CHC’s senior pastor sets the tone for how Christians are to engage the world.

CN PHOTO: Jere Chong

Delegates at CGI-AC 2010 who were anticipating an explosive evening plenary session on the first day were not disappointed as founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church, Dr. Kong Hee delivered a pulsating message to rouse the faith of Christians and churches alike: to recapture leadership in influential areas of society by engaging culture effectively.

As the CHC music team led the hall in song, the evening opened with an exuberant Parade of Ministries preceded by a video encapsulating the history of City Harvest. Members and ministries from CHC and its affiliate churches making an impact in the marketplace—from celebrities to top businesspeople—walked the stage as a precursor to Kong’s message that followed. Then, a live showcase of the many congregations in the church—the Hokkien, Chinese and Indonesian church, JAMs church, Children’s Church and more followed. Trishaws circled the floor, followed by floats and a bevy of girls wearing balloon outfits.

All of it culminated in a brilliant lightshow and the full praise and worship session that brought down an electrifying presence of God. Dr. John Avanzini took the offering with a powerful message about visualizing as one sows, preparing the hearts of the congregation for the night’s main word from Kong.
Before Kong began, he shared what he believed was the battle cry of the Holy Spirit; to raise up a generation of Christians in Asia who would be both savvy in culture and fervent in the faith.

Engaging Culture Effectively

“For too long, churches have adopted wrong mindsets that have led us in disengaging our culture,” said Kong. “No doubt popular culture has risen but church culture has decreased.”

Citing the story of John Wimber (1934–1997) who was a famous producer in the music industry in the early 1960s before he became a pastor as an example, Kong revealed how The Beatles had at one time approached Wimber to become their producer. However, due to the advice of the church that Wimber was attending as a young believer, he turned down the offer.

According to Kong, that church was against the association of the secular or popular culture. And he believed that things might have panned out differently if Wimber had accepted that offer, noting the  high possibility that the members of The Beatles might have converted to Christianity given Wimber’s evangelistic fervor. It might have been that Christianity lost a potentially powerful and influential force in The Beatles.

Kong presented three types of thinking that account for the failure of churches to engage culture effectively. They are:
Cocooning—withdrawal and isolation
Combating—fight, resist and oppose
Conforming—compromise.

Being Culturally Savvy

Kong illustrated how it was possible for the Church to engage culture effectively without compromising the faith through the biblical example of Daniel, who was a highly favored servant of the king of Babylon during Babylonian reign over Israel.

The preacher explained that Daniel was successful and experienced upward mobility because of his maturity in learning the Babylonian culture, language and fashion. He even adopted a Babylonian name and took on a job in Babylon. In his time, Daniel was contemporary yet consecrated. He was serious about culture yet serious about his faith.

“When it came to learning the culture, arts, fashion and language of Babylon, Daniel accepted these outward practices. However, when it came to accepting the Babylonian’s diet of food, he rejected it as he understood that it was equivalent to submitting to their pagan idols. Daniel knew where to draw the line and did not compromise his faith,” explained Kong.

He cited two-time Oscar winner, Denzel Washington, a Christian and a modern-day “Daniel”, who has made no secret of the line he draws—he may play a villain in a movie but either redemption or justice must be communicated by the end of the film.

In order for Christians to be savvy, Kong listed three things they can do:
Counter culture. Be aliens: in the world, but not of it. Look and perform like everyone else but within and in ways that count,  be consecrated to the Lord.

Communicate in culture. Be ambassadors. Show genuine care and interest for people and their culture.
Create culture. Be artists. Be passionate about excellence and creativity in one’s art.

In Kong’s opinion, Washington epitomized what a culturally-savvy Christian ought to be in the entertainment industry—an artist who is deeply Christian.

Building On Spiritual Disciplines

Kong turned his attention to the contemporary group of Christians.

He said, “The only way to become a successful Christian in the marketplace is to build your life on spiritual disciplines. Reading the Bible, prayer, fasting, praise and worship and thanksgiving, solitude, confession, repentance, forgiveness and going to church—these are the spiritual undergirding support of one’s upward mobility.”

According to Kong, the gap between one’s upward mobility and lack of spiritual disciplines is called character deficit. The wider the gap, the greater the pressure exerted on one’s character which will lead to burnout or to moral failure. In other words, failure in character is a failure in maintaining one’s spiritual disciplines.

“If we’re not careful in maintaining our spiritual disciplines, we will start to compromise on our faith,” said Kong. “Instead of us influencing the world, we in turn become vulnerable and get influenced by the world.”

In closing, Kong encouraged conservative Christians to engage the world and contemporary Christians to learn spiritual disciplines. He also explained that the intent of his message was not to undermine either conservative or contemporary Christians, but to marry both of their strengths to produce a successful ministry in bringing the gospel to the world.

“Let’s live in balance,” exhorted Kong, “being culturally savvy Christians who love God and His word.”

Kong Hee: “Let us (Christians) be both Savvy in Culture and Serious in the Faith”

Delegates at CGI-AC 2010 who were anticipating an explosive evening plenary session on the first day were not disappointed as founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church, Kong Hee delivered a pulsating message to rouse the faith of Christians and churches alike, in recapturing leadership in influential areas in society by engaging culture effectively.

As the CHC music team led the room in song, the evening opened with an exuberant Parade of Ministries preceded by a video encapsulating the history of City Harvest Church. Members and groups from CHC and its affiliate churches making an impact in the marketplace—from celebrities to top businesspeople—walked the stage as a precursor to Kong’s message that followed that evening. Then, a live showcase of the many ministries in the church—Hokkien, Chinese and Indonesian church, JAMs church, Children’s church and more. Trishaws circled the floor, followed by toy floats and a bevy of girls wearing balloon outfits.

All of it culminated in a brilliant lightshow and the full praise and worship session that brought down an electrifying presence of God. Dr. John Avanzini took the offering with a powerful message about visualizing as one sows, preparing the hearts of the congregation for the night’s main word from Kong Hee.

Before Kong began, he shared what he believed was the battle cry of the Holy Spirit; to raise up a generation of Christians in Asia who would be both savvy in culture and serious in the faith.

Engaging Culture Effectively

“For too long churches have adopted wrong mindsets that had led us in disengaging our culture,” said Kong. “No doubt popular culture has risen but church culture has decreased.”

Citing the story of John Wimber (1934 – 1997) who was a famous producer in the music industry in the early 1960s before he became a pastor as a classic example, Kong revealed how The Beatles had at one time approached Wimber to become their producer. However, due to the advice of the church that Wimber was attending as a young believer, he turned down the offer.

According to Kong, that church was against the association of the secular or popular culture. And he believed that things might have panned out differently if Wimber had accepted that offer as there would have been a high possibility that the members of The Beatles might have converted to Christianity given Wimber’s evangelistic fervour. It might have been that Christianity lost a potentially powerful and influential force in The Beatles.

Kong presented three types of thinking that account for the failure of churches to engage culture effectively. They are:

1. Cocooning—withdrawal and isolation
2. Combating—fight, resist and oppose
3. Conforming—compromise.

Being Culturally Savvy

Kong illustrated how it was possible for the Church to engage culture effectively without compromising the faith through the biblical example of Daniel, who was a highly favored servant of the king of Babylon during Babylonian’s reign over Israel.

The preacher explained that Daniel was successful and experienced upward mobility because of his maturity in learning the Babylonian culture, language and fashion. He even adopted a Babylonian name and took on a job in Babylon. In his time, Daniel was contemporary yet consecrated. He was serious about culture yet serious about his faith.

“When it came to learning the culture, arts, fashion and language of Babylon, Daniel accepted these outward practices. However, when it came to accepting the Babylonian’s diet of food, he rejected it as he understood that that was equivalent to submitting to their pagan idols. Daniel knew where to draw the line and not compromised his faith,” explained Kong.

Calling two-time Oscar winner, actor Denzel Washington a modern day “Daniel”. A Christian, Washington has made no secret of the line he draws—he may play a villain but either redemption or consequence must be communicated by the end of the movie.

In order for Christians to be savvy, Kong listed three things they can do:

1. Counter culture. Be aliens: in the world, but not of it. Look and perform like everyone else but within and in the ways that count, consecrated to the Lord.
2. Communicate in culture. Be ambassadors. Show genuine care and interest for people and their culture.
3. Create culture. Be artists. Be passionate about excellence and creativity in one’s art.

In Kong’s opinion, Denzel epitomised what a culturally savvy Christian ought to be in the entertainment industry—an artist who is deeply Christian.

Building On Spiritual Disciplines

With much of the beginning portion of his message firstly addressing the concerns of the conservative group of Christians, Kong turned his attention to the contemporary group of Christians.

He said, “The only way to become a successful Christian in the marketplace is to build (his or her life) on spiritual disciplines. These spiritual disciplines such as reading the Bible; prayer; fasting; praise and worship and thanksgiving; solitude; confession, repentance, forgiveness; and going to church—these are the spiritual undergirding support of one’s upward mobility.”

According to him, the gap between one’s upward mobility and lack of spiritual disciplines is called character deficit. The wider the gap, the greater the pressure exert on one’s character which will lead to burnout or to moral failure. In other words, failure in character is a failure in maintaining one’s spiritual disciplines.

“If we’re not careful in maintaining our spiritual disciplines, we will start to compromise on the faith,” said Kong. “Instead of us influencing the world, we in turn become vulnerable and get influenced by the world.”

In closing, Kong encouraged conservative Christians to engage the world and contemporary Christians to learn spiritual disciplines. He also explained that the intent of his message was not to undermine either conservative or contemporary Christians, but to marry both of their strengths to produce a successful ministry in bringing the gospel to the world.

“Let’s live in balance,” exhorted Kong, “being culturally savvy Christians who love God and His word.”

Pre-Service Event: Word Power Challenge

In the session leading up to the winning team for the finals of this year’s Word Power Challenge had been decided after emerging among the three teams with the highest scored points.

This year’s winner was an all-Indonesian team: Bernard Ricardo,Yoanna Arlina and Lusiana Saptura from Team 3. They had to pit against two other teams in two rounds of games before clinching the top spot.

The first round was based on memory power which all team members had to memorize a total of 100 Scriptural verses and had to be prepared to recite any three of them. The recital had to be done word for word (including punctuation) with each member taking one word. And the second round was a test of general knowledge of the Bible with 10 multiple choice questions that had to be snatched in order to get a chance to answer.

Leader of Team 3, Ricardo, a 25-year old teacher said, “It was not easy to win this. We had to manage the stress and nervousness competing live on stage and more importantly a lot of preparation was required for the team had to work together to memorize the verses.”

Each member of the winning team walked away with a Hewlett-Packard mini netbook. The other two teams who came in second and third were awarded a Canon digital camera and Apple iPod Touch respectively.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair made a special appearance as the keynote speaker at the National Achievers Congress 2010 on April 28.

PHOTO: Getty Images

Blair walked onto stage to a standing ovation. For many, being in the same room with one of the most influential leaders in the world, was an experience not to be missed.

When he began to speak, delegates were not disappointed.

Blair’s distinctive service as prime minister of the United Kingdom for 10 years (from 1997 to 2007) provided him a platform to offer in-depth analysis and insights into the global economy. This day, he shared his personal observation and learning points for any country, business or individual to adopt in order to successfully lead the future.

First he provided a backdrop of our current globalized world—countries have become inter-dependent and the world is rapidly changing all the time. This presents both challenges and opportunities—learning how to navigate in such a world is critical to success.

“The speed of change in our modern world is just too overwhelming and nothing is left untouched by the pace and depth of the nature of change. In our fast-changing world, you cannot stand still,” he said.

It is crucial that one be open-minded. Blair viewed it necessary as “new thinking and new ideas do not come to closed minds.”

In our modern world, where different races, creeds, cultures and religions live side by side, it is vital for individuals to see themselves as global citizens.

Hence, individuals ought to have the humility to learn from others who are different from them. It is when one becomes closed-minded, intolerable and disrespectful toward others, that he or she becomes limited in development.

In today’s inter-connected world, success also is built on partnerships between individuals.

Echoing Blair’s views was congress participant Ruben Potter, executive chairman of Orionstar Investments Limited. “From a corporate perspective, every person and every department has different functions that are interdependent on one another. As the leader in an organization, I should be open-minded in listening to my staffs’ views and ideas. This is because everyone is equally important, and thus resulting in productive brainstorming where everyone is involved.”

Now in its 18th year, the National Achievers Congress is a platform for learning and development that has presented distinguished speakers such as former US President Bill Clinton, Robert Kiyosaki, Michael Porter and Zig Ziglar over the years.

It is an annual event organized by Success Resources to help people learn from world-renowned speakers who share lessons on personal and finance success, drawing from their wisdom and experience.

PHOTOS: Tan Song Kow

After a rousing kick off of the APEC SME Summit with keynote speeches by Alibaba Group’s Chairman and CEO, Jack Ma and international movie star and founder of One Foundation, Jet Li, the high-powered conference entered into a series of plenary dialogue sessions.

One of these dialogue sessions —“Opportunities in Green Technology & What does it mean for SMEs?”— was on the subject of sustainable development.

This session featured a panel of green experts such as William Pazos, Managing Director and Head of Carbon, Standard Bank (Singapore), Ralph Dixon, Director of Environmental Investments, YTL Corporation (Malaysia), Edwin Khew, CEO and Managing Director, IUT Global and Chairman, Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) and Brian Dumaine, Global Editor, Fortune as the panel moderator.

Edwin Khew started the session by providing the SMEs an insightful overview of Singapore’s environmental challenges with climate change in Asia. This has resulted in the growing importance of sustainable development with the need to protect the region’s environment.

However, climate change challenges do present opportunities with environmental factors turning into economic merits for Singapore.

“The Singapore’s government has identified Environmental and Water Technologies (EWT) including clean energy industry as key growth areas for SMEs,” said Khew, “these are strategic areas that will provide Singapore with the competitive edge to generate future economic growth.”

In a move to show that it means (green) business, Singapore’s government has already set aside close to S$700m to build R&D and manpower capabilities in various clean technology areas. It hopes to establish the nation as a test bed for emerging technologies like smart grids and green building technologies

To date, the city-state has attracted leading industry players such as Renewable Energy Corporation and Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark. It is expected that Singapore’s clean energy industry will contribute S$1.7 billion to its gross domestic product and create 7,000 jobs by 2015.

PHOTO: Gay Sen Min

The Empowering Single Parents Network (ESPN) held a special luncheon for 40 single parents on 12 September 2009. This is ESPN’s second gathering since its inception in June 2009.

Special guest speaker, Susan Ong, a Senior Financial Consultant with AIA, was invited to give a talk on ‘Four Keys Toward Achieving Success’ in a single parent household. In her talk, Ong also addressed common issues faced by most single parents, such as, self pity, shame and stigmatism from being a divorcee. Many of the participants could identify with what was shared, and were seen engaging in heartfelt discussion during the luncheon.

“After experiencing the breakdown of my marriage some five years ago, I have carried the pain in my heart since then. But like what the speaker said today, it’s time for me to put aside my heartache and move on to live a full life for myself and my son,” said Kelly Chua, a single mother with a seven-year old son. Another single parent, Andree Lim who has a 10-year old daughter, attended ESPN for the first time. “This is really helpful, to find friends with whom I can share my thoughts and feelings freely. This is a good place to build friendship and support in life,” said Lim. “I’m looking forward to the next event organized by ESPN.”

The youngest among the group was Joel Ong. At 23 years old, he is a father of a two-year old son and is facing an impending divorce. As he had not been connected with the Christian community for some years now, he commented that the ESPN was good as he ‘felt the presence of God’. After the session, Joel was introduced to one of the ESPN volunteers where he got to learn more on being a single parent and practical advice on some of the divorce procedures in Singapore.

Last year, Singapore recorded a total of 24,596 marriages with a total of 7,220 of them falling apart. That figure translates to one out of every four marriages in Singapore ending in divorces and annulments. With this growing trend of divorces and annulment, these figures look set to climb higher.

The statistics show a pressing need to build a supportive environment for parents and children from these broken marriages. Hence, the ESPN is a quarterly gathering that aims to bring single parents together in a supportive environment where they could share and be empowered to nurture their children with love and wisdom.

This year’s annual green transport week campaign drove its message across to Singaporeans in a fun way by kicking off with a mass cycling event on 22 August 2009.

The Green Transport Week 2009 was organized by the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) and presented by SMRT Corporation Limited as a community initiative that aimed to raise awareness about the need for more environmentally friendly transport habits amongst Singaporeans.

Two groups of cyclists made up of mainly cycling enthusiasts started from the West Coast and East Coast parks simultaneously towards the event venue at the Singapore Management University (SMU) Campus Green.

This mass cycling display of more than 150 cyclists on the road was a public show of support for eco-friendly transport alternatives. Taking part in the mass cycling to show his support for this green cause was well-known local blogger, Mr Brown who regularly commutes to work from his home on his foldable bike.

“It is great that there is such a community initiative to promote alternative greener modes of transport in Singapore. There should be more such events to encourage Singaporeans to go green”, said Mr Brown.

At the SMU Campus green, an exhibition area was also set up to showcase a myriad of green transport options to suit every need and lifestyle from the exhibition of electric and hybrid vehicles to cycling gear.

These wide range of transport options attest to the fact that every commuter can go green, regardless of their budgets, lifestyles and personal preferences.

In his opening address, Executive Director of SEC, Mr Howard Shaw said that it was his dream that Singapore becomes a cleaner and greener transport sector with no more expansion of roads while working with our existing transport infrastructure. He also said that there was a wide range of greener alternatives such as carpooling, hybrid cars and public transport.

Following the official launch, the event culminated with a Formula Green Concert, which featured a star-studded line-up that included comedian Kumar, Jack and Rai, Michaela Therese and Dawn Ho with performances to inspire Singaporeans to take a positive and enthusiastic stance towards greener transport efforts.

For more details, please log on to the Green Transport Week 2009 website at www.greentransportweek.sg.

There is no dispute that Singapore homegrown comedian-actor Mark Lee is one of those people who have the ability to make you laugh, no matter what type of mood you may be in. That talent was evident at his stand-up comedy talkshow, Mark Lee Rally 2009, staged to celebrate his 20th year in the entertainment business.

The 40-year-old self-confessed Ah Beng had the entire audience at the Drama Centre roaring with laughter throughout his two-hour performance that was delivered in a trilingual stream of English, Mandarin and Hokkien. Though this was not highbrow theatre, it certainly was truthful and heartfelt. And yes, funny.

In his loud and forthcoming style, Lee entertained his audience with what seemed like an endless stream of taxi-driver jokes, riffing off commonly discussed quips about MM Lee, PM Lee and nationalism, among other familiar topics. Even when he was being funny, he was able to provoke thought about issues that affect the country. Of course, who didn’t love his ditty ‘Count On Me Ah Beng’ (to the tune of ‘Count On Me Singapore’)?

Lee was funniest when he was being self-deprecating even as he pretended to be defensive. He explained to the audience the difference between an “Ah Beng” and a “Lo Muah” (“gangster” in Hokkien). Lee had no qualms in being labeled an “Ah Beng”, but he drolly expressed his frustration at being referred as a “Lo Muah” throughout his years in showbiz. A Lo Muah and Ah Beng may both be lowly educated people whiling away their time at the kopitiam, but according to Lee, an Ah Beng was one level higher than a Lo Muah because an Ah Beng does not pick fights. Rather he watches other people fight, or “kuah lang sio pak”.

The Hokkien-savvy crowd lapped it up.

Actor and humorist Bernard Loh, 29, was bowled over by Lee’s wit and creativity. “He (Lee) is really sharp and spontaneous on stage,” says Loh, referring to Lee’s catlike ability to land on his feet even when he made a mistake. At one point, Lee pointed at the wrong display screen, and swiftly made a joke of it by blaming the multi-media team for not informing him of the change. “He never missed a beat.”

Another audience member Cassandra Oh, a 46-year old homemaker who is a loyal fan of Lee’s said she turned up to show her support, and was delighted to witness his success over the years.

“He has been successful because he is very real as a person and tells it as it is,” said Oh. “It is his ability to identify with the common Singaporean that helps him connect with his audience.”

It was good fun to watch the veteran comedian weave lessons from his personal life as an Ah Beng into a hilarious comedy routine. Despite this being Mark’s first stand-up performance, he used the best platform to pay tribute to his fans and to win over his critics.

Finalists for Miss Earth Singapore 2009 show support for humanitarian efforts of Habitat for Humanity by walking barefooted.

6 June 2009 — Finalists for this year’s Miss Earth Singapore showed up at the inaugural “Bare Your Sole” Barefoot Walk 2009 by Habitat for Humanity (HFH) Singapore to render their support towards HFH’s humanitarian work. For the first time in Singapore, a massive barefoot walk took place to raise awareness of the plight of needy children in Third World nations, whose bare feet risk cuts from broken glass and infected syringes.

The event, held at Pasir Ris Park and organized by HFH, Singapore Management University (SMU) and Victoria Junior College, registered a turnout of some 800 participants which included celebrities such as Paul Foster from the cast of Mediacorp’s Red Thread, Liang Shijie and Mr Frederick Fielding from Mediacorp’s Fighting Spiders.

Mr S.Dhanabalan, chairman of Temasek Holdings, who is a patron of HFH, and Nominated Member of Parliament, Eunice Olsen who is also HFH’s Singapore Goodwill Ambassador, were presented as Guests-of-Honor to grace the event. Both were also barefooted and walked part of the 5km route.

A patron of HFH for the past five years, Mr Dhanabalan said he was happy to be part of this innovative program that reminded Singaporeans of the fact that there are many people around the world still living in poverty, and that these people needed help.

“There are people who are so poor that they cannot even afford a decent pair of shoes,” said Mr Dhanabalan, “we hope that through this simple act (of walking barefooted), it will encourage more people to join us in fighting poverty around the world.”

Olsen echoed similar sentiments as she related her experience of a 3-day expedition to Batam with HFH this year in March 2009. She was part of an all-women’s team that worked on a build-a-house project for a poor family. That deepened her involvement in helping the poor and needy.

As a former beauty queen — Miss Universe Singapore 2000, there is little to dispute about her exemplary lifestyle for the aspiring finalists of Miss Earth Singapore 2009 who were able to exchange exclusive moments with Olsen before the flag off.

In her usual encouraging style, Olsen praised the pageant for their support towards HFH’s humanitarian cause. She further added that it was great that a pageant was standing for something.

One of Miss Earth Singapore’s finalists, Valerie Lim said she found the event meaningful and a great avenue in giving back to the community. She also expressed her deep respect for Oslen as a successful role model that she could learn from.

PHOTOS: Nigel Tan

Two beautiful Miss Earth Singapore ambassadors were invited to the Green Generation Concert to add a touch of glamour and grace at this celebration of eco-friendliness.

The Green Generation Concert, touted as the biggest environmental conservation and entertainment event in Singapore, was organized by Jane Goodall Institute (See inset box) on 5 June 2009 with the support from a group of student-teachers from National Institute of Education (NIE). This was held in conjunction with the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ 150th Anniversary. The Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage of the botanical gardens saw a throng of more than 1,000 people of all ages gathered and ready to party the night away for a good cause.

The event kicked off on a celebrative note with a cake-cutting ceremony for Jane Goodall’s 75th birthday, one of the world’s most renowned primatologists and conservationists, and the founder of Jane Goodall Institute. What followed was an exhilarating program filled with acts and performances such as Stomp by Chestnut Secondary School, using recyclable items as musical instruments; and DanceFuzion — a ‘green’ hip hop dance act by NIE.

As part of enhancing the green purpose of the evening’s program, beautiful Miss Earth Singapore green ambassadors, Ivy Leow and Shn Juay who were crowned the pageant’s 2008 and 2006 titles respectively were specially invited to convey the message of earth’s conservation.

Ms Shn Juay, a 23-year old NUS graduate who’s currently employed with a Norwegian company shared that although she was crowned as Miss Earth Singapore 2 years ago in 2006, she has not ceased contributing towards the earth’s conservation. She attributed her environmental-consciousness to her family upbringing where her childhood was mainly surrounded by kampung (village in Malay, referring to rural living) life. Even after moving with her family to a developed urbanized home, her family chose not to install any air-conditioning to conserve energy.

Juay believes that adopting a green lifestyle is all about cultivating good habits. She cited how her family’s green practice of sorting out trash for recycling had also influenced her towards recycling.

“I believe in using my own recyclable bag when I make any purchase at shops so that I won’t need to use any plastic bags,’ said Juay, “this is one little habit that I’m sure will make a big difference to our earth.”

Miss Earth Singapore 2008, Ivy Leow, a 26-year old IT analyst shared her views toward earth’s conservation, of how this would enable the sustainability of future generations ahead of us.

Leow also shared some of her future plans to leave a legacy beyond her time as a Miss Earth Singapore that will be aimed at promoting environmental consciousness among the youth in Singapore.

Together with her counterparts from Miss Earth Singapore 2008 — Carol Chin (Miss Air), Chang Wann Wah (Miss Water) and Yen Wu Ling (Miss Fire), she intends to begin a series of re-design workshops that will inspire and help youth in re-using materials from their current wardrobes with the objective to positively influence them towards conserving resources through creative means.

Quoting from one of the environmental leaders with the greatest global impact, the late David Brower, Leow aptly puts it, “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

About Jane Goodall Institute

PHOTOS: Lee Boon Bee

Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most renowned primatologists and conservationists, founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, which continues her pioneering research of chimpanzee behavior, a research that transforms scientific perceptions of the relationships between human and animals.

The Institute is a global leader in the efforts to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. It also is widely recognized for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa, and the Roots & Shoots global environmental and humanitarian youth program, which has groups in almost 100 countries.