“Beneath the Rug” is a Singaporean book compilation of 30 stories, written by 30 different individuals in the social service sector. Their honest sharing on the poor/marginalised/disadvantaged in Singapore was surprising, and in this episode with editor Lewin Low we discuss the project’s journey, the writers, and the plans of his social enterprise Solve n+1.
Co-operative A Good Space, a good friend to this podcast, ran two Listening Living Labs and produced two corresponding Listening Reports to document the experiences and insights of migrant worker communities and low-income communities in Singapore. With representative Nurulhuda Hassan today, we focus on low-income communities, focused on the three issues and recommendations revolving around lower-wage gig workers, customised digital guidance, as well as interim assistance.
Co-operative A Good Space, a good friend to this podcast, ran two Listening Living Labs and produced two corresponding Listening Reports to document the experiences and insights of migrant worker communities and low-income communities in Singapore. Even though the issues and insights are not necessarily new, representatives Nurulhuda Hassan and Vandhana Jeyaram provide a preview in this first episode. In the next two episodes, we take deeper dives into each report.
So much ink has been spilled on Singapore’s healthcare and public health response to the ongoing pandemic. Yet, there will be an end to COVID-19, and the start of 2022 feels like a good time to shift some of the public focus to our country’s long-term, pandemic-linked social challenges. In this short episode, I summarise the most urgent and obvious problems – migrant, healthcare, and economically disadvantaged essential workers – before detailing four challenges which have received less attention: First, the harm to children, adolescents, and youths; second, compounded socio-economic inequality; third, social isolation; and fourth, ambiguous loss and unresolved grief.
How happy are Singaporeans? Or what makes a Singaporean happy? Local social enterprise the Happiness Initiative (happinessinitiative.sg) sought to answer these questions through its 2021 State of Happiness Study. Here’s what they found. With psychological and social factors, Singaporeans who have purpose, grit, and social support are happier on average. And with socio-demographic factors, those with lower household income and those who identified as bisexual or homosexual report lower life evaluation. These findings may not be surprising to some, and so we put these questions to co-founder Simon Leow, who details the study methodology and the broader implications of the findings. We also discuss some limitations.
socialservice.sg 