I got invited to the Total Defence media conference the other day and I wondered if I should attend. OBVIOUSLY, I said yes hahahaha. Thanks AsiaPRWerkz for inviting me! Anyway, it’s about this year’s events cause it’s the 30th anniversary of total defence!
This is going to be a LONG post because there IS a lot of exciting things happening.
I tote-ally liked this bag. A lot of others did too because of the pun. Inside was a nifty file of press releases, postcards and a Happy Feet figurine (you’ll see in the later part of this post).
OH and you might be able to get one of these bags too! Details later below, hahaha.
Colonel Roland Ng, the director of Nexus started off the conference welcoming us all and then handed it over to…
SLTC George Goh, the deputy director for engagement then presented to us what was going to happen for this year! Ok, he actually showed us a lot more stuff than that slide but have YOU voted? The last day for the N.E.mation voting is on the 15th Feb.
There’s a lot of activities too and there’s going to be an experiential showcase at the National Museum of Singapore from 15 to 23 Feb!
Do check it out you guys, because it’s totally different from what you USUALLY think of total defence. This time it really means total for it has everyone’s stories in there. Well, not everyone-everyone but from a student, a civilian, an aunty etc. Not the usual RAAR police/army the end.
Want a semi spoiler alert? The videos or activities in the showcase, well, it’s not all WOOOH SINGAPORE YAAAAY, it’s a believable one with pros/cons from the people themselves which IS brave of them to showcase since it’s a government thing in itself after all. Go visit when it opens and you’ll see what I mean.
Besides the museum, there’s going to be skits and stuff at various schools so yay for those kids who get people to perform for them in their school halls. Not a student? You can ALSO catch a forum theatre performance at the museum called “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?”.
FYI, forum theatre means YOU can be invited to participate and comment during key points of the performance. If you go, DON’T BE SHY. Have fun, especially since the story will be set in 2022 where the characters face crisis scenarios that we may face in the future.
Do you recognize anyone in this slide? I went all “Heeey, isn’t that Pat Law?”.
Anyway, don’t like to walk so much? There’s also INTERNET activities you can do. There’s online thank you cards you can send via facebook. Because everyone plays a part and you can thank them for what they do yeah? Send it to friends, family! Someone you think should get it.
Also, the first 800 people who get the card and key in their addresses WILL GET the “I tote-ally played a part” tote bag!
Oh you can get the physical card too and it should be in Ya Kun outlets, POSB full service banks, Food for Thought and other public places.
Just do-lah. It’s nice to thank other people and also receive it.
Oh yeah, who are these 6 people? They’re the 6 personalities for this years theme! Everyone of them had their own stories. I’m just gonna copy pasta the ‘headlines’ for each of them from the press release.
Mr Lawrence Koh – Encouraging NSmen to be Fitter: HE IS THE FOUNDER OF iFLY. AHHHH. Remember when I went to iFly? Well, he offered those in his company free iFly rides if they scored gold or silver.
Mr Ong Beng Siong – Keeping Vigil for a Safer Neighbourhood: He’s a neighbourhood watch guy in Jurong! He is also a certified first responder and keeps the neighbourhood safe by preventing crimes from happening.
Ms Siti Mastura – Empowering Others with Marketable Skills: She got retrenched in ’03 and then she picked herself up and established a baking school. She provided other retrenched workers with skills too and hey, I think her shop/school is nearby my house if I cycled a bit. I sometimes watch her on the TV too since she has a cooking show now.
Mr Dick Lee – Making it Fun to Love Singapore: Do I actually have to intro him? You guys should know who he is. He’s well known for the songs here and some for national day too.
Mr Anthony David – Keeping Dengue at Bay: Ok, he’s one of the officers that check if your place as any stagnant water and such. Quite hard for him too since I know people might not want to open the door but he still keeps on with his work!
Madam Kamisah Bte Atan – Sharing is Caring: At first she just tended to her own plants outside her flat but then she got the opportunity to do gardening in the community garden! If you guys have never been to a community garden, it’s pretty cool cause residents tend to it and you can grow vegetables YOU CAN EAT besides flowers too. She’s also the community in bloom ambassador for her efforts in it spreading love for gardening to the community.
Seeee. This is why everyone featured is different. DIVERSITYYYY.
And these are the figurines from Project Happy Feet. Go check their webpage out!
The Project Happy Feet Slipper Race is on 22 February. You run while wearing slippers for 3.6km. The registrations and monies go to their charity as they’re a non-for-profit group helping kids in developing countries through education and training.
And yaaaah, this is also part of total defence.
I got to eat some goodies from Food for Thought at the museum since they were also helping out for the conference.
AND GUESS WHAT.
You can eat there too… For… FREE?!
Only for this few days of the event, it’s called We Are The Stories We Tell Ourselves: A Social Dining Experiment. It starts from 28 Jan onwards from 7.30pm-9.30pm.
They’re having a check more at this supporting events page here.
What’s the catch? You probably should talk. It’s literally a talk talk, eat eat session.
So yay! SO MANY events. And now… besides all that, they even commissioned a short film for this year’s theme.
“Handsâ€, the two-minute film comprises five mini-stories, inspired by real stories of everyday Singaporeans, and expresses the different ways that Singaporeans have played and can play a part in TD. It is directed by award-winning local filmmaker, Mr Meng Ong.
While it is just 2 minutes, it really is very AWWWW.
Ok. You can actually watch it on youtube too. It’ll be screened before the movies starts in the cinema etc too, I think?
And the one on the right is the director.
And this is Mrs Aw, she inspired one of the stories in the short film (she trained with her husband to help prepare for his IPPT).
EVERYONE in the short film are actors but the events are inspired by real events.
AND THIS IS THE END OF THIS POST.
Yes, events for pretty much everyone to looksee and participate that are free.
Well, except for the slipper race since you are helping to raise funds for the charity.
Ps. There’s also a competition by Camera Rental Centre with a photo a week’s theme of “Because You Played a Part” but it ends on 5th Feb if you want to quickly send in an entry.
