Keeping that glint in the eye

NEWS of two American reporters having been sentenced to a labour camp for 12 years in North Korea makes one thing clear: What journalists do is a public service.
And it is commitment like theirs to report on world issues that will keep rookies like me invested in the industry, eyes wide open to its occupational [...]

I’m not nuts – just allergic to them

FOR an estimated 240,000 people in Singapore, a meal out is a game of Russian roulette: They suffer from fatal peanut allergy.
I am one of them.
While the culture of dining out among young working adults seems to be thriving despite the recession, with no shortage of peanuts in Asian cuisine, my experiences have been dampened [...]

140-character Tweets just cannot describe our colourful lives

LIKE my friend says, a Tweet sounds like the sound a car makes as you back dangerously close to the kerb.
When you finish chuckling over the silly name of the latest social media application Twitter, let’s move on with our lives.
After all, life is more colourful, complicated and crazy than can be contained in 140 [...]

Twitter: Hot or not?

THE Feminist Mentor is my friend on Twitter.
Well, I’m not sure if it was really Dr Thio Su Mien who acquired a Twitter account and added me during Aware’s impassioned, seven-hour extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at Suntec City on May 2.
But whoever helmed that account certainly showed her – or his – humorous side.
For the [...]

Helping dad cross the digital divide

WE ALL know that technology makes our lives easier. Or so I thought, until my dad became my friend on Facebook.
Ever young at heart, he decided some time last year that it would be cool to jump on Mr Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking bandwagon.
But what started out as a cyber-paradise for him soon morphed into [...]

Making a difference beyond ‘voluntourism’

I HAVE a cause.
I believe children should not be exploited, especially in a sexual way, and have been educating myself on how I can help prevent this.
I have found that a lot of it comes down to ‘making poverty history’, as the global campaign goes, though I have no illusions of seeing this happen in [...]

When love can be a toxic drug

A TIMELY intervention for substance abusers can save lives – but should you step in when the drug is love?
Anyone who has had a friend who has dated a jerk will know what I’m talking about. But this quandary will especially – if it hasn’t already – hit home for those in their mid- to [...]

Is 30 really the new 40, not 20?

ANYONE who says you’re only as young as you feel is deluding himself or herself – if, in fact, those dastardly addictive Facebook tests are anything to go by.
One silly question-and-answer I recently indulged in – which was wholly unscientific – promised to uncover my ‘real’ age. It told me, matter-of-factly, that I am 32.
Being [...]

Pay cut? At least I still have a job

THURSDAY, for me, brings relief: It is the day I start looking forward to the weekend and to splurging my pay on pampering myself.
Yet, the prospect of days off and spending money took on a different meaning recently, when I and roughly 3,000 of my Singapore Press Holdings colleagues gathered for a briefing by senior [...]

Pay cut: Three ways to enjoy it

I ENTERED my first job with great vigour, only to find out just 210 days later I would be getting my first pay cut.
It was nowhere near as exciting as my first kiss, my first day in college, or the first time I got chicken pox at my fifth birthday party.
Having covered the recession as [...]