In the world of comics, Sonny Liew has achieved international renown. His ground-breaking work has won several prestigious Eisner awards – the Oscars of the comics world. Now, the NUS Singapore History Prize – administered by the university’s department of history – has named his book exploring the roots of modern Singaporean Malay cuisine as one of its merit winners.
The NUS Singapore History Prize was established in 2014 to enliven interest and discussion about the country’s rich past. It is the first book-length award solely dedicated to Singapore history. It is open to publications in English that address any time period, theme or field in the city’s history. Kishore Mahbubani, senior advisor (university and global relations) at NUS, told reporters that there could be plans to expand the type of works that can qualify for the prize in the future. He used the example of the movie 12 Years a Slave to show how historical topics can be conveyed more effectively in non-scholarly formats.
This year’s NUS Singapore Prize honours books that explore the lives of ordinary people and places in the country’s history. Among the shortlisted titles is a historical tome that forgoes the traditional view of history as a record of big movers and shakers, and a novel about life in the estate of Sembawang over five decades. A biography of a dangerous gangster and an exploration of the city’s waterways also made the cut.
The finalists for the 2024 President’s Science and Technology Awards (PSTA) were announced in a ceremony yesterday at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay. A total of 20 awards were given out, including the coveted top prizes.
Professor Medema was chosen by a panel of judges that included representatives from industry, academia and the public. He will receive the prize, which consists of an award certificate, a medallion and a cash prize of S$300,000, from Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the President of the Republic of Singapore, at a ceremony later this month.
Singapore Pools, the operator of the world’s largest lottery, has introduced a new system that lets customers print their own tickets at participating outlets. The move is in line with a government effort to reduce the cost of running the national lottery while making it more accessible and convenient. The new system is expected to be rolled out to all its outlets over the next few months. Customers will still have the option of purchasing pre-printed tickets at ticket booths and self-service machines at supermarkets. In addition, customers can now use their mobile devices to purchase tickets at selected outlets. This will allow them to avoid long queues at ticket windows and save on travel costs. The new system will also allow them to purchase tickets on the go and track their purchases with real-time transaction data. This is a significant improvement over the old system, which required them to wait for a ticket to be printed before they could complete their transaction.