Stay Young, Stay Spontaneous
2 min read
Much of youth is definitely wasted on the young, and this is because the young as a rule are not aware enough of what it means to be old.They are not burdened...
Capitalism is the Exercise of the Power of Excess
3 min read
This morning (June 20, 2016), my 12-year-old daughter asked me “what is Capitalism?”Since the Cold War is over, this is actually a harder question...
The Point of Competitive Sports is to Cultivate Sportsmanship
2 min read
Being a late-bloomer, I seldom took part in sports when I was in school. They felt too physical, too competitive and too regimenting. That did not stop me thoug...
The Future is in Our Own Hands
2 min read
Let’s be upfront about it. Anyone concerned about the survival of the planet has to struggle with the deduction that the greatest threat to the environm...
The Family Reunion – An Annual Pilgrimage
3 min read
So it’s that time of year again. The Lunar New Year arrives, and we witness the happy congregation of dispersed Chinese at the home of their family elders...
New Modes of Learning for a New Century
3 min read
The essence of a nation-building or statebuilding model is best perceived through its education policies. This is after all the key area within which the gove...
The Hills ‘r’ Us
3 min read
Natural resources are always good to have. If rightly used, they are the basis not only for an economy’s path of growth, but also for its international...
Literary festivals – More momentous than you may imagine
3 min read
Now when Penang is holding its George Town Literary Festival again – and I have no doubt that it will be an even greater success than before – let...
Penang as entry point for visitors to Malaysia
3 min read
Tourism has been vital to Penang for decades, but a competent history of it has yet to be written to give due credit to the key actors involved, to describe t...
Speaking of Pulau Tikus...
3 min read
Pulau Tikus. The name always sounded exotic to the ears of a boy growing up in the general area of Ayer Itam (yes, not Air Itam), Reservoir Gardens and Rifle...
The UAE passes an anti-discriminatory law worth importing
3 min read
I was in Abu Dhabi recently for the first time. The UAE is a strange land; its citizens make up only 15% of the whole population. The rest are foreigners of o...
An intercontinental trip a year keeps the psychiatrist away
3 min read
We take global communication as a matter of course today. Not long ago, messages had to be written on physical media to arrive only after being carr...