If you’ve watched the animated movie ‘Happy Feet’, you might remember the adorable, fluffy grey Emperor Penguin chicks dancing and singing to cheerful tunes in the movie. In real life, their survival is a lot more dire.              Last month, BBC reported that up to 10,000 chicks died because the sea ice melted before their waterproof feathers grew out, meaning that they froze to death or drowned. Scientists noted that the sea ice melted earlier than normal due to global warming. More than 90% of emperor penguin col ..read more

            As an undergraduate student in the late 1990s, I experienced the emergence of the internet. Those were exciting times! My home computer had a chunky monitor and a tower connected to a dial-up modem, and I could print my assignments on a noisy dot matrix printer.             Upon graduation, I was sent to teach at a primary school with predominantly senior staff in their 40s to 60s. We grappled with matters like printing report slips from an online system and incorporating t ..read more

In the early 80s, my family moved into a new housing estate because our old kampong was slated for development. Flats built at that time had holes underneath the kitchens windows to support bamboo poles for hanging laundry. As a child, my parents constantly reminded me not to walk under the bamboo poles because they tended to be heavy with wet clothes and sometimes fell because the residents could not bear their weight.                As I grew into a teenager, I became more complacent about my safety. One afternoon after sc ..read more

On 14 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons to respond to the opportunities and challenges of populations ageing in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages. In many Asian countries, the elderly outnumber, or soon will, all other age groups. This means societies have to be equipped to cater to the needs of such a large demographic group. In 2021 not unsurprisingly, the theme is “Digital Equity for All Ages” which affirms the need for access and meaningful participation in the digital wo ..read more

             I am probably the last person on earth to talk about the benefits of exercise. When I was in primary four, I gained so much weight that I was put in the FAT – sorry – TAF (Trim and Fit) Club as I had overindulged in sweets and ice cream. Since then, I have only lost weight after some serious illness but always put it back on after.               During the Circuit Breaker two years ago, I started working from home like everybody else and the only physical activities I did were house ..read more

            My mother’s third elder brother, whom we called Sa Gu (三舅) in Teochew, was born in 1941, just before the Japanese Occupation in Singapore. When Sa Gu was still a baby, my maternal grandmother, Ah Ma, brought him to work with her. She was carrying him when he started crying, just as two Japanese soldiers began to walk in their direction.               Plenty of horror stories abound about the cruelty and horror the Japanese occupiers inflicted on local people during WWII. One history book ..read more

After two years of social distancing and virtual meetings, most of us are eagerly planning on activities we enjoyed in “pre-Covid” times. We are finally seeing the light at the end of the grim tunnel! In retrospect, with God’s Grace, I gained a good level of self-development in the past two years, amidst the restrictions brought on by the pandemic. I went back to school and graduated with a Specialist Diploma in Data Science for Business. The skills my classmates and I attained were very relevant to our work. Patting ourselves on the back, most of us agreed that it made our reports at work mor ..read more

Years ago, my youngest uncle told me that my father used to paint when he was a student. In fact, he enjoyed Chinese painting and was quite good at it. It was something I had never known about my father. He appreciated art and we had a few pieces of artwork hanging around the flat, but nothing made by him. He had told me before that as a youth, he had a dream of becoming a radio host. He applied for a position at a local radio station but did not get selected. Back then, dialect on radio was slowly being phased out in favour of Mandarin-speaking channels. My family spoke mainly Teochew, and Ma ..read more

#DIDYOUKNOW The first-ever International Woman's Day was held on March 8, 1911. It saw more than a million people participate in rallies worldwide. For over a century since then, March continues to be recognised globally as a key milestone to celebrate the progress made for women’s rights around the world, and more importantly, the advancements in various fields thanks to the pioneering efforts of women leaders. In this regard, Singapore is no different. The nation has many trailblazers who have done much for our society. From Constance Goh, a pioneer activist for family planning in Singapore ..read more

For several months, my hands had been tingling and going numb in the midst of working, writing or just eating. It got to the point where I would drop my cutlery on the floor during a meal because I could not feel my fork or knife. Last year I saw a hand surgeon at Sengkang General Hospital who diagnosed me with carpal tunnel syndrome, and finally I went for an operation in early January to relieve the sensations of numbness in my left hand. It was my first time undergoing an operation under local anesthesia and although the op itself took only 20 minutes, the waiting and subsequently listening ..read more