Get us in the mood for love

GIVEN the peaks and valleys of romance, it can be difficult for a young person to navigate matters of love.
The Social Development Network (SDN), the latest incarnation of the Government’s matchmaking service, hopes to be a global positioning system for lonely hearts.
Too bad it is desperately outdated – despite its efforts being made in the [...]

Wet markets need extreme makeover

UPON hearing the news of the impending sale of five private wet markets to Sheng Siong, they embraced, then wept.
The tofu seller, who had just told her customer of 15 years the news, said: “We have known each other for years, we see each other four times a week, and we know the names of [...]

Integration 101: Here’s how to build ties

IT MAY sound like an old cliche, but youths today hold the key to Singapore’s future integration – or dissolution.
Much has been said about what Singaporeans and foreigners should do to accommodate and assimilate. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also sought to calm simmering resentment last month, signalling that Singapore would slow its immigrant intake.
But [...]

The romance of languages – literally

LIKE many youngsters, I hated my Chinese (Mandarin) lessons in school, not least for having to memorise strings of antiquated words that had no impact on my daily life.
After all, it wasn’t as if girls would be impressed by my vast knowledge of Confucian sayings.
What did not help was that my parents were language Nazis, [...]

True, misery loves company but …

VOYEURISM just became a quest for validation.
Forget Twitter and Facebook, meet a whole new ilk – websites that ask your opinion on someone else’s life, specifically, whether it’s good or bad.
These independently managed websites include FML, MLIA and MLIG, and solicit quick stories from people about their day.
FML, the pioneer (www.fmylife.com), was essentially a platform [...]

Caring for aged parents: Sue children for support? It’s a difficult matter

ONE evening, when I was 17 years old, my father rounded up his four children and told us he did not want us to support him in old age.
He was adamant: “If you don’t want to take care of me, then don’t. I don’t need you to take care of me.”
It was right about when [...]

Caring for aged parents: No question of whether I would do it or not

ONE Tamil saying translates to mean: “You will know the value of your father only when he is dead.
It was one of those proverbs we had to memorise in Tamil class in Primary 3. As part of our moral instruction, the lesson was clear: Don’t take for granted what you have.
I, at age nine, interpreted [...]

Caring for aged parents: Parents first, marriage can wait

I WAS not planned.
My mum found out she had an inverted womb three years after she gave birth to my older brother. That was when my parents were trying for a second child.
So, they left it to fate – which intervened five years later. As a result, they were past their mid-30s when they brought [...]

Caring for aged parents: Help encourage proper behaviour

THE Maintenance of Parents Act has stirred up quite a reaction among my peers.
While few of us would dispute that it is the moral obligation of children to care for our parents when they grow old, my contention is this: It appears as though the reasons for instituting and enforcing this Act are distinctly economic.
Public [...]

Have a heart, it goes a long way as you age

IF YOU want to age richly, start investing in “heartware” now, because goodwill will be an asset in your greying years.
A YouTube video about an old man and his adult son brought home the point at the inaugural Young-Old Forum held on Sept 5 at Singapore Polytechnic, which aimed to get youths to think up [...]