ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES — When the prime minister’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, joined the opposition party in June, you knew the ordinary political scene in Singapore was never going to be the same. All over the world, Singapore’s democracy is often been questioned and criticized as the People’s…
Full Article SINGAPORE ELECTION: A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?
DANIEL ZAND WRITES – New efforts to contain COVID-19 are being enacted because on Wednesday, March 25, three new cases of the Coronavirus occurred. This is the largest increase ever experienced in one day within Singapore. And the feel uptick continues. Singapore has created new social distancing punishments. Coming…
Full Article SINGAPORE: JAIL TIME FOR BREAKING SOCIAL DISTANCING LAWS
STUART MULJADI WRITES — “The day the earth stood still” is the best way to describe the past couple of weeks. COVID-19 has divided countries, tanked economies and businesses and, worst of all, the virus has caused a shortage of the world’s supply of toilet paper. People’s daily lives are…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: MODERN HORROR SHOW – ‘THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL’
TOM PLATE WRITES – Adept moral leadership at the top, whether in Washington or Hong Kong, is central to any serious public-health strategy. ‘Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed on the world,’ famously wrote the poet William Butler Yeats in 1919. One hundred years later, here…
Full Article TRUMP AND THE CORONA CRISIS: SCIENCE VERSUS UNREASON?
NATASHA VASS WRITES – In a world in which chronic disease and childhood obesity are on the rise, it is no question that countries must come up with solutions. Enter Singapore. At the October 2019 Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress, Edwin Tong, senior minister of state for law and health,…
Full Article SINGAPORE: SWEET REVENGE ON SWEETS
Chantal Nong talks about her experiences with Crazy Rich Asians and the movie’s impact on film awards. Nong is an executive producer at Warner Brothers. She recently oversaw the production of Crazy Rich Asians. She has now moved over to DC to be the VP of Production. She attended USC…
Full Article Los Angeles: Why Didn’t Crazy Rich Asians Get Nominated?
NICOLE ALAVERDIAN WRITES– As the world scrambles to adopt more environmentally friendly practices, there is one overlooked culprit of climate change: animal agriculture. Despite a recent wave of vegetarian, vegan and plant-based food offerings in the Asian-Pacific, a study by the Food Service Consultants Society predicts that in Asia “the…
Full Article ENVIRONMENT: Is it possible for the Asian Pacific to mend its carnivorous appetite?
Singapore lags behind many countries in its protection and support of the LGBTQ community. On September 10, 2018, 43-year-old Singaporean resident Johnson Ong filed to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalizes any sexual behavior between two consenting adult males. Ong’s petition has since received support from international…
Full Article Singapore: Movement to Gain LGBTQ Rights
MICHELLE DOR WRITES — An unemployed 45-year old man in Singapore by the name of Joseph Murugan allegedly attempted to steal free roti, a native Indian dish, by knifing a store clerk. Assisted by two others, Murugan slashed the chef with a knife after he was turned down, leaving a…
Full Article Singapore: Man slashes cook after demanding free roti prata, gets jail
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” – Charlemagne ANAS ALZAHRANI WRITES — When non-native English speakers decide to learn English in a different country, the first locations that come to mind are the U.S and England, where English is the first language. Command over the English…
Full Article You Might Want to Head to Asia to Learn English
TOM PLATE WRITES – Next week, it now seems, the American President will be in Singapore, along with the North Korean leader. Both are famously quirky. Is Lee worried? We pay a call on the city-state’s prime minister, host of a monster summit that – on the off-chance all goes…
Full Article SINGAPORE: PM LEE ON THE SUMMIT, SINO-U.S. RELATIONS, TRUMP AND TARIFFS, INDONESIA – AND CATHOLIC EDUCATION
ASIA MEDIA REPORTS – The Temasek Dialogue ‘breakfast club’ invited Asia Media International editor-in-chief Tom Plate to discuss and defend his perspectives on the roiling U.S.-China relationship. Temasek Holdings is one of Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds, and is a major shareholder in the city-state’s biggest firms, including Singapore Airlines…
Full Article SINGAPORE: DIALOGUE ON CHINA AT THE FAMED ‘TEMESAK DIALOGUE’ BREAKFAST CLUB
ASIA MEDIA STAFF WRITES– Amos Yee, a teen blogger who fled Singapore, has been granted asylum in the United States. Yee was released from U.S. detention after 9 months of being detained. Yee first received asylum in March, but was quickly rejected by the Department of Homeland Security. However, the…
Full Article SINGAPORE: TEEN BLOGGER AMOS YEE GRANTED ASYLUM IN THE U.S.
PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES — The U.S. public rarely gives larger-than-life Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia, more than passing thought, and even on those rare moments it might mainly be thinking about nothing more than a dream vacation in Bali. Yet, as every cosmopolitan knows, the world’s…
Full Article ONE COLUMNIST’S VIEW: SUPERB NEW BOOK ON SOUTHEAST ASIA’S ASEAN REVEALS CHINA-U.S. OPPORTUNITY
EXCERPTED FROM AGENCE FRANCE PRESS AND OTHER NEWS ACCOUNTS – A Singaporean teenager who became notorious for profanity-laced attacks on Singapore’s revered late leader Lee Kuan Yew is seeking political asylum in the U.S., his lawyers said Thursday. Amos Yee, 18, a filmmaker turned activist who has been repeatedly jailed…
Full Article SINGAPORE: IMPUDENT CHILDISH TEEN, OR CLASSIC POLITICAL DISSIDENT?