General

Described as a “virtual maze”, pause // play is a collaborative art project by creatives from various disciplines, under Seni Tiga. The people involved never met physically while working on the project, and the show ended up being a way for them to react to local and global experiences of the pandemic and lockdowns. We review the show, and discuss our experience “getting lost” in it.

Everyone's A Critic is jointly presented with CENDANA. For updates on Malaysian arts and culture, visit BASKL.

Gabungan Marhaen is organising a five day festival of forums starting tomorrow, which will lead up to the celebration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty this Sunday. We discuss what the forums will entail.

Image Source: Gabungan Marhaen Official Facebook Page

In conjunction with World Mental Health Day, we look into the various headlines about mental health that's been circulating in Malaysia. First, we look into the suggestion by our Health Minister DG Hisham to upskill doctors to account for our lack of psychiatrists, and how this would work. Next, following the Health Minister's announcement that MySejahtera will soon provide mental health assistance, we discuss how technology and therapy can intersect. Lastly, we revisit a previous conversation on The Bigger Picture on how we can take a more holistic approach towards mental health in this country.

Image Source: Nik Shuliahin, Unsplash

We discuss what the resumption of interstate and international travel for fully vaccinated Malaysians will entail. Image Source: AR, Unsplash

Lawmakers discussed the possibility of waiving accrued interests during the loan moratorium, and delays in the building of telecommunication towers under the JENDELA plan. Also, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz tabled amendments to raise the debt ceiling for Covid spending, and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's motion to debate the Pandora Papers was declined again by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker.

The spine is our body’s central support structure, but when you have scoliosis - where the spine curves abnormally - it can affect not only how you look but how you move around as well. With scoliosis often diagnosed in childhood, how will this impact the child’s growth? And what management will be needed into adulthood? We find out from Dato’ Dr K.S. Sivananthan and Dr Lim Sze Wei, consultant orthopaedic surgeons from ALTY Orthopaedic Hospital.

Live hornbills, dead green sea turtles, live gibbons, horns from dead rhinos - just some of the seizures made by authorities, over the past two months alone. Dead or alive, these and more wildlife are still being actively traded all over Southeast Asia and the world. How do we even begin to combat these massive conservation crimes, which includes the illegal wildlife trade? We discuss this and more with Elizabeth John, a Senior Communications Officer at TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, an NGO working in all 10 Southeast Asian countries, monitoring the wildlife trade.

Image credit: flickr.com

A couple of weeks ago on Beyond the Ballot Box, we discussed if race-based policies have a place in Malaysia. This was in light of the 12th Malaysia Plan, in which one part of it states that the Bumiputera shares or companies will only be offered and sold to fellow Bumiputera consortiums. If you’d like to give that a listen, click here. 

Now, continuing our discussion on the 12th MP and race-based policies, we’re going to be discussing if there’s enough emphasis placed on Sabah/Sarawak natives in the 12MP as well as what the T20 can do to help the B40.

Image credit: Shutterstock & theedgemarkets.com

Before COVID-19, big cities such as London, New York, and LA attracted workers from out of town or other countries thanks to their thriving hospitality industry. However, lockdowns have caused substantial impacts on their economies.

Closer to home, The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) estimates that the local hotel industry has lost around RM9 billion in revenue in the first seven to eight months of this year.

This could exceed RM10 billion by December 31, 2021 if things don’t turn around soon.

Image Credit: Nokuro | Shutterstock

It’s safe to say that everyone is experiencing a level of heightened adversity at the moment, but what are our leaders, academic institutions, and policymakers doing to provide the current generations and incoming workforce with the right knowledge and skills? Professor Mushtak Al-Atabi, Provost and CEO of Heriot-Watt University Malaysia, discusses the power of positive education.

Image Credit: tomertu | Shutterstock