The Dubious Grouping of Ages
3 min read
I ASSUME THAT he who sees a cup as half empty will try to conserve what he has, while he who sees a cup as half full will proceed to fill it further. I also ass...
Happy Accidents that Bred Academic Impact and Excellence: Ooi Kee Beng in conversation with Danny Quah (Part One)
9 min read
One of the most influential academics and economists in the world today is Penang boy, Danny Quah. A citation impact study done in 2020 by Stanford University p...
Getting Back on Our Feet, and with Back Held Straight
11 min read
DISASTERS – natural or manmade – tend to affect a limited geographical area.A typhoon cutting across the Philippines, like Typhoon Vongfong in May...
The Future of Tourism—Only as Bright as We Make It
3 min read
SINCE INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL became possible post-Covid, I have, for various reasons, been staying in at least five countries for substantial periods of time, inc...
Farizan bin Darus: Disruptions Await Society and the Civil Service (Part Two)
6 min read
THIS IS PART Two of an interview Penang Monthly's editor Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng had with Dato' Seri Haji Farizan bin Darus on April 15, 2021. Farizan retired as...
Introducing the Penang Walk Zones Project
10 min read
IF THERE IS one motto that Penang Monthly can use to describe its mission and vision, it is "Knowing Penang". That means capturing to the best of its ability al...
From Free Port to Modern Economy. Economic Development and Social Change in Penang, 1969 to 1990
7 min read
Published by Penang Institute and ISEAS (Singapore) 2019Introduction (Abridged)WHILE Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu (1919-2010) was undoubtedly a major actor in the early...
E&E and E&E: Penang’s Two Economic Legs Showing Strong Muscles
3 min read
As with Singapore three decades later, Penang, on being taken over by the British in 1786, immediately depended on the benefits of being a free port. The contin...
Digital Literacy Should Be Pursued the Way Universal Literacy Once Was
4 min read
AT ITS MOST basic level, literacy is about the ability to read and write. But reading and writing is a goal to an end. It was to get us educated. Literacy leads...
Relating Tales of Dislocated Culture
8 min read
AUTHOR SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA’S initially hesitant demeanour over Zoom belies the writing style of her debut short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife. Sh...
Euston Quah and the Virtues of Cost-Benefit Analysis
8 min read
OUR EDITOR WAS stuck in Singapore for a few weeks in 2021 during the pandemic, and took the chance to meet up with one of Penang’s many famous sons living in th...
What Are the Tropics If Not Naturally Diverse?
10 min read
DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE in the tropics once employed expressions such as luxuriant, verdant or lush. As technical terminology became the vogue, our ability to im...