How Kathleen Rushton put the steel back in me
Many things can get a girl down. How she looks. How much she earns. Whether she climbs the corporate ladder. Whether she cares for her children herself. Whether she has...
Category
Book progress update
An Interview with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Jason De León — Longreads
‘Anthropology is what people leave behind. It could be as recent as this morning.’ ‘Smugglers are complex human beings.’ To paraphrase this classically...
A time to plant, and time to pluck up what is planted.
Thank you Susanne Timpani – I didn’t know this story behind Newman’s Nursery. I love the place and have lovely memories of enjoying high tea there surrounded...
Rohingya in Singapore?
BY THEOPHILUS KWEK Over 400,000 Rohingya have fled persecution in Myanmar since August, the latest episode in a cycle of conflict and displacement that has afflicted...
Literature and Finance: a great combo?
What happens when you interview a 1987 Literature and Finance graduate from Xiamen University for your book? Well, you get a long reading list. Josie (not her real name) was...
Creation and Destruction
After my interview last week with a Syrian refugee, I went to my local library and borrowed all the books I could find on Syria. One of the books I borrowed was The...
The Little Man Counts
Earlier this year, I stopped to read a commemorative board by a sandy footpath leading to Chapman’s Bar at Emerald Bay on Pangkor Laut. I learnt that the bar was named...
Seeing life through the lens of death
Since moving away in 2001, I have returned to Malaysia and Singapore each year to spend time with family. As the years passed, I have noticed loved ones growing old, often...
Eyes to See
Carmen grew up in Romania during the Cold War. With her young schoolmates, she used to pay homage to Ceausescu, chanting at rallies: Long live the President who gives us a...