Supplements For Your Mental Health

"A strong mind is just the same as a strong immune system in that it means being able to cope well with life's demands," Arrol said. She added that there are many strategies we can use to help build our "psychological immunity," including checking reputable sources of information, openly expressing our feelings and being physically healthy.

In addition, she also advised taking supplements that have been shown to support mental health since "chronic stress and traumatic experiences can deplete important vitamins and minerals."

Though healthy eating and food choices are ideal for your overall health, low mood and poor mental health make these difficult to do. Fortunately, the following mental-health-boosting supplements should help you fill in the gaps during the coronavirus crisis:

• B Vitamins
• Magnesium
• Probiotics
• 5-HTP
• Omega-3 And Vitamin D

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Singapore's Richest 2020

The richest people in Singapore

Yong is founder of hot pot chain Haidilao. Mai Shangmin/China News Service/Visual China Group

Singapore, one of the most expensive cities in the world, is home to an estimated 44 billionaires. These ultra-wealthy individuals range from real-estate magnates and private investors to hot pot billionaires and even the co-founder of Facebook.

The richest person in Singapore is Li Xiting, the founder and CEO of a company that supplies medical devices. Li didn't even break into the top 15 richest people in Singapore in January — now, he's worth $18.1 billion, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list. The executive's wealth has skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic as countries around the world buy his company's medical products, which include ventilators, imaging devices, and patient monitors, per the South China Morning Post. In March 2019, Li was worth $5.5 billion, per Forbes. By April 2020, his fortune had swelled to $11.6 billion.

Earlier this year, Singapore's richest person was Zhang Yong, a 50-year-old restaurateur who chairs the popular Sichuan hot pot chain Haidilao, which has locations in China, the US, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Now, Zhang has been knocked down to the second spot by Li. Zhang's wife, Shu Ping, the director of the company, is also on Singapore's billionaires list, with a net worth of $3.4 billion. Here are Singapore's richest people, who are worth a combined $111.7 billion:

• Li Xiting
• Zhang Yong
• Goh Cheng Liang
• Eduardo Saverin
• Robert and Philip Ng
• Forrest Li
• Wee Cho Yaw
• Kwee brothers
• Kwek Leng Beng
• Shu Ping
• Gang Ye
• Jason Chang
• Kuok Khoon Hong
• Raj Kumar and Kishin RK
• Zhao Tao

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Singapore’s 50 Richest: $37 Billion Added To Their Wealth Amid Pandemic

Pandemic-induced economic pains have pushed Singapore into recession. For the quarter ended in June, the trade-dependent country reported a year-on-year 13.2% drop in GDP, despite $68 billion in stimulus packages by the government to shore up the economy. The benchmark STI stock index has also fallen 21% from when we measured fortunes in 2019.

Bucking this downward trend, the nation’s 50 richest saw their collective net worth rise 28% to $167 billion. The city-state, which has become a magnet for tycoons from all corners of the world, has benefited by providing a home for these wealthy expats, some taking citizenship. They occupy three of the top five spots on the list.

China-born hotpot billionaire Zhang Yong, whose wife Shu Ping, a cofounder and director of Haidilao International Holding, is listed together with him this year, added $5.2 billion to retain the No. 1 spot. A new entrant, worth $17.8 billion, took the No. 2 spot: Li Xiting, cofounder and chairman of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, who’s now a naturalized Singapore citizen like Zhang. A surge in demand for Shenzhen Mindray’s ventilators and other medical devices sent its Shenzhen-listed shares soaring amid the pandemic. The rise of Facebook shares this year also benefited No. 4 Eduardo Saverin, the social media giant’s cofounder. Paint tycoon Goh Cheng Liang of Nippon Paint moves one spot up to No. 3 as his net worth increased to $14.8 billion from $9.5 billion last year.  Rounding out the top five are real estate siblings Robert and Philip Ng of Far East Organization, whose combined net worth rose $1.1 billion to $13.2 billion.

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Pandemic Buying In Singapore Drives Up Net Worth Of Sheng Siong Supermarket Owners

Lim Hock Chee and his brothers Hock Eng and Hock Leng saw their combined net worth rise 38% to $1.2 billion this year as shares of their budget supermarket chain soared. The stock price of their Singapore-listed Sheng Siong Group surged after shoppers drove up sales by buying supplies to stay home during the pandemic.

The company saw a 151% increase in second-quarter earnings, to S$46 million ($33 million), on a 76% rise to S$419 million in revenues, it said in its second-quarter earnings report released in late July. Sheng Siong cautioned revenues would shrink if the pandemic fades away. “With the gradual easing of restrictions on movements of people, elevated demand caused by Covid-19 will ease,” the company said. Lim Hock Chee and Sheng Siong were unavailable for comment.

Born to a hog farmer with nine children, the Lim brothers bought a struggling chain of stores using S$30,000 borrowed from their father and renamed it Sheng Siong, or “rising vegetable” in Hokkien. Today, Sheng Siong is Singapore’s third-largest supermarket chain by sales, with 61 outlets in Singapore and two in Kunming, and a market cap of S$2.5 billion.

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related:

Singapore's Richest 2024

Singapore's Richest 2023

Singapore's Richest 2022

Singapore's Richest 2021

Singapore's Richest 2020

Singapore's Richest 2019

Singapore's Richest 2018

Singapore's Richest 2017

Dengue Season: How To Stay Mosquito Safe

June to October is peak dengue season in Singapore. The warmer months offer the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos to thrive, particularly in areas of dense jungle or around stagnant water. Despite a national dengue campaign to clean up residential areas and other potential breeding sites, cases of dengue fever are on the rise.

Dengue fever is a disease spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. There are 4 dengue viruses and each one acts independently. If you are infected by 1 type and develop immunity, it’s still possible to become infected by the other 3 strains during your lifetime. Approximately 400 million cases of dengue fever occur worldwide every year, mainly in tropical climates where mosquitos thrive.

When a mosquito bites an infected person, they can spread that infection to others each time they bite someone. Dengue fever can’t be passed from person to person directly.
Symptoms of dengue fever usually show up within the first week or so of being infected. The symptoms are often mild, but the disease can cause:

• A sudden, very high fever
• A skin rash, which usually shows up after the fever occurs
• Severe headache
• Nausea and vomiting
• Pain behind your eyes
• Joint and muscle pain, or spasms
• Bleeding from your nose or gums
• Bruising
• Convulsions

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Zhōngyuán Jié 中元节 Hungry Ghost Festival 2020

Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month

Seventh month prayer services will be allowed from Aug 19 with up to 50 people

Seventh Month prayers can take place in venues outside of places of worship, such as HDB common areas and industrial areas.PHOTO: ST FILE

Religious organisations will be allowed to conduct Seventh Month prayer services with up to 50 people at a time from Aug 19 to Sept 16.

The cap of 50 people excludes religious and supporting workers, said the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) on Friday (Aug 7).

The ministry's advisory was developed in consultation with the Singapore Buddhist Federation and Taoist Federation.

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Hungry Ghost Festival to be quieter this year amid Covid-19 pandemic

Families are still allowed to pray in common areas during the festival, so joss paper shops in the heartland may be less affected than businesses that cater to temples, said Mr Alex Teo of the Singapore Religious Goods Merchants Association. ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR


The Covid-19 pandemic has upended lives in the physical world, but even the spiritual realm has not been spared.

The Hungry Ghost Festival that begins today has been transformed, with mainstays like live auctions and flashy getai performances - traditionally held during the seventh lunar month - noticeably absent this year.


Mass prayers, accompanied by the buzz and clang of religious music, have also been significantly scaled down to meet government guidelines amid the pandemic.

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Hungry Ghost Festival

The Hungry Ghost Festival is one of the best times of the year to soak in the local culture and observe traditional rites in hyper-modern Singapore.

Just as the Americans have Halloween, the Chinese have the Hungry Ghost Festival (also known as Zhong Yuan Jie in Chinese), when the souls of the dead are believed to roam the earth.

According to custom, these ghosts can get up to mischief if ignored so all sorts of offerings are made during this period, which is the seventh month in the lunar calendar.

Making offerings:

• Notice those metal bins scattered around residential areas and housing estates?
• They are specifically provided to contain the stacks of hell money and paper offerings, such as cars, watches and jewellery, that are burned by relatives to appease their deceased family members – taking care of their material needs even in the afterlife.
• Do watch your step in case you trample on food left out in the open. Although many place their food offerings (oranges, rice or even suckling pig) and joss sticks on proper altars, others tuck them at the side of footpaths or even alongside trees.

Boisterous shows:

• And as if satisfying the ghosts’ appetites for money and food wasn’t enough, taking care of their entertainment is also important.
• Large tents are set up in open fields to host raucous dinners and auctions in heartland estates like Ang Mo Kio and Yishun. There are performances too, such as Chinese operas and 'getai' (literally ‘song stage’ in Chinese, or live stage performances), which feature tales of gods and goddesses, bawdy stand-up comedy, as well as song and dance numbers.
• Everyone is welcome – so sit back and enjoy the show. Just remember not to sit in the front row, unless you want to rub shoulders with the ‘special guests’.

Times they are a-changing:

• A mainstay of the festival is the 'getai' performance, thrown as a popular mode of entertainment for the wandering spirits. But 'getai' today is a very different animal – jazzed up with snazzy LED panel lit stages. Young, sexy perfomers sing not just traditional songs in dialect but thumping techno versions of English and Mandarin pop ditties. It appears that even the tastes of the spiritual world are moving with the times.

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Knock knock, WoOoO's there? The Hungry Ghost Festival chatbot

A tongue-in-cheek photo featuring the invisible Mr WooOoOoOOoo, a chatbot for the Hungry Ghost Festival. (Photo: Facebook/Mr WooOoOoOOo)

Singapore's new mascot for intangible heritage is invisible - Mr WoOoO, a ghostly chatbot, is set to help Singaporeans understand Hungry Ghost Festival traditions, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) said on Thursday (Aug 16).

Souls of the dead are believed to roam among the living during the month-long festival, which falls in the seventh month of the lunar calendar. This year, it started on Aug 11.

"Mr Woo (full name: Mr WoOoO) (is) in town on his yearly trip in search of good food, exciting concerts and intriguing ceremonies," MCCY said in its press release.

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The Untold Story of a Mother's Struggle in Crazy Rich Singapore

Pregnant at 22, homeless & living in a Tent in Singapore's parks

The Untold Story of a Mother's Struggle in Crazy Rich Singapore describes the story of author Liyana Dhamirah, whose life was turned upside down after her parents announced their divorce on her twelfth birthday.

The book details the numerous obstacles she had to face, including having to move out of her comfortable family home, having to adapt to a vastly different lifestyle, and momentarily losing her motivation to study. Liyana then found herself heavily pregnant at the age of 22, without a place of her own.

In 2009, during Hari Raya, she was forced to live in a tent in Sembawang Park with her husband, unsure of what the future would bring.

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Tent Village: Singapore’s nomad families

More than 10 families live in East Coast Park’s ‘Tent Village’

Chinese newspaper Zaobao reported that East Coast Park is now a “tent village” where not only more than a dozen people have set up camp, but is also headed by a 29-year-old “village headman”. Most campers were forced into this “temporary shelter” while they wait for their rental HDB flat.

Newspaper received readers informed that the area along the east coast there are many large tents, as a self-sufficiency of the “village.”

According to the newspaper, the  “Tent Village” is in a location which is hidden from most members of the public, not far from a construction site, but near public toilets, which is convenient for the campers.

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related:
Elderly in Singapore need S$1,379 a month
1,000 street homeless found in Singapore
Singapore in the 1950s to 1990s
Social class divide among Singaporeans
What is happening in ‘Clean’ Singapore?
The Surprising Truth About The Homeless In Singapore
Tent Village: Singapore’s nomad families
Singapore Is The World’s Most Expensive City
Singapore still the best country for expats
Why do people hate Singapore?

Singapore: Best Place to Live and Work
Plight Of The Tissue Peddlers
Have you ever Spoken to a Cardboard Uncle or Aunty?
Singapore’s Story: What comes next
Singapore at 50: From swamp to skyscrapers
Singapore Good Old Times
The Poor & Homeless in Singapore
Support for the Needy and Elderly
The Singapore Story
Other Side of The Singapore Story
ChasingThe Singapore Dream
To Be Or Not To Be Singaporeans
Longing for the good old days
Singapore: A Sampan or a Cruise ship?
Singapore at 50: From swamp to skyscrapers
Singapore is ‘World’s Costliest City To Live In’
Coping with Inflation & Cost Of Living
COL goes Up, Up, Up!
Singapore “Swiss” Standard of Living
Tackling poverty the 'kuih lapis' way
Callings for a Poverty Line
Setting a poverty line may not be helpful
A minimum wage for Singapore?
No homeless,destitute starving people in S'pore:Poverty eradicated
Growing Up With Less