food uncertainty

NEW JERSEY – There is one catastrophic scenario I worry about with US President Donald Trump’s second term in office: bad food.

I had read about the unimpressive cuisine associated with Mr Trump’s establishments, from Thanksgiving platters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida that resembled frozen TV dinners to gala dishes deemed worse than budget airline food by crypto investors in the President’s meme coin.

But I was not chuckling during a recent meal at a cafeteria in Pennsylvania, which served pale yellow turds.

“Eggs,” pronounced the server. As I stared in confusion, he whispered: “Powdered eggs with some tofu. Good stuff – soybeans made in the USA.”

This unpalatable swop of protein sources was accepted without controversy – possibly because I was attending an Asian church retreat, where tolerance for tofu and austerity is not in short supply.

Expectations of egg substitution may also have been baked into consumers’ expectations, since egg prices in the US have risen about 49 per cent in one year and could get nudged up further by tariffs on imports from markets such as Brazil, Mexico and Turkey.

But it was also a sign that all of us, from the sheepish server to second-generation Asian-Americans and relative newcomers such as myself, have accepted that higher tariffs and wider price substitution are an unavoidable part of our foreseeable future.

Price substitution, as I explained to my two little kids, inevitably takes place when the price of Hainanese chicken rice goes up by about US$3 (S$3.90) to US$15.99 on my food delivery app.

So now, instead of that beloved Singaporean dish, we are ordering invented-in-America General Tso chicken with grown-in-America white rice for US$11.99, which increased in price by only $1.

Alas, the only lesson learnt about economic trade-offs was this: saving US$4 was not worth the wailing and flailing that ensued.

Taking stock of tariffs

So we set off for the nearby Asian grocery store, which is the closest to a Sheng Siong supermarket I can find, to stock up on Prima Taste Fragrant Chicken Rice Paste for US$8.99 per packet.

We were struck by the rows of unevenly empty shelves that reflect the tariff scenario analyses hoarders before me had undertaken.

Hong Kong love letter rolls, Chengdu hotpot paste and Want Want rice crackers were wiped out. Apparently, they sold out soon after US tariffs on China goods reached as high as 145 per cent.

But even after those rates were lowered to 10 per cent after a bilateral meeting in Geneva on May 12, restocking was slow.

Empty shelves are seen as a woman shops for items at a Dollar Tree store on April 28 in Alhambra, California. PHOTO: AFP

It was anyone’s guess when they would get restocked, the store owner said in Cantonese.

Some small businesses are still waiting for shipments, since larger US companies have rushed to stockpile goods to hedge against tariff volatility. The de minimis exemption for low-value imports from China had expired in May.

Fortunately for my young kids, Khong Guan biscuits are fully stocked. That is not surprising, because tariffs of just 10 per cent were imposed on Singapore even before the Trump administration placed a 90-day pause – which expires on July 8 – on reciprocal tariffs, maintaining an interim baseline of 10 per cent on imports.

We are also counting our blessings that most food prices have not returned to pandemic peaks. Bulk donations of baked ziti – using imported pasta and cheese – to the local food pantry, for example, still cost a third less than during supply chain snarls in 2021.

Delay, pre-empt or panic buy?

Playground chit-chat among parents in our community has recently shifted away from whether to take the “Wait till Eighth” pledge to hold off giving smartphones to our “anxious generation” of kids until they are in eighth grade, or 14 years old.

We now joke that tariffs of 25 per cent on Apple products might get the parents more eager to sign on, since they might have to wait until their kids are in the eighth grade for iPhones to become affordable again.

There is also concern that new 50 per cent tariffs on metal could further hike the price of cars, home renovations, lawn tools and canned drinks.

On June 4, tariffs on steel and aluminium imports were doubled to 50 per cent. This applies to nearly all trading partners, except the UK, which secured an exemption.

The choice of whether to allocate more budget to pre-emptively stock up on canned beer or school supplies, both of which look likely to get more expensive, can be an agonising one for harried parents.

A friend’s garage sale: Nintendo and game consoles snapped up, while clothes remain. PHOTO: GRACE NG

Coping mechanisms: Hacks and swops

Many people wait until the “back-to-school” sales tax holidays in August and spend an hour or two in stores hunting for, say, 18 highly specific items, from Crayola 12-count markers to composition books with marbled black covers – and some beer to tide them over the tedium.

Until 2025, I just paid a premium for pre-packaged school supply kits to save time and hassle. A few days ago, I experimented with adapting a Medium.com writer’s “AI (artificial intelligence) Grocery Assistant”. Using Google AI chatbot Gemini and Google Shopping, it found the lowest prices for school supplies across retailers such as Walmart and Target, generated links and automatically added the items to shopping carts.

The Gemini-generated shopping list saved me about US$12 compared with buying a kit. Not shabby at all for me, but not enough to buy certain toys.

A Jurassic World Tyrannosaurus rex plastic toy increased to US$55 on May 21 from US$39.92 on April 27, according to photos circulated by Walmart workers about price hikes of as much as 38 per cent.

The photos surfaced in my WhatsApp chat group with a few Singaporeans living in the US.

“Alamak, my boy just started watching Jurassic World cartoons,” moaned one of them. “That means very soon he will want to buy every dino in the show! Should I start hunting for dinos at the garage sales first or on eBay?”

With so much uncertainty around where tariffs will eventually land, most of our talk is just “swop talk” rather than action plans. We are swopping notes with our families back in Singapore about how to deal with elevated costs of imported foods and how to buy quality second-hand items online without being scammed.

Shelves at the Asian supermarket, with Khong Guan biscuits fully stocked. PHOTO: GRACE NG

Christmas uncertainty: Naughty or nice prices?

The art of price substitution can get one only so far, with limited visibility on where tariff levels will head to after July 8. It is simply impossible to budget for or plan too many purchases ahead.

All the supermarkets in my area, from Walmart to Trader Joe’s and German-owned discount chains, such as Lidl and Aldi, look fully stocked. But as a May 7 Bloomberg headline warned: Empty Store Shelves Might Be Coming Sooner Than You Think.

One spectre is potential shortages of Halloween and Christmas products. The tariffs had earlier choked off production of those festive items in Chinese manufacturing hubs such as Yiwu, but the pause reportedly spurred a partial filling of US orders.

But with some of these Chinese factories already diverting goods to European and African buyers, doubts remain about whether the procurement elves for Halloween costumes and Christmas toys can fully fulfil American wish lists in 2025 – and at what spooky price.

Thankfully, my kids, who are Star Wars Lego aficionados, are still little enough to be content with makeshift outfits. After watching hacks shared by YouTube creators who specialise in Lego modifications, they “customised” Star Wars-themed Lego mini-figures with acrylic markers, spare parts and capes made out of red balloons. That saved them the US$11.99 for a custom mini-figure sold on lego.com.

Party supplies at the family-owned Ollin Party Store in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California on April 16. PHOTO: AFP

Reinvention to cope with change

The ingenuity of the YouTube creators reminded me that the sanest response to unpredictable tariffs may be to train our energies not just on price substitution, but also on reinventing ways to meet immutable consumer priorities: cheap goods, speedy access, diverse choices and personalised offerings.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was quoted as saying: “People always ask me what’s going to change. But what’s more important is what’s not going to change.

“You can never imagine a world in which consumers don’t want cheap prices, fast shipping and big selection. It’s impossible to imagine a world where people don’t want that. Because of that, you can put so much confidence into investing in those things, knowing they’ll always be relevant in the future.”

One can only hope that entrepreneurs, communities and families can leverage new ideas, tools and technologies fast enough to outpace price shocks.

I am holding my breath on when the tariff turmoil will settle. But in a nod to what is unchanging – our love of Singaporean food – I will be learning how to make decent chicken rice and kaya with egg substitutes.

Grace Ng is a Singaporean writer in New Jersey and a former Straits Times China correspondent.

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silent tears of a teenager

SINGAPORE – As a lawyer, I have to examine documents to see whether they are reliable. I have to test them out with my clients before they appear in court.

Some evidence comes in the form of video footage, like for road traffic accidents, and they can be hard to watch. There is also footage showing parents in a heated argument, escalating into physical exchanges – all carried out before their helpless children.

Several months ago, I stumbled upon some heartbreaking footage, recorded without audio, that stayed with me for some time.

For context, it is about a family on the verge of a break-up. The father had left home, leaving the mother behind to carry the burden by herself.

Weighed down by the stress of work and caregiving, the mother was caught on camera packing her things into a bag. I was told she left the house that day.

But she returned after about an hour. She had never intended to stay away. She just needed to find an outlet for the betrayal she felt when the father suddenly left the family.

More than two years had passed. Although he visited the children on various occasions, the couple remained separated.

The poignant part comes next. The silent footage showed the couple’s young daughter walking into the room. She rummaged through every drawer and found them empty.

She then gently closed them and walked over to the bed where her parents once slept. She sat down and turned her body around and fell face first on the pillow. It seemed that she was weeping silent tears.

I could identify with how that child felt at that moment. I had a similar experience nearly 40 years ago.

I had returned home with my PSLE results. I did not do well. I knew I had disappointed my father. I hesitantly showed him my results. He did not say a word. He was having his lunch in the middle of the afternoon and he was silent after taking a look at the results.

I was hoping he would say: “It’s okay, son, we will work this out together.” I was hoping for a warm pat on the back, but I got a cold brush-off. Keeping a brave front, I then went to shower. As the water ran over my face, I wept.

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Although the sting is long gone, I have learnt empathy from that experience. I was trained to be more emotionally sensitive as a husband and a father. It is said that you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory. The memory of my experience was like a chisel that shaped me.

Our children shed silent tears too. Not every moment of that is captured on video. As parents, we see only the tears that are not hidden.

As they grow up, they tend to keep their tears to themselves. With a longing for privacy, they start to build their own walls. They let in only those they trust. Parents should count it a privilege if their child trusts them enough to let them in.

As they cry in the dark, they may not fully understand the confusion, uncertainty and anxiety within them. But I am sure they long for us to say, “my child, you are not alone”.

How we as parents respond to our children’s silent tears means a lot to them. At that young, impressionable age, we are their world.

No family is perfect. Parents also shed silent tears. But I have learnt that our brokenness is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that we are only human. And I empathise with that mum who lost it for a moment when she packed up and left.

I return to that young daughter who shed silent tears on the bed. It is heartbreaking, but what the footage did not show was her mum returning to her that same day.

I can imagine her relief. I can imagine her running over to hug her mum. That is the beginning of healing, with this unspoken assurance, “my dear, you are never alone.”

I recall my healing too. That day, about 40 years ago, my tears may have been washed away by the water, but over time, my dad and I bonded. We recalled the opportunities missed and made amends. In our own ways, we bridged the gap.

Michael Han is a father of three and managing partner of a legal firm.

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mini memories

SINGAPORE – Dear kids,

Here is what we’ll do this weekend: We’ll work on our mini-memoir, about the holiday we took in 2024.

A mini what, I can almost hear you say. Memoir. But less wordy than a typical book-memoir. And with photos – lots of them.

It will be a physical thing, with actual paper and real photos printed out. You can call it a photo album too, but I want it to be more than that. So, let’s say it is somewhere between a photo album and a journal.

Do we already have photos? Yes, untidily scattered across four phones. Would they have any meaning if someone were to look at them without explanations and context? Not much.

That is why I’ve opted not to use a conventional photo album with those fixed plastic slots. Instead, I’ve bought heavy A3-size paper that I will later put together with metal book rings to create a photo book. We’ll stick the photos, yes. But as you can see, I’ve left lots of space all around because I want you to add your thoughts.

We may have been in the same places during our holiday, but we experienced them differently. What did you feel about a particular day? Which was your favourite moment?

For example, I frowned when it rained during our time in the countryside, as it meant we couldn’t go out and do the sightseeing and exploring that we – okay, I – had planned.

But you – the youngest child – were delighted because we then stayed in our accommodation for the rest of the day. And that was all you wanted to do – lie in bed in that cosy bedroom in our quaint Airbnb, with the rain pattering on the windows.

So, pick up a pen and write down what you remember. Add silly sketches and graffiti-like comments to the pages. If you send me screengrabs of the social media posts you had put up at the time, I’ll get them printed and add them to the record.

Above all, let’s make this mini-memoir personal.

Memoirs are more than just facts

A memoir is not an autobiography and does not have to be a retelling of one’s life story from the cradle to the grave. It can be themed to have a narrower focus. For example, it can be about overcoming a health condition.

A memoir should also be more than a detailing of facts – or, in the case of a typical photo album, more than page after page of uncaptioned photos. That’s why I’m pitching our holiday journal this way. And don’t just take it from me.

Author and poet Felix Cheong, who has been running a course called Remembering The Past: Writing Your Memoir, shared some tips with me.

“Facts alone are boring. Without emotion and dialogue, they’re dead on paper. I teach my participants that you need details, description and dialogue to make a scene come alive. You have to make the reader feel emotion.

“Even if your memoir is read by only family, you still need to grab their attention, especially if you want it read by the younger generation.”

“To begin at the beginning – ‘I was born in…’ – is also boring,” he added. “You have to throw the reader into the middle of something.”

So, kids, please fill up the first page of our holiday mini-memoir, where I’ve listed suggestions like “best meal”, “I want to go back to…” and “a bad moment”.

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In a retro cafe, I stepped into the past and shared it with my daughter

We can reflect the whole picture

That’s right, let’s include the bad moments too. We don’t have to gloss over the lousier parts of a holiday. I know we all remember that morning when we went to a weekend market and Kate had a meltdown.

The day trip had started off well enough, but the market very quickly became crowded, chaotic and noisy.

The random bric-a-brac/touristy souvenirs section seemed to be where we were stuck at, and I don’t know if it was because I kept hustling Kate along or because we didn’t find the food carts at the right time. But the long and short of it was that I had to leave the market early with her – splitting up our family outing yet again – because she was so agitated.

However, once we were settled in a quieter cafe where she had a nice meal, she calmed down and we were able to regroup for the afternoon activity, which went well.

So, while it wasn’t an episode anyone would want, we can also see it for what it is: a frustrating, upsetting hour that improved and passed and didn’t ruin the rest of the holiday. We learnt from the experience, prepared better and went on to have some really excellent days, all five of us together.

By including the less-pleasant moments, perhaps the silent story I also want you – us – to understand is that although families aren’t perfect, we can get through difficult situations if we try, and if we support one another whenever help is needed.

A bad day isn’t the end of the world. Each time something challenging happens and we recover from it, we know, with a little more confidence, that we can cope.

We can tolerate disappointments. We can adjust to new situations and solve problems as they arise. That’s part of our family story too.

Psychology professor Robyn Fivush said in an article in American magazine Psychology Today that family stories are what bind us. According to her, research shows that adolescents who know more about their family history, such as how their parents met and “even difficult events such as a terrible illness that a family member suffered”, showed more positive outcomes, including lower anxiety and a higher sense of family cohesion. They have “a sense of history and belonging”.

She wrote: “How parents and their parents before them met the inevitable obstacles of life provide models of perseverance and hope. Family stories make abstract values concrete; they embody a way of being in the world, and adolescents and young adults model themselves on these stories – this is the kind of person I am. These are the kind of people I come from.”

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What will our mini-memoir say to you? I hope it will leave you with these few thoughts: There is a lot of fun to be had within our family. There are more wonderful worlds and times ahead of us. Good times, bad times and everything in between are part of the picture. And there will always be space for you to be yourselves.

Love,

Me

Jill Lim is a mother of three and a book editor with Straits Times Press. She has written four children’s books, including My Colouring Book Is Ruined!, about a child with autism.

is it worth dying for a paychq

SINGAPORE – We spend a lot of time at work.

According to the Ministry of Manpower, Singapore workers spend 43.3 hours at work per week, among the highest in Asia.

As economic, geopolitical and technological clouds gather, it is no surprise that people are putting in longer hours at work, to get more face time with their bosses, in an effort to increase job security.

With longer hours on the job, workers are experiencing more stress and mental health issues in coping with work, family and commitments, such as the care of older parents.

The 2018 bestseller by Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer poses a timely question. His book, Dying For A Paycheck, asks whether it is worth it for workers to lose their health, and possibly their lives, in pursuit of a monthly salary.

Prof Pfeffer makes the case that long hours, economic insecurity and the conflict between work and family can be toxic to employees.

He accuses corporations of pursuing profitability at all costs by squeezing the maximum productivity from their workers. In doing so, companies are hurting employee engagement, increasing worker turnover and destroying workers’ physical and emotional health.

The deleterious effects of workplace stress on health are so severe that doctors have assessed that unemployment and increased job demands have a greater effect on worker deaths than the inhalation of second-hand cigarette smoke.

According to the book, work-related health risks are systematic and can be linked to cardiovascular disease, poor mental health and suicide.

Interestingly, the book has a Singapore connection. Professor Joel Goh from the National University of Singapore collaborated with Prof Pfeffer to quantitatively research the linkage between work and health, and the impact on premature worker death.

Using data from the United States, Prof Goh, who was pursuing his PhD at Stanford University at the time, estimated that there are 120,000 additional deaths a year attributable to workplace-related stress and poor management practices of companies, half of which could have been prevented.

Prof Goh describes the dire situation of workers in a paper cited by the book: “layoffs, job loss and unemployment adversely affect physical and mental health and mortality... the financial stress resulting from the loss of income, and also separation from the social identity of being productively employed and social isolation from co-workers”.

I recently spoke to Prof Goh about his research. He believes that his work makes the argument for employer culpability, and that it is worthwhile for employers to invest in practices to support their employees’ psychological and social well-being.

Like Prof Pfeffer, he believes that healthy workplaces are good for business. Of the different work environments between Singapore and the US, he said: “The current environment in Singapore is tough. Issues like unemployment, underemployment and economic insecurity plague workers in Singapore too, not just in the US.”

There is a big difference between Singapore and the US, in that healthcare coverage is more universal here, which takes some stress off the table for many local workers.

It looks like the stress from the disruption and displacement of jobs does not look to be abating any time soon.

To continue being there for our children, what should parents be looking for in their workplace?

Job control

In the book, Prof Pfeffer shared that in Britain’s civil service, government servants of higher rank had a lower incidence of mortality from cardiovascular disease.

The study discovered that higher ranked civil servants had more control over their jobs and more discretion over how their work was done.

So, even with greater job demands and work stress, job control turned out to be an important predictor of whether a civil servant would eventually get cardiovascular disease. Job control even beat out smoking as a predictor of disease onset.

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Putting this link between stress and job control into practice, parents should consider choosing employers that allow them to have more autonomy and job control.

In many workplaces, it is the supervisors that generate the bulk of the work stress as part of the immediate work environment that a worker is in.

Paying attention to interviews with hiring managers can help parents to identify bosses who might be micromanagers or even those who are unfriendly to families.

Making informal reference checks of possible supervisors can be helpful as well. If all else fails, checking a potential boss’ social media footprint to see if there are red flags could prove to be invaluable.

Bullying behaviour is often discoverable via a systematic pattern of comment on social media, especially among high-profile bosses.

Open discussion

Parents should consider having open discussions with the family about work stress and the challenges faced at work.

Frank discussions allow the children to be involved in what is happening at work and, where possible, how it affects the family’s finances.

As my boys were growing up, I often discussed what would happen if I were to be fired from work.

During the global financial crisis of 2008, when our family was based in the US, I would share what was happening in the global financial markets during family dinners.

The kids were still young at the time – six and three years old – but I wanted to prepare them for any eventualities.

I also assured them that we had savings tucked away and that we had the resources to tide us through until a new job appeared on the horizon, if anything unexpected happened.

I fondly remember the extra hugs at the time, as my sons’ way of showing their support and encouragement during a difficult time in my life.

Instead of making them anxious, I think that going through that difficult period as a family has given them greater resilience in managing their own financial affairs. It has also provided them a perspective on how they can cope with their own professional lives, should they get fired at some point.

Good employers

Employers need to be part of the change. In Prof Pfeffer’s book, he writes that “if we changed workplace practices and environments to reduce stressful conditions, employers would no longer be damaging, even killing, their people”.

Employers need to take workplace safety seriously. Physical conditions like lighting, noise and temperature make a huge difference to the well-being of workers.

Besides keeping the environment safe, more can be done to create a conducive setting for work. As an example, there is a link between sound and blood pressure. Good employers can provide sound protection, or noise-cancelling headphones, to create a space where productive work can take place.

Companies need to consider upgrading their health plans to make employee wellness a central priority.

Increasingly, progressive employers are adding mental health benefits into their overall health benefit package, to create the right conditions for employees to thrive.

Over a typical employment career, a worker could spend more than 90,000 hours at work.

Given how much time we will spend at work, it is so important that we parents choose employers and workplaces that are healthy, happy and fulfilling. Because it is not worth dying for a pay cheque.

• Abel Ang is the chairperson of Republic Polytechnic and an adjunct professor at Nanyang Business School.

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praetorian 8 fools of sg

SINGAPORE – About one month has passed since we celebrated our 60th year of nation-building. One of the highlights was the many National Day Parade attendees who held up placards with the opening phrase, “I want to ___”.

One enthused participant wrote: I want to make my country and my family proud. Another read: I want to get A1s. A child expressed this undaunted hope: I want to have world peace.

A few of the messages were more down to earth. I want to get a good number for BTO (Build-To-Order flat). I want to have another baby. I want to win $10 million Toto.

As fireworks and fly-bys filled the Marina Bay skyline on Aug 9, Singaporeans’ hopes and dreams lifted spirits and warmed hearts with levity and optimism.

As I was browsing through the coverage in The Straits Times, the wish of a little girl caught my attention: I want to be a part of a positive change.

That nudged me to reflect.

Aren’t we all part of a positive change in whatever roles we play in this country? Whether we are students or lifelong learners, spouses or parents, employees or employers, social workers or civil servants, the journey of nation-building is like a relay race.

The generation before us ran that race as pioneers and founders after securing full independence.

At some point, they passed the baton to the next generation. And the next generation stands ready to run with it.

We have been running this relay-marathon since then, striving to build a place that we and our children can call home.

Fools and immortals

Some years back, I read the 2022 book, The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals Of Lee Kuan Yew, edited by former ST news editor Peh Shing Huei.

The eight immortals, or the eight praetorian guards, as they were known, were largely “mythical figures” until the book humanised them.

Some names, like Hon Sui Sen, Howe Yoon Chong, Ngiam Tong Dow, J.Y. Pillay and Sim Kee Boon, may still be familiar to the boomers among us.

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One caveat, though – they were far from perfect. One of them was reported to have divorced on grounds of “cruelty” and had “entangled himself with a younger woman”.

Another felt that the People’s Action Party was “a bit too elitist”, with civil servants behaving like they have “a mandate from the emperor”.

Mr Ngiam later retracted those statements and said he had not been fair when making them. He was nevertheless known as Singapore’s loving critic.

Reading the book and about their contributions, I learnt that it is all about teamwork. No man is an island. Neither is our island state about one man.

Every one of the eight praetorian guards was a team player. They had different temperaments and were endowed with different skills, but their perseverance towards a goal beyond themselves was the common thread that held them together.

They came together, against all odds, put their hands to the plough, and managed to build a sturdy foundation, upon which our economy, society and community flourished and remain resilient.

Leaders are remembered fondly not just because they have accomplished much through inspiring leadership, but also because they have not forgotten those left behind.

Among the eight immortals, let me single out just two.

The kampung spirit of a nation

When Mr Hon suddenly died on Oct 14, 1983, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said: “I have lost a close personal friend of more than 40 years... I still find it difficult to talk of him in the past tense... His sudden death was a grievous loss for Singapore.”

Mr Hon, Minister for Finance between 1970 and 1983, never put himself on a pedestal, to be seen and extolled, said his daughter, Joan, in The Last Fools. “I’ve seen many episodes in his life where he acted like the next man is as good as himself.

“Once, his secretary at a conference lost her notes. But instead of reprimanding her, he gave her his notes to work on. He refused to sit at the back of his car driven by his security officer, only beside him. So that he would not appear so grand in the back seat being chauffeured.”

Former Economic Development Board chair Philip Yeo remembered this about Mr Hon: “He was very fatherly to the officers who worked under him and treated the younger people very well. I’ve never heard of him scolding people.”

The second immortal is Mr George Edwin Bogaars, head of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Special Branch from 1961 to 1968. He died in April 1992.

His daughter, Christina, said of him in The Last Fools: “He did not have a big house in Nassim Road, an expensive car and a millionaire’s lifestyle... But he never wanted those things.

“He spoke out against them. He loved other things: intellectual pursuits, reading, time with friends, correspondence and helping others. He travelled when he wanted to. If he was interested in something, like cooking, clocks, or yoga, he taught himself about it.”

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Mr Bogaars’ older daughter, Paulina, said: “I would love people to remember Dad as a guy who is like those of our early Singapore pioneers – humble yet with a focus on the betterment of his kampung, Singapore.”

When we think about Singapore, we think about the stories that have made up the 60 years of independence.

The eight praetorian guards wrote their stories, and for our generation, we will have our own stories to pass down.

Like an embroidered tapestry, we see a more unified and complete picture of our kampung through these stories interwoven together.

Indeed, the kampung spirit in us is still very much alive.

Michael Han is a father of three and managing partner of a legal firm.

thank you teacher

SINGAPORE – Hazel Chong, 12, remembers the first time she raised her hand in class in secondary school.

Her form teacher, Ms Nan Zhonghua, who is also her mother tongue teacher, frequently encourages her students to ask questions.

Hazel, a Secondary 1 student at Yuan Ching Secondary School, says: “At the start of the year, I was still quite shy. I was used to figuring things out by myself, but I just tried it in February. It was the first time I raised my hand to answer a question in front of the class.”

Emboldened by her experience in Ms Nan’s Chinese class, Hazel started speaking up more in other subject lessons too.

Hazel says: “Ms Nan is the teacher who has brought me happiness and knowledge. I find her approachable and trustworthy. I can feel her kindness. She treats us like her own children.”

Ahead of Teachers’ Day, which is commemorated on Sept 5 in 2025, students interviewed by The Straits Times talk about how educators have made a difference in their lives.

Whether it is supporting students through academic challenges or everyday life lessons, what shines through is how a teacher’s encouragement can uplift a child.

Power of encouragement

About a month after this incident, Hazel approached Ms Nan when she experienced a setback.

She had not done well in one subject during her first weighted assessments.

Hazel says: “I failed that one time. All along in primary school, I always passed. She calmed me down and told me it’s actually okay for us to fail because if we hadn’t failed, we wouldn’t have known our mistakes and we could try harder next time.

“I felt quite touched. No one had said that to me before.”

Ms Nan, 42, says she appreciates the opportunity to support students both academically and in more personal ways.

The senior Chinese language teacher says: “Every interaction with my students – whether it’s through discussions and activities in class, or casual conversations after lessons – strengthens the bridge between us, turning lessons into connections and making me a better, warmer teacher.”

Some students have told her how they shared a Chinese idiom to comfort a friend, or how they started using certain expressions they learnt in class, in conversations with friends or in messages to their parents.

Ms Nan says: “As a Chinese language teacher, the most rewarding moments for me are when I see my students move from thinking, ‘Chinese is difficult’, to genuinely enjoying the subject.”

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Lessons from PE

Mr Shang Thian Huat (centre), head of department for physical education at Blangah Rise Primary School, with pupils Kashiwagi Hinata (left) and Sri Raman Rajaraman. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

Some pupils learn from their teachers how to push themselves in daily life and on momentous occasions.

Sri Raman Rajaraman, a Primary 5 pupil at Blangah Rise Primary School, applied a lesson he learnt in basketball in lower primary from Mr Shang Thian Huat, the head of department for physical education and co-curricular activities (CCA).

Raman, 11, says he was not athletically inclined, but recalls how Mr Shang once taught a lesson on being confident. He tried to aim the ball along a curve, like an imaginary rainbow, into a basket as instructed, rather than slamming it straight at the target.

Raman says: “Whenever it’s a near miss, it sometimes felt like, why should I bother? But you have to not give up. Mr Shang is caring. He doesn’t want his students to accept that they can’t do it. He’s determined to push them to realise their potential in sports, whether it’s a slight improvement or becoming an NSG (National School Games) player.”

Primary 6 pupil Kashiwagi Hinata, 12, credits Mr Shang for helping her ace her Direct School Admission (DSA) interviews for Secondary 1 in 2026.

Hinata says: “I’m not the most positive person, but Mr Shang is one of the most positive teachers I know.”

Mr Shang coached her for mock DSA interviews, asking her to treat her interviewer as if she were talking to him. It stood her in good stead. Even though she faced a “scary” interviewer, Hinata, who likes to paint watercolours, received a DSA offer in visual arts in a school of her choice.

Mr Shang, 50, says that some of his favourite Teachers’ Day cards have a common theme. “They would say something like, thank you for correcting me when I was wrong. I became a better person. I really appreciate that they understand that we correct them not to put them down, but to lift them higher and help them go further.”

Appreciation years later

Greenridge Primary School teacher Arivalagan Rajangam, who is head of department for character and citizenship education, enjoys connecting with former students like Chelsea Ong ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

When Chelsea Ong, 16, was in Primary 5 at Greenridge Primary School in 2020, she was asked to take part in a TV interview. This was for a report about celebrating National Day during the Covid-19 pandemic, at a time when social distancing still held sway.

She was a prefect and a regular emcee at school assemblies. Known for public speaking, she was a natural fit for the job, says Mr Arivalagan Rajangam, 50, the school’s head of department for character and citizenship education (CCE).

But a few days prior, Chelsea had what she called a meltdown and declined the opportunity. She recalls: “I was so scared of messing up on the actual day.”

Her teachers, including Mr Arivalagan, supported and comforted her. He resolved to find her another such opportunity in the future.

The following year, when she was in Primary 6, he asked Chelsea to lead the school in the pledge-taking for National Day, which she did with aplomb.

Now in Secondary 4 in Bukit Panjang Government High School, Chelsea is in the executive committee of her student council and its head of development and management.

She realised only in Secondary 2 that being given another chance for the public engagement in Primary 6 had ensured that her confidence was shored up.

Chelsea says: “It gave me the confidence to continue pursuing leadership opportunities in secondary school. I applied for the student council in Sec 1.

“I realised that the job scope for teachers extends beyond the curriculum. They care for their students. They do so much for us to learn and have a great experience in school. In my case, I didn’t realise it until a few years down the road.”

For his part, Mr Arivalagan enjoys connecting with former students like Chelsea, who return to Greenridge Primary School for a “homecoming” event for Teachers’ Day. The alumni connect with their cohort mates and their former teachers.

He says: “We can feel the aura of appreciation around the ex-students. They still have the same respect for us they had in primary school.”

Like the other teachers interviewed, Ms Chua Jinxun, 39, an English and social studies teacher at Opera Estate Primary School, gets recognition and appreciation for teaching and guiding current and former pupils.

She says: “It’s rarely the things I have done, but the words I have spoken to them. I’m mindful how I choose my words and, hopefully, they give them hope and confidence.

“What strikes me in this career is that words have so much power.”

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adhd

SINGAPORE – The Straits Times speaks to individuals with the most common neurodivergent disorders – autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – to see how they navigate society not built with them in mind. 

The aspiring Chinese teacher

Ngee Ann Polytechnic graduate Ray Er Jia Rui dreams of one day becoming a Chinese teacher.

He fell in love with the language in secondary school, after being influenced by his grandfather, who practises Chinese calligraphy. 

“I watched many YouTube videos that shared how intricate and beautiful Chinese characters are. That gave me the motivation to pursue a career in mother tongue education,” he said.

But if he achieves his ambition, the 19-year-old will not be like most teachers.

He was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism spectrum disorder when he was three years old. Doctors noticed that he was not speaking in short sentences like other children his age, and he would not hold eye contact. 

The boy could have faced significant challenges in communicating and interacting in social settings, experienced more distress from sensory input, and exhibited more pronounced repetitive behaviours. 

But with timely intervention and support from his parents, teachers and peers, he acquired strategies that let him navigate social situations and manage his sensory sensitivities.

“The symptoms are not as severe, and I have managed to live life like 80 per cent to 90 per cent of a regular person,” he noted. 

Earlier in 2025, he obtained a diploma in Chinese studies from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and secured a teacher training sponsorship with the Ministry of Education (MOE). 

He enlisted for national service in mid-August and plans to continue his studies at the National Institute of Education afterwards. 

Still, it has not been smooth sailing all the way. 

Ngee Ann Polytechnic graduate Ray Er Jia Rui and his father Er Chiang Kai. They were shocked with the diagnosis since there had been no history of autism in the family. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY

His father Er Chiang Kai said they were shocked by the boy’s diagnosis, as there had been no history of autism in the family.

Mr Er, chief technology officer at a software company, read about the condition, and decided to place his son – the eldest of three children – in both a regular kindergarten and Metta Preschool, an early intervention centre for those with special needs. 

At the centre, the boy received speech and occupational therapy, and began picking up social and fine motor skills. 

When the time came for primary school enrolment, the parents wrote to multiple schools in Tampines where they lived. 

“I was really quite touched when the Tampines Primary School principal brought along a panel of teachers to meet me and try to understand my child. From that meeting, I got good assurance that they would try their best to take good care of my son,” said Mr Er.

ST ILLUSTRATION: ADOBE STOCK, LIM KAILI

Despite the school’s willingness to provide support, the first few primary school years were difficult.

“He wouldn’t listen, he would do whatever he wanted – like walking around the classroom – and he even acted like a teacher in front of his classmates,” said Mr Er.

His son attended speech therapy classes every Saturday to improve his condition. Speech therapy for those with autism is designed to help them express themselves, understand others and navigate social situations more effectively.

Mr Er said that eventually, as the boy grew to understand more about social skills, the situation improved and he started making friends in upper primary.

“People with autism can be very smart and excel in academics, but to them, social skills is like a subject they have to learn,” he added.

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Eventually, Mr Ray Er formed close friendships with classmates in Tampines Secondary School who, like him, had introverted personalities.

Having found a strong support network, he thrived. He took on leadership roles in his co-curricular activity in St John Brigade, and was even given the Top CCA Student Award. 

But as he grew older, social situations became more complex. In Ngee Ann Polytechnic, he struggled with group projects.

“I wasn’t the most proactive group member so I kept getting marked down during peer evaluations, which affected my grades,” said Mr Er. 

He told his speech therapist about it, and she worked with him on how to better contribute to a group project and how to manage his perfectionist tendencies so he would not avoid chipping in. 

The situation was happily resolved. 

In the second year of polytechnic, Mr Er applied for the MOE teacher training sponsorship.

Due to his condition, he had to do a one-month attachment in March 2023 at a primary school before MOE could confirm his eligibility for the sponsorship programme. 

He got to observe and assist teachers in handling classes, and had opportunities to conduct lessons on his own as well. 

“I do have the prerequisites for being a teacher – not all of them, but some. It’s the social interactions with students that I have to work on,” Mr Er said.

He did well during the attachment and was found eligible for the sponsorship programme.

His father said: “Being a teacher, your social skills must be quite good to deal with kids. That may not come naturally to him, but seeing that he is really able to pick up social skills through hard work and through learning, I believe he can teach.”

Mr Ray Er signed up for additional speech therapy to better equip and prepare himself. 

One of the unique strengths of those with autism is that they can have an intense and highly focused interest in a particular topic, and become an expert.

For Mr Er, that is his love for the Chinese language. He has delved deep into Chinese classics and poetry, and is considering volunteering as a citizen translator who helps with translation of government materials. 

“I really aspire to help more children become bilingual, and help those with special needs as well,” he said. - Lee Li Ying

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The counsellor who understands your ADHD woes

It was only after she suspected her daughter of showing symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that Ms Elena Ho, 49, sought an evaluation for herself for the highly heritable condition. 

In 2021, when she received a diagnosis, she suddenly understood that she was not “dumb” as she had long believed herself to be.

Instead, she is a neurodivergent individual, whose brain works differently from the average or “neurotypical” person. Her newfound understanding of neurodivergence also helped to enhance her relationship with her family. 

“It was very validating – like okay, this is not in my head, this is real… The struggles I used to experience made sense,” said Ms Ho, who is now a psychotherapist with her own practice.

“You learn that your behaviours are because of brain differences and not personality or character flaws. You have the opportunity to take back control and rewrite the old limiting narratives and start seeing possibilities.”

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition that typically emerges in childhood and persists into adulthood. It is marked by chronic patterns of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity, disrupting daily functioning. Those who have ADHD are more likely to experience a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression, and have sleep problems.

 ADHD does not typically develop in adulthood, but adult patients may not have been diagnosed as children. It is frequently missed or diagnosed late in females. For Ms Ho, the symptoms, such as the difficulty she had with focusing in class and her hyper-focus, were there early, but no one linked them to ADHD, which was then not as well understood. 

Unlike her daughter Penelope Delbridge, who is in Primary 4 and “quite hyperactive”, Ms Ho is more likely to find her mind wandering. 

“My Chinese teacher used to call me ‘bai ri meng’ (Chinese for daydream) because I was always daydreaming,” she said.

Although she was in Nanyang Primary, one of Singapore’s most sought-after primary schools, she could not focus in class and ended up having to do a fifth year of secondary school in the Normal stream.

The shame was overwhelming, she added.

“It wasn’t just about poor academic results… For a 12-year-old, imagine believing that’s your entire worth, and your future trajectory of incredible possibilities is flushed down the toilet.”

She said ADHD behaviour is highly context-driven – someone may perform well at the workplace but be unable to cope with the demands at home.

“I noticed that if there is interest, and no matter how challenging it is, people with ADHD will do well.”

One characteristic of ADHD is the tendency to hyper-focus, which is a double-edged sword, as it can come at the detriment of everything else, such as other tasks and deadlines, even if it means that the work under focus is done to perfection. 

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Ms Ho went to art school, and had a good career in film and television, doing motion graphics post-production work in short-term projects, which she liked.

Research has shown that women exhibit both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. Females are more likely to experience inattentive symptoms to a greater extent than the hyperactive-impulsive symptoms, which are more commonly associated with males.

Girls and women with inattention from ADHD may come across as being easily distracted, disorganised, overwhelmed and lacking in effort or motivation. It can also be more difficult to recognise. 

Ms Ho began to recognise the signs in her daughter – and herself – when she was studying to become a counsellor in 2020. She holds a Master of Arts in psychotherapy from Leeds Beckett University.

“When I read more and more about it, it resonated with me,” she said.

It also explained why she struggled with some of the course materials, which were very technical and full of jargon.

“I would read the material over and over and over again, and it was so painful. I would spend a long time just trying to understand what it was actually trying to tell me, and (that is) if I can remember it,” she added. 

“So after getting the diagnosis, I got some medication, and that was when I realised what people meant by brain fog. I never understood it because to me, that was the baseline.”

Medication is not a magic pill, but it can aid focus, as it also did for her daughter, she said.

Ms Ho’s diagnosis opened her eyes to her abilities and allowed her to empathise with the different ways of thinking and behaviours that people have.

Her husband Kenn Delbridge, an audio engineer, was diagnosed with ADHD in 2010. He said the diagnosis helped him understand many of his behavioural tendencies that had a negative effect on his personal relationships.

He added that before his wife’s diagnosis, they might have followed a conventional narrative where any shortcomings or failures were a result of deliberate acts or an inability to achieve certain results.

“Being informed on the differences in how people with ADHD deal with things has allowed a better sense of understanding and kindness, and finding positives instead of negatives.”

Unlike his wife, he did not seek medication. “I felt being aware of how I would react to certain situations was already a powerful resource to help me, but I do recognise that medication could have been a positive option had I chosen that path,” he said.

Their daughter, who received a diagnosis in Primary 1, said she is fine with it: “Because I am different and that’s unique. It doesn’t make me fit in, it makes me my own person and makes me hyper energetic and crazy. Wahahaha.” - Joyce Teo

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Lee Li Ying is a correspondent on the health beat at The Straits Times. She has a keen interest in mental health, health technology, ageing and reproductive care.

Joyce Teo is senior health correspondent at The Straits Times and the host of ST podcast series Health Check.