July 04, 2021
Twitter/NewsBFM
White flags could be seen flying outside homes and poverty relief organisations across Malaysia this past week as citizens cried out for food and other assistance amid the country s latest Covid-19 lockdown.
The surreal scenes, reminiscent of similar protests that swept the South American nations of Guatemala and El Salvador last year, emerged from a grass-roots social media campaign centred on the #benderaputih (white flag) hashtag that began trending on Monday.
Community organisers told This Week in Asia the campaign was the clearest sign yet of the economic despair that hundreds of thousands of Malaysia s lower-income families have experienced amid the haphazard approach of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin s government to the public health crisis.
June 28, 2021
ARTivate
Anyone who’s lost someone will know that grief doesn’t march onward in five neat stages. There is no slow swimming forward; grief crashes over your head and floods your lungs. You try to thrash toward the surface, but your limbs are too numb and drained; you sink into an abyss which seems too deep for light to reach.
Shedding light on these cold, dark depths is the latest play by Drama Box’s youth wing ARTivate: Dancing with Fish in the Midnight Zone. The midnight zone is the ocean’s deepest waters – those unimaginable depths where no ray of sun ever reaches, though marine life still exists. It’s an apt name for a play that plunges us into the aftermath of a young woman’s suicide, and the pain of those who loved her.
How much do Korean drama series cost to make? It’s a simple question, but over time the answer has grown more complicated. Two decades ago, when there were only three major broadcasters – KBS, SBS and MBC – in South Korea, the answer was 36.5 million Korean won (S$43,473) per episode. Fast forward to today and by some metrics that.
A woman was found dead at the foot of an HDB block in Sengkang on Wednesday (June 23) morning. The 25-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene by a paramedic, shortly after she was discovered lying motionless at Block 106 Rivervale Walk, the police said. The police received a call for assistance at 9.02am and added that investigations are ongoing..
June 01, 2021
Natasha Osman s home-based learning setup
Natasha Osman
These days, Natasha Osman would sit in front of her laptop, her fingers fiddling with the wire of her earphones as she waited for her turn to speak.
For the National University of Singapore (NUS) student, she could feel the nerves running through her with each Zoom class – her palms sweaty as she prepared to answer a question.
The moment the 22-year-old unmuted her microphone and opened her mouth, she felt herself freeze as the thoughts and vision of her classmates, from the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, blurred.
She felt as though she was drowning in water as she tried to gasp for air, her lecturer s concerned voice fading in and out of her ears.