Asia

“Having worked all over the world on a range of emergencies over the last 30 years, community resilience is something that I have witnessed in every situation, without fail. The strength of the human spirit to triumph over adversity never ceases to amaze me.”

Iran’s citizens, who have clung to hope and the possibility for change through decades of domestic repression and isolation from the global economy, struggle to remain hopeful. By further undermining Iran’s civil society through a damaging, sanctions-forward policy, the U.S. risks weakening the aspirations of Iranians for a peaceful future where equality and human rights are respected.

Singapore’s growing class divide presents challenges to its espoused meritocratic ideals. Samantha Wong, Toh Wei Lun and Amelia Woo consider proposals akin to “affirmative action” – namely the use of quotas and nominations in school admissions – to address educational and consequently socioeconomic disparities.

On the topic of subject-based banding, Andrew Chia responds to Lionel Oh’s Op-Ed by laying out potential practical difficulties in overhauling the existing streaming system, showing how these obstacles could undermine the effectiveness of such a change.

The world recently marked fifty years since the end of the 1967 Arab-Israeli “Six Day” War and the beginning of the indefinite military occupation of Palestinian West Bank. It was one of the shortest wars; it has been one of the longest occupations. The international community continues to ask, how much longer should it go […]

In this week’s podcast, we discuss the attempted resignation of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and the growing protests in Algeria against President Bouteflika’s proposed fifth term. In Iran, Zarif announced his resignation in a February 25th Instagram post, but President Rouhani insists that Zarif keep his job after widespread support for the Foreign Minister’s […]

Singapore plans to replace streaming in secondary schools with subject-based banding by 2024. Lionel Oh explores how this banding could be implemented in a flexible yet substantive way that best captures the spirit of the policy intent, so that it does not simply become yet another form of educational stratification.

Netanyahu is attempting to head off the Gantz-Lapid challenge before it can gain too much momentum. The announcement of his indictment on corruption charges further destabilizes Israel’s turbulent politics ahead of April elections.

As part of the Smart Nation initiative, the government has been pushing for Singapore to go fully cashless within the next few years. Soh Kian Peng lays out the benefits and drawbacks of this move and explains why a complete switch away from cash might not be desirable.

BY LUIS CARLOS RAMIREZ MARTINEZ In the last two decades, the United States has fought at least two trade wars. Both times, the key battleground has been steel, and lobbyists have been in the thick of it. However, one would have to go back almost four decades, to 1981 in fact, to find another example […]

‘Migrant workers’ is the typical term used to describe migrants who work in Singapore. But they are far more than just workers defined by their labour. Theophilus Kwek argues that we should move beyond the simple trope of ‘migrant workers’ in our discourse on migrant issues, as a first step to seeing them as people whose lives are just as full and fraught as our own, and treating them accordingly.

Migrant workers are all too often shut out from avenues to express their issues and concerns for public discussion. In this op-ed, Zakir Hossain Khokan tells us about the issues he has faced as a migrant working in Singapore, and what solutions might look like.