Blog

As we usher in the new year, we have our darling IYOR2018 intern, Talia Wong, with her second post giving a little bit of a recap on what TDE has done thus far: The Dorsal Effect From giving talks on shark conservation in schools, executing The Dorsal Effect’s eco-business plan, giving pitches to obtain funding for … Continue reading TDE Background info recap

As 2018 approaches, TDE is very lucky and excited to have a new IYOR2018 intern, Talia Wong, to help us with a series of articles and posts for the next 3 months! Thank you Ria, Wild Singapore and the rest of the IYOR2018 team for making this possible! Here’s Talia’s very first post of the … Continue reading It is the holidays, where are you heading off to this time?

It was a return trip with the ISS International School Singapore students on the IB program Grade 11 students for their group 4 project, this October, and it proved emotionally rewarding for me indeed, on so many fronts. I loved seeing how the teachers buy in to the message of the trip was very possible … Continue reading ISS return trip to Lombok

In January 2017 The Dorsal Effect took over 50 grade 11 students (the largest group we’ve ever had!) from ISS International School to Lombok Indonesia. The group is a wonderful mix of backgrounds – including Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and Korean – many of whom come from traditional families where consumption of shark is the norm. … Continue reading ISS – Our Biggest and Most Traditional Group Yet

(a blog post by our marine scientist, Naomi Clark-Shen) Our planet is under immense pressure, and coral reefs are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world. So what does this mean for The Dorsal Effect, which relies on healthy coral reefs to give an alternative livelihood to shark fishermen through eco-tourism? We set … Continue reading Is there a future for Lombok’s coral reefs? Yale-NUS gives clarity

There’s something about rich sunset hues over wide skies and sprawling beaches that brings forth the urge to blog again, that urge I had been seeking for a while. Many a fleeting thought passed for the months since my last post but never an inspiration of a moment to expound on them further nor feeling … Continue reading Bad thoughts good thoughts

TDE boat trip catshark rescue and release

So I made this blog entry below and saved it as a draft the day before the SST students were due to return from their marine conservation trip with The Dorsal Effect…

Being in Lombok always evokes a sense of need to blog again. After a few heartbreaking posts, I am glad this is a high spirited one. So the NUS Tembusu College students initiated, plannned and executed a most ambitious but inspiring multi stop trip to Indonesia as a part of their animal of the year … Continue reading NUS Tembusu College and TDE

It had been a pretty unexpected end to the year of 2014 indeed. What started off as a casual mention of an upcoming Our Better World voting competition became something I would never have imagined happening.

I particularly enjoyed the sharing at SocialCollab where I got to meet the most amazing people ever, who believed and shared in the dream I shared as I spoke about The Dorsal Effect and my love for sharks.

A recent sudden passing of an old friend, a NatGeo Live talk by underwater photographer, David Doubilet, and what I saw on my last trip to Lombok got me thinking about whether the world IS indeed really damed to ruination very quickly now. So on the last trip to Lombok in early August, it was … Continue reading World of the damned

So I realised how important it is for me to document this journey and it’s up and downs that have helped me to grow so much thus far. I went to a seminar recently where the speaker shared about the good in problems because they lead to solutions in business. To take it a step … Continue reading Track the miracles

While trying to keep spirits up and rationalizing a problem that just popped up this morning, I had a sudden meltdown, so sudden that I actually shocked myself too when it happened. I guess there was a disconnect between the head and the heart for me for that moment in time as I broke down … Continue reading Giving Up Is Always The Easier Option

The sunsets in Lombok are always spectacular if it’s not the rainy season, and on days of dusk as this, I like to be able to find little pockets of time to get behind the computer to reflect in serenity a little, with the beautiful sunset hues in the background.

It has been slightly more than a year since I first came into contact with Lombok and Tanjung Luar fish market and as I look back on the year, I find it important to take stock as well as look ahead with even more focus.

Our fifth ever boat excursion the day before did not start off very well at all, we walked around the fish market and I saw a horrific number of sharks caught this morning. A row of about 20 juvenile ones and about 6 full grown, 2 of which were looked like the Great hammerheads… I … Continue reading Swimming upstream

So the first few days of being back in Lombok for a longer term this time to try and take off the business from Lombok itself hasn’t exactly been the easiest, though I have to admit I am still growing and learning and meeting the most amazing people. The odds just stack up sometimes and … Continue reading Hanging tough and keeping it real

I had the honour and privilege of being invited to speak at The Chaos Asia at Neverland II with Dixii and had the most amazing and humbling experience meeting lots of interesting people and learning a lot about giving an impactful pitch. When I have been only a teacher most parts of my life, I … Continue reading The Chaos Asia

So the weekend went by in a whirl and I was pretty much still in shock by Monday at having been one of the winning teams for Singapore International Foundation’s Young Social Entrepreneur’s Programme 2013. For the days leading up to the final pitch, I was actually fraught with a bag of mixed emotions that … Continue reading YSE final pitch and reflections

It is truly a milestone getting one first boat tour going for The Dorsal Effect indeed. Feeling like we have been in the woods most parts of this year, to be able to take my first group of tourists out on the proposed boat trip really felt like a mixture of a dream come true … Continue reading The Dorsal Effect goes live! – first boat tour 4th Sept 2013

On the boy’s nudging, I took a trip to Bangkok in order to catch my favouritest band ever perfoming at Sonic Bang, Ash. The one band whose every album I have owned since I was 14 to date. Sometimes when you love something long enough, the whole idea of biding one’s time suddenly makes a … Continue reading Lessons from Ash and the magic that comes with them

All of us could learn a thing or two from inspiring and strong willed people in the world, like Chiharu. Although I am a vegetarian now, I would really like to be able to attend her workshop one day. After all, a friend, Denvy, says one deserves to eat the meat only if they have … Continue reading Chiharu Hatakeyama and self-sufficiency in the 21st century【People we love】

Having been a history teacher for 6 years before, I must admit that I was truly humbled by how little I know about Singapore’s history, through our Bukit Brown tour today. Cuifen lovingly organised a walking tour for her friends and friends of friends on a beautiful Sunday morning and although only Wilson and I … Continue reading Bukit Brown and a nation’s unwritten history

Thanks to a very dear couple friend of mine, Vik and Steph, the boy and I got to catch a very inspiring film, Menstrual Man, over the weekend at the Arts House. It tells the tale of the man behind the simple, cheap and easy to use machines to make sanitary napkins for rural women … Continue reading movie – Menstrual Man and social enterprise inspirations

I love Singapore for what it’s worth (country and incumbent are two different entities to me, clearly) and I believe there is much worth loving and passing on to the future generations, MacRitchie’s wonderful array of flora and fauna being one of them.

You know you are slowly but surely reconnecting with a love from a decade back when you smile even behind a breathing regulator and mask almost ALL the time you are underwater for a dive.

So it was time for my annual ritual of catching the Japanese Film Festival since returning to Singapore from the JET program despite the fact that this year’s selects seemed a little lackluster and fell short on appeal to me with the many retrospective and 80s pieces. I think I made a wise choice for … Continue reading JFF – See You Tomorrow, Everyone

I have always wondered about the cynics in life, the ones who probably once dreamt and allowed their intellect to get in the way of changing the world for good. So I had a very fulfilling and soulful lunch meet up with a dear old friend who is currently an academic in the beloved field … Continue reading Idealism and action

After a whirlwind week of organizing, packing and delivering The Dorsal Effect t-shirt orders and planning for the September trip to Lombok with a group, I figured I really needed a proper date night with the boy and thank goodness to GV for little perks like discounts on movie tickets with DBS cards. In a … Continue reading World War Z

Thank you dearest Phil and RocketNews for the shout out! ?

June has been quite the eventful month with lots of online and print press coverage. I am heartened indeed but the tons of emails, Facebook messages and text messages from friends, family and (once) strangers who wrote me to get me to fight on for The Dorsal Effect. It is really encouraging to see for … Continue reading Thank you Straits Times and The Online Citizen, test trip Sept 1-5

The past few days after coming back from Lombok saw me swathed in bouts of interviews from various sources. I don’t know how they came to know about The Dorsal Effect but I am thankful for the interest and shout out by them nonetheless. I can only hope all this is not too premature and … Continue reading Gratitude

We made our way back to Tanjung Luar fish market again the following morning with Peter this time and we were in for some shocking finds this time. We got to the market at about 5.45am and saw the trucks unloading styrofoam ice boxes of catches from the day before, for sale. We stood at … Continue reading Tanjung Luar day 2 on 23rd May 2013

Things fall into place when you meet the face behind Aquatic Alliance, the Rays research and educational outreach guys from Lembongan Island whom I had been following on Facebook very closely for their awesome rays underwater shots, for a while now!

I know hitting my thirties is hardly even considered getting older, but after traipsing through Tiong Bahru area with the boy today, it hit me now, what it meant then, when older folks lament of how things change, while we were younger and impatient and thought change necessary for greater things to happen in our … Continue reading On nostalgia, Tiong Bahru and getting older

So I realized that a very much bigger part of my life this year thus far has been Shark Savers and having the freedom and flexibility of time to be able to go around the schools giving assembly or CCA group shark conservation talls. Each one giving me more confidence and courage to fight on for … Continue reading Shark Savers Educational Outreach and me

The week before spelt meself another bout of doubt, frustration and sucky energy again. Shark conservation is not an easy sell; the more money some people have, the less they are willing to spend on; the lack of comfortable monthly income like before is definitely not a happy thing in all honesty, I miss having … Continue reading I miss, I live on 🙂

I went for a 3 day workshop as part of Singapore International Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme (4th year running now) I had scrambled to get The Dorsal effect registered in, just before leaving for Kenya last year.

Filled with a lot of self doubt and insecure feelings of being incapable as the weakest link among the Sharksavers core team of volunteers (a stellar and talented bunch with a common love for sharks, no doubt, albeit a bit too task oriented at times), coupled with uncertainties at times about how to progress with … Continue reading On looking for signs and veganism

So I went for a Passion Unleashed talk at SMU with the dear Ly on a Tuesday night, with a little apprehension, I must admit but still bearing an open heart, I’d like to believe.

What with a vegetable and fruits garden beside a fish breeding pond, all cared for and maintained by the children themselves, this is really community living at its core.

As the first week in Kenya winds down, I am left with much mixed feelings and questions to self. The week hasn’t exactly gone by easy, nor was it extremely grueling in any sense. There were highlights and uplifting moments, as there were low points as well but more importantly, I find myself wondering what … Continue reading Kenya week 1

So I find myself back in the Chapel of the Resurrection today on Christmas despite a long hiatus and much deliberations about finding another church to worship yet. Yes, I am all about letting go and the power of change for better but I guess at the end of the day, I am still a creature of … Continue reading Year end stock taking

Day 3 in Lombok saw me the eager beaver, excited to go diving off the famed Gili islands (Gili Air, Gili Menos and Gili Trawangan) West of Lombok off Senggigi. It was a 2 hour drive from Kuta to Senggigi which probably gave Wei Yuet ample time to decide if he would be (and he … Continue reading Gili Trawangan dive day

So I went back to Tanjung Luar today and thought about the reasons why people eventually get off eating shark fin soup, hoping, more than ever, that the demand would come to an end as it seems more consequential now. These fishermen, butchers and traders in the shark finning industry in Lombok have never even … Continue reading Return to Tanjung Luar

It was great to catch Agus again at the Lombok Mataram airport waving a sign “Welcome back…Kathy!!” wildly as we ran out of customs clearance. That wave of familiarity and comfort of being back. Lombok immediately felt like a home away from home. As soon as that thought conceived itself as the car rolled into … Continue reading Day one first trip back to Lombok

So I accidentally caught Johnathon Dayton’s Ruby Sparks for love of Little Miss Sunshine, perhaps yet again falsely projecting my expectations of awe from a prior work unto this little piece. Yes, perhaps I was expecting more from this movie but then again, quirky stars and co-stars of the movies Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano … Continue reading Ruby Sparks and the Pygmalion Effect

My first trip to Lombok to check up on the shark fishing / finning there proved eventful indeed. We woke up bright and early for 2 out of the 4 days I had in Lombok, to have Agus take us down to the fish market at Tanjung Luar where a couple of environmental groups had … Continue reading Lombok recce – shark fishing and trading

A hiatus from gigs left a vacuum that allowed a rush of blood and adrenaline to the body when airlifted back to gig habitat again at Passionpit last night. Can we ever get enough of Michael Angelako’s flailing dance arms or Shuttle’s amazing drum beats? fraid not. An hour and a half’s worth of amazing, … Continue reading Riding on Gossamer wings

One of the many joys of being in this profession usually come in unexpected moments. As an oral examiner for the national exams, I get to hear the most interesting sharings from the students sometimes. The wonders of youth that never fails to amaze me, and hence the love for the job. Gotta love the … Continue reading Everyone has a story

All she had was oatmeal and one David Bowie record to last her all summer. Wilco and Leonard Cohen vinyls to be rescued; quirky odd coupling of Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley? Never settle for anything less than amazing. I’m sold and so Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. ?

So it’s the time of the year again, for me at least, to reflect on what being a Singaporean entails. The time when I actually do want to watch the National Day parade on TV; the yearning that comes with years of age. When I would stand at attention before the TV screen despite the … Continue reading Love and loving Singapore