As the days extended into months, and months into more than a year, I began to realize that this story needed time to unfold the facets of my aunt’s life. Such stories tend to tell itself, and it cannot be rushed.
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Part of my childhood memories includes growing up in a neighbourhood where it flooded often. Some nights, we would be woken up by thunderstorms in the middle of the night - just to find that water had already flooded our living room downstairs. Furniture and some of our things would be floating in the dank-smelling, murky water.
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Fifteen months later, the story is now about to go out to the world. It has been a truly humbling experience to learn about my aunt’s life and the struggles she faces, and the philosophy of life that she holds onto in order to get by each day.
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When the city is not designed on a human scale, people have no choice but are forced to get around with their private vehicles. The big area of car parks that typically comes with the LRT/ MRT station is a visual demonstration of that. Commuters must drive their cars or ride their motorbikes to get on a train/bus, contributing to the traffic congestion.
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Suppose you find yourself within the age group of the thirties to the forties, with the responsibility of bringing up your children and taking care of your ageing parents at the same time. If that is the case, you are what the social analysts call the "sandwich generation".
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Possibly the most pressing concerns about retirement are the financial implications – on the part of the elderly and their families and the government. This challenge exists in many countries as there is a need to provide adequate and sustainable pension and social security while ensuring sufficient coverage to its beneficiaries.
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It’s been a long time coming. Hopefully, 2022 is where I find some time to start working on a coffee table book with the photos I shot of the architecture and streets of London.
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Ongoing collection that captures the moments of life on Penang Island | 2016-2019
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There are countless of stories worth preserving, and many of those are personal and deeply intertwined with our daily lives. Some may see it as a nostalgic reminiscent of the past but these memories are precious because they essentially shaped and gave meaning to our identity as a Penangite.
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Placing a blanket definition of ‘development’ on any form of land creation, landuse change and resource exploitation without an informed understanding of the social and environmental cost, is to legitimize displacement and dispossession; and subsequently causing deeper inequality.
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The city can be read as a social discourse, where its plans, forms and function could be deconstructed and scrutinized to reveal the embedded conflicts and compatibility; consensus and compromises; as well as conformity and particularities.
And underlying all these is a complex narrative of power dynamics.
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The LSE Cities Programme's latest studio publication by MSc students, Housing the City, explores Thamesmead to understand London's housing crisis, providing innovative ways to reimagine the area and what it means to inhabit the city.
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The imagined and constructed modernity today still does not have a place for everyone's narrative to emerge equally - and perhaps this is a perennial issue (or an unsympathetic riddle) that urbanists will have to grapple with for yet another century to come.
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One of the Penang Urbanites post-screening discussion was about the deterioration of public housing at places like People's Court at Cintra Street and UDA flats in Tg Tokong. Looking forward to digging deeper into this paper and do a case study on it.
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Initially, this post was to be about a personal take of my first week of being in London but my first class today (25/09/2017) in the Urban Social Theory with Dr David Madden had put before me a lens of what is called 'thinking reflexively' - something which would intentionally and consciously influence the way I perceive the city from this point onwards.
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To say that the LSE campus is an impressive balance between the old and the new is an understatement. I'm continuously wowed by how the university nestled seamlessly in the heart of London, occupying and taking shape of the old Edwardian buildings; and also in sleek and modern building like this one here.
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Tourism contributes substantially to the national GDP of many countries in the world. Its extensive products and ancillary services generate job opportunities locally and exert a strong spillover and multiplier effect on the economy.
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Most of us would prefer growing old in comfortable and familiar surroundings, but this may be a luxury that more and more of us will not be able to afford. Malaysia’s population is ageing, costs are increasing, and the nation is still unprepared for future challenges.
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There is no doubt about it. Cities are growing with astonishing intensity, and as we move towards an increasingly urban world, a plethora of tools, indexes and frameworks are being developed for cities to compare and benchmark themselves with each other in terms of quality of life and liveability. This can be hugely useful for cities wishing to identify their weaknesses and learn best practices from their peers.
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Playing a significant role in defining a city’s economic, social and cultural facets, waterfronts inevitably mould the character of the settlement it represents. The waterfront in George Town has a backdrop that consists of key elements of the town itself – the Esplanade, Pengkalan Weld, Swettenham Pier and the Clan Jetties.
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