A few days ago I read an article about the Straits Times Singaporean of the Year, announced months ago. The acts of selflessness and kindness listed there, be it donating part of one’s liver or organising free tuition and art classes for students, are true examples of people giving back to the community. We can do that too. we can step up, make a change or be the difference we want to see. No matter at home or around the world, no matter whether it’s volunteering our time or fundraising for causes, we can do our part for our nation and for our community. Each of us can make a difference. From students taking part in VIA activities such as vitiating the old folk’s home, to adults creating fundraising efforts, we can have an effect on our community and our world. 

So many people are facing different forms of suffering, today. They are out there, protesting for freedom, fleeing injustice, fighting wars. And we can, and should do our part to help them. Because we are citizens of the world, and the world is our community. It is our time to take the mantle and the responsibility to do our part, as children, as adults, as schools, as companies, and as a society.

And we care, so we should do our part to help them.

So excited to announce that my poem ‘When the Janus-faced ripple beckons’ has been selected as a Highly Commended piece in the Shepton Snowdrops Poetry Festival. Recently we’ve been facing one of our greatest fears come to life- that it that global warming is now almost unstoppable. Almost. We’ve had forest fires and hurricanes and blizzards and tsunamis all over the world because of climate change, and it’s only going to get worse. My poem was inspired by the horrifying news we seem to hear on the television almost every day- by the stories of mothers and children enduring such brutal hardships. Yet I know the lure of nature, of the waves and the sea, and so my poem was about the multi-faceted nature of the waves. Always tossing and turning and never stopping.

When the Janus Faced Ripple beckons.

Perhaps you hear the noise.

It started softly

But now it’s loud. Demanding your attention. 

A soft hum, now a igneous roar. 

It’s the sound of 

Buildings collapsing bricks falling pavements cracking. 

And the noise doesn’t stop 

Even when you hear a child’s desperate wail and

See a mother’s hand. Trembling shaking shivering

Can we not trust the Earth under our feet anymore?

It grows louder. 

Waves

Crashing tumbling rolling into one another. 

It looks beautiful in a postcard. 

And then the waves recede, 

Deceiving manipulating misleading.

Because now they come

In an endless wall getting

Higher and higher.

And the nightmare will never leave you. You will always

Be haunted by glimpses of the tiny

Helpless hand, swallowed. 

But. You find yourself drawn to the

Shore once again,

To the rustle of the sand. To the shells hiding life. 

To the hum of the waves.

Because somehow 

The soft hum beckons. 

Perhaps you hear the noise too.

Today is a momentous occasion indeed— it is the first blog post of 2024; and of this website. I am so super excited for this new journey I am embarking on! Today is also the first day of Ramadan—at least according to Oman, Jordan and some other countries.

It is a time of both great sadness and great joy; joy for the start of a remarkable festive season that sees the Muslims of the world uniting in one spirit to fast from dawn to dusk, to fast for their spirituality and for their belief. Yet sadness looms as our world continues to face countless challenges in wars, natural disasters and political instability. More pressingly, the Gaza conflict, Russia-Ukraine war, and other conflicts all around the world continue to wreak havoc in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. One war comes after another after another; we forget that Myanmar is still undergoing one of the biggest crises South-east Asia as a whole has faced in recent years; the Taliban still control the lives of women in Afghanistan; citizens in Iran and Iraq still do not feel safe.

Sometimes I feel guilty. Because here we are, enjoying life in our countries, with food to eat and water to drink, with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts; but we do not realise, in our happiness others are suffering in famines and droughts and earthquakes and forest fires. The world is still rocking on its feet.

Sometimes I wonder what can we do. Because we are thousands of kilometres away; we are not only powerless because of our age, because of our tininess in the vastness of such conflicts and in the enormity of the world but also because of our cowardliness. You see, there is much we can do. This is my action, to try and help people see the impact they can make if they choose to stand up,. Barriers are barriers only if we let them be— I am lucky to have a mother who has a saying, ‘If there is a will, there is a way.’ Thousands of small voices, together, make one loud voice, calling for attention.

We can do our part. We don’t have to fight a war, or start a revolution. But we have to start being more mindful of our life, to start being grateful for the life we have. That is the first step. And one step at a time, we can change the world.