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Keywords: Singapore

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Why Singapore needs to shift the conversation around drugs

    • Kirsten Han
    • 29 March 2023
    1 Comment

    Singapore's notoriously strict drug laws mean that people caught with over a certain amount of drugs face the death penalty. While the Singaporean government claims its policy deters drug trafficking, critics say there is no evidence that the death penalty is effective, arguing that these policies do not address the root causes of drug use and addiction.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Singapore punishes women for living longer

    • Sangeetha Thanapal
    • 07 August 2018
    2 Comments

    Singapore has one of the world's lowest mortality rates, with a general life expectancy of above 80. Singapore's women outlive men by about five years, making the country second in the world for how long its women live. It seems the Singapore state has decided to punish women for it.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The danger of dissent in Singapore

    • Sangeetha Thanapal
    • 27 February 2018
    9 Comments

    The world continues to laud Singapore as a model for governance, while ignoring the serious human rights violations that occur within it. The silence of countries like Australia and others in the region ensure that the Singapore state will continue intimidating its opponents into silence, or obscurity.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Changi war remembrance asks how we keep peace today

    • Francine Crimmins
    • 28 April 2017
    2 Comments

    The air-conditioned bus offers a sanctuary from the tropical temperatures outside. It's hard to believe these are the same temperatures experienced by inmates over 70 years ago on this site. It is not often that we consider peace as something we must constantly work for. Often it is portrayed as something which can be achieved and then passed down to us. Changi reminds us we shouldn't become complacent in our memory of war because it might cause us to lose sight of how we keep peace today.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    A train traveller's view of life on both sides of the track

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 12 February 2016
    3 Comments

    My little sisters and I stand at the window and stare out at the passing world. The youngest is not yet two, and though she will grow to be six feet tall one day, for now she must stand on tiptoes to take it all in. We see children running beside the train, laughing and waving. My mother throws them the sandwiches left over from yesterday's lunch. Railway lines take the path of least resistance and the routes of most gain, and so they bring us right up close to the people who live alongside them.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Uncle Kevin's letters home from the war

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 24 April 2015
    3 Comments

    I never met my uncle Kevin, who was killed on 9 February 1942 in Singapore. However we were fortunate to have a collection of his letters home from Malaya and reading his letters gives a brief glimpse into his life at war. His final signoff to my grandmother was: 'We’ve still to get our first shock yet but after the first few enemy "bangs" I guess there will be nothing to it.'

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Exploiting Van Nguyen

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 25 July 2013
    7 Comments

    Many Australians feel ownership of Nguyen's story, who was executed for drug trafficking in Singapore in 2005. Khoa Do more than most Australian filmmakers has the moral authority to tell that story without being accused of exploitation. Yet it is hard not to sympathise with the objections of Nguyen's family to Do's SBS new miniseries. Which mother would want public property made of her private grief?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    When sitting is subversive

    • Suzanne Hemming
    • 10 March 2010
    9 Comments

    The Singaporeans have heavy fines for antisocial behaviour such as spitting and swearing. It works for them, and creates a pleasant, safe environment for tourists. But the lack of seats suggests something more: a form of social control. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Singapore's cane can't restore justice

    • Michael Mullins
    • 28 July 2008
    4 Comments

    If Singapore's courts convict ABC journalist Peter Lloyd of drug charges, his sentence may include 15 lashes. In a better world, 'restorative justice' would allow him to do something positive to counter the social ills that led to his actions.

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  • CONTRIBUTORS

    Chris Lowney

    • Chris Lowney
    • 26 July 2007

    Chris Lowney, who is visiting Australia 20-28 August 2007, served as managing director of JP Morgan & Co. in New York, Tokyo, Singapore, and London. He is author of Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World (Loyola Press ISBN 0829418164)

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Legal fiction friction

    • James Minchin
    • 26 June 2006

    James Minchin reviews Chris Lydgate’s Lee’s Law: How Singapore Crushes Dissent.

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