Author Archives: donavan

Today’s social media feeds were flooded by this screenshot and reactions to it. Instead of jumping straight to the memes about the importance of artists (this I don’t dispute), I found three additional aspects of the spectrum of responses fascinating. People reacted most strongly to “artists”, not so much “business consultants” nor “human resource managers”. […]

(Another 10 minutes read, apologies. Maybe my strong response goes beyond being edgy.) Out of goodwill, I touched base with a few non-local friends who had opinions, or are affected by the sparks of protests ignited by George Floyd’s death. Deliberately leaving the questions open, I left it to my friends to develop their points […]

Instead of exercising freedoms of speech and expression (as what the United States claims to be a paragon of) to have open conversations about race, as well as about law and order, we see police brutality, race issues and protests unfurl across the country. Years back, I was in the US myself. Showing public displays […]

(More mundane days are redacted.) Monday, 13 April The start of a new week. The highlight today was takeaway during lunch. I went to takeaway food from a Japanese food stall and was greeted with emptiness. There were more stall employees than people ordering takeaway. How would any of these stalls survive when the relief […]

Tuesday, 7 April Woke up to the realisation that it is a circuit breaker. Thankfully some colleagues sent me some links on free courses on Pluralsight. Still trying to get used to work from home. It feels odd, because I never optimised my house for extensive work from home (WFH). How I wish I bought […]

Is nCOV the same as SARS? H1N1? Or is it something else? Depending on who one asks, and which perspective you seek, one will get different answers. The dynamic nature of a crisis is such that there are information gaps, which I will spend some time to opine on. Medical Facts First, let us lay […]

Are end-of-year notes still a thing? Even if they are not, I think it is good to write them, even though I plan to take a different approach to this. I don’t think you, as a reader, would appreciate a “year summary” very much. However, there is a central question I have for this year, […]

I travelled to understand the world and what the best talents could do – that was through a unique road trip through the United States. I travelled to discover just how different people can be even in close proximity – that was through train rides for city escapades in Europe. I travelled to sense, with […]

Flight DetailsFlight: BR216 from Singapore to Taipei-TaoyuanFlight time: 4 hours 40 minutes (scheduled)Departure: slightly after 1525 hours.Arrival: approx 1945 hours. (plane caught up!) Review As a traveller who often leans for a full-service carrier instead of a budget carrier should the price differential not be great intra-Asia, I have expectations that the premium I pay […]

A number of my friends had strong responses to Prof. Koh’s claim of Singapore being a “first-world country with third-world people”. It was also fairly interesting some responses online became one of blame, as opposed to constructive feedback. That has been a theme for a while in civic society, which supports Prof. Koh’s claim. Many […]