What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?By MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 31 Oct 2021IF you watch The Daily Show hosted by comedian Trevor Noah, you might know of a segment on the satirical news TV show where one of the reporters Jordan Klepper goes out and interviews Trump supporters. He asks them very simple common-sense questions...

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‘Brain fog’ during the pandemic

 ‘Brain fog’ during the pandemicBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 26 Sep 2021HERE’S a question for those days when there’s nothing to watch on TV: what exactly goes on inside a politician’s head? When you read about some mind-boggling pronouncements made by some politicians in power, can you help but wonder...

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Let’s embrace the disruption

Let’s embrace the disruptionBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 29 Aug 2021If this Merdeka is to have any meaning at all, we need to free our minds from the same old formulas.IN years past, every time Aug 31 comes around, inevitably reporters will ask me for my thoughts on Merdeka because I was born in the same...

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The power of knowing what you don’t know

 The power of knowing what you don’t knowBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 25 Jul 2021AS we wander through the dark Covid tunnel wondering when the next train is going to hit us, our minds also turn to the people who are supposed to stop those trains. Thus far the barriers they have put up – lockdowns, fining...

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Talking straight

Talking straightBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 27 Jun 2021We seem to have a ‘new dictionary’ where the words have one meaning for some and another for others.IN the alternate universe that some of our leaders inhabit, a new dictionary is being invented. It takes words that are normally understood by most people...

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Strange but logical

Strange but logicalBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 30 May 2021Actions that do not make sense at first can still work if they are based on logic, not politics.WHEN I was still a young student, I once had the opportunity to learn how to ski. Not being an athletic person, it was not easy for me to deal with the...

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Not the superlative we want

Not the superlative we wantBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 25 Apr 2021WHILE our government tries to tell us that we’re on the up and up despite having no money, in one area at least we’ve taken a deep plunge. We’ve managed to dive 18 places in the World Press Freedom Index 2021 to the 199th spot, an “astonishing...

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Asian hate on the rise

Asian hate on the riseBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 28 Mar 2021I LIKE to be rational when I read the news. I know what it’s like to read about something horrible happening in a particular country and imagine that the entire country is aflame.When we read news about civil wars and violence in a country, most...

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Cake for some, kuih for others

 Cake for some, kuih for othersBy MARINA MAHATHIRMUSINGSSunday, 28 Feb 2021TOLD that the peasants were starving, Marie-Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI of France, was reported to have said “Let them eat cake”. Historians have since disputed that the queen ever said any such thing but the phrase has...

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