What if your favourite packet of Maggi isn’t just comfort food, but a mirror of global capitalism, cultural loss, and nostalgia? The writer unpacks how a Swiss invention became a South-east Asian staple; redefining taste, memory, and the meaning of home in just two minutes.
Indonesia, interrupted; nothing happened in Bukit Gombak; our contortions to avoid recognition of Palestine worthy of Olympic gold; the quandaries of long-term planning in an ageing society; Lawrence, the mellow; closure of the storied Cathay cineplexes; and more.
In the 1970s, as female flight attendants in the West were fighting gender discrimination, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways were building brands around their sexualised female icons. Are we willing to accept sexism when it subsidises “the nation”?
Worrying parallels between the drug and scam industries; a rise in willing workers in Scam Inc; the loneliness epidemic that’s making us susceptible to being scammed—these were some key takeaways from our latest Jom Cakap.
Dear reader, It’s Saki, Jom’s head of research and social media. I’ve been working here for almost a year now and this is my first newsletter. Everyone at Jom is currently on our usual mid-year break which means that there will be no essay or “Singapore This...
Dear reader, First, congratulations to my co-founder, Charmaine Poh, for winning the Villa Romana Prize, just the latest accolade in an already decorated arts career. (How she finds time to also do all her great work here is beyond me.) Today we have a longish “build-in-public” newsletter, first reflecting on...
The unequal division of less visible forms of domestic and caregiving work among married couples may be preventing either partner from achieving the best experience of family life and individual fulfilment.
NGO exposes horrible worker exploitation; the deplorable practices of Singtel-owned Optus; storied soup shop closes; Singapore swaps land with Johor regent; enabling arts access for all; Indonesia’s new sovereign wealth fund; and more.
Dear reader, It’s the middle of June. Sweltering heat, parents and kids with time off, many on holiday, other people revelling in the gentler morning traffic, and lower ridesharing fares. Barrels of durians from across the border appear in our hoods, their familiar pungency now accompanied by eye-watering prices,...
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