His life is in the hands of a few men

Many Singaporeans have been campaigning to save the life of Yong Vui Kong. His story, the court trials and appeals – both to the Court of Appeal and the President – have been reported and documented. You can read about these here. Appeals and pleas have been made to the authorities, namely the government and [...]

Moving beyond the fear

In his book, “Hard Truths – to keep Singapore going”, former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, was asked what he thought Muslims “needed to do to integrate.”  (“Hard Truths”, Page 229.) Mr Lee replied: “Be less strict on Islamic observances and say, ‘Okay, I’ll eat with you’.” The Straits Times reporter who raised the question, Ms [...]

The stories we tell… so far

One of the things we set out to do at http://publichouse.sg was to tell stories of Singaporeans who are doing their bit in making their community – and perhaps their country – better. People who give of their time and effort in lending a hand to those in need, and stories of those who themselves [...]

S$1.87 per hour

“Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to lead lives as slaves. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their ‘employers’.” – Anti-Slavery.Org. In Singapore, a [...]

And then the sun came through the trees

The picture above reminds me of the time in January 2010 when I took a walk at Sembawang Park. I’d moved there to live with some homeless people in a shelter (which I did for some 3 months). The home was conveniently located just across the park. The very first morning there, I woke up [...]

A mother’s love does not require rest

“Motherhood has a very humanizing effect.  Everything gets reduced to essentials.”  ~Meryl Streep I was having my usual cuppa at the coffeeshop this morning. It was raining, the ground was wet and people were more careful than usual, not unexpectedly, of course, with every step they take. I was on my way home, having had [...]

Don’t rape. Full stop.

My two cents on SlutWalk and victim-blaming The recent SlutWalk event in Singapore has triggered arguments on both sides – those who oppose it and those who support it. On one side, we have those who want women to, basically, take responsibility for the way they dress, how they behave, etc. This borders on saying [...]

ComfortDelgro – altruism, really?

So, what’s new? Taxi operators – in particular ComfortDelgro which runs the largest fleet of taxicabs here – are “revising” fares again. The news has, unsurprisingly, caused a howl and more among the commuting public. It is the perennial bugbear – transport fares.