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Singapore Pushes towards Digital Monetary Gifts on Lunar New Year

Gifting hongbao, a red packet of lucky money, the traditional way. (Reuters)
Gifting hongbao, a red packet of lucky money, the traditional way. (Reuters)
    Singapore, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Singapore Pushes towards Digital Monetary Gifts on Lunar New Year

Gifting hongbao, a red packet of lucky money, the traditional way. (Reuters)
Gifting hongbao, a red packet of lucky money, the traditional way. (Reuters)

During the Lunar New Year celebrations, most Singaporeans exchange monetary gifts, known as hongbao, which come in the form of new banknotes placed in red envelopes. However, the central bank of Singapore seeks to replace this popular tradition with an eco-friendly one by encouraging people to give digital gifts instead of the traditional banknotes.

The step aims to reduce queues in banks and emissions generated by printing millions of new banknotes for this occasion, the German news agency reported.

According to Bloomberg, Singapore's tradition of gifting new bank notes during the Lunar New Year celebrations generates the same level of emissions as charging 5.7 million smart-phones for five days.

"Those who want to give physical notes during the celebrations that start February 12, except people aged 60 and above and people with disabilities, will have to make online reservations through five banks to collect them. New notes can be withdrawn without bookings at automatic-teller machines run by DBS Group Holdings," the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement on Monday.

Singapore, where most of the 5.7 million population is of Chinese descent, celebrates the Lunar New Year with people giving crisp new bank notes in red packets and companies competing with elaborate packaging. The production of the new notes for the festival generates about 330 tons of carbon emissions each year, according to the MAS.

"The coming Lunar New Year offers an opportunity to spread the benefits of e-gifting, and to forge new traditions with our families and friends. E-gifting helps reduce the queues at banks, and also helps to reduce the carbon emissions," MAS assistant managing director Bernard Wee said in the statement.

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Scientist Bottles Smell of Bones to Help Solve Cold Cases

Belgian research scientist Clement Martin, who works with Belgium's federal police to create a "perfume" that mimics the smell of dried human bones to help sniffer dogs find long lost remains, looks at human bones in his laboratory in Gembloux, Belgium January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Belgian research scientist Clement Martin, who works with Belgium's federal police to create a "perfume" that mimics the smell of dried human bones to help sniffer dogs find long lost remains, looks at human bones in his laboratory in Gembloux, Belgium January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
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Scientist Bottles Smell of Bones to Help Solve Cold Cases

Belgian research scientist Clement Martin, who works with Belgium's federal police to create a "perfume" that mimics the smell of dried human bones to help sniffer dogs find long lost remains, looks at human bones in his laboratory in Gembloux, Belgium January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Belgian research scientist Clement Martin, who works with Belgium's federal police to create a "perfume" that mimics the smell of dried human bones to help sniffer dogs find long lost remains, looks at human bones in his laboratory in Gembloux, Belgium January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman

A Belgian research scientist is working with the federal police to create a scent that mimics the smell of dried human bones to help sniffer dogs find long lost remains.

Clement Martin has already isolated the smell of decomposing human flesh and that is now used to train Belgium's cadaver dogs.

But once the soft tissue has disappeared, the scent molecules of the remaining bones become significantly fewer, scientific researcher Martin told Reuters.

"Bones smell different over the years too. A 3-year-old bone will smell different to a 10-year-old one and even 20 years," he said.

Skeletal remains are porous too and absorb smells from the surrounding environment, from the soil to pine trees.

"In the situation of cold cases, there was a gap. Our dogs were not able to find dried bones," Kris Cardoen, head of federal police dog training, told Reuters.

At a police training centre outside Brussels, inspector Kristof Van Langenhove and his springer spaniel Bones demonstrated part of the training with Martin's corpse scent.

Cardoen hid some tissues between cinder blocks and only contaminated a few. The dog then barked when he found the smell.

"The scent of death is one of the three tools we use during the basic training of our human remains dog," Cardoen said.

Cadaver dogs require 1,000 hours of training and the country only ever has four at any one time.

Martin is using different samples of dried bones to develop the smell, including those of an unidentified man found in a suitcase, which are kept in a glass cylinder to allow the molecules to permeate an enclosed space ready for extraction.

"It's a bit like a perfumer developing his perfume, he's going to mix different aromas," Martin said.