Pimps, Petai & Politicians
admin Thailand – an exotic land of extremes and paradoxes. It is also a land with some of the most colourful personalities in the world. Dull, sterile and strait-laced Singapore simply…
Sexless, Senseless & Cashless
It’s the Straits Times again: Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say was queueing up to buy chestnuts at a roadside hawker stall in Shanghai a few years ago. When he saw…
Different Strokes, Different Folks & Special Needs
Indonesia is an archipelago stretching 5,120km from east to west. The total number of surveyed and documented islands within its domain range from 13,466 to 18,307, depending on whose data…
Random Thoughts On National Day 2017
Many years ago when I signed my first book distribution contract for my first novel, Worlds Apart, I found an interesting clause in the contract. As author and publisher, I…
Brain Drain, Beauty Drain
This is a good time to revisit a post I made some time ago. An “unofficial” photo of the Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant 2017 which has been circulating online drew…
The Best, Worst & Most Disruptive of Times
In the fastest growing and most competitive economies in the world, parents are often made to feel guilty for not giving their kids a head start. Those who benefit from…
Gravy & Grouchy Aunties
It was Sunday and I brought my kids down to Bedok for a TCM session and some roti prata for breakfast. I also ordered some Indian rojak. While I was…
Enshrining Values, Legitimizing Control
On 2 September 1945, a man by the name of Ho Chi Minh did a very courageous thing. He declared his country the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. That move would…
Cut Them Some Slack When They Stumble
I have a flight to Australia to catch soon, but this issue has kept me awake. Autistic spectrum disorder ASD affects 1 in 150 children in Singapore. You are quite…
Liang Po Po & The Future of Stereotypes
Someone who has only been following the Ah Boys to Men audition controversy lately and not watched any of Jack Neo’s decades-old TV comedies may be shocked by the following…