Singapore

What happens, when cultural anxieties around sexual and gendered norms meet the ghost of Pontianak, the vengeful spectre of victims of sexual assault? The poet Marylyn Tan has them meet in a haunted ballroom – and gives us a glimpse of this in a fiery spoken word piece.

From rooftop gardens to hospital courtyards, cities are reimagining their relationship with food through urban farming. What began as small community projects has grown into a movement that brings resilience and sustainability into everyday life. With initiatives ranging from skyscraper farms to aquaponics systems in public spaces, urban food production is gaining ground. 

More than two decades after the ASEAN power grid became a regional commitment, it is far from being a network for transboundary trade in electricity. But this year, Singapore will finally receive electricity from Laos’ hydroelectric power.

In order to contain and manage the COVID-19 situation, Singapore relies on technology, rigorous, systematic methods and restrictions. With the most recent outbreak, the government has pushed back plans to remove restrictions with the goal of eventually being able to live with the virus. This photo-essay takes a closer look into the small-island state and how it manages COVID-19 through technology and systematic orderly approaches.

Any transition towards a sustainably powered Singapore, a city-state of 5.45 million people, will thus entail a delicate balance between affordability, reliability, and sustainability – an “energy trilemma” that, the government has warned, is unlikely to result in the fulfilment of all three considerations. 

When news about the Coronavirus spreading rapidly in the migrant worker dormitories was reported in the media in early April 2020, it prompted a huge outcry from many Singaporeans. The mainstream media ran reports about workers living in conditions which were unsanitary and cramped.

So Singaporeans will head to the polls on July 10. From start to finish, it will all be over in 17 days. This isn’t uncommon for the Southeast Asian city-state, where elections have long been a speedy business, and the general result known. But this election, GE2020, will be remarkably different from the rest — it’s taking place in the middle of a pandemic.

Plastic is a brilliant invention. Through its uses in medicine, public health and in urban planning, it has likely saved many lives. A right relationship with it begins with acknowledging the importance of plastic. At the same time, a lot of the ways we use plastic today is non-essential. In fact, one could argue that by designing plastic to be used in such a careless and thoughtless way is disrespectful of the invention itself. It could be out there saving lives, but instead it is used to carry potato chips for 12 minutes. It is not the plastic that is the problem, but the way we choose to design it, source it, produce it and use it.