Southeast Asia

At their core, the shared crises of the pandemic, the climate emergency and the plastics habit reflect how human beings view their space in the natural world.

Juliãon is one of a handful of survivors who have been able to find their way to return to Timor-Leste. Without assistance, it is difficult for survivors to gather enough resources and courage to try to relocate their lives.

Despite Southeast Asia’s diversity and the tensions that persist among countries, sport has been able to transcend some geopolitical boundaries and connect communities that have similar histories – and cultivate an appetite and appreciation for their native sport as well as identity.

The Southeast Asian (SEA) Games has been negatively politicised since the 1950s. It has sported a complex interplay of colonialism, decolonisation, nationalism, geopolitics, patronage and capitalism. Repurposing it for the well-being of individual athletes and the regional sporting culture is long overdue. Yet, to depoliticise sports toward positive purpose necessitates collective political action.

Green recovery. Social protection. Smart containment. Decarbonisation. Putting progress in climate action at par with measuring GDP. Creative capacity. These phrases have been running through conversations these days around changing Southeast Asia's template for development in the post-COVID era.

In normal days, low- to medium-skilled foreign workers in Southeast Asia often experience various forms of discrimination, let alone in times of COVID-19 pandemic. Such a situation has shown that Southeast Asian countries are not ready yet for cross-border people’s mobility.

Over the last three years, Timor’s public discourse in Timor-Leste has been concentrated on the power struggle among the Dili-centered elites on the legitimacy to govern the country. The economic impacts of this political development is the economic stagnation, reflected in the GDP decline. COVID-19 adds another layers to the multitude of challenges that already existed.  

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.

I have been on a journey of about two years so far to learn more about pollinators, native bees, and how we can help restore the health of their populations. On one hand this has become a personal journey. Now every day I observe flowers in bloom that I find in my garden or wherever I am to see if there are any pollinators, and if so, what species I find, and if there are few or many.

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.