Author: Leo Goh

It is 21 April 2020, at 5 PM, Prime Minister Lee announced the extension of the strict circuit breaker measures. At 6 PM, Ministry of Health announced that they would be staggering entries to four wet markets, dependent on one’s NRIC number and at 9 PM, the Ministry of Education (MOE), announced its plan on bringing forward the typical June holidays to 5 May 2020, with the break ending on 1 June 2020. This would result in a longer Term 3 and would apply to MOE kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, Pre-University students, and students from Special Education schools. Institutes of…

Why do we, as a nation, fail at social distancing? So much so that the government has to not only impose strict circuit breaker measures but also close down public spaces, paste stickers on public transport, and even have social distancing ambassadors at the ready to advise customers to please queue one metre apart. Perhaps there is a reason why the government has to up the ante—we went from warning letters to on the spot fines, and even jail terms in seemingly a blink of the eye. From being allowed to exercise in open spaces, to complete closures of stadiums…

You know that COVID-19 is going to leave a lasting impact on the world when Facebook decides to show solidarity by having new emojis added to their current rotation. Yes, you read right, the social media giant that reminds you when it’s your friend’s birthday or lets you know when Aunt Sophia shares another meme that she probably does not understand has announced to the word that they will launch new emojis for your reaction needs this week. The ‘care’ emoji, consists of the typical yellow emoji that we’re familiar with, but this time, our yellow friend is hugging a…

Welcome to the new age that is COVID-19, where we now know that that this novel coronavirus can survive on surfaces and that some humans have decided to go through extreme measures to avoid touching surfaces. Some measures include largely inconsiderate ones such as pressing the lift buttons with one’s shoe. Other more considerate ways include fashioning a lighter with a metal pointer and immediately killing the germs on the pointer with a flick of the lighter. While innovative, the only issue I have with the lighter is that it might not be safe for children, if they too, were…

There can never be enough suggestions on what to do during these circuit breaker measures. If you find that reading a book takes too much mental bandwidth after a long day of work and watching Netflix just hurts your eyes from staring at the screen for so long, here’s an idea—colouring. No, colouring is not just a child’s activity. If you didn’t know, some benefits of Art Therapy include the exploration of feelings and reconciliation of emotional conflicts. But why colour this particular drawing you may ask—because you can stand a chance to win prizes from Razer! Coined ‘Stay Home…

If you’re running out of reasons to justify getting drunk on video calls with your friends during these times of circuit breaker measures, no worries, I’m here to bring you a perfectly rational reason—Stay The F**k Inside, a digital drinking game. Simply purchase the game and take turns to read the cards over the video call. Read the prompt out loud and drink accordingly! You might be thinking, “Why would she pay for a digital card game?” Well, my answer is simple— because it’s for a good cause. The creator of the game, John Lim has assured that 100% of…

In a bid to explore how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the way we live, I decided to dig deep into something that often provides many people strength in such trying times—Faith. With the current circuit breaker measures in place, places of worship have been forced to shut their doors in the name of social responsibility. It is an abrupt move sparked by a ‘tabligh’ cluster in Malaysia that saw a possible domino effect rippling throughout all mosques in Singapore. Though a bitter pill to swallow, I applaud the cooperation between the government and religious organisations in Singapore as places…

From luxury brands making hand sanitiser, tech giants making face masks and shields, to people volunteering their services for those in need, we really are all in this together. Melinda Looi, the President of  Malaysian Official Designers Association (MODA) had a thought on how she could help and decided to rally her fellow designers to help make personal protective equipment (PPE) after encountering a photo of medical front liners having to sew their own PPEs. Melinda set off to make these PPEs by first contacting an entrepreneur to get the materials to make the PPE gowns. She then sourced donors…

It’s always nice to see when people or big corporations go out of their ways to help others in times of need. From providing welfare support to medical front liners, to creating face masks and face shields to aid the shortages, it’s heartening to see that humanity prevails despite the situation mother nature throws at us. Alongside other tech giants like SpaceX and Tesla, Apple recently published instructions and a fitting guide on how to assemble their face shields. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook stated that he would like to ship out a total of two million face shields, with some…

It only started to feel real when my American roommate’s parents asked her to return to the US. But even then, in Birmingham where we were, we thought the NHS superior and weren’t even that worried. Her name is Kyler (a pseudonym used to protect her identity), a dear friend of mine, who is currently a COVID-19 positive patient in clinical mandated quarantine. She is a third-year arts student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), majoring in philosophy and was in Birmingham for an overseas exchange when the global pandemic started. She first started feeling sick back in the UK, three…

Hello from the other side, the other side being my dining table as I work from home and play my part as a responsible citizen in flattening the curve of spreading the novel coronavirus. I hope you’re doing the same too, lest the government impose stricter measures, right? So in a bid to make your self-isolation experience a better one, I bring you JBL’s new Quantum Range headphones, for the full immersive experience you deserve as you game. I imagine that to beat the boredom of not having many things to do at home, you would love to escape reality…

Minister of Education, Ong Ye Kung assured the public that starting 8 April 2020, schools island-wide are to be closed and curriculums will be shifted online. Minister Ong was confident in saying that the transition to home-based learning would be smooth as schools had one day of e-learning in preparation for the rest of the month. My curiosity on the concerns of home-based learning (HBL) led me to check out MOE’s Facebook page and I was very much intrigued by the comments I was reading. The comments run the gamut of emotions—from asking MOE to streamline the cancellation of CCAs,…

I am so happy to live in a time where gender and sexuality are not simply defined by either or but rather on a spectrum. Gone are the days when women are confined to skirts and men to trousers. Even though social constructs of how a certain gender should behave or dress still exist, I am confident that given the current progressiveness of youth, limiting specific silhouettes to specific genders will be a thing of the past. How you present yourself is important. From body modifications such as piercings and tattoos to the way you dress, we’re constantly presenting visual…

As we stay home during these times of social distancing measures, other than keeping ourselves busy with work, picking up that book that you’ve always wanted to read and trying out those recipes that you’ve always wanted to attempt, I’m sure you’re slowly running out of ideas on what to do at home. “But I’ve yet to make a dent on my Netflix queue,” you might say, and yes you could be a couch potato, or you could get up and hone in on your photography skills and upgrade yourself—we have all this free time anyway. “But where do I…

We’re four months into the new decade, and things already seem bleak with the current state of the world. We’re living in the unpredictable times of COVID-19, new circuit breaker measures have just been implemented, the government has doubled down on us being socially responsible, and we as a nation can do nothing but our best by staying home. It’s tough; it really is, we feel confined within the four walls of our homes, with nowhere to escape. This is why we have these recommendations, for you to escape reality just for a bit, and for your anxious mind to…