Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munshi – also known as Munshi Abdullah, Abdullah Munshi, and Abdullah Abdul Kadir – is a name known to hopefully most, if not all, Singaporeans. Or it should be, for his visage was amongst the four figures that joined the Raffles statue by the Singapore River as part of the Singapore Bicentennial’s recognition and celebration of the “multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious people, with richly diverse backgrounds” who have played important roles in the early development of the country1.
Read More >Dr Nuraliah Norasid
The Feasibility of Writing: Always an Open-ended Examination Paper
Study your personal, social, economic, and educational contexts carefully, and then answer all the questions.
1. How did you come by this profession? Why not be a doctor, or a wife? [5 m]
As a disclaimer, I am a doctor. Though not the kind who would be able to help you if you have a heart attack in a coffee house.
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Eradicating the Drug Menace: No One Left Behind
For the average Singaporean, it is far easier to believe that the drug problem exists far away—in another country, another neighbourhood, amongst another community, an alien and invisible segment of our society. Many of us learnt about drugs through early preventive education. Surely, we can all recall those school assemblies where stern-faced officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), would show us slides with photos and videos of the various drugs and the terrifying impacts that their use can have on the human body and appearance.
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No One Place for the Spirit: Review of For[god] by Noor Iskandar
Fully titled For[god]: a remembrance of love in the path of losing, the volume is a collection of short prose and poetry spanning 2014 to 2018, based on Noor Iskandar’s observations and ruminations during his travels. Many of the pieces in the collection are centred on the interplays of spirituality and the earthly states of human existence.
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The Rose of Bussorah Street: Wardah Books
Midday, and though the sky is leaden signalling the rain that would soon come, the pristine common path between the rows of shophouses leading up to the golden-domed majesty of the Sultan Mosque is already teeming with arrangements of tables and chairs from the Turkish restaurants, racks of tourist-trap paraphernalia, displays of voluminous skirts, colourful pashminas, and opulent Persian rugs.
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Community’s Diagnoses: Review of Souvenir Dari Angkasa Lepas by Hassan Hasaa’ree Ali
Souvenir Dari Angkasa Lepas, (or A Souvenir From Outer Space) is a collection of short stories, also known as cerpen in Malay, written by local Singaporean author, Hassan Hasaa’ree Ali. The collection features new stories alongside those which ave been published in the Berita Harian ad Berita Minggu newspapers. The stories are arranged into three distinct sections titled, “Cetera”, “Pathologi”, and “Alternatif”.
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On Charlottesville and its Significance for Singapore
THE CHARLOTTESVILLE INCIDENT: WHAT WE KNOW
On 11 August 2017, violent clashes took place in the university town of Charlottesville, in the state of Virginia in the United States. The parties involved were the white supremacists, who had planned a “Unite the Right” rally to protest the proposed removal of Confederate icon, General Robert E. Lee, and counterprotestors, who resisted the rally.
Binds and Fissures: Reflections in the Big Apple
Even if you’d grown up far away from it both geographically and culturally like I have, New York rings a familiar bell, owing its iconism to the slew of popular cultural material on the cinema and television screens: the tall blocks from every Spiderman movie, the urbanite life from the Friends sitcom, the chic streets from Sex and the City, The Devil Wears Prada and 13 Going on 30. New York is one of those cities you see in the backdrop of beautiful life lessons and dramatic fictional moments.
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Sectarianism and Muslim Diversity: Lessons for the Malay/Muslim Community
The early decades of the 21st century will be distinctly marked by inter- and intra-religious conflicts that almost invariably see at their centres Muslims and the Islamic faith they profess. The world is becoming increasingly diverse as the relative ease of travel, growing human populations and uneven economic developments see major cities take on more multicultural and transnational populations.
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