A lot of self-pity going on this weekend as I wait for my next dentist visit to figure out if I need a root canal... Floss religiously, boys and girls. 🫠🫠🫠
Wong wages a war on vaping
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered his second National Day Rally speech last weekend. There were no real surprises: he talked about AI, strengthening job-matching services, traineeship programmes for graduates, and age-friendly neighbourhoods.
The thing that really leaped out at me was his pledge to treat vaping as a “drug issue”, which means not just more anti-vaping public education drives but also harsher punishments like jail sentences. Singapore’s position essentially erases any distinction between regular nicotine vapes—which research has indicated is effective in helping adult smokers quit cigarettes—and harmful, dangerous Kpods.
Last month, the government launched the “Bin the Vape” initiative, inviting people to dispose of their vapes in red bins they’d rolled out across the country. They promised that they won’t be tracking down people who make use of those bins, but the bins are covered by CCTV anyway to ward off thievery and vandalism. Tan Kiat How, MP for East Coast GRC, boasted that one of the bins in Bedok was half-filled in four days. Over on Reddit some people say they’ve seen friends quit their nicotine vapes and go back to cigarettes. Success?
I wrote about Kpods and the war against vaping some time back:
Kirsten Han
Caning kids? In 2025?
On 14 August, a parent published an open letter on Facebook describing how her nine-year-old daughter had been subjected to bullying in school for months, to the point where the kid started refusing to go to school. She expressed dissatisfaction with how the school had handled the matter. Alarmingly, after she’d lodged her complaint with the school, she received harassing calls and even voice messages in which a very young boy threatened her and her family with violence and even death.
The parent’s account has gone viral on social media, pushing the Ministry of Education and Sengkang Green Primary School to respond publicly. MOE says three Primary 3 boys have been suspended and even caned (while also taking the opportunity to finger-wag about the parent going public with a “dramatised, one-sided account”).
Bullying shouldn’t be condoned, and it’s scary that such young kids are sending death threats—it suggests that violence, and violent language, has been normalised to such an extent that they really didn’t think much of it. So why does our adult response to the normalisation of violence including caning?
Just two days ago, the World Health Organization issued a press statement calling for the end of corporal punishment of kids:
A study conducted across 49 low and middle-income countries found that children who are corporally punished are 24 per cent less likely to be developmentally on track with their peers.
In addition to causing immediate physical harm, this form of punishment heightens children’s hormonal stress levels which can actually change brain structure and function. In short, the impacts on an individual level can be life-long, according to the report.
From a societal perspective, children who are themselves physically punished are also more likely to do the same to their own offspring, creating an intergenerational cycle of violence. Similarly, adults who were corporally punished as children are more likely to develop violent, criminal and aggressive behaviours.
Got some more…
📽️ There have been plenty of reactions to the closure of The Projector; in case you missed it, I wrote a special issue about it here. Given that this sort of thing keeps happening, Post-Museum is organising a town hall discussion on independent cultural spaces in Singapore. Register here.
🧸 The Singapore Democratic Party, one of the groups affected by The Projector’s liquidation, has a new venue for its panel on electoral reform this afternoon! It’ll now be at Marina One Auditorium, with a larger capacity, so there might still be some tickets left, maybe… Try your luck here.
🐦⬛ Mynah Magazine was supposed to launch its fifth issue at The Projector at the end of the month. They’ve now moved the launch to lyf Farrer Park. They’ll be accompanied by friends—like Mekong Review and Function 8!—who will be running booths. The booths are free to access, but you need tickets for the editor’s talk happening from 5pm–6:30pm. Chope your ticket here.
Something interesting
I’ve only just come across this and haven't watched it all myself but thought I’d share in case others might be interested. Al Jazeera English has put Indonesia: Selling A Colonial War on YouTube. The two-part documentary looks into Dutch narratives of colonialism in Indonesia.
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