes were wet, and I'm just like: Oh my God. That was an impossible thing, and I did it and I am proud of that.' Carrying the diamond in a small box nestled in a fanny pack strapped across her chest, she flew home from Arkansas with a sense of triumph the next day. Back in New York, at their apartment in Manhattan's West Village, her boyfriend was waiting with her favorite french fries from Bubby's, a popular home-style American eatery. 'I hunted this for you,' she said, and then presented him with a box containing the diamond. Now the ball is in Mr Ballou's court. When is he going to propose, and what's his plan? In an interview, he said: 'I'll say this, I certainly have to find a way to live up to this now. She's dealt her cards and now it's my turn to put together something impressive, and I'm really looking forward to that.' Any diamond over 2 carats found at the Crater of Diamonds State Park gets a name. This one is named the Fox-Ballou Diamond, after the couple's last names. Now, it just needs a ring. NYTIMES
Straits Times
21 hours ago
- Straits Times
80 years after 1945, Japan finds its memories of WWII fading
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox People releasing white doves at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo as Japan marks the 80th anniversary of its surrender in World War II on Aug 15. – As Japan marks 80 years since its surrender in World War II on Aug 15, 1945, the country's collective memory of its role in the global conflagration – and the catastrophic defeat it suffered – is fading fast. The voices of living veterans, such as 95-year-old Hideo Shimizu, and atomic bomb survivors, like 86-year-old Michiyo Yagi, are fast disappearing. How Japan will remember its imperial past and the war's influence on the nation's psyche is now becoming a pressing concern. Ms Yagi, a 'hibakusha' who experienced the devastation of her native Nagasaki on Aug 9, 1945, counts her family – her mother and four siblings – fortunate to have survived the blast, although they endured prolonged bouts of debilitating diarrhoea in its aftermath. Hibakusha is the term used to designate survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 'Historically, Japan certainly has made mistakes, and those mistakes are our burden to bear as wartime aggressors,' Ms Yagi told The Straits Times. 'It is our responsibility to remember, to convey our experiences, to fight for peace and to lobby for a world without nuclear weapons,' she said, expressing her deepest wish for Nagasaki to remain the last city on Earth to suffer the horrors of an atomic bomb. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Ong Beng Seng fined $30k in case linked to ex-minister Iswaran after judge cites judicial mercy Asia Sun Haiyan, ex-China ambassador to S'pore, detained for questioning: Sources Singapore Jail for drink-driving cop in hit-and-run accident, victim suffered multiple fractures Life How do household bomb shelters in Singapore really work? Life Blank canvas: JTC offers black-and-white bungalows for lease at Rochester Park Singapore Fresh launches drive surge in new private home sales in July 'The youngest hibakusha is now 80, and soon there will not be many of us left. Looking at the perilous state of the world today, I honestly feel really scared.' Ms Yagi is one of just 99,130 remaining hibakusha, whose average age now stands at 86 years, according to official figures released on March 31. For the first time, their numbers have dipped below 100,000. The atomic bomb was a weapon of unprecedented destructive power that obliterated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then-Emperor Hirohito, in a nationwide radio broadcast announcing Japan's surrender at noon on Aug 15, 1945, starkly described it as 'a new and most cruel bomb', acknowledging that ' the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage'. In the present day, a year-long series of war memorial events culminates in the Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead on Aug 15, although the surrender documents were only formally signed on Sept 2, 1945. At the annual ceremony, where a minute's silence was observed at 12pm, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was the first leader in 13 years to express 'remorse for the war' in his memorial speech. 'We must never repeat the horrors of war. We must never again err on the path we take,' Mr Ishiba said. 'We must now deeply engrave in our hearts the remorse and lessons of that war.' He added: 'No matter how much time passes, we will continue to pass on the painful memories of war and our resolute pledge to never wage war again across generations and continue to take action towards lasting peace.' This pacifist message was reiterated by Emperor Naruhito, who said: 'Looking back on the long period of post-war peace, reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never again be repeated.' Elsewhere in the region, Japan's surrender was marked with both Koreas commemorating National Liberation Day on Aug 15. China, meanwhile, is set to showcase its military strength at a 'Victory Parade' on Sept 3. What is evident is that 2025 is a crucial milestone anniversary, imbued with the added urgency of the advanced age of the last surviving first-hand witnesses to the war's horrors. Japan's surrender and the subsequent US Occupation from 1945 to 1952 irrevocably shaped the nation's psyche. The 1947 Constitution, drafted by the US, remains the oldest unamended supreme law in the world and set Japan on the path of pacifism. The Emperor, once a godlike figure, was reduced to a ceremonial figurehead. The battle was directed by admirals and generals in war rooms, but fought by indoctrinated foot soldiers who were prepared to lay down their lives. Living veterans, now numbering a mere 792 – a stark drop from 1.4 million in the 1980s – continue to bear profound scars. Mr Hideo Shimizu, 95 , a former member of the notorious Unit 731, made headlines in China when he visited a memorial in the northeastern city of Harbin in August 2024 and bowed in apology. He recounted feeling powerless to go against his superiors' orders, having been assigned to what was the Imperial Japanese Army's biological warfare unit, and remains haunted by nightmares from witnessing human specimens. Tokyo's official position has been to acknowledge Unit 731's existence but cites a lack of conclusive documentation in refusing to confirm or deny human experiments. In March, Mr Ishiba told Parliament: 'The means to verify facts have been lost with history.' Mr Shimizu, who broke his silence in 2015, continues to share his experiences publicly but suffers from slander and abuse from Japanese right-wing commentators online who deride him as a 'senile old man'. He told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper: 'If you say something did not happen 100 times, it becomes as if it really never did. That is more frightening.' Japan's discomfort with its history as a colonial power and wartime aggressor – coupled by a political shift to the right – is evident from how the subject is discussed in the country's history textbooks. Mr Ishiba recounted to a forum in May of a meeting with Singapore's then-Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew at his home in 2008, when he attended the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore as defence minister. 'Mr Lee asked me, 'Do you know what Japan did in Singapore during WWII?',' Mr Ishiba said. 'I replied with the knowledge I learnt in history class at school. Mr Lee looked sad and said, 'Is that all you know?' I felt so ashamed that I began reading various books to learn about what had actually happened during the war.' His anecdote epitomises how the same historical events can be interpreted differently, with opposing versions sometimes written off as 'revisionism'. The divergence is stark even at home, when comparing Yushukan Museum next to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo – which enshrines 2.5 million war dead, but is highly controversial for the 14 Class A war criminals in their midst – to the peace museums in Nagasaki or Okinawa. Despite Japan having previously made war apologies and reparations in accordance to international law and a consistent refusal to avoid being drawn into 'apology diplomacy', the country's hawkish shift has unnerved neighbouring countries. The likes of China, North Korea and South Korea believe that Tokyo has not adequately atoned for incidents like the Nanjing Massacre or its exploitation of wartime labour and 'comfort women', and the war is still an open festering wound that can be weaponised for nationalist purposes. Yet as Japan stands at the crossroads, what is undeniable is that the country has come to be relied upon by the US, as well as regions in Europe and South-east Asia as a stalwart defender of the existing rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific, particularly to counter a more assertive China. But Shizuoka University historian M.G. Sheftall, an American who has lived in Japan for 40 years, said: 'Geostrategic realities of the 21st century aside, one factor behind this collective memory shift is the natural process of transgenerational historical amnesia.' He noted a 'wilful political and ideological effort' behind the amnesia , and added : 'What has been salient is the long slow decline of once canonical and sacrosanct Japanese postwar pacifism to a point where opinions that were absolutely unutterable in public 20 years ago are now openly expressed.' Still, Mr Tatsukuma Ueno, 97 , a former pilot of the Imperial Japanese Army's 66th Squadron, vows to keep talking about the war as long as he is able to. Peace comes at a premium and cannot be taken for granted, he told a news conference in July , adding: 'As a Japanese citizen, I am really happy to see that Japan has become what it is today. People have grown accustomed to peace. 'This is totally different from the environment in which I was brought up, and I think the fact that there is no war and peace prevails, is the best thing one can have.'
