Singapore Day goes to Melbourne joining Dick Lee, Asian Idol Hady Mirza and hawkers from Food Republic

Phua Chu Kang says he has never been to Australia, but all that is about to change. Singapore Day 2008 will be held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia, a 12,000-capacity arena which recently hosted opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and music legend Santana.

Come Oct 4, the popular TV character will be part of a 200-strong Singaporean entourage that will be flying to Melbourne to entertain and feed some 6,000 Singaporeans living, working and studying there.

Joining him will be singer-composer Dick Lee, Asian Idol Hady Mirza and hawkers from Food Republic, who will be whipping up Singaporean favourites like chicken rice, char kway teow and ice kachang for the hungry masses.

The Singlish-spewing contractor with the huge mole and curly hairdo appeared in character at the press conference on Tuesday for the launch of Singapore Day 2008, an annual event which aims to connect Singaporeans overseas to home.

This year's gathering will be held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, a 12,000-capacity arena which recently hosted opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and music legend Santana.

The event has taken about a year to organise and costs $3 million.

This is the second time the Overseas Singaporean Unit (OSU) is organising Singapore Day. The inaugural event was held at New York City's Central Park last April and attracted 6,000 Singaporeans, most of whom were living in the United States.

Australia was chosen because it has one of the four largest Singaporean populations overseas, together with the US, China and the United Kingdom.

And Melbourne got the nod over the other major Australian city Sydney because it has a slightly larger Singaporean population - and response from the Singaporeans there was also more enthusiastic, said OSU director Roy Quek.

Hady Mirza performs at Hari Raya festivities

The streets of Kampong Glam exploded in an array of multi-coloured lights spelling out festive greetings yesterday, when Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng launched this year's Hari Raya light-up.

The light-up is part of month-long activities organised by Jalan Besar GRC grassroots bodies to mark Hari Raya Puasa on Oct 1. The festival celebrates the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, which starts on Sept 1 and ends on Sept 30.

The Kampong Glam light-up, themed as Hari Raya @ The City, will last until Oct 5.

In conjunction with the light-up, a 21/2 hour concert pulling in 2,000 people took place last night. Asian Idol Hady Mirza and groups from Jalan Besar GRC will performs at the events.

Throughout the month, the neighbourhood will buzz with activities such as the nightly breaking of the fast at the Sultan Mosque in Mascat Street, a food-and-goods bazaar along Kandahar Street and performances by members of community clubs at the Malay Heritage Centre every weekend.

Hady Mirza on Sense of Home

What: Sense Of Home is the first local English drama series filmed entirely overseas. It is a collection of four stories about Singaporeans abroad living, working, travelling ... or simply lost.

Follow, for example, the adventure of Marcus and Caroline, two Singaporeans long-settled in Siem Reap who have an awakening of sorts when they are trapped in a rural Cambodian village after an accident.

The series features popular local faces like Rui En, Fiona Xie, Edmund Chen, Andrea De Cruz and Asian Idol Hady Mirza, acting alongside local actors from each of the foreign countries.

Mercy Relief upbeat Singaporeans features Singapore Idol Hady Mirza

One of Singapore's largest humanitarian organisations, Mercy Relief, is optimistic that Singaporeans will continue to give generously.

This is despite the recent scandal affecting Renci Hospital and Medicare Centre, one of the country's biggest charities.Following its numerous relief efforts overseas, Mercy Relief is now turning its attention back home.

Mercy Relief received donations worth over US$700,000 from Singaporeans for Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis and Sichuan earthquake disasters. Every cent, it said, went towards the relief efforts in Myanmar and China.

It also said it is confident Singaporeans will continue to be charitable.T K Udairam, chairman of Mercy Relief, said: "I think the population is able to differentiate between what the money is going for and what some of the leaders are doing a bit out of the way.

"I really think we have not been affected that way, because we have been very clear that every bit of money we have, we give out to charity. So it has not been an issue." The organisation also limits each chairman's term to two two-year periods.

On whether the prosecution of Renci's former CEO for fraud will make donors wary of giving, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zainul Abidin Rasheed feels the impact will be short-lived.

He said: "I suspect it will have an effect on Singapore minds... When you have charitable organizations subject to scrutiny and investigations, people will tend to be a bit cautious.

"But we see also, in the case of NKF (National Kidney Foundation), people are now coming round, responding to it - because people know there are a lot of people needing help, needing that touch of mercy, needing that touch of graciousness."

He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Mercy Relief's latest campaign to promote a more grateful and gracious society in Singapore.

The Senior Minister of State noted it would take some time for Singaporeans to be truly gracious as it is not their second nature.

The campaign features Singapore Idol Hady Mirza as its ambassador.

Hady Mirza performs at Ministries mark Singapore’s 43rd birthday

Civil servants in the various ministries across Singapore started their morning by marking the nation’s 43rd birthday through songs and performances.

Over at the Istana, President S R Nathan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong assembled at the front lawn, where they were joined by hundreds of public servants working in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Two performers at this year’s National Day Parade, Hady Mirza and Joi Chua, also serenaded the Singapore leaders.

They belted out this year’s National Day theme song, "Shine for Singapore".