2021 was hectic. How hectic? About an hour ago, I was still drafting Very Clear Cut’s special newsletter. I finished the last gathering for 2021 in the evening. And… to top it all up, half my January calendar is full of meet-ups I could not fit in 2021. I should not repeat this next year. …
Author Archives: donavan
Part 1: Are We Barking Up the Right Tree with CECA?
Recently, Parliament convened on Tuesday to address concerns about the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Agreement (CECA) that was brought up by the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) on numerous occasions. The term “CECA” refers to a free trade agreement between India and Singapore in August 2005. However, this term was then used recently as a racial …
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Taking Umbrage at the Writing on the Wall
The real estate business was always going to be more profitable than the media business. But people have already taken umbrage to this notion years ago by calling SPH “Singapore Property Holdings”. In this Linkedin article in 2019, Derrick opined that a break-up between the underperforming core media business and profitable property business inevitable. His …
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A Tale of Two Sofitels
(Hint: They are not equal.) How Did I Even End Up in Sofitel?I never planned for a staycation, or a “work from hotel” day. But this happened: In true Singapore kiasu spirit, I accepted the offer. After all I could always work from the hotel (always remember to use a VPN!) Work From Hotel @ …
Noob About Budget
Budget season is upon us in Singapore, with 8 days of Budget debate that started yesterday. Not everyone may be aware on what “the Budget” is, so here are 10 questions and 10 answers to basic Budget questions. What is the Budget? Every year, the Ministry of Finance prepares a budget for each of the …
GameStop? It’s Not Just a Game…
The most popular topic on my Facebook feed now is on GameStop. But for the completely uninitiated, let us try to make sense out of what happened. Simplified post as per 30 January 2021, since the situation could evolve. What is GameStop? GameStop is an American videogame, consumer electronics and gaming merchandise retailer. It had …
Thirty Thoughts at Thirty
A chain of thoughts starting from a seemingly tautological statement. There is much of the world that I definitely do not know about. Hence, I have to rely on many friends to navigate the world around us. Reliance on friends means that I need to take effort to upkeep relationships with friends. Upkeep can be …
Another End of Year Post
2020 taught many of us how to live differently. For me, it seemed to have accelerated what could otherwise have occured a decade or two down the road. Mass swathes of the population were forced to digitalise or risk losing their business or livelihoods. All of a sudden, we were made to think of what …
“Selective” COVID-19 Reporting?
I thought the recent NYTimes and BBC reporting on Singapore’s COVID-19 situation was rather selective not to label their news article as an opinion piece, instead seemingly reporting it as “fact”, missing most of the broader points. I would like to write a few points to paint my thoughts on the COVID-19 response in Singapore, …
Am I Still Writing?
Writing, to me, is therapeutic. I have not been writing lately, but I felt updating the status of the scratchpad is a good excuse to share my musings. I have been mulling over the future of the scratchpad for a while. This began through a friend’s suggestion of writing bits and pieces of my thoughts, …