Dear reader,
Indie media fair tomorrow. Note the new venue, The Projector @ Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Rd. Jom will have a booth, where we’ll be selling prints of our art for the first time, and offering discounts on our totes and print issues. From 3-4pm, I’ll be on a (ticketed) GE post-mortem panel with Walid Abdullah, Anngee Neo, and Terence Chia. More details here. A big thanks to everybody at the Network of Independent Media for Better Understanding and Support (NIMBUS) for organising this vitally important annual jam, now in its third year.
Two deaths. This week, my soul was overwhelmed by the tragic apparent suicide of Jane Lee, boss of Sumo Well, a salad spot in Holland Village. Just past 2am last Friday, Lee posted allegations on Facebook about a contract worker from India faking an injury, as part of a fraudulent scheme, possibly involving a law firm, to extort money from Lee (and others) by exploiting potential gaps in workplace insurance.
Two minutes later came Lee’s seeming farewell message, which began with an appeal to the Ministry of Manpower and the police, and ended with an apology to her “beloved family and children”. Tributes emphasised Lee’s kindness, and her care for her employees, some of whom had been with her for over 10 years. With investigations ongoing, it’s premature and unkind, to all parties, to speculate any more. Though it was a reminder, chillingly played out in real time in public, of the immense stress individuals experience in our society.
Less shocking, though also cause for wider introspection, was the peaceful passing of Paul Lim Huat Chye, an activist forced into exile by our government’s crackdown against alleged Marxists in the 1980s. “Born Singaporean to a catholic family, passed away as a Belgian,” wrote Tan Wah Piow and Chew Beng Lan, fellow exiles. “Europe’s link man for Asian rights activists,” said Tian Chua, a former Malaysian MP, in his tribute. Lim’s death was a reminder of how we demonise some fellow Singaporeans simply because they have a different conception of progress.
As we strive to nurture a more enlightened, compassionate society, may we open our hearts to those we’ve wronged—like Ang Swee Chai, back again next month—and create space for dissenters yet to come.
- Attacks by UNC3886 on Singapore confirm the new era of warfare
- Is the world’s long journey towards a dengue vaccine nearing its end?
- How can we cultivate a civic-minded approach towards recycling?
- Examining the reasons for the worrying rise in youth vape addiction
- Padang, the Minangkabau, and why our neighbours deserve our attention, curiosity, and respect
- Bookworms cheer Books Kinokuniya and Sylvia Lim’s upcoming memoir
- Can STB’s partnership with OpenAI revolutionise tourism?
And more, in our weekly digest. Read it now.
Essay: “The unlikely triumph of the gays at the Gay Games soccer tournament” by Alfredo Molinas
Queer people are not very welcome in football. As somebody who started playing and watching in the 1980s, that message was drummed into me. I remember Justin Fashanu, the first openly gay footballer, killing himself in 1998. I’ve heard the homophobic chants in stadiums and in overflowing pubs, often directed at straight players deemed not manly enough. Even today, at top clubs on the grandest stages, individuals rebel against equality by refusing to don rainbow armbands that their teammates wear.
In that context, it’s rejuvenating and stirring to read the story of how One Nil, a Hong Kong team, triumphed at the first Gay Games to be held in Asia—against both gay and straight teams. When Alfredo Molinas, a Singapore-based entrepreneur and One Nil member, pitched this, I didn’t even know about these global games.
“Much like the Olympics, which promote excellence, respect, and friendship, the Gay Games’s ethos is participation, inclusion, and personal best. To conventional sports like track and field, swimming, or wrestling, the organisers have welcomed non-Olympic sports that reflect local culture, like dodgeball, cheerleading, same-sex dancing, and even rodeo.
It’s supposed to be competitive, but not too serious. The Pink Flamingo is one of the games’ most beloved and flamboyant events: a blend of comedy, drag, and aquatic ballet. Swim teams perform elaborately choreographed and often hilariously campy skits in the water, complete with costumes, props, and plenty of glitter.”
Sports stories are often about adversity, tragedy or triumph, teamwork, and discipline. Rare is the one whose central theme is about creating opportunities and spaces for those excluded from the mainstream. That the Games happened in Hong Kong, under the watchful eye of Beijing, is remarkable. Why not Singapore next? It’s one of many questions that Alfredo prods us to think about.
Jom fikir,
Sudhir Vadaketh
Editor-in-chief, Jom
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