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Category: Social Harmony
Online Sexual Harms: Why We Urgently Need More Protections
With our high digital connectivity, the lines between public and private life are often blurred or breached. This is especially serious in the context of online sexual harms, which disproportionately affect women, children and lower-income groups. More needs to be urgently done to combat online harms and protect the common good
- 20 January 2025
Cultivate Commune: Success and Flourishing in Singapore
Cultivate Commune is a breakfast conversation where we explore how big ideas are planted in real community experiences. In this fourth Commune on 31 August 2024, we heard from Associate Professor (Dr) Tan Seow Hon. Joined by two panellists Su Ching and Sin Cheng, they spoke on the topic of success and flourishing in Singapore.
- 18 December 2024
“Singapore Dream” Redux: Material Success, Flourishing or…?
For the longest time, the “Singapore Dream” has been about achieving material success through hard work, but attitudes are changing. In this “refreshed Singapore Dream”, is there room to focus more on human flourishing?
- 11 October 2024
On Social Media and Touching Grass
Social media has enabled us to connect with others like never before, but why are people feeling lonelier? Research shows that we all need social contact with other people to keep mentally fit, and to feel connected and appreciated.
- 31 July 2024
Cultivate Culture: How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
Tear-jerking Thai film “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” invites us to reflect: Do we see our relationships in purely transactional terms, or do we genuinely love people – especially the elderly and sick – as persons worthy to be loved?
- 20 July 2024
From Third World to First: Lee Kuan Yew’s Take on Family Values
“Singapore depends on the strength and influence of the family to keep society orderly and maintain a culture of thrift, hard work, filial piety and respect for elders and for scholarship and learning.”
- Lee Kuan Yew
- 30 June 2024
What are “Good Enough” Marriages?
From a child’s perspective, “good enough” marriages are those where there is a low level of conflict between parents. Based on research, it would be better for children in the long term to reconcile such “good enough” marriages instead of divorce.
- 14 June 2024
Cultivate Unpacks: Sex and Gender
Cultivate Unpacks is a series to unpack some of the current terms being used in social discourse today. In this piece, we look at “sex” and “gender”.
- 7 June 2024
Social Media: “Burn” Someone, or Light the Way?
Imagine that you have a flaming torch in your hand. The fire at the end of the torch emits both heat and light. You can use this torch to set fire and burn someone or something, or you can use it to light a path in the darkness.
- 31 May 2024
Is Identity Politics Always Bad?
There are two kinds of identity politics. “Common enemy” identity politics tends towards polarisation, division and conflict, while “common humanity” identity politics tends towards social harmony. We should have more of the latter, and less of the other.
- 24 May 2024