Donavan's Scratchpad

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 […]

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, […]

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, […]

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, […]