“Theirfightforfreedomanddemocracyisalsoourfight,”saysPoscoWong,a23-year-oldoriginallyfromMacau,referringtotheanti-governmentprotestsinHongKong.TheformerPortugueseenclave,anhour’sridebyferryfromHongKong,hasalwaysbeenseenasthebetterbehavedSpecialAdministrativeRegionunderChineserule–largelybecauseofitsmoreconservativesociety.WhileMacau’syoutharenotaspoliticallyengagedastheircounterpartsinHongKong…
Filipino-American historian traces the history of Philippine nurses in the US
To Filipino-American historian Ren Capucao, hospitals smell like home.Growing up in Virginia Beach, Capucao would often visit his mother at Chesapeake Regional Medical Centre, where she worked as a nurse for three decades.“People find it weird,” he said with a laugh. “For me, visiting the hospital was a fun thing. I would see all these Filipino health care workers at the hospital, and most of them were nurses.”It did not seem unusual – in the Filipino family in which he was raised, it was…
Indonesia still wants Chinese investments, but Jokowi is also wooing Middle East money
Indonesia made great strides in reforming its economy during the first term in office of President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi.The country’s ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business study rocketed from 114 in 2014 to 73 this year, and ratings agency Standard and Poor’s in 2017 joined Moody’s and Fitch in awarding BBB investment status.But securing capital remains a big challenge.According to government figures, investment grew 11.4 per cent a year in Widodo’s first term,…
Franco-Irish girl Nora Quoirin’s family mourns ‘unbearable’ loss as autopsy performed in Malaysia
Malaysian authorities on Wednesday conducted a postmortem examination on the body of a Franco-Irish teen found in the jungle after she disappeared from a resort, as her family mourned the “unbearable” loss.The unclothed body of Nora Quoirin, 15, was discovered on Tuesday in a ravine in dense rainforest after a 10-day hunt involving hundreds of people, helicopters and sniffer dogs.She went missing from the Dusun Resort, not far from Kuala Lumpur, on August 4, a day after checking in for a…
Tensions among Indonesia’s security forces simmer beneath surface after Jakarta’s election riots
Indonesia’s riots over the disputed presidential election this year were the worst since the 1998 unrest that toppled long-time strongman Suharto. Though the polls triggered the violence, there were also more deep-seated reasons for the two days of chaos. Behind the scenes a power struggle was taking place among retired army generals backing the different presidential candidates – a battle with clear echoes of the ideological factionalism seen in the final years of Suharto’s rule. Muslim…
Forget bitcoin, this Singapore firm is using blockchain tech to build a smart city
A Singaporean start-up is looking to transform the face of Southeast Asia by building smart cities powered by blockchain technology – starting with an ambitious 100-hectare mixed-use development project in the heart of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Spanning residential homes, office buildings, shopping malls, schools, and a massive exhibition hall, the privately backed project by Limestone Network will affect 10,000 business tenants and a daily population of 190,000 people. The idea was…
Philippine VP Leni Robredo ‘leaving everything open’ on bid to succeed Rodrigo Duterte as president in 2022
Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo is keeping her options open regarding the presidential race in 2022.Robredo said she was ready for the presidency but would decide later on whether to stand as the opposition Liberal Party’s main candidate in elections three years from now, when Filipinos will vote on President Rodrigo Duterte’s successor.“If you ask me now, I have no plans, but I am leaving everything open,” the vice-president said in an interview on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t have ran for the…
When Xi meets Duterte: is the China-Philippines honeymoon over?
When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visits China later this month, he intends to raise with Chinese President Xi Jinping the contentious topic of Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea – and the 2016 UN arbitration ruling negating its territorial claims there.This has raised speculation that Manila is ready to take a harder line on its relations with Beijing, and on the South China Sea in particular, as since becoming president, Duterte has gone out of his way to embrace Beijing and…
‘Hype, smoke, and hot air’ clouding Singapore real estate
When the doors to the sales gallery of an upcoming residential project in central Singapore opened in July, more than 4,000 prospective homebuyers flooded the showroom for a first glimpse of the plush development. The project, One Pearl Bank, sits on a 99-year leasehold site once home to the iconic horseshoe-shaped Pearl Bank Apartments. It is set to stand among the tallest residential properties in the Lion City when completed by 2023, boasting unobstructed views of the city skyline.
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When is a gift to a Filipino cop not bribery? When it’s given with ‘gratitude’, President Duterte says
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been criticised for comments that have been interpreted as his endorsement of police accepting bribes.During a speech at an anniversary event Friday for the Philippine National Police (PNP), Durtete said in Tagalog: “If you are able to solve a crime and the family would like to be generous to you or would nurture a feeling of gratitude for what you accomplish, then by all means, accept it.”He also derided as “nonsense” an anti-corruption law that forbids…