Singapore

Here comes our March round-up: violent crackdown on protesters in Myanmar, sprees of violence against Asian-American communities and military threats from the Korean peninsula. But that's not all: scepticism over the Olympics in Japan and civil activism in Singapore.

In the early stages of the pandemic, Singapore stood out as a role model for its successful strategy. However, later outbreaks among the migrant community have exposed an entrenched societal division between native Singaporeans and foreign workers. Now that the country seems ready to move forward, migrants are again left behind.

Like Sweden, there is a distinct coffee culture in the Southeast Asian region that begets a daily ritual in Singapore and Malaysia known as “kopitiam”. The word “kopi” is an Indonesian and Malay word for coffee. “Tiam” is the word for shop in Hokkien or Hakka Chinese dialect. The coffee is usually drunk at “kopitiam” or “kopi tiam” places with something to eat, just like a Swedish fika.