Day: December 20, 2024

The singapore prize is an award to recognise and reward Singaporeans for their outstanding published works in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The prize is a biennial accolade for fiction and poetry, with two top awards for each of the languages. The prize is a collaboration between the National Book Development Council of Singapore, the Singapore Press Holdings and the National Library Board.

The winner of the 2024 Singapore Prize was Wesley Leon Aroozoo’s The Punkhawala and the Prostitute (Epigram Books, 2021). It was selected by a five-member Jury Panel led by Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at NUS Asia Research Institute, from a shortlist of six books that had been nominated for the Prize. The other members of the jury were Foo Hai Fellow in Buddhist Studies Associate Professor Jack Meng-Tat Chia; emeritus Professor John N Miksic from NUS Department of History; and senior curator Dr Seng Yu Jin.

At the awards ceremony, which took place at Mediacorp Campus, William and Kate heard first-hand about the work of organisations in Singapore that are working to combat illegal wildlife trade, estimated to be worth $20 billion a year. This included the United for Wildlife summit, featuring law enforcement agencies and conservation groups from around the world, as well as companies that are driving the shift to a low carbon economy.

In the evening, the winners of the top prizes were announced. Marylyn Tan became the first female winner of Singapore Prize’s 28-year history, winning the English poetry category for Gaze Back. The judges described her work as “a clarion call for gender and linguistic reclamation, searing in its sassy confidence and universal appetite”.

Also at the event, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam presented the Singapore Book Council achievement award to late Malay author Suratman Markasan’s daughter, Dr Suriani Markasan. He said the honour was “well deserved”.

Ning Cai won the Mandarin poetry category, while Dmytro Udovychenko, Anna Agafia Egholm and Angela Sin Ying Chan won the Malay poetry category and a concert engagement respectively. Each received USD $110,000, which is in addition to the prize money that they had won in their respective categories.

The awards do away with specific entry categories that separate students, professionals and corporates, with submissions open to anyone who uses design as their primary problem-solving tool. The judges, who are drawn from the Singapore business community, were particularly impressed with the dynamism of the entries and the fact that many had been launched in less than five years. The winners will receive a cash prize of S$200,000, and their works will be published in the Singapore Prize anthology. They will also be showcased on the website of the competition.

Sydney is famous for its harbour bridge and opera house, but the city also has a lesser-known claim to fame. It has more ocean pools (man-made public seawater swimming pools situated on a surf coast so that waves wash over them) than any other city in the world.

But how did they come about and why are they such a part of the local culture? We talked to a few experts and one of Sydney’s most iconic swim spots to find out.

Originally built in 1929, Cabbage Tree Bay Pool is on the promenade linking Manly and Shelly beaches on Australia’s Northern Beaches. It’s easy to reach from the Manly-Cabbage Tree Bay Eco Sculpture Walk and is well signposted. The pool is a roughly triangular shape and sits on the edge of a rocky shore. It’s one of the oldest and smallest ocean pools on the beach, and its shabby appearance is part of its appeal.

In recent years, there’s been a move to restore and preserve these historic pools. The Northern Beaches Council is currently working on a master plan for its seaside pools and will consult with the community about what to do next. Despite this, the pool’s future remains uncertain. It is a source of tension between the Northern Beaches Council and its state-level political masters.

The North Sydney ocean pool is beset by claims of pork-barrelling and a lack of transparency, heritage concerns, and criticism from health organisations. Its budget blew out to more than $100m and the opening date has been pushed back from 2022 to 2023 and now April 2024 – 6.5 years from the time councillors approved the design to its doors opening.

It seems that it’s not just the locals who are bewildered by the project’s missteps – even the federal independent member for North Sydney, Kylea Tink, isn’t buying it. She says the trouble started when the pool picked up a $10 million grant from a fund meant for regional and remote women’s sports. This pre-election windfall shifted the inner-city project into high gear and muddied what would otherwise have been a fairly straightforward renovation of an existing pool, she says.

Having a swimming pool in your own backyard can be a great way to spend more time with family and friends, and it’s also an excellent investment for your property. A well-designed and maintained swimming pool can significantly increase your home’s resell value, so be sure to work with a reputable and experienced dealer like Sydney Poolscapes when you’re ready to invest in a new swimming pool. They offer a wide range of high-quality fibreglass pools, and their team is committed to the highest standards of craftsmanship and service. They can help you create the backyard pool of your dreams, and make the process as smooth and stress-free as possible. For more information, visit their website today. You can also browse their gallery of swimming pools for inspiration and contact them with any questions you may have.