Dear reader, This is Abhishek, subbing in for Sudhir who is luxuriating in the mountains of northern Thailand. If you read last week’s newsletter, you’ll know Charmaine, Sudhir and I were in Chiang Mai for the Splice Beta media festival. It was, in a word, revelatory.  We often...

Dear reader, Hello from Chiang Mai! Abhishek, Charmaine and I are here for the annual Splice Beta media festival. The organisers invited Jom to speak about our ongoing efforts to build a sustainable independent media firm. Still some way to go, but we’re grateful for the opportunity. Thank you...

Dear reader, Another week, another Lee/Li. This time, there’s the news that Li Hongyi, son of Lee Hsien Loong and Ho Ching, has allegedly resigned as the director of Singpass. His apparently leaked resignation message is quite telling. We may write about it in more detail in a...

Dear reader, “Singapore This Week”. In our weekly digest, we discuss the Lees’ political asylum in the UK; the ethics of assisted dying; Singapore’s war on drugs; the latest prize for Khir Johari’s magisterial The Food of Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels through the Archipelago; playwright Joel Tan’s...

Dear reader, “Singapore This Week”. In our weekly digest, we discuss Raeesah Khan’s testimony at Pritam Singh’s trial; the problematic Allianz-Income deal; that (yawn) house at Oxley Road; proposed archaeological laws to protect Singapore’s “cultural patrimony”; the passing of Shahid Nasheer, prodigious theatre talent; the floundering “30...

Dear reader, “Singapore This Week”. In our weekly digest, we discuss Lee Wei Ling’s passing and the implications for the house at 38 Oxley Road; the execution of Mohammad Azwan bin Bohari just days before the World Day Against the Death Penalty; Peter Lim’s problematic ownership of Valencia...