A total of 298 trees have been planted in the shape of a green ribbon, one for each of the victims who died on board the Malaysia Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will join government and international officials at a solemn ceremony to dedicate the memorial in the park of Vijfhuizen, close to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam where the flight took off from on July 17, 2014.

The names of all the 298 passengers and crew killed in the disaster will be read out by their families, and 17 local children will lay flowers.

While most of the victims were Dutch, there were 17 nationalities on board including Australians, Britons, Malaysians and Indonesians.

“A tree symbolises ‘hope’ and ‘future’ in many cultures,” the victims families association said in a statement.

“We not only want to honour the MH17 victims, but also want to create a place where everyone can keep their memories of the 298 passengers alive.”

Funded by donations, the project was designed by artist Ronald A. Westerhuis and landscape architect Robbert de Koning after it was chosen out of three proposals by relatives in late 2015.

‘Never forget’

As the third anniversary of the tragedy dawns, no suspects have been arrested although it was announced this month that any trials will be held in The Netherlands.

About 100 people are wanted in connection with the disaster, after Dutch-led investigators concluded the plane was shot down by a Russian-made BUK missile transported from Russia into areas held by pro-Russian rebels.

The trees in the memorial will be surrounded by sunflowers, which bloom in July, and will “radiate a golden glow” over the trees, the foundation said.

The flowers also represent “the sunflower fields in eastern Ukraine where some parts of the plane wreckage were found”.

Each of the trees bears the name of one of the victims. And at the heart of the forest of 11 different tree varieties is a steel memorial shaped like an eye, turned upwards looking at the skies.

One apple tree has been dedicated to 16-year-old Gary, from Rotterdam, whose body has still not yet been identified.

“It’s nice to think that he has a tree, since we have not received his body. We don’t want Gary to be forgotten. We don’t want any of the 298 victims to be forgotten,” his father Jan Slok, told the daily AD newspaper.

The 16-metre-long steel eyebrow above the eye represents “the burden of the loss,” the Trouw daily said, adding with time it will rust, a symbol of the slow passage of pain. The victims’ names are also engraved in the pupil of the eye.

“If you look inside, you can see both yourself and the name of your loved one,” Westerhuis told Trouw.

On a recent visit to New York City, I lost my way on two separate occasions while walking through Central Park. There was a time when that would have been a far from pleasant experience; in the 1980s, for sure, which was when I first visited the city as a child with my parents and younger brother and wondered why our Chan Brothers Travel package tour included a stop at a park that struck me as dirty, dusty, pockmarked by graffiti and reportedly riddled with crime.

In the decades since then, America’s most famous urban park has undergone a remarkable transformation. To get lost in it today is to meander through a 341ha green oasis – more than four times the size of Singapore’s Botanic Gardens – that stretches through the heart of northern Manhattan, a place of lush foliage and flowers, running streams, sculptures and playgrounds, full of joggers, sunbathers, picnicking families and city residents walking their dogs and babies.

Just how did the change come about? It was the result of citizens working in partnership with the private sector and city authorities to raise money and mobilise resources to clean up the park and restore it to health, safety and beauty.

Today, the Central Park Conservancy – a private, not-for-profit organisation formed in 1980 by a group of concerned citizens – manages the park under a contract with the City of New York. Thanks to donations from individuals, corporations and foundations, as well as funds from the city authorities, the Conservancy has invested more than US$950 million (S$1.3 billion) in the park, making it a model for urban parks worldwide. It also takes charge of all aspects of park maintenance, capital improvements and restorations.

It is an inspiring example of how energised citizens can rescue and revitalise a part of their city, if empowered to do so by enlightened authorities or, at least, not prevented from doing so by those in charge.

There are many such efforts taking place around the world. Two interesting ones which have been in the news lately are Wecyclers in Lagos, a social enterprise that tackles the Nigerian capital’s waste crisis and empowers low-income communities to turn trash into cash, which won this year’s Le Monde Smart Cities Global Innovation Grand Prize; and the city of Malang in Indonesia, shortlisted for the 2016 Guangzhou Urban Innovation Awards for the creative way it responded to floods in a slum area by planting trees and organic vegetables to act as sponges, thereby also providing an additional source of income to its poor residents who were able to sell the vegetables.

What is worth emphasising in these technocentric times, when smart cities are all the rage, is that successful urban innovation springs from citizen participation and enterprise, and does not always require large investments or new technology.

Even when information technology is involved, it may not be the sophistication of the technology that matters but the sophistication with which a city’s residents tap their networks and know-how to solve specific problems they encounter on a daily basis, using whatever technology is available. This is not to discount the important role of technology in helping to bring about change for the better, but to clarify that the proper role of technology is to enable the change that people have imagined and conceived.

That distinction matters because, in the push to develop smart cities, governments can either choose to put technology at the centre of their plans, or people.

That was an insight I gleaned from last month’s Smart Cities conference jointly organised by French newspaper Le Monde, The Straits Times and Business France.

I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion entitled Which Models In Asia?, during which Dr Sameer Sharma of India’s Ministry of Urban Development shared his experience of steering the Smart Cities Challenge, the first time India used an open national competition to allocate funds for urban transformation.

The organisers of the challenge took as their starting position that “there is no universally accepted definition of a smart city”, as the term means different things to different people. “The conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city’s residents. A smart city would have a different connotation in India than, say, Europe. Even in India, there is no one way of defining a smart city,” they wrote.

Embedded in this statement is the recognition that a city’s residents should be free to define a smart city on their own terms, based on their aspirations and other factors such as the pace of change they are comfortable with.

What is equally remarkable is that the winner of the competition’s first round, the ancient city of Bhubaneswar in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, has gone on to win this year’s Pierre L’Enfant award, a prestigious prize given out by the American Planning Association (APA).

The Bhubaneswar Smart City Plan, the APA said in its citation, “redefines the concept of ‘smart cities’ and outlines a citizen-driven vision for the future by using technology to help residents gain better access to city services, and improve the overall quality of life”. The goal of the Bhubaneswar plan was “to engage residents in discussions to identify which groups had access to technology and city services and which groups did not, and how to close that gap”, it added.

As Dr Sharma said during the Le Monde conference held here last month: “Don’t start with a vision and work your way down to people. Start with people, and get them to draw up a vision.”

I must admit that, as a Singaporean, I had not expected to learn much about smart cities from India, where basic infrastructure in terms of clean water and uninterrupted power can be in short supply, even in big cities. But in this case, I was happy to be proven wrong.

I think the approach advocated by Dr Sharma is all the more relevant when one considers that the true measure of a smart city is not how technologically advanced it is, but how inclusive and sustainable it is in its practices. A good way to ensure inclusion and sustainability is to involve a city’s residents from the start, since they are the ones who will be living in the smart city and using its services. It is therefore necessary not just to engage a city’s residents in the drawing up of a vision, but also to understand how they actually live, as well as what they need and consider important.

Indeed, Professor Saskia Sassen of Columbia University, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, warned against an over-reliance on technology. A sociologist who coined the term “global city”, her insight relates to a city’s heritage. She observed that many buildings in a city are built to last. However, if, in a bid to ride the smart-city wave, owners kit old buildings out in the latest technology, that might just shorten these buildings’ lifespan by rendering them obsolete once the technology needs updating.

These insights are worth reflecting on as Singapore pushes ahead with efforts to make this city both smarter and more liveable.

More than 200 objects including dinosaur fossils are on exhibit. Some of the items are being displayed in Japan for the first time.

Visitors can view a 38-meter-long, 14-meter-tall reconstructed full-body Ruyangosaurus skeleton, the largest dinosaur ever to be exhibited in Japan, as well as genuine fossils and other objects. The exhibition, sponsored by The Yomiuri Shimbun and another organization, runs through Sept. 3.

The often-foul mouthed Duterte made the joke in a speech to Filipino diplomats in his southern home town of Davao as he defended his bloody war on crime which has left thousands dead since he took office last year.

“What I don’t like are kids (being raped.) You can mess with, maybe Miss Universe. Maybe I will even congratulate you for having the balls to rape somebody when you know you are going to die,” for your crime, he said, implying the rapist would be lynched.

It was the latest in a series of off-colour jokes by Duterte who openly boasts of having mistresses and often makes sexual remarks about women.

Speaking in his rambling style, the president also boasted to the diplomats that he faked tuberculosis to escape mandatory military training in college.

But he also reiterated his vow to continue his bloody war on drugs despite accusations that thousands of suspects had been killed by police and vigilantes since he took office.

“Human rights? That is bullshit to me,” he said, recalling how he called then-US president Barack Obama “a son of a whore” after Washington criticised the wave of killings.

Police say at least 3,200 people were slain in their anti-drug operations but rights groups charge that thousands more have been killed by vigilante groups.

But the girls say what does not kill them only makes them stronger.

Singaporean finalist Tricia Koh, a 24-year-old financial adviser, told The Sunday Times: “They say we learn from the pain, I say we gain from it.”

Koh added that it is easy to make such comments under the cloak of anonymity that the Internet provides. “(But) it takes a lot of courage for a girl to go up on stage and let people judge her.”

She was among 16 of the 19 finalists who came under scrutiny by netizens last Tuesday, when an unofficial photo of them at a Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant event was posted. The girls, selected from a total of 60 applicants, were dubbed “ugly” and “repulsive”.

Koh said she expected people to criticise her physical aspects when she joined the pageant but, like the other finalists, did not expect such a backlash.

Another finalist, Lasalle College of the Arts student Christina Cai, 18, said: “You were not there and you did not see us in action and you want to say that we are not talented or smart? It’s immature.”

Cai joined the pageant, that has been running for 29 years, because she wanted a new experience and thought it would help her grow.

She credited her family and friends for being her pillars of support. “Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without them.”

ITE College East student and finalist Queenie Sia, 17, said beauty is skin deep. “It’s about having a good heart and a good personality.”

The unofficial photo was taken by a member of the public when the pageant was doing a talent and fashion showcase at One KM mall.

Miss Universe Singapore 2016 Cheryl Chou understands what the finalists are going through.

An athletic woman, she was called “big” by some netizens.

The 21-year-old student said “I am happy being myself and that is all that matters.”

Chou advised the girls to pay no heed to what others are saying.

“You are not in control of the way people feel or think, so always be positive, optimistic and never give up,” she said.

Meanwhile, former Miss Universe Singapore 2002 Nuraliza Osman, 40, said beauty is highly subjective and there will always be negative criticism when pageant contestants step into the limelight.

Said the national director of Miss Universe Singapore: “It takes so much for a girl to get on that stage and there is no need to be so mean. If this was your sister or your cousin, would you say these things?”

She noted that the judging panel for the Miss Universe Singapore pageant, in which the local winner goes on to represent Singapore in the Miss Universe pageant, includes former title holders, sponsors, fashion editors, physical trainers and make-up artists. In contrast, the Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant finalists were selected by a committee made up of former title holders only.

The pageant will yield four winners under different titles, who will then go on to represent Singapore internationally under each title. The titles are: Miss Singapore Tourism Queen, Miss Singapore Chinatown, Miss Singapore Global Beauty Queen and Miss Grand Singapore.

Some have questioned if organiser ERM Singapore Marketing should have prepared the girls better for a public appearance.

Management company founder Desmond Charles added that “I would think that it’s the duty (of the organisers) to make sure the girls are up to standard before they make a public appearance.”

However, Cai thinks beauty goes beyond what people see in a photo. “I think people are the most beautiful when they are doing what they love.”

Sports minister Matar Ba said a young girl was among the dead, while around 60 injured fans had been taken to health facilities in Dakar.

He vowed “strong measures so that such an event will never be repeated in Senegal,” speaking to AFP by phone.

A mass deployment of firefighters and ambulances remained at the scene late Saturday.

An AFP journalist who attended the match described a stadium full to bursting with people for the long-awaited clash between local teams US Ouakam and Stade de Mbour.

At 2-1 during extra time, US Ouakam supporters began throwing stones at Stade de Mbour fans, causing spectators to begin vacating their seats in a rush, the journalist said.

Part of a wall supporting bleachers seating fans from both sides then collapsed, while police had begun firing tear gas and panic spread in the stadium leading to a crush.

“All of a sudden when the wall fell… we knew exactly that some of our own had lost their lives because the wall fell directly onto people,” said Cheikh Maba Diop, a witness who helped evacuate victims from the stadium and lost a friend in the tragedy.

Also speaking at the scene, football fan Mara Die Diouf said policing at the stadium had been inadequate.

“What I find terrible is that we have this kind of final in this kind of stadium here where there isn’t enough security,” he said.

Diouf described police retreating from an area separating the two teams’ supporters once projectiles began being thrown, triggering dangerous movements by spectators unable to defend themselves.

AFP journalists at the scene saw belongings covered in blood at the site, with a pair of glasses and clothing strewn among broken pieces of concrete.

Campaigning for Senegal’s legislative elections due on July 30 would on Sunday be suspended in respect for the victims, said a spokesman for President Macky Sall.

Sall also wanted “punishments serving as a warning,” following the tragedy, spokesman El Hamidou Kasse said on TFM television.

Senegal’s safety record at large gatherings has been heavily criticised this year after the death of dozens of people at a religious retreat in April when a fire ripped through makeshift shelters.

The communications ministry said in a statement that “so many channels in the (Telegram) service contain radicalism and terrorism… encouragement and tips to assemble bombs or launch attacks” that it needed to block it.

The partial ban came as the country suffered from a string of attacks, including one carried out by a man police said was radicalised after reading radical material on Telegram.

The government has so far bocked only access to the app via computer, but is preparing to impose a full ban.

“We are now preparing a process to close down Telegram app in full throughout Indonesia if Telegram does not come up with a standard operating procedure to handle law-violating contents,” the communications ministry said in a statement issued late Friday.

In June, a lone wolf attacker stabbed two police officers in a mosque. Police said the man had no links to militant groups but had been radicalised through material he read on Telegram.

Telegram is a free Russian-designed messaging app that lets people exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000. It has attracted about 100 million users since its launch in 2013.

The app has come under fire in Russia after the state communications watchdog threatened to ban it in June, saying the company behind the service had failed to submit company details for registration.

Russia’s FSB security agency also said Telegram was used by those behind April’s Saint Petersburg metro bombing.

Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, said the firm will investigate the Indonesia charges.

“We have never received any requests/complaints from the Indonesian government,” Durov said on Twitter.

Mirzakhani’ friend Firouz Naderi announced her death on Saturday on Instagram, and her relatives confirmed the death to the Mehr agency in Iran.

“A light was turned off today. It breaks my heart ….. gone far too soon,” wrote Naderi, a former director of Solar Systems Exploration at NASA.

“A genius? Yes. But also a daughter, a mother and a wife,” he added in a subsequent post.

Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford University in California, died after the cancer she had been battling for four years spread to her bone marrow, Iranian media said.

In 2014 Mirzakhani won the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Mathematics, which is awarded by the International Congress of Mathematicians.

The award recognized her sophisticated and highly original contributions to the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, particularly in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces such as spheres.

She had already won the 2009 Blumenthal Award for the Advancement of Research in Pure Mathematics and the 2013 Satter Prize of the American Mathematical Society.

Born and raised in Tehran, Mirzakhani initially dreamed of becoming a writer, but by the time she started high school her affinity for solving mathematical problems and working on proofs had shifted her sights.

“It is fun — it’s like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case,” she said when she won the Fields Medal.

“I felt that this was something I could do, and I wanted to pursue this path.”

Mirzakhani became known on the international mathematics scene as a teenager, winning gold medals at both the 1994 and 1995 International Math Olympiads — finishing with a perfect score in the latter competition.

In 2008 she became a professor of mathematics at Stanford. She is survived by her husband and young daughter.

The Briton thrilled home fans with a devastating quickest lap of 1min 26.600sec to finish 0.547sec clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, although Hamilton was under investigation for potential impeding.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was left frustrated in third in the second Ferrari ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes.

Bottas, however, faces a likely five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, while stewards were looking into an incident in which Romain Grosjean claimed he was blocked by Hamilton.

Max Verstappen was fifth for Red Bull ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Renault, Sergio Perez and his Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon.

Stoffel Vandoorne took an encouraging ninth for McLaren ahead of Grosjean of Haas.

“You always try to save the best till last,” said Hamilton, who closed to within one of Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 poles. “I felt very comfortable in these conditions – they are the conditions we grew up racing in here in England.”

“It felt ok, but the conditions were not easy, changing a lot,” said Raikkonen. “The car felt the best it had this weekend, but not quite fast enough for first place.”

Vettel said: “The car came alive this morning and that was really good. It’s a shame there that in the last run in Q3 there was not more time!”

Religious South Koreans have been a loud fixture at the annual parade for years, holding a rival anti-homosexuality rally while trying to physically block the march.

Some 2,000 police troops lined up around a square outside the City Hall, where revellers gyrated and waved flags as scantily-clothed performers sang and danced on the stage.

Across the street hundreds of Christians chanted slogans, calling homosexuality a “sin” and urging homosexuals to “return to Jesus Christ”.

Their presence is the most visible display of intolerance towards sexual minorities in the tradition-bound society, where religious belief is widespread and many homosexuals stay in the closet due to fear of discrimination and social isolation.

Homosexuality is not illegal in South Korea. But gay, lesbian or transgender rights remain politically unpopular

But festival-goers took the protest in their stride.

The crowd, estimated to be some 10,000, later paraded through the centre of Seoul, carrying banners and rainbow flags, with many swaying on open truck beds.

Meghan Lefevre from California, said: “I am happy that they (police) are here to make us feel protected. Not every country will do that. So I am very happy that it’s a safe environment.”

Gay rights activists say that some progress has been made in recent years, with surveys showing increasing tolerance, particularly among young people, and participation at Pride surging since the first parade in 2000, when only 50 attended.

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea, a state rights watchdog, and the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism — the country’s biggest Buddhist sect — are taking part this year for the first time.

“Buddha has taught us everyone, regardless of his or her sexual orientation, can attain perfect enlightenment. Sexual minorities must not be indiscriminated against”, said Hyo Rok, a senior nun and professor at the Seoul University of Buddhism.

But the event’s growing profile has unnerved South Korea’s conservative Protestant church groups, which have millions of followers, enormous political lobbying power, and see homosexuality as a psychological illness to be “healed”.