Life

Putting people at the heart of the story.

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Apr 20, 2020 • 7 min read

Tales of the Pandemic The quiet before Ramadan in Yogyakarta

By Harriet Crisp • Apr 20, 2020
Each year, Ramadan witnesses one of the world's great migrations of people as worshippers return home for the Islamic holy month. In Yogyakarta, Indonesia an unease about what people may bring with them is overshadowing this year's celebrations

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Apr 20, 2020 • 6 min read

Tales of the Pandemic Stuck in Phnom Penh, a final goodbye is taken away

By Alastair McCready • Apr 20, 2020
With the Covid-19 death toll reaching into the hundreds-of-thousands, the people behind the figures become easily obscured. Here, the Globe's editor Alastair McCready talks about losing his father this month, unable to speak to or visit him in the south London isolation ward where he passed

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Apr 16, 2020 • 9 min read

Water security ‘Covid-19 exposes the great inequality in Cambodian water access’

By Horn Chanvoitey • Apr 16, 2020
While Covid-19 has been labelled the 'great leveller' by many due to the diverse nature of those infected, Horn Chanvoitey of Cambodian think-tank Future Forum argues that it exposes one of the Kingdom's great inequalities: access to clean water

Life • Apr 15, 2020 • 2 min read
Thai economy

Gold glitters as cash-strapped Thais sell jewellery

Hundreds of Bangkok residents rushed to goldsmith shops in Chinatown in order to sell their jewellery, as gold reached its highest levels since 2012 this week due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic pushes prices skywards
By Agence France-Presse • Apr 15, 2020

Life • Apr 14, 2020 • 5 min read
Covid-19

Saving lives on the frontline, Filipino nurses still face abuse and stigma

While undertaking life-saving work for little pay, frontline healthcare workers in the Philippines say they are still suffering from physical attacks, a lack of protective equipment and are stigmatised in their communities due to virus fears
By Miriam Deprez • Apr 14, 2020

Life • Apr 14, 2020 • 10 min read
Wildlife conservation

After the virus, will Southeast Asia’s bushmeat trade finally be stopped?

Bushmeat has been thrust into the spotlight following the likely outbreak of Covid-19 at a wet market in Wuhan. But the trade is not limited to China, with conservationists in Southeast Asia warning of the grave risks involved with the region's ongoing wildlife industry
By Andrew Haffner • Apr 14, 2020

Life • Apr 13, 2020 • 1 min read
Covid-19

‘Medibot’ to do rounds on Malaysian virus wards

Engineers at the International Islamic University in Malaysia have created a robot to assist health workers treat patients and check temperatures, something they hope will reduce their risk of contracting Covid-19
By Agence France-Presse • Apr 13, 2020

Life • Apr 13, 2020 • 9 min read
Tales of the Pandemic

The view from inside Singapore’s migrant dorms

In April, Singapore put several dormitories housing 20,000 migrant workers under lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19, prompting criticism about conditions. Writer and Bangladeshi migrant worker Md Sharif Uddin gives his account from inside
By Md Sharif Uddin • Apr 13, 2020

Life • Apr 12, 2020 • 2 min read
Covid-19

Silent streets for water festival in Myanmar lockdown

Myanmar’s New Year festival, Thingyan, is the country’s biggest public holiday and normally a week of nation-wide celebration and water-fights. But this year the country’s commercial hub Yangon lies in lockdown and silent, its streets eerily empty with residents shut firmly indoors as coronavirus fears grow
By Agence France-Presse • Apr 12, 2020

Life • Apr 09, 2020 • 10 min read
Singapore inequality

‘We shouldn’t need Covid-19 to see migrant workers’ humanity’

As Singapore's divide between rich and poor is amplified by the Covid-19 crisis, columnist Yong Han Poh argues that it shouldn't take a pandemic to acknowledge the humanity of those who labour, unseen and unheard, to build the city-state
By Yong Han Poh • Apr 09, 2020

Life • Apr 09, 2020 • 7 min read
Press freedom

Journalism on trial

Independent Filipino news outlet Rappler is under legal fire yet again, this time under a "cyber libel" charge. Free press advocates say this latest criminal case lodged by the government amounts to official harassment
By Samantha McCabe • Apr 09, 2020