Tag: singapore
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Chulia Kampong, Singapore
Read more: Chulia Kampong, SingaporeLooking at Chulia Street off Raffles Place and Boat Quay now, no one would know what it was like before. Chulia Kampong, unlike Kampong Glam, has vanished from the map of Singapore. So I was intrigued by the description given by the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh in his novel, River of Smoke. The book, set…
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Poems Singapore
Read more: Poems SingaporeI saw this book and loved it at first sight. How could I not with its poems about Singapore? It is called Words: Poems Singapore and Beyond and edited by Edwin Thumboo. As luck would have it, the very first page I opened had a poem by him about the transformation of Singapore. The poem,…
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Back in Singapore
Read more: Back in SingaporeAs the plane broke through the cloud cover, the pilot announced we were approaching Singapore. A lush green land stretched below us — and then came the sea. We had been flying over Malaysia. The view was glorious. The sea, wide and deep, dotted with little islands, offshore platforms, ships cutting a wake through the…
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Indira Gandhi and Lee Kuan Yew
Read more: Indira Gandhi and Lee Kuan YewSingapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is compared to Indira Gandhi by the Indian journalist, Sunanda Datta-Ray, who once worked for The Straits Times. In his book, Looking East to Look West, exploring India-Singapore relations, based on his interviews with MM Lee, he writes: Lee and Indira Gandhi shared a brutal commitment to power, an…
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Two poems about Singapore
Read more: Two poems about SingaporeOne poem leads to another. Reading Reflecting on the Merlion: An Anthology of Poems edited by Edwin Thumboo and Yeow Kai Chai, and co-edited by Enoch Ng, Isa Kamari, and Seetha Lakshmi at the public library, I wanted to read more poems about Singapore. And, as luck would have it, I came across another anthology,…
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Free because we blog, tweet, in an attention economy
Read more: Free because we blog, tweet, in an attention economySingapore’s Straits Times and Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post are the only English language newspapers I know that do not allow their stories to be read online for free. Even the Financial Times allows some of its stories to be read for free. Not the Straits Times. All you can read for free on…
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Anthony Burgess on Malaysia
Read more: Anthony Burgess on MalaysiaMalaysia celebrated its 52nd independence anniversary recently. So how much has it changed since Anthony Burgess wrote about it in The Malayan Trilogy? The book is based on his experiences as an education officer in Malaysia in the 1950s. In his introduction to The Malayan Trilogy, he writes: “The Malays resented Chinese wealth and were…
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The Singapore Grip
Read more: The Singapore GripThe Singapore Grip by JG Farrell Anyone who loves Singapore should read The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell. He won the Booker Prize in 1973 for The Siege of Krishnapur about the 1857 War of Indian Independence. The Singapore Grip is also a historical novel, describing Singapore at the time of the Japanese invasion during…
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A New York minute with Billy Collins
Read more: A New York minute with Billy CollinsThe Singapore River isn’t the Hudson But it has a homely charm of its own, The Botanic Gardens no Central Park But a tranquil, sylvan landmark Well worth a visit or two. Life in Singapore is nothing to rue Unless you make much ado About the Straits Times Being no New York Times. Then you’re…
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Paul Theroux revisits Asia
Read more: Paul Theroux revisits AsiaGhost Train To The Eastern Star by Paul Theroux Paul Theroux has written an immensely readable sequel to The Great Railway Bazaar, repeating that railway journey from Europe to Asia and back which earned him fame and fortune more than 30 years ago. It is bursting with people and places, rich in indelible portraits. I…
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