News

6 Bad News That Have Plagued The Geylang Serai Bazaar This Year

2017-06-12 , 12:17 pm

Other than Christmas, Chinese New Year and National Day, the month of Ramadan is one that Singaporeans look forward to every year.

Or to be more exact, the Geylang Serai Bazaar.

This year, the bazaar has experienced more than its fair share of good and bad press.

From raids and arrest of illegal workers to stalls selling cat and dog meat, here are 6 news that has plagued the bazaar since its opening on 26 May 2017.

1. Geylang Serai Bazaar No Longer Providing Mostly Halal Food, Going Hipster Instead

When you think about Geylang Serai Bazaar, you’ll think traditional Malay snacks and foods meant mainly for Muslims to break fast and explore.

That’s no longer the case, as shown by the investigations of Halal Food Blog and Halal Food Hunt, who claimed that most of the stalls fail to satisfy one of the two criteria—either be owned by a Muslim or be Halal certified.

2. 22 Workers Arrested in Geylang Serai Bazaar In a Raid

On 30 May 2017, the National Environment Agency, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Singapore Police Force cooperated in a joint enforcement operation and raided Geylang Serai Bazaar.

22 workers were arrested in the operation.

As the issue of non-halal certified stalls within the Bazaar was recently brought up (Refer #1), netizens speculated that this was because the stalls provided non-halal food for its halal patrons.

Member of Parliament Zainal Saparai had to take to Facebook to clarify, stating that the people were arrested because they were working illegally.

3. Nine More Illegal Workers Arrested in Geylang Serai Bazaar

As if the Geylang Serai Bazaar didn’t have enough to worry about, the National Environment Agency, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Singapore Police Force conducted another raid of the bazaar on 8 June.

This time, they arrested 9 Indonesians who were working at various stalls at the bazaar.

4. Police Investigating Satay Stall For Selling Cat and Dog Meat

On 31 May 2017. rumours of a stall selling cat and dog meat satay circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp.

It was convincing and even showed a man getting arrested.

It looked real, but it’s fake news. NEA confirmed that they are aware of the claims and conducted an investigation.

Their investigations revealed that it’s fake news.

“Based on NEA’s inspection on May 31, 2017, Stall 124 at the Geylang Serai Bazaar was selling ‘dengdeng’ and not satay, as claimed in the online posts. Further investigations are ongoing” – NEA via asiaone.com

5. Turkish Ice Cream Man Injure Customer’s Face with Iron Stick

You all know Turkish Ice Cream man, right?

They’re rightful buggers who offer ice cream to you and take it back, wielding a long iron stick in his performance. You’d laugh along with the rest because it’s funny.

Until you kena whack one time by the stick, that is.

And that was what happened to Facebook user Derick Chow who was hit by the Turkish ice cream man near darul aram at the Geylang Serai Bazaar. He is now asking for assistance from the public, asking for video footage of the incident so he can claim medical insurance.

6. Rental For Stall at Geylang Serai 2017 As High As $17,000

Do you feel that over the years, Geylang Serai is getting more hipster and expensive?

Well, there’s a reason for it.

The stallholders got to make money as well, and when you come to know that the rental for a 2.7m by 2.7m food stall is a ridiculous $17,000, you’d understand why things are the way they are.

The reason for the absurdly high rental is due to the bidding battle between two big players—Venture Trade Fair and Ability Trade Fair. Venture Trade Fair won one tender with a bid of $1.56 million while Ability won the other with a bid of $1.79 million.

Always bored during your commute to and fro work or school? Here’s the best solution: download our app for new articles, Facebook videos and YouTube videos that are updated daily…and most importantly, exclusive contents that are only available in our app! It’s your perfect companion for your daily commute!

Click Here to Download the App!

Want to know what else is going on in Singapore? Check out our other articles here:

Feature Image: straitstimes.com

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com